Games Progress
Katawa Shoujo: So I go in and checked up by the Nurse because Hisao forgot to take his meds during Lily's route and I just realized that Nurse's theme (Ah Eh I Oh You) is actually really good. After this, we go shopping and later Akira pulls out a photo of Lilly, Shizune and Misha (before she dyed her hair pink) working at a noodle stand. Personally, I think the reveal in Shizune's route was more interesting because this reveal was tied to Misha's character arc and her connection to Shizune. After this, Hisao and Lilly arrange to go on a date so there's that.

Games Progress
Katawa Shoujo: So the date with Lilly. She and I go to a fancy restaurant, and my lord, she looks stunning in that red dress. But then that's the point isn't it? Lily and Hisao talk about their pasts and when the option to mention Iwanako's letter comes up, I decide to keep mum about it because I'm aiming for Lily's neutral ending rather than her good ending.

Hisao wakes up from what is either a nightmare or medicine side effects but of course Lily is by his side, so there's that. After night comes day, so Hisao ends up getting breakfast for Lilly and himself on a Monday morning.

Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix: The trip to the Underworld wasn't so bad, and I appreciate that the Absent Silhouette is brought up instead of being just... there. Getting to Hades wasn't an issue either, and the Creepers aren't as bad in this game as they were in Re: Chain of Memories, though I do expect them to show up in Halloween Town later on. The Hades escape took several tries, and it turns out that using Auron's Limit skill was the key to victory. Fortunately, the fight with Cerebus was far easier in comparison.

After that, it's a trip to the other area in the Underworld, which I kinda got lost in and died a few times.  I later encountered Demyx and barely managed to defeat all his water clones in the first attempt using a combination of Fire spells and the Wild Dance reaction command. Eventually, I have to fight the Hydra and it isn't that tough either. After completing The Underworld Olympus Coliseum, I have to go to Disney Castle to deal with the Heartless.

The Heartless are easy to take down and I manage to find Minnie Mouse. After an escort mission which thankfully wasn't too bad, I get to see the Cornerstone of Light. Also I go back to the past, or as it's called Timeless River. During each of the areas, I notice that the Crisis meter seems to fill up rather quickly, with only Scene of the Fire giving me any real trouble (mainly due to those accursed Hot Rods and their dash attack). The battle with Captain Pete, and later Pete didn't give me too much trouble. As a reward, I get the Monochrome (which I had assumed wasn't in the original game but actually is) and Wisdom Form.

I decide to train up the Wisdom form, switching out Hero's Crest for Monochrome because Wisdom is a magic based Drive Form. After getting it up to Lv.4, I return to Land of Dragons to grind Valour up to Lv.4 before clearing the Gummi Gates for both Alantica and Port Royal. I decide to start with Alantica as a break from the action. Swim This Way is the worst song in the game because the lyrics are awful. After the musical practice, I also have to come back later because I don't have the Magnet spell yet. I then go into Port Royal, look around a bit before concluding my play time by saving the game.

… Charlie finds Large Body an easy foe…

Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix: It's time for Hollow Bastion, and by that I mean a lot of exploration, combat and major progression. I manage to make it to the Postern, which is also where the entrance to the Cavern of Remembrance is located.. Anyway, I have to explore the Corridors leading up to Ansem's room, which is as confusing to navigate as ever even if the fights aren't that tough. So after some cutscenes, I found the computer room and due to Sora and his friends messing with the computer, they get sent to Space Paranoids.

Yeah. Tron. Funnily enough, unlike Port Royal, it doesn't feel as visually jarring despite how Tron is also a live action Disney movie, though I'd chalk that down to Space Paranoids being more stylized unlike the realistic art direction of Port Royal. Anyway, I'm now trapped in this cyber world and manage to find and activate the energy core system so that the terminal can take us back. After this, I need to get the password, which is hidden behind the Xehanort Ansem painting and also gives one of the funniest scenes in the game ("Say fellas, did somebody mention the Door to Darkness?").

With this in mind, I return to the computer, have to play a motorcycle game and give Tron the password before stopping some Heartless and allowing Tron to override the MCP's command to activate the self destruct sequence. After that, it's a trip the I/O Tower. I decide to take the blue side first which as it turns out contains a save point and some goodies. After that, I decide to get going and end up encountering the Hostile Program, which disappointingly does not have a new Final Mix exclusive colour scheme. The fight itself is pretty easy, despite the change in music implying that this will be serious change of pace compared to the previous Heartless bosses. After it loses it's armour, it's final phase is just an egg that moves that at high speed. The ability it drops, Vicinity Break will prove to be very useful against a certain Organization XIII member later on...

After defeating the Hostile Program, Tron manages to stall the MCP long enough for us to return to the outside world. A lot of events take place such as the Heartless invasion of Hollow Bastion, cutscenes of what I thought was Ansem-Riku but actually Xemnas putting in a disc into a computer, then going into a secret room that contains Aqua's Keyblade Armour. This is followed up by another scene of Demyx (who I thought was either Axel or Luxord at first) talking to Zexion about a secret of Xemnas's. While I understand that these two scenes are plot important, I do feel that they drag the pacing down because it throws a lot of information at the player in a short space of time on top of everything else going on at the moment. (Thankfully both cutscenes could be skipped when I had to try again during the fight with Demyx.)

After leaving and returning to the Postern, Sephiroth shows up but thankfully he's not here to kill me. Also there is now a hole in the wall, which means the Cavern of Remembrance is now available. I had expected this dungeon to be available after beating the game or for it to be blocked off until later but nah, I can start it now if I wanted to. Feeling compelled by curiosity, I wonder inside the hole in the wall, and the game doesn't stop from going inside. The first room has a red balloon that drops Drive Orbs and I decide to try using it to level up my Master form. I try to grab some crowns, defeat a few Heartless and get murdered by a Mad Ride. I decide to go back and get the crowns before getting the hell out so I don't get killed by a Mad Ride again.

I save the game, then continue the story, fight some Nobodies, save the game and try to defeat Demyx. I'm ready to apply my knowledge and use Wisdom Form only to get Anti form and eventually end up dead. I try again and use Wisdom. Nope. It's Anti Form again, then I die. Third time's the charm as they say and I decide to try my luck without using a Drive form. Vicinity Break is really useful for taking out the surrounding water clones in addition to the Wild Dance reaction command. Demyx himself deals a lot of damage but aside from that, he's far easier than I remember (despite my KHII playthrough being on an easier difficulty in contrast to my current KHII:FM playthrough).

After defeating Demyx, I go to help Yuffie, Leon and Cloud defeat the Heartless in order to avenge Goofy who isn't really dead. I even got to try out Limit Form, and wow, getting to play as KH1 Sora is interesting to say the least.

Wow... that was a lot to get through, and I haven't gotten to the Battle of the 1000 Heartless yet.

Indeed, the time limit of 10 seconds was increased to 15 seconds in the Final Mix.

That too, though the time limit is enough so that the player will almost always have a few seconds left to spare when all the water copies have been defeated.

Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix:
The second visit to Agrabah wasn't too bad, and the escape segment is one of the funnest parts of the game. Such a shame that it ends on the worst boss in the game. Honestly, its annoying that Jafar is the only boss in the game that you can't lock onto, not to mention how the requirement to finish a boss with a combo drags the fight out. So yes, the last few minutes of that fight consisted of me avoiding Jafar's fireballs while trying to land a combo, getting dragged into the darkness to avoid buildings and healing while repeating the cycle until I'm finally able to finish the fight.

I return to Halloween Town to help Jack Skellington return some Christmas presents to Christmas Town. I also find Lock, Shock and Barrel and had to knock them out and put them in presents, which took 2 tries because they surprisingly deal a lot of damage. After this, a return to Halloween Town to deal with some Heartless before returning to Christmas Town to make some presents. After that, a fight with The Experiment who wasn't that tough. Better still, the Decisive Pumpkin keyblade is one of the best keyblades and has proven to be quite helpful.

Next up is Pride Lands. It turns out that Simba is haunted by ghosts of Scar, and needs help to become king on his own terms. I go to the Elephant Graveyard, take down the Hyenas who are more annoying than actually challenging because they spend most of their time running around. After that, a return to the Savannah to help Simba overcome the Scar Ghosts then back to the Pride Lands. The boss fight with Groundshaker was tough that I'd chalk the difficulty down to mainly the timing of the Reaction Commands and the camera not being designed for a Heartless that big every time it moves away. Aside from that, it wasn't too bad otherwise.

I decided to clear out the final Gummi ship level before returning to Hollow Bastion. It turns out that the Master Computer Program has sent out Heartless and hijacked the Claymores (not that they were ever that useful). It's a trip back though the Heartless aren't too tough (except the Devastators, those ones live up to their name) and I managed to make it back to the next area.
Space Paranoids is looking a lot more green than I remember. Most of it is just fighting Heartless, with the boat part being the hardest bit, mainly because it throws 3 Devastators at the end. After that, the boss fight with Commander Sark and the MCP. The Commander isn't that tough in both fights against it, and the MCP is a chump whose only threat is it's laser beams and repeated resurrection of Sark, and Sark is even easier because of Vicinity Break allowing me to target both of his shins this time around.

Twilight Town. The real one, not the data version that existed for most of the game. The underground tunnels have been finished, allowing to me to explore and obtain new treasures and crowns. It also turns out that Roxas's friends have been planning to investigate the old mansion because of rumors of a second Twilight Town. No Axel rematch, because that's for the post-game. Through a beam of light, I can access the Data Twilight Town to go into a portal leading to the final dungeon. Upon entering the Realm Between (which has a visually stunning background), I team up with Axel to take down some Nobodies before he sacrifices himself to destroy the rest of the Nobodies.

And here we are! The final dungeon. The World That Never Was. I decide to leave the area and return to Agrabah to fight Mushroom V so that I can level up the Limit Form. Occasionally I'd end up going Anti-Form, though it was still useful in shredding through Mushroom V's regenerating HP. It also helps that it drops Drive Recovery Orbs just in case I can't make it back to the Save Point in time.  After doing that, I return to The World That Never Was and save my game, concluding my session for the day.