| Riku (kingdom Hearts) |
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Information AboutRiku (kingdom Hearts) |
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DO NOT CHANGE "XEHANORT" TO "ANSEM". XEHANORT IS THE REAL NAME OF THE CHARACTER, NOT ANSEM. --> Riku (リク) is a Fictional Character from the ''Kingdom Hearts'' Series . He comes from Destiny Islands and is the best friend of Sora , the Protagonist . He is voiced by Actor David Gallagher for the English versions of the ''Kingdom Hearts'' games and by Mamoru Miyano in the Japanese versions. KINGDOM HEARTS Riku is the Anti-hero of the Kingdom Hearts Series , and his journey mirrors Sora's in many ways. At 15 years old, Riku is a year older than Sora and Kairi , and comes across as cool, confident, and capable. His need to escape the stagnant, known world of Destiny Islands and explore the world(s) beyond drives many of his actions and choices at the start of his journey in Kingdom Hearts . Riku is the one who builds the raft, the Highwind, on which he, Sora, and Kairi plan to sail away from their home at the start of the game. However, the three main characters never get to begin that journey together. The day before they are going to leave,When Sora finds him on that night as the Heartless are attacking the islands, Riku speaks to him as one who has already been seduced by the darkness, urging Sora to join him. It is when Sora refuses that the darkness swallows Riku and the Keyblade chooses Sora as its alternative master. Having willingly entered and accepted the darkness, Riku ends up at Hollow Bastion , where the dark fairy Maleficent convinces him to work for her in exchange for helping him find his friends. After kidnapping Alice and some of the other Princesses Of Heart for Maleficent, the fairy finally leads Riku to the Traverse Town Reunion where he finds Sora again, along with Donald Duck and Goofy . It is here that he is first shown wielding the Soul Eater sword, presumably given to him by Maleficent. Since he came to her service, Maleficent has been slowly poisoning Riku's heart, trying to convince him that Sora no longer cares about him and Kairi. When Riku finds Sora in the company of new friends, he is finally convinced that her lies are true. From that point, Riku decides to search for Kairi alone, and his actions and intentions become darker and darker. After kidnapping Princess Jasmine from Agrabah for Maleficent, the dark fairy reveals Kairi's location to Riku. The problem is that Kairi is a mere shell without her heart, and so Riku sets about the task of reanimating her or getting her heart back. His first attempt at accomplishing this is to kidnap Pinocchio from Monstro. Riku believes he might be able to learn how to help Kairi by studying how the puppet-boy is alive. However, Sora is also in Monstro at the same time, and he foils Riku's plans. This is the turning point in their relationship. They fight one last battle together, and Riku once more tempts Sora to join him. Sora decides that Riku is doing the wrong thing, and challenges him to a fight. Rather than fight Sora, Riku opens a portal and returns to Captain Hook's pirate ship, where he promises Kairi he will bring her back and Maleficent grants him the power to control the Heartless. When Sora reaches Captain Hook's pirate ship in Neverland , Riku is waiting for him, taunting Sora with the fact he found Kairi first and accusing Sora of being late for lack of caring. He presents Sora with Sora's corrupted shadow before dropping him below deck and the mercy of the Heartless. When Sora battles his way to the hold to rescue Kairi, Riku escapes with her, leaving Sora to battle Anti-Sora. Using the interdimensional corridors of darkness all the way back to Hollow Bastion from the pirate ship, Riku tests the limits of his powers and nearly loses his Heart in the process. By the time Sora arrives at Hollow Bastion, Riku has completely turned against him under Maleficent's and Xehanort's influences. In their first confrontation, the Beast from '' Beauty And The Beast '' arrives to challenge Riku in order to rescue Belle. Riku seriously injures the Beast and takes the Keyblade from Sora, telling him he was nothing more than an errand boy to bring him the Keyblade. He leaves Sora with nothing but a wooden practice sword that he had used on the Destiny Islands, as Donald and Goofy follow Riku on their orders from King Mickey to stay with the Keyblade. However, because Riku's heart was tainted with darkness, Sora regained the Keyblade. The true villain behind the Heartless, Xehanort 's Heartless, made his presence known and took advantage of Riku's desire to get stronger, possessing Riku's body as his own. After a vain attempt to fight Xehanort's Heartless, Riku's heart is sent into the realm of darkness, where King Mickey obtains his own Keyblade at the same time. At the end of the game, Riku regains his body after Xehanort's Heartless is destroyed and assists Sora in closing the door to Kingdom Hearts. Unfortunately, Riku and King Mickey must stay behind the door in order to close it, leaving Sora with one request: "Take care of her." KINGDOM HEARTS: CHAIN OF MEMORIES Due to being "half-dark", Riku somehow escaped the realm of darkness via the corridors of darkness and appeared in the deepest basement of Castle Oblivion alone. Vexen theorized that Riku’s appearance in Castle Oblivion was because his existence resonates with that of Sora, who was at Castle Oblivion at the time. While Sora ascended the thirteen floors of Castle Oblivion from the ground level, Riku had to move up from the twelve basement floors of the castle to ground level. Like Sora, Riku's powers were being sought by members of a mysterious Organization with the darkness in his heart and manipulate him to counter Sora, who was being sought by three other members of the Organization. This proved to not be an easy task, as Riku was said to be afraid of the darkness, or rather, that allowing it into his heart would mean his corruption and downfall. In the worlds created from his memories, only the evil figures Riku had encountered appeared before him. He also met DiZ . However, each time Riku was nearly overcome with darkness, a light was always there to guide him and assure him that he was not evil despite being dark. The light was King Mickey, who ended up helping Riku overcome his darkness. Riku realized the darkness is a part of him and his friends will not hate him for being dark and decided to fight those who intend to use it against him, even when Naminé offered to seal the darkness from him forever. Riku and Mickey confronted the remains of Xehanort's Heartless, which lived on Riku's heart as a corruption of the darkness within him, and defeated him. Having come to terms with who he is, Riku turned into a being halfway between light and dark in the "twilight". This allowed him to gain powers far beyond what he had before, which he used to overcome Xehanort's Heartless at the ground level of Castle Oblivion. Knowing that he is neither completely dark nor completely light, he and Mickey leave Castle Oblivion walking the path between, not the road to "nightfall", but the road to "dawn". Riku also knows that despite his victory, a trace of Xehanort still remains. Gameplay Unlike Sora, Riku plays with a closed deck, which means that he is unable to create, arrange, and rearrange his own deck. Instead, his deck changes as he proceeds deeper into Castle Oblivion. Riku has the ability to enter "Dark Mode" when he has broken enough cards and when he takes enough damage. But returns to normal when he is completely depleted of DP (Dark Points can be raised when he levels-up ). When in Dark Mode, Riku becomes more agile; he can jump higher, evade at larger distances, even jump towards the target enemy's back, and his combos become much stronger. It is only when Riku is in Dark Mode that he can use his 3 main sleights; Dark Break, Dark Firaga (non-elemental), and Dark Aura. Advantages of his closed deck is that he can use any of the boss cards he has and he can reload his deck much faster. The disadvantage is that Riku has a harder time of healing during battle, as his King Mickey friend card and the Oogie Boogie and Wight Knight enemy cards are his only cards that can restore HP. KINGDOM HEARTS II Before the events of ''Kingdom Hearts II'', Riku is asked by DiZ to locate and capture a member of Organization XIII, Roxas , with the belief that it will help Sora awaken from his slumber. Riku loses in his first encounter with Roxas. He realizes then that to fight in the realm of darkness he will have to surmise himself in that same darkness. To use this power, Riku had to become Xehanort himself. When Riku brings Roxas back to Diz in Twilight Town, he was introducing himself as Ansem. This is likely because he wishes to remain anonymous. Riku agrees to help DiZ as they share a common objective: eliminate Xemnas, the Superior of Organization XIII and the Nobody of Xehanort. However, Riku wanted no part in DiZ's revenge and remained only to see Sora's restoration. After this, Riku meets up with King Mickey again and asks him not to reveal his present condition to Sora, although Riku still wishes to help with Sora’s journey. He provides Mickey with a munny pouch and blue crystal from the virtual Twilight Town, which the King passes on to Sora. Riku remains in Xehanort's Heartless' form for the majority of ''Kingdom Hearts II''. In the Land of Dragons, Riku warns the Emperor of a upcoming powerful Heartless and encounters Sora, who mistakes him for an Organization XIII member, resulting in a battle. At the Radiant Garden, Riku gives Sora a photo of Roxas and his friends in the virtual Twilight Town. In the World That Never Was , Riku appears cloaked before Kairi and Naminé when the two girls are confronted by Saïx . While reluctant to show his face, he allows Kairi to remove his hood. Kairi, wishing to see Riku after so long, takes everything in a stride, knowing that Riku is only wearing Xehanort's Heartless' appearance and is still himself at heart. Riku gives Kairi a Keyblade and the two fight off Heartless together. Riku and Kairi are then reunited with Sora. The energy from the explosion caused by DiZ's machine restores Riku to his "true form", revealing an older Riku still cloaked and blindfolded, which he removes to reveal a new outfit. After this, Riku becomes a selectable party member for the World That Never Was. He weilds a Keyblade called "Way to the Dawn". Sora and Riku’s co-op move, Eternal Session, is the most powerful team attack in ''Kingdom Hearts II''. The final boss battles against Xemnas are fought by Riku and Sora alone. During one part of the final boss fight, Riku even takes a hit for Sora resulting in an injury that he is still reeling from after the battle, walking with a visible limp and unable to move at all without Sora's help. In the last battle against Xemnas, Riku is a playable character for a small part of the game while Sora is trapped. After Xemnas' defeat, he and Sora are left on a dark moonlit beach where the two discuss their thoughts and mutual respect for each other. When the "door to light" appears, Riku goes home to Destiny Islands with Sora and they are reunited with all of their friends. |
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