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embraceyourdestiny · 3 years ago

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Found more of my observations so part two. Again, it’s rambley so it might not make sense. Also the beginning (1-5ish) is mostly the same as the first post.

Part one

me noticing things and speculating while watching all of roxas’ cutscenes bc i love my boy

1). Sora and Roxas’ “Where am I? Who’s there? Who are you?” I literally never realized that was the two of them having a conversation inside Roxas’ heart and from what I can recall I think that’s the only time “heart talks” canonically happen? I know it’s a really big thing in the fandom but I can’t remember a single other time that two people in one heart/body actually talked to each other and not one of them inside calling out. Although, you can probably count all the times Kairi made comments in KH1, like in Merlin’s house and such

2). The parallels between Roxas, Roxas’ life in the Org, and Ven’s time at the Land of Departure via people telling them the things they are experiencing weren’t happening. It’s probably done so intentionally with Roxas and his Org life but it still makes you draw an immediate connection between Ventus. Both of them were experiencing strange things and yet those around them told them they weren’t, either intentionally or because they didn’t think it was true, and in the end it lead them down the path those manipulating them wanted to go down and resulted in their demise.

2.5). Side note since this was specially about when Roxas tripped, the fact that Riku jacked Roxas for on the surface no reason at all is still hilarious. Like yeah you could say it was to cause turmoil and doubt within Roxas or to stop him from leaving the data world via train (if that was even possible) or even because DiZ just couldn’t make a whole beach area with everything that was going on, especially if that beach was Destiny Islands because remembering what happened to Xion when she went, it definitely would’ve messed things up, but it’s a lot funnier to think that Riku wanted to talk to him and also was like “you know what, fuck this kid I’m taking his money” lmaoo

3). Why do the twilight gang eat sea salt ice cream?? Obviously it’s because of Roxas, but with his precious memories missing I don’t think he would’ve noticed if they didn’t without being prompted. Sure, deep down it would’ve probably felt wrong to him to not do “the things friends do” with his friends, but since he had no recollection of it, I don’t think it would’ve mattered. Did DiZ intentionally program this? He had to of, which at first seems uncharacteristically kind of him, but I came to the conclusion that it was probably just a way to mess with Roxas even more and get him to do his bidding. Like I said, without prompting Roxas probably never would’ve noticed, but with prompting, suddenly the things he supposedly did all the time feel wrong. And if that’s wrong, why would he not question the rest of what’s happening, leading him to the end result of finding out the truth and returning to Sora? I could totally be BSing right now but DiZ is insidious, so I think it makes sense lol.

4). Roxas had an airplane in his room while Sora had a pirate ship. Besides obvious parallels between Sora and Roxas and sky and sea, is it possibly because Ven had his glider and could fly around and since Roxas had a part of him in his heart, that passed on to him? It makes me wonder how much of his room was his genuine interests/subconscious thought and how much of it was DiZ’s programming because there’s no way he could’ve known about that right?

5). Roxas sitting a considerable distance between him and the gang, not only showing his disconnect from his “life” in twilight town but his disconnect from his actual life in general, and possibly even from Sora. Visual symbolism is so powerful!!

6). I have to wonder how much of this “data” twilight town is actually data and how much of it is real. “Data” is honestly quite vague in KH but there’s no way DiZ was able to make all of this from scratch right? Why would he even, considering how much work that is? He had to have some how been able to use part of the source and I feel like this is backed by the relationships between the characters. DiZ is... an unsociable personal, to say the least. I do not trust his ability to portray genuine, realistic relationships between people and be as convincing as it is to Roxas and the player and a good example is the shopping scene with Pence and Olette. When Pence says “he’s stalling...” it sounds as if Roxas has done this before. And when Olette responds with a teasing voice that she’ll see him later, it sounds genuine and knowing, like this is just same old Roxas. It could just be good voice acting lol, and we know that “same old Roxas” isn’t possible since it isn’t real, but what if it was? What if there was a piece of their hearts in the data and their hearts had been able to bond in that miniscule amount of time and play out as it would if they were actually friends? There’s no way DiZ could’ve gotten the dynamics down so well like that, not with Seipher’s gang and the twilight gang, and not with Hayner, Roxas, Pence, and Olette themselves. And it’s even more obvious when you remember that the Org was meddling, sending in Dusks to find Roxas. There’s no way DiZ was able to make up the whole stolen pictures thing because he didn’t want the Org to mess with it. Sure, he knew they’d come and he planted data to get them off the trail, but between all that chaos I really can’t see him bothering making tensions between Seipher and the gang and making the town suspect them, it seems too natural to be made up data. He had to have some how take either their hearts or the entire town and everything in it’s essence and put it into data. How, I have no clue, but it doesn’t make sense otherwise. So, if their hearts of essence was sampled, even a little bit, of course they felt a connection to Roxas (and Sora) even though none of it was real. The heart is a powerful and mysterious thing and I don’t think that would’ve been possible if all of it was pixels and codes.

(On top of this, we know worlds are in some way sentient and can influence things on their own, so with even the smallest piece of the actual twilight town, the data twilight town could still function as normal. Everything would most likely be minute compared to the real thing, but it would still be there none the less. Time still seems to function, if it wasn’t real there wouldn’t be tournaments and the end of summer and such. DiZ was far too busy to be attentive to each and every person in Twilight Town, keep up with the in town events and flow of time, and repair Sora while stalling the Org. There’s proof of this because we can presume that KH3 twilight town is how twilight town usually is and from what I remember even when you go to the real TLTW in KH2 there are things like smoking chimneys and stuff showing it’s lived it, meaning he only sampled a small piece of it but it was still able to exist as a world even with that tiny piece. He effectively made an entire, functional world in data like the evil genius he is. This might not be that big of a revelation considering Tron, but Tron really is pixels and codes, that’s the difference. Tron is an AI who was able to grow a heart of his own, and also to some extent the CPU or whatever must’ve had one too to have that much awareness, but there’s no nature in Space Paranoids, no townspeople and school happening, so it isn’t the same. Twilight Town is a real world, even if it’s “data” and that’s just interesting because imagine what you could do with that information, in-universe or storytelling wise.

I guess this is technically touched on upon in UX because of all the data worlds but I don’t know if the fact that they were still real worlds is stressed anymore than it is in KH2, which is to say not. And data being real is definitely talked about in Recoded with Data Riku and Sora from what I remember. I haven’t seen much of UX though so I could be wrong but I feel like if it was talked about I would’ve heard about it lol.)

7). ROXAS DID VANITAS’ CARTWHEEL?? I literally never noticed this before omg so there really is a connection between them to some extent!! Of the male heart mates, Rox and Vani seem to have the least amount of attention put on them both in canon and canon which seems off to me since they’re both the “darkness” or anger particularly in Roxas’ case of their lighter halves, so I kinda doubted if there really was one but there is omg!! Now all the boys can (probably?) breakdance lol when will Xion!!!

8). It’s pretty funny that the Dusks just. Stand there and while while Roxas does his station of waking stuff. They’re like yeah we being controlled by someone else who wants to end him but we also respect him and wanna give him a fair chance lol, as evidence by them calling him their “liege” which I still don’t understand but now I’m imagining being Roxas’ pets and cuddling up to him and everyone is looking at him like O.O lol

9). Obviously I knew Roxas’ SoW heavily referenced Sora’s but I didn’t realize it also had a scene foreshadowing when they met later AND it parallels Sora’s even more by showing the “dark” side of Roxas aka his real self before he turns into the giant nobody, just like Sora’s shadow turning into Darkside, only Roxas’ happens in less than a second so it’s really fast and hard to tell

9.5). Omg I never noticed that they show us that Roxas is a nobody during this! It shows his hand, then it shows the twilight thorn. Same thing when it shows his foot than its foot that’s so cool!

10). More on “how true is this data” based on relationships!! There’s literally nothing that can convince me that DiZ would care about Roxas’ friends having drama, he’d even probably call it “drivel,” so I really can’t see him making Hayner upset that Roxas was with Seipher. They’re!! Real!!!

11). Olette saying they didn’t go to the beach because it wouldn’t be the same without Roxas hurts so bad, esp bc later when they’re talking about knowing him and stuff <//3

12). I am in so much pain over this one. I never made the connection between Roxas fighting his best friend twice, once Xion and once Hayner. No wonder he looked so uncomfortable, they made him relive one of the most horrible things that’s ever happened to him and that he’s ever had to do what the fuck 💔💔💔

13). I like the effort made to show that Roxas is friends with the whole twilight gang. It’s easy to assume he’s only really good friends with Hayner but him talking with Olette and checking out the seven wonders with Pence feels really nice and genuine

14). It makes me so sad they keep making Roxas look like a bad friend especially because he’s a GOOD friend and it’s not his fault. The pictures, losing the money, accidentally getting caught up with Seifer, losing the blue marble, none of it is his fault and thankfully the twilight gang are nice enough to not hold it over him but it still sucks like hasnt Roxas been through enough :(

15). It’s really sad we’ll never see Roxas as that somewhat happy go lucky, or at least carefree, kid he was in kh2 prologue because he never WAS that kid. He’s been through so much and his life has been so hard it’s really unfair. I hope post kh3 he can find at least some kind of peace, but he’ll probably never be that carefree again :(

16). Oh my god wait wait when Sora corrected himself form saying “the five of us— I mean, the six of us” WAS HE TALKING ABOUT ROXAS??? IM GONNA CRY 😭😭😭 I once saw someone say he meant Jiminy but as much as it sucks Jiminy isn’t that important to be included in the “gang that’s gonna save the world” and Sora seemed to say it on reflex, like he miscounted and corrected himself. He could’ve included Roxas but forgot himself, since he only just awoke when his heart was with Roxas not that long before. Omg I’m so sad and happy at the same time about this

17). Okay now I’m just watching someone play KH2 bc I wanted to see someone’s reaction to the prologue bc it’s so good but now they’re with the fairies and oh my god I never realized the mirrors in that room depict the different drive forms but specially that one explicitly mentions Sora being overcome by darkness aka Anti form?? That’s so chilling and a cool but subtle way to reveal all the drive form powers right off the back but you wouldn’t notice it til later

18). So. Roxas can double wield because he has both Sora and Ven’s hearts in him and Sora is able to double wield because when Roxas returned to him he either a). passed all his skills including double wielding to him, or b). Roxas legitimately was chosen to wield a keyblade and since we know he had a heart, when he returned to Sora Sora then also technically had two other hearts in him, granting him a second keyblade. Interesting.

19). Hmmm never realized that the samurai nobodies, which belong to Roxas, don’t appear until he goes back to Sora, almost as if they’re trying to follow their leader but then Sora keeps getting rid of them

20). Sora keeps bumping his chest with his fist just like Hayner does T^T I don’t know if that’s because Roxas actually did it or Roxas just picked up the habit from Hayner but I’m soft

#kingdom hearts #kh #og #sora kh #kh2 #kingdom hearts 2 #kingdom hearts theories #Roxas kh #twilight town gang

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aquafolia · 3 years ago

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Sokai Day Fic 2: Guardian, Angel

Okay! One more for today :)

This fic was inspired by phoenix-downer’s fic Lifeline. I’m also a huge Percabeth fan so I decided to remix another one of their famous moments, too.

As I said, I only just found KH: I beat KH1 a few weeks ago and I’m about to beat KH2 for the first time! This one is for @phoenix-downer, whose amazing fics and insightful translations/analyses are a huge part of why I adore Sokai as much as I do. Their love and enthusiasm for the ship really is infectious! As I’m playing I appreciate the Sokai moments so much more because of phoenix-’s posts. Cheers :)

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Guardian, Angel

‘Looks like you’ve hit a dead end, Sora!’ Vanitas called out menacingly, his manic laughter echoing through the narrow canyon. Hemmed in on three sides by steep stone walls– and with Vanitas blocking the only exit route– Sora realized he had nowhere to run. He turned to face his pursuer, his back to the canyon wall.

‘For someone with a giant key for a weapon,’ the black-haired boy sneered, ‘you sure are hard to find. But it looks like it’s the end of the road for you at last, Sora. You will kneel before me in defeat,’ Vanitas continued, raising his palms skyward. ‘You will beg me for mercy, and I’ll watch the hope drain from your eyes when– are you listening to me?!’

Vanitas’s words weren’t having their intended effect: For someone being threatened by one of his greatest enemies, Sora’s demeanor was annoyingly calm and composed, relaxed even: He stood upright, not in his usual battle stance– he didn’t even have his Keyblade summoned. Instead, Sora was extremely preoccupied with patting down his many pockets, rooting around in each one.

‘Which one did I put it in?’ Sora muttered to himself.

‘What are you doing, you dolt?’ Vanitas asked icily.

‘No, no, go ahead,’ Sora said, his eyes looking up in concentration as he continued to rifle through his seemingly endless number of pants pockets. ‘Watching the hope drain from my eyes and all that.’

Vanitas’s eyes narrowed in irritation. He found his light-filled double vexing on a good day– but this was strange, even for Sora. ‘Um… Right.’ Vanitas said. Clearing his throat, he regained his villanly composure. ‘I’ve been your shadow for too long, Sora. I’ll snuff out your pathetic little light, brother, right here, right now– in the showdown that was always meant to be! And then nothing will stand between this world and the glorious reign of dark–’

‘Found it!’

‘–ness.’

Sora had retrieved Kairi’s good luck charm, and was holding it in his hand. He gazed down at it fondly, seeming to find it much more compelling than his arch enemy.

‘Hah! Is this some kind of a joke?’ Vanitas laughed. ‘Does the Keyblade’s Chosen Hero like to accessorize? You think a toy like that is going to help you now? Draw your Keyblade, fool, and let’s finish this!’

As Vanitas taunted him, Sora closed his eyes and brought the charm to his lips. After planting a soft kiss, he shot Vanitas a smug grin. Without breaking eye contact, Sora casually tossed the charm aside. The small star spun as it sailed through the air, shining with a faint golden light as it careened toward the cliff wall beside Sora. At the moment it should have hit the stone and shattered, it passed right through the rock face in a cloud of sparks.

‘Why did– what did you just do?’ Vanitas asked. After what he hoped was another intimidating laugh, he shot back, ‘Was that supposed to scare me?’

Sora lifted his arms up, cupping his hands behind his head, looking quite pleased with himself. ‘Oh, no reason. It’s nothing, really.’

Vanitas was growing impatient. ‘I don’t care what trick you’re trying to pull, Sora! You’re trapped here! There’s nowhere for you to run,’ he gloated. ‘It’s too bad “your friends are your power”,’ he said in a mockery of Sora’s mantra, ‘because you’re going to die here– alone.’

Even at Vanitas’s death threat, Sora remained totally unfazed. He just kept staring at Vanitas, that stupid grin still on his face. What was this kid’s deal? Deciding he’d had enough, Vanitas summoned his Keyblade and charged. Still Sora stayed exactly as he was, not even bothering to draw his own weapon. But Vanitas had stopped caring about his enemy’s strange behavior– running at full speed, with a gleeful laugh, he shouted, ‘Goodbye, So–’

The ground shook violently as a giant crack in the canyon floor opened up between Sora and Vanitas, the sound of the rending so loud, it seemed like the world was breaking. From the fissure, a column of golden light burst forth that sent Vanitas flying backward. Then, what looked like a spinning wheel of whirling colors came rocketing out of the light– some sort of object revolving at such an incredible speed, it looked like a solid glowing disk of golds, blues, pinks, and oranges. As it hurtled toward Vanitas, it left a tail of golden light like a comet crossing the night sky, and shed a flurry of white feathers.

Vanitas, slowly attempting to stand up, was too dazed from his crash-landing to see it coming: just as he regained his footing, the projectile struck him square in the chest, slicing into him over and over again as the strange disk turned, a sickening sound echoing through the narrow canyon with each rapid-fire blow. The final slash sent Vanitas flying once more, and he face-planted into the stone wall of the ravine. His Keyblade clattered to the ground and disappeared in a puff of black smoke, a clear sign that he had been soundly defeated.

The column of light dissipated to reveal Kairi floating down to the ground, white feathers falling gently around her like snowflakes. Her Keyblade reappeared in her hand, returning from its trip to Vanitas’s face. After studying her enemy’s crumpled form with a satisfied smirk, she turned to Sora. She was holding his good luck charm in her hand.

‘You dropped this,’ she said with a sweet smile.

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#sokai day 2021 #I originally was going to have Sora appear in rage form to help Kairi some how and then I thought WAIT let's FLIP it #also how is Vanitas so fun to write he's just such a jerk??#Vanitas: I have an army #Sora: we have a Kairi #I also have this HC that Sora's early 2000s cargo shorts have like a thousand million pockets #I could see him collecting shells and other trinkets on his travels and that's why his pants are so large #sokai #kairi #sora #sokaiday #to make it autumn themed you can imagine Sora and Vanitas are in a corn maze instead which really cracks me up

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ac-liveblogs · 3 years ago

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kingdom hearts 3: the review, 3 years late

actually i’m going to elaborate on what i mean by kh3's story being a disaster because i meant it and I didn’t explain in 2019 bc the wound was too raw but here we go

There’s a joke that “the real plot of KH3 starts once you clear the Disney Worlds!” and functionally, that’s true. Everything up until that point has been Sora bouncing between Disney Worlds trying to reclaim the Power of Waking so that he can head to the Realm of Darkness with Riku and help search for Aqua, with the understanding that we need to bolster our ranks before we can fight Xehanort.

In previous KH games, the protagonist has two main things driving them. The first is searching for and then saving someone – that’s Riku and Kairi in 1, Namine in CoM, Riku and Kairi again in 2, Ventus and Terra fin BBS, and to a lesser extent even Days and 3D had Riku trying to save Sora. This aspect of the plot is usually the main force that keeps characters moving between worlds (sans Days and 3D) – while a common retort is that the “Disney Worlds are all filler” in all KH games, this isn’t generally the case (though you could argue that for CoM), as progressing through the Disney Worlds begins to unveil what’s actually going on – what the villains are trying to accomplish, and how.

This is more immediately evident in KH1, where the Disney Villain Book Club are the main antagonists for most of the game – the first Disney world features Alice’s kidnap, and subsequent worlds have you tracking Riku’s fall into darkness and figuring out more of Maleficent’s plot. KH2 has you realising how much of a mess the Organisation is making, and then figuring out why. In both, you defeat the enemy’s generals as you go – KH games aren’t complicated (the irony), so you both learn more as you go, stack up your wins so you feel you’ve accomplished something and progress in your search.

KH3 is absent of both of these and doesn’t really offer a substitute. You already know Xehanort’s entire plan because he told you in 3D and you don’t fight any of his generals as that has to be saved for the endgame. Sora isn’t searching for anyone because his own personal goal of saving Roxas was taken out of his hands immediately and he needs to regain the power of waking before being qualified to join Riku in looking for Aqua. However, the ‘reclaiming the power of waking plotline’ isn’t progressed either – Sora finds no clues, and barely searches for any. It’s resolved by Sora not needing it to go to the Realm of Darkness anyway, and is concluded with a “you had the power within you all along!”

The general sense I got is that I was given bullshit reasons to go to the Disney worlds to fill the Disney Quota, and Nomura didn’t even care enough to try and pretend the trips mattered. There is a thread that maybe the Organisation will kidnap Princesses again – they don’t, and we sure don’t go out of our way to stop them unless a distressed princess is waved right in front of us. The Org basically shows up in each world to monologue about stuff that… being honest, we either already knew or isn’t actually very relevant, and then either leave or get thrown out. We don’t get to fight them, because that’s for the endgame.

So I’m not searching for anyone, I’m not learning anything I need to know, I’m not making any progress in the fight against Xehanort, and I’m not making any progress in doing the one thing I need to do before I can help save anyone. I don’t even get to tell Riku that we found Ventus, because it’s not time to deal with that plot point yet! I am doing nothing until it’s time to go and save Aqua, which is an event that is triggered purely by us having finished the Disney Worlds. We could have gone to save Aqua immediately after clearing the prologue, and nothing would have changed. KH3 comes across like being… the final act of 3D, or maybe that 3D was actually meant to be KH3’s main plot. It’s a… weird feeling.

The cutscenes between worlds that we spend with other characters don’t offer much. They come in a handful of different flavours – recapping the plot, showing the movement of other characters to explain how the endgame ends up the way it does, Sad Axel is Sad and foreshadowing the next entry in the saga, usually. The second should be the most interesting, but a lot of it turned into the game explaining how other people saved other characters so Sora didn’t have to, or… I don’t know, Ansem pushing Aqua into an evil puddle so she turns into a really underwhelming boss fight later. Or… why Repliku is still around, so he can kill himself again later? That really fizzled out, especially given the thread about Riku’s Keyblade breaking and him deciding to leave it behind for someone else to use… (that doesn’t happen, they forgot that bit.)

That also seems to be a general problem in KH3 – this game or prior games setting things up that just get unceremoniously dropped – (e.g., the BBS trio’s relationship with darkness, darkness not being evil, Sora learning he has Ven’s heart and Riku looking for that, Blank Points clearly stating Sora was gonna be the one to save everyone, why the fuck is Vanitas’ theme in the Heroes and Heroines medley-), but it really also just brings up new plot threads just as suddenly. There’s a really uncomfortable sense that Nomura isn’t actually interested in any of the characters in KH3 that won’t contribute in some way to the next game’s plot, and if he isn’t doing the absolute bare minimum he feels he can get away with for irrelevant characters he is twisting existing ones into pretzels so he can jam them into his new storyline.

That’d be the litany of Organisation members who were secretly Very Important Characters All Along, which was already pushing the limit with the Dandelion plot in KHUX, Axel and Saix suddenly having a secret friend who is very important actually and that’s why they’ve never mentioned her ever, or… whatever the fuck is going with Ven and Vanitas in Re:Mind, which is completely at odds with their established story in Birth By Sleep and even contradicts Vanitas’ own dialogue in KH3.

A lot of this unfortunately comes at the cost of the less relevant characters having anything interesting to say or do, and there is no actual sense of conclusion in any of their arcs. No-one’s issues have been resolved, they’ve just been brought back and reunited. The peak of these characters meeting each other was a brief scene where a handful of them acknowledge they already know each other, and a silent scene where everyone hangs out on the beach and I’m expected to believe Roxas and Riku, or Saix and anyone are getting along just fine, actually, no conversations or apologies necessary.

Incidentally, the fact that other minor characters organised saving the Nobodies means that I didn’t feel accomplished in saving them. Kinda just felt like they were very conveniently saved with next to no effort from me whatsoever, and that that mostly happened because Nomura just wasn’t interested in writing it. Felt exactly like Sora conveniently always having the power of waking hidden inside him, so Nomura didn’t have to a) write him reclaiming it or b) have Sora put any effort into saving Ven. I was too busy mouthing “are you kidding me???” at the screen to feel emotional at any reunions or anyone being saved, which sucks, because I… really love the BBS and Days trios. More than Sora, Riku and Kairi, even.

KH3 fundamentally fails at feeling like “a conclusion to the Xehanort Saga”, because it feels unfinished. The game feels open-ended because of the multiple hanging plot threads pointing to the next saga, it ends on Sora’s sacrifice (but not really, because we know he’s fine) and everyone searching for him, and it feels like everyone’s arcs got either artificially extended or forgotten about. Kairi just started to gain agency. Riku is heading out to search for Sora again (actually, given what he did the last two times he decided to save his missing friends maybe we should stop him). It feels like any pre-existing drama or threads that needed resolution have been forgotten, because it’s time to move on now!

And that’s really sad, because KH3 had the potential to be really interesting. Am I gonna pretend KH’s writing is great? …mmm, no, not always. Kind of a mess usually. But it was meaningful in a way that is markedly absent in KH3. I’m not even interested in where Sora ended up, and it felt like the characters I was interested in were either unceremoniously shoved back in the toybox because Nomura is done playing with them, or warped into something unrecognisable.

I didn’t even particularly have fun in the Disney Worlds, though they certainly had the brightest spots in the game, as few as they were. Disney characters owning Org members was pretty amazing, Olympus was good and I liked exploring the Caribbean a lot - that was probably the game’s main highlight. I’ll probably enjoy the Data Fights too if I ever buy Re;Mind. Boss fights in the Disney Worlds sucked though. Seriously, what the hell...

But that all said, I don’t know or particularly care where the series is going. Nomura’s demonstrated a lack of care or interest in plots and characters that he’d previously established, so I have no reason to see why that would change going into the future. I could’ve been on board for KHUX, honestly, and the new stuff might be interesting, but KH3 has shaken my faith in Nomura to tell those stories.

I played KH IRL with two friends over the course of a few years - me and one friend were up to date, it was the third friend’s first playthrough, and we had a lot of fun with it. We were super excited for the last game. We all bought KH3 day one, and... checking back in with each other as we progressed, learning no-one was having fun, was kind of worse than KH3 itself being disappointing. I kinda tried to fool myself that I was liking it and it would pick up, but that sense really vanished as I made it further in.

I’m still working on that rewrite slowly but surely, I just... largely don’t have the energy to work on things. Things are usually completed in my head, it’s finding the time to write them. The rewrite is mostly just for me and aforementioned friends, anyway, so I’m not too pressed on it.

#ac plays kh3 #spoiler; i didn't like it

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phoenix-downer · 4 years ago

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Melody of Memory Thoughts

I finished the game yesterday and have a lot of thoughts on it, so I thought I’d stick them all in one megapost. Contains spoilers, for obvious reasons.

So, going into the game, I knew the plot choices would be questionable/disappointing because a few friends warned me, but I didn’t know the exact details. I was actually relieved things weren’t as bad as I feared they might be—I was worried Kairi would be going back to sleep or going back to Destiny Islands to patiently wait, so at least we did not get that. I think knowing what I was getting into beforehand helped prepare me for the plot points we did get.

Gameplay

I’ll talk about the gameplay first because that’s easier to summarize. I had a lot of fun with it, and the trip down memory lane with all the familiar music was wonderful. I played with Sora, Donald, Goofy, and then Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, and it was really satisfying in particular to play as the latter three because I always wanted to see them fighting as a team more often. I need to try out the other teams; perhaps I will soon.

I loved the attention to detail with the character animations and the little loading screens. The main menu scenes were adorable too, and it was nice seeing the characters chatting to each other. Riku’s scene with the Dream Eaters was precious.

I played the songs on various difficulties, depending on the extra challenges. One thing I did notice is that the difficulty was variable even for the same level. Some Proud mode songs I was able to complete, others I really struggled with and gave up on for the time being. I can imagine it was difficult to create a consistent standard of difficulty when the music itself varies so much. I noticed that battle songs, songs with strong downbeats, and songs with syncopation translated better into rhythm games. The slower songs did not, and for a couple of songs I noticed that the buttons were not matching up with the rhythm, which threw me through a loop. Overall though, most of the music matches the timing of the buttons much better than in previous KH games, so I appreciated the improvement there.

The Memory Dive and Boss Battle system is different from the Field Battle system, so there was a learning curve for me there. KH3 features more Memory Dive segments though, probably to show off the nicer graphics and to prepare you for the final battle. By the time I got the hang of the Memory Dive system, I was enjoying myself a lot. I still wish KH3 songs had featured more, but perhaps they’re planning on a Melody of Memory Volume 2 or some DLC or something.

Pretty much all of the character themes have to be unlocked. I’ve done Kairi’s, Naminé’s, and Sora’s so far, and the videos accompanying them are really nice. I honestly wish I could watch someone play so I can pay attention to the videos because the glimpses I catch are lovely.

Maybe it’s because I marathoned the game, but it does start to feel grind-y after several hours of playing. It’s the kind of grinding I enjoy doing, but by the time I unlocked BBS and DDD, I stopped trying to complete the extra challenges because I wanted to get to the plot. Speaking of the plot, by the way, all of the new stuff is at the end of the game. Everything up till then is just a summary of what’s come before. I do understand why Nomura went with that, but it does make it a little tiring to get to the new plot because of the sheer number of songs you have to get through first.

Now that we’re discussing story, though...

Story

I. The Good

1. Kairi is playable (well, this is more gameplay, but it also ties into story).

I know a lot of people watched videos that cut out the gameplay, but she does get a couple of segments of her own where she is playable and you get to do a Memory Dive-esque segment. The first instance is set to “Stranded Beyond,” the music that plays in the Final World. The second instance is set to the music box version of her theme I believe it was as she gathers pieces of her heart. She did get a render for the game, so I was expecting her to be playable at some point, and I was happy she was.

2. Kairi puts up a darn good fight against Xehanort. I wish we could have played through this part, but she kept attacking and didn't let him grabbing her Keyblade deter her. She's clearly improved even since the Keyblade Graveyard.

3. Sora showing up to help her is really sweet, as was her thanking him.

It would've been nice if we got to do that fight as the two of them or as Kairi herself (and more on that later), but the romance of it all was nice. The boy's not even in the real world anymore, and he still shows up to help when Kairi’s is in danger. At first I thought she'd managed to summon his Keyblade, which is awesome and shows how connected they are, and then he appeared and I was like woah okay guess their hearts really are connected thanks to the paopu fruit.

4. Kairi’s going to train with Aqua! Yes!

The fans have been clamoring for this for years and it's finally happening! And she chose it for herself. Leave it to her to try to make the best of the short end of the stick.

5. Letting Riku go alone takes a lot of trust on her end. Yeah, it would've been nice if she got to go, but she's also realistic about her own abilities, and that is in line with how she's been in previous games. I think especially after her failures led to Sora disappearing, she'd be hesitant to rush into danger if she's worried she'd be a liability.

6. It was a pleasant surprise that the Nameless Star was the third key (with Kairi and Riku being the other two) and not Yozora. I thought for sure he would be, so I’m glad Nameless Star gets to be instead. She seems like a kind soul and I like her a lot already.

7. It was nice hearing Kairi's thoughts on Sora's sacrifice for her in KH1. I also love the implication that everyone’s told Kairi their stories, hence why she’s able to tell them to us. The BBS segments especially sound as if she spoke to Aqua in particular about what happened, which ties in nicely to how Aqua’s going to train her at the end.

8. Alyson upped her voice acting game in this, props to her. Her lines when Kairi was facing off against Xehanort were great, and her voice was very soothing to listen to for the narration.

III. The Bad

1. Kairi should've been playable in that last battle. I can see why Nomura had Sora show up though; he's the hero and people want to see him, etc. The same issue happened with Riku getting sidelined in KH3, so it's hardly unique to Kairi; it just seems worse because of Kairi’s past treatment. Sora showing up was a cool moment and looked neat visually, but it would’ve been better if he and Kairi had fought together or if he’d encouraged her and then she’d done the fighting herself. Sadly, Sora winds up shining more in this game than Kairi does as a result, and the advertising feels like a huge bait-and-switch. Again.

I'm honestly beginning to wonder if part of the story for ReMind was written after Melody of Memory, because Melody of Memory seems to follow more directly from KH3 whereas ReMind almost feels like it was written... in reaction to the fanbase being upset about how Kairi was treated? I think Nomura must’ve had his heart set on certain plot points for the story post-KH3, and instead of letting his characters guide him, he’s forcing his decisions on the characters. Which leads me to the next point:

2. Kairi staying behind does feel like a character regression. It made sense in KH1 and during Blank Points I suppose, but it's disappointing she didn't go with Riku this time. I guess it's realistic though, and so the whole plot point is a mixed bag. It's hard for me to make a final judgment call on this until we see more of the story. Is she training with Aqua so she can be shunted aside, or is she going to be in a game with Terra, Aqua, and Ven that delves into Ven's past or something? Until we know more, I’m not sure how to feel.

3. If I had to guess, the next game(s) will have Riku, Yozora, and Mickey be playable. Possibly Sora too because Nomura can't help himself lol. This is... about what I expected. I figured Riku would be the one in Yozora's world just based on the secret ending of KH3. I wonder how all of this is going to go down (I know Square has several KH teams now, so multiple games are probably in development right now).

4. I don’t know how I feel about us possibly getting DDD the Redux + Yozora for the 20th anniversary in 2022. Having another DDD-esque game would not be treading any new ground, and it feels like Nomura wants to do Versus XIII at all costs, the main plot of KH be hanged (hi Foretellers and Luxu, we miss you, you were disappointingly absent in this game). But I do think the Yozora game is next in the cards, and then maybe there will be another game focused on Mickey going to Scala ad Caelum. I really hope it's not just Mickey by himself in that game... And I’d really like a game about the Wayfinder Trio + Kairi...

5. Riku's character is getting worse and worse. His entire character has become about saving Sora, and saving Sora isn't any different than his role in DDD. Feels like a rehash of past plot points, much like Kairi having to train feels like a rehash of past plot points. And at this point it just feels like he’s taking away screentime and agency from other characters, Kairi in particular. David also kind of phoned in the voice acting again on this game. To be fair, he only had a handful of lines, but some of his lines in KH3 also sounded tired and bored.

6. There’s only a passing mention to Roxas, Naminé, Xion, Axel, etc., and not even by name (they’re just lumped together as the others in Twilight Town or something along those lines). It would've been nice to know what they've been up to; they feel strangely uninvolved in the plot. At least we know Kairi will be training with Aqua, so there's that.

7. I really wish Kairi had argued with Riku more about going. She did briefly, but it's sad that she gives up so easily and that Riku doesn't really trust her. It's such a huge contrast to how Sora treats her; whereas he believes in her and raises her up, Riku is like, "Nah, you should stay behind, you're not good enough yet, let me handle this." Riku still coddles her too much and treats her like she’s a doll on a shelf whereas Sora invites her to fight alongside him in ReMind and comes to her aid when she needs it. Riku comes out of this looking like a jerk, which I doubt was intended by Nomura, but it is what it is. Especially because Mickey is really worried about him going alone later on.

8. Kairi's backstory being used only to forward the plot instead of delving into her feelings more is a missed opportunity. Also features retcons galore with Xehanort apparently sending her away to save Radiant Garden all along? That part confused me. And the meta implication that Riku is getting to go on the journey she was originally meant to go on... It makes me wonder if Nomura thinks the implications of his writing through. Riku is literally stealing her role and her plotline now, and neither of them react like two people in such a situation would. I hope Nomura’s going somewhere with this and that it's not just completely unintended bad implications, or worse, fully intended bad implications...

III. Miscellaneous Thoughts

1. It's hard to know how to feel about this game without knowing the next chapters of the story. It does feel like it leads directly from KH3, but it feels like a regression character-wise from ReMind.

2. I hope Kairi going to train with Aqua isn't just an excuse to sideline her from the plot... again. I have some serious caveats about her role going forward, but I'm relieved she didn't go to sleep again or go back home to Destiny Islands. That was my worst fear, and thank goodness she is taking her fate into her own hands in the small ways she can. I wonder if this is Nomura trying to continue a plot point from BBS Volume 2 that had to be scrapped or something. Let's hope Aqua can actually teach her competently, unlike Merlin...

3. Mickey getting a Melody of Memory render confuses me. He wasn't playable, was he? I didn't 100% the game so I have no idea. Maybe he is playable somewhere in the game and I haven’t gotten to it yet. Or maybe he really will be playable in a future game as a main character.

4. No one will ever be able to claim Kairi is a Mary Sue lol. She's had an (almost disappointingly realistic) learning curve when it comes to fighting, especially in comparison to the other characters. I hope that by the time KH4 rolls around, Nomura will let her be fully competent/fully trained. It's frustrating that pretty much all of the other characters get to learn as they go, but she is relegated to more training.

5. This game almost makes me more impatient for the next chapter of the story when I was feeling pretty content after ReMind. I guess the game has done its job in that case, but while I feel better than I did after KH3, I feel slightly worse than I did after ReMind. I wish Nomura wasn't so fixated on maintaining the status quo and would stop rehashing past plot points. But again, it'll be hard to judge all this until we get more material, which probably won't be till 2022 at the earliest if I had to guess.

6. The Yozora stuff wasn't as hackneyed as I feared it would be, but I still can't shake the feeling that that whole plot point is sucking up precious screentime from other characters. I think Nomura's going to spread himself too thin again and have trouble wrapping all of this up in KH4. Because now we have the Riku-going-to-Yozora's-world plotline, the Mickey-going-to-Scala-ad-Caelum plotline, the Kairi-training-with-Aqua plotline, the overall-rescuing-Sora plotline, the Luxu-Foretellers-MoM plotline, the Subject X plotline... how on earth are all these plotlines supposed to be connected to each other and resolved in a satisfying fashion?

7. My guess is that the switch to Kairi being narrator instead of Chirithy happened late into development of the game, perhaps because Nomura saw how much the fanbase does appreciate Kairi and wanted to throw us a bone. Unfortunately, what resulted is a bait-and-switch that made us hope we'd get a Kairi-focused game, only for it to... end the way it does. Ironically, I think it might've been less disappointing if Chirithy had remained the narrator. I'm glad Kairi got to be the narrator, don't get me wrong, but I think the way Nomura handled things set us up for disappointment again. I just hope whatever comes next makes this game feel better in hindsight.

8. I’m not entirely sure what to make of the whole “unreality”/fictional worlds thing. I guess I’m having an easier time accepting it than I thought I might, but it still feels like the whole plotline was introduced just to shove Versus XIII into the KH universe. I sympathize with Nomura for having his baby taken away from him in the first place, but I worry both it and KH will suffer as a result of combining the two.

IV. Future Speculation

1. If I had to guess, Kairi is probably not going to be very involved in the Yozora game(s). It'll be focused on Riku, Yozora, and possibly Mickey and Sora too. Yozora and Nameless Star will probably be instrumental in bringing Sora back "to the real world,” and then Sora will come home just in time to have to face off against the Foretellers and the Master of Masters in KH4 (which, I'm gonna make a wild guess and assume we'll get in 2025 or 2026 at the earliest).

2. I do hope Kairi plays some role in bringing Sora back, and honestly, I think it's possible she will. Nomura, I would imagine, is setting up her reunion with Sora to be Big and Important™️, so it wouldn't surprise me if he wants to save it for KH4. I think a part of Sora’s heart might be inside Kairi or linked to Kairi, and that will be the final key to bringing him back. The whole scene where Sora appeared reminded me of when Ven briefly manifested when Sora was facing off against Vanitas, and Ven was inside Sora’s heart at the time.

3. We know from past covers that the current cover actually foreshadows future events in the story. KH3's cover depicts parts of Tokyo and then Sora wakes up there (oh excuse me "Quadratum" lol nice one SQUARE), the KH2 Final Mix cover depicted The Final World, so maybe MoM's cover is meant to depict future events as well.

4. Sora being unable to speak in Kairi’s dream when he faces off against Xehanort has me intrigued. Why can’t he speak? Is it because his heart is in the unreality? All I can think about is The Little Mermaid when Ariel lost her voice because of Ursula’s curse “deal” with her.

5. I don’t think the person Kairi and Sora actually fought was Xehanort. Why would a dead Xehanort care about where Sora is? It would make more sense to me if it was the Master of Masters (hinted at by the acronym for the title, MoM), and that he was using Xehanort’s image (and then Xemnas’s, and then Ansem SOD’s, and then Apprentice Xehanort...) to manipulate Kairi. It would fit his whole “puppetmaster behind the scenes” vibe I get from him and his previous manipulation of Xehanort. I think he was trying to locate Sora’s heart in this game, and Sora stepping in to help Kairi allowed him to pinpoint Sora’s location. Now he seems to know where Sora’s heart is, so mission accomplished, I guess? Ooooph, Sora walked right into that trap if that’s the case.

V. Final Thoughts

Fun if uneven gameplay and some questionable story choices dragging down the good stuff. I’ll hold my full judgment till we see what happens next though.

Congrats if you made it all the way to the end of this, haha. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts!

#kingdom hearts #melody of memory #kingdom hearts melody of memory #kh mom #melody of memory spoilers #kh mom spoilers #kingdom hearts melody of memory spoilers #kh analysis #kh meta #long post

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keykidpilipili · 3 years ago

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Would like to hear your kingdom hearts x fate ideas! It sounds so interesting!! 🙏😄

There's mostly the Destiny Trio+Ansem sod as servants for now but I hope you'll find it interesting to read. For general worldbuilding a reminder of fate stuff. The magus world and especially holy grail wars are pretty harsh: inhuman experiments, the necessary murders to preserve the concept of Mystery thus magic and reach the grail. I developped on how their characters could develop in such environments.

Starting with Sora, since as kh3 he canonically died and he touched the hearts of many people, the throne of heroes has no problems summoning a version of him. His starting class is berserker due to his overwhelming kindness and willingness to help others that is nearly impossible to hinder if you're his master. Heartless manifest in any wars he participates thanks to the Keyblade’s existence. Because of his disney and Square acquaintances remembering him as often searching for his friends, his reason for taking part in the Grail war is to find them. However since in life he never really described those friends in depth to others he met, his memory of them grows fuzzier with each summoning.

Without a solid support system, the countless betrayals and endless hurt he is exposed to and is powerless to stop drain him considerably. As a result his wish starts to drift towards being erased from the throne or the destruction of the latter entirely. Down the line he eventually meets a kind master who convinces him to let go of the utopia and memories he cannot reach(the real sora returned and he has no place to return to in the first place). Protecting the glimmers of hope and kindness he comes across, even if it's ephemeral happiness, he found it valuable to be able to go on. For his alts, there is

Ruler Sora who appears for great emergencies like the universe being threatened and can wield the X-blade(by virtue of kh3) proper. That said he is not the most competent arbiter and will intervene if fighters might involve innocents.

Alter Ego Sora Alter came out because in a very unfortunate war he got in contact with corrupted grail mud. Unsurprisingly the mad teen decided to shelter All of the World’s Evil(Angra Mainya) inside him since the servant wanted to manifest into the world. Naturally this didn’t end well and his sanity took a Deep Dive with him becoming obsessed with removing the Hurt despite spawning curses and darkness like no tomorrow. This version of Sora has a really high chance of accidentally starting a heartless apocalypse if summoned in a holy grail war. He takes longer to heal from wounds since he is some kind of anti/rage form at all times.

Regarding Riku, in base kh his character arc relied heavily on his being scammed by Ansem and tossing people aside for his ambitions. Apart from a single scene in chain of memories, we don't see him interact with Maleficent after that game and thus we remember mostly Ansem being his antagonist. As a result the two are stuck sharing a spirit origin in the same manner as Sakamoto Ryouma and Oryou. Although Riku could try winning a war to wish for him to be his own heroic spirit with the heartless, he doesn't want to risk the latter reaching Kingdom Hearts if left alone. He would probably have great compatibility with young magi who are in dire need of some life orientation and could use his experience as young teen who got scammed(holy grail wars are too scams as a concept).

As for his team mate Ansem has no issue cooperating during wars, dying is painful, he is in no hurry to repeat that experience thank you. Plus he’d rather see Riku win than one of those terrible researchers who suck at 4d chess planning and are not subtle about wanting to backstab you. Impressed he was not when the keyblade wielder asked him if he had put his heart into such hapless magi. Sure he’ll try to get his own wish should he and Riku win however temporary truce is key. Together they have way better chances of survival as their different mindsets cover each other’s weaknesses. Being stuck together with your nemesis is terrible but at least you aren’t alone. As of their class I’m inserting them into Foreigner since the base concept of their relationship in kh1 was Riku being influenced by a being from another plane.

Now here comes Kairi! Seeing as post kh3 and melody of memory, she is training however Kingdom Hearts gotta lend some poh power to the throne. The redhead becomes a temporary servant by doing entire wars in her dreams and comes back to her body whenever they end. Info on Sora’s whereabouts are scarce and if she can get anything from a part time job alongside training with Aqua then all the better. Spoiler alert it didn’t go well. Skills were certainly learnt and her light grew strong, even wielding multiple copies of keyblades inspired by her fellow poh. And yet the sight of all these lives sacrificed for some power trips and science infuriated her. The magi in their basements bragging about their experiments to reach the root as the scent of death permanates the very air don’t brag for very long. The more she saw of the magic world, the more she wondered if that humanity would not be better rid of it all together. More than anyone Kairi knows she was lucky to have a happy childhood after losing her home. Even with Xehanort gone and the memory of him defeated, his essence, the stubborn ambition to reach a greater power no matter the cost, remains. For all those lives sacrificed like chess pieces, all those artificial beings treated as mana batteries, this avenger will destroy magic. Story-wise her heroic spirit form would become its own person after the real Kairi put an end to her tempory contract(which she couldn’t have done if it had been directly with the Counter Force). Gameplay wise aside from her keyblade and regular light magic she can also go into Light/Watcher form which is similar to Antiform but light based. That form is more powerfull but excerbates the light in the hearts around her spawning more watchers, able to aid her but if left alone would attack any life form with stronger darkness than light without caring for the reasons why. It’s also toxic to the environment, the very ground in a wasteland of blank white dust.

#kingdom hearts #fate series #pili rambles #servant oc #pili's fate ocs #KH HS au #kh heroic spirit au #sora #riku #kairi #Am I inserting my kh watcher hcs into this for the Kairi section? Heck yeah I am #pili's au stack #for visuals about the blank white wasteland think of the lostbelt bleached earth or the empty in FF14 #long post

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mytwitterisdogtoast1 · 4 years ago

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Kingdom Hearts 3 broke my heart.

I am a fan of Kingdom Hearts. i've been here through the first game and even though I grew up without the money to play every game I stuck with the series as best I could. In fact I've bought multiple copies of games on multiple systems and beat a couple of the games not just once but 3 or more times. Here is a list of the things I've done involving this series.

1: I bought KH1/2/COM on more than one system such as ps2,3, and 4. 2: I've played and beaten on the hardest difficulty on each main installment (except critical mode of 3) 3: I have 100% KH1 which might not seem like a big deal but it is the only game I have 100% ever. Got all the trophies and so on. 4: I stuck with the story and even recently before 3 came out played and beat most of the games. (except DDD since it wasn't my kind of deal since I don't like the flowmotion part of the combat.)

You could say I'm a fan of the games and have done what I can to in general keep up with the series as well as have enjoyed the series.

But then 3 came out and I was just not happy with it. After waiting for so long and playing the game and screaming and ranting about certain plot points that just don't make sense to me (KH is notoriously hard to keep up with plot wise and I am just not the brightest person in the world when it comes to shit. Like I really need some things explained outright for me and to some degree do not mind spoilers for some things) I swore off KH the entirety from now on cause it was just that bad of a game for me. It wasn't a horrible game but the direction they started taking it in was just so far removed from what the original 2 games in the numerical series were that this was just NOT Kingdom Hearts at all. Sure you can say it is a love letter to the biggest of fans but I can say that a letter to regular fans was something it needed to do more than cater to such a rabid fanbase compared to a regular fanbase. I thought this was unfair and then bought Memory of Melody. That is now the worst game in the series to me. So I dived into what people thought and looked at a ton of youtubers who played the game and saw what they thought. I looked at reviews of non youtubers and read what they thought and the game has made the fanbase more divided than anything I'd ever seen from a fanbase. So I replayed the game with the intent to write down all I felt on the game to give it a fair review. Like I said I'm a filthy casual and I can give stuff a large break when it comes to media and have a large understanding of what that thing is meant to be. Sometimes a product is meant to be a certain way and we have to enjoy it for what it is and I can try and do that. I mean I love the WWE and Yugioh and anyone who is a part of those fanbases knows in their hearts (kek hearts) how bad those things can be at times. So I played the game and wrote down all the thoughts I had on it and Some might be easy to explain while others are in general probably at least fair on how I feel about it.

Kingdom Hearts is a series not meant for the new comer. It knows what it wants to be and does that thing. It isn't here to make everyone happy and that is just absolutely fine in general. I've been a fan and it makes me happy that the game is one long story that I can appreciate and make call backs to in stuff. I remember being so rewarded when I looked at my then best friend who skipped over chain of memories (I had to emulate it but I think it was fair of me to do so since I bought the game 3 times since now that I have the money to do so) and said he knew what happened because he saw the cutscene of Sora reaching the top and Namine betraying him by putting him into a pod. I laughed at him cause he was a fool who knew nothing of how the story went cause he foolishly just thought he didn't NEED to play the game. This made me more invested into the series than he was. I stuck with the series reading up articles and even watching videos on the series for stuff I missed out on since again i couldn't afford everything. They were building a story over a decade long and at the end it just didn't do it for me. It's not that the story wasn't the end of the series in general. Heck gotta make dat' money Y'all but in general this was the end of a saga for Xehanort and it just didn't cut it. But maybe I'm not starting at the right spot to give my feelings on it. Maybe I'm coming fresh off a game play and feeling a rant building for multiple reasons. So let me start with the positives before I bury the list under a pile of problems for me.

So I'll be putting things in order of good, mixed, bad. They will be somewhat fair and if they have an answer you have my sincerest apologies but remember I'm slightly the "dumb" and would in general like to just get simple straight answers. Something simple and clean if you would. On that note

1: The starting song is a god damned banger - Face my fears is up there with sanctuary which is better than Simple and clean. To be fair though simple and clean was made in like a flight and pretty much is nonsensical to the game in general. However it is a good song. How could it not be with one of japans best pop artists? Have you heard sakura drops? Colors? Traveling? Apples and cinnamon? Fuck man this song is just really good. 2: The game looks great - Sure the game might not look like ps2 graphics anymore but this isn't a bad thing it just is a different thing. The only time I thought it looked bad was during the pirates area where they had to make real people. Sometimes it is better to have a different art theme and even if something is just ok at best during it it can still be over all great. Everyone looked good during it. It just in general looked like a new version of KH entirely. 3: You can power up keyblades - One of the best parts of the game is powering up keyblades. Now sure mickey saying "we should have powered up our keyblades" is a stupid line in general when they are magic items and not fully meant to break form normal stuff but i think the ability to latch onto a key and make that sucker your main key is a great idea. Finally I can power up keys like sweet memories or the kingdom key and go through the cutscenes with the keyblade never changing and it look like it's meant to be there. 4: The whole getting treasure for sinking ships - Even if in general people might not like the ship combat the idea of being a pirate and stealing treasure from a ship when you sink one of the large ones is one of the best thematical ideas in the game. You can just sail the ocean and just pirate ship for loot if you wanted to and since you get xp during it and get your ship to be better it just is a great idea in its entirety. 5: Rikus keyblade - That is one of the better keyblades. I'm not gonna lie but the final fantasy cloud based keyblades where they are more realistic have been one of my favorite designs and I am sad i can't throw it on sora. I like the idea of an actual blade instead of a blunt weapon in the game since it just feels cooler sometimes. Riku getting a keyblade that not only looks more like a sword but is also still a key for a more modern car is one of the cooler things they have ever put in. 6: The call back to union cross players - This was a little lover note to people who played the game. They grabbed a ton of names and threw them in as you threw hundreds of keyblades at the giant heartless storm mob thing. I think it is great and even if I didn't play one of the names that pops up is my actual name so I find that pretty cool whenever I see it.

And that is it. Those are the best parts of KH3 to me. Everything else is either a mixed bag or just not good. I'm sure you can tell which one has more in it. As for the stuff that is in the middle of both good and bad let me make it clear that some stuff that is bad will probably be talked about in the bad section because it needs its own commentary.

1: All the party members - I always was a little sad having to remove one of the characters in my party to add the one new person they wanted to add in and was always sad at that limitation but with 3 you can now have ALL THE MEMBERS. This is great because now I have access to all of my forms with donal...... Oh right, they're not in the game anymore. 2: Nice to one and done an area - Back in the day when I first played the original first game I never went back cause I beat the level and thought it was extra stuff. When I got older and playued through 2 I was a little impatient and just didn't want to keep going back. Now as I am older and wiser and more patient I just do the thing cause it's a part of the game and deal. Thankfully it is all in one trip which is good CAUSE I DON'T WANNA FUCKING PLAY THESE LEVELS EVER AGAIN. 3: I'm gonna say it and people are gonna question me (probably not I'm not a large content creator thus people probably don't care about my opinion so strange of you to be here reading this) but I fucking hate winnie the pooh. I don't like him as a person and I'm just not a fan of his entire world. I only like Eeyore and not cause "gosh that's how I feel" Eeyore is the fucking man. He never lets his bad mood get him down and he powers through even when life is shit. Good for him man. Love that guy. Such a trooper. I just don't like pooh but the levels. God Kingdom Hearts mini games are just mostly not fun in general so not having to play so many mini games in poohs level is fantastic. EXCEPT EVERY WORLD HAS A DAMNED MINI GAME IN IT. 4: Speaking of mini games the ship combat is fine. - It's just, fine. 5: I had so much money - I don't remember playing any other game having so much money. I remember caring and investing and even trying to get money to spend on stuff in some points and in here it just.... I never spent it until i got bored and started using food. I didn't use food until the last world and beyond cause I wanted to finish the game faster. I mean the change of pace having money is nice but there was nothing really to do with it. Maybe I should have bought Hayner, Pence and Olette a ton of pretzels with it. 6: Playing as any other keyblade wielder - Man this was one of those great moments that I was excited to do. Having played as many other characters during other games was always nice and refreshing and being able to do so here was great. It got me excited to play as Mickey again since I got to use him a few times in KH2 or to be able to use Ventus or Aqua again cause they were gonna be saved and be able to fight in the upcoming battle. That is you know. If they are used in the game more than one time each. 7: Giant heartless battle - One of the best moments in the game was the "goofy just died" moment. Not because The goof man "died" but because you got to solo fight a crowd of enemies and in this game it was so cool to have that call back. The shit icing on that beautiful cake was having to use the train to win. Like it just felt like I was making no progress and I can't on my own fight the enemies and no matter how hard you try you can never stop the enemies ever. 8: The what if scenario - The group dying was pretty cool and was a great what if but would have been better if they didn't come back to the past and have Ventus run up and think it was Terra again. It was cool for the lingering will to step in and help but even then the whole situation was so stupid that it could have been written better. What if instead of doing the whole scenario it was a mind fuckery to sora to put him down mentally like they had been trying to entire game. What if it showed him losing and that it was possible? Instead we got this long winded scenario where people didn't learn from their first mistake and tried to go run up to Terra when in that moment Aqua when Ven tried going should have grabbed his shoulder and said "you know it's not him so let's just get ready to fight"

Those are the mixed bag moments I was commenting on. Some things are fine and aren't really an issue except the are a part of a bigger problem in itself which makes them a mixed bag. The last part's I'll be writing about are pretty much a giant rant or asking questions to things. There are problematic points I'll be making as well. So now let's look at the bad stuff in KH3. However, before I get into it, I want to also write down the not as bad stuff as well as some of the really big stuff so I'll make sure to point out when it is a gripe that isn't the worst thing in the world compared to it actually being not good.

1: Nitpick/The social media is dumb - Look I'm not much of a social media person and I know todays kids and teens are all about that jazz and such but man this part of the game is pretty dumb. I am in no way too old to "get hip with it grandpa" and think social media is a bad thing. Times and things change but WHY IS THIS A THING? Sora and friends are out saving the world and probably do not know about current phones since they are so busy. They would be like really old people trying to catch up with todays world and just in general should not have time enough to do it. Sure giving a phone is fine which whatever they can just add in ways to contact which again makes the phone fine but social media is dumb. What platform are they on? Who is following them? What world is this being sent to in general? Does anyone really care?

2: Nitpick/Why 7 VS 13? - I think the number is just really off. Ok look the original organization 13 was fine. Having 14 members in it wasn't a big deal and sure fighting them seperately and not all in one game made me a little sad until final mix came out but at least i got to fight Marluxia in all his pretty boy glory. The point I make is they just seem to have stuck with the 13 which is fine I guess? It just seemed like it was more or less there for no real reason. Sure we would have to fight every single Xehanort around such as Ansem, Xemnas, Terranort, Xigbar who works with old man Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Old man Xehanort. If you also in general wanted him to have each good guy fight a bad guy we would need one for each single keyblade wielder to come out. So let's say Kairi and Axel were just gonna join in so we can have for whatever reason Xion and Roxas just pop out to fight people. We would have need for a total of 7 enemies to fight. Let's just use these guys here as people for people to fight. We can have terranort fight someone before he comes back as lingering will to fight and get his body back. We can have Kairi fight Xion until she defects in general and fights another person with her. We can have axel fight Xemnas so he can get revenge and then have him lose and Roxas can come out. So on and so forth until we have just enough for each person to be matched with another person. You wouldn't need to stretch and find whatever you can and just fill the numbers. You could have at that point just filled it with villains you knew you wanted on your team. Not just bring back generic dudes who don't even need to be here. I'll get more into that in a moment but the numbers just seem off and could have been anything not 7 v 13 but like I said. Nitpick.

3: The plot of Sora flying around this time is a little weak. - So Sora lost his powers and needs to get them back. So he fucks off for a bit until he can regain the powers. Wouldn't it be better if he also trained with Kairi and Axel? What about just going into the realm of darkness to help the others get Aqua? What if instead of just going back and forth to each Disney world like he normally did he in general just.....trained. See the point of the other games was "close the keyholes of the world so heartless stop getting in. Stop those nobodies from opening Kindom Hearts." Kind like saving the world is a great motivation to have compared to "fuck off until you are good or something". It's one of the biggest issues in general. Now if he was told something more substantial than "you need the power of waking" than it would have made the grind through much better. Add in a new plot element for him to need to travel to lands in general so he can earn the power of waking. Send him to places to get that shit instead of "get stronger". You think I can't just do that shit with story? Shit's boring man lemme do stuff.

4: You cannot turn off attractions - That is without playing critical mode. Man Attractions are in general one of the worst parts of the game. Sure I find it hilarious when I'm fighting an important boss (such as Xemnas) and I last hit him with a merry go round but in general they just suck. They aren't fun and they slow the games combat down with a cinematic. Sure they can be "avoided" and I "don't have to use them" but they exist in the game. They are the creators vision and he wants you to use them. If they didn't want it to be a huge part of the games combat system they wouldn't add it in and the fact that it shows up so often just kinda proves they want you to use the thing. Combat in here is very floaty if you haven't noticed and a more grounded approach is sometimes best. This is what the attractions do since they still try and attack you thus getting closer to the attraction in the first place. It's really a jarring object. Telling me not to use it while having the chance to actually accidentally press the button is frustrating. It's the smaller version of telling someone don't be mad when they are mad or try not to be depressed. It's hard to avoid and the answer isn't just "don't do it." Especially when the game puts in abilities to make them more prominent such as extending the time on them. Another point on this is that if the developer wanted them to be optional they wouldn't sometimes be mandatory or even show up during boss fights. Either this was an added on horse shit thing where Disney was like "add attractions or we're done" or Nomura just was like "i recently went to disney land and you gotta put this in it's dope". Joke aside it is one of the worst parts of the game since I can't turn them off and it is hard to get around them. Let me turn them off fully or let them be used as an ability where you can add them in if you want it. Customization should be more of a thing than a gimmick you keep getting. Also they show up so often and I believe in every enemy spawn group. Multiple times even if you miss it the first time. Having so much prominence placed onto this one mechanic just shows they went in hard on it and sure if it was just the rock titan or just the horde of heartless at the end or maybe even rare I wouldn't find it much of a problem but it is EVERY FREAKING COMBAT. I hit that button on accident more times than I wanted to that in general I was trying to use a spell but I missed it by seconds or something and the carnival ride started up and I just said "god dammit" and had to end it dealing a burst of damage since you can't just stop it, it has to go full swing. Also only in critical mode is kind of bullshit. Add it to every mode in the game and it'll be less of an issue.

5: Nitpick/Sora is an idiot - Look I don't mean the whole "he's so stupid now he just is always happy or has dumb dialogue" I mean the idiot tried to touch fire and instead of water magic which he now has and I spammed on the fire balls he walked up to a freaking inferno of flames and just tried to see if it was hot by touching it with his bare hands. Shit Sora you dumb fuck Goofy had a better idea than the mage and the main character and he's not always the brightest. Fuck you.

6: There is too much stuff in this game - Way too many mechanics and most of them are on forever. You have so much you can do such as the shotlock, Flowmotion, Carnival rides, Extra forms, Summoning the fat cat dream pokemon, so many mini games, just so much shit and I'm sure I forgot something. Now look I can let go of the whole "cat" thing because it is a summon and those are normal but in general it just feels like the entire game was overloaded with everything from every other game EXCEPT for cards and if we don't have cards for character upgrades or something it feels like a waste. (that's a joke) The point is that there is too much stuff and it's all filler and fluff and we can just have a nice game without 10,000 things to learn in the first section of the game.

7: Nitpick/ I think the selfies are just dumb - I've taken a total of maybe 5 selfies. All of which are to show a single person in that specific moment. Selfies don't really do much in the world we play in for KH3 and I just think it is in general a dumb game mechanic. However it is not required to do so it's not a big deal to have in. Just another nitpick.

8: Food and cooking - Look, this is not monster hunter. This is not another game where food is an important detail and sure I don't mind the addition of it if you really wanna put it in but it does make the game easier when used. In that direction fine making a game easier isn't a bad thing, however, constantly telling me now is a good time to find ingredients for little chef is annoying every time. I could figure it out if I really wanted it but in general since it is an optional mechanic to which I can just buy the parts for it and even the food at a kupo shop than what is the point in adding in the game play mechanics for it? The mini games are dumb and take too long to do for such a small mini game. Crack and egg get soup. Nothing else but crack an egg. So than the game is too short for a mechanic I'm supposed to do often? Why not add in a larger game so that I can help him create the object one time to see if he likes it and then when he adds it on I can order the object from him. Don't add it into the kupo store if I you want me to make it and don't make me make it be so tedious if you want me to make it. Also why is sora cooking at all? It's Remys passion not mine. He's even shown to run a packed restaurant all on his own at the end of the game in the credits scene.

9: More customization please - Here's a major issue I have with the game. There is less customization compared to other games. This is strange as in general it seems to be the same. The problem is this. I have to use flowmotion in the game. It is not an option because in certain levels it is a legitimate requirement to use for moving elsas castle. It is required in a couple other places as well but the point still stands. I need to have them equipped in order to make progress. The fact that in KH2 I could turn off big moves from team members but cannot now takes the agency away from me from making my fighting style more what I want to do. This means in order for me to really enjoy the game I have to really accept mechanics I was not a fan of in DDD. Maybe having an option for character customization such as turning off forms, and what special attacks you wanna do would be nice instead of giving everything under the sun. Do I want to be a fast mobile fighter? Than make that a character level abiliy choice instead of just making me have it from the start and also making it mandatory for levels. Allow me to remove the big moves with my team and stop making them always on since I never liked them. Sure I can ignore them but it comes down to the same thing as the attractions. Sometimes you cannot avoid hitting the wrong thing. This also goes into the whole magic sucking ass in this game. Every spell is offensive and thus it just feels like it is the same. Wanna do a little small thing with some damage? Wanna do massive damage comparatively? It just feels like they wanted to simplify the whole having a summon, having a spell, having 2 items on or something along those lines. This stops you from having more options on your character and just stream lines you in to a generic build. I didn't use ice once past the first time finding out its pretty much a fire ball. I used cure, fire, water, thunder. Thunder for crowds, fire for damage, water for crowds also because I just stopped caring and cura cause I heal all my damage cause DONALD NEVER HEALS YOU. WE'RE 4000 GAMES IN MAKE DONALD HEAL BETTER. This again comes back to the limits. Let me turn them off since I do not like them. If they worked as magic they would be better cause the magic sucks ass in the game. I mostly after a while stopped doing any real care in magic and just used healing. This also comes back to the original abilities in second form that you can unlock via smacking them with your keyblade. They would be nice since the magic in the game again sucks ass so having something to use magic bar that is not cure would be a nice touch.

10: For a guy who lost his powers I sure have a ton of abilities right away - Remember when in the beginning of each game you lost all your powers and had to slowly unlock everything and it would come to you not just willy nilly? Man those were the days. Could earn powers for reasons. I'm not helpless in the game if I can run up mountains or sky scrapers. If I can glide with the shotlock from one spot to another. I'm too strong if anything at the start and it just makes you feel like the game is padding time before the small amount of story at the end that matters. This could have literally been with the final chapter prologue and it would have worked fine. But no, we didn't get that. That leads into us just spending time until something happens. The story has its own issues (which I will touch up on near the end) and it has some really bad pacing issues. There is bad pacing, and then there is bad writing because of bad pacing. Why not put some shit in the middle. Show I'm getting better instead of just having me just do everything all at once. That's not really an issue if they space parts of it in or let me play as the other characters while sora is fucking off for power. Imagine if they added in more parts with Riku while Sora quests for strength. Imagine us going through the land of darkness instead of just Disney world after Disney world. Imagine what we could have had had it not just been all the Disney stuff then the finale all at once. It wasn't bad pacing for the end to pick up, it was bad pacing for there to be nothing in the middle. This is where the final fantasy characters could have been nice. Adding in the end of the Cloud and Sephiroth stuff so we can fight for more power there. Having us talk with Leon and the gang while they battle with some heartless just in the area and needing help. This would have made better pacing since it would have cut the monotony of the Disney grind. There are times when you just sit there waiting for stuff to happen as you run through world after world waiting for plot in general to just move forward. This does not mean it is bad pacing, this just means there is nothing important going on and leads to the story just falling short of being gripping and engaging. I again bring up the final fantasy characters because let's face it, if they did exist it would give something in general more time to flesh out. There is nothing to do but repeated disney movies that either play out like normal or that you play no real part in since it is after the story in the whole movie. Sure it was great to see what happened with boo and the monsters but Randall just is there and I'm sure he was gone at the end of the first movie. In fact after using my Disney plus account (#notsponsored) to just hit the end of the movie it shows him in a trailer getting beat with a shovel. He probably got back but still.

11: The combat is too "floaty" - I'm in the sky like fucking constantly man. Like all the time. Which is a bad thing since the fucking god damned level creation is now just a tall hallway. See I say tallway (patent pending) beause the level of the game is still pretty small but now it just also goes up a long way. I know this because there are so many flashing walls that there should be seizure warnings in the beginning of the game. It doesn't stop either since in general you have to climb high and doing so brings you ledges and if you have to hit people flying then you are gonna fall. Sure we can use magic but magic runs out and is complete ass. Now look this isn't just me saying it can happen since it does right in the hercules area. The first area where they could have been testing thing and probably did which means someone dealt with this shit and said it was fine enough to pass. That's just bad game mechanics right there. If you want me to be floaty in combat that do not put ledges I can fall down in your game. I do not want to climb all the way back to the top just to get into more fights I might fall down because of. Maybe make the parts I'm on bigger platforms. It just seems they want us to use the attractions because you can't fall off the safe attractions. Another thing is that it isn't just combat that is "floaty" but your movement is also a little too fast. Making larger areas and then making us speed up into a sprint is fine but having me stop right next to a save spot inches too short of touching it only for me to Vroom Vroom right over it because of how fast and far I move is god damned infuriating. It also continues combat wise as an issue in that once you get the ability to knock people up you start going into air combat and smacking them away and you can do that so much since in general the areas you fight in are so large that you can knock a single heartless out of the spawning area enough that you have to run back to fight it.

12: Proud mode is a fucking joke - I think I died a total of one time in proud mode which is probably more than others. See the difficulty has been said to be really easy on this games play through and I'm inclined to believe them. Here is the thing. I know critical mode now exists. I just don't like it. See critical mode was doable in 2 since it was just again harder stuff but in this it is no longer you playing KH3. It is you playing Dark Souls which if I wanted to play that kind of game I'd pop in my copy of bloodborne or turn on my copy of dakr souls 2 which in general I'm not a huge fan of so I stopped playing those games. Difficulty in a game is fine but there is going from hard to fuck why am I playing dark souls? No I'm not the kind of guy who says anything hard is dark souls because I grew up in the era of gaming where games had one difficulty and you had to learn to "get gud" or deal with never winning. Even if I was never good at games I didn't shy away from things being difficult. There is however an exception that the game changes so drastically that there is no happy medium between pants shittingly hard or baby mode. The other thing is that in general DLC should not dictate if a game is good on its own. DLC is meant to enhance the fucking experience and should not make me want to have to buy something (this was free) to get a god damned happy experience out of something that cost me top dollar to begin with. If I need your DLC to have fun or enjoy the story than you clearly missed the damned mark. DLC is extra boss battles. It is final mix of the game when it comes out. It turns your vanilla play through into more than what it once was. It adds aesthetics to the game not makes the game difficult and if it does it doesn't make the game different to such a degree that I'd rather fucking play a game that was created to be that difficult because their combat system is hand crafted for said difficulty. Secondly on that list of being too easy who the fuck thought kupo coins was a good idea. I literally just stopped giving a shit since I could use my now always full magic bar since magic is ass to heal when I needed it and to just run away with my big fucking area during battles and not take damage until I could go in and do slappies for a while before running away and gauging if I need to heal and then if I died come back to life. With all the power moves and free attractions each combat I could have beaten proud mode without gimping myself by trying to not use attractions. The forms didn't help with that either because I would just second form and have a brand new powerful thing to do since it was right there. Not only that but rage form is a full heal and why am I heartless sora again? Either way rage form into run away fast because I run like I'm form kenya with all the movement abilities and then with kupo coin and magic makes the difficulty in here easier than "just don't use it". Mostly because it is implemented in the game and they want you to use it. Telling someone not to use the thing is again stupid because if they didn't want me to use it they would remove the feature. This is no longer a kids game. I'm over 10 years older than I once was and I'm a big boy and want to not be treated like a child. Sure they could be putting it in for kids but why not just have it in easy mode since kids will either do easy mode or know they want that extra challenge.

13: Many of the fights and heartless are just not that good compared to earlier games - So firstly the giant horde of heartless was cool one time. Each time you fight it it gets more and more boring and feels like a cop out on trying to make a good battle and a "oh man this is such a cool idea lets use it alot more than we need to". For a game that was in development for 6 years you think they would have more varied enemies and fights and by that I mean more better heartless. Also some of the heartless are just kinda eh in general. Not only that but the places we visit feel like the heartless are kinda thrown in there and they just made way less enemies than normal. Maybe that is me forgetting if other games did the same thing but I can remember many places having more unique enemies that made more sense. Like why is the monkey heartless here? This is not the time to return to monke or some shit like that and it makes 0 sense when I have to fight it in more than one area. How about the lady heartless with the umbrella. Doesn't fit in every single place it shows up and just feels like it is there. Sometimes they do a nice job putting in certain heartless such as the reindeer which I thought was a nice touch but i don't remember them interacting at all with the reindeer from frozen. I also in general remember each heartless having a newer form such as the fat heartless eventually turned into fire breathers and then eventually into shield dudes. They do not make a reappearance but the fat ones show up all over the place and it would be nice to fight things that are great for the area. Some just also have eh designs and the game just feels poorly made because of it. Some bosses are just boring as well. In fact off the top of my head I can't really remember one I like but I sure as shit can remember the one I hated most which happens to be the airship section where you board a machine gun heartless to fight that sky bird thing in the pirates section. I even found the robots in general tedious because they were hard to beat without the use of the robot suits and felt like another tacked on gimmick to use to make combat more easy. Had they been a single section and not everywhere in the store it would have been cooler but instead we had many fights to do with robots who almost always wrecked my shit. In fact it ruined combat a little for me in general and made the section of toy story a little less good. See most of these issues I have with the places are the grand scale of things and having to go back and forth with them with having really unmemorable heartless for the most part and just not finding the game to be that great with some of the more important parts. Enemies help to flesh the game out to be cooler and as much as I love the generic heartless the worlds make the heartless cooler by making them change to be better suited for the world they are in. Having extra enemies like nobodies and unversed without having much of a reason to have them there other than "you remember this right?" seems like a waste of design chances. Some just either were frustrating tank sponges and the others were just not good. The other issue is some bosses appeared numerous times and just didn't feel impressive when fighting them since they just keep coming back. The giant heartless who I saw in hercules mode coming back on the bridge where you first meet Baymax makes the scene not great since it is a simple color swap at most and it is the same thing again. A lot of the bosses in general just feel ok at best too design wise. I can look back at many of the designs and just name really enjoyable ones who are better than the ones we got here. Honestly the designs are just so much of a let down I don't even wanna revisit the stages which is good because the game just isnt that much fun. One of the more unfun parts of enemies is also the shield stuff they have sometimes which is just more ways to give them extra health. Why not just in general just give them more health since it is just a way to beef them up? Not only are they now mostly damage sponges but the fact that some turn into shielded damage sponges just makes me less happy to fight things. The worst version of unfun boss happens to be the lich at the end when you need to rescue everyone from it. The thing is that it not only takes forever and makes you have to fight it numerous times but it also has the ability to make you unlock from it and in such large areas that becomes tedious to deal with lengthening the entire fight from the already long fight it is.

14: Quick speed round of things I don't like that are just not as good as earlier games - Magic sucks in this game. It's all relatively the same since it is all offensive. Aero was in general the same as thunder since it is aoe with a secondary effect. Water, Fire, Ice are all the same as they shoot a ball of the element that homing devices onto an enemy and when not in general locked on fucks off wherever. I miss the older spells and how they worked and felt more unique in 2 while also having more than just offense. Maybe introduce more spells to the next main entry based on the spells of every other game? I'm just not a fan of some of these worlds as they are all new. I haven't had a chance to catch most of the new movies (even thought I have disney plus which is great you should totally buy it #stillnotsponsored) I just don't like some of the places and the mini games in the don't help. Slight inconvenience but making me have to press x as I load new levels is kinda dumb. Maximus should be a party member. Give me him instead of eugene. Why do I need the flowmotion to progress? Hooray WATER LEVELS MY FAVORITE. Crabs. Watch me beat davy jones in a 4 on 1 battle.Darkubes are dumb. Jesus christ Jiminy shut up I'm trying to grind in the best place for the end game. Oh look it's an organization member maybe I can figh....nah they gone now. THERE ARE SO MANY CUTSCENES.

15: 2 final things before the story issues - Playing as other characters, keyblade forms. One of the biggest gripes I had in this was each time I used a new keyblade i wanted to fight with it and not transform into a new form because I do not like the new forms. They do nothing for me and since they kind of all are ok at best that it just kinda feels meh to me to use them. I pretty much used the kingdom key because second form was fine and stayed a keyblade. If anything I would rather have a new style of fighting like second form in general like the original forms are in KH2. I like valor and wisdom form and as cool of a call back as it was for the 2 first keyblades to be given to you I don't like the final ability to be used which makes me less inclined to find a weapon I do like. Which leads into my second final gripe. I was really excited to play as multiple keyblade wielders. Playing as mickey in 2 was super fucking cool and I miss that. Playing as Aqua and Riku in this made me hope for eventual fights at the end where it was each person fought someone else and you would get an ability to play through a final area for extra boss fights as any character for extra gameplay. I was excited to see what Axel and Kairi could do since in general they finally had moments to shine. You could make them fight and even if they did win just have them lose via cutscene and bring back Roxas and have Xion turn to your side. So many issues I have with that because it goes into another issue of.......

16: Everyone but Sora is fucking worthless - I have seen Dragonball GT and the main main main main main issue I have with that show is no one matters except Goku. See in other series characters could fight and kill or do something against the not main villain and be worth a damn but when GT happened everyone kinda just. Became worthless. No one could win a fight except Goku especially near the end when they had him fight 7 dragons. Sora does the same here when he has to be involved the final boss rush in the game. I'd have liked to see other characters stand out but even then he is the only one who can fight Xehanort when Mickey failed to do anything. It was all sora. Even waking Aqua was all sora. The only time someone did something was when Aqua fought Vanitas and still got her shit kicked in at the end during the cinematic and at that point he just didn't wanna fight 3 people. This is a shame because as I already said it would have been cooler to have those characters fight people and it matter. Let's break down the people who would be on our side Riku Kairi Axel Roxas Terra Ven Aqua Xion Sora Mickey Thats a total of 10 different people to play as. That would have made the final boss fights unique and super cool. You say that would have taken so much time and I say "Cool" but it would have been cooler to fight as these different characters. If they put in 2 extra just do them all. It is the most let down of let downs in gameplay mechanics. Who could they have fought in the game? Let's look at the villains Xigbar Marluxia Terranort Young Xehanort Xemnas Ansem Larxene Luxord Older Xehanort Evil Clone Riku Vanitas Saix Xion There are 12 total people to fight that are not the original Xehanort and each one could be fought with someone totally different. If Xion fights twice but wasn't really trying the first time she can be fine for the second battle. Let's give everyone a person to fight. Let's get the easy ones out of the way. Remember the ones who we fight first don't matter as much because each person not Older Xehanort do not matter even if they are him in other forms. Terra as the lingering will is gonna fight Terranort and get his body back. Riku can fight Ansem who tries to use his darkness and their past against him. Kairi can fight Xion who is noticed to not even be trying and then kairi can be captured to still do the ending they planned for. Xion who now defects can join and fight Larxene Axel can fight Xemnas and lose leaving him almost die while Roxas can jump out and fight him instead Ventus can finally defeat Vanitas Aqua can fight and defeat Xigbar who she has some history with Sora can fight and defeat Luxord so he can give him the card he was going to give. This fight can be more simple than the others and Sora can have to fight against the other Riku Mickey can fight Marluxia Before losing his fight with Xemnas Axel can fight and beat Saix We get to the final battle and while Sora who ran off to find Kairi he has to get through Younger Xehanort to get to the older one.

Look at that clean battle line up. Throw them in the correct order and you can have fights with so many people and even do the stuff needed for it to make the story go smoothly. Everyone gets to be unique and have their day in the sun. The final fight would be sora and gang fighting Xehanort and since the end game would be choose who fights who you can literally have over 120 different fights total if you leave out Donald and Goofy from the sora versions of fights. Heck allow us to fight the final boss final main form and we can in general have even more as we fight him with each character.

17: What is the difference between a heart and a soul? - This is a simple question because they keep saying we don't need the bodies cause we still have their hearts and I'm just having troubles figuring out if the story writers know the damn difference between a heart which is a physical thing or a concept of the soul which is the metaphysical thing. You know like what makes you you.

18: Why doesn't Axel have 2 keyblades? - Like I like that he holds it the way he does, it's very him very unique and all that but if Roxas can have 2 and he gets one from Xion who is no longer a part of him because she is right there than why can't Axel who is specifically a dual wielder of weapons get 2 of them? I mean give the main a sword that is like a Chinese Dao sword combo. It literally is a blade that turns into 2 blades. Like don't even tell me that shit is unable to happen cause Ventus fucking gets that strange keyblade because it is unique to his style so if that is how it works and they all have based on their personality he should have two. Especially since it would be a great call back to my favorite Axel line in the entire series. "Two!?"

19: Clone Riku should not be a boss - Remember when we beat the shit out of Riku as Sora and then Riku clone and then Riku beat Riku clones ass? He's not a challenge. "He was given more darkness powers" Nice, cool cop out there. Fuck you.

20: Why kill everyone just to set up a story line when you could just do it better - So this one is a little subjective. Need sora to meet Chirithy or whatever its name is and maybe set up remind dlc or whatever but in the end you could have just broke his spirit from his body and put him in the other world by making Xehanort who tried taking him over show him everyone dying and it causing Sora to blank out and travel there as a spirit or some shit. It could have worked just as fine allowing the rest of everyone else to go fight the enemies at the end giving sora time to eventually wake up and join in while Donald and Goofy protect him. Then when he wakes up Luxord who could have said "I'll handle the boy when he wakes up could have just did what he wanted to do with the card then. It's just a dumb moment and we could have instead of dumb gameplay where we have to put ourselves back together and have to save everyone and re watch a stupid ass cutscene just watched a cutscene and went back while everyone handled what they needed to.

So before I get into the final 4 parts to get into I hope that you know I was trying to be really fair with a bunch of these and not just looking for things to gripe about. When I didn't understand things I made myself look up to make sure I understood and didn't just bitch about it for the sake of bitching. These last 4 things are kind of in general I beleive super fair.

1: The battles stop as you talk with each person - Nothing kills a fight sequence like starting it, defeating a single enemy in it, talking with a full blown conversation to them, then as they die restart with another fight scene to do it with every single person in the fight. WHY WOULD MARLUXIA AND LARXENE ALLOW LUXORD TO GIVE HIM A CARD? Why would they stop fighting? Why would Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort watch as one of the others fell and talked? Why would any sane fucking person do that? It makes 0 sense and ruins that boss rush.

2: I know you need to set up another game but fuck you - You literally made the happiest of endings where everything is the best for everyone ever and I MEAN EVERYONE except for Sora and Kairi. Fucking fuck you man. I'm not even mad that that was the ending but when everyone comes up fucking peaches and cream I tend to question the product even if they need to set up story. They can do it better, do what you did at the end of 2 and send a message in a bottle and say "there are still other worlds out there that need us, just not in this universe" or some shit like that. Shit if in general they can have emotions in games than have sora have to jump into the game. You already said my microwave can feel love so than if he can be in that rex universe than he can just go in after he has a nice break with all of his friends.

3: No - Xehanort was not a good guy the entire time. He literally murdered people and stole a childs body and ripped the emotions out of another child and made them not whole. He got a child so angry he murdered his new sorta dad. He pretty much was the whole reason anything bad happened and he was "misguided and wanted to good but did bad to do so". Then in the end he's forgiven and everything is fucking fine? Then he turns into a good guy and goes into the big heart in the sky. This is the kind of writing that literally kills off stories for at least me. Not everyone needs a second chance and sometimes people are just evil. We need stories that have people die at the end sometimes. I know it is fantasy and it can be all rainbows and butterflies but dear god Steven Universe was literally "no you" and that was the end of the entire fucking series. This is the same thing. It might not be "no you" but fuck this ending. This was a story that was supposed to end a 17 year long story and the end of this single part literally spits in the face of people who played it by saying "hey guys, he wasn't bad, he is sorry now". That is complete and utter horse shit. I don't mind that this is not the end of the series. I don't care because if I stuck around this long I would do the same if the story had a satisfying ending. Fuck man in the new game he's even evil then unless that is just how Kairi remembers him but let's face it. The gang would have told her what happened and this is just horse shit in general. This is a fucking stupid story and I literally am fine with alternate realities since time travel and other dumb stuff has been the main name of the game the entire fucking time but let's face it. This is one of the worst ideas for an ending for a villain. The buold up is fucking massive and the payout is just sad.

4: NO - Fucking xigbar. I don't even know how to put this into words how much of a let down it is for Xigbar, Fucking XIGBAR to be the next main enemy. (or at least it looks that way). Fucking we could have had Luxord. We could have had Marluxia. We could have had Demyx. We could have had fucking I don't know Vexen. We could have had fucking anyone but we get Xigbar. You could have slapped any other character onto his scenes and gotten the same amount of out of nowhere shit to explain him being next but it is fucking xigbar. Fucking unreal.

So yeah. That's my massive wrap up on KH3 and I personally do not know where I stand from here. Maybe if the next game doesn't play like shit in 400 years when Nomura gets off his ass and lets us have kingdom hearts 3.76 tie in to 4 which is oddly enough a main title and not a second part of 3 I'll see how it plays. Until then I think I'm gonna sit hereand never touch 3 again and never finish Melody of Memory.

#kingdom hearts #3 #kingdomhearts3 #kh3 #kingdom #hearts #Kindom Hearts 3

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dunedan-estel · 3 years ago

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🍅 🥊 ⭐ 🍇 for any of your ocs

Thank you for the ask! I'll probably answer for all three XD

🍅 How easily is your OC embarrassed? What subjects make them flush and why? What event has made your OC the most embarrassed they’ve ever been?

Aegis can either be really easy or relatively difficult to embarrass depending on the situation. Folks teasing her for something she did that was funny at the time? Slightly embarrassed. Aqua even trying to tease her for her crush on Terra? Would like the floor to swallow her. But as she gets older it's like 'hello? Look at him? How could I not love this man with my whole being?' She's mostly embarrassed when it's her being teased because it's always the embarrassing things or it's made to be more embarrassing than it actually is - unless it's her older brother or father teasing her, then it's because her reaction is hilarious (they love her really, and she finds it funny too most of the time - she teases others too so it's fair game to tease her XD). The most embarrassed would really be one of two things - 1. when she was barely at Land of Departure for a week before she tripped up a step (she covered it by saying 'how did I trip over something in front of my face?' but she felt so humiliated she had to focus on those steps for a week, then felt belt when someone else tripped over them). or 2. sex ed when it first came about... she's a twelve not fifteen... she just wanted to train :( Forever teased over feeling like she was learning something that was private knowledge and hated it - now she can never look at her parents the same way again. Did grow out of it very quickly though, but much preferred learning history.

Aer is a 10 - 12 year old boy from KH1 - KH3. What he mostly gets embarrassed by is being told constantly by everyone how much he loves his mother (Aegis) and being told how similar to his father (Terra - listen, protection was used but sometimes it doesn't work... also they were 19 so nothing underage ) he is both in looks (he is nicknamed Terra's twin for a reason) and mannerisms. But's it a proud embarrassment. I haven't built his character too much, only that he exists and loves his parents a lot more than a 12-year-old would dare to admit, but I don't see him getting embarrassed too easily apart from when he gets complimented and praised. If you call him cute, he's an absolute mess. The most embarrassing moment in his life so far would be... when he ran away from a millipede when he five, screaming at the top of his lungs... for context: he had said five minutes before 'bugs don't scare me' to try to be impressive for this girl he had a smol child crush on.... yeah... I mean she said he was cute but it only added salt to the wound. Poor smol Aer.

Lucis Like Aer, she isn't easily embarrassed. And if she is isn't usually quite small and nothing that's gonna make her annoyed to hear it for the rest of her life. But there was the time she met Ephemer at the fountain - he was the only one who had shown an interest in getting to know her and called her a friend. She was flustered, but the most embarrassing moment came after that: Chirithy in his mischievous ways, said 'that look is a look of love and you can't possibly love someone you just met'. This led to an absolutely redfaced Lucis going 'I don't love him! How can I love someone I just met? He was just so kind, and sweet, and he's so cute and -' on and on whilst Chirithy's writing these things down. He makes sure Lucis knows that he knows.

🥊 Does your OC prefer to take the lead or follow orders? With everyone or just with certain people? Is there a reason for this?

Aegis BBS Timeline - follows orders depending. She basically ignores Eraqus telling her to stay, mostly because someone had to go after Ven. She doesn't really take orders from Aqua well either - mostly after Radiant Garden's plot halfway through the game. Aqua's not in Aegis' good books at that point, but if they're having to work together on something then she'll follow orders. Being older than Ven, she's more likely to take the lead around him but it's an equal balance of authority (as she hates being the leader and thinks she sucks at it). With Terra it's more like she's an advisor and might take the lead on some things, but it's mostly 'whatever you think works best, I'll be here'. Also only indirectly followed Xehanort's by helping Terra out, apart from when she really had to listen to her gut and go investigating. Even then though, she still only went because she had 'permission' to not feel guilty from Terra XD She just didn't want him to feel like she had given up on him when it was really about Xehanort.

KH1 Timeline - It's once again an equal balance of power between her and Sora, truthfully. She takes the lead in the sense of having knowledge but her task is just to help Sora, not boss him around. She stays with him when Donald and Goofy leave, and that's really when she takes the most lead - it's temporary and she's always checking in with Sora, but she's the only one who can use a keyblade at that point (though if Sora's in a sticky situation she'll throw him her keyblade so he can get out of it, her magic's powerful enough to not need to use the weapon when she has the adrenaline to not think about it).

KH C.o.M - she's there for the opening cutscene. She knows it's Castle Oblivion (she was there with Aqua at the end of BBS) and decides that this journey is Sora's and his alone. She takes the lead in saying 'you'll be alright so long as you remember your worth more than you think you are' when he gives her his sad face XD She's got a son a few years younger than Sora at this point, so she knows how to handle the puppy dog eyes of doom. She continues her investigation into heartless and this idea of nobodies and organisation xiii that her father has had run-ins with over the years.

KH2.8 timeline - really she's here for one conversation and is forced to follow orders (she's also only there because the Guardian during the first Ansem boss fight in KH1 dragged her down to the realm of darkness and then came back to get her out before part 2 of Ansem's boss fight. She had no choice but to follow them, though she really would have liked to see knock Xehanort's heart right out of Terra's right that second).

KH 358/2 Days - had a couple run in with Roxas and was like wait, Ventus? Impossible. Did he have a twin he forgot about or something? Then finds out from Riku his name was Roxas and it was Sora's Nobody - yet another thing to investigate: if the other members of org xiii look like their completed bodies, then why does Roxas look like Ventus? Investigating the hearts connection to other heart ensues. So she's half following her orders and her dad's orders. All this investigating is really meant to figure out where Terra is and her father has been the main investigator whilst she's been busy with Sora.

KH2 Timeline - well, she's trying her best to keep Sora on track when they eventually meet again at the first Hollow Bastien visit but it really doesn't work. She's the one who figures out who Ansem and Xemnas are during the events of Chain of Memories and probably better explains it than Micky XD Also at the point she sees Xemnas, she only has one thing on her mind: destroy him to bring Terra back. She's more likely to take the lead with the 1000 heartless battle because 1. she's intent on going against Xehanort's Nobody and has no idea how similar he fights to Terra-Xehanort so Sora has to stay away from it until he's actually ready and 2. mama bear mode activated.

KH Re: Coded - is taking the lead because she's helping data sora. Micky asked her to help so... :)

KH Dream Drop Distance - mostly in flashbacks and is taking the lead mostly because she's working solo. She fails to prevent Xehanort from getting Terra again, is absolutely miffed and disregards Yen Sid's orders for her to stay put in the tower when the others go to help Sora. She's in Yen Sid's bad books, but he' also in hers so what come around goes around. Also is highly suspecting Ven is, in fact, in Sora's heart because Riku tells her he had to fight an armoured foe with a keyblade, she shows him a picture of Ven in armour and Riku's like 'yeah'.

KH3 - haven't completed it but I have gotten up to the third phase (with The Carribean and San Fransokyo) so far. Aegis isn't taking the lead but she also isn't following orders? She's there with Riku and Micky to help Aqua, but when that fails and Riku and Micky are told to find some connections with Aqua (because Aegis' connection has faded over time to where it's almost non-existent, mostly due to this whole argument back in BBS... Aegis' hold grudges for a while when the air's never cleared up), she helps Sora until Riku and Micky are ready to go back in, then she joins them. In the realm of darkness, it's like she's taking the lead but when she's not it's, again, an equal power balance.

She just really hates being the leader, and if she is the leader she would much rather not be called a leader XD She much prefers it to be as equal as possible!

Aer Well, he's mostly following orders but sometimes he has this stubborn side and he decided to not follow orders, which always leads to knowing why he should follow them. When he's much older though (ie, 15 and up) he's the unspoken leader of the friendship group and at that point, he's got at least one younger sibling, so he's always looked up to.

Lucis She's mostly working solo, but she's looked up to as a leader by newcomers as she's relatively powerful and knows what she's doing, but she's also.... well... just following her heart's orders.

⭐ Does your OC like to sleep alone or do they enjoy sharing their bed? Have they been to any sleepovers? Have they ever been camping? What did they think of the experiences if so?

Aegis

This answer is during bbs / post kh3 :) (I did spoil the ending for myself because I required Terra content and I am very sad it's so smol)

I always assume the games take a period of weeks (apart from Dream Drop which I see being more so over a few days) so, of course, they need sleep. During BBS, she doesn't mind if it's sleeping in a separate bed or sharing one with Terra. She's used to sleeping by herself because mingling was not okay at night in the land of departure, but after a tough training session at any point the year before the events of BBS, then sometimes she would nap on Terra whilst sprawled out on a sofa. So during the actual story she probably prefers sharing the bed because after a hard, stressful day she likes cuddles. Additionally, she also doesn't know the words to help Terra, for once, because she's had such a tight hold over her darkness for so many years she can't remember what heped her get to that point. So she wants to be as close to him as possible at night when it keeps him up at night. And that's very similar post KH3 as well, but it's also just 'Terra's back. Aer He likes his own bed, but when he was young and really afraid of the dark he couldn't sleep without Aegis around. As he gets older though and he's just not feeling great, a nap with mum (or dad) is always a win until he's 17 and then it' low key embarrassing. Did have a sleepover once with his grandpa and it was great, but wasn't mum's baking. Not a big camping person but doesn''t complain about it either.

Lucis She has dreams a lot and fidgets. She feels sorry for Chirithy who sleeps on her pillow, and her spirit who also sleeps on her pillow. Skeeping without them would not be a good sleep, however. Also doesn't camp because she can travel through portals XD

🍇 Does your OC have any bad habits? Does your OC have any addictions like smoking or drinking? How did they fall into these habits and why?

Aegis She has zero other than focusing a little too much on her failings.

Aer Nada. Lucis also a nope. Unless feeling like she has no worth counts, that is. I mean, thinking lowly of yourself is a bad habit, right?

#kim answers #kim rambles about her ocs #cataegis (aegis)#aer #lucis - internally a dandelion but never said yes

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smartzelda · 4 years ago

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Okay, so after half joking about Kairi and CoM under Steam's post, I went into dms with Xion and I dragged myself into rarepair territory a second day in a row. So if you would like, I'm gonna toss those ideas down there

So this goes off the headcanon I have that Selphie and Kairi got close in the year between kh1 and kh2. In the case of this au, Selphie formed a one-sided romantic attraction for Kairi, while Kairi is closeted and may or may not have feelings, but 1000% wouldn't be aware of that.

So in kh2, Kairi hits it off with Olette, and at some point in this au they get together and Kairi realizes she was closeted and all that jazz

Eventually, Selphie hears about this and is pretty sad, but like, what can ya do?

So somehow, Selphie learns that there are other worlds and she meets the radiant garden crew, and she just goes "I vibe with Yuffie. We're gonna be irritating together". They start dating so they can just cause chaos together

And before they start dating, Yuffie just makes sure Selphie is ready for this life

Here enters, Selphie and Yuffie Protection squad.

They are here to be pieces of sh#t and stand up for people

Someone's trying to force you into something? Yuffie and Selphie are there to intimidate and then attack if needed for your safety

You too afraid to correct an order someone got wrong at a restaurant? The duo got your back

Also, prime time to have a Yuphie and Kailette double date

Then after Kairi leaves DI for kh3, Yuffie starts to visit DI to take Selphie on dates. Yuffie has Selphie's schedule memorized so she knows when she can and can't come (gotta have boundaries bro. Yuffie can't just show up and take Selphie from school on the daily)

So it'll be lunch at school or a free day where Selphie is at home or on DI, and sometimes Yuffie tells her in advance, but other times she surprises her with a picnic or a trip to another world.

Now Selphie has offhandedly mentioned she has a girlfriend and how much she loves her, and Tidus and Wakka are skeptical because "Why haven't we seen her yet?" They don't believe her until Yuffie shows up while they happen to be there. So then, because only Selphie is aware of the existence of other worlds, Tidus and Wakka begin this conspiracy theory about Yuffie. They try to find her house and ask around, but most people aren't aware of her existence. They try to folow her "home" but they always lose her. They try to ask Selphie, but she either says something sappy like "The best place in hell. No one else could capture my heart" or changes the subject.

The boys never find out, unless they become aware of the existence of other worlds one day

Also, between KH3 and Limit Cut, Yuffie's trying her best with everyone else to find Sora, but she sometimes needs a break from all this depression. So sometimes she "sneaks" Selphie into Merlin's house and Selphie helps them with their looking for Sora work, but when they need a break, they take a walk in Radiant Garden and hang out together. It really is nice to clear your head with your girlfriend sometimes

So yeah, this is a bunch of jumbled ideas that I 100% have to write after I post that 100 follower milestone fic I promised. First I clown myself into Xuaning, and then into Yuphie the next day🤡🤡🤡

#Yuphie #yuffie kisaragi #Yuffie x Selphie #selphie tilmitt #selphie x yuffie #kh #kingdom hearts #i can't believe I've done this #again #two days in a row i clown myself by getting attatched to a rarepair on accident #also if you didn't know yuphie has no fics on ao3 so you know what I'm doing after i release the poll fic #kailette #kingdom hearts 2 #kingdom hearts 3 #limit cut

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jcmorrigan · 3 years ago

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Hey, wanna watch me cry? I found my old “KHIII wishlist” and let’s tick off how many things I got and how many things make me cry

· Mozenrath as the secret boss - Yeah, I always knew this one was a long shot, but a girl’s gotta have a dream, you know?

· Kairi being a complete and total badass - *LOUD SOBBING*

· Guest stars from Square Enix properties besides FF and TWEWY (Ringabel would be really cool in the Restoration Committee) - I mean I guess there was a Gummi boss from another older game? Truth be told I think I just wanted Ringabel. I haven’t even played BD. I just like him because a friend likes him. Anyway, Squenix might be able to win back my heart again if Orpheus from BD2 ends up a boss but I don’t see that happening

· Bring back Strike Raid and give it the EXACT same mechanic as KH1 - YOU HAD ONE JOB but I can’t be too mad because Attraction Flows are pretty

· Terra gets his confidence restored - Hey, this one happened!

· Eraqus gets called out on his bullshit - *SOBBING INCREASES IN VOLUME*

· Ventus is just awesome - This one made it!

· The return of Xion - YEAH BOIIIIII

· And Roxas and Naminé but Xion takes priority - Hmmmmm. Okay, so we did get this, but Naminé was such an afterthought and didn’t get to play a plot role. Does it really count?

· The ability to make a Gummi ship that looks like the Condor from Storm Hawks - Given the blueprints that exist, I’m SURE this is possible. I’m just never actually patient enough with the Gummi system to play around with it. But maybe one day I will, for shits and giggles, try to RECREATE CONDOR

· Even actually being evil and continuing to be a snarky little shit - HE HAD US IN THE FIRST HALF. THEN *BREAKS DOWN CRYING*

· Ienzo reforming and having an awkward friend dynamic with Kairi as he goes through his redemption arc - I mean, we were missing the Kairi dynamic, but I got this much!

· Baymax as a Summon - Party member, not Summon, but we did get to team up with Baymax and I’m cool with that.

· Actual brunette Rapunzel post-haircut at some point - Got her!

· Hans and Demyx appearing in the same game - I CANNOT BELIEVE OF ALL THE THINGS ON THIS WISHLIST, THIS IS ONE OF THE ONES THAT CAME TRUE. I CAN’T BE TOO MAD

· Return trips to Agrabah and Halloween Town (I don’t care that we’ve already been there 500 times; I never get tired of Al and Jack) - CRUSH MY DREAMS WHY DON’T’CHA

· MORE DISNEY VILLAIN BOSS FIGHTS! - There were. Decidedly fewer Disney villain boss fights. But they did finally let me beat up the goddamn Kraken so I’ll take it

· I know this one’s a long shot but a Monsters Inc. world SOLELY for the purpose of a Randall Boggs boss fight where he can turn invisible and shake your lock-on ability and you just have to guess where he is before he punches out half your HP - WHAT DO YOU KNOW. WE GOT THIS WORLD BUT NOT THE FIGHT. BUT RANDALL WAS STILL GREAT AND GOT TO DO THE DEATH TRAP GAUNTLET AND IT WAS LEGITIMATELY THE BEST PART OF THE ENTIRE GAME (well, okay, maybe not BEST, just...my favorite)

· Also a Dr. Facilier boss fight needs to be singled out - Oh Facilier where art thou

· Make the adorable Dream Eaters relevant somewhere - This was on me; all I said was “somewhere.” They put in the minimal effort to check this box and I should’ve specified I wanted them to be MORE THAN AN OPTIONAL SUMMON

· Yen Sid with an actual Keyblade - I retract this because the Yen Sid moment we got instead was SO MUCH COOLER

· Actually being able to travel to the Destiny Islands to do stuff instead of it being an intro or cutscene-only world - Let us access the forbidden islands Squenix

· Expanded Twilight Town map (the spinoffs gave us expanded maps for Radiant Garden and Traverse Town) - HAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHA

· If Arendelle is a world and Elsa isn’t your party member, I want Anna to be hitting things with Kristoff’s guitar and that to be listed as her default weapon - Well, apparently we got frickin Marshmallow instead

· Callaghan - No, I guess it was more important to fight DARKUBES

· The return of every single leitmotif - BUT THIS ONE, WE GOT! Maybe missing a couple of the lesser ones, but almost EVERY piece Shimomura knocked out of the park came back and got badass new remixes! KHIII is altogether a mixed bag but its soundtrack is just aces.

· Cruella de Vil - Fortunately she would get an antihero!AU origin story movie two years later that would kick all kinds of ass. As for KH, no, she’s still not there

· The Emperor’s New Groove - They legitimately don’t want us to have anything nice

· Mad Madam Mim, preferably to be introduced in Radiant Garden to oppose the Restoration Committee and Merlin just being fed up through the roof with this and Cid accusing Merlin of leading her here because SHE’S YOUR GODDAMN RIVAL - THEY DON’T WANT US TO HAVE. ANYTHING NICE

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snowflake-of-destruction · 4 years ago

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This isn’t something I normally participate in, but, since I didn’t write much in June and shared hardly anything(something I plan to change in July if I can), I thought I should give some proof of (creative) life if anyone wants it.

Under the cut, a series of tiny excerpts, most more than six sentences, of different Kingdom Hearts pieces to be rescued from the limbo of “half finished chunk of something in a google doc.” Some of them belong to WIPs and some are from various other things started and then interrupted or....we’ll say set to a back burner.

All excerpts headed by a bolded header in the style of

Title of Piece This Belongs To (Brief description of what kind of fic that is in between parenthesis)

Advantage Rule (Isalea Modern AU. First Chapter Up On AO3. More Info There.)

"You lost or are you the new caulk?" The speaker didn't fit the typical profile of a tech professional, especially one that worked behind the scenes with the coders. Mid-fifties judging by the lines on his face with thinning blond hair so light you could hardly tell where some parts had gone silver combed to stick up as a compensation for where it threatened to recede and leather skin that said he'd worked outside in some decade past, paired with a southern accent that seemed stronger than it was with the effect added by the toothpick precariously balanced in the corner of his mouth. He'd rejected business attire in favor of cargo pants and a dark blue flight jacket that looked like they'd been bought in the last century, and the look in his eye was so fierce without prompting that Axel had to wonder if he was a failsafe for the air conditioning breaking down.

"Am I the what?"

"Caulk." The toothpick switched sides of the man's mouth with a roll of his bottom lip. "Fixing the leaks? The cybersecurity specialist? Axel Lea?" His impatience mounted by the moment. Working on the fourth floor would certainly be interesting.

"Yes, sir. That would be me." Axel tried to smooth the way with deference and the easy smile that rarely steered him wrong. "Does that make you...?"

"Cid Highwind. I'll be showing you the ropes. Now that you've seen fit to grace us with your presence." Cid continued to stare him down and Axel wasn't sure if he was supposed to apologize or bare his teeth and smack his chest like a gorilla to challenge the alpha.

Without False Hope ( First Chapter Up On AO3. More Info There. Akuroku KH/FFX crossover)

Axel was waiting for them, or it seemed that way at least and Roxas didn’t think himself vain for thinking so, when Roxas spotted the lanky redhead not jogging himself but leaning against a pole until he saw the Crusaders approaching and then falling in next to Roxas just behind Xion as she bellowed, "Young Crusaders gather 'round," the beginning of a call and response chant that the rest of them would answer with a promise to knock enemies back and stand their ground or an alternate about beating Sin beneath the ground if they were feeling

Axel finished the line a beat before the Crusaders would have, substituting his own words. "...Eager for Sin to put you in the ground." Roxas's heart, which had soared for a moment when Axel had come up beside him and dared to hope that Axel's first words would be a version of sorry or an invitation out somewhere without other people, took a sharp plummet to his toes then returned to his chest angry at being mocked.

Assorted grumbles and shouts showed many others felt the same way, but Xion seemed to take it in stride, sing-songing her own improvised lines that continued the cadence of the original chant without missing a beat, "Young civilian come to heckle and stare. What would you do if a fiend attacked and we weren't there?"

Axel near stumbled but recovered and let out a short bark that might have been a laugh he wasn't sure he was allowed without inviting training Crusaders to make him pay for it, afterward rumbling in an impressed tone, "You, I like,."

"You should. " Xion shot back and her casual tone alone was enough that everyone else in the formation knew Axel was an acceptable stranger even if he was rude, and that they should ignore the intrusion. "I'm not sure I like you back. Roxas has been mooning and it makes him impossible."

Guardian Force (Akuroku. Axel and Roxas in the next life, living as NPCs in the world of/during the story of FFVIII. Part of my eventual plan to show Axel and Roxas living out every Final Fantasy game. Unpublished/First chapter never completed because I decided on Without False Hope/a FFX crossover instead)

"You often talk to yourself?" an insolent lazy drawl came from somewhere to Axel's left and he turned, eyes narrowing to see a boy in a rumpled Balamb cadet uniform lying across the second highest step, book in hand, vibrant blue eyes, ice eyes like he'd junctioned Shiva right to his vision, trained on him over the spine.

"To my Guardian Force," Axel explained, though that seemed worse. Over six foot of height and lean muscle and the SeeD uniform Axel wore at least enough parts of for it to be vaguely recognizable that he belonged to the elite unit, all usually worked together enough that there was usually no reason to be embarrassed by anything he let slip out. Nobody would laugh even if Axel welcomed it.

"Thought you didn't like using Guardian Forces," the lounging student's voice was just as nonchalant as it was before, but his gaze was sharp, interested, and he spoke as if he knew Axel.

"Have we met?" Axel knocked the sole of his left boot against the side of his right as if scraping mud off the bottom. It wasn't odd for him to shift constantly even when mostly still, unless he was specifically called to stand at attention. There was an air of discomfort about the present action though, when taken with how jade eyes known for constant analysis on and off the battlefield, seemed attracted to the handrail of the steps rather than searching the face of the boy that had just spoken to him with familiarity. Axel's normally iron stomach soured immediately at the idea they had met and he'd forgotten, to the point he couldn't even bring himself to try and jog his recollection. All he could do was force out his least favorite question next to 'when did that happen?'

Lollipop (Soriku and Akuroku. College AU/Modern AU. Unpublished. Sora and Roxas in an acapella group because that was the only way I could work out how to get them to sing and do choreo for songs that get stuck in Shaky’s head, which was the Goal of the Day one day before I got distracted)

When Sora said he had a new idea for a piece for the CrescenDudes' next performance, Roxas had been more than happy to volunteer to work on the arrangement with him. Sora was great for ideas, large picture and little flourishes that made a song a show, and he was, hands down, who you wanted doing choreography, even if he tended to get carried away and not realize there weren't many others with the dance and movement background he had in their group, but he wasn't suited for the musical side of sculpting a piece. He'd sing what he was given and he'd stay on pitch doing it, but he had no idea to weave songs together to form a mashup that sounded natural and created the right feeling in a crowd, and he'd forget to accommodate for everyone's voices or go the opposite direction and try to highlight everyone and have twenty solos. So it was up to Roxas to take his vision from neat idea to reality, and he jumped at the chance. He'd do anything at this point to distract Sora from dragging him into wedding planning for a few days when that should be Riku’s job as the other groom.

Hourglass (Unpublished. Self-indulgent BBS Era--at least for this excerpt-- story about KH Squall/Leon and Seifer growing up in Radiant Garden and explaining how they got to be on separate planets and separate ages by the time KH1 rolls around. May be competed and posted to AO3 or just used as a base/record of headcanon for sprinkling backstory references in other pieces.)

Seifer challenged Lea and Isa to break back into the castle and come back with proof this time. He would have just called Lea a liar, but that would lead to Lea trying to fight him, which would lead to Isa trying to fight him, which would lead to Squall getting in the way, thinking Seifer couldn't handle a two on one fight with some chicken wusses. Then Squall would still try to sneak into the castle himself to see Ellone anyway--and she wasn’t in the castle in the first place...probably. Seifer would have to drag Squall’s ass out of there, and, if they got caught by the Royal Guard, then they’d be the next rumored prisoners in the basement. It was safer to make it be Lea and Isa's challenge.

Lea took the bait. Isa, surprisingly, added they were planning a return trip anyway. Squall shot Seifer a questioning look, which he ignored in favor of taunting Lea and sealing the deal, "I can't wait to see you two hobble in tomorrow after getting your asses beat by the Guard. Try not to hit your thick skulls on the flagstones when you get thrown out."

Drowning (Unfinished/unpublished. Placeholder name. Sorikai. Supposed to be for the Sorikai Summer Event. Prompt: Drowning. Long one shot about eight times one of the Destiny Trio has nearly drowned and then been saved by the others)

Their first prototype of a raft had fallen apart underneath them in open water, the ties that lashed the planks together having not been as securely tied as they could have been--the book on sailor's knots Sora had provided was a lot more obtuse than it had seemed at first, descriptions dense and picture demonstrations too sparse. Kairi and Sora each fared well, each grabbing onto a floating plank to drift a minute and orient themselves after being plunged into the water. Riku was less successful, being fixated on saving as many of the supplies Kairi and Sora had gathered (coconuts, mushrooms, and bottles of water mostly, though there had been a tackle box that Riku's father would kill him for losing if he had to go back and face him, and that was what Riku was primarily focused on) and exhausting his breath on too many dives in a row without recovery in between until he was lightheaded from not taking in enough air in his hasty gulps when he broke the surface and increasingly imprecise in where he chose to come out of the water until he hit his head on the bottom of the plank he was loading the recovered supplies onto and went down without resurfacing.

No Set Recipe (Unfinished/unpublished. Sorikai. Supposed to be for the Sorikai Summer Event. Prompt: Ice Cream. Kidfic. Sora’s mom is left with the job of explaining polyamory while making homemade ice cream with a group of five and six year olds.)

It was all Selphie's fault to start with, though if she was going to be ascribed the blame for the hurt feelings, she would have to be given credit for all that happened after, which Riku and Sora both agreed she did not deserve, even if Kairi was more magnanimous, so it became habit just to talk of the ice cream and the impact it had on their future. Still, the most accurate account begins with: one day when they were all young-- too young to even be allowed to swim in the water surrounding play island without an adult in the surf with them, if that gives perspective--Selphie, to everyone's surprise, scored the winning goal in the game of land-blitzball the group of them were playing in order to decide what game they would really spend the day playing, and chose, to absolutely nobody's surprise, house.

Everyone accepted their fate and divided into family units with minimal grumbling, phrasing which means that Wakka threw the blitzball into the sea and lost it forever when Jecht--the parent chaperone on play island that day who was five minutes away from falling asleep on the sand and typically didn't care what they did, unlike most parents who at least had restrictions about not hitting each other in the head with wooden swords or throwing sand, and was the favorite of the children for that attitude of freedom to make mistakes being a better teacher than rules--refused to go into the water after it.

Selphie, however, found a problem with Sora, Riku, and Kairi's family. Specifically, she didn't like that the family was Riku, Kairi, and Sora all together parenting a yellow coconut Kairi was trying to rock to sleep while Riku built him a bed out of sand and palm fronds and Sora cooked dinner for the household--a savoury stew of sticks, sand, and mushroom. She stood with pursed lips and hands on hips, and declared that their proud coconut son, Rekka, couldn't have all three of them for parents because that wasn't how things worked.

"Why not?" Sora asked with all the curiosity and innocence of a child.

Riku tried a more practical, solution based approach with, "Can we change the rules?"

Kairi was more direct and firm, her, "It does if I say so," leaving very little room to argue.

#snippets #not clogging tags with this though

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