Talk:Shulk vs Young Xehanort/@comment-25275196-20160323070512/@comment-27416494-20160325195902

At the end of the day, there's a very good reason I've always felt this would be Shulk's best potential matchup. If we're going to define this in gameplay terms, then Xehanort's going to be the hardest boss Shulk has ever fought, even if both fighter's movesets have everything they need to counter each other. And storywise, I actually see Young Xehanort being just as much of a tool/vessel for his older self to use, but that's not entirely part of the fight. (Believe me, I do prefer Shulk, but I see no way for him to win in the long run.

(Player commands in Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance work just like arts in Xenoblade, so there's a good reference point. Use one, and you have to let it "recharge" before using it again.) To specify Xehanort's makeshift Art Seal, it is a ranged Cyclone that literally scatters its target's commands across the battlefield, forcing the vitcim to recollect and recharge all of them. (The effects may not fully apply to Shulk himself, but once again, it's still a hinderance.)

Monado Cyclone is certainly a powerful, wide reaching attack, but even that's not going to stop the myriad of projectiles Xehanort has. (We've got meteors, fireballs with massive explosions, laser barrages that inflict Slow, chunks of ice that surround the target, etc. Collision Magnet also has Xehanort jump up high enough to not only escape Cyclone, but immediately follow up by grappling Shulk from afar.) Light Heal is Shulk's only means of tending to his injuries, but chances are it will be interrupted if used at the wrong time. The Birth by Sleep battle against the Mysterious Figure (Young Xehanort with his hood up) can and will shred the protagonist's health bar with only a few hits. The protagonists can only properly keep themselves healed up because they don't only bring multiple copies of the best healing spell, but they even have abilities that grant invulnerability while using it. Both battles against him have Xehanort make constant abuse of invisibility, cloning, and teleportation to ensure his target spends most of the fight running away, taking blow after blow to the face, or healing. (And he will combine many of his techniques simultaneously.) And if Shulk isn't paying attention, Xehonort's Doom spell will literally kill him off in 5 seconds if he doesn't break free. (An unlikely scenario in this specific fight, but the danger is absolutely real.)

Monado Purge, Shulk's only projectile can inflict an Art Seal of its own, but he's going to be hard pressed to hit a constantly teleporting foe with it. (Xehanort's immune to status effects anyway, so...) Not to mention, any attacks that knock Xehanort off his feet are guaranteed to follow up with either another teleport or time reversal. (Time reversals are still Shulk's biggest problem, no matter what.) Shulk's Monado Arts may be his own ace in the hole, but it's not like he can use more than one simultaneously, and they won't last forever either, regardless of how often he uses them.