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 Labyrinth, 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 (called  in Japanese) appear in the Palace of Darkness, and their typical means of attack has been switched up. They no longer use Boomerangs, but instead copy Link's movement pattern similar to Arm-Mimics and Mask-Mimics. There is a green version, which several sword swipes will dispatch, and a red kind, which spits fireballs and must be killed with arrows. They mirror Link's movement.

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
Although Goriya doesn't have an appearance in the Oracle series, their relatives, the Goriya Bros. do appear as a miniboss in the Gnarled Root Dungeon.

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.

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.