The Evolution of Zelda Bosses

When I was four, before I even began to comprehend my ABCs, I got the greatest gift imaginable for a child at the time: The Nintendo Entertainment System. This magical grey box came with a single game called Super Mario Brothers and I was overjoyed that it was mine to own. “It doesn’t get better than this,” I said.

However, six months later I went to my cousin Pat’s house and was blown away by a shimmering, gold cartridge that read The Legend of Zelda. I watched for the first hour and was just mesmerized by the sword that appeared to shoot lasers, the dark dungeon rooms that seemed near identical that you could get lost in, and the vast array of weaponry. I had to have it, so I begged until I received it for Christmas a year after it’s initial release.

Now, here I am nearing my mid-thirties and reflecting on how much I have changed along with how much the Zelda series has changed. Link and the entire universe that surrounds him has evolved and kept up with the last three decades of transforming technology. For me, one of the biggest parts of The Legend of Zelda was and always will be the bosses. The last stronghold before whatever it is that hides behind that door that they’re guarding, whether it be a heart, a princess, or the coveted triforce.

When did Ganon start taking steroids?

In the beginning, bosses were very simplistic: size, speed, and little glowing balls of energy were nearly identical across the board. Their weaknesses didn’t differ much either throughout the first game. Basically, if the sword didn’t work, just use the last weapon that you acquired. The only exception to this was a little scurrying spider in level 6 that could only be hurt when her eye fully opened; this boss got me in a lot of trouble with my step-mother for swearing too loud.

As the series progressed over the years, the bosses seemed to get meaner, faster, and larger. From Helmethead, whom had to be disarmored, in Zelda II to a giant scorpion-like dinosaur named Helmasaur in A Link to the Past. Bosses became so big, in fact, that new abilities had to be introduced, such as dashing and rolling, just to give our hero a fighting chance against these gargantuans.

But alas, enemies didn’t always get bigger, sometimes the smaller the villain, the stronger the punch. Vitreous in the one and only SNES release was literally a pile of eyeballs for a boss, but fun to fight thanks to the Indiana Jones-like hookshot bringing them to you at your convenience. But nothing can blow your mind more than a seemingly weak baddie that becomes more than you possibly could have bargained for.

In 2004, we saw Zelda’s first full-color handheld game, entitled The Minish Cap, and it brought a completely new aspect to the series; shrinkage. A truly great concept that just gave me a sense of enjoyment and cute perception until the first boss fight of the game. I traversed through the enlarged Deepwood Shrine until I reached the final room that housed a single green Chu Chu and begin laughing, until it grows to a towering stature. This would happen again with an Octorok; one of my most hated foes since the first game at age 6.

Dauntingly large boss fights were not segregated to the battles leading up to the finale, but included them as well. Nothing shocked me more than when I reached the final form of Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time after an annoyingly tedious game of follow the leader. For the first time in my life, a Zelda boss was so intimidating that it left my mouth agape and several years later I was forced to relive this horror at the culmination of Twilight Princess with beast Ganon.

Are We There Yet?

You can’t talk about Zelda’s epic bosses without mentioning the path that leads you to them; the dungeon. In the beginning, the dungeon started out simply by providing you with an obvious path where the monsters grew increasingly more difficult as you progressed. Then, with each new installment of the series, the dungeons and temples themselves became more treacherous like they were a villain of their own with the addition of multiple floors, traps, and mini bosses.

In the first two Zelda adventures, items were simply just left on the floor, ripe for the taking, but that soon changed with the inclusion of treasure chests. The chests evolved over the years to include small chests with things you usually don’t need like a single rupee, medium chests with maps and special items, and eventually the big chest the size of a coffin that housed the key you needed to face your possible demise.

The keys themselves would even evolve from a tiny gold generic key to a skull key and then, most recently, a puzzle within itself in Skyward Sword which personally gave me carpal tunnel syndrome as I tried to turn it so it was perfectly aligned with the carved hole in the cathedral-like door.

Music has always been a staple of the series and that is no different when we think about the sounds of the dungeon. Since the first adventure, when we first set foot into the dark depths of the underworld, that drastic shift in music altered our emotions as we played through. Inside the scariest of the boss’s lair, the only solace we have is the occasional chime of an unveiled secret or cheery applause of opening a big treasure music.

How Do You Helm Split Again?

During Zelda’s adolescence in the first four Nintendo consoles, only four buttons or less were used to control the character. It wasn’t until Ocarina of Time that we were forced to utilize all fingers in order to defeat that who separates our hero from the triforce and his beloved. Soon after that, they completely flipped the script and introduced us to motion controls, thus creating an entirely new experience and then taking it away again.

Walking around the land of Hyrule began so simply, by pushing in any of four directions, but thirty years of evolution would change that to include running, but not for very long, side-stepping and back flipping, and leaping over obstacles. Link’s movement looks quite different today with the continuous releases of snippets of Breath of the Wild.

Probably the most drastic change in Link’s abilities and appearance occurred in Twilight Princess, where he not only transformed into a wolf, but also was granted sword skills; seven to be exact. It showed us what Link was truly capable of and it had me repeatedly saying “Link is a badass.” It’s not so much a special feature of this particular game, but more of a peek into what is possible for the future of the green tunic-wearing hero.

The next, and most recent, control change occurred less than five years ago in the right-handed exclusive, Skyward Sword. Playing this new style of Zelda adventure was so daunting that even the creators thought it necessary for a lengthy tutorial in the beginning. Fighting a boss with this style nearly gave me, a seasoned veteran of the series, a panic attack when Ghirahim licked his lips and rushed me like I was a new scarf.

Now, you’d think this would be enough to create a challenge against the bosses, even with mild difficulty, but this installment still houses some of the hardest villains in Zelda history. I personally found Scaldera, the funnest boss battle I have ever experience, thanks to it’s homage to bowling. The hardest would be fairly obvious to anyone who's played SS, the six-armed Koloktos, who brought back my tourettes from decades past.

Have We Met?

There are a number of recurring characters in The Zelda universe, like most franchises of games, movies, and books. But it isn’t too often that the villains make a return and, if they do, it’s usually just the patriarch that greets us. This is untrue with Zelda, but when your favorite bad guy makes an appearance, you can’t help but smile.

When a monster returns, it not always looks the same or even has the same name, but it’s essence you can see. Let’s go back to the four-legged dinosaur Helmosaur, whom I believe was reborn into a colossal bird, whom we call Helmaroc (or vice versa depending on your views of the timeline); their weaknesses even match.

Two of the most recurring bosses are King Dodongo and Queen Gohma, who appear in seven and six games respectively. The former, despite making more than half a dozen appearances, has not changed his appearance one iota. Sure, in the beginning he looked like nothing more than a triceratops, but he looks relatively the same near the end of his career. Her majesty, Queen Gohma, on the other hand, has evolved more times than the cockroach. We’ve seen the queen mother as a spider, an alien-like arachnid, a lava-bathing lobster, and back into an ugly hairy spider that lives through an eyeball.

Lastly, we come to the most infamous of all of the recurring bosses in the Legend of Zelda, the shadowy doppelganger, Dark Link. His first appearance came in Zelda II after the “final” battle as an added slap in the face from this adventure’s extreme difficulty, which is legend. Later in the series, he would make appearances as a mini-boss, part of a flashback, and the center of a mini-game. He hasn’t had a huge part of the series, but has an extreme cult following among fans.

Final Battle? Gee, where have I heard that before?

Back in the good old days of straightforward bosses, once the ultimate villain was dead, he was DEAD. However, the adventure has evolved and so must the antagonist. Final battles are never meant to be easy, so when they are, we begin to question why is it so. “That was easy,” we say, “A little too easy.” Then, we find out why is was so “easy.”

With eight nicknames and twelve appearances (and one pending), Ganondorf takes the prize for biggest threat to all of Hyrule. His career began as we’ve seen him many times, as a boar-like beast who’s hellbent on destroying the world and becoming the all-powerful being. But since his first appearance, he has taken many forms, much like Satan himself. Ganon(dorf), the only male Gerudo we’ve ever laid our eyes on, has been a beast, a man, a wizard, a puppet, and simply just an entity controlling evil.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have all mighty foes that are only given one life to try and destroy Link and everything he holds dear. Look around and you’ll read posts and comments of fans begging for the return of their favorites, such as Demise, Majora, and even Vaati, whom people can never seem to get enough of. Where is their second (or fourth) chance?

These eaters of worlds provide a veritable challenge when faced in combat, but who are they? What truly drives their need for power? Is it vengeance against a cruel world or are they just wired the wrong way? Are they the serial killers of Hyrule? Nobody can be sure, since in some cases we get nearly no backstory, but there’s plenty more time for that...right?