Magic was a very important part of the original Kingdom Hearts, but one that many fans ignored nonetheless. For whatever reason, the franchise tends to attract a fanbase that doesn’t like to engage with all the core mechanics. That’s perhaps fair considering how story driven Kingdom Hearts ultimately is, but it’s a shame so many miss out on playing with Sora’s magic.
Kingdom Hearts II in particular does a good job at ensuring magic isn’t exactly how it was in the first game, instead revamping the system entirely. Where the first game featured a more traditional stat system, Sora’s magic in the second game auto regenerates whenever it’s depleted. This allows magic to play a more intimate role in the gameplay for those who let it.
6 Fire
In the original Kingdom Hearts, Fire would home in on enemies and was generally a long range spell. In an attempt to rebalance the second game’s magic, Kingdom Hearts II instead features a radically different Fire. Taking the shotgun properties from Blizzard in the first game, Fire now generates a spinning circle of fire around Sora.
Fira and Firaga increase that circle’s intensity, but the main point that Fire can no longer be used long range. It is 100% a short range, in your face magic spell now. This is useful for those rare occasions where Sora is being ganged up on from every corner, but it’s not really all that useful in the grand scheme of things and it doesn’t take long for Fire to be outclassed.
5 Blizzard
As was the case with Fire, Kingdom Hearts’ relationship with Blizzard changed between numbered outings. In the first game, Blizzard was useful as a shotgun spell of sorts at close range, but it was very much circumstantial. There wasn’t much Blizzard could do that other spells couldn’t more reliably.
To remedy this, and to just create a more balanced magical skill set for Sora in general, Kingdom Hearts II has more or less given Blizzard Fire’s properties from the first game. It’s fired like a traditional spell, homes in on enemies, and is basically just a blue version of Fire magic from the original Kingdom Hearts.
This does make Blizzard a bit more useful early game, but by the time it’s Blizzaga and can really do some work, players will either have settled on physical combat primarily or found a magic set that has no real place for Blizzard. If nothing else, Blizzard is more useful more often than Fire is. It’s fun clearing out enemies ganging up on Sora, but that’s not a situation players should be in often to begin with.
4 Thunder
Kingdom Hearts is very kind to Thunder. Time and time again, Thunder triumphs over its lesser cousins, Fire and Blizzard. Thunder reigned king in Kingdom Hearts I, it’ll dominate the series’ future in Birth by Sleep, and it graced players yet again in Kingdom Hearts II. To dial back, though, Thunder is really just an all around good spell. It’s not amazing or one of the best, but it’s plenty serviceable and makes for a great fourth shortcut slot choice.
Toss a Magnet and a Thundaga to get a taste of Birth by Sleep’s core gameplay loop, or just go hog wild zapping every Heartless and Nobody in your path. Paired with Sora’s Wisdom Form early on and Thunder can do a considerable amount of damage out of nowhere. Nothing too spectacular, of course, but it’s a fun magic spell to play around when you’re not in the mood to whack enemies around with your Keyblade.
3 Cure
In order to remedy how easily overpowered magic could be in the original Kingdom Hearts, the series’ first numbered sequel replaces traditional MP with a regenerative magic bar. Not just that, Cure now eats up 100% of the bar no matter how much MP Sora has left. If you want to heal, you need to accept Sora won’t be able to use magic for quite a bit. It’s a gameplay decision that adds an important element of strategy to combat.
Worth noting, however, MP restores fast enough where competent players shouldn’t sweat too much fighting without magic. Plus, it incentives you to actually use your magic before healing, since there’s no real penalty to healing with low MP. If anything, it’s much, much smarter to do so. As useful as healing can be in a pinch, however, Kingdom Hearts II can be fairly challenging on both Proud and Critical, necessitating some better magic to stay afloat.
2 Magnet
In many respects, Magnet can be seen as something of a successor to the first game’s Stop and Gravity. In conjunction with each other, they could do serious damage, paralyzing enemies in place and generally just eating away at health. Magnet is unique in that regard as well, pulling enemies into a vortex that immobilizes them to do damage, but it’s far more useful than Gravity or Stop ever were.
Magnet is the kind of magic spell that pairs with everything, and chaining from Magnet into another attack is easy and fluid, incentivizing those who use Magnet often to make use of their magic skill set in general. Magnet will have no trouble clearing waves of enemy, and pairing it with Sora’s Final Form can end up doing some devastating damage. It’s especially useful for Critical, where Magnet naturally sees a lot of legwork by virtue of preventing certain enemies from fighting back.
1 Reflect
At the end of the day, Reflect is going to be your best friend on higher difficulties. It is Kingdom Hearts II’s “Get out of Jail Free” card, but endgame bosses and enemies still require the proper timing to make the most out of Reflect. Just spamming Reflaga might save your skin every now and again, but in reality it’s just draining MP that would be better spent on well timed Reflects.
Either way, the fact you can spam it and reliably counter damage speaks volumes to Reflect’s usability. Ignoring it is outright foolish, but some gamers are for whatever averse to experimenting with nontraditional elemental magic. Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder get love, but Reflect may as well be a new language to them.
Which is silly because it’s such an easy spell to make work in your favor. Even just naturally playing the game will gradually beat those trigger happy tendencies out of you. When it comes down to it, though, the best part of Reflect is that it it’s just fun to use. That’s true of every magic spell in Kingdom Hearts II, but there’s something profoundly satisfying about shooting out a Reflaga and wreaking havoc around you.
NEXT: Kingdom Hearts I: Every World From Worst To Best, Ranked