-Like I said, Master Aqua is the hero we need (and the one we deserve is probably, like…Ventus). Getting knocked away from Mickey at the end was sudden, but I love the way she coped with it (in the Japanese dub especially): she’s found out that the battle in the Realm of Light is still going on, so it’s okay if she has to stay in the Realm of Darkness for a little longer because if anyone else falls in then she, “the light in the darkness”, will be there to help them. Capped off with “I am Master Aqua. There’s no need to worry.” delivered with an edge, but so calmly that it doesn’t sound at all like a boast, just a statement of fact. And the bulk of 0.2 was her confronting the weakness of her own Heart, so seeing her resolve renewed like this is just…ARGH! She’s a national freaking treasure and I love her so much and I want to be just like her and someone save her please! (The English version is still good, but I think they removed the BGM? It didn’t hit quite as hard somehow.)

-Again, Back Cover is a Mafia game. The Master of Masters (henceforth “the MoM”) keeps handing out “roles”, the conflict is “One of us is a traitor and we need to figure out which one!”, they keep turning on each other, one of them has a role that is specifically finding out who the traitor is, another has a secret role, and since we know this leads to the Keyblade War it technically ends with all players getting massacred. Can I work this into an actual Mafia game somehow? No? Yeah, probably no.

-The MoM is spectacular by the way. Clearly a villain, and immediately a more interesting one than Xehanort. And yes, the MoM, it is very gross that you put your eye in a Keyblade. (I mean, it’s probably not his literal eye, but they say it like that, so…) As for the Mystery Box, I’m wondering if it contains a fragment of the MoM’s Heart or something—I have a feeling he might acquire time travel, and the box’s contents will allow him to travel to the future. And then he’ll probably come up with some way to stay there, even though that’s against the rules we have right now. Eh, we’ll see.

-Since Xehanort has the MoM’s Keyblade with its Gazing Eye, I’m wondering if maybe he has found a way to access its powers. Yen Sid had a pretty big reaction to Xehanort’s “foresight”, and being able to literally see the future would definitely make his Teridax-level planning easier. There’s also the possibility that Xehanort has been possessed by the MoM, retconning his backstory once again, which I don’t want to happen but you know what who cares, whatever, as long as Xehanort finally dies for good I’ll get over it I guess.

-Once again: this is the most Kairi we’ve had in a long time, even if it isn’t actually all that much. I’m ecstatic, of course, especially because Yen Sid explicitly said “we gonna train you to use the Keyblade” (F I N A L L Y), but the fact that this little bit is as surreal as it is…

-And seriously…why was Mickey Mouse getting his shirt torn off necessary? I mean, yeah, he didn’t have his shirt in the end of KH1 because one of the most iconic looks of Mickey is this, so it’s consistent, but, like…it’s…kinda weird. And there are only so many BZP-appropriate jokes I can make about it!

-My interpretation of how the Keyblades of Darkness work haven’t really developed past what I presented in this post. (The English dub specifically says this Keyblade is the “counterpart” of the Keyblade Sora got, and so should be here on “the dark side of their world”.) No matter what this actually means, I do really, really hope that we see more Keyblades of Darkness in the future. I mean, there are only three types of Keyblades and we only have singular examples of two of them. It makes sense for the Keyblades of Heart considering they can only be made from fragments of the original X-blade (the Light pieces being the Hearts of the Princesses of Heart (so not very practical) and the Dark ones not appearing at all (hope they fix that)), but I don’t know that they have as good an excuse for only showing one Keyblade of Darkness. Especially if they’re all color-inverted duplicates of Keyblades of Light, in which case it would take absolutely 0 effort to design one.

-I like how, upon explaining that Sora has lost some of his power(s) (and why), Sora’s response is “Yeah I’ve been here before.” (“Happens all the time!” in English dub.) It isn’t totally necessary but I do like that KH always explains why Sora’s level and abilities are reset, it’s a little touch that I really appreciate. On a similar note, it is AWESOME that Master Aqua starts at Level 50.

-Oh, and the secret scene seems to suggest that Olympus is going to be the very first world in KHIII (for Sora, at least). That would coincide with trailers showing Sora there in his KHII attire rather than his new clothes. Also thank God we get to see KHII Sora again, I was afraid they’d come up with some excuse to stick him back in his KH1 threads yet again. I’m so sick of looking at those honestly.

-The secret boss rush in 0.2 was unexpected, but a really neat addition! I guess Mirage Aqua gets added to the League of Superbosses.

-So it’s definitely Xehanort looking for Ven/the Chamber of Waking, not Terra. Why? Well, Ven’s inclusion in art for KHX has led to a lot of people believing Ven is one of Ava’s Dandelions. I’m not sure if I believe that, but I suppose it’s possible…and I don’t really have an alternative motivation for Xehanort to find Ven. Well, maybe since being totally empty makes him an easy vessel, actually. We’ll see what happens. I dislike Ventus so I’m not super-invested in his history/fate.

-I gotta say, Luxu gives off a vibe I find similar to Young Xehanort. Not sure what to make of that, just an observation.

-I did enjoy Back Cover and getting to know the Foretellers, but…it still feels like we haven’t learned anything. This has always been a problem for X and Unchained and I’m still not entirely satisfied. At least they finally mentioned Kingdom Hearts, which is what we were told the Keyblade War was fought over!

-Oh yeah, and Mickey clarified that the Kingdom Hearts connected to the Door of Darkness is “a little smaller” than the one Aqua saw previously—it’s an artificial one, in the same vein as the one the Organization made in KHII but made from Worlds’ Hearts rather than people’s Hearts. This was a little unclear so I’m glad they stated it plainly. Getting something stated plainly in KH is nothing short of a miracle.

-Since I haven’t actually played it my opinions of the gameplay are obviously uninformed, but I don’t think they’ve really changed much. The gameplay we’ve seen in 0.2/for KHIII does look really nice (Flowmotion is back and KEYBLADE TRANSFORMATIONS AT LAST), but I’m still hesitant about giving up Deck Commands in favor of the KH1/II Command Menu and an MP bar. Especially since Cure still drains any and all MP you have at the moment. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

-As for 2.8 as a thing…I’m still unsure, honestly. It’s essentially a slightly better looking version of a game from 5 years ago packaged with a very long new cutscene and a demo for another game, with a markup of about $20. Seeing as I have KH3D and access to YouTube, the only thing I’m missing out on is experiencing the gameplay of 0.2 firsthand (and customizing Master Aqua myself), and while I do want that…I’m not sure it’s worth a whopping $60. I’m definitely glad to see this but I don’t really feel too bad not being able to play this one. Here’s hoping I get my hands on a PS4 before KHIII!