Character Discussion: AMATERASU

AMATERASU
(Name: Amaterasu)
Nippon's Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu is best described as a simple white wolf but wields tremendous intelligence and power. She first appeared in the Okami video game series. Before she was a wolf, she was a Goddess living in the Celestial Plain, ruling the Celestials and the mortal world as a deity. During the invasion of Orochi, Amaterasu dragged him to the human world until the Chosen One's(Nagi) birth. At the festival on Kamiki Village, Orochi dined on several maidens but was fought by Nagi with the help of Shiranui and seals Orochi away. As Shiranui was later killed by poison during their fight, Amaterasu soon returned to the village and was hailed as a hero and even built a statue to honor her. She then died after a few years and lost some of her powers but was revived by Sakuya during the return of Orochi.
After her final battle with him, she and Issun travels across Nippon to restore beauty and peace in the land. And also to regain the people's faith and restore her powers.

GAMEPLAY

Amaterasu's gameplay often focuses on her rushdown tactics that definitely annoys her opponent. She uses several tools and weapons in order for her to be effectively lethal. Once you mastered all her weapons (Tundra Beads, Solar Flare, Thunder Edge), she could be an unstoppable force. Aside from being a rushdown character, she could switch to be a keepaway character with the help of her divine weapon, Devout Beads with normals and special moves having insanely long-range. She also has some of the best assist in the game, aiding some characters to lockdown the opponent to start a combo. Her hyper combos are also great especially her Okami Shuffle super which rivals Storm's Hail Storm in terms of chip damage and full screen range.

SPECIAL MOVES AND COMMAND NORMALS

(Universal Special Moves)

• Head Charge - Amaterasu attacks her opponent with a head butt and the strength of the button used determines if the move strikes horizontally, diagonally, or downward
• Power Slash - Amaterasu uses her Celestial Brush and summons a sheet of paper above her that slowly descend and slashes if the opponent touches the paper
• Weapon Change - Amaterasu selects her weapon of choice using one of the three-strength buttons. The light button lets her use the Divine Retribution. The medium button equips her with Tsumugari and the heavy button activates her Devout Beads
• Bloom - Amaterasu's assist-only move. She arrives in the field and as she howls, she gives the entire team a 30% boost of one hyper combo meter 

(Equipped weapon: Divine Retribution/Solar Flare)

• Reflector Chain Combo (Ichi, Ni, San, Shi, Solar Flare attack) - Amaterasu's command normal using her Divine Retribution weapon. A mashable attack where she uses her weapon to slash the opponent. This move is good at starting her basic combos
• Solar Flare - Amaterasu's counter move where she puts her Divine Retribution weapon in-front of her to counter any physical attack from the opponent. The light button counters HIGH and MID attacks. Using medium, counters LOW attacks and heavy acts as a projectile reflector

(Equipped weapon: Tsumugari/Thunder Edge)

• Glaive Chain Combo (Ichi, Ni, San, Thunder Edge slash) - Amaterasu's command normal available only if she is equipped with the Tsumugari. A mashable attack that does a series of slash and stab to her opponent. This move can also be charged for even greater damage output
• Thunder Edge Stab - Amaterasu's dive slash where she rides with the Tsumugari and stabs her opponent. This move is one of Amaterasu's alternative air combo finisher and is best cancelled to Glaive Chop
• Thunder Edge - Amaterasu uses the Tsumugari to slash away the opponent. The strength of the button used determines if she slashed diagonally, vertically, or diagonally. This move can also be charged for greater damage output
• Glaive Chop - Amaterasu uses her weapon to unleash a charged lightning slash and does multiple hits to her opponent 

(Equipped weapon: Devout Beads/Tundra Beads)

• Rosary Chain Combo (Ichi, Ni, San, Shi, Devout Beads whip) - Amaterasu now uses her Devout Beads weapon to start a uncancellable long-range combo to the opponent. This move is best assisted with characters that can hold the opponent to allow Amaterasu to combo afterwards
• Cold Star - Amaterasu's only projectile special move. She uses her Devout Beads to blast the opponent with shards of ice coming out of her mouth. This move can be mashable to blast more ice to the opponent

  HYPER COMBOS

 OKAMI SHUFFLE (Level 1 Hyper Combo) - Amaterasu's full screen hyper combo. She uses several elemental techniques with her Celestial Brush. The first wave summons a firestorm that will always be located on the center of the screen. She then summons an ice storm that hits all over the screen. Her final wave summons a lightning storm across the screen before calling one last lightning bolt to the opponent. This move is her best hyper finisher inside of ground or air combos and can easily be use after her throw.

VALE OF MIST (Level 1 Hyper Combo) - As Amaterasu howls, she summons a purple mist that enshrouds the entire screen causing the opponents movement to slow down for five seconds. The opponents attack animation and even hitstun is slowed down. Amaterasu and her entire team will be unable to build hyper meter while the mist is active. 

DIVINE INSTRUMENTS (Level 3 Hyper Combo) - Amaterasu's most devastating hyper combo causing an unscaled damage ranging from 400,000 to 440,000. She first uses the Divine Retribution to launch her opponent to the air. She then uses the Devout Beads as a whip to deal damage to the opponent. Her last move then lets her use the Tsumugari to slash the opponent. This move is easily comboed after a throw in the corner.


PERSPECTIVE TOWARDS THE CHARACTER
Another newly introduced character in Vanilla due to the success of her origin game: Okami, Amaterasu is truly a Goddess the kicks ass. Even if she was resurrected as a celestial wolf, she still retain her powerful arsenals like the Divine Retribution and the Celestial Brush. I kinda like Ammy because she uses the elements such as fire, ice, and lightning to deal damage to the opponent. I also like her rushdown strategy since some of my favorite characters in the game are all good keepaway and zoning characters. I'm kinda having a hard time using the Tsumugari and Devout Beads since I'm used to her first default equipped weapon Divine Retribution. I do recommend Ammy to players who wants to learn different variations of attacks. The Sun Goddess of Nippon finally arrives in the Marvel Vs. Capcom series, would you care to have her on your team? :)