SMITE Adds Japanese Pantheon With Amaterasu

[Slycne]

SMITE Adds Japanese Pantheon With Amaterasu


SMITE expands their pantheon of characters to include Japanese mythology.

As part of their SMITE World Championship festivities, Hi-Rez finally pulled back the curtain on their inclusion of the Japanese pantheon to their third-person moba SMITE. It's been teased, hinted, and speculated about for months now, but the first Japanese god will be Amaterasu and she'll be coming to the game, along with special event to celebrate the new pantheon, January 12th.

Amaterasu will be the 72nd character added to the game, and that sees the Japanese pantheon added to the current list of Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Mayan, Norse, and Roman. Amaterasu is the goddess of the sun from the Shinto religion, though many gamers will perhaps be more familiar with Amaterasu from much beloved the Clover Studio game Okami, where Amaterasu appeared as a white wolf. For SMITE Amaterasu takes on a more traditional look, it was especially important for the developers to incorporate and highlight several of the key items from her lore - her sword, necklace, and mirror.

In-game, drawing on the themes of Amaterasu being a leader of the other gods, she brings a lot of supportive elements to her kit. She's perfectly capable of slashing up opponents herself, but there's rewards for bringing friends along to the melee.

The Japanese pantheon has been a strong favorite for inclusion as SMITE looked to expand, and much like other pantheons Hi-Rez plans to look beyond simply deities. You shouldn't be surprised to see oni, kitsune, or even heroic figures in the future. I'm holding out for a proper red nosed Tengu.

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[RJ 17]

Think I like the dog version better.

 

[Aerosteam]

Dog version > human version.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I'm not really up on traditional artistic depictions of Shinto deities, so correct me if I'm off-base here, but doesn't Amaterasu look too Caucasian and not enough Japanese?

EDIT: I'm speaking in terms of skin tone. Clearly her general shape and clothing are indicative of Japanese heritage.

 

[Nobuoa Schniell]

I'm not really up on traditional artistic depictions of Shinto deities, so correct me if I'm off-base here, but doesn't Amaterasu look too Caucasian and not enough Japanese?

EDIT: I'm speaking in terms of skin tone. Clearly her general shape and clothing are indicative of Japanese heritage.

I think her face is lacking asian qualities too. Chalk that up to artist's drawing style.

 

[RJ 17]

I'm not really up on traditional artistic depictions of Shinto deities, so correct me if I'm off-base here, but doesn't Amaterasu look too Caucasian and not enough Japanese?

While my first thought was "I like the dog version better", my 2nd thought was just that: "Huh...that's the whitest Japanese woman I've ever seen."

......that and "A female SMITE character that's not half naked? What gives, Hi-Rez?"

 

[Worgen]

Good to know that I'm not the only one who was hoping she was going to be a wolf.

I was also hoping they would add a voodoo god pantheon.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Yikes, way to make a bland character out of mythic origins and folklore. 'It's a Japanese deity. Hey, samurai armour and katana are Japanese! Let's do that!'. Maybe they just looked at Okami's iteration, and just decided to do the absolute opposite...

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Yikes, way to make a bland character out of mythic origins and folklore. 'It's a Japanese deity. Hey, samurai armour and katana are Japanese! Let's do that!'. Maybe they just looked at Okami's iteration, and just decided to do the absolute opposite...

I think they probably should've went with the more traditional look

Spoiler

and also make her fighting style a little bit more unique, like Japanese dancing or something. it seems weird they went for the samurai thing with her?

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Yikes, way to make a bland character out of mythic origins and folklore. 'It's a Japanese deity. Hey, samurai armour and katana are Japanese! Let's do that!'. Maybe they just looked at Okami's iteration, and just decided to do the absolute opposite...

I think they probably should've went with the more traditional look

Spoiler

and also make her fighting style a little bit more unique, like Japanese dancing or something. it seems weird they went for the samurai thing with her?

Yes! That picture is great! Why didn't they just go with that?

 

[Zacharious-khan]

Cartoon wolf? wheres the cartoon wolf?

 

[Kaimax]

Yes! That picture is great! Why didn't they just go with that?

and make another Female Burst mage? NO~~~~Too many

I'm content with how they portray her, as SMITE needs more Female Melee Gods. (5 now with Ammy in the roster)

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Yikes, way to make a bland character out of mythic origins and folklore. 'It's a Japanese deity. Hey, samurai armour and katana are Japanese! Let's do that!'. Maybe they just looked at Okami's iteration, and just decided to do the absolute opposite...

I think they probably should've went with the more traditional look

Spoiler

and also make her fighting style a little bit more unique, like Japanese dancing or something. it seems weird they went for the samurai thing with her?

Yes! That picture is great! Why didn't they just go with that?

I think they wanted a samurai but also wanted the most well-known person in the Japanese pantheon in first. the problem is as far as I know the only one of the three that had a samurai motif was Susanoo but since amaterasu is the most well-known they decide to compromise and make her samurai.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Yes! That picture is great! Why didn't they just go with that?

and make another Female Burst mage? NO~~~~Too many

I'm content with how they portray her, as SMITE needs more Female Melee Gods. (5 now with Ammy in the roster)

I'm down with the melee angle, I just prefer the kimono/priestess look to the samurai look. She could still be melee-focused, just with different clothes/armor.

 

[Rednog]

Yikes, way to make a bland character out of mythic origins and folklore. 'It's a Japanese deity. Hey, samurai armour and katana are Japanese! Let's do that!'. Maybe they just looked at Okami's iteration, and just decided to do the absolute opposite...

I think they probably should've went with the more traditional look

Spoiler

and also make her fighting style a little bit more unique, like Japanese dancing or something. it seems weird they went for the samurai thing with her?

They already have a Chinese "dancer" god Chang'e; they probably wouldn't want to overlap with similar themed gods.

 

[GiantRedButton]

I'm not really up on traditional artistic depictions of Shinto deities, so correct me if I'm off-base here, but doesn't Amaterasu look too Caucasian and not enough Japanese?

While my first thought was "I like the dog version better", my 2nd thought was just that: "Huh...that's the whitest Japanese woman I've ever seen."

......that and "A female SMITE character that's not half naked? What gives, Hi-Rez?"

youd be suprised how white skin can be in Japan. Also Anime has plenty of japanese characters with these skin tones.
Smite usually is tamer than the original with the gods. Gods that are usually portrait nude or partially nude are covered up. Amaterasu isn't depicted as mostly nude so she isn't in game either.
Greek gods with little clothing should not be shocking to a modern civilisation though.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Yikes, way to make a bland character out of mythic origins and folklore. 'It's a Japanese deity. Hey, samurai armour and katana are Japanese! Let's do that!'. Maybe they just looked at Okami's iteration, and just decided to do the absolute opposite...

I think they probably should've went with the more traditional look

Spoiler

and also make her fighting style a little bit more unique, like Japanese dancing or something. it seems weird they went for the samurai thing with her?

They already have a Chinese "dancer" god Chang'e; they probably wouldn't want to overlap with similar themed gods.

I guess that's the problem when you take pre-existing characters from different mythologies it starts to look the same in some aspects. I still think they could've made her more unique.

I'm not really up on traditional artistic depictions of Shinto deities, so correct me if I'm off-base here, but doesn't Amaterasu look too Caucasian and not enough Japanese?

While my first thought was "I like the dog version better", my 2nd thought was just that: "Huh...that's the whitest Japanese woman I've ever seen."

......that and "A female SMITE character that's not half naked? What gives, Hi-Rez?"

youd be suprised how white skin can be in Japan. Also Anime has plenty of japanese characters with these skin tones.
Smite usually is tamer than the original with the gods. Gods that are usually portrait nude or partially nude are covered up. Amaterasu isn't depicted as mostly nude so she isn't in game either.
Greek gods with little clothing should not be shocking to a modern civilisation though.

to be fair I recall one story where she ran away in a cave because her brother throw a skinned horse at her and someone dance naked to get her out of the cave. (Mythology is weird)

 

[Kaimax]

Yes! That picture is great! Why didn't they just go with that?

and make another Female Burst mage? NO~~~~Too many

I'm content with how they portray her, as SMITE needs more Female Melee Gods. (5 now with Ammy in the roster)

I'm down with the melee angle, I just prefer the kimono/priestess look to the samurai look. She could still be melee-focused, just with different clothes/armor.

She's probably half inspired by Gozen Tomoe too (her alt color skin has Tomoe's symbol) hence the Female Samurai look, than a traditional deity look.

They're probably saving the Kimono-look for Ama-no-Uzume, since she's the "dancer" that lures Ammy from the cave.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Yes! That picture is great! Why didn't they just go with that?

and make another Female Burst mage? NO~~~~Too many

I'm content with how they portray her, as SMITE needs more Female Melee Gods. (5 now with Ammy in the roster)

I'm down with the melee angle, I just prefer the kimono/priestess look to the samurai look. She could still be melee-focused, just with different clothes/armor.

She's probably half inspired by Gozen Tomoe too (her alt color skin has Tomoe's symbol) hence the Female Samurai look, than a traditional deity look.

They're probably saving the Kimono-look for Ama-no-Uzume, since she's the "dancer" that lures Ammy from the cave.

that going to be a long way considering we still have two brothers and their parents Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto to get through the first. Not to mention famous mythological monsters like Orochi.

 

[Czann]

I'm not following this game so did they add Jehovah and Jesus already?

Are they too OP?