Kingdom Hearts Which was hardest: Kurt Zisa, Ice Titan, or Phantom?

Anyone still care about this game besides me? Ahem...

All right, if you're a KH player worth your salt, you found and defeated these beasties. For the uninformed, however, they're secret bosses from the first game, three of four such bosses (the fourth being Sephiroth, who is unarguably the strongest). Kurt Zisa and Phantom are unlocked in Agrabah and Neverland, respectively, after sealing the keyhole at Hollow Bastion; the Ice Titan is unlocked in the Gold Match after completing the Hades Cup, also available at the close of the Hollow Bastion arc. They're all harder than the final boss. But which one is the toughest?

After my most recent play-through of Expert mode, my ranking is as follows:

3rd: Phantom
Phantom is ridiculous if you don't know how to fight him. That's literally the only stumbling block of the fight: whether or not you know how to combat his unorthodox moves. A timer ticks away constantly to the irreversible death of each of your party members, ending with you; but the timer is controlled by Big Ben, and you can cast Stop on the clock tower to halt it completely. What's more, you don't have to wait until Stop wears off to re-cast it, so as long as you keep an eye on the clock, that portion of the fight is all but forfeit for poor Phantom. Pressing Square when he advances on you allows you to duck his claw swipe and retaliate with whatever spell or attack he's currently phased to take. And when he backs up to throw an HP-munching wisp at you? Cast Aero. If you have the max-level Aeroga, the spell bounces harmlessly off your wind shield. Take Goofy instead of Donald (His MP Gift is vastly more helpful than Donald flinging the wrong spells with reckless abandon), give your party members a few Ethers to make absolutely sure nobody runs out of MP... and for added assurance, you can even set Peter Pan's Defensive Magic AI to the highest level so that he casts Aeroga on you instead of you wasting your MP refreshing it. Altogether, once I figured out the general progression of the fight, I managed to beat it at Lv70; and I could probably manage at as low as Lv50 if I really put my mind to it.

2nd: Ice Titan
The Ice Titan is halfway between Phantom's puzzle-style mechanics and Kurt Zisa's all-out onslaught; some of the fight is figuring out what to do, but the rest is pure skill. The Ice Titan shows you all of his attacks early on, and what really makes the difficulty later in the fight is how he combines attacks you've already seen to create frightening new combos. For example: Early in the fight, I would intentionally slip on the icy ground left in the wake of his ice breath, as it guaranteed me immunity from several of the large icy meteors he would drop on me. After the halfway point, he starts following up his ice breath with his ultimate move, an AoE ice storm that freezes you in place and can potentially hit twice, or perhaps thrice, if you're careless. In his death throes, even if you dodge all of that he's still lobbing ice meteors at you! Even so, all things considered, as long as you don't cast Aero (his icicle projectiles become larger and can't be reflected) and you have some competence with Dodge Roll, the fight isn't too tough. Again, beat him at Lv71 or 72, could probably shoot for 50-60.

1st: Kurt Zisa
I've heard people say he's the easiest of the three. I'd love to get the number of their dealer, he must be a miracle-worker. Everything about Kurt Zisa's strategy is airtight: using only two to three moves depending on the form, he manages to keep you guessing and put pressure on you whether you're approaching or leaving the strike zone. Locking your magic and then forcing you to use only magic in tandem will give you whiplash in a hurry. Every single form has some defense against Sora coming in and beating the crap out of the current target, whether it's keeping a healthy distance or flailing wildly as it moves; and that's more than a lot of bosses in KH history can say, with their "Throw everything we've got at you, then stop for five minutes to rest" mentality. And holy hell his ultimate move. You know the one. Where he flies into the air and becomes a full-body buzzsaw. Two hits from that and you're done. And if he gets the one, good luck getting your rhythm back before he gets the other. The pressure to dodge every single hit of that, lest you risk an untimely death, is nothing short of intense. The only things that really remedied the condition of that fight for me were remembering to summon Tinkerbell (derp) and taking off my Air Combo Plus abilities so that I could land more damage in shorter time frames. I just barely knocked this out at Lv76 or so; I can't imagine I could go much lower than Lv65.

Bear in mind that this is all from a run where I refused to use Second Chance (because it's broken and takes every bit of challenge out of the game) and picked the sword/dropped the shield (BECAUSE KILL-OR-BE-KILLED IS HOW MEN PLAY KIDS' GAMES). I doubt the results differ significantly either way, but if you have another story to tell, by all means.

Now watch this post I worked so hard on get no replies because it's in a dead section.

 

Kurt Zisa was the toughest for me. It was very difficult and takes a lot of strategy. Phantom is easier, and ice Titan was easier than phantom.

 

Screw Zisa, he was a b**** at first, **** phantom, never beat him because of death spell, cheating hooker. Ice titan was a pushover.

 

I still can't beat Zisa and I refuse to level up to get more powerful. Ice and Phantom were easy, beat Phantom at high 50s- low 60s. Ice in mid 60s. Still can't beat Sephiroth.​

 

I heard that Kurt Zisa was the easiest as well. **** them. It is near impossible to even maneuver around the area, and for some reason, the sand always distracts me.... :why?: (I never beat him.)

Phantom was easy. I think I even created a walkthrough and posted it somewhere...

Ice.... Yeesh. Not even gonna talk.

 

It's been so long since I played, but I do remember that Ice Titan wasn't too hard to beat. Kurt Zisa took probably about five tries to beat, but I did get him. Phantom... grrr... even though I knew the tricks needed to beat him, I just couldn't do it! I think my problem was the flying. I always had a hell of a time controlling myself while flying. So, yeah, never did beat Phantom.

 

Knowing what to do during the battles with Ice Titan and Phantom will usually result in victory. Kurt Zisa, however, still has it in him to be a ***** even after you figured out his pattern. I found him to be the toughest of the three.

 

Kurt Zisa. Even if you got him all figured out, he's still a ***** to beat.

 

Ice Titan is probably the easiest for me, all I really do is deflect his attacks and swing away. Kurt Zisa is most difficult to me, I still have not defeated him.

 

they are all just a matter of strategy so none of them are extremely hard after you know what to do, though i would say phantom was because i would have trouble going to where i needed to be, whereas ice titan was in such a confined space it took little effort to do what needed to be done. i dont remember much of zisa, i think i beat it within the first few tries so i guess it wasnt that hard.

 

I'm not trying to brag or anything, but Zisa was easy as **** for me. I actually had the most trouble with Ice Titan, mostly because of the ice on the floor that I would totally ignore. The Phantom was a piss poor excuse for a boss, though, and seemed less like a boss, and more like a mini boss on the way to a proper boss.

 

Defeated all of them. Hated Phantom because I never had enough items to restore my magic and health. Kurt Zisa really wasn't that bad since I enjoyed whamming on him when I knocked him down(even though he was still attacking!!!) The only problem with Ice Titan is that I was just got tired running around in circles in such a confined space. So Phantom was the hardest for me.

 

Never could beat Phantom, just nope. Couldn't do it, I wasn't good at that kind of strategy. Kurt was the easiest for me and I never really tried the Ice Titan, but I did beat Sephiroth.

 

I was magic prone in kingdom hearts 1 so the phantom was relitively easy to me.
The Ice titan was really simple because of his simple attack patterns.
Kurt Zisa is EVIL! He still gives me a tough time every now and than.

 

i think the easiest would be ice titan(lv 55), then kurt zisa(lv64), then phantom who was a freaking hard and such a ***** i was level 100 to beat him and even at that level i died three times then i looked up how to beat him, i almost died after that, mean while at sepheroth, i beat him at level 70, every time i beat him i leveled up so i just beat him a bunch of times to get to level 100

 

Kurt Zisa was the toughest for me. Taking away magic was definitely a good way to make the battle more challenging.

 

Kurt Zisa & Phantom were pretty difficult for me T.T Especially with the Phantom where I have to fly here and there. Dx

 

Phantom, once you knew the strategy, was pretty easy. However, I never did beat Kurt, and I was far too lazy to beat Titan. I should have a go at those again - sometime.

 

Ice Titan was by far the easiest, Kurt Zisa was challenging but doable.
I still haven't beaten Phantom.