So very many for Days. I'm still surprised that the only Disney bosses in the whole game were Pete & the 3 kids of Halloween Town. Sure continuity was a bit restrictive on which ones could be used but I still envisioned several possibilities months before the game came out, some of which weren't bosses for the sake of being bosses alone but also would've helped advance the subplots and/or character developments of different org members. That S-E & HAND apparently couldn't think of anything remotely as clever as what I list below stands as my personal biggest let down with 358/2 Days, with lack of development for most of the org being the runner up.
Roxas vs. Snake Jafar
Music: The Encounter (a new DS rendition)
When Roxas & Xigbar explore Agrabah during the period they believe Axel was slain, they stumble upon Jafar's lamp. From there a battle of wits between 3 agendas goes down: Roxas just wants to wish Axel back, Xigbar tries to steer Roxas away from wasting a wish on that & tries to convince Roxas to use the wishes on whatever helps Xigbar's own secret plans, & Jafar is trying to manipulate them both to give him his freedom. This can go on for multiple missions, a different day for each 1 of the 3 wishes. In the end Jafar's villainous tendencies gets the better of him & hostilities between him & Roxas occur, leading to the big bossfight to close out this mini-arc.
Aside from a great opportunity to have Xigbar's ambitions clash with Roxas' desires, the arc cleans up the plothole of how Jafar's lamp ended up in the merchant's hands in KH2. After Jafar is defeated, Roxas imprisons him in the lamp again & leaves it somewhere outside of the Cave of Wonders where the merchant is able to find it. Oh, & I suggest Jafar's snake form for no other reason than that it hasn't been seen yet in the series.
Xigbar vs. Aladdin/Aladdin vs. Xigbar
Music: Rowdy Rumble for Round 1, 13th Struggle for Round 2
358/2 mistake #3: not being able to play as anyone except Roxas in story mode. The wide selection of playable characters is the game's biggest gameplay feature & its completely absent in the core game. That's a pretty big oversight in my book. How awesome would be from both a gameplay perspective & story perspective to have a handful of missions where you played as other org members and/or as Riku, Mickey, or Xion & get a better understanding of what they're all doing when they're not interacting with the main protagonist. A mission or 2 with Xenmas would be particularly enticing with him doing some secret task related to his bigger plans.
But getting back to the Xigbar vs. Aladdin. In the middle of the Jafar arc, Jafar convinces Xigbar to assasinate Al since being a genie he can't do it himself. In Round 1 The player is Xigbar & would have a relatively easy time triuphing over Al with his limited skill set. Then Aladdin gets a hold of Genie's old lamp & discovers it has residual magic that he can use. Here the protagonist perspective completely flips: The player is now Aladdin & Xigbar becomes the boss. Aladdin's sudden ability to use panel spells is explain by him him firing them from the lamp. Contrived I know but it gets the job done.
Xigbar retreats after losing to Al, angering Jafar which in part leads to Jafar deciding to attack Roxas later on. After this mission Aladdin as a mission mode character can be bought from Xomg (complaint #4: not getting more disney characters in mission mode beyond Mickey, Donald, & Goofy). Jack Skellington, Beast, Peter Pan, & Hercules are also unlockable at different points in the game.
Roxas/Xaldin vs. Gaston
Music: Vim & Vigor
In a cutscene before the mission begins, Xaldin appears before Gaston wearing his royal guard uniform instead of org coat. "Dilan" is the 1 to inform Gaston of Beast holding Belle prisoner in his castle causing Gaston to run off to rescue her.
In the mission itself, Xaldin is back in org clothes & has his hood up the entire time so Gaston wouldn't recognize him. Roxas being Roxas gets inbetween Gaston & the wounded Beast, who hadn't fully recovered from the infernal engine battle from earlier. Boss battle ensues in the ballroom. In the post-fight cutscene Gaston is hurt & leaning on the balcony.
Gaston: "Nobody can beat Gaston!"
*SLASH*
*Gaston falls off the balcony to his doom*
Xaldin: "Guess you were right, 'nobody' did."
(Seriously, how did we not get a nobody pun with Gaston in KH2? Are you even trying Nomura?)
Beast reluctantly thanks the org pair for their help, thus showing the reason how Xaldin earned the Beast's trust & why Beast would listen to a damn word he says in KH2, something the devs completely forgot to include in Days despite it being THE ENTIRE REASON THE WORLD WAS ADDED TO THE GAME TO BEGIN WITH!!! Not that I'm bitter about it or anything.
Roxas RTC, never realizing that Gaston was just a disposable pawn of Xaldin to trick Beast. Or that he himself was brought along on this mission to give Beast deja vu of working with Sora, another layer of the manipulation. Beast is unlockable after this mission.
Roxas vs. Giant Queen of Wonderland
Music: The Encounter
Roxas chases after a heartless that's his objective, obliviously trespassing into a secret area of Wonderland no one's allowed in by Queen's orders. Roxas corners the heartless & slays it but then is spotted by the queen. She orders her soldiers to you-know-what with his head & thus begins a sequence of the player gradually fighting his back to the world's exit while fending off the card soldiers in each area. Its similar to the run-from-Hades sequence in KH2 with having to defeat all enemies to open up the barriers.
When Roxas reaches the Bizarre Room, the queen's already there (because of course she wasn't being slowed down by enemies). After Roxas mops the floor with her remaining bodyguard, the cheshire cat randomly appears to suggest to the queen that she drink from the growing bottle, beginning the bossfight against giant sized queen (well technically human sized). Roxas knocks her on her royal rump & RTCs.
This mission is admittedly pure filler but it would've been personally cathartic. As a child, the queen from Alice in Wonderland was 1 villain I especially despised & wanted to see get more of an comeuppance than she did. KH series on a whole hasn't been doing a very good of providing that.
Roxas vs. Captain Hook
Music: Rowdy Rumble for Round 1, The Encounter for Round 2
Roxas finally meets up with Peter Pan, who wants to face off with Hook again after learning he pixinapped Tink (again). Since a lot of heartless tend to spring up wherever Hook goes, Roxas decides to follow along. Round 1 of the fight is pretty much a repeat of the fight from KH1 on the Jolly Roger's deck.
After Round 1 Hook grabs Tink's cage which has lots of loose pixi dust laying in it (she's been in that thing at least 3 times by this point, there has got to a fair amount of dust by now). He dumps the loose pixi dust on himself & thinks happy thoughts (mainly running his blade through his enemies) to make himself fly.
Thus Round 2: an airborne battle. Hook uses a number of different tactics for this fight.
A. wildly charging
B. defensively staying in 1 spot
C. flying away from the Jolly Roger to lure Roxas into the range of it's cannons
Again, another filler but at least it provides a more sensible conclusion to the Neverland mission arc than a terribly designed heartless boss that crashes into his ship. Naturally Pan is available for unlocking after this mission.
Xion vs. Honest John
Music: Rowdy Rumble
Location: Pinocchio world
A hypothetical mini-boss for the game's cut world, with the play-as-other characters concept thrown in for good measure.
Roxas vs. DiZ
Music: 13th Struggle
Location: Hollow Bastion (#5: why was HB not a world in this game?)
Ok how the hell did this one not happen? We have Diz getting angry & saying "the gloves are off!" halfway in the game & then proceeds to do absolutely nothing for like 3 months. Would make more sense if DiZ attempted himself to bring Roxas in & only turned to Riku later due to failing.
Don't have any real idea for how DiZ fights, but since in Days scientist=magician, I assume he'd rely a lot on magic.
Organization XIII vs. Disney villain alliance
Music: Fight & Away
This is something I originally wanted to see in KH2 purely as rule of cool cutscene, but Days presents a more pragmatic purpose: a mission basically designed primarily for a full 4 player co-op session.
In story mode Hades is briefly in Atlantica, using his powers of the dead to revive Ursula (a retcon but its a better explanation for her return in KH2 than what we got). Then Roxas/Xion/Axel/Demyx arrive in Olympus Coliseum to participate in a team based cup. Their opponents are the team of Hades, Ursula, Pete, & Hook.
The mission is purely optional in story mode due to AI party members being so useless that the player would just get overwhelmed unless he/she's a very high level. It's true purpose is in mission mode, giving more incentive to have a full mutiplayer experience (which is another of 358/s's failings: no exclusive content for that mode. Even BBS did multiplayer better)
Roxas vs. Ventus sentiment
Music: Enter the Darkness DS remix
Location: Uncertain
This is what should have been the game's secret superboss instead of a lazy wyvern recolor. I mean they even had a Ventus model rendered in the game, freaking use it!
Roxas vs. Rikunort
Music: The Other Promise
OK, so the wisdom behind the final boss of the game is that only the normal form of Riku is fightable because Roxas wins against that & loses to Rikunort. But this point is made irrelevant because after depleting his HP, vanilla Riku still knocks Roxas out anyway! So if that's the case then I say just go for broke & gives player a more satisfying final boss than what we did get.
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The darnest thing about 358/2 Days in the end is that just about every complaint I had with it is fixed in BBS, as though BBS stripped Days of all the good parts due to being the more important game & left Days to make due with countless heartless recolors & tedious missions to pad itself out. Even the multiplayer, said by Nomura to the main reason for the game's entire existence, is done better in BBS.
-multiple playable characters
-playable villain (sorta with Terra)
-fighting against Disney heroes as said villain (well just Pan but it counts)
-Hook & Hades as bosses
-more disney bosses in general
-fighting multiple disney bosses at once (Hades & Ice Titan)
-Disney characters having more involvement with the story, main characters interacting with them more
-multiplayer with unique content not found in story mode
-online multiplayer with the right PS3 setup
-better core battle mechanics
-Terranort fight is pretty much how I envisioned Rikunort fight
-Org members are more developed with brief cameos in BBS than in the whole of Days (since we learn more of their origins)
-The actual freaking Neverland itself!
-A FF character besides moggles
-Monstro bossfight in FM (not the full Pinocchio world, but closer to it than what Days got)
I don't know if it was intentional but man did Days get shafted when you compare the 2.
PS As for KH1 or CoM, not really much I wanted to see except for secret bosses/more sidequests for CoM. Maybe Sephiroth?
PPS I know I got off topic with my rant but I still get worked up over how much of a let down Days was.
PPPS No I don't have any idea what the missions for unlocking Herc & Jack are.
