| Xion | |
|---|---|
Xion as seen in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. |
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| Series | Kingdom Hearts |
| First game | Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (2009) |
| Designed by | Tetsuya Nomura |
| Voiced by (English) | Alyson Stoner |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | Risa Uchida |
| Fictional profile | |
| Weapon | Keyblade |
Xion (シオン Shion) is a fictional character from Square Enix's video game franchise Kingdom Hearts. She was introduced in the 2009 game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the newest and fourteenth member of Organization XIII, a group composed of Nobodies, beings created from people who lost their heart. In her time working for Organization XIII, Xion befriends Roxas, another new member from the Organization, as well as veteran member Axel. In contrast to her comrades, Xion does not bear memories from her original self and instead starts receiving memories from other people. This leads her to learn about her true nature as a replica of Sora, the series' protagonist and Roxas' original self, as well as what she should do. Xion's character has been voiced by Risa Uchida in Japanese, and Alyson Stoner in English.
Xion was conceptualized during development of the game Kingdom Hearts II in which the staff wanted to explain the reason why Roxas left Organization XIII. Additionally, the staff wanted to create a new member from the cartel but having a different nature from all the other members. While scenario writer Tomoko Tanemaki came up with the idea for her character, director Tetsuya Nomura designed her. Xion's character has been well-received by video game publications due to her role in 358/2 Days as well as her relation with Roxas and Axel.
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Xion appears in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the newest member from Organization XIII. During her time with the Organization, Xion befriends fellow member Roxas who, like her, has the ability to summon the Keyblade weapon to capture hearts for the Organization's ambition.[1] She also befriends Axel after he and Roxas cover for her when she temporarily loses her ability to use the Keyblade.[2] Later in the game, she begins questioning her nature of existence after being defeated by Riku and experiencing Sora's memories.[3][4] She discovers that she is an imperfect replica of Sora created by the Organization from Sora's memories to replicate Roxas's powers, and that her existence prevents Sora from regaining the memories he lost during the events of Chain of Memories.[5] She is torn between staying with her friends and merging with Sora, but decides to leave the Organization to protect Roxas after realizing that Sora's memories are making her stronger while weakening Roxas.[6][7] However, Axel is forced to capture her and return her to the Organization's leader Xemnas, who reprograms her to carry out her true purpose of absorbing Roxas and becoming a perfect replica of Sora.[8][9] She attacks Roxas, but allows herself to be defeated by him and tells him to stop Xemnas's plans by destroying Kingdom Hearts before fading from existence and merging with Sora, which causes everyone else's memories of her to disappear.[10][11][12]
Although Xion does not appear in Kingdom Hearts coded, she is mentioned as one of the people that, while gone, are connected to Sora's heart.[13] Xion makes a cameo appearance during the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep with Roxas and Axel, the three of them eating ice cream at the Station Tower in Twilight Town.[14] Her role in 358/2 Days is also reprised in Shiro Amano's manga and Tomoko Kanemaki's light novel adaptations of the game.[15]
The idea of Xion's character was made during development of Kingdom Hearts II, game in which the staff showed Roxas leaving Organization XIII. They thought that such action was due to the influence of someone close to him and chose a female character from his own age.[16] Therefore, they started expanded such ideas in order to build the story of 358/2 Days.[17] The staff started to make her character starting with the reason of her existence in the story. Scenario writer Tomoko Kanemaki had the idea of her name, which convinced Tetsuya Nomura due to the several meanings it brought as well as Kanemaki's knowledge of the Kingdom Hearts series, being the writer of its light novels.[16] Kanemaki explained various of the meanings of such as that it corresponded with the character Naminé (ナミネ, lit. "the sound of waves") as well as the word Shio (潮, lit. "Tide") and an anagram of "X" and "No.i", the latter being an imaginary number. Another meaning from the name is the flower Aster tataricus (紫苑 Shion) which can be translated to "I won't forget you" or "remembrance." Kanemaki came up with the idea of Xion being a replica when writing the novel adaptations of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories in which a replica from Riku was introduced and she wished to expand that concept.[18]
The revelation of her being the fourteenth member of the Organization was meant to cause stir and reflected it in 358/2 Days with the dialogues from the character Saïx. Ever since the start of her creation, the staff already decided she would have a deep connection with Kairi, and so based Xion on her but with a different hair color.[16] Xion's black hair was requested by Kanemaki as she wanted Nomura to design black haired female character.[18] However, when they made a design of her, her hair was changed, giving it a different style from Kairi's. Although Nomura pointed that Xion, Kairi and Namine had the same 3D polygon model's faces and differing only in their hairs, he stated that the three had individual personalities. The staff also wanted to bring confusion to fans to make them wonder if Xion was Kairi's Nobody, sharing not only physical similarities and musical themes, but also the same Japanese voice actors, Risa Uchida.[16]
Additionally, since the staff started writing the 358/2 Days, they thought it would be boring that all characters from Organization XIII were Nobodies and wanted Xion to be exception. As another means to bring confusion to gamers, the staff made Xion's hood appear and disappear depending on which characters would look at her. This caused various misunderstandings in the making of the game to the point debuggers often asked Nomura if that was bug.[16] Yukari Ishida, another scenario writer, commented that the staff had to explain to h.a.n.d. about the reasons for Xion's hood as well as how it should work in the game. Ishida also pointed that the first part of the game revolved around Xion and wanted her to have a quicker realization about herself than Roxas in order to later influence Roxas, and thus lead into the events of Kingdom Hearts II.[16] Nomura later explained he made Xion to be a calm and pure girl, and wanted Aqua, another female character introduced later, to contrast her personality.[19] After trailers of 358/2 Days were shown, Xion was first believed to have been Naminé, but Nomura later informed the press that it was a different character. Nomura still pointed she would a key character and reason for the Organization being not named XIV despite her being the fourteenth member would be explained in the game.[20] A Pinocchio-based world was intended to be included in the game to feature a chapter focusing on Xion and Roxas "looking for hope for themselves", but such story was not added due to system-constraints.[21]
The introduction of Xion in trailers for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days created expectation, with GameSpot's Hirohiko Niizumi particularly based on the facts that her face could not be distinguished and that she wields a Keyblade.[22] Jeff Haynes from IGN pointed a physical similarity between her and Kairi, and found her introduction to the Organization to be very significant for gamers who have played Kingdom Hearts II.[23] Before Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was released, 1UP.com featured Xion second in their "Why You Should Care About Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days" feature, wondering why the Organization was still named Organization XIII despite her addition as the fourteenth member.[24] Jeremy Parish from the same site wondered about her possible death in the game, considering that she did not appear in the sequel Kingdom Hearts II.[25] Her introduction has also been labeled as the main intrigue of 358/2 Days by IGN's Ryan Clements.[26] Amanda L. Kondolojy from Cheat Code Central agreed with Clements, commenting that "the mystery behind her appearance is intriguing to say the least" and finding various similarities between her and Roxas.[27] RPGamer cited Xion as an important character to the Kingdom Hearts series despite noting she was not introduced in the series until its sixth installment and wondered if she would appear in Birth by Sleep.[28] While also finding Xion as an important character to 358/2 Days, Gaming Age writer Dustin Chadwell did not want to comment too much about her to avoid spoiling the story, but still found it as "[the] Roxas' game".[29]
G4TV found that Xion had a "familiar face" and thought ever since her introduction, there was conspiracy regarding her character.[30] In contrast to G4TV, GamesRadar's AJ Glasser did not find any similarity between her and other Kingdom Hearts characters, but like other writers, found her important to the game's plot. Her missions with Roxas were also commented by Glasser finding the events in which she receives new memories as "serious drama" and stated that players would like to complete the game to know at what moment she dies.[31] Glasser later joked about the repeated scenes of the trio eating ice cream and then about Xion's identity crisis, finding it strange in real life.[32] PALGN's Adam Ghiggino noted her relation with Roxas and Axel, liking the evolution of their friendship as the game continues despite finding most scenes repetitive like Glasser.[33] A similar response was made by Game Informer, who commented that although such scenes were "dull", the relation was appealing and the game's ending would make up for such moments.[34] While RPGFan's Ashton Liu found that while game's story elaborated very well their relation, but as the game reached its climax, he was confused about their developments. He also found Xion and the other members from Organization XIII besides Axel and Roxas as unappealing in contrast to previous characters featured in the series.[35] 1UP's Alice Liang was disappointed in the small amount of missions in which Roxas works with Xion, leading most of Roxas' solo missions to feel like "lonely, sad affairs."[36] In the 2009 Nintendo Power Awards, the magazine's readers voted Xion the "Best New Character" of the year.[37]
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