Okay, we're in the home stretch, now! While Dream, Drop, Distance may be the last game in the series chronologically, before the release of Kingdom Hearts III, there are a few curious odds and ends we need to go over before wrapping up this retrospective.

Let's start with Kingdom Hearts X, later known as Unchained X and Union X (I know that looks like a capital letter X, but it is in fact not an "ex" but the symbol for "chi" which just happens to look like an "X" depending on your font choice). Originally released as a Japan-only browser game, X (which is indeed a reference to the mystical X-blade first introduced in Birth by Sleep) was later released for smart devices and is a free-to-play mobile entry in the Kingdom Hearts series. As far as the timeline goes, X takes place over a century before the original game, and depicts the events of the legendary Keyblade War through the eyes of the player's custom avatar.

After creating their avatar, the player is asked to join one of five Unions: these are basically guilds, each run by a different Keyblade Master known as a Foreteller. The Foretellers serve under the Master of Masters, who, after bestowing each of his apprentices with a Book of Prophecies that foretells dire events to come, up and vanishes, leaving the prevention of an apparently cataclysmic event in the hands of each Union. The Foretellers bid the player to go to the various worlds and gather the scattered light known as Lux, which serves as a kind of in-game currency. From there, the player engages in simple touch-screen combat, fighting Heartless and completing missions to gather Lux, all while collecting Medals that are themed after various characters from the Kingdom Hearts. Honestly, it's not bad as far as freemium mobile games go, although you'll have to do a lot of grinding if you're committed to seeing everything the game has to offer.

The rebranding to Unchained/Union X added even more story content, including the addition of a mysterious character named Lauriam, who may or may not go on to become the Nobody Marluxia. The events of X do offer some interesting insight into the Kingdom Hearts universe, but if you can't be bothered to try a freemium mobile game (which, honestly, I can hardly blame you), YouTube channels such as Everglow's are a good resource for fans interested in seeing the game's events. However, Square also included a set of CGI cutscenes featuring characters from X in the 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue compilation, known as X: Back Cover. Clocking in at about 40 minutes, Back Cover shows how the conflict between the Union Leaders began to sow the seeds of war, as well as shedding some insight on the sixth Foreteller, Luxu, who has been given a special task from the Master of Masters and bequeathed a mysterious box. What this all means... well, we'll have to wait until Kingdom Hearts III to presumably find out.