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 makes him 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.

He is set to return, along with the other characters from Dissidia, to Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

Crystal and Attire
The Onion Knight's outfit is taken from aspects of all incarnations of the Final Fantasy III hero; 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 the hero's Yoshitaka Amano artwork. His two swords are based on the weapons of the unnamed warrior in Amano's artwork for the NES release of the game.

The Onion Knight's alternate outfit is based on the Unnamed Hero Artwork by Yoshitaka Amano, though the face is designed to make him look like Luneth from the Nintendo DS remake, changing his hair color to silver, and his eyes violet. His Sage's red colorings become blue, and the Ninja costume is almost entirely black, roughly reflecting the appearances of the two jobs in the DS release. His Crystal is a direct reference to the elemental Crystals from Final Fantasy III, being green and the same shape as the ones seen in the game.

The Onion Knight's Manikin version, Counterfeit Youth, is green.

Destiny Odyssey
The Onion Knight and his companion, Terra, both travel together to find their Crystals. During their adventures, Terra starts to sense a strong aura and the Knight convinces her to check it out despite her warnings. They end up encountering 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 is then taken by the Cloud of Darkness, who tells the young warrior he was responsible for Terra's fall.

Cosmos appears to the Knight and tells him the only way for him to obtain his Crystal is 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. 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 faints while fighting against the possession the Cloud of Darkness has instilled in her. At first, the Knight offers 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, even if it means fighting a powerful monster. The Onion Knight and the Cloud of Darkness fight, 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. Kefka ambushes the pair and 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
Chaos arrives at the scene, transports everyone to his throne and incinerates Cosmos. Soon afterward, the heroes begin to disappear and are transported to a place of absolute darkness, where not even a single speck of light can be seen. However, the last remaining strength of Cosmos' spirit within the Crystals saves them from permanent erosion and gives the warriors another chance to strike back.

Like the other heroes who faced off with their worst enemies, the Onion Knight is 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 are restored, and the heroes are 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. He thanks everybody before he leaves.

Battle
The Onion Knight is a Mystic Fencer, attacking opponents with swift combos that hit multiple times, and he is equally well-versed with magic and physical attacks. An ability unique to Onion Knight is the ability to chain all of his Brave attacks into either another Brave attack or an HP attack, adding to his versatility. He is also the fastest character in the game in normal circumstances, surpassing even Tidus and Zidane. However, his attacks do not 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.

The Onion Knight does not learn his Brave to HP attacks directly like other characters. Other characters learn a Brave to HP attack when mastering the corresponding Brave attack. Instead, Onion Knight must first learn the Brave to Brave attack, and once he masters this, he learns the Brave to HP attack.

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

EX Mode
thumb|300px|right|Ninjutsu. thumb|300px|right|Spellbook. The Onion Knight's EX Mode is Job Change, where he changes into either the Sage or Ninja, the two strongest job classes from the NES release of Final Fantasy III. He gains Regen status, and the abilities "Sage's Wisdom" and "Dual Wield." Sage's Wisdom is his ability when a Sage, increasing his spells damage and causing them to fire more projectiles. Dual Wield is the ability of his Ninja form, causing his physical attacks to do more hits and increase the damage done by the hits themselves. The Onion Knight automatically shifts between jobs depending on if he is using a magical or physical attack.

The 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; if activated from a physical attack, his Ninja form will use Ninjutsu. In both, a command menu will appear and the player must select the appropriate command within a time limit. For Spellbook, the player must select Holy from the "Magic" command; for Ninjutsu, the player must select Shuriken from the "Throw" command. If the player chooses the correct options, the 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 the Onion Knight immediately use Meteor or Back Attack without using Holy or Shuriken. The commands in both "Magic" and "Ninjutsu" are randomized every time the EX Burst is used.

Equipment
Onion Knight can equip the following: Swords, Daggers, Staves, Rods, 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 the ending of the original release of Final Fantasy III and to the opening sequence of the game's DS version.
 * One of the Onion Knight's weapons, fittingly called Onion Sword, is a reference to the Onion Equipment from Final Fantasy III. The Tyrfing and the King's Sword are also equipment that first appeared on the game's Famicon release.
 * While executing Back Attack in his EX Burst, Onion Knight attacks his opponent and assumes the post of the unnamed warrior in artwork for 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, on the left, will be placed to bear resemblance to an encountered enemy and their stances from their originating game, i.e. Cloud of Darkness positioned to look like her NES sprite and Squall in his battle stance.
 * Although it is not executable or relevant to the EX Burst, the player can open up the Item menu during Onion Knight's EX Burst. Doing so will display various items that appeared on Final Fantasy III. The Magic and Throw command likewise display spells and items besides Holy and Shuriken that also appeared in the game.
 * The Onion Knight's abilities as shown in Dissidia are those that correspond to the DS version of Final Fantasy III, where the Onion Knight job was one of the most powerful and versatile jobs in the game. In contrast, the job was the default class for the entire party in the game's original release and, consequently, not as powerful.
 * When the Onion Knight uses a bravery attack using his sword, he rapidly swings it much like in the NES version of Final Fantasy III. (Warrior, Knight, Ninja, etc. swing their swords rapidly when attacking with a sword.)
 * The Onion Knight is paired with Terra during his story, as Terra is with Onion Knight during her story, since the North American release for Final Fantasy VI was called 'Final Fantasy III for SNES, due to the original NES version of Final Fantasy III wasn't released outside of Japan.

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 was not originally a character in Final Fantasy III, it was a default job in the NES version and a secret job in the DS version.
 * 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.
 * Onion Knight has the lowest base Attack in the game, with 107 Attack at Level 100.