Poll of the Day > Can somebody explain the whole Ansem/Xemnas/Xehanort thing to me

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm gonna play Kingdom Hearts 3 for the first time in a few days, and even though I've played every Kingdom Hearts game before it, I don't have a damn clue what the plot of the series is. Oh also the whole Ventus/Venitas/Sora/Roxas/Xion thing.

Culex is Luke Skywalker's nobody

Ansem is a scientist guy studying the link between worlds and heartless and whatnot. His apprentice Xehanort gets to into the whole darkness thing and splits himself into a heartless (I think?) called Ansem (for confusion purposes I suppose or maybe legitimacy I can't remember) and a Nobody called Xemnas (who has a dope voice and leads Organization XIII).

The apprentice Xehanort was actually the body of Terra (friend of Aqua and Ventus) taken over by the old master Xehanort (buddy? of Yen Sid and Eraqus).

And then there was time travel in DDD where it got kinda silly and Xehanort brought everyone together. But I don't remember which xehanort because he was young but I think younger than apprentice Xehanort. Love the series and how convoluted it was but honestly have watched that game twice and I don't really retain like any of the time travel crap...

papercup posted...

I'm gonna play Kingdom Hearts 3 for the first time in a few days, and even though I've played every Kingdom Hearts game before it, I don't have a damn clue what the plot of the series is. Oh also the whole Ventus/Venitas/Sora/Roxas/Xion thing.

If you actually care about the plot, track down one of the videos on YouTube where they spend 30+ minutes explaining the entire plot. Because no one here is going to be able to explain it to you in any way that makes sense for you.

Hell, most videos aren't going to be able to do that either because most of KH's story is the insane drug-addled ramblings of a Japanese madman, and the more you try to understand it the more your own brain tries to eat itself.

Why is Kingdom Hearts a door in the first game, but it's a moon in the second game

papercup posted...

Why is Kingdom Hearts a door in the first game, but it's a moon in the second game

I think Kingdom Hearts is a giant glowing heart or maybe it's just taken that shape just because and it's really a thing that I think we haven't actually seen the true form of or something like that... And the door in KH is just a Door to Darkness that leads to the darkness between worlds and is home to the heartless. Though Kingdom Hearts might be in that darkness world... I actually can not remember... I'm in it for the characters.

I just know that Xemnas is an anagram of mansex.

https://youtu.be/Owpv7wYB_NM?t=168

Okay so Kingdom Hearts is incomprehensible gibberish but at least the music is fantastic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9XljBWGrRQ

I played the first one, and thought, "Aight, cool."

Played the second, and thought, "....aight....I get it...."

Played Chain of Memories and thought, "Aight, I'm out!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjiHufVEc7g

It's definitely silly at times and the angstiness can get a little much and piecing the story together is... a lot but I love the series. A few of the stories are really tragic (the Birth By Sleep gang is my personal favorite part of the series. Roxas has so much going on and Axel too just by being friends with him and Saix who are opposites sides to the Organization) and some of the characters are a lot of fun (Xemnas is so cheesy evil he's a blast, Braig is fun if a bit much at times, and I really really really hope they can pay off the Master of Masters well... he's so delightfully mysterious and fun (thanks largely to Ray Chase's charismatic acting)). Even some of the Disney characters actually get engaging stories (Maleficent's whole arc in particular is great and Pete and Hades are fun for what they are).

I could talk about it for hours.

Yeah I played 358/2 when it released forever ago and I remember really liking it

papercup posted...

Why is Kingdom Hearts a door in the first game, but it's a moon in the second game

the door in the first game lead to the real Kingdom Hearts in the Realm of Darkness.
the moon in KH2 was a collection of hearts that gather when a Heartless is slain by the Keyblade. Xemnas called it Kingdom Hearts even though it wasn't the real Kingdom Hearts.

I'll give you an abridged version that trims away some of the details that might confuse you further.

papercup posted...

Ansem/Xemnas/Xehanort

Ten years before Kingdom Hearts 1, there are three Keyblade-wielders apprenticed to a Keyblade Master named Eraqus. Their names are Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. The story of the "Xehanort" you speak of begins when a Keyblade Master named Xehanort takes an interest in Terra. Master Xehanort seeks to forge a legendary weapon, the X-Blade, in order to gain mastery over a powerful force known as "Kingdom Hearts". To this end, he seeks to distribute fragments of his heart into thirteen vessels, as part of a plan to forge the X-Blade. Xehanort plans for Terra to be his third vessel; the former succeeds in taking over Terra's body. Later on, Xehanort in Terra's body is defeated; after his defeat, his memory is erased. The resulting being, with Terra's body and with neither Terra nor Xehanort's memories, becomes the entity you know as "Xehanort". This Xehanort performs dangerous experiments on his own heart, which ultimately result in his transformation into a Heartless, which you know as Ansem. As a byproduct of Xehanort's tranformation into a Heartless, Xemnas is also born. He is the Nobody of Xehanort; Nobodies are essentially the body and soul left-over when a person of strong will is transformed into a Heartless.

papercup posted...

Ventus/Venitas/Sora

Fourteen years before Kingdom Hearts 1, Xehanort performs a dangerous experiment on his apprentice Ventus. This experiment results in the birth of a new being, known as "Vanitas". He is the physical embodiment of the darkness in Ventus' heart. Vanitas and Ventus are the key components to Master Xehanort's original plan to forge the X-Blade. The X-Blade is forged, but it is broken soon after, thanks to Mickey, Aqua, and Ventus. As a result of the X-Blade breaking, Ventus' heart is shattered. It would have faded away completely, if it had not found refuge inside four-year-old Sora's heart.

papercup posted...

Sora/Roxas/Xion

When Sora stabbed himself at Hollow Bastion, he became a Heartless, which then resulted in the birth of Roxas, Sora's Nobody. Then after the events of Chain of Memories, Sora's heart and memories are scattered; they eventually find themselves into Roxas. As for where Xion comes in? The Organization created a replica known as "Xion" in order to replicate the power of the Keyblade. They designed her in such a way that she inherits the ability to use a Keyblade from Roxas, who had joined the Organization six days prior to Xion's birth. She then becomes connected to Sora through Roxas; the fragments of Sora's heart begin drifting into Xion, as well. Eventually, Xion absorbs too much of Roxas and Sora's heart/power to the point that the only way to restore Sora's heart is for Xion and Roxas to die. Xion forces Roxas to kill her, and then Riku confronts Roxas. Roxas is then forcefully assimilated into Sora's body at the end of the prologue of Kingdom Hearts II.

Darkness.

Been replaying KH2FM before jumping into 3. Only one story boss left, but I still have 1 Absent Silhouette left to kill, then the Data Organization. I also need to fight Sephiroth.

KH3 has a fun post game with a bunch of optional superbosses right?

papercup posted...

fun post game

Only if you are willing to pay an extra thirty American dollars in addition to the money you already spent on the game.

papercup posted...

Been replaying KH2FM

I read this as KMFDM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy6Y3jTWY90

EclairReturns posted...

Only if you are willing to pay an extra thirty American dollars in addition to the money you already spent on the game.

Seriously?

papercup posted...

Seriously

Yes.

I mean at least it's not a full priced rerelease with a little bit of extra content like the Final Mix versions, but wow that's just egregious.

Killed Sephiroth and got the Fenrir keyblade, time to take on the true end game

Mushroom XIII

i wish this was on Steam, I only played half of the first game and half of the second game

I think it's on Epic? I'm playing the All-In-One Collection on PS4

Okay so thinking about all the problems KH games have, I have some ideas on how I would have designed BBS and DDD

BBS: Terra and Ventus's campaigns are out. Maybe Ventus can be a short post game campaign or something, like Riku's story in Chain of Memories. But the main focus of the story should be told from Aqua's perspective. Then restructure the story to make more sense told from her perspective. None of this "you have to see the same story bits from different perspectives" nonsense that just leaves a first campaign run through a disjointed mess. Maybe Terra can be a sidekick character, Aqua is trying to steer him from the path of Darkness while they're investigating the Unversed, but she ultimately fails.
Then for BBS combat, revenge values need to come back. Bosses being able to break out of combos for no reason and killing you doesn't feel good. Playing KH2, you'll most likely pick up that something is going on with bosses reacting to combos, but with more experience you'll master how it works and how to play with and around it. The way BBS works now, going from KH2 is jarring. Why fix what aint broke? And speaking of combos, make the combos feel more like KH2 combos. You don't have to get rid of the command deck entirely, but it feels like it's holding combat back. I actually like the idea of the command deck a lot, it can stay, but it needs serious streamlining. Melding the same commands over and over and over isn't fun, it's tedious. Maybe once you meld a command once, the moogle can sell you a level 1 version of it. That way the commands you need to master 5 times, don't also require you to master 10 or more other commands all over again.
Oh also because we made Aqua the only playable character, and she's more of a floaty, magicy charater than Sora or Riku, you can also expand the D-Link system to augment or change her abilities to make her play more like Sora if you want, or you can mix and match and experiment and find a play style that fits you. Kingdom Hearts is known for variety after all.
Then for DDD, get rid of Sora's story. Let Riku shine. In a lot of ways, he's a more interesting character than Sora. That way you also don't get the 3rd retread of KH1's story, and you get to experience these worlds from different perspective. Like what 358/2 did, but better. Also because Sora doesn't have a campaign now, the ridiculous, flow breaking Drop system is gone. You can focus on the Flow system, and integrating it more into the combat and combos. You can also bring over the command deck changes we made to BBS, and for the love of God, make more commands viable than just Balloon.
In addition, you can keep the Pokemon system, but it needs serious changes. First of all, get rid of the minigames. They're not fun, and they're just tedious busy work. The way the Pokemon should work is, their progression trees have 2 halves to them, shaped something like this <><= the first half has minor stat changes and spells, some can maybe be permanent upgrades and the middle point is definitely a permanent unlocked ability. Stuff like Leaf Bracer and Once More. Things you want and need. Everything on the right half of the board are only applicable when you have that specific Pokemon equipped. That way you can still try out a lot of different Pokemon, see how they all work, while also getting permanent progression and getting a taste of what each one has to offer. Then once you have all the abilities you want, you can then focus on progressing the Pokemon you actually want to use.

There, without really touching the overall plot of Kingdom Hearts, I fixed the side games that should be much better than they actually are.

Started 0.2, after the phantom boss the screen gets stuck on a white load screen forever. WTF???

I updated the game, and that fixed it. Managed to play through it with no further issues. But that was worrying for a bit.

Installed 3, and I'm excited to finally play that tomorrow!

I know it's over 3 years old now, but my God KH3 looks incredible. O_O

Okay so I've played 3 for about 10 hours. I can tell the combat is not KH2 combat. But at the very least, it's nowhere near as bad as BBS and DDD combat. It threw me for a loop that I didn't have to kill bosses with finishers. And I do miss forms, but it is pretty neat being able to switch keyblades mid combo. I hope 4 has reaction commands again. The whatever they're called in this game triangle commands don't feel as important, and I'm already over using attractions. Fighting Nobodies does not feel like it used to.

Also, Nobodies are named after Job classes in Final Fantasy games. Reaper was introduced in FFXIV Endwalker, but the Reaper Nobody debuted in KH3. Nomura knew about the Reaper Job in FFXIV years before it was ever announced. :0

Unversed?! In MY Kingdom Hearts 3?! It's more likely than you think!

Seriously I was not expecting to see that

Only thing I need to get the Platinum is use all the shotlocks. So I think that means I need to play through it again on Critical mode so I can get Oblivion lol

Also, wow people didn't like this game? I thought it was pretty good. :0 And I don't even have ReMind

Turns out, no, I didn't need to get Oblivion, a couple of the keyblades have additional shotlocks when in form. So, KH3 Plat get \o/

And then I started a run of... Dream Drop Distance HD. >_> I've never gotten very far in DDD before, maybe it will be more enjoyable on console, idk.

papercup posted...

Also, wow people didn't like this game? I thought it was pretty good. :0 And I don't even have ReMind

I think as it was the conclusion to the Dark Seeker/ Xehanort saga a lot built up the story so much in their own head that it could never reach that expectation. The pacing of the story was all over the place and some world designs were a bit pants. With that said I very much enjoyed the game and found it a lot of fun. I believe it's the best Kingdom Hearts game since 2 came out for me.

papercup posted...

Turns out, no, I didn't need to get Oblivion, a couple of the keyblades have additional shotlocks when in form. So, KH3 Plat get \o/

And then I started a run of... Dream Drop Distance HD. >_> I've never gotten very far in DDD before, maybe it will be more enjoyable on console, idk.

i absolutely adore ddd and tbh i think its better than everything that isnt kh1 and kh2, i know it gets a lot of hate but i hope you enjoy it!

Yeah honestly, I thought Tangled, Frozen, and Monsters Inc were the worst worlds. They were just hallways where everything looked the same. The highlights for me were Pirates and Big Hero 6.

Okay so I've cleared the first four worlds on Sora, still need to finish Prankster's Paradise on Riku. This is honestly the furthest I've ever been in this game. And yeah the controls, definitely not as responsive and snappy as KH2 or 3, you can tell this was not designed to be played with a controller. But other than that, I am enjoying it somewhat. But we'll see how I feel in a few days after I've spent 20 hours spamming Balloonra and Thundaga. I actually kinda want to try for the plat, but I've also not done any Flick Rush yet, and I'm gonna have to look up an optimal Spirit build order.

I did Flick Rush this afternoon

I did every cup from the first to the Horror cup, and thought "hey this isn't so bad, I'm star ranking every match" then I get to the Secret Cup. I did it 3 times and did not star rank a single match any time I did it. The AI goes from braindead to literally reads your inputs and performs frame-perfect tricks to counter you. What the actual hell Square. Why would you design a mode like this. Animation based, card battling Pokemon. What the actual hell were you thinking.

I made a Kingdom Hearts meme. >_>
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/0/AADH07AADO54.jpg

One of the Special Portals I was missing was in the Fountain Plaza and I had already beaten the game.

So anyway I killed Julius lol

And Julius killed on both characters!

I only need 5 trophies for Platinum, but it's all Dream Eater stuff like unlock and equip all abilities and commands.