Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess Bosses

 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Otherwise known as 'my favourite Zelda game'! We'll covering the bosses this time around. Now Twilight Princess is an interesting game in that in addition to a lot of huge, traditional dungeons, we also get scripted battles against some bad guys in the overworld, and some of them get like, a 'title' and everything. So yeah, I'm going to cover these guys first from overworld bosses, to dungeon mini-bosses, to the actual dungeon bosses. 

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Overworld Bosses:

King Bulblin (and Lord Bullbo)

Actually low-key one of my favourite parts of the game is the fact that you keep bumping into this guy. I think you fight this huge leader of the Bulblins like three or four times, and in a very refreshing change of pace, despite playing into the trope of a fat leader of an orc-like race, King Bulblin is constantly portrayed as a badass throughout the game. And he's got a big horned devil-pig that he rides around... but King Bulblin himself is never actually played up as a joke, not in the way that I actually legitimately expect him to. It's an interesting amount of respect that's being paid to a character with a design that traditionally would get the characterization of a 'dumb brute' or a comedic villain, and yet instead King Bulblin, if anything, ends up being this badass worthy opponent warrior at the end of the game. 

He's the first of the game's recurring villains that Link meets, kidnapping the children from his village (because of... uh... I'm not sure why, actually), and Link fights him multiple times in pretty cool horseback sequences. And while King Bulblin himself is honestly just kind of a serviceable design, it's the fights against him -- there's a pursuit throughout the entire Hyrule Field; a horseback-vs-pigback joust on the Bridge of Eldin... then king Bulblin shows up on pigback with shield. And then he shows up again when Link assaults the Bulblin stronghold, where he fights you with an axe. Then finally, you fight him in the final dungeon, in Hyrule Castle, as part of a miniboss gauntlet. Again, I really do like just how much this enemy ends up being a fun recurring element in the game... and even actually concedes defeat to Link (he can talk!) and decides to 'follow the strongest side'. He sadly doesn't actually join Link in fighting Ganondorf, but he actually survives to lead his Bulblin people in peace as they ride around Gerudo Desert in the game's epilogue. 

He's overall not that important to the story of the game, but I appreciate him so much as a narrative tool and, in a franchise that has mostly treated most 'monstrous' enemies as being disposable, giving us a story of a sympathetic member of these monsters.

Twilit Carrier Kargarok

We talked about the Shadow/Twilit Kargaroks before, but at some point in the game you fight a particularly massive one with a Twilit Bulblin rider. I feel like maybe they could've done a bit more to make this monster design memorable, but I did gush about how much I like the Twilit Kargarok design and seeing it just bigger isn't a bad move. Interestingly, after you take out the rider in the boss fight, the Carrier Kargarok actually becomes your buddy and helps to 'carry' you around. 

Twilit Bloat

So throughout the game you've been freeing parts of Hyrule from being stuck in Twilight by finding and destroying the little Shadow Insects holding on to the fragments of the region's 'Light'... and in one of the final regions that you have to free, the Lanaryu region, as you go around looking for the Shadow Insects... turns out that one of them have mutated into a giant monster! Twilit Bloat here is a pretty nasty design, and... and sure, it's got a fat grub-bug body and a nasty mouth that would make a lot of real-life spiders and beetles jealous. But the most striking and nasty feature has to be those legs, which don't even look like arthropod legs anymore and more like the heads of some sort of parasitic... thing. I'm not sure what they remind me of... sea cucumbers, I guess? Or intestines? A very, very nasty-looking insect and one that just ends up looking so much creepier than if it was just a big fat fly monster. 

For some reason, the Twilit Bloat is able to summon electricity to attack Link, and, also predictably, those writhing pustulent legs are the weak points. 

Skull Kid

One of the more memorable aspects of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, this new incarnation of Skull Kid looks a lot more like a creepy puppet, and hoo boy, that face. Looka t that face, with that wide grin and glowing red eyes. Despite it all, as with most previous incarnations, the Skull Kid is actually just a mischievous prick living in the forest whose 'fight' with you is more of a little game, simultaneously guiding Link through the bizarre Lost Woods (you need to follow the trumpet song he's making) while also launching his Puppet armada at you. You fight him twice, and I honestly really love this guy. He's so creepy!

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Mini-Bosses:

Ook

The miniboss of the Forest Temple is this guy, a crazy baboon that is wielding the item that Link needs to obtain from the temple, the Gale Boomerang. The Forest Temple also has another 'pseudo-miniboss' in the single unique enemy, the Big baba... and I dunno. I like Ook in principle, the game gives him a fun voice and whatnot, but as just a crazy baboon slapping his ass at you, Ook is kind of an underwhelming enemy visually. Link eventually frees Ook from the Shadow Insect controlling him, and he'll help you and show up in the final boss as a Bombling delivery service. 

Dangoro

The miniboss of Goron mines, Dangoro is, like Ook, not particularly impressive. I do comment Twilight Princess for giving the Gorons and Zoras a fair bit more body variety (i.e. two or three different models instead of just the one) and Dangoro here is another example of them. He's just this huge ogre-Goron with armour plates grafted onto his rocky parts, though. His boss fight, at least, is more memorable than Ook's, mostly because you're fighting him on a wobbling magnetic platform suspended by fraying chains. Hilariously, the fight against Dangoro is more of a misunderstanding; he's a security guard who didn't get the memo that you're here to free his boss from mind control!

Deku Toad

A mistranslation of his Japanese name, Degu Todo ('Giant Toad'), the Deku Toad is the 'adult' form of the Toadpolis we've been fighting throughout the game. He's the miniboss of the Lakebed Temple and I really do like just how utterly large and gross this guy is,  and just how creepily tiny his legs are. How can those legs support that massive, dinosaurian body? I like those little feathery antennae, and in a behaviour that is clearly based on those weird frogs and toads that carry eggs on their back (like the Surinam Toad), the Deku Toad has a bunch of little eggs that will hatch into Toado, which are like legless Toadpoli that somewhat resemble pufferfishes or something.

It's sort of an Arrghus-style boss fight, actually, with the Deku Toad shaking off her eggs and causing them to hatch into swarming nuisance while the Deku Toad herself jumps around and attempts to smoosh Link with her massive body. Ultimately you have to try and find an opportunity to stun her then either bomb her mouth or slash at her exposed tongue. Not the most complex fight, but a fun one nonetheless. 

I also like that we basically get a full picture of the Toadpoli's life cycle, with them going from Toados to Toadpolis to the Deku Toads.

Death Sword

Visually, he's just a robed specter with a horned skull-head with a giant skull. A bit of a novelty for a Zelda boss fight, which tend to not go for typical demons and ghosts, but Death Sword here has a pretty cool introduction. You stumble into a room with a gigantic cleaver sword longer than Link is tall, chained to the ground with runes on it... and then when Link breaks one of the chains, the sword starts spinning around and attacking Link. Only with his wolf mode sense can Link see Death Sword's true demonic/ghostly form. Interestingly, throughout the fight, the sword is implied to be the true core of the creature, because Link's wolf-mode attacks stun the humanoid part, but it's the damage that Link's human form deals to the sword that ultimately counts. 

After beating him, the Death Sword disintegrates into twilight shards while the humanoid body breaks apart into a swarm of flies. Nothing about this guy is really explained, and I think that it's a bit of a more effective way of handling a boss like Majora's Mask's Gomess. There's just enough story behind Death Sword's room, his fight patterns and the Arbiter's Ground in general to guess what it is, but we don't get any real answers about him. 

Poe

So while the game has a bunch of Imp Poes scattered across Hyrule, four 'adult' Poes show up in Arbiter's Grounds in a homage to the Poe Sisters from Ocarina of Time. These are far more humanoid than a traditional Poe,  with a spooky skull-face, gangly sleeved arms and generally looking like scary specters. And they are actually pretty decent scary specters, I just feel like I don't think I like this design as much as the Imp Poe or the traditional goofy-looking Poes. 

Darkhammer

Known as "Hammer Knuckle" in the original Japanese as an obvious homage to yet another Ocarina of Time miniboss, Iron Knuckle, Darkhammer is a giant lizard man in full armour holding a giant ball-and-chain (which, of course, you steal after beating him). I actually like the fact that the Lizalfoses sort of have this 'boss' among them. The Darkhammer is a boss you fight in Snowpeak Temple, which, when you think about it, is kind of a weird place for a lizard-person to hang out in since lizards don't do well in cold weather. His fight is one that's extra-memorable thanks to the mechanics. It's a cage-match, and Link has to use his Clawshot to Spider-Man up the ceiling and walls and maneuver so he can get behind Darkhammer and beat at his unarmoured tail. 

Darknut

A returning enemy from the 2D games, Twilight Princess's Darknut isn't like, anything super-special. He looks cool, yes, with that black suit of armour and that mohawk and that fun, fancy sword and shield. But it's the execution here. Nevermind the fact that the Darknut is the single most difficult enemy in the game that requires you to actually master at least some of the fancy swordfighting skills (that you could simply not really learn and rely on spin attacks and gadgets) in the game. There aren't any Stalfos-style 'use a bomb, it's the weakness' way to cheese the fight against the Darknut. And while showing up as the miniboss in the Temple of Time, turns out that Ganondorf has a bunch of them just walking around Hyrule Castle in his employ, each of them traveling in pairs!

The Darknut even has a 'super mode' of sorts. Beat a Darknut enough and it will shed its armour, toss his sword at Link, then pull out an even bigger sword to become faster and more aggressive. 

Aeralfos

Sometimes translated as "Aerialfos", these are winged Lizalfos! They serve as a miniboss in the City in the Sky (multiple times, too), and also show up alongside the Darknut as part of a miniboss gauntlet in Hyrule Castle. I really do like that the Aeralfos has the more traditional-looking 'happy gecko' face that the Lizalfos usually have, in addition to, y'know, their wings. I think it really serves to make this design look so much more nimble. 

The Aeralfos miniboss is fought in a room with multiple holes on the ceiling, and it will swoop in and out of it to make targeting it extra-difficult, but later on when you fight the Aeralfos two or three at a time, they're a bit more easy to handle since Link will have the Double Clawshot from beating the first Aeralfos, and would have an easier time pulling these guys down. Not the most impressive miniboss, but I do like that they're giving us like these 'elite' versions of regular enemies. 

Phantom Zant

Oh, like Phantom Ganon, but actually a transparent Zant. The Twilight Palace already has a bunch of Zant avatars in the Zant Heads and Zant Hands going around, so it fits his modus operandi that the miniboss be a version of him, then? That makes him kind of a bland monster, though, particularly since Phantom Zant's fight involves him simply summoning Twilight monsters. The animations for his magic spells are cool, I'll give him that, but he's otherwise kind of unremarkable. 

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Dungeon Bosses:

Twilit Parasite: Diababa

And here we go with the bosses! The boss in the Forest Temple initially appears to just be two giant Deku Baba heads emerging from a pool of poisonous water. Until Link beats them up enough for the true form to appear. It's very video-gamey and I love it; turns out that the original form of the boss are just this guy's hands. Diababa's true form is also pretty cool, an engorged snake-like plant monster with a lower jaw that splits in half, and a tongue with an eyeball on it. Further inspection of his 3D model also reveals that it's got a bunch of bizarre insect-like legs jutting out of his 'spine' and sits on top like this little floating tiny network of roots like a water hyacinth. I'm not entirely sure how the Diababa even eats with that eyeball on its head, but maybe the Diababa only eats with its 'hands'? 

Regardless, though, the Diababa isn't actually a real organic being, but rather, like most of the bosses in the game, turns out to be a manifestation of a "Fused Shadow", a plot device that corrupts and mutates regular beings in this world and turns them into something terrifying. I actually think this aspect isn't shown quite as clearly -- the game also has a sub-plot of the Spirits of Light being corrupted and I'm genuinely surprised that none of the regional Spirits of Light end up being a boss at some point. But oh well. 

One of the biggest complaints I've seen about Twilight Princess is how all the dungeon bosses are vastly far more style-over-substance (especially when you compare it to the mechanics-heavy Majora's Mask bosses). And that's true; the Diababa fight mostly amounts to 'dodge, then do the right thing to make Ook drop bombs on Diababa, then beat the eyeball up'. But while gameplay wise it's a bit of a bummer, I really did find Diababa to be this 'whoa what the fuck' impressive titan of a set piece when I first saw it. 

Twilit Igniter: Fyrus

Or, as he's known in Japan, "Magdoflamoth", a far, far cooler name than the honestly pretty bland "Fyrus". Fyrus here is the mutated form of the Goron leader Darbus, who gets turned into a giant ogre-man with his body constantly on fire. Somehow, the other Gorons are able to chain him up and hold him in place in the center of the Goron Mines, which is where you fight him and remove the shard of corruption on his forehead. Nowhere as epic in scale or design as the other Twilight Princess bosses, and while he's not necessarily a bad enemy design, he does feel pretty underwhelming. 

Twilit Aquatic: Morpheel

"Twilit Aquatic"? That's not even a noun, that's an adjective! Morpheel here is a pretty interesting enemy -- when you first fight him, all you see is his mouth, a fanged lamprey or sarlacc-like mass that takes up the bottom of a massive trench at the bottom of Lakebed Temple, and he's got a mass of watery tendrils, which grow more and more as Link continues to damage the thing. And I think they're trying to make you think that it's just a simple maw-monster boss with little tendrils that make it a homage to Ocarina of Time's Morpha. The initial first phase of the fight is even more or less similar, with Link having to attack a 'nucleus' with a clawshot. Just underwater, and with Morpheel spitting out a bunch of bombfishes from his body. 

Then you damage it enough, and it reveals that all you've been fighting is just the head, and Morpheel himself is a giant bizarre giant eel and... what a badass-looking fish body, huh? This is where the gritty, more realistic graphics really work, I feel, with the grungy texture on Morpheel's body and tail really selling the idea of some sort of aquatic creature like a stonefish or something. That face is also pretty cool, too, being a lamprey mouth surrounded with another fish jaw surrounded by a bunch of aquatic tendrils. 

Unfortunately, despite being one of the most visually badass bosses, Morpheel is perhaps the easiest boss to fight in this form, as long as you know what to do. As it just rampages around the giant trench and completely ignores Link, all you have to do is to know to clawshot all the way up to his vulnerable eyeball, which would kill it. The other Twilight Princess bosses play the 'attack the weak point' trope up to the hilt, but I don't think any of them feels quite as disappointing as eel boy here. 

Twilit Fossil: Stallord

This one is another cool one! We're not sure what Stallord looks like when he's alive, or what the rest of his body is. When you arrive in the final chamber of Arbiter's Grounds, Zant himself shows up and stabs his sword into a random giant beast's skull... and then the beast rises up, revealing that he's still connected to a giant set of ribcage, arms and a spine. The moment that Satllord awakens, the entire chamber swirls around like a massive antlion sand-pit, with the Staltroops buried deep under the ground being constantly reanimated and falling into the pit's swirling sands as much as they do to Link's attacks.

At least in Stallord's case, its weak point feels a lot more sensible. It's his weak, exposed spine, and Link has to use the item he got in the dungeon, the Spinner -- a giant beyblade that Link rides around like a surfboard. Stallord's second phase is also pretty cool, too, because the game actually does fake you out by having his body shatter, his skull's eyes glow giving away and the sand in the room drain. All you have to do is access the final room and claim the plot device, right? Wrong! Because the moment you do activate part of the dungeon, Stallord's head flares back to life and you have to fight him jumping from one pillar to the next while avoiding a flying dinosaur head. It's... it's super-memorable, but very hard to explain because the Spinner is such a weird item in execution. 

Anyway, a very cool giant boss. 

Twilit Ice Mass: Blizzeta

So Snowpeak Temple is a bit of a fun dungeon. It's obviously originally a castle, but two friendly giant yetis have moved into it and are treating the castle as their own home. Which is adorable; you basically help Yeto the male yeti make soup to get his sick wife Yeta better while hunting down ingredients and unlocking parts of the mansion. At one point, though, Yeta stands up and brings you to a room. How's that terrifying Exorcist-style head-neck-snap, though? I saw Yeta being corrupted by the mirror shard from a mile away, but that jump scare did seriously shock me as a kid. 

Like Darbus, Yeta gets transformed into Blizzeta and she's basically constantly encased in a giant ice structure while summoning a bunch of icy pillars around her. It's an interesting look for a boss, and a good chunk of the fight involves the fixed camera meaning that Link has to constantly look at the reflection on the floor to figure out where Blizzeta's attack is coming from. Not my favourite boss fight or boss design, but still kinda neat. 

 

Twilit Arachnid: Armogohma

The dungeon boss of the Temple of Time is the Armogohma, because... again, we're not entirely sure why the Temple of Time is so invaded by the Gohmas. Armogohma, I feel, is a great integration of the Gohma's bizarre 'one-eyed spider' concept and a more realistic spider monster. Look at this guy! Eight legs, two long grasping claws, and a mass of pedipalps and fangs clustered around the face? And then you realize that there's a giant orange eye nestled within a shell that's bizarrely shaped like some kind of armour? Arthropod carapace are already sort of like armour, and I do like just how much the Armogohma's armour kind of blends in with its own body. 

Aside from being a giant spider, Armogohma's giant eyeball is a laser-shooting eyeball, because why not. A pretty fun boss fight, too, because you have to take control of statues in the room to literally swat and bash the bug. In a particularly bizarre bit, though, once Link shatters the armour, turns out that Armogohma isn't even a single creature, but a mass of Baby Gohmas operating a giant suit of armour. What? Click here. That giant eyeball, by the way, is actually the abdomen of the 'real' Armogohma, a far tinier spider that Link has to dispatch while the music turns wacky. 

The actual Armogohma design isn't super impressive, particularly by the franchise's standards, but knowing its true nature makes it so much better.

Twilit Dragon: Argorok

The boss of the City in the Sky is at least a pretty appropriate monster... in that it's a completely armoured Western-style dragon. I think that this is the first time Zelda has had a proper Western-style dragon as a boss? Volvagia was kind of its own original design, after all, and I don't think Gleeox and the other 'hydra'-style creatures count. And Argarok is kind of disappointing in that it doesn't really feel unique, but it is still a goddamn badass looking western dragon. And you fight it in the sky, clawshotting from hovering Peahat to Peahat before you try and latch onto his conveniently-shaped tail and drag him crash-landing to the ground. I don't really have a whole ton to say here, but I do find Argarok pretty damn cool -- keeping dragons as such a rarity in this franchise does mean than when they do bring one in, it ends up feeling so much more special. 

Usurper King: Zant

One of the primary antagonists you fight is Zant, the "Usurper King" who took over the realm of Twilight. And as with nearly all Zelda games, it turns out that Zant's just being used and is actually allies with Ganon all along, but I feel like Twilight Princess at least gives Zant a legitimately large amount of screentime of him being a threat and creating other bosses to sic at you. And his design is... pretty neat! Those weird shoes jutting out of his skirt, the long sleeves with tassels, and that bizarre body armour and helmet? That helmet, I think, is the coolest. I'm not sure what it's based on, it's like some sideways fish with a mouth like a bug or something. It looks bizarre. I like him. 

And then you fight him and turns out he's kind of a goof! And his boss fighting has him basically dance around like a loon as he summons the boss fight locations of Diababa, Dangoro, Ook, Morpheel, Blizzeta and King Bulblin, pulling out things like Dragon Ball Z energy balls or giant sword blades... he's kind of a walking anime trope, the wacky-but-threatening-villain trope, but he wears it well. And, of course, sometimes he just turns into a giant version of his head, or inflates himself and slams himself down at you... a wacko! I like him a lot. 

Ganondorf

The main villain of this game is, as always, Ganondorf. Probably the definitive fight against him in my mind. There have been others that were pretty cool, too, but the four-phase Ganondorf fight from the end of Twilight Princess has always been the most memorable to me. He's also built up as this ancient evil that a previous hero (heavily implied to be a previous Link, and his ghost teaches you some sword skills) defeated, and everything Zant did is in order to bring him back. 

Ganondorf goes through a four-phase form, and each feels pretty fun. The first phase is "Puppet Zelda", where, not content with holding Princess Zelda prisoner, Ganon actually mind-controls Zelda and turns her into a puppet to fight you. And guess what, turns out that this incarnation of Zelda is a badass sword-mage lady! Not too much to say here since Zelda is kind of just a fantasy princess, but the impact was certainly badass.

Normally other games tend to keep Ganon's "monster" or "beast" form for his final form, but here it's simply the second form. "Dark Beast Ganon" is the first to depict him as a giant four-legged gorilla-bull creature with big-ass tusks and a mane of red hair, looking still somewhat humanoid but really making him feel like a monstrous beast as opposed to the bipedal monster-form from Ocarina of Time. This would be taken up to eleven in Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors, but I feel like TP's Dark Beast Ganon might be my favourite because it doesn't go too much into making Ganon too piggy. 

Then the third and fourth form is just Ganondorf himself, who is a pretty cool character design. Black armour, jet-black skin, fancy cape, fancy hair, fancy sword... the third form has Ganondorf fight you on horseback (with Zelda helping you to snipe Ganon with the Arrow of Light, a franchise staple), and the final form has Ganondorf face Link one-on-one with swords. Honestly, this feels like a very epic showcase of just how much Link outclasses Ganon in all aspects of himself. As a giant monster, as a horse-riding warrior, as a one-on-one warrior... pretty cool!

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And, well, that's about it for Twilight Princess! I feel like this is a game whose bestiary is pretty well done. I certainly loved it a lot, even though I really did think that at least two of the themed areas (Temple of Time and City in the Sky) could really have used some extra minions. And, as always, TP has the complaint about the bosses not actually being too hard as bosses... but still, a pretty fun game through and through from a monster standpoint.