#khiii spoilers

[oveliagirlhaditright]

This talk of Clerith's happened to remind me of another Square Enix couple:

[lucemferto]

The dichotomy between redemption and damnation is … really stupid and has poisoned fandom discourse for so long. Like, I am still so salty and frankly confused, that someone can look at the last few cutscenes of Kingdom Hearts III - Xehanort defeated, his ideals and plans crushed, forced to realise that the "dull, ordinary boy" is more worthy of the χ-Blade than he is; HIM BEING ALONE IN THE SHADOWS WHILE ERAQUS IS EMBRACED BY HIS CRYING PUPILS IN THE LIGHT C'MON YOU GUYS THIS SHIT IS NOT SUBTLE - and think:

Yep, he got redeemed, the narrative says: "Well done, Xehanort, your ways were slightly off but you made a good effort."

Like … in what world, you guys?

[vampishdyke]

you ever just look at your homie in shellshocked amazement while he single handedly lays down his life for you against millions of shadow creatures? yeah. me neither. fucking fags

[bobgoesw00t]

Top 10 Video Games of All Time: bobgoesw00t Edition (Part 05)

OK people, WE’RE OFFICIALLY HALFWAY THROUGH THIS LIST!!! Not gonna waste any time here, so my Number 06 Video Game of All Time is:

FINAL FANTASY XV

This takes the spot as it’s the Final Fantasy that I personally was waiting for. The first main entry in the franchise to have a 100% real time, action combat system. The previous games in the franchise had battles in real time, yes, but not in the same vain as the Star Ocean or Tales of series. The game was basically a hybrid of real time but with turn-based inputs and while that can make things intense, NOTHING beats being able to run circles around the enemy and hitting the ever loving shit out of them while having to avoid/guard any attacks they might throw your way. So when it was first revealed that combat for this title would be similar to Kingdom Hearts and the other two JRPG series I mentioned, I was FUCKING ECSTATIC!

The story is also one of my favorites in the series as it starts off with, “ROAD TRIP!!!” but quickly becomes a tale of taking back everything that was taken from Noctis while becoming the standard “Save the World” ending at a pace that’s just PERFECT!!! There are also subtle little changes in the game that you literally don’t notice unless someone brings it up, the big one being that as the game progresses, the days steadily become shorter. The party will wake up at a later hour after resting, and the nights come quicker, leaving more time for the demons to play. It’s literally so fucking subtle that after watching a video that mentions it on YouTube, I CAN’T UN-SEE THE CHANGE!!!!!

Of course, this being a Final Fantasy game, it wouldn’t be complete without Chocobos, which are SO MUCH FUN TO RIDE!!! One of the quickest/cheapest ways to get an asston of EXP is take a bunch of bounties, park the car on the road and then use the Chocobos to run around and kill the monsters (usually staying awake for the night as the Demons do give a good amount of EXP), then fast traveling back to the car and turning the quests in.

As for the car, that’s one of the best parts of the game IMO cause after you’ve cleared the story, IT TURNS INTO THE AIRSHIP FOR THE GAME. YOU LITERALLY GET A FLYING CAR AND IT’S ;OGVHJASPGAUGHPAO H SO AWESOME!!!!!!! It’s surprisingly relaxing to just take off in the car, listen to some of music from the previous games and just fly around for a bit.

FFXV is also one of the easier games to get the Platinum Trophy (or every Achievement if your on Xbox) on and it’s one nine games I’ve gotten the Platinum for (the others being Assassin’s Creed Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla, Batman Arkham Knight, Ghost of Tsushima, Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 6 on the PS4 and Pider-Man), making it a good choice for anyone looking to get the final trophy. The only real roadblock you’ll encounter will be killing the Adamantoisem, which isn’t that hard to kill. It’s mostly time consuming due to it’s MASSIVE health pool and if Noctis and friends are under-leveled, it’ll be an uphill battle for sure. I waited until Noctis was around Level 110 I think, and the rest of the part was over Level 99, took some spells that had the “Limit Break” perk on them so they could deal insane damage and then made sure to go after the things eyes. Also helps out if you’ve unlocked the “Air Dance” ability and use a sword so you can keep the pressure on the beast, and use any summon that decides to help you to chop a chunk of it’s health off. It ended up taking me about 90 minutes to kill the Adamantoise and nail the Platinum Trophy which was a far cry from the “72 real life hours” that people were saying in some previews. That being said, if you try to kill the fucker at any point prior to the post game…it could potentially take that long.

Also want to give a shout out to Yoko Shimomura for NAILING the soundtrack for the game, with MASSIVE props to two songs in particular, Apocalypse Noctis and APOCALYPSE AQUARIUS which play during the boss fight against Titan and Leviathan respectively. Fighting against two MASSIVE DEITIES that could EASILY squish you if they really wanted to WHILE THE ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR ARE GOING BALLISTIC IS ONE OF THE MOST INTENSE MOMENTS I’VE EVER HAD PLAYING A VIDEO GAME!!! And it’s somehow EVEN MORE INTENSE AND EPIC during the Trial of Leviathan because Noctis will spend the majority of the fight IN FUCKING GOD MODE!!! HE’S LITERALLY JUST WARPING AROUND THE PLACE FLINGING THE ROYAL ARMS AT THE SEA GODDESS AND BREAKING HER FINS WHILE THE SAME SONG FROM THE TRIAL OF TITAN IS BLASTING BUT WITH ADDED ELECTRIC GUITARS FOR EXTRA “OOMPH”!!!!! I STILL don’t know how she managed to top the insanity that was Apocalypse Noctis with APOCALYPSE AQUARIUS but SHE FUCKING DID!!!!!!!!!! I ALWAYS look forward to those boss fights and get goosebumps when the songs start up and I HAVE to BLAST IT AS LOUD AS I CAN STAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I want to mention how this is first game that I literally have ZERO issues with. I didn’t have an issue with only being able to control Noctis before they added the ability to switch to the other three characters and I HIGHLY suggest getting the Royal Package/Edition so you can get the accessories for the other characters that can totally BREAK THE GAME when you control them. The one that gives Prompto infinite ammo for his SMG lets you just SHRED enemies to bits and it’s stupidly fun to just sit back and go, ‘PEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!!!!!“ while the enemy sort of just flails about.

So from a great story with perfect pacing IMO, to an battle system that’s actually, real time action oriented, one of the greatest casts of characters in the series, and probably the best soundtrack in a Final Fantasy game from Yoko Shimomura, this otaku give Final Fantasy XV Five Warp Strikes out of Five: 5/5

Honorable Mentions:

Final Fantasy XII:This is the only other game in the series that I feel had a perfect balance between the battle system, the various gameplay systems, story, cast, music and level of enjoyment.

Kingdom Hearts III:The epic conclusion to the Dark Seeker Saga, with the best combat the series has ever had, DLC that extends the ending PERFECTLY while also giving us some more questions about the future of the franchise, awesome music also from Yoko Shimomura, my favorite World Map and Gummi Ship, an ending theme from Hikaru Utada that makes me cry every time I play the game (Don’t Think Twice is the best theme she’s provided IMO) and my favorite part…NOMURA CONTINUING TO BE THE BIGGEST TROLL IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!!!! INSANE SPOILERS FOR ANYONE THAT STILL HAVEN’T BEATEN KINGDOM HEARTS III BY NOW…like by best friend Nolan cause he insisted on playing all the previous games IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER WHICH YOU SHOULDN’T DO EVER!!! Nomura making the Black Box seem like a big deal for a good chunk of the game, it FINALLY SHOWS UP IN THE EPILOGUE and we’re about to find out something…CUT TO BLACK AND WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS IN THAT FUCKING BOX!!!!!!! Also have to mention: Kingdom Hearts II.9 (we see what you did there Nomura >_<), Sora and the other half-pints breaking the fourth wall in Olympus about the lack of a fanfare and probably the best troll moment in the ENTIRE GAME…putting Let It Go almost FRAME FOR FRAME AS IT APPEARS IN FROZEN ROUGHLY HALFWAY THROUGH DERPENDELLE!!!!!!! You just KNOW everyone LOVED getting that song stuck in their head for the millionth time…NOT!!!!!!! I was also torn between having this game or FFXV at Number 06 but I went with the latter cause I got he Platinum for it first xD

[demispark]

I Swear Mickey Did Not Abandon a Woman in Hell For Over A Decade (In Defense of Kingdom Heart's Mickey Mouse)

Excellent question! @notbrucewayne48 and @mintchocolatemagic , Mickey Mouse did not do anything wrong, and I will explain why.

Firstly, please leave you The Walt Disney Company-based opinions of Mickey by the door. If you have negative opinions of Mickey as a result of him being the mascot of an evil all-consuming corporation, those don't really apply here. Mickey Mouse, in Kingdom Hearts, is the king of Disney Castle and a talented Keyblade Wielder.

People seem to have a lot of animosity towards Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts. Maybe its because his reputation has been ruined by the corporation he represents, I can't say for sure. It's fine if you don't like the guy or think he's annoying, but it personally grates on my nerves when people let that color his depiction and actions in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

This post ended up pretty long, so if this is way too long of a post, I recommend reading the first two paragraphs, watching the video, and reading the last paragraph. Maybe not as good as a TL;DR, but it should give you enough context and understanding without taking up too much of your time.

Beyond this point, SPOILERS for basically the entire Kingdom Hearts series up to KHIII, excluding the mobile games.

To begin with, what am I even on about? That title is a pretty extreme and ridiculous statement, after all. So, here's the plan: I'm going to show you the clip, and then we'll go through the relevant points on the timeline to examine the truth of this claim.

Here is the claim, made by the supposed victim herself: Keyblade Master Aqua.

Aqua claims that Mickey abandoned her in the Realm of Darkness, knowing full well what a decade trapped there would do to her. However, her statements contradict reality at multiple points, likely due to the effects that sustaining an attack filled with darkness and being submerged in the waters of The Dark Margin, as well as the mental toll of being stuck in the Realm of Darkness for over a decade.

To figure out where everything went wrong, let's turn back the clock by about 11 years, to see where this all started.

At the end of Birth By Sleep, a prequel taking place a decade prior to KH1, Aqua is with Mickey in the tower of the wizard Yen Sid. Following the final battle at the Keyblade Graveyard against Master Xehanort and Vanitas (we'll get to them later, don't worry), Aqua and her friends are in bad shape. Aqua was really the only survivor, with Terra going missing and Ventus' heart being shattered, leading it to sleep elsewhere until it could recover (we'll get to them as well). Mickey, Aqua, and Ven were blown away after defeating Vanitas and destroying Xehanort's attempt to forge the X-Blade (Pronounced the same as Keyblade, and good lord we will get to that later), and Mickey brought Aqua and Ven to Yen Sid.

Leaving alone, and not really having told anyone at the tower where she was going, Aqua returns to her old home, the Land of Departure. There, she drops off Ven's sleeping body, and uses the Keyblade of her now-deceased Master to transform the land into a confounding castle that we'll come to know as Castle Oblivion. Following this, she senses Terra's voice and goes to a world called Radiant Garden. It is here that Aqua discovers the truth of Terra's disappearance. Terra had been manipulated throughout his journey to be consumed by darkness, which Xehanort took advantage of. Using his own Keyblade, he removed his heart and sent it into Terra's body, possessing it.

Long story short, Aqua won the fight but failed to free Terra, and he began to sink into the darkness. Aqua dove in after him, using her Keyblade Armor to protect herself and her glider to attempt to get herself and Terra out of the darkness. Realizing that herself and Terra were too heavy and wouldn't make it out in time, Aqua sent Terra ahead with her Keyblade and armor, launching him out of the darkness as she sank into it.

This will be very important later, so remember it, I won't be getting into it in this post, but it will come back later.

This is where she spent the next decade, wandering through the Dark World and the remnants of worlds that had fallen into the darkness, plagued by hallucinations, phantoms, wave after wave of Heartless, and even a dark reflection of herself that pointed out all of her mistakes and gave a voice to all of her intrusive thoughts.

Mickey didn't know where Aqua went, and it isn't easy to just enter the Dark World, so he was not able to find her. Between being the King of a world and training to become a Keyblade Master, he likely didn't have time to look for her forever, either.

Do we see Aqua sitting around waiting for help to come, as she claims? Nope.

... 0.2 - A Fragmentary Passage is an interesting game.

Anyway, silly new accessories aside, we see Aqua traveling though the Realm of Darkness, enduring the previously mentioned hardships. Here, she encounters Mickey, who slipped in via a world that was in the process of falling to darkness. He explains that the worlds are in trouble, and that he is searching for a Keyblade of the darkness, a counterpart to Sora's that will allow them to seal the Door to Darkness.

This coincides with the ending of Kingdom Hearts 1. After battling through more powerful Heartless, Aqua and Mickey see Riku running towards the Door to Darkness, and are beset by a Demon Tide, a powerful storm of basic Heartless known as Shadows. Aqua attempts to hold them off, which allows Mickey and Riku to assist Sora, Donald, and Goofy in sealing the Door from their side. Aqua tells Mickey to go on without her, before losing control of the Demon Tide and getting swept away. Her ending monologue is resolute, however, prepared to face the darkness and act as a guiding light for whomever finds themself trapped in the Realm of Darkness next.

Not only was this Aqua's choice, her sacrifice, but she stood by it. So what happened, and why didn't Mickey return for her immediately? The simple answer is that Mickey had a lot of more urgent things to worry about than assuming a Keyblade Master couldn't take care of themself.

Immediately after this, Mickey needs to look after Riku and get them out of the Realm of Darkness. This leads into Re:Chain of Memories.

Sora and Co. could help, except that they had their memories tampered with, and will spend the next year asleep while false memories are removed and their forgotten memories are put back in place.

Riku has been struggling with the darkness throughout KH1 and Re:CoM, so he isn't in the best place to be thrust back into the darkness.

Over this next year, the threat of creatures called Nobodies and the sinister Organization XII rears its head, and Riku doesn't exactly get better with his darkness.

Forced to rely on the darkness, Riku transforms into the spitting image of the man who used his darkness and possessed him - Ansem, Seeker of Darkness - and this isn't exactly great for his mental state, either.

Sora was weakened by his journey through Castle Oblivion in Re:CoM, and with the threat of the Organization looming, the hero had his work cut out for him before Mickey would even dare asking him for help.

Sora and Riku, who has finally gotten his darkness under control, end up at the Dark Margin by the end of KHII, but do not encounter Aqua there. Since Aqua was not there, the attack that overwhelmed her with darkness and sent her flying into the water that was mentioned earlier must have happened between the final world of KHII and this scene. They manage to escape, and return to the Realm of Light.

Sora and Riku rest back at their home, the Destiny Islands, during the events of Re:Coded, and eventually receive a message from Mickey calling them to Yen Sid's tower. These boys need to get better, hopefully becoming Keyblade Masters, in order to rescue the fallen Keyblade Wielders from their fates and prepare for the upcoming final battle. Dream Drop Distance comes and goes, and Riku is named a Keyblade Master.

Prior to the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, Mickey relays his experience in the Realm of Darkness with Aqua, to which Riku angrily questions why Mickey never told him or attempted a rescue.

You should know the answer to that by now.

Mickey explains that he respected Aqua's wishes, just as he did for Riku in the past, stubbornly refusing to tell Sora anything about his missing friend during KHII, as Riku was dealing with the whole Ansem and darkness thing and made Mickey promise not to tell Sora.

Yen Sid also chimes in, pointing out that if Sora and Riku had found out, they would've recklessly tried to find a way into the Realm of Darkness to stage an ill-fated rescue mission.

Now, however, the time has finally come. Since Mickey's Kingdom Key D is a Keyblade from the Dark Realm, he could use it to enter the Realm of Darkness without having to use the incredibly unreliable and dangerous method of waiting for a world to fall into darkness.

Mickey and Riku suit up in some new darkness-resistant threads made by Yen Sid and the Three Good Fairies (of Sleeping Beauty fame), and set out for the Dark Realm.

This doesn't go well, to say the least, leading to Mickey and Riku's Keyblades being damaged. Mickey's is recovered and used to create the Star Cluster (which Aqua can be seen picking up in the video shown at the beginning of this post), while Riku leaves the pieces of his behind and recieves a brand-new Keyblade.

Second time's the charm, and now we are all caught up to the aforementioned clip from KHIII.

Anti-Aqua happens, Sora shows up via the power of friendship and following his heart (oversimplification, you know KH isn't that simple), and Aqua is finally rescued from this dark hell.

So, to wrap it all up, Mickey very much did not abandon Aqua. Aqua disappeared off the face of the worlds - literally all of them - for ten years, sacrificed herself to protect Mickey, Riku, and the worlds when Mickey finally did find her, and then Mickey simply did not have the time or resources to stage a rescue mission that actually would've worked in the year or two following his original trip in the Realm of Darkness.

Thank you for joining me on this rather long-winded case. I feel like my writing ended up being a little stiff due to all of the recapping I was doing, so if you have any critiques I would love to hear them!

Until next time, may your heart be your guiding key.

[mythicalartistx]

Wayfinder & SeaSalt Trio Reunion in KHiii

I used to not like KHiii as much but overtime I learned to appreciate it and it does have some really good moments.

Like the whole Keyblade Graveyard battle scene with all the groups reconnecting with their lost friends is so bittersweet and amazing.

Spoilers I guess but most my discussions have spoilers and the game has been out for 4 years 🤷

I mean the Terra breaking the chains scene is amazing. The music is great and that help shows how dramatica it is.

That scene is impactful and no wonder some people cry at it.

One day... I... will... set... this... right...

One day... I will...set.. this Right

I will return to this land..

And protect... My friends!

- Terra KH3

I was smiling to myself the whole time.

The scene is absolutely beautiful. A part of it is because of the fate of the three of them in BBS was so heartbreaking and sad.

And it's so bittersweet.

Now the reunion of the Sea Salt Trio...

Axel goes against Xemnas and Saïx is such a good scene. His poor bf being used.

Xion then tries stopping Xemnas from hurting them is everything especially when it shows Sora remembers them and their name from Roxas.

And I love when Axel regains his memory of Xion by holding his head and probably having a rush of memories before calling the name, Xion.

But it gets better when Roxas arrives and basically tells Xemnas I can do the same thing you can do and you don't know people's hearts as well as he might have thought.

It seems you're not as good as winning over people's hearts as you think

- Roxas KH3

Those scenes are so great

[omamervt]

Final Fantasy 16 includes not only a man who is more powerful than Donald Duck, but a pair of brothers capable of blocking his strongest attack.

Man they're pulling out all the anime bullshit stops to one-up the titan fight lmao

[psychicdragoncoffee]

For context, I've been doing polls regarding least favorite worlds in the Kingdom Hearts series. In all three polls so far I didn't include certain worlds for one reason or another. Either disregarding a place used for a tutorial or straight up forgetting it existed while making the polls.

So we'll do a poll for the disregarded and forgotten. [Some worlds I won't include still are only because those worlds only involve cutscenes in a game they appeared in. For example Disney Castle in KHI, Destiny Island in KHII, or Radiant Garden in KHIII. [Note: I've never played Re: Mind so I don't know if they added something to where you could go there or not and I'd like no spoilers]

Would you kindly reblog for better results?

[blindwielder]

Hello there. This is an AU-focused blog for Riku from the Kingdom Hearts series, specifically set after KHIII. Spoilers will be abound even in the very nature of the AU.

After being killed in the Keyblade Graveyard, Riku's heart was reborn in a world without his friends and without the keyblade. Memories can never be truly destroyed however, and the links of these memories still exist deep in his heart.

ABOUT/RULES | RIKU | AU INFORMATION | HEADCANONS

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Well, then.

An article I definitely didn't expect to see pop up today... or maybe ever. LOL. I actually didn't think that they'd put zettaflare in Final Fantasy after Donald used it in Kingdom Hearts III.

[lucemferto]

Sometimes I just look at people's opinions and I am just amazed by how ludicrously wrong I find them to be.

Case in point: The assertion that the Kingdom Hearts series is moving away from Disney. I mean ... have we played the same series?

Kingdom Hearts III is such a love letter to the Disney properties it represents - in fact, I'd argue that KHIII represents the series moving closer to Disney compared to KHII. The Disney worlds are realised with a stunning attention to detail, the cutscenes are lavish and extravagant and - most of all - the worlds are MASSIVE.

They easily make up 90% of the game and are written with an energy - with the exception of maybe Arendelle - that is completely missing in whatever meagre scraps the original content gets.

I mean, think about it: Kingdom Hearts I had four original worlds, which includes the massive Hollow Bastion as well two decently sized worlds in Traverse Town and The End of the World.

Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts III has two relatively small original worlds in Twilight Town and the amalgamation of the Keybalde Graveyard, the Final World and Scala Ad Caelum. As well as an in-cutscenes only Hub World where exposition is relayed to us as flatly as possible, while Arendelle gets a whole Let It Go number.

[another-clayres]

ripples

[ultraericthered]

Eraqus and Xehanort are F. R. I. E. N. D. S. to the very literal end!

The idea was done before, but I felt it needed to be taken one step better.

Credit to @sidetailedvixen

[crinkler]

underrated part of kh3 is when org xiii is in the caribbean looking for the box and they find out about davy jones' box and are like 'someone without a heart?? but he still exists?? fascinating!!" until they find out it's his literal biological heart and they're like . "oh. disappointing." and then leave

[accidentaldab]

Goofy dabbed in Kingdom Hearts 3

[kevinkevinson]

roxas @ lea after saving his ass

lea @ roxas after years of Having No Feelings

xion @ her dumb boys