Hey guys! So there seems to be a bit of confusion regarding what I said about not playing Sekiro up until this point. Allow me to explain. When I choose a game to cover for my channel, I choose it based on what people recommend to me and what I am able to gather about a game for myself. I do this in order to make sure that if I invest a lot of time into a video game, there's likely going to be something that I can do a video on. Specifically, I want to make sure that I can provide the type of in-depth lore analysis that people come to this channel for. With the information I had gathered up until I released this video, it seemed to be that people thought Sekiro was supposedly amazing, and the story was good, but it didn't warrant the type of in-depth analysis that I tend to do here. While this method has worked for me up until now, there was bound to be a game where this method didn't work. Clearly, Sekiro was that game. It's not that I don't want to play Sekiro. I do! I love all the other FromSoftware games. I just often don't have the time to play more than a couple of games at a time. However, it's looking more and more like I need to put some time aside to play this beauty. If you have any questions, let me know. :)
Hey, regarding the upcoming dlc of Elden Ring I wanted to share what I got to understand after all your videos and endless research around the alchemical topics for this game as I think I might have found a missing link maybe regarding first of the direct 'spiritual' connection between souls, bloodborne and elden ring (being those alchemical principle foundations) as well as the thing linking Miquellas doings (the Oak-leaf Haligtree (beside the Blood and Albinaurics gathered for what kind he is doing there) and the petrified somethings (pebbles, etc looking like petrified eyes) to the same reference: Oak Apples; in combination with iron-sulfate and gum resulting in INK: - ironsulfate; blood+sulfate, (sulfate being yellow; ironore being red and ironsulfate being blue/azur range of colors representing the main colors as aspects of life, especially showing in Morgotts cursed blood (his sword) being vividly colored, standing for beasts, crows, horned animals, all red blooded creatures) symbolic red: the combustable spirit - quicksilver, mercury, gum arabica, celestial dew (all the albinaurics, mimic tears but envoys and crustations, octopus, slugs). paleblood; symbolic white: the fusable soul - salt; stone (of dragon skin etcetc.) basic inorganic matter without reactive properties: in that case could be petrified something aka oak apples husk- but only the husk/petrified eye as the stable body. the salt representative of desparity: halfs of a circle: light and dark, life and death endlessly circling in disparity- but why? SO alchemy ended there until the salt problem: the reality is evolving and not in an constant circle of dark and light ages. solution being: not a 2d circle but a spiraling, 3d motion, filling out space, moving forward through time through a constant pull- the pull of the universe (pull between meanings which regards all things, which was tried to be controlled by the golden order through law of regression and law auf causality; yet a long forgotten alchemical colorful symbol reappeared: the opal; once known for change, rising, rebirth from ashes (vividly colored two headed bird time) nowadays a symbol of ill omen (this is literally opal change of meanings...): unstoppable evolution through expanding dark matter of the universe, unstoppable fate and destined death: reality bases now on a 3d space instead of a disc which allows the realization of the dark matter as there must be sth filling the 3d space which is not occupied otherwise/a force not seen in between: ......just as the husk of the oak apple, just as the white eyes are the body: it houses inside the dark matter, the void, dark soul forming the desparity between eternal matter (salt/wood/stone (stable, non reactive)) and first matter: - ink, dark soul, dark matter, inside of oak apple - aka petrified something=petrified eyes; eyes harbouring entrance to the abyss (blacksky eye description and all its symbols of darksun/darkmoon looking like eyes in the sky (very purposely designed in berserk's eclipse to look that way) up until the colorless eclipse ending in dark souls, but eyes-insides/sockets being also dramatically relevant for Elden Ring obviously), the void, the kosm (kosm not as cosmos with stars buts its very matter), pull of all things as like the expansion of the universe itself, everywhere but we look right through what base is filling the room between every atom. in pressured environments resulting in mighty but so missable voids and gushing abyss, but as we worship suns and stars and trees and animals.... this prima materia and its omnipresence.. the furtive pigmy, so easily forgotten. the ink as itself vanishes for what is is as we gaze upon a picture doesn't it?
I think people underestimated Sekiro's lore depth because it so happen to have an actual protagonist and characters that your character were involved and have a history with. It's just as deep as the other games, but people weren't all that interested to dive deeper; most likely because it utilize eastern influences as a precedent way more than the others.
was kind of surprised to hear the "people told me the story didn't have much to it so i just didn't finish it" from you considering how thoughtful and measured /deliberate you are about doing your own investigations into these games. you definitely gotta finish it. sekiro's lore doesn't have the same traditional fantasy lore appeal that the other games do, sure, but if you learn about the history of the sengoku era you can start to find some truly fascinating details about how the game addresses history, japanese folklore, and what it's saying with the fictional story it puts into that setting. plus......yknow.....best melee combat in any game ever. great video!
Thanks bro! Yeah, the nature of my job prevents me from spending as much time as I would like to with certain games. Sometimes, I have to go with the information I have available to me, and thus, I have chosen to not give as much time to Sekiro, but instead to games that seemed like reliable bets on whether or not they have stories I can make a video on. However, as your comment and others have demonstrated, that feedback has likely been incorrect. So… maybe I have to hurry up and finish this game. :)
@@maxderrat Your information was sketchy though. "The consensus" online (reddit etc.) is more of a very niche group within a niche stuck in an echo chamber than a expert reference on good taste.
There is also a lore connection between Elden and Sekiro, the "land of reeds" is mentioned in association with Japanese inspired characters in Elden Ring and it's explicitly mentioned that it has an ongoing civil war like in Sekiro.
@@4pfBulmond Believe whatever you want bobo, I have been playing Fromsoftware games long enough to know this isn't an "accident" or "coincidence" and that it is a clear reference to Sekiro.
I found the lore in Sekiro to be second best, only losing out to Bloodborne. The world and mythology is incredible. And Idk why you wouldn’t finish one of the best playing games of all time if you like videogames.
sekiro is a great but also difficult game and the final boss, far more so. despite being a big fromsoft fan, i very nearly never finished my first playthrough of the game
Play it again and learn how to parry effectively, i’ve completed it 12 times went from being my least favourite fromsoftware game to my favourite game full stop
I had taken that opinion on Sekiro's lore as fact because it seemed to make sense to me. I hadn't done any deep investigation into any of the games before I played it though, so I guess I didn't have much to compare it to. But it kind of makes sense, you'd expect a game with more simplified combat, simplified story structure (cutscenes) to have simpler lore. But this isn't necessarily the case. I only just realized how much there is to the lore after watching SmB's video on the topic. The one about PTSD. I highly recommend it. This video was great too, I was noticing a lot of things from Sekiro that ended up in Elden Ring in one form or another. On a kind of unrelated note, it's weird that Sekiro looks better when it came out 3 years earlier. I guess because Elden Ring is using an older graphics engine or something?
Hey man! It’s really simple: my job doesn’t allow me to spend time playing games that I don’t cover on the channel. The only non-channel game I have really been able to play this year was Resident Evil 4… so I have missed out on Jedi Survivor, Dead Island 2, Hogwarts Legacy, and soon I will be missing out on Tears of the Kingdom. Same basic thing for Sekiro. I wanted to play through it all, but the feedback I had received from a number of people suggested that I should divert my attention to games that would reliably provide content for a video. Seems some of that feedback was wrong!
Thank you for acknowledging that it could be someone else within the fromsoft team that is responsible for making these mind blowing bits of symbology. They are a great team and deserve due respect.
This also kind of explains why you can make quicksilver bullets from your blood. Really interesting to discover and learn even more about these games years after they were released.
Stage 1: "FromSoft games have no story." Stage 2: "FromSoft games have a barebones narrative to give the player a goal." Stage 3: "The player creates his own story as he goes through the game." Stage 4: "FromSoft games are all about cyclicity." Stage 5: "FromSoft games have decently fleshed out Dark Fantasy lore, but nothing out of the ordinary." Stage 6: "The enemy, world design and the environmental storytelling are the best in any series and form a very compelling, dynamic narrative experience." Stage 7: "Wait, most item description hold as much lore and narrarive significance as a 5/10 minute cutscene full of exposition if you really analyze and corroborate it with other ones." Stage 8: "FromSoft games, but Bloodborne especially has so many hidden themes, concepts and draws from so many art forms and other mediums and interwoves them so well that new interpretations are still discovered and discussed 8 years after its release AND Elden Ring seems to have a similar trajectory." Stage 9: This video.
Honestly, at this point, it's no surprise that some people in Fromsoft are devout followers of esotericism or hermeticism. Another interesting not that you should totally look into Armored Core VI & its central element/resource that drive the plot, called "coral." (also be looking like a red white glowing substances)
I could say a lot, but I'll keep it short: I can't believe that I never thought of this as someone who played all these games and watches all you videos. Beautiful. Just fascinatingly beautiful.
It’s an exciting coincidence that I just finished Sekiro, and totally loved it by the way. Not only is the gameplay phenomenal, but also the mythology and symbolism is profoundly well-made
I mean I kinda already assumed there was a subtle connection between the two just based off the Dungeater's defiling curse and the Headless with their shirokodama removing kill animation in Sekiro. Given how the defiling curse messes with the soul of the person being defiled and all.
Elden ring is based off the 5 elements and their associated fingers, as taught in buddhism. The unity of intelligence and faith aligns with the pointer and middle finger, which are the Two Fingers representing air (faith) and cosmic/sky (int). The thumb is fire, represents arcane, and this takes shape in the three fingers. The ring finger is earth (strength), and is found in the form of Omen, tree avatars, and the giants, as well as some other factions. And then of course, the pinky is water (dexterity), representing time, and is both the hardest to properly explain and also the most important piece of the puzzle in the mystery that is The Lands Between. This is my Magnum Opus theory and y’all are lucky I’m high enough to share it, because I’ve been sitting on this juicy info for a fat minute. Also, the story of Marika and all the demigods is based on an ancient Buddhist legend focusing on two groups of cousins fighting each other for the throne, some of which are avatars of gods, who in turn are avatars for even greater gods. It’s all there on Wikipedia, you follow the rabbit hole and literally the entire foundation of Elden Ring is based on Buddhism. Every faction in the world belongs to one of the elements, but it’s not as simple as matching colors with similar colors. One has to understand the concepts the elements represent. For instance, the thumb (fire) doesn’t actually mean every fire source in the game is tired to arcane. It means the idea of fire, of persisting and being acknowledged, impossible to ignore, is what arcane represents, and this is shown through madness, bleed, and poison, all sources that burn themselves out as they exist past their expiration. Again, I’m high so I’m not doing this theory justice, but this is the idea that supports every other allegory and allusion to things in the real world, especially from other cultures.
The first time you said "gourd", I immediately thought of the story where Sun Wukong ate a few thousand pills of immortality from five gourds in heaven.
Miyazaki. One of the greatest philosophers of our times. So lucky to still be a gamer even in my 30s and a fromsoft fan. P.S.for those who played Elden Ring or those who love history and philosophy and have not yet discovered Tarnished Archeologist TH-cam channel, you're in for an incredible treat.
Like you say that jokingly, but dude is legit thinking on a higher plane with regards to the themes and metaphors he helps write into these games. So few other modern games ever touch this level of thought and detail in how they deconstruct and reconstruct our real-world myths/philosophy/sciences into playable pixels on a screen. Its genuinely amazing stuff.
I feel like this is the most in depth a game has gone into Buddhist thoughts on impermanence and the suffering found in samsara. Like sure Shin Megami Tensei is in depth but there's a wider focus with respects to other religions which detract from the specific aspects I mentioned with the former. The gameplay itself very much reinforces it's themes on the inevitability of things by playing a character who is actively fighting to end immortality within himself and inadvertantly the systems around him who try to remain in stasis quo despite the stagnation their actions create.
For me Sekiro is so underrated. It's a masterpiece on so many levels. The only From game that marked me like Dark Souls did, just differently. But yes, the world of Sekiro is also very coherent and with many secrets and interesting things. I really hope either they do a sequel of sort, or another similar game. One of the few games I already played so many times but gladly launch a game and finish the game. Or Boss battles, before with a mod, then they implemented it.
Absolutely well done. I would like to add more about the Taoist side of this, and additionally, Hindu relations to this. The Tan Tiens in Taoism pretty much refer to the same concept of Chakras in Hinduism, they are energy centers in the energetic body of a living being. "The physical is a shadow of spiritual body" Hence, in Taoism, they emphasize the energy within man with sperm primarily because sperm is the physical embodiment of Yang energy. The purpose of cultivation of the sexual energies of man, is the attainment of consciousness of the energetic flow of these energies within man. A male then, would learn to willfully circulate his Yang energies through the Tan Tiens, starting from the genital Tan Tiens, going up through the spine and into the brain, then back down through the front of his body, within the organs, back into the genital Tan Tien, thus creating a loop, a perfect circle. The completion of this loop heightens the vibrational properties of the energy, and thus the entire being. But wait there's more! During this loop of energy, one must mix Yang energy with Yin energy, acquired through the world, or cultivated from within. But most potently, from woman, who also has this microcosmic orbit loop within them that circulates naturally with Yin energy. Hence, when the male loop and the female loop interact and connect with each other through sex, what do you get? The loop of infinity is completed, the same as the gourd. As the fusion of Yin and Yang energy are perfected within man and woman, both elevate the the sum of their parts to a greater whole, coming to a state of being closer and closer to God, until eventually literal immortality is attained, of which immortality is only a side effect of the process. As one comes closer and closer to God/Source/Tao while in that state of Wu Wei through the Rising of the Serpent within the spine as called in Hinduism, one's spiritual nature rises and returns to a state of Godhood, that same state of being all the great prophets of all religions attained in their ultimate spiritual journeys. And yes, I do believe the Rising of the Serpent through the chakras is an analogy within the Souls games, as man seeking enlightenment.
White Savior Aggregator: Your reviews of this content is too European! Discard everything! Japanese Content Creators: Ah, thank you very much for your viewpoint. It is valuable to me.
Dude not only proved the connection between the games but also the REAL WORLD connection between eastern and western alchemy and how they basically have the same “philosopher’s stone”. Mind blown.
@@Insp.CountMortisWinshipKlaw I don't think a person who is playing video games is ready to hear that, but true. How Dark Souls and Elden Ring show this though? I have only played Sekiro
@@OPTIKLOPS7 One of the symbols used to indicate a person is part of this death cult is the eclipse. Dark Souls Logo. Another symbol that illustrates the practise of this death cult is the Babylonian fingers. Either one or two. This represents the penis. This act of sodomy is their method of enlightenment. In other words it puts them in states of euphoric consciousness but it is known as the gateway to hell. In Elden finger you have the two fingers envoys of the greater will. Behind the large statue of the two fingers is a gesture, it is called rapture. Self explanatory. I could go on and on but it is better you play the games, enjoy them then maybe see the truth. There is a lot of channels attempting to reveal the lore of these games but they completely miss the mark because they don't understand that this theme runs through every thing from politics, religion, music, film, games to the very language we use.
Earlier today I was walking around the Divine Dragons arena in the reflection of strength and realized if you look at all the sakura trees in the landscape it is essentially the same idea as the pillar trees in all the other games.
I have a specific fascination within the way western and easter culture collide and overlap. I feel like Fromsoft does this amazingly, some of their games like Sekiro are mostly devoid of western influence but others, like Bloodborne, have this thick underlayer of Japanese mythology on what appears on the surface to be a Gothic Victorian / New England Lovecraftian world. If you try to look at it through just a western or just an eastern lens you lose something (except maybe with Sekiro lmao) because the storytelling employed by them makes a point to draw on overlapping parts of different cultures to create mystery and mystique. I am reminded of the story of Miyazaki reading Lord of the Rings when he was young and barely understanding it, due to a language and cultural barrier, and filling in the blanks with his own perspectives and culture. I feel projecting your culture onto the game, and subsequently missing big chunks of what is really going on is... Almost the intention of these games. You are not suppose to be able to parse it as a singular analogy to 1 culture or story, but project your own story onto it. That's why I choose to interpret the meaning of the Fromsoft games as "Femboys are magic".
FINALLY you get into eastern alchemy. This is the form of alchemy I have the most knowledge about as opposed to Western alchemy, and I still learned more, such as with the gourd and the combination of sulphur and Mercury into cinnabar.
The way that they mesh with actual mythologies has made me dive into them; it made me realize how widespread these ideas are. Thanks for making these. These videos tend to go into more of the mechanics of alchemy rather than history and mythology. Good job!
I don't know, why I have the feeling that I have watched this video like 3 times in the course of months. The good thing is that when you talk about what colors the moon in Bloodborne can have, that always breaks my mind. Great video!!
This is maybe the 5th time I've watched this video. Very nice work! I think the echoes of Hermeticism in these games points to a common thought pattern in the modern world. We see the tenets of Hermeticism, which led to Alchemy, in EVERYTHING... if we look closely enough ;)
Frenzy explosion from this one. Another amazing video Max! Like you I would love to sit down with whoever it is that comes up with the thematic concepts for these games. Be it Miyazaki or someone else. They are absolutely masters at weaving this stuff into their games while also never making the stories feel like retreads, even if they share similar inspirations. I swear the games media does not give enough praise to the masterworks these stories are, a shame really.
If you want more insights into Sekiro, I recommend a channel called Shetani's Lair. She makes videos translating the Japanese text and comparing it to the localization.
Whoever told you that nonsense about the story needs a reality check. For one, the game actually has a narrative, but outside of that, it has plenty to examine. Do you really think Fromsoft would half-ass a game, especially one set in Japan? Hell you derived a whole video just on the healing gourd; imagine what else you could do.
I also want to applaude the work Matt and Ziostorm are doing. In part because I feel vindicated, as I often met with blank stares when I tried talking with friends about literary alchemy in the early 2000s. Many have challenged its existence but as time goes on more and more of it is noticed, and I love seeing TH-camrs breaking these elements (heh heh) down and analyzing their meaning. There's a lot to learn from these motifs, and current literature and film are sorely lacking in depth and substance. So Matt Derrat, I thank you. Stay yellow buddy.
This opened my eyes to the fact that Ichikawa likely used a lot of alchemical ideas in Houseki No Kuni as well, but I am by no means knowledgeable enough to figure out the implications.
Another interesting crossover concept of East and West within Elden Ring is the Deathbed Companion. The notion of having a young woman sleep chastely beside an old/dying man to impart life unto him is in Chinese and Japanese medical texts as well as in Western tales such as of Abishag sleeping alongside King David in the Bible. Alchemists in the East and West thought a bed companion was a viable means for elongating a king's life.
To reach the source you must have 7 masters, and each master must summon a servant, and they must battle until 1 master remains alive. Then the holy grail will reveal itself, but there are more steps
Awesome vid. Learning about alchemy has opened my eyes to lot of things. I even want to incorporate it in my world building for my pathfinder games. Also also, i love the usage of the aragami ost, it's so sublime and fits the video well. Great job.
I think Radagon is Marika from a different timeline, and that he is not split off from her, or merged with her, but is literally her in an alternate timeline where he didn't become Marika. And that Marika, as God, did something that broke causality and accidentally merged alternate versions of history together. This is why they share a body, as causality sees them as one person.
@@matheusg1473 Farum Azula was a separated timeline that is bleeding into our timeline, and we know a previous god vessel of the greater will created it. Marika would have that power.
Not sure if I greatly respect how much you're into alchemy/esotericism or if I think it's goofy, but nevertheless I appreciate it because somebody's got to do it.
"Best" is a complicated word. Sekiro is the most straightforward, but offers very little variety of gameplay, and almost zero customization of the protagonist. Both of those things are what make a FromSoftware game a FromSoftware game. Sekiro was a fun test, but it's nowhere near the best game they've made. They traded those aspects so the game could have more of a plot than other FromSoftware games, something no one asked for and even less wanted. Sekiro is a great game but you're comparing it to masterpieces and _amazing_ games.
mindblowing fact: all this games are develop by From Software, so the healing items are programed to HEAL the character... that means that AC6 is also connected to Elden RIng because the mech can repar aka heal
"I've linked that concept to the age of ancients from Dark Souls and the crucible from Elden Ring [...] Both of them are the source of life in their respective universes" This is what we call confirmation bias. Aside from this entire video being an asspull of the highest caliber, you have no actual basis to make this link. This is baseless headcanon. The Age of Ancients in Dark Souls is not shown to be the "source of life" since life existed well before that. Even in the introductory cutscene, we're shown and told about creatures that were already alive. Unless you want to take a metaphorical stance on this as "The source of the standard of life as we know it," you've given no reason to believe this "connection" is anything more than confirmation bias and mental gymnastics. "Immortal dragons are associated with both the age of ancients and the crucible [...] The rejuvenating waters in Sekiro spring from the blood of dragons" Yes. The immortal dragons in Dark Souls are associated with the age of ancients. This is because... that's when they lived. This is like trying to make a profound statement about Dinosaurs in a particular period they existed in by saying the dinosaurs are associated with that age. No shit? Likewise, you end this thought on another baseless assumption. We have no reason to believe Dark Souls and Sekiro's worlds are connected. You're pulling this out of your ass by reading far too into Eastern mythology and associating it with a video game. Is there a statement by anyone at FromSoft to corroborate this? No? Then it's just headcanon. "The Gourd in Sekiro is just a microcosm, a handheld version of what the crucible, the age of ancients, and the dragons in all these games are" Hey look, another asspull. You extrapolate this from Eastern mythology and immediately associate it with a video game, trying to bridge the gap between distinct, unconnected worlds because... I guess it makes you feel nice. Remember what I said about confirmation bias? You might as well be saying the Gourd is a microcosm of Metal Gear Rising, Twisted Metal, and Ocarina of Time because "iTs A mICrOcOsM" or what the fuck ever you're trying to peddle. This is about as weak as trying to make a connection between Armored Core and Dark Souls because they both have Moonlight Greatswords. Sometimes, a neat story is just a neat story. I have no idea why this community is so autistic as to jump through all these hoops just to make a trivial, and irrelevant, connection between your favorite games. Just play the fucking game. How much more can you people milk this bad storytelling?
Y'know, I keep thinking that the big bang was the collapse of a black hole in an outer universe, our reality being shaped of matter that passed that event horizon. You can kind of look at two universes interfacing at a narrow point, or like a brain's two hemispheres.
I study Complete Reality Taoism. The best source I've had on some of this information is the author / translator Thomas Cleary. The reason eastern mythology is so impenetrable is likely synonymous with the core of Complete Reality Taoism. Meditation is the key, all wisdom can be gleaned from observing reality with eyes unclouded. All knowing and all unknowing are synonymous; you must become all unassuming.
Ive got something for you Max Since you talked about the Rebis it fits perfectly with this theory ive been making for a future video. The sculptor. The one who rescues you at the beginning of the game and nurses you back to health whos also levels up your weapons. I BELIEVE HES EITHER LADY TOMOE OR FUSED WITH LADY TOMOE. But hes a gruff scraggily old man. Not a beautiful woman who dances with their sword. Well ill give you two clues. Maybe three. First things first. His shrine has a tomoe symbol right in the center of the roof. Two Iishin described tomoes moves as dancing. Look at the prolonged version of the Axe prosethetic attack and the heavy version of the firecracker move. They spin around like dance moves. Three Genichiro was taught by lady tomoe and yet he has a chasing slice move after he shoots his arrows. just like you do after you throw a throwing star. But that move I think comes from The sculptors personal book (and in sekiro the person who writes the instructional books are important. Iishin has his own book where you learn moves from) When the Sculptor gets dragon rot he tells Sekiro to not "worry" because hes "not normal you see" theres something about the sculptor we dont know. He acts almost like a firekeeper leveling up your prosthetic arm and always staying by home base. In the end he transforms into a demon too refusing to die. But just as lady tomoe taught Genichiro so too does the Sculptor Teach you. Idk, if this has merit then ive got more info.
The story of sekiro doesn't need as much analysis because it told better than anyother souls game to date and for that to be the reason you didn't finish it is pretty weak and stupid in my opinion
I fully agree and personally it's probably my second favorite FromSoftware game after Bloodborne. Sekiro is such an amazing game and story if you actually play it through and dive into the lore. Dude is missing out for sure
Don't forget, the folks of Yarhnam get hung upside to get all the blood to go their heads; also, Ebrietas is dragon-like? I've always thought, because of her little wings. Anywho, great upload as always :)
Max, let me add you a fun fact: Cinnabar, or Mercuric Sulfide, is a very well known SEDATIVE used in Chinese traditional medicine. But wait, what does a sedative do? Puts you into a induced sleep. What happens when you are asleep? Your body temperature drops, your body sympathetic funcions take a momentary pause, only leaving parasympathetic functions to be still available and your body does not move, unlike the natural sleep. The only difference from being dead, is that you still have pulse and brain activity, but to the people without a modern way to measure brain waves and pulse, it is a death-like "state" of the body. So, even though you are alive, you are "dead", because you look like a corpse. This, is the union of "life and death", because in a induced sleep, or a sedated state, you look, for all the purposes, dead, but still breathe, still have some faint warmt and have a pulse. What other thing can induce you to a sleep-like state? Deep medidation. I have a theory that eastern monks used the "seiza" position, a sitted one, in order to not be confused as a dead person, while the monk was in a deep meditative state, therefore not buried alive. What do you think?
The symbolism in FromSoft’s games are truly next level. It’s actually somewhat off putting because someone there most definitely has some experience with the occult…
Regarding Japanese folklore, you should look into Nioh's, especially the spirits and yokai as it give insight to their meaning. For example, the spider geisha boss Joro-Gumo, while looking similar to Quelaag has an interesting quote about spiders being a symbol of obsession, which is the same affliction the Witch of Izalith has. Then there are the Dark Souls 2 similarities to the Nioh tomb level being filled with statues spitting poison or fire, so there appears to be a real life comparison they drew inspiration from. Also when it comes to real history being represented, there's a surprising amount of effort put into it that even a throw away character Executioner Derrick is based on a real executioner from that time period.
Sekiro is just as mysterious even though the story is presented in a more traditional way. It's subtle, but the game can be seen as Sekiro dying and goimg to a kind of Buddhist hell of eternal war or as Isshen calls it "the great beyond".
well, sekiro and elden ring could be in the same world. sekiro taking place in east asia (japan to korea) and elden ring takes place in europe/england, or the equivalent places in this shared world. ashina has a lot of great warriors, which makes sense if one of them departs ashina to come to the lands between. rivers of blood is after all very reminiscent of ashina swordsmanship, and malenia’s master could have also been from ashina (i mean wouldn’t it be cool if he taught isshin and malenia the same move and they both interpreted and developed them differently). tomoe could have had interactions with warriors who imbue their weapon by channeling lightning, which helped her develop the way of tomoe. and, after radahn dies either to the player or to scarlet rot, one of the meteors could hit ashina, giving its waters rejuvenating powers, or bring about otherworldly beings, as it does in the lands between. i’m just saying this because if these 2 games and places exist in the same world, without being connected narratively, it wouldn’t break the lore and the world-building. my headcanon is that these games are 2 stories existing in different sides of the same world and i suppose the erdtree could wither away and become the tree in demon souls. the lands between is after all surrounded by fog. the connection between the world and a great one could call forth more eldritch beings, too
So all of this lore and myths with all those history hunting, you just meant to explain that the Gourd is a synthetic Dantian? I mean, makes sense considering how Dantians works.
Amazing video as always Max! I was wondering if you delved at all into the Fear and Hunger series ? Would love to see your take on it as it is packed full of symbolism and touches on subjects like the collective unconscious, divinity and how to achieve it…there’s a lot of parallels to the real world, especially in the second game which is also heavily inspired by games such as Dark Souls and Silent Hill. It is pretty brutal and depicts a lot of violence, including very graphic scenes of assault so I understand that is not a game for everyone, but if you’re not triggered by these topics it would be amazing to see your view on the lore, real world parallels and the meaning of certain symbolisms. I’m completely enthralled by the game and there’s not a lot of content in it as of yet :) cheers !
Sekiro's gameplay is supreme. The mechanics are absolutely perfect. But I too have disregarded overanalysing the story. It seemed good, but much more straightforward than other fromsoft games.
It’s not at all. It’s streamlined if you look at Dark Souls from the same point of view that the whole point of the game is to link the fire and you literally ignore everything else.
Im writing this early without finishing the video but... there is an ending in sekiro where you and the divine child go to "the west" to return the divine dragon to its home. I just assumed this was china myself. Edit: however the game is set around a real clan in Kanagawa which is on the east coast of japan... so who knows. Miyazaki probably.... but ya know.
How can anyone say Sekiro doesnt have lore to dive into or things to analyze, the amount of the depth Sekiro has is easily comparable if not in some ways surpassing other fromsoft titles. I feel like people either didnt pay attention to the story and world or just neglected on getting any ending beyond the Owl one or something.
Hey guys! So there seems to be a bit of confusion regarding what I said about not playing Sekiro up until this point. Allow me to explain.
When I choose a game to cover for my channel, I choose it based on what people recommend to me and what I am able to gather about a game for myself. I do this in order to make sure that if I invest a lot of time into a video game, there's likely going to be something that I can do a video on. Specifically, I want to make sure that I can provide the type of in-depth lore analysis that people come to this channel for. With the information I had gathered up until I released this video, it seemed to be that people thought Sekiro was supposedly amazing, and the story was good, but it didn't warrant the type of in-depth analysis that I tend to do here.
While this method has worked for me up until now, there was bound to be a game where this method didn't work. Clearly, Sekiro was that game.
It's not that I don't want to play Sekiro. I do! I love all the other FromSoftware games. I just often don't have the time to play more than a couple of games at a time. However, it's looking more and more like I need to put some time aside to play this beauty.
If you have any questions, let me know. :)
Max, will you cover Scorn?
Hey, regarding the upcoming dlc of Elden Ring I wanted to share what I got to understand after all your videos and endless research around the alchemical topics for this game as I think I might have found a missing link maybe regarding first of the direct 'spiritual' connection between souls, bloodborne and elden ring (being those alchemical principle foundations) as well as the thing linking Miquellas doings (the Oak-leaf Haligtree (beside the Blood and Albinaurics gathered for what kind he is doing there) and the petrified somethings (pebbles, etc looking like petrified eyes) to the same reference:
Oak Apples; in combination with iron-sulfate and gum resulting in INK:
- ironsulfate; blood+sulfate, (sulfate being yellow; ironore being red and ironsulfate being blue/azur range of colors representing the main colors as aspects of life, especially showing in Morgotts cursed blood (his sword) being vividly colored, standing for beasts, crows, horned animals, all red blooded creatures) symbolic red: the combustable spirit
- quicksilver, mercury, gum arabica, celestial dew (all the albinaurics, mimic tears but envoys and crustations, octopus, slugs). paleblood; symbolic white: the fusable soul
- salt; stone (of dragon skin etcetc.) basic inorganic matter without reactive properties: in that case could be petrified something aka oak apples husk- but only the husk/petrified eye as the stable body.
the salt representative of desparity: halfs of a circle: light and dark, life and death endlessly circling in disparity- but why? SO alchemy ended there until the salt problem: the reality is evolving and not in an constant circle of dark and light ages. solution being: not a 2d circle but a spiraling, 3d motion, filling out space, moving forward through time through a constant pull- the pull of the universe (pull between meanings which regards all things, which was tried to be controlled by the golden order through law of regression and law auf causality; yet a long forgotten alchemical colorful symbol reappeared: the opal; once known for change, rising, rebirth from ashes (vividly colored two headed bird time) nowadays a symbol of ill omen (this is literally opal change of meanings...): unstoppable evolution through expanding dark matter of the universe, unstoppable fate and destined death: reality bases now on a 3d space instead of a disc which allows the realization of the dark matter as there must be sth filling the 3d space which is not occupied otherwise/a force not seen in between:
......just as the husk of the oak apple, just as the white eyes are the body: it houses inside the dark matter, the void, dark soul forming the desparity between eternal matter (salt/wood/stone (stable, non reactive)) and first matter:
- ink, dark soul, dark matter, inside of oak apple - aka petrified something=petrified eyes; eyes harbouring entrance to the abyss (blacksky eye description and all its symbols of darksun/darkmoon looking like eyes in the sky (very purposely designed in berserk's eclipse to look that way) up until the colorless eclipse ending in dark souls, but eyes-insides/sockets being also dramatically relevant for Elden Ring obviously), the void, the kosm (kosm not as cosmos with stars buts its very matter), pull of all things as like the expansion of the universe itself, everywhere but we look right through what base is filling the room between every atom. in pressured environments resulting in mighty but so missable voids and gushing abyss, but as we worship suns and stars and trees and animals.... this prima materia and its omnipresence.. the furtive pigmy, so easily forgotten. the ink as itself vanishes for what is is as we gaze upon a picture doesn't it?
I think people underestimated Sekiro's lore depth because it so happen to have an actual protagonist and characters that your character were involved and have a history with. It's just as deep as the other games, but people weren't all that interested to dive deeper; most likely because it utilize eastern influences as a precedent way more than the others.
was kind of surprised to hear the "people told me the story didn't have much to it so i just didn't finish it" from you considering how thoughtful and measured /deliberate you are about doing your own investigations into these games. you definitely gotta finish it. sekiro's lore doesn't have the same traditional fantasy lore appeal that the other games do, sure, but if you learn about the history of the sengoku era you can start to find some truly fascinating details about how the game addresses history, japanese folklore, and what it's saying with the fictional story it puts into that setting. plus......yknow.....best melee combat in any game ever. great video!
Thanks bro! Yeah, the nature of my job prevents me from spending as much time as I would like to with certain games. Sometimes, I have to go with the information I have available to me, and thus, I have chosen to not give as much time to Sekiro, but instead to games that seemed like reliable bets on whether or not they have stories I can make a video on. However, as your comment and others have demonstrated, that feedback has likely been incorrect. So… maybe I have to hurry up and finish this game. :)
@@maxderrat Your information was sketchy though. "The consensus" online (reddit etc.) is more of a very niche group within a niche stuck in an echo chamber than a expert reference on good taste.
>best melee combat
>Grabs are still bs with bs range
>Dodges are unreliable in their range and s
Parrying is good tho
@@romanthegambler6966 because you're not supposed to use Dodges of course
@@romanthegambler6966 _-No Hesitation-_
There is also a lore connection between Elden and Sekiro, the "land of reeds" is mentioned in association with Japanese inspired characters in Elden Ring and it's explicitly mentioned that it has an ongoing civil war like in Sekiro.
that not a lore connection LMFAO thats what you call "fan fiction" or a "reach"
@@4pfBulmond Believe whatever you want bobo, I have been playing Fromsoftware games long enough to know this isn't an "accident" or "coincidence" and that it is a clear reference to Sekiro.
At the end, was half expecting him to say 'Sekiro takes place in Japan, and What color is the japanese flag? Red and White, Cinnabar again' lmfao
I found the lore in Sekiro to be second best, only losing out to Bloodborne. The world and mythology is incredible. And Idk why you wouldn’t finish one of the best playing games of all time if you like videogames.
sekiro is a great but also difficult game and the final boss, far more so. despite being a big fromsoft fan, i very nearly never finished my first playthrough of the game
based
Play it again and learn how to parry effectively, i’ve completed it 12 times went from being my least favourite fromsoftware game to my favourite game full stop
I had taken that opinion on Sekiro's lore as fact because it seemed to make sense to me. I hadn't done any deep investigation into any of the games before I played it though, so I guess I didn't have much to compare it to.
But it kind of makes sense, you'd expect a game with more simplified combat, simplified story structure (cutscenes) to have simpler lore. But this isn't necessarily the case.
I only just realized how much there is to the lore after watching SmB's video on the topic. The one about PTSD. I highly recommend it. This video was great too, I was noticing a lot of things from Sekiro that ended up in Elden Ring in one form or another.
On a kind of unrelated note, it's weird that Sekiro looks better when it came out 3 years earlier. I guess because Elden Ring is using an older graphics engine or something?
Hey man! It’s really simple: my job doesn’t allow me to spend time playing games that I don’t cover on the channel. The only non-channel game I have really been able to play this year was Resident Evil 4… so I have missed out on Jedi Survivor, Dead Island 2, Hogwarts Legacy, and soon I will be missing out on Tears of the Kingdom. Same basic thing for Sekiro. I wanted to play through it all, but the feedback I had received from a number of people suggested that I should divert my attention to games that would reliably provide content for a video. Seems some of that feedback was wrong!
Thank you for acknowledging that it could be someone else within the fromsoft team that is responsible for making these mind blowing bits of symbology. They are a great team and deserve due respect.
Where Darksouls story is like looking for meaning of a painting. Story of Sekiro is like Theater drama.
This also kind of explains why you can make quicksilver bullets from your blood. Really interesting to discover and learn even more about these games years after they were released.
Stage 1: "FromSoft games have no story."
Stage 2: "FromSoft games have a barebones narrative to give the player a goal."
Stage 3: "The player creates his own story as he goes through the game."
Stage 4: "FromSoft games are all about cyclicity."
Stage 5: "FromSoft games have decently fleshed out Dark Fantasy lore, but nothing out of the ordinary."
Stage 6: "The enemy, world design and the environmental storytelling are the best in any series and form a very compelling, dynamic narrative experience."
Stage 7: "Wait, most item description hold as much lore and narrarive significance as a 5/10 minute cutscene full of exposition if you really analyze and corroborate it with other ones."
Stage 8: "FromSoft games, but Bloodborne especially has so many hidden themes, concepts and draws from so many art forms and other mediums and interwoves them so well that new interpretations are still discovered and discussed 8 years after its release AND Elden Ring seems to have a similar trajectory."
Stage 9: This video.
Honestly, at this point, it's no surprise that some people in Fromsoft are devout followers of esotericism or hermeticism.
Another interesting not that you should totally look into Armored Core VI & its central element/resource that drive the plot, called "coral." (also be looking like a red white glowing substances)
Cinnabar Island from Pokémon is the origin of the Philosophers Stone.
I could say a lot, but I'll keep it short: I can't believe that I never thought of this as someone who played all these games and watches all you videos. Beautiful. Just fascinatingly beautiful.
It’s an exciting coincidence that I just finished Sekiro, and totally loved it by the way.
Not only is the gameplay phenomenal, but also the mythology and symbolism is profoundly well-made
I mean I kinda already assumed there was a subtle connection between the two just based off the Dungeater's defiling curse and the Headless with their shirokodama removing kill animation in Sekiro. Given how the defiling curse messes with the soul of the person being defiled and all.
yea, you already knew. Do yourself a favor, pat yourself on the back you deserve it sport!
Ouch! My hole!
Elden ring is based off the 5 elements and their associated fingers, as taught in buddhism. The unity of intelligence and faith aligns with the pointer and middle finger, which are the Two Fingers representing air (faith) and cosmic/sky (int). The thumb is fire, represents arcane, and this takes shape in the three fingers. The ring finger is earth (strength), and is found in the form of Omen, tree avatars, and the giants, as well as some other factions. And then of course, the pinky is water (dexterity), representing time, and is both the hardest to properly explain and also the most important piece of the puzzle in the mystery that is The Lands Between. This is my Magnum Opus theory and y’all are lucky I’m high enough to share it, because I’ve been sitting on this juicy info for a fat minute. Also, the story of Marika and all the demigods is based on an ancient Buddhist legend focusing on two groups of cousins fighting each other for the throne, some of which are avatars of gods, who in turn are avatars for even greater gods. It’s all there on Wikipedia, you follow the rabbit hole and literally the entire foundation of Elden Ring is based on Buddhism. Every faction in the world belongs to one of the elements, but it’s not as simple as matching colors with similar colors. One has to understand the concepts the elements represent. For instance, the thumb (fire) doesn’t actually mean every fire source in the game is tired to arcane. It means the idea of fire, of persisting and being acknowledged, impossible to ignore, is what arcane represents, and this is shown through madness, bleed, and poison, all sources that burn themselves out as they exist past their expiration. Again, I’m high so I’m not doing this theory justice, but this is the idea that supports every other allegory and allusion to things in the real world, especially from other cultures.
The first time you said "gourd", I immediately thought of the story where Sun Wukong ate a few thousand pills of immortality from five gourds in heaven.
That Made in Abyss ost drop cought me by surprise. I love that song XD
Miyazaki. One of the greatest philosophers of our times. So lucky to still be a gamer even in my 30s and a fromsoft fan.
P.S.for those who played Elden Ring or those who love history and philosophy and have not yet discovered Tarnished Archeologist TH-cam channel, you're in for an incredible treat.
Like you say that jokingly, but dude is legit thinking on a higher plane with regards to the themes and metaphors he helps write into these games. So few other modern games ever touch this level of thought and detail in how they deconstruct and reconstruct our real-world myths/philosophy/sciences into playable pixels on a screen. Its genuinely amazing stuff.
My mind is thoroughly blown again good sir! Great work as always
Cant wait for call sign 'Owl' to show up in armored core 6
I feel like this is the most in depth a game has gone into Buddhist thoughts on impermanence and the suffering found in samsara. Like sure Shin Megami Tensei is in depth but there's a wider focus with respects to other religions which detract from the specific aspects I mentioned with the former. The gameplay itself very much reinforces it's themes on the inevitability of things by playing a character who is actively fighting to end immortality within himself and inadvertantly the systems around him who try to remain in stasis quo despite the stagnation their actions create.
Sekiro is the goat
For me Sekiro is so underrated. It's a masterpiece on so many levels. The only From game that marked me like Dark Souls did, just differently. But yes, the world of Sekiro is also very coherent and with many secrets and interesting things. I really hope either they do a sequel of sort, or another similar game. One of the few games I already played so many times but gladly launch a game and finish the game. Or Boss battles, before with a mod, then they implemented it.
Absolutely well done. I would like to add more about the Taoist side of this, and additionally, Hindu relations to this. The Tan Tiens in Taoism pretty much refer to the same concept of Chakras in Hinduism, they are energy centers in the energetic body of a living being.
"The physical is a shadow of spiritual body"
Hence, in Taoism, they emphasize the energy within man with sperm primarily because sperm is the physical embodiment of Yang energy. The purpose of cultivation of the sexual energies of man, is the attainment of consciousness of the energetic flow of these energies within man. A male then, would learn to willfully circulate his Yang energies through the Tan Tiens, starting from the genital Tan Tiens, going up through the spine and into the brain, then back down through the front of his body, within the organs, back into the genital Tan Tien, thus creating a loop, a perfect circle. The completion of this loop heightens the vibrational properties of the energy, and thus the entire being.
But wait there's more! During this loop of energy, one must mix Yang energy with Yin energy, acquired through the world, or cultivated from within. But most potently, from woman, who also has this microcosmic orbit loop within them that circulates naturally with Yin energy.
Hence, when the male loop and the female loop interact and connect with each other through sex, what do you get?
The loop of infinity is completed, the same as the gourd. As the fusion of Yin and Yang energy are perfected within man and woman, both elevate the the sum of their parts to a greater whole, coming to a state of being closer and closer to God, until eventually literal immortality is attained, of which immortality is only a side effect of the process. As one comes closer and closer to God/Source/Tao while in that state of Wu Wei through the Rising of the Serpent within the spine as called in Hinduism, one's spiritual nature rises and returns to a state of Godhood, that same state of being all the great prophets of all religions attained in their ultimate spiritual journeys.
And yes, I do believe the Rising of the Serpent through the chakras is an analogy within the Souls games, as man seeking enlightenment.
White Savior Aggregator: Your reviews of this content is too European! Discard everything!
Japanese Content Creators: Ah, thank you very much for your viewpoint. It is valuable to me.
Dude not only proved the connection between the games but also the REAL WORLD connection between eastern and western alchemy and how they basically have the same “philosopher’s stone”. Mind blown.
The philosopher’s stone is enlightenment via sodomy. Dark Souls/Elden Ring is rife with it.
@@Insp.CountMortisWinshipKlaw I don't think a person who is playing video games is ready to hear that, but true. How Dark Souls and Elden Ring show this though? I have only played Sekiro
@@OPTIKLOPS7 One of the symbols used to indicate a person is part of this death cult is the eclipse. Dark Souls Logo. Another symbol that illustrates the practise of this death cult is the Babylonian fingers. Either one or two. This represents the penis. This act of sodomy is their method of enlightenment. In other words it puts them in states of euphoric consciousness but it is known as the gateway to hell. In Elden finger you have the two fingers envoys of the greater will. Behind the large statue of the two fingers is a gesture, it is called rapture. Self explanatory.
I could go on and on but it is better you play the games, enjoy them then maybe see the truth.
There is a lot of channels attempting to reveal the lore of these games but they completely miss the mark because they don't understand that this theme runs through every thing from politics, religion, music, film, games to the very language we use.
Earlier today I was walking around the Divine Dragons arena in the reflection of strength and realized if you look at all the sakura trees in the landscape it is essentially the same idea as the pillar trees in all the other games.
I have a specific fascination within the way western and easter culture collide and overlap. I feel like Fromsoft does this amazingly, some of their games like Sekiro are mostly devoid of western influence but others, like Bloodborne, have this thick underlayer of Japanese mythology on what appears on the surface to be a Gothic Victorian / New England Lovecraftian world.
If you try to look at it through just a western or just an eastern lens you lose something (except maybe with Sekiro lmao) because the storytelling employed by them makes a point to draw on overlapping parts of different cultures to create mystery and mystique. I am reminded of the story of Miyazaki reading Lord of the Rings when he was young and barely understanding it, due to a language and cultural barrier, and filling in the blanks with his own perspectives and culture.
I feel projecting your culture onto the game, and subsequently missing big chunks of what is really going on is... Almost the intention of these games. You are not suppose to be able to parse it as a singular analogy to 1 culture or story, but project your own story onto it.
That's why I choose to interpret the meaning of the Fromsoft games as "Femboys are magic".
Yes, yes we are magic~
@@brogamin179 my bf is a femboy, and i can confirm, he is indeed magic.
FINALLY you get into eastern alchemy. This is the form of alchemy I have the most knowledge about as opposed to Western alchemy, and I still learned more, such as with the gourd and the combination of sulphur and Mercury into cinnabar.
Eastern alchemy has its's own role in Elden Ring as well.
I like when Max gets so enthusiastic while talking about From games
The way that they mesh with actual mythologies has made me dive into them; it made me realize how widespread these ideas are. Thanks for making these.
These videos tend to go into more of the mechanics of alchemy rather than history and mythology. Good job!
Please finish Sekiro with Dragon's Homecoming. Because it's you, it'll probably unlock the sequel.
The fact that you use music from Tenchu, i must Say, thank you sir, the memories that you bring back are timeless
Nice find with the gourd/daoism/alchemy connection. Idk how you churn these out so quickly!
I don't know, why I have the feeling that I have watched this video like 3 times in the course of months. The good thing is that when you talk about what colors the moon in Bloodborne can have, that always breaks my mind. Great video!!
This is maybe the 5th time I've watched this video. Very nice work! I think the echoes of Hermeticism in these games points to a common thought pattern in the modern world. We see the tenets of Hermeticism, which led to Alchemy, in EVERYTHING... if we look closely enough ;)
Frenzy explosion from this one. Another amazing video Max!
Like you I would love to sit down with whoever it is that comes up with the thematic concepts for these games. Be it Miyazaki or someone else. They are absolutely masters at weaving this stuff into their games while also never making the stories feel like retreads, even if they share similar inspirations. I swear the games media does not give enough praise to the masterworks these stories are, a shame really.
The elements of meditation, a dark enclosure, and water, immediately reminded me of sensory deprivation tanks.
If you want more insights into Sekiro, I recommend a channel called Shetani's Lair. She makes videos translating the Japanese text and comparing it to the localization.
Whoever told you that nonsense about the story needs a reality check. For one, the game actually has a narrative, but outside of that, it has plenty to examine. Do you really think Fromsoft would half-ass a game, especially one set in Japan? Hell you derived a whole video just on the healing gourd; imagine what else you could do.
I also want to applaude the work Matt and Ziostorm are doing. In part because I feel vindicated, as I often met with blank stares when I tried talking with friends about literary alchemy in the early 2000s. Many have challenged its existence but as time goes on more and more of it is noticed, and I love seeing TH-camrs breaking these elements (heh heh) down and analyzing their meaning. There's a lot to learn from these motifs, and current literature and film are sorely lacking in depth and substance. So Matt Derrat, I thank you. Stay yellow buddy.
You are so much into alchemy that sometimes I'm terrified 😅
Triforce is a Philosphers Stone isnt it. Yes im insane and made a video after doing a deep dive into research into alchemy. Big fan of it
The fact that you referenced Xenogears makes me happy, one of my absolute favorite RPG's ever...
This opened my eyes to the fact that Ichikawa likely used a lot of alchemical ideas in Houseki No Kuni as well, but I am by no means knowledgeable enough to figure out the implications.
Another interesting crossover concept of East and West within Elden Ring is the Deathbed Companion. The notion of having a young woman sleep chastely beside an old/dying man to impart life unto him is in Chinese and Japanese medical texts as well as in Western tales such as of Abishag sleeping alongside King David in the Bible. Alchemists in the East and West thought a bed companion was a viable means for elongating a king's life.
The gourd is also explicitly talked about in Death Stranding by a specific character
To reach the source you must have 7 masters, and each master must summon a servant, and they must battle until 1 master remains alive.
Then the holy grail will reveal itself, but there are more steps
Awesome vid. Learning about alchemy has opened my eyes to lot of things. I even want to incorporate it in my world building for my pathfinder games. Also also, i love the usage of the aragami ost, it's so sublime and fits the video well. Great job.
ur channel is on the "must watch" for me dude, keep up the good work
I think Radagon is Marika from a different timeline, and that he is not split off from her, or merged with her, but is literally her in an alternate timeline where he didn't become Marika. And that Marika, as God, did something that broke causality and accidentally merged alternate versions of history together. This is why they share a body, as causality sees them as one person.
Do you have anything to support that
@@matheusg1473 Farum Azula was a separated timeline that is bleeding into our timeline, and we know a previous god vessel of the greater will created it. Marika would have that power.
Not sure if I greatly respect how much you're into alchemy/esotericism or if I think it's goofy, but nevertheless I appreciate it because somebody's got to do it.
It's autism, man. :P
Oooh, new Max Derrat vid, and yeah, there's a lotta neat overlap and syncreticism
Easily FromSoftware's best game.
Bloodborne though
"Best" is a complicated word. Sekiro is the most straightforward, but offers very little variety of gameplay, and almost zero customization of the protagonist. Both of those things are what make a FromSoftware game a FromSoftware game. Sekiro was a fun test, but it's nowhere near the best game they've made. They traded those aspects so the game could have more of a plot than other FromSoftware games, something no one asked for and even less wanted. Sekiro is a great game but you're comparing it to masterpieces and _amazing_ games.
@@KSCdd Close 2nd for me.
@@NottherealLucifer What an absolute dumpster fire of an opinion
Talking about the red and white, note how Marika's white blonde hair changes to Radagon's red
mindblowing fact: all this games are develop by From Software, so the healing items are programed to HEAL the character... that means that AC6 is also connected to Elden RIng because the mech can repar aka heal
"I've linked that concept to the age of ancients from Dark Souls and the crucible from Elden Ring [...] Both of them are the source of life in their respective universes"
This is what we call confirmation bias.
Aside from this entire video being an asspull of the highest caliber, you have no actual basis to make this link. This is baseless headcanon. The Age of Ancients in Dark Souls is not shown to be the "source of life" since life existed well before that. Even in the introductory cutscene, we're shown and told about creatures that were already alive. Unless you want to take a metaphorical stance on this as "The source of the standard of life as we know it," you've given no reason to believe this "connection" is anything more than confirmation bias and mental gymnastics.
"Immortal dragons are associated with both the age of ancients and the crucible [...] The rejuvenating waters in Sekiro spring from the blood of dragons"
Yes. The immortal dragons in Dark Souls are associated with the age of ancients. This is because... that's when they lived. This is like trying to make a profound statement about Dinosaurs in a particular period they existed in by saying the dinosaurs are associated with that age. No shit?
Likewise, you end this thought on another baseless assumption. We have no reason to believe Dark Souls and Sekiro's worlds are connected. You're pulling this out of your ass by reading far too into Eastern mythology and associating it with a video game. Is there a statement by anyone at FromSoft to corroborate this? No? Then it's just headcanon.
"The Gourd in Sekiro is just a microcosm, a handheld version of what the crucible, the age of ancients, and the dragons in all these games are"
Hey look, another asspull. You extrapolate this from Eastern mythology and immediately associate it with a video game, trying to bridge the gap between distinct, unconnected worlds because... I guess it makes you feel nice. Remember what I said about confirmation bias? You might as well be saying the Gourd is a microcosm of Metal Gear Rising, Twisted Metal, and Ocarina of Time because "iTs A mICrOcOsM" or what the fuck ever you're trying to peddle.
This is about as weak as trying to make a connection between Armored Core and Dark Souls because they both have Moonlight Greatswords.
Sometimes, a neat story is just a neat story. I have no idea why this community is so autistic as to jump through all these hoops just to make a trivial, and irrelevant, connection between your favorite games. Just play the fucking game. How much more can you people milk this bad storytelling?
Something, something... Tarnished! Don't ever change, Max.
the mandelbrot set set looks just like a gourd!!!
Y'know, I keep thinking that the big bang was the collapse of a black hole in an outer universe, our reality being shaped of matter that passed that event horizon. You can kind of look at two universes interfacing at a narrow point, or like a brain's two hemispheres.
I love your channel, man. Thank you.
The Made in Abyss theme song gave me goosebumps
Same here brother...
Stairs...
Funny how this comes out the week after i've read through Full Metall Alchemist again.
I study Complete Reality Taoism. The best source I've had on some of this information is the author / translator Thomas Cleary.
The reason eastern mythology is so impenetrable is likely synonymous with the core of Complete Reality Taoism.
Meditation is the key, all wisdom can be gleaned from observing reality with eyes unclouded. All knowing and all unknowing are synonymous; you must become all unassuming.
You're right, I do love this. Fantastic video. 👍
Ive got something for you Max
Since you talked about the Rebis it fits perfectly with this theory ive been making for a future video.
The sculptor. The one who rescues you at the beginning of the game and nurses you back to health whos also levels up your weapons.
I BELIEVE HES EITHER LADY TOMOE OR FUSED WITH LADY TOMOE. But hes a gruff scraggily old man. Not a beautiful woman who dances with their sword.
Well ill give you two clues. Maybe three.
First things first. His shrine has a tomoe symbol right in the center of the roof.
Two Iishin described tomoes moves as dancing. Look at the prolonged version of the Axe prosethetic attack and the heavy version of the firecracker move. They spin around like dance moves.
Three
Genichiro was taught by lady tomoe and yet he has a chasing slice move after he shoots his arrows. just like you do after you throw a throwing star. But that move I think comes from The sculptors personal book (and in sekiro the person who writes the instructional books are important. Iishin has his own book where you learn moves from)
When the Sculptor gets dragon rot he tells Sekiro to not "worry" because hes "not normal you see" theres something about the sculptor we dont know.
He acts almost like a firekeeper leveling up your prosthetic arm and always staying by home base.
In the end he transforms into a demon too refusing to die.
But just as lady tomoe taught Genichiro so too does the Sculptor Teach you.
Idk, if this has merit then ive got more info.
The story of sekiro doesn't need as much analysis because it told better than anyother souls game to date and for that to be the reason you didn't finish it is pretty weak and stupid in my opinion
I fully agree and personally it's probably my second favorite FromSoftware game after Bloodborne. Sekiro is such an amazing game and story if you actually play it through and dive into the lore. Dude is missing out for sure
Don't forget, the folks of Yarhnam get hung upside to get all the blood to go their heads; also, Ebrietas is dragon-like? I've always thought, because of her little wings. Anywho, great upload as always :)
My genuine reaction as a chemist to the question at 13:42 : You mean you didn't know?
Max, let me add you a fun fact: Cinnabar, or Mercuric Sulfide, is a very well known SEDATIVE used in Chinese traditional medicine.
But wait, what does a sedative do? Puts you into a induced sleep.
What happens when you are asleep? Your body temperature drops, your body sympathetic funcions take a momentary pause, only leaving parasympathetic functions to be still available and your body does not move, unlike the natural sleep. The only difference from being dead, is that you still have pulse and brain activity, but to the people without a modern way to measure brain waves and pulse, it is a death-like "state" of the body.
So, even though you are alive, you are "dead", because you look like a corpse.
This, is the union of "life and death", because in a induced sleep, or a sedated state, you look, for all the purposes, dead, but still breathe, still have some faint warmt and have a pulse.
What other thing can induce you to a sleep-like state? Deep medidation.
I have a theory that eastern monks used the "seiza" position, a sitted one, in order to not be confused as a dead person, while the monk was in a deep meditative state, therefore not buried alive.
What do you think?
I thought this was going to be about the gourd being shaped like the Mandelbrot set.
The symbolism in FromSoft’s games are truly next level. It’s actually somewhat off putting because someone there most definitely has some experience with the occult…
Regarding Japanese folklore, you should look into Nioh's, especially the spirits and yokai as it give insight to their meaning. For example, the spider geisha boss Joro-Gumo, while looking similar to Quelaag has an interesting quote about spiders being a symbol of obsession, which is the same affliction the Witch of Izalith has. Then there are the Dark Souls 2 similarities to the Nioh tomb level being filled with statues spitting poison or fire, so there appears to be a real life comparison they drew inspiration from. Also when it comes to real history being represented, there's a surprising amount of effort put into it that even a throw away character Executioner Derrick is based on a real executioner from that time period.
Sekiro is just as mysterious even though the story is presented in a more traditional way. It's subtle, but the game can be seen as Sekiro dying and goimg to a kind of Buddhist hell of eternal war or as Isshen calls it "the great beyond".
I don't believe it's a mistake that the gourd also resembles the infinity symbol in its overall shape.
well, sekiro and elden ring could be in the same world. sekiro taking place in east asia (japan to korea) and elden ring takes place in europe/england, or the equivalent places in this shared world. ashina has a lot of great warriors, which makes sense if one of them departs ashina to come to the lands between. rivers of blood is after all very reminiscent of ashina swordsmanship, and malenia’s master could have also been from ashina (i mean wouldn’t it be cool if he taught isshin and malenia the same move and they both interpreted and developed them differently). tomoe could have had interactions with warriors who imbue their weapon by channeling lightning, which helped her develop the way of tomoe. and, after radahn dies either to the player or to scarlet rot, one of the meteors could hit ashina, giving its waters rejuvenating powers, or bring about otherworldly beings, as it does in the lands between.
i’m just saying this because if these 2 games and places exist in the same world, without being connected narratively, it wouldn’t break the lore and the world-building. my headcanon is that these games are 2 stories existing in different sides of the same world
and i suppose the erdtree could wither away and become the tree in demon souls. the lands between is after all surrounded by fog. the connection between the world and a great one could call forth more eldritch beings, too
nice fanfic bro
The truth is the truth no matter what language it’s spoken in
I didn't know that by mixing Mercury and Sulphire you can get Mercury Sulfide a.k.a Cinnabar. Impressive!
Let's be real here, Sekiro actually takes place in "The Land of Reeds", a land torn by war and bathed in blood.
So all of this lore and myths with all those history hunting, you just meant to explain that the Gourd is a synthetic Dantian? I mean, makes sense considering how Dantians works.
Nice touch with Aragami 2 music in the background
Ayyyy Hope you're doing good, Max! Time to watch :D
I was thinking about this video after watching it and realized the bloodborne logo, the upside down hanging man resembles a gourd.
now i’m convinced i’ll go back to my sekiro playthrough but wait armored core is just right in the corner…
Sekiro is my personal favourite from game and I really hope u go back and finish it all, it’s definitely worth it :)
I like how the thumbnail is also a gourd
Amazing video as always Max! I was wondering if you delved at all into the Fear and Hunger series ? Would love to see your take on it as it is packed full of symbolism and touches on subjects like the collective unconscious, divinity and how to achieve it…there’s a lot of parallels to the real world, especially in the second game which is also heavily inspired by games such as Dark Souls and Silent Hill. It is pretty brutal and depicts a lot of violence, including very graphic scenes of assault so I understand that is not a game for everyone, but if you’re not triggered by these topics it would be amazing to see your view on the lore, real world parallels and the meaning of certain symbolisms. I’m completely enthralled by the game and there’s not a lot of content in it as of yet :) cheers !
The Mandelbrot Set is shaped like a Gourd. Probably coincidence.
Lol, something about the way you said stay yellow at the end made me think that you should do a crossover with the youtube channel, Explosions&Fire.
great stuff as always Max!
Ancient alchemists really just woke up and decided it was a good day to make brain sperm a thing.
Love your videos Max! its nice to share a name with someone so talented lmao👍
Sekiro's gameplay is supreme. The mechanics are absolutely perfect. But I too have disregarded overanalysing the story. It seemed good, but much more straightforward than other fromsoft games.
It’s not at all. It’s streamlined if you look at Dark Souls from the same point of view that the whole point of the game is to link the fire and you literally ignore everything else.
Im writing this early without finishing the video but... there is an ending in sekiro where you and the divine child go to "the west" to return the divine dragon to its home. I just assumed this was china myself. Edit: however the game is set around a real clan in Kanagawa which is on the east coast of japan... so who knows. Miyazaki probably.... but ya know.
Mind=Blown.
Liked & Subbed.
I think of the Gord is being symbolic of a Toroidal field
i love your content. its some of the best content on you tube.
I love your videos on themes of Alchemy, great work 🎉
How can anyone say Sekiro doesnt have lore to dive into or things to analyze, the amount of the depth Sekiro has is easily comparable if not in some ways surpassing other fromsoft titles. I feel like people either didnt pay attention to the story and world or just neglected on getting any ending beyond the Owl one or something.
3:21 digging that Tenchu tune