Editor
BOSS FIGHT:
GRIM REAPER
...This is a joke fight, it's basically no more threatening than any other large Heartless that shows up in random encounters.
The Heartless sinks into the ocean, but Luxord still remains.
Jack: Throw him overboard.
Sora: Aye aye.
Luxord: Parley!
We seriously need to DM of the Rings it up and just cut off his head during parley. But we don't, so he tosses a few pieces of gold to some Nobodies and tells them to run off, then revives the big Heartless and has it blow us onto the Interceptor, then fires the cannons at the Interceptor, blowing it the hell up. Seems like overkill, but it doesn't actually kill us, so I guess that disqualifies it from being overkill automatically?
The destroyed Interceptor drifts to Ship Graveyard, and thankfully we're all in tact, more or less. Jack is cursed again, but I really think it's just an excuse to let us play alongside Skeleton!Jack. We find a Feather Charm in the wrecked Interceptor; it'll let us summon Peter Pan. So there's no Peter Pan world in this game? Awww.
We make it to the end of the Ship Graveyard and we're rescued by Elizabeth and Will. I'm not sure why Luxord didn't kill them, it seems like they'd have strong enough hearts to become Nobodies, but whatever, not complaining. Now we have to sail around and find the four medallions, which is easily done - 2 in the Ship Graveyard, 2 in Isla de Muerta. Then we have to return to Port Royal in hopes of finding Luxord. (Exactly three islands of plot device - for some it's a blessing - for others... it's a curse.)
Jack: I don't know who these Organizers are, but I will say they're makin' we pirates look like proper gents.
XD Jack
We return to Portal Royal and find the chest; dropping the gold in makes the Grim Reaper not invincible (yeah I totally didn't follow this subplot until just now) so we can fight it.
BOSS FIGHT:
GRIM REAPER
This is... sort of a cool fight, but it's also a little bit annoying. The Grim Reaper will steal gold from the chest to become invincible, but using magic on it makes it drop the gold, which you must collect and return to the chest. The problem is, you have to keep track of 882 items throughout this fight, so it's a little bit tedious, and the boss itself isn't threatening at all, so... ehhhhhh. I dunno.
It's also worth noting that I tried to enter Master Form during this fight and instead turned into a weird little gremlin. I'm not sure what to say about that!
Luxord runs off. Jack's curse is broken again. We seal the chest of cursed gold and throw it into the ocean. Jack requests his reward that Elizabeth promised him, which is... Sora's Keyblade. what. But Sora, no longer being the world's dumbest locksmith, just gives him the thing... and then it magics itself back a few seconds later. Sorry, Jack-o.
Jack says that someday he'll gather up a crew and take Sora's Keyblade by force, and by then he'll be able to wield it. I look forward to it, Jack!
Completing Port Royal got me Magnera, so it's time to return to Atlantica! Chapter 4 is titled "Ursula's Revenge" and features Ariel becoming the dumbest character in the series by accepting another one of Ursula's deals. We're regressing, here. CoM Ariel was like, "wtf, I'm not falling for this shit again. Sora, help me kick her ass".
Anyway, there's like a 20 minute long cutscene before any gameplay happens. Suffice to say, Ariel fails to get Prince Eric to kiss her (because Ursula was interfering), and eventually Sora just went "nuts to this" and broke the lock on Ariel's voice. But it was too late, so Ursula invoked her contract and Triton switched places with Ariel to save her. Ursula gets the trident, blah blah blah. I assume you've all seen Little Mermaid and understand the gist of this.
BOSS FIGHT:
URSULA
Not so much a boss fight as another rhythm minigame, but eh. It's pretty cool. This one is probably the easiest one so far, though, because of the existence of notes that involve pressing X rapidly, as many times as you can. I beat Ursula like halfway through the song, it was pathetic. <_<
Sora slaps the trident away from her and Prince Eric gets ahold of it.
Eric: Hey Ursula, guess what my favorite anime is!
[Eric chucks the trident at Ursula; it becomes a bolt of light and shoots straight through her]
Eric: ...Evangelion.
Sora: I don't think she heard you.
Eric: Oh, but she definitely got the point.
Anyway, happy end (except for the "end" part). Sora got the Mysterious Abyss Keyblade. We can't continue here without Thundaga, so next up is Olympus Coliseum. Hades has restarted the Hades Cup in the Underdrome and tells Herc that he needs to compete or else he'll never see Meg again.
Sora: Lowlife!
Hades: Heh! You're too kind, kid.
...You know, while I'm here, I have Master Form now, so let's give the Cerberus Cup another shot.
......XD yeah it's a joke now. I feel better about not being able to do it with just the Valor Form; you're clearly supposed to have the Master Form.
Okay, next is the Hades Cup. It seems like it's only three rounds, and Hercules is with us, though he doesn't do much. The first two are against fodder, but the last is against Auron. He doesn't seem to remember us. What is it with people in this series and having crappy memories? I blame you for this, Namine!
We follow Auron into the Cave of the Dead and find that Hades is blackmailing/brainwashing him to make him defeat Hercules and Sora and company. Well then. This sounds familiar. You'd think Hades would have learned from the Cloud incident that this is a dumb idea, but apparently not.
Herc says that Hades must be holding Auron's free will hostage. He volunteers to take Auron on in the final match, one vs one, to buy us time to find the statue Hades is using to control Auron. Hades agrees, but only if we face the winner in an exhibition match. So I get to smash your plans AND get free EXP? I don't know if I can agree fast enough!
So we retrieve Auron's statue and return it to him just in time. Hades is PISSED. He tries to throw Meg to her death, but Herc leaps after her. Auron + the party try to fight Hades, but he's still invincible. Suddenly, Herc returns! He's remembered what it means to be a true hero! It means solving all your problems with excessive violence!
Hades: How dare you get a happy ending! How DARE you!
(Hades is the best character.)
BOSS FIGHT:
HADES
This is a fun fight. Red form Hades is completely invincible, but Herc will create "Aura Spheres" which can be reaction commanded into Hades to turn him blue and vulnerable. Other than that, he has his standard tricks: Fire Blasts, Flamethrowers, Fire Spins, Embers... But luckily, Aura Spheres are homing and do super effective damage against Dark types.
Hades staggers backwards and falls into a pit, which doesn't seem like it would do anything to him, but ehhh.
Auron: I suppose I should thank you.
Sora: Not at all.
Auron: Fine. [turns to leave]
Sora: ...I mean, sure, you could thank us a little...
Auron: You should say what you mean.
XD
We get the Guardian Soul Keyblade. Phil still won't make us "true heroes", but suddenly, the stars in the sky start rearranging to create three new constellations. Sora! Donald! Goofy! Guess the gods think we're heroes, eh Phil?
Agrabah is next. Oh dear, the stupid peddler went and released Jafar. Goddammit. Aladdin, you are the worst lamp sealer awayer ever. Iago reveals that Jafar's in the desert ruins, so away we go!
(Random musing: If Kenri were a writer for the KH series, he'd have Jafar make himself a Keyblade wielder, then battle Sora while singing a rendition of "You're Only Second Rate".)
Genie helps us get to the ruins, then Carpet allows us to fly after Shadow
After activating the switches, you'll have 30 seconds to get to the door before it shuts, and if you're like me, you'll get lost and get there with .4 seconds to spare. I have no excuse for this other than being stupid.
...And then it turns out to have been a set-up by Jafar, to have Iago lead us away from the palace. I like how Iago is the only character Sora gets mad at for betraying him. Beast? He had no choice! Namine? She had no choice! Riku? ...He had a choice but he's still my friend, cereally! Iago? DAMMIT IAGO I KNEW YOU WERE STILL EVIL. The worst part is that Iago even tried to tell them not to go, but they ignored him. <_<
...We then have to escape from the ruins, but it's less an escape and more Sora being a douchebag and showing off. I mean, if it was an escape, it would have taken like two seconds. Two seconds to fly above all the ruins, and zero seconds to not ever go back to where the ruins would be capable of stopping us from escaping from them. This isn't like the Cave of Wonders where we were deep inside and it was collapsing; this was basically the equivalent of trying to escape from a small town while you have the ability to quickly fly in any direction, including straight up. It's ridiculous. You are ridiculous, game. You are a ridiculous game.
On the way back to the palace, we run into the merchant and he reveals that Organization XIII is in on this plot as well. They're planning to kill Jafar and turn him into a Heartless. Yeah, he's kinda sorta an immortal, invincible genie, so... good luck with that. Idiots.
In the palace, we find Jafar. He immediately proves that he means business by KILLING IAGO HOLY SHIT.
BOSS FIGHT:
GENIE JAFAR
...Yeeeeeeeeeeah. This is Ursula II from KH1. It's literally the same fight. Except you're alone, and on Carpet rather than swimming, and it's way easier. This boss LOOKS really cool... until you get up close, at which point it becomes "mash X to kill a red wall". I shouldn't even have to point out the absurdity of Sora being able to hurt, much less kill, Genie Jafar. Even within the confines of Kingdom Hearts, that is absolutely a plot hole.
Jafar's lamp melts away, Genie fixes up Agrabah, and Sora gets the Wishing Lamp Keyblade. Iago is somehow still alive, I guess proving that Jafar is COMPLETELY incompet- ...oh right, I forgot genies can't kill anything. Huh. Touche, Kingdom Hearts.
</spoiler>
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
We find Lock, Shock, and Barrel ransacking Santa's factory, and assume they're the thieves.
BOSS FIGHT:
LOCK, SHOCK, & BARREL
Jack: Sora, look! Pokemon.
LS&B: We're not Pokemon! We're Lock, Shock, and Barrel!
Jack: Sora, it's a Lock, a Shock, and a Barrel! ...I'm gonna catch them.
LS&B: We told you, we're not Poke-[hit by Pokeball] Oww!
Jack: Aw it didn't work, Sora!
Sora: That's because you have to damage them first.
Jack: Right! I'm gonna get a critical.
Anyway, they're not the thieves, but Sally tells us about some Heartless messing around with presents back in Halloween Town. After beating them up and retrieving the gifts (silly Heartless, presents are for kids!), we come up with a plan to trap any other thieves. It involves playing a silly minigame to create some presents, then the party + Jack hide in a giant present box and jump out when the thief shows up. Surprise! It's the doctor's experiment. Yeah everyone saw that coming.
BOSS FIGHT:
THE EXPERIMENT
A pretty cool boss. Hurting it enough will knock off some part of its body, which will then attack you. I dunno, it's sort of neat. Not very difficult, but it can juggle you a little bit if you get careless.
Sora gets the Decisive Pumpkin Keyblade and Jack learns the true meaning of Christmas.
Sally: The nicest present I could ever ask for, Jack, is just to be with you.
Sora is totally going to steal that line to use on Kairi.
A huge castle appears in the distance on the world map, and Chip and Dale are saying that something's up with Twilight Town, but first is Pride Lands.
Unlike normal, I played ahead before doing writeups, mainly because this whole visit filled me with apathy. Unlike the other worlds' second visits, which were usually pretty clever, this one was just built on top of the world's main plot. Forcefully. With a jackhammer. (Stolen line alert.) Basically, Scar's Ghost has been appearing all over the Pride Lands because Simba is such a hesitant bitch and refuses to do anything about Scar's Ghost. (And if you're saying "wait, that doesn't make sense", then welcome to Pride Lands' second visit.)
First we had to beat up the hyenas for info.
BOSS FIGHT:
SHENZI, BANZAI, & ED
Except they really just ran around and you have to chase them down and hurt them while they try to escape. It's sort of annoying, but different enough from the other fights in this game that I didn't mind.
But then they didn't have any info, so we basically just yelled at Simba until he stopped being a loser. Then all the Scar's Ghosts combined and turned into a random Heartless.
BOSS FIGHT:
GROUNDSHAKER
It's huge, and you have to get on top of it to hurt the masked fellow that controls it. Pretty generic boss despite all that. The only thing really worth noting is that there will occasionally be sequences that are cutscenes, where the only interactive parts are reaction commands, but it's difficult to tell when one of these segments has begun.
blah blah blah pride lands is finished. God that was horrible. There's a new episode in Atlantica and in Hollow Bastion. Also, I have like... three Torn Pages that I haven't used yet, so yeah, no shortage of stuff to do.
Chapter 5 of Atlantica is "A New Day is Dawning". The rhythm minigame here is a combination of all the types of notes used so far, with a goal of gettinbg 30,000+ points. I get... nearly 90,000. So yes, it was easy. A huge bubble forms and Sora uses it to seal Atlantica's keyhole. Yay. We're done here.
Hollow Bastion is next. Apparently the MCP has taken over and is sending Heartless from Space Paranoids into Hollow Bastion. We need to enter the computer and find Tron and stop the MCP. But on the way, we run into the... teenybopping trio again. They debate over whether they're going to steal our items or not, and eventually decide that our life sucks enough as it is. They even give us the Gull Wing Keyblade before leaving. Good riddance.
We meet up with Leon and Aerith in the computer room. Leon leaves Aerith to hold off the Heartless so he can go help Cid finish the Eradicator program for defeating the MCP. We get the Sleeping Lion Keyblade.
Inside the computer, we rescue Tron and take him to the I/O Tower, where he gets powered up by Cid's program... with MP Rage and Thunder Boost. Amazing. Could I ask for some less impressive abilities? No, I couldn't. Anyway. We board the solar sailer (which involves a really annoying "escort" mission where the enemies deal damage to the solar sailer just by existing - this handed me another loss) and, at our destination, end up fighting Sark.
BOSS FIGHT:
COMMANDER SARK
He's a total joke. You can just beat up on him and he'll be powerless to stop you. You can also reverse his projectiles with a reaction command, which is always fun.
The MCP now gives Sark some of its powers, causing him to grow huge. ("You made my gnarly monster fall, now you'll pay when he gets tall!")
BOSS FIGHT:
MCP
Biggie-sized Sark is here also, but he's even more of a joke. Defeat Sark (which can be done in about 6 seconds) and the MCP will become vulnerable. Destroy one of its shields and use the "Delete" reaction command to attack MCP with a big fuck-off laser. This involves hitting Triangle rapidly. The hardest part of this fight is actually having enough thumb stamina to hit Triangle the requisite 50 billion times. <_< Though MCP actually does hit fairly hard, which is nice for a change.
Tron hijacks the system and shows us a virtual recreation(?) of what Hollow Bastion USED to look like. Leon's group remembers its original name, before it was called Hollow Bastion... It was known as the Radiant Garden.
Okay, Hundred Acre Wood. The first minigame involves bouncing on balloons. Time your jumps right to go higher, and don't touch the ground. I didn't really understand this the first time, but luckily that's just the plot attempt and doesn't count for anything. This causes Pooh to remember Tigger. On a repeat play, I got a score of 4900+. Your goal is 2000+. So yeah. I am AWESOME at simple children's games.
The next page involves Pooh getting lost in a cave, and Sora has to lead a team of Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and Roo to find him. It's sort of like the final minigame of 100AW in KH1 or the entirety of 100AW in CoM, only less frustrating and thus better. This finally causes Pooh to remember Sora. Sora gets the Sweet Memories Keyblade.
The final page is a very simple minigame involving getting a hunny pot off of Pooh's head. Then there's an ending sequence that tries to be as good as the KH1 100AW ending, but it isn't and it never will be.
My level is in the lower-mid-forties now, so I might as well take on the Titan Cup in the Underdrome. The gimmick to this one is that it highly encourages the use of summons. The other gimmick is that you start with 500 points - you lose points whenever you get hit, and if you reach zero... it sucks for you. The boss is... this guy.
BOSS FIGHT:
HERCULES
And he's significantly less of a terrible boss than he was in KH1. His moves are still slow and telegraphed, but he can occasionally get a good hit in on you when you go to attack him and don't realize that his invincibility aura is up. Yep. No barrel throwing or anything!
So, the short of it is that I beat the Titan Cup, but I wasn't anywhere close to the 5000 point goal in the journal. In fact, I only got about 1000 points. I don't even understand how 5000 points is possible.
Next is Twilight Town. The party wants to investigate the mansion in the picture they were given in the realm of darkness. Do they just, like, not remember that that's where they were when they WOKE UP? Such ****ing terrible memories. I need something to take my mind off this. .......Hey Seifer!
Aww, but Sora won't let me. "We have to hurry to the mansion!" he says. ...Why, exactly? To indulge your ****in' curiosity? What about MY curiosity? I'm curious about just how many ass-kickings that smug look on Seifer's face can endure.
So we get to the mansion and find the trio already there. Based on the duplicate munny pouches and blue crystals, they've determined that the mansion is a gateway to an alternate Twilight Town.
..............
The smartest characters in the entire series are Those Two Guys and Smurfette.
I want to cry but... goddammit. Just.......... goddammit.
Suddenly, we're attacked by Dusks. But then, King Mickey saves us! Except... not really. For the first time in the entire game, I think, we get to fight alongside him, and... he's pretty pathetic. Sora is way stronger. >_>
So King Mickey has located the REAL Ansem, but first we're going to check out the mansion in hopes of finding Kairi. Sora also feels inadequate next to the mighty intellect of ****in' Pence and logics his way into determining that Riku is all right. The trio also hypothesizes that King Mickey was given the alternate munny pouch by Riku, which makes... no sense, unless Riku told DiZ that his name was Ansem for... giggles, or something. But then, they don't get to see the bad guys' cutscenes, so I can't exactly blame them for not knowing about that. (And yes, people who have finished this game, DiZ counts as a bad guy. No, I don't even care what he does from now on. He passed the point of no return a long time ago.)
Anyway, we find the alternate-universe-portal-computer and determine that the password is "sea salt ice cream". why does no one in this universe use passwords that can't be guessed by 12 year olds
Also, "Touch The Beam" is the best reaction command in the game so far. I can just imagine Sora going: "Stick my hand in this strange laser beam? There's no part of that idea that I don't like!"
Secret Ansem Report 10 confirms that Riku has allied with DiZ. Why the **** would you do that, Riku. You're making me hate you even more than usual.
Once inside the alternate Twilight Town, we find the Door to Darkness conveniently quickly. A huge number of Dusks attack us once inside. Axel appears to hold them off so we can escape, but Sora refuses to abandon him. We kick their asses. But then...!
Axel: I think I liked it better when they were on my side.
There's a massive army of Dusks surrounding us. Axel takes them all out with a massive attack, but is fatally wounded in the process. I like how, canonically, these characters DO have magical healing powers (or at least Donald does), but they don't use them when there's a powerful ally dying right in front of them. It's not a problem with this game specifically, just the genre in general, but it never fails to really piss me off. Anyway, Axel opens another door for us and then fades away.
.........
You got Bond of Flame!
(always a good way to ruin a moment)
The portal leads us to The World That Never Was, which seems to be the city from the ASAS cutscene (and the Roxas/Axel flashbacks during the prologue). Heading forward, Mickey splits up with us and Sora is attacked by a black cloaked Keyblade wielder. He claims he defeated Riku, and asks why "he" picked Sora. Then there's a very cool fight... in a cutscene. Yay. The figure is dual-wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion, and easily disarms Sora. But then Sora magics the Keyblade back to his hands and strikes the figure down. IT TURNS OUT IT'S ROXAS *DRAMATIC CHIPMUNK* ...........yeah we all knew that. It doesn't make SENSE. But we did all know it.
Meanwhile, while Sora is getting stuck at a dead end, Kairi is being rescued by... Namine?! QUICKLY SAIX IF YOU HURRY YOU CAN KILL THEM BOTH AND IT'LL BE AWESOME. Wait. FUCK! Sora's Keyblade appears and he unlocks SOMETHING in the giant floating castle where Kairi and Namine are, causing a bridge to appear. HURRY SAIX YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME.
...
yesssssssssssssss Saix stopped them from escaping! GET THEM. DO NOT CAPTURE THEM, JUST KILL-"I'll take you to see Sora." -...GODDAMMIT SAIX I HATE YOU SO MUCH
Oh great, Riku's here to save the day now. Saix, I suppose it's too much to ask for you to pull an Axel and sacrifice yourself to wipe them all... out...
...
Or you could run away like a coward.
I hate these Organizers so much.
So Namine got away, and Kairi is reunited with-JESUS CHRIST RIKU KILLED ANSEM AND IS WEARING HIS SKIN OH GOD
Team Locksmith continues climbing the castle until they reach a very spacious, square room that just screams "BOSS FIGHT HERE".
Saix: Sora. You've done well.
Wish I could say the same for you, you complete fuck-up.
Saix tries to use mind games against Sora, but Sora's like "umm... I'm not going to believe ANYTHING you say, Mr. Evil Enemy Who I'd Have to be a Moron to Believe." When Sora immediately sees through your mind games, it's time to just stop attempting mind games.
Saix summons a bunch of Heartless and they quickly overpower Sora, but then, suddenly... KAIRI TO THE RESCUE!
...since when can Kairi survive falling hundreds of feet, much less land on her feet, unharmed? That's unbelievable even within the context of this game. Ansem!Riku shows up and gives Kairi a Keyblade, and she starts destroying the Heartless! WHAT. This is HORRIBLE. That shouldn't. THIS IS. NO, MALEFICENT, NOT EVEN YOU CAN SAVE THIS. DON'T EVEN TRY, IT'LL JUST DRAG YOU DOWN WITH IT.
Meanwhile, King Mickey has climbed up the outside of the castle and located DiZ. He removes his head bandages. It's Ansem the Wise. Hands up if you're surprised.
...
...You know, you might not believe me (because I only actually wrote about it quite a bit later), but I called this the SECOND I saw DiZ's KH2 model. Admittedly, at that point, I thought Ansem was still... Ansem, but whatever.
SUMMARY: DiZ told Riku to go get Roxas so DiZ could murder Roxas for no reason. Riku gets his ass kicked because he's a darkness embracing failure. Riku determines that the only way to not lose again in the future is to embrace the darkness even more so. Thus, he becomes Xehanort... for some reason.
(Plot hole: The Emperor in the Land of Dragons referred to Riku as a young man.)
Anyway, this is all very... something. Not sad. What's the opposite of sad? Like, that feeling where you want to kick someone's ass for being such an insufferable evil prick? Because that's the feeling I get whenever DiZ starts talking.
Back to Sora. He looks up and sees Keyblade-wielder Kairi and Ansem!Riku both fighting Heartless. He doesn't know what the fuck. I absolutely cannot blame him, either. Suddenly, Xigbar shows up and rescues Sora from the Heartless. Is it just me, or do the villains of this game rescue Sora a whole lot more than the heroes do? Sora's still like "Why does everyone think I'm
Anyway. That cutscene was like 3 hours too long, so can we finally have a boss fight now? Thanks.
BOSS FIGHT:
XIGBAR
Oh look, it's the Ice Titan, out for revenge.
This boss is really simple, except for one attack where he fires a massive number of lasers at you from all directions. I couldn't figure out how to avoid that, and it was almost powerful enough to kill me even if I had full health. Luckily, Donald was actually useful and healed me every time it came up, saving me. Other than that, yeah. Warp Snipe, guard reflect, etc.
Xigbar dies, etc etc. I'd care a lot more about these characters if they had more than two scenes before dying, but eh. King Mickey wants to go help Riku and Kairi, but DiZ is like "nah let's just let them die because in case you hadn't noticed I AM AN ENORMOUS PRICK"
I really want to keep playing, but it's late, so yeah. >_>
</spoiler>
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
I like how, canonically, these characters DO have magical healing powers (or at least Donald does), but they don't use them when there's a powerful ally dying right in front of them.
Axel was on borrowed time anyway. He was originally supposed to die in the KH2 Prologue after Roxas obliterates him, but apparently fan support (including in the staff, I hear) caused him to be allowed to survive as long as he did.
The portal leads us to The World That Never Was, which seems to be the city from the ASAS cutscene
And therefore the best world in the game. And if we credit it with ASAS/Deep Dive, best area in the series. It might already have that, as KH1 Hollow Bastion is the only thing that can compete against it.
Then there's a very cool fight... in a cutscene.
Don't even get me started on this. I wanted this fight the whole damn time, and then that happened. I don't even care about the other additions in Final Mix, making this a proper boss fight was the best thing it did, and probably enough by itself that I'd get it if it were released here.
The figure is dual-wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion, and easily disarms Sora. But then Sora magics the Keyblade back to his hands and strikes the figure down.
Which is total BS. Roxas won that fight and it's not even debatable. It's like they realized that after the fact and had to bail Sora out because he's the main character.
DiZ told Riku to go get Roxas so DiZ could murder Roxas for no reason.
I like DiZ more than like 95% of the cast, but this was totally a jerk move on his part and the only thing I think I take real issue with him over. It's like he just hated awesome characters or something. (Okay, not really, there's more to it, but still. Augh.)
Riku gets his ass kicked because he's a darkness embracing failure.
As if Roxas wasn't already the best in the series, he goes and owns Riku to make it even more evident.
Riku determines that the only way to not lose again in the future is to embrace the darkness even more so.
This is even more BS than the Sora loss. Roxas beats Sora, but loses to this? Sora and Riku getting bailed out purely by DEMs because Roxas had become too awesome for the story confirmed.
Because that's the feeling I get whenever DiZ starts talking.
DiZ is awesome and that's a good part of the reason why!
</spoiler>
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Advanced
lolwut
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys." -Andrew Ryan, Bioshock
Editor
That would have made a lot more sense, considering Axel's plot contributions after that point basically amount to "none". <_<
Which is total BS. Roxas won that fight and it's not even debatable. It's like they realized that after the fact and had to bail Sora out because he's the main character.
The best part is that, IIRC, it was established in KH1 that you can't magic Keyblades away from other Keybearers. To even make sense, it would require a loophole that says, "okay, yes you can, as long as they're not actually holding the Keyblade in their hands".
I like DiZ more than like 95% of the cast, but this was totally a jerk move on his part and the only thing I think I take real issue with him over. It's like he just hated awesome characters or something. (Okay, not really, there's more to it, but still. Augh.)
I'll have to take your word for it, that there's more to it, because my understanding of everything so far is:
DiZ gets betrayed by his apprentices.
DiZ's apprentices become Nobodies.
DiZ is so pissed off about this betrayal that he decides to get revenge against ALL Nobodies.
DiZ starts spreading propaganda about how Nobodies are just pretending to have emotions and aren't supposed to exist in order to justify his
DiZ manipulates Riku via vague threats regarding Sora's condition. (i.e. "Sora won't recover unless you do X.")
DiZ also plans to backstab and kill his ally Namine, who happens to be a 12 year old girl, just because she's a Nobody.
Right now the guy is about as sympathetic as Ashnard, but it's worse because I'm getting the feeling we're supposed to be rooting for him.
DiZ is awesome and that's a good part of the reason why!
DiZ was only awesome when his involvement in the plot was limited to delivering verbal beatdowns to Riku. >_>
</spoiler>
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
</spoiler>
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
Sora catches up with Kairi. There's a tearful reunion. Sora grudgingly thanks "Ansem" for saving Kairi, but then Kairi tells him it's Riku. blah blah blah another tearful reunion. Riku says that he still needs the power of darkness to end this battle, so he has to stay in this form. So what, exactly, happened to Riku deciding to use darkness to guide his light, or whatever? This just seems like he's abandoning all the character development he got in Chain of Memories.
Wait a second.
>got in Chain of Memories
Ah, I understand.
(I also got Oblivion somewhere around here, which is nice.)
Meanwhile, DiZ is using some bauble to try to capture Kingdom Hearts and encode it as data.
We head forward, through a graveyard for the Organization XIII members we've killed. Wow. That's pretty depressing. There's a portal through one of the graves to the outside of the castle, where Luxord immediately attacks us. Almost forgot about you, guy!
BOSS FIGHT:
LUXORD
The entire party except Sora is absent for this fight. Which is probably because the fight doesn't make any goddamn sense, and more characters would just complicate it. It's time based, which means you have a... second HP bar, basically, which constantly ticks down, and also ticks down when you get hurt. Luxord can also do a lot of gambling based attacks that force nonsensical minigames on you, or waste your time, or whatever... but despite that, this battle isn't HARD, just confusing and annoying.
Luxord fades away, and we can now return to the graveyard and go through another grave to find Saix. Of course, Riku and Kairi get sealed out of the battlefield. sigh. So useless. Why do we even keep them around.
BOSS FIGHT:
SAIX
The gimmick to this fight is that Saix can go "berserk", which makes him basically invincible and superpowerful. However, he'll chuck his weird polearms around, and you can pick them up and use them to beat the berserk out of him. Eventually he'll go into berserk again as he takes damage, and the process repeats. Easy boss, but pretty fun.
Saix fades away, and Sora asks Riku why everyone keeps calling him Roxas, and finally receives an explanation. Then Riku has the nerve to be like, "maybe I didn't need to capture Roxas after all". YEAH. MAYBE KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE FOR NO REASON ISN'T ALWAYS NECESSARY. Christ. I don't understand how this game can justify continuing to treat these characters as heroes! I don't understand why Sora and Kairi aren't pissed off about this! YOU CAN'T HAVE GOOD AND EVIL WHEN THE EVIL CHARACTERS ARE MAKING ALL THE BEST POINTS AND THE GOOD CHARACTERS ARE DOING ALL THE EVIL DEEDS!
Anyway. Moving on, we can now go past the graveyard and find DiZ and Mickey. DiZ's machine isn't working because hearts cannot be contained by data. It's about to self-destruct. He tells King Mickey to run, but then Sora and company show up. DiZ says it's up to Sora now.
DiZ: And Roxas - I doubt you can hear me, but... I am sorry.
And thus, a lesson is learned: Killing innocent people is okay if you apologize to them!
Suddenly, Xemnas shows up.
Xemnas: words words words words words words words words words words
DiZ: words words words
Xemnas: words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words
DiZ: words words words words words words words words words words words words words words
And then DiZ sacrifices himself to contain the explosion of the machine. And nothing of value was lost.
The explosion caused the creation of a bazillion Heartless somehow, and also restored Riku to his true form. Oh, I guess he was Blindy from the prologue cutscenes involving Roxas. He was wearing a blindfold because... I dunno. And he could wield the Keyblade because... I'm not sure. But yeah, other than that, makes perfect sense.
Riku now joins the party. Huh. How 'bout that. We start climbing some weird glass pathways, but just as we reach the top, a huge army of Heartless appears to chase after us. Suddenly, Maleficent and Pete to the rescue. They agree to hold off the Heartless in exchange for the castle, once we defeat Xemnas.
We reach the top, and Xemnas starts trying to reason with us, but it's cut short by Sora deciding to become one of the least sympathetic characters in the series.
Sora: Just give it a rest. You're Nobodies. You don't even exist. You're not sad about anything.
Oh, just shut the fuck up, Sora.
BOSS FIGHT:
XEMNAS
A pretty simple fight, except no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get the reaction command to work. *shrug*
Xemnas merges with Kingdom Hearts
Xemnas fades away. Namine opens a portal for us. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto exit. Roxas appears, and Namine and Roxas merge with Kairi and Sora. So... when did Namine die, then? She was fine like an hour ago. <_< But whatever. Kairi tries to exit, but of course it COULDN'T be that easy. The portal eats her, and Sora and Riku are left to fight the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. Riku jumps into a nearby spaceship (uh... sure) and Sora jumps onto his wing. Sure is Star Fox Assault in here!
After destroying most of the ship, we jump into the cockpit and our ride gets blown away. Whoops. Can't go back now.
BOSS FIGHT:
XEMNAS
He's significantly harder than his previous chair form, but still not too bad. He can blow you away, in which case you'll need to glide back towards the ship while using reaction commands to launch buildings at it. Yeah.
BOSS FIGHT:
XEMNAS
And then there's another fight with normal Xemnas. This is like the Roxas tutorial boss (Twilight Thorn or something like that) in that it requires just spamming reaction commands, and thus, isn't fun at all. Occasionally Sora will get grabbed by Xemnas and you'll need to play as Riku to save him. I died here once because Xemnas just kept spamming Riku to death and I couldn't do anything or heal. So, thanks for that, Square.
Once Xemnas is down to 1 HP, a cutscene will trigger. Sora and Riku have to button mash to deflect a bunch of lasers, then there's an - admittedly cool - fight scene where Riku takes a blow for Sora, then Sora grabs the Soul Eater and defeats Xemnas through the power of dual-wielding. Riku and Sora do a double-Keyblade-sealing on Xemnas, destroying the cutscene and letting me continue the fight and get the last hit in on him. lol
Finally, Xemnas dies, but Sora and Riku are trapped in... wherever they are. Until a door opens, to... the dark realm. I think this is the beach where some black cloaked characters were talking cryptically in a few early cutscenes. They're not sure if they can ever get back to the realm of light. But then Kairi's message in a bottle shows up! Deus Ex Machina to the rescue! A door to light opens! They reappear on Destiny Islands!
i had been waiting 40 hours for sanctuary
Credits roll. There are some scenes that provide closure for various worlds, i.e. Beast is human again, the Pride Lands are restored, etc.
Game Story
Tetsuya Nomura
Masaru Oka
And you two.
In the proud tradition of Phil, I've got two words for you.
The first word is "fuck".
The second word is "you".
And the third word is "fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyouFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKYYYYYYYYOOOOOUUUUUUU".
Anyway. After the credits end, Sora and Riku are sitting together, watching the sunset. Oh, just kiss already. You know you want to. Ugh. But then Kairi shows up. She has a message in a bottle from King Mickey. Unfortunately we aren't told what it says. Yay. So much closure it hurts. Maybe the secret ending will make this better. (Just kidding. I'm sure it'll make it far, far worse.)
Battle Report
Game LV
Standard Mode
Completion of Jiminy's Journal
92%
Completion of Gummi Routes
16%
Healed Party Members
45 Times
Saved by Mickey
0 Times
Most used Form
Master Form 13 Times
Used AntiForm
2 Times (I still don't understand what this is)
Most used Summon
Genie 6 Times (all within the Titan Cup)
yaaaaaay
now I just have to go back and get 100% on the journal
...
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
So what, exactly, happened to Riku deciding to use darkness to guide his light, or whatever?
I dunno, maybe when Roxas owned him like that he went back to DARKNESS.
I don't understand how this game can justify continuing to treat these characters as heroes!
Because Organization XIII are the bad guys! Yeah! Except Roxas wasn't doing anything wrong! But he was Organization XIII so he must be a bad guy too! Yeah!
I don't understand why Sora and Kairi aren't pissed off about this!
Because they were Organization XIII! They had it coming to them! Or didn't matter! Or something!
I mean, I don't exactly think Organization XIII was justified with a lot of the things they pulled, but I get the impression that the game assumes that anyone in that group is evil, and so anything that happens to them is justified. When really, that's probably the worst reason to argue why a lot of Organization XIII needed to be stopped.
...But then there's Roxas and that starts to make no sense, and so I think they just have to fall back on "He was in Organization XIII!" as justification.
Sora: Just give it a rest. You're Nobodies. You don't even exist. You're not sad about anything.
You kind of wonder if the game would have gone in a different direction if the first explanation Sora got on Nobodies wasn't basically that. Because as it was, Sora just seems to kind of take that statement and just run with it the whole game, and never question it.
I think this is the beach where some black cloaked characters were talking cryptically in a few early cutscenes.
Oh, since you never figured it out, I'm pretty sure that was Roxas and Xemnas. One was definitely Roxas, and I'm like 99% sure the other was Xemnas.
</spoiler>
---
xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
Which makes no sense given the events of CoM. <_< But then, I'm assuming that this is a series where character development doesn't just arbitrarily stop applying whenever it's convenient for the plot. And... I probably have no excuse for continuing to assume that!
Because Organization XIII are the bad guys! Yeah! Except Roxas wasn't doing anything wrong! But he was Organization XIII so he must be a bad guy too! Yeah!
It's hilarious that my reaction to this is more or less "they were supposed to be bad guys?"
CoM's villains were complete assholes. KH2's villains, with a few exceptions... pretty much just wanted to be loved. Total menaces to society, there.
You kind of wonder if the game would have gone in a different direction if the first explanation Sora got on Nobodies wasn't basically that. Because as it was, Sora just seems to kind of take that statement and just run with it the whole game, and never question it.
The most ridiculous thing is that, if Sora had maintained his memories from CoM, he'd have immediately known that was bull****. And probably would have attacked whoever told him that (Yen Sid?), just on principle. <_<
Oh, since you never figured it out, I'm pretty sure that was Roxas and Xemnas. One was definitely Roxas, and I'm like 99% sure the other was Xemnas.
Oh. That makes sense. ...I think.
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Kingdom Hearts II, click to show]Okay, booting up KH2 now. Let's get the longest prologue ever underway, I guess.
We start out with a trippy FMV set to Sanctuary. It looks gorgeous. They really figured out how to work the PS2 by this point in its life, I guess.
Even if Sanctuary wasn't the better song, the graphics seal this opening as better than Kingdom Heart's. Though both are amazing.
See NOW I'm glad I played it or I wouldn't know what the fuck. Well, I would know even less what the fuck than I currently do.
Really, without playing Chain of Memories, the only confusion you'd really have would be:
A: Why is Sora asleep for a year?
B: Why is half of Organization XIII not around?
C: Who the heck is Namine?
D: Where did this DiZ guy come from?
E: How did Riku get out of DARKNESS land?
F: What on earth was that opening all about?
...WHY was this marketed as an optional game?!
(Okay really you could play KH2 without it but CoM explains so much.)
Sora fights dogs-for-hair while Riku fights darkness-for-brains. Those events did not happen simultaneously. That's just ridiculous. You are ridiculous, opening FMV.
Rule Of Cool.
Also, I don't remember any sort of crystal staircase in Castle Oblivion. I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Pokemon: The 3rd Movie, game.
It's a popular mental image apparently. They even made a figure of it: http://myfigurecollection.net/figure/38245
Hey, even more incomprehensible FMVs. I think my TV is dying but then it turns out to just be a special effect. Had me worried for a second.
Do a playthrough of Eternal Darkness sometime. It will be a riot.
Blondie wakes up saying he had another dream about "him". We're in Twilight Town. Oh so this is that guy from the end of CoM, then. Nifty.
I liked it as foreshadowing.
Three characters are talking about Seifer. I really should probably know who these guys are supposed to be, but the only non-Tactics FF games I've played are FF1 and FFVII. Plus, going off Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie's redesigns, it wouldn't even help me.
Someone else has probably informed you, but I'll say it anyway: Seifer is Squall's rival in FFVIII. And you might be able to recognize him for his scar... and about nothing else.
Hey, it's... uh... what's his face from FFIX. Vivi! That's one character I know, at least. There's also a silver-haired chick and a guy who looks like a bodybuilder from Pokemon Colosseum. Eventually, Snow from FFXIII shows up to accuse us of stealing something.
Sorry Snow is actually TALL.
"[The thing we supposedly stole] was undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers."
IIRC it's "That was undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers." Thank you Narm for making my day bright.
Seifer tells Roxas to drop to his knees and beg and maybe he'll forgive them.
SquareEnix is in LOVE with this line. You see it so many times between potential fangirl-reasoned Ho Yay pairings that it's ridiculous.
TUTORIAL FIGHT:
SEIFER
I beat his stupid face in. Man, you're an even worse tutorial boss than Tidus. You should be ashamed. Go sit in the corner.
Needs more gunblade?
"We have come for you, my liege." Roxas doesn't know what the fuck.
Obviously they got concerned that Roxas was not coming home for his daily tea and needed to serve him elsewhere. Or it was just a 'cool' sounding line to make the players go 'zomg serious business'.
Eventually a scene triggers where Roxas downloads a Keyblade from the internet (you wouldn't download a car, Roxas!). He still doesn't know what the fuck. He's about as lost as I am, right now.
See? It's a good plan. You can relate to the main character! =D >_>
Fatty: Wouldn't it be weird if the thief wanted to steal the real Roxas or something?
Axel: >_> <_< Don't look at me!
Cut to Sora being woken up by Pluto at Traverse Town. Oh, I see what's going on. The cutscenes with the weird my-TV-is-dying effects are Sora's memories being re-linked by Namine, but this is affecting Roxas because his name is an anagram of Sora X.
I actually really like this method of refreshing the player of the last game. It's cool. =)
(It should be canon that Roxas' last name is Kuri, because then it would be an anagram of SoraxRiku.)
I hate you.
He picks up a stick and tries to download a new one, but the Keyblade torrent has no seeders. =/
They all ran to get the newest Bleach episode.
He chucks the stick behind him, nearly hitting a black cloak, who storms off. Whoops.
This sets up for hilarity.
Oh, Cargo Pants is named Hayner. ...So, what, these aren't Final Fantasy characters, then?
Original characters, the trio with Roxas.
I now have a choice of six varyingly awful minigames to play until I have 800 munny. I quickly determine that delivering mail is the quickest and easiest. Those years of playing Paperboy have finally paid off! I have 800+ munny in no time.
Fliers is best, and you want to get extra money for some stat ups. I think the amount is like 2000 or something.
We meet at the train station, but then, right before the train leaves, Roxas gets his ass kicked by a black cloak and the munny gets stolen.
"REVENGE FOR STICK THROWING"
OH COME THE FUCK ON. This isn't even half over yet?
Yep!
Deep Jungle doesn't make an appearance though, lolz. <_<
Thank you copyrights. No sarcasm there.
Roxas wakes up and sees Namine for a second, but then she disappears. Namine, haven't you ruined enough people's lives? =/
But Roxas <3s Namine so this is a good thing!
She says she wanted to meet Roxas at least once. Roxas doesn't know what the fuck.
"A girl who LIKES me? What is this madness?!"
BOSS FIGHT:
MYSTERIOUS ENEMY
Twilight Thorn!
...Yeeeeeaahhhh, I can already tell that reaction commands are going to be a problem in the future. I hate quicktime events so much. This fight starts out with you fighting him in a cutscene with QTEs, which is always a fantastic way to make me not care at all about a boss. It then gets worse, when you're basically forced to mash Triangle to dodge his crazy lasers while taking potshots at him. How about you just let me dodge the attacks normally, that way it feels like I actually accomplished something, game?
Reaction Commands are one of my favorite parts in the game. It's just so COOL what you can do with them. Sure they're easy (as Epyon says later, you just mash the button), but I've never actually played Kingdom Hearts because it was a challenging game. So anything to make it more cool=thumbs up.
Then he tosses Roxas back into Twilight Town, where he's unconscious and being photographed by Seifer's gang (hello, lawsuit).
DARN it SquareEnix!
Roxas has another dream of Sora's memories, this time covering Hollow Bastion. After waking up, he hurries over to the sandlot for the Struggle Tournament. The champion is Setzer. ...Who looks way too fucking similar to Ansem. Seriously, at first I thought it was Ansem and I was about to rage so hard.
Setzer is actually cool in Final Fantasy VI. Here... blargh.
Vivi (pronounced "vee-vee", who knew?)
How else would you pronounce it, vih-vih? That doesn't even sound like a name IMO.
...But before starting, I go beat up Seifer. You know, for old time's sake. :)
KENRIIIII
Roxas is surveying the crowd of frozen people, when he hears clapping behind him. It's a black cloak. He says Roxas doesn't remember him, then removes his hood. It's Axel!
If you were ever wondering what that incredibly pierce squealing noise from the sound of Illinois was on Kingdom Hearts II release's date, it was me seeing Axel. Yep.
Axel: Talk about blank with a capital B. Man oh man, even the Dusks aren't gonna crack this one.
Hey, could you possibly be a bit more cryptic? I almost understood that.
I'm actually curious, have Dusks been named until now? I can't recall.
BOSS FIGHT:
AXEL
...is this a joke? I kick his ass in about 10 seconds. Roxas, you better not be exhausted in the resulting cutscene or I will be pissssssed...
It is basically a joke fight, but he has some cool lines. "Hey, ring any bells yet?"
BOSS FIGHT:
SETZER
...what a joke.
Funny thing: If you do throw the match, you get a different equip item, which Setzer gives you. So he actually isn't lying. It's just not as good of an item, so lol.
Cut to Kairi and Selphie. Selphie asks Kairi to go to the island with her because Tidus and Wakka said no. Except she pronounces it "Tide-us".
*stare*
Selphie.
You just made the list.
List of things to kill (most wanting to kill first):
Selphie
Fair enough.
Black cloak pulls away his hood...
"It's 'Ansem'."
............................
DiZ begins laughing. Yes, DiZ. I, too, find this hilarious.
*ahem*
Hahaha. Haha... ha...
...
I actually like how this is explained later for why DiZ laughs. But yeah, my reaction to this scene was "OH **** NO GET OUT OF THIS GAME RIGHT NOW".
As a side note, the guy who voices Ansem in this game voices Ziggy from Xenosaga I. You have no idea how thrilled I was to make this connection. It is the first time I ever recognized the same voice actor doing two different roles. I am TERRIBLE at it, but here, I managed to figure one link out!
Best character in the series alert. And it's not even close.
Almost!
Pretty sure if you go a decent bit over this (I want to say the number is the total as if Roxas were soloing the entire cost instead of just part of it.) You get additional stat boosts. Nothing too significant, but yeah.
^That's what I meant above. Though I'm not sure if 2000 is the amount or not.
And Pfft... the KH2 Prologue is one of the best parts of the series. Although, I admit that it does start slow and you haven't got to the part that puts it into that category quite yet. But really by the tournament, I'm not sure why you'd complain anymore.
I absolutely love the Kingdom Hearts II prologue. Playing as Roxas was always awesome.
Based on just the KH2 prologue? No. Maybe best original character, but who exactly would be his competition in that field?
Axel. ...And that's it! =D >_> <_<
Okay but really, there's plenty of good original characters.
*ahem* Just thought I'd add that because I find it hilarious.
This is the reference zipping over my head: ziiiiiip.
Pence shows up and sees the last ball, and, assuming Roxas throws it, says that that solves the mystery. What? No it doesn't! Roxas, enlighten him... oh whatever.
Well what kind of a mystery is 'the mysterious ball appearing' anyway?
BOSS FIGHT:
SHADOW ROXAS
Except much easier than the Water Temple.
Does this prove Keyblade>Megaton Hammer?
Seifer: Why does looking at you always tick me off.
Roxas: I dunno. Maybe it's destiny.
Seifer: In that case, let's be friends. I don't feel like cooperating with destiny.
Rage.jpg
Cut to DiZ and Ansem having a conversation. Ansem asks why DiZ showed Roxas the train. "Because he missed the trip to the beach."
"Because seeing a flipping TRAIN makes up for not going to the beach! ...JERK."
Soon, Axel shows up. He says he's been given orders to destroy Roxas if he won't return quietly. Roxas says they're best friends, right?
Axel: Sure... but I'm not getting turned into a Dusk for... Wait a sec! You remember now?
I know this is another case of fangirlism over Axel, but I legitimately felt really, really bad for the guy. The hope in his voice made me really regret that Roxas was going to have to say 'no', or at least be unable to prove it.
As Roxas leaves, Axel mutters that the Roxas he knew is gone.
=(
The mooks pursue him, but a black cloak with a sword warps in to stop them. (Is that Ansem? I dunno.)
In a sense.
Back to the ASAS place, Roxas says he needs to know why the Keybalde chose him. Axel says he can't turn on the Organization.
Another part that I really liked coming soon to that...
DiZ: A Nobody doesn't have a right to know. Nor does it even have the right to be.
Ouch. Now that's just MEAN. =(
Roxas uses Namine's sketches to complete a drawing in the library and enter the basement.
I had a blast going into first person view and examining all of the sketches Namine had made. It's cool to figure out where all of them are related to.
Turns out, Blindy easily defeated Roxas, not the other way around.
Aaaaand that's total garbage! At least show us WHY.
Axel shows up and creates a ring of fire. Roxas draws the Oathkeeper and the Oblivion to battle him.
BOSS FIGHT:
AXEL
Hey, non-obnoxious QTE usage. Nifty.
Best boss fight. You have full power Roxas and full power Axel going at it, what's not to love?
Axel: Get on their bad side and they'll destroy you!
Roxas: No one would miss me.
Axel: That's not true... I would.
And that just wrenched my heart. Though Axel was my favorite character from CoM at the start, his interactions with Roxas were what pushed him even further in my rankings. Call me a total wuss, compare all the games that had more developed stories and characters to be sad for, I don't care. These scenes made me feel really bad for them.
Axel says they'll meet again in the next life. Roxas says he'll be waiting. Then Axel adds "Just because you'll have a next life..." and vanishes. Huh. If that's seriously the end of Axel, I can't see why he has so many fans. >_>
Well, I assume a lot of people are fans because they want to think Axel and Roxas are a couple. Which I find stupid as all get out. One of the reasons I like Axel and Roxas so much, as I said above, is the friendship angle. But I honestly can't remember anyone else I've talked to who likes Axel or Roxas agreeing with me. Only people who want them to make out. It's really irritating. I'd like to meet at least one person who can share an opinion of their friendship without making a slash fic.
...Mini rant over!
Roxas: Sora... You're lucky. Looks like my summer vacation's... over.
And that line was just a huge =( from me. Huge huge =(.
...ha ha, sora's voice is all differenty
Changes after a year of growth!
They can't remember any of Castle Oblivion. They check Jiminy's journal, but just find one sentence - "Thank Namine." Hey guys, remember when I told you to record EVERYTHING ABOUT CASTLE OBLIVION instead of just that one sentence?
No?
Yeah, well, my point is, I hate you.
You know Jiminy would have lost the stupid thing if they actually wrote something important in it.
There's an incredibly heavy-handed scene where Hayner, Pence, and Olette show up to see Sora off even though they've only known him for 30 seconds, and Sora starts crying. Yeeeeep.
This part REALLY bothered me later in the game, but I'll explain it when we get there.
Oh wait. Checking the Journal, I guess this tower is still part of Twilight Town? Huh. Also note that Yen Sid backwards is Disney, just in case you didn't realize that immediately.
Hate to say it Kenri, but not everyone is as ignorant as you. =D >_> <_< Just kidding. I personally got it right away. *Shrug*
When a person becomes a Heartless, the empty shell that's left behind sometimes continues functioning and becomes a Nobody. The geth we've been fighting are weak Nobodies known as Dusks. There's also the stronger Nobodies who have banded together to create Organization XIII (well, minus Vexen and Larxene... and Marluxia... and Lexaeus and Zexion... and Roxas and maybe Axel... so really, it's the Organization 6).
That's one reason I want to play 358/2, to learn the origin of the name Organization XIII.
At this point, Yen Sid tells Sora that his clothes look stupid because they're so small on him, and tells him to go talk to three fairies - Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather - in the next room, who will make him some new clothes. We do so, but they squabble over what color to make the clothes. Meanwhile, a crow flies overhead. Sora eventually gets annoyed and tells them to hurry up and decide, resulting in them all blasting him at once. Sora now has a black outfit. I really want the old, colorful one back.
I actually liked the change. And I liked the justification for giving him a new outfit. =)
One of the fairies then gives him a magical orb that will allow him to assume Valor Form in battle.
...
So wait.
Was Sora just given a Dressphere?
Aw man now I'll never be able to get it out of my head.
The first world we can go to is... Hollow Bastion! It looks quite different now, with a real town and everything.
I prefer the old one, TBH.
yuffie why are you wearing black.
aren't you supposed to be the world's perkiest ninja or something.
Camouflage? Actually, I think it's based off her Advent Children outfit.
Then Merlin warps in. Merlin asks if Aerith gave us "the cards".
.............
No.
No more cards.
We're not doing this again.
I would have laughed HARD if that was what he meant.
Ominous voice: You called?
The Organization 13 guys warp in a bunch of Nobodies. Leon and Sora have to defeat them all while protecting the gates to Hollow Bastion. Easily done. Now the entire Organization 13 warps in... all six of them! They taunt us some more and then warp out, except one who warps back in. He and Sora's party talk for a long time about fighting each other but no actual fighting ever happens. -_-
I'm... pretty sure it's Xigbar who did that.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Amazing, isn't it? I was awed by the change.
(I have basically no memories of Mulan, so yeah, can't tell you who this is.)
That's a shame. Mulan's one of the higher up Disney movies for me.
Sora doesn't know what the fuck, but...
Goofy: You're pretendin' ta be a boy, aren'tcha?
It's amazing how consistently Goofy is portrayed as by far the smartest member of the team.
As DnD terms go, Goofy's got the highest wisdom, Donald the highest intelligence. Sora... got dropped on his head once or twice?
Mulan... I mean Ping, joins the party.
Ping is the worst party member in both games in terms of combat. Thankfully Mulan is a lot better.
Heartless attack and we're introduced to the Morale system, which is a lot like the Struggle battles, only dumber.
I hate the morale system.
There is one annoying one, though, a weird centaur thing that you just can't get near without being owned.
To be fair it is an annoying Heartless for this early in the game. Does a lot of damage if you aren't careful.
(I think that, starting now, Mulan/Ping actually becomes useful as a party member, paralleling her character development.)
Nah, a little longer before that happens.
Shang gives Mulan his thanks and says he should never have doubted her... but then Mushu accidentally reveals that Mulan is a woman. Good going, pal.
This part ticked me off so, so much. In the movie, Mulan gets a wound, and since she needs urgent treatment, she is discovered by the healer to be a woman. In here? "Oh wow Mulan you're a great girl!" "Wait what?" And this is considering that nobody EVER pays attention to Mushu besides Mulan... until now! My least favorite change from the movie for sure. I don't mind if they deviate from the 'they had to see her body' plotline, but the replacement is idiotic.
BOSS FIGHT:
SHAN-YU
This is pretty clever. Not only do we have to defeat Shan-Yu, we have to do it while protecting the gate to the palace. I ignored the latter objective during my first attempt and it resulted in my first game over. Whoops. Shan-Yu will summon Heartless, but after taking out his first health bar, he'll stop summoning them and instead go berserk and become much more of a threat. If Sora and Shan-Yu clash blades, it triggers a blade lock scene. Mash Triangle to overpower Shan-Yu, then hit Triangle again to punish him for his insolence. You can also defeat his falcon Hayabusa, which I recommend doing, if only because it's obnoxious.
When I was a kid I had a McDonald's toy of Shan-Yu and pretended that he could fly because of his falcon on his shoulder. ...I was a pretty stupid kid.
Anyhow, yeah, nice to have more conditions than 'kill that guy'.
BOSS FIGHT:
THRESHOLDER
It can summon assorted Heartless to attack us. Hitting it repeatedly will allow a reaction command where Sora blasts the door with his Keyblade, causing it to spit out Possessor, a Darkball-looking enemy. That's the real boss, and killing it ends the fight and lets us move on.
One of the more interesting Heartless boss fights.
One of the Organization members is chatting him up, telling him Belle is scheming against him, etc. Needs less this jackass, more Gaston, tbqh.
Because Gaston was totally not a jerk. But I agree, needs more Gaston.
BOSS FIGHT:
THE BEAST
So, this is dumb. Our reaction command for this battle is "Wake up!", which can be spammed to stun Beast. So he's never a threat at all. And once his health bar is depleted, you spam Triangle to help Cogsworth gather energy to set off his alarm function and wake Beast up, ending the fight. How disappointing.
'Eh'.
Are you implying that the non-original characters have any better chance against Roxas? I really hope you mean Squall when you bring them up because he's probably the non original character who comes the closest.
From my thoughts, only Squall and Beast can even compare.
This is why the KH2 Prologue is one of the best parts of the series. By far. It's only contested by like... Deep Drive. (Deep Drive owns it, but really nothing else is even in the conversation.) I liked the prologue pretty much the whole time, but this puts it on another level.
Agreed. This part was one of the best in the series. I liked the whole prologue, but day six... wow!
the best
Best Keyblade combination ever book it.
He's not even Top 5 Organization XIII tbqh.
No. That's silly. You're silly.
My answer to this depends on whether I'm allowed to bring in the source material or not. With the source material, I could probably justify saying "all of them". <_< Without it, I could still say Hades, Beast, maybe Jack Skellington, Jafar if we don't count Chain of Memories, and... probably Leon, Cloud, and King Mickey, though whether they really count as non-original characters I'd consider debatable. I'm sure there are others too, that's just off the top of my head.
Excuse me while I go bash my head against a wall. Jack Skellington? Jafar? At least Hades has the funny factor, at least Beast is awesome, but WTH are you on for those others?
Incidentally - and you'll love this - Riku circa Chain of Memories is probably the best original character in the series (based on where I am so far). It's really just KH1 that's holding him back. >_>
While Riku WAS loads better in CoM... This is still a bad claim and you should feel bad.
You totally do! Like 90% of my complaining about this series has been about there not being enough Disney/Final Fantasy stuff and too much original stuff, and the KH2 prologue is just about the worst when it comes to that. (And, admittedly, Vivi, Seifer, and Setzer try to save it, but it's just too little, too late.)
I prefer the original stuff. Yep. I said it. I love the nostalgia the Disney brings but when it comes to push or shove, original wins out for my favorite parts. And the prologue had LOADS of Final Fantasy stuff.
I find this hard to believe if only because the 6 or so Organization members I met in CoM were almost universally horrible. KH2 would practically need every single one of its members to be better than Axel for your statement to be true. <_<
Just based on Chain of Memories (no 358/2 to help)... Lexeaus is totally boring, Zexion is 'okay I guess', Marluxia is amusing in a silly way, Larxene is a *****, Vexen is awful, and Axel... you know I'll say he's the best, but with just CoM Organization members, I really don't see how many people can actually ARGUE with that claim. The Kingdom Hearts II members are all so much better. (I'm not counting Roxas showing up in the picture at the end of CoM.)
Damnit, I knew you'd say this. I can almost forgive the first two because they're among the best of the Disney characters, but then you ruin it by going to the bottom tier of that group.
I wouldn't call Jack Skellington the bottom tier, but there's no comparing him to Roxas. And Jafar? Bwahahaha.
They're pretty good too, but Leon is the best of them, and again, he's still a ways behind Roxas.
That.
No. I haven't even played CoM but I'll say DiZ automatically. Honorable Mention to Sora. Again, excluding Roxas because he wins this still.
DiZ should win just for his "At least they gave you a nice room" line. That was one of the best ice burns ever.
Every game holds Riku back.
I still maintain CoM Riku is pretty decent.
I only disagree with the Disney part. The Final Fantasy stuff usually turns out as quality. Incidentally, the Final Fantasy stuff tends to be more related to the original stuff than anything else.
The exception being stuff like... Wakka. *Shudder*
None of them are the ones I rank ahead of Axel. In part because, again, I haven't played CoM. The majority of my rankings come from KH 358/2 Days where Organization XIII pretty much gets the spotlight. That said, Roxas and my #2 pick could rank where they are based solely on KH2. Even still though, based just on KH2, the rankings probably end up more or less the same. Anyway, Roxas aside, I don't believe you've met any of the ones I'd rank ahead of Axel.
Xigbar technically, if I'm right.
Roughly one year from KH1. If I really thought about it, I could actually probably give you an exact time, but that requires way too much thinking.
One year is about right.
DiZ was up there, but then KH2 Prologue happened. He's definitely awesome in CoM, though.
I think he's good here too but...
CoM Sora is arguably worse than KH1 Riku. <_<
I still maintain it's hard to judge Sora in this game because his memories are SO messed up.
His entire motivation in KH1 was trying to control Heartless so he could make them dance.
That's quality motivation.
It's awesome motivation, but it doesn't put him even close to Roxas.
Counting CoM probably puts King Mickey ahead of Leon, tbqh. Though honestly, I should really finish KH2 before even getting into this, because I'm sure I'll end up changing my mind on a lot of this by the end of it. >_>
Ehhh. I disagree because Mickey didn't show up quite enough to really do that. Leon barely did anything in CoM. When KH2 comes around, they both have awesome moments, so Leon holds the top position. Or Squall. Ahem.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here. <_<
*Thumbs down*
I'm not doubting you, I'm just saying, Organization XIII hasn't had the most quality characters so far, and it can really only afford two more awful ones before Axel makes the top 5 just by being not awful. Though, again, my rankings would probably change if I played 358/2 Days.
It's like they deliberately tried to put all the bad Organization XIII members in Chain of Memories and keep the good ones in Kingdom Hearts II. ...Besides Xaldin. Bleh.
See, that's not really possible. You have to go pretty far to enter this conversation. Xenosaga III (to a slightly lesser extent so does Xenosaga II) Shion manages it, but no way do I believe Sora could pull that. Of course, I've taken it from all your commentary you've always disliked Sora, so I'm not taking this as too credible anyway.
I liked Sora's resolve for protecting Namine, so...
You mean "even more terrible than all the other Disney plots, which is admittedly quite an accomplishment given how low you'd have to go to pull that off."
*I* found it amusing!
Pfft... like King Mickey could ever pass Squall.
Not an insult though since Squall's that good.
Looking at KH1 I'm not sure this is a good thing. With you apparently putting Squall pretty high, I think I'm inclined to cut my losses and declare this as close to a victory as I'm going to get.
If he can't see the awesomeness of Roxas by now, he's forever lost. =(
Which is the strangest thing. Because this is honestly one of the opinions I have the hardest time seeing a plausible counter to. >_>
*Shrug*
Eh... it's a bit more complex.
I wish I had that DSi still so I could finally get to 358/2. Stupid college fees required me to sell it.
I never disliked Sora in KH1, he just never really stood out to me, personality-wise. I can't remember a single line of his except for the "Kingdom Hearts is LIGHT!" line. He might as well have been a silent protagonist as far as personality was concerned.
You kidding? You didn't get a read on his personality by at least Hollow Bastion? ._.
...Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. CoM gave Sora much, much more personality, and the result was turning him into a dumb, pissy, unlikeable prick. Luckily KH2 doesn't seem to be going that route, instead giving Sora non-horrible character traits.
Again, I maintain it's all because of his messed up memories, hence why he didn't act like that in KH or KH2.
I will instantly respect the first Organization XIII member whose motivation involves dancing in some form. <_<
Oh this will be GOOD.
Not necessarily. CoM hurt my opinion of the Aladdin characters possibly beyond any recovery, for example.
Oh wish silliness.
I'm extrapolating from the showings from King Mickey that I do know. Also, I didn't play CoM yet, but I got a plot summary of it before I played KH2, so it's not like I'm totally oblivious as to what happened.
And I copied/pasted a lot of it to xp, so he's pretty well educated.
</spoiler>
More later, I am taking a stupidly long time to post my responses.
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
Aaaaand that's total garbage! At least show us WHY.
Doesn't the game tell you why? I thought it did later on.
Xigbar technically, if I'm right.
Yeah, for whatever reason I thought the guy who warped back to talk with Sora was Axel. But looking at the dialogue again, that's almost definitely Xigbar.
One year is about right.
That's not what I meant. I meant I could literally give a time in terms of days from the end of KH1 (or CoM) if I thought about it hard enough. I settled for "Roughly one year" because it's close enough. It's really a little less however.
And I copied/pasted a lot of it to xp, so he's pretty well educated.
That's what I meant by "plot summary."
</spoiler>
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
Oh whoops, this is me being an idiot and phrasing that badly. I know who Seifer is (...well I was sorta mixing him up with Seymour for a while BUT STILL), it was Hayner, Pence, and Olette I didn't know about. And then it turns out they were just original characters, so yeah. (I still don't see why they didn't call them Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. >_>)
Axel: >_> <_< Don't look at me!
augh, disgusting
But Roxas <3s Namine so this is a good thing!
Sora and Rikutwo hearted Namine and look what happened to them.
Hearting Namine is basically giving her a free pass to ruin your life.
Twilight Thorn!
This name totally wasn't given during the actual fight! <_< I had to learn it like 35 hours later.
How else would you pronounce it, vih-vih? That doesn't even sound like a name IMO.
Vih-vee. As in, Vivian. Unless people pronounce the "Vivi-" in that as "vee-vee" as well, in which case my world is a lie.
I'm actually curious, have Dusks been named until now? I can't recall.
I'm pretty sure the word Dusk wasn't connected to the enemies until Yen Sid. Which was annoying as heck for me when I was doing these writeups, as you can probably tell.
I actually like how this is explained later for why DiZ laughs. But yeah, my reaction to this scene was "OH **** NO GET OUT OF THIS GAME RIGHT NOW".
I just want to know why he asked for Riku's true name.
Although no answer could possibly make me think it wasn't just done as a fake-out, so maybe I don't actually care about knowing that. >_>
This is the reference zipping over my head: ziiiiiip.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItGetsBetter
Page quote.
Well what kind of a mystery is 'the mysterious ball appearing' anyway?
Are you positing that if one asks a stupid question, one gets a stupid answer? Because that would make too much sense for the KH2 prologue. <_<
Rage.jpg
That was the best conversation in the entire prologue, and I'm pissed that it was just a throwaway and not foreshadowing.
"Because seeing a flipping TRAIN makes up for not going to the beach! ...JERK."
The worst part is that seeing the train just further alienates Roxas from his friends. Even when DiZ is being nice, he's ruining Roxas' life.
I know this is another case of fangirlism over Axel, but I legitimately felt really, really bad for the guy. The hope in his voice made me really regret that Roxas was going to have to say 'no', or at least be unable to prove it.
No, it's not just you, I felt horrible for Axel throughout the entire game.
Then again, maybe that's what he gets for having a radical personality change in the time between CoM and KH2.
In a sense.
If I had been paying more attention, I probably could have called that plot twist in advance based on this. Though I can't remember how clearly his sword is shown.
Ouch. Now that's just MEAN. =(
Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.
Aaaaand that's total garbage! At least show us WHY.
Because he's Riku, and we're not playing as him. So he has crazy plot armor.
Well, I assume a lot of people are fans because they want to think Axel and Roxas are a couple. Which I find stupid as all get out. One of the reasons I like Axel and Roxas so much, as I said above, is the friendship angle. But I honestly can't remember anyone else I've talked to who likes Axel or Roxas agreeing with me. Only people who want them to make out. It's really irritating. I'd like to meet at least one person who can share an opinion of their friendship without making a slash fic.
...There's another reason to like them?
I mean, CoM Axel is a team-killing comic relief psychopath mastermind. I guess you could like that angle of him. But within KH2, Axel's entire personality is "Roxaaaaaaas you're my only frieeeennnndd =(". So you either go the yaoi route (which is always an option for any two male characters, no matter what, and thus shouldn't even count) or the friendship route. >_>
And that line was just a huge =( from me. Huge huge =(.
I like how it's basically waving a giant neon sign that says "KINGDOM HEARTS 2: NOW WITH MORE DARKNESS AND EDGES".
I prefer the old one, TBH.
Probably because the old one is a lot better.
As DnD terms go, Goofy's got the highest wisdom, Donald the highest intelligence. Sora... got dropped on his head once or twice?
Sora has like 18 in every stat except Wisdom and Intelligence, though, so it evens out.
To be fair it is an annoying Heartless for this early in the game. Does a lot of damage if you aren't careful.
Worst Heartless in the entire game. By far. And in the first real world? Screw you, KH2. <_<
Because Gaston was totally not a jerk. But I agree, needs more Gaston.
Gaston is a jerkass, not a jackass. >_>
Excuse me while I go bash my head against a wall. Jack Skellington? Jafar? At least Hades has the funny factor, at least Beast is awesome, but WTH are you on for those others?
Having finished KH2, I'm officially taking Jafar off that list.
Jack stays, though. Because he's awesome.
While Riku WAS loads better in CoM... This is still a bad claim and you should feel bad.
No, CoM Riku is totally the best original character in the series. In fact, quick top five:
1. CoM Riku
2. Roxas
3. KH2 Axel
4. Pence?
5. Larxene?
.........You know, it's actually sort of incredible, the extent to which this series has made me hate its non-borrowed cast. This isn't even me being like "augh guys this needs 320% more disney and 180% more final fantasy and 100% less original stuff and hollow bastion should be replaced with a high school musical world" - something that I sometimes sort of play up because I know you and xp disagree with it - this is me genuinely finding nearly the entire original cast insufferable, enough that Pence probably makes my top 5.
Just based on Chain of Memories (no 358/2 to help)... Lexeaus is totally boring, Zexion is 'okay I guess', Marluxia is amusing in a silly way, Larxene is a *****, Vexen is awful, and Axel... you know I'll say he's the best, but with just CoM Organization members, I really don't see how many people can actually ARGUE with that claim. The Kingdom Hearts II members are all so much better. (I'm not counting Roxas showing up in the picture at the end of CoM.)
I can't say I agree with this. The only Organizers I care at all about are Roxas, Axel, Larxene, Demyx, Marluxia, Vexen, and Xigbar. Roughly in that order. It's a pretty good mix of KH2 and CoM. Admittedly, Marluxia and Vexen really only get on that list by virtue of screen time.
I still maintain it's hard to judge Sora in this game because his memories are SO messed up.
Well, yes, but that is CoM Sora, and that's why I call him CoM Sora and not just Sora. I don't really consider CoM to drag Sora as a whole down very much. Now, KH2, on the other hand...!
If he can't see the awesomeness of Roxas by now, he's forever lost. =(
You're in luck: everyone else dropped in quality enough for Roxas to take #1! Well, of the original cast, anyway.
</spoiler>
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
No, CoM Riku is totally the best original character in the series. In fact, quick top five:
1. CoM Riku
2. Roxas
3. KH2 Axel
4. Pence?
5. Larxene?
...Oh god.
Let me fix this.
1. Roxas
2. Demyx
3. Xigbar
4. Xion
5. DiZ
6. (Because including Xion is somewhat unfair at this point) Saix/Axel/Luxord (Generally I order them in that order, but it's almost a toss-up and really I should probably place Luxord ahead of Axel.)
You know, it's actually sort of incredible, the extent to which this series has made me hate its non-borrowed cast. This isn't even me being like "augh guys this needs 320% more disney and 180% more final fantasy and 100% less original stuff and hollow bastion should be replaced with a high school musical world" - something that I sometimes sort of play up because I know you and xp disagree with it - this is me genuinely finding nearly the entire original cast insufferable, enough that Pence probably makes my top 5.
You know, if we quickly exclude the Final Fantasy characters from this, I think I might have to go roughly 15-20 characters to get to a non-original character. Most of Organization XIII makes that list, which is pretty damn amazing. Put the FF characters back in and Squall stops the bleeding way back in the Top 5, and Cloud/Tifa/Yuffie/Auron/Sephiroth aren't that far behind him. I'm not sure how long it takes before Beast or Hades shows up to stop the Disney bleeding, but again, that list gets pretty long before they appear.
</spoiler>
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
2. Demyx
3. Xigbar
4. Xion
5. DiZ
6. (Because including Xion is somewhat unfair at this point) Saix/Axel/Luxord (Generally I order them in that order, but it's almost a toss-up and really I should probably place Luxord ahead of Axel.)
See, I just don't see how I'm supposed to care about Xigbar, Saix, or Luxord when they got, combined, about 30 minutes of screen time. Even Demyx is borderline at best.
Admittedly, Days probably changes that, but just based on KH2...
</spoiler>
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
Because pretty much everyone else is lolz. So they win by default. I mean, that I ended up just calling a 3-way tie for 6th there was not a good sign. Honestly, I'm not sure if I care much about any of them past DiZ, and even DiZ goes downhill at the very end. It's basically those top 4 + Squall that I care to defend at all, everyone else is just pretty much 'meh' at best. I wouldn't call Demyx borderline because he's easily the best Organization XIII outside of Roxas in KH2.
Admittedly, Days probably changes that, but just based on KH2...
Yeah, 358/2 helps out Demyx, Xigbar, and even Luxord and Saix to some extent, but really, even if it didn't exist, just who exactly is their competition? KH doesn't exactly have some incredible cast. That Organization XIII is just flatout dominating my character rankings is hilarious because Roxas is the only one I'd actually seriously call a quality character. I mean, I like Demyx, Xigbar, and Xion but they do benefit from being in KH where there's just no else to challenge them so it makes them look even better by comparison. (KH Squall is in a weird place between Roxas and the others. It doesn't help that, being Squall, it's just too difficult for me to evaluate him without bring FFVIII into this unintentionally.)
</spoiler>
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
</spoiler>
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
Well then, it seems like we agree, to a certain extent at least! It just comes down to who we choose to win by default.
Maybe, but I'm not sure you're entirely following me. You started this as an original character thing, but I've been including everyone for most of the time. It's just that Squall is the only one who matters enough to be relevant here.
I mean, my overall ranking and original character ranking are nearly identical.
Overall:
1. Roxas
2. Demyx
3. Xigbar (Almost in a virtual tie with Demyx)
4. Squall (Well, Squall jumps around here all the time, he can go as high as #2 depending on my mood.)
5. Xion
Also, though I did say that they're all kind of winners by default, that is true, but I will actually defend those 5 because I do like them, even if Roxas is the only one I think that's actually a quality character. It's that I can't really be brought to seriously defend anyone else that makes this "by default." DiZ would be up there too if not for the end of KH2 when they stopped making him a jerk [which is why he was so entertaining in the first place] (And for how it ended up giving Riku a totally ridiculous bailout.)
</spoiler>
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
No, I gathered that, I just figured that if I brought in borrowed characters, we'd never get anywhere.
In fact, I'm almost certain it would become a discussion about Jack Skellington. Again. <_<
Also, though I did say that they're all kind of winners by default, that is true, but I will actually defend those 5 because I do like them, even if Roxas is the only I think is actually a quality character. It's that I can't really be brought to seriously defend anyone else that makes this "by default." DiZ would be up there too if not for the end of KH2 when they stopped making him a jerk [which is why he was so entertaining in the first place] (And for how it ended up giving Riku a totally ridiculous bailout.)
Well, yeah, I like my top 5 original characters too. In fact, it probably extends to at least top 8.
But then it goes into apathy, and then quickly into dislike. >_>
</spoiler>
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
Might, I'm not remembering right now.
Yeah, for whatever reason I thought the guy who warped back to talk with Sora was Axel. But looking at the dialogue again, that's almost definitely Xigbar.
Yay I'm not going crazy.
That's not what I meant. I meant I could literally give a time in terms of days from the end of KH1 (or CoM) if I thought about it hard enough. I settled for "Roughly one year" because it's close enough. It's really a little less however.
Ah.
That's what I meant by "plot summary."
;)
Oh whoops, this is me being an idiot and phrasing that badly. I know who Seifer is (...well I was sorta mixing him up with Seymour for a while BUT STILL), it was Hayner, Pence, and Olette I didn't know about. And then it turns out they were just original characters, so yeah. (I still don't see why they didn't call them Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. >_>)
>mixing up Seifer and Seymour
What the heck am I reading.jpg
Vih-vee. As in, Vivian. Unless people pronounce the "Vivi-" in that as "vee-vee" as well, in which case my world is a lie.
Hm. Never thought of that for Vivi. Makes sense with Vivian though.
I'm pretty sure the word Dusk wasn't connected to the enemies until Yen Sid. Which was annoying as heck for me when I was doing these writeups, as you can probably tell.
Derp.
I just want to know why he asked for Riku's true name.
Although no answer could possibly make me think it wasn't just done as a fake-out, so maybe I don't actually care about knowing that. >_>
I thought that was to confirm how much Riku was burying himself in his new identity. If he had said, "Riku", that would have been like... denying what was happening to his body. Of course I might be totally off my rocker, but it sort of made sense to me at the time.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItGetsBetter
Page quote.
'oh'
Are you positing that if one asks a stupid question, one gets a stupid answer? Because that would make too much sense for the KH2 prologue. <_<
It's more of a question as to why they ever wondered about such a silly thing, but you have a point.
That was the best conversation in the entire prologue, and I'm pissed that it was just a throwaway and not foreshadowing.
Cough.
The worst part is that seeing the train just further alienates Roxas from his friends. Even when DiZ is being nice, he's ruining Roxas' life.
DiZ rather does like to share his bitterness.
No, it's not just you, I felt horrible for Axel throughout the entire game.
Then again, maybe that's what he gets for having a radical personality change in the time between CoM and KH2.
lawlz. Actually, I don't think of it so much as a personality change as being in two separate situations, where a person would act far differently. I could go more into that if I wanted to but I have a million remarks to make already.
If I had been paying more attention, I probably could have called that plot twist in advance based on this. Though I can't remember how clearly his sword is shown.
His sword is shown quite clearly, but it's easy to miss with Roxas rushing to the climax of the prologue. You normally wouldn't pay much attention to it.
Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.
Crowd: Boooooooooooooooo!
Because he's Riku, and we're not playing as him. So he has crazy plot armor.
Well bugger.
...There's another reason to like them?
I mean, CoM Axel is a team-killing comic relief psychopath mastermind. I guess you could like that angle of him. But within KH2, Axel's entire personality is "Roxaaaaaaas you're my only frieeeennnndd =(". So you either go the yaoi route (which is always an option for any two male characters, no matter what, and thus shouldn't even count) or the friendship route. >_>
It's just I'm surrounded by hormone-filled fangirls whenever I want to talk about Kingdom Hearts so that always happens and drives me NUTS.
I like how it's basically waving a giant neon sign that says "KINGDOM HEARTS 2: NOW WITH MORE DARKNESS AND EDGES".
Less darkness actually. The Ansem who spammed it isn't around. =D
Probably because the old one is a lot better.
Aw yeah.
Sora has like 18 in every stat except Wisdom and Intelligence, though, so it evens out.
More than 18 in some because HE SLICES APART SKYSCRAPERS.
Worst Heartless in the entire game. By far. And in the first real world? Screw you, KH2. <_<
You coulda gone to the castle first. ...>_>
Gaston is a jerkass, not a jackass. >_>
What exactly is the difference between those terms? I ask that sincerely.
Having finished KH2, I'm officially taking Jafar off that list.
Jack stays, though. Because he's awesome.
Jafar never should have been there period, but okay.
Augh, I'm fine with Jack but he's not THAT amazing. >_>
No, CoM Riku is totally the best original character in the series. In fact, quick top five:
1. CoM Riku
2. Roxas
3. KH2 Axel
4. Pence?
5. Larxene?
.........You know, it's actually sort of incredible, the extent to which this series has made me hate its non-borrowed cast. This isn't even me being like "augh guys this needs 320% more disney and 180% more final fantasy and 100% less original stuff and hollow bastion should be replaced with a high school musical world" - something that I sometimes sort of play up because I know you and xp disagree with it - this is me genuinely finding nearly the entire original cast insufferable, enough that Pence probably makes my top 5.
1. Axel
2. Roxas
3. Namine
4. Xigbar
5. Luxord or Saix
From just the two numbered games and Chain of Memories. I could list a while longer before hitting characters I don't care about.
I can't say I agree with this. The only Organizers I care at all about are Roxas, Axel, Larxene, Demyx, Marluxia, Vexen, and Xigbar. Roughly in that order. It's a pretty good mix of KH2 and CoM. Admittedly, Marluxia and Vexen really only get on that list by virtue of screen time.
Vexen is so awful though. >_> I can't stand Larxene's personality, and Marluxia is... eh. On the other hand, I was greatly amused by Luxord, Xigbar is awesome, Demyx has his cool last scene (SILENCE TRAITOR), Saix interested me, and... okay, Xaldin sucked. And Xemnas was mediocre. But overall it had a better cast IMO.
Well, yes, but that is CoM Sora, and that's why I call him CoM Sora and not just Sora. I don't really consider CoM to drag Sora as a whole down very much. Now, KH2, on the other hand...!
Oh I can't wait to see your future write ups.
You're in luck: everyone else dropped in quality enough for Roxas to take #1! Well, of the original cast, anyway.
o u
...Oh god.
Let me fix this.
1. Roxas
2. Demyx
3. Xigbar
4. Xion
5. DiZ
6. (Because including Xion is somewhat unfair at this point) Saix/Axel/Luxord (Generally I order them in that order, but it's almost a toss-up and really I should probably place Luxord ahead of Axel.)
I'm anticipating Xion getting high on my list, but it's impossible to say now.
You know, if we quickly exclude the Final Fantasy characters from this, I think I might have to go roughly 15-20 characters to get to a non-original character. Most of Organization XIII makes that list, which is pretty damn amazing. Put the FF characters back in and Squall stops the bleeding way back in the Top 5, and Cloud/Tifa/Yuffie/Auron/Sephiroth aren't that far behind him. I'm not sure how long it takes before Beast or Hades shows up to stop the Disney bleeding, but again, that list gets pretty long before they appear.
Probably got a similar outlook myself but I'd have to think more carefully before saying.
See, I just don't see how I'm supposed to care about Xigbar, Saix, or Luxord when they got, combined, about 30 minutes of screen time. Even Demyx is borderline at best.
Admittedly, Days probably changes that, but just based on KH2...
I liked them despite only playing Kingdom Hearts II.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
What the heck am I reading.jpg
>implying I've played either game or know what either character looks or acts like
Cough.
Drinking fountain's in the hall. *points*
lawlz. Actually, I don't think of it so much as a personality change as being in two separate situations, where a person would act far differently. I could go more into that if I wanted to but I have a million remarks to make already.
There's "acting differently in different situations" and then there's "going from manipulating both sides while being a quadruple agent to getting outplayed by both DiZ and Saix".
And your remarks are literally the only thing worthwhile in this topic right now, so go nuts if you want. <_<
You coulda gone to the castle first. ...>_>
I just went to whatever world had the lowest recommended level according to the game. <_<
What exactly is the difference between those terms? I ask that sincerely.
Jackass = Another word for donkey; somebody who is dumb, foolish, and/or lacking in common sense.
Jerkass = A highly rude, insensitive, and/or mean person. One intensity level higher than "jerk". May or may not be lacking in intelligence.
Vexen is so awful though. >_> I can't stand Larxene's personality, and Marluxia is... eh. On the other hand, I was greatly amused by Luxord, Xigbar is awesome, Demyx has his cool last scene (SILENCE TRAITOR), Saix interested me, and... okay, Xaldin sucked. And Xemnas was mediocre. But overall it had a better cast IMO.
At least Vexen and Marluxia did something, though, so even though I didn't like them, I at least cared about them as characters a little bit. Xigbar, Luxord, Xaldin, and even Saix were all interchangeable; they were just "those guys you fought".
...How can I explain this better... Okay, look at it this way: If I had to summarize both CoM and KH2, a lot of my CoM summary would refer to Vexen and Marluxia. If my KH2 summary mentioned Xigbar, Luxord, Xaldin, and Saix at all, it would pretty much just be to say "they exist". Incidentally, Lexaeus would receive the same treatment, so it's not like CoM managed to avoid this completely either.
Oh I can't wait to see your future write ups.
I do nothing if not aim to please.
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Kingdom Hearts II, click to show]We find her being chased by a Heartless, but she manages to get out to the balcony and shut the door, leaving us to deal with the Heartless.
"Curse this door for stopping me from slaughtering that woman, despite me probably being able to tear it down!"
BOSS FIGHT:
SHADOW STALKER
BOSS FIGHT:
DARK THORN
Cool Heartless fights.
After the fight, Xaldin shows up, basically just to say "You've not seen the last of MEEEEE!" before warping away.
If only it had been the last of him. =(
We get the ability to use Cure, though "MP Cost: All" doesn't fill me with confidence as to its usefulness.
Oh dearz.
Merlin: I know you're a good friend of Winnie the Pooh, Sora!
Of all the things for Sora to have a reputation for... <_<
I woulda committed suicide if I was Sora. ...Again. >_>
Hmm... this quest seems oddly... familiar, somehow.
At least there aren't ninety-nine more dalmatians to collect.
Anyway, Merlin gives us a Baseball Charm that will allow us to summon Chicken Little (I always forget that was a Disney film, probably because it was really mediocre)
Stupidest summon ever. I raged hard at getting it.
Next world is Olympus Coliseum, but first, the gummi ship route there. It had a boss! It was actually fun! Amazing!
Shock and awe!
Pffffft... Rock Titan is the weakest boss ever. It's not THAT impressive...
Beating it isn't impressive, but hurling it into space... kind of is. It must weigh a lot.
Anyway... as we explore the Underworld, we catch a glimpse of an Organization member and follow him. But once we're further in, we see him again - running away and screaming like a girl. Well then.
My reaction to this: "This guy is gonna be amazing."
As we continue further in, we're treated to a scene of Pete antagonizing Hades. He says Hades should pick someone already dead and save Herc the trouble. XD
"I'm smart! Really! ...GET OUTTA MY WAY! >=("
But Hades actually thinks this is a good idea! He opens a portal to the Underworld's deepest dungeon and brings out "the mother of all bad guys". Somebody... dressed in red with too many belts. Oh dear. This can only end badly.
"Oh flip it's a Final Fantasy character!" "Wait how can you-" "BELTS!" "Oh right."
Hades offers him a deal - kill Herc, and get out of the Underworld, no strings attached. The figure sneers at him.
???: This is my story. And you're not part of it.
Hades: Did you forget who you're talking to? I am the Lord of the Dead!
???: Heh. No wonder no one wants to die.
*Ice burn*
BOSS FIGHT:
HADES
...Or not. We quickly discover that we can't damage him at all. Hades explains that he's got some Yawgmoth-esque BS where we can't damage him because we're in the Underworld or something.
And you thought he was bad in the first game!
Sora's about to get owned, but the mysterious figure rescues him and says that we have to go. Sora's like "But I have to talk to Hades!", which Hades responds to by plugging his ears. XD
What an uncivilized jerk!
Party Members have been switched.
Party In - !Auron
As it should be. <3 <3 <3
RUN AWAY FROM:
HADES
Okay I lol'd.
Sora asks if Auron's a hero. Auron says he isn't. He also introduces himself and Kenri learns that it's pronounced "oar-un" and not "awr-ohn"... unless that's just KH2 not knowing how to pronounce the names of its characters again.
No, that's right. If you played FFX you'd know this! >_> (And before you ask about the Tidus controversy, it's because nobody says his name due to you naming him. The other characters come named.)
Donald and Goofy rush through while Auron holds off Cerberus... but Sora decides to stay back and help Auron rather than fleeing to safety.
Not that Sora needed to help, Auron coulda taken him. Because Auron's just that awesome. ...But then again more boss fights are needed I suppose.
We leave the Underworld and find that Auron is gone. Sora says he can take care of himself; right now, we need to talk to Meg. Meanwhile, Herc is clearly worn out, but he continues to fight in the Coliseum, against Meg's wishes.
If only I cared at all about Hercules then this would be an issue! (Really, the only decent character in that movie besides Hades was the pegasus, and that's because it was a cool flying horse. >_>)
This causes Hades to say it calls for a woman's touch. He snaps his fingers and an image of Meg appears. Oh snap!
Too bad Sora doesn't swing that way. </rimshot>
He says he'll go get it for us, while we're supposed to see Phil for more training. Um. Hey. Yesterday I beat a giant monster to death with a chandelier. No amount of training is going to make me any more badass.
Especially when that training is BREAKING POTS. Wow what an experience!
I swear, it's like YGO and card games. Every problem in this game is solved by a round of orb collection!
Reaction Commands>Orb Collecting for problem solving.
Sora: Oh, right! Hades, we gotta talk!
Hades: ...
[Hades flicks Sora's forehead, knocking him over]
[Hades resumes talking to Herc]
best character
Sora you nimwit, just standing there and being defeated by a FINGER. >_>
Sora calls Hades a coward, prompting him to reply that "we can't all be heroes". XD
That's one of the better things about Hades. He knows exactly what he is and embraces it fully. =D
Herc leaves it up to Sora to rescue Meg, but his pegasus flies off before Sora can mount it. sigh. it is so hard to find good help nowadays.
Considering how low the ceiling is down there, I don't see the pegasus having been much help.
We make our way through a rather labyrinthine area and eventually find ourselves face to face with the Olympus Stone's thief. He calls out "Roxas" a couple times to Sora, then checks his note, which says something to the effect of: if the subject fails to respond, hurt him until he does. He then proceeds to whine about being the one picked for this job. Wow, you are such a loser.
Oh come on, rule of funny. =)
He uses the Olympus Stone to power up and then summons a very dumb looking weapon.
Demyx: DANCE, WATER, DANCE!
that is the dumbest thing i have ever-
...wait a second
I will instantly respect the first Organization XIII member whose motivation involves dancing in some form. <_<
............
goddammit
Bwahahahahahaha, so worth it.
BOSS FIGHT:
DEMYX
If anyone actually has trouble with this fight they are either on a no-Reaction Command run (and I think it'd still be easy), or they have a diet of paint chips.
God, you are such a whiner. And not just a whiner, but a dumb whiner, because he warped out and left the Olympus Stone behind.
*Price Is Right failure music*
Hercules really impresses crowds when he battles in the Coliseum. He's never lost a match yet.
EX-FUCKING-CUSE ME?! Last time I help you. Asshole.
>XD I totally forgot about that.
Hades: Gee, thanks for the help! Now have a nice day. [warps out]
Sora: Did I just get suckered somehow.
BOSS FIGHT:
PETE
Do de do.
BOSS FIGHT:
PETE
This time we have to defeat him in 2 minutes. Why? Because that's how long before THE CAVE COLLAPSES OH GOD
"GET OUTTA MY WAY GET OUTTA MY WAY GET OUTTA MY WAY"
...Really I could respond to almost any talking villain with their spam quotes.
Pegasus: [Neighs, urging you to go to the coliseum]
What's that, Taire? Something about a connection between the worlds that threatens to destroy us all?
LOL
He says he's a wash-out. Hey, I call this karma. Maybe next time you'll think twice before lying about having a perfect record. Just because the von Karmas do it doesn't mean it's okay!
Besides, it shows he didn't do his mythology homework.
BOSS FIGHT:
HYDRA
gee i wonder what strategy i should use
i think i will get down under the hydra's stomach
FAILURE! </SSBM announcer>
...I never got to see the Megara-based reaction command, if there even was one, but oh well.
No reaction command, but she gives health orbs if you run over to her. I do like how this fight incorporated all the characters, it was a cool feature.
You know, I always felt that Sora's group was much better friends with the Olympus Coliseum denizens than the other worlds. In a lot of the other worlds, Sora was basically associating with them out of convenience (Deep Jungle, Hollow Bastion) or just tagging along because why not (Halloween Town). In Olympus Coliseum (and Hundred Acre Wood), Sora really had little reason to be there other than to hang out with his buddies. I dunno, just something I've been thinking about.
Hm, fairly interesting point. I got the sense he hung out with Beast because of understanding what he was going through, not just convenience, but with Deep Jungle... yeeeeah.
Next is of Queen Minnie finding out that the castle is in danger, and calling on King Mickey, Goofy, and Donald for help. The next world is... Disney Castle!
I was like "ABOUT TIME THIS WAS A WORLD" when I saw it.
Hahahaha. I didn't say anything before because I was just waiting for this to happen and knew I'd be victorious in the end.
Demyx is the 2nd best Organization XIII member, by the way.
Not that high, but he's good.
Queen Minnie: Would you please escort me to the audience chamber?
Escort missions. Dear god.
Thankfully nowhere near as bad as it could be since Queen Minnie does what you ask her to.
More like they saw it was an escort mission and took the opportunity to flee. Not that I blame them.
Be grateful, if they were there it'd be an issue of 'if one of those two dies instead, you lose anyway!'
Sora: The Cornerstone... of Light?!
Metal Gear?!
Oh come now, Sora just loves hearing about light. =)
We land in Hollow Bastion and are immediately taken to Merlin's. Donald starts to explain what's going on, but Merlin warps us all to Disney Castle mid-explanation.
Merlin: Perhaps I'd better just see for myself.
*nods approvingly*
Merlin can toggle between lame (go save Winnie the Pooh Sora!) and awesome (screw listening to Donald let's just go there).
We go through the door and end up in a world... where everything is black and white and cartoony and Sora looks silly and and and :3
Blaaaargh. Pete's the only one there who looks better, and I say that because he looks awful in his current form. >_>
Past!Pete wanders by and asks if we've seen any bad guys lately. We all point at him. lolz.
Owned.
BOSS FIGHT:
PETE
I sorta feel bad about this. This Pete didn't even do anything wrong. <_<
I'm sure he's had anvils dropped on his head and still turned out all right.
...Oh, I see what's going on. There are four windows, which will take us to a micro-world (probably from a cartoon short, I'd assume). The first one took us to a burning building. Past!Mickey is here, too. We had to defeat the Heartless while protecting the building. Would be easily done, but the Hot Rod enemies are tough.
Hot Rods are my least favorite enemies in the game. HATE them.
I ended up summoning Chicken Little, which grants the ability... FPS Mode...
...
...........
Bullet 1/6
i c wut u did thar
To reaffirm, Chicken Little is terrible and deserves to be roasted.
Pete: What I wouldn't give to go back in time...
;_;
Pete is the most sympathetic villain in the game.
...By villain, what exactly do you mean? Because without counting Organization XIII (and even then, only some), what competition does he have? >_>
BOSS FIGHT:
PETE
A surprisingly good fight, considering who you're up against.
Back in Disney Castle, there's some sitcom wackiness and Sora uses the Cornerstone to seal Disney Castle. Yay. Sora gets the Wisdom Form. ...I think I've only used Valor Form like... once, so I can't imagine Wisdom Form will get much use, but sure, thanks.
I used Valor... a few times, due to dual wielding coolness. Wisdom, once to see what it looked like and then like never again. Herp.
Heading there, we find that the Underdrome is now open for business. Auron explains that Zeus had it locked up tight. Sora asks how it got reopened.
Auron: Some fool must've broken the seal.
Sora: What an idiot.
what an idiot indeed
Oh Sora. =)
BOSS FIGHT:
LEON & YUFFIE
There's even very little to say about this boss fight, which was a complete joke. Leon and Yuffie have totally become lazy slackers in the year since KH1.
But they were easy there too! >_>
So, it seems like everything is peaceful in Atlantica. No Heartless in sight. This makes sense, because Pete has been the one rounding up Heartless, and he can't exactly breathe underwater.
But there's a whole wide upper world!
Plus, I think Triton w/ Trident is basically the most powerful character in Kingdom Hearts and could probably wreck any Heartless who tried to start shit.
...Maybe? >_>
Anyway, the gimmick of this world is that you participate in rhythm minigames.
This world sucks. =(
Anyway, it seems like Pooh is the only one affected by the memory loss - everyone else so far remembers Sora.
Which means Pooh COULD just be an idiot, why does nobody think of that? >_>
Just regular ol' pirates. Well, regular ol' undead pirates. And Pete, but it's hard to get excited about that.
How about an undead pirate Pete? Might make him interesting for once.
...THAT'S how they're justifying this? Our magic is just so weird that it beats the entire point of the first PotC movie? But, whatever, at least this isn't as dumb as how they handled the wishes in Aladdin.
Yeah, it's... odd. But the world would have been a lot dumber if you couldn't hurt anyone. Stealth+Kingdom Hearts=???
Also, I cannot tell you how weird it is that the characters don't have their actual voice actors. I know, Mushu and Genie and so forth don't either, but they at least have decent imitations (and they do have their actual VAs from other non-canons works, so that's in their favor too)... The VAs here are strange enough to make me wish I could just turn off voice acting for this world.
I know they're different but I didn't really notice. As I said before, I'm terrible at telling who voice acts who.
As in the movie, the ritual fails because Elizabeth isn't a Turner and Will KOs Jack and rescues Elizabeth himself.
Not this segment specifically, but 'as in the movie' can be applied to most of these worlds and it BUGGED me. Look at Kingdom Hearts, where the movie plots are not followed as closely but main purposes are kept. For instance, in Aladdin's world, Aladdin still wants to be with Princess Jasmine and Jafar is still trying to take over and such. But the Heartless and Sora's group are mixed in and the movie plot isn't even mentioned. It's one of the only things Kingdom Hearts II did worse, IMO, and Pirates of the Caribbean really suffers from it due to how by-the-line most of it goes.
Oh well, just my little rant.
Barbossa: Indeed, leave we shall... But the Heartless stay.
[Will gets sneak attacked by Pete]
Owned.
I lol'd at that myself. >_>
Sora: I'm still not going to trust pirates again.
Jack: A wise policy, lad.
You'd think Captain Hook would have taught him something...
BOSS FIGHT:
BARBOSSA & ILLUMINATOR
Oh come on, this is a world about undead pirates. Aside from like... Aladdin, I can't think of world with LESS of an excuse to have a Heartless boss.
Pete's there, Barbossa asks for help, Pete throws out a Heartless. It's not that whacked out.
Funny note: apparently, if Jack dies, you lose instantly. I have never seen Jack die in this fight so...
After the fight, Jack offers a truce, which Barbossa declines. Jack drops his saber, points his pistol at Barbossa, and says that they'll just call it... a draw. *laugh track*
Thanks for that Captain Jack Sparrow. =(
Sora uses Jack's compass to seal the keyhole, and everyone lived happily ever after. Awesome. It's a shame they never made any sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean. =/
But they did. And this totally isn't a case of the potentially-existing-but-not-Devil May Cry 2, the sequels were good too. Not AS good IMO but still good.
We receive the Keyblade "Follow the Wind". tbqh, should've been named "Dead Man's Key".
*Track laugh*
Sora: Wait a sec, I've got it covered. *ahem* Gee, I sure do wish a super NPC would come save us!
Sora: ...
Sora: ......I said, I sure do wish a super NPC would come save us!
Iago: All right, all right, I'm comin'!
And then Iago solos the Heartless for us.
That wasn't a joke.
That was what actually happened.
At least Iago's an okay character in this game. I guess.
Moving towards the palace, we run into Jasmine. She says that Aladdin has been acting weird lately... okay, this is totally not a problem, I know exactly what to do. We have to find his servants, who have been transformed into objects and locked in the dungeon. Piece of cake.
Beast: Hey it's not my fault the Organization member chose my world!
...Aladdin has apparently taken a level in badass since KH1, because he now has superspeed, superjumping, and crazy sword attacks. I sorta want to nominate this guy for MPFC now. <_<
It is pretty crazy how much better he's gotten.
Genie mistakes Pete for Al (...somehow) and starts doing his usual Genie shenanigans, which involves inadvertantly beating the crap out of Pete.
Aladdin must have gotten really ugly and fat! >_>
BOSS FIGHT:
VOLCANIC LORD & BLIZZARD LORD
Hey guys, remember when I said this:
Oh come on, this is a world about undead pirates. Aside from like... Aladdin, I can't think of world with LESS of an excuse to have a Heartless boss.
Hahahahahahaha.
Haha... haha... ha...
...
emot-suicide.gif
Yeah this one was a bit... blah. Beat them, never thought of them again until mentioned by someone else.
Cut to Pluto. He's in a city. He sees Axel and chases after him, but Axel vanishes into a portal of darkness. Then Pluto hears someone whistle to him, and runs off into a different portal of darkness. Well then.
They totally could have had a pet the dog moment there!
Cut to Kairi. She starts to talk, but then Axel shows up! He's like, "oh no, we're not having another Kairi-centric cutscene. You're coming with me so I can put you in a box labeled 'no longer part of this franchise'." She's about to do us all a favor and go with him, but Pluto shows up and leads Kairi into a portal of darkness. She sees a black cloak for a moment, then pops up in The Usual Spot in Twilight Town. Which has now reappeared on our world map. But Kairi's there, so we're going to avoid it for as long as we can.
Come on, Kairi's not THAT bad. ...<_<
Jack leaves to get "Sandy Claws", but returns shortly, asking if the Heartless outside are with us. Yeah we just brought them along because we figured the Christmas spirit would make their hearts grow three sizes-NO THEY'RE NOT WITH US.
They DO like following you guys around though.
Sora says we'll handle the Heartless and then go see Santa. This is the most excited I've seen Sora in years.
I found it really cute that he was so eager to see Santa. >_>
Jack and Sora easily defeat all the Heartless in the town square. They have an awesome limit that basically involves challenging the Heartless to a dance-off. Needless to say, the Heartless got served.
Oh snap.
There are Heartless in Christmas Town too, but we take care of them. I use Valor Form because why not. Halloween Town Sora + Valor Form = Hollow Sora. Seriously, he's got a Hollow mask. It's totally a Hollow mask.
DOES his forms change his costume? This calls for experimentation.
The party meets Santa Claus. Donald and Goofy are on his "nice" list, but apparently seven years ago Sora said he didn't believe in Santa. "whoops"
=( Sora you dummy.
...Of all the villains to bring back, why Oogie Boogie? He was outright the weakest of the entire Legion of Doom.
Easier to revive a bag of bugs than other guys I guess.
BOSS FIGHT:
PRISON KEEPER
Not a bad boss.
I guess the lesson to be learned here is that teamwork is important if you're trying to kidnap Santa and turn him into a monstrous abomination.
Awesome lesson for the kids.
BOSS FIGHT:
OOGIE BOOGIE
So much worse than the roulette fight in Kingdom Hearts. Also he has the most annoying spam quote IMO. "That's right, away you go!" was stuck in my head forever. Yeah, it beat out Phil and the Master Computer. Chew on that.
Also, the music for this fight is outstanding. I think it's called The Encounter, and I'm not sure if I just didn't notice it on the other bosses or if this is the first time it's played, but seriously, it's probably the best battle theme in the series so far.
It's a good theme, but I like the Organization ones more.
It's also revealed that Riku was the one who told Sora that Santa doesn't exist. I'll just add that to my "list of (known) reasons Riku is an asshole". Though if this thing gets much longer I'm going to start suffering encumbrance penalties for carrying it with me.
You shouldn't need a list, just saying 'everything' covers most of it.
Anyway, Santa tells Sora to tell Riku he said hi, lol.
I wish this scene had been shown, it would have been HILARIOUS.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
I actually like this song somewhat so it wasn't as bad.
Anyway, Donald is a bird, Goofy is a tortoise, and Sora is the most :3 thing I've ever seen.
Lion Sora is the cutest thing ever. Funny note: I dreamt about having a Lion King world a week or so before it was officially announced.
No, I can't even claim I would have won a fight against these guys. Fuckin' hyenas are destroyers of worlds in Lion King video games. They're minibosses/normal enemies but they're harder than KH1 Sephiroth. I'm not even exaggerating.
*Rage face* You do not speak of Lion King games in this thread!
Sora [referring to his trip]: Everything's harder on four legs.
Goddammit Sora do not give the fanartists ideas. Jesus Christ. what is wrong with you
He didn't have to, they already thought of it. X_X
Sora runs superfast in this form. It's fantastic. Why can't he have movement speed this high all the time?
That was a sweet bonus, I loved running around as lion Sora.
*tries to imagine lion-form Riku*
pffffffffffffffffffahahahahaha I bet he'd look like Kimba the White Lion :3
Not quite as cute probably. >_>
Sora: We can't just go around knocking kings off their thrones.
...Excuse me? What the fuck do you call what you did to King Ansem?
"Showing him the LIIIIIIGHT."
Anyway, we try to leave, but Scar and Fat Lion Pete stop us.
Fat Lion Pete=lol wut. That was my reaction ingame anyway.
Sora: He's not dead. He fought alongside us not too long ago.
Nala: ...
Nala: what
"Long story. It has nothing to do with him being an animal and me being a human to summon him. Really."
We're in Wildebeest Valley now, and Nala teaches Sora how to dash by holding down Square. Hey, can you teach that to his human form as well? Please?
"No, that'd be too much fun." "=("
Scar: And here's my little secret... I killed Mufasa!
Only line in the game that I really saw a huge difference between the original actor and the new one. This sounded really forced.
BOSS FIGHT:
SHENZI, BANZAI, AND ED
More like weak, weaker, and... totally insane idiot?
BOSS FIGHT:
SCAR
One of the best Disney villain fights in my book. Scar is really cool to fight.
So the Cerberus Cup is clearly too hardcore for me, because I got owned in what I assume is the final round - the fight against Cerberus. Wouldn't have been a problem, except there's a time limit, and no way can I beat Cerberus in 2 minutes with my current stats. Unless there's some trick to it that I don't know.
I did the colosseum fights whenever they appeared first thing, so I'm sure it's possible... Wish I could give a more detailed explanation as to how.
Through a series of comic mishaps, Pooh recovers his memory of Rabbit and Eeyore.
Yaaaaay. ...Stupid Hundred Acre Woods. >_>
Ah, nope, looks like some Dusks beat me to it. ...Hey, wait a second. Nobody kicks Seifer's ass but me! And Roxas! And maybe Vivi! (Also, didn't Seifer's group easily best a group of Dusks during the prologue, despite that making no sense at all?) In any case, it's clobberin' time.
I sense a strange relationship between you two...
Remember, that was 'fake' Seifer and co, though maybe you hadn't learned that by the time you wrote this up.
An Organization member we haven't met before shows up and gives us a vague warning about Axel, who has apparently gone maverick. Sora suggests that we follow him into his portal of darkness, but he just asks us if we want to end up like Riku.
"Oh shoot a smart idea, better confuse him with talks about FRIENDSHIP."
Seifer then forcefully deposits the Struggle Battle trophy into Sora's inventory, saying it goes to the strongest person in Twilight Town. Well. That IS me. Thanks, I guess.
What competition would Sora have? NONE!
Fuu has Seifer's complete trust, and sees her mission in life as making herself useful to him.
...ick
Bad Kenri! >=/
Roxas v Axel (KH2 Prologue Day 6) says "Hi!"
Just because Axel gets destroyed by Roxas didn't mean he wasn't going all-out. He did, but Roxas basically laughed at him. >_>
Actually, I misspoke up there, and you are right. What I meant was that you never get an accurate look at his powers due to circumstances in each fight.
CoM 1: Obviously a test.
CoM 2: He outright states he didn't want Sora dead, meaning even then he was holding back to some degree.
KH2 1: Just trying to knock sense into Roxas.
KH2 2: Went all out, but Roxas is so overpowered at this point that it doesn't matter.
But 358/2 and Final Mix probably answer just how good he is in more even terms.
So, two questions: 1) Is there a double/super jump ability in this game? And 2) why do I not have it yet. If somebody could answer that, it'd be great.
1. Yes.
2. You're not special enough.
Anyway, I guess we have to go see stupid Kairi at the stupid station... Oh wait. Amazing. Turns out, Axel kidnapped Kairi not too long ago. Fantastic. I owe you one, Axel. Just for that, if I ever decide to put you on the list of things to kill, I instead won't. But you only get one freebie, so use it well.
That freebie is getting used up pretty fast I bet... >_>
We also get the Oathkeeper again. So... being back at level one is probably justified by Namine being god awful at what she does (that is, restoring our memories, because you'll recall that they justified us being at level 1 in CoM with sudden onset amnesia), but I really want to know why I don't have my assorted Keyblades. Oathkeeper, especially, because I've definitely had Kairi's good luck charm this whole time.
I assume the keychains are pretty worthless in and of themselves. Just pretty decorations. The true thing that changes the Keyblade is the experiences Sora had, which are symbolized by the keychains.
...Or I could be making **** up but it sounds pretty.
Sora: The King, Riku - and now I've lost Kairi again, too.
"...Whoo-hoo! I feel like I just won the lottery in every world simultaneously!"
*Facepalm*
OHMYGOSH! WE ALSO FIND CLOUD! This is like winning the lottery on Christmas day! hey cloud my girlfriend got kidnapped so i'm totally free now just fyi
...Oh THANKS. Now you got me thinking that Roxas would look like Sora and Cloud crossed over. I did NOT need that. *Headdesk*
Cloud: Be careful. He messes with your head, makes you think darkness is the only way.
"Turns you into a MacGuffin delivery service. Uses an attack with an incredibly long animation. Reappears in sequels and spinoffs where he's not needed. Etc. I've got a full list of reasons he's an asshole, but I suffer encumbrance penalties if I carry it with me."
Sora: Must be the silver hair.
Aerith then shows up and starts hitting on Cloud. Hey Aerith we were "kind of" having a moment here, can you please go be a terrible character somewhere else?
"But don't you want to hear my awful new robot voice?" Augh why did they change her.
Cid: In addition to files on the Heartless and Organization, we found 127 GBs of bad fanart.
Sora: How bad are we talking, here? Deviantart, or...
Cid: Worse than that.
Sora: Oh, god.
Cid: Let's put it this way - the reason we need you here is so you can lock that folder with your Keyblade. Permanently.
Sora: What if there's an important secret message embedded somewhere in the fanart?
Cid: That's a risk I'm willing to take.
Sora: What if the key to restoring Hollow Bastion is hidden away in one of the pictures?
Cid: That's a risk I'm willing to take.
Sora: What if-
Cid: Listen, you don't want to know how far I'll take this.
"In fact, there's even worse in there. FANFICS." "Oh my-okay I'll do it I'll do it!"
uhh
uhhhhhhhhh
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
...
it is
a group of fairies
who look like yuna, paine, and rikku
who are working for maleficent
and who are described by jiminy's journal as "a teenybopping trio of Friendly Neighborhood something-or-others".
.......
this game
I wanted to strangle someone at seeing them.
Tifa: Have any of you seen a guy with spiky hair?
Sora: ..........No. No I haven't.
Tifa: ...Okay, that was a dumb question, considering what game I'm in...
Sora: Yes. Yes it was.
"So how about a guy with belts-oh wait."
Tifa leaves, and Leon ninjas into the room as soon as she's gone. Why is everyone in this game a ****ing ninja?
I dunno, why is everyone in Chain of Memories a ******* duelist?
Leon: excuse me what the fuck are you doing
Sora: This is how people hack computers on TV!
Leon: that is stupid, you're stupid, and your computer privileges have been revoked. go sit in the corner and think about what you did.
Did Sora even HAVE TV on Destiny Islands?
After some more wacky hijinks, the computer gets sick of our shit and blasts us, saying we're under arrest for criminal incompetence.
Shoulda arrested Pete IMO.
We're now inside the computer system; the world is called Space Paranoids. ...pfffffffffffffffahahahaha Sora you look ridiculous. Like a palette swap of Axl.
It's the new look. All the cool kids have it.
Sora: Look we didn't have computers on the island, okay? Riku made one out of a coconut once but then some jerk named Gilligan broke it. At least that's what I told Riku had happened after I broke it.
Why is this the first Gilligan on Destiny Islands joke I've seen? You'd think people would do that more often.
(For the record, I haven't seen Tron in probably 12 years - not that that would necessarily help me here.)
Space Paranoids is one of the only worlds that completely deviates from its original plot, which I found fantastic. I actually saw Tron for the first time AFTER playing Kingdom Hearts II out of curiosity.
Sora asks who the User is, Tron says his name is Ansem the Wise.
I was like 'whoa snap!'
Yeah about that... We kinda sorta killed him.
Six times in a row.
Whoops.
I like how Ansem the Wise made his password a riddle and hid info on it in his room, instead of making it, like... agjwJS17nsyhSowVB92x.
He wouldn't feel very wise if he forgot his own password!
Mickey gives us a new Dressphere that lets Sora spherechange to Master Form.
Nice form but I barely used it. Valor actually got more use.
We also find a Ukulele Charm, which lets us summon Stitch.
At least it isn't Chicken Little.
We take Tron to the DTD and he restores his functions (giving him his Limit, which is ****ing awesome), but also giving the MPC access to a Hollow Bastion self-destruct mechanism (why would such a thing even exist).
Ansem the Wise: Hm, all those cool villains on TV have self-destruct mechanisms... I know, we should have one too! *Puts it in*
BOSS FIGHT:
HOSTILE PROGRAM
Not much to say here.
Also, I forget when it happened, but we explained to Tron that Ansem is our enemy... and it turns out that Ansem is Tron's enemy as well, despite being his User. Gee, thanks for telling us, guy.
"At least we're all on the same page. www.ihateansem.com"
Back in the real world, we have a talk with King Mickey. Turns out the Ansem we defeated wasn't really Ansem. It was the Heartless of somebody who pretended to be Ansem. "well then". And the Nobody of the imposter is the leader of the Organization. I want to make a joke about this but I think it does a pretty good job making a joke of itself.
This plot twist made me go "what. Wait what. ...Okay then!"
The... "teenybopping trio" shows up again. Donald promises them treasure if they change sides and work for Leon. They agree. This is really, really not compelling me to play FFX-2, you know.
What would?
We run into Sephiroth next, but he leaves in a hurry, talking about snuffing out the last bit of light in Cloud's heart. I don't see why Seph keeps pushing Cloud's buttons; every time he does, it just leads to Cloud having an epiphany that lets him one-shot Seph with some super-move.
He likes being beaten up by Cloud. ...Yep.
Leon: Think you can handle this many?
Cloud: Well. Might be tough if one more shows up.
Leon: Then that'll have to be the one I take care of.
Cloud: What, you're fighting too?
Most bad*** scene in the game. Love it.
She... kicks their asses. Man, why can everyone one-shot Heartless but me?
Cutscene power!
We quickly run into Demyx again. Some taunts get thrown around and it's boss fight time!
You totally missed the best part of that convo! (Paraphrased, I'm not grabbing a game script.)
Demyx: *Big goofy smile* Aw, we do too have hearts. Don't be mad...
Donald: You can't trick us!
Demyx: *Ice cold stare* Silence, traitor.
That right there is just the sealing point of Demyx being awesome. And I used to want to hate the guy!
BOSS FIGHT:
DEMYX
Only game over I got in the game was from Demyx. ...Might have even happened twice. But it was because of the ten water clones in ten seconds challenge both times if so. Ouch.
However, a nearby explosion launches debris at King Mickey. Goofy does a diving save and pushes Mickey out of the way, and is KO'd in the process. Nobody thinks to check for a pulse, though, so they all RESOLVE up and charge the Heartless.
At least it makes King Mickey look awesome to avenge him.
Sora has a bunch of fights in a row here where he teams up with Yuffie, Leon, Tifa, and finally Cloud. It's just as awesome as you'd think and really makes me want them to be on my team permanently.
I'd love to see some more Final Fantasy partners. Auron was amazing, they should keep it up. =D
(I'm sorry, but this just wasn't believable at all. It wasn't even believable from a "sure, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here" angle.)
I doubt even kids playing the game would find it believable.
Moving onward, we run into the leader of Organization XIII - the fake Ansem's Nobody. King Mickey now remembers Ansem's apprentice, named Xehanort. I guess that's who this is. (Also, Xehanort is an immensely terrible name. If they had to use those particular letters for some reason, why didn't they go with Xenohart?)
Xenohart=No Heart with an X
...So, this makes DiZ the real Ansem, right? Or... his Nobody, or something? That's why he laughed when his black cloaked buddy said his name was Ansem. Or... Christ, was that guy even Xehanort? DiZ said he was trying to destroy the Organization so why would their leader be helping him? God. Whatever. Let's just destroy a thousand Heartless to take our minds off this.
Thousand Heartless Fight is just there to show you how incredibly awesome you are. And it works. =D
Even more so once Axel shows up and tells us we just walked into a trap - Org13, and Xehanort/Xemnas/Mansex, are using us to destroy the Heartless.
"...Oh." "Yeah." "So." "Yep."
Axel apologizes about Kairi, but then Saix shows up and Axel makes a quick retreat.
"Uh oh someone who would actually fight me, gotta go!"
Sora starts fuckin' begging Saix to take him to Kairi. What the fuck is wrong with you? You don't need his fuckin' permission! Kick his ass!
Yeah... not sure what was up with Sora there.
Anyway, Saix tries to throw more Heartless at us, but... Maleficent shows up to hold them off. What. She's quickly overpowered and we're overrun, but then she saves us by dragging us into the realm of darkness. And there was also a huge column of light? Sora and myself both don't know what the fuck, but hey, if the Disney characters wanna team up with Sora to wipe out these losers, all the better. We really need to pick up Hades and Jafar, though, Maleficent alone just ain't gonna cut it!
After how Maleficent acted last game, this sudden change... really made me question the logic. Oh well, it's better explained in a bit.
In the dark realm, a black cloak gives us a box with a photo and an ice cream bar inside. The photo is of Roxas + the trio; Sora knows Roxas' name but he's not sure why. The sea salt ice cream is used to... seal the dark realm's keyhole?! What?!
It is some GOOD ice cream apparently.
...And now all the worlds are swarming with Heartless, and they all have a second keyhole box on the world map. Well then. Time to visit every world again?
I much preferred the second trips for the most part. More unique parts to them.
We land in Land of the Dragons first and, with Mulan's help, chase after a black cloak. Mulan's after him because of a rumor that he's a spy. Luckily I think Mushu counts as a pyro.
So is Sora the Engineer since he goes to the worlds to fix things?
BOSS FIGHT:
MYSTERIOUS MAN
Hey, I recognize that sword!
About time!
Riku runs off, and even Sora noticed that it was Riku, which probably qualifies it as the least effective disguise ever. A huge Heartless is now flying towards the city - and Riku has already gotten there and defeated Shang en route to the Emperor, so... we have a lot of problems, and it doesn't help that we're still on the mountain.
"This day couldn't get any better!" *Avalanche* "...Okay maybe it can."
We head into the palace and find the black cloak, but... it's not Riku, it's some scarred eyepatch guy named Xigbar. He runs like a coward, leaving us to fight some Nobodies. Such ****ing cowardice from our enemies in this game.
Not a coward, he just didn't have time to play with you. =D Xigbar's awesome. I love his reaction to Sora being like, "Riku?" "Never heard of him! =D" "...What was that."
Sora: Rude? Then it WAS Riku!
Welp. You said it, not me.
Why are they friends again.
BOSS FIGHT:
STORM RIDER
I liked this fight. =)
BOSS FIGHT:
HAYNER
Struggle battle. I won 200-0. lol hayner
Who cares about Hayner.
Beast's Castle is the next world that wants us to land at it. Beast isn't very happy to see us, though, because tonight is a SPECIAL NIGHT for him and Belle. Luckily Xaldin wastes no time in showing up and justifying our visit. That was awfully nice of him, wasn't it?
The only nice thing he'd ever do. >_>
Sora: Yo, Beast. We need to talk. ...Quit being a bitch.
Beast: ...
Sora: ...
Beast: ...
Sora: kthx
Beast is awesome near the end at least.
pffffffffffffffffffffahahaHAHAHAHAHA nice sideburns, Xaldin
man
it really says something about the Organization that he doesn't even have the dumbest haircut of the 13 of them
That honor goes to Larxene. Hi antenna head. Color wise, Marluxia wins.
Xaldin grabs Belle as well and tries to force a sadistic choice on Beast, but then Belle just elbows him in the gut, grabs the rose, and runs away, but not before shouting "Believe in me who believes in you!" to Beast.
I lol'd hard at Xaldin jobbing to Belle. What a hilarious scene. Also, I was like 'aw yeah' when Beast had enough time to first say, "Belle!" as his choice. =)
...is Xaldin sextuple-wielding lances? that isn't fair at all!
He may be a lousy character, but he does have one of the best weapons.
BOSS FIGHT:
XALDIN
Most people think of Xaldin as That One Boss. I find them to be retarded. Just saying.
Also, imagine how much trouble I had getting his line from a distance for the Battle Quotes FAQ. I wound up putting it as, "Sora! Wear the face of despair!" But what the **** does that even mean.
Beast and Belle make up, blah blah blah. It's a shame the KH series will never let his curse be broken because that'll mean the end of him as a partner. <_<
See ending.
Chapter 3 is Under the Sea.
Thank you non-original songs.
That "plot development" was just totally unnecessary. Seriously, I think it has to be assumed they just made it up halfway through the game or something.
I liked it. >_>
More proof that Team Squall is just undeniably better than every non-Roxas character in the series.
Close but not quite.
Pfft, the best part is when Demyx stops screwing around with Sora and gets serious. Demyx II is also the only defeat I had in this entire game, because I ran out of "time" with the 10 Water Clones because the timer ran out on the last one when I was in the middle of the reaction command to destroy it. Had I just attacked normally I'm sure I'd have been fine.
^That.
Xigbar is the 3rd best Organization XIII, and the last one on the best tier. It's getting quite frustrating how you're bashing the actually good parts of Organization XIII.
<3 Xigbar.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum. The worst of them. And it's not even close.
Vexen.
This is my assumption about a lot of KH's plot. <___<
To be fair, think about what the game sounds like on paper. Then look at its plot. A lot better than you'd think at first, even if it's not high quality.
...I think that's been my only death so far as well. That exact situation. However, I might be forgetting one or two deaths to something stupid.
What, no deaths to the oh-so-dangerous Large Bodies?
I bash everyone. It's by no means exclusive to Demyx and Xigbar. <_<
You don't bash Pluto!
Zexion.
Vexen.
SUDDENLY A SWITCH TO A CURRENT POST.
implying I've played either game or know what either character looks or acts like
You'd think character summaries would have helped a bit!
Drinking fountain's in the hall. *points*
I have a water bottle. >=(
There's "acting differently in different situations" and then there's "going from manipulating both sides while being a quadruple agent to getting outplayed by both DiZ and Saix".
And your remarks are literally the only thing worthwhile in this topic right now, so go nuts if you want. <_<
Okay, I'll expand a bit tomorrow, I'm wrapping up now since Dad is about to throw me into bed.
I just went to whatever world had the lowest recommended level according to the game. <_<
Same thing I did.
Jackass = Another word for donkey; somebody who is dumb, foolish, and/or lacking in common sense.
Jerkass = A highly rude, insensitive, and/or mean person. One intensity level higher than "jerk". May or may not be lacking in intelligence.
Ah. I thought the jerk would have applied to both. All right then.
At least Vexen and Marluxia did something, though, so even though I didn't like them, I at least cared about them as characters a little bit. Xigbar, Luxord, Xaldin, and even Saix were all interchangeable; they were just "those guys you fought".
...How can I explain this better... Okay, look at it this way: If I had to summarize both CoM and KH2, a lot of my CoM summary would refer to Vexen and Marluxia. If my KH2 summary mentioned Xigbar, Luxord, Xaldin, and Saix at all, it would pretty much just be to say "they exist". Incidentally, Lexaeus would receive the same treatment, so it's not like CoM managed to avoid this completely either.
Well, I don't really follow that comparison because I'd be summarizing those four if I wrote a full summary, so...
Sure CoM's members had more prominent roles in the plot, but they had no Disney characters to compete with or Final Fantasy ones. It's a bit unbalanced to compare the two like that.
I do nothing if not aim to please.
Unless it comes to rankings m i rite.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
Anyway, the gimmick for this level is that you need to use a hovercraft to navigate the, uh... water hazards. Frequently, you'll need to find something in the environment to serve as a ramp so you can bypass some sort of blockade. It's annoying. Especially when you're being shot at by enemies you can't see.
But yeah. Soon after starting up where I left off over a year ago, I found that I had to ditch the hovercraft and go inside a building to open a gate. There were a handful of enemies in here but nothing I couldn't handle, despite being rusty. The gate opening mechanism was broken, but a nearby explosive barrel solved that. This alerted the Combine to my presence, unfortunately, which meant the next part was much more hectic.
I sped through the next few areas, ignoring all enemies, until a part where I had to take a ramp over a flaming barricade. Yeah. They reallllly wanna stop me. (Odd glitch: after dying here due to missing the ramp and reloading, the flames stopped appearing, but still damaged me when I touched them.) I dodged some debris and hid within a tunnel. By now I was nearly out of health, but luckily there was quite a bit hidden in the tunnel, so I took the opportunity to nab it while no enemies were nearby.
Moving on, I reached another closed gate. I parked the hovercraft and headed inside. By now, however, a helicopter was after me, and so this became a rather cool sequence of me rushing through mazes of debris and dodging into anything that provided cover. What made this easier was a new weapon: the Magnum, a slow firing handgun with little ammo... but which can OHK any of the Combine grunts lurking around. I had to use it in moderation, because I only had about 12 bullets, but still.
Eventually I reached a guard tower, and after killing both enemies inside, I commandeered a mounted gun and used it to force the helicopter to retreat. In the same guard tower, I pushed a button to open the gates. I jumped off the ledge into the water, returned to my hovercraft, and raced through the gates as another helicopter appeared to ruin my day. Now there's a really cool sequence where you blast through the areas at full throttle while the helicopter tries to snipe you. And fantastic music plays the entire time. It's awesome. Only made slightly less awesome by me missing a jump and having to attempt it about five more times. There's also, in this same general area, a fairly clever weight-based physics puzzle to raise a bridge... it just seems a bit out of place, surrounded on both sides by a high speed chase. <_<
Eventually I reach a small allied base (I can't even remember the name of my allies in this game >_>) where a Vortigaunt (alien dude) installs a big fuck-off energy cannon on my hovercraft. I left the base and immediately shot the hell out of that goddamned helicopter. And that's about where I stopped for today.
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
I seriously couldn't believe that she wasn't kidnapped during the fight.
I woulda committed suicide if I was Sora. ...Again. >_>
Nobody dies in Kingdom Hearts.
...Except for Nobodies, oddly enough.
At least there aren't ninety-nine more dalmatians to collect.
Given KH2's clever chest placement, that being "they're all right in front of you and impossible to miss", another dalmatian quest would have basically been: "here, take my [ludicrously awesome reward]. I don't want it, it's yours."
No, that's right. If you played FFX you'd know this! >_> (And before you ask about the Tidus controversy, it's because nobody says his name due to you naming him. The other characters come named.)
Yeah, I know about Tidus. But Oar-un? That's disgusting.
Sora: Did I just get suckered somehow.
If only Sora was smart enough to understand things that people say to him. <_<
No reaction command, but she gives health orbs if you run over to her. I do like how this fight incorporated all the characters, it was a cool feature.
Ah, that makes sense.
...Although I didn't even see her, but that could just be me missing things that are obvious.
I was like "ABOUT TIME THIS WAS A WORLD" when I saw it.
It's a shame it was basically Escort Missions: The World instead of a real world.
Blaaaargh. Pete's the only one there who looks better, and I say that because he looks awful in his current form. >_>
Evil!Pete: Winner of the World's Worst Placement of a Zipper award.
Hot Rods are my least favorite enemies in the game. HATE them.
Oh, forgot about them. Yeah, these guys are about as bad as the centaurs in Land of the Dragons.
...By villain, what exactly do you mean? Because without counting Organization XIII (and even then, only some), what competition does he have? >_>
I'm counting most, but not all, of the Organization (Axel and Roxas are excluded), but keep in mind that this was fairly early in the game and I hadn't even met most of the Organization yet.
But there's a whole wide upper world!
Ah, well... Maybe he just avoided Atlantica because it sucks. And nuked Deep Jungle from orbit, which is why it isn't here anymore.
Yeah, it's... odd. But the world would have been a lot dumber if you couldn't hurt anyone. Stealth+Kingdom Hearts=???
I also find it odd that, IIRC, Port Royal is the only world in KH with generic enemies from the source material. And they happen to be enemies that, in the source material, were not generic, and were invincible.
...It just seems weird. <_<
Not this segment specifically, but 'as in the movie' can be applied to most of these worlds and it BUGGED me. Look at Kingdom Hearts, where the movie plots are not followed as closely but main purposes are kept. For instance, in Aladdin's world, Aladdin still wants to be with Princess Jasmine and Jafar is still trying to take over and such. But the Heartless and Sora's group are mixed in and the movie plot isn't even mentioned. It's one of the only things Kingdom Hearts II did worse, IMO, and Pirates of the Caribbean really suffers from it due to how by-the-line most of it goes.
Yeah, but then the second visit is completely cut from new cloth. *shrugs* This didn't bother me very much.
You'd think Captain Hook would have taught him something...
CoM's events were memory-wiped, so Sora hasn't determined that Captain Hook is a pirate yet. >___>
But they did. And this totally isn't a case of the potentially-existing-but-not-Devil May Cry 2, the sequels were good too. Not AS good IMO but still good.
I will not listen to your lies and propaganda!
Come on, Kairi's not THAT bad. ...<_<
Kairi, herself, is really not bad at all.
Kairi-centric cutscenes are awful, though.
I found it really cute that he was so eager to see Santa. >_>
Ranking of KH characters (in terms of how happy Sora was to see them):
Riku > Santa > Kairi
Just something to think about.
I actually like this song somewhat so it wasn't as bad.
Part of Your World is a legitimately good song IMO. <_<
Only line in the game that I really saw a huge difference between the original actor and the new one. This sounded really forced.
Oddly enough, I didn't notice this one. Probably because I was too busy being amazed they didn't change the line to "And here's my little secret... I destroyed Mufasa!"
I sense a strange relationship between you two...
Seifer can be my personal disciplinary committee any time he wants if you know what I mean.
...Wait, what were you talking about?
Remember, that was 'fake' Seifer and co, though maybe you hadn't learned that by the time you wrote this up.
...This is true. I'm pretty sure I knew that, but it somehow didn't connect in my mind that Fake!Seifer could do things real Seifer couldn't. I was sort of under the impression that, while DiZ created the virtual town and everything, all the inhabitants and events played out naturally... Or something, I dunno.
I assume the keychains are pretty worthless in and of themselves. Just pretty decorations. The true thing that changes the Keyblade is the experiences Sora had, which are symbolized by the keychains.
...Or I could be making **** up but it sounds pretty.
That sounds just ridiculous yet believable enough to be exactly how KH would justify this. So I'll just go with that.
"But don't you want to hear my awful new robot voice?" Augh why did they change her.
They wanted her voice to be as obnoxious as her character.
Did Sora even HAVE TV on Destiny Islands?
I don't know. I honestly don't know what to think of Destiny Islands. My initial impression was that it was some sort of purgatory/metaphysical realm that was literally impossible to escape from, and where Sora, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie were the only inhabitants. Then Sora's mom had a line, and I was like, "what". Then it turns out Destiny Islands has a MAYOR. Then in KH2, there was like... a huge city, and the former entirety of Destiny Islands was really just, like... 1/10000th of it. And Kairi apparently goes to school in town, on Destiny Islands, which just blows my earlier interpretation apart. And so now, I just try not to think about it.
Nice form but I barely used it. Valor actually got more use.
But Master Form has the crazy tornado vortex of doom! <_<
At least it isn't Chicken Little.
Stitch = best summon, as I would learn much later, because it lets you meet the ridiculous Titan Cup journal requirement. Or maybe worst summon, because I'm sure it's the reason the requirement is so high in the first place. Hmm...
"At least we're all on the same page. www.ihateansem.com"
I'm actually surprised that isn't a real website.
What would?
The game is like $4 used, so there's honestly a lot that could compel me to at least try it. <_<
I'd love to see some more Final Fantasy partners. Auron was amazing, they should keep it up. =D
I really want a world based on FF1 where you team up with Fighter/Warrior of Light. It would be really easy to tie into the KH main plot, too.
That honor goes to Larxene. Hi antenna head. Color wise, Marluxia wins.
No mention of Zexion?
Most people think of Xaldin as That One Boss. I find them to be retarded. Just saying.
He's a little bit tricky when he starts hiding for like 90% of the fight. But even then...
What, no deaths to the oh-so-dangerous Large Bodies?
Surprisingly not! My most embarrassing death was to Lock, Shock, and Barrel, because, I kid you not, I was trying to capture them when they were at low health, i.e. Pokemon style, and I wasn't paying attention to MY health... Yeah. I legitimately don't know what I was thinking. My next attempt, I won in like 20 seconds.
You'd think character summaries would have helped a bit!
Roxas' story doesn't have journal entries for characters. And I figured it out on my own before taking control of Sora. >_>
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Advanced
the resistance
---
"A man chooses. A slave obeys." -Andrew Ryan, Bioshock
New Moderator
To Belle's credit, she does a pretty good job of avoiding that. There's this Heartless, where she gets away, and there's Xaldin, who she hits in the gut to escape.
Nobody dies in Kingdom Hearts.
...Except for Nobodies, oddly enough.
And Ansem the Wise. Also, I was amazed that it was rated E+10 for alcohol and blood (both PotC features)... BUT NOT FOR AXEL BLOWING HIMSELF UP AND SLOWLY DYING. I mean, other Nobodies die too, but his was probably the most drawn out and painful looking. A bit of wine that looks like grape juice that Barbossa drinks isn't okay, but the guy helping you dying onscreen is?
Given KH2's clever chest placement, that being "they're all right in front of you and impossible to miss", another dalmatian quest would have basically been: "here, take my [ludicrously awesome reward]. I don't want it, it's yours."
If they actually PUT dalmatians in the game they might have hid the chests better. We'll never know. =)
Yeah, I know about Tidus. But Oar-un? That's disgusting.
I like how it's pronounced. =(
If only Sora was smart enough to understand things that people say to him. <_<
He understands the word 'Santa'.
Ah, that makes sense.
...Although I didn't even see her, but that could just be me missing things that are obvious.
She's not in plain sight. If you are facing the Hydra, look to the right. She's between some pillars and you can run over towards her.
It's a shame it was basically Escort Missions: The World instead of a real world.
Only two escort missions and both are easy since Queen Minnie isn't dumb.
Evil!Pete: Winner of the World's Worst Placement of a Zipper award.
Basically, yes.
Oh, forgot about them. Yeah, these guys are about as bad as the centaurs in Land of the Dragons.
Worse IMO but both are up there.
I'm counting most, but not all, of the Organization (Axel and Roxas are excluded), but keep in mind that this was fairly early in the game and I hadn't even met most of the Organization yet.
True.
Ah, well... Maybe he just avoided Atlantica because it sucks. And nuked Deep Jungle from orbit, which is why it isn't here anymore.
If he did that Pete would instantly jump up about twenty rankings on my list.
I also find it odd that, IIRC, Port Royal is the only world in KH with generic enemies from the source material. And they happen to be enemies that, in the source material, were not generic, and were invincible.
...It just seems weird. <_<
I never thought of it that way. Hmmm.
Yeah, but then the second visit is completely cut from new cloth. *shrugs* This didn't bother me very much.
Thankfully most of the second visits were indeed better.
CoM's events were memory-wiped, so Sora hasn't determined that Captain Hook is a pirate yet. >___>
'lawl'
I will not listen to your lies and propaganda!
Yes you will. =)
Kairi, herself, is really not bad at all.
Kairi-centric cutscenes are awful, though.
Mm... I guess that's fair.
Ranking of KH characters (in terms of how happy Sora was to see them):
Riku > Santa > Kairi
Just something to think about.
I'll comment more on this later.
Part of Your World is a legitimately good song IMO. <_<
Most Disney songs are.
Oddly enough, I didn't notice this one. Probably because I was too busy being amazed they didn't change the line to "And here's my little secret... I destroyed Mufasa!"
4kids wasn't behind this game!
Seifer can be my personal disciplinary committee any time he wants if you know what I mean.
...Wait, what were you talking about?
Oh nothing.
...This is true. I'm pretty sure I knew that, but it somehow didn't connect in my mind that Fake!Seifer could do things real Seifer couldn't. I was sort of under the impression that, while DiZ created the virtual town and everything, all the inhabitants and events played out naturally... Or something, I dunno.
I don't think they would play out exactly the same. After all, the seven wonders were really 'computer glitches' (well most of them were). Personalities being copied, yes. Abilities, perhaps not. Just a thought.
That sounds just ridiculous yet believable enough to be exactly how KH would justify this. So I'll just go with that.
Hurray! *Party horn sound*
They wanted her voice to be as obnoxious as her character.
They overdid it then. =( I'm not exactly an Aerith fan but wow her voice in this game was terrible.
I don't know. I honestly don't know what to think of Destiny Islands. My initial impression was that it was some sort of purgatory/metaphysical realm that was literally impossible to escape from, and where Sora, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie were the only inhabitants. Then Sora's mom had a line, and I was like, "what". Then it turns out Destiny Islands has a MAYOR. Then in KH2, there was like... a huge city, and the former entirety of Destiny Islands was really just, like... 1/10000th of it. And Kairi apparently goes to school in town, on Destiny Islands, which just blows my earlier interpretation apart. And so now, I just try not to think about it.
It's hard to judge because we have so little information about it. I'd like to see it explained more.
But Master Form has the crazy tornado vortex of doom! <_<
Sure. But red>yellow.
Stitch = best summon, as I would learn much later, because it lets you meet the ridiculous Titan Cup journal requirement. Or maybe worst summon, because I'm sure it's the reason the requirement is so high in the first place. Hmm...
I've never seen Lilo and Stitch so I was pretty neutral to him.
I'm actually surprised that isn't a real website.
One would think...
The game is like $4 used, so there's honestly a lot that could compel me to at least try it. <_<
That's $4 you could spend on a better game. I got Wild Arms V for $4 and I can say without seeing anything about it that it must be far better than Final Fantasy X-2. Of course, you'd also have your time wasted and your brain melted from stupidity.
I really want a world based on FF1 where you team up with Fighter/Warrior of Light. It would be really easy to tie into the KH main plot, too.
I'll support this... if Warrior of Light doesn't keep saying, "Shine!" every time he attacks. Thanks Dissidia.
No mention of Zexion?
He's pretty typical in terms of silver-haired spike-haired characters. Nothing new there. Larxene I can only compare to Laharl, but Laharl's actually stick UP when he's angry so he has some rule of cool in effect.
He's a little bit tricky when he starts hiding for like 90% of the fight. But even then...
Even then he's easy. Then if somehow you amazingly die, you get King Mickey, so what the heck people.
Surprisingly not! My most embarrassing death was to Lock, Shock, and Barrel, because, I kid you not, I was trying to capture them when they were at low health, i.e. Pokemon style, and I wasn't paying attention to MY health... Yeah. I legitimately don't know what I was thinking. My next attempt, I won in like 20 seconds.
That's the dumb Kenri I know! =D
Roxas' story doesn't have journal entries for characters. And I figured it out on my own before taking control of Sora. >_>
Ah, I forgot about that.
BACK TO UPDATES!
BOSS FIGHT:
GRIM REAPER
At least he looks kind of cool.
Jack: Throw him overboard.
Sora: Aye aye.
Luxord: Parley!
Captain Jack Sparrow: dwiijfawoifqoifwfjqwij that's my line!
So there's no Peter Pan world in this game? Awww.
To be fair, I can't really think of anything you could do there. It was pretty well wrapped up.
Jack: I don't know who these Organizers are, but I will say they're makin' we pirates look like proper gents.
*Salute*
BOSS FIGHT:
GRIM REAPER
I wanted to smack this guy over the head for his gimmick.
It's also worth noting that I tried to enter Master Form during this fight and instead turned into a weird little gremlin. I'm not sure what to say about that!
Random chance of that happening if you use Forms too much. Organization members up the chance of it happening by four times what it would normally be. You get some good speed and can stunlock just about anything, but you can't heal, which is a problem.
Jack requests his reward that Elizabeth promised him, which is... Sora's Keyblade. what. But Sora, no longer being the world's dumbest locksmith, just gives him the thing... and then it magics itself back a few seconds later. Sorry, Jack-o.
Jack says that someday he'll gather up a crew and take Sora's Keyblade by force, and by then he'll be able to wield it. I look forward to it, Jack!
Playing a spinoff of this would be amazing.
Chapter 4 is titled "Ursula's Revenge" and features Ariel becoming the dumbest character in the series by accepting another one of Ursula's deals. We're regressing, here. CoM Ariel was like, "wtf, I'm not falling for this shit again. Sora, help me kick her ass".
This is why I absolutely hate Ariel. Her accepting Ursula's bargain was just... ...WHY.
BOSS FIGHT:
URSULA
Her song is ridiculous.
Eric: Hey Ursula, guess what my favorite anime is!
[Eric chucks the trident at Ursula; it becomes a bolt of light and shoots straight through her]
Eric: ...Evangelion.
Sora: I don't think she heard you.
Eric: Oh, but she definitely got the point.
Audience: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sora: Lowlife!
Hades: Heh! You're too kind, kid.
Ah Hades.
......XD yeah it's a joke now. I feel better about not being able to do it with just the Valor Form; you're clearly supposed to have the Master Form.
Hm.
Okay, next is the Hades Cup. It seems like it's only three rounds, and Hercules is with us, though he doesn't do much. The first two are against fodder, but the last is against Auron. He doesn't seem to remember us. What is it with people in this series and having crappy memories? I blame you for this, Namine!
Hercules is still in emo mode and lol at that idea. Namine's not responsible for this one at least!
We follow Auron into the Cave of the Dead and find that Hades is blackmailing/brainwashing him to make him defeat Hercules and Sora and company. Well then. This sounds familiar. You'd think Hades would have learned from the Cloud incident that this is a dumb idea, but apparently not.
To be fair, he persuaded Cloud to join him. Auron he has under mind control. Two different factors, though neither works out in the end.
Herc says that Hades must be holding Auron's free will hostage. He volunteers to take Auron on in the final match, one vs one, to buy us time to find the statue Hades is using to control Auron. Hades agrees, but only if we face the winner in an exhibition match. So I get to smash your plans AND get free EXP? I don't know if I can agree fast enough!
You'd think Hades would be genre savvy enough to figure this out.
Suddenly, Herc returns! He's remembered what it means to be a true hero! It means solving all your problems with excessive violence!
Sora: I support this.
Hades: How dare you get a happy ending! How DARE you!
(Hades is the best character.)
The best in comedy probably... though Demyx is also pretty funny.
BOSS FIGHT:
HADES
This is a fun fight. Red form Hades is completely invincible, but Herc will create "Aura Spheres" which can be reaction commanded into Hades to turn him blue and vulnerable. Other than that, he has his standard tricks: Fire Blasts, Flamethrowers, Fire Spins, Embers... But luckily, Aura Spheres are homing and do super effective damage against Dark types.
i c wut u did thar
And yes, fun fight.
Auron: I suppose I should thank you.
Sora: Not at all.
Auron: Fine. [turns to leave]
Sora: ...I mean, sure, you could thank us a little...
Auron: You should say what you mean.
Sorowned
Phil still won't make us "true heroes", but suddenly, the stars in the sky start rearranging to create three new constellations. Sora! Donald! Goofy! Guess the gods think we're heroes, eh Phil?
Stupid Phil. >_>
Agrabah is next. Oh dear, the stupid peddler went and released Jafar. Goddammit. Aladdin, you are the worst lamp sealer awayer ever. Iago reveals that Jafar's in the desert ruins, so away we go!
The peddler needs to get kicked off a cliff.
(Random musing: If Kenri were a writer for the KH series, he'd have Jafar make himself a Keyblade wielder, then battle Sora while singing a rendition of "You're Only Second Rate".)
That would be amazing.
After activating the switches, you'll have 30 seconds to get to the door before it shuts, and if you're like me, you'll get lost and get there with .4 seconds to spare. I have no excuse for this other than being stupid.
At least you admit it!
...And then it turns out to have been a set-up by Jafar, to have Iago lead us away from the palace. I like how Iago is the only character Sora gets mad at for betraying him. Beast? He had no choice! Namine? She had no choice! Riku? ...He had a choice but he's still my friend, cereally! Iago? DAMMIT IAGO I KNEW YOU WERE STILL EVIL. The worst part is that Iago even tried to tell them not to go, but they ignored him. <_<
Yeah, it is a bit... obnoxious. Poor Iago. >_> I can see forgiving Beast and Namine but you'd think Riku would have gotten a reaction if Iago did.
It's ridiculous. You are ridiculous, game. You are a ridiculous game.
It is amazing you took this long to figure it out.
On the way back to the palace, we run into the merchant and he reveals that Organization XIII is in on this plot as well. They're planning to kill Jafar and turn him into a Heartless. Yeah, he's kinda sorta an immortal, invincible genie, so... good luck with that. Idiots.
I bet Xaldin was behind this before he got wasted, he's retarded enough to do that.
In the palace, we find Jafar. He immediately proves that he means business by KILLING IAGO HOLY SHIT.
Nooooooooooooooooooo
BOSS FIGHT:
GENIE JAFAR
Sora obviously unlocked the lock to his invincibility. Or something.
Jafar's lamp melts away, Genie fixes up Agrabah, and Sora gets the Wishing Lamp Keyblade. Iago is somehow still alive, I guess proving that Jafar is COMPLETELY incompet- ...oh right, I forgot genies can't kill anything. Huh. Touche, Kingdom Hearts.
Except he can kill Sora if you just sit there, so WTH game!
(I don't get why Santa is such an asshole to Jack. He's just a little bit enthusiastic, but he always means well!)
I'm guessing Jack has done this so many times that he's really tired of it by now.
BOSS FIGHT:
LOCK, SHOCK, & BARREL
Jack: Sora, look! Pokemon.
LS&B: We're not Pokemon! We're Lock, Shock, and Barrel!
Jack: Sora, it's a Lock, a Shock, and a Barrel! ...I'm gonna catch them.
LS&B: We told you, we're not Poke-[hit by Pokeball] Oww!
Jack: Aw it didn't work, Sora!
Sora: That's because you have to damage them first.
Jack: Right! I'm gonna get a critical.
Laaaaame. >_>
BOSS FIGHT:
THE EXPERIMENT
Blah this world seemed pointless to return to. Oh well, not a bad fight.
Sally: The nicest present I could ever ask for, Jack, is just to be with you.
Sora is totally going to steal that line to use on Kairi.
I'd support this.
Unlike normal, I played ahead before doing writeups, mainly because this whole visit filled me with apathy. Unlike the other worlds' second visits, which were usually pretty clever, this one was just built on top of the world's main plot. Forcefully. With a jackhammer. (Stolen line alert.) Basically, Scar's Ghost has been appearing all over the Pride Lands because Simba is such a hesitant bitch and refuses to do anything about Scar's Ghost. (And if you're saying "wait, that doesn't make sense", then welcome to Pride Lands' second visit.)
I'm still a bit leery on Halloween Town's since it wasn't as well connected, but yeah, this one was... At least you get to be lion Sora again.
BOSS FIGHT:
SHENZI, BANZAI, & ED
I wish Magnet worked on hyenas. Annoying punks.
BOSS FIGHT:
GROUNDSHAKER
I really liked this boss actually.
Chapter 5 of Atlantica is "A New Day is Dawning". The rhythm minigame here is a combination of all the types of notes used so far, with a goal of gettinbg 30,000+ points. I get... nearly 90,000. So yes, it was easy. A huge bubble forms and Sora uses it to seal Atlantica's keyhole. Yay. We're done here.
And thank everything uuurgh Atlantica.
But on the way, we run into the... teenybopping trio again. They debate over whether they're going to steal our items or not, and eventually decide that our life sucks enough as it is. They even give us the Gull Wing Keyblade before leaving. Good riddance.
'yay'
We meet up with Leon and Aerith in the computer room. Leon leaves Aerith to hold off the Heartless so he can go help Cid finish the Eradicator program for defeating the MCP.
So what, were all the Heartless Shadows if Aerith was actually succeeding?
We board the solar sailer (which involves a really annoying "escort" mission where the enemies deal damage to the solar sailer just by existing - this handed me another loss) and, at our destination, end up fighting Sark.
Piece of garbage minigame.
BOSS FIGHT:
COMMANDER SARK
Oh wait this was a boss? >_> <_<
BOSS FIGHT:
MCP
"IS THAT THE BEST A USER CAN DO IS THAT THE BEST A USER CAN DO IS THAT THE BEST A USER CAN DO IS THAT THE BEST A USER CAN DO IS THAT THE BEST A USER CAN DO"
Leon's group remembers its original name, before it was called Hollow Bastion... It was known as the Radiant Garden.
Not as good as Hollow Bastion though.
The first minigame involves bouncing on balloons.
How.. exciting.
The next page involves Pooh getting lost in a cave, and Sora has to lead a team of Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and Roo to find him.
For whatever reason I think this was my least favorite of the lot.
The final page is a very simple minigame involving getting a hunny pot off of Pooh's head. Then there's an ending sequence that tries to be as good as the KH1 100AW ending, but it isn't and it never will be.
Indeed.
My level is in the lower-mid-forties now, so I might as well take on the Titan Cup in the Underdrome.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-
BOSS FIGHT:
HERCULES
-eeeeeeee what a silly boss.
Next is Twilight Town. The party wants to investigate the mansion in the picture they were given in the realm of darkness. Do they just, like, not remember that that's where they were when they WOKE UP? Such ****ing terrible memories.
They didn't exactly give it a thorough investigation after just waking up.
So we get to the mansion and find the trio already there. Based on the duplicate munny pouches and blue crystals, they've determined that the mansion is a gateway to an alternate Twilight Town.
..............
The smartest characters in the entire series are Those Two Guys and Smurfette.
I want to cry but... goddammit. Just.......... goddammit.
It IS rather unfortunate.
Suddenly, we're attacked by Dusks. But then, King Mickey saves us! Except... not really. For the first time in the entire game, I think, we get to fight alongside him, and... he's pretty pathetic. Sora is way stronger. >_>
Lose on purpose to a replace-by-King-Mickey boss. He's pretty good to play as.
(And yes, people who have finished this game, DiZ counts as a bad guy. No, I don't even care what he does from now on. He passed the point of no return a long time ago.)
Depends on your definition of bad guy.
Anyway, we find the alternate-universe-portal-computer and determine that the password is "sea salt ice cream". why does no one in this universe use passwords that can't be guessed by 12 year olds
Aren't all the passwords done by Ansem the Wise? Blame him.
Also, "Touch The Beam" is the best reaction command in the game so far. I can just imagine Sora going: "Stick my hand in this strange laser beam? There's no part of that idea that I don't like!"
It IS pretty funny.
Secret Ansem Report 10 confirms that Riku has allied with DiZ. Why the **** would you do that, Riku. You're making me hate you even more than usual.
Well, there is a reason, but...
A huge number of Dusks attack us once inside. Axel appears to hold them off so we can escape, but Sora refuses to abandon him. We kick their asses.
A random note of trivia: If you do nothing with Sora besides Cure yourself when taking too much abuse, Axel can solo the entire group. This takes forty-five minutes. I let him do that mainly because I was having a hard as heck time hearing one of his quotes for the Battle Quote FAQ, but also because I was curious. And I had a peanut butter sandwich to make and eat while watching. Yep. (Of course I did this on my second run when I knew what was going to happen.)
Axel: I think I liked it better when they were on my side.
That would be an obvious feeling.
There's a massive army of Dusks surrounding us. Axel takes them all out with a massive attack, but is fatally wounded in the process. I like how, canonically, these characters DO have magical healing powers (or at least Donald does), but they don't use them when there's a powerful ally dying right in front of them. It's not a problem with this game specifically, just the genre in general, but it never fails to really piss me off. Anyway, Axel opens another door for us and then fades away.
Yeah, it's irritating. And I really hate how Axel went. A sacrifice is cool and all, but against DUSKS? Screw you game.
.........
You got Bond of Flame!
(always a good way to ruin a moment)
As Epyon said: "Colette learned Judgment!"
The portal leads us to The World That Never Was, which seems to be the city from the ASAS cutscene (and the Roxas/Axel flashbacks during the prologue).
One of the best worlds, if not my favorite. Very hard to choose between Kingdom Hearts' Hollow Bastion and this. (Twilight Town hits third place.)
Heading forward, Mickey splits up with us and Sora is attacked by a black cloaked Keyblade wielder. He claims he defeated Riku, and asks why "he" picked Sora. Then there's a very cool fight... in a cutscene. Yay.
One of the reasons I am EXTREMELY ticked Final Mix didn't come here: no match with Roxas. Screw you SquareEnix.
The figure is dual-wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion, and easily disarms Sora. But then Sora magics the Keyblade back to his hands and strikes the figure down. IT TURNS OUT IT'S ROXAS *DRAMATIC CHIPMUNK* ...........yeah we all knew that. It doesn't make SENSE. But we did all know it.
>_>
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
Yeah, but a lot of that is based on the visuals or the context, IMO. Part of Your World is something I'd actually stick on my iPod. <_<
I've never seen Lilo and Stitch so I was pretty neutral to him.
Lilo and Stitch is pretty good. One of the better "new" Disney films.
To be fair, I can't really think of anything you could do there. It was pretty well wrapped up.
INCOMING FANFIC
1. Go there.
2. Sora and company see Pete slinking around.
3. They chase after him, destroying Heartless as they go.
4. There's a cutscene of Pete trying to convince Hook to rejoin the Legion of Doom.
5. Sora and company arrive in Hook's cabin. Pete's no longer there. They attack Hook. Boss fight ensues.
6. After winning, they actually listen to what Hook has to say, and learn that he refused to join Pete. He doesn't want to get mixed up in any of this darkness stuff ever again, after seeing what happened to everyone else.
7. NEW PARTY MEMBER: HOOK
8. They head to the deck and find Pete. "If you won't join us, then I guess you'll just have to go down with the ship, Captain!"
9. BOSS FIGHT: SUBMERGER (aka a kraken)
10. There's a reaction command where Sora uses Hook to bait the crocodile, then pulls him out of the way at the last second, causing it to attack the kraken instead.
11. The Heartless poofs, Hook thanks us for saving his ship, Sora says not to get used to it and that he still doesn't trust him.
12. Sora uses Hook's hook to seal Neverland.
/END FANFIC
You get some good speed and can stunlock just about anything, but you can't heal, which is a problem.
Is it? I don't think I've ever had to heal while transformed. Too busy destroying everything. <_<
Playing a spinoff of this would be amazing.
From what I've heard of Birth by Sleep, it's more likely than you might think. >_>
This is why I absolutely hate Ariel. Her accepting Ursula's bargain was just... ...WHY.
Because they needed a plot for the Atlantica world. And worse, they needed to stick strictly to the movie's plot for the Atlantica world, no matter how little sense it made. Normally it didn't bother me, but it definitely hurt Atlantica.
Sora obviously unlocked the lock to his invincibility. Or something.
Sora unlocks the barrier between life and death; all of his enemies die! Sora for MPFC!
Except he can kill Sora if you just sit there, so WTH game!
Nobody dies in Kingdom Hearts.
...Seriously, you'd think Jafar would just send Sora to the dark realm immediately, like as soon as the fight started. Ah well.
And thank everything uuurgh Atlantica.
Better or worse than KH1 Atlantica? <_<
Oh wait this was a boss? >_> <_<
Sark is the Clayton of KH2.
That analogy works on pretty much every level.
Aren't all the passwords done by Ansem the Wise? Blame him.
I DO blame him! Repeatedly! For everything I can possibly justify blaming him for!
As Epyon said: "Colette learned Judgment!"
The worst one is in FE10. I can't do spoilers within spoilers, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. >_>
</spoiler>
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
Hur trusting Saix to do something like that. >_>
Oh great, Riku's here to save the day now. Saix, I suppose it's too much to ask for you to pull an Axel and sacrifice yourself to wipe them all... out...
...
Or you could run away like a coward.
I hate these Organizers so much.
lolz
So Namine got away, and Kairi is reunited with-JESUS CHRIST RIKU KILLED ANSEM AND IS WEARING HIS SKIN OH GOD
XD
Team Locksmith continues climbing the castle until they reach a very spacious, square room that just screams "BOSS FIGHT HERE".
Random Note: I measured every room in castle by using Sora's footsteps to make a replication for a DnD game where I played as Axel and had Roxas as a cohort. Yes I am a nerd.
Saix: Sora. You've done well.
Wish I could say the same for you, you complete fuck-up.
Well, he succeeded in making you mad, that has to mean something.
Ansem!Riku shows up and gives Kairi a Keyblade, and she starts destroying the Heartless! WHAT. This is HORRIBLE. That shouldn't. THIS IS. NO, MALEFICENT, NOT EVEN YOU CAN SAVE THIS. DON'T EVEN TRY, IT'LL JUST DRAG YOU DOWN WITH IT.
Kairi getting a Keyblade from Riku was... yeeeeeeah, WTH.
Meanwhile, King Mickey has climbed up the outside of the castle and located DiZ. He removes his head bandages. It's Ansem the Wise. Hands up if you're surprised.
...
...You know, you might not believe me (because I only actually wrote about it quite a bit later), but I called this the SECOND I saw DiZ's KH2 model. Admittedly, at that point, I thought Ansem was still... Ansem, but whatever.
Actually, if you see his eye color and skin color through the bandages (you can), he looks the same as Heartless Ansem/Riku Ansem. Then it magically becomes his normal colors when he removes it. Sooooo.
SUMMARY: DiZ told Riku to go get Roxas so DiZ could murder Roxas for no reason. Riku gets his ass kicked because he's a darkness embracing failure. Riku determines that the only way to not lose again in the future is to embrace the darkness even more so. Thus, he becomes Xehanort... for some reason.
It wasn't murdering Roxas, it was getting him to reenter Sora. It's a total jerk move to Roxas but it did have a purpose.
(Plot hole: The Emperor in the Land of Dragons referred to Riku as a young man.)
The emperor is a wise old man, he could probably sense Riku's young spirit or some baloney.
Anyway, this is all very... something. Not sad. What's the opposite of sad? Like, that feeling where you want to kick someone's ass for being such an insufferable evil prick? Because that's the feeling I get whenever DiZ starts talking.
After what DiZ went through to his apprentices, I can't say I really blame him for being a jerk. ...Though I'm still feeling bad for Roxas.
BOSS FIGHT:
XIGBAR
One of my favorite boss fights, no doubt. Xigbar is fun as heck to go against. Plus he has hilarious surfer dude lines. "You clever little sneak!" "I'm gonna dance for you!" Also, to avoid the massive number of lasers, you run in a circle around him. Simple.
Xigbar dies, etc etc. I'd care a lot more about these characters if they had more than two scenes before dying, but eh.
I do wish the Organization members had more screentime in this game. I like them, so I'd prefer to see more.
Axel was on borrowed time anyway. He was originally supposed to die in the KH2 Prologue after Roxas obliterates him, but apparently fan support (including in the staff, I hear) caused him to be allowed to survive as long as he did.
Still, wish they had had him get a better enemy to be sacrificed against.
And therefore the best world in the game. And if we credit it with ASAS/Deep Dive, best area in the series. It might already have that, as KH1 Hollow Bastion is the only thing that can compete against it.
Yes, tough call only because of Hollow Bastion.
Don't even get me started on this. I wanted this fight the whole damn time, and then that happened. I don't even care about the other additions in Final Mix, making this a proper boss fight was the best thing it did, and probably enough by itself that I'd get it if it were released here.
Agreed. My second reason would be more Roxas and Axel cutscenes, but that fight! I am SO tempted to import.
Which is total BS. Roxas won that fight and it's not even debatable. It's like they realized that after the fact and had to bail Sora out because he's the main character.
Pretty much.
I like DiZ more than like 95% of the cast, but this was totally a jerk move on his part and the only thing I think I take real issue with him over. It's like he just hated awesome characters or something. (Okay, not really, there's more to it, but still. Augh.)
Poor Roxas. =(
As if Roxas wasn't already the best in the series, he goes and owns Riku to make it even more evident.
LOL
This is even more BS than the Sora loss. Roxas beats Sora, but loses to this? Sora and Riku getting bailed out purely by DEMs because Roxas had become too awesome for the story confirmed.
I could see it happening.
DiZ is awesome and that's a good part of the reason why!
Roxas. =(
That would have made a lot more sense, considering Axel's plot contributions after that point basically amount to "none". <_<
He does kind of jump start Sora, who is being moronic about the whole thing.
The best part is that, IIRC, it was established in KH1 that you can't magic Keyblades away from other Keybearers. To even make sense, it would require a loophole that says, "okay, yes you can, as long as they're not actually holding the Keyblade in their hands".
I figured that was why it worked, due to him not holding it. But you'd think Roxas would have known that.
I'll have to take your word for it, that there's more to it, because my understanding of everything so far is:
DiZ gets betrayed by his apprentices.
DiZ's apprentices become Nobodies.
DiZ is so pissed off about this betrayal that he decides to get revenge against ALL Nobodies.
DiZ starts spreading propaganda about how Nobodies are just pretending to have emotions and aren't supposed to exist in order to justify his racism status-of-heartism.
DiZ manipulates Riku via vague threats regarding Sora's condition. (i.e. "Sora won't recover unless you do X.")
DiZ also plans to backstab and kill his ally Namine, who happens to be a 12 year old girl, just because she's a Nobody.
Well, Sora really wasn't complete without Roxas as far as I understand. And it IS possible DiZ legitimately thought all Nobodies really didn't have emotions. I'm not saying that makes him excusable, just that he had more to it than 'for the evulz'.
Right now the guy is about as sympathetic as Ashnard, but it's worse because I'm getting the feeling we're supposed to be rooting for him.
Ashnard is far worse IMO but I guess an analysis in the right way could prove otherwise.
DiZ was only awesome when his involvement in the plot was limited to delivering verbal beatdowns to Riku. >_>
That WAS his crowning moment.
Yeah, DiZ hates Nobodys, but there's still a slight reason more why he did what he did regarding Roxas. Though, his whole thing with Nobodys almost certainly had a lot to do with it.
That.
Xemnas says that Kingdom Hearts is nearly completed, and gives Saix permission to "end this charade". Ominous.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA*Cough*
Sora catches up with Kairi. There's a tearful reunion. Sora grudgingly thanks "Ansem" for saving Kairi, but then Kairi tells him it's Riku. blah blah blah another tearful reunion.
People often are like 'Sora was happier to see Riku therefore he loves Riku not Kairi'. This is STUPID because Sora knew, this whole time, that Kairi was in pretty good shape, despite being kidnapped. Riku, on the other hand, was in who knows what condition. So I think his relief is justified. ...Though falling on your knees and crying is... blarrrrrgh.
Riku says that he still needs the power of darkness to end this battle, so he has to stay in this form. So what, exactly, happened to Riku deciding to use darkness to guide his light, or whatever? This just seems like he's abandoning all the character development he got in Chain of Memories.
Wait a second.
>got in Chain of Memories
Ah, I understand.
o u.
(I also got Oblivion somewhere around here, which is nice.)
Meanwhile, DiZ is using some bauble to try to capture Kingdom Hearts and encode it as data.
For science!
We head forward, through a graveyard for the Organization XIII members we've killed. Wow. That's pretty depressing.
This is my favorite room in all of the games, with Namine's room being in second place. It really hit me when I saw these graves and went, "If nobody remembered them, this is the only thing that shows they existed." It's rather... eerie, and sad.
BOSS FIGHT:
LUXORD
Confusing but hilarious battle. Card Sora papercuts Luxord!
BOSS FIGHT:
SAIX
His Japanese voice actor is AWESOME. His American one is too but I just felt the need to interject that.
Saix fades away, and Sora asks Riku why everyone keeps calling him Roxas, and finally receives an explanation. Then Riku has the nerve to be like, "maybe I didn't need to capture Roxas after all".
...I totally don't remember this line and I hate Riku so much for saying it. >=(
YEAH. MAYBE KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE FOR NO REASON ISN'T ALWAYS NECESSARY. Christ. I don't understand how this game can justify continuing to treat these characters as heroes! I don't understand why Sora and Kairi aren't pissed off about this! YOU CAN'T HAVE GOOD AND EVIL WHEN THE EVIL CHARACTERS ARE MAKING ALL THE BEST POINTS AND THE GOOD CHARACTERS ARE DOING ALL THE EVIL DEEDS!
...Well in regards to THAT line... >_<
DiZ: And Roxas - I doubt you can hear me, but... I am sorry.
And thus, a lesson is learned: Killing innocent people is okay if you apologize to them!
Oh no, that doesn't even pretend to make it okay. But at least he said that instead of 'haha Roxas you're still dead XD'.
Xemnas: words words words words words words words words words words
DiZ: words words words
Xemnas: words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words
DiZ: words words words words words words words words words words words words words words
Xemnas likes to talk. Must have learned it from DiZ.
And then DiZ sacrifices himself to contain the explosion of the machine. And nothing of value was lost.
His own fault for trying to use the silly thing. >_>
The explosion caused the creation of a bazillion Heartless somehow, and also restored Riku to his true form. Oh, I guess he was Blindy from the prologue cutscenes involving Roxas. He was wearing a blindfold because... I dunno. And he could wield the Keyblade because... I'm not sure. But yeah, other than that, makes perfect sense.
I was wondering if that blindfold would get explained. And if you'll recall, he did wield the Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts for a bit.
Riku now joins the party. Huh. How 'bout that.
A pretty good party member in terms of combat. ...But get some better clothes plz.
We start climbing some weird glass pathways, but just as we reach the top, a huge army of Heartless appears to chase after us. Suddenly, Maleficent and Pete to the rescue. They agree to hold off the Heartless in exchange for the castle, once we defeat Xemnas.
Best reason to help out Sora ever. "Hey I want this cool castle you go on ahead." "Sweet, I just want to get back to my island. ...That's kind of a lousy trade-off-" "GO!"
Sora: Just give it a rest. You're Nobodies. You don't even exist. You're not sad about anything.
Oh, just shut the fuck up, Sora.
I was >=( at this line. ...Though I think it's rather extreme that some people say "Sora is the villain because he doesn't care about the Nobodies". I mean, some of the Nobodies are real jerks, but then you've got some that you legitimately feel bad for, so... Blargh.
BOSS FIGHT:
XEMNAS
A pretty simple fight, except no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get the reaction command to work. *shrug*
You have to activate it three times with different timing.
Xemnas merges with Kingdom Hearts to become Sephiroth to enter the Point of No Return, and we have to follow him.
In this scene he talks for like a minute and a half straight. A Youtube video shows this, it's hilarious.
There is a very Sonic-esque (or maybe Advent Children-esque) segment of Sora jumping around on debris and cutting through buildings to get to Xemnas. Two minigames/boss fights to destroy parts of a machine. And then a battle with... I guess it's Xemnas, but he's really just some armored guy in a chair. He goes down without a fight.
HE SLICES APART SKYSCRAPERS. HOLY ****.
Xemnas fades away. Namine opens a portal for us. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto exit. Roxas appears, and Namine and Roxas merge with Kairi and Sora. So... when did Namine die, then? She was fine like an hour ago. <_<
She didn't, she just reentered Kairi like Roxas did to Sora.
Riku jumps into a nearby spaceship (uh... sure) and Sora jumps onto his wing. Sure is Star Fox Assault in here!
How convenient!
BOSS FIGHT:
XEMNAS
Too many spaceship bosses in this series!
BOSS FIGHT:
XEMNAS
I had a fun time with this fight. Though Riku swapping in to be played was a throw-off. "Can you spare... a heart?" The final fight scenes with him at one HP are very cool.
Finally, Xemnas dies, but Sora and Riku are trapped in... wherever they are. Until a door opens, to... the dark realm. I think this is the beach where some black cloaked characters were talking cryptically in a few early cutscenes. They're not sure if they can ever get back to the realm of light. But then Kairi's message in a bottle shows up! Deus Ex Machina to the rescue! A door to light opens! They reappear on Destiny Islands!
And the scene had no undertones of homosexuality at all! Really!
i had been waiting 40 hours for sanctuary
So worth it.
Game Story
Tetsuya Nomura
Masaru Oka
And you two.
In the proud tradition of Phil, I've got two words for you.
The first word is "fuck".
The second word is "you".
And the third word is "fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyouFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKYYYYYYYYOOOOOUUUUUUU".
XD
Anyway. After the credits end, Sora and Riku are sitting together, watching the sunset. Oh, just kiss already. You know you want to. Ugh. But then Kairi shows up. She has a message in a bottle from King Mickey. Unfortunately we aren't told what it says. Yay. So much closure it hurts. Maybe the secret ending will make this better. (Just kidding. I'm sure it'll make it far, far worse.)
It'll give you more... Keyblades!
Used AntiForm
2 Times (I still don't understand what this is)
Sora becoming a gremlin, as you put it.
yaaaaaay
now I just have to go back and get 100% on the journal
Have fun! =D
I dunno, maybe when Roxas owned him like that he went back to DARKNESS.
But Kingdom Hearts is light!
Because Organization XIII are the bad guys! Yeah! Except Roxas wasn't doing anything wrong! But he was Organization XIII so he must be a bad guy too! Yeah!
Nor was Axel doing anything wrong to our 'heroes'. Sure he was a party killer but that was a benefit for them! (Okay he kidnapped Kairi but that's kind of a blessing in the long run.) And... um... ...Well Luxord and Demyx weren't that bad either.
Because they were Organization XIII! They had it coming to them! Or didn't matter! Or something!
I mean, I don't exactly think Organization XIII was justified with a lot of the things they pulled, but I get the impression that the game assumes that anyone in that group is evil, and so anything that happens to them is justified. When really, that's probably the worst reason to argue why a lot of Organization XIII needed to be stopped.
...But then there's Roxas and that starts to make no sense, and so I think they just have to fall back on "He was in Organization XIII!" as justification.
Totally agree with this. Sure some of Organization XIII was made up of some people with really harmful goals, but there were also those who just wanted their hearts back. If the heroes could have, you know, given them a different way to do that, I wouldn't be surprised if a couple stopped their other acts and went to do that. But no, clearly they're all evil jerks who need to be eradicated.
You kind of wonder if the game would have gone in a different direction if the first explanation Sora got on Nobodies wasn't basically that. Because as it was, Sora just seems to kind of take that statement and just run with it the whole game, and never question it.
Yeah, it is questionable. He seemed okay with Axel when he was helping, but everyone else...
Oh, I forgot to mention what really bothered me. Earlier in the game, Sora sheds some tears when leaving Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Supposedly that's Roxas' emotions. Fine. But when Axel dies? No reaction at all. I'm not asking for tears, I'm asking for SOMETHING. I mean, if the game's going to point out to us what friends they were, why not? Maybe Roxas just got suppressed totally by that time, or the writers were lazy, or I'm missing something.
Oh, since you never figured it out, I'm pretty sure that was Roxas and Xemnas. One was definitely Roxas, and I'm like 99% sure the other was Xemnas.
Yeah.
Which makes no sense given the events of CoM. <_< But then, I'm assuming that this is a series where character development doesn't just arbitrarily stop applying whenever it's convenient for the plot. And... I probably have no excuse for continuing to assume that!
Poor CoM, being a 'not necessary for the story' game...
It's hilarious that my reaction to this is more or less "they were supposed to be bad guys?"
CoM's villains were complete assholes. KH2's villains, with a few exceptions... pretty much just wanted to be loved. Total menaces to society, there.
Yes. This so much. Xaldin was a jerk, Xemnas was all for wrecking stuff, and Saix was pretty dubious in his methods (though his final line made me feel a bit bad for him), but... come on, since when are Axel, Demyx, and Luxord going to do much harm? Xigbar's a bit too mysterious for me at this point to pin down.
The most ridiculous thing is that, if Sora had maintained his memories from CoM, he'd have immediately known that was bull****. And probably would have attacked whoever told him that (Yen Sid?), just on principle. <_<
XD
Yeah, but a lot of that is based on the visuals or the context, IMO. Part of Your World is something I'd actually stick on my iPod. <_<
I'd totally laugh in your face if I saw your iPod and it had that song in it. >_> Just for kicks.
Lilo and Stitch is pretty good. One of the better "new" Disney films.
At least that's something. Unlike... Chicken Little.
INCOMING FANFIC
1. Go there.
2. Sora and company see Pete slinking around.
3. They chase after him, destroying Heartless as they go.
4. There's a cutscene of Pete trying to convince Hook to rejoin the Legion of Doom.
5. Sora and company arrive in Hook's cabin. Pete's no longer there. They attack Hook. Boss fight ensues.
6. After winning, they actually listen to what Hook has to say, and learn that he refused to join Pete. He doesn't want to get mixed up in any of this darkness stuff ever again, after seeing what happened to everyone else.
7. NEW PARTY MEMBER: HOOK
8. They head to the deck and find Pete. "If you won't join us, then I guess you'll just have to go down with the ship, Captain!"
9. BOSS FIGHT: SUBMERGER (aka a kraken)
10. There's a reaction command where Sora uses Hook to bait the crocodile, then pulls him out of the way at the last second, causing it to attack the kraken instead.
11. The Heartless poofs, Hook thanks us for saving his ship, Sora says not to get used to it and that he still doesn't trust him.
12. Sora uses Hook's hook to seal Neverland.
/END FANFIC
The sad thing? This is better than 95% fanfics out there.
Is it? I don't think I've ever had to heal while transformed. Too busy destroying everything. <_<
Some people are idiots.
From what I've heard of Birth by Sleep, it's more likely than you might think. >_>
Oh snap.
Because they needed a plot for the Atlantica world. And worse, they needed to stick strictly to the movie's plot for the Atlantica world, no matter how little sense it made. Normally it didn't bother me, but it definitely hurt Atlantica.
Or Ariel is an idiot! ...Can we just say both?
Sora unlocks the barrier between life and death; all of his enemies die! Sora for MPFC!
I'd support it.
Nobody dies in Kingdom Hearts.
...Seriously, you'd think Jafar would just send Sora to the dark realm immediately, like as soon as the fight started. Ah well.
Jafar is established to be an idiot.
Better or worse than KH1 Atlantica? <_<
...Well, on one hand, Ariel sucks. On the other, THAT DOLPHIN. ...I'll say worse because Ariel is just WOW.
Sark is the Clayton of KH2.
That analogy works on pretty much every level.
But there's no invisible lizard to ride on...
I DO blame him! Repeatedly! For everything I can possibly justify blaming him for!
Indeed.
The worst one is in FE10. I can't do spoilers within spoilers, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. >_>
...<_<
Anyhow, small Axel speculation speech. Note I made this up long before 358/2 was EVEN ANNOUNCED so I could be proven totally wrong and I wouldn't know it now. So take all I say here as theory.
By the time Chain of Memories starts, Axel has known and already befriended Roxas. Xemnas sends him to Castle Oblivion because he thinks the members there are thinking about doing backstabbish things. Axel pretends to side with Marluxia and company but is still really serving Xemnas. Since Vexen is already revealing he's a traitor, no qualms killing him. Larxene is taken out by Sora, convenient. But then Marluxia slips by to get him into another fight with Sora. Well, this is a problem. Axel probably knows, at this point, Roxas and Sora are connected. If he kills Sora, what happens to Roxas? This is the only case where a Nobody has had a surviving other half (not counting Heartless and such). So he only fights him a bit before escaping. In other words, he always had Roxas' interests in the front of his mind, but there was no reason to speak of it to them.
Then we get to Kingdom Hearts II, where there isn't any reason to be backstabbing Organization members because they aren't about to betray the Organization as a whole. He's around a Roxas who is totally blanked in memory and that's incredibly distressing. He isn't thinking as clearly as before, hence DiZ always manages to outplay him. Once Roxas is gone, he figures, 'My only chance to see him again is to remove him from Sora', but when push comes to shove, he figures saving Sora from the Dusks is the best thing he can do. So he dies, while probably hoping to meet Roxas again in 'the next life', if he should be able to have one.
Just thoughts of mine.
</spoiler>
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears