Chain of Memories Glitch?

Against my better judgment, I’m going to share this with you, KHV. Hopefully, you’re much more helpful than I can be. I received this weird PM in my inbox this morning. I’m sorry, but the sender has requested me to keep his username private, and I will respect that person’s privacy. I just thought that maybe one of you would have more insight on this kind of stuff.

Anyway, here’s the message.

“Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Friday, March 30, 2012 12:03AM)

Spoiler

Although you are reading this right now, there is no particular reason why you will receive this message in your inbox. If you wish to post this on the forum, so be it, just please leave out my username. All of this is just to document my experience through...what I am about to do. If something is to happen to me, I’d be glad to know that someone else, even if it is a stranger, knows that I even existed and why it happened to me.

You can write this off as creepypasta if you wish. Maybe it’s just my mind playing tricks on me, but I know it’s better to be safe than sorry.

As I stated before, please do not allow my identity to be known. If you so wish, you can call me “Andrew”.

It all started when I first heard about Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance getting close to its release date in Japan. I had been working hard in college for the past several months and haven’t kept up with a lot of the gaming news. I knew that it was going to be on the 3DS, so I knew that I had to save up some cash.

I went to a local Game Stop this morning (Thursday) after I finished with my biology class. There was to be no school on Friday and we are about to start our Spring Break vacation. I asked one of the clerks if they knew anything about the new Kingdom Hearts title. Obviously, this guy wasn’t a fan of the series. He was calling me out on being some crazed otaku who needs to grow up.

Anyway, I decided to browse through a few of the used DS games that they had. It had the usual crap that no one ever wants to buy. As I searched, I also saw a few Game Boy Advance games. One that particularly caught my eye was a copy of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. A wave of nostalgia hit me, telling me I had to buy this game.

Thankfully, I got a more helpful clerk to retrieve the game for me from behind the glass box. It cost me about ten dollars; it sounded like a heavy price at the time of purchasing it, but I just had to have that game. Also, Dream Drop Distance wasn’t going to be coming out within the next several months anyway.

Thankfully, my roommate was going to be gone the entire week of Spring Break, meaning that I could play my video games in peace. It took me a while to find my DS lite, which hadn’t been really touched since the beginning of the semester.

Putting the game into the DS, I started the game and got ready to replay one of my favorite games in the series.

Everything started...normal enough. The logos took their time to pass as I was brought to the start screen. It was the picture of Riku, so, whoever played this game obviously beat Sora’s story and unlocked Reverse/Rebirth mode. There was something a bit strange about the picture though. Riku wasn’t holding onto Soul Eater, it was the Kingdom Key. I didn’t quite understand the picture; I mean, I know that Riku was the original owner of the Keyblade, but he never used it in this game. I wrote it off as a bit of a glitch.

For some strange reason, I didn’t feel like starting a new game. It seemed a bit pointless. For fun, I wanted to look through the save files to see how the previous owner played the game. For both Sora and Riku, there are two save files each. The person who played this game only used one save file for each character. What was strange was that the one for Sora said that he was on Floor 13, Castle Oblivion, but Sora was the only party member visible.

It has been a while since I’ve played through Chain of Memories, but I’m pretty sure that it’s supposed to show all party members at the start screen: Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The only time it will show Sora alone is when he’s reached Destiny Island, but the two of them come back right after you fight the Riku Replica after beating that world.

Riku’s file seemed to have a glitch too. Riku was alone, but he was in his Dark Side clothing. Now I know that this was wrong. He never wore that outfit outside of battles, and that one cut scene with Zexion, so it would make no sense for him to wear it then.

Part of me wanted to just turn the game off and leave it all as a mystery. You couldn’t blame me though, could you? I mean, you see something like this, and you feel like you have to investigate it. Maybe there was nothing supernatural about it and it was just some hacker who decided to play a prank on a random person that he didn’t even know.

I wish I could just follow my instinct.
I’m going to play the game, at least a little bit of it. Like I said, I will document what I am going through. I don’t care if you believe me or not. This is just way too creepy to not be cautious about.

I’m shaking a bit right now. I think I’m just going to turn off the game, let my DS charge, go to sleep and then tackle it sometime in the morning. You’ll hear from me soon, at least, hopefully.

-Andrew

I had to read through the message a few times. I’m not quite sure what to say to the guy. Here’s a PM I sent him back, but I’m not too sure if he’s read it yet. “Andrew” is invisible, just so you know.

Re: “Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Friday, March 30, 2012 11:00AM)

Spoiler

Hello Andrew,

I’m honestly not sure if I can believe you or not. What you’re telling me does sound a bit strange. I’m here for you though. I’ll do anything you need. I’m going to post this in the forum though, since it sounds like you don’t seem to mind.

I hope that this is just some silly prank that someone decided to play.

-V@nit@s

UPDATE:
Re: “Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Friday, March 30, 2012 7:23PM) (Andrew to V@nit@s)

Spoiler

Well, you at least sound friendly. I noticed the thread when I logged in; not really a creative title. I guess that’s also partially my fault.

Anyway, I didn’t wake up until almost noon. For some reason, I was stuck in some kind of deep sleep. I even struggled to get out of bed when I finally woke up. I knew I was going to play the game, but something about it was very off putting. To procrastinate from having to play it, I decided to do class work that was assigned over the break. Unfortunately, that couldn’t even hold my attention.

Finally, I just decided to suck it up and play the game. The game started up like it did yesterday. The sight of Riku holding the Keyblade is still a very strange sight to me. I resisted to play a new game, although, I have a feeling that I’m going to have to later on. Right now, I was still curious what the previous owner left behind. Maybe there would be some kind of clue.

I decided to start with Sora; he is the main protagonist after all. As I started, Sora was standing in the middle of a save point room in the Castle Oblivion level. I decided to check the map to see exactly where Sora was. If memory serves correctly, Sora was in the room just before you had your final fight with Axel.

Pressing the start button, I was sent to the menu screen, just like normal. What first caught my eye was that the white glove that makes your choices is now red and only appeared to have its pointer finger attached. Also, there was something strange about Sora. He looked like he always had; I mean, these are just sprite characters, but Square at least puts a lot of effort into their designs.

Finally, I noticed it.

You couldn’t tell at first, especially if you hadn’t played the game for a long time like I had. Sora’s eyes were completely black. I felt a shiver go down my spine as I decided to look through the different menus. First up was the Journal. It seems that whoever last played this game had been completely thorough. Not only did he complete the main story, but he also got every kind of card it was possible to get in the game.

Glancing through the Journal, I noticed that one Mickey head wasn’t present. (It’s also good to note that the Mickey heads in this game are not gold, they’re blood red.) It was for the one that was labeled “Story”. Instead, it was flashing “New”. I decided to click it, and I was taken to the story menu page. I scrolled through each thing the menu had; I even went as far as to tediously read through the story to make sure I got it right.

Something was different though. After the information that was listed as “Castle Oblivion” was something else. It was titled “Sora’s Story V”. Personally, I’ve never been able to complete the game fully--that is, unlock everything inside the game--and I was never able to unlock the journal’s log of Castle Oblivion. Curiously, I decided to read through Sora’s Story V.

“Sora is victorious in his battle against Marluxia. However, Namine tells him that he must make a choice, whether to keep the memories he has now or to regain his old memories, and forget about her. Sora’s choice is obvious. Sora decided that he will go back to the way things were.

“She put Sora and his friends to sleep in these weird chambers. Time passed, but only briefly. Sora awoke, but he still remembered who Namine was. And the memories he had were of those in Castle Oblivion! Sora searched the other two pods and found Donald and Goofy slaughtered; their blood painting over the pure white holding cells.

“Sora had never been this upset. Where Sora believed the control panel was, there was just a note.

“FOLLOW HER AND YOU WILL BE SAVED BUT FOLLOW ‘HER’ TO BE DEPRAIVED. I MEET AT WHERE IT ALL BEGAN OR SHE WILL DIE WHERE SHE WILL STAND.”

This was definitely much different from the game that I remember.

The user before me had obviously been leveling Sora to his full potential. In the Status menu, it said that Sora had reached his maximum level, maximum health, but he didn’t get many of the slights that were able to be unlocked by leveling up. Instead, he used it all on CP.

Before continuing on with the game, I decided to check out this player’s deck. What first struck my eye was the kind of cards that he had. He equipped his main deck very well, filling it with the best Enemy Cards you could use as well as the best Keyblades. That’s all it was, enemy cards and Keyblades, with the numbers ranging from seven to nine, as well as a few zero cards.

Another thing I found interesting was the names of the three decks he has. “NOT. GOD. NO.” I don’t really get what this message means. I try to change the name of one of the decks to “KAIRI”, like I did with my old game, but the name wouldn’t change at all. No matter how many times I tried, it wouldn’t work. The deck couldn’t be edited either, which was even more frustrating.

Before trying to figure out what was going on, I tried out a few battles. Going into the next room, I attacked the first heartless I saw. In the battle, the game played out regularly. Sure, it was rough against the Neo-Shadows, but I easily took them down. The enemies were much tougher than I had expected them to be. No experience points could be given though, obviously because Sora was at his highest level.

I’m not able to figure out that riddle though. I’m going to keep playing for a little bit and try to figure out what that means. If you can figure out anything that will help, please let me know. There’s something I want to try anyway, so I’ll check that out.

I’ll check in soon.

-Andrew

Re: “Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Friday, March 30, 2012 7:28PM) (V@nit@s to Andrew)

Spoiler

That does sound a bit strange Andrew. A lot of the things you say sound interesting. By chance, are you able to get any screen shots that would be helpful? You can send them to my e-mail address if you wish.

(I give him my e-mail address)

Keep me updated.

-V@nit@s

UPDATE:
Re: “Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Saturday, March 31, 2012 7:30 PM) (Andrew to V@nit@s)

Spoiler

I’m sorry for not replying to your message last night, even though I did read it. I’ve spent a lot of my night getting through the floors of Castle Oblivion. Something is up with the playing field. First, I should tell you that the Room Cards I am given are all red. That’s what the previous owner left behind and those are all the cards I get from battle.

The game also requires you to fight at least one battle before leaving a room. I’ve tried just going through doors, but it physically won’t let Sora go through. Some of these levels are pretty rough though; I’ve had to break out Oogie Boogie Enemy card a few times to keep from going to low on health. The only save points that I have are outside of the floors. It feels a bit empty without Donald and Goofy standing guard right there.

I decided to go on a hunch that I got from that riddle. It told me to go where it began, right? So, I thought that maybe it wanted me to go to the Destiny Island world. Well, first off, it wouldn’t allow me to use that weird dark orb next to the save point to jump to that floor. It’s no big deal, seeing that Destiny Island is just a floor below. I explored the entire floor (except the Key of Rewards Room, but that’s because the previous owner already got a hold of it) and I couldn’t find anything to help.

Frustrated, I went to bed. The same thing that happened yesterday happened to me today; I wasn’t able to get out of bed early. Before I could even start playing the game, I was reminded that I had to go take some books back to the library. I decided to take the bus in order to get some play time in on the way to the library.

I did end up taking some screen shots, like you asked me to. They’re not that good though, seeing that the only way I can do that stuff is to take a picture with my phone. I sent them to your e-mail though. The first picture is of the “Sora Story V” entry while the second one is of Sora with his eyes darkened. Again, I apologize for the low quality.

My instinct has told me to just go through the floors in the descending order. With my time playing today, I’ve already gone through a majority of them. The oddest one was the Hundred Acre Wood. It was completely empty. I had to put the game down for a minute, to get a sip of the soda I was drinking at the time, and I could have sworn that I saw Sora crying. It was probably the light though.

Currently, no clues have appeared for me. I’m still trying to figure out what that riddle in the Journal was. Also, the Deck titles are bothering me for some reason. “NOT. GOD. NO.” I feel like I’m missing the most obvious thing in the world. I’m going to keep going and try to report to you soon.

One last thing: Tell the group I say “thank you”. It really means a lot to me that there are so many people out there who care about me.

-Andrew

Re: “Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Saturday, March 31, 2012 7:37 PM) (V@nit@s to Andrew)

Spoiler

Okay, Andrew. I’ll be sure that they know that. I’m going to check my inbox right now for the pictures. I’m going to upload them to KHV once I get them so other people could be filled in. Thanks for the update.

-V@nit@s

I’m going to check my e-mail now guys.

Well, this seems a bit interesting. It sounds like a hack, but this really isn’t something I’d plan hearing about. What do you guys think?
Well, KHV, thoughts?

Do you have any advice?

 

AndrewTemari.

 

It's not him. I don't even think Andrew is his real name.

I'm using he, although I'm not even sure of that either. I mean, "Andrew" isn't even gender specific. I've met girls with the name Andrew.

 

I've met girls named Jordan.

 

Yep.

And AndrewTemari hasn't been on for some time now.

 

That's upsetting. He's a cool kid.

 

Yeah, he is.

Well? Any advice?

 

Reminds me of Ben Drowned.

 

I've heard of that pasta, but I've never read it.

Maybe whoever is sending me this crap has.

 

I stopped reading after "some crazed otaku who needs to grow up"

Cause I'm fairly certain that sums up the rest of the story perfectly.

 

Sounds like a hack. Lucky duckling ;~;

 

And that's when the Lavender Town music started playing.

 

Then the reversed Song of Healing played.

 

Tell him to delete the file and see if a wild ghost appears.

 

You can't delete files in the GBA version of Chain of Memories. All you can do is save over them.

 

Seems doable assuming its a hack, if its not my only explanation is a corrupted game cartridge or some "Extra content" like the way nomura put DDD stuff on the BbS:FM game, i am very interested in this, but why not ask Andrew for pictures? just to prove it, he seems like a nice guy, give him my best, also please keep me updated, this is one of my favorite games and i am interested.

 

Well, I was able to be on when he messaged me this time. I sent him a quick reply.


Re: “Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Friday, March 30, 2012 7:23PM) (Andrew to V@nit@s)

Spoiler

Well, you at least sound friendly. I noticed the thread when I logged in; not really a creative title. I guess that’s also partially my fault.

Anyway, I didn’t wake up until almost noon. For some reason, I was stuck in some kind of deep sleep. I even struggled to get out of bed when I finally woke up. I knew I was going to play the game, but something about it was very off putting. To procrastinate from having to play it, I decided to do class work that was assigned over the break. Unfortunately, that couldn’t even hold my attention.

Finally, I just decided to suck it up and play the game. The game started up like it did yesterday. The sight of Riku holding the Keyblade is still a very strange sight to me. I resisted to play a new game, although, I have a feeling that I’m going to have to later on. Right now, I was still curious what the previous owner left behind. Maybe there would be some kind of clue.

I decided to start with Sora; he is the main protagonist after all. As I started, Sora was standing in the middle of a save point room in the Castle Oblivion level. I decided to check the map to see exactly where Sora was. If memory serves correctly, Sora was in the room just before you had your final fight with Axel.

Pressing the start button, I was sent to the menu screen, just like normal. What first caught my eye was that the white glove that makes your choices is now red and only appeared to have its pointer finger attached. Also, there was something strange about Sora. He looked like he always had; I mean, these are just sprite characters, but Square at least puts a lot of effort into their designs.

Finally, I noticed it.

You couldn’t tell at first, especially if you hadn’t played the game for a long time like I had. Sora’s eyes were completely black. I felt a shiver go down my spine as I decided to look through the different menus. First up was the Journal. It seems that whoever last played this game had been completely thorough. Not only did he complete the main story, but he also got every kind of card it was possible to get in the game.

Glancing through the Journal, I noticed that one Mickey head wasn’t present. (It’s also good to note that the Mickey heads in this game are not gold, they’re blood red.) It was for the one that was labeled “Story”. Instead, it was flashing “New”. I decided to click it, and I was taken to the story menu page. I scrolled through each thing the menu had; I even went as far as to tediously read through the story to make sure I got it right.

Something was different though. After the information that was listed as “Castle Oblivion” was something else. It was titled “Sora’s Story V”. Personally, I’ve never been able to complete the game fully--that is, unlock everything inside the game--and I was never able to unlock the journal’s log of Castle Oblivion. Curiously, I decided to read through Sora’s Story V.

“Sora is victorious in his battle against Marluxia. However, Namine tells him that he must make a choice, whether to keep the memories he has now or to regain his old memories, and forget about her. Sora’s choice is obvious. Sora decided that he will go back to the way things were.

“She put Sora and his friends to sleep in these weird chambers. Time passed, but only briefly. Sora awoke, but he still remembered who Namine was. And the memories he had were of those in Castle Oblivion! Sora searched the other two pods and found Donald and Goofy slaughtered; their blood painting over the pure white holding cells.

“Sora had never been this upset. Where Sora believed the control panel was, there was just a note.

“FOLLOW HER AND YOU WILL BE SAVED BUT FOLLOW ‘HER’ TO BE DEPRAIVED. I MEET AT WHERE IT ALL BEGAN OR SHE WILL DIE WHERE SHE WILL STAND.”

This was definitely much different from the game that I remember.

The user before me had obviously been leveling Sora to his full potential. In the Status menu, it said that Sora had reached his maximum level, maximum health, but he didn’t get many of the slights that were able to be unlocked by leveling up. Instead, he used it all on CP.

Before continuing on with the game, I decided to check out this player’s deck. What first struck my eye was the kind of cards that he had. He equipped his main deck very well, filling it with the best Enemy Cards you could use as well as the best Keyblades. That’s all it was, enemy cards and Keyblades, with the numbers ranging from seven to nine, as well as a few zero cards.

Another thing I found interesting was the names of the three decks he has. “NOT. GOD. NO.” I don’t really get what this message means. I try to change the name of one of the decks to “KAIRI”, like I did with my old game, but the name wouldn’t change at all. No matter how many times I tried, it wouldn’t work. The deck couldn’t be edited either, which was even more frustrating.

Before trying to figure out what was going on, I tried out a few battles. Going into the next room, I attacked the first heartless I saw. In the battle, the game played out regularly. Sure, it was rough against the Neo-Shadows, but I easily took them down. The enemies were much tougher than I had expected them to be. No experience points could be given though, obviously because Sora was at his highest level.

I’m not able to figure out that riddle though. I’m going to keep playing for a little bit and try to figure out what that means. If you can figure out anything that will help, please let me know. There’s something I want to try anyway, so I’ll check that out.

I’ll check in soon.

-Andrew

Re: “Chain of Memories Glitch?” (Friday, March 30, 2012 7:28PM) (V@nit@s to Andrew)

Spoiler

That does sound a bit strange Andrew. A lot of the things you say sound interesting. By chance, are you able to get any screen shots that would be helpful? You can send them to my e-mail address if you wish.

(I give him my e-mail address)

Keep me updated.

-V@nit@s

Well, this seems a bit interesting. It sounds like a hack, but this really isn’t something I’d plan hearing about. What do you guys think?

 

Okay, Obviously not a corrupted game cartridge, I have 2 explanations, 1= Nomura made a crazy Alternate story and kept it encoded in the game and for some reason andrew's ds was able to pick it up, 2= some one hacked it nice!

i am interested, andrew please keep playing :)

 

I must admit, if this is just a form of prank Andrew is playing it's quite the elaborate one. If it is true, then it would likely have to be EXTREMELY hacked by an experienced hacker, who for some reason sold it to a gaming store instead of one of his friends for like $20. Or Nomura made some kind of alternate story (as stated by other members) And the previous owner just happened to discover it, which still leaves the question of why not just sell it for $20 to a friend.

If it's a prank, keep going, it's an interesting one 8D

If it's real, keep going, I'm interested by this 8D

 

Hmm.
I can't tell, honestly.

Tell him to continue for a bit.
Also tell him to try a new file.

Or, as a last ditch, try a hard reset or whatever the hell it's called. You press a button combination (I don't remember which it is), and absolutely everything save-data wise is deleted.
Or was that something exclusive to Pokemon? Idk I'm freakin tired ignore me.