YMMV / Kingdom Hearts χ

• Adaptation Displacement: Unchained χ[chi] and Union χ[cross] are much more popular than the original χ[chi] was, mostly thanks to the mobile versions getting an official global release as well as their story extending past where χ[chi] ended service. Most of the gameplay tropes listed here apply to the mobile version for this reason.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • One scene from the finale has Luxu stating to Brain that "it would be a shame for his life to end there". Because there's no voice acting to convey tone for that particular line, Luxu is either being threatening or genuinely concerned for Brain. Considering Brain's final fate, the answer is definitely left up in the air.
  • Another scene from the finale shows that Ephemer didn't travel to the future like the other Union Leaders, instead remaining sheltered inside his lifeboat and coming out after everything's been destroyed. It's unknown if this was voluntary from his part as he was not ready to abandon his world to destruction, deciding to stay and rebuild it, or if his lifeboat was defective and he was left with no choice but wait for the Darkness apocalypse to pass. It's also possible that his lifeboat did work, but only sent him a very short time into the future.
• Arc Fatigue: In August 2017, the story updates show Strelitzia was killed by an unknown assailant. It took more than two real world years and the beginning of the end of Union X's story for it to get focus. The assailant would be revealed in a September 2020 update.
  • The first batch of story missions take quite a while to get through. You're forced to go through the same worlds and fight the same enemies, over and over, with very little plot progression in any of them. There is a movie symbol to let a player know which missions are story-critical, but there could be as many as fifteen missions between each plot point. And each one of those might only advance the plotline a slight bit. It picks up after a while, but the game's title card doesn't appear until mission 401 out of more than eight hundred story missions.
  • The "Abu is missing" storyline in Agrabah. It lasts from about mission 550 to nearly the end of the game, and it's become a running joke among the playerbase about how absurdly long the questline is, to the point that some of the jokes believe Abu is behind the Keyblade War.
  • The Wreck-It Ralph world was initially met with excitement, as it took a long while between the world being announced and it actually appearing in the game. But the story of the movie took so long to go through that people kept being baffled by every update that came out not being the end of it, especially since it meant Player was away while the main plot happened in Daybreak Town.
• Awesome Music: The game's got some pretty sweet tunes of its own, too.
• Better Off Sold: While they can be used for EXP boosts to other Medals, Moogle Medals give some of the worst EXP in the entire game; they're better off sold for munny, and they provide a good amount.
• Breather Level: While some Union Cross quests feature a battle against a powerful Heartless such as Iron Giant, Gummi Hound, or the dreaded Darkside, other quests feature much lighter and simpler objectives, such as beating the much easier Cerberus, Card Soldiers, or Possessors, or just clearing a room of Shadows.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Certain medals will always be used over others because they are effectively the same thing but better. For example, Minnie heals so much more than other pure healing medals like Tinkerbell, Daisy or Jiminy Cricket, that the main reasons people don't use Minnie as their healing medal is they don't have it or the one they do use has another effect like adding a stat buff. Or at least - that was the case. These days, specialized healing medals generally aren't required because you'll probably have either Kairi EX or Xion EX or both as part of your setup. The point remains, but the particular medals used from time-to-time changes due to Power Creep.
• Continuity Lock-Out: A working knowledge of χ [chi]'s storyline, terminology, and characters is required to understand the Back Cover movie, which doesn't stand as a functioning narrative on its own and simply fills in the gaps of what the Foretellers were up to during χ [chi].
• Discredited Meme: The "Player=Xehanort" meme became this when the Dark Road finale shows that Player's flashes of their reincarnation weren't of Xehanort's life, but of his caretaker's.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game:
  • Kingdom Hearts series fans who are turned off by the mobage mechanics may sign on just for the story surrounding the Foretellers and the Keyblade wielders, especially after Back Cover and the introduction of Ventus revealed that the story was much more connected to the rest of the series than it seemed. However, due to the sheer number of quests required to catch up, most of them in Disney worlds that contribute nothing to the overall plot, and (for global players) the fact that the global version lags behind the Japanese, these players are highly likely to drop the game and just watch recap videos to get caught up, then keep up with translations of the Japanese updates.
  • Dark Road's story is considered one of the better plots in the franchise, with many praising its surprisingly good writing, an intriguing thriller-esque scenario that manages to work in some otherwise depreciated story beats like the involvement of Disney characters in the overall narrative and the importance of "world order", and character development for both Xehanort and Eraqus to explain elements of their relationship hinted at in Kingdom Hearts III. However, the actual gameplay is considered passable at best, with many considering it grindy and mind-numbing. The developers seemed to have been aware of this, as when the game relaunched in its offline version all of the game's cutscenes were made available immediately, allowing players to completely ignore the gameplay portions.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Ephemer seems to be this since he's the only named Union member to appear in Back Cover and thus gains a HD render.
  • Elrena has a pretty minor role in Union χ thanks to not being an Union Leader, making her disproportionally popular considering her future self.
• Epileptic Trees: Easily the most notorious case of Mind Screw in the series, in no small part thanks to the game's refusal to properly explain what's going on, instead throwing bits of the plot there and there on a monthly basis. This got even worse in Back Cover which shamelessly danced around the Driving Question of who was the traitor, leaving behind only a vague clue, not to mention the infamous ending of the browser game. As a result, fans use whatever they can find to come up with all kinds of explanations for what's going on. Most often, it is the artwork that ends up being the closest thing we have to a reliable source about the lore.
  • The Foretellers being predecessors linked to the main trio and the Wayfinder trio, such as through reincarnation. Usually, it's Kairi & Ava, Riku and Ira, Terra and Aced, Ventus and Gula, and Aqua and Invi, with Sora being related to either the Master of Masters or the later-introduced Luxu. This died down after Luxu was introduced (since there is no seventh analogue) and Ventus was revealed to have been alive at the same time as them. Although, said spoilered character only appears after the Foretellers disappear, so this doesn't necessarily eliminate the possibility that he is Gula without his cloak and mask... on the other hand, they do have different keyblades and voice actors. Possibly jossed as of III, as the Foretellers minus Ava and the Master appear in the present (and Luxu was revealed to be a past life of Braig/Xigbar), unless this has something to do with time travel.
  • The credits of the browser game show events from the game, but instead of you, replace Skuld or Ephemer instead. What does that mean?!
  • Why is Maleficent in the same time period as the player character talking about being safe from Sora?!
  • Gula's official character art◊ from Back Cover has him in the exact same pose as Sora's official character art◊ for Kingdom Hearts III. What's Nomura trying to say with that one?
  • The Japanese trailer for Union χ ("season two" of Unchained χ) has Ventus appear. Nomura, what is going on?!
  • An update on August 24th 2017 for Union χ has the fifth Union leader Strelitzia murdered by an unknown figure and her rulebook stolen. Later on a boy named Lauriam appears in the Keyblade Graveyard to meet the other leader claiming to be the fifth Union leader rulebook, meaning one of the leaders is a traitor. Lauriam is the human form of Marluxia of Organization XIII. Seriously Nomura, what the hell is going ''on?!'?
  • Recent artwork for KHUX features the five Dandelion leaders and sixth figure in a Black Coat holding a Bleeding Heart flower. The figure appears feminine and is believed by fans to be Strelitzia's Nobody. This is further hinted at due to the Bleeding Heart flower being symbolic of a young woman who died in tragic circumstances which perfectly describes Strelitzia's death.
  • Brain's localized name combined with his appearance and The Smart Guy tendencies among his fellow Dandelions made many people to suspect him of being related to Ienzo and/or Zexion. Not to mention that Zexion's weapon was a lexicon.
  • Some fans have noticed some physical similarities between Brain and Master Eraqus, especially when you compare Brain's full appearance in the KHUX second anniversary artwork and Eraqus's younger self. This has lead to theories reneging from, Brain being Eraqus, or that Brain becomes Eraqus' ancestor. The December 2020 update show's Brain summoning Master's Defender, Eraqus's Keyblade, adding to this theory.
  • With the release of Back Cover, a theory that Braig/Xigbar and the Master of Masters were in fact one and the same quickly sprouted due to their similar voices and character tics, as well as the Master of Masters claiming that he's missing an eye because its on No Name and Braig/Xigbar having some sort of plan of his own. As it would turn out, the Secret Reports in III reveal that Luxu is Braig/Xigbar, Luxu having taken cues from the Master of Masters... Unless this also goes with the theory that Luxu and the Master of Masters are the same person.
  • That the human forms of Luxord and Demyx were also involved in the Age of Fairy Tales, just like Marluxia/Lauriam and Larxene/Elrena. Further evidence is given in III, where Xemnas states that Luxord and Demyx were recruited to the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness for the same reason as Marluxia and Larxene: they have pasts as ancient Keyblade wielders from the Keyblade War.
  • III would reveal content that would happen in the future of X, including Luxu knows that there's a traitor among the new Union leaders, Luxu will pass down No Name to one of the new Union leaders, the new Union leaders seem to still be alive in the present somewhere, and that a girl from this time period would be transported to the present day to become known as X.
  • Dark Road opens with a montage of the Player's adventures right up until they're met by Ephemer and Skuld after the Keyblade War. This is followed by Xehanort waking up on Destiny Islands musing how he's had that dream for years and describes it as living another life. This has lead to players wondering if there's a connection between the two and what it is. The ending of Union X implies the Player is reborn as Xehanort. Though the ending to Dark Road shows that the player was actually reborn as the robed figure who looked after him.
  • It didn’t take too long after the Darkness entity started appearing for fans to theorize that it's the original form of Vanitas. The September 2020 update revealing that it hypnotized Ventus into inaction while it murdered Strelitzia only added fuel to the fire. Dark Road stops just short of confirming this.
  • The ending brought about two for Skuld.
    • After the credits is a montage of where each of the key character's ended up except for Skuld. If the theory that Skuld is Subject X wasn't already wildly popular, this certainly would have added fuel to the fire.
    • Many fan's have pointed out that Xehanort's mother looks an awful lot like Skuld, leading some to wonder if she is Skuld. However it's also been pointed out that the two characters have different eye colors and a Hime Cut isn't that uncommon in Japanese media. The resemblance between Xehanort's mother and Skuld is acknowledged at the end of Dark Road possibly hinting at a connection. Nomura later confirmed in an interview that Xehanort's mother isn't Skuld, but there is a connection. Possibly debunking the "Skuld is Subject X" theory as well.
• Fanfic Fuel: It's not too uncommon to see discussions or even edits of characters that have yet to debut in the game or even the entire franchise receiving one via medal in X, as the game has demonstrated that not all medals use Kingdom Hearts art (ex. Illustrated Belle & Beast) or are characters that have previously been introduced to the franchise (ex. Moana, Judy Hopps). Also sometimes goes into outfits, like how there have been outfits based on Beauty and the Beast (2017), Moana, Zootopia, and so forth. For example, there have been a couple of fan edits of a Noctis medal.
  • It's also not too uncommon to see edits of Keyblades not available in the game.
  • Of course, the opportunity to create your own Keyblade wielder and place them into the universe of Kingdom Hearts, along with the implication that thousands of others are fighting alongside you, is rich fuel for fanfic of all kinds, especially Self-Insert Fic.
• Fan Nickname:
  • With the reveal of the fourth-introduced new Union leader's dubbed name being Brain in the global version of the game occurring on the same day that the Japanese version of the game paired him off with Lauriam on an assignment, fans took to calling the duo Pinky and the Brain.
  • Gatomon for Chirithy, mainly because Lara Jill Miller originally voiced Kari (the human partner of Gatomon) while voicing Chirithy here.
  • Sugita for the Master of Masters, whose seiyu is named Tomokazu Sugita.
  • Xehanort as a baby has been dubbed Babynort.
• Game-Breaker: Here.
• Good Bad Bugs: A December 2017 update had a bug where the activation of a Pet skill would sometimes leave a transparent heart pattern beneath the player's HP bar. It didn't do anything, but it looked pretty cool.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Ephemer's cameo in III where he helps Sora take down the Heartless cyclone, was an awesome scene when the game first came out. However, it's been a little recontextualized with the reveal that Xehanort is Ephemer's great-great-grandson.
  • Similarly, the argument Braig and Xehanort got into after their set up to stoke Terra's darkness in Birth by Sleep. It gets a little awkward after the reveal that Luxu's vessel prior to Braig, Bragi, was one of Xehanort's classmates and friends.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Vulpes union has won every single union ranking in the global version by a landslide. Come Back Cover, and who is it that Gula asks to help him gather Lux in order to summon Kingdom Hearts? None other than Ava, the Foreteller for Vulpes.
  • Lauriam's entrance and replacement. Him replacing Strelitzia is also a bit funny when one considers how Marluxia was originally intended to be a female, but was made into a male. It's the same story here, a female leader being replaced with a male one.
  • Kairi having what is considered to be the best medals in the game takes on a whole new spin where in Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind she can be selected as the playable character against Armored Xehanort, who is the final boss in the DLC, and can easily defeat him despite having a Keyblade very recently and so little training.
  • The "Everyone is Xehanort" meme became significantly funnier after the ending of the game implied that the Player Character's heart joins with Xehanort's. For a time, a running joke was that every player is Xehanort! Though this was later Jossed when it was revealed the player actually reincarnated as the robed figure looking after Xehanort.
• Ho Yay: The player character is really affectionate towards Ephemer and Skuld regardless of the player's gender. They were sad when they got Stood Up by Ephemer, upset and attacked a Foreteller after said Foreteller supposedly killed Ephemer, Holding Hands with Skuld, saw Skuld after the war and thought she was a goddess, shed a Single Tear in Anger Born of Worry upon seeing Ephemer alive, and finally Holding Hands with Ephemer as he took them to new World. This get's a little amped up after it's revealed that the player character was reborn and took the role of becoming Xehanort's caretaker. Not only is it revealed that Xehanort is Ephemer's great-great-grandson, but when describing him to a child Xehanort their descriptions are glowing and positive and the player seems convinced Xehanort's the "Child of Destiny" from the Book of Prophesies in part because of his relation to Ephemer.
• I Knew It!:
  • Several fans correctly guessed that Ventus was a dandelion after the third-year anniversary image◊ showed, what looked to be, a much younger Ven.
    • Similarly, several already guessed that he had something to do with Strelitzia's death based on the fact that his darkness became a being like Vanitas. However, the January 2020 update suggests that it might not have been completely willingly on Ven's part. Later story updates reveal that Ven was only present during Strelitzia's murder as a witness (albeit an amnesiac one, until recently) and 'accomplice' who was hypnotised into compliance, and wasn't the one who attacked her in any way.
  • Many fan's guessed that Bragi was one of Luxu's vessels.
• Iron Woobie: All of the Foretellers, considering they're all trying their hardest to fulfill the roles left to them by the Master of Masters to save the world from darkness despite the seemingly inevitable End of the World as We Know It Keyblade War looming on the horizon. Ava in particular takes the infighting between each other very hard, but is also one of the most resolved to fulfilling the Master's wishes, specifically gathering Keyblade wielders of promise to join the Dandelions and flee the world when the Keyblade War begins.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A sizable amount of players have stated that a major reason for why they roll for premium medals is for the soundtrack that comes with them, such as Illustrated Kairi (EX)'s "2nd Movement Kairi - Andante Sostenuto".
• Last Lousy Point: In Unchained. With three bonus objectives for every single mission in the game, this was bound to come up.
  • In the global version of Unchained, nearly every mission has "Defeat all enemies in 1 turn" as its first objective. If the mission contains secret passages, hidden enemies, or a Boss in Mook Clothing, that Mickey head will stay dark for quite a while. (The Japanese version generally uses "Defeat the target enemy in 1 turn" instead.)
  • The major exceptions to the "Defeat all enemies in 1 turn" in the main storyline are all against bosses. In most cases, the requirement is instead..."Defeat the target enemy in 1 turn". That's right, take down a boss in a single turn. And if a boss has more than 1 turn listed, that boss's HP is so high that it's a difficult task regardless.
  • These frustrations are exacerbated further in Proud Mode, where the enemies are much tougher, intense restrictions are placed on which medals can be used, and friend medals and continues aren't allowed. The mode is so tough, it's a struggle to get through these missions alive, let alone clear special objectives. And, while the rewards from normal mission objectives are generally Avatar Coins which can be acquired through other means, Proud Mode objectives reward players with materials necessary to level up special Keyblades, also acquired through Proud Mode. Meaning, if you can't get every Last Lousy Point, these Keyblades will be virtually useless...which will be an issue when you come across more Proud Mode quests that require these Keyblades themselves. Whoops.
  • A lot of the time in the global version, not only is the first objective "Defeat all enemies in 1 turn," but the others are "Defeat (powerful enemy) within 1 turn" and "Collect # or more lux," meaning that both of the latter are satisfied by achieving the former. So if you're hoping to achieve them all, the first is the only one you really need to pay attention to.
  • Occasionally, these objectives are mutually exclusive in that you have to replay the quest at least once to complete them all. For example, any that has a "complete within X seconds objective," as this is generally only possible by going straight for the target enemy, which obviously nullifies the "Defeat all enemies in one turn" objective. Additionally, the objectives are sometimes "use x or more special attacks" or "use x or fewer special attacks," however, it sometimes possible for the objectives within the same quest to be, for example, "use 5 or more special attacks" and "use 1 or fewer special attacks," again making it outright mathematically impossible to complete both objectives in the same go and thus again forcing at least one additional play. For that matter, the "use x or less special attacks" can be this in general, since you're probably not going to get all one-turn triumphs while going for this as well, and it can be difficult to even survive, since you'll have to take enemy attacks without boosting your defense.
  • Many event missions beginning in mid-late 2018 carry the criterion "Must clear all together." In other words, it doesn't matter that you were able to complete without having to continue, or completed the task within the time limit, or avoided taking damage. If you weren't able to do all three at the same time, then you don't earn the rewards for any of them.
• Memetic Badass: Kairi, on account of being the subject of some of the game's most game-breaking medals, with many fans speculating as to just how powerful her next medal will be. And then came Kairi EX, which was so far up in terms of game-breaking, that speculation was no longer necessary. It had arrived. It should be noted that this all happened after growing internet criticism of how Kairi has been handled in the main series over the past few years, so one wonders if this might be part of an Author's Saving Throw to give her relevance even in a game that doesn't feature her as a character in the plot.
• Memetic Mutation: "May my memes be my guiding key."
• Moe:
  • Even before her introduction, Strelitzia was called cute by Nomura. Cue her introduction, and everyone agreed with him, with several fanart being made for her within hours due to how adorable she is. And then she dies soon afterward. Nomura, you bastard.
  • The new Spirit Dream Eaters distributed by the Pet system that came with the September 2017 update.
  • Sure, he's going to grow up to ruin many lives and put the worlds in danger, but dang if Xehanort wasn't adorable as a small child!
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Many players tend to ignore the story, which is particularly easy when the story is very sparsely paced out over hundreds upon hundreds of missions, almost coming off as an Excuse Plot.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Dream Eaters have been a divisive addition to the franchise's lore, with detractors viewing them as unnecessary Mons and general opinion on them being neutral... then come the ending of X, where the revelation that they're the Chirithies of every dead Dandelion, leading to many a fan becoming apologetic and tearful over the story of their spirit animal companions.
• Seasonal Rot: A rare video game example - Union χ[cross] has outright been described as the "second season" of Unchained χ by Word of God, and it's common to see many fans who previously enjoyed X and Unchained χ getting frustrated by it due to the series' confusing narrative tradition returning, particularly with the introductions of Ventus and Lauriam, Marluxia's real self.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The auto-fill equipment button. Some Medals always take precedence over others when using this, putting them in the first slot regardless of whether or not the Medal gets a boost from the slot's affinity. Unfortunately, most of these Medals the game puts in the first slot are ones that you really don't want going first, such as Medals that drain all of your Special/Guilt meter to gain power, which would leave you crippled for the rest of your setup. Also, while the game does prioritize strength of the Medals for a slot everywhere else — putting an upright power Medal into an upright power slot, for instance — it doesn't factor in what the Medal actually does. This means you could be left with a Medal in the last slot which is supposed to copy another Medal, but now won't do anything. When going through Proud Mode or preparing for PVP, it's almost always better to fill in the slots of a Keyblade manually.
• That One Boss: The boss of mission 425, Foreteller Ava, is considered by many to be effectively a pay wall. In addition to a massive amount of health, the boss is immune to status effects and alternates between huge attack and defense buffs. Subverted however, if you have a Disc-One Nuke medal which can effectively be a One-Hit KO on her.
  • This also extends to the boss of mission 555, the foreteller of the player's union or Foreteller Ira for Vulpes players. This boss starts off with a massive defense boost which can make dealing damage nigh impossible without some sort of dispel or defense debuff in tow. On top of this is also a massive pool of health extending up to 48 bars of HP. They switch up buffs on the second turn to an immense attack buff that can and will defeat you instantly. And the objectives want you to defeat said boss in only two turns. Strong speed medals with their special attack bonus, or guilt, unlocked are almost mandatory to achieve these objectives.
  • The Darkside Union Cross quest. The Darkside has a lot of HP (to the tune of twenty million, where other Union Cross bosses peak at less than four million) and its attacks are capable of one-shotting even the strongest of players. It gets even worse if you're matched up with weaker teammates who don't deal a lot of damage and constantly need to be revived, which takes up one of your attacks for each counter they have. It's far harder than any other Union Cross boss, but its rewards aren't adjusted at all to compensate. Thankfully, it has since been severely nerfed to the point where it is on par with the other bosses.
  • The previously mentioned Iron Giant added to Proud 160.
  • Lexaeus from the May 2018 Organization XIII event becomes this in the later challenges, namely because he straight up cheats. In addition to the standard counter above his head before he gets a free attack outside of turn order, he can just interrupt your turn to attack you whenever his HP is depleted past 30% and again at 10%. At least with the countdown system it is possible to manage an enemy counterattack and there are medals that don’t affect the counter or even increase it. With this however, if the player can't deal just enough damage to make these counters overlap with his normal attacks, Lexaeus will stop you dead in your tracks with an attack that will almost certainly kill you in one hit. It is just plain unfair that even if you know for a fact you would be able to defeat him if you had the maximum three full turns ^note assuming you can keep his counter above zero the entire time, you have the first turn and two revives if you have the HP Recovery I Trick on your Pet and a medal equipped with the Second Chance Skill, the game simply does not allow you to do that. This basically breaks the entire turn-based system the game was built on and is Fake Difficulty at its finest.
  • If you thought Maleficent's dragon form was tough in other games, think again! Here she's spiked up to level 1000 with an HP bar to match, her attacks are easily one-hit kills, she automatically attacks after a certain number of hits, and her defense is so ludicrously high that without the trait that reduces Ground Defense, even the game's biggest Game Breakers will do nothing but Scratch Damage.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Powering up the Moogle O' Glory in the mobile version. The only quests with the materials necessary to upgrade it are hallways with forced encounters against viciously tough enemies, and were originally only available to play on weekends (unless you purchase the VIP quest package).
  • The 101 Dalmatians medal, obtainable by fusing together Puppy medals. In the JP version, the Puppy medals are found individually, hidden as random drops from various quests, including bosses and Raid Bosses, and each of them takes up their own space in inventory. And guess how many Puppy medals you need?^note Now realize that the real draw of 101 Dalmatians is maxing its guilt, which involves fusing extra copies of the medals together and getting lucky with the guilt bonus, and revise your guess upward. In the global version, the Puppy medals instead came from a Union Cross event, which only lasted a week, and required players to grind a very limited set of quests to get the puppies, which drop almost completely randomly. It wasn't uncommon to be stuck with 10 or 20 copies of a single puppy while not getting even one copy of another
  • The "Classic Kingdom" Retraux games are meant to invoke the style of old CRT game-and-watch games. While none of the games by themselves are particularly hard, a player needs to get very high scores on all five games to get a code for the Starlight keyblade in Kingdom Hearts III. Some of the requirements are so high that it could take hours just to reach one of these scores, resulting in ten-plus hours of grinding through the old-school games to hit the point requirements needed to unlock the code. Even though a player is rewarded an increasing number of Jewels for clearing the games, it's a grind all the same. To wit: an update in January 2019 cut the requirements for each game in half, and they're still absurdly high.
  • The Keyblade War, which was the endgame quest in the browser version, is now a special Event, so it's technically a sidequest, and it's hard. Meant to act as a Boss Rush (and effectively serve as the Final Bosses for the game), the protagonist fights all of the Foretellers, except the one who leads the union they belong to. And each of the four Foretellers is so absurdly powerful that it will take very specific set-ups, months of grinding, and tens of thousand of Jewels to become strong enough to face even one of them. Fortunately, it's a permanent event, so one can come back to it months later with a better setup.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: For all the hype surrounding Elrena's involvment in this game, she really doesn't do much in the story. Introduced with a connection to Strelitzia and subsequently becoming acquaintances with Lauriam, she could have become more involved in the mystery of Strelitzia's death. But after that she vanishes from the story before showing back up again in the finale. There's is also no insight given onto why her Nobody Larxene doesn't want to go back to her old self.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some fans are disappointed that the confrontation between Ava and Luxu that kickstarts the Keyblade War isn't included in Back Cover.
• Unexpected Character: Few fans expected Ventus to be involved in the Keyblade War; even fewer could have predicted that Marluxia had ties to the Keyblade War as Lauriam.
  • And now we can add Larxene as Elrena to that list.
  • Tsum Tsum medals, a crossover between two Disney crossover-centric franchises.
  • World of Final Fantasy medals, as it is a set containing Final Fantasy characters that have yet to appear in the Kingdom Hearts franchise (that is Lightning, as well as Reynn, Lann, and Tama).
  • Zootopia and Moana medals, released to tie in with their movie releases.
  • The Jungle Book (1967) medals, likewise released to tie in with The Jungle Book (2016), but featuring the characters from the original animated movie.
  • A male Avatar Board based off of Terrence from Disney Fairies as a counterpart to the female Avatar Board based off of Tinker Bell.
  • The SENA Kingdom Hearts χ Twitter account announcing the arrival of medals based on Launchpad, Webby, Scrooge, and the triplets^note Especially the former two, as those characters had never appeared in any prior Kingdom Hearts media in any form in their Ducktales (2017) incarnations. Doubly so, as these are the first medals the global version got before the Japanese version that weren’t part of a movie tie-in.
  • An example of a world getting this treatment, after several worlds in previous games getting reused, Quest 875 introduces a brand new world: Game Central Station!
  • While Xehanort was not exactly unexpected considering there were hints of a connection between him and the Player, the brief appearance of Xehanort's apparent mother definitely came from the left field.
  • Dark Road finally revealed how Xehanort found out where Ventus was in the present time. The Magic Mirror, of all beings, told him.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Back Cover looks incredible in Kingdom Hearts 2.8, as seen in this trailer.
• The Woobie: Strelitzia. Her introduction is all about how she's seen the player on missions, always wanting to talk to them, but never working up the courage to do so. Then she's killed five missions later, her last thoughts being of you, the Keyblade wielder she never really got to meet.
  • The April 2020 update retroactively adds Lauriam to the list, and by extension, Marluxia. Before he became a Nobody, he was a legitimately sweet kid and big brother to Strelitzia, who encouraged her, whilst also playfully teasing her about her semi-crush towards the player. And then he finds out she's been murdered by someone. When the story reveals who did, he's not at the scene because he tries to prevent a time-displaced Maleficent from stealing a pod to arrive at the time Kingdom Hearts II, but gets badly beaten up and is then somehow haunted in his unconscious dream by what seems to be the ghost of his slain sister. What makes it all worse is that once he becomes Marluxia, he's going to forget all this tragedy and become the complete antithesis of the sweet older brother Strelitzia adored all the way until Sora defeats him at the Keyblade Graveyard for the last time, whereupon he fades regaining his memories at last. But then the question remains if when Lauriam is recompleted, he's still lost his darling little sister.

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