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 The Game: Kingdom Hearts was the first game in the popular "Kingdom Hearts" series. It was released in 2002 as an exceedingly strange mix of Disney, Final Fantasy, and an original story involving Sora and his Keyblade. To the surprise of many, the game was a big success, spawning a number of sequels and side games over the last sixteen years. The game was re-released exclusively in Japan near the end of 2002 as a "Final Mix" which includes such things as recolored Heartless, new bosses, and a handful of new cutscenes that help flesh out the story a bit more. That being said, the original English release of the game actually got content the original Japan version didn't, with four optional bosses. The Final Mix version in Japan added those bosses and a fifth one, dubbed "The Unknown". The rest of the world got this version in 2013 with the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX collection. This version got re-re-released in early 2017 as part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX collection for the PlayStation 4. The Story: For those living under a rock for the last fifteen years, here's how the story goes. A trio of friends; Sora, Riku, and Kairi, have a peaceful life on Destiny Islands, alongside some Final Fantasy characters that no one particularly cares about. The three of them have a dream of seeing other worlds, even creating a raft that they for some reason think will make that possible. Before their About the LP: This LP will also not be live, I have no good way of recording it as such. I'll record the gameplay and the commentary separately. I will be playing on Beginner Mode, and while that means I don't get the secret ending, I find it to not be worth it. All it is is a preview for Kingdom Hearts II, which has been out for over a decade now. I don't plan on uncovering every little thing in the game, like all the Trinity Marks, opening every treasure chest, or showing off where each of the 99 Dalmatian Puppies can be found. I will, however, fight the five optional bosses near the end of the game. And like my Birth by Sleep LP, I'm playing the version included on the HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX for the PlayStation 4. As a warning, since it came up in the Sandcastle thread, I WILL be talking during cutscenes, just so people know if that kind of thing bothers them. Schedule: If nothing hinders me, I plan on adding a new episode each Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Spoilers?: Sure, go nuts. The game's fifteen years old after all. I will also give spoilers for pretty much every other Kingdom Hearts game in the LP, as it is kind of hard to talk about one game in this kind of series and exclude the others. Onward to other worlds: Part 1 - Destiny Islands Part 2 - Traverse Town Part 3 - Wonderland and Olympus Coliseum Part 4 - Deep Jungle Part 5 - Traverse Town Revisit and Agrabah Part 6 - Monstro and Atlantica Part 7 - Halloween Town Part 8 - Neverland Part 9 - Hundred Acre Wood Part 10 - Hollow Bastion Part 11 - Hollow Bastion Revisit Part 12 - End of the World and Optional Bosses Part 13 - Kingdom Hearts TheLoneStar fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Mar 28, 2018 |
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Mar 6, 2018 22:24
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| # ? May 6, 2024 02:30 |
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Characters: THE HEROES:  Sora: The main protagonist of the series and the sole person chosen by the Keyblade...until the sequels start coming out at least. In this game, Sora is a wide-eyed, optimistic lad of fourteen, who simply shares his best friend's dream of travelling to other worlds, wanting to see what the universe has to show. Unfortunately his universal tour isn't quite as relaxed or as fun as he had hoped... Voiced by Haley Joel Osment.  Riku: Though he's a villain for good chunk of the game, I'll go ahead and list him as a hero, considering that's how he ends up. Riku, Sora's best friend, is the one that ignited this plan to go see other worlds, as he finds Destiny Islands too small and boring. Unfortunately he instantly falls to Darkness, siding with the Heartless and the one who commands them, Maleficent. Despite this, he still holds loyalty to Kairi, trying to get her heart restored by any means necessary. Voiced by David Gallagher.  Kairi: The third part of the Destiny Islands trio. Kairi has an odd past as she is actually from another world, though she can't remember much about it, and has no idea how she ended up on Destiny Islands. (So did she get adopted or something?) She spends a majority of the game in a catatonic state after Destiny Islands falls to the Darkness, occasionally appearing in visions that Sora has throughout the game... Voiced by Hayden Panettiere.  Donald Duck: He's...well...he's Donald Duck. Really though, in this series Donald Duck is a skilled magic-user, and has the role of Mickey Mouse's Royal Magician. He's ever-loyal to King Mickey, following the mouse's orders to find they Keyblade wielder, and to follow and guide him. Aside from that, he really is just Donald Duck. A bit of a jerk, a bit greedy, but with a heart of gold and is someone who would do anything for his friends. Voiced by Tony Anselmo.  Goofy Goof: Like with Donald, Goofy is essentially the Goofy we all know and love. He's not too bright, but his heart of gold shines a lot more often than Donald's does. In this series, he has the role of Mickey's Captain of the Royal Knights, and fights using a shield. Like Donald, he is ordered by Mickey to find the Keyblade wielder, which helps kick off the adventure. Voiced by Bill Farmer.  Jiminy Cricket: I almost didn't even include this guy here. In fact, I almost FORGOT to. Jiminy doesn't do very much in the game, though he does keep track of the adventure and the characters you meet in a journal, which actually becomes a plot point in several future games. Voiced by Eddie Carroll.  King Mickey: The benevolent ruler of Disney Castle, King Mickey one day vanished. Before doing so, he left behind a letter asking Donald and Goofy to find and follow the wielder of the mysterious Keyblade for him. Though he's absent for almost the entire game, he manages to help out in his own ways. Specifically, he gets others to help Sora and the others out on their quest, such as Merlin the Wizard, the Fairy Godmother, and "Leon" of Traverse Town. Voiced by the late Wayne Allwine.  Squall "Leon" Leonhart: Squall, or Leon as he prefers to be called, is Mickey's contact in Traverse Town. Originally from another world that fell to Darkness years ago. He chose to change his name to Leon out of shame from not being able to save his home world. He's a bit of a "cool guy" like in Final Fantasy VIII, but thankfully he's not nearly as antisocial. Though he does get to keep his nifty Gunblade. He passively assists Sora by providing exposition on the Keyblade and the Heartless. Voiced by David Boreanaz. THE VILLAINS:  The Heartless: The Heartless are evil beings from the Realm of Darkness. They are the manifestation of the Darkness within people's hearts, and come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and levels of danger. Their one and only goal is to plunge any world they can into Darkness, infesting the heart of each world in order to do so. Although they can be controlled by those with Darkness in their own hearts, they have a tendency to turn on their masters, slowly eating away at their hearts.  Maleficent: The self-appointed "Mistress of All Evil", Maleficent is the main antagonist of about ninety percent of the game. Her plot is to rule over all worlds with the help of the Heartless. She even went so far as to recruit several classic Disney villains such as Jafar, Ursula, Hades, and several more. She even ropes in Riku, turning the boy into a user of Darkness. Voiced by Susanne Blakeslee.  Xehanort's Heartless: Though he goes by the name of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, his true identity is Terra-Nort's Heartless. Somehow, unlike other Heartless, he keeps his humanoid shape and mental prowess. He manipulates things behind the scenes, and is responsible for the outbreak of Heartless in the first place. His true goal being the mythical and mysterious Kingdom Hearts... Voiced by Billy Zane.  The Unknown: A strange being that appears in Hollow Bastion near the end of Sora's journey. Who is he? What is he? What is his purpose? For now, all those remain entirely secret to Sora...
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Mar 6, 2018 22:24
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(One reserve post, just in case.)
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Mar 6, 2018 22:24
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Part 1 - Destiny Islands So begins the second part of my Kingdom Hearts series. I really have a lot of nostalgia and fond memories of this game growing up. Despite it being over fifteen years since I first played it, I'm still astounded that such a series exists. A mix of Final Fantasy and Disney that isn't some fangame? It's still rather surreal. I have to say, I always liked Destiny Islands. It's a small part of the game, but it's just very comfy and it shows off the friendship between Sora, Riku, and Kairi rather well. I also decide to play the game in a slightly different manner than usual. I usually take the Sword and give up the Staff, but I wanted to try out something different here. I also decided to do a bunch of optional stuff, mainly the mini-bosses, despite them not really being important or giving off good prizes.
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Mar 6, 2018 22:28
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Part 2 - Traverse Town Traverse Town is a pretty interesting place. Not so much with what goes on there, but what CAN go on there. It's a mysterious place where people who lose their worlds end up in for reasons never fully explored. But because of this, it allows Sora to meet the likes of Squall, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid as they've lost their own worlds. It also allows characters like the Dalmatians and The Fairy Godmother to make an appearance. It's the perfect place to allow Disney characters without a proper world (and ones that will probably never get one), or ones not suitable for summons, to make an appearance. The surface is scratched a bit here, but considering the world is confirmed for Kingdom Hearts III, I'm hoping to see more, brand new Disney characters whose movies just wouldn't make good worlds.
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Mar 9, 2018 01:02
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Part 3 - Wonderland and Olympus Coliseum Of all the worlds in the series, Wonderland is at the very top of my list of ones I want to see return in a future game by a large margin. While I wouldn't say it's a BAD world in Kingdom Hearts, I just see a lot of potential that's left untapped, especially since it only has "rehash" appearances in other games like Chain of Memories and Coded, or like in 358 where the visits there are underwhelming and ultimately unimportant. Like there's really only three characters that actually matter that appear in this world with Alice, The Queen of Hearts, and the Cheshire Cat. Two fan-favorites, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, who only appear as some kind of painting. It just stinks because this is a world where the game makers can just go completely nuts and throw any and all logic out the window, but aside from some growing and shrinking and the "Bizarre Room", it's really not too crazy. Even the mischievous and "mad" Cheshire Cat is undeniably helpful, even if he speaks in riddles. I would just like to see it reappear on a PlayStation 4 game (not even necessarily III) where Nomura and the team can go above and beyond with how upside down the world is and utilize all the colorful characters from the film. The Olympus Coliseum is still a bit of an unusual world, as the Heartless there don't really do anything wrong. All they do is enter the Games and...that's it. It's just Hades mucking things up like usual. Something I only realized recently is that Hades likes to utilize Final Fantasy characters in his plots, at least in all the "main" games. Zack in Birth by Sleep, Cloud here, and Auron in Kingdom Hearts II. Makes me wonder if he'll keep that pattern up in III or not. And now for Disney trivia 'cause I just find that kind of stuff interesting. Hercules trivia: The five titans in the film actually do have names. Lythos is the Rock Titan, Hydros is the Ice Titan, Pyros is the Lava Titan, Stratos is the Wind Titan, and Arges is the cyclops. Alice in Wonderland trivia: The film used "Live Action Reference" for the animation. This is a process where an actor will be filmed performing the actions of their character to help guide the animation process. A small clip of Kathryn Beaumont, Alice's voice actor and LAR actor can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWwO-h7ZSlw
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Mar 11, 2018 02:10
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Part 4 - Deep Jungle This is a world that I just sometimes forget exists. I certainly don't dislike it or anything, but sometimes when I see someone reference it somewhere, I think "Oh yeah, there was a Tarzan world, huh?" before forgetting it again five minutes later. I feel like the world was handled somewhat clumsily with half the world being Sora and the gang either aimlessly running and swinging around or saving gorillas that we never even see in any danger. It felt to me like Square didn't really know what to do with the world, so they just stuffed it with padding. It's also noteworthy that it's the only world in this game aside from End of the World to never make another appearance in the franchise, due to some stupid copyright thing. Honestly, I'm not too beaten up over it, and I feel like aside from Chain of Memories, it probably was never going to make another appearance even without the legal bullshit. There just doesn't seem like there'd be much to do, especially with Clayton dead, and he's far too much of a small-fry for Maleficent to ever resurrect. Tarzan trivia: Tarzan's famous yell, you know the one, wasn't actually done by his voice actor Tony Goldwyn. It was actually performed by Brian Blessed, Clayton's voice actor.
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Mar 12, 2018 03:44
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Part 5 - Traverse Town Revisit and Agrabah I have to say, I really dislike Riku in this game. Sure, he grows on me as the series goes on and becomes one of its best characters. But for this game, I pretty much hated him. I just have a strong dislike for characters that betray their friends and go over to whatever "Dark Side" the series has, especially if they just spontaneously start hating their friends. Like no matter what Sora says, or how logical it is, Riku will always find a way to twist his words so it makes Sora look like the bad guy, or at the very least with Riku having the higher moral ground. I mean in it's almost as bad as Terra, Riku trusting a extremely obvious villain. I mean heck, it can be argued he's even WORSE than Terra, since he actively starts to fight his best friend. With all that's wrong with Terra, he never did that. As for Agrabah, the Cave of Wonders was a major pain in the rear end, but it was nice to see the characters from the film, especially Genie. And of course I raised the issue of Genie's wishes. It's just like the Magic Mirror from Birth by Sleep, with Genie potentially being able to solve every problem in the series up until that point. If only Sora and the gang played hot potato with the lamp... Aladdin trivia: Aladdin was supposed to be younger, around twelve or thirteen. You can actually see this design during certain segments of "Friend Like Me", most noticeably when Aladdin is in the boxing ring near the start of the song.
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Mar 14, 2018 04:40
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Part 6 - Monstro and Atlantica Off the bat, I'm not the only one that forgets Jiminy Cricket is in these games, right? It's so easy to given how little he appears, even if he writes the journal. It's worse in Kingdom Hearts II since he literally appears for the first five minutes or so of Sora's waking up, and then NEVER AGAIN for the entire game. Poor little cricket. Anyway, Monstro is a pain in the rear end with all of its twists and turns, though I just stupidly missed the now-obvious entryway in the video. It actually is a bit neat that Riku joins you for the first Parasite Cage fight, though in this run at least he barely does a thing. I actually stood around and stopped attacking in hopes Riku would get his rear end into gear. Atlantica is far worse with its swimming mechanic and that stupid dolphin that we have to catch. The first Ursula fight is probably the worst fight in the game, but at least the second one is nice and simple in comparison. One thing I noticed is though Kingdom Hearts gets beef for each Disney world just being a retelling of the movie, that's barely even the case in this game. Agrabah and sort-of Deep Jungle are really the only examples. I mean some other worlds like Atlantica DO follow similar plots, but they aren't exactly the same. Pinocchio trivia: At the time, Pinocchio was among the most expensive films made with a budget of about 2.5 million dollars. It should also be noted that the original budget was only 500,000. The Little Mermaid trivia: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy all make cameos in the movie. Not in pictures or anything, but the actual characters themselves. Strangely enough, Kermit the Frog also makes an easy-to-miss cameo.
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Mar 16, 2018 03:44
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Part 7 - Halloween Town It sure was nice going back to this world again. As I state in the video, The Nightmare Before Christmas is my all-around favorite movie, so I'm always to see it in Kingdom Hearts. I'm not sure why they singled out Oogie Boogie of being the lamest member of Maleficent's group, but drat if it isn't funny, though I still love the guy. What I didn't love was that stupid second Oogie fight. I really don't know why they bothered with it. Not only did it not make very much sense, but it was more tedious and boring than exciting or anything else positive. I also gotta say, I like the disguises for Sora, Donald, and Goofy in the world. Since there are a few worlds with disguises and costume changes, combined with the cut Deep Jungle costume change, I do wonder if maybe each world would've had one. At least, every Disney world. Like maybe something card-themed for Wonderland might have been kind of cool, or like something like what The Queen of Hearts was wearing pattern-wise. The Nightmare Before Christmas trivia: There's a scrapped ending where Oogie Boogie turned out to be Dr. Finkelstein in disguise. A storyboard of the sequence can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhM8EUY7t8
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Mar 18, 2018 01:40
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Part 8 - Neverland They really had some balls trying to pass this world off as Neverland. Captain Hook's ship and London is not Neverland. I really have no idea why they couldn't have us actually go to Neverland in this game, my only guess is some kind of time constraints happened and making the world a ship and a clock tower was just faster and easier to do. I do like the comical undertones the world as, especially when it comes to Captain Hook and his crocodile shenanigans. Poor bastard can just never catch a break. That Anti-Sora fight was just abyssal though, though I can't rule out that I was just not using a good strategy against him. It's still one of those things that kind of pops up once and never gets mentioned again. That is, Riku making a weird shadow double of Sora, a power that never gets shown off again. Peter Pan trivia: J.R.R. Tolkien was a fan of Peter Pan, and Peter himself apparently influenced how he shaped the Elves of Middle Earth.
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Mar 19, 2018 01:56
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Part 9 - Hundred Acre Wood From what I gather, the Hundred Acre Wood world isn't too terribly popular among the fanbase. Though I can understand why, with all the usually boring or tedious minigames, I still find myself enjoying it. I think a majority of that is just me being biased because I really loved Winnie-the-Pooh growing up, and seeing the characters essentially unchanged for the Kingdom Hearts games is nice to see. No Heartless, no combat, no Pooh casting spells or doing Final Fantasy-like aerial flips and moves. It's nice and wholesome, as it should be. I will say I do kind of like the world's visit in Kingdom Hearts II a bit more; the minigames aren't quite so bad, and it has all of the characters from the movie, aside from Christopher Robin of course. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh trivia: Gopher isn't in the original books, and was even supposed to replace Piglet, with the idea of replacing Piglet with a more "American" character. This idea of course got scrapped later as Piglet gets his first proper appearance in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.
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Mar 21, 2018 01:13
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Part 10 - Hollow Bastion Of the few completely original worlds in the series, Hollow Bastion from this game is my first or second favorite, only behind The World That Never Was. It feels like a real dungeon, and is where all the deepest poo poo goes down outside of the final boss. Honestly, I consider it to be a far better final world than The End of the World ever was. That place is just boring as dried toast. A part of me really wishes Maleficent got to remain the big bad guy of the entire game, if only so literally a single Kingdom Hearts game has that happen, but her being the main villain for ninety percent of the game is the best it's gotten so far in that respect so I guess I have to take it. I also kind of feel like Hollow Bastion only had one visit, considering most of the second visit is just trekking back to the Keyhole just so the drat thing can finally get sealed. Also, tying The Beast and Belle into things like that was fantastic, and I wish they did more stuff like that in the sequels.
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Mar 23, 2018 02:13
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Part 11 - Hollow Bastion Revisit Like I said before, this revisit is all kinds of boring. Until the Keyhole is reached there's not enough new or interesting going on to make the journey there worth it. The Behemoth itself isn't a very fun boss to fight either. Just climb on its back and attack the horn until it decides to go invincible for a bit. And I decided I might as well go back to the Olympus Coliseum and finish that off, not enough material for a video on its own. I think it's kind of weird how Hades' defeat is almost like an afterthought. Yeah, he hired Cloud to kill Hercules, but you can't actually defeat Hades until near the end of the game when the Hades Cup opens. That, and he isn't really...doing anything anymore? Like yeah he's a prick but no Heartless are attacking anyone and are just competing in the Cups, so it's weird. Speaking of which, the Rock Titan was a weird choice to have at the end of the Hades Cup, especially considering how easy it is to defeat him. Like he barely even attacks and Hades himself is a more difficult fight. Oh yeah, does anyone know why Hollow Bastion is so special in regard to its Keyhole? I don't recall there being any proper explanation for it.
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Mar 25, 2018 02:50
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Part 12 - End of the World and Optional Bosses As I mentioned before, I always found End of the World to be pretty dull. Only one real cutscene at the very start, and then nothing but just fighting wave after wave of Heartless and Behemoths until you reach Chernabog. I always thought his addition to the game was pretty drat cool, even though the fight itself is a bit lackluster. I just wish there were more things of interest in the world aside from the final boss, but oh well. I also went after each optional boss, getting them all over with alongside this bore of a world. The Phantom and Kurt Zisa aren't really anything special, aside form the Phantom's severe magic gimmick which makes him more tedious than genuinely difficult. The Ice Titan is just a pain in the rear end and the fight drags on way too long. I feel entirely justified in cheesing Sephiroth and The Unknown, partly just to show people how to easily take care of the bosses, and because I always had a lot of trouble fighting them fairly. TheLoneStar fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Mar 26, 2018 |
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Mar 26, 2018 01:27
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| # ? May 6, 2024 02:30 |
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Part 13 - Kingdom Hearts I really have to say, I love the final boss. It may go on for a bit too long, but I feel like that's appropriate considering how Final Fantasy-esque it is. I kind of wish we had more of this in other games, with Xemnas' fight being the closest thing, though it's more mechanically inclined and with less out-of-nowhere shapeshifting. I'm gonna miss hearing Billy Zane's sexy, sexy voice coming out of Xehanort's Heartless, but I do think Richard Epcar is an acceptably, hammy compromise. I do wonder how far Nomura thought through the series when this game was first released. The original version, that is, not the Final Mix. From what I gather it was made with the intention that it'd tie up enough loose ends that if it wasn't successful enough to warrant a sequel, it'd make a good conclusion. Yet it also left enough things up in the air that if a sequel WAS warranted the story could easily continue. I just wonder if he knew there'd be Organization XIII, or that this wasn't really Ansem, but the Heartless of one of his apprentices. Or heck, that the apprentice was some withered old Keyblade master possessing someone else. I kind of doubt that he planned that far ahead, but I have to wonder. It's just that Xehanort's Heartless, assuming he would have Xehanort's memories now, shouldn't have thought a big white door was Kingdom Hearts considering all we learn about it in Birth by Sleep. I guess it really doesn't matter, but I like to ponder. Playing through this game is always fun, and I'm especially glad I can now play the more definitive version of it so easily. In its own way, especially storywise, I still consider this the best in the series, and I'm almost hoping III changes that. Thanks to those who watched through the whole thing, Re: Chain of Memories will be next, and will hopefully be up next Tuesday.
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Mar 28, 2018 02:05
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