Whence the displacer beast?

[Plane Sailing]

I've heard that a asserted a number of times, and I don't buy it.

They have a different number of legs.

They have a different number of tentacles.

They have completely different powers (Couerl controls energy, Displacer beast appears to be somewhere it isn't).

The Displacer Beast could be inspired just as much by the Wolf from Red Riding Hood considering the number of congruous elements!

(FWIW I loved the Voyage of the Space Beagle, and in the 70's created D&D monsters based on each of the key creatures from that novel).

Now, the Xill clearly WAS originally based on the 'scarlet monstrosity' Ixtl. Phasing? check. Paralyse enemies? check. Impregnate paralysed enemies? check. Four arms? check.

Cheers

 

[Sebastrd]

I always thought the blink dog was created specifically to be the anti-displacer beast.

Cat -> Dog
Evil -> Good
Displacing -> Blinking

 

[Mikaze]

The Coeurl has shown up in a few places I know of

The Dirty Pair’s ‘pet’ Mughi is a Coeurl in the manga. In the first anime, it is a big, fat & lazy cat/bear crossbreed kind of thing.

Oh man, the flashbacks.

What I'm curious about now is whether or not Square took the idea of the Coeurl from the original story(on account of the name used) or from D&D(like a great MANY creatures they borrowed).

The Coeurl itself got statted up for 3.5 in one of Paizo's Pathfinder AP volumes, though I couldn't tell you for certain which volume(or even which AP) it was in.

 

[Squizzle]

If you're really curious, PM Old Geezer on rpg.net, since he, you know, played in Gary's group as the game was being formed (and is responsible for, I believe, the existence of the half-elf).

 

[James Jacobs]

The Coeurl itself got statted up for 3.5 in one of Paizo's Pathfinder AP volumes, though I couldn't tell you for certain which volume(or even which AP) it was in.

That would be Pathfinder #22: "The End of Eternity."

 

[pawsplay]

I've heard that a asserted a number of times, and I don't buy it.

They have a different number of legs.

They have a different number of tentacles.

They both have a pair of tentacles. They are also both dark-skinned, feline creatures with surprising intelligence.

 

[I'm A Banana]

What I'm curious about now is whether or not Square took the idea of the Coeurl from the original story(on account of the name used) or from D&D(like a great MANY creatures they borrowed).

Given the amount of stuff that especially the first game ripped from D&D, I'd wager the latter. I wouldn't be surprised if the "Blaster" ability came later on, either as Square plumbed the original inspiration themselves, or just made stuff up to kill PC's.

Intriguingly, this makes them the FF counterpart to the "Mind Flayer," rather than the Blink Dog (FF games don't have any Blink Dog counterparts that I'm aware of...), and the Mind Flayer is probably the most blatantly ripped from a D&D original (complete with the Mind Blast!).

I like quirky old-school monsters like these. It lends a certain fantastic weirdness to the worlds of D&D that is very appealing to me, because it divorces it from reality in a mundane way. I like the fact that tribes in the forest can incorporate owlbears into their mythology and local lore, that people wear displacer beast pelts, that blink dogs might hunt down some local prey. It makes that "anybody" criteria for monsters easy to fill in a way that makes the setting overtly unreal.

 

[frankthedm]

Given the amount of stuff that especially the first game ripped from D&D, I'd wager the latter. I wouldn't be surprised if the "Blaster" ability came later on, either as Square plumbed the original inspiration themselves, or just made stuff up to kill PC's.

Hard to say. Final Fantasy was mixing Fantasy and Sci-fi from the first game.

Intriguingly, this makes them the FF counterpart to the "Mind Flayer," rather than the Blink Dog (FF games don't have any Blink Dog counterparts that I'm aware of...), and the Mind Flayer is probably the most blatantly ripped from a D&D original (complete with the Mind Blast!).

Actually the US company switched the obviously a beholder "evil Eye" in the ice cave to be called the "Eye" and made a new sprite for the critter. Since i am having trouble finding the Japaneses original sprite, here is amano's art for the beholder, which looks just like the sprite does.