Keys to the Kingdom Part 2: Birth by Sleep – Terra

Let’s jump right in. If you need to get caught up on where we left off, have a look at Aqua’s Story!

The Beginning

The story always starts the same for all three characters. What makes Terra’s story a bit different is that he is guided by the machinations of Master Xehanort, starting his part to the dark stuff pretty much right off the bat. It is here where we meet Vanitis, unless you play Ventus’ story first, Xehanort’s right hand lacky. While awesome looking, he isn’t super important to Terra’s storyline, but he does dip in from time to time. At the end of the intro segment, Master Eraqus tells Terra he has failed his Mark of Mastery exam and Terra storms off. Xehanort disappears, and darkness starts popping up everywhere. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity to continue Terra’s training, Eraqus gives Terra a new quest to complete, and promises him a redo on the Mark of Mastery test after the quest is complete. The quest: find and figure out what Xehanort is up to.

Terra’s Quest!

Like Aqua’s story, the next section of Terra’s story can be completed in any order. Because Terra is playing with the dark stuff, a lot of his quest to Disney worlds sees him (unknowingly) team up with the villains. In the Enchanted Dominion, Terra lands and fights his way to Maleficent, who tells him of Aurora. But don’t worry, Maleficent is still up to her normal ways and knocks Terra up with some good old fashioned mind control, stealing Aurora’s heart for Maleficent. The Castle of Dreams level see’s Terra arrive as a Cinderella’s dress has been destroyed by her evil step-sisters. After fending off the Unversed, the Fairy Godmother gives Cinderella her iconic dress and curfew. But she still has to make it to the ball, and you have to play through one of the better escort quests I have played in a long time. In the Dwarf Woodlands Terra runs into the Evil Queen and she tries to convince him to essentially be the Huntsmen and find Snow White, kill her, and bring her Snow Whites heart in exchange for using the Magic Mirror to find Xehanort. After a brief stop to see Yen Sid, Terra is back on Xehanort’s trail.

At this point, all of the playable characters head to Radiant Gardens. After battling the Trinity Armor with his friends, Terra gets a lifetime pass to Disneytown! ♪ M-I-C-K-E-Y♫ M-O-U-S-E ♪ Terra brushes off both Aqua and Ventus and tells them to head home, he still had to track down Xehanort and could do it faster without them. He ends up fighting Braig, future Xigbar and member of Organization XIII (Later, I promise). Terra’s brooding really starts to catch up with him here. In Disneytown, Terra gets to take out all of his aggression in a racing mini-game against… Hewy, Duey, Louie and Pete? Sure.

In The Olympus Colosseum Terra is told by Hades he should embrace the darkness inside of himself and use it to win the tournament. Terra tries it for a bit, but ultimately, Hades uses magic to poison the thoughts of Zach, ending in Zach and Terra fighting Giant-Sword against Giant-Sword. After fighting off some Unversed in space, Terra is captured and brought on board a ship flying through Deep Space where he gets to help out the ‘villain’ of Lilo and Stitch, Dr. Jumba find Stitch as he tears the ship apart. After breaking Dr. Jumba out of space jail, they eventually find Stitch and have to fight another one of Dr. Jumba’s experiments. Finally, in Neverland, Terra fights a group of Unversed and helps out some locals… Captain James Hook and his right hand man Smee. Hook tells Terra he is trying to protect a chest filled with light from a nasty boy,  Peter Pan. Terra eventually figures out he has been tricked (again) and fights Hook.

The Grand Finale

Before arriving at the Keyblade Graveyard Terra takes a quick detour back to see Master Eraqus, only to find that he is planning on… murdering Ventus?!? (Next week we are gonna cover this, I promise!) To keep that from happening Terra, rightfully, teleports Ventus away and fights Eraqus, leading him to fully embrace his dark side and kill Eraqus. To be fair, Terra seems pretty beat up about this. Terra heads to Destiny Islands, where he sent Ventus, but Ventus has already left. Seeing two kids playing on the beach, Terra anoints one of the little boys as his Keyblade successor (Spoilers: It’s Riku!). Feeling that he has done his due diligence, he heads to the Keyblade Graveyard to confront his friends about what he did.

I will cover everything that happens at the Keyblade Graveyard in the next article, as it all happens pretty fast and it is easier to explain what everyone is going through all at once, so be on the look out for that article next week!