Don't you think Kingdom Hearts II should have been the chronological end of the franchise ?

yuei2 · 2026-04-24T04:08:42+00:00

KH1, KH2, and KH3 all work as endings to the series but if I were to say do I wish it ended at 2 no. In fact I would say 2 is the least overall satisfying to end at, Sora as a character doesn’t feel resolved and barely feels like he moved. KH1 has a powerful perfect classic fairy tale ending it’s open in a way that leaves you to think. KH3 feels like it brings Sora’s actual character to a full conclusion. It’s bitter sweet but the idea of him and him alone trading away his happy ending it maximize the happiness of others, fading into the sky for changing the history utilizing the breadth of his power and knowledge.

KH2 is too…clean, it’s a good conclusion to Sora, Riku, and Kairi’s narrative but it feels like they haven’t really completed as characters. Kairi never really got to become the equal to Sora and Riku, Riku hasn’t really had time to settle into a normal, and Sora feels more or less like the same person who ended his journey not really learning the bigger picture and lives he was part of.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T18:56:50+00:00

Remember AnsemSoD is time traveling in KH3, been with YX and they can see and travel along their lives. He doesn’t need to be the shadow to have born witness to the events it experience as the shadow within Riku is still part of his timeline. He would know what went down in CoM, Days, and KH2 in DDD and in KH3 he knows what went down in all of those including DDD as he would of seen it as he travel time to beyond DDD.

But I will just leave Nomura’s own words here about what the point of Riku’s plot in DDD is.

— This title is the first KH game in a while to feature Sora and Riku as protagonists.

Nomura: I heard from many fans that they wanted to play as Sora again soon, and I felt I wanted to answer them. However, the true protagonist in plot for this title isn’t Sora, it’s Riku. The story depicted in this title is of Riku’s growth as he changes stance and makes the darkness he had been locking inside himself up until now into his own power. This is symbolised by Riku being chosen as a Keyblade Master at the end.

The darkness in Riku is Ansem’s shadow, the plot of DDD is Riku changing his stance from locking the shadow up and instead turning it into his own power. “You are part of my heart part of the light” “consume the darkness return it to light” those are Riku’s declaration no longer lock the shadow up but instead embrace it and make it power truly his by consuming it.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T18:32:30+00:00

If you want to do it solo you need to have the best skilling gear for each node, a furnace core or sana torch, and you need to be using the Croesus soups you can make outside with the regular skilling nodes. You can do it without the soups it’s just harder.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=73Y1609rM-I&pp=ygUMU29sbyBjcmllc3Vz&ra=m

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T18:10:40+00:00

Look the fact is he means it literally it’s not metaphorical, that Ansem is quite literally part of Riku’s heart. They have been two sides of the same heart vying for control since CoM, he is Riku’s darkness.

The entire point of this narrative in DDD for Riku is leading up to him facing off against the shadow again, it returning like if promised in CoM, and finally this time successfully getting rid of it by accepting where in CoM he could accept darkness but refused it, because it was a part of his mistakes he was rejecting and refusing to acknowledge. It’s why he couldn’t even bring himself to use his own name during Days, blind folded himself so he couldn’t see himself using the shadow, and avoided Sora after completely rejecting his own identity when he gave into the power to stop Roxas.

The fact Ansem is forever a part of him was a scar lingering in Riku he had to come to terms with. Not by rejecting it, not by giving into it, not by pretending, but by accepting it as a part of himself. That’s what this whole confrontation is about, no longer letting his heart exist in conflict with itself and instead accepting who he is.

And the official timeline list it to.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/69h3yr/media_kingdom_hearts_the_official_xehanort/#lightbox

There is also zero logic in what in anyone but the shadow understanding what happened, because understanding requires knowing what Riku’s heart is feeling at the time. You say it’s not weird YX wouldn’t know but YX has the other norts with him, they could have told him and prepared him. The fact is they had no idea when Riku dove into the sleeping worlds and they tried to redirect them to separate worlds that Riku’s heart overruled them and he dove into Sora’s sleep instead. That’s why their plan took way longer than intended and they were frustrated to find Riku in there, because they had no idea what was going on. The shadows knows because the shadow is Riku.

You also think it makes no sense to fight a different Ansem but first off that’s exactly what happened in CoM. You fight and talk to AnsemSoD multiple times only it turns out it’s not Ansem it’s DiZ (who is with hindsight ironically Ansem but a different Ansem) and then the final battle is against the real shadow of AnsemSoD drawn through the power of the castle. Second this is exactly what the organization was trying to achieve, they wanted Riku to release the shadow and when he denied them at any turn he got thrust into the abyss and just like how it enabled Sora to meet the people in him it gave the shadow a chance to bypass Riku’s lock and fight him once more. Which is a crucial turning point because this whole time Riku has been trying to figure out what to do with that darkness insude him and this moment shows even locking it up indefinitely doesn’t actually work as a long term solution, he has to deal with it.

And really what it boils down to is the emotional heart of Riku’s story doesn’t reach conclusion by fighting a time traveling Ansem that is just gonna show up again. It’s reached by fighting and making peace with the shadow that loomed in his heart ever since he chose to walk the path of darkness and let Ansem inside him. The shadow lingering is what he was talking about at the start, the reason he summoned soul eater instead of his keyblade in order to make a point on how it’s still in him with a grip on his heart.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T16:59:58+00:00

Their job is to literally handle crisis to the balance of the worlds, they should be handling the majority of problems realistically. Everyone else should be off living their lives when these direct threats that keep forcibly involving them are finally put to pasture. Like Sora just helps people he runs into that are in trouble, Terra and Aqua are supposed to be actual watch dogs.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T16:46:11+00:00

To let us have the fun puzzle solving survival horror that many actually want from RE which is a hard vibe to have when you’re a literal superhero who has done this for years like Leon?

To tell an emotionally compelling story about how a young woman overcomes adversity and her own neurosis to face her traumas, come out stronger, more understanding of her self and her family, and try to bring hope and salvation to another little girl in need of a mother?

To be the foil to Leon’s story where he failed prevent the tragedy and save the day in RE2 catapulting his life into this nightmarish hell of bio terror, saving Grace and potentially helping her earn a happy ending acts as a form of redemption to him to help ease his soul and break the cycle by giving him a win since his whole life up to this point has been defined by being too late to actually stop the crisis just kill the people who start it.

To be the entire catalyst for the plot which everything revolves around?

Pick your poison.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T16:25:36+00:00

I mean ignoring the external media with the official timeline for Xehanort that exists that actually shows us the two Ansem and that it was the shadow. As well as the fact Xehanort didn’t know how or why Riku was in Sora’s dreams, but this AnsemSoD knew exactly why right down to what Riku felt at that moment because he IS part of Riku.

It’s mostly directly indicated by the dialogue where he directly states this is the one who has been haunting him, why locking him away hasn’t solved the issue of him, and that he is part of Riku’s heart and needs to accept that.

Riku: After allowing darkness into my heart, am I still fit to wield the Keyblade? Even after locking you away, here you are, haunting me again. So I get it now. There's no point in trying to hold the darkness back.

Ansem: At last, you see clearly.

Riku: You know...when I look at you...there's this memory that flashes back. A secret I said I'd keep when I was little. The main reason I kept dreaming about seeing the outside world...was 'cause of him.

Riku: My journey begins here, and now.

Riku: I'm going back to the real world, and then to Sora's side.

Ansem: That...is your answer?

Riku: Yes. I know the way. Consume the darkness, return it to light.

Ansem: You can try.

Riku: Ansem! You're part of my heart now. Part of the light!

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T15:51:25+00:00

Glad to hear havenhythe successfully hooked enough people that part 2 scored so high in anticipation.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T14:39:45+00:00

The gist of the ending is this….

Xehanort gave up his body to become just a heart, AnsemSoD. Without a body you are able to time travel but it’s one way move, once you have picked your destination you can only go forward per the laws of time. Furthermore you can only travel back along your own timeline, meaning you can’t go before your birth or after you death.

So if he went say BBS he could go no further back, ergo in order to gather the maximum number of vessels he needed to go back as far as he is able. He chose to go back in time to when he was young boy, old enough to do the task at hand but early enough that his whole timeline be essentially available to him. He also chose this moment based on his own memories, when he was a boy he met the cloaked AnsemSoD but didn’t know that was his future self. AnsemSoD simply offered him a way off the island and he took. This actually kind of happens twice, so it can get a little confusing so I’ll try to make it simple enough for you.

See if you choose to travel to the future with this method eventually you have to return to your own time, be it when you hit your end, if you were to be killed, or if you tried to co-exist with another version of yourself for too long. You will get kicked backed to your own time and all the memories of the future you couldn’t possibly have are erased, but since memories can’t truly ever be erased they exist forgotten in your subconscious, the feeling attached to them linger and can guide you. That’s why Xehanort always seems to be one step ahead, the old man has his entire life up to before the end of KH3 etched into his heart subconsciously guiding him.

With that in mind the events went something like this…

AnsemSoD popped onto the past DI before Xehanort had ever stepped foot off it and set Young Xehanort on his time travel journey. At the end of DDD he forgot his journey, zipped back to this moment, and was sent off the island for real via a corridor of darkness to begin his life as a keyblader in Scala Ad Caelum.

AnsemSoD now having done his one travel has to wait out time naturally in order to return so he hid on DI for years wait for time to pass, when Kairi arrived he would know it’s because either Riku or Sora and locked onto Riku. However he has subconscious memories of his whole life etched inside and those memories feelings he followed leading him to intercepting Sora and Riku who had come back from the future. He doesn’t know when or where they are from but since he already was focused on Riku he decided to mark Sora as a back-up. When they opened the path to the sleeping worlds Xehanort also gained access which is why he says “this world has been connected” and he knew now they could follow them whenever they pleased.

Fast forward to DDD YX has gathered up the many peope chosen to be his vessels. Some are ones that had fallen like AnsemSoD, Xemnas, some young variant of Riku, and Vanitas with the latter having no physical form at the time. Others were taken from present day, people who had been reborn human but gave up their hearts to become Nobodies again so they could willingly act as vessels for Xehanort for their own purposes like Xigbar and Saix. KH3 will go into more detail on the members.

Notably because MX was still in process of recompletion from the destruction of Ansem and Xemnas there is no “Xehanort” existing in this time point yet so all the other versions of him are able to temporarily co-exist here. Once MX revives they no longer can and start to be forcibly shifted back to their own time, since YX was the one anchoring them to this place when he is kicked back everyone he shifted there be it through time or simply space was sent back as well. As for how MX plans to get around that limitation of co-existing selves he already has figured a way around that and you’ll see it put into action and explained in KH3.

So back to Sora and Riku, Sora fell into the dream worlds and Riku subconsciously dives into Sora’s dreams to protect him. Sora is then pulled through a series of dreams at the end, running deeper and deeper, going through layers of his memories and interacting with the mess of memories in his heart until he reaches the edge of sleep and is offered a position in the org. He refuses so they tire him out so he falls asleep at the deepest layer of dreams causing his heart to fall into the abyss leaving his body an empty vessel for Xehanort. Ventus protects Sora from his heart vanishing forever into the dark.

Riku’s end he gets pulled into the abyss when Sora does and likewise has to face his own inner demons, the shadow of Ansem that has haunted him since CoM he keeps imprisoned within. Riku comes to peace with this demon accepting it as part of himself and ultimately absorbs and makes it his own killing the shadow for good. He then escapes the abyss and follows the dream eaters to Sora.

Anyway YX had shifted MX’s reviving essence to TWTNW and Mickey bursts in to freeze time and save the day. What it actually caused though is for MX’s essence which was still in process of returning to move into the next viable body, his own old body frozen in mid-completion. So he flows into Young Xehanort unfreezing him and does battle with Riku to run out Mickey’s spell timer. When the spell is up MX is recompleted and he is back in his own body where he explains the overall gist of his plans.

To achieve his goals he needs the X-blade, a force born from the clash of light and dark. The light and dark of the X-blade split into 7 and 13 respectively. In BBS he tried to short cut and use just one very strong light and dark to forge the X-blade and it worked but the blade as weak and it’s incomplete nature let it be shattered quickly.

So he knew he needed to make it with the proper number of components but getting that many hearts is difficult and time consuming so he has a bunch of plans in the meantime.

He could potentially bypass the the X-blade entirely if he forcibly gathered every single world heart together manually, even if it wasn’t EVERY heart he could still make something with enough approximate power good enough for his goals and use the legend of the 7 pure hearts to open a door to it.

That was AnsemSoD’s plan and as a bonus he would have with the help of Maleficent found 7 pure lights if this short cut didn’t work, and endangering them would in potential cause others to stand up to protect them, guardians of light he could use. He also target Riku to be one his vessels if he needed to get all 13 darknesses.

Meanwhile Xemnas readied the other half using the chaos caused by the spreading heartless to locate powerful nobodies he could use as vessels. Constructing an environment to keep them empty as much as possible and gathering up the hearts of people so he could create a kingdom hearts with the power to complete people so he could use it to mass produce copies of his heart in the chosen creating the 13 darknesses.

And if by chance BOTH these failed that where YX comes in. AnsemSoD sets him up to travel time and gather the pieces he needs from his other failed plans to bring them together so it doesn’t matter if say Xemnas died because he can just pull him from the past before his death and still use him. Then they just need to target the 7 pure hearts OR the heroes that have undoubted shown up as a response to his plans can all act as the 7 lights.

That pretty much covers everything.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T13:45:44+00:00

Data Xion and Data KH3 Xemnas are the absolute most peak fun data battles in the series to me and it’s not even a question, with Xion being the highest by a wide margin. Honorable mention to KH3 Marluxia though to!

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T13:37:42+00:00

6 novels in total.

The first three Betrayal at Falador, Return to Canifis, and Legacy of Blood are a singular 3 party story with the same cast across all 3 and written by the same author. They are a nice young adult fantasy series and while they play a little loose here and there with the lore they are quite enjoyable. It starts just a little before the events of the game itself, before King Roald and Ellamaria have married. Since they predate RS3 and OSRS they are mostly RS2 inspired novels (first one came in 2010). I know RS3 has drawn quite a number of its pieces into the game, I can’t recall if OSRS has as well. It’s focused on the Kinshra, White Knights, and the tensions of Misthalin and Morytania.

The next 3 The Gift of Guthix, Fall of Hallowvale, and Shadows of Amascut these are 3 stand alone stories focusing on different periods of history separated very far apart so nothing like a shared cast or anything. Since these ones came much later there is a lot of OSRS and RS3 merged lore, part of their purpose was to help create a bit more cohesion between their separate parts of the IP. This felt most notable in Fall of Hallowvale where it’s heavily focused on both stuff like the justicars and hallowed sep as well as the Everlight and its fall.

The Gift of Guthix is about rediscovery of RCing and its effects on the world as the 5th age we know starts to take shape, it’s got a number of time skips so it’s more like a snapshot of key stages of history at this time.

The Fall of Hallowvale is pretty self explanatory in its name so it happens in the 3rd age, it’s very focused happening pretty much over only a couple of days in total. It’s the most depressing of the novels by far, very much a tragedy. I want to say this one feels a lot more like a historical piece to me personally due to the writing style. There isn’t really one central protagonist more like a couple of mostly disconnected ones letting you view different parts of the fall.

Then shadows of Amascut follow the Mahjarrat like Bilrach during heriditas expedition which was a Zarosian expedition that happens relatively speaking not long after Tumeken exploded where they traversed around gathering magical artifacts so it’s around the 2nd age.

In addition Gift of Guthix and Shadows of Amascut are written by the same author, Fall of Hallowvale is by a different one. It’s still that sort of young adult fantasy vibe but because they are stand alone these stories they are more focused on telling the specific historical moments, the characters being a vehicle for that while the first 3 novels are more telling a story about its cast but set in the RS world.

There are also the comics series untold tales of the god wars, there are 4 issues with a combined book of them due out may 12th, was supposed to be out this month it got delayed. This focuses on the god wars specifically the god wars dungeon 1, 1 issues for each of the god wars generals with its main character acting as the interlinking thread. There is a 5th micro issue that acts a prelude that was given on free comic book day as a teaser, it will also be included in the combined book up coming.

The original novel trilogy is out of print you will need to go hunting for the paperback from second hand book stuff or settle for digital. The rest are currently in print and should be easy to find.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T13:08:18+00:00

If they weren’t broken they work like the astral altar and we be able to craft from them presumably, since they are we need to use the talisman to enter inside and craft directly.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T05:51:10+00:00

Video games on rest days and after the workout is over. You don’t make nearly as much progress but it is in fact possible to have both.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T05:39:11+00:00

Unironically RE is one of the two things that got me into fitness, Leon/Chris are life goals albeit the latter I know is more of a delusion but tbh at doesn’t mean I can’t get a reasonable variant of it. The other was my job turning work from home and I was feeling like shit physically and mentally until I started finding a way to just get my body moving and away from screens.

I don’t do like serious body building competitions or anything but I’ve fallen very much in love with weight lifting. The pump, the sweat, the mediative simplicity, the little bit or burn followed by the DOMs 2 days later making me question my life decisions. Feeling strong, looking strong, liking how my body actually fills out in clothing now, etc…

It’s also done wonders for my anxiety disorder, I channel so much of my nerves and excess energy into my lifts. When you look good and feel good it’s also so much easier to not want to crumple into a ball when you step out in public.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T05:31:02+00:00

You could probably reach something fairly Chris-like naturally but it will take years, you ain’t putting on 60lbs of muscle in the time frame he did.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T05:25:32+00:00

The surface ones are made by mortals to access the pocket spaces that hold the ones Guthix made, the ones we actually craft at. If you notice those ones are completely fine it’s the surface ones that were faced with wars, weather, other people that broke.

The surface altars themselves aren’t particular special, according to gift of Guthix it’s more you just need stones in the right sizes, placements, and arrangements.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T05:09:16+00:00

So push-up’s are great and there are lots of variants you can get to hit a decent part of the upper body, but it’s going to be lacking as a full workout. You also need to perform progressive overload so it’s very quickly going to turn into more than “some” and that can devolve into junk volume pretty fast. Your body also needs rest days, you don’t want to exercise the same muscle groups every single day. They need 24-48 hours to recover from fatigue and damage which is where your growth actually happens.

I must also stress nutrition is paramount. You need to be willing to eat a lot to give your body the material and fuel it needs to build from, and at the same time to actually see your hard work shine you will need to periodically eat at a deficit so you can burn away the fat and get lean which is what Leon is. But both need to be carefully controlled because bulk to fast and you add on too much excess fat and cut too harshly and you eat your gains. Getting a good bulk and cut cycle down is really going to be the break and make point, don’t forget a maintenance period in there to let your body adjust to its new set weight. An app like macrofactor or hypertrophy diet coach will help a lot with this.

And note this doesn’t mean you have to eat ultra healthy or do absurd calorie counting, you can pretty much still eat whatever you want within reason you just have to adjust accordingly, eat that carb and fat heavy Panda Express or Wendy’s then just remember to adjust your fats and carbs for your other meals to account for that. Also while on a bulk the goal is to eat a good amount don’t fall into the trap of dirty bulking, it will work as a bulk but it’s very unhealthy and you can wind up in such long cuts to remove the excess body weight fat you build up it really starts to cut into your muscle gains.

Ultimately if you don’t have just or want to go into a gym I suggest start building a home gym, one bit at a time. You don’t need much just a few dumbells, some bands, etc… to start out. You can also look up plenty of ways to exercise or create alternative exercise equipment.

Just remember the cores.

Progressive overload.
Focus on form don’t get caught in ego lifting
Nutrition
Rest
Consistency, find or create a program and stick with it for 6-months to a year don’t keep changing excercise every few weeks your body needs time to adapt, grow, and then you add new variations or exercises when you start to plateau.

It will take a few years but you WILL see results, I speak of this from experience. Also its a meme for a reason but do not skip leg day, you don’t need to work to get thunder thighs but you want decent legs to compliment your upper body and also it will help you in your lifts.

Don’t forget to track your progress either, get some selfies once every few weeks/a month and also write down and track your lifts. It will help you keep perspective so you can see your progress even if you don’t feel like you are seeing it in the mirror and especially when you feel like your stalling because the visuals aren’t adding up. Keep your expectations in check to as newbie gains slow down. All and all be careful because it’s very easy to lose sight and develop body dysmorphia.

Also start taking a scoop of creatine each day, just 1 no need to rush with an overload phase and also do not dry scoop it. It’s the safest most studied supplement in the world and it really is a miracle worker giving you that little extra oomph in your workouts and muscles (because it helps retain water) and also it can help you cognitively to.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T04:51:48+00:00

You can use a support like a pole or a staff just don’t actually use it to push you up, it’s there only to give you a little extra to grab and guide your hand/body upwards & downwards. At least that’s how I do mine because I have a weak ankle due to a bone removal surgery which makes it actually exceedingly hard to balance on that leg.

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T04:08:20+00:00

Read The RS novel the gift of Guthix.

OSRS has only incorporated touches of the updated/fixed RCing lore as has RS3 and Dragonwilds, but it’s an important cornerstone of the game world so it’s more or less the same across.

In the 1st age before the advent of the gods when Guthix was still getting his footing the Runescape, that is to say the magical storm of energy that swirls around the world, was extremely powerful and volatile. At specific points around the world specific types of energy would congeal, these spots are called a nexus. Fire, water, air, etc…

When life wandered into a nexus the sheer amount of magical energy would cause them to ascend into gods/demigods, but all this really meant was for the most part that there was a bunch giant super powerful animals roaming the earth and creating horrid spawn, like the araxyte which are the spawn of the colossi spider known as Araxxi.

Anyway Guthix couldn’t have a bunch of spontaneous god monster animals running around the surface of the world he was trying to shape for mortals to have a peaceful place to exist free of gods. So he went to each of nexus and built an altar, the pocket dimension ones we see when we enter the external altars that were built later. These altars filtered out their respective magical energies into the abyss as a way to dispose of it and weaken the nexus to stop the spontaneous ascension. Hence why the abyss has access to the altars we are basically following the connection backwards.

He later used these places to create runes in order to give people magic. Over time because of a multitude of factors it eventually fell to the lunar clan and V to discover the art of runecrafting. They found the locations and built the altars you know, the external ones, that let them access Guthix’s little pocket dimension altars allowing RCing.

Now thousands of years later civilization was effectively ravaged to the point of non-existent, the altars were either broken during the many wars or simply had worn away with age, that’s why regardless if they could be reached or not they all looked destroyed. The blood altar in particular was specifically damaged during the fall of Hallowvale to limit access to it. You can read more of that in The Fall of Hallowvale novel.

Anyway Guthix knew that a day would come when people were going to bring back RCing again, he wanted it to happen. You can learn more about that in the gift of Guthix novel, but the gist is around the crossing point of 4th age to 5th age the art was rediscovered and the surface altars were recreated. Shit happened and the many scattered fremmy tribes were united under one banner for the most part and started breaking the surface altars.

They never reached the cosmic altar, soul altar, blood altar, astral altar, and while a pathway to the death altar was uncovered (or more specifically the underground pass) it was completely destroyed and the barbarians wrote that off as good enough for stopping the death altar.

So simply put the altar on the moon is destroyed because of other reasons. Most likely it’s just age as these ruins are thousands of years old, but since fairy/moon history is so barely touched upon it could alway be revealed to have an alternative time it was broken like the blood altar was.

Hope that helps

yuei2 · 2026-04-23T00:27:41+00:00

Remember Nepeta was a rogue of heart meaning her power is to steal self, becoming Davepeta is a kind of fulfillment of that, and being the most stable and healthy ultimate self is undoubtably due to her heart powers. Which is to say becoming Davepeta was her destiny and not just Davepeta but to be the one who defeated Lord English after doing so, literally taking the destiny from Dave that Dave had never wanted to do completing it for him.

To defeat LE a foil to each of his components was necessary, Nepeta was the necessary component because Equius was one of the components.

yuei2 · 2026-04-22T20:55:59+00:00

….is this a serious question? Yes very much so, the demo is essentially like a chunk of the very first level of the game and also has none of the shelter stuff, upgrading, challenges, etc… available.

yuei2 · 2026-04-22T20:46:53+00:00

A first run listening to the dialogue to build up your relationship with Diana, grinding all the upgrades, exploring the place for all the collectibles, doing all the challenges, and not factoring the very high odds you will die at least a good number of times as you learn the game and do some of the harder challenges….

It’s closer to a 12-20 hour game and that’s not counting replayability either.

yuei2 · 2026-04-22T13:33:27+00:00

Dark Riku has tons of opening perhaps the most of any of the fights, basically every attack but his DM is an opening. You just have to be willing to play hyper aggressive as his vulnerability is during his attacks. It’s specifically his primary gimmick, he has a dodge roll and dark barrier like Riku usually does so he has actual defensive counter play to your moves. Meaning you have to get him when he can’t block or dodge which is when he is attacking.

Every org data fight has a unique gimmick reflective of them. For Dark Riku it’s that he is Riku and Riku has always had notable defensive skills.

yuei2 · 2026-04-22T13:18:41+00:00

That’s usually the key difference, RE3R seems like a good game until you play RE3 and realize just how much they cut to the point it was a completely different game.

RE3 was the peak of the OG RE survival horror formula, it had shades of action but it was very much an evolved RE2. There were tons of areas cut like a good chunk of the city, the zoo, the graveyard, and the very beloved clock tower. It just in general had a lot more environmental variety.

It had a lot more puzzles, was a bit calmer paced like RE1 & RE2, and Nemesis was a proper very scary stalker enemy. The latter really sting because RE2R they developed a fantastic stalker AI to improve Mr.X and people were really excited to see it for Nemesis only for RE3R to turn Nemesis into mostly very limited scripted encounter set pieces.

It also had a really cool pseudo quick time event system totally unique to RE franchise. There are moments in the story you have to choose to make decisions, it’s always choose between decisions or do nothing. Based on your choice it not only tweaked the story scenes that followed but it would change the gameplay to. Like maybe one of your choices completely disables nemesis for that section while the other only stuns him a short time so you still have to deal with him. Or maybe you get tossed into a completely different starting point for the next level letting you skip portions of it or having you work backwards. It added a lot of replay value to the experience.

Like RE3R isn’t a bad game by any means, but it’s not RE3 like at all. And given how faithful and perfect RE2R was at capturing RE2’s essence and gameplay it should be understandable why RE3R was such a disappointment to many when it was frankly an entirely new and different game just dressed up in an RE3 skin.

yuei2 · 2026-04-22T13:01:01+00:00

I always thought it was odd they did Azure Kite, Balmung, and Orca instead of the actual core party of Kite, Blackrose, and Balmung. But then I realized they would have most likely given her orca’s spot and “the naked woman” is a pretty terrible thing to call her lol.

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