#the first was hollow bastion the second was may your heart be your guiding key

[firestorm09890]

two for two on accidentally gaslighting Goofy into thinking he made something up when he actually remembers better than everyone else

[beyondmistland]

“May your heart be your guiding key” (Full thoughts on Kingdom Hearts III below!)

Graphics:

Ø  The game is bloody gorgeous, which helps mitigate the long and frequent cutscenes

Ø  The lip-syncing rarely fails

Music:

Ø  The new remixes are awesome and the brand-new tracks don't disappoint either

Ø  What does though is the actual audio mixing:

More often than not I struggled to hear the music over the sound effects during gameplay and the voiceovers during cutscenes

Ranking the Worlds:

Ø  #1: Corona: The world is huge, with varied terrain and a kick-ass final boss

Ø  #2 Olympus: The sheer scale and scope of the world took my breath away, plus we (finally!) get to fight all four titans

Ø  #3 The Caribbean: Assassin's Creed IV meets Kingdom Hearts, what's not to like

Ø  #4 Monstropolis: While not as eye-catching as some of the other worlds the way it intersects with the broader KH lore is really neat and the final cutscene was a delight in that it averts the Disney characters being useless when dealing with the original KH villains, on top of which its straightforward design is a nice change of pace, my only complaint is that there are only four types of Unversed

Ø  #5 San Fransokyo: The story is surprisingly short, which means you don't really get the chance to explore the environment, which sucks because the verticality and day/night cycle are awesome, plus there are a number of memorable boss fights

Ø  #6 Twilight Town: If it had been fully recreated based off the KH2 version the world would be much higher on my list but despite how small it is I love the liveliness, not to mention how peaceful it is in comparison to the other worlds, the same can be said for Hundred Acre Wood

Ø  #7 Keyblade Graveyard + Final World + Scala Ad Caelum: Though jaw-dropping in terms of visuals and audio they're not fully realized worlds, the same can be said for Dark World

Ø  #8 Toy Box: I loved the final boss as well as how the story tied into the larger plot of the game and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy exploring Andy's room while "You have a friend in me" played in the background

Why then is Toy Box so far down on my list, world design

Even with endgame stats (LV40-45) the Gigas are tough to take down and as a result they come off as gimmicky in the worst sense of the word, beyond that the fact that the majority of the world is set in Galaxy Toys made me feel constrained and claustrophobic, which could have been partially alleviated if we'd been allowed to make our way through the parking lot outside, finally, the story kind of got repetitive with the backtracking whenever the characters were about to leave because "someone went missing yet again"

Ø  #9 Arrendelle: Though it has one of the best final bosses in the game along with Corona there is so much wrong with this world that I wonder if it's less Square Enix's fault and more Disney placing an insane amount of red tape on their favorite cash-cow:

1) Elsa does not become a party member even after you beat the world

2) You do not get to explore the city or the ice palace despite the latter being fully rendered on the map

3) Larxene, a lightning-based character, randomly traps you in an ice labyrinth when that would have made a lot more sense both logically and thematically if it had been Elsa

4) Speaking of Larxene, she does practically nothing the whole time you're there unlike Marluxia and Luxord, who are at least semi-active

5) You climb a mountain and get knocked off of it so many times that even Sora gets fed up

6) The bloody minigame where you have to find Olaf's body parts

7) Forcing us to watch the entire "Let it go" sequence and then having "Do you want to build a snowman" play over Anna's voice as she's explaining herself to Sora

8) So much of the story is excised that you have little clue as to what's going on to the point Hans appears for all of five minutes, doesn't say any lines, and isn't even named when it would have been cool, not to mention, just plain better, if he had started off as a guest member of your party

9) As a result of #8 Sora, Donald, and Goofy's presence feels like even more of an afterthought than usual in the sense that them not being there wouldn't have changed anything at all apart from Hans' Heartless then having no one to defeat it which can be seen by the fact that when they leave no one tells them goodbye unlike in every other world

10) The visual design was bland and tiresome after a while

11) The world's gimmick was uninspired to say the least

12) Fighting alongside a giant snowman (AKA Marshmallow) was awesome and in terms of pure gameplay the labyrinth was actually quite fun

Story Pros:

Ø  Master Xehanort's new voice actor is good but after hearing Leonard Nimoy's voice for the past couple of games the change is a bit jarring

Ø  The way previous games are referenced and tied together is a nice way of bringing new players into the fold while also setting up the finale's resolutions

Ø  The game has a better sense of humor than previous installments

Ø  Sora is more like his KH2 self than the bland caricature we saw in 3D and quite a few characters display some degree of genre-savviness

Ø  Master Yen Sid gets out of his chair to lend a hand for once

Ø  Donald Duck is the most powerful mage in Square Enix canon (and I am not making that up)

Gameplay Pros:

Ø  Being able to switch between different save points in the same world is a welcome addition

Ø  The secondary ability of all shotlocks to airstep is ingenious

Ø  You can have more than two party members finally!

Ø  The secret ending isn't too hard to unlock

Ø  You can upgrade your Keyblades, which means older ones aren't automatically relegated to redundancy

Ø  Donald and Goofy are useful again after being nerfed into uselessness in KH2

Ø  Towns and cities are actually populated by fully-voiced NPCs!

Ø  Cutscenes in Theater Mode are unlocked after completing each world rather than after beating the game

Ø  I never tried the Classic Kingdom minigames but the cooking one with Remy was a nice break from the normal gameplay (I suck at the egg-cracking one though)

Ø  The camera doesn't get in the way like it infamously did in KH1

Ø  I like the new main menu design (Feel free to disagree though)

Ø  The Gummi Ship is entirely optional outside of a few mandatory boss battles

Ø  Moogle Tickets are a nice way of giving players a second chance during difficult encounters (I do wish they didn’t activate so quickly though) 

Gameplay Cons:

Ø  The game never once tells you that you can switch between Situation Commands using L2

Ø  The game never once tells you that you keep all your lower-tier magic (Fire, Fira for example) and that your shortcuts don't automatically update to include the higher-tier version of whatever magic you have equipped

Ø  There's no real incentive to switch between Keyblades (That being said, my favorites are Wheel of Fate, Nano Arms, and Happy Gear/Ever After)

Ø  Attractions lose their charm quickly and completely ruin the flow of combat

Ø  Summons aren't too big of a deal since I only ever ended up using them once and even then it was by accident

Ø  Donald still heals you at the wrong time more often than not

Ø  Even on Proud Mode the game is way too easy for the most part (Apparently Critical Mode addresses this but I can't confirm that)

Ø  There is a lack of sidequests and post-game content that contributes to the feeling Square & Disney gave us half a game (For example, there is only one secret boss, said secret boss has a generic design, no ties to the story, and can be defeated at LV40 on your first attempt)

Ø  Hollow Bastion, Mysterious Tower, and Destiny Islands are not playable

Ø  The parkour from 3D has been nerfed too much in terms of distance to actually be useful

Story Cons:

Ø  Nomura fridged Kairi and he worfed almost everyone the first time you arrive at the Keyblade Graveyard!

Ø  The wrapping up of plot points and character arcs from prior entries was a little too nice and neat for me

Ø  The out-of-nowhere introduction of Subject X

Ø  Pete and Maleficent do literally nothing the whole damn game

Ø  The pacing is awful:

Almost all of the game's resolution is held back until after you've beaten the last Disney world

Ø  There are two important cutscenes in the Final World that you can accidentally miss because for some reason they are optional

Ø  We don't get to see what happened to Lingering Will, which also means we don't get any more insight into the third aspect of being (AKA the soul)

Ø  There are no Final Fantasy characters in the game, not even Sephiroth!

Ø  What happened to Demyx?

Ø  Master Eraqus has absolutely nothing to do with Terra’s restoration

Changes I’d make:

Ø  Require us to go through the Disney worlds a second time like in KH2

Ø  Have Aqua and Ven be saved halfway through the game instead of at the end, they could then spend the second half of the game resting or join you on one of the Disney worlds to refresh themselves

Ø  Have Lea and Kairi join you on one of the Disney worlds to get practical experience

Ø  Make the Keyblade Graveyard sequence be a series of one/two/three-on one battles so that members of Organization XIII can use their full arsenal of attacks from previous games

Ø  Let us play the second battle between Lingering Will and Terra-Xehanort

Ø  Speaking of Terra-Xehanort, we should have fought him alongside the Guardian Heartless

Ø  Have us explore Scala Ad Caelum while hunting down the individual replicas before then making us fight all of them in a boss battle

DLC

Ø  The presence of it says a lot about the game and not in a good way

Final Score

Ø  7/10-8/10

[coruscantide-1]

One World, Three Eras

So. Scala ad Caelum, Daybreak Town and Radiant Garden. Many elements are tied between these three places, continuous connections stacking up, and while much of this was written beforehand, in light of the KHUX ending I’ve decided to expand on this more.

It’s long since confirmed that Daybreak Town and Scala ad Caelum are one and the same, but I have evidence to believe all three places are in fact the same location. That conclusion would certainly be something interesting since certain characters kept winding up back here again and again. As this is a very long post with several images attached and some spoilers in regards to KHUX, I’ll be placing the rest of this under a read more.

From here on out I’ll be referring to Daybreak Town as DT, Scala ad Caelum as Scala, and Radiant Garden as RG.

DT was at the center of the old world, one where ‘worlds’ didn’t exist yet and it was connected to all the other places by land. It was a bastion of light itself where unions gathered and collected Lux to defeat the Darkness. Post Keyblade War, the town converted into Scala, becoming known as a place centralized as a seat of power for Keyblade Wielders. Later on RG is referred to as the “ City of Light ” by Xehanort in BBS, much like how DT was considered.

We’re going to begin by drawing up parallels.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

This is more than a passing resemblance. These are towns / cities built directly on a large body of water  ( in addition to it’s structure it’s confirmed beaches / coasts don’t exist in DT and to get to one in game you need to sail with your friends to nearby island )  with different city districts based around similar architecture, a large clock planted directly in the middle in some form or another, and a complex irrigation system consisting of canals and waterfalls to drain the water and make sure the town doesn't get flooded.

We’ll touch on the similar architecture first. Aside from all three’s love of fountains and huge clock mechanisms, the buildings in particular look to have extremely similar styles. I’m not an expert but they seem to be nearly one to one. The major difference is the roof colors, DT with purple and RG with red and purple ( except during KH2 where it’s predominately only red ). I also wanted to point out sections of RG’s and Scala’s roads seem close in design.

Scala appeared more... i don’t know modern (?) in a sense compared to the other two, but progress on a design front was reset back to the DT-style when RG was created.

I wouldn’t be surprised by that as during a phase in Xehanort’s fight, you can see other parts of DT hidden in the foundation of Scala's buildings, the purple coloration painted over entirely. It may be a green and white color scheme now but the previous work is still there. It wouldn’t be to hard to believe it could be recreated.

In DT and RG the irrigation systems are heavily reliant on machinery / piping to function  ( there was a whole plot beat around it with the moogle shop ), but after the DT was destroyed that system obviously can’t keep the town afloat. It likely sunk and capsized, leaving behind this:

As we all should know by now during the fight with Xehanort in 3, Scala was revealed to have this structure underneath it, the ruins of Daybreak Town. More specifically the prominent shot of the clock tower.

The only other place we've ever seen this with is RG after it was reduced to little more than a twisted castle and called Hollow Bastion, depicting a second, darker crystalline-like structure hanging upside down underneath the main one:

With the war shattering the world into many smaller ones, everything being ripped apart and becoming separated from each other, naturally all the surrounding land that once connected them to Scala has vanished. Nothing is left except a world of seemingly endless ocean and sky. This is where Ephemer comes in after surviving the destruction of both DTs.

Clearly there’s no other options for materials left. The wreckage was used to build on top of the ruined world alongside whatever limited resources were present. The artificial islands are designed with the new environment in mind, much smaller in scale compared to DT, spaced out to allow a wind powered structure instead of a machinery based on, and cables / gondolas for easy travel at minimal cost between islands.

One of these islands is likely what becomes Villain’s Vale in KH2.

It’s unknown what the Vale exactly used to be. All we see now is a skeleton of what once was, little more than a husk. But the placement of it and it’s environment is telling.

The distance from the Vale to RG is roughly the length of distance from the main Scala island in 3 to the other unoccupied ones. See the change especially with water in between Scala and RG ? If you look back to the section of Hollow Bastion in Exhibit B ( Rising Falls ), you’ll notice the water actually rising out of a huge crack in the earth into the resevoir surrounding the castle. By KH2 all the surrounding water has been entirely dried up, leaving just this area, the sea bed, left behind.

At some point Scala was destroyed.

It no longer seems to be around in present day KH. It doesn’t feel like another war happened since Xehanort probably would've mentioned something like that since he was around before it was wiped off the map. I’m left to think Darkness got it for a second time. DT and RG got obliterated through darkness so I think the same very well happened again. It could give some reasoning to Eraqus' extreme aversion to the darkness. Of course all this would also mean then that the same world was destroyed at least three times. We’ll have to see when more of Dark Road comes out.

After the destruction, perhaps many of the survivors left, migrating and going on to cultivate worlds like Twilight Town and the Land of Departure, places that carry a few passing resemblances to Scala, but the residents who stayed rebuilt like Ephemer once did for DT, salvaging what remained of Scala and converting it into RG. Thanks to the islands being too badly damaged beyond feasible repair, there were only enough resources to pool together and recreate a singular island. The discarded islands formed the new surrounding land mass, with the exception of places like Villain’s Vale.

During this time, Keyblades and their wielders have all but been phased out. Too much knowledge has been lost, most of it now regarded as myths, legends, stories to be told. Keyblade wielders do endure though, in the Land of Departure, with Yen Sid, maybe more. This could be when we start seeing FF characters pop up and live in RG, the world now mostly free of the Keyblade.

Note, if RG was rebuilt on the main island of what used to be DT, then it would be obvious that this machine in RG / Hollow Bastion and the one in KHUX are the exact same device. Ephemer could’ve rebuilt this for whatever reason during the creation of Scala, and from there we encounter it again in KH1 at the World Terminus after using RG / Hollow Bastion’s terminal to access this laboratory. We know Xehanort ends up using it as part of his plan to toss Kairi  ( after kidnapping and experimenting on her )  into the void of space until she reaches Destiny Islands. This would’ve been right around if not during the destruction of RG.

From there, it’s history. Darkness starts destroying countless worlds. RG residents are scattered across the worlds or take refuge in Traverse Town, some forming a resistance. Sora, Riku, and Kairi go on their journey. The resistance reforms into the Restoration Committee post KH1 and RG is eventually restored for the most part by the events of Remind.

So with all this in mind, if they are all the same world ravaged over and over by darkness, this means Xehanort  ( not as terranort )  and Kairi both lived in this world. It would make sense why Kairi and Xehanort both recite the ‘ one sky, one destiny ’ phrase. It's a remnant from living in Scala / RG passed down over time ( a common phrase like ‘ may your heart be your guiding key ‘ maybe, it could have been attributed to the endless sky they found themselves under ) and could explain why Kairi can have this apparent association with Scala now due to Remind.

Adding in the player choosing to live as a new heart and becoming Xehanort, also could explain why Terranort ended up in RG of all places after he lost his memory in BBS, because it was really the place that used to be Scala / DT.

So here’s the rough timeline of events as it stands.

Era 1:  DT -> destroyed by darkness, restored by Ephemer -> Scala Era 2:  Scala -> destroyed ( by darkness? ), restored by someone -> RG Era 3:  RG -> destroyed by darkness ( Xehanort ), salvaged -> Hollow Bastion -> restored back into RG by Restoration Committee / inhabitants

I’d keep going, going into how Traverse Town could be an offshoot of Scala / RG created as a safe haven for it’s residents after the world was consumed by darkness again, but I think that’s another post for another time and I’ve already spent this long already on this one. Thank you for reading all of this if you made it this far !