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How are you feeling about the future of KH?



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AegisXIII

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I'm also still worried about how convoluted things get for seemingly no reason. I'm not asking for things to be straight forward, and I've long accepted that KH is more "soft magic" than "hard magic".

I hope we get more "This machine will send you to the future one way without your memories at random" and less "I'm Young Xehanort and I can time travel whenever I feel like it barely maintaining the rules I introduced" stuff. Despite how much I hated how KHUX distributed its story content, I really appreciated how it simplified old KH concepts (even if it introduced bothersome ones too)
Actually, when I think about it, KHux is a title that tries to explain things. That's why 90% of the cutscenes are people explaining the plot. Kh3 just did the famous technique of "just stop thinking it's magic".
 

TrueTroper

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BBS is still my favorite game because of how fresh it was as well as all the new plots and characters. UX managed to bring back some of that excitement, which DR blasted to new levels (even if the new characters have pretty bland designs).
BBS is one of my favorite KH games too! That Enchanted Dominion level was something else. Exploring Maleficient's castle as Ventus, with all those animalistic goons attempting to kill him and Maleficient's obvious dark magic at play?! Anyone who can play that segment of Kingdom Hearts and still call the games childish doesn't really understand.

To stay on topic, I hope that Nomura finds a way to incorporate more of the creative world designs like he did in BBS and Fragmentary Passage. Those worlds were quite unique and interesting, especially for Fragmentary Passage.
I will be honest here and say that I don't really care much for Sora and Co. post 3 and will probably go "mehhh" for new stuff surrounding them since the main issues that KH has a whole is connected to those characters and their plot (which is, to say, all of the baggage left behind from 12 games). I would love to see more done with the BBS trio specifically to fleshen their personalities more, but ehh.
It does seem like now would be a good time for a clean break from the DSS characters--no matter how poorly their stories ended, it's at least something. Carrying even a fraction of the DSS characters over into Phase 2 because they didn't get the closure fans felt they deserved seriously risks bloating the cast to unmanageable levels. I hope Nomura learned his lesson from KH3 and will keep the cast for Phase 2 small, but time will tell... If he DOES happen to port some of the original DSS cast to Phase 2 (like the BBS trio), I just hope he puts some serious forethought into it and how the adventure can deepen their characters.
 

bambii

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I LOVE that the series is leaning into a deeper exploration of meta concepts like "world of fiction." MoM's little speech in the Ux finale confirmed that Nomura is going full-blown possible worlds theory and I'm here for it. ReMind secret episode and Melody of Memory dialed up my excitement and sense of intrigue to 110%. Just please, for the love of god, give us some form of Unchained/Ux remake before we're too deep into Phase 2.
 

darknessofheart

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Actually, when I think about it, KHux is a title that tries to explain things. That's why 90% of the cutscenes are people explaining the plot. Kh3 just did the famous technique of "just stop thinking it's magic".
Yeah, Union X in the last 18 months specifically finally began connecting everything together, from MoM's origins and motives, to the nature of the machine (the Ark) from KH1, and set a clear path to the next saga.

If the final conversation between Luxu and the MoM is of any indication of the writing to come, I am actually excited.
 
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TrueTroper

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Actually, when I think about it, KHux is a title that tries to explain things. That's why 90% of the cutscenes are people explaining the plot. Kh3 just did the famous technique of "just stop thinking it's magic".
That's pretty much the rule of thumb for any KH game's plot these days: "just stop thinking it's magic." I wouldn't mind as much if Nomura didn't constantly go out of his way to make up stuff for why things are the way they are. I mean, Fragmentary Passage introduced an entire subplot for why Mickey Mouse wasn't wearing his shirt! Come on... It just makes the plot holes of the main story all the more jarring.
 

horto12485

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I just want there to be Worlds that we haven't seen in the Series yet like Treasure Planet, Meet the Robinsons, Princess and the Frog, Moana, Zootopia, Emperor's New Groove, Raya and the Last Dragon, Atlantis, and The Jungle Book that's all
 

KudoTsurugi

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I liked everything about the UX ending but the tie to Xehanort, that was unnecessary. But with that aside, I’m very curious to see what role these characters from UX will play into future games.

We know that Luxu reunited with 4/5 of the old guild leaders, Sora, Riku and Yozora are wondering around Quadratum, with the MoM watching in the shadows, and Kairi’s training with Aqua while Mickey does research in Scala ad Caelum. A lot of moving parts which could make the next saga something great… so long as they don’t fumble the execution.
 

KeybladeLordSora

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Frankly everything except UX's ending made me excited.

Mostly cuz the actual ending of UX feels more like a pre-KH3 ending? Like, outside of scenes with the MoM it just kinda feels like UX's ending was supposed to be back in 2018 or something?
 

MrFranklin95

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How am I feeling about the future of KH right now? Mostly the same after KH3. I guess I'll be the villain here, Union X did not increase my excitement for the series future that much. Compared to what ReMind did for me, I found this a small step backwards if anything. Don't get me wrong, Union X was a overall nice prequel story, but I didn't find it did anything new that a BBS, DDD, or KH3 didn't already do. It feels like we were going to try something a little different with how ReMind and even MoM set things up, but now we're just buckled down on the same old stuff the series has had since 2010. 13 Darkness's, 7 light crowns, vessels to hold darkness, time travelers from the past coming into the present because of some ancient plan set in motion before the heroes were even born, body snatching. This is still Xehanort saga writing. Yes, it seems to be much better planned out this time, but it's still the same thing the series has always done.

I agree about that scene posted above about the Organization over explaining their plans. It exist because certain members got badly explained in base game like Xion and Terranort, and even conflicts with base KH3 dialogue. But is it really different from all the expositions with Darkness, Master of Masters, Luxu, data worlds, real worlds, book of prophecies, black boxes, ark time travel, mediums needed, etc that we've been getting? And in true KH fashion it leaves you with more questions then answers in a "to be continued" kind of way. I'm not saying it's bad, I love this series. But it's not changing the formula the way some think it is.

With all that said, the elements of the future I am excited for is Verum Rex with Yozora, Luxord, and Nameless Star Girl. Kairi-Riku-Sora adventure, Ephemer's Scala, Subject X, and Dream Eaters.

But overall I'm waiting for the 2022 announcement of the next big game before I get too deep into phase 2 excitement.
Yeah... this is pretty much how I feel. Union X finale didn't do much for me besides answer a few questions, bring up new ones, ignore some old questions, and never give answers to either and said "wait until the next game".

In true Kingdom Hearts fashion lol

In all honesty, its not that the new plotlines don't get me from a plot perspective. It's all very interesting stuff. Especially everything surrounding the MoM and his plans with the foretellers. He is by far the most interesting character that has been in KH for a long time. The whole 7 Darknesses still kind of feels like the last plot of the saga but we're only at the beginning and everything could be flipped on its head. The keyblade wielders becoming the dream eaters was thematically beautiful stuff. And I can't wait to see how it ties to everything going on with Yozora but, of course, that brings in some worries.

Apart from life taking its toll right now, I kept my mouth shut during the whole Union X finale because it was a lot of positivity (despite global team fumbling the ball yet again) surrounding it and God knows the world needs more of that right now. But for the life of me... it just didn't hit. Even KH3, as flawed as that game was, hit me emotionally by the end. And this didn't do it at all.

This could be personal bias because I honestly gave up on Union X and everything surrounding it a long time ago and everything in the ending, besides a few key moments, was about everything I expected the game would go. The plot is interesting but the characters don't do it for me at all. They are so god damn bland. Besides the foretellers, Brain, Sterlitzia, Luxu, MoM, and Ava, who seems to be the only characters with a personality, everyone else's personalities can be swaped with each other and I wouldn't know the difference. Say what you want about the Xehanort saga but every character was distinct from each other. Sure, everyone still had the "my friends are my power" mantra but they never acted the same and toke different actions and had variety of motivations that tied into the lore of the world and how they responded to it. Everything in Union X felt so boring and exposition heavy besides a few key moments toward the end were you felt some genuine life being breathe into this world.

Again, it could be bias. I'm going through a KH marathon right now and I'm going to rewatch Union X, so maybe my mind will change come 2022 and we have more news. But I felt way more from the past trios then I do for the characters here because at least they were interesting. At least they had arcs and character development. No one in this game goes through any sort of significant character growth. Maybe that's the point since its a prequel? I don't know but the one thing that BBS did right above this game is that, despite flaws in the writing, I cared about Aqua, Terra, and Ven and what they were going through because you understood their personalities at that point in time and how the events of the stories was changing their perspective on things. It at least sparked some genuine emotions because the writers knew you had to do the character work before you go all "wait until you see how they are in the next game!" Which yeah, that's what I thought. I want to see these characters interact with the rest we've seen so far by the end of BBS.

But with Union X, that feeling just isn't there and I think its another classic case of KH caring more about its lore then its characters lately when the two are suppose to work together 50/50. In KH1, the lore of being able to give someone back their heart after its been trapped inside yours and sacrificing your life to due so doesn't work unless you care about the characters and their motivations.

I don't know man, again maybe its something I'm missing, but I don't care about these characters and every bit of lore surrounding them that affected them in some way, besides Sterlitzia's death, just felt so "matter of fact". Like I felt the whole Ven being corrupted by darkness to commit a horrible act against his will and hurting his friend was COMPLETLY wasted. Like, what does that mean for Ven's character? I don't know, maybe something the in future with Vanitas. Cool... I guess? But what does that do for Lauriam's character? Not much since he learns immediately after that it wasn't his fault... so what are we doing here? What was the point of any of it?? I don't know, it just left me a little dumbfounded. I'm not asking for the series to have 100% god tier level character writing but like, do the bear fricking minimum.

Oh and the Player being reincarnated into Xehanort... I mean... cool I guess? I don't know, unless Dark Road plays into that in some way that's important, I honestly don't care that much. Dark Road already feels irrelevant anyways so unless something changes in the next few updates... yeah, that's how it gonna be for me on the matter

Look I'm going off on a rant but Union X didn't do much for me that the series post KH3 hasn't already done for me. It hasn't improved much honestly but it at least gave me some cool lore to ponder on. That's something I guess but if I don't care much for these characters then who cares? Its why I'm very much skeptical but somewhat optimistic on this series going forward. Because just like KH3, its not like it completely fails on what its doing and I'm still very intrigued by what's going to happen next but the character writing from KH3 and after is something that needs some vast improvement. Espeically if our characters in the present time are going to get some news arcs, which I believe they will, they need to up the stakes and motivations. That's also a fear of mine is that the characters we spent a decade building up and reuniting are going to be tossed aside in favor of the new ones. But given everything that's been set up in the finale, I don't think that'll happen at all but I know some fans want that because some think their arcs are completely done and I don't think that's the case at all. In fact, I feel like there is so much more you can do with Roxas, Xion, Aqua, Lea, Terra, Ven (obviously), Riku and especially Kairi and Namine. I don't want these characters thrown away for the sake of plot or some other stupid shit. You spent a better part of a decade building up these characters. Use them.

If I have anything left to say on Re:mind or MoM is that it did a lot of things right but also a lot of things wrong. Re: Mind fixed alot about what was wrong the finale of KH3 while also not disregarding it, which was the right call. But the one thing I still think it fumbled was the Organization motivations. Honestly, we really didn't need a new Organization, they could've literally been called like "Seekers of darkness" or something else wirh better designed outfits but that's besides the point. Re: mind did an okay/good job at explaining how certain members are there but fumbled on the... why? Like, I know its Replica and time travel shenanigans for others characters but its clear Marluxia, Luxord, and Larxene remember everything that went down in COM and KH2 so... why are they still working with Organization or Xehanort at all? Why put pieces of his heart inside them? What do they gain out of this? They had something there when they all met up and Xenmas did so to get info out of them about the Union X past but that scene goes largely ignored afterwards, even in Re: mind and never comes up ever again. Why did Xemnas even care know if it never factors into anything in the game for anyone?

MoM... oh boy. Kairi just deserves writing, man. Look, I'm not mad (anymore) that she's training with Aqua, it makes a lot of sense actually. But I have a strange feeling its just to leave her in the background AGAIN and only bring her back when she's needed to for plot shenanigans, which is what she's been reduced too. Again, Re: mind fixed a lot of this (for the most part) and MoM gave her some cool moments but she just needs a lot more. And Kairi having Sora stand in for her fight with Xehanort, still really rubs me the wrong way. They really didn't need to do that at all. This Foretellers saga needs to be her arc, the same way Xehanort saga was for Riku and I do believe, despite some disagreements in the direction, is where they are headed. But they need to give her more and gradually. We need the Destiny trio back man, they've lacked meaningful interaction since the KH2 reunion scene. She needs more interaction with Riku, which was a small highlight for me in MoM, and her and Sora need... God, so much work. If Sora and Kairi are the canon romance pairing going forward (SoRiku shippers, pls don't @ about it, I'm so tired lol) then yeah, we need more of a solid relationship then what we have now. I understand what they're going for, with the whole "distance makes the heart grow fonder" and the thematic push and pull of their relationship but I think it should evolve and move away from that.

Again, my mindset on the series going forward hasn't changed much. Union X didn't sway me one way or the other. Its both simultaneously increased my hopes and my worries. I'm loving the lore stuff and it's meta concepts but, besides some characters who do get to shine, it's the character writing for others that's leaving a lot to be desired.

We'll just have to see what the next game offers.
 
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Vulpes XIII

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Im really excited to see how the plot is going to progress in Phase 2. Although I do still have some concerns about how Nomura going to handle character development with such a large cast of characters and which characters he will focus on as I really don’t want Nomura to prioritise popular characters with completed storylines ( for example Roxas, Xion) over ones that are actually important to phase 2 and would really benefit from the screen time.
 

HakaishinChampa

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I still care about the Disney but I realize more and more that I care more about the KH characters.

The most recent Disney film I watched (not counting Marvel) was Inside Out.

I wouldn't still be in the series if I didn't care about the Kingdom Hearts cast, Disney is just the cherry on top.

I bought a 60 dollar rhythm game to watch 20 minutes worth of content, I'd say I'm invested and can't wait for the next KH game.

I actually had a dream where the next KH game was a Match-3 game like Bejeweled and it had important story information, I would probably buy it lol
 

Dark Rot

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The further we get away from KH3, of which I'm a relentless hater, the slightly better I feel about the future of KH. Even if I was not remotely impressed by Re:Mind, or the Melody of Memory cutscenes. Even if the mobile games have all these dull characters, with a story that favors concept over catharsis. Thankfully the Quadratum/Yozora stuff is just more intriguing to me, because it feels like it actually matters on an emotional level. It says something that Yozora got fancy CG cutscenes and wasn't relegated to a garish flash game. And more importantly, I'm excited to play as Riku again... I liked switching off between he and Sora so I'm happy to do it again.
Even though there's really nothing yet to indicate that things will be better, I'm gonna be a little optimistic and speculate that KH3 was a product of doomed circumstances, which don't ever have to be repeated. I'd like to think we'll see more eclectic and classic world choices in the next game, and most importantly, full original worlds again.

However, despite being open-minded about the chaotic story, I'm totally concerned about the gameplay. Osaka does not have the goods and seemingly no one's steering them in the right direction. It's insane to go from such a slick system like KH2 to the awkward Frankenstein that is KH3's combat. There's not a single gameplay aspect of KH3 (beyond what was already there from KH1&2) that I would say is worth preserving. Maybe keyblade transformations if they're completely altered in function and design. I'm absolutely not a fan of the command deck either, so I'm frightened to think they might slap that on again... Yeah, it's looking kind of bleak. Did not care for the level design in KH3 (despite it being pretty decent in DDD, The Grid aside) and I hope they add real platforming and tactile feel instead of that contextual free-run style. God, I just wish they would switch development teams 😔
 

Alpha Baymax

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The Disney elements somehow seem even less relevant than they already do. It's crazy what an afterthought the main selling point of this series is in it's direction.
Not really, the Disney world's were actually more relevant to the narrative than they were in Kingdom Hearts II. Also, the Fairy Godmother is the only other character outside of Xehanort and Ansem the Wise to know about unreality. Even Union Cross ended with Lauriam in Dwarf Woodlands and Elrena in Enchanted Dominion.

Disney is still relevant, it's just not paid attention to by people because they'd rather see the shenanigans that happens between all the original characters in the original worlds.

The further we get away from KH3, of which I'm a relentless hater, the slightly better I feel about the future of KH. Even if I was not remotely impressed by Re:Mind, or the Melody of Memory cutscenes. Even if the mobile games have all these dull characters, with a story that favors concept over catharsis. Thankfully the Quadratum/Yozora stuff is just more intriguing to me, because it feels like it actually matters on an emotional level. It says something that Yozora got fancy CG cutscenes and wasn't relegated to a garish flash game. And more importantly, I'm excited to play as Riku again... I liked switching off between he and Sora so I'm happy to do it again.
Even though there's really nothing yet to indicate that things will be better, I'm gonna be a little optimistic and speculate that KH3 was a product of doomed circumstances, which don't ever have to be repeated. I'd like to think we'll see more eclectic and classic world choices in the next game, and most importantly, full original worlds again.

However, despite being open-minded about the chaotic story, I'm totally concerned about the gameplay. Osaka does not have the goods and seemingly no one's steering them in the right direction. It's insane to go from such a slick system like KH2 to the awkward Frankenstein that is KH3's combat. There's not a single gameplay aspect of KH3 (beyond what was already there from KH1&2) that I would say is worth preserving. Maybe keyblade transformations if they're completely altered in function and design. I'm absolutely not a fan of the command deck either, so I'm frightened to think they might slap that on again... Yeah, it's looking kind of bleak. Did not care for the level design in KH3 (despite it being pretty decent in DDD, The Grid aside) and I hope they add real platforming and tactile feel instead of that contextual free-run style. God, I just wish they would switch development teams 😔
I get that Kingdom Hearts III wasn't for you but ReMind was a much better game mechanically than base Kingdom Hearts III. The Organization XIII rematches in ReMind were better than they were in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Yozora is arguably hailed as the best final boss in the franchise. Give Osaka some credit for trying to adjust from handheld gaming to HD gaming.

As for the Disney world selection, if you didn't like the Disney Revival Era then that's a personal taste issue. The 2010s for Disney Animation was their second renaissance hence why most of the world's are specifically from that era.
 

Dark Rot

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The new abilities make combat smoother, but it just doesn't change the fact that I fundmentally don't like Sora's toolset in KH3. I don't like the attractions, keyblade transformations, links, grand magic, and the stacking situation bar they're all tied to. I don't like airstep or stunted flowmotion and I really don't like shotlock and that horrible noise it makes! I don't like that the spells are essentially interchangeable projectiles and damage nukes. I don't like that it all feels like fluff, when KH1&2 were so thoughtful in balancing out their combat mechanics so everything felt novel, with its own purpose. It's just a completely different design philosophy at work. It's nice that they're working on improving the timing and flow of battles, but the core still isn't right for me. The creativity and balance isn't where it needs to be. Kingdom Hearts can and should be top-notch, not just good enough. The Yozora fight is cool, though. So I shouldn't have said not remotely impressed, because I do like the Secret Episode. It is reason to think KH may have better combat overall, and with the new setting, perhaps Sora and Riku will drop some of the mechanics I'm not fond of.

I actually like all the movies featured in KH3, but as a collection of settings, it didn't paint a magical enough picture. Especially considering how much of the game is spent in those worlds. I thought Corona and Montropolis were the best by far, but they honestly could've been generic forest and factory levels if the characters weren't there. And every other Disney world ignored some of their most iconic locales from those movies. I would like to see more worlds with unique and stylized environments in the future. And just personally, recreating CG movies identically in video game form isn't quite as exciting as seeing hand-drawn (and stop-motion, and even live-action) interpreted into polygons. I'm fine with more Pixar or Frozen 2 or whatever, I just hope it's a mix of Disney eras in the next game.
 

Alpha Baymax

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Dark Road's original story left on a very suspenseful cliffhanger so at least there's a lot of narrative promise there...
 
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