If there's one thing that Kingdom Hearts fans can agree on, whether they hate certain story beats or love the characters and winding narrative, everyone knows that the golden boy Sora isn't the smartest. Square Enix seems to understand this pretty well, with Kingdom Hearts 3's Sora leaning into this character trait with lines like "I can't computer so...do that," and encounters like the Lightning Angler.
Now, this isn't exactly a critique of Sora in the Kingdom Hearts series just because he's far from being the smartest character in the franchise. In fact, this character trait has become a fan favorite about Sora, both as one of the leading sources of comedy involving him in the series, as well as to keep him from coming off as overpowered for figuring everything out for himself.
This is where the Lightning Angler boss encounter in Kingdom Hearts 3 comes in, maximizing once again on Sora being increasingly gullible, even as Donald and Goofy try to warn him. The Heartless itself isn't the hardest boss in Kingdom Hearts, nor is it really the most memorable fight in the game it first appears in. However, while the fight might not be the most interesting in the series, the introduction to the Lightning Angler is a welcome bit of levity in one of the darker worlds that Sora travels to.
Lightning Angler's Mimic Ability
Mimics are somewhat of a staple in JRPGs, and have appeared in Kingdom Hearts before, in the form of the Spiderchest Unversed enemies from Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. However, up until the Lightning Angler, no Heartless have really utilized this type of ability to catch players off their guard during what most would assume to be the safe action of opening a chest. It's an interesting omission for the series, especially considering that the enemy type has appeared as a monster in Final Fantasy titles before.
Of course, when the Lightning Angler appears as the first Heartless mimic in the series, it doesn't quite have the same design as the standard versions of the enemy type. There is also the fact that the player isn't the one being tricked by the trap, with Sora instead attempting to open the treasure chest during a cutscene. It's a fairly strange scene at first, especially considering how obvious the trap is as even Kingdom Hearts' bumbling sidekicks Donald and Goofy see that the chest looks suspicious.
Sora Falling for the Trap
This is what really makes the Lightning Angler stand out as a boss encounter even if it isn't one of the strongest or weakest bosses in Kingdom Hearts to help it stand out that way. It starts with a chest sitting in the middle of a huge boss room, that the characters even comment on, as if to take the old Gandalf meme or related web-comics into the game and make the popular observation. However, even as the trap becomes obvious to the player, as well as Donald and Goofy, Sora just heads straight on into the room and rushes for the chest, ignoring the giant antennae sticking out of the sea floor.
Of course, the game can't let Sora show off his dumb on his own either, as the game essentially forces the player to approach the chest before the Lightning Angler pops out of the ground, ready to eat the group. It winds up with a moment where the player is either surprised by the sudden Heartless appearance, or more likely for veteran players of Square Enix's catalogue, laughing as Sora is caught in the obvious trap. The proceeding boss fight is easy and the player and characters move past it quickly, but this whole encounter offers a nice, comical moment that both highlights Sora's dumb and gives a quick laugh before heading into the more serious Pirates of the Caribbean storyline.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is available now for PS4 and Xbox One.