The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
We're doing part three of Skyward Sword's bestiary! After the Lanayru Desert and a bit of a detour in fighting the Imprisoned, the game takes us to a new area -- the Thunderhead -- but unexpectedly, ends up sending Link back to the previous areas he's visited before! As of writing this, I end up going through most of the overworld segment in the return to Faron and all throughout the Ancient Cistern dungeon, the 'water temple' of this game.
I seldom do this with Zelda games, but since we actually talked about the Zoras and Gorons in either Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild, I think I can spare a few words for the new races introduced in the game. To wit:
Kikwi: The forested region of Faron is represented by a handful of interesting creatures called Kikwis. Crossing the kiwi bird and the kiwi fruit isn't really the biggest leap one would make, but the Kikwis are freaking adorable! Huge, fat birds with tiny stubby limbs, and adorable mask-faces that the franchise also did earlier with the Koroks, the Kikwi also carry around bulbs on their back that they use to disguise themselves. The bulbs open up like a Bulbasaur into shrubs and flowers... and effect that's nowhere as effective as the Octoroks because the Kikwis, well, they're big fat bird-people. At least they try! I found this little bit pretty dang charming.
Mogma: The Gorons actually appear in the game as well, but we get a new race to represent the fiery, mountainous region of Eldin. And it's the Mogma! There's... I don't really have too much to say about them. They sure are mole-men, they sure have weasel-esque faces, and they sure burrow through the ground. Out of all the new sentient races in Skyward Sword, I find the Mogma probably the most underwhelming.
Ancient Robot: I talked a bit about how the Lanayru region's gimmick works, and throughout the present-day era, you stumble on a lot of the deactivated ruins of the Ancient Robots and the machinery and magic-tech they used to operate. When you timeshift into the past, this is what they look like! Adorable, with those giant arms held aloft with electricity. I feel like these guys do really work well as the embodiment of a race of 'not too sci-fi' robots. It's interesting to note that these guys are just the miners and labourers, and the Beamoses and Armoses we meet in the dungeon are probably just the warriors and guards of the 'race'. We never did find out who made the Ancient Robots, or why or what they are mining Lanayru for...
Parella: Another race living in Faron, the Parella are an aquatic race that's a glorious mix of a seahorse and a jellyfish. And it works so well! They really don't do much and don't leave too much of an impression (plus I don't like the swimming mechanic) but I did like the visual design. I like that the main 'skeleton' of this creature is a wacky-looking seahorse, but it's got this huge... 'skirt'? It's more of a set of poofy shoulders. And a pair of fins that serve as arms. Pretty neat-looking aquatic creature!
Not too much to say, but I did feel like tossing in a bunch of allied people that aren't just strictly humans/Hylians does make the world feel so much bigger.
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Skytail: So this huge segment of the game takes us to a bunch of... sub-areas that are a lot smaller, or places where we revisit previous areas and explore deeper into them. One of the areas we first show up in is the gigantic storm-covered part of the Sky itself, the Thunderhead! And... it's actually rather disappointing, just a bunch of floating islands in the middle of a storm. We do get these bizarre things, though, and disappointingly, Fi doesn't have anything to say about them. The Skytails are very cool enemies that just show up in the Thunderhead and try to bite our flying bird, and are otherwise just there. I really love their designs, though! Especially check out that very cool-looking concept art! The Skytail is clearly some sort of flying insect-based creature, with those fancy pincers. It's got a serpentine body, three pairs of butterfly wings, and a massive head of moth-like hair behind its head. The concept art also shows that it's got a weird bulb on the tip of its tail... some sort of propulsion organ? Very, very cool for what's disappointingly such a minor part of the game.
Blue Bokoblin & Green Bokoblin Archer: Once Link returns to the Faron, Eldin and Lanayru regions after dealing with the Imprisoned and Thunderhead sequences, the enemies in those areas are upgraded! Nothing too fancy, but I do appreciate that the overworld becomes just a bit more dangerous as our hero also becomes more powerful. These Blue Bokoblins show up in the overworld and are just a bit stronger. Fi identifies them as having different skin colour due to 'hailing from a different environment'. In the revisit to the Skyview Temple, apparently the Green Bokoblin population have gotten their hands on bows and arrows. Really not too much to say about them, they sure are 'blins.
Wooden Shield Moblin: It's around this point that the Moblins also show up! These are pretty cool -- the Moblins in 3D incarnations Zelda have always been portrayed as being bigger ogre-like enemies, being straight-up menacing bulldog-men twice the size of Link in Ocarina of Time; and being troll-like lanky giants in Breath of the Wild. This incarnation of the Moblins opt for a different trope of 'giant enemy', making the Shield Moblin look imposing by virtue of being ginormously fat. They still look pretty formidable, all things considered, and are actually reasonably annoying. Their size also means that between their massive spear and their belly-slam attack, they've got a fair amount of reach. According to Fi, Link needs to hack and slash the wooden shield down to pieces in order to make the Moblin unprotected, though I honestly prefer just running circles around the Moblin and unleashing barrages of sword-stabs onto the Moblin's unprotected giant bum. Pretty cool variant of the 'blins, all things considered.
Also, yeah, pierced nipples. You do you, Moblin, you do you.
Earth Watcher & Sky Watcher: At this point, Link gets sucked into the 'Silent Realm', which is a minigame/sub-area where Link finds himself in a spiritual mirror of the Faron Woods (and later the Lanayru Desert, and presumably we get another version for the Eldin Mountain) without any monsters or equipment. It's a test realm, and Link has to rely on his own body to run around and collect a bunch of spirit orbs or what-have-you... while these ghostly beings try and track you down. It's an absolutely fun game of chicken, and I can't believe I'm saying this -- stealth sequences in Zelda games have always bugged me, but the Silent Realm sequences have been absolutely fun.
None of these Silent Realm 'enemies' are really ones we fight, nor do they have Fi entries, but they do have some very, very cool designs. These two are the Watchers, vaguely resembling the Poes of previous Zelda games. They look very, very inhuman while also 'holy' in some way? They're kind of an equivalent of angels or something if they're working in a trial made by the goddess, right? I do like that they really don't look super hostile but look eerie nonetheless. The fact that it's just a robe over nothing... that red glowing eye isn't attached to a body! It's just hovering under the robes, and then below the robes are either a singular lantern or a chandelier of six of them.
Again, it brings to mind the visual image of Zelda's resident lantern-carrying ghosts, the Poes -- particularly Twilight Princess's iteration version of them. And I do like that these giant lantern ghosts are just flying around shining their light and trying to catch you. They're just testing you!
Earth Guardian: What happens if the Watchers catch you, though? These guys get activated and start heading to bash your brains in. It's a non-standard game over and there's no combat, but man, these Guardians look pretty badass, don't they? I'm disappointed to know that they don't actually become an enemy we fight later on. The Earth Guardian can only travel on the ground, and they're basically just giant statues holding a particularly badass giant segmented club. I also really like that very flat mask, too -- the reverse triangle eyes, the triangle earrings, the triangle mouth? Gee, laying it on a bit thick that this guy serves a goddess whose whole motif is the number three, huh? The face also seems to be more of a mask grafted on to the golem than an actual face. Very cool looking, and I do love that it contrasts the other 'golem' aesthetic of the Beamoses and Armoses we saw earlier in the game as well.
Sky Guardian: Even cooler than their 'Earth' counterparts are the Sky Guardians, who fly above the terrain as they hunt you down. I do love how they almost have a body. Almost! It's just a head, a cloak shaped like a hunchback, and two arms whose shoulder ball-joints just connect into nothingness. Very cool look all around, and of course it's got two gigantic fuck-off curved swords held in skeletal hands. It kinda reminds me of those Death Scissors from Devil May Cry, although obviously the Sky Guardian is designed and drawn to look more... well, less obviously hostile. It's still going to kill you with its giant blades, but it's doing so as part of a goddess's holy test.
Cranioc: The return to Faron Woods gives Link the ability to swim underwater, and while most of the enemies he faces are just the Froaks (who look more at home in the water), we do get these guys. Which are... man, what a weirdo! It's a cartoonish fish with giant lips and buckteeth, and its forehead is just a massive, scarred lump. It's like a version of a swordfish or something, but it's got a ramming appendage instead. We do have real-life fishes like the Flowerhorn or the Parrotfish that have bumps on their heads, but they don't actually use those bumps to ram each other. The Cranioc just looks so weird because of that, and that's without taking those faces into account.
They're kinda one-note, though -- Link just one-shots them with his underwater spin attacks.
Blue Chuchu: Also one-note are these Blue Chuchu, which are just Chuchu that pop up underwater and also die to a single shot. I'm just doing this because I'm pedantic and want to include every single enemy I meet.
Furnix: An interesting enemy! The Furnix, despite its rather impressive design, is just a common enemy that's faced in the next dungeon -- the Ancient Cistern. The Ancient Cistern itself is a dungeon whose design is very spiritual-looking and has a very cool heaven-and-hell vibe to it. The Furnixes fly in the skies of the central chamber, spitting fireballs at Link. I really like how they've got multiple wings, and their tails look really cool! Link needs to use his whip item to drag the Furnix down to the ground when their tails are fully unfurled. Not my favourite enemy, but cool nonetheless!
Cursed Bokoblin: The final part of the Ancient Cistern basically takes Link into a dungeon based on the underworld from Buddhist myths -- and the skeletons spread all over the ground will rise up into these Cursed Bokoblins! Very neat-looking, I like how they took the regular Bokoblin model and changes it just enough to make them spooky zombies... but still keeping an air of goofiness about them. That outstretched tongue is probably my favourite detail. Unlike how zombies are usually depicted in video games, Cursed Bokoblins are actually tougher than regular Bokoblins and keep standing up again and again. A neat little detail is that Link's Sacred Shield will actually drive them away.
Stalmaster: The miniboss of the Ancient Cistern is the Stalmaster, which is pretty dang impressive! Decked out in golden armour and wielding four different-looking weapons, the Stalmaster looks particularly impressive in motion, where those giant swords are twirled around in pretty badass motions. General Grievous here is a lot stronger than a regular Stalfos, and it often only leaves one direction open for you to get a sword strike in -- but more than any enemy before him, I feel like the Stalmaster is extra-quick in changing which direction you can strike him from.
Very cool -- it's a rather logical upgrade of a previous powerful enemy, and looks a lot more impressive despite just adding a pair of arms and changing the armour colour!
Ancient Automaton: Koloktos: The boss of the Ancient Cistern is the Ancient Automaton Koloktos, which used to be the guardian of the temple that got corrupted by our good pal Ghirahim. Koloktos starts the battle as just a bunch of parts scattered across the room, and is held together by the purple miasma that you can see peeking out of his joints. This is important, because this is how you beat Koloktos! He's a giant statue peeking out of the floor of a boss room, and initially just seems invincible. Its two upper arms keep throwing those axe-blades at you, while the two lower arms just swing around and bash you. But since the arms aren't actually physically held together, Link can use the openings of Koloktos's attacks to whip and dismantle the joints of Koloktos's fragile limbs, eventually tearing down enough hands to expose the red core in Koloktos's chest.
After doing it enough times, though, Koloktos actually reveals that he's got legs this whole time, stands up, and quintuple-wields gigantic scimitars. Very cool animation going on here, and during the fight, Link would pick up these giant scimitars and bash Koloktos to death with it. It's not my favourite design when I first saw him on a still image, but the actual boss fight and how smooth the animation for this guardian golem is, I really end up liking him a lot.
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A bit of a shorter one, and as of the time of writing, I'm around halfway through the revisit of Lanayru Region, and we don't really have too many new enemies. I think I'll wait until I finish two dungeons before I do the next part of this!
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