Part 6: Day 11: Keyblade

Music: Sacred Moon


Larxene...right. Um...



Hi Xigbar!

She already left. Meet her on-site.
Oh.... All right.
This time, we expect you to try out magic for a change, instead of relying solely on the Keyblade.
Magic? I know magic?
Only if you arm yourself with some before you leave for the mission. See me when you are ready.






Vexen! How did you just appear there? Please don't be creepy...

If we talk to Saix...

You will need magic for today's mission. Come see me once you have a magic installed.



Hoo boy. This is the most hated part of the game. The limited magic system. Let's procrastinate with Saix!

You still haven't installed any magic? Be quick about it.

Fine. Let's go to the panel screen.





This is where we equip for the missions. Everything is equipped here. Items, magics, keyblade, acceccories, armors, abilities, EVERYTHING. Even your level has to be equipped here. At least that means you can easily try a Level 1 challenge.
The slots show how much is used and how much is opened. We will get more slots opened throughout the game.



You can see what we have equppied on the abilities screen. I'm going to show it before I start every mission. The problems with this system:
1. Your magic is limited, just like your items. They replenish at the end of every mission, but it's still a case of "I won't use it. What if I need it later?" For example: In this mission I can use Fire 3 times since I equipped 3 of them here. The items will be gone forever when used, though. LIke normal.
2. You have to make everything you want fit within the available slots. For this one it's unimportant since we don't have enough to fill all of them up, but it is very annoying later. Do you want 2 Cures or Scan and Guard? Or do you want to bring Fires or Blizzards?
3. There are some panels you can get later that will multiply its contents. It comes later, but you have to somehow make it fit with all your other panels. It can get very annoying as you're forced to reequip the panels.

Also, there's something about a submenu in there.



Basically you can store it like a deck system so you don't have to do it every time. Just most of the time.



And with Fire equipped, let's begin learning about magic.

Music: Lazy Afternoons




Umm, hi.
Ugh, this is the worst. Whose idea was it to send me along on your stupid baby mission? Do I look like I run a nursery school?

At least you're the fourth in line for the baby missions, Larxene. And there's a theme to it, which you're nicely part of.

......
Let Demyx handle this stuff. It's not like he's good at anything else.

Well, he's good at initiating unfair minigames in the middle of his fight, so there's that. Not like he's going to use it when he's our ally.

......
What? WHAT? You got something to say?
No...
Pfft, you'd be nothing without the Keyblade.
...Oh ho! I just got an idea.



Love Roxas' reaction here. Also recent trailers for KH3 actually made me pay more attention to people's eye colors. Like Larxene's here.

You can do today's mission WITHOUT your Keyblade.
What? Why!?
Because I said so, that's why! Saix told you to practice magic today, didn't he? Well, sink or swim.



Remember when 4 days ago Roxas could barely utter a word? Now he can talk back to Larxene! He grew up so fast...

Well, you're not gonna learn if you keep whipping around that oversized key.
Yeah, but...

Music: Sinister Sundown


Go on, take it out-and you have to use magic!
I'll stand here and watch.
(Thanks...)





As you can see, we can't attack because Larxene doesn't allow us to. She's going to just stand there while Roxas gets beaten up. Let's get the chests first.



It's easy to find since there's just this small area available this mission. All of them contain Ethers, by the way. Ethers restore 1 of each magic, so it has more effect if you equip different types of magic. But then it would be a pain to scroll through them, so that's your choice, I guess. It's useful when you got into situations like this...



Oops! I used all my magic! And I can't attack! What do I do now!



(Sorry...)
Start over. And this time, do it right!

And then Larxene replenished out Fire supply. Good thing I don't have to reload my save! I don't want to use the Ether now.



Enjoy this GIF of Larxene unflinchingly tanking a bullet in the face.

All right, enough fooling around. Fire homes on the enemy and the flower dies in 1 hit with it, that's what I did.



Yeah. Expect those kind of stupid mistakes to happen. The controls in this game aren't exactly the best...



......
Ugh, at the speed you move, we'll be here all month... Go ahead. You can use your Keyblade this time.
Wait, what happened to learning magic?
Do you want to finish this awful mission or don't you? Just get to it.
(Well, since you asked so nicely...)
Oh, by the way, if you need to heal...do it yourself.
......





When I played this on a DS the L button is broken so I can't use the shortcut. So it's a pain scrolling and I only use 4 types of magic: Fire, Blizzard, Cure, Cura. Yes, Cure and Cura have different effects and not just a straight upgrade.



As I mentioned previously, you can use items you picked up on a mission without equipping it, though it only works on that same mission. And if you're wondering why I'm at different positions, it's because I'm being chased by 5 Heartless.



Normally you'd use potions when at low health but I used a Limit Break instead. No, it still hasn't been explained yet. The game is nice enough to let you use it before the tutorial. I'll show the Limit Break when we get to its tutorial mission.

Music: Lazy Afternoons


Oh, Larxene... If you came back from Castle Oblivion you would've known that there are missions WAY WORSE than this.

......
If you're our big-shot Keyblade wielder, then we're in deep doo-doo.
......
Ugh, can't you even hold up your end of a conversation?
......
You'd better pull it together, or we'll never finish Kingdom Hearts. Unless, of course, we put somebody else on Keyblade duty...

Insert witty remark about Larxene's betrayal here.

What? You have somebody else?
None of your beeswax. You just worry about defeating Heartless and collecting hearts for us. Maybe, one day, you'll be almost mediocre at it.



......
Ugh, let's go-before you kill any more of my brain cells.



Like Marluxia, Larxene actually became our partner for the last 2 seconds of the mission.

Music: Crossing the Finish Line


We finally get Scan! Now we can at least see enemy's HP bar.

Music stops


The more I learned, the less I seemed to know.

At least we have gameplay and banter to break up Roxas' monologues. It would suck if we are forced to listen/read them all at once, maybe with just a screen basically saying "The next day..."

...

What do you mean that's actually how it goes in the movie!?