𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐗: 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

┏━━━✦❘༻𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈༺❘✦━━━┓

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Character Creation

III. First Impressions

IV. Story

V. Characters

VI. Overall

┗━━━✦❘༻𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈༺❘✦━━━┛

What's this? Another Kingdom Hearts game that permanently changed the trajectory of my life? Yes.. it is. I finished Union X awhile ago because I got pretty sick and had nothing else to do. I loved it a LOT more than I was expecting to and so of course I need to yap about it...

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I will not be covering the gameplay for this game as I didn't get to experience it: from what I heard, it was slow and repetitive (which is pretty standard for a mobile game). I got to experience it as an interactive movie and that was more than enough for me.

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Just a little edit before posting: I'm like 50% sure none of this is comprehensive, just like my last review. I JUST DONT SHUT UP and I'm not good at putting my thoughts into a blog. Like I'm very articulated in my head but the second I go to type my thoughts here it's just crickets in my mind, sorry guys... I've got issues 🧎‍♂‍ :arrow_right:

One thing about me, if the game has character creation I'm going to ABSOLUTELY give it a shot. I love making my own characters, and it's a huge deal for me in a game. A weak character creation will keep me away from certain games. I had seen other's characters prior to playing Union X so I really had high hopes.

☆ A few of my favourite outfits.

The majority of the outfits and accessories here are relating to pre-existing KH/Disney/FF characters. Which makes sense, all things considered. Most of the clothing is also absolutely atrocious, like the mascot fits, heads, ect. But I don't mind too much, it's a silly mobile game I can't expect godly outfits and shit, and there are a few hidden gems. I really like the faces and hair section, being able to use the hair from most KH characters is so fun, and I absolutely love the fact that I can recreate Organization almost perfectly.

The accessories are really cute, there's a massive selection to choose from. The dolls and balloons are my favourite part: I would go to war for the Axel ones...

HE'S SO CUTE? and the same for the other characters.

Overall, I really liked the character creation and the art style of the game as a whole. I used to criticize it like crazy but I was just being a dick now that I look back at it, the style is simple and cute; it REALLY grew on me.

There's a huge variety of options to choose from with clothing, hair, accessories, ect. For the selection, I'm giving it a 8.5/10!

In all honesty, I was originally planning on using KHUx as nothing more than a character creator/something to mess around with when I was bored. I didn't really have an interest in the story and I think it's mainly because I was playing Dark Road at the time and wanted to focus on it instead. When I got sick it was BAD and there was absolutely nothing to do so I just started watching it because why not. The SECONDDD I saw my character on the screen I was absorbed. It is really easy to please me guys :sob:

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My first Impressions of the story were also positive; I started at the very first slide instead of the one you're on right after opening the theater menu so I got a pretty quick rundown of what was happening. It hooked me in, but it also made the future time jumps a lot more confusing (I did it to myself, it's okay)

- 🌙 -

I can't express how much I loved this, I mean I was hooked from the start; my very own stupid oc gets to be in a KH story? Hello?? Of course I loved it.

Player character getting clobbered by the Foretellers is a reoccurring theme in this game and it's so funny to me because dude.. u know ur gonna get clapped WHYYY DO YOU KEEP ACCEPTING THEIR CHALLENGES? And he always has this bewildered look on his face when it happens too :sob: Player character is canonically a dumbass.

First Impressions were so good, but again, I'm the easiest person in the world to please. seeing the dumb character I made interacting with the people in game is mesmerizing to my little pea brain...

My brain is fried, explaining this story is gonna be tough y'all... the story is HUGE so this will be a roughish summary. Basically, it's an "end of the world" type story where the end is pretty much inevitable. There are five Unions:

:snake: | Anguis, led by Invi

:leopard: | Leopardos, led by Gula [best Union idc]

🦄 | Unicornis, led by Ira

:bear: ‍ :snowflake: | Ursus, led by Aced

🦊 | Vulpes, led by Ava

The world is fated to end in a giant battle known as the 'Keyblade War'. Darkness will prevail and light will expire. We see the Beginnings of conflict as all the Unions are competing against eachother for Lux. They're all made to believe that one of them has fallen to darkness, which obviously leads to a bunch of infighting that just progressively gets worse and worse. The Foretellers all have accepted the inevitable, and refuse to do anything to stop it, all but Ava.

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Ava forms another separate Union: The Dandelions. They were hand picked by Ava and could be from any Union. Their task was to flee the world when the impending war began so that they may survive; ensuring the light wouldn't expire like it was fated to. The player character was invited to the Dandelions, but hesitated as he still felt loyal to his own Union; ultimately the war began before he could make up his mind.

Ava was given a list of five names by the Master of Masters; those selected will be the new Union Leaders in the new world. I'm not gonna lie, my dumbass thought the player character was gonna be one of the leaders, but we were not. :broken_heart:

The new leaders are:

Ephemer, the player characters closest friend

Skuld, another one of the player characters closest friends

Ventus

Brain

Lauriam

Strelitzia was meant to be a Union Leader, but was ambushed and murdered before the battle, Ventus took her place.

The player participates in the War after being taunted by Nightmare Chirithy. Each one of The Foretellers (beside your chosen Union leader I think) try to kill the player but we kind of hold our own pretty well. Ira does save him from Aced though, Aced has NO CHILL. none. Bro clobbers children for fun I stg

After the war, the player character is BARELY hanging on, brother got roughed up by everyone, he was not having a good time. Ephemer arrives to take him away to the new world, which is just a data version of Daybreak Town. The union leaders made everyone forget the events of the war because they didn't want a repeat of history. To further make sure that doesn't happen, all of the leaders come together and form a singular Union.

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In the digital world, the main perspective shifts from the player character onto the New Union Leaders. Lauriam is looking for his sister, Strelitzia, (who is presumed to be just missing at this point in time). His acquaintance, Elrena helps him. Other than that, life seems to be just fine. With everyone's memories wiped, it's almost as if nothing happened... almost. The memories are gone, but the scars are still there - like Chirithy says.

While the Union Leaders are settling into their new roles and getting everything figured out, the player character is living his best life. He's chilling and doing missions with his friends, visiting worlds, doing normal Keyblade Wielder stuff. He feels like somethings missing: like something terrible happened but he just can't what. Eventually he starts experiencing nightmares about the Keyblade War, and when they won't go away his Chirithy asks Skuld and Ephemer for help. They tell Chirithy to make sure the player doesn't anything.

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As time goes on it becomes obvious that everything is notttt chill. The data world begins to glitch and it turns out the Darknesses followed them through Maleficent (I THINK? SORRY HER ASS CONFUSED ME HERE, IDK YALL). Whatever it was, the data world is shutting down and it's now up to the Union Leaders to try and stop it. If not, then everyone in the world will be put into a deep sleep. Player character works with Brain and the other leaders in attempting to find a solution but all of their efforts are in vain. As the dark entities are now in their world with them, and everything's really just gone to shit.

In the end they try to evacuate the data Daybreak Town by the Lifeboats that were in the basement of the Clock Tower. There aren't enough for all of them and they all decide that Brain will return to the real world with Elrena, Lauriam, and an injured Ventus. Ephemer stays behind with Skuld and the Player character.

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Sometime in the basement they are ambushed by four of the Darknesses. They want a way out of the data world and demand Ephemer open a portal for them, when he refuses, they prepare for battle. Ephemer tells the player character to get in the Lifeboat and leave, claiming that one of them has to survive. that HURRRTED I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I love how sad this story is ngl.

Player character pretends to be possessed by one of the darknesses and attacks both Ephemer and Skuld, he almost kills Skuld before Ephemer shoots a beam of light straight through the Player Character, sending him and the darknesses away.

THIS RUINNNNED ME. It was the LAST thing I needed to see that day, I still haven't gotten over it. I love sacrifices like this they're so sad, it hurts so good.

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The player is actively dying when they arrive in the Game Central Station. With the last of his strength he seals the darknesses within it; trapping them. The player dies while embracing his Chirithy. Rather than falling asleep, the Player character chooses to basically become a heart, and he eventually melds with the mysterious figure that raises Xehanort.

This story ruined me, and my life. It was just pure angst from start to finish; impending doom with no way to stop it and no way to escape. It's terrifying, but I really like darker stories so this one gets a 9/10.

There was not a single character I didn't like in this game, which isn't uncommon for a Kingdom Hearts title; Square Enix is REALLY good at character creation/writing. As much as I would love to give each character their own section, there's just too many of them and I'd reach my 21 image limit [stupid amino]. Instead, I'll break them up into groups and give them their own paragraph.

Tetsuya Nomura

  𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬  

The Foretellers are a big part of this story and I absolutely love each and every one of them. They're a huge driving force here, but I know we didn't get as much of them as we could have (they really shine through in Back Cover.). I won't have much to say about these guys for now simply because they weren't actually seen all that much despite being so important.

I LOVE all of the Foreteller's designs; they're so pleasing to the eye and their animal masks are SO SICK. Genuinely some of my favourite designs in the entire franchise.

  :bear: ‍ :snowflake: Aced :bear: ‍ :snowflake:  

I love Aced, he's my second favourite Foreteller. His aggression and hostility and pure strength just makes him so cool to me. He needs to kind of chill tf out though I feel. There's NO need to go around bullying these poor keyblade wielders. His beef with Ira is also really interesting and I wonder if there's more to it or if it's all just because of the tensions within Daybreak Town. I like his big meaty ass keyblade, it's got a really cool design (they all do tbh)

I can't wait to see more of Aced in Back Cover when I eventually watch it.

  :snake: Invi :snake:  

I don't have much to say about Invi to be honest. She wasn't in the story at all really and it sucks. From what we do see of her, she seems to be pretty nice and calm; promising to make the player characters end quick. That's... considerate I guess. :sob:

Again, I hope to see more of her in Back Cover because she seems really cool.

  🦄Ira🦄  

Ira is another one of my favourites, he's so cool. He's iconic for saving me from Aced's barbaric ass. It almost seems as though he's out to get Aced, he's just always there to intervene in whatever he's doing, and vice versa. They've got problems that sur the Keyblade War I KNOW IT.

His mask and the MANE? It's a serve, he has my favourite mask design. His colours, everything about this man. I know he's FINNE under that mask I'm not ashamed to say it.

  :leopard: Gula :leopard:  

He's my favourite ngl... I love Gula and I feel kind of bad for him in Union X. He was just defeated, he was even somewhat nice to the player character during the battle (if you're not in his union, if you are you don't see him at all). Gula was closest to Ava if I correctly.

He really just doesn't trust anyone and is lost as hell, it's kind of sad. Still, he fulfills his role and of course participates in the War. In the scene with The Foretellers in KH3 he's concerned for Ava, asking where she is/why Luxu excluded her. I really wanna see more of him hopefully in KH4. Just give me my Foreteller content...

  🦊 Ava 🦊  

AUGHHHH AVA.... she's so sweet I love her so much, and really how can you not? She's portrayed as the most in touch Foreteller period, she seems to actually care about the people around her as much as she can. I hope she's okay wherever the hell she is. She's another character I really want to see in 4, but I think it's unlikely. We don't even really know if she's alive/what happened to her since she wasn't summoned along with the other Foretellers. Maybe Back Cover clears that up, I wouldn't know.

Tetsuya Nomura

  𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬  

Oh brother here comes the yap session, I absolutely love these guys too... this section will include the leaders as well as everybody associated with The Dandelions; Strelitzia, Elrena, Ect.

  :star: Ephemer :star:  

Seriously, how could you not like Ephemer. He's so kind and caring. He was dead wrong for going behind the Player Characters back at first because he made him so upset but that's okay because he made it up to him in the end I supposeee. Ephemer is just such a cool character all around and I really enjoyed him throughout Union X, as well as in that brief segment in KH3.

He's a really good leader and brought the group together well. I want to have a little movie about him and how he managed to found Scala Ad Caelum, his later life, and his eventual family. Out of all the Union Leaders, Ephemer got the happiest ending of all (arguably the only happy ending considering how shitty everyone else had it)

When Ephemer cried over the player character that STUNGGG.

I really enjoyed Ephemer, he gets an 8/10

  🌙 Skuld 🌙  

Skuld was sweet and I liked her friendship with the player, as well as Ephemer. She was just as good of a leader as Ephemer was; equally as kind and caring as he was, especially when it came to Ventus. I firmly believe that Skuld is Subject X, and we will 100% be seeing her in KH4. I hope she regains her memories and somehow gets to reunion with the others/Ephemer.

I love Skuld and Ephemer, I would ride for them any day.

Skuld had it SO bad, she didn't even really get a future. Just boom, one moment she's with her friends then the next she's being held captive in some strange world with no prior memories of herself or where she came from. The Apprentices of Ansem are kind of really fucked up when I look at things from another perspective (they're still my favourite though TEEHEE)

7/10 because she was smiling after I died. :unamused:

  🪶 Brain 🪶  

Brain is my favourite, his design is SCRUMPTIOUS and so is his personality. Brain is such a slept on character. I really hope he has a big role to play in Missing Link. The other Leaders literally NEEDED this man, they'd be lost without him, his back must be hurting from how much carrying he's doing. It makes sense though, I'm 99% sure Brain is the oldest of the group, being around 18-20. The others (aside from Lauriam) are mid teens.

He really did his best to help and stayed until the very end trying to help his friends he's such a real one for that. I also really like his Chirithy, his design is so cute :sob:

First thing I do in Missing Link is hunt down Brain, he is mine.

10/10 he's fine and smart, he's the perfect man.

  ⚘ Lauriam ⚘  

Lauriam is the somebody of Marluxia, and I'm like the world's number one Organization XIII fan so you already know I absolutely loved Lauriam. His story was so tragic and upsetting, all he wanted was his little sister and he never stopped looking for her. His anger towards Ventus was absolutely justified in that moment; I'm surprised he didn't do more damage to the rest of the leaders while he was in that blind rage.

His willingness to forgive Ventus and then go on to care for him like he did was so sweet :sob: at the end of the day it really wasn't Ven's fault, the poor guy was possessed (iirc). I wanna know how Lauriam eventually becomes Marluxia; I genuinely think he became a Nobody willingly after everything he's been through. After the destruction of Daybreak Town he's left alone in some unknown area, in an unknown time. I'd cast my heart away too if given the chance. I cannot wait for his potential reunion with Strelitzia in KH4, he deserves it so much after all he's been through.

I also love love love him and Brain...

10/10, love Lauriam.

  :sparkles: Ventus :sparkles:  

VEN CAN NOT CATCH A BREAK, it's always some new bs for this poor kid, and I'm pretty sure he's like 12 in KHUX, which makes everything a hundred times worse like just let this poor kid LIVE. He's always almost dying, or receiving some soul crushing news, or living in a literal nightmare

I like Ven, KHUX was actually my first real introduction to his character because I watched it before starting my BBS playthrough. I love him; his personality is fun and I love the way he fights with his keyblade; reverse grips are my favourite.

I didn't exactly click with him on a personal level like I did with some of the other characters; I just can't really relate to this kid (thank God :skull: ), still he's an enjoyable character and I appreciate him. 7/10.

  :cherry_blossom: Strelitzia :cherry_blossom:  

Her screentime was very short but it didn't take long at all for me to fall in love with her; she was the players secret irer and just wanted to make sure he had the opportunity to the Dandelions & survive the Keyblade War. She was SO sweet and deserved to live.

The scenes she had with Lauriam were really heartwarming: I loved seeing their sweet bond, they really loved eachother and Lauriam was such a good big brother. I wish she had the courage to talk to the player character because they would have been besties for sure.

I think the most painful part of her entire story is the player character was already aware of the Dandelions when she was waiting around for him, so really she died for absolutely nothing.

10/10 she's a sweetheart and deserves the world. She better see her brother again in KH4 or I'll lose it.

  :zap: Elrena :zap:  

I love how I can see bits of Larxene in Elrena; obviously not much, but you can tell. :sob:

Unlike Larxene, Elrena actually cares about her friends and she really steps up to help Lauriam when he needs it the most. She doesn't give up or stop helping him either, she's a really good friend to him.

I cant wait to see her in KH4 and I hope she stays mean as hell, but this time just in a cunty way not a sadistic sinister way. I love Larxene/Elrena

9/10

  :feet: Chirithy :feet:  

Chirithy is so sweet I wish I had one of my own. Always having a little cat friend you can call on would be heaven. Everytime the player ignores or doesn't listen to his Chirithy I feel SO bad but it's okay because they still care for eachother. I'm kind of dumb and I'm not sure what happens to the players Chirithy [I haven't gotten to Dream Drop Distance yet]. Does he become a Dream Eater? Or not, because the player didn't go to sleep after all. We will never see our Chirithy again but I loved him more than anything.

10/10.

  :leopard: Player Character :leopard:  

My player characters name is Rhys [Reece] and he already means the world to me. I've already turned him into an oc and gave him extended lore. I can't help it, I was handed a cool oc on a silver platter... I loved the player character - obviously, because I made him! His sacrifice and selflessness is everything. I said it before above, but I love necessary sacrifice in media I think it's so sad but in a good way; I'll eat it right up everytime. I really wonder if the player character will get a mention in KH4 - by Strelitzia, or even Subject X if we even see her/she regains her memories (if she's Skuld, which she 100% is.) Surely Square Enix can't ignore the player forever; our role was HUGE in the end.

10/10, cried.

  Players Friends  

There is a profound lack of drip here, so much so that these FREAKS should not have been breathing the same air as me. I'm glad they went to sleep because what the hell

But for real, did these guys have names? I don't think they were ever mentioned. I'm glad the player had friends besides the union leaders, the tiny arc with their mission & beach day was sweet.

I lost it when the kid came out of the water saying he lost ALL OF his friends to a big sea monster and one of my friends goes "damn that's crazy but are we fr gonna let that ruin our trip?" THAT'S WILD :sob: we did not care.

If you read through this mess I genuinely appreciate you so much :sob: I hope I get better at putting my thoughts into actual words in the future but for now you get my insane ramblings. I REALLY loved this game, the characters, the story: everything. Daybreak Town has become one of my favourite original KH Worlds. I really wish more people gave this game/movie a shot but they usually brush it off as a "stupid mobile game" which really isn't fair.

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I hope one day Square Enix opens servers again (this will probably never happen) but if they ever did I would be first in line to experience the game in it's entirety, I love MMOs, Union X would be no different.

🪶 #Curatorreview 🪶