The implementation of Kingdom Hearts X, a mobile game, in the KH series (spoilers)

[Ignis]

As it's been over a week since I've finished Kingdom Hearts III, I've had some time to mull over the experience, the series as a whole, and the direction that the series seems to be going towards.

Spoiler: Quick explanation of Kingdom Hearts X (not a spoiler)

Kingdom Hearts X, was originally a Japanese browser game that was ported to mobile phones (rebranded as Kingdom Hearts Unchained X) and made available for players worldwide who owned smart devices. It was created as a way for Square Enix to capitalise on the KH brand via the lucrative mobile market, and no doubt the game has been a huge success making them millions and will continue to do so (in the current iteration which is titled Kingdom Hearts Union X, more on that later).

Now as some of you know, Kingdom Hearts X (KHX) is very dense in Kingdom Hearts Lore, taking place decades before even Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. So much so that the original story of the base game was ported over to the consoles in movie form (Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover), in the KH2.8 collection. Logically, many fans assumed that KHIII would contain some elements of this story as part of the conclusion of the saga and that Back Cover was simply a way to get more information on these elements. An optional prequel, if you will.

Having finished KHIII, this isn't the case. From the epilogue, It's clear that the future of the series is going to be heavily based on the setup in KHX's story. To make matters worse, Kingdom Hearts Union X is still ongoing, with new major story beats and reveals that will most likely tie into the future of the series (for example Maleficient's entire arc has already been ret-conned thanks to KHUX, and her "story" in KHIII is a direct result of this).

My point is, there are several things wrong with the way Kingdom Hearts X is being implemented into the series.

1. I think the fact that the mainline titles of the series are being set up by a gatcha-based mobile game sets a dangerous precedent, and honestly I can't think of any other time a AAA franchise has done something like this. Imagine if Last of Us 2 came out after the release of a hypothetical mobile title "Last Of Us: The Last Union" that took place years before The Last Of Us, but set up vital plot beats regarding Ellie's immunity, that were followed up in Last of Us 2. Gamers would be up in arms.
   
   
2. It was bad enough when the series was spread on different handheld devices, but one could argue that at least those experiences were whole titles that were entirely fulfilling experiences. Kingdom Hearts was always an "financially-exploitative" series, albeit with a heart. However, players who view the epilogue will be immediately drawn to the free-to-play mobile game, designed explicitly to keep you hooked as they drip feed you story updates every few months.
   
   
3. (Speculation) Kingdom Hearts storytelling has slowly devolved into an unfriendly mess with each subsequent game, and with KHIII I think many were assuming that years of character development would be shown in a way that made it easier for newcomers and veterans alike to identify with characters. This is absolutely not the case, and anyone jumping from KHII to III would be completely lost because many characters do not even have simple lines of expository dialogue to re-cap the events they had been through. In the current state, I don't have faith that all these KHUX elements will be reintroduced to the players in a friendly way, but instead KHUX will be repurposed into a new game a la Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded. Many hoped that KHIII would tie up all loose ends and plots the writers had cornered themselves into, therefore eliminating the need to continue re-making games so fans could keep up with the multi-console spanning story.
   
   
4. (Personal) Before KHIII I was always under the impression that KHX/UX would be a self contained prequel to the series as a whole, similar to The Silmarillion.
   

What do you think Era? Am I the insane one for thinking a mobile game having such a huge impact on the mainline series is detrimental to gaming?

 

[RecRoulette]

I find it hilarious that the same group telling casual fans that every game matters are suddenly shocked that literally every game in the series matters.

 

[diakyu]

I think it's interesting that a mobile game has such a noticeable impact on a well established franchise like this. Goes to show how far mobile gaming has come in the perception if some developers imo. Also the lore for chi is all in back cover, and the stuff from Union cross is not needed to understand 3 so unless union cross is never adapted into a different medium it's not like you have to play it.

Also I can't believe we are still on this "I thought three would wrap it all up" train when nomura made it clear years ago this wasn't happening.

 

[Ignis]

I think it's interesting that a mobile game has such a noticeable impact on a well established franchise like this. Goes to show how far mobile gaming has come in the perception if some developers imo. Also the lore for chi is all in back cover, and the stuff from Union cross is not needed to understand 3 so unless union cross is never adapted into a different medium it's not like you have to play it.

Also I can't believe we are still on this "I thought three would wrap it all up" train when nomura made it clear years ago this wasn't happening.

Click to shrink...

I think the exact phrase Nomura said was this would be the "end of the Xehanort saga", which was taken as all materials released whilst the saga was on going would be tied up. Looking back, no one would have thought KHUX would continue to impact the story this way, and the general consensus in the past was that UX was a mostly self-contained event that gave details on the Keyblade War so Xehanort's goals could be more thoroughly understood, nothing more.

 

[Cokesouls]

The mobile game just never develops these new characters enough, so there's no real incentive to care about them or their story. That's my problem with it.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

I find it kind of interesting. I don't think a mobile game has ever figured into the overarching plot of a long running series like this.

Interesting times, for sure.

 

[Lys Skygge]

I personally thought it was great 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[DNAbro]

UX's purpose is literally to set up the next saga and to have shitty gacha practices for whales. Going in there was no way KH3 would tie up loose ends in an on going story.

If they remake UX in the future, who knows how they will do it.

 

[The Silver]

Worse than Chain of Memories on the GBA, at least that wasn't telling the story in a predatory gacha game.

 

[diakyu]

I think the exact phrase Nomura said was this would be the "end of the Xehanort saga", which was taken as all materials released whilst the saga was on going would be tied up. Looking back, no one would have thought KHUX would continue to impact the story this way, and the general consensus in the past was that UX was a mostly self-contained event that gave details on the Keyblade War so Xehanort's goals could be more thoroughly understood, nothing more.

Click to shrink...

I think it's fair to say I think they should have done more with chicken and UX in three than they did to maybe make it feel like less of a setup for the next game. However to expect them to not start setting up the next saga during the one before is a bit unfair considering any story that can split into saga, arcs, seasons, etc do this. I do think Chi is valuable because it goes into more detail about the keyblade war, an event we are told about but never given an explanation to what actually happened in bbs. So in that way it's also relevant to the current saga.

Also btw saying ux sets up the keyblade war is slightly wrong cause ux is the story after the war, you're thinking of chi. This annoys me to no end when discussing this stuff but it is needlessly complicated lol.

 

[Callibretto]

I don't play mobile games and I think the way it reference UX in the game is hype as fuck

 

[Nightengale]

I think the exact phrase Nomura said was this would be the "end of the Xehanort saga", which was taken as all materials released whilst the saga was on going would be tied up. Looking back, no one would have thought KHUX would continue to impact the story this way, and the general consensus in the past was that UX was a mostly self-contained event that gave details on the Keyblade War so Xehanort's goals could be more thoroughly understood, nothing more.

Click to shrink...

And UX has no major bearing on Xehanort's personal saga as we can see in III.

The extent that Xehanort has any UX-related stake is only that he's a far smaller pawn in the big picture of the true mastermind.

 

[WrenchNinja]

All you need to do is watch Back Cover. The rest of the x/Ux stuff is so minor. It's not that big of a deal. You don't really need to play the mobile game.

Like the box isn't even in the mobile game to begin with

 

[Nickgia]

I was hoping 3 would be the end of this nonsense and we would have a clean break to start over with 4. Very disappointed that this isn't the case and we're going to continue to have baggage from some other game.

 

[FakePlasticTree]

I think it's fair to say I think they should have done more with chicken and UX in three than they did to maybe make it feel like less of a setup for the next game. However to expect them to not start setting up the next saga during the one before is a bit unfair considering any story that can split into saga, arcs, seasons, etc do this. I do think Chi is valuable because it goes into more detail about the keyblade war, an event we are told about but never given an explanation to what actually happened in bbs. So in that way it's also relevant to the current saga.

Also btw saying ux sets up the keyblade war is slightly wrong cause ux is the story after the war, you're thinking of chi. This annoys me to no end when discussing this stuff but it is needlessly complicated lol.

Click to shrink...

The Secret Reports and Secret Endings are generally the ones that set up the next game in this series. In KH3, it felt like most of the story was about setting up the next game.

 

[diakyu]

The Secret Reports and Secret Endings are generally the ones that set up the next game in this series. In KH3, it felt like most of the story was about setting up the next game.

Click to shrink...

Besides the secret reports, epilogue, and secret movie, what felt like it was setting up for the next saga? The rest was all stuff for the final clash at the end of the game.

 

[Deleted member 41931]

It being a gacha doesn't really matter, the story quests are extremely easy and it doesn't seem popular enough that it might take over the series.

I would say the bigger issue is the massive time investment required to actually get the story from it. The game has way too many quests and way too many of them are filler.

 

[JinnAxel]

Just to add, as far as predatory gacha practices go, if you're only playing X and all its variants for story then you don't really need to spend anything because of how easy the normal story quests are. The leaderboards for monthly arena, and the periodic events which provide bonuses to medals that have appeared in the latest banner are the primary drivers for players to roll on the gacha.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see another cutscene anthology to cover UX in a 3.5 final remix. The X cutscenes in 2.8 cover everything story relevant except for the actual war itself (which is more of a spectacle than revelatory in any way).

 

[Deleted member 29464]

Yeah, i think this is pretty bullshit, I hope they somehow summarise all of it but the problem is that the phone game may never die with it probably being a money maker. I'm not too confident in the series future right now as it seems Square Enix never learns and with this and the FFVII Dragged On Edition, we may not see a main KH for a long time and it won't be a fresh start.

Hopefully I'm wrong and I always thought it would be cool if we got a console game that just skipped most the story misusons and did the important stuff of the browser and phone games.

Spoiler

Take some influence from Taro with new game pluses maybe.

 

[Nightengale]

The Secret Reports and Secret Endings are generally the ones that set up the next game in this series. In KH3, it felt like most of the story was about setting up the next game.

Click to shrink...

This is an unpopular opinion, especially considering that it's a very valid argument against III that the last 8 or so hours of the game was rushed and poorly paced, but while I disliked the wasted time on the 'box-related' subplot, I've personally really enjoyed the 'mysterious girl experimented by Ansem' subplot which was 100% a next-game setup because it was done in a way that is both mysterious and helps to develop Axel/Saix's character.

Besides the secret reports, epilogue, and secret movie, what felt like it was setting up for the next saga? The rest was all stuff for the final clash at the end of the game.

Click to shrink...

Stuff that were setups for future games:

- Every Axel/Saix scene related to the 'mysterious girl'
- The scene between Ansem and Ansem SoD at Twilight Town about the mysterious girl
- Every scene with Maleficent/Pete ( the box )
- PoTC subplot ( the box )

That being said, the above probably only makes up around 15 or so percent of the game. To say that the game sepnt more of the time setting up the next saga is untrue.

 

[FakePlasticTree]

Besides the secret reports, epilogue, and secret movie, what felt like it was setting up for the next saga? The rest was all stuff for the final clash at the end of the game.

Click to shrink...

Xehanort Heartless or whatever he is called, Saix, Axel and Ansem all talking about a girl whom they presumably have known for years but only coveniently brings up now, then there are all the cameos from the mobile game that feel like they are there to gear up for something else, then there is Xemnas talking about Larxene, Luxord, Marluxia etc etc being invited back to the Organization XIII because they have some sort of connection to something that is never elaborated on. Basically it's all like those cutscenes that were added into KH2 with Final Mix.

 

[Rotobit]

I'm fairly certain we're going to see something like Re:Coded again, even if it's just another Back Cover-style animated movie. I think a game for the Switch that has you play as Ephemera and sums everything up makes more sense though.

Also for what it's worth, Sora also has no idea who these people are. If they structure things right (which, granted, its KH), they should be able to deliver most of the pertinent information naturally.

I had no problem with the Union X stuff in KH3 btw, we already knew what the Keyblade Graveyard was so it was hardly surprising to see that sorta thing happen. It was one of the most hype moments of the game for me and I gave up on the mobile game pretty quick.

 

[duckroll]

Mobile gaming is the present and the future. Dinosaurs who refuse to accept that as a reality now will be left behind. Nomura is just being progressive and knowing where the trend is.

For people who are not interested in the direction gaming will go, they can finish KH3 and quit the series. It's okay and no one will miss them. For everyone else it's time to go knee deep into Master of Masters Lost Masters Unions Dandelions The Gazing Eye The Book of Prophecies May Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key What's In The Box?

 

[diakyu]

Xehanort Heartless or whatever he is called, Saix, Axel and Ansem all talking about a girl whom they presumably have known for years but only coveniently brings up now, then there are all the cameos from the mobile game that feel like they are there to gear up for something else, then there is Xemnas talking about Larxene, Luxord, Marluxia etc etc being invited back to the Organization XIII because they have some sort of connection to something that is never elaborated on. Basically it's all like those cutscenes that were added into KH2 with Final Mix.

Click to shrink...

Ah yes i totally blanked on the girl. I will admit that part is weird and felt kind of out of left field.

 

[Wispmetas]

So far they haven't given me reasons to complain. I would agree with you if not for the existence of this:

Everything from Union UX that matters for KH 3 is here.

From what I can recall, major stuff connected to UX is:

-The part in the keyblade graveyard with Ephemer and all of the keyblades, Back cover shows Ephemer and even the keyblade used (the blue handle one) appears here in the hand of a keyblade wielder.
-The secret ending, that is related directly to Back Cover and the foretellers and the box.

The other stuff thet may or may not be related to UX, like the secret reports and some throwaway lines from Xemnas and Marluxia, might be setup for the mobile game and not for KH4, or the other way around, and I toss them into the unwanswered questions and set up pile, like I did with the Lingering Will and mysterious figures, that up untill now have all been answered in the following games.

I mean, when this:

appeared in KH2 no one got mad despite not knowing anything about them.

And from what I can gather, most of the set-up that might be related to KH UX has not been shown there, like the Girl X or something, so I'll just wait and see how this is handled in the next games before complaining.

 

[duckroll]

Ah yes i totally blanked on the girl. I will admit that part is weird and felt kind of out of left field.

Click to shrink...

For the longest time I thought there was something from BbS I was missing. Until I realized it was another retcon. Lol. It's not even something you can derive during the game even if you have played all of Union Cross, since Axel and Ansem never mentioned this girl previously even in scenes before Xemnas was born.

 

[Ignis]

So far they haven't given me reasons to complain. I would agree with you if not for the existence of this:

-snip-

Click to shrink...

Right, but it's almost universally agreed that KHBack Cover is a pretty terrible movie in terms of story telling. It's only purpose is to "tell don't show" all those events in a, frankly awful, chapter based format. Is that the kind of story telling we deem acceptable for a AAA franchise, one as beloved as KH?

And the reason no one got mad about the KH2 Armour scene is likely because the series was still fairly straightforward at that point. The scene didn't draw from anything that existed previously either, it was completely new, exciting material, that most assumed would lead into KH3. Completely different situation imo.

 

[entremet]

Emphemer showing up in a key scene was rather bananas too.

Honestly, the whole story has been handled very stupidly, but hey that's KH for yah!

 

[ckareset]

Honestly I don't think the different systems thing is a problem. Story doesn't have to be confined to what you deem worthy.

The nonsensical plots are the real issue

 

[Kito]

I'd have no problem with it if Ux had actual gameplay, but there's absolutely none. It's just about setting the best deck you can and watching every fight play out in a one round KO if your deck is good.

To the "game's" credit, though, at least normal mode can be finished by any F2P deck, so the game doesn't paywall in any way for players who just want to go through the story.

 

[asd202]

Emphemer showing up in a key scene was rather bananas too.

Honestly, the whole story has been handled very stupidly, but hey that's KH for yah!

Click to shrink...

Nomura just got jealous of Yoko Taro.

 

[Lnds500]

It's certainly not a good way to tell a story but at least it's not too important yet.

I could see an expanded χ remake though that would allow us to revisit the old Princess worlds with PS4/PS5 graphics. That I would buy.

 

[Wispmetas]

Right, but it's almost universally agreed that KHBack Cover is a pretty terrible movie in terms of story telling. It's only purpose is to "tell don't show" all those events in a, frankly awful, chapter based format. Is that the kind of story telling we deem acceptable for a AAA franchise, one as beloved as KH?

And the reason no one got mad about the KH2 Armour scene is likely because the series was still fairly straightforward at that point. The scene didn't draw from anything that existed previously either, it was completely new, exciting material, that most assumed would lead into KH3. Completely different situation imo.

Click to shrink...

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you! For me, the best case would be for the Mobile game to have no importance at all, since I can't stand it!

But in my opinion, Back Cover shows that, at least, SE so far has respected that the fanbase may not want to play UX to understand it all.

 

[Richietto]

I'm just hoping for a Union Cross console game that you know, is fun to play. Make your character, unlock cool shit, do co-op missions. Basically the mobile game but good. It's whatever though as I keep up with the story. I do think it's strange they are using the mobile games story when the story takes FOREVER to get to in the game. The game is just filler filler filler.

 

[Nightengale]

I'm just hoping for a Union Cross console game that you know, is fun to play. Make your character, unlock cool shit, do co-op missions. Basically the mobile game but good.

Click to shrink...

If we look at the Secret Report, the only ones that matter in the grand scheme of post-KBW timeline are the New Union Leaders ( including Strelizia and the impostor )

I mean, based on that secret report, we already know what will happen in UX:

- Something happens in the story which causes all 5 Union Leaders ( Ephemer, Lauriam, Ven, Brain, Skuld ) to be transported to another world line at the cost of their memories.

 

[diakyu]

A remake would be dope. There's enough there for a big console release if they wanted to go and redo all the old Disney worlds that are already in the mobile game and give them the kh3 world treatment. Hell with union cross just do it through the eyes of ventus and call it a day.

 

[Nightbird]

I find it hilarious that the same group telling casual fans that every game matters are suddenly shocked that literally every game in the series matters.

Click to shrink...

More like "people who insisted that only the PS entries (1/2/BBS) were important are shocked that every game in the series matters"

 

[Steven]

At first I thought it was weird, then when caught up I thought it was pretty cool for two reasons:

1. My girlfriend downloaded the mobile game after we finished KH3, and it's actually pretty well polished and she enjoys playing it for a little while when she doesn't have much to do.

2. I'm about 90% sure that when it comes time to move on to the next arc in KH4, SE and Nomura will almost assuredly re-package KHX as "KH Re:Union" or "
KH Union X Final Mix" and make it playable or viewable as a long(er) movie so that people know.

If you think about it, a similar thing happened back in the day with CoM and BBS. I didn't play those games because I wasn't interested in a "mobile" version of KH at the time even though I loved KH1 and KH2. I was happy to wait for the next "full console game"...and I'm sure the KH team knew a lot of people felt like that. Well, it turned out those mobile games were important as hell to the conclusion of KH3, so they made sure everyone who played only KH1 and 2 had a way to play those side games on their PS4.

If the mobile game is truly important to the next big arc of KH, it will be more accessible prior to the next mainline game in some form, so I'm not worried.

 

[Richietto]

If we look at the Secret Report, the only ones that matter in the grand scheme of post-KBW timeline are the New Union Leaders ( including Strelizia and the impostor )

I mean, based on that secret report, we already know what will happen in UX:

- Something happens in the story which causes all 5 Union Leaders ( Ephemer, Lauriam, Ven, Brain, Skuld ) to be transported to another world line at the cost of their memories.

Click to shrink...

I just really want to play as a KH OC in a fun game with my brother really. Any excuse to make it happen would work for me.

 

[JC Lately]

I find it hilarious that the same group telling casual fans that every game matters are suddenly shocked that literally every game in the series matters.

Click to shrink...

Took the works right out of my mouth.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Xehanort Heartless or whatever he is called, Saix, Axel and Ansem all talking about a girl whom they presumably have known for years but only coveniently brings up now, then there are all the cameos from the mobile game that feel like they are there to gear up for something else, then there is Xemnas talking about Larxene, Luxord, Marluxia etc etc being invited back to the Organization XIII because they have some sort of connection to something that is never elaborated on. Basically it's all like those cutscenes that were added into KH2 with Final Mix.

Click to shrink...

That's still a relatively small amount of stuff. Everything about Subject X takes up about five minutes or so of a 40 hour game. The scene with Xemnas talking about that groups connection to the Keyblade War era is like 45 seconds at the end of a scene that was mostly about KH3 stuff.

It's more than say KH2 had pre-Fiinal Mix, but it's not nearly as much as BBS or DDD had setting up future games. And the Axel and Saix stuff was important not just for setting up the next arc, but for understanding the drama between them in this game.

 

[Ignis]

That's still a relatively small amount of stuff. Everything about Subject X takes up about five minutes or so of a 40 hour game. The scene with Xemnas talking about that groups connection to the Keyblade War era is like 45 seconds at the end of a scene that was mostly about KH3 stuff.

It's more than say KH2 had pre-Fiinal Mix, but it's not nearly as much as BBS or DDD had setting up future games. And the Axel and Saix stuff was important not just for setting up the next arc, but for understanding the drama between them in this game.

Click to shrink...

I think the reason people say the plot "mostly sets up the next games" is because KHIII spends almost 3/4 of its playtime without much of a plot at all (Disney Worlds). It's agreed by this point that most of the plot is in the last 5-7 hours of the game. So in comparison to those 5-7 hours yes it can feel like "the setup" is given precedence over the stories that built up in the handheld titles that needed concluding, especially when those stories receive very little in the way of development (Looking at you Xion).

 

[FakePlasticTree]

That's still a relatively small amount of stuff. Everything about Subject X takes up about five minutes or so of a 40 hour game. The scene with Xemnas talking about that groups connection to the Keyblade War era is like 45 seconds at the end of a scene that was mostly about KH3 stuff.

It's more than say KH2 had pre-Fiinal Mix, but it's not nearly as much as BBS or DDD had setting up future games. And the Axel and Saix stuff was important not just for setting up the next arc, but for understanding the drama between them in this game.

Click to shrink...

Birth By Sleep was a prequel, this game isn't. I've played through Kingdom Hearts 3 now, and the only scenes where I felt like something was actually happening was when the characters started talking about this stuff, or at the end of the game where you finally go to rescue Aqua and then immediately move into the endgame.

Axel and Saïx relationship was perfectly okay and well explained in 358/2 Days and BBS, we didn't need some unknown third character to understand that relationship.

 

[Alastor3]

I was about to indulge in finally playing kingdom hearts 1 and 2 but after so many critics about the convoluted story of the games, and tho i love extended story like for exemple Metal Gear Solid, im gonna have to pass on Kingdom Heart as a whole.

 

[WrenchNinja]

I think the reason people say the plot "mostly sets up the next games" is because KHIII spends almost 3/4 of its playtime without much of a plot at all (Disney Worlds). It's agreed by this point that most of the plot is in the last 5-7 hours of the game. So in comparison to those 5-7 hours yes it can feel like "the setup" is given precedence over the stories that built up in the handheld titles that needed concluding, especially when those stories receive very little in the way of development (Looking at you Xion).

Click to shrink...

But that's not true though. There's barely any set up. The scenes between worlds and the world's themselves are all focused on what's going going on in KH3, not the future.

Axel and Saix talking about a mysterious girl isn't really about the mysterious girl, it's about their relationship and Roxas.

Ansem and Xehanort's Heartless talking about the mysterious girl isn't really about the girl, it's about Ansem's past actions and his remorse.

 

[twisted heart]

I don't see the problem op you can go and play the mobile game and get all the story for free and the main line story missions in the mobile game aren't even difficult they used to be at point years ago but now any random pulls in the shop will get you what you need to play through the story missions easily the game has a stamina system but the story doesn't require stamina you can keep playing till you finish it plus they will also have months were you don't need stamina for anything. Look what I'm trying to say op is that I've played the mobile game for years and that I've never spent money or needed to spend money on the game to play I don't see the harm if it was a aggressive mtx game than I would agree but for this one it really isn't.

 

[entremet]

More like "people who insisted that only the PS entries (1/2/BBS) were important are shocked that every game in the series matters"

Click to shrink...

People said that lol. I would at least put DDD in the mix since added tons of extra story detail that affected KH3 more than any other game, including Sora's current depowered state and Xehanort's plans.

I'm surprised about the mobile game having anything tho. Oh well, crazy Nomura.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

I'll just watch the story on YouTube or something, it's fine. Also everything you had to know for 3 aside of Maleficent stuff was in the movie.

Also the whole Ventus was in the past thing I guess.

 

[MidweekCoyote]

I hate UX and agree with most points, but I also think that it was included (mostly) tastefully. Like, if it HAD to be included, it was done well enough and less imposing than I feared.

Honestly, I was just happy for the fans of the game at that one endgame portion.

 

[lusca_bueno]

I absolutely love how it's being implemented, to be honest, I wish that epilogue was even further developed. The box thing is taking so long to be revealed that it's setting itself up for inevitable disappointment though lol Nomura will have to ask Yoko Taro to decide whatever is in the box so it won't leave the randomness to be desired.