A New World?

Entry #5:

Some time has passed, and Sora opens his eyes to a dog, Pluto, licking his face. He takes a bit to recover realizing that he is in a world completely different from his own. And just as suddenly, he recalls all the events that happened: the great dark shadow that swallowed up him and his island as well as the disappearance of his friends, Riku and Kairi, and he gets up, in search for a clue and help as to what might have happened and where his friends may be. In addition, he finds himself in possession of a key-like sword.

As we take Sora through the town, it doesn’t take long to find an Accessory Shop. Inside is a store owner, named Uncle Sid, who doesn’t seem to know what happened to our hero. But he offers his help, which is great, as he offers a variety of useful items we can purchase from his shop.

Analysis:

It is at this point that the quest takes a complete 180 degree turn. Just before, Sora’s quest was to journey outside his home island to explore the world. All of a sudden, however, he finds himself in that new world, but on his own. This brings to mind the promise the three of them made about seeing new worlds together, with the realization that, even though unintentional and being caused by forces outside of one’s one, the promise is being broken. This is no new concept for us readers, for we have seen this happen with promises countless times: in Pwyll’s story as well as The Franklin’s Tale, when unforeseen circumstances cause promises to be broken.

Moving on from the story, however, one can see that it is now that the adventure has truly begun. Sora, now on his own, is more inexperienced than ever. However, the player is just as inexperienced as he is, and this parallelism actually helps to allow both player and character’s goals and motivations to be one and the same. Sora wants to find his friends and find out what happened to his island; the player, surely, would want to find out the same things as well.

This is also where the player’s control over Sora drastically increases in comparison to the early scenes of the game. The start of the true adventure comes with many choices. The player will discover the shop as a great resource and location where one can exercise one’s control over the character and ability to make choices on what to purchase, how to equip and characterize one’s character, etc. Choices that will affect the Sora’s efficiency as quester, and how easily and quickly he will be able to complete his quest. One can spend one’s “munny” on potions that can heal one’s health, or accessories that can boost one’s defense. Or one can even raise one’s attack to focus more on offense rather than defense. There are many choices as well as combination of choices, and each will provide different benefits.

Expectations: Oath,Travel

Terms: Adventure