Operation Backlog Completion 2025
Feb 202017
 

After Dream Drop Distance and χ Back Cover, only one part of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue remained: Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage.

It was awesome!

Now, the very premise of A Fragmentary Passage spoils Birth By Sleep, so if you aren’t that far in the series yet, save this review for after that fantastic game.

Got it? Everyone else here is okay with knowing the ending of Birth By Sleep?

Good.

A Fragmentary Passage follows Aqua during her time in the Realm of Darkness after Birth By Sleep. Technically, however, it starts right after the events of Dream Drop Distance: it’s a frame story as Mickey tells the others about his meeting with Aqua in the Realm of Darkness.

Although it doesn’t advance the plot in major ways, it handles its storytelling well (much better than the awkward pacing of Dream Drop Distance), does an excellent job of showing how Aqua has begun to break down from the tricks the Realm of Darkness plays on her, and establishes a solid hook for Kingdom Hearts 3.

Click for A Fragmentary Passage spoiler
I was a little disappointed we never got to fight Terra-Xehanort (where IS he in the real world, anyway?), but the entire Terra encounter was still pretty cool.

Terra vs. Terranort is just the best. Terra has obviously gotten better at fighting back. Get him, Terra!

Also, since Terra confirmed that Xehanort is searching for Ventus, I feel vindicated in my belief that Xemnas is absolutely Xehanort-driven and that his “friend” line in Kingdom Hearts II is creepy.

The combat feels like a blend between Kingdom Hearts II and Birth By Sleep, and it has some awesome new additions.

For example, it takes Birth By Sleep’s Command Style system and expands it into Situation Commands. Once Aqua has dealt enough damage, she can use a Situation Command to enter a Command Style form like Spellweaker or use a powerful attack such as Firaja. You can even build up multiple Situation Commands at once and unleash them one after the other.

It feels great, and the game also looks fantastic. Magic is impressive and dazzling, and so are the strange, fragmented worlds you travel through.

Maybe there’s a little Xehanort in me, but the Realm of Darkness is beautiful…

What I loved even more about the world is that even though A Fragmentary Passage is a shorter game, without full-fledged worlds like you’ll find in other Kingdom Hearts games, it allowed for a lot of exploration. There were secrets to discover and optional objectives to complete, and overall I enjoyed exploring more than I have in several Kingdom Hearts games.

A Fragmentary Passage has been described as almost being a tech demo for Kingdom Hearts 3, to show us what the next major Kingdom Hearts entry will be like. Well, if Kingdom Hearts 3 plays like A Fragmentary Passage, I’ll be very happy.

Despite only taking a handful of hours to complete, Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage might be my favorite part of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. If you haven’t played it yet, grab Kingdom Hearts 2.8 and give it a try!


Like fantasy and comedy? Don’t forget to support my visual novel (I’m the writer), Ascendant Hearts, on Kickstarter!

Feb 172017
 

I finally finished The Wonderful 101.

The Wonderful 101 is about a superhero-like organization fighting alien invaders known as the GEATHJERK (which stands for Guild of Evil Aliens Terrorizing Humans with Jiggawatt bombs, Energy beams, Ray guns, and Killer lasers). It was a fun game, but one I’m not likely to play again.

I had The Wonderful 101 in progress for quite a long time, even though it took me less than 20 hours to complete. Even though I enjoyed it, I kept taking long breaks to play other games that interested me more… a situation quite similar to another game I tried to play, Okami.

But unlike Okami, which I eventually gave up on, The Wonderful 101 doesn’t last so long that I got completely tired of it.

It does have some pacing issues. The game is divided into operations, each of which has multiple parts, and each part can take a while… especially boss battles, which often seem to parody similar boss battles by going on and on and reaching an increasingly larger scale.

(The Wonderful 101 doesn’t take itself too seriously, so it’s full of parodies.)

It’s also not a game you can easily take long breaks from, since the combat can be pretty challenging. Combat is where another Okami-esque aspect comes into play: drawing!

You control a group of superheroes who can unite into powerful weapon forms. For example, if you draw a circle, they form a hand to grab things or punch enemies. If you draw a straight line, they form a sword. And so on. There are many different weapons, and getting the game to recognize my attempts often caused me frustration.

Different enemies require different strategies to defeat, and it gets a bit complex.

On the other hand, while The Wonderful 101 is often challenging in its combat, it’s also very forgiving. If you die, it penalizes your score for the mission and brings you back with full health right where you left off the battle.

This, together with the shorter length of the overall game, is probably the main reason I didn’t quit it like I did Okami.

The Wonderful 101 also has a fun tone, a lot of humorous moments, and some surprisingly serious scenes. I liked the characters (with the exception of Luka, whom I couldn’t stand) and enjoyed the plot. In fact, it was interesting enough that if they are making a “Wonderful 102” or whatever they’d call the sequel, I’d look into it.

So in short, it might not be a new favorite game like Bayonetta, but finishing The Wonderful 101 is probably as close as I’ll ever get to finishing Okami.

Do you like superheroes? Alien invasion stories? Games that don’t take themselves seriously? And are you all right with complex combat that involves drawing shapes to form giant weapons? Then give The Wonderful 101 a try!

Feb 152017
 

After I finished Dream Drop Distance, I watched Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover, the movie included in Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

Unlike the previous “movies” included in the remixes, which were made up of game cutscenes, χ Back Cover is more like an actual movie. It’s set during the same time as Unchained χ, but follows a different perspective and shows different events. It doesn’t function as a replacement for the mobile game’s story, but as a new part of the saga.

χ Back Cover was pretty interesting. It had some fantastic moments, and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.

And then it ended.

It left me with a feeling similar to when I finished Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. “I can’t wait to see–what, why are the credits rolling? That can’t be it! It can’t end like that!”

The good thing, of course, is that unlike KotOR II’s abrupt ending, χ Back Cover essentially teases things to come. It gives a few answers and raises a ton of questions.

Click for χ Back Cover spoiler
You know those “eyes” on some of the Keyblades? Apparently the Master of Masters can use those to see things. All things. Even things in the future. So he’s been spying on us all this time?

That’s not creepy at all!

χ Back Cover sets up a bit of a mystery. It seems there is a traitor among the Foretellers, and as they try to figure out who this traitor might be, they all turn upon each other. But was that an accident, or was it planned? The Master of Masters gave each of his apprentices a specific role that seem designed to ensure they’d become suspicious of one another.

The Master of Masters makes this movie. If nothing else about it interests you, at least watch it for him. Kingdom Hearts has always had comedic moments, but the Master takes it to a new level. Nothing in this series has made me laugh as much as the Master of Masters…

…and yet at the same time, he seems dangerous. Funny, yes, but anyone who can chuckle over how they can’t stop the impending apocalypse doesn’t seem like a good guy.

(Plus he’s so unpredictable that his apprentices are almost always nervous around him. They have no idea how he’s going to react.)

Click for χ Back Cover spoiler
And just how much did he manipulate events?

His “eye” let him see into the future, which is how he wrote the Book of Prophecies. The ending of the Book of Prophecies describes a disastrous Keyblade War and promises that “on that land shall darkness prevail and light expire.”

The Foretellers believe this is in their immediate future, and the Master of Masters says they can’t stop it. Trying to avert it is what leads to their fears of traitors, and (probably) leads to the actual Keyblade War. A self-fulfilling prophecy, then?

But the Master gives his Keyblade to Luxu and tells him to pass it down to his apprentice, and have his apprentice pass it down to his apprentice, thereby ensuring he can watch future events.

He then congratulates Luxu, because the Book of Prophecies is proof that he succeeds in his task.

Mind-bending enough… but wait. The Book of Prophecies, which ends with that catastrophic passage, is proof that Luxu passed the Keyblade on to his apprentice? Then it doesn’t refer to the Foretellers’ immediate future, but a more distant future!

(This matches the Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer scene in which Young Xehanort seems to believe the “darkness prevail and light expire” line refers to their future.)

Yet the Master led them all to believe it was soon… why? So they would tear each other apart? Did he want the Keyblade War to happen? Yet he emphasizes to Ava the importance of ensuring the light survives…

To me, the biggest mystery after watching χ Back Cover is the Master of Master’s motive. What does he want?

Ever since he was first revealed, some fans have speculated that the Master of Masters might be the next Kingdom Hearts villain after the Dark Seeker Saga ends. Now, I still kinda think the Master is Braig, or at least connected to him. While they don’t have the same voice, they have similar mannerisms.

But if the Master is the next main villain… well, for the first time, I’m excited for a Kingdom Hearts villain after Xehanort.

Yet, is the Master of Masters even evil? Is there truly a traitor among the Foretellers? What does the Book of Prophecies really refer to?

Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover is frustratingly short. It’s like half of a great movie, which leaves it as more of an… enjoyable teaser. Nevertheless, it teases some pretty intriguing things, and it’s worth it for the Master of Masters alone.

Now, that only leaves me with one last piece of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue to play…