Dagesh Lene

It was a difficult choice between Octopath Traveler II and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but in the end, I went with Octopath Traveler II. While I am excited to see where Final Fantasy VII Rebirth takes the story, especially since we are now treading in new waters with that game, I was not expecting to see a sequel to Octopath Traveler, which has become one of my favorite games due to its nostalgic art style and music that have both been updated for modern times, as well as its fun gameplay. Not only does the sequel have more of those things, but it also seems to address one of the major criticisms with the original game: that all eight of the main characters' stories were separate and didn't overlap with each other. It's for those reasons that Octopath Traveler II is my most anticipated Square-Enix game of 2023.

You bring up a good point that I didn't consider. After reading in the recent Q&A with Nomura that Young Xehanort should have had his even younger appearance in Dream Drop Distance when we see the flashback of the brown robed figure approaching him, but they just weren't able to make another model for him, I assumed that Young Xehanort must have begun his mission to gather his other selves from throughout time in his even younger form. However, it completely slipped my mind that what this actually implies is that Young Xehanort did not start his time traveling mission until several years after the brown robed figure helped him leave Destiny Islands. That just leaves the question: when did he begin that mission? It had to have been sometime before his World Tour, since he tells the Master of Masters that he feels like he is destined to do this, hinting that its been etched into his heart by that point. However, when would he have gotten the mission and the ability to time travel from the brown robed figure? Could it have been right at the beginning of his World Tour? After all, he could have revisited Destiny Islands during his World Tour, so maybe that was one of the first worlds he visited, if not his first world. That's my best guess at least. Also, while it is possible that the blue robed figure could have mistaken Xehanort for the Child of Destiny when he really wasn't, there is one bit that gets me. We find out from old man Xehanort that the blue robed figure told him that he would be a dark vessel. What could that mean if Xehanort isn't the Child of Destiny? It could tie in to your theory that the Master of Masters wanted Xehanort to be the final vessel for the final true darkness, but if Xehanort isn't the Child of Destiny, does that mean that the actually Child of Destiny (most likely Sora) is fated for that? Finally, I'm not sure that the Master of Masters intended to make Xehanort a vessel for the final true darkness. From everything that Luxu has said about the foretold scapegoat, I think that Xehanort was just simply a prophesied Keyblade wielder who was devoted to the darkness and brought about another Keyblade War, which is what the Master of Masters and Luxu have been waiting for. But, as I previously said, I do think it's possible that the Child of Destiny is supposed to be the final dark vessel. You had some good thoughts and it got me thinking. Thanks!

While the robed person actually being the Player was a cool reveal, I feel like it wasn't as shocking as Bragi being Luxu. I guess it was because, since the Player being reborn was a pretty recent revelation, finding out that they were reborn as the Player from Missing Link instead of as Xehanort didn't seem like a shocking twist, more like a clarification of who they were reborn as. Meanwhile, I wasn't expecting to see Luxu at all, so finding out that he was Bragi, especially after being led to believe that Bragi had been killed by Baldr, was quite the shocking reveal (even though I guess, in hindsight, I should have seen it coming since "Bragi" is just "Braig" with one letter moved around).

Dark Road has come to an end, and with it, we got new revelations into what led Xehanort down his dark path to become a seeker of darkness. However, not everything was revealed and some questions remain. This was even brought up in a recent Q&A for Dark Road: Therefore, knowing what we do know, I will attempt to put together a timeline of Xehanort's life together, starting with when he was born and ending with Birth by Sleep since I feel that after that the events of his life become pretty straightforward. During that time, I will point out when I believe Xehanort became the seeker of darkness.

After just barely beating Master Xehanort's data, I gave Yozora's fight a try, was killed in just a few seconds, and thought to myself, "Yeah, I don't have to beat him."

I have a feeling that it will be on current gen only, but I really hope that it is cross gen. A man can dream, right?

It's hard to say for sure. We know via answers that were given at the 20th anniversary event that what we have was only released to avoid it being leaked and that more information will be released way after E3. That could mean that it will still be quite a few years before the game is released. However, this first trailer looks like they are much further along than when they first announced Kingdom Hearts III. In addition, it sounds like they have a lot of stuff planned out already (at least for the early game). So, I think it is possible for KH4 to be released in 2024, possibly early 2025.

KH1 is my favorite of the numbered titles. In my opinion, KH2 is the most fun to play, but KH1 has the best story and world design. Plus, I think KH1 uses its Disney and Final Fantasy characters the best. I think KH3 looks the best and has the best moments, and I think the Re:Mind DLC might be the best thing that has ever come out of the Kingdom Hearts series. However, as a whole, I like KH1 and KH2 a little bit more than KH3.

As much as I love Leonard Nimoy's performance, I like Christopher Lloyd's performance the best.

Yozora says something really interesting to Sora before fighting him in the Secret Episode of Re:Mind. He says, "But this isn't what I really look like. How'd you recognize me as Yozora?" A line like that leads me to believe that what Yozora really looks like is going to be a big reveal in the future, which means that he must actually be someone who we already know. So, who will this person be? If I had to take a guess, I would say that this person is Brain. While they don't look exactly the same, I do think that there are some similarities between Brain and Yozora's designs. So, I don't think it's a huge stretch to say that Brain's appearance was tweaked a bit when he took on the identity of Yozora.

While this technically isn't canon, the Birth by Sleep novel said that Vanitas used to be a faceless being with red eyes until Ventus and Sora formed a connection, which is what made Vanitas' face look like Sora's. So, it may be possible that the other Darknesses would not have faces either, unless the person they came from formed a connection with someone too. Either that, or their faces would look like whoever they came from. As for what they will be wearing, I would guess that their outfits would look similar to Vanitas' since he was wearing his outfit from the moment Xehanort extracted him from Ventus.

I’m in Unicornis!

I agree with some of these, but I think others are just wishes that are not likely to happen. I think there are two things that we really need in order for Kingdom Hearts IV to be an improvement: a better paced story and gameplay that is more fun. The pacing of the story was my main issue with Kingdom Hearts III. It felt like it started right in the middle of a story, with Master Yen Sid explaining Sora's mission to him. It also felt like most of the important stuff didn't happen until the end of the game. Finally, the ending of the story felt very abrupt and made it feel more like a cliffhanger ending than a conclusion to the Dark Seeker Saga, an issue that I felt was fixed with Re:MIND. While I personally did not have an issue with the gameplay, once I played the game with the new abilities that we got in the free update, I could never go back to the old way of playing.

You're right. I don't think they died during the Keyblade War. My point was that, if the darknesses are already trapped within them, why not just end them now instead of reawakening them in the future? Unless there's another way to defeat the darknesses without ending the lives of the vessels that is. Sorry, I messed up. I think I was confused by Brain giving the Book of Prophecies to Ephemer at the end and telling him that it was meant for him. However, Ava still gave the Book of Prophecies to Brain hoping that he could change their fates, which it looks like he mostly succeeded in doing. That is what the Master of Masters implied, but I wasn't sure if he was being honest, especially since Luxu seemed unwilling to accept the Master of Masters' willingness to sacrifice them all. True, Luxu has been carrying out his role perfectly, as far as we know, but that doesn't mean he isn't planning something in the future. Maybe I'm wrong, but the fact that he told Luxu that the traitor was a ruse, and then called Luxu the traitor after he had left the room and could no longer hear him made me think that Luxu would become one in the future.

I'm tempted to say Terranort, since he is Master Xehanort in a younger, stronger body (we do see Terra defeat Master Xehanort, and Terranort was taking on all of the guardians of light by himself and was winning against them until Donald used Zettaflare). However, since Master Xehanort at his full power would be him controlling Kingdom Hearts, I would say that Master Xehanort would win.

That's so good! I love how you incorporated all parts of the final battle in this work of art! This is the first time I've seen your work, and now I want to check it all out!

While The Great Mouse Detective is my favorite of these movies, I think that The Black Cauldron would make the best Kingdom Hearts world.

I think that, if Demyx is going to be revealed to be anyone, it will be the Master of Masters. It would be nice if MoM was his own character, but I think that it is extremely unlikely. Why put someone in a black coat if they aren't going to have a dramatic reveal when the hood comes off? And the only way for it to be a dramatic reveal is if it's a character we already know. I really hate the idea of MoM being Sora. I hope that he isn't him. Plus, I believe that Nomura has said in the past that Sora will always be the hero, although he could always change his mind. But assuming that Sora will always be the hero, the only other person I could see being MoM is Demyx, unless he is a character we haven't been introduced to yet. I suppose there is a chance that MoM is the embodiment of Light, kind of like how we have now been introduced to the embodiment of Darkness, but I don't think that is as likely.

There are a lot of songs that I would have liked in the game, but I would like to focus on the boss themes. For the main boss fights in the game, I would have focused on the different forms of Xehanort: Ansem, Xemnas, Young Xehanort, and Master Xehanort. I would have changed Ansem's theme to Forze Del Male instead of Guardando nel buio, kept Xemnas' theme the same (Darkness of the Unknown), and given Young Xehanort his theme (L'Impeto Oscuro). Then, I would have added one more fight before the final boss fight, which would have been fighting all three of them together to Forza Finale, with each of them attacking you and getting defeated during their part of the theme. For Disney bosses, I would have kept the Maleficent fight and added a Pete fight, which would be fought to Rowdy Rumble. Then, for the final boss fight, I would have added a second phase to it. The first phase would have been to Critical Crossroad, and you would have played as Kairi during it. Then, the second phase would be the same with you playing as Sora to Dark Domination. I also would have added three bonus bosses, Unknown, Lingering Will, and Mysterious Figure. Unknown would have been fought to Disappeared, Lingering Will would have been fought to Rage Awakened, and Mysterious Figure would have been fought to Dark Impetus. There are a lot of other bosses that could be added to this game, but these are the ones that I would add.

Nice list! These are my favorites (I have not played Melody of Memory, so I will not include it in this list; I am also including Back Cover and Dark Road as part of Union χ[Cross]): 1. Kingdom Hearts The reason why I like this game the best is because it makes the best use of Disney and Final Fantasy as well as having the best world exploration. I also loved the story in this game. The platforming could use some work, but other than that, I think the game is fun to play. 2. Kingdom Hearts II The gameplay of this game is second to none, but other than that, I felt that KH1 did almost everything else better. However, it is still a really good game and is definitely the most fun to play out of all of them. 3. Kingdom Hearts III Kingdom Hearts III did so much stuff right. The graphics were beautiful, the worlds were bigger and better than ever, and it had some of the best moments in the entire series. However, it felt less like a finale and more like setup for the next saga, and the stories pacing could have been better. Most of the issues I had with the game were minor, but the thing that I disliked the most was how it ended on a cliffhanger. Thankfully, Re:Mind fixed that for me as well as adding a lot of fun new stuff that almost makes me want to put this game higher on the list, but in the end, I personally like KH1 and KH2 more. 4. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep I love the use of Disney in this game and story is one of my favorites. I also think that the gameplay is fun. It definitely feels like it deserves to be up there with the numbered titles. 5. Kingdom Hearts [Dream Drop Distance] I do like the use of Disney and the gameplay. However, the story, while I don't think it's bad, does go off the rails a bit with the introduction of time travel. 6. Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- This game was so fun for being so short and did a great job of giving us a taste of what KH3 was going to be like. If it were longer, it would probably be higher on this list. 7. Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross] Since all of the updates haven't been released yet at the time of me posting this, I don't know for sure where this game will end up, but for now, this is where it is. I think the gameplay is fun and the story is interesting. However, there is way too much filler and the story does go off the rails some more in my opinion. I also wish that the game focused more on the Keyblade War instead of making that part of the story optional event missions. 8. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days The story of this game is one of the best, but the gameplay is repetitive and a bit boring. 9. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories The story is good, but I am not a fan of the gameplay. I also do not like how the worlds are just the same rooms with different skins and that the Disney worlds just retell the same stories from KH1 for the most part. However, I do like how they tweak the Disney stories to do more with the theme of memories. 10. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded The story is not very good, and I found the gameplay to be annoying because of the data gimmick. Plus, the Disney stories are just worse versions of the KH1 stories again, but unlike CoM, these don't really have much to do with the theme of data other than the fact that the Bugs have corrupted their worlds.

Well, if the Dandelions and Union Leaders are the ancient masters, then I think that it would be safe to say that the stories of them vanishing did pass down since the stories of the ancient masters crossing over into another world would have most likely been about that. No matter who the ancient masters are though, I'm sure that some of the Dandelions or Union Leaders who made it back were the ones who told the stories since they would have been the only Keyblade wielders left that we know of who knew about what happened.