Luxord

Luxord, the Gambler of Fate is number X in Organization XIII. He first appeared, cloaked and hooded, before Sora along with Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Demyx and Saïx to taunt him in his return to Hollow Bastion. He harassed Sora and his friends in Port Royal and later confronted Sora in the World that Never Was. Although his role in the game is minor, he is one of the last of the Organization members to be defeated. He, as a man who deals in games and fate, controls the Gambler Nobodies.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days will feature Luxord as a playable character.

Port Royal
Upon making second rounds to the worlds in search of the Organization's stronghold, Sora once again allies with Jack Sparrow in Port Royal, where he learns that Will Turner has gone missing while investigating the theft of cursed pirate gold by a man in a black cloak. They seek out Will on the Black Pearl and find him on the Interceptor.

Luxord appears on the Black Pearl after they have recovered Will, with the cursed gold beside him, greeting Jack Sparrow. He reveals that he is at Port Royal to assess the value of the cursed gold to the Organization and calls up Grim Reaper, a Heartless. After the Heartless is thrown overboard, Luxord invokes the right of "parley", or negotiation. He agrees to hand over the chest, but takes four medallions from it when he does so, sending them off to his Gambler Nobodies, who escape with them. This has the effect of returning the curse on Jack and tying his curse to Grim Reaper, who becomes cursed, as well. The Grim Reaper than knocks Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack onto the Interceptor, and has the cannons of the Black Pearl destroy the ship. Sora and the others survive, and track down the medallions, and defeated the Grim Reaper back at Port Royal, lifting the curse on Jack. Even with Luxord's experiments having failed, he manages to bring the heart that the Grim Reaper was holding to Kingdom Hearts, and promptly flees.

The World that Never Was
Luxord appears once more in the game, in the Organization's fortress in The World that Never Was. When Sora, Kairi, Riku, Donald and Goofy enter the area where Luxord waits, Sora walks ahead of the rest. Materializing between Sora and his friends, Luxord uses cards to remove Sora's allies from the area, and challenges Sora to a game involving time. Luxord fights against Sora, using a variety of tricks and games of luck with his playing cards, but in the end, Sora is able to wear Luxord's time down and defeat him. As Sora readies a finishing blow, Luxord raises his cards to shield himself, but Sora slices through the card and finishes Luxord off. Before dying, Luxord, like many other Organization members, calls Sora by the name Roxas.

Personality
Luxord is a man of games and luck; his challenge to Sora and Jack to find the medallions has a game quality to it, and the Heartless he summons cannot be attacked unless all the coins are in the chest, giving a side-objective to the battle. He also uses games of chance in his own battle with Sora. However, his enjoyment for games can backfire on him, both in and out of battle.

Luxord is also portrayed as a master of rhetoric, with an advanced vocabulary (for example, describing the Grim Reaper Heartless as "a veritable maelstrom of avarice", meaning endlessly greedy), using it to taunt his opponents. He also possesses a notably British accent, giving him an air of sophistication.

Fighting tactics
Luxord, his element being time, uses it in unorthodox methods when compared to other Organization members. He shortens the odds originally by dispatching of Sora's companions before attacking Sora himself. Luxord does not have a HP bar; during the battle, Luxord and Sora each have a "time" bar that depletes over time and when they are damaged. The first to have theirs depleted loses the battle. This means that the player must watch Sora's HP and time gauges to make sure neither are emptied. He can also momentarily slow down Sora's movements when given the chance.

Luxord's main weapons are playing cards, which he can use as a means of hiding or shielding himself, as combat weapons for melee attacks, as projectiles, and as traps for Sora to spring. He can also use them to initiate games of chance whose outcome damages either Sora or himself, and uses them to initiate the battle itself by surrounding Sora's friends with spinning cards and causing them to vanish. Another attack not involving the cards is transforming Sora into a 6-sided die and leave him to bounce around the area for a period of time, or transforming him into a playing card with very basic attacking capabilities.

Battle Quotes

 * "The first to run out of time is the loser!"
 * "A challenge is it?"
 * "Cards!"
 * "Don’t squander your time!"
 * "Do you know the rules?"
 * "Look closely."
 * "Look who’s on top of the game!"
 * "Scatter!"
 * "Fold!"
 * "Sora!"
 * "You play the game quite well."

Trivia

 * In the japanese version, Luxord was voiced by popular seiyuu/Tokusatsu actor Jouji Nakata, whose last involvement with Square Enix was to voice Weiss of Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus and provided the voice of Kron on Disney's movie Dinosaurs. The English dub had Luxord voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, who voiced Genesis on Dirge of Cerberus and upcoming Crisis Core, plus Delita Heiral in the English version of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, as well as voice Davy Jones in the video adaptations of Pirates of the Carribean: The Deadman's Chest.


 * According to the Kingdom Hearts Character Report Volume 2, Luxord is Tetsuya Nomura's favorite member of Organization XIII.


 * It is interesting to note that Luxord, a master of cards, was not named lord of Castle Oblivion. The irony is that the actions taken within Castle Oblivion is determined by the use of cards, and the next member, Marluxia, was instead named Lord of Castle Oblivion.


 * It is also interesting to note that Luxord, despite being a gambler, is often associated with Yu-Gi-Oh! This is obviously due to his usage of cards, although this is a great misconception. In fact, if one is observant, watching the cutscene directly before the only battle against Luxord or looking at his cards during battle, the cards aren't even playing cards; they don't have numbers or symbols asociated with normal playing cards but they can be blank, depict red orbs (in which case, they explode if flipped), depict a clock's face (in the cutscene before the battle with Luxord), or depict Luxord himself when he is hiding in one.