Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Otherwise known as 'my favourite Zelda game'. A good part of it also stems from it being one of my first Zelda games (it's my third, but the first that I finished to the end), and one of my very first video game RPG experiences. It was Twilight Princess and Warcraft III... and this game has a very, very special place in my heart. For a long, long time I simply didn't have big 'console' games, and the only time I can ever actually see all the fancy things like Resident Evil or Final Fantasy or Grand Theft Auto was when I visited my friend's houses and saw them play on their Playstation 2's. I did have the Game Boy Advanced, which sure allowed me to experience video games, and there was my laptop... but the Nintendo Wii and the first game I played on it, Twilight Princess, will always have a special place in my heart. I will readily admit that its final one-third is kind of weak, at least before the actual story picks up. 

The story is honestly pretty standard Ocarina-of-Time ripoff fare, but I feel like the addition of the whole 'other realm of shadows' is something that felt like it truly added something more and made the story unique. Again, as I saw more and more Japanese material it perhaps isn't as unique as I thought it was (and even in Zelda itself it's kind of a riff on the Dark World from A Link to the Past, which is one of the contenders for my favourite Zelda game) but I really did love it. As parts of the land of Hyrule gets consumed by a strange dark quality that consumes entire regions, the farmer boy Link, while in the process of pursuing a bunch of shadowy creatures that kidnap his fellow villagers, finds out that while trapped in this Twilight Realm, he has gained the ability to transform into a wolf, and makes an ally out of the strange imp Midna. Together they discover that the Twilight Realm has been taken over by the 'usurper king' Zant, and they have to go and stop him and his increasing allies in both Hyrule and the Twilight Realm. 

Twilight Princess is also the Zelda game that features an interesting palette compared to the rest of the series, going for that sort of photorealistic 'gritty' vibe to its overworld and its character designs...  at least in the 'real' world, that is. The Twilight Realm, while dour and shadowed, as well as the dungeons, all still have that vibe of Zelda whimsy. Comparing it to the huge-console Zelda games directly preceding and succeeding it (the very stylized Wind Waker and the bright-and-sunny Skyward Sword) Twilight Princess is also somewhat remembered for being somewhat of an attempt by Zelda to be just a bit more edgy than it usually is. 

Normal Enemies:

Hylian Hornet
The very first part of the game (which is oft-criticized) takes place showing Link's life in a farming village, and thus all the enemies you encounter and fight with your shitty slingshot are all mundane animals. These hornets are one of your first enemies, being a bunch of aggressive hornets that burst out of their nest and hound Link if he's so rude to shatter their nest to get plot-device honey. Not much to say here, they sure are hornets. 

Rat
Yeah, early on, Link fights rats. Not much to say here either; I don't think this is even the first time we've had rat enemies. They show up early as more of a nuisance, although in the context of this game they're not just generic mundane animal enemies either... they're one of the weakest enemies of the game and we'll see what happens to them in a bit. 

Walltula

I'm using the names that are given in the old Prima guidebook that I have. This creature is otherwise also called "Skullwalltula" as their Ocarina of Time counterpart (the Japanese name is "Stalwall"). Despite having a pretty pink colouration, the Walltula are basically just really big spiders. Which are certainly bigger than most real-life tarantula species, beinga around the size of a rat, but completely harmless to Link unless he climbs a wall where they are hanging. 

Keese

Another franchise staple, the Keese bats make a return. They look obviously a fair bit more detailed and photorealistic than their previous iterations, although the wings are suitably ragged, their expressions (when you can see them) suitably manic, and they've got a little blade-like extension near the tip of the tail. They are still pretty weak, but it's honestly the first Keese iteration that makes an attempt to give them any sort of proper, cool-looking bat anatomy.  

As with most 3D iterations of the monster, Keese will show up in Fire Keese variants in Death Mountain, and as Ice Keese in Snowpeak. 

Deku Baba

And here we go straight into the more interesting enemies! The Deku Baba make a return from Ocarina of Time and are easily my favourite enemies in the franchise. Just look at how dynamic this thing looks, despite just being a set of chompers on a vine neck! Look at that nasty meaty tongue, and that row of bright-red teeth! Even the choice of beetle-esque blue-gray for the colour of the Deku Baba's skin looks great. The Deku Baba are the most common enemies in these early areas, and you need to use the spin attack to break out if they manage to grapple you with their huge fangs. Extremely appreciated, and instantly makes you feel at home in Hyrule, doesn't it?

Best of all, unlike in previous games, the Deku Baba isn't forgotten but actually get a couple of stronger variants down the line. I'll cover the enemies in a very rough 'chronological' idea of when you meet them in-game, though, so... 

Bokoblin

The Bokoblins never had a consistent look to them, huh? Other than being 'shitty, weak moblins'. Wind Waker had them look like traditional Western fantasy goblins; Breath of the Wild had them look like pig-faced goblins; Skyward Sword gave them bulldog faces and made them a lot less gangly... Twilight Princess's Bokoblins look more like old, deformed troll-hag people. As a kid I've also always thought that their face reminded me more of like some sort of hideous fish left out to dry. I've always found their hair to be a bit weird, too. The Bokoblins are your 'starter' enemies, prominent in the woods around the Faron region where Link and the rest of his buddies hail from, and they actually feel remarkably like the sort of boogeyman that parents warn their children off. Don't go into the woods, or the Bokoblins will catch you and eat you for dinner. 

A pretty nasty-looking design for a starter enemy in a fantasy game, looking both threatening enough while also weak enough for an untrained Link to start bashing them and decimating them left and right with his sword. It helps that they also kind of look somewhat malnourished. Two variations exist -- blue ones holding clubs and purple ones with swords. 

Bulblin

They kind of show up as enemies a bit later, but they show up in cutscenes a lot. The Bulblin are basically the more traditional green-skinned Western fantasy orcs (or goblins) of this game; and their role here is relatively unique among Zelda's many '-blins' that they decided to make a brand-new designation here. I do like it, the Bulblins in this game aren't quite the sort of organized-yet-barbaric hierarchy that the Moblins from previous games have, or the sort of chaotic mess that Bokoblins tend to be depicted as. These Bulblins are more nomadic rangers and raiders, who just happen to find themselves working for Zant in this game. 

I'll save my raving for how cool it is to have this recurring component to your journey through Hyrule when I talk about their big boss, but the Bulblin design is pretty serviceable. Gangly arms, green skin, glowing red eyes, and horns that just out sideways from the sides of their face. It's a nice variant compared to how these sort of orc-like creatures always tend to have tusks from their lower jaw. They're not particularly threatening, but I do like their wacky leather armour. There are two main variants, the club-wielding ones and the archers. 

Bullbo

Another one that shows up in cutscenes, the Bullbos are the Bulblin's mounts. Of course, being based on orcs, they are also associated with boars. Bullbos are literally just boars, though, with slightly fancier horns. They serve as mounts, with two Bulblins riding a Bullbo, and while they look boring, I did remember really enjoying the horseback combat semgents on this one. 

Shadow Beast (a.k.a. Twilit Messenger)

Okay, I guess we can jump here now. Otherwise also known as the 'Shadow Beasts', the Twilit Messenger is a pretty cool being, huh? It just screams otherworldly. All the enemies you meet so far have been either animals, mutant plants, or the still sort-of-animal-based Bokoblins. Look at these Twilit Messengers! Their entire face is nothing but a metal shield, and yet you still sort of 'see' a face in it. There's a depression that almost looks like an eye (it's not... or is it?), the shield sort of looks like a face in a way, and the mass of 'hair' and 'beard' makes this thing look like it has some sort of bizarre anatomy that we're not privy to. And they communicate by making loud foghorn noises! And just look at the proportions! Sure, it's humanoid, but the torso is so wide, the arms are so long, the fingers are weirdly knobbled and the skin has this weirdo texture to them. After all these years I've certainly seen a lot of weirder enemies, but the Twilit Messenger, I feel, does a great job at looking bizarre and wrong while also not going over-the-top. You could conceivably describe this pretty simply as 'oh, those long-armed shadow people with no faces'. 

Adding more and more to their oddity, the Twilit Messengers also double as a way to unlock fast travel -- if you kill a group of Twilit Messengers in any area in Hyrule, their destruction will somehow create a portal between dimensions that your ally Midna can tap into... but Link has to do it simultaneously, because if he doesn't deal the final blow to the final two Messengers, whichever one survives will unleash this loud foghorn yell that revives his friends. Also, while the game never gets too explicit with it, it's very, very easy to read between the lines and realize that some unfortunate humans got transformed into these Twilit Messengers when the Twilight encroached upon the land, losing all sense of their selves. 

We only ever fight the Twilit Messenger on the left, but in several cutscenes we get to see ones with a completely different head, with a far more smoother metallic shield-face, two horns that clip together on top, and markings resembling two intertwining snakes surrounding an 'eye'. Sometimes called 'Twilit Guards' or 'Zant's Guards' in various fan wikis, I kept expecting these guys to show up as a mini-boss or at least a stronger Twilit Messenger variant, but they never do. 

Shadow Bulblin

Bulblins, on the other hand, seem to be willingly working for the bad guys, and they get a pretty cool asymmetrical one-eyed mask  and the same sort of creepy glossy rune-covered texture that the Twilit Messengers have. In-game they are literally identical to the regular Bulblins, but that mask sure is creepy! All the Twilit architecture and monsters have this vague aesthetic of having runic masks and rune-like carvings, which is cool, and even fits with the series's established lore with Majora's Mask and all. 

Also, to note, a lot of the official material at the time waver back and forth on calling the Twilight world's creatures with the adjective 'Shadow' or 'Twilit', and there aren't any real 'bestiary' in the game to check out. Most references to Twilight Princess's monsters, like in side-games or Smash Bros, tended to use 'Shadow' which while sounding more mundane is also the literal translation of their Japanese names. 

Shadow Vermin

So these are what Rats turn into in the Twilit realm, and you find them where you find the rats in the parts of Faron Woods that are consumed by twilight. Oh, and the sewers. I really do like them, they are just these massive blobs with the same odd pink quasi-electronic-looking runic markings as an 'eye', while their massive tentacles lash about. Sure, they are unnatural, but they sure do look like a 'vermin' for sure! It's implied that all Hyrule (or 'light world') creatures will transform if the Twilight so much as touches them, which is the explanation as to why Link has to stay a wolf in these twilight world mini-dungeons. 

Shadow Keese

Nobody gets to keep their faces! Keese gets transformed into Shadow Keese, which have the same basic anatomy except their faces are replaced with nothing but the same weird lump covered in the same weird sort-of-circuitry-looking markings that are still unmistakably magic runes or some such. These Shadow Keese will announce their arrival in the same unsettling loud HOOOONK noise that the Twilit Messengers use. 

Shadow Baba

Look at how cool the Deku Babas become when they get infected by the Twilight! Look at how nastily grooved the rims of its fangs are. It reminds me of one of those giant clams, except the Shadow Baba's mouth, I don't think, can close perfectly. It's just there to bite. Again, ultimately it serves the same role as its Hyrulean counterpart, being quite literally just a re-skin, but what a cool looking re-skin this is!

Shadow Insect
I debated putting this one here, since they are more plot coupons more than anything, but these vaguely beetle-like creatures are essentially holding the pieces of the soul of each region's Spirit of Light, and Link has to hunt them down in a little bug hunt to restore each province of Hyrule to its regular self. Not too much to say here, although they're sort of a neat homage to Golden Skulltulas from Ocarina. 

Shadow Kargarok
Hooo yeah! I've always found it really weird that we fight the Twilit Kargaroks in the twilight-ed world before we ever meet any real life Kargaroks, but these guys sure look creepy, yeah? Those bird talons turning into the same weird hands that the Twilit Messengers have, tattered wings that look like they are ridged and crafted... and best of all, that creepy-ass face that still look 'faceless' in the same vein as the Shadow Beasts or Shadow Keese, but straight up looks like the head exploded. I love that the borders of its 'face' look like bricks surrounding like a mural, and throw in that terrifying airhorn honk that they make... pretty cool. 

Skulltula

So after your first sojourn into the Twilight realm (which was pretty short), then you actually explore dungeons, including the relatively simple 'Forest Temple'. Interestingly, unlike the spookier 'cursed forest temple' vibe of Ocarina of Time's Forest Temple, Twilight Princess's Forest Temple have a distinct bugs-and-plant-monsters vibe. Maybe that's one of the major reasons I really like this game. 

The Skulltulas return in this game, and for anyone who's used to the franchise and expect them to just drop down on their web strings and be a bit of a nuisance, the Skulltulas in this game are just as likely to actually drop down and fight you as real giant-spider monsters. There are also different variants of them, but they all have this weird pattern on their abdomen that resemble a skull. As much as I like the game engine allowing the Skulltulas to actually scuttle about and be enemies (I love that their legs also look more like bony fingers). They still have a nasty bony covering over their abdomen and the fact that they actually walk around on the ground means that their vulnerable bellies are actually harder to hit, which is nice. 

The "Pygmy" Skulltula is smaller and act like Ocarina of Time Skulltulas, intent on just staying on one spot. I'm not the biggest fan of the pixel tribal art vibe that the 'skulls' in their abdomens have, though.

Bombling

Not so much an enemy but more of an item (at one point your allies start importing these and selling them), the Bomblings are delightful little weirdos! It's not even the first creature in Zelda-land that is bomb themed since we had the Bombchu before, but the Bomblings are these bizarre giant spherical insects with a weevil face and four really long legs that allow it to either nestle in place, or stand straight up like some sort of War of the Worlds war-machine. These things are around and can technically harm Link if he's stupid with them, but they are basically there to make the Forest Temple a bit more challenging since Link hasn't actually unlocked the Bomb item yet at this point. I really do like them, they look so utterly weird. I'm not sure what insect can actually prop themselves up like that with little slim feet, but I do like these weirdos. 

Baba Serpent

My favourite. I've always already liked the Deku baba, but the Baba Serpent has a far cooler pattern of bright red and black like a poisonous snake, a forked tongue that ends in blue, meaner fangs, and the shape of the head and the two fangs at the end really give it the impression of a snake. And it's meant to be one! Slice off its stem, and the entire steam and head just crawls around and tries to chomp down on Link like a snake. A very cool 'stronger' version of the Deku Baba!

Deku Like

Ooooh, cool! I didn't know it at the time, but the Deku Like is basically Twilight Princess's reimagination of the memetic and iconic 'Like Like' enemy, whose nature has always been... ambiguous. While not explicitly the same sort of creature, the Deku Like sure behaves like one, albeit rooted to a spot. And I do like that they interpreted the pulsing circular shape of a Like Like and turned the Deku Like into this giant corpse flower looking creature with a Sarlacc mouth in the middle. It's still unmistakably a giant flower-monster, but the orange colouration, and the thick fleshy parts of the central 'bud' make its inspiration unambiguous. 

Despite being stationary, the Deku Like can stretch out a bit and grab Link and chow down on him, and the only way to kill them is to trick a Bombling into blowing them up. 

Big Baba

So the Forest Temple, as I mentioned before, had a plants-and-bugs theme going on, and acting as a pseudo-miniboss is this dude, the Big Baba. It's a combination of a Deku Baba and a Deku Like. It's a bit hard to tell here thanks to the angle, but the massive flower that the Baba stalk sprouts out from also has a huge Deku Like-style Sarlacc mouth. The Big Baba head is also unique, too, with a huge chin-sac and a little neck-frill of leaves. Visually it's a fun treat and I really like the Deku Baba variations in this game, although in actual gameplay this is one that's actually extremely simple -- avoid the Like part, beat up the Baba head, then bomb the Like part. 

The Big Baba also shows up in the City in the Sky dungeon, although at that point it's barely even a threat to you anymore.

Tile Worm

I have never been the biggest fan of modern renditions of video games trying to 'realistically' explain every part of a franchise's long-running enemies or exorcise them away... like, say, Resident Evil 2 remake changing the Ivy plant-mutants into generic vine-zombies. But with Zelda, you're swapping one weirdo enemy for another. The Flying Tiles that's sort of a once-every-game trap room doesn't make an appearance here, but they are present in spirit with the Tile worms, which are these sort of bizarre underground predators that prey on enemy like a trapdoor spider or bobbit worm or something. Except with tiles! The tiles are actually attached to their heads, and they will slightly peek their cute little earwig-heads up a bit before hiding and pretending to be in place. I don't think they can actually bite Link, just launch him away if he steps on their tile. It's such an interesting weirdo, and I do like the anatomy it has here with a set of weird grasping legs at the end of its tail.

As with most Zelda enemies, the Tile Worms can't be dealt with until you gain a specific item, in this case the Gale Boomerang that will create a small tornado that'll whisk this dudes up. Interestingly they show up much, much later in the penultimate dungeon, a city floating in the sky...  and suddenly being knocked away by a spring-loaded tile gets to be so much more fatal. 

Stalhound

Ocarina of Time always had a comparatively larger 'Hyrule Field' area than normal, and in that game, at night Stalchilds would show up. In Twilight Princess you get Stalhounds instead, though, which in addition to being thematic since Link turns into a hound in this game, also seems to be so that the team didn't need to animate skeletal children running around. Pretty cool designs for an undead dog. I do like just how ragged the teeth are, how the lower jawbone is split in the middle, and how it's got like this makeshift 'mane' of bones.

Leever

Making yet another return is another long-running Zelda enemy, good ol' Leever. Significantly less gross-looking than their Ocarina of Time counterpart, the Leever in this one looks more like a weird plant, and I didn't quite get this, but I think they merged the OOT concepts for the Leever and Peahat together into this medium-sized spinning enemy. Traditonally Leevers look conical, but this one looks more like a top. I do like what's going on here, though, with those weird stalks and the nice green-red leaves. They show up in a small group that burst out of the ground in a circle. A pretty neat little plant enemy!

Kargarok

Unlike its Twilit counterpart, I don't really have much to say about the regular Kargarok. They share a name with a recurring giant bird enemy from Wind Waker, but here they are just giant vultures. There's enough to make them somewhat different from a regular bird, though -- the wings look like bat wings and the tails are forked. I do like that they exist as these large bird enemies that harass you, but otherwise they're kinda m'eh. 

Guay

Guays also show up in Hyrule Field, and they're still little weirdo birds. Like the Keese, that bent beak gives the Guay just enough of a difference so that it's not merely a crow, but I really don't have much to say here. Most of the memorable enemies in Hyrule Field are the Leevers, Stalhounds and the Kargaroks anyway. 

Bomskit
What a cutie! I still am not entirely sure what the Bomskit is other than it's some sort of an insect. It's got like a tick's mouthpiece, a scalloped carapace like a woodlouse or something, huge orange eyes and super-long thin legs. I don't think these guys are actually important at any point of the game. They lay eggs that explode,  which is such a bizarre thing to do as this thing just, well, 'skits' around. When you kill them, they blow up and leave behind... worms? What? You use the worms for bait in a fishing minigame. Such a bizarre creature in a franchise that tended to have most of its bestiary be dedicated to enemies of some sort, and unlike the Bombling this one's not even required for a puzzle or anything. Neat!

Fire Toadpoli & Water Toadpoli

The second major dungeon is the Goron Mines, located in a volcano. In addition to the Fire Keese we get a bunch of fire-themed enemies, like... these guys? Okay, it makes more sense when you get to Lakebed Temple later on and find the Water Toadpoli, but these weird fat-lipped tadpole frogs show up and inhabit either regular water or lava lakes. I do like that they look very much like frogs in the middle of their metamorphosis, like they're halfway from going from a tadpole to a frog. And in this case, one of the later minibosses is actually a mature Toadpoli specimen!

These guys fill in the same niche that Octoroks fill in the N64 Zelda games, spitting rocks that you need to deflect with your shield back at them... except that the Fire Toadpoli shoots lava rocks, so it'll burn your puny wooden shield. 

Torch Slug

A returning enemy from Ocarina of Time, the Torch Slug is honestly not that changed, other than having a more defined and less goopy-looking body and far more pronounced eyes. How creepy are those eyes, by the way? They are purple and blue and there are four of them for no real reason, which is cool. They're not too impressive combat-wise but certainly adds yet another monster variant to make your trip to the lava-themed areas a lot less boring. 

I mean, the alternative would be filling the fire area with nothing but red-coloured Lizalfoses and red variants of Chuchus and Keese and nothing else. But they wouldn't be as uncreative as to do that, right? The audience would get bored.

 

Dodongo

One of the weirder reinventions, the classic Dodongo have always been some sort of weird dinosaur -- ceratopsians in the original 2D games and two-legged kaiju in the N64 games. But I really, really love these crocodile-gecko monsters. See, one of the gimmicks in the Goron Mines is that Link comes across magnetic boots that allow him to walk up metallic walls and ceiling, which means that this incarnation of the Dodongo makes perfect enemy for them to be troublesome to Link earlier in his journey and far easier to deal with later on. 

Their tails glow red, which is a fun little weakness, although as a nod to their classic weakness, any projectile (it doesn't have to be bombs, arrows will do) shot into their open mouths as they are about to breathe fire will blow them up. 

Beamos

Another classic Zelda enemy are the Beamos,  rotating quasi-mechanical contraptions with glowing eyes. We actually see two different styles of Beamoses, with the common Brown Beamos being more chunky and look like generic high-fantasy Hyrulean magical golems or whatever. Meanwhile, the White Beamos are only located at a very specific location -- the far more palace/church-inspired Temple of Time. The White Beamoses behave similarly, but look like Corinthian pillars, incidentally look like an updated version of the Beamoses from Link to the Past, and generally look so much fancier than their grungy brown counterparts. I really, really love that they bothered to add two completely different-looking variants for the Beamos -- a lesser game would've just recoloured one of them and called it a day. 

Tektite

And we get a return of these guys! They look almost exactly identical with their counterparts from Ocarina of Time, albeit with a lot more buggy design being thrown into their aesthetic. The legs are bent a bit more to resemble pond-skaters or grasshoppers or something, and they have a far more pronounced mandible. A closer inspection of their model also shows like little groves on the side of their beetle-like carapace. I've talked about how cool Tektites are in my review of Legend of Zelda and Ocarina of Time, but Twilight Princess actually has my favourite-looking Tektite of all time. 

The red ones show up in hotter environments, populating Death Mountain (again, like OoT) while the blue ones are located in the Lake Hylia region, actually behaving like pond skaters when idle.

Chu

Called 'Chu' in this game instead of Chuchu, these are probably the least-cute and most different version of the creatures. We've had the Chuchus be depicted in different forms over the franchise's history... but these Chus are just... formless jelly. It's not like it's a bad enemy concept, but knowing how cute the Chuchu looked in Wind Waker; how gross they looked in Majora's Mask and how Breath of the Wild managed to get a more 'serious' slime monster look while retaining the eyes, these Chus feel like they're kind of disappointing. 

The gimmick here is that each of the coloured Chus (Red, Blue, Yellow and Rare) are all useful in some way, either restoring hearts or acting as lantern oil if you scoop them up into a bottle. However, leave the Chus around too long and they'll merge together into a Purple Chu, which is just kind of useless -- I believe even scooping up random hot springs water heals you better than Purple Chu, and drinking them can potentially even damage you. An interesting gimmick for a slime monster. 

Shell Blade

Yo, the Shell Blade looks badass in this one. Simply changing the clam basis from the typical kind you find on a beach to one of those deep-sea giant clams with a ridged mouth -- then further exaggerating them into teeth? Pretty damn cool, even if they behave similarly and the tongue/muscle is still the weak point. This time around, though, you actively have to use the Clawshot item to rip out that piece of muscle, and other weapons will take too long. 

The Shell Blade is the first of our exclusively aquatic enemies -- we've seen others like the Tektite and Water Toadpoli that make their debut in the Lakebed Temple. 

Bari

Oh man, 3D games always makes the Bari look so damn cool. They're iconic in the 2D games, being little metal jellyfishes with angry cartoon eyes, but the 3D games actually do make the Bari very impressive-looking, mixing and matching random features from cool-looking jellyfishes and cephalopods to form this cool-looking creature. A clear, bubble-like dome head, a mass of intertwining central set of tentacles, and three that jut out, covered with barbs? And is that supposed to be a brain inside that dome? I'm not sure what that red tattoo outside the dome is meant to be, are they supposed to be 'eyes' in a way? Either way, very very cool. As usual, they generate lightning bolts. 

Also, I've never quite realized it, but Twilight Princess is so far the only game that actually put the Bari underwater as opposed to having them float above the ground. Can you guess you get the Clawshot in the Lakebed Temple? You use it to pierce the Bari's head and rip out their fucking brains. 

Skullfish

We get a bunch of fishy enemies because we swim a fair bit in the Lakebed Temple and Lake Hylia parts of this game. The Skullfish is pretty expected, but dang, they do look pretty terrifying with that very monstrous-looking head and a massive underbite. I'm not sure if it's based on any sort of real or prehistoric fish (the real-life dragonfish or lizardfish, maybe?), but it sure looks like it's going to fuck you up! The model doesn't go into too much detail, but I do like the visual that the Skullfish seem to still be holding the remnants of its organs within its ribcages. For such a tiny creature, they actually do look nasty and are actually relatively harmless.

Bombfish

So not only does the TP-era Hyrule have two completely different species of bomb bugs, they also have a bomb-fish. Look at this motherfucker, it's just a giant fish head chomping a bomb with a tiny fish body stuck onto it. They just waddle around as little fish and Link can catch them and use them as a substitute until he gets upgraded underwater bombs. Pretty neat as a mechanic; I guess whoever manufactured the Water Bombs in-universe based them on the Bombfish? 

Chu Worm & Shell Jelly

Another 'sort-of-miniboss' like Big Baba, but you do only meet this guy once in the main game (all the non-boss enemies show up in the Cave of Ordeals) in the Lakebed Temple. It's sort of a homage to Majora's Mask Gekko and Mad Jelly fight, I suppose, with a little creature being invulnerable within a big clear blob of fluid. Presumably the 'Jelly' part is one of those featureless Chu creatures, but what is the Chu Worm? It's like some sort of Invader Zim looking motherfucker, with mournful eyes, two arms and four legs arranged around its lower body. What a weirdo. A pretty fun encounter, and, as you guessed it, you rip him out of his jelly with your Clawshot to kill him. 

Lizalfos

Looking more like a 'Dynalfos' than a Lizalfos, these guys certainly look more dinosaurian! Lizalfosi tended to traditionally look more gecko or skink-like (or chameleon, in BOTW), and these guys just look so much more fierce. At the midpoint game they sort of become pretty common in dungeons. Two variants show up, with the "Axe-Tail Lizalfos" having an axe-head strapped to its tail and allowing it to do a spin attack, while the "Skull-Head Lizalfos" has a Cubone-style skull helmet and is generally just tougher while also looking cool. 

It's not a particularly huge part of the game, but Link does learn a fair amount of sword moves in this once. For the most part I still stuck to jumping strikes and spin attacks, but the Lizalfoses with their sword and tiny wrist-shields actually allow you to dispatch of them in really cool ways, and I felt like it's actually important to have some of these enemies to show off the 'swordsman' part of Link. 

 

Helmasaur

Oh, okay, that is a cool one. The Helmasaur certainly looks like a dinosaur in this one, although, man, it looks so weird! I'm honestly not sure why it looks so weird. I guess it's its face? It looks like some sort of turtle face got slapped onto the body of a dinosaur or something. Or maybe its those clawed feet that threw me off since? Or it's those beady red eyes or something? A pretty weird and fun-looking creature, I must say, and its 'helmet' also looks pretty cool, with a bunch of spikes and holes on it. It does look like one of those full-face knight's helmets, but more importantly the holes are there so your clawshot can find purchase on it! Not bad, not bad, but they do creep me out just a bit. 

Puppet

Sheeeeesh, I know me finding clackety marionnettes cool and terrifying in the same breath has to come from somewhere. We'll talk about the Skull Kid in a bit, but this iteration of the character sort of has you go through the Lost Woods following his music as a 'game' while he summons these puppets to creep the fuck out of you. I'm not sure what's more disturbing. That combination of glowing red eyes and a grin, the noises they make, the little dance they do, or the abnormal movements of their clackety-clack arms... oh, and they keep coming back even after you beat them to the ground, too, which is creepy. 

Imp Poe

Hmmm, I'm not sure about the Imp Poes. On the other hand, I miss those hooded burlap cheeky bedsheet ghosts that remain consistent in all other iterations of Legend of Zelda. On the other hand... man, the Imp Poes are pretty cool. With a wide grin that looks stitched and eyes that look stitched shut, they look like something out of Tim Burton's work or from 9 or something. I really love the big fuck-off scythe they bring, and they carry their lanterns with their feet. They're completely invisible other than their lanterns, and you can only see and view them in wolf mode. There are 60 Imp Poes that have cursed some dude, and you need to hunt and kill all sixty hidden all across Hyrule to turn the cursed Jovani into normal.

Moldorm

Okay, this is a cool concept if only it wasn't meant to be a reinvention of Moldorm. What's wrong with Moldorms being giant burrowing worms? Oh well, I guess having them be tiny worms with a massive mean-looking three-fanged lamprey mouth that burst in and out of the Gerudo desert's sand and harass you is pretty cool. They're like tiny Graboids or something. I do actually like their design a lot here, looking a bit like a more 'realistic' attempt to design a sand-burrowing worm creature. You can use your Clawshot to 'spearfish' them out of the sand and bring them to you, and the Moldorms feature the return of 'kill enough of the small, respawning enemies and a big one will show up' gimmick from Ocarina of Time. 

Peahat

Those terrifying giant bulb plants with helicopter blades from Ocarina of Time? I'm not even sure I should even review the Peahats here since they're not enemies anymore but rather reduced to just masses of vines with a helicopter made out of leaves that work as Clawshot jumping points. They're more puzzle pieces than anything, really; for being such an otherwise iconic recurring enemy this is a bit weird. 

Ghoul Rat

Called "Poe Rat" in the original Japanese, the Ghoul Rats are found in Arbiter's Grounds, which is our next dungeon -- an abandoned, cursed tomb in the style of one of those 'cursed pyramid' dungeons, except it's meant to be an abandoned, well, execution ground used by the ancient Hylians. So you've got g-g-g-ghosts there. Ghoul Rats are pretty interesting, in that they look like starving, mummified rats with vampire fangs... and aren't a combatant. They swarm around Link and latch onto him like nasty ticks, but they are invisible to Link unless he uses his wolf-mode senses. And if you're not paying attention to the squeaky sounds they make, they'll weigh you down when you get into quicksand.

Poison Mite

Another one that will fuck Link over as he walks through the quicksand portions, the Poison Mites will swarm over Link and drag him down if he doesn't pull out his lantern. They're more like scarab beetles in terms of size, but okay. 

Bubble, Fire Bubble & Ice Bubble

BUBBLES! Bubbles make a return, and Twilight Princess's Bubbles make the very effective choice of using a nondescript animal skull as its basis instead of a human skull. Not that human skulls with wings aren't terrifying, but I feel like using that elongated jaw just gives TP's Bubbles just such an extra oomph that makes it feel a bit creepier. Great depiction of those snaggly teeth, too. 

Stalkin

Having the name corresponding to the 'Stalchild' of previous games in Japanese ("Stalbaby"), renaming them 'Stalkin' is probably for the better since these certainly don't look or are the size of children. They have these funky three-pronged spears and golden gauntlets only on one arm. Arbiter's Grounds feaetures multiple different looking skull friends, and the Stalkin are the most common, emerging from the sand in massive numbers to harry him in a very cool visual. 

Staltroop

Only seen in in the boss battle chamber, the Staltroops are essentially weaker versions of the Stalkin, but they have cool-looking chainmail armour and helmets. We're not entirely sure why there are so many of these guys under the sands in exactly a single chamber in Arbiter's Grounds. Did an entire platoon get executed here for some reason? These are even more pathetic, while the Stalkin are at least trying to stab you with their weapons, the Staltroops don't even look like they have the strength to lift their swords. 

Redead Knight (a.k.a. Gibdo)

Identified as a "Redead" instead of a Gibdo (Gibdos are mummies, Redeads are zombies) for some reason, then called a "Redead Knight" in Hyrule Warriors... these guys are also memorable for being gigantic pains in the ass. Tall mummies with a neat red scarf from whatever armour remained on their bodies, they also lug around a giant, big-ass sword (also mummified!) and they are just a pain to defeat. They shamble upwards pretty creepily, and they will unleash a scream that will paralyze Link. Not much to say here, though I do like the idea of a mummy zombie enemy just dragging a big sword behind him. 

Stalfos

And our final Arbiter's Ground enemy is the far more nimble-looking Stalfos. They have a horn jutting out of their 'nose' for some reason, and I've always thought that these guys look so thin and fragile compared to other iterations of the Stalfos. This actually is a bit of a deception, though, because despite only having a sword, shield, and World of Warcraft style shoulder armour, the Stalfos are near-indestructible. Each cleave of their sword are extremely damaging for a non-boss enemy, and when shattered with sword or wolf strikes... they just reform almost immediately. You need to bomb them to make them stop for good, but good luck figuring that out!

White Wolfos

Visually kind of boring. The Wolfos in most other Zelda games are actually wolf-people. Sure, as you journey to Snowpeak and you get attacked by glowing icy wolves it's pretty cool... and in action, they sure are neat, being able to melt into snow and reform elsewhere. And since you're a wolf I guess it's thematically appropriate. Other than the surprise of seeing them merge with snow, though, they're pretty bland. 

Mini-Freezard & Freezard

Holy shit it's Bergmite! No, seriously, that is just straight-up Bergmite, released in Pokemon with friendlier eyes almost a decade earlier. Anyway, Snowpeak is, obviously, the game's ice levels and we get a very, very awesome return of the Freezards. They now have little babies, too, in this little monocled Mini-Frezards. I do absolutely love how they move, they slide around icy floors like a hockey puck, and are actually the equivalent to the N64 games' Freezards in terms of mechanics. 

Because then we have their big parent, the real Freezard, which is this gigantic chunk of ice with a massive maw with multiple red-orbed eyes and it just looks pretty fucking awesome. It's just an ice wall with a mouth on it, and it will move around and unleash huge blizzard storms that will straight-up stop Link. I remembered being absolutely terrified by them in Snowpeak ruins, and for a good while you can only beat them by manning the cannons littered around the castle until you get the item of the dungeon, the Ball-and-Chain that will shatter most ice-themed enemies. But for the Freezards, you instead break them apart into seven Mini-Freezards. 

Chilfos

Okay, pretty cool. These gaunt knights made of ice aren't like, a ground-breaking enemy concept or anything, but I love their little T-shaped head with two eyes carved in it. They attack with ice spears that double as javelins, and in true anime fashion, they can reform their icy weapons once they chuck it at you. I really don't have too much to say here, again, it's nice that we've got a bunch of neat variety in the ice area. 

Armos

...unfortunately, the next two dungeons don't actually have too much of a theme, sadly, and are mostly just stocked with generic enemies like Lizalfos, Helmasaurs, Keese and the like. The next dungeon here is the Temple of Time, whose unique enemies are the White Beamos and the next two entries. And it's kind of a shame, the whole concept is that Link travels back in time into the temple on its glory days. Even if a 'time traveling' enemy isn't feasible with the game engines, at least like, make a prototype or primitive version of an existing enemy or something.

The Armos are pretty dang cool, though, far more memorable than the frankly somewhat-boring 'suits of armor hopping around' from other games. This one sort of has a gigantic scowling mouth with massive teeth, and clickety-clackety around with their weird hammer and shield. They are also covered with Tron lines... and I guess the idea is that the Temple of Time Armoses and Beamoses reflect that in the past Hyrule had access to better technology or something? Sort of what would become the backstory for Breath of the Wild? It really is something that should've been communicated a bit better, though. Especially since Link gets an item called the Dominion Rod which allows him to take control of some of these 'fantasy-mechanical' enemies. At least one or two extra ones would be great.

Baby Gohma & Young Gohma

So I guess the idea is that the Gohma only exist in the past in this timeline or something? Eh. Baby Gohma look very creepy, with their single eye and teeny-tiny fangs and a giant abdomen that resembles an egg sack or something, with tiny spindle-like legs. The Baby Gohma hatch in swarms out of eggs in like, swarms of thirty or something, although Link can make use of the (again, not too well-implemented IMO) Dominion Rod to take control of large statues and bash them into paste. 

The Young Gohma are a bit more similar in anatomy to the classic 2D Gohma, being a four-legged spider with massive hairy legs. I do like the single eye that makes it so much more creepier than the Skulltula, and I do like the texturing around those spider legs and the armoured carapace. Pretty neat and I do like that the game gives us a bunch of completely different spider enemies to fight, but,  again, I'm not sure why the Gohma enemy is associated with the Temple of Time exclusively. 

To my life I'm still not entirely sure what Gohmas have to do with time travel or temples or temples of time, especially since the final boss is actually a giant Gohma.

Dynalfos

First appearing in the Temple of Time but also showing up in other dungeons, the Dynalfos are the stronger versions of the Lizalfos. Unfortunately, though, unlike the Lizalfos/Dynalfos comparison in Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask, the regular Lizalfos in this game already looks like a dinosaur man, so the Dynalfos here just feels kind of redundant. I guess they have more armour? The Lizalfos have a far cooler-looking variant as a miniboss, so the Dynalfos just feels like a bizarre 'middle stage'. 

Helmasaurus

The final 'themed' dungeon is the City in the Sky, which is a city inhabited by a race of strange bird-people that stays suspended in the air all the time with little helicopter technology. And sure, the minibosses and boss are sure thematic airborne creatures, but for the most part the dungeon just re-uses a bunch of old enemies and honestly, throwing in one or two flying or wind themed enemies would probably make this segment feel a lot less repetitive. 

Hanging out with the smaller Helmasaurs are the Helmasaurus, which have a far more recognizable rhinoceros/triceratops styyle of legs and heavyset body. His armour is also a lot neater-looking, being these giant chunks of tempered metal or something with blunted horns. Unlike the smaller Helmasaur, there's no place for your Clawshot to snag, so the only way to take the Helmasaurus out is to keep dodging and slashing at its butt, or to trick it into charging at you when you are standing next to a hole that leads out of the City of the Sky and into... well, sky. A neat one, but one that doesn't gel with its dungeon theme. 

Zant's Mask

The game still has two dungeons in its main story, the "Palace of Twilight" and "Hyrule Castle". As usual Hyrule Castle is just filled with a mixture of enemies from the entire game, but the Palace of Twilight" obviously only has a repeat of all the Twilight enemies you've met earlier in the game. We get two extra new ones, although I've always found them a bit more underwhelming. They do fit with the modus operandi of Zant, though. Zant's Mask are just floating effigies of Zant's helmet, floating around and opening their 'mouths' and shooting fireballs at Link.

Zant's Hand

Zant's Hand, on the other hand (heh) is a re-flavoured version of the classic Wallmasters, being giant floating hands that are massive progress-resetting assholes. Instead of grabbing you, though, Zant's Hand will grab a plot device you're supposed to escort and bring them to the pedestals that you steal them from. An interesting twist on the classic Wallmaster even if I can't really find much to say here. 

The Twili

Heavy spoilers about the game's plot, of course, but we find out that the Twilit Messengers aren't even natural. These aren't quite enemies, but I did talk about Gorons and Zoras in some previous Zelda segments... but the dude with the half-white, half-black body and runes on his stomach is a 'Twili' in their natural state. Friendly-looking, sure, but kind of creepy. As you travel through Zant's Twilight castle, you realize that even his own Twili people aren't immune, they are slowly being transformed into the Twilit Messengers, being warped into black, gangly caricatures of their bodies with shield-faces. They quite literally become faceless members of Zant's army. Spooky! 

And we're done with the common enemies! I could talk a bit more, perhaps, about things like Oocoo or whatever, but we'll keep things succinct for now.