Kingdom Hearts coded



"Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it."

Kingdom Hearts coded (yes, that is exactly how it is capitalized and punctuated) is set after the events of Kingdom Hearts II. While organizing the records in his journal from his travels with Sora and his friends, Jiminy Cricket's curiosity about the line "thank Naminé" results in him finding a message that he did not write: "Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it." To investigate this message, King Mickey digitizes the contents of the journal and goes into the simulated world to investigate, awakening a virtual Sora on Destiny Islands to carry out the contents of the journal to uncover the identity of "them". However, the virtual Sora encounters "bugs", which take the form of red and black blocks. The plot takes the data Sora through seven worlds from previous games.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, a remake for the Nintendo DS, has been released in Japan and America and now Europe.

This game provide examples of:
"Card Soldier: I'd better paint these roses red, or it's off with my you-know-what!!""
 * Absurdly High Level Cap: Averted in Re:coded, which is a first for this series. As per usual you can finish the game in the Level 50 area, but the optional post-game system sectors pit you against powerful enemies, beating the final boss gets you the Oathkeeper keyblade that eventually gains the Exp Boost ability, and each level you gain is technically two levels if you put them on the paths between CP Us. Thus level grinding is nowhere near as tedious or time-consuming as past games, and the final optional system sector at Hollow Bastion has a recommended level of 80, but before that are level 70 and 60 sectors, so you can work your way up gradually.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: The purpose of the Avatar section in Re:coded.
 * Arc Words: "Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it."
 * Are We There Yet?: From Sora, upon entering Layer 20 of Olympus Coliseum's unlockable 30-layer challenge. (And right after that, Hercules comments that getting through the place is a labor in itself.)
 * Ascended Meme: "Pet goldfish? As if!"
 * Ascended Extra: This is the first time Jiminy and his journal are actually important to the plot.
 * And then he gets Demoted to Extra about halfway through.
 * Actually, it's his second. But he got Demoted to Extra there too.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind:
 * Big Bad: The equivalent to that of this game is the one who controls the bugs:
 * Big Damn Heroes: Several.
 * Riku and Mickey fight Pete and Malificent after
 * Goofy saves Sora from Pete in Hollow Bastion.
 * Mickey helps Sora defeat
 * Donald and Goofy snap Sora out of his depression in.
 * BFS: The Zone of Ruin Overclock Finisher.
 * Cloud's Buster Sword
 * Bonus Boss:
 * Bonus Dungeon: Layers 6-30 of Olympus Colliseum and the extra system sectors, especially Hollow Bastion sector 2.
 * Boring Yet Practical: Air Spiral and Aerial Sweep. Mediocre damage, but they're Spin Attacks that hit enemies over a decent area, reload quickly, and have low memory costs.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing: Eliminators. They're red Defenders who have massive amounts of HP relative to your current level; are shielded from all frontal attacks like their original counterparts; have projectile magic which can inflict any status ailment at random; are themselves immune to all status effects; will not flinch from attacks; and can teleport, often right between Sora and where he needs to go.
 * Boss Rush: Several, most notably and.
 * Bragging Rights Reward: The Ultima Weapon of this game requires you to complete a Level 80, 13 floor system sector after you complete the game, the final floor holding the Bonus Boss. The problem is once you get it, there's nothing left to do.
 * Unless you decide to take it into the Avatar Sector, fight, or take on the Bonus sector again with various Cheats turned on to make things harder.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of the floor challenges is "Play at night." Cue much confusion (and for some, inconvenience) at trying to figure out how to do that until you realize that it's talking about playing the game at night in the real world, which the DS knows because it has a clock installed.
 * Brought Down to Normal: Sora three times.
 * First after
 * Second after
 * And finally when Maleficent places a spell on him that disables commands and abilities.
 * Call Back: Some scenes in the game are exact replicas of Sora's original quest.
 * "This world has been connected. Tied to the ____"
 * Camera Centering
 * Chaos Architecture: The worlds inside  get very screwed up by bugs.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: The mysterious figure Sora meets at his awakening is
 * The Chessmaster:, to set the stage for Sora to awaken the painful memories of inside him and to ultimately set up for
 * Copy Protection: Re:coded, kinda fittingly.
 * Continuity Nod: The appearance of
 * Covers Always Lie: Riku and Kairi appear in official art, but they only appear in flashbacks shown by the journal . Their data versions aren't actually present in the game at all, though takes the form of Riku, supposedly to give the fangirls something to look at.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Sora and somewhat.
 * Disc One Final Dungeon: Inside Data-Riku. In fact, when episode 7 was released, it was actually believed to be the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, since episode 8 had yet to be announced.
 * Disc One Nuke: In the remake, once you finished Olympus Coliseum, the fourth world in the game, assuming you know where to look and how to make the command, you can get every command in the game, even the Game Breaker (see YMMV tab) without much difficulty in grinding it (outside Olympus Coliseum).
 * Dual-Wielding:, as always.
 * Dull Surprise: Compare Brett Iwan's Mickey in the english version of Re:Coded to his performance in Birth By Sleep. He sounds alot less into it in this game.
 * Fighting From the Inside:
 * Fighting Your Friend:
 * Later,
 * Final Boss:
 * Get Back Here Boss: Iago, even more than in previous installments, as now it involves tedious platforming.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: A sort of Fridge Logic moment in Wonderland:
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: A sort of Fridge Logic moment in Wonderland:

"Nomura: It comes from the heart's connections with the data, hinting towards the story theme, "Can a heart be born in an existence made of data?""
 * Glamour Failure:
 * A Glitch in the Matrix: And you have to fix them.
 * Guilt by Coincidence: Data-Sora blames the mysterious figure for causing the glitches before finding out what he's actually there for.
 * Idiosyncratic Keyblade Naming: Unlike previous games, all of the Keyblades are upgradable (up to five levels), and have different Theme Naming. For instance, there's the Kingdom Key 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, and the Metal Chocobo, plus the Fe, Ag, Au, and Pt variants. The Oblivion's levels are named after the series' main characters ("Wind"/Ventus, "Earth"/Riku (and Terra), "Sea"/Kairi (and Aqua), and "Sky"/Sora). While some use a more typical numbering system, the Lady Luck uses numbers in circles while the Three Wishes uses Roman numerals.
 * Infinity-1 Sword: Zero/One, a pixelated Kingdom Key with a variety of offensive abilities, won by defeating . The Oathkeeper is won from the final boss but has more defensive abilities dedicated to support, while the Lionheart, Metal Chocobo and Ultima Weapon are only available in difficult post-game challenges. And even when you have all of those, Zero/One may become a weapon of choice simply for its Targeting Scope ability, which no other Keyblade has.
 * Insane Troll Logic: Wonderland runs on it as always. The final area where you revisit it has you perform four good deeds for people before the Queen calls for you. She accuses you of stealing her memory, and if you screwed up one task and lied, she uses it as proof you're a criminal. However, if you do them all right she uses your good nature as proof you're hiding something, and if you do them all wrong she realizes you were at least trying to be good, so she decides the punishment should fit the crime and lets you go as a good deed, snapping "let's see how you like it!"
 * Inside a Computer System
 * Interface Screw: The boss of Wonderland, the Trickmaster, has a habit of turning the camera sideways and upside-down during the fight against him.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia:
 * Glitches cause everyone in Wonderland to lose their memories.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The moogle will tell you that you can check the tutorial section in the menu if you need a refresher on what licenses do, before adding that he has no idea what that menu is. Somewhat justified in that you're in a computer anyway.
 * Lighter and Softer: It can be serious when it needs to, but the game's tone is much more optimistic than previous entries.
 * Limit Break: The Overclock Finishers
 * Lip Lock
 * Living Memory:
 * as well.
 * Loophole Abuse: Several challenges can be completed using small exploits. A challenge near the end of the game has you running an obstacle course with your commands disables, and to receive one reward you have to do it in under a minute. However, for some reason Glide is not enabled, allowing completion in under thirty seconds. In system sectors, there may be a challenge condition such as not using curative commands, or not jumping. However, keyblade abilities that restore HP are fine for the former, and commands and attacks that have Sora leap to attack are allowed for the latter.
 * Lost in Transmission: Once the King, Donald, and Goofy, they suddenly lose their communication with Chip and Dale.
 * Low-Level Run: Like in Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2, levels are earned, but only count if they're installed in a stat matrix. Thus, it's possible to go through all of the worlds with an effective level of one if you take out all of your level chips. There's even a trophy for going through the worlds under level 15.
 * Magical Computer
 * The Computer Is Your Friend: Or rather...
 * Manipulative Bastard -
 * Metal Slime: Gold Tricholomas.
 * Min-Maxing: Stat panels can't be moved once placed, though you can swap them with another panel, and panels on a direct route between CP Us double in effectiveness. Thus the dilemma is what stats to prioritize getting the boost, and do you put off exploring a side path to a new ability so you can save panels for the main path.
 * Mirror Match:
 * Mondegreen: In-universe examples, in a way.
 * When Mickey asks what Maleficent is doing in the Datascape, she responds with "Date Escape?"
 * When Pete talks to Jafar about Glitches, he has no idea how the word is spelled or pronounced ("Gali-ches?"), and just assumes Pete's some extremely powerful sorcerer.
 * Money Sink: Want to get every last Debug Device Y? Hope you're prepared to grind for it outside Olympus Coliseum.
 * Multiple Endings: The worlds  all have three.
 * Olympus Coliseum also has an alternate ending if you choose not to rescue Cloud and recruit him to your party.
 * New Game+: While it's not a "New Game" in the strictest sense, it is possible to replay all the worlds with the items, levels, and stat enhancers that were acquired later in the game in Re:coded.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
 * Actually, that's
 * No-Gear Level:, just like last time.
 * Nostalgia Level:
 * Come to think of it, the earlier part is like "KingdomHearts The Abridged Series."
 * And earlier, the Olympus Coliseum labyrinth is a revisit of the Chain of Memories battle system adapted to a turn-based system with a party, complete with sleights.
 * Not Completely Worthless: Hi-Ethers -- through most of the game, they're a waste of limited space, but when attempting a No Damage Run for the Fatal Flawless trophy, they're lifesavers when combined with the Oathkeeper Keyblade. Using them will charge your clock level up enough to activate Auto-Life, which will save you if you take a hit. The rules say you must complete the episode with your HP capped at 1. There's no rule against using Auto-Life to save yourself.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder: You can turn Sora into one with the last cheat. It's necessary for one of the trophies.
 * : If you played 358/2 Days then
 * And arguably it makes the plot make so much more sense. The reason that  has been tormenting Sora throughout   is both because   and because
 * Random Drop: Potions, Commands, and even chips.
 * Rare Random Drop: Chips won't be easily gotten. You'll need to high up the difficulty to maximum and use the multiplier cheat if you want any chances to see them.
 * The Reveal: After five years of wondering, speculation, and fanfics on the subject, the fandom of Kingdom Hearts now knows
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: If one has been keeping up with the in-depth information on the series, . This is otherwise averted.
 * In the case of Re:coded's secret ending,
 * At the end of the game, you could be forgiven for assuming that the cloaked figure in is Riku, who has been appearing to you in his black cloak all game. Then
 * Then again, the shape of his hood is different from Riku, who himself suggested that he was not the same guy as the one who appeared in his dream at the start of the game.
 * Recycled IN A COMPUTER
 * Save the Villain: Sora and the others try to save Maleficent and Pete from deletion in the seventh chapter.
 * Sequel Hook: Re:coded has this, which sets up Kingdom Hearts 3D by revealing that
 * Sequential Boss: You fight Pete and two and three times in a row, respectively; they don't change form, but pull out new moves in each battle.
 * When you fight
 * Every boss in Re:coded is a sequential boss. Yes, even Darkside.
 * Well, except Guard Armor, Cerberus, and.
 * Shout-Out: Once the boss of the turn-based Olympus Coliseum is defeated, the characters do victory poses as the result screen plays. Bonus points for Cloud actually being the protagonist of a Final Fantasy game.
 * Also in Olympus Coliseum, when Hercules tells Sora and Cloud what the name of the giant, ornery, 3-headed puppy is, Cloud mentions that it sounds familiar.
 * More from Cloud: when you reach Layer 25, both Sora and Hercules are unable to define the Heartless that acts as its boss, but Cloud immediately identifies it as a Behemoth. Understandable, since he's familiar with a very similar creature.
 * What'd you think I was up here doing? Having a laugh?
 * Ain't no getting off this train we're on.
 * "Getting through this labyrinth is a labor in itself."
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: The rather melancholy leitmotifs of Riku and play during battles with them.
 * Speed Run: Trophies are given for redoing the worlds and clearing them in under a set amount of time. All together, it adds up to beating the whole game in a bit under two hours.
 * Spoiler Opening: The very first bit of the opening is the ending to Chain of Memories, followed by brief interspersed flashes of, , and . It pretty much summarizes the events of Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts II in a huge montage with lots of hugging, and concludes with the Kingdom Hearts II opening before the title flash. The development team probably went ahead and assumed that if you're playing this game, you already know this stuff, but the Birth by Sleep ones are a little surprising, considering it's still fairly recent. Though, that's probably why they're such brief flashes -- if you hadn't already finished Birth by Sleep, you probably wouldn't even realize what they are.
 * Time Stands Still: gains control over time after
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: Pretty much each world in Re:coded features one before the boss, such as a side-scroller, a shoot-em-up, and a turn-based RPG; the game is normally an action RPG with Birth by Sleeps battle system, and something similar to Days equip/level up system.
 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon:
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: In a bit of a first for KH games, you are allowed to be an absolute dick if you want... once you enter . The mysterious figure guiding you actually encourages this, reminding you that the people you're seeing are just hunks of data, and, at that. Why should you feel bad for breaking their nonexistent hearts? Then again, being Sora, most of it is considered unintentional.
 * You even get rewarded for it; that is, by getting all the cards that show you've cleared them all,
 * This is even played with in the version of Wonderland. Here, you can only get one of the ending cards by screwing everything up with everyone in the room: telling an amnesiac Alice that she is actually the Queen of Hearts; giving a sickly card soldier a potion meant for someone else, only for him to say he was just hungry; picking up the White Rabbit's watch to return it to him, only for him to run off before you can, meaning you have essentially stolen the watch; and refusing to help the Cheshire Cat find his "finding." The Queen of Hearts calls you out on all this crap, using it as "evidence" that you stole her memory (when you clearly didn't), and how does she punish you? By letting you go scot free. She doesn't even bother saying "Off with your head!" like she does even if you do things right in the room; she just says "Off with you!" because she thinks being nice to someone who did bad things with good intentions is a fitting punishment.
 * Voice Grunting
 * Wham! Episode:, oddly enough. After Sora cleans the world of bugs as usual,
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Everyone is now computer data. According to Nomura, this trope is the main theme of the game -- interesting that the cheeriest game in the series would address something so heavy. For an example, when questioned about the nature of Data-Sora's Keyblade:


 * What the Hell, Hero?: Given to Data-Sora by, of all people,
 * And since it's Wonderland, you get it for doing everything right.
 * Even better is that you get a What the Hell, Hero? of a different color if you do everything wrong.
 * What You Are in the Dark: attempts to invoke this on Sora at
 * Where It All Began: The final level brings the confusion over Sora's memories and the journal's erasing full-circle