Marluxia (Second Form)

This is Marluxia's final form in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and second form in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories.

Chain of Memories
This battle is the first time the real Marluxia is fought. Marluxia fuses with a giant Nobody-like creature with two appendages with blades of Graceful Dahlia as "hands". Out of the three battles, this one is most likely the easiest due to the lack of sleights. The Second Form in CoM is fought largely in two stages. In the first stage, the objective is to destroy the scythe hands. The main attack it uses in this stage is a minor version of Deathscythe. It is possible to damage the main body in this stage but Marluxia is only vulnerable after a card break. Once the blades are destroyed, Marluxia takes on a different strategy. He uses floating flowers that shoot lasers first, which can be easily destroyed simply by card breaking them. At regular intervals during the battle, he fires 2-5 slicer waves which can be dodged by jumping and heading to the foreground/background. He also occasionally uses Blossom Shower, which can be dodged with a well timed Dodge Roll. After this, Marluxia hovers above Sora and slams the mech down, creating a shockwave that can be avoided by jumping at the right time. He does this three times in succession, and it is important to note that as his HP get lower, the succession becomes faster and harder to dodge. After this attack Marluxia rears back and shoots across the screen. Card Breaking this is important, as doing so puts Marluxia in his most vulnerable position. Once you break the attack, Sora is placed on the back of the mech and Marluxia sends out three more shot buds to protect him. It's important to note is that the longer Sora stays on, the harder it is to remain on the mech, as Sora is constantly forced backwards away from Marluxia. A good strategy is to use high level Cloud cards (Around 7-9) in succession (One at a time, not in a sleight) while in front of Marluxia. doing so deals a lot of damage in a short amount of time and can also deal with the shot buds when card breaking them. Eventually, Sora is forced off, and the whole process begins again. This attack pattern repeats until Marluxia is defeated.

Re:Chain of Memories
The battle in Re:CoM is very similar to the battle in CoM, though while Marluxia spends much more time on the field and vulnerable to attack, the field is much larger, and Marluxia will often glide away from Sora. He keeps many of his attacks from CoM, including the shot buds, the slicing waves, and the drop-down shockwave attack. Marluxia still uses only one card at a time, but his new attacks are more like sleights. The first of which is when he engulfs the field in Darkness, preventing you from seeing your cards (Except the reload card), and the second is when he creates a massive Blossom Shower. The perspective in these attacks changes to Marluxia, which can make it difficult to dodge these attacks. There's a way around the card seeing, but you need a proper sleight. Stock your cards,and when you know what cards you've got, keep using sleights and removing when you got them memorized.

For the first part of the battle, the objective is the same as in CoM: Destroy the scythes. Marluxia will swing at you with his scythes in a manner similar to Deathscythe. This can be avoided by dodge rolling around the mech. It is possible to attack Marluxia directly, but destroying the scythe blades first makes this easier. When destroyed, each of the blades releases a few HP orbs. After both are destroyed, Marluxia will rocket across the field in an attempt to ram into you. After that, he will summon 3 shot buds. These can be disposed of easily by simply card breaking them. Afterwords, he will create a rotating ring of 5 X-shaped flower waves and fire them at you. He does this faster as his HP gets lower. At regular intervals, he will use his sleight-like attacks, the mega Blossom Shower and the dark void. As previously mentioned, the dark void attack turns all your cards completely black (With the exception of the Reload Card), preventing you from seeing them. He repeats this attack pattern until his HP almost reaches halfway, then he begins using the drop down shockwave attack. Marluxia does this three times in a row, then repeats the previous Attack pattern. This continues until Marluxia is defeated.

Battle Quotes
"Your heart shall be judged!"

"Away!"

"What?"

"No good!"

"Behold!"

"Prepare."

"Do you want to scream?"

"Your heart will be scattered!"

"To the world without light!"

"Sink into the darkness!"

"You will now know real fear."

"Your hopes are doomed to the darkness."

Trivia

 * "Spectre" is the name of the Nobody-like vehicle that Marluxia rides upon. However, since the boss fight is against both Marluxia and this vehicle, the official guides list the boss fight as "Marluxia Second Form".
 * In the sequence between the battles with his Second and Third Forms, Marluxia says "Your hopes are doomed to the Darkness.". This may be a reference to Ansem.
 * If you look closely, a woman's face can be seen inside the mech. This is most likely a throwback to Nomura's original idea of making Marluxia a female character.
 * If the creature Marluxia is fused to is a type of Nobody, it would be the first Nobody with a non-human form to appear in the series.
 * The Twilight Thorn and Specter have very similar appearance, but the Specter lack the zipper design that non-human like Nobodies have. The Twilight Thorn seems to wear a hood based on the observation that the Specter's head is the same, but with feminine face underneath.

Marluxia (Spectre)