I've Been Singing Kingdom Hearts Music To Myself For Days.

[rionaleonhart]

Finished replaying Kingdom Hearts Re:coded!

It's not clear when Data-Sora realised he was a digital replica of the real Sora, which bothers me a bit. You'd think that would be quite a big revelation. Sora takes a lot in his stride, but surely you would need at least a moment to sort through your thoughts after discovering that you and your friends and your home are actually just data inside a computer.

(Data-Riku seems to have been fully aware of the situation from the start, which is just as well, because Riku would definitely have been upset by having that revelation suddenly dropped on him. I suspect that, whereas Data-Sora is unshakeably sure that the people of the datascape matter, Data-Riku has trouble believing his own existence is of any real value. He still values Data-Sora, though. EXPLAIN THAT, RIKU.)

Here's the text of one of my favourite scenes in Re:coded:



(Riku's data has been corrupted by bugs; Sora is now inside Riku's data, trying to debug him. Riku tries to apologise. Because Riku is also here, inside himself. Look, it's best not to think too hard about anything in this series. I thought I'd try to give this extract a bit of context to make sure it wasn't too confusing, but I realise as I type that the context is far more confusing than the extract itself.)

Riku: Sora... Really, I'm sor—
Sora: Nope! Don't say it!
Riku: Can you blame me? I shouldn't have let the bugs in like this. Every time it's me against some outside force, I give in and—
Sora: Riku, would you can it for a second? How many worlds have we been to now?
Riku: Um...
Sora: 'Cause not long ago, the answer would've been 'one'. But now, you and me have been all kinds of places, and instead of dreaming about what's out there, we only have to remember it. We've got the whole universe inside of us. Just let that sink in for a second.
Riku: ...Pretty incredible.
Sora: All those worlds inside you, and you know what? You're still Riku. Doesn't matter how many 'outside forces' you have to face – because everything you touch makes you stronger. Always has.
Riku: Th-thanks.
Sora: Heh heh, you like that? Sounded wise beyond my years, right?
Riku: A little flowery, but you made your point, half-pint.
Sora: H-hey! I'll remember that when I'm taller than you!
Riku: Ha ha! I look forward to that. And Sora?
Sora: Yeah?
Riku: ...Never mind. I'll tell you when all this is over.



I've been ungenerous to Re:coded, I think. The plot may be a bit nothingy and the camera may be infuriating, but it has some of my favourite character interaction in the entire series, and I really love its take on Castle Oblivion.

That said, I started Days after finishing my Re:coded playthrough (because apparently I'm replaying all my Kingdom Hearts games? I swear I don't just play videogames all day, even if my recent entries really make it sound like I do) and was startled by how strong my emotional reaction was right from the beginning. Re:coded is fun enough, but I'm not particularly invested in it, whereas I care intensely about Days.

(ROXAS'S ADORABLE DIARY. All games should have the protagonist keep an adorable diary. See also Uncharted 2, in which Nate's journal slowly fills up with both puzzle hints and incredibly silly doodles.)


A thought: where was Kairi in Re:coded? We never meet a Data-Kairi, and I think the real Kairi is mentioned a grand total of once. Poor Kairi; she does get a bit neglected. Riku plays a significant role in Chain of Memories and Re:coded and Dream Drop Distance, but Kairi seems to be almost entirely absent from the spin-off games, and she's unconscious for most of the original Kingdom Hearts. Maybe she'll finally get a larger role in Kingdom Hearts III? She's not one of my favourite Kingdom Hearts characters, but maybe that would change if we actually got to know her.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Kairi doesn't sell as well as Riku, especially in the West. Probably as every KH female character is sidelined for getting in the way of the slash.... which is pretty unfair when the male characters make up about 90% of the cast. Seriously they do! GIVE THE WOMEN A CHANCE.

But yes, my thoughts about Kairi are pretty much "Sora's friend" and "WOW HER HAIR IS REALLY PRETTY IN KH2"... with a bit of "wait what how many people have keyblades now?". Give me something more to work with, Square Enix!

I like to think I'm reasonably well versed in the Kingdom Hearts weird, but that contextualising stuff made very little sense even with that! Maybe as I'm sort of imagining Sora being like, "Hey, Tron! A digital copy of my friend Riku is all bugged! Make me a debugging program, as I'm really bad with computers!" and then Tron LITERALLY MAKES HIM INTO A DEBUGGING PROGRAM.

Roxas' diary is adorable. AND THEN I ATE ICE CREAM WITH AXEL. AND THEN I ATE ICE CREAM ALONE. The only other game I can think of with snazzy diary entries are the Black Mirror games, particularly Black Mirror 3, where Darren likes to snark in his diary while providing a helpful recap and a reminder of what you need to do. (Also since there's some possessiony stuff going on in that game, I'm sure at one point there's like a page or two of the diary filled out by said entity and all scribbled out. I don't think I'm making that up, I'm pretty sure it happened. I'm tempted to go type out a version of one of his regular diary entries, and then a version of that one. You interested?)

Also after complaining about my writer's block yesterday, I somehow wrote Hannibal fanfic from midnight til half 1 in the morning. POST-FINALE HANNIBAL FIC, AND THE FINALE HASN'T EVEN AIRED HERE YET. I USED EPISODE SUMMARIES AS REFERENCES. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I was just starved of a show with one of my favourite things: an examination of mentality and broken characters (in many respects). Although the fandom is really slashy, which makes me kind of sad as I was hoping for non sexualised interpretations to be a bit more readable, but I suppose it is fandom. (I've deliberately not spoiled anything here, best as I could.)

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

I was just thinking yesterday about how appalling the female:male ratio is amongst Kingdom Hearts characters. Off the top of my head, counting only characters that actually originated in the Kingdom Hearts games, I can name six female characters (Kairi, Xion, Naminé, Aqua, Larxene, Olette) and over twenty male ones. That's a bit silly. And a bit odd, frankly, considering all the excellent female characters in Final Fantasy; Square are certainly capable of creating female characters and developing them and giving them roles in the storyline. Aqua and Xion have strong roles in their own games, at least, but Kairi is still extremely underused and the approximately 1:4 ratio is still absurd.

I like to think I'm reasonably well versed in the Kingdom Hearts weird, but that contextualising stuff made very little sense even with that! Maybe as I'm sort of imagining Sora being like, "Hey, Tron! A digital copy of my friend Riku is all bugged! Make me a debugging program, as I'm really bad with computers!" and then Tron LITERALLY MAKES HIM INTO A DEBUGGING PROGRAM.

That would be ridiculous! Obviously (Data-)Sora unlocks (Data-)Riku with his Keyblade and enters. There's a keyhole and everything.

That Black Mirror possessed diary entry sounds really cool. I'd certainly be interested! Although I know absolutely nothing about Black Mirror, so I'm not sure how fully I'd be able to appreciate it.

Don't worry about spoiling Hannibal for me; my housemate th_esaurus is thoroughly obsessed and has told me every detail. Will Graham seems like a really fascinating character.

[(Anonymous)]

And remember that Xion was essentially shoehorned in as she didn't exist (...lol irony) before that game! So otherwise there'd only be five.

Oh, now it all makes sense!

As for Black Mirror 3:

Here’s an example of one of Darren’s normal journal entries:

“Murray’s False Witness Statement

Why did Murray maintain that he hadn’t seen me in the hotel on the night of Miss Valley’s murder? That’s just a complete lie! It was on that very evening that I even asked him what time it was! I need to understand his motive for his false statement.

I’m supposed to shoot a photo for Murray in which I present myself as the slasher of Black Mirror Castle… and for what price? So that this liar finally tells the truth. A lie for a truth – that’s typical of Murray’s business methods.

He really does believe that I’ll give him the picture, just like that, without him correcting his statement. Well, he can forget that. The photo for the statement – that was the deal.

I could do with some sleep now… in a proper bed in my hotel room…”

I’m struggling to find this page of the diary, I wonder if Darren “ripped it out” lol. Though this entry intrigued me (I’ll just put the beginning of it):

“Where Are You, Mordred?

The stupid thing about a possession like this is that it’s pretty one-sided. I have to drag Mordred around and be plagued with his thoughts in the form of these annoying visions and that’s whenever he seems to feel like it! If we’re going to have visions at all, then I’d like some say in when they happen. And that’s what I’m going to do now.

[then it goes on about having to do things to counter act the medication he is on for said visions/hallucinations]”

I’ll have to have a look when I next replay the game, I wonder if that entry is only there for a short period of time? I’m SURE I saw it. (I love the diary entries in this game and read them every time it updated.)

Hannibal: Yeah, I love psychological explorations and there's so much potential for that with Will (also with Hannibal) which makes me very very happy.

[rionaleonhart]

Well, however Xion originated, she ended up having a good storyline, so I'm happy with her. There might as well only be five, though, considering the size of Olette's role.

Thanks for typing these up! 'The stupid thing about a possession like this is that it’s pretty one-sided' is a rather wonderful line.

I've just remembered that Revenant Wings, the DS sequel to Final Fantasy XII, had an airship's log that all the party members wrote in. That was adorable. And of course there's Selphie's wonderful diary from Final Fantasy VIII; how on Earth did I forget about that? It's a shame she didn't keep it up for the entire game.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, and let's not forget Haunting Ground. Fiona writes a rather boring diary that gives some hints, but on hard mode (new game+ only) the diary is written in the point of view of her dog, which is adorable. Seriously, here are some of his comments:

"Every time I bite that guy, the stink is terrible. It makes my nose curl and my eyes water. Yuck!"

"Guess he won't fall for the same trick every time. Oh pooh! Maybe next time."

"Whenever I get pollen on my nose... I can't stop sneezing... Wa-choo! Makes it hard to snag those flowers."

"It's dark and there's not much room. It's really damp too. Come on, Fiona! Don't make me wait here!"

Hewie (the dog) is the BEST CHARACTER of that game. Also Daniella, because she has snazzy music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JopItGJ2Gpo).

[wolfy_writing]

Aw, Riku! He's so adorable!

I can just picture Roxas's diary being the cutest thing ever!

[rionaleonhart]

There are a lot of adorable characters in Kingdom Hearts, but I do have a particular soft spot for Riku. In the first game he hurts a lot of people he cares about, and ever since then he's been struggling to make up for it. It's a good thing he has Sora as a best friend; he can't forgive himself, but Sora forgives him enough for both of them.

When Axel's assigned to Castle Oblivion, he says to Roxas, 'Since you're my buddy, I guess I can fill you in. I'm gonna be at Castle Oblivion for a while.' There's something really endearing about the fact that Roxas records not only the 'Castle Oblivion' part but the 'since you're my buddy' part: Axel is going to some place called Castle Oblivion. He told me because we're friends.

[wolfy_writing]

Aw, Riku! And aw, Sora! So cute!

Okay, is Roxas literally the sweetest thing ever?

[thebaconfat]

Adorable diaries, yessss. Tales of the Abyss has an adorable diary that serves as a story recap but consists mostly of the main character complaining about all of the other characters.

[rionaleonhart]

Oh, that sounds really cute!

...and I just checked for Tales of the Abyss on Amazon and of course the PS2 version was never released in Europe. Sigh.

[thebaconfat]

On a totally unrelated note, I think I liked Undead Nightmare better than Red Dead Redemption. Though really all I want out of this game is the chance to play it and see all the landscapes for the first time all over again.

...also, I find Marston's Army uniform disturbingly hot.

[thebaconfat]

Also, I'm not sure if I even have an up-to-date email address for you, so I'll just ask here: are you interested in the old Utena DVDs anymore? I completely understand if you're not, just want to make sure before I... do something else with them. I'm not sure donating them to the library is the best option. This is a small town, and I could cause a scandal.

[rionaleonhart]

Oh no, sorry for leaving you in DVD limbo for so long!

Man, I love Utena, but I don't think I can bring myself to buy the DVDs when I know I won't actually be able to watch them on my television. I still haven't finished Princess Tutu, even though I was really enjoying it and it's only twenty-six episodes, because it's such a pain to watch things on the computer. I'm sorry! I hope they find a good home, possibly introducing your small town to the wonders of incest and swordfighting.

I prefer Red Dead Redemption to its zombie-filled spinoff, personally, but I did very much enjoy riding a horse that was perpetually on fire. (The landscapes! I think the world is the main reason I love that game so much.)

Marston's default outfit is probably my favourite, but I do find the US Marshal outfit pretty hot. Haven't actually unlocked it, sadly; it involves clearing a lot of gang hideouts in a short amount of time, and I'm not a big fan of hideout-clearing.

(And I've still got the same Gmail address I've had for the past eight years, so I imagine you're up-to-date!)

[thebaconfat]

Understandable! I'd just send them to you, but I imagine the shipping costs would be ridiculous, and like you said, not really worth it if you can't watch it on a big screen.