The Kingdom Hearts series is bursting with fascinating, charismatic characters. It makes sense for each entry to be littered with characters like this due to the franchise's approachable aesthetic and use of Disney properties. That said, a good JRPG requires a convincing antagonist to move the plot forward.
Kingdom Hearts has featured countless villains throughout each series entry, and while most need to be vanquished, not all of them are as evil as Master Xehanort. Some have no control over their actions, while a select few fight purely out of desperation. The player will be forced to battle countless bosses while playing through the series, but there will be several instances throughout where they may not want to fight.
7 Armored Ventus Nightmare (Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance)
The climax of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance sees Sora narrowly avoid becoming Xehanort's thirteenth vessel. Riku manages to rescue him from the old Master's clutches, but sadly, Sora is unable to wake up. To restore his heart, Riku decides to enter inside Sora's dream to see if anything can be done.
Once he reaches the Dive to the Heart, he finds an armored figure wielding Sora's Keyblade lurking in the shadows before him. While Riku may not know who this mysterious figure is, fans who played Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep know it to be Ventus' Keyblade Armor. The main reason Sora and Riku even partook in the Mark of Mastery exam was to rescue Ventus and his missing friends, so being forced to fight this corrupted form of him feels somewhat counterproductive and downright unfair.
6 Riku (Kingdom Hearts 1)
Before he was led down a dark path by Maleficent, Riku was Sora's closest friend. Sadly, his quest to find Kairi's led him to become a pawn of not only Maleficent but also Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness. Ansem took control of Riku's body and used it in his battle against Sora.
Though Riku's heart was banished by Ansem, fighting against Riku's possessed body just doesn't feel right. Sora dedicated so much of his journey to finding Riku, only to be forced to face him in battle toward the game's climax. Though Riku managed to reject the darkness in his heart in Kingdom Hearts 2, first-time players of Kingdom Hearts 1 may have believed this battle marked the end of Sora and Riku's friendship.
5 Axel (Kingdom Hearts 2)
Axel, first introduced in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, is presented as an antagonist, and also, one of the most ruthless members of Organization 13. It's only upon playing Kingdom Hearts 2 that players will learn just how misleading this portrayal of him was.
Roxas' main goal during the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2 is to find his best friend, Roxas, and bring him home, but DiZ made sure to erase Roxas' memories of his past. Because of his amnesia, Roxas sees Axel as a threat and refuses to believe anything he says. Believing his friend no longer exists, Axel accepts that he must destroy Roxas. It's a deeply upsetting battle, made even more heart-wrenching upon learning how close Roxas and Axel once were.
4 Xion (Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days & Kingdom Hearts 3)
Xion's story in Kingdom Hearts is arguably one of the saddest ones told. Organization 13 created her from Sora's memories in the hope that she could be used to copy Roxas' Keyblade-wielding abilities. When she served her purpose; however, she was cast aside by the Organization and left to figure things out on her own.
Though Roxas tries his best to reunite with her, Xion decides she needs to return to Sora's heart, so he can wake up. To do this, she attacks Roxas, forcing the player to fight, and ultimately, defeat her. As if this wasn't heartbreaking enough, the player must repeat the process in Kingdom Hearts 3 if they hope to release her from the Organization's clutches.
3 Roxas (Kingdom Hearts 2)
Sora meets Roxas during his first visit to The World that Never Was, but he doesn't get time to introduce himself. Instead, Roxas transports Sora to his Dive to the Heart and launches a desperate attack to reclaim his body.
While the encounter may not feel like that big of a deal from Sora's perspective, it will be painful for the player to play through, given the time they spent getting to know Roxas during the tutorial. As if this wasn't sad enough, Roxas is one of the most challenging bosses Sora encounters on his journey. This may not seem overly upsetting at first, but if one equates the battle's difficulty level to how hard Roxas' desperation to become his own person again, they are sure to realize just how sad it is.
2 Yozora (Kingdom Hearts 3: Re Mind)
During his visit to the Toy Box world in Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora learns of Yozora's existence through Rex, Andy's toy dinosaur. To Sora, Yozora is nothing more than an insignificant video game character, but the Secret Episode in the Re Mind DLC confirmed him to be a real person.
Their first meeting in The Final World starts off on a relatively normal note. That is until Sora reveals who he is, which causes Yozora to become aggressive. He informs the young Keyblade wielder that he was told to "save Sora," and though this sounds like a noble cause, Yozora's methods can easily be called into question. Instead of saving Sora, he launches an all-out attack. Some players won't want to fight Yozora because of his significance in both Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, but most detest the idea due to how difficult he is to defeat.
1 Anti-Aqua (Kingdom Hearts 3)
The Kingdom Hearts series is home to some truly tragic stories, but Aqua's journey from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep to Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the most devastating. Though Master Xehanort planned to use her closest friends, Terra and Ven, to achieve his goal, Aqua got caught in the crossfire.
She became trapped in the Realm of Darkness and was forced to wander its harrowing lands until someone came to rescue her. She eventually managed to conquer the darkness manifesting in her heart, but Ansem made sure to reawaken it by plunging her into an even darker abyss. When Sora arrived to rescue her, he learned Aqua had been possessed. Though he didn't want to fight her, he was left with no other choice when she launched her attack. Fighting Aqua is one of the most disquieting moments in the series, mostly because of how close she was to being rescued before the darkness took hold of her heart.