OPERATION: Elucidate
Concerning the monsters within Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, whom Nathan Graves had to fight five or more times.
Prologue:
By and large, CotM is the origin work for the monsters in the bestiary, but I'm getting to this one later because I'm playing the game again only now. Naturally, almost every monster here can trace its origins to earlier eras of Castlevania, but I'm taking this (and maybe SotN) as the base, and mentioning some elaborations in later games where elaboration suits.
I am told that among Castlevania games, Circle of the Moon is the hardest or near the hardest. This is, of course,
restricting ourselves to the specific sub-genre of Castlevania games where you explore a huge castle with inter-
connected areas as a character who can gain levels and equip things, sometimes use magic. Of those, certainly it is
the most difficult of the three gameboy advance releases, and probably yes, hardest I've played of all of them of
that type.
This is mostly because Nathan and everything around him, save the castle itself, is smaller. Nathan is short, the
enemies are small, and the areas are huge. They also hide off camera and attack suddenly. A lot. Also there's lots
and lots of them.
Also there are five different modes, sortof like character classes, that you can use to play through the game:
Vampirekiller (default), Magician, Fighter, Shooter, and Thief. This means that you get to explore the monsters from
five different directions, and as it turns out, each of the playthroughs feels fresh, and you start caring about
things in one that you had completely ignored in the other. In order, the modes are Normal, Hard, Easy, Randomly Hard,
and Nightmarish.
And on the balance, these little guys are the reasons why:
001. Medusa Head
What would a clock tower or machine tower be without this sinusoidal terror wafting in predictably from off screen? The only substantial difference between the medusa heads here and in later games is that there is no "gold" variety that turns you to stone. They all turn you to stone. Also if you take a hit in stone it deals quad damage instead of double. Hrm.
002. Zombie
They rise from the ground, they lumber toward you. In this game if they get close, they'll gently place their hands on your shoulders and pray for you, or at least that's what it looks like. Head all down...they must be praying to Satan, though, because whatever they're doing causes you harm. After you gain maybe one level you'll be able to slide-tackle them to death, and forget about them forever after. Sortof like always. (sighs)
003. Ghoul
More powerful palette-swapped version of the Zombie. You'll have to gain another five or so levels before one-shotting these. Maybe.
004. Wight
Much more powerful palette-swapped version of the zombie. By the time you come across Wights, however, you will certainly be murdering them as a side-effect of your actions rather than as an effect. They are poorly placed and represent something I would like to see less of in games: AI re-use.
An aside: That is to say, difficulty should scale in more than a single dimension for more powerful monsters. In the case of the zombie chain above, monsters only get a stat boost and color change. Everything else about them is one-to-one the same. There are monsters that are harder to deal with in the game than these, so clearly the capability is there. What I'm saying is that I want a zombie chain where the next version gets a new move, and then another...something to spice it up, something to give them life. Or undeath. As it were.
005. Clinking Man
The Clinking Man has the kinds of jive moves that you see in later versions of the basic zombie. There's little to immediately identify him as undead, but rest assured he is, as the later version tells us. He will stagger back and forth, and when you're close enough he'll prat fall in your general direction, getting quite a bit of distance that you may not have expected him to have in him. The other, and most excellent, feature Clinking Man brings to bear will baffle you for a long time after his damage and defense amounts stop being relevant. Clinking Man has an extra knock-back or staggering attribute to his attack, and even touching him will stun you more than ordinarily. For the greatest effect, try running headlong into one and using the tackle special move. For any other enemy, you'll plow right through him (that is, as long as the tackle would be enough to kill him), but for Clinking Man, he'll die, and you'll halt in place. Staggering.
006. Zombie Thief
The stronger palette swapped version of Clinking Man gives you clues to his identity. He's clinking because he has chains of a prisoner, and he's one of the bad guys because he's actually a zombie in Dracula's thrall.
007. Skeleton
Wow, higher billing than usual, eh? The skeleton moves back and forth and chucks bones at you. He has no tricks, and is flimsy at all points of the game. You can become a skeleton yourself with magic if you really want to know what its like.
008. Skeleton Bomber
The first enemy you come across gets eighth billing, leading me to think that the game designers come up with the monsters first, and then populate the levels with them later, after designing the levels. That said, this guy is a major pain in the ass. He's never powerful, or durable, but the bombs! When the bombs strike you, they explode into little bursts that deal fire damage. When you whip the bombs, they explode into the same little bursts, meaning that in the act of protecting yourself, you might end up blowing sparks out of your eyebrows anyway. Same thing if the Skeleton Bomber has so much as readied a bomb. Woof. Later games turned this guy into an armor rather than a Skeleton, made him huge, and made the bombs less sticky and easier to see. Give this guy a damage-upgraded palette swapped version and I'll show you one badass monster. Sadly they never gave me that.
009. Electric Skeleton
Will take you right down to Electric Avenue. I'm pretty sure that he later becomes Skeleton Nova or Beam Skeleton, because he will charge up a little bit (maybe as long as the windup for two bones or bombs, not long at all), and then send a spark along the ground in front of him. This will hit you for maybe one-third of your health when you first meet him. Trust me that's quite a lot, especially if you're lost and run into maybe a string of three of them with other enemies interspersed. Hoo boy. He deals electric damage, so you can mitigate the damage with tricks, but mostly that doesn't come up and he just zaps you for lots of damage. He stays dangerous for longer than other critters do, to be sure.
010. Skeleton Spear
Some skeletons chuck bones. This one chucks spears. That is all.
011. Skeleton Boomerang
This one is a little more complex and a little more curious. He generally chills out against a wall, and then sets up and lets loose with the wee crooked-stick projectiles when you're close. In this game, he's really weak and the boomerangs are tiny and you can destroy them with your attacks. In later games he gets dangerous, but for now he's just a novelty of enemy attack pattern, with no support and no oomph.
012. Skeleton Soldier
Skeleton Soldier has a different look and style than a normal skeleton. He will pace back and forth in a regimented, dogmatic way, and then strike you with his cutlass. That's about it. He turns into chump material in no time at all.
013. Skeleton Knight
But what would chump material be without a slightly upgraded version to round things out? I, in point of fact, barely noticed that there had been a name change when I first encountered these. "What, it says Knight now? Who knew?"
014. Bone Tower
The bone tower rests on the floor or cieling (as a bonetowertite or bonetowermite depending) and shoots little cool-looking fireballs at you. If a bonetowermite is at the bottom of a totem of them, he will instead spew a huge breath weapon style burst at you for more damage (even if it doesn't travel as far). They act as more of a puzzle element than anything, though, unlike in later games, touching them will damage you, so you cannot simply stand upon them and expect great things. Is an enemy, not a platform. Well, unless you freeze them or turn them to stone...Oh yes.
015. Fleaman
They're small, they make you crouch to hit them. They leap, making you jump to hit them. Oddly enough, the fleaman gets a larger representation in this game than in others, making me think that everything in this game, except fleamen, has been shrunk down. Seriously the fleamen are comparative giants to other versions. They also have a most excellent behavior that I have rarely seen in enemies in this or other Castlevania games. If you are in the same room, they will know where you are and come find you. It doesn't matter if you are many screens away, as long as it is the same room, they'll come on the lope to say hello, leading to comic sequences of you asking yourself out loud "Just how many of these guys are there?" or "Is there a monster generator I'm not seeing?" well, no, there isn't. There's just a lot of these annoying guys. Sadly there are only a few rooms that sport Fleamen, so cherish the moments of annoyance.
016. Poltergeist
The enemy is not the table, chair, book, and vase that you see, but rather the invisible spirit dangling them along. If you break the table, though, you will also break that spirit's connection to these objects, so you may think of the table as the leader. If you ignore them, they will still hover a little and throw the book (and chair and vase) at you...no matter how far away you've gone in the same room, leading to some curiously fast-moving enemies. In fact, he's potentially tied for fastest enemy attack with a poltergeist of a different kind that we'll get to later. I love the flavor of this enemy, and am kindof sad he's not trickier to deal with.
017. Bat
Wow, really? Bat at 17? huh. All the same, not much to say here. They perch, they swoop, they're tiny and weak. Often there's lots of them.
018. Spirit
The first of the enemies that pop out of nowhere and move toward you. There are plenty of rooms where these guys will keep on appearing, so usually it is best to ignore them. If you're in a pinch, you can spin the whip to ward them off.
019. Ectoplasm
Level two spirit. In addition to being a different color and having more attack and defense, they will actually move slightly faster as well. Same idea. Ignore them as much as you can.
020. Specter
Just couldn't leave it at two. The third level spirit. Faster. More annoying.
021. Axe Armor
The first in a long chain of armors in this game. Axe Armor has a long history in Castlevania, spooking people out as the empty armor that moves by substitutiary locomotion. Rather than fending off an unlikely Nazi invasion, though, these guys step measuredly back-and-forth, and lob destroyable axes at you. They deal physical, generic type damage, and become incredibly weak after a short stint as the toughest enemy so far.
022. Flame Armor
The second in a long chain of armors in this game. He lacks any axes (as all of the rest of the armors do), and prefers the sword. He will rear back with the sword and heave a huge overhead chop at you that flares and crackles with burning energy. Also, he only moves forward, never back, and will turn to face you to continue his pursuit in measured stride. Did I mention that he's 12 feet tall and his sword is as big as you are? He is, and it is. All things considered, the Flame Armor is something of a novelty, as in the early game, he guards a candle that has the cross inside. Later on you sortof plow through or ignore him.
023. Flame Demon
Not the first you meet in the demon chain. The Flame Demon will swoop in, concentrate, and then summon either six little red orbs around him to shoot in six directions, or around ten or so huge fireballs to come in from all over the place. You can destroy the huge fireballs but not the little orbs. There's no sound to go along with his huge attack, which is a shame because it is really impressive the first time, and while less shocking the next few times, remains a badass move. Come on, he's filling the screen with fire, you have to respect this guy.
024. Ice Armor
You don't run into Ice Armor for a long time in the game, and when you do, he is probably your worst nightmare. The Ice Armor will conjure up two javelins in a predictable high-then-low launch pattern. If one of them hits you, you'll be frozen and then, that's right, take x4 damage from anything that hits you until you thaw. This means that if the first javelin hits you for average damage, the second one will probably murder you. To top it all off, you commonly encounter Ice Armor in a huge room with poison water where there's loads of them hurling javelins from off camera. Also he makes a killer margariti (martini-margarita).
025. Thunder Armor
Ecshews the use of his massive sword for a more, erm, ponderous magical orb of electricity that will follow you around and get you sortof like the thing in the fight against the super-demon in Demon's Crest. Okay, he can still brain you with the sword if you're in the path of his chop, but really you'll remember this guy for the orbs. He can have two or three of them on the screen at a time, so make sure you understand how to dodge them. It won't take you too long to figure out.
026. Wind Armor
Wind Armor takes us back to the ol' step step chop of Fire Armor days. His slash creates a kind of flashy green wind vortex in front of him that extends his range a little bit. He's rather sturdy, so it will be a bit of a battle to take him down when you first meet him. That said, your battle will be boring, as it will be a lot of attack, retreat, attack, retreat...and so on. Also he's usually in a room with seven or eight of his mates. It would actually be a challenge if they limited your movement or cramped up the quarters somehow, but they don't, so it's just boring.
027. Earth Armor
He does a similar step step chop to most of the other armors. His attack rumbles along the ground and cuts a swath ahead of him, though. For you, it will be whip whip jump to take him down, if you even care to (there's never really a good reason to bother killing him). The thing is, they put him in a long hallway where he really shines. Often you'll be bounding along, jump over his head and think you're done with him. That's right as his sword comes down and the shockwave shoots forth. It will continue on for as long as you are on the same screen, and it will overtake you because it is faster. Creates some cool moments.
028. Poison Armor
Remember Thunder Armor? Here he is again, only purple instead of yellow, and his orbs are now clouds of gas and they are larger and move more slowly. Oddly enough, as the clouds are first coming out, they have a visual distortion effect and will not harm you. As soon as the distortion is turned off the damage is turned on and the wee clouds can knock you down and choke you out. I should mention at this point that poison deals damage based on a percentage of your maximum hp, so it becomes more damaging as you become more resilient to damage. That means he scales well, so often I end up avoiding him rather than destroying him for the fourth or fifth time.
029. Forest Armor
He's green and he too has a whip, of vines! Many of these armors guard the area Death inhabits. You may think you need to attack and retreat like with fire or wind types, but you can actually approach at a certain range and crouch and you'll avoid his attack. This means that often you can simply crouch and start whipping and you'll win...even against more than one of them at the same time, as the safe crouching range is rather large. If you do slip up and get hit, though, you'll feel it.
030. Stone Armor
Stone Armor doesn't wait as long as some of the others between his volleys. Or maybe he waits the same amount of time and his volley is actually itself longer than the others. Whatever the case, this version prefers lobbing rocks at you to using some kind of sword or axe. Also, unlike most other armors, you can destroy the rocks he throws, so usually you can whip and then twirl and he'll be finished in no time. They never seem to put too many of these in the same place, so he's rarely the threat that he could be.
031. Ice Demon
Ice Demon took a page out of Fire Demon's book, and decided to fill the screen with lots of huge things. He only has the one attack to the Fire Demon's two, and you can whip the huge blocks to destroy them, sortof, and they fall more predictably than the fire balls. So why is this guy way more dangerous than Fire Demon, apart from more health and power? Well his huge blocks will freeze you and then quickly hit you again for quad damage and probably you're finished right there. Also, if you manage to whip one of the blocks, it breaks into smaller blocks that can still hurt (although not freeze) you, so simply twirling the whip is probably no good. Escape if you can because this guy is a beating waiting to happen.
032. Holy Armor
Batman. This is the penultimate armor in the armor chain. He'll take a few steps, then aim his sword at one of three heights, depending on your position relative to him, and then fire a beam of light dramatically from the tip of his huge sword. Approaching one of them should not be a challenge: you can approach, whip, and then when he sets up for the medium height beam, you can duck under it. All kinds of things change this strategy, though, including having other armors or enemies about, being on a different level than the armor itself, and approaching too closely. If you can, prefer to get hit by something other than the rays. Jumping over the rays (and you'll have to do this eventually) is more difficult than for other attacks because of the sheer length of the beam that you're vaulting. So the difficulty for Holy Armor tends to go between quite easy and staggering depending on what else is going on. Oh, and he makes a showing in the battle arena (shh).
033. Thunder Demon
Not even close to as challenging as either Fire or Ice versions. Thunder Demon will swoop in, concentrate for a minute and then release three bolts of lightning. You can see where they'll be while he's setting up, so you can often position yourself then and jump up to whip him while he's attacking you. He carries with him the same quickness and stickiness that the others do, and you do not want to face down more than one at a time, but other than that, he should be a pushover. Seriously don't fight two of these guys at once.
034. Dark Armor
The ultimate armor. You'll end up fighting a lot of these if you have any sense at all, and you'll end up avoiding them if at all possible if you have any sense at all. Dark Armor can drop some excellent, excellent items, give lots of experience, and are a blast to fight. They can also kick your ass in no time flat, leave you weak inbetween long sequences with no save rooms, and shoot you from positions where you thought you were safe. A hugely respectable and awesome foe, the Dark Armor incorporates a desperately unique element to his attacks that sets him apart from almost all the other adversaries in the game: his attacks are random. That's right, he can aim low, mid or high, and he attacks in bursts of 2 to 4, but how he decides among these options is a mystery, and preparing yourself for all 117 attack patterns is probably too much to ask. Instead, since you can duck under the mid and high attacks, you should probably just walk up and duck and hit him a bunch. Get ready to play jump rope if he aims low, though. Often he will blow you off the platform to a lower level, and approaching when he's in that spot can be a challenge. And do not approach more than one of these guys at a time, or try to fight him while other enemies can get you, he is far easier to avoid than to fight, so don't be afraid to turn tail and run. It could save you an untimely death or three.
035. Wind Demon
Wind Demon tries to strike a middle ground between filling the screen with things and attacking with only a few things that move in a pattern. He summons up four crescent shaped green shards that shoot out and then sortof track you down. The only thing is that these shapes are rather large, and getting out of the way of all of them will sometimes actually be impossible. Unlike most other projectiles though, they will fall harmlessly to the ground if you defeat the demon, so get that whip crackin'.
036. Bloody Sword
The other poltergeist I mentioned earlier. He's not bound to a table, but rather to a flying sword. The sword will shoot toward you, then stop and spin in place, then take aim and do it again. Once he starts tracking you he will continue to do so for as long as you're in the same room. What this means is you don't want to fight him, because he's actually pretty tough and a small target and aggressive. Also you don't want to avoid him, because then there will be more and you'll find yourself trying to avoid three or four and that's much harder. Keep an eye on your health and duck into other rooms when you can. It isn't that hard to fight only one of them at a time if you keep your head about you and only go for one strike at a time. Be sure to leave yourself room to work, and try to get rid of any other monsters first. If you're cursed, run.
037. Golem
Not the boss, but the tall stone form thingy that you find near Death's chamber. He has a higher defense amount than any monster you have encountered up to that point, including bosses. He lumbers and releases stones when you strike him. When you think you've finally beaten him, his legs give out and he starts pulling his body along with his arms to find you. He's just annoying and sad, as his only really dangerous stuff is all reactionary. I'm glad to say he gets upgrades in later games.
038. Earth Demon
The first Demon you meet. His attack makes spikes of earth shoot out of the ground in a rolling shockwave. Other than that he's a wuss. I will say that it is possible to find and fight him without being able to dash (guh) and this will make the fight much harder. The first time you beat him, he should give you a Magic Armband, so hold your shaking fist to the sky if he doesn't.
039. Were-wolf
Holy hell this guy is quick. The were-wolf will slaver in your general direction for a few seconds and then leap and streak past you in an attempt to attack you (I guess). You should be able to take him out with two or three hits, but in the meantime you're dodging some rather potent pounces (probably). The thing is, wolf man here hates stairs and gets a little confused whenever he's on one of those man made staggered slopes (what an invention, I tell ya), making him much easier to deal with. Oh, also the one place he appears in the whole game has lots of staircases about. Odd. Still, don't count him out. His viciousness is the reason he's more often a boss type mob.
040. Man Eater
Wait, which one was this? Ah yes, that bobbing plant thing that spits seeds at you. It's pretty cool to watch him bob back and forth when he attacks and when you attack him. Other than that you should probably have you eyes on the wasps or other nasties in the area because he's pretty much a bore.
041. Devil Tower
Sounds impressive, right? In fact Devil Tower is more like a face mounted on columns that positions itself to shoot at you and then shoots at you. In traditional platformer fashion he will blink a bit before shooting, giving you plenty of time and space to avoid his pee shot. He looks like a big evil knocker and crumbles into pieces of face when you beat them so he's fun just not dangerous in the least.
042. Skeleton Athlete
There's a whole hallway of this guy, and it is made for him. This skeleton wears a bandana and quickly accelerates on a run to go after you. He'll break to pieces when he hits a barrier, and is more easily avoided than fought. It is my understanding that one of them won the Tour de France a few years ago. Good for him.
043. Harpy
This is the first in a class of enemy that will give you hell. Harpy herself doesn't have much hell to give; she swoops around and shoots feathers at you. Your attacks can destroy the feathers. That's it except for the fact that she's speedy and needs a second or two to set up her attack. That should come into play later.
044. Siren
The next level of Harpy has nothing more to offer than power. Boring.
045. Imp
These wee ones are pretty cool. They walk back and forth and throw little stones at you that bounce at angles when they encounter a barrier. Also they will leap backward when you strike, so these little hecklers could become quite a problem...if they had just a little more. Like if the stones they toss did actual damage, or if they had enough hit points to give you a hassle, or if they leapt back a little further so they would actuall avoid a hit. I dunno. Seems kinda like squandered potential.
046. Mudman
Ah. He pops up from the ground and then leaps at you and then disappears. That's pretty much it. Sortof like those spirit enemies in that he'll just keep coming. Sortof like golems in that I don't give a damn.
047. Gargoyle
These guys are small and a little dour looking. Some of them come to life from being stone, but its hard to tell because there will always be more coming from the sides. They chuck a spear at you at a downward angle that you cannot destroy with your attacks. Oh, and their movement is strictly one-directional, so don't expect a big challenge in avoiding them ever.
048. Slime
I'm pretty sure that as defense amounts go, his is negative. Slime is probably your first shot at dealing huge numbers worth of damage, and you certainly will not ever need to. He can poison you (boo) and drop antidotes (yea) to fight the poison. You might get caught unawares once or twice when he drops from the cieling. Other than that you can keep him as a pet in the fridge. Don't let your mom find out, though, or she'll throw it away.
049. Frozen Shade
Curiously first in the list between her and her less powerful cousin, Frozen Shade will hover around eerily and then form two icy stones and then hurl them at you one at a time. The stones will freeze you if they hit you, meaning the first one is the more dangerous of the two (because it will let the second one hit you for x4). She can toss her stones from quite a distance, so be prepared for some off-screen shenanigans if you let her out of your sight.
050. Heat Shade
You'll find this one first. She tosses one stone instead of two, and hers is on fire and has a trail and follows you slowly rather than shooting at where you were quickly. She has a stylish dress. I'd like to make a joke about how she's all heat, but I don't think I have it in me.
051. Poison Worm
Curiously enough, this enemy type refers to both the cluster of worms that clings to the cieling and the small, writhing individual worms that issue forth when you attack the cluster. Makes multi-hit moves rather entertaining. It can poison you and give you the cure if you're lucky enough (mathematically speaking).
052. Myconid
He's like mudman only more boring, if you can imagine that. That is to say, instead of leaping at you like a mudman or milling toward you like a zombie, he just sort of sits there.
053. Will O'Wisp
Hovers around looking spooky. That's about it. Formly known as William of the Wisp, I'm sure.
054. Spearfish
The spearfish, I think, is supposed to be an undead swordfish. I guess when you die and come back as undead, you have to trade in your nice things for slightly less nice things. Skin. Possessions. Family. Memories. And in this case, trade in a sword for a spear. He moves back and forth in the water, just as comfortable in poison water as in fresh. Dunno about salt water (though I think he can take it if he can swim in poison, salt being a mild poison on its own).
055. Merman
Appears near the Spearfish. Mermen are the games mass-enemy answer to aqueas zombies (chemical ZmAq). There are a lot of them, you can probably railroad them no problem. I would suggest avoiding them though, because fresh or poisoned, the water will slow you down enough to not be able to avoid them, but you seem to take as much knockback as on land, so a cluster of the fish people could well end you in a chain ganking. Pretty easy to stay above the water line and avoid them, though.
056. Minotaur
He's part of a small chain of huge anthropomorphs. Minotaur wields a massive axe, and when you're close enough, he'll go to chop you down to size, releasing a small shockwave as he does. Don't split hairs with the man-cow of Minos, though, or he'll split your skull (and consequently, hairs). Minotaur is at his most dangerous in close quarters, or in pairs (which is most of the time).
057. Were-horse
Blucher. Were-horse is not as good as Minotaur, and he's pissed about it. He has a hammer instead of an axe, and doesn't have a shockwave, or even half the def of a Minotaur, or a labarynth. His expression of how pissed off about it he is is to smash the ground into bits that fly up and hit you, and be really aggressive about it. It serves to make you think that maybe he is a match for the mighty Minotaur, but really he isn't. Not even close. Keep an eye on his moves and you'll send sinister Secretariat to the big race track in the sky.
058. Marionette
She's not half as dangerous as the bloody Bloody Swords that are flying all over the place around her. To make up for it, she curses you to prevent you from attacking. You can still slide and tackle while cursed, so sometimes you can still plow through these dolls like the dames they are.
059. Gremlin
Ah. These gremlins are just weaker gargoyles and without the "reverting from stone" trick. They would be completely lame, except you encounter them pretty early on, when they can effectively shrink the size of the room by being all over the place with their spears. You will hate them to death once you're done with the first boss fight.
060. Hopper
He's a flea man with a different shirt. Moving on...
061. Evil Pillar
He's a Devil Tower at heart, except his shots move around more and can turn you to stone so that anyone else in the neighborhood can come smash you to bits. Also he loves stuffed bears, and always takes one to the mall with him when the evil bus is going to Build a Burial.
062. Were-panther
He's kinda stumpy for a man-cat. Furry notions aside, this enemy will leap forward at you, strike and retreat. You should do the same to him, except you will be much better at it and win. Observe him once or twice before attacking, and you may go the entire game without taking a were-cat hit even once.
063. Were-jaguar
Has an eight-cylinder twin turbo engine with...oh, wrong jaguar. Read the entry for Were-panther above. Same as before, for the were-cats, victory is no-were in sight.
064. Bone Head
The less frighteningly-named, more-actually-frightening version of Bone Tower, with a red hue of love and a passion for hearts (really). Their fireballs are red with love, baby.
065. Fox Archer
Loves to express his hatred of modernity by hanging out with machines. You can destroy the arrows he shoots. You can jump over them. You can duck them. You will do all of these things while fighting them because they are rarely the only thing in the room. Their secret weakness is things that are behind them (they can't turn around).
066. Fox Hunter
Featured in special thanks for "Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon (2008)," and in all ways otherwise just like Fox Archer.
067. Were-bear
No you're not out of the were-woods yet. This hulking bear man will lunge at you like the were-cats, but not retreat. Oddly enough, he lunges when you are close, but the lunge usually positions him closer, where he will want to lunge again. This serves to make him seem sometimes friendly and cute, and sometimes the murderous threat to America that he is.
068. Grizzly
He's bluer than the Were-bear, and will lunge more easily. Oh, also he pops up in places you may not expect, coupled with a famous spider-lady. He, also, hates America.
069. Cerberus
Right. Here's the game's first boss, stuck at 69 for no good reason. He's big and furry and has lots of heads to pet and love. Who wouldn't want this huge wuvable aberration guarding their gates? Is it any surprise then that Hades wanted it guarding his? Sadly Cerberus doesn't react any differently when you flash your copy of Hades' collectible trading card of the gods (collect all 12). Oh, right, his attacks. Well as a first boss he does okay for himself, changing modes capriciously, any of which could trouble you and all of which at some point or another will in all likelihood finish you. He's hard as first bosses go. Other runthroughs of the game and you'll probably have no trouble at all, and the trans-hellenic SPCA will blow the whistle on your mythical animal abuse. Then you're in some real shit.
070. Beast Demon
Make up your minds, is he Beast or Demon? Is he The Beast, come to bring about the end of days, or another Demon in the ranks of the Prince of Lies (not the Prine of Lies as previous revisions of some of my other works would have you believe, but the actual Prince)? Confusing though his Satanic name be, this tall wuss stands there for a minute and then shoots little peas at you in one wipe top to bottom. More on him later.
071. Arch Demon
Ah, a little clarity comes with the first palette swap of the Beast Demon. He's more Demon than Beast. Archy here will shoot the same peas as before in two wipes instead of one, top to bottom to top again. Check out that technology. Although, I admit, this is sortof the kind of thing I was asking for in my aside earlier with enemy tech.
072. Demon Lord
Not sure what he's the lord of, other than his own little spot of space on the ground where he stands. He is the strongest of the three Demons and will wipe top to bottom to top to bottom (three wipes!) just to pester you. Although if he's taken that long then you've probably killed him already, as you are quite powerful once you finally meet one of these.
073. Gorgon
Usually, I would call this an Ox. Hugs and kisses aside, this Ox breathes deadly gas that turns you to stone, so I guess the moniker is warranted. His stride is rather lumbering and ponderous, though.
074. Catoblepas
I can't quite make up my mind on how to pronounce this one. Oh, and he's a palette swapped Gorgon.
075. Succubus
Remember how I mentioned the Harpyish bird-maidens from before? Succubus is oneathose, and she's far more dangerous. She has bat wings instead of bird wings, and shoots three dagger-like shards at you that you can't destroy. She swoops in toward you a lot, and he movements are hard to read. Best to wait until she stops to prepare the shots and then strike once or twice. The fiends are finally getting more fiendish.
076. Fallen Angel
You can find just one of these in the game. She hangs out by the arena because she loves a good show (I guess). She has the Succubus' wings and attitude (read: hard to read swooping), but in place of the red shards she has five trailed rings that float about her, making her hard to approach. Then she throws them at you. They move pretty fast and take up a lot of the screen, so they're hard to avoid. You have all the space in the world to work with when you meet her, and she will track you over all of it. Be prepared for a really good fight.
077. Necromancer
The game's second boss. In his first form he's a big robe that floats around and summons zombies and attacks you with moves maybe. In his second form he looks like the elemental Demons except all bony, which is really cool and I wish they had turned him into a regular enemy later. He can summon quite a lot of dudes and attack you with wicked symbols, even turning into a deadly bouncing ball sometimes. He has loads of moves and is hard to read, making for a fun (albeit painful) fight. But really, aren't lifes greatest experiences all painful?
078. Hyena
Disagrees with his foxy friends about technology, except he really doesn't have the hang of his gun yet. At least the shot he fires is rather quick...when he finally gets a shot off (which can happen I guess).
079. Fishhead
A bone tower underwater that is significantly stupider-looking. That's all.
080. Dryad
Usually depicted as a fair maiden or wood nymph, this time around Dryad is simply an old knotty-looking leafless tree that summons three lights that sortof chase after you. Appears with the Golems. Like a whole boring hallway of lame baddies. Pah.
081. Mimic Candle
These look like candles and then pounce on you when you whip them. It shouldn't fool you...even the first time...because they have a characteristically different color. Actually killing one can be a trick, though, as they tend to fade into the floor after leaping at you, so you have to whip, position, and whip again enough times to actually kill it. Your reward is possible cool stuff (again keyed off of luck).
082. Brain Float
Floating brains outside of their jars. Each possesses a single eye and a bit of spine. They float casually back and forth in tall chains and occasionally shoot a small white light at you. Each signifies a kind of puzzle (or brain-teaser, if you will) that you can complete to get an item, usually meaning you freeze them and use them as platforms. Not the brain float I was thinking of, but I just finished cleaning my blender of brain, so maybe I had it on brain float on the brain to begin with.
083. Evil Hand
Sortof like all good hands, except this one floats along disembodied and tries to pin you down. Okay, maybe that's nothing like your hands at all. I rather like this enemy, though, because it looks to me like its trying really hard to get at you...all fingers outstretched and reaching. Shivery. I love it.
084. Abiondarg
About as unusual looking as it sounds. Abiondarg crawls around platforms in wet places crackling with electricity. Also it looks like an octopus with an eye for a head...or a beak...or something. Also it shrieks like birds do. So its an electric eel octopus evil eye geemer. So why didn't they just name it that?
085. Iron Golem
Boss # 3. He deserves more than a single line, but I'm not giving it to him.
086. Devil
Not a boss, oh but he really should be. He has the magic of cloudy purple darkness at his command, which he will summon into a storm, spray at you like a hose, use as a shield, or beckon forth from below. He also teleports about the place in a most creepy fashion. His power is up there with the game's most powerful monsters, as is his experience reward. What he lacks that the others have, though, is a movement pattern that warrants some worry. He just sortof floats there for most of the time. Honestly I think that's the only thing stopping him from being a boss. If he would weave a little bit to avoid your attacks, or maybe take the hit and counter with something...as it stands, no matter when you encounter the Devil, you will be able to beat him if you study his moves and learn to read him. It will be hard, because he is quite powerful, and maybe not as rewarding as you may expect for the effort, but you could do it. I cannot say the same thing about the game's other singleton powerhouses.
087. Witch
This witch has spent the last thousand years flying back and forth, mounted on her broom like a jocky, not at all caring about her degrading appearance. Only in later games do we get more ladylike witches; perhaps a sign of the times surrounding Nathan Graves. After flying to the end of her small rail, she will turn her head back and shoot a spread of small lights that curve down and away. Then she flies the other way. The witch's shot may surprise you time after time, because it is so rigidly regular that you'll get bored of it and try to hastily finish her off so you can move on and defeat more interesting enemies like zombies or mudmen.
088. Coffin & Mummy
Listed together, the Coffin floats ominously and slowly overhead, depositing Mummies on the ground. For me, this was a page out of Diablo II, and the lesser mummy generators there. These Mummies seem to be quite tall, though. All the same, they appear in pair very early on, and since they are the same enemy, they have the same defense amount, and you'll find yourself slaying the Coffin about as easily as the Mummy. I see lots of squandered potential here, but I will say that even later on in the game, the room with the Mummies is hard to simply leap over and ignore.
089. Hipogriff
With one "p." The Hipogriff is probably what you or I would call a gryphon if we saw one. It flies around, largely at random, but within some protocol, and then sortof aims a wing buffet attack at you. It is rather easy most of the time to position yourself such that he's buffeting below you and you're whipping him in the face, quickly turning this wing buffet machine into a buffet of wings. Spicy.
090. Adramelech
Wait, which one was he? Ah yes, the Totema of the Bangaa, Adramelech appears with the "special judge" typical of special boss fights in Ivalice...er. Right. I mean, Adramelech in Circle of the Moon is a huge goat beast giant guy with blinders on and bobbing poison bubbles and flights of skulls. He also summons fireballs at you. Sadly, he is bound and cannot move, and therefore can't exploit his hugeness to swat at and crush you like, say, Balore or the Forgotten One. With sagacious planning, you should be able to defeat Adramelech at any level. He steps through his attacks very clearly from one to the next. And keep the cross with you, as Adramelech is a rather large target and easy to get four hits in on (that's like whipping five times with one shot).
091. Arachne
Half woman, half spider, Arachne ambles back and forth in the company of maybe a Grizzly bear or Beast Demon, occasionally shooting a web at you. The web will deal light damage and coat you in a sticky film that hampers your movement. You can destroy the incoming web shot with a timely attack, but once the film is on you, you just have to wait it out. Why not kill Arachne while you wait? It's probably for the best.
092. Death Mantis
Is there any other kind? Certainly not in Circle of the Moon. The Death Mantis is like a hybrid of Arachne and a Were-Bear as far as attacks go. It will lumber back and forth, then do a huge overhead swipe at you. I really wish they had given him different movement, or changed him up entirely. Most of the enemies in this game have some kind of inherent, visceral untoward quality that lets you know they are certainly monsters. When you just see a bug on a tiny Game Boy Advance screen, it lacks that quality. Now, if instead you make it move around jerkily when fast and coyly when slow, you'll give it a kind of uncanny edge that actual insects have, and then it will seem like Nathan Graves is really in some shit because where you may encounter a cool looking insect in life, he encouters a similar one that's twice his height, perversely engorged by dark magic. Now that's a Death Mantis.
093. Alraune
Later on in games, this and other plant enemies get the "Une" surname and develop a host of proper names, this one would most likely be Alura or Allura Une. The alluring lady in the rose. I'll forgive the designers of a children's (er teen's?) game the heavy-handed sexual allegory half because there really ought to be more of it in a game about vampires, and half because we're talking about an image rendered in pixels numbering in scant hundreds. Alraune will pop up from the rose, summon some wriggling vines, and then retreat back into the rose. Cool because the vines leave you a small area to be in, and that area shifts around, so there's a minigame to it. Also cool because while inside the rose, Alraune takes about 1/10th as much damage from your attacks, so you can't reasonably expect to avoid playing the game and still defeat her with any rapidity. Still leaves you the option, though. She can be really, really deadly in other games, so be thankful for this, "fair" version.
094. King Moth
Not sure what he's the king of, really. King Moth will fly back and forth overhead occasionally dropping poisonous powder on you. He's much more interesting as a feature of the room or as a hazard than as an enemy. Same complaint about depicting giant bugs as I gave to Death Mantis (and they often appear together, hoom).
095. Killer Bee
Wu Tang! This is what I want to see in an enemy. He has a purpose, it is sinister, and he does it and leaves. Touching the Killer Bee will poison you, so you should avoid touching him. Oh, except as soon as you are on the same screen as he, he will fly at you rather quickly and try to touch you. One timely attack should destroy him, but if he's already flown in and stung you, killing him serves little purpose. All flimsy enemies should have this much potential for damage or annoyance. Just a top-notch baddie.
096. Dragon Zombie
There's a pair of these and that pair makes one boss. One huge, nasty boss. They bob their huge heads and necks about the room, sometimes chomping at you, sometimes smashing into the far wall to make rocks fall on you, sometimes shooting a breath weapon. That's pretty much it, but considering there are subtle variations to each of these moves, and that each of them is doing moves independant of the other, it makes for a hectic experience. As soon as you kill one, the other starts eating it to regain his health, making the second half of the fight just as lengthy as the first, albeit far less hectic. A splendidly designed fight, and one of the game's most challenging bosses.
097. Lizardman
Given how some of the other monsters in the game were going, I'm a little surprised this one didn't earn the name "Were-Lizard." Lizardmen crowd around in damp areas, patrolling a small see with shield and spear in scaly hand. Step too swiftly close and he'll stab at you with the spear. Strike at him and he'll shrink beneath the shield to save his skin. Most sibilant.
098. Franken
Often, this guy gets to be a boss, but this time around, he's just a heavily durable lumbering butthole. On the plus side, you may never encounter any as he only comes out after you've defeated Death, and only in an area that there's no reason to revisit. He's pretty tough, as it turns out, and has a huge overhead smash that will ruin you. Way too dumb for that to ever connect, though. Pity.
099. Legion
Often, this guy gets to be a boss, but this time around, he's just a randomly hovering curse machine. Also, he's exceptionally gross looking, but really, if Legion isn't somewhere near pegging the needle on your gross and spooky meters, then something's gone wrong. He may be great fun at parties, but get touched and you'll be hurting for a save room that is all too far away. Perfect fit for the areas they put him in, and menace the the late game.
100. Dullahan
Half-horse and half-rider. No really, it has two legs and no human head. Dullahan runs back and forth in huge strides in a long corridor. He can be tricky because he can move faster than you can, and will often simply burst onto the scene when you're not expecting anything. Once you know where they are and about how long they take to make the circuit, they'll be no challenge at all to defeat or avoid. I always sortof think Dullahan is lacking in tricks, but I guess the "surprise I am fast and off camera" gag is supposed to do. All in all high billing for a rather lame enemy.
101. Death
No pithy banter. No fatalistic aphorisms. No dramatic taunts. In Circle of the Moon, Death simply comes out of the gates materializing sickles and shooting things at you. When you break down his humanlike skeleton form, he changes into a ground-bound mantislike aberant assemblage of bones, and is much easier to handle. There are still little sickles all over the place, but this time he stays relatively still, so tossing a cross or two will almost always catch him for the four hits it deserves. Pretty weak as far as Death fights go, and doubly so as far as this game's bosses go. Makes you wonder.
102. Camilla
Now this is more like a boss fight. I'll forgo describing her appearance for the sake of the children reading this. It is pretty graphic and pretty gross, and gets to be moreso than casual enemies (like a harpy or alraune, fr'instance) because Camilla's demon form is rather large. She floats back and forth on the screen, sometimes swooping at you, sometimes raining little curved things, sometimes conjuring dark lighting or a death ray. Almost all the time, she will passively release little transparent purple orbs that track you like Thunder Armor's shot, but much more quickly, and you can destroy these. Camilla is what the Death fight is supposed to be like, designwise and difficultywise. That said, if you figure out where to stand and how she chooses attacks, this fight can be either short and challenging, or tedious and easy. When you defeat her, she will revert to human form and heckle you one last time before melting into the ground.
103. Hugh
Oh no! You have to fight your friend! Not much of a big reveal, to be honest; he had been acting like a complete tool since the opening scene, so really you should be glad to settle his hash. Sadly, Dracula has Hugh in a dark thrall, making him more of a dick, and making him take no knockback...This means that while you're settling his hash (most stylishly done with martial arts moves you can do with the right magic), you'll spend most of the time retreating from him. Hugh doesn't care for all the faerie acrobatic jumping, which leads one to wonder how he even got as high up as he is, and instead runs at you, stops, swings his sword, and repeats. He can also use the cross, axe, dagger, and holy water, as well as summoning a huge spirit sword and chipping down with that. The boy has moves, sure, but mostly he just walks or runs up to you and does a basic attack. Barring the little bits of variation on this, what you should do to counter is let him get close, wait for him to ready an attack, move away a little, and strike. Repeat 100 times and you win. This fight is boring as hell for that reason, and yet still not easy. Just awfully boring. Anyway, spank that asshole's ass and your reward is the key to open the door from the opening scene wherein lies the way to Dracula.
104. Dracula (1st form)
Big D this time around is something like 12 feet tall and has a huge cloak. He will conjure magical bats that fly at you in three different patterns, primary-color-coded. You can whip his head, body, feet, whatever, and still get the same effect. You have a huge arsenal of magical might to bring to bear, and he's using the same tired old moves you've seen from him time and time again. This really shouldn't be a hard fight if you've played Castlevania games before, and I think they leave you an intentionally large amount of slack. That said, don't use too much of your magic or heart if you plan on finishing up the game right away.
105. Dracula (2nd form)
Now this is more like it. This image of Dracula still haunts me, as it is all at once terrifying and repulsive and majestic. He's huge, he teleports to meet you, and he has moves. Halfway through the fight he changes up his style, and will probably kill you once before you realize what you're supposed to do to dodge. No matter what he's doing, you will have to strike him in the eye if you want to get any damage in. Enjoy this fight, though, because it is hard but fair (mostly).
106. Skeleton Medalist
There are a lot of enemies in the game that only appear at certain times or special places that are simply different versions of other enemies. This one is a Skeleton Athlete who made it big in the Undead Olympics. Defeat him, and you may claim the victory prize he claimed for his multiple medal finishes.
There are a lot of enemies in the game who appear in the Battle Arena, the game's actual challenge. All that sissy-boy magic act is no good in the Arena, they strip you of your mp when you enter. Though the monsters inside largely look the same and have the same names, they're all powered-up versions of the same thing, just to mess with you. Awesome. That said, I'm just going to list the enemies that are all the same, with a B for "badass version," and make some notes where I feel you should know something.
107. Were-jaguar [B]
108. Were-wolf [B]
Note: Mother fucker.
109. Catoblepas [B]
110. Hipogriff [B]
111. Wind Demon [B]
Note: Appears in multiples with some other enemies in the room. This quickly fills the screen with damage all over the place, and doesn't really let up. The theme of the Battle Arena is limiting space, by the way.
112. Witch [B]
113. Stone Armor [B]
114. Devil Tower [B]
115. Skeleton [B]
116. Skeleton Bomber [B]
117. Electric Skeleton [B]
Note: Gah!
118. Skeleton Spear [B]
Note: All the Skeletons appear together in a big happy room. Mostly you'll plow through them, jumping gingerly to avoid the Electric Skeletons, except for the spears. These guys are the worst part of the room.
119. Flame Demon [B]
120. Bone Tower [B]
121. Fox Hunter [B]
You wouldn't think that these guys could be dangerous, and you're still right.
122. Poison Armor [B]
123. Bloody Sword [B]
124. Abiondarg [B]
Note: This room is both lame and dumb.
125. Legion [B]
126. Marionette [B]
127. Minotaur [B]
Note: This room is the reason Were-Horse hates the Minotaur so much. Alright, that's not completely true; it's the reason I hate the Minotaur so much.
128. Arachne [B]
Note: Sama.
129. Succubus [B]
130. Demon Lord [B]
131. Alraune [B]
132. Hyena [B]
Note: You wouldn't think that these guys could be dangerous, and you're wrong. Unless you're good at jump-rope.
133. Devil Armor
Right, this one is worth pointing out because rather than simply being Dark Armor (which he is), he gets to have a different name and slightly different color. Also he's called freaking Devil Armor, how awesome is that? All the same, hold onto your butts when you're fighting these. They will probably kick your ass once or twice.
134. Evil Pillar [B]
I'm going to chalk this one up to poor execution. The conecpt is that the pillars have these evil faces that shoot pea shot at you, and that you can crumble the face, maybe, but the pillar remains, unkillable, hating you with its now faceless expression. I get the feeling this could have been much more menacing. All the same, when you meet the room with these guys and the Devil Armor, you feel their hatred all the same.
135. White Armor
Same deal with this guy and Holy Armor as with above Devil and Dark Armors. I think that these versions can also set up faster, but it is hard to tell. I think the improved damage gets you a little shaky and you lose perspective anyway. All the same, you should still be able to play the ducking game...
136. Devil [B]
Note: Oh hell yeah!
137. Scary Candle
Right, and now we're back to regular baddies. Scary Candle, like the Mimic Candle above, looks slightly different from a regular candle, and will fall on you and then sink away. Not much special to say.
138. Trick Candle
Imagine that.
139. Nightmare
Uh. (groans) I guess I'll have to go find this one. I've never actually fought or seen one of these, and she's one of the four who only appears in a specific place after you've defeated a certain boss. I'll get back to you.
Edit: And I'm back. Turns out Nightmare is yet another Fallen Angel knockoff. Easier than Lilim.
140. Lilim
Number three on the hot list of enemies who appear only in a certain place and time. Lilim has a similar look and attack mode as the Fallen Angel above. She's way more powerful and, oh yeah, you have to fight her in a cramped little space, making her even more dangerous. Lilim is a serious bitch, and the second hardest monster in the game (excluding Battle Arena monsters because that's a different kind of challenge entirely).
141. Lilith
The game's hardest monster is also its most experience-reward-giving. If you can take her down, props to you. Dedicated power-levelers and madmen will refuse to fight any other monster. As an indication of the kind of stuff you should be using to take her down, she can drop the highest INT robe in the game. The reason Lilith is such a pain in the ass is because she's a version of Fallen Angel or Lilim: a hard-ass monster anyway, then powered up, then put in an even more cramped space than Lilim. You will be amazed at just how much real estate her little rings will take up. It's staggering. Also, since we're talking about the most powerful attack there is, it's murderous too. Best fight in the game. Just a monster of superlatives across the board.