History Awesome / KingdomHeartsIII

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5CTlRKa1SE February D23 trailer]] revealing not only more details of the ''Toy Story'' and ''Tangled'' worlds, the reveal of the ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' world, but the return of Vanitas and ''Marluxia!''

** If you look in the background of the Scare floor in ''Monsters Inc'', you’ll see that it’s filled with balloons, which indicates it’s taking place after the film when Mike and Sulley are running the factory and Boo is returning.

** While he was shown off in the release date trailer shown privately at the 2018 Orchestra event, this trailer has now publicly confirmed that [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Randall]] will be in the game!

** The World kicks off with a bang, by throwing you into a massive MultiMookMelee, similar to the 1000 Heartless Battle from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', only this time, not only are there giant Heartless among the small fry, but the Nobodies and some of the Unversed want a piece of you too. It becomes such an insurmountable melee, that Sora, Donald, and Goofy summon, for the second time in the game [[CoolTrain Big Magic Mountain]] to mow down the titanic horde.

** Data Master Xehanort also kicks things up a notch by [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame using the same Formchange systems as Sora and Lingering Will]], With χ-blade in he can, he is able to create gigantic [[AttackDrones orbital cannons]], FuumaShuriken that spams lasers, and spinning bombs along with creating a DoubleWeapon and a {{whip|ItGood}}. Also, he uses the light of Kingdom Hearts rather then Sora, as well as bring back the throne attack from his final battle.

** Then the battle proper starts. And Yozora quickly makes it clear he won't pull any punches in this fight. He's a SNKBoss through and through, bringing [[SarcasmMode fun]] new elements to the table, like: [[PowerParasite stealing Sora's Keyblade]] and forcing the boy to dodge for an entire minute before giving it back; mess with Sora's HP (not unlike the [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Anti Black Coat Nightmare]]; steal items from Sora's inventory; sometimes sucker punch the player by ''starting the fight with his DesperationAttack''; and being absolutely ''relentless'' with a barrage of powerful attacks and teleporting around the arena. The best bit? If he manages to snag a Kupo Coin from Sora, when you finally defeat him, he'll [[AutoRevive return for more]] with ''half of his HP''. Considering {{Bonus Boss}}es have way more HP than anything else in the games and the sheer difficulty they bring on, that's a huge deal indeed.

* The [[BonusBoss Dark Inferno]] battle. After tearing through the other Battle Gates and obtaining the Secret Reports, you have one last foe to fight: a Heartless with a ScarfOfAsskicking that [[DualWielding dual-wields]] {{BFS}}es that Sora has to fight ''[[DuelBoss by his lonesome]]''. [[FinalExamBoss You'll have to use every attack at your disposal to beat him,]] appropriately using your preferred Keyblade's Formchange, any spells you have at your disposal, and the ever-swift Rage Form when your health is low. Let's just say that a Kupo Coin is practically ''mandatory'' for this fight, and beating it will make you feel like a badass.

* After finishing up Limitcut Episode, the Secret Episode with the [[BonusBoss very last fight in the game]] is unlocked. And it's ''awesome'' in every step.

** To top it all off, all four Titans get back up from their beatings unfazed and ready to keep going. Herc answers this by freeing Zeus, who like in the films, sends the Titans scurrying for their lives after tasting a bit of Zeus’s lightning. Not having this, Herc grabs the Tornado Titan, uses him to vacuum up the other Titans, and flings them all into the cosmos, where they spectacularly explode. All in all, it was worth the wait to get this showdown adapted for the series.

* A meta example in the casting department. It was quite a sad moment to hear that both actors for [[BigBad Master Xehanort]] had passed away within months of each other back in 2015. His replacements on both sides of the ocean are awesome in different ways. In Japanese, Creator/AkioOtsuka (yes, ''[[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]]'') [[PassingTheTorch takes up his father's role]]. In English, who was chosen to replace sci-fi legend Creator/LeonardNimoy? None other than a sci-fi legend from a different franchise: '''Creator/RutgerHauer''' of ''Film/BladeRunner'' fame!
** Akio Otsuka standing in for his late father bears extra mentioning. While most of his roles demonstrate [[BadassBaritone the deep, rich baritone that he is well-known for]], he pulls off a near-perfect impression of his father's [[PlayingAgainstType distinct aged, scratchy voice]]. It's not flawless, since it clearly slips back to Ohtsuka's more often in his hammier moments, but when speaking normally, it's like his father came back to life. At several times during his Data fight in ''Re:Mind'', many of his battle cries, sound uncannily similar to those of another of the late elder Ohtsuka's other hammy villain roles [[VideoGame/MegaManZero4 Dr. Weil]].
* The entire [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S26MxjItmi0 "Let It Go"]] sequence is a pitch perfect recreation of the scene from ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', and it's all rendered '''[[SugarWiki/AwesomeArt in engine]]'''. The fact that the game can be on par with a big budget film without having to pre-render the scene is truly [[SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming a herculean feat of technical engineering]].
** For bonus points, they didn't just recreate the scene frame by frame, they ''fixed'' the infamous animation error of Elsa's hair clipping through her arm.
** On the subject of Arendelle, all of your options are rendered moot (Anna and Kristoff aren't fighters, the former's heart is frozen, Olaf's too easily taken apart, Elsa's reluctant to fight and has been detained by Hans, and Sven is a reindeer). So who ends up joining the party? '''''[[UnexpectedCharacter MARSHMALLOW]]''''', who only recently lost fights against Sora and (presumably, based on the movie's events) Hans, struts on over to Arendelle to save Elsa and ends up becoming your GuestStarPartyMember. ''That'' is UndyingLoyalty.

*** From meta-perspective, there are many SelfImposedChallenge gamers that make the fight for themselves even harder. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-p0FaGJYFA this guy]] most likely takes the cake. What would you call a guy, who was able to beat Yozora at [=Lv1=] Critical Mode with no damage taken ''while letting him steal the Kupo coin on purpose'', if not awesome?

** Kingdom Key and Starlight give you access to Second Form, which gives you access to your moves and special commands from previous games. If you fill the Situation Gauge, then you can cap it off with either the ever-useful Sonic Blade, or if you can fill it twice, Ars Arcanum.
** Hero's Origin gives you Counter Shield, which allows you to not only block attacks, but retaliate by producing a giant fist from the shield after the fact. And that's when you aren't just [[ThrowingYourShieldAlwaysWorks throwing it at enemies]]. And for the Finish Command, Sora jumps in a chariot pulled by a glowing Pegasus to rain down electric wrath from above.

** Favorite Deputy gives you Hyper Hammer, an absolutely massive hammer capable of cracking the ground with its strikes. And doing well enough lets you turn it into the Drill Punch, perfect for rapidly doling out hits, or slamming a claw all around as the Finish Command.

** Shooting Star grants you Double Arrowguns, an unholy combination of Wisdom Form and Xigbar's guns that lets you float around and unload projectiles into everyone around you when you aren't just freefiring. And if you do well enough, you can turn the Keyblade into a massive bazooka known as the Magic Launcher. The Finish Command involves lots of StuffBlowingUp.

** Kingdom Key and Starlight give you access to Second Form, which gives you access to your moves and special commands from previous games.

** The trailer starts with a catchy [[TagLine tagline]]. Come next scene, Sora exemplifies this tagline by literally ''skydiving'' into the fight, giving a breathtaking skyview of the Mount Olympus along the way. Oh, the wonderful things you'll be able to do in this game...
-->'''Tagline:''' Don't assume your dreams are just fantasy. If you can imagine a world, believe in it... and dive in.

** Woody and Sora shaking hands. It’s a small little moment, but considering how long Nomura has wanted Toy Story, how long fans have wanted Pixar in general, with it all finally coming together, its a nice warm and fuzzy moment for those that have really followed the series' production history.

** Take it from someone that was there; Kingdom Hearts 3's presence was extremely palpable. Whenever the game was mentioned, the crowd sent nuts, there was a almost literal sea of cosplayers, and it could all even be considered a CMOA or CMOH depending how you look at it, because Nomura and the Disney executives got to hear and feel the love. Add onto that the passionate reactions to the stream, and by the people that were there, its good feelings all around. Only Kingdom Hearts could elicit so many feels from a Goddamn TRAILER.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5CTlRKa1SE February D23 trailer]] revealing not only more details of the Toy Story and Tangled worlds, the reveal of the [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Monsters Inc.]] world, but the return of Vanitas and ''Marluxia!''
** Alongside this, the reveal of the new theme song, sung by none other than Utada Hikaru! The trailer shows off the new song ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuSh4-cbAOc Chikai/Oath in Japanese]], [[https://youtu.be/Zc2vEr-618g Don't Think Twice in English]]), as well as Riku and Mickey's new outfits in a cutscene in the Realm of Darkness and hinting at the return of the Riku Replica!

** If you look in the background of the Scare floor in Monsters Inc, you’ll see that it’s filled with balloons, which indicates it’s taking place after the film when Mike and Sulley are running the factory and Boo is returning.
** In Monsters Inc, Sora takes to using ''a door'' as a Keyblade. He's officially getting inventive now...And unleashes a metric tonne of Dream Eaters at some enemies. And uses Mike Wazowski as a bowling ball!

** One of Toy Story’s boss battles has them fighting a giant spaceship Heartless inside a toy city in an alternate dimension.

** When we see Vanitas confronting Sora and company in the Monsters Inc. world, he wears a black coat similar to that of the Organization, implying Xehanort brought him BackFromTheDead to serve as one of his Recusants.
*** The trailer takes it one step further for Vanitas' grand reveal. An orchestrated remix of Unbreakable Chains (from the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra Character Medley [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Z78iVpKYM Heroes and Heroines]]) plays and it is glorious!

** When Sora and company are facing Vanitas in Monsters Inc., Mike Wazowski of all people stands up him. He has to get held back by Sulley in order to keep him from getting too close to Vanitas.

* The Classic Kingdom trailer revealed LCD, Game and Watch style minigames for Kingdom Hearts 3! Nomura said there will be twenty of them, and what's more amazing is they are all old school Mickey Mouse cartoons, but turned into video games!

** Combined with NightmareFuel and {{Tearjerker}}, Xehanort successfully possessing Aqua is a big one just for how unexpected it was.

* An aspect not quite mentioned, but deserves to be brought up; the extent Square has gone to bring in the original actors for Tangled, Frozen, Hercules and Big Hero 6. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And for Mr. Gibbs.]]

** The second Re:Mind trailer from Tokyo Game Show brings out team attacks performed by the Sea-Salt Trio and Aqua & Ven, hints towards Data Battles returning from II, the Oblivion coming back in addition to Oathkeeper, Namine playing a bigger role than in the base game and finally, '''THE EPIC SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TERRA-XEHANORT AND THE LINGERING WILL!'''

* Fittingly as the GrandFinale for the the main story arc started with the original Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts III combines some of the best gameplay elements from all the previous games to give players access to the most versatile and fluid moveset the series has seen so far.

* A meta example in the casting department. It was quite a sad moment to hear that both actors for [[BigBad Master Xehanort]] had passed away within months of each other back in 2015. His replacements on both sides of the ocean are awesome in different ways. In Japanese, Creator/AkioOhtsuka (yes, ''[[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]]'') [[PassingTheTorch takes up his father's role]]. In English, who was chosen to replace sci-fi legend Creator/LeonardNimoy? None other than a sci-fi legend from a different franchise: '''Creator/RutgerHauer''' of ''Film/BladeRunner'' fame!
** Akio Ohtsuka standing in for his late father bears extra mentioning. While most of his roles demonstrate [[BadassBaritone the deep, rich baritone that he is well-known for]], he pulls off a near-perfect impression of his father's [[PlayingAgainstType distinct aged, scratchy voice]]. It's not flawless, since it clearly slips back to Ohtsuka's more often in his hammier moments, but when speaking normally, it's like his father came back to life. At several times during his Data fight in ''Re:Mind'', many of his battle cries, sound uncannily similar to those of another of the late elder Ohtsuka's other hammy villain roles [[VideoGame/MegaManZero4 Dr. Weil]].

-->'''Sulley:''' [[PreAssKickingOneLiner Made you look.]]

* A bit of Fridge Awesome, but the Caribbean world is already awesome enough for transitioning to being a mini-VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag in that you get to pilot a ship (The Leviathan) around a small section of the open waters. How do you learn the ship controls in this game? From Jack Sparrow after escaping Davy Jones' Locker. Before you land on another island. Longtime Pirates of the Caribbean fans...let that sink in for a moment. That's right: ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis You get. To pilot.]]'' '''''[[ShockingMoments THE BLACK FUCKING PEARL.]]'''''

-->(''long, dramatic {{beat}})''

* Aqua's battle with Vanitas in The Land of Departure. It's been over ten years since she's been in the Realm of Light, and in trying to rescue her friend she comes across one of the same monstrous villains that caused her and her friends so much grief so many years ago. The emotion and catharsis he is ''incredibly'' palpable. You play as Aqua in this fight, complete with an ''epic'' rendition of ''[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Enter The Darkness]]''.

*** And if the above wasn't enough awesome, Zettaflare is one of the most powerful spells in the entire Final Fantasy series, both in gameplay (being a spell capable of easily [[TotalPartyKill party-wiping]] you if you're unprepared), and [[AllThereInTheManual in the lore.]] However, despite its existence in FF's lore, it has only been used ''[[VideoGame/BravelyDefault once]]'' in the entire series, ''and it was from a Final Boss that was superpowered and in their final form.'' And Donald ''cast it without any sort of outside power increasing his own, even if casting it made him pass out from the strain.'' This means that, as funny as it sounds, '''''Donald Fauntleroy Duck is currently, and canonically, the most powerful [[TheRedMage red mage]] in all of Square Enix's games.''''' [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 "I am the storm", indeed.]]

*** Goofy deserves some recognition in this scene too. Donald may have had the big spell but while the rest of the party was being physically one-shot by Terranort's overwhelming strength and speed, Goofy just jumps in and parries him effortlessly, his most impressive shielding feat since defending Sora from Riku in Hollow Bastion back in VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI. Terranort is probably the physically strongest of all the bosses, and Goofy just hops in ready to match his power while all these bonafide Keyblade masters are dazed and confused.
** Ephemer sending the keyblades of the dead keyblade wielders of the past to help Sora. What's more if people who completed the contest of Union X that lets you get your username in the game, the usernames and the union they belong to, at the point of time when they played the contest, appears in the situation commands. Luckily it's different for Japanese and Global versions of both games, since they are separate, so the players still get their names of either or both, depending if the person plays both versions of Kingdom Hearts 3.

** Thanks to Namine's help from the final world, Lingering Will swoops in to clash with Terra-Xehanort, [[BigDamnHeroes Save Ventus and other guardians]] from him. [[OhCrap When Terra-Xehanort is finally aware who Lingering Will is, he can only utter "This is Impossible!"]]. Terra's Lingering Will fights Terra-Xehanort in the cutscene, complete with his signature Whip Key-Transformation, before pushing him to the point where Terra-Xehanort is forced to flee after hitting him directly with his [[WaveMotionGun Ultima Cannon Key-Transformation]]. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, he talks for the first time.]] All this while [[ThemeMusicPowerUp Rage Awakened is played.]]

** Terra-Xehanort manages to chain Sora, Aqua and Ventus, using the bonds Terra had with them to make the chains unbreakable. When he drops Aqua and Ventus to kill them, [[BigDamnHeroes The Heartless Guardian swoops in, and catch them before they fall, while Terra's theme starts to play]]. He breaks the chains like nothing, and procceds to put Aqua and Ven gently down on the ground, before facing Terra-Xehanort with a DeathGlare. Terra-Xehanort can only ask in utter horror [[TalkToTheFist "HOW?! You fell to the dar-"]] before The Guardian grabs him, then rips off the bindings on his face, and starts to finally speak [[CallBack "One day... I... will... set... this... right..."]], [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep the last speech of the Lingering Will in Birth By Sleep]], showing that Terra's heart is inside of the Guardian. With Sora's help, Terra's heart and mind finally return to his body removing the Xehanort part inside of him once and for all.

---> '''Master Xehanort''': [[ArcWords There is one sky, one destiny!]]

*** And all the while, the final boss theme: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyQaBKNuMJ8 "Dark Domination"]] is playing. At first you might think it's just a medley of "Guardando Nel Buio", the final boss theme of VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI and "Rage Awakened", a theme mostly attributed to the Lingering Will. So why is this song so appropriate? Because not only does it invoke the nostalgia of when Sora first defeated Xehanort-as-Ansem in the first game, but Rage Awakened has always been about pure, undiluted anger towards this one man. Even before we knew his full crimes, players knew this song was devoted towards unrelenting rage and hatred towards this one man: Xehanort. And here he is, the final battle to stop him once and for all. ''And he just killed Kairi not just a few moments ago.'' To say that Sora wouldn't be feeling the same way would not be a long shot.
*** Perhaps to rival this epic FinalBoss fight is the entirety of the what occurs afterwards: ''[[HesBack Master Eraqus's return]]'':

---> '''Eraqus:''' Enough. Checkmate.
*** Master Eraqus finally caps off his presence in the Kingdom Hearts universe by seeing off Terra, Aqua, and Ventus and [[ItsAllMyFault taking responsibily for his part in the suffering they have had to endure for ten years]]. In a huge contrast to Master Xehanort's '''huge''' KickTheDog and NeverMyFault moment back in ''3D'', Eraqus does not for a single moment try to deflect any blame for the huge mess his KnightTemplar and PoorCommunicationKills additude made and makes it clear that he's knows and fully accepts the mistakes he has made, and in doing so, gave his students the closure they need to move and do better in the future AND showcase he's a bigger person than Xehanort will ever be. How can one say this man ''hasn't'' EarnYourHappyEnding at this point?!

'''Ira''': (''looks at the No Name Keyblade'') Is that you, Luxu? You look different.\\
'''Luxu''': (''removing his hood to reveal [[WhamShot Xigbar's face]]'') ''[[WhamLine Haven't heard that name in a long while.]]''

** Even better, the casting of ol' Doc Brown somehow restores Tetsuya Nomura's intention to have Eraqus and Xehanort represent ''Star Wars'' and ''Star Trek'', respectively, by casting a major Trek movie villain. Fittingly, it's Kruge, the villain of ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''[[note]]Fitting, because it's the movie where Leonard Nimoy properly returned to the franchise after ''Wrath of Khan'' was meant to be his last outing before he changed his mind[[/note]]!

** Data Master Xehanort also kicks things up a notch by [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame using the same Formchange systems as Sora and Lingering Will]], With χ-blade in he can, he is able to create gigantic [[AttackDrones orbital cannons]], FuumaShuriken that spams lasers, and spinning bombs along with creating a DoubleWeapon and a [[WhipItGood whip]]. Also, he uses the light of Kingdom Hearts rather then Sora, as well as bring back the throne attack from his final battle.

** They also have a unique reaction command: A combination attack called [[TrueCompanions "Thinking Of You"]], a clear nod to the clocktower theme from ''Days'', "At Dusk I Will Think Of You". Also doubles as a reference to the opening of her iconic letter, heard at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, and seen in the opening of Kingdom Hearts I.

** For starters: the heavily hyped cutscene at the very end of the final Re:Mind trailer plays in its entirety, depicting Sora's meeting with [[RealAfterAll Yozora]], from the ShowWithinAShow Verum Rex in the Toy Box World. And, true to ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' fashion, it doesn't fail to blow the players minds with new info and the fact Yozora claims he must "save Sora" before ''drawing his weapons at him and changing the scenery'', first to Sora's Station of Awakening and then to the Shibuya seen in the Secret Ending.
** Then the battle proper starts. And Yozora quickly makes it clear he won't pull any punches in this fight. He's a SNKBoss through and through, bringing [[SarcasmMode fun]] new elements to the table, like: [[PowerParasite stealing Sora's Keyblade]] and forcing the boy to dodge for an entire minute before giving it back; mess with Sora's HP (not unlike the [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Anti Black Coat Nightmare]]; steal items from Sora's inventory; sometimes sucker punch the player by ''starting the fight with his DesperationAttack''; and being absolutely ''relentless'' with a barrage of powerful attacks and teleporting around the arena. The best bit? If he manages to snag a Kupo Coin from Sora, when you finally defeat him, he'll [[AutoRevive return for more]] with ''half of his HP''. Considering [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] has way more HP than anything else in the games and the sheer difficulty they bring on, that's a huge deal indeed.

** ButWaitTheresMore The Secret Episode actually has [[MultipleEndings two endings]], based if you managed to win or lose against Yozora (meaning you only have a shot at him). In the [[NonStandardGameOver bad ending]], Yozora says [[ApologeticAttacker "Sorry, but I don't lose"]], then Sora [[TakenForGranite turns into crystal]], with Yozora vowing to "save him". After that, he appears in the Final World, before waking up in the back seat of a limo (''very'' similar to the Regalia promotional material from ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'') and uttering the famous lines [[ArcWords "I've been having these weird thoughts lately.]] [[CallBack Like, is any of this for real or not?"]], before being joined by Sora's voice midway. He then finishes it with "None of this makes sense to me.", before the screen fading to black.

*** And if the above wasn't enough awesome, Zettaflare is one of the most powerful spells in the entire Final Fantasy series, both in gameplay (being a spell capable of easily [[TotalPartyKill party-wiping]] you if you're unprepared), and [[AllThereInTheManual in the lore.]] However, despite its existence in FF's lore, it has only been used ''[[VideoGame/BravelyDefault once]]'' in the entire series, ''and it was from a Final Boss that was superpowered and in their final form.'' And Donald ''cast it without any sort of outside power increasing his own, even if casting it made him pass out from the strain.'' This means that, as funny as it sounds, '''''Donald Duck is currently, and canonically, the most powerful [[TheRedMage red mage]] in all of Square Enix's games.''''' [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 "I am the storm", indeed.]]

* The D23 2017 trailer reveals a brand new world, which is none other than ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory''!! And it features an all-new story written by some of the original staff in the film! And you get to fight with both Buzz ''and'' Woody (that's right--''five'' party members at once)!

-->'''Woody:''' That's right. I am a toy. And a friend. My guess is nobody ever loved you before, because you know nothing about hearts and love!

*** The awesomeness of the fight goes double if you factor in how difficult it is. To put it bluntly, Kairi is ''not'' an easy character to use for the fight, especially if you're playing in Critical. She's a massive GlassCannon, exhibiting the worst characteristics of the ''Birth by Sleep'' protagonists: she has low health (Ventus) and atrocious defense (Aqua), and her speed isn't that great either (Terra). However, when she hits, she hits hard; the aforementioned cons don't make her any weaker than Sora in terms of power, especially her one-lock Shotlock. Her attacks are also underscored by their beautiful animation ([[PetalPower flowers!]] Also, [[PinkMeansFeminine everything is tinted pink]]). DifficultButAwesome indeed.

** Should Mickey get hit by the Xehanorts, a prompt comes up to have Mickey get back up. And his health bar refills without Mickey casting any Cure spells. Yep, Mickey just heals himself through ''sheer willpower''. Minnie, it seems, made a ''fabulous'' choice for a consort - he just doesn't give in!

** To cap it off, Sora and company (meaning Sora, Donald and Goofy ''plus'' Riku, Kairi, Mickey and Lea) will fight a gigantic army of Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed--from the looks of it, [[UpToEleven even bigger than in the Battle of 1000 Heartless]].

*** [[UpToEleven And if the above wasn't enough awesome]], Zettaflare is one of the most powerful spells in the entire Final Fantasy series, both in gameplay (being a spell capable of easily [[TotalPartyKill party-wiping]] you if you're unprepared), and [[AllThereInTheManual in the lore.]] However, despite its existence in FF's lore, it has only been used ''[[VideoGame/BravelyDefault once]]'' in the entire series, ''and it was from a Final Boss that was superpowered and in their final form.'' And Donald ''cast it without any sort of outside power increasing his own, even if casting it made him pass out from the strain.'' This means that, as funny as it sounds, '''''Donald Duck is currently, and canonically, the most powerful [[TheRedMage red mage]] in all of Square Enix's games.''''' [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 "I am the storm", indeed.]]

** They also have a unique reaction command: A combination attack called [[TrueCompanions "Thinking Of You"]], a clear nod to the clocktower theme from ''Days'', "At Dusk I Will Think Of You".

** '''[[DangerousForbiddenTechnique "Zettaflare!"]]''' - cue the ear splintering, Earth shattering, bone rattling Kaboom, and Donald ''literally burning out his life energy to save his friends'' and using a spell so powerful that it singlehandedly sends Terra-Xehanort flying away. [[SubvertedTrope Unfortunately]], he passes out from the strain and is useless against the giant wave of Heartless that follows. Still, Lingering Will’s own WaveMotionGun just sends him flying, and they need to continue the duel off screen. Donald one shot the final boss of Birth By Sleep!

*** Ansem, Seeker of Darkness is deprived of his Guardian. Thus, he decides to use attacks that he previously used as part of ''The World of Chaos'', his strongest form in KH1, and uses them very creatively.

* After Kairi's aforementioned AdaptationalBadass moment against Xemnas, an entirely new phase to the boss fight is added in: the Sea Salt trio vs. Xemnas and Saïx. On its face, it's a fight to rescue the [[BadassInDistress incapacitated Sora and Kairi]], but at the end, Roxas reveals that the three were also reclaiming something from Xemnas: their [[SigilSpam Recusant's Sigils]], the mark of an Organization member and the first common thread that tied them all together.

*** From meta-perspective, there are many SelfImposedChallenge gamers that make the fight for themselves even harder. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-p0FaGJYFA this guy]] most likely takes the cake. What would you call a guy, who was able to beat Yozora at [=Lv1=] Critical Mode with no damage taken ''while leaving him steal the Kupo coin on purpose'', if not awesome?

** Then the battle proper starts. And Yozora quickly makes it clear he won't pull any punches in this fight. He's a SNKBoss through and through, bringing [[SarcasmMode fun]] new elements to the table, like: [[PowerParasite stealing Sora's Keyblade]] and forcing the boy to dodge for an entire minute before giving it back; mess with Sora's HP (not unlike the [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Anti Black Coat Nightmare]]; steal items from Sora's inventory; and being absolutely ''relentless'' with a barrage of powerful attacks and teleporting around the arena. The best bit? If he manages to snag a Kupo Coin from Sora, when you finally defeat him, he'll [[AutoRevive return for more]] with ''half of his HP''. Considering [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] has way more HP than anything else in the games and the sheer difficulty they bring on, that's a huge deal indeed.

*** Goofy deserves some recognition in this scene too. Donald may have had the big spell but while the rest of the party was being physically one-shot by Terranort's overwhelming strength and speed, Goofy just jumps in and parries him effortlessly, his most impressive shielding feat since defending Sora from Riku in Hollow Bastion back in KH1. Terranort is probably the physically strongest of all the bosses, and Goofy just hops in ready to match his power while all these bonafide Keyblade masters are dazed and confused.

*** And all the while, the final boss theme: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyQaBKNuMJ8 "Dark Domination"]] is playing. At first you might think it's just a medley of "Guardando Nel Buio", the final boss theme of KH1 and "Rage Awakened", a theme mostly attributed to the Lingering Will. So why is this song so appropriate? Because not only does it invoke the nostalgia of when Sora first defeated Xehanort-as-Ansem in the first game, but Rage Awakened has always been about pure, undiluted anger towards this one man. Even before we knew his full crimes, players knew this song was devoted towards unrelenting rage and hatred towards this one man: Xehanort. And here he is, the final battle to stop him once and for all. ''And he just killed Kairi not just a few moments ago.'' To say that Sora wouldn't be feeling the same way would not be a long shot.