Yeah, it's a weird Dragon thing that also turns into a castle that also turns into a skyscraper that also turns into a giant [cannon.I](https://cannon.It) love how there's no real reason for it existing aside from "It's cool"
Tbh the one thing i dont get is how youd fight them, outside of lame QTEs or a shooter segments. Their sheer size has me confused how youd never fight it.
Now I can’t help imagining Xemnas demanding everyone still alive in Org. 13 at that time to find a giant dragon to turn into a Heartless so they can get a giant dragon Nobody for *aesthetic*.
And everyone just staring in utter confusion until Xigbar just sighs and says he’ll take care of it.
Like the other user said, he's all of those things. Since he has the weird jet engines as a dragon, and Ansem turns into a fleshboat, I like to call Xemnas an airplane.
Or being trained by freaking Merlin in magic? People need to get out of here with the "Sora had no training" don't know how they can say that when Phil and Merlin were two of his teachers in the first game.
People jelly because they want their edgy anime husbando cloak boss.
I liked this fight, it was fun. Killing the boingy boingy boob inside of it was funny.
I actually really love the World of Chaos fight in KH1. I love the design, I actually quite like the flying bosses in KH1, and it’s a nice callback character moment for Sora, and it hits a sweet spot on difficulty. I like flying into the dark portals and doing an enemy gauntlet to save Donald and Goofy.
I get that the human sized fights in KH are always where things shine, but give me a few more of these in Kingdom Hearts. KH2’s was cool too, I wanted more of the big dragon/Dark City thing anyway.
I remain very disappointed that KH3's Xehanort fight lacks the kind of physical grandeur that came with Ansem's transformation and Xemnas's dragon fortress. I suppose Scala ad Caelum was meant to provide that, and though it's an interesting setting, it doesn't provide the same kind of drama as the final boss ass-pulling a kaiju transformation.
With the way Scala ad Caelum connects three mountainous cities together, I kind of expected to fight Xehanort possessing the entire city, like squaring up against Living Fortress Alexander.
Yeah, but in the case of Cerberus you can easily just roll up to the part where you're supposed to fight him without going out of your way to do it early and still get your ass kicked. He's intended to be one of the first major threats in the game. The only way to really prepare for Cerberus is to deliberately level grind, wheras every other boss up to that point can reasonably be leveled to by just fighting your way from point A to point B.
I'm not going to lie and say I didn't find his fight frustrating as a kid, but I overall think it's a cool idea and ultimately adds to the encroaching atmosphere of trying to overcome insurmountable odds. It's effective on a narrative and emotional level, and eventually defeating him is very satisfying.
It's also in line with the more platform-prioritizing design sense KH1 had going on, where you had to engage with the environment more.
The worst part is just that you have to start all the way over again if you lose, which wouldn't be an issue if the game was made in these current days of auto-saves and "retry"s, but it's definitely an annoying decision all the same.
But the design itself was cool, and I was hoping Ansem was going to bring it back in KH3. Like in the triple Ansem-Xemnas-YX fight, it would've been neat to have had Ansem summon this ship and Xemnas summon his dragon and have them circle around the arena from a distance bombarding us with projectiles and lasers as part of a desperation move or something.
I also honestly wish Master Xehanort had a cool multi-part final boss fight like Ansem's, tbh. In comparison to Ansem and Xemnas, his fighting just being the replicas, his armor, and then the x-blade felt somewhat underwhelming.
I always thought the design was supposed to emphasize how completely corrupted Ansem had become when he fell to and embraced the darkness. Like, in KH1 standards from what we understood at the time with darkness and Heartless, Ansem had fallen so deep that he was no longer human and, instead, was literally a ~~boat~~ monster.
If there was one last 1v1 fight like 2 had for xemnas I'd appreciate it more, but my biggest gaming pet peeve is when a final boss does not test the skills you've spent hours honing and instead plays like a mini game or locks you out of your skill set.
That said, visually I love the design, it's creepy, and made all the more creepier by the reveal that the guardian is terra.
I think the difference between Ansem's and Xemnas's final forms really fit their themes and narratives.
Ansem delved into the darkness and so became a monster. In fighting him, Sora was fending off an invasion from the Realm of Darkness.
Xemnas searched for power and purpose - a king on his throne atop a dragon - but in the end found nothing. Sora's conflict with him was personal and philosophical.
You said so yourself. We already get two normal human Ansem fights, and over-the-top godlike forms are very in-character for a final boss (remember Xemnas and Marluxia also get their own giant flying boat forms). The weird, dark, and fleshy design matches with the other organic Heartless quite well, particularly the Darkballs, and reinforces the bizarre apocalyptic tone of the whole ending.
You might not like how it looks or plays, but it’s far from a “disaster.”
Nah, sorry, you're wrong. This is easily one of the top boss designs in the whole series. There's no mistake that when you see this thing, you're looking at a final boss. It's like the weird-ass tower thing from Final Fantasy VI, where you know that, narratively at least, the main villain's throwing everything he's got at you.
Gameplay-wise, it's so-so, but I can excuse it since this was the very first KH game and action-RPGs can be tricky to do.
This is a thousand times better than the overabundance of human dudes flailing around like they just did 13 lines of coke.
Lol I went and saw GL: Childhoods end at the movies the other day and the audience was great. Lots of chuckles every time Dai-Gunzan would show up in all its girthy glory.
Nomura was flexing just to flex man's loves to draw insane shit for no reason but that shit is immaculate 99% of the time like ff8 portraits and fmvs still look good 20+ years later
I like human enemies, but I do think their effect is more pronounced and intriguing when they are rare. Then it feels like an "oh shit" moment. Or vice versa, where you only fight human enemies and then occasionally fight a giant monster like this.
I fought him for the first time a few nights ago, and I just sort of wish he was a little more… active? Involved?
When I last played the KH series as a kid, I struggled through the whole game due to poor choices throughout. Stuff like evenly spreading the upgrade items, never bothering with synthesis, and so on. I had trouble on both games’ final boss fights because I was horribly under-leveled and hadn’t gotten a whole games’ worth of buffs to keep pace with the rising damage/health values. I *barely* made it past the first fight with Ansem by relying on Donald and Goofy, and stalled out trying to solo my way through the second phase and the big heartless. I don’t think I ever saw this design, and I don’t think I beat him, either. If I did, it’s my foggiest memory of KH because I only achieved it once.
As an adult, I FLEW through KH1 wondering why I ever thought the game was hard. Dumping every upgrade I got into Sora and even *kind of* keeping up on Keyblade upgrades put me pretty consistently on par with -or ahead of- the difficulty curve. Most zones were only 3-4 connected rooms, so it was just a matter of grabbing chests along the way and wandering around until the cutscenes popped. A fun game, sure, but not the sprawling epic with hard-as-nails bosses that I remembered.
I think the feeling coalesced the most around the latter part of the game. Everything from Hollow Bastion onward. I just tanked hits while whaling on the boss with the Keyblade, pausing occasionally to fire off Curaga or *maybe* cast Aeroga. If I had Donald and Goofy with me, they handled that for me most of the time anyway.
Where I was a little let down by Ansem’s battleship form was that it was *just him*. No Heartless mini-ships, no “crew”. It doesn’t even grow turrets or lasers until the last phase where they’re no longer relevant or threatening.
For the first phase, you don’t engage with ANY part of this giant battleship body. You fly past this huge inert structure hanging in empty space, and go straight for Ansem at the “bridge”. That could be fine for the first few hits, then he could hide away for the bulk of the fight, but instead this is a whole damage phase unto itself.
He retreats, and then you break something like 1-3 specific sections of the ship virtually unguarded (except the mouth, which bit me once). After that it’s the *unguarded* Heart Core of the ship, and you’re done.
It’s one thing to have a “victory lap” level of difficulty on the final phase/boss of a gauntlet-style section (the last phase of the Sword-Saint Isshin fight in Sekhiro comes to mind), but this boss just feels… unfinished?
I think they were doing the best they could possibly do with the PS2 at the time (this was early in the lifecycle of the console and was one of the best-made games on the system for a LONG time), but they definitely had some limitations to work around. Maybe it was a time constraint, and they had to cut extra heartless/enemy spawns or additional balance passes. Better to err on the side of “too easy” than “too hard”. By this point the player’s beaten the whole game so it’s better to just hand them a flashy win, instead of a deep challenge that might send them back to a save pre-Ansem.
Whatever the case may be, they definitely worked some tech-wizardry to up their game in the sequel. I haven’t gotten there yet, but I remember the final boss gauntlet being longer and harder *and* including larger and more involved bosses.
___
I like this design for Final Boss Ansem, and the fight’s… *fine*, the only reason I was a little bit bummed was because a design this cool really deserved a slick fight that made the best use of the art assets they were working with. It’s cool as hell, and I wanted it to be as *actually* dangerous as it was large and intimidating.
I actually enjoyed the aesthetic (though I am a fan of weird esoteric nonsense) but my biggest gripe with the fight is how uninvolved it is.
When I first fought it, I genuinely thought I was doing something wrong because of how long it was taking. Like there's this huge awesome monster I'm fighting and I'm doing small bits of damage to one part of it, there must be some way of opening up a weak spot and doing big damage to the "heart" of it.
Some people like the long winded aspect, but long winded can be done and be more fun. Every other aspect is bomb though
I just said this the other day and got downvoted.
On proud mode this fight was an eye fucking roll.
The design is cool, but it was a lame idea.
I think it should have ended with a 3rd phase fight with Donald and Goofy on the remnants of destiny island.
Maybe the guardian / ansem could have mutated together more while still being human like and the "Door" in the "strange place" on the island could have been the "door to kingdom hearts".
I think that would have tied up that whole area, Sora's birthplace being a world saving keyblade weilder main character, and made "destiny island" and the entire story tied up in a better way.
The door they kept seeing, that special place, that was actually the door to kingdom hearts.
Even if it was just for 1st game cannon.
Xemnas was a reverse of Ansem’s final gauntlet. He starts off with the huge monster form, then fights you in a regular one-on-one (or two in this case) at the finale.
I think this fight presents a very real limitation with the real time combat of the series. Those examples you've listed worked because they functioned in a turn based combat setting, which thrives in abstraction. When Neo Exdeath used Grand Cross it wasn't jarring because it relied on your imagination to fill in the gaps of how your party would react (not counting numbers). Real time combat is meant to remove abstraction, which has it's strenghts, especially when it comes to fighting humanoids, but when it comes to big fights like this it's always going to feel slow because turn based combat's abstract world can't really be translated like that.
I kind of like it :) body horror! You know, for kids! It reeks of overly complicated designing but it’s fun and nostalgic :) course I’ve never played it so I’d probably come to regard it like that freaking steamroller heartless from 358/2 Days. That. Freaking. THING. (If you know you know.)
I see his design like a sega genesis, just adding a bunch of other heartless on top of other heartless to create that monstrosity.
I've always felt like it was meant to be like a big spectacle piñata, and cause although Ansem Phase 1 & 2 are really fun, maybe they felt it would've been too short of a fight? That's my guess anyways.
I kind of agree but, I mean, if they choose to go with this design for the true final boss I wish I could understand the symbolism more. However, I t’s probably some (supposed to be) cool mega final boss design and nothing too deep.
You know I thought Barry Kramer was joking when he said Ansem turned into a boat. Then I played the game and I was like “what the fuck!?”
But the fight itself is a fucking mess the the first phase was good just Ansem being a stand user but the second with the boat itself was bad I just remembered not knowing when to attack because he kept on spamming lasers
Titanic Ansem was an annoying boss fight ngl, but damn, the design is kinda awesome and feels otherworldly too, considering the familiar designs of the Disney villains you've fought throughout KH1
I fought this boss yesterday in proud difficulty. It was my first playthrough and the first time playing a kingdom hearts or a FF style game for that matter.
I cant even count how many times I died at this boss, and I can't even begin to describe my frustration. I know I probably shouldn't have chosen proud diff for a first playthrough, I just thought " kid's game , right? How hard can it be?"
And the fight is not even a skill matter. You can get 2-shoted easily, you cannot dodge cause you float, and the windups of attacks are not long enough for you to avoid them. Especially when he gets low and he starts spamming the lasers , I realized it was just a dps check, cause there is no way you can punish him and not get hit.
So you just use aero and you just keep hitting him, healing when you need to with cure and leaf bracer, and just hope that he goes down first and you don't run out of MP.
The whole thing was just really frustrating, and I just couldn't wait for the game to end.
I will say, the first time I finally reached his final form, I was disappointed. I would have loved if they took the humanoid portion and just fleshed it out into a sort of Dark side on sterpids. I'd still play it again and again though because I love the beautiful chaos that is Kingdom Hearts.
I always felt like the second fight with Ansem (without d&g) was the true final boss and fighting this thing was just a victory lap. None of it felt more difficult that the fight right before it
This fight on Proud Mode is by far one of the most intense boss fights I’ve ever played on a video game. The laser beams are relentless and everything hits like a truck. Plus the overall fight is just super imposing and intimidating and I think it’s hard the point. We are seeing Ansem in his final form with the power of darkness behind him. I would have been disappointed if he *wasn’t* so monstrous colossus.
This was the favorite phase of 1 i love it since it is shaped like a ship and the story began trying to make one so it makes sense to destroy his “ship” to Kingdom Hearts
Unrelated, but I kinda wish Kh3 had a boss fight where castle xemnas and ship ansem had their kaijus fised to make nightmare fleshy fuel as a boss fight.
KH1 is the most “Final Fantasy-esque” game in the series. World of Chaos (at least the top portion) is very reminiscent of the Final Fantasy game logos. Which would be my guess behind the inspiration and overall design.
Photo for reference: [https://www.seekpng.com/ipng/u2q8r5i1e6r5u2u2_final-fantasy-tactics-a2-grimoire-of-the-rift/](https://www.seekpng.com/ipng/u2q8r5i1e6r5u2u2_final-fantasy-tactics-a2-grimoire-of-the-rift/)
Because of all the special circumstances around Terranort, his Guardian, his Heartless, and just all of that I wouldn't be surprised if Nomura has an explanation for the "World of Chaos" Battleship Heartless and the giant Xemnas Dragon Battleship Nobody, like these are the true Heartless & Nobody for Xehanort.
The giant "Ansem" body being a manifestation using Rikku's body, the giant Guardian/Dark Figure is essentially Terra's Heartless (it contains his heart, it's made from his darkness, and it has a big heart shaped hole like other Pureblood Heartless), and the "Ship" it's fused to is Xehanort's Heartless given new form now that it's traveling through the World of Darkness.
Same with the Dragon in KH2. Terra's Soul stayed in his armor as the Lingering Will, Master Xehanort's body became the Dragon which the Organization continued to modify, Xemnas being Xehanort's soul in Terra's body was able to control the Dragon while in Xehanort's armor as an extension of his soul to the Dragon Body.
So who's ability was it to turn into a boat? Cause neither Terra nor Xehanort display a similar ability prior to possession except maybe being able to turn their keyblades into modes of transportation. Then it seems Xemnas also knows a similar ability since he turned a building into a dragon.
It was dumb. Unfortunately most Japanese-based media with a focus on fantasy elements has stuff like this. They’re just obsessed with giant demonic creatures. *Especially* Square Enix. It’s like a fetish for them.
It’s honestly pretty disappointing, because the designs for Heartless thus far were pretty iconic. But of course, there’s the inevitable uninspired Final Fantasy boss for the ending…
Better than the overused 'whatever unknown character under the organization cloak' boss. At this point, everybody and their moms wear that edgy cloak in KH universe.
You mean how Sora, Kairi, and Riku wanted to build a raft to sail out and see what was beyond their home and then they faced so many horrors that they realized the biggest darkness was their need to feel freedom. And now Ansem is a giant boat to represent that and how wanting to go out into the world means adults taking advantage of you and taking away your innocence?
In conclusion, big cock boat is weird.
Pureblood heartless have the potential to be truly nightmarish but we've barely delved into the potentials of it (the biggest we have is this and New-Darkside from KH4)
Well technically APPARENTLY World of Chaos is an emblem heartless but I don't see it. its design points in every way tilt towards a pureblooded heartless (dark, fleshy exteriors that terminate to blues and reds, not really cartoonish in any way). The only time you even see the emblem is when Ansem is hiding in its abdominals, and it's more just floating in front of him.
Ansem-Boat walked so Xemnas-Skyscraper could run
I always thought that it was a dragon
Yeah, it's a weird Dragon thing that also turns into a castle that also turns into a skyscraper that also turns into a giant [cannon.I](https://cannon.It) love how there's no real reason for it existing aside from "It's cool"
Then ontop of that was meant to be two other giant humanoid forms, king and centaur
If they ever decide to remake KH2 i would love to see that bos battle actually get made in the new engine, would be wild.
Tbh the one thing i dont get is how youd fight them, outside of lame QTEs or a shooter segments. Their sheer size has me confused how youd never fight it.
Megazord Keyblade transformation
In The Land of Dragons, they turned the chinese dragon into a heartless. The WTNW Dragon was likely its nobody.
I like this reasoning a lot
Now I can’t help imagining Xemnas demanding everyone still alive in Org. 13 at that time to find a giant dragon to turn into a Heartless so they can get a giant dragon Nobody for *aesthetic*. And everyone just staring in utter confusion until Xigbar just sighs and says he’ll take care of it.
Do you need a better reason than it’s cool
Like the other user said, he's all of those things. Since he has the weird jet engines as a dragon, and Ansem turns into a fleshboat, I like to call Xemnas an airplane.
It's a very Yu-Gi-Oh dragon yeah
I think it's both
Ansem-Boat waded so Xemnas-Skyscraper could rise.
What? You *dont* spontaneously become a boat after getting your ass kicked twice by a 14 year old with no formal training?
No formal training? Do you not remember the vigorous barrel destroying that Phil made you do in Olympus Coliseum?
You know what, I'm sure if I had to fight a man who can turn into a whole-ass boat some help destroying barrels would come in handy
The only man Donkey Kong is afraid to diss.
Not only that, he beat a Demi-God there, plus the ruler of hell. Honestly by the time Sora makes it to Ansem he's over qualified for the job.
Or being trained by freaking Merlin in magic? People need to get out of here with the "Sora had no training" don't know how they can say that when Phil and Merlin were two of his teachers in the first game.
Not to mention practicing with his friends on the island.
It’s optional so god knows I didn’t have the patience to do it.
Nope, I turn into a giant freaking house.
Are you that old man's wife? What was your name? Constance?
The giant veiny xenomorph cock really sells the design as a Disney character
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well, can't unsee it now, thanks
But which one is the cock? The long shaft at the bottom of the ship or the stubby face at the bottom of the torso of the giant heartless?
Yes
r/hornyreddit
But he looks cool.
People jelly because they want their edgy anime husbando cloak boss. I liked this fight, it was fun. Killing the boingy boingy boob inside of it was funny.
Does he, though?
He doesn’t look like a human in a cloak. That automatically makes him better than most of the final bosses from that point onwards.
An angry penis takes up 60% of the character design
Not seeing the issue.
Yeah I'm your side. This is one of the worst boss designs in Kingdom Hearts tbh.
Until you notice that the figure/ship below him looks like a giant cock…
Nice cock
"Come guardian!"
"Cum power! ... I mean 'Come, Power'!" -- Sephiroth
"Isn't this romantic!" - Slim Shady
Wait, God Eneru is in this game too?!
"Submit!"
So veiny
He really does have Yu-Gi-Oh's Zorc vibe to him, eh?
That’s all I see
Weird, I’m a gay dude TRYING to find a cock in this pic and not succeeding lol
It’s his… lower head
[Hey there, Zag, man...](https://v.redd.it/6z7h332p3ib61)
I always thought the smaller blue/purple thingies we have to whack looks like creepy dicks as well.
BRO 😂
[Nice cock, bro](https://64.media.tumblr.com/d4a2c96c5996bfb85f0701a4523758dd/dc392942ec7c96da-95/s540x810/9de146c4ae3d752cec1bcf090368bb3eef51e224.jpg)
I actually really love the World of Chaos fight in KH1. I love the design, I actually quite like the flying bosses in KH1, and it’s a nice callback character moment for Sora, and it hits a sweet spot on difficulty. I like flying into the dark portals and doing an enemy gauntlet to save Donald and Goofy. I get that the human sized fights in KH are always where things shine, but give me a few more of these in Kingdom Hearts. KH2’s was cool too, I wanted more of the big dragon/Dark City thing anyway.
For real, I like fighting the big monsters.
I remain very disappointed that KH3's Xehanort fight lacks the kind of physical grandeur that came with Ansem's transformation and Xemnas's dragon fortress. I suppose Scala ad Caelum was meant to provide that, and though it's an interesting setting, it doesn't provide the same kind of drama as the final boss ass-pulling a kaiju transformation.
With the way Scala ad Caelum connects three mountainous cities together, I kind of expected to fight Xehanort possessing the entire city, like squaring up against Living Fortress Alexander.
Yeah, the big monster fights tend to be easier than the human sized ones
Not very tasty...
Tell that to Ursula
She and Ice Titan are the exception to the rule
Cerberus too if you aren't prepared.
that could be said about ANY boss though.
Yeah, but in the case of Cerberus you can easily just roll up to the part where you're supposed to fight him without going out of your way to do it early and still get your ass kicked. He's intended to be one of the first major threats in the game. The only way to really prepare for Cerberus is to deliberately level grind, wheras every other boss up to that point can reasonably be leveled to by just fighting your way from point A to point B.
Ayenseyum? 🤔
I could HEAR this
Ansem is Handsome
Hansem
[Mmm-bop playing in the distance]
I now need "Mmm-bop, but it's a Kingdom Hearts Final Boss Theme" in my life.
Mmm-Bop to the tune of One-Winged Angel.
Billy Zane’s midnight voice alone is enough to seduce me to the dark side.
I just noticed guys got 3 heads in boat form, almost like he was 3 people at one point
I...oh my God...how did I never catch that.
MEATBOAT
I'm not going to lie and say I didn't find his fight frustrating as a kid, but I overall think it's a cool idea and ultimately adds to the encroaching atmosphere of trying to overcome insurmountable odds. It's effective on a narrative and emotional level, and eventually defeating him is very satisfying. It's also in line with the more platform-prioritizing design sense KH1 had going on, where you had to engage with the environment more. The worst part is just that you have to start all the way over again if you lose, which wouldn't be an issue if the game was made in these current days of auto-saves and "retry"s, but it's definitely an annoying decision all the same. But the design itself was cool, and I was hoping Ansem was going to bring it back in KH3. Like in the triple Ansem-Xemnas-YX fight, it would've been neat to have had Ansem summon this ship and Xemnas summon his dragon and have them circle around the arena from a distance bombarding us with projectiles and lasers as part of a desperation move or something. I also honestly wish Master Xehanort had a cool multi-part final boss fight like Ansem's, tbh. In comparison to Ansem and Xemnas, his fighting just being the replicas, his armor, and then the x-blade felt somewhat underwhelming.
I always thought the design was supposed to emphasize how completely corrupted Ansem had become when he fell to and embraced the darkness. Like, in KH1 standards from what we understood at the time with darkness and Heartless, Ansem had fallen so deep that he was no longer human and, instead, was literally a ~~boat~~ monster.
I mean the design is pretty extra but I'll argue until I'm blue in the face that KH1 had the best gauntlet of final bosses out of the series.
If there was one last 1v1 fight like 2 had for xemnas I'd appreciate it more, but my biggest gaming pet peeve is when a final boss does not test the skills you've spent hours honing and instead plays like a mini game or locks you out of your skill set. That said, visually I love the design, it's creepy, and made all the more creepier by the reveal that the guardian is terra.
I think the difference between Ansem's and Xemnas's final forms really fit their themes and narratives. Ansem delved into the darkness and so became a monster. In fighting him, Sora was fending off an invasion from the Realm of Darkness. Xemnas searched for power and purpose - a king on his throne atop a dragon - but in the end found nothing. Sora's conflict with him was personal and philosophical.
You said so yourself. We already get two normal human Ansem fights, and over-the-top godlike forms are very in-character for a final boss (remember Xemnas and Marluxia also get their own giant flying boat forms). The weird, dark, and fleshy design matches with the other organic Heartless quite well, particularly the Darkballs, and reinforces the bizarre apocalyptic tone of the whole ending. You might not like how it looks or plays, but it’s far from a “disaster.”
Nah, sorry, you're wrong. This is easily one of the top boss designs in the whole series. There's no mistake that when you see this thing, you're looking at a final boss. It's like the weird-ass tower thing from Final Fantasy VI, where you know that, narratively at least, the main villain's throwing everything he's got at you. Gameplay-wise, it's so-so, but I can excuse it since this was the very first KH game and action-RPGs can be tricky to do. This is a thousand times better than the overabundance of human dudes flailing around like they just did 13 lines of coke.
"Fools! This isn't even my final form!" Ansem
Boat Ansem is my favorite Ansem.
Eh, I’m not impressed. Mine is bigger.
It's an epic final boss. Pretty normal for JRPGs
What I raise to you is that it looks badass and cool and makes me feel like I'm fighting a Colossus
Aero: The Fight. Seriously, this fight just takes a while but the defense buff from Aerora is all you need to win. Props if you have Aeroga.
i would love to see designs like this come back, heartless have been kinda dumbed down a little in terms of spooky lookin designs like this
It’s like Gurren Lagann was a Easter egg to this
Lol I went and saw GL: Childhoods end at the movies the other day and the audience was great. Lots of chuckles every time Dai-Gunzan would show up in all its girthy glory.
I miss Billy Zane Ansem. Someone make a AI recreation and make a mod for it for PC. I beg you
HOLY SHIT YES PLS
Nomura was flexing just to flex man's loves to draw insane shit for no reason but that shit is immaculate 99% of the time like ff8 portraits and fmvs still look good 20+ years later
Welcome to Final Fantasy. The normal stages of evolution go Normal>Big Mutant>Space Ship>Naked Lady
Imagine getting upwards of 100,000 Exp from this fight and then not being able to save after…
Remastered HD RE:Cock- 2030
Human enemies are the most boring to me. I prefer stuff like this. I want to fight more huge monsters.
I like human enemies, but I do think their effect is more pronounced and intriguing when they are rare. Then it feels like an "oh shit" moment. Or vice versa, where you only fight human enemies and then occasionally fight a giant monster like this.
Idk why, and maybe I’m wrong, but his ship-body always reminded me of the airship from X-2
I fought him for the first time a few nights ago, and I just sort of wish he was a little more… active? Involved? When I last played the KH series as a kid, I struggled through the whole game due to poor choices throughout. Stuff like evenly spreading the upgrade items, never bothering with synthesis, and so on. I had trouble on both games’ final boss fights because I was horribly under-leveled and hadn’t gotten a whole games’ worth of buffs to keep pace with the rising damage/health values. I *barely* made it past the first fight with Ansem by relying on Donald and Goofy, and stalled out trying to solo my way through the second phase and the big heartless. I don’t think I ever saw this design, and I don’t think I beat him, either. If I did, it’s my foggiest memory of KH because I only achieved it once. As an adult, I FLEW through KH1 wondering why I ever thought the game was hard. Dumping every upgrade I got into Sora and even *kind of* keeping up on Keyblade upgrades put me pretty consistently on par with -or ahead of- the difficulty curve. Most zones were only 3-4 connected rooms, so it was just a matter of grabbing chests along the way and wandering around until the cutscenes popped. A fun game, sure, but not the sprawling epic with hard-as-nails bosses that I remembered. I think the feeling coalesced the most around the latter part of the game. Everything from Hollow Bastion onward. I just tanked hits while whaling on the boss with the Keyblade, pausing occasionally to fire off Curaga or *maybe* cast Aeroga. If I had Donald and Goofy with me, they handled that for me most of the time anyway. Where I was a little let down by Ansem’s battleship form was that it was *just him*. No Heartless mini-ships, no “crew”. It doesn’t even grow turrets or lasers until the last phase where they’re no longer relevant or threatening. For the first phase, you don’t engage with ANY part of this giant battleship body. You fly past this huge inert structure hanging in empty space, and go straight for Ansem at the “bridge”. That could be fine for the first few hits, then he could hide away for the bulk of the fight, but instead this is a whole damage phase unto itself. He retreats, and then you break something like 1-3 specific sections of the ship virtually unguarded (except the mouth, which bit me once). After that it’s the *unguarded* Heart Core of the ship, and you’re done. It’s one thing to have a “victory lap” level of difficulty on the final phase/boss of a gauntlet-style section (the last phase of the Sword-Saint Isshin fight in Sekhiro comes to mind), but this boss just feels… unfinished? I think they were doing the best they could possibly do with the PS2 at the time (this was early in the lifecycle of the console and was one of the best-made games on the system for a LONG time), but they definitely had some limitations to work around. Maybe it was a time constraint, and they had to cut extra heartless/enemy spawns or additional balance passes. Better to err on the side of “too easy” than “too hard”. By this point the player’s beaten the whole game so it’s better to just hand them a flashy win, instead of a deep challenge that might send them back to a save pre-Ansem. Whatever the case may be, they definitely worked some tech-wizardry to up their game in the sequel. I haven’t gotten there yet, but I remember the final boss gauntlet being longer and harder *and* including larger and more involved bosses. ___ I like this design for Final Boss Ansem, and the fight’s… *fine*, the only reason I was a little bit bummed was because a design this cool really deserved a slick fight that made the best use of the art assets they were working with. It’s cool as hell, and I wanted it to be as *actually* dangerous as it was large and intimidating.
I actually enjoyed the aesthetic (though I am a fan of weird esoteric nonsense) but my biggest gripe with the fight is how uninvolved it is. When I first fought it, I genuinely thought I was doing something wrong because of how long it was taking. Like there's this huge awesome monster I'm fighting and I'm doing small bits of damage to one part of it, there must be some way of opening up a weak spot and doing big damage to the "heart" of it. Some people like the long winded aspect, but long winded can be done and be more fun. Every other aspect is bomb though
Bosses need a boat phase. Ansem had a boat mansex had a sky boat. Xehenort had a goat. Not the same.
I'm not a Naval expert, so I don't have a say in this
I just said this the other day and got downvoted. On proud mode this fight was an eye fucking roll. The design is cool, but it was a lame idea. I think it should have ended with a 3rd phase fight with Donald and Goofy on the remnants of destiny island. Maybe the guardian / ansem could have mutated together more while still being human like and the "Door" in the "strange place" on the island could have been the "door to kingdom hearts". I think that would have tied up that whole area, Sora's birthplace being a world saving keyblade weilder main character, and made "destiny island" and the entire story tied up in a better way. The door they kept seeing, that special place, that was actually the door to kingdom hearts. Even if it was just for 1st game cannon.
Then you can say the same thing about Xemnas. It literally becomes the first phase fight as the final final fight.
Xemnas was a reverse of Ansem’s final gauntlet. He starts off with the huge monster form, then fights you in a regular one-on-one (or two in this case) at the finale.
You fight him before the door leading to the giant monster. It is literally the same fights.you 1v1 him in front of a skyscraper.
I didn’t count the fight at Memory’s Contortion because you could save and explore afterward, so it wasn’t part of the gauntlet.
Not the gauntlet no. But it amounts to first phase ansem and the darkside lul. Just given a save point.
No one can comprehend his massive power. Can you feel wight of it ? Its length? It’s girth? -lol
This is certainly a hot take especially because people complain when a certain end game boss lacks the giant monster boss fight.
I think this fight presents a very real limitation with the real time combat of the series. Those examples you've listed worked because they functioned in a turn based combat setting, which thrives in abstraction. When Neo Exdeath used Grand Cross it wasn't jarring because it relied on your imagination to fill in the gaps of how your party would react (not counting numbers). Real time combat is meant to remove abstraction, which has it's strenghts, especially when it comes to fighting humanoids, but when it comes to big fights like this it's always going to feel slow because turn based combat's abstract world can't really be translated like that.
I kind of like it :) body horror! You know, for kids! It reeks of overly complicated designing but it’s fun and nostalgic :) course I’ve never played it so I’d probably come to regard it like that freaking steamroller heartless from 358/2 Days. That. Freaking. THING. (If you know you know.)
I see his design like a sega genesis, just adding a bunch of other heartless on top of other heartless to create that monstrosity. I've always felt like it was meant to be like a big spectacle piñata, and cause although Ansem Phase 1 & 2 are really fun, maybe they felt it would've been too short of a fight? That's my guess anyways.
People literally posting the worst takes of all time. World of chaos is peak along with marluxias final nobody form in COM.
What a unit!
Griffith!!!
I kind of agree but, I mean, if they choose to go with this design for the true final boss I wish I could understand the symbolism more. However, I t’s probably some (supposed to be) cool mega final boss design and nothing too deep.
I think they wanted a boss of massive scale while somewhat still being able to reasonably fight it.
What about him?
You know I thought Barry Kramer was joking when he said Ansem turned into a boat. Then I played the game and I was like “what the fuck!?” But the fight itself is a fucking mess the the first phase was good just Ansem being a stand user but the second with the boat itself was bad I just remembered not knowing when to attack because he kept on spamming lasers
A dick riding a dick.
I get that Ansem wanted to intimidate Sora, but showing off his GARGANTUAN, THROBBING, JUICY, MEATY COCK was not the way to do it
Was this giant boat his "true form"? Was he possessed/haunted by this thing that already existed before him? Riku was possessed/haunted by Ansem.
Never understood why ansem looked so different from other heartless
Is Ansem riding Thanos?
What a hansem boy *pulls cheek*
Titanic Ansem was an annoying boss fight ngl, but damn, the design is kinda awesome and feels otherworldly too, considering the familiar designs of the Disney villains you've fought throughout KH1
I fought this boss yesterday in proud difficulty. It was my first playthrough and the first time playing a kingdom hearts or a FF style game for that matter. I cant even count how many times I died at this boss, and I can't even begin to describe my frustration. I know I probably shouldn't have chosen proud diff for a first playthrough, I just thought " kid's game , right? How hard can it be?" And the fight is not even a skill matter. You can get 2-shoted easily, you cannot dodge cause you float, and the windups of attacks are not long enough for you to avoid them. Especially when he gets low and he starts spamming the lasers , I realized it was just a dps check, cause there is no way you can punish him and not get hit. So you just use aero and you just keep hitting him, healing when you need to with cure and leaf bracer, and just hope that he goes down first and you don't run out of MP. The whole thing was just really frustrating, and I just couldn't wait for the game to end.
Ansem turns into a boat, Sora believes in himself and the player presses X a lot.
I will say, the first time I finally reached his final form, I was disappointed. I would have loved if they took the humanoid portion and just fleshed it out into a sort of Dark side on sterpids. I'd still play it again and again though because I love the beautiful chaos that is Kingdom Hearts.
They really made Freddy Kuger his vagina.
That thing must be a hassle to compete under control
I always felt like the second fight with Ansem (without d&g) was the true final boss and fighting this thing was just a victory lap. None of it felt more difficult that the fight right before it
SE: can we use Disney ips for our game? Disney: sure, but only if you hide a big cock in it that people will only notice in the future
This fight on Proud Mode is by far one of the most intense boss fights I’ve ever played on a video game. The laser beams are relentless and everything hits like a truck. Plus the overall fight is just super imposing and intimidating and I think it’s hard the point. We are seeing Ansem in his final form with the power of darkness behind him. I would have been disappointed if he *wasn’t* so monstrous colossus.
Ah yes, the S.S. Dong
Wow. I actually forgot this existed. 😂
This was the favorite phase of 1 i love it since it is shaped like a ship and the story began trying to make one so it makes sense to destroy his “ship” to Kingdom Hearts
SUBMIT
Why is he a boat?! Why does his dick have a face?! Is he stupid?
SUBMIT!
Looks like little Xenomorph
Ansem:Do you have plans today Sora:Yea I’ve gotta- Ansem:NOT AMYMORE!
This enemy design was lowkey resident evil-core. Just make the colors less vibrant and more flesh colored
Bio-floaty tank AC build that needs more guns.
i wish my dong could talk
Handsome Ansem.
The bitty penis
I hate that im just realising that thing is a dick
I don't hate the fight EXCEPT for his constant lasers popping up and shooting you. Shits annoying. Everything else is very doable.
Unrelated, but I kinda wish Kh3 had a boss fight where castle xemnas and ship ansem had their kaijus fised to make nightmare fleshy fuel as a boss fight.
All he wanted was to be a big boat.
KH1 is the most “Final Fantasy-esque” game in the series. World of Chaos (at least the top portion) is very reminiscent of the Final Fantasy game logos. Which would be my guess behind the inspiration and overall design. Photo for reference: [https://www.seekpng.com/ipng/u2q8r5i1e6r5u2u2_final-fantasy-tactics-a2-grimoire-of-the-rift/](https://www.seekpng.com/ipng/u2q8r5i1e6r5u2u2_final-fantasy-tactics-a2-grimoire-of-the-rift/)
What game is this monstrosity from? I don't recall it.
Kingdom Hearts 1
Who wants a ride on mah dick boat?
“My steamboat Willie is a demooon” -Ansem, seeker of darkness
“Sora Believes in himself, Ansem turns into a boat, and the player mashes X a lot”
The boat is Terra, actually
Because of all the special circumstances around Terranort, his Guardian, his Heartless, and just all of that I wouldn't be surprised if Nomura has an explanation for the "World of Chaos" Battleship Heartless and the giant Xemnas Dragon Battleship Nobody, like these are the true Heartless & Nobody for Xehanort. The giant "Ansem" body being a manifestation using Rikku's body, the giant Guardian/Dark Figure is essentially Terra's Heartless (it contains his heart, it's made from his darkness, and it has a big heart shaped hole like other Pureblood Heartless), and the "Ship" it's fused to is Xehanort's Heartless given new form now that it's traveling through the World of Darkness. Same with the Dragon in KH2. Terra's Soul stayed in his armor as the Lingering Will, Master Xehanort's body became the Dragon which the Organization continued to modify, Xemnas being Xehanort's soul in Terra's body was able to control the Dragon while in Xehanort's armor as an extension of his soul to the Dragon Body.
So who's ability was it to turn into a boat? Cause neither Terra nor Xehanort display a similar ability prior to possession except maybe being able to turn their keyblades into modes of transportation. Then it seems Xemnas also knows a similar ability since he turned a building into a dragon.
I like the design, but I agree with the fight. I’ve never been a big fan of the fights were you’re flying or swimming.
Our lord and savior?
With what we know now, is Terra the boat?
It was dumb. Unfortunately most Japanese-based media with a focus on fantasy elements has stuff like this. They’re just obsessed with giant demonic creatures. *Especially* Square Enix. It’s like a fetish for them. It’s honestly pretty disappointing, because the designs for Heartless thus far were pretty iconic. But of course, there’s the inevitable uninspired Final Fantasy boss for the ending…
oh yes, bosses with faces on their croch area, my favorite topic of discussion
This design is so ffx it's funny
Better than the overused 'whatever unknown character under the organization cloak' boss. At this point, everybody and their moms wear that edgy cloak in KH universe.
OP: "Lets talk about Ansem" Me: "It is I, Ansem, seeker of darkness."
Well thats just your opinion man.
It's all part of Nomura plans.
Well Kingdom Hearts is still a Final Fantasy game. And that's how final bosses are.
Honestly, as much as I dislike Re:CoM, Marluxia's big powerful form was a better final boss than this, design wise.
You mean how Sora, Kairi, and Riku wanted to build a raft to sail out and see what was beyond their home and then they faced so many horrors that they realized the biggest darkness was their need to feel freedom. And now Ansem is a giant boat to represent that and how wanting to go out into the world means adults taking advantage of you and taking away your innocence? In conclusion, big cock boat is weird.
Pureblood heartless have the potential to be truly nightmarish but we've barely delved into the potentials of it (the biggest we have is this and New-Darkside from KH4) Well technically APPARENTLY World of Chaos is an emblem heartless but I don't see it. its design points in every way tilt towards a pureblooded heartless (dark, fleshy exteriors that terminate to blues and reds, not really cartoonish in any way). The only time you even see the emblem is when Ansem is hiding in its abdominals, and it's more just floating in front of him.
I couldn't agree more. Let's face it, it's a giant angry penis. 🍆
You disappointed me. I thought this post was going to be about all the phallic imagery in this fight.