Invisible Monsters: Difference between revisions

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You can't {{color|white|see them}}, but they can probably hurt you.

Many invisible enemies are just [[Underground Monkey|variants of ordinary monsters]]. Or [[The Unseen|their true forms are never revealed at all]]. In [[Video Games]], they frequently overlap with [[Goddamn Bats]] or [[Demonic Spiders]]. Sometimes, they become visible when doing specific things, like attacking, dying or moving.

In other media, especially Television, an Invisible Monster is used to save budgets for more outlandish monsters. Often, they are accompanied by creepy noises or music that alerts the Audience to their presence. Done poorly they can be [[Narm|laughable]], done right, terrifying.

Not to be confused with [[Invisible Monsters (novel)|the Palahniuk book.]]

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== [[Anime]] ==

* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'', we learn that an invisible [[Mecha-Mooks|Gadget Drone]] was what {{spoiler|nearly killed Nanoha during the [[Snow Means Death]] incident}} after another one of them {{spoiler|[[Normally I Would Be Dead Now|stabs Vita through her chest]]}} during the final mission.

* [[The Heartless|Hollows]] in ''[[Bleach]]'' could not be seen by anyone who could not [[I See Dead People|see dead people.]] This lead to the first few episodes having these...things chasing people that nobody could see. Only the footprints and scenery destruction following them.

** Even those who can see dead people have trouble seeing them; you need to have a lot of dead person energy built up. Even Ichigo couldn't see them until the start of the series, and he had trouble telling the dead from the living when he was younger.

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* There's a movie called ''The Sound of Horror'' about invisible dinosaurs. ''That'' is a low budget.

* The titular "witch" of [[The Blair Witch Project]].

* In 1984's ''[[Supergirl (film)|Supergirl]]'', the Girl of Steel fights an invisible demon summoned by the villains.

== [[Literature]] ==

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** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass]]'' has a boss like this -- but you can see yourself through the monster's perspective in the second screen, and judge its rough location.

** Let's not forget Ganon in the [[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|original game]]. He's invisible until you can shoot him with the Silver Arrows, except for a very brief period after you strike him with your sword. The only way to figure out where he is is by extrapolating from the start location of the fireballs he shoots.

* There are a number of enemies in the ''[[Metroid]] Prime'' games that require the use of other visors to track. You usually run into at least one ''before'' you get the visor...

** That robot guarding the Power Bombs in Metroid Prime is an exception as it is invisible to all of the available visors, but its stealth is ruined by muzzle flash.

*** It also can't be scanned or locked onto. However, if you have the Wavebuster, prepare for a short fight (thank god).

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* ''[[Time Splitters]]'' are mostly invisible, except when they're being shot.

* Appeared in the original ''[[Metal Gear]]'', and again in ''Metal Gear Solid'': Four ordinary grunts, all wearing active camo, in a small room.

* The Spy in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]''. Cannot attack while invisible, though.

** The Assassin in ''Dark Messiah'' (multiplayer). 'Can' attack when invisible (breaking the invisiblity), however, the invisibility itself is more of a cloak meant to assist in stealth - walking in bright-lit open areas around sharp-eyed players will get the Assassin spotted.

* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' has a weapon that gives the mooks a cloaking device.

* The ''Jedi Knight'' games have the Force Power "[[Jedi Mind Trick|Mind Trick]]" which in multiplayer renders the players invisible.

* The two most recent ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' games have these- though in Warrior Within they're just invisible versions of the normal ninja enemies.

* ''[[Super Smash Bros]]. Melee'' also has the cloaking device. As a few comic strips have noted, in Smash, if they can't see you, ''you can't see you either''. This generally results in such mishaps as falling off the edge of the map. But to be fair, when you move or attack, you have a [[Invisibility Flicker]], so you aren't ''blind''.

* ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Melee'' also has the cloaking device. As a few comic strips have noted, in Smash, if they can't see you, ''you can't see you either''. This generally results in such mishaps as falling off the edge of the map. But to be fair, when you move or attack, you have a [[Invisibility Flicker]], so you aren't ''blind''.

** On the positive side, the user accumulates no damage for the duration. For some reason.

*** And, of course, there's the bonus for pulling off at least one KO while cloaked.

** Of course, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|the computer controlled opponents won't fall off on their own, and can still see you.]]

** It's also utterly useless for hiding if you you're playing with your name on to save your records as it will appear above your head at all times, even when cloaked.

** Replaced with the smoke ball in Brawl, though that game still has an option to [[Hilarity Ensues|make everyone invisible for the whole fight]].

* The Sorcerers in ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]'', distinguished by their purple robes, wink in and out of existence as they charge towards you. The Super Sorcerers in ''Gauntlet II'' are able to use this ability tactically, appearing at the edge of the screen, firing at you, and then disappearing.

* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' has some enemies in the third island that can cloak themselves - the flying grenadier machines, and the shotgun conduits.

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* The GameCube remake of ''[[Resident Evil]]'' features a challenge mode in which '''all''' of the monsters are invisible. Prepare to die repeatedly.

** [[Resident Evil 4]] features an enemy located in an [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]] called the "Novistador". These enemies are invisible until they die, and their bodies become visible.

* There is a type of invisible robo-coptor in ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent''. Sirnaq's/Model P's radar can see them though, and shoot them. They also do an [[Invisibility Flicker]] when they shoot.

* There is a variation of this in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. If you visit the Kodo Graveyard, there are visible vultures that are hostile and will attack you, but if you visit the graveyard while dead in spirit form, you will notice friendly Kodo Spirits scattered around.

** There are also level 50 invisible ghosts in one area of Duskwood. A zone for characters at about half that level. Prepare to die if you hit one by accident.

*** In the same vain there are level 5 ghosts in the courtyard outside of Undercity. These are much less a threat as by the time you hit the zone you're already level 5 and you don't have any spells that would hit them at this level anyways. Both of these can be seen with spells or potions that detect invisibility.

** Interestingly, both spirit form and invisibility follow a pattern where if two entities have it, they can still see eachother. In some dungeons, the Mage's Invisibility spell was useful to spot monsters who were invisible for that exact reason.

* ''[[Nethack]]'' takes this to the extreme. In addition to having two types of enemies that are permanently invisible, it contains methods that allow pretty much ''any'' creature in the game to become invisible.

** {{spoiler|Potions/wands of invisibility make living things (not items) permanently invisible. If a monster sees one on the ground, it will pick it up and use it. To top it off, these are considered "defensive items" and pretty much every monster has a chance to receive one at spawn time.}}

** {{spoiler|Cloaks of invisibility. Monsters that can wear armor will pick them up and don them.}}

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* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' , if you hit the 'ghost' monster, it turned invisible. You could still target it, but you would almost certainly miss. Not so in reverse.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has an invisible [[Bonus Boss]] on a small island. It is [[Lost Forever]] when the world explodes.

* The ''[[Halo]]'' series has invisible enemies and a [[Power-Up]] that can turn the [[Player Character|PC]] invisible for a period of time.

** The weapons are still visible. One of the funnier moments in the original was watching [[Too Dumb to Live]] elites charge you invisibly with massive glowing energy swords fully visible in their hand, completely negating the point of the invisibility. They'd have been better off going with the old-fashioned blue armour, the light blue shieldless armour of the invisible elites is the lightest armour in the original [[Halo]] and allows the bearer to be taken out with a single headshot as easily as a grunt. This recieved much mocking in several flash videos.

** The Mausoleum [[Multi Mook Melee]] has invisible [[Elite Mooks|Ultra Elites]].

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* ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' has a baker's dozen or so of monsters who like to shake things up by being invisible.

* Two versions exists in ''[[La-Mulana]]'' : One that {{spoiler|moves so fast that you have to stop time to see it}}, and one {{spoiler|that merely requires that you get an item to see them... after going through roughly 10 screens taking random hits from them}}.

* The boss of Chapter 3 in [[Super Paper Mario]] is a nerdy chameleon who turns invisible and invincible and runs around the room. However, he has to drop his invisibility to attack you.

* In ''[[Rogue (video game)|Rogue]]'', there are the Phantoms, which can only be seen if you're wearing a 'see invisible' ring.

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' loves this trope. Most wizards will use some variant of Invisibility (usually ''Mislead'') thieves love stocking up on ''Potions of Invisibility'' (especially nasty are the "Rune Assassins" featured in one quest, that have a very nasty backstab and a near-unlimited amount of potions...) Throne of Bhaal ups the ante further, introducing a '''dragon''' that turns invisible, and who cannot be detected unless you use a particular sequence of spells. Ouch.

* [[Kirby]] Super Star had Chameleo Arm, which tended to be invisible...and tended to fire balls of paint which the protagonist could get the Paint ability from to reveal and damage him with.

* [[Starcraft]]'s Dark Templar are invisible, and capable of hacking your average infantry unit into two hunks.

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** {{spoiler|If you eat the corpse of an invisible stalker, there's a chance that YOU can become intrinsically invisible}}.

** {{spoiler|Like [[Nethack]] it also has spellcasting monsters who will turn themselves invisible.}}

* ''[[~~Ever Quest~~]]'' 1 used invisible monsters primarily as [[Underground Monkey|Underground Monkeys]]. Among the more notable in the early days were the Enchanter pets and the shadowed men. In both cases the characters were invisible but the weapons they carried were not.

* ''[[EverQuest]]'' 1 used invisible monsters primarily as [[Underground Monkey|Underground Monkeys]]. Among the more notable in the early days were the Enchanter pets and the shadowed men. In both cases the characters were invisible but the weapons they carried were not.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' gives us the Stealth Sneak, first as a [[Boss Battle]], then reappearing later on in the Hades Cup. The icing on the cake is one of the latter seeds, consisting of not one but ''two'' Stealth Sneaks to carve up. Mind you, locking onto and hitting one is not affected by whether they are visible or not. They can be detected by sight alone if you look very carefully. Their camouflage produces a "heat ripple" effect, though this is easier to see during the boss fight than during the seed match.

** ''[[Birth By Sleep]]'' also gives us the boss from the {{spoiler|Secret Episode}}. For the entire first part of the fight, the only parts of it you can see are its [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glowing red eyes]] and, when it attacks you, its claws.

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** Nightkin in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' have the same effect, which much more difficult to see at night while climbing Black Mountain. Even worse are a pack of Nightstalkers, mutant coyote-rattlesnake hybrids, that can also cloak. It's nearly impossible to make out the tell-tale visual distortion in their dark cave, especially since they're so small and quick, but you can hear their faint rattling and hissing as they approach, sometimes in packs.

* The turn-based RPG ''Gorky [[17/Odium|Odium]]'' features, near the end of the game, a group of invisible mmonsters which are visible only when they move. You have to remember where they stopped so that you can shoot them (explosive weapons come in handy, as they cover a wide radius). Or you can just look at your character's movement range and check which squares are mysteriously inaccessible...

** They are [[Foreshadowing|hyped]] throughout the game as dangerous enemies, but they're rather weak, if only because they're slow and easy to kill. And their poison is ordinary poison that does mediocre damage, rather than [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|the supposed deadly toxin that kills in seconds]].

* In the ''[[Descent]]'' series, several robots have invisibility-cloaked variations. In the third game, the Thiefbot can also cloak.

* The V38 Phantom TIE fighters in ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Rebel Assault]] II''.

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* The ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'' series has the nearly-invisible [[McNinja|Assassins]].

* One level in ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' has invisible enemies that you probably won't even know are there until they stab you in the back, which is likely to [[Nintendo Hard|kill you outright]].

* ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity]]'' had one of these in the Frozen Reaches, which served as a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]] as well.

* ''[[The Hidden]]'': 8 troopers vs. 1 invisible [[Knife Nut]]. The titular Hidden has ''[[Predator]]''-type invisibility, but, unlike him, is entirely waterproof.

* In ''[[Wizard of Wor]]'', Garwors and Thorwors could turn invisible at times, though they would still appear on the radar screen.