Latest / Systematic Geekology / Chain of Memories - Who are we, again?

Transcript

Chain of Memories - Who are we, again? · Systematic Geekology

• 1:14
  memories, even important ones, don't come back to us whenever we want them to.
• 1:19
  But that doesn't mean the memories are gone.
• 1:21
  It's more like.
• 1:22
  Like they're sleeping.
• 1:23
  Today we're talking about Kingdom Hearts chain of memories.
• 1:25
  That was a quote from the protagonist, the main character, Sora, from the Kingdom Hearts franchise.
• 1:32
  Yes, Will, it's another one.
• 1:35
  We're back.
• 1:37
  Christian, Ashley, myself, Joshua Noah have been going through all of the Kingdom Hearts games in preparation for the 25th anniversary next year, which turns out will also be Kingdom Hearts 4.
• 1:48
  But we didn't know that when we started this series.
• 1:50
  Weirdly enough, this is the first time we've released an episode in this little series.
• 1:53
  We've been doing that.
• 1:54
  They haven't announced anything new since we last talked.
• 1:57
  We might be current and relevant again.
• 2:01
  Maybe just as planned.
• 2:03
  Oh, guys, I'm excited for this.
• 2:07
  This is probably the game that's got me in more trouble than any other game.
• 2:10
  More on that in just a minute.
• 2:12
  But for now, we are gonna talk about a little bit what we've been geeking out on lately.
• 2:17
  Yeah, Christian, I've been.
• 2:19
  I just prepared for Theology beer camp going there this weekend that we're recording.
• 2:23
  And yes, that dates this.
• 2:24
  And I'm sorry, but it's weird because a lot of the times when I go to do a panel at these things, I'm like, oh, I have to read three volumes of Systematic Theology by Paul Tillich.
• 2:33
  And this time I was like, I have to read all of the Dead space graphic novels and then play all of the Bioshock games.
• 2:39
  Very important work.
• 2:41
  So that's what I've been geeking.
• 2:44
  Christian, what about you?
• 2:46
  Man, I've been trying to do something mindless, so I've just been replaying some Pokemon, Scarlet and Violet Shiny hunting in there.
• 2:53
  So just to get away from the world for a bit.
• 2:55
  Got a nice shiny fritterback.
• 2:57
  It was a good day.
• 2:58
  That does sound like a good day.
• 2:59
  Yeah, there was.
• 3:02
  Was it.
• 3:02
  Was it Squirtle?
• 3:03
  There was something.
• 3:03
  I saw a meme online that was, like, talking about how important I am because I'm shiny and I look so much cooler than all y'.
• 3:08
  All.
• 3:08
  Then whenever they all evolve, everyone's the same color again.
• 3:12
  Man.
• 3:13
  Knew I shouldn't have evolved.
• 3:16
  I love that.
• 3:17
  Probably a Ghastly or a Gible.
• 3:18
  Yeah, something.
• 3:20
  But it's not a Pokemon episode.
• 3:22
  It is Pokemon esque.
• 3:23
  It's reminding me of my old Game Boy days, which I don't care how many Pokemon games they make.
• 3:28
  When I hear Pokemon, I still think the little pixelated black and white game that I played when I was a child.
• 3:32
  So, you know, and then I remember when it came out color, I was so excited.
• 3:35
  For now though, we do want to get through some stuff.
• 3:38
  If you guys enjoy our podcast half as much as we enjoy Pokemon, then you should rate and review our show.
• 3:42
  Wherever you get Podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Apple Podcasts.
• 3:47
  I think the thing, wherever it helps the algorithms think that the show is important and helps other people find the show, which helps us a whole lot.
• 3:53
  We really appreciate it.
• 3:54
  We also of course appreciate all of our financial supporters.
• 3:56
  Today we want to shout one and only Austin Nance.
• 3:58
  Also the person to attend the most events that we've been at, I think.
• 4:02
  But Jonathan Augustin's in the running who's also another financial supporter.
• 4:06
  So we'll see which supporter loves us most.
• 4:08
  We got to do more events to really test them that he is our.
• 4:11
  Deadbeat father as we established the last time I saw him.
• 4:15
  Austin, we love you.
• 4:17
  I need, I need to text him, see how he's doing.
• 4:19
  If you guys want your own jokes from us and for me to want to text you, you too can become a financial supporter or just get to know me either way.
• 4:28
  But yeah, you can become financial supporter yourself.
• 4:30
  You're an official member of Systemic Ecology by going to the website.
• 4:33
  Link is in the show's description.
• 4:35
  Same website.
• 4:36
  Without becoming a member, you could still get other free content.
• 4:39
  There's some of the episode free stuff, some of the bonus stuff we make free for everybody.
• 4:43
  Some of it you got to be a member merch.
• 4:46
  There's some available for everyone and some only available for members.
• 4:49
  Anyone though can leave a one time financial gift.
• 4:51
  So there's a lot of stuff on the website for everybody.
• 4:54
  It's not just for the members, but we do love them a little bit more.
• 4:57
  So think about that, guys.
• 4:59
  We do appreciate all of you.
• 5:00
  Right now I have on the screen one of my favorite T shirts.
• 5:03
  It's the Throne of Geeks.
• 5:05
  So kind of, kind of a callback to Game of Thrones stuff.
• 5:08
  But a lot of other geeky references in it too.
• 5:11
  Interesting.
• 5:12
  Who, who will really sit on the throne?
• 5:14
  And it's just a cool design.
• 5:15
  Yeah.
• 5:16
  So check it out.
• 5:16
  Check out the other merch.
• 5:17
  I think they're all pretty cool.
• 5:18
  If you want to hear more of me and Christian talking about Kingdom Hearts, there will be another link in the description for Kingdom Hearts episodes.
• 5:24
  Link.
• 5:25
  Lots of links down there.
• 5:25
  Lots of ways to join in what we're doing.
• 5:27
  We don't do this just to geek out for you.
• 5:29
  We want to geek out with you as Will says.
• 5:32
  So if you want to join the community, click on some of those links.
• 5:34
  Join the Discord servers, be a part of what we're doing here because we do this for community and we want to get to know you guys at least half as well as we know Austin Nance.
• 5:42
  Yeah, that's the goal, to know all of you half as well as we know Austin Nance for the brief time.
• 5:46
  He was in our lives.
• 5:50
  For now though, we I don't think there's been any new news with Kingdom Hearts.
• 5:56
  Have you had any new experiences that you want to talk about or nothing.
• 6:01
  New as far as leaks or anything like that or anything that they've actually released proper?
• 6:05
  It seems like they're just continuing on with development and eventually release.
• 6:10
  Yeah, I never played any of the Fortnite stuff or any of the other stuff they did.
• 6:14
  I think they had a racer thing that they were releasing carts out for.
• 6:18
  I don't think all of it's cool.
• 6:20
  The main thing I'm excited for, I don't play any of those games.
• 6:22
  But they are re releasing the official cards for Chain of Memories and you'll be able to.
• 6:29
  I'll probably have to purchase them through ebay because they'll probably only release them in Japan, but this December they'll be available again, which means at least if I find them on ebay, instead of paying like $300, I could
• 6:38
  probably get them for like 40 or 50.
• 6:41
  That does remind I do vaguely remember something about the 1.5, 2.5 coming to switch 2, maybe something like that.
• 6:48
  Yeah, the full collection.
• 6:49
  I think it's on Switch 2 already now.
• 6:51
  I think it just released a couple days ago.
• 6:52
  Okay.
• 6:53
  Yeah, the full collection just came out in honor of the America, American release of Kingdom Heart.
• 6:57
  So but they didn't add any new content.
• 6:59
  So I was like, I don't feel like I need to talk about it, but it has made it.
• 7:03
  Why would I want to buy this again?
• 7:04
  Well like it is like one of the most bought games right now because of that.
• 7:08
  It's like drummed up excitement and Steam did a sale so like a lot of people are buying it on Steam and it's nice that Kingdom Hearts relevant again but like it's always relevant for me so it doesn't feel
• 7:17
  like a big difference for me personally, you know.
• 7:20
  But yeah, no, I'm excited.
• 7:22
  I just like how because of all that, all of my Instagram Reels and stuff.
• 7:26
  There's all just.
• 7:26
  Just random.
• 7:27
  So people, like, I just now realized how cool it is that Sora showed up in Smash Bros.
• 7:33
  And I was like, yeah, it was awesome.
• 7:34
  I was upset Donald and Goofy weren't there, but it was still awesome.
• 7:38
  They had to pay a lot just to get the little Mickey Mouse chain on that keyblade.
• 7:42
  And they wanted everyone to know it.
• 7:44
  Yeah, yeah.
• 7:46
  And, you know, I'm excited.
• 7:47
  Just all of the.
• 7:48
  All the hype is nice.
• 7:51
  I've been slow playing.
• 7:54
  I've decided to do this thing Christian.
• 7:56
  So I have multiple replays I'm doing at the same time.
• 7:59
  But I think the thing I'm enjoying the most is because I keep coming up with, like, gimmicks when I play it.
• 8:04
  Like, this is going to be.
• 8:05
  How fast can I get through it?
• 8:06
  And this is.
• 8:06
  Can I get 100% completion?
• 8:08
  And.
• 8:08
  And I finally doing a replay where I'm like, I'm just gonna play it with like, no.
• 8:13
  Like, I have to get anything done or see how quick.
• 8:16
  Or I'm just playing it to play it.
• 8:18
  And I'm doing Aqua first.
• 8:20
  I'm doing it by character, obviously.
• 8:22
  I was like, I could just be Aqua forever, I think, and be happy.
• 8:26
  Yes.
• 8:26
  Once you get like deep freeze and you're going through Birth by sleep and just things are just freezing while you go by, like, yeah, you know what?
• 8:31
  I'm fine with this.
• 8:34
  So that's where we're at.
• 8:35
  No other news that I am aware of.
• 8:37
  So we're going to be talking about Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, the second entry made.
• 8:42
  But I think this is like the fifth or sixth entry chronologically, the one we've been going through.
• 8:47
  So we did Birth by Sleep Kingdom Hearts.
• 8:48
  So, well, if you're including the mobile games, you got Chi, Dark Roads, Birth by Sleep, original Kingdom Hearts.
• 8:54
  So then this would be fifth, and then it would be the fifth or sixth episode for us because we did an episode about the whole franchise first.
• 9:02
  But yeah, Chain of Memories, the game I got in trouble for more than any other game ever because it was on Game Boy advance, which meant when I was in middle school, the brief couple years I wasn't homeschooled,
• 9:11
  I just had it under my desk and thought that I was so clever and constantly got caught all the time.
• 9:18
  But you know what?
• 9:19
  I was stuck on that Riku fight and I just really wasn't going to care what was happening in math class anyway.
• 9:24
  I had to be Riku.
• 9:26
  That's probably around the same time they introduced Letters into my numbers and I stopped caring about math.
• 9:31
  Well, the funny thing is this was about the time when I was realizing what like, Yahoo and Google were.
• 9:39
  I was like, wait a minute, I don't have to go buy an official book to learn stuff.
• 9:42
  So, like, I could find out the slates by searching it on the Internet.
• 9:47
  And that was wild to me.
• 9:50
  So I had fun with that personally.
• 9:52
  But Christian, what was your first address?
• 9:54
  Because obviously mine must have been really young because I was in middle school for you.
• 9:59
  When was your first time playing Chain of Memories?
• 10:01
  Post college, right after I finished Kingdom Hearts Salon.
• 10:04
  I said, you know, this is pretty fun.
• 10:05
  I'm going to keep going.
• 10:06
  And this is what almost killed the interest in the games.
• 10:11
  I admire this game for what it is.
• 10:14
  It is not for me.
• 10:15
  It is the card building stuff and all the fact that you just can't endlessly collect cards along the way.
• 10:22
  You have to manage your inventory.
• 10:24
  Like, as if you want to kill my interest in a game.
• 10:26
  You give me a limited amount of things that I can have in very few ways to increase that.
• 10:32
  Like, no, I'm not part of that.
• 10:34
  And also redoing what I just played through.
• 10:37
  As someone who hates repetition, that was a very poor decision on my part to play it immediately after one.
• 10:44
  So, yeah, yeah, I think it helped what age I was and it helped that I was doing it in real time.
• 10:51
  So I had to wait for the game to come out.
• 10:52
  So it'd been a little while since the first one and I was like, oh, and I love the first one.
• 10:57
  Just playing that slightly differently.
• 10:59
  Fine.
• 11:00
  And I don't have to plug it up on the tv.
• 11:03
  I could have it handheld.
• 11:04
  That's crazy.
• 11:05
  And it was in color.
• 11:07
  Yeah.
• 11:08
  I was still amazed at Color Game Boys, even though this was like Game Boy advance at this point.
• 11:11
  I think it was.
• 11:12
  But it said Game Boy advance color.
• 11:13
  Mine still said color after Game Boy Advance.
• 11:16
  I remember that because I had a purple one.
• 11:18
  I remember it very well.
• 11:20
  And then I remember the Game Boy Advance SP and it had a little flip.
• 11:23
  Like a flip phone.
• 11:24
  That was cool.
• 11:25
  Yeah.
• 11:26
  So did you play Chain of Memories or Re.
• 11:28
  Chain of Memories.
• 11:29
  Re Chain.
• 11:30
  Yeah.
• 11:30
  I distinctly remember liking it a lot less.
• 11:33
  I don't remember why because it's been so long since I've played that one.
• 11:37
  But like, as a whole, most of the fandom, if you're like on Facebook groups and weird stuff like me, Chain of Memories is either the worst one or second to worst one for most people.
• 11:48
  I love it.
• 11:49
  It's probably mid for me if I'm ranking all the Kingdom Hearts games because I just love Chain of Memories because I lot of nostalgia with it.
• 11:56
  But I don't love retraining memories because every time I try to play it, I pretty quickly I'm like, I don't like this.
• 12:00
  But when I get the old one and it's all pixelated, I don't know if it's nostalgia or if it actually plays that differently, but I'm like, yeah, this is great.
• 12:08
  Now I can't see what's happening.
• 12:10
  Awesome.
• 12:11
  Yeah.
• 12:11
  If I played this as a side scroller like the original, I probably would put it even an even lesser, lesser score for this because being able to move around a little more fluidly in the reaching is only my
• 12:25
  style.
• 12:26
  Because maybe I like the side scroller because I was like, I could just.
• 12:29
  There are very few side scroller games that I'm like big on and must.
• 12:32
  Have nostalgia and I'm undiagnosed but probably a little autistic.
• 12:37
  And I love anything that involves numbers.
• 12:40
  So the fact that like a lot of this was if I add up to this number with my three cards, I unlock this move and I was like, wait a minute.
• 12:47
  So I can just organize all of my cards by number and have different combos appear based on how I organized it.
• 12:54
  Yeah, this, I thought that this was just like a one off.
• 12:59
  I just happen to like it because it's Kingdom Hearts.
• 13:02
  But whenever there was that the Marvel Midnight Suns and it's very much kind of like a deck builder.
• 13:07
  A lot different, but it's also a deck builder game.
• 13:09
  I had a lot of that too.
• 13:10
  And I think I might just like the idea of deck builder, like move collection kind of idea.
• 13:15
  I think I might just actually enjoy that.
• 13:17
  Enjoy.
• 13:17
  It's not like my favorite type of game, but I think it's like I just get something out of it.
• 13:21
  The experience, you know, Midnight Suns was.
• 13:24
  Way more fun than I expected it to be.
• 13:25
  It's also not my favorite, but I like it for what it is.
• 13:28
  But yeah, if you and I.
• 13:31
  If a doctor came by and diagnosed you and I as some form of autistic, like, the amount of surprise in my face would be zero.
• 14:38
  Yeah, same, same.
• 14:42
  So if you had to explain the plot of this game.
• 14:45
  So for those who don't remember we talked about the last Kingdom Hearts.
• 14:47
  They beat Anselm.
• 14:48
  They were like.
• 14:49
  Because he was like, oh, darkness is at the.
• 14:51
  In the midst of every heart, they open the door to Kingdom Hearts.
• 14:53
  But what's in the Middle, it's light.
• 14:55
  But then after Anselm's defeated, you realize it was a bunch of darkness and King Mickey was in the middle as light.
• 15:00
  Your team kind of all gets split up.
• 15:02
  Everybody gets whatever last thing you see depending on the ending you unlock.
• 15:06
  You, Donald Goofy are walking up to a mysterious castle.
• 15:09
  No idea how we got here.
• 15:10
  We just know there was this big Anselm.
• 15:11
  Light, Dark.
• 15:12
  All reality seems to be shattering.
• 15:14
  We save the world.
• 15:16
  And now Mysterious Castle.
• 15:18
  So from there, Christian, what happens in Kingdom Hearts?
• 15:22
  Chain of Memories So you find yourself.
• 15:24
  At the mysterious Castle Oblivion.
• 15:26
  Do you fully understand what that means?
• 15:27
  In this game, no more will be revealed later on.
• 15:31
  And you find a mysterious organization 13 inside there.
• 15:34
  There's people in black cloaks, robes that first you don't really see their faces too much.
• 15:41
  Then they start revealing them over time.
• 15:43
  And you are.
• 15:44
  You are told through exposition.
• 15:46
  You know, the things you normally do don't work here because we say so.
• 15:50
  So instead of just charging forward with the keyblade, you have to use this card in order to do so.
• 15:55
  In order to summon magic or anything, you have to use this card.
• 15:58
  And now that's part of what is Castle Oblivion's kind of shtick compared to other regions in the Kingdom Hearts verse.
• 16:06
  So if you want to have to prepare your deck really well, like when do I need to attack with my keyblade?
• 16:10
  When do I need to use magic?
• 16:11
  When do I need to heal?
• 16:12
  When do I need to get my items back up?
• 16:14
  It's a lot more intense in that fashion.
• 16:16
  But along the way you find out that there are reasons for why this is happening.
• 16:20
  In that they are researching memories and they have taken this mysterious girl named Namine to use her to mess with Sora's memories.
• 16:31
  To think that she was the person he's looking for, not Kyrie.
• 16:35
  And along the way, Kyrie starts getting replaced with a girl you don't remember.
• 16:38
  Then it's Nominee.
• 16:40
  And you're re going through these worlds so that they can get more and more of your memories to use that for their own ends.
• 16:47
  And eventually along the way, because of your actions.
• 16:50
  Sora realizes that he's been tricked by Nominee, but also realized she's kind of like a victim too.
• 16:55
  So agrees to fight for her.
• 16:58
  Fighting against these organization 13 members of which is a really cool one in Axel.
• 17:01
  Some pretty other cool ones.
• 17:03
  But eventually saves the day.
• 17:04
  But as a price of doing all this and having some of his memories taken away, he kind of needs to also spend a year or so in Stasis which leads up into what happens in between here and two.
• 17:14
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:16
  There's a lot.
• 17:17
  To me, it's wild that this is where organization 13 is introduced.
• 17:21
  And if you pay close attention, it does seem as though a lot of what Kingdom Hearts is known for, story wise and like all the mystery and weird convoluted nonsense starts in this Game Boy advance game.
• 17:31
  And it's wild, especially because I remember playing it.
• 17:35
  And at the end you go to sleep and all your members of the castle are going to be erased, but you'll be able to wake up yourself again.
• 17:39
  And I'm like, oh, so this game doesn't matter.
• 17:41
  I didn't need to play this.
• 17:43
  I think Kingdom Hearts 2 started and man, that was just a wrong assumption.
• 17:47
  But yeah, so just even early on you're told the more you learn about the Castle, the more you proceed, the more you forget yourself.
• 17:53
  So all throughout the game you're like, who is Leon?
• 17:56
  Who's Yuffie?
• 17:57
  Who are you, Tarzan?
• 17:59
  Who are you?
• 18:01
  More on that later.
• 18:02
  Who are you?
• 18:03
  Ariel from Little Mermaid.
• 18:04
  And like you're forgetting everybody.
• 18:07
  And that's where the line that I read at the beginning kind of comes in.
• 18:08
  It's like, but yeah, something in your soul still seems to resonate with some of these people.
• 18:12
  Like, you show up with Aladdin and you're like, I don't remember this guy, but I know him.
• 18:16
  And there was something deeper than just your memories there.
• 18:18
  And that's kind of.
• 18:19
  I think the point of the game is like your relationships, your identity, a lot of it.
• 18:23
  It's more than just your memories.
• 18:24
  Because they thought the assumption of organization 13 was they can basically get rid of Sora if they collect all of his memories because there'll be nothing left.
• 18:33
  And that's how they actually used to control Roxas and the other members of the organization is telling, you're a nobody, you don't really exist.
• 18:39
  And trying to make them forget who they were completely.
• 18:42
  So that's kind of, I think what was going on.
• 18:44
  They were using that as a means of controlling Sora or keeping him irrelevant so they can go about their dastardly plans.
• 18:51
  Right.
• 18:53
  Obviously it backfires because in the end, Namine is actually good.
• 18:57
  The one who was used to make all this stuff.
• 18:59
  Like, so he kind of restores his memories by removing his memories of oblivion.
• 19:03
  Unsure about that.
• 19:04
  But then you also get to play through as Riku and Mickey.
• 19:06
  Yes.
• 19:07
  And they get a similar storyline.
• 19:09
  I think the main point of that was to show Mickey and Riku Developing their relationship and at the end showing that those two are together.
• 19:17
  So that in the second game, you know why Mickey and Riku are gone.
• 19:20
  They're doing their own thing.
• 19:21
  I think that's really the whole point of having that.
• 19:23
  And because everybody wanted to play as Riku at some point.
• 19:25
  Um.
• 19:25
  Yeah, you know, it was interesting.
• 19:27
  I really enjoyed it.
• 19:29
  I enjoyed that.
• 19:29
  Even though it was the same worlds and everything and a lot of the same story, they did add the thing of like, you are struggling to remember who you are, who any of these people are.
• 19:37
  Your journey, why did any of it matter?
• 19:40
  So they told a completely different message, I think because the first game's message was about your heart.
• 19:45
  Are you you without your heart?
• 19:46
  Are, you know, you defined by your friends, all this stuff.
• 19:49
  What is the point of looking for these original friends?
• 19:51
  This game, it seems like the point is all about memory, which.
• 19:55
  Interesting, interesting take using the same worlds except for one.
• 19:59
  But you know, it's fine.
• 20:02
  Before we get to some of that, though, I do want to ask you, Christian the great Christian the wise, if you had to pick a favorite world in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, a favorite card or slate slates
• 20:14
  were.
• 20:14
  You could combine three cards at once and it would do a move or a combo of moves.
• 20:19
  For those who haven't played the game and a favorite boss fight, what would be your favorite world card?
• 20:23
  Slash Sleet and boss fight.
• 20:25
  Christian.
• 20:26
  I mean, I've always kind of like Hercules, Olympus.
• 20:29
  But it's not really Olympus.
• 20:31
  It's just the training grounds grounds in the film.
• 20:33
  That's always been fun.
• 20:34
  I prefer this version of Atlantica because I don't have to swim around a very flawed system to go up and down and really fast.
• 20:45
  So that was nicer because I love the Little Mermaid.
• 20:48
  As far as slides go, you know, the sleight of hand cards, I don't really remember them well because I barely ever used them outside of.
• 20:57
  Oh no, you're putting your cards up.
• 20:59
  I need to get higher numbers and higher numbers equals good.
• 21:02
  So I typically have like nines and eights and sevens and that's about it.
• 21:05
  So whatever the 999 is for.
• 21:08
  Was that Ragnarok or whatever something or.
• 21:12
  That's probably my favorite.
• 21:13
  My sponsors get hard.
• 21:17
  A favorite boss fight.
• 21:18
  Favorite boss fight.
• 21:18
  Then I'll do it.
• 21:19
  Oh yes.
• 21:19
  Favorite boss fight.
• 21:20
  I love fighting Axel.
• 21:21
  Like, Axel is one of my favorite characters in this game or in the series.
• 21:25
  And learning more about him through each boss fight kind of goes.
• 21:28
  I don't really know exactly what you're about here in this game.
• 21:31
  And that's why we brought you back into two.
• 21:33
  And what kept you alive in two was your popularity.
• 21:36
  So like, like, whose side are you on?
• 21:38
  What are you doing here?
• 21:39
  What is your whole deal with this?
• 21:41
  Which part of organization 13 are you actually fighting with?
• 21:44
  I love learning that through fighting.
• 21:46
  Hell yeah.
• 21:47
  Yeah.
• 21:47
  And it's.
• 21:47
  It's fun too when you get all of the franchise because 358x2 happens at the same time as this game.
• 21:52
  So we'll talk about that next.
• 21:53
  But like, you get a lot of what Axel is doing here from that.
• 21:57
  Also see previous episode Chris and I did.
• 21:59
  We did a whole episode just about Axel or Lee, whatever you want to call him.
• 22:03
  Okay, so for myself, favorite world.
• 22:06
  This is going to be weird.
• 22:07
  Hercules is my favorite Disney movie.
• 22:09
  Let me say that.
• 22:10
  And I love it.
• 22:10
  And I despise the world.
• 22:11
  I'm going to say in the actual original Kingdom Hearts, but in Chain of Memories, Monstera was fun.
• 22:17
  The color scheme was cool.
• 22:19
  The different villains was cool.
• 22:21
  Being able to like discover the secret rooms, all that.
• 22:24
  It was nice in this without the 3D nonsense.
• 22:27
  Because Monstro.
• 22:29
  In the original game, it was just so convoluted that I got frustrated.
• 22:32
  But in this one, the puzzles were fun because they weren't at able to make it as convoluted on Game Boy Advance.
• 22:37
  So I enjoyed it a little bit more.
• 22:39
  As far as favorite card or slight.
• 22:42
  Thank you for correcting that so subtly.
• 22:46
  Yes, I'm here for you now.
• 22:48
  This is weird.
• 22:48
  Three Dumbos in a row was easily my favorite Asora because you just knock everyone to the end of the screen.
• 22:55
  They either died or they were far away from you.
• 22:57
  So you could go find your heal your potion, whatever, reset and go back into that fight.
• 23:02
  Dumbo was way cooler in this than was in the first game.
• 23:07
  But if I was Riku, I don't remember what the slight was, but the one that let you do the like the dark zapping back and forth move.
• 23:14
  That was awesome.
• 23:15
  That was so much fun.
• 23:17
  That was excellent.
• 23:19
  Let me do something.
• 23:20
  I don't think I've ever done the show before.
• 23:21
  Let me defend you in your pronunciation.
• 23:26
  Like, English is a stupid language.
• 23:28
  Let me say that up here as someone who has studied it, as someone who went to school for it.
• 23:32
  At certain points in time, English is stupid.
• 23:34
  Stupid because we take rules from other things and other words from other languages, and we don't worry about our own rules because they sound cool.
• 23:41
  We're just going to add them here.
• 23:42
  It doesn't matter if they don't work with us.
• 23:44
  So looking at the word slight and saying slate makes perfect sense why you would go either way.
• 23:49
  Even though, yes, obviously there's a correct way to say it.
• 23:52
  So I will give you the benefit of the doubt there.
• 23:54
  Yeah, I appreciate it, but yeah, so.
• 23:59
  And I think I'm gonna cheat for boss fight too, because I have a favorite answer for both.
• 24:03
  Because you kind of play the game twice and it's kind of different as Sora.
• 24:09
  Yeah.
• 24:09
  My favorite boss fight was Axel.
• 24:10
  That was so cool.
• 24:12
  I didn't know who the guy was, but I lost so many times I hated him.
• 24:15
  If I had to read one more time.
• 24:16
  Got it memorized.
• 24:19
  But that was part of the fun.
• 24:20
  Hating someone so bad that then you beat them.
• 24:21
  You're like.
• 24:22
  And of course, what Kingdom Hearts does is later you realize his whole story and you're like, I'm sorry I ever hated you.
• 24:26
  And I feel like a bad person now.
• 24:29
  Riku's boss fight.
• 24:30
  However, when Riku fought Dark Riku and he's really confronting himself.
• 24:35
  Because, like, the story for Sora is about memories.
• 24:37
  I think for Riku, what's interesting, he didn't remember a lot of what he did when he lost himself to the darkness.
• 24:43
  So in a strange way, where Sora was forgetting more and more, Riku was kind of remembering more and confronting more.
• 24:50
  Yeah.
• 24:51
  And I don't.
• 24:52
  There was something about that confrontation with himself that even as a kid, I didn't fully grasp a lot of what was going on.
• 24:57
  But I was like, I knew it meant something, which I got in so much trouble.
• 25:01
  I had to beat Riku.
• 25:03
  I was Riku, you know, like, that was important.
• 25:07
  Learning what the x is at 5x plus 3, whatever.
• 25:10
  I didn't care, you know?
• 25:13
  But Riku had to confront himself.
• 25:15
  That seems like it matters.
• 25:17
  Yes.
• 25:18
  And Mickey had his back the whole time.
• 25:20
  If Mickey's got his back, Mickey Mouse can't be wrong.
• 25:22
  Come on.
• 25:23
  Yeah.
• 25:23
  Mickey Mouse wants to do it.
• 25:24
  Algebra with me.
• 25:26
  Yeah.
• 25:26
  He didn't care about your algebra work.
• 25:28
  I'll say real quick.
• 25:28
  I also really love Agrabot because of the ability to spam Aladdin to get more money.
• 25:34
  Oh, yeah.
• 25:34
  And then.
• 25:35
  Listen, I don't.
• 25:36
  I really just don't care about retaining memories.
• 25:38
  The pixelated version of Dearly Beloved and then the pixelated version of the Aladdin song.
• 25:43
  Oh, so good.
• 25:44
  It just.
• 25:45
  I don't know.
• 25:45
  It just.
• 25:46
  It hits your nostalgia right where it needs to.
• 25:48
  So the re.
• 25:50
  Chain of memories, that was basically, I think the point of releasing it, if I remember correctly, it tended to be partially because not everybody had a Game Boy.
• 25:58
  Because we thought this was PlayStation exclusive game.
• 26:01
  Back in the day it was.
• 26:02
  Now it's on Xbox, Steam and everything.
• 26:03
  But back in the day it was only PlayStation.
• 26:05
  So then to now we're going to Nintendo.
• 26:07
  We're all like, what?
• 26:08
  I don't have Nintendo.
• 26:09
  I'm a PlayStation person.
• 26:10
  We have to pick a camp.
• 26:11
  And I picked my camp.
• 26:12
  Yes.
• 26:13
  But everybody had a Game Boy, so I guess it was fair.
• 26:16
  And then everybody hated Chain of Memories.
• 26:17
  Then Kingdom Hearts 2 came out and we were all like, what do you mean?
• 26:20
  We have to play Chain of Memories to know what's going on.
• 26:24
  So I think they re released it re Chain of Memories trying to get people to hate it less.
• 26:27
  And also for all the people who wanted to play the story to know what was happening in Kingdom Hearts 2.
• 26:32
  I think that's why they released it.
• 26:34
  They do something really similar with the game called Kingdom Hearts Coded that I think we're going to talk about later.
• 26:39
  That was originally a mobile game only in Japan that had important story stuff that you wouldn't understand three without.
• 26:45
  Because that's what they do.
• 26:47
  And they were like, I guess we should put it on ds.
• 26:49
  Yeah, DS only this time.
• 26:51
  And we'll call it Re Coded.
• 26:54
  And it's just a 3D version of a mobile game that you could still tell was meant to be a mobile game because of just how it's like so repetitive.
• 27:01
  But we'll talk about that later.
• 27:03
  The rethinks, are they cash grabs?
• 27:06
  Are they ways to help people who want to understand the story?
• 27:08
  How do you evaluate both of those?
• 27:11
  You could make the argument that the cash grabs because when they've already been on those systems, that's what happens whenever you remake or remaster another game for a new generation.
• 27:21
  Like, you're going to have those accusations thrown out against you.
• 27:23
  You can say, oh, create a bankruptcy.
• 27:24
  Instead of making a new game.
• 27:25
  You're just going to do something you already did, so you don't have to put as much work into it.
• 27:29
  That kind of depends on what you're doing.
• 27:31
  Like remasters for the most part.
• 27:32
  I think that's a little more accurate because you're just maybe updating graphics or something like that instead of changing things.
• 27:39
  But remakes, like the Rechain of Memories is a remake in a sense that you can't play like this on the Game Boy in any way, shape or form.
• 27:48
  It has to be different for this.
• 27:51
  Otherwise it'd just be the same thing.
• 27:53
  So I appreciate them doing it.
• 27:55
  Otherwise, I would be missing a lot.
• 27:57
  I mean, unless they decided to do what they did for stuff like 358 over 2 where they just made a movie out of the cutscenes, which they could have done again.
• 28:03
  But putting work into making at least one of them or two of them into an actual remake, I'm fine with that.
• 28:09
  Yeah.
• 28:10
  I feel like re Chain of Memories was more a cash grab than recoded because there was legitimately a lot of us who could not play Coded and we needed to know the story.
• 28:19
  So that one felt more legitimate to me that they made it even though.
• 28:24
  But I also just love the original Chain of Memories.
• 28:26
  So I'm biased.
• 28:27
  I actually have.
• 28:28
  So I buy some shirts that are just all black because when I go to work, I wear a chef's coat so I can put it over.
• 28:33
  Then after work, I can take it off instead of continuing to wear my work clothes.
• 28:37
  So two of my shirts are obviously at Kingdom Hearts.
• 28:39
  One's the original, and one is Chain of Memories with Sora and Riku on it.
• 28:43
  That, you know from Chain of Memories because they're holding the cards.
• 28:46
  Yes, yes.
• 28:47
  I mean, I just.
• 28:47
  I love this game.
• 28:49
  I just don't.
• 28:50
  I don't think it needed rechain of Memories.
• 28:52
  I feel like it stole some of the nostalgia.
• 28:54
  But also, there's a difference between a remaster and whatever.
• 28:58
  They redo the cut scenes as well.
• 28:59
  So you get some of the voice in some of it.
• 29:01
  So, like, some of it's cool, but I don't think it was necessary.
• 29:03
  That said, it is different with video games than movies or other forms of media, in my opinion, because, like, as you saw from some of the other sides, if you watch on YouTube.
• 29:13
  Yeah, those graphics are dated, man.
• 29:15
  Like, I could not for the life of me, if, you know, my brother had a kid, I couldn't for the life of me say, play this.
• 29:22
  He would be like, why does it look like this?
• 29:24
  You know what I mean?
• 29:25
  An older movie.
• 29:26
  You can get a kid watch an older movie.
• 29:28
  Yeah, yeah.
• 29:29
  But I mean, like, it's easier to get people to watch older movies or read an older book, even though, yeah, you can tell it's dated from the way it's worded or whatever.
• 29:35
  With the game, it's a much bigger difference.
• 29:38
  So I love the original Kingdom Hearts.
• 29:39
  I love the original Chain of Memories.
• 29:41
  I think they should remake all of the old Kingdom Hearts games because it's a story worth telling, and I would like it to stay relevant.
• 29:48
  And it is hard for games to stay relevant once the graphics and stuff are dated.
• 29:52
  And you know, there aren't a lot of systems that can play an old PS2 disc, for example, so they don't need to keep re releasing it over and over and over and over like they do.
• 30:01
  But I think a remake probably worthwhile.
• 30:03
  Well, that's one reason why I'm fine with developers doing something like that.
• 30:07
  Like, I've recently been watching a lot of long plays so I can actually know what these games are about.
• 30:12
  I can put it on the background while I'm doing something else instead of playing it myself.
• 30:16
  Because I'm never going to play the original Legend of Zelda that came out or two or link to the past or anything like that because I'm not that age anymore when they came out.
• 30:25
  Or some of those were before I was born.
• 30:27
  But like, I will play a Super Nintendo game that I played as a kid because I have nostalgia for it.
• 30:32
  But like trying to do something else, like playing an emulator for that right now I can't do it because I have no attachment to it.
• 30:38
  So I can watch someone else do it and go, okay, that's what the story was.
• 30:41
  That's what happened in it.
• 30:42
  And to move on with my.
• 30:43
  If they remastered it or remade it, yeah, sure, I'm going to play it now because the graphics are different and maybe you can say that's snobby, but it feels better for me right now to do that.
• 30:53
  Yeah, yeah, no, I get it.
• 30:55
  I.
• 30:56
  I'm on the condensed story, but when I was younger and I had a Nintendo 64 and I was on the last boss of DK64, you know, I had to go to school.
• 31:06
  I was gonna come back the next day and beat the last fight with Knk Rool, but it turns out that my brother found my Nintendo DS and thought it was a piggy bank and wanted to be nice and
• 31:15
  give me some of his allowance and put quarters in it.
• 31:17
  So.
• 31:17
  So two years ago when I got a Steam, I got that emulator and I beat that Donkey Kong game because I've held onto that for 30 years or 20 some years, you know, whatever, but trying other Nintendo 64
• 31:29
  games that like my wife grew up on because, like, I wanted to see what she plays, I was like, I don't know, man, this is hard.
• 31:33
  Nope, just hard to do without the right motivation.
• 31:36
  Hard to do.
• 31:38
  Yeah.
• 31:38
  So, Christian, quickly, what happened to Tarzan?
• 31:41
  There was original, like some of the original screenshots and stuff.
• 31:44
  He was in the game.
• 31:44
  And then it comes out, no Tarzan.
• 31:46
  And we never see Deep Jungle in any of the Kingdom Hearts games after the first one.
• 31:50
  What's that?
• 31:51
  Copyright laws out of date.
• 31:54
  Corruptible copyright laws.
• 31:57
  What's my fix?
• 31:58
  Author's death plus 25 years.
• 32:00
  However, that's not how the US or the British copyright laws work.
• 32:04
  It is an exorbitant amount of time.
• 32:07
  Almost like depending on what happens, there can be anywhere from 75 to 100 years.
• 32:11
  I'm not an expert in copyright law.
• 32:13
  Someone else can always tell me differently.
• 32:14
  I'm open to correction there, but it's too much, is the answer.
• 32:18
  So the original novel by Edgar S.
• 32:20
  Burroughs comes out in the 1900s.
• 32:22
  Like early, early 1900s.
• 32:24
  I own them.
• 32:25
  They're pretty good for what they are.
• 32:28
  But the copyright law for them is very iffy in that they have lost the rights to the books, but not the rights to the character himself.
• 32:37
  So it is like that Steamboat Willie is, you know, free use.
• 32:41
  Right now it's public domain, but Mickey Mouse himself as a character isn't.
• 32:45
  You can use the Steamboat Willie design.
• 32:47
  Any of the characteristics that come from any of the ones that have become public domain.
• 32:52
  But if you use, like, if you.
• 32:53
  I.
• 32:54
  If you added Mini or Pluto into the mix, then Disney would have the right to have a copyright strike against you because you're using something that isn't under copyright.
• 33:02
  Or if Mickey had some of.
• 33:03
  If you had Mickey with a keyblade in a story and you published that, well, you couldn't do that because of copyright law.
• 33:08
  There's reasons they exist.
• 33:09
  They're good, but it's when they go on too long.
• 33:11
  I have a huge issue.
• 33:12
  Tarzan is a victim of this and that once again, they had the rights when they made the film to portray the character, but those have since, I think slid away.
• 33:21
  Or they're not as like, they can still release the film and make money off of it, but they have to give, like the estate so much.
• 33:26
  But if they wanted to do Tarzan again, they'd have to pay even more as far as Kingdom Hearts is concerned.
• 33:31
  And you know, this multibillion dollar company can't possibly afford to do that on either side.
• 33:36
  Yeah, yeah, Obviously, I'm not sure.
• 33:39
  I think they might be able to use the character they created, but not the world or the movie or the story at all.
• 33:45
  Which kind of makes it all null and void.
• 33:46
  I'm not 100% sure on that.
• 33:47
  If they could.
• 33:48
  My solution, when you remake Kingdom Hearts, because you're taking all of my Suggestions.
• 33:52
  Obviously Jungle Book, because they've always wanted to do it.
• 33:54
  And it was Walt's last movie that he worked on.
• 33:56
  So just.
• 33:57
  It's a good fit.
• 33:58
  Replace Tarzan with that, but have the Tarzan character show up in the Jungle Book world and then be like, what do you do?
• 34:04
  He'd be like, I lost my world.
• 34:05
  And have that old story arc still.
• 34:07
  Because it does fit with Kingdom Hearts.
• 34:09
  Yeah.
• 34:09
  And it would just be a funny nod at we lost copyright.
• 34:14
  I think it would be hilarious.
• 34:15
  Yeah.
• 34:17
  Yeah.
• 34:18
  I don't know what they can or can't do, but, you know, I would like a nod because part of what was fun playing through this, and this is where I think it's important that it's a game, not just
• 34:26
  a book, something.
• 34:28
  And we're doing a lot.
• 34:28
  There's a new series coming up that we started kind of that we're going to continue soon.
• 34:33
  Gamers Garage.
• 34:35
  Some stories are experienced differently through game, and it's just hard to convert that into a movie book or anything else, because it's about experiencing the thing.
• 34:44
  So put yourself in my obsessed with this game.
• 34:47
  You know, whatever brain and Disney and whatever.
• 34:50
  You play through the first game a hundred times before the chain of memories comes out, and you're like, oh, this comes through.
• 34:54
  And you're like.
• 34:55
  You see the little world pop up.
• 34:56
  You're like, oh, I'm going to go to Wonderland.
• 34:58
  And you're like, I think I remember you.
• 35:00
  What do you mean?
• 35:01
  This is Alice.
• 35:02
  And you're playing through, and he's slowly losing memories.
• 35:04
  And you're reading these characters that you're really excited to see.
• 35:06
  Then all of a sudden, your character.
• 35:08
  I don't remember you.
• 35:09
  And it hits different than if you were just reading it or watching a movie.
• 35:12
  Like, it's not that I don't think you can do it, but I think it hits different when you're playing and you're like, this is me.
• 35:17
  No, of course I remember them.
• 35:18
  Nope.
• 35:19
  And that story of memory and losing that and how that really impacts you, I think it's experienced different through gameplay.
• 35:27
  Yeah.
• 35:27
  So, like, I just.
• 35:28
  I love it as is.
• 35:31
  I do wish Tarzan was there, because that was part of it for me is like, when you're going through the world, I was excited to see all the different worlds.
• 35:36
  And then I was concerned, who would I remember?
• 35:38
  Who would I not remember?
• 35:39
  And I was like, am I going to remember Tarzan?
• 35:40
  And then Tarzan doesn't even show up.
• 35:43
  I'm like, what?
• 35:44
  That's how bad you forgot him?
• 36:36
  Yeah, apparently I Forgot the whole world never happened.
• 36:42
  Oh, man.
• 36:43
  So speaking of, we've danced around it the whole episode.
• 36:47
  This game message, you know, two sides.
• 36:50
  There's the sore side and the Riku side.
• 36:52
  Sore side is he's losing his memory and wrestling with the idea of, will he still be him at the end of Castle Villivian, or will he be a whole different person?
• 36:59
  If he doesn't remember anything, will he still have the relationships with these people that he loved?
• 37:04
  Because, you know, the whole point of game one, my friendship is my power.
• 37:07
  Yeah, well, what if you don't remember your friends?
• 37:09
  And then it wrestles with this idea of, like, am I still connected to these people even if I don't remember them?
• 37:13
  And those of us who've had family, who've grown old have wrestled with some of the stuff of, like, do they still know me?
• 37:19
  Like, we.
• 37:19
  Some of this really hits home as an adult playing it, and I'm like, oh, yeah, I don't know.
• 37:24
  I don't know how to answer this stuff.
• 37:25
  Like, this stuff is a lot harder to answer as an adult than a kid.
• 37:27
  Because a kid, you're like, sure, I wouldn't forget anybody.
• 37:30
  And then the more you see, you're like, oh, no, this could actually happen.
• 37:34
  I could actually run into Christian 10 years from now if we never did another podcast and be like, who are you again?
• 37:40
  And will there still be something that connects us, or will we just be two strangers at that point?
• 37:45
  You know?
• 37:45
  So I think it has big questions on that end.
• 37:47
  And then on the Riku end, remembering stuff that you forgot and confronting who you once were, not relevant for most people, but I had a huge car accident and some brain damage that came with that.
• 37:58
  And I do have a couple times where I remember stuff that I forgot from the year right before then.
• 38:03
  And I was like, I did what I was in a relationship, but unfortunately that I remember a lot of stuff that I'm like, what did I do in that relationship?
• 38:09
  Why did I think that was okay?
• 38:11
  Like, I'm like, that person seems like a different person that I'm kind of remembering.
• 38:15
  So it's relevant to me.
• 38:16
  I don't think it's relevant to a lot of people.
• 38:17
  But, yeah, game deals a lot with questions of memory, our identity, relationships, et cetera.
• 38:23
  Christian as a man of faith in little hair.
• 38:27
  Yes, that's true.
• 38:28
  How do you address these questions of memory, identity, relationships, all that stuff that a lot of us maybe are struggling with different versions of this or have struggled, I don't know.
• 38:39
  I mean, to Start with, I as a person am very forgetful.
• 38:43
  And it is one of the most infuriating parts of who I am, that there's very little I can do to remember certain people unless something triggers it.
• 38:51
  I've joked a lot that I have.
• 38:54
  Goodness gracious.
• 38:55
  I was just about to make the joke and it left me.
• 38:57
  This is so stupid.
• 38:58
  I'm explaining it in the midst of this.
• 38:59
  This is a prime example, and I love it.
• 39:01
  I hate myself when this happens.
• 39:04
  Josh, don't edit.
• 39:05
  Object permanence was the word, the term I was looking for.
• 39:08
  God help me.
• 39:10
  Like, you know what babies have?
• 39:12
  It's like, hey, peekaboo.
• 39:14
  It's like, where'd they go?
• 39:15
  Oh, here I am.
• 39:17
  Or you get into another room and they forget you ever existed.
• 39:20
  That's me.
• 39:20
  And I, once again, I despise that part of myself because there are friends that I love I'd like to reach out to more, but I forget they exist until something triggers a memory of them.
• 39:30
  And I go, oh, yeah, I should totally do that while in the middle of driving my car or while in the middle of work or something like that.
• 39:35
  And it's infuriating because I'm the bad friend in those scenarios because I'm terrible at communication.
• 39:41
  So that's a very terrible combo.
• 39:43
  So I get aspects of this from my own personal life.
• 39:46
  That's why I brought that up first to then go into the actual question, are we ourselves without our memories?
• 39:52
  I hate to say yes and no, but I'm going to say yes and no in the fact that your soul is still intact.
• 39:57
  If something were to happen, I were to suffer an accident.
• 39:59
  If that accident that happened to you was way more severe and you lost all of your memory, you would still have your soul, your eternal soul inside you.
• 40:06
  But the part is to your brain to access the memories of who you were.
• 40:10
  The people you knew beforehand are pretty much dead at that point in time.
• 40:13
  Maybe something could come along that triggers a memory.
• 40:16
  I would argue now that this thing has happened, where it be trauma or medical something that comes up, or Alzheimer's, like you are still you, but you have be that tabula rasa, that blank slate is now a newer
• 40:30
  you, as it were, that does not comprehend the things that came before, does not remember all the memories and the people from before.
• 40:37
  So while you are still you, you are not as you as possible because something outside your control made you this way.
• 40:42
  Yeah, yeah, I think I agree.
• 40:44
  You are a collection of things.
• 40:46
  Your memory are part of who you are, but it's not all of who you are, right.
• 40:50
  I think what's interesting is, you know, my one grandfather, he lost a lot of memory.
• 40:55
  He never lost any of that personality, you know, but there are people who've had certain brain damages that changes their personality, their brain chemistry changing, whatever.
• 41:03
  And it's like, don't know how to answer that question.
• 41:05
  For some of them, right?
• 41:07
  What's fun is.
• 41:07
  So in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, not only was Sora forgetting, people were forgetting who he was in the outside world.
• 41:13
  So In Kingdom Hearts 2, he runs back into Leon Yuffie and all them, and they're like, you know what's weird is we all just suddenly remembered you at the same time.
• 41:21
  Like a month ago.
• 41:22
  He wasn't offended.
• 41:23
  He was like, cool, me too.
• 41:24
  I just woke up, right?
• 41:27
  It's so weak because it should feel crazy, but it feels so genuine.
• 41:31
  Like, yeah, they were so happy to see him and they all knew he was coming because, like, we just.
• 41:35
  We knew something was up, but we all just suddenly remembered you at the same time.
• 41:39
  But, you know, magic.
• 41:40
  But I think some of that happens when you go to, like, events where you only see someone at certain events, like, once a year or twice every.
• 41:45
  However, you know, you see somebody you only see at certain occasions.
• 41:49
  And it's like they're not at the top of your brain all the time.
• 41:51
  But then as soon as you see them, it's like, boom.
• 41:52
  It's like we never left.
• 41:54
  We're right where we were before.
• 41:56
  We're still just as close as we were last year at the same event.
• 41:59
  You know, whatever it may be, I think that feels really genuine to me, and I love that.
• 42:05
  I think I gotta agree with the game too.
• 42:07
  I think at the end, the most important thing about who you are is that you are dearly beloved.
• 42:13
  I will make that a little bit more spiritual than the game, probably.
• 42:17
  And I think the truth of the matter is, even if you forget who you are and I forget who I am, if I don't, if neither of us remembered each other and we ran into each other, I still
• 42:26
  think that relationship would be there.
• 42:28
  I think there's something spiritual and deeper than what we understand amongst our relationships to one another and how we're entangled.
• 42:37
  That memory is important.
• 42:38
  But even without it, we know.
• 42:41
  We recognize deep calls out to deep, right?
• 42:43
  We recognize there is something in you.
• 42:46
  We are connected, even if I don't remember how.
• 42:49
  And you do see that with memory loss patients or whatever, where they don't necessarily remember everybody, but they know when they're around someone that they should know.
• 42:56
  Yes, I think there's a truth to that.
• 42:58
  This gets into the metaphysics that I don't fully understand.
• 43:00
  It gets into science I don't fully understand.
• 43:02
  But I do believe there's an important truth to that.
• 43:05
  Our relationships are an important part of who we are.
• 43:07
  Our memories are important too.
• 43:08
  But I don't think they're as important to who you are as your relationships.
• 43:11
  I don't think they're as important to who you are as your relationship with God.
• 43:14
  I hate to be the stereotypical Christian, but ultimately, I think that's the most important thing about you, is that you know that you are dearly beloved by God himself, who sent his only begotten son so that you may
• 43:23
  not perish but have eternal life.
• 43:25
  And then I think outside of that, the most important thing about you is that you love your neighbor as you love yourself.
• 43:29
  And you recognize deep called out to deep, who you are connected with that defines you.
• 43:34
  I think at the end of the day, I think that is actually the most important thing.
• 43:36
  I'm going to have to agree with the game in part and then go a little bit deeper because my religion demands me do so.
• 43:44
  Even in game with Namine herself, we have multiple instincts.
• 43:48
  Instances of Sora.
• 43:50
  The memories he has of Kyrie, he starts implanting upon her as like, he's the person I.
• 43:55
  I love the most.
• 43:55
  I want to look out for the most.
• 43:57
  And then along the way, he realizes this is false, but because of how he felt about Kyrie and like, he doesn't remember her completely, but he knows that Nami is still kind of similar to her in many respects.
• 44:06
  He doesn't get why, but he knows.
• 44:09
  At the end, I still don't get why sometimes it's.
• 44:12
  It's fair, it's Kingdom Hearts, that there is something about her.
• 44:16
  Yes, she lied to me.
• 44:17
  Yes, she is one of the catalysts for why this is happening to me.
• 44:20
  But I still recognize aspects of you I saw in someone else.
• 44:24
  So let me make you my friend.
• 44:26
  Even though it was built on a lie, I'm going to make it truth because I'm going to redefine those memories to actually something good.
• 44:32
  Not like lying to yourself kind of way, but like, no, what they could have been if we had actually grown up together.
• 44:36
  Like you were lying to me about.
• 44:39
  Yeah, well, and that's.
• 44:40
  It's part of why, you know, most franchises, I like to be like, oh, I like this random third, you know, tertiary character.
• 44:46
  I don't like to like the main characters a lot of the time.
• 44:48
  But in this one, I'm like, no.
• 44:49
  So where's my guy?
• 44:50
  Because like anyone else, I.
• 44:53
  You know, maybe not Kyrie, but most other people in this franchise would have been upset, would have been angry, would have ignored or, you know, whatever else.
• 45:01
  In real life, if anyone did this to you, like completely gaslit you and try to change who you were from fundamentally, it's reasonable to hate that person.
• 45:08
  But what Sora does is I recognize you did that.
• 45:12
  One, because someone's trying to control you, and two, because you don't know who you are.
• 45:17
  Right now, I don't know who I am.
• 45:18
  I resonate.
• 45:19
  Let's be friends.
• 45:21
  Because I recognize when someone else is hurting and I'm not going to hold it against you.
• 45:24
  And I like, man, that's why Sore is my guy.
• 45:26
  I love Zor, dude.
• 45:27
  Yeah.
• 45:28
  All right.
• 45:29
  Any other notes before we start wrapping this one up?
• 45:32
  I'm good.
• 45:32
  Alrighty then.
• 45:33
  Well, with that, yeah, time to start wrapping up.
• 45:37
  We will of course have a bonus question per usual.
• 45:41
  This time we're going to be asking if we could add one world from a future Kingdom Hearts game back into Chain of Memories format, which world would we want to play?
• 45:49
  Basically, like a little bonus at the end of the game.
• 45:51
  Now you can play whatever world from another Kingdom Hearts game as a Chain of Memories world.
• 45:57
  Which one would we play?
• 45:58
  So if you want to hear us talk about that, become an official member, go over to the website.
• 46:02
  We'll have a lot of fun with it.
• 46:03
  For now, we're going to do some recommendations.
• 46:04
  They don't have to be relevant.
• 46:05
  Mine will be.
• 46:07
  Listen again, I reiterate, I do think it's important for the experience of the story to be at its most powerful.
• 46:14
  You should play the games.
• 46:15
  But Chain of Memories and Coded are both hard.
• 46:18
  And 358 too, as well.
• 46:20
  I think the short novels of 358 x 2 incredible.
• 46:25
  If you're gonna not play the games, read the short novel Chain of Memories.
• 46:30
  I'd go with the manga.
• 46:31
  Personally, I think the manga is the second best way to experience the story.
• 46:34
  And if you are one of the Chain of Memories haters, like so many other Kingdom Hearts fans, maybe try the manga.
• 46:39
  You can do that and skip this one if you want.
• 46:41
  Christian, what about you?
• 46:42
  Any recommendations?
• 46:43
  I've recommended the series before.
• 46:45
  What the heck.
• 46:46
  It's on brand for me to do this, but the Manitou novels by Graham Masterson.
• 46:53
  Yeah, there's some things that haven't aged as well.
• 46:55
  There's still some really nice core in them.
• 46:58
  It's a shame the rest of the series hasn't made film like the first one was but yeah, I thought the Manitou novels, however it's pronounced, I've only ever seen it written it down.
• 47:06
  It's not slate.
• 47:08
  It's not slate.
• 47:10
  Well guys, if you enjoyed this episode, let us know, rate and review our show.
• 47:14
  Wherever we get your podcast, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever YouTube, the likes, comments, rates, reviews, all that just helps the algorithms flag us as important so other people see the show and you know that helps us get the word
• 47:26
  out and grow this community is why we do this is that we can have a community with one another because that's our real power, not memories.
• 47:32
  Friendship is our power.
• 47:34
  So of course gotta shout out one of our financial supporters shouting out again Austin yesterday.
• 47:39
  Austin, we love you dude.
• 47:40
  Miss you.
• 47:41
  Hope we can hang out soon man.
• 47:43
  We also want to remind you guys that you get your own shout out like Austin by becoming an official member of Systemic Ecology with the website link in the show's description.
• 47:52
  Same website, you can get other free content, you can buy merch, you can leave a one time financial gift without becoming a member.
• 47:57
  So it's not just for members.
• 47:58
  We love our members more.
• 47:59
  Website is for everyone.
• 48:01
  A lot of merch anybody can get including Throne of Geeks, the Geek Throne, whatever this search called.
• 48:07
  I think it's really cool.
• 48:08
  There's a slight Kingdom Hearts reference if you, if you look.
• 48:12
  So check it out.
• 48:13
  Of course if you want to hear other Kingdom Hearts episodes, another link in the show notes for that.
• 48:16
  Lots of links, lots of ways to participate.
• 48:18
  What we're doing here because we don't do this to geek out for you, we want to geek out with you.
• 48:22
  This is about community.
• 48:23
  So please join in all the geeky goodness and just be a part of what we're doing if you can.
• 48:28
  And remember one extremely important thing, that we are all the chosen people.
• 48:32
  A geekdom of priests.
• 48:34
  Till next time.