358/2 Days Countdown : XIII

Details

Published on September 17, 2009 @ 10:26 am

Written by Takushi Rena

Hi everyone! We're continuing another day into our countdown for 358/2 Days with the thirteenth member -- Roxas!

What We Know So Far:
Roxas is the thirteenth member of Organization XIII, and also Sora's Nobody. He controls the Samurai Nobodies. Having been born when Sora turned into a Heartless but quickly became himself again, Roxas has no memories of his "life" as a Somebody. He holds no memories at all, something incredibly odd for a Nobody. All he has is a name, and a weapon - the keyblade. That weapon turns himself into "The Key of Destiny", or a puppet of Organization XIII to only defeat Heartless and retrieve hearts to create Kingdom Hearts; while, for all fourteen Nobodies, this is a great thing, to get their hearts back... But, in Kingdom Hearts II, we learn that this is more malicious than it seems.

Yet, everything's not the worst for him: he has a best friend, Axel, and they always sit on the clock tower in Twilight Town, eating sea-salt ice cream after missions. Then, there's Xion: a girl whom he befriends over their time in Organization XIII.

We've learned that Xion has influenced his thoughts on Organization XIII and he becomes a traitor because of it, with those events leading into his own story in Kingdom Hearts II. But what happens to him during his time in Organization XIII? What happens to him all before he meets and fights Riku?

His Role in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days:
Roxas is the main character of 358/2 Days, and the character you play as in the main storyline. When the game was announced, Days was claimed to be "the story of Roxas' life in Organization XIII", and is still claimed to be the story of what happens to Roxas during the year that Sora was asleep. While you can play as other characters in 358/2 Days, the entire game follows Roxas, both in gameplay and in the story.

What the Fans Think:
Roxas was a 'popular' character even before Kingdom Hearts II was released. Everyone wanted to know who BHK, or the blonde haired kid, was, and if he was connected to, or even the same person as, the cloaked figure that appeared in the "Deep Dive" and "Another Side, Another Story" secret endings.

After Kingdom Hearts II's release, Roxas became an incredibly popular and loved character in the Kingdom Hearts fandom, being just as (or even more!) popular than Sora. He's been featured on merchandise released by Square-Enix, along with the main trio and other characters from the series, and has his own statue, with both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II Sora, that is featured at game events.

His back story was even covered more in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, and he was finally able to be fought against in his encounter with Sora. Being so loved by fans may even be part of the reason why 358/2 Days was created!

But why does everyone love this character so much? Forum member BluesStar21 can say exactly why:

I personally love Roxas, because he gets along with all of the organization members, and has the power to wield the keyblade. Roxas was a big role in the organization because the organization plans were to capture enough hearts to open Kingdom Hearts so they could become a whole person and not just a nobody, and they couldn't do it without Roxas. The ability to dual keyblades makes this organization member one of the toughest members, and of the most trustworthy member. Being the nobody of Sora really makes Roxas that much cooler, since they both have alot in common.

The best thing about Roxas, is that he will do anything that he wants to do, even if its betraying the organization.

In Conclusion:
Roxas is an interesting character in the Kingdom Hearts series, and we'll finally learn his entire story, and the mysteries behind him left in Kingdom Hearts II, with the English release of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on September 29th for North America and on October 9th for Europe. But, for now, please look forward to the rest of our reports in the countdown!

Discuss this over in our forums and submit your opinion on an Organization XIII member! Who knows? It might end up on the front page!