FUNGoodbye

^x7 - That is an example of why remixes tend to suck.

Good morning all. I believe I accidentally ate a prototype version of Missing Link a few minutes ago that somehow ended up in my cereal. At least that's what the back of my box of Crunch Cereal has led me to believe. Apologies to all for not realizing such a valuable prize was in there sooner and accidentally eating it.

^Arise while it has its moments definitely felt like a game that just barely belongs to the series it claims to be part of. The fact it has its own version of the sphere grid from FFX (even if it seems easier to understand), makes it an instant skip entry for me, but I have watched several Let's Plays. Going back to lurking now.

^Yep. Here's hoping if they do remaster Abyss they don't muck it up. Also hoping they're working on the next game in the series as they've been very quiet since the DLC for Arise. I'll stop talking about the Tales series with this in order to not get myself or anyone who feels inclined to respond in trouble for being off topic.

The timing is appropriate for a remaster of Tales of the Abyss given we're coming up on a milestone anniversary year for it, but I worry they'll do a half-arsed job with it. The newest "remaster" for Symphonia was an absolute disaster. At least Symphonia Chronicles meant you got both Symphonia's PS2 version and an improved version of Dawn of A New World each with dual audio. There was literally no selling point for the newest "remaster" of the first game considering it is really not that hard to get your hands on a PS3 & the Chronicles release for cheap (It's also just disgusting that you can pick up Chronicles which includes Dawn of A New World for cheaper than the new "remaster" which only has Symphonia). The very least they could've done for the latest "remaster" was hire soundalike voice actors to the dub the skits in English so there was actually something new to look forward to even if the game runs poorly by comparison to previous released versions. Abyss already had a pretty lackluster port in the 3DS version. No multi-player was a borderline unforgivable downgrade and you can't do the glitch that lets you get into places early and collect all the search point items easier. Also while the reduced lag from weather effects on the overworld are nice they didn't reduce it nearly enough. Graphics wise the game in its PS2 form was about as good as could be expected for the game's art style, there's only so far they can update them realistically speaking. Aside from bringing the game to current gen consoles and PC the only real improvements I can think of that an Abyss remaster could bring besides them actually fixing the lag from the weather effects are not cutting the multi-player function like they had for the 3DS port, dual audio, getting soundalikes to voice the skits in English, and adding the sidequest indicator they put into the Graces F remaster (because honestly Abyss has a lot of plot relevant sidequests that are easy to miss). In an effort to keep the thread on topic, I must report that Missing Link is still missing.

^Overall I actually prefer the battle system from Tales of the Abyss myself, but Graces is a close second. Story wise I find it serviceable at best due to an overall lack of sense of any real stakes, the childhood arc is cute and the adult and future arcs are at least as good as each other but don't get past the B tier for me. That said Sophie gets one of the best character growth arcs out of the entire Tales series (Up there with Luke, Emil, Carol, and Shirley). Asbel, not so much. The dynamic between him and Sophie reminds me of the one between Reid and Meredy in Eternia (another one where the female protagonist ended up being the one with the better character growth arcs rather than the male protagonist).

^x3 That Kirby plushie looks like nightmare fuel to me. There's something about the watery eyes that make it not look quite right. Also the smile isn't quite right to me either.

For anyone needing something to play while waiting on news for KH4 and Missing Link I recommend picking up the Tales of Graces F remaster. I'm playing the PS3 version from scratch to celebrate that it got a remaster. Game is still very fun and the remaster version has some quality of life features to improve the experience from what I've been able to observe while watching Let's Plays/Streams of it on YouTube and reading on forums about the game.

Maybe before KH4 & Missing Link we'll get a feature length film covering the events of the Union Cross saga and Dark Road. Better way to fill the gap IMHO than remaking any of the older games in the series as they won't have to divert employees to work on said remake instead of finishing KH4 and Missing Link.

I voted for Invi because no-one else had and that's just sad. Honestly though my personal answer is none of them. I just want to know more about Luxu and the Master of Masters.

^A whole decade and then some after KH3, yikes.

Reading this fic (which is lovely by the way) just made me think of the following; Sora's Family Tree (as of KH Melody of Memories): Unnamed Parents Boyfriend - Riku Girlfriend - Kairi Best Mom - Donald Duck Best Dad - Goofy Goof Best Uncle - Mickey Mouse Best Aunt - Minnie Mouse Sibling #01 - Ventus Sibling #02 - Vanitas Sibling #03 - Roxas Sibling #04 - Xion Best Cousin - Namine Best Alternate Boyfriend - Repliku Best Substitute Sister #01 - Aerith Best Substitute Sister #02 - Yuffie Best Substitute Sister #03 - Tifa Best Substitute Sister #04 - Aqua Best Substitute Godmother - Daisy Duck Best Substitute Godfather - Jiminy Cricket Best Unwanted Future Mother in Law - Maleficent, Mistress of All Evil Best Wanted Future Mother in Law - THE Fairy Godmother Best Substitute Brother #01 - Squall 'Leon' Leonheart Best Substitute Brother #02 - Mr. Final Fantasy, Cloud Strife Best Unwanted Brother #03 - Mr. Final Fantasy II, SEPHIROTH Best Substitute Uncle - Cid Highwind Best Unwanted Family Pet - Pete, 'The Mighty' Best Beloved Family Pet - Pluto Best Future Brother(s) in Law - Lea, Isa Best Unexpected Substitute Brother - Ienzo Best Unexpected Substitute Uncle - Even I don't think I missed anyone, but feel free to add to the list. Riku's Family Tree (as of KH Melody of Memories): Unnamed Parents Boyfriend - Sora Girlfriend - Kairi Best Dad - Mickey Mouse Best Mom - Minnie Mouse Best Unwanted Yet Nonetheless Appreciated Mom - Maleficent, Mistress of All Evil Best Unwanted Yet Nonetheless Appreciated Dad - Ansem Seeker of Darkness Best Unintentional Godfather - Ansem the Wise Best Unintentional Godmother - THE Fairy Godmother Best Unwanted Family Pet - Pete, 'The Mighty' Best Beloved Family Pet - Pluto Best Substitute Brother #01 - Joshua Kiryu Best Substitute Brother #02 - Daisukenojou Bito, 'Beat' Best Substitute Brother #03 - Squall 'Leon' Leonheart Best Substitute Sister #01 - Aqua Best Substitute Sister #02 - Namine Best Substitute Sister #03 - Xion Best Substitute Sister #04 - Shiki Best Substitute Sister #05 - Rhyme Best Substitute Sister #06 - Aerith Best Substitute Sister #07 - Yuffie Best Substitute Uncle - Cid Highwind Best Unexpected Substitute Brother #01 - Aeleus Best Unexpected Substitute Brother #02 - Ienzo Best Unexpected Substitute Uncle - Even Best Future Brother(s) in Law - Lea, Isa Found that comment in a Soriku fanfic I was reading and felt the urge to share it because it's an adorable comment. https://archiveofourown.org/works/19707883 - Link to the fic just in case anyone would like to read it. (For transparency's sake the fic is a Oneshot and is barely about Soriku. It's actually a 5+1 Things fic about the progression of Riku's relationship with Donald and Goofy).

The tone of the article is absolute perfection.

In before they saved the final day of 2024 to reveal KH4 and Missing Link have been canceled rather than delayed and MIA.

I voted for Snow White not because I'm actually interested in it, but because I'm interested to see if all the hatred towards it on the Internet actually translates to it becoming a box office flop. I kind of have this vibe that Snow White is such a famous story that there are enough people who will go see it just because it is Snow White much to the disdain of those who want it to fail. Only question is will it actually draw enough of an audience total in on name recognition to make back the money Disney put into it and turn a profit beyond that recoupment of cost (because logic and basic understanding of business dictates that it shouldn't be able to even manage breaking even with how much fake outrage it has generated online). 🤔

@ocean's rage - I mean, yes, but how else are they meant to celebrate the console? They might be the ones who own and create the line of consoles but they've never been behind the vast beloved library of games for them.

@ocean's rage - That Sony is excellent at networking and forming/maintaining connections.

In Maleficent's case it isn't too difficult to accept the notion that not everything she experienced in years past was retained in her memory in present day, especially experiences involving time travel. And really it's not just the case with her. It applies to so many other recurring characters in KH that originated from Disney's catalogue instead of Square Enix's.

LOL. In this case it might not even be that the game would've been bad rather them hitting the panic button and canceling this in favor of putting whoever was working on this on KH4 since between the two games in their minds KH4 would be the game that will make them the most profit in the long run due to the amount of fans eager to see the continuation of Sora's story not a new protagonist's story. That however might be a foolish move in that they've seen over the course of the past two years how much games for their legacy IPs such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy have failed to meet their expectations in terms of sales and generated revenue.

With the recently announced indefinite delay for Missing Link I have to wonder yet again how far along KH4 has come since the teaser trailer in 2022. I really hope this game releases by the series 25th anniversary in 2027, but with every year it seems more likely KH4 is destined for a release in the 2030s.

https://gamerant.com/square-enix-q3-2024-financial-report-earnings-overview-stock/ While the matters discussed in the article above are probably not fully responsible for this delay it is likely that such matters played a role in the decision to delay the game. And if things only continue to get worse for them in the first quarter of 2025 this game could be delayed well into 2026 or even quietly canceled.

Serious question: Why? I mean you got something way cooler in Sora vs Xemnas back in KH2.

Believing is going to result in a lot of ouchie ouches.

Thought I'd share those for anyone who likes Resident Evil that hasn't seen them fore. They're pretty neat.

No joke, ran through the PS2 vanilla version of Final Fantasy X-2 three times over the course of September and October (feeling really bad about going for the Key of Success on two of them because of what that does to the Ronso and Guado), and over the course of the past week I've beaten the Silent Hill 2 Remake seven times. If the solution to this long AF wait for KH news is playing old games I've been doing my part for the whole year really. I've gone through most of my PS2 collection of games and been watching the new games I can't afford right now be played on YouTube (on top of some older ones just for nostalgia of seeing someone run through games I know way too well for the first time/blind). For real Squeenix, give us something that makes it convincing that KH4 and Missing Link are actually going to come out sometime between now and 2030.