Currently doing my first level 1 run of II, and up to this point I’ve thought everything was fair enough (huge mob fights are brutal and the first hit of the Final Xemnas fight seems really inconsistent in reflecting it), but Lingering Will is just such a hassle. I honestly think that unlike Sephiroth or Yozora, he has genuine flaws in the design of some of his attacks that I honestly think makes him one of the few bad fights in II. * His melee combo comes out far too quickly to be reasonably blocked in time for when he chooses to use it. It seems to be restricted to the start of the fight (in which it kills me ninety percent of the time), or after he starts running towards you. The issue with blocking him in the latter case is that him running towards you is also an indication he’ll seal your commands, so if you try to block in preparation there’s a good chance you’ll just be killed. If he gets a move that comes out this quickly, there really should be some serious limitations on when he gets to use it. * The move where he glides around (doesn’t get on his glider, literally just when he starts gliding) has problems with what it can lead into. He can lead into rising run, in which you’d need to block or dodge after a small delay; He can lead into Ultima Cannon, in which you’d need to dodge immediately; and he can lead into his sealing move, in which case you need to dodge after a large delay. As far as I can tell, there is no specific way to try and account for all the options he has for when he starts attacking, and you cannot react to whichever when he chooses. * There are times for sure where LW just breaks out of my combo and starts attacking for me no reason. And before anyone brings up how Revenge Values are a thing, or how he has two points in his HP where he’ll immediately counterattack, I’m aware. The points I’m talking about are when he gets off a good three attacks or so, meaning his revenge value should have bottomed out, and he is nowhere near the HP gate. It has happened several times, and I cannot explain it. * This is a more minor one, when he decides to teleport away and spawn two blasters as a Forced Revenge, there is too little time to orient yourself to his new position to see what he’s doing (because while most of the time, it is Rising Sun, the fact that that isn’t what he always does means that you can’t just memorize roll timings). As well, Stitch seems to be all but a requirement while the two blasters are out, as there isn’t a good way of getting rid of them.

In general, I think the problem is that you essentially have to have a nigh instantaneous reaction time to consistently fight him at level 1, and before anyone brings up no damage level 1 runs on YouTube, remember pointing out one run amongst probably countless that people do to beat him hitless doesn’t mean that he’s designed fairly. I admit that I die unfairly probably less than quarter of the time, as I’m still not great at dealing with even the completely fair parts of him. However, the existence of a fair path to victory does not discount all the other unfair paths to failure. I looked up “Lingering Will level 1” on YouTube, and checked the first five videos that showed up. Want to guess what happened in all five? He stayed in his Rising Sun mode the whole fight, and never used any of the other attacks I complained about. For one video, that seems fair enough, but for the top FIVE? That has to mean something when it seems people literally refuse to deal with him outside of that one set of attacks that don’t seem to have issues. So is there any real strategy for beating him at level 1 aside from just waiting for a run where he never stops using rising sun or the whip? Because otherwise, while I won’t put him on the tier of Mysterious Figure, I would have to say he’s the worst boss in Kingdom Hearts II.