Xigbar

Xigbar, the Freeshooter, is number II in Organization XIII. He is both one of the last to be defeated and the first to speak to Sora in Kingdom Hearts II, although he does so hooded at first. Xigbar fights with two elaborate guns, capable of firing many different types of shots, the most common of which are laser arrows.

Appearance at Hollow Bastion

Not long after arriving in Hollow Bastion and reuniting with Aerith, Leon and Yuffie, Sora engaged a number of Dusk Nobodies in battle around the city. After being led away from the main town, Sora, Goofy and Donald heard voices mocking them, but could find no source for them. After Sora demands that they show themselves, the remaining Organization members (having lost five members due to deaths and two others due to desertion) materialize, laughing. Though they are hooded, they are recognizable as the Organization from the description given to Sora and his companions by Yen Sid.

The Organization eventually departs, but Xigbar, still cloaked and hooded, stays behind to taunt Sora further. He and the others become anxious, with Donald warning him that they'll go through Xigbar by force. Xigbar tells them that that won't work on him, since he is "not just any old dude", but a member of Organization XIII, making nothing about him "old" at all. Xigbar goes on to imply that Sora has a history with the Organization and reminds Xigbar of someone who used to give him a similar look. Sora replies that he can't be deterred by random gibberish, and Xigbar vanishes with a laugh, telling him to be a "good boy".

Land of Dragons

In Sora's second trip to the Land of Dragons, Sora tracks a black-cloaked figure into the mountains. The two fight, Sora using his Keyblade and the figure using the Soul Eater that belonged to Riku, as swarms of Heartless surround them. The mysterious figure flees shortly after and, suspecting that he was Riku, Sora follows him. When Sora arrives at the Emperor's Palace, the site of his earlier battle with Shan Yu, he enters to find a man in a black cloak near the door the the Throne Room. Sora calls out Riku's name, and the man unmasks himself, stepping back from the doorway.

It is not Riku, but Xigbar, who is under the cloak. Remarking that he had never heard of anyone named Riku, Xigbar summons his Snipers to distract Sora while he escapes. The diversion works, although the Nobodies were defeated, and Xigbar is able to continue his mission of summoning an enormous Heartless to harvest hearts for the Organization's plans. He manages to set the Storm Rider on the city, but it is soon destroyed by Sora, Mulan, Donald and Goofy.

The World That Never Was

Xigbar's final appearance in the game is in The World That Never Was inside Organization XIII's stronghold. After Riku and Naminé helped Kairi to escape from the Organization, they head for the Hall of Empty Melodies, a large, open-air room leading further up into the castle. Sora and his party arrive there, but are stopped by Saïx, who calls out swarms of Shadow heartless to attack the intruders. Maleficent and Pete also arrive, expressing interest in taking the Organization's castle for themselves.

Eventually, Maleficent and Pete leave to formulate a plan for taking the castle, and Saïx heads up to rejoin Xemnas. Sora and Kairi remain seperated as Riku and Kairi remain above Sora on a balcony, fighting off the Heartless gathered there. Many Heartless attack Sora as well, but they are all dispatched in a rain of arrows from Xigbar. He asks if Sora has been a good boy mockingly, echoing the words from his first encounter with Sora. He states how Sora put the Organization in a "pickle", and he supposes that was the reason the Keyblade chose him. He also makes a very cryptic remark on how he wasn't "half the hero the others were". Sora simply takes it as an attempt to throw him off. Tetsuya Nomura, character designer for the Kingdom Hearts series, later stated that the "others" Xigbar referred to were three keyblade-wielding knights seen in the video Birth By Sleep.

Xigbar summons his weapons and leaps off the balcony and lands in front of Sora, where he squares off to do battle with Sora, calling by the name Roxas. He then attacks, telling Sora that he shouldn't have betrayed them. Ultimately, however, he is defeated and begins to fade into the darkness. Before he disintegrates completely, Sora asks him why he called him "Roxas", but the downcast Xigbar only replies "wouldn't you like to know?", and fades away.

Personality and Combat

Xigbar has a laid-back and cocky attitude, and likes to taunt Sora to put him off-guard, though with limited success. Despite his high rank, he is not given high authority like Saïx or Marluxia but instead is sent on missions and confrontations with Sora. He relies heavily on instinct rather than on intelligence for both decision making and fighting, making him adaptable and unpredictable in battle.

Xigbar fights by shooting rapidly from his twin guns, earning him the title Freeshooter. In addition to normal fire, which are in the form of small, red, laser arrows, he can also shoot very large blue laser arrows after charging up for several moments. These lasers can bounce about the arena, even in mid-air, thanks to Xigbar's manipulation of space. He can also manipulate the space around him to teleport and hang suspended upside-down in midair to give him a height advantage over Sora without costing him a clear shot. Other forms of teleportation come in the form of small rifts that Xigbar can shoot through; the bullets will then come out in new rifts, attacking the opponent.

An interesting technique of Xibar's is that he can combine his two guns into a sniper rifle (though this is censored in the North American version), shooting at Sora from a distance. As the battle progresses, he begins to teleport faster and shift the ground on which they fight, and will occasionally go into a frenzy, becoming invincible and firing torrents of laser arrows before relenting and returning to normal without pause.

The reaction command while fighting Xigbar is "Warp Snipe", the same as the one for Sniper Nobodies, which he controls. Sora can use it to deflect gunfire back at him. Using Warp Snipe is the only way to get Xigbar to descend from the balcony and engage Sora directly. Gunfire can also be blocked with the keyblade's Guard ability.

Final Mix additional cutscenes

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix contains several additional cutscenes of Organization XIII's activity. One shows a conversation at an unknown time between Xigbar and Zexion, with Xigbar having recently returned from finding new members from the Organization (including Marluxia, whom he mentions as a new recruit) while Zexion and Vexen were discussing Xemnas' visit to the "Chamber of Rest". Xigbar expressed his knowledge about the events of Keyblade warriors that appeared before they found Xehanort. He also talked about his eavesdropping on Xemnas during his visits to the Chamber of Rest, and how he seemed to be conversing with someone that wasn't really there.

Quotes

During Battle

• "You really shouldn't have betrayed us..."
• "Gotcha now!"
• "You clever little sneak..."
• "Arms, reload!"
• "Oh yeah?"
• "Take this!"
• "Sora!"
• "Roxas!"
• "So, what do ya' think?"
• "Okay, now we're talkin'!"
• "Now, let's see how you dance!"
• "I lost...? Me?!?"

Trivia

• In the Japanese version, Xigbar was voiced by seiyuu Houchu Ohtsuka, who provide the voice of Davy Jones in the Japanese version of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
• During Sora's battle with Xigbar, he says "Arms, reload!" whenever he reloads his rifles. However, he says it so quickly that to many it may sound like "R, reload!" In first-person shooting games and similar aspects such as Star Wars Battlefront, the R Button is commonly used for either reloading a weapon or switching to a new weapon.
• In the English version of Kingdom Hearts II, a Secret Ansem Report accidentally spells his original name as Bleig.
• In the undubbed version of Kingdom Hearts II, Xigbar fought with a fused rifle of his guns which is created when he starts the battle. In the English version, this seen was edited to Xigbar just spinning his guns.

Video

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Xigbar