I could've sworn I did a review of this game! So before I delve into other Nintendo games like the Metroid series, I guess I'll talk about Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It's a game that was released in the Famicom Disk System originally, and was probably the biggest deviation from the 'formula' of Zelda, until Breath of the Wild. I don't have the system and I don't really ever have the time to play this game, but it always fascinated me that Zelda II truly tried to be an RPG of sorts, and Hyrule as it is shown in that game truly feels like a kingdom as opposed to a bunch of large terrains with a couple of small towns.
It also acts as a sequel to the original Legend of Zelda, although like that game, the story is pretty minimalist. There is a bit more going on, though the advent of proper in-game storytelling won't happen until the next game (a.k.a. considered by most to be the best Zelda game), A Link to the Past. The story follows Link as he searches for the final part of the Triforce, the Triforce of Courage, which he needs to do to break a 'sleeping beauty'-style curse on Princess Zelda cast by her evil unnamed brother. As Link goes to collect the six crystals that would unlock the Triforce, the minions of Ganon attack and try to hunt down Link, intending to use his blood to resurrect Ganon.
The most significant difference is that combat in this game is side-scrolling and limited to just the sword and the shield, with a bit more of an interaction in towns and whatnot to 'resupply' before dungeon dives. It's very different from all the other Zelda games, but one thing that really did strike me as interesting is its bestiary! We get a couple of returning faces from the original Legend of Zelda, but a lot of new ones, some of which never really appear in future Zelda installments!
The Zelda fan-wikis divide the enemies into 'overworld' and 'palace' enemies, depending on where you meet them. Again, as someone who admittedly has never played the game and is just reviewing this from a bestiary standpoint, I'm going to follow the same classification and split the monster review into two parts as per this!
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So we'll go through some very familiar names quickly, like the Leever, one of the earliest enemies. A lot of the fan-wikis collect the official artworks included with game manuals and the like, and so we have this glorious artwork of the Leever. It really does look like something that's a lot more... amorphous, doesn't it? Like some sort of giant slime or organ, pulsating with warts and veins, and those look like creepy mammalian ears. The Leever would be interpreted as a plant-creature in A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, and remain as a weird spinning flower-thing forever, but it is pretty interesting to see that at some point in the development of the franchise, it was a strange... ear-amoeba thing!
Octorok
Not much to say here, it is nice to see a classic enemy like the Octorok show up. The artwork obviously makes the Octorok feel a bit more grody than it tends to be depicted in these game sprites. Not a whole ton to say, they still keep a lot of the same characteristics as a monster as its original Legend of Zelda inspiration, which isn't the same for all the 'returning' monsters!
This is the only time where the ever-familiar Tektite is portrayed with its legs fully extended -- and with six legs instead of four. In both the games that preceded and succeeded Zelda II, Tektites are always shown with the legs bent as it prepares to bounce around, but here we get a surprisingly much more... unnatural and creepy-looking design with the legs fully rigid, particularly in that official art. Presumably this has something to do with the side-scrolling nature of the combat in this game. Pretty creepy!
Zora
Okay! Even before Ocarina of Time retooled the Zora into mermaid-elves, the Zora in the 2D games have always been on the goofier side of things. The artwork for Zelda II's Zora, however, gives us this gloriously emaciated-looking cross-breed between a Murloc from Warcraft and Vaporeon from Pokemon, and it is a pretty cool-looking fish-humanoid! I think it's the fact that its arms looks so thin and creepy, and that it has the eyes of a dead fish. The sprite in the game makes the Zora look more like a weird dinosaur. Like the Tektite, I assume this is because Link is in a side-scroller this time around, so the Zora needs to move around and not just stay in pools as a more static threat.
It really is interesting to see this deviation, because other than the colour, the Zora is still basically the same design and concept in Legend of Zelda and ALTTP!
The standard bulldog-men appear yet again, and many enemies appear in different colouration -- with orange, red and blue in order of strength. Their sprites make them look a fair bit more leaner and meaner compared to their pudgy pig-bulldog counterparts in Legend of Zelda, but the artwork still shows them as being as pot-bellied and rotund as ever. Not much to say, pretty much your average 2D game Moblin.
Since the Palaces are affiliated with the protection of the Triforce, I think the assumption is that most of the enemies outside of the palace that we're talking about here, if they're not just random wildlife, are then therefore the remnants of Ganon's demon army.
Another returning enemy from Legend of Zelda. We don't really have a whole lot of Goriyas showing up outside of the earliest 2D games, huh? I think they only ever appeared in Zelda, Zelda 2, Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. Maybe one of the Oracle games. Anyway, they're still bearded animal-men that throws boomerangs. The artwork makes me think of some kind of mongoose or weasel, though I do like that the artwork shows that Zelda II's Goriyas still have those ridiculous Whitebeard mustaches that's a little less prominent from the side-profile sprites.
Bit & Bot
Basically the counterparts to the 'Gels', 'Zols' and 'Chuchu' enemies, we've got the Bits and Bots, who the artwork show as these very 90's-boys-toyline slimy, hairy clumps. They're pretty basic minimalistic slime enemies, with slightly different behaviour (the Bots jump), but are otherwise not particularly remarkable. Link's "Spell" spell is able to transform other enemies into weak Bots, which is something that subsequent 2D games would also incorporate with Magic Powder and Gels.
Interestingly, and perhaps something that we take for granted nowadays with 'monster NPC's, there are Bot variations, including a Boss Bot enemy we'll talk about later on, and a Bot NPC that you can talk to.
Daira
I really am not following any kind of order here, but I guess let me get the 'animalistic humanoid' enemies that are basically remixes of the Moblins and Goriyas out of the way. Daira here makes its only appearance in Zelda II (that's going to be a common thread for basically any of the enemies below here!). They are alligator-people who throw axes at Link! It's pretty fun as far as enemy diversity goes, although there's really only so much that you can stretch 'funny human with animal parts'.
Geru
Essentially prototype-Lizalfoses (who wouldn't appear until Ocarina of Time, three games down the line), the Geru are lizard-people with either tridents or maces, and a shield. According to the Wiki, these are apparently the strongest enemies in the overworld. I really don't have much to say. It sure is a lizard-person!
Ache
Also basically the same with the long-running Keese enemy is the Ache, which are just large bats. The blue ones are just regular bats in trees, but the purple ones apparently have a bit of a lore, being called as the 'Eyes of Ganon' and can transform into townsfolk! This is such a cool little 'vampire' trope, and random NPC's in certain towns can actually transform into Aches if you talk to them. This, I feel, is such a fun little aspect! Most Zelda games do characterize every single one of their NPC's so there's never really been an implementation of a 'randomly generated event' like this, but man, it would've been pretty cool to put into a larger game like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, right?
Also basically the same with the long-running Keese enemy is the Ache, which are just large bats. The blue ones are just regular bats in trees, but the purple ones apparently have a bit of a lore, being called as the 'Eyes of Ganon' and can transform into townsfolk! This is such a cool little 'vampire' trope, and random NPC's in certain towns can actually transform into Aches if you talk to them. This, I feel, is such a fun little aspect! Most Zelda games do characterize every single one of their NPC's so there's never really been an implementation of a 'randomly generated event' like this, but man, it would've been pretty cool to put into a larger game like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, right?
Acheman
And the Acheman are the "Vire" to the Ache's "Keese", although it's not quite the same 'big enemy splits into small enemies'. Playing on the vampiric theme, the Acheman hides itself as an Ache when resting on cave ceilings, before swooping down and transforming into their full demon-vampire form, which are significantly more dangerous than the Ache. Pretty cool! No real word on whether the Acheman are the matured form of the Ache, or if they really are vampires and the Acheman are the 'elder' or 'lord' vampires or something. I actually find the sprite to have a somewhat draconic-looking head, but the official artwork makes it a bit more clear that it's supposed to be a giant bat ear. The official artwork has some disturbingly spindly, noodle-y limbs for the Acheman, though.
The Moby is a bird of prey! And... that's really about it. The official artwork makes it look so much more badass than the dorky, large-beaked sprite that exists in the game. Now I would like to point out that most of these enemies exclusive to Zelda II do sometimes show up as minor appearances in the late-80's Western-made cartoon and interactive CD-i games. That's about it!
The Deelers are... well, they're basically giant spiders that hung down from ceilings and drop webs down on Link as he walks by. Not really a whole ton to say -- giant spiders are a pretty common enemy in these sorts of fantasy bestiaries, but... there's just something lacking about these spiders, y'know? Maybe if their abdomens are encrusted with gigantic skulls or something, they'd feel more at home in the weirdness of Hyrule...
It's a fly! Just a regular fly, albeit a gigantic one if we take Link as a scale. Not a whole ton to say here, it sure is a monstrous blue fly! It's neat that we have some regular animals (or 'large animals') here, but they don't really make for the most exciting enemies, especially when...
Ah yes, that's more like it! Instead of just-a-giant-bug, Zelda normally does their Gohmas and their Tektites as giant bugs with a big fuck-off eyeball for a face! The Aruroda is basically just a scorpion with a giant, disturbingly-veiny eyeball in that official artwork, but it's far more believable that somehow, in this magical land, the bizarre forces of evolution created these same eyeball-scorpions as the eyeball-spiders that are the Gohmas (who are, by the way, absent in this game). The Aruroda shoot fireballs from their tails, and are only vulnerable when their eyes are open.
Yeah, the Lowder here is why I decided to include the official artworks for the monsters, because I really wasn't sure what I'm looking at when I looked at the Lowder's sprite. It's some kind of... dome? A walking side-scroller enemy, that's for sure, but the artwork shows this utterly bizarre pillbug-looking monster with dozens of pairs of legs, and a bizarrely colourful shell. Pretty weird-looking bug monster!
Huh, it's an armadillo creature? The sprite makes me think that the Megmat is some kind of particularly fat flightless bird, like a kiwi bird whose head looks a bit more like a plague mask than normal. But the artwork showcases something that's best described as a half-breed of an armadillo and an anteater. They jump around like kangaroos, and are apparently one of the weakest enemies in this game. Not much to say, but I do like just how weird this thing looks! A lot more interesting than just having all your enemies be 'wolf' and 'bear', and while the Megmat isn't quite as memorable as something like an Octorok or a Leever or any of the bugs we just talked about, it's still a pretty neat-looking fella!
Bago-Bago
Eyeballs! Yeah, Zelda games do like their eyeball monsters, and the Girubokku is one of the few Zelda enemies that are actually just a giant floating eyeball. They are invincible when their giant eyelids close around the eyeballs, and are vulnerable when the eyes open. Not too much to say, other than, again, those veins really do make the artwork look particularly visceral.
Moa
The more interesting eyeball monster is the Moa, which the artwork and the sprite imply are some kind of wraith-like ghosts, moving around as giant eyeballs encrusted with a veil of ghostly flame. They basically replace the Ghini and the Poe found in the original Legend of Zelda, and some of the stronger variants actually require Link to pull out a cross (yes, a straight-up Christian cross) to reveal them from their invisibility. In case you're unsure if these actually are ghosts! Again, not much to say about the sprites, but the artwork's pretty cool!
Sharing its '-arm' suffix with other worm or centipede-like enemies like the Moldorms (Moldarms) and Pincers (Holdarm), the Geldarm live in the desert regions, hence the name being similar to the sand-monsters like the Geldman, or the Gerudo tribe. The Geldarm, despite being portrayed in the artwork as this badass giant towering centipede, are really more of an obstacle, raising high into the air and waving in place, more of a hazard than an actual enemy. Kind of an interesting way to use a 'centipede' or a 'worm' monster, for sure.
River Devil
Our last entry here is the River Devil, who isn't an enemy but just an overworld obstruction, a la Snorlax in the original Pokemon games. You even drive this River Devil away with a flute! The most interesting thing is that the River Devil is an oni-looking humanoid in the original Japanese version, but the English releases went through all the trouble to change it into a shadowy mutant spider-creature person. Much cooler than just a boring ogre!
Blackjack, I've been reading all your creature and creature-adjacent content for years. Big fan. One thing though, you tend to use the word emancipated when you mean emaciated. Although yes technically the Zora would become emancipated in later entries, no longer beholden to the ways of being a monster!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words!
DeleteAlso, hahaha, I never even realized I misspelled that word! Those two are a bit similar, huh? And... and a quick cursory search throughout my blog shows me that I use the word quite a lot of times in my monster reviews, and I misspell it almost every time!
I've fixed it for this one. Maybe when I'm on a slow weekend, I'll go back and fix all of this! It's actually funny because I know how the word is pronounced, but when I type I always end up writing "emancipated"!