Reviewing D&D Monsters - 4th Edition Monster Manual

So, yeah, I've been a fan of Dungeons & Dragons since a bunch of the earliest editions. I think the first one that I really got into was the unfavourite of the official editions of D&D, which is 4th Edition? Mostly because, again, a vast majority of my D&D experience honestly revolves more around reading the bestiaries and sourcebooks and not actually playing the game. I'm kind of weird like that. 

So... yeah, I've been sort of intending to talk about the 4th Edition and 3.5th Edition Monster Manuals, as well as the Pathfinder Bestiary and the original Fiend Folio, for a while now, since I actually own the physical copies of the books... but it's actually pretty hard to find good pictures of the 4E artwork online, and I don't have a scanner. So, with the disclaimer that you should support the publishers and the fact that, hey, I actually own a physical copy of this book, I've looked up one of the scans of these books and cropped the images from there in order to make this article. Which, I think, is a better way than to just yak on about the book without pictures. 

Also, since these basic Monster Manuals tend to repeat a lot of monsters over the editions, I'm going to skip through a lot of the monsters I've covered in my coverage of 5th Edition's Monster Manual (for an index of all my 5E coverage, click here) because when I did that, I tried to talk about the history of the monsters over the multiple editions of D&D. I will add a little addendum near the end to talk about the monsters I've covered before if the 4E versions are significantly different or weird enough, but otherwise we'll be focusing on the monsters that are new to this blog or ones that haven't been adapted for 5E.

Without further ado...

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Astral Stalker

One thing about the 4E bestiary system that is sometimes often criticized is that the lore isn't that expansive, and thanks to how it's formatted, it ends up sometimes feeling like a list of facts that the DM is supposed to say depending on how well your players roll, and the descriptions usually talk more about what the monster can do instead of what it is. And, of course, the MMORPG-esque way of having like five or six different subtypes of a certain monster listed as variants. Still, in addition to a whole slew of classic monsters from the first through third editions (which we won't cover here; the 4E Bestiary is relatively fresh in my head and I had talked about most of my favourite factoids from it when I covered 5E) we've got a couple of newcomers in 4E. Among them is the subgroup called 'Abominations', which in 4E lore are living weapons created during the cosmic war between the gods and primordials, which include some fun classics like Atropals and Tarrasques. Ancient weapons used by gods? Not exactly my thing, but it's still pretty cool. 

This guy is the Astral Stalker, which is some sort of lizard-person beefcake with badass giant fuck-off claws. The bestiary notes them to be great assassins and bounty hunters that often pursue enemies from their new homeland of the Astral Sea just to test its mettle against a worthy foe. The way it's described makes them basically be extraplanar fantasy Predators, going around from planet to planet to take down worthy foes and stuff. Among being Fantasy Boba Fett, they can also spit out poisonous bone darts and has invisibility powers. Basically just a magic uber-assassin. 

Blood Fiend

Another 'Abomination' is the Blood Fiend, which are... four-armed beefcakes with blade-like claws. Pretty cool, although I don't think it's particularly that special compared to the rest of the bestiary. These ones are apparently born out of the Elemental Chaos, and are also killers that hunt for food and sport? We really don't learn much about these guys since the page really only talks about how they will viciously attack a single target and be focused on it until it or the target dies; everything else details its physical abilities and the same repeated description about what Abominations are. Yeah, I definitely appreciate 5E's bestiary a lot more where they at least try to give a short blurb about their origins, biology or society.

Phane

The last of our Abominations, this one is actually cool, for the simple fact that it's not just some mutated humanoid like the Blood Fiend or Astral Stalker. The Phane has a fun centaurian body, but its upper humanoid body is so hulking and the head looks almost dinosaurian. And, of course, it seems to be continually fading off to mist. And that's just from the artwork! The description talk about how Phanes can manipulate time and love to sow chaos among mortals. There's even a fun little sentence noting how Phanes will be willing to form pacts with destructive mortals. I like this, simple addition, a little insertion point on how your DM can use the Phane. We still don't quite get an explanation as to what these are, but being a shadowy mist-creature that's on the verge of dissipating into mist, and has the ability to cast 'wizening ray' (it makes you grow old and decay) really works so much better into the fantasy that this thing is created from the remnants of a war between gods, and it breaks reality itself. 

Angels of Battle, Protection, Valor & Vengeance

Abandoning the traditional classification of Angels into 'Planetar, Deva, Solar' that most of the early editions have them as, both 3E and 4E experiment a bit with making a more original bit of mythology, I think? And that's totally fine -- if we're being frank, I actually prefer a lot of these more elemental-looking angels with a ghostly lower body. The Angels of Valor and Vengeance (the fire dude and the goth-looking one) are pretty cool, and while 5E does give us some pretty neat artwork of the chiseled-Adonis angels, I actually prefer there to be more variety among them. 4E's cosmology and origins are a bit different, and so these angels are the first beings born from the Astral Sea and serve the gods, basically being literal manifestations of certain 'celestial vocations'. Which means, well, Angels of Battle are all about battle, the Angel of Protection's main priority is protecting people... you get the gist of things. Interestingly, this causes the 4E angels to become, as the bestiary notes, 'mercenary forces for anyone willing to meet their price', which is pretty far off from the traditional fantasy for angels but one that is very interesting, and I'm actually disappointed that no other D&D edition have tapped into these 'former celestial army turned into mercenary warriors looking for a just cause' base. 

Archon (Elemental)

In 1E to 3E, Archons are just another brand of celestial servitors, perhaps to make it so that the forces of the heaven-analogue don't just merely have angels. They're either animal-people or cute floating lanterns! In 4E, Archons are... well, an organized elemental hierarchy? They're the 4E equivalent of Elemental Myrmidons in 5E. The artwork for these Fire and Ice Archons are pretty cool, very World-of-Warcraft-y, but at the same time I feel like it's kind of weird that they took the name of an established creature type and slapped it onto another. These guys are the footsoldiers of the Primordials, who fought the Gods and their Angel armies. Neat!

Perhaps this is where it's easiest to note just how much 4E's bestiaries love to detail the variants among their ranks, because 4E's system also emphasizes different roles in battle. Fire Archons, for example, are divided into Emberguards, Blazesteels and Ash Disciples; while Ice Archons are divided into Frostshapers, Hailscourges and Rimehammers. There's a lot of supposed 'lore' about them, but they're mostly repetitive, or just detail abilities that I can see on the ability page. Kind of a shame, I'd love to learn a bit more about these guys. 

 

Banshrae

Briefly appearing in one of the last Monster Manuals in 3.5E, the Banshrae shows up here in the core 4E Monster Manual! They're pretty assholish insect-fey, and that alone made me like them a fair bit... I do really think that making evil asshole fey beings is a wellspring of creativity that D&D tends to expand a lot upon in many of their side-books. I love the description in this book that "the kindest banshrae is an impish trickster, while the worse is a terrifying, bloodthirsty killer that toys with victims before slaying them'. The lore segment here even preserves one of the cooler things from the 3.5E version -- the Banshrae is completely mute, only communicating via telepathy... but they're obsessed with wind instruments despite not having a mouth to play them with. Mostly, I think, I just really like the artwork here -- she doesn't look particularly alien, but her creepy, mouthless face with those alien eyes and those long tapering fingers really strike her as being inhuman without going too over-the-top. 

Bats

One of my favourite parts about the 4E Monster Manual? Random real-life animals get entry pages... but all the entries describe crazy, over-exaggerated versions of them that feel more at home in Legend of Zelda or Pokemon. And I love it. Take the humble bat, for example! In addition to regular bats, 4E's Monster Manual describes the Fire Bat, bats that are made entirely out of fire (Fire Keese!) and are domesticated by Azers and stuff. Shadowhunter Bats, meanwhile, are giant bats that are domesticated by Shadowfell or undead-related creatures. I love that the artwork introduces regular ol' bats for comparison. This, I think, is one way where 4E's "many many monster variations" actually end up feeling like it builds upon the world instead of being just pedantic. 

Battlebriar

I'm 90% certain these guys show up in 3.5E's first or second Monster Manuals, too. Battlebriars are pretty interesting! They're giant living biological weapons that are purposefully grown to serve in military capacities. Very Magic: The Gathering or Resident Evil, I approve! And the fact that these are basically giant plant monsters that lumber around and smash enemy troops? The book doesn't go too in-depth about them, but what little we got really do make them be pretty cool. No real idea why a plant-based monster would have such reptilian gums and fangs, but I'm going to handwave that as being just weird thorns. I really love the vine-thorn-finger-leg things that the smaller Battlebriar has got going on. 

Of course, being magical monsters created for an army, Battlebriars can be met as either part of an organized military, or you might encounter them as having run amuck and act as autonomous wild monsters. It's a common thing in most D&D plant monsters, but Battlebriars can basically survive indefinitely with photosynthesis. The two shown here are the Warthorn Battlebriar (the smaller one, who prioritizes thorn attacks) and the Earthrage Battlebriar (it buries itself and attacks from the ground like a trapdoor spider, but with vines). Pretty cool, actually, and I would like to see them show up in 5E in an official capacity. We need more plant monsters! 

Colossus

Mmmm... not too impressed by this one, though I'm including him for completion's sake. The Colossus is described as just basically being a massive golem that is often fashioned in the likeness of a god or a king, usually done with an 'epic ritual' done by demon lords and divine exarchs. It sure is a huge statue with a big glowing lightning bolt in his hand... not my type of monster, but kind of cool nonetheless. 

Crocodiles

There are a lot of other animals that receive variations in this Monster Manual (like bears, boars, beetles and behemoths dinosaurs, screw you 4E) but I won't be talking about all of them. I'm just going to talk about what I find interesting! And these 4E crocodiles I found to be pretty cool, they're basically an art-style difference away from being a Pokemon. The Visejaw Crocodile is just a regular crocodile with a pretty cool gray-red colour scheme and I believe more defined legs than regular real-life crocos, but the Feymire Crocodile below is a fey crocodile, and they're able to use those plants on its back to unleash vines to drag their prey into their mouth. Notably featured in the big-name campaign Critical Role, which very prominently uses the 5th Edition, the Feymire Crocodile is a fun take on just how weird the Feywild is. This could've been boring; just a crocodile with vague fey-phasing powers or a generic piranha plant monster, but I love that somehow in the Feywild, crocodiles have somehow fused with plants and use vines to drag prey into their mouths. 

Evistro

In addition to a bunch of our classic demons from earlier editions (and some yugoloths/daemons, who get to become demons in 4E) we've got a bunch of new faces. The Evsitro, or 'Carnage Demon', is from 3E, and it's essentially sort of the generic 'there are lots of them, they are violent, and rampage mindlessly until someone puts them down' enemy that would feel at home as a common enemy to beat down in Diablo or something. That said, the Evistro is... pretty boring? He's basically the most standard muscle-man-with-red-skin-and-tooth-and-claws that you can think of. He's part of a set of other demons, and while it's surprising that the Evistro hasn't shown up in 5E yet, I can see why the designers were much more in a hurry to adapt like, the Armanite or something. 

Immolith

And then we have this guy, the Immolith, another demon. Yes, that's the clearest picture we have of the Immolith since he shares his artwork with the Goristro and Hezrou. The Immolith is basically just a pillar of flame with a screaming skull and a couple of skeleton hands. Kind of like a reverse-Ghost-Rider? The concept of the Immolith is pretty neat, where they are formed by the spirits of deceased demons that fuse together accidentally when they fall back to the Abyss to essentially respawn, becoming an 'undead demon'. That's a pretty cool concept that makes use of the pretty fun little 'can't be killed outside of their home plane' thing that demons have got going on, but it's just kind of a shame that we don't really learn what about the Immolith makes it so special. 

Destrachan

Oh I like this one. It crops up a lot in 'list of DUMB D&D monsters' lists I see out there and... yeah, I have to admit, that face does make the Destrachan look like one hell of a goober. That said... I really, really like him. He's got the body of a generic raptor-esque dinosaur, but its head is like some sort of troglodytic animal (the real life term, not the D&D monster). It's got such a glossy head without eyes, and a mouth that it uses to unleash sonic waves. It's an echolocating dinosaur! The Destrachan also weaponizes the sound to attack, which the 4E MM describes its hunting methods as 'blasting the prey with skullcracking waves of sound'. More interestingly, it's also a creature that can immitate any sound it hears often, so it can pretend to make ambient sounds to trick prey. Honestly, it does look like a huge goober, but I absolutely love this creature. It's so silly, and in a book with so many monsters, I do really think that we need a couple of sillier ones to contrast them. 

Dragonspawn

I remember Monster Manual IV from 3.5E where a full one-fourth of the book just went on and on and on about the many different kinds of Dragonspawn. They took 'Dungeons and Dragons' a bit too much in that book. And, well, the Dragonspawn are basically half-dragon creatures, though created by mixing dragon eggs with a Tiamat-worshipping ritual instead of the sexier kind of making half-dragons. Each Dragonspawn end up becoming its own 'breed' of race and can self-propagate. Essentially, you're making dragon mooks for huge dragon-themed dungeons without utilizing kobolds all the time or killing baby dragons. And, y'know, to make armies of dragons. I think this feels kind of WoW-based, because WoW's original Blackrock Mountain dungeons had a lot of quasi-dragon enemies, but I digress. 

There are a lot of these in 3.5E, but 4E only shows three. The first one, Redspawn Firebelcher, is basically a fatter, stouter dragon that belches fire. Pretty simple, isn't it? The Bluespawn Godslayer is the strongest one among the three, and is hyped up as being 'able to lay waste to entire cities', and actually has intelligence. So... kind of like a Dragonborn PC, then? But evil? They're apparently bred specifically to fight angels. Okay, sure. Blackspawn Gloomweb is the coolest among these three, because it actually looks pretty dang monstrous.  And it's part-spider, of course I'll like it. The artwork does admittedly look more like a demon spider than a dragon spider, but I do like the two intertwining tails serving as the rear pair of legs. Its webs are laced with poison, which makes it deadly in addition to sticky. I like this one. 

Drakes

We have a lot of Drakes in addition to Dragonspawn, and these are just natural bestial animals that look like dragons -- and are noted to be domesticated by a lot of people. I told you these older editions are gloriously intent on making the 'Dragons' part of the game stretch as far as it could. Including the Pseudodragon and Guard Drake (both of which we've covered in 5E), we've got six types of Drakes listed here. I'm going from relative left to right! The Spiretop Drake are pretty cool, I like their scaled skin and their weirdly beaked face, and they apparently act as fantasy asshole-ravens, perching on top of buildings to steal valuable objects from denizens. Needlefang Drakes are basically just dragon-themed versions of the Compsognathus from The Lost World: Jurassic Park, running and swarming over their enemies and often trained as pets and traps. The bigger green theropod is 4E's Guard Drake. 

Rage Drake, the bigger red brute has an interestingly ridged and long neck. I'm not the biggest fan of its design, though it does help to contrast with the rest of the drakes on these two pictures well. As its name indicates, it goes on a rage and gets extra-powerful when it's wounded. In one of the few fun descriptions of the wildlife of these drakes, apparently Rage Drakes that don't have a pack will force itself into a clutch of Spitting or Guard Drakes to become its leader. The orange one is the Spitting Drake who... spits acid. So it's a Jurassic Park Dilophosaurus? Sure. That's honestly about it that makes the Spitting Drake special. And the tiny spindly guy is 4E's version of the Pseudodragon. 

Honestly these feel more like fantasy Jurassic Park dinosaurs more than anything. I actually appreciate them a lot -- I'm a little bit more iffy about Dragonspawns and Half-Dragons, but the idea that there are so many Drakes and animals that resemble dragons in the world really does kind of make sense. I'm actually a fan of these, I just wish we had known a bit more about their ecology and biology beyond 'they sometimes get domesticated'. 

Death Giant

In addition to D&D's classic batch of giant sub-types, we've got a particularly metal one in the Death Giant here, where they harvest souls! His bigger cousin is the Death Titan -- all the 4E giants come in 'giant' and 'titan' forms. Look at that cloud of blue screaming souls that spin around these two muscle-men. It's pretty hilariously hardcore, and these feel like they come from a Dark Souls game or something. And I actually kind of like it. These giants have migrated to the Shadowfell and got corrupted into the soul-manipulating magical beings. It's actually pretty cool -- I think if they ever got imported to 5E they'd probably just be a sub-class of other giants, but I like that 4E actually makes these guys into their own thing, essentially the Giants' version of the Shadar-Kai or something. Pretty cool, pretty metal. 

Earth Titan

The only exception to the rule to 'the titan is just a bigger version of the giant' is the Earth Titan, the boss for the humble Hill Giants (which we see next to it). The Earth Titan is just a straight-up giant humanoid made up of rock. Admittedly a bit redundant with Earth Elementals, I do kind of enjoy the 'humans are made from dirt and dust' religious nod. I think in something that's unique to 4E, these Earth Giants enslave dwarves and transform them into Galeb Duhrs. Huh! 

Gibbering Beast

So the Gibbering Mouther in 4E is just a 'type' of Gibbering Beast, and I absolutely approve of making the Gibbering Mouther something that's a bit more expansive! The rest of the more powerful versions are just basically the same design but less oozy. Gibbering Abomination (middle) is a version that looks like a floating... octopus? Shrimp? It's floating and it's got tentacles, at any rate. It's less of an amorphous, undulating amoeba. It's got extra psychic powers, and I absolutely love the detail here. If you zoom in, I particularly like that one eye that's surrounded by two rows of mismatched teeth -- Gibbering Mouthers always give us some of the most fun art.

The Gibbering Orb, meanwhile, is a hovering Beholder-esque beast, and I love that the tentacles of this one is tipped with eyes and mouths and just looks so frayed. Particularly like that tentacle that ends with a mouth that opens up into an eyeball-tipped tongue. This one has random eyeball Beholder powers! 4E, if I am not mistaken, is the expansion that introduces us to the 'Far Realm', a realm full of Cthulhu-style monters and aberrant things that should not be. Gibbering beasts are creatures that spontaneously arise when sentient creatures die at a place touched by the Far Realm, while the Orbs are noted to be actual denizens of the Far Realm, more 'natural' than its two weaker brethren, and are actually "perversely rational" and have secret objectives.

Hags

Hags return, and we've got a bunch of new variants -- the Howling Hag (who doesn't get a picture), the Bog Hag and the Death Hag. The Bog Hag one is an... interesting one? The picture is of a naked sexy lady ripping off her skin to reveal the warty, spindly-fingered green hag monster within. It's actually a pretty interesting art piece, and I love just how much the false skin looks like it's one of those masks that people use in movies. Both the Bog Hag and the Howling Hag basically stand in for the more common 'Green Hag', and are relatively low-leveled as far as monsters go. The Death Hag is... it's just a hag with a necrotic 'life drain' spell, and the book doesn't really tell us what makes the Death Hag so different. The general backstory here is that the hags are just living manifestation of nature's ugliness, the exact polar opposite to elves and eladrin being nature's beauty.  

Lamia

I don't talk about repeat monsters, because otherwise we'd be here for weeks. There are some notable differences (like the yugoloths being demons; dryads being tree-monsters instead of plant faeries; everything about the eladrin) but I believe I've noted the differences where they were relevant back when I talked about the bulk of the 5E monsters.

But the Lamia... I have to devote a bit of a talk about her. If you forget, in all the other editions of D&D, Lamias are weird half-lynx women that are basically less-cool, more-evil Sphinxes. 4E's Lamia, on the other hand, is such a bizarre departure from the original that I actually wish that they had preserved this as a different monster in subsequent editions -- they walk around as pretty humanoid, but actually go around to stalk other sentient humanoids or for knowledge itself, depending on the individuals. When it comes time to reveal her true form, a Lamia basically explodes into a swarm of black scarabs that congregate around 'the flesh-stripped bones of a fey creature'. That's a pretty cool image! I also love the additional detail that whenever a Lamia kills its prey, it adds another beetle to its growing swarm. And when the swarm is big enough, it kills another powerful fey to harvest its bones, and then splits the swarm into two. Such a cool monster! For a Monster Manual that I complained about not really having a good 'story' for a lot of its creatures, the Lamia is one that is realized well. 

Larva Mage

Speaking of which, while I've mentioned the Larva Mage here and there, I don't think we've really talked about the Larva Mage, with the closest we've gotten being the Star-Spawn in 5E. This is a shame, because the Larva Mage is another monster I'm a big fan of -- I guess I just really like monsters that are made up of thousands of little itty-bitty critters? I love the backstory here -- a powerful evil spellcaster dies, but his spirit takes control of the worms and maggots that are devouring his corpse, and then lives on as, well, a massive humanoid made entirely of worms. The artwork here is also very appropriately disturbing, with masses of maggots making arm-esque appendages, and the Larva Mage removing his porcelain mask to reveal that his face is... more worms! There's honestly not much to them beyond being undead sorcerers that inhabit a mass of worms, and obviously they're related to the original 'worm that walks', Kyuss, but still a pretty cool visual nonetheless. 

Magma Beast

Someone really liked the idea of magma monsters, I see. Magma Beasts are just... well, animals born out of the Elemental Chaos and live in volcanic locales. Here, clockwise from top left, we've got the Magma Strider, Magma Brute, Magma Claw and Magma Lurker. Despite being made up of volcanic rock, they really, really like burned flesh, though normally eat ores, clays and other elemental creatures. You'd think that the two arthropod monsters are going to be my favourite, and you'd guess right. The Magma Strider in particular looks pretty creepy with that massive vortex of volcanic rock as a very inappropriate-for-a-spider mouth. Though I also really like the Magma Lurker, how most of his body is just flames and he's just got a bunch of armour pieces and half of a mask made out of solidified rock. Again, not sure how these guys are 100% different from just regular elementals, but they're pretty neat. 

Rot Harbinger

Huh, this guy's cool. Also known as 'Angels of Decay', the Rot Harbinger isn't a demon or fallen angel like what you'd think, but an 'elemental humanoid undead'. I really love the visuals here of a mummified, decrepit corpse whose undead flesh is just so much in tatters that it's flaking off because a wing is blowing it, and I love that his limbs and even his supposed angelic wings are one strong gust away from being dust in the wind. As their name implies, their touch causes rot. And hey, these guys actually have a fun backstory -- these Rot Harbingers were once angels that attempted to slay the Demon Lord of Undeath, Orcus, and a massive army of angels that attempted to attack Orcus were killed and turned into these Rot Harbingers. Some serve Orcus, while some have escaped him but are still twisted into being evil. I'm not sure why the Rot Harbingers have legs when 4E angels don't have them, but... eh. These guys look cool. 

Scorpion

I've been skipping a lot of the 'animal' entries, but suffice to say that most of them usually have two variants, each usually having some sort of element or gimmick to them. Some of my favourites I'm still including here, though, like the scorpions. On top we've got the Hellstinger Scorpion, which, in addition to being the size of a small dinosaur, also has large glowing claws and are common creatures that patrol the layers of hell. Pretty interesting! And then Stormclaw Scorpions, while smaller than its Hellstinger brother, is also still pretty big and has electric claws. I like them more than I should. 

Snake

More weirdo animals, we've got 4E snakes! from left to right, we've got the Shadow Snake, the Deathrattle Viper, the Crushgrip Constrictor and the Flame Snake. Deathrattle Vipers basically combine features from some of the most iconic real-life poisonous snakes (while also being larger than them), and having pretty cool spikes. Crushgrip Constrictors, also pretty true to its name, is a different trope, and it'll crush you to death with its coils. And then we've got the other two -- the Flame Snake are elemental creatures and hoo boy what a cool-ass artwork ,with the segments of the snake's body being black against a background of red. Very common theme in fantasy monsters but no less cool. The Shadow Snake has two heads for no real reason other than to be cool, and it's a sacred beast to the Yuan-ti (of course), who believe that they're created by one of their gods, Zehir, the god of night and poison.

Spider

Of course we're going to talk about the spiders. From left to right here we've got the Deathjump Spider, the Blade Spider, the Demonweb Terror, and -- while it takes a bit of a realization -- the Bloodweb Spider Swarm on top of the pillar on the right of the image. Cool! We'll start with the Bloodweb Spider Swarm first, where they're a mass of regular-sized spiders who go around trying to poison people because they're brought together under 'a malign influence', turning into a hivemind. It's not common, but there are some communal types of spiders out there. The Deathjump Spider is just an oversized jumping spider, though that alone is already pretty cool.

The Blade Spider kinda looks like a tarantula but it has got blades for the tips of its legs. That's fucking hilarious; I love that. Its even got blades on its pedipalps !And then the massive Demonweb Terrors are actually the minions of the evil drow goddess Lolth, who originate in her realm of the Demonweb Pits. I do like the really oversized Orb Weaver abdomen, and the fact that it glows green for no real reason. 

Swordwing

...okay, this one is kind of cool, actually. You had me at 'bug humanoid', but that absolutely awesome face that wouldn't look out of place in a Michael Bay Transformers movie? That massive sword arm? The bent-backwards lower legs? Those eight bug wings? This thing just looks plain cool, and looks pretty different from something like the Thri-kreen. I like this one, and Swordwing society is apparently defined by the individuals' collections -- where they will gather rare items that range from anything from books and magical items to the hearts and skulls of their victims. They're Underdark residents, and the other little bit of detail that the 4E Monster Manual tells us is that they live in giant 'nesting spires' that I'm going to assume is sort of similar to those giant nests that termites build... but are made out of stone because these are Underdark bug-people. Pretty cool. 

Vine Horror

Okay, I think this got heavily retooled into the Blights in 5E? The Vine Horror is just another Swamp Thing style humanoid, but entirely made up of vines. The backstory notes that these guys are created when a humanoid dies in a Shadowfell-touched location, and the blood causes the local vegetation to come to life as a vine horror, turning into a mockery of the one whose blood gave it life. Neat, but not the most memorable. 

Guulvorg

Regular 'Worgs' are just angry, lumpy wolves with the body proportion of an angry rat, and aren't particularly memorable. Their stronger counterpart, the Guulvorg, on the other hand? Just... just look at that picture. Somehow, its weaker relative just looks like a weird wolf, and then you've got this Gigeresque nightmare with claws running down its spine, a club-tail, legs with one too many joints and an utterly emaciated body. Absolutely awesome, I actually really like this monstrous creature.

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And with the Guulvorg being a pretty cool one to cap this off... this has been my coverage of the 4E Monster Manual. If I had wanted to be super-duper exhaustive I could do a listing of how different things are in the mythology of 4E compared to 3.5E and 5E (the other two editions I'm passably familiar with), or how the specifics of, say, the elementals or devils or whatever are.... but I'm not going to. That sounds like so much work, so I had just mostly talked about some of the new monsters and some of the most different monsters.

It's honestly kind of interesting to jump around the first Monster Manuals for the various editions and see what the various teams deemed to be 'necessary' to have as part of the core bestiary. And while some classics will always be there in the first Monster Manual -- the Mind Flayers and Beholders and Dragons and Aboleths and Lycanthropes -- I always find it interesting to see the ones that are a bit weirder and a bit more out there. Still, it has been fun going back through this book that I got back in 2009 or something for a gaming system I know close to nothing about (and having jumped into 5E, I still don't know anything about 4E beyond that it feels a bit more video-gamey) just to see the cool-ass monsters in this 'Dungeons & Dragons' game everyone talks about. 

Reviewing Monsters - Genshin Impact, Part 3: Inazuma

It's been some time since we did one of these, and we've got a bunch of updates since! The region of Inazuma came out! This 'reviewing monsters' segment is going to cover a couple of stragglers that I didn't put into the two other articles prior to this. I debated adding them stealthily into the 'part 2', but I decided to just hold off until Inazuma came out. And then just as I finished this, they did a livestream announcing version 2.1, which is Inazuma part 2. So, uh... you know what? I'll just publish this one first, and talk about any new additions in 2.1 later on. 

EDIT: This was originally released in 28th August, literally two days before version 2.1 came out. The original version also had the Abyss Heralds and Azhdaha, but I moved them to 'part 2' where they fit better. Afterwards I also removed a bunch of mythological creatures other than the Bake-Danuki that's actually interactable in-game, because I feel like I can make a whole article in the future about the Chinese and Japanese mythological creatures that they used as inspiration for Liyue and Inazuma's mythical creatures. 

I then re-released this in November to account for some new Inazuma-themed monsters released in the October update, so everything released in Inazuma is placed here. 

Inazuma enemies now! And a little background for the lead-up to this region. Inazuma is essentially the world of Teyvat's counterpart to Japan. The in-universe reason for our main character to take some time to enter Inazuma is that there is a fantasy counterpart to the real-life Sakoku decree. Only because this is a land of magic, the almighty Raiden Shogun has also allowed her lightning powers to run wild and make it extremely difficult for outlanders to enter Inazuma. 

The region itself is also breathtakingly beautiful, and suffice to say that it really invigorated me playing the game... and by the time the Inazuma update came around I was only at the cusp of completing all the prior content available to the game, so this game just keeps giving and giving and giving in terms of content. That's the good part of coming into a game like this a couple of updates late, I suppose. It's an amazing region filled with a lot of great environments, colourful characters and some of the game's most intricate side-quests, but most relevant to this article... new enemies!

Electro Repaint Enemies

As I alluded before in the first two parts of this review, there are a lot of 'common' enemies that is just carte blanche for the game-makers to make up alternate-elemental variants and just toss them into the game. And as we enter Inazuma, the primary element that infuses every part of the environmental design is Electro. so we've got a whole lot of brand-new enemies that use Electro! And... and for the most part, I really don't have much to say here. The Hilichurls in particular aren't super-interesting. We've got the Electro Hilichurl Grenadier (which just reuses the model for the Electro Shooter); the Crackling Axe Mitachurl and the Electro Samachurl (both just get new accessories). Out of the Hilichurls, the only one that's remotely interesting is the Thunderhelm Lawachurl -- it's clear that he still reuses assets from the other Lawachurls in the game. But between the glowing purple lightning crystals that jut out of his back and horns, and the skulls on his belt, Thunderhelm at least looks more like a completely different variant creature. 

Other new electro enemies include the Electro Abyss Mage and Electro Whopperflower, which are... well, just the same designs that we've seen before, but purple and with some different markings. Again, I really don't mind it all that much. It is a mobile game, and it's interesting that these guys have one or two different attack patterns that at least make them feel different. 

Nobushi

I'm going to start off, interestingly enough for me, with the humanoid enemies. I dismissed the Treasure Hunters so readily because they're all very boring and basic-looking. Frankly I'm surprised to open up the 'archive' segment of the game and find out that there are eleven variants of the Treasure Hunters, I thought there were like, four at best. But the Nobushi? It's clear that they put the same amount of care as designing the Fatui agents as they do designing these guys. Each Nobushi (and there are only three) look unique, and honestly, I wouldn't mind actually having these as playable characters. I feel like that's the mark of a good humanoid enemy design -- like the Fatui assassins and mages, I really wouldn't mind seeing these guys as playable characters. 

The Nobushi (roughly translating to 'mountain brigand') are noted to be samurai who has fallen into banditry, and are basically just jackasses with chipped swords that collude with other evil humans to rob people blind. The 'Jintouban' has these badass folded straw hat and glowing red eyes under that and for someone that's basically just a swordsman, looks so much more menacing than he has any right to be. The 'Hitsukeban' has a rattier straw hat, and he tosses out weaponized firework grenades. The 'Kikouban' has a badass flattened, metal-rimmed hat that I almost expect them to toss around like Kung-Lao from Mortal Kombat, but he's basically just an electro-infused samurai. Frankly, I'm actually happy to have some human enemies that I actually spend time actually, earnestly talking about. 

Kairagi

The Kairagi (roughly 'sea demon') are basically just... just evil samurai! A bit more straight-up and what you expect, with the full-face kabuto helms. I love everything about how they look, though. The badass helmet, the horns that are snapped off, the scalloped shoulder armour... these are basically what you expect a samurai enemy to look like, and I do like that there's a hierarchy between the more bandit-looking Nobushi and the more powerful Kairagi who presumably has better resources to even have these armour still intact. There are two variants of the Kairagi, the 'Fiery Might' and 'Dancing Thunder', and they use paper seals from the Kannagara art to infuse their blades with their respective elements of flame and lightning -- a way to still incorporate elemental powers into their fighting style without making the gifts of the 'Vision' that our main characters have feel less special.

Fatui Mirror Maiden

We already have a Electro Fatui enemy in from the earliest version of Genshin Impact in the Electro Cicin Mage, so it's interesting that they decided to include a Hydro Fatui Agent into this region. And, again, it's not just a reskin of the Cicin Mage model, which I wouldn't even minded (the Electro and Cryo variants really do feel different). No, the Fatui Mirror Maiden is a completely brand-new model that I actually thought was a new playable character when she briefly made a little cameo in the 2.0 trailer. And when I actually fought her in-game, her location and just how dignified and different she looks made me think that she's actually like, some sort of forest spirit or a youkai or something. 

But no, it's just a member of the Fatui who uses a magical mirror to fight you. It's a pretty unexpected enemy type, reminding me of something like the character Haku from Naruto, as the Mirror Maiden has these mirror fragments constantly swirling around her form and she can hide inside them to avoid being hit by attacks, or summon them to make a cage and shoot energy beams at you. I'd prefer a ghost yokai, but Mirror Maiden here is pretty cool. 

Ruin Cruiser

It's interesting that the next set of enemies are all members of the 'Ruin Guard' family, a quartet known in promotional materials as 'Ruin Sentinels'. I had expected a feudal-Japan inspired land to have oni or tengu enemies or the like... but honestly, I probably should've realized that, just like Liyue, these more iconic mythological creatures are actually relegated to being major characters or major NPC's. I definitely approve! Instead, we've got these ruin guardians, all of which aren't actually just giant humanoid robots but are, to quote the game, 'biomimetic' robots!

So in their dormant state, all four of these new ruin sentinels look pretty similar, folding up into identical-looking cubes. But they all unfurl in a completely different way, and fight differently! The Ruin Cruiser flies around and it has like these small little hovering versions of itself to help shoot lasers at you. The archive segment of the game notes that the Ruin Cruiser has mimicked honeybee colonies, which isn't what I thought this is inspired by, but I can't un-see it anymore now. I love this idea so much. 

Ruin Destroyer

The Ruin Destroyer unfurls out in a different way, resembling some sort of cobra or worm about to strike at you, and it will burrow in and out of the ground. Interestingly, the archive notes that the Ruin Destroyer is actually mimicking a 'frightening plant', so I guess it's meant to be like mimicking those mighty Regisvines that we've met earlier in our journey? It definitely does look like a Piranha Plant for sure. One of its attack patterns has it actually split down the middle into four tendrils, which does feel a bit more plant-like than worm-like, in any case.

Ruin Defender

Probably the most basic-looking one out of the four is the Ruin Defender, who just unfolds into a four-legged spider-crab-robot monster. It's not that this is a bad design, though! It's just that I've seen this exact design show up in so many other sci-fi settings and games. It's still a very cool design, with the huge chunky lower legs, and the creepy glowing central eye. The Defender, as its name implies, is able to create tiny forcefields with its front legs. 

Ruin Scout

And the final member of the new ruin sentinels is the Ruin Scout, which has little jellyfish tendrils and floats around in the sky, probably the most haunting and unexpected one out of the four. I do like that the archive segment of the game is actually baffled why this one copies the form of a deep-sea creature, probably a little handwave because 'the monster design team thought this would be cool'. I feel like individually, these little ruin minions would've been pretty cool to encounter but otherwise be forgettable.

The fact that they exist in a set, and sometimes they are all folded up and you don't really know which variant you're fighting until you meet them, is pretty cool! I wondered why the Japanese region got a bunch of ancient robotic animals, though, until someone pointed out to me that these are basically origami enemies. Interesting! I think I probably would've preferred it if they were actually made up of magical paper or something, but I do also appreciate the continuity with the Ruin Guards. Overall, extremely happy to see them, and it's neat to see a variation of an existing enemy that's not just something with a different element. 

Specters

All those enemies were released in 2.0 with the three main islands of Inazuma. The rest of the islands were drip-fed through subsequent updates! 2.1 gave us two new islands, Watatsumi and Seirai, and we get the Specters, which are... well, they're basically flying slimes, if we're being honest. They have a singular eye, hover around, and a bunch of petals that make them resemble a mangosteen. They hover around like little balloons, and their gimmick is that they have a 'fury' meter and grow stronger and stronger as you hit them... but they eventually blow up. Okay? Currently, there are three types: Anemo, Geo and Hydro. They're noted to just be another kind of elemental creation like slimes, but the fact that they hover and glow make the locals think that they are wandering spirits. Which is why the term 'specter' is misattributed to them. I do like that. Their 'wings' are noted to be mimetic and resemble fruits of some sort, although the game also lampshades that the anemo one really didn't need these organs since they can already inherently float. 

Neat to see new enemy models, at least, even if these aren't the most revolutionary-looking ones. I find it absolutely bizarre that we didn't get an Electro Specter, though. 

Rifthound Whelps

That's much more like it. Such an unexpected but pretty welcome enemy type that was added with the final island in Inazuma, the creepy, time-displaced Tsurumi Island. These Rifthounds have actually been foreshadowed all the way since the very first version of Genshin Impact, all the way in Mondstadt in a quest with Razor, a boy raised by the sentient wolves of Wolvendom. They note of the evil dark wolves that are at war with them. This is what they look like! Can I just say that I'm so happy that one of the all-too-boring generic enemies in fantasy games -- wolves -- don't actually look like proper wolves, but are instead these... masses of floating bones? The Rifthound Whelps have a body structure kinda similar to the Pokemon Haunter, with two cool-looking disembodied, floating hands, and a tail that trails off -- the ghostly tail is made up of detached vertebrae! 

In combat, to symbolize how unnatural and out-of-place they are, they inflict the damage-over-time status effect called 'Corrosion', which eats through basically any kind of shield you can put up. 

Rifthounds

The 'adult' versions of the Rifthounds look a lot more traditionally lupine, but they still have all their limbs detached and they don't really have an equivalent to a torso or a ribcage. I like the little pups a lot better than the larger ones, but I do have to applaud how stylish a bunch of floating wolves that slash and rend through reality is. Pretty great-looking!

The lore for all the Rifthounds note that they aren't actually native to the world of Teyvat, but rather, come from the Abyss. They're the first Abyssal creatures we see that aren't humanoid or sentient, and are noted to be created by the mad alchemist Gold -- I could go on and on about the 'deep lore' of Genshin Impact, and I'm frankly kind of itching to do it. 

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Inazuma Bosses:

Pyro Hypostasis: Ayin / Hydro Hypostasis: He

We're going into the 'daily' minibosses now, and I think I'll get these two, the most boring ones, out of the way. The Hypostases are always the most easy monsters to repaint, and I'm just waiting until all six elements get a representative. Still, while these Hypostases do look pretty mundane, they do have a pretty interesting set of animations that make them feel different. The Pyro Hypostasis is located in a location where it's just surrounded by the remnants of a forest it has burnt to cinders. The Hydro Hypostasis, introduced in 2.1 in the water-themed Watatsumi Island, hangs out in an underwater cave. 

The Hydro Hypostasis is a bit more interesting, because unlike the other Hypostases, the hydro variant's "default" form is actually just one giant cube that's seamlessly merged together, instead of eight smaller cubes with visible seams. The flavour text notes that the liquid in the Hydro Hypostasis is actually quite unique, repelling regular, 'non-elemental' water. 

I do commend the animations -- look them up in youtube! But otherwise, I don't have much to say. 

Perpetual Mechanical Array: SI/Ald

And here we go with the boss of the ruin sentinels. It's kind of surprising that we've never gotten one of these as a proper boss, since the Ruin Guards, Hunters and Graders are just elite enemies. The Perpetual Machine Array is an interesting creature, in that it's a ruin automaton that mimics... a Hypostasis! It's such a clever take on a pre-existing enemy type, combining two of them into one. And while the Perpetual Machine Array does initially look like it would fight just like a Hypostasis would, I really do love the amount of care given to the animations of this boss to make him feel like a brand-new enemy type. It flies around on little steampunk engines, it transforms into giant buzzsaws and laser cannons and stuff... it feels so different and steampunk-y!

All the other Hypostases have a way to recover health as a last-ditch gimmick when you hit their HP to zero. The Perpetual Mechanical Array also has a pseudo-version of this, where the cubes that make up its body split up and transform into the lesser Ruin Sentinels. I really like it, since the Ruin Sentinels already turn into cubes -- it felt natural that a bunch of them end up becoming an artificial Hypostasis! Entirely unexpected, but surprisingly pretty dang cool. 

Maguu Kenki

The Maguu Kenki (lit. 'magic puppet sword demon') is a boss that had an early appearance in the version 1.6 special area, the Golden Apple Archipelago, as a little preview of Inazuma. 1.6 is the first real big event that I experienced in Genshin, and I was surprised by the amount of voice-acting and the effort made into making the maps for the temporary area. There's a storyline in the archipelago, involving a group of people who were trapped there by the mysterious mists and stuff, and this mysterious Inazuman puppet-warrior protects the local people. So yeah, Maguu Kenki isn't just a samurai, it's a puppet samurai. If it isn't clear enough, during the boss fight he even has invisible strings reaching up and disappearing into the sky! In Inazuma proper, there's a different Maguu Kenki that hangs out in Yashiori Island -- new description for this Maguu Kenki note that it was made with 'the memories' of a particularly powerful sword-master. But as all robots are wont to, Maguu Kenki malfunctioned, killed everyone and went rogue and it's ambiguous whether it's just a mechanical malfunction or if there's some sort of spiritual possession going on. (Also, as of 2.2, there are some... interesting story implications about a puppet going rogue, considering what we learn about the main characters in Inazuma.)

I definitely would've been very dismissive about Maguu Kenki if not for the fact that it's a puppet. Because, yeah, the design is cool, and the puppet strings are cool, but it would otherwise just be a pretty generic samurai enemy that's not that much more impressive than a Kairagi up above. That extra oomph that makes Maguu memorable? Two giant halves you see in that second picture.

The Maguu Kenki is initially found curled up behind a giant horned oni mask, and the mask turns out to be part of the puppet, hovering around him and acting as shields or as boomerangs that the puppet samurai tosses around like weapons. Oh, it can also create shadow clones, which of course it can. Very cool boss -- I do really appreciate this extra layer that makes him so much more memorable than if he's just merely a puppet samurai robot. 

Thunder Manifestation

Another one released in update 2.1, the Thunder Manifestation is the boss of Seirai Island, an island constantly plagued by thunderstorms -- moreso than other islands in Inazuma. In fact, there's a perpetually swirling mass of storm clouds above the island, with rocks that are magnetically/electrically levitating all around it. As our hero goes off to help curb the out-of-control elemental energy, all of the energy and the 'lingering hatred' of the battles of gods that are left in this island coalesced into a 'Thunder Manifestation'. It's interesting because, from a gameplay perspective, the Thunder Manifestation is just a reskin of the Oceanid... but the lore insists that, no, it just takes the form of an Oceanid and is not at all sentient. 

The story of the Thunder Manifestation seems to just be 'oh, it's the cause of the strange weather phenomenon in Seirai Island', until, well, spoiler warnings for 2.2 -- we learn about the source of the 'lingering hatred'! Because the Thunder Manifestation is the remains of a mighty god-like being called the Thunderbird, whose remnants of the tragic aloof mistake she made would be explored in the ghostly Tsurumi Island. Without spoiling the entire story of the Thunderbird, I love how the questlines of these two islands would tie together this otherwise seemingly standalone-boss. These world quests and how they interconnect with each other are easily my favourite part of this constantly-evolving game, I believe. 

While the Thunderbird seems to be some sort of raptorial bird or an owl by the looks of her murals in Tsurumi, interestingly, the Thunder Manifestation feels a bit more... bat-like? The shape of those ears are the most obvious ones, I think. 

La Signora

There is a lot of story in Inazuma, I think more than the previous two regions combined, and I don't really want to spoil anyone with the particulars of the motivations and allegiances of the characters involved. But let's just say that it's not a spoiler to say that you fight against another Harbinger here, this time jumping straight to number eight, La Signora, who's menaced our heroes all the way back from the very first region, Mondstadt. There's a giant pile of item flavour text and in-game books that actually tell Signora's story as the Crimson Witch of Flames, and why she ended up joining the Fatui organization, but I'm not here to talk about that. And I'm also not here to talk about her default humanoid form, which is an ice witch instead. No, I'm talking about the second phase in her boss fight! After beating her weaker Cryo form, Signora covers herself in a giant chunk of ice before exploding in a heated blazing glory as... a flaming moth-woman. Unexpected!

Emerging from a frozen ice cube as a fire-based enemy such a great take on the ever-popular metamorphosis themes that anything involving bugs, and what a design, huh? Regular-flavour Signora is already a pretty neat design (if admittedly a bit too on-the-nose in terms of fanservice), but the flaming colours, the gigantic dress that trail off into blades, those parts of her regular human dress that expand into giant moth wings, and those two giant devil-horns reminiscent of moth antennae? The butterfly mask on her face? 

Honestly, I don't think I really cared about Signora when she appeared in the previous two arcs, going 'oh, cool, an antagonist with a unique design', but damn. Damn, that fire moth form is really, really badass looking. It's a shame that just like her fellow Harbinger-turned-boss Childe, this monster form isn't actually playable. Very, very cool, and probably my favourite of the humanoid enemy designs by far. 

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Bonus Enemies:

Okay, I generally don't do 'elite enemies' or quest-specific enemies for Genshin. And Inazuma has a lot of quest-specific reskins of the ronin enemies representing agents of the Shogunate, or samurai aligned with other factions, and the like... but they're just humans! I don't have anything interesting to say about them. Sure, it's neat to see them wearing something different, but they're just dudes.

But at least two versions of the story-specific enemy 'reskins' are interesting enough for me to talk about:

Ochimusha & Miasmic Tumour

The Ochimusha are part of a pretty long quest line and probably one of my favourite non-character related questlines in the game full stop. And unlike most other elite enemies, the Ochimusha are meant to be something different! In effect, they are just Kairagi that glow with an ethereal light, but the backstory given to them is so interesting and helps to build Inazuma as this mystical land a lot. 

Your character is recruited by a shrine maiden to purify several shrines connected to the massive 'Thunder Sakura' plant whose roots coil all over Narukami Island, and this root system essentially functions as a way to collect and purge the 'filth' of the land... assuming someone does the requisite rituals. As you might probably guess, said ritual wasn't done, and the filth accumulates and manifests as these Ochimusha. Ochimusha in real-life Japan is a term that refers to a warrior that has dishonourably fled from battle instead of dying in battle or committing seppuku, and as we go through the quest, we learn that in the past, the 'filth' has taken the form of creatures like oni or inugami, and they just happen to transform into humanoid warriors because present-day Inazuma is wracked by war and that's what pops into people's head as a 'monster'. 

Slight spoilers for this very long and fun quest, but ultimately after purifying five roots all over the island, you get to enter the roots of the main Thunder Sakura tree, and find that the filth of six decades has coalesced into a massive gigantic 'miasmic tumour' that you actually fight. Okay, it's mostly a puzzle boss that sometimes summons Ochimusha, but comparing this to the degree of one-off boss fights that this game used to have in Liyue and Mondstadt, it's honestly pretty damn great that we get such an intricate backstory attached to this!

Tatarigami

An interesting way to do a palette swap! The Tatarigami are basically just the the Nobushi, Kairagi and Treasure Hoarders with a bit of a black fog around them, and, as far as the game is concerned, they are identical to their common counterparts.

But there's a backstory to them! In real-life Shinto religion, Tatarigami (lit. "Curse God") are powerful gods or spirits that bring calamity, death and destruction to their victims. In Inazuma, they are reimagined as a palpable aura that hangs around Yashiori Island -- an island that's partially made up of the corpse of the great serpent god Orobashi-no-Mikoto. And it's this 'curse aura' of sorts that... infects the local bandits? Or do they manifest as bandits? Regardless, even though it's just a minor thing gameplay-wise, I do really like that they added just a couple of extra variations here and there. The game might be limited b the amount of enemy models that the video game platforms can support, but that doesn't mean they can't make additional flavourful enemies to make Inazuma feel so much more interesting. 

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Not really a monster, but I'll talk about this one:

Bake-Danuki

Sometimes parsed as 'Bake-Tanuki', the Bake-Danuki are pretty fun! Anyone who's watched or read anything based on Japanese culture has probably seen these raccoon dogs. Again, IRL tanukis are just basically raccoons, but in Japanese mythology and popular culture, they are tricksters that are well-known to shapeshift and trick other people with leaf-based illusion magic. Easy examples that come to mind from popular culture are Mario and Link's Awakening -- the latter featuring a particularly jackass trickster tanuki that scarred me as a child.

The Bake-Danuki in Inazuma mostly show up as overworld creatures, dancing with the sound of drums as they teleport around where they spawn, usually leading your main character to a chest or some sort of reward (cabbages count as a reward, sort of). Sometimes they transform into torches or pretend to turn into fake chests, which gives you a bit of a headache but is ultimately non-malicious. The more powerful Bake-Danuki themselves actually show up in two side-quests, though, at least ones that I've encountered. One shows up to a pair of old parents in the guise of their daughter (who we met across the world in Liyue) as repayment for them taking care of it. Another one is part of the aforementioned Sacred Sakura questline, where the giant fat Tanuki statue in the middle of Chinju Forest is revealed to actually be Ioroi, a Bake-Danuki god-like being that was sealed into a stone statue due to a past misdeed. It's pretty cool, again, how much effort they put into world-building and making these beings feel like part of the Inazuman mythos -- not everything has to be out to murder you, and I really do appreciate that they adapted many of the more benevolent (or in this case, 'merely' mischievous) beings from mythology into something that still leaves a lasting impact to the audience while exploring their world.

The original version of this article talked a bit more about the Kitsune, Oni, Tengu, Nue and a bunch of other races that were noted to exist in Inazuma... but I removed references to all of them. I feel like between the Liyue and Inazuman characters, I could make a whole article about the real-life inspirations for these Eastern mythological creatures, though I would need some time to research about them. 

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I think if we get a couple more enemies in Inazuma (and I highly doubt that, we'll probably get one or two extra bosses at the most) this would be the final version of this article. I thought about actually editing this and fixing stuff up, but as the updates piled up, the more I had to say, the more I edited, the more I moved stuff around, and I decided to basically revamp the whole thing and re-release it, well, now in November. 

Since I'm not doing 'Lore of Hearthstone' segments anymore, I do wonder if I have the energy to do something similar for Genshin Impact -- about the interesting lore that are mostly told in books and unvoiced dialogue outside of the main quests? One thing at a time, I suppose -- my next Genshin article, assuming the region of Sumeru doesn't release in the next couple of months, is going to be the aforementioned mythological creatures one. 

One Piece 1030 Review: Awakening from Death

One Piece, Chapter 1030: The Impermanence of Things

What a chapter this one is, huh? I actually deliberately didn't review this chapter to give myself around a week or so for the chapter to sink in, and... I still don't like it. Or, well, I don't like the middle segment of this chapter with a burning passion. 

But let's quickly zoom through the chapter as a whole, shall we? The first couple of pages is a bit weird. Apoo and Drake... apparently they're not even fighting anymore, but are... negotiating? We hvae the three remaining numbers (Inbi, Fuga and Zanki) hanging out with Apoo. Apoo figured out Drake's true allegiance to the Marine, and tries to get him to team up and swoop into claim victory. Pretty interesting, I suppose? I've always felt like as cool as the scene was, reducing Hawkins to just essentially a Kaido yes-man thug is a very disappointing end for one of the Super Rookies, so seeing Apoo at least try to make something out of his situation is something I appreciate. 

But then come part two of this chapter. Usopp and Nami... meets a 'torso-less yokai'. Which is Kin'emon's lower body, running around and communicating by farting, in the same way that he did in Punk Hazard. It's stupid, especially since Kin'emon, Kiku and Kanjurou's deaths have been one of the most shocking parts of the Wano arc so far. It's not that I want Kin'emon to die, but one of One Piece's biggest failings has been its unwillingness to commit to killing off characters other than Ace and Whitebeard. It's a problem with Shonen manga in general, but one of the worst parts (and the biggest criticism of Fairy Tail) where any time someone looks like they're dead, the question isn't "oh no, what's going to happen?" but "what kind of bullshit will the author do to handwave his death?"

And with One Piece, while death or death fake-outs aren't quite as common, they're also... very protracted. Pound shows up alive in a random cover story hundreds of chapters after his death. Which makes me really pissed off if characters that died in the past couple of arcs actually do turn out to be alive. How terrible would all those moments with Pedro would be if he turns out to have somehow survived his suicide bomb? I'm also 100% sure Ashura Doji is actually alive and just lying in his own pool of blood, and even beforehand I already guessed that Kin'emon's life and the citizens of Kuri are alive. Hell, frankly, I wouldn't even be surprised if Yasuie and his amazing death scene turned out to be a fabrication and the real Yasuie survived being shot by Orochi, y'know? 

And I feel like the problem isn't even the fact that the characters die and survive. We've already had that done relatively well -- Orochi was already kind of foreshadowed to have weird powers with his Devil Fruit; Kanjurou made ink clones before... but here? Going back to that panel where Kaidou beat the shit out of Kin'emon, we see him stabbing instead of slashing Kin'emon in half. And the lack of this foreshadowing is really what kind of irks me about the scene. In addition to the whole scene being played up for laughs. 

Admittedly, the reason being 'Law didn't stick me back properly' does hold up. Going back to the Punk Hazard arc, it wasn't Law that stuck Kin'emon together, but rather Sanji. So yeah, I can buy that explanation. I just dislike the way this was narratively shown to us. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think there's even a point where Kin'emon complains about not being stuck together well, as a joke or otherwise. 

Turns out Kiku is also alive, and so is Kanjurou -- Orochi manages to call Kanjurou and manipulate him, talking about the finale, about the cheering of Kanjurou's performance, and Kanjurou makes this gigantic shadowy burning yokai-ghost called a Kazenbo. I suppose the way this can be narratively resolved is for Kiku to finally find it in her to end Kanjurou for real? Eh. Again, I don't mind the plot development, I just feel like the pacing and the narrative structure isn't the best. 

We get to see a bunch of other stuff going on around here, with the Kazenbo rampaging, Momonosuke making a bunch of small flame clouds, CP0 finally deigning to walk out of their room and seemingly going towards Brook and Robin, and shots of the other fighters as Orochi monologues. Also, a short scene of Yamato running towards where she's going to defuse the bomb. 

Orochi just wants to kill everyone in Onigashima, and... and that page was cool, if only I wasn't still pissed off at the Kin'emon and buddies surviving and being revealed in this way. I do wonder who's going to get rid of Orochi. Denjirou seems to be the most logical character who hasn't done jack-all throughout the raid, I guess. 

The final chunk of the chapter is interesting, though! Yamato's monologue is interrupted by a goddamn Ikoku blowing up a chunk of the castle as Big Mom blows Kid and his giant robot out into the main courtyard. Turns out, though, we get a brief flashback of Law and Kid discussing their powers... and the fact that, all this while, their Devil Fruits are awakened and it's just that it takes a lot of stamina to use their awakened powers. 

And...  this is a revelation that I felt made a bit more sense, and the explanation felt a bit more organic. Admittedly I don't buy that Law wouldn't have used his ultimate powers when fighting Doflamingo, but sure. Law's powers includes Kroom: Anesthesia ('Kroom' is pronounced like 'chrome' in Japanese) and Law just inserts his sword into Big Mom's body and unleashes a Shock Wave attack. I'm not sure how different this is from Law's usual Counter Shock attack, but I guess the idea is that it pierces Big Mom's impregnable defenses? Big Mom is explicitly bleeding after the attack, after all. 

Kid, meanwhile, uses his 'Assign' awakening ability and does what we kind of guessed paramecia awakenings would be after seeing Doflamingo -- Big Mom gets turned into a magnet, and Big Mom gets buried under a bunch of giant metal towers. I don't think Big Mom goes down at the end of this chapter, but I actually am reasonably excited to see Kid and Law (and maybe Yamato?) do serious damage with their awakenings. Still have questions about Law's awakening, but ultimately that bit of a fight scene does kind of cause me to mellow out a bit regarding the rest of the chapter. 

Overall, not my favourite Wano chapter for sure. I do reiterate that it's less about the survival and more about how it was presented to us. We'll see how things go in the next chapter. 

Kamen Rider Revice E07-08: Family Drama

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 7-8

Episode 7: Theft? Skateboard? I'm Kagero!

We continue with the Daiji arc, although like episode 6, this one is a bit more of a breather. We deal with another 'case-of-the-week', this time involving a bunch of delinquent kids who go around as thieves, and keep getting bailed out by a Deadman. The obvious answer, of course, is that one of the delinquents is the current monster-of-the-week, but it's not actually that simple. Spoiling the twist at the end of the episode, turns out that one of the teenagers' father is a famous doctor, and he's the Deadman trying to protect his son. There's also a typical 'parent wants the child to follow in his footsteps' plot going on. It's an all right plot, but compared to the previous two episodes, it's kind of shallow. 

We also get a plotline between Vice and George, where George has designed a brand-new form for the Jackal Vistamp (based on Ex-Aid) and Vice gets pissy about his proposed form being lame and George basically throwing a tantrum and not letting Ikki take the jackal vistamp until the climax of the episode. That's kind of funny -- I really don't know how I feel about George, but I really do like how wacky he is. Basically, Ikki and Vice keep getting out-sped by the Cheetah Deadman up until Vice gets the humility to apologize to George. 

This episode also confirms that both George and commander Wakabayashi are in on the Daiji-is-Kamen-Rider-Evil thing, but what their main objective is, and whether they know Kagerou is involved or not, is still a question. While Ikki and his supporting cast go around investigating the delinquents, Hiromi tries to investigate Daiji, and finds weird things like him passed out in the bathroom with apparent amnesia and being baffled at his goth outfit.

Daiji himself finally encounters Kagerou, literally meeting him by falling next to a piece of glass. An interesting variant on the evil personality is that Kagerou is literally born out of Daiji's negative wishes and his resentment towards his brother... and we actually do see the earnestness of a combination of Daiji's jealousy, irritation and general pissed-off-ness at Ikki. And while it's certainly not enough to make him turn to the dark side (at least not without significantly longer writing), I can buy that the 'demon' that Daiji's emotions gave birth to ends up with the sole mission to kill Ikki. I just wonder what sort of negative emotions Vice was born from, though, in that case. 

Adding to the confusion about the George/Wakabayashi thing, they also kind of discuss the case with Hiromi, but feigns ignorance about where Daiji got the Kamen Rider driver, essentially guilt-tripping Hiromi with his involvement in the Rex Deadman from episode 1 and kind of... just pushing him into going full-on vigilante superhero in hunting down Daiji. Hiromi's whole theme seems to be 'duty', and George hands him the third driver in the show, the Demons Driver. 

Hiromoi shows up to toss Ikki the jackal vistamp, while he deals with Kamen Rider Evil. We get the very Spider-Man inspired Kamen Rider Demons. Really cool-looking suit, actually, I really love that he's got multiple eyeballs running on the sides of his head (like a real spider!) and how his face-shield is an explosion of web that kind of reminds me of Kamen Rider Meteor. The fight between the two is neat, I really like the bit where Demons stands upside-down on a convenient chunk of scaffolding, and I like the giant glowy effects that the two riders make when they do clash. 

Ikki turns into the high-speed jackal form to take down the Cheetah Deadman, and the joke here is that Vice gets turned into a talking skateboard. I guess the suit actor can really skateboard? It sure is a form. Between the obvious CGI (when Ikki does the spinning kick sequence) and compared to the far more interesting Evil/Demons fight, this sequence is kind of underwhelming. 

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Episode 8: Family First? Heaven and Hell?!

Kind of the big mini-finale for the whole Daiji arc, in a way, is this episode. It starts with a bit of a change in the status quo, with Ikki's mom getting out of hospital and the whole family going off to a hot springs resort to celebrate. Unfortunately, the Deadmans have infiltrated the staff and have worked a deal with Kagerou to get rid of Revice once and for all. A good chunk of the episode is just the Igarashi family having fun in their usual over-the-top manner, which is something that Kagerou even lampshades is necessary to make the finale punch Ikki (and the audience) in the gut a bit more. 

Julio shows up as the bellhop, pretending to be a part-time worker, and all it gets is the Igarashis doing what families do and tease the shit out of Sakura. "Is he your boyfriend??!??!", except, of course, things are a bit more sinister as the Deadmans and their agents have infiltrated the resort... at one point, Aguilera straight-up spikes Ikki's soda with poison and would've killed him that way if Kagerou wasn't such an anime villain who wants to 'destroy him from the inside'. Which, honestly, is perfectly in-character for him. That's a pretty cool scene, with Kagerou confronting the Deadmans and actually choking Aguilera.

George and Hiromi have also shown up in the hot springs resort, ostensibly taking a break (George drinks the hot springs water), but everyone basically guess that they're here to investigate Daiji. Hiromi is pretty dead-set on just taking down Daiji, while George tells him to slow down. George claims that he wants to investigate on why Papa Genta keeps making terrible Vy-Tube videos, but I wonder if this is just George being a loon or if he's actively trying to stop Hiromi from fighting Daiji all that much. It does add another layer into the mystery behind George's motivations. Demons and Evil have a brief scrap around halfway through the episode, but it's very brief and Evil just uses a green sonic blast to escape again. 

Again, a good chunk of the episode is just the Igarashi family having fun. The kids commenting on their parents flirting, the kids planning a huge surprise for their parents, Mama Igarashi having a heart-to-heart with Ikki about how similar he is to his dad, Mama Igarashi talking about Ikki and telling him to worry about his own happiness as well... 

It does really end up making Kagerou's attack on the Igarashi family all the more shocking, especially since for the first half of the fight, they still think that it's Daiji randomly beating the shit out of his older brother for no real reason. And then he transforms with a giant swarm of bats, with a "MADNESS! HOPELESS! DARKNESS! BAT!" and I do like that we don't just focus on Ikki's reaction, but the horrified looks on the rest of his family members as well. Kagerou straight up beats Genta and tosses him into the conveniently nearby swimming pool. 

Hiromi shows up and transforms into Kamen Rider Demons, but is waylaid by Olteca and Julio. Rather interestingly, Sakura actually runs to fight Aguilera. Did the two of them ever meet each other before, or is Sakura just good at picking up on cues and knowing who's the villain? Obviously, Sakura gets easily manhandled and beaten down by Aguilera, and she punches the ground in frustration. The past couple of episodes have been doing an interesting job at showing that Sakura's kind of frustrated at everything around her, and I would definitely like to see her become more prominent in the show. 

Of course, the focus of the episode is Ikki vs. Kagerou, and I do really like how Ikki's kind of... disturbed all throughout the fight. Vice gives most of the commentary here, and Ikki's just kind of dazing blankly as Vice yells at him and combines his weapon for him. Kagerou delivers a huge monologue about his true nature, which I think is a lot less traumatic -- for an evil demon, he really should realize that pretending to be Daiji-gone-evil would traumatize Ikki more. But hey.

The two riders swap plot devices, and Kagerou transforms into Jackal (I guess it's a Genm form, since Jackal gives Revice Ex-Aid?), while Revice gets the Fourze-inspired Kong form. Some neat visuals with the twin rocket punches from Revi and Vice, although, again, the CGI combined-gorilla is kind of underwhelming. Demons uses the batta (grasshopper) key to transform his lower legs into giant grasshopper legs to drive away Olteca and Julio, but ultimately all the villains essentially run off gloating, while Ikki is left returning to his sad and distressed family. 

Again, not a perfect episode, but I am stuck at how much within eight episodes the show manages to really craft the three main riders and set them up as very interesting characters. I am actually really enjoying this show a whole lot! 

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Random Notes:

• "Eenie meenie miny moe, eenie meenie miny moe" has to be one of the greatest transformation-standby sounds I've ever heard. 
• It gets kind of glossed over, but the Cheetah Deadman in episode 7 is    in Phase 2, just like Ayaka a couple episodes back. Beyond the vagueness of being more ready to be used as a sacrifice for Giff, I guess Phase 2 Deadmen are more powerful?
• I haven't been really paying attention, but between Masao wanting to bring a smile to everyone but not really understanding the reason why; and the doctor-dad from episode 7 being an unethical doctor while his son is a gamer... are all the deadman hosts supposed to be dark reflections of the legacy Kamen Riders whose forms beat them?
• We, the audience, know that "Daiji" is really the evil Kagerou, but I find it kind of hilarious that the thing that causes Hiromi to get super-suspicious is seeing Kagerou mimic a gunshot at Ikki as he's leaving. Without the context, it's a harmless bit of playing around! 
• The eagle-form CGI is really kind of unconvincing in episode 7, I'm sorry. 
• Julio and Sakura get a short scene in episode 7 that sets up the hot springs in episode 8, and how the Deadmans manage to find out about the location. 
• The CGI spider-buddy that shows up to help Hiromi transform into Kamen Rider Demons is quite literally just Spider-Man's insignia. In addition to his colour scheme already quite resembling Spider-Man. 
• Which means that Demons vs. Evil is kind of Spider-Man vs. Venom, in a way?
• The Ushijimas, another group of frequent customers, show up in the hot springs resort and kind of recur throughout the episode and sneaks a long peek at the Kamen Riders fighting. I guess they may be relevant in the future? Or are they just background recurring characters like Buu-san?
• Episode 8's new toy is a weapon, but if we're really being honest, I really don't pay too much attention to the gimmick weapons unless they're something super weird. Once you've seen kiwi chakrams, you've seen them all.
• Kagerou's belt conveniently allows him to transform from Daiji's clothes to his own gothic getup. 
• George does the 'uchu kiita' pose. Appropriate. 

Kamen Rider Revice E05-06 Review: Evil's Identity

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 5-6

Again, depending on how I feel of the episodes in the future, I may do anywhere from two to five episodes per review. This was originally '5-8', but I rambled a bit too much for the episodes so I decided to split it into two. 

Really been enjoying Revice, I feel!

Episode 5: The World Reforming Rider! Who is the Traitor?

This episode focuses a bit more on Daiji and the drama within the organization of Fenix, and a good chunk of it is, as the episode title asks, "who is the traitor?" And the very first scene already shows Kadota Hiromi, the other Fenix unit commander we saw in the first episode that didn't manage to activate the Revice Driver, doing some suspicious things and clearly being pissed at his demotion. Just at the same time that Hiromi does something suspicious, the lion and kong vistamps are stolen, and become part of this episode's plot.

Speaking of which, the main plot of the episode involves yet another guest star of the week, this time a hipster youtuber vytuber who records 'punishment livestreams', where Deadmans go off and beat up evil corporate bosses. It's not like he doesn't have a point, but exposing corruption is one thing, while recording what's basically a PG-13 version of a snuff film is a completely different thing. There's also a bit with Masao's grandfather being the one who asks Ikki for help in his little neighbourhood-helper gig, but otherwise I kind of find Masao's plot kind of one-dimensional, and I kind of like that Ikki calls out that Masao is just using 'making people happy' as a convenient excuse. We get the Lion Deadman (who's coloured like Kamen Rider OOO for some reason?) fighting against Ikki and Vice, and they blow up the deadman with a giant CGI T-rex skull. 

The second half of the episode follows a follow-up plotline, and I do wonder if this episode was initially pitched as a two-parter? Fenix's higher-ups decide to use Masao as bait to flush out the traitor within Fenix's ranks, and while it's not much, I do like that there's some debates about how ethical this is, and the urgency of getting the kong vistamp back. Ikki kind of calls out Daiji on the obvious emotional manipulation here, making use of Masao's guilt to string a civilian into a potentially dangerous operation. Again, it's a small moment, but it's well-done that they address this. The episode is paced quickly, but things moving too quickly is kind of the reason why Fenix and everyone else goes along with the plan, so I can't really blame them for it. 

Masao threatens to break the vistamp publicly, causing Olteca and Julio to show up in response. We get a fight between Revice and the Deadmans, As usual with this show, the actual physical combat between the suited actors is pretty well-done, and we get the debut of the Kuuga-based lion genome form.... but, also as usual, I really don't care for the CGI-combination form. They blow up Julio into a bunch of ink (he escapes), but then they get interrupted by the arrival of the absolutely badass-looking Kamen Rider Evil... while all of Fenix has been knocked out. 

The side-characters feel like they get developed a bit more, with Sakura getting an interesting scene talking with her mother in the hospital about what 'righteousness' truly means, because she's a bit conflicted about seeing the whole situation with Masao and the corrupt businessman. Her mother, somewhat understandably, kind of tells her to not worry about things too much, but I really do hope she gets to do more in the series. Maybe she gets to become a rider, too?

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Episode 6: Evil's True Identity! Shocking Showtime?

This one follows up on episode five, and Kamen Rider Evil shows up to knock them out. Evil himself does the typical 'new toy' stuff of absolutely demolishing everyone in his path -- the special effects for his bright green slashes as he dominates Revi and Vice are pretty cool, and he effortlessly beat our heroes even before the opening credits start. 

We also get to see the rather obvious red herring scene between the Fenix agents -- no, Hiromi suddenly pulling the gun on the unnamed Fenix goons isn't actually him betraying them. So since the identity of Evil is kind of obvious, the show immediately gives away who Evil is at this point because there's realistically only one more candidate -- Daiji. They do have a couple of twists on this, though, which I appreciate. Instead of Vice stealing the Twoside Driver, apparently he's in cahoots with mad scientist George, who gave him the driver.

The episode's villain-of-the-week is a corrupt lawyer, and the plot is honestly pretty standard. Evil lawyer Yasushi Kudo basically makes a career of using Deadmans to intimidate rival witnesses, leading to a winning streak in court. As they try to solve the case, we get to see some neat stuff. Ikki shows that he's a bit of a trickster even early on in the episode with his little hand-games, while Vice gets to set up a whole plan by abusing his ghost powers and possessing a client's phone to get evidence of the lawyer's association with the Deadmans. 

The lawyer stuff isn't super interesting, but I did like it a lot more than the previous episode due to how elaborate it is for a plot-of-the-week. Kudo's actor also does a splendid job at making his character feel utterly reprehensible and feel like a smarmy, condescending jackass, which makes his defeat feel all the more cathartic. 

After the initial fight against the absolutely bizarre-looking Kangaroo Deadman, who bounces around a bit and gets into a boxing match with Mammoth-Vice. We finally get the show debut for the Decade-inspired Megalodon form (previously only seen in the Saber crossover), before they use the lion form to blow up the kangaroo. There's a bit more of an extension where Kudo seems innocent, only for Ikki and Vice to bust in and find out that the lawyer's actually working with the judge. It's perhaps a bit too ambitious for a plot that they kind of rush through in a single episode, but all in all, I did enjoy it.

We get an interesting little foreshadowing, where Julio is disguising himself as a student in Sakura's karate class, trying to break Revice through his Achilles' Heel... while Aguilera and Olteca meet with Daiji. Or rather, Daiji's demon, Kagerou, who has possessed his body. It's... it's an interesting twist. I personally would rather have Daiji himself actually betray Ikki out of his own free will (or the demon influencing him), but Kagerou is a literal split entity like Vice. It does make the drama a bit less interesting than if it was Daiji himself, for sure. But other than that slight bit of disappointment, it's a pretty solid episode! 

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Random Notes:

• I do like the little comedy-drama between the elite Deadmans in episode 5, with Olteca and Julio both being confused because none of them gave someone as 'boring' as Masao.
• Between practicing how he's going to 'break the thief's neck', and later showing up in the bath surrounded by a flock of rubber ducks, they really are dialing up the random-zaniness on George, huh. 
• I don't think we've seen their stamps before, but Olteca is a wolf, while Julio is a giant squid. I really like Julio's wacky giant umbrella weapon!
• Vice briefly does Godai Yusuke's transformation pose when he turns into lion form. 
• Between the Venom-esque eyes, the black-and-mint colour scheme, the giant horn and his first appearance, dang, Kamen Rider Evil is pretty cool. 
• Daiji stole Hiromi's ID card for the theft in episode 5's cold open, and discards it in episode 6. It's a neat bit of storytelling, and I forgot to put it anywhere in the body of the review. 
• The lady holding the smartphone with the camera being aimed towards the lawyer is so obvious that I have to call the lawyer a complete nincompoop for trying to blackmail her without making sure that she's not recording. 
• A bit of a gag in this episode that I'm not sure will be relevant in the future or not is Buu-san, one of the recurring customers, somehow being able to obtain a lot of convenient information to the case, leading Ikki to wonder what job he works in. 
• The evil lawyer's actor previously played the evil butler Alfred, or Kamen Rider Tyrant, in Gaim. 
• Vice lampshades how the show is kind of not giving the Megalodon form time to shine, going 'yeah, is it time for us to finish this with the shark?' immediately before Ikki changes them into lion.