| “ | A demon who can alter gravity's pull on himself. Half-man, half-stallion. |
„ |
| ~ Description from Ritual of the Night |
Orobas is a boss featured in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. He is a demon whose body is almost entirely made of the bones of various creatures. He acts as the boss of the Inferno Cave.
Description[]
Orobas is the boss of the Inferno Cave. While referred to as a "half-man, half-stallion" creature in his description, he looks more like an odd bipedal creature constructed of all manner of animal bones. Along his back are several human skulls clumped together, with four ribs protruding out which have a lingering purple flame on the tips. In the midst of these is the charred upper body of a man, glowing with the same hellfire and the face stuck in a gape. The core of Orobas is a set of shark jaws that fills up the center. His legs, made out of typical avian bones, are digitigrade. His tail seems to be made of vertebrae. The golden head is a horse skull without the lower jaw, and with two downswept horns on the sides.
While at first glance Orobas could be considered to be an unexceptional boss, the main issues he poses are his unorthodox movements and forms of attack, which could take the player by surprise, in addition to his notable resilience and great damage output. Most notably, Orobas can reverse the effects of gravity on himself alone, which allows him to walk the same on the ground as well as on the ceiling; and likewise, he can perform all of his attacks on both surfaces, having their effects inverted accordingly.
- Attacks
- Spews three energy balls in an arcing pattern and each at a different distance.
- Performs a long jump from one side of the room to the other.
- Performs a slow charge from one end of the room to the other while shooting energy rays from the ribs on his back.
From all these attacks, perhaps the most notable is his charge. He shoots two rays from each rib during each charge –taking a brief pause between each shot– and each of the ribs shoots at its own pace (that is, they don't all shoot at the same time), leaving a small space for the player to pass through after the first barrage of rays and before the second one is shot. As such, when Orobas is preparing to perform this charge, a good strategy is to allow him to start shooting the first set of rays, wait for the foremost to dissipate, and then jump over the boss as the other ribs also stop shooting. A similar strategy applies when Orobas is on the ceiling, although in this case the rays are easier to avoid, as the player only has to walk through them as they dissipate.
Orobas's long jump is easy enough to avoid while he's on the ground, as the player can just stay on the the general central area of the room without risking getting hit. However, this attack is harder to avoid when the boss is on the ceiling, as the player has to perform a well timed jump to evade Orobas as he passes by in a motion that, due to the perspective, resembles more a quick swoop that covers almost the entire room (not to mention that the whole unexpected move can take the player by surprise).
Another aspect to keep in mind during this encounter is Orobas's natural unorthodox way of moving, which gives all his movements a semi-erratic motion, and which at some point could confuse the player and make them accidentally bump into him (such as when he does his inverting jump, which could give the impression that he's just going to jump instead).
Once defeated, Orobas will yield the Invert shard, allowing Miriam to walk on ceilings herself, and thus giving her access to many previously unreachable areas. Like most of the other bosses, if Orobas is defeated without taking any damage, an extra, purely honorary Boss Medal (the Orobas Medal) will be rewarded.
When Orobas is defeated by Aurora, he will grant her "the sun", restoring her as the Princess of Lemuria completely, and thusly making her immune to the damage of spikes and traps.
Misnamed?[]
In the Ars Goetia, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and Book of Oberon, Orobas is referred to simply as having a horse's appearance before adopting a human one. While this explains the main head and the charred man's torso, it does not explain the jaws-body nor the avian legs. However, one spirit from The Book of Oberon, Sowrges--known in the Ars Goetia as Cimeies--is described as a horseman whose steed has three heads. One head is the standard horse head, but the other two are those of a bird and a fish. Considering the demon's bird legs and fish-jaw body, it seems reasonable to conclude that Orobas was in fact meant to be Sowrges/Cimeies, but confusion occurred about the names of horse-associated demons during the game's construction. In addition, Sowrges/Cimeies is typically described as having the power to ensure successful expeditions, something his personal gravity reversion can be seen as helping to enable, particularly in getting the equipment needed to enter the Oriental Lab safely (i.e. continuing the campaign against Gremory).
External links[]
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — Bestiary at GameFAQs