In anticipation for Kingdom Hearts 3, Square Enix spent most of 2017 getting players up to date by releasing a number of HD collections that consolidated the story so far on modern consoles. Along with this came Kingdom Hearts Back Cover, which took the main lore of Kingdom Hearts Union X‘s Keyblade War and pooled it together into a 3D animated film.
When Back Cover first released, there was still an ongoing storyline for the “ancient Keyblade past”, which meant that this first movie had to end abruptly without much of a real resolution. However, now that Kingdom Hearts Union X is preparing to end the ongoing narrative soon, this could mean great news for fans who want to see a sequel to Back Cover that covers the rest of the story.
For players who don’t quite remember what the “ancient Keyblade past” is and may have been caught off guard when Xemnas mentions it during Kingdom Hearts 3, this refers to the events of Kingdom Hearts Union X. The story itself is a fascinating chapter of the Kingdom Hearts backstory, introducing new characters like the Master of Masters and giving a more solid definition of The Darkness, which has now been personified. Then there’s the murder mystery that came as a shock in a story where major characters never stay dead and where Disney often has influence over keeping the presentation family friendly.
Unfortunately, as interesting as this new story is, the narrative of Kingdom Hearts Union X is often criticized for filler content that heavily outpaces the actually tangible lore entries. This is what made the original Back Cover so interesting to fans of the series and even fans of the mobile title, as it delivered all the necessary information while pushing aside the filler. However, now that the “ancient Keyblade past” storyline has continued well beyond the original ending of Back Cover, this opened up for even more of this unnecessary content.
The original Back Cover ends right before Kingdom Hearts Union X‘s Keyblade War, a pivotal moment that had been hinted at in previous games before finally being shown in the mobile title. It was a bit of a tease to build up all the way to the war without showing the actual conflict itself, especially considering that much of this section of the story was only available in the original browser release of the game. So instead, the movie ends with Ava’s speech to the Dandelions, the survivors of the war, and sets the story up for the remaining conflict with the new Union Leaders after this initial climactic event.
Since that ending first took place in the game, a whole new story has sprung out of Kingdom Hearts Union X‘s new Union Leaders, with the aforementioned murder mystery plotline. Because of where Back Cover left off, not even showing the Keyblade War, it is actually in the right position to pick up with the current story of the game, where the Dandelions have had their memories wiped of the war itself. So, while it was somewhat underwhelming for the movie to not show the huge climax it had built to, this does mean that it can deliver the same story that Union X had when it debuted worldwide as Unchained X.
To some fans, Kingdom Hearts Union X shutting down comes as a tough pill to swallow, especially for those that have poured time, energy, and money into building up their in-game character. However, the fact that the story is finally ending is great news for a Back Cover 2 or some other way to consolidate the narrative that the game has released over the last six years. In a similar way that the HD remasters and the first Back Cover were able to bring players on board with everything that the series has to offer, there is a lot of lore that may be important moving forward locked away in a dying mobile game.
On top of being able to give players a new way to catch up with the lore, ending the Kingdom Hearts Union X story also means that Square Enix can start taking Kingdom Hearts in the new direction that has been talked about recently. Closing the book on Union X can be exactly what the series needs to start telling a new story with the next installment, with new villains and stakes coming from this older lore. Whether or not this means that players can expect to see a Back Cover 2 anytime soon is still up in the air, but it could be the best launching point for this new era of the series.
The only negative of having the upcoming end of Union X be the definitive starting point for the series moving forward is the accessibility of this new storyline. While there will be an offline mode of the game that will allow players to head through the story and see everything that has happened so far, this will all be available without some of the bigger draws of the mobile title. An offline mode will be missing the multiplayer activities like Union X‘s raid bosses or the new updates that give players ways to customize their characters and share their unique styles with friends.
In this case, Back Cover 2 might even be necessary to make sure that players are able to keep up to date, as some players might not even make it to the end of the story before the novelty of Union X wears off without the online aspects. There is also the matter of how drastically Union X strays from the gameplay of the Kingdom Hearts series, which might not appeal to fans as well as some of the other spin-offs in the series. So, as Square Enix continues to consolidate the games and reach out to appeal to as many players as possible, containing all of the important lore bits of Kingdom Hearts Union X in a Back Cover 2 would be the best way forward.
Kingdom Hearts Union X is available now for Mobile and PC.
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