Everything We Know About BBSV2

[keystrike 145]

My analysis of BBSV2, that should be straightforward enough, second time writing it (first got erased), call me crazy but… I hope you find it entertaining.

 

And on to business. For one BBSV2 will not be the official title, and in fact, because we dubbed the mystery game such people have began to assume that this game is quite litterally a sequel to Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. In actuality it is anything but, it is the game of blank points.

 

The Origin of This Game

 

Following kh2, the series began to explore other areas of the plot other than just Sora’s story. In the KH2fm+ Ultimania Nomura mentioned four time periods he was interested in telling. These were “the period of the King’s absence” (taking place in the dark realm), “the period of Riku’s absence” (quite literally everything we didn’t see, but it was specified to be his “desperate struggle to wake Sora”), “Roxas’ time in Organization XIII” (days) and “Xehanort’s past” (bbs). Of these time periods, really only two became games: Roxas’s time in the organization became Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and Xehanort’s past which became Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. The period of the king’s absence, and what would appear to be an absence of Riku’s appeared as some of the major scenes in first Kingdom Hearts Coded trailer, and so it became quite assumed that coded would take care of Mickey’s absence. In reality, Coded merely teased their absences for future games. While Coded never truly told these time periods, the game kh:bbs, never truly gave us the complete story that is Birth by Sleep.

 

Instead it only gave us volume 1 of Birth by Sleep, which encompassed Xehanort’s past. Days was similar in the sense that it often left out a lot of Xion’s side, the extra side that makes it ‘/2’. We can no longer look at the things as just, the time period nomura wants to tell, or the “other part of the story that is…” rather, they are the blank points of the story thus far. When “Birth by Sleep Volume 2” appeared maybe that was symbolic of all the games being one story as we know that that will be a true motif and purpose of that game because although the other part of the story of Birth by Sleep will be in a different game, it is all the same story. With this is mind it is no longer just what Nomura said he wanted to do, or what the game’s story was supposed to tell. This game is all about what we never saw.

And what we never saw, through the eyes of those who saw that, it is through those eyes that we see the whole story as it, the story leading up to the end of the Xehanort saga

 

Analysis of Secret Episode

 

The Secret Episode opens with a scene of something we should all be familiar with, but never saw. The number ‘1’, likely refering to kh’1’, is shown and then Kairi runs up to the sleeping Sora while the opening sequence of kh1 is taking place. Immediately the theme is set for both this small demo and the actual game to come. Then the number ‘0’ is shown and Aqua walks up to the dark margin where Ansem rests. It is interesting to note the parallel between Aqua and Kairi and the fact that these two scenes are both on the shore. From here Blank Points is rewound all the way through and into the scene “Where the Heart Goes” where Aqua clutches her wayfinder in the Dark Realm. Zero Point is displayed, signifying the first blank point of the series post-khbbs, and from here on we witness what we never saw.

 

Aqua continues to wander and finds herself thinking about her and their connection, and how that is what will lead her home. She looks down at her wayfinder, with dwindling hope, and the dark realm shakes. A portal of light appears above, a doorway home, but the darkness quickly simmers it out. This event had greater meaning than what we might think at first glance. Whatever world it might have lead to the darkness for the first time actively poured into the realm of light. The light of the wayfinder then dimmers. This makes me think that this might have been when Xehanort became a heartless, but I don’t find that to be quite enough evidence to consider it anything more than a possibility.

 

Following these sequences we are finally given a chance to play in the realm of darkness for the first time. The atmosphere could be considered chilling and between that, the music, and the desolation with exception to the heartless, I think they nailed it. Beyond that, the level design was especially intriguing, making us have to do a bit of platforming. During this time, we could only see pureblood heartless like neoshadows, darkballs, and shadows etc, along with the Hunter of the Dark. Essentially we didn’t find out too much in terms of the actual story, but I enjoyed getting a feel for what exploring the dark realm would be like.

 

After a terrifying boss fight against the Hunter of the Dark, we let down our guard and passively watch as Aqua continues to meander through the woods of darkness. Looking up we share an experience or epiphany as the screen flips to show us the Castle of Dreams sitting in the dark realm.

 

Here the secret ending truly begins

 

The phrase “A fragmentary passage” flashes onto the screen introducing us to the fragments of a tale to come. First we see Mickey in his CoM clothes in the dark realm. Considering this was one of the periods Nomura had interest in, I'd say its safe to assume a Mickey scenario here.

 

Then we see Riku holding an unconscious Kairi on Big Ben. One should be instantly reminded of the scene from kh recoded. This was actually one of the scenes from the beta trailer of kingdom hearts and for it to have remained a cannonical event appearing just in the last two kh releases you get the feeling it's gaining momentum and their might be greater significance revealed in the game itself.

 

The scene quickly shifts to Donald and Goofy wandering Traverse Town their first visit- also the day Mickey entered the dark realm. Aside from the Mickey implications, I hope all other mysteries concerning the events that day will be made clear.

 

Then we see Kairi and the Twilight Town gang looking up at the mansion (My theory here:). Further in the mansion, at another time, Diz is shown inserting the data in Sora. Considering this will be after kh3d, this game should give us an extremely thorough understanding of it, specifically Diz's motivation's.

 

And in Twilight Town somewhere Riku watches over Xion and Riku. Remaining in the spirit of unseen yet familiar, I really can't think of anything else they might have done to depict this time.

 

Finally Xehanort is shown on the beach as in the beginning of the game and turns around, shifting into his other forms. From another perspective we see Sora on the popou tree and suddenly vanish as the sun sinks below the horizon. Lastly Ven dissapears within the Room of Sleep just like Sora and the words “Birth by Sleep Volume 2” appear. Sorry, no analysis on this other than a little note of a parallel between the SRK and TAV trio's in the first and last scene's.

 

Reconnect Kingdom Hearts

 

In the past two games this phrase has appeared at the end of their respective secret endings. As it turns out, the true meaning of this phrase is mostly independent of the actual idea of the game that connects all of them. Its being at the end of recoded should be the first hint towards this, but what made it obvious was the novels. The epilogue to the book was called reconnect kingdom hearts, and was followed by a description of the kh2fm scenes of Xemnas walking down to the chamber of repose, and Sora battling the lingering sentiment. It meant for us to go back and replay the games, and in doing so, connect all the bits of pieces that make up the greater story in anticipation of the next games. However, this idea is not completely independent of BBSV2 as that game will be all about putting the pieces together.

 

Side Game or Not?

 

To be honest, lableing it a side game vs not puts a very black and white spin on the games. The side games/ spin offs of the Kingdom Hearts series exist at the most un-spin off side of the spectrum, carrying not as much importance as the main games but still retaining a place within the series. BBSV2, I believe with upmost certainty, will be a side game, as far as that definition

I suppose while I’m here I might as well mention that as a side game, we could think of this as the final game to experiment on as far as gameplay goes before kh3.

 

Worlds and Timeline

 

If assumed that Riku, Aqua, and Mickey will be playable characters then we have something to go off of. Nomura has long expressed interest in Mickey’s adventure in the dark realm, as well as Riku’s desperate struggle to wake Sora, and the secret episode would suggest Aqua would be playable as well. Furthermore what I said in The Origin of This Game explained that it would also be all the blank points in genera, and these blank points extend from the begining of the secret episode to the secret ending of khbbs, and perhaps even farther.

 

Aqua’s time in the dark realm, while covering a span of over ten years in the realm of light, covered a much smaller span of time within the realm of darkness. Therefore, it may also be assumed that Mickey’s time in the dark realm durring kh1 was also marginally smaller; enough so not to warrant its own game as was once a possibility. Relatively, if kh1 could be assumed to last six months (although it was likely shorter) and if we could assume that by the time Aqua came across The Castle of Dreams in the Dark Realm five years had already past (once again, a stretch) then Mickey would have had the time to go to one tenth of the worlds that Aqua could have explored, and so there will likely be some amount of iffy-ness to the construction of this part of the plot.

 

Before going into the worlds, specifically those of the dark realm, one particular instance in Kingdom Hearts Reverse/Rebirth might have provided a mode for these dark disney worlds to actually work. After Riku made his way through the first floor, we are shown a scene of Zexion, Lexeaus, and Vexen. Zexion explaining that he picked up the scent of

 

Concerning the actual worlds, we can make very good guesses (mostly due to it being a side game). Worlds that they will choose will have to be worlds that we know fell into darkness, but worlds we also see in kh2 revived.

 

Land of the Dragons-This has to be the perfect disney world that could be explored in this game. A Riku scenario prevaling in kh2 seems all the more likely with passing thoughts, and one of the worlds we know of him to visit in kh2 is the Land of the Dragons. He and Xigbar were synonymously recognized as “the spy in black” lurking around in the imperial city. Riku must have arrived their and went after Xigbar, who as the mass of Org. XIII was doing in kh2, trying to make a nobody. In this case it was a dragon. Riku fought Shang and Sora, but likely preceding those were an encounter with Xigbar. Getting Mickey to visit it probably wouldn’t be too hard, either in the realm of darkness or light depending which scenario it will be. As for Aqua, we know from kh1 that the darkness took this world so its appearence in the dark realm is extremely likely. Shu-Yan would be the obvious Disney Villain if this is the path they take for the mode of these worlds.

Beasts Castle- If the perfectness of it being another dark realm to realm of light world wasn’t enough, for the mere aesthetics I would say this world has to be in BBSV2. For Aqua to walk through a forest of darkness unto a brigde crossing a hundreds of feet down I would be artistically in aw, but still for the most part freaked out. This world has so much potential, and so many unrealized plot elements from the other two movies. Riku visited

 

Castle of Dreams- Confirmed yes, but how it will work in the game, I’ve got nothing (well, very little). The world in KHBBS felt shallow and tacky. I mean, the three bosses were: a monster appears in the ballroom, the carriage transforms into a monster, and a cat attacks Ven. I could see the three stepsisters in a similar position as Maleficent becoming the antagonists of that world, but I guess we’ll just wait and see. It should also be noted that Red Eyes resembles Lucifer.

 

Enchanted Dominion- I find how this world to be able to work perhaps the most interesting of all on both the side of the Dark Realm and the Realm of Light. It offers an intriguing reunion between Maleficent and Aqua or Mickey, within the realm of darkness, and between Mickey or Riku within the Realm of Light. Sure, we never heard of Riku visiting Enchanted Dominion in kh2, but its possible, quite intriguing, and I’m not too sure how a Kingdom Hearts game would work with only three other Disney worlds.

 

Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden- The key word is potential. We didn’t see one bit of this world during the year Sora slept, leaving it open to a lot of things. Also In KH2, Mickey appeared here for a short but information filled episode until he disappeared chasing after Xemnas. The novels also established that Xion occupied Riku’s old room given by Maleficent when she thought about what to do.

 

Twilight Town- Three scenes in the secret ending should be enough, but just for the heck of it, what can we expect. During the events of 358/2 Days Riku watching over Xion and Roxas… ehh, not that exciting. Same goes for Diz inserting the data as far as what you can do. Mickey has the most potential, I mean, what was he doing that year he was gone and when Sora first awakened.

 

The World That Never Was- Appearance wise, this world is inevitable, but with the possibilty of a Riku scenario, we might just get the chance to see that fight from another perspective.

 

The Dark Realm- Sorry just had to put this down.

 

Scenarios

 

The purpose of this game is to both catch players up on the events of all the games and provide new material to base theories off of. Their needs to be a balance and this is exactly the area where the most thought should go into. Many might say, well, if we practically knew everything that Riku was up to in land of the dragons for example, why do we need to see it in khbbsv2. Instead of having players replay or play for the first time all the games eventually coming across kh2 to learn what Org. XIII was up to all that time a simple disney world or two would suffice in summing up what they were up to. And of course along the way fan service of specifics is always nice.

In CoM, we had two separate scenario’s where when we beat the first we did the second; In BbS we had three separate scenarios which we played in whatever order we wanted and then finished off the game with an unbeknownst final episode (and secret episode for that matter); and KH3D will consist of one-ish/two-ish scenarios where we are switching between Sora and Riku as bizarre as that is. Finally: BBSV2. Like BBS it will likely consist of three characters, but their very possibly sporadic time shifts (e.g mickey in dark realm to mickey in kh2) would make a simple ‘one two three finish’ setup unlikely. Something along the line of chapters similar to those in FFIV:The After Years (coincidentally also utilizing recycled worlds).

 

Not much can be said concerning what Aqua did in the realm of darkness relative to Riku or Mickey in the other blank points of the series. But some things should be noted. For one, the mystery of Xemnas and Aqua’s armor. Xigbar could hear a conversation, but was this more than just the echo’s of aqua’s thoughts? Another mystery is Mickey’s knowledge of Aqua. Their meeting would seem to bring about a contradiction so how did he learn about her condition?

 

This however, is only her time from Zero point through the end of kh1. After that things get a bit more interesting. If Aqua travels through about five dark Disney worlds that still leaves her time during kh2. When Mickey sealed the Door to Darkness, all the worlds were returned to their original state, and their versions in the dark realm presumably disappear. As with all kh games, the final world is always orriginal. Although we know that this final battle will by no means wake her out of her meandering state, we can expect at least some form of climax to her story, preceded by the true ending to Birth by Sleep.

 

As for the periods of Mickey’s absence, we have three main periods of time alongside some other small plausible scenarios. First off the official “period of the King’s absence,” his time in the dark realm durring kh1. For a long time, this was thought to possibly be a game in itself. The question “how did Mickey get the keyblade of the dark realm” seemed like plenty to base a story on and expand it from their but now we have Aqua. Considering things outside of how this would affect what Mickey does in a direct sense, if time travels constantly in the dark realm (which it should especially in the situation where they visit the same worlds) then Aqua would have gone to aproximately the same number of worlds as Mickey over the course of five years at the least while Mickey spent a year in there at most. If they did end up going to all the same worlds in the dark realm, it wouldn’t be the first time we had an inconsistency and it relatively wouldn’t be a bad one at that. I guess if Mickey does go to dark Disney worlds it would follow a similar pattern as Aqua with some obvious changes such as Terra vs Aqua vs Ven in bbs so I’ll just leave that issue at that.

 

Writing this I’m getting exhausted, and to go into complete detail of the gold mine of ideas that Mickey’s scenarios would be based on would be a nightmare, but, here I go.

 

Both the beginning and end of Mickey’s dark realm scenario lack definite points like an event such as Deep Dive, and the middle is no more clear concerning what events will be shown. I would almost suspect Mickey talking with Yen Sid before leaving Disney Castle to fill him in (and as an extension us) on the situation. It would also provide the space for Mickey to contact Sora and Riku, but I would almost prefer his reaching them to remain vague. In Traverse Town, remember that he told Leon about Donald and Goofy and the Keyblade Wielder. I think it would be cool to maybe see Mickey see Sora, just to sort of let us know whats going on with his story, and for us to be like “Ohh I remember that!” We know he then goes to the dark realm looking for the key of the dark realm. He also encounters Pluto, so that seen where Pluto jumps into the dark corridor might be resolved. During this time, he makes contact with both Sora and Riku one more time. In the Final Rest Sora hears a voice telling him that “this is the last haven you’ll find hear.” Actually, I might be reconsidering this voice as the one that combined with Mickey’s in Sora’s awakening so nevermind that. But as for Riku, in a Final Mix exclusive scene Riku stumbles struggling to not be overtaking in hopes to be able to see Sora and Kairi one more time. Mickey is finally able to reach him and we discover that Mickey not only was speaking to him then, but was trying to talk with him throughout the whole game. Finally, Mickey and Sora seal the door to darkness. When it was sealed Riku disappeared, and the next time we see Mickey is actually during the events of Chain of Memories. Somehow Pluto escapes the dark realm, but hey, its Pluto. Because all of these events are sequence very close, and arguably just as important, it is hard to say when it will be cut off.

 

The next part to talk about is of course his time during days, or post CoM, however you want to look at it. Mickey sets off with Riku to walk the path between light and darkness wondering where that path will take them. It is known they travel to Hollow Bastion before they depart when Riku feels the darkness is winning. The next time we see mickey, the only time during days really, the only thing we discover about Mickey is that he had no idea of the state of Sora. Lots of potential, yes. Anything to theorize off of, nothing at all.

 

But this just brings us to his time during kh2. Although never explicitly stated, it makes the most sense for Mickey to have met Riku shortly after Riku stole Ollete’s pouch, leading him to go to Yen Sid. Then we know he takes the ‘ghost train’ back to Twilight Town, and sees Hayner, Pence, and Ollete. Between these events Mickey could be doing a number of things, but this is just what we know of what he did do. Then he rescues Sora from the nobodies before hastily running away (suspicous much?). Next time we see him is during the attack of Hollow Bastion. Once again, and even more so here, he could be doing a number of things we don’t know about. The most noteworthy aspect of this event is of him jumping into the dark corridor after Xemnas. It truly begs the question what happened after that. Later on, Mickey once again comes to the rescue at the Twilight Town Mansion, and we must think, “what was he doing there?”

 

I can see Riku’s possible scenarios being at two times. Because Mickey’s time durring days will lack almost everything that had to do with Roxas’s time in the organization, Riku’s scenario could fill us in with a lot, but at the same time, it would be almost too much. The ‘days’ mechanic could be adjusted so we skip all the non important days. I just don’t know how else Xion’s story could be told, because obviously no flashbacks to let us know. If his story does begin at say, Hollow Bastion as seen in the credits of Re:CoM, him using Ansems computer could be interesting. Riku makes a number of rather uneventful actions during Roxas’s seven days, but upon Sora’s awakening, the end of began to be churned. Riku, Namine, and Axel met on Sunset Hill where Riku was told to eliminate Namine and Axel, but this isn’t what he does. Remembering their actions from Castle Oblivion, he lets them leave and the three experience a resolution of quietude. Although their paths separated here, their actions would not go without consequence in respect to each other through the rest of the game. As discussed in the worlds section, Riku would visit Land of the Dragons, and likely Enchanted Dominion. The Kairi being kidnapped section seems like a big enough deal and a fight with Saix I personally would find simply awesome where their pasts are contrasted.

 

Development- from origin to release

 

Despite the game coming into conception nearly five years ago, it has been constantly delayed and in effect, evolved. As a mere idea after kh2, it was a possibillity to be a game announced alongside khbbs but as we know now nintendo and disney took this place of development. After khbbs another opportunity arose. At a time when no such thing as kh3d, I imagine that Blank Points acted more directly as what hinted toward this “mystery game” or rather the game that would deal with the blank points in the series. Later it was realized that kh3 wasn’t coming out for a long long time, and to have just one game between bbs and kh3 was absurd. Thus Square cleverly made the remakes Re:coded and Birth by Sleep Final Mix to get a couple extra bucks and hint towards a whole new game and the game that has been in denial all these years BBSV2. I could imagine a KH3D final mix to postpone the game’s development even more, but at this point just mentioning the possibility is enough.

 

Although Square’s plate is as full as it is going to get, KH3D and FFXIII are now in full production. That means it isn’t too much longer until some new games can finally get started. BBSV2 is one of these games. KH3D’s release is set in spring 2012, so some time during then its production would start. As a side game, its production time could be as little as a year, but depending on what they decide to do it could easily be longer, setting its release to be anywhere from mid summer to the holiday season of 2013 approximately.

 

This game is all about getting people caught up on all the games so far, the final game to get people ready for kh3 so to speak. The more people they can get to buy the game the better, and the most popular system would probably get the most sales. The sales of Days and Re:coded dwarf those compared to those bbs, the game synonymous with kh0. This is because of the popularity of the system, and once the 3DS gets rolling, I couldn’t imagine it doing anything less than dominating the market, not only among the handheld systems but among every gaming system. The people this choice of popularity vs quality has been especially evident in the demographics of the forums which have a considerabley high . Square obviously will take how popular any one system is in deciding what system to put it on but they do demonstrate some restraint such as by putting bbs on the psp despite the detrimental effect on its sales. Fortunately, the 3DS seems to for once have the highest graphical powers compared to the console entries and bbs, as well as the highest sales. If I had to bet on which system BBSV2 would be released on my money would be on the 3DS

 

Excitement and Fear

 

This game will be the final say in what went on in the Xehanort Saga. After this game, nearly everything will be set in stone fact, and if the facts hold any sort of paradox, that is it. Of every game so far, this has the largest potential by far to mess up. Six other games, a couple of them even overlapping, released over a time period of ten years, and by the time this game comes out, it will have yet another game to conform to- kh3d. All of this, how it ties into the other games, the chance to be able to see the characters’ pasts, it is incredibly exciting, but one slip and it can be a slippery slope of criticism. Some amount of retcon is bound to happen, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be false; for example, it could just include something that was never hinted at, but was never hinted to not be a possibility.

I eagerly await this game’s release, probably as much as KH3D and KH3, for these exciting possibilities. I’ll probably end up overhyping, as is evident in this whole thing, and end up hating it, but well, we’ll see.

 

[Static15 90]

wow...the fact that you took the time to write that made me interested...but i only skimmed it....

[Col.Random 3,683]

well i tend to think it's mainly about what aqua was doing in those 10 years before the events of kh1 and might show a couple of parts about terra's on going struggle to regain his heart, but good analysis and stuff.

[TerraRedeemed 255]

My analysis of BBSV2, that should be straightforward enough, second time writing it (first got erased), call me crazy but… I hope you find it entertaining.

 

And on to business. For one BBSV2 will not be the official title, and in fact, because we dubbed the mystery game such people have began to assume that this game is quite litterally a sequel to Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. In actuality it is anything but, it is the game of blank points.

 

The Origin of This Game

 

Following kh2, the series began to explore other areas of the plot other than just Sora’s story. In the KH2fm+ Ultimania Nomura mentioned four time periods he was interested in telling. These were “the period of the King’s absence” (taking place in the dark realm), “the period of Riku’s absence” (quite literally everything we didn’t see, but it was specified to be his “desperate struggle to wake Sora”), “Roxas’ time in Organization XIII” (days) and “Xehanort’s past” (bbs). Of these time periods, really only two became games: Roxas’s time in the organization became Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and Xehanort’s past which became Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. The period of the king’s absence, and what would appear to be an absence of Riku’s appeared as some of the major scenes in first Kingdom Hearts Coded trailer, and so it became quite assumed that coded would take care of Mickey’s absence. In reality, Coded merely teased their absences for future games. While Coded never truly told these time periods, the game kh:bbs, never truly gave us the complete story that is Birth by Sleep.

 

Instead it only gave us volume 1 of Birth by Sleep, which encompassed Xehanort’s past. Days was similar in the sense that it often left out a lot of Xion’s side, the extra side that makes it ‘/2’. We can no longer look at the things as just, the time period nomura wants to tell, or the “other part of the story that is…” rather, they are the blank points of the story thus far. When “Birth by Sleep Volume 2” appeared maybe that was symbolic of all the games being one story as we know that that will be a true motif and purpose of that game because although the other part of the story of Birth by Sleep will be in a different game, it is all the same story. With this is mind it is no longer just what Nomura said he wanted to do, or what the game’s story was supposed to tell. This game is all about what we never saw.

And what we never saw, through the eyes of those who saw that, it is through those eyes that we see the whole story as it, the story leading up to the end of the Xehanort saga

 

Analysis of Secret Episode

 

The Secret Episode opens with a scene of something we should all be familiar with, but never saw. The number ‘1’, likely refering to kh’1’, is shown and then Kairi runs up to the sleeping Sora while the opening sequence of kh1 is taking place. Immediately the theme is set for both this small demo and the actual game to come. Then the number ‘0’ is shown and Aqua walks up to the dark margin where Ansem rests. It is interesting to note the parallel between Aqua and Kairi and the fact that these two scenes are both on the shore. From here Blank Points is rewound all the way through and into the scene “Where the Heart Goes” where Aqua clutches her wayfinder in the Dark Realm. Zero Point is displayed, signifying the first blank point of the series post-khbbs, and from here on we witness what we never saw.

 

Aqua continues to wander and finds herself thinking about her and their connection, and how that is what will lead her home. She looks down at her wayfinder, with dwindling hope, and the dark realm shakes. A portal of light appears above, a doorway home, but the darkness quickly simmers it out. This event had greater meaning than what we might think at first glance. Whatever world it might have lead to the darkness for the first time actively poured into the realm of light. The light of the wayfinder then dimmers. This makes me think that this might have been when Xehanort became a heartless, but I don’t find that to be quite enough evidence to consider it anything more than a possibility.

 

Following these sequences we are finally given a chance to play in the realm of darkness for the first time. The atmosphere could be considered chilling and between that, the music, and the desolation with exception to the heartless, I think they nailed it. Beyond that, the level design was especially intriguing, making us have to do a bit of platforming. During this time, we could only see pureblood heartless like neoshadows, darkballs, and shadows etc, along with the Hunter of the Dark. Essentially we didn’t find out too much in terms of the actual story, but I enjoyed getting a feel for what exploring the dark realm would be like.

 

After a terrifying boss fight against the Hunter of the Dark, we let down our guard and passively watch as Aqua continues to meander through the woods of darkness. Looking up we share an experience or epiphany as the screen flips to show us the Castle of Dreams sitting in the dark realm.

 

Here the secret ending truly begins

 

The phrase “A fragmentary passage” flashes onto the screen introducing us to the fragments of a tale to come. First we see Mickey in his CoM clothes in the dark realm. Considering this was one of the periods Nomura had interest in, I'd say its safe to assume a Mickey scenario here.

 

Then we see Riku holding an unconscious Kairi on Big Ben. One should be instantly reminded of the scene from kh recoded. This was actually one of the scenes from the beta trailer of kingdom hearts and for it to have remained a cannonical event appearing just in the last two kh releases you get the feeling it's gaining momentum and their might be greater significance revealed in the game itself.

 

The scene quickly shifts to Donald and Goofy wandering Traverse Town their first visit- also the day Mickey entered the dark realm. Aside from the Mickey implications, I hope all other mysteries concerning the events that day will be made clear.

 

Then we see Kairi and the Twilight Town gang looking up at the mansion (My theory here:). Further in the mansion, at another time, Diz is shown inserting the data in Sora. Considering this will be after kh3d, this game should give us an extremely thorough understanding of it, specifically Diz's motivation's.

 

And in Twilight Town somewhere Riku watches over Xion and Riku. Remaining in the spirit of unseen yet familiar, I really can't think of anything else they might have done to depict this time.

 

Finally Xehanort is shown on the beach as in the beginning of the game and turns around, shifting into his other forms. From another perspective we see Sora on the popou tree and suddenly vanish as the sun sinks below the horizon. Lastly Ven dissapears within the Room of Sleep just like Sora and the words “Birth by Sleep Volume 2” appear. Sorry, no analysis on this other than a little note of a parallel between the SRK and TAV trio's in the first and last scene's.

 

Reconnect Kingdom Hearts

 

In the past two games this phrase has appeared at the end of their respective secret endings. As it turns out, the true meaning of this phrase is mostly independent of the actual idea of the game that connects all of them. Its being at the end of recoded should be the first hint towards this, but what made it obvious was the novels. The epilogue to the book was called reconnect kingdom hearts, and was followed by a description of the kh2fm scenes of Xemnas walking down to the chamber of repose, and Sora battling the lingering sentiment. It meant for us to go back and replay the games, and in doing so, connect all the bits of pieces that make up the greater story in anticipation of the next games. However, this idea is not completely independent of BBSV2 as that game will be all about putting the pieces together.

 

Side Game or Not?

 

To be honest, lableing it a side game vs not puts a very black and white spin on the games. The side games/ spin offs of the Kingdom Hearts series exist at the most un-spin off side of the spectrum, carrying not as much importance as the main games but still retaining a place within the series. BBSV2, I believe with upmost certainty, will be a side game, as far as that definition

I suppose while I’m here I might as well mention that as a side game, we could think of this as the final game to experiment on as far as gameplay goes before kh3.

 

Worlds and Timeline

 

If assumed that Riku, Aqua, and Mickey will be playable characters then we have something to go off of. Nomura has long expressed interest in Mickey’s adventure in the dark realm, as well as Riku’s desperate struggle to wake Sora, and the secret episode would suggest Aqua would be playable as well. Furthermore what I said in The Origin of This Game explained that it would also be all the blank points in genera, and these blank points extend from the begining of the secret episode to the secret ending of khbbs, and perhaps even farther.

 

Aqua’s time in the dark realm, while covering a span of over ten years in the realm of light, covered a much smaller span of time within the realm of darkness. Therefore, it may also be assumed that Mickey’s time in the dark realm durring kh1 was also marginally smaller; enough so not to warrant its own game as was once a possibility. Relatively, if kh1 could be assumed to last six months (although it was likely shorter) and if we could assume that by the time Aqua came across The Castle of Dreams in the Dark Realm five years had already past (once again, a stretch) then Mickey would have had the time to go to one tenth of the worlds that Aqua could have explored, and so there will likely be some amount of iffy-ness to the construction of this part of the plot.

 

Before going into the worlds, specifically those of the dark realm, one particular instance in Kingdom Hearts Reverse/Rebirth might have provided a mode for these dark disney worlds to actually work. After Riku made his way through the first floor, we are shown a scene of Zexion, Lexeaus, and Vexen. Zexion explaining that he picked up the scent of

 

Concerning the actual worlds, we can make very good guesses (mostly due to it being a side game). Worlds that they will choose will have to be worlds that we know fell into darkness, but worlds we also see in kh2 revived.

 

Land of the Dragons-This has to be the perfect disney world that could be explored in this game. A Riku scenario prevaling in kh2 seems all the more likely with passing thoughts, and one of the worlds we know of him to visit in kh2 is the Land of the Dragons. He and Xigbar were synonymously recognized as “the spy in black” lurking around in the imperial city. Riku must have arrived their and went after Xigbar, who as the mass of Org. XIII was doing in kh2, trying to make a nobody. In this case it was a dragon. Riku fought Shang and Sora, but likely preceding those were an encounter with Xigbar. Getting Mickey to visit it probably wouldn’t be too hard, either in the realm of darkness or light depending which scenario it will be. As for Aqua, we know from kh1 that the darkness took this world so its appearence in the dark realm is extremely likely. Shu-Yan would be the obvious Disney Villain if this is the path they take for the mode of these worlds.

Beasts Castle- If the perfectness of it being another dark realm to realm of light world wasn’t enough, for the mere aesthetics I would say this world has to be in BBSV2. For Aqua to walk through a forest of darkness unto a brigde crossing a hundreds of feet down I would be artistically in aw, but still for the most part freaked out. This world has so much potential, and so many unrealized plot elements from the other two movies. Riku visited

 

Castle of Dreams- Confirmed yes, but how it will work in the game, I’ve got nothing (well, very little). The world in KHBBS felt shallow and tacky. I mean, the three bosses were: a monster appears in the ballroom, the carriage transforms into a monster, and a cat attacks Ven. I could see the three stepsisters in a similar position as Maleficent becoming the antagonists of that world, but I guess we’ll just wait and see. It should also be noted that Red Eyes resembles Lucifer.

 

Enchanted Dominion- I find how this world to be able to work perhaps the most interesting of all on both the side of the Dark Realm and the Realm of Light. It offers an intriguing reunion between Maleficent and Aqua or Mickey, within the realm of darkness, and between Mickey or Riku within the Realm of Light. Sure, we never heard of Riku visiting Enchanted Dominion in kh2, but its possible, quite intriguing, and I’m not too sure how a Kingdom Hearts game would work with only three other Disney worlds.

 

Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden- The key word is potential. We didn’t see one bit of this world during the year Sora slept, leaving it open to a lot of things. Also In KH2, Mickey appeared here for a short but information filled episode until he disappeared chasing after Xemnas. The novels also established that Xion occupied Riku’s old room given by Maleficent when she thought about what to do.

 

Twilight Town- Three scenes in the secret ending should be enough, but just for the heck of it, what can we expect. During the events of 358/2 Days Riku watching over Xion and Roxas… ehh, not that exciting. Same goes for Diz inserting the data as far as what you can do. Mickey has the most potential, I mean, what was he doing that year he was gone and when Sora first awakened.

 

The World That Never Was- Appearance wise, this world is inevitable, but with the possibilty of a Riku scenario, we might just get the chance to see that fight from another perspective.

 

The Dark Realm- Sorry just had to put this down.

 

Scenarios

 

The purpose of this game is to both catch players up on the events of all the games and provide new material to base theories off of. Their needs to be a balance and this is exactly the area where the most thought should go into. Many might say, well, if we practically knew everything that Riku was up to in land of the dragons for example, why do we need to see it in khbbsv2. Instead of having players replay or play for the first time all the games eventually coming across kh2 to learn what Org. XIII was up to all that time a simple disney world or two would suffice in summing up what they were up to. And of course along the way fan service of specifics is always nice.

In CoM, we had two separate scenario’s where when we beat the first we did the second; In BbS we had three separate scenarios which we played in whatever order we wanted and then finished off the game with an unbeknownst final episode (and secret episode for that matter); and KH3D will consist of one-ish/two-ish scenarios where we are switching between Sora and Riku as bizarre as that is. Finally: BBSV2. Like BBS it will likely consist of three characters, but their very possibly sporadic time shifts (e.g mickey in dark realm to mickey in kh2) would make a simple ‘one two three finish’ setup unlikely. Something along the line of chapters similar to those in FFIV:The After Years (coincidentally also utilizing recycled worlds).

 

Not much can be said concerning what Aqua did in the realm of darkness relative to Riku or Mickey in the other blank points of the series. But some things should be noted. For one, the mystery of Xemnas and Aqua’s armor. Xigbar could hear a conversation, but was this more than just the echo’s of aqua’s thoughts? Another mystery is Mickey’s knowledge of Aqua. Their meeting would seem to bring about a contradiction so how did he learn about her condition?

 

This however, is only her time from Zero point through the end of kh1. After that things get a bit more interesting. If Aqua travels through about five dark Disney worlds that still leaves her time during kh2. When Mickey sealed the Door to Darkness, all the worlds were returned to their original state, and their versions in the dark realm presumably disappear. As with all kh games, the final world is always orriginal. Although we know that this final battle will by no means wake her out of her meandering state, we can expect at least some form of climax to her story, preceded by the true ending to Birth by Sleep.

 

As for the periods of Mickey’s absence, we have three main periods of time alongside some other small plausible scenarios. First off the official “period of the King’s absence,” his time in the dark realm durring kh1. For a long time, this was thought to possibly be a game in itself. The question “how did Mickey get the keyblade of the dark realm” seemed like plenty to base a story on and expand it from their but now we have Aqua. Considering things outside of how this would affect what Mickey does in a direct sense, if time travels constantly in the dark realm (which it should especially in the situation where they visit the same worlds) then Aqua would have gone to aproximately the same number of worlds as Mickey over the course of five years at the least while Mickey spent a year in there at most. If they did end up going to all the same worlds in the dark realm, it wouldn’t be the first time we had an inconsistency and it relatively wouldn’t be a bad one at that. I guess if Mickey does go to dark Disney worlds it would follow a similar pattern as Aqua with some obvious changes such as Terra vs Aqua vs Ven in bbs so I’ll just leave that issue at that.

 

Writing this I’m getting exhausted, and to go into complete detail of the gold mine of ideas that Mickey’s scenarios would be based on would be a nightmare, but, here I go.

 

Both the beginning and end of Mickey’s dark realm scenario lack definite points like an event such as Deep Dive, and the middle is no more clear concerning what events will be shown. I would almost suspect Mickey talking with Yen Sid before leaving Disney Castle to fill him in (and as an extension us) on the situation. It would also provide the space for Mickey to contact Sora and Riku, but I would almost prefer his reaching them to remain vague. In Traverse Town, remember that he told Leon about Donald and Goofy and the Keyblade Wielder. I think it would be cool to maybe see Mickey see Sora, just to sort of let us know whats going on with his story, and for us to be like “Ohh I remember that!” We know he then goes to the dark realm looking for the key of the dark realm. He also encounters Pluto, so that seen where Pluto jumps into the dark corridor might be resolved. During this time, he makes contact with both Sora and Riku one more time. In the Final Rest Sora hears a voice telling him that “this is the last haven you’ll find hear.” Actually, I might be reconsidering this voice as the one that combined with Mickey’s in Sora’s awakening so nevermind that. But as for Riku, in a Final Mix exclusive scene Riku stumbles struggling to not be overtaking in hopes to be able to see Sora and Kairi one more time. Mickey is finally able to reach him and we discover that Mickey not only was speaking to him then, but was trying to talk with him throughout the whole game. Finally, Mickey and Sora seal the door to darkness. When it was sealed Riku disappeared, and the next time we see Mickey is actually during the events of Chain of Memories. Somehow Pluto escapes the dark realm, but hey, its Pluto. Because all of these events are sequence very close, and arguably just as important, it is hard to say when it will be cut off.

 

The next part to talk about is of course his time during days, or post CoM, however you want to look at it. Mickey sets off with Riku to walk the path between light and darkness wondering where that path will take them. It is known they travel to Hollow Bastion before they depart when Riku feels the darkness is winning. The next time we see mickey, the only time during days really, the only thing we discover about Mickey is that he had no idea of the state of Sora. Lots of potential, yes. Anything to theorize off of, nothing at all.

 

But this just brings us to his time during kh2. Although never explicitly stated, it makes the most sense for Mickey to have met Riku shortly after Riku stole Ollete’s pouch, leading him to go to Yen Sid. Then we know he takes the ‘ghost train’ back to Twilight Town, and sees Hayner, Pence, and Ollete. Between these events Mickey could be doing a number of things, but this is just what we know of what he did do. Then he rescues Sora from the nobodies before hastily running away (suspicous much?). Next time we see him is during the attack of Hollow Bastion. Once again, and even more so here, he could be doing a number of things we don’t know about. The most noteworthy aspect of this event is of him jumping into the dark corridor after Xemnas. It truly begs the question what happened after that. Later on, Mickey once again comes to the rescue at the Twilight Town Mansion, and we must think, “what was he doing there?”

 

I can see Riku’s possible scenarios being at two times. Because Mickey’s time durring days will lack almost everything that had to do with Roxas’s time in the organization, Riku’s scenario could fill us in with a lot, but at the same time, it would be almost too much. The ‘days’ mechanic could be adjusted so we skip all the non important days. I just don’t know how else Xion’s story could be told, because obviously no flashbacks to let us know. If his story does begin at say, Hollow Bastion as seen in the credits of Re:CoM, him using Ansems computer could be interesting. Riku makes a number of rather uneventful actions during Roxas’s seven days, but upon Sora’s awakening, the end of began to be churned. Riku, Namine, and Axel met on Sunset Hill where Riku was told to eliminate Namine and Axel, but this isn’t what he does. Remembering their actions from Castle Oblivion, he lets them leave and the three experience a resolution of quietude. Although their paths separated here, their actions would not go without consequence in respect to each other through the rest of the game. As discussed in the worlds section, Riku would visit Land of the Dragons, and likely Enchanted Dominion. The Kairi being kidnapped section seems like a big enough deal and a fight with Saix I personally would find simply awesome where their pasts are contrasted.

 

Development- from origin to release

 

Despite the game coming into conception nearly five years ago, it has been constantly delayed and in effect, evolved. As a mere idea after kh2, it was a possibillity to be a game announced alongside khbbs but as we know now nintendo and disney took this place of development. After khbbs another opportunity arose. At a time when no such thing as kh3d, I imagine that Blank Points acted more directly as what hinted toward this “mystery game” or rather the game that would deal with the blank points in the series. Later it was realized that kh3 wasn’t coming out for a long long time, and to have just one game between bbs and kh3 was absurd. Thus Square cleverly made the remakes Re:coded and Birth by Sleep Final Mix to get a couple extra bucks and hint towards a whole new game and the game that has been in denial all these years BBSV2. I could imagine a KH3D final mix to postpone the game’s development even more, but at this point just mentioning the possibility is enough.

 

Although Square’s plate is as full as it is going to get, KH3D and FFXIII are now in full production. That means it isn’t too much longer until some new games can finally get started. BBSV2 is one of these games. KH3D’s release is set in spring 2012, so some time during then its production would start. As a side game, its production time could be as little as a year, but depending on what they decide to do it could easily be longer, setting its release to be anywhere from mid summer to the holiday season of 2013 approximately.

 

This game is all about getting people caught up on all the games so far, the final game to get people ready for kh3 so to speak. The more people they can get to buy the game the better, and the most popular system would probably get the most sales. The sales of Days and Re:coded dwarf those compared to those bbs, the game synonymous with kh0. This is because of the popularity of the system, and once the 3DS gets rolling, I couldn’t imagine it doing anything less than dominating the market, not only among the handheld systems but among every gaming system. The people this choice of popularity vs quality has been especially evident in the demographics of the forums which have a considerabley high . Square obviously will take how popular any one system is in deciding what system to put it on but they do demonstrate some restraint such as by putting bbs on the psp despite the detrimental effect on its sales. Fortunately, the 3DS seems to for once have the highest graphical powers compared to the console entries and bbs, as well as the highest sales. If I had to bet on which system BBSV2 would be released on my money would be on the 3DS

 

Excitement and Fear

 

This game will be the final say in what went on in the Xehanort Saga. After this game, nearly everything will be set in stone fact, and if the facts hold any sort of paradox, that is it. Of every game so far, this has the largest potential by far to mess up. Six other games, a couple of them even overlapping, released over a time period of ten years, and by the time this game comes out, it will have yet another game to conform to- kh3d. All of this, how it ties into the other games, the chance to be able to see the characters’ pasts, it is incredibly exciting, but one slip and it can be a slippery slope of criticism. Some amount of retcon is bound to happen, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be false; for example, it could just include something that was never hinted at, but was never hinted to not be a possibility.

I eagerly await this game’s release, probably as much as KH3D and KH3, for these exciting possibilities. I’ll probably end up overhyping, as is evident in this whole thing, and end up hating it, but well, we’ll see.

 

 

I dig your post but there are literally holes in your text where i couldnt read on.

 

i get where youre coming from on a lot of this and ive thought a lot about it as well.

 

However, im expecting HD rereleases for the anniversary (more incentive to replay and 'reconnect') and along with it im expecting they will do things to make the original KH flow better with the series. For example they might revoice certain characters (Xehanort's Heartless, Sora, just to name a few) and perhaps extend certain scenes. This is what im hoping for anyways.

[keystrike 145]

I dig your post but there are literally holes in your text where i couldnt read on.

 

i get where youre coming from on a lot of this and ive thought a lot about it as well.

 

However, im expecting HD rereleases for the anniversary (more incentive to replay and 'reconnect') and along with it im expecting they will do things to make the original KH flow better with the series. For example they might revoice certain characters (Xehanort's Heartless, Sora, just to name a few) and perhaps extend certain scenes. This is what im hoping for anyways.

 

The holes? oh, yea, literally. Sorry about that. I bold in the rest soon.

 

I agree with you about the tenth anniversary (I didn't say the contrary before did I?). Remastering a lot of the games so people can go back and reconnect the series. Anything less would just feel lame. Although, not to be a nostalgia freak, I would prefer if they left the voices alone. Click the following link to see what I mean; to save time just skip to 55 sec:

[TerraRedeemed 255]

The holes? oh, yea, literally. Sorry about that. I bold in the rest soon.

 

I agree with you about the tenth anniversary (I didn't say the contrary before did I?). Remastering a lot of the games so people can go back and reconnect the series. Anything less would just feel lame. Although, not to be a nostalgia freak, I would prefer if they left the voices alone. Click the following link to see what I mean; to save time just skip to 55 sec: http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MspKqPTlTY

 

trust me i hate dick epcar too, but i also like uniformity, its a dual-edged sword.