Level of Tedious Enemies

"You are going to hate this next level. Why? Because it's non-stop bungee zombie after bungee zombie."

— Crazy Dave, Plants vs. Zombies

Video game difficulty comes in many forms. In some games, a harder difficulty level means that the enemies deal more damage and take less. In other games, levels start requiring tighter platforming or smarter navigation of the map. In others, enemies may receive unfair bonuses to give them a leg up.

However, what separates a level like this from any of the examples above is that one such level like this need not be challenging. It doesn't need to have high-level enemies placed everywhere to kill the player just by looking at them. It doesn't need to require the smartest traversal or the tightest jumps.

No, this level requires enemies to just be as inconvenient as possible for as often as possible.

Oftentimes these enemies will be Ledge Bats, enemies designed to exploit knockback, though they may be as easy of an enemy as your average Goomba and just be there to occupy space and take up your time as you attempt to get around them or go through them. The point is that these enemies aren't necessarily there to kill you so much as they're there to get in the way of the player doing their job as much as they can, and the level is built for those enemies to maximize their ability to distract. Killing you is just a bonus.

In extreme cases, Platform Hell can also be invoked in applicable games if these enemies go beyond merely being a negligible threat and make it borderline impossible without extremely precise mechanical skill, or weak enemies could be thrown out en masse to force a player to use up a large chunk of their resources in Resources Management Gameplay, but in both cases, it's no longer merely a distraction and is far more of a threat to players.

Note that there is a large difference between this and an average "Troll Level". Troll Levels are levels where the developers make use of infuriating design choices or play on the player's expectations. In this case, however, the level itself may be straightforward and the way to advance is plain as day. It's just that the enemies are specifically placed to distract the player from getting to the end or obstruct them in the least-threatening yet most-inconvenient way, however that may be.

This is also a trope that sits extremely close to being a YMMV trope, as levels like these often garner a reputation within the player base as That One Level and many of the enemies within may have a reputation as Goddamned Bats. However, this is a trope meant to describe objective level design and enemy placement. In short, the developers know what they're doing.

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Examples

Action-Adventure

• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: A particular form of room in the palaces features platforms about 4-5 Link-widths wide interspersed with pools of lava. The rooms are also full of infinitely-regenerating Ras (those dragon heads that fly in a wavy pattern). Without the Ras the pits wouldn't be difficult to jump, and without the pits the Ras would be easy to dodge. At either end of the room is a wall made of breakable blocks to prevent the player from using the Fairy spell to avoid the dangers — in fairy form Link can't break the blocks. A similar albeit not as difficult version of the room has Mus (a little spiky enemy that can only be killed with the downthrust).
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: The Tower of Hera is not a particularly difficult level. The enemies inside are mostly easy to deal with, but they all have high knockback after being hit, and the floor is full of holes that drop Link down to the previous floor. Reaches its logical conclusion with the boss of the dungeon, Moldorm, who doesn't really attack Link so much as he tries to bump him down into the room below.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons: One area in the Tarm Ruins contains infinitely-respawning Like-Likes, enemies that eat Link's equipment if they catch him. However, it's at the very edge of the world map so there's no real reason to go there.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker:
    • Morth enemies exist to jump on Link and slow him down, dealing absolutely no damage otherwise. There are sections of the Forbidden Woods and Wind Temple that make use of this in their puzzles for no other reason than inconvenience.
    • In the Earth Temple, Floormasters and Blue Bubbles are everywhere. Floormasters exist to try and snag Link or Medli and make them start the dungeon all over. Blue Bubbles deal negligible damage but afflict Link with Curse, which prevents him from using any items. All of this is to make the Earth Temple as much of a slog to get through as possible. Both enemies even make a return in the Wind Temple, though in far fewer numbers.
    • Diamond Steppe Island is a Pot Warp Maze that forces Link to engage in Trial-and-Error Gameplay to try and figure out the way to the end of the puzzle. While Link is trying to find the solution, Floormasters are there to try and yank him back to the beginning to disrupt his progress.
    • Any segment of the game in which Link must use a Hyoi Pear to control a seagull. Kargorocs will be flying about and will try to attack the seagull, which will disrupt Link's control over the bird. This does no damage to him, but it consumes the Hyoi Pear and makes him start over.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: There are a number of enemies that serve to prevent Link from using items in any capacity, such as Bubbles or Beetles, or enemies like Like Likes/Rupee Likes will trap Link and eat his shield or rupees while doing no damage to him. For the most part, these enemies are spread throughout levels so that they're one-room obstacles, but several Mole Mitts caves only contain these enemies and place them in extremely cramped sections so that there's no chance Link doesn't get grabbed by one.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild:
    • The route to Zora's Domain is a narrow, winding path through gorges and thick woodland and crawling with Lizalfos, electric Keese, and Octorocks, none of which are individually very strong. Lizalfos shoot electric arrows and the electric keese try to hit Link directly, causing the electrocution effect that deals modest damage and makes him drop his held equipment, while the Octorocks pelt him with rocks that do low damage but use up shield durability if Link blocks them. There are also environmental rocks and boulders that will try to hit Link at certain points. In addition to all of this, it is constantly raining so Link can't just climb up the sides and skip the path.
    • The Test of Wood, one of the three Korok trials, requires Link to follow a clearly-marked road to a shrine. However, he will be harassed every step of the way by a large number of individually weak enemies provided with ranged and status-inflicting attacks, as well as some with the ability to light large patches of grass on fire, with their goal being to distract and disorient Link and get him lost. To add to the tediousness, this trial also requires you to use a Korok Sword, Bow and Shield only, and if any of them break, you automatically fail the trial. Since they have low durability regardless of how weak the enemy is, it discourages you from attacking or defending.

Action RPG

• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Hollow Bastion is full of enemies who aren't particularly challenging but exist to inconvenience the player as much as possible. Darkballs can become untouchable for short periods of time, Wizards can become invulnerable to all damage (except Aerora or Aeroga) while casting Lightning magic, and Defenders can't be struck from head-on. In addition, Wyverns tend to hover just out of Sora's reach, baiting him into trying to aerial attack them so that he'll fall down a floor and have to work his way back up.
    • The final enemy of the Hades Cup is the Rock Titan. However, the Rock Titan is extremely slow and never attacks Sora directly unless Sora is attacking its heads. Sora is in next to no danger of losing out against it in either Normal or Solo Mode. The boss only serves to be a Damage-Sponge Boss with the most HP of any boss in the game so as to try and run out the clock during the Hades Cup time trial.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: Destiny Islands for both Riku and Sora serve as Breather Level sections before the game's plot starts to really ramp up. Normal heartless they encounter will be weak, easily killed, and generally serve to annoy players more than challenge them, while also serving as grinding material. Tornado Steps will fly around and hit Sora with their arms for little damage, Crescendos will heal or summon other Heartless, and Creeper Plants will spit low-damage seeds at Sora or trip him up.

Metroidvania

• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night features Dullahammer Heads, which will float around and try to ram Miriam as she attempts to climb the Tower of Twin Dragons. Golden ones also exist that petrify Miriam for several seconds.
• Castlevania: In the typical Clock Tower level, Medusa Head enemies will float in a wave pattern from one side of the screen to another in an attempt to disrupt your jumps. Their purpose is to knock your main character down and make the platforming as tedious as possible. Sometimes they come with varieties that turn you to stone, freezing you in place for a short time.
• La-Mulana has Hell Temple. Death is unlikely in this area. However, the enemies are often deliberately placed in locations that will make unaware player to be knocked into a pit, often sending the player back several screens.
• Metroid Prime has certain rooms in the Chozo Ruins designed to make Samus climb up to the top, and enemies placed in there, such as Blast Caps, Reaper Vines, Tangle Weed, and Shriekbats, are there to knock Samus down and maybe do a token amount of small damage. In addition, certain hallways have Scarabs in them that do minimal damage on contact and splatter Samus' visor with blue blood.

Platformer

• Super Mario 64:
  • Lethal Lava Land features a level filled with lava. Platforming isn't too difficult on its own, and there are coins a-plenty to heal up from damage, but it would be a lot easier if the Bully enemies weren't trying to shove Mario into said lava, draining 3/8 of his health bar and sending him scurrying around with his butt on fire.
  • Wet-Dry World is a level featuring multiple levels that has Mario raise and lower the water level depending on several crystals he can touch. The level is filled with Amps and Keronpa Balls to zone the player away from things, but also with Chuckyas and Heave-Hos, whose job it is to fling Mario all over the place if he gets grabbed or stays still. The Heave-Hos are actually somewhat required for level traversal, but the Chuckyas will do their best to erase whatever progress Mario has made by flinging him away from the land and into the water whenever they can.

Real-Time Strategy

• Pikmin 2: Sublevel Eight of the Cavern of Chaos is filled with a tremendous number of dwarf red bulborbs, the game's most common weak enemy, which crowd its various rooms and passageways and must all be manually cleared in order to let your Pikmin safely carry treasures through the level and in order to deal with its other inhabitants, two very powerful and dangerous gatling groinks. Sublevel One of the Dream Den is similarly filled with swarms of dwarf orange bulborbs.

Roguelike

• Angband has a room type known as a monster pit, which is a single closed room filled with monsters of a given type. Most often, these serve as a stream of opponents that try attacking the player, often with good item drops. Some of them are more tedious, such as the jelly next that is a disorganized placement of jellies and mushrooms (a monster type known for being dangerous stat drainers or status effects despite being immobile, and one of which can shriek to alarm enemies and haste nearby ones). The tedium can get dangerous at deeper depths because some of the opponents can teleport from the pit, or summon additional creatures.

Role-Playing Games

• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: The infamous cliff racers, screechy flying enemies with wonky hitboxes, become more numerous the closer to the center of Vvardenfell Island you go. They also start to cause disease status effects.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Lake Ilinalta in Falkreath Hold has the game's highest population of slaughterfish. Being fish, they live in the water. But in Skyrim, you cannot attack or cast spells, or otherwise do anything to harm them while swimming. You have to lure them to knee-deep water to kill them. And if you want to just ignore them, you can't fast-travel away while one's nearby.
• Etrian Odyssey:
  • Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City: The locked-off portion of the first stratum is home to Golden Idol FOEs. They have a weakness to ice-element attacks, but take Scratch Damage from any other damage type, meaning most parties will be barely able to harm them, and the few that can will still be troubled by its main skill attempting to petrify everyone at once. They have to be dodged around and outpaced while navigating the area, but to complicate that further, three new enemies show up in random encounters and all of them use party-wide attacks that can stall out battles so the Golden Idols can catch up: Ringed Lemurs halve everyone's attack, Demon Octopi bind everyone's legs (preventing escape from battle), and Forest Shrimp paralyze everyone so they lose turns.
  • Etrian Odyssey Nexus: The optional Giant's Ruins maze is a throwback to the Golden Idol trek in The Drowned City. Similar statue FOEs are present, now named Galateas and with a preference for instant death instead of petrification, and they only move one tile for every turn the party is in battle. However, the encounter rate in heavily inflated for the dungeon and fights are almost guaranteed when stepping onto a damaging tile, and encounters include enemies like Giant Sloths (who have very high health for the point in the game they appear) and Blue Patrollers (who can bind characters' legs to prevent fleeing) so that the Galateas can catch up. The result is an area where it's extremely easy to get into a battle and very hard to get out of one quickly.
• Pokémon Red and Blue: The infamous Mt. Moon is filled with Zubat, which like to use Supersonic to confuse your Pokémon, giving them a 50% chance to hit themselves instead of attacking. They're fast enough that they can often move first against slower Pokémon, and can use Leech Life to chip away at your Pokémon and heal off any damage they take. You would be tempted to bring an Electric-type like Pikachu to make short work of them, but if you do, the Geodude in the cave will force you to constantly switch out to something that can beat them.
• Pokémon X and Y: Route 13's wild Pokémon appear as dust clouds that actively chase the player, and the majority of them are Dugtrio and Trapinch, both of which have the Arena Trap ability (prevents fleeing) 50% of the time.

Tabletop Gaming

• GrailQuest: In the third gamebook, Gateway of Doom, the last wave of monsters you have to fight before the Black Knight (the game's Final Boss) are the seven Slime Monsters. Each has sufficiently low LIFE POINTS that one or two hits will be enough to kill them, and they score only dice damage with no bonuses, but the problem is that every time they successfully hit you they poison you, which causes you to lose 2 LIFE POINTS every combat round until you cure yourself, which takes up an attack round, so they can try and hit you again whilst you're curing yourself (and you risk running out of spells or potions that cure poison). Their low LIFE POINTS mean you can use magic to just blast all seven of them before they can strike you, but that risks burning through spells you could have used against the Black Knight himself.

Tower Defense

• Plants vs. Zombies:
  • Level 5-5 is considered this because the game constantly spams Bungee Zombies throughout the level, which drop regular zombies farther into the lanes than usual. These zombies aren't particularly threatening and are easy to kill, but the level is meant to take a lot of time. Crazy Dave even lampshades the level's annoyance.
  • The minigame Pogo Party sends out almost nothing but Pogo Zombies, which move quickly and bounce over your plants. While they have low HP and can be disabled with a Tall-nut or Magnet-shroom, they're still annoying to deal with until your defense is fully set up.

Turn-Based Strategy

• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: "Solo" has a unique map gimmick: the enemy force partially consists of priests being used by bandits as Human Shields. They're all over the map and often in your way, and while they're pathetically weak you're rewarded for not killing as many as possible (sparing them all is the only way to get the ultimate staff). You're encouraged to use the Shove mechanic to push them out of your way.
• Both Fire Emblem Fates and Fire Emblem Engage feature the Void Curse skill. Enemies bearing it give no experience points when killed, and it's nearly always placed on endlessly-respawning reinforcements. This is your cue that you're not supposed to waste time fighting them, and instead focus on ending the chapter before they overwhelm you.

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