Enemies

Enemies are a staple within game and sometimes are the entire purpose a game exists; to kill numerous enemies and to gain points. however in adventure games they are used as a distraction and a nuisance, in order to advance onward they pose a threat and the player must either defeat them or simply leave them be. within games like Links Awakening the enemies normally are there to pose a small threat to Link as he traverses the map, some however are stronger than others and have more abilities. for example the Octorok pictured to the right fires a projectile from its mouth giving it more of a challenging encounter than ones such as the spiked balls which don't move and have to be moved out of the way.

 Enemies can however be people rather than monsters. In Pokemon Gold and Silver the enemy humans are simply sprites reused over and over  through the map. these enemies simply wait in the overworld until the player is in sight and walk forward to attack. Some however move around a set path and others appear and have dialogue with the player. in these games the characters battle using Pokemon - of which are purely sprites in these games. For example the sprites of Ho-Oh and Lugia below are simply just sprites. within the original games they had no animation applied to their sprites upon battle and simply cry out their unique cry. these enemies do not have a specific attack but multiple, chosen by the games internal RNG. Gold and Silver did not have RNG that would play strategically like the same enemies today - theyd just simply attack.


enemies like pokemon are there to be a threat as well as a core gameplay element and therefore each design needs to have the greatest amount of detail it can - due to the player needing to relate to it somewhat. its no good having a pikachu the size of a 8x8 sprite if the player can never see it resemble the rat its meant to resemble. pokemon add a personality to all their Pokemon creatures and this is why the series is succeeding where it is today as without recognition theyd just be forgotten about. a bit like Yo Kai Watch where most if not all of those characters made for that game series are forgotten about.


in this game the enemies need to have some sort of personality or at least something that sets them apart from the others in the world. They also need to be of some level of detail - even the small ones in order to let the player know its something that exists.