Use this to discuss the story update in the meantime while we get the videos up, please and thank you~

My condolences to Global players, hopefully tomorrow will be the day!

Added JP videos.

Edit: the presence of Darkness ?

This is silly, they're purposely not giving us the update at the same time, the translation as to be done for sure already.

Just finished the 20 missions, tbh a bit disappointed but not with the story.

The story actually blew my mind when Eraqus and Xehanort had the same flashback and said the same sentence, i didn't expect that. I have some ideas about why that happened but I'm still uncertain, first i want to see the ending of Union X.

Also, it seems that all the chapters of the main story will end with the flashback of 4 years later

What i'm disappointed is that there's just 1 new heartless(well, actually 2 but 1 must be from an event since it didn't appear in the main missions(the main account just showed that the second heartless is Ifrit from the collaboration)) and we can just defeat him 1 time like the flame core unless he appears in an event later because we can't repeat the main story missions.

Of course he could appear in another world later as a mob but it's still annoying. Also, no new worlds, but at least they used wonderland for the main story i guess...

For the next update i'm sure we should be at least level 45-50, it's not a problem i wanted to be lvl 50 for the next month but the staff should make a way to win more BP

And it's interesting that now you can buy the quest key with 18k BP, it's practically a lottery now, in case you get 2+ golds then you win but if not you lose 4k, but right now that's not really a problem because the new event is easy and fast, you can win 2.4k with just one round, if you make 2 you've win the loses and you can buy another quest key xD

(Haven't watched the clips yet, waiting to play it, no spoilers please)
So, am I to understand that after releasing the first episode globally, now they're going back to staggering JP and NA release like with Union X? I'm sorry, but I'm so done if that's the case. What a slap in the face. There's no excuse if that is indeed the case. If they're just a day late, that's still stupid (as Katsagu mentioned, they should have everything finished for it), but I guess I'm more okay with that. But if they're really just doing this month-deferral shit for no reason again, I'm going to be really pissed.

Thanks for the video uploads Sign. For those of us who can't play these are highly important. While I don't know what's being said it looks like the Wonderland world is more complete then Agrabah was when Team Xehanort visited. That's what I call them, Team Xehanort. And while it looks to be the same plot they always use in Wonderland, at least Alice wasn't on trial this time. And the cards stacked on each other like that was neat. Can't wait to see the translations for this.

They could at least give some info about the Global release on the NA Twitter account. Not knowing when it will arrive is really frustrating. I am trying to resist watching the videos before playing but it looks interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing more dialogue with the rest of the students to learn more about their personalities.

Looks like Global is already not running neck and neck with JP. Love you so much, SE! Never buying another weekly again :^)

As for the content, I really do like how Xe/Er have the same sayings of the Brain saying. Because, this is showing the divergence between their two thought processes. We have to see more of the characterization, but remember that much of KHDR is already "foretold" given that we know where Xe and Er end up at the end of their journeys (in KH3).

Honestly this delay kind of got me a bit down on the game. I felt I had an objective for all that grinding, pulling, doing events and that was to experience the story as it came out for myself. But right now that's kind of impossible like this when I like to be on the centre of KH discussion online.

I'm not sure what reasons they have for the delay, being ambiguous is not helping them and delaying it by more than one day honestly doesn't make much sense to me. Beginning of August could mean a ton of things.

Well at least it gives me time to grind levels a bit i guess

Updated OP with goldpanner's translations. Subtitled video to follow tonight.

I gave in and looked at the translations and I actually love this. They actually adapt the world's story to Xehanort's story well. It's interesting that Xehanort is the one reluctant to break the rules about the Order of the world. I can't wait to see where this talk of people tainted by darkness leads. Also, the appearance of the Queen of Hearts raises some more questions about how the chronology of the series works. Sorry, too many thoughts in one post but I genuinely think this really interesting.

I like how much of a deadpan snarker young Eraqus is. His line about Chesire Cat cracked me up

Xehanort is shaping up to bethe deviant - one who challenges his preconceived notions. This is exactly what we would expect from a Keyblade Master of Darkness. We shall watch his career with great interest.

Can't say I'm even remotely surprised that SENA has found some way to delay the story update.
$5 this won't be the last time.

As for the update itself, I'm not really sure what I expected out of it, but I guess we have an idea of what DR's pacing will be like.
Seems the search for the upperclassmen will be a bit breadcrumb-esque, at least for now as Xehanort and friends learn about other worlds and their role in them.
The dark figure behind the Queen is... interesting. It's definitely not Darkness as we see it in UX, but it's certainly not just a normal dark aura either.
And Xehanort and Eraqus both repeating Brain's words is uh, confusing. That scene doesn't have Player in it at all, so is he not actually connected to Player specifically?

So...much...dialogue x___x ahhhhhhhhh

Spoilers for the people who didn't watch or read it yet.
[SPOILER]This is cool. Sure QoH being here is a bit confusing, but seeing as Wonderland is a nonsense world anyway it's possible since that QoH is this worlds Order that she doesn't age. Or maybe Age doesn't exist in Wonderland because it's like a dream world. Not an actual Dream World, I hope I'm not being misunderstood.

Anywho, Xehanort and Eraqus already showing off how different they are and will be is nice. I also like Xehanort's reluctance to fight Darkness infected beings with a Keyblade. Sora has fought them serially because of their influence on the Heartless; but that reflects what Xehanort said about it becoming necessary to do so, and while what Eraqus says is optimistic it also reflects the people who were able to free themselves from Darkness like Riku. I like this update. [/SPOILER]

Moral of the story: Keep your darkness in your pants, until you learn to control it

OP updated with subbed videos! Thanks for your patience~

I guess if a world's going to be eternally ageless, it might as well be Wonderland.

Though it's interesting, Xehanort describes worlds as boxes that repeat a cycle over and over. That describes worlds on many levels - most directly the sleeping worlds, most metafictionally the disney worlds, and most relevantly... perhaps a certain box itself (if it contains the UX computer, which is my belief).

The Heartless that showed up was cool, almost felt like I was playing a disney world in a kingdom hearts game. Ha ha.

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 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.

Thanks for the subs! When it comes to Wonderland I think the area is timeless in that it will never age. Some worlds probably age differently but Wonderland is such a world of madness it's probably in a infinite loop that never breaks and that fits the world. Notice how Alice isn't part of this story. She is probably the one exception...for now.

It also doesn't surprise me the Queen doesn't remember Xehanort. He's just another criminal to her. However with Xehanort able to see darkness like that it makes me curious if every Disney villain has this. Perhaps Darkness the character has been split in the Disney villains this whole time. It might explain why it spoke with Maleficent. If that is the case then this has been the most interesting thing they've done with Disney villains in awhile and I wanna see more.

Vor was really cute in the video. I think next to Eraqus she's my fave of Xehanort's friends so far.

How fascinating a direction for Xehanort, having him realize an almost inescapable truth that takes many years to realize. You can't escape yourself, quite often the problems are not just the place you live or the people you interact with but rather the issue is you. Shifting your location often results in only moving your problems not escaping them, you have to fix yourself to avoid falling into the traps of repeating mistakes.

Xehanort's problems seem to largely stem from a life where he feels he lacks purpose, his inability to just accept a happy modest life in a cozy home with friends or family. He needs stimulation, knowledge, and purpose I might very much argue that Young Xehanort heavily reads now as someone who is suffering from depression. Who needed medicine and therapy but instead got super weapons, out of date traditions, and what might as well have been unlimited power and agency.

I wonder if this how he always is or if THIS was the result of his time travel. Where he knew his purpose and his inescapable fate but then forgot both those things and so he could feel it, this gnawing waiting for something to happen, for understanding to take place, for his life to begin to move. In other words I wonder if by traveling through time and etching his path in his heart that he doomed himself to a life that just felt like he was going through the motions. A life where you feel you are just go through the motions is a pretty textbook description of what living with depression can feel like.

It makes Xehanort's actions more understandable, not justifiable but understandable, he is trapped in his life and he ends up going to extremes to escape that. Xehanort never stopped being the kid stuck on the island he just moved to larger prisons but he couldn't escape the actual prison that was his own heart. I always wondered in all the worlds in DDD were meant to be exploring Xehanort at the same time as Sora and I feel this update and the previous confirms that was in fact the intent.

It brings I think extra meaning to Xehanort calling the islands a prison for a heart seeking freedom juxtaposed against the inside of Sora's heart that takes the form of the islands. On one hand that's where the hearts in Sora were trapped which seems to support Xehanort's words, but there is a deeper meaning to this. Where does KH3 end? It ends on the sunset islands where everyone has returned to by choice to share in friendship and happiness. The beach has always been a symbol in this series for freedom not prisons. For RAX the promise to go to the beach and live that represented the ultimate freedom they never had till now, and that goes doubly for Roxas who promised an HPO they would go to the beach but never could as DiZ would not let Roxas out of his digital prison.

While Ventus and Terra didn't have quite the same connection to the Beach, Aqua absolutely did. The beach of the realm of darkness represented a place she could escape from and wait for freedom and when she finally does escape her first sights are the Destiny Islands. Which she first thinks means she is still trapped but instead finally making it here represents her freedom and return to the realm of light. With Kairi the islands act not as a prison but a place of safety, sometimes she feels trapped but as a whole it's the thought she can always return to this place that gives her the courage to explore outside it. For Riku the islands used to feel like a prison but after he matured the ability to return to the islands without shame or guilt keeping him distant from the people there he loves ended up representing the ultimate freedom for his heart. It goes without saying that for Sora the islands have always been a source of comfort, he was curious but never consumed by that curiosity, it's not a prison but a sanctuary the world most safe and precious to his heart.

Xehanort returning to Scala and his heart being set free there I think makes a lot more sense as an ending for Xehanort in KH3 now. What's happening in those final moments is after as far as Xehanort had come he was back on Scala, back in his prison true prison his heart where this all really began, he's trapped, cornered, and doomed it should have been a suffocating and all consuming feeling of anger, desperation, and dread. Instead however it's only by returning to this prison, by reuniting with the people he left behind (well the one that was left), that finally Xehanort's heart could be set free. Free from the embittered old man that he had become who is also from the man who had set him on this path to become this, the imprisoned childlike heart of Young Xehanort in his final moments is free possibly for the first time ever in his life.

That's why we are seeing "Xehanort" get a happy ending because MX he is the one who caused all this, quite literally going back in time to corrupt his young self the same way he did to Riku, and thus in every respect Xehanort was both the victim and villain. We "killed" Master Xehanort completely and utterly he vanished from within Xehanort's own scala and we saved the young Xehanort boy who had been so lost, trapped, and corrupted just like we saved Riku. In other words the Xehanort saga, isn't about defeating Xehanort it's about saving him. That's why we could never defeat him by combat only by releasing his young heart from the decades of imprisonment that had twisted and ruined him.

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.

Hirokey123 Rambling thoughts™

Hmm... I wonder if Xehanort calling the Islands and Scala "a box" because of the routine is just a coincidence or not, seeing as how we still have the pending Black Box plot.

Also, I wonder if the Xehanort from four years later is the Xehanort that had told the MoM that he was gonna go to the worlds and see them. I think KHDR Xehanort is a Xehanort trying to find himself, while the 4 years later Xehanort is that Xehanort that is starting to become the man that decides that the world needed to be plunged into darkness and then purged with light in order to restore it.

Which puts us in the exact same position as the villains in KH3 getting distracted by Pandora's Box and Davy Jones' Box!

Didn't realize until now that the third scene was set up for another party switch, thought Vor was just being playful xD

It's really sad how they always find a way for us to officially get behind the jp version. Thanks for the translation guys!

Hoping more episodes have a flashforward to 4 years later. I feel like it's just a matter of time until they slow down the pacing, but it's breath of fresh air seeing a story told like this.

I added the alternate dialogue you get if Vor was in your party during the third scene. Seems like no matter who you choose, Eraqus would just rather it not be her lol he does not look very pleased

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

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.

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?

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. "

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] 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. [/spoiler]

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.

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?

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.

? 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.

Global scenes:






Alternate scene if Vor is in the party:



They've also added the prompt to change party members during that third scene, which was absent in JP.

I wonder why most of the story quests feature random enemies when another playthrough of these quests is not intended. Maybe they'll add an episode replay feature along the theater mode at some point in the future, it's still seems like these quests are more of an afterthought compared to the world battles and events.

After doing the quests myself, compared to Goldpanner, they did do pretty well, tho with the Cheshire Cat, they actually added some flavor text from the movie as localizations, but the meaning comes though.

I CAN'T object to that, and I grew up with Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

[Edit] Rewatching, I can see they did that EVERYWHERE here. Hey, I don't mind, you get what they're saying even if they changed the text around a bit to fit the world/the original movie. SOMEONE knows their Disneys. And they did a good localization, it's not a straight translation (I assume Goldpanner's a little more literal in places, no offense meant. Different translators work differently *hugs Goldpanner*; some go literal in a way, some like to localize. Have seen this many, many times before with certain fansub groups that I will not name here so if you're looking Goldpanner, don't feel offended, it does just show another way of putting it. And if the offical translator screwed up..which I don't think he did..your translation shows what he screwed up on.)

As I keep saying, JP to English translation is a art, not a science. It REALLY is. And since the original Disney's Alice in Wonderland is a original English animated movie, well..I don't think anyone can blame the official translator for drawing from that for his translation/localization so if you watched that as many times as I have, you'd feel like Xehanort and crew stepped RIGHT into the movie in Alice's place. Ha.

Oh and if anyone wants it, I can prolly go though the videos again and transcribe, tho I assume the staffers will do that a bit later when they get time!

What’s with the “4 years later” part?

Okay, to make this quick, I'll be linking these from my Google Drive (I'm using a word processor). [USER=89972]@Sign[/USER], feel free to open and copy/paste and add to the first post in this thread. I did borrow the stage directions MOSTLY from the JP transcript, with a few additions to be more specific in spots (you'll see where). So watch this post!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4


Anyway be patient, it takes me time to go though each video and pause at every line, then type it out.

OKAY! Done. had to pause to get dinner going but the transcript is done. [USER=89972]@Sign[/USER] you know what to do. ^^

But yeah, see above for the whole thing.

It was pretty short. beat it around 25 minutes.
barely any actual story aside from the last scene.. was hoping for more.
hopefully things will start pick up in the next few chapters.

young eraqus is such a fun a character.

Finished the story. More I "play" of DR, the more I'm mad it wasn't its own game done in the old Kingdom engine at least, or UE4. On kinfolk on God I would pay $60 for a YX game.

Something I think is much better in Goldpanner's version is Xehanort's response when Eraqus says he wants to believe in the light in people's hearts. In Global, he just simply agrees, 'me too', but in Goldpanner's he says 'Yeah...', so you can see he is having doubts already, which is nice.

This episode lacks of contents in my opinion. There are less cutscenes than the first one and more filler dialogues. I didn't enjoyed it very much.

It ended right when it was getting good. The filler dialogue was pointless. How many times are we going to see people at trial with the Queen of Hearts?

I'm really curious about the 4 years later part. That must have been during Xehanort's "world tour", but why would he go back to Wonderland? Also, does that mean nothing in Wonderland ages because it's Wonderland? The Queen of Hearts should be old in KH1.

You can wave logic in Wonderland but it does make me wonder what's going to happen during the rest of Xehanort's '4 years later tour'. Assumedly he isn't going to be in Wonderland the whole time.

You may be thinking of this too mechanically. She is not corrupted - darkness is the heart's true essence. Xehanort depressingly "realizes" this through his experiences.

It's not a story about the scientific mechanics of darkness, but about becoming nihilistic in reaction to the sociopathy of other human beings.

I bet Wonderland's timeflow is non-existent, cuz in 358 the Queen of Hearts is still making her soldiers look for SDG even though nearly a year passed and she's only seen them for a few minutes at max.

For all we know literally every Wonderland story that isn't a projection of a castle or a book just collectively happens in the span of a few "Wonderland days".

Said days being whenever someone just happens to show up.

I find it slightly odd that we flashed back to a scene Global doesn't actually have yet.