serenedash:
Let’s talk khux gameplay and plot,
imo I think part of khux’s story telling and the impact of the story gets lost now that the game is defunct. I always thought people didn’t appreciate how the gameplay and the mechanics actually had an impact on the story and while that impact become virtually nonexistent later on, I always thought it made the story far more engaging when the game was just chi/unchained chi and also the English translation didn’t do it too well ngl
Anyway what I’m specifically talking about is the medal system. Also I feel like the whole bangle thing wasn’t explained well in game but really it just comes down to leveling up medals specifically. If you never played khux, you equip medals to your keyblades and they doa specific attack and to level them up you combine multiple of the same medal and you could see how leveled up a medal is by the amount of yellow dots next to it and, in JP at least, this was called “guilt” and like wow that name fucking slaps. And when nightmare chirithy reveals the player has been collecting darkness this whole time thru the medal system, you have literal guilt on your conscious. You are guilty of collecting darkness and negative emotions like guilt to use for your own power. And in Back Cover when the foretellers are made aware of this, there’s no stopping it and ofc the player can’t stop either, they HAVE to get stronger, you literally have to keep playing the game,
Another part of the game that I appreciated is the way the name changes factored into the game; chi was the original “world line” that the dandelions existed in and at first unchained chi had come off as just a remake but really what we’re playing is the continuation, where the player and the dandelions are now in this unchained state/new world line and they’re reliving their time as wielders but now without the war/“dark” memories and finally when they relive everything and get back to the “present,” they continue on after into “union cross” which I feel like. wasn’t explained well in game that much tbh but if you didn’t understand what that meant in game, it was just to say that unions didn’t matter anymore and they were all dandelions so the unions. when the unions are crossed.
and tbh the experience of playing this game in real time also added to the experience a lot and the impact of the story especially with a player insert character. I think the most effective use of this game being played in real time was Strelitzia. Now in the english version, everything with Strelitzia was all one update and the english ver was behind so honestly they had to do catch up they couldn’t really afford to lag behind. But in JP, which most khux fans kept up with using fan translations, Strelitzia’s introduction and her death happened about a month apart so it gave the players time to actualyl grow attached to her and THEN we get crushed. You can easily pin point the exact time certain khux fan art was drawn bc in a group drawing of the dandelions Strelitzia is there instead of Lauriam since he was only introduced after her death
and another thing! It only became apparent by the end of the game but khux actually takes place over the course of about 4 years. which is fucking insane. because the dandelions were stuck in the data for 4 years and didn’t know it until the glitches started. and the game ran for roughly the same amount of time and we weren’t even aware of that either until the glitches! (“why 4 years” there are cutscenes that literally say “4 years ago” so yeah girl what the fuck haha)
Anyway yeah this was just me rambling I think about this so much all the time can you tell. I hope missing link does something like this too tbh it makes it more fun and makes it feel that your actions as the player actually have impact on the story
There are things lost to time now, now that the game is cutscene only and it makes me so sad. When in the story we reached the Underworld, Chirithy saying “hey dont go down that road”, meaning darkness, the game introduced Reverse Medals. Honestly this was so metal af, that, yes we are now in this place of darkness and we also get medals that represent darkness.
No one will get this now, not even people who actually played this game, only those who played it when this udpate was actually released.
The same goes for Shift Pride. The canonization of the PVP mode. Heck it is such an important point that “yes there are all data copies of everyone in here, you can use those to whack each other to follow the rule written in the Rule Book”. Again enforcing the whole Data thing, and then later brought up that yes “wait if Dandelions have data copies, where are the Union Leader ones” gets mentioned in the ending itself. Watching this scene now doesn’t have half of the impact if you don’t know that this was actually the PVP mode canonized into the game.
And even if it was just a small thing, but Union Cross mode also gets briefly mentioned in a cutscene, from Chirithy just a bit after the war - people should work together to keep their mind off other things and form a bond to help them overcome this confused and stressed state of not remembering the keyblade war. Like bruh What, no one will get this now just seeing this cutscene. No one knows there was an actual mode called Union Cross where you fought heartless with a group of other players.
Cutscenes only don’t do justice to this game. There are important gameplay things you have to know and remember to get the full experience …
That fight against Darkness in the ending together with the Union Leaders is in my book of the most beautiful things ive ever witnessed lmao. And of course the Final Battle - you fight your friends, damnit, they attack you together with a beam of light. No one will experience this anymore.
Oh god okay but when the keyblade war event came out in UX, the Foreteller fights were another level - they were hard as shit, like they were supposed to be, if you didn’t keep up with the current medal releases. It was an Experience honestly, trying to figure out strategies, waiting for new medals to help you out, and over time you were able to do it. But that struggle … man. Man.
God im so sorry but there is just. Gestures into the air. So much.
I’ve just realized that the very fact that the game is unplayable now really cements and finalizes the relevance the gameplay had on the story. It’s not like the other kh games where you can pick it up and play it over and over to experience the story with the gameplay elements as many times as you want. khux is gone, it’s offline now, mirroring the loss of Daybreak Town in both the data world and the real world. None of the characters are able to go back to their lives there, and neither are you. You can only move forward.