Zombies

 

I: Regular Zombies

Basic zombies are those undead nightmares that pop up at the most convenient times. These rotting yet reanimated remains, whether in whole or in decapitated/amputated form, come alive with an insatiable urge to consume living forces.

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Basic Zombies
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Dracula's resurrections have a way of making the dead rise from their graves, eager to serve as eternal servants to his cause. As per their nature, the reanimated zombies hunger for brains and are drawn to living entities. They're known to climb out from the ground (particularly in cemeteries) and even solid surfaces, their ranks seemingly endless. Zombies can continue to function even if their limbs are dismembered, after which they'll resiliently crawl, hop, or even pull themselves forward.

 Alternate Names/Forms: Rotten Zombie

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Bag Slave
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These zombie hangmen lurk about in torture-themed areas, dragging along their bags of goodies while keeping out of dodge; they'll randomly pull out and throw one of three items: Bombs that explode after a short period, blue skull heads that eventually erect themselves into full-fledged skeletons and give chase, or, unwittingly, a pot roast which will instead help you.

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Brain Float
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These brains with attached curling spines have been freshly ripped right out of the ripe frames of a group of unfortunate souls. They're conveniently bunched together in narrow tunnels wherein they float back and forth to create an annoying obstacle for those seeking to attain vertical passage. If a brain float ceases in its movement, it'll brain-channel and blast out from its eyes piercing energy.

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The Claw
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Even dislodged zombie limbs are under the influence of Dracula's curse. These creepy claws glide through the air and grab onto ill-prepared heroes, wherein they'll begin draining away their precious heart-total. A victim of a claw attack will have to shake profusely to knock it off. Other such limbs are simply on your typical stalk-and-destroy mission.

 Alternate Names/Forms: Evil Hand

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Dancing Zombies
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This is merely a weaker version of the boss called "the Dancing Specters"--they're sort of an offspring of the deadly duo. They'll carry out their dance number in a pattern that sees their levitating around an area, spinning about endlessly and rebounding around the room until destroyed. Making it tougher is that some pairs of ghost dancers can temporarily separate, darting off in opposite directions before again joining together.

 Alternate Names/Forms: Ghost Dancer

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Dead Mate
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This creepy zombie is in charge of protecting graveyards together with its equally undead hound. When the zombie spots a threat, it will order the canine to charge forward, which it will continue to do until its master is destroyed. However, if you destroy the dog first, the master will weep in sadness and then disappear on its own.

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Ghoul
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Ghouls are an advanced form of your everyday zombie. They're described as legendary evil beings that feed on human corpses. Despite a slight difference in appearance, a ghoul's method of attack mimics that of a regular zombie; that is, ghouls will spring up from the ground, suddenly, in large numbers and methodically give chase. Contact with certain ghoul clusters will result in a poison status.

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Ghoul King
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The rarely seen king of the ghouls is a patient fellow that won't show its rotting face until several of its underlings, the typical ghouls, have been slain. The tough-skinned ghoul king will at that point pop out from the ground and frantically run about for a few seconds, smothering heroes with its long reach and speed, before returning to its resting place in the depths.

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Grave Digger
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If you're a zombie, you'll of course need the appropriate confines from which you can eventually break free in your search for brains. The Grave Digger (proof that Konami staffers are fans of pro-wrestling's Undertaker) is responsible for providing the real-estate, over which he stands guard in hope of "meeting" new people. His welcoming gestures include tossing his sharp-tipped shovel as it were a spear and delivering vicious side kicks.

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Moldy Corpse
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A moldy corpse is a former human consumed by evil after eating a cursed mushrooms; it lives on as a hideously deformed (and very blue) humanoid with fungus growing all over its frame. Unhappy about this undesired fate, a moldy corpse will trek slowly through castle corridors and expel into the air, all around, a poisonous mist.

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Mr. Hed
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A Mr. Hed is a decapitated horse head that lurks about within barns and other farmland. In that sense, you can be sure that they'll be traveling in packs. If you manage to wake up from its slumber a Mr. Hed, it'll quickly, relentlessly, stalk you via the surrounding airspace until defeated.

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Scaven
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These reanimated corpses of unknown origin eat and infect the dead remains of other creatures, their ravenous activity causing infestations wherever they lurk. As commanded by the Night Watchman, scavens hunt in packs, overwhelming prey with their diving beak attacks. Some scavens mutate with violent convulsions, developing wings and a more effective pounce attack; this advanced form is capable of sucking out the souls of those it encounters.

 Alternate Names/Forms: Flying Scaven

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Schmoo
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This is a guillotine-victim monster that quickly lunges itself in all directions, rebounding around the area in an unpredictable pattern. You can never fully anticipate when it's going to strike, since it's so quick; however, it's not that big of a threat unless it appears in an area populated by other other types of enemies (like lions and scarecrows).

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Wight
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Wights are another of those in the class of flesh-craving madmen. Like Ghouls, they fit well under the category of "advanced zombie," too--the strongest of their kind. They're in fact extremely loyal to the force that awakened them. As such, they'll pop up unexpectedly from the ground and march toward a living presence in search of a dinner of fresh brains.

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Zombie Hand
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What if some zombies can't get out of their graves? No problem--they'll just reach through the ground and try to pull you under. While some can hurt you just by grabbing at you, others are able to hold on, leaving you prone to the attacks of the other lesser enemies in the surrounding environment.

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Zombie Thieves
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The lesser Clinking Men were drunken thieves that foolishly entered into Castlevania to reap its rewards. Now undead, they roam about with a craving for flesh. When they sense a living presence, they dive forward to try to obtain it as a would-be dinner. The most greedy of this type are the advanced Zombie Thieves; when these muddled beings get near, they'll attempt to dive onto you and steal your possessions instead.

 

II: Advanced Forms

Advanced zombies have special abilities or quirky traits that make them more dangerous than just the regular undead selection. In simple terms: These zombies will always put up a fight rather than just aimlessly stalking you.

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Artificial Monsters
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The Monster (better known as "Frankenstein," the name as borrowed from its creator) is a recurring boss who like its mummified contemporaries knows a lesser form (at least in terms of item-list status). The Monster's abilities change from game to game and entail anything from simply marching back and forth, to firing lighting from its fingertips, to throwing electrically charged punches. Still, The Monster is but one form of "artificial monster," a class that includes the following:

 Alternate Names/Forms: Franken & The Creature

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Bloody Zombie
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Eastern Church soldiers that invaded the castle met an unforunate fate. They now serve as an advanced form of castle servant--bloody zombies. A bloody zombie will patrol over a given area and quickly swing its short blade when the hero character comes within its range.

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Chosen Une
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It's sometimes easy to miss seeing a pack of thornweed as you flee from monsters or as it quickly sprouts up without much in the way warning. Such is the fate of those who have fallen victim to the parasitic unes. Now called "Chosen Unes," these moss-covered vessels mindlessly stalk the living and as they trek leave behind a trail of those very same unes.

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Dead Crusader
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The dead crusader is a tough zombie warrior bearing a sturdy shield. The crusader will upon the hero's execution of a move immediately flash said shield and guard against the attack, no matter its impact point. Attempts to overwhelm it will fail, as it will continue blocking all successive attacks. The only way to damage a crusader is to catch it off-guard with attacks that can't be predicted.

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Dead Pirate
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As its name suggests, this is a zombie pirate that was killed and thus cursed by its own greed. The intimidating pirate holds its cutlass sword overhead while stalking about; when an opportunity arises, it will lift its leg and then furiously chop down an adversary with a hard-to-dodge sword dash; otherwise, it will surprise the hero with a short hop and an equally damaging swipe.

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Elemental Zombies
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Members of this zombie class achieved their undead status via oddly specific circumstances:

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Executioner
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These zombified executioners are abominations that were created using body parts as taken from numerous corpses. They use their massive hammers to smash anyone and everything within range. The advanced iron gladiators were stitched together using the remains of Roman gladiators; these terrors swing around their giant iron balls and then viciously throw them at targets.

 Alternate Names/Forms: Iron Gladiator

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Fire Man
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Previously burned at the stake, they become reanimated, their new form an enflamed humanoid. This zombie type attacks by emitting onto the ground smaller balls of fire, which trek along until hitting a wall. Others simply patrol an area, leaving behind many smaller residual flames that continue to blaze for long periods before self-extinguishing.

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Flying Zombie
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These extremely-slow-moving but tough zombies try to overwhelm prey simply with sheer numbers. When struck enough times, their ribcages will tear apart; in following, their top halves, now a separate entity, will float through the air parallel to their lower limbs, which will continue to march forward.

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Frankenstein Gardener
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Our old pal Franky has been shipped over the evil-inhabited Oldrey Mansion to maintain their Villa's fine garden. He'll also back up his duties by doubling as the Villa hedge maze's guardian, chasing foes around with his arm-implanted chainsaw. He cannot be defeated--he can only be immobilized temporarily. Don't bother trying to outrun Franky--he knows the maze and its entrances/exits so well that he can sprint around the maze in seconds to catch up to you if you go through a door.

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Headless Burrower
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These undead creatures are the decapitated remains of warriors who used to serve the Brotherhood of Light, reanimated by Necromancer magic to prey upon their former brethren. Burrowers at first toss their heads, whose flaming visages fly about and generally distract the hero. In the meantime, the submerged Burrower will attempt to pop up from the ground and drag the hero down to his new grave.

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Homunculus
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This is a malevolent, artificial life form that was created by a demonic scholar. The homunculus is kept in stasis and retained in liquid--in this case the watery depths of a castle--using a tube. It will unexpectedly spring to life and flail away, moving as far as its tube will allow. Though, after stretching it as far as it will go, homunculus will break free of the tube, at which point its reckless flailing will become a greater concern.

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Mad Butchers
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A Butcher is a madman who upon spotting a visitor fires up its mechanized saw and charges toward the soon-to-be victim; though skilled in the field of sculpting, it's its love of butchery on display as it violently swings its chainsaw, stopping only for a moment to regroup. A more advanced version of this enemy, the Mad Snatcher, has eight arms--one of which has transplanted onto it a chainsaw; though it's said that the Snatcher is a parasite that clings to its victims (as surmised by its spider-like appearance), it merely mimics the Butcher in method.

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Mad Divers
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Mad divers are long-clawed zombies that burrow into the ground and freely travel below the surface. Their mode of operation is to circle their prey and then suddenly pop up for a surprise attack; thereafter, they swipe away with their claws. There are two advanced forms of mad diver: The evil stabbers, a group of elite divers that have inherited the former's evil nature, and the bulkier assassin zombies; both are tougher than mad divers, yes, but they employ the very same tactics.

 Alternate Names/Forms: Evil Stabber & Assassin Zombie

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Mad Man
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These are distinctly different from your average zombies--they're actually heaps of a formaldehyde-like gel that morph into typical zombie forms. When they take on this human-like appearance, the slothful foes will begin their death march. While most are destroyed easily, others can absorb the damage from lower-level whip forms and reform elsewhere.

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Melty Zombie
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It took a lot of force to destroy these large monsters, as it will to take down their undead remains. These poisonous zombies crawl about slowly, dragging along what's left of their spinal columns. After a short while, a Melty Zombie will spit out a glob that will morph into an additional Melty Zombie; they can do this again and again, if not quickly destroyed, to create a small army of their kind.

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Mummy Man
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While this lesser class of mummy isn't quite on a higher tier as represented by your typical boss mummy, they're elite amongst most other minor enemies. A great number of mummy men share with the boss brethren the the waving shard attack; others simply utilize a quick dash, which they use to catch heroes off guard; and others, still, can due to a certain elasticity elongate their arms for a long-reaching grab-attack. You can always expect to run into large groups of mummies in the encompassing graveyards and torturous death chambers.

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Rolling Eye
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Dracula warehouse is no doubt filled with these ghastly eyeballs, 'cause they just never stop dropping in. Rolling eyes will pop out of crevices, ceilings, pits, etc. in continuous streams without letup. A rolling eye's most instinctive property is the explosion caused when it's struck--a burst that can result in large, torn-open gaps in less-solid surfaces; this quirk's prominence is magnified when many rolling eyes are bunched together within the vicinity. Rolling eyes come in large and small form, sometimes bereft of an explosive property and acting merely as an obstacle.

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Scarecrow
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These are no doubt the victims of Vlad Tepes Dracula's paranoid rampages. Impaled zombies bounce around on the weapon of their execution, in pogo-like fashion, searching for their brains. They can't harm you while you're on the ground, but they can make things messy while you're fighting the airborne lesser enemies with which they're sometimes paired.

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Zeldo
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Zeldos seem to be Dracula's attempt at cloning his buddy, Death, the result of which is a poor man's Reaper. These hooded druids, while slow-moving, are experts with boomerang-like sickles. They'll throw high or low a sizably thick sickle, which will return in the opposite range. Due to their sloth in executing this attack, you can often telegraph as to which level they'll be releasing the sickle.

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Zombie Maid
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These amazingly annoying maids are rare habitants of the castle keep. They'll wait patiently for you to draw near before evading your attack by backflipping, during which they're invincible; while in a flipping motion, they'll sometimes throw a barrage of daggers in five different directions. If damaged without being killed, they'll turn more vicious-looking and take to hovering, a position from which they'll generate from their hands blue flames, which they'll toss toward the ground, each breaking into four smaller fireballs with a homing ability.

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Zombie Officer
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These are the commanding lieutenants that led their brigades into the castle, the place of their humiliating defeat. The now-tough-skinned zombies patrol the castle with their deadly machetes. If you come within range, officers will extend their weapons over a long distance--this while marching forward in an attempt to corner you.

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Zombie Soldier
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As if the Eastern Church's raid didn't teach them anything, the military tried years later to storm the castle. They met the same fate. The remains of these lower-class soldiers now march around the castle with their combat knives at all times pointed forward; if you remain at a distance, they'll whip out grenades and toss them in predictable arcs.

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