BlackOsprey

aww cmon, I hope I didn't bring up any bad memories, have I? xD

OSPREY I'M DYINGGGGGGG

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I still can't get what I did to Spockanort out of my head. It's been so long and yet the burden feels so young. I'm sorry if Im being a little melodramatic or cheesy or anything, but I don't think I can come back. At least, just for this one time. My efforts at penance don't seem to work out at all. You're all better off without my arrogant ass.

I won't deny that such things can and do happen in RL mainly because people in general have apparently difficulties not only in talking things out and communicate, but also a certain inability or unwillingness to hear out all sides of the problematic situation in question before casting a judgement.
In TAV's case, Aqua was way too quick to jump to conclusions and instead of actually explaining things she just left the things she said standing until Terra's reaction showed her that he took it totally the wrong way (which again, due to how it was said it was not rocket science to take it the wrong way).
Terra on the other hand did nothing to explain how he was following the same goals in different ways and didn't inform Aqua of any of the important things he had learned by then like i.e. Vanitas and the origin of the Unversed (maybe because Ven was present and Terra didn't want to have him hear it too, but those worries were certainly misplaced in that situation).
Or in short, Terra did nothing to actually diffuse the concerns Aqua had instead acting like an insulted teenager of 14/15 rather than someone who's supposedly 19/20.
And Ventus, well, he was just confused and didn't even understand the whole context (one has to just look at his expressions to see that), so instead of directly instinctively siding with Terra maybe he should just have kept his naive little mouth shut to not further escalate things.

Yea, the whole story writing of BBS is highly stupid in this regard and certainly doesn't make Xehanort look good and actually competent. Except of course if he also secretly has a degree in psychology and can already completely see through people's personalities after just a few meetings. *sarcasm*
Of course, looking at how things are going right now, the writing might eventually handwave that with the "revelation" that Xehanort has a copy of the Book of Prophecies and all this was "destinied" to happen in exactly the way it did, hence Xehanort just playing it all out like an actor does a script for a movie/theatre piece.
Certainly an underwhelming and dissatisfying explanation, but sadly a viable one by now.

Oh well, little kid Sora's hairstyle is also a lot less "spiky" than teenage Sora's, isn't it?
In general though this "toned-down"-cut is very similar to how Nomura portrays both Ven and Roxas in his current drawing style like i.e. the Orchestra sketches.
The spikes of his hair are also toned down on his awakening platform compared to the in-game models.

Lol, 4.0 collection. diddly your math games, Nomura.
I haven't yet touched it at all, too much to do otherwise and I also catched a cold, blegh.
I did notice the complaining threads blossoming up though, lol, and had I made a bet about it I could probably made much money as the ones filing complaints there were exactly the users I suspected would do this. ;P

The Foretellers (except Aced, who's a giant, and Ira, who's "normal" adult in size) are also not exactly the tallest and both Ava and Gula can be easily mistaken for taller than they actually are due to the ears from their masks sticking upwards.

Well, memories are immortal, this is something we know since Chain of Memories. Worlds (and presumably even objects) can have memories too, as Xion was "absorbing" memories the worlds have of Sora in her final battle with Roxas, that was the function of these "devices" that were placed earlier and in Re: Coded we learned that even Jiminy's Journal has "memories" of sorts as Data-Naminé explained that the pages turned blank due to her manipulation of Sora's memories because of the journals connection with Sora and it having its own memories being proven when Mickey & co. could render the contents of the journal as data despite the pages being blank, because they were still there, just not visible.
Plus, who is to say that Sora and Xehanort are the only ones to have memories and/or hearts of others inside their own hearts? The ability itself isn't unique, it's just that very few people use it so Ventus having somehow memories inside him that aren't entirely his own is not that farfetched.
In Sora's case it is the way how he freely and effortlessly uses it without even truly comprehending it which brings about the uniqueness, just like Zexion exclaimed that "no one has ever used Darkness the way he does!" about Riku.
For the "ancestor"-thing though, how probable is it that his ancestor had the exact same name as him and used the exact same manners of speech? Grandpa Ventus sr and "our" Ventus is actually Ventus jr?
But then again, the "Ventus" we as the audience see could just be a projection inside those memories and the actual person they belong to could look differently.

Indeed, Nomura stating something this clear without any vagueness usually is an indicator that he means what he says, ergo no Master-Coaty trollfest in KH III.
The Master thus could certainly be part of a setup for the next saga, also when I think of things like Back Cover and Gula's resolve to find/summon the Master.
The way he wanted to go about it is absolutely axe-crazy, but one could tell by the voice acting that he wasn't acting out of greed or lust for power, but out of desperation.

That's maybe because the MoM didn't do anything truly overtly evil until now and isn't a total uncaring scumbag like Xehanort. Even if he is a villain, he's a funny and entertaining one (like Braig/Xigbar) and Xehanort, due to all the efforts of the different hero groups so far only stalling him a little at best, may also have way overstayed his welcome for many fans by now.

Heh, the X-blade did get mentioned once in the whole mess and that was, surprise, yet again in a Nomura-interview concerning Unchained X/Back Cover where he reveals that the MoM knows of the thing and uses it as an "inspiration" to create his own Keyblades.
However, that the war was fought "over the X-blade" may also be just a guess/assumption by Xehanort and the truth may be different as the whole thing is after all, a legend by the time of the present series.
Yen Sid if I recall correctly only ever speaks about the X-blade being KH's counterpart and that it "shattered" at the very end of the war, he never backed up Xehanort's claim about the war being fought over it and even if it was, the regular Keykids (who were, let's face it, just cannon fodder anyways) did not know about it.
Complicating the whole thing is also that we never see the actual end of the Keyblade War itself.
What we do see in Browser-Chi are the opening stages of the war with the player avatar participating, but instead of fighting (and slaughtering) other Keykids, he/she faces four of five Foretellers, the arguably most powerful beings on the battlefield, then collapses and the only further things shown are more hearts floating upwards and dead Keyblades raining down as more and more Keykids fall.
The scene then makes a jump to the aftermath of the War with the Player Avatar still lying there and shortly after Skuld and Ephemer show up and I dare to assume that the single scene with Luxu in 0.2 is also a part of the aftermath.
The war is already over, but we do not see any of the development outside of the events involving the player avatar that may involve the X-blade after all like i.e. the actual fate of the Foretellers. Did they slay each other as the last five standing? Did they fall one after the other until only two of them were left? Did those two then kill each other at the same time? Did some Keykids gang up on one or more Foretellers? If one was left standing in the end it would imply a victor was found (which Ira explicitly wanted to prevent), so who vanquished that last Foreteller standing then?
Or perhaps, that last standing Foreteller DID try to summon/forge the X-blade in order to get at Kingdom Hearts, but somehow messed up and shattered the X-blade by accident?
Maybe something entirely different happened and the actual "forces of Darkness" that were hiding the whole time and manipulating stuff from behind the scenes finally appeared when only a single Foreteller was left? Perhaps to get the "prize" in the form of X-blade/KH and finishing off the last survivor while gloating about how they played each of them like fiddles?
(And Luxu's watching the whole time and can't interfere...brrr).
Possibilities, Possibilities everywhere.
And I realize I am rambling so I should stop.

Of course, of course, the 0.2 opening made the missed opportunities and the potential that BBS had and didn't use even more blatant. <__<
And yet it reminded me why I love those three characters in the first place despite all the glaring flaws of BBS proper.
Playing idiot-ball should be prohibited in further KH storytelling as it makes by extension also the villains look bad because their plans go off without fail only due to plot demands, not because of their own intelligence and cunning.
Seriously, I can understand by now why some fans call Xehanort a villain sue, as so far he really has always "won" to a degree and all the efforts of the heroes (regardless which group) only temporarily derailed his plans instead of truly stopping him.

Yea, it was also teased by him like no one's business ever since he made that special card for Browser Chi's 3rd anniversary.
Y'know, by now I am almost convinced that this look Ven has in Union Cross is how he was actually supposed to look like during the Flashback scenes four years before BBS proper.
If one looks closely he does have his windswept blond spikes, they're just a little shorter, less "nuanced" and a little different due to X's cutesy art style.
In the "regular" art style he might actually look more akin to what his appearance on his initial awakening platform is:

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Speaking of it, I'm actually wondering if they corrected this for the PS4 version of 2.5 as it was a more glaring error in the PS3 to use the final platform.

Yep, isn't 11year-old Ven totally cute? ^__^
And he's not even that much smaller than Ephemer, so maybe Ephemer is also younger than we thought so far?

Also, omg these fanartists are soo good, lol, I love MMD:
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This is certainly possible as well, as we do already have info that KH III will in no way still hit shelves in 2017 and that they're still not satisfied with the look of the new models.
The whole chi-era becoming more and more of a KH III setup is actually worrying me as well to quite a degree because we strictly spoken already have a setup.
Blank Points + the ending of Re: Coded + Dream Drop Distance + 0.2 = KH 3 Setup.

I'll be honest when I say that I actually hope that the chi-era is more of a setup for the next saga and gets only rudimentary influence on KH III's own story.
The mysteries of the Keyblade War serve as a motivator and fuel for the ambitions of Xehanort and all the bad things and chaos this man has caused should be the main thing to resolve in KH III alongside rescuing those trapped in fates worse than death.
Save delving deeper into the mysteries of the X-chi era for later I'd say.

The Foretellers for example, while certainly not villains per se, could certainly make somewhat interesting reluctant antagonists for the next saga. Not evil sociopathic scumbags like Xehanort was, but the relateable, sympathetic opponents some fans already suggested for the next primary antagonists.

I see, yeah indeed, in a restaurant depending on what shift one has and how much traffic there is free time can become very limited.

Somehow I wish we'd had something similar to this in the actual BBS to better showcase how close TAV are supposed to be.

Heh, I assume that "feeling confused" is exactly what Nomura is aiming for with this and to get the fandom theories rolling in what this means for Ventus as a character and what this means in regards to the connection with the story of KH III and how it ties the two eras together.
While I admit that I still dislike the prospect the possibility that Ven truly originates in the past has increased, although I certainly won't treat it as confirmed just yet.
Nomura is known to throw a curveball sometimes and Ven's involvement in this might be much more "complex" (or convoluted) than what is currently shown.

On one hand I am certainly thrilled at the prospect of him possibly getting more focus and characterisation and looking forward to see more (like, what Keyblade does he use? Has he his own Chirithy? Does he have his Wayfinder?) while on the other I'm worrying that Nomura may blow the whole thing too much out of proportion and that the connection Ventus has to the present cast of characters, mainly Terra/Aqua and Sora, may suffer for it.

Much to do outside the net, huh?

Lol, that's golden. ^__^
Even better is that I can totally imagine Ven really doing that. *ggg*

Hey Osprey, back from the dead...

You did? That's soooo cool! And you are welcome. =D

*applauses for your avie*

BACK COVER WAS ALWAYS ABOUT EPHEMER!! NOMURA PROMISED ME IN MY DREAMS!!

My one complaint is that there wasn't enough of him.

Were you happy with Ephemer overall? (Assuming you got the game already?)

It was certainly one of the most strenuous gaming experiences I had, lol. I've done many of the attempts while driving on the train from to to work, that's how the "patience" bit came around. Luckily, the MF was nerfed a little in BBS FM and you can now escape his "rape rope" by equipping aerial recovery I think.

That too of course.
It seems to be also an ongoing staple of the KH series that there is at least one severely annoying mini-game in each title.
I see, that is of course a sort of better reasoning than "can take screenshots", rofl.
Yeye, and then Nomura will add tons of new important stuff to the "second season" of Unchained reducing "all the canon story threads" back to almost all canon story threads. ;P
(Except if they do something along the lines of a Back Cover v2 or another KH III "demo" which addresses the new developments in Unchained).


I did? Well see, that's another of those things, I even lost oversight with who I already talked about it via VM or PM. In my Dynasty Warriors-incarnation, Ephemer actually still retains the "a" at the end because I didn't change it, lol.
More or less, yup, the incredible fun with this is that once you start a campaign, all the created characters you did not choose as your player appear as well controlled by the CPU and in Free Battle you can simulate single battles between created characters by placing the leading officers correctly.
Right now, the amount of actually created characters is 361 while the planned amount is 429, meaning there are 68 characters I've already planned but not created yet.
So far it has also a way better gender-ratio than most series/games or other entertainment works have with 188 Females (43,82 %) and 241 Males (56,18%). For comparison, the actual Dynasty Warriors cast which has famous people from the Three Kingdoms era has a 16 (19,28%) to 67 (80,72%) ratio.
As for which types of characters, there is quite some variety, besides KH and FF, there are the cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Kyou Kara Maou, Hunter X Hunter, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Sailor Moon (so far only the villains), the Disgaea franchise, some Star Wars characters (also only villains so far), The A-Team, The Avengers (the 60's spy series, not the Marvel stuff), Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians, Lara Croft, Carmen Sandiego, some Real Life "celebrities" and politicians and a whole bunch of original characters from the massive crossover fantasy universe my best friend and I are working/playing with since elementary school.

There is very much to show in both characters and some gameplay screenshots, so I'm already dreading the ten images per post restriction when I start that thread up once I find a suitable name for it.
Something like this for example:

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Indeed, lol, it's already a huge piece as is and then there are of course also all the comments and chapter reviews from other users in there too.

Yep, more or less. These uniforms are more aimed at allowing them to go unnoticed, provide the highest possible agility and freedom of movement (that's why they have capes with hoods, not coats) and protect against weather hazards.
Protection in against physical battle hazards is rather limited.
I'm highly respecting such dedication for self-learning. ^__^

Hopefully they'll also release these pieces of concept art when they finally exist and don't keep them locked behind another japan-only exclusive event.
Most of the new renders are obviously gorgeous to look at, but in terms of the current 2.8 it's a bit of a bummer that they didn't release renders of Terra and Ven too. The only instance I can remember their new 0.2 models being shown is an Unchained X-medal.
Nomura just can't let it go, can he? Lolz.

Why am I now imagining a totally frustrated Terra wondering when this will stop while Aqua is constantly trying on new fabulous stuff looking queenly and Ventus being the usual overexcited puppy is exploring the whole store with big eyes looking for some fancy new duds.
(And then comes Joshua with his ideas for a fabulous new look, lol).
Granted, visual cues are a thing throughout the whole series, yet in most of the past cases there were also additional cues placed like i.e. in the Vanitas-case that it was revealed relatively early that he would a) be somehow connected/related to Ventus, who looks like Roxas and b) voiced by Miyo Irino, Sora's japanese voice actor.
With BBS in general Square revealed way too much about actual story twists too early and those two more than 8 minute trailers only reinforced it.
I also experienced Skuld's eye color as brown, not Xehanort gold, but yea, the current theories are certainly bigger reaches and often direct jumping to conclusions cases like i.e. the whole issue with Gula's and Sora's pose. Riku and Vanitas also share largely the same pose plus type of clothing and yet they're not connected at all.

The "Aerith is a PoH"-theory was so grating mostly because it didn't use still left ambigious issues and mysteries, but outright rejected some things that have been told by the narrative as fact more than once just to build up an entirely new scenario. So far Nomura never changed things that weren't kept ambigious or mentioned more than twice.
I know these elaborate what-if scenarios are tempting and also a way to show off lore knowledge somehow, yet these are all to easily picked apart when there are easier possibilities to explain it.

True, lol, I also wonder how these people actually manage to get to bed and sleep.
Heheh, indeed, a glimpse at PS4 Sephy might already be in place due to his inclusion in the new Arcade Dissidia as it uses a PS4-compatible engine I think.

Lol, of course, the lighting problems are the fault of the Darkness...which somehow does fit after all.

It's in the currently latest Famitsu-interview which is stickied in the 2.8 section:


Can they have shades of orange though? Terra's wayfinder is orange after all.
Since my posts tend to be rather long I've adopted writing many things in abbreviations, lol.

The only confirmed injury I know of from Riku's battle with Roxas was that he got his wrist badly hurt, hence why Riku constantly wears that single white wristband.
Yet that of course doesn't rule out other injuries nor can it be ruled out that Riku as a whole was somehow physically strained from using Ansem's massive Darkness power for so long and once his form and remnants were purged, the consequences started to show on his real body.
As far as I know there are mere weeks between the end of KH 2 and the start of Coded and I don't know how much time passes between Coded and DDD, but it does seem that Riku has fully recovered by then as even when wearing his KH 2 duds he's no longer slouchy teen.
Or it really has no story reason at all and was just the "cool shounen wave" KH 2 was generally riding on back in 2005.

I've honestly no idea, but it is certainly possible that it is some cultural thing that just isn't widely known.

Yea, depending on the adaption Merlin can actually be quite scary, even if he is most often part of the "good guy"-faction there are several instances where he is portrayed as much more ruthless and pragmatic when it comes to dealing with conflicts and opponents, being firmly in the "good is not nice"-camp.
Dumbledore is actually a really interesting case because he evolved. He started out as a sort of arrogant prick and "genius" child who felt the call to do and be something greater, yet he realized later on how much of a problematic stance he had and changed for the better, although his tendencies to keep secrets and not being fully honest on some things still remained and for what he also gets rightly called out sometimes.
Gandalf too is firmly on the good side, but he tends to be rather blunt and direct in his advice and only gives it when he deems it necessary. One of the best examples is when Frodo tells him that he's late and he answers: "A wizard is never late Frodo, nor does he come too early. He always arrives exactly when he intends to."

I'll hopefully be able to actually start it today, beginning with 0.2 since I've already played DDD and spoiled myself silly on Back Cover.

Nope, haven't yet touched FF XV, lol.

Heheh, now I really want to see this.
Although if I am honest the one thing I wanna see the most out of everything is for Ventus and Sora to finally interact in person rather than the two metaphysical heart-meetings they had in BBS proper.
Their relationship is stated to be "very special" even in-universe and so far they haven't even met properly.

Heheh, I actually went learning by doing on that approach, needless to say the number of times I died were two-digit numbers, although not as bad as the 70+ attempts I had to made with Terra on the Mysterious Figure on the PSP.

Mushroom No. 1 I remember as one of the most annoying ones, lol. Yea, I think there might even exist Youtube-videos for it. Like said, the most important thing is that Sora is constantly gliding and/or double jumping, ideally not touching the floor at all.
I'm actually playing with the thought of getting the PS4 collection despite having the PS3 one, mainly because the PS4 can take screenshots and I wanna have some neat pictures of the BBS crew, Roxas, Naminé and Sora directly from in-game.


This "project" is something rather time-intensive and big, but very rewarding.
The core of the whole thing is a PS4 game called Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires which takes place in Ancient China of the Three Kingdoms period and you can live "a life" in it with the aim to unify the Land in the time span of 50 years. Dynasty Warriors as a franchise itself is already known for its massive amount of playable characters (currently we are at 83!).
The Empires-expansion which has a more strategic approach compared to "normal" Dynasty Warriors has a Character editor allowing you to create your own playable characters and due to the power of the PS4 in Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires you have free slots for 850 characters.
Playing around with hairstyles, face form, body shape, voices and age together with given clothing parts lets you even create people like Adolf Hitler or Donald Trump...and then you can beat them up when they work for an opposing army. ;P

Some examples perhaps?

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I've talked about this with various people already via VM/PM but that feels so disjointed and limited somehow, not to mention I can show only a few glimpses, hence why I'm aspiring to create a thread for it.
KitKat also just pointed me towards the video game section probably being the best place for it so I'll might set it up this week already.

Picky software, uh? Which means tons of extra work for the staff, jeez.

The suits of these FF-characters are certainly more in the clothes department rather than armor. Think Spiderman or Batman for a general reference of type rather than Iron Man.

Haha, that is actually somewhat fitting for Ven.
It is somewhat strange that they choose to go full 3D now since it seems Nomura is actually drawing more often nowadays compared to the past. In the last half year we got already the orchestra-drawing, the constant teasing pictures of Ephemer and Skuld together with Ven, new art for the 2.8 cover etc.

A small part of me is actually still hoping that the BBS crew does get some new outfits at least in KH III. 0.2. is somewhat excused because it largely takes place between the end of BBS and the end of KH 1 (for the parts that actually feature the BBS crew).
Oh yea, don't remind me on the "overanalytical part", rofl, I really sat at my computer sometimes while rolling my eyes at stuff like even simple poses and some hairstyle changes being used to try and reinforce some shaky theories.
It's especially jarring when some of the overeager theorists completely disregard Occam's Razor and come up with highly complicated constructs for theories which could actually be explained much easier even with already known in-game measures otherwise.

Of course, some people want their hairstyle to stick out and rivaling the worst anime styles, but those do certainly require lots of work beforehand and they most likely won't hold under water like i.e. Sora's.
Sephiroth's hair is really something special, also since I recall reading somewhere that it was one of the most difficult things to animate in Advent Children and that's why in the original version Sephy had a more limited appearance (Advent Children Complete does expand the final battle quite a bit).

Well, they could handwave it with in-universe lighting issues, lol.
I also remember around 2011, thus shortly after BBS was just freshly out, some people used to think and propose that Roxas and Ventus could be differentiated due to having a different shade of blond in their hair color. Yet of course it also depends on things like if it is a render, an in-game model, a model for a CGI-scene or hand-drawn art etc.
Looking at more recent characters even Ephemer is a good example as his hair is a much darker shade of silver in Back Cover compared to his gameplay model in X[chi]/Unchained.

True, I didn't even think of these additional challenges.
Well, Nomura did indicate Riku's hairstyle will change again so we'll just have to wait.
Lol, this means Terra is actually a birb, an earthy birb.
NGE = Neon Genesis Evangelion, super famous anime series which is arguably even more mind-screwy than KH and most of the cast has some serious mental problems (which is played for drama, not for laughs).

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There's a reason why they're albinos but that's kind of a huge spoiler for NGE's plot.

Lol at KH 2's messy areas being even in the char-design parts.
It's especially jarring somewhat when in comparison he didn't seem to have any problems while still looking like Ansem SoD.

It's really astounding that one can't name any significant "good" guy with long silver hair but a ton of "bad" guys. Sephy, Kuja, Xehanort, Kuntsyte (Sailor Moon), Bakura (Yu.Gi-Oh!) and so on. If you have a silver-haired guy on the good guys side he most often has a short or at most only medium long hair style.
For the western wizards the most famous examples would probably be Yen Sid, Merlin, Gandalf and Dumbledore (although the latter's hair is more white than silver I think).

I had it in the mail today, yay, probably can only start to play tomorrow though.
That guy is so hilarious I think even if he would be truly an outright villain and responsible for all this mess (and probably also be hated for it), he would still have more respect and enjoyment going on from the audience than Xehanort.

I'm pretty happy I can finally show off Poutymer. I legimately cracked up when I saw that scene in Back Cover, especially since Ava right beside him has this "I just owned you"-smile.
Ephemer is a sunshine cinnamon roll and if he and Ventus get to interact and maybe(hopefully) become friends we'll have the Diabetes-Duo at hand with cuteness-overload.

I'd say it's not only taking advantage of every aspect of the system but also having mastered most of it as in order to effectively fight the LW and not get trashed especially during the last third of the fight when it pulls its desperation mode out the player needs to be very precise with quick reflexes to activate the corresponding element of the combat system like i.e. knowing exactly when to use block and when to use Reflect etc.
I could imagine the reason being that Xemnas' ability in KH 1 also constantly saps health while the LW's move doesn't as well as the player needing to escape Xemnas' move via a sort of "mini-game" while the move of the LW can be escaped from by actual battle (destroying these weird seals).

You mean Mushroom VIII at the Mysterious Tower, right? That's actually one of those which requires a very precise and tight setup to get right. For the Twilight Town poster job the Guide book is really helpful as it shows the ideal route to take and of course the growth abilities of both Master and Final Form should be fully maxed, then it becomes manageable especially if one manages to do it so that Sora never ever touches the ground again (by alternating glide and double jumps).

Ah yes, Cinder/KitKat really has a lot on her plate right now, lol. There's also another thing I've been itching to show off on here but I don't know which section is appropriate. Gotta go and ask yet again as a little reminder as I am sure that X Back Cover will eventually compel me to do something with the Foretellers as well and increase the pile of characters to create even further...<__<
I remember Chaser stating something about there having been an attempt to include more extra characters but that blasting apart already existing ones like the é in Naminé's name.

Haha, bedhead, maybe that's why Terra likes ruffling Ven's hair so much...he's subconsciously trying to fix "bedhead"-style. It's also strangely fitting at least for Ventus who is outright called a sleepyhead by Aqua and due to the cruelty of KH's narrative has so spent severe amounts of time in a coma.
Yep, it's also noticeable on that image of the whole cast acting as an orchestra which Nomura made for the First Breath Concert. Both Roxas and Ven look way less "spiky" there although it may also be because of drawing style in general. The In-game models are still a different issue apparently at least when looking at "coffin-Ven" from 0.2. .

Maybe Cloud can truly serve as a model for this one as they did manage to make his style more believable somehow in Advent Children and even if we go by his original FF VII-style, maybe the new Arcade Dissidia with PS4 graphics can help with this somewhat. I mean, the actual programmers/designers do need to somehow model and animate Cloud's and Sora's hair so there must be a trick to it.

That's the thing with fanart as there are several different personal drawing/art styles in play which may blur the lines, especially if it is black and white. With Prompto though like you say there's also the whole face structure and his age might also be a factor as he's more about Aqua's/Terra's age rather than Rox's/Ven's.
Indeed, Lann's hair has definitely some more of an orange touch and it may also help that the backside of his style is completely different compared to Rox/Ven (and I do think his whole face structure too is softer and "rounder" than the KH-twins). It's somewhat funny that the actual shade of blond with Rox and Ven seems to fluctuate, change depending on the depiction and the game in question as there were also pieces which showed either Rox or Ven with a darker shade of blond compared to the other and the overall color also changed sometimes between outright gold to dirty blond in some renders.
DDD is practically the only instance where this cannot be an issue because I think it was Yasue who admitted that for that game they actually used the exact same model for both Roxas and Ven, only exchanging textures.

To say it with other words though, drawing a bald head is certainly less time-intensive than drawing a complex hairstyle. ;P
This is actually one of the reasons why I am looking forward to the completely new models which will be hopefully even further refined after 0.2. , bringing also the in-game models closer to more naturally looking hair.
I can't help but grin at the prospect of cockatiel-Terra, mainly because it soo doesn't fit his personality and bulky-like appearance, lol.
Indeed, very light blonde would be a possibility to match it more but in the end it's actually more about the style than the color anyways, and the style could definitely be found in some real-life boys who aren't cosplayers, unlike Sora's, bedhead-Rox/Ven and Cockatiel-Terra.
When I hear albino I'm somehow instantly thinking about Rei Ayanami and Kaworu Nagisa from NGE. <__<

Pfft, yea, and the other half complains about his way too baggy pants and him showing his navel. ;P
Maybe with Xehanort it isn't so blatant because he splits the different parts of the hairstyle between his incarnations?
Now that you mention it, are there any incarnations of characters who have silver and long hair at the same time who are unquestionably on the good side? On a whim I only remember Cecil from FF IV but I dunno how long his hair actually is.

Today is 2.8 day and I wouldn't be surprised if I have it in the mail today. Of course I didn't manage to finish the rest of BBS in just two days (Ven's playthrough plus Final/Secret Episode and 100% journals) so I will probably have to alternate between 0.2 and BBS now (Back Cover can be quickly watched during a meal while DDD can wait for a while, lol).
The MoM is really like Braig on steroids while fused with Deadpool, lol.

It's less completionism for me but rather the feeling of getting challenges done that compel me to try and get all trophies on a game. A true completionist would probably also go for all those online-only trophies some games have and I certainly won't do that ever. One thing I am also somewhat the odd one out on is that unlike most player profiles, my profile sports a rather small number of "games played" in comparison but nearly half of those already being completed: My Profile.
And yeah, I had to add my birthyear to the nickname as well because my usual nickname was already taken by someone from France on PSN, lol.
LW is certainly tedious and should not be taken on when one is sleep-deprived, lol. The Fenrir flinch-exploit is for those who are extremely frustrated and just want be over with it but one does have to admit that LW is certainly more "fair" than i.e. the Mysterious Figure in BBS, probably the worst Secret boss in the entire series.
Mini-games as a whole were much hit-and-miss so far in the series. The main issue with the Mushroom XIII is that almost each requires a specific setup to properly meet its challenge, almost like as with the Mysterious Figure there is most often only one viable way/strategy to conquer the challenge.


Yup, they're the uniforms of their "guild" which is one of the four main factions in the story. Fang and Zidane are wearing them too, although the actual descriptions about how these garments look like (beyond being very tight-fitting/body-accentuating) is indeed when Lightning and Hope are introduced.
It was Chapter 37 if I recall correctly while in Chapters 49 to 51 somewhere the only difference between Zidane's uniform and the regular male one is mentioned and that is that his pants don't have pockets (he speaks about using a "different model" than Hope), but obviously a hole in the back for his tail.
Ah, so you mean once you get the general "windswept" style of the front and the "flaky" tips on the back down Ven/Roxas becomes an easier task to manage? Sora is indeed just cruel, I dare assuming even more cruel than Cloud when you go for the Advent Children style rather than the original FF VII-one.
If I had to name boy-hairstyles really easy to draw I'd look more into some of the FF-characters, like i.e. Squall's original FF VIII-style or Ace and Eight from FF Type-0.
Huh? Really?
Last time I checked Prompto's hairstyle has long bangs, something Ven and Roxas certainly don't have, and is "flowing" more while the KH-"twins" have a bit more ragged/"flaky" style to theirs.
You know who really has a hairstyle very similar to Ven and Roxas just mixed with some Cloud (and Chocobo) into it?
Lann from World of Final Fantasy! And he's even a blond too.

Oh? Lol, I think I get it. With drawing bald people there's always the danger of making them look like literal eggheads. Yup, theirs almost an "everyday" girl haircut which you could probably find even on some real-life persons. Naminé's too although her style is a bit above "beginner"-level due to the length and the parts falling over her shoulder.
When looking at the boys though, Riku's DDD-hairstyle, Ephemer's and possibly Terra's are arguably the only ones one might actually find more than seldom in real life boys. Sora's and Ven/Roxas' are way too much out of the ordinary with too many too defined spikes.
I dunno why but I never really liked Riku's overly long KH 2-style that much, possibly a leftover from earlier days when KH 2 was just recently released and my best friend commented on Riku's hairstyle with "it looks just like a more messy, cheaper copy of Sephiroth's hair which somehow also fits this wanna-be cool character".
Well, at least the "in your face"-part also applies to Riku's KH 2 style I'd say. ;P

Well, this week it is 2.8 coming out and I also want to finish BBS (I finally started my Ventus-playthrough yesterday) so that's some of the sparse free time already taken off, but I do play with the thought of releasing the three parter (chapter 68, 69 and 70) which finishes Kairi's arc all at once in one release by now to somewhat make up for the again long delay between releases.
Depending on how much I still have to rewrite (and searching for some memorable quotes for a certain cameo was also a bitch to do) it may still take some time, so I'm afraid I can't yet give a probable release window. <__<

Hey! If you tell me what fanfic you were trying to read, I can edit it all up and make it readable. I don't mind doing that for you. Also, congrats on your drawing making it into a magazine! Your drawings are amazing. <3

Heh, it's not just my love for KH as I do like to try and platinum all my games except those who have online-only trophies like i.e. Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Geez, I remember Lingering Will was really a bitch to tackle and you needed him because he has a journal entry. Two or three trophies popped automatically once I beat that pile of metal as that journal entry was the last one missing.

I know, lol, but maybe that's a good way to start out with as these tight-fitting silver uniforms worn by some of the FF characters calling themselves "Agents" are described somewhat detailed and also have a purple cape with hood, meaning if drawn with the hood up there would not be much hair to draw as well. *ggg*.
As I've seen Back Cover and spoilered myself silly (unlike 0.2) I can say it's certainly much better than actual X/UX in terms of movement.
Sora and Cloud are certainly among the highest difficulty in terms of hair, although Roxas' and Ven's windswept and "flaky" style certainly also isn't easy to draw.
Out of the KH originals, I'd wager the easiest would arguably be Kairi and Xion. (I won't count Master Xehanort for obvious reasons ;P)

Indeed, that's what my motto is as well as also when re-reading comments in the thread there was nearly always praising for the high quality so I aim to maintain that same quality.

That's exactly the main issue with Kairi, the characterisation needs to expand somewhat but keep in mind the however little scraps we already got.
Combat Style and weapons is more of a secondary thought in this case and if I am honest except when writing actual battle scenes like i.e. the very first "battle" in the story between Roxas and a heavily injured Ventus, Terra vs Vanitas, Aqua vs Sephiroth or Mickey + Scrooge vs the Mysterious Figure I do not think about any "gameplay" issues at all.

I actually did re-read some chapters, mainly to update my Excel-file with Background-Info and check planned future developments, and got somewhat reminded of how I managed to implement funny and entertaining parts (the chapter with Hades is hilarious) and heartrending, tearjerking ones (many of the events involving Roxas and Ventus) more or less back-to-back without making any of them looking misplaced.
Re-reading stuff also helps with the fact that several later developments are already foreshadowed multiple times in earlier chapters.

I have the advantage somewhat that while longer going tasks at work are running I can occasionally peek into the forums in the meantime, giving the impression of me being more consistently online than my actual time available would allow.
Yea, Tuesday it is for 2.8 and I still haven't platinumed BBS on PS3. I've "wasted" so much time getting that stupid Ice-Cream Beat trophy. Now finished with Terra and two thirds through with Aqua's playthrough, but still need to do Ventus, the Final and Secret Episodes and then the 100%-reports trophies for all three characters.

Ah I see. Well, the story is this big already with so many scenes and characters included that there are surely some that can be used for practice.
That Gula-on-Son-Goku-cloud was already a decent piece and that wasn't just a profile shot either.
For starters maybe there shouldn't be characters chosen that have too spiky hair or a background that is too detailed. *ggg*

Trying to write so vividly that people can imagine the characters and the scenery is actually another reason why writing on has started to take longer. Before 2015, when I still had more time at hand I could roughly devote an entire day of the week (speaking summarily) for a chapter to write and therefore meet the one new chapter every second week release schedule.
2015 and 2016 I did not have this luxury anymore and tweaking the writing with things like balancing dialogue, descriptive prose and actual actions takes longer.

Yep, so far battle scenes and the dynamic between Roxas and Ventus was the most difficult thing to write about, but by now creating and finishing this first arc with Kairi as the central character has topped those.
The real-life issues add then only additional delays on top of it. <__<
But on the other hand, this gives people like i.e. Muke a little room to catch up with the story as it has a huge length already as is.

Now that you mention it I can actually see another merit of this approach, as it may also compel people to re-read older chapters. ^__^