Catwalk Skip
Note: This page describes a glitch, trick, or exploit. To see others, click here.
New Game
The majority of uses of Catwalk in Okami are skipped by the typical speedrun route. Completing the game without Catwalk involves 3 notable skips.
Shinshu Plateau Early
A consistent method of NG Plateau Early was demonstrated by Auride with an explanation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZIVF9aGou0). This trick requires you to use both an unskew boost and FPG in order to gain the necessary height and trajectory to make it up the ledge. It is important to maximize the height you gain from the unskew boost, and to avoid losing any height when timing the double jump and air tackle.
Wawku Catwalk Skip
The required use of Catwalk in Wawku Shrine was theorized to be skippable by LegoerofEggos, and demonstrated by Auride (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5hu-vo7mr0). The trick was initially done using an item bounce into a Defrost Boost off of a melting icicle, which is suboptimal due to needing to acquire the key from the scale room. The faster method involves drawing a Fireburst between the two icicles, and doing two sequential D-Boosts off each one (https://youtu.be/p1GrglwwlW0?t=5232). This trick requires two frame perfect inputs to successfully tackle out of the freeze animation, and you must double jump - not wall jump - in order to input both D-Boosts prior to the Fireburst expiring.
Watcher's Cape Early
Watcher's Cape is the most difficult of these techniques, and must be performed twice in the run. One of these applications is during the race to Oni Island before nightfall, which restricts how long you can attempt the trick before being interrupted by cutscenes and getting reset to the entrance of North Ryoshima. The trick was conceived by LegoerofEggos, and first performed by Cookie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EagP6-JtYVc). Auride proposed using FPG to increase the success rate of the trick, which was successfully implemented by popprocks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGOCPOL-GcE). The trick consists of three air tackle bonks. The first bonk allows you to seam grip about halfway up the grippy slope. The second bonk intends to position you as high as possible on the grippy slope, where you hope to greenhop of a partial seam grip. You then jump and double jump around the side of the cliff, and air tackle bonk toward the stairs while maintaining as much height as possible. While air tackling, use the brush screen to turn your camera facing away from the stairs, and hold down the camera button. As you bonk into the stairs, you perform an FPG while holding the movement stick toward the stairs. If you were able to get enough height, and succeed the FPG, you can reverse your bonk direction and land on the stairs.
NG+2017
Shinshu Plateau Early
Plateau Early can be done using a similar method to the New Game FPG strat, however with a slope KT instead (https://youtu.be/p1GrglwwlW0?t=4777). You can also jump directly up to the entrance to Kamui using a single BKT.
Wawku Catwalk Skip
The use of Catwalk in Wawku Shrine can be skipped by doing the same method as in New Game, or by doing Ark Early.
Watcher's Cape Early
Auride demonstrated an efficient method of climbing Watcher's Cape using a series of 2 slope KTs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By-jT-BamOs).