Tomorrow, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days will be released in stores across the country. I plan to put a lot of time into clearing the game's story mode, as spoilers continue to run amok, so I will more than likely take an extended absence from the Internet and maybe even my laptop. I do not know when I will return, but I will at some point.
The first of the three Shadow Masters is Shardin, Master of Abyssal Spirits. In order to summon this beast, a player must sacrifice three tokens created by the effect of a Spell Card (Fiend's Sanctuary and Scapegoat are examples). Shardin has 4000 attack and defense points, and for even more potent, whatever monster it destroys in battle it can resurrect it on the controller's side of the field as a Zombie-Type! Also, if Shardin is ever removed from the field by the effect of a card, all damage to its controller's Life Points is nullified and the controller gains 1000 Life Points for the trouble. An easy way to summon Shardin is to simply play three Fiend's Sanctuary Spell cards, but an even dirtier tactic is to activate Scapegoat during your opponent's turn and if you have 3 or more Sheep Tokens remaining, you can summon Shardin instantly! I named the Shadow Masters by rewording the names of the first three members of Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts II. Shardin is named after Xaldin, No. 3 in the Organization.
A most terrifying creature, this is the second of the three Shadow Masters, Sigmar, Master of Covering Darkness. Summoning it is a little more trickier, as it requires a sacrifice of three tokens created by the effect of a Monster Card (Lekunga and Cobra Jar, for example). It's tough enough to take down a monster with 4000 attack and defense points, but what's more frustrating is finding out that such a monster can't even be destroyed by battle! Like Darkness Neosphere, Sigmar cannot be destroyed by battle, so the only way to take it down is to use a card effect, such as Lightning Vortex. Also, by making another sacrifice, Sigmar can increase its attack by another 1000 points - and it stacks! Of course, this action can only be performed once per turn. And while Shardin had to be removed from the field to cancel out effect damage, such is not the case for Sigmar. As long as it stands tall on the field, it can negate effect damage of any kind. And being indestructible in battle makes it easier for its controller to utilize this effect. An easy way to summon Sigmar is to run it in a Water deck and summon Lekunga. By removing 6 Water monsters in the Graveyard from play, you can create 3 Lekunga Tokens, and since summoning a Shadow Master counts as a Special Summon, you can do it all during the same turn. Sigmar is named after Xigbar, No. 2 of Organization XIII.
Said to be the most powerful of the three Shadow Masters, this is Ramnas, Master of Calamity! The sacrifices needed to summon it are a little different than the last two. What a player needs is three monsters created by the effect of a Trap Card - and the monsters must also be treated as Trap Cards! Embodiment of Apophis and Zoma the Spirit are examples that fit the bill. While Ramnas starts with 4000 attack points, it can get even stronger if its controller chooses to remove any of his/her monsters from play. Since the ability of Ramnas does not cover this, removing monsters must be done using other cards. For example, Soul Release is an easy way to increase the attack of Ramnas up to 9000! Also, Ramnas has the potent to destroy any face-up card on the opposing side of the field and dish out 1000 points of damage to the opposing player's Life Points. Of course, it can't attack that same turn, but it does help to take care of any pesky monsters that might be stronger. For example, on the same turn you summon Ramnas, you can use its effect to take out an opponent's Five-Headed Dragon! Ramnas cannot attack that turn, but to you it's worth it to take down such opposition! Ramnas is named after Xemnas, No. 1 in the Organization and the Superior. The "Ra" part comes from The Winged Dragon of Ra and Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.
Kicking off is this magnificent powerhouse boasting a whopping 3300 attack points - and that's just a start! If she destroys any opposition, she gets even stronger. To be more precise, she gains 800 more attack points. Starting off with a high number is one thing, as it is simple enough to destroy opponent's monsters, but Apollyon Osa can become nearly unstoppable if she keeps going! Normally, a Level 10 monster requires two sacrifices, but such is not the case for this monster. Apollyon Osa needs a special card, a Spell Card named "Dark Tri-Element", which requires that a player has three Level 7 or higher monsters on the field or in the hand and they must have different Attributes - Fire, Water, and Light. After that, Apollyon Osa can be called out from anywhere, even the Graveyard! While the summoning requirements may be a little strict, it certainly helps if you're stuck with a few high-level monsters in your hand. Just think - if you're stuck with a bad hand, you can trade it for Apollyon Osa, a big, battling behemoth!
Next up is yet another powerful female from an archetype that focuses on controlling opponent's monsters and using them for their abilities. In some cases, they use monster control mainly to clear the way for them to attack directly. Phoenix Lady is no exception, and with 2800 attack points, she almost doesn't need an ability to kick in from seducing an opponent's monster. However, she can be summoned more easily than you may think. If a player activates a Spell Card that includes the effect of sending cards to the Graveyard, watch out! Phoenix Lady might be in the hand and if she's sent, she can pop out next turn! Actually, being summoned from the Graveyard is the only way she can take control of an opponent's monster and since she doesn't have to be sent there by her own effect, the methods are near limitless! With the ability to take control of any monster your opponent has, Phoenix Lady can easily get past opposing forces that are stronger than her. And the best part is, the monster you take control of can also attack, which is a bigger bonus if you choose your opponent's strongest monster.
This card is from a rather unique archetype that happens to be all over the board with kinds of abilities. But, plain and simple, Dragon Girl is an ideal anti-Dragon card and possibly the best next to Buster Blader and Dark Paladin! While she doesn't draw on power while dragons are on the field or in the Graveyard, she cannot be attacked by them and can take control of them! This means that she can easily evade a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the strongest Normal Monster in existence, as well as command it to be its master! Seto Kaiba would be at her mercy! So if your opponent is running a Dragon Deck, this card would make a suitable counter card. She also does well fighting alongside Buster Blader and Dark Paladin, but the latter is preferrable, as Buster Blader only benefits from your opponent's dragons and Dragon Girl can change that by taking command of one. But with 2600 attack points of her own and the possibility of a powerful dragon at your disposal, who's going to quibble? The choices are yours to make.
Like Elemental Heroes, Destiny Heroes, and Evil Heroes, the new Champion Heroes boast a wide variety of abilities. Most of them may have hybrid-like names, but they can prove you to be worthy combatants. Similar to Jaden Yuki's Elemental Heroes from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, some of the most powerful Champion Heroes are Fusion Monsters, so they are reliant on the Spell Card Polymerization. There's also a Spell Card I made up called Fusion Master, which is the best choice by far to quickly summon a Champion Hero Fusion Monster. Anyway, let's have a look at this mighty beast. Kaiser Panther not only wields an incredible attack power of 4000 points, but the moment it hits the field, all other cards on the field are wiped out! This makes it all too easy for a direct attack that, when combined with other cards such as Wild Nature's Release, can easily best your opponent for an OTK (One-Turn Kill). And the only drawback is that the player who summons Kaiser Panther must take damage equal to its original defense power, which is 2900 by default. And using cards to lower its defense doesn't help. But with 4000 attack points and the power to eradicate everything else, there's no arguing against its potent side effect.
Elemental Heroes use the word "Man" and Destiny Heroes use the word "Dude". So my Champion Heroes will use the word "Boy". I know it's silly, but try to warm up to it, okay? This bad boy may look exactly like the X Copy from Mega Man Zero in its seraph form, but as a card I made, it is not to be laughed at, as with any challenge from the Mega Man Zero series (some of you may remember how hard those games were). Starting with 4000 attack points alone is powerful enough, but Shining Blaster Boy LV10 can get even stronger for each Champion Hero in your Graveyard, which means that at a minimal, it could actually start with 5200 points. It can also pierce through defending monsters, meaning that your opponent's Life Points would not be safe no matter what it attacks, AND when it strikes, your opponent cannot activate Spells or Traps to try and stop it! This means, no Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, Shrink, Mirage Tube, or any cards that activate exclusively in battle. With 4000 attack points by default, removing Champion Heroes in the Graveyard from play might not help too much. But Shining Blaster Boy LV10 does however have a crippling weakness - only 1600 defense points. Therefore, if your opponent activates Book of Moon, it could mean lights out for even this near unstoppable battling machine if your opponent summons a monster that is strong enough.
According to the game's Japanese ROM, sprites of Pinocchio, Geppetto, Foulfellow, and Gideon were found, meaning that while they were programmed, they were never used. Apparently, the world had been scrapped while it was in production. Is there still hope for this long-lost cast to appear in a future release? At this stage, only time will tell...
Well, I guess this is it! The countdown to the English release of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days has officially started, I guess. How many of you Kingdom Hearts fans have been waiting for this? A lot, I'm sure. As some of us know, Kingdom Hearts is more than just a crossover of Disney and the Final Fantasy series. Original characters, such as the main hero Sora and his friends Riku and Kairi, have their parts to play. And in this upcoming game, we're going behind the scenes of Organization XIII, the antagonists from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, but particularly, we're looking into the untold story of Roxas, the newest member of the Organization and the Nobody of Sora. Excited? You should be. I know I am. I've been waiting too long for this.
What exactly happens during the year that Sora was asleep? Since this game focuses on Roxas as the central character, it starts with his creation at Twilight Town, a world on the threshold between light and darkness. Roxas is a Nobody, which means he has no heart and doesn't truly exist as a whole being. In fact, the Organization consists of powerful Nobodies with a goal: to become complete beings and exist. To that end, they need to release captive hearts taken by dark beings known as Heartless and use them to complete Kingdom Hearts, which in Kingdom Hearts II was seen as a heart-shaped moon. The Keyblade is the ideal weapon of choice to release hearts, so Roxas proves to be a most crucial member. But there's more to this game than fulfilling missions for the Organization - the storyline. Most Nobodies remember what life was like before they became nonexistent, back when they had hearts. For example, the first six members of the Organization were once former apprentices to Ansem the Wise, a man who researched hearts in hopes of finding a way to protect them from giving in to darkness. Roxas has no memory of Sora, but instead has visions of him. Another important part of the game's story is a new friendship triangle. Roxas first meets and is befriended by Axel, a fellow member of the Organization who serves as the young man's mentor and becomes his best friend. Joining them is the fourteenth member of Organization XIII, Xion.
The gameplay consists of a one-player story mode and a multiplayer mission mode. That's right! For the first time ever in Kingdom Hearts, 2 to 4 players can choose any of the 13 members of Organization XIII and compete with each other to clear a mission. Who will finish first? And the character selection doesn't stop there. By progressing through the story mode, you not only unlock new missions for multiplayer, but you can also unlock six new characters - Xion, Donald, Goofy, Riku, King Mickey Mouse, and Sora himself! The mission mode can bag a player a Mission Crown, which is worth trading for prizes in story mode. Also, in story mode, there are optional trial missions that help contribute towards obtaining special items at a Moogle shop. Hopefully, with this in mind, no one's going to rush through the story mode without possibly upgrading Roxas. There's a lot that can be said about Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but I can't possibly list them all here. So, get ready all you gamers for September 29, 2009, and see everything for yourself!
"Now, I'm sure that since the original Japanese version of this game was released May 30, 2009, most of you fans probably couldn't wait and just HAD to find out the biggest secrets of the Kingdom Hearts storyline. Am I right? If so, then please do me a favor. Keep them to yourselves and don't go spreading the word without spoiler warnings. I mean, that would be bad, right? Try as we might, we don't want to be spoiled. So, if any of you already played through the game and found out everything there is to know, don't spill it here on this blog site. Because if you do, you'll be ruining the storyline of one of the most anticipated games in the Kingdom Hearts series. Although, I hate to think that some of you wouldn't give a damn, but please... don't tell. Keep it dark. Got it memorized?"
