Game:

Kingdom Hearts II (2005)

Duration: 4:49

674 views

5

A fight that can be surprisingly enjoyable, but only if you're the one playing. Watching this is going to be boring. Even with 3 Reaction Ups, boosting Reaction Command damage to 250% normal power, it still takes a lot of spam to kill Xaldin, and this video is actually a lot shorter than what I usually do at this level.

I wanted a bonus clip here, but trying to record something from Youtube somehow resulted in two massive computer crashes, and my idea was not too interesting, so I didn't.

I think they could've designed this battle a bit differently. You HAVE to use the RC, and it makes no sense. "Learn"? Somewhere it explained that Sora "learns" the pattern of the wind shield protecting Xaldin, and thus knows how to attack with Jump. That makes even less sense than "riding the air currents" for Glide lol. At any rate, having to spam a non-sensical RC all the time is rather disillusioning - it's harder to get immersed and enjoy the fight when Xaldin is 99% invincible until he deliberately gives you RCs.

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Annoyingly, Xaldin likes to recast his shield while you are Jumping him. Sometimes, waiting a second or two before starting to Jump somehow solves that issue. If he recasts it while you have 2 or less Jumps, prepare to be hit upon finishing them all.

With his wind shield on, Xaldin is untouchable. All damage is reduced to 1 (except Jump? Seems to do very little, but not 1 damage), and the shield can and will hurt you. Listen what happens when I Drive in his face. It hits really fast.
Breaking the Shield means using Jump, which means using the RC to store Jumps, which means getting Xaldin to use specific moves which trigger the RC.

In the first phase, Xaldin will usually walk (midair) towards you, then do a Sextuple Stab which can be easily Guarded. Somehow. Don't try that in real life. Anyway, pressing Triangle as fast as you can will give you Jumps. You can reach the maximum of 9, but I usually only get 7 or 8.

I do an air combo after finishing my jumps, though Xaldin likes to not be stunned by it for seemingly no reason. When that happens, my Finisher still stuns him, though sometimes he manages to hit me first.

His Spear Drop move is dangerous (very prone to Second Chance/Once More cancellation), but it gives a ton of Jumps. They are hard to get. Jump + Aerial Dodge avoids the attack and Sora is close enough to use the RC, but if you land at the wrong moment, you won't be able to dodge the next spear rain in time. Quick Run is safer but gets less Jumps, even by spamming the RC. Glide works best, especially if you take a curve while the spears drop.


In his final phase, the spear drop move is a good thing. Xaldin starts to use 2 new moves forever, and when he finally does the Spear Drop, you can finally get Jumps. When he's not Spear Dropping you, Xaldin will either do his Desperation Move, or try to TELEFRAG you by teleporting on you so his shield hits you. Over and over and over again.

In other words : SORA! SORA! SORA! SORA! ... SORA! WAER DA FACE OF DIS PAIR! *Sora spins like a retard

You can Guard the start of the DM, where he's slashing with his lances, but it surprised me every time in this video.

The strategy at this point used to be casting Magnega, since its insane priority stops Xaldin in his tracks, and he picks a new move, somehow, often the Spear Drop one. However, I found a new strategy while playing today. Just keep jumping + Aerial Dodge, like usual, except don't cast Magnega, just press Triangle as much as you can. Xaldin occasionally tries to Sextuple Stab you again, and even if you don't Guard it, you can get 2-3 Jumps from it, enough to break Xaldin's shield.

Air Comboing him after Jumping is also more useful than I expected. Int his final phase, he likes to use his Spear Drop right after the combo, which shortens the fight dramatically. The combo is a little risky because Sora might not have time to land and dodge the first hit, but it's worth it.


Increasing Difficulty :

Lexaeus - Marluxia - Xaldin - Saix - Axel - Luxord - Demyx - Zexion - Sephiroth - Roxas - Larxene - Vexen

Easy fight, though the last phase requires some luck/getting hit a lot/strategy that sounds stupid at first ("Spam X and Triangle forever!").

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