Okay, I have three choices here, and I'm just going with the lowest level option: La Cite des Cloches.
HAHAHAHA. Frollo thinks Sora is a gypsy. Wait... OH NO Frollo thinks Sora is a gyspy! That's definitely not good, thinking back to the movie. And what a surprise, Frollo has an aura of darkness.
Wow, what a dick! As soon as Frollo appears, Quasimodo's Dream Eaters turn bad. Poor dude.
"Who are you?"
"Esmeralda. I'm a gyspy."
I'm pretty sure that's not something you want to declare with Frollo right there. Geez.
Wow, my mom took my 3DS from me to see the graphics. And then she showed my dad! Pretty cool that they like the graphics. However, the game was still going on and I was wearing headphones so I had to listen to Sora die as they looked at the screen.
And after finishing the battle OH SHIT the meter is almost down. Yup back to Riku.
I haven't really mentioned this but I think the bonuses from the Drop Gauge mechanic are pretty interesting. You can boost your magic or attack for one cycle as the next person, but as of right now I only get enough to prolong my time as the next character.
As for the dives... I'm not enjoying them as much. If I wanted to fight bee bosses, why can't I fight them regularly?
Off to the city then... and darkness darkness darkness. Yup. Same old Riku.
"Trust me, looks can be deceiving." Yes, I suppose Riku would know. This is an interesting way to reflect on Riku's own struggles in the past.
Wow, that was a surprisingly sweet scene.
What the fuck? I found a frog, challenged it, and then it disappeared? Guess it's this game's version of the vending machine. That pretty much killed my Drop Gauge, so I'm just going to go to the save point and then play with my bat a bit (by the way, I named the bat Freddie, as per my sister's suggestion).
Yup. Drop time. GODDAMMIT I'm getting barely any DP. I could have gotten Aerial Recovery too!
Back to Sora...
"WHOA! Talking Gargoyles?!"
Sora. You know talking animals, and you already had your freak out from talking household items from Beast's Castle. Why is this throwing you off again?
And all of a sudden Quasi jumps away with Esmeralda. "Didn't expect that." I'm with you on that one, Sora.
Back to Riku...
OH SHIT GOTTA RUN
running
running
...and of course Frollo made the Dream Eater.
...and of course I have to go back to the cathedral. F Uc K.
The flashback option for these scenes is confusing me, though. Why not integrate it into the story?
After an embarassing amount of time spent wandering through the town, I go back to Sora. And then I get lost trying to find my way to the area where all the gyspies hang out, so I'm back to Riku. Wow, I'm the best at this game!
Alright, the good thing is that I did a bunch of mini challenges with Sora (I'm finding that those are a great way to build up DP), so I have a bunch of time as Riku to finish off the boss. Honestly, the flowmotion mechanic is the best way to handle battling in general. Just bounce of the wall and let auto-targeting take care of the rest.
So Riku saves the day, and with a lot of his Drop Gauge to spare, so I'm just moving on to Tron world without Sora. Tron... I've haven't watched yet, so I don't really know what's going on. The dad's a jerk, the son is kidnapping young women... yeah I have no clue.
However, I am a fan of the light cycle stuff. The light trail damages enemies! I just think that's pretty cool. I wish I had that in Kingdom Hearts II...
After wandering around the area for a while, I head to the city, and get stuck battling some mandatory Dream Eaters. I barely finish before my Drop Gauge is depleted (as in, less than one second remaining, THANK YOU flowmotion <3), and now I'm back as Sora. In a different world. In the past.
...yeah, this really breaks up the flow of the story. Good thing there's always an objective to remind me about what I need to do.
Well, after searching for a long time again, I find Esmeralda, and that transitions pretty quickly to the boss. I beat it easily this time (woo!). And... well, now I just realized that Sora and Riku really are experiencing two different versions of the story because Frollo died twice. Which is satisfying and all, but I was thinking that Sora and Riku were always just missing each other, like in BBS. I mean, Traverse Town I can understand because it's the same version of different worlds that overlap... oh wait I get it now. Is it just the same dream world but Sora and Riku are experience different versions of it? Hmm...
Anyway, after everyone leaves with good feelings the guy that totally isn't young Xehanort and Vanitas (!) appear to make Sora feel bad with vague words and then disappear. And then an essay explaining the events of BBS! This is supposed to integrate newcomers into the KHverse? The only reason I didn't skip it is because I know the story and wanted to read a recap of it.
And right after that, we suddenly get a flashback/dream of Axel eating ice cream with Roxas, and Roxas is pretty much alluding to Xion! Oh, this makes me so happy. I don't see them reuniting this game, but if all goes well I do hope they can eat ice cream together again.
Right after that, we see Axel, now Lea I guess, back in Radiant Garden with all the not so evil members of the Organization. Xigbar/Braig I could see not being there... but Isa? Troubling.
Anyway, I'm done with this world, so onto more Tron!
