Kingdom Hearts catchup: Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross]

No, we haven’t already done this one.

In case you missed them, we’ve got catchups for Kingdom Hearts Chi and the Back Cover movie!

So it was somewhat necessary to split the Chi and the Union Cross recaps up, mostly because they’re practically two separate entities, and also because doing the whole thing in one go would take forever. As I explained in my Chi post, Chi became Union Cross when they “remade,” the game for mobile, with a few extra bits along with it. In this remake, a lot of canon specific plot details and characters have come up, which means unfortunately it’s going to be pretty crucial for understanding Kingdom Hearts 3. Why, I hear you ask? It’s simple.

This guy:

Look familiar? Yeah, that’s because Ventus has inexplicably popped up. As well as the Others of Marluxia and Larxene.

Hold on to your hats, folks, because it’s about to get complicated.

Confused? So am I…

The story picks up with the new Union leaders meeting up in the Keyblade Graveyard, starting with Skuld and Ephemer – they’re surprised, uncertain, and don’t know who the other leaders are meant to be. There’s a few flashbacks shown at this point, mostly involving the Master of Masters telling Ava about her role, to gather the Dandelions (which I won’t go into too much detail over, since it’s already mostly covered in the Back Cover recap), but there are a couple of interesting new tidbits. After the first war that we saw the player die in, Ava has reshaped the world into a new one like an alternate reality, where no one but the five new leaders remembers the events, or the trauma that comes with it. He also gives her the names of the five leaders, including one special one that’s meant to get a copy of the Book of Prophecies, but only one. We of course have no idea who this is, and the other four leaders don’t either.

After that, the third leader arrives, with his usual line “I’m Ventus – call me Ven.” No explanation, nada, Ven’s just there. Alrighty, moving on, Skuld, Ephemer, and the player’s Chithiry are all embroiled in a mysterious conversation, because the player is dreaming of “it,” and having nightmares, and their Chithiry’s task is apparently “Union x [cross],” but they’re worried that the darkness in this world is strangely complex and unusual. The others promise to look into it, but Ephemer is worried about the new Unions – something doesn’t feel right, despite their orders.

There’s another flashback to Ava and Ephemer, where he’s told he’s one of the leaders, to keep the others in order, and Ephemer is given a green book. It doesn’t look to be the Book of Prophecies – it’s just called a green book, and nothing more. We also find out that Ephemer was sent on ahead to prepare the new world, hence why he disappeared. Back in the present, Ven is wondering why he was picked to be a leader, since he’s a fairly averagely ranked fighter and isn’t incredibly popular, and to be fair, we’re all wondering the same thing. Next up, the fourth leader arrives – Brain. Or Blaine. Everyone’s still arguing about it.

He immediately starts questioning stuff – those rules we were given, do we have to follow those? Can we really trust Ava, because she won’t let us tell the other Dandelions about the war, since she wiped all their memories, which Ven does say he’s not sure about, either. It’s also worth mentioning that Brain has a green book as well. Ephemer, on the other hand, pipes up that he doesn’t want others feeling that hurt and carrying that burden, so the others decide to trust in his leadership, for now.

And now for something completely different…

There’s yet another series of flashbacks, back in Daybreak Town, narrated by a new girl. Strelitzia. She’s another one of the union members, and for the past couple of years, she’s noticed the player, out and about, but never worked up the guts to talk to them, or become friends with them. One day, she’s approached by Ava, who asks her a favour, gives her a green book, and is presumably about to say something ominous about the world ending before the scene is cut short. Strelitzia reads through her new book, quietly fretting about being a Union leader, the responsibility of it, and how everyone else is going to die if they’re not a Dandelion. Unfortunately, that includes the player, the one she’s admired for so long.

Panicked, she rushes off to find the player and recruit them the next day, thus sparing them from the war that’s about to happen. Her Chirithy says that the player went into an abandoned house, so off she goes, but doesn’t find them there. She turns to go, the screen cuts to black, and there’s the sound of a Keyblade swinging – when we cut back, Strelitzia is on the ground, and her unseen attacker grabs the book and runs. She manages to drag herself outside, wishing she’d gotten the courage to talk to the player, and then dies, heart floating up to the sky.

Yeah, let’s go back to finding out about who the fifth union leader is.

And number 5 is…

Leader number five is Lauriam, also know as Marluxia once he loses his heart in god knows how many years time. With all of them here, the five go to the Foretellers’ Chamber, to try and lay down some ground rules and figure what to do. Brain makes a beeline for the Book of Prophecies, whereas Ephemer wants to keep things as they are, and democratically make decisions. This way, events before the war play out as before, and it’ll avoid worrying people. Brain has a fun idea – let’s lift the ban on partners for the Dandelions, and allow them to use Spirits (the same creatures that appeared in DDD), though they’re not as powerful as the Chirithies.

This will apparently stop everyone remembering the tragedy of the war, provided they can raise their Spirits to eat Nightmares, so they begin prepping to make them. Ventus, Ephemer, and Skuld go off to do this, leaving Lauriam to help Brain. Sometime after that, Lauriam approaches a girl in Daybreak Town, Elrena, to ask if she’s seen his sister – Strelitzia. Uh oh. Elrena, by the way, is also someone we’ve seen before – remember Larxene? Yep, it’s looking very much like this is her Other. She knows the girl, but doesn’t really know anything about her whereabouts, but their Chirithys were friends. She summons her own one, who says that Skuld knows something. Strangely, Elrena decides to investigate this alone, rather than with Lauriam, who is, by all accounts, Strelitzia’s brother.

And of course, just as that was getting interesting, I’m afraid it’s stumbled to a halt, at least for now. The Elrena parts were a very recent update for the game, after a year of no developments on the story side, and it’s already been confirmed that the plot will not be resolved before 3’s release (and the English version is six months behind the Japanese one). Will we get answers? Probably not. Sit tight, I guess, and in the meantime, get hyped for the next post – the Birth by Sleep recap, aka, Terra ruins everything, Ven continues to be a mystery, and Aqua suffers even more. Until next time!