Part 105: Xaldin

Next up is Xaldin, the only Organization member who's fought in a Disney world (not counting Xigbar's 10-second fight in this game). And yes, that includes the REAL Organization XIII in KH3.



None: Zephyr

Sadly, all of these shots will only feature two out of six lances.



Skill Gear: Moonglade
Technical Gear: Aer
Duel Gear: Nescience
(Transforms your weapon into one that performs well in midair.)

As far as I know, aer doesn't mean anything (at least in English). AER, on the other hand, is an acronym for annual equivalent rate, which I'm PRETTY sure isn't the intended meaning here.

And blue=well in midair, we've gone over this before.



Loaded Gear: Brume
Chrono Gear: Asura
Phantom Gear: Crux
(Transforms your weapon, enabling your attacks to reach a wide area.)

As you can see here, some of Xaldin's weapons are too big to fit to the screen. This also applies to Marluxia, but it's not that big of a deal. It's better than having the weapon be too tiny to be seen, like Luxord. I'm still figuring out how I'm going to showcase Larxene's weapons.



Lift Gear: Paladin
Nimble Gear: Fellking
(Tranforms your weapon into one with much higher strength.)

If the latter weapon is called Highwind, it would've been a nice FF4 reference.



Wild Gear: Nightcloud
Ominous Gear: Shimmer
(Transforms your weapon and allows you to string together faster, much longer ground combos.)

It would be nice if Xaldin actually have a unique mechanic where his ground combo is shit but his aerial combo is amazing. You know, like Kain in Dissidia.



Valor Gear: Vortex
Fearless Gear: Scission
Prestige Gear: Heavenfall
(Tranforms your weapon and boosts your Magic to give it more power.)

I have to say that the naming of these weapons ended up being even worse than Vexen's somehow. Congratulations



Crisis Gear: Aether
Omega Gear: Mazzaroth
(Transforms your weapon into one that offers high Magic and longer aerial combos.)

I like to think that Xaldin tries to sound more profound than Vexen but fails because he's much smarter. He later found his chance with Beast and putting him to a sadistic choice. But then all that effort is wasted after getting elbowed by Belle



Hazard Gear: Hegemon
(Transforms your weapon into one that offers high Strength and combo reach.)

Here's another thought: wouldn't it be nice if we can switch between panel configuration in this game just like how you switch Keyblades in KH3? That means you have to make 3 sets of configuration to fully take advantage of this, but you can balance the game around just using one configuration.

That would make the game very easy, but that's better than the alternative of it being a slog (like this game is at times).



Rage Gear: Foxfire
(Transforms your weapon into one that offers high Magic and ground combo speed.)

Unlike what the name implies, this weapon in no way have anything to do with fire. Or fox. You'd think that at least they can recolor this weapon red or something.



Champion Gear: Yaksha
Ultimate Gear: Cynosura
(Transforms your weapon and lets you perform longer aerial combos with wider reach.)

I'm pretty sure Xaldin actually has more Keyblades that boosts aerial attacks than the other members. Still doesn't make him more unique than other characters like Xigbar or Lexaeus or Donald in the playstyle, though.



Pandora's Gear: Dragonreign

Did you notice that all Pandora's Gear weapons have a unique color scheme? And that they have unique shapes too?



Zero Gear: Lindworm

Note: No dragon can be made using this weapon



Casual Gear: Broom
Mystery Gear: Wyvern

Another note: No actual Wyverns actually appear in this game. The recolors and resizes, though... _{Fucking Dustflier}



Xaldin's Limit is straightforward for the most part, but remember when I said that the AI is so stupid that it won't jump? Well, turns out that's because Xaldin CAN'T jump while in the first half of the Limit.

Like I said before, the lances actually hurt enemies that touches it, but I still think it's not worth losing the ability to jump. We can't even attack high enemies this way. We can attack them in the second half, but still.



Xaldin's pose: Also only featuring two lances.



Another Xaldin's pose: Only featuring zero lances.