Kurt Zisa

Kurt Zisa is an Emblem Heartless that is found in the North American, PAL, and Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts. It is one of the bosses in Agrabah.

Kingdom Hearts
Kurt Zisa emerges from the Final Keyhole after it is opened by the Princesses of Heart, and it goes straight to Agrabah. The Carpet soon encounters Kurt Zisa in the desert, and it flies back to Aladdin's House, where Sora and his friends find it. It leads them back to the desert, where Kurt Zisa attacks them. However, after an intense battle, Kurt Zisa is defeated by Sora and his friends, leaving behind a piece of Ansem's Report.

Design
A six-armed beast, Kurt Zisa also boasts a brown and black segmented body and a golden head that bears a strong resemblance to the cobra head on Jafar's staff. It wears a white sleeve trimmed in gold on each arm, a white tunic with puffy gold sleeves over its oddly-shaped upper torso, and white, gold-and-turquoise trimmed pants on its lower body; around its waist is a brightly colored sash in turquoise, decorated with bright orange tassels and a gold apron bearing the Heartless Emblem. Its feet appear to be clad in gold and brown shoes at first glance, but the toes are curled into fierce hooks that point down towards the ground. Each arm ends in three sharp segmented talons.

Despite its fearsome appearance, Kurt Zisa deals most of its damage with its es, two large sharp silver crescents that end in gold-trimmed holes on one end and lethal hooks on the other.

Kurt Zisa is named after Kurt Zisa of Medford, New York, who won Square's "KINGDOM HEARTS: Name-In-Game" contest, which was held two months prior to the American release of Kingdom Hearts.

Strategy

 * Attacks
 * Trample Attack (踏みつけ攻撃): During Silence, Kurt Zisa jumps into the air, dealing damage to Sora if he lands on him.
 * Rush (突進): During Silence, if the party gets too far away, Kurt Zisa can perform a dashing attack toward them. It has small range, but touching the blades can hurt.
 * Windmill Slash (風車斬): During Silence, Kurt Zisa stands still and spins its swords around, deflecting attacks and damaging the party.
 * Floating Dance (浮遊乱舞): During Silence, Kurt Zisa leaps up and rapidly spins before dive-bombing Sora. Roll under or jump over the horizontal spins, or roll to the side of the vertical spins. Kurt Zisa won't use this attack until it has taken a certain amount of damage.
 * Firaga Bomb (ファイガボム): During Reflect Barrier, a sigil appears on the shield. Large fireballs appear around the arena and hover slowly around, acting as mines. These orbs can be deflected back by using Guard, damaging its shield.
 * Sandstorm (サンドストーム): During Reflect Barrier, Kurt Zisa raises its arms and summons four tornadoes around Sora, which then fuse into one larger tornado. Roll through them with correct timing to avoid damage.
 * Thundara Ball (サンダラボール): During Reflect Barrier, orbs of electricity shoot from the ground directly at Sora. Kurt Zisa won't use this attack until it has taken a certain amount of damage.
 * Thundaga Ball (サンダガボール): At the end of Thundara Balls, a giant orb of electricity shoots from the ground directly at Sora.
 * Bite (かみつき): While defenseless, Kurt Zisa flails its neck wildly and bites Sora. It's harder to hit during this attack, but it can be deflected.
 * Silence (サイレス): Silences the party as soon as the battle starts, preventing them from using magic and summoning. The effect lasts until the two dark orbs in its hands are destroyed. Every other time it "wakes up" it will summon the orbs and cast Silence again.

Kurt Zisa fights in three phases, each one granting it different attacks. The battle continues as it moves through its "Silence", "Bite", and "Reflect Barrier" phases until it is defeated.

Since Kurt Zisa is a rather difficult boss to defeat, it is efficient to Summon Tinker Bell right before Magic is unusable as she can keep the party healed and revive Sora once if all his HP is drained. Another option is to cast Aero magic before Silencega is cast so damage from Kurt Zisa's attacks is reduced while magic is sealed. Also, having Aerora/Aeroga allows Sora to inflict more damage on Kurt Zisa if the shield is in range of its hands or head.

Another strategy to get past its shield mode quickly is to either summon Mushu, Genie, or Dumbo and use Fire, Showtime, or Water to break through the shield.

Alternatively, Sora can summon Bambi and hit Kurt Zisa with offensive spells while Bambi drops magic orbs.

Trivia

 * The spinning blade attack is identical to the attack of Luna Bandits.
 * In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, when Xion uses an Organization XIII Device in Agrabah to absorb Sora's latent memories of that world, she takes on a form which strongly resembles Kurt Zisa.