Demonic Spiders/Video Games/Action Adventure Games

Demonic Spiders are known for providing more action than the player bargained for.


 * In first Spyro the Dragon, in High Caves there are giant armored ants, that are impossible to kill unless you hit them with either the supercharge or fairy fire (and it's tricky to get either one onto them before they disappear). Oh, did I mention they'll follow you around and bite you with their pincers before you even know it?
 * Hawks were ubiquitous in the later levels of the NES Ninja Gaiden games. They would take away three of Ryu's life chunks (represented by squares), more than bazookas and some bosses. They were small enough to require incredibly precise sword work and would often mob the player. Ninja Gaiden also had a wonderful quirk: If one was hit, one had to sit idly by with a thumb placed somewhere convenient until Ryu landed. This means that, if a player got hit by a hawk when attempting one of the games' innumerable deadly jumps, he was dead meat. And with other enemies to distract the player, they became the cause of no few thrown controllers.
 * Even worse, the NES games had no Mercy Invincibility, and enemies could respawn if the screen scrolled far enough forwards or backwards. Imagine getting hit by the aforementioned hawk, and being knocked back, causing another hawk to spawn and attack, causing the original hawk to spawn and attack...Juggled to death doesn't even being to describe the infuriating circumstances.
 * The dreaded Stage 6-2 from the original had the Demonic Flying Ninjas who throw hard-to-see shurikens at you, in collaboration with the Goddamned Hawks. That One Level has been the cause of many broken controllers and TVs.
 * Between unblockable attacks, offscreen projectiles, lack of Mook Chivalry and various other factors, almost all the enemies from the Xbox remake of Ninja Gaiden count.
 * One of the worst types of enemies is the brown ninja that throws exploding kunai at you—not only are they unblockable, but they explode and knock you down seconds later, often in mid-combo, and do quite a bit of damage. Ironically, the Cat Fiends, which replace the ninja in Tairon on Head Ninja mode, are easier.
 * The ninja dogs in the second game are an arguably even more painful version of this. They come in packs of six or more, strike so quickly it's hard to see them coming, use exploding kunai at higher levels, and you can't hack their limbs off so obliteration techniques don't work. You just have to slug it out with them.
 * The Ghost Fish are worse. They're small, numerous, impossible to block (since their move is considered a throw) and if there's at least two of them (they come in groups of about 20) it's entirely possible that if they hit you once, you will be treated to a minute or two of watching them eat away at Ryu's health until he dies, all while the player is utterly helpless. The best way to deal with them is to use the nunchuks/Vigoorian Flail to smack them as they fly in to bite you, but even using the longest combo, it'll end long before the attack does, and they'll immediately exploit the opening you leave. It would probably not be so bad if they weren't everywhere in the last two or three levels.
 * The Boogie Men in Toejam and Earl. Invisible, faster than you, and they take off a good deal of health. Even worse in the sequel, where you have to catch them all, and they often come in packs of 3-4. Still invisible, meaning you'll think you've caught them all and then you'll walk forwards and suddenly hear "BOOGIE BOOGIE BOOGIE."
 * The ice cream truck is fairly rare and technically outmaneuverable, but is normally much faster than you and can take half your health or more (depending on your max health) in one squish.
 * Or the Lawnmower Guys. They're fast, they're smart, and thanks to the lack of Mercy Invincibility, one hit and you're dead, no questions asked. As if that wasn't bad enough, they'll still follow you after you die, so once your after-death invincibility wears off, 9 out of 10 times you'll be dead again. Cue several Genesis controllers being thrown against the wall in pure frustration.
 * The Descent: Freespace series:
 * The Shivan Dragon-class fighter, whose raw statistics, while fairly impressive off the bat, tell you next to nothing about how truly preposterously annoying it is. Oh, sure, it has a top speed comparable to most space superiority fighters, five gunpoints, and more shields than an Ursa heavy bomber, but surely that's balanced out by its thin hull... right? Right? Not a chance. The thing is tiny to the point of having practically no profile at all, is so agile that getting a lock onto it with missiles is next to impossible, mounts twin linked Shivan heavy lasers and tri-linked Shivan mega lasers (which combined mean that between two and four direct hits on any ship you can fly in either game will kill you), and to top it all off it has the most overcharged reactor of any fighter, meaning that its weapons, afterburners and shields recharge at a rate that makes it next to impossible to punch through its shields to hit its hull. It appears in wings of two or three most of the time, but they are occasionally introduced into the battlefield for the sole purpose of making you suffer. One Descent: Freespace mission asked you to protect weak, defenseless escape pods from a wing of Dragons, while you were equipped with Phoenix V missiles designed to kill bombers, with lock on times that made them useless even for that role, let alone hunting the fastest fighter in the game. Another Descent: Freespace mission tasked you with capturing one, the only way to do so is to use a very slow and energy hungry weapon. You had to do it solo, too, because the AI wingmen in FS1 interpret "Disable my target's engines" as "switch to Disruptors... then unload all of your missiles on the target." Fortunately, the Dragon's shields didn't regenerate in that mission. Afterwards you got to fly one... downgraded to be comparable to the shit-bucket you were flying before, with the maneuverability of a sack of potatoes and shields comparable to chicken wire. Finally, in a Freespace 2 Failure Is the Only Option mission, if you managed to defend the crippled rebel cruiser from the regular Manticore and Basilisk fighters, an entire squadron of respawning Dragons will appear. If you actually manage to kill all those Dragons (probably by cheating, because there's no way you'll be able to stop long enough to reload), nothing will happen—the return to base order only appears when the rebel cruiser is destroyed.
 * The Dragon sort of loses its scaryness in Freespace 2 however, since they can be easily destroyed with Harpoon missiles.
 * While the ones featured in the Freespace 2 singleplayer campaign pretty much always appear in the losing side of a One Sided Battle (be it a friendly or enemy ship), the Aeolus-class Terran cruiser is a theoretical Demonic Spider with all of those flak cannons and 180-degree AAA beam lasers. No, wait, in multiplayer, they actually are, especially since you didn't have any long range anti-cruiser weapons in many of the multiplayer missions where this is featured. According to the tech database, only two dozen of these ships were ever produced because it was supposedly very expensive to produce. Which is unfortunate actually—while this means you don't see many rebel Aeoluses, the friendly ones you encounter later in the game when you most need them on your side are all crippled. (Take note that the rebels in this game are actually evil racist bastards and not the usual "good" rebels of fiction—it's good they don't have many Aeoluses.)
 * Moreover that rebels oppose Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance.
 * The Aeolus' big brother. The Deimos is basically a heavily armored Aeolus with more guns. Thankfully, most of the time they are either on your side, or if it shows up as an enemy, you will have the support of friendly ships capable of destroying it by themselves.
 * The Shivan Lilith cruiser class is arguably one in Freespace 2. Capital ships in Freespace 1 are generally sitting ducks after you've obtained shields (save for the Lucifer, but that was the Big Bad), and the Lilith, no matter how much HP it had, is no exception. However, the Freespace 2 version somehow managed to acquire a Disproportionate Destroyer-level Quick Reloading Beam Cannon Of Doom. Coupled with the said thick hull (more than twice the average HP for its ship class, and nearly as much HP as that of the corvette class which is one ship class larger), if you haven't got Stilettos or Trebuchets to take down the main gun, this will take out destroyer warships (two classes bigger) with relative ease, and will make total mincemeat of your cruisers. And it's not like it's because of those incompetent Terrans either —this thing tears apart the more common Rakshasa cruisers and Moloch corvettes from its own species! It's a good thing they're relatively rare, both according to the Tech Room Database and based on actual campaign appearances.
 * The most lovely thing about the Lilith's disproportionately large beam cannon, of course, is its endearing tendency to employ the highly destructive anti-capship beam in an anti-fighter role... against your fighter. Needless to say, being fried by a gigantic, undodgeable instant kill weapon halfway through a mission after you've somehow managed to scrape by with most of your hull integrity intact is very likely to ingratiate the Lilith with most players.
 * And on the highest difficulty levels, the Lilith can start charging up its beam cannon for a second shot before it's even stopped firing the first.
 * And it looks just like the damned Cain, which is made of paper, so the inattentive player is doubly screwed.
 * The "media VP" extensions to Free Space 2 change the Lilith's skin from gray to black to make it possible to distinguish visibly from the Cain. As for not getting blown up by its main gun, whatever you do, do not approach from the front, because if you do the beam is so wide that you will be caught in it and vaporized when it fires at a capital ship (heavy beams do not target fighters directly).
 * You could always distinguish it from the ominous scream of its Wave Motion Gun charging up.
 * The Lilith is not exactly deadly to you, it only has a pair of cluster missile launchers and a single anti fighter beam that can be easily destroyed. Its main claim to fame however it is because it is capable of destroying most friendly capital ships with ease.
 * One campaing mission briefing says you're going after a Rakshasa and a Lilith...with two corvettes for support. Play testing probably discovered the impossibility of that task as the actual mission contains a Cain instead.
 * The fetus enemies in the penultimate level of Splatterhouse were apparently the result of a Demonic Spider screwing a Goddamn Bat, seeing how they infinitely spawn from the floor and ceiling, love to hover down directly over Rick's head where he can't hit them or avoid them, attack in huge numbers, and need to be shaken off to prevent them from taking multiple points of damage if they grab you. Did we mention that Rick has a maximum of only six hit points?
 * Drakengard
 * Archers. They are the only thing preventing you from going on a rampage seated on your dragon, as a large enough group of them will skewer her alive. Later on, Undead fill this role. And then the Grotesqueries, which always come in groups of six for some reason.
 * At least crossbow bolts can be blocked. The mages will hurt you even if you are blocking. And guess what? They can snipe your dragon out of the sky, too! Freakin' beautiful!
 * There is a grim reaper-ish enemy in the second game, that only appears in later flight stages, but is ridiculously hard to kill. At long range it always seemed to block Legna's attacks (including the breath powerups) with its sickle, making it so you could only really damage it at point-blank range. Problem is that as soon as you get close to the enemy it will usually cleave about 1/3 to 1/2 of your dragon's hit points away. You only ever seemed to have a second to attack it and fly away before it attacks. They also tend to have a bunch of minor enemies swarming around them, messing with your targeting. I almost forgot to mention that they love to hurl their sickles at you.
 * Undead enemies in the sequel are still a pain in the butt, and on Extreme mode, every enemy is a demonic spider.
 * Enemy officers turn into Demonic Spiders if you've drawn aggro from more than two. They love to wait until you're attacking one of them, trying to break his block, and then they wail on you in sequence, knocking you from full health to a flashing red sliver. The only way out is to roll away from the mass of Mooks (if you're lucky to actually manage it before they kill you) and run away until you find a health item.
 * Ranged units in Hack and Slash games such as Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. The Drakengard ones still manage to be among the worst you can encounter. Possibly because of the repeating crossbow.
 * Riflemen in Samurai Warriors will piss you off to no end. You can walk through their shots on foot, but gods help you if you're mounted: a single shot sends you spinning through the air for forty feet.
 * In Kid Icarus, at the end of each world was a fortress level. To get to the ultimate boss always required passing through at least one room featuring the dreaded Eggplant Wizards, creatures who liberally tossed eggplants around the screen. Being hit with an eggplant would turn the player character into an eggplant with legs, unable to fire weapons. Of course you couldn't defeat the boss in this state. The only way to remove the curse was to travel about a dozen rooms out of your way to a "Hospital" room, dodging enemies all the way since you couldn't shoot them...and then go back to the boss room, hoping you could avoid the eggplants this time.
 * While Eggplant Wizards are the worst of the Demonic Spiders in Kid Icarus, they are by no means the only ones.
 * The vertical scrolling levels have Grim Reapers, if they spot you they will summon 4 Reaplings, accompanied with an annoying tune. The fact that they charge at you themselves upgrades them from Mook Makers to Enemy Summoners.
 * In the horizontal scrolling levels are thieves. They are Invincible Minor Minions, and if they touch you, you can say goodbye to one of your powerups. And since they come by the dozen, you need to be very good at dodging them or you'll lose them all. On the bright side, if they're stolen, you can buy them back at the black market if you're willing to pay up to 700 hearts.
 * Dark Castle had bats that would knock you off platforms to plummet to your death.
 * Good god, Dark Castle, where to start? The important thing to remember about this game is that you get paralyzed a lot. Run at a wall too quickly? You stand there teetering with stars in your eyes for ages. Walk off a half-foot ledge instead of hopping? You trip and end up flat on your face. Jump off a head-high platform? You're overcome with dizziness. While you're standing there wobbling around like an idiot, rats, snakes, imps and bats are happily chomping away at you every time they pass, and any larger enemies that were looking the other way or knocked out (you can't kill larger enemies) can kill you in a single shot. Plus, whenever you're in this state, you always have to stand up almost immediately and stay that way, regardless of the traps you are placing yourself in the path of. Honestly, Prince Duncan is HIS OWN demonic spider.
 * Abysses from Devil May Cry 3. They always come into trios and have an annoying attack where they sink into the ground and then leap out elsewhere throwing a powerful firecracker. This attack usually cannot be interrupted. In addition, they can throw the firecracker from offscreen with little indication. When they are knocked away, they backflip and dash forward to attack again, limiting your combat options. Sometimes they come with other Goddamned Bats too. In fact, on higher difficulties almost all Devil May Cry enemies can be Demonic Spiders. Feel free to elaborate on other examples, though.
 * The literal Demonic Spiders are VERY annoying: not only they attack with little warning (a standard manoeuvre in DMC universe), they like to block your hits and THEN dash at you bellowing, must be hit several times in a row before they start to back off (instead they attack in the middle of your combos), like to immobilize you with their webs while another is about to attack you (talk about Mook Chivalry) and to top it all they release exploding baby spiders when they finally meet their demise. I often try to finish them off with Agni & Rudra just for the satisfaction to see them split in half. Oh, and did I mention there are BIGGER VERSIONS of the same enemy?
 * Whoops, missed the Enigmas. These arrow-firing animated statues are difficult to combat with melee at higher difficulties because they can skitter away faster than Dante or Vergil's chasing moves. Their arrows can quickly make pincushions out of either character and can throw off Dante or Vergil's attacks even when the Devil Trigger Super Mode is used. They flip the proverbial bird at the idea of Do Not Run with a Gun. Enigmas can be dissuaded from firing if knocked around by combos, but longer combo strings need to be used at higher difficulties and in Dante Must Die their own version of the Devil Trigger makes them nigh-impossible to knock around. Not to mention that trying to shoot them dead from offscreen is a lengthy process made longer by the extra endurance granted from the Devil Trigger. Yes, the arrows can be destroyed—but tough luck if you forgot to bring the optimal weapon as Dante, and Vergil's optimal method is not foolproof. Add on the fact that Dante's optimal choice is outranged by the Enigmas...
 * The Chimera-possessed Scarecrows of Devil May Cry 4 were just as sluggish as the usual scarecrows, rarely attacking and moving slowly, waiting to die. The catch? They always attack and interrupt, even while being attacked and interrupted. They were usually fighting like an average enemy, but so was the newly acquired parasite, who would swing its blade-like limbs at the player in any instance that he was near. They especially liked to do this while downed or sent flying, leaving combo-stringing and pursuit as an option virtually nonexistent. This meant that players had to rely on run-&-gun gameplay and constant ranged and blow-back attacks, then move on to the next one to keep the lot of them at bay. God forbid if they surround you. Then there's those Chimera-possessed assaults, who subvert the previous' mentioned sluggishness by being regularly tenacious. Oh, and they have more life than the regular host.
 * To add to your pain the Chimera-Scarecrows and Chimera-Assaults could attack you whilst they were being grabbed! Sure it was possible to disable the flowers for a few seconds, but it's not unheard of for them to recover mid grab, then flail at you, ruining your No Damage Run, opening you up for a nearby enemy (especially Chimera-Assaults) and on DMD, taking off a huge chunk of life even if nothing else decides to hit you.
 * Nobody should forget about the Faults of DMC4, ARGH!!! They appear out of nowhere and drag you to a different area much like Nightmare from DMC1. Difference is that when Nightmare did that it was cool and clearing out the area took out a large chunk off its health, Faults are plain annoying when you're trying to fight a horde of demons on Dante Must Die Mode. Mission 13 is the embodiment of how much you should hate Capcom because of the Faults.
 * And who could forget the Blitz? Moreso when doing the Bloody Palace, since they were coupled with other enemies. Trying to keep Alto Angelos off your tail while there's an invisible enemy ready to jump you from literally any direction is vein-poppingly maddening.
 * Not only does Odin Sphere have both the Goddamned Bats in the ice and fire stages and a heaping helping of Those Twelve (Give Or Take) Bosses, but there is one enemy in the Titania stage that is the bane of all existence: the red wizard. The standard wizards aren't that much of a problem; sure, they teleport around and can sometimes inflict status ailments, but just knock one of the floating swords from their sword spell back and you can finish them off quickly. Red wizards, however, are more resilient than that. They'll try to beat you down with every status effect under the sun, and because they teleport so much it can be hard to catch up with them before they use their sword spell or teleport again. Not to mention they can summon slimes, which only take one hit point damage from any attack that isn't magic-based and are capable of locking you in place and slowly draining your hit points until you are dead--and by the way, the first time you meet them, unless you've been warned in advance and stocked up on Napalms, you have no way to hurt them. Oh, and red wizards often show up in groups of three or more. Between this and the mini-bosses, Titania is pretty much That One Level.
 * The fire stage also has the lava monsters. Kill them and they explode. If you're caught in the explosion, you die instantly. And the boss of the same stage can also kill you instantly, and when he isn't doing that he summons lava monsters. Good luck not dying instantly.
 * Not to mention the Sorceress Fairies who show up in Ringford (any anywhere else you fight against the Vanir). Not only can they spam fireballs at you, they can heal anything nearby to full health in seconds, including themselves. Deadly when they're floating above hordes of ground enemies who make it difficult to take them out, but particularly bad during the boss battle between, where they can heal the boss while he's powered up and you're forced to continually run away without being able to retaliate.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (the next-gen version for the 360 and the PlayStation 3), not content with being a game of bad controls, bad cameras, Bottomless Pits and game mechanics that seem designed to exploit these flaws to the max, ups the ante for The End Of The World, the final story level rush. Strange spheres with more than a passing resemblance to Sauron pop up all over the place. The purple ones act as black holes, sucking you towards them and causing instant death if you make contact with them. The orange ones throw boxes at you, often with pinpoint accuracy, causing you to lose your rings and stop momentarily—making you easier prey for the purple ones. How demonic and spidery is this? See here. And here, and here, and here, and here (these videos contain large amounts of swearing).
 * Pay special attention to the sandtrap in Silver's section. You'll see.
 * Bats showed up in later levels of the original Crash Bandicoot in one of those really tricky walls-coming-in-and-out and floor-disappearing-at-random-moments, side scrolling levels. Fortunately, these enemies were pretty much limited to the game's That One Level.
 * Crash of the Titans has Sludges, which come in large groups, are fast, do tons of damage with their attacks, and have a counterattack which is nearly-impossible to avoid that they use nearly every time you hit them.
 * Also Battlers, who constantly block, also come in large groups, and have a very painful special attack which they love to spam.
 * Crash: Mind Over Mutant has TKs, which have ranged attacks that are impossible to avoid, a annoying melee attack which they are invincible while using and has a large area of effect, and can throw you off your titan, leaving you vulnerable while you try to re-jack your titan.
 * Zombies Ate My Neighbors has many. Take your pick:
 * Blobs that shoot jelly globs into the air that, if they hit you, drain three bars of health while leaving you unable to use weapons or items.
 * The Chainsaw Maniacs, durable enemies that can chop through most obstacles and actually track you across the screen.
 * Fishmen that like to leap out of the water and land right next to victims, then kill them. They're also infinite respawners.
 * But worst of all are Werewolves. Not only do they pursue you across the level, but most Werewolves are actually transformed tourists, who you're trying to rescue. In levels that turn to night, you must rescue all Tourists before it becomes night-time or else they'll become Werewolves and you lose one of your victims. The time limit for this transformation tends to be frustratingly short as well.
 * At least you can one-shot Werewolves with the silverware. (In fact, 90% of all enemies in the game can be destroyed by one or two shots of the correct weapon). Vampires, however... Show up randomly, take obscene amounts of damage, and can pretty much kill you at will, if it chooses to fight you rather than stand and soak up your ammo. Not to mention their annoying habit of flying away before you can finish them, resulting in a massive loss in weaponry with no reward.
 * Don't forget that their bat attack is pretty much unavoidable. It says something about the game's difficulty when the Demonic Spiders can throw Goddamned Bats at you.
 * Giant ants take a large amount of punishment from most weapons-- only the rare bazooka and rarer Martian bubble gun can one-shot them. They can pick up unclaimed ammunition and carry it back to their ant holes, never to be seen again. And like most enemies, they respawn endlessly.
 * Ratchet and Clank Going Commando features YETIs, giant, Wampa-esque critters that soak up tons of damage, go quite swift for their size, and hit like a freight train. A good example of enemies that start as demonic spiders but eventually become Goddamn Bats as you get better at the game.
 * The beam turrets in Deadlocked. Tiny little laser turrets that drop in at random points, and are usually overlooked right until you get a laser beam in your back.
 * The giant antigrav robot roaches, aka LaserBacks (from Deadlocked), are a) infuriatingly hard to kill, b) have a psychotically high rate of fire, and c) are one of the few units that make life difficult for you even when you've turned them to your side with the right omega mod. (Usually, subverted enemies are kind enough to try and aim at the enemy; the laserbacks simply spam ammo everywhere, and Primus help you if you get in the way.) Pretty much the only way to keep them from reducing you to powder was to wait until they briefly stopped shooting, then spam them with a high-knockback weapon. Oh, and your helper-bots have no idea that these things are unspeakably annoying and will instantly get mowed down by them.
 * Their sorta-predecessors, the Guard bots from the third game, are this too. They have the same attack method---that is, two guns that More Dakka you into the pavement---and take buckets of damage.
 * Time Crisis has red soldiers. If one pops up, you better shoot it ASAP or prepare to hide, because their first shot will hit you if you don't hide. Fortunately, in Time Crisis II onwards, their killing shots have a distinct circular mark on them (known as a "Crisis Sighting"), are colored red, and, in Crisis Zone, are accompanied by a warning beep.
 * Even worse are the ninjas of the series, which jump around all over the place, stay behind cover half the time, sometimes throw knives, and tend to pop up at close range and give you a facelift before you have time to react, especially in Crisis Zone. And many times there's no warning before they attack.
 * ''Prince of Persia: The hounds in Two Thrones can drain your Sands, and don't yield any when defeated. They're especially deadly when a hard platforming section is up ahead.
 * In the Sands of Time, Bats could come at you when you were JUMPING FROM LADDERS TO SWINGING POLES several hundred feet above the ground, and if they are touching you for more then a second, you will fall to your death.
 * Every enemy in I Wanna Be the Guy. Combine this with an extreme version of Everything Trying to Kill You and you get to see what happens when Nintendo Hard goes Up to Eleven.
 * Special mention to the cheap, hair-ripping hell that is Delicious Fruit. The fruit will defy gravity just to kill you. That's right, they will fall upward. On rare occasions, they'll fall horizontally.
 * Extra Special mention to the Medusa heads in the Castlevania section. You're trying to pass a platforming section that's hard enough as it is (though admittedly tame for "I Wanna be the Guy" standards) and Medusa heads pop up randomly and send you spiraling into a spike. Somehow, it would be less annoying if they just killed you on contact!
 * Trauma Center. The first game (either version) has the GUILT, Savato, who is literally one of these things. Combine one part Timed Mission (cutting the webs destroys your scalpel, so you have to wait, and if you take too long, the damn thing turns red and wrecks your patient's health—and sometimes, it goes too quick even from a fresh cut for you to even be able to pick up another scalpel) with ten parts Mook Maker (it creates mini versions of itself all throughout the battle, which can create a medium-sized version of themselves WHICH LIMITS YOUR HEALTH just by freakin' existing, and can make 10 of those little bastards by splitting) and all of those damn lacerations which the DS version simply cannot easily keep up with, gel or no (easily seen in X1, the general stopping point for players who've even S'ed all the standard missions), even with the Healing Touch you're barred from using until the very end, and you can see why Atlus decided on making an Easy Mode. He easily qualifies, even though he's a Nintendo Hard Final Boss.
 * Dark Titans from Sonic Unleashed. These massive beasts are extremely strong, can attack with most any part of their bodies (including an almost unavoidable shockwave), have massive HP bars, and all their attacks not only send Sonic the Werehog flying, but actually keep him stunned on the ground for several seconds (often setting him up for a shockwave move). Worst of all, they often appear with swarms of smaller enemies, in cramped quarters, or on guardless platforms just waiting to toss you into the void. The only good thing about them is that they often kill other enemies while trying to get you.
 * Also immensely annoying to kill are Fire Masters, which are magician-type enemies that are, as their name implies, on fire. Trying to attack them will result in Werehog being set on fire and steadily lose health for about thirty seconds unless he can find some water to douse himself in. To attack them safely, you must hit them with barrels full of water. Also, the lock-on targeting system is kind of finicky and while there are a fair number of barrels, they are not infinite.
 * Ace Combat: enemy ace squadrons are one thing, since at least in a fresh run (as opposed to a SP New Game) you won't have a comparable plane until the late-game... it's another when they're outmaneuvering you, consistently getting on your six o'clock and seriously threatening you in the late-game with a starting plane. (See Alberto Lopez, aka "Espada 1" in Ace Combat Zero.) A "late-game" version would be the fact that planes like the YF-23, the F-22A, the F-117, and the F-35C have fade-from-radar stealth that greatly increases their deadliness when flown by the enemy... but has no apparent effect when you pilot them.
 * Any planes that require more than the standard two missiles to shoot down. The most notable instance would be the C-50 cargo planes from Ace Combat 5's arcade mode, which require up to ten to shoot down and, unlike other similarly unarmed planes, don't give you any back for killing it.
 * HAWX has the fifth level, OFF Certification, and the hyper-competent, super-agile drones you have to dogfight while in OFF Mode. Thankfully none of the fuckers could kill you since it was essentially a tutorial unless you drive into the ground like an idiot, but three drones that looked like Global Hawks with satellite dishes were outdancing a hyper-maneuverable experimental jet that never saw combat in real life arguably gave the most difficult dogfight in a game purportedly meant to be about air combat.
 * The Su-37's from the 14th mission - highly agile and maneuverable planes that can avoid your missiles effortlessly and continue to launch at you, and then the mission's objective forces you to ignore them entirely and go fly a complicated pattern through a wall of anti-aircraft fire, all while the Su-37's are still chasing and firing at you.
 * Eversion, from World 4-5 onwards, has
 * There are literal ones in Earth Defense Force 2017 (technically, they're aliens) but the giant spiders in the game are easily the most frustrating enemies. They like to Zerg Rush you and smother you in webbing, doing ridiculous amounts of damage (instantly killing you in many cases) while limiting your movement at the same time.
 * There are these Kremlings in Donkey Kong Country 2 that pop out of barrels and try bouncing into you. They're not so bad, but they have these undead-looking cousins that whenever they bounce into you, a life balloon appears. They come from your total. They can end your game if they bounce into you enough.
 * There's also the red ones with TNT barrels, which are a One-Hit Kill. The worst thing ever is the secret That One Level filled with both of these and annoying, long sections with spinning barrels over Spikes of Doom.
 * The third game introduces Lurchins, sea urchins that absolutely blanket the underwater levels. In most cases, being underwater means you can't attack them at all, leaving you the sole option of getting out of the way (and in one level, they sweep upward from offscreen so fast that you have to know in advance where they are, or you will get hit). The only way to hit them is to ride/become Enguarde the Swordfish...and hit them at precisely the right moment; if you stab at them when their shell is closed, you get hurt, and their opening-and-closing speed varies from Lurchin to Lurchin.
 * If an enemy in Viewtiful Joe isn't a Palette Swap for the normal mooks, they fall within this category.
 * Perhaps worst of all is the Metal Leo, which while it only appears in the last level, is a scaled-down version of the previous boss.
 * ...or appear repeatedly in the second half of the game on higher difficulties, even before the real thing appears. Including on stages with time limits.
 * Special mention should go to Chromartys (s.p.?), the black-suited versions of normal mooks. They both have massive damage reduction and can roll away from your combos unless stunned, require dodging of a relatively difficult combo attack to stun (during which other enemies will also be attacking) and often appear in groups, armed with bazookas and non-deflectable homing missiles.
 * It got worse in the sequel, where they appeared as ninjas with even worse homing fireworks and a new firework bazooka which, unlike the old one, doesn't let you reflect the shell back for a free stun. So much for the Conservation of Ninjitsu
 * Escort Missions make normally not so bad enemies like Jalthis this trope in Wing Commander but Hhriss from the Expansion Pack are real Demonic Spiders with the agility of the Salthi, the firepower of the Raptor, and the armor of the Jalthi, only with a more balanced front/rear distribution. They are ridiculously powerful.
 * Prototype has several, but the prize goes to the Supersoldiers. Pretty much all of Alex's abilities are melee, and the Supersoldiers shine at this. If you attack them too much, they'll go into a blocking state where they're invincible. Hit them in this state, and they'll break into a combo which can beat off nearly half your health. Because of the button-mashing nature of attacking, you have to pay very close attention not to do this. They also love to grab you, which, should you fail to counter it, will also cost you half your health (though if you're lucky, they might you a less painful move). They can even grab you in mid-air, sometimes even in mid-kick, and ground slam you for, you guessed it, half your health. They can follow you anywhere, see through your disguise, and detect you at range (they're walking virus detectors). They are impossible to grab, except during the block state, and even then you can only flip them over. They also cannot be consumed, period, so all that health you lost trying to kill them is rewarded with a pittance.
 * The lesser spiders are the Hunters, especially in the early stages of the game. If struck too much, they turn invincible and go into an attack frenzy, which can very quickly take a lot of health if you don't run from them. They can run faster than you can fully upgraded, and have a tackle move that, if it doesn't knock you down on the first try, allows them to turn on a dime for a second attempt (which probably won't miss). Much like Supersoldiers, they aren't fooled by your disguise (not that any disguise would matter to them), and will ignore all other targets to chase Alex. They take several hits with anything to kill, and often come in groups of three or more. Leader Hunters up the ante by almost constantly being in the "invincible attack" state. You actually have to wait them out, attack, then rinse and repeat.
 * In Star Wars: TIE Fighter, the A-Wings. Here's a quote from Game FAQs: The A-wing was a nasty little foe and the hardest rebel starfighter you could come up against in the original TIE Fighter (sans expansion packs). For those not well-versed on their Star Wars lore, the A-wing is a Rebel interceptor, a fast, dagger-like ship armed with laser cannons and concussion missiles and with engines unmatched by anything in the Empire's basic arsenal. In TIE Fighter, these little monsters were blindingly fast and incredibly maneuverable, capable of outrunning and outflying every player ship until the TIE Advanced found its way into the storyline. This incredible speed, combined with its compact chassis, made the A-wing incredibly hard to destroy. Even the anti-starfighter concussion missiles, usually a guaranteed kill, were useless against the A-wings, which would nimbly evade the missiles until they self-destructed. Not only were the A-wings difficult to kill, they were also dangerous, as the concussion missiles THEY packed could shred your unshielded TIE faster than you can say, "I'm your father"!
 * Rebel fighters don't have it much better. While every Rebel fighter counts as a Demonic Spider if you're in a TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, or TIE Interceptor, every other Imperial fighter is a Demonic Spider for Rebels. Yes, every last one, but especially the TIE Defender.
 * Supaplex has Snik Skans. If the game wasn't hard enough as it was.
 * Practically every enemy in N is one of these. Except for Thwumps and Floorchasers. Those are Goddamned Bats. Everything else is a Demonic Spider. Granted, this game is Nintendo Hard, you're a One-Hit-Point Wonder, and have no defenses (other than running). To elaborate:
 * Zap Drones patrol mindlessly, unless you bump into one, in which case, they'll shock you and kill you. Those are Goddamned Bats. There's the tracking version, which will chase you down if it sees you, or if you happen to be beside, directly above, or directly below one. Those are Demonic Spiders.
 * Laser Drones are like the Gauss Turrets (which are even worse), but can move (albeit slowly), and fire a laser beam which takes about half a second to charge, but actually lasts for a little while. A little while enough to screw you over.
 * Chaingun Drones are blessed with a rapid-fire chaingun and will activate if it senses you (which is basically "if it isn't blocked by a solid object")and let loose a hail of bullets. Often, while fleeing one, you may activate another, which means you're screwed in tight spaces.
 * Then there's the Homing Turret. It fires ninja-seeking missiles that turn somewhat fast and will become even worse when other enemies are nearby, like...
 * The Gauss Turret. Oh god, the Gauss Turret. You see that crosshair? That's not where it hits, that's where the angle of fire is. The shots travel instantly. Which, most of the time, will be you. Did I mention that the closer you are to one, the faster they'll shoot?
 * Near the end of Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy, Aura Beasts begin appearing. These start out invisible and invincible, only becoming vulnerable when your character alerts them. They then appear at point-blank range and proceed to fly into your character's face at high speed while attracting a small swarm of others. While they are quite easy to kill, they have a grab attack which takes a massive chunk of health off your character.
 * Very early on in Bayonetta, you have to fight Grace and Glory, a pair of angels with matching fire and electric claws that can utterly curbstomp you if you make a mistake. If you've seen Agni and Rudra in Devil May Cry 3, you'll know the general idea with these two. They can juggle you after knocking you into the air or launch their claws like hookshots, they move very quickly, and they're about as predictable as mental patients (that is to say, not predictable in the least when you first fight them). One of them can send sparks along the ground, which will hit you if you're the least bit distracted, and the other can spin in a fiery tornado that's impossible to hit out of without Witch Time. Whenever you make one of them flinch, the other will be hot on your tail before you can dish out a combo unless you manage to juggle them in the air, or focus your efforts on killing one at a time instead of alternating between them. The worst part? They become degraded minibosses over the course of the game, so you end up having to fight something like six or seven more pairs of them, and during many of the later fights you can't get Witch Time by dodging their attacks. And just wait until you reach the highest difficulty level...
 * The golden copies of Grace and Glory, now named Gracious and Glorious, which have the same attacks as the normal ones, but seem to flinch less often, and are stronger and more aggressive—and to top it off, they never give you Witch Time when you dodge unless you use the Moon of Mahaa-Kaala to block their attacks, which requires crushingly precise timing. In Hard mode, you have to fight three of them at once.
 * Worse than Grace and Glory (but not as bad as Gracious and Glorious) are Fearless and Fairness. Both appear to be quadrupeds, one blue and one red, and their attacks not only do a lot of damage, but also come with next to no warning. And they have a move unique to each; Fearless has a scorpion-like tail stab that can hit at long range, and Fairness roars to stun you. If you don't break free, it will maul you. Fortunately, they're rarely fought simultaneously.
 * At Non Stop Infinity Climax, Fairness and Fearless turn into quite possibly THE worst enemy in the game. You know how it says above that Fairness and Fearless are between Grace/Glory and Gracious/Glorious in difficulty? Well, the only thing that normally makes Gracious and Glorious that much worse than any other enemy in the game, and particularly their weaker versions, is (besides increased vitality and resistance) the fact that you can't get Witch Time off on them without absurdly precise timing. Now, on Non Stop Infinity Climax, Witch Time is disabled completely. Have fun.
 * Who can forget Kinship with its homing missile swarms that are really hard to dodge and their laser attack that's rather hard to see coming if you're already focusing on one? Thankfully, they're even rarer than the above four enemies mentioned here, but they are never solo in the main game.
 * The Sonic games have all had plenty. The most notable can be found in Sonic 3's Hydrocity Zone. If you are unfortunate enough to be hit with a Mega Chopper, you are as good as dead. These suckers leech one ring a second, while disabling jumping and spinning, trapping you in that section of the level to die a slow and painful death. Fortunately for those playing as a Sonic/Tails duo, Tails can just bust them open... if he doesn't have one on him as well.
 * Apparently you're completely unaware you can just shake them off. If one gets a hold of you, just run back and forth rapidly. Not demonic spiders.
 * Oh, and by the way, Hydrocity is the SECOND ZONE IN THE GAME.
 * Hydrocity is also a water level. If the ring-drain doesn't kill you, then the Interface Screw will almost definitely cause you to drown.
 * Most enemies in Transformers: Convoy no Nazo, especially the flying ones; they randomly spawn, their bullets are nearly invisible, and Ultra Magnus is a One-Hit-Point Wonder and gets sent back to the beginning of the stage every time.
 * In Ninja-kun: Ashura no Shou, most enemies are like the ones usually found in the rest of the games. A short time you'll face larger "boss-like" enemies, including boss skeletons, which unlike the others can kill you if you aren't careful. However that's just the begining, as soon after you'll find bats that instead of being annoyances are one-hit kill, actual spiders that show up spontaneously in the middle of a room and are ungodly fast and many other things that will kill you.
 * The original NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a laundry list of examples, including Dive Bombers, Fire Freaks, Frogmen, Vulcan Bots, Splitters, and perhaps worst of all, the much-hated Laser Soldiers, which assault you in spades during the final approach to Shredder's lair.
 * Pretty much any enemy in Legend of Kage is a demonic spider, due to the game's abundance of Fake Difficulty. Kage is a One-Hit-Point Wonder, has a near-zero range sword and hard-to-aim ninja stars, and enemies randomly drop from the sky, making it nearly impossible to avoid running into an offscreen enemy or their projectile attacks. Thus, the whole game is mainly a Luck-Based Mission.
 * The cougars in Red Dead Redemption. They're insanely fast, agile (making it hard to shoot them) and aggressive, seem to hunt in packs, and can kill you and your horse with ease. There's a reason some people refer to the cougars in this game as modern day velociraptors.
 * This is particularly notable due to the fact that cops and outlaws can put an entire magazine of Colt semi-auto bullets into you and you're still fighting fit, but one swipe from a cougar puts you on your ass, and one more has you seeingDEAD.
 * Also: the Mexican bobcats are cowards that more often run from Marston when you get close. But if they do decide to attack you...
 * in Robocop 2 the arcade game, on the stage in the chemical plant, there are the mutants who run straight at you, electrocute you as soon as they touch you (so you can't "bodyslam" them like you can with other toughies), and take quite a few shots to kill, and appear with the same frequency of all mooks. Really the only thing that got me through that stage was lots of 20p pieces...
 * Alien Swarm has the Parasites, which are very small, very fast, and spawn in massive numbers. This is already a formula for a nasty enemy, but what really sets them apart is their method of attack: They attach to and drain your health very quickly, and the only way to get them off is for The Medic to spend some of their limited healing items on you. Did I mention there are loads of them? And they're so small and fast that hitting them is mostly down to luck? And there are like a million billion zillion of them? Well, it bears repeating. To make matters worse, being killed by a parasite release several more parasites upon your death, making the situation go downhill VERY fast for the rest of the team.
 * Once you unlocked the flamethrower and the telsa gun, the parasites get a bit easier to deal with, but not by a whole lot.
 * Streets of Rage 3 and the mohawked martial artists (Tiger/Leopard/Fabio). They move fast and hit hard with rapid series of kicks to the face and flying leaps. They sometimes arrive on the scene falling directly from above, feet poised to hit your face on the way down. They can (and often will) block almost any conventional attack you throw at them, including special attacks, with a mocking lack of visible effort. Their only weakness is their susceptibility to getting thrown or body slammed... if they are alone. When in groups, they exploit the stacking sprites as a team and form an unapproachable phalanx of forearm block and Rapid Fire Footwork that is immune to most tactics and retaliates without pity from beyond melee range using leap-kicks.
 * Big Eye in the first Mega Man has several times more health than every other enemy and deals nearly half of your health per hit. It hops toward you with either a slow high jump or a fast low jump, but you can only run under it during the high jump, and whether or not it even will is completely random. The one in Elec Man's stage appears in close quarters and will close the whole distance with 3 jumps. If the second and third jumps are both low, you WILL get hit.
 * Also in the first game are Bladers, those horrible grinning flying nightmares. They float in, above jumping height, swoop down to strike, and swoop back up, out of reach. They follow you, they look at you. They grin as they plink away. If you try to run, more may spawn and swarm.
 * The Haunted Mansion had the gargoyles, which were really big enemies that could only be harmed with a fully Charged Attack. Which was hard, because they were also Enemy Summoners, and said enemies were much faster than you, and when they hit you your charge stopped. Luckily, the Beacon of Souls gets more powerful, lowering the demonicness.
 * Archers in Prinny Can I Really Be the Hero. They have two attacks, depending on where you are in relation to them. If you're trying to jump over, they'll aim high and shoot a very hard-to-dodge wave attack. If you're at the same level or lower, they'll just duck and fire three arrows in rapid succession. It doesn't sound too bad...except the game loves to place them with or behind pits, obstacles, hordes of lesser Mooks, and in narrow alcoves where you can't jump over or stun them. And if you get too close, they'll jump far out of range and start firing away.
 * Any enemy who can poison you in Tomb Raider III. If poisoned, you'll keep losing health until you use a medi-pack. The game has a good amount of enemies that can poison you, thus you may keep wasting your healing items just to cure poison. The future games still had poison effects, but done much less.
 * The literal spiders, particularly in II, are small and hard to hit, and typically come in swarms in dark areas, so you will often get nibbled within inches of death.
 * Similarly to the poison example, any enemy that can set you on fire. Unlike poison, burning is a death sentence unless there's water in the immediate vicinity. Again, II has by far the highest amount of these, and they like to quietly sneak up on you with deceptively long range flamethrowers.
 * The upper floor of the Thorney Towers Home For The Disturbed level in Psychonauts features psychic, mutated rats which scamper directly at Raz and explode, not only causing impact damage but also leaving a cloud of harmful Confusion Gas. They come in swarms which home in on Raz wherever he happens to be, and by the time you hear the distinctive squeaking and scampering noise they're usually right on top of you. Shooting at them causes a chain of dangerous explosions and fills the screen with Confusion Gas. Since the gas messes up Raz's powers, it's almost impossible to stay shielded during a rat attack. On top of this the sound is glitchy, so half the time the warning sounds can be heard when there are no rats present, which is Nightmare Fuel in itself. Plus, they're deformed, kamikaze, exploding rats.
 * In Ys Book I and II, many of the monsters in the lower levels of the mine and upper levels of Darm Tower fit this trope. Especially bad in the mine with limited visibility. Also bad is the second mirror warp maze in Darm Tower, which is full of Elite Mooks which can kill you in two hits even if you have the Battle Armor.
 * In Book II, the Mine doesn't have limited visibility, but there's now way of knowing if there's a crowd of monsters on the other side of a doorway, which can lead to unavoidable deaths. Better Save Scum.
 * Hobbledy in Folklore, especially when it appears in groups. It uses a continuous stream of electricity to damage you. This can also paralyse you, leaving you frozen in place and helpless as the group take turns blasting you, effectively keeping you paralysed and making it so all you can do is watch while your HP drops like a stone. Even if you manage to get one of their ids out, the others WILL NOT let you absorb it, standing in your way and blasting you if you even so much as THINK of pressing R1.
 * The "Gas Zombies" in Dead Rising 2 only miss sweeping the list by one factor - they can't take away levels. They have everything else. They can stun you. Their grapple attack has twice the reach of conventional zombies - and is undodgeable. They are everywhere, and you will not notice them among the mobs of zombies until they are right on top of you chewing your face off. They draw every other Gas Zombie within earshot when they attack. They can attack multiple times once they grab you, forcing you to consume healing items faster. They are twice as tough as normal zombies. They can charge right through mobs of zombies. Queens only stun them. Oh, and that stun attack? Has enough range to hit you before they enter camera view from behind. The game is 72 hours of zombie smashing, but once these bastards show up, the party is over.
 * The military can eliminate conventional zombies with ease, but Gas Zombies can wipe out entire platoons in minutes. They're recognized as Demonic Spiders in-universe.
 * On the other hand, once you complete the case in the Phenotrans lab, you can find about four Blast Frequency Guns, which can eliminate several dozens Gas Zombies with one precise shot and carry ridiculous amounts of ammo. Sure it only stuns normal zombies, but they're hardly a threat and can be pushed pust unless you run into a huge unavoidable cluster of them. Make sure to keep at least two of these weapons handy.
 * From Dead Rising 1, we have the Special Forces soldiers. They are very tough for Mooks, requiring seven shotgun blasts to put down, are immune to handgun fire and headshots, tote machine guns that stun lock and damage you which allows the other soldiers to shoot you more, always come in groups, and are not stun locked when shot (quite annoying when trying to use their own assault rifles against them). When they show up, you better have the small chainsaw, machete, sniper rifle, or even meat cleaver because if you don't, you're in for a rude awakening.
 * The True Eye Cultists in the same game are just as bad. They gather in massive groups around the mall and will happily gang up on you when they spot you. Their attacks shave off health fast, and are very prone to doing suicidal attacks involving Molotov cocktails that are not only hard to dodge, but make the suicidal cultist immune to any and all damage. And to make things worse, they have an attack where they fling holy water into your eyes which will knock you out. They then haul you off to their lair under the mall where you'll be forced to fight them all in order to escape, and will also lose every item you had at that point. And you're stripped down to your underwear as well for extra humiliation points.
 * Amagon has these in spades. Fast-flying birds that suddenly appear while you're jumping, erratically-moving wasps that shoot spreadfire, jumping mushrooms, Spiny-type things that drop from trees, teleporting robots, etc. In all cases, you die in one hit unless you're Hulked Out.
 * Any enemy with a level 3 Full Screen Tech in Seiken Densetsu 3, such as Wolf Devils, Dark Lords, or Nightblades. Which is a shame, because all of the final dungeons are crawling with them. There's a very real chance that a single Full Screen Tech coming from them can wipe your entire party in one shot, unless you've been doing some serious level grinding (and even then, it'd come close).
 * The biggest problem about those multi-tech bastards is the fact that they seem to use those techs completely at random. If you have very bad luck, all 2 or 3 of them will use their multi-techs at once, giving you no time to heal in-between. This usually results in an instant kill, even with strong characters and "Defense Up".
 * Wolf Devils would count even without Sky Dance: they're fast, strong and attack in numbers. Even with nothing but physical attacks, they can kill your characters—especially your CPU-controlled ones—before you even notice how low your health is.
 * In Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, it's not the bats you should worry about. Rather, it is the Goddamned Bees the Goddamned Roly-Poly Bugs, and the Goddamned Larpees: giant enemies that can break your egg in one hit.
 * Bazooka, chainsaw and grenade launcher users in Scarface the World Is Yours. All capable of One Hit Kills.
 * The Godfather game has Tommygun and shotgun users who can shred you very fast, especially given that they first appear quite early on when your health is still quite pathetic. They can tear up cars rather quickly too, so tough luck if you encounter them without a nice sturdy wall to hide behind. Plus since you are only one man, they are likely to flank you. At least you can pick up their guns after you pop them with a Boom! Headshot!... but still, prepare to die often.
 * The later patches of Darkstone included Goblin Bat Riders and Giant Bats. Both were immune to all spells except fire based ones (and there were only 3 fire based spells), they were fast, they did a lot of damage, they infinitely spawned bats (including upon death). Luckily, they are rather rare.
 * The later patches also included mages, which attacked in swarms, hurled fireballs, teleport spammed, summoned golems (fire and ice) and were completely immune to any form of magical assault. Luckily they are fairly easily to kill with normal weapons... if the golems and fireballs didn't kill you first or if you could catch them.
 * Cave Story, for the most part, is relatively free of these. However, in the Brutal Bonus Level, you get the Butes and the Mesas. The Butes are tiny Pit-looking things that either fly around randomly, shoot arrows, or wait on the ground and try to charge you. They do tons of damage, can quickly delevel your weapons, and the ones on the ground can block your attacks. Even the Spur. The Mesas are giant Butes that throw blocks at you for a ton of damage and have far too many hitpoints.
 * In earlier levels, there's the Sandcrocs, which deal huge damage, only pop out when you're standing right in the path of their waiting jaws, and slide back under the sand before you can get a chance to kill them. Until you lean how to tell where they are, expect a lot of Sandcroc-related deaths.
 * From Gun Bros., there are the Elites. They're ridiculously fast and have shots which linger around for a while.
 * And then from the Bokor levels is the equivalent of the Elite, the Cuttles. They have the trademark ridiculous speed and powerful attacks of the Elite enemies, except they use melee attacks. Also, due to the different "wave" style of the Survival mode, they gain tons of health very fast.
 * Flying MTs in Armored Core games pre-4 and For Answer weren't as predictable as fighter jets nor as slow as helicopters, both of which you could kill with a missile or two, charge at you guns blazing at a low altitude, fly in erratic patterns, frequently come in packs of up to three and drop other enemies for you to deal with. And they all have enough health to bar the player from just shooting a few missiles and scooting. If you aim up to engage the little bastards, you get blasted at by their ground support. Neglect aerial threats too long and you get shot at by them, plus the ground targets. They tend to appear in droves and one mission in Silent Line in particular quickly turns into That One Level because you must face a boss right after fighting them off, PLUS the Kill Sat that's firing at you while they're chipping away your health steadily.
 * The Nintendo DS version of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Just... just about every single mook. Notable offenders include the shrieking ones found at the pier, anyone who can shoot those... those light-orb-things at you and, even worse, any mook found in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. Most of the above mentioned can knock you down, which is annoying since they can beat you up even while you're getting up again, while you can't do the same with them. And it's a Metroidvania game. Yeah.
 * Hopefully you'll be sufficiently powered up before you encounter the Heretics in Dantes Inferno. They only appear in the second half of the game (particularly in the City of Dis), but they're durable, can teleport, usually appear with a Mook squadron and make everyone else impervious to your attacks until the Heretic dies, they'll hit you with a bola-like spinning thing if you're too close when they're lying down...but the real kicker is that they can make ANY other enemy invincible if they appear in the same wave, including enemies who already border on Demonic Spider territory in their own right.
 * Fester's Quest: In the alien ship near the end of the game, you encounter the Beholders, cyclopean floating heads that can follow you through walls, take alot of damage, shoot volleys of fast projectiles, and fire back when hit. Better stock up on smart bombs and other items before entering the ship, as it's a Point of No Return.
 * Fortune Summoners is basically made of Demonic Spiders. Each dungeon has at least one variety among its varied mook fauna (usually one of the mage-type enemies. If the mages are not that bad, it'll be the beefier fliers), sometimes two, and every time you enter a new dungeon, you have to be very careful, because there is always some kind of new enemy that can easily get you stunlocked to death in seconds. Special mention, however, has to go to Ghost Wizards. These guys usually come in pairs, can heal themselves and other monsters (including each other), can dodge by becoming immaterial, tend to fly just outside of your sword's reach, and can get through the walls... and pack a spell that does very respectable damage, is virtually undodgeable, and can be cast from inside the wall. No, you can't really attack them while they're inside the wall. Yes, it is precisely as annoying as it sounds.
 * The Flame Parasites from Evolva. Not only they have the ability throw huge fireballs towards you for massive damage, but they always catch fire after killed and explode after a few seconds. Depending of the battle, you may not be able to get far from the explosion, since you may still be fighting the remaining enemies.