Kingdom Hearts: What Fans Need to Know From Union X Going Forward

gamerant.com:

While many RPG franchises fill themselves to the brim with lore, there aren't many that go to the same level as Kingdom Hearts. Almost every installment in the series adds to its overarching story in some way, including the now-offline mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union X. While it was questionable how much a game starring the player as its protagonist could leave an impact on Sora's story, Union X ended up leaving an important mark.

Union X is anything but short. While stories in RPG franchises are often on the long side, Union X in particular featured 979 story quests by the end of the game's run. Between this length and the mobile nature of the game, many fans are likely put off from finishing it. Kingdom Hearts has been leaning into Union X as a big part of its lore since KH3, and the game offers poignant foreshadowing to the series' next arc.

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Many Kingdom Hearts fans should be familiar with the Keyblade War. Union X dives into what led up to the war and reveals it was set to bring an end to the fight between light and darkness once and for all. Darkness itself was said to be almost human once, splitting itself into pieces and losing its will and humanity as it became the Heartless many fans are more familiar with.

In order to stop the pieces of darkness, the Master of Masters gave six apprentices roles, secretly knowing that the roles would cause them to doubt one another and grow headstrong in their ways, making them susceptible - yet incorruptible - by darkness. The Keyblade War served to draw out darkness, trap it, and destroy it. However, darkness worked around this and saved itself through the Master of Master's