El Gigante



El Gigante (literally "the giant" in Spanish) is a rare enemy and recurring sub-boss in Resident Evil 4.

Characteristics
El Gigantes are towering behemoths, formerly humans that were exposed to the Las Plagas parasites, and through an unknown method, grew to an immense size, acquiring great strength and brutality to compensate for their loss of higher reasoning. They are often referred to as "Cave Trolls" by fans due to their resemblance to the Lord Of The Rings creature of the same name. These monsters have high stamina and will use their vast size and bulk to choke, crush, kick, charge and punch smaller prey. The only weak point on a Gigante is the accordingly overgrown Plaga attached to its spine. When the Plagas is destroyed, so is El Gigante. Once damaged enough, the Plaga will expose itself and El Gigante will fall to it's knees, allowing the player to climb up onto it's back and use their knife to slash at the writhing Plaga before the monster recovers. If the player is too slow or presses the wrong attack button during this action, they will be thrown from Gigante's back and the player lose their chance to inflict harm on the monster. Repeating this method will eventually kill Gigante. One does not however have to respond to the action and can instead shoot the Plaga with a powerful weapon.

Role in Resident Evil 4
Leon first encountered a Gigante as he passed through a path that ran next to a mine neighboring the village church. At first, during daytime, the beast was contained by heavy locks and a giant gate within the mine and can be heard breathing and grunting. But at nightfall, when Leon attempted to traverse the same path, a group of Ganados opened the door in hopes the behemoth would kill Leon so he would never reach the church. When released, the towering monstrosity crushed the Ganados and proceeded to attack Leon. If the player chooses to release the dog from the beartrap earlier in the game, he will arrive during Leon's battle and will provide a distraction, giving Leon a better chance at killing El Giante. Later on, in one of the two paths Leon could choose to reach the Village Chief's hideout, by fighting a second Gigante, this time in a deep, steep ravine where Leon had very little space open. There, it was defeated again by Leon, where he could choose to employ a heavy boulder on the edge of the ravine (which was noticed by Ashley), to crush the monster or fight it conventionally. In the mines beneath Salazar's Castle Leon confronted a pair of Giante (which carried the Los Illuminados emblems) in a blast furnace, where he could choose to open the floor to drop one of them into the molten metal below. This act fuses the mechanism however, forcing Leon to defeat the second Gigante conventionally.

Ada Wong encounters and defeats either a second or the same Gigante as Leon in the same village ravine in "Seperate Ways".

Trivia

 * If you help the dog that was stuck at the beginning of the game, it will come and help you fight the El Gigante by distracting it from attacking you.