History Videogame / KingdomHeartsII

''Kingdom Hearts II'' is an ActionRPG published and developed by Creator/SquareEnix in collaboration with Creator/{{Disney}}, and [[SequelNumberSnarl the third game]] in their ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, first released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 on December 22, 2005 in Japan, March 28, 2006 in America, and September 28/29 in Europe and Australia.

Like many Square games, ''Kingdom Hearts II''[='=]s was re-released in Japan with English voices plus extra content as ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' (included in a bundle called ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+'' alongside an VideoGameRemake of ''Chain of Memories'' titled ''Re:Chain of Memories''). Later, in December 2014, Square Enix released ''Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 [=ReMIX=]'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, another bundle containing HD versions of both ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' and ''Birth By Sleep Final Mix'' along with the cutscenes of ''Re:coded'' and Trophy support. This same bundle was later re-released alongside the preceding ''HD I.5 [=ReMIX=]'' compilation (containing HD versions of ''Kingdom Hearts I Final Mix'' and ''Re:Chain of Memories'' along with the cutscenes of ''358/2 Days'') on a single disc for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 initially and later the UsefulNotes/XboxOne with 60fps support. That compilation, alongside ''Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', ''Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind'', and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory'', was available for Windows PC via the UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore on March 30, 2021.

-->--'''Roxas'''

[[caption-width-right:299: ''[[Main/{{Tagline}} The story isn’t over.]]'' [[note]]Top: [[TheGoodKing Mickey Mouse]]; Middle: [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Donald Duck]], [[QuestForIdentity Roxas]] and [[SimplemindedWisdom Goofy]]; Bottom: [[PluckyGirl Kairi]] and [[AllLovingHero Sora]]; Background: [[AloofAlly Riku]] and [[NominalHero [=DiZ=] (Ansem the Wise)]][[/note]]]]

Sora, the young Keyblade wielder who was once victorious over the Heartless threat, has recovered from his previous encounter with Organization XIII in Castle Oblivion and awakens from a long slumber inside a mansion on the outskirts of the quaint village of Twilight Town, and is subsequently led by [[WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse King Mickey]] to the tower of [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} Yen Sid]], who gives him a new mission to stop the remaining members of the Organization from carrying out their ultimate plan. Like before, he must travel through TheMultiverse with [[WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck Donald]] and WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} at his side, and use his Keyblade to protect the worlds that are being invaded by the Heartless and Nobodies. But as he travels, multiple questions plague him: just who or what was responsible for ensuring his recovery from Castle Oblivion? What has happened to Riku and Kairi while he was asleep? And just what is his connection to Roxas, a blond-haired boy whose cozy life fell apart as Sora's was being rebuilt?

This installment is also the one where the series’ infamous KudzuPlot starts to kick into high gear, with a lot of new elements and {{Retcon}}s introduced here. Even though it becomes more and more convoluted over time, [[JigsawPuzzlePlot the story remains internally consistent]]. The game was followed by three prequels (''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', and ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage'') and two sequels (''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''), which more or less cleared up the confusion of the plot in preparation for the eventual release of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.

Sora, the young Keyblade wielder who was once victorious over the Heartless threat, has recovered from his previous encounter with Organization XIII in Castle Oblivion and awakens from a long slumber, and is led by [[WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse King Mickey]] to the tower of [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} Yen Sid]], who gives him a new mission to stop the remaining members of the Organization from carrying out their ultimate plan. Like before, he must travel through TheMultiverse with [[WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck Donald]] and WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} at his side, and use his Keyblade to protect the worlds that are being invaded by the Heartless and Nobodies. But as he travels, multiple questions plague him: just who or what was responsible for ensuring his recovery from Castle Oblivion? What has happened to Riku and Kairi while he was asleep? And just what is his connection to Roxas, a blond-haired boy whose cozy life fell apart as Sora's was being rebuilt?

''Kingdom Hearts II'' is an ActionRPG published and developed by Creator/SquareEnix in collaboration with Creator/{{Disney}}, and [[SequelNumberSnarl the third game]] in their ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, first released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 on December 22, 2005 in Japan, March 28, 2002 in America, and September 28/29 in Europe and Australia.

''Kingdom Hearts II'' is an ActionRPG published and developed by Creator/SquareEnix in collaboration with Creator/{{Disney}}, and [[SequelNumberSnarl the third game]] in their ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, first released on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 in 2005.

My sanctuary, my sanctuary…''

Like many Square games, ''Kingdom Hearts II''[='=]s was re-released in Japan with English voices plus extra content as ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' (included in a bundle called ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+'' alongside an UpdatedRerelease of ''Chain of Memories'' titled ''Re:Chain of Memories''). Later, in December 2014, Square Enix released ''Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 [=ReMIX=]'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, another bundle containing HD versions of both ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix'' and ''Birth By Sleep Final Mix'' along with the cutscenes of ''Re:coded'' and Trophy support. This same bundle was later re-released alongside the preceding ''HD I.5 [=ReMIX=]'' compilation (containing HD versions of ''Kingdom Hearts I Final Mix'' and ''Re:Chain of Memories'' along with the cutscenes of ''358/2 Days'') on a single disc for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 initially and later the UsefulNotes/XboxOne with 60fps support. That compilation, alongside ''Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', ''Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind'', and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory'', was available for Windows PC via the UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore on March 30, 2021.

[[caption-width-right:299:''In you and I, there's a new land...\\
Angels in flight… (…wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I)\\
My sanctuary, my sanctuary…''[[note]]Top: [[TheGoodKing Mickey Mouse]]; Middle: [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Donald Duck]], [[QuestForIdentity Roxas]] and [[SimplemindedWisdom Goofy]]; Bottom: [[PluckyGirl Kairi]] and [[AllLovingHero Sora]]; Background: [[AloofAlly Riku]] and [[NominalHero [=DiZ=] (Ansem the Wise)]][[/note]]]]

->"Tropers... You're lucky. [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Looks like my summer vacation is... over.]]"

!!This game contains examples of:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:A -- F]]
* EleventhHourRanger: Riku joins the party just before the final gauntlet of boss fights against Xemnas.
* EleventhHourSuperpower: During the final battles (starting with the dragon), the player has access to the MAX versions of all Growth abilities (High Jump, Glide, etc), regardless of the status of their respective Drive Forms (each form has one Growth ability that levels with it) or what Sora has equipped. Maxed out Drive Forms will make use of a secret 5th level that's a lot more powerful than the 4th. The very final level will grant [[SerialEscalation a secret secret 6th level]] of each Growth ability. At that point, the game pulls out all the stops and gives infinite duration for the Double Jump and Glide, which gives complete and infinite mobility in the air.
* HundredPercentCompletion: To get the final movie you must do several things. Unlock all the worlds. You have to complete Jiminy's Journal, which includes collecting ''all'' synthesis items, which are often quite rare monster drops and take a long time to find. And then you need to find enough to synthesize all the items too. You also need to level all your drives and summons up to Level 7 (very difficult with Final Form, as it requires defeating 500 nobodies in total while transformed), and then beat the Hades Paradox Cup with 15,000 points. However, on Proud mode you just have to unlock the worlds.
* AIBreaker:
** Luxord will refuse to attack after triggering his ultimate attack's Reaction Command (the one where he surrounds Sora with a wall of cards) until Sora moves. If you have a good lead in Time after he uses it, you can just stand there and wait for his Time to run out without being threatened.
** Gummi Heartless will aim at the exact center of your ship. However, your actual hitbox is determined based on the actual shape you've placed your ship parts in. Therefore, making a donut-shaped ship with a giant hole in the center causes them to miss far more often than they should.
** Using the Reaction Command during the Roxas fight in ''Final Mix'' allows Sora to steal Roxas's keyblades, which do passive damage with every action Sora takes. If Roxas is backed against the edge of the arena, Sora can repeatedly use Quick Run to deal chip damage without ever hitting Roxas's revenge value and allowing him to retaliate.
* AbilityRequiredToProceed:
** As you play through the story of Atalantica, Sora and co. will either come across obstacles that impede progress or they are given a task they cannot complete. The game will then prompt you to come back after Sora learns a spell at a minimum level (e.g. Magnera) to proceed.
** The Cavern of Remembrance in ''Final Mix'' cannot be fully explored until all Growth abilities are maxed out (done via leveling up the Drive Forms), as there are some instances of platforming that require their specialized movement.
%%* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Subverted with Groundshaker, Living Bones and Shaman Heartless. Played straight with the Strafer Heartless.
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: The game lets Sora and co. go up to Level 99, but it only recommends getting to Level 50 before entering The World That Never Was, TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. However, the bonus content, especially the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix]]'' additions, is difficult enough where hitting the level {{cap}} is almost necessary to stand a chance.
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The Keyblade is shown to be able to cut through buildings during a couple cinematic Reaction Commands.
* AccidentalMisnaming: On the second visit to [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]], Jack Sparrow refers to Sora as "Zola". Sora gets annoyed and corrects him. He also calls Sora by other names, namely "Nora" or "Dora", in the novel adaptation.
* AccompliceByInaction: During the first visit to [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} the Land of Dragons]], when Mulan is exposed as a woman, Shang realizes that Sora, Donald and Goofy knew the truth and kept it from him, so he gives them the same punishment.
* ActionBomb: The Minute Bomb, a small Heartless with a shell that resembles a stereotypical bomb. True to form, their main method of attack is to blow themselves up. Casting Fire magic on one will cause it to detonate immediately.
* ActionCommands: The combat in the game features Reaction Commands: at certain points during a battle, a prompt to press Triangle will appear, and doing so in time will cause Sora to perform a special move that is usually advantageous. Certain bosses can't be defeated without utilizing them, and most enemies have at least one Reaction Command associated with them. For example, at certain points when fighting Samurai Nobodies, the player is given the prompt to enter a "Duel Stance". Doing so locks Sora and the Samurai in a stand-off, where the command list goes blank and the player has to quickly pick the "The End" option when it appears; succeeding instantly defeats the Samurai, whereas failing causes Sora to take a heavy hit.
* ActionizedSequel: The combat system has been expanded and improved on for more impressive fights, and the first game's platforming elements have been significantly toned down in favor of more action.
* AdaptationExpansion:
** The musical in Atlantica. In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', it only appeared near the beginning, and is rarely mentioned afterwards. In the games, it becomes an important part of the world's plot, and is moved to the end and Ariel is present, this time.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' adds a new story set after the film where Dr. Finklestein’s experiment comes to life and starts stealing Christmas presents.
** ''Franchise/TheLionKing'' features an interquel set in between the first and second film in which Simba is insecure about his role as king and Scar comes back as a ghost.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' features a segment set after the film where Xigbar turns a dragon into a Heartless which attacks the Emperor’s palace.
** In the ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' world, Xaldin steals Beast’s rose and kidnaps Belle to try and manipulate Beast into becoming a Heartless.
* AdaptationExplanationExtrication:
** The events in Atlantica are an extremely condensed retelling of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' in musical form; how Prince Eric knows Ariel's name even though she's mute at the time is never explained (in the film, Sebastian tells him her name during the "Kiss the Girl" sequence, which is cut from the game). [[DubInducedPlotHole This example only applies to the English dub]], as she does tell him her name shortly after regaining her voice in the Japanese version.
** In Port Royal, it is not explained why Will Turner freed Jack Sparrow from prison ''before'' Sparrow agreed to help rescue Elizabeth.
** The plot of ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' is heavily implied to have happened before the game since Santa Claus is obviously apprehensive of Jack Skellington, but the only explanation given by him about Santa's attitude is that "It's a long story."
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Atlantica adapts ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' in full this time, causing some plot holes in the process due to Atlantica being visited the first time around. As Sora and Ariel battled and seemingly killed Ursula in the first game, it is inexplicable when not only does Ursula shows up to offer her deal to Ariel like in the film, but Ariel accepts the deal without a second thought despite having been down this road before. It only serves to make Ariel look like an idiot.
* AdaptedOut:
** The Hun army from ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' has been completely replaced with Heartless.
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' characters Jack the Monkey, Gibbs, Cotton, and Marty do not show up in Port Royal. While Barbossa still has crew, the unique characters like Pintel and Ragetti do not appear and they're all generic pirate {{mooks}}. In addition, Commodore James Norrington doesn't appear in person, but small messages left by him adorn the cannons on the Rampart. Governor Weatherby Swann is also absent.
** Since Gaston's role as Beast's personal antagonist is played by Xaldin, Gaston doesn't appear at all in Beast's Castle. The rest of the human characters from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' are also absent since Belle's hometown is never visited.
** Zazu and Simba's mother Sarabi are absent from the world based on ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing.''
** Apart from Tron, Sark, and the MCP, every other named character from ''Film/{{Tron}}'' is missing in the Space Paranoids setting.
** [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI Once again]], the Sultan of Agrabah and Rajah are absent from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' world. As well as Abis Mal, who also played a role in the events depicted.
** Grimsby, Max, Scuttle, and Chef Louie are absent from the retelling of WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid. Justified for the human characters in that Sora and company can't leave the ocean.
* AerithAndBob: The apprentices to Ansem the Wise are named Xehanort, Braig, Aeleus, Ienzo... then there's Dilan and Even.
* AfterlifeExpress: One of TheSevenMysteries of Twilight Town. It turns out to be a magic train that carries people to the Mysterious Tower, home of [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} Yen Sid]].
* AkashicRecords: The Bookmaster Heartless drop a shield that Goofy can use called the Akashic Records. It looks like a book, but it is not disclosed if it is actually the mythical "record of everything" or not.
* AlasPoorVillain:
** After Sora and co. defeat the Experiment and return the presents it stole, Santa Claus speculates that it only took them because it believed the joy associated with gifts would somehow give it a heart. Dr. Finklestein backs this up by mentioning he failed to provide the Experiment with a heart during the creation process.
** As Saïx is fading away after his defeat, he mournfully asks Kingdom Hearts where his heart is.
* AllForNothing:
** When “Ansem”’s true nature is revealed, Sora, Donald and Goofy lament that they went through so much just to kill someone who was the wrong guy. Mickey makes it clear this trope is Averted, however; yes, “Ansem” was an impostor, but he was '' still '' a dangerous, world-ending threat to the Realm of Light that needed to be stopped nonetheless.
** Sora worries this is the case after battling the massive horde of Heartless at Hollow Bastion to protect his friends there, only for Axel to tell him that destroying all of those Heartless played right into Xemnas's hands, and that the more Heartless he defeats the more he's helping Organization XIII to accomplish their own goals. He nearly surrenders himself to the Heartless after this fact, only for Maleficent to bail him out by pulling him into the realm of darkness. It takes Goofy reminding him that in spite of Organization XIII's plans, they still need to fight the Heartless, or else they'll keep hurting people without him doing anything about it.
-->'''Sora:''' Maybe all we've done... Maybe it was for nothing. What am I supposed to do if I can't use the Keyblade?!
* AllInARow: When you enter an area without Heartless-encounters, Donald, Goofy and any world specific Party Member will start to act like [=NPCs=] and kinda do their own thing, instead of following Sora around. This also gives Sora a chance to talk to them.
* AllThereInTheScript:
** Luxord, Xigbar, and Demyx are never called by name (save for a Final Mix+ scene, in which someone says Demyx's), but you see their names in Jiminy's Journal. Later games do call them by name.
** The Heartless bosses. Darkside, Guard Armor, Trickmaster, Stealth Sneak... They can all be found in the journal, but other than that...
* AllYourPowersCombined:
** Sora's Drive Forms each focus on enhancing something. Valor Form gets a melee power boost, extended melee combos, and DualWielding; Wisdom Form gets a magic power boost, enhanced aerial speed, and causes Sora to appear to hover above the ground; Master Form gets enhanced magic casting, dual wielding (again), crowd control melee, and enhanced aerial maneuverability. Final Form combines aspects of each of the previous forms: extended crowd control melee combos with more power, enhanced magic casting with a power boost, aerial speed and maneuverability, dual wielding (plus a pair of floating silver orbs of light), [[PowerFloats and Sora hovers above the ground and controls his Keyblades with telekinesis]].
** The Prison Keeper's attacks are based off of whichever one of Lock, Shock, or Barrel it currently has in its mouth. Once its HP gets low, it swallows all 3 kids and gains access to its entire arsenal.
** In the first fight against Armored Controller Xemnas, he sits on a throne surrounded by the weapons used by the other Organization members (except Roxas). Most of his attacks during this fight utilize the weapons.
* AlwaysNight: [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] is always set at night so that "the moonlight shows us for what we really are" is in effect for the cursed crew.
* AlwaysSecondBest: By this game, Riku gotten over this thanks to CharacterDevelopment (and nearly helping the BigBad destroy the Worlds in the first game, that's a big wake-up call) and admits to Sora [[spoiler: while they're trapped in the Realm of Darkness after beating Xemnas]] that he considers ''himself'' to be inferior to Sora since the former doesn't worry about being the best and [[BeYourself just follows his heart.]]
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Riku is hinted to have always been able to outdo the main character Sora, something the latter admits at the end of this game. Riku is a case of IJustWantToBeSpecial and grows jealous that Sora is TheChosenOne because of the Keyblade going to him, even though both are able to wield it. The two are also in a LoveTriangle with their mutual {{Childhood Friend|s}} Kairi, who loses her heart for most of the first game but only Riku is working to save her and he believes that Sora has abandoned them for his new friends. These factors lead to him embracing the powers of darkness and taking the Keyblade from Sora to achieve all of his goals but Sora is able to reclaim the Keyblade and fight him off. By this point, TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget has taken effect, leading Riku to on even more power from the darkness and allowing the BigBad to take over his body while his heart is lost to darkness. By the end of the game, he admits to how he sees Sora in this way compared to himself and goes on in the later games to acknowledge that Sora is the one they need while his capabilities are devoted to supporting him.
* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The first Xemnas battle takes place in Memory's Contortion, a rainy version of Memory's Skyscraper that just has the one building with wavering images of a city off in the distance. The second battle against Armored Xemnas happens in a crumbling version of the World that Never Was with colorful surfaces and streams of energy everywhere. Sora and Axel fight a swarm of lesser Nobodies in Betwixt and Between, which is the abstract interior of a portal between the virtual Twilight Town and the World the Never Was. Finally, the Paradox Cup battles in Olympus Coliseum are all set on platforms in a swirly green vortex that may or may not be in the Well of Souls.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The series (and the franchise, if the ending stuck) would have ended with the Destiny Trio getting what they deserved...if it hadn’t been for King Mickey’s letter.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: The Proofs of Peace (beating the Mushroom XIII), Connection (beating the Lingering Will), and Nonexistence (beating all the Data-Organization XIII) in ''Final Mix'' each give Sora a bronze crown. Collecting two makes the crown silver and collecting all three makes it gold.
* AngerBornOfWorry: At one point in the game, Goofy gets bashed in the head by a rock and apparently killed. One battle with Heartless later, Goofy turns up alive and well, having just been knocked out. Donald's response is to whack Goofy in the kneecap with his staff.
-->'''Donald''': Don't you ''ever'' do that again!
* AnimatedArmor:
** The suits of armor in Beast's Castle are fully mobile due to the enchantment, though they are only seen moving once when Cogsworth asks them to.
** Contrary to what Jiminy's Journal says, the Lingering Will is an empty suit of armor that's possessed by Terra's mind.
* AnimeHair: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d. When the party meets Tifa, she tells them that she's looking for someone with spiky hair (i.e. Cloud). Donald and Goofy immediately stare at Sora, who self-consciously tugs on one of his spikes.
-->'''Tifa:''' Spikier.
* {{Animesque}}: Inverted, considering the game was developed in Japan. The character design of Sora that Creator/TetsuyaNomura created for the Timeless River world (based off the cartoon short ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie'' and other shorts during the 1930s) makes him resemble a cartoon character from UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation (RubberHoseLimbs and all).
* {{Animorphism}}: One of the visitable worlds is the [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Pride Lands]]. While there, [[TheHero Sora]] is transformed into a [[KillerRabbit brown lion cub]] thanks to his clothes. Goofy and Donald are also transformed into, respectively, a tortoise and a bird... that can actually fly.
* {{Antepiece}}: The tutorial section with Roxas makes great pains to get you prepared for all sorts of situations later in the game by practicing on mundane tasks. Almost all the jobs and wonders of Twilight Town each introduce and let you practice a concept while you're currently in no danger of game over. Every one of these concepts become important in the later parts of the game, especially on higher difficulties.
** Cargo Climb works similarly to the ''VideoGame/GodHand'' example above, but not only is it about making sure you're attacking from the right position, it also introduces Revenge Counters and reacting properly to them- in this case, parrying, which clears the mini game faster and gets you more money.
** Grandstander is blatant in what it lets you practice: air combos. You get scored on how many hits you get before the ball touches the ground, getting you more money.
** Poster Duty is a platforming exercise- you have to jump around to all the poster spots in town without worrying about enemies or fights.
** Bumble Buster pits you against waves of enemies that spawn in groups but whose attacks don't do any damage, they merely slow you down, letting you practice efficient crowd control.
** Junk Sweep is similar, but since it scores you more for using fewer attacks, on targets that can only be destroyed with combo finishers, you're taught the importance of combo finishers in crowd control and repositioning your targets.
** Mail Delivery is a simple exercise in Reaction Commands; the window you have for delivering the mail is very short if you go by the target at full speed, but the only penalty for missing the window is having to backtrack and losing a couple seconds on the clock.
** The Friend Beyond The Wall not only teaches you about dodging attacks while closing in on a target without any worry of taking damage, it also teaches you the importance of the recently learned Aerial Recovery ability, which not only helps you regain control after getting launched, it also parries the balls.
** The Moan From The Tunnel is a slightly harder version of Bumble Buster. This time you have many more enemies with stronger attacks appearing faster, but since they all have 1 hp, you can keep yourself from getting overwhelmed by properly practicing your crowd control skills.
** The Doppelganger puts you in a one-on-one fight on an enemy with equal footing, but there still isn't any worry of game over, and his attack pattern makes it easy to land parries on him if you're aggressive, showing you how important parries are against individual enemies.
** The Animated Bag is another Reaction Command exercise. This time, the window to pull one off is smaller, but paying attention to the animation of the bag lets you know when a reaction command will come up, making it much easier to pull one off if you're paying attention.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** Dying during a BossFight usually has you continue in the last area where you have complete control of Sora, which is generally the beginning of whatever room came before the boss you died to. The last stretch of the game is a SequentialBoss with a PointOfNoReturn, so dying during one of the fights just starts you at the beginning of whatever phase you died at.
** Riku cannot die during the FinalBoss fight outside of Xemnas' final attack, as he temporarily becomes playable if Xemnas uses a move that traps Sora.
** During the OptionalBoss battle against [[TheBerserker the Data version of Saix]], the amount of time the claymores stay on the field is reduced from ten seconds to about ''one second''. They're also necessary to snap Saix out of his berserker mode, as his berserk gauge doesn't decrease over time as it did before. As compensation, Sora is now invulnerable once he grabs a claymore in the Data battle, making knocking Saix out of his berserk state much easier.
** Unlike other Drive Forms, Anti-Form can't be manually deactivated when in combat, as it was designed to be a "powerful, but troublesome" form that the player triggers by accident. Anti-Form is a GlassCannon of the first order that has no movement abilities and can't heal, but has immense power. If Sora is still in Anti-Form after a combat encounter ends, a player is allowed to manually cancel it to prevent a situation that's UnintentionallyUnwinnable.
** Bosses in this game can only be defeated by magic or combo finishers. Other attacks will hit, but never drain their health below 1. To compensate for this, many bosses, especially humanoid ones, will change their A.I. pattern when at 1 HP to one that's far more limited and mainly consists of them standing still and occasionally using a weak attack, which removes the potential for an unfair death at the hands of this mechanic.
* AntiGrinding: There's a grinding cap for Drive Forms and Summons that is tied to the plot. For example, before getting Master Form, it's impossible to grind Valor or Wisdom Forms over level 5.
* AntiVillain:
** The Experiment only stole the presents because it felt incomplete and wanted a heart, thinking that they would provide it with one somehow.
** Most of the members of Organization XIII want to regain their hearts so they can become complete beings again. To this end they antagonize Sora into killing Heartless, releasing their hearts and letting the Nobodies collect them to form Kingdom Hearts.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Outside of Sora (who is mandatory as the PlayerCharacter), only 2 other characters can be active in the party when you will occasionally have access to 3. No reason is given as to why you can't have all 3 out.
* ArbitraryMissionRestriction: The EX versions of Gummi Missions place certain restrictions on you, such as using specific blueprints or having a set amount of a single type of part equipped.
* ArgumentOfContradictions: In an homage to the Disney ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', the fairies Flora, Fauna and Merryweather disagree over the color of Sora's new outfit, before finally landing on a stylish multi-colored outfit that can transform into other outfits patterned after a single color that give Sora special powers.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Some enemies, such as Large Bodies and Berserkers, automatically deflect attacks from the front. Reaction Commands, Magic, Limits, Explosion, and Guard Break will pierce their defenses and deal damage.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: The final boss, Xemnas, addresses both Sora and Riku during the battle: "Sora, are you certain you can trust Riku? Riku, are you sure you are not jealous of Sora?" Although Xemnas fails to undermine Sora's trust, his words have an effect on Riku; after the battle, Riku recants his earlier statement that he had always thought he was better than Sora, finally admitting that he had actually been jealous.
* ArsonMurderAndLifesaving: The end of the first Land of Dragons quest features most of a quote from ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', with Sora thinking that everyone is in trouble and interrupting:
-->'''The Emperor:''' I've heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan. You stole your father's armor, ran away from home, impersonated an Imperial soldier. You deceived your commanding officer, shamed the entire Chinese Army and dishonored your family name.\\
'''Sora:''' We get the picture...\\
'''The Emperor:''' You're a young woman. And in the end... you have saved us all.
* TheArtifact: The Sweet Memories Keyblade, like every Keyblade, has unique particle effects when it hits something, in this case honeybees and four-leaf clovers, the latter of which represent its equipment ability, Lucky Lucky. Starting in ''Final Mix'' and in all subsequent releases, its ability is Drive Converter instead, but the clovers still remain.
* ArtifactMook: Any of the Nobody EliteMooks eventually becomes this once their respective Organization XIII leaders are defeated. While it makes sense for them to show up in the final dungeon by themselves (as it is supposed to be their homeworld), they can still show up in the regular worlds for no particular reason, usually in the area you first find them.
* ArtifactOfHope: The Cornerstone of Light is a sacred relic that can be found in Disney Castle, a massive CrystalBall-like artifact the exudes a constant aura of light so strong, it keeps out all invading forces that threaten it. With the Cornerstone active, Disney Castle is the only world the Heartless (and Maleficent) can't invade.
* ArtificialStupidity: Like in the first game the partner AI is simply abysmal. They have a tendency to waste all of their magic and skills the moment a fight starts with anything. Donald is the worst in this department; he'll spend all of his MP in five seconds flat if he's allowed to use his attack spells. They also like to just stand there doing nothing for 2/3rds of any given fight. Their pattern is basically "attack, step back, wait two seconds, repeat", meaning they take a boatload of hits from enemies since they basically never guard, even if you tell them to. Elemental attackers just fire off random spells, often resulting in them casting spells that do no damage on enemies strong against whatever they randomly chose.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Sometimes the rules of Physics like to take a day off. When facing Xemnas they go get popcorn. Highlights include: Flying, running upside buildings, fighting literally nowhere, using the keyblade to cut buildings in multiple pieces from far away with clean cuts, hitting the pieces towards Xemnas, walking on literally nothing (again), and knockback.
* ArtShift:
** Timeless River is based off of the Creator/{{Disney}} shorts from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, so the character designs are much more simplistic and the color scheme is purely monochrome. Sora is also designed after early anime and manga character designs from the 60s.
** The world Port Royal is based off of the live action movie ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' instead of the series' standard fare of using Creator/{{Disney}}'s animated films for locations, thus it has a darker and much more realistic style than the rest. This is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Sora and co. noting how it feels different when they first enter.
** Halloween Town employs a filter to ensure all of the characters appear more grainy, making everything look more in line with the general aesthetic used by ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' and its stop-motion animation.
* AscendedExtra: [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing Simba]] goes from summon to party member in this game. Mushu also ascends by virtue of actually playing a role in the plot, but is ''less'' of a presence in battle, going from a summon to only appearing in Mulan's LimitBreak.
* AskAStupidQuestion: When Will Turner asks if the clearly dangerous Organization XIII will hurt the townsfolk of [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]], Jack Sparrow sarcastically quips that they're only there to hand out flowers.
* ATasteOfPower: Inverted and downplayed.
** During the prologue, Roxas emulates Sora's basic [=KH1=] combos. His attacks are a bit too slow, he always uses always the same 3 attacks in sequence, and he always ends with a horizontal sweep that often misses enemies above or below him. That last part is reinforced when enemies are walking upside down above his head. This leaves him feeling somewhat awkward and clunky.
** Sora on the other hand has an evolved version of his old combos. He attacks more rapidly, his second attack actually hits twice, and he actually uses a different finisher in context to enemy positioning. For example, when on the ground he leaps forward with a downward strike for extra range or goes back to the sweep when he is surrounded. This immediately makes him feel stronger and more comfortable to use despite sharing the same stats as Roxas and having no extra abilities.
** As a straighter example, the last major battle of the prologue (the second battle against Axel) gives Roxas a significant power boost for the duration of the fight, including allowing him to dual wield what are otherwise late-game keyblades (Sora can only dual wield while using certain drive forms).
* AttackDrone: "Teeny Ships". In addition, Terra/Lingering Sentiment in ''Final Mix'' has an attack where he sends out several drones to surround you from different angles and shoot lasers. They chase you down, and move very quickly, even zig-zagging over your head before firing, but can be dealt with using Reflega or even jumping into them before they fire. They also disappear after a while if you didn't destroy them.
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Several Heartless bosses, most noticeably the Groundshaker in the Pride Lands, are this. There's also the battles with Genie Jafar in Agrabah, and Sark and the Master Control Program in Space Paranoids.
* AttackReflector: The Reflect line of spells casts a spherical shell around Sora, negating any damage for a split second before inflicting identical damage to any enemies in range through energy bursts. Even the highest level of the spell has a fairly small range, so it doesn't often hurt long range attackers, but this is made up for by the fact that the reflected attack can damage as many enemies as it can reach. (It ends up being a great way to do a lot of damage to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]].)
* AutoRevive: If Sora dies while the Peter Pan Summon is active, Tinker Bell will revive him to full health. It only works once per Summon, and she disappears after reviving him.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** The ''Final Mix'' version adds five equipment pieces based on the weapons of the five Organization members that were killed in ''Chain of Memories'', which is very cool, but the catch is being able to craft them. The recipes are dropped by the owner's Absent Silhouette, so you won't unlock them until late in the game, and they all need Illusion, Tranquility and/or Remembrance materials, which are rare -- Tranquility materials are farmed from the Mushroom XIII, Remembrace materials from the high-powered enemies in the Cavern of Remembrance, and Illusion materials are extremely rare and only farmable from the Data rematches. In other words, by the time you can reliably get all the items needed to craft them, you're probably well into the end game content, and these items are only going to appeal to someone interesting in MinMaxing Sora, because the advantages they give over other items are negotiable.[[/note]][[note]]Full Bloom and Shadow Archive grant MP Haste and give 3 Strength and Magic, respectively, but there are several other accessories that give 2 in those stats and are much easier to synthesize.[[/note]]
** Particular mention to the Centurion, Donald's staff that is based on Lexaeus's Skysplitter axe. It has the highest Strength boost of any weapon in the game, but its Magic boost is mediocre and it has no ability attached; Donald is a SquishyWizard, so this weapon's strengths run completely counter to how he fights. The "+" version comes with the Damage Control ability, allowing Donald to take half damage at critical health, but he's so frail that it probably won't make a difference.
* AxCrazy: Saïx -- he's typically a calm, collected fellow, but in berserk mode, he's a ScreamingWarrior that is utterly relentless.
* BackForTheDead: Axel's appearance was originally meant to be this at the very end of the prologue compared to ''Chain of Memories'', but his popularity as a character convinced the developers to keep him around later in the story.
* BackToBackBadasses: Leon and Cloud during the Heartless invasion. Sora does it with a few different people over the course of the game (it's even a part of his CombinationAttack with some of them).
* BadassInDistress: Sora, Donald and Goofy, when [[{{BoundAndGagged}} left tied up]] on the ''Interceptor'', and later on, when they get arrested and zapped into a computer world. In both cases, the party member of the respective worlds help them escape. There is also their encounter with the [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 hyenas]] -- if it were not for Scar, they would've wound up as food. Sora also finds himself being choked to death by Flotsam and Jetsam when they restrain him during "Ursula's Revenge". His friends save him in the nick of time.
* BagOfSpilling: Sora has forgotten all of his magic, which Merlin is not happy about, and most of his other tricks from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''. [[JustifiedTrope It's implied that this was caused by having his memory wiped and re-assembled.]]
* BaitAndSwitchComment: [[WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse King Mickey]] refuses to break his promise to Riku [[spoiler:regarding his Ansem form]]. Sora spends the entire game looking for Riku, and when he finds out about the promise...
-->'''Sora:''' ''(annoyed)'' You made a ''promise'' to Riku? ''([[StepfordSmiler "cheerfully"]])'' So he's okay! I can see him again!
* BalanceBuff:
** The animation for using items in battle - such as Potions - is a lot shorter than ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', making them much easier to utilize without getting interrupted.
** The international version of the game increases the damage of the Reflect spell from the original Japanese version, while the ''Final Mix'' version increases it even further.
* {{Balloonacy}}: The first mini-game requires Sora to use a balloon to save Piglet from a hurricane while scoring 18,000 points for the journal.
* BallroomBlitz: The boss fight of your first visit to the ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' level takes place in the iconic ballroom. By your second visit, they've got around to the actual dance scene — but it's interrupted by Xaldin, who kidnaps Belle and lures everyone outside.
* BashBrothers: Sora and any party member can unleash Limits that can bring a world of hurt onto their foes. Special mention should go to Sora and Riku's limit ''Session'', which ends with an offhand FistBump.
* BatmanGambit: Organization XIII's plan relies entirely on Sora killing Heartless, which lets them collect the hearts released by the Keyblade. Even when Sora finds out the plan, he's compelled by his conscience to continue helping peopling being terrorized by the Heartless.
* BatOutOfHell: The game introduces the Hook Bat Heartless, which appears in swarms and uses sound attacks. Reaction commands let you use them to pull GrievousHarmWithABody. The ''Final Mix'' version of the game introduces its PaletteSwap, the Beffudler.
* BattleAmongstTheFlames: The last boss fight you play as Roxas. At some points, you're even running on the fire to do a reaction command.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind:
** The very first boss is against the Twilight Thorn in the Station of Awakening, a location that is heavily implied to be a person's heart. The giant Nobody is trying to subdue Roxas so he can be returned to the Organization.
** Near the end of the game, Roxas senses Axel's sacrifice and wakes up in response, making his existence known to Sora. The two end up fighting within Sora's heart as Roxas tries for one last chance to be a real person.
* BattleshipRaid:
** The Phantom Storm Gummi Mission involves an encounter with a huge Heartless pirate ship on the way to Olympus Coliseum. You can try to destroy it or just survive until the end of the mission.
** The final Gummi Mission, Assault of the Dreadnought, is a homage to the Death Star II battle in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Sora and co. fight past a huge armada of Nobody ships and eventually enter the inside of the flagship to destroy its core.
** Like the World of Chaos in the first game, the FinalBoss on ''II'' is Xemnas' part-dragon, part-castle battleship. Unlike ''I'', "World Of Nothingness" is the [[FinalBossNewDimension area it is fought]], not the ship.
* BeamOWar: The "Session" reaction command's final move, "All's End", has Sora and his companion Riku's Keyblades firing a beam each at each other that meet in the middle, drawing in enemies and dealing heavy damage.
* BeamSpam:
** Xigbar uses two laser-shooting guns (called "Arrowguns") to attack, and he fires near-constantly.
** Xemnas's final attack shoots hundreds of beams into the air that form a dome around the player characters that then gradually collapses inwards, forcing the player to mash Reaction Commands to deflect the beams.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Many of Sora's Reaction Commands involve him copying the enemy's signature moves. For example, he can copy the aerial dive attack of Xaldin, and against Demyx he can challenge him to a musical duel.
* BeefGate: There's nothing stopping you from entering the Cavern of Remembrance when it first opens up, but the enemies located there are so powerful that you'll probably want to hold off until you've beaten the game.
* BenevolentGenie: Genie is actually somewhat disappointed that Aladdin always asks such [[MundaneWish simple favors from him]] when he would be happy to do much more, like dispelling "one measly little sandstorm," and putting Agrabah back "exactly the way it was" after Jafar's defeat, when Genie wants to make improvements like adding swimming pools.
* BetaCouple: Cloud and Tifa, the latter of whom has no characterization in this continuity other than "Cloud's ActionGirl love interest".
* BigBad: Xemnas, the leader of the mysterious Organization XIII, is the primary antagonist of the story. He is the Nobody (the cast-off body and soul) of the first game's antagonist, Ansem, and as such shares many of his goals.
* BigBadEnsemble: Organization XIII and Maleficent are both after Kingdom Hearts, butting heads with Sora (and each other) over the course of the story. About halfway through, the Organization removes Maleficent from the picture by taking control of the Heartless away from her.
* BigBadWannabe: Maleficent spends the first half the game being built up as [[BigBadEnsemble one of the Big Bads]], only to bow out when she realizes Organization XIII was playing both her and Sora in the Battle of 1000 Heartless.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** If Sora dies when fighting certain bosses[[note]]Shan Yu, Thresholder/Possessor, Shadow Stalker, Dark Thorn, Cerberus (story fight), Hydra, [[DualBoss Volcanic Lord and Blizzard Lord]] (story fight), Storm Rider, Xaldin (story fight), Grim Reaper (first fight), and Xemnas (first Armored Controller fight).[[/note]], there is a chance that King Mickey will appear and take over as the PlayerCharacter to give another chance to beat the boss. Once he fills the Drive Gauge completely from either dealing damage or using a special command, he can revive Sora to full health to continue the fight -- or if he runs out of health instead, he'll use a potion to revive Sora at half health before he retreats.
** While Kairi and Naminé are escaping from The Castle That Never Was, Saïx and two Berserkers find them and attempt to recapture Kairi. Riku then appears out of nowhere to {{backstab}} one of the Berserkers and scare Saïx off.
* BigWhat: Sora, Donald and Goofy's reaction to finding out who "Xehanort" really is is a loud "what" from all three.
* BishonenLine: The members of Organization XIII are the only human form Nobodies, owing to their strong hearts before their hearts were removed; all the other Nobodies are [[HumanoidAbomination white-grey monsters that vaguely resemble humans]].
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Yen Sid's tower is on an island floating in space, and the interior is a floating stairway with portals connecting to the rooms. The Castle that Never Was is even weirder. It's a mountain-sized floating castle full of impossibly long hallways, elevators that space manipulation to reach their distinations, suspended floors, HardLight paths between platforms, and areas that can only be accessed by portals.
* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: In the German version of the game, Demyx responds to WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} accusing him of being a thief with "Dieb – was für ein hässliches Wort!", meaning "Thief – what an ugly word!".
* BladeLock: A notable instance occurs when [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud and Sephiroth]] blade lock while Cloud is on the receiving end of a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
* BladeRun: Sora can stand on Barbossa's cutlass as part of a Reaction Command. Unlike most examples, he does this to pin it to the ground -- Barbossa doesn't hold him and the sword aloft in midair.
* BleakLevel:
** The Pride Lands, based off of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''. The game's version takes place after Scar's takeover, so there's no plant life outside of the oasis that Timon and Pumbaa live in and the color scheme is dominated by differing shades of grey.
** The final level is an enormous white castle owned by [[HumanoidAbomination Organization XIII]], located in a place called The World That Never Was. Made eerier by the dissonant nature of the music and the overtly nihilistic names of its locations ("Altar of Naught", "Where Nothing Gathers"...)
* BlindIdiotTranslation: The French Canadian release of the game comes with a French instruction manual that translates "Nobodies" as "Personnes", which literally means "[[{{Irony}} Persons]]".[[note]]This is because the manual was based on the English version of the game (as the only language available on the disk). "Nobody" (as in "nobody there", rather than "no body" as was intended) translates as "personne" in French, so they just took the plural.[[/note]] The European French dub just translated it as "Simili".
* BlockingStopsAllDamage: The blocking skill, though it's more accurately described as Reflega Stops All Damage. This is the final form of the reflect spell. It only does it reflect projectiles and stop all damage in all directions, it also explodes after a successful block or chain of blocks, dealing immense damage to the enemy, often resulting in a OneHitKO on weaker foes. It is considered by many to be the best legitimate way to defeat the [[OptionalBoss Optional Bosses]], since the it is the best way to simultaneously block attacks and deal damage.
* BlowYouAway: Xaldin only physically wields two or three of his six lances at a time and manipulates the other ones with his wind powers, likely making him the Organization member with the greatest degree of fine control over his element. His DesperationAttack is also a wind-based WaveMotionGun.
* BodyUploading: "Space Paranoids", the ''Franchise/{{TRON}}'' world, is inside Radiant Garden's computerized defense system. The computer has a laser scanning system that turns external objects into little digital cubes inside the computer (and vice-versa); Sora and company are sent there for the first time unwillingly, when the MCP takes over the system and tries to eliminate them as a potential threat.
* BonusDungeon: The [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix]] version of ''II'' has the series' first proper Bonus Dungeon, the Cavern of Remembrance, as it is the first full level designed to be optional content. Powerful recolored mooks populate the game's most difficult level that features the return of platforming elements of the first game, which are otherwise mostly phased out. The reward waiting at the end is a gauntlet of battles: data replicas of all thirteen members of the Organization, much stronger than they were before. Of course, you need to beat the game to unlock all of them but considering that you can't complete the Cavern without Sora's Final Form, which [[EleventhHourSuperpower you only unlock after reaching the final level]], that shouldn't make much of a difference.
* BonusFeatureFailure: Unbeknownst to most players, pressing the Select button activates a First-Person mode. It works fine, except the game is forced back into third-person whenever a Reaction Command is activated, making playing only in first-person practically impossible.
* {{Bookends}}:
** The very first scene done in-engine takes place at a beach in the Realm of Darkness. Sora and Riku end up on that same beach at the end of the game, and it also doubles as the location of the last in-engine cutscene.
** The first and last bosses are both Nobodies and utilize an attack that can be dodged using the "Reversal" Reaction Command.
** You finish the first world and every subsequent world by firing off a beam of light from the Keyblade into the Sky to unlock new lanes to travel to other worlds. In the final battle, Sora finishes off Xemnas by firing a beam straight through him that kills him.
** If the game enters {{Precap}}, a poem will be shown onscreen before the montage of cutscenes accompanying the staff credits. The poem reappears at the end of the game being read by Sora.
** The intro of the first game has Sora falling from the sky before landing in the ocean of Destiny Islands, the same thing happens when Sora and Riku return home in the ending cutscene.
** The first game ended with Sora and Kairi being separated as the worlds are restored, losing grip of one another's hand. This game ends with them being reunited in Destiny Islands, Sora returning Kairi's good luck charm and the final image before the credits roll is their hands embracing once more.
** The first time you visit a world, you're treated to a cutscene that displays the world's title. On your second visit, the ending cutscene for the world closes with the world's title being displayed once again.
* BoomHeadshot: There's a boss battle against [[Film/{{Tron}} Sark and the MCP]] that has this trope as an option. Sometimes, Sark will put up a wall to prevent the party from fleeing. But a reaction command allows for Sora to climb that wall, leap off, and use the Keyblade to stab Sark in the head for a OneHitKill.
* BoringButPractical: Intentionally-short melee combos (especially ones that involve adding Negative Combo abilities to your active skills) don't have the visual spectacle of long ones, but the final attack is the only one that can land a killshot on bosses. Heck, it's to the point where a common tip for the {{superboss}} fight against Sephiroth is to shorten your combo as much as possible.
* BoringInsult: One of Xigbar's battle quotes in the first half of the fight is him taunting Sora with "You're putting me to sleep, bucko!" if Sora goes a long time without attacking him.
* BossArenaRecovery: The game has [[DamselInDistress Megara]] supply HP and MP orbs during the second [[{{WesternAnimation/Hercules}} Olympus Coliseum]] boss fight.
* BossBanter: The FinalBoss has a strange banter. It is, among other things, the story of two boys who are close friends and, before the game started, rivals, who, after making some horrific mistakes and serious sacrifices, spend three games and the better part of two in-verse years trying to fix what went wrong, find each other, and go home, their rivalry abandoned because there are more important things than one-upping each other, and through it all, never losing trust in each other. The final boss's taunts?
--->"Sora... are you certain you can trust Riku?"\\
"Riku... are you sure you're not jealous of Sora?"
* BossBonanza: The last world of the game, [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The World That Never Was]], has Sora confronting what's left of Organization XIII. There are 4 (5 in the ''Final Mix'' version) members to be fought, with the leader Xemnas [[SequentialBoss having 4 separate forms]].
* BossCorridor: Right before the boss battle with the [[Film/{{Tron}} Master Control Program and Sark]], the entrance to the former's lair is a long bridge from the last save point in Space Paranoids. And at the end of the game in The World That Never Was, you have to climb a staircase before the first boss with Xemnas.
* BossRemix:
** The three main Organization XIII battle themes, "The 13th Struggle", "The 13th Dilemma", and "The 13th Reflection", all feature some element of the song "Another Side", which was used in the secret ending to the first game and is the origin of Organization XIII's theme. This also applies to Marluxia's first and third battle themes in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'', "Graceful Assassin" and "Lord of the Castle".
** The battle theme for Sora's fight against Roxas in the ''Final Mix'' version is a remix of his normal theme, "The Other Promise".
* BottomlessMagazines: Xigbar never runs out of ammo for his Arrowguns, but he does have to reload the clips occasionally.
* BoundAndGagged: Several in the game, but in all case, there is no gagging involved.
** First, this happens to [[{{WesternAnimation/Hercules}} Megara]] when Hades kidnaps her to lure Hercules away from the Coliseum so that the Hydra can destroy it.
** Later on, to Jack Sparrow when captured by Barbossa. Soon, the same happens to Elizabeth, and to [[BadassInDistress Sora, Donald and Goofy]], after Will is captured. Jack breaks free at the end of the cutscene and unties the others.
** Thirdly, to Santa Claus in [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]], when captured by [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]] and a newly-revived Oogie Boogie.
** And finally, to Sora again, when Flotsam and Jetsam restrain him with their bodies to prevent him from interfering with Ursula. This [[HoistByHisOwnPetard backfires spectacularly]] as Donald and Goofy [[UseYourHead tackle the eels]] to cause them to release Sora, who then vanquishes them with a beam of light from the Keyblade.
* {{Bowdlerise}}:
** Rikku's outfit shows less skin than her appearance in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'', and her thong is no longer visible.
** Many parts of Port Royal are changed in the international releases to ensure it is more family-friendly. Barbossa's monologue to Elizabeth is altered to refer to lust and women as "pleasurable company" (like in the film), Will no longer holds a gun to his head during a cutscene, the blood on the medallions is removed in some (but not all) scenes, the pirate {{mooks}} with guns now wield crossbows, pirates no longer burst into flames upon contact with Fire magic (they will still smolder and run about in a panic, however), and Jack no longer has Barbossa's cutlass sticking out of him when it's revealed he got himself cursed.
** The Hydra bleeds green goo that clearly resembles blood in the Japanese version, while in the English version it just spews out gas. Oddly, this was retained for the Japanese ''Final Mix'' version when other instances of censorship were removed, and even in international versions the green blood is still present in an earlier cutscene.
** In the Japanese version, Xigbar opens his BossFight by combining his arrowguns into a sniper rifle and aiming at Sora through a somewhat realistic sight. In the international versions he just twirls his guns before attacking, while the sight was altered to be less obvious. The international [=PS3=] and [=PS4=] versions restore the sniper rifle while retaining the altered sight.
** In the Japanese version, Axel lights himself on fire for his final attack and remains as such while he's dying. The international version removes the fire, replacing it with him fading away.
* BraggingRightsReward:
** ''Final Mix+'' has the Final Cut version of the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Organization XIII]] {{Optional Boss}}es and the Lingering Will: One half of the Org. hands out rare synthesis items, significantly less useful at this point in the game, and the rest hand out items that boost stats by a single digit--which are previously synthable, but is at least mildly useful for preparing for the fight with the Lingering Will. Also, speaking of the Lingering Will, he hands out a synthesis item... that can be found elsewhere and is obtained far more easily than by fighting him. Beating him also upgrades your Drive Gauge, but chances are that if you can beat him you have already reduced the other {{Optional Boss}}es to a pulp without said upgrade.
** The Winner's Proof keyblade in ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+''. It's right there in its name. It is obtained after finishing all Mushroom XIII challengers, most of which are far from easy and one cannot be even accessed until you complete the game once. The keyblade itself provides nice stat bonuses and has the highest magic stat increase, but it's hindered by its ability that prevents user from getting any experience, so outside of [=LV1=] Critical run it's practically for bragging only.
* BrainwashResidue: When Sora bids farewell to Hayner, Pence and Olette, he sheds a single tear but doesn't know why. Little does he know that he has Roxas' memories within him, and he remembers them as his friends in the virtual world.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Played with. Stitch crawls on it, licks it, and stands on the Command Menu, as well as Sora's HUD, or, to be precise, on the Drive/Summon Gauge.
* BreatherEpisode:
** The Hundred Acre Wood, just like in the first two games, is a collection of easy, relaxing minigames with no threats to deal with.
** [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] does not feature any combat this time around, being instead the hub for a handful of rhythm-based minigames.
* BrokenRecord: Phil will repeatedly shout "GET UP ON THE HYDRA'S BACK!" during the Hydra boss fight until you do as he says.
* BrutalBonusLevel: The ''Final Mix'' and ''II.5 HD [=ReMIX=]'' versions of the game add the Cavern of Rememberance, a dungeon which contains nothing but pain and suffering. You need to have Glide and Aerial Dodge on sufficient level (obtained by levelling up corresponding Drive Forms) to progress and the enemies are a mix of upgraded Heartless present nowhere else in the game that are much harder than other enemies and waves after waves of Nobodies. And should you get to the end, you can fight rematches against [[spoiler:Organisation XIII members on steroids that can wipe the floor with [=Lv 99=] players without abuse of power-up items or careful strategy.]]
* BulletHell: The Gummi Ship levels, especially the TrueFinalBoss, who flings out a wall of bullets that requires either a bullet-sucker or a hollow ship.
* BullfightBoss: There's an enemy called Hotrod. It repeatedly charges at its target several times until it gets tired. It is implemented unusually as it is possible to block its attack if there's only one of them, but the game encourages the player to dodge it.
* ButNowIMustGo: After Franchise/WinnieThePooh [[spoiler:regains his memories of his friends]], he pleads with Sora to stay with him in the Hundred Acre Wood; Sora reassures him that "I will always be with you, right here", pointing out that he'll always be in Pooh's heart.
* ButtonMashing: The FinalBoss battle has a section involving lasers that requires you to do this or die.
* CagedInsideAMonster: Maleficent summons a Heartless called "Prison Keeper" which has a cage as part of its body, and it holds [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Lock, Shock, and Barrel]] in it until it has need of their abilities, in which case it swallows them.
* CallBack:
** When visiting [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} The Land of Dragons]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 The Pride Lands]], Mushu and Simba remember the time they spent fighting alongside Sora, Donald and Goofy as summons. Though it does take a bit for Simba to recognize Sora, Donald and Goofy, since, you know, [[YouDontLookLikeYou they weren't regular animals last time he saw them.]]
** The trophies in the Vestibule of Olympus Coliseum are the ones that Sora can win from doing the optional Cups in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''.
* CameBackStrong: Scar does this ''twice''. First is when Simba kills him by knocking him off the top of Pride Rock. His appearance does not change at all when he becomes a Heartless, but he does have ElementalPowers for his boss fight. The second time he comes back, he antagonizes Simba in the form of ghostly avatars of his original self. For the boss fight following that, he manifests as the [[{{Kaiju}} massive]] Groundshaker Heartless, the second-largest Heartless in the series to date. That Scar is the only character other than Xehanort to have retained his intelligence after becoming a Heartless really says something about how nasty the guy was.
* CameBackWrong: When Oogie Boogie is brought back to life by Maleficent, he has difficulty remembering anything from before his death. This quickly devolves into a very severe case of short-term memory loss, as he fails to recognize Santa Claus despite having personally kidnapped him shorty before.
* CanonImmigrant: In-universe, sort of. Despite not being in the original Winnie the Pooh books, Gopher appears within the Winnie the Pooh storybook that Merlin leaves in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden.
* CardboardPrison: Zigzagged. When Organization XIII puts Kairi in the Soundless Prison, her cell has bars far enough apart that she could easily escape. However, when she does escape, it's with help from Naminé creating a portal in the back of the cell.
* CashGate: In Day 2 of the prologue, Roxas and his friends need to earn Munny for a trip to the beach, and you have about six different mini-games to play to earn the cash. Unusually for the trope, you can get past this day by earning as little as 50 Munny; there's also a maximum cap of 1850, and earning that much immediately moves the plot forward. However, no matter how much Roxas earns, it all gets taken away at the end (though it's given to Sora later on).
* CastFromHitPoints: Axel "puts his whole being into an attack" and disintegrates on the spot. Luckily for him, this ends up reviving his original, human self in a later game.
* CastingGag: According to Creator/PaulStPeter, he got the role of Xemnas because the casting director thought he had played Vicious from ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' (actually played by Creator/SkipStellrecht), who shares a voice with Xemnas in the Japanese version: Creator/NorioWakamoto.
* CasualDangerDialogue: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Leon]] engage in a touch of this during the [[TheWarSequence Battle of the Thousand Heartless]].
-->'''Leon:''' Think you can handle this many?\\
'''Cloud:''' Well... might be tough if one more shows up.\\
'''Leon:''' Then that'll have to be the one ''I'' take care of.\\
'''Cloud:''' What, you're fighting too?\\
''[they charge; several Heartless die]''
* CensoredForComedy: The first day during the prologue of the game has a ''word'' [[ImpossibleTheft stolen]]. Combined with the general attitude of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Seifer Almasy]], we get this glorious gem:
-->'''Seifer:''' Not that we need some [[spoiler:photo]] to prove that you're losers.
* ChainedByFashion: Shadow Stalker / Dark Thorn. The chains aren't just there for fashion either, and act as a PowerLimiter. The former turns into the latter when it sheds them.
* ChandelierSwing: During the Dark Thorn fight in [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast's Castle]], both the Heartless and Sora will seize the ballroom's FallingChandelierOfDoom and give it a swing for a few extra hits.
* ChangingGameplayPriorities: Prior to obtaining Reflect it's much more difficult to protect yourself against a swarm of enemies or attacks that come at unexpected angles. While Guard is better than it was in its previous game it's not enough to cover everything. This makes the early game in Critical Mode particularly tense, especially with Cure's massive nerf. Post-Reflect you can become much more aggressive as it's far easier to defend yourself from most attacks and Reflect will deal great chunks of damage on its own as well. On top of that Cure goes from emergency button to all but outright useless since it drains your entire MP Bar upon usage and it takes multiple Ethers to get you out of MP Charge (Elixirs do it instantly but at that point the Cure is unnecessary). As you need MP to use Reflect, using Cure becomes a massive waste.
* ChaosArchitecture: The game re-uses many of the same "worlds" as the original, but with radically different layouts. Even specific locations within the worlds, such as the Bazaar in Agrabah, are redesigned. It's also justified for Hollow Bastion, because it was a DoomedHometown and the past residents had spent the year in between games moving back in and renovating.
* CheerThemUpWithLaughter: Sora does this for Riku towards the end of the video game when Riku expresses doubt over if he should [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds return to the Destiny Islands.]]
--> '''Riku:''' How'm I gonna face everyone?
--> '''Sora:''' [squishes cheeks and makes funny face] Like ''this!''
--> '''Riku:''' [[[{{Beat}} pauses]], then [[WhenSheSmiles bursts out into laughter]]]
* ChekhovsGun:
** The munny pouch and the blue crystal that Riku steals from Roxas are supposed to be unique (the former being Olette's homemade money pouch and the latter being part of the Struggle champion trophy). The sheer fact that Sora somehow has a duplicate of both is what hints Hayner, Pence and Olette to the existence of the virtual Twilight Town.
** After Axel is defeated for good in the prologue, a portal can be found in the corner of the room he's fought in. This portal is how Sora and co. gain access to The World That Never Was near the end of the game.
* ChekhovsGunman:
** During the flashbacks sequences in the prologue, Mushu is shown being summoned by Sora. Mushu shows up later in the Land of Dragons, one of the first worlds that Sora and co. visit.
** At the beginning of the first visit to Halloween Town, Dr. Finkelstein can be seen creating a mechanical being as an experiment. Said experiment is the main antagonist of the second visit to the world.
* CherryTapping:
** It is a perfectly feasible option to beat down the parade of final bosses with the Sweet Memories keyblade. It has no attack, defense, or magic bonuses, but it has a finisher, and that's all you need. Just for added humiliation, the sound and visual effects makes it seem like you're beating down an entity of nothingness using a stick with an adorable honeycomb inside. It's death by cute at its finest.
** During the boss battle against Luxord, he can turn you into a die or a playing card. As demonstrated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohELKTnRbI here]], it's entirely possible to defeat him by ''tackling him to death as a die''.
* {{Chickification}}: [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]] is significantly less capable than in the first game, as her storyline is essentially a condensed version of ''The Little Mermaid'', which is a much less violent story than ''Kingdom Hearts''.
* ChineseVampire: The Nightwalker Heartless, which is exclusive to The Land of Dragons, WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'s homeworld. [[spoiler: Some of them happen to be Shang's army, who succumbed to fatigue after marching to the city from the mountains. [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse It's unknown if they were revived upon defeat]], though given Organization XIII's desire to collect hearts, [[KilledOffForReal it's unlikely]]]].
* ChristmasTown: Christmas Town is only accessible through a door in Halloween Town. Much like Halloween Town, Christmas Town is overrun with Heartless (although Christmas themed versions of Halloween Town's Heartless) and while Santa Claus is sweet and polite to Sora and his gang, he still holds a chip on his shoulder towards Jack Skellington after he tried stealing Christmas the first time.
* CitadelCity: Hollow Bastion, like in the original game. While not exactly surrounded by literal walls, this world is populated mainly by the ''Final Fantasy'' cast and few other refugees who are more than willing to fight any threat that endangers their home and the people living there, Cid and Merlin installing an Anti-Heartless security system as extra security. Unfortunately, because this world contains knowledge collected by Ansem the Wise about the nature of the cosmos, possess enhanced {{Magitek}}, is ground-zero for the Heartless threat that kicked off the story and because many of the antagonists possess a personal affinity for the location (most of Organization XIII are from here, Maleficent used it as her main base when she rose to power, etc), this world is constantly a target, most notably with the [[TheWarSequence Battle of 1000 Heartless]].
* ClearMyName: During the game's prologue, Roxas has to clear his name over stealing a few photographs.
* ClimaxBoss: The game doesn't have a traditional Climax Boss, but instead a BossRush through Xigbar, Luxord, Saix, and Xemnas in his regular form prior to the FinalBoss. In the Final Mix version, [[spoiler:Roxas]] is added to the start of this BossRush.
* CollectionSidequest:
** Early in the game, the Heartless steal pages out of the ''Winnie the Pooh'' book and cause Pooh's memories to get erased. Sora gets tasked with finding all of the pages to restore the book and Pooh's memories.
** The ''Final Mix'' version of the game adds 144 puzzle pieces to grab throughout the worlds, which are then used to piece together 6 images. Once you complete an image, you are rewarded with a rare or one-of-a-kind item.
* CollisionDamage:
** Equipping a Gummi Ship with Impact Gummies will make it so that enemies take damage whenever they make contact with your ship.
** Goofy does ScratchDamage to enemies that make contact with his shield.
* ColossusClimb: The Groundshaker is a boss the size of an African savannah, so Sora and Simba have to weaken it so you can make your way to its back to damage it some more.
* CombinationAttack: Every party member and Summon can team up with Sora to do a special technique called a Limit. Each GuestStarPartyMember can do 1, each Summon gets 1 bar Genie (who gets 4), and Donald and Goofy can do 2 plus Trinity.
* ComboBreaker: If a boss takes too many hits without being able to act, they can immediately retaliate even if they're supposed to be stunned.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: To prevent the obvious cheese strategy of locking them in an infinite combo, most bosses that can be stunned by hitting them will, after being hit enough times, suddenly become invincible, recover mid-combo and leap away, teleport away, etc. This isn't ''totally'' foolproof, as there are ways to perform an infinite combo they don't interrupt, but the developer intent behind this behavior is obviously to thwart such tactics.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Fighting a handful of Heartless? Possibly challenging. Fighting a huge mass of 1000 Heartless? Possibly the easiest battle in the entire game. Considering what other Heartless could have fought Sora in that valley, it's probably for the better.
* ConsolationPrize: During the Fourth Day in the simulated Twilight Town, Roxas takes part in the Struggle Tournament. Winning against Setzer earns him the Champion Belt (which boosts his resistance against Fire, Blizzard and Thunder damage if equipped); if he loses, he gets the Medal (an Accessory that boosts strength by one) as the consolation prize.
* ContextSensitiveButton: The game does this with the triangle button, which is specifically for "Reaction Commands". The attack button also performs various 'interact with this thing' functions when you are in the right position to do so.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: The first game had Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, Xehanort’s Heartless who waxed on passionately about darkness and had an army of Heartless under his command while manipulating the Disney villains from behind the scenes. This game, in contrast, has Xemnas, Xehanort’s Nobody who is also the leader of Organization XIII and relies on both the organization and lesser Nobodies to carry out his will and wants to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts so that he and his fellow Nobodies can become whole again.
* CoolCrown: Collecting one of the Proofs of Peace, Connection or Nonexistence gives Sora a bronze crown. Collecting two Proofs makes the crown silver and collecting all three makes it a snazzy-looking gold.
* CooldownHug: Happens when Sora and Kairi [[spoiler:reunite]]. Before Sora can break down and apologize [[spoiler:for his long absence]], Kairi quickly interrupts him with a hug.
-->'''Kairi:''' This is ''real''.
* CoolStarship: The Gummi Ships were cool before, but are even moreso now -- just check out the Falcon Peak. You can even design your own ship, to make them extra badass.
* CoolVersusAwesome: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Auron]] versus WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}. Not just because these are two badass men duking it out, but also because it is just so unexpected.
* CooldownManipulation: MP Haste and its upgrades decrease the amount of time it takes for the MP gauge to recharge after being depleted. The abilities all stack and it's possible to have multiples thanks to certain accessories and weapons, allowing for an extremely short cooldown period.
* CosmeticAward: The [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix version]] of the game has three crowns for Sora: a bronze, silver, and gold crown, awarded after beating the minigames posed by the XIII Mushroom], [[OptionalBoss defeating all thirteen of the Organization XIII data battles]], and defeating the Lingering Will, in whichever order the player accomplishes the tasks. The crowns serve absolutely no purpose, they just look cool and prove that the player is hardcore.
* CosmicDeadline: The BigBad Organization XIII have to be killed off before the end of the story. But they could have come up with a better way to clean up the last few members[[note]]Luxord and Saix- Xigbar is defeated somewhat earlier in The World That Never Was, while Xemnas is saved for later as the FinalBoss[[/note]] than having Sora come across a room with a locked door that will only open if all the members are dead, and have the room equipped with convenient portals that teleport him directly to the remaining members.
* CostumeEvolution: The main characters get new outfits, since Sora's outgrown his old one.
* CoupDeGraceCutscene: Subverted during the final battle: the final boss is left at 1 HP and becomes permanently stunned when defeated, so the player can finish him off however they choose, rather than go through a quick-time event or similar.
* CreativeSterility: Nobodies are mere shells of humans and whatever other things that TheHeartless ravaged. They gain power beyond the normal spectrum but sacrifice their capacity for emotion. The members of Organization XIII are shown to emulate human behavior; carefully watching them shows that the majority of them suffer complete LackOfEmpathy. The few who don't [[spoiler: are beginning to manifest new hearts without realizing it.]]
* CreditsMedley: Combines "Sora", "Dearly Beloved", "Destati", and "Another Side" with an original theme.
* CreepyCemetery: The Proof of Existence, which is basically a graveyard for Nobodies.
* CripplingOverspecialization:
** Wisdom Form greatly buffs Sora's magic, but his normal Attack command is replaced by the very weak Shoot. If he's out of MP, he can barely do anything resembling meaningful damage until it gets refilled.
** Oathkeeper and Oblivion, while cool-looking for their symbolic color difference while being dual-wielded, are actually fairly useless at the end game unless you mainly use drive forms and ignore limits, summons, and even basic magic and physical combos.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted for bosses (and with certain abilities equipped, Sora), who can only be finally killed with a decisive blow like a combo finisher or a magic hit -- otherwise they'll continue attacking at one HP with impunity.
* CriticalStatusBuff: The Defender and Damage Control abilities decrease damage taken while health is at critical levels. Defender just gives a Defense boost of 3, while Damage Control cuts all damage in half.
* CrosshairAware:
** Cannon Guns are accompanied by crosshairs that appear on the ground that show where they're aiming.
** One of Xigbar's attacks causes the camera to shift to his perspective, letting you see his gun's crosshair.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Demyx is a {{cloudcuckoolander}}, and overall looks more like a harmless teenage boy than a real threat. But remember that the Organization XIII members are comprised of especially powerful Nobodies, who were able to keep their original bodies.
* CrutchCharacter: Valor Form's power easily outstrips Sora's base form and can make mincemeat out enemies and bosses--at least in the early game. By the time you unlock Wisdom Form near the game's midpoint, Valor's lack of magic becomes a liability against stronger enemies, while base Sora's combat abilities will have improved significantly. In the endgame, Valor Form's unchanging loadout will become a ''downgrade'' compared to base Sora's wide variety of combat, support, and movement abilities.
* CrypticBackgroundReference:
** Merlin says that he found the ''Winnie the Pooh'' book in the Zero District. This refers to the Zero District of Traverse Town, where Merlin and the Fairy Godmother resided in the first game, but it can certainly seem like one of these without that knowledge.
** At the statue binding Auron's free will, we hear dialogue implying that he has the same backstory and place of origin as in ''Final Fantasy X''. We don't get any particulars, however, which makes one wonder exactly what his relation to the other, radically altered ''FFX'' characters is.
** In the base non-''Final Mix'' version of the game Xigbar's line, "You don't look like you're half the hero the others were" is this. ''Final Mix'' added additional scenes that build up the idea of other Keyblade wielders before Sora, but in the base version of the game this line came out of nowhere.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Demyx said, "We do too have hearts; don't be mad." ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' reveals that he was right- the Organization members do have hearts, and Xemnas was lying to them when he told them they didn't, so that he could secure their help in making Kingdom Hearts, which he would use not to restore the Organization members, but rather to turn them all into Xehanort clones.
* CursedWithAwesome: When you attempt to use one of the first three (four in the Final Mix[=/=]2.5 versions) Drive Forms Sora gets, you occasionally go into [=AntiForm=] instead. It comes with dramatically increased agility, the ability to perform absurdly fast and powerful combos that can range across the screen, and of course [[ImpossiblyCoolClothes black, wispy tendrils from your outfit]] and [[GoodHairEvilHair your hair]]. The downside? The complete inability to heal while the form is active, receiving double damage, you're unable to kill bosses due to a lacking a combo finisher, and the inability to gain experience while in the form. Thus, while it's incredibly powerful, there are often very good reasons to want to avoid it.
* CutsceneBoss: [[spoiler:Roxas]] in the original version of the game. The UpdatedRerelease upgrades him to a full-fledged DuelBoss.
* CutsceneIncompetence:
** Demyx claims that he's not cut out for fighting and generally acts like a coward in story scenes. When Xaldin steals the [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast's]] rose and captures Belle, Belle actually manages to stun him with an elbow to the gut and swipe the rose back from him. Surprising, then, that the boss battles against them are much more difficult than expected.
** Sora has trouble with Armored Knights after TheReveal right after [[TheWarSequence The 1000 Heartless War]], though this was because he knew that [[spoiler: defeating the Heartless with the Keyblade was actually helping Organization XIII, so he was reluctant to kill them]].
** There is a scene where Riku and Kairi are struggling against a horde of ''Shadow Heartless''. In-game, they are the weakest enemies and incredibly easy to kill, yet in this cutscene they're strategically jumping around and dodging the heroes' attacks.
** Lampshaded in one cutscene. At one point, Donald and Goofy are captured by a few Strafers (which are among the weakest Heartless in the game), and Sora orders his friends to "show them who's boss". Then the "[[TheManBehindTheMonsters Heartless Commander]]" shows up and orders them to [[ElectricTorture torture]] the duo [[ForcedToWatch right in front of Sora]], causing him to surrender.
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Several times in the game Sora and company will one hit enemies that will normally take several strikes or combos to defeat. "I don't have time for you!". Sora can also slice entire buildings in half in cutscenes via ActionCommands.
* CycleOfHurting:
** The game features an interesting variation: bosses can usually be caught in a stunlock, but with each hit a hidden value raises until the boss can break out of the lock and punish the player.
** A particularly famous speedrunning trick involves turning Roxas, one of the most emotional and heart-rending boss battles in ''Final Mix'', into an absolute joke by stunlocking him to death. You can do this one of two ways: equipping two Negative Combos and just spamming aerial combo finishers until he dies, or (more humiliatingly) steal Oathkeeper and Oblivion from him, back him up against the wall of the arena, and spam Quick Run to [[CherryTapping deal incremental amounts of damage with Oathkeeper and Oblivion]] until he dies.
* DamageReduction:
** The Protect ability reduces all damage taken by 10%. Its upgrades, Protectra and Protectga, reduce damage by 20% and 30%, respectively.
** Damage Control reduces all damage taken by half when the user is at critical HP.
* DamageSpongeBoss: All of the {{Bonus Boss}}es have around twice the HP of the FinalBoss, each having well over 10 bars of HP to cut through.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: The final boss has a final attack you must alternate pressing X and Triangle to defend against. Everything else in the game uses Triangle.
* DamselInDistress:
** Kairi gets kidnapped by Organization XIII [[IHaveYourWife to motivate Sora to keep]] killing Heartless. Sora tries to save her, but [[DamselOutOfDistress Naminé beats him to it]].
** Xaldin kidnaps Belle to force Beast to make a SadisticChoice between her and the enchanted Rose. {{Subverted|Trope}} when Belle frees herself and nabs the rose from Xaldin.
* DamselOutOfDistress:
** Belle of ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' pulls this trope off again when Xaldin kidnaps her and the rose, and forces Beast to [[SadisticChoice choose]]. [[spoiler: She elbows Xaldin in the gut and grabs the rose before running back inside the castle.]]
** Kairi [[DamselInDistress sees herself in danger often]], but every time she's escaped (or in the process of it) before Sora arrives. For instance, when she's captured by Axel [[spoiler: escapes from him but is later captured by Saïx and escapes him (with help from Namine, who, in an ironic doubling of this trope, actually IS her) and is confronted by nobodies and about to fight them when help from Riku arrives. Then she and Riku save Sora from a buttload of Heartless that Saix calls on him]].
* DanceBattler:
** Dancer Nobodies move around the battlefield by gracefully gliding above the ground and attack using elegant kicks. One of their attacks even forces Sora to "dance" with them before dealing damage.
** Xemnas himself has rather fluid, elegant motions to his attack strings in the first and final fights with him.
* DarkReprise: The battle theme when you fight against Roxas, "The Other Promise", is more tragic version of his normal theme.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Noticeably darker than its predecessor. That doesn't mean there aren’t some breaks for lightheartedness and humor.
* DeadlyRinger: One of Donald's staves, the Victory Bell, is a large bell on a stick. Its power is notable but not exceptional.
* DeadlyUpgrade: As powerful as [=AntiForm=] is, it can activate randomly (potentially when you don't want it), prevents you from healing, blocking attacks, or gaining experience, and you can't even exit manually until there are no enemies around. If it activates in the middle of a boss fight, you're likely in trouble.
* DeadpanSnarker: Auron puts the "Dead", literally in his case, into DeadpanSnarker in his first scene with Hades:
-->'''Hades:''' Do you know who you're talking to? I'm the LORD OF THE DEAD!!!\\
'''Auron:''' Heh... No wonder no one wants to die.
* DeathAsGameMechanic: During certain battles, Mickey Mouse might show and give you the chance to play as him. You can fight the boss as Mickey (though you can't bring him to 0 HP) and build up energy to revive Sora. If Mickey loses all of his health, he will revive Sora with only half of his maximum health. He appears less frequently the more often he is used.
* DeathCourse: Sark places Sora in a Light Cycle arena to derezz him during the second trip to [[Film/{{Tron}} Space Paranoids]].
* DeceptiveDisciple: Xehanort and the other five founding members of the Organization. All of them worked for the real Ansem before they betrayed him and exiled him to the world of nothingness.
* DecoyProtagonist: The game starts off with the player controlling Roxas, a new character that was living a normal life in Twilight Town before discovering he could wield the Keyblade. After the prologue is over control switches over to Sora, the actual protagonist, while Roxas disappears.
* DefendCommand:
** The Guard ability lets Roxas and Sora negate damage from most attacks in front of them, assuming that it's timed properly.
** The Reflect spell negates damage from all directions, though it requires MP even if it doesn't deflect anything.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The Timeless River world is rendered almost completely in black and white -- the only color is in the HUD's various bars and gauges, and even those are muted. It's not just for visual purpose to stay true to classic Disney shorts; Sora and co. actually notice that everything in that world is in black and white, ''including themselves''.
* DemotedToExtra:
** The Princesses of Heart have no plot significance bar Kairi, and most of them don't appear at all, with the only exceptions being Belle and Jasmine. On the flipside, it seems all that plot significance from the others has gone straight into Belle, who has as significantly larger role in terms of actual screentime.
** Peter Pan, originally a party member in the first game, is now merely an optional Summon.
** There are also examples of ''locations'' being demoted to extra rather than characters:
*** The Hollow Bastion location of the original game is entirely in the background in this game.
*** The Olympus Coliseum might as well be called "Hades' Underworld (plus the Olympus Coliseum)" because the actual Coliseum area is basically only two areas at most and ends up only becoming ''one'' after it gets wrecked by the Hydra. You'll be spending the vast majority of your time in the Underworld instead, which is significantly larger and has all the actual Underdrome challenges, and the only reason you'll ever want to go to the Coliseum proper once the world's plotline is finished is to get the mission score for Phil's pot smashing minigame.
* DerelictGraveyard: [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] has Isla Del Muerte from the first movie and a second area filled with shipwrecks when Sora and co return to the world.
* {{Determinator}}: Subverted with Hercules, who quickly loses all hope and motivation after the Olympus Colosseum is heavily damaged by the Hydra. Sora and his friends, however, manage to get him back on his feet eventually.
* DeusExMachina: After beating Xemnas, Sora and Riku get trapped in the Realm of Darkness. Riku finds the message in a bottle that Kairi sent from Destiny Islands during the prologue (how it traveled between dimensions isn't explained), which somehow opens a portal that lets them escape after Sora reads the message inside.
* DevelopersForesight:
** The Cavern of Remembrance in ''Final Mix'' is split up into several platforming areas that [[AbilityRequiredToProceed require maxed out Growth abilities to proceed]], with the last of these area necessitating Final Form's Glide. If the player cheats to get Glide before beating Roxas (which unlocks Final Form) and goes to the end of the Glide room, they will be blocked from progressing further by an invisible wall that will only disappear after Roxas is defeated.
** Leveling up Final Form requires defeating Nobodies. Should Sora defeat an Organization XIII member in Final Form, it will count toward this, as they are Nobodies.
* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Features a fair amount of villains dying in a different fashion from the source films.
** [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} The Hydra]] dies from having all of its heads cut off at once, when in the original movie Hercules instead buried it under a rockslide.
** Jafar's death in ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' occurs because of Iago kicking his lamp into lava. Here, he dies the moment Sora defeats him in battle with his lamp not even having any relevance in his demise.
** [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Scar]] isn't [[EatenAlive devoured]] by his [[TheDogBitesBack hyena companions]] this time around. Instead, he comes back for a second round as a heartless and dies upon defeat.
** [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula]] does die by having something [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice thrusted through her gut]] just like in the source. However, instead of a ship, Ursula is killed by the trident (which is actually how she was storyboarded to die in the movie before the ship was substituted int he final version).
* DifficultButAwesome: [=AntiForm=] can deal larges amounts of damage very quickly due to having fast attacks and it doubles Sora's movement, but he's unable to use magic or heal while transformed, takes 50% more damage when hit, and is not allowed to revert back manually until combat is over.
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance: If you equip multiple pieces of armor with the same elemental resistance, the bonus resistance granted is decreased for each successive item. This system is in place since you could otherwise be completely immune to certain elements by stacking specific armor pieces.
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: Throughout most of the game, Hollow Bastion (now on its way to becoming a populated town again) has served as the HubLevel, but halfway through the story TheWarSequence begins and the plot twists are tossed out left and right. There's even a short confrontation with the BigBad. But when all is said and done, this is only the ''halfway'' point in the game; you have to go through every world one more time before the true final world.
* DiscOneNuke:
** The Chicken Little summon. His whistle does no damage, but is better at grouping and pulling in enemies than Magnega, an endgame spell. He ends up falling short as you level up your Drive Forms and unlock other summons. Stitch in particular outclasses him later on, as his ability to refill your MP bar and stunlock enemies makes him far more versatile.
** The Hero's Crest keyblade. You only need to complete the first visit to either Land of Dragons or Beast's Castle, then beat the Hydra at Olympus Coliseum to obtain it. Its strength stat of 4 (the highest of any early-game keyblade) and the Air Combo Boost ability, which buffs the damage of finishers in air combos, offer substantial buffs to your damage given how early you can obtain it. Depending on the boss and your playstyle, it remains a viable keyblade throughout the whole game. The only tradeoff is its magic stat of 0, but your physical combo damage easily makes up for this.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Tampering with Ansem's computer, even by accident, will result in you being zapped into the computer ''itself'' and then thrown in its prison, while the power is cut off, preventing you from escaping through a terminal. And, according to the manga, your punishment is [[DeathRow death]].
* DistantFinale: TheStinger of the game is set a year after the events of the story, as revealed in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded Coded]]''.
* DivideAndConquer: Sora is too busy dealing with the Nobodies and Organization XIII to properly deal with Maleficent, Pete and the Heartless.
* DoppelgangerAttack:
** Xemnas can briefly create clones of himself to attack the heroes during his final fight in ''II''. This is particularly annoying when he traps Sora in an HP-draining beam and control briefly switches to a GuestStarPartyMember - you have to get to Sora and free him, but Xemnas keeps sending clones of himself to stop you.
** Larxene's "Absent Silhouette" in ''Final Mix'' can also do this - there's a reaction command where Sora grabs one Larxene, spins her around and throws her into another, fusing them together again.
* DoubleJump: The Aerial Dodge ability gives Sora a second jump to use in midair. Since the original version of the game lacks platforming, the main function of the ability is to dodge attacks and/or change trajectory quickly to get into a better position.
* DraconicAbomination: Storm Rider is a powerful dragon-like Heartless that Sora and the gang face in their second visit to the [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} Land of Dragons]]. The Emperor implies that it used to be an ''actual'' dragon sleeping dormant within the mountain before [[LegionOfDoom Organization XIII]] found it and turned it into a [[ShockAndAwe lightning-slinging]] Heartless-mockery of a dragon. There's also the giant Nobody dragon from Xemnas's SequentialBoss fight, which doubles as a MechanicalAbomination.
* TheDragon: Pete to Maleficent, and [[CoDragons Saïx and Xigbar]] to Xemnas. Though it's not really apparent how much of a dragon Xigbar is until [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]] and [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]] make it clear how much longer he's been in the know.
* DramaticUnmask: [=DiZ=] does it near the end of the game, although the person he's unmasking himself before, King WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, already knows who he is.
* DreamIntro: Starts with a similar dream for Roxas as in Part 1.
* DualBoss:
** Volcanic Lord and Blizzard Lord are fought together, but only one is "active" at a time. Each alternates between attacking Sora directly and hanging back to incapacitate the other party members. Whichever Lord is hanging back tries to float away from Sora and is untargetable, with any hits it does receive having a chance of being blocked. Each one's reaction command has you hurl it into the other for heavy damage and the battle ends on a slightly different cutscene depending on which dies last.
** [[PsychoElectro Larxene's]] [[OptionalBoss Absent Silhouette]] invokes this by splitting into two copies of herself. There's a reaction command that merges her copies back together.
* DualWielding: Roxas and Sora can dual-wield Keyblades, Roxas during a fight against Axel and Sora by using Drive Forms. This compromises their defense by preventing the use of Guard, but it also greatly increases their attack speed and damage output.
* DubNameChange: Like the first game, some of the Keyblades had different (yet still English) names in the Japanese version. Mostly it seems they were changed because the originals sounded too {{Engrish}}y: "Wonder of Abyss" (changed to Mysterious Abyss), "Wishes Lamp" (changed to Wishing Lamp). Some of the Heartless also got their names changed: Dark Stalker to Shadow Stalker, Black Thorn to Dark Thorn, Gate Guardian to Thresholder, Surveillance to Surveillance Robot, Armour Knight to Armoured Knight, Volcano Lord to Volcanic Lord, Creep Plant to Creeper Plant, Loudness to Crescendo, Terminator to Devastator, Eraser to Strafer, Magna Roader to Magnum Loader, Axe Statue to Gargoyle Warrior, Sword Statue to Gargoyle Knight, Ice Cube to Icy Cube, Flare Globe to Fiery Globe, Mole Drill to Driller Mole, Aiming Cannon to Cannon Gun, Bulk Vendor to Bulky Vendor, Hammer Body to Hammer Frame, Mad Dog to Rabid Dog.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: On the prologue, you have to battle Seifer as a tutorial. Even though he's supposedly the town's bully [[InformedAbility and is also supposed to be pretty good in combat]] you'll probably kick his ass once you're given the chance to (you don't get to battle him on the semi Tournament Arc so that you can see him at his ''best''). He also has the habit of mocking you every time you talk to him. After the end of the prologue, [[spoiler: you discover that the whole Twilight Town was just a virtual simulation made for keeping Roxas away from Organization XIII]] and you take control of Sora. You may think that Seifer may get a chance to really show his worth after knowing that little fact. However, it only gets worse from there. As with Roxas' story, he also tries to mock you every time he can, but this time it doesn't help the fact that the Struggle host thinks he's the hot shit on the matter, preventing you from fighting him unless you defeat Heiner and Setzer ''20 times in a row''. After finally doing all of this, you'll find out that he's actually weaker than the time you fought him as Roxas. Even then the Struggle host still treats you like a retard by saying that you're finally ready to fight him and Seifer won't even change his NPC dialog.
* DuelBoss:
** Sephiroth, Hercules, Roxas (in the ''Final Mix'' version), Luxord, and Xemnas are fought when Sora is alone. {{Justified|Trope}} for Roxas, Luxord, and Xemnas: the fight with Roxas is a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, Luxord traps Sora's friends, and Xemnas teleports Sora to a different location to fight.
** Roxas doesn't have any party members during the first six days, during which he fights Axel twice.
* DuelingPlayerCharacters: You spend the first five hours of the game playing as Roxas, before the player character switches to Sora. Near the end of the game, [[spoiler:Sora fights Roxas, who's revealed to be his Nobody, in a [[CutsceneBoss cutscene battle]], which is made an actual battle in the ''Final Mix'' version]].
* DullSurprise: Mena Suvari's performance as Aerith is infamous for how monotone and bored it sounds. Unsurprisingly, Mena did not return to voice the character after this.
* DumbIsGood: Sora is not the brightest of protagonists, which is usually PlayedForLaughs when he has trouble following a new concept. Such as computers. Even ''[[TheDitz Goofy]]'' is better with them than Sora.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Axel's death. He puts all his remaining strength into an attack to save Sora, and pays the price for it. [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance He gets better... sort of.]]
* EarlyBirdBoss:
** Twilight Thorn, because you don't have magic. Being able to heal or shoot him with Blizzard or Lightning when he's out of reach of your keyblade would be nice.
** Twilight Thorn's Heartless brother, Darkside, is far from a pushover on the highest difficulty. On lower ones, the two potions you're likely to have are more than enough to help you survive his attacks, but you'd better try your damned hardest not to get clipped by anything on Proud/Expert mode or you're gonna be in a world of trouble.
** The Assault Rider is a fairly well known BossInMookClothing that forces you to not carelessly approach until you create an opening. Even if you know how to do all that, encounters with it would be much easier if you had any means of quickly closing the distance the moment an opportunity to combo arises. So of course the way to get the ability, Slide Dash, that does exactly that is to progress through the world that requires you to fight multiple Assault Riders until a specific encounter with [[DualBoss two at once]] gives it to you after you beat it.
** Thresholder likes to fire swarms of homing, unblockable projectiles after you've done some damage to him. This would be fine at any other point in the game, but you cannot acquire quick run, dodge roll, aerial dodge or reflect to give you the invincibility you need to dodge them. On Level 1 runs many people tend to beat Olympus Colosseum first (which requires dealing with the assault rider example above) to use the invincibility and high damage on Trinity Limit for Thresholder. This is subverted if you decide to play as Mickey in this fight though, allowing you to take a few deaths without being unable to progress.
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** In Japan, WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle’s appearance in the game preceded his movie’s release.
** ''Final Mix+'' follows tradition by introducing a future major character as a {{superboss}}. Namely, Lingering Will aka [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Terra]]’s living armor.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This game differs in later games in how it characterizes the Nobodies:
** Excluding [[spoiler:Roxas, Namine and Axel after his CharacterDevelopment]], '''none''' of the Nobodies have any emotions. Any emotions seen are shown to be faked. Later games would retcon this away, eventually with ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance 3D]]'' revealing that Nobodies [[spoiler:eventually regrow hearts]], which massively contradicts what's shown in this game.
** Roxas and Namine's fates, [[spoiler:being reunited with Sora and Kairi, respectively]], is shown to be, while somewhat sad, ultimately the right thing to do. Roxas ultimately accepting that [[spoiler:he is Sora]] is shown to be CharacterDevelopment. In large part to fans calling out the ending as being an EsotericHappyEnding, later games show that this fate is a tragedy. In 3D, Sora bluntly says that [[spoiler: Roxas is his own person]], and a large part of ''III'''s plot is [[spoiler:giving Roxas and Namine their own bodies]].
** ''II'' is the only game is give ShipTease to Roxas and Namine, [[spoiler:being Sora and Kairi's Nobodies respectively]]. It also slightly implies that they had had history before the start of the game. ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' showed that Roxas and Namine had never met before ''II'''s prologue, and the rest of the franchise [[ShipSinking dropped]] the ShipTease with Namine to focus on his [[TrueCompanions friendship]] with Axel and Xion.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After a very long series of struggles, including having to free the Disney worlds once again, and then defeating the BigBad who has manipulated everything since the beginning, Sora, Riku, and Kairi make it back to Destiny Islands, Roxas and Naminé seem to be content within Sora and Kairi, Mickey returns to his throne, and all seems to be right with the worlds (''seems'' being the key word, as later games show that the characters' adventures have only begun).
* EasingIntoTheAdventure: The game starts out following Roxas as he thinks he's living a normal life in Twilight Town, only for him to get caught up in Sora's business and have his less-than-normal past catch up to him.
* EasyModeMockery: Save files that are set to Beginner Mode cannot unlock either the "The Gathering" (original version) or "Birth by Sleep" (''Final Mix'' version) secret videos. While a Normal Mode file can unlock them, doing so requires getting OneHundredPercentCompletion to view both, and some of the objectives in Jiminy's Journal are intentionally absurd.
* EldritchLocation: The World that Never Was, which starts off as a city with AlienGeometries and transforms into a hollow castle that's partly digital.
* ElectricTorture: Happens twice in the game; the first time to Donald and Goofy within Space Paranoids, with Sora being ForcedToWatch [[note]]which is ironic, as all three of them have to run on electricity here, due to becoming computer programs[[/note]]. Later on, in Olympus Coliseum, all three of them are electrocuted while trying to steal [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Auron]]'s statue from Hades.
* ElementalPowers: Each Organization XIII member controls a different attribute (Square Enix make it quite clear that they're not elements, [[InsistentTerminology they're attributes]]). Some attack with it directly (Axel, Demyx with his water clones), Some draw power from it (Saïx berserking in moonlight), and some just use it as a visual motif (Marluxia).
* EliteMooks: Nobodies bar the Dusks and Creepers are not very common, but they are stronger and much more unpredictable than the Heartless that the player finds everywhere else. The game's last world is filled almost exclusively with them. Sorcerer nobodies stand out, encountered only in the endgame, they are immune to most magic, have no reaction commands to exploit, and attacking them doesn't stop their deadly cube attacks. Sorcerers can be harder to deal with than most bosses even.
* EndGamePlus: Clearing the game on ''Final Mix'' grants Sora his final Drive level upgrade and unlocks End Game Plus if you save a Clear file. End Game Plus allows you full access to battle all members of Organization XIII at the Cavern of Remembrance, save those whose Absent Silhouette they haven't defeated yet. The remaining Mushrooms are unlocked, as is a {{superboss}} from a portal in Disney Castle. In this version of the game, this is also when the full Jiminy Journal is unlocked, with question marks for those entries you haven't completed yet. In ''HD II.5 Remix'', it also unlocks Theatre Mode.
* EnemyMine:
** At one point in Hollow Bastion, Sora, Donald and Goofy come across a fight between some Heartless and Nobodies. When the two factions realize that Sora is there, they immediately stop fighting each other to gang up on him.
** Maleficent helps Sora and co. twice because they're all trying to stop Organization. The first time she teleports them out of a Nobody ambush in Hollow Bastion and the second time she and Pete hold off a large swarm of Heartless so Sora can go fight Xemnas.
* EraSpecificPersonality: Referenced with Timeless River. Sora and his friends note that Past Mickey and Past Pete are very different from their present counterparts, both in appearance and personality.
* EscortMission: On the first (and only) story visit to Disney Castle, Queen Minnie needs to be accompanied by Sora to get past the invading Heartless without taking too much damage. She's not entirely helpless, as she's occasionally cast Pearl and being near her can let you do a Reaction Command to push back nearby Heartless.
* EvilMakeover:
** [=AntiForm=] turns Sora completely back, and gives him GlowingEyesOfDoom, much like a Heartless, which this form represents.
** When the Claymores of Hollow Bastion are hijacked by the Master Control Program to attack Sora and his friends instead of the Heartless, they turn orange to signify their new allegiance.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Xemnas has a very deep voice, and is depicted as irredeemable.
* EvilVersusEvil: Maleficent returns to command the Heartless again, and she isn't pleased to hear of some other group throwing their weight around. So naturally, most of her scenes have her, Pete, and the Heartless taking on Organization XIII and the Nobodies. After the visit the Space Paranoids and the Battle of 1000 Hearts, the Organization removes Maleficent from the picture by overpowering her as a show of strength, letting them take command of the Heartless (who follow those who they see as strongest).
* ExactTimeToFailure: [[TimedMission Timed Missions]] rarely justify this, as the moment time runs out the screen simply fades to black and no actual "death scene" is given. This becomes more noticeable when you have to fight Demyx's water clones.
* ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: A couple Heartless and Nobodies have a 1% chance to drop weapons for Donald and Goofy to use.
** Shaman Heartless drop the Shaman's Relic, a staff for Donald. It grants a Strength bonus of 4, a Magic bonus of 5, and gives Donald MP Rage (regain MP when damage is taken, original game only) or Blizzard Boost (increase the damage of Blizzard attacks by 20%, ''Final Mix'' version). A recolored "+" version is dropped by [[UndergroundMonkey Necromancers]] in ''Final Mix'', and it gives Defender (increases Defense when at critical health).
** Bookmaster Heartless drop the Akashic Record, a shield for Goofy. It grants a Strength bonus of 7 and gives him the MP Haste ability to decrease the amount of time it takes for MP to recharge once MP Charge is activated. The recolored "+" version dropped by Runemasters in ''Final Mix'' has MP Hastera, which is a faster version of MP Haste.
** Dragoon Nobodies drop the Nobody Lance, a staff for Donald. It grants a Strength bonus of 5, a Magic bonus of 5, and gives Defender (original game) or Item Boost (increases the effectiveness of items, ''Final Mix'' version).
** Gambler Nobodies drop the Nobody Guard, a shield for Goofy. It grants a Strength bonus of 8 and gives either Hyper Healing (fallen ally revives faster, original game) or MP Rage (''Final Mix'').
* ExcusePlot: Invoked in the second visit to Agrabah. The heroes go to the desert ruins and partake in a series of minigame-like challenges to open the entrance to an old tower where Iago told them Jafar is hiding. However, it was just a ruse to get them out of town and keep them busy to give Jafar time to enact his plan.
* ExpansionPackPast: There was almost no interaction between Sora and both Simba and Mushu in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', since they only appeared as summons; however, their behavior towards Sora in this game implies they've spent a lot of time as friends together.
* ExperienceBooster: The aptly named EXP Boost ability increases EXP gained by 100% if Sora is at half HP or less. It's possible to have two active at once if the Gullwing is equipped, granting a net gain of 300% EXP per kill.
* ExposedToTheElements: Sora climbs to the top of a mountain in [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} The Land of Dragons]] wearing nothing but his drive clothing: A short-sleeved shirt, jacket and shorts. Taken to extremes in Donald's case, where all he wears is his hat and robe, but, notably, with no shoes.
* FailedASpotCheck: Santa doesn't realize that Jack Skellington is right in front of him until Jack talks.
* FakeMemories: [[spoiler:Roxas]] has a false past of happy friends and a pretty hometown. [[spoiler:He's really a Nobody, who has to effectively die to wake the player character Sora from a Naminé-induced coma.]]
* FallingChandelierOfDoom: During the first visit to Beast's Castle, both the Shadow Stalker and Dark Thorn Heartless use the chandelier in the ballroom as a part of their attacks. Sora too can use it during the Dark Thorn fight in order to make him visible. Unlike most other chandeliers associated with this trope, this one has an extendable chain and returns to the ceiling once the attack is complete.
* FamilyFriendlyFirearms:
** The pirates’ muskets were edited to look like crossbows (but still sound like muskets and have muzzle flashes), while the various flintlock pistols are untouched. Odder still, Xigbar's Special Attack in which he merges his two “arrowguns”, which look nothing like real guns, to create a sniper rifle, which is altered to... well, the same guns not merging.
** There is a part in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' when Will puts a gun to his head and threatens to kill himself if his friends are not released. In western versions of ''Kingdom Hearts II'', he leaps to the edge of the ship, just like the movie, and threatens his own life...while pointing the gun at the ground. You probably don't want to encourage children to point guns at their own heads, but at the same time it was a bit jarring to anyone familiar with the movie.
* FarSideIsland: Stitch's summoning animation temporarily transports Sora to one that has some bushes in addition to the single palm tree.
* FatalFireworks: Donald has a ability called Flare Force that has him summon fireworks to shoot at enemies.
* FaustianRebellion: Hades becomes increasingly frustrated in his attempts to defeat Hercules, since the hero kills every opponent the Lord of the Dead throws at him. At Pete's suggestion that he [[spoiler:"send somebody already dead and save him the trouble," Hades decides to summon [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Auron]], offering to let him out if he kills Hercules. Auron declines and insults him, telling him that "This is my story, and you're not part of it." Hades, in a rage, attacks him just as Sora comes in, and the group escapes, later foiling Hades's next attempt at Hercules's life]]. Also [[DoubleSubversion doubly subverted]] in that later, during your second visit to Olympus Colosseum, [[spoiler:Hades is able to exert power over Auron by stealing his free will and forcing him to fight Hercules without mercy. After several more events happen, Sora and the group steal back Auron's will (which was in the form of a small statue of him) and break Hades' control over him]].
* FieldOfBlades: The secret [[TheStinger stinger videos]] take place in a barren field with several hundred, if not thousand, abandoned Keyblades lying about.
* FighterMageThief: Sora's [[SuperMode "Drive Forms"]]. The first three, "Valor", "Wisdom" and "Limit", primarily enhance his combat skills, his magic skills, and his speed and agility, respectively; Valor Form allows him to [[DualWielding dual wield]] Keyblades while dealing extra-hard combos, Wisdom Form allows him to deal rapid damage with a special long-range magic spell, and Limit Form allows him to avoid enemies with a Dodge Roll move while dealing a series of extra-fast combos. Master Form and Negative Form both have JackOfAllStats bonuses, though one is Light-based, and the other is Dark-based.
* FightingFingerprint: When Sora faces "Ansem" while completely concealed in an Organization coat, he's able to guess that it's actually Riku based on the fighting style and signature weapon.
* FightingYourFriend:
** Roxas ends up fighting his BestFriend, Axel, twice during the prologue. Roxas can't remember who Axel is due to amnesia and doesn't want to rejoin the Organization, while Axel needs to bring Roxas back lest he be harshly punished for failure.
** The Beast's despair causes him to be easily influenced by Xaldin to give in to his anger, leading to a BossFight where Sora and Cogsworth try to get him to come to his senses.
** During the second visit to The Land of Dragons, Sora encounters Riku on the Summit. Sora mistakes his friend for a member of Organization XIII, as Riku is in a BlackCloak to conceal his identity and he's too ashamed to reveal himself. A BossBattle ensues, though Riku largely ignores Sora to focus his attacks on a swarm of Heartless that show up.
* FinalBossNewDimension: Xemnas takes Sora and Riku into the Realm of Nothingness for the final battle.
* FinalExamBoss: Xemnas, the final boss and its true test. You have to master Reaction Commands, managing your party, fighting him ''without'' your party and therefore without Drive Forms, fighting him when he uses all the Organization XIII weapons, managing without your [[spoiler:main character Sora]], and fighting him with backup Nobodies in one phase.
* FinishingMove: You can only defeat bosses with the finishing move at the end of a combo, a reaction attack, or a magic spell. This can make it difficult if you're faced with a boss that's difficult to finish a combo against.
* FireIceDuo:
** [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Organization XIII]] is a shadowy cabal of super-powered Nobodies who all draw their powers from different [[ElementalPowers elemental "attributes"]] ([[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[MakingASplash Water]], [[DishingOutDirt Earth]], [[BlowYouAway Wind]], [[AnIcePerson Ice]], [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]], [[GreenThumb Flower]], [[GravityMaster Moon]], [[TimeMaster Time]], [[SpaceMaster Space]], [[MasterOfIllusion Illusion]], [[BlindedByTheLight Light]] and [[CastingAShadow Nothingness]]). Appropriately, the resident Fire-user Axel and the resident Ice-user Vexen have polar opposite personalities, with Axel being friendly, carefree, down-to-Earth, irreverent, and BrilliantButLazy, and Vexen being cold, arrogant, hardworking and scholarly; and while Axel ultimately does a HeelFaceTurn and joins the heroes, Vexen is one of Xemnas' most loyal servants. Oddly subverted with Axel and the resident Water-user Demyx, who are--if anything--the ''most'' similar in personality.
** The general consensus of enemies in Agrabah follows this motif, the Heartless enemies dealing primarily in either fire-damage or ice-damage, including the duo bosses [[MagmaMan Volcanic Lord]] and [[AnIcePerson Blizzard Lord]].
* FireIceLightning: The game has three elemental Keyblades, each boosting one of the three elements. Axel gives you Bond of Flame (Fire), Franchise/{{Tron}} gives you Photon Debugger (Thunder), and [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]] gives you Mysterious Abyss (Blizzard).
* FirstEpisodeTwist: The game's long prologue has a couple of surprise twists at the end of it. Roxas is Sora's Nobody that's needed to wake the latter up, and the Twilight Town that Roxas lives in is actually a simulation created to hold him while Naminé has been fixing Sora's memories.
* FisticuffProvokingComment: Sora and the party mistake the Steamboat Willie version of Pete for the bad guy Pete they fight with on occasions. After one too many insults and calling SW Pete a bad guy, he fights the party after being insulted too many times, yelling at them for what did he do to earn their anger and mentions that their comments are fighting words.
%% Please ensure that Five Man Band has been accepted in the Five Man Band thread in the Long Term Projects forum and that the entry is no longer a Zero Context Example before re-adding.
* FlashStep: The ''Final Mix'' version adds an ability for Sora called Flash Step. It causes him to teleport to enemies when he attacks and they're not in the initial range of his swing while also giving him a brief window of invincibility.
* FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin: Leon, Aerith, and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness have new voice actors in this game, and the flashbacks to ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' in the prologue redub their lines to use the replacements. This also applies to a line from Piglet, which is redubbed by his new voice actor Travis Oates, as his original actor John Fiedler had died since the original game.
* FlunkyBoss:
** The Twilight Thorn will summon Creepers to assist it once the second stage of the fight has started (i.e. after the first round of Reaction Commands). They aren't a huge threat since they are easily avoided, though they can be dispatched quickly to grab HP Orbs.
** During the back-to-back fights against Pete in Olympus Coliseum, several species of Heartless will occasionally spawn to assist him.
** After Oogie Boogie is knocked off of his platform for the first time, his machine starts producing Heartless. They make dodging the boss' painful but predictable attacks a lot harder and are quite capable of taking you out on their own, meaning you can't afford to ignore them.
** Demyx will start off his boss fight by using his sitar to conjure up watery clones of himself. Beating them is required, as they are accompanied by a timer that will cause a NonStandardGameOver if it runs out before they're all dead.
* FogOfWar: There's a Heartless called the [[IronicName Illuminator]] whose only ability is to create this. The problem? You're fighting [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Barbossa]]. He's invincible until you take down the Illuminator, which can respawn.
* FollowTheMoney: There are mini-games in 100-Acre Wood where you have to guide Sora through some sort of obstacle course. In each case, following the "honey spheres" which line the way is the best way to figure out how to avoid obstacles.
* ForcedTransformation: If you fail a Reaction Command against a Gambler Nobody or Luxord, they will temporarily transform Sora into either a large die or person-sized card. While he can still attack by flailing around, he does very little damage.
* ForcedTutorial: The entire prologue is almost entirely unskippable tutorials, and long cutscenes. Without skipping the latter, the tutorial can take, depending on the difficulty level, up to ''five hours''.
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: Bell strikes replace the usual piano in Organization XIII's {{leitmotif}} in [[http://youtu.be/O8cd_0eUVAM "Showdown at Hollow Bastion"]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** During the prologue, when the hooded figure speaking to [=DiZ=] introduces himself as "Ansem", [=DiZ's=] response is a pause before several seconds of hearty laughter; it's a rather odd way to react to being presented with someone who appears to be one of the most dangerous characters in the series...until you realize that [=DiZ=] is in fact the ''real'' Ansem (i.e. Ansem the Wise, the one Xehanort took the name from) and just had someone try to introduce themselves with ''his own name''.
** At the beginning of the game when you're at Yen Sid's tower, there are a number of mirrors in the fairies' room that can be examined for various vague statements about Sora. These statements allude to the various Drive Forms that he will acquire over the course of the game, and one also warns you about the potential danger of the DifficultButAwesome [=AntiForm=].
** Xigbar mentions that there were [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Keyblade wielders before Sora]], and most of the extra scenes from ''Final Mix'' also hint at plot points from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', and there are implications of Xemnas having a ''really'' strong negative reaction to being referred to as Xehanort, as well as the first Secret Ansem Report explicitly calling attention to Xehanort's amnesia and "possibly superhuman" abilities, all foreshadowing the dramatic conclusion of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''. [[spoiler: With the revelation that Xigbar is actually Luxu, his mention of Keyblade wielders gains a double meaning hinting to his real identity, considering he was a witness to the first Keyblade War way back in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX''.]]
** Some more foreshadowing regarding on how Tron suddenly became all emotional as his story progressed. ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' confirms that programs are somewhat like Nobodies, in that they don't possess hearts, but the same game confirms that Nobodies can grow new hearts over time, and that it's likely that anything with a mind of its own will eventually generate a heart. Tron is, thus, the first ''confirmed'' case of this reveal, while Pinocchio is a speculated case. This explains why Sora can detect a heart within him.
** Take a close look at Xigbar and Saïx compared to the other members of Organization XIII sans Xemnas. Notice anything odd about them? [[spoiler:They have yellow eyes, Xigbar has silver streaks in his hair, and Saïx's hair is a more faded shade of blue than in ''Birth By Sleep''. ''3D'' reveals that Xemnas was grooming the Organization members to be vessels for Xehanort's heart, and that their change of appearance is because it's already started for the two of them.]]
** Per the developers, they [[InvokedTrope invoked]] this using Anti Form, which represents of Sora's vulnerability to the darkness that lurks deep in his heart and what could happen to him if he abuses his Drive powers too much. [[spoiler:Come ''3D'', Xehanort's incarnations lure Sora into darkness in order to corrupt his heart and turn him into another Xehanort vessel to serve his new Organization.]]
** The ''Final Mix'' expanded version of the cutscene after Sora's fight with Roxas has a moment where Axel and Roxas sit on top of the clock tower and have ice cream together one last time. During the scene, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Axel asks if "you, me, her" all have hearts]]. The target of "her" is unclear and might be referencing Naminé, but in the context of later games it seems to refer to Xion.
** Assassin Nobodies have a move where they self-destruct themselves in order to heavily damage Sora. Axel, their leader, performs a similar move later, killing himself in the process.
* FourIsDeath: The final battle of the hardest Coliseum tournament in the game is against Hades...but the penultimate battle is against four brutal opponents: Leon, Yuffie, Tifa, and Cloud, all at once. Good luck.
* FranchiseCodifier: The game created a template for future games of the series going forward, both acclaimed and controversial. On the acclaimed side, the game expanded on the somewhat minimal platforming elements of the previous installments, created a much more well-balanced magic system (with different spells serving vastly different purposes and being viable even in the endgame), and postgame bosses that served as great challenges to the player. On the controversial side, this game also introduced the {{Plot Twist}}s and plot contrivances that would show up in future games as well[[note]]In this case, Ansem from the first game wasn't actually Ansem but his apprentice instead.[[/note]], and it marked the point where the games began to take themselves far more seriously than one would expect a series focused on crossing Final Fantasy over with Disney to do.
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** When the doves fly by Roxas' window during the start of the 6th Day of the prologue, he's replaced with Sora for a split second.
** The Gambler Nobody's cards have pictures of Lexaeus, Zexion, Marluxia, Larxene and a Nobody symbol -- the former four are Organization XIII members who only appear in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories''.
* FullContactMagic: Sora's [[SuperMode Master Form]] seems to favor this, mixing physical strikes with his spell attacks. The most direct examples are the forward charge he performs when using [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] and his circular dash around [[ShockAndAwe Thunder's]] area of effect. He'll also close in on his target and slash a few times before launching [[AnIcePerson Blizzard]].
* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
** The second time you go to Beast's Castle, Xaldin kidnaps Belle and the Rose to force Beast to join them. Belle TakesAThirdOption and runs off with the rose. What sells the scene is her elbowing him, hearing Xaldin "oof" as she goes off-screen, Sora, Beast, and Co starting a charge, then SLIDING TO A HALT as she runs by. To top it all off, the music cuts out, and you can hear Beasts' claws sliding to a stop on the pavement.
** Also Aerith's lines while inserting the MCP Eradication Program... all while Leon {{Facepalm}}s in the background.
--->'''Aerith:''' ''"[[GratuitousFrench Bon appetite!]] Don't talk with your mouth full."''\\
'''Master Control Program:''' ''"[[OhCrap Wha... what are you loading?]]"''
* FusionDance: Sora can use his party members as Power Boosters using the Drive System. For example, Sora's DualWielding [[http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Valor_Form Valor Form]] involves absorbing Goofy. Absorbing Donald turns him into the magic-oriented Wisdom Form. Absorbing both active party members can turn him into Master or, later on, Final Form.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G -- Q]]
* GambitPileup: Both Organization XIII and Maleficent are after Kingdom Hearts, while [=DiZ=] is working in the background trying to get revenge on Xemnas for betraying him when the former was Ansem and the latter was his apprentice Xehanort.
* GameBreakingBug: The game may crash when saving in the unpatched ''HD I.5+II.5 [=ReMIX=]'' version for [=PS4=]. This crash also has a rare chance to delete all of your save files.
* GameplayAllyImmortality: You allies will get up a few minutes after losing all their health. If you lose all your health, however, it's an instant game over. The in-game justification for this is glossed over ''very'' quickly, but basically boils down to your partners simply being knocked out, and Sora ''losing his heart'' any time he dies. Because the Heartless/Nobodies are very vulnerable to the Keyblade, they don't take any chances.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Pete is portrayed as a GoldfishPoopGang character in the story, who relies on his Heartless and other distractions to cause trouble but isn't very strong himself. Likewise, almost every fight you have with him usually involves some sort of gimmick, reinforcements, or distractions, and in his one solo fight in the Hades Paradox Cup, he hardly poses a threat.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** At the start of the game, Mickey gives Sora the munny pouch with 5,000 munny in it that Roxas and his friends earned. For [[DiscOneNuke obvious reasons]], though, the game doesn't let you actually spend it.
** In Port Royal, Jack Sparrow turns into a skeleton in sections of moonlight after becoming cursed, just like the other pirates. However, he can be damaged when he is non-skeletal form, while the other pirates cannot, and is able to be hurt by mundane means while the Pirates can only be harmed because of [[WrongContextMagic the Keyblade's foreign magic]].
** The World That Never Was is initially only accessed by entering Betwixt and Between via the Simulated Twilight Town. Upon arriving, Sora and friends can leave to the World Map at any time via Save Point, even though the Gummi Ship should be parked at the real Twilight Town.
** The first fight against Armored Controller Xemnas is one of the few bosses that has a chance to trigger the King Mickey rescue mechanic should Sora die. In a cutscene before the fight, King Mickey is trapped on the other side of the closed Door to Darkness and shouldn't be able to get there.
** Completion in certain areas, such as the Hundred Acre Wood and Atlantica, is not required to clear the game. Despite this, if you beat the game without clearing these areas, you will still see happy cutscenes of resolution in the credits as if you had.
* GameplayGrading: The Gummi Ship levels are graded with one prize unlocked for each rank achieved. When playing these levels for a high score, RankInflation kicks in as a truly high-score receives declarations of "S+1" rank, "S+2", and so on.
* GangplankGalleon: [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] takes place within both the eponymous seaside port, and the pirate ship used to travel between there and a distant island with a haunted grotto.
* GateGuardian: The Thresholder Heartless is the result of a Possessor Heartless, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin possessing]] a carving on a door in [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast's Castle]]. You need to get through the door to rescue Cogsworth and the other ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' characters and in order to do that, you need to take this thing out.
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: The [[LetsYouAndHimFight battle]] with [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast The Beast]] involves knocking sense into The Beast and using a [[ActionCommand Reaction Command]] to have Cogsworth shout him back to his senses -- "Please, master, please, compose yourself!"
* GetBackHereBoss:
** For second fight with the three hyenas in Pride Lands, you have to chase them around the Elephant Graveyard and beat them to a pulp.
** Xigbar uses dual guns as his main weapon, and teleports across the boss arena between shots. You need to take potshots at him when he gets close and hope to catch him in a combo or deflect his shots.
* GetOut: [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast]] yells this when his and Sora's [[LimitBreak Limit]] is initiated. Justified, since Xaldin, as well as all of the Heartless and Nobodies that accompany him, are unwanted intruders in his castle.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Kairi's model includes panties, which can be seen with proper camera placement. This is not mentioned in the ESRB rating. It took until the HD remaster for the Radar to catch this and remove them.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Subverted. When Sora and Riku have defeated [[BigBad Xemnas]], a giant dragon Nobody shows up from the void and our heroes chase it on a glider until it crashes, only to discover it's a spaceship piloted by... [[NotQuiteDead Xemnas]].
* GlamourFailure: Whenever something happens that interferes with artificially created memories, and the simulated Twilight Town, the whole screen flickers.
* GlassCannon: [=AntiForm=] can put out some serious damage with its fast combos, but it causes Sora to take 50% more damage and prevents him from healing by any means.
* AGlitchInTheMatrix:
** Everyone in the virtual Twilight Town thinks the theft of a ''word'' is unusual, but perfectly possible, in order to preserve the illusion of a normal town.
** Vivi's [[TookALevelInBadass sudden spike in competence and confidence]] during the Struggle in the prologue hints toward that Twilight Town being a simulation made of data.
* GoldfishPoopGang: Pete fills this role perfectly, though he actually becomes a legitimate threat in the Paradox Cups thanks to the restrictions set upon you and his stats getting boosted to extremes.
* GoodMorningCrono: The game starts with Roxas waking up in his room, but there is more to it than it looks like.
* GoOutWithASmile: Axel smiles before fading away into nothingness after his suicide attack on the Dusks.
* GottaCatchThemAll: There are limits, summons, drive forms, abilities, weapons, spells, accessories, synthesis items, treasure chests, and still, more Ansem reports. Its Final Mix version adds puzzle pieces, Absent Silhouettes (though there are only five of those), thirteen MetalSlime Heartless, and the three Proofs, awarded for beating the game's three hardest challenges (the aforementioned Metal Slimes and the Bonus Bosses).
* GrassIsGreener: Roxas became jealous of the visions he had of Sora and his friends. To the point where he actually betrayed and left Organization XIII because he wanted friends and love so badly. The result? He gets tricked by [=DiZ=] into merging with Sora. Not quite what he wanted.
* GratuitousEnglish: The Japanese version has English text displayed in several areas, such as the Command Menu and area title cards.
* GraveHumor: Zero's grave in Halloween Town; though the grave itself is just a grave, Sora will say that Zero is usually sleeping here.
* GreatEscape: The events of the first visit to Space Paranoids revolves around escaping. First from prison, then from the world itself.
* GreenHillZone:
** The idyllic Twilight Town provides a more urban setting, though our resident KidHero steals a moment of blissful peace atop a literal green hill before everything goes wrong for him. Unlike Destiny Islands from the first game, the place isn't doomed (at least not the ''real'' one), and can be eventually revisited.
** As usual, the 100 Acre Wood is portrayed as a peaceful forest,
* GrievousHarmWithABody:
** The "Bat Cry" Reaction Command for Hook Bats and "Air Twister" Reaction Command for Air Pirates has Sora grab the corresponding Heartless and smack them against surrounding enemies.
** The "Fail Safe" Reaction Command for Assassin Nobodies involves Sora grabbing and throwing them into the ground, causing them to explode and potentially harm other enemies.
* GuestStarPartyMember: Most worlds have you team up with a character whenever you visit. [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} Land of Dragons]] has Mulan, [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast's Castle]] has Beast, [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Olympus Coliseum]] has Auron from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] has Captain Jack Sparrow, [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]] has Jack Skellington, [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Agrabah]] has Aladdin, [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Pride Lands]] has Simba, and [[Film/{{Tron}} Space Paranoids]] has Tron. In the World That Never Was, Riku joins your party after what's left of Xehanort's Heartless is removed from his heart.
* GuideDangIt:
** During the Xemnas skyscraper battle, there is a cinematic reaction command that gets stronger the ''later'' you press it. It actually misses entirely if you react as soon as possible. After training the player for the whole game to press it as quickly as possible, this is the only time in the game that a reaction command behaves this way.
** The Organization XIII data rematches in ''Final Mix'' are {{Puzzle Boss}}es, but even if you're level 99, their damage output leaves so little room for error that going in without a game plan can mean dying ''several'' times, too quickly to figure anything out.
* HalfwayPlotSwitch:
** The first half: Once the player switches to Sora, it follows a similar plot to the original with Malificent (with Pete as TheDragon) returning and interfering with the worlds, as Sora faces classic Disney villains.
** The second half: after the battle at Hollow Bastion Sora battles the members of Organization XIII instead of Malificent/Pete until he discovers their base.
* HalfArcSeason: While all Disney worlds of the first game pushed the plot forward in some way, big or small, only half here actually contribute to the overall Organization XIII storyline.
* HandGagging: Several times throughout the game, to the point where the trope's page quote is actually from this game. Sora himself even got this, which is played for laughs, in [[WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie Timeless River]].
* HardModePerks: If you play on the hardest difficulty mode exclusive to the ''Final Mix'' version, Critical Mode, you get a few gameplay bonuses. Several powerful abilities[[note]]No Experience, Finishing Plus, Lucky Lucky (x2), MP Hastera, Draw, and Reaction Boost[[/note]] are granted on the third day of the prologue, you start off with 50 AP, 3 AP is awarded as an occasional level-up bonus instead of 2, your damage is boosted by 25% compared to Standard and Proud, and the requirements to unlock the secret ending video are reduced from getting OneHundredPercentCompletion to just earning the Gold Crown.
* HarderThanHard:
** The highest difficulty is Critical Mode, only available in the ''Final Mix'' version. The total HP and MP you gain over time is halved, enemies hit twice as hard as those in Proud Mode (which often means you get killed in 1 or 2 hits), and you earn 25% less experience.
** The No Experience ability, only available in Critical Mode, prevents gaining any EXP. Turning it on at the beginning of the game to keep Sora and co. at Level 1 (which means no natural stat boosts and level-up abilities) stacked with Critical Mode's penalties immensely increases the difficulty of the already hard mode.
* HealingFactor:
** The Genie, Stitch, and Peter Pan Summons will heal Sora over time. Stitch's healing is the slowest while Peter Pan's is the fastest.
** Party members equipped with the Auto Heal ability will regain health as long as they're not active.
** Limit Form will heal Sora whenever he successfully hits an enemy with a Limit.
* HealingMagicIsTheHardest: The Cure lines of spells take all of a character's MP to cast. Different levels of healing spells merely increase its range as opposed to recovering any more health. While the MP bar eventually recovers on its own, it usually takes around twenty seconds to completely recharge even at the best of times, during which no other spells or {{Limit Break}}s can be used.
* TheHedgeOfThorns: Maleficent fills Disney Castle's Hall of the Cornerstone with thorns as the start of her attempt to corrupt the place with darkness.
* {{Hellhound}}: After having appeared in the first game, Cerberus makes a return as a boss in the Underworld, pursuing Sora and friends as they escape that location.
* HelpfulMook: The sole purpose of the rare Bulky Vendor Heartless is to give out items via a Reaction Command once you've found it. It doesn't attack, instead draining its own HP once it spawns. The amount of HP a Bulky Vendor has left when you use its Reaction Command determines the quality of the item you can get from it.
* HeroicBSOD:
** When Sora learns that his killing Heartless is ''exactly what the Organization wants him to do''. He recovers ''really'' quickly, after a pep talk from Goofy, which basically boils down to "The Heartless still need to be stopped, because they hurt people."
** And a less plot-relevant example is given to Hercules when he finds out that Olympus Coliseum was utterly demolished by the Hydra that he didn't quite kill in his hurry to save his girlfriend. You would think he [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer suffered enough in the movie.]]
** Mickey, Donald Duck, and Sora all slip into a shared one in when Goofy is seemingly killed. It only lasts a few seconds before all three of them quickly transition into UnstoppableRage. After they finish [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge ruthlessly slaughtering every last Heartless and Nobody in the immediate vicinity]], Goofy catches up to them and reveals that he was not dead, only knocked unconscious.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** Goofy saves Mickey from a falling boulder, but [[DisneyDeath he gets better like five minutes later]].
** Two villains sacrifice themselves to save Sora. One of them [[RedemptionEqualsDeath dies]], and the other doesn't. [[spoiler:[[UnexplainedRecovery The former got better, though.]]]]
* HeroMustSurvive:
** You'll get a GameOver during the boss battle with Barbossa if Jack Sparrow gets knocked out.
** If Riku's HP reaches zero during Xemnas' final attack, you lose. This is because he's needed for the CoupDeGraceCutscene that plays afterward.
* HeWasRightThereAllAlong: The Thresholder Heartless is part of a set of double doors in Beast's Castle, and announces itself by taking a swing at Donald once he gets close enough.
* HighAltitudeBattle: You fight [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Genie Jafar]] in the sky, far over the streets of Agrabah. This is one of the few mandatory bosses where Sora fights without any party members, though he rides the Magic Carpet, so it's not officially one-on-one.
* HijackedByGanon: Played with: Xehanort is behind everything, always, but it's not apparent from the start that the new villain of the game is still some version of him.
* HitboxDissonance: Due to a glitch in the ''HD II.5 Final [=ReMIX=]'' version, some of Vexen's attacks will hit even when they're clearly not near Sora and co.
* HitodamaLight: Small balls of bluish-white flames float aimlessly and harmlessly through the underworld. You can [[RewardingVandalism smash them for money and health]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Many Reaction Commands involve Sora using an enemy's attack or weapon against them do deal a large amount of damage. For example, the "Berserk" command causes Sora to pick up a Berserker Nobody's hammer and swing it at them.
* HoldTheLine: The fight against Shan Yu requires that he be beaten before front door to the Land of Dragons' palace is destroyed.
* HolyHandGrenade:
** Queen Minnie's magic spells all fit in this category.
** King Mickey has several variations on the Pearl spell, a reference to the rename of Holy used for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''.
* HopelessBossFight: The first couple of "fights" with Hades have him completely invincible, forcing you to flee.
* HoverSkates: Wisdom Form allows Sora to move around as though he were ice skating on air.
* HPTo1: In the optional [[OptionalBoss Data version]] of the first Xemnas fight, doing the "Finish" Reaction Command on the run up Memory's Skyscraper will automatically put him at 1 HP.
* HubCity: Hollow Bastion, which was the penultimate level in the first game, now serves as a headquarters of sorts for Sora and his allies. Many crucial plot points take place here. However, in terms of gameplay, it's not quite as vital as Traverse Town, as shopping and synthesizing can now be done in every other world.
* HuntingTheRogue: The prologue of the game centers around Roxas, a boy living in Twilight Town who is suddenly assaulted by weird creatures and their masters - who want him back at any cost. [[spoiler:He was originally part of their Organization until [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 a complicated chain of events]] caused him to simultaneously defect and get captured by an opposing faction that locked him into the Twilight Town simulation in the hopes of re-uniting him with his other half Sora]].
* AnIcePerson: The first boss battle in Agrabah is two djinn Heartless, one empowered by ice and the other by fire.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Half of Organization XIII debuted in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', including the iconic Axel, and the other half debuted afterward in this game, most notably Roxas and Xemnas. The group as a whole proved so iconic that the next game, ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', was a midquel centered around them.
* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: As of ''Final Mix'', there are four difficulty levels: Beginner, Standard, Proud and Critical.
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace:
** The World that Never Was, which itself has subsections like The Hall of Empty Melodies, Brink of Despair, and the Altar of Naught.
** Honorable mention goes to Proof of Existence, which isn't ominous sounding by itself until you remember the true nature of the antagonists as undead/non-existent beings. What is Proof of Existence then, you ask? ''A graveyard''. Sure, it works as a connecting room to each Organization member's quarters, but ''still''.
** Even [[MundaneMadeAwesome mundane]] areas in the World That Never Was get ominous monikers. The break room is called the Grey Area. An ''elevator'' goes by Crooked Ascension.
* IFightForTheStrongestSide: The Heartless are said to take orders from whoever they see as the strongest, so the Organization is able to take command of them by overpowering Maleficent at Hollow Bastion.
* IHaveYourWife: Organization XIII decides to kidnap Kairi so they can motivate Sora to keep killing the Heartless after he finds out about their plan.
* ILikeThoseOdds: Leon and Cloud do this during their BackToBackBadasses moment while surrounded and vastly outnumbered by Heartless.
-->'''Leon:''' Think you can handle this many?\\
'''Cloud:''' Well, might be tough if one more shows up.\\
'''Leon:''' Then that'll be the one I take care of.\\
'''Cloud:''' What, you're fighting too?
* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: When Cid calls Merlin an "old loon", Merlin gets offended by being called old.
* IdiotBall: Ariel completely forgets about the events of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', and how Ursula is not at all trustworthy, so the game can recreate the plot of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989''.
* ImmuneToFlinching:
** Many of the larger bosses, such as Cerberus, are either immune to being stunned or are just extremely difficult to stun.
** Riku never gets stunned or reacts to taking damage during his BossFight in the Land of Dragons.
* TheImp: Pete is a bit on the large side and surprisingly strong, but he's too dumb and incompetent to be much of a threat by himself. Sora lampshades this early on while speaking with Leon.
* ImpossibleThief: At the beginning of the prologue, a thief has been going around stealing photos and somehow was able to steal the word, preventing anyone from saying it. Once Roxas gets the photos back, the word returns.
* ImprobableWeaponUser:
** Sora can attack with the stakeboard by doing tricks near enemies, though he only does ScratchDamage.
** Demyx uses a pretty large [[InstrumentOfMurder sitar]] as his weapon. While he usually uses it to channel his water attacks, he'll occasionally swing it as a melee weapon.
** Gambler Nobodies throw giant dice at Sora as one of their attacks.
** Luxord's weapon is a deck of playing cards. Each card is person-sized, and they're surprisingly effective.
** One of the RandomDrops you can get is a giant book, which Goofy can equip as a weapon.
* InconsistentDub: The pronunciation of Tidus's name. In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', Wakka pronounces it "Tee-dus", but in ''II'', Selphie says "Tie-dus".
* IncreasinglyLethalEnemy: Lexeaus' gimmick for his OptionalBoss fight in the ''Final Mix'' version is that he has a power level that determines his damage output. He starts off doing so little damage that even if you're Level 1 he's completely non-threatening, but as the fight goes on he will occasionally power himself up and do more and more damage.
* InfinityMinusOneSword:
** Beating the Experiment on the second visit to Halloween Town grants Sora the Decisive Pumpkin Keyblade. It's tied with Ultima Weapon and Oblivion for the second highest Strength bonus at 6, a pretty long reach to ensure it hits targets, and has the "Combo Boost" ability to increase damage dealt by combo finishers on the ground. The combination of its ability and Strength bonus gives it the highest damage output out of all Keyblades when used on the ground.
** Reuniting with Riku and Kairi in The World That Never Was grants Oblivion, the last Keyblade you get from story progression. It's tied with Decisive Pumpkin and Ultima Weapon for the second highest Strength bonus of 6, a decent Magic bonus of 2, and the Drive Boost ability to restore the Drive Gauge faster during MP Charge.
* InfinityPlusOneSword:
** The Ultima Weapon has great strength and magic, but requires a whole lot of synthesising. The Fenrir is the single strongest physical Keyblade in the game, but requires you to beat Sephiroth. The Fatal Crest is the single strongest magical Keyblade in the game, but requires you to beat the Goddess of Fate Cup in the Underdrome.
** There is a ingredient that increases a synthesized item's rank by one. It is necessary for the creation of the Ultima Weapon and can be applied to Goofy and Donald's highest level weapons making them Save The King/Queen+.
** Final Mix adds a ''third'' variation.
*** Winner's Proof for Sora. It has the highest magic in the game, but it can only be gotten by beating the twelve Organization Mushroom mini-games. Plus its ability is No Experience, which has limited utility--unless one is playing a low-level game, you'll want to avoid using it until you reach the level cap (and note that while the series as a whole is a fan of AbsurdlyHighLevelCap, the big draw of ''Final Mix'' is its PostEndGameContent OptionalBoss parade--and you will need every last level you can get for those broken jerks) and after you reach the cap, it merely becomes a useless ability where there could be a ''useful'' one instead.
*** Premium Mushroom and Ultimate Mushroom for Donald and Goofy. The former gets Save the Queen+'s old ability from the normal version of the game and has the highest magic stat in the game while the latter absorbs 40% of all damage. They are won by getting the best possible score on the Mushroom XIII mini games.
* InkblotCartoonStyle: Timeless River is a throwback to the old black and while Mickey Mouse cartoons, style and all. Like other worlds, Sora, Donald and Goofy's appearance change to suit the world, with Donald and Goofy reverting to versions of their earliest designs. Though Goofy is the only one who can actually be described as being in the Inkblot style. Sora's look is more akin to a Tezuka styled anime character, and Donald debuted as the Inkblot style was on the way out.
* InsideAComputerSystem:
** The Twilight Town that Roxas lives in is actually a virtual recreation found inside a computer in the real town's abandoned mansion.
** Space Paranoids is a {{Cyberspace}} world based off of the [=ENCOM=] system in ''Film/{{TRON}}''. It's located in Ansem the Wise's computer in Hollow Bastion.
* InsultBackfire: At one point, Sora tries to insult Hades, but the insult is ineffective because Hades considers it to be a compliment:
-->'''Sora:''' Lowlife!\\
'''Hades:''' Heh, you're too kind, kid.
* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: During the first visit to Beast's Castle, two suits of armor block the path to the Beast's room. Examining them will have the game say they are impassable and there's an invisible wall preventing progress, even though [[http://clockworkcrow.tumblr.com/post/55891809676/really-sora there is clearly a gap large enough]] for Sora to comfortably get around them.
* InterfaceScrew: Zexion and the Lingering Will can potentially lock out options in the Command Menu, or even outright replace them. When this happens, the only thing you can do is find the right command to free the menu.
* InterfaceSpoiler:
** Getting the Reunion trophy in the ''II.5 Final [=ReMIX=]'' version shows Riku in the attire he wears when he joins the party. At this point, he's still in Ansem's form, and will not be restored until after two more bosses and about fifteen minutes worth of cutscenes.
** Roxas's levelling notices during the prologue are outlined in yellow, which is the colour used for guest party members. This is a pretty clear way of telling you Roxas isn't actually a permanent player character.
* InvisibleBlock: The fortress of Organization XIII presents an enormous abyss with random floating platforms scattered throughout. Only by running (or gliding) towards them could Sora reveal the prismatic pathways linking the platforms (and the exits) together. EdgeGravity remained in full effect, making the...[[BuffySpeak invisibleness]]...just there for show.
* InvisibleParents: Roxas and his friends are apparently teenagers, but the concept of a guardian being relevant to their lives is never broached. Of course, Roxas himself doesn't have any "parents", unless you count Sora.
* InvitedAsDinner: Sora and his friends nearly become lunch for the hyenas. Inverted, as the trio just end up there as trespassers when they entered the world, yet Shenzi lets them stay anyway.
* IronicEcho: When Maleficent intervenes between Sora's confrontation with Saïx and Sora tries to stop her, she tells him, "I don't take orders from you!" When Maleficent saves Sora and company from the Nobodies, telling him to find a way to get rid of the Nobodies, Sora repeats the same line and tries to help her to no avail.
* {{Irony}}: Xaldin warns Luxord that "if the cards aren't in [his] favour", he'll end up sharing the same fate as Demyx. Xaldin ends up as the next member of Organization XIII to die.
* ItCanThink:
** As Yen Sid explains, this is what separates the Heartless from the Nobodies; while the Heartless are little more than mindless animals who function on instinct, the Nobodies are fully capable of thinking things through and planning ahead.
** Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, aka Xehanort's Heartless, is in fact a Heartless himself, but retains all of his human intelligence and selfhood; the real Ansem the Wise theorizes that this is because Ansem/[[spoiler: Terra-]]Xehanort willingly became a Heartless.
* ItemCrafting: Synthesis allows you to create items by using materials dropped from enemies or found in chests. Many of these items are either very hard to obtain or outright impossible to get otherwise.
* ItsAllMyFault:
** Hercules declares this because he failed to defeat the Hydra and falls into a depression that lasts until you defeat Hades late in the game. Even though it wasn't really his fault.
** [[spoiler:After Axel kidnaps Kairi]], Sora starts to [[ManlyTears cry]] inside the Gummi Ship as his friends try to cheer him up. When Goofy tells him that "he's the key that connects everything", Sora mutters "So it's all ''my'' fault". Goofy takes back his words in shock, not wanting Sora to enter another HeroicBSOD.
* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: The trek through the Organization's castle is almost entirely upward. You take an elevator and go up several flights of stairs before eventually confronting Xemnas at the very top.
* ItsPersonal: Mickey Mouse has this briefly when Goofy pushes him out of the way when a Heartless was about to attack him and gets hit instead. And was thought to be dead.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Past Pete is a bit gruff, but not nearly as mean as his present counterpart and shows his thanks when his boat is returned.
** Seifer may act tough, but when he gives the struggle trophy to Sora for being "the strongest guy in Twilight Town" after the latter saves his gang from the Nobodies, it is clear that it is a genuine display of gratitude.
* JokeItem: ''Final Mix'' gives Donald and Goofy the Plain Mushroom and Joyous Mushroom, a staff and shield with stats similar to their initial weapons. They are won by winning the Mushroom XIII mini games with the lowest score possible.
* KillerRabbit: Pay [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 the Pride Lands]] a visit, and Sora turns into one of these. A cute little lion cub who is more than capable of taking on all the Heartless the world can offer, including the ''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever effing ginormous]]'' [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Groundshaker]].
* KillTheLights: The [[IronicName Illuminator]] Heartless assists Captain Barbossa by shrouding the area in darkness. This not only conceals them, but makes Barbossa invincible because he can only be harmed in the moonlight. The Illuminator has to be killed first to lift the darkness and make Barbossa vulnerable.
* KingMook: The Organization XIII members act as this to most of the Nobody enemies.Axel to the Assassins, Demyx to the Dancers, Xaldin to the Dragoons, Roxas to the Samurais, Xigbar to the Snipers, Luxord to the Gamblers, Saïx to the Berserkers and Xemnas to the Sorcerers.
* KissingDiscretionShot: Sora enforces this on Flounder by covering his eyes so that he doesn't see Ariel and Eric kiss.
* KneelBeforeZod: Played with. Saix simply asks Sora to show just how important Kairi is to him. Sora, who AintTooProudToBeg, kneels of his own volition.
* KnockbackEvasion: A regular part of the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series starting with this game is an ability known as Aerial Recovery which lets you regain control after being launched. Some bosses and enemies in the series are capable of it as well, and knowing when to use yours and when they'll use theirs is an important part of getting through the higher difficulties.
* LampshadeHanging: The world of Port Royal is based on a live-action Creator/{{Disney}} movie instead of an animated feature, and thus has more realistic art and character designs. The moment Sora and co. enter the world, they note how different it feels.
* LandOfDragons: The world based on ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' is literally called the Land of Dragons.
* LargeHam:
** Ansem, [[FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin re-dubbed in flashbacks by]] Richard Epcar, is depicted in an overly-dramatic fashion. For instance:
-->'''KINGDOOOOM HEEEAAAAARTS'''! '''FILL ME, WITH THE ''POWER'' OF DARKNESS!!'''
** [[NotSoStoic Saïx,]] during the boss fight with him.
--->'''MOVE ASIIIIDE!'''
* LarynxDissonance: Played a bit well with "Ping" when "he" fights alongside Sora and his companions in battles... before "he" is accidentally revealed to be Mulan who later fights alongside them for the remainder of the game.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Messed around with in the beginning of the game. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy forget their fighting skills, they have to relearn them all. Convenient, since the player's also learning a new fighting system. However, Sora's basic combo in ''Kingdom Hearts II'' is more precise and polished than in the original game, and according to WordOfGod reflects his growing skills as a swordsman, while Donald's magic is visually distinct from Sora's in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', when they shared the same spells in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''. On the other hand, Roxas in the prologue had his memory wiped by Namine so he would have a normal life before he had to reunite with Sora.
* LastChanceHitPoint:
** Every boss will always hit 1 HP before you can finish them off, and you're only allowed to do so with a Reaction Command, combo finisher, or magic.
** The Second Chance ability allows Sora to survive any hit if he had at least 2 HP when it connects, while the Once More ability also him to survive combos if he had more than 1 HP when the first hit connects.
* LastNoteNightmare: The track [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrV8cRMRaMo "Showdown at Hollow Bastion"]] from the game's OST. The abrupt transitions are heart-quickening (no pun intended) and can be slightly nightmarish: it begins with a mild little score, suddenly picks up the tempo and sounds like montage music, and THEN suddenly becomes all-out battle music complete with a choir that has a similar effect to OminousLatinChanting. And the entire piece is under a minute long.
* LateArrivalSpoiler:
** The opening cinematic and flashbacks during the prologue reveal that the BigBad of [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]] wasn't Maleficent, but a man named Ansem.
** The opening cinematic shows that Riku was actually at Castle Oblivion during ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' and heavily implies that he's playable. This is meant to be a surprise in original game that's only unlocked after beating Sora's story.
* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: Sora gains a speed boost when in the red-colored Valor Form.
* LazyBackup: If you have a party member that's sitting out due to the three person limit, they won't join the fight automatically if somebody gets knocked out; you have to manually call them. This can be circumvented with the Auto Change ability, which does cause them to tag in.
* LethalJokeItem: The Sweet Memories Keyblade looks useless at first, as it provides zero boosts to Attack and Magic and its range is pitiful. However, it also has the Lucky Lucky ability (increases the drop rates of items), which is invaluable when farming synthesis materials. ''Final Mix'' gives it a magic boost of 4 and the new ability Drive Converter, which makes enemies drop drive orbs instead of munny, invaluable for leveling up Drive Forms, especially Master Form which gains exp as you collect drive orbs.
* LetterMotif: All members of Organization XIII have an X in their names. Initiation into the Organization actually requires an X to be added to the letters of the member's previous name. ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]'' reveals that [[spoiler:the X isn't just a letter, either -- it's the Recusant's Sigil, a mark of Xehanort's ownership over them, which he uses to track them (among ''[[SigilSpam many]]'' others) for his true EvilPlan.]]
* LevitatingLotusPosition: Successfully blocking a Samurai Nobody's attack may cause them to assume a levitating meditation pose. This signifies that you can use the "Duel Stance" Reaction Command on them.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment with [[ThatManIsDead Leon]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Aerith]], in which the former asks the later if she’ll be okay by herself ([[RobotWar the whole town was currently in a crisis]]) while he goes out to retrieve something, and her only reply is to [[DeathGlare coldly stare]] at him, who decides to shut up and leave.
* {{Lilliputians}}: Lilliput itself is a visitable location as a part of [[WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie Timeless River]]. None of the inhabitants appear concerned when their town gets caught up in, from their perception, a BehemothBattle between a trio of toons and flying demons.
* LimitBreak: The game introduces powerful new techniques called Limits. At the cost of all of Sora's MP, he can team up with another party member (or Donald and Goofy if using Trinity Limit) to become invincible for a period of time while doing special attacks.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Picking the Magic-based build during the introduction segments will be a disadvantage early on (especially since you start with absolutely no spells), but sticking with it will make your magic noticeably more powerful toward the end of the game. Conversely, choosing the offense or defense builds don't make a huge difference in the damage you give/take in the long run. If you DO pick Magic as your main focus, you'll be able to shave off multiple health bars from endgame Nobodies in a magic combo, your Explosion finisher (which bases damage on Magic) becomes even ''more'' of a game breaker than it is with a physical build, and [[BeehiveBarrier Reflega]] [[MoreDakka turns anything foolish enough to challenge you into Swiss cheese in a single cast]]. Should you use Magic while in Final form with a Magic build, you'll see this trope at its prime.
* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when you travel to the [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Pride Lands]]. All three of you are transformed into animals/slightly less anthropomorphic animals in order to blend in. Sora becomes a lion cub, Goofy becomes a tortoise, and Donald becomes a... bird. But with wings that function! Simba also comments on the fact that Sora looks different than he remembered, as he was a summon from the original [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI game]] who fought alongside a human Sora, and suddenly he's a lion cub!
* LipLock: Averted; about half the dialogue uses MouthFlaps, and the other half animates mouth movements according to the dubbed dialogue in the English version.
* LivingStructureMonster: The Thresholder is a creature possessing some dungeon doors which impede Sora and company in Beast's Castle.
* TheLoad: Mulan is useless when she first joins the party disguised as Ping. She has no offensive abilities outside of a basic attack with her sword, and said attack is weak and slow. You're also forced to use her for Shang's missions, weighing you down considerably since it means Donald or Goofy will have to sit out.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The [=PS3=] version of ''II.5'' has long load times due to the Blu-Ray discs used for the game, and there is no data install option to ease it. While normal load times aren't too bad, the game hangs for several seconds when entering Drive Forms, using Summons, or sometimes just opening a chest.
* LoneWolfBoss:
** {{Implied|Trope}} with Shan Yu. He has his own army of Heartless, but is never seen making contact with Pete or Maleficent to make any sort of deal. He's trying to conquer [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} The Land of Dragons]] on his own, and only battles Sora because he's in the way.
** Hades is shown working with Pete during the first visit to [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Olympus Coliseum]] on a joint venture to take care of both Sora and Hercules, but on the second visit appears to have ended the alliance to focus on Herc.
** On the first visit to [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]], Lock, Shock, and Barrel are working for Maleficent and fight you to buy time for Oogie to get better from his [[BackFromTheDead recent resurrection]]. When they're encountered on the second visit, they're not working for anybody and start causing trouble in Christmas Town [[ItAmusedMe just because it's fun]].
** Ursula is back, but now works alone trying to take over Atlantica.
** On the second visit to Halloween Town, somebody is stealing presents from Santa Claus for unknown reasons. It's later discovered that the theft was caused by the Experiment, a creation of Dr. Finklestein's that went rogue. [[BetaTestBaddie It stole the presents in a vain attempt to gain a heart]], which Dr. Finklestein did not give it during the creation process.
** The MCP is unaffiliated with the other villains, and tries to take over Hollow Bastion.
* LoopholeAbuse: The Summon gauge levels up as you let the gauge drain while a summon is active, earning 1 experience each time the gauge ticks down. However, unlike Drive forms which drain quicker as you deal damage to enemies, the Summon gauge will refill. This means the most efficient way to level up Summons is to wait for the gauge to just drain, then attack an enemy; the damage you inflict recharge the gauge back up one tick, and then it will naturally deplete down one tick. With proper timing and a good combo, you can do this multiple times in a few seconds, earning experience every time the gauge is reset by your attacks.
* LotusEaterMachine: The Twilight Town Roxas spends the prologue in is merely a simulation that is intended to keep him docile enough for Sora's memories to be extracted from him.
* LuckBasedMission: Mushroom #VIII in ''Final Mix+.'' True, this is only a sidequest required for OneHundredPercentCompletion, but then again, the type of people who play the Final Mixes ''are'' completionists. Anyways, this sidequest, no matter what strategy you use, requires a complicated setup and can be resource-intensive--so you ''will'' be SaveScumming. The point is to keep the mushroom in the air by hitting it and never allowing it to touch the ground; what makes it luck-based is the completely random direction the mushroom will jet off to every few rounds of hits. It requires as well very fine-tuned timing and hand-eye coordination, yet if luck is not with you, you will lose. And how many times must the mushroom be hit? ''Eighty-five times, minimum.''
* {{Lunacy}}: TheDragon Saïx. He uses the ominous [[TitleDrop Kingdom Hearts]] floating over [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The World That Never Was]] as the focus of his powers, turning him from TheStoic into TheBerserker. The aforementioned MacGuffin is, for all intents and purposes, the moon of The World That Never Was; the theme of the world is entitled Sacred Moon, the city is draped in eternal night with the only light source being Kingdom Hearts.
* MageTower: Yen Sid, the sorcerer from ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'', resides in a tower simply called the Mysterious Tower.
* MagicMissileStorm: Sora's Wisdom Form shoots out flurries of homing magic shots from his Keyblade. Xemnas shoots his [[LaserBlade Etheral Blades]] as projectiles, sometimes from his hand and sometimes creating a line of them in the air that fire at once. Finally, Xigbar can do this with his magic bullets.
* MagicMusic: Demyx (the Melodious Nocturne of Organization XIII) uses a blue sitar that's bigger than he is to summon water-clones. It also makes for a ''really'' effective club.
* MagicVersusScience:
** Merlin and Cid have a fight over using magic or technology when it comes to defending Hollow Bastion, with Cid preferring science and Merlin using magic. The end result is that Tron gets some of Merlin's magic in addition to the upgrades that Cid programmed due to Merlin firing a spell a Cid just as the latter was taking a disc out of his computer.
** The subplot with Ansem The Wise smacks of ScienceIsBad as well.
* {{Magitek}}: An upgrade disc that Cid creates for Tron is accidentally exposed to Merlin's magic during an argument. Tron gets both the magic and the upgrades from the disc.
* MakeMyMonsterGrow: Since the [=MCP=] can't really defend himself too well, he makes Sark grow in size to assist him when Sora and co. come to delete him.
* MakingASplash: The MusicalAssassin Demyx is Organization XIII's water user. If he ever utters "Dance, water, dance!", [[TimedMission you're in trouble]]. He also creates geysers and massive blobs of water to attack with.
* ManaBurn: [[{{Superboss}} Sephiroth's]] Heartless Angel attack, in addition to bringing your HPTo1, also zeroes your MP, forcing you to recover using items or stop him from completing the attack in the first place.
* MarathonBoss: The FinalBoss stands out for having at least 6 different parts to it; one part, [[spoiler:[[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere The Giant Nobody Dragon]]]], is even split into 3/4 stages!
* MarionetteMotion: Some of the more humanoid-shaped Nobodies move this way.
* MasterOfTheLevitatingBlades: Xaldin has power over wind and uses this to attack with his weapons without touching them.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: While Sora and co. are talking with Leon in Ansem's secret lab, [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch Stitch]] can be seen crawling around in the background a couple of times. When Stitch does get noticed, he lands on the computer and indirectly causes Sora, Donald, and Goofy to get sucked into it and arrested by the MCP.
* MeaningfulEcho:
** Auron echoes this [[BadassBoast awesomely]] when he bluntly tells Hades, "This is ''my'' story, and you aren't part of it."
** When Saïx confronts Sora over how important Kairi means to him, Sora replies, "Yeah. More than anything." Kairi replies similarly later when Saïx questions her if she wants to see Sora.
* MechanicalAbomination: Xemnas's giant Nobody dragon is entirely made of mechanical parts and shoots lasers and missiles to attack. During the first part of the final battle, it's also connected to a massive flying construct made of buildings. The enemies encountered during gummi ship missions also qualify due to being Heartless and Nobodies themselves despite looking like various flying and ground-based craft.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Wisdom Form replaces Sora's normal attack with the Shoot command, causing him to [[MagicMissile fire homing magic shots]] and fight at long range. He can also freely move about while magic is being cast when he normally has to stand in one spot.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Several of the Organization XIII bosses change up the usual boss formula when facing them by adding new, unique mechanics. This is even truer of the ''Chain of Memories'' members added in ''Final Mix''.
** Vexen will send a data circle to track Sora and analyze him. When he's collected enough data, he can create his own [=AntiSora=] (i.e., a data version of Sora in Anti Form). As the fight continues and he continues to collect data, the copies will grow stronger. Further, Vexen is immune to all damage until his shield is broken, and it counts as a separate enemy with its own HP bar.
** Lexaeus has a power meter that will increase as he fights, granting his attacks more power and a wider area of impact.
** Zexion can trap Sora's allies in copies of his lexicon that must be destroyed to break them free. He can also trap Sora himself in one, forcing him to find the real lexicon among an illusory arsenal of them and destroy it to return to the main battle.
** Saïx will charge up a Berserk meter; when it fills, he becomes nearly invulnerable to damage and batters Sora with powerful combo attacks. Sora has to grab his thrown claymores and use them to wallop Saïx back to break him out of it.
** Demyx will summon water clones that Sora has to kill a set number of within a time limit, or else its a NonStandardGameOver.
** Luxord does not have an HP bar, rather he gives himself and Sora time bar that decreases when they take damage, and also fluctuates depending on if the player can successfully win Luxord's minigames he initiates during the battle. The player is thus not only in danger of losing by having their HP depleted, but of their time running out before Luxord's.
** Marluxia will inflict Doom on Sora. Most of his attacks don't actually damage Sora, they just decrease the timer over his head, and when it hits 0, Sora is instantly killed regardless of HP.
* MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The game does this between the classic and modern incarnations of Pete in the stage based on ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie''. Although it's more "Meet Your Mentor/Leader's Early Installment Weirdness". It also has an interesting boss battle where you fight modern Pete... with the aid of Steamboat Willie's Pete.
* MeleeATrois: It is Sora and his allies vs. Organization XIII vs. Maleficent and her allies, and TheHeartless regularly changing sides among the latter two depending on which one is the strongest for the moment.
* MercyMode: If you are defeated by specific bosses, rather than restarting the battle or giving up, there's a chance you're given an option to instead continue the battle playing as Mickey Mouse, who is actually stronger than Sora. However, since Mickey has no combo finishers, he can't actually finish off the boss and so the real aim of playing as Mickey is to fill up the Drive gauge and use it to revive Sora. He can help you multiple times per boss, but the said chance of him doing so decreases from the initial 100% every time you use it, ultimately dropping down to 20% or so.
* MetalSlime:
** The Bulky Vendor is a rare Heartless that occasionally shows up within certain worlds and drops rare items when one of four Reaction Commands is used on it. The Bulky Vendor's HP will automatically deplete and it will start to flee once it's found, so you have to catch it and use the Reaction Command before it dies.
** ''Final Mix+'' adds not one, not two, not ten, but ''TWELVE'' more of these in the form of the Mushroom XIII. Once you've beaten the game, there are three challenges you can go for that are miles above everything else in the game in difficulty, and while defeating the Mushroom XIII is the easiest of the three, it's still a ridiculous pain that requires having mastered use of all of the drive forms in the game. Your prize? A special Keyblade and a little crown for your head (or an upgrade of the crown you already have for beating the other ridiculous challenges).
* MessageInABottle: During the prologue, Kairi puts a message in a bottle for Sora and lets it drift out to sea. Sora and Riku find it on the shore of the Realm of Darkness at the end of the game, because AWizardDidIt.
* MeteorSummoningAttack: In the UpdatedRerelease, Zexion's Absent Silhouette has a repeating mechanic in his battle where Sora needs to move quickly into a blue spotlight to avoid being bombarded with meteors.
* MetropolisLevel: The game changes predecessor's Hollow Bastion from a BigFancyCastle level to this, as the focus changes from the castle itself to the town around it. Once again, you have a safe commercial area, and a dangerous residential area (although the dangerous zones have a security system, the Claymore, that keeps things safe for the residents). ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' also features the city, this time by the name of Radiant Garden.
* MillionMookMarch: After the wall protecting Hollow Bastion falls, a ''very'' large number of Heartless are shown marching across the empty ravine towards the town.
* TheMillstone: Mulan, while under her Ping guise, is so bad at combat that you're effectively entering each fight with only one ally instead of two. Too bad she's a RequiredPartyMember until her true identity is outed to Shang.
* MirrorBoss: In a minor example, a part of the game has Roxas fight a shadowy version of himself.
* MistakenIdentity: Sora mistakes Riku for an Organization XIII member during the second visit to the Land of Dragons, leading to the two fighting.
* MonsterArena: The Olympus Colosseum from the first game returns, though in a lesser capacity due to the focus on the Underworld. In turn, the latter area has the Hades Colosseum, which hosts much harder battles against mooks.
* MonsterCompendium: Like the first game, there's a bestiary maintained by Jiminy Cricket. And this time, you can also use it to view the enemies' reaction commands (and how many times they have been used).
* MoodWhiplash:
** There's the scene where [[spoiler:The game switches control from Roxas to Sora.]] One minute, [[spoiler:you're watching Roxas grapple with losing his sense of identity, as the LotusEaterMachine he's been living in for a week forgets he ever existed, and being told he has to give up his life to bring Sora back.]] The next, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are dancing in a circle after being woken up, and deciding on what to do next, completely oblivious to the drama that it took to get them there. To help get an idea, compare [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U5eFvBKvGE this theme]], which plays in the first part, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX2FW_-JINo this theme]], which plays in the second.
** There is a moment in [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] where Sora and Goofy comment that they are surprised that Donald didn't give up on the treasure's curse (implying that Donald is greedy, although Donald never was in that world.) And then there's [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] ([[UnexpectedGameplayChange "Let's forget about our mission and... SING!!"]]).
** Congratulations! You've just defeated Xemnas, for good this time, and Sora, Riku and Kairi have all gotten home safely. And now they've got all new adventures to go on. Cue the ominous images of three people in armor, in somewhere filled with a ''lot'' of abandoned Keyblades. And what's with the unnerving piano music...?
* MookChivalry:
** While the fight against the Blizzard Lord and Volcanic Lord is a DualBoss, only one will attack you at a time. The Lord that's sitting out will focus on your party members.
** A {{downplayed|Trope}} example occurs during [[TheWarSequence the Battle of Hollow Bastion]] near the end, where Sora faces off alone against an army of 1000 Heartless. While around a dozen or so will attempt to attack Sora at once, the other few hundred will politely wait for them to die before stepping in to attack with another dozen or so. Then again, with Reaction Commands Sora will tear through dozens of them at a time with them unable to do jack about it. Perhaps not coincidentally, the majority of these Heartless are armored knights.
* MoraleMechanic: During the first visit to the Land of Dragons, Sora, Donald, and Goofy have to help WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} and the Chinese Army with a number of missions, such as defending the camp. Each mission has a Morale meter that depletes over time and when damage is taken; if you lose all Morale, you fail the mission and get a NonStandardGameOver.
* MrExposition: Namine gets this role in the prologue, explaining to Roxas (and the players who haven't played ''Chain of Memories'') just what the heck is going on in the Prologue. Once Roxas is out of the picture, Master Yen Sid from ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' serves this role to Sora. Finally, at the end of the game, [[spoiler: Ansem the Wise]] picks up the role.
* MultiMookMelee:
** After defeating Demyx, you're thrust into a series of fights against Heartless while teaming up with ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' characters. Each wave is more dangerous than the last, with the fourth and final wave being filled with nothing but Heartless that have high HP and damage output.
** The MonsterArena cups in the Underworld, including those of the more difficult Hades Colosseum, pit Sora against assorted mooks from various parts of the game in rounds or waves.
* MultiStageBattle: Mixed with SequentialBoss, the boss fight with Pete in Timeless River starts out with Sora having to stop his steamboat with the Cornerstone from escaping down the river. After that Sora fights Pete on foot, and after taking some damage, he yells, "How about a change", a curtain with Pete's face comes down, and the scene shifts to one of the four windows on Cornerstone Hill (where Sora had earlier had to clear each of them in order to gain information on how Pete had traveled to this time period). Sora, Donald and Goofy fight through each of the four windows until Pete is defeated.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Opening big chests involves Sora/Roxas tossing the Keyblade into the air then hitting the chest, all the while whooshing sounds and dramatic camera movements add to the mood. Said big chests will usually contain powerful one-of-a-kind armor, charms that will grant new summons, torn pages for the Hundred Acre Wood, or area maps.
* MundaneUtility: On the second visit to Agrabah, Genie complains about how all he's asked to do are the relatively simple (for him) tasks of clearing a sandstorm and fixing Agrabah.
* MundaneWish: After defeating the Storm Rider in the Land of Dragons, the Emperor grants Sora and Mulan each a boon. Sora merely asks for information about the Mysterious Man (Riku) who had warned them of the giant Heartless, while Mulan wants to let the badly overworked Shang have some time off to rest. {{Lampshaded}} by the Emperor himself: "Such humble requests."
* MusicalEpisode: The game reworked [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] into this. The UnexpectedGameplayChange leads to a Musical Boss Fight against giant Ursula.
* MusicalThemeNaming: A family of Heartless runs on this: Crimson Jazz, Silver Rock, Spring Metal and Emerald Blues.
* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: The Struggle. When you get your opponent down to 0 HP, they are knocked out for a few seconds so you can collect more orbs, then they revive with full health. When YOU get knocked down to 0 HP? You lose instantly. It helps that the only remotely dangerous Struggle opponent is Vivi, whom you cannot fight again after Roxas' part of the game is over.
* MysteryEpisode: The second visit to [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]] involves a thief going around stealing Christmas presents from SantaClaus, and then Dr. Finkelstein's Experiment. [[TheAntiGrinch Jack]] is considered the primary suspect, and ends up leading the case to catch the thief and prove his innocence. At the end, the thief is revealed to be [[spoiler:the missing Experiment, who[[labelnote:*]]like the Nobodies, WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}, and Film/{{Tron}}[[/labelnote]] was created without a Heart, and was seeking one out for itself]].
* MythologyGag:
** Seifer's position as the self-appointed head of the Disciplinary Committee in Twilight Town is a reference to Balamb Garden's student-run committee of the same name in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''.
** Seifer's bullying of Hayner is a reminiscent of his treatment of Zell Dincht, a character from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' that Hayner heavily resembles.
** Leon receives a letter that contains a pair of angel wings during the credits, implied to be from his LoveInterest, Rinoa.
** The Sorcerer, Sniper, Dragoon, Berserker, Assassin, Dancer, Gambler, and Samurai Nobodies are named after (and based off of) Job Classes from various ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games. Dragoons also enable a Reaction Command called "Learn" to let Sora use their Jump attack. Learn is a reference to the PowerCopying abilities of the Blue Mage class, while Jump is the SignatureMove of Dragoons in most ''Final Fantasy'' games.
** Ansem's study in the basement of Hollow Bastion looks suspiciously similar to the basement library in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' where Sephiroth discovered his history. It's appropriate, considering the inhumane nature of the experiments conducted there.
** Beast says "Get out!" when initiating his LimitBreak, referencing one of his lines from his [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast film]] to Belle when she trespasses into the West Wing and to Gaston at the climax.
** Chicken Little says a line from his own movie: "Prepare to hurt" when activating his LimitBreak.
** Jiminy's Journal refers to the Gullwings as "friendly neighborhood something-or-others", a nod to a line they used to refer to themselves in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2''.
** When visiting Kanga's house in the Hundred Acre Wood and playing its minigame, you can see the valley of butterflies in the background from ''WesternAnimation/PoohsGrandAdventure''. The final major location to be unlocked is a [[RealAfterAll real]] version of Skull Cave, the final setting of that film.
** When Sora and his friends meet the castle servants in the ''Beauty and the Beast'' world, Donald tinkers with Cogworth's insides like Maurice did in the original film.
** The cage that hangs below the Prison Keeper Heartless has the same design as the cage that Lock, Shock, and Barrel use in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''.
** Dr. Finklestein's Experiment is not merely an original character design, it is based on various props used in the film.
** The Mayor of Halloween Town quotes one of his lines from the movie: "I'm only an elected official!" when trying to make the Heartless leave Halloween Town.
** The bit where Eric wrests the trident from Ursula, and "complies" when she demands it back by hurling it through her heart, is based on a scrapped alternate version of Ursula's defeat [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 in the original film]].
** The paintings in Beast's Castle are actually [[https://i.redd.it/4stvlyku7os01.png background stills]] from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''.
** Luxord invokes "Parley" in the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' world, a code used in the films when a pirate wishes to negotiate with an opponent without being harmed.
* NamedInTheSequel: In ''Final Mix+'', the party encounter an armored entity at a barren wasteland, who wields a keyblade and does battle with them. This being is called the Lingering Will by the in-game journal, ''Birth By Sleep'' revealed him to be [[spoiler:what is left of Terra]].
* NegateYourOwnSacrifice: At one point in the story, Goofy saves Mickey Mouse from being hit by a falling boulder, resulting in it falling onto him instead, knocking him out. He survives, the sole reason being because he was an IronButtMonkey within his own shorts, something he promptly notes to Sora and the gang when he catches up to them.
* {{Nerf}}:
** The Magic system has been heavily reworked since ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' to make it less powerful. Casting times are longer (especially if done in midair) unless Sora is in a Drive Form, the transition to a more traditional MP bar means you get less spell uses before MP is depleted, and MP can no longer be restored by hitting enemies with melee attacks.
** Blizzard is now just a single projectile instead of having the shotgun-esque spread like in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''.
** The Cure spell now consumes whatever MP is left instead of having a set cost, preventing consecutive uses.
** In the ''Final Mix'' version, the Fire, Blizzard and Thunder spells have slightly higher MP costs compared to the original release.
** The Guard ability's animation is significantly shorter than the other games, making it harder to use.
** The ''Final Mix'' version of the game significantly reduces the damage dealt by all Limits.
** Strike Raid no longer provides invincibility if you delay between Keyblade throws for as long as possible.
** Strike Raid, Sonic Blade, Last Arcanum (Ars Arcanum in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''), and Infinity (Ragnarok in ''I'') now cost huge amounts of MP, preventing more than 2 or 3 uses before you run out.
* NeverSayDie: {{Averted|Trope}}. Death and murder are explicitly mentioned several times over the course of the game despite its (mostly) kid-friendly nature.
* NeverSplitTheParty: One of the minigames in the Hundred Acre Wood involves keeping all the characters together through a spooky cave.
* NewSkillAsReward: Winning scripted battles will usually net Sora, Donald, or Goofy either an equipment slot or a new combat ability.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Sora is tricked into removing the lock that Zeus placed on the Underdrome. Hades is pleased.
** Donald accidentally stepped on the keyboard of the system of the Master Core Program which leads to his and Sora's and Goofy's arrest and being transferred into the program.
* NintendoHard: The ''Final Mix'' version can be very hard on the Critical difficulty. Every enemy you encounter is fully capable of killing Sora quickly thanks to a combination of buffed damage output and Sora's reduced HP (losing most of the bar to one attack isn't uncommon), and healing is very restricted between the Cure {{nerf}} and limited number of item slots. LevelGrinding to brute force the game won't help you much, as damage is scaled and Sora's combat abilities are upgraded or expanded by hitting specific {{Event Flag}}s. You have to play smart to win.
* NonCombatEXP:
** Summons level up by depleting enough Summon bars, which will happen naturally whenever a Summon is out. It's possible to level grind just by having them out when not in combat.
** Master Form acquires experience by picking up Drive Orbs, not by doing anything combat-related like the other Forms. Trying to level it up outside of grabbing orbs dropped by enemies is impractical, as there are very few ways to obtain them otherwise.
* NonDubbedGrunts: In the original ''Final Mix'' version, the Organization XIII members fought in the Absent Silhouettes use Japanese voices with generic grunts while the rest of the game reuses the North American version's English voice track. The international ''HD 2.5 [=ReMIX=]'' versions avert this, giving the Silhouettes battle grunts provided by their English voice actors from the ''Chain of Memories'' remake.
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Timeless River is based on the old Mickey Mouse shorts from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, and Donald and Goofy revert to their older designs while visiting. Sora does a {{Downplayed}} version of this trope; he reverts to his ''[=KH1=]'' clothing and is modeled in the style of early Japanese animation, so while he sticks out, his appearance is still relatively appropriate. Modern Pete, on the other hand, retains his normal design with a greyscale filter, [[PlayedStraight playing this straight]] to separate him from Past Pete.
* NonstandardGameOver:
** If Sora fails an objective (such as dying in the Coliseum or failing to defeat Demyx's water clones in time) or lets a specific character die during various sections (such as Jack Sparrow against Barbossa or Timon and Pumbaa against the hyenas), the player is treated to a unique GameOver screen of Sora standing disappointed instead of the usual screen of him floating in the air unconscious.
** Losing to any of the Struggles in the prologue causes a static effect to black out the screen and reset you to before the fight started.
* NoodleIncident: Donald apologizes for some unexplained incident involving ice cream after he thinks Goofy dies.
* NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom: There are more than a few levels like this or close to it (i.e. not a lot of exploration). Such is the case of [[spoiler: The World That Never Was]] and Disney Castle. Allegedly done because [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the original]] was more in the opposite direction, to the consternation of many players.
* NostalgiaHeaven: ''Final Mix'' has Axel and Roxas meeting up one last time at the clock tower in Twilight Town before Axel fades away from existence [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead or so it seems]]]] and before Roxas becomes consumed by Sora.
* NotMeThisTime: When Sora and the gang visit [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]] a second time, they've found out that Santa's presents were stolen. Naturally, they accuse Lock, Shock, and Barrel for stealing the presents. While they did deny it, they've decided to cause ''mischief'' anyway simply because "[stealing presents] sounds like fun!" This didn't help their case as for once, they didn't do it (which the party only finds out after they've captured them).
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Demyx at a first glance is just a lazy, clumsy, and cowardly {{Cloudcuckoolander}} who Sora and co. take every possible opportunity to taunt and not take seriously, with even Jiminy's Journal describing him as nothing but a complete joke. However, during the 3rd visit to Hollow Bastion, after putting up with more taunting, he quickly commands Sora to be quiet in a CreepyMonotone, visibly shocking our hero, and then shows the gang just how dangerous he really is by fighting directly.
* NPCRoadblock: Subverted in Beast's Castle. The wardrobe is standing in front of a door. You can push her out of the way, but if you wake her up doing so she'll complain and move back into position. Move her fully out of the way and then she'll wake up and engage you in a friendly chat.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: {{Implied|Trope}} with Demyx. He flees from Hades, talks in a very casual manner to Sora, and claims he's not good at fighting. When he confronts Sora for the second time at Hollow Bastion, he becomes very serious after a failed attempt at reasoning and proceeds to put up a good fight.
* OffscreenTeleportation: In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', whenever you see your allies get out of range, they would simply stay there. However, in this game, they will sometimes appear right next to you or even behind you when there's no way for them to get there.
* OldSaveBonus: Unlocking Japanese as an audio option for Theater Mode instead of the default English in ''Final Mix+'' requires having a finished ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Re:Chain of Memories]]'' save file on the memory card. Notably, ''Final Mix+'' added a few cutscenes not in the original edition of the game, which means that there is no English voiceover available for them. ''This'', in turn, means that these cutscenes ''are essentially muted'' until you get around to finishing the other game. Which, naturally, is [[GuideDangIt entirely in Japanese]]. At least ''Re:Chain of Memories'' [[EmbeddedPrecursor comes with]] ''Final Mix +''. The connection goes both ways: ''Re:Chain of Memories'' added several enemy cards representing the members of Organization XIII introduced in ''II'' and attack cards featuring Keyblades from the same. Acquiring them requires a completed ''Final Mix+'' save. When ''Re:Chain'' was localized as a standalone game, this was understandably dropped in favor of needing [[BraggingRightsReward the story to be completed]].
* OminousFloatingCastle: The villain's hideout, the Castle That Never Was, which is right next to the Realm of Nothingness.
* OminousLatinChanting: The game has Ominous Chanting in three songs: The Organization XIII Theme and both the main and battle themes to The World That Never Was. It doesn't appear to be in any particular language, however.
* OminousSavePrompt: Done right before the endgame begins for real; you have to choose the option to open it.
--->''"Beyond this door lies the beginning of the end of your journey."''
* OneDegreeOfSeparation: The game reveals that the "Ansem" Sora defeated was not really Ansem, but was merely the Heartless of an impostor called Xehanort, who studied under the real Ansem, who is friends with Mickey. Xehanort's Nobody, Xemnas, is the leader of Organization XIII, whose members Sora battles one by one in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' and ''II''. Six other members of the Organization are also Nobodies of Ansem's apprentices. One of them, Axel, is part of another ThreeAmigos with the Organization's two latest members: Roxas, Sora's Nobody; and Xion, Roxas' replica who looks like Kairi. Another Kairi lookalike is her Nobody, Naminé, who was born in Castle Oblivion, one of the Organization's bases.
* OneHitKill: During the battle with [[Film/{{Tron}} Sark and the Master Control Program]], Sark will occasionally put up a wall to stop the party from escaping him when the MCP loses one bar of health. By using the reaction command from it, [[BondVillainStupidity Sora will leap up onto the top of the wall, jump off]], [[BoomHeadshot and then stab Sark in the head]], instantly killing him.
* OneHitPointWonder: The reward for getting HundredPercentCompletion on the Gummi Ship missions is the Crown/G gummi piece. When equipped it causes the Ship to start off in "berserk mode", but makes it so any hit will kill you.
* OneSteveLimit: {{Averted|Trope}}. There are two Jacks (Jack Skellington from ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' and Captain Jack Sparrow from ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''), two Chips (the one from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' and the one from the ''WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale'' shorts), Sora's best friend Riku and the similarly named Rikku from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', and two Ansems (Ansem, Seeker of Darkness from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and the real Ansem the Wise that the first one stole his name from).
* OnlyICanKillHim: According to Sephiroth, Cloud is the only one capable of truly defeating him since he's a manifestation of Cloud's darkness. If Sora beats Sephiroth in an [[{{superboss}} optional fight]], he just shrugs it off like nothing happened.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Interestingly, the Hunter heartless in the Gummi Ship missions has been known to make its entrance by ''wiping out a large number of its fellow Heartless'' just to get a one-on-one fight with the player. [[spoiler:Hunter-X in particular waits until basically the last second in the mission it appears in to intercept and challenge you, after you've escaped (and possibly destroyed) the dreadnaught.]]
* OpenEndedBossBattle: The plot continues no matter if Roxas wins or loses to Seifer. Then, during the struggle tournament, while you have to win against Hayner and Vivi to progress, the outcome against Setzer merely determines whether Roxas earns a belt for winning or a medal for losing.
* OptionalBoss:
** All versions:
*** Sephiroth returns as an optional fight. After defeating the [=MCP=] in Space Paranoids, he can be found at the Dark Depths in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden.
*** Tifa, Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, and Hercules can be fought in various Underdrome Cups at Olympus Coliseum.
*** For the Gummi Missions, if you unlock and reach the end of Mission 3 in Assault of the Dreadnought, you are intercepted by the Hunter-X, the ultimate Gummi Heartless (right as you're about to leave the mission, to boot, as it kicks you into its own hyperspace wormhole thing to fight you).
** ''Final Mix'':
*** In several worlds there are strange entities called Absent Silhouettes of the Organization XIII members that died in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories''. Examining them will trigger a fight with the member whose weapon is on the Silhouette.
*** At the end of the Cavern of Remembrance in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden there's a room called the Garden of Assemblage that has portals that let you fight Data versions the Organization XIII members. These Data Rematches are much stronger, have more HP, and have their fight strategies slightly altered to ensure they're more difficult.
*** After beating the game a portal opens up in the basement of Disney Castle. Taking the portal will have you encounter a difficult battle with [[VideoGame/KingdomHEartsBirthBySleep Terra]]'s Lingering Will.
* OrbitingParticleShield: Part of the game takes part in the world of ''Film/{{Tron}}'', where the MCP reprises its film role by protecting itself with an orbiting shield; the player must eliminate panels and/or wait for the shield to slow down before they can shoot at the MCP.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: After losing Roxas, Xenmas now waits around letting Sora kill the Heartless without really doing anything other than [[EvilLaugh laughing at him at the beginning of the game]], [[IShallTauntYou taunting Mickey a little halfway through the game]], giving an order to Saix briefly, and then [[LifesWorkRuined whining about how his plan was ruined toward the end of the game]]. Fitting that most of his final boss fight is also him [[LiteralMetaphor literally sitting on a throne.]]
* OutOfCharacterMoment: So, we've got Sora, our nice, friendly hero. He even feels sorry for a machine Dr. Finkelstein built since that machine was longing for a heart. Which would be sweet, if it didn't come after Sora killing Demyx, who was longing for a heart, and instead of feeling even a bit guilty about it, he asks if there are any other Nobodies who want to get beaten. The others call Sora out on it... For inviting more trouble, not because showing remorse might be expected. Made worse when, in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded coded]]'', Mickey and the others are willing to risk reality in order to save Maleficent and Pete. As in, Big Bads who want to drown the world in darkness. But Demyx sure was deserving of his fate!
* OverratedAndUnderleveled: At the end of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', Sora is put to sleep for a year, having his memories also siphoned off during the events of ''358/2 Days'', and by the events of ''II'', is level one again and has to re-learn all his magic while also picking up new tricks.
* PainfullySlowProjectile: The Devastator Heartless launches a sluggish homing sphere of energy at the end of a volley of quick projectiles. Touching it will launch you a distance inversely proportional to its speed.
* PaletteSwap: The ''Final Mix'' version changes the coloration of most Heartless.
* PassThroughTheRings: Several of the mini-games, although passing through the rings would just increase your score; it's not really ''required'' to hit all of them.
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish:
** The password to the DTD dataspace in Ansem's computer is comprised of the names of the 7 Princesses of Heart, who are necessary to get to the real DTD (Door to Darkness). The MCP even {{Lampshade|Hanging}}s this when he finds out what it is, stating that it was a simple password. When Tron changes it to lock the MCP out, he makes it "Sora, Donald, and Goofy" after his newfound friendship with them.
** The password to Ansem the Wise's computer in the Twilight Town mansion's basement is "sea-salt ice cream", his favorite flavor.
* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling:
** There's a specific area of the Pride Lands--Pride Rock, specifically--with an incredibly thick swarm of Heartless in it. By using area-of-effect spells like Magnega, one can gain massive amounts of experience in a short time. You'll also find yourself with more munny than you know what to do with. This was nerfed in the [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix version]], where the swarm only has a 20% chance of showing up.
** For even more EXP, you can disable Donald's Cure spell, set your party members to Sora Attack (to ensure that you always get the kill), get your HP down to critical levels by getting hit, then equipping the Experience Boost ability and Gullwing Keyblade (both double EXP when at half health or lower) to get quadruple EXP. At the end of the game [[TakeYourTime right before the final boss]], The World That Never Was becomes particularly ideal for this, as the only enemies that spawn are (late-game high-EXP) Nobodies that only drop MP orbs, ensuring that you won't constantly go over half health due to HP orb drops.
** Discovering penisulas specifically for leveling the game's [[SuperMode Drive Forms]] has been a large focus of the fandom for a long time, as it is functionally impossible to fully level them organically and experienced players are always on the lookout for faster and less tedious ways to power up.
** Anywhere that spawns Gambler enemies will be a boon for this, such as [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] and one room in Yen Sid's tower. If you let a Gambler transform you into a die or a card while you are in Drive Form, your HP, MP and Drive gauge will be restored when you turn back. This way you can level each form up nonstop without having to worry about the Drive gauge running out. If you beat their minigames, you can also get a ton of munny from not only the one you beat, but any in the vicinity... and with the Drive Converter ability, you can change that munny into Drive orbs, which lengthens your Drive Forms and are the way to level up Master Form in the first place. Clever abuse can let players get immense amounts of Master Form EXP in seconds.
** Again, Agrabah has the first room of the Cave of Wonders. Unlike most locations, the Heartless respawn after only going one room away, and the second room has a save point to reset the Drive Gauge (similar to the Gamblers above). With Drive Converter, it is an ideal spot to level up Master Form. There's also Mushroom No. 5 in the innermost chamber, which is great for both Valor and Limit Form to wail on and also has a save point right outside.
** Sometimes, the player party will wonder around a location as [=NPCs=]. If Sora is in a Drive Form when he enters a room with his allies as [=NPCs=], he will revert and the Drive Bar is reset (again, similar to the Gambler and save point examples above). The Solar Sailor (from the [=I.O.=] Tower) in [[Film/{{Tron}} Space Paranoids]] is a permanent case, allowing Drive Form grinding (and Elixir farming). The room right before The Castle That Never Was is ideal for Wisdom Form thanks to the bountiful weak Heartless nearby, but disappears after entering the castle. The graveyard room further up the castle is a good spot for Final Form after Riku joins the party, but before the first battle with Xemnas.
** The Battle of the 1000 Heartless has several factors that combine for quick leveling of Limit Form - one of the very few times the game's critical path can be utilized for efficient Drive Form leveling. The Vicinity Break ability, learned right beforehand, has a huge range that will definitely hit multiple enemies in the crowded battle - put Sora into MP Charge to boost Drive Gauge gain, and you can easily go from empty to full Drive in seconds. This allows Sora to repeatedly enter Limit Form, use Limits until his Form expires (allowing himself to get hit between uses to regain MP via MP Rage), quickly build Drive back up again with Vicinity Break while in MP Charge and then go back into Limit Form... which also fully replenishes Sora's MP (and multiple steps have the side effect of healing HP, ensuring that he doesn't get worn down). Not only that, this battle is one of the few times in the game in which it is impossible to accidentally activate Anti-Form, making it even more ideal. One can go from level 1 to almost level 6 (the Drive Form LevelCap at that point) just by leveraging this method in this one segment.
** As noted above, right before the final boss, The World That Never Was will be populated with nothing but Nobodies, making it perfect for Final Form grinding.
** Possibly the best place for leveling most Drive Forms and Summons is Hall of the Cornerstone (Disney Castle)/Cornerstone Hill ([[WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie Timeless River]]). There are 4 rooms that are easily accessible and have a decent amount of enemies. The best part? The door between Cornerstone Hill and Hall of the Cornerstone removes you from a drive form and resets your drive bar. Simply enter, kill enemies until you're almost out of drive, and run out. Rinse and repeat.
* PercussiveTherapy: Towards the end of the ProlongedPrologue, Roxas regains ([[RetGone some of]]) his memories of his time in Organization XIII, and realizes that he's spent the past six days living a fake life before he could be sacrificed to revive TheHero. Angry at the deception, Roxas attacks a nearby computer terminal to blow off some steam. [[spoiler:When Sora sees the smashed terminal in the endgame, he decides to find a way to revive Roxas]].
* PermanentlyMissableContent: There are a few harmless missables during the tutorial, but they aren't even counted in Jiminy's Journal (the main tracker for completion). Considering it was made by Creator/SquareEnix, it's surprising that otherwise, the series has mostly avoided this problem since then.
* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: Axel is initially a bit ''too'' keen on becoming best friends forever with Roxas (who is only 15- or rather, his soul is 15, Roxas himself is only less than a year old). After Roxas left, Axel goes into this trope full throttle, and many scenes where it looks like Axel is unhealthily obsessed with defeating and taking Roxas back.
* PinataEnemy:
** No. IV of the Mushroom XIII. Once you know the key to beating it (Wisdom Form and circle-strafe), it's fairly simple to beat even as early as you ''get'' Wisdom Form, allowing the player an easy way to stock up on Tents and Drive Recoveries. Furthermore, it's within fairly close reach of save points and is in a small area you can easily leave and re-enter to respawn it.
** Gambler Nobodies have their pockets lined with infinite stacks of Munny. Winning their Reaction Command minigames causes them to drop some of their stash, letting you farm cash off of them for long as you want.
* PirateEpisode: Port Royal, where Sora, Donald, and Goofy go to areas based on ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''. When Sora first meets Captain Jack Sparrow, he is excited at the idea of being a pirate.
* PivotalBoss: The MCP is completely stationary due to his large size, sitting the the middle of the battlefield out of reach. The only way to damage him is by using a Reaction Command when Tron is out.
* PlayingWithFire: Mulan's skills and Limit Break are all fire-based, due to being used along with Mushu. Mushu himself was a fire-based Summon in [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game.]]
* PointOfNoReturn: Entering the Door to Darkness at the Altar of Naught sends you into the final (and quite long) fight against Xemnas with no breaks.
* PoorCommunicationKills:
** Much of the plot’s mystery is prolonged by certain characters refraining from sharing what they know with Sora for one reason or another. [=DiZ=] keeps secrets because he is trying to manipulate Sora, Naminé and Riku feel too guilty about their past actions to come forward, and Mickey knows what happened to Riku but refuses to tell because he made a promise not to.
** Averted in the Halloween Town world; the conflict from the original ''Nightmare Before Christmas'' film is mostly avoided because, once the villains have been dealt with on the first visit to the world, Santa Claus simply explains to Jack why him trying to take over Christmas would be a terrible idea.
* PortalToThePast: The door to the Timeless River within Disney Castle functions as this.
* PowerCopying: The Drive Forms. Each form's fighting style is a reflection of the person from whom the form is derived:
** Valor Form: Reflects Goofy's all-physical, up-close-and-personal fighting style.
** Wisdom Form: Reflects Donald's all-magic, distance-oriented fighting style.
** Master Form: Reflects Mickey's fighting style, using physical, magical, up-close, and distance attacks.
** Final Form: Reflects [[spoiler:Roxas's]] fighting style, using lightning-fast attacks and both Keyblade and [[spoiler:Nobody-style]] attacks.
** The ''Final Mix''-exclusive Limit Form reflects how Sora fought in the [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI first game]], using some of the special moves that were usable in ''Kingdom Hearts'', but not the original sequel.
* PowerFloats: The strongest Drive Form, Final Form, has Sora always floating above the ground.
* PowersDoTheFighting:
** While he can jump and glide all over the place in Final Form, Sora never touches the Keyblades as they float around butchering everything within his now vastly inflated striking range. In fact, the Keyblades automatically initiate attacks while doing things like using an item, healing, or doing anything other than standing perfectly still, so you could feasibly kill hordes of enemies without ever touching the attack button.
** If Sora can gain control of Roxas's weapons during his boss fight, they mostly act as ATasteOfPower for Final Form by floating around him in a glowing spectral form and mostly enhance Sora's combos by independently using Final Form's attacks. There are also some attacks unique to this state, such as enhancing combo finishers by doing a CrissCrossAttack.
* PreAsskickingOneLiner:
** From Mickey Mouse, of all people:
*** "They'll pay for this." Followed by FlungClothing and a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. This, along with very powerful music, makes the King a force for kicking ass!
*** His cry of "Sora!" whenever he appears during a boss battle too.
** Most bosses get one before the fight begins. Sora tosses one out whenever he enters Drive mode.
* {{Precap}}: If the game is left idle at the title screen for long enough, it will play a montage of cutscenes backed by an instrumental remix of "Sanctuary", the main theme.
* PreFinalBoss: If you don’t count the one-on-one duel with Xemnas that is the last fight before the PointOfNoReturn to the final boss fights with him, then the Organization’s [[TheDragon second-in-command]] Saïx is this. His boss fight is also punctuated by TheReveal of Roxas and Sora’s actual connection and how Riku was able to capture him and take on his current appearance.
* PreRenderedGraphics: Though most cutscenes were done in-engine, the cutscene before the Battle of the 1,000 Heartless was pre-rendered. It shows in that the characters in the player's party have their default equipment, unlike other cutscenes where Sora, Donald, and Goofy use the weapons the player equipped them with. This is probably because more than 1,000 objects would have been far too many for the [=PlayStation=] 2 to render all at once.
* PressXToNotDie: The fight with Sephiroth has him open with a 13-hit slashing attack that is guaranteed to kill Sora if he doesn't immediately dodge or use a Reaction Command.
* PrisonDimension: It's stated in this game, and later elaborated on in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'', that Pete's constant troublemaking led Mickey and Minnie to banish him to another dimension, where he remained until Maleficent found and recruited him.
* PrisonEpisode: The first (and unplanned) visit to [[{{Film/Tron}} Space Paranoids]] revolves around the party being in a digital prison following an accident involving [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch a mysterious blue alien]]. With the help of a friendly program named Tron, they manage to escape their cell, and subsequently escape the computer that's imprisoned them.
* ProlongedPrologue: The game's prologue with Roxas takes between ''three to five hours'' to complete. Some of it is skippable, including the cutscenes, but even skipping all of the optional stuff still leaves at least two hours before reaching the title card. As for its importance and interest, it will depend exclusively on how many games the player has played so far. While the story presented in the prologue does little to set things up for the actual plot and main character Sora, it is quite important to conclude the first part of Roxas arc.
* PromotedToPlayable: King Mickey can now be controlled, though only during some boss battles if Sora dies. He is limited to the standard movement options, the standard combo moves without any of the modifiers, the Pearl spell, cannot kill bosses, and has a special non-damaging command to quickly fill the Drive Gauge (which is used to revive Sora).
* PurposelyOverpowered: There's one keyblade with better magic and one with better strength, but the Ultima does still have the highest total stats. At least until Final mix added another keyblade with significantly better magic and only slightly weaker strength, but with the major drawback of not being able to gain experience while using it.
* PuzzleBoss: Several of the ''Final Mix '' Organization XIII data rematches feature unique gimmicks that can only be countered with specific strategies.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: Pete has taken up the role of a one-man Quirky Miniboss in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series from this game onwards.
* QuitYourWhining: Sora does it with Beast after the latter, consumed by despair after Xaldin steals his rose, asks [[ShooTheDog Belle and Sora to leave him]], telling him to man-up and get both his rose and Belle back.
-->'''Sora''': C'mon, you need to hear this. You used to be fearless. [[HeroicSacrifice You would have given your life to save Belle]]. Don't you know what that meant to us? You gave us all courage. Hmph, maybe you should have kept some for yourself. I mean, are you really gonna throw your happiness away? The rose is your only hope, isn't it? Well, it's the only hope for Cogsworth and the others, too. So, don't throw away your last chance. Remember what it was like before Belle lived here?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:R -- Z]]
* RadialAssKicking: In the Battle of 1000 Heartless, Sora starts out surrounded by Heartless and proceeds to fight them all.
* RankInflation: Once you go past "A" Rank during Gummi Ship missions, it switches to "S" and then starts adding numbers after that, eventually capping at "S++10".
* ReactorBoss: The final Gummi Ship mission, "Assault of the Dreadnought", has you flying inside a huge battleship and destroying the core. You don't actually need to destroy the core to finish the stage, but it does get you bonuses.
* RecurringBoss:
** Axel is fought twice by Roxas, first in the Struggle arena and later in the Old Mansion.
** Hades. When you first meet him, he is impervious to your attacks and you're forced to flee while he hurls fireballs at you. Becomes beatable later, being fought and defeated in the second visit to the Colosseum, then again at the end of two of the Colosseum cups.
** Pete is fought twice, first in the Underworld with the aid of Hercules, and three major fights in Timeless River. (Plus one fight in the optional Hades Paradox Cup.)
** Demyx has two boss fights, one in Olympus Coliseum (which is really just destroying the Forms he summons) and again in Hollow Bastion.
* RedHerring: The masked character [=DiZ=] has the same unique skin tone and eye color as series villain Ansem, the same interest in manipulating anti-hero Riku, admits to using a pseudonym, and in dialogue is heavily hinted to be Ansem himself. The twist? [[spoiler:[=DiZ=] ''is'' Ansem, while the villain we knew as Ansem ''isn't''. All the clues pointed towards [=DiZ=] being a villain, when he's actually the most useful member of the protagonists' side (although he's [[NominalHero not very nice]])]].
* RegeneratingMana: The ManaMeter recharges after a set amount of time once depleted.
* RemixedLevel: A few of the worlds in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' are revisited here, but with redesigned or repositioned locales, such as [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]] (which now includes Christmas Town) and [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Agrabah]]. Hollow Bastion is also in both games, but the first game focuses on the castle, while the second game features the surrounding town.
* {{Retcon}}: Ansem, the villain from previous games, wasn't the real deal, but the Heartless of an impostor named Xehanort (who's [[JigsawPuzzlePlot actually]] a man named Terra who was possessed by the ''original'' Master Xehanort but lost his memories due to Terra's [[MeaningfulName lingering will]] holding him off from taking complete control). The real Ansem is a good guy that Xehanort banished to the Realm of Darkness 9 years before the events of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''.
* {{Retraux}}: Timeless River is one big homage to the Disney shorts from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation. The art style resembles old Disney cartoons, the entire level is in black and white, and most of the audio is in a grainy mono (with large amounts of static in the ''HD 2.5 [=ReMIX=]'' version).
* RequiredPartyMember:
** Mulan, as Ping, is required to be out at all times during the first visit in the Land of Dragons. This is {{Justified|Trope}} by Sora and co. trying to convince Captain Li Shang to let Mulan/Ping join the army, so she has to actually be present during fights to prove she's capable.
** For the Groundshaker fight, your party is just Sora and Simba - Donald and Goofy apparently sit that one out.
** To defeat the MCP it's required to use Tron, as his Identity Disc was altered with a [[{{Magitek}} magic program]] that can delete the boss (done via a Reaction Command to deal damage). Unlike the others mentioned, he is not required to be active at all times during the fight, and can be swapped out for Goofy/Donald until the Reaction Command prompt comes up.
* ResurrectionSickness: During the events of the game, [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Oogie Boogie]] is revived by [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]]. Weakened and unable to remember what happened in the [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI previous game]], Oogie ignores Maleficent's orders and went on his own to recreate the storyline of his movie and to meet his end again at the hands of Jack Skellington as well as Sora, Donald and Goofy.
* RetGone: [[spoiler:while Sora is sleeping and Naminé is reconstructing his memories, everyone who knew him (aside from Riku, Mickey, and, to a slightly lesser degree, Kairi[[note]]as she does forget his name[[/note]]) forgets that he existed until he awakens again]].
* ReverseEscortMission: Around the quarter-point of the game, Sora must escort Queen Minnie to the throne of Disney Castle. The throne sits in a '''massive''' audience chamber flooded with Heartless that can seize Sora with bolts of electricity. Fortunately, Queen Minnie has a Reaction Command activated just by getting close to her, and ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' fans already know their job got a lot easier when they learn that Reaction Command is called [[HolyHandGrenade Faith]]. Getting across the audience chamber in the period between the end of the escort mission and the cessation of Heartless in Disney Castle is actually '''harder''' than getting Minnie there.
* RewardingVandalism: Sora gains power-ups from smashing fireworks in [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} the Land of Dragons]]. He also gets those power-ups by smashing suits of armor in [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast's Castle]].
* RewatchBonus: Go back and play this after playing ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''. Some plot holes get cleared up while some of Xigbar's cryptic actions and attitude make a lot more sense.
* ReducedResourceCost: The "Energy" ("Wellspring" in other games) synthesis materials serve this function in this game only, where they serve as "modifier" materials that, when added to a recipe, will halve the materials needed to make it. An Energy Crystal is only required to forge one item though -- the Ultima Weapon, which would normally require thirteen of the Orichalcum+ synthesis material when there's only seven in the game.
* RingOfFire: During the battle between Axel and Roxas, Axel sets the stage on fire in an attempt to defeat and eliminate Roxas.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: When [[DisneyDeath Goofy is knocked out and presumed killed by flying debris]], King Mickey [[PreMortemOneLiner says "They'll pay for this!"]], [[FlungClothing throws off his cloak]], and summons his Keyblade. Many Heartless were about to die.
* RogerRabbitEffect:
** Consider the mere existence of a ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' world, called Port Royal in this game. It is a bit jarring, because it's done in a more realistic, grittier style than the anime/cartoon styles of the rest of the game. it's even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. The protagonists are baffled upon landing on Port Royal and immediately comment that the world looks different. ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' rectified this by giving the trio pirate attires when they return the third time.
** Subverted with Space Paranoids, which is based on ''Film/{{Tron}}''. The only live-action-style characters in that world are Tron and Sark, though unlike the cast in Port Royal, they look a bit closer to the main human cast. It helps that Space Paranoids is all blue and shiny, and that Sora, Donald and Goofy receive [[TwentyFourHourArmor armor]] [[FisherKingdom that match the world's style]].
* RoguesGalleryTransplant: Seifer of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', known for being Squall's RivalTurnedEvil plays TheRival to Roxas in this game and has nothing to do with Squall.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething:
** King Mickey spends his time trying to fight the Organization and figure out what's going on behind the scenes. Queen Minnie actually does take a bit of action as well during her EscortMission, being able to cast Pearl and team up with Sora to cast [[LightEmUp Faith]].
** In the Disney Worlds, many monarchs are proactive: Simba, king of the Pride Lands, Beast, formerly a prince, Jack Skellington, "king of Halloween" are capable party members that can fight the Heartless with Sora.
* RubberMan:
** Nobody {{mooks}} are able to stretch and contort their bodies to various degrees, emphasizing their status as {{Humanoid Abomination}}s. Creepers in particular will use this ability to shape themselves into weapons to attack.
** Since it's bolted to a door, the Thresholder miniboss is able to stretch its arms to hit you from across the room.
* SadBattleMusic: The battle theme that plays during the fight against Roxas ("The Other Promise") is a remix of his normal theme. It's arranged to emphasize the tragedy of the situation, making much heavier use of the piano and other instruments not present in the original composition.
* SadClown: [=DiZ=]/Ansem the Wise, when he was recalling Riku declaring himself Ansem to King Mickey.
-->"I could only laugh, to hide my shame."
* SadisticChoice: During the second visit to Beast's Castle, Xaldin ending up stealing Beast's rose and kidnaps Belle. He then forces Beast choose which one he wants to keep. Beast chooses Belle, wanting her to be safe even if it means the curse isn't lifted. Belle promptly decides to TakeAThirdOption for Beast [[DefiedTrope and elbows Xaldin, saving herself and the rose]].
* SanitySlippage: Roxas in the prologue definitely has trouble coping with Twilight Town's MindScrew, his dreams' MindScrew, and the Organization's MindScrew. He also has some weird emotional responses and zones out constantly. Reviewing the game after beating ''Days'' would seem to imply a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder bleeding over.
* SantasExistenceClause: During the first trip to [[WesternAnimation/{{TheNightmareBeforeChristmas}} Halloween Town]], Sora and co. actually get to meet Santa Claus and become his bodyguards, with Sora being a bit too excited about it. But when they finally meet the jolly old man, Sora is revealed to be on the naughty list because [[spoiler: he stopped believing seven years prior to the events of the game after being told by Riku that Santa does not exist]]. This reveal causes the teenager to moan in embarrassment.
* SavePoint: A staple from previous games, also present in the worlds of this game, specifically at important locales or in locations that let you enter the world from that point. For example, in the [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Pride Lands]], there are three save points at the three corners of the world - Rafiki's tree (which is outside Pride Rock), the Elephant Graveyard, and Timon and Pumbaa's oasis. The save points will fill up your health and magic stats.
* SavingChristmas: Both visits to Halloween Town involve preventing Christmas from being indirectly ruined. The first time Sora and co. are saving Santa Claus from being turned into a Heartless by Maleficent and Oogie Boogie, while the second visit they're retrieving stolen presents.
* SayMyName:
** Roxas has a tendency to say "Hayner! Pence! Olette!" as a way to make sure he's back in reality.
** "Sora, Donald, Goofy!" Said by '''too many''' characters, including the ones in question.
* ScaryStingingSwarm: One of the early jobs Roxas can do in Twilight Town involves him killing bees inside the town's theatre district. Even when not doing the job, or when playing as Sora later on, the bees just keep coming back. They also appear as foes in the penultimate episode for the Hundred Acre Wood.
* SceneryAsYouGo: Sora & Co. run into a great chasm within TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. A shimmering staircase materializes beneath their feet as they cross it, stopping only to do battle at every landing.
* SceneryPorn: Every world has a unique art style for starters, but the best is The World That Never Was: It's a dark world filled with shadow, subdued blues, and glaring whites with the artificial Kingdom Hearts moon hanging overhead along with the enemy's stronghold and, as you advance, reality seems to warp as the "moon" becomes smaller while the castle grows larger. The castle is also a wonderful visual sight being mostly a white that'll blur your vision and blend in with the enemies with the occasional splash of metallic grey and black.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** While Sora, Donald, and Goofy are on their way to talk to Hades, they see Demyx of Organization XIII running away from the Lord of the Dead's base. The implication is that Hades sacred Demyx so badly that he just decided to bail on his mission to make contact with the god.
** Maleficent gets so annoyed by Oogie Boogie's short-term memory loss and disrespect that she ditches him just before Sora and co. show up, abandoning her plan to turn Santa Claus into a Heartless.
** On the second trip to Port Royal, the Aztec medallions are stolen and the cursed pirates return. Jack Sparrow's reaction to finding out is to turn the ship around and take everybody back to town, though circumstance force him to help.
* SecondHourSuperpower: The ([[ProlongedPrologue lengthy]]) prologue has you play as Roxas, whose combat mechanics are very similar to the first game's and has very few options. Once you get control of Sora, you get the much more varied [=KH2=] combat mechanics and several more options, most notably Drive Forms.
* SecretCharacter: There are two optional Summons, Stitch and Peter Pan. They're found in chests in Space Paranoids and Port Royal respectively.
* SelfDeprecation: [=DiZ=] / Ansem The Wise calls Xehanort the "foolish apprentice of a foolish man" in one of the ending scenes. This is after Xemnas claims that "only a fool would be [his] apprentice".
* SentientVehicle: One type of Heartless, found in Timeless River, takes the form of a convertible car that attempts to run down Sora and his companions.
* SequelHook: Played with. The games always end with a letter from King Mickey being opened and read, but not showing the player the contents: But in this case, the bonus movie you can unlock as before shows a ludicrously vague explanation of the plot for the '''prequel'''. Yes, a prequel hook.
* SequenceBreaking: The game features the return of an early sequence break - despite being harder (on Proud mode, at least), it's recommended by fans that you go straight to Beast's castle after the first Twilight Town because you gain Cure - whereas you don't in the Land of Dragons (which is recommended as the next world).
* SequentialBoss: Xemnas. Right after the first stage of the fight (where you duel him while he's DualWielding {{Laser Blade}}s), you have time to save and go elsewhere afterward, but it's completely back-to-back from then on. First there's the rush to Xemnas's floating fortress thing, then the two turbines, then the core, then Armored King Xemnas, [[AllYourPowersCombined wielding the weapons of the Org. XIII members that appear in this game]], then an attack on Xemnas' dragon-shaped HumongousMecha in rail-shooter style, then another round with Armored King Xemnas (dropping many of his attacks for [[RuleOfCool kickass skyscraper-destroying sequences]]), then finally one final fight with Xemnas himself, in Twilight form.
* SerialEscalation: How many more ridiculous cool [[ActionCommands reaction commands]] and {{cutscene}}s can you put in this game? The game's final level ends with an area where you can [[spoiler:cut in half, and casually kick around ''skyscrapers'']]. And you can also deflect hundreds of lightsabers.
* SeriesFauxnale: The game wraps up several loose ends from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' and feels like a finale for the series' story, with the Mickey's Letter SequelHook being vague enough that the franchise could have ended without leaving too many hanging threads. It wasn't the end, as prequel ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', {{interquel}} ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', and sort-of sequel ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded'' added to the StoryArc and set up the events for ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.
* SequelEscalation: While this game was already an ActionizedSequel, the few returning worlds are rather notably expanded in terms of size and scope,[[note]]With the exception of Atlantica, which went from a relatively orthodox exploration/combat area to a one-room RhythmGame hub[[/note]] to the point where Agrabah and Halloween Town have completely revamped layouts that are much more open. The interior of the Cave of Wonders in particular looks completely different, though [[GeniusLoci given its nature,]] that can be explained.
* SequelHook:
** After beating the game and watching the credits, there's a scene at Destiny Island where Sora, Riku, and Kairi read a letter from King Mickey that contains urgent information.
** There are two secret endings (depending on what version you're playing) that can be unlocked. They're FMV concept trailers for the prequel ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' that show off parts of the game's climax.
* ShapeshifterWeapon: Creepers can contort there bodies in such a way that they can become swords or spears, which they use for some of their attacks.
* ShapeshiftingHealsWounds: Activating a Drive Form refills Sora's HP. Each Form even comes with a 1-AP ability to make it a Reaction Command when Sora's HP is low.
* SharedLifeMeter: In ''Final Mix'', Larxene creates several copies of herself that all share one lifebar, so an attack that hits multiple clones will deal multiple times the normal damage.
* SheathStrike: Samurai Nobodies will sometimes attack using the sheaths of their katanas.
* ShieldedCoreBoss:
** [[Film/{{Tron}} The MCP]] in the second visit to Space Paranoids. [[DualBoss While being harassed by Sark]], Sora has to hack through a barrier, presumably some sort of firewall, and fire a beam using an ActionCommand with [[GuestStarPartyMember Tron]] to damage it.
** The UpdatedRerelease includes an OptionalBoss fight against Vexen, whose shield needs to be destroyed before his actual health can be damaged. He'll also respawn his shield in he isn't attacked right after it breaks. Naturally, this also applies to his [[{{Superboss}} data battle]].
* ShiftingSandLand: the Windswept Ruins, located in Agrabah, are half-buried in sand dunes and surrounded by sandy cliffs. The furthest area of the ruins is a bridge leading to a tower surrounded by enormous sandfalls. When fleeing the ruins on Carpet, one of the last hazards you have to dodge is the sand erupting around you.
* ShipperOnDeck:
** Throughout the game, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck and WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} tease Sora about his feelings for Kairi. When Kairi and Sora reunite in the end and share a tender embrace, the camera cuts to Donald and Goofy looking pleased.
** When Kairi stumbles into Twilight Town, befriends Hayner, Pence, and Olette, and tells her story about Sora and the others (i.e. the events of the first ''Kingdom Hearts''), Olette is utterly mystified by it, going as far to call it "romantic."
** Sora acts like this for the canon Disney couples. He gets downright misty-eyed when WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} and Shang are appointed the Emperor's joint bodyguards, and seems to approve of Will and Elizabeth (which leads to some of the aforementioned teasing from Donald and Goofy).
* ShooOutTheClowns: Several boss fights, including the final one, have Sora separated from Donald and Goofy.
* ShootTheDog: Enforced by the main party using a fake Scar Ghost in an attempt to snap Simba out of his hesitance. Through it, they call him a "do-nothing king", claim he'll lose all his friends, and will leave a legacy as "King Simba the Doubtful", all because he's "worried by a silly ol' ghost". This results in Simba giving a BigNo and killing the fake ghost.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: If you let Crescendos run around, they heal everything to max health, but if you use a Reaction Command at the right time, they will drop HP orbs. Not very helpful if there are more than one of these little buggers and you can't hit them all at once, i.e. Chicken Little.
* ShoutOut:
** Scrooge [=McDuck=] tries to make a business out of selling [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales Sea-Salt ice cream]].
** The giant Nobody that Roxas fights is called Twilight Zone in the Japanese version, obviously a reference to [[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 the TV series of the same name]].
** The final Gummi Ship route, Assault of the Dreadnought, is heavily reminiscent of the final battle of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Both involve flying into a giant spaceship equipped with a WaveMotionGun to destroy its core.
** Two [=NPCs=] in Twilight Town are Biggs and Wedge, named after characters from ''Franchise/StarWars''. Doubles as a MythologyGag, as the two are {{Recurring Extra}}s in ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games.
* ShownTheirWork: The city plan of Chang'An, as visible from the mountain in the [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} Land of Dragons]], is entirely accurate.
* ShutUpHannibal:
** Happens when Xemnas tries a BreakThemByTalking on the heroes about how he had no other choice than to commit the actions that he did, only for Sora to say "Give it a rest! You're Nobodies. You don't even exist. You're not sad about anything!" Xemnas then laughs and confirms this.
** [[spoiler:Riku]] delivers another ShutUpHannibal in that scene when Xemnas asks the heroes why they considered Organization XIII to be an enemy: "That's simple. It's because you mess up our worlds."
** It also happens two more times, when Sephiroth tells Cloud to give in to the dark side and Cloud literally tells him "Shut up." The first time, it's in the middle of a war and Cloud is kind of trying to focus. The second... not [[ShoutOut so]] [[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren much]].
** The moment when Hades tries to recruit Auron as his personal enforcer.
---->'''Auron:''' {{This is my story}}. And you're not part of it. ''(stands ready to fight)''\\
'''Hades:''' [[YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith Did you forget who you're talking to?]] I am the Lord of the Dead!\\
'''[[{{DeadpanSnarker}} Auron]]:''' [[{{DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu}} Eh, no wonder no one wants to die]].\\
'''Hades:''' [[VillainousBreakdown You are FIRED!]]
* SingleStrokeBattle: The Samurai Nobodies have a Reaction Command that triggers a showdown between them and Sora. Successfully pulling it off causes Sora to leap past them with a single slash, more often than not killing them.
* SkywardScream: When [[spoiler:Roxas, upon discovering that all of his memories are fake, that he has no right to exist, and that to restore Sora's memories and wake him up, Roxas must be sacrificed. He attempts to attack [=DiZ=] for putting him through all of it, only to find out that he ''isn't even in the room'', just showing him a projection of himself. Roxas's anger, despair, and frustration reaches a boiling point there, and he just screams]].
* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The game features Christmas Town, accessed through a door in the Hinderlands of the [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]] World.
* SmartBall: Goofy is a bit more observant than his buds, like when he sees through Mulan's obvious male disguise while Sora and Donald can't. It's said in his journal entry that he often notices stuff that others miss.
* SmashingSurvival: Xemnas' [[DesperationAttack final attack]][[labelnote:*]](And it really is his ''final'' attack, as the next part after surviving it is a cutscene, after which Xemnas is stunned and can be finished off without resistance.)[[/labelnote]] involves trapping Sora and Riku in a field of darkness filled with [[BeamSpam thousands of laser bullets]] aimed right at them. Somewhat [[GuideDangIt counter-intuitively,]] you have to block for both Sora and Riku by mashing X and Triangle simultaneously.
* {{Snowlems}}: In ''Final Mix'', WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is turned into a snowduck whenever he is in [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Christmas Town]], which fits with the Christmas theme that the party take on, with Sora being a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] with a black Santa attire, and Goofy becoming half-dog, half reindeer.
* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: Jack Sparrow and Simba give up all their items and abilities if they are removed and returned (making some boss battles a lot harder until you realize that). The game also makes use of this to add dramatic tension: [[spoiler:It is also done after the scene when Goofy is seriously knocked out and isn't selectable in the party for a period of time, feeding the temporary but dramatic insinuation he actually ''died''.]]
* SomeoneHasToDie: [[spoiler:Roxas has to [[SplitPersonalityMerge merge]] with Sora so Sora can wake up from his year-long sleep. In this case it isn't really death, exactly, but he still treats it like one]].
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Sora is able to identify Riku based on a secondhand account by the Emperor of China describing him as a rude young man.
* TheSoulless: The Nobodies are beings who have lost their Heart, which is one third of what makes up a complete being. Due to this, they are by default emotionless, although with time and empathy they can be made to regain some semblance of feeling.
* SoundtrackDissonance: During the battle against Roxas in the ''Final Mix'' version, a remix of his melancholic theme called "The Other Promise" is used. A stark contrast with the average frantic battle theme.
* SpannerInTheWorks: Both [[AntiHero DiZ]] and [[BigBad Xemnas]] attempt to use Sora for their own plans, but Sora doesn't act in the way they envisioned him to and ultimately derails everything for them without really knowing it. {{Lampshaded}} by [=DiZ=]:
-->'''[=DiZ=]:''' While I was trying to bring Sora back, I had so many plans in store, but once Sora was an acting force, they fell apart.
* SparedByTheAdaptation:
** Inverted in Olympus Coliseum. In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', the hydra never killed anyone. In the game, it regenerates after Hercules "killed" it in an exhibition battle, where it proceedes to completely desolate the original Coliseum. It's heavily implied that it killed everyone inside.
** {{Subverted|Trope}} with the ''Interceptor'' in [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]]. Sora and co. actually manage to save the ship when Barbossa tries to blow it up, allowing it to survive the events of the game's version of the film plot. During the second visit to the world, Luxord hijacks the ''Black Pearl'' and uses her cannons to destroy the ''Interceptor''.
* SpellLevels: The power of Sora's magic is determined by the suffix in its name. A base level spell has a normal name (like Fire), mid level spells end with -ara or -ra (Fira), and the strongest level ends with -ga or -aga (Firaga).
* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' world's name shows up as "Pride Land" when it comes up on screen the first time you go there, but is referred to as "Pride Land'''s'''" in the dialogue and in Jiminy's Journal. This was fixed in the '2.5'' version, where the name title now has the "S" included.
** The Heartless known as Magnum Loader in the English translation was known as Magna Roader in the original Japanese version (Maguna Rōdā), and "Roader" does make more sense based on the way the Heartless looks and moves like a bike, to the point where it seems that "Loader" was a mistranslation. It is likely to be a ShoutOut to the enemy of the same name from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''.
** The Secret Ansem Reports spell the name of 3 of Ansem's apprentices as "Bleig", "Dilin" and "Eleus", completely killing the SignificantAnagram naming scheme that the Organization members have. This is fixed in ''HD II.5 [=ReMIX=]'' version.
* SpoilerOpening: The opening CGI movie and prologue sum up ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', spoiling them for those who haven't played either yet. An older Kairi in the costume that doesn't appear for about half the game, an odd connection between Kairi and Namine, and a connection with Sora and Roxas, for all those people who didn't play the first one or ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' or are just getting into the series? Everything told for you and you didn't even have to try.
* ShootEmUp: Before entering a new world for the first time, you need to fly through a shoot 'em up level with their Gummi ship. You only need to survive making it to the end to proceed, although completing the goals in each Gummi ship level is necessary to get OneHundredPercentCompletion.
* StanceSystem: Activating a Drive Form trades all of Sora's equipped abilities -- including other Growth abilities -- for only those already built into the Form or equipped via Keyblades; each Form's own Growth ability gains an additional rank while that Form is active. Outside of this, each of Sora's Drive Forms provides a significant power boost in one particular area of Sora's arsenal, but comes at a penalty compared to others:
** [[AttackAttackAttack Valor Form]] increases Sora's strength, ground combo length, running speed and jump height, gives him access to a second Keyblade (including its bonus stats and built-in ability), and allows him to break into a combo finisher attack at any point during a combo, but comes at the cost of Sora's ability to use magic or Guard, and lacks any innate dodge ability that other forms get, significantly weakening his attack reach and defense while forcing him to resort to item-based healing or relying on Donald. For a mercy, the form has rapid combos that can parry incoming attacks from most non-boss enemies. The goal of the form is to [[BoringButPractical keep hammering enemies with standard melee combos]] in order to StunLock them to death, though this is less effective on bosses due to its fast, heavy attacks rapidly building their "Revenge Value" mechanics, and its inability to spend MP means it cannot benefit from Berserk Charge.
** [[SquishyWizard Wisdom Form]] increases Sora's magic, MP generation and ground mobility, trades melee attacks to fire a MagicMissileStorm from the Keyblade that pierces armor and scales from magic power, and allows him to cast quickened spells and use items while moving. The Shoot command also gives Sora an incredibly high attack speed, which is invaluable for certain Mushroom battles in ''Final Mix+''. However, Sora cannot maintain an aerial combo to stun lock enemies, his Shoot command has [[DeathOfAThousandCuts little stopping power of its own]] with every shot counting as a finisher, and the loss of his melee attacks weakens his ability to cleave through mob battles. The goal of the form is to supplement these failings by rapidly burning MP on empowered spell finishers, with Shoot as a last resort.
** [[AirJousting Master Form]] is a hybrid of the above forms, increasing strength, magic, aerial mobility and attack reach, as well as unlocking a second Keyblade, while adding unique emphasis on combo strings (allowing Sora to further extend his melee combos with magic instead of interrupting them) and aerial combat, to the point of its only ground attack rendering Sora airborne. The form is ideal for both Berserk Charge and Air Combo Boost, and can turn Reflect into a GameBreaker[[note]]If Reflect casts are chained together in a combo, hits blocked by each cast will accumulate and affect the retaliation damage of the final cast. Normally Reflect can only be cast up to 3 times on the ground or once in the air before automatically retaliating, but Master Form's Endless Combo skill removes that cap, allowing it to be chained as long as Sora has MP[[/note]]. However, it comes at the cost of ''both'' of Sora's allies (no matter who they are), its combo finishers are slow both to reach and to execute[[note]]Boss encounters in this entry can only be ended with finishing attacks[[/note]], and it is one of the only forms without an aerial recovery skill, leaving Sora completely vulnerable until he hits the ground if he is counterattacked or sniped during a combo.
** Exclusive to ''Final Mix+'' versions, [[MightyGlacier Limit Form]] gives Sora access to incredibly powerful Limit commands (which heal him on successful hits) and some of his most powerful combo finishers from the first installment, and allows him to keep his Guard command, all without costing him any allies to activate so it can be used even if both party members are KO'd or Sora is on his own. However, the Limit commands cost Sora his access to Magic, and it's the least mobile form as Sora only gets a small boost to jump height and access to the Dodge Roll ability, which covers little ground in favor of more i-frames. The form offers solid defense and counterattacks, and is ideal for focused-target damage output like boss fights, but repeated usage of Limit commands demands a lot of Ethers.
** Frequently activating any of the above forms also carries a chance to activate [[FragileSpeedster AntiForm]] instead, which consumes Sora's ''entire'' Drive Gauge (regardless of intended form) and locks Sora out of using magic, items, growth abilities, Guard, and even ''his Keyblade'' (including the abilities attached to it). Sora also takes more damage from enemy attacks, gains no XP from defeating enemies, cannot collect HP drops and ''consumes'' Drive Gauge when collecting Drive Orbs. [=AntiForm=] cannot be Reverted manually while in combat, thus forcing the user to wait it out, preferably by attacking aggressively. However, [=AntiForm=] comes with its own unique "Anti Glide" ability to get behind enemies, as well as a ''massive'' boost to Sora's attack and movement speeds that can make it easy to parry or evade attacks entirely, and most of its attacks deal armor-piercing damage, so it can be weaponized to ''shred'' troublesome foes in a desperate situation.
** While [=AntiForm=] cannot normally be activated on command, ''Final Mix'' adds the Two Become One Keyblade with the "Light & Dark" ability, which guarantees activation of only Anti- and Final Forms. Once Final Form is obtained, the Keyblade can be used to more reliably activate [=AntiForm=] at-will.
** [[HourOfPower Final Form]] carries most of the advantages of Valor, Wisdom, Anti- and Master Forms (bar Wisdom Form's missile attacks), and every action taken -- including jumping, gliding or using restorative items -- gains a damage component from Sora's floating keyblades, which can also parry incoming attacks. Final Form is also the only form guaranteed to prevent [=AntiForm=] from activating, while reducing its chance to interrupt in the future. However, it's the most costly form to activate (in terms of strict consumption of both Donald and Goofy, as well as ''five'' Drive Gauge), and like [=AntiForm=] its rapid attacks will consume the Drive Gauge extremely quickly in combat, making it the second shortest duration form overall.
* StandardFemaleGrabArea:
** Averted in Beast's Castle; when Belle is grabbed like so, she elbows her assailant in the gut, steals the rose back, and runs back to Beast to the cheers of not only Sora, but the players, too.
** When Axel kidnaps Kairi, she is grabbed by the elbow.
* StationaryBoss:
** The Thresholder is completely bolted to the door it's guarding, and doesn't budge. [[RubberMan It can stretch its arms out]] to compensate for its lack of mobility.
** Genie Jafar floats in one spot during the boss fight against him. However, his desperation move allows him to repel Sora a long distance away and change the arena to throw obstacles.
** Armored Xemnas sits on a throne during the fights against him, and he refuses to get up. He can telekinetically throw copies of Organization members' weapons across the arena, however, and as with Genie Jafar, this doesn't prevent him from tossing Sora and Riku away to assail them with projectiles.
* StayInTheKitchen: This does get awkward in the Port Royal stage. Though Sora does tell Will to leave early on, it's rather strange that he would tell Elizabeth to do the same later in the stage when she actually played an active role in combat in the portion of the movie the game is covering. He also doesn't brush off Will.
* StealthPun: When Belle is being held by Xaldin right before the battle with him, she elbows him in the gut and you can hear an audible, "Oomph" from Xaldin. In other words, Belle clearly knocked the [[{{Pun}} "wind"]] out of him. Xaldin's element in the game is Wind.
* {{Stellification}}: At the end of the second visit to the Olympus Colosseum, Zeus puts up a constellation of Hercules, as he did in [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} the film]], alongside ones of Sora, Donald, and Goofy as well.
* TheStinger: Two of them in the original, three in the ''Final Mix'' version. The first is Sora and Riku relaxing on their island, before Kairi shows up with a letter from Mickey. The second and third are set-ups for ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''.
* StockFootage: At the end of every world's first story run typically, where Sora opens a new Keyhole to travel to further worlds; the only differences are where the scene starts and what item is used to make the respective Keyhole appear. Everyone else present even conveniently disappears during these scenes and then reappears right afterwards.
* StockScream: As the trio fall through the portal between Christmas Town and Halloween Town, Goofy lets out [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUL5w91dzbo his famous holler]].
* StormingTheCastle: During the endgame, Sora and company must fight through Organization XIII's castle in order to reach Xemnas.
* StoryToGameplayRatio: The game features a significant amount of cutscenes, and the sheer number of ActionCommands during playable sections because of all the mandatory ActionCommands.
* StuffBlowingUp: The Gummi ship levels tend to be full of exploding objects, being shoot 'em ups. Once the ship is upgraded enough, the entire screen will fill up with explosions at the touch of a button.
* StumblingInTheNewForm: When the party first explore the [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Pride Lands]], Sora is unable to walk very far on his paws, [[FisherKingdom having magically turning into a lion cub to better blend into the world]]. This leaves him, Donald and Goofy helpless as the Hyena pack surrounds them, Scar calling for them the only thing that saved them.
* SummonBackupDancers: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], Demyx can create water "clones" that float around and play the sitar.
* {{Superboss}}:
** In the international release, the only boss that you don't have to fight to beat the game is Sephiroth; like the first game, you have to fight him one-on-one, and he's ridiculously tough. Beating him nets you the Fenrir Keyblade, which reduces your combo by one (more useful than it sounds, since it means your Finisher launches faster).
** The third level of the Assault of the Dreadnought gummi ship course ends with a boss fight against the Hunter-X, which has every SpamAttack that the other enemy ships do plus an attack that's easily strong enough to one-shot most of the player's ships and hits half the screen.
** The ''Final Mix'' version went overboard with this: First, there are the five Absent Silhouettes, shadowy spirits of the members of the Organization who had died in [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories the previous game]] that have different tactics and a different level of strength since then. But those are child's play compared to what you can access after you've beaten the game; at the end of Hollow Bastion [[spoiler:/Radiant Garden]]'s BonusDungeon, the Cavern of Remembrance (itself a trial to get through), you find the Garden of Assemblage, where data replicas for all thirteen members of the Organization await, and their threat levels are jacked up. But none of those replicas, not even Xemnas, can match the last Bonus Boss in the game: a mysterious armored Keyblade Master named the "Lingering Will", found through a portal in Disney Castle. He is hands-down ''THE hardest boss in the game''...and like the Unknown, it's very easily justified when you find out who he is: [[spoiler:Terra’s soul, trapped inside his armor after Master Xehanort took over his body in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'']].
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: The Anti-Form [[SuperMode Drive Form]] subverts this trope as it's actually a penalty form (at best AwesomeButImpractical) to discourage overuse of the Drive Forms; it can only be triggered randomly (chance determined by a hidden "Anti-Point" mechanic) or by activating any form but Final in battle with the ability Light & Darkness active. While Anti-Sora looks ''damn cool'', he's not actually much more powerful than Sora in terms of offense, and can do nothing other than attack solo in a blitzing frenzy of clawing, kicking, and firing dark energy blasts. The inability to heal, gain experience, or really do ''anything'' else makes this form a liability. Also, Sora takes 50% more damage while in this form and can't revert until the drive gauge expires or he leaves the level. Sora also gets a Super Powered ''Light'' Side in Final Form, which is unlocked after [[spoiler:Sora's fight with Roxas]]. Like Anti-Form, it has to be triggered by chance when using other Drive Forms, but once unlocked, Final Form can be manually activated at any point, and also reduces the risk of Anti-Form with each use. In this form, Sora wears all-white and takes on an angelic theme with two Keyblades serving as wings as well as weapons.
* SurprisinglyEasyMiniQuest: The need to kill 1000 Heartless. The horde consists of two enemy types that both have Reaction Commands that take out about a dozen other enemies each. Plus the [=PS2=] CPU can't actually handle that many enemies at once so most are just background, gradually disappearing as you take the Heartless down.
* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: The game's closure begins playing its last scenes following the FinalBoss and it looks almost certain that the story will end with Sora and Riku separated from their friends and left stranded on a beach to waste away into darkness, at least content with reconciling their friendship and knowing that everyone and everything they love in the realm of light is safe from harm thanks to their actions. And then Kairi's message in a bottle, which she wrote and sent adrift way back in the games' ProlongedPrologue, finds its way to Sora and Riku. Immense happiness follows.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When Roxas asks Naminé what will happen to him if Sora awakens, she dodges giving a straight answer by stating that "[He] won't disappear!" Roxas is noticeably disturbed by her response.
* SwissArmySuperpower: Hades exploits this by tricking Sora into using the Keyblade on a barrier placed by ''Zeus himself.'' It falls easily, allowing Hades access to the Underdrome. By the Final Mix+ rendition of the second game, though, it starts getting weird, where the OptionalBoss "Lingering Sentiment" demonstrating the Keyblade's ability to transform into a whip, a buckler, a humongous bow, a humongous cannon, what seems to be a humongous drill bit, an airspeeder, and a floating pickaxe.
* SwordDrag: Roxas drags his Keyblades against the ground during his cutscene fight against Sora.
* TacticalSuicideBoss: Near the end of the Timeless River visit, Pete has the Cornerstone of Light and is riding away in Steamboat Willie. He could easily get away if he didn't decide to attack Sora with garbage, letting him fling it back to damage Pete.
* {{Tagline}}: "The story is not over."
* TakeAThirdOption: The villain Xaldin of Organization XIII has the [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast]] caught between a SadisticChoice. He has stolen the Beast's rose, as well as Belle. However, he will let one of them go, at Beast's choice. And there's not a damn thing Beast can do about it. ''Belle'', on the other hand, catches Xaldin off guard by elbowing him in the side, takes the rose, and runs. Even Sora notes that as Belle's running, she seemed to be having a really good time.
* TakingTheBullet: Goofy shoves King Mickey out of the way as a rock from a Nobody/Heartless fight falls towards him. The rock proceeds to hit Goofy instead. King Mickey gets very angry and several Heartless wish they'd never been born. He gets better, though.
* TakingYouWithMe: Axel does this when he, Sora, Donald and Goofy are [[HeroicSacrifice about to get swamped by Nobodies]]. Later on, the final battle with Xemnas has shades of this. The heroes have wiped out all his underlings and ruined his plans, and he seems to care less about his own survival than dragging Sora and Riku down with him. Even after beating him, they're nearly trapped in another dimension until Sora and Kairi's connection opens a portal.
--->'''Xemnas:''' We shall go together.
* ATasteOfPower:
** The prologue's final boss fight against Axel has Roxas dual-wield Oathkeeper and Oblivion.
** During Roxas's boss fight, you can gain control of his weapons. Though they have a few unique moves under specific circumstances, Oathkeeper and Oblivion mostly enhance Sora's combos with Final Form's attacks in this state.
* {{Technobabble}}: Sora and his friends have a hard time understanding what [[BadassBookworm Tron]] is saying when they first meet him, because of this trope. As time goes on, Tron becomes easier to understand [[spoiler:as a result of gaining emotions due to his friendship with them]].
* TeleportSpam: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Yuffie]] spends most of her time teleporting during battle. She'll teleport next to you to perform a close-ranged slash and occasionally, she'll float in the air to perform "[[LimitBreak Doom of The Living]]", a SpinAttack. Other than that, she'll ''never'' run, walk, or jump. She originally averted this in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', where she would run, [[SheFu somersault, cartwheel, and jump all over the place]], but ''couldn't'' teleport.
* TennisBoss: The last part of the final battle requires this; great deal of button mashing, since it's not one powerful attack - it is a goddamn torrent of energy blasts. Really, it's [[PressXToNotDie Press X and Triangle simultaneously not to die]].
%%* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: "Just thinking about all the things you did makes me really mad."
* ThisIsMyStory: While Auron is not the main character, he calls out the usage of it to [[{{WesternAnimation/Hercules}} Hades]] in one of his DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu moments.
--> "This is my story, and you're not part of it."
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman:
** It's not that the magic in the game is ''bad'', it's just that beating the crap out of enemies with physical blows is a lot more efficient, as most of Sora's abilities boost his physical combos in some way, and Wisdom Form isn't very good. The ''Final Mix'' release added the Mushroom XIII, who were specifically designed to encourage usage of magic and/or Wisdom Form to accomplish their challenges. Critical is also a lot easier if you use your MP instead of relying on physical attacks like the other difficulties.
** Chicken Little's whistle more or less has the same effect as Magnet, meaning he has at least some use before you get the spell.
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself:
** When Simba and Scar are fighting on the top of Pride Rock, Sora stops Donald and Goofy from interfering because he knows it's Simba's responsibility. When Scar is defeated and comes back as a Heartless, they decide it's time to step in and help.
** Similar moments occur with Cloud's battle with Sephiroth and [[spoiler:Ansem's attempt at committing suicide to destroy the Organization's fake Kingdom Hearts.]]
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: When Saïx enters his berserk, he starts attacking so violently that his sword gets flung at you repeatedly. Fortunately, he seems to carry around a limitless supply of them.
* TimedMission: The Cerberus Cup and its Paradox version are timed. You start off with 2 minutes in the first round and gain more time on each round clear.
* TimeLimitBoss:
** Luxord. It's done in a kind of weird way; both the player and the boss have time bars, and they go down more through taking damage.
** The fights with Demyx tend to be easy, right until the moment a time limit to defeat a certain number of his minions is arbitrarily invoked. Especially annoying as only a particular special move seems effective regardless of how strong the player actually is.
* TimeSkip: The game is set a year after [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]]. ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]]'' takes place during this time, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin specifically 358 out of 365 days]]. [[spoiler:The remaining seven days are Roxas' week-long summer vacation, as shown in the prologue of ''II''.]]
* TheTimeTravellersDilemma: Merlin tells Sora, Donald, and Goofy to not be tempted to make any unnecessary changes to the timeline while they're in the past of Disney Castle (AKA Timeless River). The thought never crosses Sora, but Donald tries to go back after they're done to do something unknown related to Daisy.
* TomatoInTheMirror: At the end of the prologue, Roxas finds out that he's Sora's Nobody, his normal life in Twilight Town is a complete lie because he was living in a computer simulation with tampered memories to placate him, and he was the 13th member of Organization XIII. He has to give up his physical form in order to return to Sora so he can finally wake up from his slumber.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** Mulan becomes an infinitely more competent party member as soon as she is revealed as a woman. She drops the bumbling soldier act and proves to be an elegant swordswoman.
** Kairi is a lot more physically active than in the first game, and gets to wield a Keyblade near the end.
* TotallyRadical: Seifer's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY30kR3bQ4U undeniable proof that [they] totally owned you lamers]]". He speaks using a lot of rather forced slang, mostly in the computer-simulated version run by [=DiZ=], and is unlikely to impress most audiences.
* TrainStationGoodbye: Played with when, after [[spoiler:Roxas merges with Sora at the end of the prologue]], Sora cries when he leaves Twilight Town on the train even though he hardly knows the people he is leaving and doesn't seem to be leaving for good.
* TraintopBattle: The Solar Sailer battle in [[Film/{{Tron}} Space Paranoids]], though the sailer looks more like a flat boat than a train. And unlike the one in The Grid, it's an actual battle with a weight limit.
* TriumphantReprise: [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI Again,]] [[TheStinger after the credits roll,]] Sora and Riku are sitting on a tree relaxing, when Kairi calls their name and runs up to them with a letter signed by King Mickey in a bottle. Together, the three of them read the letter while Hand in Hand (the battle theme from Traverse Town in Kingdom Hearts 1) triumphantly swells in the background.
* TurnsRed:
** The Hot Rod heartless will charge in a berserker rage once their HP is low. Most times they strike you from where you're not looking. (This is a real pain at higher difficulties if you're at a lower level.)
** The Large Body heartless go berserk at low HP and start bellysliding after you at an astonishing speed, but can be stopped by blocking and/or using a reaction command on them, unlike the previous example.
** The aptly named Berserker Nobodies do this, repeatedly using a long, unstoppable combo on you that renders them nigh impossible to hit with anything but magic while they're performing it, and only giving you a few seconds to land a combo of your own between each assault.
* TutorialFailure: The game has a very deep, complex and well-balanced battle system once you know how everything works... the problem is the game's tutorials are more focused on telling you how to navigate the menus and ''find'' new commands, as opposed to teaching you what the game's many combo abilities, spells, summons and transformations ''actually do''. As a result, many first time players and reviewers come out of the game seeing it as "mash X (and occasionally triangle) to win."
* TwirlOfLove: Non-romantic version, where Riku picks up King Mickey and twirls him when they are reunited in the ending.
* UltimateAuthorityMayor: {{Subverted|Trope}} [[PlayedForLaughs for Laughs]] with [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]] (see above), when the Mayor is freaking out and begging Jack to help with TheHeartless because he's "only an elected official."
* UndeadAbomination: The Grim Reaper is a special type of Heartless created by Luxord as a personification of the Aztec gold's cursed properties, taking on an undead form when it takes any of the gold, activating the curse and inflicts it on Jack Sparrow. When Sora and the gang defeat it, the curse itself is destroyed.
* UndergroundLevel: The Underworld is [[HailfirePeaks half this and half]] BigBoosHaunt. It takes place in the world of ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', as is where Sora and his friends have to help Hercules find and defeat Hades (who has started causing havoc once again). Later in the game, it is possible to play MultiMookMelee tournaments to win cups, each being more difficult and requiring a higher level.
* UnderratedAndOverleveled: Near the end, Kairi is given a Keyblade during a cutscene and starts wielding it against Heartless and Nobodies. [[CutscenePowerToTheMax She is seen defeating them despite having zero combat experience]], and even one-shots them when Sora would have to take a couple swipes before killing them.
* UnderTheSea: Atlantica makes a return from the first game and ''Chain of Memories'', though gameplay-wise it departs from the usual format seen in the other worlds. It's now based on rhythm-based minigames (which include two songs from the original ''Little Mermaid'' movie), and the boss battle against Ursula is also played in this fashion.
* UnendingEndCard: Just like the first game, there is no way to leave the results screen other than resetting. Also like the first, this doesn't apply to the ''Final Mix'' version.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange:
** The Gummi Ship levels are [[ShootEmUp Shoot 'em Ups]], and allow for some very advanced ship customization.
** Most levels have a mini-game or two; skateboarding in [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] is not what one would expect to do there, for instance.
** The Hundred Acre Wood contains a collection of mini-games, and is completely devoid of actual combat.
** Atlantica has no combat, and instead contains a number of [[RhythmGame rhythm mini-games]]. Of the five songs featured, three (''Swim This Way'', ''Ursula's Revenge'' and ''A New Day Is Dawning'') are original and the other two (''Part of Your World'' and ''Under the Sea'') come from the film.
* UnexpectedShmupLevel: The game updates the Gummi Ship sequences from the original game to be a full rail shooter. It even adds a BattleshipRaid complete with a ReactorBoss. And then there's the random rail-shooter segment during the [[FinalBoss final battle]] which does not involve the Gummi Ship. And that's leaving out the minigame in Christmas Town.
* UnexplainedRecovery: In the first ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI Kingdom Hearts]]'' game, [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula]] is killed at the end of the Atlantica world, but she returns along with her CoDragons Flotsam and Jetsam in this game with no explanation as to how they came back.
* TheUnfought:
** Despite being a prominent antagonistic presence for the first half of the game, Maleficent is never fought.
** The hyped-up duel between Roxas and Sora only happens in a cutscene in the original version of the game, but was added as a playable boss fight in the ''Final Mix''.
* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: The Lexaeus fight features an attack where Lexaeus will jump out of bounds and then charge at you in a powerful rush. Chicken Little as a summon features a collision box that will push enemies back from where the "camera" is for his baseball attack, to make sure he doesn't clip into enemies. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSXVyfm9KoM By standing in the right spot and using Chicken Little at the right time]], it's possible to push Lexaeus out past the edge of the floor and have him fall into the black void. However, Lexaeus just floats forever at the base of the room, never actually landing, meaning he can't be finished by Sora's lightning, and he has no way to get back up to the main platform to finish the fight, making it a softlock.
* {{Unperson}}: Though it doesn't happen, this was what Organization XIII intended to do to Roxas in the data version of Twilight Town. Once they had recovered him, they would erase all trace of his existence from that world. It's why when the Nobodies steal photos of Roxas (they can't tell the difference in the data world between the actual Roxas and images of him), they steal [[ImpossibleThief the word "photo" as well]].
* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Like in [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} the source material the story around the Land of Dragons is based on]], Shang doesn't take well that "Ping" is in fact a woman, much less that she's ''Mulan''.
* UpdatedRerelease: ** The ''Final Mix'' rerelease of the game features updated textures and many palette-swapped Heartless, a new "Critical" difficulty, a new "Limit" Drive Form for Sora, more items, a new mini-game called "Puzzle" that unlocks special items, hordes of new extra-hard optional bosses, several new cutscenes, an extra ending leading up to ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'', and a "Theater Mode" where you can watch previously-viewed cutscenes, many other changes from the original. It was released alongside a complete 3D remake of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'', which did saw release overseas as ''Re:Chain of Memories'', since it's techically a new game. ''Kingdom Hears II: Final Mix'' was re-released internationally as part of ''Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD [=ReMIX=]'' in 2014 with remastered HD visuals and re-orchestrated music.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Nobody bats at eye at Donald, Goofy, or Pete despite anthropomorphic animals not being natural in most worlds.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Of all things, ''Cure'' ends up being this in Critical. Compared to items, using Cure at the end of the MP bar is a complete waste instead of using Limits, since the incredible damage it causes with the invulnerability they provide is far more useful than healing you when you die in two hits anyway.
* UseTheirOwnWeaponAgainstThem: During the boss fights against both Data Marluxia and Marluxia's Absent Silhouette, Sora can use the Restore Count command to steal Marluxia's scythe and beat him with it, dealing damage and restoring the amount of hits Sora can take.
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The World That Never Was, the stronghold of Organization XIII. It's made up of a large city with a harsh art style to contrast the previous Disney worlds, is overlooked by a large white castle (the Organization's headquarters) that floats in the air above a large crater, and has a heart-shaped moon (actually Kingdom Hearts itself).
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** The suits in armor in Beast's Castle are actually servants cursed by the enchantress, just like in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''. You can destroy some of them.
** In [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} the Underworld]], little orbs of light will constantly appear around Sora and co., do nothing but float around benignly, and will appear nowhere else in the game, implying they're the spirits of the departed. You can hit them to destroy them, and they drop MP orbs. It's almost unavoidable to destroy some of them, just because they always spawn quickly and in large numbers, making them an efficient way to refill MP.
* VideoGameFlight: Final Form. It's not as much flying as it is hovering, but it does end up lasting long enough to qualify anyway.
* VillainBasedFranchise: This game solidifies that everything that happens was caused by Xehanort in some way or another.
* VillainousBreakdown: When Hades' plans fail, he freaks out and turns the entire Underdrome into a firestorm through sheer rage alone.
* VillainSong: Since [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] is a RhythmGame world, the Ursula boss fight features one called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-uYJHgxldo Ursula's Revenge]].
* VisibleInvisibility: The Dark Thorn in [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast's Castle]].
* ViolationOfCommonSense: Valor Form levels up as you deal hits to enemies. This means that the best Keyblades to use when level grinding the physical-inclined Drive Form are the ones with the lowest Strength, so you kill enemies slower and can inflict more hits on them first.
* TheVoiceless: Multiple examples in ''Final Mix''.
** In the Japanese [=PS2=] release, the added Organization XIII members in Absent Silhouettes don't have any in-battle lines, only VoiceGrunting voiced by their Japanese voice actors so as to stay consistent with the English audio of the rest of the game. Zexion and Vexen appear during an added cutscene, but during the main game their voices are muted for the same reason and the cutscene can be viewed in Japanese in Theater Mode. ''2.5 [=ReMIX=]'' partly fixes this in both languages by providing full English and Japanese audio for the new cutscenes during the main game, and the English version goes the extra mile to re-dub the Absent Silhouettes' battle grunts with ones by their English voice actors.
** The Lingering Will's dialogue is conveyed through ethereal metallic noises, which would be in-character for it; however, it's been shown in both ''Birth by Sleep'' and ''KHIII'' to speak using Terra's voice.
* WaitingPuzzle: A variation occurs during the DuelBoss fight against Xemnas. The battle begins with Sora and Xemnas running up/down a building towards each other, mirroring how Roxas and Riku did the same in the "Another Side, Another Story" secret movie. A Reaction Command "Clash" will pop up, which will do no damage to Xemnas when used. Wait a second, though, and the command will change to "Break Through", which deals a little damage. Wait another second and it changes to "Finish", which causes Sora to slam Xemnas into the side of the building and do quite a bit of damage. Since most players will hammer Triangle as soon as they see the prompt, this counts as this and a bit of a GuideDangIt as well.
* WakeUpCallBoss:
** The Twilight Thorn actually hits pretty hard. This can be bothersome, because it launches a number of attacks at you, and the reaction command function, which you're supposed to use to defeat it, has only just been introduced. The only target you can hit on it is several times higher than you can jump, it rarely puts that part close enough to you to attack, and you only have 2 potions to your name. And need we remind you, this is the ''first boss of the game.''
** Shan Yu is another one of those bosses that forces you to learn a certain technique that you're really going to need later in the game. In his case, it's parrying. If you master the technique of waiting for him to attack (and he telegraphs his attacks), countering them, and only then attacking him, he's quite easy. But try to button mash your way through the fight against him and he'll shrug off everything you throw at him and shred you.
** [[MakingASplash Demyx]], while not a ''difficult'' boss to actually fight, has time challenges that make him a tough opponent, and like Parasite Cage he's the mid-game boss and is where the game gets DarkerAndEdgier than it already is.
** [[BlowYouAway Xaldin]] is considered the hardest boss in the game for where he is fought at, but he serves as a reminder for how powerful the rest of the members of Organization XIII are.
* TheWarSequence: The third visit to Hollow Bastion eventually leads to a huge battle between the heroes (backed by the local ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' characters) and a huge amount of Heartless invading the world.
* WarmUpBoss: The fight against the Twilight Thorn during the prologue is the first real challenge you face, but it's also designed to teach you about Reaction Commands and how they interact with bosses. Twilight Thorn always opens with a move that won't immediately damage Roxas while granting an opportunity to trigger a chain of Reaction Commands, and the timing for activating them is extremely generous due to the boss's slow movements during the cinematics.
* WaterIsDry: Riku and Sora come out of the ocean just as dry as they went in. Sora's hair also is still as [[AnimeHair spiky]] as it was when it went in. This is quite common throughout the series. Each character who falls into water comes out dry. Even in [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] and [[{{WesternAnimation/Pinocchio}} Prankster's Paradise]], does Sora go into water and appear dry on the surface, despite being a merman in the former. And at one point in [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]], we get to see him unconscious with half of his body in water... and he is STILL dry.
* WaveMotionGun:
** Xaldin shoots you with a wind blast gun. Ansem also does it with darkness.
** In ''Final Mix+'', the Lingering Sentiment can morph his keyblade into a giant cannon to shoot explosive bursts of magic at you.
* WeaponTombstone: There is a room in The World That Never Was that houses graves with pictures of the weapons that each Organization member used.
* WeirdMoon: [[{{MacGuffin}} Kingdom Hearts]] itself is the moon in The World That Never Was. Fittingly enough, it's heart-shaped.
* WeirdnessCensor: When investigating the Seven Wonders of Twilight Town during the prologue, Pence comes up with "sensible" conclusions that totally ignore some of the seemingly impossible events that Roxas witnesses. {{Justified|Trope}} since he's a simulation created by [=DiZ=], who's trying to cover up the fact that Roxas is in a computer.
* WhamEpisode: The third visit to Hollow Bastion (about halfway through the game) unloads a bunch of plot twists and revelations:
** Ansem from the first game was actually the Heartless of an impostor. That impostor also has a Nobody, who is the leader of Organization XIII.
** Goofy dies ([[DisneyDeath but not really]]).
** The impostor-Ansem's real name is Xehanort, who was once an apprentice of the real Ansem. His Nobody, the leader of Organization XIII, is named Xemnas.
** Organization XIII has captured Kairi after Axel's botched kidnapping.
** Sora killing Heartless is all part of the Organization's BatmanGambit to help them create Kingdom Hearts.
* WhamLine:
** From Secret Ansem's Report #2, a ''very'' early and ''giant'' tip-off that "Ansem" from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' wasn't actually Ansem:
--->''That is when I discovered the "Ansem Reports." Though they bore my name, the only one I had written was number 0. Apparently he [Xehanort] had gone on to pen numbers 1 through 8 himself.''
** While players could probably have taken a guess beforehand (and ''Final Mix'' makes it obvious with a new flashback scene), this scene answers one of the game's running mysteries:
--->'''Sora:''' I don't get it. Why's everybody been calling me Roxas? \\
'''Riku:''' Because, Sora. Roxas is [[spoiler:your Nobody]].
** You see the BigBad with his hood off for the first time, and Mickey identifies him after a flashback.
--->'''Mickey:''' Xehanort! Ansem's apprentice! The leader of Organization XIII is Xehanort's Nobody!
** Combined with a WhamShot, Naminé entrusts protection of Kairi to a cloaked figure she identifies as Riku... who then takes off his hood to reveal the face of Ansem.
* WhamShot:
** [=DiZ=] speaking to a mysterious figure in an Organization cloak, who pulls his hood off and reveals, and announces, himself as Ansem. It's your first hint [[JigsawPuzzlePlot this story is gonna get weird]].
** Roxas pulling out ''two'' keyblades before his final battle against Axel, both marking the first time in the series where you can DualWield keyblades, and confirming that he's the mysterious keyblade wielder from the first game's secret ending.
** The cutscene where Riku is restored to normal is one, but many first time players were quite surprised when said cutscene ended, and the party select appears with him as the GuestStarPartyMember. Especially right before the final boss. And especially since other [=GSPMs=] joined in the beginning or middle of the story arc.
* WhereItAllBegan: Inverted, as Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden, the penultimate stage of the first game, is the new hub world since Leon and Sora's other allies took it back between games. Played straight with Twilight Town, the world the game begins in and that Sora returns to at the end of the game to find the portal to The World That Never Was, the lair of the Organization.
* WholePlotReference:
** The scenario in Agrabah takes quite a few plot points from ''[[WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar The Return of Jafar]]'' which was the direct to video movie that preceded the ''Aladdin'' TV series. Points include Iago's HeelFaceTurn, Jafar manipulating someone in order to gain his freedom and destroying Jafar's lamp to stop Jafar.
** The whole of [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] revolves around the events of the original ''Little Mermaid'' movie, only retold as a musical. The first Pride Lands visit is based on the second half of ''The Lion King'', after Simba grew up.
* WintryAuroralSky: [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Christmas Town]] downplays this with a dim blue aurora stretching above the horizon in all three of its outdoor maps.
* WistfulAmnesia:
** Kairi still has a very vague recollection of Sora during the prologue, even though she isn't supposed to remember him yet due Naminé's memory tampering.
** Sora doesn't retain any of the memories of his Nobody, Roxas, yet he feels like he has met Hayner, Pence and Olette before when he wakes up. He even cries when he leaves Twilight Town at the beginning of the game, though he was no idea why.
** Xemnas is supposedly unable to remember anything from before 10 years ago, yet a cutscene added in the ''Final Mix'' version shows him talking to Aqua's discarded Keyblade and armor as if he remembers his time as Terra/Master Xehanort.
* WolfpackBoss:
** The first fight with Shenzi, Banzai and Ed forces the player to confront all three of them at once. Averted with the second fight, in which they're a GetBackHereBoss instead.
** Some fights in the arena feature any combination of four {{Bonus Boss}}es: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud, Yuffie, Tifa]], and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Leon]]. The last of these battles, naturally, is all four of them.
* TheWorfEffect: The game uses this trope to establish the Nobodies as credible opponents. Over the course of the game, they constantly one-up the Heartless and even at one point best Maleficent.
* WreckedWeapon: In the "Birth by Sleep" FMV, Ven's Keyblade ''shatters'' after Master Xehanort freezes him. This is one of the few details that got changed in the actual game.
* WrongContextMagic: Since the Keyblade has magic not native to Port Royal, it allows Sora and co. to harm the otherwise invincible cursed pirates as long as their true form is exposed by the moonlight. It also makes Sora, Donald, and Goofy immune to the Aztec curse when Luxord tries to inflict it on them during the second visit.
* YinYangBomb:
** Xemnas' final form dons a black and white robe to represent him standing outside both light and dark.
** Sora and Riku when using "Eternal Session," which ends with their Keyblades trapping the enemy between spheres of light and dark.
** Sora himself in Final Form, which he gains after overcoming Roxas. His outfit is a mix of black and white and he's depicted wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion in official art.
* YouAreNotAlone: Sora scolds Riku for trying to take on so many burdens himself when he has so many friends who'd gladly help. Even Donald and Goofy, who aren't as close to Riku as Kairi and King Mickey, confirm it.
* YouAreNotReady: The game features an arrogant old man with a thing for vague statements about your ignorance, he turns out to be wrong about many things too. The Kingdom Hearts world isn't a good place to be an enigmatic mentor.
* YouAreWorthHell: After kicking the final boss's ass, [[spoiler:Sora]] and a wounded [[spoiler:Riku]] are left alone on a beach in the World of Darkness. They accept their fate, willing to be the dark side of the world's coin to protect the light from any further threats. [[spoiler:They come back, though.]]
* YouCantThwartStageOne: Unbeknownst to Sora, it turns out that [[spoiler:all those Heartless he's been killing lead to [[UnwittingPawn him helping Xemnas complete Stage One of his plan to give himself and his fellow Nobodies hearts]].]]
* YouDontLookLikeYou: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Jessie]], who has a completely different appearance in addition to the trademark changed backstory. If she is meant to be the same Jessie otherwise.
* YouFool: Xemnas is fond of this. "Cursed FOOOOOLS!"
** [=DiZ=] does it to himself, saying that it was foolish of him to think that he could ever hope to understand the essence of a heart in terms of data.
** Ansem and Xemnas do it to themselves to each other near the end.
--->'''Xemnas:''' Only a fool would ever be your apprentice.\
'''Ansem the Wise:''' Xehanort. Foolish apprentice of a foolish man.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: After Naminé finishes restoring Sora's memories at the end of the prologue, [=DiZ=] orders Riku to destroy her, at least partially because of his [[FantasticRacism prejudice against Nobodies]]; Riku, however, has no intention of doing so, both because of Naminé helping him and Sora during the events of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' and because he's ''not'' happy to discover that [=DiZ=] only helped restore Sora for the sake of petty revenge against Organization XIII, and instead lets her go. During the game's final act, Organization XIII also declares that, with their Kingdom Hearts completed, they have no further need for Sora, and try to dispose of him.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: You beat Xemnas in suitably epic fashion, albeit with relative ease, along with a good, long cutscene with characters ready to head home. Anyone who took a look at the OST would know that there's one more boss theme left...
* YouUsedToBeBetterSpeech: After Xaldin takes the rose from the Beast and causes him to approach the DespairEventHorizon, Sora tells Beast on how he once bent time and space itself to save Belle from Maleficent and helped Sora motivate his own desire to save Kairi. He then reminds Beast on how much the rose means to everyone in the castle, and how Belle's presence renewed their hope on breaking their curse. This causes Beast to snap out of his despair.
* ZeroEffortBoss: Past Pete's primary move is trying to punch you and only hurting his hand in the process. The only ways he can hurt you is if you attack him and he gets knocked into the air and causes a shockwave when he lands and you are close enough to be hit by it, or when he runs around after being hit by you and crashes into you causing CollisionDamage. Even then, the damage both these actions cause is almost nonexistent. You cannot lose against him. This is done for story purposes to help the heroes realize he is far too weak to be the Pete they know.
[[/folder]]

** There is a ingredient that increases a synthesized items rank by one. It is necessary for the creation of the Ultima Weapon and can be applied to Goofy and Donald's highest level weapons making them Save The King/Queen+.

* {{Technobabble}}: Sora and his friends have a hard time understanding what [[BadassBookworm Tron]] is saying when they first meet him, because of this trope. As time goes on, Tron becomes easier to understand [[spoiler:as a result of gaining emotions due to his friendship with them.

* BattlerAmongstTheFlames: The last boss fight you play as Roxas. At some points, you're even running on the fire to do a reaction command.

* Raziel in the ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' series.

* GreenHillZone: The idyllic Twilight Town provides a more urban setting, though our resident KidHero steals a moment of blissful peace atop a literal green hill before everything goes wrong for him. Unlike Destiny Islands from the first game, the place isn't doomed (at least not the ''real'' one), and can be eventually revisited.

* RecurringBoss: Gummi Missions only pit you against a small selection of enemies, so you'll be fighting bosses like the Hunter and Driller multiple times throughout your adventure.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: King Mickey spends his time trying to fight the Organization and figure out what's going on behind the scenes. Queen Minnie actually does take a bit of action as well during her EscortMission, being able to cast Pearl and team up with Sora to cast [[LightEmUp Faith]].

* SelfDeprecation: [=DiZ=] / Ansem The Wise calls Xehanort the "foolish apprentice of a foolish man" in one of the ending scenes. To be fair, this is after Xemnas claims that "only a fool would be [his] apprentice".

* SpoilerOpening: The opening CGI movie and prologue sum up ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', spoiling them for those who haven't played either yet.

*** While [=AntiForm=] cannot normally be activated on command, ''Final Mix'' adds the Two Become One Keyblade with the "Light & Dark" ability, which guarantees activation of only Anti- and Final Forms. Once Final Form is obtained, the Keyblade can be used to more reliably activate [=AntiForm=] at-will.

* StandardFemaleGrabArea:
** Averted in Beast's Castle; when Belle is grabbed like so, she elbows her assailant in the gut, steals the rose back, and runs back to Beast to the cheers of not only Sora, but the players, too.
** When Axel kidnaps Kairi, she is grabbed by the elbow.

* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: "Just thinking about all the things you did makes me really mad."
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: It's not that the magic in the game is ''bad'', it's just that beating the crap out of enemies with physical blows is a lot more efficient, as most of Sora's abilities boost his physical combos in some way, and Wisdom Form isn't very good. The ''Final Mix'' release added the Mushroom XIII, who were specifically designed to encourage usage of magic and/or Wisdom Form to accomplish their challenges. Critical is also a lot easier if you use your MP instead of relying on physical attacks like the other difficulties.

* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: When Simba and Scar are fighting on the top of Pride Rock, Sora stops Donald and Goofy from interfering because he knows it's Simba's responsibility. When Scar is defeated and comes back as a Heartless, they decide it's time to step in and help.

* UnendingEndCard: Just like the first game, there is no way to leave the results screen other than resetting. Also like the first, this doesn't apply to the Final Mix version.

* TheUnfought: Despite being a prominent antagonistic presence for the first half of the game, Maleficent is never fought.

* VillainBasedFranchise: This game pretty much solidifies that just about everything that happens was caused by Xehanort in some way or another.

* WholePlotReference: The scenario in Agrabah takes quite a few plot points from ''[[WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar The Return of Jafar]]'' which was the direct to video movie that preceded the ''Aladdin'' TV series. Points include Iago's HeelFaceTurn, Jafar manipulating someone in order to gain his freedom and destroying Jafar's lamp to stop Jafar.
** The whole of [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] is just this. So is the first Pride Lands visit, actually.

* ElementalPowers: Each Organization XIII member controls a different attribute ([[WordOfGod Square Enix make it quite clear that they're not elements,]] [[InsistentTerminology they're attributes]]). Some attack with it directly (Axel, Demyx with his water clones), Some draw power from it (Saïx berserking in moonlight), and some just use it as a visual motif (Marluxia).

[[folder:G -- P]]

* GambitPileup: Both Organization XIII and Maleficent are after Kingdom Hearts, while [=DiZ=] is working in the background trying to get revenge on Xemnas for betraying him when the former was Ansem and the latter was his apprentice Xehanort.

* HPToOne: In the optional [[OptionalBoss Data version]] of the first Xemnas fight, doing the "Finish" Reaction Command on the run up Memory's Skyscraper will automatically put him at 1 HP.

* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The World that Never Was.

* InfinityPlusOneSword

* InterfaceSpoiler: Getting the Reunion trophy in the ''II.5 Final [=ReMIX=]'' version shows Riku in the attire he wears when he joins the party. At this point, he's still in Ansem's form, and will not be restored until after two more bosses and about fifteen minutes worth of cutscenes.

* InvitedAsDinner: Sora and his friends nearly become lunch for the hyenas. Kind of inverted, as the trio just end up there as trespassers when they entered the world, yet Shenzi lets them stay anyway.

* KingMook: Axel to the Assassins, Demyx to the Dancers, Xaldin to the Dragoons, Roxas to the Samurais, Xigbar to the Snipers, Luxord to the Gamblers, Saïx to the Berserkers and Xemnas to the Sorcerers.

* LampshadeHanging: The world of Port Royal is based on a live-action Creator/{{Disney}} movie instead of an animated feature, and thus has more realistic art and character designs. The moment Sora and co. enter the world, they note how different it feels.
* LastChanceHitPoint:
** Every boss will always hit 1 HP before you can finish them off, and you're only allowed to do so with a Reaction Command, combo finisher, or magic.
** The Second Chance ability allows Sora to survive any hit if he had at least 2 HP when it connects, while the Once More ability also him to survive combos if he had more than 1 HP when the first hit connects.
* LargeHam: Ansem, [[FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin re-dubbed in flashbacks by]] Richard Epcar, is depicted in an overly-dramatic fashion. For instance:

* MagicMissileStorm: Sora's Wisdom Form shoots out flurries of homing magic shots from his Keyblade. Xemnas shoots his [[LaserBlade Etheral Blades]] as projectiles, sometimes from his hand and sometimes creating a line of them in the air that fire at once.
* MagicVersusScience: Merlin and Cid have a fight over using magic or technology when it comes to defending Hollow Bastion, with Cid preferring science and Merlin using magic. The end result is that Tron gets some of Merlin's magic in addition to the upgrades that Cid programmed due to Merlin firing a spell a Cid just as the latter was taking a disc out of his computer.

* MeaningfulEcho: When Saïx confronts Sora over how important Kairi means to him, Sora replies, "Yeah. More than anything." Kairi replies similarly later when Saïx questions her if she wants to see Sora.

* MetalSlime: The Bulky Vendor is a rare Heartless that occasionally shows up within certain worlds and drops rare items when one of four Reaction Commands is used on it. The Bulky Vendor's HP will automatically deplete and it will start to flee once it's found, so you have to catch it and use the Reaction Command before it dies.

* MoodWhiplash: Congratulations! You've just defeated Xemnas, for good this time, and Sora, Riku and Kairi have all gotten home safely. And now they've got all new adventures to go on. Cue the ominous images of three people in armor, in somewhere filled with a ''lot'' of abandoned Keyblades. And what's with the unnerving piano music...?
* MookChivalry: While the fight against the Blizzard Lord and Volcanic Lord is a DualBoss, only one will attack you at a time. The Lord that's sitting out will focus on your party members.

* MultiMookMelee: After defeating Demyx, you're thrust into a series of fights against Heartless while teaming up with ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' characters. Each wave is more dangerous than the last, with the fourth and final wave being filled with nothing but Heartless that have high HP and damage output.

* MundaneWish: After defeating the Storm Rider in the Land of Dragons, the Emperor grants Sora and Mulan each a boon. Sora merely asks for information about the Mysterious Man (Riku) who had warned them of the giant Heartless, while Mulan wants to let the badly overworked Shang have some time off to rest.
** {{Lampshaded}} by the Emperor himself: "Such humble requests."

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Donald accidentally stepped on the keyboard of the system of the Master Core Program which leads to his and Sora's and Goofy's arrest and being transferred into the program.

* NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom: Unlike ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' the game is very linear, with little to no extra areas to find.

* OffscreenTeleportation: In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' game, whenever you see your allies get out of range, they would simply stay there. However, in this game, they would sometimes appear right next to you or even behind you when there's no way for them to get there.
* OneHitKill: Using the "Needle Dive" Reaction Command will instantly knock Sark out, making it easier for Sora to attack the MCP.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Much of the plot’s mystery is prolonged by certain characters refraining from sharing what they know with Sora for one reason or another. [=DiZ=] keeps secrets because he is trying to manipulate Sora, Naminé and Riku feel too guilty about their past actions to come forward, and Mickey knows what happened to Riku but refuses to tell because he made a promise not to.

* PreAsskickingOneLiner: From Mickey Mouse, of all people: "They'll pay for this." Followed by FlungClothing and a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. This, along with very powerful music, makes the King a force for kicking ass!
** His cry of "Sora!" whenever he appears during a boss battle too.
** Pretty much all the bosses get one before the fight begins. Sora tosses one out whenever he enters Drive mode.

* PuzzleBoss: Several of the ''Final Mix '' Organization XIII data rematches feature unique gimmicks that can only be countered with specific strategies.

* FogOWar: There's a Heartless called the [[IronicName Illuminator]] whose only ability is to create this. The problem? You're fighting [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Barbossa]]. He's invincible until you take down the Illuminator, which can respawn.

My sanctuary, my sanctuary…''[[note]]Top: [[TheGoodKing Mickey Mouse]]; Middle: [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Donald Duck]], [[QuestForIdentity Roxas]] and [[SimplemindedWisdom Goofy]]; Bottom: [[PluckyGirl Kairi]] and [[AllLovingHero Sora]]; Background: [[AloofAlly Riku]] and [[NominalHero [=DiZ=] (Ansem the Wise)]]]]

* AccidentalMisnaming: On the second visit to [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]], Jack Sparrow refers to Sora as "Zola".

* AngerBornOfWorry: Donald yells at Goofy after he is knocked unconscious and doesn't wake up for several minutes.

* ArtShift:
** Timeless River is based off of the Creator/{{Disney}} shorts from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, so the character designs are much more simplistic and the color scheme is purely monochrome. Sora is also designed after early anime and manga character designs from the 60s.
** The world Port Royal is based off of the live action movie ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' instead of the series' standard fare of using Creator/{{Disney}}'s animated films for locations, thus it has a darker and much more realistic style than the rest. This is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Sora and co. noting how it feels different when they first enter.
** Halloween Town employs a filter to ensure all of the characters appear more grainy, making everything look more in line with the general aesthetic used by ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' and its stop-motion animation.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Sometimes the rules of Physics like to take a day off. When facing Xemnas they go get popcorn. Highlights include: Flying, running upside buildings, fighting literally nowhere, using the keyblade to cut buildings in multiple pieces from far away with clean cuts, hitting the pieces towards Xemnas, walking on literally nothing (again), and knockback.

*** Particular mention to the Centurion, Donald's staff that is based on Lexaeus's Skysplitter axe. It has the highest Strength boost of any weapon in the game, but its Magic boost is mediocre and it has no ability attached; Donald is a SquishyWizard, so this weapon's strengths run completely counter to how he fights. The "+" version comes with the Damage Control ability, allowing Donald to take half damage at critical health, but he's so frail that it probably won't make a difference.

* BashBrothers: Sora and any party member can unleash Limits that can bring a world of hurt onto their foes.
** Special mention should go to Sora and Riku's limit ''Session'', which ends with an offhand FistBump.

* BetaCouple: Cloud and Tifa, the latter of whom has no characterization in this continuity other than "Cloud's ActionGirl love interest".

* BleakLevel: The Pride Lands, based off of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''. The game's version takes place after Scar's takeover, so there's no plant life outside of the oasis that Timon and Pumbaa live in and the color scheme is dominated by differing shades of grey.

* BonusDungeon: The Cavern of Remembrance in ''Final Mix'', which puts more focus on platforming with Growth abilities.
* BonusFeatureFailure: Unbeknownst to most players, pressing the Select button activates a First-Person mode. It works fine, except the game is forced back into third-person whenever a Reaction Command is activated, making playing only in first-person practically impossible.

* BossRemix: The battle theme for Sora's fight against Roxas in the ''Final Mix'' version is a remix of his normal theme, "The Other Promise".

* CashGate: In Day 2 of the prologue, Roxas and his friends need to earn Munny for a trip to the beach, and you have about six different mini-games to play to earn the cash. Unusually for the trope, you can get past this day by earning as little as 50 Munny; there's also a maximum cap of 1850, and earning that much immediately moves the plot forward. However, no matter how much Roxas earns, it all gets taken away at the end (though it's given to Sora later on).

* DanceBattler: Dancer Nobodies move around the battlefield by gracefully gliding above the ground and attack using elegant kicks. One of their attacks even forces Sora to "dance" with them before dealing damage.

** There's also examples of ''locations'' being demoted to extra rather than characters:

*** The Olympus Coliseum might as well be called "Hades' Underworld (plus the Olympus Coliseum)" due to the fact that the actual Coliseum area is basically only two areas at most and ends up only becoming ''one'' after it gets wrecked by the Hydra. You'll be spending the vast majority of your time in the Underworld instead, which is significantly larger and has all the actual Underdrome challenges, and the only reason you'll ever want to go to the Coliseum proper once the world's plotline is finished is to get the mission score for Phil's pot smashing minigame.

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' [[spoiler: Ansem the Wise says that the shores of the beach in the Realm of Darkness and the shores of the Destiny Islands are connected to each other by the ocean between them. This is not elaborated on further however.]]

* DualBoss: Volcanic Lord and Blizzard Lord are fought together as Agrabah's first boss.

* DuelBoss: Sephiroth, Hercules, Roxas (in the ''Final Mix'' version), Luxord, and Xemnas are fought when Sora is alone. {{Justified|Trope}} for Roxas, Luxord, and Xemnas: the fight with Roxas is a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, Luxord traps Sora's friends, and Xemnas teleports Sora to a different location to fight.

%% (ZCE: Explain the "earn" part.) * EarnYourHappyEnding: Sora, Riku, and Kairi make it back to Destiny Islands, Roxas and Naminé seem to be content within Sora and Kairi, Mickey returns to his throne, and all seems to be right with the worlds.

* EleventhHourRanger: Riku joins the party just before the final gauntlet of boss fights against Xemnas.
* EleventhHourSuperpower: During the final battles (starting with the dragon), the player has access to the MAX versions of all Growth abilities (High Jump, Glide, etc), regardless of the status of their respective Drive Forms (each form has one Growth ability that levels with it) or what Sora has equipped. Maxed out Drive Forms will make use of a secret 5th level that's a lot more powerful than the 4th. The very final level will grant [[SerialEscalation a secret secret 6th level]] of each Growth ability. At that point, the game pulls out all the stops and gives infinite duration for the Double Jump and Glide, which gives complete and infinite mobility in the air.
* EliteMooks: Nobodies are not very common, but they are stronger and much more unpredictable than Heartless. The game's last world and the final hallway of the BonusDungeon are filled with them.

** Xigbar mentions that there were [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Keyblade wielders before Sora]], and most of the extra scenes from ''Final Mix'' also hint at plot points from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', not to mention the implications of Xemnas having a ''really'' strong negative reaction to being referred to as Xehanort, as well as the first Secret Ansem Report explicitly calling attention to Xehanort's amnesia and "possibly superhuman" abilities, all foreshadowing the dramatic conclusion of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''. [[spoiler: With the revelation that Xigbar is actually Luxu, his mention of Keyblade wielders gains a double meaning hinting to his real identity, considering he was a witness to the first Keyblade War way back in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX''.]]

** Per WordOfGod, they [[InvokedTrope invoked]] this using Anti Form, which represents of Sora's vulnerability to the darkness that lurks deep in his heart and what could happen to him if he abuses his Drive powers too much. [[spoiler:Come ''3D'', Xehanort's incarnations lure Sora into darkness in order to corrupt his heart and turn him into another Xehanort vessel to serve his new Organization.]]

* ForcedTutorial: The prologue, which can last up to six hours, mostly consists of exposition and tutorial sections. The cut scenes can be skipped to greatly shorten the length, but the actual tutorials cannot.

** If Sora can gain control of Roxas's weapons during his boss fight, they mostly act as ATasteOfPower for Final Form by floating around him in a glowing spectral form and mostly enhance Sora's combos by independently using Final Form's attacks. There are also some attacks unique to this state, such as enhancing combo finishers by doing a CrossCrossAttack.

The trio revisits a few expanded worlds from the first game (based on ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' (loosely adapting the sequel, ''[[WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar The Return of Jafar]]''), and ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''), as well as all new ones (based on ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts (most prominently ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie''), ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'', and even the live action films ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' and ''Film/{{Tron}}'').