#KH mechanics to lore

[lockandkeyblade]

Okay so getting a returning interest in KH means I'm finally catching up on the mobile games and question: when the fuck was someone gonna tell me that Dark Road literally lays out that individual worlds are still reforming during the time when Eraqus and Xehanort are students?

I am frothing at the mouth at the things this game has been confirming that I've been wondering about for years. Yes, Keyblade society has basically been eating itself alive- Scala ad Caelum is near empty even when they're students.

And y'all are gonna let me find out that the worlds are likely still reforming in Sora's time, that time is literally funky between each world due to the differing rates in which they reform, from a goddamn youtube video showcasing cutscenes????

The potential worldbuilding is phenomenal. The potential what ifs are insane. What if LoD and the Keyblade Graveyard had been on completely different time speeds and Vanitas or Ventus had aged differently in comparison to each other? How many years have Sora Riku and Kairi actually been gone? Some worlds take months and some take seconds to rush through and the absolute cognitive dissonance of like, joining an army for the new friend you made who's trying to hide as a girl, for example, spending months gaining the trust of your captain and eventually saving the emperor, just to trot back to Radiant Garden and be told "oh Sora don't be silly you've been gone less than a day"--

This is how I know the fandom is dead on the fanfiction side of things because this is just begging to be experimented with and if it is I am not seeing it.

[lockandkeyblade]

#you could also interpret it as#a complete ventus is mostly darkness#Which is a thought that drives me personally insane

Okay okay but

I'm gonna be devil's advocate because I love you and I know you understand me. <3 The fact that Vanitas took too much and he's taken, at most, a third of Ven's Heart?

Back in the day it was always posited that by "Vanitas took too much" it meant that he'd taken some Light with him along the way, and maybe he did. Maybe he took a few pieces, maybe there's some Light that was ripped out with the Darkness, jagged little edges because Vanitas is greedier, Vanitas would take more than just the Darkness if he could.

But then that would mean the amount of Darkness in Ven's Heart, outside of the Pure Darkness that was potentially there as well, would be less, not more. Except we don't know what the base average is.

Ven looks like he's maybe, at best, Light to Dark on a 70:30 scale. Maybe less. Maybe 80:20. That kind of seems insane, to me. We don't really have anyone else (and we will probably never have anyone else) to sort of, give a good contrast to this. Show what the absence of Light or Darkness looks like in another Heart, so we have a clearer understanding of what the average should be.

I do want to posit that Ven is actually keenly more Light than most people would be, but I am hinging that alongside the frustration of, we don't actually know, and probably won't ever know. Is 70:30 actually a huge amount of Darkness in comparison to most people? It might be. Is it a lot less? It might be.

The average Heart might be 55:45. Maybe it's actually supposed to be closer to 50:50. Maybe it's actually supposed to be like, 90:10, max. Maybe Riku and Terra are sitting at 80:20 and that much Darkness is A Lot.

'Ventus' could've been more Dark than most. He could've been more Light than most. Maybe he's just average, but we don't. Know. We don't know and it drives me insane.

How do you want me to interpret this but Vanitas not wanting to let go of Ventus? That he ripped so much of his Heart because he didn't want to be apart?

[sweeteastart]

I wish I could say sike 😔

[caitas-cooing]

I could just look this up, but does anyone want to info dump about Sonic lore to me? I never played any of the games, so I don't know much, but seems like a very common special interest/ hyperfixation so I'd like to learn some things

[reinventingaxel]

Every day I am devastated I will never be able to play 358/2

Guys axel is a playable character,,, my blorbo

[lockandkeyblade]

Love this love this love this; hope you don't mind if I add a few onto here because I've been deep diving KH lore for A While.

Keyblades take after their wielders, but it isn't inherently all that they are. They are little slices of Kingdom Hearts. They are extensions of the heart that wield them. They are past, present and future, so they identify things in their wielders that they may not have yet discovered about themselves.

Dive to the Hearts are something that are used to help a Keyblade form based on what their wielder needs them to be. For an apprentice who is growing and changing, this means their blade can change with their growth! This adaptability can be for the benefit of their strengths or to help cover their weaknesses. For an apprentice a Dive to the Heart every few years is really beneficial.

Keyblades are kind of like guard dogs in disposition. The vast majority are extremely loyal and beholden to their bearer, and it's rare cases (Riku in KH1, Aqua with Rainfell) that prove the exception; mostly in situations where the wielder's desire to protect someone is stronger than their desire to protect themselves.

There's a lot of benefits to learning to listen to the 'voice' of your Keyblade. You can ask it to point you to a Keyhole. You can learn to identify when it is hesitant, which is usually a sign that you have some kind of personal block hindering your growth. Another reason that Dives to the Heart are critically important.

Keyblade communication isn't always just noises! Sometimes they light up! Sometimes they shoot off little sparks! They can get! Really excited! You're gonna let them play the way they like to play! Adventure! Battle! Teaching the young ones! Keyblades letting off little sparks when they're overjoyed or feeling something big!

...Do you mind if I ramble about hypothetical worldbuilding around Keyblades in these trying times.

Keyblades are semi-living weapons.  They’re forged from a piece of a person’s heart, and so act as an extension of the individual.  They have ‘personalities,’ in a way; some are mischievous and won’t always come when called, others are almost battle-hungry, others are gentle and may be harder to get to use offensive magic.  These personalities are all reflections of their wielders, in some way—though they might reflect parts of them they aren’t aware of at all.  Wielders are responsible for listening to their weapons and becoming more in-tune with them so that they can use the blades properly.

Keyblades all of their own ‘voices,’ too—a collection of sounds and impressions that vary in intensity depending on the situation.  (ex. A Starlight Keyblade might have a “voice” that sounds like crackling fire and crickets chirping and a cool night breeze.)  Most wielders would describe these voices as “singing” or “humming,” even if that’s not exactly what it’s like.

Becoming a wielder and becoming more in-tune with your Keyblade can be very daunting, which is why most young wielders are started off with training blades.  These blades are crafted by Keyblade Masters who’ve had years of experience both with wielding the actual weapon and with forging items.  The training blades aren’t “alive” in the same way that true Keyblades are, but they still have many of the same functions as one, allowing wielders to begin getting used to wielding one before they officially summon their own.

Wielders generally first summon their “true” Keyblade in their final year of training, before they take their Mark of Mastery exam.  This gives the apprentices a chance to learn some of the finer details of being a wielder under the watchful eyes of their Masters.

“Living” Keyblades tend to hum with energy, and even people who aren’t wielders can sometimes catch the sound of their voice.  “Dead” Keyblades are almost eerily silent.

A Keyblade may “live” longer than its owner, though the length of time varies.  Essentially, the Keyblade retains a piece of its wielder—memories, an impression of the wielders heart—which will slowly deteriorate.  These memories may occasionally manifest as “ghosts.”

Occasionally, a wielder may inherit an existing Keyblade, rather than summon their own.  Generally, this only occurs with very old Keyblades with a lot of symbolic meaning, which have been kept alive generation after generation by bonding to new wielders.  (As such, these Keyblades have also continued to grow in power, as they continue to collect pieces of the new wielders they bond to.)  Usually these wielders are meant to take up positions of power, and the Keyblade is bequeathed to them in a special ceremony.  Their own Keyblades will often (though not always) remain dormant because of this.

(On even rarer occasions, wielders will pick up the still-living Keyblades of recently deceased loved ones and claim them as their own.  The effects are not always positive.)

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

y’all. We need to have a talk about the union leaders’ keyblades

okay, so the first thing you have to know is that khx and khux’s keyblades are different. khux introduced new keyblades that weren’t included in khx originally, but! khux also made some changes to the keyblades that were originally in khx. Namely, it removed some of the in-between forms of each keyblade

(credit to this image via @appre-chi-ation)

As seen above, khx’s Starlight originally had these 5 forms in khx. The base form, plus its 4 upgrade forms.

But khux’s Starlight only has these forms, essentially having its upgrade line cut in half, and the addition of a new final form (sorta lol, it just glows)

This is the same for all the khx-khux keyblades. Starlight, Treasure Trove, Lady Luck, Three Wishes, Olympia, Divine Rose, and Moogle O’Glory all have their upgrade lines essentially compressed in khux.

Now, why does this matter? Ephemera, Skuld and Strelitzia wield this Starlight form in particular:

This is Starlight upgrade 3 / 4th form overall. It only exists in khx.

And Lauriam wields this:

Divine Rose upgrade 3 / 4th form overall. It also only exists in khx.

Since we know that the chi saga (and kh in general but chi specifically) is really great at tying gameplay mechanics and lore together, I think I actually understand the potential lore significance of this now.

These four were wielders before the war and were chosen to be union leaders. Putting Strelitzia aside for obvious reasons, Ephemera, Skuld and Lauriam escape to the new world wielding a form of their respective keyblades that actually doesn’t exist there. Now we don’t actually know why these forms don’t exist in this world from a narrative standpoint, but it might have to do with everyone’s memories being overwritten except theirs, or maybe it’s a glitch in the data that wasn’t taken into consideration (or maybe it was placed there on purpose? 👀 but this is just speculation).

Whatever the reason is, the fact that they wield non-existent keyblade forms from a forgotten reality could potentially explain why their keyblades never get upgraded past that, despite them being union leaders. You’d think that they would upgrade to the strongest form, right? Maybe going to the new world/reality stunted their keyblades’ evolution, and they’re just stuck with what they came with because they weren’t able to finish maxing out their keyblades before the war. (This is why you always do your materials quests, kids!)

Now, the reason they don’t just choose to wield a different, stronger keyblade instead is a whole other thing. Amongst the “new” keyblades brought into khux (Stroke of Midnight, Sleeping Lion, Counterpoint, Fenrir, Darkgnaw, Missing Ache, Fairy Stars, and Diamond Dust [Bad Guy Breaker is a special case]), they certainly have a lot to choose from.

My guess is either A. they simply can’t, as in, they’re physically unable to switch their particular keyblades in for a different one because of the circumstances of data Daybreak Town or because of something Ava did, or B. they chose not to, in order to just have a memento of the pre-war world, before their life changed drastically. I’m leaning towards the latter, since Blaine gives Ephemera Master’s Defender while they’re in data Daybreak Town and it wouldn’t make sense if there was even a possibility that Ephemera wouldn’t be able to use it there. This opens up a whole conversation about keyblade lore and how keyblades themselves change overtime and in different circumstances, along with how data worlds might affect keyblades. But that’s a whole other can of worms.

Anyways, here’s the most interesting part about all this…

Ven.

He wields Missing Ache upgrade 2 / 3rd form overall.

Already right from the get-go, you can see that this is different from the “formula” the other leaders are following (except Blaine, who’s the exception here, as he is to many things). Unlike the other leaders, Ven wields a keyblade that wasn’t in khx, but is included in khux as a “new” keyblade. He’s wielding a keyblade that was only put into use in the new world where everyone had their memories wiped in some capacity, including him. His keyblade is an anomaly. It may have very well been a big hint about him being an anomaly amongst the other union leaders!

tl;dr the union leaders were nerfed, the hints about Ven being a fake leader were there all along, and we need more keyblade lore. Thanks for coming to my ted talk ✌️

(an additional P.S.: Eph and Skuld were introduced in khx, so it’s possible that the main reason they were given their particular Starlight form was so they could be relative to Player’s hypothetical strength level at the time they’re introduced. But I still like to believe that there’s this additional significance to it)

[lilyginnyblackv2]

New KH4 images from SE Official account.

Some personal thoughts on all of this...meh.

1. These images were put out as a PR Damage Control post after SE announced the cancellation of Missing Link. I had absolutely no love for ML and was (and still am) happy to see a shitty, predatory, slop gacha game for the series get cancelled (my heart does go out to the devs that worked on the game and fans that were excited to play it though). But fans should keep in mind that these images are a sorry, "Sorry. Here look, we are still working on KH4. We swear!" type of images, likely not only for fans of the franchise, but also investors. These images were likely not planned to be released any time soon.

2. So, I really think that fans should curb their expectations. Some fans already think we are going to be getting some kind of trailer soon...I doubt it. Not only do these images still look to be in quite an early stage of development (specifically the first image that shows gameplay), we need to keep in mind that Missing Link was going to be the game to hold fans over until KH4 came out. Now there is going to be nothing, though maybe they will provide more mini-updates on the game, which would be a good thing. But I think expecting a trailer any time soon is getting a bit ahead.

3. I'm not a fan of the hyper realism or the city setting. Like, yes, I know it's Tokyo. Or, at least, some alternative Tokyo, and that is cool. I do like Tokyo. I've been to Tokyo and lived in Tokyo for three months (Setagaya) (edit: and very close to it in Kawasaki City for three years), but visually, Tokyo is kinda boring. Not gonna lie. Visually, I prefer cities like Kobe and Nara. So seeing so much city landscape just reminds me of the KH3 BH6 world, which I hated. Now, it's just a more hyper realistic city setting.

4. I know that this is really only for this one world and not the whole game. But, so far, nearly all the visuals we've gotten for KH4 have been of the city, so that's largely what I am going off of. I'm just not a fan. My favorite FF is X because I love the colors and the wacky outfits and the vibrant and unique appearances of many of the locations found in Spira. My favorite KH games are KH1 and DDD. Both games have cartoonish charm to them. I miss the old look of the game and hope other worlds shown in KH4 visually appeal to me a bit more, though the city is likely going to be the new hub world, so we are going to be spending a lot of time there.

5. Sora's design is okay. But his shoes being blue in this image is really bugging me and I still prefer his older design over this new one.

6. I don't like the Heartless designs shown here. They are weird and creepy in a bad way for me, but that may be due to the unfinished look of the shots still. Also, I'll note here, that any of my thoughts and opinions here are not meant to be jabs at the devs in any way. Any gripes I have are not reflective of my feelings on the devs, who I am sure are all working hard and I am wishing them all the best!

7. I sincerely don't care about any of the mobile game lore or characters. I tried back in the day. I watched YT videos in prep for KH3...but I just sincerely do not care. So outside of me thinking Strelitzia looks pretty here, I don't really have any thoughts on that.

8. Most of these images just don't make me think, "Kingdom Hearts!" tbh They don't even really make me think of Final Fantasy either. The vibe mostly feels off, especially with Sora just standing next to realistic looking cars.

9. I have zero interest in the build mechanic and if it is like TOTK I will actively hate that mechanic, lol.

10. The two images that intrigue me the most here are the rotary phone (interesting image to include!) and the Mickey image. Playable Mickey is great and I like the design of the area he is in. It looks like platforming may be returning too, which I would LOVE, but I'm keeping my hopes low on that.

I'm just personally not sold on KH4 yet and KH3 burned me to the franchise so bad. I hated that game pretty deeply and it damaged a lot of the love that I had for the series as a whole. So, I am personally deeply skeptic and critical of KH4, especially because I didn't care for the KH4 trailer that we got years ago either. The game is still a long way off though, so maybe my thoughts on it will change as we see more over the years.

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

You should be required to either name three popular theories about kh OR five game mechanics which changed between games before you're allowed to make a video about it

This would greatly reduce the amount of "kh is silly and has overly complicated lore but lol nostalgia, also I only played the main three games and maybe com but I swear my opinion about kh3 being confusing is valid!" videos that exist

[lockandkeyblade]

I was so desperate I followed teddie into your inbox sue me.

And yeah YEAH Riku is really bad no good damn awful at apologizing for anything. His idea of an apology is beating up Sora's other self and shoving him in a computer to have his entire identity broken into tiny little pieces so Sora can wake up so really, is it a surprise? And poor Kairi is just kind of here with no idea of how this has affected Sora and you know what that's another thing I gotta make of note of to Change because not in my Heart Hotel no sir no how-

This poor kid is literally the tipping point. He is the one who essentially increases the amount of Wielders in the universe for the first time instead of us continuing to see a rapid decline and he is so shafted by fate it isn't funny.

Why not think his power is entirely linked to his friends why not that is the only consistency he's had for three goddamn years. He can't even begin to say that part of it might've been himself because that part might've been Roxas or Ventus or Xion instead.

*LOUDLY VIBRATES IN YOUR INBOX* Sora McKingdom Hearts HAS NEVER BEEN OKAY help me I didn't expect to wake up to these feelings

HELLO its so rare so have someone in my inbox that isn't teddie i did a double take

do you ever think about how riku never apologized for calling sora a delivery boy. I actually think about it a lot. because if riku did anything in KH1 that truly hurt sora on a deep level I think it was what happened at the beginning of hollow bastion. Like it ties into this wider thing I think where by the time we hit KH3 sora's in this place where riku and kairi's cheerful friendly ribbing is clearly hurting his feelings

riku's a keyblade master and kairi's getting specialized training but sora is still on his own. even as sora heralds in a new era of keyblade wielders and fills out the ranks of living wielders, nobody's there to teach sora like that. nobody's there to support him . donald and goofy rely on him and so do all the people he needs to save and riku's already way ahead of him...

like, no wonder he thinks he's nothing without his friends. i would too goddamn

[foreststarflaime]

Star if you intend to watch the KH world cutscenes I need you to understand that in 3 when they made Sora and co look like they fit in the world and stuff they were massively stepping it up from KH2. In that game they just dropped in everyone's normal models and put some dingy shaders on them but the world around them was realistic and it. I know you've reblogged one of these screencaps from me but I can't explain how actually jarring it is in motion.

I can never get over this just Goofy watching as photorealistic Orlando Bloom dies in photorealistic Keira Knightley's arms. Phtotorealistic Geoffrey Rush and co talking to Pete Disney himself

I will say though even if the visual implementation of the kh characters in thus version of the world was. A very valiant effort, gameplay wise they were always very good about integrating with the world's story bc the movies aren't wanting for good fight fights ex. The showdown at Isla de Muerta is a boss fight with Barbossa and there's like a mechanic about needing to get him into the moonlight to be able to harm him. Don't think about the lore implications it's a video game and we needed to he able to fight him. Focus on this monkey Heartless who fights alongside him

I have seen one very brief clip where Sora Goofy and Donald are on the beach of Davy Jones’ locker and Jack and the gang are talking and then it just cuts outward to them standing there casually next to them and I genuinely could not stop laughing for like five minutes straight. I think that was one of the first times I had ever been made aware of the existence of Kingdom Hearts actually and I would not have it any other way

MONKEY HEARTLESS :0 its tail looks like a lantern and I want to put fire in it

[blowingoffsteam2]

Im just curious about your opinion, how would you rank all of the kingdom hearts games and which is your favorite over all? I have a personal bias towards the first game and MoM to be honest 😊

TBH I feel like I can't rank them at all because I love most of them for different reasons. I've never played Recoded or Days or KHMoM (except for the free trial) but I love the stories of Recoded and Days so much. The only kh game I can say I have a somewhat negative opinion of is BBS which might be blasphemy but that's just what I feel- but even with BBS it has some of my favorite scenes in the series (all the scenes with baby Sora and Riku of course) and I still really like all the lore it introduced, I just didn't care for how the game as a whole was executed. KH1 will always be the most nostalgic game for me and I WISH kh would bring back the little puzzles and exploration surprises that kh1 had. KH2 is also super nostalgic and Drive Forms are my favorite combat mechanic, plus it has my favorite Dearly Beloved of the series. DDD is a pure comfort game for me, obviously the soriku stuff is phenomenal and I just love the colors and the dream eaters, and Riku's story really gets to shine here. KH3 to me is just so deeply intriguing with all the mysteries it hints at. KHUX and Dark Road while I never really liked actually playing them (who did?) in my opinion they have two of the best stories in the series. I don't know what it is about them but the characters are just all SO endearing to me and the art style was just amazing.

[lockandkeyblade]

Oooooh look look okay yes let's debate this @finitevoid @shuuru get in here we're going shopping.

There is something about the X-blade.

It speaks, on such a deep, horrifying level, that for a ten year old boy being approached by Pure Darkness and kind of-- maybe not willingly possessed but coming into that knowledge with the determination to fight back (If you're Pure Darkness then that means I'm Pure Light), we then see him ~12 years old, a nervous, broken wreck. One screaming that he isn't strong enough.

It speaks, on such a deep, horrifying level, that for a 16 year old boy, one split in two who can never be that original person again, two halves of a whole where one seeks power through friendship and one seeks power through assimilation, Ven can gesture at himself and say, "I don't know what the X-blade is, but it scares me to death."

As much as I like to say Ven is martyr coded and yes, sure, he is, he dies two times over because of his fear of the X-blade. Once as 'Ventus', once as Ven. He rejects his Other Self, mere-- I wanna say maybe an hour after demanding his friends fucking Kill Him rather than let the X-blade come into existence. He's not That Martyr Coded. He's self-sacrificing in a way where he would get hurt for others without blinking, but Ven as we know him has only ever actively asked for death thanks to one thing.

'Ventus' wanted power, and you know what I think the X-blade was just... it is the 'be careful what you wish for'. Not Pure fucking Darkness, not everything in KHUX, not even the torture Xehanort was putting him through. The X-Blade is the moment 'Ventus' looks at power, through his longing for power (power and friendship) and sees something horrible. Realizes that oh, he made a mistake. He made a huge mistake.

And he dies for it. He's ripped into pieces that have completely opposing views on it. One part of him wants the X-blade desperately, because it represents, to him, becoming whole again. It is still power.

The other half wants to die to avoid it. Ven would die, to avoid it.

The X-blade is like staring into the abyss and the abyss Stares Back.

Speaking of Ventus, because well, nothing new, I do think it's kinda interesting how khux Ventus and bbs Ven are about power (friendship forever), but Ventus that spent a year with Xehanort was actively refusing it

[zdbztumble]

Yet Another Kingdom Hearts Revisit, Part VI

Atlantica is my favorite world in KH I. It may be my favorite world in the entire series. That isn't because I love the movement mechanics of the underwater world, though I do enjoy them. And it's not because I love the storytelling in this world, though I do think it's a brilliant section for plot, character, and lore (more on all those momentarily). It's my favorite because Ariel is an option for your battle party.

That might seem a slight reason, but The Little Mermaid is not only one of my favorite Disney films, but one of my favorite films full stop. Depending on my mood on a given day, it may take the top slot on a Disney list. But the one substantive issue I have with it is a big one: despite Ariel being the heroine, every other element of the film existing to service her story, she has almost nothing to do with defeating the villain who manipulated and betrayed her. Worse, she ends up a damsel in distress at the bottom of whirlpool. For Kingdom Hearts to make Ariel a party member who can fight against Ursula - in both forms - was so gratifying the first time I played this game, and it's remained so ever since. If KH III deserves credit for nothing else, bringing back Ariel as a Link Summon (the most useful one after Simba IMO) was a great move, but combat-ready Ariel in your party as part of a story that pays off all her talents and personality still takes the cake, and it's one of the best things this series has ever done with a Disney character. (It also removed the only possible rationale for giving The Little Mermaid the live action remake treatment, but I'll spare you my thoughts on that ongoing enterprise today.)

Ariel's dynamic with Sora is also one of the strongest between him and a Disney character from outside Mickey's realm. They've got a nice big sister-little brother vibe. Had the Kingdom Hearts TV series ever panned out, it would've been great to see that expanded on. But there's also some nice thematic work achieved through their relationship, Ariel's wanderlust mirroring Sora's from earlier in the game and Sora having become world-weary by that point. Given how pronounced that quality became in KH II, it's a shame that aspect couldn't have been tapped again.

And then there's King Triton, better-versed in Keyblade lore than Sora, Riku, the Traverse Town crew, and even Genie. Whoever's idea that was in the writing process, it was a great choice, and well-placed within the narrative. Had the possibility of a destructive Keyblade master come up too soon, it might have made it too easy to predict some of the twists in Hollow Bastion; too late, and there wouldn't have been time for a sense of foreboding to build. Though I do wish the graphics of the time would have let Triton's destruction of the crystal trident been a little more like his attack on the grotto from the film (the scariest scene in a Disney film for little-kid-me).

Gameplay wise, I prefer Ursula's first stage to the second. Once you get the hang of avoiding their attacks, the big-head enemies in KH I are a little too easy IMO. The first stage is more involved. On the other hand, defeating the big-head Ursula with Ariel in the party is a more cathartic experience, for all the reasons mentioned above.

Finally, I'd be curious to learn more about the music decisions for KH I. How did Atlantica and Halloweentown come to be the only worlds (besides the Disney Castle cutscenes) to use music from their respective films? I'm glad they did; playing along to "Under the Sea" is great. But Yoko Shimomura could certainly have come up with something fitting.

[zackuro-justo]

Since it's FNAF's 10th anniversary, I thought it was a good time to reveal a passion project I've been working on for a good while...

I'M WORKING ON A FNAF FANGAME 🎉

Yeah that KH FNAF AU I showed off recently? I mayyy have purposely left out the fact that it's for a fangame 🤭

MORE INFO BELOW ⬇️

Since July 29th-31st I've actually brought up the idea to a friend, and he encouraged me to go for trying to make this fangame, this dear friend, plus my beloved partner have helped me work on the story, lore, characters, environment, and mechanics since then.

I have spent multiple days making concepts for characters and settings and just today I finalized the main faces of the fangame and can safely say, I can finally show them to you! There's way more characters (both human & animatronic alike), but I'm not showing them just yet✌🏼😉

The story for this is actually something I wanted to make as unique as possible, so a lot of hard work and love is being put into this project, while not being too complicated either, as this is my first ever fangame, let alone the first time a passion project is taking off.

Fair warning, I do not have any way to tamper with clickteam, code, or 3d modeling, so right now I'm working harder on design alongside my friend and my partner, Im not working with a team, and if I were to work with a team, this is entirely non-profit and will not be able to pay.

There's also a slim chance I'll make a discord server for those interested in the development for it, tho some of the concept may not be shown due to spoilers 🤭 if you are indeed interested, let me know!

The name of this fangame will be "A ROTTEN HEART"

(^ it has significance)

There may be 2 FNAF characters from the og FNAF shown, but what I can reveal is that their lives are MUCH different in this AU, MUCH, MUCH different. There's a lot planned and I really do hope y'all will be interested to follow development all the way to the end 😌

Also! If there's anyone who'd like to add a helping hand into making this fangame, please DM me to talk about what you can contribute into, you can DM me on here, or request to DM on Discord, Instagram, Twitter/X, or Tiktok (<— my available socials, most active on Twitter/X & Discord)

If you read this entire post, thank you so so much for reading all the way through, and I can't wait to show more from this fangame <3

Five Nights at Freddy's © 2014, Scott Cawthon

Kingdom Hearts © 2002, Square Enix & Disney

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

been having thoughts about what it would be like if Overmorrow was a game and

okay khux customization jokes aside, the game would be Ephemera running around Cable Town doing various quests, fighting Heartless, the usual kh stuff….all while he’s got this unique status effect: I’d make his level start at like…100 for example, and then make it gradually decrease as each day goes by, as his mental state deteriorates. Something similar to the status Roxas has for a bit in Days where his level gets halved because he’s “having an off day”

I’d probably also throw in some kind of Stardew Valley/Harvest Moon-esque mechanic where he has to earn the trust (hearts) of the townspeople and gather information about the culture/architecture/lore along the way because yay worldbuilding! But also just to let his curious nature, his characterization shine through. ​You know what they say, you either die a deuteragonist or live long enough to take on your dear friend’s role as the protagonist (no one says this)

alas, I’m no game dev, just thought these were fun thoughts :)