[SPOILERS] KH Days (No Damage/Proud): Riku/Mission No.93 - "Believe"

0:00 - Believe
1:00 - Another Side, Another Story
4:09 - Riku
6:29 - Believe

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The one the world didn't need.

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A little sad about how this one turned out, fittingly enough. I forgot you don't get a chance to re-gear between Tears and Believe, so I'm forced to fight Riku with a less than optimal build. As a result, had to play the fight a lot safer than I'd like to make it consistent. I'm probably gonna redo the fight itself at some point, honestly, just to show the more aggressive strat.

Anyway, like I mentioned, the build today is the same as yesterday's, Mission 92.

As for the strategy, the Neoshadows can be one-shot by DW Roxas, but are a little tricky to avoid. Try to only combo 1 them (air or ground) unless you're really safe. Get ready to Glide or Dodge Roll away if they reappear. You can also Perfect Block-Counter their charge.

Now then, for Riku.

Phase 1:
He can throw up a barrier if you attack from the front, so try to get a back attack to start combos. Not only do your melee attacks bounce off like it was a wall clank, but hitting it twice (like Thundaga) procs a counter.

He'll retaliate (with super armor) after two combos unless you get him against a wall, in which case you can go longer, depending, up to even Phase 2. I think his retaliation timer only counts up when he's not in hitstun/walking, and wall combos drop your chase time between combos to near zero, meaning dramatically less time to tick up.

His attacks are Dark Firaga (super slow windup, easily Perfect Block-Countered), a normal combo (block as soon as he stops walking if nearby, then counter), and a 3x teleport slam. That last one was what gave my build trouble, as the timing to Block the right direction is super tight without Round Block. It can be Perfect Block-Countered, though, knocking him out of any followups.

So the strategy here is to back-attack combo, then poke him with Fires from afar to bait a barrier, jump over and start another back attack combo. Repeat until phase 2 while responding to his attacks.


Phase 2:
He gains permanent armor, so camp, hit and run, or Block-Counter for damage, and his weapon range increases dramatically. His normal becomes tricky to consistently Block Counter, as does his triple slam because sometimes he'll vary up the timing (still determining why). Additionally, he gains access to Dark Aura, which is unblockable.

For this phase, I played a little lame due to my build and mostly abused Glide circling to avoid his attacks, punishing with Thundaga during his endlag/between patterns. Just don't underestimate his range, and don't forget about his Block-Counter, and you'll be fine.


Edit: And I only realized after exporting that I didn't collect the Badges. Whoops.
Link to the redo here:    • KH Days (No Damage/Proud): Riku/Missi...  

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Closing Thoughts:
Well, that's every Mission in Days, damageless. I feel like I should say something, but I'm kinda tired. Maybe later. I will say, though:

Thanks for watching! It means a lot. I enjoyed doing it, even if it was exhausting at times. And I hope this run was able to show off at least a little bit of why Days is worth playing. It has a reputation in the community as not being fun to play, but I can confidently say that's not the case. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's also not better experienced as a cutscene movie.

There's a lot of cool stuff to the gameplay, on top of the fantastic story. So if anything in this run looked even a little interesting to you, I highly recommend you give the game a chance.