crmsndragonwngs

Hmm, as far as a game review it's good, but I do take issue with some of the points you presented.  There are no real drastic changes in the characters within the context of the game as you stated, at least not in my opinion. If anything, each character (especially Issun) is presented at a surface level when Ammy first meets them (flippant, sarcastic, and generally obnoxious perhaps in Issun's case), but as the story progresses, we see a natural evolution in attitude based on experience, both past and present.  Issun clearly has a past, as well as a secret with which he's not exactly forthcoming, but the story itself never hides this.  When he does show a more serious side, it's because we've run across something that links with his tumultuous past (like his grandfather's paintings).  Once we get to Ponc'tan, we finally understand why this is, but the pattern is there from the beginning.  In short, Issun is a great representation of the young artist striving to break away from tradition (and perhaps to escape the shame he feels he's brought on his grandfather), and his character progression is shown in a very natural way.  This could be because Issun is easily my favorite character, so my knee-jerk reaction is to defend him, but I feel that his character is very deep and well-developed

Again, as a game review this is well done. I do get the feeling that you were trying to avoid spoilers for those who have not played the game, and for that reason I would suggest not getting into specifics within the story itself at all when speaking to this sort of audience.  A summary is good, but focus more on gameplay mechanics, how you felt personally about the game, use of mood and tone, art, story quality (no details), music, etc (which you did for the most part, it was the specific story examples that were problematic).  I would personally suggest, saving the specific parts of the story itself for a more in depth critique of the game for people who have played it and want to see what other people think, or to see something they missed.  That way, you can avoid ambiguous statements, such as when you talked about Waka.  Otherwise, you were clear and detailed in your opinions, and gave a fair review (something I could never do because I have a deep love of this game and am totally biased lol), so overall I enjoyed reading it.

This is of course my opinion, and though I do disagree with you on some parts, I mean no offense I wasn't sure what exactly you wanted in terms of thoughts, so I hope I didn't overstep.  The English grad in me has a tendency to come out when I'm asked my opinion on writing, haha *scratches head* 

At risk of sounding pretentious and shamelessly promoting myself (this is not my intention lol), and if you don't mind me sharing, I do have a blog in which I cover the mythology of Okami if you're interested in reading that Despite the name, there's much more theory than fact in these, haha!
zipwiregames.wordpress.com/cat…

No problem, it's lovely work

A great day to you as well!

No problem at all!