Sekiro: 7 Weirdest Enemies (And What They Represent)

Steeped in the lore of 1500s Sengoku Japan like a fine matcha tea, Sekiro unfolds beautifully to reveal the plight of the One-Armed Wolf - a disgraced warrior set to regain his honour through protecting the youngest lord of an ancient bloodline.

With death itself not even strong enough to stop the shinobi from completing his mission, it takes some seriously gnarly enemies to even come close to knocking the Wolf off his path. And of course, FromSoftware deliver those in endless, endless waves.

Looking at the most bizarre, nightmare-inducing, and downright freakish enemies of Sekiro then, let's take a deep dive into where their origins really lie, and what their on-screen counterparts could really mean in the process. It's not an exact science, and just a bit of fun in the grand scheme of the artwork, so bear that in mind if you're looking for solid answers.

You could say I’m... going out on a limb. Just a bit of arm humour for you there.

With everything from monstrous giants lying in wait across shadowy realms, to beasts from the deep ready to swallow you whole, to immortal ninjas intent on earning a respectable death, there's more than enough to fill this Monster Manual to the brim.

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Note: Mild lore & boss design spoilers within.

Rats in Sekiro are humanoid, small and grotesque looking, hiding under bamboo hats, found lurking in the recesses of Ashina as they discuss plans for a secret mission.

All in all, you don't really learn much about these guys in-game, but the Rats of Sekiro seem to tie in particularly efficiently with the tale of Tesso. Tesso is a supernatural monster akin to a werewolf, though this creature in essence a wererat, if you will - which reflects admirably on the small, hunched bodies of the Sekiro rat, who seem caught between animal and man.

The story of the wererat was born with Raigō, a monk who died of hunger whilst demanding payment from an emperor, which the emperor could not enact due to pressure from a warrior-monk monastery. Raigō came back from the dead as Tesso and brought with him an army of rats to terrorise the monastery, cited to have skin as hard as stone and teeth like iron as he razed the place to the ground.

Considering how tough Sekiro rats are, as well as their hidden agenda of a fight that they whisper about when eavesdropped on, AND that they're described as assassins from Senpou Temple - and the legend could well have inspired these beasts into gaming existence.