I had a great time fighting "Moses"

Since I've been watching Another Side, Another Story and Deep Dive for the better part of 2 years now, I've come to know them quite well. I was absolutely floored by how they've had everything planned out. Fighting Xemnas at the Skyscraper of Memories which basically mirrors the Roxas vs. Riku (which we now know!) fight was the stuff of dreams. All the quotes said by the various players that are clearly visible in the previous teasers is absolutely incredible. "This time... I'll fight." "We'll go together."

Nothing makes me happier when following a series (be it book, movie, tv, game, etc) than realizing that they didn't necessarily make it up as they went and there was an overall arc to it. That's when I know my time was well spent.

Now, I haven't seen the new secret movie yet and I don't know anything about it, but as soon as I unlock it, I'm certainly going to try to find a ripped version or rip one myself so I can study it for the next 2 or 3 years and I'll love every minute of it!

Ah, don't get TOO excited. Another Side, Another Story and Deep Dive weren't as "thought out" as you may think. I read an interview with Nomura and he confirmed that he had a basic idea but those were both "concept" movies because they had no idea Kingdom Hearts would sell as well as it did. When development began on KH2 that he created a list of things to make sure were put into the game based on those movies. You'll no doubt notice that there's no explanation given as to why Mickey and Riku had Organization XIII cloaks other than "they were in ASAS/Deep Dive" but regardless, they did a fine job making sure everything was in the game for those that over-analyze the teasers! He also confirmed that the KH2 secret movie is more thought through and he knows where's he's going with it if they make KH3. Since you've played KH1 I'll just tease you in that the secret movie opens with a quote from that game: "The Keyblade is a phenomenal weapon. One legend states its wielder brought peace to the world, another says he wrought chaos upon it."

By the way, I wanted to hammer my controller when they gave Kairi a Keyblade. ARGH!

Why do you have to ruin my dream? One thing that caught my attention was something about previous Keyblade masters. I think Xemnas said something about Sora thinking he was different than the previous one(s). Sounds very Matrix-eqsue, and that isn't a good thing in my book. I hope the next one isn't a prequel... I hope to get to that movie soon.

Another thing I really enjoyed was one of the forms of Xemnas trying to pit Riku and Sora against each other. Playing off jealousy and mistrust. It was during the battle with the throned "Nobody King" and the remnants of TWTNW.

That final form cheaped me out twice when I got to the massive laser barrage. The first time I was actively trying to cast Reflegra and the second I was only hitting X for Sora to deflect the blasts and Riku got perforated. The third time I realized I had to pound X and Triangle simultaneously it was a breeze.

One thing that I didn't like about the last battle was that damn cut-scene smack in the middle of it. It brought the last battle to a screeching halt. I wish they would have handled the Roxas/Namimé reunion elsewhere and just found a quick and clean way to separate Goofy and Donald from you after beating the first instance of the Nobody King and get you right into the Dragon Ship. I remember thinking "Holy crap this is awesome!" and when that cut-scene came I was at first "That's it? There's no way in hell.." and once the battle began again it took a while to get back on that train of excitement.. it killed the pacing of what could have been the ultimate thirty minute non-stop roller-coaster of a last battle.

About the "previous" Keyblade masters.. keep that in mind as you finish up your Journal!

I don't think there'll be a prequel. Noruma stated that Kingdom Hearts will always be Sora's story so the most that I think will happen is Sora will learn about a lot of back-story on the Keyblade if they choose to focus on that. He also mentioned that because of this, it'll be harder and harder to make continuations of the story.. (they've already aged the characters a year in the story and about three years visually).

Speaking of.. man does Riku not ooze fan-service or what? It just seems his new look and demeanor are purposely done in a way to drive crazy fan-girls insane. Heh, at any rate I kind of hope they keep the characters where are age-wise for the next game.