K. Round

Check? That's chess, not checkers!

When checking K. Round, Chapter 1

K. Round (JP: K.ラウンド Kē Raundo) is the powered up form of C. Round and serves as a recurring miniboss in Chapter 1.

C. Round assumes this form when it is crowned. This occurs at the end of the Great Board, and later via Rouxls Kaard's control crown at Card Castle.

Profile

Appearance

K. Round greatly resembles C. Round, except much larger. K. Round wears a large yellow three-pointed crown and has long, muscular legs. It also wears the same cheerful expression as its original form, though K. Round's expression remains the same even when getting hurt.

K. Round is a checker piece in the Light World, specifically the King checker.

Personality

K. Round possesses the same traits as its original form, albeit more aggressive and hostile under the crown's effects. When controlled by Rouxls Kaard, Ralsei notices that it is in great pain over being used against its own will.

Main story

The party versus K. Round

At the end of the Great Board, the party comes across Lancer, who warn them that there is something dangerous lurking ahead. They discover that it is C. Round. C. Round steps onto the last row of the board and transforms into K. Round for the battle. After the party makes K. Round's crown fall off, it transforms back into C. Round and rolls away.

On Floor 5F of Card Castle, Rouxls Kaard summons K. Round as his third attempt to thwart the party. Rouxls admits he does not know what K. Round is, but states that his "Control Crowne" enables him to control any disc-shaped life form. Ralsei comments that K. Round appears to be in pain, to which Rouxls agrees on before K. Round begins an encounter. Upon knocking off the crown, K. Round reverts back to its original form and rolls away.

It is possible to interact with the control crown as it slides away by skipping Rouxls's post-battle dialogue. This can be done via holding the MENU button to skip textboxes, then running to the crown. The first inspection is "(Thar she blows...)" and further inspections bring up "(It's going off to live a better life now...)"

In battle

Attacks

K. Round cycles through the following attacks in order:

• Jumps high into the air and attempts to stomp the SOUL several times.
• Kicks its leg a few times and fires star particles from it that roughly track the SOUL's position.
• Jumps high into the air, flashes a few times in mid-air and stomps the bullet board, leaving a trail of stars that damage the attack's targets.
• Jumps over the bullet board and rains star particles from its legs.

A milk carton from the "Self-Care" ACT

If it takes too much damage, K. Round uses the following attack, then returns to its regular cycle:

• Shows a stock image of an almond milk carton, then heals itself. It first uses this attack after taking 300+ damage, healing 300 HP; subsequent uses heal 700 HP. Each use also increases its Attack by 0.5, up to a maximum of 10.

Available ACTs

Great Board

Causes the crown to be 15% loose.

Causes the crown to be 20% loose.

Unlike other Darkners, K. Round cannot comprehend being Warned, and does not avoid attacks. Warning K. Round three times increases Susie's Attack by 50%, as the third warning is Kris indirectly complimenting Susie.

Card Castle

Causes the crown to be 18% loose.

The MENU button must be used twice to set the angle and the range. Hitting the crown directly loosens it by 35%, while anywhere else of K. Round causes the crown to loosen by 20%. Missing entirely uses a turn.

Strategy

Turn Routing

• K. Round cannot be defeated by FIGHTing. Thus, ACTing is the only option. Once K. Round's crown is 100% loose, it falls off and the battle ends, so SPARING is unneccesary.
• The first time K. Round's HP falls to or below 1000, it heals 300 HP. After this, Ralsei tries to alert Susie, who instead refuses to listen and continues attacking until the encounter ends.
• During the encounter at Card Castle, ACTing is the only option to progress.

Great Board Fight

• Warning is entirely useless in this fight, and is not advised.

• K. Round can be defeated in 5 turns simply by using DeepBow 5 times, being the preferred ACT.
  • If Ralsei happens to be knocked down, Bow will suffice, but will always result in a slower battle, at either 6 or 7 turns if ACTing every turn.
• It is absolutely integral to keep Kris up for this fight, as there is no way to progress it otherwise.
• It is ideal to end the fight as quickly as possible, due to Susie's attacks causing a progressive increase in K.Round's attack every time it practices self-care.

Card Castle Fight

• K. Round can be defeated in 3 turns using Throw and aiming for its crown. For the first arc, its ideal to aim higher than lower, as a higher arc will generally allow for the second arc to overlap with its crown. Throwing and hitting the crown is the best ACT for this version of the fight.
  • K. Round can be defeated in 4-5 turns if sometimes hitting its crown, and sometimes hitting its body. If the arc chosen does not allow hitting the crown, always aim for the body to not waste a turn.
• It's integral to keep all party members alive due to needing them for the Throw ACT, since it's the fights only win condition. Bow will help to accrue progress if both Susie and Ralsei are down, and will clear the fight in 6 turns if used consistently.
  • Kris is particularly important to keep up, as them being DOWNed will cause it to be impossible to make any progress.
• K. Round can still practice Self-Care and increase its attack, but since Susie is no longer automatically attacking, this fight can be taken more slowly.

Dodging

• To dodge its first attack, the SOUL should position itself at the bottom of the bullet board. The SOUL should move to either corner, and when K.Round begins to plunge downwards, it should begin moving in the opposite direction. Note that its feet will flatten slightly when hitting the bottom of the bullet board, which can hit the SOUL.
• To dodge its second attack, the SOUL should maneuver to the left of bullet board. Upward or downward movements by the SOUL allows it dodge the stars in its path. The SOUL should attempt to recenter whenever possible. More or less movement in its dodges may be necessary due to the randomness of the stars’s trajectories and speed.
• To dodge its third attack, The SOUL should position itself at the bottom of the bullet board. The SOUL should move to the bottom corners to bait K.Round to stomp there, and then move to the opposite corner. This will make many of the stars from the attack fly out in an area that can't be traversed, reducing the density of bullets. It may be necessary for the SOUL to briefly pause, or speed up depending on the Stars’s trajectory.
• To dodge its fourth attack, The SOUL should maneuver to the bottom left of the board. As K.Round rises, The SOUL should move to the bottom right corner, slowing down or speeding up as necessary whilst the stars fall. The bottom right of the bullet board will have less stars, as K.Round starts right and quite low to the ground. Temporary upwards movement may be necessary for the SOUL to dodge a particularly dense section of stars.

Mechanics

The Check ACT during the battle changes its name to Checkers, with flavor text changing appropriately. This change carries over across encounters.

Whenever K. Round's HP falls to or below 600, it heals 700 HP. This makes it impossible to deplete K. Round's HP under normal circumstances.

Quotes

Great Board

• [Self-Care #1]
  • [Ralsei] Susie! Stop attacking it! You're making it stronger!
  • [Susie] Pssh, and let it think I'm AFRAID? No way!
• [Bow/Deep Bow #1]
  • [Ralsei] That's it, Kris! If we can get its crown off...
  • [Ralsei] It should turn back into a little guy...!
  • [Ralsei] Susie! Help us bow at it!
  • [Susie] Nah, its crown'll come off...
  • [Susie] When I smash this guy to the GROUND!
  • [Ralsei] ...

Card Castle

• [Bow #1]
  • [Ralsei] Huh!? That hardly did anything!
  • [Ralsei] How can we push off that CROWN...?
  • [Susie] ... Hmm.
• [Bow #2]
  • [Ralsei] It's still hardly working!
  • [Ralsei] Whatever can we do, Kris...?
  • [Susie] ... Hey.
• [Bow #3]
  • [Ralsei] Sometimes persistence is key, Kris!!
  • [Ralsei] It'll be hard, but we can do it!!
  • [Susie] HEY YOU GUYS!!!
• [Susie's Idea]
  • [Ralsei] Susie? You want to ACT? Aww, what's your idea?
  • [Susie] Umm... well... how do I say this.
  • [Susie] I kind of... Need you for this one.
  • [Ralsei] That's fine, Susie! I'll help!
  • [Ralsei] You want to apologize to it for earlier, right?
  • [Susie] Nah, I just need you to stay still.
  • [Susie] Kris! We gotta get that CROWN off its head!
  • [Susie] Help me throw Ralsei at it!

Flavor text

Any encounter

• K.Round shuffles furiously. [Neutral]
• K.Round looks weak. [Tired; unused]
• K.Round's shuffle becomes lethargic. [Low HP]
• K. ROUND practiced self-care! [Self-Care]
• The crown is <number>-percent loose! [Turn after Bow/Deep Bow/Throw]

Great Board

• Check? That's chess, not checkers! [Check]
• That's better. [Checkers]
• Here it comes! [Encounter]
• [Self-Care #1]
  • K. ROUND felt stressed out and attacked!
  • K. ROUND practiced self-care!
  • K. ROUND's HP and ATTACK went up!
• K. ROUND practiced self-care! [Self-Care #2+]
• [Bow]
  • You bowed to K. ROUND.
  • It bowed back. Its crown loosened a little.
• [Deep Bow]
  • You and Ralsei bowed.
  • K. ROUND bowed back. Its crown loosened!
• [Warning #1/#4+]
  • You explained to K. Round about the importance of dodging Susie's attacks.
  • But it didn't seem to understand...
• [Warning #2]
  • You started making siren noises with your mouth and looking at Susie.
  • K. Round still didn't understand...
• [Warning #3]
  • You started explaining that Susie is really dangerous and strong.
  • Susie got a large boost to her morale.
  • Susie's ATTACK went up massively...!

Card Castle

• [Check]
  • It's being controlled into attacking...!
  • (Though, wouldn't it just attack anyway...?)
• [Checkers]
  • Watch out for its Flying King attack!
  • (Also, you need to get the CROWN off of its head.)
• Here it comes. Again. [Encounter]
• You bowed to K. ROUND. [Bow]
• [Susie's Idea/Throw]
  • Press [(MENU)] to determine the ANGLE!
  • Press [(MENU)] to determine the POWER!
    • The crown loosened a little! [Ralsei hits K. Round's body]
    • The crown greatly loosened! [Ralsei hits K. Round's crown]
    • Missed! [Ralsei did not hit K. Round]

Allusions

• The growing and shrinking sound effects of K. Round are a reference to the Super Mushroom sound effects from the Super Mario franchise.
• With K. Round being a King checker, its name may be a reference to King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong franchise. When pronounced, K. Round becomes "crowned", in the same way K. Rool becomes "cruel".

Gallery

• 
  Overworld
• 
  Bowing
• 
  Star Kick
• 
  Star Jump

Trivia

• If the damage of the party is modified by external means, it is possible to "kill" K. Round, knocking it back much like C. Round, by outdamaging its heal. However, this does not generate any additional dialogue or alter the story, as it is not supposed to happen.
• There was merchandise planned for K. Round, but it was scrapped after people pointed out that K. Round bore a striking resemblance to the Japanese mascot, Nishiko-kun (にしこくん).
• The almond milk carton sprite K. Round uses is reused in the Sweet Cap'n Cakes battle and in the battle against a Shinobeetle and Seth. It is a modified version of a stock photo for Silk brand almond milk. Because the blue "Silk" logo is a registered trademark, it was changed to "Milk". The white cap on top of the carton has been edited out. Black smiley faces have also been drawn on the almonds.