Kingdom Hearts 3D

It's very fitting that a trailer for a game that takes place in a dream is as trippy as this trailer is.  No, really, I've been following Kingdom Hearts for a while and I have NO IDEA what is going on besides the basic set up.  (Namely, that Sora and Riku are completing their Mark of Master exam.  This was the letter in KH2, and we've seen the Mark of Master exam in Kingdom Hearts: BBS.)

(Spoilers for the other KH games ahead)

It is interesting though, many scenes in this trailer are relating back to the side or filler games.  The Mark of Mastery exam, as stated before, was in Birth By Sleep.  Vanitas (Evil Sora) and Master Xehanort (the old creepy guy) are also in Birth By Sleep. The black haired Kairi is actually Xion who is one of the main characters of Kingdom Hearts 358/2... until it was revealed she was actually a Replica and was drawing power from both Roxas and Sora so she tricked Roxas into killing her so she could return to Sora, erasing everyone's memories of her in the process)  The the Somebodies in the trailer (Ienzo, Aeleus, and Lea) originally debuted as Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories.  Namine also debuted there. (She's the blond Kairi in the white dress) And there is suspicion the other Riku is a "Data Riku" from Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded.  (I haven't played Re:Coded so I can't judge)

But what is interesting is various scenes have been remixed, especially from Kingdom Hearts 2.  The famous Roxas/Axel battle is now in CG. 

But on the other hand, Roxas NEVER fought against Xemnas and Sora and Riku have yet to face Master Xehanort.  While it could be a nod to how Sora harbors Ven (who is in Roxas... it's a bit confusing) and Riku was possessed by Ansem:Seeker of Darkness who is actually a form of Terra (Yeah, that's confusing too)  but who really knows at this point.

And THEN there is that young form of Xehanort hanging around which has something to do with Vanitas which makes no sense at all since we've never seen a Xehanort THAT young and while Master Xehanort created Vanitas and semi raised him, they've never had a spiritual connection like the rest of the groups.

THEN there is "The World Ends With You" crew.  While the Kingdom Hearts games have included Square Enix Cameos before (Cloud and Zack are minor plotpoints in the Olympus Colosseum worlds) they're usually a bit more varied.  (While Final Fantasy 7 easily has the most characters, they share the sage with Final Fantasy 6, 8, 9, and 10(-2).)  But so far, almost the entire cast of TWEWY has shown up, and all in one world.  It's rather odd, even for an admitted marketing ploy.  (SE has admitted that they want to make a TWEWY sequel, but they need to increase awareness of the TWEWY crew so they were inserting into Kingdom Hearts)  That being said, putting in one of Josha's iconic lines is a nice touch. 

One thing that is interesting, though, is the utter lack of Ven, Aqua, and Terra (other then Terra and Ven's semi alternate forms) While Birth By Sleep and Re:Coded makes it clear that the three need to be saved in order for Light to win in the battle against Master Xehanort, and Re:Coded also states that they've tracked down at least 2 of the heroes of Birth By Sleep, it is interesting none of them show up, not even Master Eraqus who taught them.  While we might see more later, the absence is notable.

The choice of the three "Somebodies" that came back is interesting.  While we always knew Lea/Axel would come back (everyone likes him way too much and he appeared for almost no reason in Birth By Sleep)  Ienzo/Zexion and Aeleus/Lexaeus are an odd choice.  They only appeared in Riku's story in Reverse/Rebirth mode in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and as part of the short tutorial in 358/2.  Why have just those three (and Xehanort) come back?  As far as we know, they hold very little knowledge of the series' inner workings.

Square Enix makes fantastic trailers, but one of their main problems is they spoil too much. A few months before Birth By Sleep was released, many fans guessed that Terra would end up possessed by Master Xehanort (who was the real villain of the game) and become the Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 reports.  That's not happening here.

Check out the short version of the trailer on the official website

I can't wait until we get a localized trailer, I hope it's the long one.  And I can't wait until we find out more about this game.  It's way too trippy, but it's awesome. 

Character Analysis - Terra (Final Fantasy VI)

Since Final Fantasy VI debuted on the PSN today, I thought I would analyze Terra (spoilers ahead)  I should also note, she's not my favorite character, Cyan is.  But, I'm saving Cyan for my birthday or something. 

Well, Terra is (arguably) the lead character.  And she's half human.  I know she doesn't look like it, but she's half esper. 

This is actually not only critical to the plot but to her personality.  Esper's have great control over magic, but in doing so have very little emotions.  While Terra can feel emotions, if she does so it is at the expense of her magic.  Well, at least initially.  Eventually she finds out that emotional disturbances end up disrupting her magic.  Like making it ceasing to work.


Or turning her into this:

Which is why the Empire put her in a slave crown at the beginning of the game. She has immense power, but she's also very kind and can not work properly when under stress (like in battle). 

So, if she doesn't like battle, why does she fight?

Because she has a reason.  She wants to find out who she is, and she knows the empire doesn't want to share it.  So, she joins up with Locke to find out... plus now that she's free she realized the Empire is in the wrong.  But, she doesn't realize that anything is particularly odd with her, until she uses Magic in front of Edgar. Upon finding out that she is different, she looks to find out what she can do to "fix" her...

But instead, finds out that she can't understand love.  She has no idea what it is, or how she should recognize it.

This search is a key part of her character. To quote her, "I want to know what love is NOW!"   She wants to know how she's different, she wants to know why, she wants to fall in love.

And she does, but in a wonderful twist, it's not with a person...

Not any one person.

Instead, once they fail utterly and Kefka destroys the world, she takes over a small village and takes care of the kids.  It is there she finds love.  Not in one person, but in a village of children that would not have survived if she hadn't stepped in.  And she couldn't use her magic until she realized that she loved her kids and she wanted to protect them.

It is also what allows her to survive after the end too. 


Love motivates many of the characters in Final Fantasy VI.  But, you'll have to play it to find out everyone else's love.  (And don't forget to sleep in inns with Shadow)

This is one of my favorite games, and I really can't do an analysis of Terra well enough.  She's a very confused young woman who, for all intents and purposes, woke up and had no idea who she is.  She spends parts of the game trying to figure it out, only to find out she's not human, and, eventually, does find her purpose.  In her new family in the town, and her friends who traipsed across an entire world to make sure no one would have to go through what she did ever again. 

Deleted Content - Kingdom Hearts part 1

Hey? Isn't this Kingdom Hearts, the Disney/Square Enix mashup? I've never seen THIS world before.... What is it?

It's the Jungle Book. And, yes, those are fully functional models of Terra, Ven, and Aqua. As you can see, Jungle Book was fairly late in development when it got scrapped. Why?

Well, we don't know. But I do have a guess.

Did you ever watch Talespin?


By the time Talespin was created, Louie Prima (note, I originally put in Louie Armstrong, but it appears I was wrong. My apologies)(King Louie's Original Voice Actor) had died. So, Disney hired a very good voice actor named Jim Cummings (He's also Pooh, Tigger, Ray, Don Karnage, Darkwing Duck, NegaDuck...) Jim Cummings has a skill in imitation so he imitated Louie Prima's performance.

Apparently he did it too well and Disney was sued by Louie Prima's widow for breech of contract. Since then, King Louie either does not speak or his cousin "Larry" shows up instead.

Now, look at the only perfectly complete room in the video. Apparently Terra was to interact with... King Louie.

My idea is that they started to program this world (and got very far!) by the time the legal issues with King Louie were made known. They were too far along with the project so they dummied out the world instead of reworking it. All hope is not lost though! Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance is confirmed to consist of worlds that were highly considered for the other games. With the world partly built, we can assume that DDD is considering Jungle Book as well.