Hello! I've recently been doing short analyses of the various forms seen in the Kindgom Hearts 3 trailers. I just recently finished up one on the Guardian Form! Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7mLNoGLhf0
As always I will write out my notes here for those who wish to stay here.
Like with Power Form, I will take a look at the transformations associated with this form and then talk about the form as a whole.
The only transformation we have seen associated with Guardian Form is the Counter Shield transformation. The first thing to notice, in the Orchestra Trailer, is that right after Sora transforms, he already has access to his Finisher command. We've seen this a couple times with other transformations that have finishers, such as Drill Punch or Twin Yo-Yo's. Right after transforming the trailer cuts to a powerful counter attack. We know this a counter attack because the command menu changes from "Attack" to "Counter Slash". The shield also changes to show lightning bolts coming out of the surrounding clouds. This happens for this counter and also for the shotlock seen later.
The Orchestra Trailer also shows a combo attack with Counter Shield. The combo seems strange to me though as it does not really seem to be very defensive. The very first attack has Sora swinging his shield around. The second attack at least guards the front of Sora as he charges forward, but it leaves his sides open for attack. His third attack is a "Strike Raid"-esque move that leaves him completely open to attacks. The last attack has Sora spinning in a circle and if you pause it, you can see that during the spin Sora has his shield up to guard incoming attacks. The combo as a whole does not seem very good for multiple enemies. I can see this transformation being more focused for single enemies or bosses.
The shotlock Sora uses calls down a ball of energy that is spun around raining attacks down on enemies. The initial hit of the shotlock hits 14 times. It then switches to another use of shotlock as we can see the counter starting out at 9 hits and racking up to 33 hits. The shotlock still seems to be going after this though which is odd. If you slow down the clip, there are a couple frames where attacks are still raining down but no hits are registering.
The last attack seen in the Orchestra Trailer is the Lightning attack. Many people believe this to be a variation of Thunder magic, but I don't believe it is. Whenever we have seen magic being used, the keyblade has always been glowing. Even in other transformations such as Hyper Hammer or Drill Punch, the weapon glows when using magic. We also can see the shortcut menu during magic attacks and we do not see this during the Lightning attack with Counter Shield. This leads me to believe that this is a combo finisher or possibly even a counter attack. The attack actually hits twice. A ring comes in and does damage before the lightning appears. This has extremely far reach as we can see a soldier in behind Sora being hit by it. Sora then spawns orbs that shoot down lightning. After a second, the orbs spread out before whiting out the screen.
The finisher is most likely the Chariot that we have seen the shield transform into. We haven't got a whole lot of info about this attack, but from what I can tell, we will ride around and damage enemies that come into contact with the chariot. Also in a couple of the trailers, we can see lightning being called down every couple seconds.
With a name like "Counter Shield", I would hope that we have multiple ways to counter attacks, but of course we will just have to wait and see.
And that is all for Counter Shield. Now let's talk about Guardian Form as a whole. We know that Guardian stands for the "Guardians of Light" that Sora is a part of. The golden yellow color probably is supposed to represent light and I could not find a reason why the diamond pattern was chosen as the symbol. I feel like this form will not necessarily focus on defensive or guarding abilities though. There has been some speculation about the forms revolving around the Strength, Magic, and Defense attributes, but there has also been an emphasis on Strength, Magic, and Speed attributes as well. While I would not mind a Defensive Form, I feel like Guardian form is more along the lines of a form that gives Sora the "Power to Protect". This could be defensive power, like Counter Shield, but it could also be other kinds of power as well.
And that is all I have! Hope you all found this both interesting and informative! If you noticed something I didn't, let me know!
Also, if you enjoyed this analysis I did a similar post about the Second Form: https://forums.khinsider.com/kingdom-hearts-iii/216055-second-form-everything-we-know-currently.html
And also the Power Form: https://forums.khinsider.com/kingdom-hearts-iii/216192-power-form-everything-we-know-currently.html
As always I will write out my notes here for those who wish to stay here.
Like with Power Form, I will take a look at the transformations associated with this form and then talk about the form as a whole.
The only transformation we have seen associated with Guardian Form is the Counter Shield transformation. The first thing to notice, in the Orchestra Trailer, is that right after Sora transforms, he already has access to his Finisher command. We've seen this a couple times with other transformations that have finishers, such as Drill Punch or Twin Yo-Yo's. Right after transforming the trailer cuts to a powerful counter attack. We know this a counter attack because the command menu changes from "Attack" to "Counter Slash". The shield also changes to show lightning bolts coming out of the surrounding clouds. This happens for this counter and also for the shotlock seen later.
The Orchestra Trailer also shows a combo attack with Counter Shield. The combo seems strange to me though as it does not really seem to be very defensive. The very first attack has Sora swinging his shield around. The second attack at least guards the front of Sora as he charges forward, but it leaves his sides open for attack. His third attack is a "Strike Raid"-esque move that leaves him completely open to attacks. The last attack has Sora spinning in a circle and if you pause it, you can see that during the spin Sora has his shield up to guard incoming attacks. The combo as a whole does not seem very good for multiple enemies. I can see this transformation being more focused for single enemies or bosses.
The shotlock Sora uses calls down a ball of energy that is spun around raining attacks down on enemies. The initial hit of the shotlock hits 14 times. It then switches to another use of shotlock as we can see the counter starting out at 9 hits and racking up to 33 hits. The shotlock still seems to be going after this though which is odd. If you slow down the clip, there are a couple frames where attacks are still raining down but no hits are registering.
The last attack seen in the Orchestra Trailer is the Lightning attack. Many people believe this to be a variation of Thunder magic, but I don't believe it is. Whenever we have seen magic being used, the keyblade has always been glowing. Even in other transformations such as Hyper Hammer or Drill Punch, the weapon glows when using magic. We also can see the shortcut menu during magic attacks and we do not see this during the Lightning attack with Counter Shield. This leads me to believe that this is a combo finisher or possibly even a counter attack. The attack actually hits twice. A ring comes in and does damage before the lightning appears. This has extremely far reach as we can see a soldier in behind Sora being hit by it. Sora then spawns orbs that shoot down lightning. After a second, the orbs spread out before whiting out the screen.
The finisher is most likely the Chariot that we have seen the shield transform into. We haven't got a whole lot of info about this attack, but from what I can tell, we will ride around and damage enemies that come into contact with the chariot. Also in a couple of the trailers, we can see lightning being called down every couple seconds.
With a name like "Counter Shield", I would hope that we have multiple ways to counter attacks, but of course we will just have to wait and see.
And that is all for Counter Shield. Now let's talk about Guardian Form as a whole. We know that Guardian stands for the "Guardians of Light" that Sora is a part of. The golden yellow color probably is supposed to represent light and I could not find a reason why the diamond pattern was chosen as the symbol. I feel like this form will not necessarily focus on defensive or guarding abilities though. There has been some speculation about the forms revolving around the Strength, Magic, and Defense attributes, but there has also been an emphasis on Strength, Magic, and Speed attributes as well. While I would not mind a Defensive Form, I feel like Guardian form is more along the lines of a form that gives Sora the "Power to Protect". This could be defensive power, like Counter Shield, but it could also be other kinds of power as well.
And that is all I have! Hope you all found this both interesting and informative! If you noticed something I didn't, let me know!
Also, if you enjoyed this analysis I did a similar post about the Second Form: https://forums.khinsider.com/kingdom-hearts-iii/216055-second-form-everything-we-know-currently.html
And also the Power Form: https://forums.khinsider.com/kingdom-hearts-iii/216192-power-form-everything-we-know-currently.html