The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Part two of my coverage of the monsters of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds! Repeating my original opening blurb:
It's the second Zelda game I've ever completed -- A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening were my first Zelda games, but it wasn't until Twilight Princess that I actually fully completed a full Zelda game. After that, I did A Link Between Worlds, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past in one huge Zelda sitting... but ALBW will always hold a special place in my heart due to it being the first '2D' Zelda game I've completed.
It's a weird sequel-thematically-but-not-directly to one of the most iconic Zelda games, A Link to the Past. And it's... it's odd. The setup of Hyrule is identical to ALTTP, but the gimmicks and items are different, and instead of going to the Dark World, Link in ALBW goes into... "Lorule", a reverse-world version accessible by going through rifts in walls. Again, plot-wise it's typical Zelda stuff, and the gimmick-theme this time around is the ability to turn into 2D paintings in a 3D world.
Wallmaster: Good ol' Wallmaster. One of the primary monsters of the Skull Woods dungeon, the designers for ALBW decided to make the Wallmaster the primary theme of the dungeon instead of it just being a bunch of spooky stuff. I definitely approve! And they made the Wallmaster a bit more... human-like, which adds to the creepiness. Look at how detailed and knobbly the finge joints are, and how the nails actually grow from the fingers -- ALTTP's Wallmasters just had the fingers taper off into claws. And the wrist stump is hollow! It's so unnervingly like a cut-off stump of someone's hand. And while I don't think I would be impressed if this was the first Wallmaster I saw, the fact that I've seen Wallmasters run the gamut of looking from being demonic (OOT) to shadowy (WW) being almost golem-like (TP), this one feels pretty different in a good way.
Interestingly, due to the quasi-3D nature of ALBW, sometimes the Wallmaster doesn't realize that Link's hiding under a grate or a catwalk and will hurt themselves falling down from the ceiling.
Skullrope: They actually kinda look adorable in this incarnation! Skullropes are Lorulean versions of the Rope, and they wear the upper half of someone's skull on top of their head.
Beamos: Does it take this long into the game for the Beamoses to show up? They behave slightly differently to ALTTP's Beamos, but look more or less the same. The higher definition doesn't really make it clear if those structures are meant to be the grooves of a corinthian pillar or if they are octopus-like tentacles. Maybe the Beamos is a pillar-statue shaped after an octopus. Anyway, not a whole ton to say here, again, for a lot of the repeat enemies.
Chasupa: I can always appreciate a giant eyeball monster with tiny wings! They appear a fair bit later compared to their ALTTP counterparts. I always loved how disproportionately tiny the Chasupa's wings are compared to the rest of its body.
Gibdo: Another classic Zelda enemy! I've always thought ALBW's Gibdos have a giant eyeball under the bandages, but looking more closely at the sprite, it's two eyes of a Stalfos's head peeking out from underneath the bandages. That's cute! Of course, as per usual, if you burn their bandages off, they turn into a jumping Stalfos. Pretty neat! A bunch of them serve as a miniboss of one of the dungeons, I believe.
Dark Rat: I think this one's new to ALBW! I've always thought that the 'Dark World' counterpart for rats are like, Ropas or something. But turns out that the Lorulean counterparts for rats are just... angry rats with glowing eyes. OK!
Sluggula: Not quite as cool as Slaroks in my opinion, but I can always appreciate a bright yellow-and-lavender cartoon slug with ball-shaped eyestalks. If you forget what they did in ALTTP, these slugs leave a trail of bombs! Is there a pun somewhere? I'm not sure. They're slugs that shit bombs!
Zazak: The Zazak return to populate ALBW's Thieves' Town. They still look as they do before, being mohawked crocodile-men. Or are they snake-men? Those faces in ALBW look a lot more like snakes, though it could just be those fangs. Maybe they're just lizard-men. They're still pretty basic humanoid enemies, although I remember them being pretty significantly more troublesome than Moblins or Soldiers.
Devalant: Worm-antlion monsters! These show up, obviously, in the Desert Palace area, and a bunch of them also double as the miniboss battle. They're pretty troublesome if memory serves right, being able to shoot fireballs from their bizarre octopus-like mouths while also sitting in the bottom of a quicksand-trap. Link does have a new weapon in ALBW -- the Sand Rod, which allows you to lift the Devalant up and out of the sand. As Nintendo's shown time and time again that they are pretty great at real-life biological inspirations, the Devalant does look like a mutant antlion larva.
Leever: Yet another Zelda staple, Leevers show up! Only red ones show up, though, and they still dig up of the ground and spin around like the crazy top-plants that they are.
Hokkubokku: A bit of a rarer enemy, the Hokkubokku makes a return. It (they?) is a stack of... pumpkins? Body segments? It sure is a thing. Just like some other enemies, its fight has been changed a bit so Link needs to use the Sand Rod to dig it out and cause it to expose its vulnerable lower body parts. Always found this guy to be one of the weirder enemies in ALTTP and ALBW.
Gimos, Fire Gimos & Ice Gimos: A new enemy original to ALBW, and this one shows up in multiple dungeons! I actually really like the way they did this -- the Gimos are essentially just devil-themed reskins of the Armos, but all throughout Lorule statues resembling the Gimos just... hang out in the background, never attacking you. Until, surprise, the ones in the Desert Palace are actually living hopping gargoyles! Like the Armos, the actual body of the Gimos doesn't move, so it's permanently stuck in that rather uncomfortable quasi-crouching pose and the trident really doesn't do anything.
Fire and Ice Gimoses show up in the Turtle Rock and Ice Ruins areas respectively, and behave identically with the weaknesses of the opposite-element magic rods. A giant version of the ice Gimos is a bit of a recurring miniboss in parts of the overworld and Ice Ruins. 2D Zelda doesn't actually do it as often as I remember, but I do really appreciate enemy variations that are themed after specific environments.
Peahat: The Peahat is a staple Zelda enemy that's not in ALTTP, and it's kind of interesting that they've been reimagined as floating spherical cacti. Although I suppose the Ocarina of Time version could be interpreted as a particularly mutated flying helicopter-cactus? The Peahat only shows up in the boss fight of the Desert Temple as a minion that Zaganaga summons.
Flamola: Fire Swamolas! These are new. I don't think they exist in ALTTP! A simple remix of an existing enemy, but I do really like the lava effects in this game, and I do like that the jaws actually look a bit more mean compared to the sleek blade-like ones of the Swamola.
Gibo: It sure is a blob with a nucleus! Still kind of annoying, but they made the Gibo a lot easier since now the main body and the 'nucleus' will take turns moving around, making it a lot easier for you to strike at the nucleus. Not much to say here, formless slime enemies do give a bit of a variation to what you encounter in a dungeon. It can't all be eyeball monsters, bugs and skeletons!
Fire Wizzrobe & Ice Wizzrobe: My favourite Wizzrobe has always been these guys, the ALTTP ones with either fat or puffy robes, cute witch hats, little sphere-hands and two eyes glowing in the darkness of their robes' shadow. I guess they kind of went a bit more derivative in subsequent iterations so as not to upset Final Fantasy and their similarly-iconic Black Mages? A lot of these show up in the thematic dungeons, and they teleport around and shoot fireballs or iceballs. Not a whole ton to say, they're pretty irritating and some of the more powerful monsters in the dungeons.
Freezor: Yet another returning enemy, having a bit more of a definition makes them look a lot creepier! Just look at that face. Look at that face for a while. Freezors still move very quickly if they rush down vertically at you, and they're still pretending to be imprints or paintings attached to walls. Regretably, despite the gimmick of this game being Link tranfsorming into a 2D painting that can move on walls, there's no interaction with Freezors at all.
Pengator: The Pengators, angry carnivorous green penguins with horns, return! They have a bit of a bigger role in ALBW, I feel, being a bit more prolific in the Ice Ruins. Not a whole ton for me to otherwise say, though. It sure is an angry penguin.
Keeleon: Another original enemy to ALBW as we almost finish the non-boss enemies is the Keeleon. They look like non-kid-friendly versions of the Pokemon Inkay! No, seriously. It's an upside-down fat squid, and it's even purple! It's a weird cuttlefish-flower thing that lives in the Ice Ruins, and essentially fill in the same role as the Bawb -- they spit bombs at Link to use if you chose to do the Ice Ruins before the bomb dungeon.
Lorulean Soldiers: And the final dungeon is the Lorule Castle, and these soldiers are loyal to evil princess Hilda and the main villain Yuga. They're basically remixed versions of the soldiers in Hyrule, except stronge. They have cool masks, too! I particularly like the grill-helmet and bull horns of the sword soldier.
Dungeon Mini-Bosses:
Heedle: A lot of the common enemies do show up in large numbers to become mini-bosses, or sometimes, the Lorule dungeons feature Hyrule's dungeon bosses as mini-bosses. But we'll cover the ones that have unique models here. Like the Heedle! Heedles are new, and two of them show up as the miniboss of the House of Gales. They look kind of like smaller versions of the Gemesaur King/Helmasaur King, and they're made out of magma. The Heedles kind of crawl around the arena and leave behind a trail of lava, and Link has to use either the ice or tornado rod to stun the Heedle. A neat lava lizard-beetle!
Ball and Chain Soldier: A staple miniboss in 2D Zelda games, three versions of these guys show up -- a silver one, a gold one, and a Lorulean one with a single glowing Zaku eye. The Lorule B&C Soldier looks really cool! It could just be me really liking the Zaku aesthetic, but shit, that's a cool knight. I think it's fought only in the Lorule Castle, in a dark room, which is why the tip of his flail is on fire -- it's the only source of light.
Gigabari: These guys are technically new, but they're basically larger versions of a common enemy. The yellow Gigabari is the miniboss of the Swamp Palace, appropriate considering the Bari and Swamp Palace's boss Arrghus have always felt somewhat related. The Gigabari, upon death, will split into some 15 Biris. In Lorule Castle, a lot of previous minibosses show up in stronger forms as one of the many miniboss rushes, and one of them is a purple version of the Gigabari, fought over a room with platforms over lava pools.
Big Pengator & Big Ice Gimos: Not a whole ton to say here; these are just larger versions of existing enemies. The Big Pengator has a slightly different set of eyes and mouth, at least. I did remember the Big Pengator fight quite distinctly; he summons his little buddies and skates around the battlefield. Otherwise, it's actually neat to have minibosses that are easily quantified as 'slightly stronger than some of the enemies I've met'.
Dungeon Bosses:
Yuga: The main villain of the game is Yuga, a sorcerer-man with fun hair and a neat colour palette. Without spoiling too much of the story, he comes from the land of Lorule and can turn into a painting, moving around the room and escaping from Link's reach -- at least until Link gains the ability to fight Yuga in the painting himself. We fight Yuga twice -- as a 'prologue' boss in the first dungeon, the Eastern Palace, and again at the end of the Hyrule chapter, on top of Hyrule Castle. He's basically standing in for Agahnim (most of his non-painting attacks are magical blasts), but since we're in the 3DS era, he gets to do a bit more and speak more.
I've played a bit of Skyward Sword to realize that Yuga's role and his early appearance in the game (and later being 'hijacked by Ganon', as TVTropes puts it) also doubles as him coming straight after Ghirahim, but okay!
Margomill: Taking the place of the Lanmola is Margomill. The dungeons aren't exactly a one-to-one equivalent, but it's close enough. I actually like Margomill a fair bit, he's a giant steampunk wheel with an eyeball on top. You need to use the tornado rod to stun Margomill, and later on he will summon two extra pillar layers (as shown here) and cover his eyeball with a fleshy jaw-like organ. It's so weird! There's a huge 'first year Digimon' vibe to this cyborg with exposed fleshy organs. Link needs to slowly knock Margomill's layers down like a jenga-tower, which is neat.
Moldorm: What is there to say about the Moldorm boss that I haevn't said elsewhere? My favourite 2D Zelda boss, the bane of my existence... and looking so much like a series of burgers lined up in this incarnation. Adorable. Look at the basic Moldorm on the left, the boss of the Tower of Hera -- it's such a hamburger creature! As with previous 2D incarnations, the red gem on its tail is its weak point. A much stronger purple version shows up as one of the minibosses in the final dungeon, but by that point the poor Moldorm ends up being kind of trivial.
Arrghus: Another familiar face, the Arrghus returns once more as the boss of Swamp Palace, and behaves more or less the same -- hiding behind a swarm of jelly-eyeball-polyp minions, and you have to slowly hookshot them one by one while dodging the main Arrghus's jumping around and eye beams. Arrghus looks a bit more... warty here, with that layer of growths bordering its eyes and tentacles. Again, just like Moldorm, another classic and a favourite, and I've spoken about Arrghus in other reviews before, and I do like him.
Gemesaur King: The most interesting part of A Link Between Worlds, especially after you've played A Link to the Past, is how some of the bosses are... 'remixes'. Take the boss of the Dark Palace. Originally the Helmasaur King, it's now the Gemesaur King, which is basically almost the same creature but a lot more impressive, with his body filled with crystals and quartzes and whatnot. While the first half of the fight is similar to the Helmasaur King, once you bomb enough of its armour off the Gemesaur King will make good as the ruler of the 'Dark Palace' and extinguish the torches in the room, forcing you to fight it in the dark. Pretty cool!
Stalblind: The original 'Blind' in ALTTP was a ghost. Stalblind is a ghost skeleton. Not a whole ton to really say here, I do really like the detailing and the twist of a different sort of 'ghost'. I do like that this is one of the few non-Yuga fights that incorporate Link's ability to turn into a painting -- Link would jump into Stalblind's massive tower shield and 'merge' into it, causing Stalblind to manifest his corporeal form in confusion. He still retains the original Blind's final trick of floating around as a skull. Not much to really say here.
Knucklemaster: Completely replacing Mothula as the boss of the Skull Woods, I... I kind of get this one. As much as I really appreciate the Mothra reference, she always pretty out of place in an otherwise spooky-ghostly themed dungeon. Knucklemaster is a boss version of the Wallmasters we've fought before, and it's a pretty creative variation, too. The Wallmasters are floating hands, so the Knucklemaster is a floating hand inside of a gauntlet! Genius! In typical Zelda fashion, there's a giant eyeball in the middle of the Knucklemaster's palm, and I really like the detailing on the sinews and flesh of the Knucklemaster's true body underneath the metal armour.
As a boss fight he mostly just destroys the arena as we try to stun it and hit his vulnerable eye, so there's nothing particularly memorable, but I do appreciate that finally, we have a Wallmaster-themed boss after so long. Was the only other one Bongo Bongo? Does he even count?
Zaganaga: Replacing Misery Mire's Viterous is the Desert Palace's Zaganagaa. Zaganaga is actually pretty dang cool -- you fight him in a giant quicksand with a bunch of ruined pillars, and Zaganaga rises out from it as this monstrous, tentacled plant with a giant chomping flower. I'm not sure what is it about giant flower plants that make me like them so much. But Zaganaga will burst in and out of the battlefield and summon Peahats, before ultimately exposing its weak point -- which, of course, is a mass of eyeballs replacing its stamen.
Grinexx: Replacing Trinexx as the boss of Turtle Rock, Grinexx is kind of just the same thing, except he's more rock-and-volcano themed. You fight him on a railing arena over a giant magma pool, and Grinexx just swims around and Link needs to hit him as he passes through the holes in the arena. Ultimately Grinexx jumps up and will fight Link properly, extending his neck like a snake and summoning lava plumes and hot air vents. He's cool, but comparing him to the three-headed Trinexx or a very similar boss, Minish Cap's version of Gleeok, Grinexx kind of feels too mundane.
Dharkstare: Much cooler-looking visually compared to ALTTP's Kholdstare is Dharkstare, the new boss of the Ice Ruins. A mass of hairy shadowy tentacles with a single eyeball, Dharkstare looks so different compared to the almost organic sci-fi feel of other eyeball bosses like Arrghus or Vitreous. Dharkstare almost feels like some sort of demon or incorporeal alien. Dharkstare fights by summoning energy balls that shoot beams at Link, and it will periodically freeze itself solid as a homage to Kholdstare.
Yuga Ganon: The final boss, spoiler alert, is Yuga fusing with Ganon -- the two greatest evils of Lorule and Hyrule coming together to face Link. It sure is Ganon with Yuga's hairstyle. And the fight's more or less just a remix of the ALTTP Ganon fight with a bunch of extra attacks that Yuga already has. It's a cool enough 'demon king' enemy, if nothing else, and I did enjoy the boss fight, but I really don't have much commentary here without going into a full-on exposition of Yuga Ganon's fighting capabilities. He sure is a pig-man sorcerer!
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That's ALBW! Hopefully soon I'll complete Skyward Sword, and maybe we'll do a bunch of other franchises as well!
