The Video Game Theory

[setsugekka 162]

Hey, guys. Long time no talk... I've spent all my time since KH3 thinking about what could possibly happen next. I'm really into all the theories people have come up with.

There's one theory I've gotten especially attached to - the video game theory. I'm not the only person to come up with the idea, of course, but I think I might be the first person to put it all together and write it all down.

It's 19 pages, but it's a pretty quick read because half of it is screenshots. lol I think we're getting close to finding out whether this one is true or not, so now's the perfect time to read it! If you like it, please share it! And of course, lemme know what you think. I need answers!!!

edit: Oopsie. I had to remove my link. You can read it all right here now underneath the spoiler tag below!

 

 

Spoiler

OVERVIEW

 

Here's the gist of this theory: The world of Kingdom Hearts is a video game, the characters are fictional with a questionable amount of agency, destiny is the script, and everything in the world is made of data. Also, the Master of Masters is aware of this.

 

What initially started as a crack theory has continued to gain a concerning amount of evidence and support. I first started to question the possibility of this theory while playing khux and KH3, but I believe the idea for this concept could have began as early as KH2 or Re:coded. Before the release of KH3, Nomura had recommended that people play Re:coded and I think he might have made that suggestion for players to understand more than just the few offhand references to Re:coded that appear in KH3.

 

The simplest place to begin talking about this theory is with Toy Box in KH3, as I believe it makes direct reference to what's really going on. I recommend watching this scene (13:45) again in its entirety.

 

THE MYSTERY OF THE TWO TOY BOXES

 

How exactly did young Xehanort “split” the Toy Box world into two worlds? This is never explained. Sora assumes that a copy was made somehow, so there's the “real world” and a convincing copy. (I'm putting “real world” in quotes because it's hard to determine what “real” means when it comes to this theory.)

For some reason, in this copy of Toy Box, Buzz's blaster functions like a real weapon. The mechs can also fire real lasers. It seems like the copy world they've been taken to functions with video game logic.

 

Buzz says that the ability to split a world seems like something that would only make sense in a video game. Exasperated with the situation and tired of how Sora doesn't seem to understand how this seems ridiculous to him, he snarkily says, “Oh! That's right, you're from a video game.”

 

The implication here is that everything that's happening in Toy Box is normal for Sora. To Sora, the things that Buzz finds ridiculous (video game logic) seem to be common sense. Literally, from our perspective, Sora is from a video game. Because of the way the scene is lampshading this fact, this dialog might be more than metaphoric. It might be calling attention to the fact that our real-world truth is the truth of the game itself.

I have to wonder how true this statement is. Sora looks a little like Yozora, but he isn’t from Verum Rex.

 

Verum Rex is made by Square-Enix. The video game section of Galaxy Toys also features a large display for Final Fantasy Dissidia NT which is another game made by Square-Enix -- but it’s a real one, one that I own, even. That might be more than just a reference. The presence of Dissidia NT and the Square-Enix logo in Toy Box might be suggesting that every game made by Square-Enix -- including Kingdom Hearts -- is a video game in this universe.

 

For my own part, I'm going to assume that the copy of Toy Box was made digitally, although I'm not sure whether Xehanort fully grasps the reality of the method he used. For instance, I think there's a strong possibility that time travel in the Kingdom Hearts universe isn't really time travel. Rather, it's a manipulation of the world itself. (Don’t worry, I’m going to explain this at length later on.) The same mechanics that allow Xehanort to travel through time are what would let him do something like split a world. In reality, it's code manipulation, but it's been dressed up as something magical so as to not conflict with his perception of reality. (Who would teach it to him this way? Luxu, of course.)

 

The world order must be maintained. Everyone must stay in-character. If they became aware that reality isn’t what they thought, what would happen? ...More on that in a second.

 

YOZORA

Let's not forget about Yozora. So far, all that we know about him is that he's a video game character in the world of Toy Box. But he also appears to be a real character in the secret ending.

 

Sora and Riku might have ended up in the world of Verum Rex. That is a possibility. If we assume that to be the case, then they might be inside of a video game world, distinct from the worlds they’ve visited until now. (A lot of people think that it’s two separate worlds or the world of The World Ends With You. Even if it is, that wouldn’t change anything, seeing as how TWEWY is also a video game.)

 

Sora encountering Yozora would be the same as when Rex met Sora. Does Yozora think he's from a video game? I’m sure that when the two meet, Sora will have to face some big questions.

 

So, this brings me to my next question…

 

WHAT DID LUXU TELL AVA?

 

He told her something that revealed not only the truth about the traitor, but also, presumably, the true nature of their reality. Whatever he told her, she wasn't able to handle it. She refused to believe it. Luxu assured her that it was the truth, straight from the Master himself, but, because it was too much to believed, and because she still didn't want to believe that the Master would have deceived them, she accused Luxu of lying and twisting the Master's words.

Could he have told her something that violated the world order? Ava began acting strangely after that encounter. Whatever he told her, it must have been something that shook the very foundation of her understanding.
 

WHAT THE MASTER OF MASTERS KNOWS

We don't know much of anything about the Foretellers. They don't have faces. They don't have backstories.

 

The Master named them. He gave them their roles.

 

As a writer, I can't help but see the similarity between the Master and myself. It's like the Foretellers are a work in progress.

 

We also don't know much about the Master, but we know that he was a scientist. ...We “know” that, right? To be totally fair, even the things we think we know might be untrue. With the way he pretends to be engrossed in work when Gula visit him, I have my suspicion that he might be pretending to be smarter than he is. (What’s up, Demyx “I Don’t Have To Be Smart” Kingdom Hearts…) He’s clever, that’s for sure.

 

However, I think it’s safe to say that he was involved in the operation of data worlds. Using the information from the Book of Prophecies, he made digital copies of the worlds from the future for the keyblade wielders to traverse. One way or another, he was even able to erase their memories of the keyblade war. Kinda suspicious that he wouldn't explain how he was able to do that, huh? Presumably, it’s an ability of the Chirithies, but...

 

The Master of Masters is also the one who made the Dream Eaters. How the heck did he do that?

 

Is it too much to assume that he could make people, as well?

 

We do it.

 

When you begin your quest in khux, you create your own avatar. If the Master is aware of the nature of the world, who's to say he couldn't create his own avatars to begin his own story?

He's aware of the future – or rather, I should say that he knows the story of Kingdom Hearts. He's seen everything that we've seen. His knowledge is our knowledge. He knows that the future can't be changed because it's literally already been written. We've played it. But he can focus on what comes after by making an entirely new game.

The thing is, what he saw with the Gazing Eye appears to be different from what we saw at the end of KH3. Sora and the “light from the past” (the players of khux) changed the outcome. When the Master looked into the future, he saw an ending where darkness prevailed and light expired -- the end of the Kingdom Hearts series.

The keyblades aren’t for protecting Kingdom Hearts.

 

That’s because Kingdom Hearts can’t be protected by them. Based on the way he speaks about Kingdom Hearts in this scene, it sounds like a metaphor for the game itself. It's the players’ manifested desire for a new game. As long as there is a Kingdom Hearts, there's a story. Without that desire for a new story, their world would be consumed by darkness and come to an end.

 

Basically, I think the Master of Masters wants to start a new game. Maybe he doesn’t even care about Kingdom Hearts.

 

When you look at it this way, it makes sense how the Master could ignore how his manipulation would hurt the Foretellers. To him – especially if he made them himself – they're just characters. He isn't manipulating people. He's writing a story.

 

THE DAYBREAK TOWN CONTROL ROOM

 

In the Daybreak Town clock tower, there's a secret, hidden room filled with monitors that are tuned to locations in the various data worlds as well as Daybreak Town itself.

I think we can assume that the Master used that room to keep an eye on multiple places at once. It's probably also where the data worlds are controlled from.

 

It took me a while, but it just recently occurred to me that the room is very similar to the concept of a debug room – a “room” in a video game that can't be accessed through normal play, that's used by the developers to test the game. There was one well-known debug room in Final Fantasy VII that could be accessed via cheats. From the main hub, there are multiple rooms where the player can alter the game in various ways; changing character names, adding and removing party members (including Sephiroth!), changing your level and stats, obtaining all items, and much, much more. If you wanted, you could even go to any part of the game.

 

Doesn't that sound familiar? In a way, it's almost like time travel.

 

So far, we don't have enough for me to definitively say whether the Master is a character or a user, but if the video game theory is correct, I think he has developer access at the least. This could open up a whole new realm of possibilities... If the Master had that type of access, he could look like anyone and go anywhere – but if the control room didn't exist where he was going, he wouldn't have been able to go back. That's one way to explain his disappearance. (He might not have been able to take anything with him, either, such as the box.)

 

If you've ever played with the FFVII debug room, then you know how tricky it is. The menus are badly translated and most of them are impossible to understand. You need a guide just to navigate it. If the Dandelions used the control room to put themselves on a new world line (whatever that is), their poor understanding of how it worked might have been why some of them were sent to separate times and why all of their memories were lost. I can't tell you how many times I waltzed into the middle of FFVII from the debug room just to realize that my party consisted only of Cloud at level 1.

 

REAL OR FAKE?

Currently in the story of khux, there's been an outbreak of Heartless in Daybreak Town that look like Bug Blox. That's strange because Bug Blox are only found within the datascape. Glitches and other strange distortions in reality have also been occurring.

When discussing these phenomena, the Dandelions come to the conclusion that they must be in the real world. Even Brain agrees, but if they’re in the real world, then those phenomena shouldn’t be happening.

 

Just looking at it logically, they have to be in a data version of Daybreak Town, right? But if they were certain that they were in the real world, where is the “real” Daybreak Town?

 

They assume that the glitches might be interference caused by an unfamiliar world – Game Central Station. Compared to the other worlds they've traveled to until now, Game Central Station isn't “part of the timeline” and “didn’t exist in reality”. It's unclear what that means. Does that mean that it's a world that came from a timeline other than the future predicted by the Book of Prophecies? Or is it possibly a world from somewhere else?

They head into Game Central Station to investigate. On their way, they first have to pass through these cable-like tunnels that seem to be connected to the world. They’re uncertain whether or not the tunnels are a part of the world. In the tunnels, they run into more Darklings. The Darklings single out the player and remark that the player is “different”. That's... Interesting. It also wouldn't be the first time the player has been treated as someone special.

 

Do the Darklings know that the player isn't just a character?

The Bug Blox seem to be a problem for Game Central Station, too. When the player meets Felix, he calls the Bug Blox “outsiders”, indicating that they’re unfamiliar to him as well. So where are they coming from?

 

If the Bug Blox are there, does that confirm that Game Central Station is another projected world? But... It wasn't included among the worlds the Master had laid out for them, so that doesn't sound possible. Is it also considered a “data world” because it’s a world of video games? How exactly did it become linked to Daybreak Town?

 

At this point, I think it seems extremely possible that Daybreak Town is connected to Game Central Station the way that other video games are. If that's the case... That ought to be enough to confirm that the universe of Kingdom Hearts is a video game.

 

The fourth wall is being destroyed. You could say it's already gone. We've been a part of the game for a while now.

 

CURIOUS KEYWORDS

 

Various names have appeared recently that correspond with computing terms.

 

Scala: A programming language. It is also part of the name of Scala ad Caelum whose architecture pays homage to the Tower of Babel, a Biblical story which depicts the hubris of man and attempts to explain why there exists more than one language in the world.

Key: A password. Literally, the keyblades which are used to perform various locking/unlocking functions.

Virus: The word Brain uses to describe himself and the influence he hopes to have upon the Master's plans; an insidious foreign code that corrupts a computer program.

Black box: A device or object which can be observed from the outside but has no self-awareness of its own inner workings. For example, the human brain.

 

And... There are probably others I'm not recalling at the moment. But those ones are some important ones.

 

EVIDENCE OF DIGITAL INFLUENCE IN THE “REAL WORLD”

 

Here are some things I've noticed so far…

When Xehanort uses the No Name keyblade to elevate the architecture buried beneath the Keyblade Graveyard to create a maze, a pattern of light is briefly shown to appear on the ground. Or… Maybe it’s in the air? Hard to tell. The effects look distinctly digital and the pattern looks like circuitry. Interesting that the No Name had this ability.

Scala ad Caelum is a mystery wrapped in a mystery. So far, all we really know is that it's related to Daybreak Town. I reckon it's where the black box was hidden. I don't know why Xigbar would have even told the others about it if he knew they wouldn't find it, but that's a question for another day.

 

For now, I want you to focus on this screenshot. It's actually clearer when you see it in motion. Xehanort's image flickers in and out like static. Blink and you’ll miss it. In this screenshot, the effect is most noticeable around the white shirt underneath his coat. See how the edges look like they’re warped? It reminds me of the distortions seen in Daybreak Town.

 

Evidence of a digital framework beneath the surface are seen in these two places. There might be more that I just haven't noticed yet.
 

IN CONCLUSION

Scala ad Caelum which may have once been Daybreak Town... And the Keyblade Graveyard where the keyblade war took place very near to Daybreak Town...

 

They were data. They're still data. And everything else may have been made on top of that digital framework. What began as a game is still a game, but the truth has been carefully hidden to preserve the order and protect everyone’s perception of reality.

 

But anyway, this is just a theory...

 

The video game theory.

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by setsugekka

[GrandMageVivi 4]

Ooh, I love meta-narratives in fiction when they're done right (a la Bravely Default/Second and Undertale/Deltarune), so I'd be very excited if some of this were true.

I first heard something akin to this theory during this discussion by TFS Gaming (I tried to find the exact time but was unable to, it's brought up by Kirran sometime in the middle of the video) but haven't heard much since.

An interesting point in the doc is the theory that MoM is trying to start a "new game". This instantly made me think of the last scene of the epilogue, when Youth in White mentions a "new game he heard about". Very peculiar.

If KHUx could update with more than 5 missions every month we might get some answers to this eventually.

[setsugekka 162]

16 hours ago, GrandMageVivi said:

I first heard something akin to this theory during this discussion by TFS Gaming (I tried to find the exact time but was unable to, it's brought up by Kirran sometime in the middle of the video) but haven't heard much since.

Oho~ Thank you for the link. I hadn't watched that yet. I think I found the part you're referring to. It's around the 30min mark. Sounds like he was starting to think along the same lines.

Oh, and then he mentions it again around 1:20:00. Long video. lol

Edited May 31, 2019 by setsugekka

[ienzo628 548]

On 5/30/2019 at 9:04 AM, GrandMageVivi said:

Ooh, I love meta-narratives in fiction when they're done right (a la Bravely Default/Second and Undertale/Deltarune), so I'd be very excited if some of this were true.

I first heard something akin to this theory during this discussion by TFS Gaming (I tried to find the exact time but was unable to, it's brought up by Kirran sometime in the middle of the video) but haven't heard much since.

An interesting point in the doc is the theory that MoM is trying to start a "new game". This instantly made me think of the last scene of the epilogue, when Youth in White mentions a "new game he heard about". Very peculiar.

If KHUx could update with more than 5 missions every month we might get some answers to this eventually.

Yeah, it would be could if they came up with an update that caught us to the Japanese version on my birthday but that is wishful thinking.

[Rockmandasher 1]

I used to think that just Daybreak Town was the digital space, now I support the everything is a game theory like Star Ocean 3 Till the End of Time, so please include Star Ocean characters in the next game please!

So, Kairi is like the connection gene, Sora would be Alteration and Riku is Destruction. =P

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Good lord, what a fantastic and mind baffling theory! This all sets into motion questions about everything we've come to know in the series! Is it all reality or is it all a heavily orchestrated and diligently crafted story manipulated by an outside hand? Gahhh, this just makes me excited for the future even more!

[setsugekka 162]

After the DLC trailer, you've probably heard about the theory that Luxord is the Player from khux. I'm 100% on board with that theory. With that in mind, the way Luxord treats life like a game makes a lot of sense. lol The card he gave to Sora is a "wildcard" - the Fool in tarot. The Fool is often interpreted as the "protagonist". It would be rather symbolic for the protagonist of khux to hand his card to Sora, a fellow protagonist/player-controlled character. There's a lot more that supports Luxord being the Player, but I won't get into that right now. I'm just !!! very excited about that because it really fits in line with the way the video game theory breaks the fourth wall.

I can't wait to see more in khux... I have a feeling that "world lines" might be different instances of the same game. In other words, the game I'm playing would be a different world line from the ones my friends are playing. Each world line might have their own Player. If that's the case, it's no wonder Luxu wouldn't have any idea who Luxord is. He couldn't have seen EVERY player. I kinda wonder if Luxu and the MoM can't predict the actions of the Player at all. Maybe that's the "power" of Luxord's card. Free will? Player choice?

...Maybe that's why the Heartless looked at the Player and said "You're different". omg.

[ienzo628 548]

The Heartless do seem smarter in UX than they were in the previous games.  Did the Heartless' intelligence go down and they just relied on instinct only in the games that take place after UX.