Dark Moray (ダーク・モーレイ,Dāku Mōrei?) is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He was one of Dark Gaia's Minions. After Dark Gaia broke apart in the beginning of the game, his energy fragments were scattered across the globe. In Holoska, these energies combined with the continent's cold climate to create Dark Moray, who became the guardian of Holoska's Gaia Temple.
Dark Moray resembles a combination of an eel and an eastern dragon. He has a very large mouth with thin, sharp teeth, though his jaw is a bit crooked. He has two sets of horns on his head; one set of more curved and split horns around his jaw joints and a set of more straight horns on his forehead. He also has a green abscess on his lower belly area, his upper back and on his forehead, which might act as central arteries. In the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version, he has blue skin, while in the Wii/PlayStation 2 version, he has black skin with swirly red markings all over his body and cyan outlines.
In the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version, he has small extensions sticking out from the edge of the platform. These extensions look like miniature clones of Dark Moray himself, but without horns and abscesses, and they have flat teeth instead.
Powers and abilities
Dark Moray possesses the ability to control frost and ice. Rather than controlling these elements directly, however, he can take people's negative feelings such as grief and sorrow and mold them into ice and frost. He can either shoot out large, slow-moving orbs that will create a small explosion that freezes everything within his radius, or launch an icy breath that instantly creates large spiky ice pillars. When not using his ice-related abilities, he can also fall and spin his body around to throw and damage enemies, though his range is limited to his platform.
With the aid of the platform he is stuck to, Dark Moray can generate a icy force field around himself for protection that instantly freezes those that touch it. In the Wii/PlayStation 2 version, this force field is generated using machinery on the platform (which might hint that Dark Moray has the ability to interact with machinery) while in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version, it is generated by miniature extensions of himself that crawl out from the edge.
Battle
Wii/PlayStation 2
Dark Moray is the second nighttime boss in the Wii/PlayStation 2version of Sonic Unleashed, and the game's overall fourth boss. He is fought with Sonic the Werehog, but can first be encountered after unlocking his Boss Stage in Holoska's Gaia Gate, which can be done after completing Cool Edge Night Act III: The Temple of Ice. The boss battle takes place in a closed arena with a metallic platform.
Boss guide
At the beginning of the fight, Dark Moray puts up a shield, and the player's first task is to remove it. To do this, Sonic must destroy four pairs of shield generators while avoiding Red Nightmares and Deep Nightmares, and later on, Dark Moray's ice balls and Killer Bees. Once the shield goes down, Sonic can jump on him and attack Dark Moray himself. At this point, he will use several attacks, including ice breath, ice balls, and slamming his head down to whirl him around in circles. His ice attack in particular can all freeze Sonic.
To defeat Dark Moray, the player must hit him several times, until he spits out three ice canisters. Sonic must then pick up a canister and throw it at Dark Moray to freeze him. While Dark Moray is frozen, attack him until his Health Gauge is down by a third, upon where Sonic will get knocked off the platform. This process must be repeated three times to defeat him.
The time needed to "S" Rank is 5:00. Failure to make that time will yield a "C" Rank. Therefore, no Sun Medal will be awarded.
The boss battle takes place in a closed circular arena with a metallic platform filled with Rings and ice canisters. At the beginning of the fight, Dark Moray puts up a shield to protect himself, which covers the entire upper platform. If Sonic touches this shield, he will instantly get frozen, thus repelling him from accessing the upper platform.[2] In this phase, Dark Moray will constantly shoot balls of ice that can freeze Sonic if hit. To remove the shield, Sonic must defeat the smaller eel enemies that pop out of the holes spread along the platform's wall.[3] These enemies are notoriously difficult to defeat if the player does not have enough of the Werehog's Skills or Strength levels as they attack quickly and then nimbly retreat into their holes, giving Sonic little time to hit them.
However, the player can throw the ice canisters at the base platform at the minions[4] or lure Dark Moray's own attacks into them. This will freeze the minions, which makes defeating them a lot easier. The player can pick up a canister by hitting it twice to destroy its ice encasement, then pick it up and throw it. However, the player has a limited amount of time to throw the canister once the canister is free. If they hold it for too long (which is shown by a visual indicator depicting the canister leaking out chilled air), the canister will explode and freeze Sonic instead.
After defeating enough of the minions the shield will power down. Sonic must then climb up on Dark Moray's platform to confront Dark Moray directly. Dark Moray now uses a new attack which he will breathe trails of ice towards Sonic for a short period of time before tiring out for a bit. These trails of ice will thaw out after a short while or can be destroyed by attacking them. Dark Moray can also attack by slamming his head on the platform and spinning himself around the platform.
Regardless of which attack Dark Moray uses, the player must hit one of his three glowing green abscesses to damage him. Once again, the player may use the ice canisters to freeze Dark Moray to prevent him from retaliating during Sonic's attack. The first abscess (on his belly) is the easiest to hit. The second abscess (on his back) may require Sonic to attack from mid-air. The third abscess (on his forehead) is harder to hit, as the player must wait for Dark Moray to use the third attack before freezing him so Sonic can hit the abscess.[1] Alternatively, the player can also use frontal Aerial attacks to attempt to damage this abscess.
After destroying one of the abscesses, Sonic will be forced off the platform while the shield is put back up. Repeat the aforementioned process two more times after that (with the number of defeated eel enemies required to deactivate the shield increasing each time) and Dark Moray will be defeated. Upon defeating the Dark Moray, the player gains 250 Experience.
In the Wii/PlayStation 2 version, Dark Moray emits green blood whenever one of his abscesses is destroyed. This makes him the only boss in Sonic Unleashed to only bleed in one version of the game.
Dark Moray is the only Dark Gaia-related boss in Sonic Unleashed to not appear in the Shattered World Crisis story arc in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by Archie Comics, which was an adaptation of Sonic Unleashed.
↑ 1.01.1Sonic Team (18 November 2008). Sonic Unleashed. Xbox 360. Sega. Area/level: Cool Edge - Dark Moray. "Sonic the Werehog: He's kinda hard to get a fix on. Wonder if I can get him to stop…"
↑Sonic Team (18 November 2008). Sonic Unleashed. Xbox 360. Sega. Area/level: Cool Edge - Dark Moray. "Chip: We're not gonna get up there until we do something about that barrier."
↑Sonic Team (18 November 2008). Sonic Unleashed. Xbox 360. Sega. Area/level: Cool Edge - Dark Moray. "Sonic the Werehog: Maybe if I take out those eel guys down below, first."
↑Sonic Team (18 November 2008). Sonic Unleashed. Xbox 360. Sega. Area/level: Cool Edge - Dark Moray. "Chip: This canister thing looks real cold. Wonder if we can use it somehow…"
