I, Sorceror Nobody, am going to chronicle the misadventures of everynobody's favourite Organization. Unlike myself, they are impure: formed by an entity losing its heart, whereas I am a true and pure Nobody in the absolute manner of (non)being. Nonetheless, I find their antics amusing enough to dedicate my time and effort to writing this guide for you. Shall we begin?
The game begins by introducing the Organization and the concept of Kingdom Hearts, by way of stolen Saïx quotes from KHII. Sanctuary plays as we then cut to Axel expressing a big question about Roxas, before seeing a load more scenes cut together from KHII and Re:CoM, accompanied by individual introductions of each Organization member. Roxas's intro includes the scene of his naming. After the opening sequence, we are treated to a scene which takes place on Roxas's 255th day in the Organization, after which the game rewinds to Day 7. Hmmm... does this retrospection remind anyone else of Final Fantasy X's opening?
Day 7: ~Number XIV~
Roxas wakes up, brushes his teeth, and runs to catch the school bus. Seriously though, he wakes up and makes his way to The Grey Area, which is essentially the base room from which you will venture out into the rest of the game. You're given a tutorial on how to move, in case anyone is not quite smart enough to guess that it's the D-pad, after which you can move around. Neither Xigbar nor Saïx has much of interest to say, and Larxene is just her usual rude self, so talk to Axel to proceed. Roxas is currently locked into the "silent protagonist" cliché, although he does manage to spare a few words. Since when is Where Nothing Gathers called the "Round Room"? Ugh, I hope they're not trying to make that the official English translation, because unlike "Where Nothing Gathers", it sucks as a name. The scene that follows is Xion's inauguration, and it reminds Roxas of his. Xemnas seems strangely bored in the latter, but whatever. After a Roxiloquy (look it up in the Glossary), we begin the game's first proper day...
Day 8: ~The Icing on the Cake~
Not normally known for his generosity, Saïx is nonetheless issuing a week of training missions to break Roxas in gently. How kind. Your first one sees the blond paired up with Axel so that he can learn the really basic stuff. You're treated to a tutorial on saving, and a new entry is added to Roxas's Diary. You'll typically get a new entry every day, or at least every time you advance the story. Axel, Xion and Zexion have nothing especially useful to tell you, so just talk to Saïx when you're ready to begin the day's exercise. A brief cutscene ensues where Axel quizzes Roxas on a few members' names. I can agree that there's not really much of a chance that we're going to forget Xemnas's name, considering it's an anagram of Mansex <snigger>.
Mission 01: Learn mission basics
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Objectives | Reach Axel's position / Locate the treasure chest / Open the treasure chest |
| Clear Rewards |
| |
| Random Rewards | Fire Recipe / Blazing Shard / Moonstone / Potion | |
| Encounterable enemies | ||
| --- | ||
| Treasure chests and badges | ||
| Potion | Can't miss it, because it's the mission objective | |
You start in the Underground Passage, where you're first given a tutorial on jumping. Your first task is to reach Axel, which requires you to use this newly-explained skill. One camera control tutorial later, you now have to look for a chest. Head out of the chamber into the corridor, and turn left to grab some Munny by attacking the crates. Now follow the only other open path all the way to the northernmost point in this area. On the way, you'll be tutorial'd on barricades. Once you find the chest, Roxas forgets the first rule of gaming: grab anything that isn't nailed down and on fire! Ever the voice of educative reason, Axel tells you to open the chest. You get a tutorial on treasure chests and the backpack, after which you should claim the chest's contents. Mission Complete! Head back to the dark corridor you arrived by. As you pass through the square room with the pillar in the middle, flip the glowing switch for a shortcut, then examine the dark corridor to RTC (Return To the Castle). A cutscene follows, as does another Roxiloquy.
Incidentally, that treasure chest is the only one in the whole game that can be opened repeatedly.
Day 9: ~Heartless~
Roxas arrives at the Grey Area to be told that he'll be working with old pinky today. You know, he of the rebellion. No? Oh, alright, Marluxia. Stand and watch him for a while... you'll notice he does a hair-flick that's extremely reminiscent of someone else. Demyx enquires about your musical talents, while Vexen is just a little creepy. When you're ready, talk to Saïx.
Mission 02: Learn the basics of combat
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Objectives | Defeat the Shadows / Defeat the Yellow Operas / Defeat all the Heartless |
| Clear Rewards |
| |
| Random Rewards | Fire Recipe / Blazing Shard / Moonstone / Potion | |
| Encounterable enemies | ||
| Shadow, Yellow Opera | ||
| Treasure chests and badges | ||
| --- | --- | |
Marluxia starts by telling you to eradicate some Shadows, triggering yet another tutorial. Shadows are weak, and a single three-hit combo is enough to kill one. After all three perish, you get a tutorial on prizes. Marluxia now discusses the nature of Heartless. I think the translation of the word "larger" in this part is poor – "broad" or "general" would have been better. Anyway, he tells you to ignore Purebloods because they don't release hearts. This is a load of crap; we'll see why you shouldn't ignore them in a moment. Just as he is about to tell you about Emblem Heartless, some turn up. A tutorial about locking on precedes this next, also easy, fight. You should endeavour to kill them as fast as possible; again, you'll see why in a moment. You get a tutorial on Heart Points, and Marluxia explains that Roxas is crucial to the Organization, as while they are all able to defeat Heartless, only the Keyblade can capture the hearts they release. He is interrupted by a veritable maelstrom of avarice horde of Yellow Operas, which naturally you have to defeat. One tutorial on chaining later, and we now know why you shouldn't ignore Purebloods, and why you should kill enemies in rapid succession. Of course, the exp and prizes you get are another reason to kill Purebloods...
Tip #1: Pure Chwnage
Purebloods are excellent for starting chains, because although you get less hearts from an
unchained kill, and this doesn't matter for Purebloods. Furthermore, Purebloods typically
appear in large groups, so you can chain them to give a more robust chain that has a better
chance of remaining active until you can find some Emblem Heartless to fight.
After you finish off those Yellow Operas, you're done for the day. Marluxia does his hair-flick again, and we see a flash of his craving for the Keyblade's power that comes to a head in CoM... There's nothing more to do here, so RTC. The day ends with a Roxiloquy.
Day 10: ~Incomplete~
Today, Roxas is paired up with one of my favourite members, Zexion. For reference, my other favourites are Axel, Roxas, Xion, Luxord and Demyx. I'm not fussed about Marluxia or Larxene, Xigbar is mildly annoying, Xemnas is a melodramatic loser, Saïx is a smug lunatic (literally), Vexen is a creep, Lexaeus is slightly boring and Xaldin's sideburns are quite frankly disturbing. As usual, nobody (pun intended) has anything useful to tell you, so talk to Saïx when you want to head out.
Mission 03: Learn about your field duties
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Objectives | Defeat seven Heartless |
| Clear Rewards |
| |
| Random Rewards | Fire Recipe / Blazing Shard / Moonstone / Potion | |
| Encounterable enemies | ||
| Yellow Opera, Dire Plant | ||
| Treasure chests and badges | ||
| Potion | In the junkyard (the square area in the middle-south part of Tram Common) | |
Zexion tells you that no matter what your mission is, you should always take the time to collect hearts too. Talk about obvious... you'll soon realise that you need insane amounts of Heart Points to buy stuff in the Moogle Shop later on. Tutorials on mission objectives and the area map ensue, after which you should begin seeking the Heartless out. You can see them on your map, but since it's an early stage in the game, I'll help you a bit. From your starting point, go straight ahead and slightly to the right to take out a Yellow Opera. Next, continue ahead towards the stairs for another one, then follow the dark paving to the far east wall where you'll find two more Yellow Operas and a Dire Plant. Still following the paving, head south and west to find another Dire Plant, before finding one last Yellow Opera as you approach the start point again. Mission cleared!
Zexion delivers a cutting speech to basically tell you not to be a lazy bum, i.e. strive for "mission complete" instead of "mission cleared". I agree with him, if only because of the rewards rather than the work ethic. A tutorial on the mission gauge is given. Now, before tearing off after the remaining Heartless, find the treasure chest if you haven't already done so. Why? Because this mission ends automatically after completion, so you can't get it afterwards without coming back to this mission later, and you might as well finish everything here in one go right now. I'll leave you to track down the remaining Dire Plant and five Yellow operas... just bear in mind that you'll need to do some jumping this time. After the mission, Zexion holds a little Q&A, and Roxas becomes enlightened about his nonexistent, incomplete state of being. Another Roxiloquy brings the day to a close.
Day 11: ~Keyblade~
Your partner for today is Queen Bitch herself, Larxene. She's already in the field, probably because if she took out her irritation at "babysitting duty" on the Grey Area, the other members would kick her ass in retaliation for her damaging the furniture. Saïx tells you to equip some magic for this mission, prompting a panels tutorial. When you open the panels menu, you get kicked while you're down by another tutorial. It's really putting the boot in, isn't it? We're drowning in tutorials! At this point, you'll only have three Fire panels and a handful of Potions, so install the lot. If you press X to view your abilities, you'll see that you can now cast the Fire LV1 spell three times during missions. Back in the Grey Area, Xigbar has nothing much to say to you, while Vexen is merely Even (Ahahaha! Beautiful pun!) creepier than last time. Talk to Saïx to depart for today's training.
Mission 04: Learn how to use magic
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Objectives | Defeat all the Heartless |
| Clear Rewards |
| |
| Random Rewards | Fire Recipe / Blazing Shard / Moonstone / Potion | |
| Encounterable enemies | ||
| Yellow Opera, Dire Plant | ||
| Treasure chests and badges | ||
| Ether Ether Ether |
Near the dark corridor Between the eastern benches Between the western benches | |
Larxene "greets" you before launching into a rant. In answer to her question, she does look like she runs a nursery school, but not one you'd want to send your kids to! She then gets an evil gleam in her eye (not that you can see it on the game's 3D model of her) and announces that for the first stage of this mission, you aren't allowed to use your Keyblade. If you forgot to equip your magic, you will totally phail this and have to withdraw. You receive a tutorial on magic, which you must then put to use by burning the Dire Plant to a crisp. Another group of Heartless appear, and Larxene's short tolerance span manifests itself, so she permits you to use your Keyblade to speed things up. Two tutorials (recovery items and shortcuts) later, you should take the Dire Plants out with your two remaining Fire casts and wipe out the Yellow Operas with attacks. Once you're finished, Larxene entertains us with her best Comic Book Guy impression ("Worst. Mission. Ever") before enigmatically hinting at there being another Keybearer. Hmmm... Clear out the three treasure chests if you've not already done so, then RTC. Unsurprisingly, we're treated to another Roxiloquy.
Day 12: ~A Closed World~
When you wake up in the morning, the last thing you want to run into while not properly awake is Vexen's ugly mug. Still, you'll probably wake right up when he says something quite frankly disturbing like "You're mine today" to you! Stuff of nightmares, that... Today's mission is recon training with Vexen. Yet another tutorial crops up in your path (don't trip over it, now!) and the game offers you Control Scheme B. I prefer to stick with CSA, but you can swap if you want. Double check your panels – you'll want to equip the Scan panel you got from the last mission, as well as Potions and Ethers. Queen Bitch has naught but an amusing pastime to suggest to you, Demyx utters a resentful remark about the aforementioned, and Vexen is going into Hojo mode... but then, their Japanese VAs are the same. By now I shouldn't have to tell you to talk to Saïx to get going.
Mission 05: Learn about reconnaissance
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Objectives | Examine anything suspicious |
| Clear Rewards |
| |
| Random Rewards | Fire Recipe / Blazing Shard / Moonstone / Potion | |
| Encounterable enemies | ||
| Shadow, Possessor | ||
| Treasure chests and badges | ||
| Blazing Shard | On the ledge above the dark corridor | |
Be ready to put up with Vexen's smug self-importance complex today. He wants you to perform reconnaissance, meaning that you have to look for places where a little (?) appears above Roxas's head, indicating something examinable nearby. After the inevitable tutorial, you should seek out the following recon points (in any order):
- The dark paving between the accessory shop and synthesis shop
- At least two of the three shops (accessory, synthesis and clothes)
After this, Vexen will quiz you on your findings. Whenever you get a multiple choice, it matters not which you choose. However, I will tell you the "correct" answers... although the conversations are often more amusing if you choose the "wrong" answers! Firstly, answer "There are a lot of shops", followed by "This could be the centre of town". In the cutscene that follows, Vexen will reprimand Roxas for his unforgivable idiocy and give a show-offish display of deduction. To be honest, it had never occurred to me personally that the town is on a mountainside, even though Vexen is admittedly correct that it is obvious if you think about it. Much as I dislike Vexen, I can't really fault him on scientific aptitude. He now sets you the task of further exploration. Follow the tram path, disposing of the Heartless you encounter en route, and investigate any four of the following recon points:
- The shuttered entrance to the underground tunnels
- The large stone "steps" next to the junkyard
- The locked door near the aforementioned "steps"
- The barricaded hole leading to the woods
- The large shuttered entrance where the tram path ends
After this, Vexen will ask Roxas what he's learned, then tell him to RTC. Roxas will very reasonably say that he can do better with a bit more time. At this point you may RTC if you want, but naturally I advise you to go for completion. From your starting point, go up the stairs nearby. Cross the bridge to get the chest if you haven't already, then continue following the north wall around. You'll find yourself in a large rectangular area – this is the tram yard. Examine the dead end wall where the tram path ends. Now head out through the alleyway nearby, straight ahead and slightly to the right into an alleyway between buildings, and ahead again into the junkyard, which you should examine next. That's everything, so you can RTC now. You may want to seek out any stray Heartless left wandering around, but there aren't many and it's probably more efficient to just move onto the next day. Roxas is surprised by Vexen's revelation that there are more worlds (one suspects he thought the Castle That Never Was is part of Twilight Town), and as usual the day is concluded by another Roxiloquy. Moving swiftly forwards...
Day 13: ~Deeds to Be Done~
Completing the trend of partnering Roxas with every member of the Castle Oblivion team, you're working with Lexaeus for your final training mission. Once again, there's nothing to be gained from talking to anyone, although Marluxia seems to be muttering something about Roxas and Xion, so you should check your panels and then head out more or less immediately.
Mission 06: Learn about Limit Breaks
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Objectives | Defeat the Mega-Shadow |
| Clear Rewards |
| |
| Random Rewards | Fire Recipe / Blazing Shard / Moonstone / Potion | |
| Encounterable enemies | ||
| Mega-Shadow | ||
| Treasure chests and badges | ||
| --- | --- | |
Today's topic is Limit Breaks, that staple feature of the Final Fantasy series. Come to think of it, there's no FF characters in this game apart from the Moogle. Bit unfair, really. Anyway, Lexaeus tells us that the condition for Limits is that your HP is very low, and proceeds to engineer such a situation for Roxas in the most efficient manner possible. I take back my remark about him being boring; this scene scores him some serious respect points (in the hilarity category) in my book! Predictable tutorial tells you the following: when you're at low enough HP for your Limit, hold A until it activates. What the game doesn't tell you is that when you enter Limit, you're cured of all status ailments, and remain immune to them throughout the Limit. You can still take hits while in Limit, though. Wait for the Mega-Shadow to rise out of the ground, then hold A and pwn that sucka. Thus concludes today's training. Short, wasn't it? Lexaeus gives the whole Keyblade-Kingdom Hearts-etc. spiel and neatly sidesteps a morality query. This mission has no chests to and no more Heartless, so you should RTC immediately. Shock horror, another Roxiloquy.
Day 14: ~Friends~
Rejoice, for today we get to work with our good friend Axel once again for Roxas's first "proper" mission. Although it's still a low-level one, you should heed Axel's advice and prep your weapon. Furthermore, the Holo-Missions are now available, allowing you to revisit old missions. If you neglected to pick up any chests earlier, now's your chance to return and remedy your failings. Naturally, you're slapped in the face with a few tutorials for your trouble. If you redo all of the training missions once each, you should get a level up, which may make it a worthwhile "detour". Now, about these panels... equip Scan, Dodge Roll, all four Fires, the Skill Gear and the Level Up if you got it, then fill any remaining slots with Potions and Ethers. You'll find that the Keyblade has changed form into the Missing Ache, giving you a boost of +5 to strength and +3 to your critical hit ratio. If you want to see what boosts a panel gives you, select it in the panel list (not the slots) and press A to pick it up. Now use the D-pad to move it to hover over a space in the slots and you'll see the boosts on your stats window. Annoyingly, you can't directly compare different weapon panels, but such is life. You just have to see what one gives, then another, then compare them separately.
Now, for the first time, the Organization members lounging around in the Grey Area have freebies to give you! Larxene makes a preposterous and overly self-flattering remark, but she does at least give you a Potion afterwards. Nobody else has any freebies on this occasion, although Demyx has something "awesome" to say. As usual, talk to Saïx to start the mission (freakin' tutorials!)
Mission 07: Collect hearts 
| |
Objectives | Defeat Heartless and collect hearts |
| Clear Rewards |
| |
| Random Rewards | Fire Recipe / Blazing Shard / Moonstone / Potion | |
| Encounterable enemies | ||
| Shadow, Possessor, Yellow Opera, Scarlet Tango, Dire Plant, Bulky Vendor | ||
| Treasure chests and badges | ||
| Potion Potion Shining Shard Ordeal Badge |
Station Heights, near the entrance to the Sandlot Station Plaza, next to the shuttered underground entrance Station Plaza, at the far end ??? | |
Do you see the little Kingdom Key next to the mission name? Up there, just above the table? Like the game, I will use it to mark all "Key Missions" – those that are requisites to proceed in the story. Anyway, your task today is to take out some Heartless and gather those juicy little hearts. Don't get too excited about that "Ordeal Badge", because you can't actually find it until later on.
Once you take control, follow the linear route. There's nothing Under the Tracks (familiar to KHII players as The Usual Spot), so ignore it and continue uphill towards Station Heights. Here, there's not much point in going downhill just at the moment (except for a chest, but we'll get that in a minute), so head towards Station Plaza at the summit of town. Halfway uphill, you'll be ambushed! At this stage, this is a mildly threatening battle. If any Possessors latch onto you, they drain your HP. Jump, Dodge Roll or attack to shake them off. I recommend you focus on the Possessors first, then mop up any Yellow Operas that weren't caught in the crossfire, as it were. When you've cleared up the debris, you may want to swig a Potion before resuming the ascent. At Station Plaza, you can open one chest, but you'll be ambushed again as you cross the plaza. This time, you may want to eliminate the Yellow Operas first, using Fire spells if you have any left. The pesky Scarlet Tangos are fire-aligned, and must therefore be Keybladed to death instead. Mission cleared! Since there are still Heartless hanging around town, you'll probably want to double-check your HP level before backtracking. If you still have some Fires left over, I suggest you retain them. This time, go all the way to the lowest level of Station Heights, felling the dark beasts you encounter in the process. Next to the Sandlot entrance, you'll meet the elusive Bulky Vendor. Immediately target it, hit it a couple of times, and if you kept a Fire spell or two like I said, use them ASAP. With a bit of luck, you'll finish it off before it can escape. If not, no worries. We'll be back...
Finally, return to the dark corridor, polishing off the last few Heartless as you go. Mission complete! Axel doesn't think much of Roxas's plan to RTC and go to bed. Boo-ring! Instead, he seizes the opportune moment as a bossy kid, a tubby kid and a jailbait pass by, and introduces Roxas to the concept of "friends". This is followed inevitably by sea-salt ice cream, and Axel suggests that they make this a daily meet-up after they finish missions each day. As he says, who wants to spend their days just bouncing between work and the castle? No, it's better to spend them bouncing between work, the castle, and the clock tower </sarcasm>.
Hey, no Roxiloquy! Thus ends Day 14, meaning that we've come to the end of Section I of the guide. I'll see you in Section II.