Let’s Play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Episode 13 - The Monkees
Warning for animal cruelty, death of children and child torture mentions, lots of centipedes.
In this episode we get ready to finish up Senpou. Strap in because it is a long one. We make our way up the temple grounds and past the many red bibbed statues of dead children killed before they could earn a good afterlife, these statues are meant to help them move on and to calm them along with the Pinwheels. The Pinwheels have kind of, well here’s the descriptions.
On a side path we deal with the Long-Arm Centipede Sen’un who is actually just a big dummy covered in blades.
After him we follow the paths lined with Jizo statues to ascend to the temple. When we reach the temple we are met with a statue of the deity Kannon along with many other statues.
The Vajra are visible in many places and in Kannon’s hands sit Buddha. In this main hall if it is reached before defeating Genichiro an Elder of Senpou will be here. He is full of regrets(And centipedes) and if we have spoken to rice lady he will give us Holy Chapter Infested, which is actually a key item for one of the game’s endings we’ll be seeing later. Otherwise we’ll have to get it later.
On the table if Genichiro is beaten will be a bell with a Vajra, this is used to warn off and fight evil with the bell being viewed as containing a sort of void. Upon ringing it and praying Sekiro is sent to the Hall of Illusions.
Here we are met by a group of monkeys, the Folding Screen Monkeys. These Monkeys are actually manifestations of the children killed in the experiments done to create artificial Divine Children to make oaths of immortality with by the Senpou Monks. This is a stealth puzzle boss. In the area is a monk who is in this realm since it is as quiet and cut off from distraction as possible, this place is a realm between life and death.
There is a monkey in orange who alerts other monkeys, a monkey in purple with great vision, a green monkey with excellent hearing. The fourth folding screen is empty, but secretly contains a monkey. This is the invisible and seemingly drunk white monkey. Every monkey leaves footprints behind you can use to track them. the orange monkey you want to take out first, then any of the others can be killed next. It is possible to simply sprint at them and use shortcuts to get them. What you want to normally do is get them into environments that overload their senses and backstab them.
After defeating the monkeys we are sent to the Inner Sanctum. It is here we meet the Divine Child of the Rejuvenation. She is the only surviving child of the experiments and is a closely guarded secret of Senpou. This girl is the person who talked to us through the wall scroll, she holds the Red Mortal Blade. Those who unsheathe the blade die, against her warnings Sekiro wields the blade and dies. Thankfully as a Shadow he can die twice. He gets back up and now can use the blade, which is not a main weapon and instead is used for executions and two combat arts. The blade allows us to kill immortals.
The blade is named Gracious Gift of Tears, this is going to be very important. This is the blade required for Immortal Severance and for the making of the incense to reach the Divine Realm. The Divine Child is able to give us rice every now and then, it is a free healing item though she will get ill and require Persimmon be fed to her to regain her strength.
After we enter the cave of the Elders, a mysterious place full of Centipede Mercenaries and Jizo statues alongside seemingly dead or hibernating immortal Elders of Senpou. through this cave we are able to climb up to the five story pagoda, possibly based upon the Pagoda of To-Ji Temple.
Here are some photos of To-Ji Temple in Japan, which has links to Kyoto and Nijo Palace, which is likely the area this fictional Ashina is located around given a lot of what we’ll be looking in to later and the geography we’ve seen up to this point. Within the Pagoda we discover the Senpou Text allowing us to learn monk skills. these include punch and kick combos, leaps, and the ability to get more loot. We inform Kuro an Isshin of our success and both are glad, though we listen in on Isshin and learn there is another Mortal Blade, the Black Mortal Blade.
Characters Introduced
Green Senpou Elder
Illusory Hall Monk
Divine Child of Rejuvination
Correction!
In my notes I had some temple art mislabelled. Not all of the images were of To Ji Temple, some were of Kiyomizu dera Temple, specifically of the raised temple.