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kairiscorner · 9 months

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HI PO :DD IM THE ANON WHO ASKED FOR THE KUYA HOBIE STORY FROM S COUPLE WEEKS AGO HAHA

ANYWAYS

Do you mind if you write like a Hobie Brown x Reader where it’s like that one scene in Howls Moving Castle where the readers like getting harassed by police officers and he just comes in out of nowhere as Spider Punk sayin “There you are sweetheart, sorry i’m late.”

THIS HAS BEEN MARINATING IN MY MIND FOR WEEKS DHJFHFJF

ANYWAYS TY I LOVE UR WORK AS ALWAYS KAIRI 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽 IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY

BCEIBFUIRBVIRBIV THAT MAKES ME HAPPY KNOWING I MAKE YOU SO HAPPY <:DD AND OMG I WAS ACTUALLY THINKING OF THAT BEFORE TOO???????? BEJIBFEIBIFRBVIRIV YESYESYES I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS !!!

(reblogs are greatly appreciated, it helps get my content out there! if you guys like what you see, please reblog it too <:D)

that's my dear. – hobie brown x gn!reader

petrified and unsure of what to do, the two police officers who called your attention as they eyed you up and down with mischievous and devilish gleams in their eyes had approached you ever so slowly, making you step back even further away from them as they kept nearing you the more you backed away. they started their little one-sided 'banter' with you through questions of where you were going, or what a 'pretty little doll' like you was doing by themselves, walking down this dim, creepy alleyway all alone. you answered them in a small voice at first, since you were a bit intimidated and scared of them for being so close to you and smiling so... eagerly as they looked you up and down.

they chuckled to themselves as they called you a 'cute little mouse' for sounding like you were squeaking out your answers. they kept commenting on how adorable you looked, asking you if you had any partner or someone that wouldn't be too pleased to find out a couple of cops you happened upon were just merely teasing you, but the way you saw it, they went above and beyond the border of 'teasing, they were harassing you. they were disgusting, they kept creeping closer towards you as you tried to back off and run in the opposite direction; whispers of pleading you to stay in a baby-like voice and chuckles from the police officers filled your ears as you felt your breath hitching in your chest. you felt a massive weight on your shoulders and back and your voice faltering as you kept muttering under your breath in a begging plea to 'please... leave me alone...'

"well, i'm awfully late, now aren't i, dearest?"

the voice that called out to you was smooth and languid, it was relaxed, nonchalant, even; it was also extremely... familiar. you shuddered a bit as you felt their hand on your shoulder, and the warmth you felt from their touch soothed you in a way. you looked up, and they faced you as they cast their gaze lower and smirked at you. "hobart...!" you silently murmured his name as he chuckled and wrapped his arm around your shoulders, pulling you close towards his chest, causing your heart to beat quickly and throb as a heat filled your cheeks and caused a burning sensation in your throat as you yearned to thank him for coming, but he didn't want you to thank him yet.

hobie looked at the officers with a raised eyebrow as the two began to slowly back away, seeing how intimate he was with you, they figured they'd be in a world of trouble if you told him just how disrespectful and creepy these two were being towards you. they tried to act all friendly around hobie, say they were merely joking around with you and that 'you weren't hurt at all by what happened', that they were merely admiring how beautiful you were, but hobie could see through their lies and leaned towards them; he practically hovered over them as he eyed them down, being so tall and all, he was just so frightening to them.

"sure y'were... anyway, there you were, sweetheart. sorry i'm late, but let's make haste now, love, can't let our dinner table for two wait, can we?" he told you with a cheeky grin as you clung on to his chest, with hobie webbing the officers' feet together while they were too busy looking up at his eyes in fear. the two bumbling cops tried to head back to their car but ended up stumbling over each other and knocking their heads down on the hard pavement below.

you flinched at the sound, but hobie held your shoulders with both of his hands and reassured you, all would be fine now. he put on his mask and looked at you through his painted-like lenses, his hand extended towards you. "how 'bout i take you away from here, love, get you away from these lousy idiots?" he offered you with a comforting tone as you ended up taking his hand. "please, take me away, hobart..." you pleaded with him as you let go of his hand and wrapped your arms around his neck, signaling hobie to finally do what he's dreamed of doing with you this whole time.

as he swung off into the distance, with the two of you in mid-air, he smiled and chuckled at your calmer than expected reaction and held you closer to his chest. "you're a natural, dear." he complimented you, which made you flustered a bit and show a hint of a smile on your face. hobie's hands were so soft and comforting, they were nothing like the other men who've held you, it was merely in his hands that you felt what true affection and adoration really was like, even if it wasn't worded out... you could tell, he loved you so, so very much.

he dropped you off at your room by your home, sneaking you in through the window and hanging around for a short while to make sure there was nothing else that was about to harm you. he pulled his mask off his head and showed you his wide, brilliant grin and charming, chestnut brown eyes as you looked at him with a bashful grin and a flustered face from how intimate the impromptu 'adventurous' swinging-around-town date ended up being. you approached him by the window to see him off, and you placed both hands of yours on either sides of his face--and as you gazed at his eyes that were filled with pure devotion towards you... you pulled him in close for a quick, but tender and passionate, kiss.

as hobie pulled away, he smirked at you and couldn't keep his eyes off you, off every single part of you that was too perfect to not adore. "that's my dearest... and i promise you, that table for two dinner date, i'll make it come true, if you'll have me." he said with a slight wink at you, which made your heart skip a beat as you smiled even wider at him as he muttered a 'love you', pulled his mask back down, and swung off into the distance.

to be loved by a boy named hobie brown... it was a feeling more ethereal and cathartic, and enchanting, than the love of any other person you ever knew in your life; and dare you say, you had hoped for that table for two dinner date to become a reality tonight. nothing wrong with hoping, no?

tags !! @k4tsu3 @fiannee @luvstarrstruck @toneystank-3000 @ii01vq @maxoloqy @popeheywardssecretgf @arachnoia @solecitoszn @conitagray

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themattress · 4 months

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Untitled Riku Post

As promised!

In Kingdom Hearts, we first meet Riku as a 15-year old. But chronologically speaking, the earliest scene he has shows him as a much younger boy. In this state, Riku is innocent.

He loves playing with his best friend Sora and, like most little boys, dreams of having adventures someday. In fact, the brilliance in showing Riku being so attached to the idea of leaving his island home for something more is that it's the exact type of motive most Disney heroes have. Ariel, Belle, Aladdin and Jasmine, Simba, Quasimodo, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan...and even ones created later such as Wilbur Robinson, Rapunzel, Wreck-It Ralph and Moana. They all have this same quality: the desire for more, to broaden their horizons and satiate their curiosity or resolve their insecurity. Riku's fate is clear: he is to be a hero in this universe. In fact, Riku himself begins seeing the signs of this destiny that awaits him.

The problem is that while heroism may be in Riku's nature, nurture had other ideas. Growing up on the island, Riku trained and became strong, earning the admiration and praise of all the people around him. Being destined for greatness wasn't enough; now everyone was telling him how great he was. This not only feeds Riku's ego but also creates a direct dichotomy between his dream and his reality: while everything surrounding him gives him the impression that's he's the best, how can that be true when "everything surrounding him" is just a tiny part of a much larger whole that he's missing out on? In the grand scheme of things, Riku might not be so great after all, and that fear gnaws at his heart. What's worse: his best friend Sora, whom Riku has been like an older brother / protective leader figure to and whom Riku appears to be naturally better at everything than, seems pretty chill about his place in the world. To the point where Kairi, whom Riku sees as this magical living proof of a larger universe beyond Destiny Islands, gravitates more toward Sora and not Riku, the one who appreciates her more (or so he thinks). This makes Riku jealous of Sora, and this jealousy motivates him even more in his desire to explore other worlds and secure his heroic destiny.

While the Riku we are introduced to still has some of his old innocence in him, shown by his genuine care for his friends and desire to have them with him on his adventures, there is a darkness present too. He's not pursuing his goal for the right reasons. Kairi can sense this and it unnerves her...she can't quite place why, but something about it rings familiar to her.

The guy who is behind this sense of familiarity, Ansem, then ends up appearing to Riku and goading him into attempting to open the door in the Secret Place...the door to the world's heart. It doesn't work without the Keyblade, but it does alert the Heartless to the darkness in Riku's heart...and now they now exactly where their primary target, the world's heart, is.

Riku uses the darkness that invades the islands to escape to the outside world, and shortly afterwards Destiny Islands is destroyed. This is Riku's first villainous action, but I will cut him some slack here. Not only was he directly manipulated, but it's clear that he doesn't actually realize that what's happening will destroy his home. He seems to be under the impression that it's just destroying the barrier between Destiny Islands and the rest of the universe, allowing a pathway out for him and his friends. It's callous and it's reckless, but the magnitude of the destruction it's causing is something that Riku is oblivious to at this point in time.

When we next see Riku, he's already spent some time in the company of Maleficent and her assembly of Disney Villains gathered in Hollow Bastion, having been granted a sword by the sorceress and clearly having practiced fighting with it. Maleficent ultimately leads him to Sora in Traverse Town under the condition Riku not speak of her to him. During Riku's reunion with his best friend, Riku sees that Sora now wields the Keyblade - the weapon that was destined for him - and has been traveling around the universe having adventures alongside Donald and Goofy. This infuriates Riku. In his mind, this was supposed to be an adventure that he led. He would be the Keyblade wielder, traveling the universe and having adventures alongside Sora and Kairi. But not only has Sora now gotten the Keyblade and seemingly "replaced" him and Kairi with Donald and Goofy, but he is thriving. He doesn't need Riku's protection, he isn't falling short behind Riku...he isn't the same Sora that Riku knew on Destiny Islands. And because of Riku's aforementioned ego and pre-existing subconscious jealousy of Sora, this all makes him irrationally perceive Sora as having betrayed him.

While Maleficent is manipulating Riku, it's not in the same direct manner that Ansem did, and more to the point Riku should know better. He already knows that Maleficent and her gang are villains, as we later see he doesn't actually trust Maleficent one ounce. He clearly can see that Sora cares about him, as evidenced by Sora's relief to see him again and how he argues with Donald that Riku should join them on their adventure. And if he had so chosen, he could have stuck around long enough for Sora to relay what the Keyblade actually does, that it's more than just some shiny cool weapon and that it's needed to save worlds from the same kind of destruction that Riku unwittingly unleashed upon his home world. But Riku is arrogant, envious, entitled, wrathful...and above all, immature. In the greatest of ironies, despite Riku seeing himself as more grown-up than his peers and convincing himself that exploring other worlds and becoming a hero will help make him an adult, Riku's loss of innocence has only made him more childish than ever. He didn't get his way, and now he's throwing a tantrum.

At this point, Riku is done as an even remotely sympathetic character. Rejecting Sora as a friend, he now clings to Kairi as the only one he has left. And yes, he does still hold genuine care for her, but I feel like this misleads a lot of people from missing what Riku is actually doing here. He doesn't want to restore Kairi's heart primarily for her. He wants to do it primarily for himself. He knows how much Sora likes her, so now he wants to have her indebted to him so that she chooses him over Sora. Thus he can flaunt her to Sora like she's some kind of trophy. His line of thinking is "Oh, you think you're a bigshot now? You think you're better than me? Well, suck it! I've got your girl! Haha!" Again, it's highly immature, not to mention vindictive toward one of his friends and demeaningly objectifying toward another. Speaking of which, he also assaults a girl, knocking her unconscious and dragging her back to Hollow Bastion to be a prisoner in exchange for Maleficent revealing the location of Kairi's lifeless body to him. It's this act that cements that Riku isn't going to be a hero, but a villain.

Now, through all this we should remember that Sora and Riku's friendship was incredibly close. They are practically brothers. So it would be bad writing if Riku 100% turned against Sora this quickly. Thankfully, the game is better than that. When they next meet up within Monstro, Riku's goal is to manipulate Pinocchio and lure him toward the Parasite Cage Heartless. In the process of doing this, he taunts Sora and makes a game out of Sora chasing him and Pinocchio down. Maleficent astutely remarks that while Riku claims he's "just messing with him", it's obvious he still cares for Sora and that denying it will do him no favors. Afterwards, Riku attempts to vent his feelings honestly to Sora, then joins alongside him in fighting Parasite Cage to free Pinocchio. But afterwards, he takes Pinocchio (whom he assumes has gotten his heart devoured) away, even heartlessly rejecting the pleas of the boy's father Gepetto to give him back. This blatantly act of villainy comes back to bite Riku.

He gives Sora the offer to join him in using Pinocchio as an experiment to see if they can learn how to restore Kairi's heart. To get back to how things should be, with Sora following his lead, being the little brother figure stuck in his shadow. But unlike Riku, Sora is unwilling to sacrifice his conscience and is ready to fight Riku for Pinocchio. This doesn't happen, as Pinocchio ends up still having his heart after all and the Parasite Cage comes back to allow Riku a chance to escape. Riku is legitimately upset that Sora rejected him, but true to egotistical form refuses to consider if maybe he's the one to blame for this. As a result, he lets the possibility of repairing his friendship with Sora go and willingly lets Maleficent amplify the darkness in his heart so that he can control the Heartless. He then goes around on Captain Hook's ship, flying through worlds and having the Heartless destroy them in search of the remaining Princesses of Heart needed to open the way to Kingdom Hearts, where the knowledge on how to restore Kairi's heart can be gained. Let me stress: Riku is now intentionally doing to other worlds what he unintentionally did to his home world. His goal of "explore other worlds" has mutated into "destroy other worlds", and he's too far gone up his own ass to notice. As long as he says it's for Kairi, he can justify any atrocity he commits.

Off the coast of Neverland, Captain Hook captures Sora, Donald and Goofy, whom Riku has condemned to the brig...but not before turning Sora's shadow into a Heartless that does his bidding as a petty act of vengeance for Sora rejecting him. He is also revealed to have had a hand in kidnapping Wendy from Neverland, and when he learns she isn't a Princess of Heart, he coldly tells Hook to dump the "dead weight" into the ocean. Finally, after Sora and his friends escape from their imprisonment and make it to Hook's cabin, Riku uses a Corridor of Darkness to escape to Hollow Bastion along with Kairi's body...but only after directly siccing Anti-Sora on Sora, leaving him to possibly be killed. Riku is evil now...and he gets worse.

Maleficent then amplifies the darkness in Riku's heart again. The result is essentially turning Riku pure evil. After attacking the Beast while he's already badly weakened, he finally takes the Keyblade back from Sora and taunts him viciously. "Maleficent was right. You don't have what it takes to save Kairi. It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door and change the world. You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part's over now. Here - go play hero with this." And he tosses Sora a wooden sword, the same kind they played with on the islands. It's a truly cruel, demented way of saying "I'm the adult, you're the child, I am superior to you and I always will be!" And when Sora still resists? He tries to murder him.

This is the lowest that Riku can sink to. Trying to kill his former best friend, his brother, in cold blood. And for what? He doesn't even care about Kairi as a person anymore. All he truly wants is to prove his greatness by "opening the secret door and changing the world", as he put it. All of the selfishness, the entitlement, the darkness...it has completely consumed Riku. And this, along with the strength of Sora's heart that he showcases in a rousing speech, is why the Keyblade then leaves Riku, choosing Sora as its permanent master. After getting the ass-kicking he so richly deserves, Riku runs away like a coward, in complete shock and disbelief that after everything Sora still managed to beat him. That's when Ansem comes in and tells him that embracing all of his own heart's darkness isn't enough; Riku must open his heart up to darkness in general. He must become an avatar of darkness, just like Ansem.

And as I'm sure we all know, that last part ended up being way more literal than Riku bargained for. Ansem takes control of his body, and ultimately banishes Riku's heart, which holds his essence, out of the body entirely and into the Realm of Darkness. In short: Riku ends up damned and goes to Hell. In a grittier story, that would likely be the end of him.

However....

In the Realm of Darkness, Riku...sees the light. There is now clarity in everything that has happened, everything that he's done, and everyone that he's hurt. And he is able to keep his heart alive out of sheer remorse and sheer determination to somehow right all that he has wronged....especially toward Sora and Kairi. Now, this does not automatically make Riku a sympathetic character or a hero. It's simply him finally realizing that he fucked up, and yeah, ya think!? But, it's still the all-important first step to bettering one's self. And almost as a form of good karma as a result, Mickey Mouse appears to take Riku under his guidance. Together, they help Sora (who defeats Ansem and thus grants Riku his physical body back) close the Door to the Realm of Darkness once it has opened, preventing an untold amount of Heartless from swarming into the Realm of Light. The universe will be saved...but it comes at a price.

Riku stays trapped in the Realm of Darkness, accepting his condemnation there as what he deserves, and being content to help Sora and tell him to take care of Kairi...an overdue acknowledgement that Sora's the one who truly loved her as a person and that thus her preference for Sora over him is rightfully earned. The Door of Darkness is closed on him, and that's the last we see of him. In accepting the negative consequences of his actions and acknowledging himself as a villain, Riku comes the closest he's ever been...to being a hero.

Tl;dr: Riku was a fantastic character in the original Kingdom Hearts because he was a negative one. His character arc was one of self-damnation, without sugarcoating anything. He was a good person in his childhood and a flawed but not altogether bad person when we meet him, but he becomes a worse and worse person as the game progresses through his own character flaws and willfully bad decisions. He's being manipulated, but he mostly isn't being misled. He's making stupid decisions, but he isn't making them unthinkingly. Riku is a complex and humanized villain, but he's not a sympathetic one since his evil actions and his reasonings for them go so increasingly beyond the pale of what can be sympathized with.

And this is also why he works so well in the following games.

Not only do we know how inexcusably evil Riku was in KH, but he knows how inexcusably evil he was too. Not only do we see him continue to express remorse for his sins and make genuine efforts to better himself and make amends even if it's at a direct cost to himself, he also directly tackles the reasons why he went down such a dark path to begin with. His ego is quickly cut down to size as he develops a more humble attitude, helped along greatly by Mickey's personality rubbing off on him. His insecurity about his place in the world and how it led him to destroy his home is confronted, and he determines that he must be the own to choose his own place in the world rather than desperately trying to prove what it is to himself and those around him. His ruthless desire for vengeance is reflected back at him by DiZ, and naturally he doesn't like what he sees. And he ends up flat-out admitting his past jealousy of Sora to Sora...which is after a long period of time where he prioritized Sora over himself, openly acknowledging him as the hero the universe needs. None of this would be as effective if Riku was just some poor, misguided soul in the first game like some fans pretend he was.

I think the techincal writing for Riku post KH has been hit and miss. I hate how overexposed Riku became as the franchise deuteragonist post KH2. I hate that Nomura made Riku "the true, officially ordained Keyblade Master" over Sora which goes against the whole original point. I hate how dull Riku's personality has become. And I hate Riku's current design. BUT in spite of all this, I still love and appreciate Riku on the whole. Because he's a prime example of a redemption arc done correctly - an evil person recognizes the harm they've caused and feel great remorse for it, stops doing bad and commits to doing good, and the good they do is wholly for the sake of helping others and doing what is right rather than for some kind of reward or self-benefit they feel entitled to. Other characters can learn from Riku's example.

#Disney #Square Enix #Kingdom Hearts #Riku #Opinion #Analysis #Evil #Redemption #This has been a PSA #Anti-Riku #(Sort of)

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neoyi · 3 years

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I don’t think I’ll ever get to humorously commentate on KH2 piece-by-piece as I tried to do for the first two games (and god knows if I’ll wrap up Re:chain of Memories with the writing method I was doing, but I digress.) I like talking about this endearingly dumb series and replaying this game is a nice opportunity to revisit how I feel now versus how I felt back when I was a fresh-out-of-high-school Neo playing this game for the first time back in 2005.

So I’m going to surmise my current play session (this collects my thoughts up to the Hercules world) with easily containable bullet points.

*I kind of want to make a separate post about the infamous prologue and discuss how people felt Back in the Days (an understatement, let me tell ya), and ultimately what I feel it does for the game and whether I personally liked it, so I'm going to leave that in the back burner for the time.

I will say Twilight Town sounds like a nice, quiet place to live. I love the concept of a city that's always perpetually sunset. It's a beautiful place and like Traverse Town, sports an amazingly cozy soundtrack.

*I'm sure there's some bullshit reason why, but I don't get why Sora's one year absence meant some of the people he's met just....forgot him. Like why? What purpose does this serve? This especially affected Kairi, but it’s ultimately negligible because she regains her memories of him during the beginning portions of the game.

Was this Namine's doing? Was it to protect Sora from the bad guys or something? Why hasn't Riku forgotten him? Was Namine just selective on who she erased Sora's existence from? Did Kairi forget just because she’s connected to Namine? Or Sora? What purpose does this narrative serve? What was the point?

*Speaking of, I forgot, did they ever explain why Riku disguised himself as Ansem? I don’t remember if they ever explained it when I played through this game, but also I haven’t touched KHII in six thousand years, so I don’t remember a lot of the more convoluted parts of the plot.

*It is comical to see Setzer of Final Fantasy VI fame turn from a risky, gambling sky pirate who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the empire, only cares for the freedom of the skies, and enduring survival’s guilt over a tragic loss of someone dear to him into a...

Whiffle Bat Champion.

*My sheer excitement and obsession when they first announced Vivi as one of the FF cameo was astronomical. I remember keeping a DeviantArt journal detailing any news and screencaps of the little guy pre-release. Still my favorite character from the whole franchise.

Even if he suffers the same fate as Donald and has a zipper on his mage hat for absolutely no reason other than this game existing during Nomura’s Belt-and-Zippers phase.

*Someone’s going to get sued one day because these damn kids keeps sitting atop the clock tower that has yet to be grafted with bars to prevent their inevitable deaths when one of them slips and falls.

*I swear I could play a six degrees of Kingdom Hearts with all the voice actors in this game. Or at least a "Whozit" and "Whatzit" they've done in other media (like Yuffie who is voiced by Mae "Katara" Whitman here. Pre-Avatar, even.)

Also I’m sorry, Will Friedle, you’re a fine voice actor, but you’re...Terry McGinnis. Batman told me he “totally owned all you lamers.”

*I love the Nobody enemy designs. The sheer creepiness and uncanny valley of them all lends credit to their existence as, well, non-existences. The Dusk enemy design alone is inspired with its unsettling belts wrapped around its fingers, or terrifyingly sharp teeth subtly hidden inside of its mouth. I can imagine the creature unzipping its mouth to reveal a set of flesh-eating teeth and the fear is real.

I love the way it flies and circles around its victim, almost like it’s trying to wrap itself around you, but I’m especially fond of that one attack where it essentially kicks you as while it sashays over to you upside down.

The Samurai Dusk also has my favorite reaction command. It’s just unspeakably badass.

*I never liked Squall in FF8 back then (don't know how I'd feel now if I ever replay FF8) and he was just okay in the first Kingdom Hearts, but I remember I really endeared myself to his reappearance in KHII. Squall in this game is what happens when he grew up, found good friends and family, and got some therapy for his issues. He’s stoic, but always a team player, and supportive of Sora and the people around him. KHII Squall is what FF8 Squall has the potential to be once he reaches adulthood and it’s nice to see that here.

*I really love the little changes the developers inputted for Sora, Kairi, and Riku's models to accommodate for their physical growth. Riku's is the most obvious (boy clearly ate his vegetables), but I like that you can tell Sora grew not just through story observations (Yen Sid points out how he outgrew his old garbs) but by comparing his height in relation to Goofy. Sora was shorter than him in the first game, but has since outgrown him in KH2.

Along with his better skill set during combat, this is a really nice way to visually shown how far Sora has come and how much time has passed.

This also goes in the opposite direction with Namine whom I think had to redo her mod when they remastered Chain of Memories for 3D. I notice she looks younger in that game than in KHII which would make sense at the time since it takes place a full year ago.

...Well, maybe. Can Nobodies age???

*Damn it, game, don’t give me a pouch containing 5,000 munny and treat it as an in-game key item that I can’t use even though munny is literally the currency I use to buy things.

*The retooling and emphasis on battle mechanics means the platforming element of the first really suffers and that’s a damn shame. I wasn’t particularly in love with exploring the Disney Worlds in the first KH, but I appreciate the effort put into so Sora could not easily get from Point A to Point B.

Even finding treasure chests is comical and if not for sake of posterity for anyone going for 100%, I wonder why Jiminy bothers to keep track of how many you find. There were literally like three out in plain view the minute I entered the Mulan world.

*Speaking of level designs, yeesh, the layout is not optimal for the skateboarding minigame.

*Trying to design a gummi ship in this game requires a masters degree in gummiology and metaphysical engineering, as well as the ability to tap into the 4th dimensional. The 45,000 page instructional manual they give you, the odd grid map used to piece together your ship (fair, the latter was also in the first game), and finicky button controller layout means it took me a while to fully grasp what I was suppose to do and I’m still not sure I got a full handle of it just yet.

*I don’t understand why Sora had to use a physical object as a conduit in each world to open up a metaphysical gate to the next world. He never had to use an in-between to close it. What’s the exception outside of unnecessary symbolic tie-in to the individual worlds he’s in?

*Props to the developers for recreating the ballroom. It’s actually kind of majestic to look at the beautiful ceiling and chandelier design from Sora’s perspective.

*There are a couple of random gameplay elements I forgot completely existed and seemingly there for arbitrary purposes. I just find it unusual that Mulan’s world forces you to collect literal manifestation of morale. It’s like the developers decided they wanted to reuse the Struggle minigames’ balls into a repurposed Morale Ball because well shit, someone programmed these things they’re damn well going to put it to good use.

I guess if Sora and pals don’t literally collect morale, all the soldiers will be, I don’t know, sad and die in battle or something.

*I’m aware Disney villains using the Heartless as their personal army is the norm, but it’s tonally weird when it’s Shan-Yu of all characters doing it. The infamous Charge-In-The-Snowy-Mountain scene doesn’t quite have the leg up in terms of threat when his army consist of adorable Heartless bumblebees.

*You know what pointless shit I am obsessed with? The stupid puzzle pieces scattered throughout the game. This is the first time I’m playing the Final Mix game and I’m just seething at the lack of abilities I currently do not have that prevents me from reaching certain pieces.

*Auron was instantaneously my favorite character when I first played FFX twenty years ago, and his return in KH2 sent me in fangirlish squeals. How could I not? Look at this handsome bastard. He’s calm, collected, badass with a cool sword, has rugged good looks (he doesn’t have it here, but he rocks some killer shades), and a good dad. That’s prime DILF quality right there. Of course I can’t get enough of him.

Square Enix knows we can’t get enough of him; dude be all “fuck off hades” and gives the god the middle fingers and fucks off elsewhere. Auron is King Shit.

*Oh man, do I still have my old Sora figurine? I think I got him in Katsucon way back in 2009.

*So who’s done a drinking game every time the game introduces Sora, Donald, and Goofy individually to every character they meet?

*Hey, so I noticed Square Enix is finally moving their asses and bringing the Ultimania books to the US. I doubt they’re going to bring the older KH Ultimanias overseas (my kingdom for an officially translated FFIX one), but ya know. I kinda think that yeah, I might want the KHIII Ultimania.

...Just saying.

*GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK! GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK! GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK! GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK!

GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK!

#kingdom hearts #neoyi talks #kingdom hearts II

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snowflake-of-destruction · 3 years

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Shipping ask game:

SoRiKai

AkuRokuXi

TerAquaVen

Wow, how could I have forgotten about this one?

SoRiKai

Ship it so much

What made you ship it?

The depth of emotion between these three is one of the cores of the story, the degree to which they are entwined is shown multiple times though arguably best/most memorably captured in the small scene of Kairi recognizing Riku in KH2 and then joining Riku and Sora's hands. I would never, could never devalue their friendship but the fact that their feelings are (or at least were confused as) romantic is some of the tension right at the forefront of our very first installment with the many different ways to take the simmering jealousy seen on multiple sides. That the three of them together as a unit is their collective hearts' desire, their goal, and, sometimes, as in the end of KH3 where Riku and Kairi both were needed to bring Sora to a place where he could give them and everyone else a second chance, a necessity is, to me, apparent. I have a storm of emotion and opinion on Sorikai and sometimes forget that not every Soriku or Sokai shipper is going to share these emotions or ship Soriku, Sokai, and Rikai all about the same amount, but all you need to do is gently bring me back to earth if that happens.

Read more placed for length

What are your favorite things about the ship?

That time and separation makes no difference. Also, the way they look at each other and say one another's names.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

That Riku and Kairi are just as close as Sora and Kairi or Sora and Riku.

AkuRokuXi

1. Why don’t you ship it?

Okay, honesty time

Probably the way that I was introduced to Xion as not even a character but as a function--to "prove" Sora and Roxas don't have feelings for Riku and Axel respectively and that Sokai is the only valid tie, and to give Roxas a female love interest. Now, obviously that is an extremely reductive and downright nonsense take on 358/2 and Xion as a character, and the type of thing I would normally not only argue against but then develop a strong spite reaction where I attach to the character/ship/story harder even with a character less developed than Xion (who actually gets more time spent building her as a character than most KH females) and a story less compelling and with a lot less going on in it than 358/2, but, as I wasn't connected with wider fandom then and thus subject to a much smaller pool of people I knew in real life that played the games, it was sometimes easy to internalize some "bad takes" that you don’t examine for awhile.

With that said, I grew to appreciate Xion a long time ago, and I adore the friendship between the three of them--and every subset, because, even though you see more of Axel and Roxas's bond or Roxas and Xion's connection, you can't tell me Axel doesn't care deeply for Xion, and that the scene of him crying without knowing why in KH3 got me.

I just still get odd feelings and have personal hang-ups about Xion and either or both of these boys romantically, though I have read some cute ones and it's something I can get past.

2.What would have made you like it?

Probably if I had encountered more diverse opinions/interpretations on Xion and her importance other than her being a narrative "no homo." Yes, yes, we think for ourselves too, most definitely, but you do, especially when you are younger, absorb something of popular opinion. It also would have helped if 358/2 already existed when I got into KH so Xion wasn't someone who "appeared out of nowhere after the fact" but an already accepted part of the series, the other great hang-up.

3. Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

They love each other, they would have the most fun and tease each other the worst all through their negotiation of the rules and boundaries of their relationship (you know I love banter), and they arguably have the closest to a canon vow to be polycule with their resolve to all share an apartment together.

TerAquaVen

1. Why don’t you ship it?

It is such a narrow edge, and sometimes I think I could easily ship this one a lot/do ship it, but, ultimately, I feel like Aqua looks at Ventus as a little brother, emphasis on little, in BBS. She's always the responsible friend/mom friend, but you get more of the sense that Terra is an equal still but Ventus she sees as her charge as much as Eraqus's.

2.What would have made you like it?

Just a slight tweak of a line or two in canon and I probably would have a lot more ot3 feelings alongside the found family feelings.

3. Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

They have the most heart tugging and epic scale love story of all the trios if you see them as a ship.

#sorikai #teraquaven #akorokuxi #zelinksupporter

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cloudofash · 4 years

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Kingdom Hearts - Riku’s Possessiveness and Jealousy Part 3

The Counter Arguments

Please read Part 1 here.

Please read Part 2 here.

Please read Part 2 Addendum here.

So far I have hopefully connected some dots to build up to the claim that Riku was always in love Sora so no one can say I pulled this all out of my rump. While it’s obviously true that I am a HUGE Soriku fan, I didn’t come into Kingdom Hearts with the intention of shipping. Actually, I disliked Riku at first because I looked at him on the surface, but he's now my most favorite character in the series because of his development and I appreciate KH1 Riku now because I looked back and realized why he was such a brat. When I put together that he possibly had feelings for his best friend everything made sense. By KH2 I was like “Hm...Riku seems to harbor very strong feelings for Sora” and by DDD I was like “Oh hell, this boy is in love.” I know that my arguments will not change everyone’s mind, in fact I’m sure many read everything I said and came to the conclusion “Look at this crazy Soriku fangirl, reaching to make her pairing real!” I get it, such is the way in any fanbase. For this reason I would like to dedicate this part of my Jealous Riku series to counter some of the common counter arguments. I promise to shut up about KH1 Riku and his jealousy after this lol, I'll be focusing on current Riku and the series' future.

First and most importantly, how do we know Riku is possessive of Sora because he is in love with him? Couldn’t he just be jealous of others who claim his spot as Sora's best friend? If Riku was just possessive of his best friend in a platonic way then that would pretty much destroy my theory that he is attracted to and in love with Sora. I would say in Riku’s case, no his jealousy wasn't platonic. Riku’s possessiveness goes far beyond what is normal for a best friend. Let’s look back on the scene where he meets Donald and Goofy. If Riku actually bothered to introduce himself and be cordial with Donald and Goofy and Sora sided with Donald even after he refused to let Riku board the ship then I wouldn’t even be here writing this. Riku would have rightfully been angry with his best friend, angry that Sora chose to stick by a rude duck over his childhood friend of however many years. But this didn’t happen. Riku gave Donald and Goofy a hard look within seconds of acknowledging their presence. Though Donald shows that he’s a jerk Goofy was nice, but neither matter because Riku had already decided he didn’t like either of them. This is not normal jealousy, this is clearly a sign of extreme possessiveness. He doesn’t like ANYONE new to be around Sora or act friendly with him regardless of their intentions.

Some will probably claim "It's Kingdom hearts the writing is just bad". This is something I've seen before and I want to stress that this is not an argument it's an opinion. Some think the writing in the series is good, some say it’s decent, it's all subjective. For the sake of argument, let's run with the idea that someone claims "Nomura didn't know how to properly express Riku's jealousy which is why he seemed possessive" to branch off the "bad writing" idea. I have two counters for this: Sora and Isa/Saix. Sora says himself in KH2 that he was jealous of Riku which is why he always wanted to compete with him and hopefully beat him. Sora exhibited a far healthier form of jealousy, he didn’t care if Riku went off and made new friends, Sora never gave any hard side-eyes to Mickey when he found Riku had started hanging out with him. He didn’t start to hate or dislike Riku, he just wanted to compete with and beat him with his own strength. As for the case with Saix, in KH3 he told Axel that he was jealous of his relationship with Roxas and Xion. His jealousy compares greatly to Riku's, he saw someone he was once best friends with get close to someone else. But Saix specifically says:

This is where he differs from Riku, Saix isn't jealous of Roxas and Xion because he's possessive of Axel. Axel stopped hanging around with Saix, stopped helping him look for their missing friend and started focusing more and more on Roxas and Xion which occurred over a period of time not instantly. This goes back to what I said about rightful anger, Saix had every right to feel upset and abandoned by Axel. His jealousy was reasonable. Sora, at no point, alienated Riku the way Axel alienated Saix. Sora never took Donald's side when he said Riku couldn't come, Sora argued with Donald in Riku's defense. Even prior to that, Sora never abandoned or alienated Riku on the island and even when the darkness was swallowing Riku Sora tried to take his hand and go with him. Sora's and Saix's jealousy shows that Nomura/the KH writers (since they do change) know full well how to write jealousy in several different ways, therefore the argument that Riku's possessive jealousy is somehow bad writing is moot. I believe Nomura knew exactly how he wanted to portray Riku.

Another counterargument that I commonly see is “Riku wasn’t jealous of people close to Sora, he was jealous of Sora himself he said so in KH2″. First of all, Riku said specifically that he was jealous of Sora because he wished he could “follow his heart” the way Sora did and that could be interpreted in a NUMBER of ways that prove my point but I’ll return to that in a second. Some people took this as meaning Riku was jealous of Sora being a Keyblade Wielder but this isn't possible. Riku’s darkness began on Destiny Islands BEFORE Sora even obtained the Keyblade in fact Riku’s darkness is what caused Sora to obtain it in the first place as confirmed by Nomura.

“That part is also a bit vague. In the Destiny Islands when Riku is swallowed by the darkness, there's a sparkle of light, and next comes the scene where Sora first gets the Keyblade, right? In my setting, the darkness wrapping itself around those two is the darkness of Riku's heart. At the moment when Sora enters that darkness, the light you can see is the light of the heart. Sora, trying to help Riku, struggling in the darkness, touches that light and temporarily the Keyblade goes to Sora. “ - Nomura

Riku could not be jealous of Sora being a Keyblade Wielder if it’s HIS darkness, HIS jealousy that leads to Sora getting the Keyblade in the first place. This point has been debunked.

Now if we look at what Riku says about being jealous of Sora because he’s able to “follow his heart”...I don’t know about you but doesn’t that seem like Riku’s admitting that he’s jealous that Sora can follow his heart to Kairi? Sora literally spent all of KH1 following his heart, searching for his crush. Even before that Sora was constantly thinking about Kairi and sharing a papou fruit with her even going as far as to draw himself feeding her the fruit. Riku would only be jealous of this if he was in a position where he couldn’t follow his heart. This point about Riku being jealous of Sora actually backs up what I said about Riku being attracted to Sora and learning that Sora is attracted to Kairi, Riku literally can’t follow his heart to his hetero (hopefully bisexual) crush. This would yet again explain Riku's initial descent into darkness - he had everything he wanted, the strongest, the smartest, the admiration of the other Island Children, the only thing he didn't have is Sora himself and he grew jealous of Kairi, of Sora's feelings for her. Now I’m not saying this is true, because Riku could also be jealous of Sora’s ability to follow his heart to his friends in general and not just his romantic crush. You know, the whole platonic thing which is the most likely meaning behind Riku’s words because KH is all about friendships which is why I did not use this as proof in my essay because I have no way to prove or even show evidence of which way Riku meant it. I’m just saying it is still possible Riku was referring to the romantic side of “following one’s heart”, he could have even meant both.

Now that we have established that Riku’s jealousy was definitely possessive, let’s head to some of the other arguments. There is usually the “Riku is straight argument” which runs along the lines of "Riku said he wanted to share the paopu fruit with Kairi so the one he is in love with is her." Or "Riku is about to be paired with Naminé , he is attracted to girls and is therefore straight." I already addressed Riku’s feelings about Kairi in the 2nd Part, there isn’t really anymore left to add. Namine is also easy to debunk. Nomura confirmed in the KH3 Ultimania that Riku only helped Naminé obtain a Replica body to act on behalf of Repliku’s feelings. In other words, as of now there ain’t nothin’ between them. Riku’s only reason for ever interacting with Namine was to help Sora retrieve his memories and he hasn’t really interacted with her too much beyond that. Not to say Square couldn't pull this pairing out of their ass but it would leave much to be desired since this ship doesn't have the buildup that Soriku has. I hope they never go down the route of throwing random pairs out for the sake of pleasing het shippers.

The final common argument that I see literally EVERYWHERE, in just about any fandom, is the inane argument that “You fangirls just want to make everything gay. Such-and-such is a Japanese work and the Japanese put a higher emphasis on male bonding and intimacy and friendship but it’s not gay, these two characters could never be gay. Japan doesn’t accept homosexuality - blah blah blah”

And wheeeeeew chile, there is so much to unpack here. I honestly didn't even want to touch this but since I see it so much in the KH fandom I felt compelled to address this. First of all, it irks me when people act like homosexuality doesn’t exist at all in Japan. Statistics from 2018 claim that about 8.9% of the Japanese population identify as LGBT+ between the ages of 20 to 59. That’s 1.1% away from being 10% of the ages 20-59 population, that is a significant number. It is incredibly ignorant to claim that Japanese people do not accept homosexuality, they are all individuals and naturally there will be close-minded people who don’t but there are many who do. The conservative Japanese politicians don’t accept it, but then again neither do most American politicians. Don’t mistake the views of the politicians as the views of the people.

Now, while it is true that those in Japan have different views on masculinity than some in America (ie: men soaking in a hot springs together, touching or even sitting on each others laps isn’t incorrectly labeled as “gay” like it most likely would be here in the States) this doesn’t mean that Japanese people don’t know the distinction between platonic intimacy and romantic intimacy. They know full well the difference between the two, it’s awful to claim with such arrogance that they don’t know as if they’re clueless. Even within the anime/manga/videogame industry Shounen-Ai and Yaoi exists with men kissing, hugging, touching romantically. As a matter of fact, the Kingdom Hearts novels themselves heavily imply that there is more between Sora and Riku and that Riku does have romantic feelings for Sora. There was a scene in the KH2 novel where Axel asks Riku "What is Sora to you?" Riku is lost for words, instead Namine answers that they're "best friends" for him. Read it for yourself below:

This is the official Kingdom Hearts novel by the way, the writer and artist (Tomoco Kanemaki and Shiro Amano) are both Japanese. Not a random "fangirl's fanfic". And let's not forget that Nomura approves these novels and the manga. They seem to have no problem writing/approving of Riku being canonically gay. You can dislike it all you want but it’s here to stay so get over it. Don't be the person who makes this horrible argument.

The one last counter I want to make is this: If you are against Soriku ask yourself if you would accept the pairing if Riku was a girl.

This Jealous Riku series focused heavily on Kingdom Hearts 1 but there is content across the entire series which could also act as strong evidence for Riku’s feelings. I could go on for years about how much evidence there is in this series. You can find such evidence plastered all across the net, I will probably touch upon some of it myself. This marks my series' conclusion, I hope the evidence I provided and the counter-arguments I’ve made show that Riku is truly in love with his best friend and that it’s not impossible that Riku could love Sora in a romantic way. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this!!

#kingdom hearts #Riku #Sora #Kairi #soriku #Possessive #Possessiveness #jealous #jealousy #counter-arguments #jealous riku #riku loves sora

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generatedreflection · 5 years

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So in my Crit playthrough, I happened to get to that scene in the Mysterious Tower before Riku and Mickey go back into the realm of darkness and I have to get this out of my system because for such an innocuous, connecting-tissue kind of scene, it destroyed me.

Now, Sora and the gang confirmed for certain that Ven was in Sora's heart back in Monstropolis, and yet they're basically no closer to saving the Wayfinder trio. Finding Terra depends on Aqua, who depends on Ven, who depends...also on Aqua.

So Riku really has to go back to the realm of darkness. And then Ven's heart volunteers, which startles Sora and everyone else. (They all, understandably, assume this is Sora himself speaking, and even Sora makes that assumption, too. But I don’t think that invalidates anything I’m about to say, because the way things play out afterwards does come from Sora’s feelings.)

So Sora has recently taken a huge hit to his self-esteem with the whole Mark of Mastery thing. In Olympus, he was bothered when Pete commented that he was “punier” than before, and Sora got a little defensive when Goofy pointed it out. And that was just the first example. He's not starting out in a great place emotionally, and he's had others needling him both good-naturedly and not-so-good-naturedly this whole time. Not to mention he's been to five whole worlds now and he's still no closer to the power of waking.

So what Riku says is not what Sora needs to hear.

To make matters worse, everyone is laughing at him. Again.

But what he doesn’t realize is that Riku means it in the most affectionate way possible. Actually, let's look at that scene from 2.8 again.

Riku had his dander up about Aqua's fate being retconned into the story hidden from him for so long, but he backed down when Yen Sid suggested he or Sora would have “staged a reckless attempt at rescue.” Then Kairi mentions the growing similarity between him and Sora, something Riku takes as a compliment. (Also, note that in the Japanese, the word translated as “half-baked” is the same word translated as “reckless” for Yen Sid: 無謀. He’s not insulting Sora any more than Yen Sid insulted him earlier, although Sora is sensitive enough that it clearly does sting anyway.)

So we can say with confidence that Sora's "half-baked rescue" is absolutely a good thing in Riku’s eyes. He doesn't want Sora to throw himself into danger, but he appreciates that side of Sora, the part of him that doesn’t stop to weigh the risks and rewards of helping another person, and just DOES it.

I think everyone else in that room also feels that way to a degree, and that's why they all start laughing. But Sora doesn't feel that way. He's sensitive to these jabs at his competence, and so his frustration here is real. And Riku notices.

Now, I do think Riku doesn't realize how bad it is at this point--I think if he thought Sora was truly deeply hurt (which he kinda is), he would be more awkward here and less smily and relaxed. As it is, he's ironically blinded by his utter faith in Sora and his abilities. To him, Sora is a miracle worker who can do so many things he never could. For example...not getting super down on himself. (We see this one later, too-- "Since when do you mope?") The full extent of what Sora's feeling doesn't really sink in for Riku until the Keyblade Graveyard.

But even if he doesn't see all of it yet, he does notice that the teasing isn't making Sora happy--and so he steps in to comfort him.

And it kills me how easily he does it. He's sure of himself now, and he knows what to say.

(Now, like I said before, it’s strongly implied Sora is volunteering because of Ven in his heart, but Sora IS worried about Riku and Mickey, as we see clearly later when he gets the call from Chip and Dale. So this still stands.)

Sora isn't defending himself here, so Riku does it for him. He's acknowledging Sora's feelings as valid and valuable--a sign of kindness, not just a stupid impulse. Far from something to be ashamed of.

He leans forward here, too, almost enthusiastically. The body language is overall more expressive in KH3 anyway, but Riku especially comes across as less restrained here.

Then Sora looks away. You could see this as shyness at being read so easily, or maybe more self-deprecation at thinking Riku of all people would ever need help. Or maybe it's just that worry coming to the surface. Or maybe he's just wondering where the heck the impulse to volunteer even came from. Or some combination of the above.

Whatever the case, Riku can tell Sora is retreating--so he comes over and puts a hand on his back to support him and pull him back. To create a connection between them and make sure what he's saying gets through. (I’ve already gone off about how Riku doesn’t really communicate through touch, especially not with Sora, and it’s a reflection of how he doesn’t connect as well with others--and this is the first time we ever see a gesture from him like this. It shows a huge change in him.)

"Well, thanks."

No insinuation at all that Sora's worry is unnecessary. He's expressly stating that the intention behind his sudden volunteering is good and valuable and appreciated.

"But the power of waking's important. Once you've got that, then you can come to the rescue."

Your mission is important, too. I don't doubt your abilities.

Riku acknowledges that what he's doing IS important--not just desperately trying to make up for a mistake. Riku really might need Sora’s help--he’s certainly needed it before. Given Sora thinks Riku is "always picking up the slack" in DDD, the reminder that Riku trusts him is important.

And the whole time, Sora's face. He needs this kind of encouragement so badly right now, and you can see the relief and appreciation. This is exactly what he needed to hear.

So it isn't long before he's able to accept Riku's faith in him.

To be honest, Sora's reply here almost feels like a test? Riku is sort of...rewriting the narrative here--changing it from “Sora fails at everything, and he’s so useless and stupid he could never go into the realm of darkness, unlike Riku” to “Sora and Riku have separate missions that are both important, and Sora’s mission may be critical to helping Riku later.” And so Sora’s reply is going along with that second narrative, even though it’s not one he himself fully believes deep down. And Riku plays right back. Because that IS the truth, and it’s what he believes. And that's what Sora needs to hear.

Sora listens to Riku because Riku is someone he admires and respects, but also because he helps him to feel heard.

I love that this scene exists. It’s such a casual, everyday interaction, but it tells us a lot. This exchange isn’t really relevant to the “plot,” per se, but I do think it’s establishing some subtle character groundwork for the sacrifice scene later.

#soriku #long post #sorry the screencaps aren't well spaced out #or like #good #but i needed the visuals at the end #god i love this scene #if only he listened to yen sid the way he listens to riku #well maybe sora WOULD listen if yen sid were worth listening to

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oveliagirlhaditright · 4 years

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So... I meant to do this post as a picture edit comparing things. But my computer where I can screenshot pictures and then find a way to upload them to Tumblr won’t let me do it anymore--it won’t let me post to Tumblr because it says the browser’s too old, even though I just downloaded the new one--so I’m just going to write an essay instead.

The Reason Why I Think Versus XIII Noctis/Now Yozora and Stella/Now Stella 2.0 (or whatever her name is. We still don’t know it) Might be Alternate Sora and Kairi

1. I was actually going to start this off by comparing the ways that Noctis and Stella flirted with how Sora and Kairi do--which, yes, Sora and Kairi have flirted and have chemistry. Shocking to a lot of this fandom, I know--which are quite similar.

So, in the scene where Noctis and Stella meet (though that’s been retconned, as Nomura later decided he wants them to have been childhood friends: another way they’re like SoKai), Stella is looking at a painting of the goddess Etro in Noctis’ citadel (the top floor of this one area) and Noctis sees her up there and goes up to see her (and there’s one moment where the camera, that was omniscient PoV up until this and will be later, becomes Noctis’ PoV, as the shot becomes slow motion and you can tell that while Stella is focused on the painting, all that Noctis is really seeing is Stella. And we’ve now gotten shots of Sora looking at Kairi that way now. And there are a few other scenes in this trailer when Noctis is staring at Stella when she isn’t looking).

Anyway, Stella notes that Noctis can see this light that she can--that most other people can’t--and begins talking to him about it. And while Noctis is attracted to Stella... she makes him very nervous for that reason, and he isn’t sure he can handle their meeting for that reason, so he’s trying to scamper off... all while attempting to play it cool. He’s also uncomfortable with the topic, because he knows more about it than he’s letting on.

But some parts of their conversation that is somewhat banter-y/flirty are:

Stella: Prince Noctis, you can see the light.

Noctis doesn’t confirm or deny, but with his next words he pretty much confirms he can: When did you first notice it?

Stella: When I was a child.

Noctis: Near death experience, right?

Stella: Was it the same for you?

Noctis: It’s not my fondest memory. LOL

Stella then talks about how it’s said that when people die, Etro--the death goddess--will open the gate, welcoming the souls of the departed. And when that happens, a bright light is supposed to appear from the land of the dead (the light that Noctis and Stella can see). And that any who can see that light are rumored to receive great power. Stella says that that’s how the legend goes in her country, of Tenebrae, and Noctis confirms that Lucis tells it the same way.

Stella then asks if Noctis received any power, like the legend says he should, from being able to see the light. He says: “I wouldn’t want anything like that. I’m fine the way I am.” To which Stella in an excited manner replies, “That’s what I thought! Any power... if it came at the cost of someone’s life. It would give me nightmares.” And she shivers. Noctis says, “Me, too. Good thing it’s just a fairytale.” But you can tell from this scene that they’re both lying and have received this power (that’s why they’re fishing for information from the other, to see if they’re the same), even if they don’t want to admit it. And I think Noctis even knows Stella has the power and is lying, and is being somewhat sarcastic towards her with the “good thing it’s just a fairytale.” He then is actually pretty kind in warning her not to talk about the light to other people if he were here, because “being too different from others only causes problems” (which indicates that Noctis has seen this firsthand, which is why he’s all hush-hush about it now).

And since they’re playing this game about the legend not being true, Stella asks: “If the legend is just a fairytale, what do you think the light really is?” Noctis replies: “It’s just something that’s there. Why can’t that be enough?” Noctis indicates that he has to go, and Stella says that she’d better do so, too. Stella introduces herself to Noctis (because she hadn’t until this moment, but she already knew who he was), but it’s clear in their hesitance and mannerisms that they like each other and don’t want this moment to end. Noctis even asks Stella to call him by his nickname “Noct”.

Stella tells Noctis: “You know, I think I received something from that light tonight. I was given the chance to speak with you.” Noctis then jokes, “Well, then. Enjoy the nightmares,” since earlier Stella had said that if she got anything from the light--as doing so, in seeing the light, meant that someone had just died in that moment--it would give her nightmares. And Stella teases, “You’re a funny one, aren’t you Prince Noctis?” He tells her to call him “Noct” again, and she says she will the next time they meet: so he should come by Tenebrae sometime and she’ll show him around. He says he’ll consider it, and Stella leaves.

Now, let’s compare that with some SoKai banter. At the opening of KHI, Kairi startles Sora awake and she laughs at his expense. He tells her to give him a break, and she says: “Sora, you lazy bum. I knew I’d find you snoozing down here.” He then tries to argue that, “No, this huge black thing almost swallowed me up. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t- ow!” at which point Kairi has slapped him upside the head and asks, “Are you still dreaming?” Sora: “No, it wasn’t a dream... Or was it? What was that place? So bizarre.” Kairi: “Yeah, sure.” Sora then asks Kairi what her home was like: where she grew up. And she says, “I’ve told you before, I don’t remember.” There’s definitely some snark in that “I’ve told you before” bit. Sora asks: “Nothing at all?” And Kairi lies, “Nothing.” Sora then asks if Kairi ever wants to go back and she says that she’s happy on the Islands. Sora is doubtful about that questions, “Really?” Kairi then says she wouldn’t mind going to see it, though, and Sora says that he’d like to see it too, along with any other world out there: he wants to see them all. Kairi then asks what they’re waiting for.

Some other SoKai banter-y moments from the series: Kairi suggesting she and Sora take the raft without Riku, before admitting she’s only kidding. To which Sora teasingly says, “What’s gotten into you? You’re the one that’s changed, Kairi.” And then it continues onto a very sweet scene where Kairi explains that at first she was scared of seeing other worlds, but in knowing she can always return home she feels safe about it. And Sora reassures her that she will alway be able to come home. To which she tells Sora to never change... and though he’s baffled by it, you know he must appreciate the compliment.

The little argument they get into in the Underground Cavern: Kairi: “Well, let’s go.” Sora: “You can’t go.” Kairi: “Why not?” Sora: “Because it’s way too dangerous.” Kairi: “Come on, Sora. We’ve made it this far by sticking together. You can’t go alone!” Sora: “Kairi, even if we’re apart we’re not alone anymore, right?” Kairi: “I can’t help?” Sora: “You’d kind of be in my way.” Kairi: “Okay. You win. Take this. It’s my lucky charm, be sure to bring it back to me.” And she’s almost threatening him to bring it back with her tone, like “bring it back to me, or else.” But this is really her way of saying “make sure you come back home to me alive, you butt”. And Sora answers: “Don’t worry, I will.” And they make a promise that he will. And Kairi tells him that wherever he goes, she’s always with him and he says he’s always with her later, too.

If you talk to Kairi on the Islands, as she’s telling you what to collect. She’ll say something like, “Did you get that?” And Sora can say, “Yeah, I heard you.” Or “What was that again?” And if he says the latter, she’ll say “You’re hopeless!” and then begin telling you it again. She can also, in an exasperated way, give you hints on where to find things....

Which I think Sora references in this KHII conversation, as he teases her yet again: “You don’t remember my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi!” Kairi gasps here. Sora: “Okay, I guess I can give you a hint. Starts with an ‘S’.”

And just... look at all the text bubble things she says to him in KHII (quoting off the top of my head here) “I wish I could fight like you and Riku... I know what you’re going to say,” he was clearly arguing with her here, or about to, “but you two shouldn’t be the only ones getting hurt.” “So you all were out adventuring while I was living a normal life? Why do I always get left out? You’re going to tell me about it later!” “The three of us being together again like this reminds me of old times. If we all make it home, let’s finish that raft of ours!” “I’m sick of waiting so don’t tell me to stay behind. From now on, wherever one of us goes the other follows. Got it?”

And even in KHIII, where people say her feistiness was completely taken away, look at the look she gives Sora when he seems about to deny he ever wanted to share a paopu with her... Or how she says “I told you Sora, you’re safe with me.” (If that had been Nami instead, or something, she would have just blushed or smiled or sweetly said, “You’re safe with me, Sora.” There would have been no “I told yous” going on). And how she gives him that “So you finally figured it out, did you?” look, when he realizes it was her act of true love that saved him.

Other examples of Kairi poking fun at Sora: She actually calls him a lazy bum twice in KHII. The second time is after Leon knocked him out. Kairi: “Come on, lazy bum. Wake up.” And yes, I think that was Kairi and not Yuffie. In KHII, she tells Riku: “Come on, Riku. You know Sora’s completely hopeless without us.” And in KHI Sora says, “I can’t believe it. I really flew. Wait ‘til I tell Kairi! I wonder if she’ll believe me... probably not.” And in 0.2, Kairi tells Riku, “Who’s this Riku and where’s the old one? You sound like Sora.” And when Riku pretty much admits he is being Sora-esque, Kairi tells him, “Well, we still like you.” Which sounded like more Sora ribbing to me. Like, “Oh no, Riku! You’re acting like Sora! Yikes! But don’t worry, we still like you.”

So now that I’ve hopefully established that Noctella and SoKai have some of the same chemistry and flirting techniques, let’s move onto other ways they’re similar:

2. The childhood friends thing, for sure.

3. That they got separated when they were young (fourteen-year-old Sora and Kairi and probably under twelve Noctis and Stella), as via concept art, I’m pretty sure the scene where Noctis and Luna get separated in Kingsglaive (when the Empire occupies Tenebrae) was actually written by Nomura (there’s quite a bit of evidence to this, but I’m only going to get into it if you want me to)... except I feel Stella would have chosen to stay behind like Luna did, and this might be a reason she came to resent King Regis, Noctis, and Lucis some (as Stella was supposed to be part antagonist... though I have my series that that was a ruse. And that Lucis was secretly the bad guys the whole time, so in somewhat opposing them Stella was really the heroine all along, but ehh).

3.5 And with that, they seem to be separated a lot (like SoKai) and do the “reaching for each other” thing, too.

4. Both couples have the same power. Sora and Kairi can summon Keyblades, and Noctis and Stella both had the Power of Kings (that’s what it’s called in FFXV, anyway, if that was what it was called back in Versus XIII, I don’t know). And with that, and also with them both having the power to see the Light, I think Nomura meant for the two to parallel each other--or perhaps be Foils--that we’ve even seen a bit with Sora and Kairi, like with how their movements in the secret place to see the paopu drawing are exactly the same.

5. Both pairings, for some reason, have connections to the Final World... that should maybe be Sora and Kairi’s place (and I have my theories about that), since it’s where sea and sky meet. But a dead Stella is there, and a dead Sora is there, eventually at the same time(?) (...and Sora and Kairi met there in the main game). And if you get the bad ending of the Yozora fight, it looks like Yozora reaches the Final World and finds Stella. And if you win the Yozora fight, it looks like Sora enters the Final World and finds Kairi. And Stella told Sora about Yozora... and it’s maybe implied that Kairi told Yozora about Sora? And both Sora and Yozora are in a night version of the Final World... which I especially have no idea how Yozora is there, if Sora got there by abusing the Power of Waking. And both boys also got there, somewhat, in presumably trying to save their girls (that I’ll get into more in a minute).

6. Noctis and Stella at least called each other on cell phones in Versus XIII, apparently. And Sora at least had the potential to call Kairi on the gummiphone in KHIII, but never did (but maybe he didn't because Kairi didn’t get hers until Jiminy gave everyone them at the end of the game, and by then there was no point). But perhaps Sora and Kairi will communicate this way, ala Noctis and Stella, in the future.

Which brings me to the more important number seven. 7. In the one concept art, it looks like Stella has the Lovers’ Notebook from XV... which maybe means that that was always Nomura’s idea, and Noctis and Stella would have somewhat communicated through letters to each other like Noctis and Luna ended up doing. And Kairi writes letters to Sora (she’s been doing this since II). And perhaps Sora might write to her in the future.

8. Both girls were presumably killed by their respective game’s antagonist, and the protagonists were distraught by the loss of them (well, this fact is being kept from Yozora, since another’s heart has taken root in him... but Stella says he will be distraught when he finds out. And I believe her. And I also think he knows more about it than she realizes) and go to great lengths to bring them back. Like, I think that’s why Yozora reaches the Final World in the bad ending: he’s trying to find Stella.

9. Reasons I think Kairi and Stella are the same person (other than what I’ve already listed)... From the little we know of Stella, which I admit isn’t a lot, she and Kairi seem to have similar personalities (with them both being teasing, yet kind). Stella is/was arguably a princess like Kairi “is”. Based off the one concept art of Stella, they both clearly like pink and perhaps fashion... They both have ethereal kinds of powers, it looks like... A lot of people have even brought up how the new version of Stella looks a lot like Kairi (and even the past design for Stella had purple eyes like Kairi, as does her new design). Especially the Another Side, Another Story design for Kairi. They both like flowers... And while I do think her name will be star-themed, based on her necklace and her being called the “Nameless Star”, perhaps it represents how the paopu fruit is star-shaped... and the paopu fruit has been connected to Kairi for a long time now, like with how that was the chess piece that represented her on Xehanort’s chessboard. Oh! And they’re both very polite and respectful. And both Kairi and Stella 2.0 have sort of emblem necklaces, but tbh... so do most FF girls. And Kairi can warp-strike like Stella may have been able to. Stella’s magic is now purple like Kairi’s signature color used to be. Part of Kairi’s skirt in KHIII is like Stella’s from Versus XIII.

10. Reasons why I think Sora and Yozora are the same person (other than what I’ve already listed): their names both mean “sky”. And long ago, Nomura said how he named Sora and Yozora (then Noctis) as opposites for a reason (since Yozora is “night sky”). Probably because Yozora has become corrupted, as someone’s possessing him... and maybe he was even corrupted because his light, Stella, is gone. Like it was so easy for Master Xehanort to turn Sora into Rage Form when his light, Kairi, was gone. Yozora can steal your Keyblade... and apparently if you hack that fight, you can get the words “you’re not the true Keyblade bearer”, or something like that, to appear. Which sounds like some Sora and Roxas type shit to me. Oh! And Yozora can steal your Keyblade, which says a lot right there! And the fight with Yozora begins on Sora’s heart platform/his heart, before Yozora somehow turns it into Shinjuku/the world of Verum Rex. I also think we were supposed to imagine Rex thinking Sora was Yozora was a red-herring when, in fact, it was anything but. Like, I think Sora looks like Yozora some. Edit: And, yes: Yozora is a prince--maybe? His driver referred to him as a commander--but there’s also a lot of evidence that Sora secretly is or is going to become that. Or a king, rather. Edit 2: And Sora is teased over his crush on Kairi in KH, and according to old Nomura interviews... the chocobros were going to tease Noctis about Stella in Versus XIII. They can both warp, too. And they could both be said “I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately, like is any of this for real or not” moments in their stories. Could Magia and Aegis be like Yozora’s Donald and Goofy?

There are even more things I could say... (like, how according to rumors, Ravus was a lot like Riku--and Ravus hated Noctis because he killed his sister Stella... while possessed, no doubt. And perhaps Riku is the Ravus to Stella’s Kairi, as maybe he does see her as more of a sibling now, and we just saw his hatred of Sora when it came to Kairi play out earlier and for different reasons), I won’t because there’s less concrete evidence there... I really think this could easily be a thing, guy. And if nothing else, it’s at least a theory worth looking at, imo.

Edit: Though it’s also just possible that Nomura likes to use similar tropes with his couples. Haha.

#long post #sokai #noctella #yozorastella #verum rex #theory #also I didn't proof read any of this and right now am too lazy too. wee!

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sasa-writes-fandom-things · 4 years

Text

One night in Bangkok

Fandom: MCU

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OFC Kairi Higarashi

Setting: After the events of Endgame

Song prompt I was given: One night in Bangkok by Murray Head

Word count: 4.5k

Warnings: fluff, open end, slightly OOC Bucky, mild angst, violence

Summary: The former Winter Soldier decided that it was time for him to live a little so he travelled to Bangkok and discovered two things: ecstasy and despair.

Author’s note: This monster was written for Mimi's One Hit Wonder Challenge. It is my longest fic since 10 years and it took me some time to finish it but overall I am proud of it! <3 @captain-rogers-beard Also I am posting this on my writing sideblog, my main is @saratour

~*~

It was another humid night at Rattanakosin, the old quarter of Bangkok. As there was an old quarter in almost every town, Bangkok's wasn't much different. Despite a few impressive temples and an actual palace, you could find many shopping opportunities and the main street was busy every night with its bars, restaurants and clubs.

A certain ex-assassin walked idly over the buzzing main street. After they won against Thanos with all the sacrifices that came with it, life got back to normal. Steve gave his shield and the duty of being Captain America to Sam. As Bucky was walking through the crowded street, he thought to himself, that it was probably for the best. Sam becoming the next Cap and not him. Steve knew as much as Bucky, that the latter wasn't ready to take on the shield. Heck, it was roughly only a year after the talented scientists in Wakanda freed him from this horrid brainwash.

He needed to live a bit - a thing, that both Sam and Steve told him with big smirks on their faces. So he took their advice to heart and travelled the world. His current stop was the capital of Thailand. It was a nice warm night and the dark haired man was looking for a place to eat. He loved all the different smells and intriguing offers he saw. All the restaurants and bars on the main street however were cramped, a fact that Bucky didn't find appealing. So he wandered a bit off street and spotted a small restaurant. It looked almost empty and he had to make sure that it was even open for business. He wasn't good with big crowds after all. His social skills were rusty to say the least.

His feeling didn't let him down. The restaurant was small, but clean and only a handful of tables were occupied. He took a seat at an empty one and waited. A young woman with violet hair shouted something in Thai. After a moment, she came to his table. The first thing Bucky noticed about her, were her piercing green eyes. They were almost cat-like and sparkled with honest kindness. Her hair was violet and rather short, experts would've call this a bob. She gave him a gentle smile and greeted him again in Thai. The super soldier must have had a dumbfounded look on his face because after him not responding, she repeated her greeting, this time in English.

“Here is the menu. Do you know what you want to drink or do you need a minute?” She handed him the afore mentioned menu and waited, a small block and pencil at the ready. Bucky tried a smile himself. “Water would be nice.” She nodded but didn't write it on her block and just turned around. The dark haired man watched her get behind the counter and pouring a glass of water. He was so captured by her skilled hands that he forgot to read the menu and choose a dish for dinner. As she returned to his table with the glass of water, he hadn't chosen at all. “Take your time, I will be back in a couple of minutes.” She assured him with another smile and went to tend to another table.

“Oi Violet, move your ass over here!” A harsh and loud voice interrupted the peaceful atmosphere of the restaurant. Bucky tried not to look up from his dinner but after hearing her voice he couldn't help himself. “I told you countless times, that my name is not Violet!” The young woman shot back angrily with both hands on her hips. “And I would appreciate it, if you could lower your voice. You're disturbing the other guests.” The rude man grunted as a response and stood up. He was quite tall and towered over her small frame. “And what if I don't, sweetheart? What will you do, huh?” He put a finger under her chin and lifted it, so that she had to look him in the eyes. “I will kick you out!” The waitress informed him matter of factly. This response earned her a loud laugh. “I don't think so, sweetie. But I am sure we can come to another agreement...” He eyed her up and licked his lips with a wolfish grin. Bucky watched the scene in front of him. His metal arm, covered by his jacket and a glove almost broke the chopsticks. If this bastard would make another move, he would interfere! Maybe this wasn't the 40s anymore but in no era should a woman be treated like that. But just as he was about to get up, the rude man was hunching next to the woman. He cursed profoundly while holding his manly parts. This waitress knew her moves, Bucky was quite impressed. The remaining conversation was quite and ended with the rude man leaving the establishment. After that she came to his table with an apologetic look on her face. “I am so sorry, that you had to witness this. In satisfaction of the disturbance dessert is on the house.”

After this incident Bucky found himself coming to the restaurant almost every night. It wasn't so much for the food, which was delicious, it was more for the woman who peeked his interest with simply not being a damsel in distress. At his fifth visit, his waitress joked that he was becoming a regular. He tried every dish on the menu and when he wasn't sure, he enjoyed to get a recommendation from her. On a particular quite night she even sat down at his table and had dessert with him. Bucky grew comfortable around her, even that much, that he took off his glove. She wasn't startled, she just gave him a curious look but knew better than to bring it up. He appreciated that. After a whole week, she eventually told him her name.

“That's not a Thai name... Kairi is what, Japanese?” She smiled and continued to dry the glasses from the open dishwasher. Bucky was standing at the counter, enjoying a cold beer.

“Something like that. I am half Japanese. All I know from Google is, that it is associated with the ocean.” “I think it suits you... better than Violet.”

“Definitely better than Violet! Do you plan on staying in Bangkok longer? I remember that you said you would only be here for a bit more than a week.”

“That was my initial plan, yes... However I discovered something interesting which makes me want to stay a bit more.”

What was happening to him? This wasn't his usual demeanour. His people skills were rusty and all that he knew was war and battles and death and fights! Travelling to all this exotic and amazing places, meeting all kinds of people made him less than an hermit, granted but still he was surprised that he knew how to flirt after all.

“Well, this interest must be quite fascinating to make you extend your visit.” Kairi leant on the counter which accentuated her well-formed breasts. Bucky wasn't able to look away, he was just only a man. He gulped audibly and licked over his dry lips. Was she flirting back at him? Could it be, that she took the same liking to him as he took to her? There was only one way to find out! “Would you like to go out with me?” He blurted out suddenly. Surprising her and him both. A few uncomfortable seconds ticked by and then the silence was broken by her soft giggle. “I didn't expect you to be so bold.” The super soldier was about to apologize and tell her that she should forget about it, but she interrupted him. “Tomorrow's my day off. Pick me up at noon.” She gave him a wink, grabbed her block and pencil and greeted the new guests, who had just arrived. Bucky was left with mixed feelings. Not in the world would he have thought, that she would agree to go on a date with him. A warm and pleasant feeling started to settle in his chest and made the world look just a bit brighter.

Tomorrow noon came way too fast for Bucky's liking and he was actually nervous. He hadn't had a date since well a whole lifetime. But something about Kairi made it easy to relax and be himself. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He got a text from Steve.

Don't sweat it, Buck. She will see the same humble guy as I see.

Bucky smiled at his phone. He wasn't sure that this guy was still in him. But maybe it was time to find out. He typed a quick response and put his phone back just in time for Kairi to arrive.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

The date went wonderfully well much to Bucky's surprise and delight. He learned a few new things about this amazing woman. She had six older half-brothers and she came from a patchwork family. Her favourite colour was green and she hated plumbs. In return he opened up to her a bit more. He tried to focus on the good things from the past. Like the Stark fair he went to with Steve just before deployment. Or the countless times he had to save Steve from some jerks. After knowing his name and seeing his metal hand Kairi clearly put one and one together. That also meant that she knew he was the Winter Soldier. An ex-assassin. A cold blood murderer. The internet was full of reports of him killing people. While chatting about this and that his thoughts got gloomy. Kairi was a smart and wonderful woman, Bucky could hardly believe that she would want to enjoy his company after knowing about his dark past. He figured that she only stayed because he was now a member of the Avengers who saved the world. This thought soured the wonderful date he had with her.

Not much between despair and ecstasy

“You are making that face again, Bucky.” They were walking along a beautiful small canal, the moon rising to its zenith illuminating the landscape and the couple. Bucky was still in thoughts and didn't hear her. When she took his metal hand in hers, she caught his attention. “What is on your mind?” Her eyes sparked like precious emeralds and her even features were beautifully highlighted by the moonlight. Her lips adorned a gentle and warm smile. He couldn't help but bring up his flesh hand and cupping her face. His eyes flickered between her eyes and lips. Unsure if he should proceed or not. “You gonna kiss me, soldier or not?” Her hands travelled to his neck and pulled him closer. Their faces where only inches apart, soft breaths were exchanged and just when the tension wasn't bearable any longer, their lips met in a chaste kiss. Soon they had to break apart, both panting a little and smiling softly. “I would say, still got it, soldier.” Kairi smirked and caressed his stubbled cheek with one hand. Bucky was still amazed by this sweet kiss that he couldn't form a coherent sentence. Instead he kept looking at those mesmerizing green eyes. A warm breeze rustled her hair and it felt oddly like a scene out of a romance movie. Bucky couldn't help but smile at her in utter bliss. He would have never imagined ending up in a reassuring embrace and looking into a warm and loveable face. After they shared this tender moment under the dazzling moonlight they continued their stroll. The day or rather night ended too fast and in true gentleman fashion Bucky walked his date to her apartment.

Kairi turned around, hand on the door knob, door half opened. “Do you wanna come in?” Her smile was honest and it reached her eyes. The dark haired man shifted uncomfortable on his feet. “I think we should let it end here. I am not good with... You know I wasn't with someone since...” He searched for the right words and grew even more uncomfortable. But the violet haired woman understood and ended his suffering. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, stepped closer and kissed him again. It was just a quick peck on the lips. “I understand. No worries.” Kairi opened the door to her apartment fully and headed inside. “I'll see you tomorrow in the restaurant?” She wanted to know, a small flash of insecurity crossed her face. Bucky returned her smile. “You will. Good night, Kairi.” He bid her farewell and after her door closed fully he turned around. His heart was overflowing with a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. As the ex-assassin was walking back to his current residence, a realization hit him with the force of a truck. He was about to fall for this woman! The thought made his heart stutter and he felt like his legs would give in any minute. Was he allowed to feel so light and good? Was he allowed to love and more importantly was he worth to be loved in return?

One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble

They went out a few more times after the first successful date. And after staying in Bangkok for almost a month, he thought about getting his own place. With the help of Kairi he got himself a nice and small apartment in a decent neighbourhood. He even got a job as a part time bouncer for a club. As Kairi was working as a waitress she had a wide social network and she was friends with some of the girls working in afore mentioned club. They were having a hard time with some very rude and impertinent customers. So it was not far fetched that with his background and appearance he was perfect for the job. He was becoming unbend and made a few friends even. When he called Steve the other night, his friend mentioned that he was becoming more Bucky and less Winter Soldier. He had to promise the other super soldier that Bucky would introduce the woman who unfroze his heart soon.

Life was good. He felt that he finally had arrived in the 21st century. Bucky looked down at the sleeping woman in his arms and couldn't help but smile. He kissed her head and hugged her tighter, his eyes closing and sleep finally taking over him as well.

The former Winter Soldier awoke to an unknown amount of noise. It sounded a lot like things breaking and crashing. His brain still heavy with sleep couldn't figure out the source yet. Bucky got up and noticed that he was alone. “Doll?” He called out while putting a shirt on. The crashing noises grew louder and a scream let Bucky's blood freeze. Adrenaline rushed through his body and he was back in fight mode in an instance. He stormed into the living room, hands balled to fists ready to fight. But nobody was here. The furnishings were overthrown, a broken vase laid on the ground. But there was no sight of Kairi. With panic raising Bucky searched the small apartment. But he was utterly alone. Anger boiled in him, whoever took her from him would pay dearly! Just when he was about to leave the apartment, the unharmed TV sprung to live. Bucky was greeted with a white light and a voice that sent shivers down to his very core. Hydra, he thought immediately. “Good day, Mr. Barnes. I believe we haven't met. Please have a seat my friend.” The smooth voice told Bucky, who stood in front of the TV and didn't move a muscle. “Don't want to sit? Fine with me. I have to say I was rather surprised to read a report, saying that our Winter Soldier was alive and somewhat rehabilitated.” Bucky tried to get as many information out of this obscure conversation as possible. As much as he wanted to shout and tell the man to get to the point, his tactical side took over. “And I was even more surprised to hear that you were here in my beautiful city.” You could hear the sly smile in the voice. “I believe you already figured out what we want, Mr. Barnes.” Bucky gritted his teeth together. Of course he knew what they want. Him, back on duty. Back as the mindless killing machine. “Before you say anything you would regret you should take into account that we have something of much value to you...” The screen went from bight to dark and a shuffling noise could be heard and after a minute, a face came into view. The image made Bucky gulp and he anger threatened to boil over, his metal arm crunched with a metallic sound. Kairi's face was covered in blood and bruises. She was barely conscious. Two hands had to hold her face into the camera, so Bucky could see her. This made him sick to the stomach and he had to mentally calm himself down. At least she was alive, he kept telling himself. The screen flickered again and the bright white light was back and so was the velvety voice. “Well, I think you are more than keen to comply, aren't you?” Bucky clenched his fists tighter. “Ready to comply.” Was all he hissed. The screen went black and his cellphone buzzed.

After the initial shock and disgust, Bucky complied. Kairi's life was on the line after all. The tasks Hydra told him to do were rather simple. It involved killing some people without getting seen or caught. And after 10 hits they would release the woman that he loved and he was free to go. Bucky scoffed at that, he knew better than to believe it. So he had to save her on his own. Luckily the Hydra agents weren't what they used to be. The super soldier easily extracted the information he needed to pinpoint Kairis location. “Just a little while longer, doll.” he thought to himself while he disarmed a patrolling agent. Getting in was easy and if he had had more time to think about it and wouldn't have been so pre-occupied with fear and sorrow, he would have seen it coming. But all he could think of was Kairi. And when he finally found her deep in the facility he couldn't suppress a relieved sob. He cradled her bruised form carefully in his arms. The violet haired woman whimpered and slowly opened her eyes. “Bucky?” She muttered breathlessly. “I got you, doll. You're safe now!” Relieve flooded him and he placed feather-light kisses on her hair, forehead, nose and everywhere he could reach without hurting her further. “Let's get out of here.” He picked her up bridal style and just when he was about to reach the door a gunshot graced his metal shoulder. Bucky moved within a second. His metal arm released her legs gently and he took the extra second to make sure she was able to stand on her feet. With his right hand he steadied her while he used his left hand to deflect the bullets as best as he could. Adrenaline cursed though his body, he was so occupied to shield the woman in his arm, that he missed the prick of the needle in his exposed neck. His body suddenly felt stiff and the fire stopped. In total shock his eyes searched for the familiar emerald ones. But this time they weren't full of love or even fear due to this whole situation – no this time they were like the gem stones, hard and unyielding. The drug was working, sending his body into overdrive. He felt his legs gave in and his head throbbed painfully. He only half registered that Kairi freed herself from his arm and made her way through the other end of the room. Still pretty beaten up but not as weak on her feet than a minute before, she stood dutifully next to the door. “Well, well, well. You exceeded our time frame, Mr. Barnes.” An all too familiar velvety voice announced cheerfully. A dark, tall man wearing an expensive suit walked in. “It pains me too see that we had to use Agent V's talents to finally get to you.” He gave Kairi a small nod which she returned.

Can't be too careful with your company

But all Bucky could see was his woman stand next to those Hydra agents. He couldn't believe it. He refused to do so! A pain much grater than all the countless battle wounds he suffered settled in. He was such a fool for trusting her. Just when he thought that he deserved this happiness, destiny came and proved him wrong. She tricked him! But what was even worse, he let her. Bucky was furious! Her betrayal weighed heavy on his chest. Breathing became almost unbearable with every breath and every heartbeat the realization sunk deeper into his brain. “I think now he is more open to comply again, sir.” Kairi observed, her eyes taking in her lovers haunched state. “Very well then!” The man in charge clapped his hands. “Get Mr. Barnes set up for the procedure, Agent V.”

The drug and his broken heart made his attempts at resisting futile. Two strong arms dragged him to the wall and chained his hands behind his back. He swore when Shuri finally rid him from the programming that he would not be made into a mindless killing machine ever again. But although his vow he was slipping in and out of consciousness. Kairi was saying something to the other agent but he couldn't make out the words. His head felt clouded and dizzy. He was about to pass out completely.

The first thing he felt, when he finally regained consciousness was a warm and wet cloth pressed gently to his temple and forehead. His eyes fluttered and violet hair came into his view. “Kairi...” Bucky breathed out. “Shh, don't speak.” She hushed him and continued to wipe his forehead. “How could you...” He slurred still affected from the drug she gave him. Kairi paid him no mind, her attention was set on something else. Two other agents joined them and Kairi's whole body stiffened slightly. “I don't need help... or a babysitter.” Kairi quipped while helping Bucky to stand up. “Suit yourself, V.” One of the agents scoffed but left the room nonetheless. The female agent made quick work of his chuckles. Once free, he slumped against her firm body, resting nearly all his body weight on her. “We need to hurry, Buck.” The former Winter Soldier wasn't sure what was going on, he still had a hard time believe that she was a Hydra agent. The drug was loosing its effect on him slowly. Rather slow the made it out of the room and into the long and sterile looking floor. Bucky attempted to stand on his own, still wobbly on his feet and dizzy from the heavy drugs the violet haired woman gave him. Kairi was looking over her shoulder the entire time they walked through this underground maze. A piercing sound tore through the air and distant shouting could be heard. Bucky raised an eyebrow and looked questioningly to his guard. “Seems like we've been caught.” Kairi mocked and increased her speed. Bucky's mind was reeling, why would they've been caught? Wasn't she just transferring him to another cell or something?

“What is going on, Kairi?” The use of her actual name rather the endearment hurt her more than she would like to admit. “What does it look like? I'm busting you out!” Bucky couldn't trust his ears. But she was Hydra? So why on earth would she help him? A small fracking of his heart chimed in hopefully. “Because she does love you!” He tried to nip this feeling in the bud. There was literally no time for emotions now. Later, not now. He hoped that there would be a later when they accounted a couple of agents at the end of the corridor.

“What is this all about, Agent V?” One of them wanted to know. “I am done with you guys!” Kairi exclaimed with a smug smile on her face and balled her hands to fists. “When I say now, shield your eyes with your metal arm, Bucky.” She whispered to the man beside her. “You rat!” And with that shout the Hydra agents launched forward. “NOW!”

A blinding white light erupted from her palms. The agents screamed in agony and tried to cover their eyes but it was too late. One after another slumped to the ground with a final thud. After the intensity decreased Bucky had to blink a few times to see something. “We need to hurry now!” Kairi noted while making her way past the bodies. Bucky followed her suit. He noticed in passing that the eyes of the agents were burned out and only black sockets looked back at the ceiling.

“What the hell are you?!” Bucky wanted to know when he caught up to her. “I am gifted and a long time ago Daisy Johnson recruited me to work for SHIELD.” They crossed another empty hallway, their heavy footsteps echoing in the silence. “Look, I know you have questions, but right now, we need to get out of here! I will explain everything to you. I promise!” Bucky had a hard time believing her again. But what she said made sense. A while ago, he ran into Daisy himself and he talked to her about her project. But she was right, getting out of here was the priority. The dark haired man couldn't help himself but to glance at her running beside him. He was impressed and terrified at the same time of her powers.

I can feel the devil walking next to me

Escaping the secret Hydra facility wasn't easy but not unmanageable. In no time Bucky found himself inside a helicopter, Kairi piloting and contacting Daisy at the same time. And for the first time after this debacle had started he allowed himself to feel hope. He looked to the side, at this incredible woman who owned his heart. She noticed his gaze and looked at him. The sun was just announcing a new day and the warm light shone upon them, Kairi reached for his hand but stopped midway, doubt and fear holding her back. She was pleasantly surprised when she felt a cool and firm grip on her still hoovering hand. She looked up from their interlaced fingers and met his open gaze. Maybe there was hope after all. Kairi smiled and squeezed Bucky's hand reassuringly. There was a lot to talk about but for now they both were sure, that there was still hope.

Hope that this fateful night in Bangkok did led to a brighter future.

#marvel one shot #Bucky Barnes x OFC #mimi's one hit wonder challenge #mcu #winter soldier #bucky barnes #sasa writes

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ravenaveira · 4 years

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Ok, time for my review of Kh3 Re:Mind Dlc

This is gonna be long, so be prepared, and yes there will be many spoilers so if you dont want spoilers of the game then you probably shouldnt read this, but if you dont care then stick around.

I will start off with my unbiased and critical opinion.

From the title menu alone you already know what this game is gonna be about. Kairi is gonna be center focus, or should say specifically Sokai, and Riku will be virtually non existent.

Now I know what your thinking, well duh its all about saving Kairi of course Riku wont have that big a role and she’ll be the main focus, and to that I say no shit sherlock I already knew that. My issue isnt that it was Kairi focused because I already knew that and still pre-ordered the DLC, but my issue is what this title screen represents and my fears were proven correct.

Let me elaborate

Riku is just as much of a friend to Sora as Kairi is, from the beginning of the series its always been Sora, Riku, and Kairi, thats the way its ALWASY been. But from this title screen I could tell Riku’s bond with them wasnt gonna be present at all and I was right.

I’ll elaborate further

I know Im jumping way ahead here but bare with me, at the end of the game after Sora rescues Kairi they travel the worlds together, Sora notices he is fading away which is why he goes to the many different worlds he has visited but now with Kairi, spending his final moments with her before he finally disapears.

See the problem? Sora doesnt involve Riku at all in his final moments being alive, he is just completely absent during his entire remaining life. Sora only spends time with Kairi during his final moments, Riku wasnt shown with them once.

I know some people say well we dont know how long Sora was alive before vanishing and he was probably the one who organized the party, but did we see that though? did we see any signs that Sora was alive for more than a day or two? did we see Sora talking to anyone like he was setting anything up? NO, it was all about Kairi and Riku was completely forgotten.

I can understand if Sora wasnt dying then it wouldnt matter how much time he spends with Kairi alone, but Sora was fading away ANY SECOND and he didnt spend any of his remaining time with Riku at all, even at the beach party who is Sora sitting next to alone with before he finally vanishes? Kairi. That is inexcusable and a huge insult to Riku and his bond with Sora, hes just completely excluded, that is unforgivable.

These new added scenes to the ending actually made it worse than the original version of it, before we didnt even know Sora was around for more than a day and just assumed they all had a beach party afterwards to celebrate getting everyone back and saving the world, but now we know Sora was actually around for an extended period of time and made no effort to spend time with anyone other than Kairi, not even his best friend Riku did he spend time with for his final hours, that is despicable.

Another major issue is how Sora keeps saying his journey started with losing Kairi in this game, as if Riku wasnt ALSO lost that day, as if Riku wasnt the reason Sora kept on his journey even after saving Kairi and sending her back to Destiny Islands, as if he didnt fall to his knees and bawl his eyes out finally reuniting with him, as if he wasnt content with spending the rest of his life trapped in the Realm of Darkness with Riku, as if for the entirety of the base game of kh3 Sora wasnt constantly and only thinking about Riku and how many things he wished he could show him.

Apparently in Remind none of that happened, none of that mattered, it was Kairi that was his main motivation, it was Kairi that started his journey, Riku wasnt involved in it at all.

That is a huge issue with this DLC, it treats Riku like a side character and of little importance to Sora, in the base game they handled them fine minus that on instance in the Keyblade Graveyard where Sora says ‘Alone, Im worthless’ even though Riku’s right there but other than that their relationship and bond was handled very well but in Remind? practically non existent.

Now onto the story aspect, if your not into time travel and have trouble understanding the many variations of it then your gonna have a bad time because it gets VERY confusing to follow, which is why you should never introduce time travel because it becomes way too complicated to keep track of and not only that you also have to worry about things like paradoxes, ripples in time, alternate timelines etc. Its a complete clusterfuck to keep up with and manage so time travel really shouldnt have been introduced in this series.

Chirithy tells Sora that no matter what he cant change the past again, yet there are times where Sora does just that so exactly what cant he change? for example, when Roxas appears he asks Sora to do him a favor which is essentially getting the X back from Xemnas in their names. Sora does several things to make this happen and even Kairi gets a couple swings at Xemnas this time but then the two of them are basically caught and restrained inside shadow balls [pause]

See the prob? this is a huge change to that fight, Kairi never took a single swing at Xemnas, she just stood there and got snatched up, Roxas never asked Sora for help getting the X’s back from Xemnas, and Sora and Kairi never got restrained by Xemnas and knocked out.

Chirithy explicitly said Sora cant change what happened and no matter what he has to accept it for what it is, yet here he is, changing what happened. Maybe you could argue well this is an alternate timeline, even if it is that makes all of this irrelevant and means it never happened because the true ending is the one where it didnt happen, making this semi useful Kairi moment really pointless because at the end of the day its not canon, her being useless is the true outcome, none of this matters.

That is extremely disappointing, so even if you alter the past for the better it doesnt matter because its an alternate timeline and that timeline isnt the real one making this whole redo pointless and time consuming for a short DLC that was an extra 30$ to play.

So the time travel is very confusing and even if you follow it, it ends up being very disappointing when you realize none of it matters.

Moving on to some of the tied loose ends, Im glad they explained why Aqua froze up after saying ‘We stand together’ and I like how we get to see how Young Xehanort came to have the beliefs that lead to what he did and also MOMs subtle influence on him succumbing to darkness.

He told Xehanort that he would outgrow the robe and no longer need it because if he was truly powerful then he’d be the one controling the darkness, this leads to Xehanort later begining to travel without the robe and being corrupted. So we know now that MOM also influenced that as well and is very sketchy, even more now than he was before since this action greatly influenced what Xehanort eventually does and all the pain he caused, all of which would have probably never happened if it wasnt for him.

But thats just my theory and what I got from it.

I liked that we got to see Namine for a brief moment where Sora basically brushes her off and completely forgets about thanking her, this is a plotline Im pretty sure at this point is just never going to get resolved. He just tells her to go to the Final World and walks off, which makes no sense because Sora was surprised to see her in the original playthrough.

Another change was Lingering Will dying to protect Sora, again this never happened because Sora was busy fighting alongside everyone in the maze while Lingering Will and Terranort were fighting away from them. After Lingering Will died for him then Sora is pretty much squeezed to death by Terranorts Stand, or atleast knocked unconscious.

So much about these are just so confusing as to how they are happening when Chirithy said the events couldnt be changed I just stopped questioning it.

But atleast this time its made clear that Namine is the one who sent Lingering Will to help everyone and how she did it, so now people can stop saying Kairi is the reason everyone survived because it wasnt, without Lingering Will they would have all died a second time.

Basically the first half of the DLC is just recap with some minor changes and additions to the cutscenes, you get to play as other characters like Riku [optional] Aqua [not optional] and Roxas [optional] but other than that its basically the same thing all over again for the first 3-4 hours of the DLC, that is ridiculous.

The new content finally starts when Kairi is shattered, funny how the game gets good after Kairi dies xD I’ll stop.

Anyway once Kairi dies is when we finally get explorable Scala, but not without having to endure an insane fight with tons of heartless and nobodies and yes its more complicated than you think. It doesnt matter how many heartless or nobodies you kill, they will keep coming until you kill this one red heartless with way more health than your average heartless has.

After that you can pretty much wander around Scala as you wish and this is the only time where you can buy items or food so make sure to do that if your low on items. If your low on money there are minor enemies there that you can kill to get some so take advantage of this opportunity because your not getting another one.

Your goal in Scala is to basically run around, solve a couple puzzles, and get 5 of Kairi’s heart shards, revealed to having to be 7 later on. Sound fun? besides being able to see more of Scala’s layout, not really. But its a good place to take a breather before getting back into the big battles ahead.

Unfortunately your actually forced to fight the armored organization again but thankfully you dont have to do the ENTIRE final battle over, just that one section which I appreciate but wish we didnt have to do any of it at all.

So after we’re done Scala we get in MY opinion the two best parts of the entire DLC. We get to see what was going on with the rest of the keyblade wielders back home and it was INSANE and extremely well done, everybody had a chance to shine.

When everyone was swept away and Mickey was down and out, it was amazing seeing Mickey push himself back up and slowly with what little strength he had take on all the armor organization BY HIMSELF severely weakened, yet still powerful enough to hold them off and stand his ground. He really showed us WHY he is the King, so THAT I really enjoyed. It was extremely well done and one of the most memorable parts of the DLC.

The next part was even more insane and well done, which is us getting to fight as all the keyblade wielders against the armored organization and even get some cool dialog and team attacks in between, it was just amazingly well done seeing everyone work together and switching between characters was just so epic and enjoyable.

Honestly I could play those two parts over and over again and enjoy it everytime, their just that good and the most memorable in the entire DLC.

Coming back with Kairi and killing Xehanort together with all the keyblade wielders including Kairi this time was satisfying to see but it excludes Xehanorts and Eraquses final words, I mean yea seeing Xehanort have a semi happy ending put off alot of people but at the same time, seeing Xehanort come to the realization that he was wrong about everything and giving the Wayfinder trio closure by seeing their master one last time and hearing his apology to them just held more weight to me.

Im not saying I think Xehanort should be redeemed as easily as he was, but I feel like excluding Eraqus and their final words made the ending feel hollow, just ok we beat the bad guy, happily ever after now. Thats pretty lackluster and unsatisfying In my opinion.

Finally the ending....

Heres where Im gonna be biased and give my personal thoughts. Warning if your a fan of Kairi skip to the very end of the review where I give my overall rating

I hate the ending, for the reasons I listed in the beginning but also many others. I get the main focus was gonna be Kairi since the DLC was about saving her, Im not mad about the obvious, Im mad about the execution.

The Sokai agenda was so forced and apparent its not even funny, they shove it in your face so hard yet when Sora is talking with Chirithy he still refers to Kairi as a friend, really? your shoving this pairing down our throats just to have Sora still friendzone her? Im not mad because I dont want them together anyway but I hate the games being played here, you either want them together or you dont, pick a friggin side Nomura.

And while we’re on the subject, I hate, HATE, how this game is so heavily romance focused when Kingdom Hearts was NEVER about romance to begin with, it was always about friendship and bonds. Not in this DLC though, no now its all about Kairi and being with her forever, traveling the world together, holding hands, all this lovey dovey nonsense nobody invested in the plot could give a rats behind about.

Sure people who are into Kingdom Hearts for the romance of course they dont mind, but Im pretty sure MOST people invested in this series are in it for the story, not some stupid pairing, and I HATE how much they shove it down your throat because it is just so forced and obvious what they were doing.

This was all damage control for Kairi, who has been a useless damsel in distress and dues ex machina in every single game shes been a part of. I repeat, EVERY SINGLE GAME SHES A PART OF.

Kh1 - Kidnapped, unconscious, Sora needs to die to save her.

Kh2 - Kidnapped, held hostage, Sora needs to find and save her.

Kh3 - Kidnapped, unconscious, is killed twice, Sora needs to die to save her.

Do you see what I fricken mean? Every fuckin game its the same danm thing over and over and quite frankly Im sick of it. You might as well say this is a Mario game because Kairi is princess Peach always gettin snatched up and Sora is Mario always going through insanely deadly trials to get her back, and then it happens all over again.

This DLC was damage control for that, instead of immediately getting snatched up by Xemnas she actually gets a few good swipes at him to no avail of course, and then she fights together with Sora against armored Xehanort, all of which is just damage control for her not doing anything in the entire franchise and pandering to her fanbase that are constantly screeching for playable Kairi and for her to do something.

It was also damage control for how non existent their relationship was and what a joke its been since Kh1. They arent fooling anybody because thats exactly what this was, otherwise why you have to try so hard to CONVINCE us how important she was to Sora? why did Riku have to get sidelined so much just to boost Kairi up? why’d Sora completely disregard Riku as a part of his journey? why did Sora not spend ANY time with ANYONE for his final moments alive? its so obvious why. The only way to convince anyone shes actually important and relevant is to play down everyone else or exclude them entirely.

Congratulations, you got your wish, good for you fandom, but at what cost?

The time they spent forcing so much Sokai could have been used to tie up way more loose ends than there were but nope, gotta squeeze in that Sokai, thats what yall really here for right? fuck off.

The two best moments of the game was so short lived its not even funny, this DLC was full of so much padding in the first half, forced romance and pandering for damage control they forgot to actually make this a decent DLC.

Since I recorded my gameplay from start to finish I can actually tell you the amount of old content vs the new

3-4 hours of mostly what we already seen with a few changes, I only died twice

1-2 hours of new content, probably less because I got lost and died alot

That is unacceptable, 30$ for only 10% new content? that is a robbery.

Not only that but the worst part is the Limitcut episode, databattles have always been optional for competative players who like the challenge. Now you are FORCED to fight these INSANELY hard bosses, all 13 in order to get the final bits of the aftermath of the story.

WE PAID FOR THIS, this wasnt free we PAID for it and yet we’re basically told ‘Hey if your a casual player and want the rest of the story? well you gotta fight 13 of these insanely hard databattles that used to be optional but now their madatory for you to get the rest of your moneys worth. Too difficult? cant do it? well too danm bad, get good or go home we got your money already so screw you guess you’ll never know’

That is a fucking robbery and a huge slap in the face to people who are invested in the story, not proving their the best by fighting insanely difficult battles no matter what difficulty your on. It wouldnt be an issue if this was always the case, but these battles were always OPTIONAL for competetive players to do if they WANTED to, but now its mandatory and if you cant do it then oh well middle finger to you.

I couldnt even beat Vanitas, I fought him first and then Luxord and I couldnt beat either of them so I just said fuck it and went on youtube to see what I paid to see for free. 30$ wasted on a game I cant even finish, your out of your fucking mind if you think thats fair and excusable.

Thats why at the end of the day I give it a 5/10, its not good but its not bad either, its just decent. But if you asked me if it is worth the time and money? fuck no, my advice? watch other youtubers play it and keep your 30$

If you want it just to play as some of the characters, experience the new content for yourself, and play the databattles then by all means get it.

But if you think thats not enough for you to spend 30$ for then dont get it.

Overall Re:mind gets a 5/10, useless padding for majority of the first half of things we’ve already seen and cant skip because theres new scenes mixed in, forced romance that nobody but shippers care to see, severely lacking new content, and unfair extremely hard mandatory databattles just to see the final aftermath of the story which is kind of important setup for the next game.

Fuck this DLC, this was my fist time EVER buying a DLC for ANYTHING and thanks to this its probably my last. So thank you Re:Mind, for ReMinding me why I never bought DLCs in the first place.

Ps - Im so glad playable Kairi was optional, thats one of the only things this DLC did right.

#kh3 remind spoilers #kh3 #kingdom hearts 3 #anti-sokai #anti-kairi

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yo-namine · 4 years

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Okay, time to talk to myself about Re:Mind and Limit Cut Episode.

Spoilers galore under the cut!

I'm just gonna start off by talking about how the DLC handled my biggest gripe with base KH3, which was obviously how Kairi was written in the last few hours of the game. Like I said in my other post, Re:Mind doesn't totally fix those problems, but... Well, here's what we get:

Kairi's "murder" is reframed a bit in the DLC. Base KH3 presents it as Xehanort killing her just to provoke Sora et al. into "clashing" with him to make the final key. In Re:Mind, we learn that Xehanort was actually stowing Kairi away (by "crystallizing" her, which... means she wasn't dead? But Sora still takes all the steps Chirithy gives him that are specifically for restoring a heart from death, and it works, so...?) as a fail-safe of sorts in case he needed another Light. Xemnas foreshadows this a bit when he says that Kingdom Hearts needs the Princesses of Heart in case the whole 13 Clashes of Light and Darkness thing doesn't work out. And for what it's worth, I do think this is a little better for Kairi as a character just because it shows that she was "killed" due to something unique and special about her, rather than what she was to Sora. She's still being used, and she's still sapped of her agency, but presumably no other character could have worked in that role against Xehanort, so... that's something, I suppose.

During the Xemnas/Saix/Xion fight, there's an added scene where all the Lights get to take a shot at Xemnas, and Kairi actually broke that motherfucker's guard and made him stumble when no one else could... And then she got captured, bloop, but at least this time it was because she was actually fighting and simply got bested. I can appreciate that. I liked seeing her shield Axel from Xion's attack, too.

And of course, she does get the chance to take on Xehanort later. She has a nice battle set-up (a sort of warp dash ability similar to Riku's and Roxas's, shotlock, reflect, and a GORGEOUS link attack with Sora), and it's a little cathartic to play as her taking Xehanort down. However, I don't think she ever learns that Xehanort took her as a safety measure for his plan or why she was the one chosen for this in the first place. She doesn't speak to Xehanort at all, which makes her big battle with him at the end feel rather... impersonal? And never mind him "killing" her in KH3; Xehanort's ultimately responsible for her losing her family when she was four years old, as well as the destruction of her home world. I'm not saying Kairi and Xehanort needed to have some long overwrought conversation or anything, but there definitely should've been some dialogue between them.

Kairi's actually involved in Naminé's restoration after all!!!!!!!! I remember the Ultimania's explanation of Naminé's return leaving a bad taste in my mouth because it seemed like they framed Kairi's death as ultimately a good thing, because hey, at least her murder freed Naminé from her heart. But that's not what actually happened; instead, Kairi and Sora go to Radiant Garden at the end of the game, and she lets him use the keyblade to release Naminé's heart from hers. And honestly, that scene right there? That was probably my favorite part of this entire DLC. The fact that Kairi really did play a part in restoring her Nobody is a much better payoff to her earlier lines in the game about wanting Naminé to have her own experiences. She wanted to give Naminé her life back, and rather than that being something wrenched from Kairi against her will, it was something she did for Naminé of her own volition. I just. 😭

/tl;dr thoughts on kairi

As for everything else in Re:Mind:

I loved the background moments with Sora and Kairi in the ending cinematic. Each one is framed so that you can't see their faces, so they all feel like you're looking in on something secret. The "Behind the Curtain" trophy name is pretty fitting (and just downright cute, lol). And like I said above, I loved the scene where Kairi and Sora restore Naminé's heart. You just see him pull the keyblade away from her chest, and then she cradles Naminé's heart in her hands and fjsldfjskd. I teared up at that. It was just such a sweet and gentle little moment. Sora and Kairi taking Chirithy to Ven (and Sora even giving them a little push, lol) was really sweet, too. I loved their body language while they watched Ven run off, how you see them turn toward each other just slightly.

I also like how Sora and Kairi's relationship evolved from "Even if we're apart, our hearts are always connected" to "Heart connections are nice and all, but I'd much rather actually be with you."

Demyx and Riku interacting was something I never knew I needed. Riku's like "PLEASE be careful with that vessel, it's very important--" and Demyx is just "Bro, I got this," and hoists it over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Sora and Roxas actually talk to each other! I liked the scene where Sora's Station of Awakening starts to peel away to reveal Roxas's, and you get little glimpses of Roxas's memories. And it turns out that Sora actually did release Roxas's heart from his, and it wasn't just Xemnas kicking Xion into his chest that did the trick, lmao. I like that change.

Xemnas mentions that the original Organization doesn't remember Xion, but they do have records of her. That's a nice little tidbit to have for my Day 4 AU. 👀

Saix says the Guardians must be desperate if they're getting a Princess of Heart involved in the war, and Axel's like "Nah, she's our trump card." Aw. I also thought it was interesting how Saix purposefully uses Axel and Roxas's names to try to trigger Xion's memory of them.

I had to watch the recusant's sigil bit like four times before I understood what the hell was happening, lmao. The sigil represents the Sea Salt Trio's actual connection to one another that they had to "reclaim" from Xemnas, which... okay, but why was that needed? The thing I always liked about this trio is that they're the only one that we see develop fully from the beginning to the end of their relationship. They were always the most believable (canon) trio to me because of that, so throwing in this whole "The sigil binds us together!" thing just seems kind of stupid and unnecessary. They're friendship is good enough as-is. You don't have to add in this nonsense to represent their bond; their relationship development itself already did that. But whatever, they still had a really cool combo attack.

Scala ad Caelum is expanded on! I really enjoyed exploring it and solving the little puzzles to put Kairi's heart back together.

I LOVED THE GUARDIANS VS. NORT REPLICAS BATTLE SO MUCH I HAVE TO YELL ABOUT IT. I ACTUALLY DIED THE FIRST TIME BUT I DIDN'T CARE THAT I HAD TO REPLAY IT BECAUSE I WAS HAVING SO MUCH FUN. THE TAG TEAM ATTACKS!!!!! AQUA, XION, AND MICKEY'S COUNTER-ATTACK!!!!!! EVERYONE ACTUALLY WORKING TOGETHER!!!!!!!! IT’S ALL I EVER WANTED!!!!!!!!

There are so many cute dialogue exchanges during the Guardians vs. replicas sequence, too! Ven and Roxas compliment each other, Aqua scolds Axel for talking too much (twice, I think? Axel fusses at her the second time, lmao), Terra says something to Riku that I couldn't quite catch, and Riku's like "All thanks to you!" It's just so cute and charming, and it really made the Guardians finally feel like a team.

Mickey Mouse straight-up Boromir-ing his way through the Nort replicas was... I think I loved that? Yeah, no, I loved that. I was laughing through half of it because I kept getting knocked back, but it was a great sequence (visually and gameplay-wise).

Connecting all the keyholes was very satisfying, and was just a beautiful visual altogether.

Sora and Kairi's reunion was adorable. And then Sora sees Goatanort enter the scene, and he just looks at Kairi and is like, "You ready, B?" and Kairi's like, "FUCK yeah, I'm taking his trachea through his kneecaps!!!!!" Okay, not really, lmao. Actually, Kairi's surprised when Sora asks her that, like she didn't expect him to let her help, or maybe she felt like she wouldn't even be able to, but she says she's ready anyway. Kairi’s under-confidence in her fighting skills is a little more apparent in the DLC. Like she says "I can do this" right before the final battle, but it comes off as her trying to reassure herself. She even has a counterattack where her battle quote is "Please work!" and I don't remember hearing her say that in the base game. Girl knows how outclassed she is compared to most of the other Guardians (and Xehanort), but she fights like hell anyway. Attagirl. 🎉

And as for Limit Cut:

Aww, I love that Terra calls Riku "a great leader."

Cheers to David Gallagher for saying "Are you sure about this?" with the exact same inflection as the John Cena meme.

Riku's a master now, right? When will he get some spiffy keyblade armor???????

Okay. Riku is having dreams about looking for Sora. Sora is dead (?), and "the edges of sleep and death touch." Kairi has been asleep for the past year so that the Radiant Garden team can study her heart in effort to find Sora. Nomura? Nomura? Nomura. You cannot fuck this up, man. You can do this. You can write the Destiny Trio working together again. You can write a full story in which Kairi has an active role. You can write her and Riku interacting. You can do it. I believe in you.

The data battles are so hardddddd. I wound up just watching all the LC cutscenes on youtube, lmfao. But I do want to try to beat at least some of these bosses. Tragically, Riku is TRAPPED IN MERLIN'S HOUSE, so you can't leave to grind or anything. Boo.

I don't really care about Yozora. I think we got a confirmation from Sora that Nameless Star is Stella (?), and that's cute for her I guess, but I genuinely don't care, lmao. But I definitely understand the compulsion to include beloved characters from old cancelled projects in your newer ones, so I hope Nomura has fun with that. ...That sounded sarcastic, lol, but I meant it. I hope he gets to do something cool and creative with this recycled cast. It just might not be a story I'll end up following, is all.

Data greeting is SO much fun. I sank a couple of hours into that the other night just creating scenes and playing with effects. The controls are really easy to use, and it's even fun to just explore environments like Radiant Garden and Scala ad Caelum without messing with photos at all. I hope we can unlock more character outfits and poses in the future, but I can definitely enjoy it as is for now.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this DLC. True, about half of Re:Mind is a rehash of the Keyblade Graveyard scenes with some extra content here and there, but it's sort of justified story-wise since we're in a timeloop. I enjoyed the extra Kairi scenes and the interactions between the Guardians the most. Limit Cut is mainly just bonus bosses, but like I said, I do want to actually beat those once I can figure out a strategy for them. And I'm obviously having way too much fun with Data Greeting, lmao, so yeah. Not a bad update.

#my posts #kh3 bloggin #dlc spoilers

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thefinalkey16 · 4 years

Text

KH3 Re:Mind spoilers/Reactions

So Xemnas gave the order?? To find the box?? But why??

So did Xigbar actually lose the box? YOU HAD ONE JOB

Oh we’re starting HERE HUH

I forgot how pretty the graphics are

Why is Riku so pretty???

Nomura really went “this DLC is about SOKAI and I’m gonna make sure you KNOW IT.”

Nomura really cares about his ship and I appreciate it so much

LETS GO SAVE OUR GIRL!

Heck yeah REMIND TIME

I love the music in this game so much

YES WE GET MORE MOM

Why does MOM adopt smol children lol

It bothers me that MOM has no actual face behind the hood. It’s like Ansem’s original form

So Xehanort is where Xemnas’s confusion of the heart comes from lol

OH THIS IS PREMASTER XEHANORT

I’m sorry, Xehanort is more powerful than darkness?

I’m sorry MOM is too scared to take off the coat???

MOM is a psychology teacher who gets exasperated by his dumb students

OH THATS JUST RUDE NOMURA

LEMME KNOW HIS NAME

A lost..Master?

Well we know where Xehanort got the hands behind the back walk from

OOO A NEW THEME

OH I LOVE IT

I’m 100% sure that MOM told him his name was “Noneya,” and it took a few decades before he realized what he actually said

DID THEY TELEPORT TO LOOK COOL ON THE ROCKS

I’m sorry they have holograms??

Did they actually call him Riku Replica lol

Wait they were actually nobodies

XEMNAS AND XEHANORT WERE REPLICAS?

“Why we have assembled here,” because Xemnas and Sora destroyed your sick castle

Poor Terra got possessed TWICE?

Demyx! You get Demyx!

I’m sorry 20??

No. I

Oh so they don’t actually remember Xion

Does.. does Xigbar remember Xion?

Wow they got Vexen just to get his daughter in their gang. How rude

Xehanort fell asleep while they chatted I’m cackling

Crazy old man

Now when do I get to save Kairi? :3c

YAY ITS TIME

YAY ITS CHIRITHY TIME

ITS MY SMOL KITTY

“Back so soon?”=you died again?? You’re lame

Chirithy is a mood

Sora you watched your GF get shattered

Oh so that’s why Sora dies

IS SORA SAILOR PLUTO

Oh my god he’s Sailor Pluto

Lose powers? He’s done that so many times 😂

Getting banned from one world? He had a phone and friends with gummi ships lol

ARE WE GONNA SEE EVERONES HEART STATION??

NOOO VEN That still hurts to watch

AWW SORA TRIED TO CATCH HIM

Wow he’s a ghosty ghost

Oh I love Ven’s heart station so much

Wow Vanitas really said that Ven is Baby

YAS GIMME VANITAS

Also wow Vanitas is protecting Ven’s heart and I love that

OH NO NOT THIS GUY

I beat him by using Meow Wow. meow wow is best boy

Oh no oh no it’s this pet

Gotta love Big Bro Lea

I forgot they call him Axel

ITS THE HUG

It’s Donald’s Safrifice ;-;

Donald Really channeled his inner Molly Weasley and said “Not my son you WITCH.”

WASTED

Also aw Sora got to see what Donald did for the first time

AQUA’S STATION IS SO PRETTY

Poor Aqua ;-; this is the moment where everyone hates her for

Also aww she trusts Kairi to protect them

We love Big Sis Aqua

YES WE GET ANTI AQUA FIGHT AGAIN

NAMINEEEEE

I’m literally screaming and I scared my grandma

Oh my god She lost Kairi and she immediately went to Sora cause she knew she’d be safe there ;-;

Namine’s Really here bringing everyone together

Agsisgsjdg I forgot Terra can do the keyblade whip thing lol

AND the cannon

Wow they’re really fighting in the sky

Anyone else getting Star Wars vibes

AWW HE JUST WANTS TO PROTECT HIS FAMILY

I still hate Terra’s pants

Imagine your heart crushing your body. Like really

NO LINGERING WILL

HECK YEAH SORA YOU KICK THEIR BUTT

Wow Sora you’re so cocky

LINGERING WILL NO

OH MY GOD

I forgot that Marluxia is an Ouran Host Club character

Wait, that Mickey finisher was new, wasn’t it?

Okay but I still have no idea what Xemnas did to Luxord

Cards: *Appear*

Sora: PTSD from watching his friends get destroyed from the cards in the manga

Mickey: *is captured*

Sora: PTSD intensifies

I’m really happy that we get to replay all of the Organization battles, they’re so much fun!

I’m so soft for Replinami ;-;

He loves her so much, and all he wants is for her to be safe and happy ;-;

Ven: we aren’t the same. You’re Edgy. I’m Baby

Aqua when Sora appears: TWO Baby’s :0

“If I’m a traitor, then Kairi’s the trump card.” LEA DRINKS RESPECT KAIRI JUICE

Aww Kairi’s so confused. She doesn’t see how she could be a trump card ;-;

HE STRAIGHT UP FLEXED

AWW XION REMEMBERS

Ohhh Isa’s jealous.

YES THW CHAKRAMS

LETS GO

Jealousy mode has been activated in Isa

WHAT WAS THAT RUN

OH MY GOD THAT SCREAM

YES KAIRI GO

PROTEXT YOUR BRO

“Yup” Kairi really just wants this over with so she can go home 😂

The way Kairi’s face lights up at seeing Sora gives me life.

Wow Xemnas was really hurt by Axel’s betrayal. Frankly? I’m shocked.

XION’S HAND IS SMOKING

HER HAND IS BURNING BECAUSE SHES GRABBING THE BLADE

Xemnas does NOT drink Respect Xion juice

ROXAS KEPT XION’S MEMORIES SAFE INSIDE HIM

AND SHE HAS HER FACE BECAUSE HE GAVE THEM BACK TO HER

Lea cares about the small girls he adopted as his little sisters

AWW THE THREE OF THEIR HEARTS ARE CONNECTED

NO XION ISNT ON HIS HEART ANYMORE

YES KAIRI’S HERE TO KICK BUTT

Wow Nomura really got tired of people dissing Kairi so he amped her up with cool stuff

“Oh? Tired of Kairi not doing anything?” Heres her literally overpowering Xemnas and him having to restrain her with a stop spell and magic to stop her

KAIRI IS THE SCARLET WITCH AND XEMNAS IS THANOS

Oh and in case you think she’s weak? Here’s the same thing for Sora too.

God I love Nomura

Oh my god she’s in so much pain because of the darkness

OH MY GOD SHES IN SO MUCH PAIN BECAUSE OF THE DARKENSS

SORA LITERALLY FAINTED AFTER 2 SECONDS BUT KAIRI’S HOLDING ON OH MY GOD THE STRENGTH

OOOOOOOO ROXAS TIME

The MUSIC

THEIR ATTACK IS CALLED “THINKING OF YOU” BECAUSE THEY REMEMBERED XION I CANT

I can not believe i was forced to relive watching Kairi die

SHE WAS CRYSTALLIZED?? SHES NOT DEAD??

I love Donald and Goofy so much ;-;

They aren’t gonna leave their son alone

Also wow Xehanort was just staring there forever

I FORGOT WE GET TO EXPLORE SCALA :D

KAIRI?!?!

Getting KH1 vibes with this

“The heartless that is radiating light” how is that possible??

Okay but this is such a good parallel to the first game, with him saving Kairi ;-;

Except for the fact that HEARTLESS SORA DIDNT GET BEAT UP

Okay so her heart is a thassala shell. Will we have to collect the pieces to make her wayfinder?

Oh my god I see the thing at the top of the screen. We totally are making her wayfinder ;-;

THAT MEANS SHE LITERALLY GAVE HIM HER HEART SO HE COULS RETURN IT TO HER OH MY GOOOOD

Okay so I love the puzzles they have here

XEHANORT?!

I’m sorry you hid her heart? What are you, five?

What do you MEAN almost out of time?!

OH NO KINGDOM HEARTS

Oh no not these guys again

So many keyholes

IM SORRY IS THIS WIZARD OF OZ

Oh my god Lea is so overwhelmed lol

SGAKSSGE ROXAS CAUGHT XION

Okay so for the team ups, I love how all of them were mix and matched from the trio’s

I loved Terra and Riku, the Master and apprentice

I loved Ven, Roxas, and I can’t remember who else was in it. “Thanks Roxas.” “Youre welcome. You’re not too bad yourself.” THAT WAS ADORABLE

Xion, Aqua and Mickey being mages and protecting everyone

Aqua and Lea, him trying to talk and Aqua telling him to shut up and focus

MICKEY’S STRUGGLE TO SAVE HIS FRIENDS BROKE MY HEART

We now present: Kingdom Hearts 3: connect he dots

Connect. Connect the dots. Get it?

KAIRI’S HEART MADE A FLOWER

THE KH2 THING

“SORA :D”

THEIR HUG

HE JUST HOLDS HER CLOSE

TIME FOR PLAYABLE KAIRI BABBYYYYYYY

“I can do this.” YES YOU CAN

I’m sorry you think I want to play as Sora? After waiting my whole life to play Kairi? HA

KAIRI IS THE MOST POWERFUL

Seven wishes saved me in that fight

ONE HEART

THEY HAVE ANGEL WINGS

OKAY YALL HAD YOUR SORIKU ATTACK NOW WE GOT SOKAI :D

Now we just need Rikai and Sorikai and it’ll be complete ^^

AGSKSGSKDGSJS CHIRITHY

“I was trying to give you some privacy” awwww

CHIRITHY IS CRYING

THEYRE GOING ON DATES

Chirithy has my soul and I love it

Every scene with Chirithy adds 7 years to my life

Afsjsgsajg Sora DONT PUSH THE CAT

NAMINE

THEY WERE THERE TO FREE HER HEART

Aaand he’s gone and I’m crying again

LIMITCUT EPISODE TIME BABBYYYY

GAJSGSJDG RIKU AND TERRA ARE TOGETHER

Oh my god Riku and Terra being bro’s are my favorite thing

Wait what are they gonna do

ARE THEY SEALING THE WORLD

OH MY GOD THE ARMOR

HOW DARE THEY NOT SHOW US THE FRONT PARTS

OH they’re going to search for Sora!

IS RIKU IN CHARGE OF THE LAND OF DEPARTURE

ONE YEAR???

Agajsgsjdg MERLINS HOUSE

CLOUD

PRETTY BOY

YUFFFIIEEE

AERIITH

CID

OH MY GOD THE GANGS ALL TOGETHER

THEY WENT TO THE REALM OF DARKNESS WHAT

“The Twilight Town gang” ITS OFFICIAL

OH NO WHAT HAPPENED TO KAIRI

WHY DOES HE LOOK SAD

NO WHATS GOING ON WITH KAIRI

They’re searching her heart?

SHES BEEN ASLEEP FOR A YEAR?!

Riku’s been all ALONE

DATA SORA??

Battalion oh my god lol

I’m mad about Kairi being asleep for a year though

AGSJSGS WE GET TO EXPLORE

Wow. A video game inside of a video game

I spent the rest of the day failing the Data battles and making funny Data Greeting pictures. Hopefully I’ll be better st the battles tomorrow!

#KH3RemindSpoilers #kh3spoilers #KH Re:Mind #kh commentary

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 4 years

Text

FFXV First Impressions

Impressions So Far (something like 2 hours in):

That opening scene of pushing the car was Actually Clever. It was trying to be clever, but if you succeed and ARE clever “trying to be clever” is allowed!

Running across open ground is a little boring. Definite “Open World-itis” there. They tried to mitigate by including fast travel back to your car. It...sort of mitigates it? But if you’re willing to shrink player perception of the space by including fast travel, then you should show less space and have more space implied.

Night is legit scary. One of the characters mentioned you needed to get in by dark because demons come out and I’m like, “Sure, but I’m an adventurer. Isn’t fighting demons my thing?” That night: I’m running around looking for a hunt target and the asphalt on the road in front of me starts boiling and then up pop a pair of red eyes (literally that’s all you can see of this thing if you’re not standing within 10′ of it). It’s an Iron Giant, and it is level thirty. At this point I am level three. I run. I run immediately and two of my friends still nearly die. I love how they handled night.

The conversation engine needed more time. It’s neat, and a lot of it is good, but it’s not good enough and like human face art it’s gotta be really great to fool humans because we’re used to focusing on it. Two hours in I’ve already hit two or three uncanny-valley type moments where people repeated lines - not just barks but whole conversations. When it’s barks it’s a person having a catch phrase. When it’s a conversation you’re suddenly watching Groundhog Day.

There are parts of this that remind me of the hashtags in KH3 - this weird and too-visible desire of the designers to incorporate some aspect of modern society and its relationship with media but it’s fallen apart because the media isn’t old enough (or the designer not prescient/deep enough) for the designer to conceive of how it really plays out, what it really means in a fantasy space. The mix of having digital GPS yet needing to get rumors about where stuff is on your local map from the local diners is...a weird choice.

When i realized you could mix any ol’ piece of junk you found lying around with your magic to make better magic? Yeah, that’s pretty hot. I wish the system had a faster cooldown for spells (As it is, spells are basically grenades you have to construct yourself before battle, using resources you only find in a couple locations - magic mining nodes, basically - plus whatever physical stuff you wanna combine with them. The magic nodes recharge daily, but you can only make 3 spell-grenades per grenade-slot and only get 4 grenade-slots as far as I can tell). Noctis, your main character, has MP, which should be WP because it’s used exclusively for Warping, at least so far in the game. Personally I think having to spend longer crafting a spell and then being able to use MP to cast it would be rockin’. Like, I would sit there farming up every possible combination of items and spell energy to fill out my spellbook. You could have crazy spells that use 3/4 of your mp gauge, and then you have to duck behind a rock to recover like a proper black mage would have to do and just...I don’t know, I had a similar response of “This was almost as awesome as the magic system I came up with just now that I haven’t tested” back when FFVIII came out. Who knows if my idea for a magic system would actually be any good in practice. It certainly feels good in my head, and frankly I appreciate how close this one came to awesome because this feeling of speculating about the one change to fix everything is really fulfilling for me.

I like the fact that there’s treasure points on your map, and food points on the map, and mining points on the map, but then every now and then you find something valuable that isn’t on the map. It makes wandering around feel just a little more rewarding - It’s better than the fast-travel system at making the open world feel like an okay decision.

I like how wide the range of survivability is! I ran from that level thirty Iron Giant, but I did a level ELEVEN hunt while I was still level THREE. Playing the fights well clearly matters.

I also really like the system for wounds! Basically you have a third score. Normal games have Max HP and Current HP. This game adds in “Current Max HP” which can be between the two. If you get knocked to 0 Current HP your character’s seriously injured and you’re literally limping around hoping for one of your buddies to heal you or trying to get out of immediate danger so you can drink a potion (or trying to limp and drink both at once). While this is happening your Current Max is bleeding out. Let’s say you had 100 max hp and you bleed down to 90 while you pull a potion out. A potion heals you by 50% of your actual Max (so, to 50) and if you can catch a breather out of immediate harm’s way you’ll quickly recover to 90, your Current Max HP. But you won’t recover to 100. Outside of combat, your Current Max rises by 1 every 3-4 seconds until it hits your actual Max HP. This makes it possible to get attacked again when you haven’t really recovered from the last fight, which...isn’t a feeling you get in a lot of these games, especially ones that have regenerating health systems as robust as this one. Just two hours in I’ve already had some really tense encounters where things started going really wrong for me and I pulled out of it but it built that sense of being winded, of being really rattled by the fight, in a way that doesn’t tend to happen.

I think Youtube videos about the game have already said this but I really like that you make your own photo album as you play. By the end of the game you’ve literally got the 200 most meaningful moments to you in that album, or at least your favorite pics. It’s just brilliant, in terms of making a retrospective of stuff that made the game great for you, personally, as the person who played this playthrough of their game.

The food looks delicious, and I’m precisely as disturbed by how much I want to eat it as various people are by how sexy they find cat versions of people in the new Cats movie. There’s one part of my brain that is telling me that it is cartoon food and not real (and that some of it, like the mystery lunchmeat “sushi,” would likely be Super Gross if you could smell it) and it is correct but is also incapable of shutting up the part of my brain that finds the same fake food appetizing.

The collector in me is starting by buying all the skills that grant AP. I have doubts as to whether the game is long enough that I’ll recoup the investment. Like, the one that makes it so Big Catches grant AP costs 99 AP. I think it makes them give 2 AP. Am I actually going to fish up 50 Big Catches in the fishing minigame? (It might even only increase the AP gains by 1, so I’d have to fish up a hundred to profit.) Well fuck it, I know I’m gonna buy every damn skill on every grid anyway so I might as well start with the ones that speed up that process, no matter by how small a degree. The camping and food ones, at the least, were no-brainers.

I have trouble telling the main characters’ voices apart. Say what you will about how dumb Donald sounds in Kingdom Hearts 3, but if Sora, Goofy, Donald, Kairi, King Mickey, Yen Sid, Axel, and Riku were all having a conversation there is no point where you’d be confused about who was talking even if your eyes were closed the whole time. The voices and speech patterns are as recognizable as the silhouettes, in the KH series. Not so much, in FFXV.

I love the way Prompto moves in combat. He is literally always tripping and scrambling to get back up. Seriously, if you have the game play the training session so you can see his move cycle in detail. He spends like half of it with at least one hand on the ground, and I just love it. It’s so dynamic, so expressive, so goofy, so immediately endearing. And then you think, “Wait, we armed our derpiest party member with a gun? What is wrong with us?”

#FFXV #review

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nadziejastar · 4 years

Note

Did you finish reading that KH3: A Conclusion without a story article? If so, what did you think of it?

I loved reading it. It was a fantastic take on KH3. There was pretty much nothing that I disagreed with.

By the time you leave Olympus, Sora hasn’t learnt how to restore his powers; and the frustrating part is that he never explicitly does.

I completely agreed with this. Sora’s journey in KH3 should have been about learning the power of waking. But even in the scene where he finally does learn it, there’s no real reason why. He didn’t seem to learn anything on his journey.

Even the villains are given no progress – a subplot about Pete and Maleficent looking for a mysterious black box goes nowhere, and Organisation XIII (the primary antagonists) only put in a brief appearance, spouting their usual brand of vaguely ominous dialogue. To compound these issues, the protagonists are ultimately left not knowing where to go or what to do next. Only two hours into the game, and the plot has no sense of momentum or direction.

Yep. The black box thing annoyed me so much. The Organization was also a huge letdown. We don’t get to learn the real reason why Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx, and Luxord joined until KH4!? Something went very, VERY wrong in the Dark Seeker Saga for that to happen.

By comparison, Kingdom Hearts II’s opening was significantly slower paced – to the point that it was a detriment to some players. However, so much more was achieved in a similar space of time; II’s initial hours establish the game’s tone and major themes, as well as introduce a large cast of brand new characters (while simultaneously reintroducing old ones in new contexts).

Yep. I liked KH2′s opening, slow as it was. The prologue of KH2 felt like it had more plot than almost all of KH3.

And this is one of the core problems with Kingdom Hearts III; even if you look past a threadbare narrative for Sora and company while they adventure through the self-contained Disney worlds, there is nothing going on outside of that either. In Kingdom Hearts II, both Riku and Mickey were operating behind the scenes, aiding Sora from the shadows and setting key events in motion. In III, however, these same characters spend most of their time expositing plot points and passively waiting for the big battle at the end of the game – and that can be said for almost all of our heroes.

I also agree. This problem would have been mitigated if every character got their own time to shine using the power of waking. Riku and Mickey could have had a subplot together, showing how Riku got his new Keyblade. They should have saved each other from the darkness.

If there’s a job to do, it’s up to Sora to do it. With a couple of key exceptions, every character apart from Sora, Donald, and Goofy is presented as almost comically useless – yet our protagonist remains the butt of every joke.

Yep. Everyone other than Sora was useless. Aqua needed to save Ven, but all she did was get knocked out in the battle with Vanitas. Ven needed to save Terra, but he didn’t really do anything. Sora did all the work. Lea needed to save Isa, but he did nothing in his fight. He got shoved to the side while Roxas and Xion took over. Kairi saving Sora should have gotten more focus.

The villains reveal that the only way Sora can release Roxas is by giving into the darkness, and sacrificing his own heart. Self-sacrifice is nothing new for Sora (he did the same thing in Kingdom Hearts I to save his love interest Kairi), but this had the potential to be an interesting plot point, as it gives him a selfless reason to be tempted by, and potentially give into, the darkness. But it’s never brought up again.

Yep. Early scenes in KH3 make it seem like the game did originally have an actual plot at one point. Xigbar was luring Sora into a trap, so he’d fall to darkness. But it’s never brought up again, LOL. It’s crazy.

In fact, ‘saving Roxas’ is scarcely discussed until the end of the game (King Mickey telling Sora to “let the rest of us worry about Roxas and Naminé for now”, essentially dropping the subject after only the second Disney world). Ultimately, Roxas’ heart just leaves Sora’s body of its own volition in the final act, making the player’s time here, once again, feel largely pointless.

And yes, saving Roxas was handled very badly. This is because, IMO, saving Roxas and saving Ventus was supposed to be one and the same. There shouldn’t have been a separate “saving Roxas” subplot.

In interviews, Nomura discussed the struggle of dealing with so many characters – even citing the cast size as one of the main reasons that Final Fantasy cameos were omitted[2]. The real problem, though, is that nothing is done to mitigate this challenge.

Yes, exactly. And treating Roxas and Ventus as separate characters only exacerbated this problem.

Upon leaving Twilight Town, the player finally begins their true journey – travelling to various worlds based on Disney properties and beating back the forces of darkness. But there’s no real set up for this; no distinct reason *why* we’re visiting these worlds.

Mm-hm. I think the issue was that we were supposed to learn more about Ansem the Wise’s data in KH0.5. That was supposed to give Sora a quest in KH3: search for the “Key to Return Hearts”. Once that game got cancelled, Nomura had no idea how to write KH3′s story any longer.

So around 3-4 hours into Kingdom Hearts III, the story still lacks a clear sense of direction and purpose, and hasn’t yet established any clear themes or deeper meaning.

Yeah, it’s sad because there was an underlying theme in the Disney worlds: the power of love and its ability to restore what was lost.

Kingdom Hearts III cleverly tries to frame its story through the lens of a chess match between two Keyblade Masters, Eraqus and Xehanort, when they were young. The game even opens on this scene, highlighting its importance. But chess has rules; logic; a clear sense of direction. Kingdom Hearts III’s narrative is akin to two people who don’t know how to play chess. They understand that they have to defeat their opponent’s king, but the rules of how to move their pieces, how to actually reach that coveted checkmate, are completely unknown to them. The characters in this game feel like pieces on a chess board with no rules; aimlessly moving back and forth across a limited space, until both players finally decide enough is enough and agree to bring their match to an end.

LOL. Yep. The fact that Xehanort had “reserve members” showed he had no idea what he was doing.

Stick to your guns – don’t be afraid to explore a good idea, or to develop the plot outside of your main protagonist. When so many previously proactive characters are in play, the story shouldn’t feel so static, or entirely dependent on the protagonist’s actions. The way your protagonist reacts to events and changing circumstances is just as important as the ones they play an active role in creating.

That’s why I liked the spin-offs. KH3 suffered from forcing you into only Sora’s perspective. Even Nomura said that the Keyblade Graveyard should have had everyone fighting their own battles.

Simply put, the Disney worlds in Kingdom Hearts III have no tangible impact on the game’s core narrative.

Sad, but true.

“In the end, although I had a hand in it as well, the flow of the dialogue and the stories of each world were largely handled by the level design team.” While I very much appreciate this standpoint of ‘gameplay first’, as well as the act of involving multiple teams in the execution of the story, these statements do prove my point. Set-pieces and events are one thing, but if there was a specific story to tell – with outlined themes to be explored, character conflicts to evolve, and goals to be achieved; all developed evenly throughout the entire game (Disney worlds included) - you would imagine the scenario would be built around balancing those narrative elements with the individual tales of each level.

Very interesting. The story in the Disney worlds was largely decided by the level design team? Wow.

Despite major villains such as Young Xehanort, Vanitas, and Marluxia making multiple appearances in their respective worlds, they generally just spout off trite exposition and then either disappear or summon a boss fight. Some villains don’t even know why they’re there, while others introduce plot points (such as the Black Box or the new Princesses of Heart) that are never utilised or expanded upon. As the game features at least thirteen main antagonists, these early appearances should have been integral in establishing their personalities, motivations, and the threat they pose to the player (as well as our heroes). In execution, though, they seem like little more than after-thoughts that offer hints of personality, but never go beyond the superficial – and certainly contribute nothing to the main narrative. This, I believe, is because Kingdom Hearts III doesn’t have a story to tell, but was instead content with treading water until its grand conclusion.

Yep. I had no idea why Marluxia, Larxene, and Luxord were running around in the worlds. Why are they back? Other characters, like Saix, were given flimsy “motivation”. All in all, the organization members were supposed to be vessels by the time you fight them in the KG. Hollowed out containers for Xehanort’s heart. Victims of mind control who you are supposed to have pity for. But they never felt like it.

Kingdom Hearts III’s meandering and vapid progression during ‘the Disney loop’ supports my argument that the game lacks a complete narrative and was merely concerned with reaching its final act. I believe this is most evident by the way in which the player is made to jump from world to world without any direction or purpose. Consequently, the majority of Kingdom Hearts III feels content to aimlessly ‘go through the motions’, setting a repetitive, humdrum pace and ultimately lacking the sense of narrative depth and genuine value that is integral to a great RPG.

Yeah, I believe there was–at one point–an actual plot for KH3. But after BBSV2 was cancelled, a huge portion of KH3′s plot was pretty much scrapped along with it and rewritten.

Everyone’s heard of the three-act structure; a model that forms the foundation of popular culture’s favourite stories. Act 1 features the setup and exposition; an ‘inciting incident’ to get the narrative moving. Act 2 is the confrontation; a midpoint which challenges the protagonist, pushing them to their limits. And finally, Act 3 is the resolution; concluding the plot, along with any character arcs introduced in the previous acts. While this structure doesn’t necessarily need to be adhered to, I believe it possesses something that Kingdom Hearts III sorely lacked – a midpoint.

Yep. KH3 had no mid-point. Scala ad Caelum could have worked as the mid-point. And it could have been another hub world like Radiant Garden. KH3 probably originally had this, but it was scrapped.

This is especially a shame, as Aqua’s fall into darkness – resulting in a twisted form that externalises all of her loneliest thoughts – is one of the most dramatically compelling aspects of the game. And that’s despite lasting for all of 10 minutes (a decade of solitude and suffering are seemingly erased by a few whacks from Sora’s Keyblade).

This is true for all of the characters that needed to be saved. Nobody really used the power of waking on anyone. It’s was just whack, whack, okay you’re saved.

And this is ultimately the problem with the lack of a true Act 2 – the characters aren’t explored or challenged when they need to be. The narrative refuses to escalate until its final act, at which point it feels like going from zero to sixty in a matter of moments. But during the heat of battle – at such a late stage, and with so many heroes and villains in play (more than twenty) – it’s hard to develop your characters in a way that feels natural. Kingdom Hearts III’s solution is bizarre soliloquies that are completely disconnected from the events around them. Is Sora in the middle of a boss fight with three villains? Well, the other two will disappear while you spend several minutes casually chatting with the third. And while this is partly due to the challenge of giving such a large cast an appropriate send-off, it’s also a direct consequence of the lack of time given to exploring characters and their relationships in the previous 20-25 hours of playtime.

So true. So many characters who had so much development over the series. That’s why they needed another game before KH3. It was probably too much to ask for KH3 to be the epic conclusion as well as dive into everyone’s backstory.

On that note, having some sort of hub – a place, like Traverse Town or Hollow Bastion in the first two Kingdom Hearts games, that the player regularly returns to – can be an effective way to centre your story. It provides a home base, and a recurring cast of characters that can be revisited at any time. This kind of location helps players to feel a deeper and more personal attachment to your world.

Yeah, the game would have been so much better if you could visit RG and interact with the plot-important NPCs.

Put in Kingdom Hearts terms, we might say that the body and soul are here; it’s just missing its heart.

I’ve had the exact same thought.

This essay began with the assertion that Kingdom Hearts III is a conclusion in search of a story; a game without a tale of its own to tell. So far, we’ve examined the material impact; the effect this has on the game’s pacing, its sense of player progression, engagement, and character development. So in this topic, I want to consider the conceptual side of things; the motivations that drive our heroes and villains, the purpose of the events that take place, and finally the meaning intended to be conveyed by the story. Put simply, does the narrative of Kingdom Hearts III have something to say?

Sadly, no. I can tell it was supposed to, though. KH3′s story was supposed to be about the power of love. It was really that simple.

By the time of Kingdom Hearts III, Riku has overcome all of these challenges and been granted the title of Keyblade Master, so it was important to present him as a more mature, capable character, having regained his confidence and developed a clear identity. But ultimately, he just feels bland and stoic in this game. He has no new narrative arc, relatively few interactions with Sora, predominantly serves as a mouthpiece for exposition, and is more devoid of a distinct personality than ever. And for a game which serves as a conclusion to the story so far, it’s essential that our core group of characters, such as Riku and Kairi, reach a satisfying crescendo. The narrative should organically involve them in significant ways, and the challenges they face should provide natural opportunities for growth and exploration.

Sad, since Riku seemed like he did originally have a narrative arc. He got a new Keyblade! But the way he got it was laughably random and meaningless and contributed nothing to his overall growth or development.

As much as I’ve tried to understand it, I cannot summarise Master Xehanort’s motivation in that same, concise way. His initial speech in Kingdom Hearts III implies idle curiosity; he speculates that “If ruin brings about creation, what, then, would another Keyblade War bring?” followed by statements that he wants to re-enact the conflict and simply see what happens. He also wonders if they will “…be found worthy of the precious light the legend speaks of”, implying that his goal is to test humanity; or at least the current generation of Keyblade wielders. But that’s a pretty flimsy motivation, and it’s lacking any context or logic.

Yep. Xehanort was supposed to have another game to explore his motivations. When you get rid of that, his character just doesn’t work anymore.

And it’s not just the heroes that have this problem. During their death scenes, several of the Organisation’s members (Luxord, Marluxia, Larxene, Xigbar, Xion, Saix, and Ansem) either encourage Sora or imply that they didn’t care about the outcome; or didn’t even want to battle in the first place. Some have their reasons, but if even one of them had chosen not to fight, Xehanort’s re-enactment could have failed. Much like I described earlier, it doesn’t feel satisfying to overcome a foe who didn’t want to fight, and a war with the potential to destroy the universe should be motivated by much more powerful convictions.

I don’t disagree. But I honestly think this is because none of these characters actually wanted to fight in the Keyblade War. They were supposed to be possessed puppets. Mind-controlled vessels with no will of their own.

Let’s use Saix as an example. What makes a more engaging battle? In canon, Saix had flimsy motivations to be fighting, anyways. He wanted to atone so he was acting as a double agent in order to procure some Replicas. And he wanted look for Subject X. That’s why he joined Xehanort. That’s all the reason he had to fight.

Compare that to a potential backstory with him as a vessel, lacking free will. Isa was a human test subject who was possessed as a teen. His best friend Lea has to fight him unwillingly. Saix is berserk and nearly kills Lea without even being aware of it. But all Lea wants is to save his best friend. I know which one I find more engaging.

Ever since that first game, I’ve been trying to identify what it is that unified these two styles of storytelling – the Disney fairytale with the SquareSoft RPG. And in writing this essay, I finally realised; the secret ingredient, the unifying thread that both franchises had in common, was love. Romance is at the core of almost every classic Disney film, and every Final Fantasy from IV to X was in some way a love story. Seemingly the developers of the original Kingdom Hearts realised this too.

I’m pretty neutral about the Sora/Kairi romance. I mainly wanted Kairi to not feel like a damsel-in-distress yet again. And KH3 definitely screwed that up.

In a way, my problem was the same as that of Kingdom Hearts III’s story. We both spent so much time looking to the horizon, imagining what the future may hold, that we missed out on what was already right in front of us. I will always love and support this series, and its creativity and charm will no doubt continue to inspire my own stories for the rest of my life. But despite not being the conclusion I hoped for, Kingdom Hearts III has freed me from my own obsession with the series’ future. I no longer feel like I’m waiting for something that may never come. Of course, I hope the series gets its story back on track, and rises to new heights greater than ever before! But it turns out that I already got my ending in 2006; and now that I’ve finally realised that, I can finally, honestly say that, as a Kingdom Hearts fan, I am satisfied.

It’s sad that KH2’s ending felt more satisfying. Because KH3 should have been even better than KH2′s ending. KH2 had a happy ending. But in KH3, everyone was there on the beach. Terra, Aqua, and Ven were saved. In KH2, Axel was dead. He had a sad ending. But in KH3, he was human again and even had his childhood best friend back, too. Even Hayner, Pence, and Olette were there. Sora should have been there, too. By all accounts, I should have liked KH3′s ending the best out of any game. But they ruined it with the horrible character development and the cheap cliffhanger.

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zdbztumble · 5 years

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“Kingdom Hearts II” revisited, Part VI

On the one hand, I can understand how something like this could slip under the radar, as it’s a small point; on the other hand, that small point can make a big difference, depending on who you are. It matters less to me, as I’ve played the game before, but it still bothers me: why would the Secret Ansem Report you get after the retreat from Hollow Bastion give away the name “Radiant Garden?”

In any event - the second pass at the Disney worlds is considerably shorter than the first. I had forgotten how zippy this stage of the game could get. In a way, I suppose that’s a bit of a missed opportunity to let the Organization show their stuff a little, but this game is plenty long as it is, so I can’t say that I fault them for that. As it is, I think the second pass is slighter than the first on content...but it’s also better in how it spaces that content.

Before we get into each of the worlds, though, I want to touch on the concept of “filler.” Whether it’s worlds in the Kingdom Hearts series, non-manga-inspired episodes of Dragon Ball Z, non-League related episodes of Pokemon, or even individual scenes in a movie, there’s a fairly common attitude that treats any and all filler as automatically bad - that anything not immediately germane to the central plot is a flaw. I’ve never understood this line of thought. The “filler” episodes of Gohan surviving alone during the Saiyan Saga are a highlight of the DBZ anime. All my favorite Pokemon episodes are “filler.” Filler is only a bad thing when it takes up too much time, distracting or undermining the larger story. But when it’s well-placed and well-paced, it can be as good as any plot-centric episode, and can even enhance the greater story through unexpected means.

I said in Part IV that I can understand how this game got the reputation for the Disney worlds being filler based on the back half of the first pass, but thinking more about, that isn’t technically true. I can still certainly see how those worlds would give that impression, because the story falls into a repetitive stall, but technically, things related to the main story do happen - Pete and Maleficent try to rebuild their forces, and get thwarted. That this was done in the way it was, with so little variety, cost the story a sense of progression even as nominally important events, like Disney villains being turned into Heartless, took place. By contrast, the second pass on the Disney worlds has more true filler. But because it’s shorter, and because there’s more variety in how things play out in the respective worlds, the overall effect is much more pleasing to my narrative instincts, even if it falters a little at the end.

As it did in the first pass, the Land of Dragons follows naturally from the set-up immediately preceding it (assuming that you play through the worlds by villain level.) In this case, Sora has finally learned the plan of Organization XIII - let the Heartless run amok, then harvest the hearts released when the Keyblade slays the Heartless. Since lives will be in danger if he does nothing, Sora has no choice but to keep fighting. And, when the player arrives in the Land of Dragons, this is exactly what we see illustrated. I know that some people object to how brief Xigbar’s appearance is, but I don’t see how that’s a problem. The Organization’s plot is established by this point; one can easily assume that Xigbar is in the Land of Dragons to further that plot. By the end of the level, that’s confirmed; he was turning dragons into Heartless. And just as Xaldin was teased in the first pass at the Beast’s Castle without getting into a direct scrap with Sora, Xigbar here is given some build-up ahead of his role later in the game - and, by succeeding in making a Heartless, and leaving his Nobodies behind to fight, he avoids coming off as ineffectual, the way he did during the Organization’s first appearance to Sora in Hollow Bastion.

What’s more, the Land of Dragons is arguably more concerned with bringing Riku back into the plot. At this point in the game, we have just seen him leave the ice cream and photo for Sora, but to actually show him taking a personal hand in trying to keep the worlds safe is a significant step. A case could be made that this should have happened earlier in the game, but Riku’s absence from the first pass is a concept that’s grown on me as I’ve gone on playing. There’s a real impact to his finally turning up in a Disney world at this late stage, and I like that Sora was 1. not made arbitrarily stupid for the sake of “mystery,” and actually recognized Riku right away and 2. did have a moment of doubt and confusion about Riku’s alliances. Plus, there’s a great comedy bit derived from all this too: “He was rather rude.” “Then it WAS Riku!”

From there, we have the Beast’s Castle and Port Royal - two worlds, back-to-back, that feature members of the Organization taking a very direct hand in the events playing out, more than any other Disney worlds. It’s Xaldin and Luxord doing the honors, and they are a perfect example of what I’ve meant when I’ve said in the past that Organization XIII works better as a concept and a collective than as individual members. I’ve never meant that in a pejorative sense; what I mean is that it’s the group, the monolithic unit of the Organization as a whole, that is the antagonist of KH II. Xemnas may be their leader, and Xehanort its instigator, but they are a hive mind when it comes to the goal: collect stolen hearts to get hearts for themselves. The individual members shown in KH II don’t really have their own agencies beyond serving that goal, except for Axel, and they aren’t very fleshed out as individuals. Xaldin is just as one-note and empty of personality as Zexion and Lexaeus were in CoM (though gifted with a much better English VA), and Luxord’s gaming sensibility (and Demyx’s incompetence) are only a slight step above that. But they don’t need to be any more defined than they are, because they’re 1. Nobodies devoid of hearts (at this point in the series anyway) and 2. cogs in the wheel that is Organization XIII. Unlike the Organization members we meet in CoM and R/R, they aren’t commanding huge chunks of screen time to blather repetitively among themselves - they appear when the story needs them to, and no more. They provide gradually greater challenges for Sora in combat, creating a boss battle ladder to climb until Xemnas is reached, and also help build up the scale of threat that Organization XIII really poses to Sora after being absent for so long in the first half of the story. It’s video game logic applied to story, and very effectively so IMO.

For some people, the limited screen time of characters like Xigbar, Luxord, etc., and the lack of backstory for them, is a flaw in this game. It should be obvious by now that I don’t share that complaint. For one thing - we are given backstory for Organization XIII, just not an excessive amount of it. And why should there be any more to than what the vanilla version of the game provides in gameplay and Ansem Reports? How much backstory did we get on Jafar in Aladdin, Ursula in The Little Mermaid, or Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty? The story functions well without excessive backstory for the villains for many reasons - chief among them that it isn’t a story about them. This isn’t the tale of dark protagonist Xehanort, falling into darkness and continuing on as the Nobody Xemnas to try and regain a heart. KH II is a point in the series where the staff still clearly remember who the protagonists are, and KH II is a story of resolution for their stories begun in KH I. It’s the resolution of Riku’s struggle toward redemption, begun at the end of KH I and continued through R/R before reaching its climax here; it’s resolution for Donald and Goofy’s quest to find King Mickey, and Mickey’s quest to set the worlds to right; it’s a resolution for Kairi, left alone with fading memories at the end of KH I but determined to set out and find her friends again; and it’s resolution for Sora, recovering his powers and his whole self after the events of CoM while slowly confronting what became of his Nobody in that year, and finally finding his way home after his long journey. At the risk of sounding pretentious, it’s the Odyssey to KH I’s Iliad, and Organization XIII are the cyclopses, sirens, and witches. I don’t need - or want - detailed backstories on them when the story I’m engaged in concerns the people they’re getting in the way of.

(I also think it’s notable that Xaldin hasn’t really been pushed aggressively as a major character since KH II. His brief appearances in later games don’t even attempt to expand his personality; by contrast, Zexion/Ienzo, Vexen/Even, Marluxia, and Larxene’s revivals are treated as much bigger deals, but in all the time we’ve spent with them past their supposed deaths, and for all the background and lore given to them, there’s been no appreciable expansion on their personalities. They’re all still playing the same one or two notes they had in the first place, with the only difference being that their presence is disproportionate to their role in the story and their ability to justify their screen time with personality.)

With that rant finished: the same problems with the wording of the dialogue as the first pass plague Beast’s Castle still, and Belle and the Beast remain too far down the road to romance given the nature of their ticking clock. There’s also a huge lapse in logic - the idea that Belle wouldn’t have been told, by the servants if not by the Beast, about the rose. But I do like how direct a continuation this world is from the first pass. Xaldin’s efforts to make the Beast a Heartless were fleshed out more than Maleficent’s and Pete’s were at any point, and the growth in the Beast’s character during the second pass is nice. Belle’s passivity compared to her movie counterpart is made up for (somewhat) by her quick jab and rescue of the rose. And I managed to beat Xaldin on my first try, without being reduced to Last Hope even once! (One minor nitpick about this world’s second pass, though: if Jack can keep his Santa suit in gameplay, why can’t the Beast keep his ball outfit?)

Port Royal is a massive improvement from the first pass. It’s amazing what loosening the shackles of the source material can do for this series. As brief as it is, it’s a creative way to use an element from the movie, and the first pass of the game, in the Organization’s plans, and it has a lot of great little character beats. I like Jack referring to Luxord and the others as “Organizers;” I like Sora’s prank on Jack with the Keyblade (levity with Sora done right - take note, future series entries); I like Peter Pan turning up as Summon in this of all worlds (I’d completely forgotten he was a Summon, so that was a nice surprise; it did occur to me after I found him that Summons don’t have a story justification here the way they did in KH I - a minor, and possibly inevitable, retcon); and I like seeing Sora show signs of weariness from his journeys. You could argue that his getting teary-eyed at seeing Mulan and Shang together was an earlier sign of this, but here, it’s made explicit. Though I don’t know why he had to cover his feelings with silliness; in KH I, Sora has no problem expressing doubts, exhaustion, and longing.

Another nice touch in Port Royal’s second pass is the way that it gets started - with Elizabeth declaring that she doesn’t want to sit around waiting anymore, and wants to go out and find Will. Because that couple had prompted thoughts of Kairi in Sora earlier in the game, it’s very natural to make the thematic connection between Elizabeth’s actions and Kairi’s here without anyone explicitly commenting on it. This is the way to tie related but distant story elements together. It isn’t necessary - or desirable - that every connection is called out for what it is, but doing it once or twice strengthens the overall effect when later moments pass unremarked upon. It’s a lesson KH III failed to remember, as the only time a connection between Sora and Kairi and the ill-fated Disney couples is made happens after everything Disney has already passed.

Just having the order of the worlds mixed up slightly gives the second pass some variety, but even more comes in Olympus. This is a world largely concerned with its own internal story, tying up the loose ends from the first pass. But the moment when Sora encounters Nobodies in Hades’ layer, only to be saved by Heartless, is a very nice - and subtle - way to keep the greater story in mind. We never learn what those Nobodies are up to specifically, which Organizer sent them, or what set the Heartless to attack them - but their presence means that Sora (and the player) can’t forget that Organization XIII’s plot is never far, even when it isn’t front-and-center. Olympus also demonstrates how to incorporate Final Fantasy material properly, thanks to Auron’s brief flashes of memory - they’re short, and they’re tied into what’s going on in the story instead of distracting from it.

Agrabah is almost as subtle in the way it handles the Organization - an unseen member orchestrates Jafar’s release, on the hope of making him a Heartless. It’s a slight role for them, but a different sort of slight role than they had in Olympus. This is where the variety counts for something compared to the first pass; if not a whole lot is progressing in the plot, at least things play out in a different way in each world. My problems with Agrabah’s second pass are all to do with the world on its own terms; I find the controls for the carpet riding a little wonky, and the world has the opposite problem to many later ones in that it gives the Disney hero nothing to do with defeating the villain while Sora does all the work. The resolution with Iago is nice, though, and I’m sorry this series never closed things out on Agrabah with a King of Thieves adaptation.

It’s only when we arrive at Halloween Town that I think a Disney world (on the main World Map, with combat) can truly be said to be all filler. No one from Organization XIII is present, no schemes take place behind the scenes; the only story here concerns the local Disney characters. And with the beat of him being excited to see Santa played out, Sora ends up without anything to do - he’s along for the ride with Jack. However, even with that, I would say that the second pass on Halloween Town is how to do filler right in a video game like this, because this side excursion has plenty of thematic significance. Dr. Finklestein’s puppet doing bad things out of a desire for a heart is the whole of Organization XIII writ small, and gives a preview of the pathos to come with them. And of course, Sora is once again reminded of Kairi in an adorable closer for the world.

Sadly, the last in the line-up is Pride Lands, and I was once again disappointed by this world. Taken as a whole, it’s probably the weakest of them, not counting Atlantica. That’s a huge shame, because it’s such a wonderful idea for a KH level, for many reasons. Besides being derived from one of the best and most popular Disney films, and offering great form changes, taking Summons from the first game and expanding on them in the sequel - treating them as true characters, who remember Sora and their adventures with him - was a beautiful concept. And it works so well in the Land of Dragons, even as Mushu gives way to Mulan as Sora’s chief point of contact. But Pride Lands just couldn’t pull it off. Here on the second pass, the Scar ghost makes for an intriguing idea made laughably underwhelming in execution, and the final Heartless boss is disconnected from any story content within that world or the larger plot. This is filler done wrong, and the best I can say for it is that it gave Sora more of a role than the first pass did - seeing him employ reverse psychology was fun.

(I might as well touch on the two optional worlds - true filler if there ever was any - while I’m here. I still think the 100 Acre Wood was needlessly shoved into the flow of the story during the first half, and the concept is still repetitive from the first game, but I have softened a bit from my earlier stance that it shouldn’t have been brought back at all - the minigames are a lot of fun, even if the world doesn’t quite pack the emotional punch it did in KH I. Atlantica, on the other hand, remains a colossal disappointment. I had forgotten just how much it forgets and/or ignores from KH I once Ursula shows up - logic is out the window at that point, the way Ariel and the others react to her. Her song is the worst of the bunch, and Ariel isn’t even involved in fighting her this time.)

I’ll go ahead and close on Hollow Bastion, and the second pass at Space Paranoids. Once again, we have some variety here. This time, it comes in the form of cross-cutting - cutscenes of Leon racing around preparing things juxtaposed with Sora’s gameplay inside the system. The only other time in the series I remember cross-cutting being this effective was in juxtaposing Aerith’s briefing of Donald and Goofy in Traverse Town with Leon and Yuffie doing the same for Sora in KH I. And there is an absolutely wonderful moment where Cid and Merlin finally come to a head (“OLD loon, you say!?”) It was another of those delightful bits that I’d forgotten about, and it only underscores how mistaken an idea it was to abandon this little unit in favor of “original” characters. When has Ienzo ever shown this kind of chemistry and interplay, with anybody?

But I do have to close on a negative this time. There are some nitpicks to be had with the second pass at Space Paranoids, such as Sora being more awkward about hugs than a computer program. There are legitimate story issues, such as the lack of good reason for the system going screwy. And there are missed opportunities - one of them related to that last point. Xemnas, or another of the ex-apprentices, could have been responsible for setting that off, which would have gotten Organization XIII involved in the last world right before the home stretch.

Less detrimental to this story, but more detrimental in the long run to the series overall, is the fact that the reveal about Hollow Bastion once being Radiant Garden doesn’t yield any revelations about the tritagonist of the series who came from said gardens. Kairi’s past is the one loose end from KH I that this game won’t end up resolving, and the series has never properly addressed it. Ansem SoD, possessing Riku, seemed to know her, and declared her “Princess” in no uncertain terms; one could infer from that that he knew her. The Final Mix of KH I would reveal that he deliberately selected her for an experiment to find the Keyblade. That this is all we’ve ever gotten - and that backstory concepts that might have suited her were given to other characters - is ridiculous. This game, if not the exact moment when Tron reveals the name Radiant Garden, was possibly their best chance to rectify this, and they blew it.

#z's crits #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 2 #critique #commentary

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notajinn · 4 years

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Top 10 Games I Played in 2019

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am finishing this at nearly 2 AM in the morning, so I did not proofread. Excuse any typos.

With 2019 closing out the decade, I want to make a "Top 10 Games of the Decade" list, but first I have to point out my favourites of the year. I actually played over 10 games this year (which is very unusual), so I chose my top 10. As usual, these are not all games that came out in 2019, but I played them for the first time this year. I'm not ranking carried over mobile games this time, although at this point the only mobile I play is Dragalia Lost.

Let's go.

10. Untitled Goose Game (Switch)

There's a lot to love about this game concept alone even though I ignored it for the longest time pre-release.

Pros

The entire goal of the game is just that you are a goose and also an asshole. I've talked many times about how I think being unique is overblown in place of being high-quality, but this is a unique take that really works.

With a vaguely open-world that you're thrown into with no real purpose, you really capture the feeling of just setting out that day to be a jerk. I appreciate that there is a progression system with a list of mischievous tasks you have to do to reach the next area, but it's still presented in a very free way. You'll do some of them accidentally just trying to be a jerk, and others you'll really have to think about. Eventually there will come a clear end goal, which I was pleasantly surprised by.

Controlling the goose is also perfect in how unwieldy and overconfident you feel. You don't exactly move quickly, and there's no attacking, but you still feel better than the humans around you.

The minimalist art design helps sell the really low-stakes nature of the goose's quest. Sound effects are also pronounced thanks to this, and sound is very important for the goose. I also like the slight stealth gameplay that's not at all punishing, as someone who enjoys but is bad at stealth.

Cons

Even for a budget game, it's quite short to reach the "end goal". It's very much a game you can continue to mess around in, and there's a "New Game+" set of tasks you receive, but as far my "have to reach the end" mindset...I was expecting it to take a little longer. I'd say it was maybe 3 hours max, including lots of goofing around.

I also found that I VERY much don't enjoy being a jerk to children (see screenshot), and very begrudgingly did the minimum mean things to get past the kid. Luckily there is only one kid.

Final Thoughts

Honestly the lower ranking is not so much because of negatives, but because I played so many good things this year combined with this being mostly a fun little novelty. I feel like people who are interested would have already played it (if they have the console). Really you can go with your gut instinct of whether or not being an asshole goose sounds fun for you.

9. Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)

If you told me Kingdom Hearts III wouldn't even make my top 5 in the year it was released, I'd think you were crazy. But here we are with the long-awaited game.

Pros

So much of this game is fanservice for the series, and I had fortunately caught up on the spinoffs enough to enjoy it. Seeing the 358 crew and the BBS crew, all the Organization members...there's a lot of love here.

KH3 also has some of my favourite worlds in the series in Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates in particular managed to scratch that Wind Waker sailing itch just enough. Meanwhile Toy Story going for a unique plot really helped pull me in, and there's that now infamous Woody scene that I love. Even other worlds like Monsters Inc get some great scenes (like Vanitas and the doors). Tangled is also one of my favourite Disney movies, so while the world itself was pretty average, I was happy to be in it.

Combat-wise, I appreciate getting so many options like dodge roll and blocking right off the bat regardless of your initial choices; previously I always forced myself to take the Shield so I could start with the super-useful dodge roll.

The music is as stellar as ever, although they loop far too quickly given how much time you'll spend in a single area sometimes (looking at you, Toy Story). I especially love Don't Think Twice, which had the bonus of being a complete surprise.

Cons

KH1 was the first Aladdin. KH2 was Return of Jafar. So logically KH3 should have been King of Thieves. Instead we get no Aladdin at all! Just the Genie as a summon I think?

For all the character fanservice, it still feels like only the main trio, Riku, and Mickey are really useful. I can't believe how poorly Aqua does as a Keyblade Master. I can't believe Kairi and Axel's training basically amounts to nothing. I know it's Sora's game, but it's still so frustrating.

And the final fight with everyone is very much so "good idea, bad execution". It just feels so messy. The entire climax is just not paced very well.

The Frozen world is one of my least favourites in the series. Nearly nothing interesting happens (outside of one good Larxene scene), you don't get Elsa as a boss or a party member, and the progression is just "got to get to Elsa's castle, oh no we fell" repeated three times. Also did they really need to put the full Let It Go song in there? I say this as someone who likes the song. This whole world is just a mess, and I think we'd be better off it was cut. And replaced with ALADDIN 3!

Where is the Wreck-It Ralph world? You know, the Disney movie about video games?

The combat somehow feels less smooth than KH2, possibly because of so many things constantly going off. The Park Attraction skills are fun at first, but later they take so long and often aren't worth bothering with. But I think HP of the enemies assumes you'll use it, because some enemies get really spongy later on.

There was also literally no reason not to end Sora's plot with this game; they had a very easy chance. But they also had an easy chance to end at KH2 and they didn't. I don't know why they're so afraid to use a different protagonist. Even if they don't want to make one, there's so many other potential-protagonists in the game already. Some of whom are also technically Sora!

Also the stupid Toy Story music loop is like 10 seconds long. Stop it.

I was actually originally going to put this at 8, but after typing out these Cons I moved the ranking back.

Final Thoughts

For as many pros and cons as I wrote out, the biggest thing about this game is that it's somehow incredibly forgettable. Kingdom Hearts 3, the game we waited over a decade for, is forgettable. And that really hurts.

The ReMind DLC has some real potential to help with this, but it also costs $40 CAD. If you're on the fence for KH3 as a whole, maybe wait and see what people say about the DLC fixing stuff.

8. Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)

It really hurts to put Cadence of Hyrule this low, because there's so much I love about it. And I want to see more third-parties work on Nintendo IPs.

Pros

You can finally play as Zelda in a proper Legend of Zelda game! Yes there's the rhythm mechanic and roguelike nature, but you're ultimately still going around a 2D LoZ overhead map in the same way you would a mainline game. But now you can have Zelda go around and play a little differently. For example, you have no regular shield but you have the Nayru's Love barrier which can work defensively in a different way. I appreciate that the characters all play differently when the developers could easily have easily given you three different sprites with one moveset.

The rhythm mechanic of moving on the beat works very well with the LoZ map style. Being able to see the bar speed at the bottom also helps a lot to learn in the first place. Most importantly, you have the option to completely turn it off to play this like a classic LoZ. Obviously the soundtrack itself is full of great LoZ remixes.

The difficulty is just right without being too rough or too easy with only occasional exceptions, and the game is fairly forgiving about respawing when you do die; it usually doesn't feel like a BIG deal. There's tons of LoZ equipment to use, which I really appreciate after how barebones Breath of the Wild was in that regard.

As with any roguelike, you also have a lot of replayability with the map changes and different characters and equipment to try out.

Incorporating classic bosses with musical instruments is also really fun.

Cons

It's as short as you would expect a budget game to be, but it's more expensive than your average budget game. I'm going to chalk that up to using a first-party Nintendo IP, but the price fools you into thinking the game will be longer.

I also personally don't really care for roguelikes, so the selling point of replayability isn't for me. It's a bit unfair to judge the game for something the genre is supposed to do, but I don't think it's a bad game for being like this. I just think it's a game I like less because of that emphasis.

There's also one boss in particular that was super frustrating, and I think it's because I didn't understand the "trick" to beating it.

Final Thoughts

I do honestly recommend this if you like classic LoZ, but just know what you're getting into; something that emphasizes multiple playthroughs and won't take too long on a single run, but which executes the LoZ formula itself really well.

7. XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC)

I can't believe how long it took me to play XCOM: Enemy Unknown given that Fire Emblem is my favourite series. I also owned it for years on Steam, but it was just this year I finally booted up this strategy RPG.

Pros

You want a challenging SRPG? Here you goddam go. This game is punishing as hell, but as long as you don't play Iron Man mode it's still reasonable to deal with. I don't usually care for games that sell on difficulty, but I've played enough SRPGs that I don't mind more difficulty in the genre that's not cheap. XCOM very closely skirts the line of difficult and cheap, again if you are not playing Iron Man (which prevents you from restarting missions).

There's so much dumb RPG numbers to gloss over and spec, and I love it. Things to research, order to research, facilities to build, equipment to craft, skills per each character to learn. If you like pouring over resources like me but don't like the real time nature of an RTS, this is perfect.

I also like the idea that you start off so overwhelmed against an absurdly powerful alien force, and everything you're doing is basically just trying to survive while looking for a way to hold your ground. There's a real desperation in the gameplay that captures the feeling of war in a way that Fire Emblem struggles with.

Cons

I haven't seen RNG that hates me this much since Fire Emblem: Sealed Sword. And it seems to be a universal experience that the RNG is more stacked against you than it leads you to believe.

I've also seen many people online suggest Iron Man for a person's first run, but that is AWFUL advice. It's why I almost quit the game twice, but ultimately just made a new file without Iron Man. It sounds fun for a second or later playthrough, but there's so many unknowns happening constantly in your first run that it just feels unfair to go Iron Man.

The aesthetic is sci-fi apocalypse; two designs I generally hate. Everything is so gloomy and blue and tech. It's all very forgettable to look at.

Healing options are so limited, at least in the relatively early sections I'm in (I did not beat this). Actually this is one of the very few games I started but did NOT beat before playing something else, which in itself means there's something that I really disliked. At this point I can't remember what that is.

Final Thoughts

If you like Fire Emblem gameplay but want it to be even more resource management based, and can deal with a drab aesthetic, absolutely grab this. Especially since it gets really cheap on Steam. Just do NOT start on Iron Man mode.

6. Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within (PC)

There was a Joker live-action movie this year; an entire movie dedicated to him. And yet Telltale managed a better Joker.

Pros

I am one of those weirdo people who considers Joker one of his favourite comic characters. I'm a sucker for a good villain, and it was probably Joker in Batman: The Animated Series that is responsible for that. So I love seeing a good fresh take on the character, and Telltale delivers. This is season two of Telltale Batman, and we briefly got to see "John Doe" in the first season as a proto-Joker who's definitely a violent jerk, but not necessarily a villain just yet. While there are many plot threads in Enemy Within, the main one is about how John grows among the mess that is Gotham. Depending on how you play, you can actually push him to become a vigilante and ally of Batman instead of the villain. This is itself not only a fun take on the character, but also the most uniquely any Telltale game has branched.

I remember explaining once that Telltale is not so much "choose how the story ends", but more "choose how your character's relationships with others changes". But there, you get a wildly different final chapter depending on whether John is a vigilante or villain. I really appreciate the effort it took, but it's also bittersweet since this was one of the last games the studio worked on before being closed.

Telltale gives us other character portrayals that range from standard to occasionally good. They have Harley play the big mob boss who has John wrapped around her finger this time, and they do a good job selling it.

You'll get some great dialogue options, and it seems almost impossible to please everyone. Being forced to make hard choices that will inevitably make someone mad at you is what this genre is about, and it's often not exactly clear cut what the consequences will be.

Cons

Like other Telltale games, action sequences are done with QTEs. These are relics in this day and age, so I really didn't care for them. It's a good way to get around a probably costly combat engine, but it's ultimately filler to me to get back to the plot. Since this is a Batman game, it has more action sequences than the average Telltatle game.

Other sequences like searching for clues are less annoying, but still not really fun. I did not grow up on point-and-clicks, but it seems the developers did.

You also can't easily restart sequences if you selected an option by mistake; you have to restart that entire chapter. And a chapter is multiple hours. I get the implication of "you have to live with your choices", but when it's an actual mistake because I'm using a PS3 controller on my PC mapped to Xbox buttons...I get a little annoyed.

Final Thoughts

It's a little weird to start at Enemy Within if you didn't play the first season, and it will retroactively spoil things, but you honestly could. It is more fun than the original (which is also good). Easily the big selling point is being able to shape John the proto-Joker; if that doesn't appeal to you, this may not be for you.

5. Super Metroid (SNES Classic)

Not only is 2019 the first time I played (and completed) Super Metroid; it's also the first time I completed a Metroid game at all! I had played a decent amount of Fusion and the first Prime before, but fell off both of them. This time, I absolutely saw Samus reach her goal.

Pros

How do you talk about such a beloved game? First of all, the SNES era is still visually my favourite in video games. This has a lot to do with nostalgia since I grew with the SNES, but also because it was the height of sprites before the industry turned to 3D models. And as amazing as N64 and PS1 graphics looked back then, they did not age well. The SNES, however, still holds up so well visually.

For a game with a sci-fi aesthetic that heavily takes place underground, I loved the variety and colours Super Metroid offered outside my expectations. This is definitely up there as one of the most beautiful games of the console.

Where I think the game excels the most is Samus' controls. The level of precision they built into her abilities is nuts. Obviously there are games where characters have larger movesets (such as fighters), but for a platformer I love how well you can maneuver Samus. For example, when you do a moving jump. If you hit the D-Pad and then jump, you do the Spin Jump. If you jump and then hit the D-Pad, you do a more standard jump. It may not seem like much now, but I feel like for the time it's very impressive.

There's so many fun abilities you get, and the majority of them can be used simultaneously for some really fun platforming.

You also learn very quickly even without text based on the way power-ups and obstacles are laid out. Even storytelling is done well simply through gameplay; no cinema scenes or text explanations needed.

The bosses feel stressful but almost never too cheap; you always feel like they're possible to deal with. Occasionally you may need more missiles or energy, but it's usually learning and countering patterns.

Music can effectively be atmospheric or lively depending on where you are, and I retroactively wish we had a few more Metroid tracks in Super Smash Brothers.

Also even though I'm not a 100% completion-ist type of person, I appreciate when I do find some secret missile tank by really examining the area.

Cons

When you're not used to the controls early on, it can be tricky to handle Samus. Mostly those spin jumps. The wall jump also never really got easier.

Weapon switching is a weird situation. I appreciate you can do it on the fly with the Select button, but the fact it always goes in a certain order means it can often take a while to get to what you want.

Personally I also thought Ridley was a hell of a difficulty spike, and the game actually calmed back down in difficulty afterwards? Maybe I'm just bad at fighting such an aggressive and fast boss.

Phantoon was also a tough boss made tougher by the fact the closest working Save Point was a good 5+ minutes of platforming away for me. I like that the nearest Save Point doesn't work because the electricity is off, and it builds on the haunted ship atmosphere, but boy was that frustrating to jump all the way back nearly four times to fight that boss.

Final Thoughts

If like me you've somehow not played Super Metroid, you really should. It still holds up, and it's relatively short (my time was about 6 hours). It may be a little weird at the start with the limited abilities and getting used to the precise controls, but if you stick with it you're in for a good time.

The reason it's number 5 and not higher is not due to any particular negatives, but simply because the next few games left me with more positives.

4. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4)

The fact that this game exists is incredibly stupid, and I love it.

Pros

Persona 3 is not a happy game in a traditional sense. There are happy moments, but most are bittersweet. It's a game about dealing with and overcoming tragedy, and has a dark visual atmosphere to match.

So the fact we get to see that cast dancing around with bright colours is nuts. But not at all in a bad way. These characters go through so many difficulties; they absolutely deserve to have a fun dance party where they don't have to think about anything else. This isn't the happy kids deciding to dance; this is a bunch of stressed out people who need a break. And as someone who loves Persona 3, it makes me so happy to...well, see them happy.

The majority of the original voice actors were brought back (the main exception being Elizabeth), and they do just as good a job as in the old days.

We get mostly great remixes of the P3 songs, and the original versions of others. Each song has a particular character assigned to it so they can more effectively match their dancing style. The models look amazing.

There's also minor Social Link elements which are used in place of a story, and their personalities are mostly intact. There's certainly some Flanderization, but it's not as bad as Persona Q.

You also get a decent progression system of unlocking songs in batches, and needing to beat them to get the next songs. The Social Link requirements help make repeating the songs fun while giving you something to work towards.

The rhythm game itself is hard to judge since I play very few rhythm games. I found it fun once I got the hang of it on normal difficulty. There's tons of modification options to make it easier or harder depending on your preferences.

Cons

As with every modern Persona game, the DLC is awful. Tons of Day One DLC, and they even locked Shinji to DLC! Does he not also deserve to have fun without paying extra? There's also a few songs I would have liked, but not at those prices. Otherwise DLC is mostly costumes and accessories which I both don't care about, and which are overpriced.

I also hate that we had an EASY chance to get the FeMC Minako in this fun low-stakes plot game, but didn't. It's not like Atlus forgot about her either; she was in Persona Q2 which came out a little later. If anything, SHE should have been DLC and Shinji should have been in the base game.

The jump in difficulty between Hard and All-Night is absurd. I can beat most songs on Hard with good ratings, but I can't beat the first song on All-Night at all.

Koromaru is not in the game, which inherently prevents it from being perfect. He could have jumped in during Fever Time at least!

Final Thoughts

This game is only for Persona 3 fans, but boy is it some great fanservice for us. If you're a Persona 3 fan that at least slightly enjoys rhythm games, this is for you.

3. Indivisible (PS4)

As of writing this, I have not actually beaten Indivisible. If I had to guess, I'm at the 2/3 mark? A big plot thing just happened, but it's clearly not the final plot thing.

Since this game is less known, it's a platformer/fighter/RPG hybrid with a heavy South Asian influence.

Pros

It's a platformer/fighter/RPG hybrid with a heavy South Asian influence.

Look at that sentence! These are all things I love!

I grew up on platformers and RPGs, and I have a lot of fun when I get into a fighter. And as someone who always desperately tries to find even one brown character in most video games, I'm all about a cast that is mostly South Asian!

The combat system is really fun. It utilizes something similar the classic Final Fantasy ATB style system, but at a very quick refresh rate and tons of fighting game elements thrown in. For example, a key is doing combos with your various party members. Each character has 3 standard moves, and knowing when to use what depending on the enemy's position is where the strategy comes in. There's also one party-wide meter that everyone dips into to use Supers. It's a very aggressive and offense-oriented battle system, but they manager to incorporate healers and support units comfortably. But yes, everyone is basically a fighting game character in an RPG battle system.

The platforming starts off very basic, but you get access to so many moves and can use them all fluidly together. There's some really fun platforming segments that really force you to use everything Ajna can do.

The character designs are top-notch, even removed from how ecstatic I am about the diversity. Again, they are designed as fighting game characters who have to be distinct and high-quality. Everyone also feels extremely unique in combat.

I wouldn't say the overall story and writing is amazing, but there's some good moments here and there. It also follows a somewhat less traditional path for Ajna so far, even though I'm expecting a fairly traditional climax.

Cons

Okay, so this is in some ways a fighting game. Which means you should have a move list you can look up. While you get a brief explanation of each character's gimmick when you recruit them, there's NO MOVE LIST!

That sucks, but you can go into Training and figure out the moves for yourself, right? Yes, except you don't unlock Training until almost 10 hours into the game! Which means for the early part of the game when you're still learning the mechanics of the system as a whole, you also have more trouble learning what each character can do. Combined with a very high rate of recruiting new characters early on, this can be overwhelming. If they didn't want to make a move list, they should at least have made Training available from the beginning.

Backtracking can be a bit of a pain; there's minimal fast travel points. Ajna doesn't cover as much space as Samus relatively to the game world, so it really takes some time to go around. Enough that it sometimes discourages exploration, which is not good in a platformer.

The sense of progression is also pretty slow once you get past the 1/3 mark. You don't get new characters quite as quickly, and it's not as though your characters learn new moves (they shouldn't, based on how the battle system works). You also only have levels for Ajna, which in my experience don't make a huge difference. And there's no equipment or items give you that sense of growth. What you have are the Ringels; collect enough of them and you can get a major defense upgrade, or add an additional attack slot per turn to every character. They're great upgrades, and fun to explore and find, but it's a long time between upgrades.

I also feel like healers and support are tough to use well in such an aggressive battle system, which is unfortunate because I traditionally love support-type characters.

Final Thoughts

Despite liking it more than most of the games on this list, it's a tough recommend. It's very specific to what it is, and there's nothing to really compare it to. However I really like it, and I especially love the South Asian influence.

2. Celeste (Switch)

If you showed me a 10-second clip of Celeste gameplay, I'd dismiss it as some easier Super Meat Boy clone.

I'm so glad I didn't.

Pros:

In many ways, Celeste can be called a long series of platforming challenge rooms. Basically once you clear a distinct "screen" and die, you move forward. You die, you restart on the same screen in seconds. There's infinite lives and no timer. You take as long as you need, and you keep pushing forward. It's a compromise of making a classically difficult platformer that removes all elements that make the classics feel cheap. And it's also a great representation of the story Madeline is going through.

Having a young-life crisis, non-mountain-climber Madeline sets out to climb the famously difficult mountain Celeste. There's a few other characters to deal with, but the majority of the game is spent with Madeline and the reflection that represents another side of her. A side of her that's always bringing her down and trying to force her to turn backIt's a short and well-written story, and absolutely worth experiencing. I love the weaving of the "keep trying" gameplay and story, and the fact an Assist Mode to make the gameplay easier is available from the start is important.

The music also nails that Super Metroid feeling of atmospheric or lively depending on what's happening.

Controls are similarly precise but reasonable, and the incredibly low stakes of failure make even the cheaper platforming segments doable. Some of the platforming is legitimately annoying, but being able to try again in literal seconds makes it less frustrating than easier platformers.

Cons

I don't care for the character sprites. They are small and faceless. You understand what they're going for, and I know they have to be small in relation to the area of the game. But it's just not visually appealing.

...I can't really think of any other cons.

Final Thoughts

I feel like Celeste is an important game that will stay with me, far beyond just a good game I played in 2019. It's short, it doesn't cost much, and it's absolutely worth your time if you have any sort of anxiety or self-esteem issues.

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch)

My favourite series finally returns to a home console after nearly a decade. And boy does it deliver.

Pros

There's two critical things I look for when judging a Fire Emblem game; the cast, and the core gameplay.

The cast in Three Houses is nearly fully presented to you from the start of the game. You have your three separate houses with their individual students, and you choose one to lead. Fortunately you can recruit most students from other houses with some work, so you don't have to worry too much about mutually exclusive units. You will see a few new faces over the course of the game join your team as well, so there's still some surprises. At first glance, many of the characters can be relegated to anime tropes. Claude is the charismatic schemer, Marianne is the quiet girl who likes animals, Hilda is the lazy high-confidence girl, etc. But as you progress through the story and the Support conversations, you'll find that nearly every character has a lot of writing effort put into them. I do not want to give any examples because it's better to get to them yourself throughout the game, but don't take the characters at face-value. Don't expect a full 180 personality shift, but do expect lots of depth to explain both currently personalities, and being able to see the growth of these characters. There's some very relatable issues some of the characters face.

Honestly, it's not a stretch to say Three Houses has some of my favourite characters in the series. It's a big plus that one of the main Lords is dark-skinned for the first time in series history.

Then we have the gameplay. Off the bat we're into some very non-traditional Fire Emblem stuff with the academy system; you use things like lectures to build the weapon levels of your students. Also Cavalry, Heavy Armor, and Flying have their own weapon levels now? Also you don't buy spells, you learn them with weapon levels? There is a LOT that's different.

But what remains the same is the core formula of the strategy-RPG battles. Your process to build your units may be different in many ways, but you're still using the tactics you would expect in an FE game. There's just a few other things to consider now.

Basically I feel that Three Houses' new systems are a good compliment to the classic system as opposed to being a full replacement. Which is why even as an old FE elitist, I absolutely loves playing out the fights. Also they brought back Fog of War!

I really love the incorporation of visible agro lines. Basically when you move your character within enemy range, you actually see direct lines from the enemies so you see who will attack you. Combined with ability to go back to a previous turn, this helps make bad RNG feel less frustrating.

The story is also hands-down the best of the modern Fire Emblem era (everything from Awakening and beyond). It may start off as anime high-school, but having a cast of characters from entirely different countries attend school together as teenagers and then skipping forward to when they are leading their respective countries to war against each other...it's a lot to take in. And you have four different ways to experience the game, all of which are fairly distinct.

New gameplay elements like the lectures and academy activities are actually pretty fun, and dip into a bit of that Persona itch. You also get a better feel for the cast as you see them going about more normal activities. And it's all done in voice acting. Even every generic NPC dialogue in all four routes. Honestly the level of voice acting is incredible for a first-party Nintendo game. Voices also help the game feel so much more alive.

As always, the music is wonderful. The main theme Edge of Dawn is up there with Kingdom Hearts songs among my favourite video game vocal tracks.

Seriously, listen to it:

youtube

The option to freely change class so long as you can pass certification is weird, but feels far less busted than Awakening and Fates due to skills taking longer to learn, and mostly being less overpowered. It's also great aesthetically. Being able to use any weapon with any class was also an interesting change.

Also we have gauntlets as a weapon in Fire Emblem now. Which means you can run up to a goddam Wyvern Rider and punch them in the face. This is amazing.

Another plus is that despite incorporating a time skip, there is no child system. Which means Support is not longer a means to getting a perfect gene child unit, but instead to see how characters grow together while also getting a slight stat boost.

Cons

I kind of miss the Weapon Triangle. I know it's not even the most important thing in the old game, but I have nostalgia for it? You can sort of get the Weapon Triangle abilities once you raise your respective weapon levels enough.

As for more of a real problem...gender locked classes. It's very frustrating that there is only one class that focuses on Gauntlets, and it's locked to males. Like, have you seen Leonie? She's made to be a puncher! And I made her one, but I had to make her a Warrior.

Similarly, the only Master class that focuses on magic is locked to females. It didn't present a problem for me in the Golden Deer route, but I'm sure at one point during the other 3 routes I'll want to make a male magic user. Oh, the Dark Mage line is also locked to males, but doesn't have a Master class.

Master classes in general are a problem. Nearly all of them are Cavalry or Flying, and it's visually annoying. Also because most of my Advanced classes were infantry, so my characters didn't really learn Cavalry or Flying with certain exceptions.

I wish there were no gender-locked classes, and more infantry Master classes.

Also I know it doesn't make sense story-wise, but I wish I could recruit Claude to Blue Lions or Black Eagles because I really don't want to hurt him when I play those routes.

Final Thoughts

I mean, it's number one on my list. Obviously I love it. But it's important to note this is my favourite Fire Emblem game in a long time. I feel like I need more distance from it (and to play the other routes) to really compare it to my favourites, but for now it's at least my favourite game of 2019, and my favourite Switch game.

#games of the year #games of 2019

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