Cala Maria is a powerful enemy that has a very different attack than her Alien/Floating variant. To attack, she slams the ground three times in succession, dealing very high damage, enough to kill or severely damage most units. However, to balance this, she has Single Target with two knockbacks before death. Not many good attackers outrange her, which, despite her single target, still means that frail units will easily be in her reach, ready to be hit as soon as there is an opening.
Like other Angels, she is not considered a Floating enemy.
Strategy[]
Her weakness is that her three consecutive attacks are all Single Target, which means she can only hit up to three Cat Units per attack animation (the three frontmost units) in a stack of many. This allows your damage dealers to survive easily if protected by a horde of meatshields. The important thing is maintaining that horde, for a gap in the meatshield line might easily result in a precious backliner losing most, if not all of its health.
Cala Maria makes up for Single Target by delivering very high damage, causing cats with resistance to Angel enemies, such as Ramen Cat and Guardian Gamereon, to rarely be worth as much as a group of cheaper, one-off meatshields. When paired with Area Attack foes or even other Single Target attackers (e.g., Berserkory in Steamed to Death and Capy in Drunken Backrub), however, tanking the damage might still be the better option, so don't rule out Ramen if you see her!
A heavenly taste of the sea, sent as a religious vision by the Cat God to those pure of heart. Culinary paradise awaits those who pass this test of faith.
A squid-winged angel that was made tempura in the middle of a dream. Making full use of her hardened body, her original shoulder-strike attack causes those hit by it to ascend to Heaven.
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Gallery[]
Cala Maria's spritesheet
Cala Maria's moving animation
Trivia[]
Cala Maria may be based on the squid species Ancistroteuthis lichtensteinii, commonly known as the angel clubhook squid or simply angel squid.
Like Calamary, Cala Maria's name is a pun on the word calamari, meaning fried squid.
Cala Maria's description stating that she was sent by The Cat God could be a nod to Christianity, originated from her name.
It's unclear how Cat God could have sent Cala Maria, as Stories of Legend takes place before he was born. Note that Cala Maria's Japanese description doesn't mention Cat God at all, making this paradox specific to BCEN.
Cala Maria could also be a play on "Beata Maria", or Blessed Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Her Japanese name, Ika Ten (イカ天), literally means "squid heaven" and is short for "ika tempura" (イカ天ぷら, squid tempura).
The line "翼のイカれたエンジェル" (tsubasa no ikareta angel) in her Japanese description can be taken to mean either "squid-winged angel" or "crazy-winged angel", while also being a pun on the song "Tsubasa no Oreta Angel" (翼の折れたエンジェル, "Broken-Winged Angel") by Ayumi Nakamura.
The term used to describe Cala Maria's attack in her Japanese description is 肩たたき katatataki, meaning a shoulder massage performed by tapotement (a massage technique involving rapid and repeated striking of the body).
Drunken Backrub's Japanese name, Drunk Massager, directly alludes to this.
Cala Maria is the first enemy to have had multi-hit from the start rather than gaining it retroactively.
Cala Maria and Heracrist are the only Angels to have single-target attacks.