I'm making another blog. I'm aware that my Class of Heroes blog didn't go... as smoothly as planned, but the main reason for that was because it's a hard game in general that forces you to grind the crap outta the first few hours whose plot doesn't pick up very quickly. Plus, I've finished my DQIX blog before, so I'm sure I can do it again if I just play a game appropriate for blogging about! Besides, this game is so awesome, blogging can help me avoid playing it too much at once.

This is a blog of my BLIND RUN of the game. Don't spoil anything for me, and be warned of spoilers yourself.

After an awesome opening cutscene (That re-uses one of the older beggining themes, but who cares?), we begin with an actual plot scene at Destiny Islands (Or whatever, it's been forever since I played the original KH). An unknown character looks at the sunset and remarks...

"This world is just too small."

The screen immediately fades to the same location at night, with a mysterious man with an Organization XIII-like cloak is carrying a young man covered in a white robe, concealing all but the boy's face. The man places the boy upon the bent tree Riku sat on in the first KH game, and leaves him there for a bit. The boy begins to undergo the same experience Sora and Roxas did at the beggining of KH/KHII. As he falls down, his white robe phases away, revealing him wearing black shorts and shoes- no shirt (GAWD, I can see the fanart already, if it doesn't already exist). A mysterious voice calls out to the boy after he lands on a pure white, circular, cylindrical platform...

"I am a brand new heart." The boy asks why this voice is in his own heart, and the voice uses "The light brought me here" as an answer. The boy says it was his own light, and starts to say that his heart has been fractured- the very platform he stands on is partially broken. He says the rest of his light will slip away soon enough, so the voice offers to join his heart with the boy's. Suddenly, the platform begins to regenrate itself! The voice says that one day, the boy will be strong enough to get back what he already lost. The platform shines, and fills in with color and an image of the boy dressed like Roxas from KHII. Back with the cloacked man, he turns around and sees the boy's hand now holds a Keyblade of some sort, and adknowledges it. The man smiles, and the boy slowly opens his eyes, sparkling with starlight...

Ventus then wakes up in his room, and sees that there is a meteor shower going on outside. As he rushes outside with a grin of excitement on his face, the screen zooms outside and shows the name of this turtorial world- the Land of Departure. As awesome battle music starts to play, Ven runs outside of a large castle to see the shower, but cannot get a good view from here. You are then told to pause and check controls on how to walk, because nobody in real life knows how to do that without freezing time first. After exiting the garden, Ven finds a few rings for target practice. As Ven has time to spare, he uses them to cue the quick and not painfully long turtorial on how to attack and use Commands. After that, a treasure chest appears out of nowhere, for no reason whatsoever. After taking the new Command inside, which you can now install into your Command Deck, he asks himself why he's wasting time out here when he's missing the meteor shower!

He goes uphill and lies on the ground, gazing at the falling stars. Aqua pays Ven a surprise visit, and the two have a quick chat about how Ven feels like he's seen this before and how he feels like he's having more than dreams. He also looks at the stars, and wonders what they all are. Then Terra interupts them saying they are all different worlds, and he comparews that to Ven, who wonders what that means, and say other things I forget until they all burst into laughter. They remember that Terra and Aqua have thier Mark of Mastery exams coming up, so Ven accepts Terra'a request for a quick spar. This is when you gain control of Terra to learn how to block and fill the Command Gauge against Ven, who is more of a challenge to fight against than a stationary ring. After that, Aqua gets a turn and we get to try out her magic attacks and Shotlock commands. After that, you are given a choice of who to control for one last spar to test your skill witht he characters or check thier Command Decks. Don't fret about this choice- after the spar, you are given an opportunity to fight again if you wish, and can use whoever you want. This is just so you can get used to the controls, be they those that apply to everyone or just one character's Commands. When you're done, Aqua gives everyone good-luck charms for the exams, even Ven who doesn't take the exam yet. She says the modeled them after a special fruit that represents connections. She was suppsoed to make them with seashells, but she couldn't find any, so she worked with what she had. These will become important very soon.

And after that, the three all speak in unison...

"That was the last night the three of us would spend under the stars together..."

Meanwhile, Mickey Mouse is... surfing on top of a book over fierce waves? He almost falls down a whirlpool, but then re-appears in Yen Sid's tower (Well, it's possibly just an illusion within the tower), as he is once again studying under Yen Sid.

And we immediately return to the platforms from the previous KH openings. This platform has the three charms Aqua made, and each corresponding character on it- this is the character select screen. As you might already know, Terra is the best tank, Ventus is a good balanced character with speed, and Aqua is best suited for casting the spells that makes all the peoples falls down. I will play through this game as Ven first, then switch to Terra after his story. Aqua is the last character I will use for this playthrough. So, let us begin!

When I choose Ven, we immediately arrive in a hall, with two great Keyblade masters wwatching over us- Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort. Eraqus gives a speech on how this is not a competition- both Terra and Aqua may pass, or both may fail, Ven is, of course, just a bystander watching his friends pass the test. The first test begins, and five balls of light warp into the room. Suddenly, the orbs go haywire as Xehanort hides a grin, and the examinees fight back at the orbs! A stray orb targets Ven, who defeats it in a single blow. Aqua urges Ven to hide, but he refuses to abandon his friends, as he has been waiting to see them pass thier exams. Terra convinces Aqua to let him stay, and the first real fight begins. Well, I imagine you can lose it, but it's mostly a fight for getting used to whoever you're using, as you might have used one character for their whole story by now and have forgotten how the heck you use the new character. Not hard at all, and you even get a boost to your HP as a reward. Atfer this, Eraqus expresses his surprise at these events, but admits that he allowed them as this also proved to be a test for Aqua and Terra. For the next test, Aqua and Terra fight each other- once again, it doesn't matter who wins or loses, only how well they do fight. I'm assuming that you can control one of them when you're either Aqua or Terra, but I was Ven, so I just sat through a cutscene of Terra using some kind of dark power in his hand to fight.

After that, we get the final results. Both Terra and Aqua did exceptional according to Eraqus, but only the later has shown worth of the Mark of Mastery. Terra is chided for not being able to control the darkness, but he is reminded that there is always next year. Aqua is told to wait inside for further information to be revealed to her as a new Keyblade Master, as Xehanort walks downstairs. a black figure holding a helmet in his hands shows his will to attack, but Xehanort halts him- Xehanort has a good name, and he can't lose that name... in the Land of Departure. The figure dons his mask before we can see his face, and implies that Ven will have to leave sooner or later...

The next day, Ven wakes up to find that same figure in his room. He tells Ven to go now, or he might never see the Terra he knows again. Ven thinks this is a lie, but the figure denies his claims of friendship. As this figure leaves, Ven has flashbacks of all the good times he had with Terra... he runs outside with haste, not going to take any small chances there just might be that he loses his friend. Outside, terra halts Ven, and presses a pad on his arm, giving him some awesome red armor. He tosses his Keyblade into the air, and rides off into the space above without an explanation! Confused, Ven presses his own Armor Pad, giving him (IMO) awesomER green armor, and gives chase on his own Keyblade as Aqua tries to halt him in the last second, riding into a large rift...

... and thus, you arrive at the World Map, and recieve D-Links for Terra and Aqua. D-Links are kind a mix of summoning and having party members, as each character has thier own Command Deck you can borrow and thier own special Command you can use once you fill the Command Gauge. Just remember, you need energy in the D-Link gauge to use a D-Link, which can be refilled with D-Link Prizes (Like HP and Munny Prizes). The first thing you notice on the map is only one world is available, the Dwarf Woodlands, AKA Snow White's world. You'll also see that although all other worlds are blued out and impossible to enter, only the Land of Departure has a force field of some kind. Why that exists, I'm not sure, but it's all the more to keep you from going back there. Before I went ot the Dwarf Woolands, though, I had to try out the Command Board for the LoD that I just unlocked. And boy, am I glad I did that- I unlocked a powerful Shotlock Command called Ragnarok, and leveled up some other Commands like Aero! I also got Slow, which I used for a bit but shortly replaced with something better.

When I DID go to the Dwarf Woodlands, the first thing Ven sees are the seven dwarves, whose names I could never remember when I first saw Snow White years ago, and still don't. Fascinated, he watches them march off toward the diamond mines, when the world's logo appears. You don't have to wait long to get into your first fight- the Unversed appear very nearby where you are. That's right, the Unversed- this game's new enemies who I know NOTHING about in terms of origin (Again, DO NOT SPOIL, EVEN IF IT IS THE FIRST THING YOU LEARN IN AQUA'A STORY OR SOMETHING). Heck, I barely even know that they're called Unversed, I could easily mistake them for new Heartless! The first few Unversed behave very much like Shadows, and are as litte as a threat. You can look around and find many chests, all containing random items like Potions. When you go into the diamond mines, you immediately find the seven dwarves... you guessed it, mining for diamonds! And they just as immediately accuse you of being a thief out to get thier diamonds. Ven introduces himself while denying these claims, and asks if any of them has seen a tall man called Terra. The dwarves, however, have not seen him, and stand thier ground in the claims that Ven is a thief. All of them (Except one, I think he's called Dopey) run into the next area, and the Dwarf Woodland's battle theme starts to play.

In this room, you can save and shop for Commands at the Moogle Shop, as well as talk to Dopey.

Dopey: ...

... or not. You also see a Crown Sticker in plain sight, though kinda hard to see amidst all the diamonds- collect these and use them for your Sticker Album. When you decorate it well enough, you can earn FREE STUFF! After going into the next room, you are told by the Information Box to find all the dwarves' hiding places. These are simple enough- all but one of the dwarves are under boxes. If you approach the box, it will get up and do... something. One interesting thing is that these boxes behave differently depending on the dwarf inside- one ATTACKS you, one runs away ANNOYINGLY fast, and another leaps high into the air. If you can attack these boxes enough, they break and cue a conversation with the dwarf inside, changing depending on who it is. And naturally, Unversed try to get in the way. How the dwarves can ignore the Unversed, I dunno. The one dwarf without a box is aboard a mine cart. Just wait for it to come into view, then smack it without getting rammed into yourself, and it'll break. Also, there's a neat item I almost missed inside this room- atop a rock formation hugging the wall, you will find a chest with the Mini Command. That's right, you can cast Mini to shrink your enemies! Doing this and running over them to deal automatic damage is as fun as it sounds, and being as fast as Ven helps to do this. When you get to this part, DO NOT MISS IT. It is very expensive to get in the shop, and I couldn't even afford any weaker commands when I first went to it. Which reminds me, whenever you get a new Command, it will become available in the shop (With some exceptions).

After finding all the dwarves, they still deny all claims of meeting Terra. Ven decides that they will not give up, so he does instead. But before he leaves, he asks if anyone else lives nearby. One of the dwarves reveals that someone lives past the chorus forest, and Ven leaves them alone from there. As I went to the forest, I picked up as many chests as I could find, messed around with Mini, and leveled Ven up to level 2. When he gets to the forest, he finds a cottage where he assumes the dwarves live. Suddenly, Ven hears a scream in the distance! He decides the voice comes from the only way other than where he came from, the ace detective he is, and more battle music plays. If you look behind the house, you find a large chest that even comes with its own opening animation, and a map! I also found some Fire magic. At this point, my Command Deck for Ven is Fire, Aero, and Mini. Keep that in mind... because NEXT time on Birth By Sleep, we will use those commands to investigate the scream!

Nice. I liked your DQIX one, hope you finish this one. If you had something like RemoteJoyLite, I'd ask you to put this into something like a Something Awful Let's Play, but eh.

Can't wait for the next part.

Yay, blog!

And, sadly, you don't ever get to do that Terra vs Aqua fight. =(

Aw. Well, that's what the Mirage Arena is for, at least. Too bad it's only Ad-Hoc... *Sigh*
And thanks to both of you for reading this!

I resumed where I left off, by the forest clearing. Now, I kinda lied when I made up my mind on what Commands I would bring into the next part- I ended up equipping the Strike Raid in the last second. also, I went inside the house myself, and found an item that allows me to know the Command I'm making when I Meld Commands, as long as its a basic attack Command. When Ventus goes into the darker parts of the forest, everything is quiet. Too quiet...

This part of the forest, as I said, is extremely dark and gloomy. However, that doesn't stop you from finding Snow White herself crying at the end of the road. She says that she was just passing by (I think she was gathering something, but again, not sure what) when some trees tried to grab her! Ven tells her it was her imagination, and everyone acts like that when they get nervous. He introduces himself, and Snow White does the same (Might I randomly add that seeing JRPG-style protagonists in these Disney settings has a certain charm to it? It's odd, but it works.) Then Ven offers to take Snow White to the cottage he found earlier, as doing so will keep her safe.

Yep, you guessed it. You get an ESCORT MISSION in this next scenario! Let me just say that personally, I HATE ESCORT MISSIONS. I HATE IT SO MUCH THAT I HOPE THIS IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE ENTIRE GAME, BUT KNOW THERE WILL BE AT LEAST 3 MORE LATER ON JUST TO TORMENT ME. In fact, I FAILED this one on my first try, and so close to the end too. As you guide Snow White towards the other side of the forest, you'll see that her fears of the trees are MORE than imagination. To protect her from the trees, you must be close to her and press the square button, followed by the X button to perform White Calm. And of course, Unversed ambush you along the way. Big surprise. I'll admit that as much as I hated them, I didn't do too bad in the escort missions in KHII. Not so much in this game, you can tell the designers aren't screwing around. That, or I was compared to other players...

... *Shudder* Oh, right. The story that happens after Ven escorts Snow White. Ven and White arrive at the dwarves' home, which is still empty. Ven tells Snow White to stay in the cottage as he scouts out for any more monsters. By the time he gets back, the dwarves return, and find White sleeping in thier beds. When Ven returns, the dwarves scold him for breaking into thier home, but Snow White convinces them that Ven is a kind man, not a thief... or she tries to, but the dwarves just tell her to not be so trusting. Snow White mentions how things went wrong in the first place- she was attacked by a man with a key-like sword, and this man called monsters to attack her. Ven, noticing the first part of the description, thinks she means Terra, and denies the idea that his friend would do such a thing. The dwarves say that Snow White is right, so Ven goes back into the forest to prove Terra is innocent. When he does, we meet the first boss of the game...

... an Unversed gigantic tree, called Great Treant. The first thing to note about it, is that it is able to use its fruit to create poisonous puddles. Enough said about what they do. Seeing that, I figured Poison wouldn't work, assuming you can inflict statuses on bosses in the first place. I didn't try Mini either- if any statuses DO work on bosses, I'm not trying Mini, that'd just break the entire game if you could. So the only Command I DID have I could use, as I removed Strike Raid again, was Fire, which I figured could work well on a tree enemy. One of the more annoying parts of his pattern in when he LEAPS high into the air, then crashes down on Vent. Not a problem if you jump over the shockwave, but he leaves so little of a window to attack there. He can also attack you using his roots. All in all, of course, I had little trouble with this boss. It's a first boss, how can you NOT beat it?

After defeating the Great Treant, Ven make shis way towards the end of the forest, and shouts for Terra. He gets no response, and an apple falls by his feet. Looking ahead, he sees an old hag with a black cloak and a wart on her nose. If you've ever seen Snow White, you KNOW who she is. But sadly, the Land of Departure has not yet invented the movie theatre. Ven hands the apple to the old woman, who thanks him... she doesn't know what she would do without it, and laughs sinisterly to herself for a bit. The old woman claims to have been threatened by a man with a sword that appeared similar to a key, and Ven questions if she has seen Terra. The woman says that she has seen him. In fact, she even claims that this Terra asked her if she knew where to find Xehanort! Ven immediately rushes back to the World Map, ending the story in Dwarf Woodlands...

... and having finished Ven's story in Dwarf Woodlands, we earn many useful things. ONE- A D-Link with Snow White, who still trusts Ven. By using her D-Link, you can access attacks based on the seven dwarves. TWO- An extra command slot. Technically, we got this right after killing the Great Treant as a bonus for beating the boss, but you cannot access it until you return to the World Map. THREE- A new Keyblade, with enhanced Magic compared to his first one. FOUR- I should have mentioned I already had a Command Style, Fever Break or something, after finishing the introduction, but I got a new one that I like more after beating Great Treant; Firestorm. FIVE- Access to two new worlds (three if you count the Mirage Arena, which has no plot relevance whatsoever BUT it has an introduction logo when you enter it). I decided to tackle them by level. First up, I think is called Magical Castle (Please correct me if this name is wrong, I might have forgotten YET ANOTHER PRONOUN and I barely even started this game), and I KNOW it's Cinderella's world.

We immediately cut to Cinderella staring at the distance castle from her room. Sighing (And thinking about the upcoming ball, no doubt), Jaq, the mouse in red clothing, interupts her with his french accent and tell her of a new visitor never seen before. Cinderella is pleased to know of this visitor... until Jaq mentions he's in a trap. Cinderella immediately goes up to free this visitor.

Meanwhile, Ven is pacing around, confused on how he got inside a cylindrical cage lying horizontally on the ground. Then he realizes something is wrong with this place...

Ven: *Camera zooms out as he screams* How did I get so small!?

As the mouse-sized Ven reflects on this, Cinderella arrives and picks up the cage. Thinking Ven is an odd mouse of some kind, she releases him and introduces him to Jaq. As Cinderella returns to her room, Jaq explains how she's always looking to fulfill her dreams. This reminds Ven of Terra, who has always said he dreamed of becoming a Keyblade master. he then asks Jaq if he's seen Terra, only to be given a dissapointing answer. Jaq offers to guide Ven to Cinderella's room, using his accent that does not match the subtitles at all. Naturally, Ven accepts, entering the mousehole.

As I made my way to the end of the mousehole, I found that you can only inflict one status at a time- I tried to Poison some Unversed after using Mini on them, but they grew back to normal size before being poisoned. After fighting past a number of Unversed (And Mini-ing them to even SMALLER sizes than they already are due to plotholes), Ven finds himself in Cinderella's bedroom, where she is working on her dress for the ball. As Ven chats with her from the windowsill about her dream, the evil stepsisters demand her to come downstairs. Jaq knows that thanks to the stepsisters, Cinderella can't possibly finish her dress and go to the ball, so Ven helps out with finishing the dress. He asks Jaq what he needs- pink fabric, a white button, white lace, a white ribbon, and I forget what else, let's say it's pink thread for now. Before you go, Jaq warns you about Lucifer- HOLY CRAP HOW DID THOSE STEPSISTERS GET A DE- oh wait, that's what they named the cat. You can check the Moogle Shop and see they are selling a few new Commands, and you can Save or return to the World Map as well. Unless you hop around to collect random stuff, though, the only thing you can do is go back into the mousehole.

You don't need to go far into the mousehole to find the next room, with your first few items- I believe they are the pink fabric, white lace, and white ribbon. After fighting any Unversed I randomly fought, intentionally or not, I gained a LOT of levels without realizing it- Ven is now level 5, and the Battle Level of the NEXT world is just 3. Or does that not refer to the actual level of your character? Ignoring that, I also found a ball of red yarn Ven can hop on top of and roll around with. You can use it to jump higher, but I can't help but worry it might have something to do with Roosifee- I mean Lucifer as well. The other two items are in this room as well, but atop places you cannot reach- you must go further into the mouseholes. In doing so, you find a fork stuck in the wall. Amusingly, Ven can use it as a trampoline, as well as other forks. This isn't the only environment puzzle this mousehole has- a matchbox can be attacked to move it and create aplatform on the other side, and you must remove cheese form a spiderweb to create a way to climb up to your destination. Said destination is the top of a dresser with the white button. I also found, somewhere, a Blizzard Command. I think I know where to look for the last dress item, but I'll get that next time. However, one last note of progress- I used the Meld Commands function, and made Aerora! I'm using that, heck yeah! Wind skills FTW! Next time on Birth By Sleep, we will finish Cinderella's dress!

A short update this time, there is VERY LEETEL plot in this one. Mostly just discussion about a few things I found, because I was on for a short time.

For one thing, an apology on my part- the Cinderella world is called Castle of Dreams, not Magical Castle. As for what I did in there, I found another ball of yarn inside Cinderella's room. Using this yarn, I found two things I didn't know I could get- a Magic Recipe that lets me see if I'm Melding a basic magic command, and a Stund Strike command. Both of which are items I put to use. Speaking of commands, there were a few interesting commands I could meld. Strike Raid+Blizzard makes Blizzara, or I could replace Blizzard with Poison to make Poison Strike or something to that effect. Both sound interesting, but I held against making either for the time being. Also, if I meld my new Stun Raid with Fire, I can make Fire Strike. Again, declined to do so. As I fought my way to getting the last piece of Cinderalla's dress, I found something- by performing Firestorm 8 times, I had evolved Ven's Finish Command into Heat Slash 1! HECK YEAH. Also, I must add that I tried to compete in the Arena by myself. And failed miserably. *Writes note to self* Note to self, bring Cure magic next time...

It took me a little while to find out how I was supposed to reach it, but I DID find the last piece of Cinderella's dress. I was making an educated guess when I called it pink thread, but I was right- the last piece WAS pink thread! Well, not quite the LAST piece. Immediately after getting all 5 parts of Cinderella's dress, Jaq tells Ven that one last item is needed- a pretty pretty pearl. I have no idea how to get it, but I assume an event will trigger once I return to the main room of the house. Possibly involving Lucifer (The cat, not the demon). And so Ven went into the living room once again...

... NEXT time on Birth By Sleep, that is.

Not an incredibly long epdate, but not a short one either.

As you might have guessed, I started off by going towards the mousehole. At this point, Ventus was level 6. When he got ot the end of the mousehole and back into the living room, a cutscene displays a pretty little blue pearl... right by a cat's paws. LUCIFER, CALLED IT. Ven sees this, so he walks carefully towards the sleeping cat. He waves his arm in front of the beast's closed-eyed face, then takes the pearl. As he walks away, a paw rises and prepares to strike him, as Ven is completely off guard. But before Lucifer can strike, a ball of yarn falls down from a dresser and ruins his concentration! Jaq warns Ven to get outta there while he continues to barrage the cat with yarn. However, Lucifer rams into the furniture, shaking Jaq onto unsafe grounds. Ven gives him the pearl and tells him to go finish the dress while he takes care of the cat, preparing his Keyblade.

I had thought you might fight Lucifer, but to be perfectly honest I wasn't so sure until right then! I thought it'd be a stealth mission or something while I was getting everything else or the pearl, but I'm relieved it's not (Stealth missions are the OTHER kind of missions I HATE)! Lucifer, being a normal cat, does not have any ranged attacks, so using ranged magic (Fire, Blizzard) or Strike Raid will make you safe. Of course, you're much smaller than him, so not only can he pack a punch when he does hit, but he can move around MUCH faster than you, and you'll have to hit him at close range SOMETIME. When I attacked Lucifer head on, he was able to simply knock me off before I could finish my combo. And of course, he's immune to statuses- I tried to Mini him, didn't work, and Stun Strike didn't paralyze him. I could have tried Poison, but I didn't have that Command equipped. If he gets on top of a piece of furniture, he WILL pounce. When he does, he'll remove your lock on him, so prepare to dodge roll and re-lock onto him. If you can cause him to reel back, you can get a few more hits on him. I also don't know WHEN you can do so, but I think it's when he reels back; if you time it right, you can get on top of Lucifer's back with square. Then, you have to press the correct button at the correct time to deal extra damage while you're safe. Don't just press O every time you see something appear, I tried that only to miss a chance at a lot of damage. At least I was able to finish him with the final hit of the Fever Pitch (Not Fever Break, my mistake) Command Style, that was kinda awesome to do.

After the fight, Lucifer runs off- he's a Disney character, he won't die unless it happens in the movie itself. Jaq thanks Ven for his help, but Ven reminds him that it was his way of returning the favor for saving his own life just a few moments ago. Ven suggests that the two of them finish Cinderella's dress, and they do. Meanwhile, Cinderella herself is sighing at her window, depressed that she cannot go to the ball. She tries to convince herself it's not worth going to, but she cannot deny her dream. Suddenly, a certain mouse and a certain mouse-sized Keyblade wielder reveal the young lady's finished ball dress to her! Cinderella picks up Ven and Jaq, thanking them both. She is filled with newfound confidence to go to the ball, and is very cheerful. Something I have to wonder- once I finished this world, Cinderella's stepmother and her stepsisters appear in the Report as characters from the Castle of Dreams. Perhaps Terra or Aqua encounters them in this world? Back with the actual cutscene that was going on, Jaq and Ven jump up to the windowsill again. Jaq is glad that Cinderella will be able to fulfill her dream, so he asks Ven what his dream is.

[flashback]
Terra: My dream is to become a Keyblade Master.
Aqua: Hey, you're not the only one.
Terra: I know. You, Ven and I all share the same dream.
[/flashback]

Ven materializes his Keyblade and tells Jaq that his dream is to become a Keyblade Master. I doubt Jaq knows what one is, but he says that he hopes Ven's dream comes true, too.

And thus, the Castle of Dreams has been cleared. You earn a few neat bonuses for finishing this world. For one, the Stroke of Midnight- a Keyblade with lower attack than the other two weapons you have by now, but has the same magic as the Treasure Trove (The Dwarf Woodlands weapon) and an increased critical hit rate. I decided to equip the Stroke of Midnight as Ven's new weapon. Another useful thing would be the Royal Board, a Command Board based off of the Castle of Dreams. Your only opponent on it is Cinderella, but it has a higher GP Goal and more new Commands you can find on it than the Keyblade Board. The rare spaces on it are also different- I believe the rare spaces on the Keyblade Board let you use a Keyblade Rider to go to any space, if I recall from Youtube, but on the Royal Board, the Fairy Godmother herself chants her Bippodi Boppodi Boo spell, allowing you to gain GP based on an extra roll you perform then. How do I know this? My batteries were gwetting low, but not recharge-needing low, so I played a quick game of the Command Board before going to the next world. I actually paused this game without finishing it, it's possible to 'quicksave' a Command Board game and finish it later. That's one thing I like about this game- if you get too tired of grinding, you can mix things up with some quick minigames here and there. They're only optional, anyway. Next time on Birth By Sleep, I shall tell you the results of my game on the Royal Board and fly to the next world!

What I like about the Command Board is that it still IS grinding. I buy one of each skill, level them up playing the Board, and then go on a melding spree. XD And there's also some abilities you can only get on the Boards(check the Bonus Panels).

Ah yes, the Bonus Panels. I got some good Shotlock commands from those, like Ragnarok and Meteor Shower. Too bad I rarely remember to use them, and never in boss fights, because they are awesome and useful...

The latter of those two I got from the Royal Board game, and I still use it (Combining it with Mini makes it easier to lock on without getting attacked). Is anyone else extremely satisfied to be able to use commands that turn the game into a 3-D bullet hell where you're the one doing the ownage? I also got a Thunder Command, which I later melded into Thundara. What I disliked is that before that, Cinderella stole my Flame Salvo and Ragnarok spaces. I was worried I might actually lose them, even though I wouldn't use them anymore. BECAUSE I LIKE MAH DANMAKU COMMANDS. Luckily, I kept them, and I did still win the game. Also, I forgot to mention that I got the Diamond Dust Command Style after beating Lucifer in the Castle of Dreams, and it is ice-based. I actually have yet to use that Command Style, not having used any Blizzard commands since then...

And so, having set up my new commands, I departed for the Enchanted Dominion (I KNOW that's what it's called this time). I was unsure what world this was until I saw Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty herself, sleeping beautifully. Ven walks up to her in curiousity, when the three good fairies- Flora, Fauna. and Merryweather- interupt him. Ven introduces himself, and the fairies immediately decide he has a pure heart. Without any buildup whatsoever, the fairies immediately tell Ventus how the evil fairy Maleficent put a curse on Aurora and stole her heart, hence this deep slumber. Ven offers to go to Maleficent's castle and get her heart back, but the fairies are not willing to let him put himself in such danger. Ven argues that he can handle the danger, being a Keyblade user, and eventually convinces the fairies to escort him to the castle. After they mention the castle is through the forest, the screen pans onto Aurora, and the world's logo appears.

In Aurora's sleeping chambers, you can find a save point and a Moogle Shop. I bought Cure (Finally...) and Zero Gravity (Because it sounds awesome, unlike the Sonic Riders sequel, which was 'meh' at best IMO), but I'm not using either until I master the skills I melded with abilities attached so I may use those abilities at any time. That would be a big mistake later on. There are two doors, but only one leads to the forest. I'm starting to think I might have missed an important map or something in the other room, but it's far too late now. For one thing, this world seems larger than the others, with many more rooms- then again, you're on a straight path to the boss, not going on collecting missions in one large room. The Enchanted Dominion DOES have more treasure chests than past worlds, though. The castle itself has many rooms, a hallway, some main hall, and a bridge. Naturally, all of the above have Unversed to spare. I'm playing through the game on Normal, but I've gained levels very quickly in this game without even realizing it. After the bridge, we come to- you guessed it- the forest! The forest is the next step toward Maleficent's castle, and contains many enemies such as some kind of bird-like Unversed, and flower Unversed who gain speed if you attack them directly. This is where I rememebred to use the awesome power of the Meteor Shower, and I'm glad I remembered it. The forest is all one large map, and when you reach the end you see a gigantic wall of green and dark flames. Maleficent's magic, no doubt. Ven cannot find a way past it, but Fauna uses her magic to dispel the wall, making it safe to continue on to Maleficent's castle. I'll be honest and say that this world gave me a lot of trouble at the bridge and some later points, and I almost died before this part...

Then you have a long, gloomy walkway to Maleficent's front door. I do not think any Unversed were here. I looked for a save point, but didn't find any. I just about shrugged, and Ven continued forward into the evil castle. The first thing you'll notice is that there are NO UNVERSED in this castle. However, it is not unguarded. Maleficent has conjured many monsters who act as guards- some behave as spear-using warriors, while others are archers. Those are the only two types you'll find, and they do not warp into existance like the Unversed, so YOU are able to ambush THEM. As they are not Unversed, they do not appear in your Report, so you're on your own in finding thier weaknesses. After fighting through a few rooms, Ven finds a few more guards inside Maleficent's throne room. Figuring they have to be guarding something, he prepares for battle...

Ven: Ten-shun! No sleeping on the job!

And an event battle begins between a large number of guards and Ven, although you must wait for the others to walk into existance before beating them up with your oversized door-opening tool. As this is an event, you MUST destroy all the guards- you cannot run away from or past them. I think I almost died, but I prevailed. Luckily, Maleficent herself is not in her throne room. Naturally, Ven takes advantage of this and runs into the next room, which is a puzzle of sorts. it APPEARS to be an empty room with a bunch of pointless warps with nothing between them, but as you approach the empty space, cursed walls will burst forth from the ground! You must use the warps and try to find your way through this complicated maze, and maybe pick up a Magnet Command and a sticker while you're here like I did. When you examine a warp, it takes you to the warp of the matching color. You must take a detour through one a room to the side before you reach the end of the maze. This room has two other exits- one of which Ven is not able to enter, but it sounds as if another character can. Hm...

After going through a few more warps, and fighting more of Maleficent's guards on the way, he reaches a pure white orb trapped in a dark pillar. Ven, assuming this is Aurora's heart, points his Keyblade and fires a beam of light, releasing the orb, which flies off into the air and out of the castle. Ven then has a vision of a woman talking with a young man, who seem to be in love. The man, apparently, was in a dream the woman once had. The man asks the womans name, but she must go before she can give an answer. Before she leaves, the woman says that they can meet again in the evening... and the vision ends. The fairies say that he just saw one of Aurora's memories. This must surely mean he's freed her heart! Another, much darker warp is created between here and the entrance to the maze, making it much easier to get to the other side next time you wish to return for whatever reason, not that I see one. Ven returns to the throne room, and sure enough, the vile Maleficent herself has noticed that Aurora's heart has been freed. She asks if Ven is the one responsible, and Ven prepares to get payback for Aurora because Maleficent stole it in the first place. Maleficent explains how a you man she met, named Terra, had helped her to steal her heart. Ven, disheartened, denies the thought that Terra would do such a thing, and the three good fairies prepare to aid Ven in the sure-to-come fight...

... and let me just say, I was pretty bad at this fight, despite Ven being level 11. I died THREE TIMES. Why did I persist so much? Because I didn't find a single bloody Save Point between here and Aurora's chamber, and I wasn't going to do EVERYTHING all over again! My Command Deck at the time was Poison Strike, Fire Dash, Thundara, and Mini, and I forgot to use Meteor Shower during the fight. So, let me explain Maleficent's attacks. What seems to be her most common one would be her dark lightning, which she uses when she's on the slightly higher ground on the edge of the arena. What I did was dodge roll away, try to find a good oportunity, then either Fire Dash or Poison Strike her. If she warps to the center of the arena, she can smack you away. Another thing she can do there- and this is what I hated the most about this fight, and why I died so many times- is that she can use a spell to stun you for 5 seconds. She can do more during that time than you think- either summon guards to complicate things, or hit you with some powerful dark lightning. If you are observant and quick enough, you can find the three fairies creating a safe zone, something I missed the first few attempts. If you go there, press square, AND time some button presses correctly, you can damage AND stun Maleficent. That curse can be her greatest annoyance or her largest opening, depending on if you can team up with the fairies properly. Some of her more rare attacks are warping up to her throne and causing lightning to fall upon you. Having a skill with thunder resistance helps against this, but not the lack of Cure magic equipped. If you're lucky, you can land a bunch of hits on her from there during that time, but the bolts CAN strike you even when you're so close to her. One attack I found hard to doge, and the cause of I think 2 deaths, was when she calls out something about being the queen of darkness and summons a large, swirling disk of darkness in front of her. She then flies around with this disk of energy. Locking on to Maleficent helps you keep it in sight, but you'll HAVE to be prepared to Dodge Roll out of its way or else, and it's hard to get the timing and pattern for that attack right. I like how the aformentioned team attack with the fairies was my final blow on Maleficent, BTW. Beating her earnt me the Thunderstorm Command Style... or was it Lightningstorm? Meh, same thing, same implied element, same want to use it.

After the fight, Ven continues to insist that Terra would never steal Aurora's heart. However, he recalls what the masked man said about Terra becoming a different person. As the two argue about this, Aqua (!!!) arrives in the room and backs Ven up, restoring his morale. Maleficent still claims that Terra aided her, but she finally leaves the fight, having been defeated in battle. Aqua explains that she has been sent by the Master to get Ven to come home. Ven, however, will not return home until he finds Terra. He rushes out of the castle, leaving Aqua behind with an apology, and the Enchanted Dominion is cleared. For our troubles, we earn the Fairy Stars, which has more attack than the Stroke of Midnight. I equiped it (I find it hard to believe I'm equipping EVERY Keyblade I get), and for once we do NOT get a new D-Link. Not that I mind, I rarely remember to use them anyway, even less than the Danmaku Shotlock commands. Meanwhile, in another world somewhere, Xehanort is meeting with a figure we have not seen yet. Before we even see a single subtitle, the unknown man walks away and the cutscene ends as quickly as it started. Back on the World Map, Ven is flying around when he sees the masked man again. He gives chase to him, and a new world in unlocked. As of now, this new world is simply called questionmarkquestiomarkquestionmark. But those ?s will be replaced with letters... next time on Birth By Sleep.

Not too much plot happened this time, but that doesn't mean it was unimportant plot.

For starters, although I've had it since finishing the Land of Departure, I FINALLY read Xehanort's Letter in Ventus' Reports. The main point of interest to me is that this report tells me that the Unversed are creatures of thought born from negative emotions, or something along those lines. Basically, their origins are Noise from TWEWY without the ghetto tatoos for body parts (SCREW YOU PROGFOX AND YOUR FUSION WITH YOURSELF, NEARLY INSTANTLY ERASING NEKU AND JOSHUA ON HARD DIFFICULTY). I must also add that AFTER the below events (I have to add SOMETHING to this paragraph), I played on the Command Board to power up my Commands. I later Melded some commands into Thunder Blitz, Blizzara, and AEROGA HECK YESH. And attached abilities to them, of course.

Ven followed the masked boy into ???, which you later learn is simply called the Badlands from the Reports (No logo for this world). Ven flies into the Badlands on his Keyblade Rider and leaps off, calling out to the boy to see him behind him. He asks the boy what he meant by Terra becoming a different person, but he insults him as he says that's exactly what it sounded like. The boy then summons a Keyblade, which Ven is shocked to see. The two then start to duel each other. You CAN damage him, but you're not supposed to defeat him right now. However, I suggest you try to damage him, but prioritize dodging. You'll see what I mean soon. After a set amount of time (Possibly after Ven takes too much damage as well), the fight is halted with a cutscene, and Ven severly wounded. The masked boy says that he is going against orders, but he does not hesitate in finishing off Ven for good. He prepares a large, blue orb of flame, and hurls it at Ven, leaving no more than ash...

Mickey: There ya' go, you're safe now!

Although Ven doesn't know that the newcomer who saved him is Mickey, it's obvious to everyone else. The two of them are behind the mysterious masked character, while Mickey chants a spell with his own Keyblade to heal Ven's wounds. Mickey explains to the masked figure how Keyblades are not meant for the purposes he has just used his for, and prepares to fight in Ven's place. Ven, however, gets up, healed and ready to fight alongside Mickey.

This is the ONLY thing you ever do in the Badlands, as far as I can tell. For this next fight, which you are NOW expected to win, you have Mickey backing you up with attack and defense. I did OK, but ONLY because I had Cure equiped this time. The masked figure's HP from the last scene carries over here, so damage him before this if you can. As you should expect, the masked figure can attack directly with his Keyblade for one thing. Of course, he has many more tricks up his sleeve. He can leap above you and summon dark lightning, which I find hard to dodge. He can create a slow-moving fireball which later splits into three flares, but I find that easier to avoid. Also, do NOT get too comfortable when you combo him- take a good look at him as you do so. If he stops flinching during the combo, RUN. He has replaced himself with an illusion and will counter you from behind. I find this the hardest skill to dodge. As for Mickey, he is controlled by the computer and will help you. I did not pay much attention to what he does, but I nkw he does attack the masked boy in his own ways. I think he has some light attacks, I'm not entirely sure, and if you see a square simbol appear, you can protect him. Perhaps he has his own HP, and must recover when it empties? I'm not sure. After protecting him, you can also attack with X for a special attack. Sometimes, Mickey will glow, and a square prompt appears. Doing this will trigger a combination attack between Ventus and Mickey, where the two of them spin together with thier Keyblades held out, and you must keep on tapping X. I think I messed this up by doing this while the boy was too far away to damage him much, but I did SOME damage to him with this.

When you damage the masked boy enough, you recieve an HP boost, and more importantly, a new command slot! The boy taunts Ven some more, and says that he is "On probation" before he walks away in a dark portal. Ven asks what he means by probation, but it's too late- he's gone. Ven thanks Mickey for saving him, and the two of them introduce themselves. Mickey explains that he is a pupil of Master Yen Sid, and shows him the object that sent him tot he Badlands, his Star Shard. He explains how the Star Shard sends him to whever he thinks about... or it is supposed to, but for some reason it only sends him to random places erratically and without warning. He says that it might be more than just freak accidents, and that it might be trying to fulfill a purpose- for example, if it wasn't for the Star Shard, Mickey wouldn't have met and saved Ven. Suddenly, the Star Shard glows brightly, and Ven finds himself back on the World Map in his armor and on his Keyblade Rider. Behind him, he sees a new world- the Radiant Garden. If you didn't get too far in KHII, this is what Hollow Bastion was originally called. Not knowing where Mickey has gone, all he has is his D-Link. Mickey's D-Link seems to have some physical attacks as well a Cura. You also earn the High Jump command for beating the Badlands, which can replace Jump with- you guessed it- a HIGHER jump. You'll notice that the Badlands has gained the same barrier as the Land of Departure has. Which means next time on Birth By Sleep, we shall investigate the Radiant Garden, and hopefully meet characters who are not from FFVII or VIII!

Well, I didn't see any FF characters in Radiant Garden yet, but there's still much more to do here. Some can still show up, let's hope it's not Cloud or Leon.

As soon as Ventus enters Radiant Garden, a cutscene triggers that displays him at the town square. You can see Scrooge McDuck walking on the streets, and Ven manages to catch a glimpse of someone with large ears and a thin tail. Naturally the first thing that ocmes to his mind is the word "Mickey?", but this character is wearing different clothes than Mickey. Something that confused me when I first came into this area, is that there is NO SAVE POINT. I later found out one was in the area right next to the plaza, but it's not the way you're supposed to go right now. And thus. Ven follows the mouse into the alley, where he encountered many an Unversed. Some examples include small blue guys that can FREEZE you, annoying birds that can fly MILES out of your reach, and big guys who grow larger and larger with gas until they either ASPLODE or you hit the valve on thier backs. Guess how many I ASPLODED. I also tested out Zero Gravity, and found out it was FUN to make Unversed levitate and smack them in midair. What's more, if you hit them while they're in forced levitation, they get CONFUSED. SWEET CONFUSISH REVENGE! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

... ahem. After you reach the top of some staricases, Ven finds himself at a large castle, and at a Save Point (Finally!). This castle was visible from the plaza, and there's a gate to it, but that gate is locked and always will be, as no message appears when you walk up to it. Climbing yet more stairs, this time without annoying bird Unversed, Ven reaches the castle gates and two guards... only for said guards to stop him, saying the castle is closed. One guard has long black hair (And a ponytail, I think) and a double-sided spear, while another had short red hair and a small hand axe. Hm, those two look kinda familiar, yet they've never been in the series before now... nononono, I'm NOT making any predictions. Not after the Djust Desert from DQIX. If something horrible happens to these two guards, it'll happen, in Ven's story or another's. REMEMBER, NO SPOILERS PLEASE. Anyway, Ven says that he saw a friend of his come this way, but the guards say that they have not seen any visitors come by. These guards warn Ven to go back before the monsters get him. Suddenly, such a monster appears on the horizon, and Ventus gives chase to the floating, red Unversed as it flees! The guards try to give chase to the Unversed themsleves in the name of Radiant Garden, but a young man with longER silver hair and a white lab coat stop them. The guards insist, while saying the silver haired man is called Even, that they must because the kid is. Even, however, says that this boy is an exception, and the two must return to thier posts at the castle. He then remarks to himself his amusement at something about a heart completely devoid of darkness...

And then you get to go ALL the way back, although it's easier when you're jumping down instead of running up. When Ven gets back to the town square, he sees a citizen, Scrooge, being attacked by the Unversed. Ven warns Scrooge to take cover as he tosses his Keyblade at the Unversed, sending it running again. Ven starts to give chase to the Unversed, but Scrooge demands him to wait so that he may repay the young man who saved his life. Rewards are nice, but not when you have more important things to do, like chasing down an Unversed like Ven is. He tries to excuse himself, but Scrooge doesn't let him go. He takes off his hat and starts to whisper to Ven- he can tell he's from another world. Ven is shocked that he can tell this, but Scrooge admits he is from another world himself, and has gotten here with the aid of a wizard called Merlin. He promises not to tell anyone, and gives Ven three free unlimited passes to Disney Town, which I believe is the minigame world according to the main site. Not that you CAN access it yet, I tried, but I'm sure you can after Ven gets back to chasing down the Unversed. Once Ven gives chase to the large Unversed down the street, Merlin the wizard warns him to stay away from the monster. Then Ven gets another warning for going against a wizard's orders, saying that's even more dangerous. Merlin says that Ven is looking to unlock the power inside of him, and he says that the book is on the shelf. Of course, Ven has no idea what this book is, but I think we KH fans know what it is...

... you actually now have the option to either examine 'the book' in Merlin's house or immediately resume chasing the Unversed. I'm not sure what I'll do yet (Right now, I'm thinking check out the book), but I will determine before NEXT time on Birth By Sleep.

Short update, things didn't go as planned (Read on to see what).

I had thought that the book would be the return of The Hundred Acre Wood sidequest minigames, but it was just a new Command Board. Glad to have found it, but still not what I thought it would be. MOVING ON, STILL GRUMPY THAT... SOMETHING HAPPENED DURING MY GAME. THE SAME REASON THAT EXPLAINS THE SHORT UPDATE.

Ven fought his way past the Unversed in two large locations. The first of which was a sort of gimmick room where you are forced to use geisers to leap up to high areas. I also found a new Unversed, who can apparently cast Stopaga on you if you leave it be long enough. The other room was simple enough, the Aquaduct starts out as a vertical climb, then becomes a long horizontal stretch of southward land. As Ventus fought, he gained TWO new Finish Commands- Gold Rush, which can help you earn Munny, and Air Flair, a wind based command apparently, both of which opened up new Finish Command trees with unknown requirements.

Once Ven reaches the end of the Aquaduct, he is surprised to see Terra and Aqua, who are just as surprised to see him! Suddenly, the Unversed Ven was chasing, as well as two others- possibly having been chased by the other two- fly into view, and Ven and company prepare their Keybla-

*SCREEN GOES BLACK*

... YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. I did NOT, and COULD NOT, save since doing ALL OF THE ABOVE. For whatever reason, my PSP occasionally turns off without any reason or warning whatsoever. It's nothing to do with the battery, either. Next time on Birth By Sleep, I'm going to redo EVERYTHING I said I did above, backtrack to save to make sure this doesn't happen again, and tell you guys the rest of the cutscene before explaining the obviously coming up boss fight.

P.S. If anyone knows what my PSP's problem is, PLEASE give advice. This is the third time it happened, if not higher.

Radiant Garden, part two, take two!

Now, where was I? Oh yeah! After the gang prepares thier Keyblades for combat, the three Unversed merge together in a Japanese Robot Anime-ish fashion!

The fight against Trinity Armor is similar to the boss from Traverse Town in KHI, in a few ways. The Trinity Armor can split itself apart and have its arms, legs, and head attack separately. As you might have expected, whichever two characters you do NOT use will help you out for this fight with the abilities they might have at this point if you were playing them yourself. And of course, the body as a whole is as much of a threat as the body split apart is. Sometimes, the head will fire a gigantic laser. AVOID IT, IT IS AS PAINFUL AS IT LOOKS AND IT IS NOT MADE OF CANDY. When the body parts split apart, they will mostly atempt to spin attack you. The way they spun at one point actually trapped me so badly, Ventus DIED on the first attempt. Only on that first attempt, though, the rest weren't too hard.

After deafeating all three parts (In my case, the head was last), an epic finishing move scene plays where Aqua slashes at the head, then Terra and Ven team up for an X-shaped cross slash of epicness. The Unversed defeated, the team celebrates thier ability to work together. Then Ven realizes that he has something for erra and Aqua- two spare Disney Town passes... which Scrooge told him to give to grown-ups. Though he never says so, it's obvious Ven is getting tired of being treated like a kid. Ven tries to lift the mood with the good news that the masked boy who said bad things about Terra isn't much of a threat anymore, only to have Terra grab him by the neck, and says something about "Vanitas". Vanitas is apparently the masked boy's name, and Terra seems to know him somehow. Aqua tries to stop the fighting, and says she has seen what Terra has done. Terra figures that Aqua has been spying on her, but she retaliates saying the Master told her to do so. Terra storms off, and Ven is dissapointed in Aqua, asking if it was an order to take him home and saying that the Mark of the Mastery has gone to her head. Ven is still determined to get answers from Terra, so he goes in pursuit of his friend...

... and for beating the Trinity Armor, you win the Cyclone Command style. This style is actually two star, which makes it special. FIRST, you must already be in a Command Style, any is fine. SECOND, you must use Aero, Blitz, or Raid attacks during that Command Style. If you fill up the gauge a second time, you will activate Cyclone instead of the last style's finishing attack. You may then use the Cyclone's Storm attack until you fill up the Command Gauge a third time, unleashing the Cyclone attack. Normally, you clear a world after beating a boss, but not this time. Ven must backtrack all the way to the square of Radiant Garden before he can continue his story.

Once Ven reaches the square, he sees a boy being attacked by Unversed. Recall what I said about Even's silver hair- that was wrong, his hair is tan. Oops. But THIS boy's hair is silver and short, plus he is about Ven's height and has a lab coat like Even's on him as well. Ventus then has to fight off a number of Unversed waves, but nothing too difficult. After the fight, Even himself arrives with his TAN hair and is relieved to see the boy, called Ienzo (I think, I would have remebered if my sister didn't take the computer RIGHT when I started typing this. She had her reasons, but then out of all times...), is safe. Even explains how Ienzo is an orphan that the labs are taking care of. Ven asks if Even has seen Terra, who (Does NOT) wear clothes like his own. Even says he has, and points towards the Outside Gardens. He says how he has a feeling the two of them will meet again, and walks away. Ienzo follows him without ever saying a single word.

That WAS going to be all, but I had to play the Hunny Pot Command Board since my sister suddenly wanted the computer while I typed this up before. The one question I have to ask about the game- since when does Pooh have Thundera? Tigger stole a few of my more valuable spaces, but I stole them back from him. In the end, I lost, but gained some new commands, and leveled up those I had. There was no Lockshot command, I think, but there was a Thunder Roll I got- it lets me perform a Dodge Roll.
That DAMAGES ENEMIES.
WITH LIGHTNING.
HECK YEAH. I also managed to gain the neccessities to Meld a Tornado Strike, which is SO awesome it takes two Command Slots. I'll sacrifice Cure for the time being, and re-add it if I need to. I will test them both out, and continue my pursuit of Terra, next time on Birth By Sleep!

This'll probably be the only update for today. School makes time less manageable, plus I haven't written any of my fan-fic of PKMN for a while.

Ventus reaches Terra without any difficulty- not a single Unversed between the square and this place, although you can fight some Unversed here after this cutscene. Ven asks to come with Terra, but he declines, saying that he knows Ven will be there once he needs him. He activates his awesome armor and flies off on his Keyblade Rider. After fighting some more (And WOW, I think I've almost unlocked a 3rd tier Finish Command. Seems to require using the Thunderbolt Command Style, which I've done a lot), Ven heads back to the square to tell Aqua. He meets her, again, without any Unversed interference, and he says that Terra left. Ven still refuses to go home as Aqua asks, but she says she's doing this for his own safety in mind. She puts on her own awesome armor and walks away, leaving Ven deep in thought...

*Wood smacks* Ven has a flashback where he is sparing against Terra with fake wooden swords, with Aqua as a refereee of sorts. After thier spar, Terra and Aqua tell Ven how his sword's dents each are a sign that he's learning and imporving. We then hear the exact same dialog as when Ven had minor flashbacks during the Castle of Dreams scenario, regarding that the three of them all wish to become Keyblade masters. Terra, holding an imitation Keyblade with his name carved on the hilt, performs a mock ceremony and gives Ven said "Keyblade". The three of them then laugh at his performance, and the screen fades to black again...

... Ven holds that same wooden Keyblade in his hands, and swings it around as two guys approach from behind. He accidentally drops it, despite that he's only sitting, and the two boys (Who say their names are Lea and Isa) find it as they discuss something. Lea, who has spikey red hair, finds it and returns it to Ven, although he mocks the fact that he's still playing with toy swords. Isa, a serene and self-possessed boy [/plagarism out of Reports] with blue hair and a jacket with a moon marking on it, does not introduce himself, but Lea...

Lea: The name's Lea. Got it memorized?

HOLY CRAP, does anyone else have that phrase memorized? We might be describing Axel of Organization XIII before he became a Nobody. Isa and the two guards from before (Aeleus and Dilan, according to the Report) also seem to be appearing more and more similar to other Organization XIII Nobodies who I cannot remember. As I was saying, Lea and Ven eventually get into a spar of sorts as Lea takes out two pads of some kind that apparently act as his weapons (The closest thing to a chakram he has, I guess). However, it doesn't take much fighting before Lea tries to call a tie. Lea becomes friends with Ven, and Isa makes a quip at the expense of Lea as the two argue a bit. Despite the arguement, however, Ven is assured that he has himself a new friend, and suddenly finds himself determined to make more...

... and you earn a new Keyblade for your troubles, which seems to be fire-based (In design, that is) and well-balanced overall. Yep, that was Axel pre-XIII for sure. And now you can access Disney Town, as well as two worlds I have not seen the worlds of, but I am sure they are the Hercules and Lilo & Stitch worlds. I went to Disney Town first, willing to try a minigame or two. Once Ven goes there, he is immediately 'greeted' by Captain Justice, AKA Pete who thinks he can fool the town into thinking he's not a dead weight for... I'll tell you why later in this update. Captain J offers to help Ven with whatever he has on his mind. Ven slips that he's looking to make some new friends, but immediately tell him to forget it. As they talk, Pete lets slip something about voting for him- a sign he's up to SOMETHING with this Captain Justice crap. In the ned, Ven simply asks for info about Disney Town. At the very least, Pete does THIS right- he says that the town is decorated and is holding special events for the Dream Festival coming up. He says he helped to decorate, but that's just him trying to get on the newcomer's good side. We KNOW how bad he is in KHII, both in intent and in being a villain overall. He says that Ven will have to find most of the events out for himself, but they are soon interupted by a cry of disappointment from Donald's nephews. Captain J then 'rushes to the rescue' 'once again'. If he wants to actually help, he can buy me some new quotations, I'm running low on those thanks to him.

Naturally, Ven himself must talk to them. Captain J introduces Ven to Huey, Duey, and Louie, who deny his claim that a catastrophy is under afoot. Queen Minnie herself is also present, and the brothers explain that thier Uncle Scrooge's ice cream makign machine is too complicated to work. Captain J tries to help, but the brothers already know that Pete can't do anything more than they can, as Pete 'corrects' his name to them. Eventually, with a mess of ice cream littered on a stage, Pete prepares to smash the machine in frustration, but Ven intervenes and gives it a shot.

And thus, the ice cream making minigame begins! It's a rhythm minigame, and apparently the song used this time is "It's a Small World". All you have to do is press the control pad to aim at Huey, Duey, or Louie, then press the X button to shoot ice cream with the ribbon, or button mash like you're playing Kingdom Hearts II when you're given certain cues. It's not too hard, but then again, it's the turtorial run of the minigame. I've even unlocked a Master difficulty of the same song after getting a Fantastic rating. All I have to ask is how they ate ice cream so tall it might have gone off the screen AFTER ZOOMING OUT LIKE CRAZY.

Queen Minnie expresses her delight having eaten some of the ice cream herself, and the ducks decide they can turn the machine into an event for the Dream Festival. Captain J thinks Ven was just lucky with the machine, and tries to smash it again, but Minnie orders him to stay away from the device, and Pete is forced to retreat for now. Queen Minnie tries to thank Ven for helping, only she doesn't know his name until Ventus introduces himself to her and the ducks. Minnie formally thanks him as Ventus, and the ducks casually do the same with just Ven. Then Ven gets an explanation on what's going on- Pete is trying to win the Million Dreams Award. There will be a poll for deciding the most examplorary citizen of Disney Town, and the winner recieves a prize. Minnie says it's a small prize, but Pete is so greedy he is determined to win it anyway. He knows that nobody will vote for him if he puts his own name on the ballot, hence the Captain Justice imitation. Of course, Donald's nephews know that nobody has fallen for Pete's ruse yet. Ven is encouraged to come again, as he departs...

... and that's ALL you have to do to clear Disney Town, with nothing special other than the Toon Command Board unlocked (Not that I expected a new Keyblade or D-Link anyway). Why it has a Battle Lv of 5, IDK. But I'll ignore that for now, as next time on Birth By Sleep, I will return to Disney Town in hopes of winning prizes from other minigames there. And of course, start the Hercules world, as it has the lower Battle Lv between itself and Stitch's world.

Awesome, thanks for telling me where to find Thunder Roll! =D

And if you go back to Disney Town there's tons of other stuff to do and enemies to fight.

You're welcome, Popy.

As Popy said above, I DID find some Unversed to fight in Disney Town once I explored it, and gained a few levels in the process. Somewhere underground was a large number of Unversed Ventus had fought his way past. Eventually, he reached a large device with an electricity symbol on it. I'm not sure whether it's based on the DAMAGE the thunder attacks you use on it deal or the NUMBER of times you hit it, but Ven just rammed his head into it about three times with Thunder Roll. Poor Ven. At least he activated a series of machinery which require some competent ability in platforming across them to reach some new secrets, such as a GIGANTIC PINBALL MACHINE OF DEATH. Well, not death, but Unversed are near it, and they cause death. By using the pinball machine, Ven gained access to a new area where, after defeating enough waves of Unversed, found MORE Unversed, only these guys dropped ICE CREAM INGREDIENTS for every hit. I got 6 Prickly Peppers and 2 Toonbascos, I think. I know you can make Ice Cream at the same place you play the minigame from last update, but I have NO IDEA what it's good for. Special items? Stat boosters? Unlock new stuff for the minigame itself? I have no idea, and please do not tell me. And I needed only ONE MORE Toonbasco... *Sigh* I also played some minigames and got nothing special, but I enjoyed both Rumble Racing and Fruitball, plus I only played thier first few levels. Nor have I gone on the Toon Board yet, I should do so soon.

And Ven FINALLY stops screwing around in Disneyland for Japanese Role Playing Game Protagonists (Seriously, I can see barely Ven there, but Terra and Aqua...?) as he goes to the Olympus Colliseum, the Hercules World as you would remember it from KHI-II. Ven arrives at the colliseum as its logo appears before any dialogue even begins. As Ven looks around for new people, he sees Phil. Ven tries to greet him, but Phil tries to shoo him away, giving him '2' words saying why (As Ven counts three on his fingers). Too late- an anonymous soldier kid, whose head is covered with a helmet, begs to become a new recruit under him, as Ven has attracted attention to him. Hercules (Still skinny and with a white robe, as he is in the begginging of the well-known movie) also shows up for Phil's next training session. Before Phil can decline the kid's request to become a second pupil, Unversed spoil the moment, triggering an event battle!

For this fight, both Herc, using fisticuffs, and the unidentifiable warrior, armed with an iron sword, join Ven, and have thier own HP gauges (Which I barely noticed- Terra, Aqua, and Mickey might have had thier own when they fought with Ven earlier, but I never looked there). The fight isn't too hard, although Herc ran out of HP a single time, but that doesn't trigger a loss or anything. You just fight through waves of Unversed, including a few new ones who look like mushrooms, some with bucklers for hands, and one variant of the red burning/blue freezing Unversed who is yellow and uses- you guess it, wood thunder! At least they don't FREEZE you. *Glares at Blue Sea Salt (Or something like that), the freezing Unversed* After the fight, Phil admits his impression by the boy and Ven, and suggests they enter the tournament. He says he will watch the matches, and then he will decide who will become his new pupil. As in, replace Herc if he isn't chosen himself. Ven thinks the games sound fun, but the boy takes the very last spot before he can act. Herc then shows grief at the thought of being replaced, as he still needs someone to train him into a hero. Phil says there will be no more training sessions until the games end, as it would be unfair to train Herc and not the helmed boy. Ventus and Hercules trade introductions, and Ven offers to help train Herc for the games.

And thus, Ven can now explore the smallest, most straightforward (Landscape-wise) combat-based world! It's slightly larger than it was in KHI, but only by one room, and that's the Town Near Thebes, where all the above events happened. The Colliseum gate itself has some Unversed, but that's all, as the Unversed in town have been cleared for now. By the colliseum, I found Cura, which I equipped, and went inside, saved, then started to train Herc. As in the last games, the Hercules training minigames are based on breaking urns. However, this one has a twist compared to the last ones- instead of trying to break a set number in a preset formation, you're breaking constantly respawning pots in an attempt to score more points than Herc, who is breaking them at the same time. Jumping on barrels can help you break urns, if you use them wisely. After the first win, which is rather short and easy, you get a small cutscene showing the two training, while Phil observes Herc. You have to play a second time to trigger more actual plot. This time, herc is harder to beat, you have a MUCH longer time limit, and there are now ASPLODING BARROLZ. Break them if you want, just not at point-blank range. They will STUN YOU, which caused me to fall behind for most of the minigame. Winning a second time earns you your third Command Deck expansion slot. YESH!

After another win, Herc finally tells you his backstory- he is (SPOILER ALERT [no, not really]) the son of Zeus, the king of the gods from Mount Olympus. Ven is astonished at the thought of Herc being a god, but he admits that someone kidnapped him and stripped him of his godhood at birth, turning him mortal. However, he can become a god again if he becomes a true hero, hence his training under Phil. Ven says that he came here just to make new friends, but Herc assures him he already did that- the two of them are friends, right? We then cut to Phil giving Herc and the young warrior the rules of the tournament. Both of them are placed in the West bracket due to a strong opponent in the East bracket, so the two of them will fight face to face. And for SOME REASON, the following montage of tournament matches displays the UNVERSED as the ones getting beaten. Yes, we DO expect the Unversed to lose, but my point is why are they ALLOWED in the tournament in the first place? Heck, why are two Unversed opponents in Fruitball back in Disney Town? Moving on with the cutscene, herc and the boy, sure enough, make it to the final match of the West bracket. The two of them start fighting, and Ven sees that the two of them are equal matches for each other. Suddenly, he visualizes the two of them fighting as Terra and Aqua sparing against each other... and his daydream is interupted by Phil's announcement of monsters attacking the Colliseum! They are approaching from the town, so Ven heads there to stop them, telling Herc and the kid to continue thier match. And EPIC MUSIC PLAYS (Gah, i forget what it was... maybe this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I81dLqBRv2s&feature=channel No embed, in this middle of a paragraph) while you have a chance to save and grind in the area right before town, which I ignored by Thunder Rolling past everything. Ven prepares to fight the few Unversed who stand in front of him... and stands back himself when he sees the countless Unversed flying into view behind those. Before anythign else happens, Herc interferes to help Ven. Ven asks about the match, but Herc says he must help his friend, as he is a hero... or is going to be one, at least.

And a MASSIVE UNVERSED RUSH BATTLE BEGINS.


NO, BOOMERANG DID NOT POST THAT VIDEO FIRST. [/lie]

Every Unversed is a recolor of those jellyfish-like Unversed from before, and only Herc is helping you now. I found Tornado Strike and Zero Gravira to be very useful here, and I'll admit I took some damage, but not too hard really. One thing that you can do in this fight is that sometimes after attacking Herc will give Ven a cue to press square. The opening is VERY SMALL, so it's hard to get this right if you're already attacking, but this will let you team up in a spinning attack that damages all the Unversed around you. You must CONSTANTLY move the control stick-nub (Which is, as we know, horrible) in a circle, which is how I messed it up the first time. At the end, pressing X unleashes a final attack, which is very useful. Too bad that opening is also really small. But I think it was awesome that I took out the rest of them with the Cyclone Finish Command when there were still far too many for me to count, hehe.

After the fight, Ven and Herc congratulate each other, but Ven sees one last Unversed attempting to sneak up on his pal! Luckily, the helmed kid rushes in the last second and takes it out, disappointed he missed all the fun- he also forfeited the match to help everyone, but that doesn't mean he's as fast as Ven or Hercules. Herc only left a few seconds before the boy did, so the two of them argue over who should have won, or if there should be a rematch of any kind. Then Phil interupts and explains how being a hero means more than just having strength, but also having to care about the people. He also adds that he never said he'd choose his pupil based on who WON the match, he said he'd watch. He says that only one man acted quickly enough to prove he's a hero... and the unknown boy shows a bit of grief, as no words are needed to say it's Herc. He then decides to finally introduce himself, not having done so before, and takes off his helmet- apparently, he is Zack from Crisis Core (Dang it, Square! Give us Locke or someone from VI! It'd be hillarious to see him get Ven's Terra mixed up with the FFVI Terra! Heck, I kinda wanna see Vaan from XII, tbh... just not someone from VII or VIII!). Ven talks with Phil, who admits he was never going to let Herc go- he merely pulled an act to get him fired up again. Ven begins to leave, but Herc asks him to promise to return when he becomes a hero, which he does.

Zack: Come back when we're BOTH heroes!
Ven: So, you mean never come back, then?
Zack: C'mere, you!

I loved that quote. And the end of the Olympus Colliseum comes after Zack gives Ven a friendly rub on the head of sorts! I earnt the Mark of a Hero Keyblade, which I COULD equip... if I valued Strength above Magic. SCREW POWER, I HAVE SPARKLIES! I also got Zack's D-Link, which I may or may not use. I barely even used Aqua'a D-Link since getting it, and that was the beggining of the entire game for crying out loud! Next time on Birth By Sleep, we go to Stitch's home planet or wherever his world is! And possibly do the Toon Board.