For Ryu field skill, maybe you could add teleport points on the map? Basically in-map fast travel? Or you can have vertical exploration, like here at 11:25
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Version 0.9 actually adds new fast travel points already so that might be more of the useless side.
I do like the idea of the vertical exploration but as you already guessed, I have no idea if that is possible in the engine, would need to research that. Thanks for the idea!
Also: Okami is an absolute lovely game. More people should play it!