This was not what I initially intended to write about this week, but I got nowhere with my original idea. So we are going to talk about Okami again this week.
Amaterasu, as you all know, is the wolf protagonist in Okami. She is female, referred to as ‘the mother to us all’ by the other gods in the game and I think called a girl by your little companion Issun. Ammy may be a girl, and a wolf, but she has a real thing for the the Sakura Spirit Sakuya, huffing and excited when she gets her new outfit. And Sakuya is pretty happy when she sees Ammy. So maybe Sakuya is her girlfriend? After all, Ammy is not too excited to meet any of the other women in the game, especially Rao, which is cool because it turns out Rao is actually a giant, evil spirit fox.
Some people might argue against this, seeing as in the sequel Ammy has a son, but you see: she created the other gods and goddesses from nothing, so why does she need a man? She’s a divine wolf with a magic paintbrush tail.
If she is a lesbian, this is one of the first playable LGBTQ+ characters I can think of. And it is scripted no matter what, not an optional thing like in Dragon Age: Inquisition where your female Inquisitor can fall in love with Sera; a cute, kind of crazy, elf girl. I think it is really cool, because you are left to draw your own conclusions about it. Although I wish it was a little more obvious because I often see people asking if Ammy is a boy.
Although at the end of the game you ascend into Heaven and don’t get the girl, I still think it is a pretty great step forward for video games.
What's in a Game? 