Struggle

Struggle, as the name implies, is a common sport played throughout Twilight Town, while it appears to be a simple fighting competition, Struggle consist of three different "Bats", one modelled after a regular bat(symbolizing strength and power), one modelled with a handguard(symbolizing protect and defence) and one modelled somewhat like a wand/staff(symbolizing Magic and mystic).

The Struggle bat is also Twilight Town's most basic self-defense weapon, as seen in Seifer utilizing it. In Kingdom Hearts II, Struggle takes a large role in Roxas's storyline, where his first battle with Seifer consist of choosing three different bats as stated above. Should Roxas chose the regular bat, his strength will increase by one point. Same with the other two, should Roxas chose the handguard modelled bat, his defence will increase. Finally should he chose the staff modelled bat, his Magic potential will increase by one point.

Twilight Town's inhabitants seems to see Struggle as a sports entertainment, later, one of Roxas's jobs include posting the upcoming Struggle Match posters. In the virtual Twilight Town, Setzer is the tournament's champion while Seifer is the champion in the real Twilight Town.

The tournament later played an important role during Roxas's time in virtual Twilight Town, where he is forced to fight Axel, a member of the Organization XIII, while slowly realizing weird phenomena in the Twilight Town in which he's staying.

Later, in Sora's storyline, Struggle becomes a sidequest.

Rules

The Struggle Tournament consist of a few simple rule, everytime one of the participants is hit, they'll drop coloured orbs(participants each hold different coloured orbs). There's also a time limit, by collecting the opponents orbs will increase your score, but opponents can also regain their orbs by simply picking them up. In Roxas's storyline, during participating the tournament, the opponent cannot lose by simply depleting their HP, the result is judged by each obtained orbs once the time limit is over and the higher one wins.

In Sora's storyline, however, Sora must still collect more orbs than his opponent before time runs out, but his opponents has HP meters that can be depeleted. Upon losing all their HP the opponent collapses for a short time, and they eventually recover but are left highly vulnerable meanwhile.

Match List

Roxas's Storyline

1. Roxas
2. Setzer
3. Vivi
4. Seifer
5. Hayner

• Should Roxas defeat Setzer in the final match, he'll receive the Champion Belt, which increases his element resistance by 20%. Alternatively, losing to Setzer will result a different cutscene, and Roxas will receive a different item, the Medal.

Sora's Storyline

1. Sora
2. Seifer
3. Setzer
4. Hayner

• Unlike Roxas's match, Sora can only challenge the next opponent by defeating the previous one 10 times. Although Sora will obtain nothing upon reaching the finals, it is crucial to complete Jiminy's Journal by finishing all the matches.

Trivia

• A Struggle Tournament is last seen in the credits, where Hayner engages with Seifer; the outcome is unknown, however.