Re:coded
Terms and lore
The line in the journal. Reorganising his journal at Disney Castle, Jiminy found a line he had not written: "We must return to free them from their torment." Nobody could account for it, and finding out where it came from is what the whole journey was for.
The data world. To trace the line, Mickey digitised the journal's contents. Inside it are data versions of the worlds Sora had visited, starting with Destiny Islands, and a Sora made out of data to set them right.
The Journal. The journal itself, alive inside its own data, wearing Riku's shape and voice. Asked whether either of them was anything more than data, it answered that it didn't matter, so long as it helped their friends.
Bugs. Blocks of corruption spreading through the data worlds, breaking down the wall between the datascape and the real world. The Journal used that to call Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy in to help, and Maleficent and Pete came in behind them. Pete used bugs to make the Journal his puppet. The bugs had drawn in every Heartless Sora defeated, feeding the shadow of his existence, his own Heartless. Naminé later said the bugs were her fault: she added "hurt" to memories she put in the journal, so that fighting the bugs would teach Sora to face it.
Hurt. What the journey turned out to be about. The Journal showed Sora a hidden memory: Riku lost to darkness and Kairi without her heart, both of them hurting, and Sora's answer to it. A figure in a cloak asked Sora whether carrying the sadness of forgetting someone who matters would really bring those memories back. Sora chose to keep the hurt rather than set down the people it belonged to.
A Keyblade tied to the heart. Sora's Keyblade was destroyed outright. When Donald and Goofy refused to let Pete call him artificial, "Sora has a heart, and it's inside of us!", it came back, this time tied to his own heart rather than to the data that made him.
Three who were keys. The message Naminé's data left inside the journal: three people "connected to the truth behind the Keyblade," still connected, somewhere deep inside Sora. Sora has met two of them. With the third he shares a very special connection. A day will come when they must rise from their sleep, and then the only one who can save them will be Sora.
"Memories link hearts to each other." What Mickey understood before he left the data world: the journal held not only the record of Sora's journey, but everything each of them felt.
The letter in the bottle. Back in the real world, Mickey put what he had learned into a letter, sealed it in a bottle, and sent it out to find Sora, Riku and Kairi together: "The door to a new journey is just about to open."
Xehanort's return. Yen Sid's warning. With both his Heartless and his Nobody destroyed, Xehanort's heart and body will return to the whole: "Master Xehanort will return." And "a man like Xehanort will have left many roads open."
Characters and where they stand
Sora, made of data. The Sora inside the journal: cheerful, determined, and unbothered by what he is made of. He followed a figure in a black coat through every world, lost his Keyblade and got it back, and chose to carry his hurt instead of letting it go. He thanked Naminé on the real Sora's behalf. He will not remember any of it, but Mickey promised to tell the real Sora and Riku everything.
The Journal. The journal given Riku's shape, "data in the form of Riku," and the figure in the black coat Sora followed from world to world: calm, and sure that it mattered to help its friends whatever it was. Pete bugged it and turned it against Sora, and Sora set it free. Its parting words to Sora: "Just do what you do."
King Mickey. Digitised the journal to find where the line came from, and was pulled into it himself. In the data world he remembered his own first adventure, and the first time he made friends, long ago. He sent his letter to Sora, Riku and Kairi, then went to Yen Sid: "I think we're finally close to figuring out where Ven's heart is."
Jiminy Cricket. The keeper of the journal, who found the line he had not written.
Donald Duck and Goofy. Pulled into the data world with the king. They refused to let anyone call the data Sora artificial: "In every kind of world, Sora is still Sora!"
Maleficent and Pete. Followed Mickey into the data world and meant to have it for their own. Maleficent crumbled Sora's Keyblade to dust, and Pete made the Journal his puppet; both were beaten. When the data world was about to be erased, Sora went back for them anyway, and Maleficent would not thank him: "This merely makes us even."
Roxas, made of data. The hooded boy in the journal's Castle Oblivion who handed Sora a card for each world there: "I'm nobody." His role was to see whether Sora was ready to own the hurt inside him. He merged back into Sora saying there was a place he'd like to be: "Summer vacation."
Naminé, made of data. "Just data made to pass along a message." She admitted she had both taken Sora's memories apart and put them back, and that the bugs were her fault. She passed on the message about the three who were keys, and disappeared.
Yen Sid. Heard Mickey's news about Ven's heart ("Then that leaves only Terra"), warned that Master Xehanort will return, and sent for Sora and Riku: "To show us the Mark of Mastery."
Questions
Who wrote the line in Jiminy's journal, and who are "them," suffering in torment?
How will Sora save the three who were keys?
What roads has Xehanort left open, and how many of him will there be?
Will Sora and Riku pass the Mark of Mastery?
Fun facts
Born on a phone. The game this entry adapts began as Kingdom Hearts coded, released in eight monthly episodes in 2009 and 2010 on Japanese mobile phones. It was never released outside Japan, and it was taken down in 2013. The Nintendo DS remake, Re:coded, brought it to the rest of the world.
A "terrible" idea. When Nomura proposed a mobile spin-off, Hajime Tabata called the idea terrible, then admitted it had potential and approved it anyway. Nomura wanted it to be a playground for fans, and it was first meant to sit outside the main story.
A quick port that wasn't. Re:coded was planned as a simple re-release. There was so much space left on the cartridge that it was rebuilt fully in 3D, and a quick turnaround took more than a year.
Leaked by Jiminy. Phil Snyder, the voice of Jiminy Cricket, accidentally revealed the game's existence in May 2010, in a blog post about recording for something called Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.