Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Part #3 - Day 8: The Icing on the Cake

Part 3: Day 8: The Icing on the Cake

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Think of these early missions as exercises. You still have much to learn before we put you to a real test.

Translation: You're going have a few mandatory tutorials.

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Oh, boy... What, are you making me the kid's mentor now?

Surely you don't mind showing Roxas here the ropes? Roxas, come see me when you're ready to go.

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Sheesh... Quit acting like a zombie, and let's get this show on the road.

And we get another tutorial. This one is showing that we can open the menu by pressing Start. Good to know.

This is the menu screen. Panels lets you equip armor/accessories/magics/keyblade/abilities. Holo-Missions lets you replay previous missions. Both of them are unavailable right now. Munny and Heart Points are used as currencies. The latter is far more important.

You can see Roxas' stats in the bottom. Most of the numbers speak for itself. Slots and links are related to panels, thus unavailable now. The sigils (Nobody symbol) are obtained by clearing challenges (more on that later) while crowns are obtained by clearing multiplayer missions.

The Journal section has the diary and enemy section. You can see the name of the equipped weapon (since you can't do that while equipping them) and all of the character's abilities. Since Roxas has the light element he starts out with 10% resistance to it.

The diary is basically just a plot recap while the enemy profiles are...well...exactly that. The enemy profile is empty so I won't bother showing it right now. I'll put the new ones we obtain at the end of each update.

The tutorials are if you for some reason forgot about the controls. It includes the tutorial about opening the menu in case you forgot how to open the menu. You have to open the menu to read it. Brilliant.

Config are just to configure things. These are pretty self explanatory. ~~I'm pretty sure the top one if the vibration if you have the Rumble Pak.~~ That one is for Shoulder Controls that will be available later.

The cursor position is just like in RPGs where it either stays at your last action of go back to the top one. Command list determines how you scroll through it. It's either holding X and using the D-pad or just by using the X button. I use the latter, but the former can be nice if you use lots of magic types.

You might think that it would be better to have allies heal Roxas since if he dies, it's Game Over. However, due to the Limit Break mechanic that isn't really recommended.

Xion's name hasn't been revealed at this point. Also, Zexion could just be saying that since Xion is part of his name.

Saix will be the one we talk to go to most missions.

Don't worry. I'll be sure he makes the grade.

C'mon, Roxas.

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Number XIV, Xion.

Right. I knew that.

Xion.

Got it memorized, Roxas?

...Yeah.

You sure? How 'bout my name, then?

It's Axel.

And our boss's name?

Xemnas.

Very good, Roxas! No way you're gonna forget his name, right? Now let's get moving.

You know, unless his memory is wiped out.

New Music: Lazy Afternoons

Don't expect us to be able to use portals in actual gameplay.

Ahem. Missions are...uhh... They're, you know... Hrm.

Do you need a dictionary?

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You know what? Talking is dumb. Let's just go ahead and get our hands dirty, shall we? Follow me.

Yep. This day is going to be filled with these kinds of tutorials.

Just go forward and jump. You don't even need to dash while jumping! (Mainly because we can't dash yet).

Thanks.

But don't go thinking you can just run and jump your way through every mission. You've gotta BE AWARE.

What...what do you mean?

You hafta look around. Sometimes what you're after is sitting right under your nose. Got it memorized?

Y...yeah, I think so.

All right, then, time for a road test. There's a treasure chest somewhere in thest passages. I want you to find it.

That's all I have to do?

I know, don't hurt yourself. Anyway, remember to look around.

Hey, look! An actually useful tutorial! What a surprise! I swear the other missions will have more to it.

Anyway, the point where we found Axel is the only exit out of the "room" since everywhere else has shutters blocking them. We go left.

The boxes drop HP and Munny orbs when destroyed. The barrier on the "door" will be addressed later. The number on the top left is how many Heart Points we collected this mission. And there's Axel as our second player this mission.

The road there leads to a dead end, so let's go the other way. No boxes are found in the other way.

There is a switch to open the corresponding shutter. It opens up a nice shortcut (that resets every mission). Only this switch is active this mission. Go a little further...

A barricade. It means you're not supposed to go this way.

You mean there's nothing down there?

Yeah, that's the gist of it. They're set up to keep us on task. That, or out of trouble. I mean, hello, look at it. Big menacing X? I'll take the beaten path, thanks.

I have no trouble believing that Axel would just go through the big, menacing X.

We know, game! Axel just told us! Sheesh, the tutorial in this game is just as bad as KH2! Just go through the path (all exits are sealed) and we'll found the treasure chest.

Sure is! Well done.

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Um, what are you waiting for?

The mission was to find the chest. Aren't I done?

Uh, Roxas... There's this thing about chests. They have stuff in them.

So I should open the chest?

Yes, that is generally what we do.

Axel: There is also a thing about who places the chests but I try not to think about it too hard.

...What can I say at this point?

Here's a nice thing about this game: Items you found from treasure chests doesn't have to be equipped. You can use them as soon as you found them. So finding a potion when you ran out of healing item/magic an be a life saver.

We open the treasure chest.

Potions restore 30% of HP.

RTC?

Return To the Castle. Go ahead, lead the way back to the dark corridor that brought us here.

So you have to go back to the starting place manually every mission. It's more annoying than hard unless you're very low on health and have to get through a hard enemy/mob.

And that's where shortcuts that reset every mission become useful.

Uh-huh.

I'm sorry, speak up? Cooouldn't quite catch that.

I said...

Hmm?

I could have done that blindfolded.

That's true. There's only one branching path with the wrong one leading to a dead end very quickly.

Ha ha! I dunno if I want a blindfolded zombie on the loose.

All right, smart aleck, you did good. And no successful mission is complete without a little icing on the cake. C'mon.

But...don't we have to RTC?

Later. Don't you remember our hangout?

New Music: At Dusk, I Will Think of You...

Just for fun, I'm going to count the number of times we see sea-salt ice cream and twilight tower during this LP. I'm not going to count the ones in the intro since we don't know when that exactly take place. The ones in Day 255 will be counted later.

KH 358/2=179 Days of Falling Salty Diabetes
Twilight Station Tower: 1
Sea-Salt Ice Cream: 2

I'm going to say that both numbers might be well above 100 by the time we finish this LP.

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You remember what this ice cream is called?

Umm...

It's sea-salt ice cream. C'mon, I already told you once. Get it memorized, man.