Current Events > Yo, someone explain Kingdom Hearts: DDD to me. *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

They keep saying there are seven Sleeping Worlds, but there are only six. Did Traverse Town count twice because of whatever weird dimensional split went on there? And why was Traverse Town a Sleeping World at all? It never fell to darkness. In fact, I read on the wiki that it's basically a trash pile world made up of pieces of other worlds that fell to darkness.

Riku spends the entire game in Sora's head, right? Or his dreams or his heart or whatever word? So why do his actions influence the first level of dreams that Sora is in?

Why does Xion exist?

I think I mostly get the time travel shit even though it's super dumb and kind of unnecessary. It's also kind of amusing that Pete was able to time travel without all the dumb arbitrary rules and was also able to change the future while the GREAT MASTER XEHANORT was incapable of doing so.

Why did they decide the last boss should be a dude in black armor in a pitch black room, thus making the target reticule the only thing that lets you see him?
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Also, wtf is Aqua eating in the Realm of Darkness? Her and Ventus should be dead just from starvation.
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I swear to god that from beginning to end, there was never a moment playing that game when I actually understood what was going on. That goes for all like 3 playthroughs I've done of it.

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Hambo the Hog posted...

I swear to god that from beginning to end, there was never a moment playing that game when I actually understood what was going on. That goes for all like 3 playthroughs I've done of it.

Fucking same. It took me until literally the last world of the game to realize that Young Xehanort was actually Young Xehanort and not just Terra-Xehanort.
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I know one of ya'll knows what the heck happened
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Xion was just a backup Roxas. They needed a keyblade user.

Time flows differently in the Realm of Darkness. She didn't need to eat and it's why she could fight nearly nonstop for 10 years.
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For some reason Destiny Islands is one of the sleeping worlds. At the beginning of the game, Yen Sid sends you back in time to when it fell to darkness, because apparently it was sleeping during the first game. You awaken it during the tutorial.
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Irony posted...

Xion was just a backup Roxas. They needed a keyblade user.

No, I know why the Organization wanted her. Just...why does she exist?

DarkChozoGhost posted...

For some reason Destiny Islands is one of the sleeping worlds. At the beginning of the game, Yen Sid sends you back in time to when it fell to darkness, because apparently it was sleeping during the first game. You awaken it during the tutorial.

Well, it would be at the end of the first game, right? Sleeping worlds are ones that fell to darkness and didn't fully return.

So I guess Sora and Riku time traveled to the like five minutes between Ansem being defeated and Kairi going back there lol.
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Oh so it was a rhetorical question
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Yes.

But I'm also not sure that her still existing in Sora's heart makes any sense at all, but I've decided to just accept it.
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She's basically created from his memories and it's established that the heart is basically where memories are stored so why not
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pegusus123456 posted...

They keep saying there are seven Sleeping Worlds, but there are only six.

I believe the seventh world is actually Destiny Islands itself. They deal with the keyhole in the tutorial after beating Ursula (when they fall in the water:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwzsLL-p5_s" data-time="&start=169).

pegusus123456 posted...

And why was Traverse Town a Sleeping World at all? It never fell to darkness.

In some outside of game reading, it is apparently said that Traverse Town spawned a version of itself (or dreamed, rather) in the Realm of Sleep specifically to house the TWEWY gang when Joshua went looking for something.

pegusus123456 posted...

In fact, I read on the wiki that it's basically a trash pile world made up of pieces of other worlds that fell to darkness.

I don't think this is exactly right. It is a safe place for people (or hearts) to go to when their world has been destroyed. Generally the KH wiki is pretty unreliable.

pegusus123456 posted...

Riku spends the entire game in Sora's head, right? Or his dreams or his heart or whatever word? So why do his actions influence the first level of dreams that Sora is in?

Tbh, I don't know. If I had to guess, though, it's that dreams of the world were slipping into Sora's dreams. So the songs, TWEWY characters, Spellican, were slipping between Sora's dreams and the dreams of the worlds. Fundamentally they are probably not that different.

pegusus123456 posted...

Why does Xion exist?

Do you mean in the first place/at all?

pegusus123456 posted...

It's also kind of amusing that Pete was able to time travel without all the dumb arbitrary rules and was also able to change the future while the GREAT MASTER XEHANORT was incapable of doing so.

Yes, and Merlin also has the power to time travel without the restrictions that were conveniently designed so as to conveniently not allow the "why doesn't he just time travel over and over until he wins?"
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Also, I assume you haven't played KH3. Get ready for basically a nothing story that is exclusively Disney filler and wrapping up the dozen plot threads going in the laziest way possible.
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Jabodie posted...

Also, I assume you haven't played KH3. Get ready for basically a nothing story that is exclusively Disney filler and wrapping up the dozen plot threads going in the laziest way possible.

I'm honest-to-god just looking forward to playing a game where you unlock abilities in a somewhat normal fashion and don't have the goddamn command deck.
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It was only a nothing story for 90% of the game and a literal dump truck dumping plot on you in the last 30 minutes
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Irony posted...

It was only a nothing story for 90% of the game and a literal dump truck dumping plot on you in the last 30 minutes

I think that was Coded.
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Irony posted...

It was only a nothing story for 90% of the game and a literal dump truck dumping plot on you in the last 30 minutes

The plot dump being **KH3 SPOILERS** essentially checklisting "X characters get revived and are happy and Y characters are dead and are probably at piece. And those were done, imo, in the shortest, laziest way possible in basically all cases. The only interesting things to happen were 1) sequel bait building upon lore established by Back Cover and 2) sequel baiting some kind of TWEWY crossover.
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pegusus123456 posted...

Irony posted...

It was only a nothing story for 90% of the game and a literal dump truck dumping plot on you in the last 30 minutes

I think that was Coded.

Yes, that is a good comparison.

KH3 is like Coded except it's the finale of a story that's spanned ~7-8 games.
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Kingdom Hearts is for children
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MabusIncarnate posted...

Kingdom Hearts is for children

So go play it
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MabusIncarnate posted...

Kingdom Hearts is for children

I think it's more accurate to say that it's for young teenagers who will find the story invitingly deep and spiritual.
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pegusus123456 posted...

They keep saying there are seven Sleeping Worlds, but there are only six. Did Traverse Town count twice because of whatever weird dimensional split went on there? And why was Traverse Town a Sleeping World at all? It never fell to darkness. In fact, I read on the wiki that it's basically a trash pile world made up of pieces of other worlds that fell to darkness.

The seven Sleeping Worlds are the six worlds you go to before The World That Never Was, and Destiny Islands.

Traverse Town is a Sleeping World because it's a special world that manifests itself wherever people need refuge. In this case, it manifested in the realm of sleep to accomodate Joshua, whereas in KH1 it manifested in the realm of light to shelter the people who had been losing their worlds.

Riku spends the entire game in Sora's head, right? Or his dreams or his heart or whatever word? So why do his actions influence the first level of dreams that Sora is in?

Yeah, Riku's traveling in Sora's dreams. And he can interfere with Sora's dreams because of magic and "hearts connecting" and stuff. Don't think about it too hard.

pegusus123456 posted...

Well, it would be at the end of the first game, right? Sleeping worlds are ones that fell to darkness and didn't fully return.

So I guess Sora and Riku time traveled to the like five minutes between Ansem being defeated and Kairi going back there lol.

No, they time-traveled to the very beginning of KH1 when the world was in the process of being destroyed. As it was "falling asleep" it technically started to become a Sleeping World, and so they were able to access its Sleeping Keyhole.
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Jabodie posted...

In some outside of game reading, it is apparently said that Traverse Town spawned a version of itself (or dreamed, rather) in the Realm of Sleep specifically to house the TWEWY gang when Joshua went looking for something.

Wait, does DDD have TWEWY characters? I've never seen anything about that in promo material. Would've bought the game a LONG time ago.
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ChocoboMog123 posted...

Jabodie posted...

In some outside of game reading, it is apparently said that Traverse Town spawned a version of itself (or dreamed, rather) in the Realm of Sleep specifically to house the TWEWY gang when Joshua went looking for something.

Wait, does DDD have TWEWY characters? I've never seen anything about that in promo material. Would've bought the game a LONG time ago.

It does.

Traverse Town makes ZERO fucking sense if you haven't played it lol. I'm assuming it also spoils a pretty big part of TWEWY because it offhandedly reveals that Joshua is a omniscient angel dude thing.
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ChocoboMog123 posted...

Wait, does DDD have TWEWY characters? I've never seen anything about that in promo material. Would've bought the game a LONG time ago.

Yes, additionally *KH3 secret ending spoilers* in the teaser for the next game (secret ending) Sora appears to be in Shibuya. Due to the events of KH3, there is reason to believe that Sora may end up playing the Reaper's game, or at the very least TWEWY will be back. But that is just speculation, and I'm pretty sure there's still basically no actual info to go on aside form the teaser.
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pegusus123456 posted...

ChocoboMog123 posted...

Jabodie posted...

In some outside of game reading, it is apparently said that Traverse Town spawned a version of itself (or dreamed, rather) in the Realm of Sleep specifically to house the TWEWY gang when Joshua went looking for something.

Wait, does DDD have TWEWY characters? I've never seen anything about that in promo material. Would've bought the game a LONG time ago.

It does.

Traverse Town makes ZERO fucking sense if you haven't played it lol. I'm assuming it also spoils a pretty big part of TWEWY because it offhandedly reveals that Joshua is a omniscient angel dude thing.

TWEWY spoilers: that's a really big spoiler, sorry if you haven't played it.
TWEWY is a fun mini-KH. The combo system is weird, you use the stylus on one screen and D-pad on the other at the same time, requiring lots of attention. The music is pretty original, which you may have heard - some people hate it, others love it.

And now I have to dig my 3DS out of storage for a 7 year old game...
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Dream Drop Distance is invitingly deep and spiritual.

Xion exists so they can make more conflict in 358/2 Days.

And the bad guys were able to track Sora cause he got an X on his shirt...

Dream Drop Distance is the first game where things actually go off the rails. People love talking about how convoluted the series is and it is, but it tends to be exaggerated. If you're paying attention and don't skip any of the games, you shouldn't have too hard a time following the plot...up until DDD.

The way the story is told with the flashbacks doesn't help, but overall, the concept of sleeping worlds alone makes it ridiculously confusing. On top of that, you have time flowing differently in Sora and Riku's versions with different events unfolding that sometimes effect the other worlds, but other times don't? Then you have Traverse Town and being there which doesn't make much sense. Then you have alternative versions or time periods for Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Then you have time travel. Then you have the Xehanorts. Then you have all of Riku's worlds being inside Sora. It's just a mess.

Most of the game doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but the last section basically lays all the ground work for III's plot.

Be sure to playthrough (or watch) the Union X game followed by the movie. That has some pretty important stuff in III at a point.

If you have any questions going into it though, I'll do my damnedest to answer them.
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^This. Until DDD, the worst thing any of the games did was retcon lore from previous games. In DDD, they continued with the retcons, but they also introduced mechanics that are horribly explained and also dont make a lick of sense anyway. You go around doing stuff in the sleeping worlds, THEN the game flashes back to when Yensid talked about what you're supposed to be doing. Then you get to the end and you learn that because Xehanort somehow interfered in your mission, you weren't actually doing what you were supposed to be doing at all?

Also why does a regular-ass X on someone's shirt allow Xehanort to track them and how did Xehanort get any say in what Sora was wearing?

Also also why the fuck does sleep equate to darkness? Sora almost gets norted just because he's basically really sleepy? In the past, darkness tended to be associated with negative emotion and Xehanort took advantage of that. Now anyone can be norted just by being tricked into sleeping a certain way? It just kinda feels wrong thematically.

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Hambo the Hog posted...

Then you get to the end and you learn that because Xehanort somehow interfered in your mission, you weren't actually doing what you were supposed to be doing at all?

The Fragmentary Passage did clear this up, at least. Sora failed because he didn't master the skill he was supposed to learn. He was meant to learn how to awaken sleeping hearts or something which would let him wake up the BBS trio, but he didn't do that.

And I think the idea is meant to be that Ansem/Xemnas/Xehanort damaged his heart when they fought which let them pump up some darkness up in there.
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Hambo the Hog posted...

Also also why the fuck does sleep equate to darkness? Sora almost gets norted just because he's basically really sleepy? In the past, darkness tended to be associated with negative emotion and Xehanort took advantage of that. Now anyone can be norted just by being tricked into sleeping a certain way? It just kinda feels wrong thematically.

This one is actually explained by Ansem.

"Dreams hold our memories. Sleep holds our dreams. And darkness -- it holds our sleep."

So basically sleeping equates entering the darkness, and since they're in sleeping worlds, the darkness is always present. So the more layers of sleep they forced Sora to enter, made him fall deeper into the darkness.

It's not that Sora was just sleepy. When he got to the final world, he was already in a dream, and then Xigbar put him into another layer of dream after that. Then Young Xehanort put him into a third layer of dreams. Eventually, he was so deep into dreams, he couldn't resist the darkness anymore since he used all his strength fighting Xemnas.
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Hambo the Hog posted...

Also why does a regular-ass X on someone's shirt allow Xehanort to track them and how did Xehanort get any say in what Sora was wearing?

Oh, yeah. That was also explained.

The x is the Greek letter "chi," which is known as the recusant sigil in DDD's journal. Xehanort uses it to tag his vessels. Which is why he put one in the new names of all the Organization members.

They were able to put it on Sora because Ansem (the robed guy) was in the past on the islands when Sora and Riku first dove into the sleeping worlds. Ansem tagged him with it then.
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Moral of the story: things get worse the more you understand them in this series. Or, the more you understand, the less anything makes sense.
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