The pureblood Heartless in the Kingdom Hearts series are surprisingly inconsistent, with many of them only making a single appearance before being left behind for completely new designs. While some Heartless Shadows appear throughout Kingdom Hearts, half a dozen others like the Darkballs never made it to the second numbered title, only appearing again as cameos in spin-off titles.
Darkballs, however, might be a thankful absence from the Kingdom Hearts titles that followed their introduction, as these Heartless are one of the more terrifying designs in the original game. These enemies in particular are a consistent reminder of one of the most memorable moments in the series, where Sora is at the lowest point he would reach until the climax of Kingdom Hearts 3.
Beyond being a looming presence during this pivotal moment, Darkballs have continued making cameos as recent as Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, even if they canonically stopped appearing after the defeat of Ansem. It would also appear that the pureblood Heartless’ design wasn’t completely abandoned in the titles that followed either, with the relatively simple appearance being referenced as the series moved forward. Even Kingdom Hearts Union X has introduced the classic enemy as a regular threat for the keyblade wielders of the ancient past.
The introduction of the Darkballs is one of the few Heartless appearances that leaves an impact on players without a cutscene to put the enemy on full display, like how Soldiers are introduced in Kingdom Hearts. Instead, the moments leading up to their appearance is what makes it so creepy and terrifying when they jerkily grow out of nothingness, warping into space through a floating black hole. This is because, when Darkballs first appear, Sora is without his keyblade for the first time, having been left helpless and relying on the new ally Beast to do the heavy lifting for him.
At this point in the game, Sora is at his lowest point in Kingdom Hearts and throughout much of the series, and the gameplay perfectly reflects how weak and dejected the character feels by making it impossible to fight off even the weakest Heartless. In fact, once players do get the keyblade back and start fighting the Darkballs for real, they go down in only a few swings, sometimes less if the player is adequately leveled. The result is a terrifying experience where the player must solve puzzles while hiding away from the fights that the rest of the game has pushed them to fully engage in, made all the darker by the enemy’s design.
While it’s true that Darkballs haven’t made a reappearance in the following numbered Kingdom Hearts titles, the basic design has been reworked into future bosses. One of the most notable uses of the design is in Kingdom Hearts 2‘s boss Shadow Stalker, another pureblood Heartless that looks like a Darkball with a new color pallet and has been wrapped in chains. Both of these enemies even move similarly, jerkily moving around like a possessed balloon that charges after the player, attempting to rip Sora apart with their sharp teeth.
Moving onto Kingdom Hearts 3, the Darkball design even seems to have influenced the newest magic casting Heartless, the Cores. There also seems to be some influence extending into the core of the Demon Tide encounter, although that might be more happenstance because both are spheres. However, the many ways that the Darkball can be redesigned to bring their spherical shape with frayed tendrils hanging off in all directions likely hasn’t been run dry, meaning players will be seeing them reappear throughout the Kingdom Hearts series moving forward.
Kingdom Hearts: Memory of Melody is available now for PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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