#he played through kh1 in one sitting
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Sora may have opened the door in KH1
This isn’t to say Riku didn’t do wrong in KH1. He did. But, as far as the door and Destiny Islands is concerned, I think we’ve been getting hints for 20 years that it was Sora and Riku just got blamed for it on top of what he DID do.
How did Riku leave the islands? He disappeared into darkness and woke up at Hollow Bastion. You’ll recall Alice Lidell did the same. A disappearing act, so to speak. Data Riku and Xehanort leave through a dark corridor as well.
In the film, Alice cried tears and floated into Wonderland. Water plus sadness equals DARKNESS, my friends. She never opened the door.
Whether KH2 First Visit Belle is a Riku or Sora parallel in this particular scene is in the eye of the beholder. She’s a Disney character in a relationship so she’s one of the characters that it switches depending on the circumstance to create a balance in the relationship that is Sora and Riku but...
The 3D scene in the dream had me very...curious as to what was going on because we didn’t see Ansem SOD in the original version and sleep holds our memories they say which is why Roxas was able to access Xion’s memories and tell Axel something only Xion would know. That he’d always be there to bring them back. I don’t want to imply Ansem SOD possessed Sora in this moment but it’s plausible since...they met earlier. It always came off as odd to me that Ansem SOD would even speak to Sora if he wasn’t about to use him.
YMX says that Ansem SOD possessed Riku and saw his experiences in real time which...okay, then why wasn’t he with Riku here...? He doesn’t follow Riku when he runs to the inlet. He doesn’t follow him in the dark corridor either. We don’t even see Ansem SOD again until Hollow Bastion way later on when we KNOW he actually does possess Riku. Riku doesn’t know him in the COM Novel when he meets him on the islands during Departure. HE DOESN’T KNOW HIM. Sora does. Isn’t that...suspicious? All Ansem SOD says is that the door will open soon and Riku goes off to find Sora. He doesn’t open a door!
He doesn’t remember Ansem SOD being there.
But he was following him.
Right before this scene, Data Riku states something very interesting after Data Sora accuses him of causing the bugs (the cause being Sora’s shadow). He says: “This world has been connected. Memory and reality now stand tied. It’s time for you to learn the truth.” Ansem the Wise states that data is a clue. The Datascape is shown again in Re:Mind to “remind” us that the future is already written and to go back and revisit the game known as Coded. But I recommend ALL the games on top of that so you can put the pieces together like I have. This is what Remy from Ratatouille was trying to tell Sora and co. about the fruit that he was gathering. (Essentially Nomura trying to hint to the audience that the answers are all THERE if you do enough digging.) He was trying to take the pieces and make it into a dish. In each game, therein lies another hint. Another piece of the puzzle. This is how I work out my theories. I treat each game as apart of each other without the assumption that nothing was planned. This is how Riku laughing like Namine did in COM WORKS even if it’s only finally shown in 3D and KH3. Writing evolves over time and so do characters.
“On the road ahead, more than one truth will come to light.”
What strikes me as even odd is that what they use to put Sora in a deeper sleep in 3D is things that happened back when the Islands fell but one of them wasn’t Riku holding out his hand or Kairi being swept away from darkness. It was something we never saw. It’s Ansem SOD coming up close to Sora while he’s either sitting or lying down. Perhaps...before he took a nap at the start of the game even. Hopefully, you’ve read my meta on how Replica Riku has some of Sora’s memories. Horrifying really as he’s used to play on Sora’s guilt as a way to get him further into the castle. But there’s one line in particular that bothered me to no end in the COM novel.
Ventus didn’t remember what happened to Strelitzia nor taking the book for himself. Baldr didn’t initially remember what happened to Hoder. It’s not that hard to grasp Sora might...not correctly remember a good chunk of things. Especially with how vaguely he describes his KH1 hurt in KH3. I imagine a person whose eyes cannot lie like Master of Masters...might educate him on the truth and it will probably be very ugly. My understanding is Sora’s true darkness will involve remembering. Yes, forgetting can hurt but knowing the truth will hurt you even more. I think remembering everything will be what breaks Sora. It certainly didn’t have a good reaction on Ventus or Baldr, now did it?
A very small bonus. Yuffie, a memorable “thief”, opens a door and hurts Donald in the process in the world right after the door opens and the darkness carries Kairi away so...there’s that. Sora is shown running through it also.
TLDR; check out the rest of this scene from KHUX below.
Alice is on trial for opening the door to Wonderland and she didn’t do it but is found guilty despite the lack of evidence against her. Hm...but how did Player get into Wonderland, I wonder? Ever consider that?
*glances at Sora*
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Happy Valentine's day to everyone who follows me or is considering following me!
Since it's Valentine's Day and I'm stoned I thought I'd treat you all to a little story of my youthful degeneracy and how that's going for me.
In high school I was apart of a gay nerdy outcast friend group, like we weren't what I would define as popular but people knew us and associated with us. However, outside of us was another outcast group made up of entirely guys, guys that no one fucked with. People honestly just didn't mess with them because they were in general often unpleasant to interact with (use your imagination). On some social occasions however our group would mesh with this group especially when our high school school anime club started lol. There was maybe 5 or 4 guys in this group, 2 of them though that no one in my group messed with. I knew one of them was a pushy hyper sexual cowboy and I didn't know what the other guys deal was, so my dumbass was like "let's find out".
So I start talking to the guy (I'll call him Ted) and he seems like just a very awkward human but overall pretty nice, we shared a lot of common interests in video games. After say two weeks of just texting and being friends with Ted he starts getting wierd. He started wanting to talk about my sexuality a lot, specifically how hot he found it that I was attracted to girls and asking about the things I've done with my partners (which I was not fucking with). So I told Ted to drop the subject let's talk more about Kingdom hearts or something. Later Ted started bringing up how desperately he wanted a girlfriend, which occasionally he would bring up but now more adamantly, and how he just wanted to kiss a girl or feel a breast. Like okay denji what the fuck you want me to do about it? 🙄 So I would always say "yeah that's rough man, I'm sure you will get one/to one day" and would change the subject. Ted soon realized he would get no where with shooting empty shots at me so he finally straight out asked me to go out with him, which I was like "you seem nice but nah man Im not interested in you like that". He then responded by asking "because you like girls? I thought you were bi" and I was like "lmao I am bi, I'm just not interested in you like that Ted but I enjoy your friendship". So he starts trying to fucking haggle with me like I'm a fresh off the market commodity "well can I at least feel your breast?" Hell nah man "what about a kiss?" Fuck no "what about a hug?" Bro wtf no like what do you think this shit is the deli?
At this point I don't want to be Teds friend anymore, so I go to school the next day where I ended up telling some of my friends that know him about what happened. All of the friends that I told pretty much had the same story of how Ted would try to bargain with them for kisses or would make uncomfortable comment about their sexuality. So I decide I'm done with the guy but on the way home he texts me offering me money to kiss him. So ya know my dumbass is like let's see where this goes I'm curious just how much money he'll offer me just to kiss him. So the top number he offered was like $100 or something (which for one quick peck from me of all people is just fucking ludicrous), I'm not going to lie a part of me was like $100 for a kiss what's the big deal? But then I thought about actually having to go through with kissing him. I very soon realized I didn't have it in me, the thought of actually having to place my lips on this guy's lips actually disgusted me to the core. So I said never mind forget it sorry man I don't want to do it "you can borrow my original version of Kingdom hearts 1 and 2 for the PS2" .....
I was really into Kingdom hearts it held nice memories to me of my childhood with my brother, it was the one game he would let me play instead of having to watch, other than GTA. At this point I had only watched playthroughs and knew lore but never got to actually sit down and play KH2 I only played a little bit of KH1 with my brother as a child. I had really wanted to borrow his games in the beginning of our friendship when we first started talking but he had been like no fucking way. However the thought of kissing him still made me want to throw up, so I started bargaining 😂 "What about the cheek?"
"For my My Kingdom hearts no way"
"Sorry man that's all I got in me" ... a couple minutes passes he responds.
"Fine after school directly Infront of the school". So it's the next day and it's dawning on me I'm still going to have to physically place my lips on Ted. At lunch I see Ted talking to his friends pointing at me, I can tell he's telling them that I'm going to kiss him after school meanwhile, I just had the worse pit in my stomach thinking about the whole situation. So the end of the day rolls around and I walk out with some of my friends who I told about the situation while he is standing in front of the school waiting for me with half his group of friends right next to him. I just took a deep breath walked up to him and was like "okay but how about that hug ☺️" lmfao this dude's jaw dropped! I didn't want to hurt his feelings and tell him I was disgusted by the thought of even placing my lips on him physically, so I was like: listen man I can't do it I'm sorry you were right about me I'm just too gay 😭 💀.
He honestly was just like "I knew it, I just knew you were a lesbian" and actually ended up accepting the hug with the stipulation that I would kiss him when I returned to the games. We walked back to our friend groups cuz we were literally only a couple inches away, and his friend's dogged him about how he was lying. Which he quickly responded by yelling at them " no I'm not you'll see, you'll sees she'll kiss me next time!". I just walked over to my best friend who wrapped her arms firmly around my waist, because of how over protective she is of me (her over affection usually driving me crazy but i was very thankful for it at the time because it drove home the too gay bit 😭). Soooo I don't have to kiss him if I never return the games right... Right?! 👀(thats big brain work right there) Because it turns out in a very fortunate sting of events 2 days later he ended up getting a girlfriend. She was the new girl at school and she was honestly just as awkward as him (like these two look like they were made in a factory for each other). Turns out he was smart enough not to come back and bug me about the games because of all the shit he tried to pull with me, with the knowledge in mind that he was trying to pull that stuff while pursuing her. So he just fucked off completely of his own volition and never bugged me again after he got his girl.
So flash forward to now my partner, who is male, bought me roses because I jokingly said while we were grocery shopping "there's the cereal, there's the bread, and there are the roses you should buy me". He said "you want roses girl? You got rose's!" So I decided to post it on my Instagram story and the jig is up. A decade later this man has realized I am not as gay as I originally claimed i was, also he has gone through a divorce from the girl he actually dated in high school and is currently in my dms 😭 questioning me about my bf lmao help.
#tazer talks#story time#lgbtq#bisexual#girls who like girls#pansexual#i feel bad but he sacrificed his kh and got a gf thats a blood exchange if ive ever seen it#hope yall enjoy another story from the void that is my life
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I really want to share my experience with KH and how I got into it since I know everyone’s stories are so unique. KH is the one and only passion I’ve had that carried from my childhood well into my adulthood. There are things I liked as a kid that I still like now. But nothing touched me to the degree that KH has. And it’s amazing to me just how long it has stuck with me. It’s amazing to me that I still think about it literally every day of my life. So here’s my very long, unnecessary, personal story.
I had just started middle school and became very close with my new friend (we’ll call her Jessica for the sake of privacy). Jessica lived right up the street from me, and we would go over to each other’s houses every single day after school and play video games. I wasn’t much of a gamer myself. I always had video games growing up, but I was never really good at them and didn’t take it too seriously. Jessica had a burning passion for video games, though. And that’s just how we bonded.
Jessica had Sora’s crown necklace. And one day, I asked her what it was. And I guess she had the realization that we play video games together every day, and somehow, I didn’t know about Kingdom Hearts. She demanded I go over to her house and play because “it’s a Disney game,” and I was “sure to love it.” Once Friday hit, I went to her mom’s house and started playing. I had very little experience with Japanese culture or anime. I was never allowed to watch or play Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragon Ball, Naruto or anything of the sort. I had a very toxic impression that anime was “bad” and therefore, I was highly disgusted by Japanese animation. When Simple and Clean started playing and I had to sit through that trippy opening sequence, I was very turned off towards KH. I thought this was gonna be about Disney movies? I thought this was about Disney princesses? Not anime boys. I voiced my discontentment, and Jessica’s mom said to me, “Just play until you meet Donald and Goofy. That’s when the game actually starts.”
I don’t know if it was the combination of both Jessica and her mom forcing me to play or if I genuinely enjoyed playing it or if I just felt pressured to say I liked it. I don’t remember exactly what I was feeling after having met and Donald and Goofy. But apparently, I told my dad about it, and he immediately bought both KH1 and KH2 for me.
I remember really struggling to beat Riku in the race and thinking I had to win. It was very difficult for eleven-year-old me who was (and still is) very bad at video games. It took me about two years to finish KH1 simply because I milked it for all it was worth and really took my time exploring every single inch of every world. I loved that game. And it holds a very, very special place in my heart considering it was the first video game I ever completed by myself. In the time that it took for me to beat KH1, Jessica moved out of the city and we lost touch. I never got the chance to tell her just how much Kingdom Hearts meant to me. We barely had the chance to bond over it at all since I fell in love with it in slow motion. But I still think about her every now and then, think about how much this silly little game still means to me, and I wonder if she still loves it too.
It took me about a year to finish KH2 for the same reason. I played and played and played those games like I’ve never played a video game before or since. Neither one of my sisters played Kingdom Hearts. And none of my friends did either. I had absolutely no one to talk to about it, which is really why I remained oblivious to any “spin-offs” that had been or were currently being made. I grew up in a very sheltered home where YouTube and the internet was not allowed to be explored (not to mention that YouTube barely had much footing at the time).
I had made my own binder cover with images from KH and paraded it around school proudly, waiting for the moment that someone would recognize it and strike up conversation with me. It finally happened one day around 2012 when someone said, “Have you played Birth By Sleep?” I said, “No…?” because I had never heard of that. And they said, “Oh, that sucks. I guess you’ll never know who Roxas really is.” (Because people were theorizing that Roxas was Ven’s Nobody at the time.) Of course, I freaked out, and decided to look up this stuff on my own. I found that Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, and Birth By Sleep had all been released and that I had no clue what their stories were about at all. Panic set in as I realized they were all on different consoles. Even though I already had a GBA, a DS, and a PS3, my silly child brain thought it was completely illogical to ask for video games. I never brought it up with my parents. And I basically forced myself to suffer. I thought, “I have to know these stories. But I can’t play these games. I’ll have to just watch cutscenes and read Wikipedia articles.” And that’s exactly what I did, lol. I braved the world of YouTube and looked up KH cutscenes and consumed the games in that fashion, especially since Let’s Plays were still a very new and foreign concept. (And people who did Let’s Plays were typically very vulgar and inappropriate, and I was a good child, lol.) The exact same thing happened when Dream Drop Distance was released. I remember walking around Best Buy with my dad and seeing the poster. He said to me, “Do you want that game?” And I didn’t want to be a burden. I didn’t want my dad to have to spend $60 on a video game plus however much the 3DS was. And I knew I wouldn’t play any other games on the 3DS except DDD. So I said, “No, it’s just a spin-off. It doesn’t matter to the story. And 3D makes me sick.” So he didn’t buy it for me. And I forced myself to suffer in the same way, watching cutscenes on YouTube and silently wishing I could’ve just played it myself.
In 2013, the only thing that mattered to me was the official announcement of KH3. Honestly, that announcement rang so loud it my ears, it drowned everything else. I somehow managed to miss the fact that 1.5 was released even though its trailer was coupled with the KH3 announcement. I literally didn’t even realize 1.5 was a thing until the end of 2013. And I had this incredibly dumb thought that it was gonna cost hundreds of dollars because it was “three gaming experiences in one package.” Stupid dumb little Lea who had no idea how to navigate the internet or any information. I still had this idea that the KH “spin-offs” were unavailable to me due to money (even though I already had a PS3. Seriously. Stupid dumb little Lea.) So once I learned about 1.5, I decided the best way to consume it was once again through YouTube.
Enter: SkywardWing
I found his Road to Kingdom Hearts III series and watched the hell out of it. Every morning before school while eating breakfast, I’d watch the most recent episode he uploaded. Finally, I got to see what Re:Chain of Memories gameplay looked like. Finally, I got to the heart of 358/2 Days. Finally, I was able to live vicariously through Sky. Finally, I had someone else to “interact with” about KH. Even though I am a very passive lurker and rarely comment on videos or interact in large ways on the internet, I felt like Sky was a friend. I’d readily consume every single theory or fun video he’d make leading up to KH3. And of course I watched the other Key Keepers as well, but none hit as close to home as SkywardWing. Without him, I genuinely wonder if my love for Kingdom Hearts would’ve eventually tapered off. Waiting for KH3 was such a long process, I wonder if I would’ve eventually lost the love and passion if I didn’t see his videos on my feed every day.
In April of 2014, I was having a very bad week. It’s a long story and not worth telling here, but the tipping point was when my friend was trying to help me out and asked if I wanted to go to a drive-in theater with her and her family to see the new Captain America movie. Captain America is my favorite superhero, and I always wanted to go to a drive-in, but this week in particular, my mom had an iron grip on me and told me I couldn’t go. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been so mad at her, especially considering I was plenty old enough to make my own decisions. My dad must’ve felt really bad for me because he went out and bought 1.5 for me completely unprompted.
When 2.5 released later that year, I didn’t have to ask my dad for it. He knew how much I loved 1.5. Of course, KH2 got put on the back burner. I played BBS first. Do you know how long I had been waiting for the opportunity to play that game myself? Aqua, Terra, and Ven felt like old friends who I hadn’t seen in years. That’s still one of the most magical memories in my life.
Some time passed, and my sister’s husband introduced me to his friend who really loved Kingdom Hearts, and he became my boyfriend. Kingdom Hearts was the glue that kept the two of us together. The relationship was not healthy, but I really clung to the fact that he liked Kingdom Hearts. I didn’t have any friends who played these games. I didn’t know anyone who cared anywhere near as much as I did. It was so important to me that my boyfriend played them and enjoyed them as much as me. I didn’t wanna let that go, so I held on much longer than I should’ve. We were dating when 2.8 came out, so he came over to my house and played with me because we were both incredibly excited. My boyfriend and I broke up shortly after (thank goodness). And cue more impatient waiting for KH3.
By 2019, I was dating a different boy. He had never played KH a day in his life, but he respected that it meant so much to me. He came over on release day and happily watched me play KH3 for hours. I’d give him the controller during the mech segments in Toy Box because he loved first person shooters. That day will forever be etched in my heart. That was the day I had been waiting for for so long. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it and all its emotions.
I look back and find it silly that I was dating one boy when 2.8 came out and then a different boy when KH3 came out and now I’m not involved with anyone. I sometimes wonder if I’ll be with someone else whenever KH4 finally releases and I laugh to myself. I can count on one hand the amount of people I’ve personally met who have played these games. And none of them had long-lasting impacts on my life except for Jessica and my initial introduction to the series. I am once again at a point where I don’t have anyone in my personal life to talk to about it. But making this blog and reading y’all’s posts has been monumental. I love hearing what everyone has to say, everyone’s experiences and opinions. This silly little video game means so much to me. And I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
#doubt this will get any notes but here’s some personal info about my life and kh experience#maybe I’ll make a follow up to this post because I really didn’t even say half of what I wanted to#no joke y’all this silly video game changed my life#kingdom hearts#kh#long post#personal story#personal
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So I watched the Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days movie on the KH 1.5 Remix collection.
I did play 358/2 Days back in the day, on an R4 cart on my DS. It's a pretty good game, it's a shame they didn't port it to the collection. On one hand, KH1 and Chain of Memories were both PS2 games (one was a remake of a GBA game, but it was a port from 2007) and 358/2 Days was a DS game - porting an entire third game, especially such a sprawling mission-based title, from an entirely foreign platform with touchscreen controls to be cut/redefined, would have been a much bigger undertaking than the other two. On the other, it's a really good game and I would have liked it a lot.
It's a total gut punch, and I feel like it wasn't properly represented by Kingdom Hearts 3 if I'm being honest. That being said, I'm pretty critical of how KH3 wraps up its loose ends, even if I know why they did it like that. But I really liked this game, even if it introduces some very stereotypically silly Kingdom Hearts anachronisms with the introduction of a Number XIV in Organisation XIII. It makes sense eventually, but it's very Kingdom Hearts y'know. It's a part of the charm.
I'm actually gonna get into spoilers under a readmore instead of dancing around the issue for once. Massive spoilers for KH: 358/2 Days and Chain of Memories under the cut, and because 358/2 Days came out after Kingdom Hearts 2, there's some KH2 spoilers too.
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I'm gonna start with Chain of Memories and the Replica connection. I began to think that Xion was the manifestation of Sora's memories finding a home inside the original Replica Riku, and while I understand better now, I still think it would have been pertinent for the Riku Replica to have found a new home as a vessel for Sora's memories of Kairi instead of dying in despair.
The way things are now, Replica Riku was the first Replica introduced in the series and he died at the end of Chain of Memories. Xion was a secret original Replica, the original fruits of Vexen's labor, who was taken to The World That Never Was before the events of Chain of Memories - her purpose was to absorb Roxas's memories of Sora and become an Organisation XIII puppet, basically giving them Sora while ensuring that Sora would never wake up. Xion technically came first, Repliku was made second. So that's completely contrary to my whole headcanon.
In hindsight, this retcon makes sense - not only were they disordering Sora's memories and removing his memories of Kairi in Chain of Memories, but they took those memories of Kairi and put them in the original Replica that became Xion. It actually makes the most sense now that I'm sitting down and talking about them.
I still think having Replica Riku's death being interrupted by Sora's memories giving him a new form would have been pertinent from Repliku's point of view. Sora's memories of Kairi manifest in a dying shell as this new person named Xion, who breaks out from her original purpose to become her own person. She's eventually drawn back to her original purpose, which is tragic, but it provides a direct contrast to Repliku who was originally powerless to escape the shadow of the original Riku.
It gives him a second wind, like the Doctor from Doctor Who, and gives him a second arc to continue and contrast from his first arc in Chain of Memories.
Repliku found despair in being a clone of Riku, never being able to escape. Xion found despair in being a pawn for Xemnas and for hurting Roxas, but she really enjoyed being Xion and she sacrificed herself for a greater good - losing her divergent identity in the progress. My idea is that Repliku became their own person through becoming Xion, but she was still unknowingly shackled by her status as a copy - but rather than give into despair like with Repliku, she got to have her own name, her own face, her own identity. Her own life. She got everything Repliku ever wanted, retroactively giving Repliku a sort of afterlife where he was able to escape the grim fate he had resigned himself to.
And instead of dying in despair over never being anything more than a shadow of the real thing, Xion cherishes the time that she was able to be her own person, even if her fate as a copy still ends in tragedy.
On one hand, huge trans allegory. On the other hand, fridges a trans character. It's probably better that they're separate characters with separate character arcs.
Secondly, Xion and Roxas's relationship is really nice. Axel is pretty relatable as an older character who kind of has to burst the bubble of his younger friends - he knows Xion's baggage as a Replica and what that probably means for the three of them as a team, he knows Roxas is a Nobody of Sora who's a guy he's already met in the padt, and despite his better judgement he helps both of these characters to accomplish their own ends despite knowing it's all gonna end in tragedy. Because he cares so much about them, and he doesn't want to hurt either of them.
I kinda imagined this real life AU where Axel and Riku are like the older third-wheel friends of their friend groups, with Sora and Kairi pairing up to have a family as well as Roxas and Xion doing the same, and they still care about their friends but like they're just chilling, doing their own thing, kinda being dirtbags without much going on. They hang out a lot and have barbeques at the local park on those old, awful, dirty electric grills, they hit the bar - maybe as a consolation for not being a Roxas/Axel or a Sora/Riku story, they can eventually hook up? But it gets grim for them before it gets better imo. They're just a couple of old, dirty, aimless bastards (affectionate).
Third, DiZ is a fucking douchebag lmao??? Like I know the whole deal behind DiZ and that he's actually a good guy, but man, DiZ himself is a bag of dicks. I don't like DiZ.
Xion is a really good character in 358/2 Days, and let's just leave it at that if you can read between the lines. I think her existence is extremely convoluted and silly in that trademark KH way, but it makes sense considering Chain of Memories - she's the product of Sora's memories of Kairi, which were stolen from him during Chain of Memories, and it's only through getting them back that makes Kingdom Hearts 2 possible in the first place. I really adore her as a character with her struggles, and frankly I ship her and Roxas. They have interesting parallels as parts of Sora with divergent identities who need to return to Sora under tragic circumstances, and I think they should get to be the people they want to be.
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Yes I'm still alive
You know, I've been out there, just trying to get a good tan in a mere -34°C temperature, really digging the 30+ centimeters of pearly white snow, just feeling the unwavering support from the wind and endless legions of beautiful snowflakes while they caressed my face and complimented my perfect replica of a Michelin Man cosplay. Man, can't say I stood frozen in place. I stayed for hours, and even went back out there when my favorite snow plower offered me more.
What a day.
#/s#/sarcasm#cartonnews#not sm0sh#also i've been supporting one (1) video game boy as he descended into madness#he played through kh1 in one sitting#took him 26 hours holy shit#raised so much money for a good cause#he's the one who wins#i know i haven't been posting#but i'm busy and exhausted#so i'm gonna go relax and read my book#fy tumblr you deleted my ffff draft
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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
#liz answers#mademoiseli#kingdom hearts#long post#btw the other two game endings that effected me as much as days were pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of time and drawn to life#both on the ds like days because that's really all i had as a kid
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Alright, then! My thoughts on Kingdom Hearts III.
First a disclaimer! I haven't gotten the DLC yet. I heard it pretty much transforms the game into a Final Mix version and I can't play it right again, I need a break first. So my thoughts are about the vanilla version.
Let's get through my usual points:
Graphics
Graphics were absolutely fine. They were colourful and bright and smoothly animated. It helped that a lot of worlds were based on 3D animation now, so that the characters looked VERY naturally. To tell the truth, Hercules looked kinda unnatural in comparison.
I liked all the models and the effects. I played the game on a PS5 though, so I don't know if slowdowns would have been a thing on the PS4, the game was smooth for me all the way through.
I don't have any bad things to say about the graphics, but it also isn't something where I was in total awe. A solid 8/10 would I give to the graphics.
Music
Yoko Shinohanara at her best, really! I always loved the music in KH, but I felt that Yoko first needed to find her style and KH1 felt pretty safe with its music (still pretty good though). It were Chain of Memories and 2 were the style really got found.
And the musical journey of hers culminate into KH3. Both cutscenes and world themes, fantastic. Battle themes, fantastic. But the best thing?
REMIXES OF ALL THE SONGS OF THE OTHER TITLES!>
And these remixes were absolute ear candy! I got an eargasm during the last part of the game, because the music was TOO good!
So yeah, music gets a 10/10 from me.
Gameplay
The gameplay was similar to the precedessors. Attacking, magic, items, summons. It also had a lot of action commands that happened when you got enough combos or such.
However, while the battle system flowed incredibly well and they reused the free flow system from 3DDD (though not quite as strong as in this game), some things felt amiss.
KH2 had the forms for example. Birth by Sleep had command melding.
In a sense, KH3 didn't manage to feel fresh and new, it was more same as the in the past. I always loved command melding, I would have loved to see this in a mainline KH title.
The game played well enough though, I certainly had fun with it. Sora completed disregarded gravity here and it felt pretty free. I liked that you also now could have more than three members in the team, so Goofy and Donald didn't had to sit on the bench so much. That was a nice change. The areas also were a lot larger, so there was a lot to explore without bounds.
Overall, a good experience but could have been better. 7/10 I think.
Story and Lore
...
Ok, time to speak about the elephant in the room.
Why felt this game so RUSHED?! Didn't they had LOADS of time to finish it?
I started positive. We would have our usual Disney Worlds, have fun there and then get the real story in the last few worlds. But... when I finished Olympus and saw the story there was finished I went "huh".
So there wouldn't be second visits to the worlds? Hm, well, maybe we have more worlds to explore instead!
Nope, it were even less! I think overall we had around seven worlds? I didn't count Twilight Town, because that is kind of a hub, a hub that barely needs to get used anyway.
When we met Vanitas in Monstropolis I was looking forward to see Unversed enemies mixed in with the Heartless now, but no, after Monstropolis the Unversed were complete.
There wasn't a single fight with an Organization XIII member in the Disney Worlds.
And yes, all this did rain down in the story. While I am very glad that quite a few things got resolved, it was all squished into a one hour dungeon in the end instead of evolving naturally over the cause of the game.
Am I satisfied with the story? Yes... and no...
Maybe the DLC fixes it, I don't know. But the vanilla game really doesn't give you much.
Also, why Verum Rex? What even is Verum Rex? My friend says it's Nomura's way to tell the players he wanted to work on FFXV instead, but I find it really really childish to let the players of another franchise suffer for it.
Story gets a 5/10 in the
current state.
Overall? Overall the game gets a 7/10 because it is absolutely solid and enjoyable, but there are too many "buts" or "that could have been better".
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Role Swap AU stuff
So idk I thought I'd share a sort of rough outline for the au since I haven't been drawing anything worth posting here. It's just for fun, and the universe it happens in is just different from the regular, so some weird stuff is in it that doesn't exactly make sense? but makes for a fun au.
There's still a bunch of keyblade weilders around, they haven't died out yet. Eraqus is one of the masters, but he didn't agree with some of their practices and broke out of the unions to do his own thing.
He moved to The Land of Departure with his young apprentices, Terra and Aqua, and continued training them there.
The rest of the masters didn't approve of this and have kinda shunned him.
The keyblade weilders still use the union set up from long ago during khux times. Five great masters running their own unions.
Although over time it's kinda slipped away from "dandelions" and turning back to the way it was right before the war.
Xehanort was also a master in this system, and also left to continue his studies of darkness. (Or got kicked out, depends on who you ask. They were really wary of his studying)
Xehanort goes evil and all the events of Birth By Sleep play out. Terra is possessed, Aqua lost in the dark realm, and Ven split and resting in Sora's heart
None of the other keyblade masters didn't notice/help because 1) busy with other stuff 2) it's Eraqus and his apprentices, we just leave them alone
During all this time Xehanort has also been culling keyblade weilders to make sure that only the best would be left for his war. (best not exactly meaning what keyblade weilders of light think) Which, yeah it's pretty distracting when you're coworkers are dropping dead around you.
One keyblade master couple found orphan smol Sora and adopted him into their small family.
Growing up with their biological son (Caelum) he knew he was adopted, because they wanted him to know the truth. But might not have gone about it the best way
With the troubles going on with keyblade weilders dying and darkness spreading in the stars the two masters couldn't spend all their time with their kids. So they left them home where they were safe and went to do their duty. (I think that's like,, illegal child abuse but like,,they probably left a babysitter so it's ok)
When Sora was four he meant Ven's heart and welcomed him in. After that he had a very good imaginary friend.
Caelum and him would play with Ven when he wasn't napping, even though Caelum couldn't see him. Sora just told him what he did.
Ven became very close to the two and kinda took care of the kids, stopping them from doing stupid stuff.
Their parents had them moving around a lot. Very much like a military family, where they're stationed somewhere else and so have to move there, but the difference being the kids would be moved to a different "safe" world, a quiet one where not much happened.
Things start getting messy as the organization slowly grows and their shadow lengthen. Maleficent seeking power makes a deal with them and they being collecting the Princess of light.
Of course she thinks she's got control over them and is actually pulling the strings, but nah, lady you're dealing with Xehanort. In multiple people at once smh
Kairi is, like she normally of course, a princess of light, but had grown up in Traverse Town with the other refugees from Radiant Gardens. (Leon, Cid, Aerith, Yuffi) and has picked up a bunch from them.
Riku grew up on Destiny Islands. He does fishing in his downtime and kinda hangs out with Wakka and Tidus but doesn't really have any friends. His dream of seeing other worlds forgotten in childhood .
When things start progressing and getting bad Mickey sets out to find the reason and sends Donald and Goofy to find the "key"
The Darkness spreads to Destiny Islands where it infects it and destroys that world.
Riku gains the Kingdom Key in the process and ends up in Traverse Town, alone and confused.
Donald and Goofy find the "key" that Mickey told them about and where able to get Riku to meet the keyblade masters, where they explained stuff to him and began teaching him.
Caelum turns 15 around the same time all this is happening. His parents come to pick him up because he's old enough to begin his training now. So he goes off with them to Twilight Town, their base world.
Caelum meets Riku during his training and the two kinda make friends, both being new to this.
Sora is left behind because he's still too young, his chance will come soon, he just had to be patient.
Sora is too dramatic about all this and feels abandoned and unwanted. (If you want more detail on this you can ask, it's just long) and is very hurt by it. Darkness visits him, and tells the poor gullible boy a few lies and half-truths and tells him to join him.
Sore believes all the lies about the keyblade weilders being blinded by the light and joins the organization to bring the balance of darkness back.
Darkness plants itself in his heart to wait for its chance to claim its vessel.
Sora changes his name to Roxas and turns his back on the keyblade weilders.
Roxas then helps them in their kidnapping the seven princesses and preparing their hearts to open the keyhole. That's how he meets Kairi, being one of the ones he captured.
Kairi tries to talk him out of all this and he kinda softens up to her, but still won't turn. Him being very much influenced by darkness whispering in his heart.
Finally seeing that he won't she's able to break out and get away. 1. Because this girl got a keyblade and can fite 2. Roxas is off his guard around her.
Kairi finds the keyblade weilders and explains everything she's learned. They get really worried about this and begin freaking about everything going wrong. They tell her to lay low, being a princess of light she's in extreme danger.
This really annoys her because um she can do things too??
Around this same time Caelum gets permission to allow Sora to train along side with him, even though he's not old enough.
Excitedly he goes to tell him the news, only to find him missing and his whereabouts unknown. He searches around the world for a while until he returns alone to tell his parents the bad news.
His parents search for their youngest son across the worlds but none of them are able to find him.
Caelum is told to not worry about it, and they'll find him eventually
Riku introduces Caelum to Kairi and the three hang out and train together. Kairi technically shouldn't be training because she's too young and a princess of light but the boys don't care.
Eventually Caelum gets tired of waiting, they aren't looking for him, they're too busy with the other important stuff they have to be doing. Sora is his little brother and it's his duty to make sure he's okay, and knowing him so well he'd have the best chance of finding him.
So he sneaks off against orders to go find him.
Kairi goes with him because she wants to help, not sitting around hiding. And she's itching for action. Riku joins them because he really wants to make sure they're safe, and he was feeling restless. He had keyblade that was sorely needed but wasn't being allowed to help?
Rebel kids run away and make a rebel gang :)
During their adventures through the different worlds Riku seals the keyholes to the world's hearts, saving them from the darkness.
Eventually they find Sora, and find him listening to darkness and on the bad guy's side. Kairi recognizes him and tells Caelum about what he's been doing.
They get in a little skirmish and part ways unhappy.
The rebel gang finds their way to The Keyhole and they're able to seal it and stop Maleficent from getting into the dark realm.
The three then in deep trouble for breaking the rules are no longer allowed back on Twilight Town so make base somewhere else and being figuring out what else they need to do.
So that's kind of how kh1 would go in this au ^^
#role swap#role swap au#kh#kingdom hearts#kh au#alternate universe#au#sora#caelum#ventus#ven#text#headcanon#eraqus#xehanort#kairi#riku#long post#am i too happy about this#yeah
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Sora and Xehanort: The True King vs. The Pretender to the Throne
Sora fighting Xehanort in Scala ad Caelum was kind of like watching a king reclaim his throne from a pretender who caused nothing but havoc in ruin in the king’s absence. Credit to @rapis-razuri for first making the connection and then telling me about it.
Let’s back up a bit first, though. Verum Rex, the video game featured in Toy Box, means True King in Latin.
And while yes, this is no doubt a reference to Versus XIII, I also want to consider the idea of true kings in the context of KH3.
Sora has his first confrontation with Xehanort in Toy Box (albeit Young Xehanort). The true king (Sora) goes up against the pretender (Xehanort), and Sora doesn’t even hesitate to attack him in a sequence that shows that no, Sora is not over what Xehanort tried to do to him in DDD...
...but unfortunately Xehanort manages to grab him...
...and casts him out/banishes him, i.e. throws him into the video game where the gigas are.
Fourth wall? What fourth wall?
But Sora fights his way out and makes his way back to his friends... much like how later in the game, he is cast out of the realm of the living...
...and then fights his way back to his friends and rescues them.
In San Fransokyo, Sora meets Xehanort again after he finds all his friends’ hearts... except Kairi’s.
Look how hostile he is right off the bat towards him:
He just glares at him even while Xehanort... tells the truth for once and warns him what’s going to happen to him?
Sora’s not having it though and is sure to sass him:
And Xehanort’s parting words are chilling:
And then Sora goes back to the Keyblade Graveyard and... well, we all know how things went from there.
Xehanort wants power, no matter what the cost... and he’ll sacrifice whatever it takes to get it. Including Kairi.
And by the time we get to Scala ad Caelum... there’s a marked change in Sora’s interactions with him. No more sass. No more discussion. Sora doesn’t take Xehanort’s BS at all.
Seriously, almost every time he looks at Xehanort, he’s glaring at him or regarding him with the contempt and disgust he deserves. This is the man who killed the girl he loves enough to become a Heartless for - and later on in this very game actually died for! - and it hits Sora where it hurts. Like a king losing his queen when the pretender tries to take over his throne, Kairi’s loss wounds Sora deeply.
And, of course... the game of chess isn’t over if the queen’s gone - the king must be captured for that to happen - but all the same, the king’s left a lot more vulnerable without her.
But, queen at his side or not, he still has to win and beat the guy who made his friends’ lives hell and has made his life hell, too.
His eyebrows are furrowed and he has his hand on his Keyblade, ready to fight:
Xehanort is dressed in goat/ram armor for one of the battles, and goats... well, they’re associated with the devil, among other things, so the parallel is very fitting here. Sora probably felt like he was fighting Satan at this point.
Shoutout to Donald for being equally disgusted/angry with him:
The sky starting to go dark reflects Sora’s mood pretty well here:
Sora just looks at him with utter loathing and disgust, which is such a huge change from his usual friendly/cheerful demeanor:
Even when he’s looking up at him it’s with his head pulled back to make himself look as big/tall as possible. In other words, he isn’t giving Xehanort any sort of deference because he never in a million years deserves it.
Donald and Goofy are equally pissed and it really shows:
Even when Sora’s surprised/unsure about what’s going on he’s still glaring and gritting his teeth:
And when Xehanort took Sora’s light, I’m pretty sure I gasped. Not just because I really liked Rage Form in this game and love any sort of exploration of Sora’s darkness, but because...
Well, Xehanort already took Sora’s light from him. Kairi. Kairi’s his light. This moment really drives that point home. Sora’s still feeling rage and fury and grief over her death, over losing her, and that comes out all at once and boy was it satisfying to wail on Xehanort like this:
Fight darkness with darkness!
Even when he’s desperate and about to die, he’s still just furious at Xehanort and that’s reflected in his demeanor:
And finally, FINALLY, he wins. Xehanort is no longer towering over him. They’re on equal footing now. Sora has dragged him off his high horse and defeated him. Not only that, he’s actually managed to get him to collapse to the ground when before Sora had collapsed to the ground over his grief at losing his friends and then his grief at Kairi’s death. But not here. He’s the one standing over Xehanort for once.
And he’s so tired and so done with him at this point and it was so satisfying to see someone call Xehanort out on his BS and for Xehanort to finally have to listen:
Sora demands to know what’s going to happen because he doesn’t want to hear any more lies, half-truths, or beating around the bush:
Side note: foreshadowing?
Sora, in a way, is the World’s hope, and he is likewise lost at the end of the game, and the camera very deliberately chooses to focus on him here...
But anyway, as the scene continues, you can still really just see his contempt and disgust with Xehanort. This is the part where he basically tells Xehanort he’s not cut out to be a true leader because he thinks he can control destiny, and his contempt for Xehanort just oozes off the screen. Bonus points for them having a discussion about destiny vs. free will, where Xehanort blathers on about dictating people’s fates for them while Sora comes down hard on the side of giving people free will even if no one can really control their own destiny:
I love Sora’s line here: “A real leader knows that destiny is beyond his control... and accepts that.”
He tells it like it is, not at all afraid to mince words. Because yeah, Xehanort doesn’t deserve to rule one single bit. And in doing so Sora proves he is the one who truly deserves to rule. What do you bet he will become the eventual ruler of... something, eventually. Kingdom Hearts, maybe?
This moment is like when the true king tells the pretender to get off his throne, an idea @rapis-razuri first proposed:
Yep, I’m definitely getting a “Get out of my kingdom and leave my people alone” vibe from this scene, even if Sora doesn’t know his true destiny yet. Foreshadowing? Especially when his shotlock in Second Form was called King of Hearts?
Probably. After Xehanort banished him and caused endless destruction and ruin, he’s casting Xehanort out and he’s going to make things right.
Goofy gets a moment to look disgusted, too:
And Xehanort tries to make a big show about how he’s handing over the χ-Blade because Sora did so well, blah blah blah, which... at least he acknowledges that Sora is the one who truly deserves this power?
Sora takes the χ-Blade from him:
And to Sora’s infinite credit, even though he has such a powerful weapon at his disposal, even though he could use it to summon the door and open Kingdom Hearts for himself and take full power of whatever lies beyond and be reborn as something greater than human and remake the World how he desires, if Xehanort’s reports in BBS are to be believed...
He doesn’t do that. He doesn’t want that power, and by doing so, shows he is truly worthy of it in a way that Xehanort never was or will be.
But Sora doesn’t take it for himself. He doesn’t because he despises the χ-Blade and what it represents, despises the fact that Xehanort murdered Kairi to create it, despises the fact that it was completed with her death and created by so much pain and suffering.
He could remake the World however he wishes and he chooses not to. He wants the old world back, flawed as it might be, because he wants to give people a chance. Wants to give them a choice.
And instead of trying to go it alone like Xehanort did, he calls on his friends to help him close whatever realm Xehanort opened up:
Then lifts the χ-Blade in the air...
And we get this shot. My friends are my power, indeed:
“Good riddance, I’m destroying this awful thing that represents everything I hate about what happened to Kairi plus all the crap Xehanort put my friends through, and I’m gonna do it with my bare hands.”
Must’ve been so satisfying for Sora to finally see that thing gone. In the next scene the worlds are safe, the χ-Blade is gone, and Kingdom Hearts has been sealed once more.
But even though he fought all night and it is now morning, the king isn’t through with his mission. There’s one last person he still has to save. His queen. And in sharp contrast to how he felt like he was worthless without his friends before, here he feels worthy enough to go after her alone. And he pulls it off and saves her, too.
And for my game, at least, I got this image of Sora sitting on a throne at the end.
Sora won. He might not be king yet, but he stopped Xehanort from becoming king and restored the worlds and rescued his friends and saved Kairi, and that’s what’s important for now. The rest can happen later. Nomura does like to play the long game, after all, and he’s been drawing Sora slouching around on thrones since... KH1 days?
And... until the next KH game... we’ll just have to wait and see how this theme will be further developed...
#kh3 spoilers#kh3#kingdom hearts 3#kingdom hearts 3 spoilers#kingdom hearts#sora#xehanort#kairi#sokai#donald#goofy#kh analysis#kh meta#phoenix plays kh3#long post#donald duck
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When relevancy goes too far
Relevancy is a bit of a complex topic the more you think about it. How far do you push it? Which parts of a story are needed to know the other? How should something define the follow up? These questions have widely different answers depending on the person and especially depending on format.
Hell, if you wish to nit pick it further, even the series in question is a factor. Some series’ thrive on whats done while others drown in their own scripts. I believe Kingdom Hearts is one of the latter.
That said, I am not someone who hates KH’s expanded stories simply for existing. The “side games” in of themselves aren’t bad nor is the idea of using such things to expand a world. The same could be said for game novels or comics in my opinon.
However, these things can be a slippery slope or a lazy exist. For example, Assassin’s Creed threw out it’s whole Juno arc into a comic just to get it out of the way which completely shattered my investment.
In turn, Nomura himself isn’t at fault for as much as we bash him for. Something he’s admitted himself as seen here;
So, the new Days is one of the three titles announced in the Autumn of 2007 as new projects in the KH series.
Nomura: Those three titles were all announced at the same time, but in reality the opportunities for the projects were raised in a disjointed way. Birth by Sleep is a project that was raised within our company, but Days is from Nintendo, and coded is from Disney, so we started by talking to each of them.
-source <--Link btw
And anyone that’s read interviews out of curiosity will know that there’s also factors like how ‘Birth By Sleep’ was shifted from PS2 to PSP or that ‘Chain of Memories’ wasn’t a planned title either. (seen here)
So if these things aren’t inherently bad or planned that begs the question of why it’s a problem here? At least in my opinion of the series.
The answer is simple and it lies solely on Nomura’s shoulders for it as a fault, relevancy. The man goes out of his way to make each and every game, concert, or otherwise is attached to the series in some meaningful way going forward.
Naturally, any expanded media is tied to the main narrative in some way. I know this, I am not that foolish. The problem is that Nomura makes them plot relevant going forward.
These titles can’t be true “side games” because they dictate the story going forward in some way. It’s for this reason the more radical fans hate to hear the terminology “side game” to begin with.
This problem was especially bad for years because of how spread out the series became among other gaming systems. And while some like to say it’s fine now due to the collection discs I dont think this will last long given the “phase 2″ images released for KH’s near future.
Hell, I’d even argue this problem isn’t even fixed in truth because the current KH story involving Foretellers, Luxu, and so on is all things spun from a mobile game. Yes, you have to sit through scenes on YT or play a mobile game to fully grasp that cat creature (Chirithy) you saw in KH3.
Naturally, it’s much easier to watch the scenes on YT these days but that also feeds into the loop of not paying for the game itself. I personally see no issue with it but companies are much worse in recent years for shutting down Youtube channels over loose definition of “piracy”.
No game series is worth several consoles. Of course, I’m just speaking from experience, with KH now on the Xbox this may be a moot point in a few years.
I am rambling, off track, lets focus. “Why is this an issue?” is what you’ve read this far for me to explain. The biggest issue with this poor decision making is how it harms the main narrative you’re telling.
For comparison, look at Sora in KH3. He’s often confused by people he doesn’t remember meeting or events he doesn’t remember nor took part in. This is roughly close to what it would be like for someone that’s only played KH1, 2, and 3.
Sora has that same level of insight including what he was told about others like Roxas or Aqua but other characters in-game. This feeds into KH’s misconceived air of complexity.
Kingdom Hearts, as a story, isn’t that complex. It has deeper themes it throws to the wayside but it is easy to follow if you play most games in some form. This ties back into how the series was handled up until the PS4/KH3.
Ever want to know who Roxas was in KH2? Well you had to play Days or you can sit through that horribly boring 3 hour movie on the Remix disc. Even then, the Roxas you see in Days wont be like the one in KH2.
Wish to know who Xehanort was? Play Birth by Sleep! All three campaigns with little variance. Then once you’re done get ready to sit on YT or download a phone app and play Kingdom Hearts Dark Road.
The Foretellers, Luxu, or the Master of Masters? That’s another set of hours, if not days, with the KH Union X Cross, KH Dark Road, and should you choose you can even watch the Back Cover movie which answers nothing at all but shows you the Foretellers in Kh3 graphical glory.
You wish to know how Namine knew who The Lingering Will was? Well dig up a fan translation of a script the Japanese voice cast read for a music concert event. (yes that happened)
You can see where this is going I assume and this is just scratching the surface by the way. You wish to know the finer details like Keyblade types, the inconsistent time traveling, “recompletion”, and so on then be prepared to read word of god interviews, in-game dictionaries/journals and always be ready for a few to change.
Whether it’s a true retcon or just an ambiguous statement, the series is ongoing, Nomura heads the ship, and he is by no means obligated to stick to previous statements if he can make a new one to alter those events.
Then again, holding too much weight in words said outside the game itself is a faulty way of doing things that most fans (like me) have fallen victim too at least once.
At the same time, all of these things are relevant by Nomura’s decision. Sure, the remixes have fixed this to a degree but it’s anyone’s guess for how long. Better yet, at what cost did the remixes fix anything?
The best example of what I mean is Coded. It was originally a game for phones. At the time, only Japan had a phone capable of playing it. Feeling that a shame the game later found it’s way to the DS for all fans to play.
At this point in time Coded was the only true example of a “side story”. It was by no means necessary. The whole datascape plot was more convoluted than it needed to be despite data!Sora being far better than the original at this point, and easy to miss.
But...well that was good. The DS version of Coded was fun as hell to play. The only version of the “command deck system” I’d consider worth any semblance of praise. It did it’s job of getting some level of fans invested such as my friend @blackosprey and it’s story was missable.
You did not need to play Coded to understand Dream Drop Distance or further. This was perfect. This is what games like Days, KH Chi/UX, 0.2, and DDD should’ve been.
Games that reached out to grab new people, games that played around, and games that expanded on the main narrative without dictating it’s direction. A side game is something that exists alongside or outside your main story.
However this isn’t what we got. 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage was a short sequel to BBS but also a pretty tech demo for KH3. Dream Drop Distance was there to show the real Sora that people needed help and to show us that Xehanort was back.
KH Chi was a browser game meant to show the Keyblade War and how it shaped Sora’s era. Now it’s an ongoing curse on the series with time traveling plot that affected KH3 directly.
Coded was made into a movie you needed to sit through thanks to one small newly added scene. Days lost many small interactions it’s fans loved in the transition to a movie that is hard to sit through.
I’ve also heard KHDDD and 0.2 were “shaved off” KH3 in a sense to be their own titles...this...this makes so little sense.
Nomura calls KH “Sora’s story” but this is a lie. If it truly was Sora’s story then your main narrative would be BBS, KH1, CoM, 2, and the original combined form of KH3. That’s the titles he’s relevant, those are the titles he stops Xehanort’s plans.
These other titles could’ve been so fun but none of them were truly allowed to breath and be themselves. They were weakened and limited by Nomura deciding to prop the ongoing story upon them like they’re stilts.
Then as a result you can’t close out KH3 without resolving all of these other events and characters which drags it’s own story down. KH3 feels all over the place because it is. It’s trying to tie as many knots as it can from threads created in titles that were way more relevant then they needed to be.
Kh3 can be seen as a clean break for many but I see it as a matter of time. KHUX and now KHDR are still there casting a shadow, dictating what comes next. Melody of Memory is one of several games planned for an unknown but hopefully more thought out direction.
I worry I haven’t explained what I meant well enough but moral of my story is that making things too relevant hurts not only your main story but these new stories you wish to explore.
You can’t have a story and it’s cast breath if you’re tying a knot of mythos too tightly around their necks and this is a tragedy to me. KH began life with such potential but it constantly holds itself back because so few entries into it’s story are truly just an entry.
And I am not saying games can’t follow up one another nor that they shouldn’t. What’s needed is a clear idea and some breathing room. A good example would be to save people in Days with the game DDD. DDD could’ve wiped away some clutter to focus on the final Xehanort battle in a sense.
Nomura has a huge problem with wanting connectivity without letting games be connected by the name alone. It’s like he wants to do the opposite of what Final Fantasy has done but to detrimental results.
This harms so much but worst of them it hurts development. Because Days was made so important, we had a movie made. Because Coded was elevated, a movie was made. Because the keyblade war was so popular, Union Cross was made.
The Remixes would’ve been better to consolidate lore not waste time trying to appease every whim. KH’s relevancy is a huge problem and I doubt it’ll stop any time soon.
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I have attempted to keep my contempt for Kingdom Hearts III to a minimum. However, it has come to my attention that there are several jokes being passed around about how mean and ineffectual Yen Sid is as a teacher. I’m not demanding everyone change their tune right now and like Yen Sid. He’s not for everyone. But I went through a journey over the course of this series going from disliking him to flat-out loving him, and it really dismays me that I can pinpoint why everyone thought he was so bad in III and it, to use a phrase that has almost lost meaning, “doesn’t exist in a vacuum.”
Historically, Yen Sid has been a punching bag for this fandom. I know. I was there. Doing some of the punching. The problem was we were given Organization XIII and weren’t really sure what to do with them. For one, if you didn’t play CoM in between 1 and II (and not having SEEN Marluxia trying to chess-game everyone to their deaths), which was my story, you got Naminé saying “Good or bad, I cannot say” followed almost immediately by Yen Sid saying that though the Organization would pretend to have emotions , it was a ruse. I can’t pinpoint exactly why the Organization XIII fandom happened (I’m not sure it was so simple as “They’re hot”), but if it was anything like my case, I think it stems deep down from seeing these cool character designs and quirks on a bunch of VILLAINS and feeling the pull of the good/bad binary that suggests you can’t enjoy them as villains and must make them redeemable enough to make fan content of. This is starting to veer into a whole other essay, so I’ll cut it off here - I’ll just say if you know me, you know I figured out that “fun team for fan content” and “moral role models” are not necessarily symbiotic. ANYWAY. ABOUT YEN SID. The other thing I think we have to remember is that at the time, the only people who understood how Nobodies felt were the Nobodies. Ansem the Wise also thought they were emotionless evil. We found out in DDD, whether or not that was planned in advance, that Xemnas basically conditioned them to think of themselves that way. 358/2 Days is so poignant in its depiction of the Sea Salt Trio because you see how the rest have been groomed to be divided and not care about friendship or emotions. So in a way, the Organization defense squad was right, and I think that ended up being kind of the point - Yen Sid was telling us all we knew about this “mysterious entity” that didn’t interact with humanity, and that arc was concluded through Ansem realizing he should’ve treated Roxas like a human person. So that clears away KHII Yen Sid.
BBS Yen Sid was where I really grew to love him as a character. He understands that Terra and Ven need to follow their hearts, and in their individual visits, he basically tells them “Eraqus would not like this, but I know it’s important to you and I trust you, so I’m going to look the other way.” When Aqua visits him, you see a completely new side of him. It always hurts me so much when he has to tell Aqua that Xehanort and Terra have murdered Eraqus. Because he pauses a bit before saying Xehanort’s name. That man was his friend, and all this time, he was hoping there was redeemability in him. (Perhaps contributing to him being later jaded toward Xemnas’ associates, hmm?) But he pauses even longer before saying Terra’s name, and I sincerely believe this is because he recognizes the pain he feels at knowing Xehanort isn’t the person he thought he was...and even more than not wanting to feel it, he doesn’t want Aqua to feel that way about Terra. Yet he knows in the end she deserves the truth. Also, BBS kind of acts “fix fic” toward Fantasia itself, of all things. When I took my stance on KHII Yen Sid, this made me retroactively look at Fantasia and go “What a jerk in how he treats Mickey.” Which really isn’t the case at all - he’s tough but fair, and Mickey kinda BROUGHT THE WATERY APOCALYPSE DOWN UPON HIS LABORATORY. But the end credits scene of Yen Sid and Mickey deliberately subverts Fantasia. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice has Yen Sid strip Mickey of the hat, which Mickey doesn’t want to give up. BBS ends on the note of Mickey feeling that, since he couldn’t save his friends, he didn’t deserve the Keyblade (which is the same pattern as Yen Sid’s hat) anymore, and he tried to give it up. Yen Sid instead hands it BACK to him encouragingly, and this is likely where he awarded Mickey mastery. It takes a scene where we’re used to him punishing the naughty trickster and flips it on its head - when Mickey himself thinks he’s finally gone too far and nothing but a failure, Yen Sid wants him to keep dreaming, keep growing, keep learning.
DDD! Yen Sid tests Riku and Sora for Mastery, and ultimately encourages Riku to self-actualize! He assures Riku it’s okay to mix Light and Dark, which is almost UNHEARD of in this universe! He reaches out to Kairi, he allows Lea a second chance - he’s on top of it all!
So let’s get into KHIII. People have said Yen Sid berates Sora too much. And I’m not saying that’s not true. People have said it’s stupid that Yen Sid doesn’t actually act like a “teacher” or introduce a lot of the mechanics from BBS he would’ve known about, like armor or skimmers. And it kind of is. But I think it’s the old KHII sourness that’s bleeding into this interpretation, because honestly...this is not a Yen Sid problem.
This problem affects the characterization of pretty much every main cast member in KHIII.
Sora is now more focused on his own failings than trying to help others (please compare his reaction to Rapunzel to his reaction to Quasimodo back in DDD to see how selfish he’s become). Riku has almost nothing to say or do. Kairi has been watered down - no sense of humor or sass or initiative, to say nothing of the great offensive death scene. Aqua’s time in the Realm of Darkness seems to have had no noticeable effect on her until Re:Mind retroactively patched it in, and her solitude wasn’t explored. Ventus gets barely anything to do or say beyond being a yes-man. The conflict between the Wayfinder Trio? Swept under the rug. Same with Sea Salt, though at least Axel, Roxas, and Xion all feel like themselves, at least. Vexen, whose primary character trait was “grump who hates everyone,” decides midgame that he is no longer grumpy and does not hate everyone. Ansem, Seeker of Darkness? Don’t even get me started; there is no similarity between this ominous harbinger of Master Xehanort’s will and the mad scientist nihilist from KH1. Master Xehanort himself? Has magically gone from “I must explore the Darkness to see what answers of the universe will be revealed when Kingdom Hearts comes, despite the Light acting as a policing force I find unfair” (BBS) to “I hate that everyone acts like a good person but it’s so fake. I want to remake the world and rule over it to make it better” (KHIII). Meanwhile, Eraqus, whose arc centered around fanaticism taken to an extreme that led him to attack his own adoptive child, is now the voice of forgiveness, acting as forgiveness for Xehanort when it was Eraqus’ lack of forgiveness for any slight that kicked off the problem in the first place. I personally love Ienzo as he is, probably because he’s more sincerely happy now and the seeds were planted in DDD for this characterization, but if you add it up, he’s very jarringly different than the Zexion we were used to.
Yen Sid is a victim of the same character assassination that hit pretty much EVERYONE else in this game. Why is he a bad teacher? Because the guy in charge of writing his dialogue didn’t bother to line it up with BBS or DDD for consistency. Why didn’t he show the characters how to do anything worth anything? Because, again, the designers of III decided to switch the BBS mechanics for Attraction Flows and Formchanges without taking lore and continuity into consideration (and for the record, I love Attraction Flows and Formchanges, but we couldn’t have everything, and we need to be aware of the fact that game design dictates a lot of the story; the reason Sora is missing so much power in the first place is because we need to justify starting the game at level 1). At the very least, they allowed Yen Sid to actually travel to the Keyblade Graveyard to rescue his charges when everyone had a betting pool on him “Sitting in his chair doing nothing” during the end times. And that probably involved a lot of haggling over licensing of Fantasia. They at least wanted to show him caring about the others to that degree.
Like I said, Yen Sid isn’t for everyone. If you don’t like him because you just don’t like him, fine. I didn’t come here to try and change everyone’s mind. But I just think it’s a little bit unfair to harp on how much of a “bad teacher” he is in III when this lines up with none of his prior characterization, but lines up perfectly with how much the rest of the cast is bad everything-else.
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I’ll Always Protect You - One-Shot
(Takes place during KH1 for the most part. Minor spoilers for the beginning of KH3?)
Riku collapsed on the floor of the Hollow Bastion castle, panting.
“It was reckless to bring them both without a vessel,” Maleficent said.
Riku scoffed. “Just... try to... stop me...” he said through his panting. “I’m going... to keep them both... safe...”
Maleficent didn’t sound convinced when she said, “Very well.” She swept off.
*****
I woke up with a headache. “Wha...?” I mumbled.
“You’re awake!” a familiar voice exclaimed. The voice was loud. I winced away from it. “Oh. Sorry.”
“R... Riku?”
“Yeah. it’s me.”
“What’s... what’s going on? What happened? I just remember... a... pirate ship? And...” I sat up so fast my head spun. “Sora! He’s alive! What happened?!”
“Whoa there. Calm down,” Riku said, gently pushing me until I was lying down again. “You’re safe. You’re alive. You’re okay. Just get some rest, ‘kay? You’ll feel better.”
“Is Sora here?”
“Sora... replaced us. We got separated and... Sora doesn’t care about us anymore.”
“That’s not true!” I protested, trying to sit up again but Riku was holding me down. “Sora would never replace us! It’s not like a person can’t have more than three friends!”
“I’ll tell you more about it when you’re well again, okay? Get some rest.”
“But... Riku...”
I could have sworn I saw shadows emanating from his skin. It was probably just the half-light of whatever room I was in. “I’ll explain everything later. Get some sleep.” He put his gloved hand on the top of my head and left the room I was in. I stared after him ‘til the door shut.
“Riku...” I whispered.
The headache made my vision swim and fade until I was unconscious again.
*****
“Your friend Kairi is one of the seven maidens of purest heart,” Maleficent said, “however the other young lady... there is nothing remarkable about her.”
“Maybe not to you,” Riku returned sharply. “But I know her better than you do.”
“Pray tell,” Maleficent invited.
Riku straightened up to his full height---which wasn’t terribly impressive---and looked her right in the eye. “She’s unconditional. She loved me and Sora equally despite how different we are. She’s protective of her friends and fiercely loyal. Maybe her heart isn’t pure light like Kairi’s, but she’s powerful in her own way.”
“Ah... I see. You care for her,” Maleficent said.
“Of course I do.” Riku’s tone was mildly confused, like Maleficent had stated the most obvious thing in the world.
“Love is weakness, my boy,” Maleficent said. “It leaves you open to pain.”
“Wait. You think I’m in love with her? You’ve got it all wrong.”
“I don’t think so. Not with the way you speak of her.” With that, Maleficent swept out of the room, leaving Riku alone with Kairi. Kairi was still missing her heart and unresponsive. Riku sighed and checked to make sure she hadn’t gained any bruises or cuts from her time on the Jolly Roger. She seemed to be okay.
After quickly making sure she was alright, Riku sat back in his chair and stared at the wall. Maybe... Maleficent wasn’t wrong... he’d never... really thought of it... that way...
*****
I sat up and grunted in pain. My headache had faded to a dull throb so it didn’t hurt to sit up.
“Hey,” a voice said.
“Riku! How did you---what’s going---where are we?” I finally settled on. I had too many questions. Riku reached out and set his hand on top of mine, giving me a small smile.
“Don’t hurt yourself, ‘kay?” he asked. “We’re in a castle in a place called Hollow Bastion. The Islands.... they’re gone. They got swallowed up by the darkness. When they did... you, me, Sora, and Kairi were on the play island. There was an explosion. You took a big hit. I managed to catch you but... we got separated. I’ve searched quite a few worlds for you and Kairi.”
“What about Sora?”
“Well, like I said earlier, he replaced us. He found new powers and new friends. He doesn’t care about us anymore.”
“But---Sora wouldn’t do that! You know him just as well as I do. If not better! He’s our brother, Riku! He wouldn’t replace us!”
“I could show you but... you’re too weak right now. You need to rest and recover. And, to be honest... I am too. Bringing you and Kairi here almost killed me.”
“Riku...” I set my free hand on top of where his was still on my other hand.
He shook his hand. “I’d do it a hundred more times and survive if it meant keeping you and Kairi safe. Remember that. I’ll always protect you. ‘Kay?”
I nodded. “Okay. But... Riku... Sora wouldn’t...”
“You’ll see. He’s on his way here. And you’ll see just how he left us both behind. And Kairi.” He got to his feet. “Get some rest. I’ll be back later to check on you.” He slid his hand out from between mine and brushed some of my hair out of my face.
I couldn’t believe what he said about Sora but... maybe he was telling the truth. Either way, I was in too much pain to parse through everything right now. I looked down at my body. There was a bandage wrapped around my left arm and I could feel another one pasted to the right side of my back. I wondered how my hair had fallen from its braid. Probably the explosion?
But did I trust Riku to tell me the truth right now? There was something... off about him.
Remember that I’ll always protect you, he’d said.
That much was true. He always had. One time Wakka was picking on me because I flubbed a “super easy” move in blitzball since I wasn’t particularly sporty and Riku tore Wakka apart for it. I trusted that he’d always fight to keep his friends safe. But about Sora...? Sora wouldn’t replace us...
I flopped back on the bed and closed my eyes.
“Oh Riku... what happened to you...” I whispered.
“I think you’ll find that boy’s feelings for you are deeper than you initially assumed, young lady,” a woman’s voice said. I jumped.
“Who are you?!” I demanded.
The woman had greenish skin and tall twisted horns. Her face was pointy and her eyes were piercing and dark. “My name is Maleficent. Riku has become like a son to me. But clearly he cares for you deeply. Even deeper than he does for your other friend. Kairi, her name was?”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “Riku loves all of his friends the same. He’s just loyal that way.”
Maleficent started laughing---it was a dark cackle. “Oh, dear child, your naïveté is simply adorable. To be so blind to that boy’s feelings for you that you actually believe your denial of them is charming.”
I clenched my jaw. “Riku’s not in love with me,” I said. “Our relationship has never been like that.”
The door banged open. “Leave her alone, Maleficent!” Riku spat, pushing around the woman to put himself between me and her. He lashed his right arm, shadows whirling around his hand to manifest some sort of sword shaped like a dragon’s wing.
Maleficent cackled again and vanished in a burst of green fire. “You see, young lady, how much he cares!” she called as she vanished. Riku let the blade dissolve into darkness once again and turned to look at me.
“Are you alright?” Riku demanded, grabbing at my hands.
“Fine,” I replied.
“Good. She’s just trying to get under your skin. To manipulate you. She tried to do the same with me.”
And she’s succeeded, I thought. If he believed that Sora had replaced us, his friends, that meant someone else was getting in his head. But the intense look in his teal eyes dissuaded me from saying that aloud.
“’Kay,” I said.
“C’mon. Sora’s almost here. I’ll take you to the Keyhole Chamber. Sora will meet us there and you’ll see that I’m right.” He offered me his hand. “Kairi’s already there. But she’s unresponsive. Just watch.” I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. I wobbled a little. Something was wrong in my knee. It hurt to put my weight on. I tried not to limp, but I couldn’t help it.
Riku sighed and bent down. He scooped up my knees and carried me through the big empty castle.
“Riku?” I asked, snuggling into his chest.
“Yeah?”
“How come the islands were swallowed by darkness?”
“The darkness has been swallowing all the worlds. Our islands were just one of the many.”
I sniffed. “I hope everyone’s alright,” I said.
“Me too,” Riku said. “We were fortunate that we got off them before they were taken.”
“Yeah...” I muttered.
He tightened his grip on me. “Hey, in case anything bad happens, just know that you, Kairi, and Sora mean everything to me, ‘kay?”
“‘Kay.” I nodded.
“And I’m gonna keep you safe.”
“I know you will. You always have.”
*****
“LOOK OUT!” Riku exclaimed, tackling me out of the way of the Demon Tower as he, Mickey, and I traversed the Realm of Darkness looking for Master Aqua. We skidded through the sand on the beach.
“Thanks,” I said, panting.
He smirked and nodded. “I’ll always protect you,” he said. “And don’t you forget it. Now c’mon.”
“Hey Riku? Remember Hollow Bastion?” I asked as we pushed ourselves to our feet. He helped me up.
“Yeah.” He sounded ashamed.
“You’ve come a really long way. And I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks.”
“But... there’s somethin’ I’ve been meaning to ask. About Maleficent.”
He sighed. “Go ahead.”
“Was she telling the truth when she said your feelings for me were deeper than I thought?”
“Do we have to talk about this now?” Riku demanded as the Tower came back for us. We whipped our Keyblades out and got ready to attack.
“If we don’t, we may never get another chance!”
“Yes! Okay?! She was telling the truth! I’ve been in love with you since we were fourteen!” he shouted as the Tower lashed at him. I slashed at it, doing very little damage. I almost dropped my Keyblade when I processed what he was saying since I was so startled.
I fought my way around the Demon Tower to get back next to him where he’d jumped away to get out of the path of the spinning Heartless. “Really?” I asked loudly.
“Can we talk about this later?!” Riku demanded.
“Sorry! It’s just---I didn’t think...”
“I love you, and I’ll always do my best to protect you, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay. Now let’s take these suckers out.”
“You had me at ‘okay,’” he joked.
“Hey Riku?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m in love with you too.”
“Good incentive for us both to survive this, huh?”
I bounced my eyebrows. “Definitely.”
Riku chuckled. “First one to fifty gets to decide on the first date.”
“You’re on,” I said.
#Tal writes#Riku#Riku Imagine#Riku FanFiction#Kingdom Hearts#Kingdom Hearts Imagine#Kingdom Hearts FanFiction#KH#KH Imagine#KH FanFiction
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blackbeastofengalnd replied to your photo
Tell me the key to it creation sensei
Regarding the Ultima weapon in KH3:
So, honestly, this was the hardest I’ve ever had to work to make this weapon. The easiest (I think) is KH2, then KH1, then KH3 (though I haven’t gotten it in DDD or BBS, but I’ve only played those once)
In order to make the Ultima weapon, you have to unlock it in the Moogle shop, which you do after collect 58 synthesis materials. As long as you run around and fight, this shouldn’t be a problem.
First we’ll start with the easy stuff, the ‘other’ ingredients.
Wellspring Crystals are drops of ‘High Soldier’ Heartless in Monstropolis, San Fransokyo, and The Caribbean. They might also be in chests? I honestly don’t know, because I had them before the Ultima weapon was available.
Same thing with the Pulsing Crystals, which are dropped in Arendelle.
The Lucid Crystals are a little harder, but they are dropped by the Anchor Heartless in the Caribbean. Pulsing and Lucid Crystals can be synthesised with the use of a Wellspring Crystal.
Now onto the hard stuff.
The 7 Orchalcum +
1. One is in ‘The Final World’ in a chest. I think it’s the only chest there. No problem.
2. There’s one hidden in Exile Island in the Caribbean. Also, didn’t have any trouble with this one.
3. You need to snap pics of 80 lucky Emblems to get this one. But, I wanted the secret ending, so I got all 100 (in beginner mode). There’s guides on where to find them online, but two that the guides were SUPER unhelpful for were two in the Caribbean. Go to Sandbar Isle, and look to the right side, where the cliffs with vegetation are. There’s some rocks you can use as stairs and they’ll take you up there. Explore around, and you’ll see a small path that takes you to a spring hidden in the middle. Jump in, and you’ll see a little mickey on a rock, and then a huge one carved out of the rock. There’s also a ton of chests down there.
4. The gummi battles in this game, I feel, are infinitely better than the ones in previous games. You have to beat the Omega Boss in the Eclipse Galaxy to get this one. Honestly, if you just spend time going through each of the oceans and leveling up, this one is not that hard, just time consuming. I always build my own ships, but some of the blueprints are excellent for that battle. It’s actually a six part battle, since you have to pretty much defeat everything in the Galaxy before Omega appears. There’s a giant box taking up this galaxy, and each corner (on the outside) has a battle on it. There’s a little bit of a cinematic when he appears.
5. The lottery. Remember that you get postcards for buying a lot from the Moogles? There’s a reason. In Twilight town next to the shop, there’s a post box. This Orchalcum+ is random and there’s no trick to it. So, what I did was save before posting, then entered in the drawing. If I didn’t get it, I loaded up the save file and tried again. It took me about ten tries.
6. The Flantastic Seven. I swear to god, this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in a video game. It wasn’t even really that hard, just...so tedious and precise. So I’ll go through each one individually, by my perceived difficulty. I’m not going to write about locations, since IGN has a comprehensive list of where to find them all. (Plus their own guide of how they work)
Grape- I got this one on the first try. You have to beat as many as you can. I just used ranged magic, like thunder and wailed on them as much as possible. I found it easy. But that’s the only one I did.
Strawberry- Stacking little flans as you spin around on a teacup while avoiding giant rolling strawberries. This took me a couple of times to do, but I eventually got it. Bumping into ANYTHING knocks off your flans. So just go slow, and stay around the outside.
Orange- The calmest of the flans. In Corona, they just want you to take some cute pictures of them. You get seven shots, use them wisely.
Directly behind you at the starting point, there’s a tiny one right by the hidden entrance to the tower. Snap it when he pops out of the ground.
Another tiny one jumps out by the cave and waves. Get him with his arm raised. He’s a little tricky, so be careful (or get him first)
There’s two that are sitting together in a tree. They jump down when you aim your camera on them and make...waffles? They only do this once, so don’t goof it up!
There’s one with two birds in hand and a rabbit on his head. He poses with them.
There’s five together that walk and pose. Snap a pic when they pose in unison. This is worth the most points.
You should have 23k if you got all of these, so your last pic can go on any of them (but I suggest the flying ones)
Watermelon- In the Caribbean at the fort. This one is all about timing. If you hit the big one on balloons in the back, you get major points. You can hit the bell in the middle to fire all cannons at the same time, but it takes a bit to recharge.
Banana- In Monster’s Inc. The big one tries to eat you while you try to destroy the little ones. They are 1 hit kills too. So, dodge roll the heck out of the way, and try to keep an eye out on the big one. I found it the best to stay behind him, close, at all times. Use thunder to attack the little guys, but don’t spam it. Give them time to spawn a whole bunch. If you’re lucky, you can use grand magic to score major points.
Musk Melon- The bane of my existence. You have to jump on them to go high, but if you jump on the same one, they’ll eat you. And you can miss and end the game. Always always aim for the sparkling ones. They give more points and move platforms. For ones that are moving, aim for their faces, since you’ll have a better chance of landing on them. Once you pass 10k, you start doing that skydiving fall and the game becomes WAY harder to complete. Just...good luck.
Cherry- I used to love cherries. Now I can’t look at them without crying. I’m not even kidding, it took me ten hours of doing this stupid mini game before I actually got it.
When going down the path, hit the first set of arrows, then the flan, SKIP the next set of arrows, and hit the two flan. This will give you enough speed to hit the arrows on the roof and grab the flan in the air. Go across the disc, then over another roof-straight, and then turn mid air to get the six flan in the air. Continue straight, then turn slightly up a ramp, hit a set of arrows, hit three flan, arrows, jump a ledge to hit flan in the air, hit another on the way down. Next section in the garden will basically auto pilot you with arrows. When you hit the arrows to make a sharp right in front of a fountain, make sure to curve to the left to avoid hitting the wall. Go straight down the path, over a shallow hole, and then hit two more single flan. Now this part is CRUCIAL to winning this game! There’s a fork in the path, one direction down a dirt path, and one down some steps. The arrows will take you down the steps, but if you curve slightly to the right, you can take some planks around the arrows and down the dirt path! There are a TON of flan down that way! After that, you’ll go into a temple, and then down the alley that was on fire earlier. The flan will guide you down the correct path into the city. Immediately in the city, there should be arrows to take you left into a group of five flan. Then, you’ll go straight into the little maze of fire that you used a Trinity Sled on earlier. You can rely on the arrows for the rest of the route. The main trick is that fork in the road, and keeping your speed up without losing control or bumping into ANYTHING. Mostly luck.
7. Frozen Slider Mini game- You have to collect ten glowing jewels on the mountain. There are four sections to the mountain. But all of the jewels are in the third. Each section is divided by a major jump that you will go over no matter which path you take. The first goes over a gorge, the second, over a cliff, and the third over a cliff after going through some caves. Here’s a very vague and probably not helpful map:
The best advice I can give is to watch this video by Youtuber Everglow and just memorise it, because that’s what I did. There’s not really any other landmarks to use, so just...good luck. Because that’s all I can say.
Though it was really frustrating and tedious, I feel amazing to have gotten it. BUT NEVER AGAIN.
#blackbeastofengalnd#kingdom hearts#kh3#ultima weapon#kingdom hearts 3#flantastic seven#flantastic 7#frozen slider#mini games
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While I’m at it, carrying on my gray screeching, I wanna talk about something.
Riku’s jealousy.
I think it’s something we tend to gloss over a lot when we’re talking about Kingdom Hearts and the characters within, especially since it’s such a relief to watch Riku grow from what appears to be a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum to a mature young man sacrificing his life for his best friend (and crush, if you’re taking a queer reading like I do, but that’s besides the point).
But like... is he though? Is he just a spoiled brat that Maleficent manipulated into thinking Sora was replacing him with a talking dog and duck? I posit that Riku’s been afraid of being replaced for a very long time, and Maleficent saw that and honed in on it really quick.
I know we can take the fact that Square hasn’t given us any meaningful Riku and Kairi friendship moments as “Square has a shit time writing male/female friendships”, but for a moment, let’s take it as intentional.
The narrative we’re given through the main series is that Sora has two best friends, Riku and Kairi. And yeah, I think we can safely say that Riku and Kairi are friends. Friendly, at the very least, but...
Well.
Remember that we’re seeing these two through Sora’s eyes. Through Sora’s eyes, they must be best friends. They’re both his best friends, after all, so therefore they must be best friends too. But Kairi sure was willing to joke about leaving Riku behind in KH1 just because she felt like “he’d changed”. Sora responds to the line with an incredulous “what?!”, to which Kairi is quick to say “just kidding!”
But you know, after being around for awhile, whenever you hear people say something they think won’t be received well and they follow it up with a “just kidding”, it makes you think: they weren’t kidding, and they’re only saying “jk lol” now because they don’t want to deal with the negative repercussions.
I’m gonna be charitable and say that Kairi picked up on something dark brewing in Riku that she didn’t know how to handle, and the prospect of being trapped on a tiny raft with that frightened her. That seems fair enough. But we don’t really see any indication that she ever mentioned her concerns to the person that could actually reassure her, or try to figure out how to fix the behavior she noticed.
We don’t see her talk to Riku about it.
She brings it up to Sora, who is his best friend, who might be able to do something about it, or at least who might feel confident enough to say something. Obviously Sora hasn’t noticed anything, and he’s confused by the whole thing, but the important thing here is that Kairi noticed something changing in Riku, possibly becoming progressively worse, and didn’t try to talk to him about it. Or at least, we aren’t shown it, so it’s safe enough to assume she probably didn’t.
I mean, she’s 14, that’s a difficult topic to broach.
But I’d think that someone that she considers her best friend would be someone she could talk to. Or at the very least, when she was talking to Sora, she might suggest that they both talk to Riku about it.
Instead, she tries to play it off, and suggests taking the raft and leaving, just the two of them.
And... well, we’re not really shown that Riku didn’t hear this.
Here’s the thing. And I thought about it the last time I was playing the first game, and the added cutscene with Sora and Riku looking into the Secret Place as children came up. And something Riku says stuck out to me:
“Hey, Sora. When we grow up, let’s get off this island. We’ll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!”
At this point, the boys hadn’t actually met Kairi yet. They’d heard about her showing up at the mayor’s place, but they hadn’t met her. This is one best friend asking another to go off into the wilds with him. Sora agrees-- but when they’re finally making those preparations to leave, it’s not just them anymore.
It’s Kairi, too.
Riku’s gone from being the center of Sora’s attention, from being his only best friend, to being one of two. And again, to reiterate, it’s not like Riku wasn’t friends with Kairi. But it’s not unlikely that it’s here, as children, were Riku first started to feel like maybe things wouldn’t always be the same. That there was a chance he might lose his precious person, even if he hadn’t conceptualized that yet.
It’s really hard to battle that kind of resentment. You feel guilty because you know you shouldn’t be resentful, that it’s good that your friend is making more friends, that it’s good that you have the chance to make another friend, too. But you can’t help but look back and go “but look at what it was like before.”
It’s a small thing that can grow with the right push.
When we start KH1, they’re almost done with the raft. That is to say, Riku’s already been persuaded to let Kairi in on their adventure promise, and not only has this promise had another person shoehorned in, but the goal is different now, too. It’s no long about going on adventures with his best friend, it’s about finding out where Kairi’s from, seeing what Kairi’s birthplace was like.
It might’ve felt like it had gone from being about “Sora and Riku” to being all about Kairi, and I can see how a kid going through puberty, especially if he’s finding he’s not as straight as he once thought, can feel resentful over that. And I can definitely see how the firmly anchored facade of everything being fine could start to crack and lift.
It’s possible Kairi caught a glimpse of that resentment towards the end of their preparations. Or maybe she always had the idea that she wasn’t really 100% welcome. That doesn’t really matter; what matters is that when Kairi and Sora are sitting on the pier, Kairi seeming to hint at Riku’s carefully squashed deepest fear, and then proposing they run away from him for it--
Well. I’m not saying that is what happened, but why would Riku open the door the night before they were going to set sail on that raft if he thought it was the more sure way to do what he wanted? Unless he already thought he was being abandoned, and he had nothing to lose.
“The door is open, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!”
Riku doesn’t say anything about Kairi until Sora brings her up, and then he’s almost angry about it. He’s defiant-- of course Kairi’s coming with us. She wanted to go so badly, and she wanted to tag along, so duh. Of course she has to come now.
But... Riku’s already being taken by the darkness before Sora ever finds Kairi. He lets it take him, even. How are they supposed to collect Kairi if they’re already gone?
TL;DR: Riku’s jealousy is well established as having some very real, very grounded basis, and I think it’s a shame to ignore it. It’s fun to joke about how Riku’s gay awakening caused the events of KH1, but I think that ignores the deeper, very real, very human reasons why Maleficent was able to drive a wedge between Riku and Sora so quickly. It’d be pretty obvious to someone well versed in manipulating people exactly how to manipulate a 15 year old boy who’s constantly talking about his best friend Sora. And sometimes Kairi, too.
I think Riku’s big lesson in KH1 is that he needs to trust in his friends, which is why Sora’s tagline of “my friends are my power!” is so powerful. And why Riku’s keyblade would’ve ditched him for Sora, too. Riku’s heart always knew that he was precious to his friends, even if his deep fears lead him to think otherwise.
(And I think Aqua needed to learn that lesson too, but her story was handled SO MUCH LESS GOODLY than Riku’s, but that’s a rant for another time.)
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I've wanted to write something like this for some time--I love hearing other people's stories and sharing my own, but I've never felt like there was an appropriate occasion for going in depth about my experience with KH. I’m not sure anyone would want to read this, but I still want to give this pre-KH3 era some kind of sendoff, so here it is.
Here's what KH means to me.
As a kid
13 years ago, my best friend moved away.
I went to the same tiny, religious school from kindergarten until I graduated high school, but I didn't make my first real friend until 5th grade, which was the first time I was able to really share the things I loved with someone else. When I discovered Final Fantasy, she didn't really get it, but she supported me every step of the way. I didn't quite appreciate how special that was until the summer after 8th grade, when she moved to another state. And as 9th grade began, I realized all my school friends were gone, and I needed to keep my interests to myself again.
At church, I never had any friends to begin with, so I was surprised to find myself talking with my seatmate on the bus to our fall retreat that year. And somehow, the topic turned to my dark secret: those weird Japanese video games. And it turned out she played them, too.
"What do you play?" she asked me.
"Um...Final Fantasy," I said.
"Oh, I've heard of those! I've never played them, though. I just know them from Kingdom Hearts."
I had heard that Squall, my favorite character of all time back in 2005, was in some weird crossover with Disney characters. My only feelings about it had been a brief curiosity about what his voice would sound like and whether he played a major role, so I decided to ask her about it.
In response, I got the entirety of KH1 and CoM. I had literally no context for any of what she was describing--possession? A giant castle? Memories being rewritten?? This is a Disney game why is the plot so complicated???
But the upshot was that she decided showing would be better than telling, and she invited me over to play once we got back. And I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we never got that close, as I soon started going to another church, but my curiosity had been piqued.
That Christmas, my parents got for me the last thing I ever expected to receive--a PS2. My parents hated video games and had spent much of my childhood being warned about them: “Don’t become a junkie like your brother.” I got two games that day, too: Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts. And that was just the beginning.
I blasted through the game over winter break, but before long, I was back in school where I had no friends in my class. There was one girl in the grade above me who was sort of a friend of friends from church, and one day, she invited me to sit with her and her crew. And as we were talking, I heard next to me:
"No, no, you gotta guard the ice shards back at him..."
And I was like, "This sounds familiar???" And after eavesdropping a little more, I finally got up the courage to ask the two guys: "Are you talking about the Ice Titan?"
I was a little afraid they'd tell me to buzz off, but their eyes lit up, and that day, I suddenly had two new friends. One of them even loaned me his copy of CoM so I could play it before KH2. I never finished it because a little kid ""borrowed"" it without asking and saved over my file, but I’ve finally forgiven him for that. I think.
When KH2 came out, I started getting involved in online communities. And in real life, I was able to introduce gaming and KH to one of my non-school friends. We would get together and play and write absolutely awful crack fanfiction that we would never post in a million years, and for the first time in my life, I had friends in my life who not only didn't judge me, but loved the same things I did as much as I did.
For the first time, I was introduced to the possibility that I didn't have to be someone else to keep from being alone.
Riku
Yes, Riku gets his own section, haha.
I'm a little sad to admit this, but I actually didn't fall in love with KH right away. I was 14--old enough to feel like I should have outgrown Disney and not yet old enough to realize I didn't need to. I was here for the FF characters and not much else.
To my young and cynical mind, the story was very predictable. You have a hero, an ordinary kid who is "chosen" for whatever reason, fighting a bunch of bad guys, and you have his damsel in distress. Good vs. evil. Light vs. darkness. Black and white, cut and dry, come on that's kid stuff.
On the other hand, Riku was an archetype I was at least not as familiar with--the friend/rival turned antagonist--which automatically made him marginally more interesting to me.
There was, however, a pattern I was familiar with: the genius versus the underdog. The one who could do anything without even trying, and the one who had to fight with everything they had just to keep up. And generally, the latter is the one the audience is expected to identify with and root for, often to finally take down the former.
But I WAS the former. I was top or near the top of my class every year, and even outside of class I tended to pick up many skills easily. To me, the standard to shoot for was 100%, and because I so often managed to hit that mark, I never had the opportunity to learn that it was okay to fail. Instead, I internalized the idea that I was one of the lucky ones, and the responsibility for ensuring my life was smooth sailing fell solely on my shoulders.
If you don't struggle in school, I believed, nobody wants to hear your story. If you don't have anything that's difficult, then you need to focus on not being arrogant about your gifts--even hiding them so that you don't make anyone feel less than you. Clearly, you're strong enough on your own, so you just need to sit down, shut up, and let people help the ones who actually need it. And if you're lonely and unhappy, that's probably your own fault.
Which was why Riku's story absolutely floored me. In the original KH, I wasn't surprised to see Riku become an antagonist, but I was surprised that his motive wasn't just "I'm better than you and I deserve everything," but that a crucial part of his rift with Sora was a feeling of abandonment. And then in Chain of Memories, we were asked to root for him as he fought against the mistakes he himself had made--and then learned that it was okay even when he didn't get it perfect. For him, the solution wasn’t just to realize that Sora, being a kind person who failed at the right things, was better--in fact, as revealed in KH2, that was part of the problem.
I knew loneliness. I knew abandonment. I knew what it felt like to want to be something else, and you just...couldn't.
Being raised in a hyper-religious environment, taught that moral perfection was the ideal, I thought that accepting your darkness was heresy. I remember watching that scene between Riku and Namine for the first time and thinking "Well, I know that's not how it REALLY works..." And yet the idea that Riku was allowed to exist as he was, that people still loved him before he felt worthy to face them, struck a very deep chord within me, and many years later helped me to understand what accepting your flawed self would look like.
The very first analysis/meta I ever wrote for a character was Riku, in my journal, almost exactly 13 years ago. It was mainly just me trying to make sense of why I liked him SO much, but it helped me discover how to think about why I like what I do--and storytelling analysis is one of my favorite hobbies now.
As an adult
After KH2 came out, I wasn't able to play the next several games in the series. I wasn't ready to buy a handheld system just for one game, and I was afraid the series overall was moving away from Sora, Riku, and Kairi after the popularity of the Organization and all the new prequel stuff. I started college and chose not to bring my PS2 with me in a bid to satisfy my parents that I wouldn't slack off, and eventually I drifted away. And then in early 2013, I discovered that Dream Drop existed.
The idea that there was an entire game out there that had a full story for Riku that I didn't know about had me floored, and I watched all the cutscenes in one go. I had no idea what the sweet creamy hell was going on, but there was one idea that I latched on to.
They let Riku get better.
For some reason, I sort of believed that Riku would always struggle with the darkness in some fashion, as he had throughout the series to that point. After all, that was who he was. That struggle defined him as a character, so he couldn't exist apart from it. Right?
But the boy I watched in that game, and especially at the end, was someone I'd never met. I felt like I was getting to see glimpses of another side of Riku, one that had always been there buried underneath the ~darkness~. I was seeing him use everything he'd gone through for good. And they had my attention again.
The announcement of KH3 came soon after, but it was a long time before we started getting any substantial news. During that time, I was kicked out of my church, burned out in grad school, became fairly depressed, moved to Japan for two years, and then moved back home with even worse depression. While I was living with my parents trying to make my brain functional again, I found myself playing a lot of KH, as my PS2 was nearing death, I only had a few games for the PS3, and games were the most reliable way of shutting up my brain.
On a whim, I applied for a job that would require me to relocate to New York. Surprisingly, I managed to get the position, and I got there right before NYCC, where I saw the demo for 2.8.
"Oh, well," I thought. "I don't know if I'll get a PS4 anyway, so I'll just try out the demo."
While I was in line, I started talking to someone who also hadn't played any of the games since KH2, and that little connection was...more meaningful than I had expected. The demo afterward knocked my socks off, I ended up getting a PS4, and I was all aboard the hype train (and I created this blog).
In early 2017, I discovered that one of my coworkers was also a huge KH fan, and we decided to go to the orchestra concert together. Not too long after, things started deteriorating where I lived--I basically couldn't live at home. I was sort of couch-surfing for a while, until the same friend who invited me to the concert let me stay at her house for nearly a month around the time of the orchestra as I figured out how to get out. I literally have no idea what I would have done without her. This was also right around the time that the marketing finally started in earnest, and it's not an exaggeration to say that the anticipation helped me through a lot.
God, this post is already too long, and I feel like I haven't covered all of it--like how Hikari was the song that made me want to learn Japanese and set me on the career path I have now, or how KH helped me stop hating myself for liking video games and taught me I don’t have to “grow out of” things I like, but...I love this series, how it's affected both me as an individual and how it seems to bring me together with others. It's a beautiful thing.
I’m not sure it’s reasonable to expect anyone to read all of this, but if you've somehow read all the way to the end of this, thank you. See you on the other side.
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Kingdom Hearts III is not that bad?
The most common complaint is that the game feels rushed/the pacing is horrible. This is not necessarily a problem. Any game developer worth their salt knows that the level design should be in harmony with the level itself. There’s a narrative, and the level design should make players feel whatever emotion fits the narrative. So, overall, in the most general sense, the game design should be derivative of the game’s story. Easiest example: players should feel scared in a horror game. Therefore, in a game where the characters are rushing to achieve their goal, the player should be rushed to reach that goal. The characters are well aware that Xehanort’s Keyblade War is right around the corner, and reiterate to Sora that he must attain the Power of Waking as soon as possible every chance they get. There’s not much time before the war in the story, so should we really be surprised when there’s not much time getting to that point through the gameplay? Subsequently, people complain that there’s not much worlds/worlds are too quick. I think this point boils down to the placebo effect. The idea of what content is and the expectation of such content fools people into believing that there’s a lack of content. It’s all relative. More worlds mean less time per world, and less worlds mean more time per world. There’s a trophy for beating Kingdom Hearts 1 in under 15 hours. I don’t know about Kingdom Hearts II, maybe it has been beaten in that timeframe, but I think 20-30 hours sounds about right. Having played Kingdom Hearts III for the first time, I made it to Scala Ad Caelum at around 28 hours. I think I could cut it down to making it at somewhere between 20-25 hours. At this point, I can average 45 minutes per world in KH1 except for Hollow Bastion and I think End of the World as well. Hollow Bastion, due to two trips, takes about 1.5 hours and End of the World, is maybe that long, maybe closer to an hour, I can’t remember. Anyway, point is: Kingdom Hearts 1 - 15 hours. I have played the first Kingdom Hearts far more, and I haven’t timed myself on the second, but if I had to guess, 45 minutes sounds about right for the first world visits and 30 minutes for the second world visits. All things considered, it really would take 20-30 hours to beat KH2. Kingdom Hearts 3 does have less worlds, but less is more. Disney worlds in other games would rush their movie’s narrative by jumping from plot point to plot point with no fluff. Disney worlds in this game have all that additional narrative between key points. They took an average of 2-3 hours to complete. The game may seem rushed, but on the other hand, you’d have players going “I keep hearing how we have to hurry up and prepare for the Keyblade War, but then we keep doing all this other stuff and it’s taking us forever to actually be ready.” There’s a purpose to why Kingdom Hearts 3 lacks content. Then again, if you cut out all the fluff, the game would basically be the length of A Fragmentary Passage. On the other hand, as opposed to the other games, this one has come out in an age where DLC is so mainstream, that we may see Kingdom Hearts games do with their storylines that the Destiny games have done with theirs.
Another complaint is Kairi’s character development or lack thereof. She’s apparently no less useless than before, but could we honestly expect much from her? “Maybe we were wrong to expect much from Kairi given how new she is to combat [and how little time she had to train] when Yen Sid himself told Mickey that Sora and Riku [two experience combatants] had to be made Masters to face Xehanort.” That quote alone sums up my defense of Kairi, but it’s part my rant on a problem that does needs addressing. There is someone else who needs character development more than Kairi: Yen Sid. The way his character was handled in this game is far more disappointing (Though I do admit we care more about Kairi than Yen Sid, but still). This is where the game is wrong according to my responses in a discussion I was part of:
And how is Merlin going to train Keyblades wielders? Is Merlin the wizard suddenly retconned into being a Keyblade wielder for plot convenience now? My God Yen Sid is so lazy to the point of being a pointless character. In 12 years, he's only gotten up once. I don't think he even left that chair to use the bathroom.
I wanted him to die in the war for the sake of "spring cleaning" but no, they take out Kairi instead who is a marginally more useful and significant character. Everyone told me "they won't kill the guy who is named after Disney". I get he's old, but even Geezernort managed to pull off a Keyblade War.
I mean, come on now. When you think about it, all things considered... Kairi rescued Sora from the realm of Darkness not once, but twice, three times if you count the letter, she fought albeit momentarily in the Castle That Never Was, and she did end up fighting in the Keyblade War. Yen Sid shows up out of nowhere and waves his hands and that's supposed to make up for years of doing nothing? "Sora, Riku, you must save these new characters post haste because even though I am a seasoned Keyblade wielder who could do it, this important mission is the responsibility of you scrubs while I sit on my wrinkled fat ass and to do it you need the power of waking which I, a great Keyblade master, doesn't even have and I should keep an eye on you in the realm of sleep but I won't and let the Organization come in and steal Sora" Kairi has done more in two years then Yen Sid did in twelve. Yen Sid is like that negligent parent that's all coked up while their toddler runs around the neighborhood in a dirty fiaper while eating glue. Somebody call the Keyblade Association, Yen Sid needs his Keyblade license revoked.
Yeah, I'm not saying people are wrong about Kairi, I'm just saying that Yen Sid is as deserving, if not more of criticism than she is, and hasn't been criticized as he should be. It looks like he's a worse character, and personally, I had been saying for two years that his existence is so pointless that he'd be better off getting killed off. If you go back and watch my Keyblade War theories video, it exposes Yen Sid for just how little of a difference he makes to the series. While this game wasted it's opportunity to develop Kairi, Yen Sid has several games worth of wasted opportunities and has had far more screen time to boot. Maybe we were wrong to expect much from Kairi given how new she is to combat when Yen Sid himself told Mickey that Sora and Riku had to be made Masters to face Xehanort.
They wouldn't have needed Kairi if they actually freed Roxas instead of just talking about doing that. They materialized a marble, a pouch, and a photo. They could materialize a vessel. No one in this series is known for seriously thinking. The great mighty master OG_YENSID_69 could have whipped out a Keyblade, stretched his hamstrings and his aching back, and have been the seventh guardian, but no. Why have as many Masters as possible fighting the big bad when you could have a team of scrubs?Kairi could have been fine chilling on the islands, but no. It's all Yen Sid's fault.Heck, if Xehanort could bring past selves to be seekers, the others could bring past selves to be guardians.
So, while Kairi should have become a better character, Nomura isn’t necessarily wrong for keeping her the same. Yen Sid, on the other hand, has no excuse.
Those are the two big issues people have with the game, but the real issue is that expectations were not met. Square Enix has its reasoning for the game’s development. It is what it is. I don’t want to say that the game is bad, or that they made a bad game on purpose, but I think Square Enix has the capacity to learn from its mistakes and will consider all criticism. If we look at the game from their perspective and appreciate it for what it is instead of hating it for what it’s not, then Kingdom Hearts III is not as bad as it seems.
#Kingdom Hearts#Kingdom Hearts III#Kingdom Hearts 3#Square Enix#Disney#Pixar#Video Games#Gaming#Essay#Blog#Criticism#Critique#Defense#Consideration#Contemplation#Response#Review#Development#Issues#Problems#Complaints
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