Hi, Im Kaci. I play too much Kingdom Hearts. If you've got questions, I've got answers.

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kh13:

New Kingdom Hearts III screenshots have been released, showcasing a new Drive Form!

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KHUX Theater Mode: Episode 17, wherein Belle and Beast cause drama on a balcony and all the servants stay cursed forever apparently!

HSC - Jack & Sally

I am beginning to detest these things.  They used to be my favorite content and now High Score Challenges just take me hours and hours to make the guides. >_<  Anyway…

Jack&Sally (J&S from now on) and Zero are your two medals this HSC.  Both are buff medals: Zero being Dispel+Cura AOE for 5 bars (similar to Belle) and J&S is +1 PSM (all attributes) strength and -1 PSM (all attributes) defense on all targets for two bars for two turns!  Thankfully, neither is worth guilting.

Zero you can take or leave - with No Cost, it can be useful.  But J&S is a downright godsend.  It’s basically going to be the new RAX - you’ll want it on every single keyblade.  

So how do you get these nice new medals?

Zero is pretty easy.  Top 20,000 will get one.  There are also four in the HSC Rewards.  You can get seven by getting 10 million points + ranking in the top 1000.  But like I said, there’s no point in guilting him.

J&S is just a top 5000 reward.  If I recall, this was the same with RAX.

Your multipliers:

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You’ll notice that the two top multipliers this time are both Sephiroth.  That’s pretty cool, since a lot of people have the first one (including me!) so you’re more likely to either a.) have it or b.) have a friend with it.  The 14% ones are obviously from this weeks EMC.  Then a lot of sevens.

So onto the main event.

When you go in, you’ll find three chests in front of you.  Each one has a corresponding pathway.  The green chest, for instance, is the pathway for Speed.  Once you leave the room, you can’t come back.  Basically, this is another “pick your path” HSC.  There seems to be some variation with Heartless in each pathway, but all in all the scores seem very similar.  Just go with what you are best at!

The Heartless you’ll find are as follows: 

Left (Speed)

Lv. 25 Chomper Egg x3 ~ 12794
Lv. 25 Soldier x5 ~ 8529
Lv. 25 Armored Archer & Chomper Egg x2 ~ 42647

Lv. 75 Creeper Plant x2 ~ 80769
Lv. 75 Hook Bat x5 ~ 24230
Lv. 75 Invisible ~ 288461
Lv. 75 Neoshadow & Hook Bat x2 ~ 139615

Lv. 150 Cannon Gun x2 ~ 468750
Lv. 150 Armored Archer x3 ~ 137500
Lv. 150 Stinging Bee x2 ~ 235000
Lv. 150 Pumpkin Soldier & Stinging Bee x2 ~ 468750

Lv. 250 Yellow Copter Fleet & Cannon Gun ~ 656250
Lv. 250 Air Soldier x3 ~ 345000
Lv. 250 Pumpkin Soldier & Aeroplane ~ 656250
Lv. 250 Pumpkin Soldier x2 ~ 656250

~*TARGET*~ Lv. 25 Jack O’ Lantern

Up (Power)

Lv. 25 Bag O’ Coins x3 ~ 12794
Lv. 25 Jack O’ Lantern x5 ~ 8529
Lv. 25 Armored Knight & Bag O’ Coin x2 ~ 42647

Lv. 75 Large Body x2 ~ 80769
Lv. 75 Aerial Knocker x5 ~ 24230
Lv. 75 Hammer Frame ~ 288461
Lv. 75 Large Armor & Aerial Knocker x2 ~ 139615

Lv. 150 Wyvern & Morning Star ~ 468750
Lv. 150 Armored Knight x3 ~ 137500
Lv. 150 Gummi Hammer ~ 235000
Lv. 150 Pumpkin Soldier & Gummi Hammer x2 ~ 468750

Lv. 250 Red Copter Fleet & Defender ~ 656250
Lv. 250 Defender x3 ~ 345000
Lv. 250 Pumpkin Soldier & Wyvern ~ 656250
Lv. 250 Pumpkin Soldier x2 ~ 656250

~*TARGET*~ Lv. 25 Jack O’ Lantern

Right (Magic)

Lv. 25 Blue Gummi Copter x3 ~ 12794
Lv. 25 Possessor x5 ~ 8529
Lv. 25 Darkball & Blue Gummi Copter x2 ~ 42647

Lv. 75 Wizard x2 ~ 80769
Lv. 75 Bag O’ Coal x5 ~ 24230
Lv. 75 High Wizard ~ 288461
Lv. 75 Poison Apple & Bag O’ Coal x2 ~ 139615

Lv. 150 High Wizard x2 ~ 468750
Lv. 150 Ice Plant x3 ~ 137500
Lv. 150 Fire Plant x2 ~ 235000
Lv. 150 Pumpkin Soldier & Fire Plant ~ 468750

Lv. 250 Blue Copter Fleet & High Wizard ~ 656250
Lv. 250 Poison Apple x3 ~ 345000
Lv. 250 Pumpkin Soldier & Poison Apple ~ 656250
Lv. 250 Pumpkin Soldier x2 ~ 656250

~*TARGET*~ Lv. 25 Jack O’ Lantern

Each second, third, and fourth room has a Special chest, which seem to increase in how much they give.

Hopefully my numbers are right.  It’s been a very long night…

Strategy: Pick a path.  Magic or Speed is probably best given what Sephiroths you can get your hands on.  Clearing rooms 1-3 is pretty easy and you shouldn’t have much trouble.  Clearing room four is impossible without a lot of DB2 luck, maybe Sleep+, and enough Save/Loads to wash away your sanity.  When you get there, grab a pack and do as much damage as you can before you die to pad out your score.  Picking a x3 enemy can give you a good boost if you have AOE, but the x2 packs can give you a second or third turn with some lucky DB2/Sleep+ procs.

Rewards are the usual.  Magic Mirrors, Chips, Dales, Cids… nothing special.

Alright, good luck!  Have fun!  Please don’t kick me out of the top 5k!  ^_^

ENDS 10/27!

<3 KCM

icyvirus:

I was going through my medals list and saw this… lol

makingprettywords:

Someone needs to kiss a pretty girl and Chirithy immediately shuts me down.

He knows me too well.

Should we go for the Sepherioth medal and should we go for the Epic Medal Carnivals in general? (Sorry if you've answered this before. Thanks for this informative blog. It's super helpful.)

Don’t worry I get this question with almost ever EMC and I think it’s probably good that I do!  Each EMC is different and its premium is different, so it makes perfect sense to re-evaluate this question every few weeks! ^_^

First and foremost, always always always pull during EMCs, because they have a chance to drop Premiums!  (Sometimes other deals drop Premiums like the current HSC Assistance deal that’s up, but you always want Premiums to be an option.) The reason for this is that Premiums are the best medals in the game.  Ill. Terra, Sora, and Riku are pretty game breaking.  However, with the recent availability of T3 guilted medals (Jack, Halloween Sora, and the Org XIII deal) non-guilted premiums are becoming less and less useful.

If they ever add Mickey & Brooms to the game, though, Premiums will skyrocket in importance.

So Ill. Sephiroth is the best magic reversed medal in the game right now.  I believe Ill. Xion will be better than him when she comes out, but that won’t be for a couple months.  Unfortunately, Ill. Seph is really only useful in one keyblade spot - the last one on Three Wishes - and a guilted Hades is better than an non-guilted Ill. Seph.  Additionally, pulling Ill. Seph over other Premium medals in the HSC is unlikely unless you do the 10-times mercy pull, since so many Premiums are in the game right now.

Additionally!  The next scheduled Premium is Ill. Kairi, which I’ve talked up a bit in the past (+3 strength for one turn & curaga for three bars). The great thing about Premium buff medals like Ill. Kairi and Pooh&Piglett is that they don’t need to be guilted to be at their full potential.  So as long as the game sticks to it’s JP release schedule we should be seeing her in a couple weeks.  If you can stomach not spending jewels until then, you’ll have a better chance at getting a rewarding Premium. (Especially if you’ve managed to save 30k jewels for the mercy pull.)

But if you wanna spend them anyway, the new EMC is actually better than the previous ones!  It rewards two guaranteed epics plus one of the new ones.  Croc is finally in the game, giving us a Power version of KH2 Kairi and Cogsworth.  If you don’t have Ill. Sora, Croc is invaluable.  Smee is really useful if you don’t have Owl, and even more useful with the No Cost skill.  That’s three guaranteed epics per pull - probably more like five or six! - and a chance at any Premium medal (including Ill. Terra, Sora, and Riku).  In theory, this three-epic system will probably be what the game uses going forward.

In short, a pull or two for that Croc can be really helpful!  This EMC is very good next to EMCs from the past.  But if you can save your jewels for two or three weeks, the next EMC will likely be a game changer.

Thanks for all the kind words and asking questions!  I am glad my blog is helping people achieve their Kingdom Hearts goals!!

REMEMBER!!  The EMC does not start until FRIDAY (12a Pacific, 3a Eastern) so don’t pull right now!!

<3 KCM

kh13:

The cover artwork for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5/2.5 ReMIX & HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue include a secret message toward Kingdom Hearts III, says Tetsuya Nomura!

Nomura: There are actually two secrets about the illustrations from [KH1.5] until [KH2.8]. Extremely attentive KH fans might have already discovered them, but one is that Sora’s movements change from sitting, to standing, to walking. One more is that when you line up the three illustrations, you’ll notice that they show the flow of time with changes in the sky. [KH1.5] is sunset becoming night, [KH2.5] is the middle of the night, and [KH2.8] is night breaking into dawn. Those three illustrations have a message regarding the final chapter, [KHIII].

[Read More…]

Damnit Nomura and I bet the way Sora’s left foot is slightly higher than his right when he glides in KH2 but both his feet are relatively even when he glides in KH1 is the key to deciphering the plot twist in the 100% critical mode secret ending cinematic in Kingdom Hearts III.

This guy. Fucking seriously.

(Source: kh13.com)

“I don’t like Disney.”

There was a question today on Reddit, and it was a sentiment I hear very often: “I don’t like Disney, so why would I like Kingdom Hearts?”

After all, Disney is an ever-present theme in the KH franchise - they appear in every single game in one way or another.  Often, you are involving yourself with Disney characters and plots.  So what if you don’t like Disney?

First thing’s first: I’m not a huge Disney fangirl. Growing up, I wasn’t into the Donald/Goofy/Mickey thing. I didn’t care at all for Tarzan or Peter Pan or Hercules. I actually I hated Hercules.  In the first game, I think the only movie I really loved was Alice, and that level drove me crazy! Oh, and Halloweentown. That’s not to say I don’t like Disney, but the Disney stuff I liked didn’t have KH levels, i.e. Fox and the Hound, Aristocats, Beauty and the Beast (though Beast and Belle appear in the first game and they get a world in KH2!). Now I like Frozen and Tangled and Big Hero 6 and two of those are coming in KH3! But eleven year old Kaci, with KH1 and my selective taste in movies?  Nah.

When the game first came out I absolutely refused to play it because it was Disney. Then KH2 came out, I saw the awesome Deep Dive video, and played a little bit as Roxas and Sora for the opening of KH2 and was like “Oh man, I gotta play this now!" Now here I am. I have 100% completion on all the games. I run a KH blog. I’m completely hooked on this stupid phone game. So no, I don’t think being into Disney is required. 

The relevance to Disney is literally that each individual world has characters from a specific Disney movie. Probably 70% of the worlds are Disney worlds, but they are still great to experience. Not because they are like the movies, but because of how exciting and intricate the level designs can be. It’s a whole new way to experience the content. But still, my favorite worlds in the game are places like Radiant Garden and Twilight Town - unique to the KH franchise.

The story in itself is exceptional. The cast is about 50% original characters. A lot of Final Fantasy characters are there, too, between FF6 and FFX-2. But I’d never played any FF games before KH1 either and it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the game. I think they add a lot of depth and easter-egg-like value to the franchise for Square fans, and it fills out the cast nicely.

The bottom line is, Disney’s involvement is mostly there for padding. Going through a game where you go to 12 different worlds, each with their own story and resolution, and then bouncing to the next, would be a colossal undertaking. You’d find a lot of the padding pointless and boring, and often you do with the Disney worlds as well. But now they are telling a story that has nostalgia, a clear and concise conclusion, and you feel content to never see Tarzan or Mulan again. The use of Disney in the franchise is just great game design, that’s all there is to it.

Short version: Disney is there for nostalgia and padding out the game’s timer, with very few exceptions. Though Disney content is abundant, that’s not why it gets the love and praise it gets. As long as you don’t outright hate Disney on principle, you’ll adore the franchise.