#Destiny 2 bastion

[ghost-of-tk]

made this awhile ago but have since made several amendments.

[mainsbe]

Destiny 2 bastion

These are all very easy, but represent kind of a time sink to complete. This one is more of a busywork step and has you killing 30 "Challenging" enemies (yellow bar enemies), completing 10 Spider bounties, and complete 8 public events. Run out and repeat the process four more times. One of these will be a Fallen Captain that you can kill and get intel from. Go through that opening and keep running until you encounter the enemies that spawn there. Before you reach that, to your left there's an opening on the map. From that spawn, head north towards the Kingship Dock Lost Sector that is in the middle of the Thieves' Landing area. This can be done fairly easily by heading to Thieves' Landing on the Tangled Shore. You will need to gather five Fallen intel by defeating Fallen Captains and Servitors. "The Fallen still speak my name?" -Saint-14 Hunt down Fallen Captains and Servitors anywhere in the Tangled Shore to collect intel to help decipher their comms chatter and find out what they know about this anomaly. The Light frequency you're chasing aligns with those of not only the Sundial, but also the chronometric core you recovered from the Corridors of Time. Head over to Saint-14 in The Tower to receive the start to this quest line! Step 2: Spoken Word You will get to the bottom of this." -Saint-14 The solution should be read from left to right, so here's the order: Clover, Diamond, Snake, Clover, Plus, Plus, Hex, Hex, Hex, Plus, Diamond, Plus, Snake, Diamond, Clover, Snake, Plus, Plus, Snake, Snake, Hex, Diamond, Clover, Plus, Diamond, Hex, Hex, Diamond, Plus, Diamond. Here's a look at the solution (credit to the people of the Raid Secrets Reddit and everyone else who contributed to solving it): You need to through them in an exact order based on those symbols. Head to the Corridors and you will find symbols labeling each of the corridors. Make sure you've completed all of the Saint-14 main story quest lines beforehand, or you won't be able to obtain this quest (it can only be obtained by the character you completed these quests with)! You will need to get the Exploring the Corridors of Time Quest from Osiris on Mercury. "dead… little… thieves…" Bastion Quest Steps How-to Start the Bastion Quest Below the stricken words, five hash-marks are engraved into the weapon. The epitaph is barely readable, appearing to have been scraped almost clean from the frame. Let this be a symbol of our dedication to their future. Your Light will shine on to lead our people into peace. Let this consecrated armament offer protection in times of trial, You are a bastion of hope for all who are lost in darkness. "The final stand is wherever I plant my feet. This can be unlocked by defeating 400 enemies with this weapon.Electric Styx: Increases the maximum number of Dynamic Charge stacks.

[malomaximus]

Now that I finished the halloween seal, I’ve redone my warlock’s look, and I’m pretty happy with it!

Fallen Sunstar (Gunmetal Marigold) Legatus Gloves (Seven Sisters) Painted Kitsune Robes (Seven Sisters) Forbidden Visage Boots (Dawning Welcome) Contender Bond (Seven Sisters)

Empathic Shell (Peat Bog Boogie)

[minamishimada835]

Alright let’s try this one again…

[mako-neexu]

i need to stop thinking about ordeal call 2 but thinking about the OST used during the cagliostro fight..(it was for a fight in traum but the context is just....ugh.. i need my heart to calm down...) ...like the music before fighting is about that love and determination. flames of revenge and hatred burning so fiercely and brightly because of love...as they slowly get back up and surmount against the parasite which has latched onto guda with intention to drain their lifeforce... but that Servant, the first of that Extra class to arrive at the last bastion of humanity after having witnessed a star, thrusts his hand into the Earth, the shadow beneath him... and pulls out that self which represents his declaration of standing alongside his accomplice no matter what happened, (a declaration of love). that spirit origin created solely for that star's sake.

the first Avenger... also being the last as an Avenger... all so that star could reach heights far, far beyond him leaving behind a trail for him and the vestiges to gaze upon and admire, that person who is ever radiant who once was but an ember he protected and gave the chance to flourish has become something so dazzling before his eyes. walking the path of salvation with brilliance unparalleled...an unbridled emotion welling up in his chest, pride at seeing how they've come so far, love for that encounter he met on that day, he wields his flames as the avatar of vengeance beyond love and hatred, as flames for that star who has become so important to him in this life. his sole worry on this bleached earth, that which was his fate, his destiny in this world...

thinking also about how amazing the fight was between the Avengers and guda against countless pillars just imagining it 😭 they were riding with lobo so as they did that, i know they were providing support as well as firing every spell they have in their arsenal to defeat cagliostro.... thinking about each command on the fly, each detail noticed by them and without thinking, formulated tactics in an instant where gorgon would move, what nitoalter should send to the underworld, what kagekiyo should cut down in two slashes or three, what jalter should burn, what decoys to deploy to make way for salieri's strike, what their gandr should hit to stun and make way for one of the Avengers to destroy, which Avenger would be weakened against an attack such as ORT's beam or ars almadel salomonis....im so emotional ive been listening to kriemhild's OST while typing this....

[masteraqua]

i'm taking my steam deck with me on the train tomorrow to play kh1 :) the trip will be about 5 1/2 hours long and i'm planning to play on proud mode, so i've got a fun question for y'all

[destiny-aesthetics]

^ Communications to the Vanguard; Letter from the Stranger [Elisabeth "Elsie" Bray]

-----------------------------------------------------

Destiny 2 [Bungie] | Beyond Light [Collector's Edition]

ACCESS: RESTRICTED/REDACTED DECRYPTION KEY: ekeriPC6N$ spoof REP #: 121-EUROPA-BAN AGENT(S): CHA-319 SUBJ: Review of interdict on Europa landings. ASSOCIATIONS: Active interdict; Awoken, military commitments of; Bray, Clovis; Bray Tech; cryohazard; Deep Stone Crypt; Enceladus; Golden Age; Io; Jovians; Nine; Titan, moon of Saturn; Vex

1. Prior to the Taken War, the Reef maintained an interdict upon the poorly navigable Jovian moons. That interdict has failed, allowing Guardians to begin (politely put) "reclaiming" these satellites. The sixth moon, however, still falls under Vanguard interdict. To borrow an old adage: "All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no bounties there." 2. I have been asked to review this interdict's continued necessity. My first impression is that its Europan files are so heavily redacted as to encourage the very expeditions they are presumably meant to deter. Have you ever tried to tell a Hunter that they can't go somewhere AND can't know why? 3. Europa's surface is hazardous. Intense radiation mangles both flesh and machinery. Peak temperature at the poles never climbs more than 50 degrees above absolute zero; the equator reaches a balmy 110 above. This moon was never T-formed and has no proper atmosphere. Tidal stress tortures and crackles the surface, leading to frequent cryovolcanism. There are many ways to die on Europa, but we are speaking of Guardians here. Risk of death alone cannot justify a no-landings edict.

4. The subcrustal ocean is two to three times the volume of Earth's. Life exists down there, but we have forgotten how to reach it. Rumors of some vague abyssal connection to Titan and Enceladus are unsubstantiated, and in this agent's opinion, probably nonsense. So long as Guardians do not take up sport hunting, protection of native life is not grounds for an edict. 5. A heavily armed platform of Golden Age origin keeps station over the moon. It maneuvers using either Hall-effect electrical thrust or some kind of anchor in the Jovian magnetosphere. Ordinarily this would be worth investigating, but the files suggest that the platform is a rare example of an active and unpredictably hostile Golden Age defense asset. Approach at your own risk. (Interesting note-some suggest that jumpships of the Eon series are not as rapidly engaged - this matches what we know of their designer. Jumpships are rare and valuable, so best to keep a safe distance.) 6. Recent close flybys have imaged a Golden Age compound bearing the Bray Tech insignia built in the Europan ice. The same imagery captures thousands, if not tens of thousands, of hibernating or destroyed Vex. Unlike all other Vex presences on Venus, Mars, Mercury, Io, or Nessus, there is no sign of major construction. This suggests a Vex strike force, rather than a permanent presence. What did they want? We have fought Vex before, and early aggression against their designs has always proven critical. Their simple presence cannot justify an interdict.

7. Through negotiation and horse-trading with her superiors, Awoken Paladin Kamala Rior provided me with a device capable of sundry high-physics measurements I will not detail. It reveals that Europa is saturated and interpenetrated with dark matter loops. This is a sign of the interest and attention of the Nine. Their power and influence depend on the mass of nearby stellar bodies, and Europa falls within the sphere of Jupiter-as mighty a gravitational gatherer as anything outside the Sun itself. But even in this bastion of the Nine, Europa is a focus of particularly intense observation. We have often speculated that Xûr is a construct made from the repossessed body of a Jovian colonist… but there are no known records of colonies on Europa. So what draws the Nine here? Unclear. Their interests are opaque. In any case, the gaze of the Nine is no reason to prohibit Europa- Guardians have gone much further into their influence before. 8. No known signs of Ahamkara or other ontopathic predators occur on Europa. Perhaps there are wishing-sharks in the abyssal deep, but that is purely my fancy. No grounds for interdict here. 9. Europa is a traditional stopover for Fallen raiders tanking up on reaction mass. Mithrax, VIP #3987, relays vague reports of a taboo no-go area around the Golden Age station. This prohibition apparently goes beyond fear of its weapons and could be related to the Vex. There is allegedly "something that cannot be stolen from." Tantalizing, but not grounds for interdict. 10. Many Exos have fragmented memories concerning ice sheets and Jupiter in the sky. Europa would be a logical origin for those memories, especially given the presence of Bray Tech assets. This seems to militate towards an investigation.

11.The instruments Paladin Rior provided are extremely unreliable in the vicinity of Europa. I cannot determine whether this is a result of poor construction, my own inexpert use, or the presence of something aberrant. 12. This is hardly a well-vetted piece of intelligence, but something about the imagery and lore I've collected gives me an extremely bad feeling. Something is wrong here. 13. In conclusion, I cannot find strong strategic reasons to maintain the interdict on Europa. We lifted the interdict on the Moon not five years ago, resulting in a series of strategic key victories and intelligence findings… but also triggering the arrival of Oryx, an event that gave Ghaul his Light-suppressing technology and ultimately led to the awakening of the lunar intruder. Perhaps Europa will prove as consequential? We cannot shrink from new discoveries simply because they may lead to new challenges. Victory, after all, requires escalation.

I recommend LIFTING THE INTERDICT. MESSAGE ENDS [Recommendation refused on grounds of compartmentalized information. Unable to share; please trust that your analysis has not been ignored or discarded out of hand. Regrets - IKO/0061]

----------------------------------------------------- Guardian- This is an artifact of Darkness, and now I entrust it to you. Do not take this charge lightly. I have seen firsthand what its power an do Guardians who wield it… even to you. Like all new ground, it can prove treacherous to walk. Listen to your Little Light, and remember that you will live with choices forever. it you. My grandfather came to Europa before the Collapse to seek immortality. He thought he was chosen to lead humanity to the future. His experiments to this end were… hideous. Despite my qualms, collaborated with him. I accept my responsibility in full; I would have, know everything. "O nymph, in your orisons, be all my sins remember'd." You, nymph, but the principle holds, yes? We must know what he did with the power you now grasp. I have included a hard copy of the logs I've deciphered so far. Reader beware. My grandfather was worse than you know. Your stranger I remain, E

[holly-natnicole]

Kairi's canon abilities & skills

As a Princess of Heart:

Together with the other 6 Princesses of Heart, Kairi's Heart reveals Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden's Keyhole. Their Hearts of pure Light are 7 of the 20 pieces of the χ-blade.

Kairi was born with a Heart of pure Light. This makes her able to sense Darkness, able to hold Darkness back temporarily (but it's draining to her), and immune to Corridors of Darkness' corrupting influence since she has zero Darkness in her Heart. Losing her Heart wouldn't have resulted in Naminé's (Kairi's Nobody's) creation if her Heart hadn't taken refuge inside of Sora's; being a regular Somebody, Sora had a small amount of Darkness thus resulting in Naminé when he freed Kairi's Heart from Sora's own by using the Keyblade of Hearts. When she had lost her Heart, Kairi's body (&, presumably, her Soul) was comatose 'til Sora's sacrifice.

It's kinda unclear whether Kairi stopping Sora from fading away in K.H.3 was a Princess of Heart power or solely a Kairi power. The same goes for Sora in K.H.2 reading Kairi's letter opening a Corridor of Light from the Realm of Darkness to the sky above Destiny Islands. And for Kairi in K.H.1 transforming Sora from a Shadow Heartless into either a Somebody (therefore creating a body for Sora) or into a human-looking Heartless same as Ansem the Seeker of Darkness a.k.a. Xehanort's Heartless is (I prefer this one since it'd mean Sora still needs a Replica or a Nobody to become complete). I'm more inclined to see all 3 as Princess of Heart powers, but it's not explicitly confirmed in the videogames.

As a Keyblade-wielder:

Kairi starts out weak for the 1st 15 years of her life, unable to do better than any other non-combatant civilian. She doesn't summon her Keyblade when she gets it; instead, Riku is the one who gives Destiny's Embrace to Kairi.

However, the instant it's given to her, she easily destroyed 2 Shadow Heartless on her own with a single slash each. And, right before Riku gave Kairi her Keyblade in K.H.2, she jumped off a very high up balcony & landed in a squat with no injury.

But Kairi then (instantly after her landing) froze in fear when a bunch of Shadow Heartless surrounded her thus they easily piled up over her. In K.H.3, she froze again when Xehanort-possessing-Terra's-body was 'bout to slash down at her face with his Keyblade; possibly due to P.T.S.D. from the time he grabbed her face with his hand when she was age 4 or 5.

Kairi's main issue is her emotions. "Please work!!" she pleads her Light when using Flower Shoot (a ball of Light) or her magic when casting elemental spells; her self-confidence low or non-existent even after training with Lea, Merlin being their teacher. Understandable, considering the times Kairi had faced enemies she could barely run away from and who easily dragged her around by the wrist. Kairi knows that even after training she isn't strong enough to fight World-ending threats the way Sora and Riku can.

However, after being trained by Merlin, Kairi (despite her troubles) is a competent enough fighter to go toe-to-toe with much more experienced and powerful enemies; e.g. Xion, Saïx, and Xemnas. In that last one's case, she even breaks his Ethereal Blades with her Keyblade and forces him on the defensive 'til he uses Nothingness to drain her energy. With Sora's help, Kairi in K.H.:ReMind kills Armoured Xehanort. Shown in each fight she's in (including when the redhead fights her memory of old man Xehanort in K.H.:Melody of Memory), Kairi focuses on speed & quick attacks that repeatedly cut the enemy thus accumulating damage instead of killing them with a single powerful blow or a single massive magical attack. She's agile enough to dodge the enemy's hits and spells in mid-air, maneuvering herself without Gliding. Kairi also is strong enough to block the enemy's strike at least for a little while, causing a temporary stalemate. She can dismiss & fast re-summon her Keyblade in K.H.:Melody of Memory to keep attacking Xehanort, having learned from when Xemnas grabbed her wrist & twisted in K.H.3 (she stopped moving at the oain whereas her Keyblade being grabbed instead of her wrist prompts Kairi to dismiss Destiny's Embrace then quickly re-summon it). Kairi in K.H.3 can easily slash a Shadow Heartless in half same as she did in K.H.2, but has improved into using Spiral Bloom (a spinning attack) to rapidly cut the enemy several times in a row. She's also able to cast Cura to heal her friends. Kairi in K.H.:ReMind can cast Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Curaga, Waterga, and Aeroga. Her Shotlock is Heart of a Princess, which allows her to rain down orbs of light on the battlefield. When Kairi is a certain distance away from the enemy, she can use Strike Shift to quickly teleport to them by throwing Destiny's Embrace at them. She can also telekinetically spin her Keyblade around her, then catch it to give the enemy one final slash. With her Seven Wishes attack, she dashes towards the enemy 7 times with Destiny's Embrace held in front of her; it kinda stabs & slashes the enemy as Kairi goes (or tries to go) through them fast then whirls around to do it 6 more times. Same as Terra, she uses Slide to dodge the enemy's attacks when on the ground. Like Riku and Aqua, Kairi uses a hexagonal barrier made of magic to defend herself and she can use her unique counterattack Starcracker to shatter her barrier into a bunch of thalassa seashell shaoes that cut the enemy who is attavking her. With Sora, Kairi sometimes does the team attack named One Heart where each gains a golden wing made of Light & memories whilst they hold hands then together Kairi and Sora fly towards the enemy before using their wings to cut the enemy several times before their wings fade away in a shower of magical feathers displaying memories and they let go of each other's hand to land on the ground.

Kairi at the end of K.H.:Melody of Memory asks for Keyblade Master Aqua to teach her, as she wants to become stronger to fight beside her best friends Sora and Riku.

[mythicalartistx]

Kairi's Origin at Radiant Garden and how she got to Destiny Islands has so much potential of being interesting

Even Kairi acknowledges it

She gets left out.

Can they please do more stuff with her, she has so much potential, I recently made a post about how I really liked her in KH2 which I'll link at bottom,

Like she is originally from Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion and then is taken and basically transferred to Destiny Islands by Xehanort/SOD.

How about focusing on

How did she end up on Destiny Islands

Trying to remember her memories from that time since she doesn't remember much.

Maybe some of the others figuring out what happened to her.

Like it would be so much interesting if they had the characters try to figure out.

And it would be interesting to go into depth into this since Aqua was there and saw. And because she is going to train with Aqua they could figure it out here.

Most of the audience knows Kairi is from Radiant Garden and Xehanort transferred her to Destiny Islands, but it still could be developed further with more mysteries and it's different when the actual characters try to figure out.

I mean people knew Ventus' heart was in Sora's and it was interesting when Sora and the others figured that out.

Then you could focus on Kairi being stronger. Like in KH2 she actually is capable and that game is probably her strongest.

People like MOM but my problem is

1 It's short

2 She eventually decides to go train with Aqua instead of joining forces with Riku.

I mean I guess that arc is probably more focused on Sora and Riku so that's probably why, but still she could do something.

The only reason her training will be interesting is if they go into her backstory more.

I just hope we could just see her and Aqua do something relevant.

[crashional-thinker]

current list of my video game hot takes:

the binding of isaac is overrated

it is better to play a wide variety of games than to be Normal about a single game

(most subjective opinion) finding my way around a unique set of challenges and rules to create an advantageous situation and come out on top is more fun than exploring a sandbox or a cozy community

when it comes to stories: show more than tell

dwarf fortress is the greatest video game in existence. it may not be my favorite game but i cannot deny the sheer power it has had on video games as an art-form and its incredible depth and passion

fighting games are something everyone should play, whether for fun with friends or to get better at competitively

challenging games can and do improve many skills that can be important in other walks of life such as critical thinking, reaction speed, hand dexterity, and the ability to think under pressure

destiny 2 and warframe are crappy games that don't respect my time or my money

on the topic of not respecting time and money, gacha games in general. fuck cookie run kingdom and arknights. they are sins

sometimes the original is better than the second incarnation (e.g. niddhogg, bit.trip)

halo CE was unfun and has a general lack of direction along with stages being too big. while certainly revolutionary i don't find it as fun as later entries

bastion is better than hades

[captainbobbin]

Thoughts on Saix/Isa and Guardian?

so this was asked, I am sure, in response to my tags of 'ask me about my Saïx/Guardian thoughts, I dare you' on this art hahaha

Allow me to begin this with somewhat of a tangent. Back in the day, Kingdom Hearts 1 came out; and we see the Guardian Heartless at the end. He is seemingly a part of Ansem, with no real agency of his own, but is separate enough that we hear Ansem address it and give it commands and use it as a tool, an ally in combat. It is essentially his backup, his right hand, you know what I mean? He relies on him in hand-to-hand combat because Ansem doesn't like getting his own hands dirty, he’s a magic user, Guardian is his. Well. Guardian. His defense, something he controls to use as a shield to hide behind. This great heaving beast of fangs and yellow eyes and hollowed-out chest, doing as he is told with what appears to be little ability to defy Ansem, he is just. There. This looming X-faced thing that antagonises and keeps you away from the big bad of the game, entirely physical and, as far as we knew, mindless.

Then came Kingdom Hearts 2. Bear in mind that at this point, when KH2 released, that was the only other game in the series - no CoM, no BBS, no nothing, just KH1 and 2.  We’re introduced to the Organization, to Xemnas, to Saïx. And with having no knowledge at all of the background lore of the Organization - no knowledge of the Nort plot, no knowledge of Saïx’s hatred and desire to destroy the Org, no knowledge of Terra - we are lead to believe that Saïx is how he portrays himself on the surface. Loyal. Meticulous and cold and unfeeling. Just logic and plans and devious wiles, yknow? Saïx taunts Sora throughout the game, actually has more of a personal beef with him than Xemnas at all, is more of a direct antagonist. But he’s a Nobody, he does all this through manipulative words and cruel ideas and just generally being a taunting prick. Every time we meet him in game however, there is this real sense of control. Saïx is so very overtly in charge of things - we see him ‘chase off ‘ Axel who flees on sight of him, and Saïx says that ‘we will ensure that he receives the maximum punishment’ - we, not Xemnas, not I, but we. Saïx establishes himself as the hands of the Organization in that one sentence. He doesn’t act on behalf of himself, he acts on behalf of what needs to be done. Saïx is calculated, all front and icy projectiion, careful words used specifically to twist Sora - and the audience. We do not need to be told through the journal that he is the second-in-command, we believe it. He is consistently there, and in the base game I believe that he is the only Org member we see interact with Xemnas directly one-on-one, and so casually. Xemnas too appears to not want to get his hands dirty. He vanishes as soon as Sora and the others get close at Hollow Bastion, he only gets involved with Sora at The World That Never Was once everyone else is dead, Xemnas is the world's most passive and uninvolved boss while Saïx is constantly and consistently making things happen and is taking an active role in the story, pushing Sora to do things in certain ways, influencing the Org behind the scenes. (Sora actually speaks more to Ansem in the first cutscene with him in the Destiny Islands in kh1 than he speaks to Xemnas in 2 in totality!)

There was a time after 2 came out that theories were abound. The only Nobodies we meet that have confirmed heartless/somebodies were Roxas and Xemnas. And Xemnas’ heartless had this big hulking beast with an x across its face, acting on instinct and command to protect and fight for Ansem (and Kingdom Hearts), the one Ansem relied on, the one who was with him until the end, the one was a shadow behind the main villain. And there was Saïx, with the x scar, acting seemingly through loyalty and his own incentive to be the last one standing to protect Xemnas (and Kingdom Hearts), the driving force that stood behind the final antagonist and shaped the plot around him. There was a very potent theory between myself and a few others (primarily us that always like Xemnas and Saïx together as a pairing) that Guardian was in fact Saïx’s heartless. As I said, at the time there was no Terra, so other lore or background to go off of (secret ending and confusing journal entries and unexplained plot points like Sora in the pod notwithstanding). So it felt like a pretty logical connection to try and make, especially when you consider the angle that like. Even Xemnas emotes more than him, right. Noticably, Xemnas is shockingly more human and emotive and instinctual than Saïx. Saïx is constantly very calm and removed and pious, very above it all, calling heartless mindless canonically and seeming to have a mix of disdain and almost wistfulness about them - and then as soon as its finally time to fight, he just absolutely goes apeshit and devolves into Berserk. The fact that this very levelheaded and apathetic and The most Nobody Of All Nobodies finds himself backed into a corner and then taps into the most explosive show of what appears to be feeling that we’ve seen from any Nobody thus far - Guardian is this big monstrous thing, all fangs and muscle and power, and Saïx had been all brain and strategy; one of the main memories I have of my first playthrough of KH2 is the sheer deception of Saïx. And I don't mean that as ‘oh this guy is a liar who is planning things behind the scenes’ because there was no way of knowing that at the time. What I mean is that every time we saw Saïx, he was flanked by underlings. Every time Sora interacted with Saïx, Saïx would summon lesser Nobodies and heartless to back him up. He had no sense of imposition, he wasn’t like Xaldin where just by appearance it was like oh this guy is huge and is gonna be a very physical fight and he wasn't crafty in the way of like Demyx or Xigbar where your impression was oh this is gonna be flighty and fast-paced. Saïx really had this impression of someone who was going to rely on others in his fight, this was the middle-management second-in-command guy who kept getting lackies to act around him. I went into his fight expecting a summoning fight, that we were gonna have to fight waves of smaller threats to get to him. So the fact that this bitch faces you by himself, lifts an enormous fucking sword bigger than himself like its nothing and then erupts is so memorable to me. At the first opportunity - or perhaps as his last chance - he devolves into a thoughtless, instinctual, hateful monster. For the longest time I thought Guardian was Saïx’s heartless due to their parallels of being chained to Ansem/Xemnas, calm vs destruction, the x’s on their face, the pacing in which they appeared and died in the story.

I just really vibed with the theory - I loved Xemnas/Saïx as a pairing (still do, obviously, lmao) so the idea that they had counterparts that were linked together really just kinda gelled well with my view of them. But! Then BBS came out, and DDD, and so on. In my country we didn’t actually get CoM or any of the collections until quite recently, so I actually missed out on a bit of context of the series. But I played BBS to death when it came out and I fell in love with Terra hardcore.

In DDD (which again I did not get to play right away due to delays), Guardian was directly hinted at being Terra, and then in 3 it was fully revealed.

So like ofc I view a lot of the Terra/Isa relationship through a XemSai gaze - I love Xemnas and Saïx together in any kind of context; theyre dependant on each other, they love each other, they hate each other, theyre using each other, they want each other dead and gone, they cant imagine life or unlife without the other, theyre married theyre divorced theyre each others first theyre each others lasts they cant wait to see the other fail they only want the best for each other they are studying one another like insects trapped in jars theyve hurt each other theyve fixed each other etc etc etc. But my thing with XemSai (that I hope is very prevalent in my writing and to an extent my art as well) is that it is straight-up doomed. That all stuff set during the canonical events of the series is leading to their inevitable and impending destruction and therefore separation. It can’t last. None of it can last. Whether they want it to last or they want it to be over, or they think they want it to be over, it ends. Life goes on or maybe it doesn’t. Whatever the outcome, whether conscious or willing or malicious or not, Xemnas had been manipulated from the start and Saïx began and ended his nonexistence wanting Xemnas out of the picture. I love love love Xemnas and Saïx being open in the same and yet horrible corrosive opposites to each other. I love Saïx being desperate to feel, latching onto whoever and whatever he can, and Xemnas being at the right place at the right time, usable, going along with it all, because why not? It will all end eventually in any case, they may as well enjoy what limited time they have… they don't feel anything, so they can’t feel hurt, can’t feel betrayed, can't feel heartbroken when deception is made evident and knives are in each other's backs.

But then it ends. The plan succeeds and Saïx becomes Isa again and hes human, he’s real, he got what he always wanted and worked for an hes a human again. But he retains all of those memories, those ghosts of feelings. Does he miss Xemnas? Does he hate him? Is he glad hes dead? Does he regret what happened? And then along comes Terra, the body of the man he had been beside for a decade, new and fresh but familiar and real. I absolutely adore Terra and Isa kind of muddling through their new lives together after such a long time of being incomplete - as you can surely tell by the fuckin bible that is this series lmao

However you are asking my thoughts on Saïx with Guardian. Not XemSai and not moonrocks lmao. But I hope its understandable that they all feed into each other, its a big three-ring venn diagram to me. They would find each other in every lifetime, in every form, they are always destined to be together - (despite of course Terra and Xemnas being two very separate people, and there is an argument for another day that is a hill I’ll fight on which is that Saïx and Isa to an extent are separate people, naturally). 

Just. Mad as hell betrayed vengeful Saïx being trapped, bound to serve, ready to lash out and backstab all he can and beg borrow cheat steal and murder his way out of the pit that is The Organization, Berserk festering under his skin, made unnatural, made wrong, wronged, at his wits end and unable to escape, plotting and feral and cold. Finding solace in this enormous beast that is just like him, this looming silent shadow that remembers only the faintest concept of promises, or love, of family and protecting those that matter. Saïx on the move in The Real Organization, flanked by puppets he helped create filled with hearts that he hurt, and behind him trails this behemoth that recognises him, somehow, and even though their loyalties are forced to be elsewhere, their arms twisted behind their banks, they’re connected, they have a thread weaving them together. Saïx using Guardian as a mirror, recognising aspects of himself in this haunting creature, silently hurt because this is a heart, this is a human heart that has attached itself to him, and it isn't his but maybe in some ways it is but none of this is right and he just wants things to be right again.

And also, like. On a slightly more nsfw note. I am a huge huge HUGE slut for size difference, monsterloving, and Saïx screwing his way into feeling almost like a person again lmao. You can’t tell me that his ego would burst into flames at having this huge doting creature give his body all that it craves, able to command it so readily and it does whatever it is told because it sees him as powerful, in charge of it, and Guardian is so willing, so taken, so able to hold him like hes something precious, god Saïx just wants to be treasured, kept, cared for, and at his beck and call is this captive beast that looks at him like he’s special, like he's his salvation, and theyre both monsters that keep failing, slipping into feral and violent ways, but they can take it. No one can handle the other like they can.

I’ve written a (sfw) Saïx/Guardian fic before as part of my one-fic-a-day challenge in February and, don't worry, I have plenty more to come lmao. There is also hints at Guardian flickering in with LFOTR, but you’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out heehoo. I’ve also drawn several Saïx/Guardian things before, but they must remain on my ‘reon due to the uh ahem nature of those types of drawings haha :p (see the paragraph prior lmao)

Anyway this is getting very long and I could keep going but I have probably rambled enough for one morning lmaooooo

I absolutely love the dynamic of Terra and Isa and I love the perversion of it by the two of them being twisted by their other lives. They are rife for angst and healing and destructive patterns and growth and that is my game, baybeeee 

Thank you so much for poking my brain with a stick I love it so so so much I am being so deadass genuine I love talking about my blorbos I will sit here now thinking of these two even harder. also I'm sorry I take so long to respond to asks I just have so many words in my brain that I need to squeegee them out into a cup ghkjhk;

[themattress]

And now, I just feel compelled to sing the praises of one of Kingdom Hearts' greatest heroes:

SHIRO. MOTHERFUCKING. AMANO!

The more time passes, the more amazed I am by this man. He's had a hero's journey IRL when it comes to his place in the franchise: jumping at the call but being inexperienced and screwing up, reaching his lowest point before rising, dealing with great adversity only to come out of it stronger than ever, and becoming a beloved hero to many who continues to do good.

KH1 was his first manga adaptation, and for the most part it's your by-the-numbers comic book adaptation of a story from a non-comic book medium, not especially good or especially bad. But Amano showed three weaknesses: he mischaracterized the KH-original characters (Sora, Kairi, Riku and Ansem all start out on point, but once Destiny Islands is destroyed this changes drastically: Sora turns into a spastic moron, Kairi into a bland bystander, Riku into an emotionless tool, and Ansem into an over-the-top eeeevil lunatic who actually gets himself killed without any contribution from Sora, Donald and Goofy!), he sucked at action scenes leading to many iconic battles from the game being straight-up left out altogether, and his gag manga inclinations caused him to turn scenes that should be serious / emotional into jokes.

CoM was his aforementioned lowest point. All those flaws were not only still there, but worse, turning what was once a dark, mysterious and psychological story into an unfunny farce.

Disgraceful. For a good while, I actually disliked Shiro Amano due to this.

But then came the redemption: KH2. The Prologue section of this manga is masterfully done, possibly even better than the game's version. The pace is less sluggish, the events less irritatingly obtuse, and the humor actually works to the benefit of the story's seriousness - because so much of the goofy humor is between Roxas, Hayner, Pence and Olette, you build even more of an emotional connection to them and the tragedy of Roxas learning the truth about his life hits that much harder when it transpires. When Sora returns, Amano is briefly tempted by his old inclinations and kind of backslides, with the resulting trips to Hollow Bastion, Beast's Castle, Land of Dragons and Olympus Coliseum suffering as a result. They aren't quite as insulting as the CoM manga, but still bad. However, true to hero's journey form this period of temptation and backsliding passes and only reinforces Amano's commitment to improving and actually balancing his humor and adaptational changes with drama, emotional sincerity and faithfulness to the game. From Disney Castle on, he returns to quality output. There are still mistakes here and there, but on the whole the manga is an enjoyable one. From the characterization to the action scenes to the tonal balance, Amano had improved.

And then came the hiatus between its first half and second half, during which he worked on the 358/2 Days manga. Take what I said about KH2's Prologue, then apply it x10, and you get this manga, where the writing and pacing is improved from its game counterpart and the humor is rich, well-timed and actively feeds into the drama and tragedy of the story rather than detract from it. To make the contrast to how far he's come most apparent, remember how in the CoM manga where there's an omake short that makes a complete joke out of the Riku Replica, originally one of the story's most tragic characters? Well in this manga, we get an omake short about a Dusk, which starts out hilarious but then ends up being absolutely heart-breaking. It makes me legit sad over a goddman DUSK. Now that takes real talent!

What's also apparent with the Days and KH2 mangas is that Amano had come to shine in a way that Tetsuya Nomura absolutely does not: respect for his female leads. Kairi, Namine and Xion in these mangas aren't primarily sources of support for male characters or there to make male characters feel things above all else; they are their own distinct individuals with vivid personalities and clear character arcs. Even Olette shines brighter than in the games!

Once Amano made it back to the KH2 manga for its second half, he was firing on all cylinders. Again, not everything was perfect, but much like the game itself the narrative flaws were not enough to overshadow the many more narrative strengths. And when the manga finally concluded after so many years, Amano confirmed that it truly was the end. He would not be adapting other KH games. And given that the rest of the KH series never got better than where KH2 ended, this was absolutely for the best. I could very easily imagine the Olympian gods making a constellation in Amano's image, as he had become a true hero.

However, oh no! He got persuaded into adapting KH3 when it came out in 2019! This is going to ruin everything, right? WRONG! The KH3 manga has not only been a shining example of how far Shiro Amano has come, but also a masterclass in demonstrating how acutely aware of the game's problems he is and the lengths he is willing to go to fix them. For example...

- He opens the manga with a direct adaptation of the game's opening scene with the Boy in Black and Boy in White in front of the chess board followed by the FMV intro. By doing things in this strange way, Amano invites the possibility of this being an alternate, diverging timeline from the prior manga continuity so that its ending remains untouched should you desire it to be. Almost as if the Boy in Black and Boy in White reside in some higher plane of existence and the KH3 manga is the "game" that they're playing, so it's not to be taken too seriously.

- The whole opening that semi-recaps stuff leading into KH3 is played off as a joke, and given that the stuff in question was stupid (such as the Mark of Mastery exam through sleeping worlds and Sora failing his Mark of Mastery exam on bullshit grounds), this is appreciated.

- He actually makes Maleficent and Pete more competent; rather than have Maleficent dismiss Pete's idea to take Sora out while he's still weak, he has both of them agree that they needn't bother with Sora because his weakness will lead him to being destroyed by the Xehanorganization anyway. They can find the black box while their foes fight each other.

- 0.2 BBS is adapted after the Olympus visit in a way that also recaps the most important points of BBS and includes stronger characterization for Aqua, Terra and Ventus. Stupid things like Mickey losing his shirt are avoided, and there is actually clarification on how Mickey could not have gone into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua earlier and all the time between KH1 and KH2 he was building up his strength to obtain the Power of Waking so that he could as he promised to, making him come off so much better than he did in the games.

-Coded is not referenced, ever.

- The "Roxas and Namine ceased to exist when they merged with Sora and Kairi" retcon is completely avoided, with the manga instead saying they do exist within them as was originally the case in KH2. Giving Roxas his own body is less correcting some injustice or "hurt" and more part because he's needed for the battle against Xehanort and part because Sora's just a nice guy like that, wanting to provide his friends with all the basic comforts.

- Xehanort's master plan retcon is also discarded! Here it's said that Ansem and Xemnas' plans remained their own, as they should be, and that since Master Xehanort's return he's embarked on "a new plan" once joined by his time-traveling younger self, who never mentions needing Ansem for his time-traveling which keeps things consistent with how KH2 depicted time travel as simply a magical phenomenon that didn't need complicated rules.

- Not only are Riku and Kairi way more in-character than they were in the game, but most shockingly Axel is too! He actually feels like Axel, character flaws and all, not dumbass Lea!

- Toy Box, Corona and Arendelle, while still filler, are all adapted faithfully, which is nice.

- Various alterations are made for the better: the Riku Replica stuff is kept to an incredibly bare minimum, Ansem the Wise first appears in the scene where he returns to Radiant Garden meaning him still being alive is more of a legit twist plus he never meets Aqua only for there to be no pay-off and the dumbass plotline with him and Xehanort's Heartless is left out, the "secret Keyblade legacy" stuff with Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene is cut, the second Kairi and Axel scene is no more, and the big reconvening at Yen Sid's Tower scene and the fallout montage is massively reworked into something far better written and paced.

All this plus maintaining his balance of humor and sincerity, including using the former to support the latter, and even correcting previous flaws (holy shit, Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen...they're all completely in-character now!) If Amano keeps this momentum going and actually manages to make something good out of the notoriously disappointing finale in the Keyblade Graveyard, then he will officially have given us the best version of KH3's story in existence.

Tl;dr: nothing but respect for Shiro Amano, who is a better writer than Nomura will ever be.

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: Mechs

This week's game recommendations are all about piloting mechs, for victory, for love, for glory and for money.

Last Shooting, by My Name is Grant.

Two pilots can change your destiny. Two massive war machines can change your future. Two players can share the happiness.

Last Shooting is a 2-player RPG that uses a unique system to tell stories about Mech battles. Using a customized version of the Final Bid engine, Last Shooting builds the characters and defines them more sharply during each scene of play. Then, it gives you the power to destroy any of those aspects to propel yourself to victory.

This game is excellent for a one-shot session with one other friend. The game uses a bidding system that requires you to bid elements of your character sheet for a chance to win in each scene, and the game is over after three scenes. It's great for couples looking to roleplay together, or perhaps for that night where most of the group cancels, but you still want to play something.

24XX Goliath by Brick Road Games.

24 YEARS AGO OTHERWORLDLY INVADERS DEVASTATED THE PLANET. To defend ourselves from the monstrous Leviathan, experimental technology was used to create massive mecha called Goliaths. Since the war ended most Goliaths were re-purposed for civilian use. Now, the Leviathans have returned, stronger than before. Pilots from all walks of life are being drafted to fight back.

This is your standard 24XX micro-game, complete with roll tables and quick character generation. This game was inspired by Pacific Rim, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the Xeno series, so if you are looking to emulate those pieces of media, this might be the fit for you.

ECH0 by Role over Play Dead.

Peace. Kids playing in mech wreckage. A ghost. 

One last journey across an ancient battleground to find a pilot's final resting place.

ECH0 is a game for 3 or more players, about children escorting a mech pilot's ghost to their final resting place. This is a pick-up-and-play game, which means that it requires very little prep and is over after one session. It is a GM-less map-drawing game, and is perfect as a game on its own, but might also work as an interesting set-up story for a mech-themed campaign. The concept for this game is also great for exploring the idea of grief and loss for something or someone that you never really knew.

Dragon's Fire by Majcher Arcana.

This world is ruined. 

Once mighty, shining, and true, the land now festers, ruined by agents of chaos and corruption. The Bastion is mankind’s final refuge, towering at the center of the Five Wastes, sheltering the weak and needy, and fighting to keep the Fallen from breaching its walls, to secure humanity’s future for as long as they hold. 

You are Riders, piloting your colossal machines—the Dragons—as you strike at the Fallen Lands, pushing back the hordes that assail the Bastion, delivering aid where it is needed, and eventually piercing the very heart of each of the Five Wastes, so mankind may once again live freely in these lands.

Dragon's Fire is a game designed from the Together We Go toolkit, a game system designed and inspired from OSR-style games. It's meant to be rules-lite, easy-to-learn, with only a few stats to track and improve. Right now it's not a full game, but the core rules have been released for just over $1 USD. If you're a fan of OSR games and you want a chance to play as mechs in a setting inspired by the Dragon's Heaven anime, this might be the game for you!

Mectors by Chubby Crow Games.

After the war, thousands upon thousands of bipedal mechanized fighting vehicles (or “Bimechs”) were left scattered across the land. Many were brought back to the capital cities to be repaired or scrapped, but the majority of them were too damaged to be easily transported. With the war won, the victors simply left their mechanical refuse in the battlefields to rust and wither. 

Across the nations, in communities that had lost great numbers of working folk, these Bimechs replaced rudimentary tractors and mining equipment. Nobody knows who was the first to call them “Mectors”, but the name caught on and spread. The war ended over a century ago, and while the world still bears its scars, it has also healed. The capital cities still skirmish from time to time, but those fights rarely extend into the farmlands and mines of the common folk.

In Mectors, players take on the role of a farmer, miner, fisher, carpenter, or some other worker in a labor intensive field. Mector Owners come from all kinds of backgrounds. Some own a Mector that’s been in their family for generations. Others came across theirs recently, through purchase or luck. And a rare few have managed to piece their own together using scraps from decommissioned Mectors, but this is even harder than it sounds. No matter how they got it, they now have a powerful tool with a long history.

This is a game designed off of the Charge System, which takes a lot of cues from Forged in the Dark. The designer already has a few supplements released for the game: a Heartland supplement which can be downloaded for free from the main page, and a Steeper Talent Tree that provides some extra character options. This is a game that allows you to take the idea of mechs and view it through an alternate lens: a high-tech version of "beating your swords into plowshares," if you will. For the concept alone, I think it's worth checking out.

Beam Saber by Austin Ramsey

Centuries after humanity abandoned a rotting Earth, blighted by their follies, the Izyan Conflict's seeds sprouted deep in space as plans unfurled.

The Exodus ships fled humanity’s decaying cradle in varying states of quality and completion. Ships failed, were raided or cannibalized, and jettisoned all but the essentials. History, art, and play all fell in the face of necessity. Those that survived found planets to land on, settle, and fight over across the known regions of space. The evacuation left a vacuum of power, but not for long.

After the Exodus, five Factions rose to power—and thus, The War began.

Beam Saber is a Forged In The Dark game about the pilots of powerful machines in a war that dominates every facet of life. They are trying to do their part, then get out physically and mentally intact. The organizations that perpetuate The War throughout all of known space are too incomprehensibly huge to take down. There is no “winning” The War, there is only surviving it. Hopefully you can help others get out too.

This is a game for folks who like Forged in the Dark games, especially games that manage a large number of factions. Each player has their own Pilot playbook, but they will also need to build a vehicle (possibly more than one if they need a replacement or something temporary). Then they'll build a squad playbook, which like a Crew in Blades in the Dark, is something that the group will build together. This is a game that prioritizes fiction, but doesn't lag behind when it comes to lore; you'll get your role-play, your rules, and your rich history, all in one book. (And even more resources besides!)

Lancer by Massif Press

Lancer imagines a future where a survivor humanity has spread to the stars after weathering terrible ecological collapse on Earth - the end of the Anthropocene as a consequence of unrestrained consumption and poor stewardship. Thousands of years later, humanity lives in the wake of a desperate revolution, one where the victorious radicals now manage the galaxy they've won.  

Lancer is truly prolific in what it holds. On the one hand, you have an incredibly streamlined system for narrative role play when you look at pilot creation: your pilot takes four descriptive stats that they'll use to navigate anything and everything they'll interact with outside of their mech. Pilot play is narrative and rules-lite. On the other hand, you have an incredibly stat-heavy and detailed system for mech combat: your mech-driven missions will require grid maps, strategy, and teamwork in order to be successful. It's up to your table how much play is pilot-driven and how much is mech-driven.

Then there's the resources. The core book in the title link has everything you need to run a Lancer game. However, if you're looking for the resources to make a character, there's a free version of the rules, an app where you can keep your character information, and a series of supplements (both official and third-party) to incorporate into your games.

If you like lore, you'll find it in Lancer, but not all in one place. The Core book has a lore section but you'll find lore in the Mech descriptions, in the core bonuses, and in the pilot talents. There's so much to learn about the world of Lancer, and if you're curious enough, you'll find out just how complex this far-flung future truly is.

[ultraericthered]

KH Divergence: World Order!

Chronological order of worlds to be visited in the stories of the main saga titles (Door To Light, Key Of Destiny, and Hearts In Chaos).

KH1: Dive To The Heart, Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum, Deep Jungle, Traverse Town (2) / 100 Acre Wood, Agrabah, Monstro, Atlantica, Halloween Town, Neverland, Traverse Town (3), Hollow Bastion, Traverse Town (4), Hollow Bastion (2), Olympus Coliseum, and End Of The World.

CoM: Only Traverse Town (Sora), Hollow Bastion (Riku), Twilight Town, Destiny Islands, and Castle Oblivion are mandatory. KH2: Twilight Town (Prologue), Twilight Town/Mysterious Tower, Hollow Bastion, Land of Dragons, Beast's Castle, Hollow Bastion (2) / 100 Acre Wood, Olympus Coliseum, Disney Castle / Timeless River, Atlantica, Port Royal, Agrabah, Twilight Town (Kairi intervals), Halloween Town / Christmas Town, Pride Lands, Twilight Town (2), Hollow Bastion (3) / Space Paranoids, Land of Dragons (2), Beast's Castle (2), Olympus Coliseum (2), Port Royal (2), Agrabah (2), Halloween Town / Christmas Town (2), Pride Lands (2), Hollow Bastion (4)/Space Paranoids (2), Twilight Town (3) / Betwixt & Between, and The World That Never Was. KH0.1 (BBS): Land of Departure, Enchanted Dominion (Terra), Dwarf Woodlands (Terra), Dwarf Woodlands (Ven), Castle of Dreams (Ven), Castle of Dreams (Terra), Castle of Dreams (Aqua), Dwarf Woodlands (Aqua), Enchanted Dominion (Ven), Enchanted Dominion (Aqua), Mysterious Tower (Terra), Badlands (Ven), Badlands (Terra), Radiant Garden, Disney Town, Olympus Coliseum (Ven), Olympus Coliseum (Terra), Wild Terrain (Ven), Deep Space (Terra), Olympus Coliseum (Aqua), Wild Terrain (Terra), Deep Space (Aqua), Deep Space (Ven), Wild Terrain (Aqua), Neverland (Ven and Terra), Destiny Islands (Terra), Mysterious Tower (Ven), Neverland (Aqua), Badlands (Ven and Terra), Land of Departure (Ven and Terra), Destiny Islands (Ven), Mysterious Tower (Aqua), The Keyblade Graveyard, Mysterious Tower (Aqua), Land of Departure (Aqua) and Radiant Garden (Aqua). KH3D: Twilight Town / Mysterious Tower, Pleasure Island (Sora), Olympus Underworld (Riku), Pleasure Island (Riku), Olympus Underworld (Sora), Twilight Town (Kairi), The Grid (Sora), Deep Space (Riku), The Grid (Riku), Deep Space (Sora), Disney Town / Disney Castle (Kairi), La Citie des Lumieres (Sora and Riku), Symphony of Sorcery (Sora and Riku), and The Castle That Never Was / Nightmare Dark World (Sora, Riku, and Kairi). KH3: Dive To The Heart, Olympus, Twilight Town / Mysterious Tower, Glimmering Bayou, Dark World, Toy Box, Kingdom of Corona, Destiny Islands, Monstropolis, Arendelle, Twilight Town (2) + 100 Acre Wood, The Caribbean, Castle Oblivion, San Fransokyo, The Keyblade Graveyard, Dark World (2), Castle Oblivion / Land of Departure (2), Twilight Town / Mysterious Tower (3), The Keyblade Graveyard (2), and The Final World / Scala Ad Caelum. DLC Exclusive: Radiant Garden. KH4: Dive To The Heart, Daybreak Town (past), Destiny Islands, Daybreak Town (present), Sherwood Forest (Ephemer w/Huey & Max), Kingdom of the Sun (Sora w/ Kairi), Sherwood Forest (Sora w/ Donald & Goofy), Kingdom of the Sun (Ephemer w/ Dewey & Max), Daybreak Town (2)/Downtown Danville (Ephemer), Twilight Town / Mysterious Tower (Sora & Ephemer), Zootopia (Ephemer w/ Louie & Max), Mata-nui (Sora w/ Riku), Zootopia (Sora w/ Donald & Goofy), Mata-nui (Ephemer w/ Dewey & Max), Radiant Garden/100 Acre Wood (Sora and Ephemer), Disney Town/Disney Castle (Sora and Ephemer), Metropolitan Marvel (Sora w/ Kairi), Game Central Station / Candy Kingdom (Ephemer w/ Dewey & Max), Metropolitan Marvel (Ephemer w/ Huey & Max), Game Central Station / Candy Kingdom (Sora w/ Donald & Goofy), Great Barrier Reef (Ephemer w/ Huey & Max), Toy Box (Sora w/ Riku), Great Barrier Reef (Sora w/ Donald & Goofy), Toy Box (Ephemer w/ Louie & Max), Palace of Penance (Sora & Ephemer), and Ye Olde World (Sora & Ephemer). TML: Setsun City, Traverse Town, and Downtown Danville. High Route: Dunbroch, Paradise Falls, Tierra de los Muertos, Kumandra, Encanto, St. Canard, and Palace of Penance. Low Route: Olympus Underworld, Pride Lands, Toy Box, The Living Seas, Game Central Station, Arendelle, and Dark World.

KH5: Dive To The Heart / Fairy Realm, Setsun City, The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Challenge Dome, Mysterious Tower, Kumandra, Encanto, Setsun City (2), Metropolitan Marvel, Moon of Endor, Rosas, Setsun City (3), Radiant Garden / 100 Acre Wood, Land of Departure / Dark World / Badlands, Scala Ad Caelum / The Final World, and Entry To The Heart.

[peterstamatin]

Breakthrough and the Sisters

(by caspiancomic)

As Film Crit Hulk would happily remind us, “the ending is the conceit.” The ending of a work ought to summarize and crystallize the themes of the preceding story. Whether this manifests itself as Kurtz’s pitiable “the horror, the horror” during his death being a reflection of his animalistic life, or as Lt. Raine declaring cheekily to the camera that his most recent work may just be his “masterpiece”, the final decisions made by the author or authors of a work ought to represent a bite sized version of the thematic heart of the work. Videogames are a unique and complicated medium in this respect. On the one hand, many games offer only a single ending to conclude the events of the story, and this is in its own way fine. But in order to complement their interactivity, many games have multiple possible endings, with the final moments of the story being determined partially by the work’s authors, but also partially by the audience.

How exactly multiple endings are incorporated into a game’s story is up to the game’s developers, but they tend to fall into a few major schools. One, which for my purposes I’ll be called “graded” endings, involves the ending changing to reflect the skill of the player. In a game with graded endings, certain endings are considered “better” than others, and there is often an implication that only one of them is the “true” or “canonical” ending. Konami’s Suikoden series tends to implement graded endings, for example. In the first Suikoden, recruiting all of the game’s 108 Stars of Destiny before the final battle at Gregminster allows the player access to the “good ending”, failure to complete that goal in the allotted time will result in the “bad ending.” A second category of games have what could be called “adaptive” endings, in which the conclusion to the game is determined by the player’s actions during the game, but the endings themselves are all equally valid and none are necessarily considered canonical. In Catherine, depending on decisions in dialogue options made throughout the game, the player will receive either a Lovers, Cheaters, or Freedom ending (although admittedly, these categories are further subdivided into True, Good, and Bad). Silent Hill 2 is another good example: its varied endings are all satisfying conclusions to the preceding story, and which one the player receives depends on his or her actions during the game.

I could rattle on forever about videogame endings, and in the future I may do exactly that, but for now I’m here to specifically discuss the ending of The Void. To what category does The Void belong? I suggest that The Void could be said to have “optional” endings. Not, like, you can choose to have an ending, or you can decide against it. The endings are “optional” in the sense that every ending is equally legitimate, and all are available to the player. The only determining factor in which ending the player gets is which ending they choose. Off the top of my head, Bastion makes a similar decision- at the end of the game you are presented with your options, and which option you select determines which ending you receive. No strings attached, no fine print, the decision is left entirely up to you.

This makes life much easier in some ways. LPers, overly curious gamers with too much time on their hands, and obsessive completionists have often found themselves playing through a game multiple times to see the game’s various conclusions. If the means to achieve a certain ending are too demanding, or too similar to the criteria for other endings, then you may try multiple times in vain to access the coveted Dream Project ending.

But the reasoning behind having “optional” endings isn’t just to make life easier on replays. The idea driving the decision to implement “optional” endings is that the challenge isn’t in obtaining the endings, but in deciding between them. In Bastion, there are two options (three, kind of, depending on the results of an earlier decision), and players are invited to make whichever decision they feel is most correct and represents the most satisfying climax to the game’s story. In The Void, there are thirteen options. Each ending (with the arguable exception of one) is presented as being wholly acceptable, and all endings are considered equivalent to one another in terms of legitimacy. The question, then, becomes not only which ending do you choose, but why?

As I discussed in my last essay, the ultimate goal of The Void is to ascend one of the eleven Sisters, or to ascend the Spirit. The content of any given ending is similar enough to all the others that a more cynical player might wonder what the difference is between them. But for the more enlightened player, the act of deciding on a Sister (or oneself) represents a journey of self-examination and criticism that few games can deliver. The “ending”, the cutscene that follows the drawing of the Glyph of Breakthrough, is not the reward for the player’s effort. The reward is internal- it is self knowledge.

What follows is a role call of the Void’s Sisters, with a bit of biographical information and a healthy dollop of personal interpretation and speculation. The observations are not exclusively mine (I assure they would be quite dull if they were), they are indebted to CannibalK9′s poll of the goons of Something Awful, who lucidly argued in favour of their preferred Sister as CK9 was approaching the finale of the LP. The instalment of the LP in which these opinions are collected can be found here: Part 1, Part 2. And, for the curious, a run-down of what the Sisters have to say upon having their third heart opened is found here. In addition, the rather inspired idea of contrasting a Sister’s physical manifestation from that of her Soul Obscura comes from a chap called Joshua Meadows, whose own article on the game’s representation of sex and nudity was an inspiration for this entry.

I originally planned to include a brief paragraph speculating about what each Sister’s created world would be like, but worried that my subjective musings might steer the reader’s opinion one way or the other. Besides, exactly what will happen to the Sisters upon ascending remains somewhat unclear. To some degree they seem to believe that they will retain their consciousness and free will after Breakthrough, and will be able to experience the Upper Limit as one of its citizens. But more than that, many of the characters refer to Breakthrough as creating a world based on the ascended Sister in some way. It is suggested that every Sister contains the germ of an entire unique world, and that Breakthrough is the process by which this bulb of life is nourished by Colour so that it may sprout on the surface. Perhaps the world could be said to exist within the Sister, and will be expelled and realized once the Sister pierces the membrane separating the Upper Limit from the Void. Perhaps the Sister in some way is the new world, either representing it as an autonomous part of the whole, or acting as a living manifestation of the world, “as the flavour of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea.” In any case, each Sister is a microcosm of civilization, an ambassador for her personal world, a living representation of the possibility for life above.

I have also meaningfully omitted the verse of poetry that is read for each Sister’s “ending”. This is only because I plan to address the meanings of these verses all together, in a separate (and upcoming!) article.

Finally, before we get into the body of the article, I want to make a quick mention of the selection criteria. In short- there are none, except what you decide should be your own criteria. The game offers no guidelines for making your decision, and does not suggest in any way that one Sister might be more “correct” than any other. How and why you come to your conclusion is totally up to you, and any conclusion you come to is totally valid. Maybe you decide to trust your gut, and go with whichever Sister is your favourite, even for reasons you can’t put your finger on. Perhaps you will choose whichever Sister will set the best example for the Upper Limit, and will create the most prosperous or successful world through her ascension. Maybe you will make your decision for physical reasons, choosing whichever Sister you find the most beautiful, or whichever Sister inhabits your favourite chamber. Perhaps you will choose to liberate whichever Sister you perceive to suffer the most from her predicament in the Void.

How you make your decision is utterly in your control, and the information that follows is presented only to attempt to create as complete a portrait of the Sisters as I can manage, for the benefit of anyone on the fence or otherwise incapable of choosing or differentiating between Sisters. Remember, why you make your decision and how you chose your selected Sister is just as important, or even more important, as which Sister you chose. The point of forcing the player to make this decision is to force the player to examine him or herself critically, and make a decision based on his or her own values. So if you’re in a sharing mood, I’d love to hear in the comments not only which Sister you chose (or would choose), but how you came to your decision.

And now, without further set dressing, let’s discuss the Sisters.

Sister Death is something of a cipher. She has a very strong, proactive relationship with the Spirit that borders on the maternal, and she is totally willing to sacrifice herself for his benefit. Like Aya, she has unique nicknames for the Spirit that no other Sister uses- but unlike Aya’s taunting cries of “Killer” and “Wanderer”, Sister Death calls the Spirit “My Sweet,” or “My Love.” She is completely honest with the Spirit, and not only helps him but volunteers to help him, even to her own detriment and death. Without provocation, and even before being fed, she is committed to the Devastator, teaches him to survive this hostile environment, disguises him as a Brother, and sends him on the path towards salvation.

However, her relative youth, combined with the fact that she is ostracized from the Void’s “society”, leaves us with little of the evidence we can use to analyze the other Sisters. Her “greenhouse”, if it can be called such a thing, is a bombed out ruin. Her chamber is most remarkable for its tentacle-like columns of rock that lash out from her island. Since her chamber is closest geographically to the Nightmare, it is the most chaotic in appearance. The only evidence that life even could bloom here is the rotted, hollow tree carcass she hides in. The only true comparison to be made between her physical and spiritual bodies is that in her Soul Obscura the Nameless Sister makes no attempt to hide her misery. Although in her tree she stands upright and addresses the Guest directly, in her Obscura she is bent-backed and sorrowful, hugging her knees in a desperate act of self-comfort. As her hearts are unlocked, she appears to swim through her Obscura. Perhaps the “air” is thicker in the Void towards the Nightmare: compare the northerly Yani and Ole’s aerial and graceful reactions to having their hearts opened.

Sister Death does have favourite Colours, though, and they are telling of some elements of her personality. Her taste for gold ought to be obvious: she trusted Golden Eyes with her life before she even properly met him, and so trusts him to complete his task that she gives her own life to aid him. The Nameless Sister’s preference for emerald, though, offers us some food for thought. Death never mentions one way or the other if her treatment by the other denizens of the Void bothers her, but her need for defensive emerald suggests that she does find her isolation painful. Her combination of gold and emerald, then, suggests a deep loneliness: her desire to trust and be trusted is all the more intense for the defence mechanisms she must keep up in order to keep her feelings from being hurt.

Sister Ava stands in tremendous contrast to Sisters Death and Uta, probably the only Sisters you will have encountered when you first meet her. If your journey through the Void took you from Death’s greenhouse straight to Uta’s grotto you would be forgiven for believing the Sisters would all be gloomy, delicate, and fragile. Sister Ava is evidence early on that warmth can, in fact, exist in the Void. Ava’s chamber, the alcove, represents the first almost completely manmade chamber, with no natural elements whatsoever. Her chamber specifically contrasts with Uta’s grotto, which is characterized by water and frigidity, by featuring a warm colour scheme and plenty of flickering candles. Ava’s personality is a welcome contrast as well. After Sister Death’s apologetic timidity and Uta’s apathetic lethargy, Ava is lively, flirtatious, and demanding. She is also, however, manipulative and selfish relative to her Sisters.

Physically, Ava stands unspectacularly in her chamber. Her Soul Obscura, however, reveals more of her nature. She lies, seductively posed, and her bonds take the form of rose petals and stars. The candles that decorate her chamber actually follow her into her Obscura, suggesting they are more than just decorative trinkets, that they could be considered an extension of who she is as a person. Candles are beautiful, of course, they give off light and warmth, but they slowly destroy themselves by performing their only function. Perhaps Ava’s seemingly straightforward personality is a mask for a more self-destructive character? As her hearts are opened, her body language becomes more openly seductive, and her language becomes more flirtatious.

Ava’s upfrontness about her needs renders an analysis of her Colour diet almost unnecessary. She desires amber above all else, symbolic of hunger as it is. Ava is one of the Sisters who will openly ask the Taboo Breaker for Colour, which Sisters are supposedly unable to do. She also explicitly refers to her own hunger. This is worth bringing up because we know from various sources that the Sisters are starving, but they don’t all mention it outright. In fact, many Sisters ask you to use your Colour elsewhere, or not at all, or anywhere except on them. Ava’s taste for violet, the colour of inspiration, is reflected in her elaborately decorated chamber. Her poisons are revealing as well. Her undisguised attempts to manipulate the Spirit is an expression of her distaste for gold. As for her hatred of azure, I suppose you could say it is representative of her lackadaisical nature.

Ava’s flirtatiousness is contrasted by her despotic Brother, Whaler. Where Aya is coquettish and suggestive, Whaler relies on threats and brute force to impart his will on the Devastator. However, the two do have something in common: selfishness. Ava’s selfishness takes the form of a demanding nature rooted in starvation, which under the circumstances could be forgiven. Brother Whaler’s violence, though, has its roots in egocentrism and self-righteousness. Even among the Brothers, he stands out as particularly cruel. Ava seems not to fear him, though, and lies about him to Devastator. She claims the Brothers- Whaler specifically- will not mind if the Spirit opens her hearts, and even attempts to convince him that the taboos are no longer in effect. Considering Whaler is one of the most zealous brothers when it comes to taboo breaking, it is difficult to imagine how he would react to hearing that particular lie coming from his own Sister. True to her Colour diet, it would take a great hunger indeed to inspire someone to concoct such a high-risk and creative lie.

Sister Uta’s most pronounced characteristic is her melancholy. Everything about her from her chamber to her Colour diet, her body language to her ambient score, it all suggests world weariness, depression, and malaise. Her chamber in particular, although livelier than Sister Death’s, is cold, uninviting, damp, and almost completely unfurnished. Her only allowance for her own comfort is a simple canoe-like hammock, in which she quietly lies, ignoring the Spirit, and gazing unblinkingly at the one-eyed moon above her chamber. Although she shows the Spirit no interest in her physical manifestation, in her Soul Obscura she is much more attentive. Without any hearts opened she sits bolt upright and stares into the camera, and as her hearts are opened she becomes more relaxed but no less observant. Uta is characterized by deep, unwavering concentration in both her physical and spiritual forms, but her Soul betrays that she is more attuned to the actions of the Guest than she would like to suggest. Also significant in this vein is that despite her seemingly ambivalent nature, she will actually aid the Guest by providing him with a heart that he needs to complete his otherwise impossible trial.

Uta’s Colour diet, then, will not surprise an attentive reader. That she would desire emerald ought to be obvious, since her physical inattentiveness but spiritual investment in the Spirit suggests that she puts walls up to defend herself from those around her in spite of actually caring about them. Her love of silver, likewise, manifests itself as frugality with energy- both her body and her soul are at rest, not wasting the life-giving Colour by expending it on physical tasks. Her desire to hoard Colour through inactivity is reinforced by her hatred of amber: she doesn’t want to digest her precious morsels any faster than she absolutely must. Her hatred of crimson could be a simple reflection of her inactive nature, but it also suggests that in spite of her affected nonchalance, she does not explicitly dislike the Guest.

Uta’s Brother is Mantid, the first Brother to enter the Void, which makes him roughly analogous to Uta who has a chance of being the first Sister (after Sister Death) encountered by the Spirit. Uta’s disguised concern for the Spirit is in harmony with Mantid’s relatively friendly disposition towards the same. However, the face Mantid shows the Guest is not representative of his entire character. Sister Ava refers to Mantid’s cruelty, and meaningfully suggests that he “has no sense of humour.” This could go some ways towards explaining Uta’s defeated nature: Brother Mantid’s draconian reign over her has drained her of energy, and she remains as motionless as possible so as to avoid her Brother’s wrath.

Sister Echo is the first wandering Sister the Spirit is liable to meet, and this characteristic will make her instantly stand out from the rest of the sorority. Like Sister Death, her lack of certain characteristics shared by the other Sisters makes her difficult to read. Not only are we lacking sufficient information to analyze her as deeply as the other Sisters, but her entire personality seems to revolve around being cryptic and mysterious. She is also quite helpful of the Guest, volunteering information that is generally reliable.

As a wandering Sister, Echo has no chamber, only a Soul Obscura. For this reason we never see Echo in her physical form (if she can even be said to have one). Although this makes it impossible for us to determine the degree to which her exterior representation of herself is a true reflection of her inner thoughts, in a way it can be almost as illuminating on its own. Echo is totally exposed to the Spirit. She could be said to be completely honest, in that by only ever exposing us to her soul, she makes no attempt to sway the Guest with the representations of her body. Unlike Ava, whose self-serious physical form was different from her playful soul, Echo only ever has one face to show the Devastator.

Her helpful, but unknowable nature are telegraphed by her Colour choices and poisons. Violet- creativity- is one of her staples, and her inspired poses and wordplay are testament to that. She also desires silver, representative of frugality, prudence, and wastelessness. This expresses itself through her helpfulness: she doesn’t waste words flattering Doppelganger, nor does she attempt to mess with his head and obscure his path by telling him lies or half-truths. Her creative inclinations do interfere with her otherwise helpful nature though- despite usually telling the truth and providing useful information, she does tend to do it in a manner marked by obfuscating poetics. Her poisons are azure and crimson, which ought to be clear to anyone who has observed her deliberate and delicate body language.

What is not totally clear is why Echo does not have a chamber. Sister Aya’s aggressive nature probably makes her too much of a headache for even the self-aggrandizing Brothers to deign to handle. Yet Echo’s elegant and peaceful sashays through the Void are left totally unchallenged. Perhaps it is out of some kind of respect? Maybe the Brothers consider her harmless, and as such not in need of the same strictness placed on the other Sisters? Her relationship with Aya is also never fully explained. How did Echo come to be Aya’s mistress? Why does Echo never mention the relationship at all, leaving the relationship feeling one-sided? Why does Aya worship Echo with one breath, and claim she is insane with the next? How did two Sisters of such vastly different temperaments come to form a master/pupil relationship at all? Why do the Brothers allow this? Any analysis of Echo’s character leads to more questions than answers. Knowing Echo, she would probably enjoy hearing that.

Feral, animalistic Aya is a fascinating character, totally unlike the other Sisters in so many ways. Obviously the fact that she is without a Chamber or a Brother puts her in the minority automatically, but she is also distinct from the other Sisters because of her pure, undisguised loathing of the Guest, who she usually calls by her own nicknames- particularly Killer, Wanderer, and Murderer. Sister Aya is spectacularly aggressive, she insults and belittles the Spirit, comes and goes as she pleases, and even the Brothers seem to have no interest in trying to control her. Like Echo, she could be said to be completely “exposed” to the Spirit, in that we never see her physical form and only ever have access to her Soul Obscura. This could suggest that her inner and outer lives are in total harmony, and that she sees no reason to act one way in spite of feeling another.

Despite this apparent honesty, Aya still seems to be slightly misleading the Spirit. In my Beginner’s Guide, I referred to Aya’s taste for amber as representative of a hunger to which she will never admit. She demands the Taboo Breaker give all his Colour to her mistress, Echo, but her desire for Amber betrays her own hunger. This makes her subservience to Echo all the more meaningful, if in spite of her own starvation she still only wants the best for her mistress. I almost don’t feel the need to mention how crimson affects her personality, since she is far and away the most aggressive Sister. Her hatred of gold ought to be obvious enough: she hates the Taboo Breaker, so why should she trust him? She clearly doesn’t think he’s capable of making the right decision on his own, so she feels the need to guide his hand as inelegantly and obviously as she can. Her hatred of silver is somewhat telling, though. Perhaps she doesn’t care about wastefulness because she doesn’t care what happens to the Void, only Echo.

In spite of (because of?) her aggression, I actually rather like Aya. In fact, behind Yani she is probably my favourite Sister. On the face of it this seems pretty unlikely, since the two are really quite different in personality. So I suppose by analyzing those features that Aya and Yani actually do manage to share I could learn quite a lot about myself. I’ll spare you that particular bit of soul searching for now. Feel free to draw your own conclusions about me based on the information provided, however.

Sister Eli’s no-nonsense personality, strong sense of conviction, and super cool chamber makes her a favourite among fans. Eli’s uniform (accessorized with a leather riding crop), dirigible focused chamber, cropped haircut, commanding attitude, and bone dry sense of humour are all reminiscent of a high ranking military type. She waffles between getting right down to business- teaching the Guest some of the specifics about Breakthrough- and playfully mocking him by suggesting ascension is only possible with the help of the power of “true love.”

Eli has much in common with Sister Ava, whose second heart must be opened before Eli can be visited. Both of their chambers emphasize manmade structures over naturalistic flourishes, both are alert to the presence of the Spirit while he is in their chambers, both ask the Spirit to feed them in spite of this behaviour apparently being impossible, and both have props in their Soul Obscura. Unlike Ava, though, whose decorative candles invited further analysis of parts of her personality she may have been hiding or minimizing, Sister Eli’s cannonballs serve the purpose of emphasizing those parts of her personality we have already noticed. Speaking of cannonballs, Eli’s Brother is Ironclad. Eli and Ironclad serve as something of an exception to the usual logic behind Brother/SIster pairings. Where most of the Sisters are wed to a Brother who will serve as their antithesis or nemesis, Ironclad seems to have been chosen to be thematically resonant with Eli: he complements her rather than contrasts with her.

Eli’s desire for crimson ought to be easily understood: although she is not as aggressive towards the spirit as Aya (or even Ava), enjoying instead a cordial relationship with him, she still has all the hallmarks of a character who is aggressive generally, and even hordes weaponry in her Soul Obscura. That her anger is not focused towards the Taboo Breaker could be due to the influence of frugal silver. She is careful and deliberate with her energies and indeed her rage: she knows the Spirit is not her enemy and may even be useful to her, so she directs her anger elsewhere. Her distaste for violet is easily enough understood, and is represented by a straight-talking demeanour marked by to-the-point conversations with the Spirit. A lack of creativity may also be the reason her sense of humour is so dry.

Most interesting though is Eli’s hatred of gold. In all her interactions with the Guest she shows no signs of refusing to trust him, and although no Sister could be said to have a “healthy” relationship with her Brother, Eli’s similarities to warlike Ironclad makes their coupling probably the least invasive of the lot. It’s possible, then, that Eli’s directed aggression really is intended for the Spirit, and she just has the sense not to unleash a hateful tirade against the entity that might save her life. Sister Death, after all, says that Eli would spend a thousand years in the Void for one day on the surface: she shouldn’t like to frighten away the one person who could give her just that. Also interesting is that upon opening her third heart, Eli has genuine-sounding words of kindness and gratitude for the Guest. Either Sister Eli is a tremendous actor, or without showing any outward signs of it at all we have witnessed a character arc for Eli- going from focused white hot hatred to calm understanding as the Spirit continues to feed her Colour.

If you choose to make your decision based on which Sister you think would be most benefitted by being freed from the Void, you will almost certainly choose Sister Ima. Crucified against a medieval torture device, Ima spends her days contemplating the pendulum that perpetually swings above her head. As her hearts are opened, the pendulum lowers, and she comes closer to being split down the middle. For Ima, being fed Colour and being threatened by the blade are the same: as she comes closer to true life, she also comes closer to death. This direct conflation of life and death makes her somewhat representative of the Void as a whole: neither life, afterlife, nor prelife; its inhabitant neither living nor dead. Ima and her plight have another direct connection to the Void in her descending scythe. The swinging blade serves as the visual cue that the Brothers have selected a Sister for “interrogation” (read: torture) during the witch hunt of the Agony cycles.

Ima has a peculiar characteristic that makes her unique among the Sisters: her physical self in her tower and her spiritual self in her Soul Obscura are in total harmony. The tortures she suffers bodily are identical to her mental tortures. Like the wandering Sisters, this can be interpreted as a kind of “honesty”: her physical presentation and her mental state line up perfectly. However, Ima has almost certainly not elected into her situation. More than honesty (or in addition to it) her harmony of body and mind probably represents a particularly strong oppression at the hands of the Brothers. Ima’s Brother is Caterpillar, whose relationship with the Spirit is two-faced and parasitic. Caterpillar claims he will be your mentor, but before long he has abandoned you, presumably because he could not get what he wanted from the Guest. Although he is generally supportive (if curt) to the Guest’s face, his treatment of Ima betrays a spectacular cruelty we never see directly expressed. Like Brother Mantid, Caterpillar is careful to present himself a certain way to the Spirit (and player), and we have to be alert to be able to see through their apparent civility. This self-serving dishonesty makes Caterpillar an effective contrast to Ima, whose personality is most marked by selflessness and helpfulness towards the Taboo Breaker.

As for her Colour choices, nobody would blame Ima for desiring emerald’s protection. She also, of course, desires azure, so as to be agile enough to avoid the scythe’s final descent upon the opening of her last heart (and believe me, it is a photo finish- she probably needed every drop of azure she got). The straightforwardness of her needs is in harmony with her honest nature: unlike the other Sisters, who present themselves one way but feel another, or who attempt to hide the flaws of their personalities that their Colour choices nonetheless lay bare, Ima’s needs are simple and direct. This does manifest itself as a distaste for violet’s inspiration, however. I suppose in light of her condition it would be unfair to blame her for being practical and plainspoken. She also hates amber, which makes sense. If her metabolism were too quick, she may lose her precious emerald and azure, and not have enough left in her to avoid or survive her final encounter with the blade.

Una’s smithy is, if not the largest in terms of square footage, certainly the busiest, liveliest, and most imposing. While other Sisters may favour manmade structures like houses or blimps over the other Sisters’ more naturalistic grottoes, ponds, and trees, none of the Sisters besides Una have a chamber that could be said to be industrial. The rhythmic pounding of an armada of hammers reverberates through the high ceilinged corridors of this imposing stone cathedral to industry. Even the soundtrack is percussion heavy and energetic, contrasting it with the weepy theremins and plinking piano tunes that populate the rest of the Void.

Una herself invokes images of not only industry, but religion. She kneels before a raging fire apparently in reverence, and in her Soul Obscura she writhes in a combination of burning agony and religious ecstasy. Fire, as a visual theme, follow Una into her Soul Obscura, possibly as a result of her fixation on them in her physical form. Her bonds take the forms of flames, and as her hearts are unlocked she writhes across the field of coals at her feet. Perhaps this intensity is a side effect of her feeding on crimson and azure?

The more direct effects of her diet become clear as she speak to the Guest. She is extremely hostile towards him, maybe even rivalling Aya in her hostility. She admonishes the Spirit for his failures, and even blames him for things that appear to have happened before his arrival in the Void, including the deaths of forty Sisters. She places a great deal of responsibility on the Spirit, and claims it is his incompetence that has led to the Sleeper’s predicament. It should come as no surprise, then, that she is poisoned by gold. Her matter-of-fact method of dealing with the Guest is also reflective of her distaste for violet.

That Una’s assigned Brother is Patriarch is interesting. Brother Patriarch has an amicable relationship with the Spirit, and is even understanding and forgiving of the Spirit’s murder of him. Why is the oldest and wisest of the Brothers assigned to Una? Is it because his level headedness was though to be a suitable counter-balance for Una’s ferocity? Is Patriarch’s relative friendliness meant to contrast with Una’s aggression?

One more thing worth mentioning about Una is her response to having her third heart opened. Like Eli, another crimson-favouring Sister with an aggressive temperament, Una eventually comes around on the Guest. Recanting her earlier vitriolic abuse of her potential saviour, and abandoning her self-destructive impulses, Una will suddenly use her azure and crimson to channel a hitherto unseen lust for life, and unabashed desire to ascend to the Upper Limit. This about-face, and confirmation of life in a world as dead as the Void, endears her to many players.

Sister Ire is the oldest of the Sisters, although she is not particularly old objectively speaking. Besides her age, she has many characteristics that make her distinct from the other Sisters. Probably the thing about Ire that most players will first notice is her nudity- even in her physical form her breasts are exposed. Ire as a whole is much more explicitly sexual than the other Sisters. Although any Sister can be seen naked by opening all her hearts, their nudity almost never has sexual undertones, being conflated instead with freedom or liberation. They are naked as newborns, which is appropriate considering their impending rebirth in the Upper Limit. Ire, though, has an atmosphere of sexuality around her at all times. As she is fed Colour she writhes and poses erotically, and even her musical track has a borderline pornographic bass line.

Like some of the other Sisters, Ire has a prop in her Soul Obscura. In fact, she is the only Sister to have a naturally occurring object accompany her soul. The dead tree that she sits on, stretches on, lies on, and grinds on could almost be said to be analogous to her. Although she is really not that old (she claims to be nineteen), there is still much emphasis placed on her age relative to the other Sisters, and the implication is that she is “dried-up” rather than wise with age. It’s worth noting, however, that she actually is quite wise. Or at least knowledgeable. As she is fed Colour, she teaches the Taboo Breaker many things about the Void and the dangers of using Colour carelessly. In fact, it is only through Ire that many of these gameplay elements are taught concretely, rather than obliquely implied.

Her Colour diet leads to an interesting balancing act of personality. Like Ava, she desires amber, the Colour of metabolism and hunger. However, where Ava’s hunger was reinforced by violet’s inspiration, creating a manipulative and coy personality, Ire’s hunger is soothed by gold’s trust. This tears Ire in two directions: on the one hand, she trusts the Spirit to reward her knowledge with Colour, but on the other she still feels anxious enough about her starvation to ask for Colour directly. Her taste for amber is underlined by a distaste for silver: she doesn’t like to see Colour wasted that she could feed on herself. Furthermore, many of her gameplay lessons are specifically about the importance of not wasting Colour. Her distaste for emerald is interesting, though. Perhaps the fact that she would be poisoned by emerald’s protection is the reason she appears nude in her chamber? She is so opposed to the idea of protection, of barriers, that she presents herself completely unguarded to all who enter her chamber.

Everything about Yani seems purposefully engineered to evoke sympathy in the player- or maybe I just feel that way because she evoked so much sympathy in me. Her dilapidated and apparently haunted house borders on being totally inhospitable. Her spartan bedroom is uninviting, and frankly a little frightening. Her situation is so dire that even her striking red tentlike bed barely livens the place up. Everything about her is hidden. The way she kneels sheepishly in the centre of her bedsheet fort, which is itself a bastion against the ghosts and loneliness of her chamber. Her Colour diet is reflective of someone who leads a rich inner life: violet suggests creativity, and combined with azure she could be said to be “quick thinking”, talented at improvisational arts. Her Soul Obscura reinforces this observation: although physically she is shrinking and unassuming, her soul is graceful and creative, performing delicate ballet dances while perched on top of a globe.

Her poisons betray more of her personality. Her distaste for amber mirrors her fear of being fed when you first meet her. Most tellingly, though, she hates emerald: the Colour of defence. Creative spirits tend to be fragile creatures, and the very act of creating something is to bear one’s soul, destroy one’s self-created armour and expose one’s greatest insecurities and fears. That emerald would poison Yani’s soul- cut her off from her own creativity- is interesting when contrasted with the highly defensive nature of her physical surroundings. In this sense Yani seems to be of two minds- both desiring and rejecting a layer of armour to protect her from the world.

Yani’s assigned Brother, Warden, is almost her total opposite. Where Yani is selfless, helpful, friendly, and creative, Warden is greedy, aggressive, self-aggrandizing, and dogmatic. Warden’s physical form represents a twisted subversion of Yani’s comforting bedsheet fort: where the luxurious silk construction represents a castle or bastion, Warden’s dangling skeletal ribcage represents a prison. The contrast is made here between Yani’s self-imposed withdrawal into her defensive sub-chamber and the stifling imprisonment enforced from without. If Yani’s chosen hermitage allows her to more intensely focus on her inner life, Warden’s body-prison represents stagnation, of the body and the mind.

I suppose for me any discussion of Yani in this context means asking the million dollar question: why would I choose her? I think it’s her “internal” nature that I most associate with. Like Yani, I consider myself to lead a rich inner life. The vast majority of my creative endeavours are squirrelled away in notebooks and sketchpads that I never show to anyone else. I don’t find positive reinforcement to be a necessary element in my creativity, and will often create something solely for my own amusement. I find the quiet satisfaction of a drawing competently executed or an essay that is a marked improvement over a previous draft to be immensely satisfying, and usually don’t feel any desire to have my work validated by the approval of other people. In this sense I consider Yani to be something of a kindred spirit.

Sister Ole will probably invoke strong feelings in the average player, a lot of the game seems to be geared towards endearing the player to her. Early on, almost as soon as the Guest has been disguised as a Brother, she becomes your promised Sister. From that point on, she periodically cries out to you, wondering where you are and if you’ve abandoned her. Eventually she is given away to Brother Montgolfier, and Aya mocks the Spirit by claiming he will “corrupt” her. Her chamber, like Yani’s, is a relatively modern looking house in a state of dilapidation, seemingly haunted by unseen poltergeists. A neglected wedding dress gathers dust in its own room, while another contains a piano that will play a sorrowful tune if painted with Colour. Ole herself stares sadly out the window of a room containing a baby’s crib- hence the name, Ole’s cradle.

Ole’s personality seems engineered to be endearing as well. Her love for gold manifests very strongly as unconditional trust for Golden Eyes, but that isn’t all. She also claims to love him, and laments that she could not be his “bride.” As she is fed Colour, she admits she is excited to ascend to the Upper Limit, but begs the Spirit not to send her if it would result in his death. Ole’s affection for the Spirit rivals even Sister Death’s. Her taste for violet is expressed not as creativity (although the presence of a piano in her chamber suggests she is a musician), but as curiosity. Unlike the other Sisters, who offer the Spirit information a little at a time (and who cannot always be trusted), Ole is as much a stranger in this world as the Spirit himself. Her poisons are relatively straightforward: that she despises azure is reflected in her calm, inquisitive nature, and her hatred of crimson is clear in her love for the Guest.

One of the characteristics that sets Ole apart from the sorority is her mobility. As she is fed Colour, she responds in her physical form as well as in her Soul Obscura, standing up from the window ledge and following the Spirit with her eyes after her first heart is opened. Ole’s Obscura is fantastic as well. She is one of the Sisters who has a prop in her Obscura: a swing, which she will begin to energetically ride as her hearts are opened. The purely recreational prop she keeps in her Obscura, coupled with the infantalized name of her chamber gives her an air of childlike innocence. The playful manner of her spirit draws a parallel between Ole and Yani, as well.

And there they are, the Sisters of the Void. Although my reductive surface-scratching can hardly begin to convey the Sisters in all their complexity, I hope I have managed to provide clarity in some areas, and raise important questions in others. To play The Void- or even to experience it vicariously as I have- is to understand how truly real, and lifelike, the Sisters are. It’s a testament to the creators of the game, to the character designers, writers, and performers who bring these characters to life, that they feel so full and realized. To even describe them as having been “designed” and “performed” feels alien, and almost disrespectful- to me and to many others they are simply the Sisters, as real as any person you care to name. And yet, in spite of how corporeal they all manage to feel, most players will be able to definitively choose one (or perhaps oscillate between two or three), that they decide to ascend. As Sister Echo would say, there is only one true Sister. The Sister any given player selects would be, for him or her, the realest of the sorority- his or her one true Sister.

As a closing thought, I suppose I am forced to admit that choosing to ascend the Spirit is as absolutely valid an option as selecting one of the Sisters (in fact, in the original Russian Tension, it was possible to ascend a Sister and the Spirit). Where, then, is my analysis of the Devastator? How can he be meaningfully compared to the Sisters to determine who most deserves Breakthrough? Such an examination is, of course, impossible. The Spirit is mute, and has no will of his own except for that will the player enacts through him. The Spirit is the player. What could I possibly have to teach you about yourself? If you size up the eleven Sisters and none of them endear themselves to you more than any other, none of them move you with their suffering, none of them inspire you with their conviction, and none of them seems deserving of a chance at a real life on the surface, by all means feel free to ascend yourself, Golden Eyes. But if you do, I do have one thing to teach you about yourself: you might not be a very reliable or objective judge of character.

[apple-pecan]

Kingdom Hearts (2002)

for as long as the internet has been around, people have been bitching about video games. it's hard to imagine now, but back when kingdom hearts was first announced, people were both confused and outraged. it's admittedly a bizarre premise: it's a final fantasy action rpg, but with... disney characters. is this some sort of out of season april fool's joke? kingdom hearts, very much like wind waker, became the laughingstock of the internet... until the day it came out and promptly shut everyone up.

KH's infamously batshit overarching plot is actually not too bad in this game; sora and his best friends riku and kairi want nothing more than to see other worlds outside their tiny little island. be careful what you wish for though cuz evil shadowy creatures called heartless might invade your island and fucking BLOW IT UP!!!! at least sora has a cool looking key sword thing now. after the fall of destiny islands, sora is stranded in traverse town. he vows to find riku and kairi and try to find a way to restore his home. also donald and goofy are there too and the three team up, with them now ALSO looking for disney castle's king (guess who). along the way, riku shows that he has never seen a disney movie and manages to get duped by the villain of sleeping beauty, and now he's basically the edgy rival character. and there's this guy named ansem going around doing stuff. uh oh. so yeah, still a bit convoluted, but it's refreshingly straightforward compared to literally any of it's sequels.

the combat? i like it a lot, actually. as mentioned before it's an action rpg where you play as sora, swing your giant key around to battle the heartless, and use magic. it would get boring and repetitive after awhile, but there's like a bajillion abilities you can learn, either new actions or passives, which keep things fresh the whole way through. stuff like parrying attacks and being invulnerable when you cast healing spells, and many, many others. there's even cryptic choices you make at the beginning of the game where you can prioritize strength, defense, or magic, (changing your starting stats and the rewards for leveling up) and then choose one of the other two to give up. dont be like 9 year old me and take the sword and give up the shield. just. dont. it's no dark souls when it comes to having hundreds of builds, but it does reward repeat playthroughs with all the options you can give yourself.

the combat is good fun, but the level design and platforming needed some work, and this is where the game aged the worst. some levels like the tarzan one are really confusing if you're first playing the game, and whenever sora has to make a series of jumps, i fear for my life. i guess you could say they're more open and ripe for exploration than in kh2, which are usually pretty linear areas that are hard to get lost in. of note in the hall of shame is the little mermaid level, which is a water level, and all the baggage that comes with it. not only that but all the areas look the fucking same, it's not clear how to progress, and there's a grating MIDI of under the sea playing almost the entire fucking time. MAKE IT STOP!!!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! other than that though the stages are pretty fun, i like the nightmare before christmas level and hollow bastion the most.

the music, done by yoko shimomura of street fighter 2 and super mario rpg fame, is quite good. the title track "dearly beloved" is a short but somber and effective piano piece that's there to let you know that this isn't your grandma's disney interactive game. and if that doesn't cue you in that something's up, "destati", the loud, omnious choir music that plays in the tutorial area, totally wont terrify you if you were an 8 year old disney lover who just wanted to have a fun happy time with mickey mouse. not that I was that kid or anything... "kairi" is a gorgeous little song that keeps being remixed over the course of the game, sounding more emotional each time. and the boss themes are epic as fuck, namely "forze del male" which will play as you get your pathetic ass handed to you by riku ninety times in a row gOD DAMMIT RIKU STOP FUCKING USING THAT DBZ TELEPORTING SLASH MOVE.

they can't all be winners though; "traverse town" is iconic at this point, sure, but at the end of the day it's still a 30 second loop you have to hear over and over AND OVER AGAIN. and there's the aforementioned "under the sea" midi. at least traverse town's battle theme "hand in hand" goes fucking hard tho. and of course, there's non-binary icon hikaru utada's "simple and clean". enough said. really. actually no WHEN YOU WALK AAAAAWAY YOU DONT HEAR MEEEEEE SAY PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGOD FUCKING DAMMIT NOW IT'S GONNA BE IN MY HEAD FOR THE NEXT EIGHT HOURS.

this review has gone on way too long so ill just wrap it up by saying kingdom hearts is one of the best action RPGS on the PS2 (and in general, really) and is an inspirational tale of how despite a premise for something being a hard sell, sometimes if you let them cook, they can come up with something truly magical. unless your game takes 8 years to make, but is named after an obscure tiny toons character, is a hero shooter 5 years after everyone collectively got sick of them, and gets shut down after a week after twelve people buy it. hahaaaaa, topical!

9/10

NOTE: the superboss kurt zisa is named after a guy who won a contest before the US version of the game came out. i thought it was just some name they came up with willy nilly but no, there's an actual guy in this country named kurt zisa. imagine if i won that contest instead! ooooooh watch out for the ultra scary and powerful secret boss... apple pecan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! squeak :3