Part 35: Day 119-122: Work to Do (continued)

Music: Sacred Moon


Continuing with the missions...



Thunder magic, huh?



We're swapping Aero with Thunder. And adding the Air Slide LV+. I actually know what raising the level of air slide does! It lets us slide multiple times, so Air Slide LV 2 lets us slide 2 times in a row. It's useful for grabbing airborne badges.

Music: Olympus Coliseum
Music: Go for It!




All I have to do is defeat some Heartless and then I can head home.



The chest contains Aero Recipe.



This chest contains Technical Gear+ (3).



And the lawn contains Heartless. There's two Flame Notes, but Blizzard shot right through them. The Jumbo Cannon is just a bigger cannon, with the same attacks (shooting straight and shooting up with target). It also has loads of HP, which is annoying.





How cruel.

What!?
You heard me. And Herc's nowhere to be found!

I initially misread that as Hero. Is the similarity actually intended by whoever make the mythology or is that just a coincidence?

I know this is no job for a rookie, but I ain't got much of a choice!
This is the real deal, so stay sharp.
I will. *starts running*



Don't. Get. Careless.

It's not a hard Heartless, especially since we're ready with Thunders.

Um, right.

Music: Tension Rising





It's nice how Sora moves in tandem with Roxas. And he how the game actually bothered to make Sora not look like an idiot by turning him around so his Thunder actually hit. The size is too large, so I had to split the top and bottom screen. Try refreshing to see them syncing.

Anyway, Clay Armor will fall instantly if hit by Thunder. Actually Large Armor will also fall instantly if hit by Fire, but it's kinda hard to hit it while it's standing due to how Fire works.



Once Clay Armor wakes up, it will do the same attacks as Large Armor. It hurts, so don't get it. You should be able to get 3-4 combos depending on how long it is.



Like Large Armor, it can also try to hit you. This attack can be ignored since it's not dangerous. At all.



This isn't it falling down. This is it preparing to do an attack by grabbing the ground.



And then sending shockwave straight ahead. Just move left/right/jump. You'll rarely see these attacks when actually fighting it.

Oh, and the Ordeal Badge? You have to get it now. If you didn't, you have to replay the mission to get it (which isn't much, but Jumbo Cannon is annoying). Also, the minimap and the Hearts counter are disabled. The former because of the flashback and the latter because of .

Music: Olympus Coliseum


Now that you're warmed up, how about startin' in on today's training?
What?
You're serious about gettin' into the big leagues, right?
Well, there are two things every hero hopeful has to remember.

Every hero hopeful?

Train. Every. Day!

That's one thing. You can't even do the "keep mixing up 2 and 3" joke right.

But I'm telling you, I'm not-
No "buts," kid! Now get training!
Let me know as soon as you're ready.



My thoughts exactly.



Lightning Shard.



The score sheet has been updated. Guess what we're going to be doing next.



If you're thinking training, you're correct! This isn't optional, since we're only halfway toward the mission goal.

All right, let's get this show on the road.



Music: Go for It!


Anyway, you have 1:15 to get as many points and, more importantly, hearts. You can't grab the Ordeal Badge because of invisible walls.



It's faster to just hit the Soldiers with the barrels to instantly kill them. You know, if they didn't miss because the Soldiers are moving or they're at the edge causing the barrels to hit it instead or if the barrels target another barrel.



Completing the mission isn't that hard. If you didn't want to deal with the training, just go and beat them up the old-fashioned way. You get no points, but if you're doing that then you probably won't care about it.



You can use either the barrels or the Soldiers to keep your chain and get lots of points that way. It's a good way to farm Hearts. I got an extra 32 hearts from Chain Bonus in that picture (chain bonus are blue, normal ones are white).



Phil's reactions are the same as last time, so I won't show it again.



We haven't reach the full bar yet, so let's do this again.



I don't think Phil actually ever lets Sora train with actual Heartless. In a way, Phil respects Roxas more than Sora.



It's just 157 points, nothing spectacular. We try again to get more Hearts.





After the third session, we don't get the choice to try again.

Music: Olympus Coliseum


Actually, it's more than enough. Between givin' that Heartless pest a pounding and all the training you put in...
Ya know, you could really...
Uh-huh? Could really what?
Could really use more practice. Trust me. You're gonna need it.
(Well, I've collected enough hearts. I guess I'll RTC.)

That's the scene you get if you completed the mandatory objective and opt not to train anymore. You still can as long as you haven't done that 3 times because once you've done that...

Sorry, kid, but I can't stick around anymore today. I got some errands to run, nymphs to chase, you know how it is. *leaves*
I guess that's it for now, then. I'll just have to RTC.

So we go outside.



Roxas and Hercules walk past each other. Again.



Where ya been, Herc!? We been drownin' in Heartless while you were off in Zeus-knows-where!
Heartless? Where? Let me at 'em, Phil!
Too late. The new rookie took care of 'em. I'm tellin' ya, Champ, the kid ain't half bad!

Music: At Dusk, I Will Think of You...


KH 358/2=179 Days of Falling Salty Diabetes
Twilight Station Tower: 26
Sea-Salt Ice Cream: 54

Music: Crossing the Finish Line


I won't be trying out the Techincal Gear+ this update.



Ah, our third Deserter mission.

Music: Rowdy Rumble


Yes, we're going to start at the same spot EVERY TIME we go here. Aero Recipe in the chest.



Like the other Deserter missions, there's no Heartless in other areas. The left chest has a Cure Recipe while the right has...



...I stand corrected.



Another Aero Recipe here.



I think this is one of the few times we can just walk into The Coliseum.



Inside, we get this badge first. We can reach it thanks to Air Slide.



This mission mixes Soldiers into the Deserters. There's only 2 of them at a time, but there's plenty of them. I lost count of how many Deserters and Soldiers I killed. Don't take that the wrong way.



Music: Crossing the Finish Line


The Deserters are no match for Roxas. They tried to dogpile him, but Roxas is too strong for them.



This is the mission given by Luxord. It's the toughest of the bunch. And "certain magic?" Not really convincing. Let's just hope it's either Thunder or Blizzard. (It's Aero).

Music: Tension Rising


See what I mean by starting in the same place?



Thunder Recipe.



The Morning Star is inside. I think we just walk to The Coliseum more times in this game than the other games combined.



This shows exactly what we're dealing with: 3 badges, 2 chests with Gear Component A and Thunder Recipe, 2 Li'l Cannons and 1 Morning Star. The Li'l Cannons works on the same principle as the Soldiers, as in only 2 appearing at a time but with a lot of them on standby.



The Morning Star itself has 2 attacks. One of them is spinning randomly and sometimes towards Roxas/Xigbar. You can block to avoid the damage, but Aero will instantly stop it. Note that it's moving so fast the only way magic will hit is if it's moving right towards Roxas.



And this is the second attack, featuring Xigbar's limit. You can see how hard it is to damage it. The only time you can damage it is if you use Magic while it's spinning towards Roxas or between its attacks. This is why I really appreciate KH2's reaction commands. It would've been easier if I brought Aero, but still...



Eventually, Xigbar died. Don't worry, Xigbar. We'll avenge you! Xigbar revives after a while.



After that, I tried killing all the Li'l Cannons, but eventually got bored and leaves.



Of course, who's waiting outside but our old friend, Zip Slasher. Xigbar is much more useful than Marluxia here due to his playstyle, but I still don't bother with it since it will kill Roxas in one combo. There's auto-life, but still...

Music: At Dusk, I Will Think of You...


KH 358/2=179 Days of Falling Salty Diabetes
Twilight Station Tower: 27
Sea-Salt Ice Cream: 56

I don't know why there's no tower scene yesterday.

Music: Crossing the Finish Line


Getting 3 more Aeros is nice. Both Li'l Cannons and Morning Stars drop Gear Component A, which means we might actually be able to synthesize weapon panels!

New reports:


Every direction except above, it seems.


Would've been nice to know that earlier!