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You mean you were 'ReMinded' lol. When is this State of Play thingie? I'm thirsty for any potential ReMind news.I was just reminded that State of Play exists so a Re:Mind trailer could potentially show up here if Playstation decides to hold one this month.
I agree to the extent that hype culture tends to propagate a kind of collective hysteria that frames modern (online) media discourse in extremes. At the same time, this particular refrain that people were unreasonable in their expectations prior to this game's launch has always, at its core, only been reflective of how fundamentally uninspired KH3 is as a main title. The main lines of criticism targeting it have nothing to do with some alleged (yet never evidenced) overextension in the popular hivemind surrounding its anticipated reconfiguration of the gaming universe: on the contrary, even its most technically basic shortcomings tend to go largely ignored within the fandom, because what many fans were actually expecting, and what we didn't get, was simply a well-told story. The DLC announcements act as a reminder of what Nomura prioritized as director over the expressed interests of longtime fans, which included such unreasonable demands so far out of alignment with the series' trajectory as, you know, treating his female characters with a modicum of dignity and seeing the key threads running through this narrative get their due by shoring up the central elements that have been with it since its inception (but oops it looks like FF is no longer unique and catchy enough as a marketing device, so cross that off the plotting board).
With that in mind, I'd contend that what caused the lead-up to KH3's launch to become such a circus had more to do with a growing sense of disillusionment among a portion of the fandom married with a couple of "bad actors" who basically served to sew discord within a social grouping that was increasingly at odds with its collective self; many fans were concerned about the indications that were coming from official marketing material, as well as some of Nomura's own (frankly disingenuous) public statements, while other fans expended a lot of energy disputing or discrediting any attempt to scrutinize the available information about the game, which left a huge lane open for certain social media trolls to take ownership of the narrative surrounding what the game would ultimately look like. One which SE (bizarrely) never attempted to reclaim, so that it wasn't an issue of misaligned expectations, but of unreliable information being conveyed from all sides to an invested core block of fans whose confusion and frustration then permeated out to the fringes-- really a kind of proof positive case study of the issues that are endemic to hype culture and spoiler panic, and how those social factors now inform corporate media marketing as an industry unto itself.
That's all to say that there's (obviously) nothing wrong with being excited for these DLC additions (folks don't need my permission or that of any other fan to feel that way). The ones rumored here are basically just mechanical QoL improvements directed at people who already enjoy the game and could use an incentive to replay it. They just don't feel like much in the way of an answer to the mess that has plagued the whole KH3 "era" within the franchise; and yes, that's likely an expectation that is genuinely unrealistic, given that KH3 has been more or less uniquely afflicted by the trifecta of poor conceit, poor presentation, and poor execution.
Sometimes makes me wonder how things could have gone if they didn't lose a year of development.This pretty much sums up my own general thoughts tbh. I'm not personally excited for these DLC additions because they don't really address the primary issues I've had with the game, nor did I expect them to. Nonetheless, they add improvements and options to those who already enjoyed the base game that released at launch, and when I view it from that perspective, it's... fine.
For me, what made KH3 such a terrible experience was the forced, contrived, and broken narrative (too much of which just objectively didn't make sense) stuffed with filler nonsense, sequel fodder, and unearned, rushed, or otherwise non-existent "conclusions." It felt more like they injected needless set-up; wasting much of the game's already limited runtime, instead of just concluding things smoothly. Like.... There's literally no reason we had to waste so much time on all the Ux crap, when they could've simply addressed it all in the very next game anyway. And to make it worse, I don't really care for any of it. So, when I look at Re: Mind, all I can see (from the areas that I'd care about) is just more sequel fodder, or things that further convolute an already inconclusive ending. In addition to seemingly mediocre/pointless "pay-offs" (ex. LW fighting Terranort, only to inevitably lose and robb the fight of any potential catharsis it could've generated), we get more reason to think nothing is even remotely as it seems by the end: Luxord isn't Luxord, apparently; Sora's dead, but not really; Xion's here, because suddenly a heart isn't more than just data I guess; etc. Which only underscores how the very trajectory of the game has been derailed in favor of.... Whatever Nomura's got cooked up next.
I guess, what saying is that, for all it's content, Re: Mind doesn't seem to be looking to address any of the issues I had with the base game, nor could it really, even if it tried at this point. So... I'm mixed.
I don't think the year of lost development was much of an accomplice to how KH3 handled its story. More like KH3 had the same amount of hours of campaign as the previous two KH titles, but with more to tackle (an entire saga) and less time (Disney worlds taking priority). You can pretty much get a sense of closure for individual sagas in the Keyblade Graveyard. TAV get closure, ARX get closure, Riku gets closure with Ansem, representing KH1; Xemnas gets his closure, representing KH2; Young Xehanort pretty much represents DDD and Master Xehanort what started in BBS and ended in KH3.Sometimes makes me wonder how things could have gone if they didn't lose a year of development.
The extra stuff like the photo mode sounds like it could be a blast, but it's so hard for me to be excited over the story stuff. There's no way the DLC can properly address the issues KH3 has. I mean, it's at least trying to add more to the Keyblade Graveyard events and not having Sora stick his big shoes into every fight. That is at least going in the right direction somewhere, unless it turns out to be from another time rewrite then not really, because then the original, not very good events still happened.
As much as I hated KH3's trailers showing nearly everything, I wish that we knew exactly everything that Re:Mind will be doing story-wise before it hits. I just want to know what I'm getting into so my mind isn't buzzing about possibilities. lol
I don't think the year of lost development was much of an accomplice to how KH3 handled its story. More like KH3 had the same amount of hours of campaign as the previous two KH titles, but with more to tackle (an entire saga) and less time (Disney worlds taking priority). You can pretty much get a sense of closure for individual sagas in the Keyblade Graveyard. TAV get closure, ARX get closure, Riku gets closure with Ansem, representing KH1; Xemnas gets his closure, representing KH2; Young Xehanort pretty much represents DDD and Master Xehanort what started in BBS and ended in KH3.
I feel like the closure we got in the Keyblade Graveyard should have been worked during the game, and not just exclusively in the final world.
(from here.)“and [plotting] was largely down to what their feelings were on what they wanted to happen. There were some teams that were like, ‘Ooh, if you make a new story, you're going to kind of ruin the world that we created,’ whereas there were teams, like Toy Story, who said to us, ‘Well, we can't have it in that world, but if you want to make a new story, that's fine.’”
Even within studios, teams could be markedly different in what they wanted from their own Kingdom Hearts world: “From team to team,” Nomura continues, “the kind of colour, or the way they did things, the feel was quite different. For example, Toy Story and Monsters, Inc., those two teams were completely different from each other.”
Same. The loss of development was obviously a contributing factor to the areas in which the game felt broken and half baked, but at the same time, there are certain creative decisions that just seemed like poor choices on the writers part (regardless of the lost work). Like... It would be one thing if plotlines were just rushed, but certain parts were just flat out broken or unnecessary.Sometimes makes me wonder how things could have gone if they didn't lose a year of development.
The extra stuff like the photo mode sounds like it could be a blast, but it's so hard for me to be excited over the story stuff. There's no way the DLC can properly address the issues KH3 has. I mean, it's at least trying to add more to the Keyblade Graveyard events and not having Sora stick his big shoes into every fight. That is at least going in the right direction somewhere, unless it turns out to be from another time rewrite then not really, because then the original, not very good events still happened.
As much as I hated KH3's trailers showing nearly everything, I wish that we knew exactly everything that Re:Mind will be doing story-wise before it hits. I just want to know what I'm getting into so my mind isn't buzzing about possibilities. lol
It probably WAS a pain, tbh. I think most of us sorta knew the issues with certain Disney Worlds were, in part, a result of the weird system surrounding their development. Which is definitely a shame, as lost potential always is.Disney was apparently slow at getting back with them at times, and combining that with the fact that they had to deal with separate Disney teams for each world; I think they just didn't have the time to do some things. Like look at this:
(from here.)
It honestly just sounds like a big pain the ass.
I was just reminded that State of Play exists so a Re:Mind trailer could potentially show up here if Playstation decides to hold one this month.
Thanks for giving us your input. It really makes a lot of sense, but only makes thing sadder. Thankfully, I've seen that the Japanese gaming industry is starting to refrain from subcontracting other companies to help them build assets. Now that they have all the assets they needed for subsequent KH titles, hopefully developments are smoother.Eeeeh, I disagree to an extent. While you are right that they had a TON of stuff to cover and they did do that to an extent, I think the year of development they lost really hurt them in the long run. It meant having to likely cut down a lot of planned content and having to rush to remake and put together what they had, which would inevitably mean cutting aspects of the story. This happens in really any creative media all of the time.
The game hides it well but you can easily tell there was more there that they wanted to do. Frozen's world, while being rather straightforward, has this massive ice maze with no plot reason for it existing besides the fact that suddenly Larxene can build ice buildings with her LIGHTNING POWERS. Or the fact that they have us going up and down the mountain. Or Hans just being there. This is easily a case of them only having those specific assets created with a team of execs breathing down their necks and they needed to put together enough of a cohesive story to make it all work together.
Or let's look at Tangled's world. The Kingdom of Corona is beautiful and amazing but there is a giant dark forest in the middle of the whole world with really nothing to do in it? And conveniently it keeps SDG apart from Rapunzel and Flynn for the bulk of their bonding? And they don't even bother to touch on the most important aspect of Tangled's plot: Rapunzel's hair. But we have these (cute) moments where we just arbitrarily bond with Rapunzel to no true end. I feel like these little aspects show they wanted to do more with this world but ran out of time.
100 Acre Wood speaks for itself.
And you can easily tell that they whittled at the main story along the way too to make sure they could get everything done. Riku and Repliku's storyline, Aqua/Darqua's storyline, whatever tf Kairi and Lea were doing.
Everything that coalesces in the Keyblade Graveyard is merely a result of the constant changes. Like we already know Nomura was constantly changing everything from before the Keyblade Graveyard all the way to the end of the game. I think it is very possible they HAD planned to have some of what happened in the Keyblade Graveyard happen in earlier parts of the game but they had to make do with what they had.
I also think they lost more than a year of development. There. I'm saying it. I think they lost probably closer to two years of development by having to remake assets from the cheap asset farms they contracted for KH3.
Frozen's world, while being rather straightforward, has this massive ice maze with no plot reason for it existing besides the fact that suddenly Larxene can build ice buildings with her LIGHTNING POWERS. Or the fact that they have us going up and down the mountain. Or Hans just being there. This is easily a case of them only having those specific assets created with a team of execs breathing down their necks and they needed to put together enough of a cohesive story to make it all work together.
Spoiler Show
"The Frozen world's whole story isn't fleshed out"
The Frozen world's whole story isn't as fleshed out even as much as Tangled's in which they did skip some stuff but you understood the basic motivations of the Protagonists and Antagonists even if they didn't dive specifically into Mother Gothel's reasons for wanting Rapunzel... Also she's still named after cabbage. In the Frozen world only Anna's reasons for wanting Elsa back and why Elsa doesn't want to go back are explored, but like you said Hans just comes out of nowhere as the villain even though we never met him before which I don't think has ever happened in a KH world. Outside of Chain of Memories of course but that was usually just the world bosses of KH1 who we have met before and not plot important characters.
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"The songs"
There were multiple songs which we have only really had in Antlantica and "Let it Go" was given a full length production with graphics that are better than most of the game's cutscenes.
Spoiler Show
"Level design"
The Ice Labyrinth is probably made just so that there is some semblance of actual exploration instead of just going up and down the mountain seven times. I mean for me at least, they failed, but they tried. I think I know why this is but I'll get to this at the end.
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"This world is probably the only world in which the organization member does absolutely nothing."
Larxene is an absolute non-entity in this story. She's only there to stop our main characters from interacting with the plot of the movie. They try to give her a reason saying that SDG should just butt out and not meddle, but not only is she a villain (which is to say they should take anything she says with a pound of salt), but meddling in the events of movies and cartoons is one of the core tenants of Kingdom Hearts.
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"Hans does nothing."
I know I already covered this in the part on the story but this is so egregious that it needs to be stated twice. HANS the main antagonist of Frozen isn't cavorting with the Heartless or the Organization. No. He shows up just to die. And doesn't talk at all.
Dark World was probably also meant to have more to it considering it was given a world logo. Land of Departure didn't even get that much despite also being briefly playable.Eeeeh, I disagree to an extent. While you are right that they had a TON of stuff to cover and they did do that to an extent, I think the year of development they lost really hurt them in the long run. It meant having to likely cut down a lot of planned content and having to rush to remake and put together what they had, which would inevitably mean cutting aspects of the story. This happens in really any creative media all of the time.
The game hides it well but you can easily tell there was more there that they wanted to do. Frozen's world, while being rather straightforward, has this massive ice maze with no plot reason for it existing besides the fact that suddenly Larxene can build ice buildings with her LIGHTNING POWERS. Or the fact that they have us going up and down the mountain. Or Hans just being there. This is easily a case of them only having those specific assets created with a team of execs breathing down their necks and they needed to put together enough of a cohesive story to make it all work together.
Or let's look at Tangled's world. The Kingdom of Corona is beautiful and amazing but there is a giant dark forest in the middle of the whole world with really nothing to do in it? And conveniently it keeps SDG apart from Rapunzel and Flynn for the bulk of their bonding? And they don't even bother to touch on the most important aspect of Tangled's plot: Rapunzel's hair. But we have these (cute) moments where we just arbitrarily bond with Rapunzel to no true end. I feel like these little aspects show they wanted to do more with this world but ran out of time.
100 Acre Wood speaks for itself.
And you can easily tell that they whittled at the main story along the way too to make sure they could get everything done. Riku and Repliku's storyline, Aqua/Darqua's storyline, whatever tf Kairi and Lea were doing.
Everything that coalesces in the Keyblade Graveyard is merely a result of the constant changes. Like we already know Nomura was constantly changing everything from before the Keyblade Graveyard all the way to the end of the game. I think it is very possible they HAD planned to have some of what happened in the Keyblade Graveyard happen in earlier parts of the game but they had to make do with what they had.
I also think they lost more than a year of development. There. I'm saying it. I think they lost probably closer to two years of development by having to remake assets from the cheap asset farms they contracted for KH3.
This is why I'm hoping Disney worlds take a back seat. For now at least. Dealing with Disney is itself a pain. Having to not only comply to weird rules/restrictions, but the back and forth and having to wait who knows how long for their response, which would slow down other things, is wholly inefficient. I can only imagine how much time was lost solely on this.Disney was apparently slow at getting back with them at times, and combining that with the fact that they had to deal with separate Disney teams for each world; I think they just didn't have the time to do some things. Like look at this:
(from here.)
It honestly just sounds like a big pain the ass.
And this goes back to how Nomura SHOULD have had other people working on the story alongside him. Even if he thought it would have taken too long to get everyone up to speed (which it really wouldn't have) it would've helped big in the long run.Same. The loss of development was obviously a contributing factor to the areas in which the game felt broken and half baked, but at the same time, there are certain creative decisions that just seemed like poor choices on the writers part (regardless of the lost work). Like... It would be one thing if plotlines were just rushed, but certain parts were just flat out broken or unnecessary.
Yeah... The slim interaction between SDG and Saix (not to mention Vexen as well) was disappointing.- I can give a free pass to Demyx, but an important member like Saix not having a specific world for himself is questionable.
Even Pixar also put guidelines to Nomura and Square Enix on the worlds based on their movies (Toy Story and Monster's Inc.), of course not in the same level as the guidelines seen in the Tangled and especially the Frozen worlds, but it was mostly noticeable In the Monster's Inc. world given how clingy and restrictive they were on not allowing Randall to be a boss (more so a mid-boss) in the level, compared to the Toy Story world imao. San Fransokyo, from Big Hero 6 was I say the ONLY new Disney world out of the 5 new worlds (Kingdom of Corona, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and Arendelle) introduced in KH3, that Disney didn't put Guidelines and restrictions on given that the story was set after the events of the movie instead of being a retelling of the original film which allowed Nomura and his team creative freedom, of course credit goes to Roy Conli (producer of Big Hero 6) who came up with the original story.Eeeeh, I disagree to an extent. While you are right that they had a TON of stuff to cover and they did do that to an extent, I think the year of development they lost really hurt them in the long run. It meant having to likely cut down a lot of planned content and having to rush to remake and put together what they had, which would inevitably mean cutting aspects of the story. This happens in really any creative media all of the time.
The game hides it well but you can easily tell there was more there that they wanted to do. Frozen's world, while being rather straightforward, has this massive ice maze with no plot reason for it existing besides the fact that suddenly Larxene can build ice buildings with her LIGHTNING POWERS. Or the fact that they have us going up and down the mountain. Or Hans just being there. This is easily a case of them only having those specific assets created with a team of execs breathing down their necks and they needed to put together enough of a cohesive story to make it all work together.
Or let's look at Tangled's world. The Kingdom of Corona is beautiful and amazing but there is a giant dark forest in the middle of the whole world with really nothing to do in it? And conveniently it keeps SDG apart from Rapunzel and Flynn for the bulk of their bonding? And they don't even bother to touch on the most important aspect of Tangled's plot: Rapunzel's hair. But we have these (cute) moments where we just arbitrarily bond with Rapunzel to no true end. I feel like these little aspects show they wanted to do more with this world but ran out of time.
It's not just Arendelle in fact most of the New Disney Worlds (minus Big Hero 6) had guidelines from Disney as well, even Pixar also put guidelines to Nomura and Square Enix on the worlds based on their movies (Toy Story and Monster's Inc.), of course not in the same level as the guidelines seen in the Tangled and Frozen worlds, but it was mostly noticeable In the Monster's Inc. given how picky and restrictive they were on not allowing Randall to be a boss (more so a mid-boss) in the level, compared to the Toy Story world imao. San Fransokyo, from Big Hero 6 was I say the ONLY new Disney world out of the 5 new worlds (Kingdom of Corona, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and Arendelle) introduced in KH3, that Disney didn't put Guidelines and restrictions on given that the story was set after the events of the movie instead of being a retelling of the original film which allowed Nomura and his team creative freedom, of course credit goes to Roy Conli (producer of Big Hero 6) who came up with the original story.I'd actually disagree on this. Frozen's problems were probably a directive from Disney themselves. I'll just give a quick list because I've been wanting to really talk about this in depth for months:
Spoiler Show
"The Frozen world's whole story isn't fleshed out"
The Frozen world's whole story isn't as fleshed out even as much as Tangled's in which they did skip some stuff but you understood the basic motivations of the Protagonists and Antagonists even if they didn't dive specifically into Mother Gothel's reasons for wanting Rapunzel... Also she's still named after cabbage. In the Frozen world only Anna's reasons for wanting Elsa back and why Elsa doesn't want to go back are explored, but like you said Hans just comes out of nowhere as the villain even though we never met him before which I don't think has ever happened in a KH world. Outside of Chain of Memories of course but that was usually just the world bosses of KH1 who we have met before and not plot important characters.
Spoiler Show
"The songs"
There were multiple songs which we have only really had in Antlantica and "Let it Go" was given a full length production with graphics that are better than most of the game's cutscenes.
Spoiler Show
"Level design"
The Ice Labyrinth is probably made just so that there is some semblance of actual exploration instead of just going up and down the mountain seven times. I mean for me at least, they failed, but they tried. I think I know why this is but I'll get to this at the end.
Spoiler Show
"This world is probably the only world in which the organization member does absolutely nothing."
Larxene is an absolute non-entity in this story. She's only there to stop our main characters from interacting with the plot of the movie. They try to give her a reason saying that SDG should just butt out and not meddle, but not only is she a villain (which is to say they should take anything she says with a pound of salt), but meddling in the events of movies and cartoons is one of the core tenants of Kingdom Hearts.
Spoiler Show
"Hans does nothing."
I know I already covered this in the part on the story but this is so egregious that it needs to be stated twice. HANS the main antagonist of Frozen isn't cavorting with the Heartless or the Organization. No. He shows up just to die. And doesn't talk at all.
Now the specific reasons that I think The Mouse did this on purpose is that they could easily use this game to keep Frozen in the public eye. Now at the time, KH3 was supposed to come out 1-3 years ago, and back then (and even now) Frozen was a good cash cow for them and even when the progress had to be reset that was still good that it came out this year as a little known movie by the name of "Frozen 2" came out this recently.
The problems with this level also line up too well. Frozen is shown off but not too much, making it so that if you didn't see it and/or buy it you may be compelled to pick it up, and if you don't already know the story you might be interested by the teases they gave to the full movie. To do that more easily keep the MCs out of the story as long as possible (mountain), Keep the villain away from the story too (irrelevance), and put as many nods and songs from the movie into this even if they aren't explored at all (Sven and his moose, all of the songs, Hans etc.) So though I might be crazy I think that whole world was just a reminder that Frozen exists.
EDIT: Wow the headers didn't show up. I'll fix that now.
Same can be said on the other Disney worlds introduced to KH3 (minus San Fransokyo) as Disney was also being restrictive to them as well. Even Pixar also put guidelines to Nomura and Square Enix on the worlds based on their movies (Toy Story and Monster's Inc.), of course not in the same level as the guidelines seen in the Tangled and especially the Frozen world, but it was mostly noticeable In the Monster's Inc. world given how picky and restrictive they were on not allowing Randall to be a boss (more so a mid-boss) in the level, compared to the Toy Story world imao. San Fransokyo, from Big Hero 6 was I say the ONLY new Disney world out of the 5 new worlds (Kingdom of Corona, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and Arendelle) introduced in KH3, that Disney didn't put Guidelines and restrictions on given that the story was set after the events of the movie instead of being a retelling of the original film which allowed Nomura and his team creative freedom, of course credit goes to Roy Conli (producer of Big Hero 6) who came up with the original story.Arendelle problems are because of Disney, not because they were working against the clock.
We're talking about Frozen here, guys. Disney being overprotective of their best selling animated movie back then is much more believable than Square not having time to do it justice.
married with a couple of "bad actors" who basically served to sew discord within a social grouping that was increasingly at odds with its collective self
After the frustration they went through, I wouldn't be surprised if Nomura and team thought "never again." Maybe since KH3 was the BIG game, Disney were just being more insane than usual, but how they're involved can't keep going on like this.I remain cautiously skeptical about the more recent Disney animated films becoming worlds in future games after the Frozen and especially the Tangled world's being wasted in Kingdom Hearts III.
Arendelle problems are because of Disney, not because they were working against the clock.
We're talking about Frozen here, guys. Disney being overprotective of their best selling animated movie back then is much more believable than Square not having time to do it justice.
After the frustration they went through, I wouldn't be surprised if Nomura and team thought "never again." Maybe since KH3 was the BIG game, Disney were just being more insane than usual, but how they're involved can't keep going on like this.