Prince

The Beast is a recurring character in the Kingdom Hearts series. He plays a major role in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II as an ally to Sora and his friends. He first appeared in Disney's "".

Before Kingdom Hearts
Prior to the events of Kingdom Hearts, the Beast had been a prince, living a spoiled life in his castle. But approximately nine years before Kingdom Hearts, the prince had been transformed into a hideous beast by an enchantress, who was disgusted at the prince's lack of love in his heart. As punishment, she transformed him into a creature that befit the nature of his "cold black heart". As an additional consequence, the enchantress turned all of the prince's servants into household objects.

The enchantress put a spell on a rose she had carried, saying that it would bloom until the Beast turned twenty-one, at which point it would begin to wilt. By the time its last petal fell, the Beast would stay in his terrible form forever, as would his servants. Nearly ten years after this event, Belle appeared at the castle, seeking her father, Maurice, who had gone missing. Belle found her father in the Beast's dungeon, and exchanged her freedom for his.

After many days of tension between Belle and the Beast, the two eventually grew close to each other. During this time, Belle was captured by the Heartless, and the Beast's world, along with all of his servants, was swallowed by the darkness.

Kingdom Hearts
In a rare occurrence for the characters of the Kingdom Hearts series, Beast made his first appearance outside of his home world, due to its destruction. Sora, Donald, and Goofy witnessed him detailing his history to Riku at Hollow Bastion's backward waterfalls; Beast explained that it was his love for Belle that had helped him travel all the way to Hollow Bastion from his original world without an aircraft to assist him. He demanded that Riku return Belle to him.

When his request was denied, Beast attempted to attack Riku, but Riku managed to injure the Beast. Sora then lost control of the Keyblade to Riku, and Donald and Goofy had no choice but to follow Riku due to their king's orders to follow the Keyblade master, leaving Sora alone with the Beast. The two briefly explained to each other that they were both looking for someone, before heading into Hollow Bastion as a team; the Beast's strength was a great asset to Sora, whose old Wooden Sword was ineffective against the Heartless.

However, once inside Hollow Bastion's main entrance, the Beast witnessed a vision of Belle being turned into a Heartless (which did not actually happen, although at that exact moment Belle had lost her heart), and in a fit of rage the Beast abandoned Sora, chasing after the Heartless in his vision. After Sora battled Riku and took back the Keyblade, the Beast returned to his senses and continued to assist Sora, who now had Donald and Goofy back on his side.

The four encountered Maleficent, who battled them in her human and dragon forms. Once she was defeated, the Beast separated from the group while Sora, Goofy and Donald entered the chamber where the Princesses of Heart were held; here, Sora once again fought Riku, who was now possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

After Sora won the battle, he used the Keyblade of People's Hearts to release Kairi's heart from his own, as well as to return all of the other princesses' hearts, including Belle's. When Sora, Kairi, Goofy and Donald were surrounded near Hollow Bastion's exit, the Beast stayed behind as Hollow Bastion became infested with Heartless, refusing to leave without Belle, who was still encased in glass and crystal, and also to divert the Heartless' attention from Sora and friends so they could escape.

When Sora returned to Hollow Bastion, he took the Beast into the library, where Belle was researching ways to stop the darkness that was beginning to engulf Hollow Bastion. She and the Beast lovingly embraced, happily reunited at last. Beast continued to help Sora in battle at Hollow Bastion, and then waited there with Belle following Sora's departure, anticipating Sora's victory so that he and Belle could return home, which they eventually did.

In Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, the Beast was also present for the special fight with Xemnas, who had come to Hollow Bastion with the intent of testing Sora's strength.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
An illusion of the Beast appears in Castle Oblivion as a figment of Sora's memories of Hollow Bastion. He is shown coming to Hollow Bastion to rescue the captured Belle much like the real Beast, but is coldly refused by Belle and told to return home. The Beast becomes depressed, not knowing that Belle is merely faking her cruelty to foil Maleficent's plans to steal her heart.

When he is rejected again, however, the Beast declares he will stay and fight for her even if it is against her wishes, confessing his own feelings for her in the process and prompting Maleficent to try and steal his heart instead, but Belle is so moved that she sacrifices her own heart to save his. The Beast joins Sora and his friends in defeating Maleficent, and Belle's heart is restored. The Beast apologizes for doubting Belle's love for him, and the two lovingly embrace.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Upon returning to his home world, the Beast finds his castle under attack by the Heartless and does everything he can to fight them off, though his constant fighting strains his relationship with Belle. He is defeated while trying to keep an Infernal Engine from breaking into the castle, and finally stops fighting knowing that Belle and his servants are safe.

Some time later, the Beast is contacted by Xaldin of Organization XIII, who begins to sow seeds of distrust for Belle into the Beast, and he slowly begins to fear that he will lose everything he holds dear. By observing the Beast during his missions, Roxas begins to learn about love and the desire to protect something precious.

First Visit
In Kingdom Hearts II, Belle and the Beast have been back in their world for a year following the events of Kingdom Hearts. However, the peace was once again interrupted by a high-ranking Organization XIII member, Xaldin, who angered the Beast by telling him that Belle would leave him, and that her feelings for him were not true. In his rage, the Beast threw his servants into the dungeon and frightened Belle to the point that she would not venture beyond the East Wing of the castle.

When Sora, Donald and Goofy arrived in Beast's Castle, they were attacked by Shadow Heartless, but were saved by the Beast. However, despite having saved them, the Beast was not the least bit interested in seeing his old friends again. He shoved them aside and reached for his enchanted rose, which he took back to his room in the West Wing.

After rescuing the castle's servants at Belle's request, Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Beast's butler, Cogsworth found the Beast in his room, being provoked by Xaldin. After battling the Beast to calm him down, the Beast came to his senses and decided to apologize to Belle.

However, Belle was not in her room. The Beast and company found her running from Shadow Stalker in the castle's ballroom. She escaped to the balcony as the Beast confronted Xaldin and fought the Shadow Stalker that Xaldin attacked the group with. After the fight, the Beast apologized to Belle, who accepted. However, Belle was still disappointed in the Beast's lack of trust for her, and Sora left their world wondering if they would ever manage to work out their differences.

Second Visit
When Sora returned, he found the Beast pacing in the main entrance. The Beast was dressed very nicely, and after a few reluctant grunts he finally admitted that he and Belle were on a date for the evening. Unfortunately, as the two began to dance in the ballroom, Xaldin returned. The Beast charged at Xaldin, while Belle bemoaned the Organization's interference with her romantic evening. Following yet another battle, Xaldin told the Beast that something precious to him was now gone. The Beast realized Xaldin had been talking about the enchanted rose, and abandoned his friends to check if his fear was true.

Unfortunately, this was exactly the case, and in his despair, the Beast lashed out at Belle and Sora, telling them to leave his castle. But, while Belle walked to her room to prepare for her departure, Sora stayed and convinced the Beast that he needed to show Xaldin who was boss. The Beast, realizing Sora's words were true, went to find Xaldin, who was waiting for him in the entrance hall. When Xaldin retreated outside, the Beast followed.

Meanwhile, Belle stood on the balcony outside of her room, lost in thought. When she saw Beast and the others emerge from the castle, she ran back inside, but saw the rose sitting beside her door. She happily held the rose over the balcony to show it to the Beast, but she was suddenly grabbed behind by Xaldin and whisked away to the castle's bridge.

The Beast was then presented with the choice of keeping Belle or his rose; he chose Belle, but did not have to worry, as Belle briefly took matters into her own hands; she caught Xaldin off guard, painfully elbowed him in the stomach, grabbed the rose, and ran off toward Sora and party, ensuring that the Beast lost neither her or the rose.

After a fierce confrontation with Xaldin (which the Organization member lost), the Beast gladly took his rose back from Belle. However, he was ashamed of how he had yelled at Belle, and (with a little encouragement from his friends) bashfully asked her to stay with him. Belle smiled and accepted, and the two danced the night away in the castle courtyard.

During the credits of Kingdom Hearts II it was revealed that the Beast transformed back into Prince Adam.

Personality
The Beast was originally a very spoiled, selfish, cruel, and unloving prince. However, in the Kingdom Hearts series he is shown at a later stage in his relationship with Belle, with most of his uncomplimentary traits remedied. The Beast is still prone to lashing out in anger, especially when provoked by characters like Maleficent or Xaldin. But beneath his rough exterior beats a true heart of gold, which Belle has worked to bring out so that everyone can see how beautiful a person the Beast really is.

Matching with his ferocious appearance is his extreme bravery, demonstrated when the Beast shows no fear in challenging opponents such as Maleficent, Shadow Stalker and Xaldin, despite their menacing strength and appearance. Even after being wounded by Riku, the Beast still presses on, determined to save Belle from Maleficent at any cost.

Appearance
The Beast's appearance is a combination of physical characteristics from various wild animals, including a wild boar, wolf, buffalo, bear and lion. He often wears a torn purple cape and dark blue pants. When dressed up, he ties his hair back with a blue bow, and wears a blue and yellow jacket, an orange vest, and black pants. He is mostly shown hunched, except when he is in his formal dress.

When in his human form, Prince Adam has shoulder-length red hair. He dons the same formal suit he wore as the Beast, tailored to fit him; he also wears brown boots. The only striking similarity between Prince Adam and his beastly alter ego is his blue eyes.

Kingdom Hearts
Beast's stats are very high, which is fitting as he is Sora's ally in Hollow Bastion, the final world, when Sora is incapable of fighting on his own. His attack and defense are just as high as Sora's, and he has decent MP and high HP. Beast's abilities increase his physical prowess even more, and he attacks using tackles, charges and his claws. He has one equipment slot and eight item slots. Beast's abilities are as follows:


 * Ferocious Lunge: Charges forward and tackles enemies.
 * Furious Bellow: Roars to attack nearby enemies.
 * Berserk: Boosts attack power when HP is critical.
 * MP Rage: Restores MP when attacked. Beast has this ability twice.
 * Second Wind: Recovers from KO quickly.
 * Second Chance: Ensures 1 HP is retained after being hit with a critical attack.
 * Critical Plus: Increases chance of landing a critical hit.

Sleight

 * Ferocious Lunge Lv2- Stock up 2 Beast cards
 * Ferocious Lunge Lv3- Stock up 3 Beast cards

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories'

 * Furious Volley Lv2- Stock up 2 Beast cards
 * Furious Volley Lv3- Stock up 3 Beast cards

Kingdom Hearts II
As one would expect, Beast is a physical attacker with few abilities, relying on his brute strength to fight with a series of tackling and charging attacks. He has no armor slots, one accessory slot, and four item slots. The Beast's abilities are as follows:


 * Furious Shout: Roars to attack nearby enemies.
 * Ferocious Rush: Charges forward and tackles enemies.
 * Item Boost: Boosts the effectiveness of healing items like Potions.
 * Defender: Increases defense when HP is critical.
 * Second Chance: Ensures 1 HP is retained after being hit with a critical attack.
 * Auto Limit: Sets the Reaction command to Limit, if a Limit has been equipped.
 * Hyper Healing: Quickly revives a fallen party member and restores their HP.
 * Howling Moon: The Limit Twin Howl becomes available. Sora and Beast attack enemies from all sides with blast-like moves.

Origin
The Beast is based on his appearance in Walt Disney's 1991 film, ', which was in turn inspired by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's ', published in 1756. However, the Beast's character has made various appearances in hundreds of incarnations of the Beauty and the Beast story. In this adaptation of the story, the Beast starts out as arguably an evil villain, callously imprisoning Belle's father, Maurice, in his dungeon solely for wandering into the castle for help.

Belle offers to replace Maurice with herself and the Beast accepts. The Beast treats Belle with nothing but contempt at first, and at one point frightens her so much that she attempts to flee the castle, but he realizes his mistake and follows her into the woods to save her from a pack of hungry wolves. After Belle thanks him for saving her by treating his wounds, he returns her kindness by giving her his library as a gift. Following this major change in his behavior, the Beast's inner goodness begins to surface and he also heals his strained friendships with Lumiere and Cogsworth. Eventually, the two fall in love, but as they are on the verge of admitting it, Belle discovers Maurice dying in the woods, having lost his way while searching for the Beast's castle, and the Beast, regretting his previous behavior with the old man, allows Belle to leave to find him, and he admits to Cogsworth that he loves her. Unfortunately, this leads to the simple-minded villagers discovering the Beast's existence, since until then he had been considered a rumor at best, and a rival suitor for Belle, Gaston (the film's villain, absent in the games), leads the villagers to attack the castle and kill the Beast. Gaston finds the Beast, depressed since Belle's departure, and starts to beat him, but the Beast fights back upon seeing Belle return and defeats Gaston, but shows him mercy. Gaston manages to stab the Beast in the back before falling to his own death, and the Beast dies in Belle's arms as she admits she loves him. However, the spell breaks and the Beast is reverted to his human form, Prince Adam, as well as revived. He embraces Belle and his servants and they hold a ball to celebrate.

Trivia

 * Beast's Japanese voice actor, Kôichi Yamadera, also provides the voices of Donald Duck, Mushu, and Sebastian in Kingdom Hearts. He voiced the same roles, in addition to Genie and Stitch in Kingdom Hearts II, and Jaq in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
 * He is the only party member who has been a temporary party member in more than one world throughout the series. He was a temporary party member in Hollow Bastion in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and was a party member in Beast's Castle in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * Beast is the only Disney party member who has the distinction of having participated in direct battles against Organization XIII (and even helping destroy one). The first is against Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and the second is against Xaldin in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * One of Beast's abilities, Howling Moon, shares its name with one of Red XIII's Limit Breaks from Final Fantasy VII.

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