Part 8: Episode 8: Battle of the Spikey Haired Protagonists

Well getting higher number cards is kinda luck, although certain areas will have better chances. Savestate abuse teaches me that the moogle packs are generated when you create the room, so just restarting until you get something great isn't an option. My current deck is mostly 5-8 kingdom keys now, but other types of key are becoming available which hit harder and faster, but I'm only seeing 1-4's of them at this point. For me I prefer having the low powered high numbered cards stacked rather than high powered low numbered because at least I'm going to land my hits.

I really wanna play this game in 3D too, so here's hoping the special edition KH2 comes stateside. Enough of that though, we've got a tournament to fight in-

Episode 8: Battle of the Spikey Haired Protagonists


Walking through the door drops us here.


Donald finds the poster with his eyes shut.
(This duck blinks about 3x as often as any other character, I've gone back and recapped him talking in most screens but it's starting to drive me insane. .)


"It's for some sort of contest.
They're calling it the 'Olympus Coliseum Survival Cup.'
Contenders have to run an obstacle course, battling each other along the way.
And listen to this: The great hero Hercules will also compete for the Cup."



Sora knows that mini-games always lead to good shit.





What else would you be doing Donald?


"Only competitors who complete the preliminary course may enter the main competition.
It says the preliminary course is just ahead!"

I wonder how they'll implement the barrel breaking game in a 2d environment...


The boys run off into the main part of the level. Well this should be pretty straightforward-


Uh-oh.


Hades. Lord of the Underworld. Sleight abusing prick of the year.




Sora you got some leveling to do. This guy is going to ruin us otherwise.



Well you know what sucks about being Lord of the Dead is that anyone you off is only going to end up in the Underworld, which is essentially your house. Sure you can torture them for eternity but I wouldn't want to permanently invite anyone I hated to live in my house forever and ever.


Wait a second. I know that hair.



Oh-ho! Cloud working for Hades?


So Hades is pitting Cloud against Herc. Interesting. What does google have to say about this matchup?


Well whaddayaknow.



Cloud seems to be having amnesia troubles of his own. It's pretty bad when your memory based figments are losing their memories too.


I think the lesson here folks, is never trust Lords of the Undead. Cloud's just got hitting the "yes" prompt so ingrained in him that he can't help it.
All right! Lets slay us some Heartless!



Our first level nets us a new Sleight, and a frickin AWESOME one at that. Our problem is we need to make 24 with 3 cards to set it off, and I only have two 8 cards and no 9 cards.


Well I've now set my deck up to do a stun impact off the bat, which is really good for these big packs of enemies. Its a shockwave that stuns everything in a short radius and does decent dmg.


Here's a better shot of our only new enemy this world, the monkeys. Theres boy monkeys and girl monkeys.


So yeah by "obstacle course" all they meant was "you get to clear out the entire map before getting to any plot doors." I wanted my barrel breaking minigame!

Stagnant Space means the monsters move at half speed in the area. In this picture you can also see some of the stat up green cards. They make your Magic, Potion, or Attack cards have +2 value in the room. I'll be saving those for hard enemies in later levels.


Meeting ground means Donald/Goofy cards are present at the start of every battle.


Picking up another 8 lets me do my favorite sleight! STRIKE RAID! You throw your keyblade...


And it comes back hitting everything in its path for massive destruction.
Ok so it doesn't hit very hard but it's still my favorite.


Climbing ladders, killing Heartless, all in a day's work.


Opening another chest gives us our second magic sleight.


Well now that everything is all dead, lets get to some plot. I've been pumping hp into Sora at every opportunity because he is going to need it by the end of this level.


Behind door number one we find... Phil!


The sprite gods were unkind to Phil.



Well that's fine because we aren't going to fight Herc anyways.




Basic addition is beyond Phil is his current state.



Captain Obvious award of the day goes to... Goofy!



Herc comes in to straighten this mess out.




No don't cancel them I want my shinies!



Honestly, who was signing up for this tournament then? There wasn't anything particularly hard about it. Maybe the other entrants saw there weren't any barrels and left in disgust.



It's not like anyone is watching them anyways. I think of the Coliseum as sort of this old drive-in theater that no one goes to anymore but refuses to close down on principle.



Who would put Phil over a barrel, really?



Just going to point out that no one in either Monstro or the Coliseum remembers Sora. After Traverse Town though, our hero never tries to force his memories on the residents of the other worlds.


Cloud out da bushes!



What the hell Phil. I'm not hero enough but he is? Is his hair just a little spikier? Do I need more gel?




Zing!


Sora gives a little pep talk to his crew.
"Alright guys try to fall from heaven as 0's for the rest of the world ok? It'd really be swell."




"Rule #2! In the event of a tie, a battle will determine the winner!
Rule #3! You can interfere with your opponents on the course!
And finally, Rule #4! All challengers have to give it everything they got!"

Sounds simple enough. I guess this is a race?


Our uh... competitors line up.




And off they run right out of the plot room.


Since everything is already dead I just ran over to the next door.


Cloud is here ahead of us.




How did Cloud get here before us and not Hercules? Hell if I know.





Yes! Shinies! Completion %! Onward!



Sora, lets go before you get guilt tripped into...



Cloud, I know you're new at this whole "working for the villian" thing but you really shouldn't be telling your evil plans to the protagonists. It never ends well.



Sora, like an idiot, can't let this threat to his friend stand and pulls his weapon.


Letting another figment distract me from my ultimate goal. But really I just wanna kick your blonde ass back to Midgard.



Yeah we have to beat up Cloud so he doesn't kill Hercules because we... Want to beat up Hercules? Sora doesn't like to share apparently.


Oh shi-


Time for BOSS BATTLE 4: Cloud


Cloud has a few attacks of note. Heres his Cross-Slash sleight, which tracks so you have to run like a bitch to get out of it.


Ow!


Oh god no...


Mother!
Here's his Omni-slash sleight which has him fly around the room and stab your face in. Can't dodge this one very well, so I always save my 0's to break it.


He has pretty low hp though (Heh, my HP bar is longer than Cloud's,) so as long as I break his omni-slash he's a pushover.


Thanks for that Hi-potion. Its a 3 so it'll be super useful I mean I better use it right now.

BONUS MATERIAL---
Boss 4- Cloud


Well being as Cloud can apparently fly, he probably used that hi-potion to distract us and ran like the little bitch he is.



After him gang!

On that note it's time to stop for the day, see you next time for a really tough boss fight on KH:CoM-
Episode 9: Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire!