Soul Eater





The Soul Eater (ソウルイーター) is the developing form of Riku's primary Keyblade that appears in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts coded. It is a sword that grows more powerful when used with darkness.

Soul Eater is first seen at Traverse Town, when Riku uses it upon two Soldiers that were about to attack Sora. He continues to use this weapon during his appearances until he is possessed by Ansem, who uses the Keyblade of People's Hearts instead. In the final battle against Ansem and World of Chaos, Ansem uses a giant, double-bladed, pole-arm version of the Soul Eater.

The Soul Eater reappears as Riku's only weapon in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, though unlike Sora, Riku can choose to strengthen his weapon as he levels up. Riku also uses this weapon in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, notably in his duel against Xion, though he never actually uses it while battling Roxas; in his first encounter he simply runs away from Roxas without using any weapon at all, and in his second encounter, he uses the Oblivion Keyblade Roxas throws to him, before using Ansem's darkness to defeat him.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Riku continues to use the Soul Eater throughout his appearances, and this eventually causes Sora to realize that Riku is the mysterious hooded stranger the group had been encountering. However, by the time Riku arrives at The World That Never Was, Soul Eater has finally matured into the Way to the Dawn. Even after this, Riku continues to refer to his weapon as Soul Eater.

In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance during the battle against Ursula, Riku wield the Soul Eater once again, but after the battle the Way to the Dawn becomes Riku's weapon.

A copy of the Soul Eater is also used by the Riku Replica and Zexion's clones, when he fights Riku, as well as Data-Riku while he is possessed by the Bug Blox.

Design
The Soul Eater is a falchion-esque sword, with a red, purple and blue blade shaped like a demonic wing. Its handle bears a blue eye, and the handle itself consists of dark braids. It has a striking resemblance to Way to the Dawn, as well as Void Gear. The weapon can be summoned at will, appearing in Riku's hand in an amorphous cloud of darkness. In Halloween Town, the Soul Eater's appearance is highly contrasted; the scales on the wing are more apparent, and the ivory clips on the handle bear red splatter spots.

The weapon's name is derived from an ability attributed to the Dark Knight class in the Final Fantasy series, in which Soul Eater drains the HP of the user to initiate an extra-powerful attack. The attack and the Dark Knight class are associated with darkness, and the Soul Eater ability is sometimes called Darkside, Dark Wave or even Darkness, making it a fitting name for Riku's weapon.

Gameplay
The Soul Eater serves as Riku's default weapon in Mission Mode, requiring no Gears in order to be equipped. Its ground combo starts with a diagonal upward slash from the left leg, followed by two thrusts, two more thrusts, and it ends with a forward rushing thrust. The aerial combo consists of a diagonal upward slash from the right leg, followed by a horizontal slash to the right, a vertical upward slash on the right side, two large forward thrust, and ends with a spinning slash.

Other appearances
The Soul Eater appears in the opening video of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, alongside the Kingdom Key.