This is the second visit walkthrough for Beast's Castle as featured in Kingdom Hearts II, as well as its Final Mix version. After landing, Sora and his friends ran into Beast in the Entrance Hall, who appeared to be acting rather reluctant at their appearance.
Completing the world for a second time also grants you the bronze trophy and achievement A Budding Romance in the 2.5 ReMIX version.
Walkthrough[]
Approach Beast, which triggers a series of scenes leading to a fight against Dusks and Dragoons, summoned by Xaldin, in the Ballroom. Dragoons are fairly strong, with a powerful jump attack that lets them teleport above you and smash downwards, creating a shockwave on landing. They are also fast and can use their spear's range for sweeping melee attacks, which leaves orbs that can be used to 'Learn' Jump, the former being a Reaction Command, and the latter replacing Attack as a result, which lets Sora copy the Dragoon's Jump attack.
After defeating the Nobodies you must head to the Beast's Room, during which you will run into Morning Stars, Neoshadows, Armored Knights, Gargoyle Knights, Gargoyle Warriors, and Hammer Frames. Re-enter his room after the cutscene to talk to him again, after which he joins your party and you gain the Rumbling Rose Keyblade. Rumbling Rose is very powerful, but useless when it comes to magic. Note that, like Mulan, Beast is essentially outclassed by Donald and Goofy. Return to the Entrance Hall, while watching out for the Crimson Jazzes that now also spawn, only to fight another group of Dusks and Dragoons summoned by Xaldin. Follow him outside to automatically enter a bossfight.
Xaldin bossfight[]
The Xaldin bossfight.
Xaldin has both speed, strength, and range, and is a formidable bossfight partially due to his attack mechanics. He will often open by casting a wind shield on himself, which blocks damage and will knock you back if you attempt to attack him in with your Keyblade. At first he will use with spear attacks, either sweeping them in a wide arc in front of him, or thrusting them towards you, both of which deal a lot of damage and will likely quickly wipe out your party members.
When he uses either of these attacks you will very briefly be able to use the Learn reaction, which will replace Attack with Jump. The key detail here is that Learn can be used quickly in succession, letting you stack Jump up to nine times. Thus the most effective strategy here is to dodge Xaldin, with either High Jump, Quick Run, or Aerial Dodge, and meanwhile stack Jumps, then unleash them in sequence to deal a lot of easy damage very quickly, with no chance for a reprisal. You can also use Jump only once and follow it up with a normal aerial counter, if you happen to only have one use, rather than multiple.
At 75% HP he will start to use his own Jump attack, which he starts by sending down spears from above one by one, until he finally comes down himself with a large impact. These attacks are all easy to avoid, especially with Quick Run, and do give you the opportunity to use Learn, but you are unable to attack him in return until the final impact. He will also launch wind projectiles, which are slow moving orbs that home in you, but do not dissipate on hit.
At 50% he will start to surround himself with an aura, becoming invincible, and launch a very powerful melee combo. Avoid being close to Xaldin when he starts this attack if able, and if not, try to escape as soon as possible, although you will likely survive the attack if you have Once More equipped. Afterwards he will fly off bridge, using his spears, and form a large dragon-like construct, with which he will send forth a sweeping wind beam attack. As before, you can survive it with Once More, but preemptively avoiding the attack with Quick Run is recommended, simply move in the other direction and hide in the corner when the beam starts to fire.
At this point Xaldin will also teleport and attack much quicker than before, making it harder to use Learn and counter with Jump, but still possible regardless. He will no longer introduce new attacks, but the strategy of stacking Jumps and using them en masse remains the most potent, especially with Reaction Boost equipped. Drive Forms also have limited use, as you do need your allies to be alive and Xaldin will likely have eliminated them very quickly, although Limit Form does always remain available.
Victory grants Sora the Reflera spell, and Donald the Auto Healing ability. The next location would be Port Royal (walkthrough), although you can also head to Olympus Coliseum (walkthrough) now that it is available, although it has a battle level a fair bit higher.
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