I beat him! I beat Yozora after six hours of trying! It would have definitely taken much longer without
Everglow's incredibly helpful in-depth guide video so I will forever be grateful to that man for making Kingdom Hearts
easier to understand and beat.
I don't know how it would have played out had I not watched the video before fighting Yozora, but even having watched it wasn't enough to allow me a quick victory. It really came down to actually learning the timings and remembering when and where the openings are. Over time, his first phase became easy but it was still also very easy to screw up and die so soon after just starting the fight. He felt like a much fairer fight than some of the Limit Cut bosses, to be honest, but at the same time more challenging due to the number of attack options he has. It was so satisfying going from fearing his cage (both the sphere and pyramid) attacks to looking forward to them because I knew exactly how to avoid them or turn them against him. Like, I had trouble with the dodge timing for the pyramid cage and even when I learned it I still had trouble blocking the succeeding attacks but now? It's a golden opportunity for counterattacking and one I exploit almost all the time. The only time I can't is when I'm out of MP, which is why I ended up using my potions more often.
His second phase still gave me trouble after all the times I've gone up against it because of that damned teleporting Fenris sword attack of his that I have trouble blocking no matter what. I'm not sure if it's the timing or if I'm supposed to face a certain way...? Either ways, I hate that and can't remember actually ever blocking it during the second phase so I always ended up geting hit by that onslaught of sword slashes that followed it. Man, I hate that. Then there's that damn molten core black hole shit which... I also still can't overcome cleanly so I try to use Simba's Link when I can. The Gigas are surprisingly easy to dodge, those I have no problems with. Maybe I'd get hit once or twice, but usually not.
The third phase was scary once I finally reached it because it was totally uncharted territory after fighting for so long and he started doing those blue vanishing projectile slashes that I had so much trouble with! Turns out, you can block his sword slash that he pairs with it after the second blue slash and Counter Kick him to hell. Counter Kicking is also a life saver when he does that flurry of slashes while armored. It sucks that he changed his tractor beam attack to no longer being exploitable, but oh well. Would've been too good if it remained the same. On the other hand, that feinting attack he does is weirdly fun to deal with? It seems hard to defend against but I was doing surprisingly well almost 90% of the time, rarely ever getting hit.
Yozora is easily the best fight in the entire game. After him, my favorite would probably be Xion. Master Xehanort and Dark Riku can kiss my ass, those two were frustrating to the very end. The latter's the worst though.
I wonder why the Secret Episode is titled "Falsus Rex..." Could the Yozora we see in Verum Rex not actually be the same as the one we fight here? Falsus Rex Yozora was described by Nameless Star (I forget, but did he also talk about that during the Secret Episode?) to have had his appearance changed, right? So he looked like someone else, but he was changed to look like Verum Rex Yozora. Another question I have is on whether his appearance changing is something his driver knows about... Hmm. So many questions and mysteries. It's gonna be a dreadfully long wait before we learn more but that's part of where the fun is. In a strange way, I wouldn't want my questions answered so soon. Well, I mean, I wouldn't
mind if they were.
