My progress on getting the hang of this run has been completely thrown for a loop by this flying jerk. I know the strats to one cycle but it goes wrong often. My issue is that once he starts flying around it's basically done because he never lands ever again for me. The any% beginner guide on this forum says go to the opposite side of the room and then wail on him once his cape is settled but for me (i'm playing on PS4) he'll start flying around the room the second he appears making him basically impossible to get to. Any tips to help me beat this guy fast?

I’m not sure what goes wrong with one cycle for you, but that’s the first thing you need to work on. The strat itself isn’t hard at all, but the biggest problem people have is that they aren’t mashing out their combos fast enough so they miss out on damage. Making sure to constantly call your party members is important too since Aladdin’s damage helps. Other than that, without a video it’s only guessing what the issue could be.

As for him flying around, it sounds like your timing is just off. When he flies away, going to the opposite side of the raised circle in the floor will make him head back towards the platform where the fight starts. Once he’s there, hitting him is as easy as just timing the hit. I’m not sure what tutorial you’re using (for PS4 it should be BTrues) but once his cape finishes falling, that’s your cue to hit him because that when he’s vulnerable - which sounds like what the tutorial says to do. It’s just a visual cue that takes a couple times to recognize.

Unfortunately the best advice is to keep practicing. The fight isn’t very hard, but you need to get the timing for some things down. Also, as I recommend to everyone, joining our discord is a significantly better place for help with all of the games. You can find a link pinned in the series forum.

ye I am learning this on and off and have only one cycled him once despite using both strategies outlined in Ya boy B trues youtube tutorials, I get in the right number of single hits combos and blizzards but he still seems to fly away, I am also on PS4, this and getting antisora in a loop are what is stumping me, but I think antisora is a personal timing thing for me but the Jafar fight seems odd as I am 100% executing the strategy right and have even watched the tutorial countless times and the video looks similar to the game when I do it but he is simply forms his bubble and flys away where as in the video he gets hit whilst forming the bubble and stops summoning it, in my game I hit him as he is summoning the bubble and he just carries on any way

If he is flying away after going into his magic bubble, then it is a timing issue. Instead of doing exactly what the tutorial vids show, try doing something like a 2 hit blizzard then do a full air combo and then 2 hit air combos. It's a odd fight that you will just have to play around with different things until you find a good way for you to hit him before he flies away. But I can tell you with 100% certainty that it is a timing issue. Almost every runner has to do something different for that fight. Personally, I do a 2 hit blizzard, then 2 full air combos, then two 2 hit air combos. Takes a while to get the hand of, and as you get faster with your comboing, you will find that you have to relearn the fight because your old setup doesnt work anymore because you have naturally gotten better and faster at the fight.

what is it that actually prevents him flying away? is it hitting him as he is forming the bubble I assume?

After he forms the bubble he will fly away. You prevent it by hitting him. Once he flies away he can be staggered which is harder on ps4 due to 60 fps. I believe he moves around twice as fast. There is no real visual cue for it and a lot of people have different strats for this. Some people count in their head, some people have a feeling for the timing, other ones use an audio cue and I personally use a set of combos. But like I said, he get's staggered if you hit him while he is moving, so you just have to get used to the timing.

Yeah, hitting him before he flies away staggers him and interrupts the action of him flying away - it essentially "skips" that move in his attack pattern and lets you lock him onto the first platform where you can get 1 cycle. And like others have said, the timing is just that - a timed attack - and it will take some practice to get down.

As a note, if at any time you knock him off the platform so he's hovering over air, he will instantly teleport away (in the ball of darkness, not the bubble) on his next attack. You can't stagger him out of this one, so just never push him off the edge and always keep him over solid ground.