In other words, more Birth by Sleep babble.
Just so you know, I love this game. I love its combat system and its ability system. Melding commands is terrifyingly addictive, and even most of the game's minigames are fun! Wow.
I am playing on Easy Mode because I suck and have terrible reflexes, so anything harder than 'Normal' is too hard for me since I am really, really bad at blocking and dodging (though this didn't stop me from loving Blizzard Block in Days. Frozen enemies are the best enemies). Started with Terra's story and am playing Ven and Aqua in between. That took a lot of adjusting to battle; after Terra, Ven and Aqua feel weak, though Aqua is probably going to be amazing as soon as I have more commands available for her. She really, really needs Magic Haste to shine. But Terra could just breathe in the general direction of a monster and have it die.
Magic isn't as overpowered as it is in Days, where you were better off shooting fireballs at everything (unless it's one of an Emerald Serenade in which case Blizzaga owns all). Magic is, however, far more diverse than in previous games.
In this game you form Dimension-Links with important people you encounter. An activated D-Link allows you to temporarily borrow the abilities of that person. Say, Aqua activates her maxed-out D-Link with Ven: she gains Haste and... something else and uses a pre-set list of commands (mostly Raids). Terra gives an auto-block in his D-Link, Aqua reflect, Cinderella an auto-remedy and regen, and so on and so forth.
Sometimes D-Links are adorable! Like Terra meeting Zack or Stitch. And sometimes it's horrible, like when Terra fails yet another Sense Motive roll. Critically.
Terra: Okay, I'm in a new world and need to find Master Xehanort. Hmmm, who could I ask? Oh, there's someone!
Me: Terra, no! Don't go there! Look, that lady's skin has a suspiciously green cast, and she has Fingernails and Lipstick of Evil. Her hat has devil horns and her cloak looks like the wings of a bat! Don't!
* Terra forged a D-Link with Maleficent! *
Terra: :D :D :D
Me: NOOOOOOOO.
See, most world-travelling heroes just go and trust the first person they meet. This often ends well for them because they generally run into their love interest first.
Terra also does the 'trust person immediately' thing. But he almost always runs into villains. I'll let you guess how well that goes for him. Hint: DARKNESS.
But however socially clueless Terra is (and he is, believe me), he's also just adorable. He's just so obviously a sweet person. It's just that he's also terribly naive. It DOES make for interesting role subversions, though, where the tall, muscular guy who has the most DARKNESS!!! inside him and is generally stoic and stand-offish, is also the naive sweetheart of the group. Ven is the 'little kid' who often gets told to stay out of danger, and he's cheerful and happy and optimistic. Aqua, who in other games would be The Chick, is still a mage, but also business-like, sharp and very aware of her responsibilities, while still having her girly side.
I actually love that Aqua can be kickass and still enjoy stereotypically 'girly things' - too often there are female characters who can only be one of those. Farah of Tales of Eternia was another such character: a female fist-fighter with only a few weak healing techniques and who was very much the leader of the group, but who also wore big, fluffy dresses and liked cooking.
And it wouldn't be a good discussion of a KH game without mentioning shipping, of course. Well, actually, this game is really rather lacking shippy moments. Sure, you can get Ven to do pretty much anything by just dangling Terra in front of him like some sort of carrot, but other than that there's not a lot of romantic tension (other than the standard Disney couples, of course). Terra really seems only interested in Keyblades (he reads sort of asexual to me, or demi at the very least; he's just so obviously both not good with people but also not really interested), Aqua is too much a soldier to bother when she has a job to do (other than flusteredly turning Zack down and grabbing Cinderella's ass) and Ven... Well, okay, Ven is rather obviously crushing on Terra. I'm not quite sure if I ship it yet, though I would read the shit out of anything that has Ven pining and Terra being woefully oblivious.
Gender roles! Well, yeah, Aqua is the mage of the group, but she's also strong and disciplined and actually the only one who becomes a Keyblade Master. Ven has absolutely no problems with helping Jaq to make Cinderella's dress and said girl is also one of Terra's role models. The Disney girls are just like in their respective movies, though.
...Here I must mention that I haven't yet visited Olympos with Aqua, though I read somewhere that they looked down on her because she was a girl. However, spoilers also said that Aqua didn't hold with that kind of nonsense.
The ending? ROCKS FALL, EVERYBODY DIES. Seriously, it's like Sora is the only one allowed to get a happy ending.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
