Skyward Sword Enemy of the Week #3: Bokoblin

Enemy Profile: Bokoblin

Enemy Type: Pirate Goblin

History: The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess

Attacks: Sword Slash

Varieties: Bald, Helmeted

Bokoblins first appeared in The Wind Waker as the members of the pirate-like demon goblin army Ganon has enlisted to patrol the Great Sea in search of Princess Zelda and the missing Triforce pieces he needs to make his wish come true. They fought with a variety of different weapons, from Boko sticks, Wind Waker‘s answer to the Deku Sticks of old, as well as machetes and sometimes even telescopes. They made a comeback in Twilight Princess as a somewhat common field enemy and the companion to the much-more prevalent Bulbins.

They’re set to return in Skyward Sword as the main goblin troops – and this time they seem to have combined their field-roaming ways with their pirate origins – we can see them sporting skull icons on their belts. So far all the Bokoblins we’ve seen fight with machetes, many of them raising their blades to block Link’s sword attacks. There seem to be two varieties at least – those that wear helmet caps and those that don’t – but we haven’t seen enough to meaningfully contrast the two as of yet.

Many have also noticed their leopard-print underwear – not actually a total novelty, as it turns out, since the Big Blins from Spirit Tracks were the ones to actually start off that fashion trend. Since the development team for Spirit Tracks hopped over to work on Skyward Sword, this is likely a by-product of their design work. Personally I adored Spirit Tracks, start to finish, so here’s hoping the DS team’s input goes even further than graphical and artistic design and trickles into gameplay innovation and dungeon design.