Kingdom Hearts 1.7: Are You Confused Yet?

Kingdom Hearts: Sora and friends are playing on their island (Destiny Islands), and that night a storm blows in. Sora goes to check out their island, and can't find Kairi or Riku, his best (and only?) friends. The storm was actually the Darkness, which had come to destory their world, just as it had being doing to other worlds. Riku disappears with the darkness, and Sora is whisked away to another world. Somehow Sora then wields a keyblade, and while joining up with other Disney cast members, saves the other worlds from the Darkness. He does this by defeating the Heartless (believed to be created by the Darkness, in this game), and sealing up the keyholes in each world which had been letting the Heartless in. He finds Riku in the last world, Hallow Bastion, a re-creating of Beast's Castle (though for some reason they changed this after the first game). Riku says he should be the keyblade master (siding with darkness), and after winning a dual with Sora, takes the keyblade. Sora catches up to Riku, fights him again, and this time wins the keyblade back. Doesn't matter, Riku shows his "true" form, Ansem, who had been controlling him the whole time. Ansem transforms Sora into a Heartless, who almost gets mistakenly killed by his Disney teammates. After escaping, he meets up with Kairi, who had somehow escaped/found her way to Hallow Bastion. Somehow she recognizes Sora, hugs him, shows him love with her heart, and transforms him back into his normal self. Sora goes back, fights Ansem, and explains that the door he was opening wasn't darkness itself, but light!...but darkness was taking over inside. So King Mickey and Sora stay behind, inside the darkness consuming the light, to fight the darkness. Darkness vanishes, Kairi returns to the Destiny Islands, and Sora and friends once again get whisked away to the middle of nowhere. Basic KH story retold.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: So here's where it gets interesting. The devs never planned on making a sequel, and so KH could have been a stand-alone game. They are quoted in interviews as saying this, it's a fact, and is very important, considering how convoluted this story becomes. While making a sequel, they concluded that some things just could not be explained well, so it was decided that a half sequel to KH was in order. The events of this 1.5 game are as follows. After walking aimlessly for hours, Sora and friends (Disney friends, not Kairi and Riku, I'll get to them later) come across a castle, later discovered to be Castle Oblivion. I'll say this now: I have no idea how they managed to get there, and I'll explain why I'm confused in a different game. Turns out this castle is run by a group called Organization XIII. Each floor of the Castle that Sora and friends pass through is a different world from their memories of the original KH plot. The only reason they're moving through the Castle is because they believed they saw Riku. The only problem is that they don't realize that these are just memories, and all the characters they run into while exploring these worlds don't recognize them. As they traverse up the Castle floors, the four of them (Sora, Donald, Goofy and their recorder Jiminy Cricket) begin to lose their memories. Their notebook from KH is blank, which is quite odd. Each floor they pass, they fight a different Organization XIII member. Nothing really gets explained about this Organization XIII, except that on the top floor they're keeping a young girl captive, named Namine. She's a witch, and they're forcing her to erase Sora and friends' memories, thought I honestly cannot remember why. They finally reach the top, and after fighting through almost all XIII members, they fight Riku again (oh by the way they fought him once halfway through, though he didn't remember them), who still doesn't remember them. Turns out that he's just an empty body, with no recollection of Riku's past, or why he was created (as in, he's not Riku). He lets Sora and friends pass, who go on to fight the boss (well, this is just the guy who was running Castle Oblivion...this hopefully gets explained by me later), Marluxia, one of the XIII. After defeating him, and by now having lost almost all of his memories, even of his friends next to him, he meets up with Namine. Namine feels bad for what she's done, and puts the three of them (and Jiminy) into pods for deep sleeping, to restore their memories. Game Fin...or is it?
The whole time Sora and Disney friends had been running up each Castle floor starting with floor 1, the real Riku had already arrived some time earlier. Starting from floor 1 as well, he took stairs downwards, always one floor (opposite) ahead of Sora and co. Playing as Riku is a sort of New Game+, the plot revolves around Organization XIII urging Riku to embrace his dark powers, which Ansem had given to him when he took over his body. King Mickey is alongside him, trying to get Riku to hold back. Unfortunately, the XIII members are much more powerful in the basement floors than they were fighting Sora, so Riku has no choice and must use his dark powers. Which are really, really strong. But the more Riku uses his dark powers, the more the darkness is consuming him. By the time he reaches the final basement floor, darkness has all but taken him. Since this is all by memory, I don't remember Riku's ending...sorry. But that's what the next game is for!

Kingdom Hearts 2: Thanks to the CoM 1.5 sequel, the devs didn't have to do as much explaining about Organization XIII. KH2 is more involved information about the XIII. The player starts as Roxas, Sora's Nobody. A Nobody is created when a human loses their heart. When Sora was tranformed into a Heartless (get it?), him losing a heart resulted in the creation of a Nobody - Roxas (yes, rearranging the letters spells Sora, plus an X which almost all XIII members have in their name). Roxas is in Twighlight Town which, honestly, is yet another metaphor in the game. Anyways, the player plays as Roxas for like a week or something, until Sora wakes up with his memories intact. I'm not sure, but I believe that was the day when Roxas discovered the pods in which they were sleeping in. The whole plot of the game revolves mainly around Sora backtracking through all the worlds again, to defeat large heartless which have infiltrated the worlds...again. I'm not complaining yet, I absolutely loved this game and it's fighting mechanics, and even the story, which at this point (including all of KH2 I should add) I still had a firm grip on. After so many years I've forgotten the main plot. The major revelation in the game was the Ansem from KH, was not really Ansem. Ansem is actually a brilliant scientist, and saw all of this coming. The Ansem from KH is Xenohort, the leader and number I of Organization XIII. Xenohort was Ansem's student, while they were doing studies on the Heartless, Nobodies, and more importantly, hearts (not the physical ones, more like souls). Ansem and Xenohort were both good guys, until Xenohort somehow went evil, turned into a nobody by losing his heart, and tried to destory Ansem, who escaped and was in hiding for a long time. I believe (but am not entirely sure) that Ansem is actually DiZ, his disguise, and is helping at this time Sora get his memories back, thanks to Namine. This research eventually lead to Xenohort realizing the true potential of lost hearts: Kingdom Hearts. If enough hearts are released (and collected! very important), Kingdom Hearts is created, which can give hearts to Nobodies. Unfortunately, to create Kingdom Hearts, many people must lose their hearts, creating many Heartless (and possibly Nobodies? this is what I'm still trying to figure out, and hopefully the games answer). Okay, back on topic. During KH2, OrgXIII is setting out to get hearts to create Kingdom Hearts. By the end of the game, they did so. But Riku appears! He had been undercover, between worlds and nowhere (yes, a real place) watching OrgXIII and harnessing his powers: dark and light. He can also wield a keyblade. Where this second keyblade came from, is a mystery. But the two fight together...and Kairi arrives thanks to a bullying XIII member. Kairi can also wield a keyblade...it's a twist! But since there are only two keyblades in existence, the three must share between the two keyblades. They destroy the device which was going to harness Kingdom Hearts (it's a moon...no, I don't understand why Kingdom Hearts is a heart shaped moon). Sora also kills almost every XIII member...again. While Riku promises to save Kairi, Sora goes on to defeat Xenohort. Game Fin...or is it? While the three are relaxing on Destiny Islands, they receive a letter from King Mickey about another mission, most likely Kingdom Hearts 3, which should explain more about OrgXIII and what's going to happen with Kingdom Hearts.

Okay, I know that was a ton of reading, which got quite convoluted (it's actually worse than that, but I can only remember so much, and don't want to overwhelm a reader). While it seems that the devs took the Lost route and kept introducing more and more characters and plot ideas, it actually all makes sense. Unfortunately, one MUST play KH, KH: CoM, and KH2 to even begin to understand the complexities of the plot. One can tell by reading the garbled mess up above how much I can remember years later, after playing all three in decently quick succession. But the title of this post is the title I am currently giving to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. I have put about 9 hours into the game, and while I enjoy it, the plot is just plain confusing. Here's what I've got so far.
The game takes place while Sora is still in his pod sleeping. There is a two year gap between KH and KH2. The first year took place in Castle Oblivion. The second year was Sora sleeping for a full year in the pod, regaining his memories as Namine was putting them back and in order. So basically as Sora sleeps, Roxas is running around doing his work for Organization XIII. The problem is that at the beginning of this game, they introduce another member, Member XIV, Xion. Yes, that is really her name, and yes, even other Organization XIII characters are wondering about the meaning of her name. But by now they just call themselves the Organization, most likely so they don't have to change their name to XIV. But Xion isn't in KH2, and they refer to themselves as Organization XIII in KH2. So my main reason for playing is to find out what happens to Xion. Also, since Roxas is Sora's Nobody, I'm pretty sure Xion is Kairi's Nobody. They haven't explained much about Xion, except for the fact that she can use a keyblade. Another reason why I think it's Kairi's nobody. I should mention that throughout KH2, Riku wears a coat similar to that of the Org, and has basically infiltrated the Org. So my question is where is Riku's Nobody? If Kairi has one, shouldn't Riku? Or is Riku his own Nobody? I hope to get some answers out of this game.
But the gameplay is tedious. Instead of one giant game, Roxas must play through missions, like just defeating enemies, doing recon missions in new worlds (I enjoy these), or investigating new and giant enemies. But I'm happy that the devs are so far staying close to what events have already occurred in the Disney/KH crossover. Genie has already been set free, and Aladdin and Jasmine are now worried about new sandstorms created by the Heartless, in which they already know what the Heartless are. So I understand how the events of KH1 are leading into KH2. It just gets really confusing when Chain of Memories enters the picture. At one point, half of the Org leaves the castle their stationed in (not Castle Oblivion, this castle isn't between worlds, but a world in of itself, which Sora, Riku and Kairi fight through at the end of KH2) to tend to matters at Castle Oblivion. A few days later it is revealed that they were all defeated somehow. This is referring to Sora travelling up through Castle Oblivion, killing them all...but wait. I thought this game took place while Sora was sleeping? Which is why Roxas randomly sees a two second fuzzy memory of Sora's (this happens randomly on the blank bottom screen during a cutscene on the top screen, which is pretty cool) while Namine is putting them back in order? See, this is why I'm so confused. I understand each of the Org members (besides Xion, but she's new). I understand the plot so far of the game - Roxas is the only keyblade wielder (besides Xion), and since hearts can only be collected by the keyblade wielder, it is his job to go out, kill the heartless, and collect hearts, so Kingdom Hearts can be created. It's basically the transition between KH1 and KH2, with some CoM thrown in for more details. I just don't understand the time frame for all the events between 358/2 and CoM. CoM did a fantastic job of going back and forth between what events were occurring when, while playing a second time as Riku. But 358/2 is purposefully leaving out the exact times of when things are playing out. Is this happening before Sora is sleeping? During his time sleeping? Is there a point at the end of the game where things take place as Sora is waking up? I really hope this is all answered throughout the game, because it seems interesting.

What I really need is a PSP, so I can play Birth by Sleep. I'm much more interested in learning about the keyblade war, and the original keyblade wielders.

Part 3: The Sun Disappears

I spent a good twenty minutes finding a safe path down into the cave, always sure to have a good footing in the grass. After a few more moments, I reached what looked to be the bottom, as the cave had leveled out. The vines were still thick this far down, still getting their fair share of sunlight. I did not feel remorse about cutting them down however. I wanted the sunshine to be in view as long as possible. But the sunlight could only make its way so far into the depths of the cavern, and soon left the daytime in my wake.

Occasionally I felt the cool breeze rustle against my clothes, making its way towards the entrance. I started to wonder about last night, if it was possible that this was the same breeze I felt on the top of the hill. Could it have come all the way from down below, deep within the cave? Was this cave bigger then I had originally thought? What was more disturbing than the breeze was the grass still beneath my feet. “I have to be at least two hundred yards in from the bottom of the entrance, and yet the grass continues to grow. This grass has never seen the sunlight, and most likely doesn’t see much water in this dry and rocky cave. What other mysteries surround this cave?”

Before I had realized my mistake, I was tumbling down a steep ravine, having been too busy searching the ceiling for signs of water seepage. Luckily the incline evened out quickly, receiving only minor bruising on my legs. My misstep had cost me though, having dropped my torch to stop my fall with my hands. I looked around quickly, hoping to find the spot of either the torch or my satchel. Darkness had surrounded me, so the torch must have gone out. “Great, I fall down in a cave in which I am unfamiliar with, and now I have lost not only all my tools, but my sense of direction as well. And now it’s pitch black around me, with who knows what’s out there. Dammit, all I need is the satchel to get another piece of wood so I can make another torch, with magic or whatever.” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glint of something shiny. I cautiously shuffled my over to it, hoping to avoid another chasm. When I reached it, I touched it gently with my fingers, unsure if anything around me could be trusted. The object seemed metallic and cold to the touch. Once again the object formed a glint on one of its edges. I realized that the only possible way for a glint to appear was to have some sort of light shining upon it. I quickly turned around, trying to find the source of the light, but took me a few moments to figure out where it had come from. Far up above me, I could see my torch that I had dropped, and the top of the ravine. What struck me as odd was its position. “My torch is standing upright, as if someone had stuck it firmly into the ground. How strange. It’s not possible it did so after I dropped it, the stick doesn’t weigh enough to force itself into the ground.”

The still lit torch provided more light than I had originally thought, and showed the position of my satchel, lying open at the foot of the hill. Lying partially out of the satchel was the pickaxe, as if on purpose. I glanced back at the metallic object, and understood the reason the man gave me the pickaxe. “I’m not sure how this object is going to help in building a better home, but hopefully I can at least save some to take home. I’m sure it’s worth a fortune!” I created another torch, and made my way back over.

What seemed like hours went by as I hacked away at the metallic object embedded in the wall, slowly chipping away the chunks. I made sure to grab each and every bit, but the thought didn’t occur to me until I was almost finished - *I must have put a good three hundred pounds of this object into my satchel, and yet without realizing it, it all kept fitting, and did not add any weight!* I wanted to keep mining for this material, but it seemed to be all hacked away.

*SPLOT* As the time passed, I had forgotten that I was still inside the cave, and unsure if I was alone. *SPLOT* The noise echoed again around me, having a good feeling it had come from deeper within the cave. *SPLOT* It was louder, and seemed to be quickly approaching. I set down my torch, and was amazed to see it stand itself upright! “Not only is the gel magic, but the wood must be magi-“ *SPLOT!* I was too busy admiring the magical stick when something wet and rubbery slammed against my face, knocking me to the ground. This time I managed to hold onto my satchel, and drew out my sword. I looked down at my feet as I lied on my back, and could see a blue slime wiggling like Jell-O in the light of the flame. It jumped once more, and with closing my eyes, swung my sword and hoped to make contact before it landed on me.

I felt the sword slice through the gelatinous creature, and heard it hit a close wall to my right. I opened my eyes, and could see it still alive at the bottom of the wall. I got up, waiting for another attack. After a few seconds, I noticed it was not about to attack, so I made the move, rushing in. It hopped towards me just as I came near, and nearly missed my face. One lucky slash is all it took, its movements stagnant.

I started to pick up the gel, when I heard another splot, far down the hall. My gathering quickened, as I was in no shape to try to fight again. I also knew that there was bound to be many more.

The hill I had fallen down didn’t seem to be as steep as I originally thought, though there were a few spots I had to jump to, to continue upwards. I jogged down this next hall, seeing the sunlight hitting the bottom of the entrance in the distance. “Shoot, I forgot the torches! Oh well, I have a feeling that I’ll be returning tomorrow, so I guess I can just leave them there. I wonder how long the magical gel with burn for though?” It felt great to get the soft feeling of grass under my feet as I reached the bottom of the entrance. Along the way up, I could see the vines I had chopped down, crumpling under my feet. I looked up to see where I had chopped them off, and made a startling discovery – the vines had already started growing back! Some had even grown over a foot long, yet I had only been in the cave for a few hours!

“Ah, Tydides, good to see you again!” The man stood at the entrance to the cave, his arms crossed with a big grin on his face. “I hope you made good work with your time spent down in the cave, it has some valuable materials hidden deep within. Let me see what you have found.” The man extended his arm, his hand open to me. I pulled out a piece of the metallic object, and put it in his palm. “Mmm, copper ore. While not very valuable, it is good for a beginner like you.”

“Excuse me, beginner?” I took offense to the term, yet I had no idea why. “I don’t see what qualifies me as a beginner. And if this is copper, it is definitely of quality and value!”

“I apologize Tydides, it’s just that you haven’t shown me much in a way that I should be confident in your building abilities. I passed by your shack on the way here, and I should tell you that one of the walls fell over. A cute bunny has made itself a home inside, though. I’m sure he’ll be quite comfortable there. You, on the other hand, need something a little more fitting for a human.” He threw the copper ore back in my direction, me barely catching it. “As for that ore, you will soon find many other much more valuable items back behind you, buried within the darkness. I should also mention that in this land, life is more valuable than objects. I hope you remember that,” the man winking as he said this.

Part 2: The Rising of the Sun

I was startled awake by a large piece of wood falling into my lap. I had feared this would eventually happen, but thankful that it had waited until morning.

“Good morning Tydides! I see you made it through the night. I am happy for this!” The man was on his hands and knees, gazing through the hole in the ceiling. “I apologize for ruining your roof, however I could not find a door on this…shack. I would have thought you would have already figured out how to make a door…but no matter! Today is a new day, and we have much to discuss!” Though I was not as cheerful as this man appeared to be, I was glad to be able to finally get some answers.

We walked a few minutes without much talking, as he showed me the easy way down the hill I had built my shelter on. “I am happy to see you figured out how to use your tools! Some of the others…no mind now! Building the shelter on top of the hill was a wise move, you will be glad to have chosen that spot as your home at a later time!”
Too afraid to ask about these ‘others’, I kept the conversation moving forward. “What do you mean my home? You don’t really expect me to continue living there, do you?”

“Hahaha! Of course not! I would not expect anyone to continue living in such abysmal conditions! I expect you to continue building upwards and outwards! I’m sure you can find the right materials to create a comfortable home.”

“I’m sorry, but you must keep forgetting, I don’t even know where I am.”

The man’s face formed a quizzical look as he responded, “You mean you really don’t remember where you are?”

“Well, no. Should I know where I am? Nothing around here looks familiar. Please, can you just tell me what this place is?”

“Hmm.” The man scratched his head, unsure of how to word his next sentence. “Let me show you something. This might help you.” He led me over to a short post, with a wooden board stuck to the top. As strange as it was, I didn’t recall seeing it the day before. I must have missed it in the tall grass. “Read this, and tell me what you think.”

I leaned around the board, and read it out loud, “’Welcome to the land of Tallon IV’. I don’t understand. How is this supposed to help me? Tallon IV sounds strangely familiar, but I don’t know why. Who owns this land?” I looked back at the man, and was surprised to see a smile form on his face.

“Why, you do of course. You named it yourself. Really son, whatever hit you must have had some impact on your head. Now look, it’s early morning, and I’d advise you to rebuild your home. I have a feeling that this next night will need something a little sturdier. I seem to recall a cave just past the hill you live on. Why don’t you go check it out? It may provide you with better materials to build your house with.” As much as I wanted to continue with my questions, I knew he wasn’t about to let on so easily. I turned away, but not without some more advice. “Oh, and if I were you, I’d take the sword along too. Just in case.”

With this statement, I had revised my thoughts, to ask just one more question. “Before I go, I need to know – how can I get home?”

“And as much as I’d like to answer that question Tydides, you’re not at the point for that to become clear. But hear me out – I promise that one day, you will find a way home.”

This time as I walked away towards my hill, he did not disappear. He stood there, watching me slowly make my way up the hill. Even though I still did not learn his name, I trusted him. I didn’t know who he was, where I am, and why he insists that I was the owner of these lands. Part of him seemed crazy. Then again, the sounds and images from the night didn’t seem natural either.

I found the other side of my hill to be much easier to traverse, and had no problem finding the entrance to the cave. Many vines draped over the top of the entrance, which didn’t leave much light to enter. Darkness extended well beyond my view into the cave, though it did not seem very steep. Slowly a cool breeze wept out of the cave and brushed over my face. The sense from the breeze last night returned, having the same effect. The hair on my arms raised up, along with my sense of fear. “Damn, the old man wants me to explore the cave, but how am I supposed to do that without a light? And even if I do manage to find a light, what does he expect me to find?” Suddenly I heard a rustle from behind. I noticed something move in the deep grass, but blended in so I wasn’t sure what it was. Instinctively I pulled out my sword, yet I had no idea how to use it. With a quick jump, a green slime came flying at me! I closed my eyes as I swung my sword with all my strength, falling backwards into the entrance of the cave. I rushed to my feet, and found that with such a poor swing, I had barely hit my target. Yet, unsure of how, the green slime was dead, a liquid oozing out of its side. Curiously I leaned in to get a closer look at this remarkable creature. For some reason the fearfulness of the cave had left me, the feeling of winning such a small fight raising my confidence. Whereas the enemy had the form of a round slime about a foot across, its insides were more gelatinous. I took a leftover stick from my chopping last night, glad that I had picked them up as I came back over the hill. Slowly I reached down to poke the unfortunate creature. *FOOM!* As if by magic, the gel attached itself to the wooden stick, and lit itself aflame. “How is this possible?! Nowhere in science has anyone discovered a gel such as this! By attaching it to a piece of wood, one can make a torch!” Quickly I turned around, my eyes upon the cave. “I suppose this answers my question of where to get light from.”

My happiness soon came to an end when another rustling came from behind. I retrieved my sword, and assumed a better position than the previous battle. *This time I’m ready for a slime!* My anxiety rose as the seconds went by, slowly waiting for it to jump out. Out popped a small white bunny, and I had to slow my swing as to not harm the creature. “Well this is a surprise. I suppose this land isn’t all magic and evil after all.” The small bunny sniffed the dead slime, then turned to nibble on some grass. I smiled at the thought of a peaceful land, and returned my thoughts to the cave. I grabbed as much gel as I could stuff into my pockets while careful to avoid the sticks, and faced the entrance. “I sure hope to see you again soon, Mr. Bunny.” And with that I stepped into the darkness of the cave, the torch my sole guidance.

An Unexpected Arrival

The sky far above was a pale blue as I opened my eyes. Blinking a few times, I realized I was lying in a bed of grass, with the fresh aroma of flowers somewhere near my head. I felt comfortable, yet uneasy. Slowly I managed to sit up, and was just able to get a view of my surroundings over the tall grass. The landscape was broad, covered with trees and other greenery for quite a ways, until reaching a hill some ways away. Turning the other direction as I got to my feet, a small hill met my view, also covered with grass, with the tall trees towering at the top. It was a beautiful land to behold. As much as I wanted to continue my gaze, the uneasiness returned. *Where am I?*

“Glad to see you’ve awoken!” A man startled me from behind, a moment ago of which he was not there. “You’ve been out for some time now, but do not worry, I have been looking over you. Welcome to these lands! Now before we discuss more important matters, what is your name?”

As nervous as I was a minute ago, something about this man calmed me. “Ty..Tydides is my name. Sir, may I ask you wh-“

“Where we are isn’t your concern yet, son. All you need to realize right now is above you.” I gazed up again, confused as to what he meant. “The sun, kid, look at where it’s at. I’d say we’ve got about a fourth of the daylight left to us, before that old sun goes down. And when it goes down…well, it’s a good thing I found you while it was still shining.”

“You say you found me lying in the grass, but how did I get here? I can’t seem to remember a thing. And furthermore, who are you?”

The man sighed, and began talking again. “As I’ve just told you, these matters are not of your concern at the moment. Night is falling, and I must be going. It’s dangerous to go alone, so take this. I wish I could help you further, but at least you are now awake.”

I looked down and saw what he had dropped at my feet: a satchel, inside containing a wooden axe, pickaxe, and sword. I stared down at the wooden sword, unsure what to make of the situation. “Um, excuse me, but what exactly do I need a sword for…?” Unfortunately when my eyes returned to level, the man had disappeared. There was no way he could have run over the hills in the matter of seconds. What worried me even more than his disappearing act was the phrase he uttered. Somehow it felt familiar.

I grabbed the tools and headed to the top of the nearest hill, to get a bearings of my surroundings. A better view of the landscape could at least give me an idea of how I got here. After a good twenty minutes of navigating the narrow ledges, I reached the top and peered through the trees. Bewilderment filled me as my eyes met the view. *Nothing but grass, trees, and a few small hills for miles.* A slight breeze brushed over me, sending chills down my spine. I looked up and realized the sun would be setting soon. The breeze blew by again, and once again I felt as though something was amiss. Somehow I knew, something was coming. I remembered what the man had said, “And when it goes down…” Night brought about something unnatural, and I wasn’t about to wait and find out what.

Hurriedly I looked at my surroundings. “What am I supposed to do now?! Oh why did that man just leave me here? Think Tydides, think…the man must have had a reason to believe I could survive on my own.” I moved my foot and heard the clinking inside the satchel on the ground. “The tools…? Obviously an axe is used to cut down trees, most likely for the wood. A pickaxe would be for mining or climbing, though I don’t see why I would need to be doing either of such things. And a sword, well, I hope I don’t have much need for one anytime soon. Was the man implying that I should cut these trees down?” Just then the wind rustled through the leaves of the trees, with an eerie stillness soon following. Looking into the distance, darkness was covering the lands, the sun giving off a deep red sunset. “All I want right now is to be inside somewhere safe, though I guess a basic wood shelter will have to do for the night.”

What seemed like only minutes went by as I had chopped down a few small trees nearby, and cut them into jagged planks. I realized that they wouldn’t stand well in the grass by themselves, so I cleared out the grass and dirt with the pickaxe. “Well that tool seemed to do a pretty good job. Maybe the man had a reason for giving it to me after all?” My gaze fell upon the wooden sword, unsure of what this meant. Rushing to finish, I completed my wooden shelter, if one could even call it that. Many cracks appeared in what was meant to be my ceiling, with stars shining through. I didn’t have time to craft anything remotely close to a door, so a larger wooden plank had to make do, with some stone holding it in place. I sat down with my back against the dirt that I had used as my far wall, hoping to get some rest.

Night passed by slowly, as I woke from my sleep often. Though the grass and leaves were a comfortable enough bed, it was the noises which stirred me awake. All night I could hear shuffling across my ceiling, as shadows passed over. Every so often a knocking and scraping came at my door, though I was in no way about to open to see what was just beyond. A wooden sword didn’t seem sufficient to lower my fear. Near the morning I could have sworn I heard moaning, though that could have just been my imagination. Eventually I fell asleep, the sounds slowly drifting away.

8-Bit Retrospective

Wow, another post! It takes a special game for me to really want to update this blog, and I've been just finishing one up lately. Before I delve into the 8-bit greatness as is this game, I should probably recap what I've done in the past few months. I feel like I'll talk about a game on here, but never finish the story.

I finished the main story of Fallout: New Vegas. Yeah. Well...it was extremely underwhelming. As much fun as the game was the whole time, that ending was really bad. I sided with the Legion after I killed Caesar (it was an accident, I swear), though that had no affect on the endgame content. I assassinated the President (sniping him from afar was quite satisfying, too bad I had to used VATS - or else I would have been known to be the spy). The Legion took over the Mojave, and basically killed everyone in their path. The Great Khans were merged into the Legion, but lost their name. The NCR, raiders, Powder Gangers, and remaining Brotherhood of Steel members were all hunted down and killed. Everyone else escaped West towards the Pacific. Oh, except the Boomers. Since they helped during the last attack, the Legion left them alone. As for me, the Legion leader gave me a gold coin with my face on it and said thanks. Both of which are useless to me. Then I was sent on my way and literally disappeared into the sunset. The 2nd saddest ending (but #1 most depressing) to a video game that I've ever seen, behind Conker's Bad Fur Day. I mean c'mon, nothing beats Conker's girlfriend dying at the end of the game, defeating half the purpose of the game. Maybe one day I'll play the NV dlc and finish the sidequests. Or start a new game and go on a melee weapon killing spree right from the get-go.

Since I've moved down here for grad school, I've barely played any console games. The house is so quiet, I feel bad having my TV on. So my DS is where I've been spending my game time. I should mention that I also recently finished Etrian Odyssey III, and started Etrian Odyssey. That deserves a separate post, with much more creativity and thought processing. It may still be coming, as I've been thinking about a good way to write it. Cross your fingers, if that post becomes a reality, I personally think it could turn out to be awesome.

So we come to Retro Game Challenge. If it weren't for Retro Game Master appearing on Kotaku, it is doubtful I would have picked this up. But I'm glad I did, and also happy that I played through Game Dev Story, as they feel similar, in the sense that fake game companies hype new games coming out soon, and have funny names for game rip-offs. I would like to discuss, however, each individual game found in RGC, and my feelings on them as well. Let me begin by saying that I have beaten all 32 (?) original challenges, with no cheats used. Even though many of the challenges are simple, I'm proud of that fact. I have beaten 5 of the 8 in story mode, with the only cheat used is continues, besides Rally King. I'll discuss the cheats more soon though.

Cosmic Gate was a wonderful first game. I believe it was based off of Galaga? I didn't take the time to look up what some of these games were ripped off from (though most seem pretty original). The game was not too difficult, yet made sure to amp up the difficulty in the later levels. The power-up was a neat idea, as it was not always easy to obtain, but extremely useful when used correctly. I did in fact use the super-secret warp to beat the game, to go from level 1 to 64 in one warp. I was disappointed that I had to use a continue when I only had 2 enemies left on the screen. Obviously once I continued, I had no problem defeating the two. Young Arino was programmed well for this game, and made the perfect noises and uttered the right phrases at perfect times, making me feel like I was doing really well. However, he becomes increasingly annoying in later games.

Robot Ninja Haggle Man was pretty frustrating in the beginning. At first I didn't quite understand the controls, combined with the mechanics of the doors. It took quite a few play-throughs to wrap my head around the ideas, but finally at one point it just clicked. Too bad once I beat the first (fake) boss, the challenge ended my spectacular run. Also, once again, when I beat the game, the only time I had to use a continue was during the 2nd and real final boss fight. And with no surprise, after I continued I didn't have much trouble defeating him. At this point I didn't realize RCG was comprised of sequels as well.

Rally King fits with what the developers were aiming for, however in my opinion, it is very poorly programmed. The concept is neat, and was happy to see them try to include an 8-bit type racing game. But with such a small screen, fast speeds, and a car that takes up an 8th of the screen, walls and objects come out of nowhere. It's very frustrating to be flying along in first place, when a wall appears from the top of the screen, when the tiny arrow showed that it's just a zig-zag in the track. And of course one bounces of the wall, comes to a complete stop after losing all momentum, and then gets rammed from behind by another racer. To me the game is almost unplayable. Personally, I wish they would have taken the arcade approach, with those monster truck racing games where the whole track is showed on the screen, and you can see every racer going around and over the obstacles. That would have greatly improved the overall RGC experience. But that's just what I want, and probably isn't 8-bit (though I don't think this is either, because it reminds me so much of MicroMachines, which I thought only came out on 32-bit systems?). To beat this game in story mode, I turned off all other vehicles, and took my time around the tracks. I would have turned off all damage as well, but couldn't get that cheat to work.

Star Prince is easily my favorite game on the cartridge, bar none. I'm not the biggest fan of shoot-em-ups, but when they aren't excessively difficult and include power-ups, I like to give them a shot. And this is exactly the type of schmups I enjoy. The first four challenges were no problem, though beating the game gave me quite some trouble. I had to use one continue on the first (and fake! I loved that!) final boss, and probably about 10 continues on the second (and real) final boss. The final bosses weren't that much different, but I feel like the real one was a tad faster, shot more projectiles which moved faster as well, and came further down the screen (reducing flying space) than the fake. I loved that game though, I hope to one day beat it without using any continues, which I could see myself doing here soon. Maybe what really stood out to me was the shield which absorbs enemy bullets, and after every 3, released a large charged shot. The shield made the game easier, but also gave the player a chance to try to speed up the game, and demolish enemies at a faster rate. This is the game which made me hate young Arino. There is so much going on during the final boss, that Arino never shuts up. Whenever the player has the shield up, and gets hit by a powerful shot, the shield disappears, and Arino makes a comment. Well the player is continuously putting the shield back up to either absorb the many bullets, or deflect those large shots, all of which are coming towards the ship at an alarming rate. So it leaves Arino making a noise or comment literally every 2 seconds, and that is not an exaggeration. Whoa! Dude! Aww! Wow! Whoa! It rivals Navi, it's that bad.

Rally King SP was completely unnecessary. Did the developers believe that the first Rally King was that good, that they felt the need to include a "sequel"? And it's the least bit of a sequel compared to all of the other sequels in the game. They changed a couple things on the track, but the courses are still exactly the same. Had to use the "no other racers" cheat again to finish this game. Nothing more needs to be said about this game, except that the developers added more garbage.

Robot Ninja Haggle Man 2 was a much better sequel. Not much was changed, besides larger levels (with thankfully much more time on the clock) and a few new items. But even many of the enemies are rehashed. But it's not really a bad thing. I don't have much to comment on about this game, because it really is just a sequel to an already pretty good game. Had to use a couple continues to beat this game, but not many. Definitely possible to beat both without continues.

Guardia Quest is the oddball of the group. As neat as it sounds to have a retro rpg included on this cartridge, it doesn't really fit it with these games in the long run. Each of these games can be beaten in a short amount of time, and definitely in one sitting, even the final game. But being an rpg, one needs to take hours to beat this game. As neat as it would be to legitimately beat this game without cheats, I feel like my time could be better spent elsewhere. Not that this is a bad rpg, it really is pretty good. Kinda grindy, but it's doable. Each of my characters are level 15, and have pretty good weapons, but I really don't feel like spending more time beating this game, especially when there is a cheat to view the credits. I think I'm just going to use the cheat to view the credits. I'm not wasting my time.

I will however, spend a great deal of time focusing on Robot Ninja Haggle Man 3. This game seems amazing. It's like Ninja Gaiden, except with rpg elements. And with me being someone who loves games where you collect trinkets and money, Haggle Man 3 is awesome. I plan on beating this game without any cheats or continues used. Though yes, I have seen how unfair many of the levels can be, with brutal platforming with enemies knocking the player back into the pits. But just like Arino on RGM, the player just needs to try again and again to figure out how to beat the game.

So there are my thoughts on RGC, and I hope I didn't miss any games. I recently purchased the Humble Indie Bundle 3, and while most games are crap (okay, not crap, but just not very good indie games, compared to what I'm used to), a few are very fun. So I hope to post again soon, to discuss some of the games that came in the bundle. I also received the Humble Indie Bundle 2, since I payed more than the average donator. $7.50 for 11 games is tough to beat. Unfortunately I started researching another cheap game that I've seen here and there online, and realized how much I want it. So if I do end up getting it, I'll for sure blog about it.