Ventus clears away a bunch of enemies in an annoying encounter I had to grind for because there are these ranged enemies in this game that are a huge pain to deal with and if they all launch their ranged attacks one after another to essentially form a combo you're probably dead. It turns out Hook ran off for a quick smoke while we were fighting because he is nowhere to be found. Ventus has a quick flashback to Terra and Aqua when Peter Pan shows up, seeming to not be particularly bothered by Tinkerbell being kidnapped by Hook.
We reach a place called Mermaid Lagoon where Tinkerbell shows up, having apparently escaped from Hook. Peter Pan has Tinkerbell give Ventus the glide ability and together we go off to deal with Hook, since unfortunately Tinkerbell couldn't be bothered to get Mickey's Star Shard on her way out.
Peter Pan goes off to Hooks ship so it stops firing cannons at us and Ventus goes off to face Hook. The crocodile who bit off Hook's hand (at least I think that's how this works) shows up as well to chase hook away.
The lost boys show up with a treasure chest but they apparently lost everything that was inside so Peter Pan decides they should put in what's really special to them instead of just filling it up with gold and dubloons. Cut to the treasure chest being filled with a bunch of wooden swords. Sorry Pete, but I'd rather have a chest full of gold instead. Tinkerbell retrieves Mickey's star shard and Ventus takes it only to be whisked away by its power.
-Mysterious Tower.-
Donald and Goofy are moping around when roxas shows up. They are amazed that Roxas has Mickeys star shower and immedietly take him to the top of the tower. Excuse me, did I say "Mickey" I meant "King Mickey" because apparently Mickey is a king in this world. I offer my sincerest apologies to the Royal House of Mouse for my lack of respect.
They take Ventus to that wizard from way back when at the beginning of the game and the wizard immediately calls out Ventus for not returning home like every reasonable authority figure told him to. The Wizard then remarks that "Mickey has difficulty following directions, too." Well of course Mickey has issues following directions. He's the fucking King.
The Wizard discerns that Mickey has been using the Star Shard to hurl himself across the cosmos, which Mickey outright told us he was doing back when we faced Vanitas together so I don't know why the game is repeating information now. Apparently now that he's figured that out he can track down King Mickey and make him go back to actually ruling his kingdom instead of saving whiny anime boys from one sided boss fights with whiny anime boys in masks.
The Wizard discerns that Mickey is back in that empty field where we fought Vaniatis. Goofy reveals that the Wizard's name is Yen Sid (see how we are three paragraphs into this and we finally got his doggone name?) and proudly declares that he is the Captain of the King's Royal Knights and Donald declares that he's the king's magician so Yen Sid naturally sends Ventus to his rescue. Ventus, sick of Donald's annoying voice, refuses to take Donald and Goofy with him. Claiming that he owes Mickey for saving him earlier. Also, apparently I earned a trophy called a friend in need. Look out Broodwars. At this rate I will soon have twice as many platinums as you do.
-the badlands.-
Ventus finds Mickey unconscious in a field and then Xehanort appears to greet him. Ventus begins to have another one of his traumatic flashback episodes. Xehanort begins talking about how Ventus 'is starting to realize what he lost.' But apparently he had to lose it to find it and now "it can all be yours again if you only reach out and take it." What I'm saying is that I think Kingdom Hearts has skipped ahead in the script without telling us.
Xehanort continues yammering on about how Ventus needs to "clash with him" and how "Pure light against pure darkness" will forge the ultimate key. The all powerful KeyBlade, except it's spelled
X-Blade but it's still pronounced Keyblade so what the hell?
Xehanort decides to answer my question. Apparently
X (pronounced "key" but apparently it's also spelled Kye by some people) is an ancient letter that means death. That's not how letters work Xehanort. That's how words work. letters are the thing used to spell words.
Xehanort claims that Ventus has the power to create the
X-Blade and that's why Eraqus keeps him on such a tight leash (and not because Ventus is a fucking idiot who basically does and believes whatever anyone else tells him and in a universe where he has the ability to travel between worlds that's a huge liability.) Ventus for some reason believes him and Xehanort sends him into space to confront Eraqus.
-land of departure-
Ventus is returned home so he can confront Eraqus about his daddy issues. When Ventus mentions the
X-Blade Eraqus has his own flashback to a confrontation between himself and Xehanort over the Latter's obsession with the
X-Blade.
In flashback land, (a place that has probably gotten more screen time than the actual Disney Worlds by now) Xehanort spouts out the Kingdom Hearts Backstory. Once upon a time a billion anime boys and girls beat eachother to death with keyblades in an event known as the keyblade war and admist that crisis a precious light was found. Xehanort apparently wants to start a second keyblade war to see what happens.
Eraqus calls out Xehanort on how stupid of an idea it is to risk the apocalypse out of sheer curiosity. He then declares that he will not allow it as long as he lives. Xehanort claims that because at birth everyone emerges from darkness into a world of light that darkness is merely a beginning. Eraqus, once again, calls out Xehanort for how stupid this whole thing is and pulls out a keyblade, only for Xehanort to blast him with a bunch of darkness. Eraqus angrily exclaims "Has the Darkness taken you Xehanort?" a line that is salvaged only by the fact that Eraqus is Voiced by Mark Hamill. It's worth noting that Xehanort is voiced by Leonard Nimoy so that whole cutscene is a fun case of grade A voice actors trying to get the best they can out of broken voice acting.
Back in the real world,
Luke Skywalker Master Eraqus, decides that the only way to stop
Supreme Leader Snoke's Xehanort's plans from reaching fruition is murder his student
Ben Solo Ventus in cold blood because
Ben Solo Ventus has been manipulated by
Supreme Leader Snoke Master Xehanort and he might turn to the dark side or something. Then Terra shows up to confront Eraqus and save Ventus's skin. Eraqus claims that if Terra doesn't stand down than he will have to share Ventus's fate. When Terra refuses Eraqus starts glowing in light for some reason and Terra calls upon the power of darkness because that was a thing back in the beginning of the game that's probably more relevant in Terra's story. Eraqus exclaims "Has the darkness taken you Terra?" Because that line is so nice we had to have it twice.
Terra creates a portal and throws Ventus in while he faces Eraqus and Ventus is taken to the destiny islands. I would like to point out that literally the only gameplay we've had since facing Captain Hook in Neverland is in the level select. Upon reaching the Destiny Islands Vaniatis shows up to pick a fight with Ventus. Ventus refuses to fight so Vaniatis gives some exposition about how they need to fight to form the
X-Blade apparently but because Xehanort spilled the beans on his whole plan already Ventus refuses. Then Ventus starts flashbacking again.
-Flashback land: The Badlands-
Ventus is training with Xehanort who apparently summoned a bunch of enemies and begins literally preaching from the mountaintop about how Ventus needs to embrace his inner darkness to beat a couple enemies. Ventus refuses so Xehanort calls him a feckless neophyte and opts to extract the darkness from Ventus instead. For the two people who cared this is where Vaniatis came from.
-Destiny Islands-
Vanitas tells Ventus that if he won't fight than he will brutally murder Terra and Aqua right in front of him before running off. Than Ventus hops on his keyblade surfboard and flys into a portal he created in the least dramatic way possible to reach the keyblade graveyard.
-the keyblade graveyard-
Ventus pulls out his keyblade and says "friends forever." for some reason. Than we procced to the final area and it's a mess. There are these tornadoes in the area that will lock onto ventus and if they reach you (which they will, you can't outrun them) they'll whisk you away to a battle with a bunch of enemies in this weird void thing that's really disorienting and it's hard to tell where you are or where the enemies. A bunch of the enemies can fly and because there isn't any ground here in the void space you fight them in you have to guess whether they're close enough to the ground for you to hit them. it's poor game design. There's nothing else to it.
It's 11pm now so I'll have to call it quits now because otherwise i'll be up until midnight with this.