AWKWARD ZOMBIE

They can't seriously have said that, right? I mean, needing to have multiple saves at all is a serious sign of a bad game, let alone the developers KNOWING they screwed up somewhere!

No, they really said that.
And yes, they sorta screwed up there. Really, there's a save point directly in front of the Ark (which is the final area and point of no return), so putting one inside it, too, doesn't make sense. Especially since the Ark is really short, so you can easily finish it in one sitting.

Guys.

They bodaciously used the words "POINT OF NO RETURN" before entering the ark.

They even bolded the letters and made them red.

Uh.
Now that you mention that.
I have no idea why I remember something from the very beginning of the game, but not from the very end.

Still, I don't see why there should be a save point in the Ark.

Probably because fighting a ton of bosses in a row followed by a very long final battle can take quite a while.

Especially when you add Orochi and the Cutscenes into the mix. It could take close to an hour if you actually read all the text.

Yes, but see: If there's an area I'm about to enter and the game tells me that this is the point of no return, I ask myself if I have enough time for that now.
Not to mention the bosses really don't take long or are hard to defeat, save the final one. And that's just to be expected.
Actually, not having a save point in there would've added to the challenge, and Okami really was way too easy.


That's something that really wouldn't bother me. As soon as you enter the Ark, or at least once you've fought the first boss in there you can see roughly how long this may take. Having to fight one easy boss again really is no big thing, so just turn the game off and return when you have enough free time.

I believe it is in there for fairly obvious reasons. Say someone has beaten a few of the bosses but unexpectidly has to go somewhere. They save in the Ark and come back later.

I get why it's there. My main problem with it is that it just takes away from the challenge.
But this really doesn't get us anywhere since it's just about opinions. So let's just stop here.

I guess I was being a bit obsessive-compulsive when I saved on the Ark in between boss battles. I played through the entire game without dying once, but I still save like a madman.

Now, I don't remember the game saying I should save to multiple slots in case I get stuck in the beginning, probably because I just disregarded that advice as something I wouldn't need to do. And yes, I knew the Ark was a point of no return. So I fucked up. But lest we forget, so did the game: one thing no one has mentioned is that you are reminded to use multiple save files not once, but twice in Okami. At the beginning, and at the very end, after you beat the final boss. The game asks you to save so that you can start the game over, and recommends that you save on a different slot.

1. Game, you're fully capable of making that recommendation at crucial times. Why didn't you say that when I first walked up to the save point in the Ark of Yamato?
2. Why the hell would I want to retain the save file from the old game if the only thing that save file is good for is fighting that final boss (who, by the way, wasn't very interesting in the first place)?
3. Why put an Origin Mirror save point on the Ark in the first place? If I'm going to be fighting a bunch of bosses, don't you think using one of those golden save gates would work better? For those of you who don't know, Origin Mirrors are the regular save points, where you choose which file to overwrite, and you appear at the mirror when you start up the game. The golden gates (which I unfortunately can't remember the name of) act as instant-saves. If you die in a fight, you'll end up at the gate; if you turn the game off, then turn it on again, you'll end up at the Origin Mirror you last saved at, before the gate.
4. I don't suppose you could have just made it so that the Ark wasn't a point of no return, could you? Gee, that would have been nice... But I suppose it was important to the plot blablablah.

TL;DR It was a foolish mistake anyone could make, but it was made at such a crucial point in the game that it made me stop playing. There are probably a few sidequests and other things in the game that I missed now because I can't go back and I don't want to play the game twice in a row, no matter how good it is. Maybe I'll go back to it someday.

TL;DR TL;DR Okami was fun until it ended

It was a bit more complex than just QTE's.

cheddar grinding. Level grinding I don't mind as much.

Main things I hate in videogames are unskippable cutscenes if you've already watched them, fake difficulty, reppetitive tasks like go talk to the guy on the other side of town, then go back to the first guy, then go back to the second guy, etc. But the worst thing about games for me is a lack of replayability. If it isn't fun on a second playthrough I tend to lack the motivation to play it and end up becoming rather bored cuz 'I've already played it".

It's for an online game, but...

I DESPISE the fact that I must pay 19 cheddar in order to play the full version of Exmortis 3! I've been waiting SO long for it! D:

Well, it's not really the fact that I must pay 19 cheddar, it's that it must be bought with a credit card, and I'm sure that neither my mom or dad will purchase it for me (because it's gory and violent).