• Hello everybody! We have tons of new awards for the new year that can be requested through our Awards System thanks to Antifa Lockhart! Some are limited-time awards so go claim them before they are gone forever...

    CLICK HERE FOR AWARDS

Kotaku Speak-up: Should the Kingdom Hearts Games That Suck Still Count?



REGISTER TO REMOVE ADS
Status
Not open for further replies.

Evello

The Radiant Hero
Joined
Jun 23, 2009
Messages
1,589
Awards
6
Age
30
Location
north
I personally don't feel that any game in the KH series is nearly bad enough to pretend it doesn't exist. They all have flaws, and they all have unique features. It's mostly a matter of preference.

KH1 was exactly what you'd expect it to be: a largely experimental pioneer title with a lot of great ideas, and a couple poor ones. The combat was more clumsy than later titles', the camera was a nightmare, and the platforming, while a welcome addition, was extremely unruly. Overall, though, it was quite fun, and had a lot more RPG/exploration elements than later games. Massively overrated by nostalgia-addicted fanboys who can't help but remember how magical it was when they were ten years old.

CoM was a fantastic, but highly experimental game. The story was superb (one of the best in the series), the battle system was very deep and customizable, and the difficulty was far from easy. Its only real downfall in my opinion was that it lacked virtually any exploration (since rooms were randomly generated). Once you beat the story and leveled up a bit that's really all there was to do. And of course it was nothing like KH1, so if you went in expecting KH1 you were in for a rude awakening.

KH2 was not what people wanted it to be, but I don't feel it was a bad game by any stretch. Yes, it was easy. Yes, the Disney worlds were badly incorporated into the main plot. Yes, there wasn't a whole lot of strategy involved in combat. But even with all of that, it was a rare person that didn't enjoy KH2 the first time they played it. It's just a fun game, and the options available in combat (while never really overly useful) are staggering. The combat was also a lot smoother than in KH1. Not the strongest game in the series, but it was nowhere near as horrible as people make it out to be.

Days was also not as bad as people claim it was. I wouldn't hesitate to call it the weakest entry in the series, but it's by no means crap. Mostly the reason people complain about Days is Xion. Which, more than anything, is because everyone's still butthurt over the fact that their precious Organization members didn't get the screen time they did admittedly deserve. I will freely admit that Xion is a very poorly-made character. She is certainly a Mary Sue and a screen-hog. But since when does one Sue have the ability to turn a game that is mostly decent to utter, revolting crap? The story was still sad if you forgot about Xion's feelings and focused on Roxas. The gameplay was not affected at all. Xion did not compromise everything. I will openly admit Days was repetitive as well. That was its most glaring flaw to me. A lot of times I wanted to skip extra missions and just advance the story. However the combat was rock solid. By stripping away almost all the fluff of KH2, the combat became even more strategy-heavy than KH1's. Careful maneuvering and precise attacks were a must. Sure, the lack of battle options could lead to more repetition, but when you're repeatedly at the edge of your seat, is that a bad thing?

Birth by Sleep... I only played very briefly. I've heard it was very fun. It certainly was when I played it. The story, in my opinion, was easily one of the series' best (in contention only with CoM), and the new characters were great. I can't say much more than that, though...

Re:coded was waaaaay better than a lot of haters give it credit for. There's no arguing that it was a remake of a cell phone game that was essentially a dumbed-down remake of KH1, and the story was utter garbage, but the gameplay was so unbelievably addicting that I never even cared. The huge amount of collection quests (trying to get all the trophies/commands/keyblades/etc.) gave the game a massive amount of content, and the command system is just so darn great. System sectors are also extremely intense when you're attempting some of the harder gambles. The game far exceeded my expectations.

Nowhere in there do I see a game that 'shouldn't count.' The series has had its ups and downs, but every game contributed something.

tl;dr haters gonna hate
 

Zul

Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
2,105
Awards
5
This isn't about disliking BBS. It is actually one of my favorites. I just want people not to bash Days.

People bash every game, everywhere. Expecting any single game in existence not to get bashed at some point is unrealistic.

When it comes to the prevalence of bashing, if you like a game more, you'll notice its bashing more, naturally.
 

Zephyr

Memory of Melodies
Staff member
Joined
Aug 3, 2007
Messages
5,737
Awards
24
Location
California
I do understand their complaints though but for a series as popular as Kingdom Hearts, there was bound to be "milking" somewhere so it pretty much was expected. But they did execute those games a lot more cleverly than most other series. I wasn't expecting Days to be pretty emotional and plot twisting at the end and Recoded did have some very neat gameplay despite lack of a interesting storyline nonetheless.
 

theboywonder

New member
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
43
Here's how I personally order the games.

Re:Coded
Re: Chain of memories
Kingdom hearts
Kingdom hearts II
Days

Please note that I do not intend on playing Birth by sleep. No way am I buying a PSP for one game.
 

rokudamia2

Dream eater ally.
Joined
Dec 23, 2005
Messages
3,753
Awards
5
Age
31
my order is

KH1
RE:COM
RE:coded
Days and KH2 are about equal.
BBS

also

I personally don't feel that any game in the KH series is nearly bad enough to pretend it doesn't exist. They all have flaws, and they all have unique features. It's mostly a matter of preference.

KH1 was exactly what you'd expect it to be: a largely experimental pioneer title with a lot of great ideas, and a couple poor ones. The combat was more clumsy than later titles', the camera was a nightmare, and the platforming, while a welcome addition, was extremely unruly. Overall, though, it was quite fun, and had a lot more RPG/exploration elements than later games. Massively overrated by nostalgia-addicted fanboys who can't help but remember how magical it was when they were ten years old.

CoM was a fantastic, but highly experimental game. The story was superb (one of the best in the series), the battle system was very deep and customizable, and the difficulty was far from easy. Its only real downfall in my opinion was that it lacked virtually any exploration (since rooms were randomly generated). Once you beat the story and leveled up a bit that's really all there was to do. And of course it was nothing like KH1, so if you went in expecting KH1 you were in for a rude awakening.

KH2 was not what people wanted it to be, but I don't feel it was a bad game by any stretch. Yes, it was easy. Yes, the Disney worlds were badly incorporated into the main plot. Yes, there wasn't a whole lot of strategy involved in combat. But even with all of that, it was a rare person that didn't enjoy KH2 the first time they played it. It's just a fun game, and the options available in combat (while never really overly useful) are staggering. The combat was also a lot smoother than in KH1. Not the strongest game in the series, but it was nowhere near as horrible as people make it out to be.

Days was also not as bad as people claim it was. I wouldn't hesitate to call it the weakest entry in the series, but it's by no means crap. Mostly the reason people complain about Days is Xion. Which, more than anything, is because everyone's still butthurt over the fact that their precious Organization members didn't get the screen time they did admittedly deserve. I will freely admit that Xion is a very poorly-made character. She is certainly a Mary Sue and a screen-hog. But since when does one Sue have the ability to turn a game that is mostly decent to utter, revolting crap? The story was still sad if you forgot about Xion's feelings and focused on Roxas. The gameplay was not affected at all. Xion did not compromise everything. I will openly admit Days was repetitive as well. That was its most glaring flaw to me. A lot of times I wanted to skip extra missions and just advance the story. However the combat was rock solid. By stripping away almost all the fluff of KH2, the combat became even more strategy-heavy than KH1's. Careful maneuvering and precise attacks were a must. Sure, the lack of battle options could lead to more repetition, but when you're repeatedly at the edge of your seat, is that a bad thing?

Birth by Sleep... I only played very briefly. I've heard it was very fun. It certainly was when I played it. The story, in my opinion, was easily one of the series' best (in contention only with CoM), and the new characters were great. I can't say much more than that, though...

Re:coded was waaaaay better than a lot of haters give it credit for. There's no arguing that it was a remake of a cell phone game that was essentially a dumbed-down remake of KH1, and the story was utter garbage, but the gameplay was so unbelievably addicting that I never even cared. The huge amount of collection quests (trying to get all the trophies/commands/keyblades/etc.) gave the game a massive amount of content, and the command system is just so darn great. System sectors are also extremely intense when you're attempting some of the harder gambles. The game far exceeded my expectations.

Nowhere in there do I see a game that 'shouldn't count.' The series has had its ups and downs, but every game contributed something.

tl;dr haters gonna hate

this.
 

billyzanesucks

New member
Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Messages
901
People bash every game, everywhere. Expecting any single game in existence not to get bashed at some point is unrealistic.

When it comes to the prevalence of bashing, if you like a game more, you'll notice its bashing more, naturally.
Obviously. I never used the word "expect" or anything it entails. My description was to show that I wasn't bashing BBS, only defending Days. The same way that Re:Coded had some some really bad aspects and some great ones, Days was pretty good to me overall. I actually disliked the game at first, so I do know where people are coming from. I even acknowledged that it had a bad battle system, though the Panel System did provide some interest.

@rokudamia2
Why do you rank KHII above BBS? Not really anything personal, I'm just curious.
 
Last edited:

kupo1121

We are Moogle! Hear us...kupo?
Joined
Oct 5, 2009
Messages
8,349
Awards
17
Location
Wherever I am right now
@theboywonder, you could always borrow someone's PSP if you really needed one, I would recommend it personally as I view BbS quite highly...unlike rokudamia clearly lol xP

My rankings would probably be:

BbS
KH1
KH Re:CoM
KH2
KH Re:Coded
Days
 

rokudamia2

Dream eater ally.
Joined
Dec 23, 2005
Messages
3,753
Awards
5
Age
31
Obviously. I never used the word "expect" or anything it entails. My description was to show that I wasn't bashing BBS, only defending Days. The same way that Re:Coded had some some really bad aspects and some great ones, Days was pretty good to me overall. I actually disliked the game at first, so I do know where people are coming from. I even acknowledged that it had a bad battle system, though the Panel System did provide some interest.

@rokudamia2
Why do you rank KHII above BBS? Not really anything personal, I'm just curious.

I had more fun playing it. I like all the games in the series I just llike BBS the least .
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top