Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Final Mix Playthrough Journal

[kuraudoVII]

Earlier in December, I started a playthrough journal for Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. I got to the point where I decided that I really needed a break from that game, so I've moved on to Birth by Sleep.

So, without further ado...

STATUS REPORT:

Player Character: Terra
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 1
Location: World Map heading to Enchanted Dominion


SWEET COSMOS, THIS GAME LOOKS AMAZING IN HD!!!

Anyway, I played through the tutorial section (kind of wished that there was an option to skip it the first time, but ah, well, at least I can skip it on the rest of the playthroughs) and picked Terra to start off on my Birth by Sleep adventure. I was tested and defeated the orbs with Aqua and Ven and later was denied the rank of Keyblade Master. Xehanort tells me that darkness can only be channeled only to disappear when Yen Sid informs Eraqus about the Unversed.

So, I continue on to my epic adventure by...

...immediately going to the Command Board. I'm playing on Critical so I want to get my Cure spells ASAP. This took me a couple of hours, but I managed to get those and much more. Now, I'll be ready for my travels in the Enchanted Dominion.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the last playthorugh journal, I may have started the journal, but everyone is free to type in their own experiences in here. I only started one here because the only other one that I found was a simultaneous playthrough journal which I am not doing atm. I'm interested to see how all of you guys are doing and if you're all having fun with the game.

EDIT: Mods, if there is a playthrough journal that I stupidly missed, then I apologize for not noticing and posting this in there instead of creating one here.

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT:


Player Character: Terra
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 23
Location: Radiant Garden
Current Commands: Sliding Dash, Thunder Surge, Mega Flare, Thundaga, Slot Edge, Curaga, Curaga


To say that I've been busy trying to get a bunch of abilities equipped onto Terra is like saying that there is water in the ocean. I've managed to get the essentials such as Second Chance and Once More, but I've also managed to get quite a few others such as some Magic Hastes, Damage Siphon and EXP Walker as well. The last one, I'm still working on trying to level up so I can keep it as a permanent ability. I've stuck mostly with magical since I'm still somewhat used to having done that for Aqua in my previous playthrough on the PSP, but I'm trying to get more offensive techniques now such as Sonic Blade and Geo Impact.

Anyways, I'm off to fight the Trinity Armor.

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT:


Player Character: Terra
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 36
Location: World Map heading to Deep Space
Current Commands: Meteor, Thunder Surge, Thunder Surge, Sonic Blade, Blitz, Curaga, Curaga

So, I've trounced the Trinity Armor easily enough. Terra and Aqua receive their passes to Disney Town and Terra ends up receiving some criticism from Aqua. Perhaps it's just me, but it looked like they actually fixed the timing and lip syncing for the part where Terra snaps, "Just STAY PUT!"

Anyway, I then got to one of my favorite parts of the game: the part where Braig finally shows up and antagonizes Terra. I gave chase and promptly took him done.

Before and after all of this, I went to the Mirage Arena to level myself up and get one the Xehanort's Reports. I've tackled every arena match given to me thus far except for the Monster of the Deep where you fight Monstro (I always save that for after I've beat a character's story before fighting him as that character anyway) while I beat the Land of Departure Command Board.

After that, I headed to Disney Town and defeated the Unversed IN KART RACING!!! Before all of that, I went through the trouble of raiding through Pete's Rec Room.

After that, I headed straight to the Olympus Colosseum to hear the epicness that is James Woods' take on Hades, Lord of the Dead. I tackled the tournament easily enough. Unfortunately, I feel like I've become a tad overpowered because I defeated helmetless Zack effortlessly (which is ironic because he was initially the hardest main story boss as Terra when I played the game for the very first time back in 2012).

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT:

Player Character: Terra
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 43
Location: Heading to the Badlands
Current Commands: Meteor, Chaos Blade, Sonic Blade, Aerial Slam, Thunder Surge, Curaga, Curaga

So, after a bit of a hiatus due to having the urge to pick up where I left off on Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix to get that secret ending, I ended up command leveling to get more abilities like more Lucky Strikes and my final Attack Haste.

Anyway, I ended up going from space to...space. Yes, it is the Lilo and Stitch level set years before Stitch shows up in Hollow Bastion. After helping Jumba out by getting him to his one other experiment, I took down said experiment handily enough.

Next up was Never Land. This was always one of the more interesting levels for me since Terra gets to fight Peter Pan, Ventus gets to square off against Captain Hook on his own and Aqua takes down Vanitas like a boss. Having said that, I'm not on the latter two yet, so all I was really able to do was get tricked by Captain Hook to take down Peter Pan when he shows up to take the treasure.

After that was when things started to get interesting. Terra ends up on Destiny Islands only to find...Riku and Sora. Sora tries to get Terra's attention, but Terra isn't entirely paying attention, at least until Riku crosses paths with him. We (the audience) get to see a brief glimpse of Xehanort in his youth as well as Riku eleven years later. Terra then decides to anoint Riku as his successor.

Once he leaves, he gets a message from Master Xehanort...

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT:

Player Character: Terra
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 44
Location: Results Screen
Current Commands: Ars Solum, Sonic Blade, Aerial Slam, Thunder Surge, Thunder Surge, Curaga, Curaga

Endgame for Terra story-wise. I arrived at the Badlands after seeing Ven racing off in the distance. Master Xehanort then says that Ventus has discovered his and Vanitas' origins and that Terra must go back to the Land of Departure to protect him.

I immediately headed there and then bore witness to what is easily one of my favorite boss fights in the game: Terra vs. Master Eraqus. Terra taps into his inner darkness and essentially demolishes Master Eraqus quickly enough (I'm admittedly overleveled from farming so many abilities and commands). Eraqus and Terra try to reconcile, but Xehanort decides, "LOL NOPE!" and offs his former friend. Terra is justifiably infuriated and takes off in hot pursuit of Xehanort.

It is here that I finally got the Keyblade Graveyard proper. I've already heard the redone music for this level, but it still leaves me in chills with how hauntingly beautiful it is.

Anyway, I proceeded with plot and decided to tackle Xehanort head on and saw the segment from the Birth by Sleep trailer that I worked painstakingly hard to attain in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. Having finally unlocked it, I never realized just how much emotion the characters showed without saying anything. While I've seen the Birth by Sleep version of it in-game on the PSP many times, I've now only just realized how much was lost aside from graphical fidelity (in-game graphics vs. FMV) where the characters talking during that segment had little weight compared to the unlockable trailer.

OK, whatever. As The Great Clement would say, "But, I digress." The battle against Vanitas was pathetically easy as was the battle with old man Xehanort. Terranort, OTOH, was a completely different beast altogether. Granted, I didn't die to him, but his attacks kept me a touch off guard. However, by mostly utilizing the time-honored tradition of guarding and counter-hammering (as well as one shotlock right as the battle starts), I was able to win.

Also, on a side note, it felt extremely weird to take Terranort down so easily as the Lingering Will when it took me forever to beat said Lingering Will as Sora in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix.

So, I might come back and try to clear the Mirage Arena later on, but for the most part, I will be starting with Ventus tonight.

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT:

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 8
Location: Dwarf Woodlands
Current Commands: Sliding Dash, Binding Strike, Blizzara, Aerora, Cura

So now I get to the character that I ultimately still feel the most comfortable controlling out of the trio due to his similarities to Sora and Roxas. Like Terra, I played through the Land of Departure, defeating the even balls of destruction, witnessing Aqua rise as a Keyblade Master and Terra failing the exam, conversing with Vanitas and even gliding out of the world on the world's most epic looking skate/hoverboard! And from there, I...

...did the exact same thing I did with Terra and played board games for two hours straight. I was finally able to get some good abilities like Cure, Poison Edge and such. Afterwards, I farmed for some munny and crystals so that I could get the Leaf Bracer ability as early as possible. After that, I decided to attack the dwarves for their lack of cooperation - except for Dopey; he just stood there with a valiant attempt at impersonating Squall Leonhart by just saying "..." except he still had that, well, dopey expression on his face [insert rimshot here].

After that, I played some more of the Command Board to try raise the levels of my commands (namely Aerora, Blizzaga and Cura).

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT:

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 10
Location: World Map heading to Castle of Dreams
Current Commands: Freeze Raid, Fira, Thundara, Blizzara, Aeroga, Cura

So, I've been using the Command Board like mad in order to get some of the commands and abilities that I needed. My playthrough was actually mostly uneventful other than occasionally taking a break to actually advance the plot and try to gain access to Air Flair. At this point, I've already managed to do the Snow White escort mission and defeat the boss. I'll try to get Wind Raid right before going to the Castle of Dreams.

 

[kuraudoVII]

COMMAND BOARD, Y U TROLL ME?!

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 16
Location: Castle of Dreams
Current Commands: Salvation, Freeze Raid, Firaga, Aeroga, Curaga

Numerous times, I've been trying to level up a command on the Command Board, but right before I am able to raise the value of my command, Cinderella manages to land on it and steal it away from me! DX

Still, despite all of this, I have managed to get what was necessary in order to finally get access to Salvation. It's not quite as useful as Faith, but at this stage of the game, it's still potent. At the very least, it's good with clearing crowds when situated right. This was what helped me gain Air Flair 1.

Before all of that, however, I remembered that there was a story going on here and summarily beat Cinderella's world, Castle of Dreams. This level reminded me why I thought this game was a bit of a throwback to Kingdom Hearts I: it actually made platforming relevant again! Having started out playing platformers such as the old school Mario games and the like, it made me happy to traverse through the worlds in a way that I normally wouldn't in an RPG. Using my skills such as a well placed Sliding Dash to get certain goods "early" is always good fun, too (trust me, this is something that I will thoroughly enjoy once I get to a certain part of Disney Town).

Anyways, enough of me gushing over level design. Let's talk about Rus-a-vee...er, I mean, Lucifer. Admittedly, me grinding in the Dwarf Woodlands made it to where I was able to beat this blasted cat easily by literally just wailing on him, no Cures or potions needed. I was able to handily defeat him at level 13; the last three levels were from trying to look for that one particular treasure chest that I couldn't find until I went back to the internet to look for it. Those of us who've played the game before probably remember which particular chest I'm talking about.

At this point, I'm probably going to go to the Enchanted Dominion to get everything that I need as well as finally advance to the point where I can duel Vanitas once that world is cleared...

 

[kuraudoVII]

TAKE THAT, PETER PAN!!!

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 24
Location: Mirage Arena
Current Commands: Salvation, Ars Arcanum, Zero Gravira, Thunder Surge, Curaga

Sweet Cosmos did I do a lot over the past two days.

I arrived in the Enchanted Dominion and decided to explore a bit after meeting up with the fairies. After going from the first save point to the next, I decided to level up more commands (surprise, surprise). By the time I got to Maleficent's Castle, I had already had the ingredients needed for Airial Slam so that I can finally get Ars Arcanum. I also forgot how much of a pain trying to navigate through that maze was. After that, I proceeded to beat Maleficent (which was actually a lot of fun despite how easy it was due to being slightly overleveled. Once defeated, Maleficent insinuated that Terra enjoyed stealing Aurora's heart, but Aqua dissuades him of that notion. However, Ventus still runs off because he still wants to make sure Terra is alright.

After that, Ventus comes across Vanitas. Ventus gives chase and arrives...

...back at Maleficent's Castle. I still need to get the last three treasure chests after all. XD

Anyways, once that was all clear and done, I then proceeded to something that I was really excited to play on the big screen: the first battle against Vanitas. Everything was awesome! The music, the fight, the Mickey!

After that, I proceeded to play all of the Command Boards over in the Mirage Arena to get them out of the way before I had to deal with Captain Dark.

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 27
Location: Radiant Garden
Current Commands: Salvation, Ars Arcanum, Zero Gravira, Thunder Surge, Curaga

So, I've finally arrived in the epicness that is Radiant Garden. On his quest to look for Mickey, Ventus believed that he espied him over in the Gardens. Heading over there, he immediately gets near the entrance of an interesting looking castle. Thinking that Mickey made his way in there, he tries to gain entrance to the castle, but is swiftly blocked from doing so by Dilan and Aeleus. Noticing that a gigantic Unversed is making its way into town, Ventus rushes over to stop it from hurting anyone and ruining the town. Aeleus and Dilan initially try to bring him back, but Even interjects and informs them that their Lordship (a.k.a. Ansem the Wise) needed them and dissuades them from helping Ventus by pointing out that he is a "special case." He's also one of the few people that can deduce that Ventus is a being with a light and is entirely devoid of darkness...

Afterwards, I headed back to the square where Scrooge McDuck tries to repel the Trinity Armor. Ventus helps him out, gets outed as an outsider and receives passes to Disney Town for his troubles. Later, he meets up with Merlin and gains more power by briefly reading "Winnie the Pooh."

Finally, I make it once again to the Trinity Armor and fought alongside Terra and Aqua once more. Afterwards, we go through the same old, same old except now we see Ventus berating Aqua for letting being a Keyblade Master "go to her head" despite it not really being the case.

Afterwards, I went back to the square yet again and saved Ienzo from the Unversed. From there, Even tells Ven that he might have seen Terra over in the Outer Gardens. Ventus arrives not too long after Terra's duel with Braig. While he's relieved that Terra's alright, Vanitas' words still ring in his ears. Concerned, he decides to look for Aqua and finds her not too long after her duel with Vanitas. She insists yet again that Ven return to the Land of Departure and goes on to look for Terra on her own.

Depressed, he thinks back to when they were all learning to become Keyblade Masters together. Sometime later, he is stumbled upon by Lea and Isa. The former challenges him to a fight to which Ventus eventually accepts. After bonding with the two, all three part ways with Ventus heading off on his own quest while Isa and Lea prepare to enter Ansem's castle...

As you can guess by now, I spent too much time trying to level up commands and such, so these last couple of posts, especially this one, was more about the overall story which was essentially the highlight at this stage of the game.

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 33
Location: Disney Town
Current Commands: Tornado, Faith, Sonic Blade, Thunder Surge, Curaga

So, after hanging out in the Mirage Arena doing some Arena Missions, I decided to pay Disney Town a long overdue and somewhat dreaded visit. The long overdue portion comes from the fact that Break Time was the last command I needed in order to get Faith (I could have made a command out of that, but I wasn't going to try to reset the game over and over and over again in order to get it as a rare occurrence like I did with Ars Solum in Terra's story). On top of that, it is also the place where I traditionally use two Sliding Dashes on the rooftop in order to get to that one chest so that I can get Superglide early! The dreaded part, well...we'll get to that later.

As soon as I enter the town, a "superhero" named CAPTAIN JUSTICE drops in and tries to "help" Ventus out. From there, I decide to forgo the plot for now and simply explore the town, get all the treasure chests, sequence break a little for that Superglide and even got the Faith command that I've wanted for quite some time now.

Later, Captain Justice he reappears when he realizes that Huey, Dewey and Louie's Ice Cream Machine isn't working properly. He attempts to help, but Ventus, unfortunately intervenes...

So, as some of us here on the forums can attest, the Ice Cream Beat mini game was downright terrible on the PSP. The timing was wonky (a.k.a. a load of bull) and the less I say about how sick I am of hearing "It's A Small World, After All," the better.

I started the game, bracing myself to undergo this mini game many, many times beyond count and...

...beat it on my first try. I'm not even kidding! They actually made that game PLAYABLE!!! :A: Song is still annoying, but luckily I'm usually more focused on the timing to pay too much attention to the music. Now if only the version that Everglow came up with on his last BOO RAY video was used instead. That one was actually funny (begins at 6:19).

Anyway, I finished the mini game, so I am done with that world. Onward to the Olympus Colosseum!

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 36
Location: World Map
Current Commands: Faith, Thunder Surge, Thunder Surge, Sonic Blade, Mine Square, Magnega, Curaga

So, I decided to get and level up some commands like Mine Square and Mine Shield, so I invariably spent some time in the Mirage Arena. After that, I decided to head off and go to the Olympus Colosseum. Starting off, I was thrust into a battle against some Unversed fighting alongside Hercules and Zack. Afterwards, I headed off with Hercules to help him train whilst leveling up some commands and even getting access to that oh so lovely Level 6 finisher, Stratosphere.

After all of that, Hercules and Zack began to duke it out only for Phil to inform everyone that there was trouble. Ven immediately ran off and was shortly assisted by Hercules. After I was able to tackle the onslaught (seriously, Faith and Stratosphere is excellent for crowd control), Zack offs one particular Unversed that still lingered on. Phil declares that Hercules is still his student while Ventus ruminates on how he and his friends will patch things out. After some more laughter and merriment, Ven heads off for his next destination.

 

[kuraudoVII]

JOIN NOW WITH YOUR BETTER HALF!!!

Player Character: Ventus
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 40
Location: Results Screen
Current Commands: Faith, Sonic Blade, Thunder Surge, Thunder Surge, Mine Square, Curaga, Curaga

Endgame for Ventus story-wise. This was a really fun ride.

I blazed through Deep Space and Neverland eager to get to Ven's final battle. I had quite a bit of fun watching Ven interact with Stitch and Gantu and later Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys. By now, I have essentially been abusing Faith and Stratosphere to clear out Unversed mobs as well as bosses, funnily enough. During my fight with Captain Hook, I was essentially using Faith (and occasionally Mine Square) until I was able to fill up the gauge to use Stratosphere. Upon doing so, I managed to bounce myself and Hook into the air which was amusing to watch. In hindsight, I really should have thought of lighting him on fire, ah well.

After all of that fun, Ven gets a hold of the star shard and is whisked off to another location. He hurls into space and crash lands at Yen Sid's tower in front of a perplexed Donald and Goofy. They whisked him off to Yen Sid and they discover Mickey's location. I then head off straight to -

- Neverland. Gotta get those last couple of chests, k'know.

As soon as I grabbed all of those, I headed straight to the Badlands where Ventus confronted with the awful truth. He then went back to the Land of Departure where Eraqus attempted to dispose of him only for Terra to intervene and send him to Destiny Islands. Vanitas awakens some painful memories and then goads Ventus into following him. Ventus does just that.

Right before the final battle, I actually decided to exit out and play the Birth by Sleep movie in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. After that, I proceeded to end Ventus' story.

The first battle against Vanitas was actually very easy. Right as he began to ride on the Keyblades, I used Faith to whittle down some of his health. After that, I used a Mine Square and some well timed Thunder Surges. From there, I'd add, rinse and repeat for two more cycles with the occasional use of Curaga thrown in there. I ended the battle with Sonic Blade.

But, le gasp! Vanitas reveals what he looks like and...oh who am I kidding? This isn't the first time I beat the game. We all know by now that Vanitas looks like a brunette Sora.

It is from here where we got to a part of the game that I really anticipated: the final battle against Vanitas on a TV. This fight, with it's somber look and epic boss theme, is easily one of my favorites from the entire series. Anyway, I somehow managed to get a Stratosphere in this battle and it managed to get his health down by a decent amount.

Anyway, here was the hardest part, the last hit where we D-Link and decide to settle our differences with AIR JOUSTING!!! One thing that I can definitely recommend is to always use Dark Spiral. Time Splicer isn't the best technique to use for this battle, at least not for me.

So yeah. Ventus is mostly finished! Time for some Aqua action!

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT

Player Character: Aqua
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 3
Location: Castle of Dreams
Current Commands: Sliding Dash, Fire Dash, Zero Gravity, Blizzara, Cure

Holy crap, did this take me a while to get to!

I would have gotten to this playthrough much sooner if I hadn't been bogged down with so much schoolwork this week. Anyway, I finally got to Aqua's story went through the same scenario all over again though. After Ventus glided off chasing Terra, Aqua decided to follow suit aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnndddd-

-sat down to play some Command Board goodness. You guys know me by now. I have to get Cure before setting foot into the first world. Let me tell you, it is here where Aqua not having a lot of magic at her disposal really hurts. As Terra and Ven, I was able to steal some of her magic commands such as Cure, Thunder, Fire, etc. Less to steal from them made trying to get some of the spells that much more agonizing for me (at least I was able to get a Sliding Dash and Fire Dash; I can still use them for getting that one chest in the Dwarf Woodlands so I can get Fission Firaga early, or at least I think it's Fission Firaga anyway).

After a little while (since I couldn't seem to get another Cure command), I went to the Castle of Dreams and talked to the prince. At this point, I'm just trying to level up since the enemies are so brutal with Aqua's weak stats.

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT

Player Character: Aqua
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 12
Location: Heading to Dwarf Woodlands
Current Commands: Thunder Surge, Zero Gravity, Fira, Fira, Blizzaga, Cura

So, after doing a crapload of command melding, Command Boarding, and straight up leveling up in order to not be so stupidly fragile, I tackled the rest of the word. I went over to Lady Tremaine's manor and would have gone in there had the Fairy Godmother decided that Aqua shouldn't fight darkness with light. Instead, she shrunk my character similar to how Ven was shrunk in his sojourn in the manor. Anyway, I noted the irony of having to help Jaq lug a key around when Aqua just so happens to have a keyblade on her, but whatever. This escort mission was decent.

After that, Aqua accidentally grows back to normal size to her inconvenience (and my amusement). Cinderella then appears thanks to Jaq getting to her in time. The Lady Tremaine then decides to be a cruel troll and make the Duke accidentally break the slipper only for Cinderella to troll right back and produce its match.

Afterwards, the Tremaines are unceremoniously (and surprisingly) killed off, leaving Aqua to defeat the Unversed that they summoned. Cinderella and the Prince reunite and Aqua begins to ask the Fairy Godmother how she can fight the Darkness without fighting it with Light. The Fairy Godmother points out that at this stage, Aqua is too young and needs to go out and experience more...

 

[kuraudoVII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT

Player Character: Aqua
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 18
Location: Mirage Arena
Current Commands: Mega Flare, Sonic Blade, Thunder Surge, Thunder Surge, Magnera, Curaga

Welp, this was quite an interesting turn of events. I find it humorous that my playtime has reached over 10 hours whilst most of that has been nothing but the Command Board with maybe three or four hours devoted to the story and Arena matches.

Anyway, I got to the Dwarf Woodlands and met up with the seven dwarfs. After scrounging around a little bit, I reached the castle and met up with the Prince who ironically has more character in this game than he does in the film proper. I then used a Sliding Dash to get to that one ledge on the outside so that I could "technically" sequence break a bit and get Fission Firaga early. After that, I decided to storm the castle and made short work of the Magic Mirror...again. Really wished that they gave us a different boss to fight here (a shade of the Queen's hag form or even the hag herself, iunno).

Anyway, I went to the Command Board yet again and decided to play like mad to get some more abilities as well as the epicness that was Mega Flare as well as Sonic Blade. After getting both of them, I headed straight to the Enchanted Dominion where Aqua runs into Ven, fails in making him return home and quite literally falls into a trap after being shocked over revelations involving Terra and Xehanort. She then meets up with Prince Phillip who ironically has less characterization than he did in the film proper. The Three Fairies show up as well and equip Phillip with the weapons he needed. Aqua decides to come along and help since she has some questions that need answering.

After using Mega Flare to wipe out most of the grunts, I proceeded to escape the castle and chase Maleficent. I eventually reach her and am graced with a battle with Dragon Maleficent. This particular battle wasn't hard by any means, but toward the end there was a part where she did nothing but breathe green fire all over the damn place (gives me bad Kingdom Hearts I flashbacks, it does). I guess I was supposed to do the reaction command with Phillip again, but I instead decided to use Meteor shots to take her down.

After all of this, Phillip kisses Aurora to wake her from her eternal slumber whilst Aqua tells Maleficent that she could never win because she cannot grasp the importance of love. Maleficent ignores her, reaffirms herself that people like Terra will fall under her control and that Darkness will always complement light. With that, she disappears and gives quite the evil laugh.

Aqua then departs and espies Terra heading straight to Radiant Garden. So I -

- go straight to the Mirage Arena. I figure I might as well knock out the rest of the Command Boards now so that I don't have to worry about Captain Dark screwing me over as Aqua like he inevitably will with Terra since I wasn't able to get all of the rest of the boards before completing Disney Town as him. Oh well.

 

[kuraudoVII]

BLAST YOU, PETER PAN!!!

Player Character: Aqua
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 26
Location: Mirage Arena
Current Commands: Mega Flare, Sliding Dash, Sonic Blade, Seeker Mine, Seeker Mine, Thunder Surge, Curaga

Sweet Cosmos was the Skull Board a pain in the neck to get through! I decided to go through all seven Command Boards in the Mirage Arena to get it over with, but THAT board took me forever to complete because Peter Pan just kept landing on the special space and forced me off of my current path. It took me about three tries to finally get around this (and rest assured, every time I landed on one of those spaces, I personally made sure that Peter landed on one of my maxed out commands as retribution). Bah!

The Honey Pot Board annoyed me for similar reasons. Every time I landed on the special space, without fail I always had a pot filled with bees that damaged me instead of one filled with honey which Pooh always got. I still beat it on my first try, but it was only because I abused my hand and always used GP Protector when I wasn't using my magic cards to get more dice.

After getting through all of that, I finally remembered that there was a plot going on in Aqua's story and went to Radiant Garden. I met up with Kairi and helped Mickey fight off some Unversed. By that, I mean I defeated first wave with regular attacks and then immediately ended it with Mega Flare. Mickey departs (though not by choice) and Kairi is reunited with her grandmother, but not before getting something from Aqua that would eventually help her reach Sora when Xehanort chucks her offworld (and there's the whole "She touched her keyblade" thing).

Afterwards, she meets up with Terra and Ven. We take on the Trinity Armor (again) and watch roughly the same scene where they drift apart (again). After that, I headed to Merlin's house and saw the Pooh book.

It was right afterward that I finally had my chance to fight Vanitas as Aqua. It was very easy if only because by this point I was overleveled and had so many abilities at my disposal. I take him down, he merely laughs maniacally (one of my favorite Vanitas moments) and departs. Aqua then departs as well and urges Ven to do the same...

 

[Blackdrazon]

By that, I mean I defeated first wave with regular attacks and then immediately ended it with Mega Flare.

Mega Flare ruins everything again.

 

[LedxirnSimon]

BLAST YOU, PETER PAN!!!

Player Character: Aqua
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 26
Location: Mirage Arena
Current Commands: Mega Flare, Sliding Dash, Sonic Blade, Seeker Mine, Seeker Mine, Thunder Surge, Curaga

Sweet Cosmos was the Skull Board a pain in the neck to get through! I decided to go through all seven Command Boards in the Mirage Arena to get it over with, but THAT board took me forever to complete because Peter Pan just kept landing on the special space and forced me off of my current path. It took me about three tries to finally get around this (and rest assured, every time I landed on one of those spaces, I personally made sure that Peter landed on one of my maxed out commands as retribution). Bah!

The Honey Pot Board annoyed me for similar reasons. Every time I landed on the special space, without fail I always had a pot filled with bees that damaged me instead of one filled with honey which Pooh always got. I still beat it on my first try, but it was only because I abused my hand and always used GP Protector when I wasn't using my magic cards to get more dice.

After getting through all of that, I finally remembered that there was a plot going on in Aqua's story and went to Radiant Garden. I met up with Kairi and helped Mickey fight off some Unversed. By that, I mean I defeated first wave with regular attacks and then immediately ended it with Mega Flare. Mickey departs (though not by choice) and Kairi is reunited with her grandmother, but not before getting something from Aqua that would eventually help her reach Sora when Xehanort chucks her offworld (and there's the whole "She touched her keyblade" thing).

Afterwards, she meets up with Terra and Ven. We take on the Trinity Armor (again) and watch roughly the same scene where they drift apart (again). After that, I headed to Merlin's house and saw the Pooh book.

It was right afterward that I finally had my chance to fight Vanitas as Aqua. It was very easy if only because by this point I was overleveled and had so many abilities at my disposal. I take him down, he merely laughs maniacally (one of my favorite Vanitas moments) and departs. Aqua then departs as well and urges Ven to do the same...

where do you get mega flare from?

 

[kuraudoVII]

where do you get mega flare from?

I got Mega Flare through Command Melding. What I did was use the meld command option in order to meld my two Fire commands into a Fira. Then I made one more Fira through this same method and then leveled those two commands up in order to get a Firaga. I then used that after leveling it up with Slow to get Crawling Fire.

During all of this, I used a Sliding Dash right outside of the Queen's castle in Dwarf Woodlands to get to an area that I would normally need Doubleflight for. That chest contained Fission Firaga. So from there, I leveled up both that and Crawling Fire and then melded those commands in order to get the game breaker (as confirmed by the developers themselves) that is Mega Flare.

Mega Flare ruins everything again.

That it does. XD It's good for leveling up commands quickly which is how I now maxed out all of my Attack and Magic Hastes. It's also good for when I'm trying to clear rounds in an arena match.

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Anyway, Ladies and Gentlemen, STATUS REPORT:

Player Character: Aqua
Difficulty Level: Critical Mode
Current Level: 31
Location: Disney Town
Current Commands: Mega Flare, Thunder Surge, Sonic Blade, Seeker Mine, Seeker Mine, Mine Square, Curaga

Having not played Fruitball in a while has made me forget just how diddlying annoying it is. It's not hard like Ice Cream Beat was hard on the PSP, but Fruitball still sort of...it's just not that great.

Anyway, Aqua shows up and is perplexed at the nature of one "Captain Justice" and is even more perplexed when he refuses to help Horace out with his Unversed. However, Aqua does decide to help out when Horace called out for a hero despite claiming that she is anything but a hero. From there, I decided to do what I always do in Disney Town and explore the world first. I've managed to get all but one of the treasures which I probably just missed by accident. Afterwards, it was off to play Fruitball. Meh.

Once that was done, Horace thanks Aqua when Queen Minnie appears on the scene. Aqua asks who she is and when Horace proclaims her title, she gets flustered feeling like she forgot her manners. When that scene is over, we are then treated to an additional cutscene where we finally get to learn who won the Million Dreams Award. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to be the Birth by Sleep trio, but unfortunately, only Aqua was there to accept the award. Captain Dark is not amused and demands that they proclaim him the winner. He then switches to Captain Dark and at this point all the others except Aqua, Minnie and Daisy turn their backs on him. When Pete gets angry some more, Minnie decides that she's had enough and summons her guards (read: brooms) to escort him out and then banishes him for a while.

BUT WHO CARES, AQUA GETS SOME ICE CREAM!!! XD

One thing that's been bugging me, though is this. This is the third time that I've played Aqua's campaign and I noticed that Daisy shows up in the scene where Minnie announces the winner of the Million Dreams Award. My problem is this: why was she never given any lines? This was a bit of a missed opportunity to me. She's completely silent and uninterested throughout the whole thing.

Finally, we then get to the scene that actually means something in regards to the overall plot of the series. Pete is angry that he's being punished when he hears Maleficent's voice talking to him. Intrigued with her offer to get him out, he readily agrees and enters into the Dark Corridor that opened up.