SweetYetSalty

Yay! Phil has actual lines in the manga version. How cool. I cannot wait for all the KHIII's manga to be translated.

Continuing with my overanalyzing of 358/2 Days, another concept has caught my interest. Recruiting new members. The original Organization XIII have never been 13 for long. For the most part the primary team has been Organization VIII. Or IX if you count Xion, but it's never actually 13 for very long. Now I know the purpose of Organization XIII has changed over the course of the series but for Days it was still primarily in KH2 mode of their goal of collecting hearts to send Kingdom Hearts. Simple enough. But their is something that gets overlooked that I wish got expanded upon in the Organization. And that is the replacement for members. As we know five members of the group were sent to Castle Oblivion and killed off, but why is it they never replace their ranks to be back at 13? Let's look at Roxas. Roxas was so important to the Organization that they made a replica clone to copy his abilities in case something happened to him. That makes perfect sense. If you work all day at a computer then make sure you have backup files in case something unfortunate happens to your work. Xion was that backup file for the Organization. But why didn't they replace the others? Now you could argue that only Vexen and was worth replacing when compared to Roxas and his importance to the group. And frankly I'd agree with that. But the concept of new members has come up in the game itself. When Roxas first goes to Olympus with Xigbar, the latter mentions they could use the area to scout for new recruits for the Organization. At first you might think, does he mean more Dusk? Which is probably what it meant. But what if they had tried to turn Hercules or Hades into a Nobody to refill their ranks? What if while Roxas was training with Phil, another org member made contact with Hercules or Hades to try and turn one into a Nobody? Hercules is one of the physically strongest Disney characters in KH, and could have replaced Lexaeus as one of the Organization's physical attackers. Or smooth talker god of the underworld Hades, who could have replaced Marluxia as the reaper. Also Megara's sprite is confirmed to have been in the game and went unused. I wonder if this could have been the game where she and Hercules meet since she was not present in KH1, and perhaps she played a role in trying to trick Hercules into losing his heart the same way she was tricked into Herc losing his strength in the movie. Obviously they wouldn't have turned Hercules, but it could have been a good story to tell on the Organization trying to get back to being 13. Xaldin had a similar story with the Beast, and as we know he was thwarted by Sora and Belle. Beast, like Hercules, is one of the stronger Disney characters with a strong heart. Able to cross between worlds without help. It was a very cool story, and Beast could have been a potential replacement for the empty five seats where nothing gather. It just feels kinda weird they didn't feel the need to stay at 13, given how important that became in future games to always have 13 members. To the point they had 13 plus reserves. Saix tells Roxas "When have we ever been more then 13?" But the real question is "when have they ever been 13 to begin with"? I know Saix just said that because he hates Xion, but it doesn't change the question on the importance of 13. To me in addition to Beast, and given the worlds they choose to put in Days, it would have been interesting if they had scouted the likes of Hercules, Hades, and even the likes of Aladdin and Jack Skellington, people with strong hearts to potentially either join the ranks of Organization XIII or turn them into Dusk or some class of Nobody to serve under them. Nobodies don't just grow on trees. Now again, I know with Disney characters they are restricted with what they can or can't do with them. And I know Organization XIII is different today then what it was back then. But this is more of wondering from a in universe situation on why Xemnas didn't think to replace the Castle Oblivion team. Because even if you take into account their real objective they still need all 13 seats filled up. Anyway that's just the thoughts of a Kingdom Hearts fan with too much free time on his hands.

Wow! Same here. She talks and all I hear is Kairi in one line then Xion in another. She is The Xion.

I've been replaying 358/2 Days and I'm started to appreciate the little things the game added to the Disney worlds to not make them feel 100% filler when focused on Roxas and his daily life. Agrabah: Roxas learns about friendship from watching Genie and Aladdin. I believe this is where he hears the term "best friend" which later comes into play for him with Axel and Xion. Roxas learns of the different tiers of friendships and when Axel first states he doesn't have a best friend when first asked, Roxas's portrait is sad. He might see this as his friendship with Axel is not that strong. But this of course changes after a trio mission in Twilight Town, where he and Xion earn the "best friend" trophy. Beast Castle: Roxas learns a lot during his missions there with Xion and Xaldin. Not just about the castle's story but about love. Watching Belle and Beast also foreshadows Roxas's own struggles for the future when he himself loses something important to him (Xion) which is a big part of his story. Olympus Coliseum: In addition to Roxas interacting with Phil (one of my favorite og/Disney interactions) Roxas learns that he is special and that he has expectations to meet from both the Organization and those that put their trust in him (Phil) I believe this is another reason Roxas continues to train with Phil even though he doesn't have to to slay the Heartless. Wonderland: Roxas learns to trust his instincts and follow the White Rabbit as well as interact with the Cheshire Cat. It always pays off because whenever he does he is able to find the Heartless he is after. This helps Roxas grow as a character, so in the future when he is second guessing something he can always trust his instincts. This comes into play later in another Disney world. Halloween Town: This world didn't do much for Roxas personal growth that I can think of. But there is more subtle foreshadowing here. The Leechgrave storyline is Xion's. Xion starts off small and cute, harmless right? Just like the Leechgrave. Lock, Shock, and Barrel can represent the Organization in that they take in the small Leechgrave just as the Organization take in Xion. In both cases they lose control of their small pets. The Leechgrave grows big and consumes it's fellow Heartless. By the end of Days Xion is "trying" to consume her BFF Roxas and becomes a giant armored monster. But in reality she wants Roxas to defeat her which is not what Xemnas wants and thus he has lost control over her. Not sure if this was intentional or not but the similarities were quite interesting. Also Roxas and Xion fought here for the first time too. Neverland: This is the world where Roxas really starts to do what he wants even if it doesn't benefit his mission. He wanted to help Tinkerbell and decided to do so. Even though it had nothing to do with his mission and would not help him accomplish his Organization goal. It is here Roxas fully thinks for himself and where his rebellious attitude really starts to grow and take shape. Twilight Town needs no explanation I think, but I do want to touch on the dropped world that didn't make it into the game which is Pinocchio's world. It was said that this world would have been a story for Roxas and Xion to want to gain hearts after hearing about Pinocchio, the puppet who became real. This would have been a beautiful story and really touch on the aspect of Nobodies wanting a heart by watching others gain a heart. Also would have been great for Xion's replica/puppet storyline too. Anyway those are my thoughts on 358/2 Days Disney worlds. While the Disney worlds in this game did nothing to advance their own storylines or Kingdom Heart's overall big plot, I think they did a great job in building Roxas's character and his friendships as well as future events for him, shaping him into the powerful and confident young man he is today. It is because of this game Roxas became my number one favorite character in the series and his character growth is my favorite story of Kingdom Hearts.

My Sea Salt trio! I want figures of these guys so badly! Until then I will just have to stare at them from behind a computer screen.

Every time they show me something with RAX I scream "I WANT THIS DLC NOOOOW!" That group attack on Saix was beautiful. I could watch it forever. The trailer really hints that the events at the Keyblade Graveyard are going to change or we're in a different reality timeline thing. Either way I'm so hyped. I hope I fair better in these potential Organization data fights then I did in the KH2 ones where I failed

Well I think for now anyway I'm throwing in the towel for the Organization XIII data fights. At the very least I defeated Demyx and Larxene. But they weren't very fun and they require hardcore gamer reflexes that I'm just now realizing I don't have. I did try my last one today data Axel, and I die so fast in that fight, I can't even learn his attack pattern LOL. I may return to KH2FM later down the road but for now I need a break. Originally I wanted to see if I could make it to Lingering Will but these data fights have shown me I'm nowhere near as skilled as I thought I was at KH games, so right now that goal is out of my reach. Next time I play KH2 it will be on Standard not Proud Mode. I might stand a chance then. I do want to play BBS again, as I only played the game once so a return to it might be nice. I've also never played DDD and now that I have the Story So Far collection I can play both. So you can expect me to ask for help constantly on here when I begin DDD as I will be playing blind. Still excited to play it

I see. I'll continue on for a little bit longer, and see how far I can go. Maybe even take breaks and come back to this.

I guess I'm on a roll after Mushroom 8, because I defeated my first two data bosses. Data Demyx and Data Larxene. Both were nightmares. I use to love the regular Demyx boss fight. But 99 of those things. Data Larxene was uber hard, as she can kill you faster then you can get a Hi-potion/Ether up. And her lightning is as cheap as Vexen's anti-sora's stun locking you until you die and there's nothing you can do about it. Even with Reflect it was hard. To be honest I don't know if I want to do all the data Organization. They aren't fun so far. Is the prize for winning against them any good for defeating them all?

I did it! I finally scored 85+ on Mushroom 8! 93 score! Easily the hardest thing I have done in KH2FM so far! I'm practically crying right now. My winning combo was Berserk Master Form with Fenrir, Fatal Crest and all combos turned off. Master Form is officially my favorite KH drive form, I love it to pieces.

I think I'm about to join that club. I've followed several different strategies and failed each time. I've hit a wall and don't know what to do. I've used every Drive Form, every attack, everything :(

While we're on the subject of Mushrooms, does anyone know how to hit Mushroom No. 8 85 times in KH2FM? I've tried all day using various methods from Youtube and I keep getting bad luck of it going straight down. I took off all combos, spamming negative with berserk and I came close and got to 80 hits before it was launched impossibly far beyond my reach. Mushroom 8 has to be the cheapest KH minigame I've ever played in the history of KH thus far.

I despise data Demyx. He completely ignores the rules of the Demyx boss fight lore. And I couldn't even hit data Xaldin. As if regular Xaldin wasn't already absurdly hard enough.

Defeated Marluxia and he was very hard. Had learn his attack pattern down perfectly to beat him. Afterwords I went and fought Sephiroth who, compared to the ghost Organization, is a complete joke XD

As long as the content is interesting enough, I'm for it. Like I would enjoying playing as Young Xehanort in how he selected the other members of the Organization, and actually going to get or corrupt them. I think that would be very fun while also expanding on characters that really need it, and why they are in the new group. Now that would be worth playing. However if it's just to explore Xehanort's backstory, then honestly I'm not that interested given how the character ended. Not saying I wouldn't want it, it just wouldn't be a big selling point for me right now.