Odd enemies

[Owen Robertson]

{1} Any creature whose job is to...explode. Earthbound has these, but I think exploding enemies overall have got to be some of the weirdest ones out there. You're a thing, and you live out your life until one day something threatens you and...your one real defense against them is to explode? How does that work? Is that a "You can't fire me, I quit!" move?

This is actually a valid tactic if you prize the species/group/many above the individual. If a predator tries to eat an animal and it explodes, then odds are good the predators will learn to stop trying to eat them pretty quickly. The individual creatures may be dead, but the species as a whole will benefit from it in the long run, kind of like a more flashy version of the "Don't eat me, I'm poisonous" tactic.

It's not even an entirely fictional thing, several species of Ant and/or Termite actually do explode to deter predators.

Yeah, but then ants and termites are hive mind creatures. A Mammal that explodes won't pass on it's "best explosion" genes and therefore, while extremely entertaining, it's an evolutionary dead end. Unless the explosion only awakens after the creature has been mature for like 10 years. Old Exploding Dog... Best. Enemy. Ever.

 

[Owen Robertson]

Those bastard rubber men from RE4 were weird. It's not often I see something become MORE dangerous without its legs.

I've beaten RE4 like 9 times and I have no idea what you're talking about. You mean the Regenerators?

 

[Eddie the head]

Odd enemies thread huh? I'll bite;

Geth Stalkers from the first Mass Effect. Little jumping bastards that shoot lasers from their eyes and jam your radar, plus they love inflicting status effects. They never appear outside of game 1, and nobody ever mentions them again.

Seriously? So, enemy variety goes DOWN in the later games? One more reason not to play them

Not really. If you stretch it there where maybe 6? 7? "Different " types of enemies in the first game. And when I say different I mean form a game play perspective not there model is swapped out and some number buffed. Where as in 2 and 3 there are a lot more enemies that are well different. They change how you play what gun you use do you use that CAIN now or later? Where do you aim for? Can it even damage them? Can you even get close to them? In Cerberus alone I think there are like 7 "different" enemies.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I always found the Zombie Whale from Final Fantasy IX to be a little odd.

I mean, come on it's a zombie freaking whale.
Also gelatinous cubes.
Who the hell thought that one up.

I think that was Wayne's World.

It's a D&D monster.

 

[FalloutJack]

Okay, so yeah. Persona and SMT tend to take the cake.

I also wanna go on record to say that Breath of Fire games have got it weird too.

 

[SirPlindington]

I've never understood why SCP-173 was so popular. It's weird looking, but not much else.

It isn't one of my favorites, but it's kind of the unofficial mascot of the SCP. The reason probably has to do with the fact that it was one of the first, if not the first, SCPs

Really? I would've thought that the first SCP would be 2 or 3 or something around there. You learn a new thing every day, I guess. I feel educated.

 

[Punch You]

The Vagrant in Dark Souls. I've only ever seen it once but they're strange looking, like an angry ghost clam with tentacles.

I was gonna say that! Though I would also add the Crag Spiders (half bug, half pyromancer things that attack with fire whips) and Chaos Eaters (no amount of description could make you picture this thing. It's got a mouth at the the top, walks on tentacle mouths, an is covered in eyes.).

 

[Necabo]

yeah the chaos eaters from dark souls, lump them together with the sound and its kinda like you ended up in the wrong game

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Rather than post 20 examples I could just say "half the enemies in Maplestory"

Here's 1 example anyway:

Yup.... a freakin' CD.

I LOL´D for some weird reason thats just freaking hilarious!

I wish there was more weird enemies in videogames now



But I Bet it really isint a CD but rather a creature of the ingame word thats actually something else, but out of context it really looks like a CD!

No...it's actually a CD. They drop soundtracks when you kill them, too. In a few rooms they're accompanied by monsters that are stereo systems, which drop cables when you kill them.

I'm gonna have to go with Drowners in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Those things look like an awkward mix because merpeople and aliens.

 

[Rooster893]

Earthbound and the like have weird enemies. This is unarguable. Consider their source.

{3} Of course, EVERYTHING in Oddworld is odd. That's a given.

My personal favorites are the flying sligs!

Spoiler: Here boy!

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I second that Koudelka and Shadowhearts have some really odd enemies. I remember one that was basically a headless torso on 2 peg legs, with its severed limbs tied to its arms with rope and it attacked you by ramming into you with the large shards of glass embedded in its chest.

Another was just the lower half of a zombie that attacked by exploding its intestines at you.

And then there is the wrestling sidequest with all the curry themed opponents. Like vindaloos that had dark skin and balanced bowls of curry on their heads I think.

Practically 80% of all the enemies in Earthbound are weird too. The annoying old party man! The New Age Retro Hippie!

The terrifying Fobby!

 

[Saika Renegade]

The Shadow Hearts games (and their predecessor, Koudelka) are great for bizarre, disturbing monsters. Seriously, whatever the monster designers were on, I want some.

One of my favorites is the Mailman. It looks like a German Shepherd with a human arm growing where its face should be. It balances on the hand, with the dog's body sticking up in the air, and it attacks by hopping up to you and BEATING YOU WITH THE DOG.

Spoiler

Wow...just...I can't wrap my head around that.

It's an arm. It's a dog. It's an arm that hits you with the dog.

It's like it was born of some kind of insane cousin of whatever part of Silent Hill designs the enemies.

While we're on the topic of weird enemies,

Spoiler

what about that rotting corpse at the end of the first Ikari Warriors? Inexplicable and mildly unsettling in those days.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

The buttered waffle monster. In Quest for Glory 3, you could be starving this little fucker would show up. Annoying as all hell to no end