Leechgrave and Tentaclaws

The Leechgrave is an Emblem Heartless that is found in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. It is one of the bosses at Halloween Town. The Tentaclaws are its arms, which it uses to consume other Heartless.

Design
The Leechgrave's main body is a black coffin with pale gold lining. This coffin is surrounded by a large, silver chain, has two large, silver nails driven partway into it (a reference to the phrase "a nail in one's coffin"), and has a small hole near its top where a single, glowing yellow eye peers out. Occasionally, two large, pale green, clawed hands are able to force their way out of the coffin, though no other part of the coffin's contents are visible. Its Heartless emblem is on the lower half of the coffin, and there are other red patterns decorating it. This coffin hangs from a pink and red-violet bud with angular, pale yellow spirals for eyes. This bud sprouts four lone, dark green, thorny roots that keep the Leechgrave anchored to the ground.

These roots are the source of the Tentaclaws, the Leechgrave's appendages. A Tentaclaw is a black creature lined by thorns. Its tip is red and it has three black mandibles, each with three curved spikes resembling scythe blades.

The Leechgrave's name references the casket-shape of its body and its cannibalistic behavior. By devouring other Heartless, it steals the hearts Organization XIII hopes to use, thus making it a leech or parasite to their goals. The Tentaclaw's name reflects its tentacle-like body and its clawed mandibles.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
After finishing a mission to exterminate a Carrier Ghost at Halloween Town, Roxas heads back to the castle. However, as he approaches the portal home, he is startled when a Tentaclaw suddenly bursts from the ground. He defeats the Tentaclaw and goes home, but a month later the Organization learns that all the Emblem Heartless have mysteriously disappeared from Halloween Town.

Roxas is sent to investigate, and discovers that Tentaclaws have overrun the town. He tracks them to their source, and finds the Leechgrave, which had been eating the other Heartless. After a battle, Roxas defeats the Leechgrave and retrieves its heart, but unbeknown to him, he had been watched by Jack while he was brainstorming new scares. The combination of Roxas's cloak and the Leechgrave's tentacles gives him the idea for the Scarecrow, which he later creates. He presents it to Dr. Finkelstein just as Roxas passes by on his way home.

Strategy
The Leechgrave is slow, large, and rooted to the ground. To attack, it can swing the coffin at Roxas, open it up to slash at him with ghostly arms, fire poisonous pollen at him, or emit a poisonous mist. However, its main mode of attack is to use the Tentaclaws to batter and swallow its opponents.

As always, make sure to bring Cure/Cura magic and the Auto Life panel. A small stockpile of Fire spells are also a good idea for dealing with the Tentaclaws, but even on Proud Mode, the Leechgrave can be defeated with a generalized deck.

The most efficient strategy is to ignore the Tentaclaws for as long as possible. Move close enough to the Leechgrave that it tries to attack with its ghostly hands, but make sure to block or move away before it does so in order to stay safe (although blocking isn't recommended as the Leechgrave can claw around your guard). Immediately after that, the Leechgrave will pause for a short period - unload at least one combo on it in that time. However, if you see it getting ready to use another attack, especially the poison mist or arm-slash, get out of there fast. Though the Leechgrave is highly resistant to magic, any spells not of the Fire or Cure type aren't valuable in this fight, so go ahead and unload them on the boss whenever you can't get close to it. Once you've whittled Leechgrave down to a health bar or two, you can go after the Tentaclaws, using your Fire spells and aerial combos. However, try not to finish off the last one until you're in the Alarm Zone, so that you can immediately unleash a Limit Break on the Leechgrave when it staggers. As long as you play a defensive game, and pay attention to the ways that Leechgrave telegraphs its attacks, this battle is doable on any difficulty level. Also note that in this battle only, the Tentaclaws will get dizzied if their attacks are blocked, leaving them more vulnerable to attacks.

When connected to the Leechgrave, the Tentaclaws serve as its weak point. When all four of the Tentaclaws guarding Leechgrave are destroyed, the main body will fall over, leaving it open to attack. Also note that the Leechgrave is vulnerable to critical hits. By blocking the Tentaclaw's bite attacks, it will render them vulnerable to magic.