#nothing beats this for me Destiny Islands kingdom hearts 1

[holleighgram]

Hold onto your keyboards, cause I'm about to get ✨️controversial ✨️

I'd like to preface this by saying all interpretations/ headcanons/ readings/ etc. Are valid and I'm in no way discouraging anyone to change their ways.

I watched (and enjoyed) Baloney's "The Truth About Kingdom Hearts!" And I absolutely adored their take on the series, but one line stuck out to me that I really want to expand on because I don't see it being talked about as often as it should.

Kairi doesn't like Riku.

And I think this is a very RICH and IMPORTANT aspect of the Destiny Trio dynamic. It adds to the complexity of these characters, but especially Kairi.

(Another shout out to @violethowler and their INCREDIBLE Constructing Kingdoms series. The video on"The Girl Who Never Grew Up" made me like and understand Kairi so much more. Highly recommend checking it out.)

Kairi doesn't like Riku, and with some pretty valid reasons, but I'll get to that after I compile all the evidence towards this:

In KH:

Kairi likes her life the way it is. She doesn't desire change, but Riku wants nothing but change. He wants to grow up and move on and see the outside world.

And because Sora looks up to him, Sora has jumped on the bandwagon too. Kairi is going along because Sora is. But it is clear that for Kairi, change =/= good. So what does she say?

"You know, Riku's changed."

Sora asks her how, and she kinda bites her tongue. Clearly she had opinions, but doesn't want to badmouth Soras best friend to him. Later she says, "Sora, don't ever change."

Later, after everything, when Kairi is restored and in Travers Town, she doubts that Riku can be saved, despite the fact that she LITERALLY saved Sora from being a heartless. She almost seems like she's trying to convince Sora not to go, or to at least let her come with-- not to save Riku but because she wants to be there with Sora.

At the end of the game, she obviously return to destiny islands and draws the paopu.

During Chain of Memories, everyone forgets about Sora, but the memories of Riku stay intact. For a year. Kairi is well aware that her "friend" is missing. In fact, last she knew of him, he was still taken by Ansem and presumably dead or at least suffering. She doesn't know.

She knows she's a Princess of Heart and has powers thay can help (as she restored Sora after being a heartless). But the most we get is "he's far away, but I know we'll see him again." Like, do you?

I mean, SELPHIE is the one that says "I sure miss him." That's way more than we EVER get from Kairi.

So for a YEAR, she doesn't spare Riku a single thought. But the SECOND she remembers Sora, she is willing to do anything to see him again.

Here's a little bit of speculation for WHY she doesn't like Riku:

1) Perhaps when she first met them as kids, he reminder her of Xehenort, who kidnapped her and yeeted her into space.

2) Kairi wanted to be best friends with SORA, but not Riku. She's afraid that Sora will follow Riku to the outside worlds (where she doesn't want to go) and leave her behind. If it wasn't for Riku, Sora wouldn't want to leave at all.

3) He (as far as we know) opened the door and damned their home into Darkness. That's probably a point of contention for her. Even though Sora so forgiving.

4) He hurt Sora in KH1, but Sora is still loyal to him. She probably sees that as him taking advantage of Sora-- the person she cares most about.

5) He's the reason Sora never came home. If it wasn't for him, they would have gone home at the end of KH1 together.

I can't say for sure how Riku feels about Kairi. He DID drag her corpse around and give into the darkness to save her, but that can be interpreted as solely wanting to "beat " Sora at being the hero. Even still, we get moment in COM where he reflects on missing her. We even see Namine come to his rescue in her form. I definitely feel like there is less animosity there, but who knows.

That's all.

Roast me, Kairi stans, but I love the depth this reading gives to the story and the potential for arcs and character growth for her and she is forced to face who she is without Sora.

[phoenix-downer]

The Princess of Light Chapter 5: A Grieving Prince

~1840 words. Angst, Romance, Fluff, Fairy Tales. For SoKai Week 2021, Day 5.

Summary: Princess Kairi is cursed to be without love when she is a baby. She grows up cold and without a heart to help her understand other people’s feelings, no matter how hard her parents try to help her. One day, however, she meets a mysterious prince from a faraway world, and he just might hold the key to breaking her curse.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7

Fairies age much more slowly than humans, so when the king and queen met with the Violet Fairy about what was happening, she hardly looked a day older than she had at Princess Kairi’s christening. They were in her little house at the edge of the castle town, which was surrounded by the prettiest violets and forget-me-nots you’d ever seen. Most fairies preferred seclusion, but the Violet Fairy liked living near people and letting children play in her garden. 

Right now, however, the garden was full of royal guards. The Violet Fairy set dainty tea cups containing her famous violet tea out for her royal guests. Nothing helps a difficult conversation like some nice, warm tea, a principle the fairy lived and swore by. Once the king and queen were sipping their tea and the guards also each had a cup, she sat down to discuss why they had come.

“To answer your question, Your Majesties,” she began, “I suspect the light is draining from the pool because the Heart of the World has been injured.”

This news alarmed the king. If the Heart of the World was injured, the very world itself might die, and as its guardian and ruler, he had to do something about it. 

“But how?” the queen asked. “The Heart is buried deep underground and has a series of enchantments protecting it from harm.” 

“That may be,” the Violet Fairy said, “but the very strongest, wickedest types of dark magic might have found a way around those protections. Otherwise the pool wouldn’t be draining.” At this she turned to the king. “Fairies are forbidden from learning such magic because it would corrupt us like it has corrupted your sister, so I cannot say what has happened exactly, but that is my best guess.”

“Maleficent,” the king spat. “Of course. This has to be her doing. She despises Kairi and always has.”

The queen nodded. “We think she’s jealous of Kairi because Kairi will be queen someday. No matter how far we banish Maleficent, she keeps tormenting us.”

“My advice to you would be to find the Heart of the World as soon as possible,” the Violet Fairy said. “See if it is indeed wounded. If so, then you must search for some way to save it, or the very world will die, along with your daughter.”

The king and queen sent a group of soldiers to check on the Heart of the World in its cavern underground. When they reached it, the Violet Fairy’s hunch proved to be true: the Heart of the World was indeed smaller and less vibrant than it had been before, and that only happens if it has been wounded. So the king and queen ordered for every inch of Radiant Garden to be searched for a way to restore it. In the end a group of children found the answer, as it had washed up on the shore of Radiant Garden’s only sea. It was a small lucky charm, and it was made up of five thalassa shells. A curious sight indeed, for thalassa shells were native to Destiny Islands, not Radiant Garden.

On the lucky charm was engraved the following: 

Should the Heart of the World beat slow

And the light of the earth cease to flow

There is only one way to make things right

A young man must pour out his light 

Pour and pour till his heart beats no more

Only then will light flow from river to shore

The words of the lucky charm made the king and queen very sad. They didn’t want to ask anyone to die, but the world was doomed if they did not, and Kairi would surely die as well. The king wanted to offer himself up, but he didn’t fit the description, and neither did the queen. 

So it was with heavy hearts they made the announcement and sent the proclamation throughout Radiant Garden. A day went by, and not a single person volunteered. Two days, and Kairi’s condition took a turn for the worse. On the third day, the king retreated to the woods where the royal family owned a cottage to think about what to do. 

Now, Prince Sora had gone home to speak to his parents about how to help Princess Kairi. He was shocked to return to Radiant Garden to find the entire world in a state of mourning as the light pool shrank to a puddle while the hole in Kairi’s chest grew bigger and bigger and her skin colder and colder. 

He went to the inn where he’d stayed the first time, and on the door he saw the proclamation from the king and queen. With trembling hands he pulled it down and wandered into his room as if in a daze. No matter how many times he read the proclamation, his mind still spun and his heart pounded in his chest.

“I can’t let her die. If she dies, life is hardly worth living. But if I die,” at this Sora’s voice cracked a little, for he saw no way out of it; till his heart beats no more seemed rather clear, “she, along with the rest of the people of this world, will be saved.” His hand curled around the proclamation. “I’ve made up my mind, then. I’ll talk to her parents about being the sacrifice.”

This was how Sora ended up at the king’s cottage in the woods after the sun had set. The autumn breeze made him shiver after experiencing the warmth of his home world, but he steeled his nerves and knocked on the wooden door.

“Who goes there?” the king asked, rather irritably, for anything that wasn’t helping him solve his daughter’s dire state was a nuisance at best. 

When he opened the door, he was quite surprised to see a young man waiting just outside. Sora bowed low, as was proper when greeting a king. In fact he bowed as low as a servant would bow. He lowered himself to his hands and knees and bent his head, for he wanted to show how serious he was about saving Princess Kairi.

“Your Majesty, my name is Sora, and I have an offer to make.” 

At this, Sora fell silent, and a few agonizing moments ticked by till the king groaned. “Stop being cryptic and come out with it,” he said at last, pulling Sora to his feet. “My daughter is dying, the world’s in danger, and I haven’t got all day.” 

“Your dying daughter is why I’m here,” Sora said quietly. “I heard you need someone to restore the Heart of the World.”

“Are you offering?” the king asked, raising an eyebrow.

“On one condition.”

The king nearly lost his temper completely, for he couldn’t understand why Sora wouldn’t just put out all of his terms at once when the circumstances were so dire. “Out with it, boy!”

“I’d like Princess Kairi to keep me company as I give up my light.”

The king’s eyes widened; this was not the sort of request he’d been expecting. Bold of the boy to ask, but his voice was unwavering, and he refused to look away.

“And if it’s not too much to ask,” Sora continued, his voice growing stronger with every word, “I’d like her to tend to me when I’m hungry and thirsty. I want to make sure I… survive long enough to complete the ritual.” 

Restoring the Heart of the World sounded like it would be a very grueling task, because Sora knew the Heart must be much larger than his own. Would his light be enough, or would he fail? There was only one way to find out, and he wanted to make sure he made enough preparations to see this through.

“That can be arranged,” the king said, for he was not about to turn away his one shot at saving his daughter and his kingdom. “We can send food and drink down into the cavern where the Heart of the World is. After you begin the ritual, Kairi will feel better, and she can tend to you as you’ve requested. I doubt she’ll have any objections.” 

“Oh, I think she’d rather be in her light pool,” Sora said with a rueful smile. “But if you ask her to keep me company, I think she’ll say yes. She thinks very highly of you and of her mother the queen.”

Now, you mustn’t fault Sora for despairing a little, as it is a bitter thing indeed to die for someone you know doesn’t love you back. Sora was ready and willing to do so, but a part of him still wished Kairi would return his affection. Could return his affection. He remembered that night he tried to explain to her what love was, how she seemed so curious and eager to understand, how she just couldn’t grasp it.

“I know it’s because of her curse,” Sora said, his voice low and his heart heavy, “but I wish… ah, nevermind. I’d die without her, but she’ll live happily without me. That’s just… how things are.”

The king thought he saw tears shining in Sora’s eyes, though he couldn’t say for sure. He’d been silent up till now because he was beginning to grasp why Sora would be willing to do this when no one else would, and the thought of sending this poor young man to die… 

Then he thought of Kairi’s cold, stiff form as his sister’s curse ate away at her. Thought about leaving her to die to spare this young man. Sora himself had said he’d rather die than let that happen, so the king could hardly stop him. Nor did he want to if it meant Sora’s sacrifice would save his daughter.

“Thank you for doing this for her,” he said to Sora. “For all of us.”

Sora nodded. “I’ll go to the cavern tomorrow morning.”

The king returned to his wife and daughter and explained that someone had volunteered to save Kairi. She perked up for the first time in days when she heard that the light would be returned to her pool. She was so sick that she didn’t register that it would be due to another person giving up his light; all she could think about was feeling better. The king and queen were relieved too, relieved that their daughter would be spared and the world saved.

Sora felt the opposite of relieved and slept very poorly, but he was driven by a quiet determination to see this through. He awoke the next morning and put on his best clothes, clothes befitting a prince, for if he was going to die, he wanted to die like a king.

With that, he set out for the cave where the Heart of the World was located. When he reached it, he took one last look at the world around him. One last look at the sun and clouds and sky. Then he took a deep breath and lowered himself into the cavern.

[shayclov391]

Twisted Hearts Chapter 1

Ok so here is twisted hearts, the story of where Sora found himself at Twisted Wonderland 

hope you all enjoy, fair warning

this chapter is long 

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‘This feels…familiar…’ he thought as he felt himself drifting into an endless abyss, he opened his eyes as he finally felt the ground; he slowly got up as nothingness surrounds him.

“Ah…my dearly beloved”

Sora looks around, searching for the voice. Yet found no one. ‘Another dream?’ he says out loud and starts to walk on the darkness, this feels familiar for Sora but at the same time, it’s also unfamiliar to him.

“A lovely and noble flower of evil”

“Truly, you are the most beautiful of them all”

Sora starts to walk into the darkness to hopefully find something, anything. Soon, he hears horses carrying a carriage, he looks around and sees something in the distance coming his way, he starts to run towards it. As he was getting close, all the sudden heartless start to appear between him and what he can see is a carriage.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall...”

“Who is the most...”

Sora did not listen to the voice as the heartless start to get near him; he summons his key blade, the kingdom key, and starts to fight off the heartless. Striking and slashing the heartless while dodging the heartless from coming at him.

After finishing off the heartless, he noticed something one on the ground at the last heartless he has defeated, hi pick it up in curious, it looks like a pen with a chain that looks like it could be attached to his keyblade, curious, he attaches the chain to his keyblade, the keyblade glows and disappear which made Sora surprised. He tries to summon it his keyblade but nothing happens, which confused Sora, and before he can think about it. The carriage finally arrives in front of him.

A black carriage carrying an ornate circular mirror with glass a deep emerald color, and skeletal horses at the front skeletal horse, it nearly looks like it’s a carriage that goes to a funeral. Sora disperses his keyblade and looks at the carriage warily as its doors open; he looks inside to sees nobody in it, only a mirror. Cautiously, he steps into the carriage.

“Those who are guided by the dark mirror”

“As long as your heart desires, take the hand that appears in the mirror”

As soon as the voice says it, he noticed a strange eerie light coming from the mirror the carriage had, and a hand appeared before him from the mirror. Sora stares at the hand, he could hear his heart beating fast. He slowly takes it.

“For me. For them. For you. We are all running out of time! No matter what, never let go of my hand.”

All of the sudden, the hand-pulled him through the mirror. He starts to lose consciousness, and darkness takes over his vision.

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Sora could hear something banging on something else, he opens his eyes to see that he is somewhere dark, he outstretches one of his arms, only to be met with a wood surface, he starts to feel around and realized, that he is in a box.

He then hears a voice on the other side “Crap, people are coming... Gotta get a uniform while… grrrr! The lid is too heavy!” followed by a rattle from the outside, he goes to knock on the wood.

“Hey, is someone there? Can you get me out?” he attempts to yell, but it seems that the box is too thick, that it can’t be heard from the inside. He thought about using his key blade but, the keyblade would be too big in the tight space that he is in.

“Grrr..It’s no use, time for my secret technique!” Sora then felt the box heating up, he leans to the surface of the box and then it starts to open, making Sora fall off

“Whoaaa!”

“Ffggnnnaaaa!?”

Sora falls to the ground, he groans and looks up to see a grey-furred animal that looks like either a cat or a raccoon, but the creature has blue flames coming out of his ears, it sort of reminds him of Hades from the underworld.

He seems surprised seeing Sora wide awake “Why are you awake? You’re supposed to be asleep!” the cat…raccoon? Creature says.

“A cat?” he wonders out loud, the cat thing? Looks annoyed “Who are you calling a cat! I am the great Lord Grim, y’know!? Treat me with respect, you pitiful human!” Sora tilted his head in confusion as Grim got on all fours “Enough chit-chat! Gimme those clothes! Or else I’ll roast you!”

Sora looks at his clothes, surprised to see that he is not in his regular attire, but in a black robe with gold and purples trim and pattern “Where did I get this?” he checks out his clothes.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me! Fgggnnnnaaaa!” Grim starts to run at Sora, and jumps to pounce on Sora, but Sora side steps, making Grim jump into the casket behind Sora.

“Gyahh!” The demon-cat-raccoon exclaimed when it face-planted to the cushioned casket.

“Sorry” Sora says, but then he starts running away from the room, as he runs, he looks around over where he is ‘am I in another world, that means I can find a way back to Destiny Island’ he thought as he runs through the rather gloomy hallway.

He soon finds himself in a library, where he sees some books are flying “Where am I?” he wonders and soon see a fireball head to his way, but he dodges last second and looks to see that the cat-raccoon animal headed to him.

“Hehehe…you think you can get away from me, you dumb human” Sora looks at Grim and frowns “You again, the cat-raccoon?” he still has no idea what Grim is as he stomps in frustration “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not a cat or a raccoon, I’m the great and powerful Grim, now gimme those clothes”

“I’m not gonna give it to you, and you're being rude” Sora says, crossing his arms while narrowing his eyes at Grim as the cat smirks “Then it’s time for me to roast you,” the blue flames on his ears begin to grow.

He inhaled and aimed his fire at Sora, but he quickly dodges it and gets into a battle stance but have not summoned his keyblade yet.

“Stop it, you’re gonna burn the place down” he says, but Grim smirks “Then give me your clothes now” he got on all four and jump to pouch Sora again.

And then out of nowhere, there was a sound of a cracked whip. “Eh?! That hurts! What’s this cord?!” Grim cried out, trying to break free from the restraint.

“It’s not a mere cord! It’s the whip of love!” A voice corrected Grim from the shadows. Sora eases his posture and looks behind him to see a silhouette figure that came closer to them.

Sora can see the man up close. He was wearing a top hat that had a little mirror on it; he is also wearing a suit and a cape, on his side has three mirrors and chains of keys, half of the man’s face is covered behind the black mask, but Sora could see the glowing yellow eyes beneath the mask.

“Aah, I finally found you! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He sighed, disappointment written across his face. Sora looks at the man in confusion “Umm…I’m sorry?”

The man sighs and crosses his arm, still holding firm to the ‘whip of love’ and look at Grim “Also, having a familiar that you haven’t tamed is against the school rules!” this made Sora and Grim look at each other “He is not-“

“I’m nobodies’ familiar!” Grim looks at the headmaster while continue to struggle “Let me go!”

The man brushes off Grim’s comment “Yes, yes, every rebellious familiar always says that.” He raised his hand which has a golden claw on each finger, he made a zipping gesture “Now, please be quiet and let us have a converse in peace.”

“hhmmpp” Grim’s mouth magically zipped as the man turns to Sora, who just looks confused “However, it is unheard of for a student to be able to open their door by themselves” he looks at Sora with a small frown. “Hold on, I was in there until he opened it by force” Sora says, explaining himself “I see, so the familiar is to blame” The man looks at Grim “Well then, If you brought him here, then it is your responsibility to look after him.”

Sora and Grim look at each other again “But he's not-“

“Ah that’s right. Come, come now the entrance ceremony started long ago! Let us not be later than we already are!” the man says cutting Sora off and ushers the boy leaving the library carrying the still tied up Grim who continues to struggle.

Sora is very confused, where is he? Why is he here? And why did is his outfit change? The last thing he remembers is that he was fighting Yozora in some sort of tower, and then, after defeating Yozora, he finds himself back at final world, but after that it all went blank. He looks to the man in front of him.

“uhh, sir?” Sora called out earning the man’s attention “Where are we exactly?”

The man stops and looks at Sora in surprise “What’s this? Are you still dazed?” he placed a golden claw on his chin. “It appears the teleportation magic has left you disoriented; that is a common side effect; let me give you a brief explanation as we make our way to the ceremony, for I am so gracious!”

Sora tilted his head in confusion as the headmaster continued,

“This is Night Raven College!” he motioned to the school around them. “Magicians that are blessed with a unique aptitude for magic gather from all over the world, here at the most prestigious magical academy in Twisted Wonderland.” He turned back to Sora. “And I’m the headmaster, appointed to take care of this academy by the board chairman, Dire Crowley.” He turned back and continued the way to the ceremony. “Only those magicians seen as worthy by the Dark Mirror can attend this school, chosen ones use the gate and are summoned here from around the world…an Ebony carriage carrying a gate should have gone to meet you as well.”

Now that he mentions it, Sora did remember about something about a carriage in his dream. ‘Or maybe…it wasn’t a dream’ he thought as the Headmaster ushered Sora again; “Come now, we have an entrance ceremony to get to.”

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“—Now then, are the entrance ceremonies and dorm sorting finished?” Riddle says looking at the last first year that has been sorted to a dorm. He stood among the other dorm Perfects as the first years got sorted to their dorm. They’ve already made their introduction of themselves and their dorm.

Riddle looked at Azul who nod and lower the papers that the headmaster is holding “yes, I believe so”

Riddle nods and looks at the new Heartslabyul dorm student “Listen up, new students. I make the rules in Heartlabyul. Anyone who breaks them will lose their heads—do keep that in mind.” He said sternly.

Leona, the Savanaclaw Perfect yawned. “This boring ceremony is finally done.” He placed a hand on his hip as he looked at the first-years. “Let’s get back to the dorm. Savanaclaw, follow me” he said.

“To all the new students, I would like to congratulate you on your enrollment here! I hope each and every one  of you're able to live a fulfilling school life!” Azul says as he took a step forward. He might seem smiling. He folded his arms over his chest. “As the dorm leader of Octavinelle, I will support you as best as I can!”

Vil, the dorm Perfect of Pomefiore look at the others “By the way, where’s the Headmaster? He flew off in the middle of the ceremony”

Azul was about to answer but got cut off by Idia, the Perfect of Ignihyde,  he speaks through his floating tablet “He abandoned his duties…”

Kalim, the Perfect of Scarabia dorm looks curious “maybe he had a stomachache and has to go to the bathroom?” He suggested. But as soon as he says that, the door burst open, revealing the Headmaster.

“Not at all,” the Headmaster says, followed by a student that the dorm Perfects see has a very spiky brown hair. “Oh, he’s here” Riddle says and looks at the boy. The headmaster made his way to the mirror with the boy who looks around the room in curiosity.

“I can’t believe you all, we are missing one new student so I went to find him” the Headmaster says as Sora looks at him ‘wait, student? I’m in a school?’ he thought as the Headmaster turned to him.

“Now, you’re the only one who we have yet to assign to the dormitory. I shall watch over the raccoon, step in front of the dark mirror” he says gesturing the mirror which holds a tight grip to Grim who still trying to break free from the ‘lash of love.’

“Hhmmmpp” Grim muffled as Sora took a step towards the mirror that has a face.

“State thy name” the dark mirror says.

“my name is Sora” he replies, “Sora…the shape of thy soul is…” the mirror says before going  silent for a moment until it finally says:

“I do not know”

“Come again?” The Headmaster says, looking surprised

“Forsooth, I feel a strong wavelength of magic power from thee. The magic that is both ancient but not. The magic that does has been forgotten and no longer exists from this world. Howbeit, thou art’s soul is not eligible for any dormitory.” The dark mirror explained.

Sora could hear many students whispering and muttering about him as The Headmaster looked at the mirror in disbelief “magic that does not exist within this world? How could this possibly have happened?” he wondered; this gave Grim a chance to finally be freed by the lash.

“Then I’ll take their place, I’m even more powerful than some ancient magic, check this out” Grim start to prepare his fire magic “Everyone get down!” Riddle says as Grim start to set things on fire. The fire even hit Kalim’s butt “AH, HOT, HOT, MY BUTT IS ON FIRE” he screams, tries to put the fire out.

Sora quickly make his moves, he uses his hand to use to cast Watera on Kalim and onto the fire to put it out before turning to Grim, “hey stop that!” he says as he uses Stopra on Grim, making the raccoon-cat freeze with a time on his head for around 10 seconds counting down, “he’s frozen in time...” one of the students says, looking amazed.

“only for a few seconds, hurry!” Sora says as Riddle took out his magic pen “off with your head” he raised his magic pen and placed a heart-shaped collar on Grim as the timer reach zero.

“—fgnah Gaaah! What’s this?!” Grim tries to take the collar off, but to no avail.

“Rules number 23 of the Queen of Hearts: You must not bring cats into areas of festivities.” Riddle huffed and crossed his arms looking at Grim. “As you are a cat, trespassing here is a serious rule violation. We will have you leave immediately.”

“I’m not a cat! A cat can’t burn things like-” Sora is getting ready his water spell but pauses seeing Grim fail to start his fire spell. “W—What?! My fire… it won’t work!!”

Riddle just smirk as he put his magic pen away “Until I remove that collar, you won’t be able to use your magic. It will get removed once you’re thrown out of the school.”

“wow, as wonderful as ever, all magic was sealed by your unique magic, Riddle” Azul says praising Riddle “I want it…no I wouldn’t want that cast on me” his tone change midway.

“You must do something; he is your familiar!” The Headmaster glaring at Sora as he groans, “I’ve been trying to tell you, he is not my familiar”

“eh, he’s not” The Headmaster looks surprised but then clear his throat “*ahem* if that is the case, then would someone take it out of the school. We won’t turn you into a stew. For I am so gracious” one of the teacher nods and grabs Grim to take him out.

“Gyaaahhh! Lemme go! I’m definitely, definitely—! Going to become a great mage!” Grim says before the door closes on him, shutting out his complaints.

“Now I kinda feel bad for him,” Sora says feeling a bit guilty “don’t be, with your help, we have stopped the beast from making more damage to the school,” Azul says looking at Sora politely, ‘a magic that able to stop time, what powerful magic he has’ he thought.

“Well…I guess your right” Sora says still looking at the door. “Now that is out of the way, after a whole lot of unexpected events, I shall bring this entrance ceremony to a close. Dorm leader, please show the new students to their respective dormitory”

“Hm? Now that I think about it, I don’t see the Dorm leader of Disomnia, Mister Draconia, around at all” The Headmaster says, looking around for the missing dorm leader. Sora heard many people mutter as the dorm leaders seem to discuss how they forgot to invite Malleus Draconia to the ceremony. ‘Seems like he is very popular’ He thought as one student came up to take the Disonmia first years, and with that, the students, and the dorm leaders left, leaving only Sora and The Headmaster.

⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙

The Headmaster cleared his throat “now then, um…I’m sorry, what is your last name?” Sora look at Crowley and scratch his hair “I don’t have a last name, but it’s fine to just call me Sora” The Headmaster nods “very well then Sora, as for the term on where you shall stay, I’m sure I can figure something out”

“Uumm… actually Headmaster, I think there has been a mistake, I just really wanted to head back home,” Sora says earning a surprised look from the Headmaster “A-are you certain? The Ebony Carriage has never once made a mistake, you are in a very prestigious school where many students can learn very powerful magic, not taking it would be a waste”

Sora nodded firmly “I’m sure of it, I have made my friends worried about me far too much, and while being in this school sounds exciting, I want to go home and get back to my friends”

Crowley looks conflicted, the boy is carrying ancient magic that is unheard of, with him and Mister Draconia in Night Raven College, it would give a very huge benefit for the school. However, by the look of this young man, he seems to be very determined to go, with a heavy sigh he nods “Very well then, The Dark Mirror will promptly send you back home.”

He guides Sora to the platform in front of the Dark Mirror again. Once the boy stood there, Crowley stood behind him, hand still on his shoulder. “Now, visualize your home very clearly…”

Sora closed his eyes and visualized his home, the beach, the Island, where his friends are waiting for him. The mask in the mirror appeared once again from the green smoke. “Now, Dark Mirror! Guide this child back to the place they belong to!”

…

…

The Headmaster cleared his throat in embarrassment. “One more time. Dark Mirror! Guide this-”

“It is nowhere,” The mirror says.

“What?” Crowley drops his hand from Sora’s shoulder as he opens his eyes, he looks a bit worried.

“Nowhere in this world does this one belong. There is nothing.” The Mirror says. Sora sighs, he can’t say that he is not surprised, but he figures that it won’t be that easy. He has disappeared because he used too much of his magic and went past the limit, he figured that getting home would be a challenge.

“Oh my, for all the years that I have been The Headmaster. This is the first time anything like this has happened. I’m not sure what to do...” He looks at Sora “where do you come from?”

“I’m from Destiny Island,” Sora says looking at him “Destiny Island, hmm, I never heard of an  Island by that name before” Sora sighs, “it’s alright, I guess I have to search my way back, I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” he says.

“hold on a second,” Crowley says “there is no way I’m letting a child go on his own, as an educator, throwing out a penniless youth who has no contact with their guardians would just break my heart. Since I am so kind!”

Sora look at him confused “umm ok?” Crowley then says in a bit of a cheery tone “how about you stay in the school for the time being. In the meantime, I will search for anything about your Island”

Sora looked at Crowley surprised. “Really?” The Headmaster nodded, “but of course. Ahh, how kind I am~! Aren’t I such an exemplary educator~?”

‘And as a bonus,  I get to have this student in my school, ah, how lucky I am’ he thought gleefully.

Sora looks at him a bit weird but he smiles, “thank you, I appreciate it” then he looks at The Headmaster curiously “But where can I stay?” Crowley smiles “No need to worry. I know a place where you can stay. It’s a little old, but a tasteful building.”

[myssamyss]

Everything Stays, Part 1 of 6

Summary: Wild struggles to find a balance between duty and freedom after Calamity Ganon’s defeat. His unexpected departure into the Linked Universe forces him to examine his relationship with Zelda.  Millennia prior, Malon and a stubborn Time stumble toward a budding love in the years since his return from Termina.  A string of fate connects the pairs across time and destiny... Based on the Linked Universe

Part 1: The Moon Controls the Tide... 

Link and Zelda stood at a fork in the road. The sound of croaking frogs rose from the nearby wetlands and the setting sun cast long shadows across the grass. Link took a surefooted step toward the left-hand path.

“North?” Zelda questioned. “Why north? The quickest route to Zora’s Domain is through Lanayru Wetlands, not around them. We’ll cut through Goponga.”

Link opened his mouth, then shut it again. He nodded and changed direction, heading right.

“What is it?” she asked, noticing his hesitation.

He glanced down the winding path that disappeared into swamp weeds. “We’ll get wet,” he said simply.

“Oh,” she murmured with soft realization. There may have once been a bridge or proper road cutting through the smattering of islands, and someone had at least tried to keep the swampy route passable by lashing together logs to make a rudimentary walkway, but many sections were now sunken beneath water and muck. It was crossable, and Link wouldn’t have thought twice about taking the path through the ruins a few months ago. But he’d been on his own then. Now he was once again the princess’s escort. And, if he were honest, he didn’t know her well enough to assume she’d be comfortable splashing through a bog.

Zelda shrugged. “We have one hundred years of absence to make up for. If through the swamp is the quickest route, then through the swamp we’ll go. I’ve had enough of convention, and of wasted time.” She punctuated the end of her sentence with a formal nod, but then she froze theatrically before breaking into a wry grin.

She suddenly leapt off the path and into the reeds with a great splash, spraying mud in a wide circle. Her hair streamed behind her in a golden arc as she swung her head back around to share a gleeful smile. Link couldn’t help but laugh. He was learning that her actions could speak just as loudly as her words. Acquiescing, he bowed his head, strode into the lead, and the two began trekking into the swamp.

They pitched camp in the wetland ruins later that evening and set their boots to dry near the crackling fire. Then, a barefooted Link left to fish and catch frogs in the waning light. Darkness had fallen and the moon shone as he made his way back to their camp. He noticed a light coming toward him along the muddy path, reflecting off the surrounding water. Likely a traveler, yet Link raised his guard.

Someone carried a lantern, though it hung far too close to the ground. As Link drew near, he realized why: the light was clutched in the hand of a small boy. His clothes were filthy and he carried a large pack stuffed to the seams. Link splashed loudly as he approached to alert the boy to his presence in the darkness. The boy froze in fear.

“Hey, it’s alright!” Link called out to him. He stepped into the warm lantern light. “It’s ok, I’m a friend.”

The boy’s eyes were huge and sad, his face heavy with exhaustion and caked in grime. He looked up at Link with hesitant hope.

“Where are you headed?” Link asked him.

“Wetland Stable. Then Trilby Plain,” the boy told him.

“Family there?” Link asked.

The boy frowned and his eyes shone in the flickering light. “A cousin at the stable. And my brother Russ wrote about business in Trilby,” he said sadly. Link could guess why a grubby boy might be traveling across the wild country alone—he didn’t need to ask more. Though the boy’s words sparked a memory in Link’s mind.

“Russ?” he asked the boy. “He doesn’t sell shields, does he?” Link gave a half-smile as he recalled a sandy-haired salesman and the joy of shieldsurfing down a hillside.

The boy nodded. “He does! Ma and dad said it was a waste of time. Before...” the boy’s voice broke and he trailed off.

Link stared down at the lonely boy. If he were honest, he wanted nothing more than to accompany this boy on his journey. Not only for the boy’s protection (though that was certainly a reason, Link worried about anyone walking past nightfall), but because he wouldn’t mind a shieldsurfing detour, nor the warm beds and cheerful music of Wetland Stable. Had he met this boy months ago, he would have eagerly gone along for a short side trip. But now he was in the midst of a pressing mission that couldn’t be bookmarked. Zelda was determined to reach Zora’s Domain as soon as possible.

She’d already held back the darkness for one hundred years while desperately waiting for her chosen knight, and now she held grand dreams for their ruined kingdom, grander than any he could imagine. Who was he, to act like an errant adventurer instead of the steadfast friend she needed? He wasn’t alone anymore, he reminded himself, so he couldn’t just run off and help each needy person they stumbled upon. Zelda’s noble hopes for all of Hyrule were worth that small sacrifice.

Still, he could offer the boy a warm place to sleep. “We have a camp, me and my traveling companion,” Wild told the boy while pointing over his small shoulder. “Off that way. You’re welcome to rest for the night.”

The boy shook his head. “Our home is lying empty, there’s too many things to carry. I need to tell my family before we lose everything to monsters. But thanks,” he told Link. The boy started walking down the path again.

Link put a hand to the boy’s arm. “What about rupees? A weapon?” he offered, but the boy simply shrugged him off, shook his small head once more, and continued walking.

“The night is dangerous,” Link called after him.

“I know,” the boy called back, with a tone far too dark for his years.

Link stood for a conflicted minute and watched the bobbing lantern disappear down the path in the direction of Hyrule Field. Then, he returned to his princess.

***

Countless years before, another conflicted young hero rode his horse across an unseasonably warm Hyrule Field. This Link was clad in a green tunic, with a large, two-handed sword and a colorful steel shield at his back, secured by a leather strap that crossed his broad chest. The sun beat down on him and scorched the shield, which radiated scalding heat. He considered reaching into his saddle bag for his ocarina to call a storm. Rain would be a better fit for his mood anyway, he thought to himself. He only deliberated for a moment, before changing his mind. He hadn’t played the ocarina in a long time.

He finally caught sight of the ranch glimmering in the distance, nestled softly between grassy hills. His visits there had grown in frequency through recent years. When odd jobs ended and he hit the road once more, he’d find himself absentmindedly turning the familiar bend in the dirt road that led back to the ranch. And as much as he wanted to blame Epona, he had enough self-awareness to know why he kept coming back: the ranch was the closest thing he had to a home. But that was precisely the problem, as homes were made for leaving. At least, his homes were. How many times had he felt the sharp wound of a lost place, or worse, a lost friend? Most days he could travel on and on with an easy joy, but every now and again he felt a dull ache from his pockmarked heart, reminding him of the bitter losses he’d suffered at such a young age.

Bitter losses that she should never have to taste, he thought to himself as a beautiful vision of a redheaded farm girl rose in his mind. He was determined to return to the ranch once more and say goodbye—a word that had too often gone unsaid with his own losses. Then, to spare them both, he would move on. You’ve already grown too close to her, he chastised, remembering the soft wisp of an unexpected kiss she’d pressed to his cheek the last time he’d visited. Too close indeed.

He rode on, sweat slipping down his back in the heat as he braced himself for the difficult conversation that lay ahead.  

__________ Author’s Note: special thanks to @clumsydarknut for being the best beta reader a writer could ask for. Go check out his stuff, you won’t regret it. 

[blackasteriia]

🔥 story structure bih

Feed the Fires of my Salt

I jumped into Kingdom Hearts right after KH3 came out. I had the privilege of watching the series’ cutscenes from beginning-to-end, starting with the KHUX back cover and ending in KH3. This is a very confusing way to enter Kingdom Hearts. The start of the story is in KHUX and the beginning is in KH1. It’s KH1 that introduces the core mechanics, themes, and principles of the story. Yet, the story starts in KHuX, which is a mobile game. The KHuX itself is a baffling mess with too many twists for me to even bother tracking it. For the purpose of this essay I’ll focus on Sora’s story, he’s the protagonist after all. 

Kingdom Hearts 1 begins medias res, ‘into the middle of things.’ It doesn’t know that. It thinks it’s a straightforward story and probably the best told one in all of Kingdom Hearts. Sora and his friends live a normal life. He has a call to action when his island falls into darkness and he losses his friends. To find his friends he must travel through several worlds. On the course of this journey he learns of Kingdom Hearts. He then meets Ansem, the antagonist who believes that all people and things belong to the darkness. Sora takes all that he has learned to confront Ansem. Ansem is defeated and Sora’s journey comes to a close. It’s a simple story but it is effective, charming, and fun. 

Then, Sora loses all his memories in a random castle through an event that he does not remember, he wakes-up after sleeping a full year, and we go into Kingdom Hearts 2. 

Kingdom Hearts 2, is another hero’s journey. Sora seeks guidance from the wise Yen Sid, a mentor archetype we most often find in stories of this type. Yen Sid informs Sora that he must defeat Organization 13, an insidious group seeking to obtain Kingdom Hearts. This bunch isn’t as straightforward as Ansem was. They’re manipulative, and also, very human, with their own quirks and personalities, some even befriending Sora. The series delves into a more mature grey than the pure black and white of KH1. Sora learns that light and dark aren’t clear-cut concepts, but to accept the complexity of himself, and others. Sora defeats Xemnas and returns to Destiny Island with his friends, concluding his journey. 

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora and Riku undergo training by Yen Sid to become keyblade masters, which is very important. Sora must unlock the power of waking by *shuffles notes* freeing seven sleeping keyholes, in the realm of sleep. Okay, yeah, anyway he does that. Then this Xehanort guy --who the hell is this guy? He was in Birth by Sleep. Wait, what?-- kidnaps him and tries to possess him so he can fill out the ranks of Organization 13-- Didn’t we kill all of them in the last game? No, they came back. Then why bother killing them off?-- But he’s saved by Axel --who died in the last game-- and Riku. Anyway, this is apparently grounds for failure and Sora does not become a keyblade master. 

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora embarks on an adventure to unlock the power of waking by traveling through the worlds and training to become stronger. Didn’t he already beat like, three series antagonists by now why does he need to grow stronger??? Sora is confronted by the members of the Real Organization 13, who taunt him as he travels. Sora gathers the Seven Guardians of Lights and defeats Xehanort and the Real Organization 13. He returns to Destiny Island with his friends and concludes his story by vanishing into a burst of light.

And that, from beginning to end, is Sora’s journey through the Kingdom Hearts series. I skipped a lot of details. I didn’t include side games. I told it as Sora experienced it. Here’s a few things I noticed:

1). There’s a lot of start and stops. The series has three endings. The end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3, are all satisfying stop-points for the series. This makes sense, as Nomura, for the most part, intended them to be endings. Of course, he leaves some running threads to intrigue and hint at another game. It means that Sora has his powers reset twice and he begins another hero journey three times. The goals never change: train, grow stronger, beat-up bad guy, go home. Sora never grows past the dumb kid that picked-up a giant key in KH1 and started swinging, or any growth he does develop is reset. 

2). The side games are useless. I can tell Sora’s story without Birth by Sleep. I can do it without 358/2 Days, Chain of Memories, Re:Coded, and I bet I could kick-out Dream Drop Distance too. Xehanort is the sole character that you need. He is by far the worst antagonist. He shows-up without fanfare and is defeated with little trouble. Ansem and Xemnas both had something to contrast to Sora, some sort’ve dynamic, a personal stake. Xehanort is just a jerk and he needs to be beaten-up.

3). Xehanort is a terrible antagonist. An antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist. It is the antagonist who the protagonist must overcome in order to complete their journey. Ansem and Sora jostle over the very nature of humans, idealism vs cynicism. Xemnas forced Sora to recognize the complexity of the human condition. Xehanort-- bullies Sora until Sora kicks his ass. Never mind untangling how unbelievably complicated the relationship between Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas are. You’d believe that Xehanort would be some culmination of Sora’s journey-- but I’d argue that it’d complete the Sea Salt Trio’s story more to defeat Xehanort, than it does for Sora to do it. 

4). Final Fantasy and Disney are window dressing. This game series is supposed to be a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. If you read my synopsis, you would not know this. Maleficent in KH1 is the sole character I feel I could’ve added. None of the Final Fantasy characters are on the list or come close to deserving mention. Why do we have the fiftieth Xehanort clone, and not Sephiroth, or anyone else, as a main antagonist? When I watched this series for the first time I did not watch a single Disney World, and I lost nothing for it. About 60-70% of this entire game series is useless, poorly written filler. This becomes worse as it drags on too. There’s some neat character study in KH1 but by KH3, it’s all crap. Instead of using the Disney World’s for character exploration and building plot, they’re usually charmless retellings of the original movie. 

5). There are so many useless characters. We don’t need Roxas. Get rid of Xion. Namine, who? Xehanort just needs to go. You can remove Kairi after KH1. Maybe we keep the BBS-trio because we have to have someone fill-out the Guardians of Light in KH3, but I think Terra is expendable. All of the Union Cross cast, gone. After KH2, all of the Organization members are wasted screen time. These characters do not contribute to the main plot and they have no satisfactory, useful, or good character arcs. They’re just here, repeating what we already heard. Axel finished his story in KH2, why is he still here? The entirety of Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and Re:coded can be removed, and you would lose absolutely nothing. If I was Nomura’s editor, I’d be making judicious use of a red pen on his scripts. Characters that die don’t stay dead, characters that finish their arcs just hang around taking-up space, and characters that shouldn’t be added, are added. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, trim this down to like, 2-3 games, tops, and you’d have a powerful story. Not a long overwritten piece of absurdity that’s wheezing like a pneumonic horse on its last legs. 

6). Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3 are the worst. Sora sets out to complete one task: become a keyblade master, and, he fails. He doesn’t even finish his secondary task, master the power of waking. Kingdom Hearts 3 has no tension, it’s so cut-and-dry, you need about... an hour of the game to know what happened in it. Sora defeated Xehanort, the all important villain, introduced in DDD. It then ends on a stupid cliff hanger. Also, goes to show that Re:Mind was stupid and didn’t help anything or anyone. KH3 had one job, complete all the character arcs introduced in the series in a satisfying way, and it failed on every single account. 

How this series tells story is terrible. It’s done through long-winded exposition that is boring and confusing. Somehow, after watching hours of cutscenes and reading all of the additional side material, I still do not know what Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be. Sometimes, it’s the ‘heart of worlds,’ other times it’s a ‘source of wisdom,’ or it’s a ‘source of power,’ or it can just grant Xemnas’ wish like a star, and it looks like Scala Ad Caelum inside, or its the door to the Realm of Darkness. How can it be the name sake of the series and be so poorly defined? The Metal Gear series is just as convoluted as Kingdom Hearts is, but at least I know what a metal gear is. 

Nomura can structure a plot. He understands the basics of hero’s journey. Every single game is based on that structure, individually. When tied together, however, they make this weird mass  of starts and stops, retcons, wasted time, and poor story telling. I like Sora and I like his story. I would not be here if that was not the case. It’s the same way with Xion. I really like Xion and her story, but she shouldn’t be here. That, or it needs to be written in a way that it matters. This plot stuff isn’t just about the events. It’s about the characters.  What happens to them. What do they do. How do they behave. How do they change? Plot happens when characters act. What a bad plot indicates is bad character motivation and action. These characters don’t matter because Nomura didn’t give them backstories, nuanced motivations, real flaws, or meaningful action. So he crams as most information into the dialogue and pretends that counts as a plot. 

 And it’s not like plot is  complicated, shit happens, that’s it. To add in some RP salt? It bothers me when muns says they’re ‘bad at plotting.’ What do you mean you’re bad at plot? Plot happens when our two muses meet and shit happens. Your muse has encountered a wild Xion, what do you do? > Run > Attack > Talk to > Feed. I’m not writing a passive brick here, ya’ll. I want shit to happen. And when I’m slogging through 13 hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 I want shit to happen, and not watch Sora faff about in a Disney world for forty minutes. Why is that so much to ask for?

[memaha19]

Let’s Play Kingdom Hearts: Day 1, 2, & 3

(These were all supposed to be their own post but my tumblr app was acting really weird and not posing anything.)

Day One (May 20th, 2020)

Starting level: 1

Awakening: I did +sword/-staff, which is basically the only way I’ve ever played. I just learned a few days ago that the item you choose to keep changes the order you learn abilities, so that was news to me. I always pick the sword because I like getting Scan as early as possible so I kept it the same this time around. I picked the bottom three answers of the Selphie/Tidus/Wakka. I like to start “in the dead of night”.

Destiny Islands: I did not beat Riku and I definitely lost real hard to him in that stupid race to name the raft. (I was under the impression that it had only been a year or two since I last played KH but then I thought about it and realized it had been about six years and yikes I was very rusty with the controls.)

Traverse Town I: I did manage to back Squall into a corner and beat him, woo!

Wonderland

Olympus Coliseum I

Deep Jungle: It was getting late so I didn’t finish the level. I beat Sabor and called it a night. Had I remembered that there really isn’t much left after that point, I probably would’ve just finished!

Ending level: 14

Play time: About 4 hours

Day Two (May 21st, 2020)

Deep Jungle: Literally all I really had left was the Clayton/Stealth Sneak fight. I’m still scarred from the first time I played this game when I was 12 and I COULD NOT beat this guy.

Traverse Town II: So, full disclosure, up until this point, I was really committed to relying on walkthroughs as little as possible, and I made it through Deep Jungle just on my own memory of the game. But I got to TT and I could not figure out what to do after talking to Squall in the waterway. I went everywhere and talked to everyone and probably took about twice as long as I needed to in this area. So I caved and read a guide and saw that you have to talk to Squall twice to get him to tell you to go see Cid, which then sends you to Merlin, etc. So, anyway, I started using a guide from this point forward so I don’t spend 80 years in one level.

Agrabah: Nothing really to report here. I got my first “game over“, on the Jafar fight of all things. The Jafar fight!

Olympus Coliseum II: Went back and did the Phil Cup

Green Trinity Revisit: Went back to Wonderland, Deep Jungle, Olympus, and Traverse Town to do the green trinities.

Traverse Town III: Green trinity & first couple parts of 100 Acre Woods

Ending level: 25

Play time: About 3.5 hours

Day Three (May 22nd, 2020)

Monstro: Got my second “game over”, courtesy of the second fight with Parasite Cage, another fight that tormented me when I was 12. I keep forgetting that if you move around while you’re mid-cure spell, it cancels the spell out, so I thought I had healed myself. I hadn’t. I died.

Atlantica: This is a level I try and get through as fast as I can, because underwater levels in ANY game are the bane of my existence. (Another thing I just recently learned: you don’t have to go to Atlantica, I guess? You can skip and just do Halloween Town? But this is basically the only game where I’ve successfully gotten the secret ending and I want to do it again, so I sucked it up and did Atlantica.) For the Ursula II fight, I definitely employed the cheap strategy of swimming around the edges while Ariel and Donald beat her down to her last hit point, and then floating in and finishing her off. And yes, it took forever.

Olympus Coliseum: Did the Phil Cup with just Sora and the Pegasus Cup with everyone

Traverse Town IV: Since I had torn pages from Monstro and Atlantica, I did the next two 100 Acre Wood sections.

Ending Level: 34

Play Time: About 3.5 hours

Next up: Halloween Town, Neverland, and maybe the Hercules Cup

[jenmai]

KH Final Mix: Destiny Islands - Translation

So, I started playing the Japanese Kingdom Hearts just a while ago and as I’m progressing through the game I’m planning to translate some cutscenes into English. Naturally we’re starting on the Destiny Islands. All in all, I think the Kingdom Hearts localization is great, but I'm sure there are some people interested in how exactly things are worded in the original one, I sure am. Thus, I’ll try to stay as true to the source material as possible. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Sora: 

わわッ！おどかすなよ　カイリ

Whoa! Don’t startle me like that, Kairi!

Kairi:

そっちが勝手におどろいたんじゃない

そろそろさぼる頃だと思ったんだよね　ソラは

You got startled over nothing. I bet you thought this was a good chance to slack off, didn’t you Sora?

Sora:

ちがうって！あの真黒い奴が俺を呑みこんで息ができなくなってーーーー

痛ェ

That’s not it! This pitch black thing swallowed me up and I couldn’t breathe and...

Ouch!

Kairi:

まだ目がさめない？

Are you still sleeping?

Sora:

夢じゃなくてーーーー

夢だったのかなあ

知らない世界でさ　へんな場所でさ

It wasn’t a dream! Or was it? You know, I was in this unfamiliar world, in this weird place...

Kairi:

はいはい

Of course, of course.

Sora:

なぁカイリ

カイリは子供の頃にいた街ってどんなところだった？

Hey Kairi, what was your home town like?

Kairi:

おぼえてないよ　前にも言ったでしょ？

I can’t remember. I told you before, right?

Sora:

思い出したかもと思って

I thought maybe you had remembered.

Kairi:

ぜんぜん

Not at all.

Sora:

帰りたくならないか？

Don’t you want to go back?

Kairi:

私はここで幸せだからーーーー

I’m happy here, so...

Sora:

そうか

I see.

Kairi:

でもね　見てみたいって気はするな

But you know, I feel like I’d like to see it.

Sora:

俺も見たいんだよなあ

この世界以外にも世界があるんなら死ぬまでには絶対見たい

I wanna see it too. If there are other worlds besides this one, then I wanna see them before I die for sure.

Kairi:

じゃあ　一緒に行こうね

Well, let’s go together then.

Riku:

おいおい

俺は仲間はずれかよ

しかもーーーー

真面目にイカダ作ってるのは俺だけだ

カイリも一緒にさぼってたろ

Hey, c’mon. Are you planning on leaving me behind? Moreover, I’m the only one working hard on the raft. 

And you were slacking off as well, weren’t you Kairi?

Kairi:

バレたか

じゃあ　みんなで仕上げちゃおう

ね　向こうまで競走

You caught me. Well then, let’s finish it together. Hey, let’s race there.

Sora:

えーー？

Ehh?

Riku:

なんだよそれーーーー

What’s up with that?

Kairi:

よーーい　ドン！

Ready, go!

Sora:

海の果てまで行ったら

カイリの元の世界があるんだよな

If we sailed across the sea, I bet we’d find Kairi’s old world.

Riku:

それはわからない

でも行ってみないと　わからないままだ

We can’t be sure, but we won't ever find out if we don’t leave.

Sora:

イカダでどこまで行けると思う？

How far do you think we’ll get with the raft?

Riku:

さあな

ダメだったら別の方法を考えるさ

Beats me. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll think of something else.

Kairi:

ねえ　リクは　別の世界に　行ったら何するの？

ソラ見たいに　見れば満足？

Hey Riku, if we got to another world, what would you do? Would you be satisfied with just seeing it, like Sora?

Riku:

実はそんあに考えてない

ただーーーー

俺は　俺たちがどうして　ここにいるのか　知りたい

他に世界があるのなら　どうして俺たちは　ここでなくちゃ　ダメだったんだろう？

他に世界があるのなら　ここはーーーー　そう　大きな世界の小さな　カケラみたいなものだからーーーー　

どうせ　カケラだったらーーーー　ここではない　別のカケラでも　かまわないわけだよな？

Honestly, I haven’t thought about it that deeply. It’s just... I want to know why we are here. If there are other worlds, then why was it that we ended up in this place? 

If there are other worlds, then this is just... like a smaller fragment of a bigger world. And if this place is just a fragment, then we could have just as well ended up on a different one, right?

Sora:

わかんねぇ

Dunno.

Riku:

そういうことだ

じっと座っていても　何もわからない

自分で動かないと　何も変わらない

同じ景色しか見えないんだ

だから動くんだ

That’s what I think. We’re not going to find out anything if we just sit tight. Nothing’s going to change if we don’t take action ourselves. We would forever be staring at the same scenery. That’s why I’m going to take action.

Kairi:

リクっていろんなこと考えてるんだね

You sure think about a lot of things.

Riku:

カイリのおかげさ

カイリはこの島に来なかったら

俺　何も考えていなかったと思う

ありがとう　カイリ

It’s thanks to you. If you hadn’t come to this island, I think I wouldn’t have thought about any of these things. Thanks, Kairi.

Kairi:

なんだか照れるなあ

Now you’re making me embarrassed.

Riku:

ソラ

おまえ　これが欲しかったんだろ

Sora. You wanted one, right?

Sora:

パオプの実ーーーー

A paopu fruit...?

Riku:

「その実を食べさせあったふたりは必ず結ばれるーーーー　

どんなに離れていても　いつか必ず」

ためしてみたかったんだろ？

“Those who have fed each other this fruit will always be connected. No matter how far apart they may be, they will someday find their way back to each other.” 

You wanted to try it out, didn’t you?

Sora:

な　なにーーーー

Wha, what?

Sora:

だ　誰？

Who, who’s there?

Ansem:

この世界の扉を見に来た

I have arrived to see the door of this world.

Sora:

はあ？

Huh?

Ansem:

この世界は繋がった

This world has been connected.

Sora:

あんた　何言ってるんだ？

What are you on about?

Ansem:

闇と繋がった世界ーーーー

まもなう　光を失う世界ーーーー

A world connected to darkness will soon lose its light.

Sora:

気味悪いこと言うなよ

誰だが知らないけどなーーーー

あんた　どっから来たんだ？！

I have no idea who you are, but don’t say creepy things like that.

Where’d you come from?!

Ansem:

おまえがまだ知らぬ　扉の向こう

Beyond the door, you are still unaware of what lies there.

Sora:

他の世界から来たんだな！

You came from another world!

Ansem:

おまえには何もわかるまい

おまえは何も知らない

You understand nothing and know nothing.

Sora:

俺はこれからいろいろ知るんだよ

準備だってしてるんだからな！

Well, soon I’m going to know lots of things. I’ve been preparing, just so you know!

Ansem:

何も知らない者が何を見てもーーーー

そう　何も理解できない

Someone clueless will still be unable to comprehend no matter what they see.

Kairi:

リク　ちょっと変わったね

Riku’s changed a bit.

Sora:

どこが？

How so?

Kairi:

ええとーーーー

Well...

Sora:

気のせいだよ

You’re just imagining things.

Kairi:

ねえ　このままイカダに乗ってさ

ふたりだけでいっちゃおっか

Hey, let’s hop on to the raft and leave, just the two of us.

Sora:

え？

Huh?

Kairi:

なんてね

Just kidding.

Sora:

突然　どうした？

カイリのほうが変わったんじゃないか

What’s gotten into you all of a sudden? You sure it’s not you who’s changed?

Kairi:

かもね

海の向こうに行くの　少し怖かったけど

今はワクワクしてるんだ

どこへ行っても　何を見ても

私かならずここに帰ってこれる

でしょ？

Maybe. I was a little scared of sailing across sea at first, but now I’m excited. No matter where I go, or what I see, I can always come back here. Isn’t that right?

Sora:

まかせとけよ

I’ll make sure of that.

Kairi:

よかった

ソラは変わらないでね

That's a relief. Sora, don’t change.

Sora:

へ？

Huh?

Kairi:

海の向こう　行けるといいね

楽しみだね

I hope we get to sail across the sea. I’m looking forward to it.

Sora:

嵐

やばい　イカダが！

A storm... Oh no, the raft!

Sora’s mom:

ソラ　ごはんよ

おりてらっしゃい　ソラ？

Sora, dinner is ready. Come downstairs! Sora?

Sora:

なんだありゃ！？

リクの船と　カイリも来てるのか！？

What’s that!? 

That’s Riku’s boat and... Kairi came here too!?

Sora:

リク　カイリは一緒じゃないのか！？

Riku, isn’t Kairi with you!?

Riku:

扉が開いたんだ

The door has opened.

Sora:

リク？

Riku?

Riku:

扉が開いたんだよ　ソラ

俺達　外の世界へいけるんだぜ！

The door has opened, Sora. We can go to the outside world!

Sora:

何言ってるんだよ！それよりカイリがーーーー

What’re you talking about! More importantly, what about Kairi...

Riku:

カイリも一緒さ！

扉をくぐればもう　帰って来られないかもしれない

父さんや母さんには　二度と会えないかもしれない

でも　恐れていては何も始まらない

闇を恐れる事はないんだ！

Kairi’s coming too! 

If we go through the door, we might not be able to come back. We might not be able to see our moms and dads ever again, but if we get cold feet then nothing’s going to change. 

There’s no need to be afraid of the darkness!

Sora:

リクーーーー

Riku...

Sora:

カイリ！！

Kairi!!

Kairi:

ソラーーーー

Sora...

Translator’s notes:

1. When two people share a paopu fruit, the Japanese version refers to this as feeding it to another person “Tabesaseru”. In the light of what KH3 showed us, it’d seem you actually have two fruits and both parties hold out one fruit so that the other person can take a bite out of it.

2. When Kairi wants Sora to affirm that she can always return to the island, Sora answers with “Makasetoke” which literally means “Leave it to me”. What Sora is basically doing is reassuring Kairi that he’ll personally make sure she can return. The English version glossed over this.

3. What the Japanese version seems to confirm is that either both Sora and Riku, or at least one of them has both a mom and a dad. Would you look at that. But we can’t be completely sure as Japanese is the type of language that tends to leave a lot of things up for interpretation. Riku uses the words “kaa-san and tou-san” in his speech and I found that there's really no end to the speculation whether he’s referring to Sora’s or his own parents (or both) when you start considering all the potential factors such as Riku's closeness to Sora and his family and his level of respect for his own. This is why I won’t dig into this any further, but I’d say there’s a potential they both could have a mom and a dad.

For anyone who wants to actually watch the Japanese cutscenes: You can find them here on YouTube.

[beyondmistland]

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

Graphics:

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

Ø  The lip-syncing rarely fails

Music:

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

Ø  What does though is the actual audio mixing:

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

Ranking the Worlds:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Story Pros:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gameplay Pros:

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

Ø  The secondary ability of all shotlocks to airstep is ingenious

Ø  You can have more than two party members finally!

Ø  The secret ending isn't too hard to unlock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gameplay Cons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Story Cons:

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

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

Ø  The out-of-nowhere introduction of Subject X

Ø  Pete and Maleficent do literally nothing the whole damn game

Ø  The pacing is awful:

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

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

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

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

Ø  What happened to Demyx?

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

Changes I’d make:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DLC

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

Final Score

Ø  7/10-8/10

[echoequinox]

Xion Appreciation Week - Day 2

I’m writing a fic a day for #XionAppreciationWeek, in honor of my favorite and the best Kingdom Hearts character! :’)

I’ll be posting them both here and on AO3. You can find the AO3 fic here, titled “Affection”.

The rest, I’ll put links up as I post new chapters!

Day 1: Remembrance >Day 2: Return Day 3: Separation/Reunion  Day 4: Light/Darkness  Day 5: Ice Cream/Seashell  Day 6: New Beginnings Day 7: No. XIV (Free Day)

She was alive. Amazingly, astoundingly, against all odds, Xion was well and truly alive. She took another sharp breath, the air stale and musty, but it was a breath. Alive. The battle with Xehanort, the Keyblade Graveyard, the “second Keyblade War” as they’d started calling it, had brought her back. Even she didn’t understand how it was possible, but she was here, returned, to the land of the living. This time as her own person.

She’d been to Twilight Town, with the others, back on the clock tower with Axel and Roxas, SaÏx and Roxas’s old friends, from the Other Twilight Town. She’d gone to the beach, gotten to see everyone else - Naminé, the eerily familiar Ventus and his friends, Riku and, eventually, Kairi. They’d said she could stay wherever she wanted: Destiny Islands, Twilight Town, somewhere on another world. She wanted to, really, but she wasn’t… done.

When she’d asked Riku for the favor he looked at her like she was crazy. Then, he explicitly ASKED if she’d gone crazy, and she’d laughed. It took some coaxing, but eventually he had agreed, on the condition that he would come along with her, as an escort, in case something went wrong.

So they walked the dark streets, feet tapping against black pavement, passing darkened windows and glowing signage, more a strange, bioluminescent geographical feature than something man made. It was called Dark City, but it wasn’t a city, really. Nobody lived there, nor had they ever. It was a world created by and for Heartless, a twisted version of the place they’d used to live before their hearts were stolen away by the dark. It always gave her the chills.

“You alright?” Riku asked, noticing her shiver.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” She continued walking, though he moved a bit closer, an instinctive, protective gesture. She hadn’t wanted him to come along, and had told him as much, but now, being here… she was grateful for the company.

He stopped, and it took her a few paces to realize he wasn’t beside her, turning to see what had stopped him. He looked up at a large building, still imposing despite the top missing - a deep, diagonal cut having severed it.

“I fought Roxas here,” he said quietly and she shuddered, nodding.

“I remember.” He gave her a look and she smiled. “They keyblade he threw you. The little flashes of memory. That was me. Or, I guess, what was left of me.”

“Right,” he nodded slowly, turning back to stare at the building.

“Did you two do that?” she smiled, looking to the cut, and he laughed.

“Sora and I, yeah. The fight against Xemnas was… something else.”

“I wish I’d been there to see it,” she sighed. “I’d love to have watched him get what he deserved.” Riku was silent and she shifted uncomfortably for a few moments. “Um, let’s… keep going.” He moved to her side as they started again, heading through streets and alleys, jumping at every movement, Riku ready to summon his blade to fight the Heartless. But none came.

Instead, their walk was silent and tense until they finally reached the edge, a cliff leading down into the nothing below the city, where an enormous pile of ivory rubble rested.

“There it is,” Riku said, as Xion inhaled sharply.

“Yeah,” she nodded. She slowly moved to the edge of the cliff.

“W-wait,” he started, running towards her as she sat down, scooting so her feet were over the ledge. He stumbled to a stop before joining her, sitting and staring out at the remains of the Castle That Never Was.

“So this is it, huh?” she asked softly. “All of Xemnas’s hard work, all of the data, all the hearts we collected. It’s just this big heap of trash, now.”

“I guess so.”

“And Xemnas is the only one who won’t be coming back,” she smiled. “Everyone else gets another chance. Even people like me who never deserved it.”

“Xion…”

“I mean… Like, literally, not… you know, in a ‘beating myself up’ way. I wasn’t a PERSON, Riku, you know that. I was just Sora’s memories of Kairi. Now…” She held out a hand in front of the castle rubble, flexing it. “Now I’m me. I didn’t think I could do that.”

“I’m glad you are,” he laughed and she smiled.

“Me too.” Eventually, her smile fell and she faltered. “What… do people do?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I’m… new at this. What are we supposed to do now?”

“Well, I don’t know,” he replied, scratching his neck. “I guess we… just sort of wait for the next adventure.”

“You’re not gonna wait,” she smiled, poking him in the side and he laughed.

“No, probably not. Sora could be out there somewhere, hurting, and I want to help him. Once I take you back to wherever you want to go, I was probably going to head out and find him.” She nodded, scooting closer and resting her head on his shoulder. He went stiff for a second, before wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

“I could come too,” she offered. “I don’t… have anything holding me here, and I want to be useful.”

“I think it’s something I have to do myself, Xion,” he said softly and she sighed.

“I know.”

“You’ve got Axel, and Roxas, and Naminé to look after you and help you, though,” he smiled. “Things won’t be that bad.”

“I don’t want to be ‘looked after’,” she replied, frowning. “I want to DO the looking after, or help people somehow, o-or… I don’t know, I want to DO something, Riku. I hate this sitting around.”

“It’s called relaxing,” he teased and she huffed. “You can’t work yourself too hard, Xion.”

“I went on missions all day every day for a year,” she pointed out.

“Didn’t you go into a coma at one point?” She opened her mouth, then scowled.

“Yeah, but… that wasn’t the work’s fault.”

“Sure,” he laughed and she groaned. “Seriously, Xion, you’re alive now, and your own person. Don’t you want to explore that?” She frowned, hugging her arms tight, curling her legs under her.

“I don’t know how, Riku. I don’t… I don’t know who I am. Everybody else seems to just… KNOW. Axel has his life with Saïx, Roxas has his friends and Twilight Town, Ven has Aqua and Terra and his little cat thing. Everyone else has a PLACE. Somewhere they belong, like, their… their own niche. I don’t have a place of my own. I don’t belong in Twilight Town, or Destiny Islands. I belong down there.” She pointed down to the rubble and Riku sighed.

“What about Naminé? She feels out of place too, I bet. The two of you are similar, you could go to her.” She shrugged weakly. “I can’t tell you your purpose, Xion. It’s something you have to find for yourself. Isn’t there anything that you like?” She frowned, brows knitted together as her thumbs rubbed against her arms. She’d been to so many worlds on missions, what did she like?

She liked sea salt ice cream, obviously, but that was more about the people than the dessert. She liked… the desert. Agrabah was nice. It was HOT, but it was nice. She felt like she could get lost there, like no one would notice her in the hustle and bustle of their lives, and she could just live, unnoticed. She liked the eerie feel of Halloween Town, the strange monsters that lived there making her feel more normal and human by comparison. She scrunched her face up, thinking. Wonderland. Beast’s Castle. She liked-

“Flowers?” she said finally and Riku chuckled. “Don’t laugh!”

“Sorry, I just… wasn’t expecting that. Though I guess, with a name like Xion...” She frowned, shoving him lightly and he laughed again. “So, flowers. I dunno, roll with that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can… garden?” he tried. “Like, grow flowers, learn about them, I don’t know.” She frowned.

“I... never thought about that.”

“That can be like… your thing. You can garden, and grow flowers for people, and from there you can figure out who you are. Meeting new people at the… flower store, or whatever.” She laughed, shaking her head. “Even something as simple as flowers can help you figure out who you are, Xion. You just have to be open to it, and looking, and you’ll find it.” She paused, meeting his eyes before moving forward and hugging him tight around the midsection, head on his shoulder as he rested his hand on her head.

“Thank you, Riku. Really. It means a lot that you’re helping me with all of this.”

“I mean I’m not gonna grow the flowers for you,” he laughed, then softer, “but yeah, Xion. Of course.” She held him for a long moment before pulling away, awkwardly scooting down a few inches, eyes returning to the destroyed castle. “You almost ready to go back?”

“Yeah,” she said softly, standing. “Just about.” He stood, then paused.

“Want a little alone time?” She nodded and he patted her shoulder, walking back down the street as she stared into the gaping pit. This had been her home for an entire year. Walking its halls, talking with its residents, doing missions for Xemnas. It was all she’d known. But the second she met someone new, the second Riku stepped into her life, that was all shattered. And for the better. She'd learned about Sora, about where she came from, her purpose in life. And then, she'd rejected it. Fighting back against Xemnas in every way she knew how, and eventually even dying for it. It had felt so good to rebel.

She fished a thalassa shell from her pocket, the last one remaining from her time at the Castle. Roxas had hidden it on some world, some act of preservation that she’d thank him for forever. But now she held it out, outlined against the Castle, taking in the soft pinks and yellows before letting it fall from her fingers, clinking against the street before teetering into the abyss below. The last piece of herself tied here.

She drew in a labored breath, turning to Riku who was trying to pretend he wasn’t watching her, and smiled, giving a soft wave before heading to join him, to leave Dark City. This time, she wouldn’t return. No more RTC. Not ever again.

[rusticsqualid]

Kingdom Hearts III is not that bad?

The most common complaint is that the game feels rushed/the pacing is horrible. This is not necessarily a problem. Any game developer worth their salt knows that the level design should be in harmony with the level itself. There’s a narrative, and the level design should make players feel whatever emotion fits the narrative. So, overall, in the most general sense, the game design should be derivative of the game’s story. Easiest example: players should feel scared in a horror game. Therefore, in a game where the characters are rushing to achieve their goal, the player should be rushed to reach that goal. The characters are well aware that Xehanort’s Keyblade War is right around the corner, and reiterate to Sora that he must attain the Power of Waking as soon as possible every chance they get. There’s not much time before the war in the story, so should we really be surprised when there’s not much time getting to that point through the gameplay? Subsequently, people complain that there’s not much worlds/worlds are too quick. I think this point boils down to the placebo effect. The idea of what content is and the expectation of such content fools people into believing that there’s a lack of content. It’s all relative. More worlds mean less time per world, and less worlds mean more time per world. There’s a trophy for beating Kingdom Hearts 1 in under 15 hours. I don’t know about Kingdom Hearts II, maybe it has been beaten in that timeframe, but I think 20-30 hours sounds about right. Having played Kingdom Hearts III for the first time, I made it to Scala Ad Caelum at around 28 hours. I think I could cut it down to making it at somewhere between 20-25 hours. At this point, I can average 45 minutes per world in KH1 except for Hollow Bastion and I think End of the World as well. Hollow Bastion, due to two trips, takes about 1.5 hours and End of the World, is maybe that long, maybe closer to an hour, I can’t remember. Anyway, point is: Kingdom Hearts 1 - 15 hours. I have played the first Kingdom Hearts far more, and I haven’t timed myself on the second, but if I had to guess, 45 minutes sounds about right for the first world visits and 30 minutes for the second world visits. All things considered, it really would take 20-30 hours to beat KH2. Kingdom Hearts 3 does have less worlds, but less is more. Disney worlds in other games would rush their movie’s narrative by jumping from plot point to plot point with no fluff. Disney worlds in this game have all that additional narrative between key points. They took an average of 2-3 hours to complete. The game may seem rushed, but on the other hand, you’d have players going “I keep hearing how we have to hurry up and prepare for the Keyblade War, but then we keep doing all this other stuff and it’s taking us forever to actually be ready.” There’s a purpose to why Kingdom Hearts 3 lacks content. Then again, if you cut out all the fluff, the game would basically be the length of A Fragmentary Passage. On the other hand, as opposed to the other games, this one has come out in an age where DLC is so mainstream, that we may see Kingdom Hearts games do with their storylines that the Destiny games have done with theirs.

Another complaint is Kairi’s character development or lack thereof. She’s apparently no less useless than before, but could we honestly expect much from her? “Maybe we were wrong to expect much from Kairi given how new she is to combat [and how little time she had to train] when Yen Sid himself told Mickey that Sora and Riku [two experience combatants] had to be made Masters to face Xehanort.” That quote alone sums up my defense of Kairi, but it’s part my rant on a problem that does needs addressing. There is someone else who needs character development more than Kairi: Yen Sid. The way his character was handled in this game is far more disappointing (Though I do admit we care more about Kairi than Yen Sid, but still). This is where the game is wrong according to my responses in a discussion I was part of:

And how is Merlin going to train Keyblades wielders? Is Merlin the wizard suddenly retconned into being a Keyblade wielder for plot convenience now? My God Yen Sid is so lazy to the point of being a pointless character. In 12 years, he's only gotten up once. I don't think he even left that chair to use the bathroom.

I wanted him to die in the war for the sake of "spring cleaning" but no, they take out Kairi instead who is a marginally more useful and significant character. Everyone told me "they won't kill the guy who is named after Disney". I get he's old, but even Geezernort managed to pull off a Keyblade War.

I mean, come on now. When you think about it, all things considered... Kairi rescued Sora from the realm of Darkness not once, but twice, three times if you count the letter, she fought albeit momentarily in the Castle That Never Was, and she did end up fighting in the Keyblade War. Yen Sid shows up out of nowhere and waves his hands and that's supposed to make up for years of doing nothing? "Sora, Riku, you must save these new characters post haste because even though I am a seasoned Keyblade wielder who could do it, this important mission is the responsibility of you scrubs while I sit on my wrinkled fat ass and to do it you need the power of waking which I, a great Keyblade master, doesn't even have and I should keep an eye on you in the realm of sleep but I won't and let the Organization come in and steal Sora" Kairi has done more in two years then Yen Sid did in twelve. Yen Sid is like that negligent parent that's  all coked up while their toddler runs around the neighborhood in a dirty fiaper while eating glue. Somebody call the Keyblade Association, Yen Sid needs his Keyblade license revoked.

Yeah, I'm not saying people are wrong about Kairi, I'm just saying that Yen Sid is as deserving, if not more of criticism than she is, and hasn't been criticized as he should be. It looks like he's a worse character, and personally, I had been saying for two years that his existence is so pointless that he'd be better off getting killed off. If you go back and watch my Keyblade War theories video, it exposes Yen Sid for just how little of a difference he makes to the series. While this game wasted it's opportunity to develop Kairi, Yen Sid has several games worth of wasted opportunities and has had far more screen time to boot. Maybe we were wrong to expect much from Kairi given how new she is to combat when Yen Sid himself told Mickey that Sora and Riku had to be made Masters to face Xehanort.

They wouldn't have needed Kairi if they actually freed Roxas instead of just talking about doing that. They materialized a marble, a pouch, and a photo. They could materialize a vessel. No one in this series is known for seriously thinking. The great mighty master OG_YENSID_69 could have whipped out a Keyblade, stretched his hamstrings and his aching back, and have been the seventh guardian, but no. Why have as many Masters as possible fighting the big bad when you could have a team of scrubs?Kairi could have been fine chilling on the islands, but no. It's all Yen Sid's fault.Heck, if Xehanort could bring past selves to be seekers, the others could bring past selves to be guardians.

So, while Kairi should have become a better character, Nomura isn’t necessarily wrong for keeping her the same. Yen Sid, on the other hand, has no excuse.

Those are the two big issues people have with the game, but the real issue is that expectations were not met. Square Enix has its reasoning for the game’s development. It is what it is. I don’t want to say that the game is bad, or that they made a bad game on purpose, but I think Square Enix has the capacity to learn from its mistakes and will consider all criticism. If we look at the game from their perspective and appreciate it for what it is instead of hating it for what it’s not, then Kingdom Hearts III is not as bad as it seems.

[applegelstore]

My sis and I are through with the actual main plot of KH3, so I can officially go back to scheduled ToZ fangirling now. …Well, I promised Cray a bit of fix-it-fanart, so after that, I guess.

Hit the cut for a resume. It got super long and has endgame story spoilers, so you might not want to stumble upon it by accident.

Another extra big shoutout (again!) to @crazayrock for bearing my liveblogging on Discord, screaming without context and occasional spoilers. And linking me fluffy Soriku doujinshi. Here, have my favourite, spoiler-heavy excerpt of our conversation:

Okay anyway, let’s get started: GAMEPLAY

Kingdom Hearts 3 is BEAUTIFUL. The gameplay is so smooth and intuitive that you can immediately get to playing like you’d never done anything else; in fact so smooth that I doubt I will ever be able to pick up the first game ever again. It’s always been fun, but the looooooong years’ gap actually did wonders to the gameplay.

The keyblade form changes are fun and keep things fresh, you can do flashy triangle button shit every other minute, and shotlock is still insanely useful without being a game-breaker.

It seems easier than the first two main games, though?

The gummi ship is still a pain in the ass to steer, but I do enjoy the open world-like travel options (even if there’s not… much to discover except heartless lasering the shit out of you). I’m also eternally grateful that they kept the gummi ship thing from KH2 where you can just use a new gummi ship once you got the blueprint and don’t buy actual fucking legos as in the first game.

Thank you, Square. Not thanking you for the dumb cherry flan game, though.

The Caribbean being basically an open world stage was delightful! Apparently what our resident island kid needs is a big ship and tropical islands to plunder.

VISUALS AND STUFF

PRETTY LIGHTS EVERYWHERE

The long gap between the games also did wonders to the visuals.

There’s finally, FINALLY a few towns with actual NPCs you can talk to. Why it took the team so many years and the Gods know how many games is beyond me. The magic effects are beautiful, the animations smooth (honestly you can hardly tell apart cutscenes and fully rendered CGI scenes in this day and age of the PS4. I’m probably the only person still amazed by this because the only games I played on PS4 before were a few hours of Child of Light and of course Tales of Zestiria and Berseria. No, I still haven’t played FFXV but that’s a topic for another day). How far videogames have come.Even space finally looks like space, lol. Not really high-end what the PS4 can do I assume but god, it’s such an amazing and much needed upgrade from the terrible textureless colourful tubes you flew through before.

No excuse for the terrible battleship thingy before the Keyblade Graveyard, though. I got lost and beaten up so many times and crashed against more walls than I can count.

Nothing beats the World that Never Was, but the Keyblade Graveyard also has creepy cool potential, as does the beautiful but ghosted City in the Sky.

Still not getting what’s with JRPGs and very Definitely Final Dungeons (TM) that are basically space. …………or heaven. Or nothing. I’m getting the bad kind of original NGE TV series ending vibes. But. Okay.

The soundtrack is splendid

.……I miss Traverse Town and Radiant Garden, however.

Which brings us to:

THE WORLDS

I guess I can live with no more Final Fantasy characters being there (although I always loved that), and the meta jokes in Toy Story world really got me. Seeing Disney characters calling the KH villains call out on their shit was delightful. …the KH characters lampshading their own games’ sloppy dialogue writing was delightful.Still, those Disney worlds are always so much more in my head than what I actually get to play. This has been bugging me ever since the first game and it still does. I do not expect or want to replay the entire movies, but would it hurt to give the cutscenes some goddamn background music? Whenever there’s cutscenes, either the world’s usual BGM keeps playing or the music stops altogether. Together with the shortened dialogues and generally drastically shortened plots with odd cuts, that leads to scenes that are awkward at best. They never even remotely have the impact the movies had. You just sit there and think “oh wow that is so silly and awkward”.

Dancing scene in Corona? My favorite scene in Tangled. Zero impact on me without the lovely BGM (at least they made it a minigame so the moment isn’t over after 3 secs). Just for example. You can ask me like, world by world, but I can think of only exception off the top of my head and it’s not helping:

Let it Go of course. Listen guys, I actually love the song. But it’s so overused (and Frozen is an overrated movie at best that doesn’t deserve its hype in the slightest) that I can’t even really enjoy it being there. Like.


IF THAT’S OKAY WITH YOU,WHY DIDN’T YOU INCLUDE LITERALLY ANY OTHER ORIGINAL SONG FROM THE ORIGINAL MOVIES. Instead of BGM just not being there entirely, or in odd, cringey re-renderings that nobody wants to listen to (*cough* Atlantica *cough*).

Why torture me and not give me the one good scene from At World’s End (the up is down scene) when you had the chance?Kingdom Hearts is also prone to super lazy level design and wasting chances at wonderful scenery for no apparent reason other than I suppose empty cliffsides are quick to render. All games before did that, and KH3 is, sadly, no exception. We get to see a bit of Corona and Athens and they finally have NPCs, too, but you cannot even get near Arendelle. You cannot enter Elsa’s palace. You spend the entire time there climbing around in the snowy mountains of Norway, and unfortunately it looks less interesting than one would expect from the lovely concept art that the film unfortunately never used.You cannot enter Rapunzel’s tower although Sora can apparently parkour his way up even without her help.

………In short, the places you can go are, again, very limited, and a lot of interesting places and scenes you never get to see.

And to follow the plot you still only need the stuff that does NOT happen in those Disney worlds because they’re all beach filler episodes. It’s always been like that, but I keep wondering whether I’m the only one bothered by that. I’m also still salty they didn’t introduce a single new world from a 2D animated movie.

Also, as I said, I miss Traverse Town, it felt so warm and welcoming and beautiful.

And I get behind The World that Never Was missing although I loved it there, but why not give us back Radiant Garden? Destiny Islands since they’ve been restored? Disney Castle?

As much as I love the series, it never fucking lives up to its own potential. Idk whether it’s made more difficult by copyright issues or whatever, I just know that it bugs me.The first two games also had like twice as many worlds.

PLOT

I mean it’s never been deep; however, it’s complicated. No analysis or whatever from me because plot analysis and meta writing bore me like seven hells, just my emotional reaction: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 
Okay, bad news. I got into it expecting nothing, and still got disappointed. I don’t actually enjoy the prospect of writing essays about it, but here’s my tea with it; in not particular order:

1) the pacing is terrible. Nothing happens for like 30 hours and then suddenly like 20 characters’ arcs are (naturally poorly) resolved within the last few hours of cutscenes. Build up anyone? At least they actually did pick up Maleficent and the box thing again. …In the epilogue.

2) Speaking of build ups, Sora’s breakdown could have been developed nicely and steadily over the game to feel natural, and instead it’s hinted at in the beginning by everyone picking on him, but then it’s never further developed and comes out of fucking nowhere. Like. For real? It felt terribly OOC.

3) Why on earth have they shown 90% of the plot in the trailers already, and why are those scenes so massively disappointing in context

4) Kairi. Oh god, Kairi. What are we gonna do with you. I want to love her, I really do, but she’s a prime example of shittily written female leads. Mostly because she’s not leading. It’s not her fault. She’s just a fictional character. But honest to God, Nomura, why. Her screen time is almost nonexistent, and she’s entirely use- and helpless whenever she’s on screen (which isn’t often). Her ONLY point in the plot is being rescued because she is fucking useless. Why. Just why. Why waste her character like that. All we know is that she’s shoehorned into being the token love interest, but she has zero plot relevance and there is even less build up of her relationship with Sora. It’s all tell and NEVER show; and not even much telling, either. She has literally zero direct interaction with in the entire game before they share their paopu. The question remains: why are straights like this

5) On a related note: look, I don’t even ask for (or expect, or even hope) my ship to be canon. Squeenix doesn’t exactly have a rich history in queer representation. I’m totally fine with Sora and Riku being best friends. BUT. Building up Sora as the most important person in Riku’s life (and arguably, vice versa) over the course of several games, just to then hardly have them interact in the finale and then SUDDENLY bring back Kairi into the equation, who hasn’t interacted with him since the ending of KH2 (except for one unsent(?) letter) is just piss poor writing, period.I actually love Cray’s suggestion she gave me over Discord: let Sora, Kairi and Riku all share a paopu together (and let them group hug, too, you cowards). It would have been the perfect message to send (Sora as truly all-loving hero, and loving all your friends equally; romantic love isn’t more important than platonic love and doesn’t need to be singled out). Really sad that this isn’t what happens. Apparently that wouldn’t have been no homo enough.

LET THE DESTINY TRIO GROUP HUG YOU COWARDS


Do Riku and Kairi even interact once in the whole game?


HOW IS THIS A TRIO, IT’S JUST A SHITTILY WRITTEN LOVE TRIANGLE

6) Time travelling is a bitch, Christ. It doesn’t solve plotholes or can be played for drama, it just adds MORE plotholes. It just got WORSE. The cloning blues and people not aging doesn’t help, either.

7) Just so you know, I care absolutely zero for wild fan theories. You’re not Nomura. I want a statement from the man who wrote this shit himself why on bloody earth Sora dies when he apparently successfully found and brought back Kairi (and since nobody aged a day, apparently it didn’t even take that long lol). DUDES, THIS IS KINDA PART OF THE PLOT, AND YOU DON’T BOTHER TO EXPLAIN IT INGAME???? And how was Ienzo/Zexion able to revive Naminé while Kairi was still missing/dead/whatever…?

Okay so in short the writing is worse than ever and that’s saying something.

However, let’s try to find something good in this trainwreck; it wasn’t all bad. There’s some really nice scenes which sadly are better enjoyed without any context at all.

So, guess my favourite scenes.You had time enough, here’s the solution:

1) Purifying uhm er rescuing Aqua. Poor girl. She deserves the rest. Poor, poor Aqua. The only properly wirrten female in the whole damn franchise. Also the only person other than Riku who fucking gets shit done.

2) The Gayblade (TM)

3) Happy Axel in the reunion with his kids. Oh god, the poor chap deserves it so much. Thank you, Nomura. I don’t care that it makes pretty much no sense. Make him happy. Give him his friends back. Just give Axel all his friends and let him happily set things on fire. Hi I love Axel

4) The party at the beach cutscene before the credits roll. Axel and Xion get clothes. Half the organization is on our side now. I almost teared up at the Wayfinder trio saying goodbye to Eraqus’ forceghost. Hey come on he’s the voice of Luke Skywalker

5) Sully yeeting Vanitas

6) Woody calling out Xehanort that nobody loves him

7) Jack Sparrow bad breathing Luxord

I wish we had gotten:

1) justice for Kairi

2) a happy Zexion, the poor emo kid. Well maybe now he will be, with all the orga members who changed sides now, lol.

3) I will never trust mobile games ever again so I don’t want to play KHUX but I would have loved to learn about the Keyblade Wars :;))))


WHAT WAS THE KEYBLADE WAR ABOUT CAN WE SPEND MORE TIME IN THAT COOL CITY IN THE SKY WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH MIKLEO
I MEAN THAT EPHEMER KIDDO


WHAT’S WITH THE MASKED DUDES AND DUDETTES FROM THE MOVIE


WTF WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM AFTER THE MOVIE???? WHERE THOSE KEYBLADE USER NAMES ACTUAL MOBILE GAME PLAYER NAMES??? Next game? PLEASE?

I really, REALLY hope the epilogue means we will get Xiggy/Luxu as our new big bad and we learn more about the five dudes and dudettes from the movie. Please. PLEASE. I’m so up for it. Them finally pickung up the bit with Maleficent and the mysterious box again? Hell yeah.

The secret movie was really unexciting in comparison, although I laughed very hard at the “Verum Rex” scene in Toy Story world. Maybe that’s why it was much cheaper to unlock than in KH1 and KH2.

4) give Ven a drink

DLC ideas I would actually pay for because I’m a sad human being: 1) more Disney worlds 2) Japanese audio 3) at least one of the following as permanently playable characters: Riku, Kairi, Axel, Ven, Aqua. At least as a guest member as in KH2. THIS SUCH A BIG STEP BACKWARDS I’M FUMING

FINAL THOUGHTS

Kingdom Hearts 3 is a hella lot of fun, beautiful, and also moving when it sets its mind to it. Unfortunately it doesn’t always do so. I don’t feel like it wasn’t worth the wait; it was. However, I’m very salty how rotten the writing is. I do not mind logical fallacies, I do not mind the cheesiness and cringeyness; however, I do mind how so many interesting characters do not get the screentime they deserve, and Kairi is a very bad joke.

I’ll probably find more to nitpick about (Gods. Just. Don’t come up with dub excuses why Sora is lv 1 in each game. JUST LEAVE IT BE. You don’t explain why Donald and Goofy are lv 1 again, either. JUST. LEAVE. IT. BE. The sacrifice was dumb and not even moving, I’m just still furious that Kairi’s ONLY point in the plot is being so useless that it’s literally getting herself KILLED and she needs constant rescuing to the point that Sora has to sacrifice himself for her, effectively. Kairi deserves better, Sora deserves better, I deserve better than to think about this absurdity.…I’m just… gonna cherry-pick the good bits from the lore and try to pretend the finale didn’t exist, I guess. GODS.

[videogame1up]

Kingdom Hearts 3. A beautifuly disappointing game. (Mostly Spoiler free review)

I would be lying if I were to say I'm the world's biggest Kingdom Hearts fan. I don't know every plot detail, I haven't played every single game (I have tried playing chain of memories. I can't do it) but this is a series that means a lot to me. When I was a little kid with older siblings I shared a lot, including games. Kingdom Hearts was the first game that was my game. No one else In the house played it except me. And to this day remains the only game I've played multiple times. It's fun, and I have so much love for it. I remember seeing a magazine talking about kh 2. And thinking it looked so cool. But by then we sold the ps2, and I didn't get to play it until I was In high school. And I loved it, it was everything a good sequel should be. Add onto and improve what you did over the first game. Kingdom Hearts 3 began to be the butt of the joke online. People saying It would never come out.

I remember seeing that 2013 trailer. And seeing Sora picking the Keyblade up. This moment to me became the most exciting moment of any trailer of recent memory. I Knew it was kh 3. And so the wait began. You could argue there was no way it could live up to the hype, and maybe that's true. But you can't be blinded for your love of a series, I love kingdom Hearts, but 3 dropped the ball. As a joke I had my 4 year old nephew fight xehanort. He won. Didn't die once. And used the winnie the pooh Keyblade. I'm not asking for dark souls level difficulty. But the difficulty in this game felt like a slap in the face. The fact Xehanort was the easiest final boss fight felt like such a let down. Not once did i fight a boss and lose forcing me to learn their moves and figure out the best way forward to beat them. Kh 1 and 2 had tough memorable bosses. Granted this is a personal thing but I gotta get it out. The lack of Disney boss fights annoyed me. why not fight Randal? Why not Zurg in Toy Story? Instead we got generic heartless boss fights. But when we did get to fight a Disney baddie like Davey Jones it didn't feel rewarding. There was no buildup between Sora and Davey their fight just sort of happens.

I also thought there was a problem with the world's this time around. Frozen was the absolute worst in this game. The whole world was either just ice or snow. There wasn't a screen that felt really unique. The story was also really bad. It just retold the frozen story, which is fine, but Sora wasn't involved. Tangled also retold that movies story but Sora Donald and Goofy were apart of it. It felt like you were apart of that story. Frozen the story happened around you. You run into Elsa once and help Anna put Olaf together. Granted they give you an ice monster to join your party which is cool. But I actually think it would have been great If the prince joins your party under the guise of helping Elsa and Anna. The way you could have been involved in the story a bit more. And since the movie builds him up as a good guy it was a shock when he wasn't. They could have worked with that in this game. Toy Story was also a prime example of a world done wrong To me the toy Story world almost didn't feel like toy Story. You get Andy room to explore which is fine. But then you get this generic mall to explore? Why not pizza planet or Al's Toy Barn? It felt like Toy Story (similar to Frozen) was shoe horned in due to their popularity. The worlds were all big. But they felt empty and souless to me. Big Hero 6 is beautiful but running up a buding in a square doesnt feel like exploring. Pirates world on paper sounds great. But ship battles were boring and the handful of islands you could explore werent interesting. I can forgive most of them. But they did my boy Winnie dirty

I love pooh bear. As a kid I watched him a lot. So visiting him in kh 1 and 2 made me feel like a kid. And I always look forward to visiting him in future playthroughs. It was a fun relaxing world that I usually did before heading to the final world. But this time around its a total of 3 mini games (that are all the same) characters are missing (eyor) and I just didn't enjoy my time with pooh bear. It felt like it was thrown in last minute. the pacing for this game was another major problem. Beat a world. 30 mins of exposition. Rinse and repeat. It felt like there was nothing to do between world's. Kh 1 and 2 had the coliseum. Kh 2 had the events of radiant gardens to break up the Disney world's stories. Kh 3 didn't really have that. The story chugged forward with little interest of how it was told. Interesting concepts are brought up. Like Riku teaming up with Micky to save Aqua. Kairi and Axel training to become Keyblade masters. Nothing was done with this. You played as Riku once towards the start. That would been a great way to break things up. Play a couple of world's as sora. Progress the story on Riku's side by playing as him. Play a world and progress the story a bit more with at least more Kairi and axel cutscenes. For such a large game being In development for so long it almost doesn't feel complete to me. I love this series. And I wanted to love this game. And in a way, I do. It's still Kingdom Hearts. It still has that magic that attracts people to these games. But I guess I expect a lot more from this game. I expected a lot of side content and bosses to keep me busy. I expected a good challenge. I expected to feel a sense of completion when I set the controller down after I beat it. You could say this is just an angry fan expecting too much, but it's not. This game has real fundamental flaws. Long wait or not, this game was a disappointment

WOW OK! I just went after Kingdom Hearts 3 on Tumblr. I'm going to get murdered. I would love to hear what you have to say. Agree? Great! Hate my guts? 100% get it. If you'll excuse me I'm going back to kh 1 where I'll feel safe on Destiny islands

[candi-girl]

KH3: Hollower Than Any Toy Review **Minor Spoilers**

I just beat KH3 yesterday. I came out of it feeling a bit disappointed. The game is beautiful and the mechanics are still fun but everything from the story to the boss fights felt a bit lackluster. The last boss fights were extremely easy and did not feel as epic to me as KH2's last boss fights. In fact, I liked KH2's ending way more. I haven't played KH2 in years and I still remember exactly how it goes and how I felt after beating it. After what felt like an eternity of reflecting and deflecting light beams back at Xemnas, Sora and a badly wounded Riku sit hopelessly on the shores of the Realm of Darkness. Suddenly a letter in a bottle with a familiar seal emerges from the dark sea. A light shines, a slowed down piano version of "Sanctuary" plays and we are back in the welcoming and colorful world of Destiny Islands. Donald and Goofy lovingly embrace Sora. His eyes then lock-on to Kairi's, Roxas and Namine's eyes follow suit. This felt wayyyy more emotional than KH3's ending which I struggle to remember even though I beat it today.

Before I go any further, I feel I must preface this especially for a post about KH. No, I haven’t played all the spin-off games but I AM A PASSIONATE FAN of the main games in the series. I played the first one for PS2 at 11 when it came out and I was absolutely blown away and in love. I played KH2 at about 14 and got sucked in all over again. In college, I would play Birth By Sleep in between classes. I played 1.5 for PS3 sometime in college as well. Most recently at 27, I played 0.2 from the "The Story So Far" bundle for PS4. I have tried playing Chain of Memories numerous times on an emulator but couldn't stand the Card System and never got very far or finished it. I've also tried 358/2 on an emulator and I've even tried watching it but never got far with it either. I have skipped Re-coded altogether and as soon as I saw the Dream Eaters Link mechanic in DDD I stopped playing that too. I have played a little bit of the mobile KH game but not for long. Suffice it to say, I'm not into mobile games or games for portable devices. The only 2 games I can recall that I have beaten on a portable device (besides Pokemon games on Gameboy) are Birth By Sleep and FFVII: Crisis Core (both PSP). Generally, I get more immersed in games on a TV screen.

Okay so background out of the way, here is what bothers me about KH3 and probably why KH3's ending didn't make me feel as much as KH2's ending. And let me just say, I know this might not be a problem for others who have played all the games, read all the news and external books, probably follow Nomura on Twitter but I don't do that. When it comes to gaming, here is my process: I see a cool game, I want it, I buy it, I play it, I judge whether I like it based on the content in the game, nothing external. I don't follow any gaming news or actively pursue it. If I happen to have the time I’ll watch E3 and hear about things here and there but mostly, when I pick-up a game, I'm hoping it can be self-contained. So, knowing that about me, you can see why I absolutely loathe that if you haven't played KH DDD, KH Recoded, KH 358/2 Days, KH X (the Foretellers lore stuff) you're missing out on like 3/4 of the story.

Chain of Memories being between KH1 and KH2 irked me but I forgave it because the characters and story were still basically the same. Lock keyholes to protect various worlds from being consumed by darkness, help characters in those various worlds with their problem, stop main baddy from opening up Kingdom Hearts, and don't forget that friends are your strength and light. Nothing is wrong with keeping a story “Simple and Clean” and in fact, I think if a story is simple you can focus on making stronger character arcs and make the game super character driven so that the dangerous stuff that happens to characters IS actually scary and emotional! (Side Note: I also believe that because of the association with Disney, the KH franchise feels like it cannot tackle more mature themes like actual death of loved ones, failure, betrayal, etc. which really holds back what a game about the Heart could explore in a more serious, sophisticated manner. However, games like “Ni No Kuni” still find ways to talk about death, depression and grief in ways that are appropriate for younger audiences so it’s possible to do it, KH!)  

And I know that KH3 pokes fun at itself for having so many different titles in the franchise and I know it tries to get you up to speed but it cheapens the experience when SO MUCH of the story-telling and lore heavily relies on externalities and not the self-contained game. It seriously becomes a hindrance and emotional barrier when #1 I don't know know what's going on (or don’t understand/feel the extent and impact of something that's supposed to be dangerous), #2 don't know characters well enough to care about them and #3 there are no real stakes in the KH world because every game you fight the same goddamn enemies. I don't know all the Organization members like the back of my hand so their deaths don't do anything for me plus you fight them at least twice throughout the series (maybe even more) so that shows that they can always come back. The rules and logic in KH are very fast and loose. It's like playing a game with a child and when they are losing they make something up. And all this "I think I should know this character but I don't remember" dialogue is so cheap. Stop with the amnesia story-lines! Games like Chain of Memories and Re-Coded, that are made for portable devices are made to hold fans over until the big main game comes out. Let’s be real, KH: Re-Coded might as well be called “KH: Re-Sell” because it’s KH one all over again but on the DS. Now there’s nothing wrong with a company re-branding and re-selling a product if they know fully-well that there is a market for it (in the words of Cutler Beckett, “it’s just good business”) but for the love of all things good, DO NOT PLACE INTEGRAL plot points in them that the main games will gloss over. And don't expect me to read Jiminy’s Journal! 

Who is this game for? It plays like a casual game but feels like beginning a story at it’s falling action point. I can’t imagine being a newcomer to this series and playing this game and understanding it. I played the game super slowly, exploring each Disney world thoroughly, trying to take it all in but there is so little KH story given throughout the game. Once I moved on to the Badlands, the actual main KH plot began to unfold. When I first started playing KH3, my gf (who has only played a few hours of the first KH) asked me "so why are you going to other worlds if you're not locking keyholes?" I stumbled on my words to give her an answer. I replied "Sora needs to regain his strength and get the power of waking." She nodded but I knew it sounded kind of stupid. "He looks pretty powerful already!" She said as she watched me defeat hordes of enemies in the first world, Olympus. And that was another thing. I felt super overpowered from the beginning all the way up until the end. When fighting Xehanort all I could think was "that's it?" The game is all about Sora regaining his lost powers and learning the power of waking but you start off super powerful anyway. 

This may be a bit of a tangent but in Final Fantasy X, Yuna started off as the weakest, most feeble, docile character in personality and combat as she is just a white mage. I avoided using her at all costs. I had Lulu for black magic and switched Yuna in only when I really needed Protective magic or healing. However, by the end of the game, Yuna with her fully decked out Nirvana staff, third tier white and black magic, double-cast, and ultima became my most valuable and dangerous character. Not only does she literally become stronger in combat, but her (dare I say it) heart becomes stronger too. She becomes bolder and braver. She starts questioning her religion and the society and world she grew up in. She grows in every sense of the word. Yuna’s character trajectory is one of the most poetic I’ve ever seen and experienced in a game and I absolutely love that it’s FELT both in the combat of the game AND the story. I guess the point I’m trying to make is there should be growth in the character’s development but also growth in the game mechanics and combat. FFX is a game that intertwined both forms of growth organically and I think KH3 really should’ve done that as well. Starting off weak and THEN becoming powerful enough to take on the big baddy in the ending rewards the players for their efforts and also feels way more satisfying. Also, a certain character that begins with “K” and ends with “airi” could’ve EASILY been the Yuna of this game. But once again KH3 repeats the same old ideas over and over again. Also, speaking of Final Fantasy, where are my Final Fantasy characters in KH3??

I know this sounds like a negative review but overall, I actually did enjoy playing KH3 and it was great to see all my favs and like I always say, it always feels like home. I'm definitely not done yet (gotta synthesize ultima, collect all treasures and lucky emblems, reach level 99, and maybe play some mini-games). But ultimately it did not have that emotional impact on me like the first 2 KH's. Maybe I AM too old and broken. Maybe when I replay it one day I'll feel differently. Anyway, see you in 2040 when KH4 comes out!

[silverwhisp]

I’ve Completed KH3 And I Have Thoughts.

I have finished KH3 short of the side stuff like the ultima weapon, classic kingdom, gummi ship stuff, battle portals and the cooking. I have some thoughts. First off, I loved this game allot. I only have a couple of complaints gameplay wise and three story wise but all in all, I loved every minute of this game. For those who don’t want to read everything I’d give the game a solid 8.5/10. It was amazing but a few small flaws and the three story issues I had made me bring the score down. First I will discuss the issues cause I feel that’s what one should do when critiquing art. I will offer solutions where I can. 

I will discuss my gameplay complaints first.

The manual lock on is ass while the auto lock on is decent. I almost never used the manual lock on due to the fact it can just drag the camera where ever it wanted. Especially if enemies start flying. This is largely due to how often you spend in the air while in combat. The auto lock is good though and doesn’t seem to change targets unless you make it or bump into another enemy. The manual lock is good for human sized bosses though. Short of making the camera tighter this may not be able to be fixed.

The game is to damn easy. I had this issue in BBS and DDD after I got to level 30 and beyond. The game becomes easy even on proud. This is largely due to bad enemy health scaling. They still can hit damn hard and enemies like the Ice Dragon still are dangerous. But since the enemy’s health and defense don’t scale up better the game becomes real easy after level 40. I don’t doubt they will patch in a critical mode which may be a better way to play this game. Just better enemy scaling would fix this problem.

That’s all my gameplay complaints now for story ones. SPOILERS will be discussed so leave while you can.

The game has bad pacing in the Disney worlds. Some like Olympus, Toy Box, San Fransokyo and Kingdom Of Corona have great pacing while Monstropolis is meh and ones like Pirates and Arendelle were just awful. Why are you cheering for Anna and Elsa Sora? You didn’t do anything you turd. This could have been fixed if they added intervals in between all the worlds to reset the pacing and if they just followed the movies from start to finish in their entirety instead of jumping around.

Twilight Town is more of a bus stop then a world. They should have made it bigger and included old areas to explore. Even an expanded sewer system would have been fun. No story reason needed it just exists. Oh well.

These next issues ARE MAJOR SPOILERS so leave now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

What the fuck is Nomura’s issue with writing a good arc for Kairi? I mean they set her up to be training to become a bad ass and we don’t get to see either the training or a decent fight scene. We fight with her once, she gets kidnapped, and then fucking dies!? I’m starting to think Nomura doesn’t know how to write female characters. That may be one of the reasons they dropped him from FF Versus XIII since females had big roles in the story. He fucked Kairi over and made her the least likable and cared about character in the fucking finale of this Saga to me. What the hell? This alone may actually get me to start my own series on something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. Jesus. The death isn’t the issue its that there was no build up for her.

The last story complaint is a small one. I saw Sora’s “death” coming since death seemed to be a theme in allot of the world’s we went to. Flynn, Anna, Jack, and Tadashi were or are dead at some point. Even Young Xehanort hinted at it when he said, “There is a high price to pay for wielding such power recklessly (...) There is no saving you.” The issues I have with the “death” of Sora is that it means nothing. Nomura said he will be the protagonist for the foreseeable future. If he didn’t say that then the death would be okay. The main complaint about this is the final scene on Destiny Islands where everyone sees Kairi and Sora but Sora just gets Thanos’d. That shouldn’t have been in there. There are two scenarios that would work way better than that one in my eyes.

One: Everyone is just looking out to the sea and the music goes quiet. All you can hear is the sounds of the waves and it zooms to Riku and he just smiles.

Two: Same thing but Kairi comes from the ocean in tears and Riku helps her up. They all look at her and she shakes her head. Everyone gets solemn until Riku chuckles. He smiles and says, “That knuckle head always getting into trouble. He’ll be back. Even if I have to drag him home.”

Maybe its stupid but if you removed the scene where Sora turns into smoke or whatever, the ending would have allot more impact.

Those are all my complaints for the game. Like I said solid overall but with a few issues that could easily be fixed.

Now for the stuff I loved about the game. Gameplay Is First

All the worlds were so much damn fun to explore. I easily spent and extra couple hours in each just looking around for chests, emblems, Easter eggs, and ingredients. Even Pirates was fun and I was worried it’d be gimmicky due to the ship mechanic but nope it was so much fun. The only one that was less fun was Monstropolis but since it takes place in a factory its okay. It seemed more into hidden paths than open places which is fine.

I haven’t had that much fun with a combat system since playing as Vergil In Devil May Cry 4 Special edition and that’s saying something. His combat was so smooth and easy to experiment with I didn’t think it could be beat but KH3′s comes close with transformations and grand magic. The attractions are a bonus though I didn’t use them allot. There wasn’t a need at later levels.

Thank god for combo cancelling with dodges and slides. Against the Gigas, which are the only enemies that pose a threat now, its a god send.

Flowmotion is fun to use and not over powered like in DDD. No more spamming air slam at early levels.

The party members all feel useful. Not many died in combat and seemed smart enough to back off when they’re in danger. Donald also heals based on need versus what he did before. Like if I was out of magic and potions he would heal me over goofy even if we had similar amounts of health.

There wasn’t a single boss I didn’t like short of Dark Baymax since it felt so slow. Skoll is now my favorite heartless design finally surpassing the Wyvern from Kingdom Hearts 1.

That’s all for gameplay since I could go on and on.

Now for story stuff. SPOILERS INCOMING! All the original story stuff for the KH characters was amazing. Anti-Aqua’s theme was so heartbreaking and beautiful and what she said as we fought made me feel like shit even though it was Mickey’s fault for leaving her there. Vanitas’ voice is god like and his scenes are so good. Him calling Ventus and Sora a brother to him makes sense yet unsettled me with the tone he used. ALL OF THE TRIO’S BEING REUNITED!!! I cried when Xion, Roxas and Axel hugged and cried. I was so happy they got to be together. Aqua’s reunion with Terra and Ven was also beautiful. Xehanort’s story beats were great and the man they got to replace the late Leonard Nimoy is amazing. Sounds more sickly and dying like he should at this point. The twist where Terranort wrecks everyone before we go back into time was a fucking shock and amazing. THEN LINGERING WILL SHOWING UP! The voice for Lingering will was amazing. DONALD’S ZETAFLARE HOLY SHIT! All the foreshadowing of Sora’s “Death” or “Disappearance.” Death was talked about allot and Young Xehanort even said Sora couldn’t be saved since Sora uses the power of waking so recklessly. All the Disney characters who met organization members being sick of their shit before they even talk. Woody especially. “I bet you’ve never been loved.” and “That makes you more hollow than any toy.” My son I am so proud. All the instagram style posts were so cute. The epilogue was mind blowing. I knew that sarcastic sniper knew way more than he let on but him being Luxu was a fucking shock. Amazing. And the secret ending seems to be hinting that Sora’s been given a second chance in the form of The Reaper game from TWEWY. Either its going to be DLC which Nomura said if he did decide to do he’d do free stuff and/or one big dlc that adds to the experience in a big way or the next game opens with The Reaper Game. Riku being in Verum Rex is interesting to me. Maybe he realizes Sora isn’t in the realm of light and after talking with Goofy and Donald he learns of Verum Rex and how Sora was tossed in so he goes looking for him there. And finally the Master of Masters looking at the moon and forming a heart with his hands. Is he looking for a new plain of existence for everyone to live on but before he can move people there it needs a new Kingdom Hearts? And is that what’s in the box? I’m excited to see. All in all I love the game and would recommend it to people who want a good JRPG.

8.5/10

[fatedcipher]

     It’s over.  I beat Kingdom Hearts 3, a game I’ve waited thirteen years for.  And now that it’s all said and done?

     I’m just disappointed.

     What follows is mostly my stream of consciousness impressions of the game, put to text more to organize and vent than anything else.  Be warned of strong opinions and acerbic criticism.

The Good

Roxas

It was one scene, but it was one hell of a scene.  McCartney fucking killed it.

The Sea Salt Trio finally gets justice.  Xion and Axel finally wear something besides the coat.

I had Sora walk around and take selfies while Roxas and Xion effortlessly demolished Saix.  So much catharsis.

Demyx

Yeah, I know, last thing I was expecting too.

Had exactly zero patience for series melodrama.  Every other word out of his mouth had me laughing.

Dude stabbed evil mcdarkness in the back to do the good guys a huge solid and got away with it scot-free.

Lingering Will

He was on screen for all of five seconds, but I cheered for all five of them.

Namine was the one who called him in.

Should have been him to finish off Terranort, but close enough.

Half the Disney Characters

Telling the obnoxious villains to fuck off.

Actually making them fuck off in a couple instances.

Put that Edgelord back where he came from or so help me!

Hayner!  Pence!  Olette!

Twilight Gang actually contributing to the main plot again.

Them giving a shit about Roxas when they didn’t need to.

Fucking bamboozled SoD, he just didn’t know how to react to their Scooby Doo shenanigans.

Mixed Bag

Some of the Disney worlds were pretty charming and had good cast interactions.

Frozen’s world was not.

Sora using the fallen keys was visually breathtaking and played in well to his power to connect to other people.

It was a reference to the stupid mobile game that has only polluted the plot further.

TWEWY world effectively confirmed in whatever is next.

I may not actually want to play whatever is next.

Music

It practically goes without saying at this point but, JESUS CHRIST THERE’S SOME GOOD MUSIC IN THIS VIDEO GAME

OTHER PROMISE/VECTOR TO THE HEAVENS ARRANGEMENT SLAYED ME

I LOVE YOU YOKO SHIMOMURA

The Bad

Gameplay

Plays like a janky version of 2 with a botox injection of DDD flowmotion that only makes the game feel more awkward.

Clunky melee combos have too much start-up, most have no invincibility or even armor to prevent being hit out of them.

Only a handful of the keyblade transformations are actually useful, all of which are a massive step down from drive forms.

Shotlocks still feel like extraneous instant damage and add nothing to gamplay flow.

Oversaturation of minigames leaves several worlds light on actual combat.

Attraction flow is too easy to get, not fun to use, lasts too long, and leaves you vulnerable to damage.

Worlds are simultaneously expansive by individual area and depressingly small on an overall scale.  Most of Twilight Town is inaccessible, Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden can’t be visited.

General Plot and Storytelling

Generally poor writing that fails to resolve several plot threads and introduces ridiculous retcons that only create more questions.

There’s a scene where all of the good guys are in the same room having a discussion about how convoluted the plot is and Jiminy chimes in that they should read the in-game summaries on the in-game phone.  This was when the game crossed over into self-parody for me, and not in a good way.

The total absence of Final Fantasy characters save for the mention of Cloud and Auron at the start of Olympus eliminates half the appeal of what is ostensibly a crossover series.

Awful pacing, having the Disney worlds as unimportant filler with the majority of the plot happening in the last few hours of the game, following what has depressingly become the norm.

General cutscene incompetence, from characters being effortlessly overpowered by enemies to standing around unarmed and slackjawed waiting for said enemies to cut them down.

Bad dialogue and direction clearly mandated by someone who doesn’t speak English mars a number of moments that could have been good.  The script shines primarily when it escapes that ignorant control, which is not as often as it should be.

Mass death and revival scene was entirely pointless, as were the multiple Heartless swarms everyone was suddenly incapable of even putting up a fight against.

Death is still largely non-existent save for a few characters.

It made me more bitter and fed up with this series than DDD did and that is a fucking accomplishment.

Sora

How fucking dare you treat my precious boy like this, Nomura.

Half the cast spends half the game demeaning him and refuses to listen to him for no discernible reason, despite the fact he immediately solves every problem he is introduced to.

It’s not as bad as DDD, but he’s still written to be way less intelligent than he was in 1-2.

He’s the only one who doesn’t get a perfect happy ending and the only who actually seems to suffer any consequence to his actions, despite those consequences being utterly nonsensical.

It’s not even clear what the fucking “Power of Waking” is and he never needs it save for the artificial death scenes.

Riku

Every other line in the script is shilling him and how he’s somehow better than Sora.

This Yozora clown is literally just a palette swap of him.

Three Rikus in one scene.  It is laughable in how stupid it is.

He gets two playable sections and fights the same shitty boss in both.

He’s the one who goes to pick up Namine, not Roxas, Sora, or Kairi.

You can feel how much Nomura loves him and it repulses me.

Kairi

Her lively personality is completely absent along with any agency she might have once had.

Despite getting a keyblade and training the whole game, she gets halfway through a single fight before she’s easily kidnapped, held hostage, and callously executed.

None of her statements about protecting Sora are followed through on and are empty allusions to the first game.

SoKai is finally all but canon, yet the characters themselves hardly interact in the game and the Oathkeeper charm is never even brought up.

Namine

Her in-engine model is only ever used in the character files.

The only thing she does in the entire game is have a single conversation with Sora in the afterlife, in which he still fails to properly thank her.  

Riku is the one to pick her up after she gets a body because Nomura felt like awkwardly shifting Versus XIII’s unused dynamic onto two characters totally unrelated to it.

She’s still wearing the same white dress she has been since her introduction in CoM.

Aqua

Loses every fight she’s in to cutscene incompetence.

Seriously, you kick Vanitas’ ass in her only playable segment for her to throw herself spread eagle in front of some fireballs he throws out, it’s embarrassing.

Likewise jobs to Terranort and has to be saved by the COME GUARDIAN who is apparently Terra’s heartless?

Her single contribution to the plot is finding Ventus.

The refusal to let her age is just bizarre, the same extending to Ventus and Terra.

Antagonists

Xehanort remains nonsensically overpowered and omniscient, using time travel, clone bodies, and other contrivances to achieve his goals and have the heroes play straight into his hands until his actual last scene.

Multiple members of team dark don’t even have a good reason to work for the old man.  The former traitors are the ones to remain unfailingly loyal.

They show up to vaguely talk down to the heroes and/or wipe the floor with them before smugly disappearing without a scratch.  The only instances where this is even slightly averted are a couple scenes with the Disney characters and the defeat scenes in the final boss rush.

The majority of the villains are given cloying and contrived attempts at casting them in a sympathetic light when they have only ever been shown to be selfish, merciless, and cruel prior to their final defeats.  Xehanort himself is the absolute worst offender, being cast as a well-intentioned extremist at the last possible moment, despite this directly contradicting the entirety of his character prior.

     So yeah, Kindgom Hearts 3 isn’t that good of a game and has a story that’s legitimately quite poorly written and told overall.  Are my expectations inflated by the amount of time I’ve had to wait for this game?  Absolutely, but the series has been on a downward slope in quality since BBS and this was their big chance to correct course.  Even with the promise of TWEWY involvement in whatever is in the future, I can’t honestly say I’m interested in playing another Kingdom Hearts game after this disappointment and that’s depressing for someone who’s loved this series for so long.  There’s still a lot I want to write for Roxas and the rest of the cast, but when most of that stuff is attempting to revise the canon, it can be pretty discouraging.  All the same, I don’t want to give up on this blond haired kid and his friends just yet.  Their story’s too important to me to let it end like this.

[semi-imaginary-place]

KH3 is like half a game, it feels incomplete and clunky. It sets up events that never happen and tries to force moments without having the build up to support them. The game does some things really well and reaches some truly heartfelt emotional beats and solid character moments.

3:48 PM - 31 Jan 20191 reply0 retweets1 likeReply 1 Retweet  Like 1 View Tweet activity

The Disney (and Pixar) worlds were pretty well incorporated and mostly able to contribute thematically to the game unlike sometimes in past games were the worlds were kind of just dropped into the game.

The Toy Box much like Halloween Town brings up how dolls/toys/those who begin as inanimate objects can gain hearts. Monstropolis allows a plausible  entry point for Vanitas with the connection between fear induced scream  energy and the negative emotions of the unversed.

Of all the worlds, I enjoyed Sora's time with the Big Hero 6 gang the most. Their interactions felt genuine and I had a lot of fun watching them. It also had the most complete arc of the worlds with the continuation of the movie's theme of living after loss.

Most of the worlds' story arcs felt incomplete. Starting in Olympus we are left hanging with Pete finding Pandora's box and the city in ruins. The story just kind of ends. There also was not enough time and build up to give significance to Hercules' choice to rejoin the mortals.

In Twilight Town, with all the discussion surrounding hearts and data from Coded to KH2 to KH3, that a whole other Twilight Town exists was completely dropped. It felt like the game was leading the audience somewhere and then never followed through.

With the Toy Box, the Sora, Goofy, and Donald leave and don't come back with Woody, Buzz, and the others still stranded in another world just hoping to one day meet Andy again. The search for Andy and the other toys is the main arc for this world and its never resolved.

While some worlds aren't quite as obviously half a story arc, all of them could have used more time. Many of them assume you have already seen the source material. In Frozen, Hans being the villian is the big twist but with the first half of the movie cut, there's no impact.

Pirates of the Caribbean makes no sense to anyone who hasn't seen the movies. I wish there was a scene of Sora unlocking Tia Dalma given how it was setup to happen. There was good characterization for Sora here though on how both he and Jack are free spirits.

The Winnie the Poo part while sweet (because I love Winnie the Poo sections) doesn't go anywhere. Sora just loses his connection with Poo and disappears from the cover, and then a few mini games later he's back. Sora's comment on how their bond has weakened never goes anywhere.

In the other games you search for lost pages or help Poo regain his memories, here there is no story. It's a lost opportunity to do, well something,  but that can be said of much of the game. They could have used this part to talk about how relationships must be nurtured.

The ending also fell a bit flat because of the buildup-payoff problem. The game tries to show the characters despairing only for someone to swoop in and give them hope. The problem is that in the Keyblade Graveyard they do this so many times it loses its impact.

Given the amount of stuff this game should have resolved, not enough time was spent on that. Instead precious time was spent trying to create sequel hooks. In doing so, the cohesiveness of the game as a unit was compromised. The game was too short for all they tried to achieve.

At times the narrative would point "Look! its a  happy/sad/intense/etc. scene", but without a proper build up, these  scenes lacked emotional weight.

I'm conflicted on KHUX in KH3.  I liked Chirithy reuniting with Ven, Laurium possibly remembering, and Strelitzia's maybe cameo. The black box stuff could have been cut. Its to connect  KHUX with future games, but it does nothing for the Xehanort saga and bogs KH3 down.

Then there is the mysterious girl with connections to Lea, Isa, and Ansem that we are only hearing of now. Who is she? Is she Ava? I don't know but they should have saved it for another game.

I thought all the keyblades of the Union members coming to help was a nice touch, but why did Ephemer of all people show up? He was a Dandelion; the player was the one who chose to stay (except the player has no canon appearance in khux which makes them hard to depict).

On one hand I got really excited looking for my KHUX username but on the other hand it was a little too 4th wall breaking and took me out of the game. The other 4th wall leaning scenes with Axel didn't do it for me either.

I did like the definitely-not-instagram loading screens. They were just this side of absurd to be amusing. It was cute. Humor is a subjective thing but I didn't like the increase in jokes in this game. It broke immersion for me.

Some were funny like Verum Rex. Others though felt forced. KH3 had more Donald, Sora, and Goofy poking fun at each other. At first it was fun, but then they kept doing it and it got old.

Maybe its because of all the jokes and narrative problems broke my immersion in the game or maybe its because I'm older now, but KH3 wasn't as magical an experience for me as the other games.

I don't mean magic in how many spells Donald can cast but in that sense wonder, that the extraordinary is possible. That sense of magic is why the Roxas prologue of KH2 is one of my favorite parts of the franchise.

Part of it also is that the section where Sora goes saving everyone's hearts from the Lich after they "died" didn't reach me emotionally. Which is a shame since the part right before where Sora runs around in the Final World and talks with the stars is one of my favorite parts.

I was surprised we didn't see more Dives to the Heart and battles at the center of the heart given the Terranort, Ventus-Vanitas, Xion, etc. After Sora got the power of awakening I was expecting him and Riku to use that to free Xion and Terra.

And then we would get an epic battle where Terra finally kicks Xehanort out of his own body. I also wanted to see Aqua beat up Xehanort. Aqua's suppose to be super strong from spending 10 years in the Realm of Darkness.

Kairi deserved better. Kairi deserved more. 3 games (II, 3D, III) on how Kairi trains to become a keyblade wielder and she doesn't get to do anything. Why was she kidnapped anyways? The answer is to give an excuse for Sora at the end to have a "I must do this alone" moment.

Kairi was kidnapped just so Sora could angst over her and so he could go save her. She deserved better.

The developers really pushed the Sora-Kairi romance this game. I was disoriented since we since the last game we saw a lot of romantic indications was 17 years ago in KH1. Riku got third-wheeled this game.

Enough complaining, parts that worked pretty well/were well executed: Big Hero 6, Monsters Inc, Sora finding the Door to Darkness in Destiny Islands and Aqua returning to the Realm of Light, Sora's interaction with other characters(Rapunzel, BH6, Jack, etc), the Final World.

Visually the environments are amazing! I was so happy running around everywhere. Its pretty. (and the heartless are cute)

KH3 was on the low side for number of worlds visited. Again, I'm surprised how (comparatively) short the game is. There was a lack on Final Fantasy characters as well (or well videogame characters given how TWEWY was in 3D).

I would have loved to see a Moana world. Moana, Maui, and Sora interactions would have been great. Thematically it would have worked too since Moana's plot centers on how Te Fiti losing her heart changed her.

In every KH there's always been some wham moments and that didn't happen to me at all in KH3... until the every end with Luxu. Many of us have been suspicious of Xigbar for a very long time. His organization chair height is too high. He seems to know more than he should...

As much as I am complaining, I do like the Kingdom Hearts III. Its a good game.

I've said it before, but KH:coded is a thematic summary of the entire series and one of the important points in that game is how Data Sora understands hurt. Data Sora understood how to live through hurt and this is something we see Sora learn as well through the games.

In CoM Sora did not understand this. All the way to 3D he did not know how to deal with hurt so when Roxas shared all his pain, that contributed to Sora sinking into darkness. In KH3 though Sora has grown and can accept hurt.

I would have though liked to have seen a more overt conclusion to Sora's relationship to darkness. Sora has always had darkness in him, he's not a princess of heart (or Ven) and there were hints before KH3 that he was falling to darkness.

Anti/Rage form are a manifestations of that darkness. Maybe this was just sloppy character writing, but Sora is noticeably meaner during KH2 and at the end he says "maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too". In KH3, besides rage form Sora's darkness isn't directly addressed.

Back to UX. The devs connected the epilogue, the secret reports, and UX well. That's all that was needed really. From Backcover we already know the black box is important. KH3 shouldn't have wasted time focusing on it.

And about X girl )Shuld?? idk). It really is awkward how they bring her into KH3. If she's the reason Lea and Isa got into this mess they should have dropped a line in 358/2 or one of the other games something like "Don't forget we're doing this for her"

Another good scene was Aqua giving Ven head pats. This gave me life.

Scala ad Caelum was built inverse on top of Daybreak Town. I didn't notice! Never mind what I said earlier, there's the "oh shit... what" moment. I'm just going to sit here mind blown thinking of all the implications...