#kh darkside

[kudotsurugi]

Over the previous week, a pilot animatic for a cancelled Kingdom Hearts was released to the public on YouTube by director Seth Kearsley. At the time of writing, Kearsley has since set the pilot to Private at the request of a friend at Disney, and it is no longer available on his YouTube channel.

However, it was up long enough that I got a chance to see it, and I loved it. So, I decided to redraw a few shots from the pilot, once again using Shiro Amano's style as a reference.

Hopefully one day we will get a proper animated series for the franchise, but until then, this pilot is the closest we've gotten.

[cringefail-kh-battle]

[dragonkeyblade]

Vs Ansem phase 2 kh1fm proud lvl1

aeroga made the ansem second fight a lot easier.

[soulguardianazeralith]

Guess who started rewatching the Union X cutscenes again

[tharkflark1]

Happy 22nd birthday Kingdom hearts!!!

[miss-sternennacht]

[naughts-skyway]

[blowingoffsteam2]

Darksides are and always have been Sora’s shadow, literally and figuratively. That is why they are depicted with tear lines streaming down their face as though they are crying, with their mouth covered and gagged by their own body, unable to express their emotions, and a hollow chest. In this essay I will

[devileaterjaek]

[dominicsorel]

Enormous Heartless that appeared in Destiny Islands with Shadows. It led the Shadows in the battle against Sora when he first received the Keyblade. Although Sora defeated it, the island was swallowed by the darkness.

[cyberpunkboytoy]

darkside nation is FUCKED. xemnas made me retroactively want to fuck sephiroth because no other character came close

okay, but. Does he show hole?

I didn't think so

[cringefail-kh-battle]

[dragonkeyblade]

Vs Darkside kh 358/2 days proud

[tharkflark1]

WIP for a certain anniversary two wednesdays from now <3

[kyzveryown]

OBSERVATIONS: KH MISSING LINK BETA #III

I’ve returned with another Observations for the third Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link closed beta. Like the second closed beta, there wasn’t much in terms of story which is to be expected. Below is a list of notes, thoughts, and observations I wrote down as I was watching the story cutscenes.

[Note: For context, I’m differentiating the versions of Scala ad Caelum from KHML and KH3/DR from the other. So, "α-Scala" refers to the KHML version, "β-Scala" refers to the KH3/DR version. Lastly, I call Brain "Blaine". It's just a preference.]

— It seems like the Founders (presumably) were able to track the temporal paths (the paths in which they're traveling through time) of the Union Leaders after they departed from the Ark before Daybreak's collapse. A "connection point" was mentioned so based on that, there can be two possibilities to explain what might've happened; the Ark's pods had a set destination and were supposed to arrive at the same point but didn't due to some unforeseen circumstance. Or the Ark's pods each had separate destinations and the Founders weren't expecting their temporal paths to be that spread out (basically, they were expecting them all to arrive roughly around the same time but not decades apart). This could mean that each pod traveled through time at different speeds. That would explain why they all arrived at different points in time. However, given what we know about the mental and physical effects of time travel via the pods, I'd say it's the first possibility. — Blaine and the Player seemingly arrived in α-Scala at the same time? The Founders (presumably) were anticipating Blaine's arrival, but not the Player's. So, that makes the Player an anomaly which is suspicious considering when, where, and how they initially died. How did their soul/heart even get back? — I wonder what the black feather represents. Maybe there's a secret society in α-Scala that worships and/or follows the path of darkness. It'd be interesting if that ends up being true. — I remember someone over on Twitter saying the Organization XIII-esque twins standing on the rooftop reminded them Kadaj and Loz from FFVII: Advent Children and now I can't unsee it. — The twins are tracking the Player (and possibly Remus) for some reason. I wonder why? Also, that short scene with them on the rooftop reminds me of KHIV reveal trailer. It mirrors the part where you see the Master (presumably) and the other hooded figure watching Sora fight the Kaiju Darkside. Of course, there's the possibility that neither of the black coats are The Master. Could be someone else entirely. — Nept definitely knows more than he's letting on. It seems like he has the power to either alter or erase memories and based on that one specific shot, that power may have something to do with his eye(s). This is a huge reach but maybe he has a Gazing eye? It wouldn’t be all that surprising if someone other than The Master had one. The Gazing eye could be something like a gift or a curse bestowed upon someone from a higher power (*cough FFXIII). It’d be interesting if that’s the case. — Looks like my "astral plane could be a chaotic realm" claim isn't too far off. I'll reserve my thoughts on that and wait for more information. If that turns out to even be somewhat true, then I’m going to have A LOT to talk about. Trust me, I am itching to write about that, but I’ll be patient.

And that covers all of my thoughts for now. Still patiently waiting for the game to release (again, whenever that’ll be).

[dreamsy990]

SPONTANEOUS MINI REVIEW BECAUSE I REALIZED THAT I HAVENT FUCKING TALKED ABOUT FRAGMENTARY PASSAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok so. i actually really liked this one!

so uh. if you witnessed that incredibly long thread i made yelling about kh3 you will know that i. am not a fan of the look of modern kh. i think its kind of uninteresting compared to the delightfully cartoony style and just generally i dont like more realistic looks to games that already had a unique visual identity.

so im here to say that i think it works for 0.2! im a good way through kh3 and i dont think it works well there and ill get to that when i eventually review that game but. in 0.2 i think the new style fits the more dark tone very nicely, and the enviornments are absolutely gorgeous. like i came out of ddd thinking absolutely nothing could top symphony of sorcery in terms of world design and was proven wrong. the realm of darkness is my new favorite kh "world". for my mutuals who havent played kh, look at this!!! its absolutely gorgeous

and the environments are actually my favorite thing about this game. besides being beautiful, theyre also delightfully trippy and unsettling. theres a section where you have to climb up a seemingly never ending staircase, and every time you reach what you think is the top you hear aquas worst thoughts. a lot of the areas are twisted, destroyed versions of worlds seen in bbs. its very dark (fitting, for the realm of darkness) and honestly its a treat to just walk around admiring the view. the visual storytelling is as good as kh ever gets.

i briefly mentioned aquas thoughts a minute ago so ill bring them up again, her commentary adds a lot to the desolate atmosphere, and this game really feels like a character study. it shows her desperation, her worst thoughts, her hope despite everything, and its just genuinely good. i havent been able to say that about khs character writing since like. days. its GOOD.

i am. not a fan of bbs' writing. i think its got a good underlying concept with absolutely terrible execution, and it makes me wonder at times if the things i like about it were intentional or not. but this game takes the best written character of bbs and gives her more depth than they ever could before. i can say with confidence that aqua is one of the best characters in the series, and a lot of it is because of this game.

the tone here is very gloomy, but thats not really a complaint because the game is so short. the depressing atmosphere isnt too much to bear because youre barely in it for more than 2 hours. and i think that run time is EXACTLY long enough. it goes for exactly as long as it needs to tell the story and still give a moment to breathe.

as for gameplay. im not the biggest fan of the updated system. i like to think im open to change with kh's combat. i think the command deck has potential and the card system in com was fun and i actually liked days' panel system. but something about the way this new version of the system feels to play is just. unsatisfying. hits dont feel like they have any weight to me, and spells feel inconsequential despite being more grandiose than ever. its just not as good as it was before, and like its a sort of half assed replacement of reaction commands. the way they incorporated style changes into it was okay, but again its not as satisfying as it was in bbs. but maybe it was just satisfying in bbs because the rest of the combat there sucked

tldr, the things i care about in a game (writing and visuals) were fucking spectacular, but the gameplay definitely had room to improve. also if i ever have to fight a darkside again ill throw up and cry! 8/10, though im tempted to raise it to a 9 for the environments alone