Vire/Keese

VIRE/KEESE

As one might expect, bats like to hang out in most of these underground dungeons. Called Keese, they will form only a minor threat, little flying creatures that will swoop at you, sometimes on fire. However, a few times, you might find that these bats like to combine together and form a troublesome little vampire-demon.

This is a Vire, an enemy almost exclusively seen throughout the handheld games, an enemy who won’t truly be killed unless you have also killed all the bats that make them up. One specific Vire would act as a major henchmen of Veran and Onox, the villains of the Oracles games.

As a fighter, Vire will be quick with good aerials, and will have a strong defense in the form of his ability to break apart into his individual Keese. His moveset will pull both from the demonstrated abilities of Keese and his own abilities in his few appearances.

Likelihood rating: Probably not.

Character Sheet: Vire/Keese

VIRE/KEESE

Today, we begin our very first run of Legend of Zelda character sheets, figuring out just what kind of movesets we can pull from all these characters and building a roster. For the moment, we have about fourteen:

1. Link

2. Dark Link

3. Princess Zelda (Currently honorary)

4. Marin

5. Sahasrahla

6. Old Man

7. Hylian Soldier

8. Ganon

9. Agahnim

10. Nightmare

11. Moblin

12. Stalfos

13. Vire/Keese

14. Thunderbird

Today, let's cover two major enemies of the Zelda series: Keese and Vires. Keese are your standard bat enemies, not dissimilar to Swoops and Zubats, while Vires are vampiric creatures that can split into multiple Keese when hit. Keese would appear throughout the series, in basically every installment of it, but the Vires would sadly only crop up in 2D games. Apart from the whole "split into Keese" part, our movepool also includes the ability to breath fireballs, strike with a lightning curse that it places on Link in Link's Awakening, plus the Keese's variants including Fire, Ice, and Thunder types.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Fireball

So, as much as I'd love to give the "bat/vampire" enemy a bloodsucking move for the standard, it doesn't seem to have really been a thing for these enemies. Instead we will use the fireballs Vires are known to spew, both in Link's Awakening, and in a boss battle in the Oracle games which we'll get to later.

Side B: Lightning Curse

In Link's Awakening, Link encounters a Vire that casts a hex upon him by summoning lightning in both of its hands and striking him with it. It would work much like that.

Up B: Keese Swarm

The base and most iconic move, the Vire will split into a Keese swarm and fly upward, each individual dealing its own slight damage.

Down B: Fire Keese

Now this will either represent Fire Keese alone, or the various varieties of them. Alone it will just burst into flames, dealing damage on contact. All three, it will cycle through Fire, Ice, and Thunder, dealing that specific type of damage.

Final Smash: Gomess

Gomess is a similar type of enemy to Vire, but appears as a boss in Majora's Mask. The Vire will burst into Keese, before a whole swarm of them merge into Gomess, who then strikes the stage with its scythe.

Entrance: A swarm of Keese will come together to form a Vire.

Taunts: Up, it will turn into a Keese and flap upward. Side, it will flare its wings and make a scary face. Down, it will curl up its wings like a bat sleeping.

Thanks for reading! Next up, the Thunderbird and its relatives, the Fokka and Fokkeru!