Ninetails

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Demon Lord Ninetails with Thunder Edge

Ninetails is an evil Kitsune who is the fifth boss you will meet in this game. It is the ruler of Oni Island which can be found off Ryoshima Coast, thus making it the boss of this game segment. It is also referred to as "The Dark Lord" and "Demon Lord Ninetails". Ninetails is the character that reveals the existence of Yami, a being of ultimate evil. Ninetails is very like Amaterasu in the fact that it too can use Brush Techniques, this makes it very difficult when fighting it. Ninetails can also harness the power of electricity as it fights with the Thunder Edge Glaive and Oni Island is rife with lightening.

Appearance

Ninetails is a giant tan fox with nine tails of course, each of its tails has a different coloured masked face on the end of it. It uses these tails to paint but they can also break away from it and fight separately. It wears a mask like its tails, this mask also covers up its lost eye. However it uses magic to make itself look like this and when it is weakened it reverts back to its true form. It really looks like a dull brown fox that has been badly beaten up.

However as part of its sinister plot, Ninetails also takes the appearance of a beautiful priestess called Rao. It appears as her for most of thee game and will only show its demon face when it has been found out about.

Rao's body has been taken over

Role in plot

Through the means of several cut scenes we find out that prior to this action, Ninetails tormented Nippon as as the evil Dark Lord of Oni Island. However this was till it lost its main weapon and the source of its power, the Fox Rods. Ninetails then killed Rao as she was the one who fought to take away its Fox Rods and subsequently kill it. It then hid her body under Ankoku Temple and posed as her in the hopes of getting the Fox Rods back.

When Amaterasu comes to Sei'an City Ninetails is already pretending to be Rao and is acting as a regent to Queen Himiko who has currently locked herself up to pray for the safety of her people. Rao's beauty captures the heart of Issun who in turn convinces Ammy to go look for the Fox Rods. Ninetails has led them to believe that the Fox Rods will kill it instead of restoring it to full power. It sends them to first search the Sunken Ship for the Fox Rods and then to kill the Water Dragon. They do both these things as Issun is completely infatuated by Rao. However these actions are terrible as the Foxrods restore Ninetails power and the Water Dragon is the only way to access Oni Island. With the Fox Rods in hand Rao then kills Queen Himiko, she then reverts to her Ninetails form because of Ammy and Issun's discovery of the true Rao's skeleton. The player is then forced to fight Evil Rao who has the face of Ninetails but the body of Rao.

Both of them are devastated to find about Ninetails's actions and the death of Queen Himiko, however The ghost of Himiko appears to them and informs them that the Otohime, Queen of the Draconians can transform into the new Water Dragon and help them cross to Oni Island, where they can defeat Ninetails.

With their help Ammy finally manages to get to Oni Island where at the end of the dungeon she can find the constellation that Ninetails hides in.

Defeating Ninetails

As Ninetails can too use the power of Brush Strokes, it is a tricky boss. If you stay on the screen for drawing Brush Strokes too long Ninetails will start to draw one. This can damage Ammy badly. In Oni Island Ammy learns the Thunderstorm Brush Stroke and that is the key to defeating Ninetails. Lightning is seen in the background and when Ninetails raises its sword to attack the player should electrocute it using Thunderstorm. However this causes its tails to break off and attack Ammy, these tails can be killed off one at a time. When all the tails have been killed Ninetails will turn into its final form, which is that of a scruffy, single tailed, one-eyed fox.

Bestiary Entry

"True form of the evil that dwells on Oni Island and seeks to destroy the Ryoshima Coast. 9 souls inhabit 9 tails, each acting independently. According to legend, Ninetails can only be defended against with the Celestial Brush. Burning the tails will temporarily weaken it, and a lightning strike to the sword causes the souls to split apart. Strike the final blow when the true form of the fox emerges."

Trivia

• Ninetails is a Kitsune, which is an evil creature that can possess women. It usual enters the woman through her fingernails or breasts, the latter probably being Rao's case.

• The legend that the Ninetails in Okami is derived from is also the same legend that inspired the Pokemon franchise's "Ninetales". As both of them look alike and have the same name and nature.

• We see a brief cut scene that shows the faith of the original Rao. In this cut scene it can be seen that the original Rao wore a string of blue beads, not red and she did not cover one of her eyes with her fringe, which Ninetails does to cover its missing eye. This subtly shows us that the Rao Ammy and Issun meet is not the real one.

• Evil Rao can be fought again but in a higher quantity in the the optional Devil Gate Trial Caves in Kamui.

Major portions of this page were written by: Disillusioned