How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

[devilsTrinity]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

I can agree with some of what you say, but definitely not all. Seems a bit knit picky..

Haters gon hate.

 

[Rosebudx]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

I can understand why some people are having issues with the storyline, but it's not the worst I've come across. In fact, I'm interested to see how it's going to be tied up whenever they get around to published KH3.

However, I'm getting tired of people constantly tearing down the sequels. Kingdom Hearts II is still my absolute favorite game of all time, with no exceptions, and 3D and the original are in my top ten. Did the story get convoluted? Yes, definitely. Did it make me want to stay up all night playing each game to completion only to have to wait impatiently for years and years to find out what the heck is happening next? Absolutely. The mechanics of the first game weren't all that great, and I for one didn't and don't think the Disney worlds were portrayed so much better in the first game than the others. I still get a little frustrated sometimes, like when Sora and co. are running through Notre Dame and don't run across any people, but that's no different than the complete lack of jungle creatures in Deep Jungle or the lack of fans at the tournaments in the Coliseum.

Kingdom Hearts seems to be falling into a trap within its own fanbase, a trap which other games and books have fallen into in recent years. The first game was so amazing that people don't want it to change, but they get angry when the series stays stagnant. The directors then have to attempt to balance novelty with continuity, and that's a task which is nigh impossible.

 

[Wehrmacht]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

i agree with everyone who says kh1 isn't that good of a game. it really isn't and i don't think celtis really got that across very well in his articles.

the camera is terrible, the level design was atrocious, the potential of the disney worlds was still squandered, and it had various other foibles that just added up to a very rough game. it succeeded because it ended up being a charming juxtaposition of seemingly irreconcilable things (the jrpg aesthetic of the final fantasy series with the soft western disney characters). but it was definitely not very good in terms of design.

the later games polished this a little but they don't have the same charm and didn't really make the weak concepts in the first game any better. so all in all, the series has just never been too excellent.

Kingdom Hearts seems to be falling into a trap within its own fanbase, a trap which other games and books have fallen into in recent years. The first game was so amazing that people don't want it to change, but they get angry when the series stays stagnant.

idk about you but i think the series has gotten very stagnant in certain respects.

days and coded are just lazy games. how many more times do they think people are going to enjoy visiting worlds from kingdom hearts 1?

 

[Taylor]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

kh1 is not a good game. that is not what i'm trying to say. i'm trying to say it's a charming, very okay game.


the series as a whole is pretty mediocre lol

 

[MrGubs]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

Okay well Im abit yes and no with the reasons of his views. Mostly what I agree with is that the series of KH is dragged on too much, and really feels like they have milked it for all its worth. The latest games really have not appealed to me as the earlier KH games had.

So I played Kingdom Hearts as a kid. Finished it, but actualy found it abit bland. The fighting felt boring to me. Too tame. Although I loved how the Disney characters felt apart of the main story. But it still is a great game. I guess what really took the game by storm to everyone was the mixture of FF and Disney characters.

Kingdom Hearts COM was a good game. I played that on the GBA. New, interesting battle system with lots of new characters that was shrounded in mystery.

Kingdom Hearts II is what made me really fall in love with the game. I loved the main story, the new evil of the Organization and Nobodies. The introduction to a new character, Roxas. How his past was a mystery and how important he really is to Sora. Although they droped the main tie-in with the Disney characters, and the Disney worlds did feel bland. The battle system was simple, yet I loved it.Amazing attacks and combos, even if it was just button mashing X, I still loved smacking them up. Dual Weilding was just mega-awesome. It felt so badass and so fun! Reaction Commands was a nice feature in which added some pretty cool slow motion attacks. The Boss fights were epic. And finaly last...AXEL!! We got to see Axel in full action! Who doesnt love Axel???
I honestly come back to the game every once in awhile to replay it. Heck, I even bought the Final Mix version of it.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was a nice game too. It was good to finaly play as Roxas through the whole game. I had always felt he had a strong storyline. It was very interesting to see what the Organization was like from his view. Xion was a nice new twist, but I did still feel like she needed more character. But her role still was abit interesting. For a Nintendo DS game, the graphics were pretty good. Combat system once again was a nice change and Multiplayer was a very nice feature, espicaly being able to play as the other Organization characters.
The ending part of that game was a very sad one for me, very emotional which was well played out.

Birth By Sleep..that was abit of a mixture to me. The was the main idea/plot of the story was good, the history of the Keyblade and a more in depth look of it was interesting. I always wanted the lore of the Keyblade to be told. And it had done well in finaly hinting to us what KHIII would hold. The Graphics was also great, for a psp it had done quite well. But not really else I liked. I played all three characters and completed them. But I felt like it was quite repeative and I never made me really replay the game again at all. Some parts were too easy, and some parts made me frustrated enough to throw it away.

After that, I havent really played another KH game(except for RE:COM). Iv read and look videos up on Coded and KH3DS, but Coded felt like it was milked to just to make money. There was not really much told from the main storyline. It didnt really tell us fully on what is yet to come (KHIII) except for things that we really already knew. Since this Sora wasnt the real Sora, I felt like it really didnt matter what happened to him, he was just data afterall.

KH3DS is what I felt has gone abit too far. Yea it finaly set us the full story line for us for KHIII, but the whole TimeTravel thing seems...just not KH. Although I liked how Xemnas finaly explained the true purpose of the Organization, and how the most of the Organization are now back to normal. But thats really about it. I dont really like this whole "Dream Creatures" thing. They look too cute and cuddly to be evil. Didnt seem much of a threat. Nothing else I was interested in and nothing of any new features within the game made me remotely want to play it.

 

[Ultima Spark]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

so basically I'm the only person here who plays the series for the original characters/plot/whatever and doesn't really care about the Disney stuff

 

[Shinjuku]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

@ Celtis

Kind of glad you made this one I will go out and admit I'm one of those people that give KH1 to much praise, but I do know if I go back and play it again. It might get knocked down a few points cause it's been at least 5-9 years since I fully played through it and beat it.

I've been saying for years after the craptastic title that was KH2 that Nomura has been pulling stuff out his ass, and with some of the stupid stuff I've heard from this site it pretty much reinforced that he indeed has. There are some titles I haven't played like Days for instance, but after hearing from my roommates b**ch and moan about how terrible it was and how horrible the character's were In stayed away, and for good reason.

Again looking back over the series timeline from 2002-2012 it really is a mediocre series, but to be fair I've played worse titles than many in this series I'd rather play 358/2 Days for example then anyone give me Star Ocean IV: The Last Hope(Yes another wonderful craptastic game out of Square's Ass).


Edit: @ Ultima Spark

I guess you are. Thing is though without the Disney stuff the original characters are pretty much lackluster besides Riku, Terra, Aqua, and a few others.

 

[Vəntus]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

Personally, I don't think the story is too convoluted in that you can't explain/understand everything. Days would've probably been better off a-la Advent Children, same with coded. They could've been told as "webisodes" or something like that. They'd add to the story without the chore of playing through those boring, linear missions/worlds/backdoors/what have you. KH1 had the aesthetics for worlds down and KH2 added a bit to that (KH2FM: the Cavern of Remembrance really added a lot of depth to Radiant Garden (no pun intended), I suppose they'd need to find a way to explain this.) Additionally I really liked the gameplay of BBS and think this set the record even higher, but still needs a bit of tweaking, generally having this in the style of KH1/KH2.

The story, like I said before, is not all that dragged out, at least for me. BUT the games make it feel that way, I think it's because the way people are looking at it is gameplay+story when really it's just story, pieces from Days and coded, coded's only important part was the end where Sora finds out the data in him and then that's brought up again in 3D where Ansem appears in front of Riku and shows him what it was, etc.

So pretty much, what I'm trying to say is that Days and Coded are the only negatives of the whole series, to be honest. I don't see how you could stop loving the series.

And obviously the only reason why those worlds are so barren, in BBS and 3D is because they're on handhelds that didn't support the capacity of detail the original movies had. Hopefully with KH going back to consoles this will be remedied.

And I really don't think Goofy is suitable for a protagonist, except in this game.

 

[Wehrmacht]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

And obviously the only reason why those worlds are so barren, in BBS and 3D is because they're on handhelds that didn't support the capacity of detail the original movies had.

kh2 was also barren and empty.

 

[Ruran]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

The strongly implied reason for the worlds being empty from the plot's point of view is that everyone tries to stay indoors because of the monsters. As the series progresses they imply it less then it just feels weird at times. Like the world's characters stop mentioning the monsters or they do at awkward times and we have moments like in BbS where in Castle of Dreams I think it was mentioned that there were monsters about but they were still throwing a ball (because the king wanting his son to get laid) and the Duke was worried about all the "guests". Wut?

I get the reason plot wise but sometimes the handling is just weird. If you're worried about the invisible guests being hurt by monsters because you rounded everyone up in one convenient spot, don't throw a ball? Them little things. It's these kinds of things you look at in retrospect that make you shake your head. U.U

 

[sdr08]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

thank you for the read. I think the story is a little complicated especially in KH3D, but it's going to take off in KH3. Since you haven't played it yet, I won't spoil anything, let's just say that the Disney aspects are going to be EXTREMELY important in KH3. this might fix the worlds are not connected to the main plot problem, but time will tell. good job on this editorial

 

[Kevin Perez]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

kh2 was also barren and empty.

I actually have come with the conclusion that if the games, specifically the original Kingdom Hearts and the second installment, ever wanted to meet its maximum potential in regards to NPC and worlds that didn't feel barren and empty, they may have needed to put a additional disc to expand on that. Think back to Final Fantasy on its PlayStation (1) days although it may not even be the case, as I'm assuming a PS2 disc can carry more information/date then multiple PS1 discs. What types of discs were the first numbered installments put on, anyway? I'm curious how much data/information they contained and if not adding NPCs was just laziness.

 

[Ruran]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

I actually have come with the conclusion that if the games, specifically the original Kingdom Hearts and the second installment, ever wanted to meet its maximum potential in regards to NPC and worlds that didn't feel barren and empty, they may have needed to put a additional disc to expand on that. Think back to Final Fantasy on its PlayStation (1) days although it may not even be the case, as I'm assuming a PS2 disc can carry more information/date then multiple PS1 discs. What types of discs were the first numbered installments put on, anyway? I'm curious how much data/information they contained and if not adding NPCs was just laziness.

The PS2 discs (dvds?) can withstand quiet a few NPCs. FFX is older than KH and could handle an abundance of them fine, with KH its just a mixture of plot reasons and laziness.

 

[Roxas12]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

If I'm being completely honest, I think all criticisms against the fighting style are invalid. People are so quick to praise a game like Zelda, but honestly is there that much difference between Zelda and KH? To fight in Zelda, you're still just mashing a button to hit things, occasionally using another button to cast magic, and locking on while grappling with a terrible camera. The same could be said for KH. So why do people praise Zelda, but scorn KH? It makes no sense. At their core, they are extremely similar. People have even called KH Sony's answer to Zelda.

 

[Ruran]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

If I'm being completely honest, I think all criticisms against the fighting style are invalid. People are so quick to praise a game like Zelda, but honestly is there that much difference between Zelda and KH? To fight in Zelda, you're still just mashing a button to hit things, occasionally using another button to cast magic, and locking on while grappling with a terrible camera. The same could be said for KH. So why do people praise Zelda, but scorn KH? It makes no sense. At their core, they are extremely similar. People have even called KH Sony's answer to Zelda.

As someone who doesn't play Zelda, I have no idea. KH having a similar combat system as another game doesn't make the complaints any less valid. It can be a dry button masher.

 

[Roxas12]

Also, not trying to take a shot at the OP. I honestly didn't even know you were a Zelda fan until I saw your sig. But Zelda suffers from most of the same problems KH does, so in my opinion at least, your article is a bit hypocritical.

As someone who doesn't play Zelda, I have no idea. KH having a slimier combat system as another game doesn't make the complaints any less valid. It can be a dry button masher.

Oh, no I totally realize that. That's valid. I just don't understand it. Zelda has received almost unanimous acclaim when it is extremely flawed, even more so than KH in my opinion.

 

[Ruran]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

Also, not trying to take a shot at the OP. I honestly didn't even know you were a Zelda fan until I saw your sig. But Zelda suffers from most of the same problems KH does, so in my opinion at least, your article is a bit hypocritical.

Really, please stop bringing Zelda into this. It has nothing what so ever to do with KH or the article and you're only going to cause a shit storm based on the OPs likes. It's not a compare and contrast article, it's an article on the OP's opinion about KH.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

Oh, no I totally realize that. That's valid. I just don't understand it. Zelda has received almost unanimous acclaim when it is extremely flawed, even more so than KH in my opinion.

Isn't that just a case of personal taste/opinion after all?
KH has also received much "acclaim" (and yes, that includes titles other than the worshipped KH 1) or it wouldn't be as successful as it is.
I'm not around in Zelda forums but I tend to believe that over there there's also some critic thrown out at that franchise.

Heck, even when talking about "convoluted plot" in KH, doesn't Zelda have the same with a whole flurry of different timelines, the same main villain popping up again and again (Ganondorf) just like Xehanort in KH?
Or the whole Metal Gear-series, isn't that going into "convoluted plot territory" as well?

The thing is that critic on those series is most likely to be voiced in places dedicated to them, so as this is mostly a KH-themed place it's logical that the KH-critic takes precedence here.

 

[Roxas12]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

Really, please stop bringing Zelda into this. It has nothing what so ever to do with KH or the article and you're only going to cause a shit storm based on the OPs likes. It's not a compare and contrast article, it's an article on the OP's opinion about KH.

I don't think that's very fair. I never outright insulted Zelda blindly for the sake of pissing of the OP. I calmly brought up my confusion, and I think it's very relevant to the article. The OP claims that they went out and experienced other games and that changed their opinion on KH. These other games doubtlessly included Zelda, making it relevant. I'm not bringing it up to be a dick, I just want to understand why the OP likes one thing, but dislikes something that is so similar.

 

[Shinjuku]

Re: How I Divorced Kingdom Hearts (Please Don't Blame Goofy)

I don't think that's very fair. I never outright insulted Zelda blindly for the sake of pissing of the OP. I calmly brought up my confusion, and I think it's very relevant to the article. The OP claims that they went out and experienced other games and that changed their opinion on KH. These other games doubtlessly included Zelda, making it relevant. I'm not bringing it up to be a dick, I just want to understand why the OP likes one thing, but dislikes something that is so similar.

Thing about Zelda they keep the basics intact and stays true to their roots. Whereas KH like the OP was saying has not.

I will also add when you actually experience other games within the genre and stack up and compare them KH really doesn't seem that special it does stand out, but not as much as it use to.