Kingdom Hearts II: Confirmed and Deciphered!
WARNING!! Contains spoilers!

I want to make one thing clear first... If you’ve never seen the trailer to the next game, “Deep Dive,” you won’t understand a lot of this... I’d suggest downloading the video and watching it before reading on...

INTRODUCTION...

After searching official game-release sites, finding live interviews with Tetsuya Nomura, and screenshots...yes, screenshots...from the game, I think I finally have enough to explain most of Kingdom Hearts II.

Yes, fans, it’s finally here. Kingdom Hearts II has been released in Japan and should be coming to the U.S. and Europe sometime in 2004!

Don’t believe me?

I know you’ve all seen posts/sites of random fans trying to figure out what’s in the next game, most of them probably mine -_-... But when you really look at them, you’ll realize that the information is far from consistent.

THIS IS NOT THE RANDOM FANTASY OF A HOPELESS RAVING FANGIRL... True, I am a hopeless raving fangirl... But the difference between this and the random fantasy of a hopeless raving fangirl is that I have FACTS... (And friends who have played Final Fantasy.)

If you don’t believe me, see for yourself. Go to the site below and see the screenshots, plus the list of links provided at the bottom, AND you can search Google.com for “Kingdom Hearts Chain Of Memories,” and it will have additional info on KH2 and KH: Chain of Memories.
Screenshots and Official Art
(You may have to right-click and hit “Show Picture” a few times...but they should show up otherwise.) If you find any that we missed, kindly send them to fishgurl@cinci.rr.com You will get credit for your find if you leave your name. Please, no fanarts. If you have fanarts, you can search Google for FanartCentral and post it there. KH2 fanarts are much appreciated there.

Anyway... Some of you may have seen my posts on this various message boards under the name “Zai” with predictions for Kingdom Hearts II. Little did I know when I started my insane rants that there wasn’t nearly enough information in “Deep Dive” to even begin to fathom the changes to the plot in the sequels. After this long night of research (with help from everyone’s favorite tech-smart elf, Erufu) we have finally put together this info-packed rant about what is available in Kingdom Hearts II!

In my previous posts, I have explained that the “Dual Wielder” is Sora, and that the Unknowns in the place that looks like End of the World are Riku and Sora’s counterparts in another dimension. Well, I was wrong. Dead wrong. I couldn’t have been more wrong if I had said they were giant purple squirrels with keys...


WHY ARE THERE TWO SEQUELS?

Basically, Kingdom Hearts has become a trilogy. There’s Kingdom Hearts II for the PS2 and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Gameboy Advanced. KH: CoM picks up right where the first game left off, while KH2 follows CoM. So now, die-hard fans like me have to go and buy a Gameboy Advanced just to understand what happened. Pointless. They just want more money! BLAH!


THE DUAL WIELDER (Dude with two Keyblades for those of you who didn’t know...)

In reality, the Dual Wielder is none other than...
*Drum role...*
TIDUS!
Yes, everyone, you heard me right... Tidus is, indeed, the Dual Wielder. Of course, technically, I could be wrong. They never actually show his face in the screenshots or official arts, so we have no way of knowing for sure. But considering Tidus was the only one with hair like that from the first KH (and from FF), it’s kind of assumed that it would be the same person. (Unless you count that one kid from Traverse Town...but get real... They’re not going to take some random townsperson and make them the main character.)


KEYBLADES

Now for the debate of “Which Keyblade is which?” One of the Keyblades is, in fact, the Oathkeeper (the white one, noda). How Tidus got the Oathkeeper from Sora is beyond me, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to know just yet... But you can bet that when Sora finds out that Tidus took Kairi’s gift to him, he’s gonna be pretty pissed...

The other Keyblade seems to be a modified Oblivion... In Deep Dive, there was mention of “Changing the Third Key...” Now, there were two Keyblades to begin with, right? Sora’s and Mickey’s... But now there’s a third?! Of course, there has to be at least two for the Dual Wielder to be a DUAL Wielder, and I highly doubt that Sora or Mickey would give up theirs...so, most likely, there are tons of Keyblades out there, unless Mickey and Sora gave up their Keyblades so Tidus could use them for some strange reason...


UNKNOWNS

As seen in the screenshot on the site above, there are at least five Unknowns. Good god, we missed one in Deep Dive then, didn’t we?! Only four were shown in Deep Dive, and now there’s another one... Well, that makes things easier for me... NOT! Anyway, one of the Unknowns is obviously Tidus, since he’s the Dual Wielder. Then there’s the silver-haired bishi atop the building, still most likely Riku. Now, I know of one other Unknown, though I can’t tell you which one he is. One of them is Tyke from Final Fantasy__. (If I got the name wrong, I’m sorry, I don’t play FF...) You’ll see him in the screenshots... He’s the one with spiky red hair, noda.

The Unknowns in the world that resembles End of the World (most likely The World Between mentioned in Deep Dive), could very well be Riku and Sora’s counterparts if there are five Unknowns, because then there would be enough Unknowns for the counterparts, Tidus, and Tyke. But they could also be other FF characters, so who knows? We’ll just have to wait to find out, I guess...


OTHER CHARACTERS

Naturally, Kingdom Hearts II will feature the KH OCs, Riku, Sora, and Kairi, plus Donald, Goofy, and some new Disney characters not shown in the first game. But you can count on there being at least one more OC (Hopefully, unless they decide to make the sequel more FF than it is KH...) Plus, if you look closely at the official art with Sora holding those crowns, you can see in the upper left corner that there is a new girl. I don’t know if she is a FF character, or an OC...but if you know, email me, baka!

You can bet there will be a return of the Disney villains, the arrival of new foes, and perhaps a visit from Ansem... Who knows? Again, we’ll just have to wait...


WORLDS

In Kingdom Hearts II, you can expect to meet up with your friends from Disney in their home worlds, plus some new allies may introduce themselves in the Disney worlds not shown in the first game. Tetsuya Nomura said in one interview that there will be many more original worlds, Hollow Bastion and such, plus some worlds taken directly from the Final Fantasy series.


GAMEPLAY

The gameplay, says Tetsuya and Square, should be a lot like the first Kingdom Hearts. Basically, the slice-and-dice action that made us all go “BOOYA!” whenever something went BOOM. In KH: Chain of Memories, you get new attacks and abilities by collecting cards. Kind of reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh, isn’t it?


PLEASE NOTE...

In an interview with Tetsuya, he explains that you will not understand Kingdom Hearts II if you have not played KH: Chain of Memories. (Little bakas sure know how to make money, don’t they...?) So now, us die-hard fans have to go out and buy a Gameboy Advanced just to know what’s going on! NOT FAIR! But not my problem... Square is the one who’s gonna get mass flame mail...

SO...

Overall, the game promises to be another dazzling display of excellent graphics and a storyline that could knock your socks off. Personally, I don’t think they should have brought in so many FF characters. It takes away the game’s originality. Oh well, it’ll still kick butt.


HOW MY FRIEND AND I DID ALL THIS IN ONE DAY...

I was in the basement, happily playing Kingdom Hearts, (boy, that’s ironic... The first time I play the game in months and then this happens...) and all of a sudden, Erufu calls screaming frantically into the phone, “I FOUND KH2 SCREENSHOTS!”

I ran upstairs to get online, shoving my dad out of the computer chair. I logged on, and she sent me the picture of Sora gone goth. I screamed so loud my parents nearly killed me.

The discovery sparked something within us...reawakened the thirst for knowing the unknown that was born from Deep Dive so long ago... We searched the net all night to find our information, then put together the screenshot page, and completed the predictions for the next game. Much is still unknown about KH2,but we did our best, and that’s what counts, right?

A special thanks goes to Erufu, the psychopathic, schizophrenic, somewhat sociopath of a demonic pyro elf; for without her, none of this would have been possible!

Here are some good links for Kingdom Hearts II. They include reviews, interviews, screenshots, and random information...
- http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2003/1959.html
- http://gameboy.gamezone.com/news/09_26_03_12_34PM.htm

Kingdom Hearts 2/Deep Dive... I've Solved It...
(WARNING: May contain spoilers. It talks about the end of the game, and I don't want people to sue me...)


I have been staying up all night for weeks, doing searches online and watching trailers and cutscenes countless times...

And I think I have finally solved Deep Dive.


In Deep Dive, there are four "Unknowns..." The two in the world that looks like Traverse Town, and the two in the world that looks like End of the World.

The one on top of the building with the blindfold is believed to be Riku, and the "Dual Wielder" below is believed to be Sora, since one of the Keyblades looks remarkably like the Oathkeeper, and Sora would never give that to anyone since it was Kairi's gift to him.

The two in the other world... are the same people. They are Sora and Riku's 'shells'...
~

What is a shell, you ask?

In Ansem's Thirteenth Report, he states that "there must be another 'you' in another world..." (Visit www.riku.riddel.nu for Ansem's Reports and other theories on KH2.)

Now, he also mentions that this "other you" would only be mere 'shell' of the real you...

At the end of the report, he calls these shells the "Non-existant ones..."

In Deep Dive, there is a quote that says "The Third Enemy= Nobody. Who is nobody, you ask? They are the Non-existant ones..."

Therefor, the enemy must be the shells.

This gives us reason to believe that the Non-existant ones are either...
1) "Mind-controlled," in other words, mindless zombies perhaps controlled by the Heartless/Darkness.
2) The "Darkside" of the person.
3) Angry that they never knew about their counterparts, or that they are forced to live they way they do... if you could call it living. (Not likely, but it could happen. KH1 was weird enough so you never know...)
~

Now, there have been many arguments about when the Dual Wielder (perhaps Sora himself) says "Where's Sora?" If this Dual Wielder is, indeed, Sora, why would he ask for his own location?

If I can recall correctly, the Unknown in Final Mix said something about Sora being "incomplete..." Perhaps this means that he must find his counterpart in another world, his shell... (See Ansem Report Thirteen.)

So this leads us to believe that he was, indeed, talking about himself, only a different "him" if that makes any sense at all...
~

Of course, this doesn't explain why we see Sora at the Crossroads and flying over the sea...

Actually, I haven't really figured this one out yet... but they could be flashbacks to how Sora got where he is in Deep Dive... or perhaps since he got sepparated from Kairi at the end, there are really three Sora's, and one is simply the Sora existing on another plane of existance that keeps him the same as he was in the first game...
~

How did both Sora and Riku get to the same place?

Well, at the end of Kingdom Hearts, they were both at Kingdom Hearts... the only difference was, Riku was inside it and Sora wasn't. But technically, they were both there, as we can see in one of the cutscenes from Final Mix. We see Riku at the road where Sora was at the end of the game when he and Kairi got sepparated. But since he got there through Kingdom Hearts, perhaps he is on a different plane of existance...

Of course, this also leads to more questions...

At the end of Final Mix, Riku is behind Kingdom Hearts at the beginning of that long road. He begins to fade and says something along the lines of, "No, I can't go yet... I have to see them one more time..."

When Ansem possessed Riku, his heart was sent to Kingdom Hearts. Now, Riku doesn't have a body, so basically, he's dead.

In Deep Dive, if the two people are indeed Sora and Riku, wouldn't Riku be dead? Since he finally found Sora again, wouldn't he have become a Heartless? Maybe this explains the yellow-eyed Unknown in the place that looks like End of the World, and the reason the Unknown on the building is blindfolded... (Sorry to break it to you, fangirls... I know this can't be fun to hear... I know how you feel though... I am one of you, after all...)
~

Now... the quote... "He looks just like you..."

If the yellow-eyed Unknown is Riku, then this must have been said by Sora. (Look at Deep Dive if you are confused.) These two Unknowns, or shells as we have come to believe they are, don't seem to know of their counterparts, just as Sora had no clue until the Unknown battle in Final Mix.

So are these Unknowns just now discovering that there are other 'thems' out there? And they are surprised when they see someone who looks just like they do?
~

There are many other quotes from Deep Dive and Another Side, Another Story, that I have yet to decipher. Once I do, I'll post them here.

If you have any questions or theories, or just think I'm a complete nut, e-mail me at fishgurl@cinci.rr.com. I would be happy to argue with you if you think I'm wrong...

I'll put more in here if I think of anything, or you can visit http://s1.cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.asp?board=3080&topic=9572933
That's my message board... My username is Shinnoyami... look for my posts there.

By the way... KH2 should be coming out sometime fall of 2003... *Fangirls rejoice.*

Songs That Depress Me To No End

Some of these don't seem very depressing... but I'm special so I think differently...

"Always on My Mind" ~Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts)
"Simple and Clean (Full Japanese version)" ~Utada Hikaru (Kingdom Hearts)
"End of the World" ~Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts)
"Destati" ~Yoko Shimomura and Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus (Kingdom Hearts)
"Kairi (all three)" ~Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts)
"Fate of Awakening Love" ~Inuyasha
"Forever Rachel" ~Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VI)
"Aerith's theme" ~Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VI)
"Tina" ~Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VI)
"Bring Me to Life" ~Evanescence
"In the End" ~Linkin Park
"The Kids Aren't Alright" ~Offspring
"Wherever You Will Go" ~The Calling
"Kiss From A Rose" ~Seal
"Bed of Lies" ~Matchbox 20
"Crash and Burn" ~Savage Garden
"Six Feet From the Edge" ~Creed
"Are You Happy Now" ~Michelle Branch
"When I'm Gone" ~3 doors down
"I'm With You" ~Avril Lavigne
"Fallin'" ~Alicia Keys
"Fighter" ~Christina Aguilera
"Beautiful" ~Christina Aguilera
"Forgiven, Not Forgotten" ~The Corrs
"Rebel Heart" ~The Corrs

Ja ne.

Um... Hi?

I am Zai Jaganshi Shinkensu, Demon Princess of The Twilight Realms. Don't ask what I am, because I honestly don't know.

Okay, I've never done this before so I have no idea what I'm doing. This is sort of my "guinea pig" page. I'm just experimenting with stuff at the moment. I'll make it better, don't worry.

By the way, get used to Kuragari and Sumikiru. They often pop out of nowhere, and most of the time end up possessing me.

Kuragari is my Yami, or darkside. She's an evil, soul-eating water demon. She gets pissed off easily, so do not annoy her. *Growls.*

Sumikiru is my Sennyu, or fairy. She's also kind of my Chibi. She can be a fashion fanatic at times, and loves being pretty. She's a romanticist, so watch out for her mushiness.

And then, of course, there's me... Zai. I don't know what I am. All I know is that I'm dead... Don't ask... Just don't ask...

Anyway, I get depressed easily, so get used to it... or just don't bother.


Ja ne.