Board 8 > Jeff & Leon: Games and Anime in the Same House Beyond Darkness [JZLF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Someone should absolutely just run the previous year's conference one year. See if the crowd notices it.
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xp1337 posted...

Someone should absolutely just run the previous year's conference one year. See if the crowd notices it.

I'm pretty sure Square Enix does that with all of the delays.
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speaking of Square E3, Jeff Zero and I were discussing that amazing FFXV trailer they released when they officially announced it wouldn't be Versus XIII anymore

and the game still didn't come out for three more years

but feel free to watch it with me again and awe over how pretty it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUSXub_ypU
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also looking at that trailer most of that content wasn't actually in the final game

it was either relegated to the movie, the anime, the demo, or not in the game at all

but they did show an early version of the best part of the game so that's something I guess
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Just walked in on Jeff Zero playing Shadow Hearts just in time for him to hear Halley's "I HATE YOU I HATE YOU" for the first time.
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This kid is something else
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That FFXV trailer is pretty nutty. Who's that other old guy leading the army?

Man hope we never have to go through another FF era of this kind of...lack of direction.
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Halley the best
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.pjbasis posted...

sometimes it's pronounced KAI

it's always pronounced kai.

god dammit squeenix.
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You say tomayto I say tomahto

Not really. I also say tomayto
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Couple of things. Started Aqua's story in Birth by Sleep and finished the first few worlds there.

First revelation is that she's actually really fun to play as! Her Spellweaver Command Style is amazing, and she has excellent finishers. She requires a bit more technical prowess, too, because you can't just brute force your way through enemies like you can with Terra's power or Ventus's speed. They've also given her some really good boss fights, which helps!

First up was Castle of Dreams, where she immediately crosses paths with Terra, who tells her the lesson he learned from Cinderella about the power of BELIEVE. It's heartwarming to see throughout that Aqua truly believes in Terra the whole way, which is good because the Radiant Garden scene from Terra's and Ventus's viewpoints leave that a bit unclear. Aqua gets to finish the world's story in the first three worlds, too, which is nice. Unlike Ventus, who is inexplicably shrunk, Aqua is explicably shrunk by the Fairy Godmother to help Jaq get Cinderella free to reunite with Prince Charming. It also doubles as our escort mission for Aqua, so I'm glad that one's out of the way! The Fairy Godmother of all people also has a conversation with Aqua telling her that the best way to conquer darkness is not through fighting it directly with light. She doesn't really get it, but the Fairy Godmother insists she'll figure it out when she gets older. Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters get blown up by a pumpkin bomb as the Marvel crosses over into Kingdom Hearts and the Green Goblin shows up. Or rather it's just a Heartless--ahem, Unversed--version of the pumpkin carriage. It's a pretty fun boss fight though!

Next up was the Dwarf Woodlands, where the opening cutscene is the old hag backing Snow White into a corner with a creepy smile and giving her an apple, and for some reason, she accepts it, smiles, and bites into it. So awkward. Aqua shows up just in time to see the Seven Dwarfs mourning over her, and she agrees to head to the castle to try to break the spell. We meet the prince along the way, but other than that, not much happens until Aqua gets sucked into the Magic Mirror and we get a repeat of a boss fight from someone else's arc for the first time. That was fine by me though, because that's a cool fight! Afterward, Aqua goes back in time to see the prince kiss Snow White awake, and it prompts a flashback of a time when Ventus was sleeping for a really long time and didn't show any sign of waking up. She's reminded of the happy feeling she got when he finally did wake up because it felt like a miracle to her.

Finally, we tackled the Enchanted Dominion, and Aqua arrives just in time to reassure Ventus that Terra would never steal someone's heart. After Ventus runs off, Maleficent tries to tempt her into joining the dark side, but since Aqua isn't struggling with darkness, she easily resists and gets dumped into the dungeon for her trouble, where she finds Prince Philip. We get a fun series of battles where we break out of the dungeon and eventually team up with the prince to beat dragon Maleficent. It's cool that they have a few Reaction Commands together because it enhances the atmosphere of an already good fight.

After she leaves, Aqua spots Terra and follows him to Radiant Garden, which we will tackle another time!
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We also watched Iron Man 2 a little earlier. I'm going back and forth whether I liked it better than the first movie. It's clearly flawed in some areas. The action isn't as strong, and it feels like they don't really explore Tony Stark facing his own mortality as much as they could have or should have. The banter is so good though. Tony and Pepper are still excellent together, and Don Cheadle taking over as Rhodes/War Machine worked out well, too, I think. Justin Hammer was pretty hilarious most of the time, too. He's a good self-important "big ego, small time" villain. It was a good introduction for Black Widow and Nick Fury, too, and Coulson makes the most of his limited screentime.

So I think so far I'd go: Iron Man >= Iron Man 2 > Incredible Hulk
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IM2 definitely one of the most underrated MCU movies (AoU is the other one)! Lots of fun stuff in there. Hope you'll enjoy the massive campfest that is Thor. It's kind of a bad movie and I can understand disliking it because of that, but it's just so silly. <3
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I'm gonna let my Iron Man 2 rewatch marinate til later since there's a good chance we're also watching Mac's aforementioned Shakespearean campfest later this evening. I'll post thoughts on both later. I will echo Leon's sentiment overall though.

It gets more hate than it deserves, which isn't to say it's some universally reviled movie but I've seen it called the worst one and a bad movie and I don't get it. The first two Iron Men stand almost equally.
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Justin Hammer is great. Mickey Rourke is completely worthless.
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He's the weaker of the two villains, which is bizarre because he's written bigger.
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Aqua gets the climax of the most of the Disney worlds too so it's one giant payoff run
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DECEIVED !!

Thor is a false god. The disc simply will not load! Deceivers of filth. Feckless neophyte!

We are en route even as we speak in hope of acquiring a separate copy.
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REDEEMED !!

Replacement disc acquired. Will it work? If not, we have been abandoned to suffer.
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JZLF Episode IV: A New Hope

JEFF ZERO and LEONHARTFOUR have traversed the galaxy in search for a new DISC. After many trials and travails they have succeeded in obtaining one. However, unbeknownst to them the GALACTIC EMPIRE has tampered with untold numbers of DISC and rendered them inoperable. Will JEFF ZERO and company find hope or despair...?

~~~

Trails SC Progress: I beat Chapter 7... a few days ago. But haven't played in a few days. I meant to today for sure but then .hack//G.U. happened and my life has stopped. I've even had a Xenoblade 2 news tab open for hours and have yet to get to it! Hours! Madness!
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I like that Star Wars gig. :P So uh, his PS4 just adamantly refuses to play Thor. Either disc. Mildly disconcerting, but I mean, we literally just watched Iron Man 2 on there earlier. Super weird.
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We finally got the PS3 to play Thor, although it froze and became impassable for about the last 15 minutes of the movie. We had to get my laptop to a Wi-Fi locale and watch it on Amazon Prime, but we finished the job. I liked it. Asgard is beautiful, and I enjoy the "relic from a bygone era in a modern setting" trope a lot. It resulted in a lot of good comedy early on, but I felt like they stopped doing stuff with it after a while, which was disappointing. Hemsworth is a great Thor though, and Loki was fantastic, too. I don't think it's as good as either Iron Man, but it's definitely better than Hulk. It's closer to Iron Man than Hulk, at least.

Iron Man >= Iron Man 2 > Thor > Incredible Hulk
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Iron Man 2 is a good movie. It's substantially better than various corners of the net will tell you. Leon nailed it when he said the writers should have spent more time on Tony's issues with mortality, and I appropriately informed him that after Iron Man 1, it's in the big event films that his depth is better-explored, not his own features. All the more reason, then, that both sequels are somewhat divisive.

But what drives this movie is its sense of chemistry. Tony and Pepper continually excel, Natasha (better than I remembered her but still vastly improved in future films) gets good material with both of them, Justin Hammer lights up almost every scene he's in, Nick Fury gets some material in the second act and rocks it. And I like Cheadle as Rhodey straight out of the gate. It's all pretty golden. And frankly, RDJ is so perfect as Tony that he manages to create real chemistry with his dad's video tapes. And discovers a new element in the process.

The weaknesses are Ivan Vanko -- always teetering between passable and disappointing -- and a sense of wheel-spinning at various points. These aren't by any means game-breaking, but a stronger Vanko and more purposeful interludes could have transformed Iron Man 2 into the first great MCU picture. Instead, it bites at the shoulders of the original, but still proves worthy.

I cannot be so kind to Thor. Perhaps I am somewhat frustrated that we not only had problems with the first disc, but we couldn't even finish the movie without going to Amazon Prime for the final 15 minutes. This isn't on Kenneth Brannagh or J. Michael Straczynski, but several things are. What's wrong here is that the script reaches for flourishes it doesn't quite deserve, giving the entire movie a strange glossy texture of intelligence and subtlety, which flies directly in the face of everything put to film. It's a simple, straightforward tale trying to be clever and powerful, and it shouldn't have bothered, because the better parts involve Thor liking coffee and Selvig feeling out of his element. And don't get me started on how unfortunately one-note Lady Sif and the Warriors Three prove to be. There's precious little character here, as if they belong to the band of dwarves in the Hobbit movies. At least Jaime Alexander does what she can with what she's given.

So it's a movie that struggles with its identity. Hiddleston delivers a commendable debut as Loki, but even he doesn't live up to the legacy he will soon garner when the writing here is chasing him for errors. But Thor is not a bad movie. It is merely an average one, with glaring flaws held up on the rigors of its higher qualities. Asgard is stunning; I'd forgotten the visual feast of the place, especially its Rainbow Bridge. There is also the matter of the worldbuilding, and the capability between Hemsworth and Hiddleston to create genuine tension together with the limited material they are given. And for all the flak it receives, I will add that Thor and Jane sizzle well enough. I'll credit Portman for it, and for helping to inject some heart into the pomp and circumstance.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
The Incredible Hulk
Thor

Up next, the period piece that gave Tommy Lee Jones a co-star whose buffoonery he could well and truly sanction.
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Ah, our first disagreement.
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I know! It's exciting.

To be clear, I do kinda like the movie. But like Hulk, it doesn't go beyond that. They're pretty close, too. It isn't a distant fourth.
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On chapter 5 of TitS the 3rd. I'm really enjoying this so far. I mean if you go in expecting another FC/SC you'll probably leave disappointed, but I still feel like it's been a really good follow-up in its own right. It provides some much appreciated closure and/or backstory to a lot of the characters, and I do also rather like the main story for whatever that's worth.

Also, my current reaction is to say that Mac was right about the music (6 words I never thought I'd use in a row!), but I may be somewhat influenced by the fact that they've also been reusing some of the good FC/SC tracks to good effect.
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More backstory and closure is always good, as is the fact that The 3rd helps move things forward into the other subseries. I'm glad you're digging it, pyre.
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Jeff Zero posted...

as is the fact that The 3rd helps move things forward into the other subseries

This is what I'd heard, but honestly I haven't really seen much of this yet.

Though in fairness the way the story structure works means that all the chapters I've done are sort of intro chapters in a way, so maybe that's to be expected.
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The doors are the main thing for that. I don't think the actual story ties in much with the other games, though I could be mistaken.
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Oh hey I remembered a line from Thor that bugged me when we were watching it. When they're taking all of Jane's stuff and she tells them they're violating her constitutional rights, Coulson is just like, "Sorry, we're the good guys." I don't really like the whole "the rules apply differently to good guys" trope. It's a pretty weak excuse for me. And you were doing so well up to this point, Son of Coul!
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All right, another Birth by Sleep update:

Radiant Garden as Aqua begins with a misunderstanding. She finds Scrooge and asks him if he's seen someone who isn't from there. She's asking about Terra, but he thinks she means Ventus, so he sends her off in the wrong direction. It's all right though, because we end up meeting kid Kairi and Mickey, who gets shot off by the Star Shard shortly thereafter. We fight that big Unversed for the third time with the subsequent fallout, but this time, Aqua gets a boss fight against Vanitas. She almost takes his mask off, but he pops back up and decides to let her live, saying it's not a bad idea to have a backup.

Next up is Disney Town, where Aqua takes a page out of Terra's book. Pete comes up to her and proclaims himself to be a hero who's there to help, but she just blankly stares at him for a couple of seconds before just walking away. He tries to accost her again, but she says she has no need of a hero. Then this Horace Horsecollar guy says there are Unversed who've taken over the Fruitball court, and HE needs a hero. Captain Justice ain't up for fighting monsters though, so he runs off. Aqua says she's no hero, never was, never will be. She's just a young Keyblade Master, hired to take out Unversed. Fruitball is an okay mini-game, I guess, but these matches take way too long. They're supposedly only 2 and a half minutes, but it feels like it's twice that long. They should really only be a minute. This isn't like blitzball where there's a lot of different things going on, you have teammates, and there's a strategy to it. There ain't no kids coming up to Aqua afterwards going, "2...3...Teach us how to fruit!" that's for sure. They finally hand out the Million Dreams Award, and there's a three-way tie between Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Pete gets banished to some weird dimension, and Maleficent frees him to be her personal goon. Also, I find the Break Time command and earn a trophy for using it, for some reason.

Aqua proclaims that she's no hero, but she soon finds herself in the land of wannabe heroes, Olympus Coliseum. When she received the Million Dreams Award in Disney Town, she jokingly said that it's tough being popular, but it's no joke here when Phil starts taking some not-so-subtle chauvinistic passes at her. She reluctantly agrees to take part in the Games in the hopes of meeting Terra, but very quickly shuts down Phil's attempts to train her. We get a cool fight with Zack followed by a two-on-one with Hades and a faux Ice Titan. Hades tells her she can call for backup and Zack immediately volunteers, but Aqua declines and says she needs to do this on her own. I like that BBS never makes Aqua feel like a helpless damsel who needs men to come save her, but come on, teaming up with Zack would've been cool! Afterward, Zack mistakes Aqua for Aerith and asks her for a date after he becomes a hero. She gets very flustered by it (and not in the "obviously uncomfortable" way like with Phil), which is kinda cute.

Finally, we make our final journey to Deep Space, where Aqua gets hired to capture Stitch and eliminate the Unversed. Turns out Stitch has fashioned his own Wayfinder after seeing Terra's, who was very adamant about how important it is to him. Aqua is very relieved to learn that he still cherishes their friendship. Like everyone else, Aqua doesn't see Stitch as a threat, but she has to beat down that big Gantu guy before taking off for Neverland, which will have to wait until next time.
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Okay, I finished Aqua's route.

So what happens now?
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You unlock the Final Episode.

Don't save over your Aqua save if you care at all about postgame content.

The Final Episode just starts you right up again as Aqua, and you have access to 90% of the game but locked out of Radiant Garden and possibly more. Just treat it like it's for the final battle and boot up the old Aqua file if you want to keep doing her optional shit.
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Also you post about the ending of her route too
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Yeah, you want to play Final Episode now. It's basically a continuation from where you left off and part of the reason Aqua was recommended last... you're gonna be playing as her again. One assumes it's broken off from her route so that you don't accidentally see all this content without having played Terra and Ven's routes.

Like pj said, just boot it up and pretend you're still playing Aqua's story.
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He doesn't have this Final Episode thing unlocked.
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I think he needs more Xehanort's Reports?
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Ohhhhh... right, right. Yeah, you need the Xehanort Reports. Sorry.
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I would not be asking what to do if there was something else available to me! Give me a little bit of credit!
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Oh wow I forgot there was that requirement, and I beat the game like three times.

Letter: - Ven - After the events at the Land of Departure
#1: Ven - In a chest in the Sortie Deck at Deep Space. (Ledge on the top right corner of the map.)
#2: Terra - Clear Radiant Garden
#3: Aqua - Radiant Garden - in Merlin's Home
#4: Aqua - Clear Mysterious Tower
#5: Terra - Clear Arena Mission Level 10 in the Mirage Arena
#6: Aqua - Clear Enchanted Dominion
#7: Aqua - Defeat the last boss/clear Aqua's chapter
#8: Terra - After the event at the Land of Departure late in his chapter
#9: Ven - After Destiny Islands
#10: Ven - Defeat the last boss/clear Ven's chapter
#11: Terra - Defeat the last boss/clear Terra's chapter
#12: Ven - In the Ancient Battlegrounds -- the starting area -- of the Keyblade Graveyard in that big oval area without an exit.

You're probably just missing the Mirage Arena one.
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Aww yeah, some Iron Man 2 appreciation! I enjoyed it as soon as it came out and was pretty surprised at the negative reception. Justin Hammer is excellent and the other characters are all pretty great. Too bad Whiplash is pretty boring. I rewatched it recently and I was really surprised how empty the final confrontation was. It doesn't even pretend to be interesting.
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Welcome to the thread, fedorafreak! :P
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It's not his first time in this thread.

Also yeah #5 is the only one I'm missing.
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LeonhartFour posted...

I would not be asking what to do if there was something else available to me! Give me a little bit of credit!

Haha, sorry! I completely forgot Xehanort Reports were part of the requirement. I thought it was just clear all 3 routes. So I interpreted your question as more, "Is there anything I should do before Final Episode?"
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nobody comments on these writeups but people are just like 'hey write about BBS some more'

fine

Anyway, in Neverland, Aqua accidentally gets roped into a treasure expedition with Peter Pan and crew, much to the displeasure of Tinker Bell. Aqua gets the double jump ability here, which is pretty handy because I can get to places now that I didn't get to when playing as Ventus and Terra. I guess I need to start going back and revisiting these worlds and getting the stuff I couldn't get the first time. Anyway, we eventually come right back to where we started, only to find Captain Hook waiting for us. He opens the treasure chest, which is full of the Lost Boys' stuff and Ventus's wooden keyblade. Aqua feels a tinge of nostalgia upon seeing it, but then she senses someone else here, namely Vanitas. He's somehow gotten his hands on the wooden keyblade and breaks it in half to be a jerk. Aqua is furious and can only get out a "You freak!" before initiating the battle. This is a pretty tough boss fight because I essentially just have to learn his patterns and his tells, and just counter and slowly whittle him down. Aqua's reaction of being utterly exhausted afterward is appropriate. Also, I unlocked Aqua's "Ghost Drive" Command Style here, and holy crap, this thing is amazing. It's hard to use against bosses like Vanitas though because he warps so much.

Afterward, Aqua is mysteriously warped to Destiny Islands, where she meets Sora and Riku. She thinks about passing the power of the keyblade to one of them, but she senses that someone's already given it to Riku, so she passes. She decides not to create a rivalry between them like that because apparently there's a darker side to the trio's friendship due to all of them being keyblade wielders. Instead, Aqua asks Sora to be there to help Riku if he ever loses his way and gets lost in darkness. So why did Sora end up being the keyblade master instead again? I remember Lingering Will saying something along the lines of, "Why do you have the keyblade? You're not the one I chose." Was it something about Riku giving in to the darkness or whatever? I remembered Aqua casting a spell on Kairi, too, to help her find another heart if something were to happen to her, but I forgot to post about it before. So this whole Roxas/Xion/Namine business is her fault, huh? Thank you, Aqua.

Then Aqua finds Mickey in hyperspace, muttering something about Yen Sid, so she takes him to his tower. Yen Sid tells her that Xehanort and Terra struck down Eraqus (the series seems very careful to ever avoid using the word "died" or "killed"). Aqua can't believe it, so she runs off to the Keyblade Graveyard to find the truth for herself. She gets the same intro as Ventus and Terra, saying, "The three of us will always be one." Then we get all the same cutscenes as before, except now we get the actual boss fight against Braig, which took me several attempts to beat. I had to do the same thing as with Vanitas before: Just read and react. Eventually, she gets sliced by Vanitas and wakes up to see him holding the x-Blade in Ventus's body, and there's voice overlap between the two. Sora and Roxas overlap aw yeah. This fight isn't quite as tough, especially since Mickey handily offers me invincibility frames with his Reaction Command. Not saying I beat it on the first try, but not nearly as many as Braig!

Afterward, it doesn't look like things are going well until Aqua's Wayfinder glows and gives her some POWER OF FRIENDSHIP to destroy the x-Blade. Unfortunately, a power overload blows everyone away, but Mickey brings them both to Yen Sid's tower. Ventus is sleeping, and Yen Sid tells them that the most important thing they can do is believe in him and love him so he can find his way back. Mickey says he'll believe, too, so that'll give him two lights. Aqua says there will be three, because Terra is still out there believing in him somewhere, even if they can't find him.
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I'd say something but it's about Kingdom Hearts

I'd also say something about the superior Hearts title but well no one's playing that anymore
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Re: Sora and the Keyblade

IIRC, what happened there was Riku was the rightful Keyblade Wielder because Terra performed the Succession Rite or whatever (which kind of implies that he was a Keyblade Master just never got the title.) But flashforward to KH1 and yeah, when Riku embraced/fell to the darkness the Keyblade was forced to pick its next best option and it was Sora by default.

Aqua is the cause of, and solution to, so many of the series's problems. >_>

cuz she's the best
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transience posted...

I'd say something but it's about Kingdom Hearts

I'd also say something about the superior Hearts title but well no one's playing that anymore

Don't worry, I haven't stopped. I'm still enjoying the game, but I've slowed down to the point that I'm only doing updates every few days. You'll hear more from on that front after my next play session, because I went through the orphanage section and I've arrived at the mental institution.
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oh man. how'd you like the orphanage? I guess I can wait
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As for KH, I think what I've seen of 2 > what I've seen of BBS > what I played of 1 is my ranking right now. I'm interested in seeing this Final Chapter thing in BBS. I've probably enjoyed Aqua the most as a character, although (and I kinda dig what pj said about her voice, but) I still find her voice acting the most questionable of the trio.

I like that Aqua wraps up the various threads. It's super weird that they let you pick her first if you want.
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