Battle of the 1000 Heartless



The Battle of the 1000 Heartless (or Battle of Hollow Bastion) was a major event that took place in Hollow Bastion. It featured 1000+ Heartless attacking the Restoration Committee and their settlement. Organization XIII purposely began the war to collect more hearts for Kingdom Hearts. Maleficent also participated in the battle in an attempt to seize the world as her's again.

The battle
Although a small majority of Heartless were attacking Ansem the Wise's old castle, Sora and his friends forced them back out of the town into the Great Maw. Sora, Donald and Goofy caught up with King Mickey in the Bailey, and defy his orders, going in to help their friends. Upon reaching the castle gates, they encounter Demyx, who they previously met in the Underworld at Olympus Coliseum. After a tough battle, Demyx falls and fades back to darkness. Mickey catches up with Sora, Donald and Goofy, accepting to help them. However, a Surveillance Robot's laser hits a boulder which would've hit the king, if Goofy wouldn't have pushed him away. Goofy, being hit on the head instead, is seemingly dying. Enraged, Mickey, Donald, and Sora charge into the battle. However, after a battle through the passageways through the land, Sora, Donald and Mickey discover that Goofy is alive.

The group move into the Great Maw, where they finally beheld the leader of Organization XIII, Xemnas. Mickey runs off to confront Xemnas. Before the others can follow, they find themselves surrounded by 1000 Heartless. A great battle follows which leaves only Sora, Donald and Goofy standing. The trio eventually catch up with Mickey. Xemnas makes his departure, chased by Mickey into a corridor of darkness. The three briefly have encounters with Axel, Saïx and Maleficent, the plot of the Organization revealed to them. Maleficent surprisingly saves the three from a group of Heartless and sends them away from the world, ending the war.

In Game
In-game, Sora must defeat exactly 1000 Heartless alone. The battle can be made much easier by using the Reaction Command, however. This allows Sora to perform Rising Sun, which lets him attack large groups of enemies and devestate them. The Armored Knights are relatively helpless in this way, and to make matters easier, Sora can grab the Surveillance Robots around the area and use them to attack the Knights. In the end, although the Armored Knights are not exceptionally strong, their main strength is their great numbers, which compounded with Sora being alone could catch him off-guard. Because of this large number of Knights, the battle could take a long time to complete.

Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee

 * Sora (commander)
 * Donald
 * Goofy
 * King Mickey (commander)
 * Leon (commander)
 * Yuffie
 * Aerith
 * Cloud
 * Stitch
 * Tifa
 * Cid
 * Merlin
 * Yuna
 * Paine
 * Rikku
 * Tron
 * Claymores

Maleficent's Group

 * Maleficent (commander)
 * Pete
 * 1000+ Heartless

Organization XIII

 * Xemnas (commander)
 * Saix
 * Demyx
 * 1000+ Nobodies
 * 1000+ Heartless (allied with Organization XIII later in the war)

No side

 * Sephiroth
 * Sark
 * MCP
 * The Hostile Program
 * Axel

Casualties

 * 1000+ Heartless
 * Many Nobodies
 * Demyx
 * The Hostile Program
 * Goofy (Knocked unconcious, thought dead)

Aftermath
In the aftermath of the battle, Maleficent's power over the Heartless was effectively broken. Organization XIII was able to take control of them, and began sending them to the worlds which Pete had previously visited.

Sora began to doubt his purpose, knowing that Organization XIII would take the hearts of any Heartless he would defeat. However, Goofy reminded him that to do nothing would allow the Heartless to continue taking over worlds.

Trivia

 * In the cutscene prior to the battle, Sora, Donald and Goofy wield their basic weapons (Kingdom Key, Mage's Staff and Knight's Shield, respectively). However, when the fight starts they carry their equipped weapon.
 * In the cutscene, black behemoth heartless are shown, but behemoths never appear in Kingdom Hearts II.