End of the World

[Veritas7340]

Amazingly, this hasn't crossed my mind at all since I first played CoM on the Gameboy.

Whilst at Castle Oblivion, Sora has to revisit his memories of all the worlds he had visited.

Why was End of the World not included? It was significantly major:where they defeated Ansem who was trying to plunge the universe into darkness, where Sora was separated from Kairi, where Sora and Donald & Goofy were separated from Riku & the King, where the remnants of worlds previously lost lay.

Now, I have a pretty basic idea why End of the World was not included. The writers probably did not want Ansem overshadowing the new villains of the arc or vice-versa in which Ansem would be relegated to the same status as Oogie boogie for instance.

However, I, at least, found it quite intriguing that I never gave it a second thought. Most likely, I probably just assumed it was so because that was the final boss realm of the last game.

What about you guys? Did any of you notice End of the World's absence from CoM? Any thoughts on the matter, like wanting it or fine the way it is etc. etc?

 

[Solo]

I don't know of any in-universe reason, but...

Perhaps because they wanted to keep the floor count to 13, which is an important number in the series. With all the worlds "revisited" during Sora's stay in the castle, EotW would have made it 14 floors. I guess it could have made it if Twilight Town wasn't included, but as we know that said world, given form by the memories from the other side of Sora's heart, was an important piece of the story that couldn't have been omitted.

 

[Veritas7340]

That's a good point, the whole #13 thing. You know, that makes it seem like it's Organization XIII's castle instead of a newly-formed LoD. It's actually convenient if you think about it -- when transforming into CO, the new castle got 13 floors, out of all the numbers.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Do not forget the castle already has more than 13 floors. The gound level plus the twelve basements give the castle a grand total of 26 floors.

On EoTW I would rather assume it was not included because it was not a real world but just the lumped together remains of worlds that where destroyed by the Heartless. After defeating Ansem at the end of KH 1, EoTW ceased to exist entirely.

Ansem overshadowing the other baddies would probably not be an issue as just as any of the Disney villains encountered like Maleficent in CoM-Hollow Bastion, Ansem would have been a world-only boss confined only to EoTW and also just a memory fragment.

The probably cheapest explanation would be that the Organisation simply did not make a card out of the memories Sora had of EoTW. All the world cards in CoM are crafted from Sora's (or Riku's) memories and given to them by either Org members or DiZ, and EoTW was simply not included within those.

 

[Solo]

That's a good point, the whole #13 thing. You know, that makes it seem like it's Organization XIII's castle instead of a newly-formed LoD. It's actually convenient if you think about it -- when transforming into CO, the new castle got 13 floors, out of all the numbers.

Keep in mind though that 13 is only the number of floors that we saw in Sora's story, and there's even 12 more of those visited during Riku's playthrough, which is underground. It stands to reason that there's more to CO than those floors; after all, to everyone but Aqua, the castle is one huge incomprehensible labyrinth.

 

[Veritas7340]

Do not forget the castle already has more than 13 floors. The gound level plus the twelve basements give the castle a grand total of 26 floors.

Keep in mind though that 13 is only the number of floors that we saw in Sora's story, and there's even 12 more of those, which are underground, visited during Riku's playthrough. It stands to reason that there's more to CO than those floors; after all, to everyone but Aqua, the castle is one huge incomprehensible labyrinth

Yes, I know that CO has more than 13 floors; I have completed Riku's story too. What I meant was: it was convenient that the ground floors starting from the main entrance to CO already had 13 floors, like if it were custom-made for the Organization. Admittedly, I could've been clearer about that.​

 

[Draxem]

Speaking about 13 floors dont forget Deep Jungle had already been omitted.

 

[Ventus_]

Not sure about the developers reasoning but in story I could see the significance of End of the World perhaps being exactly the concern. It likely would have triggered an answer to Sora's quest to find Riku and King Mickey. This and the memory of Ansem would cause a high risk that the Organization would lose control over Sora. Remember the Organization coveted the keyblade because it was vital to their cause, even before Roxas was born.

This could also explain the presence of some of the more pointless worlds that do appear such as Wonderland and 100 Acre Wood. Just to keep Sora busy because they needed to keep him in the castle.

Speaking about 13 floors dont forget Deep Jungle had already been omitted.

I just learned myself in another thread here that Deep Jungle was absent from here and the rest of the series because of copyright issues.

 

[kuraudoVII]

While there are certainly more than thirteen floors (even discounting the twelve basement floors Riku had to go through), I get the feeling that Nomura simply wanted thirteen worlds for Sora to go through.

As for a narrative reason for the exclusion, I get the feeling that if Ansem Seeker of Darkness were to somehow defeat Sora in the floor that they were on, then that would completely screw up the plans of every faction in the castle. If Sora were to win, then perhaps, as already stated, it would trigger his memories as to why he continued on his journey in the first place and even second-guess his memories of Namine better than when he abandoned Donald and Goofy near the twelfth floor.

I would have been interested in an End of the World level, especially since it's existence serves as a foil to that of Traverse Town. I can see why they'd rather have the 100 Acre Wood instead to help break the tedium of the game, but it still would have been more interesting to have the End of the World than that.