Good morning, everybody, and welcome
back to VG Myths, the online internet video game TV show that will never reach its true
potential. Kingdom Hearts 2 is the long-awaited fourth game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise,
transforming into an over-the-top, nonstop action game, perfect for the Level 1 Run.
The rules are near identical to those used in the first game. Sora and all Party members must remain
at Level 1 for the entirety of the playthrough. For this to even be possible, we'll be playing the
Final Mix version of the game, on the new Critical Mode, the highest difficulty and only difficulty
where the ability EXP Zero is available. EXP Zero, as you might be able to guess,
prevents EXP gain while equipped. Additionally, since they would destroy the entire point of
the run, all consumable stat boosting items are banned. Otherwise, we're totally unrestricted to
blatantly cheat however we please. And finally, as a bonus challenge which is frankly just the thinly
veiled main challenge, we'll be going for 100% completion of Jiminy's Journal, requiring us to
conquer almost every task the game has to offer. Just about the only thing we won't be doing are
the Gummi Ship missions, which aren't tracked by the journal and are entirely unaffected by
character level. By the way, I should very much put in one final note that this run has so
many different simultaneous objectives that I wibble-wobbled everywhere on the map basically at
random, so events are absolutely not covered in chronological order. If you see me wibble-wobbling
between levels 1 and 1, that's why.
With the rules set, Can You Beat
Kingdom Hearts 2 At Level 1?
Before getting to any real gameplay, we've
got a few hours of tutorials to sit through, including a couple character-building choices.
One of these choices will give a starting buff to either Strength, Defense, or Magic. If you generally prefer dying, choose literally
anything. Otherwise, throw the game in the trash. Recall that in Kingdom Hearts 1, Strength and
Defense were functionally useless at Level 1. By the lategame we'd be dealing and taking the
absolute minimum amount of damage, but a single point in the Magic stat was a comparatively
gigantic buff. In Kingdom Hearts 2, the Magic system has been completely reworked, with the
Magic stat now joining Strength and Defense in useless solidarity. Your choice here will only
effect the run in a completely inconsequential way a couple hundred hours later, which I'll get
around to explaining in about 46 minutes. You may as well just pick whatever weapon looks cool, so
you can leave a pretty corpse. The later choice in the Dive to the Heart will determine your stat
boosts on level-up, so make sure you sit and think for a good couple hours before committing.
As for getting EXP Zero active, just make sure you get it done after the first battle in the Dive to
the Heart. While there are some required battles beforehand, they won't give enough XP to level
anybody up, so no fancy XP dodging shenanigans this time. Now you can start punching everybody
you see secure in the fact it will only make you a better person figuratively, not literally.
While you're in those menus, you should also go ahead and equip all the abilities you can get
your hands on. Critical Mode gives you a bunch to play with right at the start of the game, and more
abilities will unlock gradually as you progress. Eventually you'll reach a point there isn't enough
AP to go around and you'll have to decide which abilities you'll be bringing with you and which
you'll be leaving behind. To keep things brief I won't be explaining how I min-maxed my abilities
in every battle throughout the game. I trust you to experiment and figure out which abilities
you like, which abilities you can live without, and which abilities are actively murdering you.
Speaking of abilities, make sure you go all-out and grind up Munny during the
watermelon quest. You'll get a permanent, direct bonus to your base AP based on how
much Munny you grab, with the max of 2 AP being given if you collect a certain amount. I say
"a certain amount" because the internet refuses to give a consistent answer. All I can say is I
had 1250 Munny and that was apparently enough.
Once Sora eats Roxas, you can move through the
game's worlds at whatever pace, and in whatever order you please. We'll actually start to feel
the effects of our low level pretty quickly, and in fact the early game is probably going to
be harder on you than the lategame. Later worlds will notice you're underlevelled and invisibly
balance your stats, so the major difference between an early world and a later world is your
own lack of combat abilities, which must be earned through progression. You'll need to make smart use
of all the resources at your disposal until you can get something better. You won't have Cure for
a while, so while this is normally illegal, you'll be forced against your will to substitute with
Potions. Blizzard is nearly completely useless in casual play, but is one of the earliest spells
you learn, offering long range piercing damage, perfect for attacking enemies not stunned by
your basic attacks. And since Magic now recharges itself, you effectively have an infinite supply
and can win some battles with cheesy baby strats. Brave Form, in addition to giving a huge offensive
buff, should be used liberally: every time you hit something while in Brave Form, you get
experience points, allowing you to level up.
And if a particular fight is giving you
trouble, never forget that- oh, wait a second, my magical mind-reading powers are telling
me that some viewers are confused why we're gaining experience points to level up in a Level
1 run. Each of Sora's forms has their own level entirely separate from Sora's character level.
The experience points for each of these forms are ignored by EXP Zero and function differently
than usual: for example, Brave Form, as mentioned, gains 1 EXP per successful hit landed on an enemy.
These form levels, very importantly, grant Sora with almost all his basic movement options. For
example, Brave Form's is High Jump, increasing Sora's maximum jump height. In addition to simply
obtaining these abilities, as the form levels up that ability will level up, increasing its speed
or distance. While none of these abilities are required to beat the game, and it would certainly
be a neat challenge all its own to do an any% No Form Run, that's not our goal here. Remember the
main challenge is the bonus challenge to complete Jiminy's Journal. These abilities *are* explicitly
required to complete the journal, and for reasons you'll find out in about 44 minutes and 10 seconds
are even *double* required to complete the journal while at Level 1. I understand it's not going to
be satisfying to some purists, which is totally valid, and it definitely feels weirdish that
levelling up is a strategy in a Level 1 challenge, but since the in-game Level 1 button allows form
levels, they mechanically function completely differently from normal level-ups, *and* the
super fun, super hard parts of the challenge don't even *exist* without them, I'm gonna
be form levelling my friggin' heart out.
And if a particular fight is giving you trouble,
never forget that winning is not necessarily the win condition. As an example, in the canyon in
Land of Dragons, beating all the enemies by the rock walls proved to be more than I could handle,
particularly due to the Assault Rider protecting the third wall. To cheese past, I entered Brave
Form which automatically juggles nearby enemies, threw him a meter away, broke through the
wall and ran away before he could catch up.
And for fights that don't let you sneak past,
I've got super good news: Mickey Mouse himself knows you suck. During certain boss fights along
the main story path, whenever you die a painful death, there's a random chance that Mickey Mouse
will ninja his way onto the field. If this occurs, even if Mickey immediately sucks and dies, he'll
revive Sora before his retreat, effectively acting as an extra life. And, even if Sora immediately
continues the suck and death combo, Mickey still has a random chance to turn around and
jump back in. There have been instances where Mickey revived me 5 times in a single battle,
essentially beating the entire thing for me. When actually fighting bosses with Sora, your
basic attacks suck and are lame. Instead, you can deal tons of damage by using party
member Limits. These can be used as long as you have at least 1 MP, use up the entirety
of your remaining MP, and most importantly grant you immortality for the duration.
Whenever you're having trouble, abusing Limits is almost always the answer, and remember, just
like with standard Magic, if you're patient you effectively have infinite ammo. If the arena gives
enough breathing room, sit back, let your friends get roasted to death, run in to let a Limit
loose, and retreat to repeat the whole process.
Once you unlock the tournaments in the Underworld,
you'll have a free infinitely repeatable method of restoring Drive to full. Simply enter the Pain
and Panic Cup, where the Drive guage is banned, exit, and viola: apparently the game is too lazy
to remember what your drive guage was beforehand and just refills it to the top. If you're
in a rush or the coliseum is unavailable, you can also refill to full by entering an area
where party members are disallowed while the drive guage is in use, such as the map screen.
As soon as you get back on land, you'll be untransformed with the guage totally full.
By the way, while you're running around, you might come across these ominous
floating orbs. Don't touch them.
That finally covers most of the general
basics. From here on, we'll be tackling each individual battle one-by-one.
In Disney Castle, you'll temporarily have access to the most overpowered party member in
the franchise, Minnie Mouse. Her reaction command casts Holy, requiring absolutely no resources and
dealing a big chunk of damage to every enemy in the immediate area. She'll single-handedly escort
you into Timeless River, which itself features multiple difficult battles one after another.
In Building a Building, absolutely the only way to deal good damage is with the midair
Reaction Command. Try to lure all the enemies close together and spam the Reaction once
launched. Against the Minute Bombs in particular, watch for timers to sprout over their
heads and mash Triangle. Once they reach 3 seconds, a Reaction Command will become
available which kills them instantly.
In Mickey's Orphans, the Rapid Thrusters
have a Reaction Command similar to the prior midair Reaction, which should clear
out everybody relatively easily.
In Gulliver Mickey, the tower Reaction can be
spammed freely and stuns all enemies in the area, making it the easiest of the four battles.
Finally, in Mickey's Fire Brigade, I was having trouble beating the super dangerous Hot Rods
until eventually accidentally selling Sora's soul. When doing a magical girl transformation,
there's a semi-random chance that you'll abandon the power of friendship and embrace the power of
darkness with Anti Form. Anti Form is normally a death sentence, but its attacks are capable of
juggling standard enemies for ludicrous amounts of time and while dealing ludicrous amounts of
damage. With a properly timed accidental Anti, I was able to juggle the Hot Rods to death
without allowing them to enter their second phase, thus robbing them of all danger.
Beating Timeless River gives you Wisdom Form, which, when levelled by killing
heartless, grants Air Slide, Kingdom Hearts 2's equivalent of Dodge Roll. Additionally,
Donald will learn Fantasia, a limit usually overshadowed by those of world-specific party
members, but one that will see a decent amount of use until Donald learns something... ducker.
In Port Royal, when using the ship to travel between locations, you'll encounter random pirate
attacks. Though you may be tempted to swashbuckle, swashbuckling is only a valid strategy if you're
good at video games. Otherwise, run away like a little pirate baby and hide in the cabin in a
fetal position. This technique is so powerful all the pirates outside will flee in terror,
winning the battle in quotation marks and letting you continue to your destination unimpeded.
Pirate battles specifically encountered during the story, however, still need to be beaten legit.
And by legit, I mean by cheating. Head up to the steering wheel, that's what's it's called fight
me boat nerds and stick around the left side. The Pirates earn no points for spatial awareness
and will be nearly incapable of following you up, letting you easily pick them off one by one.
Partway through the first set of Disney worlds, Twilight Town will open up for a return visit. I
headed there ASAP. Doing this segment of the plot now will give us a few very useful abilities and
items for our arsenal, but that's not actually the reason I went there. The real reason is because
I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. In the Sandlot you'll face a mob of Nobodies, the big
dangers being the Berserkers, three of which spawn simultaneously in the third wave. At low health,
they start spamming the same uninterruptable attack over and over. To take them out before they
got the chance, I did a transformation nearby to launch them into the air, automatically dropping
their club for a Reaction Command. If you're fast enough, you can hit all three with one Command,
after which you can grab another club to repeat the combo. Once this battle is beaten, you unlock
Limit Form. Limit Form's gimmick is four unique Limit-like attacks conveniently remapped onto
your customize menu. It's the only Drive form that doesn't require fusion with party members,
and thus can be used even when Sora fights solo. Plus, when levelled up by successfully performing
Limits, Limit Form grants you with Dodge Roll, Kingdom Hearts 2's equivalent of Dodge Roll.
After Twilight Town you'll also be redirected to Hollow Bastion, where, after a cutscene dump,
you'll be gifted with Master Form. Master Form makes Brave Form useless and Wisdom Form highly
situational, giving an awesome offensive moveset without sacrificing your magic. But, even more
importantly, when levelled up by collecting Drive bobbles, Master Form grants Air Dodge,
a huge buff to our aerial maneuverability.
While you're here, you may as well also get
Space Paranoids out of the way, where Tron's ridiculously overpowered Limit will do all the
heavy lifting for you. Once that's done, get your anime butt outta there. The next big roadblock
here is Demyx, who will instantaneously kill you painfully and horribly. This happens to be one of
the story battles where Mickey refuses to spawn, so dying a painful death is NOT a valid
strategy. You'll want all the upgrades you can get to make up the difference.
You can totally cheese Oogie Boogie in his fight by hopping over to another conveyer belt
whenever Heartless end up on yours. The Heartless are incapable of travelling through the invisible
walls, so if you're never on the same track as them you're practically immortal. Beating Oogie
Boogie grants you Magnet, which will be vital.
In the Hyena boss fight, they'll always counter
your attacks with a one-hit-kill dash. Play it safe and sidestep after every combo. Don't worry
about protecting Pumba, as long as you mindlessly mash the triangle button, you'll accidentally
rescue him whenever he's in danger.
During this visit to the Pride Lands you'll obtain
the Circle of Life, a keyblade featuring the MP Hastara ability, refilling your MP faster whenever
it runs out. For the majority of the game's story, this became my main keyblade, since most of
my strats involved running around in circles waiting on the MP bar. If you're good at the
game you would probably just use Ethers instead, but since I kept getting punched in
the face I preferred to use Potions.
In the Scar fight, Circle of Life was
particularly useful since I dealt almost all damage with Simba's Limit. Mindlessly run
around in circles and you can dodge all his attacks save for his mad darkness dash. For that
one, instead mindfully run around in circles. The momentum physics are weird, but if you
constantly slide to the side when Scar approaches he'll slingshot himself away from you.
After a couples days' worth of distractions, including some time spent grinding up Air Dodge
and Air Slide, I had all the easy upgrades stacked up and was ready to get back on stage. Before
heading in, just in case you weren't aware, there's a secret magic counter in the background
that determines how likely you are to turn into Anti Form. This counter goes down whenever
you turn Anti, so if it's happening constantly during boss fight attempts when you don't want
it to, transform near some Heartless. If the transformation is successful, let them murder you.
Successful transformations increase the counter, but being murdered rolls back your status,
including that counter, to the most recent time you entered a stable area. If the transformation
was unsuccessful, congrats, run out of the area with your counter now lowered. I should also
also note I was finally forced against my will to start equipping Ethers, since being bad at
video games is now a less effective strategy.
Whenever Demyx summons Dance Waters, you can
always clear them out with ease using their Reaction Command, available after hitting one
a single time. As for fighting the man himself, I spammed Sora's Trinity Limit for the bulk of
damage, and inbetween got chunks in by countering his attacks. Though do keep your distance, at
any moment he could start walking backwards towards you. Mash Triangle as fast as possible,
if he gets too close Demyx will use your move and Reaction Command your face into oblivion. In
Phase 2, he'll box you in, spawning geysers that force you to stay at a mid-distance. Keep as
far as possible while still in the sweet spot; for his arch of geysers, this distance keeps
you safe. If he instead uses the homing geysers, you can dodge roll slightly to the side of them,
though I will warn that I never managed to get this down totally reliably. With some luck, I
managed to get enough Trinity Limits in a row to murder water murder. Buuuut I've got bad news:
immediately after Goofy will die a painful death, forcing you into a scripted battle sequence as
Sora is controlled entirely by his unquenchable thirst for revenge. Remember how
I said the continue system works? Upon Continue, you reset back to the moment
you most recently entered a "stable" area, "stable" meaning an area where you aren't thrust
directly into a boss battle or scripted sequence such as this one. This area began with a scripted
sequence, and occurred immediately after the prior area's boss battle against Demyx. Since there's no
stable area inbetween, you have to beat both Demyx and this sequence of battles in one attempt.
On top of that, Goofy is a dead corpse, Donald ran off on a roaring rampage, and none of the Final
Fantasy characters are legally our friends. You've got to finish these fights as Sora solo. I opened
each battle with Magnet, and constantly spammed the Triangle button during my assault in the
hopes of accidentally catching a Reaction Command. Inbetween every battle, sit back and drink
a latte. There's absolutely no time limit, so feel free to put the controller down until
your MP refills. The Morning Star heartless are the most dangerous and should be given priority.
Also, I never actually thought of this during the attempt, but if you have some Drive Recovers, you
can use Limit Form for one free heal and offensive buff per battle, accessing the inventory to
recover inbetween. In the end I only had to beat Demyx about three times before getting a truly
successful attempt. Once you reunite with Mickey, Donald, and our lord and saviour Goofy
Goof, you'll bank a new checkpoint.
After Reaction spamming through the Battle of 1000
Heartless, the midgame plot dump will be complete opening the second round of Disney visits.
Good news is these will mostly be uneventful; our upgraded mobility and some liberal Limit spam
ensure that only a handful of boss fights provide any challenge. During the Xaldin battle,
when he goes invisible and spams spears, mash triangle while Air Dodging each volley.
Reaction Commanding gives stacks of the Jump command to rack up tons of damage while stalling
for time to use Beast's Limit. When he summons his dragon, stick to the opposite edge, where
the wind gust should completely miss you.
Before fighting the Grim Reaper, swap around your
customized magic. He's immortal until all coins are back in the chest, with magic and Reaction
Commands being the only ways to make him drop them. While Fire is technically most effective,
it's close range and thus too dangerous to use. However, keep Sparrow in the party and he'll
occasionally toss bombs that are legally Fire magic, dropping a bunch of free coins along
the way. When the Reaper enters vacuum mode, aim an Air Dodge to land directly behind his
closest fireball. Even if you take a hit you'll survive and can perform the Reaction Command. As
for dealing actual damage, I had to face my own personal demons and admit, after two decades
of firm belief, that summons do not, in fact, suck. Except Chicken Little he's a piece of s
Genie's Master Form limit in particular does a huge volley of homing magic shots, making it a
great all-purpose murder button. Once Death dies, Donald will obtain what just might be the most
important tool in the entirety of Level 1: Flare Force, colloquially known as
Duck Flare. Just you wait. Donald's gonna be toasting some serious poopsies.
But for now, the next big boss is Jafar, who must be fought without party members. We're
also superglued to Carpet in an aerial battle, during which Jafar will constantly be
throwing buildings which can kill us in one combo. To dodge, wait until just before
they home in and ascend or descend at full speed. If far enough away they'll graze past you.
Normally the two buildings are synced and predictably thrown one after another, but over the
battle they'll desync. Priority #1 is despawning them. While these buildings are technically
attached to the health bars on Jafar's hands, instead punch Jafar directly in the gut. If Jafar
gets a stomachache, his hands automatically die, removing the buildings from play and leaving
him open for his Reaction Command. Don't React immediately, though. You can minmax for a bit
of extra damage before the stomachache stops. After the Reaction, you can minmax a little
bit more before he eyeballs you away. Upon reaching Phase 2, the buildings will
return and he'll start spamming extra attacks. It's not going to be pretty, but get in close and
Reflect and you can get in a big chunk of damage, inevitably getting hit but hopefully with enough
time to escape and heal. Get in a few stomachaches and finish Jafar off, officially beating the
second hardest boss in the Level 1 story!
The #1 hardest boss is Winnie the friggin'
Pooh. Like seriously, the in-game instructions don't even tell you how to play the friggin'
minigame. And no, it's not because it's in Japanese! Even the English version, like, doesn't
even tell you. You have to press the button when he's facing the moon, and there's like this,
this whole second mechanic to the way that the the gauge falls down. Like, this is the most
complicated minigame in the entire game. Like, honestly, Winnie the Pooh? Probably best friends
with Chicken Little I'm glad his dad hates him
Against the Experiment in Halloween Town, I
dealt most damage with Jack's Limit. Use both Sora and Jack's commands 3 times, then wait out
the timer, racking up extra damage with the spin attack before unleashing the finisher. When The
Experiment split up, I stuck between the tentacle and the claw, Reaction Commanding the body between
them over and over again. With its dismantling, we obtain the Level 1 run's most iconic Keyblade:
Holy Pumpkin. Holy Pumpkin's grounded finishers deal bonus damage relative to the length of the
combo, grating through boss health at rapid speed. I personally still kept Circle of Life equipped
most the time, but if you asked somebody good at video games they'd tell you I'm an idiot.
Speaking of the Circle of Life, our next big boss is Groundshaker. Simba's Limit is massively
effective. When Groundshaker is stunned, position yourself at just the right angle, and
his health bar will ludicrously rapidly decrease. When waiting for your magic to recover or Simba
to revive, mash up the eyes while keeping your own eye out for the approaching geysers. Once
Groundshaker enters the final phase, play it safe. If you're out of magic or Simba is dead, stall
for time by repeatedly climbing up and falling back on your face. This will keep you alive
long enough until the stars align. You will fall directly back down on your face when Simba
pathetically flails in the least correct direction and triumphantly announces his failure. Give
him a couple tries, he'll get the hang of it.
Against the MCP and Sark, you shouldn't have
much trouble with casual strats, though there is one important protip. Once you enter Phase 2,
Sark will start spawning walls if you try to run away from him. These walls just so happen to be a
package deal with a totally free Reaction Command, headshotting Sark for an incredibly
over-the-top satisfying instant stun.
That was the final task left in the Disney
revisits. Next stop: the endgame. After trouncing some Nobodies, we begin one of the
hardest level 1 fights in the entire story: Roxas. You'll need to have almost his entire
moveset memorized to stand a chance. I say ALMOST his entire moveset because you absolutely
must not encounter his Reaction Command, which, when successfully countered, causes you to steal
his Keyblades. While triple-wielding keyblades is undeniably awesome, as far is gameplay is
concerned Roxas becomes exceptionally dangerous. Rather than bothering learning how to dodge
his entire secondary moveset, you can instead simply dodge the Reaction Command itself: Roxas
can only trigger it by charging into you. If you're too high in the air at the time, he'll
give up and perform a standard attack instead. However, be warned that you're vulnerable
upon landing. Upon entering Phase 2, Roxas will open with his super move, sending
out a volley of homing light. To reliably dodge, un-lock Roxas for full camera control, and Air
Slide in a circle while just barely hugging the wall. The proper angle will avoid every blast. His
Phase 2 attacks add light pillars, usually focused directly at you. Dodge Roll and Air Slide both
have some invulnerability frames so time it just right to phase through the pillars. Once Roxas'
health gets low enough to kill with one combo, don't let up; Drive into Limit Form and keep
that combo going with one final Limit. This fight will be the toughest you've yet faced,
and your reward will be equally great. Roxas recompletes Sora and bestows the Final Drive Form.
In addition to generally being ridiculous awesome, Final Form comes with the Glide ability, thus
completing the basic movement tutorial.
After enter battle with Xigbar, Luxord, and Saix,
all of whom are mostly just excuses to try out your full moveset. For dealing most damage,
I finally started showing off Flare Force. While the fireworks show is cool and all, the
really great thing about Flare Force is you're still in full control of Sora, and thus can
assist Donald in lighting up some faces.
With liberal ducks, we reach the point of no
return: the door to Kingdom Hearts. Save the game now, and head in for the final boss guantlet.
Similar to Kingdom Hearts 1, this point of no return is an exception to established Continue
rules. Every loading screen marks a new continue point, and thus you can clear each section one at
a time. As always, Limits are your best friend, now performed with your literal best friend and
legitimate Party Member, Riku. He'll help you mow through these battles one by one, effortlessly
blocking Xemnas' view of the TV. The one actual legitimately difficult battle is the actual
legitimate true Final Xemnas. He immediately begins the battle by cutscening Sora directly
into an air juggle. Genuinely trying to Reaction Command through is not recommended. Unless you're
exceptionally quick at the draw you'll still end up taking damage. Instead, notice the Command Menu
is still active during the cutscene: use this time to select Eternal Session, mashing the Confirm
button to enter immortality simultaneously with cutscene's end, opening the battle by super
moving Xemnas' super move. When Xemnas uses standard attacks, strafe at a medium distance
and wait for him to fire his Zebra lasers; he's always vulnerable to a combo immediately
after. Once he switchs to vanilla lasers, switch to defense, guarding until the opportunity
presents itself for another Eternal Session. Don't worry too much about healing, Riku has his
own healing spell to keep you covered. Once you start playing as Riku, take a roundabout path
while firing Dark Firaga every couple seconds. This will let you keep Xemnas' clone away and
let you reach Sora with plenty of time to spare. Finally, once Xemnas uses his Super Duper Super
move, you've already won. Simply mash Circle and Triangle with one finger, a thing you can DO in
the Japanese version, and take your victory lap into the end cutscene. With Organization XIII
thoroughly rejected from nonexistence, the Kingdom Hearts II Level 1 Run is Mission Complete.
Congrats on finishing the warm-up. You know why you're here. It's time
for the main event, the only reason anybody's watching this video and the only reason
I bothered with this run in the first place: dumb stupid minigames! In order to fully complete
the journal, we need to do basically everything, 99% of which is identical to a casual playthrough.
This includes something like 20 hours worth of mindlessly killing the same enemies over and
over for synthesis material to craft items you're never even going to use. Pull up your most hated
workout playlist and suffer! After a ludicrously mind-numbing detour with as much progress as grind
can get us, you should have all your Drive Forms at max level and Ultima Weapon, which, unlike the
first game, is actually genuinely a decent option, being an upgraded Circle of Life with a
longer reach, MP Hastaga over MP Hastara, and, most importantly, it looks cool.
But not all stupid minigames are dumb and easy: some are dumb and impossible. We actually won't
be fully equipped to complete all the minigames, or have access to all the synthesis materials we
need, until we start on our journey to beat the actual main event: Kingdom Hearts 2's selection
of superbosses, of which there are 20. Yes, seriously, this game has 20 superbosses. If you
were wondering why this video wasn't even half done after we beat the friggin' game, you've
got your answer. This is honestly WAY past due, but to get yourself ready for these babies, you
should trade in the ethers as your item of choice and swap them all out for Elixirs. While not
quite as good as Megalixirs, only granting full recovery to a single character rather then
the whole party, vanilla Elixirs are good enough for most situations and, more importantly, can
be easily farmed in a short amount of time. Stuff your entire fridge with these things. Trust
me, no matter how certain you are you've grinded enough, you're gonna be coming back for more.
With an infinite supply of Elixirs, you can stop with the boring strategy stuff and enter the
first few superbosses with absolute unrelenting ham. Remember how you can still run around and do
your basic moves while executing Duck Flare? One of those allowed moves is using an item. Barrage
your opponent with Duck Flare, throw up an Elixir, wait for Duck Flare to run out, and then, hey,
look, my MP is full! With Sora's max inventory 8 Elixirs can be brought into a single battle,
more than enough to decorate any room with its occupants. Just turn your brain off and enjoy the
pretty lights. This mindless spam is enough to obliterate Absent Larxene, Absent Lexaeus, Absent
Zexion, Absent Vexen, and Absent Marluxia with absolutely no brainthinking whatsoever.
Less minimally brainthinky is the veteran superboss making his return from Kingdom
Hearts 1: the one-winged angel, Sephiroth. Donald and Goofy, despite being there in the intro
cutscene, are totally MIA. Ducks are invalid, so we'll be relying almost entirely on basic
attacks. Sephiroth will always be vulnerable after his basic combo; stay just barely out of his
attack range and counter. When he teleports away, he might appear practically anywhere and perform
practically any move. Get ready to dodge roll in advance. If you fail to dodge his juggle
attack, he'll try to execute you in midair, but all hope isn't lost. Wait out Air Recovery and
a Reflect with exactly the right timing and you might survive his follow-up attacks, which
just so happens to set him up for your own combo simultaneously. The most dangerous
post-teleport attack is his Reaction Command. You can only React while grounded. If he catches
you in an Air Slide, you are dead. Dodge Roll, however, is legally still grounded. If you don't
need the extra distance keep your dodges short. In a panic, the Reaction Command can also be
survived with a well-timed Reflect. Either way, upon survival, punish him. Starting in Phase 2,
his basic attacks will home in more efficiently. You'll need to keep at an even further distance,
and take to the air if you get backed in a corner. He'll also start summoning dark orbs, which can be
parried with Reflect. As long as Reflect touches at least one orb, the resulting explosion will
launch the rest. During Phase 2 Sephiroth also begins using Heartless Angel, which, if you
remember from KH1, drops you to exactly 1HP and 0 MP. KH2's Heartless Angel is a blessing in
disguise thanks to our improved mobility. Start a glide immediately after an Air Dodge to enter your
max glide speed instantly and close the distance with plenty of time to spare. Hit Sephiroth just
once to ground him, then use a ground combo for maximum damage. In Phase 3 his standard combo
becomes absolutely too dangerous to dodge on the ground, but otherwise he's practically identical.
His super duper move, despite the theatrics, is basically just a cutscene: I'm not sure I've
ever even been hit by it once in my entire life. If you sufferred through Sephiroth in Kingdom
Hearts 1, don't worry, this downgraded loser is a total pushover. Your reward for beating him is
the situational but practically required Fenrir, a keyblade equipped with the Negative Combo
ability, decreasing your maximum combo.
Against most bosses this is a bad thing but
in a few dumb stupid minigames it's ideal, cutting out a third of the time normally
taken to unleash a finishing move.
One such dumb stupid minigame is the coliseum in
the Underworld. There are 4 cups to get through, and all 4 have a required goal score in the
journal. Honestly, these are pretty easy, so to keep this video's runtime
down I won't be covering them.
With that detour out of the way, we're
heading on to the next dumb stupid minigame: the Ura Coliseum in the Underworld. There are
4 Ura Cups to get through, 3 of them simply being higher level variants of the vanilla cups
with a higher goal score. Since we're long past the point the game scales damage, the goal
scores are the only practical difference.
For maximum score, equip as many Prize Up
abilities as possible, including by equipping the Wishing Lamp keyblade. During the coliseum,
all bobbles dropped by enemies are converted into score bobbles. Since Prize Up makes enemies
drop more bobbles, every instance equipped makes every instance you earn points worth more.
There's also a very, very stupidly secret mechanic the game never tells you about. When
you kill multiple enemies simultaneously, they'll drop better score bobbles than
if killed one by one. I have no idea why, but I'm going to hazard an uneducated guess that
it's because the combo meter goes up before score bobbles are dropped. That would mean if enemies
are killed simultaneously then all of them would drop score bobbles as if each individually were
the final kill. Regardless of why it works, abuse of this secret mechanic is required to
reach the first two goal scores. For multikills, abuse the Magnet+Thunder combo and Trinity Limit,
which delays all damage until the finishing move. For the Ura Cerberus goal score, you'll also have
to beat the good boy himself under a cup-wide time limit. Standard attacks are too slow; it's time
to unveil the absolute best secret technique in Kingdom Hearts 2: The Keyblender. During Final
Form's glide a hitbox is created on the spinning keyblades in front of Sora. This hitbox normally
does pitiful chip damage, but if you release and repress the Glide button, the hitbox will
disappear and reappear, effectively dealing that chip damage once per button press. Mash that Glide
button while scraping against Cerberus' face to eviscerate his health bar in record time.
For the Ura Titan goal score, even abuse of the secret combo mechanic isn't enough. Instead:
put yourself into Critical health, summon Stitch, sit back, and drink a latte. Remember how I said
all bobbles are converted into score bobbles? Stitch's ukele stuns all enemies and causes them
to drop health bobbles, and since *all* bobbles are converted into score bobbles we get tons
of free points. It's not abusable indefinitely, but it's still a huge boost to our score. Do
this in the Berserker round, and in the rest of the rounds summon Peter Pan. Whenever Peter Pan
is active, attacked enemies drop Magic bobbles, granting an automatic boost to each enemy's score
output. Along the way you'll also need to not die, which I probably should have mentioned by now
is hard. To keep enemies at bay, abuse both Magnega and the Magnet Splash finisher. Unlike the
unupgraded Magnet spell, Magnega can pull enemies from a decent distance, interrupting most attacks.
Magnet Splash, meanwhile, has a bit of a startup time, but can be used infinitely without Magic.
Once you're close to the goal score, throw Peter Pan in the trash and shift to safety strats with
Genie and Stitch. Genie's limits keep you immortal while clearing out the more dangerous crowds.
Stitch will automatically reflect all projectiles that near Sora, randomly block nearby attacks,
and frequently lick your HUD back to max MP, allowing for near infinite Magnet spam. Once
you reach Hercules, you've already won.
Welcome to the final, Ura exclusive Ura Hades Cup.
Forget about the goal score, you'll need major grit and determination just to reach the end. This
Cup features 50 total rounds, swapping between rulesets every 10. Don't nope out of reality just
yet, though: simultaneous with each rule change is a checkpoint, allowing you to restart from there
upon death, albeit with your score rolled back to 0. Additionally, once the cup is beaten, every
individual round becomes selectable as a starting point. With the goal score being a surprisingly
small 15,000, you might think that means we can just start from, say, Round 41, and spam Summons
to reach the goal score. One problem with that: summons are only available during Rounds 1 through
20. Summon cheese is only possible if you're prepared to beat at least 30 impossibly deadly
rounds in a row. Buuuut I've got a very, very, astronomically stupidly ridiculously stupid
backup strat. First thing's first, we need to beat the cup. Since we don't care about score right
now, swap Wishing Lamp out for Fenrir. Negative Combo lets you unleash Magnet Splash 30% faster,
reducing the amount of time you spend vulnerable. The first 30 rounds should be relatively easy
with liberal use of Summons and Limits.
Once the fireworks show is over, you'll enter
Round 31, running under Cerberus Cup rules. That means no Party Members AND a time limit, with
the consolation that all Drive transformations are available and the Drive Guage refills
ridiculously fast. The gist of my strategy: open with Magnega and Thundaga. When out of
MP, enter Final Form. Standard attacks will handle less dangerous mobs, while Magnega
can stun the rest. Once you run out of MP, manually end Final Form, smack some poor shmuck
for the Drive, and retransform to refill all MP. Round 34 features two Sorcerers, whose
attack cubes are unaffected by Magnet. Use the Final Form Keyblender to deal massive
damage while pushing the Sorcerers backward, thus constantly moving them away from their cubes
and leaving them defenseless. Round 35 isn't dangerous, but remember, we're under a time limit.
For an acceptable murder rate, enter Master Form, spam Magnet and Thunder, exit Master Form,
refill the Drive Guage with your residual Magic, re-enter Master Form and repeat the combo fluidly.
It's a lot to do in a very short period of time, but is well worth the practice, taking down the
mob lightning fast. In Round 40 we fight Leon and Cloud simultaneously, requiring some
particularly cheesy play for a quick kill. Walk directly into their faces and Reflect. If done
with proper timing both of them will be staggered. Perform this same move over and over as long as
your magic lasts, which you can refill with either Elixirs or a transformation. With Leon and Cloud
learning what it's like to be a murder weapon, you bank the checkpoint and gain access to the
final 10 rounds. These rounds have no special rules beyond the requirement that we fight
solo. With the Combo Master ability equipped, you can pull enemies in with Magnet Splash by
intentionally missing nearby, a way safer opening attack than your standard combo. Wittle the health
bars down gradually, and don't be afraid to hang back and heal: we're not under a time limit this
time. Round 47 features multiple waves of enemies. Inbetween each wave, stall for full Magic, execute
the final Heartless, and pre-emptively Magnega the center of the arena before the next group
spawns in for an automatic stunlock. Round 48 is another battle against Cerberus. Without the time
limit you're free to hang back with baby strats, and if you're feeling particularly daring you can
Reflect his Reaction Command for a quick kill.
Round 49 is the Ura Hades Cup's true final boss:
Yuffie, Cloud, Tifa, and Leon simultaneously. Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, it's not
as bad as it sounds. If you stick to the edge of the arena and run around in a giant circle, all
four will be left behind on an endlessly fruitless quest to catch up. Just watch for Leon's fireball,
which can be dodged with a max speed glide, and Cloud's Omnislash. The Omnislash attacks have
consistant timing and are all at ground level; put yourself in the air just before each and
he'll be incapable of landing a hit. Of course, in order to actually win the fight, we'll need
to take a break from dodging to get some hits in. Leon's fireballs make him the priority target.
When getting the job done, Thundaga is Dandyga but Reflega is Murdega. Allow Leon to approach and
Reflect the final hit of his three-hit combo. With some luck, it will deal damage to anybody
nearby. This isn't 100% safe, but in the event of a hit you should have enough time to escape
and heal. Once Leon's dead, the rest can be taken out with baby strats. Tifa is vulnerable
to Thunder, Cloud is vulnerable to Blizzard, and Yuffie is vulnerable to Magnet. Magnet is
unfortunately incapable of dealing the final blow, so run in close for the final combo. With
the Final Fantasy crew banished to Hades, send Hades there with them to bank the Ura
Hades trophy. Don't start celebrating just yet: with the gauntlet conquered, jump straight back
in to get that 15000 goal score. Equip Wishing Lamp and start at Round 45. The magic win button
cheese isn't here, but trust me, you want as much score as possible before we get there.
However, I must note you should NOT use Round 45's Reaction Commands. Notice, on this demonstration,
I use the Laser Reaction Command liberally, ending with a score of cough cough 856. But when Round
46 begins, the score has mysteriously dropped to cough cough 568 filler number 2 wait you weren't
supposed to hear tha something which shouldn't be possible. As far as I'm aware losing score is not
a mechanic. As for why this happens, I've got a theory. Notice, when using the Laser Reaction
Command, your displayed score will increase even at times when a score bobble doesn't appear
to have spawned. Also notice this coincides with moments when the laser hits JPEGs of enemies in
the background rather than actual 3D enemies. It's difficult to be certain even when going frame
by frame since so much is happening on-screen simultaneously. But it's my interpretation that
the JPEG enemies increase the displayed score upon death without dropping score bobbles. I suspect
this only increases the score displayed in the top-left of the screen, while there's a separate
invisible score tracker that ONLY increases from score bobbles, being completely unaffected by
JPEGs. This would mean all the points gained from JPEGs are an illusion and don't functionally
exist. When the display counter disappears and reappears between each round, it reads the secret
background tracked score to know what number it should start at, resulting in what any player
would perceive as a score decrease. Truth is, you never had those points in the first place, the
game just told you you did erroneously. Regardless of that tangent, I recommend playing it safe and
avoiding Reaction Commands entirely. The idea that my score might magically drop below the goal
after I pass the finish line is just too scary.
Once you've reached Round 47, ignore the Bulky
Vendor because god knows it's probably cursed, and take out the Living Bone while dealing as
little damage to the Lance Soldiers as possible. Lance Soldiers, while at high HP, will
always mindlessly attempt to charge you, and check out what happens during the silly little
winddown animation: totally free baubles! Without Wishing Lamp they drop 1 point per bonk, but with
it they drop 2 points per bonk. That means we'll be sitting here for roughly 7500 bonks. I suspect
you've already grabbed your latte, but sorry, this is not a true latte strat. The Lance
Soldiers *are* technically capable of killing you, so you'll need to take your Latte to go and sip it
while babysitting these guys for roughly 3 hours. And remember: after that 3 hours you'll have to
risk it all by clearing the remaining rounds. Nevertheless, beating 4 rounds in a row is a
significantly shorter order than beating 50 rounds in a row, so unless you're exceptionally good at
video games, this is the time-efficient strat.
Once 15000 points are in the bank, continue the
battle the same as you cleared it the first time. And also pretty please do not lose those last
3 hours at literally the first opportunity like some dumb stupid idiot almost did. In the
Final Fantasy onslaught the Reflect strategy suddenly became terrifying. Instead, I
slowly killed Leon with Thunder from afar, because god knows I've got time to spare. Once
they're dead, victory lap Hades directly in the face to truly complete the Ura Hades Cup, reaping
your ultimate reward: literally nothing.
After that gauntlet, we're still not quite
out of minigame hell: there still remains the army of bees in the middle of Twilight
Town, who must be defeated in 10 seconds. This can be done with Magnega, Firaga, and the
Bond of Flame keyblade which raises Fire damage. I am legally obligated to note that in
Japanese, "bee" is "hachi" and the number 8 is "hachi." I beat the bees in a time of
bee.beebee, the beeist possible number. Buzz!
The Minigame Final Bosses are the 3 remaining
members of Mushroom Organization XIII: Mushroom 7, Mushroom 10, and Mushroom 5, each
of which require special strategies on Level 1. Beforehand, synthesize 4 Shade Archives for
the maximum possible accessory Magic boost, and 4 Full Blooms for the maximum possible
accessory Strength boost. Additionally, for the Strength setup you should have Ultima
Weapon and Fenrir equipped on Final Form, while for the Magic Setup you should have Ultima Weapon
and Fatal Crest equipped on Final Form. These setups result in at least 27 Strength and 27 Magic
respectively. I have no idea how the math works and am literally just doing what strangers on the
internet told me, but as I understand it 27 is the baseline at which our damage outputs increase.
You'll need the Magic setup for Mushroom 7 in the Twilight Town tunnels. The required time
to deplete their health bar is 10 seconds, which can be done by rapidly shorthopping and
Reflecting in midair. If properly timed, you'll combo these Reflects indefinitely. Once 7's health
bar is low, get in a quick Thundaga, and you might just barely scrape the 10 second barrier.
For Mushroom 10 on Isla de Muerta and Mushroom 5 in the Cave of Wonders, you'll be using the
strength setup, which very luckily increases the strength of blender mode. The harder of these two,
and hardest Mushroom in the game is Mushroom 5, who, once again, must be defeated in 10 seconds.
This is only possible with simultaneous ridiculous fast mashing and careful positioning of
the left analog stick to ensure you're always gliding forward without dislodging from
Mushroom 5. I've heard from a reliable source that this requires 12 button presses per second to
clear, which I believe because my hand hurts.
With Organization Mushroom 13 satisfied, you'll
be rewarded a completely useless keyblade and a dorky hat, which won't even be in the footage
for the next ten minutes because I'm a hack.
With all dumb stupid minigames covered, we're
almost at the true genuine main event. In order to reach 13 of the remaining Superbosses, we'll
have to traverse the game's optional dungeon, the Cavern of Remembrance, featuring multiple
required battles along the way. These battles function similarly to story battles, locking you
inside with transparent walls. Also similar to story battles, each of these battles is remembered
as complete on your save file and won't reappear once beaten. Go all out with Limits, Summons, and
Elixirs for a cheesy clear and run back to bank your progress after each individual victory.
The most difficult is a ridiculously long sequence of Nobody waves immediately in front of the
dungeon's final door. My strategy revolved almost entirely around Peter Pan. Since
each hit on an enemy drops Magic baubles, you can kill almost all enemies with a limitless
Magnega combo. When Sorcerers start appearing, you'll have to play more defensively. Get
ready to let Peter's Limit loose the exact moment you get into trouble. If you don't get
it out fast enough Tinker Bell will revive you, at which point you should also let loose Peter's
limit in case the Sorcerer is camping your spawn. If Tinker Bell has been exhausted and you're
in a tough fight, switch over to Elixir-fueled Duck Flares. Ration well and hopefully you'll
have enough ammo to blow open heaven's door.
Welcome to Data Organization XIII.
#XIII: Data Roxas. With our fully unlocked mobility, particularly the air-dodge glide combo,
almost all attacks can now be easily dodged. The critical exception is when Roxas launches a wall
of lasers immediately after his super duper light barrage. The laser wall thankfully doesn't kill
you in one hit so even if you fail you'll have a chance to heal. Be sure you're airborne whenever
Roxas approaches to prevent encounter with his Reaction Command, circling around the edge of
the area to dodge every incoming attack. Once he starts his dash attack combo, land to the side,
block the charge, and punish him. Importantly, starting from Phase 2, do NOT complete your combo.
While most of Roxas' counter attacks can be dodged or Reflected, one can kill you instantly.
If you're patient, Data Roxas will just be a slightly longer version of the original fight.
#XII: Data Larxene. Though Donald and Goofy are with us, Limit and Elixir abuse is no longer
an automatic win button, thanks to the bosses' drastically improved health bars and frequent use
of immortal super moves. Larxene will immediately begin with a rain of lightning. Reflect exactly
two times to survive the lightning and stagger Larxene with the explosion. After a punishing
combo, summon Genie, swap him to Wisdom form, and approach Larxene to get a combo in after
one of her attacks. Finish the combo with Genie's Limit. I discovered way too late that
since Wisdom Genie's Limits only cost 1 Drive bar, he'll give you a better damage-per-summon ratio
than Master Form. Genie will especially help in setting up Larxene's Reaction Command when she
duplicates, often stunning both Larxenes. Get your own combos inbetween and you'll have enough
Drive to keep Genie out almost the entire battle, substituting with Duck Flare once you run out.
Against her Super Duper Attack, simply glide counterclockwise, keeping an eye on her hands to
figure out the electric beam starting positions. Through Genie abuse, I actually accidentally
beat Larxene without using a single Elixir.
#XI: Data Marluxia. The battle begins with
Marluxia's unique gimmick, inflicting us with a counter over our head that ticks down by
1 every time we're hit by Marluxia's scythe. What does that counter start at, you may ask? Our
current level. To make up for our incredibly short lifespan, Marluxia's attacks are predictable
and exploitable. He opens with explosive thorns, easily dodged by not standing still, and pools
of darkness, easily dodged by not intentionally diving into them face-first. Donald and Goofy
are incapable of these strategies, and will automatically die. Bait Marluxia into attacking
you, stick above or beyond his reach, and punish with a combo. After being combo'd, Marluxia will
always counterattack with a teleporting slash, most easily survived with a pre-emptive reflect.
In Phase 1, he'll always follow that up with a whirlwind. Guard through it, roll behind him and
Reaction Command his backside to deal some damage. If you're wondering why we don't Reaction Command
his frontside, that's a totally separate Reaction Command which, rather than damaging Marluxia,
refills our counter up to its maximum. I am not going to bother explaining why I don't care.
Once Marluxia enters Phase 2, he'll replace the whirlwind with the pools of darkness, which is
even MORE exploitable. He can only perform the move after teleporting in the direct center of
the arena, and after teleporting he's briefly defenseless. Keep up the pressure and he'll never
even summon the pools before entering Phase 3, at which point he'll spam multiple immortal super
duper moves. Now is the time to go total Duck. If Marluxia enters Reaper mode, run around in circles
and menu over to Duck Flare, activating it as soon as Marluxia raises his scyth to invulnerabilty
frame through and deal some damage after. If he enters sawblade mode, keep to the far side of the
arena, guard each approach, and counter with Duck, until eventually Marluxia's counter reaches 0.
#X: Data Luxord. Luxord is too passive to pose a threat himself. The primary threat comes from the
stack of cards he sends out to stalk and randomly attack you. The bigger groups can be cleared with
a Magnet Thunder combo. You don't even need to do this half the time, since he often sacrifices
his cards to start playing a dumb stupid easy minigame, setting himself up for a totally free
combo. The exception is the dumbest, stupidest, ultimate minigame, in which we're tasked
with filling the Command Menu with circles. The first three I can time out just fine, but the
fourth is so outlandishly fast I failed it every single time I tried, allowing Luxord to turn me
into a die before promptly turning me into a die. There is, however, a secret winning strategy that
gave me a 100% success rate. Close your eyes, trust in the heart of the cards, and press the
button at complete random. If you truly believe in yourself, Luxord will instantly drop to 1
HP, letting you permanently shuffle his deck.
#IX: Data Demyx. Turns out, Luxord doesn't
have a monopoly on dumb stupid minigames; Demyx opens with a guantlet of 4 dance water
dances in a row. Each group of dance waters will be of a semi-random size and must be killed
within 30 seconds. For extra frustration, during this minigame the Reaction Command is
no longer available, so you'll need to find an entirely new strategy. For smaller groups, jump
into the air and combo above Demyx's head to unleash Magnet Splash, which will kill all 5
currently spawned dance waters. When a larger group shows up, land on the ground and spam
Firaga, which kills dance waters in one hit. Once your magic depletes, enter Wisdom form
to continue your Firaga spam with the added bonus of fluid movement. If you run out of Magic
again, quickly exit and re-enter Wisdom to refill, and if even that isn't enough, which it won't be,
tap into your Elixir pile. After the gauntlet, the battle starts for real, and thankfully Demyx
is actually easier than his first encounter thanks to our buffed mobility and Demyx's pitifully
low attack power. Be frugal with those Elixirs, though, you'll want to keep them for his final
desperate gauntlet of Dance Water Dances, whose fourth and final wave counts at 99. Even going
as fast with Wisdom Firaga as I could manage, in the end I had less than a second to spare.
Put in one final jam session with Demyx and let him know exactly where he can jam that sitar.
#VIII: Data Axel. Axel begins by turning the floor into lava, gradually draining your health. Don't
worry about that too much, the ground can only drain your health down to 1HP. You won't die until
you make an actual mistake. Axel's main attacks are either simple forward-facing combos or one
from the rear. Frontal attacks can be guarded, and both can easily be reflected or jumped
over. When Axel retreats into the flames, run around in circles while screaming in terror
until you accidentally automatically Reaction Command his face. If the floor is lava, a
second Reaction Command will clear the floor and give you the chance to heal. Honestly, Axel
himself is harmless, I'm more afraid of flubbing into the outer wall. Keep to grounded combos
and Sora will naturally avoid the flub.
#VII: Data Saix. Forget everything I ever said
about rationing Elixirs, this time we're starting the battle with an unrelenting tidal wave of
ducks. Saix's Berserk bar begins at zero and he'll barely defend himself while charging up, giving
you the opportunity to deal major free damage before the battle officially begins. Berserk Saix
is immortal until broken out through his Reaction Command, so he can't be waited out with Duck
Flare's invulnerability. On top of that he's immune to his Reaction Command while executing his
Super Duper Move, which he very much enjoys using. To React in the limited timeframe, you need to be
on the tail of his club before it even touches the ground, then hand it back to him ASAP. Inbetween
Berserks he'll return to being defenseless, letting you return to stuffing ducks down his
throat. Once you get the hang of dodging his Super Duper Move, this becomes a war of attrition.
#VI: Data Zexion. While on Destiny Islands, Zexion only has one undodgeable attack, during which he
becomes immortal and seals a member of your team inside the wonderful world of literature. This
attack can't waited out with Duck Flare, Zexion is a total cheese and will extend the attack until
the exact moment your invulnerability frames end. Early in the battle he'll save Sora for last, so
focus on murdering your friends to retranslate them back to normal. Once everybody's back, make a
run for Zexion. After you've done this a few times Zexion will inevitably get bored and instantly
book Sora. Within the literary world you can't deal any damage to Zexion's main health bar, so
instead use an instant Trinity Limit, taking out Zexion's book health in one go and hopefully
following up with the Reaction Command to escape. Your Magic will almost always refill for another
Trinity Limit before the next trip to bookworld, and if not you'll have enough time to throw
out an Elixir. Once Zexion starts using his Super Duper Meteor attack, Trinity Limit will
no longer be a get-out-of-library free card. Summon Peter Pan for safety, sit in the center,
and do your best to survive the roulette. If you fail, Tinker Bell will grant a second life
within the burning flames, and if you succeed, you'll deal major damage to Zexion's book.
When my Command Menu itself got booked, I found the only possible strategy was to throw
my controller out the window. Turns out, due to a major oversight I couldn't possibly have seen
coming, the Command Menu is written in a language I can't read! You probably won't have enough
Drive to keep Peter the entire fight, so after he leaves substitute with Duck Flare, prepping
it in the menu before the roulette begins. If you're not sure you'll make it, trigger the Duck
Flare for safety, but if you're sure you're safe, cancel the Duck and hit Zexion with your standard
attacks in the hopes of banking the Reaction Command. Zexion will always be open to a combo
after escaping bookworld and he has a shorter health bar than all other bosses; I only had to
survive his Super Duper 3 times before finally punching this nerd directly in his open book.
#V: Data Lexaeus. I personally consider Lexaeus the easiest of all 13 members. Early in the
fight, crowd him and time Reflects to chip off his first health bars. Even if you mess up, at
low power levels he'll barely get any damage in. With his health shaved, transition to Duck.
Lexaeus rarely becomes invulnerable, Donald can handle the rest of the fight all on his own.
#IV: Data Vexen. Vexen has two gimmicks: an infinitely reappearing shield which must
be destroyed before he can take damage, and a Data-based Anti-Sora which levels up while
Sora is tracked by the trailing circle. Trying to dodge Vexen, the circle, and Anti-Sora all while
getting damage in myself proved to be way too much multitasking for my pathetic brain, so instead I
abandoned the very concept of playing the game. The shield ensures Elixir-fueled Duck Flares
won't deal enough damage before you run out; you'll have to work Wisdom Form Genie inbetween.
Hit Vexen with Genie's Limit, then with as many melee attacks as you can get away with before
retreating behind Genie. All this stalling ensures your MP bar will be full by the time Genie runs
out. At that point, throw out another Duck Flare, which, in addition to dealing damage,
serves the dual purpose of recovering Drive, thus allowing for more total Genie summons.
While you do have to leave yourself vulnerable occasionally, this strat makes up for it with
massive return-on-investment per Elixir, easily lasting through Vexen's entire health bar.
#III: Data Xaldin. Xaldin is personally my pick for the hardest Data fight, requiring absolute
knowledge of his moveset both to stay alive and get any damage in. Open with Duck Flare to shave
off Xaldin's first health bar, after which he'll cast his Aero shield. This shield hurts on contact
and reduces all incoming damage. To get rid of it, you need to use his Reaction Command, available
if nearby while he attacks. If he uses a spinning combo, jump immediately in front of him and
stall with glides while mashing Triangle. I found it easiest to brainthink by mashing
Triangle and Square at the same time. That way, you don't have to bother figuring out which of the
two buttons you should be mashing and which you should be holding. If he uses the charge attack
instead, you can technically Guard or Reflect it, but this is absolutely not an option. The
charge was very questionably implemented and, when blocked, may totally screw you over.
Notice in this footage I seemingly time my guard correctly but got OHKO'd, which is especially
weird considering the charge attack is NOT strong enough to OHKO. Slowing down the footage reveals
the problem. Sometimes, presumably when Sora and Xaldin are in a relative sweet spot, Xaldin
will approach too quickly and the Aero shield will contact Sora. The Aero shield is unblockable,
so Sora takes chip damage, cancelling the guard, and then Xaldin promptly impales Sora for stupidly
failing to guard. Reflect has a similar problem, sometimes successfully blocking the charge attack
but leaving Sora sitting inside the Aero shield, getting ripped to shreds the moment Reflect ends.
Long and short of it, just jump above the charge attack instead, meanwhile mashing Triangle to hit
the Reaction Command. Every successful Reaction replaces the standard Attack command with the
stackable Jump command. Jump automatically targets Xaldin, removes the shield, and provided you
successfully stagger him can be combo'd as long as your supply lasts. Be careful with the timing,
though; if you don't stagger Xaldin, he'll escape and restore his shield and would you look at that,
Sora's just sitting there inside the Aero shield, guess he's dead! Jump will be how you deal almost
all damage, the rest of your time will be spent trying to survive. When Xaldin disappears to rain
spears, dodge the entire volley with a max speed glide. Though not physically present, Xaldin is
still only capable of raining spears within a certain range as he invisibly follows you around.
Try to get a good idea of his current attack range, so you can scrape past him when necessary.
For the final attack, stand in place and cast a couple Reflects, keeping you safe while dealing
some damage. In Phase 3 Xaldin will begin using his Super Duper Move, which is very thankfully
less dangerous than his standard attacks. Keep away during his spear swings, and watch
for which side of the bridge he rides over. Position yourself on the right side of the bridge
relative to Xaldin. He'll always slide along to your position, plant in place, and fire the laser
to the right, giving you an opening to escape to the opposite end where the laser can never
reach. Once Xaldin is back on the bridge, he'll enter over-the-top teleportation mode, shifting
towards you at rapid speeds and occasionally instantaneously attacking. This will probably
feel overwhelming, but there's a logic to it you can exploit. Xaldin generally will not attack
if you're too far from him before he teleports, but if you're nearby, he likely will. Use this
knowledge to your advantage, baiting him into constant attacks to farm Jump commands, and,
of course, throwing Ducks in his face the exact moment Donald stops being a corpse to keep the
heat on Xaldin for an incredibly satisfying KO.
#II: Xigbar. Though I initially had trouble
and feared Xigbar could be a major roadblock, I ended up beating him on total accident
while experimenting. Hence why I have Rumbling Rose equipped, which during
this fight is basically useless. Xigbar's bullets are ridiculously fast, and
you need to block them in order to stagger him. Attempting to block or Reflect these in any
reasonably fair manner isn't sustainable, especially starting in Phase 2 when he
starts firing giant OHKO Reaction bullets. Additionally, Duck spam doesn't last anywhere near
the entire fight because Xigbar is a total cheat. If he teleports away during Duck Flare, he'll
just sit and wait off-screen until Donald gets it out of his system. The key realization that
won me the battle was that Xigbar is not only permanently airborne, but also defenseless
at close range. Normally he compensates by teleporting randomly around the arena, but in
the hallway and enclosed room stage layouts, Xigbar will stick within a small area, leaving
himself open to the keyblender. Not only does this shred Xigbar in no time, Final Form's ever-present
hitboxes tend to block bullets automatically. Blending Xigbar's health bar closed the
Elixir gap, giving just barely enough time to survive the infinite headshot combo and
give Xigbar a taste of his own medicine.
#I: Data Xemnas! This consists of two battles,
the first one being pathetically easy since Xemnas hardly even tries to touch you. When he does his
super long spinny dinny, keep a close ear to his grunt sounds. He always makes exactly the same
sequence of grunts with exactly the same timing, providing a tell for the end of the attack.
He always goes "Houh, hah. Hah. Hough. Hah, after which he's open to attack. Upon successful
Reaction Command, he'll drop to 1 HP instantly and let you move on to the real fight.
Before we join up with Riku and get to the second battle, an important note: given
how close we are to the finish line, I decided to turn the ham dial up a bit to fill
up not just my own, but also Riku's inventory. Open the battle with Last Session, but stall
a bit before using it a second time. Every time I tried nonstop spam I'd get caught by
once of Xemnas' attacks as soon as it ended. Stalling a bit prevented that. Otherwise,
mash keyblades in Xemnas' face relentlessly. You won't need to bother learning how to survive,
the exact moment Eternal Session ends Riku will back you up with an Elixir and allow for
another go. Between both of your stocks Xemnas will inevitably be drained to the breaking point
and use his Final Super Duper, which, as in the main story, is just a very, very awesome victory
lap. Put this hasn't been out of his misery.
With the Data Organization XIII concquered, we
obtain a permanent upgrade to our dinky little hat, and can finally, finally, finally, finally,
finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally move on to
the absolute finallest task in the entire game. The inevitable sequel hook, Lingering Will. LW is
by far the most over-the-top ludicrous superboss not only in this game, but out of basically every
video game. This guy doesn't punch you to death, he vaguely gestures at the idea of punching
you, which is itself an automatic KO. He has a gun that fires bullets 5 times
your size. Bullets that don't just kill you, they invalidate the entire concept of your
life! Almost every single one of LW's attacks is a Super Move, granting him with immortality for
their very, very, long duration. To put it simply: LW is a player character using our strategy.
To match LW cheese for cheese, we're going ultra mega over-the-top ham mode with Sora, Donald, and
Goofy fully stocked with 18 total Megalixirs. Do NOT think that means you can just let Donald
do all the work for you, we need every single one of these babies to last us as long as we can
get away with. Bring out Genie's Wisdom Form at every opportunity and spam his limit until LW
gets staggered. LW's weakness is his inability to end a stagger until after reaching the ground,
so wait for him to land for a ground combo. Though do be careful: if you hit him too many times in a
short window he's liable to counter-attack. Very importantly, DO NOT try to dodge, just spam Genie.
If Genie gets hit, the Drive guage will deplete, ultimately costing you more resources than if
you'd just wasted a Limit. Inbetween summons, get out a Duck Flare. Donald and Goofy will ensure
you have enough Magic for it whether you like it or not, often wasting their Megalixirs by throwing
two down your throat simultaneously. In the final phase, LW will begin using his Ultimate Super
Duper, an unrelenting barrage during which I genuinely have no idea what's happening. Just
keep spamming Duck or, in an absolute emergency, spam Reflect and hope you survive. Once Donald
and Goofy's Elixirs are dried up, you'll have to dip into your own stash, and in the final phase
you're going to be dropping them constantly. With this cache of firepower, LW is still one
of the harder superbosses, and I only managed to beat him after throwing down my final Elixir,
moments before I completely ran out of options. With Lingering Will finally meeting a vaguely
equal opponent and leaving to linger in the world of Kingdom Hearts 3 which I hear is going to be
on the PSP? The Kingdom Hearts II Level 1 Run is a Double Ultimate Mission Complete!
I am done. Oh my god. Oh my god.
Rockman 4 next month seeya everybody!
But hold on, I'm actually not done yet! There's
a little bit of a loose end, so we need a hastily cobbled-together epilogue. As I'm sure many of
you have been politely screaming there are a couple well-known cheese strats to trivialize the
superbosses. While I didn't ban cheese for my run, I wanted to find my own strats and beat the
superbosses myself, without help from external sources. So for the most part, I avoided looking
up strats online. But since half the fun of VG Myths is stupid cheese and at least a couple
of you out there are going to use this video as a guide, here's a short cheese showcase.
For a huge chunk of bosses, there exists an infinite combo, and it's stupidly easy to pull
off. Simply summon Peter Pan and spam two-hit aerial combos. For some reason that I'm not going
to bother looking up, the boss will be incapable of performing a counter-attack. Obviously, this
strat isn't available in any fight that doesn't allow summons at all, and depending on the boss
it may be harder to pull off, appearing to have tighter timing windows. It's highly recommended
you turn high jump off to make short hops easier. Of the superbosses who allow summons, I got
this to work against Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx, Zexion, Lexaeus, Saix, and LW. The general
consensus seems to be that Saix is the easiest, so you should probably practice on him first.
Additionally, I was able to get it to work against Vexen at least long enough to shave a
major chunk off his health bar, but I couldn't get it consistently and I've been told he'll
eventually use his super duper regardless. At least it'll give you a headstart.
There's also one other cheese that can be used against Roxas. Unequip Dodge Roll, and
intentionally encounter his Reaction Command. Use Trinity Limit when Roxas is near a wall
to stun him, and then spam Air Slides. The stolen keyblades will deal a tiny amount of chip
damage and prevent Roxas from escaping. I'm told unequipping Dodge Roll is required to make this
possible, for some complicated programming reason I'm also not going to bother looking up. Basically
Roxas's counterattacks are programmed to trigger from Dodge Roll but not Air Slide, presumably
because the devs never imagined somebody would unequip it. Once his health is low, use
Trinity Limit again to safely end the battle.
Before heading out, very special thanks
to Kingdom Hearts 2 speedrunner Zoim. She was incredibly helpful behind the scenes,
including teaching me how to beat the mushrooms, which I legitimately believed were
impossible when I started the run.
And finally, special thanks to
all Patreon backers, including:
Let me know how much this video sucks
and how to improve in the comments below. Your Level 1 is stronger than you'll
ever know, and get out of my house.
