Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (Part 5)

Go back to read all the previous parts to understand what’s going on in this final part of the review! And even then, nothing says you’ll understand much… Alright, so Castle Oblivion was a major trial of memories and emotions for Data-Sora, his mind, heart and athletic capabilities put to the test over vague remembrances of his journey. All this under the eye on a mysterious hooded figure wiho's trying to make Data-Sora realize how unimportant he is. And yet, Data-Sora’s spirits aren’t weakened! He chooses to accept the pain of all these souvenirs! This enrages the hooded figure, who provokes him to a fight.

Dual wielding? Really? That's not fair!

How convenient that Castle Oblivion was transformed into a circular
area for this final battle.

This is Data-Roxas, the final boss of the game – and it shows. He’s HARD. (Yet, despite being a Data version of Sora’s Nobody, he still uses light-based attacks? Huh. But don't be mistaken, he's still very difficult.) Thankfully, like most bosses, it will be a lot easier if you keep your distances, dodge and roll away from his more dangerous attacks, and use Action Commands that shoot towards the enemy from a distance. Eventually, all of Data-Roxas’s life bars are depleted. And thus we get to see the ending. Instead of suffering, Data-Sora decides to keep the pain inside himself. As a result, Data-Roxas gives Data-Sora the World Card of Castle Oblivion and then fuses into Data-Sora. That’s when Mickey shows up.

They go together through the door, using the last World Card… and meet a blonde-haired young girl on the other side.

And I probably never will.

Let me present you Naminé. A most enigmatic character, with a joyful personality and an incredibly complex backstory. I said it at the beginning of the review, I repeat it now, re:coded is the only Kingdom Hearts game I have ever played. As a result, the sudden appearance of this girl in the ending – when her only appearance in the game previously was during the very intro – puzzled me for the longest time. I had to read her page on the official Kingdom Hearts Wiki. …It didn’t help much. Go read it if you want. Maybe you’ll understand. All you need to know is that Naminé is very closely connected to Sora’s heart and memories, and thus she is a key player in anything that involves either of those aspects of Sora. Same for this Data-Naminé, who appeared because she needed to relay an important message to everyone, hence why she added the odd line in the journal: “Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it.”

Adjust the blur on the damned camera! ...Oh. It's voluntary. My bad.

Her contribution caused the glitches you spent the whole game battling. She lets Data-Sora have a very important look into his own heart, which lets him see the source of the painful memories he had: Namely, characters Data-Sora never encountered, but who exist in the world outside the journal and whose fate had been left ambiguous by the time Re:coded came out. Namely, Axel, Roxas, Xion, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, as well as the real Naminé herself, Considering the popularity of this series, you may have heard some of those names, you may know some of those characters. They’re hurting… and yes, their hurting will be mended when the real Sora returns to them to mend it. There you go. Took me a while to understand this, again because to me, Data-Naminé came out of nowhere and her explanation didn’t make sense. Hm, maybe that’s what the guy meant when he said Re:coded was a bad idea for my first Kingdom Hearts game…

Shhh, I'm looking for the X on this treasure map!
What do you mean, it's not a treasure map??

Data-Naminé asks Mickey to deliver that message to the real Sora, then Data-Sora thanks her and she vanishes. Later, we see Mickey writing a letter to Sora, Riku and Kairi, and sending it to them in a bottle. Apparently this was a reference to the ending of a previous entry (Kingdom Hearts 2, to be precise), sending them on their next quest, with the goal being to save the bunch of characters previously mentioned from their suffering. The real Sora receives the letter and the game ends, thus setting up the events of the next games, Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance and, of course, Kingdom Hearts 3, which is eagerly awaited by many.

This can be considered a filler arc in the franchise, although outside of its sequel hook ending it does raise a number of interesting questions. What’s the value of a being created artificially? Data-Sora gains his own value through the game, eventually losing the preprogrammed Keyblade and earning an actual, honest-to-God Keyblade from the heart he grew through his interactions with Donald, Goofy and Mickey. This game basically says that anyone who doesn’t start off with a “heart” in this series CAN grow one, given the time and effort. A much interesting info, considering the villains are called Heartless and the members of the main group of villains, Organization XIII, is a whole bunch of Nobodies (like Data-Roxas) who aren’t supposed to have hearts… therefore, such a revelation is actually a pretty big deal. I won’t get to see what happens afterwards in the series, but I hope it makes good use of this revelation.

The wizard from Sorcerer's Apprentice still looks
menacing... but that hat still looks better on Mickey.

A secret, unlockable ending (found when you collect 20 Trophies) reveals that a certain Xehanort may well still be out there, ready to carry through with a particularly terrifying plan… Since this is a franchise with Disney characters, I doubt this plan will be as scary as it is built up to be, but hey, we never know… Kingdom Hearts delves into some pretty dark stuff on a regular basis.

Alright, that was the plot. Now that the story has been covered, explained, scrutinized in utmost detail – screw me and my ambitions of always writing lengthy descriptions – what else is there to do in this game?

Completing challenges? Sure!

-You can revisit each world, where the pre-programmed enemies may get a little stronger; you can also replay through the episode as you please. Extremely useful if you’ve forgotten something for any reason. When the Story Mode is beaten, you get a new ability to spot more bugged System Sectors, most of them suggesting a minimal level when Sora is about to enter them. These bonus Sectors, whose recommended Level range from 20 to 80 (!!!), are usually many floors long, and the higher the required level, the harder the objectives are on each floor. By the endgame, these Sectors are one of your last chances to get chips to add to the Stat Matrix; they’re also a great way to gain levels. The hidden Sectors that recommend that Data-Sora is Level 60 or more also have incredible rewards if you bet 50% of all your current SP on each floor and complete every challenge successfully. Those range from mission quest items to new Keyblades! The hardest one, which recommends that Sora enters at Level 80, has a boss fight against the cube snake, one floors requires Sora to defeat the Eliminator, and the final floor contains an even more powerful version of Data-Roxas, with eight life bars. Good luck against that one, you'll need it!

-When you revisit a world (not replaying through its story, mind you), one character in it will have multiple requests for Data-Sora, asking him to retrieve something they lost. Selphie, Cid, Alice, Philoctetes and Aladdin are the characters with requests, three requests each. The items they ask for are usually the most SP-expensive item in the System Sectors (through Story Mode or in postgame), which means you need to ace that System Sector in order to buy the item with SP and bring it back to the person who requested it. A nice reward awaits Data-Sora when he does. Mostly new, very powerful Action Commands and Finishing Moves.

Beating the Ice Titan?
No problem!

-The Olympic Coliseum is open again. This time, when you replay through this world’s Story Mode, you can choose to go through only 5 floors again, but you can also choose to go through 15 floors. When you do get through fifteen floors (and defeat the Rock Titan awaiting on the 15^th), you can choose to go through it again, this time going all the way to 30 floors. On the 25^th floor, Data-Sora, Hercules and Cloud will fight a Behemoth, and on the 30^th they fight the Ice Titan. There’s also a Keyblade hidden in a prize block in one of the late floors…

-Bringing all the Keyblades to their final level and finding all the accessories through the game is also a neat challenge.

The Eliminator?
NO NO NO NO NO!

-An option in the Start menu, named Debug Report, contains info on all the elements of the game. There, you can see all the items you can find in the game – and which ones you’ve found. A second section reports on the eight worlds, detailing what happened in each. Another section gives a small bio to every enemy type in the game, provided you fight – and defeat – them at least once first. That includes the Eliminator, hands-down the toughest enemy in the game, which can randomly appear in a System Sector floor once you’ve cleared the bugs. That thing is a goddamn Terminator, good luck defeating it. Theres also a bio for all the characters met on Data-Sora’s journey. The last section is a list of Trophies Data-Sora can earn by completing certain challenges. There’s 30 of those, and getting 20 unlocks the secret ending. Each Trophy can be pretty difficult to get, as many of them require to be close to finishing 100% of the game. Of those trophies, 8 involve speedrunning through all the worlds, others are plot-related (like defeating Data-Roxas), others require bringing an Action Command to Level 100, bringing all the Keyblades to maximum level, beating the bonus bosses… good luck with all that.

-Last but not least, there was a multiplayer mode called Avatar Sector, a special System Sector with 100 Floors that you could unlock by playing online through the wireless Wi-Fi connection, but since the connection was terminated in 2014 – and it’s almost impossible to get new floors for the Avatar Sector without it or anything similar – then this mode is almost useless. Originally, the idea of this mode was to unlock numerous avatars and costumes to use during multiplayer play.

I guess that’s all there is to this game. I don’t think I’m forgetting anything… So, what’s my final verdict on Kingdom Hearts re:coded?

I like it!

I nwas floating in a void when I landed on a giant
circular platform representing Snow White and
the Seven Dwarves. Make sense of that!

Before I go over the many elements of the game itself, I feel it’s important to go back on the plot and judge on whether or not this was a good way to start playing KH. Here’s my verdict: By itself, Kingdom Hearts Re:coded is distanced enough from the main overarching plot to be enjoyed as one’s first foray into the franchise. Of course, it would be better to start off at the beginning and get KH1, KH2, and anything between the two… but by itself, the plot of Re:coded is not tied enough to the other entries to be a problem. Only a few elements and characters, such as the Sora Heartless, Data-Roxas or Naminé, will be puzzling to a first-time player; anything else in the surrounding mythology of the series is explained well enough that one can still understand the concepts that drive the plot. Said plot, while I’m talking about it, may seem at first like just an excuse to have this adventure with the particular mechanics that are added to it, but the return to the multiple Disney worlds, and how they're adapted to the new mechanics, is interesting. What’s more, the plot takes enough turns despite its apparent simplicity to keep the player invested. The story only starts getting really interesting when the journal reveals himself to be the hooded figure, Data-Riku. There are some things I don’t get, some things aren’t explained too well (like how did Pete hack himself plenty of powers when the others who got into the journal didn't get powers?), but in the end it’s not so bad.

Sure, it may be underwhelming compared to the other entries in the franchise, but it’s still more interesting than a lot of stories we see in other games… Instead of keeping it to a basic excuse plot, Kingdom Hearts Re:coded furthers the mythos. That’s more than we could say of other games out there…

The frequent changes in gameplay, from a world to the other, and the multiple mechanics one needs to master to enjoy this game to its fullest extent, don’t make this a game very simple to learn. The short explanation you get in the Menu is insufficient and you pretty much need to learn, through trial and error, to use all the features. In fact, you’ll spend quite a bit of time adding chips to the Stat Matrix, leveling up Action Commands, and picking new Keyblades and paths of abilities to use. In a way, all of these features are meant to let Data-Sora adapt to any situation. This comes in handy to complete the challenges on the floors of most System Sectors. Need a Data-Sora versed in Fire-type magic? Equip Fire-based Action Commands, and there’s also a Keyblade to help for that. Need to send enemies flying? There’s a Keyblade for that. Need to hit back after you block? There’s a Keyblade for that. Need to earn more money when you defeat enemies? There’s. A. Keyblade. For. That. Darned Keyblades, they’re just like apps!

Stupid yellow cubes.

The battle system works well, although Data-Sora automatically targets the enemies when they’re nearby, which can be a problem when the Keyblade wielder is attacked from behind by an opponent while his attention is diverted to a different enemy. It takes a moment getting used to, but otherwise it’s alright. The most awesome aspect of this game is how the Stat Matrix allows you to play around with the difficulty in so many ways, by decreasing Sora’s HP or making the enemies stronger. You can set this game just the way you want it, whether you’d like it to be a walk in the park or a dangerous trip where a single mistake leads to death.

One of the things that annoy me about this game is the “Virus” mechanic in the System Sectors. Sometimes, completely at random, a floor on a System Sector may gain a virus that forces you to bet 100% of all the SP you collected thus far. No skipping it. If you lose that challenge, you lose all the SP you collected thus far. Sure, you get a GIGANTIC reward if you succeed, but if you don’t? You’ll never go back to the amount you had. In fact, when you enter a System Sector with challenges on each floor, you already have to bet at least 10% of the amount you collected thus far. What’s more, the virus makes all the glitch enemies even stronger than they were, and spawns more of them.

Freaking Eliminators, if only I could eliminate you all!

Another factor left to luck in the System Sectors is the appearance of Eliminators, those insanely powerful enemies. In all my playing time, I tried to kill many, I only ever managed to kill two or three. These monsters are tougher than most bosses, and if that’s not enough, they also grow along with Data-Sora, gaining attack and defense as well as Hit Points when the main character goes up a level. As if that was  not enough, they can teleport so Sora can never escape them - except by going to another room on that floor - and one of their main attacks is to release balls of light that cause a random status effect on Sora. Eliminators are probably harder than the final boss himself, so much so that there’s a Trophy for killing an Eliminator. Seriously. And those things can pop up at random at any moment while you’re moving towards the exit of a System Sector floor cleared of bugs.

Another slight issue I have with the Story Mode is that the large presence of cutscenes, most of which consist of characters talking with limited animation, means you’ll spend a lot of time mashing the A button to get past what they’re saying – and that’s even worse if you get into a discussion with a section where you have to choose between multiple options. Sure, once you’ve seen all the cutscenes you can skip them by pressing Start, but that’s still a lot of cutscenes to skip, especially when you’re re-playing through a world’s story. At one point, you get so quick that you spend more time skipping cutscenes than actually playing.

Next issue I have is the often random change of gameplay; going through a 2D section in Traverse Town, a shoot’em-up in Wonderland, it’s all fine and good, but those parts are a little too long in my opinion; two entire levels in Traverse Town (when one could have been enough), almost ten minutes of shoot’em-up in Wonderland – with the boss and its gigantic amount of HP, which is a pain to deplete when you first encounter it.

This game has pretty good graphics for a Nintendo DS game, and the actual, animated cutscenes are as beautiful as the ones in Kingdom Hearts games on home consoles. It also has some excellent musical pieces.

Now, I’ll be completely honest and say that, despite my praise of it, the story is probably the weaker aspect of this game. It doesn’t hold a candle to the gameplay, that’s for sure. Yeah, it takes a while getting used to this fully-customizable Sora and the Stat Matrix, the Actions Matrix and the Equipment, but ultimately it leads to what’s probably one of the best examples of gameplay in the entire franchise. Add to this an incredible replayability, what with all the bonus dungeons (unlockable System Sectors) and all the side-quests you can play through, and you get a game you’ll be going back to.

"Goodbye, round-ears."
"Goodbye, weird-hair."

In the end, Kingdom Hearts Re:coded might be a disappointing entry in the franchise if you’re a long-time fan and expect a deeper plot instead of a semi-rehash of the first Kingdom Hearts with new plot elements, but for whoever decides to start playing and doesn’t have much time to figure out all the plot twists the franchise had previously, it’s an okay first KH game. There is another Kingdom Hearts game on the Nintendo DS, titled 358/2 Days, but its plot is tightly tied to the main storyline: In it, we follow Sora’s Heartless Roxas through his missions with Organization XIII. Look for it if you know enough about the series. There’s also the 3DS installment, Dream Drop Distance, which looks very promising. Maybe in the future I’ll find and buy either of those two games. We never know. But my first experience with the Kingdom Hearts was pretty good. If you have a Nintendo DS or 3DS, try it. You might enjoy it.

I’m still in an action RPG mood, so I might look for an action RPG I own on the Wii… Oh, there it is! Damn, this is a long name… Come back next Friday for the next review: Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen And The Tower Of Mirrors! ...I'll probably shorten that title.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (Part 4)

Go back to read Part 1, Part 2 and/or Part 3. With such a complex story, you’ll need it. When we left off, we had reached the great big battle against Pete. Armed with his brand new Keyblade, Sora is ready for a long battle!

Pete can take a lot of hits before going down.
He's covered in an armor of lipids.

The first stage of the battle pits Sora against a normal Pete; when the cat's HP are down a first time, a second stage occurs and Pete moves on to serious attacks – including one that, somehow, turns him into a sphere of light that chases Sora around and shoots thunder. Pete can throw balls that cause Sora to lose his special attacks if he’s hit. Last but not least, Pete can make himself temporarily invincible. It's not easy, but after a moment he's down.

No, Data-Riku! Don't fall to the stereotypical possessions
your namesake is sadly known for!

Just give up, Pete! …what’s that? …he reprogrammed Data-Riku, the spirit of the journal, to fight Sora? …Oh yes, you better believe it. The kid gloves are off, this is the really tough fight. It’s also a heavy fight on the emotional side since this is a battle between friends, however virtual they may be. Oh, and by the way? This is a three-stage battle coming off the heels of a two-stage battle, forming what’s basically a five-stage battle. With no way between fights to change your setup. On the first stage, it’s just Sora and Riku sparring, with the occasional teleportation thrown in. On the second stage, Data-Riku often slams the ground, sending a bunch of blocks in all directions. The third stage features Data-Riku using teleportation to repeatedly attack Data-Sora from all angles, and the only course of action during this attack is: Run the fuck away. Dodge-roll. And when that damn attack is over, slash all you want.

Oh, by the way, you want a real challenge? Do this five-stage battle without any healing Action Commands whatsoever. When I reached that part of the game, I hadn’t yet grasped all the mechanics of the game, which means I was not ready to do this battle. It took multiple tries (and thankfully I was allowed to restart at the stage I died in, and not from the very start of the five-stage battle), but I eventually made my way through.

Either way, it takes a while and all the player's resources, but eventually Data-Riku is defeated and falls unconscious. As the group approaches him, an odd keyhole appears over him. Since the journal took the shape of the virtual Riku, and the journal was corrupted by Pete, then the source of all of the journal’s problems are currently inside this Riku, so it’s only by entering his mind and defeating the bugs there that the journal will be returned to normal.

I have to say, I kind of like the updated cutscenes from Kingdom Hearts
HD 2.5 ReMIX. Much better images for this review.

Ans stop helping you? Oh no! I went this far, I'm not
going to back out!

I’m sparing you a lot of story here, but the general gist of it is that when Data-Sora enters Riku (Try not to make this sound like it’s straight out of a lemon fanfic), he meets a smaller Riku who managed to free himself from the bugs… but since Pete rot him to the core, this means that even Data-Riku’s memories – the backup data inside the personification of the journal – are also corrupted, and since they’re needed to reboot the journal and bring it back the way it was before… this means that Data-Sora has to go deeper, into the backup data, find a System Sector in each world, beat the viruses within that System Sector, one world at a time. Oh, by the way, the worlds have changed. They’re EXTREMELY buggy, covered in blocks, and there are MANY, MANY enemies.

See how Data-Sora's Level is back to 1? Re:coded, that's just mean.

Oh, and by the way? The bugs also had an effect on Data-Sora while within Data-Riku’s memories… Data-Sora’s Level, no matter where it was when you got to that point, has fallen back to 1. But then, how do you get it back? Well, the core memories of Data-Riku are made of five worlds: Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Wonderland, Agrabah and a final core. A percentage appeared on top of the screen, showing “0/20%” when the portal to Destiny Islands open. In each world, you have to seek prize blocks (those neat yellow blocks containing items and other useful stuff), and break them to regain percentage, to a maximum of 20% per data-world visited. As your percentage increases, so do your level and stats, which come back slowly but surely. If you were, say, Level 40 at that moment, and you regain all 20% in Destiny Islands, you’ll be back to Level 8! Just be careful, these ultra-buggy locations have some nasty surprises…

Just in case the inanimate ones weren't annoying enough.

Oh yeah… remember those horrible yellow blocks I keep getting mad at, because they hurt Sora when he attacks them? …They’re an enemy now. Remember those black blocks that grew legs, the Bug Blox? They’re not alone. Some yellow blocks gained sentience too, and these Danger Blox will still hurt Sora if he touches them. You can circumvent that by using special attacks, especially long-distance ones that keep you far from those damn yellow menaces. The metal blocks have their monster variant, too, but they’re not too bad… well, aside that they can turn back to normal, indestructible blocks for a moment. I guess that’s all I have to say about the new enemies... Enough with the blah blah, we got some data cleanup to do!

Five doors. They all lead to different levels of danger.

From that point on, things are pretty straightforward. Data-Sora goes inside Destiny Islands, clears it and reaches 20%; then clears Traverse Town and is back at 40%; then it’s Wonderland and he’s at 60%; and finally, Agrabah at 80%. And of course, each new world within the memories is harder than the last. Every time a location is cleared, Data-Sora and Riku reminisce on the good times, both before and during this adventure. After Agrabah is cleared, the fifth and final zone is unlocked… and it leads directly to the bugged core of Data-Riku. What, the boss already? Oh… And it’s pretty basic, too; just another fight against a Data-Riku, kind of simple considering the lengths at which the actual Data-Riku went in the previous fight… When this Data-Riku is defeated, Sora feels all of his strength come back, meaning the real Data-Riku is free!

…But since all the memories are repaired, the place starts shaking. The memory Data-Riku creates a portal to send Data-Sora through so that he can come out of the memories; Riku also mentions that, unlike what Sora thinks, their first encounter was on Destiny Islands, and not on the circular platform just before that world... Okay, time to go in! Past that portal is a 2D level in what’s one of the trippiest landscapes. At the end of that level, Data-Sora has an encounter with Maleficent, and has to fight her dragon form. Maleficent has a lot of hit points, but it can be depleted rather easily since the place is still two-dimensional, Maleficent doesn’t take flight – as a dragon? Shaaaaaaame – and gets taken down after multiple slashes at her chest and face. This final enemy defeated, Data-Sora appears out of Data-Riku’s memories.

Ah, Maleficent. It doesn't matter how powerful you are; if you keep using the
same schtick over and over, of course the heroes will know how to defeat you!

He is greeted by Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy and Data-Riku. The latter sends the other four through a portal leading to their real world, and once they’re back at the real Disney Castle of the KH universe, Data-Riku informs them that with all the bugs wiped out of the journal, it can be restored to its original form… which means that it will be reset, and with it Data-Sora’s memories erased, along with any traces of the adventure against the bugs (since it wasn’t part of the actual data).

What? No! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get there? You’re just gonna erase it all? Curse you Nomura!!!

As if that was not enough, a problem appears when it turns out that not all the bugs may have been taken care of! The procedure may lead to bugs spilling out into the KH world! Data-Riku orders Mickey to lock the journal, which will reset it… and most likely make it impossible to salvage the data characters’ memories. But why are the bugs still there? Oh, and another thing we're forgetting: both Pete and Maleficent are still in the journal and might be erased! Sadly, this means Data-Sora has to find them and get them out of the journal.

Because nothing is ever simple in Kingdom Hearts, is it?

Ugh, don't you just hate it when virtual characters
become something more than the code they were made from?

Listening to his heroic heart, Sora goes to look for Pete and Maleficent, and goes through another shoot-em ‘up level (dammit! Another one?), eventually reaching them on a battlefield where the two villains are fighting… Darkside? Oh no, you again? You're at the wrong place, Clichés Land is right next door! Sora gets the two villains to leave and faces off against this returning glitch monster, and Data-Riku explains who this really is: See, in the first Kingdom Hearts, Sora temporarily turned into a Heartless. As I told you already, I don’t know all the details. All I know is that, for a short time, Sora was a Heartless, and since the journal described all that happened, it also described this event. And thus Sora’s Heartless exists within the journal’s data. And it took the form of Darkside. However, when the boss of Destiny Islands was defeated, it wasn’t erased; instead, it waited and collected the data of all those Heartless Sora defeated afterwards on his quest to repair the Datascape. See, when a Heartless is defeated in the normal KH world, it turns back into the person it was before. But these people do not exist in Jiminy’s journal, so the data those Heartless were made of instead went… somewhere else. As a result, they powered up the large monster, who hid outside of the main events of the plot up until that point, until Darkside – Sora’s Heartless – was powerful enough to pose a real threat to that world.

"Congratulations! You have defeated me. But can you
defeat... yourself?"
"...Yes."

Are you still awake? Look, I know this was long and tedious to read through, but dammit, I try to explain those things to the best of my abilities. Come on, wake up! This is one of the toughest bosses in the game, this is not a time for sleeping! The first stage of this battle is against Darkside, who uses upgraded forms of his old attacks as well as new ones. When that form is defeated, it shrinks, and appears on the ground, as a completely black Sora with yellow eyes. What’s strange is that, despite this being a Heartless, it’s still using light attacks against Data-Sora… This one is pretty tough, but manageable. When the second stage is defeated, the main Data-Heartless Sora summons two clones. You have to deal with THREE of this guy now. Seriously, good luck. Oh, and when you defeat all three? Data-Heartless Sora summons the clones AGAIN, and they’re even nastier than before! Okay, this HAS to be the final battle, right? Well… almost. The evil Sora reverts to Darkside, but Mickey is summoned on the battlefield in the journal, and helps Data-Sora use a light spell on Darkside, reverting it to the lowly Heartless shadow it started off as. A few slashes at it, and this evil is – Finally! – defeated.

Took long enough, huh?

"This is but a goodbye."
Eyes, you better not start your crying!

When this tough fight is over, Data-Sora and Mickey go back to Data-Riku, and sends Mickey, Pete and Maleficent back to the real KH world. This time, the journal’s data really will be reset. Data-Sora is really sad that he won’t get to remember his friends, but Mickey reassures him that as long as Data-Sora is in their hearts, he’ll never really quite be gone. Oh, so the Power of Friendship? The power of memory? Will it really be stronger than an electronic procedure meant to erase everything?

Actually… no. Not everything. After the resetting procedure is complete, we learn that Data-Riku, who’s still the spirit of the journal, hasn’t lost his memories of the event. However, the new Data-Sora has. What’s more, a strange new world has opened in the repaired data, a world that wasn’t there in the first place: Castle Oblivion. Mickey asks Data-Riku to bring him into the Datascape again.

Data-Sora wakes up in Traverse Town, with Pluto licking his face, and he quickly meets Mickey. Of course, this Data-Sora’s memory having been reset, Mickey has to explain who he is, after which the mouse explains about the new world that just opened. Data-Sora, who’s still able to use the Keyblade innately (as if he never forgot that), opens the portal to Castle Oblivion. There, Mickey is nowhere to be seen, but a cloaked figure is standing there. I doubt it's Data-Riku.

No, a digital cake holder with a mustache and monocle.
Yes, it's a card.

The figure hands Data-Sora a World Card of the Destiny Islands. Okay, bear with me, this is gonna be complicated. (Big surprise there. I said it, I repeat it: nothing’s ever simple in Kingdom Hearts.) The World Card will reshape the current room into a piece of that world and will create illusory images of the people in that world. The hooded figure explains that Data-Sora can do whatever he wants to these illusions; they’re not the real deal. For some reason, Data-Sora will still remember them when they appear, and until the World Card expires; but when it does expire, the room will go back to normal and he’ll forget almost everything that happened – oh no, wait, he’ll have this lingering feeling that he forgot something important, or someone important. And this memory of what has never been will keep tormenting him, his virtual mind will fail him but the heart will know… Damn, that sounds corny.

There’s a catch, though; each World Card has three possible outcomes. A normal ending, an alternate ending and an extra ending. It is some kind of bonus challenge to get all 18 endings through the six World Cards. Depending on which ending cards you get, the outcome of Castle Oblivion will differ.

After the bit in Destiny Islands is completed, the cloaked figure gives to Data-Sora World Cards representing Traverse Town, Wonderland, the Olympic Coliseum, Agrabah and Hollow Bastion, restating exactly what I explained previously: Since Data-Sora will never remember what happened with those six World Cards, he’s allowed to act in any way he wants. He can be the same Data-Sora he always is, helping people unequivocally. But he can also go neutral and not do much. Or, he can be a complete jerk or do everything wrong, which is also an option. This kind of reminds me of that recent game, Undertale, where the path you choose to take and the interactions with the other main characters shape up what’s coming afterwards. There are still too many differences to consider it a true parallel, but Castle Oblivion still represents one of the rare cases in video games where your actions matter, where they have different results based on the outcome. (It's still a lot less complex than what the team behind Undertale did, which is sad, but hey, who cares? Undertale is awesome.) However, no matter how many times memories are wiped, how many times World Cards are used and completed, one thing remains: That nagging impression that something is forgotten. But the impossibility to know what. And if Sora causes any scenario that will lead to him feeling any kind of remorse, he’ll still feel it.

This is an extremely difficult concept to set up in fiction, but it can be pulled off. Here, the entire point of this constant playing with Data-Sora’s memories of the adventure that just happened – which he can’t remember due to the reset – and of the actual events described in the journal is to make him realize that he’s a virtual character… Or, if you prefer, someone who can be modified, someone whose memory can be rewritten easily... Someone who does not actually exist. A figment of data, nothing of importance, a nobody. Those of you who know the Kingdom Hearts series know exactly what I’m talking about right now. Admit it.

What can I say? I like beating up the fat Pete. It's fun. And just desserts
for this horrible bastard.

Every World Card replicates, more or less, one of the things that happened in that world during the main story seems to test something from Data-Sora; Destiny Islands tests his basics, Traverse Town tests his memory (as once again you need to bring Huey, Dewey and Louie in the right order), Wonderland tests his interactions with characters (by having to do four tasks to help the characters of Wonderland), the Olympic Coliseum tests his fighting abilities, Agrabah tests his platforming speed (as he has to chase and catch Iago again). The Hollow Bastion card mixes all of this in a miniature level, at the end of which he must fight Pete, and then get to Maleficent, both in the fastest time possible. And yet, despite never remembering these people once the World Card stops projecting its illusion, he still dearly misses them and feels that pain in his heart…

When all these trials are over, Data-Sora is visited by the hooded figure again… but instead of succumbing to the darkness and depression at the thought of all these people, Data-Sora instead chooses to accept the pain and grow with it. For some reason, this enrages the hooded figure, whose entire goal was to make Sora feel as useless, as unreal, as much a Nobody as he is…

…Wait, a Nobody?

…Yup, a Nobody. This hooded figure is NOT Data-Riku. In fact, it’s Roxas, Sora’s Nobody. I could spend a moment explaining what the Nobodies are, but I feel this Wiki page will do a much better job. Long story short, Nobodies aren’t supposed to exist. For Data-Roxas, it’s even worse as by all accounts not only shouldn’t he exist, he’s a Data version of a character who shouldn’t exist. Double the suck. And this is the final boss, too…

So I’ll discuss this in Part 5, the final part of this – really long – review. See you next Friday.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (Part 3)

Alright, we went through the Destiny Islands, we saw all that there was to see in Traverse Town, we ventured through hedge mazes and helped everyone retrieve their memories in Wonderland, now we’re at the Coliseum! To find out what happened in the previous worlds, read Part 1 here, or Part 2 here.

The first fights aren't too tough, since
Sora is alone to deal with the enemies.

Data-Sora steps into the Coliseum, breaks his first blocks, meets the first enemies. At some point, he thinks he may be noticing a muscular hero, but the guy leaves before Sora can talk to him. We also notice that the grey fiery terror of the Underworld, Hades, is there as well, planning something against Hercules. Now, the mythology fans among you will tell me that Hades was not a villain in the original mythology, that Disney got it all wrong, that Hera would have been a more fitting villain, that good and evil aren’t this much set in stone in Greek mythology… Hey, you really think a game following the storyline of the Disney movie would care? …Why am I bringing this up anyway? Let's just move on...

The one and only! Unless you count
the Marvel one.

On the second floor of the Coliseum, Sora’s path is blocked by piles of rocks, and after exploring what little of the zone he can check, he finds Hercules punching through one of the piles. They talk, Sora explain the broad strokes of the situation about the bugs – thankfully, because if he went in detail they’d be talking for an hour – and Hercules decides to join Sora’s team. They keep going and find the exit; meanwhile, Hades (still voiced by James Woods, funny as ever) is plotting with some odd human-like character with a single black wing... and a goddamn big sword…

How can he wield such a giant sword?
It looks more impractical than useful.

On the third floor of the Coliseum, they encounter and fight against the mysterious stranger, who turns out to be Cloud. Yes, THE Cloud from Final Fantasy 7. No, seriously. The Kingdom Hearts franchise always had this quirk of including actual Final Fantasy characters into its storylines; no matter how nonsensical it may turn out to be. In fact, Selphie, Wakka and Tidus, the trio on Destiny Islands, also was from the FF games. When Cloud is defeated, he leaves; Sora and Hercules then find the exit and move on to the fourth floor.

On the fourth floor, in the middle of smashing mooks and blocks, Sora and Hercules find Cloud also fighting enemies. They chase after him just as he’s cornered by a much larger Heartless, and decide to help him. After they defeat this large group of Heartless, Sora manages to convince Cloud to join. Ally Get! They reach the door leading to the fifth floor and cross it… The following floor is simple: Just a straight path leading to a staircase, and on top of the staircase, a plateau where the group has to fight… Cerberus, the three-headed dog!

What a multiple head case,

If you use everything you’ve seen in the Coliseum to its full potential, you can beat Cerberus with relative ease. However, when Cerberus is defeated, Hades appears in a puff of smoke and, pissed, challenges the heroes.

I knew Hades had all the requirements to be a great RPG
villain; he turns red when he gets angry during the fight.

Goodbye Data-Sora, it was nice meeting you.

What a villain this is! He hides behind his mooks! Pathetic!

Oh, who am I kidding, this early in the game? Hades is tough, but not that bad. If you didn’t waste all your resources on the fight against Cerberus, you can beat Hades pretty easily. Just deal with the minions he summons. He’s not that difficult, really, once you master the system. Sorry Hades, you’re kind of a pushover… you’ll have to do better than that if you want to rule the world! If you’re so pathetic, how can you ever dream of dating Maleficent? (That's from an episode of House of Mouse.)

Sora and Hercules go back to Phil and announce that the Coliseum is back to normal! (It’s not, but I’ll talk about that later.) Cloud has gone back to his own world, without saying goodbye to Sora and Hercules. Sheesh, I hope he wasn’t distant like that with his teammates… Well, this is another world completed.

"Playing dumb"? Look who's talking!

In Disney Castle, Data-Riku, the spirit of Jiminy’s journal, explains that whichever souvenirs showed up in the journal that haven’t been written there by Jiminy must have come from the actual Riku, in the real world. …I… I seriously don’t know what to say to this. Magic: It does anything. Expecto Patronum and Avada Kedavra, yadda yadda. On the screen, Sora comes out of the Coliseum when a large character walks up to him… a character easily recognizable as one of the longest-standing enemies of Mickey: Namely, Pete. He immediately announces his intention to take over the virtual world and that nothing will be able to stop him.

Wait a second, PETE was the one to hack himself into the computer? Let’s see… Let me just pull up the most convenient answer I can give to this… Got a nice set of cards with pre-written responses in such situations… Ah! There it is.

That’s what it is! Although… I’ll give the game that, Pete going into the journal and hacking himself a nice set of superpowers while inside in order to become the ruler of that world does sound like the sort of power fantasy he’d get… Now, we have no answers whatsoever on HOW he did it, because when you think about hackers, you don’t generally think of, well, people like Pete. Nor will we ever find out what exactly he did to get into the journal, by himself, when originally the journal’s spirit – Data-Riku – was the one to bring them inside itself (himself?), using the computer to do so. Either way, we gotta continue the story.

Game: Ever heard of "show, don't tell"?

Data-Sora chases Pete all the way to Agrabah, and finds the Arabian town mostly empty.  Venturing deeper into the town, Sora finds Aladdin who’s right in the middle of his own adventure, as he just got out of the Cave of Wonders and is looking for Jasmine. Yeah, I have a feeling this story will take a bunch of turns that weren’t in the film… Aladdin enlists Sora’s help to retrieve Jasmine, as she may be in danger. Sora leaves and soon finds Jasmine. Only downside: She’s being threatened by Jafar. Sora comes in, talks to Jafar and mentions Aladdin – smart move there, kid – and after Jasmine has run away, Jafar goes into fight mode.

Wait a second, I thought the Genie inside the lamp was
the one granting wishes, not the lamp itself! And if Jafar
uses the glitched lamp, won't his wishes be all glitchy?
Urgh, why am I overthinking again...

After the boss fight is over, Jafar escapes, Sora goes to Jasmine and brings her to Aladdin… Meanwhile, Jafar encounters Pete, who suggests they strike a deal. To pull Jafar into agreeing, Pete shows a virtual copy of the Magic Lamp.  When Sora finds Aladdin, Jafar comes in with his bugged copy of the Magic Lamp, kidnaps Jasmine, and freezes time in Agrabah. Mickey helpfully informs that the Keyblade is what allows Sora to be still able to move despite time being stopped, but someone else in the city is still able of movement: Iago, who steals the real lamp out of Aladdin’s hand and runs flies away.

Because nothing is ever simple for a hero, am I right?

And of course, this is a timed mission, so you need to be quick in finding Iago! Thankfully, killing enemies awards you some extra seconds. Sora finds Iago once, so the parrot escapes again, and this time Jafar has come back and sends “ghosts” of himself at Sora, making him lose previous seconds when they touch him. And those things are indestructible… Sora tracks Iago two more times, and recovers the lamp. Wondering just what could be so important about such an artefact, Sora rubs it and out comes the Genie!

That's a genie who sure lives large.

Robin Williams voice (sadly) not included, not even in the "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX" fully-voiced version (instead replaced by Jim Meskimen). No resuscitation or instant love wishes, nor can you wish for more wishes. Magic Lamps Inc. declines all responsibility for any undesirable aftermath of the wishes in the near or far future.

After Genie presents himself in his unique way, Sora wishes for the place to “come back to normal” but Genie only interprets it as “erasing all the Heartless and blocks in Agrabah” and does so… but forgets to remove Jafar’s time-stopping spell. To repay his mistake, Genie brings Sora to the Cave of Wonders, where Jafar is. However, Jafar uses the power of the bugged lamp to lock himself inside the Cave of Wonders, leaving Sora outside; thankfully, a System Sector can be found, entered and completed to reopen the Cave.

Giant spherical stones following clear paths and which are too tall for me to jump over!
Oh, why did it have to be giant spherical stones following clear paths and which are too tall for me to jump over?

"You will pay for all my friends you smashed!
Especially that lonely Blox in Floor 3 of Olympus Coliseum!
I loved her!"

Within the cave, a bunch of traps await, but there’s also a new kind of enemy… see, those blocks are tired that you keep massacring them. So, some of them have grown spiderlike legs and decided to take revenge. The new enemy introduced here is called A Blox Bug (I should mention that the correct name for all the non-moving blocks so far is actually “Blox”, most commonly “Bug Blox”; for the sake of clarity, I’ll refer to the non-moving cubes still as blocks, and the moving ones, the cubes on legs, as Blox. Good? Good). When Sora reaches the end of this room, he finds the exit blocked by a cascade of sand. He has to find a System Sector in the trapped room, which requires some backtracking. Finally Sora moves to the next room, then goes down an elevator where he fights monsters – and must not fall off – and finally reaches the depths of the Cave, where Jafar awaits.

Obviously, when you leave your weak point hanging out,
you have to expect someone's gonna smash it.

And damn if the fight is on! First Jafar fights alongside two clones. When this still leads to the vizier’s defeat, he uses his final wish on the glitched lamp to turn into his Genie form from the end of the Aladdin movie. Sora finds the keyhole and enters the boss arena… Genie-Jafar is absolutely massive and cannot be harmed. However, some grand vizier had the "brilliant" idea to let his parrot fly around the room with his own magic lamp. Or, if you prefer, his weak point. You guessed it, it’s time to hack and slash at an annoying bird. Chase Iago, swing your Keyblade at him, fight the enemies that pop up, avoid Jafar’s attacks. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yeah, well, when that phase is over, Jafar summons blocks around the room and Iago goes flying a little higher to avoid Sora. It’s still manageable, though. Sora picks up the glitched lamp, and boom, Jafar is sent into it. Now Sora, just throw that goddamn lamp in the lava and be done with it!

Oh, I dunno, because you're always doing evil, perhaps?

Pete shows up, bitter that Sora has defeated Jafar, but vanishes right after. Oh, you, I wish I could just kick your ass back into the real world right here, right now! But I guess that’ll be later. Since Jafar’s defeat removed the time-stopping spell, Sora tells goodbye to the Genie, and tells him to bring back his own lamp to Aladdin. Sora then leaves the Cave of Wonders but finds Pete outside again. Pete presents another of his new allies to Sora… Maleficent. The Maleficent of the real world, who somehow also found her way into the journal. To prove just how dangerous she is, Maleficent uses her powers to steal Sora’s Keyblade, and then promptly destroys it. She then sends Heartless monsters at Sora, but Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Data-Riku appear. Pete then explains how he got in the virtual world… it’s so simple an idiot could have thought of this: He was spying behind the door to the computer room in Disney Castle, and when the bright light emitted from the computer – sucking Mickey, Donald and Goofy in – he opened the door enough to be sucked into the data world too. And somehow Maleficent was able to join them, as well.

Ah, no hacking then? And it (mostly) makes sense? Sigh. Can’t mock the storytelling when it’s done right… Well played, re:coded… well played… *slow appreciative clap* Although, this doesn’t explain HOW Maleficent could teleport into the journal’s data, since she doesn’t seem to know a thing about computers or virtual worlds… nor does it explain how Pete got himself a whole bunch of powers… You know what, let’s just continue the story.

Poor Riku. It doesn't matter which Riku it is, the real
one or the virtual one; he always ends up possessed,
cloned, mind-controlled, and thrown into the villains' plans.

Maleficent attacks the now defenseless Data-Sora, but Data-Riku gets in the way and blocks the attack... which leads to him getting captured by Pete. Now with the personification of the journal in their hands, Maleficent and Pete warp back to their base, Hollow Bastion. Which also turns out to be the final bugged world within the journal. Sora cannot defend himself anymore, and it’s impossible to hack a Keyblade into the virtual world while Mickey, Donald and Goofy are in it… But hope isn’t lost. They still want to help Data-Sora! Mickey leaves to do some heroics, leaving Data-Sora, Jiminy, Donald and Goofy behind, but as the latter three discuss ways to get things solved, Sora runs out to Hollow Bastion, determined to save Riku!

Despite being without any means of attacking, Sora finds a way to pen the great big doors of Hollow Bastion, and enters. However, he’s cornered inside by Pete, who traps Sora between walls of black blocks – which he can’t destroy, in a miniature arena with Heartless and Bug Blox attacking him. However, when everything seems lost, Goofy shows up with a shield and beats up these enemies in a matter of seconds. Oh hey, Goofy, you’re awesome! But instead of asking him to come back to the castle, Goofy joins Sora on the quest to kicking Pete’s ass.

Things works a little different here; since Sora cannot fight, Goofy (and later Donald) do all the fighting for him. Thus, Sora gives orders, they respond. And the orders are either to attack the monsters, break the blocks, or follow Sora’s steps. You can even activate special attacks for Goofy and Donald, but things may still get complicated in areas with a lot of enemies, as Goofy and Donald will follow the crosshair that appears on enemies targeted automatically by Sora. At the end of that room, Sora and Goofy find a door marked with the symbol of the Heartless, with four openings. For blocks. They need to visit each section of Hollow Bastion, find the pieces, and bring them to the door, as Pete is waiting behind that door with Data-Riku. Sora and Goofy visit the basement, where they find and save Donald, who found himself stuck in a room; he promptly joins the party to beat up some Heartless with Goofy under Sora’s command. What’s more, Donald is good with magic, so he can activate certain special switches.

After finding some of the emblems opening the door with the Heartless symbol, they step into Hollow Bastion’s library and complete the multi-room maze there, finding the last emblem. When they go through that door, they find themselves on a flying platform, beating up hordes of enemies – or, rather, Donald and Goofy do, while Sora somewhat commands them. When that’s done, Sora comments on how it’s great that he can count on his friends… what’s that, Data-Sora? New friends? Might it be that you’re evolving beyond your program? After which there’s another section to go through, a System Sector to go in, and finally we get to the room where Pete awaits.

Donald: Oft-forgotten champion of the Death Glare.

However, Pete proves himself smarter than you’d expect him to be, and knowing Data-Sora is powerless, he traps Goofy and Donald behind black blocks and menaces to crush them between the blocks. Pete then goes on about how Data-Sora is just data anyway, just numbers and commands, so why bother? And honestly, that was kind of my stance thus far, I seem to have been making fun of this Sora for being a fake. However, Goofy and Donald come to Sora’s defense, saying he was just as brave and nice as the real deal… I’d say that’s because “heart” is such an unclear concept here, meaning not only friendship but also bravery, strength of character, and more... But then again, it’s true that for a program, Data-Sora has been making a LOT of decisions by himself… decisions a logical computer program would not make.

And just as Sora is about to give up, a bright light appears, the black blocks vanish – freeing Goofy and Donald – and a brand new, non-virtual, heart-powered Keyblade appears in Data-Sora’s hands.

Oh Hell yes, now he means business!

…Wait, this means that Data-Sora’s heart, however virtual it may be, turned out to be powerful enough to grant him possession of a Keyblade? And that’s in no small part thanks to the links of friendship he has created with Mickey, Donald and Goofy?

…Awesome. In fact, that's when Mickey shows up to explain all of this. Because obviously they need to explain why this "isn’t" a deus ex machina.

Let's take it easy, what's beyond this keyhole will not
be simple to defeat. I mean, it's Pete. He's dumb, but he's
pretty tough.

Cornered, Pete escapes, but the keyhole appears. Data-Sora takes the reins, and chases after Pete, using his new and better Keyblade to unlock the keyhole and appear in Pete’s battlefield!

…Well everyone, I think I have to stop here for today. Join me in Part 4, where I will hopefully defeat Pete, go through the final two worlds, and prove that I, too, can be cool! …Oh wait, forget that last part. Okay, see you Monday!