keystrike

So for some reason everything is the same except for that one rock. I would easily dismiss that one difference for the purpose of looks. If you recall this image: (without the text) was framed for the ending of the first half of the credits. And this one was the final image before All the pieces lie where they fell. Both scenes meant to leave a lasting impression and create the most effective scenes and so what they did was move the rock a bit.

Also during the time of kh1 that castle in the slide show was presumed to be what Hollow Bastion looked like originally when Kairi was a kid. It isn't too far of a stretch to feel like its familiar. If I saw a picture of my down town one hundred years ago I think I could recognize enough of it. So maybe that slide was from before the keyblade war when all the worlds were connected?

Umm, where am I mostly incorrect? You kinda corrected me on things I didn't take a position on so... Pureblood, Emblem, that's only two and then Ansem. And in the context of what I imagined to be his return through something to do with heartless that weak similarity to the heartless shouldn't be invested in to too much. I think you misunderstood me. Vanitas is a complete being; heart, body, and soul. All dark (well, we actually don't know weather a soul can be dark so *shrugs*). His essence, is pretty much exactly what an emblem heartless is; a dark heart. However as we obviously know he has a body, he acts on his own will, with little to none apparent desires that a heartless would normally have, etc. thus leaving him to have too few shared qualities to really say there is a connection. This is what I meant to point out. And yes, I have played the game mind you. So that was just speculation. Secondary cannon>speculation, and the novels said that he got stronger by fighting them. Also your explanation just seemed sorta iffy.

Where does it say that Unversed do have hearts? I'd think they would make a bigger deal out of them having hearts than not. Also Unversed are what Vanitas feels, and when they are defeated they return to him. 'Type' is too loose of a term to be worth much. Vanitas is far beyond the level of a heartless. Heartless are mindless monsters born from the darkness in peoples hearts that act only on instinct to gather more hearts. The only similarity I see is that he is in essence (in other words not taking his body into consideratin) born from the darkness in Ven's heart. Where did you hear that he feeds on the negativity to become stronger? The novels mentioned Vanitas fighting the unversed (thus having the negativity return to him) to become stronger, but that was in the sense of getting stronger by fighting not by feeding on negativity.

No offense, but your grammar is quite bad. Kairi was sent to destiny islands by Xehanort because he that as a princess of heart that her heart would resonate with the keyblade; Xehanort was unaware of Aqua's spell, but it did have a hand in her going to a chosen one. You could say there connected in the sense that these were both a part of Xehanort's experiments but not really.

No. The only connection they have is an intended parallelism of the sea (double meaning) of outer space.

Technically? By that would you just be disregarding the fact that unversed don't have hearts? Then there is also the issue of does Vanitas feed on negativity or does he just give it off. He obviously gives it off, but could his darkness thrive on negativity. So it kinda goes both ways. Anyway 'technically' still seems like a bit of a stretch to me. addressing the original question: If he does come back, I wouldn't expect it to be as simple as a mere heartless or nobody; at least have something to do with emotions and his lingering spirit. Seeing his connections to the Mysterious Figure, I would expect them both to appear together.

PS2, PSP, Gameboy, GBA, DS, X-box, 360... and soon a 3DS.

Or you could wait because when the new models come in the older ones get cheaper. Still a reason to wait.

I really want this game. Is it hard to get swap magic to work, and does it void warranty? What does it do?

You need all of your growth abilities to the max(?) to advance through this area. May I ask is it too hard to install a swap magic, or whatever its called to play japanese ps2 games?

Ya, I was kinda meaning who else other than XH could write the reports for bbsv2, but now that I look back on it, it was slightly vague *goes to edit.*

While thinking about bbsv2 I remembered a small undeveloped nuance in Ansem's reports #12 My body has surely perished. However, I am different from the other Heartless, keeping the memories of before, and I have not taken on the form of a Heartless. It is evident that there are still many things to be studied. In order to cross over to the dark realm, which is not this world, you must go beyond the door of Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds. The core connected to the world's heart, the place that will take me to the world of darkness. (I will record the details in another report...) There are still so many unknown worlds. The Realm of the Present...The Realm of darkness. The Realm of light. And, The Realm of in-between. In which one will I find sanctuary? World of darkness? Another report? Perfect for the possible 'reports' for bbsv2 in my opinion. Sure they could just shrug it off as characterization of XH, but why throw away such an oportunity. While others could possibly write the reports for this game none of the other possibilities seem very likely. Ansem the Wise's secret reports truly covered everything so he wouldn't be up for writing any reports, but I do remember a while ago a discussion about an inconsistency in the reports that could be explored in bbsv2. Xemnas might have written some reports, but Days seemed to cover his ambitions for the most part and the other mysteries such as the Room of Sleep would best be explored in the actual game; Xemnas did seem to talk to the armor after all. So, do you think this is likely or do you have something else in mind and why?

Poor Vanitas. I suppose that that is just the fate of a heart of pure darkness. I wish this was shown in the game. By the way this made my day!

You sure about days, that's saying a lot. Nah, just kidding, I'd love to see how kingdom hearts would look in HD.

If I already had a ps3 and there was the final mix content I would defintely buy it.

I feel inspired... now what to do?

I made a thread about the crossroads a while ago and it still I still hold to those beliefs now. The crossroads connect the different realms so you can quite physically walk from the realm of light to the realm of between to the realm of darkness. (the thread: http://kh13.com/forum/topic/9098-the-realm-between/page__fromsearch__1 ). As for how Land of Departure ended up their, maybe it had to do with it being such an ancient world and as a part of the "trick" so there wouldn't be much light or darkness to abuse.

ummm You mean like how in the manga she left the usual spot? I don't completely get what your saying. I think the manga is whats called secondary cannon which means its true unless otherwise contradicted in the primary cannon (games). Its just that kingdom hearts is such a dynamic series, these sort of things in the secondary cannon easily becomes non cannon. So I put it into consideration, I'm just very speculative about it. And ya, I'm sure there would be more to it than Kairi being at the mansion because Riku saved her, I was just holding my beliefs on the specifics (which are hardly more than a conglomerate of ideas as to what could happened). I feel like I'm confusing myself so much on this. O.K so previously I was saying that Saix caught Kairi before his spoke to Sora on his second visit, but that's obviously wrong because that was only shortly after... Never mind, I'm so confused. Never mind, I just made a chart and its likely that Kairi was at the usual spot for about the same amount of time as Sora at one world, so there is just a bit smaller of a chance for Kairi to have been at the mansion before Sora's second visit to Twilight Town than after.

Only 40 hours? geez thats a quick 100%. ha ha, I accidentally deleted one of my 100% files on bbs, but I think I might use it as an excuse to get final mix. Anyway I would probably cry if I were you... all those hours gone to waste

I have a problem with that interpretation on a number of levels. Axel said "I kindapped Kairi but she got away from me. After that Saix caught her." so I get the feeling its more like she escaped, and then Saix caught her, and the time taking place between is when she was lead to the mansion. Also Riku not being their to rescue Kairi, that just seems out of character I mean look at how he got when he got the chance to rush Saix in the world that never was. wasn't even shown in their. Just read those chapters concerning Kairi getting kidnapped and it seems like it uses a lot of artistic license, and the extra sences didn't make it much coherent either. Riku seemed to have been keeping an eye on Kairi so for him to not show up to rescue her, it just doesn't make sense, and if trying to find him and Kairi was the problem, how did Saix get to them before he did. See my point. Anyway I'll probably have my problem with what ends up being presented in bbsv2, but as a game it can't be questioned and because this period of time will be told from Riku's perspective I think it would be more trouble than its worth to give Riku a reason to not rescue Kairi.

So after a couple days of pondering when Kairi might have gone to the mansion in the secret teaser for bbsv2 I think I finally know when. If you may recall, Axel shows up in the Usual spot kidnaps Kairi, and the next thing we see of her is Saix talking to her while she is in a sort of prison. Aside from the guessing which would eventually lead you to the true but convoluted conclusion of what happened Axel explained in a final apology to Sora that "he kidnapped Kairi, but she got away from him [and] after that, Saix caught her". I admit, this by itself isn't the strongest evidence but it gets better... When Sora returns to Twilight Town the peaceful village is under attack by the nobodies, and interestingly enough Saix was the one to lead the nobodies to Twilight Town. Org. XIII aren't like the mindless heartless running around causing havoc; they attack when the time is right and for stragetic reasons, and this should especially apply to Saix of all people. This was when Kairi was recaptured by Saix. And finally I'm sure Nomura is very aware of this. Now, whose story will be telling this and most importantly why wouldn't have HPO remembered this!? Riku's story, or should we say 'blank points' in kh2 remain enigmatic and partially known, yet all the more perfect for a story in bbsv2. Riku kept a very close eye on Kairi and when Axel came to Destiny Isles to take her, Riku opened up a dark corridor which let Kairi escape, and so was ultimately responsible for her ending up in the Usual Spot. When Axel came and succesfuly kidnapped Kairi, do you really think Riku would just let Axel keep Kairi in his possession (or that Kairi was able to escape by herself)? Wherever Axel dragged Kairi off to Riku surely had a hand in her freedom and her return to twilight town because thats where Saix was and so thats where she ended up after escaping from Axel. Riku, in his fear of his identity being discovered couldn't just keep around Kairi that easily. Another thing Saix said has me puzzled, “don’t be reckless. Do you want to end up like Riku?” In the context of kh2 it seems like he might have been referring to changing his form to Xehanort’s heartless, but, and it may just be me, I get the feeling their might have been more concerning the events preceding this. Also without a doubt in my mind Saix met Riku at Twilight Town when Kairi was kidnapped. Instead of stating my most likely wrong theory of how Kairi at the mansion ties in with these evens, I'll just say this is the most likely time for her to be their. All the scenes in the episode were meant to vaguely for the purpose of being vague imply some of the blank points in the series. They could have shown Mickey jumping into a dark corridor in traverse town and popping up in the realm or picking up the kkd, but instead they showed Donald and Goofy in traverse town the day Mickey entered the dark realm, and Mickey walking in the dark realm in his CoM outfit. Kairi in front of the mansion is no different and it was meant to be what hints towards the blank points in kh2, because obviously there are a lot. However why they would make something that is imaginable so unimaginable I am without a clue.

How so? Its not going to spoil anything, well until you get to the spoilerfull trailers that practically lead you to what happened *cough castle oblivion and Vanitas cough*

For a while now nomura has been mentioning a mystery game aside from kh3d and kh3. If this story is going to be covering all the blank points in the series and kh3d is going to lead directly into kh3 I really don't see where else the mystery game would fit. So just consider it to be confirmed. What? Just because something changes won't automatically mean its for the worse. Chances are it will be for the better, and at the least nowhere close to not worth playing.

which raises the question: Where was the mysterious figure all those years if he is going to be one of the people in kh3d (or beyond, but that doesn't change my point)?