The Shigyo are enemies that appear in The Evil Within, first encountered in Chapter 11 dwelling in the flooded sections of Krimson City.
Symbolism[]
The Shigyo is an aquatic monster born when a subject drowned during testing and their consciousness became lost in Ruvik's mental world. It dwells in the murky depths and attempts to pull under anyone who draws near.
Appearance[]
The Shigyo's appearance is that of an amalgamation of many corpses into an enormous body. It sports three pairs of arms that it uses to paddle through its aquatic habitat with the support of a large, muscular tail made from the prime host's legs fused together. What little remains of the creature's hair is scraggly and lifeless, and floats idly behind the Shigyo as it moves through the water.
The most horrific aspect of the Shigyo, however, is perhaps its gigantic maw that is chock-full of malformed teeth of varying sizes, which it uses to snatch up hapless prey who happen to fall into the water, whereupon it takes them down to the depths and presumably eats them. The Shigyo's teeth are additionally adorned with what appears to be wrecked dental braces.
Gameplay[]
Multiple Shigyos are encountered during Chapter 11, where they inhabit the various flooded sections of Krimson City downtown. Sebastian Castellanos cannot directly fight them, and must bait them away by shooting down various hung corpses so that he can swim past their sections. Getting caught by a Shigyo results in instant death.
Tactics[]
- If there's water, there's bound to be at least one Shigyo lurking nearby, which means there will also be bait for it. Shigyos are easily distracted by corpses in the water, and will prioritise eating them over Sebastian, so shooting down corpses in strategic orders can maximise the distance between the Shigyo and the player when they eventually have to swim.
- The Shigyo can outswim Sebastian by a small margin, which makes them especially dangerous when he has to stop moving to climb ashore or onto a car.
- Throwing Bottles into the water can distract a Shigyo briefly, though not to the full extent of a corpse.
Death Animations[]
- If a Shigyo manages to catch Sebastian swimming in the water or climbing up to shore, the creature will breach the surface, leaping on top of him and dragging him to the depths in its massive jaws where it seemingly devours him.
- Alternatively, in the same scenario, the Shigyo may instead swim beneath Sebastian, reaching up and clutching him before yanking him under.
Trivia[]
- "Shigyo", literally means "Death Fish" in Japanese.
- An actual boss encounter with the Shigyo was planned, but it was cut due to time constraints.
- The Shigyo will ignore pre-spawned corpses on the map and will only target either Sebastian or the dead bodies dropped into the water by the player.
- According to The Art of The Evil Within, it was previously a woman who was unhappy with how crooked her teeth were, hence the braces. It at one point featured a lamprey-like mouth, before being changed to a massive maw that dominated its head, then into the braced iteration seen in-game.
Gallery[]
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