Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Yeah I kinda assumed it would be behind. Tbh, I still am of the mind most of UX is setting up whatever happens after 3 anyway.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Setting up a story for future games is a different matter. Here we have two characters, one that has been with the series since 2004 and the other since 2010, being thrown into a mobile game that is constantly stressed as having a big impact on a storyline in Kingdom Hearts 3.

When we play Kingdom Hearts 3, and we experience the storyline that Nomura talks of, are we just going to be oblivious to their influences and what not? Are we going to be confused when Marluxia talks to Ventus and they speak of their past?

They are completely mishandling this whole scenario. There's no reason for any form of delay, they have proven to do fast translations (the Summer Adventure text had apparently been fully translated and sitting in the games files since July) so it's baffling why they decide to contradict the creator and director of the entire series.

Like, Glacie outright states that "you're not going to miss out on much story" which goes directly against what Nomura says.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

agree wonder why she said that in the first then again how do you even repond to the question though

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I can’t say I’m surprised, but this is what I feared. Is it awkward that KHI will be doing a better job at keeping fans up to date on relevant series and character lore than SENA will be?

If they plan to release 3.0 anytime soon, which Glacie was being rather shady about, it will also render the shared video game themes between Classic Kingdom and Wreck It Ralph irrelevant since by the time Ralph shows up in UX, everyone will just be playing Classic Kingdom in KH3 anyways.

SENA just wants to wait until post-KH3 launch so they can use the new world to reel people back in rather than doing what is right for the fans who have dedicated their time to the game. :/

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Oh that's true, I guess, maybe I've just resigned myself to how horrible everything about UX has been for a year now? I guess part of me has even been questioning if the scenario would be done in time for Japan as well, but I guess Nomura's recent statements about the plot beginning again soon may mean all the needed stuff will be done by then.
If that is the case, then yeah it is a slap in the face to the rest of the world. Even though us here will clearly just read the translated scenes, we are in a minority.

But yeah idk anymore, I know that they claimed we would see hints of the Union Leaders in KH3. I'm honestly confused what else will even impact it at this point, other than the history of Marluxia and Ventus

But I see what you mean about translations, I am skeptical about that, I assume they could translate faster.



I mean, Japan is getting Classic Kingdom tomorrow or something right? But I don't think they will be getting Wreck it Ralph immediately either. Not to say I don't believe your second point lol, I could see them saving it to do something like that...but I guess I'm not sure how connected Classic Kingdom and WiR actually are? Isn't that just a fan theory thing, or did I miss something?

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

That really shits me. They have a countdown quest to the update but they refused to share any information on when it will launch, or even maintenance times? JP is down for maintenance now and they have had three days of preparation. What are we even counting down to if they refuse to share any information!

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

This is just....baffling.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Yah that threw me as well, I watched the stream live cuz I wanted the max rewards..which we didn't reach as usual, but that's beside the point. I assumed we would be getting it this week as well, but now they are being weird about it.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Well, now the notice is out for Global's 3.0.0 update. Starts tomorrow at 7:00pm PT.

A mere FOUR HOURS after she claimed it hasn't been dated yet.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

This is just bullshit. If they wanted to, I'm sure they could do some catching up, simply by releasing more quests at once. Gah, whatever, this whole Ux thing is a mess anyway

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I honestly feel like the Uχ localization team actually hates KH

Like, I really can't think of a single good reason for anything SENA does.
The fact that fans can translate new story updates in mere hours from release, but the official team leaves a six-month gap
I just don't get it. How? HOW?

And then instead of giving us a reason, they just lie and avoid it entirely.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Lol, maybe she just didn't want to get blamed if something went wrong? But yeah now it seems kinda silly. I'm glad we are getting it soon.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Someone on Reddit made a good point. If Nomura was willing to delay KH3 to release it simultaneously, why isn’t that same line of thinking applied to Union Cross? I don’t even demand total parity. But there’s no excuse why the story of each version can’t be a month or two apart. All it would have taken was adding all of Enchanted Dominion as a part of Version 3.0. They could have even given us less anniversary jewels to compensate for the ones we would get from the quests if that is such a big deal.

Btw, do you guys think they were joking about there being a meaning behind the number of jewels we received or is there really a significance? Any ideas?

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Hahaha, the whole concept of getting everyone up to speed via ReMIXes, rereleases on newer platforms, prologues, the whole shebang - nicked by KHUX. This is a fail.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

God, this is absolutely ridiculous. Why is it impossible for them to catch us up? Translations aren’t the problem.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches



Something about the way this was addressed, filler words and all, just annoys the crap out of me, like salt in the wound. There's the assumption that we're not going to miss out much on the story. Okay, well, maybe not in the lengthy span of things, but will we be missing out on KHUX's more pivotal plot points that are actually relevant to KHIII? Who knows, I guess!? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I spent the better part of my [strike]birth[/strike]day telling someone we weren't putting words in her mouth because Glacie actually said that shit and that it is an official statement from Square Enix because she is a community representative of the game lmao.

They were cocky enough about it going ahead that they held a countdown quest to it. It just comes across as them wanting to diddly with the fans and lie to our face.

Someone made a chart of the quests and the gaps between them




We're getting to the end of Enchanted Dominion in January 2019..... A very consistent release schedule....

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

[strike]I'm not disappointed because I never gave two shits about KHUX or its storyline[/strike]

Who is the mastermind behind these terrible decisions? All this awful planning is really stinking up the place.

WOOOO! I'm excited to play Classic Kingdom mini games! We should have a KHI community high score event. I think it would be fun.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Me personally, I always read the translated Japanese cutscenes anyway so this doesn't change much for me specifically. However, one of the biggest marketing pulls about Union Cross is that it connects to KH3 and contains story information that fills in backstory and also bridges to future events we won't see until KH3 is out. That was/is one of the biggest allures of the game. So, for Square to now say "You won't be missing out on much story" comes across as a HUGE middle finger to everyone who plays the game for the lore aspect. I trust that they're simply uninformed and Nomura's statements about the plot's significance are more accurate, but still.

Do you know who's going to be playing KHUX when KH3 releases? Practically no one. So, to have one of the main reasons to play the game (the way it connects to KH3) essentially be considered irrelevant now by the localization team is just... really shitty.

"Here, KH fans! While you wait for KH3, here's a new entry which contains valuable backstory and events which connect to KH3!"

*2 Years Later*

"Eh, don't worry, you won't be missing out on much. None of it is really important for KH3. Just read the Japanese translations online if you really want to."

Seriously??

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Pfft, yeah. Way to go making the fan complaints about the story being unnecessarily spread out and inaccessible valid again with such stupid decisions.



Tbh I am not exactly sure if I should laugh, facepalm or headdesk at this information.

It is so bizarre and PR-wise stupid that it almost doesn't compute.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Spread the word, let the number of active players drop further, this is the only way to tell Sena that they're doing horribly wrong.
They will see what happens when KH3 starts. Hardly no one plays Ux primarily for the Gameplay because it's become too unbalanced and repetitive, so as soon as people feel they don't need this anymore for KH3, they'll probably drop it. This might even start now.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Stopped playing this game months ago. This is just another reminder that UX is nothing more but a way for SE to make a buck, which is just sad. And that new exciting world he liked to sugarcoat with (please be excited) won't do anything to keep me interested in UX. I only now really care about the main Dandelion plot, if it will ever get a chance to tell it's story. Nomura had an opportunity to tell Ven's backstory and lead to Xehanort finding him, by the time KH3 would be out, but no! he just had to add in unnecessary filler.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Tbh this is why I never wanted Ventus to be part of Ux and was skeptical of his inclusion to begin with.
I agree that getting to know his backstory has potential to be an interesting part of the overall lore, but Ux is unworthy and not the right format to have it addressed, same goes for Marluxia/Lauriam.
It's just too unreliable and constantly full with filler material that gets nowhere and wastes time.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Yeah I saw that on Twitter earlier :/ it grossed me out to just see it put that way...nothing interesting will happen in this game at all for so long. I haven't bothered to keep up with the story quests anymore, even for jewels. Probably gonna stay that way unless I really want some lol.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Well, to be honest, I didn't even want that. I was fine with Ventus having memory loss due to Xehanort's stabbing and Xehanort having interest in him because he is pure-hearted (experienced keyblade wielders seem to able to sniff a lot of things, like BBS showed) and he thought he would make a good light candidate. Having Xehanort interested in him because he knew that Ventus came or had something to do with the Ux era, gives Xehanort so much credit and more of that "I knew it all as I know everything from the very beginning" stuff that I find it hard to bear. Yeah, I know, Xehanort researched a lot about that era, it wouldn't be strange for him to recognize Ventus comes from there, but does it have to be that way? Why does everything in this series has to have a million reasons instead of deciding for one that makes sense and use that saved energy for delving deeper into stuff that actually matters? People say that this is a good opportunity to give Ventus more depth, but until now, he hardly had any lines and to know that he might come from a different time can hardly be called an improved backstory. If they had told a nice, neat story about how the keyblade wars started with interesting characters it would've been sufficient for me, but obviously that's not where the money lies, lol.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

There are literally dozens of possibilities to give Ventus more depth and weave an interesting backstory without having to go so much over the top and include a totally different era and yet more convenient memory loss and possible identity problems. How original, like that wasn't used a hundred times before in this series.

DDD already played that ball with Xehanort knowing so much more than anyone else and becoming insufferably near-omniscient that I wouldn't put it past Nomura to play that in this case again as well.

Yea, if the story is put on hiatus for a year it is no wonder that Ven only had a few lines so far and those didn't actually improve on his backstory nor his characterization yet. The only thing we know so far about Ux-Ven that is different from BBS-Ven is that he is much more timid and shy, which may also come from the fact that he's significantly younger in Ux (about 10/11).
Otherwise, as shown by the few comments made by Skuld, Lauriam and Ephemer about or towards Ven he is personality-wise exactly the same as Xehanort describes him in his BBS reports (too benign for his own good, which is taken up by Blaine somewhat) and as we know him, kind, friendly etc.
As things stand right now he becomes even more of a plot device rather than an actual character. A "prize" from the past for Xehanort, possibly Marluxia/Lauriam and Sora & co. to have a tug-war over.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I saw someone on Twitter say this and I think it's a great point. SENA had absolutely no issue catching up to JP in terms of banners. In fact, we've gone AHEAD of them in some cases recently, releasing brand new medals before they're even revealed in the JP version. So, when it comes to that, they're able to close a 6 month content gap and keep it closed.

And yet when it comes to story quests, somehow they don't have it in them to translate the remaining missions to English between now and January, despite the fact that community members are typically able to translate everything in a matter of around 24 hours? I'm sure there's more that goes into it than just translating the text, but something still doesn't add up here.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

And lo and behold, all the sins are swiftly catching up.
Oh well. I don't need to say anything about this, you all good people filled in for me.
Just know my disappointment and indignation are, as if it's even in question, noted and in tune with the rest.
Let me know when I need to oil my pitchfork and light up my torch.

Also, damn Chaser (I assume the news post was your craft), daaamn.
That's one of the best "I'm writing professionally but I'm also very pissed" articles I've ever read.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I love how the folks here at KHI are always good at keeping a calm demeanor even when it's very obvious that they're extremely upset about something.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Story quests make them zero money, and that is all SENA is interested in. My guess is that this game will be pulled shortly after KHIII is available.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Rest in pieces, sweet Ven backstory... rest in pieces, honestly cool character designs gone to waste, I'm looking at you Ephemera you fluffy cinnamon roll APPLAUSE FOR THE FLUFFY CINNAMON ROLL GONE TO WASTE yes... rest in pieces, sexy character designs, I'm looking at you Blaine BOI I'M LOOKING AT YOU NOW A SORRY APPLAUSE FOR OUR IRRELEVANT EDGELORD WITH A FEATHER
*everyone claps in disappointment*

Now, a thankful heartfelt applause for all our Japanese-English fan translators, the unsung heroes...

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I kind of doubt that, actually. There are people who play this game who aren't even big fans of the proper mainline entries of the series. And unless Nomura and SQEX as a whole decide to backpedal hard on this game, I actually think KHUX is going to be how the franchise continues on between KH3 and the next game after that.

Besides, KH3's release will only give them even more content to add into the game in terms of events and banners. Unless a vast percentage of the paying playerbase completely jumps ship upon KH3's release, the game will continue to make money and they will continue to develop for it. Even assuming that a large percentage of players leave, if all of them are F2P players, it will do little to affect the game's revenue. The whales are what keep the game running and unless they all collectively leave and bankrupt the game, I don't think the game will be pulled any time soon.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

All the more reason to hate this game.

It makes no sense to be at least marginally aware of the importance of the game to the overall story of the series, know that Kh3 is coming out in practically 4.5 months, and have the resources and the time to translate it, but "have no plans" to translate the game for your respective audience.

This entire game just seems like it was set up to be a cash grab from the get-go at this point. Truly disappointing.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Exactly how I feel about Strelitzia. Oh how I loved her quiet adoration from afar, only to die without even getting to know her better.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

[FONT="][FONT="]I agree with the whole situation being jacked, and I’ll also admit having characters like Ventus, and Marluxia’s Somebody may have only been done more so to reel more people into playing the game than anything else. (Marluxia even more so) But I do think that given Xehanorts extreme interest and obsession with Ventus going as far as to still obtain his comatose body even after the events of BBS, makes sense and fits with narrative to have Ventus be from the time of the Keyblade War which Xehanort has dedicated most of his life over. Giving Ventus’s a backstory on anything that didn’t involve the Keyblade War wouldn’t have logically made him stand out at all to Xehanort when he made him an apprentice. He needed a strong darkness so picking someone as defiant and pure as Ventus rather than finding someone else more naturally inclined to the darkness makes less sense when you don’t take his backstory into consideration. Could it have been handled better yes but literally everything in The X series could have been handled better.[/FONT][/FONT]

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Welp, that's the last nail in the coffin for me.
Been playing the game for almost three years now, and I've only been playing it for the story. The gameplay sucks, even if you take away the pay-to-win aspect. The "content" is either painfully redundant or depressingly scarce, the cash-grabs are obscene, and the art style has always given off an inappropriate sense of frivolity to what should have been the darkest and most visually impressive installment in the entire franchise.
I don't just blame SENA, if I'm being honest. I mean, yes, they are scum, and they make the unpleasant situation that is the original Japanese release a thousand times worse. But to be honest, I think this whole project was a shitshow from the start, with very little prospect beyond the profit angle. Nomura clearly didn't learn his lesson about where, when, and how to integrate relevant plot details in a franchise, and what little has been revealed in this game is only about ten percent of the story, or so it feels like. The filler is, was, and always has been unforgivable. Kingdom Hearts has never been short of that kind of stuff, but at least what filler there was in the games was usually integrated into the overarching narrative, and at least it was finite—it could only go as long as the runtime of the game. This game has no reason for the Disney worlds in which they spend about ninety percent of the story, and it goes on for years and years. It's all fluff. It's all garbage.
And you know what? I pity those poor whale fools who wasted innumerable amounts of their own hard-earned money on this trash, only to be continually manipulated and betrayed at every turn, while earning nothing of any real-world value from their countless purchases. I'm thankful I never fell into that trap. I don't even care that I can't advance past my own nose in the PvP tournaments, or that I can't hope to win the expert hard banner challenges that they keep farting out exclusively for the whales, or that I've constantly passed up on the VIP boards. I'm done caring about any of it, because it's very clear that it's all been a big bait-and-switch all along. I've never quit anything—a game, a book, a project, whatever—in the middle of doing it, because I'm an obsessive completionist, and the thought of doing so gets me riled. But I'm going to make the first exception of my life with this dumpster fire, and sign off. I pray for all of you who continue to play, I hope none of you give another dollar to it, and I hope these corporate assholes in charge of the game wise up and release some goddamn story content, or just shut the whole thing down so we can all forget that it ever existed.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

The fact that getting the relevant story content out to the fans in time for the big finale of the current saga is essentially being made the last priority makes the entirety of KHUX feel like a big scam. It was and has been marketed as a proper entry in the series with direct ties to KH3. And now, after years on the market, the story content we have received thus far is painfully lackluster, and what we're about to get is apparently "not going to be missing much for KH3"? So, essentially:

Marketing Pitch: "Hey guys, come get some juicy new story additions and have some fun along the way while you wait for KH3!"

Reality: "Hey guys, let us exploit your excitement and impatience for KH3 by trying to get you psychologically addicted to a KH-themed glorified slot machine! And maybe there'll be some story stuff, none of it really matters though, but we'll pretend it does to keep you playing."

Glacie is a very nice person and I have nothing against her personally. I can only hope that she was perhaps misinformed, which very well may be the case considering she had no idea when the 3.0 update would be coming to our version, and then 4 hours later it was confirmed that it will be updated by tomorrow morning. I won't be surprised if our game doesn't receive the quests before KH3, but I WILL be surprised and pretty upset if the story reveals that Nomura has been speaking of for the past year end up being a bunch of nonsense that only loosely connect to KH3 and make little to no impact.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Came here to say this.

This is an insult to the fans. The reason why we wanted Chi localised was because we wanted the story localised. This baffonary goes against the very reason there was a demand for this game to begin with.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

We came for the story, stayed for the time-gap fill and promise of "the juicy story stuff is coming, we promise".

And now here we are. Chi's canon placement in the timeline was used as the primary bait to get people playing the game, and now that very same thing is being made to seem unimportant after all this time. It really feels like a bait and switch, honestly.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

If you haven't already, make sure to leave your comments and a review on the KHUX app on your app store. The app has already sunk to nearly 3 stars on IOS, don't let your frustration go without a physical representation to SENA and it's reps.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

^This.

Words are nothing without action.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

As long as his story is well written and well executed it doesn't haft to be original.
Won't deny that there are better ways to tell a backstory for Ven, but right now, with the decision of this ESV trio, being the most 1 dimensional character, Ven needs some serious update and character development. What I find very dissaponiting from SE and the (so called writers from KH3) Is that they have had a whole year to tell a compelling story and further explore the main 5 leaders. Especially Ven, for his foreshadowing important role for KH3. Having a whole year, you can find ways to not only create complex arcs but also eventually lead to the events that tie into his first appearance in BBS. Or so just leave a hint of where he was discovered by Master Xehanort.
I just have this gut feeling that Nomura always wanted the KHUX arc to end with a tragedy, and I truly believe that it will lead to where Ven is found.
Lost memory, trapped in a different realm, separated, betrayed, sacrifice there are so many ways to make for a strong close for Ven as a very different person, and that alone would make his character interesting. But if Nomura instead wants Ven to be an innocent victim running into someone's trap, I don't know what I want to believe and I will not treat it as canon if he's going to stay 1 dimensional.
Better write my own backstory for him in the near future, if that's the case.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Wont believe anything this person says until KH3 comes out

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I am absolutely looking forward to this.

Now, to write that app store review hmmm.............

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I mean you don’t need to believe Glacie despite the fact that she is the community manager for UX, which makes her one of the direct voices for Global, but the current quest release trend doesn’t really give much hope, either. Things could certainly change and perhaps Glacie is not aware of any potential future quest distribution changes, but as it stands this seems to be the likely situation without some major pushback from fans.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Besides, even if those above Glacie currently plan to speed up the story, if fans fail to voice their disdain with Glacie’s comments, the developers may figure we don’t care about the story parity and will just stick with business as usual. If we’re unhappy with the way things are going, we have to continue making our voices heard until the changes are fully implemented. Not just “promised.”

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

UX is a goddamn mess. All this talk about how important it will be and how "the main story is just beginning" and this is what we get.

UX might as well be non-canon aside from MoM, Luxu, the book, and the box.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Square Enix has reached out to us and will be releasing a statement shortly.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Wonder what they're going to say.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

well that good to know doesnt make it right to make that statment though

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

err now I kinda feel bad for this things I said :x

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Don’t feel bad. The game was and is being mishandled regardless of them correcting Glacie’s comments.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Thanks for the update KHI team. I'm interested to hear what about the statement might change.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I'm glad Square intends to clarify the situation. I can't say "oh thank goodness" or anything yet since I have no idea what they're going to say. But at least they're communicating.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Interesting, I guess they had to address the angry elephant.
Let's hear it-- I'm ready for anything, from a simple "We apologize but we still won't update global" to making actual amends and giving us the stuff.

Wonder if Glacie will suffer some backlash.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I’m looking forward to what they have to say. I don’t feel bad at all about speaking my mind. It’s important to keep them accountable in these situations. I think we all would like to see this game succeed since it is a part of our beloved franchise, but the only way that happens is if SENA listens and acts on what will satisfy their consumers.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Good to see SE will address this. I'm curious what they'll have to say.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I just wanted to say that I understand that Glacie wasn't 100% yesterday - she was coming off a big week working at PAX and she also had very little sleep - so it was nice that she was able to be perky during the hour long stream.

But she also speaks from a position of power and knowledge within Square Enix's Mobile Division, as she works alongside the dev team and hands the Japanese dev team feedback and information. Yesterday both her and Emily / Emiri (Not sure which one is her name, the latter was her Union X character's name AFAIK) made references to emails they received that explained the significance of things (like why they chose 13,300 jewels) and spoke of the Ava banner and the Organization XIII hair quest.

They know where the game will be going. They know how they will be moving forward with the story. And it was shocking that after years of being told about the importance of the game in the grand scheme but not seeing any results, and with the hope of that ending in October when story written by the Kingdom Hearts III staff would begin, a North American community rep said "

it's not going to be like if the story isn't caught up by Kingdom Hearts III release that you're going to miss out on much story."

So many people play Kingdom Hearts Union X for the story. So many people would jump into the game if there was a story and not copious amounts of filler. We are all excited for KHIII's launch in January and we were moving forward with the hope that SENA may drop a bunch of quests to get us up to date so we could experience that story alongside Japan, and so when we jump into Kingdom Hearts III we would understand the "

existence and influence" from the new Union leaders.

Her statements made during an official Square Enix stream acts as a statement from the company. It felt like they were contradicting the creator of the series with how they downplayed the story, and that they had a lack of agency or care in getting people to experience the thing they wanted most.

I am very curious to hear Square Enix's official statement. I'm sorry that it all had to come around this way, but it just feels like a middle finger to every fan who is excited about Kingdom Hearts.

We started #ChitotheWest so we could get English translations for the story. Sign has worked hard since 2013 to provide translations and content so people could understand the story. No other fansite cared about Kingdom Hearts X until the announced the mobile port. That's two years of Sign doing a lot of solo work for so many people.

We care about X. We care about it so much that it dominates our front page. We care about it so much we launched a separate Twitter handle just to deal with the news and information. We are fans as well. We just want KHUX to be the best that it can be, and yesterday it felt like the concerns people have had for years about the lack of Story parity were being dismissively shoved to the side.

If this article and the tweet with the video from the stream mean that Square Enix is going to re-evaluate the release of story, then that is an excellent decision from Square Enix that benefits the consumer. If they decide we've been a thorn in SENA's mobile division and black list us, then at least we'd go down being on the side of the fans instead of the side that just wants to milk your money.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Perhaps I'm a bit too cynical but I expect this statement to be weasel words top to bottom, saying a lot of words but meaning very little.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Very very well said, Chaser. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Same here. I want to hope that we're going to get an actual response with some substance but I expect a PR damage control response with ultimately nothing changing in the end.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

My misspelled "Playing" description still applies after... 1 year? 2 years? I don't even remember anymore.

I don't understand why SENA has decided to delay updates between JP and NA. It seems logical to try to keep them in sync. Less work for them, less adjustments to be made, etc etc. This is why I was particularly annoyed when they started changing stats and giving Global less stuff to work with (brooms, prizes, etc etc). If you keep them mostly the same except what server they're on, there's less work for you,

How come you have time to keep the banners up to date (which makes you a loads of cash), but you can't get the story updated to match JP in time for KH3?

I don't understand at all and yeah, it makes me really sad. I can't play this game consistently even if I wanted to. It's not fun anymore, especially when you realize the people in charge of it, especially the ones in charge of global, could not care less if they tried.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Catching up on this thread is the most fun I've had in a while.

Sorry but Ux is the worst thing to happen to the KH franchise and I hope it dies a swift death. I totally get that it has its fans and I respect their right to enjoy it but I don't respect the fundamental conceit behind it, the way it has been obnoxiously and increasingly exploitative towards the fan base, the constant and unending stream of toxicity it spews forth, or even really the fact that we have to think and talk about it in relation to KH3 in any way shape or form.

I wish Glacie's statements were accurate and nothing in Ux ends up making a mark on KH3. It would be a massive betrayal of expectations, sure, and folks would be right justified in their anger over it, but in all honesty it would just be another day in the scandals of KH casino and the best news for KH3's story in a while. Unfortunately she's wrong, and Nomura has clearly reversed course completely to undo whatever good will he managed to build up with the complete package of HD remixes. Sure, let's shoehorn in another extraneous mystery box to further complicate KH3's tangle of obligations to preceding and concurrent narratives that nooobody asked for.

All this and if I'm not mistaken we still don't even know wtf is going on in Ux for real? Like isn't there still the possibility it's all Ven's dream/Realm of Sleep/some magical book antics? What are the chances everyone's been red herring'd for years and years, I mean both X and Ux are canon but Nomura insists they're different somehow and that's gotta be explained. Still. (Somebody please do correct me if I'm wrong.)

I feel like Square's statement should just be a spoiler tagged rundown of the entire story from beginning to end and then they're like, ok you're caught up now. Best possible outcome imo.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Just to confirm, we have not received the official statement from SENA, correct? Thanks!

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

We have not!

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I wonder if they're waiting until after the Version 3.0 update is out to make the statement?

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

More like Japan wasn’t awake yet and they hadn’t gotten a statement from them yet to have NA issue.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Well, whatever the intend to say, I certainly hope it doesn't end up being a bunch of hot air.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Not "may" I'd say. Ven and Marluxia being included I'm pretty sure was done mainly to goad more people into playing the game and firmly force the direct connection with the present day era, characters and KH III.

We do not know why Xehanort has such an obsessive interest in Ventus though nor if he's interested in the whole being or really just the comatose body which would point towards an interest solely because of needing another vessel.
All Nomura had to say about it in the BBS Ultimania when asked was:


In the BBS reports he states he got interested in Ventus mainly due to him sensing the great potential in the kid, but that can mean anything and if Xehanort knew beforehand about any possible "prominence" of Ven in relation to the Keyblade War-era would he really have carelessly used him for one of his experiments like he ultimatively did before and during BBS?
The BBS flashbacks show that he was trying to coerce/force Ventus to give in to/use his darkness but failed at every turn, hence why he resorted to ultimately creating Vanitas, but that was all done in relation to his plans to try and get a shortcut to the X-blade as far as we know.
In DDD towards Mickey he decribes Ven as the "broken boy who failed to be the blade" again referencing his actions and plans from BBS.

We know from Days and assorted supplementary material that Xemnas was searching obsessively for Ventus, yet no implication as to why (although once the vessel-horcrux stuff came up fandom pretty quickly interpreted this as trying to make Ven's body another vessel) and the notion that the main Xehanort shares this interest was brought up only in 0.2, yet neither Terra-Xehanort nor Terra give any hint towards the reasons.
Thing is though that this seems to be a plot point they're having dangled in our faces for pretty long by now just like idk two dozen others without any substantial progress made which seem to be poised to get an unnecessary over the top extraâ„¢ explanation for shock value instead of something logical and coherent.

Granted, Ventus' dive to the heart does depict the Keyblade Graveyard/the Badlands as the location background in both versions that are seen of it, so a connection is certainly there, although it might be also because this location is where Vanitas was created and we only see Ven's station after Vanitas' creation already happened.
Still, even if we do count it as a direct reference to the Keyblade War and associated stuff, a connection, even a direct one, would have been enough and less fantastic and over the top than actually have him originate from that very era.




To think I can dig this old thing from 2015 back up because it fits:


Lol, what a deja-vu especially with the not-delivery afterwards.





So far there is no execution and no writing at all on that front though, lol.
The KH series as a whole, but Ux in particular (see Strelitzia) also has not a good track record in this area so you'll have to forgive me for remaining skeptical.
That I have quite some love for most of the KH original characters is independent from my loathing of the presentation and execution of the story.

Of course I agree on this notion, they wasted a whole year in which they could have fleshed out and make the audience care for all five new union leaders and Strelitzia, give each of them depth, compelling relationships and interactions with each other to, y'know, make them true characters, but nope, they had to park the entire narrative in Fillerville of the Boredom Kingdom.

There's nothing contradicting or false about Ven being innocent or a victim, both Blaine and Xehanort (in his reports) have implied that due to being overly benevolent Ven is more poised to be victimized.
There isn't even a huge need to make him a vastly different person as that would clash with the established facts about him generally being a kind and friendly guy, which is a established fact about him in both BBS and Ux. Fleshing a character out means adding more facets to the initial core traits, not completely change them up to something vastly different.



Maybe we just misunderstood from the beginning and what was actually said is "You'll only see the beginning of the story", as that's what the status is at since September 2017 and as far as it stands now it is to remain that way at least for global Ux. *derp*

For the sake of coherency and better accessibility for all parts of the fandom it would probably be better if everything was non-canon or at least not overly relevant beyond some background story.
The box is a literal shoehorned in extra plot device KH III certainly doesn't need with all that already is on the plate to address.


I dunno if Nomura even realizes the possible ramifications that arise from this kind of policy as I've a hard time imagining people constantly repeating the same errors.

Sadly this seems to be the usual modus operandi of Nomura in general. Instead of expanding and developing existing concepts, themes, narratives and characters he keeps introducing new additional stuff to further complicate things just for the sake of being "surprising".
The most jarring thing about this is that the man himself once admitted that KH III has become so huge in scale because so many unfinished things have piled up. If you know that, one would expect you to start untangle the pile, bring order to it and develop the many parts, not add even more parts to the already big pile.




That comes on top too, yeah.
Most people (me included up until you mentioned it now) have by now probably forgotten about the issue that the mystery of the actual nature of the "Unchained realm" and everything connected to it still isn't an inch closer to be resolved than the moment it was first mentioned. There are also several other things that were brought up/shown in Browser Chi (like Ephemer meeting a black coat) which are not addressed in the slightest so far.
It's mystery heaped upon mystery with zero enlightenment down the whole road.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

χ[chi] (and χ Back Cover) are the real events.
Uχ, for simplicity, I will split into the two different titles even though there's an overlap.
Unchained χ is the Player re-experiencing the events of χ[chi] through the Realm of Sleep (probably).
Union χ[Cross] is the Union Leaders picking up the pieces after the events of χ[chi].

Uχ is a port and a sequel at the same time.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

True that. But say the events of being a leader for the unions, put Ven in a situation where he had to make rough decisions. If this sweet loving boy had to face his worst fears and lead a group of kids, wouldn't that be quite satisfying, to know that at least before the events of BBS, the broken boy was actually a voice of change and could be an icon for all the dandelions to remember. The potential is there and it left the impression with the first artwork of the new union leaders (blank Lauriam & Blaine or Strelitzia) but visible Ephemer, Skuld & Ven. Ven's pose in the art says that of awareness more so than just being a follower. Ever since I saw this art, I saw potential for giving Ven the story he never had. But yeah, the word used for this is fleshing him out. I can see how my wording of (different) got butchered from what I actually meant.
[spoiler] [/spoiler]
Then later in the recent artwork, it seem decided that he will not be very proactive, but you never fully know.
At least with lost memories of a boy that lead a union alongside ES, Ven's character could be more than just a innocent victim. Not only would that be tragic, that he forgotten of a time where served and defended his union. But it would indeed flesh him out.

As for KH3, Ven is showing that he's had enough of resting and is ready to take action. At least his heart is.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

What's interesting (and frustrating) about all this mismanagement of Union X and how it intersects with KH3 is that these two games have such different flavors and sensibilities. They're so wildly different and only really have their brand name in common with one another... People who enjoy mobile collection games primarily will not go for KH3's fast paced action and world exploration, and vice versa. Nomura is asking quite a lot of fans to experience both of these games as related pieces of content.

All of this is already bad, and made even worse by awful scheduling, now leading to English-speaking fans having to read translations of Japanese story content if they want to know all relevant information when KH3 is out. I literally hate Union X and don't even consider it a real 'game', but I still don't think it's fair that fans of the game have had to deal with it's half-assed development.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Honestly, this whole debacle with KHUX's story developments has brought back an old theory I had a few years ago which is that, at some point in the franchise, the narrative of Kingdom Hearts stopped being a narrative and became a carrot on a stick used to lure fans into experiencing every single piece of media containing the KH brand. Like, when Nomura makes the diddlying Orchestra concerts canon to the story, that's when you know it's being used as a marketing tool. And now I feel like that same thing is being done here. "Important story content is in this game, make sure you play!" and now here we are and I feel like this game has ultimately added nothing of consequence to the KH story.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Foretellers and the events at the end of the original PC browser Chi were super super cool. But even then, pretend those didn't happen, and we would just go back to the Keyblade War being an unseen mystery which actually might've made KH3 even MORE exciting because of the thought of the War being expanded upon through perhaps Xehanort's backstory or something. I really like the Chi stuff for what it is, but as an expansion of the established KH universe, I feel like it was almost entirely unnecessary and perhaps even detrimental in some ways.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

First, I'd just want to say that as a KH fan I never considered having more games a bad thing, although they did spread them out to many different consoles which made them hard to access. Admittedly, you could take Coded and Days out of the series as those games don't do too much it terms of narrative development, but they were still super fun to play.

I don't agree with your point about the Orchestra concerts. The first world tour had limited showings, so it was ultimately for the diehard fans. Given the limited size of any given concert venue, there's only so many people that can go to these concerts, and the tickets for the first tour sold out really fast. The extra lore stuff is just that, extra lore. It's there as a bonus for the fans in between the awesome music.

I'm not gonna sit here and defend the mobile game though. The original browser game did everything it wanted to do, and the story was supposed to be finished, with Back Cover fleshing out some of the plot points and setting up stuff for KHIII. Everything they did beyond that was a cash grab.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Thanks for the clarification. Though the point remains that the basic building blocks of the story are still officially undefined, and for no good reason, really. You would think Nomura could have had this put to rest between "seasons" of the port: the ending of Ux 1 should have confirmed or at least provided some hard insight into how and why it diverges from the browser version, which could have helped establish a sense of intrigue surrounding [cross].

The reason I imagine he didn't is because in and of itself this holds some relevance for KH3, and the appearance of Ven and Marluxia hinge around this factor in some way. The unholy union (no pun intended) between X and KH3, and I'd argue the mainline KH story in general, just creates problems for both: Ux fans have been forced to watch their active and ongoing title regularly relegated to filler material for months on end in order to avoid getting ahead of a game in the thick of development, and fans who just want to play KH3 and ignore the existence of X entirely do so at the risk of missing potentially significant plot threads. Nobody wins.


Nomura just has issues with commitment in general when it comes to his storytelling, but that's nothing new. With Ux it just feels really egregious because here we are in the eleventh hour before KH3's release and whoops there's still more need-to-know information to catch up on before you pick up the Big One, without even the ceremony of a proper game releasing in the interim. And then, yeah, amplify that against the high probability that content won't even be given an official Western release in time, and it comes across as pretty inconsiderate.


I always had a bad feeling about X, even when Nomura claimed it wasn't going to be canon and should be enjoyed on its own terms. It just didn't agree with me conceptually, and then I was strongly opposed to the invention of Ux, and seeing how it has played out, there's a little vindication buried under all the bitterness. Best thing would be for folks to just drop the game. Why spend time trying to fix something that is inherently broken? Better to encourage SE to spend all that time on creating something of added value to the franchise.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Some of us still enjoy the game, even acknowledging it's shortcomings. Please stop encouraging people to quit. Those who don't enjoy it, just stop playing. What do you have to gain by getting others to quit? Help me understand.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

The price point does not justify the greedy sums that companies like SE are asking for. There is very little value in the amount that you pay for in KHUX. Besides, it's always someone else's prerogative to vocalize why you should or shouldn't play the game. Instead of telling someone to cease vocalizing their concerns you can discuss why people should play the game.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Even Nomura is guilty of this. Remember how he hyped up Union X only for us to finish Agrabah and Enchanted Dominion.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Khux costs nothing to play. The download is free and you can choose to play F2P. And I am not asking that the poster stop expressing her very precise demand for players to stop playing so the game can die, but rather, to give an explanation why they should ask that of players who still enjoy the game. Again, anyone who does not enjoy a game, should not play, but not ask others to do the same.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

You are correct that KHUX costs nothing to play. But I would argue that it's almost impossible to consistently enjoy without spending money. If you don't spend money, the app will absolutely leave you in the dust unless you just so happen to get randomly lucky. And even then, that luck will only get you so far because the power creep in this game moves so quickly that even if you pull a fantastic medal as a F2P, they might come out with a medal that makes it irrelevant in a month's time and then you're back to feeling like you're grinding for little to no return while all the people having a blast are regularly shelling out tons of money. I know there are plenty of people who fully enjoy the game without spending a dime, and that's great. But the issue is that the app is intentionally designed to hinder your experience if you do not spend money. That is the way gacha games are intended to be, and KHUX is no exception.

And just so you know that I didn't pull that little spiel out of my rear end, I'm someone who has spent quite a bit of money on this game. I can say all this is because of the fact that I've been a P2P player for so long and I can attest to how differently the game feels when you continually pay money. When you don't have to save every last jewel, when you regularly rank high in almost every area of the game because of the gear you've gotten quickly through paying, when you can regularly mercy pull most medals that come out, etc. the game is much MUCH more exciting. If this was a paid app that cost $20 upfront and then was free from then on and you got a permanent P2P player's experience all the time, then I think everyone would really really enjoy the game for what it is. But it isn't that, and that's why so many people have an issue with it and can't or won't support it

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

You literally said

Obviously anyone who is enjoying the game has no reason to follow my suggestion and I'm in no position to influence them to do so. I encourage people who have been on the fence or have yet to make up their mind to jump ship, like I did, because I believe it's in their best interests and, collectively, the fandom's best interests to do so. By all means, let Ux succeed or fail on the merits of its committed player base. But I do believe that if it isn't sustaining real interest but rather skating by on false promises and the presumption of commitment from KH fans who basically feel they have nowhere else to go, which is widely what I perceive to be happening, we shouldn't play along and lend it the veneer of legitimacy by continuing to give it support. In my opinion.

If I'm wrong, and there are enough people genuinely involved in the game to keep it alive, it's no loss to you. I do think Ux is a bane for the franchise at large and, yes, I'd like to see it go down in flames, but that's part of a larger conversation about the series. I've provided some insight into that in my previous posts; you're of course free to express any disagreements you may have. This is an open forum.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I just wanted to say thanks to the whole team for being so outspoken about this ridiculous situation that has been going on for far too long now. At the very heart of the entire χ-subseries it was always this site that brought the latest information to the wider International audience, even the smallest tidbits and events, for over five years now. That's some astonishing dedication, especially on Sign's part who reworked the sections with this information time and time again, to make them even better.

I'm kind of fed up with the whole ordeal (or better: the game in its current form) after all this time but I'm truly grateful you all are all still contributing in such a meaningful manner. Thanks again.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I thought at some point we would've gone into this discussion.

What I'm going to say is that most of the complaints about Union are justified in my mind, simply because it's not like one can just walk away from it. It is tied to KH III and as far as we currently know there will be a whole substory or whatever it is tied to the Union Leaders, so one who wants to understand everything has to have a certain degree of involvement.
And, I think it's only healthy to remind of this, this is only the final stage of a roller coaster of a journey:

- First X wasn't supposed to be canon. Fans of the introduction rejoiced, so did those who did not care.
- But wait, now it's canon? What's this stuff about Dream Eaters and that's all a dream? Crap, better go and get the game.
- Oh wait nevermind, X Back Cover is coming out! A nice helping hand for those lost with all this X and Unchained issue.
- See, now they're even saying that with 2.8 we have everything we needed to go into KH III! Piece of cake!
- Oh, so that's what Master Xehanort's Keyblade is called! Nice, that's... uh... pretty much the only concrete thing I got out of this.
- Ven is in this era? What?
- Fret not, maybe it's a cameo, or something for later titles! Maybe Lauriam is Lauriam, and Marluxia is... aaaand now it is confirmed the Union Leaders are relevant to KH III. Hooray.

And then the reason why this thread is born: as current information goes, we won't get the last story parts before KH III. Unless things changes in the foreseeable future.

All of this without talking about some issues with the mechanics and such, because others have already answered about that part.
The game has quite the number of flaws, and sure enough many people me included can still play through it and achieve some degree of entertainment: but some are... forced, or the closest possible thing to it, to at least keep track of this whole mess even when they'd like to do literally anything else.
So yeah, it's not as easy as not playing it. We do lose something with Ux being the way it is (and it pains me to say that as someone who wanted this game to be better), especially when apparently staff members from KH III work on both titles.

Ux isn't something everyone can walk away from and it's not always a pleasant sight to be looked at. And... I don't disagree it has at least some degrees of harm. Nomura has proven (and even stated in recent interviews) that the sheer Dark Seeker saga had at times taken its toll on him, with handling characters or certain plot point: and not to be a butt, but it shows.
Adding to this an MMO still related to the main story and the ever so narrative-bloated KH III was not a smart move.

Now, if bringing down the entire things sounds like too much, I'd settle for a middle ground solution: un-canonize Ux. Or even better, canonize it, but go back to it being what X was, just a glimpse on the past and the War. Treat it like some sort of Expanded Universe.
In that case then yes, people who don't like it can just walk away and the rest can keep playing.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

And then the reason why this thread is born: as current information goes, we won't get the last story parts before KH III. Unless things changes in the foreseeable future.

This is a great thought Darkos. I personally was not made too upset when word about the story delay hit the forum yesterday. However, I absolutely agree that the statement made by the Square Enix representative, which went back on what Nomura had said previously, isn’t fun to catch wind of. That being said, for those who are really waiting, locked and tuned into that piece of story coming to KHUX, as I am, I'll be waiting for the translated cutscenes to come from the region of Japan version, as I usually can’t wait very long anyway!

Even if the Japan cutscenes ended up somehow delayed until after January, I'd still enjoy the story and information that comes to KHUX post-January 25th / 29th and KHIII's release. It'd probably just make me want to play through KHIII again and again to see how those details come into play. (Similar to how BBS encouraged you to play / rewatch scenes from KHII about the Chamber of Waking / Repose and BBS, etc.)

But, that's absolutely, probably, just me. I totally feel the let down to have a company make a bold promise and not come through on time. I’m hoping and imagining by some extension that KHIII is just going to be that much better for it.

Cheers everyone!

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I remember before Unchained was even a thing, when the original Chi was reaching the end of its life and the final story segments came out of it. That, in my mind, was the peak of the Chi saga. Back then, the story of Chi was mysterious and exciting. It reminded me of the old days around when KH2 had just released and we were all theorizing about what the secret ending meant (even moreso once the 2FM secret ending released). That period of time was the absolute best part of any iteration of Chi, and my goodness I wish we could go back to that. I started out loving Chi, and I still do enjoy the stuff from the original PC version as well as Back Cover. But Unchained and Union Cross took it into "Okay, wtf is going on here? Where is this going? This is just getting weird and annoying now" territory.



Not to burst your bubble, but KHUX and KH3's development have little to do with each other. KH3 won't be improved by extension of KHUX's story being delayed because there are two separate teams handling each game. It's not as if resources are being shared amongst both games and if KHUX is neglected that then equals more time for KH3. The only thing that this situation shows us is how incompetently Square is handling this game.

In my opinion, I think Nomura was always well-intentioned with Chi. I think it started out as a sort of non-canon reboot of the Kingdom Hearts Mobile service. And then as time went on, I think Nomura had sincere ideas with Chi and truly meant it to be an expansion of the universe that also served as a continuous daily time killer on the side. But once his main focus shifted guns-blazing to KH3, I think the suits over at Square took control of the Chi ship and sailed it right towards the sunny shores of Let's Milk These Dorks For All They're Worth.

And I don't just mean SENA, I mean corporate as a whole. That's why the original Chi ended its PC service and was turned into a mobile game. Square saw the dollar signs in making it a mobile phone game, they marketed it as a crucial addition to the story, fans who were enlivened by the KH3 hype downloaded it quickly, and then the promise of crucial story content was used to get players to stay.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I really enjoyed the days when X wasn't canon, or rather, it was a completely contained experience and story within itself. I didn't play the browser game myself, but it looked really fun and didn't seem like it was out to get your cash. (I wonder why they moved away from the browser version).

I remember everyone was cheering for their keykids death with tears in their eyes (not really, but we all knew the outcome of this 'cute' game from the getgo) and it was SO cool to see ... everyone die I guess. Ha.

It's really regretful that they made it canon. Or rather, it's really regretful that they've made Chi so complicated. Why couldn't it just be a story about all these people fighting for the xblade (which hasn't even been mentioned yet?!). Even with a simple story like that, having people like Ven and Marly as people from the past isn't too ridiculous. You could stretch some context and pretend that's the reason why Xehanort was so interested in Ven in the first place. Marly... is a bit of a stretch though I admit.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Actually, the scenario part of Union X, aside from myself, was partially written by the staff of KINGDOM HEARTS III and I am sorry that couldn't update it quicker, but the wait is finally over. I think that after this, the heart of the story will be evident.

You are absolutely right, Nazo, I'm sure it really isn't taking up too much development time. But I do have to mention the above, stated by Nomura alongside the 3.0.0 update.

Either way, I'm probably just in a bubble, as you said. :wink:

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Oh sure, that's all true. Absolutely. But, a handful of writers working on some story elements for a mobile game is hardly enough to make the case that any development removed from KHUX = better development on KH3's end. And sorry if you got the impression I was accusing you of being in a bubble. That's not what I meant at all. I just said that as a figure of speech, and I meant it more as "I don't mean to kill your hopes/dreams" not that you were being willfully ignorant. My bad :)

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

You are absolutely correct. None taken brotha.

It's few and far between to see a fan on the forums whose been around since the mid 2000s, cheers! Stay awesome :)

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I think strategically sinking it is the best solution because, as it stands, Ux is setting a new precedent for the series. Keep in mind that all indications are that this is the game that everything post-KH3 will be launched from: consider that if things are this bad now, how bad are they going to be when Ux is the actual originator of major plot content for the franchise. It's basically going to define the future of KH, and for the past couple of years SE has been pushing and pushing to see just how far the global fandom will go and just how much it will take. Even if Ux itself doesn't go on forever (it probably won't), players who stick with it when they're actively unhappy and feel the game isn't doing anything for them, or isn't doing enough for them, are giving SE the leverage to continue making and running games like it, and implementing similar features, with the knowledge that they'll be able to get fans on board using brand name alone.

So to me, it's more about setting clear boundaries with Disney and SE as to what kinds of risks they can afford to run with the series. Of course it's their IP and they can do whatever they want with it, but they aren't entitled to popular support and if their endgame is to hold the story hostage behind a phone app that doesn't deliver on the promise of the series, I think the audience is accountable for drawing a hard line and making that hard choice to give it up and send a message.

In other words, I don't negotiate with corporations. :P


With this in mind, let's take a minute to recognize that the stated justification for developing Ux at the time was to make the story of browser X accessible to the international audience. Then it took forever to localize, which was the first indication that there was a disconnect between what Nomura et al. had advocated and what was actually taking place. Cut to two (and a half) years later, and the new narrative is that the story shouldn't really be of concern to global audiences even as Nomura is emerging with even stronger indications that the story of Unchained is more significant than ever: I don't know that there has ever been a through line from Nomura's stated intentions to SE's output with reference to this title.

That's not to say I believe that Nomura is naive to all this, I'd disagree with you there. As director of the series, he signs off on all this nonsense, and the buck stops with him. And even if he isn't micromanaging the Ux team, by now he must be aware of the regular mistreatment of Western players, the notable discrepancies between the Japanese and global versions, and of course is directly involved in pushing out new story content using this structure in spite of the problems it presents for those of us on the receiving end-- on the contrary, I think he views Ux as his little pet project and he is willing to spite the fanbase in order to drive it towards success, which is why he made it canon in the first place. He knew he wasn't going to get enough people on board with a true spinoff title, especially one that operates under the slot machine style, profit-driven chaos of gacha gaming, with which a lot of non-Japanese mobile gamers have little familiarity and are probably averse to on principle. If it wasn't a KH game, how many of us would be actively seeking this kind of thing out? I could always be wrong, but again, I operate under the suspicion that a lot, like a lot a lot, of people don't stick with Ux because it's what they've always wanted out of a KH game: they stick with it because it's a KH game. And Square is just going to continue manipulating that tendency fans have to forgive their favorite franchise as long as it has the leverage to do so.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Too much overthinking. Play it if you still enjoy, leave if you don't.

That's all, really.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Well, I don’t think they know what “shortly” means...

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

My thoughts exactly! Hope we hear some new soon.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

The statement is up in the OP. Seems like they just said we won’t be confused on the story because we can just look at the Japanese version of the game.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

“Kim’s quote was referencing that currently, the rate of story is going to continue at the same pace, and there is a plan for how things are rolling out. She had meant by the time KINGDOM HEARTS III releases, there won’t be a reason for the global players to not understand what’s happening in KINGDOM HEARTS III due to the Japanese version being slightly ahead.”

I'm sorry but this is a horrible statement.

This is exactly what everyone said she said, and she's basically saying to just pay attention to the Japanese version.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I wouldn't exactly call a well-reasoned description of specific flaws in the game's structure and management backed up by personal experience as a paying player "overthinking". But I suppose, in principle, you are correct. That doesn't mean the mishandlings of the game should be dismissed and waved aside simply because you're having fun though. Despite everything I've said, I actually greatly enjoy KHUX and have a lot of fond memories from playing it. The fact that I love this franchise and want it to be its best is the precise reason why I'm saying the things that I am about KHUX.



Not to mention, that part of her statement wasn't even what bothered me. It was her comment about KH3 and KHUX not really overlapping much at all, and we won't be missing much. That's a HUGE issue because it essentially means that KHUX's canon placement in the story was overhyped to the point of nearly being a blatant lie. Sure, the "origin of the series" stuff is there but KHUX was always said to be connected to KH3 in the sense that playing KHUX will enhance your experience/knowledge going into KH3. If we're "not missing much" then that promise of KHUX's importance was empty and that is NOT okay.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

The statement says absolutely nothing but the same thing, but phrased differently.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Even if Union X hypothetically never became canon to the wider Kingdom Hearts narrative, we still would have love to be caught up with Japan with story quests.

This is a pathetic business decision by Square Enix USA. I am so glad I uninstalled this game months ago, this company is bound to change their attitude when people uninstall in droves!

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

From the way you guys phrased you received a statement from SE, I assumed it'd be substantial. This is just sad.

That's not how anything gets resolved, and it's not that black and white. It's okay if you want to indulge in a game like this. No one is reprimanding you for liking it, so why reprimand those who don't? Parroting "It's a free game," like SE's own corporate marketing division is turning a blind eye to the hidden infrastructure designed to support these investments. I have no problem paying for content, but the avarice-to-service ratio is wildly out of proportion. As we can see in these paper-thin statements, the quality of treatment this game is receiving is just meh right now.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

We were hoping it'd be too. But alas :(

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Yeah this statement really accomplished nothing lol.

I guess I am torn on the subject as a whole...I have felt jaded with the game recently till they gave out those gift jewels and I just sort of started pretending PvP didnt even exist lol. I realize they are treating us mediocrely, even now that Japan has some promise of sort of leaving the slump, cuz quite frankly this past year wasn't JUST SENA it was the entire game that was the issue, we are gonna be stuck in for the rest of the year now? It is upsetting, maybe I will delete the game over it? I guess maybe I should if I disagree with this sort of business model, which I do.

I guess, I haven't even really thought about these practices effecting the series proper, as I feel a lot of Japanese games have cash grab mobile spin-offs right now, and it doesn't necessarily effect anything else. I do miss when this game was mostly self-contained as well. I really did enjoy original X, and Unchained X as well.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I would certainly appreciate if we could somehow check, but I think this is just poorly worded you guys.

"She had meant by the time KINGDOM HEARTS III releases, there won’t be a reason for the global players to not understand what’s happening in KINGDOM HEARTS III due to the Japanese version being slightly ahead.”

To me, this sounds like they're saying "just because JP is still ahead doesn't mean the important-to-KH3 parts won't be out on Global by then".

Now it could be a typo, but there is a CRITICAL comma lack in this sentence. If it read "KINGDOM HEARTS III, due to the Japanese version being slightly ahead.” it would mean what you guys are taking away from it. But the way it IS written without the comma should grammatically mean "You won't miss out just because they're still ahead of you". Like I said, it could easily be a typo and it certainly wasn't a clarifying statement. If Square Enix reached out to you to make this statement in the first place, perhaps you coule directly ask them?

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Either way, they're missing the point, which is that there's zero justification for keeping global behind Japan on story content when everything else (read: money-making stuff) has been fast-tracked to catch it up, which is what I understand has happened over the drought period based on statements I've read. Square is toying with the fans. There's no good will to be found here, but it's fine, I'll just set my watch for three to four weeks and sit back and wait for the next round of drama to set in. The only real question is where can they go from here.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

The optimistic side of me wants to believe you’re right.

However, given their track record, it seems this statement was left vague in order for it to be noncommital. They can spin it either way depending on how they decide to proceed.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

And that's absolutely a fair way to look at it! The person could also just as easily not be familiar with grammar rules for American Standard English, and they could have meant it the exact shitty way it came across to everyone else. I just wanted to point out that it could also mean something different, especially since they say they have a plan for rolling the stuff out whereas from what I've seen the lady on the stream basically said "I have no idea if it will change from how it comes out right now".

However we read it though, I am strongly of the opinion that SE PR needs to hire people that actually know how to do that job. This isn't the first title where there was mass confusion because of poorly worded official statements, and with their track record I'm sure that tradition will continue till the end of time.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

With that clarification, (or confirmation of what we already knew) I’m okay with moving on from this and getting excited for TGS. Cheers everyone!

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Yeah, thank god we have TGS coming up soon to make us forget and/or not care about all this nonsense.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I don't know if I should be smug or sad for calling this 100%.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

*officially puts a rose and a dandelion on the grave of KHUX's lost potential and respect for its players* Good-bye...

Thanks for the update, it's not the update I hoped for (still hoped there would be some kind of change or idk), but you're doing an amazing job at keeping us informed, as always.

Re: Kingdom Hearts Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Bah.
Square is rapidly losing points, points they acquired with the E3 trailers and that Union might've never had.
This is the worst outcome: even if the next story bit doesn't turn out to be anything interesting or relevant to KH III (which seems unlikely), this is really toying with the fanbase to the point of treating them like idiots.
In that statement I read that they believed (or acting like it) that we simply did not understand what Glacie meant, when in fact the rage and indignation came exactly from understanding what she was getting at.

For shame, Square. For shame.

Same, X's finale was just the best, even comparing it to a lot of main titles stuff.
X was really strong and possibly the extent of what about the entire idea was good.



Of course, mine was a proposition merely in the realm of ideas: the simple fact that Union is already decided to be the base for the next saga invalidates any chance of taking a step back (despite the fact that I wouldn't mind Nomura and SE taking that back, for once I'd like them to do that)

Of course I'm also writing this after reading their "statement", so... hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I remember when everyone was excited about Chi and its story. The story of the Keyblade War finally being revealed! Who wouldn't want to know that?! The only thing that sucked was that it was Japan exclusive, so #ChiToTheWest happened. Then UX came, and slowly over time the opinion began to change to what it is now after it switched to Union Cross.

A mismanaged mess that can't even keep its two language-based versions in sync with each other while constantly promising that the story will pick up only for the next update to be looking for Cinderella's missing GBA cartridge so you sit and wonder what the point of this is. And then this thread shows up and I'm back to my "UX doesn't matter and Nomura actually cares more about the actual video game that's on a console" way of thinking. Like, what's the point of Lauriam if in KH3 He's still calling himself Marluxia? What's the point of Ven being in UX if he doesn't even remember it?

The only thing from X that matters in KH3 is the box. That's it.

Good god, I didn't even rant about the right subject.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Just another strike against the ill-conceived idea to make a freaking mobile game actually canon. Ridiculous.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

....



Trying to calm myself down with memes.

I'm livid over this. Like...I don't even know what to say. I wasn't expecting much from their statement, but to act like we didn't understand what Glacie said, is ridiculous. Did..did they seriously think that was the issue we had? Did they?!

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I expected a damage control statement at best. I didn't expect a rephrase about what was said that caused the outrage in the beginning. Although I can't say I'm angry over this. As it is SENA we're talking about here.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it.

A mismanaged mess that can't even keep its two language-based versions in sync with each other while constantly promising that the story will pick up only for the next update to be looking for Cinderella's missing GBA cartridge so you sit and wonder what the point of this is. And then this thread shows up and I'm back to my "UX doesn't matter and Nomura actually cares more about the actual video game that's on a console" way of thinking. Like, what's the point of Lauriam if in KH3 He's still calling himself Marluxia? What's the point of Ven being in UX if he doesn't even remember it? The only thing from X that matters in KH3 is the box. That's it. Good god, I didn't even rant about the right subject.

Thank you for the much needed laughs.

Also, I'm with Seadrin. Very much ready to replenish the well with the better, good ​news TGS brings us.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

It is a shame that so much work is going into making the experience of KH3 absolutely amazing, with Nomura going so far as to delay it in Japan so everyone can experience it together, but this team is too greedy and/or lazy to translate some textbox cutscenes so all dedicated players can be on the same page when KH3 releases.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

I suppose once you think about it, there was really no way they could have recovered after Glacie's original reply. And since they had already decided not to speed up story updates to catch up, they could only keep stringing people along for so long.

But still, no statement would have been better than torpedoing the goodwill they've created.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Ah, thanks for the update. Good to know the story will help us know where we are in KH3, but they say "the rate of the story is going to continue at the same pace" but new story content (AFAIK) hasn't been provided in over a year. Does this mean no new story content is coming out this year? Do players have to wait until January for new story content? as it seems new story content is only provided on a yearly basis? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is the rate of new story content.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Let me explain for those who are unfamiliar:

New story updates are added monthly in batches of 5 or 10 quests, or if we're lucky, 15. The ""the rate of the story is going to continue at the same pace" comment refers to Global getting quests through the same distribution schedule that JP got them. So if JP got 5 quests one month, then months later when Global reaches that point in the story, they will also receive the same 5 quests.

Global is 6 months behind JP in story quests. In a perfect world, they would get more quests than JP each month so they can catch up. Unfortunately, they will continue to remain 6 months behind.

The last main story update (with the Union leaders) was a year ago. Since then, story updates have all been Disney world filler. JP will be getting new main story content next month, which was co-written by KH3 staff and will introduce new characters. However, at that time, Global will still be in Enchanted Dominion.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

And just to make everything perfectly clear as to why Glacie's quote has caused such an uproar: we have speculated for years now why the global version wasn't catching up with JP story, but was going sonic fast to catch up with everything else basically, from banners to powercreeps to other game modes. We figured they wanted to catch up with the banners to not let global players look ahed on the JP version and see that the next banner was way more worth it than the actual banner, resulting in less pulls and so less eventual money spent, but then why not catch up with the story at this point? And make the two version keep going at the same speed?

My personal thoughts, after thinking about it for a while, was that they just didn't want to do it, but then why wouldn't they want to? It made no sense! Turns out, they just couldn't care less, there was no real reason, no technical limitations, no things like having to discuss the translation back and forth (which would take time), no they just don't care. And this became especially obvious with the summer event and the translations being there after a day, with the files being ready and translated like a month before.

There's another Square Enix game, Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, you know what the devs do? They take the good things from the JP version, and improve on them. Crazy right? And incredibly, the community of that game has nothing but praise and suggestion for them, and love the game, who would have thought.

I'm sorry for the wall of text but this response really annoyed me, more so than the original statement which was more disappointing than anything, but still.

The last thing I want to say is this: why are people that don't care at all about Kingdom Hearts managing a Kingdom Hearts game? And doing just enough to not get fired each update? Like I know it's a job and often you don't choose where you end up working but... if you have something to do, put a little effort in it, or just don't and go do something else that you like more.

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

This is something I've been wondering for years. It's been like this since long before KHUX ever existed. The American branch of Square Enix has seemingly never given a shit about Kingdom Hearts for whatever reason. They do their jobs, yes, but in all my years of being with this fandom I have been hard-pressed to find an American employee of Square Enix who is genuinely passionate and in love with the series. I'm sure they exist, and perhaps they're just someone who doesn't have a big online presence, but it's undeniable that SENA has a long track record of treating the Kingdom Hearts series like "Oh, this diddlying thing again? Good grief. But, those losers do seem to spend tons of money on this stuff so I guess we'll market it like we're expected to."

Re: UPDATED: Union X English Story Won't Be Up To Date When Kingdom Hearts III Launches

Figured that would happen. So I stopped paying regularly towards the game a while back. Only bought this week's vip for the wings.