Prison Keeper

The Prison Keeper (プリズンキーパー) is a Heartless boss in Kingdom Hearts II. It appears in Halloween Town on the first visit.

After Maleficent resurrects Oogie Boogie, she left Lock, Shock and Barrel behind to deal with Sora and Jack Skellington. She summons a Heartless called the Prison Keeper. Lock, Shock and Barrel sit in the cage at its base. In order to fight Sora and company, the Heartless swallowed one of the kids in order to use a special ability.

Appearance
Prison Keeper, like most Heartless from Halloween Town, is a very macabre-looking Heartless, with an appearance is similar to that of Frankenstein's Monster. It's body consists of only two features, the cage at the bottom and its head.

Strategy
Equip all of your Aerial abilities, and maybe the Hero's Crest (unless you want something with better magic.) Also, you should equip Reflect to your shortcut menu.

Fighting the Prison Keeper is about maintaining pressure. Repeatedly assault it with air combos and limit attacks. If he tilts his back approach him and use the inside combo Reaction Command to stun it.

After a while it swallows one of the three, and its attacks depend on the child:


 * Shock: The Prison Keeper will spin its arms around, rising up and then falling down while spinning around the arena, firing lasers. Its arms glow a dark yellow. This is easy to avoid, just get close and attack.


 * Lock: It will shoot large fireballs out of its mouth and hands from a distance. These fireballs can be deflected to damage this Heartless. Its arms glow red. The best way to counter this is to knock them back by using Guard or hitting them back. Reflect, although useful, is not recommended.


 * Barrel: It will use a powerful biting attack on just Sora and slash madly. Its arms glow green. Keep your distance and use Thunder.

Near the end of the fight, it swallowed all three and used a mixture of attacks: it shot fireballs from its eyes, slashed, and spun. Don't even get near it now. Instead, use Wisdom form, keep your distance, and continue strafing (don't stop moving) until it is defeated. Donald's Limit is also helpful here. If you've run out of MP, getting to the top of Spiral Hill may be the best way to start attacking the Heartless with your Keyblade.

When the Heartless has been defeated, Lock, Shock, and Barrel will reveal Maleficent's intentions.

Kingdom Hearts II
A Heartless called forth in Halloween Town by Maleficent to get revenge on Sora. It held Lock, Shock, and Barrel captive while dealing various elemental attacks.

Trivia

 * The Prison Keeper is the first boss to have over 1,000 HP in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * The Prison Keeper is the only other boss, the first being the Pot Centipede, to have no cutscene showing its demise.
 * Oddly enough, if you don't visit Halloween Town until the second half of the game the Prison Keeper will have more health than every other boss you have to defeat to complete the game.
 * In Kingdom Hearts Final Mix+ the Prison Keeper's hands glow a spooky green.