#like kh1 and com were really good i think because sora donald and goofy actually had some drama

[dreamsy990]

For the asks, do you have any ideas with kingdom hearts characters you think don't interact enough?

RIKU AND ROXAS!!!!! like theres plenty of characters i think could have really interesting dynamics (repliku and roxas is another big one although i only want that in a scenario where we disregard that 3 ever fucking happened) but those two are my biggest. i think riku and roxas dont have NEARLY enough interactions and honestly? im scared for if they get any more because i think nomura will just??? forget that they have any drama????????? anyways while i really want rikus character to just be mostly over with since i think hes finished his arc, if they want to give him anything new to work on i think his relationship with roxas could be a really good dynamic for something about forgiveness. and i think itd fit thematically for rikus character arc, what with his whole story having been about accepting and forgiving himself.

so, i give you my ideal scenario for the roxas and riku dynamic. id like them to have a background arc in 4. they could spend a lot of time together, maybe looking for sora in quadratum or something else that would require them to be around each other a lot. and i think itd be really fun if they had a very one sided hatred. at some point offscreen during or after kh3, riku has apologized to roxas for you know. beating him up and kidnapping him. and thought roxas would forgive him. roxas very much has not forgiven him. hes still angry and keeps being casually rude to riku because i dont think roxas forgives easily. over the course of the story though id want them to start actually getting closer. its hard to stay angry at someone whos not returning that energy at all, and i think itd be fun if they eventually actually became friends. maybe sometime in the middle of it all riku realizes his apology didnt get through to roxas because he didnt really mean it when he said it (after all, i dont think he WAS actually sorry about what he did. hed do it again if he had to). i want them to be friends, sure, but id like them to have to actually put in the work to GET to being friends. ok thats all thank you for cuing my roxas and riku rant

[ultraericthered]

This whole discourse has turned repetetive beyond unintelligable at this point.

My biggest focus at that time was who was Roxas and who was the Org. I eventually got those answers but by that point I did not care because the intrigue I built up in the tutorial had long since faded.

"Eventually?" The answer to the first question came in the tutorial ("You hold half of who Sora is." "Nobodies like us are only half a person - you won't disappear, you'll be whole!" "To half of Sora."), and the answer to the next one came from Yen Sid within the first hour playing as Sora, Donald, and Goofy that followed. I don't get it.

There was absolutely no reason for them to not show up a bit more, to add to what began in the tutorial.

There wasn't, but Nomura, Nojima, and Oka had some clashing priorities and were out of sync with each other in the crafting and telling of this story, leaving plenty of room for corrections to be made but many of which sadly never really were (though at least they didn't go for overcorrection within KH2's story the way the novels did.)

No, it does not change solely because DiZ vanishes. It changes because Roxas and his entire contribution to the plot disappears with him once he's gone.

That's what I think @themattress was saying. DiZ and the rest are side factors, but Roxas and "his entire contribution to the plot" (which, in-universe, was because of DiZ and "Ansem"; Roxas would not be playing his plot out in this exact way had he not been KO'd in The World That Never Was and placed into a digital copy of Twilight Town by those two) being gone was completely unavoidable once he gave himself up to Sora's heart, prompting Sora's awakening. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had no incentive to stick around in the real Twilight Town and try to figure out all the mysteries of Roxas - they had a quest to go on. The figuring out in Twilight Town should have been Kairi's thing once she ended up there, and the teaser at the end of BBS FM seems to indicate that was an idea at some point, but regrettably, the writing squandered the opportunity to actually do it.

That does not make it okay. All this does is tell me that he did it intentionally. That does not make it a good writing decision nor does it excuse the issue I have with his decision. The decision being a writing problem is indeed subjective but this tidbit of info does not excuse it for those that see it as a problem.

It's not about "excusing", but explaining why Nomura felt like putting the Roxas story on hold for when Sora re-took the reigns and had to continue the storyline that was left unresolved in KH1 and had itself been put on hold by CoM was the direction he felt it best for the game to take rather than turning the game into the Roxas story.

the way this is written is making it seem like DiZ was more influential than he actually was.

You're assuming I cared far more about DiZ than I did or that his relevance to the plot as a whole was as grand as you seen it to be.

The thing is...DiZ was ultimately NOT very influencial and relevant in any grand way. His character was written to be one who'd wanted to be, who had this pretense of being "a servant of the worlds" and has so many big plans to achieve big things for the sake of his personal gratification and revenge against those who'd wronged him only for his vision to get nowhere close to being realized. All of his ambition for all the influence he sought to extend across the game's story ultimately "amounted to nothing" as Sora followed his heart, a heart which, thanks to DiZ, now housed Roxas, making this extra ironic.

In all this talk of "missing points", I still can't help but wonder how many of the "points" made by and for the narrative of KH2 and its place in the larger series narrative you might've missed that led to takes like this. But this is neither your fault nor the fault of those who concieved and executed the game's story. Some people will vibe with what's in there, others won't. KH2 was just not for you, I suppose.

I was setting up some saves for KH2FM and actually noticed myself having some level of fun. Despite how many times I've went through this process and despite my own hatred for the Roxas tutorial segment.

Yes, it has been seventeen years and I still do not like playing Roxas segment.

However this is a bit moot. I WAS having fun this time and I realized why, I had just finished slogging through KH3 on PC. This shocks me a little bit because I did make KH3 more enjoyable through some mods yet apparently even those weren't enough to redeem it.

On a subconscious level I would rather sit through Roxas' long ass tutorial than sit through KH3's story.

I assume some of that is just nostalgia but it is still something that surprises me due to my issues with KH2's own writing. The tutorial, while long, introduced us to this mystery back in 2005. By the end you were damn hyped (or intrigued) even if you weren't a Roxas fan by the end of it. (such as myself)

That story then just drops of a cliff. You can praise KH2 all you want but dont sit there and lie to me or yourself that the sheer difference between Sora and Roxas' story is drastic.

Which Sora's story is nice in it's own way but the drastic shift from one to the other really left the impression that these should have been two separate stories.

Despite that, I'd still rather sit through this than KH3's prettier presentation. It is sad to see how little interest the story has given me between 2 & 3.

Some of the entries within that very time frame even damaged what interest I had in Roxas or his story but that's a rant for another day.

I was gonna just stop there but I suddenly realized the loss in interest I had for Roxas due to Day's existence was similar to how I quickly quit caring about Axel in KH2.

You guys weren't there man, he was so entertaining in CoM on GBA only to get KH2 a year later and him be nothing like he was just one game earlier. lmao

Alright, time to go now, bye~

[bluerosesburnblue]

Now that KHUx ending has been out for a week a or two and you've dissected it, I wanted to ask you how you would rank the various KH game endings, if you have the time?

Oh, wow, yeah. That's really an interesting question. I never think of the endings much, despite how important they are. Let's see...

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - The nostalgia's got me bad with this one, but I've gotta put it at the top. It was my first KH game and I can only think of two other video games from my childhood that had endings that impacted me as much as this one did. It's clear-cut and succinct, it capitalizes on all of the character development shown in the game while wrapping up almost every plot thread it introduced, playing as Another Side Roxas is intense... and I think it's the only KH ending that's entirely tragic, but that just makes the tone so much more clearly defined than if it had been a mix of emotions. I don't know if I ever would have gotten into the series if the ending of this game wasn't as good as it was and didn't make me desperately crave more just to see how the Sea Salt Trio's story effected everyone else

Kingdom Hearts χ - It's kind of wild that I'm ranking a browser game so high, but the KHx ending (also known as The Keyblade War questline for KHUx players) was magical when it happened. And the thing is, it wasn't unexpected but still managed to be engaging. People were freaking out trying to fight the Foretellers who introduced you to the world of the game only to try and take you out of it. And the ending with Ephemer and Skuld coming to save you at the last minute was beautifully open-ended, while wrapping up all of the storylines from earlier in the game. It went from intense, to sad, to hopeful again and it did it all with chibi sprites. And not just that, but the external community came together just to see it happen. It was really special

Kingdom Hearts II - This one's just very emotionally satisfying, finally seeing everyone get to return home again after a three-game arc. Riku and Sora have a nice character moment where they finally respect each other that draws on their earlier rivalry in a satisfying way, then Mickey, Donald, and Goofy rush over to the boys in such a sweet way, and we even see Sora finally return Kairi's good luck charm! It feels like it really ties the KH1-CoM-KH2 arc to a close, and then leaves on a high note of even more adventures to come. It's beautiful and it feels like an actual, tonally-consistent conclusion

Kingdom Hearts III - On the one hand, this one gets big bonus points for managing to deliver on an ending that saw almost every character who'd suffered from terrible fates get happy endings in a way that felt earned, and to this day I cannot believe that they actually did the beach party ending that had been joked about for a long time. On the other, though, Sora's disappearance feels like a cheap hook to continue the story when it really should have been focused on just ending the Dark Seeker Saga without setting up for the next game (you could have had Sora disappear in the Re:Mind DLC though, I would have been okay with that). The highs are high, it's just really the last few seconds that bring it down for me

Kingdom Hearts - KH1 is a classic, but its ending is pretty basic all things considered. The world is saved! Kairi gets to go home! There's more adventure to come as Sora, Donald, and Goofy set off to find their friends lost to the darkness! It's perfectly acceptable, it's set up in a way where if they never made another game you'd be satisfied with it, but it's nothing remarkable, either

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, & Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory - I'm lumping these three together because I feel the same way about all of their endings. They're fine, but they're mostly setup for future games. Sora's promise to Naminé is cute, Riku teaming up with Mickey and DiZ and choosing dawn over darkness or light is nice setup for his future arc, the Wayfinder Trio's fates are sad but make sense in future games, MoM has some neat lore teases... but all of them rely on the existence of future games to bring the emotional satisfaction of those endings so they don't feel "final," and thus not particularly satisfying on their own

Kingdom Hearts coded/Re:coded: It exists. It's entirely a plot hook. Same issue as the three above, but it has even less substance since we never see Data Sora again. The only real purpose it has is letting Mickey know things that the audience already did. It's not awful, but it's not good either

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- - It's not really a full game, but I put KHx on here so I may as well. I think overall it's fine, and nobody was really expecting much from a short side story anyway. My issues with it mostly stem from the contrived way that it tries to shove Aqua into the KH1 finale without actually changing the finale, and that what Nomura said the original draft was is much more interesting and leads better into KH3 than the actual ending (originally Aqua was supposed to break down in despair and cry about how she wants to go home, which flows better into KH3's Anti-Aqua storyline). As it is, the ending is tonally discordant with the rest of the game

Kingdom Hearts Union χ - I think we all know what I think of Union X's finale. It's going here, because while I think that most of it should be ranked around where I have CoM and BBS, the parts that I didn't were so bad that it ruined the entire experience of it for me. It's only beating out the next entry because the parts that I did like were better than anything that happened in the next finale

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance - This game ends with a tea party and Sora in goofy glasses, which is so absurd that I have to give it some bonus points... and yet it's still at the bottom. I can't get over the decision to have Yen Sid fail Sora for being actively sabotaged (while Yen Sid did nothing to help) while promoting Riku, who was not a primary target and in less danger. They both should've been forced to retake the test. This decision is so bad that I don't even care about any good that it does for Riku's arc, because it's not like Riku even uses the Master status that he gets from this anyway so why was it important for him to pass the Mark of Mastery exam? They don't even have the decency to show Sora being all that upset about it, even in private. It's just brushed off! And the way that Lea gets a Keyblade entirely offscreen is so cheap. DDD is the only KH ending that I would classify 100% as a bad ending. It's frustrating to sit through, and that frustration can't even be ignored because it has a major impact on KH3

[khtrinityftw]

Lots of good takes here, a few bad takes, and one really AWFUL take, which I need to dissect because it's just so stupid.

He claims that the Disney worlds in KH1(!) are "just filler rehashes of the movies" and that you could advance from the start of the game to the end and miss nothing because that's when all the KH-original stuff goes down. He is stuck in the belief that if the story isn't heavily featuring the original characters, worlds and concepts, then it's "Disney filler". Now to be fair, he isn't the first or the only one who thinks this; I've seen others like SomecallmeJohnny and random Gamefaqers bring up the same argument. But here’s the thing...how about we actually do what's suggested and see what happens? 

So, skipping straight ahead from Sora, Donald and Goofy's "All for One and One for all!" in Traverse Town, we go to Hollow Bastion and...wait, how does Sora know that Kairi is here? Why is Riku suddenly evil? Why should we care when Sora loses the Keyblade when he only just recently learned about it and has barely used it? Why should we care when Donald and Goofy leave him when he only just met them and Donald made it clear they were only going along with him for mercenary reasons? What are the Princesses of Heart? What's the Final Keyhole? Hell, what the heck is a Keyhole in general? Why should we feel touched when Sora, Donald and Goofy reunite and Sora gets his Keyblade back after some big speech? Why is Maleficent even here if Ansem's the Big Bad? But why is Ansem the Big Bad when we've barely learned anything about that guy outside some brief exposition from Aerith? Kairi's inside of Sora's heart? That was barely foreshadowed! Sora's a Heartless until he isn't and...I'm sorry, what are we even fighting for anymore!? 

See what I mean? KH1's story is one where KH-original elements and advancements are parsed out throughout the Disney worlds, as are basic storytelling elements such as character and relationship development and foreshadowing. If you skip the Disney worlds, the entire narrative falls apart.

The Princesses of Heart and the Keyholes are introduced in Wonderland. The fact that Maleficent seeks both of these things is revealed in Deep Jungle. Sora, Donald and Goofy receive vital development as a team in both Olympus Coliseum and Deep Jungle. The revisit to Traverse Town which kicks off the 100 Acre Wood world within the Disney-centric Merlin's House clarifies why the Keyholes are so important and begins Riku's descent into darkness. The Princesses of Heart and why they are important is clarified in Agrabah, which also continues Riku's villain arc, something that then clashes with Sora's hero arc in Monstro. Further lore expansion and character development occurs in Alantica and Halloween Town, coming to a head in Neverland where the revelation of Kairi's current state is made to Sora and then he later learns that she has been spirited away to Hollow Bastion by Riku.

And through all this, we get foreshadowing on Kairi being within Sora's heart via moments in Deep Jungle, Merlin's House and Neverland, on Ansem having fallen to darkness and being the true Big Bad in the Ansem Reports collected by defeating Disney villains, and on the Final Keyhole and where it leads. And so by the time the trip to Hollow Bastion happens, we are fully invested and care about the situation and characters involved. And we know exactly what is at stake as we enter the story’s final act. All because of stuff that happened during Disney world visits...Disney world visits that DON’T simply “rehash the movies” I must add (that trend only pops up in KH2 and beyond) but simply uses specific moments and iconography from them because that’s what the majority of players want out of playing through Disney worlds (ex: if you can’t tree-surf with Tarzan in Deep Jungle, escape the Cave of Wonders on the Magic Carpet in Agrabah, or duel Captain Hook aboard the Jolly Roger in Neverland, then what’s even the point?) KH1 was KH at its most ideal: the Disney elements and KH-original elements complimenting each other and making each other stronger.

I’m glad this guy gives the original GBA edition of CoM the respect it deserves and his praise of KH2 is spot-on, but his fundamental misunderstanding of the original game loses him some major points with me. And if he honestly thinks that Disney is the biggest force holding KH back from its full potential and that Nomura deserves more freedom to focus on his self-indulgent, convoluted original material? I’m honestly scared of what kind of tripe he has to say about the series beyond.

[nadziejastar]

Another thing what really frutrated me about KH3 is that Riku and Kairi got zero interaction together during the entirety of tne game, no matter if it would have been one-on-one interaction or anything else. What are your thoughts on that?

Kairi: Who’s this new Riku and where’s the old one?

Riku: New me?

Kairi: Yeah. You’re more like Sora.

Riku: Should I be flattered? I try too hard to be the role model. It’s more fun to just listen to my heart. Which is Sora-esque. 

Kairi: Well, we still like you.

Yeah, the Destiny Island Trio really suffered compared to the other trios. Although Sora and Kairi’s bond got quite a bit of focus in the games, and Sora’s friendship with Riku also got a lot of attention, Riku and Kairi barely seemed like friends. I actually got really excited in 0.2 when Kairi playfully teased Riku. It was similar to the way Xion would tease Axel. It was really cute. It was one of the first times we saw them portrayed as actual best friends who grew up together and were comfortable around each other. Sora/Riku is the most popular pairing, and Sora/Kairi got a TON of attention in KH3. But Riku and Kairi’s relationship was kinda left by the wayside.

There’s no way I can lose to Sora.

Sora, I’m jealous.

I can’t run that desperately, I can’t laugh like that.

Why am I the only one a year older?

Maybe if Sora wasn’t here - if Kairi wasn’t here. If one of them wasn’t here, I’d definitely be able to get along well with whoever remained.

A world without Sora, a world without Kairi, it was just as much as cruel as it was a fantasy.

It’s too bad because I definitely think Riku still had unfinished emotional baggage with Kairi. There’s a novel short story that I really liked called “Total Eclipse”. I found a very good translation of it online. After CoM, Riku is having nightmares for three days straight. This is before he sets off on his own without Mickey. He’s remembering how he was feeling before Destiny Islands fell to darkness, right before he heard the Robed Figure say that the Door would soon open. He was feeling depressed. And I liked the novel’s interpretation of Riku’s character, specifically his feelings for Kairi. They seemed much more relatable.

Part of Riku kinda hated both Sora and Kairi in KH1. Sora was more childish than Riku and was able to enjoy the simple act of racing over and over. But Riku couldn’t. He was bored and dissatisfied and jealous of Sora’s simplicity. He hated being a year older. Riku also hated how Sora and Kairi were becoming closer and leaving him behind. He thought that maybe, if one of them was gone, then he’d get along well with whoever remained. Just not both of them at the same time. He was jealous of their growing relationship. It’s a common feeling when you have a best friend who suddenly get a significant other. I think that was part of why Riku was susceptible to darkness in KH1. Once he thought Sora replaced him with Donald and Goofy, he became obsessed with finding Kairi. 

“Sorry, Mickey.”Riku drooped just slightly.“Why’re you apologising? You haven’t done anything bad.” Even with Mickey’s words, Riku stayed drooped.I haven’t done anything bad? Really?But I thought of a world without Sora, without Kairi.And then, I hurt Sora, and Kairi.So did I really do nothing bad?       I called to the darkness inside you.Surprised by the sudden voice, Riku’s shoulders shook.He couldn’t be noticed by Mickey.       I am you - you are me - and we are darkness.I wanted to say that wasn’t true. But I couldn’t say that.I knew that I had darkness in my heart.So I decided that I would live with my darkness.I wouldn’t lose to something like the darkness in my heart.Even though I - fantasised about a world with no Sora, no Kairi - I hadn’t been able to destroy either of them.Since they’re both my important friends.“Riku?”“It’s nothing, Mickey. Let’s sleep a bit more.” Riku smiled.“Okay then.” Mickey lay down beside him.

Perhaps that aspect of Riku was going to be explored in more depth in KH0.5. It was supposed to be a game to make the main characters more complicated. And we did get to see the moment that Riku accepted the Robed Figure into himself in Re:Coded. In the novel short story, Riku feels really guilty for wanting to live in a world without Sora and Kairi. That’s why he decided to take off and leave Mickey behind. I don’t think he really got closure for all of that.

Writing this post inspired me. I swear, I should do another fanfic, this time with Riku and his blank period in KH1, Days, KH2. That was one of the ideas I had after I beat KH3. Riku’s story just felt so unsatisfying and unresolved to me. Plus, somebody’s gotta go to the Jungle Book world. I hate how that world got scrapped in BBS. Maybe Riku can go there by himself. Hmm. I dunno. I need to rewatch it again.

[angel-with-a-pipette]

I’m sorry I am replying late, but... I genuinely have problems answering this appropriately.

You see, I look at Sora and I am happy. Just seeing his face makes me happy and I could gush about something he did and said or just the way he looks all day, but your ask made me think. Yeah, why do I love him so much? Can I even explain it? Is there an actual reason?

(Warning: Long post is long. Tons of screenshots. You have been warned)

It’s everything about him. It’s the fact that I got to see him grow in the last 12 years, from a 14 year old awkward and goofy but cute boy to a 15/16 year old handsome young man who had to mature far past his age with everything he has been through. But his personality is just so delightful, too.

He is a funny person:

He has sass:

He radiates confidence:

But despite being thrown into these crazy adventures and being forced to make very adult decisions and having to fight the fight of adults, he still retains his childlike wonder:

Actually, he really keeps the child inside of him alive and it’s precious how playful he is. It’s also telling how we get to see more of this playful side after he’s been nearly norted :/ 

It’s like he is trying to live life to the fullest now - and he is so genuine and uninhibited about this. Not to mention downright precious:

He’s the type of person people like to surround themselves with, he shines as bright as the sun with only a smile:

But most of all?

It’s his love.

Sora has practically become a symbol of love and hope in this franchise.

He is always ready to help people despite not even knowing them:

He is even ready to help somebody who attacked him prior. He can immediately tell Elsa was just scared and doesn’t hesitate to protect her:

And he doesn’t leave Riku behind even though he turned into a villain right before his eyes:

Heck, he’s even friends with a bunch of stuffed animals! 

And gladly so, he is even super upset when he suddenly vanishes from the Winnie the Pooh book cover, indicating that his connection to them might have been harmed:

And if that wasn’t sweet enough - can you picture a 15 year old boy starring in a musical just to cheer up his mermaid bestie? Because that’s what Sora absolutely does:

And don’t even get me started on how sweet he is to little creatures and kids!! He even tends to crouch down to their level to make them comfortable:

Just look how sweet he is to Hiro who clearly looks up to Sora:

Upon witnessing Will’s death, Sora freaks out and goes to punch Davy Jones because he is done witnessing unfair deaths:

But not only Will - Sora has such a big heart that seeing Flynn die shortly after meeting him devastates him as well:

And when he is revived, Sora is more than relieved, so relieved in fact that he has to hug Donald and Goofy:

It’s so rare to see a male protagonist be so openly affectionate with his friends in general and it’s such a fresh breath of air:

He also doesn’t hesitate to show tears of relief and happiness:

(okay, he was a little flustered about that xD)

And he is so incredibly selfless, too, willing to give his life for Kairi:

He even expresses the wish to help Strelitzia Nameless star despite barely clinging onto life himself, if that isn’t selfless, I don’t know what is:

Sora insists that his friends are his power and he values them most:

And he pretends he is alright just for their sake, not allowing his sad feelings to surface if he can help it:

He even goes as far as to doubt his own self-worth without them:

And it’s the connection to them that shows Sora ultimately that everything can have a heart and he acknowledges it:

And of course, one thing that gets overlooked a lot: His love for Kairi. How he started out crushing on her, but still feeling so protective over her that he just had to share a paopu with her, no matter how, as long as he did it before Riku could:

He promised to return back to the Island with Riku in tow, but he can’t hold his promise. Sora feels guilty about it and doesn’t even have it in him to rejoice until she hugs him first:

And in KH3, they finally confess their feelings for real, by sharing a paopu fruit:

She is his light.

Their love is so sweet and wholesome and innocent and it just melts my heart when I look at them. Sora is so clearly in love and it suits him so well:

Needless to mention that Haley Joel Osment’s performance for him just adds to the richness that is Sora’s character. Without him and the emotions he is able to emote, I doubt Sora would have such an effect on me. In fact, I didn’t originally play the English version of Kingdom Hearts and while I always had a fondness for Sora, I only really fell in love with him in the last years, when I played KH1 and 2 FM for the first time, when I got to play CoM and BBS for the first time and especially now in KH3, his arguably best performance since KH2. With every scene, my love for Sora just grew.

Also, how can you not squeal at these images?

He’s the good this world needs. The unconditional love, the happiness, the helpfulness. If more people were like Sora, I truly believe this world would be a better place.

I’m sorry, I don’t feel like I did a good job at explaining at all ._. I also don’t feel that I remotely did Sora justice :/ There are so many other people who’d be more eloquent than I am, sorry ><

[mellz117]

Mellz plays KH Re:CoM, Reverse/Rebirth (Riku’s Campaign) part 3

Check out parts [1] and [2] if you haven’t seen them yet. Part 1 also has a link to Sora’s campaign

Below the Read More is the endgame and my final thoughts

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Riku is met with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, yet again, who still can't fathom why Riku's resisting his advances. Close your damn jacket!

Final battle! I lost twice? I think? Not many times but I think it was 2. But god damn not as many times as I lost to Repliku. That sucked. I don’t get mad about dying multiple times in a final boss, that’s kind of the point of final bosses...

Ansem has a great voice btw, like if there’s gonna be a voice for G-Dorf in Breath of the Wild 2, I want Richard Epcar or Dave Boat (Lexaeus) to voice him. I doubt it’ll happen but those are my picks!

This guy sure does talk a lot for someone who's supposed to be dying.

Ansem explodes in a thick fog of darkness that envelopes Riku and Mickey comes to the rescue. Technically Riku won so he’s allowed to relish in his victoy AS WELL AS be carried off my a floating mouse.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

 IDK where the basement is supposed to exist here because the door Riku reaches the ground floor through is the same door Sora goes through to LEAVE the ground floor. Is it like a hill? Gotta go upstairs to go downstairs?

Idk. I wanna see the full interior of the castle, I want blueprints.

“What now Riku? You going home?” Your Majesty. Mickey, my dude. You can’t just GO HOME after killing a man. Riku’s got some shit to go through, he can’t return to a normal life after this. There is so much more tha nthis!

I’m glad a MOUSE can understand darkness is a thing that just exists, can coexist with the light. Good on him for keeping an open mind! It took how long for anyone to realize light and dark are two sides of the same coin? Twilight Princess was all about this. ...Riku is the twilight princess.

Mickey wants to follow Riku down his path of light and dark and they’re friends now. When did they get the time to bond between KH1 and CoM?

How old is Mickey? He’s BFF’s with a teenager now, how old is he? I’m not saying child and adult friendships aren’t and shouldn’t be a thing, I may use Tumblr but I’m not THAT Tumblr. I’m just wondering what kind of grown-ass adult WANTS to be friends with a teenager lol. Mickey tells Riku, since they’re friends now Riku should call him my his name, rather than his title. So... No one else gets this talk? Donald? Goofy? No? OK.

I deadass expected Simple and Clean to start playing after a hard cut to black despite actually remembering the final confrontation with DiZ.

Riku and Mickey don the black coats DiZ presented earlier then they leave Castle Oblivion behind. The duo meets up with him at a crossroads and immediately Riku’s on the defense. I love Riku, he’s tired, he’s annoyed, he knows the world isn’t black and white, light and darkness, and the literal path he chooses reflects that. He’s accepting the darkness and using it to fight for his friends. I’m so proud of him. I wonder where these paths actually lead.

THE SUN IS RISING I DIDN’T NOTICE THIS UNTIL EDITING THIS WHAT?KJVBLSDFKJVBDLJ

NOW Simple and Clean plays, albeit after a fade to black.

During the credits cinematics we see Riku and Mickey travelling through Hollow Bastion, the same location where the 1,000 Heartless battle in KH2 takes place if I recall correctly! That was cool to see. Riku is having a difficult time. Help him.

The next one we see Roxas again. He stops and looks at the Twilight Town gang when they pass him and Axel tries leading him away. I can only assume the following went down:

“I wanna try that”, Roxas says and gestures to the ice cream the aforementioned group was eating. So he and Axel buy some ice cream and go up the clock tower, Roxas seems to be enjoying himself but Axel doesn’t seem to like this treat at all. I think he just eats it now for Roxas’s sake, he pretends to like it to make him happy.

So I don’t know the timeline of this part of the game. Is Roxas not part of the organization yet at this point? Is Axel trying to recruit him? Is this after Roxas defects and is forgetting his time with them?

The third clip we see a very brief shot of Riku a few months later and he’s looking good. Doesn’t cut his hair.

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Final clip, after the credits shows Roxas and at this point he’s either friends with Hayner, Pence, and Olette or they’re inviting him for the first time to hang out with them.

“Beyond the path without you is a forgotten promise to keep. We may have walked side by side, but now we go on back to back. And though our paths may not cross, all paths are connected somewhere. When I arrive at where you are, we may not appear to be as we were...”

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So, final thoughts of the game overall. I enjoy longish games but when the length is just padded out with such shallow worlds I get bored really easily. I like to explore the map but I can’t do that in this game. Riku’s campaign is very short in comparison to Sora’s, for better or worse. For someone who just REALLY, REALLY wanted to move onto KH2, this was welcome lol. Sora’s half put me to sleep and I had a hard time trudging through it. Not that the story wasn’t engaging enough for me, I just didn’t want to play.

Didn’t care for the card based battle here. I preferred the combat more in Riku’s half because card management wasn’t really a thing which I ended up growing to appreciate for Riku once I got used to it. All I had to do was level up and get an extra card if I felt like it. The duel system was really fun and made boss battles go quickly, when I actually took the time to INITIATE them. Most of my frustration was just me NOT doing what the game aggressively suggested. At least I admit when it’s me and not accuse the game of poor gameplay like a certain grumpy gamer but that’s none of my business. I think this game may have felt better on the Gameboy Advance, I wouldn’t know.

I wanted to cry. I missed these kids so much. I love them so much. I’m a god damn crybaby now so a lot of moments just ended me and sometimes I needed a moment to sob while I hug my cat.

The (original) characters.

I can feel bad for Vexen to a point, he was a bastard but he just ultimately just wanted to do sciency stuff. A lot of questionable science but whatever. He creeps me the hell out. I know he hated Marluxia but was he really willing to spill Marly’s plans to Sora JUST TO SPITE HIM? Or was he actually trying to help Sora? That might explain some things later on down the road...

Lexaeus was always boring so no comment.

Zexion is a cutie pie, I don’t know why I think this I guess it carried over from 10 years ago. I have a soft spot for him. And I didn’t post a single picture of him so here’s one.

Axel, my favorite bastard. I will always love him. Chaotic neutral. He’s not much of an antagonist in this game, more of an obstacle, but he’s certainly working in favor of his own interests. I’ve been reading Inkheart and he reminds me of Dustfinger? Fire and all i guess.

Marluxia is also a bastard but as an antagonist I don’t dislike him. He mostly has his good looks to help him with that. I’m not sure why he wanted to overthrow the Organization but it got him dead so GG my dude. Not sure why Xehanort invited him and Larxene back.

Larxene.

Repliku. Brat, very much a brat. He immediately had beef with Sora because apparently it’s too unreasonable for Sora to “forget the quiet girl who moved away” when you were four and five years old. I could barely remember this game let alone any memories from when I was 4. I would have liked to see him interact with Riku during the time he thought he himself (Repliku) was the real one. Imagine the DRAMA. I do feel bad for him, his struggles with his identity and his jealousy towards Riku. I love how he is with Namine, so soft spoken and gentle. But we all know that’s based on false memories which is so sad. But like Sora said, the memories might be fake but the feelings are real.

Namine is a very good girl, a victim, a child who, when given the courage to, will stand up against her captor to protect her friends. She’s very sweet and smells like Kairi! (Riku, that’s weird) She’s brave as hell and I stan her. She just wanted a friend.

Sora... He’s so pure, so wholesome. He’ll do whatever it takes to save his friends. He had a little moment of weakness and cast Donald and Goofy aside but he got better pretty quickly. He was willing to give Repliku a chance despite their interactions being negative. He forgave Namine, knowing she had no choice but to do what she was forced to do. Sora. Just Sora. Love him.

Riku. I couldn’t stand him in the first game, he was just a punk-ass teenager (which makes me wonder why he and Sora were ever friends in the first place) with a super inflated ego who just, kinda does a 180 after you beat Ransem and is good? But my god. I just fell in love with this precious bean in Re:CoM. I remember the best of Riku from KH2 (let’s pretend KH3 doesn't exist for a second here because that is in my opinion the BEST Riku) and it was so welcoming and CoM really bridged the developmental gap between 1 and 2. It’s nice to see him struggle with this darkness and then learn to utilize it in a safe manner. We see a lot of vulnerability from him too, when he’s being constantly mocked by Ansem and the few embers of Org13 he meets here, his own doppelganger touting how much better he is, not having his one form of support physically be there on the majority of his journey. Riku’s super snarky throughout the game overall though and I love that. He’s the complete opposite of Sora at this time and he’s absolutely done with everyone’s bullshit.

Ansem is really persistent. He’s the guy who just can’t take a hint, I can’t imagine his dating life is very successful. I don’t like him but I don’t hate him either. He definitely makes more of an impact as a bad guy in this game, frequently showing up to harass Riku. Obligatory mentioning my mistake in saying that HE was guiding Riku in the beginning of the game when it was actually DiZ.

DiZ is formally introduced in this game and he’s cryptic as shit. I dig his design but what the hell made Ansem the Wise take this form? With all those bandages he looks like a burn victim (I haven’t played BbS if this is what happened Im sorry) but the call of fashion still rings in his ears. Why belts on his head though? That was this series aesthetic until KH3 pushed plaid. Anyway he is also a character I don't have any particular feelings towards

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I think I’m going to take a break from KH for a bit. I got the Spyro Reignited Trilogy the other day for XBOne, so I’ll be playing that. I’ve never played Spyro before, I hope I like it!

[nonsensical-rants]

So, I 100%ed the Kingdom Hearts Franchise.

Alright. This might be a long take, just saying that now. But I know exactly where to start. This franchise. Is not as confusing as the entirety of the internet would like you to believe. It's mostly due to bad writing decisions here and there. I mean, yeah if you wanna have every single detail and definition ingrained into your brain. Then of course it can get complicated, but what franchise lasting as long as Kingdom Hearts isn't annoyingly convoluted? I can't think of one.

So my thoughts about  the series is that they're pretty good! Both as a story and as games, with some very big exceptions. I wanna say that you should definitely not try to 100% all of these games in chronological order in rapid succession. It will drain you. I can confirm this beyond a shadow of a doubt. After I beat KH2 it really start to hit me. Chain of Memories was fine, if not a bit tedious to get all the cards and Riku to level 100. But other than that I more than enjoyed my time with the game.

Heartless are born from the darkness in peoples hearts. Nobodies are created from the husk of a body left behind in the creation of a Heartless. While Unversed are born from supreme negative emotions that live inside us all. The stronger these feelings are/the person is, the stronger the heartless/unversed and nobody. Especially strong people can keep their identity when transformed into Nobodies. Thus explaining Organization 13. Only the keyblade can truly defeat these creatures. What's so hard about describing that to someone? It isn't that far fetched in terms of the fantasy genre.

Though personally. I have an enormous hatred from Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. Despite trying to keep an open mind about any and all forms of media I come across, I cannot ever get behind this title in the series because it is just too much and strays too far from what i consider to be "Kingdom Hearts". The gameplay was not fun for me personally, the story was iffy at best in comparison to the others and it really felt like the biggest amount of padding. If you have to do that to become a Keyblade Master, I think i'd rather stay as a rouge agent like Sora did for 99% of the series.

The dream eater system was probably the biggest factor here as for 100% completion you have to get every single dream eater, and every single skill that they can give you which means leveling a lot of them up to the point where they have points to buy said skills. Which takes forever. And then there's the Dream Eater tournaments, which I would have never gotten past without cheap strategies I found online. Usually I get everybody to max potential in these games and give the best items and accessories all around. But as soon as I got the platinum I ejected the disk and took a break. I felt like I needed it.

Alright, putting that behind us. The difference in fighting styles from game to game can get a bit jarring but in the PS4 re-releases it can usually be adjusted too in about half an hour to an hour's worth of gameplay. Chain of Memories was fun, but tedious like I mentioned. And Birth By Sleep was actually a fresh of breath air (until you get to the secret boss fights that is...) If it wasn't for my need to see that 100% bar next to the game title I would classify these games as something everybody should try out and enjoy. They are fantastic experiences. So lets go in order for a bit.

KH1 is a classic story, going through Disney worlds with a fine mix of Final Fantasy. Meeting the princesses and seeing they are "Princesses of Heart" that have strength beyond muscles. Able to use the power of Light and what not. There's a few hiccups here and there (like Cloud and Sephiroth not acting like how they are in FF7 but everyone's already mentioned that.) But aside from that and the bad platforming, its a genuinely fun game to 100% and I'd highly recommend it. Maybe even try to get cosmic arts for everyone so you can have 16-19 MP bars. It gets silly.

Chain of Memories i've already mentioned a lot so far. So I don't think I need to go that in depth. Fun to go through but wouldn't recommend 100%ing it because it takes far to long. The story is actually pretty decent and isn't that complicated. Sora and the gang lose their memories of KH1 because of the magic witch Namine, while we get our first look at Organization 13.

KH2. The golden child. Still played by many to this day and its obvious to see why. The game play is crisp and fantastic as I remember it from my youth. Traveling to Disney worlds again (and not card versions of them that have no people except for cut scenes, like CoM) and having a constant looming threat over your head while you try to have fun on your journey. Its great. I have yet to do a level 1 critical mode (as that's not required thankfully) but I did thoroughly enjoy my regular Critical play though. Story still isn't that bad yet. Organization 13 comes in full force, trying to get a new version of "Kingdom Hearts" so they can restore their humanity. I'd highly recommend 100%ing this one as well. Would also recommend maxing out your stats and putting on multiple Full Bloom+'s and Shadow Archieve+'s for the fun of it.

Birth By Sleep. Still not that bad honestly. It comes at a weird time though, and the story telling kind of requires you to have some outsider knowledge so that you're not thrown for a loop the entire time. So it feels weird to go back in the past, but also necessary for the story as a whole. Fun game to play minus the hundreds of mini games you need to do for all three main characters. If it wasn't for that I would recommend playing this game to completion. It's hard to reach higher levels though and as everyone's who played the game knows. Terra sucks at End Game compared to Aqua and Ven. I beat the Secret bosses by sheer luck and I would not go back for them. You do get to learn the origins of what makes most of the future events play out though and you even get to see younger versions of Organization 13. Back when they weren't evil!

Nothing eventful happens in Re:Coded.

Dream Drop Distance... Already talked about it. Let's move on before i'm forced to remember dream eaters and their annoyingly high pitched theme song.

Birth By Sleep 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage. Really good demo for KH3 in all honestly. I had a fun time with it and seeing Aqua's pain and journey through the realm of darkness for a whole 10 years was interesting.

And now we're at Kh3. The big game we waited so long for. And its... Alright. Nothing really spectacular. The graphics are certainly splendid and gameplay feels great! If not a bit too floaty. Thats a problem for some people, especially those who were avid fans of KH2. But I had no problem with it. I have yet to play it on critical but i've heard it makes things far more entertaining. As for story, its also alright. Not the grand ending I was expecting but it was really fun all things considered. Just another ride through more modern Disney worlds. But no Final Fantasy! I get that they feel KH can stand on its own legs now but you can't take out half the formula that people fell in love with originally. Then there's no battle arena or replayable boss fights. Doesn't have to be the Real Orginization 13. Just any replayable fights with end game gear would be enough.

As for my real problem with the games. Is the treatement of the third member of the original trio. Kairi. Oh, how this character has divided a good portion of the fan base just by existing. It feels like all the time that she is just a damsel for Sora/Riku to save and rescue. In the first game, thats fine. Whatever. She was unconcious the whole time and had her heart within Sora. Chain of Memories was a game about Sora losing his memories and Riku overcoming his darkness. Thats also fine. But in KH2. Really? She gets a keyblade and can't even handle a group of shadows? The lowest level of heartless? It's embarrassing. She's supposed to be a Princess of Heart. What's that even mean anymore? It doesn't even seem relevant.

KH2 should've been her moment to become a party member just like Riku did. I dont care that it means you could possibly not have Donald or Goofy. KH2 felt the most like the penultimate ending to the series than Kh3 did in my opinon. Having the choice between your KH1 buddies (Sora, Donald and Goofy) or the Island Trio (Sora, Riku and Kairi) would have added excellent variety and much needed development for Kairi as a person rather than leaving her as a one dimensional damsel in distress who has a Nobody with more internal conflict and character motivation. Moving past that... BBS is a prequel so nothing for the original trio except for meeting Aqua/Ven/Terra. And we come back to the dreaded DDD again.

If my vision for Kairi in KH2 couldn't have become a reality. Then why wasn't DDD Kairi's game? The set up was perfect. The heroes of light need to train to overcome almost double the amount of darkness agents. Kairi (and Axel) are practically beginners at wielding a Keyblade. It should've been their time to shine and get some love while occasionally helping Sora and Riku in their Mark of Mastery exam. Why did it have to be something you do alone? Well actually you're not alone you have the stupid Dream Eaters. Regardless it could have been the newbies learning how to get to Kh2 Sora's level while Sora goes beyond his limits.

As for KH3, it's just awful. Kairi's treatment is awful and everyone knows it. She said she was gonna help but hit one whole heartless in the finale. Better than KH2 i suppose. And as for the argument of her being "too weak" to try anything agaisnt Xemans. Really? She couldn't even like. Step on his foot? Pull agaisnt his grip or switch which hand the blade is in? Since the keyblade can teleport to your hands when you need it. I don't expect her to randomly become a Keyblade Master, but. I think we all would've prefer if she just did ANYTHING over what actually happened. It's sad. I hope KH4 will give Kairi the proper treatment and character development she deserves. But for all we know it might be another Sora/Riku dual protagonist game like CoM or DDD. What do you think?

[chuplayswithfire]

By request, this is my bullet point summary of the kingdom hearts series. This hits all of the most major plot points and should prepare the uninitiated to at least understand the things being talked about on their dash

Some things to know:

I'm making this on mobile so I can't cut for length

I do not go into detail on everything, this is, again, to hit those major plot points and get you caught up on the gist

It is 49 points long

1) once there was an age of fairy tales where tons of people collected light to fight darkness. They eventually began to battle each other, had a war, destroyed the world.

2) the world came back

3) way later there was a fuckboy named xehanort who found out about the keyblade war and a power (kingdom hearts) that could theoretically make him god and he wanted it

4) so he became a keyblade master and eventually decided he was too old and would die before he reached his goal and decided to make a new vessel

5) the kid he picked for it (ventus) wasn't strong enough so he decided to experiment on him to try and make a superweapon. When he thought he failed, he ditched half of it on his ex-friend (eraqus) and met his two kids (terra and aqua) and decided his ex-friend's son-kid (terra) would be a good vessel

6) years later he tries to obtain that power. He fails but does obtain that son-kid's (terra)'s body. his weapon-kid (ventus) is in a coma and the sister (aqua) is in darkness and he lost his memory

7) luckily he's taken in by someone on his side (braig/xigbar). They start experiments, create the heartless, and he regains his memory in time to split himself into two: a heartless to command the darkness (ansem sod) and a nobody (xemnas) to prepare the rest of his plans

8) ten years later Sora Kairi and Riku are building a raft to leave their world when it's destroyed. They are split up. Sora gets the keyblade

9) Sora meets Donald and Goofy and goes on many adventures trying to find his friends

10) Sora finds his friends but Riku is giving into darkness and possessed by ansem and Kairi's in a coma bc her heart is in Sora. Sora frees her, becomes a heartless, she saves him, he fights ansem-who-is-xehanorts-heartless, and Riku and King Mickey help him seal that major baddie away

11) the islands come back, Kairi goes home, Sora goes looking for Riku and Mickey with Donald and Goofy

This is KHUX/KHChi, Birth By Sleep, and KH1

12) when Sora freed Kairi, he created a nobody because he became a heartless. His nobody Roxas is made part of Organization 13, which is lead by Xehanort's nobody, and seeks to destroy heartless to collect the hearts to make the superpower Xehanort wants.

13) Roxas has a friend named Xion who realizes she is a weapon created to steal Sora's power and memories to prevent him from waking up. Xion grapples with her own morality and mortality and decides that fucking over Xemnas and saving the world is more important than just burying her head in the sand in hopes of having good times with her friends and sacrifices herself.

14) in between 12&13 is Chain of Memories, where in which Sora first encounters org 13 as a bunch of weirdos in a castle who give him a riddle and imply Riku is there. They are under Marluxia's command and want to make Sora their puppet weapon with the help of Namine.

15) Namine is Kairi's Nobody who was created when Sora unleashed Kairi's heart. she has power over memories, but only Sora's, probably because she was created from his body and Kairi's heart. Marluxia and the org are threatening her to change Sora's memory. She replaces his memories of Kairi with memories of her to convince him to go further into they trap.

16) Namine feels bad about this bc she is a good person in an abusive situation. She eventually rebels and helps Sora because of this

17) Axel, a nobody who is also there, has turned on Marluxia and co bc he is actually there to kill the traitors, because Marluxia wants to use Sora to rule the Organization. He lets Namine escape to fulfill that goal

18) one of the reasons namine feels so bad is because of Repliku, a replica of Riku who is like Xion except he thinks that he's the real Riku and doesn't have any bonds outside of the fake memories. Namine has to break his heart to stop him from killing Sora.

19) Sora beats Marluxia and Namine puts him, Donald, and Goofy to sleep so she can fix his memory. Because of how she messed up his memory, this will make him forget her and everything that happened. Sora promises to see Namine again and be friends with her for real.

20) it turns out Riku really was here the whole time. He fights Nobodies too, including Lexaeus and Zexion. He beats Zexion and the power of Ansem, from his possession, kills Lexaeus. He tries to control his own darkness and finds Sora, and promises to protect him while he sleeps.

21) Axel uses Repliku to kill Zexion and gets on back to the org. He's BFFs with Xion and Roxas and realizes he was kind of a dick by being friends with them.

22) he friend breaks up with Saix, bc they've changed and he doesn't recognize Isa in Saix. Axel killed Vexen and Zexion bc he and Saix were scheming together to take down Xemnas and get their hearts back.

23) SAIX IS NOT JEALOUS OF ROXAS, THAT IS A FANDOM MISINTERPRETATION. he has a line about fake friends or real friends and this is not Saix vs Roxas, but him trying to tell Axel that Xion is a Replica and not a reason person. Note: Xion is a real person, Saix is misinformed and being a dick

24) Roxas leaves after Xion dies and gets captured by Riku who dumps him in a data world made by DiZ so he can start integrating back with Sora

25) DiZ is the origibal ansem who was yeeted into darkness by Xehanort when he stole his name, and bc of that he hates Nobodies and wants to destroy the organization

26) axel finds roxas but Roxas ultimately does go back to Sora (looks like my summer vacation is over) exactly one year after he was created. Sora wakes up with Donald and Goofy

27) Sora learns about the Nobodies and that the worlds are in danger again and goes to help the worlds and look for Riku and King Mickey. He kills Xaldin and Demyx while in Disney Worlds.

28) Axel kidnaps Kairi as part of an effort to try and get Roxas back from Sora but loses her to Saix

29) Sora learns Kairi is kidnapped and is big mad

30) axel realizes he was a dick, tries to rescue Kairi, is mostly-murdered by Saix in the effort, and dies to protect Sora.

31) Sora kills Saix and Luxord and Xigbar, is reunited with Kairi and Riku

32) DiZ yeets himself back into the land of darkness destroying the fake kingdom hearts created from all the gathered hearts, roxas and Namine return to Sora and Kairi for good, and then Sora and Riku kill Ansem and go home

This is Chain of Memories - 358/2 Days - KH2

33) Sora and Kairi and Riku enjoy a brief break while Donald Mickey and Goofy recap things. They realize Jiminy's journal was erased when Sora had his memory wiped by Namine and discover a strange message: their hurting will be mended you return to end it

34) they create a data Sora and go through all the worlds from kh1 and then com to try and get to the bottom of the journal, which has corrupted data. this game is brushed off as filler but is critical bc it establishes that fake beings like say, data copies, can in fact develop hearts and therefore Xion is real and has a heart fuck off gamer Bros

35) also Pete and Maleficent are there bc the games continually remind us they exist

36) it turns out the message was written by Namine, who made a data Namine to let Sora know about all the memories of other people connected to him. Mickey and Data Sora learn that Roxas, Xion, Axel, Terra (Xehanort's first vessel), Aqua (bbs girl and true keyblade master), Ventus (1/2 of that failed superweapon) and Namine all need to be helped and have the pain in their heart mended.

37) Ventus is in Sora's heart because when he almost died, Sora as a newborn baby connected his heart with Ventus. current theory I have is that Sora was born exactly as Ventus was dying and this weird connection allowed this to happen.

38) Mickey writes to Sora and Riku that they should take the Mark of Mastery exam to become true keyblade Masters and gain new power

39) Sora is confident about his coolness bc he saved the universe twice but Riku feels bad about giving into darkness and so they both take the test

40) the test is hijacked by Xehanort who reveals he's back and also that he's used time travel to bring back every version of himself. They want to use Sora to make a 13th version and start a new keyblade war to get Kingdom Hearts

42) they revealed that nobodies can regrow hearts and xemnas made up that no emotions forever shit because he wanted to rule his cult and make them all into vessels as a plan b

43) Riku stops them by saving Sora, with the help of King Mickey, and Lea, Axel's complete form

44) it turns out that when a Nobody and their Heartless die they become whole again. Lea wants a keyblade to rescue his friends including Isa, Saix's somebody who is norted

45) Xehanort says they will fight soon, when his 13 darknesses (aka possessed bodies) fight the 7 lights, and this clash will create the superweapon the X-blade which will let him open kingdom hearts, recreate the universe, and become god

46) Riku passes the exam and becomes a master. Sora fails but isn't too broken up about it. Yen Sid sends Riku to get Kairi and begins to train her and Lea as Keybearers to be Lights

47) Sora takes off to Olympus with Donald and Goofy to train with Hercules and recover the strength he lost when he was nearly possessed by Xehanort

48) meanwhile while all of this happened, back in point 10, we have a short game about Aqua who has been trapped for 10 years. It's depression the game and intersects with the plot bc she helps Mickey find the thing he needs to seal the darkness. She's separated from him and Riku which is why she can't get out to the darkness when they do in CoM

49) we are caught up to kh3

This is Really:Coded, Dream Drop Distance, and 0.2 Birth by Sleep

Misc. Details:

Kairi, Xion, and Namine look alike because Namine is Kairi's Nobody and Xion is based on Sora's memories of Kairi. Their main difference is hair color and style: Kairi has red hair, Namine has long blond hair, Xion has short black hair

Ventus and Roxas look identical. This is basically because baby Sora allowed Ventus to take shelter in his heart, so Roxas ended up looking like Ventus despite being connected to Sora

Vanitas looks like Sora but with black hair and gold eyes because Vanitas is the other half of Ventus, and thus connected to Sora's heart

There is a young version of Xehanort because of time travel. Don't stress about the time travel, just accept it

Pretty much all the main characters who aren't from a Disney property, a villain, or Axel/Lea (redhead, green eyes, fire powers), Aqua (blue hair, blue eyes, keybearer), or Terra (brown hair, blue eyes, keybearer) are underage.

[tenscupcake]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - An Honest Review

I’d like to preface this review by saying I am an unabashed Kingdom Hearts geek. Like, through and through. I played KH1 when I was just a tween, and have picked up a copy every installment since (in some cases, even bought the entire console just to play that one game). I still have CDs of the game soundtracks, a few discs which have nearly burnt out on replay in my car. Sanctuary After the Battle will forever make me cry, whether or not I’m watching the cutscene that goes along with it. I’ve replayed most of the titles multiple times. Wasted away hours on YouTube watching Story So Far recaps and funny commentaries about the games in preparation for KH3. Like millions of other enthusiasts, I have been eagerly and patiently (all right, sometimes not so patiently) awaiting the arrival of KH3 since the moment I first finished KH2 – 13 very, very long years ago.

At around eight o’clock on premiere night, I took my place in line at my local GameStop wearing my Kingdom Hearts t-shirt and pajama pants, brandishing the miniature Kingdom Key clipped to my lanyard. Finally holding that blue case in my hands was absolutely surreal. One of those natural highs it took me hours to come down from. Tears welled up in my eyes at the first few somber piano keys as the title screen faded into view.

Lots of people asked me, in the weeks and even months leading up to the release (because believe me, at any opportunity, I would not shut up about how excited I was about this game), if I thought it would live up to the hype. Pfft, I thought. People outside the KH fandom never understand. Of course it will. Sure, the series has had its weak links, its hiccups (the battle system in COM and the perpetual re-releases of old games with minor tweaks, to name a couple). But with the compelling cinematic storytelling and uniquely delightful gameplay of the main series’ smash hits - KH1, KH2, and BBS – in their repertoire, I knew the team at Square was capable of pulling this off. To me, it was just a given that it would be epic. That playing it would be worth all the years of waiting. I had absolutely no doubt in my mind this game was going to be lit. As. Hell.

I’m only saying all this so as not to give the impression I went into this game looking to find flaws, to nitpick it. Or with the expectation of being disappointed. In fact, quite the opposite.

I wanted to love this game. To me, loving KH games is one of very few constants in my life. I was supposed to love this game. I needed to love this game.

But the truth is, I didn’t.

That statement has been pretty difficult for me to come to terms with.

In what few early reviews and videos I’ve found of people discussing their thoughts on the game, I’ve found fans to be quite split: with some unreservedly loving, others downright hating the game.

I fall somewhere in the middle of the polarized fandom. I did NOT hate the game. It was actually a good, if not great game. But putting it on a sliding scale of satisfaction and disappointment, I would say it’s tipping toward the latter. And as it’s taken me hours of mulling, reading, and discussing with other players to characterize and articulate precisely why, and because I think I owe it not only to the series and the characters therein, but also my younger self to leave no stone unturned, this review is going to be a long one.

I’m finding it easiest to break it down by category:

Graphics.

This game is beautiful. It was sort of a dream come true to meander around in real time with the gorgeously, smoothly animated versions of Sora and the gang that we’d previously only been able to see in the rare cinematic cutscenes at each game’s beginning and end. Most of the Disney and even Pixar worlds and characters are rendered to nearly the same quality as their film counterparts. I often found myself just standing in place for a while, admiring it all. The vivid green landscapes of Corona, the beaches and sprawling sea in the Caribbean, the towering cityscape of San Fransokyo. And walking on water where the sky meets the sea? Stunning.

Gameplay.

All in all, this game is pretty damn fun to play. It was all I thought about during long days at work: I couldn’t wait to jump back into the action. Pounding on Heartless still brings me back to the good old days. And who doesn’t want to run up the side of buildings as Riku and Roxas demonstrated so epically, so long ago, in the World That Never Was? Soar to sky-high Heartless as easily as you can lock onto them? These new movement aspects brought an almost superhero-esque quality to the game, reminiscent of Spider-man’s wall-crawling or Batman’s grappling hook, that, if a bit unrealistic, I found to be immense fun. And compared to previous games, worlds are no longer cordoned off into many separate areas, and with the sheer scale of them, KH3 experiments with a quasi-open-world style that is rather freeing.

I also really appreciate that the character interactions with your party and with NPCs felt much less clunky. For one thing, they FINALLY did away with the press X-to-progress text-only conversations that were so prevalent in previous games, with all the dialogue left to voice actors. Even minor NPCs that only show up one time were given a voice, making every interaction that much more immersive. Transitions from cutscenes to the action were also much more fluid, and Sora and his current teammates talk to one another as you pow around. Even if it’s just a warning from Goofy you’re going the wrong way, or a heads-up from Donald there’s an ingredient or lucky emblem nearby, it was still a new feature I was glad to have.

Combat-wise, this game has a lot going for it. This installment brings nearly all the combat styles we’ve seen up until this point: magic, combos, form changes, flowmotion, shotlock, companion team-ups, and links. And it even introduces a few new ones on top of all this: the ability to swap between three different keyblades at will, and the new Disney parks-inspired attraction commands, where you can summon roller coasters, tea cups, and spinning carousels to your heart’s content. What this enables is for the player to never get bored during a battle. With so many options to choose from in each new enemy encounter, you never have to stick with the same combat style or get stuck in a rut of just mashing X to hack and slash everything. All things considered, Sora’s got some pretty sick moves this time around. Whipping out Thundaza, watching lightning explode across the screen and zap all the enemies in sight with it? Wicked. Floating above the ground, wreaking ethereal, glowing havoc with the Mirage Staff? Awesome. Surrounded by a sea of Heartless, locking onto 32 different targets at once and unleashing a flurry of lasers to slash through them all? Amazing. Thumbs getting fatigued fighting the third maddening iteration of Xehanort? Give yourself a break from the chaos in a giant, technicolor pirate ship, watching it thwack your adversary on every rock back and forth.

On one hand, the hefty damage most of these combat options deal gives the game an almost Ratchet and Clank-esque ‘blowing shit up’ vibe, which is undeniably fun. But, this array of choices does become a double-edged sword. With grand magic, attraction commands, form changes, and team attacks all fighting for space atop the command deck, they tend to pile up quickly. It’s not at all uncommon to rack up three or four different situation commands after only about 30 seconds of fighting. Sometimes, the constant need to make a choice, especially in a busy battle, can be more of a burden than a blessing. Having to shift between situation command selections on top of attacking, blocking, and accessing your shortcuts can be a bit cumbersome.

Unlike in previous games, there also aren’t many consequences for over-using special attacks. In KH2, your drive gauge ran out and needed to be slowly refilled. You also ran the increasingly high risk of morphing into the near-helpless Anti-Sora by relying too much on drive forms. But here, no matter how many times you’ve used a special attack, your MP will reload in a few seconds, and you can easily just ignore the situation command for Rage Form when it pops up. In BBS, it felt like it took a good while to power up to a form change, whereas in KH3 it seems like you can spend just as much time in a powered-up keyblade form change as in regular combat.

And, because so many of these situation commands are so powerful and frequent, they tend to dominate the entire battle, making the combat in the game much easier than previous games. Bordering on too easy. Where in other entries in the main series, I usually had to die several times on each boss in Proud mode before I devised the right strategy to defeat them, I rarely died at all in this game. On the surface, that isn’t such a bad thing. As I like to say a lot of the time, when I play a game “I’m here for a good time, not a hard time.” But there comes a point when the combat is so easy that it no longer gives you that sense of accomplishment when you progress past a tough batch of heartless or a particularly merciless boss – you know, that punching the air, whooping to yourself sort of pride. I was definitely missing that, at times.

Believe it or not, I think the Disney attraction commands, though powerful, and at first hilarious, were a bit too extra. After only a few hours in they just became annoying, and I was doing my best to ignore them when they popped up, even wishing I could turn them off. Now and then, I’d accidentally trigger the Blaster or the raft ride and just roll my eyes while canceling back out of it. Because it doesn’t really feel like you’re doing any fighting, let alone the real-time keyblade-style fighting uniquely special to this series. And forget trying to effectively aim while you’re in one. After a while the only thing I found them useful for was, as I mentioned earlier, taking a break from a fight when you’re fatigued, as they give your thumbs a break and cause you to take much less damage. While they were cool at first, my final impression of this addition to the combat was all flash, no substance.

I was one of the few who actually liked and took advantage of flowmotion in DDD, and was excited to see it brought back here. But this, too, turned out to be mostly another annoyance. I’m not sure if it’s because the actionable objects are so much more spread out in KH3, or because they actually built in restrictions on combos here, but I was unable to keep a flow going at all. After only one successful strike after leaping off a wall or pole, the blue glow of momentum vanished. It didn’t feel like “flowmotion” at all, just a one-and-done special attack that tended to kill any rhythm I had going moreso than facilitate it. So while conceptually and visually it was promising, I unfortunately no longer found it very useful.

Also, and I realize this is completely subjective, but I found the form changes to be stylistically underwhelming overall. I thought the drive forms in KH2 (especially Master and Final) were visually and stylistically cooler, and seemed to have more finesse.

Worlds.

When I was whisked away from San Fransokyo and landed in the final world of the game, I found myself disappointed by the number of worlds I’d been to, expecting there to be a handful more. Though, when I counted the worlds up, the tally was at nine. So I asked myself why it felt like so little, when nine didn’t seem like a small number. But, tallying up the worlds in previous games, KH1 had 13, KH2 had 15, and BBS had 10. Which does put KH3 on the low end of world count. Also, in all three of these previous games (especially KH2 and BBS), you had to return to these worlds more than once, usually unlocking new content and/or areas each time, leading it to feel like there were more worlds than there actually were. Though KH3 has a comparable length of gameplay to complete the story, it definitely does feel like it comes up short in terms of variety of worlds you get to visit. As a result, some of the worlds where you spend 3 or 4 hours at a time can start to feel like they’re dragging on a little bit. And on the flipside of that, there are certain worlds that you technically do visit in KH3 I did not include in the world count, because you are there for such a fleeting amount of time, or in such a tiny portion of the world – e.g. Land of Departure, the Realm of Darkness. Worlds that would have been awesome to get to actually explore! And perhaps the biggest letdown of all, though you get to visit Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden via cutscenes, there is no play time in either. Serious bummer.

As far as the worlds they did choose to include, the selection admittedly left me ambivalent. I was really glad to see Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Big Hero 6 included, but wasn’t over the moon about any of the others. I was really counting on having a Wreck-It-Ralph world (I mean, how perfect would that be?), and would love to have seen them tackle Zootopia, Wall-E, Meet the Robinsons, or the Incredibles. I’d even settle for a return to Halloween Town (shameless NBC fangirl, what can I say). The Emperor’s New Groove could have been pretty damn funny. Even A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo could have offered some unique gameplay opportunities. Certainly better content to work with than Frozen, at any rate.

As far as the plot/experience within the worlds, I also found it to be a mixed bag. I did enjoy all of them, even ones I did not expect to enjoy too much (i.e. Frozen and Pirates). Honestly, though, I found myself a bit bored in worlds where they followed the plot of the films too closely, to the point that it felt like an abridged re-hash of the movies. I know they’ve taken this approach before with earlier Kingdom Hearts games, and I may sound like a hypocrite for only critiquing it now. But I think even in stories where they did do this earlier, like Tarzan or Aladdin, they executed the re-tellings more successfully. The plotline was altered just enough to ensure Sora was a part of the action through and through. After playing those games, Sora was indelibly inserted into those films in my head. To where the next time I watched them, I was jokingly asking myself “Where’s Sora?” But that was not the feeling I got here. In worlds like Corona or the Caribbean, Sora was just sort of jammed into the plot where he didn’t really fit. In many of the longer cutscenes, I actually forgot Sora was even there – even forgot I was playing Kingdom Hearts. Sora didn’t really feel needed. I definitely found it more enjoyable to be part of a new adventure with the characters – like what was done with Toy Story and Big Hero 6, where Sora was able to play more of an active role in progressing the subplot. It was nice to feel like I mattered!

Extras.

These were hit-or-miss for me. I actually screeched with excitement when Sora and the gang ran into Remy, and enjoyed the scavenger hunt for ingredients. And while cooking with little chef was a treat I wouldn’t want to see cut from the game, I found most of the cooking mini-games to be simultaneously too short (less than 10 seconds each!) and needlessly hard to master (especially cracking that egg).

Admittedly a Disney and Disneyland fanatic, I also got a kick out of the lucky emblems (aka hidden mickeys). I thought they were one of the most fun collectibles we’ve seen to date in the franchise.

Which brings me to one of the more controversial extras in the game: the gummiphone! While a lot of people are ragging on the inclusion of this dynamic, I enjoyed it. The Instagram loading screens were a little jarring at first, but they really grew on me. And being able to point the camera at Goofy, Sully, or Hiro and watch them pose for a picture in real-time was nothing short of adorable.

Another thing that surprised me? The game’s occasional self-awareness. I almost included a separate category for this, because I’ve never seen another game do this, and did not see it coming! But the “KINGDOM HEARTS II.9” title screen gave me a good chuckle. It doesn’t make up for all the 1.5, 2.8, 0.2 nonsense we’ve had to put up with, but it’s at least nice to see they can poke fun at their own ridiculousness. And when Sora laments how long it’s been since he’s seen the folks in Twilight Town; then Hayner, confused and even a little creeped out, says “It hasn’t been that long”. Simply acknowledging the vast disconnect between the short time that’s passed in-universe since KH2 and how egregiously long the fans had to wait – well, it had me in stitches. It was morbid laughter, sure, but refreshing nonetheless.

Um, the folk dancing in the square in Corona? Literal funniest thing ever.

One thing that I really missed? Closing keyholes. Finishing worlds wasn’t the same without them.

At this point in the review, I’ve covered basically every aspect I can think of save for one: the story. I’ve purposely saved it for last, because it’s the most important aspect of the series to me, the one that can make or break a Kingdom Hearts game.

From the categories I’ve judged thus far – content, visuals, gameplay, extras – I’d probably give this game a solid 8 or 9/10. I had some issues with the overly cluttered combat, the difficulty level, and the slight disappointment with which worlds were included and the ways they chose to play out the subplots in each. But in the grand scheme of things, all these complaints are minor, and don’t detract from the fact that it’s just plain fun, in a new league with some of the most entertaining and most beautiful titles out there.

But that’s exactly it. Beautiful graphics are the new bare minimum for this generation of console gaming. If a game released for the PS4 or Switch isn’t visually outstanding, it runs a real risk of faltering behind the competition. There is no shortage of beautiful games on the market in 2019.

And if I want a fun game, I can pop back into Mario Odyssey or get a group together to duke it out in Super Smash Ultimate. I can easily download a dozen fun platformers on Steam for less than 50 bucks.

Yes, KH3 is really beautiful, and really fun.

But that’s not why I was so excited to play it.

A legion of kids and teenagers stuck with this series well into their twenties and thirties, never giving up on the release of the next installment. Trudged through handheld games and blocky graphics and clunky battle systems and convoluted plot lines. Why? Well, of course I can’t speak for all KH fans, but for me, and all the ones I know personally, it’s because of the story. It’s always been what, in my mind, sets KH apart from any other video game I’ve ever played. It’s the only game series that’s ever made me cry. The only one I’ve ever owned merchandise for. The only one I’ve ever been so invested in that I can discuss it with friends, even acquaintances, for hours on end. The only one that’s made me care so much about the characters that they feel like my friends. With how much time has passed since I started, maybe even my kids. No pun intended, the series has heart. It contains the same sort of magic that going to Disneyland as a child did. Or, it used to.

Kingdom Hearts 3 didn’t need to just be a great game. It needed to be a Kingdom Hearts game. One that built a wove a compelling story filled with intrigue and emotion from the first hour. One that did justice to all the characters (and by now, there are a lot of them) that we’ve grown to love over the last 17 years. One where a prepubescent kid can yell a speech up at a threatening villain that makes you believe, harder than you’ve ever believed, in the power of friendship. One that instills a childlike optimism that no matter how dark the world gets, as long as someone keeps fighting, good can still triumph over evil. One that tugs on the heartstrings in just the right ways, at just the right moments, to manage to make you cry – repeatedly – over a gang of outspoken, angsty kids with clown feet.

The thing about the story in KH3 is: it’s not inherently a bad story. Sure, it’s a mess, it doesn’t make much sense, it leaves you with more questions than answers, it’s incredibly cheesy, and it retcons a good deal of lore from previous installments. But many of these things could be said of other Kingdom Hearts games. The fact that these descriptors apply to KH3 isn’t what disqualifies it as a worthy entry in the series, in my mind.

For the most part, it’s not the story itself I found disappointing. After all, think about how a summary sounds on paper: reunions with long lost characters, long-awaited battles, conclusions of lengthy character and story arcs. 

The biggest problem wasn’t so much the concept of the story, but rather the execution.

First of all, the pacing. The pacing was terrible. Almost nothing happens the first 20-25 hours of the game. I can think of maybe two scenes that got me on the edge of my seat, gripping my controller in the hopes it would advance the plot further: the scene with Mickey and Riku in the realm of darkness where you get to play as Riku for a few minutes (sadly the only time in the game that you do), and running into Vanitas in Monstropolis. Nothing. Else. Happened. Sure you run into Larxene in Arendelle, and goof around chasing Luxord in the Caribbean, but none of this is actually relevant to the plot we care about. Certainly not the plot the story is telling us to care about from the beginning.

And that leads me to the second issue – how vague your objective actually is. The ultimate objective of the game seems clear enough: rescue Aqua from the realm of darkness, maybe worry about the other two Wayfinder trio once we’ve found her, and defeat Xehanort. But this is not Sora’s given objective. Rather, it’s to find the ‘power of waking.’ Which is not explained, either to Sora or the player. Sora, on the other hand, appoints himself to another mission entirely: contemplating the unfairness of Roxas’ disappearance, he seems to mainly be focused on finding him and restoring him to a physical existence. However, this mission is starkly at odds with the canonical explanation of Nobodies in general and Roxas, specifically. The last time we saw Roxas (chronologically speaking) he reunited with Sora, and as far as we know, he’s still part of Sora. So, the mission to “find” Roxas as if he exists as an entity in the real world is perplexing. Second, lacking hearts, Nobodies can’t exist as a whole on their own. So even assuming we can “find” him in Sora, how far we going to bring him back without splintering Sora into a Heartless and a Nobody again? Even according to the series’ own complex lore, it doesn’t make sense. Therefore, the first half or more of the game seems aimless, not really knowing what we’re meant to be doing, or how. It’s hard to be invested in a story with no clear objective. Not something we can easily get on board with like “Find Riku and Kairi” or “Track down the Organization.” Just “Go find the power of waking.” Okay.

And while a lot (and I mean a lot) happens in the last 4-5 hours of the story to tie up loose ends, it’s crammed together in such a jumbled rush that it’s almost impossible to appreciate any of it.

After collecting Aqua and Ventus, long lost characters reappear on screen one right after another assembly-line style, to the point that none of them feels special or poignant anymore.

Not only that, but the characters who are brought back, many of them beloved protagonists from earlier installments in the series, are not given any time to shine.

It was promising when they let Aqua fight Vanitas in the newly restored Land of Departure. Ven is her friend, her responsibility; it was her fight. But with this taste of getting back a playable character from the franchise, I expected that as the plot progressed, it would open up plenty more chances for past protagonists to take the stage. That we’d be able to step back into the oversized shoes of other playable characters we’d missed. That when (or if) others returned in all their glory, they’d get to strut their stuff.

But that is precisely the opposite of what happened.

I mean, Ventus didn’t get to steal the spotlight for the final clash with Vanitas? By definition, his natural foil?

Terra didn’t get to exact his revenge in an epic showdown with Xehanort, the guy who stole his body and enslaved him for more than a decade?

Roxas and Axel, reunited, couldn’t team up to pound on the Organization members that tormented them? Instead, after his surprise entrance, Roxas got hardly any screen presence at all, and Axel’s epic new flaming keyblade got destroyed, making him sit out most of the fighting after all the build up that he was training to fight?

Oh, and you know who else was utterly useless through the final battles, demoted once again to a damsel in distress despite years of hype that she’d wield a keyblade in this installment, and multiple cutscenes indicating she, too, was training to actually fight? Yup. I don’t even need to say the name.

And to only get one small boss fight as Riku, when in the previous installment he had half the screen time?

The heroes we’ve missed for so long and longed to return to the screen are not resurrected with the dignity and respect they deserve. They are relegated to side characters, who are either completely sidelined for the final battles, or else just hacking away mindlessly in the background as you marathon one ridiculously easy “boss” after another Olympus Coliseum-style.

Speaking of resurrecting characters: the manner in which they brought some of them back was so nebulous it was impossible to understand, let alone experience any sort of emotional reaction.

For one: Roxas. For starters, it’s pretty lazy writing to have Sora be the one pursuing his return (however that was supposed to happen), only to have that pursuit peter out completely, and for Roxas to just appear at the final battle with no resolution or explanation of how. (Nor the satisfaction of fleshing out how Sora achieved it.) But more importantly, where did he come from? There was no scene in which he emerged from Sora’s being. So, where was he? Also, I get that they must have used the replica Demyx/Ansem brought Ienzo as a vessel for him, but how does he have his own heart now? There was no evidence to indicate Sora or Ven lost theirs again. This is a pretty glaring plot hole.

Second? Naminé. This one really came out of left field. No one had even spoken about Naminé the entire game, save one throwaway line. Then all of a sudden, near the very end of the game, everyone cares about bringing her back, too? Even Sora, despite his hours-long obsession with bringing back Roxas without a word about Naminé, sees a newly empty vessel and asks “Oh, is that for Naminé?” All I could do at this point was laugh at the absurdity of it all. 

Even more confusing? Xion. She was a replica, with no heart, no personality... a walking vial for Sora’s memories. How on Earth did she get brought back? What was there to bring back? And what was the point? Xion always felt far more like a plot device than an actual character.

At this point, so little made sense and so many characters had appeared in a row with no regard for continuity or maintaining canon that my heart was really starting to sink. It all felt like it was meant to be fan service. Bring back everyone’s favorite characters: they’ll love that, right? But the issue is they did it no matter what rules they had to break, or canon they had to ignore. Sure, I wanted a lot of these characters back, I think a lot of people did. But not at the expense of good writing.

Even if one completely excuses the hole-filled poor writing that got us there, it didn’t even feel real that we had these awesome characters back. Because they just sort of existed, as high-def cool anime hair and porcelain skin and not much else. Not only did they not get to show us what they’re made of in epic fight sequences, but there was no meaningful dialogue from any of them. Where was Terra giving his friends any sort of recollection of his time as Ansem’s guardian? Riku and Roxas making amends? Aqua thanking Sora for keeping Ven safe? A brofest about protecting their friends between Riku and Terra? Axel saying anything at all meaningful to his best friend when he finally saw him again? For all the reunions we got, it was shocking how little substance there actually was in any of them. 

It was an insanely rushed ending, with stunted, shallow dialogue, and awkward tears that felt forced rather than genuine.

KH3 is to KH1&2 what Moffat Who is to RTD Who. A lot more flash, a lot less substance, and hollowed out characters that no longer provoke deep emotion.

Characters’ emotions were not handled well in this game. Like when Sora, notorious for being a persistent optimist, dissolves to hysterics and claims he’s “nothing” without his friends. But we never get to see this sharp departure from his M.O. (because he has lost his friends over and over throughout the series without reacting this way) really wrestled with. It’s just swept under the rug after a single line from Riku. It’s okay for characters to hit rock bottom: in fact, it’s good for them. But such episodes have to be properly fleshed out, or they won’t have an impact.

Also, just my two cents? Making your characters cry is not a shortcut to get your audience to cry. It’s a lazy way of demonstrating feeling. In the writing world, there’s something called “show, don’t tell.” Making characters cry left and right with hardly any time devoted to the proper dialogue and action is the equivalent of telling, rather than showing. This series is unique to me precisely because it’s the only video game to make me cry (repeatedly). But I didn’t shed a tear in this game. And I think that is so telling. I always think of this behind the scenes video I watched for Doctor Who, in which they filmed different versions of a (very) emotional scene. In one of these versions, the Doctor properly breaks down and cries. David (the actor) upon seeing this version played back to him, said: “I worry if you see him breaking down, it stops you breaking down, as well.” He was onto something there. They didn’t end up using that take in the episode, and I think everyone would agree it was the right call. I’m not saying crying is inherently bad and always to be avoided. In fact, the opposite: it can be very powerful if used sparingly, and at the right moments with the right build-up. But overusing it, with no apparent regard for characterization nuances, basically making it your only method for tell your audience a character is emotional? It’s a little insulting. You also need good dialogue, good acting (or in this case, good animation and voice acting), and proper timing if you want to strike a chord with anyone.

Which, speaking of, I thought both the dialogue and the voice acting in the game as a whole left something to be desired (and seemed almost painfully slow?), and I think a big reason why emotional moments tended to ring hollow.

Onto another aspect of the story: how it ties in to earlier installments in the series. There was a fair amount of speculation going into this game whether or not smaller, handheld-console based installments and extra nuggets from mobile games and re-releases would be relevant in KH3. But regardless of which side of the argument fans fell on, the fact remains that many fans had only played KH1 and KH2, possibly BBS, prior to playing KH3. Many people don’t have the money or the interest in playing on multiple handheld consoles (me being one of them, though I toughed it out in this case) or cell phones, nor the tireless dedication and yes, more money, to purchase games a second time for Final Mix versions and secret endings. This is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean they are bad fans, or less deserving of playing or enjoying KH3. Someone should not have to be a zealous super-fan to be able to enjoy a video game, or any form of entertainment. If you show up to Avengers: Endgame without having seen some of the previous major installments in the film franchise, you are probably going to be confused. I don’t recommend doing that. But is it necessary to have re-watched them all 20 times, speculated for hours on blogs and message boards, and read decades worth of Avengers comics to be able to understand it? Of course not. Though some insufferable comic book elitists insist they’re better than everyone else because they know more about the Marvel universe, the fact is you don’t have to be a Marvel super-fan to enjoy the films. That’s how it should be. Because it’s okay to be a casual fan of something. Content creators normally recognize this, and respect all of their audience. But here, there was critical information from pretty much every spinoff handheld game that you needed in order to have any idea what was going on. There wasn’t even any recap system like in KH2 (the static memories) to get you up to speed on what had happened in the series up until this point. Not to mention the location of the final boss fight, as well as the very last cutscenes centered around a mobile game/movie that I had never even heard of until I was in the middle of playing KH3. Now I am something of a KH geek as I said, so I’ve sat through Union Cross now and done my best to understand some of the more obscure lore. But, call me crazy, I don’t think it’s fair to expect every single person who plays the game to do that in order to understand it. Games are supposed to be fun, not homework.

Which brings me to my last point: this game was supposed to be the end of the saga as we know it. Whether it’s the end of the series or simply the end of this story arc and subsequent games will follow a villain besides the many iterations of Xehanort is yet to be seen (as of me writing this), but it was established this game would be the end to the main trilogy so far. And, to have that end be the main character swanning off on his own (as some have speculated, possibly to his death)? With everyone else from the series partying on the beach like someone important isn’t missing? As someone who came into this game expecting closure, I felt completely blindsided by this ending. After all he’s been through and all the sacrifices he’s made, Sora deserves better.

Kingdom Hearts 3 was visually and mechanically a blast, and credit should go to the developers, artists, and designers where credit is due. But as a fan who plays this series not for graphics or flashy gameplay, but to immerse myself in the story, I’m left feeling cheated. The way the plot unfolded and the way the characters were handled did a disservice to both long-time fans of the saga and to the characters themselves.

I always have a hard time with this, but if I had to put a number to it? I’d say maybe 6/10.

It hurt just to type that.

I’m not giving up hope in the franchise. If there’s ever a KH4 (which still seems unclear right now), I’ll probably still play it. I’m trying to give the creators the benefit of the doubt: they were under a lot of pressure to create a great game, and had too much time in development on their hands and too many sprawling ideas and tried to do too much at once. I’m all for second chances. But if they want the trust of fans like me back, they’re going to have to earn it.

Over the last couple months as I’ve put together this review, I’ve found myself in doubt. Even, dare I say it, like a bad fan, though in principle I vehemently reject the notion someone is a bad fan for disliking an installment of any franchise they love. Am I just too old for Kingdom Hearts now? I wondered. Was I romanticizing the series the whole time, and it’s not as good as I’ve built it up to be in my head? After all my time spent waiting, am I being too critical? I tortured myself over it. So, a couple of weeks after finishing KH3, I popped in the 1.5/2.5 HD compilation into the PS4 and restarted KH2. I had to see if it even came close to the hype I’d built in my head in the 8 or 9 years since I played it last. Almost 60 hours of gameplay later, I can say with confidence that I had not romanticized it at all. This game is amazing. I didn’t mind watching 30 minutes of cutscenes at a time because everything is so compelling. So the graphics are dated, but who cares? The combat is FUN without ever being cumbersome. It’s just the right level of difficulty that there are still some battles and bosses that require multiple attempts and the journey continuously instills a sense of pride and accomplishment. It has so much heart. I still teared up in the same places I used to as a teenager.

KH2 is still a perfect 10/10, and playing it again with fresh eyes only made me realize just how disappointing KH3 actually was.

There’s an old adage that it’s the things we love most that hurt us the most. I wouldn’t feel so let down, or compelled to write 6800 words why, if I didn’t love this series with all my heart. I’ve seen a lot of fans insulting and belittling anyone who dares to criticize the game online, and frankly I’m baffled by that. I critique and discuss all forms of entertainment I enjoy: and that includes both the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and flaws. And I guess I tend to associate with people who do the same. It doesn’t make us bad fans, but passionate ones. I’m not sending hate mail to Square telling them the game unequivocally sucks. I don’t have any ill will towards them or think they’re irredeemable writers or developers. I’m simply recording and posting my honest thoughts to help myself process how I’m feeling, and perhaps others if they choose to read them.

I’m genuinely happy for the fans who loved the game and felt it worth the wait – I don’t want to pick any fights with them (so please don’t pick any fights with me, either). I’m sadly - believe me, no one is sadder than me to admit this - just not one of them.

[flynn-science]

Ryan Reacts to Kingdom Hearts 3

Okay, so this is a mix of live reactions and post-world reactions. Lot of live reactions in the beginning and end, more sporadic in between. You can probably guess what I’m reacting to most of the time from the sequence of events.

Mmm dat orchestral Don’t Think Twice Needed a minute on the menu. Finally seeing it say KH3 was A Lot. HOLY FUCK WHAT A COOL INTRO The speed is the same as 0.2, with that sprint that kicks in. Will take some getting used to. The stained glass looks gorgeous though Nice touch of KH1 Sora’s jump animation changing to KH2 Sora’s Making choices again like the original. Vitality is probably health, Wisdom is probably magic, and Balance is, well, balanced. I’ll go balanced. (I’m on Proud, btw) Guardian, Warrior, Mystic. Same as the weapons in KH1. In that case, I’ll make the same choice I do there: Guardian. SORA HAS AN IDLE ANIMATION OH MY GOD BLOCK AND DODGE FROM THE START! Also this sky place is new for a Dive to the Heart (AND THOSE HOOOORNS, LISTEN TO THEM) The water looks great A four-hit combo instead of the usual three? Huh Scan from the start too Nice detail of Sora’s head angling towards the locked on target All this music sounds SO GOOD I’MMA NEED THIS SOUNDTRACK ONCE I’M DONE Ahhh that little soft version of Sora’s theme WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS KINGDOM HEARTS II.9 SHIT These Instagram-style posts on loading screens are adorable Oh damn, we get a LOT of abilities from the start. And this is on Proud! Dodge Roll, Air Slide, Aerial Dodge (formerly a Master Form ability), plus all the Flowmotion stuff Wow, THREE shortcut menus! 12 total! Wow, and a LOT more control over how allies use items. That can be very useful! Sweet, synthesis materials are back! Water is an interesting new spell. And being able to reorder the Magic menu is nice (though I only use shortcuts). Kinda glad the item art has stayed the same. Also hey, Wellspring is from BBS. And first AP Boost of course goes into Sora, as will they all. WOW USING THOSE IS WAY FASTER NOW Yooo that Underworld music with the Titans’ appearance Take a shot every time someone says “Sora, Donald, Goofy” Sora, Donald, Goofy counter: 1 HERCULES HAS JOINED THE PARTY “Team Effort: Always start battles with a team attack command.” Damn, what are those that this ability is FIFTY AP?! (Are team attacks that move we saw Sora and Goofy do in a trailer? The throw?) I like that tutorials are playable at any time Also I was worried Save Points might not return with that auto save message at the start ALSO THIS IS NIGHT OF FATE PLAYING IN THE COMBAT TUTORIAL Ooh, Panacea art is nice. (Panacea has only appeared as a command in games like BBS and re:coded, so it hasn’t had art before) *reads Ability Ring* Damn, if 10 AP is a SMALL boost, I can’t imagine how expensive abilities are gonna get (well, Herc does have that one 50 AP ability) Ultima Weapon returns, looks like Synthesis recipes are based more on collector’s goals than finding them. Looks like there’s 60 synthesis materials, sounds about right. Ooh, synthesis item rarities, types: soothing and pulsing are from BBS, writhing, betwixt, sinister are new. Looks like everything goes in Shards, Stones, and Gems. Ooh that’s a lot of Heartless. Hey when is Jiminy gonna show up? Gonna need to complete that Journal again. Oooh battle music has bits of the old Coliseum battle music. Sora, Donald, Goofy counter: 2 Environmental fire damage followed by Sora’s butt on fire limiting my actions. Neat. Okay, these have been live reactions so far, but I’m gonna stop doing that because it’s slowing my progress. “What the heck is Rage Form?” “OH. OH THAT’S A THING.” I keep seeing hidden Mickeys, I bet those are gonna be a thing with the camera once I get it. Also damn are they giving me a lot of ingredients for the cooking minigame I can’t play yet. So the biggest thing I’ve noticed about the new combat is that because they give you so many really powerful abilities (grand magic at higher levels, formchanges, attractions, team attacks) that are all basically free (are you hitting things with your keyblade or magic? Can you hit this specific enemy once? Can you wait for your teammate to give you a prompt?), the number of enemies in each fight seems to have SIGNIFICANTLY increased from previous entries. KH2’s level design this is NOT. Lots more nooks and crannies to search. Me approaching the gates of Olympus: “Is this Anor Londo?” Yay nostalgic Coliseum music! And oooh little environmental puzzles are back! Like from KH1! I forged Goofy a new shield! Aaaand playable Riku. I have no idea why they were so dodgy about the second playable character. This is only the third time Riku’s been playable. Anyway, gotta fight the Demon Tower again. Damn, Riku is WAY stronger than Sora right now. Wish I could have read his abilities (and moved shortcuts). Nice emulation of the death screen. Also hot damn, is that Repliku talking??? I guess Riku’s “other me” really could be Repliku. Awwwww yeah, Lea’s getting new clothes too! YEAH JIMINY! “Dream Heartbinder” So Heartbinders must be this game’s summon gems, and this one lets me use Dream Eaters. SORA’S THEME IS THE RINGTONE!!! Ienzo’s here, with a bit of OrgXIII music from CoM. HOLY SHIT THE GUMMI SHIP IS THE BEST IT’S EVER BEEN UPGRADEABLE KEYBLADES?! I guess that makes sense, considering they all have different formchanges. They want all of them to stay viable throughout the game. OH MY GOD, DEMON TIDE HAS SO MUCH HEALTH I guess the bosses have to with all these powerful attacks I have Does Hayner have a new voice? Olette sounds different too. Checked the wiki, all three have different actors. Pence sounds closest to his original though. So judging by the Dusks and Snipers, no more enemy-specific reaction commands. The Ducklings sell Gummi blocks now?? Huh. Whoa wait, the road out of Twilight Town’s Tram Common leads back to the world map? Can I NOT go to the clock tower in this game?? Man, Twilight Town felt really small. Hope the remaining worlds don’t, though they’ve certainly seemed significantly larger than the two I’ve been to so far. Also, totally called the Lucky Emblems, though I’m gonna keep calling them hidden Mickeys. I think Tou Story is my favorite world. Granted, I’ve only been to three, but still. The Gigas are super fun, Woody and Buzz look amazing, and I can’t stop whistling/humming along! AHHH CREEPY DOLL Lol, the Verum Nox poster even has a Square Enix logo. First death, the Gigas battle in the video game. GOD DAMN! WOODY dropping an amazing “The Reason You Suck” speech to Xehanort! “Unless you’re in the ~real~ Organization too? Good for you!” Damn, Sora! Also love hearing that music from Chain of Memories every so often Glad flowmotion’s jump isn’t as level-breaking as it was in DDD. Same goes for the attacks. Wow, so Rapunzel permanently leaves the party. Was wondering they’d just give her a different moveset like with Mulan/“Ping”. This is the first time a character permanently leaves your party. And of course, Marluxia. Who I didn’t think could or would return. And Vexen who rejoined willingly, which is, man. Not something I’d have done. Both Norted of course. And was Saïx missing his scar? Maybe he’s just Isa now. I could tell it was Unversed, and Flood specifically, in that first Monstropolis cutscene just from the sound of them spawning. That’s how I know I’ve put a lot of hours into this series. Monstropolis feels the most linear so far. Arendelle’s ice labyrinth is awesome, the level design gives me some light Dark Souls vibes. I like how there’s zero explanation for Sora, Donald, and Goofy being able to breathe underwater in The Caribbean. And by that I mean I would have liked even just one line to explain it. The ship combat isn’t as good as AC3’s and AC4’s, but it’s still pretty good for a one-world mechanic! The ship is a LOT more responsive than the AC ones. And damn, is this world open. Okay, San Fransokyo is gonna be a pain to search for chests and Mickeys. PRESS TRIANGLE TO SORA IS THE BEST REACTION COMMAND I HAVE EVER SEEN Jiminy telling people about summaries on the gummiphone is Square Enix saying “IF YOU DIDN’T PLAY THE GAMES, READ THE FUCKING SUMMARIES” Giant battle at the start of Keyblade Graveyard was cool, but hurt the frames, especially on the fake shadows. And just as I was getting hyped at the possibility of having Riku and Aqua as party members. Oh hey, just realized Riku’s keyblade has a Mickey keychain now too. “And so, as legend foretold, darkness prevailed and light expired...” “Your hearts will be torn from your bodies” “To move through time, you must leave your body behind.” THE FINAL WORLD?! Wait, Sora’s been here MULTIPLE times?? Okay, so the star talking about the person who’d miss them, whose heart has been taken by another’s? Strelitzia? Talking about Lauriam? Love and hate? Going back for fight after fight? Hm. Cloud or Sephiroth maybe? (Longshot, but it doesn’t sound like a khux character, or anyone else) Identical pair? There’s no twins in this series. Like walking alongside a mirror... maybe it’s not an literal identical nature? Same clothes, same food, maybe Xion?? “Nothing left to teach you”? Damn, that’s not much to go on. Maybe Eraqus’ and Xehanort’s master?? “Just friends... stepped back” Skuld maybe? “I’m gone... they’ve added another member” Could that be Xion? Wait, no, how could Xion be here, she’s still within Sora’s heart. Are these actual named characters we’ve met before? Or not? The one who was defeated and supposed to fade... Repliku?? But he’s with Riku now... Someone searching for their Papa??? Most of the characters in this series don’t have parents at all, so my only guess here is Pinocchio?? No way a Disney character ends up here though. I don’t think all of these are characters we know. Someone holding onto a sliver of memory, and a servant?? Yeah, these could all just have been ordinary people. Naminé?! What happened to Kairi??? Okay, so the darkness split them. KAIRI IS KEEPING SORA FROM FADING AWAY OH MY HEART “GO TO HER” SHE SAYS "That's not the official thank-you!" Lol Damn, this area is fuckin huge, why is it so huge?? A PORTAL?! A DDD PORTAL HERE?! Well this place is rad. I better see that weird Darkside at some point here OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH OH IT ROTATES THAT'S FUCKIN SICK God damn, this game's got some of the best level design of the series! Is... is this OUR Chirithy? “He doesn’t remember the past”? Although I guess it could be Marluxia/Luxord/Demyx’s too. Or Ven’s. My bet is that it’s Ven’s. DID SORA JUST TIME JUMP BACK A FEW MINUTES??? Aaaand did nothing different. So now we’re world-hopping like we did back in End of the World. OH WHAT IS THIS DIVING INTO STATIONS TO PICK A WORLD?!?! YOOOOOOOO Just Kairi and Lea are left. Haven’t hit San Fransokyo or Twilight Town yet. Guess they must be in those two. Last one is San Fransokyo. Lea must be here. Kairi’s probably gonna be the last. “Traversing hearts to reach worlds” That must be what I’ve been doing here. Not jumping between worlds, jumping between HEARTS. Was Sora just considering telling her he loves her? He should have. Wait, am I back in time? This already happened... OH SHIT! THE LINGERING WILL IS HERE! EPHEMER! OHHHHHHH HO HO WOW! OHHHHHH FUCK! YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Congrats to all the lucky people who got their names in the game! PRESS TRIANGLE TO UNION X GIANT SHADOW MASTER XEHANORT IS TERRIFYING I like how Axel is holding his keyblade by the guard instead of the handle OH SHIT MASTER YEN SID! YOOOOOO! Okay KH3, I want to fight thirteen bosses now, you hear me? DAMN that Ancient Light finisher on Starlight’s Second Form is STRONG YOOOOOOO THREE BOSSES AT ONCE??? (I really hope this is as tough as they were before, but seeing as Xemnas was harder in 1 than in 2, doubt it) Went to help Mickey first, so I’m taking on Marluxia, Luxord, and Larxene Oh come ooooon, I barely got to fight them! Luxord’s out, 12 to go OH SHIT THE OTHER TWO Larxene’s done, 11 to go. With XI conveniently up next. Marluxia’s defeated once again. 10 left. Hey whatever happened with that comment of their ancient keyblade legacy...? Xigbar... might be gone? So maybe 9 left. Dark Repliku is defeated, and light Repliku gave himself up so the Replica could be used for Namine. That’s sweet. 8 left. YO actual time of day change! I like the door switches. Nice having little environmental things like this. Hm, Kairi and Lea one way, Aqua and Ven the other. Well that’s no contest, gotta go back up my girl Kairi! Mysterious new hooded figure??? Oh. Oh no. I think it’s Xion. D: Yeah. It’s her. *Xion stops Xemnas “YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYYE YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH” *Roxas shows up “OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCK” THE WHOLE GANG’S HERE YOOOOOOOOOOO Shout outs to Ienzo, Ansem, Vexen, and Demyx for helping Roxas return! WHY THE FUCK IS KAIRI GETTING KIDNAPPED A-FUCKING-GAIN, NOMURA WHY WAS SHE EVEN TRAINING, FUCK Okay, so Kairi and Lea/Axel are out, BUT ROXAS AND XION ARE IN OH HOLY SHIT, SORA SQUAD FORM UP!!!! I HAD TO STOP AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC FOR A MINUTE It’s all three of their themes! (Plus a bit of Another Side) THIS IS THE HYPEST SHIT Aww, Saix’s death mirrors Xion’s. AND THE SEA-SALT TRIO REUNITE! Saix is out, 7 left. Xion turned, 6 left. Vanitas fades again, 5 left. I know some people had hoped for a heel-face turn, but I knew it wasn’t likely. WHAT TERRA’S HEART WAS IN ANSEM’S GUARDIAN THIS WHOLE TIME. THAT THEORY WAS RIGHT! Terra-nort’s back to just Terra. 4 left. Just wanna say, I love that it’s Sora who gets to turn the tides of all these fights. Who’s dull and ordinary NOW, huh?? AND he’s still going! Oh boy, time for a triple Xehanort fight! UMMM NINE KEYS (but why are they No Name and not the X-blade?) OOOOOOOHHHHHHH THIS BLEND OF ANSEM, XEMNAS, AND YOUNG XEHANORT'S THEMES Guardando Nel Buio, Darkness of the Unknown, and Impeto l’Oscurito 1V3 ME, I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON Young Xehanort returns to his time. 3 left. I like how we all agree to pause the fight whenever someone falls. Xemnas fades. 2 left. Ansem as well. Just 1 darkness left. WHAT THE FUCK, KAIRI NOOOOOOOOOOOO AH SHIT HE’S GOT THE X-BLADE AH SHIT HE’S GOT KINGDOM HEARTS Oh hey, everyone’s caught up. Donald: “You can’t do anything without us, Sora.” Me: “Donald, shut the FUCK UP.” Xion: “Kairi will be alright.” Me: “OH THANK GOD” Scala ad Caelum. Stairway to Heaven. It looks like a proto-Land of Departure. But the music is Case of the Foretellers from X Back Cover. Could this place and Land of Departure once have been Daybreak Town? Damn, Dark Kingdom Hearts is over the ENTIRE Keyblade Graveyard now Spooky twelve figures are spooky Why do they have the Organization’s weapons?! I love this return of Destati though They all had a shared HP bar? Scala ad Caelum’s world icon is kinda shaped like a heart Oh wow, full Inception Weird hearing Rage Awakened without the Lingering Will here “There is one sky, one destiny!” “DEEEESTAAAATI!” Ohhhhh shit Shout out to the heart in the floor design though And the figure in the middle has 7 points Classic Xehanort pose from the KH2 secret ending Aaaaand now he’s got ANOTHER Kingdom Hearts! GREAT WHOA HE FORCED ME INTO RAGE FORM DESTATI IN FULL FORCE WHAT A RAD FINISHING BLOW! The canon death screen, the heartbeat, Donald and Goofy calling from my controller! ONE BIG BLAST! So Xehanort sees himself as some sort of white knight? A templar to guide the masses with an iron fist? Yeah, no dice dude. Sora’s right, not your choice to make, and destiny is beyond your control. So Eraqus really WAS with Terra all this time. MARK HAMILL IS BACK!!! Xehanort just hands it over, huh? Wow, closure between Eraqus and his apprentices after all these years Eraqus and Xehanort mimic Sora and Riku from KH2, and pass on. Go get her, Sora. HIKARI ORCHESTRAL Ven met his Chirithy! Lea’s finally wearing his new outfit. Aw, Xion looks good too! And Isa’s here! Naminé is back too! And I bet the Namine/Riku shippers are happy! AWWW They’re all hanging out at Destiny Islands! Look at them all being friends!!! THERE THEY ARE! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

Epilogue: XIGBAR HAS BEEN LUXU THIS WHOLE TIME?! WHAT WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?! You know while watching Back Cover I was like “Man, the Master of Masters really talks like Xigbar for some reason.” BOY DOES THAT MAKE SENSE NOW So what was it about Ava’s role with the Dandelions that led to her absence here? AND WHAT’S IN THE GODDAMN BOX Is it a Book of Prophecies? Something else entirely? In any case, I doubt Maleficent and Pete would be able to get it away from them all. Secret Ending, “Yozora”: Ooh, “Another Side, Another Story” vibes right off the bat. SORA! And... Riku? Well this is just Japan. Wait, the guy from Verum Rex? And a black coat, who’s probably Xigbar/Luxu or the Master of Masters? After watching, a friend informed me that Riku is in Verum Rex. And Sora’s dead. Cause he’s in TWEWY’s version of Shibuya, since that one building said “104.” But which one is the black coat in? It could be the Master of Masters dead, in Sora’s world. Or Xigbar/Luxu, still watching things.

I have no idea what comes next. But I am excited.

[yasuda-yoshiya]

I haven't delved much into KH lore, but I think there's something wrong when the main character is shoehorned into a plot that's essentially the same from the previous arcs repetitively along with a character that seems to be the love interest, while several others you never got to play as (or very temporarily playable), gets much further characterization and their new resolutions. The only ones that are interesting in Sora's party is Donald and Goofy btw. Anything about Riku and Mickey though?

Hmm, well, strictly from a storytelling perspective, I think I basically agree with you! Pretty much all the really interesting plot developments and character moments in KH3 are completely divorced from the person whose PoV you’re stuck inhabiting for most of the game, and Sora pretty much spends the whole game doing absolutely nothing of any importance while all the actual plot progression happens away from him. And in terms of what makes a good story, yeah, that’s basically terrible, but I honestly feel like I can basically understand why they did it because frankly, Kingdom Hearts as a series is in a very weird position at this point. The main appeal of the series to the vast majority of the casual audience is its supposed “Disney magic” and getting to explore the worlds from various Disney movies, but the actual main plot of the series at this point is an absolutely impenetrable and convoluted mess of original characters and plot threads that’s about as far away from any kind of “Disney magic” as you could possibly get.

With that in mind, it pretty much makes sense to me that they’d want to just shove the main plot out of the way entirely for most of the game and just focus on Sora’s random adventures in Disney worlds, because it’s honestly gotten to the point where the presence of the main plot actively detracts from the supposed central appeal of the game for most people. It allows KH3 to be enjoyable as a stand-alone experience to the average person who doesn’t give a crap about the overarching mess of the Kingdom Hearts plot and just wants to enjoy some Disney fanservice (and let’s be real, this probably describes at least 80% of the people who actually bought the game). Games like KH1, Days and BBS could manage to do a passable job of integrating some characterisation and plot development into the Disney stuff without being too jarring to the casual audience, because those games told basically self-contained stories. You don’t need to be a KH Lore Maniac to follow, say, Ven’s character arc through BBS. But KH3? KH3′s plot is all about tying up loose ends and resolving the stories of various characters from other games. Nothing about KH3′s plot makes any sense or has any real impact as a standalone, and it would probably be a fool’s errand to even try to make it work as one, because it just has way too much baggage from the ongoing series-wide plot that it has to resolve. So rather than trying to give Sora a quest that actually ties into the main plot in some way, they just decided to put the plot to one side and lean into unapologetic filler instead. I can sort of respect that.

The way I see it is… well, let’s put it this way. As a Kingdom Hearts fan, I could totally draw up an alternative outline for KH3 that has Sora making more of a meaningful journey and progress throughout the game, and integrates the main plot into the Disney stuff better. The focus of KH3 is about Sora saving the hearts and healing the pain of the people connected to him, the people whose pain was forgotten until now. So why not make the plots of the Disney worlds focus more on having him come to understand these people better, to get more of a focus on why it’s so important to bring them back? Let’s have the Olympus Coliseum chapter involve a subplot where, say, Sora finds out from Phil about the time Roxas spent training there in Days, and Phil talks about how much potential he showed and how he really misses the kid. Let’s spend more time explicitly drawing a connection between the toys having hearts in Toy Story and the way Xion developed her own heart despite being an artificially created puppet. Let’s parallel Rapunzel’s situation in Tangled with Namine’s in CoM, and make the plot of that world about Sora regaining the memories he lost from CoM (heck, Marluxia’s even right there and briefly brings this up in the actual game already!), reminding him of just how much Namine suffered and how much she deserves to be saved. And so on, and so on.

And that would probably make for a much more solid and cohesive game, and give the overall plot a lot more weight… but could you actually realistically present that kind of plot in a way that wasn’t totally alienating to the casual audience? Are you really going to be able to give enough emotional context for the average uninitiated player to grasp and care about all these different plotlines just through flashbacks and exposition? Are there really that many people who actually want to see the plot of Tangled used as a vehicle to revisit the plot of a 2004 GBA game, or are people just going to be frustrated at these hugely popular Disney movies being taken over by weird anime OCs they don’t care about? Professional reviewers are quite understandably panning the game already just for the very minimal intrusions of the convoluted main plot into the Disney stuff “breaking the magic” as it is, so it’s hard for me to imagine that any more of that would really be well-received by and large, however much the story might technically benefit from it. This is the sort of problem we run into when a game has to try and simultaneously appease two distinct audiences with entirely different priorities. Giving the main plot a very minimal presence for most of the game and then shoving the entire resolution into the last few hours is an imperfect solution, but I’m also not really sure what else they could realistically have done, given the setup KH3 had to work with.

In the end, I’m basically content with the compromise. I think they did a decent job of making a game that stays mostly enjoyable and accessible as a wacky Disney adventure for the casual audience, while still tying up most of the big overall plot threads that needed to be tied up in a reasonably satisfying way (a few very questionable writing choices aside… but it’s Kingdom Hearts, what else is new). It would have been nice to have had more build-up and substance to these characters’ resolutions, and to actively focus more of the game on them, as you suggest - but the more time the game spends pandering to overall series fans, the more time it also spends alienating everyone else. I think in the end we just have to accept that the build-up and context for their resolutions was in the previous games, that the people who really care about the series’ story will have played those games already, and for the people who haven’t, it just probably wasn’t worth devoting too much effort to trying to make them care within KH3 itself. That’s my take on it, at least.

On Riku and Mickey... hm, well, aside from them obviously being OTP material as always, neither of them really got to do much in this game? So I don’t really have much to say about them in particular. I thought the idea of Riku feeling a personal connection to Aqua’s plight as someone trapped in the darkness was sweet, but then they didn’t really do anything with that or let them actually interact at all in the end, so it felt like wasted potential. The BBS characters in this game were just a big disappointment in general, really! They could easily have done much more with them than they did, without even changing the structure of the story much... but, uh, I’m talking about Riku, sorry. I feel like Riku’s never really done much for me as a character, beyond like, KH1 and maybe CoM. I can see the outline of his arc on paper, and it seems fine and potentially interesting, but the execution has always felt pretty by-the-book and lacking in nuance to me. They talk very generally about him “falling to darkness” and such, but they don’t ever get beyond that into actually having him wrestle with his guilt over specific things, like his time working with DiZ or kidnapping the princesses or contributing to Roxas and Xion’s sacrifices, so it all feels a bit too broad to particularly connect with - and it’s sort of hard for me to really give weight to things like “I wore a blindfold for a whole year because I couldn’t stand looking at myself”, when that’s juxtaposed with him flipping right back to being a perfectly functional and confident hero without much apparent struggle or lasting difficulty after just a few platitudes from Sora. It’s sort of like they flip between being broadly melodramatic about his issues and shrugging them off completely? So he’s never really clicked with me, personally.

Meanwhile, Mickey is kind of hard for me to take all that seriously as a character beyond the memes, since... I mean, he’s Mickey Mouse, so there’s a big mental block there, lol. But even if I put that aside and look at his writing in KH in isolation, he never really felt like a particularly deep or interesting character or anything, I think? His relationship with Riku is very sweet, though!

[pixel-creates]

About Me: Kingdom Hearts

Behold, my excuse to cry over KH with paragraphs for nearly each answer.

(shamelessly copied from @khfriendlyreminders​)

Favorite Kh Game Overall: … I underestimated how hard this would be. I mean, I can't simply say I love all of them (even though I do), so... I guess it has to be

ALL OF THEM.

Least Favorite Kh Game Overall: Aside from nitpicks in story and gameplay, I don't have much to say against the KH games. ^^'

I understand perfectly well when people analyze the story and explain why certain parts just don't work, but unless it's something that just outright doesn't sit well with me, I find it hard to be critical of the games. Which is weird since I can be very critical of other media, but KH is kind of... hard to see or make criticism of. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it...

Kh Games I Should Replay: … ALL OF TH-

Okay but for real, I do have to repay them all for the sake of my fic since I'm basing the events off of my gameplay. Though, one I'd like to experience once again is 0.2. I only had the chance to play once at my older brother's before I moved and I feel like I need to experience it again to really understand where the story stands currently.

Most Played Kh Game: KH2 definitely.

Least Played Kh Game: Maybe Re:Coded, Days, and Re:COM. Re:Coded, while I do enjoy, is just not that fun to play on my dying 3DS. Also, I can't remember if it's just Re:Coded, but the camera was just really loose?? On my 3DS with broken left and right triggers, there was just no end to the frustration when those babies started going out. Days is a long game to play and my gameplay is either short and brief stints or finishing the entire game in a day. Right now, I'm in the short and brief stint gameplay mode since I need a new 3DS. On that part, Days and Re:Coded aren't at fault. Re:COM just scares me. Eveyone says that it's easy to get a handle on the card system, and it is but I don't do very well under the pressure of getting the cards together. It's gotten to the point where just looking at the menu screen makes me cringe. ^^' KHUX can count, as well. The game has a hella lot of filler quests, which are fine here and there, but wow those mission goals (“Defeat Every Enemy” has been seen in my nightmares). Not only that, but I'm not really that good at keeping up with games that often require constant/daily logging in for advancement.

Kh Games I Need to Play: I've technically played them all in one form or another, but I would very much like to try out the original GBA COM game at least once. GBA used to be my favorite system and finding out a KH game had been made for it is amazing!

Favorite Gameplay: This one is a tie between KH and KH0.2.

KH2 is just... fun. It's fun to play, it's fun to watch, and it just feels satisfactory to attack and explore the worlds. It might seem a little weird, but my favorite part was being able to 'Examine' everything with the triangle button. It was like Sora's (and Roxas' thoughts for a time) were given a place to exist outside cutscenes and gave insight into how Sora/Roxas were viewing the world. I dunno what anyone else thinks about it or if they even care, but I sincerely hope it makes a comeback in KH3.

KH0.2 is like KH2 in which we are given more of an opportunity to explore and interact with the world around us by actually creating change within the world through spells, hitting objects, or finding the lost memories. I absolutely love to freely roam in games, but it doesn't do much to bring me into the world itself if I can't interact with the world. That's why, as much as it creeped the frick out of me, the Dwarf Woodlands in the Dark World was my favorite world to explore even after the main story.

Least Favorite Gameplay: It's not my least favorite by far (in fact, it's really high up there), but I feel I do have to mention that in KH DDD, I felt really bad about using Flowmotion. It was like, I'd find my way up to several treasures, but then, it turns out, that you'd eventually make it up there by unlocking the way so that you could walk to the treasure. I feel like if there was a couple of puzzles that locked some treasures away and couldn't be accessed through mobile means, it'd balance out the gameplay a little more.

I also find the Dream Eater system to be... a little cool and also a little bad. A little cool because while I can adventure to who knows where and not get constantly freaked by Donald and Goofy teleporting right behind me. It felt like I was on a little solo adventure! Not only that, but the feature to import Dream Eaters from a previous save to a new/other save was a great feature. It was especially helpful when I replayed DDD went from Beginner Mode to Critical Mode. Did I mention it was y first time playing any KH game on a mode tougher than Normal?

A little bad because sometimes that solo adventure was just a bit too solo – and when just starting out (especially on Critical Mode), rather than being my allies, my Dream Eaters were more so the colorful Pokemon rejects I babysat so they didn't die after three hits. It became annoying pretty quickly to constantly keep them alive, only for them to wander away from where the enemies are or just simply not attack and once again die.

KH Re:Com as explained above, though I will admit that once I start to get into it, I feel a lot less pressured unless it's a boss fight. Other than that, the game just feels really repetitive and as someone who's gameplay style is 80% grinding until you simply can't die, it just really didn't feel that fun to play after an hour of just grinding for a boss fight that I felt really unsure about fighting because I'm sill having trouble with the card system.

Favorite Story: Yikes, another hard one. It's easy for me to talk about gameplay in the games because they're self-contained to a singular game within the series, but goodness the story.

I suppose out of all of them, I would replay KH2, DDD, Days, and Re:Coded for story reasons only. I find them to have the more interesting stories. Right now, I'm kind of side eying BBS for... reasons, and KH1 is kind of hard for me to say anything about. More on that in the next one.

Least Favorite Story: Out of the games, KH1 is probably the most consistent one... on its own. As the series progressed and the writers tried to fit more lore and story into an idea that... no one really expected would garner so much attention, it becomes more obvious how... out of place the first game seems in comparison. This took me years to realize and I only really understood why people made such a deal about it when Caddicarus talked about it in his review.

I can't bring myself to really blame the writers (or Nomura) too much for the inconsistencies between the first game and the latest one, but I will say there are some things I wish could've been kept consistent throughout the series, or just plain kept.

So, I don't think of it as my least favorite (since there are times I'll play it simply because I love the story a heck of a lot more than the gameplay), but it's question because of how out of place its story is in comparison to its children.

Favorite Character:  Sora. I would fucking die for him – but he probably wouldn't let me. Why is he my favorite character? Probably for a similar reason why Naruto is – I am not a particularly outgoing or outspoken person. My voice is naturally soft and whenever I try to gear myself to ask people the simplest of questions or even to say hi, I chicken out at the last second. And then, we have this character who not only talks to people without an issue but easily has an active participation in not only social situations but in everyday life.

In a way, my younger self strived to be just a little but more like that, if only because I wanted to be surrounded by friends like Sora was. Not only that, but there's just the overall positivity vibe Sora gives off that I feel like I lack; I almost immediately assume the worst of situations, have trust issues, and stress horribly over situations that even I can admit are out of my control. And seeing this character go through what he did and still keep that positive outlook? How could I not want to be like that, if only just a little?

Least Favorite Character: I'll probably get shit on for saying it, but I really can't bring myself to like Kairi in any way shape or form. She's pretty much the only thing about KH that I can be really critical of and I'm not very proud of that. I can't get into her in canon and I can't get into her in fanon. I can detail point by point about why I just can't like her in any capacity and my own disappointment towards how she's written, and I really wish it was the opposite... but that's a whole other post.

For now, I'm more than content to ignore her.

Favorite Character from Main Cast: Aside from Sora? Roxas, Xion, Vanitas, Riku, Namine, and Ventus are in the ring competing for 11th favorite character since Sora has taken up the first ten spots. Aqua, Terra and Goofy are shoe ins for the next spots after them.

Least Favorite Character from Main Cast: Aside from that one chick? It's mostly as a joke, but Donald can rot.

#NeverThankDonaldDuck2018 Also, fuck Yen Sid.

Favorite Drive Form: Final. Fucking fite my vanilla ass.

Favorite Spell: While the Cure line is a staple, I'm going to have to go with the Reflect line. Late game KH2 often ends up with Heartless/Nobody encounters quickly ending as soon as it started with a single Reflectga. I really hope it makes some kind of comeback in KH3.

Favorite Keyblade: Kingdom Key. Call me vanilla, but I love it's simple design and the lore around it.

Favorite Summon: I've honestly only ever really used Tinkerbell and it's always for the Dragon!Maleficent fight in KH1. I always stress about using things with time limits, so I often just don't use them period. :,D

Favorite Limit: Okay, but if I rarely use Summons, then I really don't use Limits like ever. I hardly switch my party members out unless mandatory. Even then, I turn off the Auto Limit shit because I find it more important to make sure Sora has magic for Cure than pulling off an attack that will only hit like 3 times.

Aside from completion purposes (and Riku because how can I deny the beauty that is Sora and Riku's Limit), I don't use them in the main story.

Favorite Dream Eater: It's a toss up between Pega Slick and Me Me Bunny. While offering some pretty good abilities, I really like their aesthetic. Yoggy Ram and Aura Lion are pretty high up there, too.

Favorite World: Oooo~ How about we have fun with this answer?

KH1 – A toss up between Hollow Bastion and End of The World. The aesthetics for both just really agree with me and the map for Hollow Bation especially is really fun to explore. KH Re:COM – 100 Acre Wood for being the only world that isn't completely repetitive. Whenever I play Re:COM I use it as the 12th floor just so I can reward myself for sticking with the game. KH2 – Radiant Garden for being probably the biggest world in KH2, linking to worlds I really like (Space Paranoids/100 Acre Wood), and having an interesting story that was actually intertwined with the main plot. KHBBS – This one is a bit hard since I don't play any other story except Ventus' 90% of the time. It's a toss up between Land of Departure (aesthetic and story reasons), Disney Town (mini games are really great – except I Scream Beat), and Mirage Arena (Rumble Racing and Mono- Command Board ftw!!).

KH Re:Coded – Pretty much all of Hollow Bastion. While a re-hash of KH1, it still felt like its own thing, especially with the battle system since Data!Sora's Keyblade was destroyed. I also really liked Olympus Coliseum. It was my favorite place to grind. In fact... Re:Coded took a lot of risks in changing up how you could fight and/or navigate the world and, to me, they were all interesting takes and fun experiences. Except Agrabah. Fuck Agrabah.

KHDDD – I like La Cité des Cloches because of what it could have been... Actual worlds I like are The Country of Musketeers, The World That Never Was (Sora's story), and Symphony of Sorcery. KH0.2 – Dwarf Woodlands as explained above. KHUX – I honestly really like Daybreak Town. I wish we could freely explore it.

Least Favorite World: F U C K M O N S T R O

I have some bad memories with Monstro from KH1.

First off, there's a chance you will just plain miss the cutscene needed to get access to him. I once had to drive between Halloween Town and Atlantica six times to get him, and often require 2 or more trips around to get him to appear in general.

Second, in KH1, a game that actually would've benefited from the nowadays useless as shit map system, has a world where everything looks the damn same and has rooms literally titled 'Monstro: Chamber 1' and 'Monstro: Chamber 2'. Just watching Raisoren, someone who has played KH1 at least twice, try to find his way around Monstro was a headache in itself back when I first found out about KH. Actually playing it was a migraine.

Third, the aesthetic... just the aesthetic. I am very squicky about the 'insides' of things. I understand that the team went through lengths to make it not look realistic, but that ultimately failed since the main different between most of the rooms are ledges and the amount of barrels in a room.

With all that said, I bet many of you can guess my reaction to Monstro in KH:DDD... it honestly wasn't too bad. Unless I was grinding, I didn't have to spend as much time in Monstro as I did in KH1 and the layout was a lot more varied and easily distinguishable from each other.

And then I played it in Critical Mode. :)

Am I ready for Kingdom Hearts III: Very much so! I've been steadily getting more and more excited with each piece of news we get. I don't know what to expect, but as long as it feels like a KH game, I don't think there's a way to disappoint me.

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Chain of Memories and Re: Chain of Memories Review: Sora’s Story

This is a review/thoughts post on Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Chain of Memories is the second game released in the Kingdom Hearts series, and the only one on Game Boy Advance (GBA). It was also released on PS2 as Re: Chain of Memories a while back. The story of the game goes like this: After the events of KH1, Sora, Donald and Goofy are led to a mysterious castle called Castle Oblivion, where memories come to life as illusions. As Sora, Donald and Goofy enter the castle and start climbing, they partially relive their previous adventures, gradually begin to lose their memories (it’s not called ‘Castle Oblivion’ for nothing) and are antagonized by cloaked people who belong to a group of people called the Organization.

This game’s most unique feature is the card-battle system. In this system you have to use cards for a number of things, such as attacking enemies, healing Sora, and entering new rooms and floors. While I thought it was annoying at first, it was actually pretty fun once I got the hang of it, and wasn’t as hard as it looked.

About the angst: There is a lot of it, especially in Sora’s Story. Sora gradually losing his memories has potential for some good angst and the game delivers (though other people might not agree with me on this). Riku’s Story also has some of these moments, though I won’t say how because of spoilers.     

The story in this game was pretty good overall. In Sora’s Story the most important plot-points took place in between levels, in the halls of Castle Oblivion, while the storylines within the worlds were mainly filler. They still had some relevance, though, which I thought was neat. I have complaints about Riku’s Story, though. Riku’s Story is so good, but most of it takes place in the last three levels of the castle. Riku goes through most of his levels with little story (that’s focused on him, at least), and the only thing he needs to do in each world is fight the bosses. And the story you do get at those levels is more focused on Organization 13. Like… why? 

Other than that, this game is pretty good. I’d definitely recommend it, though you’d probably need to play Kingdom Hearts I to understand the story properly. I’d actually recommend playing Chain of Memories after Kingdom Hearts 2, if you’re playing through the whole series, because you’ll be less surprised by the KH2 revelations if you play Chain of Memories straight after KH1. 

Also, if you don’t have time to play this game (or any of the Kingdom Hearts games) or just don’t want to spend that much time on it, and you still want to look at the story, you can always watch the cutscene movies on youtube. 

Below the cut-line is a spoiler-filled account of my experience playing this game:

 Traverse Town

There’s not much to talk about in this section.

That vision of Aerith that Donald and Goofy apparently didn’t see was so freaky. 

Sora, Donald and Goofy forgetting what Hollow Bastion is called was also chilling, because it marked the beginning of the gradual loss of their memories.

 Agrabah

It felt so weird seeing Donald, Goofy and Sora relive their adventures as if they’re living them for the first time, especially since they just left the Traverse Town ‘world’ where they remembered Leon, Yuffie and Aerith and were upset when it turned out those three didn’t remember them. Now the trio were meeting Aladdin as if it was the first time. Interesting!    

I liked this version of the Agrabah storyline better than the one in KHFM. I spent so much time figuring out what to do (and trying to beat the bosses) in Agrabah in KHFM that the story in that world kind of lost something (though I still liked it). In CoM I felt like I was able to get more out of the Agrabah story, even though it was really short.

I loved how Aladdin decided that making Genie turn him into a prince would be wrong, because it wasn’t who he really was and he wanted Jasmine to love him for himself. It was so nice to see Aladdin learn something from what happened in this storyline.    

The GBA Genie Jafar fight was the most annoying fight I’ve experienced so far (not counting Chernabog in KH1 Final Mix). It wasn’t that hard overall (I wasn’t in danger of dying at any point), but the moving platforms made it so bloody frustrating and difficult to attack Iago. I was so relieved when Iago finally went down. :D

After leaving the floor, Sora and Donald finally believe Goofy about the castle Goofy claims to remember. Together they realise that they will lose more of their memories the higher up they go into Castle Oblivion. That’s a scary thought. :(      

Olympic Coliseum

I went into this world with some apprehension, since I didn’t care much for the Olympus Coliseum storyline in KHFM. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised by the storyline in CoM. As well as skipping the actual tournament battles (aside from the boss fight), its storyline was much more intriguing than in KHFM. Cloud actually had an important reason for agreeing to ruin Hercules for Hades (he wanted to get back his lost memories) which made me feel sorry for him.        

GBA Hades was harder to beat than the previous bosses. I died during my first attempt, and spent a lot of my second attempt running away from his fire. But I managed to beat him the second time around, thank goodness. :) PS2 Hades was ridiculously easy. The only reason I died once fighting him was because I wasn’t focused enough on the fight. 

Sora’s pep talk to Cloud about not giving up was heartwarming. Especially when Sora talked about how memories are never truly forgotten.    

*Sora sees a vision of Kairi turning into Namine*

…And so begins Sora’s descend into madness and forgetting. :’( Seriously, seeing this right after Sora talked about Kairi and how he would never forget her because of the promise he made to her was heart-wrenching, especially knowing what Sora’s vision means.  

 Wonderland

I don’t have much to say about this world. I loved how Alice was like in this level, standing up to the Queen of Hearts during her trial. :D Sora telling the Queen that he was the thief was such a stupid thing to do and only resulted in him, Donald and Goofy fighting card soldiers.

The Trickmaster was pretty difficult on GBA, but fairly easy on PS2.  

Alice tricking the Queen into letting them go was awesome. Go Alice! :D        

 Monstro

Sora and co find themselves in the belly of a whale. They are reunited with Gepetto and Pinocchio, who are trapped. Pinocchio is caught by the Parasite Cage after he runs off to look for a way out.

Parasite Cage

GBA Version: This fight was hard, mostly because of the poison on the ground that slowed me down. I kept falling off the safe spots and slowed down so much that getting back on was nearly impossible. Didn’t have a specific strategy; I went with what the IGN walkthrough suggested.    

PS2 Version: I just kept hacking away at it and it went down eventually. I didn’t even need to avoid the green poison. It was that easy. It helped that the green stuff didn’t slow me down like it did in the GBA version.  

After the fight, Pinocchio gets the idea to force Monstro to spit them all out. Sora, Donald and Goofy head off to do that. Pinocchio wants to go with them, but Jiminy convinces him to stay with Gepetto, so that they don’t lose each other again when they get out of the whale. :’)

 Battling the Shadow Heartless

GBA: This fight was difficult, but not as difficult as some of the online guides said it was. What I found was that using Summons was pointless because it wasted precious time and caused the metre to go down. I stuck to attack cards. The key here was to continuously attack the Heartless so that the metre didn’t go down too much. It helped to have two or three hi-potions or potions while doing this battle, because reloading wasted time.

I spent quite some time trying to get the metre full on GBA. Five or six attempts, I think. Maybe more. I liked that if you quit an attempt, or if you failed one, it would have dialogue related to it.  

PS2: Wasn’t as hard as on GBA. Unlike on GBA, Summons (Genie particularly) helped to rapidly increase the metre by a lot, so it was worth using them. Like on GBA, it helped to have hi-potions/potions in your deck. And again, attack relentlessly. I finished this fight in one go.        

After the metre is filled, Monstro spits the gang out. They find themselves back in the mouth of the whale. Gepetto and Pinocchio are nowhere to be seen, so they assume that they made it out safely. They then have a sweet moment in which Jiminy mourns that Pinocchio doesn’t need him (his conscience) anymore, and Sora assures him that’ll never be the case and that he’ll see him again someday. :’)

With that, the gang goes off to the next floor.      

 Halloween Town

The basic plot of the Halloween Town level is this: Dr Finkelstein made a potion that gives someone back their true memories. This potion was stolen by Sally, who didn’t like the idea of using it because of the potential dangers, seeing as the Heartless appeared when the good doctor created it. Then the potion was stolen by Oogie Boogie, who drank it. He started panicking probably because what he found out scared him, and Sora and co had to fight him. After he was defeated Sora and co got the potion back to Dr Finkelstein. Turns out Oogie Boogie didn’t drink all of the potion (just most of it), but Sora decides not to try it, having seen what happened to Oogie. And besides, he promised Axel that he’d find out the truth on his own.

The Oogie-Boogie fight was easy in both versions. Far easier than the fights in KH1 and 2. I just hit the dice three times to let down the gate so I could attack him, used Mickey cards, and cured myself when necessary.  

After Halloween Town, the gang has to fight Larxene, who gives them a new set of world cards afterward. This fight was easy in both versions—I just attacked her constantly and healed.    

 Atlantica

Sora, Donald and Goofy move on to Atlantica, where Ariel has stolen her father’s trident in an attempt to get Ursula to help her rescue Flounder, who is apparently in danger. When the group catches up to her, and after hearing her conversation with Ursula, they tell her not to trust the witch and not to give her the trident. Ariel agrees with them, but she really needs Ursula’s help to save Flounder. So the group plus Ariel confront Ursula, who reveals that she kidnapped Flounder. Ariel gives Ursula the trident after Ursula threatens Flounder, and Sora and co then have to fight a gigantic version of her.

This Ursula fight was basically an easier version of the ‘Giant Ursula’ fight in KH1. The GBA fight was pretty easy—I just avoided all of her attacks by dodge-rolling and moving to the far side of the screen to avoid the bubbles (they confuse you, so it’s best to avoid them completely). The PS2 fight was a bit harder because it was harder to avoid her attacks. I just kept hacking at her tentacles and then her face whenever possible.

After she’s defeated, Sora and co talk with Ariel. Ariel is worried about her father being angry at her. Surprisingly enough, Sora suggests that she just tell Triton that Ursula stole the trident. However, Ariel decides to be honest with him because, as she admits, she hasn’t made the best decisions lately. Though it was wrong of her to take the trident, she’s proud that she did it to save Flounder, and if she lied to her father then that feeling would be lost. Then Donald and Goofy voice their disapproval about Sora advising Ariel to lie. :’D Like, seriously, Sora? I couldn’t believe Sora actually suggested she do that.

Anyway, Sora, Donald and Goofy leave Atlantica and go to Floor 8. In my playthrough this was Neverland.

Before ascending, though, Sora and co encounter Riku! Sora is understandably shocked to see him. Riku seems like the angry self he was in KH1, and he doesn’t seem very happy with Sora. This leads to a fight. This fight (Riku 1) in both versions was fairly easy for me. After the fight, Riku runs off, leaving Sora confused and hurt. Once the group gets to the next floor, Jiminy, Donald and Goofy manage to cheer Sora up by telling him that Riku may have just forgotten that he and Sora are friends, and that he didn’t mean the nasty things he said to him. Also, Donald and Goofy remind him that they all promised to keep smiling, when they first met. All this helps snap Sora out of his funk. :’)

Seeing Sora just standing there in the PS2 version with his head bowed was so sad. He looked completely heartbroken. :’(  

Neverland    

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy enter Neverland (aka Captain Hook’s Ship). They encounter Tinkerbell, who leads them to Peter Pan. After everything is explained, the group go off to find Wendy, who’s being held captive by Hook. Wendy tells Peter that she wants to go back to London, and Peter throws a temper tantrum and abandons her. Some friend/sweetheart he turned out to be. Sora and co are pissed off at Peter’s jerkass behaviour, but all they can do is continue on. They leave Wendy below and go to the deck to stage a distraction. Unfortunately, Hook seems to have caught Wendy. Which seems impossible since Sora and co just left her, but I blame it on Castle Oblivion and Namine’s magic. Luckily Peter Pan saves Wendy, leaving Sora and co to defeat Hook.

Captain Hook

GBA: This fight was extremely difficult. I mainly dodged a lot, used zeroes on the bombs and attack Hook whenever it was safe to. Took me a few tries to beat him.  

PS2: Surprisingly easy. I just dodged his attacks and hammered him whenever I could.  

After Hook’s defeated, Peter Pan admits to Wendy that he thinks she’ll forget all about him and Neverland once she goes back to London and grows up, because adults don’t remember Neverland. Sora tells him that none of them will ever forget him, and even if they do, memories are never completely lost and a part of them will always remember. This comforts Peter, and he tells Sora that he will look forward to seeing an adult Sora. I find this sad, because as far as I know Sora will never visit Neverland again, so Peter will never get to see a grown-up Sora.

 Hollow Bastion

Next is Hollow Bastion. I found the story in this level really intriguing and sweet. Belle has been kidnapped by Maleficent, but when Beast comes to rescue her she coldly turns him down. Beast is confused and heartbroken, and falls into a bout of self-pity. The gang go after Belle, and witness her conversation with Maleficent. Turns out that Belle is trying to protect Beast from Maleficent by being cold toward him, though we don’t know why yet. Maleficent ends up transporting Belle somewhere to force Beast to come to her, which works. Beast admits to Belle his true feelings, which convinces Maleficent to steal his heart, for whatever reason. Belle, in an act of selfless love, takes the bullet for him. However, Maleficent still intends to take Beast’s heart, after she notices his pure feelings of love for Belle, but is stopped by Sora and co.

Dragon Maleficent

GBA: This fight was really difficult. Pretty sure it was mostly luck that I won in the end.  

PS2: Insanely easy. Just locked onto Maleficent’s head and hacked away, healing when necessary and avoiding her attacks. I tried out the Mickey card but it didn’t help me at all.

After the fight Belle is restored back to her physical form, and she and Beast share a lovey-dovey heartwarming moment. The gang leaves at this point.

 100 Acre Wood  

This was a breather level, with no Heartless whatsoever. All I had to do was lead Pooh down a path toward a log, while trying to find all of Pooh’s friends. The GBA version had Sora lead Pooh toward his friends (you just had to guide him toward each of the hiding places and feed him honey whenever necessary). 

An adorable thing about the GBA version is that Pooh falls asleep if you remain idle for too long, and also sometimes when he’s finished eating honey. It was frustrating as hell at points, but it’s also very cute. :’)         

Unlike on the GBA, there were actual minigames in the PS2 version. I didn’t like this as much, because I preferred what the level was like in the GBA version. It felt nice to just walk around with Pooh.  

I did love the cutscene between Sora and Pooh just before Sora left 100 Acre Wood in the PS2 version. It was full of heartwarming, but also foreboding as Sora remembered that he was losing his memories and might forget about Pooh. 

 Battle: Vexen

GBA: Really easy. I just treated him like one of those Big Heartless and kept attacking him from behind. He eventually went down.

PS2: Harder, but not so hard that I had trouble beating him. I just hit him from behind and he eventually went down.

 Twilight Town

Not much to say here, except that Sora finds this place familiar even though he’s never been there before. Apparently it’s a memory from ‘the other side of his heart’. Oh, and he also battles Vexen for the second time.  

Vexen

GBA: Really easy. Just attacked his back and he went down in no time.

PS2: The Vexen fight surprised me. I expected it to be easy like in the GBA version, but instead it was insanely difficult. I’m pretty sure I got lucky when I defeated him on the PS2 version. I didn’t have a specific strategy for this one—I just dodge-rolled like hell, attacked him from behind and prayed.  

After leaving Twilight Town, Sora ditches Donald and Goofy after they voice concerns about him. Which is not nice. This means that Sora has to go through the twelfth floor by himself. He also tells Jiminy to shut up. :(

 Destiny Islands

Here we see a twisted memory of the day Destiny Islands was destroyed by the Heartless. Sora meets up with Selphie, Wakka and Tidus, and then with Riku. I must say that it’s nice to see a less-jerkish version of Riku. It makes me wonder what he was like before KH1.

When the Heartless attack, Sora goes to find Namine. Their conversation is really confusing. Well, doubly confusing, because there’s two Namines. It was impossible to tell which was which. Namine helps Sora remember a bit of his old memories, which helps him almost remember Kairi. Their conversation is eventually interrupted by the appearance of Darkside.

Darkside was easy in the PS2 version, but harder on GBA. GBA Darkside had an insane amount of hp, which meant that the fight took forever, and I also had to avoid his sleights, which was difficult. PS2 Darkside had the same difficulty level as KH1 Darkside, which was really easy.

After that, Sora leaves Destiny Islands and talks with Namine. She begins to tell him what she did to his memories, but is interrupted by Riku. I kinda like his blunt explanation: “Your memory is a trainwreck.” Inevitably, the two of them get into a battle.  

 Battle: Riku 4

GBA: I never got past this fight. Managed to get past in on PS2, though.

PS2: I tried without sleights first, and got screwed over by his moves. Then, after hearing that you really need sleights for this fight, I levelled up enough to get Sonic Blade. The next time I tried, I spammed Sonic Blade at him and he went down quickly.        

 *Note: everything past this point I played in the PS2 version, not the GBA.*

 After the battle, Riku keeps on attacking Sora, intending to kill him. He is stopped by Namine, who literally breaks his heart and renders him catatonic. This is when Larxene appears (again) and the revelations begin.

Poor Namine. :( I know she tampered with Sora’s memories, but she was forced to do it by Organization 13. The way they’re abusing her is terrible. I got the sense that, aside from being brainwashed, Sora realised that Namine was also a victim and that was why he wasn’t really angry at her. Her clearly regretting what she did and trying to fix it probably also helped.      

Since their plan’s failed, the Organisation stops being so cryptic and explains that the Riku Sora’s been fighting is a replica, and that they’d wanted to turn Sora into a puppet via Namine’s powers in order to control him. Unfortunately, now they want to kill him instead. Luckily Donald and Goofy show up to help Sora go against Larxene, in what is truly a heartwarming moment. :’) After that’s done, they prepare to battle Larxene—together.      

 Laxrene 2

This battle was harder than Riku 4. I had to level up to around 50 to get enough CP to fit everything I needed into my deck. It took all day, but I finally beat her by spamming Sonic Blade and using zeroes, cures and hi-potions/elixir whenever necessary. It was still a pretty close fight even with all of that, though.

Larxene’s death scene was kinda sad. She seemed really scared, which was a huge change from her previous behaviour. She definitely had it coming, though.

After the fight, Namine explains everything and assures them that she can fix their memories if they head to the 13th floor. So that’s what Sora, Donald and Goofy do.  

 Floor 13: Castle Oblivion

I finally made it to the 13th floor!! :D  

Damn… Marluxia is a right bastard, using Namine as a shield like that. Knowing what I know about Axel, I would’ve listened to him if I were Sora.    

Axel was insanely difficult to defeat. I’m pretty sure I got lucky when I beat him. Same with the very first Marluxia fight.

After the first Marluxia fight, you find out that you were just fighting an illusion. Not that surprising, but very frustrating.

Sora being willing to sacrifice himself just to protect Namine was horrifying and shows just how brainwashed he was. He didn’t even seem to care that he’d end up a mindless puppet.      

 Final Battle

When I first tried fighting Marluxia II and III, I lost multiples times. Eventually I realised that it wasn’t because of my deck (I had arranged it pretty well, with fives zeroes before the other attack cards). I simply didn’t have enough hp (my hp was around 350; I was lvl 54 at that point). So I went back to the 13th floor rooms and grinded to level up my hp. When I decided to try again, I was lvl 59 with 410 hp. This amount of hp was enough for me to win the final battle(s).

My stats for the successful battle:

n  CP: 950

n  HP: 410

Order of my deck: Five zeroes, then high-level attack cards, hi-potions, cures (at least three of them so you can cast curaga), elixir, then two more zeros (one of them a cure card). Having zeroes at the front is crucial, so that you can reach them quickly and easily when Marluxia uses a sleight. During the Marluxia III fight I locked on and hammered away at Marluxia, using cures when necessary and zeroes to break sleights. He went down in no time. :D Even when I was trying to beat him the first few times, I got the sense that the battle (Marluxia III) was pretty easy and quick because my cards were never broken while I was attacking him. The only difficult part was avoiding his sleights and healing after accidentally being caught in one.

Tips for the sleights:

n  When he throws Doom at you and you’ve run out of zero cards, don’t panic. Just reload. Reloading takes way less time than the ‘doom’ countdown and if you put zeroes at the front of your deck you can access them quickly to avoid dying. I found this sleight less annoying than the one that scatters all your cards. Your cards being scattered means that you’re vulnerable, and Marluxia can attack you while you’re trying to get your cards back. It was so frustrating. :(

n  If you get caught in Marluxia’s ‘scattering cards’ sleight, get back your zero cards first so you can break any sleights he throws while you’re getting your cards back. Equal priority should be your healing cards so you can heal if you get caught in an attack. (During my battle Marluxia tended to follow the ‘scattering cards’ sleight with another attack.)

n  Use zeroes for all of the sleights he throws at you. Even the less serious ones. It’s not worth risking getting damaged a lot just to save your zeroes for Doom and Scattered Wind.

Other tips: Don’t use sleights for Marluxia III. You really don’t need any. You should be fine hacking away at his hp with single cards.

To be honest, I laughed out loud during Marluxia’s death scene. People online were right when they said that Marluxia sounded like he was severely constipated during that moment. :’D      

The ending cutscene was so emotional, I almost cried. The conversation between Sora and Repliku, with Sora telling him that it doesn’t matter that he’s a clone, was bittersweet because I know what happens to Repliku after he leaves Sora and the gang.

I felt a bit sorry for Namine, because she clearly was sad that Sora chose to regain his old memories and lose the ones she created (which meant forgetting about her). Still, it was for the best. Those memories of Namine were fake anyway, and it would’ve been sad if Sora forgot Riku and Kairi forever. Plus, Donald and Goofy were also affected by what Namine did. If Sora chose not to get back his memories, they would lose their own memories forever too.

That moment when Sora was in the pod and remembered Kairi was really sweet. :’) When did that take place, though? Right after he got in there? I always thought that he remembered Kairi not long before he woke up in KH2. Anyway, his remembering Kairi was a perfect place to end his story at.  

Other Notes:

*  Sora is a really, really good friend. It would’ve been within his right to ditch Riku as a friend, considering that Riku (before being possessed) sided with Maleficent and acted pretty shittily toward Sora, but Sora still cares for Riku and wants him to return to Destiny Islands with him.  

*  Kairi turning into Namine: I much prefer the animation that occurred in the GBA. In the GBA version it really looked like Sora’s memory was being edited, because you could literally see Kairi morphing into Namine. Plus, it was super creepy. In the PS2 version it just looked like he saw Namine briefly, which didn’t feel as compelling.

*  I don’t know if it’s because I was playing in Beginner Mode, but all the bosses up until Twilight Town were extremely easy to beat. The first boss I had real trouble beating was Vexen (which surprised me, because I found him easy in the GBA version). Riku 3 was also harder than he was on GBA for me, but maybe that’s because I had no sleights at that point.  

[khtrinityftw]

The Good, The Bad, and the Cards - A Brief Look Back at KH: Chain of Memories

It’s been 15 years since Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was released, and while I adore this game, I want to look back and highlight 7 specific elements worthy of praise that still hold up to this day and 7 specific elements that aren’t so good and helped derail the KH franchise going forward, the “Franchise Original Sins” as it were. So without further ado, here they are:

Positive: The Card Map System - I really love the usage of cards when it comes to exploring each world. Through the different cards, you get to create your own customized dungeon to crawl through, and the incentive to battle in order to collect cards you need to progress further in the level is a good one.

Negative: The Card Battle System - Unfortunately, using cards in combat isn’t done nearly as smoothly, and they complicate battles way more than they should. This is especially bad in the original GBA version of the game, where the cards are hard to make out on the small screen and the tiny, cramped arenas that you fight in make it all too easy to get backed into a corner while trying to shuffle through or reload your deck. This game could’ve done better.

Positive: Sora’s Story - The main scenario of the game is superbly written by Daisuke Watanabe. Like I said in my video review, he took what he was given, which was virtually nothing, and turned it into something. Sora’s character has never been explored in as much depth as it is here, with all of his raw strengths and weaknesses on full display. His bond of friendship with Donald and Goofy, his strong romantic interest in Kairi, his tortured clashing with “Riku”, his animosity toward Organization XIII, and the interactions he has with Namine toward the end are all handled perfectly. It really reminds you of just why you love this guy.

Negative: Riku’s Story - Reverse/Rebirth, otoh, doesn’t hold up so well. It tries its best to give Riku good character development, but too much of it is focused on practically everyone but Riku, the lack of anything occurring in the Disney worlds means that the story feels too light on content, and the conclusion Riku’s character is ultimately brought to contradicts what was established in the original KH and only creates further problems down the line. What’s more, this was the start of forcing Riku down our throats as the deuteragonist of the series, which is a role he was never suited for and that he only gets worse in overtime. So yeah, not a fan.

Positive: Organization XIII - Primarily the members introduced in Sora’s story; Lexaeus and Zexion are more useful as plot devices than as characters. Not only are Axel, Larxene, Vexen and Marluxia all excellent villains in their own ways, but the villainous arc they are part of is the best-written one in any KH game. Watching them work off each other and against each other in this dark but easy to follow political intrigue plot is one of the game’s highest points.

Negative: The Riku Replica - Don’t get me wrong, this was a decent character with a decent arc, but the execution was way too over-the-top and overstayed its welcome. Between Sora and Riku’s story, you have to fight this asshole six times! That’s just ridiculous for any boss in any game! And then there’s what the whole “replica” concept he introduced was used for in subsequent games, since Nomura just loves taking the simple and making it convoluted.

Positive: The GBA Graphics - This is one of the best-looking GBA games ever, hands-down. The fact that full cutscenes with PS2-style graphics were actually able to fit on the cartridge is simply incredible, and Square should really be commended for pushing the system to its absolute limits.

Negative: Console Spread - COM marked the first time that a KH game was put on an entirely different console than before, being a GBA game released and set in between two PS2 games. This wasn’t too much of a problem back then, since COM was only needed to fully understand the purposefully confusing prologue of KH2 and it ended up getting a PS2 remake anyway. But after a while, the sheer amount of consoles that KH spin-off games that are necessary to understand KH3′s story with became ridiculous. At this point, the only way you can actually get the full KH series is to own a PS4. If you don’t, then you’re out of luck.

Positive: Disney Expansion - Because this game re-uses Disney characters and worlds from the original KH, Daisuke Watanabe got to expand on things that weren’t really delved into in that game. We get more on Aladdin’s character, more on Alice’s character, more on Peter Pan and Wendy’s characters, more on Belle and the Beast’s characters and relationship…and perhaps most notable of all, more on Jiminy Cricket’s character. The Disney worlds and characters that we saw in KH are all enriched by their memory-based appearances.

Negative: An Influx of OCs - The original KH only had four original characters: Sora, Riku, Kairi and Ansem (five if you are counting Xemnas from Final Mix). COM introduced nine new ones: Namine, Axel, Larxene, Marluxia, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Riku Replica, and DiZ. Again, this wasn’t a problem with the game back then, especially seeing as two-thirds of those characters get axed before the game is through. But it started the trend of Nomura introducing way too much OCs that come to overshadow all the Disney and FF characters. Worse still, he refuses to truly let any of them go, as all six of those dead characters end up coming back to life later on, as do the two who went on to perish in KH2. This results in an overly cluttered canvas by KH3, to the point where no FF characters can appear.

Positive: Set-up for KH2 - This game’s existence did for KH2 what the later Dream Drop Distance should have done for KH3 but didn’t: it effectively set the stage for the following game. It gave all of the necessary foreshadowing for things like Nobodies, the Organization’s true goal, Xemnas, Roxas, Twilight Town, Namine being Kairi’s Nobody, and DiZ being the true Ansem while the Ansem we knew being an impostor. It also removed five members of the Organization from the board, with the sixth slated for removal in KH2′s prologue, which left the villain roster at a much more manageable number for the game’s main scenario. COM truly feels like the middle installment of a trilogy: the shit that happens in it actually matters.

Negative: Too Much Rehash from KH1 - There is so much from the original KH that is on repeat in COM. Beyond the same Disney worlds and characters being re-used, the stories in those worlds and with those characters match the original KH’s beat for beat, except with themes of memory inserted in and all context to the larger narrative removed so that they feel like filler. Both recycling from the first KH and Disney world visits being filler were not so bad in this game, but when it kept happening throughout the rest of the series, players grew sick of it. Furthermore, beats from the first KH still transpire in the main storyline of the game: Namine is in a role like Kairi’s, the Riku Replica is in a role like Riku’s, Marlxuia is in a role like both Maleficent and Ansem while Ansem himself comes back for more fun darkness times in Riku’s story, and we get sequences of Sora being separated from Donald and Goofy (this time it’s flipped and he’s the one who turns on them), the trio making an “All for One, One for All” promise as they put their hands on one another, and Sora making a promise with Namine that has Kairi’s good luck charm at the center of it. It’s all a little too much familiarity.

Positive: Atmosphere - As much as this game rehashes the previous one, it has a markedly different tone. It’s darker, more foreboding, more eerie, more psychological and uncertain. The white walls of Castle Oblivion and the creepy music playing as you go through them floor by floor really helps to sell this, as does a lot of the dialogue, memory-based insights into the characters’ hearts, and twisted machinations of the villains. It makes COM, well, memorable.

Negative: Convoluted Writing - That’s right, it all starts here. The writing for the original KH was smart enough to not actively dwell on the more ponderous elements of its story, keeping the narrative to a simple presentation while leaving the deeper lore as stuff for the player to think and speculate about it on their own. But in this game, it starts getting pushed to the forefront. Memory and darkness are the central themes of Sora and Riku’s story respectively, and yet neither of them quite make sense the way they’re explored. Memory is repeatedly said to be an aspect of the heart, to the point where removing it altogether would shatter a person’s heart completely. Except that this is not only confusing to basic logic that says memory is an aspect of the mind, but it gets contradicted by the following game, KH2, where it states that Nobodies that have no hearts act upon the memories of when they had hearts. Then we have Namine’s powers and how it relates to memories, which is nebulously defined here and ends up ballooning to ludicrous godlike degrees in order to make certain plot turns happen in later games, and you end up retroactively questioning why she didn’t just fuck with the Organization’s memories and shatter them in order to escape captivity all by herself.

Meanwhile, darkness is completely rewritten so that it can be a good thing if Riku isn’t afraid of it and uses it for a good cause...except that this is literally what he did in the first KH and it corrupted him. Darkness was unambiguously bad and something that should not be used in that game, but now it’s being revamped just to make Riku into a special snowflake with uber-awesome darkness powers. Future games continue going back and forth on darkness on whether it’s good, bad or neutral, whether it’s a natural force that needs to co-exist with light or whether it’s the source of all evil in the universe. And I again must remind you that this is only the start of how convoluted the series gets with its stories! By KH3, the series has become an absolute clusterfuck where nothing really makes sense or amounts to anything. There’s no real depth anymore, just pretentious nonsense that Nomura confuses for depth.

[nadziejastar]

The organization members death were underwhelming. Your thoughts on their deaths???

Yeah, I have to agree. I take it you mean the Organization members in KH3. The True Organization was so underwhelming.

Master Xehanort—The game never properly explained his motivations, so I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about his death. He had a very abrupt “redemption” where he and Eraqus were all buddy-buddy again, which came out of nowhere. I had no idea what was even going on in his boss fight. What were those black-clad figures fighting with him? How did Sora know he needed to trap him using a portal? Nothing was explained. In theory I liked kid Xehanort’s reunion with kid Eraqus. But it didn’t have enough impact because there was nothing building up to it, other than a single scene of them playing chess.

Xemnas—I liked his final words before disappearing, but it felt like they came out of nowhere. There was no evidence Xemnas ever felt that way. Why was he so lonely? It seems like he was supposed to be seen as tragic, but again, there was nothing leading up to it. I felt like we got robbed. We never learned why he couldn’t use the Keyblade. Also I was very disappointed that we never saw Aqua or Ventus react when they learned that Terra was possessed and that his Heartless and Nobody were the ones that were causing all the chaos in the world.

Young Xehanort—This guy was super important to the plot. He was the one who was traveling through time recruiting everyone. Supposedly he was tracking people using the Recusant’s Sigil. He was tracking Sora in KH3D, and the Ultimania said he had his eye on Isa for a long time. Unsurprisingly Young Xehanort is the one who retrieved Isa in KH3D. But he didn’t feel all that important, really. His time travel ability was left mostly unexplained. His death was completely forgettable. We never even learned why he was the Mysterious Figure in BBS.

Ansem Seeker of Darkness—Again, another resolution that felt like it was supposed to have way more building up to it. Why did Riku say he’d miss him? That truly came out of nowhere and surprised me. At first I thought it was Nomura breaking the fourth wall. He said in an interview that he was sad that certain characters would never be appearing again, and he did really like Xehanort. But I did notice that ASoD’s characterization was strange in KH3. Perhaps Riku was meant to be referring to the Terra part of him. After all, the relationship between Xehanort and Terra, and how those two personalities were split was supposed to be important to the cancelled game. And Riku recognized Terra at the end of KH3D.

Vanitas—I got the impression that Vanitas was supposed to be a lot more important to the plot than he really was. He felt so useless in the grand scheme of things. I thought he’d have a lot more to do with Sora, too .Also, in KH3D, he didn’t have a physical form. Sora saw him with Young Xehanort, but he was simply reacting to Ventus’s heart. I think Vanitas was supposed to have a lot more plot involvement, like with Xemnas’s search for the Chamber of Waking. And after Ventus went back to Sora, maybe Vanitas could feel what Sora felt.

He was also Ven’s dark half, which should have been more significant. I always thought Ven would have to go through some kind of character development where he reintegrated Vanitas back into him at the end. But Vanitas just…disappeared. Also, the fact that he looked like Sora was not treated like it was a big deal. Sora was just like, “Oh that’s weird.” Kinda like Roxas and Ventus or Kairi and Xion. It was just…never commented on. I was amused by the fact that Vanitas didn’t suddenly do a 180 after he was defeated. But he still didn’t leave a significant impression on me in KH3.

Riku—When I first learned that Riku was a Seeker of Darkness, I thought it had the potential to create some awesome story moments. But his defeat was ridiculous. I expected Riku to have some kind of clash with his dark half, where he’d get character development confronting his inner weakness. In KH3D, there was a lot of hints that his struggle with the darkness was not over.

When I first played KH3D a long time ago, I was actually annoyed because I thought they were dragging out Riku’s struggle instead of just accepting he was a good guy. But I think I kinda see where they were going. Riku did need closure on what happened to him in KH1. Sadly, he didn’t get that. Instead, the boss battle with his dark self was treated as this weird Riku/Naminé shipping thing, which really caught me off guard. I had NO idea what was going on with the weird Spirit Riku. That just made no sense and I really wondered what the hell Nomura was smoking when he wrote those scenes. In hindsight, I just see it as a contrived excuse to bring Naminé back. But when I first played KH3, Riku Replica’s death really left me scratching my head.

Marluxia—I couldn’t really feel anything for Marluxia’s defeat because I had no idea why he was even there. He received almost no backstory. So even in KH3, to me he was little more than “the flower dude”. I was aware that he was in KHUX, but I had no idea that game was going to be so important when I played KH3. Silly me, I was under the impression that the HD remasters were made to give players everything they needed to prepare for KH3.

KHUX was included in the form of a movie. And I mistakenly thought that movie was created to give players all the info they needed from KHUX that was relevant in KH3. But that really wasn’t the case. Apparently, I was supposed to know all about who Strelitzia and Skuld were, which I did not. When speaking to the Nameless Star, I admit I didn’t have a clue who it was and I had a hard time caring, since they had absolutely nothing to do with THIS plot arc.

Larxene—Larxene was the same as Marluxia for me. She was little more than “the bitchy chick”. I was looking forward to learning more about her and Marluxia, but that didn’t happen. Apparently she was just tagging along with him? That’s why she was a Seeker of Darkness? I thought that was lame. I read on the wiki that she had a sister or something.

But you see, if those types of things were supposed to be relevant, why was none of it included in the HD collections? That was baffling. In KH CoM, Marluxia and Larxene wanted Sora so they could use the Keyblade for something. They both seemed pretty amoral. In KH3, they made Marluxia seem like Isa or something, where he lost his heart, was possessed the whole time, and needed to be saved. Then he would be absolved of all his sins. But unlike with Saïx, that was never really hinted at? I never got that sense from Marluxia.

Luxord—Again, why is this person here? How did he become a Seeker of Darkness? Who is he? What was his life as a human like? I had a really hard time caring about his boss fight because he felt like he was just included for nostalgia. Same with Marluxia and Larxene. They just needed a few familiar faces to fill out the ranks. I’m sure that there was originally supposed to be a good reason he was a Seeker of Darkness, but they obviously had no time to get into that. I like Luxord. I think he’s really cool and gentlemanly. But we still know nothing about him.

Xigbar—His “death” was also lame. The moment he jumped off the ledge was made to seem all dramatic and final. And you know, I would have really liked if it was left like that. Xigbar committing suicide truly was the perfect ending for him. But surprise! It was all revealed to be a ruse. Why did he have to pretend to kill himself? Wasn’t he supposed to be a Nobody? Why didn’t he vanish after his defeat like all the other Nobodies did? Made no sense.

Saïx—Well, it’s no secret that I hated his “death” and everything else about his characterization in KH3. His whole subplot was USELESS. The whole point of his story was so Lea would have someone to rescue, so his training as a Keyblade wielder paid off. Terra, Aqua, and Ven had each other to go home with. Sora, Riku, and Kairi had each other to go home with. Donald, Goofy, and Mickey had each other to go home with. Isa was Lea’s person to bring home. Lea’s home is NOT Twilight Town. And he’s not going to be hanging out with Roxas and Xion all day.

Lea was supposed to bring Isa back. That means taking the initiative, like he did in KH3D. It was heavily implied that he needed to be saved. Even on the clock tower, Lea said he was dragging him home. Isa was the original person Lea promised to bring back. But…he did nothing of the sort. Lea didn’t bring Isa back OR drag him home. Saïx came to the good side on his own after having a random change of heart for no discernible reason. Lea forgot all about him until he randomly showed up on the clock tower. He wasn’t concerned with bringing him home. His relationship with Lea and his boss fight were treated with almost no seriousness whatsoever. Instead of a fight to the death, Lea casually said he’d clobber him tomorrow, like they were going to have a boxing match or something.

Then he had a “redemption” that was so lazy and poorly planned, it had to happen off-screen. Isa was never meant to have a redemption, so one had to be shoe-horned in, using the secret reports of all things. Obviously Isa was a very low priority in KH3. It also made no sense. If he wanted to atone, why did he become a Seeker of Darkness? Could he not bring back Roxas and Xion AFTER Xehanort was defeated? They weren’t Guardians of Light, so they weren’t needed in the final battle. They didn’t need to come back anyway, but still. It was just done for fanservice. And apparently he fought Lea in the final battle because he was too stubborn and embarrassed to admit that he wanted to “atone”. It was all an act. Everything about Saïx was a total waste of screentime IMO. I’ve never seen a work of fiction give a character such a transparently ill-fitting and contradictory backstory in my entire life. I’m not even being hyperbolic, either.