Sounds About Light

The true Kingdom Hearts begins here, as we approach the end of our time with Ventus. If you know Birth by Sleep, you've been waiting for it: it's the first mention of the infamous χ-blade! It's a real ordeal to talk about in an audio format, so we're sorry if it's an ordeal to listen to! Besides that, Ventus is meeting an experiment eventually known as Stitch, and (some of) the Lost Boys. Also Don...

These games haven't been about friendship enough, so this week we're entering the Ventus Loneliness Arc! He and his friends got in a single confusing fight, so now he has to rethink his entire life. Maybe he'll find some new friends in Radiant Garden or Olympus Coliseum? Definitely not in Disney Town. There's only one guy there who's looking for friends, and we can all agree he'd be better off dea...

The true Kingdom Hearts begins here! We're jumping back in time to meet some new (old) friends in Birth by Sleep! This game has three playable characters and we'll be starting with Ventus, a certified Sweet Little Boy who looks exactly like Roxas for some reason. We'll also be meeting Eraqus and Xehanort, who -- wait, we already met a Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts 2? Hm. Well, it's probably just a co...

Okay, this time for real, we actually finished Kingdom Hearts 2! We've got a lot of Xemnas to deal with, across five or six phases of boss battle. We've got some smiles, some grimaces, some laughs, some tears, and there's even a Tron part! This game really has it all. What a journey! A lot of it was even good! Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

Disclaimer: you are going to hear us talk for about an hour and a half about Kingdom Hearts 2 and how this is the last time we're ever going to talk about Kingdom Hearts 2. Well, we're wrong. This week, we're talking about the first half of Sora's time in The World That Never Was! It turns out we really underestimated just how much stuff would happen in the last hour or so of the game, so please e...

We've made it through the boring Disney world revisits, and our reward is a very good Disney world revisit! We're saying goodbye to our friend Tron, who we love very much. He may have his silly limits, but this is one computer we'd never let starve. After that, we're off to Twilight Town, and after that, we're off to Twilight Town! We've also got some final emotional sendoffs for Axel and Roxas. T...

We're fast approaching the end of Kingdom Hearts 2, and for some reason that means we've got three more kind of not very good Disney worlds to slog through! They're not terrible, at least. We've got confusing Luxord antics in Port Royal, Jack Skellington learns the meaning of Christmas again(?), and Simba gets bullied into success. Cool, cool, cool, great, great, great. The true Kingdom Hearts beg...

The past few weeks of Kingdom Hearts 2 have been really good, so it's time to ease off the gas pedal for some relatively boring Disney worlds! That's just how this game has to work, it turns out. We're revisiting Beast's Castle, Land of Dragons, Olympus Coliseum, and we even threw in Agrabah because there was so little going on otherwise. Will next week be better? Maybe. Will the week after that b...

Last week, we got one big Mickey meme and this week we've got another! That's right, we've finally arrived at "they'll pay for this", and if you don't know what that is then I won't spoil the surprise. It's another great week of KH2, and this time we're talking about the Battle of 1,000 Heartless! If that sounds like an exhausting number of heartless to fight, don't worry - we also get a...

The rumors are true! Kingdom Hearts 2 has a story! This week, we head back to Twilight Town in search of Kairi, and Hollow Bastion in search of Computer. We meet Tron from Tron, our brains hurt at the thought of Ansem doing corporate espionage at ENCOM, and Mickey Mouse says his big meme at us. What an episode! This game should be like this more often! Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

We're coming up on some big plot moments, but we've got three more Disney worlds to get out of the way first! Fortunately, these ones are pretty fun if entirely inconsequential! This week we visit the Pride Lands, 100 Acre Wood, and Atlantica. Goofy turns into two different turtles, and that's something! Ursula is up to her old tricks again, like being alive, so Sora better practice his sniper ski...

This week, we visited an action-packed THREE worlds, because the episode wouldn't have been an episode with just the first two. We've got Port Royal, Agrabah, and Halloween Town on our plate today, and it's a good thing that dessert is there waiting for us at the end of this incredibly bland meal! We barely talked about the first two. We were mostly busy talking about Donald Duck's Treasure Madnes...

This week is our saddest episode yet, as we witness the endless humiliation of Pete. Why does this guy work for Maleficent? Why doesn't he use his literal time travel portal to his own benefit? Some men are just born to hench, it seems. Meanwhile, Hades comes up with his most nefarious plan yet: opening his own arena to compete with the Coliseum. Sora, you can't let him get away with this! Sam | D...

We sure did have a great time seeing Sora and friends again last week, but now it's time to get into the silly stuff. We're visiting Beast's Castle and the Land of Dragons this week, one of which is kind of an okay world! Pull up a chair and grab some popcorn and watch Sora get beat up twice in one week! Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

Ah, it's great to be back! We've finished our sad times with Roxas and, appropriately, are moving on as if none of it ever happened. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are back, baby! It's Kingdom Hearts 2 again! We've got old places to go and new people to meet. We've got Secret Ansem Reports to read! It's like putting on an old pair of giant clown shoes! Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

Uh oh, it's time to be sad! We're wrapping up our discussion of 358/2 Days, and a lot of things happen, very few of them good. On the bright side, next week we get to go back to Kingdom Hearts 2! Donald and Goofy are there! Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

We've had it too easy for too long. This is the part where 358/2 Days starts to get messy! Xion(?) is having weird glitchy memories(??) or maybe Roxas is(???) or something else is happening. We think we kind of get it, maybe. Plus, the biggest mystery of all is introduced: what is Axel wearing under his coat? Cool pants, or an adult diaper? There are no other possibilities! Sam | Drew | Twitter |...

We're halfway through 358/2 Days and the plot is beginning to thicken! Just who is Xion and where did she come from? What are Saïx and Axel up to? Would Demyx be able to cry if you took his sitar away? Is Sora enjoying his nap?! Also, Drew offers up a crackpot corner that expands Sam's brain instantly! Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

Hey, we said we'd be back in January, and here we are! We weren't lying! Last time we finished the prologue of KH2, and now we're jumping back in time to see what Roxas was up to for the past 358 days (/2). If you like hearing us say "ice cream", "clock tower", and a dozen dorky names with X's in them, you're going to love these next few episodes! Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

Sad news for Roxas fans today: we've finished the Kingdom Hearts 2 prologue. 😔 We will miss our skateboarding, letter delivering, struggle winning boy Roxas, but not for very long, because we'll be back in January to watch 358/2 Days! For now, let's enjoy the rest of our summer vacation, hold our gems high, and mostly talk about how DiZ is racist. Sam | Drew | Twitter | Cohost

The true Kingdom Hearts begins here! We're starting Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, and we've got a new boy to try to understand. Who is Roxas? Is it just a funny coincidence that his name is an anagram of Sora with an X in it? Why is there so much sea-salt ice cream? Believe it or not, you will walk away from this episode with answers to all three of those questions! Sam | Drew | Twitter

Darkness darkness darkness, stench stench stench! Rank, dark, putrid darkness! ...Oops, sorry, I forgot I'm not in Castle Oblivion anymore and I can use other words besides those! What I was trying to say was that we finished Re:Chain of Memories with Riku's story this week. Against all odds, this game found a way to say the word "darkness" more often, but don't let that fool you - Riku'...

Great news for Vexen haters: this is the episode where Vexen dies! Join us in celebrating the demise of the bad face man, and also probably talking about the rest of Sora's story in CoM for way too long. We have learned the secret of Naminé, and the secret of Marluxia, but the secret of Axel still evades us. Maybe in another couple of games we'll find out what the h*** that guy was up to! Sam | Dr...

The true Kingdom Hearts begins here! We're starting a new game, Re:Chain of Memories. Depending on who you ask, it's either very good or not very good. Does the dialogue sound like things humans would say? Not necessarily... but does it matter when most of the characters aren't humans? Hmm! Really makes you think. Fortunately, neither of us is playing the game. No cards for us, thanks! Sam | Drew...

We've finished our first game! Before we start on Chain of Memories, where the true Kingdom Hearts famously begins, we've got friend of the show Gigalithic of Zero to Zero joining us for a wrap-up chat about Kingdom Hearts Final Mix! We also talked about the pilot animatic we said we'd watch like four weeks ago. Oops! We had a great time experiencing the first game, and we know it had LORE, but di...