Awesome / Kingdom Hearts II

The game

WARNING: Per wiki policy, spoilers are unmarked on Awesome Moments pages.

• The Triangle button (△) might as well be renamed the "Awesome Button", since pressing it causes you to do some pretty awesome things (like deflecting 10+ of Sephiroth's lightning quick swings in 1 second or cutting skyscrapers in half).
  • Perhaps one of the best is in Beast's Castle. Wherein you hop onto the chandelier, bring it down, smack it into the Dark Thorn, then swing it around and knock it on every single pillar in the process.
• The final Roxas vs Axel fight. Throughout the entire prologue, Roxas has been having enough trouble using the Keyblade as it is, and is using the same three-hit combos Sora did in the first game. Doesn't help we have no idea who the guy is at this point. Then he duels Axel, who gives the famous "I'm SO FLATTERED" quote. Roxas responds by pulling out two Keyblades, becoming the first person in the series to use two at once, and becomes a spinning maelstrom of destruction with long, powerful multi-hit combos that can drain a third of a health bar.
  • Axel's line, Roxas dual-wielding, dueling in a ring of fire, dueling on the ring of fire, their conversation afterward... the entire fight itself was a Moment of Awesome for both of them.
• In The Land of Dragons, after Yao punches Sora to the ground, Donald makes sure he's okay, then pushes up his sleeves, and tackles Yao. This shows that Donald and Sora have come a long way from when they first met, where they could just barely get along. And now, Donald is willing to attack someone just for knocking Sora down.
• Shang knocking Shan-Yu over and then taking the Emperor in to safety.
• Pretty much any boss against one of the Disney villains. There's just something cathartic about beating up villains you remember from childhood, all while awesome music plays.
• The "hidden" playable character who comes to Sora's aid when defeated by certain bosses, and even the earliest reveals had people cheering. Just imagine it, you're fighting Cerberus in the Underworld, coming under siege with your health whittling away. The decisive blow is dealt, and Sora is stricken down. Wait... The interface looks different. ..."I won't give up!"?
  Mickey Mouse: Sora! *Flips in from on high, landing with Keyblade at the ready.* My turn!
  • While Mickey cannot actually end the fight, due to lacking combo finishers, but whether his health expires or he manages to fully charge his drive gauge, he will never fail to get Sora back into the fight.
  • This leads to moments that can only be dreamed up in fanfiction, like Mickey Mouse taking on Shan Yu.
• Shadow Stalker's and Dark Thorn's back-to-back boss fights.
  • To elaborate - at one point you can jump onto the chandelier and ride it like a swing ball to smash into Dark Thorn and, at one point, you get thrown away by Dark Thorn. If you press Triangle (△) at the right point, then Sora swings around a pole several times and smashes into Dark Thorn with Keyblade drawn.
• Auron's role in Olympus Coliseum is somehow even more awesome than anything he did in Final Fantasy X. He gets brought back from the dead by Hades to murder Hercules, practically spits in his face in return, and goes off to team up with Sora and kick all kinds of ass.
  • Not to mention some of the lines he says to Hades.
    "This is my story. And you're not part of it."
    "No wonder no one wants to die"
  • And even after he's teamed up with Sora, it doesn't end there. When Hades makes Auron his slave by brainwashing him and forces him to battle against Hercules, he doesn't only keep his stance. He is winning, only minutes away from wiping the floor with Hercules when Sora and the party storm in and free him from Hades' control. Auron not only survives a battle against a super strong demigod, but he's kicking his ass without breaking a sweat.
• To his credit, Hades quickly demonstrates why he's the God of the Dead. In the Underworld, against someone who isn't divine or has divine assistance, he's invincible. Sure, he's groving about while he's chasing Sora and friends, but he still has that Implacable Man energy. When the good guys shut a door behind them to slow him down, he just teleports to the other side and just casually remarks "leaving so soon?" Which is admittedly just as funny as it is awesome. Oh, and while Sora can use his own magic just fine, the Underworld's curse disables the magic that the good faries weaved into his clothes, so no drive forms. Hades also scares the hell out of Pete, who is usually much more of confident around other villains aside from Maleficent.
• Demyx's status as That One Boss can distract people from one major feat he pulled off: He managed to sneak into Mt. Olympus to steal the Olympus Stone. This bears repeating: Demyx broke into a place where gods live and stole one of their relics with impunity from the gods.
  • On that note, just him being That One Boss, period. He's generally presented as the weakest member of Organization XIII shown thus far, and far from threatening. Then you encounter him at Hollow Bastion. Just as you're thinking that this fight is going to go swimmingly..."Silence, traitor." Cue one hell of a Wake-Up Call Boss that will etch the phrase "Dance, water, dance!" into your mind.
• Though most of what she did in the first game was behind the scenes, Queen Minnie gets several crowning moment in this game:
  • She shows some extreme guts to threaten Maleficent of all people.
  Minnie: You better stop right now if you know what's good for you!
  • Also not being a helpless escort during the Disney Castle mission and using her awesome but useful light attack, Faith, on Heartless in the Castle.
    • Well, there had to be a reason - other than the castle belonging to her anyway - that Mickey left her in charge. He could have appointed anyone to look after the Castle and Minnie, but he didn't - he appointed his wife, a tiny mouse who is also capable of kicking all of the arse if she needs too - she doesn't need protection as Mickey officially considers his wife capable of doing it herself; they're on equal footing here, as the royal Battle Couple of the entire series.
• Minnie has an escort mission... which is not annoying as Minnie is dangerous.
• Timeless River, sort of celebrating the past of Mickey Mouse before Epic Mickey did.
• Being able to combo Past!Pete into Present!Pete to, in effect make him hit himself with a shockwave.
  • Just having Past!Pete fight alongside you against Present!Pete is awesome by itself.
• Port Royal, as a whole, is an extremely wholesome experience. You fight the Undead pirates, blast other pirates ships, essentially get a retelling of the movie and a sort of continuation on the second visit, fight Barbossa and an Aztec Grim Reaper Heartless as bosses, and actually see blood- even if its just a cut on the hand. Jack Sparrow is as cool as he was in the movie, even being able to wield a Keyblade for a short time; and it is interesting to see the stylised, anime-ish, and realistic characters clash (particularly Pete conversing with Barbossa).
  • The cutscene before the boss battle with Barbossa, where the heroes pull a Big Damn Heroes, there's a swordfight, and The Illuminator is introduced, letting Barbossa get a cool pose with it's Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Any time you summon Genie, it usually ends up being very spectacular. Especially since he mimic's Sora's drive forms.
• Lock, Shock and Barrel call Maleficent an "old hag"... and don't die. Now, they may already be dead, given that they live in Halloween Town, but that's still something no-one else has done.
• The Prison Keeper in Halloween Town, which is the first boss to have above three health bars, and lord help you if you are underleveled.
  • Actually if you're proficient enough at Guard/Reflect (not that the game ever gives a proper tutorial on them) Prison Keeper is very manageable even at level 1. Which makes the fight more awesome in that you'll be deflecting his attacks back at him!
• Tifa turns up. Sora, Donald and Goofy snap to attention, too terrified to disobey her.
• The Hostile Program, which is one of the few bosses that isn't a Disney or Square Enix character, isn't in the main cast, nor is it a Heartless, Nobody, Unversed or Dream Eater, is fought as the boss in the first^note or second, depending on whether or not the brief return to Hollow Bastion counts as part of the SP visit visit to Space Paranoids, and after which is where the game starts to heat up a little (YMMV on opinion though).
• Assuming Sephiroth is actually not Cloud's dark side - which is implied to be true in this game - then it means he's given into Darkness and does not have a Heartless or Nobody. Why isn't Xehanort using this man to conquer the worlds and start the Keyblade War? He's able to wield Darkness with no ill effects, which only Xehanort and Maleficent have previously managed...
• Stitch fights in the Battle of Hollow Bastion and shoots two Heartless. A third Heartless attacks him and he avoids the dodge by jumping away with an "excuse me, I am cute and fluffy! How dare you attack me!" look on his face... before shooting the Heartless in retaliation. The Heartless dies in one hit. Stitch, we really hope you do not have those guns around Lilo.
• Rikku, Yuna and Paine fight a Heartless. It involves Rikku bopping the Heartless on the head and Yuna and Paine kicking it in the face to make it fall off a cliff.
• The Battle of Hollow Bastion has Cloud surrounded by Heartless. Cue Sephiroth pulling a Big Damn Heroes moment with his enormous thirty foot long katana murdering them all in one strike.
• Normally touching a Heartless is a bad idea... unless, of course, you are Tifa or armed with weapons. Tifa fights six of them and wins and she has only her fists as weapons. She's that deadly that Heartless cannot harm her when she physically lays a hand on them.
• The moment when Mickey Mouse shows why Xehanort acknowledges him as a worthy enemy and becomes fucking horrifying as he unleashes a can of literal and proverbial shit onto Heartless and makes even Yoda look tame. Mickey. Fucking. Mouse.
  • When Goofy "dies" and Mickey says "They'll pay for this,"; the way he throws off his cloak and gets his Keyblade is so epically awesome it's hard to describe - before that, Mickey's fists clench with sheer rage. One thing you do know however, is that the Heartless are, most definitely, completely and utterly screwed by one incredibly pissed off and furious mouse who has a reason to viciously and violently murder them. He does.
  • Then there was Donald. After Goofy 'dies', he breaks down sobbing. Then, out of rage and grief, he runs into the fight screaming with anger, arms flailing.
• "The Battle of 1,000 Heartless", in which Sora slaughters exactly one thousand Heartless all by himself. This particular battle had also given rise to The War Sequence trope. Even the reveal that destroying them was planned shouldn't dampen the awesomeness that much.
  • Yuffie and Aerith fighting together (albeit somewhat offscreen) during the attack on Radiant Gardens and within the 1,000 Heartless War; when Yuffie collapses from exhaustion, Aerith busts out a Curaga spell to keep her ally going.
  • During the attack, all the good guys join in. We get to see scenes like Stitch, in the middle of the Heartless army, firing his guns and the Gullwings kicking a Heartless off a ledge.
  • Leon and Cloud manage to combine Back-to-Back Badasses and Snark-to-Snark Combat into one enjoyable scene.
    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?
  • Right before the battle, Sora runs down a ravine fighting Heartless without Donald or the believed dead Goofy, but he isn't alone. Yuffie, Tifa, Cloud, and Leon join in one at a time.
• Maleficent letting the Nobodies attack her (and, to her credit, surviving their attack) to give Sora, Donald, and Goofy some time to run away. And promising that We Will Meet Again. She'd been going against them the whole time, and then that. Makes up for hanging around with Pete quite nicely.
  • Hey now, Pete himself gets to be badass along with her when they pull a "Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work" moment in the final world. A huge swarm of Heartless is headed their way, and Pete yells "Bring 'em on!" before he and Maleficent rush into battle.
    • Coded confirms that they even survive that.
  • When Maleficent first arrives in the Castle That Never Was, Saix is directly facing her. He makes a remark about intrusions never ending...and then just up and leaves, which is directly followed by Maleficent wearing a proud smirk on her face as she looks at where he once stood. The implication is that even Saix doesn't want to risk fighting Maleficent, her magic is that powerful.
• The Storm Rider boss fight in The Land of Dragons, where you can hitch a ride on the boss's back.
  • Doubly awesome if you finish him off with the reaction command under his stomach, which causes Sora to deliver some quick strikes to his belly, send him flying into the air, and lands with a pose as the Storm Rider slams into the ground behind him and dies.
• It might take him a little while to shake off his Heroic BSoD this time around, but once he does, The Beast is just as awesome as he was in the first game. A common complaint of this game is that the Disney worlds are mostly Filler, but Beast continues his streak of being relevant by personally helping Sora rip Xaldin apart, (with a little help from Belle's elbow).
  Beast: I know one thing... This castle belongs to ME. Xaldin will NEVER be welcome here!
  • For that matter, Belle's actions in general - rather than play the role of Damsel in Distress and helplessly watch Xaldin force Beast to make a Sadistic Choice, she just has none of it and elbows Xaldin in the stomach, grabbing the rose and running to safety. Belle isn't just eye candy. All that book reading and page turning and using signs to knock away water and climbing ladders and swinging on poles around the town has made Belle strong.
    • Beast smashes open the door to the bridge of his castle to get to the man who has kidnapped Belle. This door was built to keep out advancing enemy armies... so just how powerful is Beast?
• No matter what the player thinks of Atlantica, the scene of Donald and Goofy rescuing Sora after he gets captured by Flotsam and Jetsam during "Ursula's Revenge" shows how far they will go to protect him, no matter the danger.
  • For that matter, the climax of the battle with Ursula when the Trident falls at Eric's feet in his boat.
  Ursula: That belongs to me!
  Eric: All right then — you can have it! *hurls the Trident through Ursula and destroys her*
  • Even better was that this was how Ursula was going to be defeated in her original film.
• The battle with Jafar certainly qualifies, as it serves as quantifiable proof of where Sora's levels went. Consider, in the first game, Sora could only trap him in his lamp, a la the original movie. The second game adapts Return of Jafar, but instead of destroying the lamp to destroy Jafar, Sora just takes his keyblade and the carpet and kills him direct, with Jafar having taken a few levels himself, what with him throwing the city of Agrabah at Sora the whole time.
• The boss of the second visit to Halloween Town, The Experiment, which shows how much research was put in as the creature is a mish-mash of background props from The Nightmare Before Christmas (for example, its right arm is part of the scenery in Dr. Finkelstein's lab).
• Pumbaa gets a quick one. On the second visit to Pride Lands, the ghost of Scar is haunting the land. While Timon is off getting Simba, Sora, and the others, Pumbaa is seen standing defiantly in front of Nala and staring down Scar's ghost alone in an attempt to protect her. Granted, he's shaking like a leaf and likely wouldn't have been able to do much, but it's still a pretty awesome moment.
• Taking down the Groundshaker, one of the largest Heartless ever fought (only beaten by the World of Chaos) in the Pride Lands. What's more pure awesome is that Sora happens to be a lion cub here!
  • Scar gets one for the battle itself. When you fight him in the first visit to the Pride Lands, he's just come Back from the Dead as a Heartless, but kept his original appearance, a feat only Xehanort has been capable of up to this point. During the second visit, Scar psychologically torments Simba in the form of ghostly images of himself, after which he combines them into his new Heartless form, the aforementioned Groundshaker. Scar came back as a Heartless twice, something not even Xehanort was able to accomplish.
• In spite of the weight limit making the battle harder than most, the Solar Sailor battle is a noted iconic moment in the franchise, and the pre-battle cutscene is one of the game's Signature Scenes. To start, dozens of Heartless are weighing down on the sailor to sink it and protect the MCP, but the party fights them off. A good prelude to one of the game's best bosses.
• Tron smashing Sark in the face with his disk in Space Paranoids.
  • During the boss battle after this, once the MCP takes enough damage, Sark will sometimes put up a wall to stop the party from fleeing... which will allow Sora to perform a reaction command that will allow him to stab Sark in the head and instantly kill him! BIG MISTAKE, SARK!
• Magic in general is pretty awesome. But Reflega and Magnega take the cake!
• Tifa willingly taking on Sephiroth. One woman. Bare-handed. Against a guy who habitually carries a ten-foot-long katana. And she holds her own. It's not out of the realm of possibility to believe that, had Cloud not fought Sephiroth, Tifa would have been able to beat him herself.
  • Sephiroth deserves one too. Even if you put all your effort into defeating him he simply brushes his shoulder and says, "Yeah you're pretty good." A far cry from when he was so simply defeated in the first game.
• The Gummi Ship course "Assault of the Dreadnought", which pits your ship against a massive fleet of Nobody warships, including their flagship, the titular Dreadnought.
  • The mission itself revolves around you fighting your way through the Nobody fleet so that you can enter the Dreadnought and destroy the reactor core for its Wave-Motion Gun. Not only will destroying the core get you some rare Gummi Blocks, you are also treated to a gorgeous view of the Dreadnought blowing up.
  • Finally killing the Hunter-X is a Moment of Awesome in itself.
• Axel manages to impress Luxord - Axel was a grifter (a con artist) until the end and Luxord, the gambler, the one who knows about conning and tricking, is impressed - by just how far he took it when he died.
  • Speaking of which: Axel self destructs himself in an explosion to take out Nobodies.
• Sora and Roxas' Battle in the Center of the Mind. Everything about the fight conveys a powerful emotion of two souls meeting in battle to gauge each other and find answers.
• Kairi up and jumping off a high balcony in the Castle That Never Was to rescue Sora from an onslaught of Heartless. If Let's Plays are any indication, many players were actually more impressed with that than they were her using a Keyblade afterward.
• The finishing move if you pull off the final Reaction Command in Luxord's battle: Sora pulls all the cards into his hand and sends them flying at Luxord.
  • On Luxord's end, him quickly incapacitating Sora's friends (Including Riku, who's currently empowered by Xehanort's Heartless — the Literal Split Personality of Luxord's boss!) with his Reality Warping Cards. If not for his Fair-Play Villain status, he might've reached Story-Breaker Power territory!
• DiZ a.k.a. Ansem the Wise delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Xemnas as well as admitting his mistakes before his Heroic Sacrifice of damaging Xemnas's Kingdom Hearts.
  • Made even better by Christopher Lee's voice acting.
    DiZ: Xehanort, Foolish apprentice of a foolish man. You have surpassed nothing- only proved how little we both know. We may profess to know the heart, but its essence is beyond our reach. We're both ignorant- as oblivious as when we began. I'm afraid any world you try to create, any world of yours, would be an empire of ignorance. That is why you and your creations are destined to fall!
    • Made even better by the fact that this machine explodes, because it simply can't contain the sheer scale of Kingdom Hearts. It may not have been designed to do it, but that is one very big explosion. And DiZ stays beside it for the sake of atoning for his decisions and so it doesn't hurt anyone else, though it does have the side-effect of restoring Riku's body.
• Sora and Riku's Limit Break, Eternal Session, is the coolest Limit command is the entire game, bar none. It starts with the two delivering a flurry of blows against enemies, then the Limit commands are Dark Cannon where the two shoot Dark Firagas are enemies, and Last Saber, another flurry of Keyblade attacks. Then the two float around back to back and the Limit commands change to Master Hearts, where they surround their Keyblades with auras of light and darkness and slash repeatedly at enemies, and XIII Blades, creating multiple swords around them that spin around. Finally the two use All's End, where they throw their Keyblades into the air and they fire beams of light and darkness at each other, creating a vortex that draws enemies into it and bombarding them with magic shots as the screen fades to white. And to top it off, the Limit ends with the two landing, catching their Keyblades, and bumping fists.
• Before the final boss fight, there's Sora in his solo fight against Xemnas, where he pulls a Roxas and RUNS UP A SKYSCRAPER (and depending on the proper use of action commands) proceeds to KICK ASS.
• Hades Paradox Cup: Round 49. Sora has to face off against Cloud, Leon, Tifa, and Yuffie, all by himself. Although very challenging, perhaps even more challenging than the Sephiroth fight, this is truly one of the most awesome boss battles in the game.
  • Also, Hades Paradox Cup: Round 40. This fight only has Leon and Cloud, and although there's a time limit and although they both have HP up to Xemnas's health bar, this is made up for with very fast recharging magic, and being able to use the Drive Forms as much as you want. Casting Thundaga, Blizzaga, and Firaga in Master and Final Form has never been more satisfying.
• The final battle with Sora and Riku vs. Xemnas. Especially the part where Sora beat Xemnas senseless dual-wielding his and Riku's Keyblades.
  • Special mention goes to the very end, with how Sora and Riku are able to coordinate their actions with very little words exchanged. That's the definition of Bash Brothers.
    • And the finishing move is the beam of light used for interacting with keyholes that Sora has been using since he locked his first keyhole, with this effect in particular having been used for this game's many gateways. In a way, it's symbolic of Sora and Riku unlocking the final obstacle in the way of them finally putting an end to a journey they've both been on since the first game.
  • Not to mention a level of physics-defying action that, even in Square Enix games, is usually only seen in cutscenes.
  • Sora and Riku cutting buildings in half and throwing them at Xemnas. Really, the whole multi-fight sequence was just one Crowning Moment after another.
  • Also Sora and Riku reflecting the seven zillion lasers that Xemnas threw at them.
  • One for Riku when Xemnas captures Sora in a HP draining energy attack and the player swaps to Riku, who ends up negating Xemnas' attack, then beating him up and throwing him away from Sora, saving Sora's life in the process and then saying "Is that all you got?". Xemnas is even stunned after this happens.
• The optional battle against Lingering Will, AKA Terra. Despite being nothing but a suit of armor and a keyblade, he gives Sora was is easily the most difficult, heart-pounding fight in the entire game that takes no less then perfected skill to win such an epic fight. Serves as a moment of awesome for Terra as well, showing that even after over a decade of being nothing but a will possessing armor, he's only gotten stronger from his rage towards Xehanort.
• Sora takes on Sephiroth, yes. That Sephiroth in a battle of epic of proportions and lives to tell the tale, even with how it ends in a draw.
  • Even better, taking on Sephiroth with Anti-Form... and kicking his ass in two minutes.

The manga

• Sora taking out a Magnum Loader after Donald accidentally grabs onto it while playing with a Light Cycle. Sure, everyone else enters a Heroic BSoD due to the required piece of data needed for the trio to escape is destroyed, but seeing Sora taking action before that is pure badass. Not to mention that he uses his Keyblade to repair the broken data.
  • It helps that Sora was wearing armor at the time, had a pretty angry face, and a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner that doubles as a pun. This scene is clearly showing how angry Sora would get if his friends got hurt in a non-humorous way.
    Sora: End of the road!
• In The Land of Dragons, Shan-Yu attacks the Emperor's palace riding Storm Rider, stopping Sora from reaching to Riku. As Shan-Yu is about to finish off the Emperor, Sora stops him. The Storm Rider? Down in one hit.
• The clash between Past Pete and Present Pete would have to be even better than the game version, especially when Past Pete, furious at his present self for littering his river (by throwing the Cornerstone of Light in), delivers a finishing punch in retaliation! Present Pete was wise enough to flee Timeless River before Sora and the gang, who were waiting right behind him, would beat the snot out of him!
• Kairi is facing Saix; who plans on using her as The Bait to attract Sora. He tells her that all she needs to do is scream; and then has a Berserker rip the jail bars from its hinges and hurl it at her; to the point of cutting a bleeding wound on her cheek. She stares at her incoming death, and keeping her eyes open, prays to Riku and Sora to give her strength and she never backs down.
  • Later, when she gets her own keyblade; she is much more proficient with it than in the game and rescues Sora from Xigbar later. Xigbar sneers at Sora for needing her help, and Riku states that its fine.
• Daisy takes on several Heartless... armed with nothing but a broom. She wins.
• Minnie destroys several Heartless with her light spell, taking one very large level in Badassary as she does so.
• Of all the people to beat Luxord it's Jiminy Cricket. Like in the game, Luxord traps Sora's friends within cards, but this time he challenges him to find them amidst false cards holding Heartless inside. Saix interrupts the battle and seemingly destroys the cards holding his friends and kills them, leading Sora to fight him instead. While Luxord sneaks away he accidentally drops the cards holding the others, and Jiminy appears to call him out for it. Forgoing cheating, Luxord decides to play fair this time and challenges the cricket to make the right draw. Not only does Jiminy ultimately succeed, but he actually managed to fend off the Heartless from his wrong draws. Even while fading away Luxord admires Jiminy's gambling spirit.
• How powerful is Mickey and Minnie's love? The Manga reveals that Mickey did turn up when his wife called for him! The only reason he was late was because he had further to travel! Minnie's love for her husband is powerful enough to transcend realms and the Darkness to bring her husband to her. Minnie called - and Mickey came a runnin', like any good husband would.

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