Series Review: Kamen Rider Zi-O

Kamen Rider Zi-O [2018-2019]

"Rider Time! Kamen Rider Zi-O!"

The closing chapter to the Heisei era is... an interesting one. While arguably Zero-One and Saber don't really do enough to deviate itself from the pack, no one can deny just how bizarrely weird Zi-O as a show is. While a fanfiction-esque storyline of "let's go through all the different worlds" have been done before by Decade, this time around the show really tries to commit to the franchise's history of some hundred-plus Kamen Riders, by basically making its twentieth Heisei show "Decade II, Electric Boogaloo."

Zi-O also has a special place in my heart for being the first Rider show that I watched weekly, and... and hoo boy, what an interesting one for me to start off, huh? Especially since in 2018, I haven't even watched some of the shows they are homaging, making it a bit of a bizarre run where sometimes it's a Zi-O two-parter that got me to check out the entire series in a month. I know that it's how I ended up watching Ex-Aid, how I finally watched Blade, and a good reason why I ended up watching Hibiki at all. 

And... and Zi-O is an utterly bizarre show, in that every two-parter is a dedicated attempt at being a homage to a different part of the Heisei era. The difference is that... they actually got a returning actor nearly every arc. It's just that it takes a while for the showmakers to really decide what they were going to do, and it ends up being a bizarre clusterfuck as the showrunners try to fit in the cameo roles based on previous actors' returning schedule, as well as an attempt at a cohesive narrative as our titular Zi-O (lit. Time King) is basically subjected to a reverse-Terminator plot. 

Because, see, our main character, Tokiwa Sougo, is just a bit of a loony high-school boy whose main goal in life is the vague dream of 'being a king'. And then suddenly, monsters show up in his life, two time-travelers (Myokoin Geiz and Tsukuyomi) show up screaming how he'll grow up to be the demon king/overlord of the future, Ohma Zi-O... and there's this glorious narrator man with an impeccable fashion sense, Woz, who goes around seemingly willing to shape history and basically be the biggest hype-man for his great overlord, rejoicing and bringing out transformation trinkets. 

The show, obviously, plays very loose with continuity, and even the supplementary specials have a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that 'just use time travel as an excuse for all the inconsistencies', but the show had an absolutely rough start. There was an attempt of making some sort of ironic power where Sougo's Zi-O power-ups basically comes from him 'taking' the powers of previous main characters, which means that for a good amount of time, a lot of the returning actors (Build, Ex-Aid, Faiz, OOO) just stood around in their civilian forms being confused thanks to all the timey-wimey nonsense, making their cameos feel forced for most and a slap to the face for some. Not to mention that two of the earliest two-parters very terribly shoved their concepts together and ended up in episodes that didn't make any sense at all (episodes 5-6, the Faiz/Fourze one; and epsiodes 9-10, the Genm/OOO one). The fact that the show itself is utterly rigid to its no-fun rule of "no riders can transform if their powers are stolen by Zi-O or by the bad guys" yet played so loose with continuity is also something that I'm glad that the show itself sort of ignored and handwaved aside. 

The show, however, surprisingly ends up picking up a lot of its slack when it starts to actually do its own thing. There is a neat stretch of episodes from around the 13's or so when the main focus isn't a barrage of poorly-implemented cameos, but rather an actual story as Sougo grapples with the potential that he grows up into a demon king. The show itself still features a traditional two-parter sequence, but they start fighting fake 'future riders' like Shinobi, Kikai and Quiz... which, in a fabulously meta way, all feature other Tokusatsu alumni, all the while the plot's mainly driven by Sougo, Woz and the utterly unexpected way they integrated Tsukasa "Decade" Kadoya into the show. The show still bills him as a special guest star, but for all intents and purposes Decade (and later Diend) basically serves as an asshole mentor and someone trying to save the world, actually making this an absolutely fantastic Decade follow-up in a way. I genuinely cheered in some of the times that Tsukasa makes a surprise appearance in a plot or two.

Honestly, I do think that Decade's inclusion -- both the character and his actor, the ever-amazing Masahiro Inoue -- ends up being the lynchpin that makes this show works at all. Decade being a character that's already famous in the fandom for being a dimension-hopping dude that's always a bit dickish and enigmatic helps to gel the show together, and being a pre-established former main character ends up making his inclusion in the show feel so natural. Kudos for Inoue for sticking around for so much of the show, too. 

The writing for the characters got a bit better, too. Tsukuyomi is criminally underused for a good chunk of the show, but she certainly has a whole larger presence than some of the other 'main' female characters in these shows. Sougo goes from earnest to angsty to earnest again, and while the show's writing certainly isn't consistent, there were a lot of great specific moments when they actually really portray him feeling the burden of destiny well. Geiz and Woz are probably the two most popular characters from the show and I can see why... Geiz is basically a character we've seen a dozen times over in the franchise, a bit of an angry jackass who has good reason to be angry at the main character, but ultimately warms up to him. And Woz? Woz is the best character in the show, being just the right amount of over-the-top hammy for this sort of plotline and his constant iwae and monologuing is absolutely bombastic and fits with the go-big-or-go-home attitude of the show. Again, while the show's early episodes are a bit rough, the four primary members of the main cast (five with Decade) really end up working very well, and by the time the show finally takes a breather from cameos to do more original stories, they really end up feeling like their own people. Sure, this does mean that the power-ups like Geiz Revive, Zi-O II or Zi-O Trinity feel like they're not quite as interesting as 'oh, there's the Decade form!' the special effects crew do truly end up making the debuts of these new forms to be pretty great. Special highlights go to the first appearances of Zi-O II, Geiz Revive, Ohma Zi-O... and, of course, who can forget Grand Zi-O with its five-minute jingle as it summons all 20 Heisei riders? 

The villains of the show are... pretty underwhelming. The 'Time Jackers' mostly just hang out and be enigmatic, and while there were signs of promise that the two younger Wuhl and Ora were going to have something to them, they were sort of just there, and main villain Swartz ends up kind of feeling generic and any depth he has ends up being shoehorned via a rather odd backstory. 

That said, though, the Another Riders of the show? The show sadly probably went over-budget with random main character forms with Build last season, so not every single Heisei rider got an 'armor form' for Zi-O (the toys and video games do show what all these forms look like, though) and it's a bit of a shame that especially in the second half, the collectible ride-watches aren't even used to make finishers or new forms anymore. But the villains! The villains are called 'Another Riders', and I could do a whole article about them dissecting just how much thought are put into them beyond just being distorted versions of the main 20 Heisei riders. The Another Riders are, honestly, probably my favourite Rider show enemies ever. The sheer amount of creativity that went into designing the suits (both Another Riders and the Future Riders), especially when eagle-eyed fans realize that some of them are retooled versions of older suits, is a pretty great one. 

The second half of the show, on the other hand... is wildly praised for good reason. After taking some time to really hammer home our main cast's characterizations, all the tributes from episode 30 onwards ends up being actually far, far more respectful to their predecessor shows, and even makes use of specific moments of characterization to build up the Zi-O's cast, as opposed to the vague "you're heroic, do some heroic things" of the first dozen or so episodes. Also, it's a small thing, but the simple fact that the returning riders are allowed to transform, with their own themes? This is what the inner fanboys within all of us want, to see the new rider on the block transform into their Zi-O Trinity form right as Tsugami Shouichi walks up with the Agito fight theme blaring as he transforms into Agito Trinity, all while they are fighting against an army of Another Agitos. Or to have the Hopper Hell Bros face off against our main cast, all the while Kagami Arata finally gets recognized by the Kabuto Zecter to finally become Kamen Rider Kabuto? The Blade, Agito, Hibiki and Kabuto episodes are noted in many discussions to be the highlight of the show's homages, and I definitely have to agree. Den-O, already itself a show that is easily adapted into spinoffs and crossovers, has crossovers both in the show and one of the movies, and the Imagins' antics are incorporated well. 

Not to mention that all of the future-riders episodes were an absolute delight, and even the show's recurring villain in "Another Zi-O" is a pretty simple but fun little addition. Near the end, we even get an utterly unexpected return in OOO's own future rider, Kamen Rider Aqua, who very easily shoots up into becoming one of my favourite supporting characters in the show. Again, another pretty fun sequence was a plotline near the end when the villain just plucks specifically 'movie villains from timelines where they won', allowing for some delightful random cameos from characters like Kamen Rider Eternal. Or when Zi-O himself gains the ability to summon any random Rider from any random part of history, getting us hilarious moments of him pulling out Pine Arms Gaim alongside a bunch of other final forms. 

It's just that... well, with such a heavy concept that's probably taxing in the show's actor management process, some things end up faltering. Tsukuyomi and the Time Jackers, while certainly well-acted, end up feeling very static throughout the show and by the time we get the rushed backstory behind them, it feels like they could've done more. 

And let's not even mention the surprisingly large amount of cameos even in the specials of the show! The first movie, "Heisei Generations FOREVER", is easily my biggest guilty pleasure of any of these Kamen Rider movies, with a lot of great action sequences and a surprise cameo from Takeru "Den-O" Satoh. The solo movie, "Zi-O: Over Quartzer", has a bit of a questionable first part, but the villains in this one are fun. The web-movies "Geiz Majesty" and the four-part "Rider Time: Ryuki" all feature a lot of surprising returning actors and characters, although those two don't really add a whole ton to the show as a whole.

Overall, Zi-O ends up being a show that's incomprehensible without seeing at least some of the previous shows. But even then... the acting of the main cast ends up surprisingly well done as it carries the show, and the remarkable improvement of quality in the second half of the show ends up making this an earnest love letter to all the Rider shows of the past. Well, most of them. (Fourze, Kuuga and Double feel pretty under-represented; and I'd argue that OOO, Kiva and Faiz got the short end of the stick, too) It's a show that literally requires you to shut your brain down a bit and just enjoy the random cameos and the utterly glorious flashy effects. It's a show that perhaps struggles a bit too much with consistency and its large-scale story... but as a final celebration of the Heisei era, and as an unapologetic love later to the fans? Zi-O ends up working as an enjoyable show where it counts. Perhaps not the best show out there, but in terms of scale as a show featuring a record number of returning actors? It certainly ranks pretty highly as one of the most entertaining ones. 

Series Review: Kamen Rider Faiz

Kamen Rider 555 / Faiz [2003-2004]

"Complete."

The first time I saw Faiz in any significant capacity was that one Showa-vs-Heisei movie where they got Faiz's actor back as a pretty major secondary character in that movie. And my number one takeaway from Faiz? "Holy shit, what a motherfucking cool son of a bitch this rider is." Everything about Kamen Rider Faiz is cool. The transformation sequence with the red glowing Tron lines enveloping the human before the suit materializes. The absolutely sexy sleekness of the suit with its two giant eyes that take over nearly the entire face. The lightsaber. The Transformer motorbike partner. The beep-boop-beep sounds and the very robotic 'complete' noises that the smartphone henshin device makes. Most importantly, that rider kick. How about that rider kick, huh? A swirling cone that appears pointing at the enemy, then Faiz jumps straight at the cone, slams through the enemy then reappears on the other side as the bad guy blows up while Faiz's Phi symbol appears in the background? It's the Rider Kick equivalent of one of those cool "you're already dead" iai cuts in samurai movies. Faiz is fucking awesome. 

Helping things a lot for me was the fact that we actually did get to see a bit of Faiz's storyline in the Showa-vs-Heisei sequence, and it feels pretty interesting... Inui Takumi seems like a pretty interesting main character, a bit of a dick and kind of afraid of responsibility, but being a main Rider he's obviously a good guy. And since Gaim was one of the first series I watched, I ended up picking and choosing who among the Heisei riders I saw in Showa-vs-Heisei seemed the coolest. 

Even its monster designs are the coolest! People might say that it's boring, but I did really enjoy the fact that all the Orphnochs are these exaggerated animal monsters whose sole design feature is that they are all white, which tends to be a boring design choice unless you really commit to it like Faiz does. And that's not to mention the absolutely fabulous Tron-lines vibe of the three main rider suits -- Faiz, Kaixa and Delta. Sure, you do lose some of that 'bug cyborg man' vibe of most of the traditional Kamen Riders, but this far, far more robotic feel does make Faiz stand out a lot from the pack while maintaining a 'classic', sleek vibe. 

And... and, hoo boy, let's just say that Faiz's visuals and its suit design are probably the best thing about the show. 

Faiz (technically 555; it's always pronounced 'Faiz', as in 'Fives' or 'Phis') was the fourth show in the Heisei period, following Kuuga, Agito and Ryuki. I watched Faiz long before I watched any of those three shows, but I could definitely see the team behind Faiz attempting to cherry-pick the most popular elements behind those three shows and toss them in a blender with their own concepts for their new show. We've got the long-running mysteries common to all of the Kamen Rider shows of this era. We've got a bunch of characters engaged in a massive recurring battle against each other and we're not sure who is in the right and wrong (like Ryuki, and a bit like the middle portion of Agito). Some sort of old conspiracy revealed in flashbacks (like Agito). We've got a couple of massively assholish 'good guys' and heroic antagonist monsters. We've got a vague government organization conspiracy. We've got a lot of interpersonal conflict, but also the cast keeps to a recognizable homey locale.

And, let's be kind of frank here... the central six or seven characters? Takumi Inui, Sonada Mari, Kusaka Masato and Kikuchi Keitaro on the human side; and Kiba Yuuji, Osada Yuka and Kaido Naoya of the Orphnoch side? I absolutely love these main characters. It's surprising how this show actually manages to make me really, really care about these seven characters (well, six of them, at least, Keitaro is just a character that works best as a foil to everyone else). But halfway through this show, one of the observations I made about this show while discussing it to my friend is that... it's like the writers wanted to make a really, really compelling drama. And there's nothing wrong with enjoying a whole lot of drama and soul-searching, it's just that it's not the right backdrop for a monster-hunting weapon-stealing tokusatsu show, and even moreso when the action scenes keep interrupting any attempts at good drama, and vice versa. 

The set-up of the series is relatively strong. Chaos at the (amazingly named) Smart Brain corporation's science lab. A woman escaping after stealing a powerful set of weapons disguised as everyday electronic appliances. Monsters that are able to stab human hearts and turn them into dust. A mysterious jerk who hates hot food and just wants to be left alone, but somehow also one of the only people that's able to activate the Faiz belt. On the other side of the pond, we've got the very, very sad stories of Kiba Yuuji and Osada Yuka, people who lived through absolutely terrible lives with very terrible families and friends that essentially drive the two into death or suicide... but then they wake up, not dead, but instead as monsters? This ends up with these rogue Orphnochs on the run from Smart Brain, but find their monster forms unaccepted by the humans or Kamen Riders. 

Oh, and there's also Smart Brain itself, a massive super-company with mysterious goals, the 'wild' Orphnochs who just want to murder humans, other Kamen Riders that show up with the 'kill them all, salt the earth' attitude with the Orphnochs, the Lucky Clover group of elite Orphnochs, and the fact that any given Orphnoch can steal the Kamen Rider belts and become Kamen Riders themselves? Again, so much of the setting actually is pretty interesting.

And, in a way, a lot of these play into tropes that I adore. Self-discovery, self-acceptance and responsibility, disguised as coming to terms with your 'monster self'? Pulpy young adult vampire/werewolf stories and superhero stories have done marvelously with using these sort of topics as a way to address those issues and make wonderful storylines out of those. Throw in the constant meetings between the human identities of the main leaders of both camps, Takumi (Faiz) and Kiba (Horse Orphnoch), who respect each other a lot without realizing that the other person is a member of the 'special' race that they hate and want to destroy so much? Takumi's "I don't have dreams of my own, but I'll protect my friends' dreams" line? And toss in the happy-psycho Kaido Naoya on the Orphnoch side, and the grumpy-psycho Kusaka "Kaixa" Masato on the humans' side? Again, there's a lot of recipe for great stories here. And, arguably, the stories are still told pretty well, especially if, like me, you actually find Kaixa's constant assholishness to be a love-to-hate thing instead of just finding him a dick. 

Unfortunately... the show doesn't really live up to any of its promises, and it's a huge, huge shame. It is clear from the few moments where the characters are allowed to act that the actors are very talented. The action scenes are consistently great. It's just that everything around it is kind of... a gigantic hot pile of mess. It gets near-incomprehensible near the end with the convoluted ending (so much that the only way to get a good conclusion out of Faiz is to watch the aforementioned Showa-vs-Heisei movie from Gaim, then the Kamen Rider 4 specials that is a Kamen Rider Drive tie-in), but the problems already exist from very early in the show. 

A very meme-able criticism of Faiz is that "miscommunication is the main villain", and that certainly seems true. A lot of the storylines in Faiz, in theory, could be genuinely dramatic and shocking. Kusaka, a human Kamen Rider who wants nothing more than Orphnoch genocide out of a combination of possessiveness over Mari and a burning vendetta against Orphnochs, framing things in such a way that Takumi and Kiba think the other person's alter-ego is an irredeemable monster? It's a bit mouthful, but there's a great, great story to be told there. Unfortunately, as much as the actors try so hard, a lot of the storytelling around them end up falling flat on its face in the delivery. The cast and the story around them is also miserable and grim. Nothing wrong with that! Some of the best stories are the ones that make their protagonists as miserable and tortured as possible. But with Faiz, there is a comically jarring contrast between the amount of shit that our characters are put through... and the cause of their suffering. Which, more often than not, is the ever-memetic miscommunication. And when so much of your show's screentime is devoted into the human drama, it's jarring that the impetus for said drama tends to almost always be underwhelming. 

The show tries its best to make everyone be likable with their own character quirks, but with them being assholes sometimes (Takumi is one of the first Riders that is a big jackass; and both Kaido and Kusaka are meant to be 110% jackasses) the combination of them being assholes and sometimes being overly gullible in being manipulated does make one's patience wear thin. And this is coming from someone who actually likes nearly all the characters of the show! With how Takumi and especially Kusaka behave, I can definitely see viewers who get absolutely turned off by these characters. I would like to go on record and say that Kusaka, by the way, is Kamen Rider's best 'hateable' character. He's not quite a villain but definitely not a hero, and technically wants to help Mari and the humans... but he's also such an irritable, insecure and jealous anti-Orphnoch jackass. I actually really do like just how assholish he's portrayed in this show... although, again, as I keep repeating, while the individual characters are done well, the show as a whole is kind of a hot mess. 

Again, I absolutely love the concept behind the show. The fact that the first episode is actually more of Kiba Yuuji's origin story as he wakes up an Orphnoch after the shit that befell him than it is Takumi Inui's makes this one of the very few Kamen Rider shows that actually ends up properly exploring the storyline of the main villain and seeing him grow alongside our main hero. The screentime is also split very evenly between Team Takumi and Team Yuuji, and that is such an enjoyable and refreshing format that makes me genuinely care about most of these main characters as they basically try to live in a world full of mystery and conspiracies.

And while some of the other characters in the show are poorly handled (Delta's 'heroic' and 'true' user is utterly forgettable), at least the handful of recurring Lucky Clover antagonists are memorable enough? They aren't as strongly defined as the main septet of characters, but they're memorable villain tropes and pretty fun recurring antagonists especially in the middle portions of the show when we start getting less and less episodic enemies and more 'deal with the mysteries of Smart Brain'. 

Unfortunately, again, the writing sort of puts a kibosh into that. Kusaka and Smart Brain's bizarre and sometimes inconsistent manipulations is one thing, too, and the villains' methods and motives feel absolutely muddled just for the sake of building up the mystery or conflict. A lot of the revelations -- like the existence of the Orphnoch King, the true identity of the orphanage's founder -- feels like they were unearned and popped out of nowhere. (Takumi's little secret about his identity, meanwhile, is cleverly foreshadowed from the very first episode) And honestly, let's not forget just how awkwardly the final arc of this show is handled. If Agito had a bizarre 'coda' for its series ending, Faiz ends up unceremoniously giving all its relatable Orphnoch characters a significant dose of angst and evilness, turning them from 'monster with a heart of gold' into 'angry angry Light Yagami', then again unceremoniously getting rid of them and most of the Smart Brain antagonists just to make way for the very underwhelming Orphnoch King.

That's not to say that the final episodes are the only thing terrible about this show, though. As eye-rollingly ridiculous as those last batch of episodes are, the show's attempt to shoehorn drama via poor communication is absolutely frustrating to watch, and honestly, one of my biggest irritation in this show is that they had a great concept, a great format and a great set of characters and actors that get absolutely squandered because the writers are simply unable to present the conflict in an engaging way. 

Also, another major complaint I have? One of the things no one ever complains about the show is the suits and the equipment. It's something that seems to be a bit of an afterthought when discussing these TV shows, but Faiz's little toybox of rider weapons and transformation devices are some of the classiest and coolest things in the franchise. Hell, the idea that anyone suitable would be able to steal these Faiz/Kaixa/Delta suits and transform is an amazing idea that gets a bit of a mileage with the Delta belt being in the possession of a Lucky Clover member for a significant amount of the show. And yet... the suits themselves are treated almost like an afterthought. The action scenes are cool, of course, but things like power-ups and whatnot are treated irreverently, with Faiz's two power-ups being very underwhelming showcases (one of the power up tokens even literally gets tossed at Takumi out of nowhere). Hell, some of the random accessories like Kusaka's missile platform bike Transformer get like, two episodes maybe before no one ever mentions it. Sure, sometimes some of the newer Heisei shows try to over-hype these super forms to the point of exhaustion or whatever, but Faiz is the exact opposite where it ends up making these super forms feel absolutely un-exciting. 

There is an alternate-universe movie, Paradise Lost, which features our heroes in a post-apocalyptic world where the Orphnochs have taken over the world and humanity is the rebel forces fighting the Orphnochs. It's... bizarre, and will start a trend for many Heisei movies up until Den-O taking place in alternate universes.

So yeah. Faiz is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me because I did enjoy watching through it. And I absolutely love the main characters and their suits. But in no way am I going to ever say that this is a solid show objectively. I think I enjoyed it a bit too much to ever call it the worst show ever, and the show certainly has a lot of good things going for it, as my review keeps trying to say. It's just that generally poor writing and poor handling of plot points end up sort of causing this show to be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask Bosses

I don't think it's an exaggeration for me to say that the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a strong contender for my favourite Legend of Zelda game of all time. Its graphics is sure outdated now, and even the 3DS remake doesn't really bring it up to current HD standards or whatever, but I really do still love this game. I'm not here to talk about the gameplay or the story or the vibe of the game as a whole... but it's still basically my favourite in terms of the trippy world-building, the gameplay mechanics, the storyline, and the very dream-like vibe of whatever is going on.

To the uninitiated, Majora's Mask works off of the same N64 engine that Ocarina of Time ran on, so the developers were able to re-utilize a lot of the combat mechanics and general assets from that game, allowing them to focus more on designing the story and how everything else fits together in the game. And you don't have to play Ocarina to play Majora's Mask... but it sure really feels like such a more complete experience.

We covered the normal monsters before, now we're going to cover the overworld bosses, minibosses and dungeon bosses!


Skull Keeta
We'll start off with the 'overworld bosses'. Majora's Mask is kind of interesting in that each area (the swamp, the snow mountains, the great bay and the canyon) all have their own stories and storylines that you have to complete before tackling each respective dungeon, and for the fourth segment, the Ikana Canyon, some of the fights involve you fighting against, well, bosses. I'm not going to spoil the entire story but Skull Keeta is basically the gigantic captain of the now-undead Ikana forces. In practice, he's basically a giant Stalchild with two tiny hands on top of his head, and Link basically has to re-enact Skull Keeta's final battle in order to get him to properly 'rest', allowing him to properly pass on his 'duty' to Link. Pretty fun, and the fact that Keeta is a giant is always something that the game never explains.


Igos du Ikana
You fight King Igos du Ikana and his two unique-model bodyguards in the former throne room of the Ikana Kingdom, all of whom have been brought back to life because of the emergence of the Stone Tower. The two bodyguards basically are reskinned versions of the Stalfos from Ocarina of Time, although I do like that they added the simple addition of making them take on the trope of 'one skinny guy, one fat guy'. It's a simple thing, and they could've simply made Igos's two bodyguards regular Stalfoses without changing much, but I liked that they went the extra route. Igos himself looks real fancy with that ornate cape, sword and shield (particularly in the artwork and the MM3D remaster)

Igos himeslf fights like a regular Stalfos, but he does have a bunch of wacky attacks befitting a boss fight, including a poison gas breath, and his head will split off from his body and fly around at one point. There's a fun bit of vampire-esque goodness to the fight, where Link has to permanently 'destroy' Igos and his bodyguards' bodies by dealing the finishing blow on the parts of the throne room where the sunlight shines down. A very, very fun little battle, even if design-wise the Ikana characters are just ultimately fantasy skeleton people.

Mini-Bosses:

Dinolfos
The Dinolfos have a minor role in Ocarina of Time, only showing up in the Gerudo Training Grounds. In Majora's Mask, however, a Dinolfos (alternatively Dinolfols in the original translation) is the first mini-boss you fight, and the Dinolfos is particularly deadly at the stage of the game you meet him in. The Dinolfos breathes fire, and fire means instant-death for your poor Deku Scrub form. I honestly kind of debated putting the Dinolfos in the 'regular enemies' segment, because as the game goes on multiple Dinolfosi keeps showing up as mini-bosses in different parts of the game.


Gekko (and Friends)
You fight Gekko as a mini-boss twice, and I absolutely love Gekko. Look at this absolutely manic-looking orange-and-black frog! That facial expression is perfect, and I absolutely love the bright colours on this one. Gekko first shows up as the second miniboss in Woodfall Temple, and he's a kung fu frog! He has a Snapper buddy that he rides around in, and it's a fun chaotic race as you have to try and take out the Snapper (who is a known quantity) while also trying to figure out what the Gekko can do. And while he's a frog and not exactly a gecko, he can crawl around the ceiling and walls. Interestingly, when you beat the Gekko up, he reverts into turning into a teeny-tiny regular-sized frog. Okay?

The Gekko reappears with its buddy, the Mad Jelly, in the third dungeon, Great Bay Temple. It's an interesting way to bring back a boss that's a familiar face but fights in an utterly different way. Initially it just seems like it's similar to the first Gekko-Snapper fight, with the Gekko spawning in a room with a bunch of jelly minions, but then all the jelly combine together into a massive orb, which will bounce up and down and try and trap Link inside. In the jelly, the Gekko will kung-fu kick you while you're stuck and immobile. The way to defeat him, of course, is to freeze the Mad Jelly and beat him up. Kind of a pretty cool concept, and honestly, a lot of this probably wouldn't work if the design of the Gekko and its shit-eating grin wasn't so perfect.



Wizzrobe
I completely forgot we got a 3D Wizzrobe long, long before Breath of the Wild gave us its version of the Wizzrobe. honestly, I'm not sure why I found this version of the Wizzrobe somewhat forgettable. The Wizzrobe acts as both of the miniboss in the Snowhead Mountain dungeon, and it's kind of interesting that their first attempt at reimagining the Wizzrobe in 3D has them become these wizened wizards. I've always thought that the Wizzrobe's charm is how stout and short he is, but these lanky wizards waving around their staves are pretty neat. I do like that a lot of the Wizzrobe's attacks are kind of a neat homage to its 2D counterpart, including summoning illusion clones, and shooting elemental blasts.

Like the Dinolfos, the Wizzrobe soon becomes a bit of a degraded miniboss, also showing up in various parts of Ikana Castle, the Sacred Shrine and the Stone Tower Temple. While the original two Wizzrobes in Snowhead Mountains are obviously ice Wizzrobes, you meet Fire Wizzrobes later on too. Not much to say here, a pretty serviceable reimagination of a classic Zelda enemy.

Wart
He's always called 'Wart' in the Japanese games, but in other games it's translated as 'Arrghus'. Like the Hiploop, Majora's Mask retains Wart's Japanese name. This is unmistakably good ol' Arrghus, though! Acting as the miniboss in Great Bay Temple, Wart is a pretty fun 3D interpretation of one of the most memorable 2D Zelda minibosses. Arrghus/Wart has always been one of the most visually memorable bosses, being a giant eyeball surrounded by a cluster of tiny little eyeball-tumours. I do really like the really madcap vibe of this fight, too, with Link having to hurry and rip the little mini-Warts off of him with his Hookshot or just lob bombs at the big guy. As with any Zelda boss with giant eyeballs, all you have to do is to shoot Wart's eyes with eyeballs... but all the polyps that rotate around him makes it hard to get a good shot in. And if you remove all the polyps, it will just rampage and spin around the room in high speed.

Honestly, I've always loved giant eyeball monsters. I'm not sure just what is it about giant eyeballs that make them feel so much like a fantasy monster. I dunno, eyeballs are both threatening and vulnerable-looking at the same time, I guess. It goes without saying, but Wart, like most of the minibosses, would show up later in a miniboss gauntlet.


Eyegore
Oh man, the pun. Eyegore, Igor, Eye-Gore, get it? I genuinely completely forgot that the Eyegores actually showed up in the 2D games as these rather weak-looking statues with a single eye, but here they've been reimagined into a pretty cool looking monster that looks like it spends its weekdays working as a Yu-Gi-Oh monster and its weekends moonlighting as Ultraman's enemy. I really like this design, although I do have an admitted weakness for monsters with huge eyeballs. I like its weird, thin body, the fact that the arms are attached to the side of the eyes, and its two giant claw-arms. They are not exactly mini-bosses, but there are only two of them and they honestly behave like one. They're cool. Their kinda-bug-like carapace can withstand all of Link's attacks, and they can summon rockslides! And, naturally, the big eye is the key, if it glows differently Link needs to poke it with an arrow.


Garo Master
The boss of all the Garos you meet in the game is this guy, the miniboss of the Stone Tower Temple. The artwork doesn't make it clear, but the Garo Master is a straight-up giant, towering over Link and looking pretty impressive with that bizarre white mask and glowing empty sleeves. The Garo Master fights Link with twin fiery blades, and even Tatl tells you that there's nothing you can do but focus on dodging his swords. Which... well, basically means that you really need to get good at swordfighting. There's a way to cheese the fight with your Goron mode, but for the most part the Garo Master is one of those bosses in video games where you just have to rely on the reflexes you've honed for playing the game for so long to beat him. I've honestly never been the biggest fan of the Garos, but I do admit that the Garo Master boss fight was pretty damn memorable.


Gomess
One of the more popular minibosses is Gomess, who shows up randomly near the end of the Stone Tower Temple, and isn't an obvious 'oh random giant monster' like many other monsters, nor does he have any sort of story like the Garo Master, Igos du Ikana or the Skull Kid. And look at that design, huh? A reaper-like wraith in all black, with a giant scythe, glowing green eyes and a huge grinning mouth that looks like it belongs to a character in A Nightmare Before Christmas, Gomess arrives in combat with a giant swarm of bats, and I think it's meant to depict the bats forming his cloak or something. I remembered that there's a lot of questions and theories on just what the hell Gomess is, where he comes from, and how he relates to the rest of the lore... but honestly, why can't he be just a giant bat-shadow-demon guy? No one out there questions where Wart or Gekko came from, after all.

Still, I really do find him pretty cool. I don't think I really remember him all that fondly mostly because for all his badass design he's kind of a disappointment as a boss fight (spam Light Arrows = win) but I do appreciate the dedication to making him the sort of boss that would be memorable even though unlike the other minibosses Gomess only shows up exactly once in the entire game.
________________________

Dungeon Bosses:

Masked Jungle Warrior: Odolwa

The very first dungeon boss takes place in the Woodfall Temple, the source of corruption, the toxification of the swamps and all the problems that are plaguing the nearby Deku Scrub people -- which is going to be a running theme as you find out that each quarter of Termina has its inhabitants plagued by a certain people. And at each of the four dungeons is a powerful masked creature created by the main antagonist which in turn holds one of the four giants captive... it all makes sense (or doesn't; this is a trippy game) if you play through the story. Our main business is, after all, the monsters. 

The first boss is the masked tribal warrior Odolwa... which I feel would raise a bunch of raised eyebrows if he debuted now. Still, neither Odolwa nor the Woodfall Temple really ends up being 100% based on any certain specific tribal culture, which I feel is why he can get a bit of a pass, and he's just a pretty generic giant masked tribal man with a giant sword and shield. He's also got a pretty awesome battle theme with chanting in the background. Design-wise he's honestly kind of just generic and it's more of the atmosphere of the background chanting and the animations of him jumping around and ululating that really makes him stand out. He's got a bunch of interesting tricks -- summoning beetle minions, creating rock slides, creating giant rings of fire, in addition to some spinning sword attacks. Pretty basic, but honestly, the combination of the difficulty curve of Majora's Mask and the sheer vibe of this savage tribal warrior is just pretty fun. 

Thanks to the Groundhog Day rules of Majora's Mask, you can (and will have to) battle the bosses multiple times, and the first time you return and start beating up on Odolwa with a fully kitted-out Link you will feel like a badass. 

Masked Mechanical Monster: Goht

I have to be honest that I thought that all four bosses were going to be bosses revolving around masks. And you sure do loot the masks of the four bosses, but honestly only Odolwa's tribal-mask really fits into a whole 'mask' theme. I'm not complaining, though, because the other four bosses are very fun encounters. Goht is a giant robotic goat-monster with a mask that gives him the face of a stern-looking human, and I genuinely feel that the combination of an animal's body and a human-like mask (especially since it's so comparatively small compared to Goht's huge red beard thing) makes him feel so much more unsettling. 

You fight Goht as you transform into a Goron, and that leads to one of the most fun Zelda boss fights ever as Goht runs around a circular-shaped track, while you spin around like a goddamn wheel and chase him around and try to ram onto Goht as you spin around. In the battle Goht himself sort of shoots out lightning balls, laser beams and uses his horns to knock down rocks and bombs to harass Link... and this ends up being easily one of the most surprisingly fun interface-change boss fights I've ever seen in an older game, and honestly I still rate Goht's boss fight pretty highly among all the Zelda bosses I've faced. My only real complaint is that I kinda wished that maybe his attacks were more thematically ice-themed, since isn't he the monster that summons the blizzard that laid waste to the Goron lands? A very cool boss fight as a whole package. 

Gargantuan Masked Fish: Gyorg

Likewise, design wise, Gyorg is a pretty freaking boring monster. It's just a monster fish with some extra spikes and weird-looking fins. Pretty cool, but as a giant monster in the same level of Goht or Twinmold? Or comparing him to the likes of Volvagia or Twinrova from the previous game? A giant angry piranha isn't super threatening. But on the other hand, Gyorg (his name borrows from 'gyo', Japanese for fish) is also known as one of the most punishing bosses in Legend of Zelda's entire history. I personally never had that much trouble with him, although I admittedly do find him the hardest of Majora's Mask's five main bosses. 

The fight against him is pretty cool, it's a giant pool with a central platform, and you have to fight Gyorg and his many, many spawn in the area. And whether you are in your human form sniping Gyorg from afar or turning into a Zora to fight Gyorg underwater, he will have a way to damage you a lot, either by chomping down on you underwater, or ramming onto the central platform to knock you into the water. Ultimately, a boss that's mostly memorable for the sheer difficulty and speed that he fights you with. It's an interesting inversion from a game like Twilight Princess, which had real wicked-cool looking bosses that are a bit underwhelming, whereas Majora's Mask's bosses are pretty simple but the fights are memorably different.

Giant Masked Insect: Twinmold

Oh, it's two giant Moldorms! Moldorms are my bane in the 2D games, and for some inexplicable reason I never had any good luck with those hamburger worm bastards. Twinmold here is a bit more of a serious take on the concept of a giant subterranean worm compared to the classic Moldorms, and I do really like the face that it has (especially since we steal that 'mask') with three eyes and giant centipede claws. Even moreso than the other three bosses prior to it, Twinmold is an interesting fight in that after trans-versing the Stone Tower (despite its simple name, it's a trippy mindfuck place) and randomly arriving onto a vast expanse of a desert. And then you see two gigantic Dune tapeworms that can float through the sky! There are two of them, one red, and one blue, and I do find the animation of them almost peacefully snaking through the sky before slamming back down to be pretty cool. 

Twinmold's weak spots are their head and tail, and... it's remarkably difficult for you to catch up with the giant undulating worms, or to aim and shoot fast enough before it moves away. You can beat Twinmold that way, but the faster way is for you to find the Giant's Mask, become a giant and fucking Ultraman-punch the god damn giant worms to death. That sure is a very, very cool fight for sure!

Worth noting that both Twinmold and Gyorg got extra weak spots in Majora's Mask 3D, which added some extra eyeballs for you to shoot arrows into. Get on my level and fight them N64 style, n00bs!

Majora's Mask / Majora's Incarnation / Majora's Wrath

So the source of all the problems in this game is Majora's Mask... which is just that purple, creepy mask. What a creepy mask that is, by the way, with the glowing orange eyes and the beady pupils and the spikes all around its heart-shaped vibe. At the beginning of the game, the Majora's Mask is stolen by Termina's local prankster, the scarecrow-like fairy Skull Kid, who became absolutely possessed by the mask and starts to cause all of the havoc that is plaguing Termina -- not limited to unleashing the previous four bosses, but also summoning the all-too-famous giant tortured-face moon to crash down upon Termina. There is a reason to Skull Kid's actions and it's kind of sad, but it's also all but said that Majora's Mask is fucking with Skull Kid's desires and warping them in granting its wishes. 

I also do like just how Majora's Mask really doesn't give two shits in explaining to us what Majora's Mask is and why it's so damn powerful. It's a magic, powerful mask, the story isn't about it, the story is about what it's done to the land of Termina. It's a delightfully mysterious object, and I absolutely loved that. You can maybe piece together theories about what it is, especially since the final dungeon has Link end up in this trippy 'is this heaven?' dimension in a peaceful, bright meadow with a single tree, five children with the masks of the previous bosses and a couple of small extra-dungeons... before you fight Majora's Mask itself. 

And the first phase of Majora's Mask? It's just the mask, floating around with a couple of extra blood-red tendrils around it, and it attacks Link hilariously by spinning around like a goddamn shuriken. Eventually it gets faster and faster, start shooting eye beams, and summons the masks of the four bosses which would help it to shoot laser beams and stuff. And then Majora's Mask transforms into its second phase, Majora's Incarnation, which is the mask but it grows gangly legs, arms and a little neck-and-eyeball, making the heart-shaped mask its body. A hilarious looking thing, honestly... and one that jumps around and dances as you fight it. Hey, you're fighting a mask of madness, let it dance, okay? This form, I remembered, was so disarming and you have to really chase it down either with your arrow-shooting skills or simply using a faster form (like the Goron spinning attack or the Bunny Hood), and it's ultimately this bizarre bit in the midst of two spooky, atmospheric fights where the game is all crazy and shit... but you know what? Considering Majora's Mask, it's a facet of the fight that works. 

The final phase is Majora's Wrath (Majora's Demon Man in its original Japanese) where the creature transforms into a far more humanoid, 'serious' mode. The Majora's Mask pattern is still on his torso and abdomen, and the little eye from Incarnation is still on its forehead... and... it's kind of an admittedly boring final form, especially compared to just how absurdly bizarre everything else involving the mask is. I dunno what I expected. Something that involves the Skull Kid, or the four bosses, or the four giants, or the Moon... but Majora's Wrath is just a brightly-coloured boss with hands that can turn into whip-tentacles, and is just a 'I attack fast and hard' boss. And don't get me wrong, it's a pretty challenging phase and you really need to aim properly to get your light arrows in to stun him. Ultimately, while the final phase is kind of a downer (in visuals; the actual boss fight is tense as hell) I do think that as a whole package, between being an antagonist that has been fucking with you from the start of the adventure and all of the bizarre trippy visuals in the final dungeon, Majora's Mask is still one of my favourite final antagonists in Zelda. 

______________________________________

And... and there you have it, we've marked another Zelda game down! This one was a bit hard to do, because I know that Majora's Mask is a game whose bosses and creatures are so much more enhanced by the story and the vibe behind it and I don't want to downplay that. I'll try to at least do a couple more Zelda reviews, though -- if nothing else, I definitely do want to get through Twilight Princess, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. 

Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask

I don't think it's an exaggeration for me to say that the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a strong contender for my favourite Legend of Zelda game of all time. Its graphics is sure outdated now, and even the 3DS remake doesn't really bring it up to current HD standards or whatever, but I really do still love this game. I'm not here to talk about the gameplay or the story or the vibe of the game as a whole... but it's still basically my favourite in terms of the trippy world-building, the gameplay mechanics, the storyline, and the very dream-like vibe of whatever is going on.

To the uninitiated, Majora's Mask works off of the same N64 engine that Ocarina of Time ran on, so the developers were able to re-utilize a lot of the combat mechanics and general assets from that game, allowing them to focus more on designing the story and how everything else fits together in the game. And you don't have to play Ocarina to play Majora's Mask... but it sure really feels like such a more complete experience.

We've covered them all when I covered Ocarina of Time, but due to being kind of a sequel game, Majora's Mask features a lot of returning enemies from Ocarina of Time. Some (like the Peahat) are cheeky little easter eggs hidden here and there, but for the most part, the following creatures all return -- Skulltula, Golden Skulltula, Deku Baba, Withered Deku Baba, Leever, Guay, Wolfos, Wallmaster, Mad Scrub, the various Bubbles, the various Keese, Dodongo, Peahat, Freezard, Tektite, Like Like, Stalchild, Poe, Big Poe, Shell Blade, Octorok, ReDead, Gibdo, Beamos, Armor, plus minibosses Iron Knuckle, Big Octo and the Four Poe Sisters.

That's a lot of enemies that are returning, but Majora's Mask still adds a bunch of brand new enemies in the game, and let's go through them!

This review, by the way, was a pretty long time coming. I put it off for easily more than two years. Better late than never, though!


Chuchu
Three Chuchu variants appear in the game, and it's very, very interesting that this is the Chuchu's first appearance. In other Zelda games the Chuchus tend to go for a more 'cute' look, with the most enduring look being this one from Wind Waker, although thanks to the immense success of that game I imagine BOTW's Chuchus to be how most people imagine the creatures looking like as the default. The original Chuchus, on the other hand, are these sad blobs of slime with giant, sad grins and sad-looking eyes on slug-stalks. They just look so utterly pathetic, and they're weak and quite literally exist for Link to beat them up to take the treasure that are visibly displayed inside -- Green Chuchu drop magic potions, Red Chuchu drop hearts, Yellow Chuchu drop arrows... while Blue Chuchus just kind of suck. I feel like a 'slime' enemy was the one that's perhaps the most missing out of the fantasy monster tropes in Ocarina of Time, so having the Chuchu introduced not just in this game but to the franchise as a whole is very welcome.


Bad Bat
We'll get this one out of the way first, because... shit, they're basically just larger Keese with a slightly different model. I think the difference in the gimmick is that Bad Bats like to hide in trees and cave walls and then swoop down at you, but otherwise they function similarly to Keese, sans the ability to channel elements.


Giant Bee
Oh hey, it's a giant bee! A very pixelated one at that. Not much to say here, Majora's Mask has these little bees that will attack you if you disturb their nest. Bees and hornets terrify me, and I approve that many video games put them in as threatening enemies. We'll be getting the 'regular animals' out of the way first.


Moth
FUCK these things with a rusty rod. I don't tend to talk too much about how hard or how annoying an enemy is in-game when doing these monster reviews, but seriously, fuck these hell moths of doomy doom. They will basically swarm around Link if he carries a stick on fire. Makes sense, right? Moths are attracted to fire... but they will straight up steal Link's fire and there's no real way to kill them other than to waste one of your preciously limited bombs, and they basically act as a little annoying way to 'time' these light-a-torch puzzles. Neat in concept, horribly irritating in execution.


Takkuri
Look at these ugly bastards, with their exaggerated and cartoonishly large bald heads, weird puffy ears and nasty-looking eyes. The designers really want to emphasize what utter rat bastards the Takkuri (they borrow their names from the Japanese word for 'purse snatcher') are -- they're not content to just peck and attack you like the Guays (who also appear as the 'basic' bird enemy) but the Takkuri will straight up swoop in, steal one of Link's items, and fly off. Sometimes it's just rupees, which are money and that's annoying but not disabling if you can't get it back... but the Takkuri might also very well steal either your sword or one of your empty bottles and just spirit it away. While we never see what goes on behind the scenes, whatever item that the Takkuri steals will end up in Clock Town's Curiousity Shop. Is there like, some mysterious underground fencing system going on in Termina, where evil robber birds are able to pawn the things they sell?


Mini Baba
Sort of a variant of the Deku Baba, which the game designers honestly correctly recognizes as one of the cooler enemies in Ocarina of Time. Hey, people making Breath of the Wild 2? Less generic humanoid blin-clone enemies and more weirdo creatures like this, thanks. The Mini Babas are implied to be like, an immature version of the Deku Baba, since all they do is have their flower-mouths jut out of the ground and clatter and try to chomp on Link. They don't have the serpent-like stalks that their larger siblings are known for!



Bio Deku Baba
Of course, we don't just get a weaker version, but also a stronger version! The Bio Deku Baba inhabits watery areas almost exclusively, and they hang upside-down from lily pads, with little stick hands that allow them to wiggle around. A good chunk of the game involves Link transforming into a Zora (a fish man!) so we have a bunch of new water-themed enemies. It's an aquatic carnivorous plant, it's something like a bladderwort! Hilariously, if Link slices off their stalks, they will sprout googly eyes and will crawls around with their little stick-figure hands, making them into very hilarious-looking little Pac-Man like enemies with adorable googly-woogly eyes. Extremely comical, and I love it.


Snapper
Not much to say here, the first area (and the one with proportionally the most new enemies) is the Southern Swamp and Woodfall Temple, the main major areas you first go into. The Snappers are just kind of cute snapping turtles with adorable eyes and a nicely-textured shell, and I absolutely love the little GAG-WAG soundbyte they make when they are about to attack. Unlike real turtles, the Snappers attack by retracting their head and limbs and spinning around like a goddamn Beyblade towards Link. Early on the only way you can beat the Snapper is to transform into Deku Scrub Link, hide inside a flower and then shoryuken the Snappers from beneath when they spin above where Deku Link is hiding. Later on, the Snapper become more and more of a convenience once Link has obtained the bombs or the Goron form. This is what I really like about pre-BOTW Legend of Zelda games, where some enemies that are originally troublesome to defeat ends up being so much more easier to take down as you unlock more and more powers.


Dragonfly
I genuinely can't find a good picture of the Dragonfly online, and I have no idea how to screenshot my 3DS. But suffice to say that Termina's Dragonflies are nothing like real-life dragonflies, but are more like some bizarre wasp-like creature with a creepily lizard-like head. Instead of stingers, their tails are actually electrified. It's such a weird creature, and looks pretty threatening since they're a bit larger than Link's Deku form, but your fairy buddy Tatl makes it clear that they're actually harmless, and will only really be harmful if you try to fly around without clearing all of the Dragonflies in the area first.


Hiploop
The enemy called 'Hiploop' in all Japanese Zelda games have all been translated as the 'Helmasaur' in the 2D and have all looked like reptilian dinosaurs. In Majora's Mask, however, the Hiploops are... weird beetles with petal-like wings and a blue helmet over their face? It's very weird-looking, and I do really like how they look with their two glowing eyes and their cute little buggy animations. Just like traditional 2D Helmasaurs, the Hiploops always inhabit narrow pathways and platforms and will try to knock Link off, and, of course, it's their butts that are the most vulnerable.


Carnivorous Lily Pad
Alternatively called 'Wicked Flower' since there isn't an official name for a non-Tatl-targettable enemy, I want to give a little nod to these guys that litter the Woodfall Temple. Link will have to jump and transverse a bunch of lilypads on the surface of ponds and rivers... but then sometimes you'll have these obviously-bad-news Lily Pads that will chomp you and spit you out into the damaging acid-water that they grow in. The only way you can hop on them is if you turn into your Deku Scrub form, and apparently these Lily Pads don't mind the pitter-patter of little plant feet! I like them, they've got an eyeball at their center.


Real Bombchu
"Real" Bombchu is a bit of a joke that needs you to kind of play the game to get, because in both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, one of the items available for Link to use is the 'Bombchu', a bomb shaped like a mouse that will skitter towards the enemy. (Chu, as anyone who has played Pokemon will tell you, is the onomatopoeia for the voice a mouse makes in Japan.) So in Termina apparently Real Bombchu exist! They're just squat rats with bombs on their tails and a hilariously over-the-top manic looks on their faces. They just charge at Link and blow themselves up. Kind of a hilariously weird addition to the game for sure.


Boe
Hahaha, what are these things? The first time you meet a Boe is the Black Boe variant in Woodfall Temple, when you fall off a ledge into one of the darker levels... and then like a whole dozen of these glowing red-and-yellow eyes appear and they are just these wispy black blobs that jump and attack you. Tatl just tells you to 'calm down and attack it, there's just a lot of them'. I'm not sure what they're supposed to be, the name doesn't tell us much. Are they shadows? Ghosts? Furry spherical creatures? The White Boes, at least, are a bit more easy to tell what they are, they're snow-blobs, and they spawn in the snowy areas of the Snowhead Region.


Eeno
The Snowhead Region doesn't actually have a whole lot of new enemies, mostly just reusing assets of older ice-themed enemies (Ocarina was meant to have an ice-themed area, but they ended up reducing it to a short dungeon instead, so there were a lot of assets to use), but the ones that they added are neat! The Eeno are honestly really memorable mostly because of their very sad looking faces, and I do like that they're basically just blobby snow-masses with arms that chuck snowballs at you. The larger versions will split into three smaller Eenos upon death. Pretty neat enemy!


"Them"
As part of a little side-quests involving defending Romani's Ranch from what was supposed to be 'aliens' or 'ghosts'. It's a fun mini-game that revolves around a parody of alien encounters, where Link's investigation of the missing cows of Romani's Ranch leads him into finding that the aliens (which descend from a red star) are these bizarre, floating ghost-like creatures with a weird quasi-triangular heads, zombie hands and searchlight eyes. Link fights them in basically a 'base defense' minigame, and these alien-ghosts can only be beaten with arrows. I thought they were just weird Poes back when I first played Majora's Mask, but turns out they are based on a real-life alleged alien encounter, the iconic Flatwoods Monster, a design that has been proven to be surprisingly popular in some Japanese media. Majora's Mask never really explains what aliens are doing in Termina, or if they are really aliens and not just weird ghosts or whatever... but honestly, it just adds to the bizarre charm of 'what is going on' in Termina.


Deep Python
After the swamp-forest area, and the ice-themed Snowhead Peaks, the third major area is the Great Bay, a beach that leads to a lot of water-themed locations. And so we have a bunch of new aquatic enemies! My favourite has to be the Deep Python, which, granted, have heads that look more like bizarre beaked dragons or something, but behave more or less like moray eels. There's one area where it's just this deep underwater chasm with the giant pythons slowly coming in and out of caves like moray eels. Need!


Skullfish
Oh hey it's a skeleton fish! Nothing much to say here, making a creature into a skeleton is a very, very easy way for audiences to go 'gotcha, it's an evil creature'. Zelda, interestingly, never has any real monster that's a proper 'necromancer' or whatever. Undead monsters just spontaneously exist exist. Skullfish are the 'weak' enemies of the underwater areas, dying to everything in Link's arsenal in his Zora form.


Desbreko
Desbreko is an even bigger undead fish, actually large enough to chomp down on Link. They're not that much difficult than the Skullfish, but they are actually a decent fight. I like the more detailed fish head and fins, and how it manages to look so much more threatening with a different head. Apparently, according to the wiki, Desbreko's Japanese name (Death Pleco) borrows from Plecostomus, a genus of... catfish? Those weird sucker-mouthed fishes that you use to clean moss in your aquarium? Yeah, that wasn't what I was expecting.


Dexihand
One of the cooler-looking enemies is the Dexihand, which are all underwater, and I absolutely love the very thin, tapering fingers on this thing that end in E.T. style bulbs. I also really like how the arm moving up towards the hand is stylized to look like it didn't grow properly. Since they are underwater they might just be mutated seaweed that resemble human hands, but at the same time it is Zelda so having them actually be creepy disembodied human hands or ghosts would work just as well. They function like less annoying Floormasters/Wallmasters, their fellow hand monsters. Instead of teleporting Link to the beginning of the dungeon, though, the Dexihand just grabs Link and bashes him into the seafloor.


Nejiron
The fourth and final area is a desert area filled with a lost civilization, most of which have been turned into skeletons... nevermind, I guess in Majora's Mask, we actually do have an explanation for the undead! Not all the enemies in the Ikana Canyon are skeletons, though. We also have the Nejiron, whose names mean 'twisted Goron'. Nejirons initially resemble Gorons with spindlier limbs, but have far more dopey eyes. They attack by rolling at Link and can be bombed to hell. It's kind of a weird enemy, I really don't have much to say here.


Garo
More interesting are the Garo, which are strange, hooded figures with two glowing eyes, and weird, almost puppet-like legs sticking out of that giant, hooded cloak. And they dual-wield curved blades... or are their arms simply just be blades? They are the ancient enemies of the Ikana kingdom before the Ikana were wiped out, and what little we see of the Garo paints them as this noble people with their own strange code of honour. I do really like that before each Garo fights Link, they summon a small arena made out of a wall of flames to keep the battle one-on-one, and apparently it's "the Garo Way" to die without leaving a body. It's one of the few times where Link straight-up fights and kills non-boss enemies that are explicitly stated to be sentient and alive and not ambiguously maybe-it's-smart-like-a-dog-or-a-monkey in the way that the -blin style monsters were shown to be in other games.


Death Armos
The Armos reappear in this game, and the Death Armos basically gets revamped to look more like a knight with a sword and a shield instead of the monstrous, vaguely Tiki-head-looking regular Armos in the N64 games. This also has the bonus effect of making the Armos look like some of their 2D appearances! The Death Armos only shows up in the Stone Tower Temple, and are so tough that, well, you need to aim your arrows at that specific spot on its chest, causing it to flip upside-down and render it vulnerable. Not much to say here, although I always do like it when monsters have one or two stronger variants that you meet in the story.
_________________

And that's it for the first batch of Majora's Mask monsters. Majora's Mask doesn't have a lot of bosses and the dungeons rely more on length than amount to fill in time, but I do have enough to say about the overworld bosses and minibosses too. So see you guys next time for the rest of Majora's Mask monsters!