Comic Book Writer, Artist, Emperor of the Multiverse, Creative, Eccentric Goofball's Random Thoughts on Geeky things & other stuff: Comic Books, Green Lantern, Shazam, Video Games, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Trails/Kiseki, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Ultraman, Tokusatsu, JRPGs, Metroidvanias, Undertale, Avatar:The Last Airbender, Persona 4 and 5 and Anime (Like Dr. Stone, Fire Force, Rising of the Shield Hero, Assassination Classroom, No Gun's Life, Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, Yuki Yuna is a Hero, ReSlime, Re:Creators, and more) (Do not use my art for NFTs or AI Art)
Vintage CM for HERO SENKI: PROJECT OLYMPUS from 1992. Developed by Winkysoft, this crossover RPG is part of the massive Compati Hero Series where several classic heroes crossover for adventures. And the occasional round of dodgeball.
Hey, I'm running a Kingdom Hearts survey for a final project and I need data from fans!
This survey has three questions and should only take a couple of minutes.
I need data from Kingdom Hearts fans for a final project!
The data in question is to answer a few things:
Which combat system is preferred
I'd really appreciate any reblogs for reach, I only have a couple of weeks to gather this data and I want a reasonable sample size for a series with as many fans as Kingdom Hearts does. Thank you all so much!
I have seen you and anons say Sora and Data Sora have different personalities. What are their personalities? I don't understand how they're different from each other. I like your long posts anyways.
Thank you! It's fun dissecting KH and its characters in-depth!
And for your question, I think the answer is a relatively complex one. At least for me, when I say "different", I wouldn't say that Sora and Data-Sora are completely differing personalities. After all, Data-Sora is based from Sora himself, so saying "different personalities" with the thought of them having completely different behavior at base level isn't exactly correct.
However, Data-Sora wasn't made the same way as, say, Roxas was. He didn't come from Sora physically, he was reconstructed from the data in Jiminy's Journal. Getting into the technicalities and logistics of that pose an interesting question of whether Data-Sora is just a straight-up perfect copy of Sora (with all his interiority, good and bad) or if he only captures a specific image of Sora (what he shows externally). Because realistically, it's hard to imagine that the journal managed to capture all of Sora's aspects, especially the stuff he might not directly say. And if the answer is the latter, that does make them relatively different in ways the people around them might not anticipate.
That, and how Sora and Data-Sora have enough differing experiences in the KH1/CoM journey that they come to different outcomes (that I covered in my post about how these games set-up an Expectations vs Reality scenario for Sora).
It's within Data-Sora getting such a different experience than OG Sora that creates their differences. They might not be different in the sense that their demeanors are contrasting but Coded presents the idea that Data-Sora isn't just some replica/copy of Sora but his own individual being who could grow to summon his own keyblade. This is a Data-Sora that was able to choose to take on all the "hurt" thrown at him in Castle Oblivion due to the support he got from others throughout his journey. Data-Sora was able to summon his own keyblade through his own experiences as he had grown a heart over time. This is similar to how the Nobodies ended up as well.
So rounding back to the initial question, I think the main differences actually lie in the reasoning/thought processes behind the choices they'd make in certain situations. The goal the others in Coded had in the last part was to see if Sora could "handle the hurt" and it always lives rent-free in my mind that while real Sora is capable of holding onto that hurt, 3 and 3D especially show him falling apart under the weight of that pain and pressure.
It's a little hard to say for sure since Data-Sora was only in Coded/Re:Coded and also "personality" is probably not the correct word for all of this since it isn't wrong that both Soras have similar demeanors and general mindsets. That's the thing with them, the line between same and different is blurry at some parts.
And admittedly, of course, there is quite a bit of messy speculation on my end when I say these things LOL. I don't even know if I'm making sense half of the time or if I'm using the right words to express my exact thoughts.
(And if I wasn't making sense or there's a need for clarification or more explanation for my answers, please let me know!)
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Making Kingdom Hearts Stuff Until KH4 Comes Out (Day 417)
Aqua acting like a mother/Big sister figure towards the younger keyblade wielder is interesting.
That but also Aqua as a mentor figure is always a fun concept to work with! Formally trained, made Master under the Mark of Mastery, but with her experiences, it would be cool to see how that would influence her style of teaching and how she interacts with the others.
It'd be fun to see how she'd talk with a lot of the characters! It'd be so funny to see her live reaction to learning the Lore of all of them
I finally finished Trails from Zero the Evo version on the Vita and it was wonderful (This was a couple months ago). I will say it's a real slow burn but everything does tie together in the end. The DG Cult can burn for all the shit they've caused in the Trails universe. Seriously fuck them for all the crap that that Joachim does.
Moving on from the DG Cult hate because that's a post in itself. This game does a great job of making you feel like a resident of Crossbell. I went around and talked to everybody and got attached to a lot of the characters. It definitely starts feeling like another home here. The SSS are literally that ranking of Characters because they are all amazing (Okay I played Reverie before this game so I knew a lot about them but it was great to see them start.) Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy like I stated are incredible. The game does a good job learning why they do this, what they want, and a bit of their pasts. Lloyd is inspiring and determined, and a little clueless with how he says things, Elie is amazing; I loved learning her history and motivation, Tio is fun, smart, and love Mishy, and Randy is hiding a lot under his demeanor and is cool when he's not being a flirt lol.
The rest of the cast of Crossbell is interesting and it's fun how so many people are so nice to you in this game when I know some of their futures lol. Sergei, Dudley, Noel, Fran, Shizuka, Arios, Michel, Sonya, and more were some standouts I loved too.
The game picks up when they introduce KeA and she is so awesome and cute. I love how the whole team takes to her and want to protect her. The mystery with her is interesting.
Now the Trails in the Sky fan in me was totally excited for Joshua, Estelle (or BEstelle), and Renne's story continuing and it's so wonderful and heartfelt.
Also Lecter and Kirika were also great seeing them again too.
The combat is normal Trails with the addition of Combo Crafts, which were a wonderful addition of powerful partner attack crafts. Also, they had full team attacks too which were awesome. Elie and Tio's magic really decimated most enemies. Lloyd and Randy were great physically.
The game focusing on the SSS was unique that you only got 4 characters and the occasional guest character. It helped make you get attached to them and to Crossbell.
I am looking forward to Azure. This game took me a while to complete but looking back on it I was really into the characters and the world.
The fact that Ventus and Roxas look like twins is fun. The fact that Vanitas and Sora also look like twins. But then you add Data Sora who looks like their small little brother then it gets better. Just a bunch of brothers that can kick ass. Sometimes each other's. All with unique movesets. Even data sora has some unique abilities like Eruption and the elemental versions of Strike Raid, Aerial Sweep, Sliding Dash, Round Blitz, and Quick Blitz (he has fire, Blizzard, Thunder and Aero versions of those attacks). Also all of them standing together for a photo because you have a bunch of tall guys then this one small kid who probably has to stand on a create.
I always get a kick out of the criss-cross connections they have, like this person looks like that person but the person they're directly connected to is this other person that doesn't look like them LOL
It's generally not that complicated but someone learning for the first-time definitely gets thrown off by the explanations for each
Something that just popped into my head. What would happen if Roxas, Xion, Ventus, and Data Sora took the rank of mastery exam that Sora did in dream drop distance?
Would they pass? how would they pass or fail for that matter. I don't think any of them would fail for the same reason Sora did.
It depends on what the exam itself is. BBS, Dark Road, and Dream Drop had different exams so it’s hard to say tbh. And the thing about Sora’s exam was that it was straight up rigged by the Organization from the get-go so that’s another factor.
I would imagine they’d pass though? As long as there isn’t any external interference, though the exam hasn’t proven to have the best track record in terms of that.
Xion and data sora have surprisingly similar situations. Both are meant to be copies of sora, both have some of sora's memories, and both are compared to sora and are treated as if they are him. Heck they both even believe this themselves to some degree. Yet they aren't sora. They may have meant to be but both xion and data sora grow their own personalities and hearts, they grow past what they where supposed to be. Considering the two have similar beliefs when it comes to their relationships and connections to sora, it would be interesting to see xion and data sora interact. Also sora would definitely disagree with them. Sora wouldn't want them to compare themselves to him. He would consider them their own people with their own stories.
For sure!! It fits into one of the themes KH has as a whole. They're all connected in one way or another but they aren't the same. And the fact that them not being the same was something that Sora caught onto when others (like Ansem the Wise, etc.) couln't is such a vital thing about his character and the series as a whole. It'd be super cool to see them talking about these concepts and see them validate each others' individual identities and experiences at some point, even if it might be a while before any permanent reunions happen.
I found some interesting comments on a kingdom hearts video "I would love to see a video on sora and Data sora (ds version. The remix leaves out a lot of interesting information). As the two aren't exact copies of each other by the end. While they start out the same by the end, they're similar but they do have some different personality traits and experiences (even when taking 3 into account data sora still has experiences his other counterpart doesn't. those experiences alloed data sora to change in ways sora didn't. The two are more different then you would think.).
And before anyone says data sora lost his memories so he should be the same as sora again but here's the thing, data sora doesn't have the memory but he still has the development as shown by castle oblivion where he acts more like he did from the previous chapter then he does at the beginning of the game, those memories are gone but their affect on his heart is still there, remember that data sora has an actual heart now, he is much more than just code or words.
Also, I headcannon that zero/one (the keyblade you get from defeating data heartless sora) is data sora's version of a journal.
The two soras are more different than you would expect at first glance. It's part of why I want the two to neat. Oh and Data sora has Eruption and many other abilities sora doesn't have. There is much more to re:coded that some fans and the remix movie ignore including story wise. And unfortunately boss fights (I have seen people claim data heartless sora is just Darkside but that's wrong for starters Darkside doesn't slow people down, burn, freeze, or trap you in a vortex and that's without bringing up data heartless sora's second, and third phase).
Speaking of data heartless sora. He seems to have developed his owm personality that is very different from both sora's and data sora's. This is noticeable in his dialog. But even in his second phase where he looks Like sora he still fights pretty differently, like surrounding himself with little keyblades as a shield that he will fling at you like they're freaking bullets. Data heartless sora is a BUG that wants to consume everything, data, minds, BUGs, even hearts. He also causes BUGs. I would have called him Data Sora's darkness but after thinking about that, i don't think that fits. Mostly because of data heartless sora's personality. Instead i think data heartless sora is what data sora could have become if things went differently. Also data sora gets extra moves that sora does have thanks to extra combo chips. Plus the game is fun and has a lot of new moves. Like the elemental versions of attacks like sonic blade. The story is fun too." "something i find interesting is that we see data sora in castle oblivion still has the skills to deal with the bugs, some of the rooms also require spells and combos that kh1 travels town sora didn't have. Not to mention the destiny island kids painting out sora is acting a bit differently. So despite his memory lose, the skills and character growth and development definitely remained. Also shown by how dara Sora handles pain. Which makes since because data sora went through the events of kh1 on top of other stuff. Like his besy friend throwing him into an extremely dangerous situation to sink or swim, getting jumped twice, his keyblade getting destroyed while being reminded he isn't the "real sora", pretty much everything in hollow baston, and oh yeah not having Donald and Goofy by his side till hollow baston, and a lot of other stuff. What's interesting is these events change data sora's personality causing him to start to behave differently from sora. For example as early as wonderland when going through tje same events that sora did, data sora tries to handle then differently and has a different response to some events. The two aren't the exact same. Heck even when ot comes to lose memories, sora didn't keep his character development or skills from rechain of memories. Interesting another way to tell that data sora isn't just a copy of sora anymore, is how data sora responds to pain. Truth be told data sora is excepting of pain which makes sense, he already dealt with a lot of pain before entering castle oblivion. Meanwhile Sora struggles to expect pain, or at least can't do so as easily as data sora. Something shown in dream drop distance and kh3. Kh3 straight up comfirms this. Data sora has a lot of personality traits he wouldn't have had if the journal wasn't bugged and even after loosing his memories those new personality traits are still there. A lot of small details in the game also show off more differences between sora and data sora, a lot of those are missing from the recoded movie unfortunately.
Something interesting about the memory situation is that data sora isn't the only one in that situation without timetravel. Roxas looses his memories of xion but the influence she had on him reminded. The skills he pucked up because of her and the ones he learned from her are still there, he even uses them against riku. Roxas has a lot of personality traits he wouldn't have developed if he didn't meet xion, but Roxas still has those personality traits all the way into kingdom hearts 2. Roxas looses his memories twice and the character development and skills still remain. That also not the only similarity Roxas and Data Sora have. They both start iut without heart but end up gaining their own hearts. They both are "copies" of Sora but end up developing differently from Sora. All of this of course applies to xion too. Despite Roxas, Xion, Data Sora, and Sora all having different personalities. To bad Data Sora from Recoded probably won't every return. I wish he could at least come back for one more game. The Movie skips over a lot of important details that's in the game. This goes for both recoded and days.
Data Roxas is also the boss of castle oblivion which is interesting when you think about it." Also recoded has a lot of plot points and events that are different from kh1 beyond the stuff in castle oblivion. In each world data sora goes through stuff sora didn't. I say this because in one of your posts you say recoded has the same story as kh1 which isn't really true. This is coming from someone who has the actual ds game and has played kh1 multiple times.
Hello, thanks for sending the ask/your thoughts! I was a bit caught off guard by the length since I haven't really gotten something that long before, but I do really appreciate it!
I suppose you're referring to this post when saying that I claimed Re:Coded had the same story as KH1? Unless I'm forgetting a post, but I haven't been able to find any other where I might have said something akin to that.
Correct me if I'm misuderstanding, but I didn't necessarily...argue that? At least not with the mindset that Re:Coded was just a retelling of KH1. I did say that "Coded is technically a rehash of KH1's and CoM's plot to an extent (hence its reputation besides its amazing gameplay)..." but that was said with the general/initial set-up of the story and the reputation it had in mind (hence why I used the word/phrase "technically" and "to an extent").
Data-Sora is placed in the general events of KH1 and CoM. Of course, what happens there and the scenario itself turns out to have many differences. The point of my initial post was that Data-Sora's journey was different from Sora's due to the different circumstances + the different events playing out hence why the whole "testing to see if Sora could handle the hurt" doesn't truly work in (with how things went for Sora in 3D and 3). There's expectations put on Sora that didn't consider what actually happened to him and while Data-Sora and Sora share core traits, the differences become large enough to present a sense of doubt in them being able to equate to each other. I even argued that it "adds to the concept of Data-Sora being his own existence by extension."
So, essentially, I did and do agree with you, but maybe my wording wasn't too clear? Or maybe I said something in passing that came across that way and didn't encompass my full-on thoughts on the matter (if there is another post where I said that, please let me know). Or if I'm misunderstanding the point you're making, also let me know.
I do agree that I'd like to see more of Data-Sora in future games too.
Sora: Expectations vs Reality (Coded vs KH1, CoM, and 3D)
Another Sora analysis because I can't help myself haha (help). But there's been a couple of posts that talked about this topic and it's really rewired my brain, so I also want to take a stab at it. I feel like this isn't something that's looked into/analyzed as much compared to other interpretations of KH's narrative, especially in terms of Sora, or at least I haven't seen it as much across platforms in a mainstream sense (though I do think it's been on the rise in recent times).
So if you're willing to bear with me, then get ready for another long post!
As the title indicates, and as mentioned, other people have brought up, Data-Sora creates an in-universe (and IRL) set of expectations for the actual Sora. While Coded is technically a rehash of KH1 and CoM's plot to an extent (hence its reputation besides its amazing gameplay), the point is to gather and present the stakes KH2, Days, and BBS introduced and set up what Sora's goals are going to be leading into 3D and 3.
The way it chooses to do so is to put a simulated Sora to the test, to see if he can "handle the hurt" and while he manages to do so, as many others have pointed out, Data-Sora's decision about remembering the pain to connect to others contradicts Sora's decision to forget at the end of CoM. Coded dictates that Sora can handle the pain of those within him and/or those who need to be saved. But 3D contradicts that as well. Many say that this indicates a potential point in Sora's development as a character and person, and while I agree, I want to focus on what has shaped him to this point in the first place. I must add, though, that Sora in 3, in terms of what he knows/is aware of by the end, understands a lot more than I've seen some people give him credit for, but this is another opinion in of itself.
Reading full-on long paragraphs might make this even harder to get through so I'll try to place some parts in bullet points (I get info-overloaded easily sometimes due to long paragraphs too ToT):
Coded, as said before, while initially having Data-Sora find/fix the missing/corrupted data in Jiminy's Journal (KH1 aspect), turns into a test to see if Sora can handle the "hurt" of the people he needs to save (CoM aspect).
Data-Sora proves he is willing to take on that "hurt" and can handle it. Which Sora by KH3/ReMind also manages to show.
But this neglects a few things about Sora's character before that point:
Data-Sora in the first part of Coded has guidance from Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Data-Riku especially D and G who have experienced their KH1 development and are currently ride-or-die for him. The KH1 experience ends up being different for him.
Even though he fights Data-Riku, it can be chalked up to the bugs/possession rather than anything malicious, which contrasts with real Riku before the Ansem possession.
Data-Sora losing his keyblade happened due to Maleficent rather than Riku. Rather than Goofy and Donald leaving him, he's the one that storms off and even then they go after him.
When we get to the CoM portion, Data-Sora doesn't have his memories of what happened in the first half, hence he goes straight to Castle Oblivion without the KH1 experience (also he's initially guided by Mickey, Data-Riku, and Data-Roxas)
In this case, it's a test of strength rather than what happened in CoM where Marluxia and Larxene hoped to break Sora to make him their puppet.
Data-Sora went to the KH1 worlds in each room and was made to forget right after getting through each one
But Sora had his memories from even before the first game actively messed with, while also being made to believe that it was the real Riku attacking him. All of that happened without much guidance from anyone.
What this shows is that while Data-Sora is the ideal outcome of Sora's development, I think as a narrative that presents trauma (intentionally and unintentionally), it emphasizes what the real Sora has been through. Theoretically, had things gone differently for Sora, and he had a proper support system on these journies, he would have been able to make the "right" choice. But he didn't have that. He had to figure a lot of things out and had to pull himself through. In a way, it feels unfair to some extent and it creates the expectations vs reality aspect.
And I believe this comes to fruition in 3D:
Organization XIII successfully overwhelms Sora, his heart ends up breaking under the emotional stress of all the people he's connected to as he's pulled into deeper sleep.
It especially sucks considering that the Mark of Mastery Exam was actively messed with in an outright attempt to break Sora (again).
His failure of the exam makes sense considering he couldn't overcome the Darkness in this real-world application like Riku, but it leaves such a bitter taste, right?
(The logistics of the exam can be argued ngl. Isn't it wild that all cases of the exam we've seen have had an external force get involved and have irrevocable damage on the test takers? Taking lives and souls fr.)
So what we get is a failure of those expectations (at least initially). Reality is much more harrowing and vicious. And that's such an interesting thing to do narratively, it feels purposeful. It establishes a depth to Sora that isn't fully seen and even adds to the concept of Data-Sora being his own existence by extension. By KH3, Sora's low self-esteem is directly shown to us and stems from the reality of his journey. He has a lot of unaddressed scars and while the characters view him as a beacon of hope out of love and respect, many of us acknowledge how harmful that's been to him in the most specific ways.
I really, really hope that the upcoming games build on this and address it, because it'd be so satisfying to see all of this acknowledged and explored! It would feel fitting for Sora to go to Unreality and face the reality of himself.
(I'm sorry if this was incoherent, I'm bad at collecting my thoughts on the spot...I'm open to corrections and additional thoughts!)
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