Kingdom Hearts 2: Beast’s Castle Part 2
I left you off at a cliffhanger but don’t worry, I’ll be taking you straight into our mini-boss battle!
The door is called the Thresholder, though the true Heartless is the Possessor. We don’t see him quite yet, and instead see the two… I’mma-call them-gargoyles (to make it easier) come to life (Donald’s fault!!) and block our way from getting to Beast’s servants. We know they mean business when they give each other a fist bump (Dude) before attacking us. Oh, and high-five, too!
Thresholder: Let’s do this, dude!
Sora and Company: O_O
Its attacks are using those long-ass arms it has, flailing them around, swinging them, or slamming them down on Sora and Company. Its bar of health isn’t that long but ,like Shan-Yu, there are a lot of distractions that keep you from clocking him out too quickly. Hook Bats appear, and then the statues come to life, swinging axes or whatever they’re holding at us.
They’ll be the bane of my existence later… Right now, they ain’t so bad. Hook Bats can actually be used to our advantage, by swinging them around and around to hit the other enemies. Specifically, the Thresholder. When his tiny life bar runs out, you use the Triangle Reaction command to Release. This releases the Possessor from the door for all to see.
It floats around and tries to avoid you (since it can’t do much in this state), and you need to whack it with the Keyblade as many times as you can. Make sure to do just that, because he’ll float back into the Thresholder and ya gotta repeat the process.
Since that life bar of the Thresholder’s is so short, it isn’t that hard to make the Possessor pop back out and hack at it. Sora and Company kicks its ass, defeating the Possessor. The Possessor shakily passes Sora, Donald, and Goofy then fades away, along with the gargoyles on the door. This opens up the way to inside the dungeon.
That was a tad over dramatic for such a short mini-boss… Okay, let’s go.
Within the dungeon, we see… a candlestick, a clock, a teapot, and a tea cup all sitting on chairs or boxes.
…Well, that was worth it, wasn’t it?
Then, a very French voice speaks and Sora and Company look around wildly.
French Voice: Did someone say ‘rescue?’
Me: Oui.
The mystery of the voice is solved as Cogsworth (the clock), Lumiere (the candlestick), Mrs. Potts (the teapot… duh) and Chip (the tea cup) open their eyes and drop the inanimate object act.
Sora and Company don’t react that way, though, and instead greet the living, household objects like they weren’t living, household objects.
Though Donald goes and grabs Cogsworth in curiosity, manhandling him roughly while he does so.
Me: Donald, stop molesting the clock and put ‘im down!! >:(
The cutscene continues on, with the servants explaining to Sora and Company why the Beast is a Beast. And we get another instance of Donald fondling Cogsworth.
Me to Donald:
Nah, I wouldn’t~ Just put the damn clock down, Donald!! He’s not interested!
The servants voice concern about the Heartless being involved, and Sora instantly wants to get into the action. We must go to the Beast! We head to the—CHEST…. Okay, we go to the door and exit. Cogsworth makes the impenetrable suits of armor to move outside (Dude, Cogsworth just waves his hand and it’s like ‘Move, bitches’ …Go Cogsworth).
In the other room, the group has a puzzle of sorts. Cogsworth grips a wheel that lowers these strange lanterns down (WHICH ARE COVERED IN BLACK OOOOOOZE… Enchanted flame) and Sora has to extinguish that flame with his Keyblade’s mentioned-in-the-story-when-ya-need-it-Light. Then Lumiere lights the sucker and we’re good to go.
Mrs. Potts, though, is needed to pour some Earl Grey on the things, too, which isn’t mentioned at all in the conversation… ‘Kay. Light + tea = Extinguishing magical fire.
The challenge is to run to each lantern, use the reaction command Sprinkle (with Mrs. Pott’s magical tea~) and it’ll open the way. Have to do it before Cogsworth passes out from the strain of holding the wheel-thing or the lanterns will return to the ceiling. Fortunately, it takes a while for the tough, little guy to weaken and re-lighting the lanterns goes smoothly.
Except for one bit where there’s a shitload of crates in the way and Mrs. Potts and Lumierre can’t get past the things!
Me: What the hell is wrong with you? Get over here!! >=[
Lumiere and Mrs. Potts:
I smash the crates out of the way with my RAGE and finally extinguish the last enchanted flame, lighting the lamp. One quick cutscene later, the way opens and I can finally stop relying on the piece of British dishware and the guy dripping hot wax all over the floor.
Cogsworth tells Sora and Company to head to the West Wing. I go to do this right away—after collecting all the chests in the area—and go through the opening we just made. On the other side, there is another chest and I take it, walking forward t-
HOLY SHIT!!
THE FRICKIN STATUE CAME TO LIFE AND JUMPED AT ME WITHOUT ANY WARNING!
This doesn’t happen once, but many, times on our way to Beast’s room. And each time the gargoyle statues come to life, I flip the shit out and have a mini-heart attack while playing. Each. And. Every. Time.
Stupid gargoyles….
Surviving the ‘gauntlet’ to Beast’s room, Sora and Company find that Beast is not alone. Someone is there… and he’s wearing a very familiar cloak!
Dammit, Organization 13, you’re now screwing with this place, too?!
The member’s name isn’t said yet, but he is trying to warp Beast’s mind with some kind of anti-anger-management lecture. He’s been at it a while, from the looks of it, so Beast is kind of brainwashed. There’s a little hold on sanity but it’s not gonna last long. It almost breaks when the Organization member tells him that there’s no chance of Beast being ever loved, for who could “ever love a beast?”
Beast:
Sora and Company then appear to find Beast and help him, so the big guy will return to a manageable angst-level. The Organization member needs to go first, soooo….
The Organization member makes it so an invisible, hexagon wall pops up and unleashes Beast on Sora and Company. Shit… we can’t kill him! Then Belle will kill us! We have to get him back to his senses before we can actually have him to beat up Heartless later, too.
Situation:
Beast’s been compromised.
Objective: Help Beast come to his senses!
Okay, that just means we need to beat him into submission. We can do that…
That isn’t far off from what we actually have to do. Sora and Company need to beat Beast up, while we also press the Reaction command for Cogsworth (who has no uses in the game besides holding levers and pacifying enraged beastmen) to WAKE UP the Beast.
I giggle every single time he says ‘Please, Master, compose yourself!’
I don’t know why I get such a giggle-fit out of the word ‘compose.’ It just sounds so silly in this situation… xDD
I keep pushing the Reaction button, trying to WAKE UP Beast and Cogsworth is yelling ‘Please, Master, compose yourself!” over and over and over again. I don’t know how he’s still even breathing after all this..
Maybe because he’s a clock, he doesn’t even have lungs. That makes sense.
Once we spam the Reaction button enough, another command appears with Charge. Charge what? Suddenly Cogsworth has SUPER POWERS and they… charge him with another plea that has extra ‘oomph’ behind it? I have no idea, I think it was just there to make the ending of this ‘battle’ look cool.
Beast wakes up, a little shaken, but otherwise all right.
Beast: Cogsworth, what happened?
Cogsworth: Well, Master… ah, you see… that is… How shall I say… ah, actually… mmm…
Me:
Sora and Company explains to Beast what had happened during his crazy phase, and then ask him who that Organization member was. His name is Xaldin (ya’ll remember that), and had been poisoning Beast’s mind for a while now. Beast says that Xaldin had used his sorrow and pain to make him go into a rage.
Goofy, of all people, suggests that Beast actually had thrown his servants into the dungeon to protect them from his rages (and possibly the Heartless). All of this was done subconsciously, because he is “truly good on the inside, deep in his heart.”
Awww, nice of you to make him feel better with the clichés, guys~ Whatever works, works~
Beast is now aware enough, when Cogsworth mentions Belle’s name, to realize that she is probably not happy with him. Of course, she was actually worried, not angry, about his PMS issues. He thinks otherwise, and wants go sulk somewhere about it.
Sora shuts down that plan with a ‘No excuses,’ to avoid Beast going into withdrawal again. We don’t want a repeat… and I don’t think Cogsworth can survive another ‘Please, Master, COMPOSE yourself!’ routine. We now set off to Belle’s bedroom!
First CHEST… Okay, go.
We also get Beast in our party!! Yay!!
He’s pretty dang strong, and his Limit move is nice~ I’ll talk about his tactics and the finale of Beast’s Castle in the next review, though~ I hope you all enjoyed this one, and it made ya smile at least once~ Ta ta!
