i hate the monk!!!! I was so happy when i killed it....

About Isshin, that section about how his inspiration created the school that taught to react unconsciously made me think of "hesitation is defeat"

Coming back to your video after finishing Bloodborne last night. I always wonder how you make these beautiful footage ad research. Hands down.

I’m not an expert in Japanese history of any means but Im currently in the process of writing a paper on this era (which is what inspired me to play sekiro) and I believe that the man in this image 5:45 is not the man you’re referring to the man in the image is a warlord of the same era named Oda Nobunaga

So I knew this game was heavily in Japanese folklore, I just had that feeling. I’m about to finish the game but just the same, such a beautiful game deep rooted in their Japanese culture . Incredible

The plausible control scientifically moor because china critically divide minus a boiling black. ajar, spooky verdict

I have a Tokugawa shogunate tattoo..such a fan of Japanese secret police

I love that the flavor text calls vaati out at 8:54

I think all from softs games are lovecraftian in that the narrative is kind of like a puzzle that needs putting together

I watch ALL of Vaati's videos. Wish i could play Sekiro...

For a second I thought the thumbnail said "FISHLORE" so i clicked this video faster than i've ever clicked before

weeb

Tomoe Gozen died just to be revived as weeb in Chaldea

I did notice quite a few different anime that featured centipedes as associated with death and filth

Might not mean much but notice how the eternal dragon has 4 digits on its hands, traditionally its Chinese dragons that have 4 (please correct me if I'm wrong)

The number of claws a chinese dragon has is an indication of its status. The celestial dragon has 5, I forget what 3 and 4 claws mean.

Woah. Musso ken. A more literal translation is "sword without thought". The idea being that your reaction to the enemy is so drilled in your head you react without thinking. I practiced kendo for three years. My dojo's name was "Musso". Brings back memories. Interestingly enough the style involves a lot of thought. My sensei (now standing like a titan at the 7th dan) always taught us "Dedicate each practice to one aspect of your technique. Be it footwork, general stance or the "wasa" (a technique in which you can see the enemy going for a blow towards a part of your body, but you stop him by counterattacking before he can land the blow). The idea was always before starting practice to always think of that part of your technique. I really miss training. I should really start again once this pandemic is over.

You should collab with Gaijin Goomba with Sekiro videos. This would be amazing Vaati. Please do it!!!

From an Asian point of view, I think the west side of Sekiro is India. Buddhist culture originated in India.

How did you get this kind of images of the game? It's look like your are moving the camera along the world of the game! This is great!

0/10 no kitsunes here

"Vaati is holding me captive pls send help" I paused just to read that inscription an then I see this 😂😂😂😂

knifu = my beloved chef’s knife

Sokushinbutsu is one of the most badass and terrifying things I have ever heard of. God damn madlads.

what is this video game, auto-generated english? auto-generated english: secular

bachata

i like this dudes vids but at the same time i feel like hes trying to seduce me the whole time.

god damn, he did it again

Ok this is awesome. But how the hell did you get these shots?

Thank you vaati for giving me your endless knowledge of from software lore Just like prometheus

I am Yao the king of this rock

This is really going out on a limb, just the purest speculation, but what if the Sakura Dragon's missing arm was the Great Serpent? Of course, the problem with this is that I'm fairly certain that it's essentially confirmed that the Sakura Dragon usurped the land's other gods, including the Serpent, meaning it was here long before the Dragon ever showed up. Another problem is how I'm pretty sure the Serpent is much larger than the Dragon, so the only way for that to make any sense would be if its severed arm turned into a very young Serpent, possibly being that the arm was reborn once it was cut off. I don't think I'm even close to being potentially right, like this theory shouldn't even be considered among other possible Dragon or Serpent lore theories. This is purely just me thinking this would be pretty cool, and the only reason I thought of this is that the legend the dragon is potentially based on is one where it is split into two. Part of what would make this such an insane piece of the story is that, if Tomoe is actually the one who cut the Dragon's arm off and wounded it, then she also would have unintentionally created the Serpent. Basically, I know this is SUPER WRONG, but it's just too badass for me not to like it.

"interior ministry is the biggest threat ashina has ever seen" *laughs in my Wolf killing literally everyone in Ashina from the grunts to their lords*

4:32 Why is noone mentioning the dick on his head?

The more I play Sekiro and the more I dig in its lore makes me think it's easily the 2nd best Fromsoftware game, closely after Bloodborne.

Hey does anyone know what that growth at the back of the Guardian Ape’s neck is? That bony looking thing? Is it a part of his spine that sort of mutated?

Miyamoto musashi issa sword saint too!!

I want a sekiro sequel, so bad the lore alone should be enough to warrant a sequel 😭

The Dragons sword is also a reference to the moonlight greatsword thats in every from software game.

Been a year, did anyone notice the pls send help in the fake sword description

How were these in-game shots made? Looks incredible

“Vaati is holding me captive pls help” best part of the seven branched sword description

Sekijo is he a jojo too what A JOJO REFERENCE!!

I was really late to Sekiro but have been obsessed over the past few weeks. I got the platinum trophy but your videos have been such a great post-completion appertif. I never would have derived all the meanings you have painstakingly acquired. THANK YOU! As a side, Ichimonji (一文字) means "a straight line", so the move in the game and the style of fighting for the Ichimonji school can be easily understood after that. It's also the name of the lord in Kurosawa's "Ran" aka "乱" (Revolt/Rebellion/War).

Not a bad game to obsess over at any time. I genuinely believe it is one of the best examples that has yet been offered as far as Games as Art. Truly an experience that becomes more significant the more you understand the context of it's themes.

11:30 "A man named Fuji water" ...Really?

Phallis hat at 4:29.

I thought you said shojo were spirits not Irish people

Hey Vaati? Who are you keeping hostage?

What about Seven Samurai reference?

Very interesting. Thanks for the centipede tale. I used to live near Mt. Mikami and am familiar with the story. A Japanese drum group in that town was named Mukade (a centipede in Japanese) Drums. (By the way, the beginning part of the samurai's name, Tawara-no-Touta, is read as Ta. And Heian era 平安時代 is pronounced as in hay, not in hi.)

Outliving everyone around you is not a tragedy.

Tomoe is in ghost of Tsushima and it’s such a cool nod to the actual Japanese story

This was really interesting. I been meaning to learn more about Japanese folklore.

wouldn't being severed from his birthland imply that he could have been driven off? wouldn't that mean that lands that worshipped dragons are out of the question?

Man Monks were fucked up

12:25 imagine the mechanic for severing immortality was using kuro's spit....since he has dragon heritage,like somewhat similar to divine confetti,divine heritage spit,you can go and get it from kuro the same way as you get his rice,you could imbue it onto your sword or use a prosthetic arm that shoots out poison or fuel or even kuro's spit,but you gotta get kuro's throat from the bad ending and would make it way too op...huh maybe that's why they don't have a mechanic like that

Anybody else notice the similarities between the vermin you find as a League Confederate in Bloodborne, and the centipedes in Sekiro?

If you want to see an anime about the mermaid fish and the lore about eating mermaid meat. There's a 12 episode anime called mermaid forest. Warning it's boring at best but it's there

What if instead of a sequel we get Sekiro prequel instead, telling Sekijo story

Probably they don't mention Tokugawa Ieyasu by name is because some Japanese people still consider him a hero in Japan. It was more common to make Oda the villain because he burned Honganji temple and allow Christianity to enter Japan freely.

I just played sekiro and watched a documentary on the sengoku period recently so it was really cool to see how they are tied together

all-in-all, Sekiro is indeed Profound!

Doku sword.....

🧠 💥

Bro you have a really calming voice. No joke you should narrate shit👍🤔

Have you ever heard of the manga “blade of the immortal”? It is really similar and it has even the bugs inside that allows him to be imortal and the ito-ryou sword school!

If you have an Alexa say “get me out of here” really fast

Fun fact, related to #4: In the manga Blade of the Immortal one of the main characters is Kagehisa Anotsu. He is the leader of sword school Itto-Ryu. The live action movie is good too, but the anime is meh 😁

6:12 Oh so, ultra instinct existed wayyy back

So, what you're saying is, the same swordsman who inspired isshin, also inspired the concept of Ultra Instinct

The idea that this is set while Tokugawa was alive isn't feasible. At that point in history japan had muskets.

WE SOOO NEED A DLC. So much potential hidden away! I hope after they are done with Elden Ring, they will make a Sekiro 2.

ok but can *ito itosai whatever the heck his name is* use a glock?

Two things. First and most importantly tho: 1) Thanks for all the work and insightful content, huge fan of your work an i How soothing your videos are. AND OF COURSE I LOVE THE DEPTHS OF THE LORE. 2) if you haven't yet id love if you'd consider some lore videos on the game blasphemous! Its really great lore but id love to see that with your commentary and your video edit style. Thanks so much.

Vaati don't forget, FROM makes fantasy games. Dropping a Ieyasu or a Nobunaga stand-in as puppet master is indeed historically accurate, but i think it would become too "political" for a Japanese audience. Sengoku period leaders and genrals are STILL rockstars today. There's plenty of anime about them. Sekiro might be going for something slightly different. As Gods and Man always mingle in their games, I think the interior ministry is more an allegory of the Era coming to an end, brought by Angry, Unfathomable Entities. Isshin said it himself. "we loved our land, but we are Sinners" A conflict between Gods by Proxy, maybe ? A Faith Schism ...

5:45 Just wanted to point out a correction here. You talk about Ito Ittosai but then you show a painting of Oda Nobunaga. As far as I know, there is no historical iconography of Ito, as with the more famous Musashi, records on these semi-legendary swordsmen are a bit iffy.

Thank you for noticing this I’m currently studying the sengoku era and I thought the exact same thing I’ve been scrolling through the comments to see if anyone else noticed

" Vaati is holding me captive. Please send help" Okay. Am I the only one who noticed the peculiar phrase in the item description of the seven pointed sword?

What a great in-game cinematic angle... How to get that cinematic angle in game?...

@VaatiVidya what about the Tengu in the game

seven branch sword features as glaive weapon you can get in okami.

Sekiro is one of the only games that I've seen or played that tied very deeply into japanese folklore, the only other one is a ps2 game called Okami. I really enjoy learning about folklore through games as I feel games can give myths and legends life like no other medium. It is sad that there is not more out there, thankfully we have companies like from software, team ico who can bring myth to life. Myths and legends are our worlds greatest treasures from the past its the link to our inner selves.

I remember watching a documental about dragons being real and how they evolved into aquatic giant snakes to adapt to the water really interesting!. You could look for it, its on youtube last time i checked.

the headless oni story

I feel like if sekiro and samurai warriors were actual people, they’d have a lot to talk about.

I don't think Interior Ministry is presented as a shadowy organisation at all. The events that take place in the game, as said in the very first cutscene, are all happening after the end of the Sengoku era, during the first year of unified Japan. Ashina's feud is simply fighting for its independence, while the central government sends its troops, the Interior Ministry, against it. And there's more to it: central government forces are using far more advanced gunpowder based technology, which was something real life shogun's central power reserved to itself, leaving feudal authorities unable to wage war against them.

Yaobikuni was referenced and/or recreated in countless anime, manga and games, it would seem. She was written as a supporting character in Blade of the Immortal, with the minor difference that it was not fish but the immortal worms that gave her everlasting life, to fit the narrative. She is the one that gives the hero of that series his "cursed gift".

If they did made Tokugawa as the antagonist , the game will be harder. Final boss Honda Tadakatsu. Throughout the year he served Tokugawa never did anyone ever touched him nor inflict him of any injury not even Sanada Yukimura. Also fun fact Basara made Tadakatsu as a mecha like because he is too badass. Can't injure a robot that can fly in Sengoku Era. But the hardest challenge will be the Iga Clan and Oniwabanshu ,an elite ninja group formed by the Bakufu .

Tomoe could very well be an Õkami warrior, as they use lightning

shoot

oh wait that was confirmed in game

Alot of sekiro in game Historical features are explained in detail in NIOH

Any one see the dickhead 4:33

I loved playing through the Witcher series which took inspiration from plenty of Slavic myths, it was a fascinating adventure exploring the folklore of my country and its regions. I imagine someone from Japan had similar feelings playing Sekiro.

@ 8:55 we all gonna avoid the fact that he locked up a historian?

Heian is pronounced "hay-ahn"

So the Dragon's Return ending reeeally reminds of Journey to the West, A Chinese legend which I'm sure you've heard of. A priest seeks to obtain some Buddhist sacred texts from the "West", i.e. India, aided by a powerful monkey god. Even the way the Divine Child was dressed before she and Sekiro left reminded me of a Japanese kids TV adaptation of Journey to the West where the priest was played by a young girl, despite the character being a man or boy. At the end of the journey, I believe the priest is granted immortality and both monkey and the priest attain enlightenment. This may be more of a reference than anything deeper. I hope FromSoft make a sequel to Sekiro after Elden Ring. Especially one that follows on from the Dragon's Return ending. I think both Dark Souls and Bloodborne were wrapped up fairly neatly but think we could do with a little more of the one-armed ninjas with flame throwers.

Sokushinbutsu you said is still done by some jain monks in India. Probably not exactly same but similar but there is practically not on internet about it. I have just seen this, these monks stay in that same position even after death and as they mummify there is not putrefaction and no smell of dead and they are revered by fellow jains as they come just to get the glimpse of such a divine person. (Technically they say it’s they not decaying because they are divine but with medical background it was an easy deduction)

Some minor info on #3 - The Interior Minister: As you may already know, the chief choreographer and martial artist behind the early Tenchu titles was the famous Japanese-American actor/martial artist, Sho Kosugi and according to his interviews and biography, he was a practitioner of Koga school of Shinobi no Jutsu (Koga Ryu Ninpo) for several years in Japan. I should mention that compared to the more studied and historically referenced school of Ninjutsu, Iga Ryu Ninpo, the former hardly survived in the last century and is somehow shrouded in esoteric interpretations and lack of written records. Anyway, we clearly know that Iga Ryu shinobi worked as secret service, political manipulators, assassins and paramilitary strategists for the Tokugawa shogunate as the Sengoku period was settling down in the final years of 16th century. At the opposite side, Koga Ryu Shinobi, though they were mostly relatives, ghetto buddies, collaborators with their counterparts; for the most time they were in fight with 'the interior minister', Ieyasu Tokugawa and his administration, at least from the era of previous great shogun, Hideyoshi Toyotomi. So, If we consider Sekiro a grandchild of Tenchu, this historical reference definitely makes sense, in my humble opinion.

As Both a Nioh player and sekiro player, I love this

I feel like the serpent is actually 2 snakes sharing one body but two hearts. Hence why you kill one and there’s another elsewhere still. I believe that Isshin was more based on Miyamoto Musashi

How do you get shots like that and different characters to appear in various scenes/sections of the game?

Sekiro: shadows die many times

Amazing thank you