Many creatures are slightly anthropomorphised without, however, having their more animalistic characteristics taken from them. The vicious pale snakes that would serve as nothing but scary monsters in most games are revered as gods in the land of Ashina. The first thing to notice is that the strict hierarchy or separation between humans and animals we’re used to is mostly absent from Sekiro. There’s something here about the fraught relationship between humans and animals.

Yet other creatures, such as the Great Colored Carp or the Great Serpents, are elevated above the human world and even venerated as deities.Īt first glance, Sekiro’s animals simply add a lot of colour and life to its world, but there’s more going on beneath the surface than monkeys wearing hats. Some, like the locusts and centipedes of Senpou Temple, have entered into a twisted symbiosis with their human hosts. The fierce monkeys of Sunken Valley Passage seem to lead a communal life far from human civilisation while also aping humans by wearing clothes and carrying weapons. Despite all its castles and temples, the land of Ashina belongs as much to its animal inhabitants: some we come across, such as the cocks and guard dogs, are domesticated (or in the case of the Blazing Bull, weaponised), but many exist outside the structures built by mankind.Ĭrows circle above the battlefields. The world of Sekiro isn’t primarily a human one.

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