General Zelda Enemy Variations

[Justac00lguy]

Combat has become such a big aspect within the Zelda franchise, you don't have to look far to see more emphasis being put on it - The Wind Waker , Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. Whether you dislike the combat in these games or not, I don't think we can deny that such emphasis is increasing.

Playing a role in the effectiveness of combat are the in game enemies. Now I'm not going to get into challenge, combat mechanisms and all that good stuff but I would like to focus on variety -- more specifically, enemy variations.

I believe enemy diversity can really add to the combat within Zelda games, but I feel a huge influx of "new" enemies isn't the best way about doing this. Instead, I think enemy variations could do a much better job. Now this is no new idea, enemy variations have been around for much of the series. However, I feel Zelda games could build upon this idea. Instead of just making each enemy slightly more difficult, why not switch them up slightly. We could have the variations depending on that specific terrain, much like the Keese but with more enemy types.

So what are your thoughts on enemy variations? Are they a generally good idea or is the idea slightly redundant?

 

[Ventus]

Sorry but enemy diversity smells like Skyward Sword's variations of bokoblins. That's not a good idea.

To have different types of one race implies they would have different skills, weakpoints, etc. Not just more/less health. To put it into a better like, think of Fire Emblem Awakening.

There's your standard Cavalier with Outdoor Fighter, and an Iron Lance. Then there's a boss Cavalier with Counter, Galeforce, Hawkeye, Vantage+, and Pavise+; 8 move instead of 7; and Mercurius forged with 35% crit chance. That's not just diversity, that's taking things to a whole different level. That's the key to having enemy variation within a set class: having significant changes between an early type and a type encountered much later in the game.

The wrong kind of variation is with SS' bokoblins: different colors, one having slightly more health, and one having slightly better action/reaction times. You need more than that. You need vastly different attacks, new spins on familiar races, etc. I'm not saying the difference in enemy type 1 ver.A and enemy type 1 ver.B should be as different as an Iron Knuckle to a Skulltula, but there needs to be something significant to warrant keeping the same enemy around.

 

[HyruleHistory10]

I think more enemy variation would not solve the issue. Resident Evil Revelations did not have a Large amount of varied enemies but what they did was they PAIRED the enemies that they had together to CHALLENGE the player in specific ways depending on how the plot was going. I think that is a more effective way to go about it. That is something that would add the absent 'pressure' to the encounters. This would also make your life more valuable.

 

[Randomlink7]

I think that they need different enemies instead of the same, just harder or what not. Skyward Sword did a bit of this, especially the bokoblins. There were many types/colors. There were the red, which were easy, the blue, and the green. The blue and green had more health, but still were a piece of cake to take out. There were even the zombie bokoblins, and I thought those were the cooler ones. They can still have Enemy diversity, but not a lot, and have plenty of new monsters as well.

 

[Spirit]

after SS i cant help but associate the word 'variation' in Zelda with the idea of colour changing 'eek a red one, he is clearly up to no good'

I'd rather not have variations of enemies becuase all we'd get are colour variations and weapons, they'd do very little and seeing the same type of enemy again and again is majorly boring so i'd rather a lot of wholly different enemies, like how different lizalfos are from bokobllins etc. OoT had a good degree of different enemies, and they all had a certain effect on the player, like coming across a moblin for the first time put the fear of god into me especially when one charged at me for the first time in OoT, stalchilds were creepy and stafos were awesome and all felt different, modern Zeda has lost that a little bit so i'd like a game with a good range of enemies in capabilities, size, defense and presence.

may be asking a bit much though....

 

[JuicieJ]

The wrong kind of variation is with SS' bokoblins: different colors, one having slightly more health, and one having slightly better action/reaction times. You need more than that. You need vastly different attacks, new spins on familiar races, etc.

That's why OTHER enemies exist, such as Keese, Octoroks, Stalfos, and Lizalfos. This goes for every Zelda game, not just Skyward Sword.

 

[Sir Quaffler]

I like all kinds of variation in enemies.

What Skyward Sword did with its variation of enemy strategies was totally awesome and I want to see more of it. I loved how not only were there many different types of enemies (Bokiblins are the biggest example) but even the same type of enemies used different tactics and environmental advantages throughout the game (again, Bokoblins are the biggest example). To be honest, Bokoblins are my favorite regular enemy from a Zelda game just because of the vast adaptability of the guys.

But HyruleHistory10 brings up another good point. We may have seen a group of different types of enemies all fighting Link, but we haven't really seen any actual pairing of enemies, where they're actually working together to take Link down. That will also be totally awesome to see in a future Zelda game.

 

[ThatOneNerd]

I have this sort of vision of Stalfos wielding different weapons depending where they are.