Unsung Heroes
Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X
A light in the dark
Kingdom Hearts has enjoyed a long reign of supremacy among RPG's and while it certainly isn't as popular as some more mainstream titles like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, it still measures up well when compared to them. Although it can be hella confusing sometimes, seriously even I, a committed fan, have trouble remembering who does what and why to whom.
So to add to that confusion Square have brought out a new smartphone title Kingdom Hearts Unchained X available for Android and IOS......in japan at least. Through some backdoor trickery I managed to get my hands on this title and I have to say its really fun.
KHUX takes place before the Keyblade war begins. An unknown Keyblade master gave a book to five of his six apprentices. This book, called the Foretellers script, details events that have yet to happen. The Foretellers script has the ability to summon warriors from previous kingdom hearts games as "Fragments" it also posses the ability to bring forth objects from the future as well.
You, the player, awaken as a fledgling keybalde wielder and are asked to pick a faction. One of the five named: Ursus, Anguis, Unicornus, Leopardus and Vulpus.
The aim of the game is to collect individual pieces of Light named Lux to sustain your chosen factions supremacy. These pieces of light are attained from defeated heartless.
The aim of the game is to collect individual pieces of Light named Lux to sustain your chosen factions supremacy. These pieces of light are attained from defeated heartless.
The beginning of the game is familiar to almost anyone who has played multiple Kingdom Hearts games, you awaken in dive to the heart and have to fend off the darkness. All pretty standard stuff.
Reading the script
The game itself is fairly easy to play a simple point and click game. Tap the screen to make your character move and do the same when in battle. While moving around in maps you can find shiny spots that provide you with upgrade materials for your key blade. The heartless also spawn on the map and when you get close you engage them in battle, battles are turn based and the heartless adhere to a certain specific ability, three attributes and one attribute is better than another. Strength, Magic and Speed. Strength beats Speed, Speed beats Magic and Magic beats Strength. So a sort of rock paper scissors system. Attacking with a "Card" that is the opposite of the enemy deals more damage.
I call them cards but you get medals in the game which include characters from all of the different KH games so far, even two bit characters who don't matter all that much become cards. These cards can be upgraded and putting them in certain slots in a deck can boost their power. Cards aren't the only thing that can be upgraded you can also upgrade each key blade you acquire into more powerful forms.
Your character can be upgraded as well, since I don't know the actual name for this bit I am gonna call it Style Paths. Style paths unlock various features such as giving your character more customisation options which include changing their hair or costume. You may find some of the costumes familiar. Familiar enemies and friends feature heavily in this game.
Finally you have the option to use up special points to buy more cards for your deck which have varying rarity the rarer they are the more powerful they become.
Even though the game is in Japanese its fairly intuitive and easy to pick up, even if you don't understand it. I find the best way to overcome a translation barrier is to try all your options and see what does what.
Our books are missing part of the story-The lost page. I found the traitor. I don't believe there is one among us. Are we all going to turn against one another? Its written on that page that one will betray all.
As usual, Kingdom Hearts choses to be overly cryptic in its message. The story of KHUX leads into the key blade war as each Union begins to hoard Lux (Light) it inevitably leads to conflict which is what starts the key blade war clearly. Interestingly however there is a clue to the "One will betray all" line. The original holder of the foretellers script gave the script to FIVE of his SIX apprentices and seeing as there are only five unions to chose from I think its safe to assume that the sixth apprentice had a hand in this. Bit of reading between the lines there.
Regardless this entry does the one thing that Kingdom Hearts is good at which is screwing with peoples heads, trying to place where this entry ties in. Given that KH III is the next release, well kind of what with KH 2.8, its safe to assume that it will expand a little more on that. After all we know what they're fighting over, the X-blade (Chi-blade some call it).
If you should have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, one day master of this blade you shall be.
I call them cards but you get medals in the game which include characters from all of the different KH games so far, even two bit characters who don't matter all that much become cards. These cards can be upgraded and putting them in certain slots in a deck can boost their power. Cards aren't the only thing that can be upgraded you can also upgrade each key blade you acquire into more powerful forms.
Your character can be upgraded as well, since I don't know the actual name for this bit I am gonna call it Style Paths. Style paths unlock various features such as giving your character more customisation options which include changing their hair or costume. You may find some of the costumes familiar. Familiar enemies and friends feature heavily in this game.
Finally you have the option to use up special points to buy more cards for your deck which have varying rarity the rarer they are the more powerful they become.
Even though the game is in Japanese its fairly intuitive and easy to pick up, even if you don't understand it. I find the best way to overcome a translation barrier is to try all your options and see what does what.
Our books are missing part of the story-The lost page. I found the traitor. I don't believe there is one among us. Are we all going to turn against one another? Its written on that page that one will betray all.
As usual, Kingdom Hearts choses to be overly cryptic in its message. The story of KHUX leads into the key blade war as each Union begins to hoard Lux (Light) it inevitably leads to conflict which is what starts the key blade war clearly. Interestingly however there is a clue to the "One will betray all" line. The original holder of the foretellers script gave the script to FIVE of his SIX apprentices and seeing as there are only five unions to chose from I think its safe to assume that the sixth apprentice had a hand in this. Bit of reading between the lines there.
One Will Betray All.......
One Of The Six.....
Regardless this entry does the one thing that Kingdom Hearts is good at which is screwing with peoples heads, trying to place where this entry ties in. Given that KH III is the next release, well kind of what with KH 2.8, its safe to assume that it will expand a little more on that. After all we know what they're fighting over, the X-blade (Chi-blade some call it).
If you should have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, one day master of this blade you shall be.
A fun little game KHUX but like many titles skipping it may lead to more confusion later down the line. Its an easy game to pick up and go despite language barriers and though there is some lag in the game as environments render its not taxing on the device, abilities are fun and flashy and its fun to experiment with what works best. The daily bonuses are good as well they give you a healthy amount of SP to spend to increase your card deck. Raid bosses are incredibly easy to kill as they have weak points which when exploited give you a whole turn, sometimes five, to deal more damage to them making for some very easy EXP ( I jumped 8 levels once).
Kingdom Hearts Unchained X also carries a lot of weight, it solves some issues surrounding the mystery that is the key blade war and expands on the universe as well.
If your looking for an easy but immersive game to just pick up and play then KHUX is defiantly one to invest in. I believe that the title is coming west so soon people can play it and understand it.
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