• Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Oct 25, 2017
5,143
That's because they showed the logo for Scala ad Caelum and I thought I was going to go through an entire final dungeon. It literally went straight from that battle with those shadow things, then to armored Xehanort, then to the rest of the game. I thought I was going to have an opportunity to save somewhere in between. It wasn't until I beat armored Xehanort and immediately got thrusted into the battle on top of the castle that I realized this was it.
I will say it's definitely fair thinking there could still be more regular-world play when you first arrive in Scala ad Caelum, but as soon as I went from the armored dudes to furry Xehanort I realized it was definitely final boss time.
 

carlsojo

Shinra Employee
Member
Oct 28, 2017
34,070
San Francisco
Bugs me that Sora never got any badass cutscene moments in his own last game of the trilogy.

KH1: "You'll never take Kairi's heart!"
KH2: *Sora cutting through buildings*
KH3: *Sora stands around watching everyone else do cool shit*

Like when the party wiped/died while he just stood there and watched, got brought back to life, and then STOOD THERE AND WATCHED AGAIN.

Though I guess Dark/Heartless Sora fucking up Xehanort kind of counts?
 

Kwigo

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
8,118
So Sora woke up in TWEWY Shibuya and someone said Riku is in Insomnia ? But at the end of the secret movie you see the shibuya crossing and the big building with flashing red lights a bit further, so they might actually wake up at the same place, right?
 
Oct 25, 2017
5,143
Bugs me that Sora never got any badass cutscene moments in his own last game of the trilogy.

KH1: "You'll never take Kairi's heart!"
KH2: *Sora cutting through buildings*
KH3: *Sora stands around watching everyone else do cool shit*

Like when the party wiped/died while he just stood there and watched, got brought back to life, and then STOOD THERE AND WATCHED AGAIN.

Though I guess Dark/Heartless Sora fucking up Xehanort kind of counts?
What about the Union X moment
 

Renfran

Alt Account
Banned
Aug 28, 2018
3,325
So Sora woke up in TWEWY Shibuya and someone said Riku is in Insomnia ? But at the end of the secret movie you see the shibuya crossing and the big building with flashing red lights a bit further, so they might actually wake up at the same place, right?

You're right, Riku is in the same place. I'm not sure where people are getting Insomnia. It looks literally nothing like it. The entire version of the city seems to be from TWEWY. Riku is just in a different part of town I imagine.
 

Fj0823

Legendary Duelist
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,707
Costa Rica
Bugs me that Sora never got any badass cutscene moments in his own last game of the trilogy.

KH1: "You'll never take Kairi's heart!"
KH2: *Sora cutting through buildings*
KH3: *Sora stands around watching everyone else do cool shit*

Like when the party wiped/died while he just stood there and watched, got brought back to life, and then STOOD THERE AND WATCHED AGAIN.

Though I guess Dark/Heartless Sora fucking up Xehanort kind of counts?

He literally surfed on top of a flurry of thousands on keyblades to save everyone
 

Balfour

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,583
So Sora woke up in TWEWY Shibuya and someone said Riku is in Insomnia ? But at the end of the secret movie you see the shibuya crossing and the big building with flashing red lights a bit further, so they might actually wake up at the same place, right?

Shibuya is a ward in tokyo. The Insomnia building is based on a real life building, also in Tokyo

people say Insomnia because of the hints of Somnus in the music later in the movie.

Its assumed from that we would get more than just TWEWY characters there. That or they are using it since Yozora is gonna probably be a mirror of Noctis in KH
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,864
So Sora woke up in TWEWY Shibuya and someone said Riku is in Insomnia ? But at the end of the secret movie you see the shibuya crossing and the big building with flashing red lights a bit further, so they might actually wake up at the same place, right?

The way the scene is rendered and directed, it seems like they're going for a Dream Drop Distance "two sides of the same world" concept. Sora is in wacky cartoon Japan, Riku is in dark modern fantasy Japan.

The music, camera angle and the building Yozora is sitting on are designed to evoke Insomnia very, very deliberately.
 

Xenosaga

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,001
So Sora woke up in TWEWY Shibuya and someone said Riku is in Insomnia ? But at the end of the secret movie you see the shibuya crossing and the big building with flashing red lights a bit further, so they might actually wake up at the same place, right?
yeah they are definitely in the same world, but just a bit apart.
 

Rand a. Thor

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
10,213
Greece
The way the scene is rendered and directed, it seems like they're going for a Dream Drop Distance "two sides of the same world" concept. Sora is in wacky cartoon Japan, Riku is in dark modern fantasy Japan.

The music, camera angle and the building Yozora is sitting on are designed to evoke Insomnia very, very deliberately.
But then the MoM Moon Heart scene happens that shows both the Sora Shibuya Scramble and the Shinjiku Emo Duo Power Hour locales in the same world.
 

Xenosaga

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,001
DoCBAVdV4AIhhx8.jpg:orig


oh yeah the TWEWY Final Remix celebration artwork from Nomura last year...
 

LegendofLex

Member
Nov 20, 2017
5,513
The way the scene is rendered and directed, it seems like they're going for a Dream Drop Distance "two sides of the same world" concept. Sora is in wacky cartoon Japan, Riku is in dark modern fantasy Japan.

The music, camera angle and the building Yozora is sitting on are designed to evoke Insomnia very, very deliberately.
There's a lot of red/blue imagery (the color schemes of the settings, Yozora's eyes), and that plus the Shibuya setting was enough to tell me they're clearly calling back to 3D. It feels like a reference to 3D glasses, and the gimmick of "two perspectives on the same world" was clearly built around the fact that the game was on a 3D platform where each of your eyes sees something different to form a bigger picture.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,864
But then the MoM Moon Heart scene happens that shows both the Sora Shibuya Scramble and the Shinjiku Emo Duo Power Hour locales in the same world.

The two LOCATIONS are in the same world. That doesn't mean both characters are in the same version of that world though. The lighting makes it fairly clear to me that they're shooting for Sora and Riku being in the same place but unable to see or interact with each other.
 

KingdomKey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,106
The secret ending should be a conceptualized sneak peak at what KH4 might be aiming for, I would be surprised if it's a hint at a dlc world.

I expect no worlds for any dlc, just extra combat content and maybe a keyblade or two. At most they'll expand twilight town.

I'm guessing Nomura will be starting to negotiate with Disney about what properties they'll be able to use in the next installment quite soon. He might even start working on KH4 before FF7R releases.
 

Fj0823

Legendary Duelist
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,707
Costa Rica
Yeah that didn't land super well for me because I didn't understand where they came from. Plus, again, it's something happening *to* Sora, i.e. the keyblade guy from the past? sending him all these keyblades.

From the Mobile Game, basically Ephemer's spirit gave the Keyblades of all of his Keyblade Union (Mobile Players) for Sora to command
 

Xenosaga

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,001
People also have to remember this:

-The Verum Rex commercial video shown in the opening of Toy Story world takes place in Shibuya, not Shinjuk where Riku and Yozora is in the secret ending
1PmbkYs.jpg


-The place where Sora wakes up IS where Verum Rex commercial took place

9ME7CaY.jpg

this is opening of Verum Rex CM

MsuHia3.jpg

This is the first thing Sora sees when he wakes up in the Secret movie. Notice that building is the same building in Verum Rex opening.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,864
There's a lot of red/blue imagery (the color schemes of the settings, Yozora's eyes), and that plus the Shibuya setting was enough to tell me they're clearly calling back to 3D. It feels like a reference to 3D glasses.

Yozora has the same color eyes as Noctis does (his eyes go red when he accesses a summon's power, uses the ring or the Armiger) and his hair actually very briefly flashes the same shade of black as Noct's for a moment before the camera cuts away.

Hell, the music is a tweaked Somnus. They're basically referencing 3 games at once, it's actually impressive.
 

AustinFordGames

The Fallen
Nov 17, 2017
551
New Braunfels, Texas
I finished the game and saw the secret movie last night. Was I wrong to assume that because Kairi is already crying in the epilogue that Sora wasn't there and she was imagining that he was? That when everyone looks over to Kairi and Sora sitting on the tree that they're more so looking at Kairi who's longing to see Sora again? I'm sure that everything is just assumptions for now, but that was my immediate thought. Sora was never there and he wakes up in TWEWY in the secret movie because that's where he ended up after saving Kairi. I figured Riku was there because he went after Sora. Unless you guys have better proof to shut down what I'd thought it all played out as.

Also, why the fuck is Yozora so important as to show up in TWEWY? Or in the secret movie, let alone why it's named after him. I figured it was some weird FFvXIII nod in Toy Box and wouldn't go anywhere else? Please feel free to correct me on literally all of this lol.
 

ramenline

Member
Jan 9, 2019
1,301
Beat it at 3AM last night. Despite the piss-easy difficulty, I loved it all (except Frozen)! The secret ending with Sora potentially having to play the Reaper's game is mind-blowing but idk why Riku just pops up in Verum Rex, I'm assuming he's just looking for Sora? The Xigbar twist is wild and I didn't see it coming and in hindsight, it's funny seeing what an obvious hint they give you in the post-Olympus cutscene where Xigbar/Luxu gets cut off in the middle of saying "May your heart be your guiding key".

It's sad seeing Sora not make it back to Kairi and Destiny Islands, especially when they finally got more "romantic", but I'm hoping we'll get some real character development out of this "death" arc, it's high time Sora stopped getting emotionally paralyzed every time some heavy shit goes down. despite the clunky narrative, I really liked that the foreshadowing of Sora having to face consequences for his actions (his need to save everybody) was not just some BS spewed by the villains but something that actually plays out. on the other hand, I disliked seeing Kairi relegated back to a damsel-in-distress role almost right after she saves Sora and spends the whole game training (tbf Lea gets owned almost immediately too).

special shout-out to the Union X cameo, holy shit that was an amazing piece of fan service and the uplifting version of Dearly Beloved hit me in the feels so hard. yeah it's deus ex machina but i gotta let it slide as per rule of cool.

anyway, pulling a xehanort and bringing 10 year old me into a new worldline so he can have his first orgasm playing this
 

NHarmonic.

▲ Legend ▲
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,298
Riku/Mickey save Aqua on their initial visit to the RoD, and come into conflict with Ansemnort while they're there. Aqua now has to recover, so she heads to Avalon, where Axel and Kairi are. Meanwhile, Riku, Mickey and Sora go investigating reports of Organisation activity in an assertive effort to derail Xehanort's plans.

(I really need to stop regurgitating the mental red pen scribbles I made all over the manuscript, lol)

That's what a good editor would do to organize Nomura's crazyness.
 

LegendofLex

Member
Nov 20, 2017
5,513
Yozora has the same color eyes as Noctis does (his eyes go red when he accesses a summon's power, uses the ring or the Armiger) and his hair actually very briefly flashes the same shade of black as Noct's for a moment before the camera cuts away.

Hell, the music is a tweaked Somnus. They're basically referencing 3 games at once, it's actually impressive.
Yeah, I caught all the Noctis references, too, of course. I'm not saying they're just referencing DDD.

But they're laying on the 3D thing pretty thick, too (see the image Xenosaga posted above and how the red/blue lighting splits the image basically down the middle). I think it's just as pervasive as the FFXV references.

Beat it at 3AM last night. Despite the piss-easy difficulty, I loved it all (except Frozen)! The secret ending with Sora potentially having to play the Reaper's game is mind-blowing but idk why Riku just pops up in Verum Rex, I'm assuming he's just looking for Sora?
Sora needs his game partner.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,864
on the other hand, I disliked seeing Kairi relegated back to a damsel-in-distress role almost right after she saves Sora and spends the whole game training (tbf Lea gets owned almost immediately too).

Yen Sid is a really bad teacher. "Find the power of waking, Sora." "How do I do that?" "I dunno."

I'm not surprised Kairi and Lea ended up being useless with that guy as their boss.
 

Eumi

Member
Nov 3, 2017
3,518
People also have to remember this:

-The Verum Rex commercial video shown in the opening of Toy Story world takes place in Shibuya, not Shinjuk where Riku and Yozora is in the secret ending
1PmbkYs.jpg


-The place where Sora wakes up IS where Verum Rex commercial took place

9ME7CaY.jpg

this is opening of Verum Rex CM

MsuHia3.jpg

This is the first thing Sora sees when he wakes up in the Secret movie. Notice that building is the same building in Verum Rex opening.
I wonder if they're gonna end up going for another hollow-bastion type ensemble world then, with TWEWY characters living alongside the not-versus characters.

It's always been odd that TWEWY characters were literally straight out of their game whilst the FF characters were homages.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,864
Can someone with a PS4 Pro or XBOX One X go to Toybox and screenshot the back of the Verum Rex box art? There's...clues on there, but the resolution on my base PS4 makes them hard to make out.
 

Astral

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,384
Ok so I just beat the game last night. Overall, I like it. But it still doesn't beat KH2 for me.

I do think this game was a bit....underwhelming. The combat is as great and varied as ever. However, my main problem in this game is the pacing. Both in the Disney worlds and the overall plot. It's so weird. I don't remember the previous games trying to emulate the movies all that much? Corona was the first time I noticed, as it was basically copying the movie up until the boss, in which neither Flynn nor Rapunzel joined in on (wtf). The romance between the two was incredibly rushed too, but honestly I don't know what else they could have done with that part.

However the biggest offender was Arendelle holy shit. I was looking forward to having Elsa as a party member but it was just basically a huge mountain ice maze. If you didn't watch Frozen you wouldn't have any idea who Hans was or why he was a bad guy.

And even though the plot wrapped up nicely, it was pretty anticlimactic. I didn't realize I was fighting the final boss until I beat the game. The pre-fights with all of the 13 darknesses were pretty awesome, even with the jarring cutscene interruptions in the battle when you defeated each of them.

The twist at the end with Luxu is....interesting. I'm not sure where they'll take this. Does the secret movie/ending add anything substantial? I'll go back to platinum this eventually, but I want to finish up RE2 first.

This so much. The fight was cool but after it I was like "ok so now he's gonna transform or something right? This the FINAL BOSS." Then the orchestral version of Simple and Clean starts playing and I'm like "oh." It wasn't too satisfying. It felt like we were just cleaning up someone's mess. It was so impersonal.
 

ramenline

Member
Jan 9, 2019
1,301
Yen Sid is a really bad teacher. "Find the power of waking, Sora." "How do I do that?" "I dunno."

I'm not surprised Kairi and Lea ended up being useless with that guy as their boss.

found it hilarious that he has all these guardians of light but he still has to swoop in and clear heartless out of the way for them like Sora didn't just summon a roller coaster 30 minutes ago.
 

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
This so much. The fight was cool but after it I was like "ok so now he's gonna transform or something right? This the FINAL BOSS." Then the orchestral version of Simple and Clean starts playing and I'm like "oh." It wasn't too satisfying. It felt like we were just cleaning up someone's mess. It was so impersonal.
After playing through the more recent games like 358/2 and Birth by Sleep, the final fight against Master Xehanort didn't feel underwhelming. Honestly, the fight against Xemnas in KH2 was FAR TOO DAMN MUCh and I think the KH team realized that they could deliver a good boss fight without needing the boss to have seven different stages including a penultimate Super Battleship Mechanort.
 

Xenosaga

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,001
By the way, the Shinjuku building design in the secret trailer seems almost identical to the actual building design in real life, while the FFXV Insomnia one had a slight redesign for it's aesthetics.

Tokyo_Metropolitan_Government_Building_Oka1.JPG
actual building in real life



2hJV4mg.jpg

BmR7It8.jpg

KH3 secret ending



latest

FFXV Insomnia
 

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
Yeah but Mickey doesn't suck.
Mickey had been fighting Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed off and on for a decade. Kairi and Axel went through Keyblade Basics 101 and that was about it.

By the way, the Shinjuku building design in the secret trailer seems almost identical to the actual building design in real life, while the FFXV Insomnia one had a slight redesign for it's aesthetics.

Tokyo_Metropolitan_Government_Building_Oka1.JPG
actual building in real life



2hJV4mg.jpg

BmR7It8.jpg

KH3 secret ending



latest

FFXV Insomnia
What did Insomnia look like in the original Versus XIII concept?
 

FiXalaS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,569
Kuwait.
Bugs me that Sora never got any badass cutscene moments in his own last game of the trilogy.

KH1: "You'll never take Kairi's heart!"
KH2: *Sora cutting through buildings*
KH3: *Sora stands around watching everyone else do cool shit*

Like when the party wiped/died while he just stood there and watched, got brought back to life, and then STOOD THERE AND WATCHED AGAIN.

Though I guess Dark/Heartless Sora fucking up Xehanort kind of counts?

dude his entry to the Realm of Darkness in this game is a top tier moment for Sora.
 

SoraanTribal

Member
Oct 27, 2017
730
I was a little disappointed in the secret boss tbh. To be fair I had the Ultima keyblade which helped a lot but I still beat it in like 5 or 6 tries on proud. To this day I have still yet to beat Lingering Will on 2FM lol
 

Astral

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,384
After playing through the more recent games like 358/2 and Birth by Sleep, the final fight against Master Xehanort didn't feel underwhelming. Honestly, the fight against Xemnas in KH2 was FAR TOO DAMN MUCh and I think the KH team realized that they could deliver a good boss fight without needing the boss to have seven different stages including a penultimate Super Battleship Mechanort.

It's funny because I thought that Ansem and Xemnas turning into an airship was stupid as hell at the time but now I missed it lol. But the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that what was really missing was a proper final world. The last two hours of the game is just one long boss gauntlet. It didn't feel like there was a proper build up to Xehanort. It was just "ok killed these guys, next please." If Scala ad Caelum was a proper dungeon then I would've felt much better about it. There's also Kingdom Hearts. The real thing is right there out in the open. I thought some crazy shit would happen but it's basically just scenery. Lastly, though not as important, I've already fought a guy with the X-Blade so Xehanort wielding it didn't feel like a big deal.
 

Dary

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,429
The English Wilderness
It's funny because I thought that Ansem and Xemnas turning into an airship was stupid as hell at the time but now I missed it lol. But the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that what was really missing was a proper final world. The last two hours of the game is just one long boss gauntlet. It didn't feel like there was a proper build up to Xehanort. It was just "ok killed these guys, next please." If Scala ad Caelum was a proper dungeon then I would've felt much better about it. There's also Kingdom Hearts. The real thing is right there out in the open. I thought some crazy shit would happen but it's basically just scenery. Lastly, though not as important, I've already fought a guy with the X-Blade so Xehanort wielding it didn't feel like a big deal.
Doesn't help that the best verbal smackdown of Xehanort in the game came from Woody. He set the bar so high, everyone else had to die just to brush their fingers against it.
 

Welfare

Prophet of Truth - You’re my Numberwall
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,927
Just got done with the game.

Xigbar twist and the black box are very interesting.

Final boss was whatever. I hope they add in critical mode as Proud was too easy. Only really used block on the final boss.

Really looking forward to KH4 after this game. Sora being lost and Riku possibly trying to go save him will be interesting to see play out with the new story line they have set up.
 

LegendofLex

Member
Nov 20, 2017
5,513
It's funny because I thought that Ansem and Xemnas turning into an airship was stupid as hell at the time but now I missed it lol. But the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that what was really missing was a proper final world. The last two hours of the game is just one long boss gauntlet. It didn't feel like there was a proper build up to Xehanort. It was just "ok killed these guys, next please." If Scala ad Caelum was a proper dungeon then I would've felt much better about it.
It's crazy that we go through the Final World, Keyblade Graveyard, and Scala ad Caelum and even adding all of them together it doesn't feel like a final dungeon.

I don't think there's anything I would want less than this. "Sit around in a forest and train" isn't really something worth paying for.
What if they handled it like 0.2?
 

Xenosaga

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,001
The only thing I was disappointed with the final boss was music. I like the music itself, but I wish the second phase had different music. The clone fight -> Armored Xehanort fight -> Xehanort x-blade fight all seem to have very similar music.
 

clockstrikes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,560
Kh3 really need a "episode Kairi dlc"

I'd prefer Episode Riku tbh. Give him a chance to prove what he can do without jobbing to enemies for Sora to come in and save the day, and let him interact with different characters. He didn't have a single conversation with Terra, who made such a big impact on his life, nor did he with Kairi which makes it hard to believe they're actually friends.
 

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
It's crazy that we go through the Final World, Keyblade Graveyard, and Scala ad Caelum and even adding all of them together it doesn't feel like a final dungeon.


What if they handled it like 0.2?
I kind of wonder if a final dungeon would have really been a good thing. Not that it couldn't have worked, but there's so much that happens so fast (Keyblade Graveyard, Final World, back to KGY, Scala ad Caelum) with so much story and so many character moments, that having a protracted final dungeon might have actually hurt the pace of the ending in some ways.