Dark Road ► Dark Road: Chapter 2 - The Presence of Darkness

[Ballad of Caius]

That and "darkness" I'm sure, whenever it's mentioned just vague enough to make it difficult to discern whether it's referring to darkness in general or Darkness the character lol

I imagine it's harder when you have to discern whether or not the aura behind the Queen of Hearts is corporeal or not xD Like, yes, Darkness has a Black Coat, but what if this version of Darkness doesn't? Haha

 

[Sign]

I imagine it's harder when you have to discern whether or not the aura behind the Queen of Hearts is corporeal or not xD Like, yes, Darkness has a Black Coat, but what if this version of Darkness doesn't? Haha

YES. I was like "is this something I should be reading into?" This extra confusion is something I do not need xD

 

[Ballad of Caius]

YES. I was like "is this something I should be reading into?" This extra confusion is something I do not need xD

I imagine it must be hard editing the video and then looking back and asking yourself this, haha.

But anyways, thank you for your work! I uninstalled the game because of the intense grinding, so I'm very grateful for the work you guys do!

 

[Chaser]

Unless there's another delay, Global will get Chapter 2 on August 6th.

 

[SuperSaiyanSora]

Which makes me wonder even more now if the MoM is in fact a form of Sora it would be pretty thematically fitting that after dealing with a story where we rescue a young boy from the major villain, the major villain being his future corrupted self. If now the story is shifting to Sora facing off against the same thing though he doesn't know it yet. If the MoM's machinations are a time loop designed to cause Sora to become the MoM, a possibly bigger villain than Xehanort ever was, and the story is going to be based on helping Sora advert that. Preventing Sora from ending up like another Xehanort, changing time and history.

This whole post is interesting, but this paragraph above especially is one I wanted to add onto.

On one hand, it would contradict what Nomura said about Sora being an "ordinary kid", but on the other hand... I wonder. As it stands, it seems like Xehanort's fate was essentially time-locked no matter what. But as we know so far for Sora, we're told that's not the case. After all, we have endless real-world examples of ordinary people going on to do extraordinary things, so he can start off as an ordinary boy but become a legend in the distant future. Then there's the whole issue with Yozora supposedly knowing who Sora is, attempting to "save" him, and his shoulder patch looking like a skull with Sora's hair and two Kingdom Keys crossed. But if Sora's the Master of Masters, you'd think Xigbar would know that as well, because he said to Sora, "As if the Keyblade would choose a wimp like you." He also seemed very surprised at Sora's response to that as well, so it's weird, unless MoM's current form isn't Sora's appearance, but he at one point was Sora.

I feel like Dark Road will eventually have to address why Young Xehanort knew so much about the Power of Waking in KH3. Then there's Terranort saying "Seeing that you have also taken the forbidden path, you too must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice." We can safely assume that the Young Xehanort that we see in the four years later timeskip is also the Young Xehanort that we see in KH ReMind. YX in the ReMind opening and the YX we eventually end up facing are different in that ReMind YX hadn't acted on his ambition yet, although you clearly see it coming, whereas the "current" YX is already well on his journey. So if YX knows about the Power of Waking, and we see him change from a rather quiet but cocky kid to who he is now... He most likely also tried to do it to save his friends. But maybe he failed.

And maybe that's what Yozora is trying to save Sora from -- Maybe whatever happened to Xehanort was more than just "losing faith in humanity". Maybe Yozora is tied to what's going on, and he's actually very familiar with what's happening to Sora because it happened to someone else he knows. And he also isn't in his true form either, so who knows? Maybe Yozora actually knew Xehanort.

 

[Kimmy1980]

Had an a ha moment about darkness. What if we have been looking at the shadowy figure of Darkness all wrong? We keep speculating that Darkness in Union X needs to possess Ven to move forward? If that were to happen Darkness wouldn't be around in Dark Road and contradict what we are seeing in Chapter 2's update.

This being all said... What if in this latest update we are just seeing a manifestation of darkness of the Queen of Hearts and nothing more? Maybe it's the same in the other games. Darkness in Union X, it's Malificent's darkness talking to her from that time (would be a digital version). Same in KH3 with Sora coming in contact with darkness (aka Vanitas) at Ven's station of awakening. Vanitas chose the new name "darkness."

Of course this is go to raise hairs with the story of Union X, but if this was all the case, fingers are pointing to Ava being a horrible person. She has her own hidden darkness leading her thoughts to betray the MoM.

 

[Ballad of Caius]

This whole post is interesting, but this paragraph above especially is one I wanted to add onto.

On one hand, it would contradict what Nomura said about Sora being an "ordinary kid", but on the other hand... I wonder. As it stands, it seems like Xehanort's fate was essentially time-locked no matter what. But as we know so far for Sora, we're told that's not the case. After all, we have endless real-world examples of ordinary people going on to do extraordinary things, so he can start off as an ordinary boy but become a legend in the distant future. Then there's the whole issue with Yozora supposedly knowing who Sora is, attempting to "save" him, and his shoulder patch looking like a skull with Sora's hair and two Kingdom Keys crossed. But if Sora's the Master of Masters, you'd think Xigbar would know that as well, because he said to Sora, "As if the Keyblade would choose a wimp like you." He also seemed very surprised at Sora's response to that as well, so it's weird, unless MoM's current form isn't Sora's appearance, but he at one point was Sora.

I feel like Dark Road will eventually have to address why Young Xehanort knew so much about the Power of Waking in KH3. Then there's Terranort saying "Seeing that you have also taken the forbidden path, you too must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice." We can safely assume that the Young Xehanort that we see in the four years later timeskip is also the Young Xehanort that we see in KH ReMind. YX in the ReMind opening and the YX we eventually end up facing are different in that ReMind YX hadn't acted on his ambition yet, although you clearly see it coming, whereas the "current" YX is already well on his journey. So if YX knows about the Power of Waking, and we see him change from a rather quiet but cocky kid to who he is now... He most likely also tried to do it to save his friends. But maybe he failed.

And maybe that's what Yozora is trying to save Sora from -- Maybe whatever happened to Xehanort was more than just "losing faith in humanity". Maybe Yozora is tied to what's going on, and he's actually very familiar with what's happening to Sora because it happened to someone else he knows. And he also isn't in his true form either, so who knows? Maybe Yozora actually knew Xehanort.

Another thought: what if the MoM, after effing up the world, realized he made a mistake, he's the only one who can undo it, so he returns back in time in order to set into motion various events that would end up making himself, as in Sora, not turn into the person that effed up the world to begin with?

What if what turned Sora into the MoM was the fact that he lost Kairi forever? What if getting the Power of Waking is the turning point of Sora not turning into the MoM?

Of course, this is assuming the MoM is Sora.

 

[ShardofTruth]

I like how this update will "spoil" a scene that hasn't appeared in the Global version of KHUX yet. What will they do if more scenes are requiered to be played back to back to make sense?

 

[The_Echo]

I like how this update will "spoil" a scene that hasn't appeared in the Global version of KHUX yet. What will they do if more scenes are requiered to be played back to back to make sense?

Probably nothing if the last 4 years is anything to go by.

 

[LoneFox]

I like how this update will "spoil" a scene that hasn't appeared in the Global version of KHUX yet.

A scene that is scheduled to be released this month, isn't it?
You may just have discovered the reason for the delay...

 

[Sign]

A scene that is scheduled to be released this month, isn't it?
You may just have discovered the reason for the delay...

Yeah but said update will probably not be released before they get DR Chapter 2.

 

[Chie]

It's been interesting to go back and read Xehanort's Report in light of this game. So far things have been pretty consistent between the two.

Here's an interesting line compared to what he says about worlds repeating their cycle...

"My legs took me there unbidden, and as I stood there on the same beach where I had made my choice so many years ago, I thought: not a single thing has changed. Here, in this quiet world, time marches in place. "

 

[SweetYetSalty]

It's been interesting to go back and read Xehanort's Report in light of this game. So far things have been pretty consistent between the two.

Here's an interesting line compared to what he says about worlds repeating their cycle...

"My legs took me there unbidden, and as I stood there on the same beach where I had made my choice so many years ago, I thought: not a single thing has changed. Here, in this quiet world, time marches in place. "

I didn't even think about that. I need to reread the Xehanort Reports especially with Dark Road going on. I'm sure reading them again will be a different experience now. (And I love Ansem/Xehanort/secret reports)

I'll likely never look at Master Xehanort and Eraqus's relationship the same way again when this is over.

 

[Noivern]

Okay, so I finally bothered to watch this update and express my thoughts on it after reading the thread.

1. What I feared happened, but not like how I expected. Dark Road is making me really like Young Xehanort. But while at first I rejected this idea because I hate his older self, what ended up happening is that this is making me despise Master Xehanort because his Younger Self is quite well written and is setting up to be quite the character, which only makes his older version' writing looks worse and dated. Specially after KH3's ending.

2. I knew the scene with Eraqus and Xehanort talking at the same time reminded me of something, but the comment sections on the video made it make sense. It's pretty much FFVIII.

Spoiler Show

In that game, the main party keeps having dreams of Laguna Loire and his friends, then a bit past halfway the game we find out those aren't actually dreams, and it's actually one character sending the party's conscience back in time to try to change the events of the future. This actually makes a LOT of sense in the UX context, so If this really is the plot they go with, I'm excited to see where it'll end up.

3. While I already expected this to be the case before more info on the game came out, I'm disappointed over how mediocre the writing for the rest of the class is. Maybe it's because of the party system, but the other characters so far are what I call "half assed protagonists"; their designs are pretty generic to evoke the feeling of a OC, but they have a finalized touch that gives them a bit more credit. But if you place them next to Eraqus or Xehanort and then put the Player or the generic Unions/Dandelions from UX next to them, you'll clearly see where they belong.

Personality wise they've been pretty underwhelming as well, and while I know we are only at chapter 2, we already got significantly more of a story going on in those than UX did for the longest time; and yet, Brain and Lauriam had that unique flair to them instantly. Ephemer and Skuld also stood out back during X.

I really hope we can see some improvement going forward because if they really do go through the tragic fate hinted at chapter 1, I won't really feel sad for those characters given how barren they have been so far.

4. I'm enjoying the way the story has been told so far, but I'm worried over how this is going to evolve with time. Dark Road's pacing feels like a mini series written with a specific number of chapters in mind before closing, which would be perfect to me had this not been a gacha mobile game, so I'm worried at how this is gonna go.. But I guess everything can change once they're done with the search for the upperclassmen fillers, lol.

I said this before but I'm going to mention it again specifically because of the whole anaylisis over Xehanort's older and younger forms as well as Sora's connection to MoM: Dark Road reminds me A LOT of the Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver franchise.

 

[RonaldPoe]

I have a small question. Are Player X (Union X/Chi) and Kid Xehanort (my nickname for Young Xehanort in Dark Road) still connected or has that been debunked? If so any idea what they're connection is?

 

[Clue.Less]

I have a small question. Are Player X (Union X/Chi) and Kid Xehanort (my nickname for Young Xehanort in Dark Road) still connected or has that been debunked? If so any idea what they're connection is?

Now with what @Noivern hinted, I'm thinking there's a meddling Chirithy involved, maybe on orders. (I blame everything odd on Chirithys these little guys can't be trusted -- look who created them.)

 

[Dreq the Dreck]

Also wow I'm not a shipper for KH in the slightest but some palpable Xehanort/Eraqus right at the end there. Or at least in Vor's eyes.

Oh, that's why she was curious? Is she gonna write her own yaoi fanfics about them?

 

[The_Echo]

Oh yeah, I also wanted to say that when I saw this had voice acting the delay for the english version actually totally makes sense, if they're going to dub it.

Chapter 1 also had voiced narration, which Global did not get.
Same with Ephemera's voiced line when he and Skuld save Player at the Graveyard.

Would've been great to have some more of Ben Diskin's performance, but alas.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

I wonder if Xehanort seeing darkness is the same as Riku's power to smell darkness. We need someone who can hear and speak darkness next. I vote for Aeleus or Dilan to speak darkness. Maybe Terra can hear darkness, as he fits the Xehanort/Riku theme lol.

 

[zander1995]

the only things shared between the Player flashback and the Brain flashback are the presence of Ephemer and Skuld.

I'm feeling like they're going to pull a "Xehanort and Eraqus are actually Ephemer and Brain" twist if not something weirder.