The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
We're doing part two of Skyward Sword's bestiary! This one covers the Lanayru region, mostly. I did spend a lot of time doing side-quests and collecting missions which is why this one took quite a while to make. I'm told that I've reached around one-thirds of the way through the main plot, which is surprising -- I thought I'm more than halfway through! But I guess I've only really gone through three dungeons, huh.
Yellow Chuchu & Thunder Keese: As what is expected of 3D Zelda games, a lot of the enemies are just repainted, stronger versions of ones that we've met before. I kind of get it, and the Yellow Chuchu and Thunder Keese are essentially identical to the two first enemies we met in the game -- they're just slightly stronger thanks to having the power of electricity. They periodically get a charge, and anything metal on Link's person becomes a conductor that will stun Link if he comes into contact with them. Neat.
Electro Spume: A bit more interesting than the other two repaint enemies are the Electro Spume, although that might just be because the Spumes themselves feel a lot more complex than Chuchus and Keeses. They look visually more or less the same with their Magma counterparts, but they live in sand and spit electrical bolts instead of fireballs. It's kind of interesting how much more 'exotic' the lava-dwelling Magma Spume is compared to the Electro Spume, comparatively.
Rock Octorok: And here we go with the most literal 'Octorok' that you can get. It's an octopus that hides with a rock on top and it shoots rocks at you! I still really like just how Skyward Sword combined the classic 2D and 3D versions of Octoroks into something that feels so natural! Er, natural in a Zelda setting, of course, but still.
Hrok: A new enemy! Oh, it's a roc that spits rocks. I didn't get that until literally just now as I was writing this. Kind of an obnoxious enemy, this one, but it just feels so... mundane? It's just a big bird that flies up into the sky and drops rocks down on Link, with its throat swelling up like a pelican. Fi's description of the Hrok is interesting, noting that Hrok feeds on rocks, but any that it doesn't digest are collected in the throat pocket, which the Hrok will them amalgamate and regurgitate as boulders. Such a cool series of flavour text, it's a bit of a shame that the Hrok itself is visually pretty mundane.
Ampilus: This one is super-duper cool! The Ampilus is a giant hermit crab-esque creature. It's got the general body layout of a giant crustacean, and I really love the rendering of that very prawn-y face and those mean, hooked claws. But the shell that the Ampilus lugs around looks more like the concentric shape of something like an ammonite! Interestingly, the Ampilus fights not by attacking you with its crustacean claws, but rather retreating entirely into its shell, charging up the shell with electricity, and just spin around the desert trying to run Link over as a spinning electrically-charged wheel. Fi's reading of the Ampilus identifies it as accomplishing this with an internal organ. Not a necessary detail to tell us, but I appreciate that the game takes time to do so.
You kill the Ampilus by tricking it into slamming into something that's not Link, and then when it's stunned, Link can kill the vulnerable real body. The shell, notably, sticks around after an Ampilus's death, and both the Ampilus and its shell can freely walk on top of quicksand -- meaning that this is one of those enemies that is instrumental to solve puzzles. But that's not all!
One of the best area gimmicks I've seen in Zelda for a while, and easily one of my favourites, is that Lanayru Desert has these 'Timepiece Stones' that Link can hit and revert part of the desert into the past when the land is lush and has trees, grass, and the ancient robots and their still-working technology. And Link has to go back and forth between the past and present in order to access areas and stuff. That's not the main topic of this article, but if the Ampilus gets hit by that time-reversal area, they revert into Ampilus Eggs, which are adorable little rocks with an eyeball peering out. They periodically light up with electricity, and are used to solve puzzles. Very cool way to incorporate the time-travel gimmick, though!
Technoblin: So what else is in the past? These guys, the Technoblins, which are Bokoblins with... they're not quite cyborg outfits because Zelda isn't that kind of franchise, but it's neat to see them wearing something pretty futuristic. I was expecting like, magic-tech robots (and we do get those), but I didn't actually think the Bokoblins were going to get in on the game. Pretty cool variation, I do like those goggles that they have. The Technoblins' weapons are probably the most interesting thing about them. What do you call those? A fly-swatter? It's a weird rectangle that's charged, meaning that Link really can't clash swords with the Technoblin's weapon unless he wants to get zapped.
Fi's notes insist that like their present-day counterparts, the Technoblins are also obsessed with the latest fashion in undergarments. Okay.
Aracha: The dungeon in Lanayru Desert is the Lanayru Mining Facility, an old abandoned warehouse that used to be run by robots... but in the present day is infested with scuttling monsters like this guy. It's the desert, of course we're going to have a desert scorpion enemy! The Aracha are actually relatively harmless, but I do really like them. They look so... fleshy. I think they're meant to be this game's take on the classic enemy -- the Gohmas -- especailly since they have only a huge, giant eyeball on their buggy faces. It looks so unnatural, doesn't it, seeing such a non-arthropodal eyeball on a scorpion? They're not particularly powerful, but there's a lot of them, they jump on Link and are generally a huge nuisance throughout the dungeon.
Froak: While the Arachas are pretty thematic, these guys are... um... they exist? I get the idea -- these are giant cartoon pufferfishes, they float around and they go kaboom because pufferfishes look like underwater mines. There's no real explanation to why they are floating around in a desert dungeon, though. It's kind of weird, and I guess I'll just chalk it up to random RPG enemy encounter?
The Froaks would later actually appear in the underwater areas in the Faron region and its second dungeon, the Ancient Cistern, where they feel a lot more at home. It's still bizarre that they first showed up in the Lanayru Mining Facility, though.
Beamos: Because the Mining Facility still retains the time-shifting gimmick of the Lanayru overworld, parts of the factory soon end up transforming from ruins into enemies, and I love the bizarre magic-technology that they have. There's always a sense of some of these enemies being quasi-robotic, but even Twilight Princess depicted them as more of a golem than anything. I don't think it's until Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild that the ancient culture that exists in Hyrule is shown to be... well, technology-powered-by-magic.
The Beamos looks pretty cool, too! It's a rattling robot that shoots lasers at you, but the decision to make it a totem pole with those ornament-looking fan-ears gives it a degree of fun fantasy look to it. Love the boxy mouth, too. Of course, Link needs to bash the Beamos's lower body parts down like a Jenga tower before he can stab his sword into the eyeball.
Sentrobe: Not quite having an obvious 'face' as the Beamos or the Armos below, the Sentrobes are flying balls with adorable little helicopter blades that shoot missiles at Link. The most efficient way is to shield-bash the missiles back to destroy the Sentrobes. At some point, though, the Sentrobes will send two of those Sentrobe Bombs at Link, and he needs to cut them according to the glowing lines. Not too much to say about this one, it's neat that we've got a new technological enemy, but having no real 'face' to speak of, the Sentrobe looks a bit less of a 'monster' and more of an obstacle.
Armos: Sharing the same role as the Stalfos and Lizalfos as being a miniboss that ends up just showing up as an enemy later on, the Armos in this incarnation is a giant two-faced giant Easter Island statue thing. It's hard to tell here, but the reverse side is also a face. The Armos just hops around and tries to stab Link with those giant spikes on its bottom, but interestingly enough, since this version of the Armos is explicitly a mechanical device, there's a set radius of area that the Armos will bounce around away from its designated spot.
The way to beat the Armos is to point your brand-new 'Gale Bellows' item to spin the windmill on top of the Armos's head, which will unscrew the upper halves of the faces and leave the Armos's core vulnerable... except the core will jut out on only one face. An interesting redesign -- it fits the aesthetics of the dungeon, but it's most certainly not my favourite version of the Armos.
Thousand-Year Arachnid: Moldarach: Boss time! It's actually surprising that despite being themed all around time-travel and revisiting what the Mining Facility looked like when it was ran and automated by the robots, the boss of the Lanayru Mining Facility is... a giant scorpion. It's the thousand-year old adult phase of all the Arachas that I've killed in the course of traveling through the dungeon, and it makes thematic sense that way, but I'm actually pretty surprised that we didn't get a giant Armos or Beamos fight. Or that Moldarach didn't have a second phase where he becomes a cyborg scorpion. A Scorponok.
But, hey, Moldarach looks pretty goddamn badass! He looks just so mean-looking, with the glistening rock-like carapace being such a stark contrast to the vulnerable-looking larval Arachas. Every single part of the Moldarach is armoured other than those two eyeballs that it has on its claws. Because, uh, it's a Zelda boss so it has eyeballs everywhere, I guess? We get another showcase of the game's directional-attack feature, where Link's sword can only really hit the eyeballs when you swing them in a certain direction. After Link blows up both of his claws, Moldarach dives under the sand and just tunnels through the ground and attacks you with its stinger (which is engorged like a mace!) and you need to blow the sand off and stab it in the eyeball.
Very cool visually, a very fun boss to fight against... I just kind of wanted more, you know?
The Imprisoned: After finishing the Faron, Eldin and Lanayru regions and their respective dungeons, Link gets brought back into the Sacred Grounds, where the ancient evil sealed by the Goddess at the bottom of the ravine is unleashed. This is a plot detail that has been spoiled to me by practically everyone -- and in Hyrule Warriors -- so it's not a huge surprise. I also know that I'm going to face off against the Imprisoned at least two more times later in the game.
And... it's a pretty neat-looking giant whale, I guess? The kaiju-sized beast walks up the spiral path out from the valley where it's imprisoned, and Link needs to stop it before it reaches the top. And as a formless shadow demon, the Imprisoned does look kind of neat. Giant eyeless whale head with fangs... body made entirely out of glistening scales... the shadows rippling off of its back... and then there are those two feet with huge sausage toes, and then the Imprisoned ends up looking goofy just because of that one detail. Sure, those toes end up being the weak points that Link needs to break to cause it to fall down and expose the sealing sword on its nose, but... eh. Maybe it's because I beat this guy up so many times in Hyrule Warriors, but I wasn't super impressed by his design. The boss fight and the music is pretty fun, and the visions leading up to the Imprisoned's release does make him look a lot more imposing. I don't know, though... not the biggest fan of this one.
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I did progress a bit more after the Imprisoned fight, going through a gauntlet of fetch quests to reach Thunderhead and the Isle of Songs, but I'll save the couple of enemies there until I clear another significant segment of the game. It's been fun! I'm really enjoying this game!
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