Onion Knight (Dissidia)

The Onion Knight is one of the heroes fighting for the side of Cosmos in Dissidia Final Fantasy. He makes up for his size with speed and is a master of sword arts and magic. As the youngest warrior, the Onion Knight's lack of battle experience causes him to put on a brave and confident front when in reality he is rather scared and unsure of his abilities. The villains he encounters, including the Cloud of Darkness, serve to test his courage and power.

Crystal and Attire
The Onion Knight's outfit is taken from aspects of all incarnations of the hero of Final Fantasy III. In particular, the color scheme in his default appearance is based on his original NES appearance. The helmet is based on the DS version, as is the ability to cast magic. The body armor is closer to Amano's artwork of the hero. The default appearance looks more like his original character, while his alternate outfit resembles Luneth from the Nintendo DS remake but retains the original color from Amano's artwork of the hero. The Manikin version of the Onion Knight, Counterfeit Youth, is green.

The Onion Knight's crystal is a direct reference to the elemental Crystals from Final Fantasy III. It is green and is the same shape as the ones seen in the game.

Destiny Odyssey
The Onion Knight and his companion, Terra, travel together to find the Crystals. During their adventures, Terra starts to sense a strong aura and the Knight convinces her to check out what it is despite her warnings. They then encounter Exdeath and the Knight talks his way out of fighting him because of his fears of losing against a powerful enemy. Exdeath calls him a coward and then leaves. When the Knight and Terra get closer to the aura, Terra starts to lose control and attacks the Knight, forcing him to defend himself. Terra was then taken by the Cloud of Darkness, who tells the young warrior that he was responsible for Terra's fall.

The Knight was then visited by Cosmos, who tells him that the only way to obtain a Crystal was to defeat the Cloud of Darkness. The young warrior laments that he does not have a heart to do so but Cosmos questions him of his state of courage and vanishes. Then Golbez appears and tells the Knight of Terra's possession under the Cloud of Darkness and to think about if he could continue to make judgments in his own head.

The Onion Knight eventually finds Terra, who fainted while fighting against the possession the Cloud of Darkness has instilled in her. At first, the Knight offered to be her servant in order to prevent Terra from getting attacked any further but then decides against this when the Cloud of Darkness tries to possess him. That is when the Knight realizes his inner courage and uses it to protect Terra from her, even if it means fighting a powerful monster. The Onion Knight and the Cloud of Darkness fought, and she is defeated. Golbez appears once again and gives him a Crystal, praising him of his determination and bravery. After Golbez leaves, the Knight decides to rest with Terra to look after her.

The Onion Knight continues to protect Terra, who has lost some of her memory while passed out during the Knight's fight with the Cloud of Darkness. They are ambushed by Kefka, who tries to sway Terra into joining him. The Knight interferes, however, and he teleports Kefka and himself away. The Knight later shows up when Terra and Cloud Strife are surrounded by Kefka and the Cloud of Darkness. Both the Knight and Cloud Strife distract the Cloud of Darkness while Terra has her final showdown with Kefka, whom she defeats. She then obtains her Crystal, just like the Knight thought she would.

Shade Impulse
As the Onion Knight reunites with the group of heroes, Chaos arrives and finishes Cosmos. The heroes start to fade away, however, Cosmos used the last bit of her energy to give them a fighting chance. Like the other heroes who faced off with their worst enemies, the Onion Knight was confronted by his enemy, the Cloud of Darkness. After her defeat, the Cloud of Darkness returns to sleep, while the Onion Knight joins the other heroes to face off against Chaos. With Chaos beaten, the worlds were restored, and the heroes were then transported to an open field near Cornelia Castle, where one by one, they disappear back to their home worlds, including the Onion Knight, who returns to the Floating Continent.

Battle
The Onion Knight is described as a "Mystic Fencer," as he uses both magic spells and sword attacks to strike opponents with swift blows. What distinguishes him from the other characters is the unique ability to chain each Brave Attack into another Brave Attack or an HP Attack, which adds in strength and versatility. He is also the fastest character in the game in normal circumstances, surpassing even Tidus and Zidane. However, his attacks don't do much damage, and he has only four basic Brave attacks, making him fairly predictable in terms of fighting style. Together with Shantotto, he is the most evasive character in the game, making him the hardest opponent to punish when he misses an attack; Sephiroth may be his toughest opponent, as he also has swift attacks, although he is not as fast as the Onion Knight, nor does he have the short lag time that the Onion Knight has.

Boss
Onion Knight is fought in the Distant Glory: Heroes and Inward Chaos storylines.

EX Mode
thumb|300px|right|Ninjutsu thumb|300px|right|Spellbook While in EX Mode, Onion Knight changes into either the Sage or Ninja job class. While using magic he will become a Sage, which increases the damage done by magical attacks and causes them to fire more projectiles. While using physical attacks he will become a Ninja and gain the Dual Wield ability, causing more damage with his physical attacks. The damage increase for both classes is done by increasing the amount of hits each attack does. Both of these classes were considered the best at magic and attacking respectively in the original NES release of Final Fantasy III. He also gains the Regen effect.

Onion Knight is the only character who has two EX Bursts, depending on which type of HP attack he uses to begin the Burst. If activated from a magic attack, his Sage form will use Spellbook, while his Ninja form will use Ninjutsu if it was activated after a physical attack. In both, a command menu will appear and the player must select the appropriate command within a time limit. For Spellbook, Holy must be selected under the Magic command, while for Ninjutsu, Shuriken has to be chosen from under the Throw command. If you choose the right options, Onion Knight will perform the selected ability, and then follow them up with Meteor or Back Attack respectively. Failing to choose the correct option will have Onion Knight immediately use Meteor or Back Attack! without using Holy or Shuriken.

Equipment
Onion Knight can equip the following: Swords, Daggers, Rods, Staves, Throwing Weapons, Parrying Weapons, Bangles, Gauntlets, Hats, Hairpins, Clothing, and Light Armor.

Allusions

 * While Onion Knight returns to his home world, he looks up at the sky, watching a flock of birds flying above him. This is a reference to Final Fantasy III, where such a thing happens in the ending sequence of the original NES version and the opening FMV of the DS version. It could also allude to his home being a floating continent.
 * One of the Onion Knight's weapons, fittingly called Onion Sword, is a reference to the Onion Equipment from Final Fantasy III.
 * While in EX Mode as a Ninja, the Onion Knight wields two swords as seen in the hands of the unnamed warrior on the logo for Final Fantasy III. When executing Back Attack! in his EX Burst, he also assumes a pose similar to the warrior.
 * The Tyrfing and King's Sword are a reference to two similar swords. The Tyrfing equippable by the Red Mage class, while the King's Sword equippable by the Fighter and Knight job class in the Famicom release of Final Fantasy III.
 * Onion Knight's EX Burst is a homage to the traditional battles of the first Final Fantasies. The enemy will appear on the left side of the screen, while the Onion Knight appears on the right side. He takes a step forward as a command menu appears, at which point the player must input a command. While he is engaged on the right and poised like the NES sprite, his opponent will adopt their stance as viewed in the Museum from a different angle.
 * Although they are not relevant to the EX Burst, the player can open up the Magic, Throw, and Item menus during Onion Knight's EX Burst. Doing so will display various spells, weapons, and items from Final Fantasy III.
 * While his EX Burst is designed after the NES version's graphics, the commands available are only possible in the DS remake (such as Throw being separate from Attack).
 * At the end of Destiny Odyssey III Onion Knight falls asleep next to Terra on the right side facing her, this may be a reference to in Final Fantasy III when you rest at an Inn with an extra party member the character always sleeps in the same position, on the right side facing the guest.

Trivia

 * Within the game's timeline, Onion Knight is the first to retrieve his Crystal according to Destiny Odyssey 26.
 * The Onion Knight is only called once by his title, by the Cloud of Darkness.
 * The Onion Knight is both the youngest and the shortest in height of the warriors of Cosmos.
 * Onion Knight is the only character with two different EX Modes and EX Bursts, one for the Ninja and one for the Sage, depending on which form he is in when he begins the attack.
 * Onion Knight's Destiny Odyssey is also unique, due that majority of tiles are enigma tiles (they have a question mark sign, noting that something is hidden— a board enemy, an item chest, a potion, or ether). It is also used in some stages in Shade Impulse. Also, there is only one enigma tile that hides a chaos piece, and it could only be seen in Shade Impulse. It is none other than Cloud of Darkness's chaos piece.
 * Onion Knight, Terra, Squall, and Cloud are the only four heroes who fight another hero (instead of or as well as another villain) as a midboss. Onion Knight fights Terra in his story arc.
 * Tetsuya Nomura has noted that, similar to Garland, he had only in-game sprites to draw from when designing Onion Knight, which made doing so difficult. His initial designs were "too cartoony" compared to the other heroes, and redesigned it to match the cover image of Final Fantasy III. Shortly after, the promotional images Yoshitaka Amano had been designing were finished, and Nomura reverted back to a more "cartoony" design to match Amano's work.
 * Strangely in the opening FMV, Onion Knight is slower than Bartz even though he is the fastest Warrior of Cosmos; this may be because he was slightly clumsy in battle, almost tripping over himself. In addition, if he attempts to use his Blade Torrent attack and misses, he will tumble over.
 * In the Battle Tips menu, Penelo claims that Onion Knight is adorable and reminds her of Kytes.
 * Onion Knight's Dissidia costume can be used in the Kingdom Hearts Mobile game along with other characters.
 * Onion Knight appears to find Squall's and Gabranth's weapons interesting.