NemesisSP

This chapter sucks. At least as far as I'm concerned. That's why it took so long to get it done, it was structurally important, but it wasn't interesting to me. So I really struggled with it. So in this case, I'd appreciate the honest truth so I can make sure no chapter is as bad as this and possibly fix it for release on my other accounts. Sorry for the wait, by the way, it was inexcusably long. Chapter 7 is not gonna be that long. Chapter 6: The Coliseum It was almost three years ago that Iris had first met Omega and his friends. She had just been transferred to the same Garden facility due to a glowing recommendation on her behalf. The Garden’s reputation for producing some of the best students and fighters preceded it and Iris had been eager to start proving her own worth there just as she had at her old school. Plenty of other students were already trying to live up to the high standards the Garden demanded, especially with the news that the Heartless threat was growing stronger and more worlds disappearing. Several students had gained popularity through sheer tenacity much like Iris had. Stories of several students having braved the age restricted areas to fight real monsters instead of the simulated ones the school would only allow them to do. Rumors that usually turned out to be greatly exaggerated for self-gratification of the central figures. However, there were those rumors that had actual weight to them. A group of three friends who were almost never seen apart, Omega, Lulu and Zell were at the top of the class charts in almost every way. All three were skilled combatants to the point that they were already being allowed to tackle real monsters despite being under the age of 15. Lulu’s magic prowess was unparalleled and she ranked high in academics as well. Zell, on the hand, was the star of the martial arts club and had already proved an exceptional mechanic and information gatherer. Lulu had been described by many as aloof but willing to lend a hand when necessary, while Zell was stated to just be a fun, if perhaps over-excited person to know. And then there was Omega, a prodigy if there ever was one they said. Almost everything he tried he excelled at and even when he didn’t the results were higher than one expected. He had also been reported to have a mastery of weapons no other student could possibly possess. Omega had even been officially reported as the only student to have finished off the strongest monster the Garden offered for training not only solo, but at the mere age of 10. His reputation among the students was almost legendary and plenty of rumors and stories surrounded him. Whether they were true or not was uncertain, since who Omega was as a person only Lulu and Zell knew and they refused to talk about him to others. He rarely interacted with anyone besides them to the point where a popular interpretation of him was that he was a smug and holier than thou figure who thought himself better than anyone else. Many also just claimed he was a misunderstood figure who people just wished to bring down out of jealousy. Iris didn’t know and, quite frankly, did not care. She did not care about the rumors at all, the only thing that interested her were the facts. It was more important that she make her own way in the school, not because she wanted fame, but because she had to get stronger. With the Heartless growing stronger, she needed to be prepared for them. And if that meant trying to struggle in the shadow of these three, she was going to face it head on. Nothing was going to stop her. SeeD produced Gummi Ships were, by necessity, designed to be able to go for long missions and trips without visiting SeeD associated worlds for repairs and resupply. As such, they came equipped with fully functional living conveniences, such as an onboard kitchen, restrooms and separate bedding for larger groups. This particular model even came with four two-person rooms as a result. While it was only Iris, Hope and Irvine currently, the possibility of new members more than justified the necessity. An unlikely possibility, but one that had to be prepared for regardless. Despite these necessities, though, budget concerns still kept them from being comparable to a high class cruise ride. They were designed more for function rather than comfort. It was also up to the assigned crew to make sure the ships were maintained and functional. However…. “This Gummi ship sucks.” Iris said bluntly as she looked at the specs. “Irvine, you were supposed to keep it up to snuff! Just what have you been doing?!” “I did! That old guy at the accessory shop told me these were the best upgrades.” Irvine said indignantly. “Are you sure? Because it seems to me that you got the cheapest.” Iris said as she clicked through the screen. While she didn’t necessarily understand everything that was shown, she did know enough to get a general idea. And the stuff she did know was what was worrying her. “Hey, it’s just because we haven’t optimized everything, alright?” Irvine said defensively. “Well, it’s not completely terrible.” Hope said as he also looked through some screens. “Some readjustments and this ship will be much better.” He looked up at Iris. “It should be fine to fly for now, though.” “I suppose it could be worse.” Iris conceded as she sat down in the pilot seat. “But if we break down halfway there, it’s not as if we’ll be able to hitchhike afterwards.” “Heh, I don’t think that’ll be too much of a problem, Iris.” Hope said as he looked through some other windows on his console. “We’ve got plenty of supplies and if we have any problem, we’ll just head back to Traverse Town.” “Good, then we’ll go talk to the old guy and see if Irvine is telling the truth.” Iris said, smirking a bit as Irvine voiced his complaints. Though otherwise she paid him no attention. “Any suggestion on where to start?” “The Olympus Coliseum would be a good place to go. It’s one of those worlds that has a lot of strange characters coming and going.” Hope said, pulling up the files on it. “It’s also not too far away from here. With any luck we should be able to find out something.” “What sort of strange characters?” Irvine asked. “Well, reports vary.” Hope said as he briefly looked through it. “Tournaments and various other contests are held there, so anyone who can travel through the different worlds will try to enter them. They could be upstanding or shady; by all accounts it doesn’t really matter. It would seem that the only thing that does is whether they are skilled enough for it.” “Like you said, then, it’s the best place to start. So, if no one has any complaints,” Iris said as she started up the ships engines. As she did so, a large smile came over her face. “It’s about time to leave this sleepy town behind!” And as the ship sped away from Traverse Town, Iris couldn’t help the growing sense of excitement that was coming over her. Even despite everything that had happened, even if it was just for this moment, Iris felt free. Nothing could stand in her way. The trip to the Olympus Coliseum did not take that long and they managed to avoid having to get into any fights with Heartless ships. Though perhaps that was simply dumb luck rather than Iris’ piloting skills. Not that she was complaining, of course. Iris really didn’t want to see just how far she could push this ship in its current state. Even after piloting it for just a few minutes, she found it much more sluggish and unyielding than most simulators had suggested that it should be. Iris just hoped it wasn’t a misleading simulator. The world itself was certainly different from Traverse Town had been. The architecture had lots of columns and large statues of some people of importance that the trio couldn’t begin to try and figure out. Traverse Town had also been perpetually stuck in night time, so the bright sunlight was something to get used to after so long of being without it. The townsfolk didn’t even both looking the direction of the three as they walked through, even though by looking at what they were wearing it was clear that they weren’t from around here. At first, that made Iris worry, but Hope had a quick answer for why this was the case. “Remember, plenty of stranger looking people than us have come by here. No doubt everybody here is just used to this kind of thing.” “I suppose, but it still feels so odd.” Iris said, her forefinger and thumb pressed against her upper lip. “Stop worrying so much, Iris.” Irvine said. “It just means we don’t have to worry about answering awkward questions.” Finding people to talk to, though, was proving harder than Irvine made it out to be. Most of the citizens just brushed them aside or were overall indifferent to them. Some gave them notices, but none of the information panned out. It seemed that Omega’s group had not been here. Or at least it seemed that way. Hours under the baking sun made everything seem longer. “This is taking a lot longer than I expected.” Irvine admitted. “Ya think.” Iris said irritably. She turned to Hope. “Any ideas?” “All that’s left is the Coliseum.” Hope said. “If they were here, then that would be the best place to check.” “Wouldn’t they be trying to stay under the radar, though?” Irvine asked. “It depends.” Iris said, thinking back a bit. It seemed so obvious now that she mentally kicked herself for not insisting they head to the Coliseum first. “If there’s a challenge there that they couldn’t resist, they would go for it. Remember, Omega once took down the strongest monster at the Garden.” Hope caught on to what she said and it was clear he too was feeling just a bit stupid for not thinking about it. “Oh yeah, how could I forget that?” “The problem of thinking too much.” Irvine said, casually and smugly. “Got to go with the flow sometimes, let the thoughts just come to you naturally.” “Shut up, Irvine.” Iris and Hope, deflating Irvine immediately. However, there was an unspoken agreement when they looked at each other that they’d need to try not to make that mistake again. Before they could head there, however, a scream came from behind them. Iris already figured before they turned around that Heartless were attacking the citizens. When they turned to survey the attack, they found a fairly large amount of small Heartless like Shadows and Soldiers attacking the citizens, along with some larger ones like Fat Bodies. It would be an easy battle. Iris looked at the others to make sure they were ready and they nodded. Iris pulled out her sword and charged at the Heartless, a quick stab forward instantly taking out a Soldier. A couple of Shadows immediately tried lunging at her, though she managed to sidestep away from them. Just in time for blasts of ice to strike and then freeze them solid. Hope then threw a ball of fire at the frozen enemies and they exploded into a big pillar of flames, incinerating them instantly. “Nice move.” Iris said another Soldier tried to lunge at her, only to be stabbed through the chest by her blade and then kicked away. Irvine then followed that up by shooting the Heartless, finishing it off instantly. He quickly gave Iris a thumbs up and she returned the gesture. “Wow, you guys are really good!” A cheerful voice called out and a large, muscular and handsome man jumped into the fray along with them, picked up one of the Large Bodies and proceeded to toss it at a group of Heartless like a ball. He didn’t even look winded after doing so. It left Iris very impressed. “Not so bad yourself.” Irvine said as placed his rifle against his shoulder for a second. “Still, mind if I tag in?” The man asked. “Knock yourself out.” Iris said as she sliced a Soldier in half. It didn’t take long after that for them to mop up the rest of the Heartless. Once every last one was exterminated, a crowd of people attempted to come up to “Thanks for the assist.” Iris said. “Not a problem! Though, I don’t think you really needed it.” The man chuckled a bit. “I’m Hercules. Who are you?” “I’m Iris and these two are Hope and Irvine.” Iris replied. “I’m not sure if that’s entirely true though.” “Well, either way, you three seem like you’re very strong. You think you’d be interested in trying out for the Coliseum?” Hercules asked. “We wouldn’t be against it.” Hope said as he walked up closer. “But, I’m afraid we’re not going to be staying very long.” “Really? That’s too bad, we already had three other good fighters decline too.” Hercules said in slight disappointment, but smiled. “There’s always next time, though.” Iris looked at Hope and Irvine and could tell they were all thinking the same thing. “Three fighters?” Iris asked. “Do you happen to know their names?” “Well, I do believe they gave their names as Lulu, Zell and Omega.” Hercules replied. The look of surprise on their faces must have been very apparent, because he continued. “Do you know them?” “We’ve been looking for them.” Hope explained. “How long ago were they here?” “A couple of days ago, but they didn’t stick around all that long.” Hercules said. He frowned a bit as he added, “Sorry, though; I don’t know where they were headed afterwards. “That’s alright, thanks for that.” Iris said. “It’s no problem, it’s a true hero’s duty to help everyone, after all.” Hercules said as he smiled proudly. Iris chuckled a bit. “I don’t know anything about a ‘true hero’s duty’, but it’s appreciated regardless.” Iris said. “If you guys change your mind, feel free to hit up the coliseum anytime. Just say that Hercules sent you.” “I’ll take you up on that.” Iris said with a sly smile on her face. Hercules waved a bit and walked off. “That was a bit more helpful than I think he realized.” Hope said as soon as he was gone. “You think you can pick up the trail?” Iris asked. “I think I can, but I won’t know till I try.” Hope said. “It’s been a few days, but I think I could probably track the route they took.” “We don’t have any time to lose then.” Irvine said. “Let’s head back to the ship.”

Hehe, thanks. I'm always working to keep improving my art. Well, here's to hoping we'll get a chance to!

I decided to do some practice sketching, using this image of Cloud and Yuna as reference. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/e/ea/PAD_Collaboration2.png/revision/latest?cb=20150223142235 And what started as just practice became decent even that I decided to upload it here for you guys to see if you want. Nomura is always inspiring me, so I hope one day I can meet him for myself.

Thanks, glad to be back. Sorry about that. Yeah, pretty happy with this and hoping to get art and stuff out for this in a more timely manner. Working on Chapters 6 through 9 right now and am going to look for posting them starting this weekend. It's definitely been too long since the last update. As for the Jack Skellington pin, yeah I just thought it up as I was working on the inking for this and just couldn't resist. Perhaps they've been to Halloween Town?

After months of delays, real life and computer issues, I'm back and done with this picture. Hopefully this will be the last major delay on anything as I get on a real schedule. Hope you enjoy, couldn't do all I want, but overall am proud of it.

Honestly, I think it's pretty much a given that the Keyblade Graveyard will show up in Kingdom Hearts III. It's already pretty much stated because it's called the one place the Xblade can be forged. As for my vote, eh, I just decided to go with a weird one and pick Deep Space.

Remasters of The Old Republic games, the original Battlefront games and the Kyle Katarn games.

Hehe, thanks. Always nice to hear someone say that! Makes putting in the extra work all that much more worth it.

Just a sketch I did to show I'm still not dead. Enjoy

To be honest? No. I am not looking forward to it, but I'll see it anyway. I hate to be a contrary, but I didn't like The Force Awakens and I don't particularly like the direction Disney and LucasFilm are taking. But everyone has their own opinions and I enjoyed Rogue One a lot, so there's that.

I can't deny this is the superior ending, at least because it's not the same ending that other Tabata directed games keep giving us. Plus, having branching paths like this was something that Versus XIII was going to have, so bringing it back here was a good idea.

That won't teach them anything. All it will do is make us lose another good game and one of the last remaining Legends projects still being allowed to see new material. You are not teaching EA a lesson by this, what you are doing is simply punishing game developers who are only trying to make some decent games against the backwards logic thinking that the heads of EA are operating on. More than likely taking away The Old Republic would convince EA that BioWare no longer has an audience. They've done that kind of logic twisting before. The $3 billion stock loss worked because it was a result not of an idea that DICE was doing, but EA itself. EA is the one pushing for stuff like that and pushing out games before they are finished. If the license is removed, we'll just have more studios like Visceral and BioWare Montreal shut down because EA will just place blame on others instead of themselves. I'm not saying they still won't, but it's more likely to happen if fans get what they want and Disney removes the SW license from EA. The best thing would be to not remove the license completely, but EA's exclusive rights for it. That will do a lot more to hurt the company while still allowing BioWare to make their games.

While I hate EA as much as the next guy, I'd rather they didn't take it away because they'll also be taking it away from Bioware and The Old Republic is a good game.

I've played and I can safely say, that's not the case. Any time you are given the option to summon Umbra starting in Chapter 9, you will be given the option to go back to Lucis at any time you want. Chapter 10 through 12 don't give much options for it, but there is still the fact that you are not forced to wait till Chapter 15 as you initially told the the topic starter. That was blatant incorrect information and one that needed to be corrected.

That's actually not true. You can head back into the open world at anytime when you first meet up with Umbra in chapter 9. Yes, quests are optional. In fact, most of the content is pretty much optional if you just want to go with the story. However, since the story is only about 20 hours worth of content, with very little going on, the major content is actually the quests.

Secret Report 1 I sent the boy and his friends on their way, on a journey that could hopefully lead me one step closer to Kingdom Hearts. Maleficent and the Seeker are already putting their own plans into motion, but it means little to me. I’ve seen their future. All I need to do is bide my time while I wait for it to happen. Still, Maleficent will no doubt try keeping her eye on me and it would be best to keep her eye from wandering where I don’t wish for her to see. I will need to play along if my own plans are to be fulfilled. So I intend to alleviate her doubts about her enemies. I will tell her that the foolish King won’t be a problem. He’s already disappeared from this world and will not pose a threat to her. A half-truth, but it’ll suffice for now. Once that is done, I'll wait a bit before I share my latest experiment with her. No doubt she'll be pleased by the result. She has warned her comrades about Sora but has left them in the dark about Omega. It would seem she doesn’t truly trust them enough to know about this other Keyblade wielder? Perhaps. Or does she have trust in me to keep Omega on the road I set out for him? Heh, I don’t think Maleficent trusts me any more than she does the rest of her ensemble.

I LOVE Star Wars, but Disney and LucasFilm are doing too much right now. And it's just not gonna work in the long run, I feel. I know what I would like to see in a movie, characters like Mara Jade finally returning or earlier stories perhaps set years before the events of the films in a time period that wasn't explored before in either continuity. Or even a new version of the Darth Bane or Darth Revan Trilogy, since both are very popular villains with complex stories worth telling? Or if you just don't care about that (which sadly they don't apparently), yes, do a Darth Maul movie, he had some fine books and side stories and you could definitely do more with him. Like the prequels or not, he's certainly a character still worth doing stuff with. But, with news that Yoda and Jabba the Hutt spinoff films are being considered... just no. I love Yoda too, but we don't need an origin story for Yoda, which it would no doubt be. Yoda works best when he is the wise and mysterious mentor that could still kick your butt despite his age. If it were something like Legends' Dark Rendezvous, that would be a different story, because it plays on the characters strengths and such. And do I really need to say why a Jabba the Hutt film would just suck? No one really wants that, do they? I know I don't. As I said Mara Jade, Darth Maul, Revan and such would be great, but Jabba the Hutt just no. Sorry for the tangent, just wanted to vent.

Hey, don't sweat it. Putting things back together in your own life, especially after such a disaster is more important. Thanks for the kind words on these pics. It really does help to know that someone appreciates the hard work you put in a picture. And that group one is gonna be done soon and posted alongside Chapter 6, which will also be out soon. Hopefully followed by Chapter 7 and 8 and so on in a timely fashion. Anyway, thanks and hope everything's going better.

Very nice remix.

An alternate version of it because I was bored.

I adore Persona 5 and it's art style. I've experimented with it before, but wanted to really do this after my copy of the English artbook came in. It's nothing too big, it probably needed more work, but I'm happy enough with it that I'm willing to post it. Hope you enjoy it.

Quite the impressive sound. It does have a very FFVII feel to it. Good job

This is only halfway done.... oh kill me now! I gave Hope a handkerchief reminiscent of Ephemper both as a reference to him and the fact that Hope got a new one in Lightning Returns. I would have just used that one, but felt like making it authentic.

A teaser for a massive pic I'm working on. I'd say this is about only 20% percent of it that I'm showing. I have a project release of it this week, since I'm finally getting back on track with this series. Look forward to it, anyone who is checking out this page.

Thank you for the kind words as always. I'm quite glad you like the pics, especially the ones with Stitch in it. It wasn't easy, I felt that I needed to really figure out how Stitch fit in relationship wise with the characters and how that would influence any art I featured him in for the project. And that also includes the Final Fantasy characters, since I needed to work in how they'd react to him. I'm babbling a bit, but I think the reason they click so well is because I finally found a way to communicate that relationship through just the art-style. Even if that style is not actually depicting them doing anything together. But that's admittedly only a guess. Anyway, thanks again.