I don't feel that any one specific enemy in the original Legend of Zelda is extremely difficult, on its own. It is ultimately the combinations of enemies that add to the difficulty of an area.
As an example, combining Wizzrobes and LikeLikes: This pairing always adds tension, because of the risk of losing a magic shield with projectile shooters.
Bubbles with Darknuts, or any other 'sword-only' enemies ramp up the tension. Never, ever put both permanent bubble types on a screen with enemies that can eat Link. This combination creates a mandatory F6 point,and is a staple of 1-star and 2-star quests,
Darknuts and Lynels together would be painful, but that combination is no-where in the game.
Insofar as the most difficult bosses, Patra and Gleeok (4-head) are clearly the toughest.
Equipment in ZC changes enemy difficulty immensely. If you have no magic shield, then Wizzrobes, statues, and Zora enemies are much harder. If you undere-quip the player, you can control the difficulty curve.
The bow, and the magic wand are possibly the most powerful items in the game. One gives you strong projectile damage at a cost, and the other gives you weak projectile damage at no cost; and ranged attacks drastically reduce difficulty.
I absolutely detest some of the 2.10 enemies. Windrobes, are somewhat unfair; but Mirror Wizzrobes, Death Knights, Goriya 3, Leever 3, Magic Octorock, and both the Fire Gleeok and the Fire Gohma, are just plain terrible. Of these, the Mirror Wizzrobes are the smallest offender, and if you have the mirror shield, they are mostly a time wasting enemy, like peahats. I dislike needing to rely on random enemy action to kill or manipulate them.
Requiring the player to use the fire boomerang to reflect Mirror Wizzrobe magic is a terrible idea that I have seen many times. It requires that the blasted reflect works, which happens when it wants to happen. Magic Octorock enemies, as Strato said, are fine if you stun-lock them, at which point, they serve as an irritation.
In general, any npc with a step speed of 150 or higher is terribly unfair to most players. Fast nocs with good tracking are also evil.
I personally favour smarter enemies that are fair, and present some kind of pattern, to complete random nonsense.
The 'Fire' bosses give nearly no opening to kill them. They can essentially continuously fire at Link, and thus the tactic is to use potions and tank them. They exist mostly as a sort of artificial key. if you do not have enough hearts, you can go no further.
Above all else, the most difficult enemy in ZC is Z-Axis.
Edited by ZoriaRPG, 05 July 2017 - 05:03 AM.