NEVERLAND - SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT

You can Fly! You can Fly!: Just kidding. The start of Neverland, if you happened to beat Atlantica before coming this way, actually does start out after a dip in that little mermaid lagoon. However, before you head on towards the next star, you get intercepted by Hook. The elegant Captain Hook, that is. Note his pretty boat... ship. You're taken aboard his ship to find out where Kairi and Riku have gone. There's a bunch of nice cutscenes to watch before you begin play, and you'll enjoy it if you like story elements. So get ready for a swashbuckling adventure!

SHIP: HOLD - TAKE THEM PRISONERS

Minimum Security Prison: Here, you meet the confident-as-a-cock pixie-ish boy and Hook's rival of questionable age, Peter Pan. Here you can use Peter in your party as he helps you only because he wants to help his friend, Wendy. Though he is certainly a useful minion to use, it's up to you to decide whether Donald should substitute with the magic spells the duck possesses. Once you're done choosing minions, use the Save Point, equip a good Keyblade, and get movin' out of the room you're in to the galley of the ship. Like the complete lack of actual crew and guards, there aren't any names for the rooms on this ship, so bear with me - I'll be using nautical terms to the best of my abilities. Just be grateful I don't write this entire walkthrough in pirate lingo. Arr, avast!

New Enemies: On the other hand, in place of crew, Hook's ship has been taken over by new Heartless, and these enemies are going to cause you a bit of pain if you don't know how to fight them. Since at this point you don't see the other types of Heartless that this world has yet, I'll describe them later in this walkthrough.

Pirate: Despite our annoyance at these enemies, the Pirate Heartless are pretty cool. They wield a large scimitar-like sword. In Expert Mode, these Heartless can do quite a bit of damage with their weapon when you're sliced by it, so watch it. The other advantage that they have with this large cutlass is that it's big enough to block Sora's Keyblade with. The Pirates have these attacks: 1) A forward series of slices that allows them to advance on you, 2) a jump and downward slash that can do some heavy damage, 3) a counterattack slice which they do after they've blocked the end to your combo, and lastly 4) a standing charged up slash which causes a bit of damage on your end if you're hit with it. For attacks 1, 2 and 4, you can block it easily using Guard or a swing of the Keyblade and counterattack with either an ability (Counterattack if you have it) or a second attack. For the 3rd attack, since you usually are stopped by their guarding, use Dodge Roll to get out of the way. Since these Heartless aren't elemental, you can use whatever spell you like to attack them with. Like Power Wilds, these Pirates are evasive and thus jump out of the way if you attack headlong, so be careful that you don't get slashed when you miss and are still recovering. Since these pirates like to appear in groups of 3 or more along with other Heartless types, they can be considered the mainstay of this world's Heartless. Fire or Thunder seem to work pretty well against these groups of Pirates.

AntiSora: The other odd Heartless to appear in this world, for the first time, are the shadowy counterparts of Sora. These Heartless, like the Shadows, aren't marked with the logo of the Heartless. AntiSora is much like Peter Pan's shadow - a playful, yet annoying sort that likes to evade your attacks. They hover in the air, and mockingly dance at you while they float about kicking at you as an attack. They aren't particularly hard to defeat, and they have no Keyblade to attack you with. AntiSoras will give you a lot of HP, MP and munny balls if you defeat them, but they will disappear in the middle of a fight if you don't beat them first. All in all, you don't need to give a hoot about these copy-Sora. Although, they do look kind of cool.

SHIP: GALLEY - FOLLOWING THE HEARTLESS

Getting to the Galley: The galley is another name for the kitchen inside the ship. Naturally, once you stepped out of the storage room in the hold that you put in, you found yourself at the stern (back) of the ship. Jump up onto the second level or climb the ladder up after you've finished kicking the Heartless of the area. To get to the galley, there are two options. Near the red runk of one of the ship's masts, there are three doors to choose - one has a Yellow Trinity in front, which you can't open yet, the second is across from that, and the third is behind the red pillar with a ladder beside it that leads nowhere. Enter the second door, which will be on your right. Here is just another room to fight more Heartless in, but with a hole in the middle and ladder leading down into the misty, mysterious cargo bay, or in the case of Brady Games, the ship's freezer.

Bunches of Bilgerats: The cargo bay might seem confusing with its two ladders. One leads you back the way you came, and the other goes to the galley. The way you can tell which is which, is to remember that the galley's ladder is across from a large coil of rope near the corner of one side of the freezer. You'll have to battle your way through a lot of Heartless in these close quarters. It's good to fight them because you'll gain some much needed experience, but you can skip that by going up the ladder and entering the galley. The galley itself has a fireplace so you can use that as the landmark of where you are on the ship.

Ah, So it IS that you've found a girl!: Two in fact. Here in the Galley, Peter finds Wendy in the room just above the galley, and you see Kairi's there too. However, under Hook's orders, the girls are taken away before you can get up to them. Fight off the Heartless and you have two choices again of which gate you can jump through to the upper level. The right side choice takes you directly into the room you want - the quarters with the green trinity. However, if you take the left side, you'll be in the arms room with a shelf of swords and two doors on the left. In that room, the first door on your left takes you to the green trinity quarters, and the second door leads you to the room where Wendy and Kairi were kept. If you get into that room there will be a Protega chain. Otherwise, hop up the right side into the Green Trinity quarters and activate it to bring down the ladder. This also begins the cutscene that will result in the room having a Save Point. It's there, so use it to recharge, and also save. Equip anti-dark items, a medium-length Keyblade such as the Crabclaw (or stick with the Pumpkinhead if you want), make sure Cure and Aero are in your shortcuts, and climb the ladder into the captain's cabin. Don't forget to check your Abilities list: you'll want Dodge Roll, perhaps Vortex, Counterattack, and any MP Rage or MP Haste that you might have.

SHIP: CAPTAIN'S CABIN - DANCING WITH SHADOWS

Parley?: Swoggle yer eyes! It's Riku, and he's got Kairi! Not only that, but the scurvy brat's not even courteous enough to lend an ear and listen to all yer tales of troubles on the high seas. No, that bilgerat leaves you with the AntiSora. Before you Riku fanatics attack me for calling him a bilgerat though, I honestly do like Riku. Swear on me mother's heart I do. Now go take care of that dark mess he left behind.

Boss Battle - AntiSora:HP: 750, EXP: 2000. Unlike the AntiSora enemies you fought before in the ship's hold, up in the captain's cabin, a new surprise awaits you. This shadowy copy wields a Kingdom Key of its own, as well as containing a lot more HP than the others. AntiSora has basically three attacks that mirror Sora's. The first is a standard side swipe with the Keyblade, but this is surprisingly hard to avoid. The second attack is a most annoying move where the AntiSora drops into the wood of the deck, making itself impossible to hit, and then launches up out of the wood and attacks with an upward swipe of the Keyblade. It's pretty much a copy of Sora's upwards swing when he starts to attack flying targets. The last, and most difficult part of the fight is that once AntiSora is down to the yellow bar, it splits into three AntiSoras are you haev to deal with triple the trouble. The environment doesn't make this fight much easier since it's possible you'll end up smacking your Keyblade on the desk, or a windowseat, instead of the boss. Your minions will come in handy to distract the AntiSora while you run off to Cure, but this AntiSora's target is you, and thus it will follow you around and try to attack you instead of Donald/Goofy/Peter. You can hit any of the three AntiSora, but keep your eye on your HP meter. Don't forget also, to re-cast Aero as your defensive shield. All in all, fighting against yourself is pretty difficult, but once you defeat the AntiSora you'll have overcome a great obstacle. You'll also be rewarded with the Raven's Claw item, which reduces Dark damage. (Too bad you couldn't win this item sooner, eh?)

SHIP: DECK - COMMANDEER... IT'S A NAUTICAL TERM

Wait For the Most Opportune Time: Once you've fought and won against the AntiSora, head towards the door where Riku had disappeared in. Around there is a small trapdoor that will lead you to the room where Wendy and Kairi were being held. Here if you didn't get the Protega chain before, then you can get it now. Tweak your items and equipment again, making sure you've got enough left over for Donald and Goofy as well. Peter leaves your party so there's no point in keeping items on him. Then, save your game and get ready for the next battle.

Like After You've Killed Them: Every, last, one. Ah, sorry, Pirates of the Caribbean reference. When you finish getting ready, head back up into the Captain's Cabin, and exit out of the door which Riku disappeared into. This brings you out onto the ship's deck, where Hook and the Heartless are waiting for you. He's a tricky, cunning captain that Hook, who's captured Tinkerbell and holds her ransom. However, when you've finally reached the end of the cutscene, you realize... you can fly! (And you have Cura in place of Cure, which is a life-saving addition to your magical repetoire.)

New Enemies 2: You're confronted with a slew of Heartless, including two new ones that also can fly. They're not particularly difficult, but you have the Gravity spell by now which should assist in making them stay where they are.

Air Pirate: These gargoyles of the sky are not difficult, but they sure pack a punch. Their main attack is a wind-up bear punch that can be a pain when there's two of them ganging up on you. The other advantage they have is speed. When you're in the air though, you're pretty fast as well. Use your air agility to get around them and attack when they're still recovering from their windup punch.

Battleship: The Battleship is a peculiar Heartless, controlled by just one Heartless captain. The ship has three different attacks; it drops a series of bombs down, shoots two missiles out of its cannons that home in on your party, and lastly the most devastating of the attacks, the frontal charped up ram. The last attack is easy to see coming, but the hard part is getting out of the way. It doesn't take long for the Battleship to charge up and ram you. This attack usually comes when you're in the middle of the combo against this enemy. However, this Heartless also has a weakness; the main mast. If you lock on and switch around, you'll notice this enemy has two lock on points: one up top where the propeller is, and one on the main ship itself. The weakest point of the ship is up on top - if you destroy that, the ship will be fairly disabled and slow-moving. This will allow you to go in and really scuttle 'er.

Boss Battle - Captain Hook: HP: 900, EXP: 3400. Hopefully you didn't lose too much HP in the battles with the Heartless, since the next battle is pretty difficult. If you thought Hook was a yellow-bellied, no-brained barnacle, think again. With curving hook and straightedged fencing foil, he is quite agile and skilled with the sword. You find out why Peter Pan never truly fights Hook on the fly - because it's hard! Your best bet would be to fight Hook man-to-man, Keyblade to blade, with your feet solidly on the deck where Hook is. Once the battle begins, lock onto the captain and cast Aero on yourself. Don't worry about the minions either. The captain has a few devastating tricks up his folded sleeves, namely a few firey presents for you. In the movie, there was just one bomb inside one lovely pink bow present. This time he has an unlimited supply and throws them headlong at you. As for short range attacks, Hook not only slices and dices, but he has a crazy combo (Ars Arcanum) that can cause major damage to your person especially if you don't have Aero cast on yourself. Luckily, you have the ability to fly away and recover if you have to. Also if you're out of MP, head towards the Battleships that fly around and whack away until you're recovered. Don't stay away too long though, since Hook is like Clayton and can recover himself. All in all, concentrate on Hook and don't fret about the Battleships. If they come to your territory, you can whack at them, but Hook is the harder adversary to defeat. Once you win the battle against Hook, you receive his ability, Ars Arcanum, as well as Ansem's Report 9. YARR!

NEVERLAND: CLOCK TOWER - BELAY THAR, BIG BEN!

Saving Face: When you defeat Cap'n Hook, you commandeer the ship back to London's tourist spot, the clock tower. Here, Wendy is rescued and safe (yet why she's left stranded up on the tower of London at midnight in her sleeping gown, one will never know.) Talk to her, and she'll tell you about one of the faces of the clock that isn't quite right. Drop off the side and fly around until you see the clock face that hasn't struck midnight. Then, lock onto the minute hand and whack it until have it at the correct time. The Keyhole appears and voila, you've sealed Neverland! Now the real story of Kingdom Hearts can begin...

Back to Reality: Unfortunately you can't stay in Neverland forever and not grow up. It's back to Traverse Town with you, but you have a few things to take along. You get the Fairy Harp key, which is a short range Keyblade, but has better stats power-wise than the Pumpkinhead. Not only do you have this nifty looking Keyblade, but you have two of the niftiest things of the game - Tinkerbell (what a lifesaver!) and the shared ability, Glide. Technically Glide doesn't make you go any faster than you run, but it'll be handy for getting to the hard to reach places (aka Merlin's backdoor treasure chest) which you weren't able to get before. Finally, before leaving Neverland, have a look around the clock tower and open up the various treasure boxes to get puppies and some additional gummi. When you're finished with Neverland, go back to Traverse Town, or have a go at fighting in the Coliseum. By now, you should be able to defeat Hercules in the Coliseum and obtain the Yellow Trinity. See Rahal's Coliseum guide for info there.

END: Neverland.