FUNGoodbye

926 days since the thread was started and Missing Link is still missing.

926 days since this thread was started, but the radio silence on the game continues. As for Star Wars in KH4, IMHO Star Wars is enough of a mess at this point for its own good, without also adding incorporation into Kingdom Hearts to the equation.

The heart that Xemnas grows went to Old Man Xehanort when he was killed in KH2. This is because Xehanort's Heartless/Ansem Seeker of Darkness was also dead by then, thus allowing the return of the original person/the Somebody. This is why both Ansem Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas had to be plucked from either other timelines or a point in the past of the main timeline when they still existed individually from Old Man Xehanort himself. There's actually more fishiness surrounding the other members of the organization returning to their original selves (Minus Roxas and Namine who were special cases, and Xion who was a different kind of special case) than there are the two halves of Xehanort. We never see their heartlesses destroyed only their nobodies. We just get left to assume that their heartlesses were killed by some keyblade wielder or another over the course of the adventures leading to KH3.

Missing Link remains a missing game. -sigh- Maybe they'll have something to share by Halloween.

Still no news huh...-sigh-

As for KH4, we're at 905 days since this forum thread/topic started, and we still only have that incredibly disappointing teaser trailer for the game. Squeenix what are you doing?!

If Nomura retires in 2030 I think KH's future will look like this: Missing Link will release by May 2025 KH4 will release by May 2027 A final game to cap the series off will release on the series 28th anniversary, March 28th 2030. IMHO AAA games take too long to make in present day for us to get more than that before Nomura retires if he intends to retire the same year he turns 60.

I'm just here for the story. But I feel bad for those who want to finally play this game.

26th-29th this month.

I've got my coffin, nails, and hammer ready in case it doesn't release till next year. Will sulk over sea salt ice cream soup to cope after I've buried said coffin.

We are in September just 4 months remaining until we can declare this game not coming out until 2025. My guess is if we hear nothing in October we can put the nail in the coffin. And if we do hear news in October the game will either get a December release date, just squeezing into the year or come out in January 2025.

Has there been any news at all? Do we even know if the game is past the equivalent of a film's pre-production stage?

Missing Link is still missing then?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18802432 - By revisiting this classic. https://archiveofourown.org/works/19950250 - And this classic. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17196458 - And this one. https://archiveofourown.org/works/20421560 - Getting heart broken by this one again. https://archiveofourown.org/works/24319231 - And recovering from said heartbreak by reading this one. https://archiveofourown.org/works/22045849 - Also this one is the perfect one to cap the celebration off with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcBWvzRZVPI Let the countdown begin.

^What did you think of The Last of Us Part II? Are you of the common opinion that it is trash or are you one of the rare ones with a positive opinion of it?

It's worth mentioning that the songs for a film can be as important a story telling device as the script can. Frozen has two excellent pieces for that in Let It Go and Do You Wanna Build a Snowman. One is a self actualization theme for one of the female leads, while the other beautifully conveys the strained relationship between both of the female leads. Combined with the environmental story telling in the scene where Anna sacrifices herself and the subsequent one where she defrosts, you don't need anything else from the film to understand what it is trying to say. And the film doesn't suffer IMHO for having a script that mostly relies on mediocre to alright jokes over the course of the rest of its runtime. That stuff keeps the child half of the audience from growing bored, and even though the humor doesn't always land with the adults, it is at least writing that they can understand. In the reverse a film with significantly more to say in its script, Pocahontas; gains very little from having such an excellent script. Because it also includes the song Colors of the Wind which covers everything the film wants to convey all by itself in a much more relatable and simple way. Edit: One of my oldest memories of Pocahontas is reading a review for it in a magazine where I saw the words "word vomit" used in the media for the first time that I can remember. In the opinion of whoever wrote that review the script of the film was a difficult one for audience retention because the script is hard to stay connected with all the way through the film's runtime.

^Once upon a time, at least 30% of the world's population. Right now, probably around 10%.

I can easily imagine them giving us a Star Wars world in KH4 that's just as disappointing as the Journey to Batu world in the Sims 4.

I can't remember who the VA is off the top of my head, but there has already been discourse in Japan among veteran voice acting talent (I'm not awake enough right now to remember if it was anyone who does voice work on KH) because of how AI is influencing things. And a voice acting legend Megumi Hayashibara was on All Night Nippon talking about the pros and cons of AI for voice actors. It is not only the outside world that will be effected by this, Japan very much will be and already likely is in small ways. For example it does not take too much knowledge of Japan's entertainment industry to know that those in the industry not signed to one of the big five entertainment agencies is going to be struggling for work more than ever before thanks to the growing presence and influence of AI. Like for real, gods help anyone over there not signed to Ogi Pro, Ohta Pro, Hori Pro, or Stardust Pro. I would mention the fifth of the big five, but that one has kind of been self imploding due to a founder related scandal and might simply go kaput. Regardless of any of this stuff though I've had a fear of a chunk of the voice actors from KH being replaced for phase 2 proper just because of how old some of them are getting. I mean sure they might still be able to do the voices but it wouldn't be an unusual move especially on the English dubbing front to replace some, most, or even all of a cast with younger less experienced folk that can be paid less. And if KH4 really comes out circa 2030 that'd be almost an entire decade since the current voice actors worked on the series. It was one thing for them to be kept on to finish the first phase, but really it would not be the slightest bit surprising if they either got forced out or even just made the decision not to return by the time the game's ready.

2030 can't come fast enough.

Diz/Ansem the Wise answers that quite directly during the Roxas prologue. Roxas is only half of Sora. He wouldn't be strong enough to take the Organization down by himself. And we saw that proven over and over again Days (of course there's a little flexibility in that Roxas wasn't supposed to view them as enemies in that game, but when you consider who doesn't get taken out at Castle Oblivion in Chain of Memories by Sora and Riku there are quite a few members left of the Organization that would be easily able to put Roxas down if he did manage to go and attempt to put an end to them like he'd chosen to do in the aftermath of Xion's death). Riku was still going through a crisis of self worth and identity of self which would have distracted him from eliminating the remaining members of the Organization, and it is questionable whether he'd be in the correct frame of mind and in tune with his own power enough to fell Xemnas by himself if he did make it through the ones that remain after Chain of Memories and Days. I'm not even remotely going to entertain Kairi for this; Kairi who first handles a keyblade in KH2 and only manages to take down a tiny number of heartless. In fairness to Kairi if the original trilogy (maybe I should a quadrility since Days is set in tandem with Chain of Memories) wasn't so focused on the journeys and character arcs of Sora and Riku the developers definitely could've factored her into the final battle. It wasn't until Birth By Sleep that they insisted keyblade wielders are meant to be trained so she could definitely have been thrown into the fight and learning on the fly. Something like giving her light magic (natural expansion on her role as a Princess of Heart), healing magic, and beginner spells plus basic keyblade combos. And her choosing not to stay on the sidelines and actually fight Xemnas with Sora and Riku instead of getting forced out of the equation with the others would've fed into her earlier bravery throughout the game (even if she wasn't ever in any true danger, from her own point of view she had no way of knowing that she'd be safe from harm on the other side of the portal she follows Pluto into, and no way of knowing for certain that her friends would come for her when she ended up kidnapped by first Axel and then Saix). But suffice it to say she's too much of a newbie on the battlefield at this particular point to have been able to fill Sora's assigned role in the grand scheme of things. And as a princess of heart she might've ended up getting used even more blatantly than she canonically was in the Organization's schemes. Whether things could've gotten done (especially smoothly) if it was a combination of Riku, Roxas, and Kairi is questionable as well. We hear Xemnas trying to cause Sora and Riku to turn on each other when he fights them, he'd have likely tried this in more ways than just verbal with the trio of Riku, Roxas, and Kairi and he might have succeeded if they were not able to stay focused on the goal. When you consider the negative history between Riku and Roxas one has to wonder if they'd be able to get along for the mission long enough at this point in the series. Sure they'd have the likes of Kairi and Namine to diffuse the situation if they didn't, but there's no guarantee they'd completely succeed in diffusing it. Likewise we can throw Mickey into the equation here and take note of how even having a great deal of experience doesn't guarantee success. He comes with the opposite reasons for why it can't be him to why it can't be Kairi. Mickey is an experienced wielder, but potentially over invested in the goal emotionally to the point of it being a detriment to have him as an ally. We see that over and over again in KH2 during his appearances in it. He wants to keep the promise he made to Riku in Days to help Sora, Donald, and Goofy but he's got so much emotional baggage on his shoulders from events that would only fully be explored and become evident in Birth By Sleep that he ends up being a pretty poor ally regardless of how badass he is. If they didn't ax Mickey from the final battle it would only make sense narratively for him to do something in the fight that ultimately resulted in Xemnas getting the upper hand temporarily and Sora and Riku having to save him. If he was suddenly calm and collected enough for the fight to go smoothly I would be calling gameplay and narrative dissonance after completing the game and having time to analyze it. Something else of note though is the fact that Ansem the Wise is confident that if anyone can finish this mission it will be Sora, but everyone else is helping both behind the scenes and in the open along the way. Almost half of the Organization is taken down in Chain of Memories by Sora and Riku with the help of Namine, Mickey, and Diz (plus Axel), Riku, Mickey, Namine, and Diz work on restoring Sora's memories and keeping the Organizations meddling within the worlds from causing too much harm, and then in KH2 itself all of the aforementioned characters help out the newly whole again Sora, Donald, and Goofy, on top of Kairi getting mixed into the equation throughout the story. Sora may be the chosen hero, but he's not the only hero. PS: There's poetic justice to Diz/Ansem the Wise choosing Sora over Roxas as the hero in his apology to Roxas right before his sacrifice in the final act. But even Roxas goes on to acknowledge in Dream Drop Distance that it really does have to be Sora, so... -shrug emoji- I guess.

Well the countdown begins now, let's see if July is a much a dud for KH4/KH Missing Link news as June was. Keep your fingers crossed folks.

X-2 all the way.

^Sailor Moon = Princess of the Moon aka Princess Kaguya which Otsutsuki Kaguya is also based off of.