Xigbar

Xigbar, the Freeshooter (魔弾の射手), is the Nobody of Braig and is Rank II within Organization XIII. Xigbar has power over space, and uses this to freely redirect the projectiles from his twin "Arrowgun" rifles, and to alter the battlefield. He commands the Sniper Nobodies.

Xigbar is the fourth-to-last Organization member to be defeated, and the second to speak to Sora in Kingdom Hearts II, although he does so hooded at first. In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Xigbar is featured as a playable character in Mission Mode. In an interview, Tetsuya Nomura said that "Xigbar's attacks have a high range, but he has slow reloading time." He also said Xigbar is his favorite character to play on Mission Mode.

Kingdom Hearts II
''Organization XIII's Number II. Nothing else about him has come to light.''
 * First entry

''He vanished, leaving Sora with naught but puzzling words. Apparently Organization members can use the darkness to come and go as they please.''

''Organization XIII's Number II. When Sora called out to him, thinking he was Riku, Xigbar gave a curt reply.''
 * Second entry

''His motives and his methods remain unclear. Surely he has a greater goal in mind, but what could it be?''

Organization XIII's Number II.
 * Third entry

''He told Sora once that he reminded him of someone else. Puzzling words, indeed...''

Some part of him did seem to be enjoying Sora's reaction.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
No. II XIGBAR
 * Opening

''Founding member. He keeps an ear to the ground and a finger on the trigger. Manipulates space.''

Weapon: Arrowguns

''The Organization's No. II, a master of the arrowgun and spatial manipulation. As a long-range fighter, he'll try to keep foes from closing in by warping away as he fires.''
 * Enemy File

The full salvo attack he uses in desperate situations is truly devastating.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Xigbar appears for the first time chronologically in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. He, along with Xaldin, was the member who found and brought Marluxia into the Organization.

Present when Xion joins the Organization, he is shocked when Demyx reveals the annihilations that took place at Castle Oblivion (In the manga he states that he wanted Demyx to go to Castle Oblivion, seeming to indicate that there were members he wanted gone). Later joining Roxas on a recon mission to Agrabah, they overhear Aladdin and Jasmine discussing the rebuilding of their city after many sandstorms strike. The Freeshooter later challenges Roxas at Olympus Coliseum when he first enters the Games, claiming to "care about his future." The fight is cut short when the Guard Armor appeared.

Xigbar later discussed the defaulting Xion with Xemnas and Saïx in Where Nothing Gathers, later challenging "Poppet" himself in Wonderland. Xigbar then sees Xion as Ventus, and Xion is able to quickly strike Xigbar down with the power she was unknowingly sapping from Roxas.

Kingdom Hearts II
Not long after arriving in Hollow Bastion and reuniting with Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie, Sora engaged a number of Dusk Nobodies in battle around the city. After being led away from the main town, Sora, Goofy, and Donald heard voices mocking them, but could find no source for them. After Sora demands that they show themselves, the remaining Organization members (having lost five members due to deaths and two others due to desertion) materialize, laughing. Though they are hooded, they are recognizable as the Organization from the description given to Sora and his companions by Yen Sid.

The Organization eventually departs, but Xigbar, still cloaked and hooded, stays behind to taunt Sora further, making them feel anxious about the power of the Organization. He also openly compares the similarities between a glaring look Sora gives him and one given to him by another; Sora dismisses this as random banter meant to confuse him. Xigbar then leaves, staying out of Sora's way for a very long time.

Sora encounters Xigbar again at the gates to the Emperor's throne room in the Land of Dragons. Having encountered another hooded man and suspected him to be his missing friend Riku, Sora inquires if he is the same person. Xigbar removes his hood, revealing otherwise and remarking that he had never heard of anyone named Riku. Xigbar summons his Snipers to distract Sora while he escapes. The diversion works, and although the Nobodies were defeated, and Xigbar is able to continue his mission of summoning an enormous Heartless to harvest hearts for the Organization's plans. He manages to set the Storm Rider on the city, but it is soon destroyed by Sora, Mulan, Donald and Goofy.

Xigbar's final appearance in the game is in The World That Never Was inside Organization XIII's stronghold. After Riku and Naminé helped Kairi to escape from the Organization, they head for the Hall of Empty Melodies, a large, open-air room leading further up into the castle. Sora and his party arrive there, but are stopped by Saïx, who calls out swarms of Shadow and a few Armored Knight heartless to attack the intruders. Maleficent and Pete also arrive, expressing interest in taking the Organization's castle for themselves.

Eventually, Maleficent and Pete leave to formulate a plan for taking the castle, and Saïx heads up to rejoin Xemnas. Sora and Kairi remain separated as Riku and Kairi remain above Sora on a balcony, fighting off the Heartless gathered there. Many Heartless attack Sora as well, but they are all dispatched in a sudden rain of arrows from a hidden Xigbar. He walks into view, and asks if Sora has been a good boy mockingly, echoing the words from his first encounter with Sora. He states how Sora put the Organization in a "pickle", and he supposes that was the reason the Keyblade chose him. He also makes a very cryptic remark on how he wasn't "half the hero the others were". Sora simply takes it as an attempt to throw him off as Xigbar then engages Sora in battle, referring to him as "Roxas" while expressing anger at him for betraying the Organization. Ultimately, he is defeated and begins to fade into the darkness. Before he disappears, Sora asks him why he called him "Roxas", to which Xigbar merely chuckles and responds, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix contains several additional cutscenes of Organization XIII's activity. One shows a conversation at an unknown time between Xigbar and Zexion, with Xigbar having recently returned from finding new members from the Organization (including Marluxia, whom he mentions as a new recruit) while Zexion and Vexen were discussing Xemnas's visit to the Chamber of Repose. Xigbar expressed his knowledge about the events of Keyblade warriors that appeared before they found Xehanort. He also talked about his eavesdropping on Xemnas during his visits to the Chamber of Repose, and how he seemed to be conversing with someone that wasn't really there.

Appearance
Xigbar wears the usual Organization garb of a black cloak, black boots, and black gloves, though his cloak is distinguishable by more pointed shoulders and the fact that it sags at his shoulders. The sleeves of his cloak are also somewhat closer-fitting than normal, though not as close as Axel's. In terms of facial features, Xigbar sports gold eyes, pointed, elf-like ears, upturned eyebrows, and dark hair with several grey streaks tied into a long ponytail.

He also has two visible injuries on his face; the first being a damaged right eye covered by an eyepatch, while the other is a large jagged scar extending from his left cheek to just under his left eye. His original self, Braig, received these injuries when he fought the Keyblade wielder Terra in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

Personality
Xigbar has a laid-back and cocky attitude, and likes to taunt Sora to put him off-guard, though with limited success. When not on missions, he occasionally enjoys eavesdropping on his fellow Organization members. He relies heavily on instinct rather than on intelligence for both decision-making and fighting, making him adaptable and unpredictable in battle. He also has a habit of saying, "As if". In the English translation of the series, Xigbar speaks with a California Surfer accent, possibly to emphasize on his laid-back nature.

Along with Axel, Larxene and Demyx he acts as the Organization's comic relief due to his frequent sarcasm and wise cracks. Xigbar is probably the most wise-cracking of them all as unlike Axel and Larxene who know when to be serious (Demyx having his comic relief due to his klutzy persona, along with his laziness) Xigbar never breaks character and even in his battle he still makes sarcastic comments. He also uses nicknames for the other members on occasions, calling Roxas "kiddo" or "tiger" in the Grey Area and on various missions, calling Xion "Poppet" in the Grey Area, and once calling Axel "Flamesilocks" near the end of the game, when he talks to Roxas about the outcome of the "Ven incident".

Xigbar is also shown to be very uncaring to the other members of the Organization except for Xion. For example he told Roxas that it did not bother him about what had happened to the members at Castle Oblivion, and even stated that he is glad the castle is quieter. And in the Organization's final meeting Xigbar somewhat jokingly remarked, "Seems like we're getting a lot more free seats."

Despite his high rank, he is not given high authority like Saïx or Marluxia but instead is sent on missions and confrontations with Sora. Considering his personality, it may be simply that Xigbar prefers field work to a more administrative position. However, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days seems to contradict this, as Xigbar attended a meeting at which the only other members attending were Xemnas and Saïx (the Organization's leader and second-in-command). Xigbar also has a tendency to spy on other members of the Organization—he spies on Xemnas going to the Chamber of Repose in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, and spies on Axel and Xion discussing Roxas in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Due to his high rank and spying, Xigbar knows a great deal of the Organization's secrets. If you listen carefully, he has a habit of hinting some of the Organization's secrets, but most are too vague to understand at first. Xigbar is noted by Roxas as not an easy guy to trick. He seems to be the type of guy who will find out about a secret that interests him, one way or another.

Along with the rest of the Organization he considers Roxas to be a traitor. He seems to support this view more than any other Organization member as he's the only one who states it in his battle quotes. In fact, when the battle begins he remarks, "You really shouldn't have betrayed us!" However, this could simply be in keeping with his mocking personality, as he seemed to be taunting Sora for his ignorance of Roxas.

Unlike the other Organization members, Xigbar does not express fear or remorse while fading into darkness, instead chuckling rather triumphantly and giving Sora a cocky reply to the final question Sora asks him.

Interestingly, he shows some signs of empathy, especially towards Xion when she fails to defeat the Organization's "impostor."

Abilities
As the "Freeshooter", Xigbar attacks from far range using his twin Arrowguns, firing rapid barrages of lasers at Sora. He uses his control over space to its fullest, bending his attribute to teleport, warp his shots, and levitate upside down. With this ability, Xigbar does not even have to aim at Sora to hit him. Instead, he can simply fire anywhere he wishes and open spatial rifts to redirect the shots towards the Keyblade master. Nonetheless, Xigbar is shown to be an exceptional gunslinger, as seen in the cutscene before the battle against him, when he effortlessly destroys all of the Heartless surrounding Sora, Donald, and Goofy without hitting any of them even once. He appears to be very quick and hard to hit, although his skills still did not give him the ability to defeat Sora and company.

In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Xigbar has a Limit Break called Critical Snipe. During Critical Snipe, Xigbar's gameplay goes into a over-the-shoulder third-person shooter mode. He combines his two gun arrows into a single sniper rifle, and fires powerful, large bullets at the target. Enemies hit take damage and are temporarily stunned. Due to his manipulation of space, he can hang in midair and shoot, but not upside down.

During Xigbar's Final Limit, Xigbar's bullets become larger, more powerful, and can be fired at a faster rate. Instead of simply being larger, they become a sphere of pink, white, and blue energy. Their strength is shown by the ripples they make in space as they are fired. Enemies that are hit take heavy damage.

Overall, despite his laid back nature, Xigbar has been shown to be a very capable fighter, being able to instantly wipe out a large swarm of Shadow Heartless on more than one occasion.

Weapon
Xigbar wields two ranged weapons called Arrowguns, with this specific model called Sharpshooter. The top of each gun bears a pattern similar to the Nobody symbol. They are purplish, strangely shaped weapons that appear to be somewhat similar to crossbows. They shoot red laser arrows which bend towards a target, making them quite deadly with Xigbar's aim. Xigbar uses his Space attribute to full effect by creating wormholes to fire the shots through during battle. The blasts can be rebounded at Xigbar using the Keyblade's "Guard" ability. During Xigbar's desperation moves, they are able to fire a massive stream of powerful rounds, which glow blue rather than red, and adapt a rapid-fire ability. When held together and charged, they can fire a massive blue energy arrow that rebounds around the area, and can be angled to hit an enemy multiple times. After several attacks, they need to be reloaded.

In the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts II, the arrow guns can be combined together into a makeshift sniper rifle with deadly accuracy. In the English version, Xigbar doesn't combine the guns, but uses one gun to balance the other (though the effect is the same). The rifle sight is also different in each version. In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Xigbar combines his weapons in the same manner when using his Limit Break, and is uncensored in the English version.

Sniper Nobodies also carry similar weapons; though theirs are much weaker, appear more like crossbows, and their crystal arrows hang in the air for a short time, allowing for a reaction command.

When Kingdom Hearts II was released in North America, one of the main changes in the game was made to Xigbar. As noted above, in the cinematic before the fight, Xigbar combines his two guns together to make a sniper rifle. He uses this move later on in the fight as well. Due to restraints on video game violence, this was changed in North America. Xigbar no longer created his sniper rifle, and instead, simply spun his guns around, using one gun as a balance to steady the gun with which he sniped. The first person HUD display was changed as well, to make it less realistic. Xigbar's sniper rifle was later brought back for Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, despite keeping many changes from the English versions. Interestingly, the Japanese HUD display is decorated with a black silhouette of Xigbar's individual Arrowguns in each of the four cardinal directions.

In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Xigbar combines his twin Arrowguns into one during his Limit Break, this kept in the English adaption as well, as it lacks the targeting graphic featured in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix.