Goriya

Goriya is an enemy appearing in most early games of The Legend of Zelda series, first appearing in the original The Legend of Zelda. They are a kind of devil which have mastered the Boomerang as a tool of war, making them deadly in both short and long range combat.

The Legend of Zelda
As with many enemies of the first Zelda, Goriya come in red and blue varieties, and only appear in dungeons. Blue versions can survive more punishment and supposedly are more adept at attacking. It is best to focus on defending their boomerangs first with Link's shield, then attacking them while they wait for their weapon to return to them. They seem to not directly attack Link, but instead walk around randomly before shooting their Boomerang in one of the four cardinal directions. Goriya generally attack in groups of three or more. Link can first obtain the Boomerang from defeating a red Goriya in Eagle, and later obtains the Magical Boomerang from killing a blue Goriya in the Moon labyrinth.

In certain dungeons, a Goriya will be blocking passage to the next room, and only grumble at Link's presence. To please the monster and obtain entry, Link must offer it Bait purchased from a shop.

The Adventure of Link
The side-scrolling angle of The Adventure of Link managed to skew the typical Goriya's attack pattern. Instead of tossing their projectiles in random directions, they specifically target Link, and can have multiple boomerangs in the air at one time, unlike their past incarnations. They can throw boomerangs on either the "bottom" or "top" level, in the same way most bipedal enemies attack. Link must duck and stand to block the accommodating attacks with his shield. If a boomerang is thrown at the bottom level, it will return to the Goriya on the top level, and vice versa.

Goriya now tend to appear in caves and fields more than dungeons, and generally only appear alone or with a single partner instead of larger groups, perhaps due to the fact that they're now more challenging.

A Link to the Past
In A Link to the Past, Goriyas are radically different. Known as Coppie in Japanese, they first appear appear in the Palace of Darkness and reappear in later Dark World dungeons such as Ganon's Tower. Their typical behavior and attacks are changed drastically. They no longer use Boomerangs, but instead copy Link's movement pattern similar to Arm-Mimics and Mask-Mimics, moving in the opposite direction to Link. While the green versions can be cornered and destroyed with the Master Sword they are especially weak to the Bow, much like the Eyegores from the same game. The red variety spits deadly fireballs when it faces Link, and like red Eyegore can only be killed with arrows. Defeating a red Goriya before obtaining the Mirror Shield requires Link to be inventive with his arrows and his movement. In the original SNES version of the game, Goriyas make a single appearance in the Light World in a cave on Death Mountain. In the GBA version, they were replaced with Eyegores, meaning they only appear in the Dark World in that version of the game.

Link's Awakening
Though only one appears in Link's Awakening, this Goriya is not an enemy, and even offers Link powerful support. He is found in a cave on southern portion of Toronbo Shores. Link can only see and speak with him at the end of the trading sequence, when he has the Magnifying Lens, at which point the Goriya offers Link to trade one of his item for the Boomerang he has found on the beach. Link can trade the boomerang back to the Goriya at any time to recover his item. The Boomerang is one of the most useful weapons in the game, the Goriya will even beg Link to give it back to him. Not all items can be trade for the Boomerang.

Oracle of Seasons
Goriya appear again as enemies in the Oracle series, first appearing in the Gnarled Root Dungeon. In this game, they look otherwise identical to Moblins, suggesting a relation between the two types of monster. They behave like their original incarnations; wandering around the room and suddenly throwing Boomerangs to attack Link. Many of the enemies that appear in the Gnarled Root Dungeon evoke those that appeared in the Eagle dungeon of the original NES adventure, and these are no exception.

Also in the Gnarled Root Dungeon, a pair of bull-like Goriyas known as the Brother Goriyas appear as minibosses.

Philip's CD-i
Goriyas make appearances in all the Philip's CD-i games. In The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon, they have a similar appearance to the Goriyas in the animated series: blue colored wolves in purple tunics that throw boomerangs. However in Zelda's Adventure, they resembled purple colored apes with with white hair that throw massive boomerangs. In this game Zelda can obtain the Boomerang the Goriyas use by defeating a small group of them in a clearing west of the Forest of Ogbam.

Animated series
Goriyas appear in two episodes of the animated series. In "That Sinking Feeling", Ganon commands a Goriya to search for the Overworld Magnet and to use it to drag Link and Princess Zelda into the Underworld. However, when the magnet accidentally pulls in a cupid statue instead, Ganon gets angry and electrocutes the Goriya for failing at his mission, causing the foe to run away in pain.

In "The Moblins are Revolting", two Goriyas and two Moblins work together to attack Link while he is in his room reading a comic. However, due to their clumsiness, the Moblins and the Goriyas defeat each other without Link having to intervene. Back at the Evil Jar in the Underworld, the Moblins complain that the Goriyas got in their way, and the two monsters start fighting until Ganon electrocutes them. Tired of having to take the blame for Ganon's failed plans, a Goriya suggests that they kick Ganon out since they could do better on their own, thus forming the alliance known as the Brotherhood of Underworld Monsters. Later on, when all of Ganon's monsters begin their attack on North Castle, a Goriya can be seen commanding an army of Vires to carry several Octoroks and fire bombs inside the castle, but then begins fighting with another Goriya as to what their course of action should be. Eventually, neither the Goriyas nor the rest of the monsters accomplish anything meaningful, and they end up returning to Ganon's command in the Underworld.

Interestingly, although the Goriya in "That Sinking Feeling" seems to speak with poor grammar just like the rest of the Moblins, the Goriyas seen in "The Moblins are Revolting" can be heard speaking correctly.

Captain N: The Game Master
A Goriya briefly appears in the "Having a Ball" episode of Captain N: The Game Master. After Link, Princess Zelda, Kevin, and Princess Lana arrive to the tunnel leading to the Island Palace, a Goriya appears and begins to rapidly throw boomerangs in the direction of the heroes, nonstop. The Goriya's boomerangs impede them from proceeding, so Link uses his Magic Shield to block the attacks while the rest of the group walks behind him. As the heroes approach the Goriya, Kevin uses his Zapper to defeat it, allowing them to continue to their destination.

The Legend of Zelda comic
In the Legend of Zelda comic, Goriyas resemble their The Adventure of Link depiction. They first appear in Missing in Action as one of the enemies that go after Princess Zelda and the Triforce of Wisdom. To the First Power also shows these foes capturing Link outside one of the Underworld entrances under the orders of a Wizzrobe, and are later seen attacking Princess Zelda while she is inside the Eagle Labyrinth. After Link manages to take the Triforce of Power from Ganon in The Power, several of Ganon's Goriya minions offer to serve Link, as they believe that he holds more power than their master, but Link refuses. However, when Link heads to a palace to search for Ganon, he is greeted outside by the same group of Goriya that had offered to serve him. This time, he accepts their aid, and the Goriyas give him a robe similar to that of Ganon's.

Goriyas appear once again in Queen of Hearts, where they battle against Link and Queen Seline to keep them from breaking the magic container that will give the queen her magical powers back. They last make an appearance in The Day of the Triforce as two Goriyas try to eat a captured Miff in Death Mountain.

The Crystal Trap
In The Crystal Trap, Princess Zelda and Link are attacked by a blue Goriya after the young hero has been freed from the Crystal. Zelda shoots an arrow from her bow at the Goriya, injuring it, but then goes on to say that if the pair spares his life, he will show them a powerful weapon: a Battle Axe, which is the only thing that can defeat Ganon. If Link and Zelda agree to follow the Goriya, he will lead the pair into a massive room containing the Battle Axe. The Goriya will then disappear after Link grabs the axe.

After Princess Zelda and Link run into Ganon, the evil wizard will confess that he told the Goriya to lead the young heroes to the Battle Axe, since he knew that if they found the axe, Link and Zelda would stop searching for the real weapon that could defeat Ganon: the Spear.

The Shadow Prince
Goriyas are briefly mentioned in The Shadow Prince. When the King of Hyrule calls an urgent meeting to take the Triforce of Wisdom to the Fifth Castle of Ancient Hyrule, he mentions that a recent thunderstorm caused for Goriyas to fall from the sky, most likely due to the fact that Ganon's power is getting stronger.