Part 65: Day 301-304: Vacant Place (continued)

Music: Sacred Moon


The only usable magic next mission is fire, so we load up with plenty of Fire and an Elixir just in case. Fira and Firaga pretty much have no chance of hitting the boss.



It's time for our second THE boss.

Music: Secret of Neverland






*Tinkerbell sprinkles dust on Roxas*

*points to an island*
You want me to go over there?
I wonder why...



I'm getting all the badges before going to the island. You can see Hook and Smee on that island.



Well, Mr. Smee? This is the last spot. Me treasure MUST be here.
I'll have it uncovered in a jiffy, sir!

*Smee digs for a while, and then drops his shovel and runs to Hook*

Captain! Captain! I found it!
What? Let me see!



Good work, Smee!
Oh, the lengths I've gone to find this treasure!



It's kinda hard to see here, but there's the darkness emanating from Hook again.





C-C-Captain?
What is it now, Smee?
The treasure ch-chest, sir! It's...
What!?

Boss: Ruler of the Sky


Music: Fight and Away




Heartless masquerading as chests. Okay then.



You know what to do, Smee. Run!
As always, Captain!

*Hook and Smee runs off*





Meanwhile, Roxas gets ready to fight it.

So, it's you what's been goin' around takin' out my Heartless.



Oh, good. The game has finally given up the pretense of hiding Pete's identity, so I can use his portrait again.

I'm still mad at you for this boss

Listen pal, nobody messes with Pete's private army and gets away with it-including you! Now my new giant Heartless is gonna pluck you clean outta the sky!



Let's recap all the bosses from previous Disney worlds and what makes them annoying, shall we?

• Antlion (Agrabah): It's hard to chase it in the beginning if you don't realize that it's just spinning around a building. And it's impossible to avoid its attack if you don't think to hide behind a ruin. A great boss otherwise.
  
• Infernal Engine (Beast's Castle): The archers can only be killed with one special attack and will respawn, but they're not a lot of trouble. The main annoyance is its huge HP, but otherwise still a great boss.
  
• Guard Armor (Olympus Coliseum): The fucking arms and legs that acts like a wall and can't be attacked except during a specific phase. It's worse than Leechgrave due to being a returning boss botched from its previous games. At least just make the arms and legs untargetable, not act as a fucking wall
  
• Leechgrave (Halloween Town): The fucking Tentaclaws gauntlet before we even get to the boss. And the fact that it only stays vulnerable for 15 seconds. It should be longer than that, dammit!
  
• Crimson Prankster (Wonderland): Not that bad, just the Gotcha! moment where it multiplies while preserving their HP. Not bad otherwise, though.
  
• Stalwart Blade (Olympus Games): A blade Heartless. Not much else to say, really.

Before we go over the problems with this boss, let's see its attacks first. Well, it can raise ice pillars. We can easily avoid it if we pay attention to the water.



There will be a ripple where the pillars will appear, so just pay attention to that.



After inflicting enough damage, it will turn red. Touching it when it's red will hurt us.



So naturally, it tries to ram us. Keep moving to avoid it. This is by far the most dangerous part of the fight. No, I'm not kidding.



After a while, it will dive into the water...



...before then reappearing and shooting coins. Stay under it to avoid the coins.



After that, it goes back to normal. It can also shoot waterballs during either phase.

So what's the problem with this boss?



Well, for one it always runs away from Roxas, so we have to chase it. Only 2 hits can be done before it gets away. And that's if we're lucky.

AND just like Zebra Xemnas, it can also go past the boundary. Luckily this only happen once during the entire fight.



Another problem is that Fire won't be able to catch up normally. The only chance Fire gets is when it's slower (like when firing coins) or when it's turning. It's immune to all other magics, and don't expect Fira or Firaga to hit it.

As you might guess, this battle can last forever.



Also, when it turns red, it deals quite some damage. It's a small Gotcha! moment to add to the pile of bullshit.



Remember when I said both phases for the waterballs? That's because it can also do that when it's red and trying to ram us. And because those waterballs are water elemental, they will heal it, making this battle last even longer.



Thankfully, this is an LP so I can just skip to the next phase.



It will circle around Roxas, releasing both ice pillars and waterballs. If we just stay in one place, we don't have to worry about the pillars and can just move up or down for the balls.

In fact, that's pretty much the only thing we can do right now since there's pretty much no hope of catching up with it.



After that, it will shoot coins again. But there's one difference:



We can actually hit it this time! I neglected to mention earlier that when it shoots the coins, it will move backwards as we try to chase it, so we still can't attack it (except hopefully with Fire).



After that, it will stay still for 10 seconds. This is the best time to use Limit and will save plenty of time.



If we don't kill it by this time, it will try to claw Roxas. I almost died here due to my own fault so I can't blame it for this.

I CAN blame it for putting me through the whole 'circle-around' attack again with nothing to do, though!



So, to add to the list:

• Ruler of the Sky (Neverland): Runs away for half the fight, able to cross boundaries, spend 3/4 of the fight pretty much unreachable, have the potential to be a massive slog and is generally unfun to fight.

Pretty much the reason this doesn't take 15 minutes is because I know what to do and brought 18 Fires. It ties with Leechgrave in terms of slog, but ties with Guard Armor in terms of "Who the fuck thinks this is a good idea?"



Ruler of the Sky, defeated, flaps around for a bit, slowly losing control.

Faster, Smee!



A few rounds from the Long Tom will show that monster who-
Mm?
Captain! Look!



Ruler is still flying around...





Music stops




Not gonna lie, this makes me chuckle.

Music: Secret of Neverland


Aw, cheer up, Captain... Our luck will turn around soon enough. I know it.







*Pete runs off*

Private army, huh? What does he want an army of Heartless for?

In the manga, Peter Pan is the one who put those chests instead in order to give Hook purpose in life. And by the end, Hook has to sacrifice the chest full of gold (yeah, it's real in there) in order to protect Peter Pan. Yes, really.

In this game, Peter Pan doesn't even appear at all. His sprites aren't even in the game data. And the only thing Roxas got out of this world is "I can fly!* " _{*Fairy Dust needed}

In general, it does the Disney world much better and uses them as a chance to flesh out the other members. It completely skips Halloween Town, though .

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



Twilight Station Tower: 52
Sea-Salt Ice Cream: 88

It's probably because of the awkwardness between the three, but I choose to believe that Xion and Axel aren't here because they got bored of waiting for Roxas

Music: Crossing the Finish Line


At least we got Blizzaga. I literally never used it and have never seen any ally used it, so I have absolutely no idea how good it is. Yay?

New reports:





Bonus:

I pretty much have to spam Fire or Limit for this one and hope it's enough.