If every Kingdom Hearts world had a Final Fantasy Character: Pride Lands- Red XIII (Final Fantasy VII)
Red XIII being the character who appears in the Pride Lands was one of the first decisions I ever made because it just makes the most sense to me. I can hardly think of another character that would be appropriate for this world.
Since Professor Hojo was known to not be from Halloween Town, it would make sense that he's been to other worlds for his experiments. Red XIII was experimented on by Professor Hojo and dumped in the Pride Lands to see how he would fare in the wild there.
Nanaki encounters the group while fighting the Heartless. He can tell that Sora is really a human and not a lion, so he is initially distrustful but quickly gets over that as they help each other. Nanaki says that he opposes the Heartless because Professor Hojo is allied with them, and he wants to protect the worlds from the darkness.
The dialogue with Nanaki varies slightly based on which worlds are cleared first, just like with Monstro, having variations if Riku has already been met in Neverland, as both the Pride Lands and Halloween Town are visited twice and can be visited in any order. Sora will talk to Nanaki about stopping Professor Hojo, but if he has already defeated him, he will tell Nanaki that Hojo has already been taken care of.
