Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix HD LV1 ND Land of Dragons writeup

An elaborate write-up covering each fight in a self-imposed challenge video of mine: http://youtu.be/WnfUcoW9OFc

Summary:
Something I would probably call "early game hell" by No Damage standards. Right off the bat you are introduced to Nightwalkers that will relentlessly attack you with their claw swipes and retaliate with super armor. Trying to shake them off for 1v1 demands a bit of spacing, or alternatively using Fire near them will control two of them nicely to setup a block and a counter. They are very apparent through the first half of this world, getting acquainted with them is essential to survival.

The centaurs or "Assault Riders" have plenty of super armor, so respecting them and blocking them is my bread and butter. The cave fight was a tricky one as the Shadows can actually hit Sora for change. I guess it's quantity over quality for those things.

0:55 Camp invasion fight #1
The world introduces it's gimmick of anti-lameout meter that goes down with each passing second and any hit a party member takes. The meter can be replenished through orbs that are presented on a hit, but ultimately will not be an issue once you know how to approach the heartless in this world.
This is a rather simple fight with a lot of 1v1 situations and objects to hide behind, which I would later miss in subsequent fights.

2:18 "The Surprise Attack" mission
The fight begins with two Nightwalkers and a Shadow, but as soon as any one of them is slayed, another Nightwalker spawns in the area. The general melee approach for me is to separate the two by continuously attacking one with air combos in the opposite direction of the other Nightwalker. Aerial combos have more forward momentum that help keeping your distance against the looming Nightwalker coming from behind. There must be adequate room to keep the wailing going until the target vanishes, or the assault will be quickly cut short. The Shadows aren't too much in groups of three or four even, but it never hurts to exercise caution in a no damage run.

4:17 "The Ambush" mission
Five Shadows. When four of them have been beaten, a pair of Nightwalkers show up to rain on the parade. That said, it is beneficial to kill the last two Shadows at the same time, but I figured that the lingering one would not be able to catch up with me during my time with the floating heartless.
This mission introduces the Assault Rider -heartless. A centaur heartless whose super armor demands respect and is probably one of the sources of inspiration for Metal Gear Rising's parry-oriented 1v1 pacing. It can only be punished during it's block stagger frames or the recovery of it's ramming move. Magic would be a safe tool from afar, but I opted to not use it just yet.

Yes, check out that perfect positioning: http://muggshotter.tumblr.com/image/108843335585

8:03 "The Search" mission
This is pretty much a repeat from the camp invasion fight at the beginning of this video. Air combos may conveniently carry you over a tent, giving the heartless harder time keeping up with you.

10:03 Summit ascension
Narrow corridors, soldiers and relentless Nightwalkers... this is going to be awful, isn't it.
Only if you cannot take out the Nightwalkers. The soldiers pose some sort of a threat in landing a single hit, but they don't home in on Sora nearly as well as the floating claw druids do and their Cyclone reaction command conveniently inflicts damage on every heartless on the way. Air combos greatly increase the chances of survival.

The second wave is nothing but the -you guessed it- Nightwalkers. Due to their close spawning points, initiating them in combat with fire is a good way to chip their health down while ensuring one of them won't bang you from behind. They take a huge liking to their spinning attack after suffering light hit stun, which in this case is easy to react to with a block. After that there is not much that stands in Sora's way aside from a single surprise Nightwalker and the two rockwalls that await him. After the second rockwall is down there is absolutely no need to fight any more heartless in this sequence, so I just ignore them. #Speedrunstrats

11:36 Cave fight
This was a tricky one. The game pits you against three Assault Riders (in total) and a massive horde of Shadow heartless, and to my surprise they actually do something here. As soon as you get in the middle of those pipsqueaks, there is a high chance one of them will attempt to attack you. This is where the Fire spell comes into play and is vital to an efficient finish. I take out the Assault Rider first, it's range has great potential to interrupt a lot of things.

After the Shadows are taken out, two more Assault Riders appear simultaneously. Once again, patience is key and being very aware of each one's positioning helps immensely in finding openings to attacks. If I cannot guard both ARs' hits within a two-second period, I will not approach either altogether to prevent defeat against super armor shenanigans. Blizzard helps in such stalemate moments. In a way this is kind of like playing Metal Gear Rising...

16:16 Snowy mountain fight
Not so much of an actual fight that is more like a minigame of sorts. Going after double digits in kill count is not relevant to my interests as all I have to do is survive until the time runs out. And I am not going to challenge those floating suckers three times the size of the protag.

17:26 Imperial palace square fight
This set of enemies would have been my undoing and the stuff of my nightmares... but Mulan's Red Rocket limit made this fight the easiest one of the bunch, no contest.