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Welcome to the Saints That Serve podcast, where each week your hosts dive into the crossroads of faith, culture, and the unknown. Christ is Lord and the kingdom is now. We are the Saints that serve.

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Hey everyone, welcome to the Saints that serve podcast. And this is episode 54. We're right at the beginning of season two, and we are excited. So excited. So we're kind of in a prime up for spooky season. It's coming up, it'll be here before you know it. But this week we're going to be doing a one-off super special time. We're going to be talking about one of our favorite video games, specifically Jaris's favorite video game. That's right. And we're the entire time is dedicated to it. So there's not multiple segments or segments or anything. We're going to be spending the entire time talking about this. So, real quick, if you need prayer for anything, please reach out to us. You can do so through social media. Pray for you Friday. That's right. We pray for you every Friday. So reach out. You can email us at SaintsThatserve at gmail.com, or there's a link at the bottom of the notes. You can use that link to message us. Uh, and we're praying for you every Friday. So outside of that, we're Tyler, we're gonna transition into our topic for tonight. We are talking about Man, we're getting into it quick tonight. I want to make sure we spend all of our time getting through all the information. But tonight we're talking about Kingdom Hearts.

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Kingdom Hearts. So, right off the bat, disclaimer, uh, warning, all of that fun stuff, we are going to be talking about deep, deep spoilers, getting deep into the weeds. So if you are currently playing, we're gonna talk about everything, all the games. Lore master. Lore master, that's me. All right. So we're gonna get into it. So if you are currently playing the series, you know. Turn it off. Turn this episode off. Ashley, stop listening. I was about to say the next thing is if you are my wife, Ashley, turn this episode off right now. We are going to be playing this game together, my wife. So you will need to uh go in fresh on that. But if your name is not Ashley, or your name is Ashley and not my wife, no. Keep listening.

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Yeah, I was actually surprised that they started making the games because I didn't think that the movie did like that well. What? I mean, I think that Orlando Bloom did well portraying the main character.

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Huh? But you can't keep a straight face.

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I was gonna keep going, yeah.

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Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven of Heaven. What?

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Goodness. There's a video game called Kingdom of Paradise that has nothing to do with either one of these franchises. Oh. But you know what does have Orlando Bloom in it?

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Pirates of the Caribbean.

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You know what is Pirate Jack Sparrow. Yes. Kingdom Hearts has a Pirates of the Caribbean world in one of the games that you go to.

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Yeah, so we we need to go ahead and just So that's great segue. So there you go.

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We need to get into what is Kingdom Hearts? Kingdom Hearts is a video game franchise that was made by at the time, uh Square was the name of the company. I believe Square. They sound like they're on the up and up. They're pretty hip.

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It just sounds like a whole bunch of right angles. Yeah.

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They're all right. So it's a company that makes JRPGs. Okay. So Square is the company.

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Pause.

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Okay.

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Explain what a JRPG is for everyone. I was about to.

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Okay. A Japanese role-playing game. Okay. So, you know, you just it's made in Japan and it is uh you are in a role and you're playing the game. Got it. The Square is really big for making the Final Fantasy series. Yes. So eventually they became Square Soft, and then from there they became Square Enix. Okay. And that's how we all know them today. Gotcha. Uh other game franchises they made, uh, Final Fantasy said that already. Uh Dragon Quest. They've also, I believe Dragon Quest. Maybe I'm crazy. Anyways, they're really big on the RPGs uh series, and they made a lot of good ones. So Kingdom Hearts is a video game crossover between Square Enix and Disney. Disney. So kind of like a quick little history of that. Okay. Uh the concept for Kingdom Hearts began with Square, now Square Enix, and Disney. They shared an office building in Japan. Okay. In a chance elevator conversation between Square producer Shinji Hashimoto and a Disney executive sparked the idea of making a game with both companies' characters.

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Okay.

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So they got a hold of a guy named Tetsuya Namura, who was a character designer for Final Fantasy, and he designed the characters, the biggest ones he designed them for was Final Fantasy VII, which a lot of people consider the best Final Fantasy game.

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Okay.

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I I I played the remakes of those of it. It's good. It's really good.

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Okay.

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But he was chosen to direct the project. This was his first time as a director. The goal was to create an action RPG that combined the storytelling depth of Final Fantasy with the accessible, family-friendly worlds of Disney. Right? Wow. That's great. Yeah. How how how how far? I'm trying to be careful not to get on too many tangents.

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No, I think you need to get in on all the tangents. So, okay. The game, there's 13 different games you can play now, right?

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Yes, yes. Okay. Um now, when you say now, some are no longer playable. Just because they've outdated like the consoles that no play because they were mobile games and they were games as a service and they've been shut down. Ah, okay.

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All right. So, but there's bit they've created up to 13 games.

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Right. And with uh several, several, several re-releases of those games. Okay. With whether they be in compilations or being part of like, okay, here's an example. And this is really big of how they do this. Like, they'll release a game in Japan, right? And then later on, they will re-release that game under like a kind of like, okay, Kingdom Hearts final mix. Yeah. So they'll re-release the game with added cutscenes, new quests, new this, new that, and they will have extra bosses in the enemies. They do like they'll just do a lot of little things that doesn't really fully change the overall story, but will change your gaming experience.

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Yeah.

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So they did that a few times. So yeah.

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The main character, is it the same character played through all the games? Do you play the same character all the way through, or is each game have its own main character?

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So the there is an overall story that begins with your main character. Okay. His name is Sora. Okay. But you don't play as Sora in every game.

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Okay.

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But if you aren't playing as Sora, you are playing as a character connected to Sora's story.

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Okay, but playable characters, are they all made for the game, or are some of them like creative licensed from Disney?

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All of the characters you play as are all original characters for this franchise.

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Okay. So the Disney licensed like characters, they're like support character NPCs? Yes. Okay. Gotcha. What what are your favorite NPCs in all of the games?

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All the games. There is I guess like what arc? I want to be careful because I'd rather like get into the stories.

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Okay. Okay, let's get it.

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Because if we do that, then we can talk about these characters. Because if I just call out names, you're not going to who know who I'm talking about. Okay.

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Good. Let's get into the story then so we can get to that question.

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Okay, great. So we are going to be talking about. I'm I'm going to go in release order.

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Okay.

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So in doing that, okay, so the stories aren't necessarily in order.

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Okay.

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What I'm necessarily. The stories are not in order. Yeah. Uh there is a game that takes place ten years before the first game, another one that takes place hundreds of years before the first game. Okay. Uh there's games that will come out and take place between other games that have already been come out. So let's just let's do this.

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I just for everyone listening. If we if you could be in the room, like every single time Jerus is about to start talking about something, he's got this huge smile on his face. Like he's ready to talk about all of this.

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I am not stumbling over my words because I don't know what to say. I'm stumbling over my words because I want to portray how great this is to me. Yeah. I'm being I'm trying to slow down because when I start talking about something I'm excited about, and you can ask John, I really start talking quicker and I'll start stumbling over my words a little bit more because I'm going faster than my brain can keep up with. Yeah. All right. Let's get into it. All right. Kingdom Hearts one. Meanwhile. Yep. That was an accident. Which one were you going to actually try to do? No, I I was moving pages and I accidentally hit. Meanwhile. Alright. So we are in the first game introduced to our three characters. It is Sora, Riku, and Kyrie.

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Okay.

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Uh Sora and Riku are two boys, and then Kyrie is a girl.

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Okay.

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The reason why I clarify that is because in a Final Fantasy, I think it's 10, there is a Riku and it's female. She is female.

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Okay.

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So in this, Riku is a boy. Gotcha. So they live on a um. It's in this, it's portrayed as an island, and they're just staying on it. But really, it's they live on a, I don't, what is the phrase for it? It's a coastal peninsula? I guess so. What are you trying to explain it? It's just a shoreline, like they're the main mainland. Coastline. And then what they do is they get on these boats and they go out to this island and they play all day on this little little island. It's called Destiny Island. Okay. So yeah, they just live on the coast. Uh-huh. So they go out every day and they'll play on the island with their friends and whatnot. So they're going there and they've made a plan that they're going to build a raft and leave. They're just like, there's so many great places out there. I want to go on an adventure. Yeah. Right. So, you know, they're preparing the raft, and there's a cutaway, and then it you see uh it's Disney, a Disney castle. It's like, you know, from after you're a couple of days on the island, it cuts, and it's a Disney castle, and you um it's Donald Duck, and he goes and he's gonna go talk to Mickey Mouse. Now, mind you, this isn't like the Donald Duck and Goofy silly. Yeah. They're not like overly like serious or hardcore or anything like that. But don't picture them like cartoony. There's not a lot of that. Okay. Uh it's a kingdom, right? So like Goofy is the head of the knights, and Donald is the lead magician, right? He's the court magician. And then Mickey Mouse is the king of the kingdom. Okay, right? He's King Mickey.

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King Mickey.

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And so they find out that Mickey's just gone. Okay. He's left a letter behind saying, Hey, I gotta go, I gotta dip. Because the worlds are slowly disappearing.

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Ooh.

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The worlds are slowly disappearing, getting swallowed up by darkness, and I gotta go figure out why. Okay. He says in his letter, Donald and Goofy, you need to go find the key.

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Okay.

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And that's all they it says, find the key to help me save these worlds. Yeah. So then it cuts back and they get the raft built. And I'm I'm gonna be a little wrong here just for the sake of telling the story.

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Okay.

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But as they're going to leave uh Riku, Kyrie, and Sora, a darkness overtakes the island, and it's slowly being sucked up into this dark, dark black hole, and they're trying to they're trying to get out. And so Sora finds Kyrie and she's she's standing there, she's kind of like just I don't know how to explain it, but just kind of like deadpan. She's just like almost soulless, and this explosion happens and she just gets blown away, like her body gets blown away, and it kind of like goes over to Sora, passes through Sora, and she just disappears. Oh. And so he's like, What's going on? So he starts trying to find her, and he finds Riku, which is his best friend, and he's like, Riku's like, I did it. I opened the gate, we can leave now.

unknown: 14:40

What?

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And Sora and Riku start kind of getting swallowed up by this darkness, and then all of a sudden a light shines, and Sora wakes up and he's now holding a weapon.

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Okay.

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And it's a they call it a keyblade.

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Yeah, keyblade.

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It's a key blade.

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And that's the iconic, like Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts.

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Right. So he's now holding it. He don't know why why he has it, yeah, where it came from, but he has it, and these dark creatures are showing up everywhere. You find out what they're called later on, but they're called heartless. So before Sora's trying to fight him with a stick, and he couldn't hit them, but that weren't doing any damage. But he got the keyblade, and now he's able to harm these creatures. Okay. So you go through this boss battle of this giant heartless, you defeat it, and the whole island gets swallowed up.

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Wait, I'm sorry. What's the heartless?

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They are just creatures, dark creatures.

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Okay. So they're the bad guys. Yes. Gotcha.

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So no, sorry. In the letter, they tell him, they tell Donald Goofy to find Leon. Leon. Find Leon. And so Sora, after the planet blows up, he wakes up in a new place.

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Okay.

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And they find, and so and also Donald Goofy happened to be there. And through this whole world, the place is called Traverstown. Travelers or Travers Traverse. Travers. Traverstown. Okay. And so they go through this whole, like, you go through this whole thing where you're kind of meeting up with people, kind of giving you backstory. They tell you about the Heartless. And really, it's kind of like this kind of silly game. No, it's not silly, but it's kind of like, oh I got you again, kind of like trickster thing where it's like you almost meet up with Donald and Goofy and you always keep barely missing them.

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Okay.

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And so, but you find out from Leon, you you find Leon. Leon fights you. Yeah. And he's like, essentially because the Heartless keep coming after Sora.

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Okay.

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And it's fine, like, I had to knock you out because they wouldn't stop coming after you. Gotcha. And so they give the backstory, they explain what the Heartless are, all this stuff. And then the Heartless end up invading the room they're in, so he has to take off again. Sora does. And so you're going through Traverstown and you end up running into Donald and Goofy, and then there's this big boss fight. And so they meet him and they're like, hey, here's the key. We found the key. You need to come with us, you know, that kind of thing. And so you do. So you leave and you go off. And at that point, I did all that kind of to summarize. It's kind of an introduction. And the rest of the game is as you go into these different places, right? And they call them worlds, and they're all Disney properties. So there's Tarzan, Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Hercules.

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Kind of set up like the parks where different parts of the park are a world.

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Yes, in that sense that like you have different areas, but like a few key things is like when you they're traveling in a spaceship, right? Okay. Donald Goofy are traveling in a spaceship. The other worlds are not supposed to know about one another. Oh. So you're there and the worlds don't know about each other. They're separated from one another.

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Okay.

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So as you're going to world to world, you find out that the heartless are trying to overtake the planet, envelop it in darkness, and that's what happened to yours. And to stop that from happening, you have to seal up the keyhole of each world. So you're trying to find the keyhole, and it's usually you do it after you fight a boss.

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Okay.

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And so you also find out that Maleficent from Sleepin Beauty. That nasty lady. That nasty lady has formed a council of villains. Uh oh. And so they are also, they are wanting what they're calling the seven princesses of heart.

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Okay.

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And so it kind of correlates to the Disney princesses to some degree. Though for some reason, in the game, Ariel is in it and she's not one, but Alice from Alice in Wonderland is a princess of heart. Okay. So it gets if this sounds weird, it gets even more confusing later on. But this is the most basic of the games. So they have like the council of people trying to gather essentially to unlock this door that'll get them great power. Yeah. That's what Maleficent is after.

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Okay.

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So as you go to different worlds, uh, you just kind of get that central story, like or a condensed story. And it's sometimes it follows the story of the movie itself. And then sometimes it follows kind of you're just here and you're experiencing things. Like it's not always exactly the plot beat by beat to the movie that you're in.

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So does Maleficent know about the different worlds? She does. Okay. And the Council of Villains. They also know. They know. Okay. And they're breaking the barrier and they're not supposed to.

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Correct. Gotcha. And you find out later how she knows. Okay. But at this point, you're going place to place.

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Yeah.

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And you find out that Riku has found Kyrie's body. Okay. Because you're separated from your friends. You run into Riku and he's mad at Sora. Because he thinks that he's abandoned Kyrie. Okay. He's like, well, you're out here goofing off with your friends, going having adventures like we were supposed to. Yeah. And you didn't try to help Kyrie, and here I am helping Kyrie. So Maleficent was helping Riku, like essentially trying to like get him on her side. Yeah. And so they found the body, and he's like, now I'm going to Hollobastion to help her. That's what he calls it. He says, I'm going to Hollobastion to help her. And so from that point, and again, I'm skipping over a lot of stuff. Yeah. I'm trying to give the mo the key plot points here. So you follow Riku to Hollobastion. Okay. And Hollobastion is the kind of the headquarters of the villains.

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Okay.

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And so The The Council of Villains. The Council of Villains. Gotcha. What did I say? No, no, no. I'm just clarifying. Oh, yeah. The Council of Villains. Yeah, yeah. So Riku like confronts Sora and is like, hey, like, that's mine. Yeah. He's like, that's mine. It was meant for me. And he just reaches his hand out and he reclaims the keyblade from Sora.

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Okay.

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Because initially it was Sora, it was Riku's keyblade. But because he gave into the darkness on the island, it went to the next post, which was Sora. Sora. Okay. And Donald Goofer, like, sorry, we're supposed to follow the key. And they abandoned Sora. Dang. Dang. That's outside the castle. So they go into the castle, and Riku's like, How dare you keep trying to follow me? I'm trying to help Kyrie. I'm trying to save Kyrie. Yeah. And so he shoots a fireball at Sora, intending to kill him. Fireball! And Goofy's uh is like, no, I'll protect you. So I I failed to mention this. Uh Goofy has a shield, that's his weapon, and then Donald has like a staff.

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Okay.

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So he shields Sora from the fire blast, and they fight and beat the snot out of Riku.

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So Goofy's the heavy.

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Yes. He's the tank.

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And then Donald is the magician. And Sora's the warrior? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. So they're just missing a Archer.

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Uh everything in Kingdom Hearts is done in trios. Trios. Trios. So Riku retreats deeper into the castle. Okay. And he runs into like a hooded, mysterious figure. And he's like, really deep voice, like, I can help you. Okay. And so this he's like, I'll give you all this power. And he possesses Riku. And so you fight Maleficent, and then you fight her again as in a dragon form. Because. Because Disney. Yeah. Sora reclaimed the Keyblade in that first fight.

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Yeah.

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So it's back, it's back to his and his friends are back with him. And they travel further down in. And so you go and you find, like, you know, as you travel, you go and you find the essentially it's like almost like a final boss room type thing. And it is, you see on the like, like kind of like not plastered up on the wall, but like in cases, it's all of the princesses. Mm-hmm. And then you see Kyrie laying on the floor. And Riku is standing there, and he's got a keyblade. He's got a different keyblade. Okay. It's like this evil keyblade. Yeah. And he's like, You need to give it back. It's a different person now, but it's like you need to give it back. Yeah. You stole Kyrie's heart. So again, uh, so Kingdom Hearts is like a uh a lot of terminology of things, but a heart in Kingdom Hearts is like the soul.

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Okay.

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So he's like, you need to give it back. You stole her heart. And so it's like her lifeless body there, but she's not dead.

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Yeah.

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And so he's like, and I have this keyblade that can unlock people's hearts. And so you fight this uh evil Riku, and it's revealed that this guy, uh, his name is Ansom. Ansom. His name is Ansom, and he is the one who was pulling the strings the whole time, who was leaking information to Maleficent, and all what he wanted to do was gather the seven princes of heart to open up a door to Kingdom Hearts, an ultimate power.

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Okay.

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So he was pulling the strings from behind the scenes all the time. Ansom is a original character for Kingdom Hearts. Yeah. So you fight that Riku, and he is kind of wait, sorry. It I I it's been a minute since I played the first one.

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And that's just a healthy reminder to everybody. This is just the first game.

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And I'm trying to speed through it because it gets worse. So I think it's important to have a heavy foundation because even though this game is not convoluted, it's a heavy foundation for everything else. Yeah. So you beat Riku, and Sora is sitting there and he's they're contemplating what is going on. Like, Kyrie, wake up, you know, what is going on? And so Riku disappeared after you beat him, kind of revealing also Anselman kind of giving his backstory, and they both disappear. And Sora's like, oh, a key that can unlock people's hearts, and he stabs himself with it.

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Okay.

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And in doing so, inside it was that keyblade was the princesses of hearts, hearts. And they go back into them, they wake up, and inside Sora was his heart and Kyrie's. So whenever that explosion happened, her heart went to Sora to protect herself. Okay. Kind of like as a a bastion. Yeah, yeah. So when he does that, Sora disappears and turns into an Heartless. Dang. And so Goofy and Donald leave with Kyrie, like running out of this place. Because after he does that, a bunch of Heartless are swarming where they were at. Okay. And then you control a Heartless for a little while. Alright. And then like uh you run back into Kyrie and they're like, kill it, you know, kill that, kill that Heartless. You know, get it. And Kyrie's like, no, I know who that is, and she hugs him and he turns back into Sora.

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Aww. Aww. So all the heartless need is just a little bit of love.

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Yeah. So essentially at that point, Anselm kind of is he was kind of like a robed figure, but he was just kind of like a heart floating. Mm-hmm. And so he starts unleashing a bunch of heartless throughout the world. Okay. So you have to go to this last place called the final world. And you travel through it and you end up fighting Ansom. Seeker, his name is Ansem the Seeker of Darkness. The Seeker of Darkness. Yep. And so you fight him, you defeat him, and and he's like, No, I'm gonna like, and there's the door. There's the door to Kingdom Hearts. Right. And he's like, No, I'm gonna open the door, and it's gonna unleash all this darkness, and I'm gonna be powerful. And Sora's like, after through all my adventures, I know that Kingdom Hearts is light, and it opens up, and this big light beam shells uh shoots out and and destroys Ansem. Aw. And so they're like, We still so in this realm of darkness they're kind of in, they're now having to try to shut this door, right? Okay, and they're like, we can't do it, we can't shut it. And on the other side of it is Riku, and he's like, I know I did wrong. So he's trying to shut it from the inside while you're trying to shut it from the outside. Essentially, he's gonna shut himself in. Okay. And on the other side of the door, is he's like, I'm I'm here to help you too. And it's Mickey Mouse holding a third key blade. Oh it looks like Sora's, but it's like inverted colors. Yeah, yeah. So with the help of Mickey Mouse and Riku, they shut the door, shutting in Riku and Mickey Mouse into this realm of darkness. And Sora, Goofy, and Donald are now on the outside of the door. They shut it, and uh and they show it in the final cut scene of like Kyrie is back to normal, and she's standing on this like lake as the worlds are starting to form back because they've restored the worlds that were destroyed. And it's like they're close to one another, but it's really like a huge rift between them. And it's like, I can't go with you. I have to still find Riku.

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Gotcha.

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So uh Kyrie goes back to the island, and Sora and Donald Goofy continue their adventure to try to find Riku and Mickey. And that's the end of Kingdom Hearts 1. Okay. But okay. Yep. Got it. So uh that was a lot, and I'm gonna go a little bit quicker. Okay. I'll try my best because it gets even worse. And if we run long, we run long. So here we go. Uh so what you know what game is after Kingdom Hearts 1?

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Is it Kingdom Hearts 2?

SPEAKER_03: 29:11

It is not. Oh so a huge thing about Kingdom Hearts is that every single game is important to the lore. Okay. But so the next game that came out was called Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. All right. It came out for the Game Boy Advance, and it's more lore heavy than Kingdom Hearts one. Got it. So as they're walking down, like they're like, okay, they're now walking down this path, like, where do we go now? I don't know, but we're gonna try to find the King and King Mickey and Riku. Yeah. So this game starts with them still on that same path, and this hooded figure appears in front of Sorry and is like, Come with me, come with me. So they end up going and finding this castle called Castle of Oblivion, where Oh, I love that. Yeah. Castle Oblivion? Yeah.

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No, just Oblivion.

SPEAKER_03: 30:02

Mm-hmm. So this game, the thing about side games with Kingdom Hearts is they usually have some sort of gimmick and they use reuse all of the assets from previous games. Gotcha. It's like all the so all of the Disney Worlds you go to in this are all the same worlds you went to in the first game.

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Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 30:21

They remade this. So this was a pixel art game on the Game Boy Advance, and they remade it on the PS2. So everything is in 3D environments with completely brand new 3D models for all these characters. Okay. So I'm going to try to be quick with it because it is a lot. But essentially, inside this castle are these root uh robed figures. They're all original characters. And you are slowly moving up the castle floor by floor. But they said the guy who introduces it says, as you move up further, to gain is to lose, and to lose is to gain. Okay. And so as you're moving up the castle, trying to get to the end of it, uh, Sora starts remembering somebody he had from his childhood.

unknown: 31:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 31:08

And her it was another girl on the island with him, and her name was Namine. Nomine. So that song that you keep playing on every single episode is Namine's theme. Yeah. So as you go through in the castle, you're confronted by different uh robe figures and you fight different robe figures. So slowly Sora starts remembering Namine and forgetting Kyrie.

SPEAKER_02: 31:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 31:34

And it's revealed that Namane is a witch who can manipulate memories. Okay. And so she is slowly inputting her memories into Sora's.

SPEAKER_02: 31:50

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 31:50

Or or the memory of her replacing Kyrie. Yeah, okay. So they do that because she is controlled being controlled by these hooded people who are trying to get control of Sora because if they if he trusts Namine, he would do whatever she wants. And whatever she wants is what these hooded people want. Or being told what that's what Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 32:17

And so just real quick though, the relationship between Sora and what was the other girl that he's forgetting? Uh Kyrie. Kyrie, it's a platonic friendship, right?

SPEAKER_03: 32:29

Yes. These are all children, by the way. Just so we know all the characters are at the oldest point, at the new most recent game, I think Sora is either 15 or 16. Okay. And in this game, he is uh 12 or 13, I believe.

SPEAKER_02: 32:46

So Namane, who's a witch, who's influenced. Well, they call her a witch.

SPEAKER_03: 32:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 32:52

But she has a power, but she has a power, but she's also a child. She is also a child, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 32:57

Okay. So as Sora traverses up through the castle, they learn of the leader who's Marluxia. That's his name. Marluxia. Marluxia, you meet Axel and Larksine and several others. As you go through it, you are slowly taking these people out, and you finally face off against the uh main villain, which is uh Marluxia, and he's got like a scythe. Okay. So he's like represented by like the Grim Reaper type thing. Gotcha. And so you defeat him, and it's revealed that you know Namine was removing these memories and putting her own against uh against her will, being forced to do so. Yeah. And so uh she reveals I can help you. Okay, but you will have to get into this pod and sleep for a year. Okay. I was forced to do this, but I can re put back together your memories, but you'll have to lose a year of your life. Same with Donald and Goofy. Okay. So they they choose to do so, and that is the end of Sora's side of the story on Chain of Memories because Riku wakes up in the basement of the castle. Oh and he also travels through the castle, but starting at the basement level. The same time Sora's going up, so is Riku going up. And so he is also facing up against other hooded people. Okay. Other people who are part of this like organized group of people who are trying to essentially take control of Sora because they want the keyblade as their power. Yeah. So Riku ends up going up against a clone of himself. Okay. And so he fights and defeats that clone and then fights up against the final boss. And it's more of just extra content when it comes to Riku. Yeah. There is lore there, but not as deep as uh Sora's lore in this game. Yeah. But yeah, the whole point is that by the time he gets to the top, Sora's already in the pod. He's talking to Nomine, and he's essentially saying, You watch over him, and I have to find a way to fight this darkness inside me.

SPEAKER_02: 35:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 35:16

Because when he accepted Ansom and was possessed, he became essentially partially dark, if that makes sense. Yeah. And so it one of the things the last boss for him is Ansom again, but like a, you know, he's fighting that darkness inside him, that Ansom. Yeah, yeah. So, and that's kind of like he's he has a really cool line where it's like, will you pick the uh path to uh light or dark? Essentially, there's a fork in the road, and this guy's talking to him. There's another character I kind of overlooked, but it's it's fine. Okay. Uh, and he says, Neither. I'm gonna walk forward towards Dawn. Dawn! Who's he? Um it's Diz. B-I-Z. Diz. Voiced by Christopher Lee. Really? Yep. That is something I wanted to get into eventually of all the people who voice characters in Kingdom Hearts. Okay. I'll do I'll do it later, because I'm on a roll here. Yeah, yeah. Kingdom Hearts 2. Yep. So you start out, who do you start playing out as? Who do you think?

SPEAKER_02: 36:23

Um The Girl?

SPEAKER_03: 36:26

You start out as Roxas. All right, so Roxas. I don't even know who that is. Exactly. So you're a new new character, voiced by Jesse McCartney. Okay. The pop singer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh it's kind of starts out very similar to Kingdom Hearts 1, where you're kind of like on a in an area just kind of going off uh going about your business, right? And as you go through your business of like just you know, just having trying to have fun on your summer vacation with your friends, right? Yeah, things kind of start getting really weird. And it's like weird, like the world starts glitching out, and this, that kind of stuff. Yeah. And at even one point, one of the one of the hooded people got out of the Castle Oblivion, and his name is Axel.

SPEAKER_02: 37:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 37:14

So Axel keeps telling them, like, hey, you need to come with me, you can't come with me. And Roxas, like, no, no. So Axel is kind of like maybe a 20-year-old, and Roxas is probably a 13, 14-year-old. Okay. And so as you go through this, it's revealed that Roxas is a part of Sora.

SPEAKER_02: 37:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 37:36

He was a part of Sora. So when Sora stabbed himself, he became a heartless. There is a yin and yang to that, where when you stab yourself and you become a heartless, or when you become a heartless, yeah, you also leave behind an empty shell.

SPEAKER_02: 37:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 37:55

Because your heart has been taken out, you leave it behind an empty shell. Those are called nobodies. How is that a yin and yang? Well, though they go hand in hand with one another. Okay. It's that when you become a heartless, you also become a nobody. Okay. Typically, most uh heartless and nobodies are kind of animalistic and have just kind of work off of instinct. But if somebody is strong enough, they become a more powerful heartless and leave behind a nobody.

SPEAKER_02: 38:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 38:31

So Sora's nobody was is Roxas. Holding Sora's memories, keeping him from waking up.

SPEAKER_02: 38:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 38:38

So they kidnapped Roxas and they forced him into a simulation to release those memories back to Sora, which he ends up doing, and Sora wakes up and he's now like a year older. And that's the true beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2. Okay. As you progress through the game, you are it's revealed that the hooded people are part of a larger organization called Organization 13.

SPEAKER_02: 39:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 39:06

Roxas is one one of the members of that organization. Alright. Because between that year, the last seven days of Sora waking up before he wakes up is the seven days that Roxas is stuck in that simulation. Yeah. So you go through the game and you it's revealed that the organization 13 wanted the Keyblade from Sora, from Castle Oblivion, so that they could destroy Heartlesses because they were trying to create a false or a um manufactured Kingdom Hearts so that they could become human again. All right. So they they are like we help we don't have feelings, we don't feel anything. We're not we're nobody, you know. And that is all led by a guy named Zemnus. He is the leader of Organization 13.

SPEAKER_02: 40:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 40:02

So through shenanigans, you keep going through and somebody keeps helping you, you know, a hooded person. Because just because you wear a hood does not necessarily mean that you are part of the organization, but the organization wears the hood because it protects you from the darkness. Yeah. So at one point, Mickey Mouse ends up showing up and he's wearing one of the hoods, yeah, and stuff like that. So it is revealed that Ansom, the human, okay, split himself into two parts. All right, creating Ansom Seeker of Darkness and Zemnus. Because when you create a Heartless, you create a nobody. Ansom being the villain from the first game was the Heartless. And so Zemnus is the nobody who is the leader of the organization.

SPEAKER_02: 40:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 40:52

And so you run into Diz again and talk to him. That is his true name is Ansom the Wise.

SPEAKER_02: 41:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 41:00

There's several Ansoms. It's because he was the leader of this this city. And this Ansem, the scientist, or um yeah, his n is they his true name was Xeonort. Okay. And so he was experimenting with turning people into heartless and doing all this awful stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 41:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 41:25

And so that's where that comes from. Is so he took he banished Diz or Ansom and took on his uh his name. Yeah. And so that's why he has Ansem and then Zimnus. Yeah. So you go to this place called the World That Never Was. This is like the final world here. And as you get there, they they had kidnapped Kyrie from the island, trying to draw in Sora. Okay. And from that point, they go there, they go to save Kyrie, and Namine shows up and breaks her out.

SPEAKER_02: 42:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 42:04

And it's revealed that Nomine is Kyrie's nobody. Because she also became a heartless. But she it's uh but she really didn't because her heart didn't embrace darkness and went into Sora. So that she doesn't actually have a heartless, but she does have a nobody because the absence of the heart in that body. Yeah. Keep in mind, everybody, this is a Disney game. Yeah, this is I'm almost done with number two. There's a lot. I'm almost done with Kingdom Hearts 2.

SPEAKER_00: 42:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 42:32

So you go and you you find that the person that was helping you the whole time reveal removes his hood and his Antsome Seeker of the Darkness.

SPEAKER_02: 42:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 42:42

But it's truly Riku who fully embraced the dark power because he had to in a fight. So now he took on the guy who had possessed him. Gotcha. This is crazy. I know. I know. So, anyway, so you go through, you fight Zay uh Zimnus, and you end up sealing the second Kingdom Hearts, the fake one this time. Yeah. And everybody is together now, not separated, and that is the end of Kingdom Hearts 2.

SPEAKER_02: 43:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 43:15

Again, greatly skipping over so much stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 43:18

Yes. So are we going to talk about coded now?

SPEAKER_03: 43:21

Uh, we are talking about coded. I only played coded once. I don't remember too much about it. Okay. So I'm just going to read from my summary. Okay. The weird thing about coded is depending on where you. So coded was a mobile phone, a flip phone game.

SPEAKER_00: 43:41

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 43:42

And then that got discontinued, then re-released as a DS game.

SPEAKER_02: 43:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 43:47

And by that point, there was another DS game that came out. And I think we should go over that one real quick.

SPEAKER_02: 43:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 43:53

So there's another DS game called Kingdom Hearts 358 over two days. Wait, what? Kingdom Hearts 358 over two days. Okay. You play as Roxas. I see that. Okay. So uh essentially it is Roxas' year in the organization. Okay. Where he gets recruited into the organization 13. Mm-hmm. And they were they were happy, you know. Oh, great, we have a Keyblade wielder.

SPEAKER_02: 44:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 44:20

It's also so then all of a sudden they have another Keyblade wielder that shows up.

SPEAKER_00: 44:24

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 44:25

And her name is Xheon. So Roxas, Axon, Xion become great friends, like creating that trio. Yeah. And I'm going over this one quickly, but as you progress to the story, it's revealed that Xion is actually kind of a clone of some of sorts. She's just she's replicated and created. A clone of what? The memories of Sora and Kyrie. Okay. She uh she is essentially looks like Kyrie with black hair.

SPEAKER_02: 44:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 45:00

And slowly she is trying to claim more memories. And so like she's really truly friends with with Roxas and Axel, but slowly her impulses are trying to kill them. Yeah. And so it ends with Roxas having to fight her, and and she dies in his arms. One of the saddest scenes in Kingdom Hearts because it's like, not only is she a nobody, that's a nominee song. I don't suppose. Not only is she a nobody, she is a created nobody in a lab. Like a test tube baby almost.

SPEAKER_02: 45:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 45:37

So Roxas being really upset is going to go storm uh the castle that never was. And that's where Riku shows up, fights Roxas, cannot Riku cannot uh beat Roxas, embrace that's where he embraces the darkness, permanently becomes Ansom. Okay. And by the way, in Kingdom Hearts 2, Riku ends up becoming back himself normally. Yeah. But embraces the darkness there, becomes Ansem, defeats Roxas, and that's where they then put Roxas inside that machine so that they can then recover Sora's memories. Okay. So this, so that's this game takes place between one, actually, somewhere between one chain of memories and two. Okay. Somewhere in that point. Yeah. I think it starts after one, after one, because that's when Sora becomes a nobody or is a heartless and creates that nobody. Runs parallel with chain of memories up to the beginning of two.

SPEAKER_02: 46:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 46:39

So then chain of memory, uh yeah, three, five, eight, or two days, it ends with the beginning of Kingdom Hearts to his Roxas starting his summer vacation.

SPEAKER_02: 46:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 46:50

And then so uh Roxas is with in Sora's memories now. So that that is a quick summary. Okay. Uh Recoded is coded or recoded. Coded was the phone game, recoded was the re-release of that phone game on the DS. Yes. It is after Kingdom Hearts II, Jiminy Cricket. By the way, I forgot about Jiminy Cricket. He is with you the whole time. He is kind of the chronicle of your adventures.

SPEAKER_02: 47:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 47:20

So Jiminy Cricket keeps a chronicle in a journal, and after Nomine puts everybody to sleep, those chronicle journals pages disappear.

SPEAKER_02: 47:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 47:31

And he is then it is then found that the pages, uh, only one page is left, and it says something along the lines of help them ease their suffering. So somebody at the Disney Castle creates a machine that scans the books, the data within the books, even though they're blank pages, creates these worlds, and you play as a digitized version of Sora, not the main Sora. And you go through and it's essentially revealed that there's three people that need help. You need to ease their suffering and you need to save them. And that's that's kind of recoded.

SPEAKER_00: 48:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 48:10

So I believe, what's after recoded? I believe it's birth by sleep finally.

SPEAKER_02: 48:15

Uh it's uh after coded, it's 358 over two days. Which we talked about three or five, eight over two days.

SPEAKER_03: 48:25

So birth by sleep. Birth by sleep. Now, this is the one that made me cry. Okay. This one is a prequel to 10, this is 10 years before the first Kingdom Hearts game. Okay. It it you have your three characters, Aqua, Vin, and Terra. You play as the same story through as each character, and you'll cross paths with them, but you'll play through going to different worlds and getting bits and pieces of the story of each Kingdom Hearts world. Okay. So it's kind of think like funny enough, Star Wars, where you had the Keyblade wielders, were incredibly back in the day fairy tale kind of story, abundant. They were thriving. The Keyblade wielders were.

SPEAKER_02: 49:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 49:09

At this point, now it's only down to there's only three apprentices left and one master.

SPEAKER_02: 49:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 49:15

And then another guy is an old man who is kind of like gave up being a Keyblade wielder. Okay. So one of the dudes, Ventus, looks just like Roxas.

SPEAKER_02: 49:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 49:28

Like same character model and everything. Then Aqua and Tara are new characters. And Tara, I think Aqua is probably the oldest character. I think she's like 19 or 20.

SPEAKER_02: 49:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 49:39

And so you go through the story on this, and it's um the other guy's guy who is there, the old man's name is Zayanort. Okay. So there's so much lore in this one. So much more than any other game. Yeah. But it's essentially shown as you go through each character, Aqua runs into Kyrie, then runs into Sora at one point, and then uh Tara runs into Riku. Okay. And Tara gives Riku the power to inherit the ability of a Keyblader. Keyblader. Yep. And kind of the same way with uh Sora and Kyrie as well.

SPEAKER_01: 50:20

Do lady.

SPEAKER_03: 50:21

Yeah. So there is a person who has fallen around uh Xeonort, who's like a dark figure. His name is Vanitas. They revealed that his name is Vanitas. He is the negative energy from Ventus because Ventis was Xyonort's apprentice, but he was trying to create an ultimate keyblade called the Keyblade, but spelled KI. And to do so, he was trying to essentially corrupt Ventus, and that jacked up Ventus. But really, it just split out this dark form, and that was Venitas.

SPEAKER_02: 51:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 51:05

Uh so you go through the whole thing to find out their master gets murdered by Xeonort. So funny enough, uh Xeonort in this is voiced by Leonard Nimoy, the guy who played Spock. Okay. And then the guy who plays their master, Ericus, is Mark Hamill. Oh. So Star Trek versus Star Wars. Gotcha. So just to kind of sum it up, the big twists in this are Tara becomes corrupted and possessed by Zayanort and loses. Okay. And him losing is revealed that Ansem, the one that ended up um, sorry, Xeanort, the one who ended up uh banishing Ansom, taking on his name, was a young looking man, not an old man. It's because it was him and Tara's body.

SPEAKER_02: 52:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 52:02

So that's revealed that. And then Castle of Bliving is created because Vin is defeated.

SPEAKER_02: 52:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 52:10

And Aqua puts his bot, creates it's their their homeland turned into a endless maze that she created so that it would protect Vin's body while he was there.

SPEAKER_02: 52:23

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 52:24

And then another key thing is that when Ven's heart is fractured and jacked up, he goes and is within Sora's heart because he met Sora. Yeah. Again, play the games, it makes so much more sense. It's so much better. And so there's a lot of information and a lot of names getting thrown out here. And then Aqua is ends up fighting Terra, but it's they Taya Zayenort, because he's possessed, gets banished to the land of darkness. So you have three characters. Aqua is banished to darkness ten years prior to the first game. Like they call it the Realm of Darkness, so it's just an endless, just dark realm where the Heartless kind of reside. Okay. So she has to try to survive there. And it's been at least 10 years since she's been there. Then is all kinds of jacked up, hidden inside a castle, and then Tara has been possessed and then turned into a Heartless, and nobody is the main series villains because he's got his Zaya Norted and there you go. Zaya Norted. People call it Norted. Norted. Yep. Norted. Norted out of here. So Okay. So the whole reason why he wanted to do that was to create an ultimate weapon. And he was looking for power. The ultimate weapon. So we are getting actually relatively close, believe it or not. So I think we might make this. So I'm going to kind of read these summaries on these other ones. So you're going to talk about Dream Drop Distance? That's right. 3D. 3D. It's literally Kingdom Hearts 3D, Dream Drop Distance became it because it came out on the Nintendo 3DS. Oh, okay. So your screen had 3D effects on it. So at this point, Sora and Riku have been resummoned to take what is called the Mark of Mastery exam. Because they need to become Keyblade Masters because there is a war coming. So Sora and Riku take the Mark of Mastery exam to become Keyblade Masters. They essentially go to sleep and they are traveling through what is called the sleeping worlds. So their test is to revive these worlds that did not get restored when they were destroyed. But they still exist in a new different realm.

SPEAKER_02: 54:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 54:49

So they're traveling to the sleeping worlds to awaken them. As you're going through it, you Sora starts running into like this young-looking white-haired kid who is later on revealed to be a young Xeonaort.

SPEAKER_01: 55:05

Xeonaut!

SPEAKER_03: 55:06

Zenort's back. The North's back in town. The Nort is back in town. So it's revealed that organization 13 took advantage of the market mastery exam, and actually, when they jumped through the portal to go to the sleeping realms, it was actually them controlling it to take them and trap them in back in the world that never was. So really they wanted Sora.

SPEAKER_01: 55:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 55:35

So it is revealed, I kid you not, through time travel shenanigans that Zaynort plans on creating 13 vessels of darkness to fight against seven wielders of light, and the clash between the two will create a new keyblade. KI blade Keyblade. Interesting. So his goal in this was to take and make Sora a vessel of darkness. And it and it fails. But you end up finding out about how his vessels of darkness are essentially the same way that in Harry Potter, Voldemort creates pieces of himself. So he's like, okay, that didn't work, but you'll still have to show up to battle me. Yeah. And so that's kind of the story of Dream Drop Distance. Again, really being kind of vague about it. Okay. But there you go. That's Dream Drop Distance leading into Kingdom Hearts 3. Kingdom Hearts 3. Uh there are there is like a kind of like a tech demo that came out. That's it's called Kingdom Hearts 0.8 a fragmented passage, which is just it's showing off the graphics of Kingdom Hearts 3 before it came out, but you're playing as Aqua navigating the land of darkness. Gotcha. Okay. So there's that that's that exists, but it's it's important, but not important enough to go into detail here. 0.8? 0.8 a fragmented passage.

SPEAKER_02: 57:20

Oh, I don't see it on the list here.

SPEAKER_03: 57:22

Yeah, it's like a tech demo. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02: 57:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 57:26

And so Kingdom Hearts 3 starts out with Sora being told you need to find a create obtain the ability to it's an ability called what is it? Something of Waking. Awaking.

SPEAKER_02: 57:42

Awaking.

SPEAKER_03: 57:43

I want to actually backtrack real quick to Kingdom Hearts Cross and Kingdom Hearts Union Cross, which was like a browser game. Yeah. And a uh it ends up becoming a mobile game. Okay. That goes into a lot of backstory. That is the land of fairy tale where the all there's thousands of heart of uh Keyblade wielders trying to just fight the darkness. Okay. There's a lot there, but I'm not going to talk about it here. It's important. It is important, but not for the overall kind of Sora story.

SPEAKER_02: 58:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 58:18

So the power of waking, by the way. So Sora, Donald, and Goofy set out together to gather the power of waking to rescue lost friends. They are told that they need to get the seven heroes of light to fight the 13 darknesses. Okay. And they realize we can get Aqua, Ven, and Terra to help us. Yeah. So uh throughout the game, you are going to different Disney Worlds, uh, Hercules, like more modern movies like Frozen and Tangled. Okay. Those kind of places. This one was very much like a good, a very good game, but it felt rushed, even though it's the big finale of the story that they're trying to tell.

SPEAKER_02: 59:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 59:04

So you end up gaining the power of waking. Uh, you save Aqua from the land of darkness, uh, in this, and then you go and retrieve uh Vin, and you have enough. They have enough fighters. Okay. So it Aqua, Vin, Sora, Kyrie, Lee, who is Axel, turned back to human. I forgot to mention that once you destroy somebody's heartless and they're nobody, they are restored as a person.

SPEAKER_02: 59:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 59:35

So Lee is now a human, but he is on the hero side. Kyrie and Riku. That's seven. There you go. They go and they fight. And uh they all die. Everybody dies.

SPEAKER_02: 59:50

Dang.

SPEAKER_03: 59:50

And Sora activates the power of waking to travel back in time to then be able to stop. Everybody from dying, then they fight everybody. And in the process of the big final fight, they are able to bring back Shion, Roxas, and Terra. Okay. They're all back now, too. Okay. They fight all of the people. And then they uh they beat Xanor. Okay. And that that's all I can kind of say on that. You know what I mean? Without going again into deep, deep detail.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:28

And so there's one more game after this. Uh so at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 and the last second of the last cutscene, Sora disappears. And no one knows. Like it just shows him turning to dust like Thanos just snapped. Like a Thanos snap, okay. Like a Thanos snap. So what it's revealed is because he used the power of waking to save every save everybody and adjust the timeline. Yeah. It broke the natural order of things and it made Sora disappear.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:02

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:03

So Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory is a rhythm game that you don't get any plot to until you fight the last boss. So it's just you playing songs like like Guitar Hero. And then when you get to the final boss, is when it's like you actually get lore about them kind of figuring out what's going on with Sora.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:24

And it ends with Kyrie and Riku kind of getting an idea of where Sora is at. Yeah. And going after him.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:33

And so it's the place that he is at is called uh quadratum. Quadratum. Quadratum, something like that. It is essentially the real world of Kingdom Hearts.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:47

So it's kind of revealed that this is another kind of parallel universe of sorts. Uh-huh. This is where he's stuck and it's the real world.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:58

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:59

But so they're like, they know Sora because he's a video game character. Okay. But in their world, in their world. It makes more sense if you're playing the game. Yeah, yeah. But that's kind of the best way to summarize it. And we kind of know this more from trailers.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:16

Because that's all we have. So it ended that fight with Xeanort. Mm-hmm. And it's revealed, I didn't go too much into detail, but there is kind of like a past kind of war that triggered all the Keyblade Willarders to disappear.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:33

And they had five like masters who were over each kind of like union. They call them a union, but it's kind of like a guild. Yeah. And then they had above them was the master of masters and then his assistant, Lu Shu. Okay. It is revealed that, and I I completely over completely went over uh and didn't talk about Zigbar, one of the organization members, but he's in like all the games and he's like in league with Zayanort. And it's revealed that he's over like 200 years old and he is the Master of Masters assistant, Lu Su. Okay. Secretly. So it's kind of like showing that these uh Master of her masters from before are now going to go after Sora because he broke the natural order of things.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:18

And that's kind of where we're at going into Kingdom Hearts 4, which has not come out yet. When does it come out? I'd love to know. So they've announced it, they're coming out with it, but they did that. They announced it in 2022.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:33

And we got one quick trailer and some screenshots in the last three years. Dang. We were going to get another mobile game called Kingdom Hearts Missing Link. Yeah. It was supposed to come out last year and they canceled it. They just said, we're not making this game anymore. They were they were to the point where they did beta tests. Yeah. They did beta tests for this, several testing, public betas, all this, these testings. When me and Ashley went on our honeymoon to Japan, they had advertisements for this game up everywhere. And just like like we bought like these, I bought these pack of what I thought was Kingdom Hearts playing cards. They were like$2 each. So I've got I bought a whole bunch of them. Yeah. The guy looked at me like I was crazy when I was buying them.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:19

And I was like, I'm gonna get all these playing cards. Why not? I opened it up. Yeah. It was candy. Oh. It was like a it was like a wafer cracker. Yeah. And in the back was one Kingdom Hearts trading card.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:32

So, but it inside that in the insert was an advertisement and like scan here to pre-download Missing Link. Gotcha. It's like, so it's like they were gonna come out with this game and they just kept pushing it back, pushing it back, pushing it back. Yeah. And they ended up canceling it. It was like a it was like a Pokemon Go-esque thing where you travel, walked around the real world and interact with things on your phone to unlock the story. Gotcha. So I was really looking forward to that game. What's that kind of game called? Like a GPS. A GPS. It's kind of like a GPS game.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:07

Okay. And do you think the reason they haven't released or given an update on when they're going to release Kingdom Hearts 4 is just because of all the stuff that Disney's going through right now?

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:20

No. Kingdom Hearts is more of a Square Enix game than it is a affiliated with the Disney when you're talking about like the shenanigans of the Disney company. Gotcha. So yeah, like Kingdom Hearts 1 came out, then the next year, Chain of Memories came out, then two came out like two years later. And as you get down the line of all the games, you just get more and more separated of time between each Kingdom Hearts game. Like there was it was a span of 10 years between the last Kingdom Hearts game and three. Like between those two. And then Kingdom Hearts 3 came out in 2019. And we here we are in 2000 uh 2025. Yeah. And the last time we heard anything about that was 2022. Well, we got the trail in 2022, and then the last thing we saw was when they announced the cancellation of Missing Link. They are like, okay, we're real sorry. So here's some screenshots. And it's like a screenshot of a of a like a of a girl, Sora, and then Mickey Mouse like like acting all shady, jumping rafter to rafter in a library. It's like it doesn't give us anything. Yeah. But I'll show you later, but the trailer for four is so cool. Dude, it's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. So that that that's my king my summary of Kingdom Hearts. You got I know you have questions.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:45

Um well, so I guess what's your out of all the games you've played over the years, what's been your favorite, I guess, uh world played on.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:00

World or game?

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:02

We'll do okay, we can do game and then like what's been the most enjoyable or entertaining world, you know, like Disney themed world.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:11

Okay, so it's not a Disney world that I enjoyed the most. Okay. It was the final world of Kingdom Hearts 3 because it was this big uh come together of all of these things that they led up to all the villains, all the nonsense, all the hurt and the pain that this character this villain caused. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. To finally this big epic battle. So the problem with Kingdom Hearts 3 is there's not a like you just kind of go to the Disney World and you play out through the Disney world, and there's not a like like unlike past games where there was connections to the overall story within the worlds, yeah, that didn't happen that much. And it felt very rushed. Okay. And you get to the final world in this this big epic battle that actually pays off really well. Okay. So I really like three, but a lot of people didn't. But I liked it because it paid off this epic finale of this big story they've been telling for the last 20 years. Yeah. So there you go. Favorite game though? Yeah. Either Birth by Sleep or Kingdom Hearts 2. Most people's favorite is Kingdom Hearts 2. I really like Birth by Sleep because just the mechanic of it is a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:27

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:30

All right. Well, do you have anything else that you want to throw on top of that? I'm looking through my notes. Uh yeah. So uh characters voiced by people, right? Yeah. Uh Haley Joel Osmed is Sora.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:44

He is the kid from the sixth sense in AI, artificial intelligence. Yeah. I'm trying to think of other things I saw him in, but but he he plays in, he still acts, you know. Yeah, yeah. Riku is David Gallagher. Gallagher, who plays uh one of the kids in Seventh Heaven.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:02

Uh Kyrie and shlash Shion, because the same voice actress is Hayden Pinetera. She is the cheerleader in Heroes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:11

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:12

Uh later on, she is replaced by uh Alison Stoner, who is the one thing you probably would know her is she's Isabella in Finishing Ferb. Like, what you doing? Okay. Roxas, like I said, is Jesse McCartney. And Ansom, the why uh Anselm Seeker Seeker of Darkness in Kingdom Hearts 1 is voiced by Billy Zane. Wait, who's the what was the name of the actress again? Sorry. For who? For oh, Kyrie. Uh Alison Stoner.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:44

Allison, okay. I'm trying to think of if I've seen her in anything besides Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know who that is. She was very much so a uh Disney kid.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:56

Yeah. Yeah. Uh going over a few here, like more select ones. Uh Goofy is voiced by Bill Farmer, who is the guy who voices Goofy in a Goofy movie. Okay. Essentially, what they did were a lot of these characters is they brought back the characters, the actors from the movies. Yeah. Maleficent is Susan Blakesley, which is who voiced uh her in Sleeping Beauty.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:20

Uh Hades is James Woods. Genie is not Robin Williams. This one I always love. It's Dan Castanellieta. He voices Homer Simpson in The Simpsons.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:33

And he came back and did Genie in Kingdom Hearts. What? Uh Jack Sparrow is James Taylor, who is Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars TV show.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:44

Um, not a Disney character, but Sephiroth is the villain of um Final Fantasy VII. And he's like a hidden boss fight in Kingdom Hearts 1. He's voiced by Lance Bass of NSYNC. So random. But then going into like these bigger names, right? Uh Ansome the Wise is Christopher Lee. Yeah. Uh Master Ericus, which was the master of the three uh Aqua Vin and Terra. That was Mark Hamill. Master Zayanort was Leonard Nimoy. And then later Leonard Nimoy died, and he was replaced by Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future. Really? Mm-hmm. Wow. And then I think that is it. Yeah, that's it. Sorry. My notes are a little off. No, that's good. All right. Hold on. I'm seeing if there's anything else to talk about. Here I am, going through papers.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:39

Here I am once again. I'm torn into pieces. Can't deny. Can't pretend.

SPEAKER_03: 1:11:47

I don't want to get a copy's right strike.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:49

I thought you were the one.

SPEAKER_03: 1:11:51

Um. That's it. Kingdom Hearts, everybody. There you go. Kingdom Hearts, everybody. I know I went too deep into it. What was your first question you asked me that made me spin off of?

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:59

Uh, you answered it already. Okay. Yeah, yeah. We're good. Well, you didn't really answer it, but you answered it because I was asking, like, what was your favorite Disney NPC to play alongside? But it sounds like you only play alongside Goofy and Donald.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:15

Uh, you do when you're Sora or um in 358 over 358 over two days, you kind of pick up, you pick your squad between the different organization members. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:28

Which I completely glossed over. There's so much there as well. Yeah. There's so much going on with this franchise, dude. I've been playing it since I was 12. Yeah. Here I am, 34 now. Here we are. Well, guys, that's pretty much it. We're gonna uh So in the comments section, I'll answer any Kingdom Hearts questions and tell us what you think John's special childhood game or property that he's gonna vent about should be. What it should be. Everybody tell us what John is going to talk about, about his favorite property.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:04

Yeah. Well, okay, so let's do that real quick. Just real quick. What are you into right now? What are you playing right now?

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:12

Yeah. What is your favorite childhood property?

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:15

No, no, I'm asking before we too. Oh, me? Yeah, what are you playing right now?

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:19

Uh Hollow Knight Silk Song. Okay. I think I talked about it on episode uh 52. Yeah, yeah. Still playing just Hollow Knight Silk Song. It's so much fun. Okay. I am playing Helldivers 2. Still? Like you talked about? It's uh in episode 52. It's pretty great. It it is fun.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:37

I enjoy it. We just the uh the game just did a high command for orders to fight the illuminate. Oh yeah. So there's gonna be a lot, and I like have played against the I've done that like once or twice. Ever since I started playing again, I've been playing against the bugs mostly. And then they did the major orders for the bots. So we're playing bots for a little bit, and now we're about to play the illuminate. So it's like I haven't even played against the more difficult levels of Illuminate. It's been like the basic levels. Now we're gonna go in and it's gonna be interesting. It'll be fun. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:15

So there you go. Thank you, everybody. First off, thank you for sharing. No, thank you for sharing. Oh, I shared a lot this episode.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:24

Because yeah, it was all it was all about Kingdom Hearts. And if you were not here, it wouldn't have been a very long episode.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:32

Uh you would just have read like a quick little synopsis of each little game. Yeah. Yeah. So a guy named this guy, uh, yeah, he he he hit things next game. Yeah. No, but thank you everybody for listening and putting up with this. I hope y'all enjoyed it. I really enjoyed talking about it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:50

I enjoyed your passion for it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:53

Real quick. Yeah. So each trio represents uh land, sea, and air. Okay. So that's kind of how they do it that way. Like um Sora, Soaring, Sora, uh, Riku is land, and then air is Kyrie. Uh, it's a little bit more uh there in the sense of aqua, yeah. Then, or which I think is a ventus, it's kind of like a play on the word air, and then terra, literally meaning earth, yeah, yeah, and so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:15:30

Got it. Anything else? No, that's it. I got it. We're good now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:34

Well, then I guess all that's left to say is Christ is Lord. In the kingdom hearts is now. We are the saints that serve.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:12

What is the name of the podcast again that I've done the fifty-four episodes up? I was trying to say episode fifty-four, and the saints is there. Welcome to the same four episode.