Goriya

Goriya
First appearance	The Legend of Zelda
Latest appearance	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
Notable member(s) Brother Gōria
Variant(s) Hungry Goriya
Relative(s) Moblin
Comparable Goriya (A Link to the Past)

Goriyas are boomerang-throwing wolf-like devils found in some early games.

History

The Legend of Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda

Goriyas first appear in The Legend of Zelda, where they come in both red and blue variants, with the blue ones being stronger. Both types walk around rooms, occasionally throwing their boomerangs forwards, which can damage Link. They commonly appear in large groups, typically ranging from three to eight. They first appear in the first labyrinth, Eagle. Defeating a specific group of red ones in Eagle gives Link the boomerang to use, while defeating a group of blue ones in Moon gives him the Magical Boomerang.

On a few occasions, a hungry Goriya will block a path in a dungeon, only leaving if Link gives some food to it.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Goriyas are among the remnants of Ganon's minions who wish to resurrect him by spilling Link's blood on his ashes. They now appear in orange, red, and blue, and have prominent mustaches. They now commonly appear in caves or on plains regions, and tend to attack alone or in duos. They can throw their boomerangs in an overhand or underhand swing, affecting its height. Link can block this with his shield or jump over, but the boomerang will be at the opposite height on the return trip to the Goriya, so he will need to dodge twice per throw to not be damaged. Furthermore, stronger ones have multiple boomerangs, and as such they can have more than one boomerang in the air at a time.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, a single Goriya can b found in a cave at Toronbo Shores with the aide of the Magnifying Glass. This Goriya is friendly, and will trade his powerful boomerang for certain items Link has in his inventory. However, if spoken to again, he will eagerly ask for it back. Likely due to his role, this Goriya has a friendlier design. In Link's Awakening DX, the Zora in Animal Village gives a hint for finding the Goriya.

If the Goriya's room is entered through glitching in certain situations, an enemy using Goriya's graphics will appear. It uses Mask-Mimic's behavior, and in DX, palette, so it seems to be a Mask-Mimic with the wrong graphics loaded, likely due to sharing the same tile coordinates between locations. Worth noting is this behavior is extremely similar to the A Link to the Past enemy of the same English name.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ゴーリア Gōria	Goriya, potentially from the Spanish word "guerrilla," which is pronounced very similar in its language of origin