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Is Kingdom Hearts Writing bad?



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All these comments again caused me to become depressed.((
If in KH the story is not very, then what is the franchise good for? (Well, in addition to the gameplay and music), because the plot in it plays an important role if you think so and if it's bad then what's good. Maybe I just have a bad taste ...
Being critical towards something you love isn't a bad thing. It could be cathartic to vent your feelings out. It could get messy because stories are emotional bonds and emotions are rarely simple and clean (i just had too...).

So i refer you to this video which explains it so much better.
[video=youtube;HoLhcdapmqg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLhcdapmqg[/video]
 

Nukara

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Being critical towards something you love isn't a bad thing. It could be cathartic to vent your feelings out. It could get messy because stories are emotional bonds and emotions are rarely simple and clean (i just had too...).

So i refer you to this video which explains it so much better.
[video=youtube;HoLhcdapmqg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLhcdapmqg[/video]

Simply often people who are too critical to works often can not enjoy them.
Many also left in my memory different fandom and they also started with simple criticism, and then they just stopped to see anything good in the works.
I really would not want something like this to happen to me ...
Any hobby is based on feelings, if you remove these feelings, sooner or later it will not bring joy to this hobby.
P.S
Unfortunately, I do not understand English well enough to fully understand the meaning of the video.
But those that I see in the comments are mostly disappointed fans who either abandoned the show, or watch it without any interest.
Now I'm even more afraid of becoming a toxic fan like those commentators. ))
 
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alexis.anagram

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The first game is an exceptional example of how to plunder established tropes and concepts and end up with something fresh and thrilling and evocative. Even if all it really amounted to was a creative rebranding of the usual Disney motif it was generally successful. Subsequent games manage to capture this "magic" in glimpses and occasionally stares, and I would argue that overall the series' writing leans above average, albeit with a recent decline that is worrying but may not yet be fatal.

The big problem the series faces in its current state is not Nomura's almost totally unfiltered penchant for thrusting ideas upon the franchise like he's making hundreds of games at a time instead of one; while that has its obvious drawbacks it also characterizes the series in a way in that it casts a wide net and here and there manages to navigate an effective route through to a conclusion which resonates. That's one way of going about things. The real danger becomes the prospect of what happens when Nomura runs out of ideas...which is the point I was concerned we had reached with DDD and, now, KH3. In stringing the series along for so long with his sort of dogged madman approach to the material, he doesn't seem to have matched his sheer capacity for output with a reasonable (narrative) justification for everything. So we end up with stories that seem half-plotted, thematically barren, and overfull of mechanical flourishes and trophy plot devices (time travel, next gen PoH) that make it feel like he's pasting plot stuff together any which way to get it over with and mask the possibility that the series has disengaged its fundamental purpose as a vehicle for improvised genius: it feels stuck in the shadow of its own aspirations.

KH3 could still be pretty amazing, it just needs either a very intentional, almost surgical approach or a willingness to sort of lean into its chaotic, disaster art origins...KH has had its best feats by pulling rabbits out of hats. And maybe some of its worst. Like all magic tricks, it requires the right technique.

Still, the only really bad entries (by which I mean carelessly conceived/executed and not well balanced against other redeeming factors) are DDD and Ux. The Days/Coded/BBS trilogy had a reason for existing and was sufficiently interwoven both between its composite parts and within the larger story to help ease the frustration over some of the errors in detail which occurred in each game. The original trilogy of games is also strong, and for similar reasons. The throughline in serialized storytelling is immensely important and helpful; when strong, everything around it feels more purposeful by association. By the same token, its neglect can give the impression of weakness, which is where DDD and Ux suffer. They seem too rote and scattershot to land emotionally. They don't offer many particularly big ideas or smart insights into the series. Just stuff to do because, hey, you're a KH fan right? That's where it becomes kind of intolerable for me.
 

jahob000

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All these comments again caused me to become depressed.((
If in KH the story is not very, then what is the franchise good for? (Well, in addition to the gameplay and music), because the plot in it plays an important role if you think so and if it's bad then what's good. Maybe I just have a bad taste ...

Just because I'm bringing up points I find negative about Kingdom Hearts doesn't mean I don't enjoy the series as a whole. If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't be playing it. Also if I didn't care about the game, I wouldn't criticize it. Critique isn't a form or bashing, if anything it's a form of care. You want it to be better so you find flaws and wonder how it can improve. That goes with anything really.
 

The_Echo

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Chain of Memories is written well.

358/2 Days is written poorly.

Everything else is somewhere in-between.
 

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All these comments again caused me to become depressed.((
If in KH the story is not very, then what is the franchise good for? (Well, in addition to the gameplay and music), because the plot in it plays an important role if you think so and if it's bad then what's good. Maybe I just have a bad taste ...

For ... a lot of other things? The graphics look pretty, the sound is awesome, the gameplay is fun and the character are basically interesting, but would need fleshing out. And no one said that the whole story or the story itself is bad, just the writing / the presentation sometimes really lacks. I had a lot of moments in the games that emotionally touched me, that were well played out, as well as there are moments that I severely hated. For example, I liked the writing of Re:Com, I just dislike the writing of games that were pure Nomura because I think he is not a good writer and focuses too much on shocking plot twists than on building a substantial story around them (and he introduces too many new characters while he can't handle the ones he already has). Personally, I love Dragonball Z and I like GT and Super and the latter has incredibly shitty writing and Dragonball's story never has been the best, but the characters carry the thin plot and it's fun. People use to think that a game has to be life-changing to be honestly enjoyed, but that's not the case. There's no reason to get depressed about other people's opinions, otherwise I would've to bawl my eye's out over all the people that like Digimon Tri.
 

DarkosOverlord

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Well, here I go.

As someone who came out very recently from a phase where Kingdom Hearts just seemed pain and ruins of what was once good, I think I can share some insight about the writing.
I’ll try to be as clear and concise as I can, for this could be a very big topic if we’d have to analyze everything.

KH1 – CoM era: the best writing can be found here. CoM especially, it might just be THE best written KH in my opinion.
It gave us great characters, a good story that had riddles but fairly easy to follow (and resolved in the same title). Already exstablished characters were explored in different directions: angry Sora lashing out at Donald and Goofy is such a dissonant scene, and it works for the same reason, and Riku started his redemption arc. Newer characters were also really good: I know I’m a fanboy so I might sound biased, but Larxene’s performance was always on top. Marluxia too, even Vexen. Eh, Lexaeus tries. Axel KILLS every scene he’s in.
The scene where Sora says “make me like I was”, and you then see Naminé’s shiver as she tries to hide the sadness… those were pure emotions, man. No further words or bloated explanation were needed.
The game opening with Sora entering the Castle and ending with Riku exiting was such a good way to show the story going full circle: what happened in the Castle, stayed in the Castle.
CoM made full use of its set of characters and its self-contained story, and many of his moments quickly became iconic in my book.

KHII – Days era: BbS might’ve been the turning point, but the gears started moving during KH II. This is where you could see that while the overall story was still good enough, there were cracks and unpolished elements.
There’s a wide range of what I could point out here—from the beginning of the movie reharsal to the Nobodies stealing pictures and the word photo just because, and because they apparently can. I would’ve liked it more if it resurfaced somewhere later on, like if in Tron’s world the Nobodies were messing with the data, or if they did something to Pooh’s Book, but nope. That whole picture bit happened, and that was it. So much for the smart and cunning Nobodies who are so much better than the Heartless. Also the fact that people see a Dusk and say “it was a stranger”. Man, back in KH1 people run away from Heartless, and with good reason.
KH II is also guilty of mishandling characters: Maleficent and Pete really lacked involvement, especially in the second half and finale, and the prologue builds up DiZ and Naminé just to shove them into a corner for the next three quarters of the game. DiZ especially, could’ve been a great addition to Sora’s journey: someone who was against the Organization, but was too ruthless and judgemental for Sora to follow. I can only imagine the good moments (and perhaps even a boss fight in his digital town where he can just freeze time) we could’ve had.
Honestly, minus a few things, what KH II brought was wasted potential, rather than something truly egregious. You see the good stuff, and then you think about just how much better the whole package could’ve been.
And “wasted potential” is Days’ middle name.

BbS – DDD era: The games where most people have problems. Let me say this out of the gate, I still like BbS. Heck, I like it more than KH II, just because the elements managed to click with me more.
But in my mind a good BbS fan is a fan who also sees what didn’t work… more than what Nomura himself did, sadly.
BbS needed to move things forward and launch a new standard for the franchise, but at the same time it’s like it constantly tries to get the audience’s approvation, which can be a deadly combo.
The story itself runs on some very simple (yet revolutionary for the in-game universe) concepts, but they’re repeated over and over, and what’s worse without adding anything to it. Terra will risk it with the Darkness and elaborate how he will never screw up in every world, Aqua will put her hand on her chest worrying about her friends in every world, and so on. And the game is so eager to jump into it that doesn’t really give a solid starting point, such as throwing Ventus into his journey with one of the most randomly worded and only vaguely threatening… something. Eraqus NEEDS to be the stern Master who will eventually fall, so let’s just say it happened, let’s not actually provide a good reason for him to fall into the enemies’ trap.
As many stated before, in BbS people are dumber than Xehanort is smart, and if the main four just stopped and talked with each other all could’ve been avoided.
The shaky “friendship” between TAV was discussed so many times, I trust don’t need to go back over it.
Add to this some questionable dialogue choices such as comparing your friend to a mass of burning gas and plasma, and it’s easy to see why some disliked, or even turned away in horror at this title.

The whole Keyblade Order retcon? I… liked it. Conceptually, it was cliche, but good. It’s also kinda neat to realize that the previous three games and all that galactic war happened due to a single Keyblade wielder gone rogue, and in BbS you see just another level. If the series had done a better job to convey this, we would march into KH III with the utmost terror and marvel about what could transpire.
The Ceremony was dumb, and Nomura himself doesn’t even respect it all that much. It would’ve been better to just keep the Keyblade appearing for divine providence or fate or an unknown will.

Then there’s DDD.
DDD explains and shows what it’s about, but… ugh. I think when Nomura sees DDD he sees a very different game and story than the one I played. There IS some good stuff, but it’s buried over the same issue of reiterating stuff, MINUTES of monologuing and trying to explain an absurdly complex concept, and stuff that just doesn’t tell itself. At this point we fan had to understand half of the game by interviews, which says all that there is to say about its writing.
The mishandling of characters continues and only gets worse, with iconic villains turned into mindless puppets, a new villain resulting in a character whose purpose, power, even will and personality are borrowed, and the illusion of this game being the one where all the stories would start to converge just to not do that at all. Oh, the characters are all there, but every one of them is an island secluded from the rest. Mickey still refuses to call TAV by name.

Current era: X was good, Union isn’t. Back Cover was more of a cutscene graphic showcase and put some info that only lore fanatics can truly appreciate (and doesn’t do jack to help newcomers understanding what X was about). 0.2 started good, then lost itself in the final act so hard I believe Aqua got Norted just by that.
What about KH III? I dunno. I didn’t really like the Toy Story cutscenes, but I liked the dialogue in Frozen.
But both instances are far from the complete experience that it’s impossible to judge.
True, writing only got worse going on… but I was also pessimistic about the gameplay experience, and E3 quickly proved me wrong.
KH III might just be this ace in the hole people are building it up to be.
 

Nukara

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Well, here I go.

As someone who came out very recently from a phase where Kingdom Hearts just seemed pain and ruins of what was once good, I think I can share some insight about the writing.
I’ll try to be as clear and concise as I can, for this could be a very big topic if we’d have to analyze everything.

KH1 – CoM era: the best writing can be found here. CoM especially, it might just be THE best written KH in my opinion.
It gave us great characters, a good story that had riddles but fairly easy to follow (and resolved in the same title). Already exstablished characters were explored in different directions: angry Sora lashing out at Donald and Goofy is such a dissonant scene, and it works for the same reason, and Riku started his redemption arc. Newer characters were also really good: I know I’m a fanboy so I might sound biased, but Larxene’s performance was always on top. Marluxia too, even Vexen. Eh, Lexaeus tries. Axel KILLS every scene he’s in.
The scene where Sora says “make me like I was”, and you then see Naminé’s shiver as she tries to hide the sadness… those were pure emotions, man. No further words or bloated explanation were needed.
The game opening with Sora entering the Castle and ending with Riku exiting was such a good way to show the story going full circle: what happened in the Castle, stayed in the Castle.
CoM made full use of its set of characters and its self-contained story, and many of his moments quickly became iconic in my book.

KHII – Days era: BbS might’ve been the turning point, but the gears started moving during KH II. This is where you could see that while the overall story was still good enough, there were cracks and unpolished elements.
There’s a wide range of what I could point out here—from the beginning of the movie reharsal to the Nobodies stealing pictures and the word photo just because, and because they apparently can. I would’ve liked it more if it resurfaced somewhere later on, like if in Tron’s world the Nobodies were messing with the data, or if they did something to Pooh’s Book, but nope. That whole picture bit happened, and that was it. So much for the smart and cunning Nobodies who are so much better than the Heartless. Also the fact that people see a Dusk and say “it was a stranger”. Man, back in KH1 people run away from Heartless, and with good reason.
KH II is also guilty of mishandling characters: Maleficent and Pete really lacked involvement, especially in the second half and finale, and the prologue builds up DiZ and Naminé just to shove them into a corner for the next three quarters of the game. DiZ especially, could’ve been a great addition to Sora’s journey: someone who was against the Organization, but was too ruthless and judgemental for Sora to follow. I can only imagine the good moments (and perhaps even a boss fight in his digital town where he can just freeze time) we could’ve had.
Honestly, minus a few things, what KH II brought was wasted potential, rather than something truly egregious. You see the good stuff, and then you think about just how much better the whole package could’ve been.
And “wasted potential” is Days’ middle name.

BbS – DDD era: The games where most people have problems. Let me say this out of the gate, I still like BbS. Heck, I like it more than KH II, just because the elements managed to click with me more.
But in my mind a good BbS fan is a fan who also sees what didn’t work… more than what Nomura himself did, sadly.
BbS needed to move things forward and launch a new standard for the franchise, but at the same time it’s like it constantly tries to get the audience’s approvation, which can be a deadly combo.
The story itself runs on some very simple (yet revolutionary for the in-game universe) concepts, but they’re repeated over and over, and what’s worse without adding anything to it. Terra will risk it with the Darkness and elaborate how he will never screw up in every world, Aqua will put her hand on her chest worrying about her friends in every world, and so on. And the game is so eager to jump into it that doesn’t really give a solid starting point, such as throwing Ventus into his journey with one of the most randomly worded and only vaguely threatening… something. Eraqus NEEDS to be the stern Master who will eventually fall, so let’s just say it happened, let’s not actually provide a good reason for him to fall into the enemies’ trap.
As many stated before, in BbS people are dumber than Xehanort is smart, and if the main four just stopped and talked with each other all could’ve been avoided.
The shaky “friendship” between TAV was discussed so many times, I trust don’t need to go back over it.
Add to this some questionable dialogue choices such as comparing your friend to a mass of burning gas and plasma, and it’s easy to see why some disliked, or even turned away in horror at this title.

The whole Keyblade Order retcon? I… liked it. Conceptually, it was cliche, but good. It’s also kinda neat to realize that the previous three games and all that galactic war happened due to a single Keyblade wielder gone rogue, and in BbS you see just another level. If the series had done a better job to convey this, we would march into KH III with the utmost terror and marvel about what could transpire.
The Ceremony was dumb, and Nomura himself doesn’t even respect it all that much. It would’ve been better to just keep the Keyblade appearing for divine providence or fate or an unknown will.

Then there’s DDD.
DDD explains and shows what it’s about, but… ugh. I think when Nomura sees DDD he sees a very different game and story than the one I played. There IS some good stuff, but it’s buried over the same issue of reiterating stuff, MINUTES of monologuing and trying to explain an absurdly complex concept, and stuff that just doesn’t tell itself. At this point we fan had to understand half of the game by interviews, which says all that there is to say about its writing.
The mishandling of characters continues and only gets worse, with iconic villains turned into mindless puppets, a new villain resulting in a character whose purpose, power, even will and personality are borrowed, and the illusion of this game being the one where all the stories would start to converge just to not do that at all. Oh, the characters are all there, but every one of them is an island secluded from the rest. Mickey still refuses to call TAV by name.

Current era: X was good, Union isn’t. Back Cover was more of a cutscene graphic showcase and put some info that only lore fanatics can truly appreciate (and doesn’t do jack to help newcomers understanding what X was about). 0.2 started good, then lost itself in the final act so hard I believe Aqua got Norted just by that.
What about KH III? I dunno. I didn’t really like the Toy Story cutscenes, but I liked the dialogue in Frozen.
But both instances are far from the complete experience that it’s impossible to judge.
True, writing only got worse going on… but I was also pessimistic about the gameplay experience, and E3 quickly proved me wrong.
KH III might just be this ace in the hole people are building it up to be.

To whom of course, but unfortunately the good story in CoM is somewhere around 10% of the total game, everything else is a dull running around the corridors and visiting the same worlds that were in KH1. The game definitely lacks the spirit of adventure that was in KH1 and KH2. In the same Days, despite the dismal mission, the seating of the trio with ice cream on the tower was very touching and lamp-like, but , CoM is not.
The plot of CoM is remarkable in the first place because of the story of Riku whose story is the best in CoM, however this good gets lost behind all the above listed things that I said. I can say that I was frankly bored when I watched CoM in some places, and this despite the fact that I watched cutscenes . I judge by myself, for me, in the first place, important are the good characters and emotional moments in the story. If these two factors are, then any shoals in the plot for me go to the background and are not so significant. For example Roxas is my favorite character, but it so happened that in KH1 and CoM it is not. Of course, for me already the stories will be less interesting than KH2 and Days ,for me it is much more interesting to watch the fate of Roxas than Sora.
 
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alexis.anagram

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Chain of Memories is written well.

358/2 Days is written poorly.

Everything else is somewhere in-between.
Interesting perspective. Both Days and CoM adhere to the same structure for delivering their narratives, and are driven by mirrored themes and intentions, which make them the two strongest stories in my opinion.

DDD explains and shows what it’s about, but… ugh. I think when Nomura sees DDD he sees a very different game and story than the one I played.
Great post. On this point, I think it's telling that Nomura consistently references DDD as a sort of first act for KH3, actually developed using content that he claims would have been cut from KH3 due to its scale...and yet he doesn't seem to acknowledge how vacant DDD is as a story, and how heavily it leans on pretense throughout before taking a hard turn into the 5% of "relevant plot stuff" which is all reduced to exposition anyway. Nomura's stated intention doesn't cohere with the game that actually got made: DDD didn't really lay the groundwork for KH3, sure there are a handful of conceptual blueprints which will be reexamined and probably redefined in KH3 anyway, but the game spends the majority of its time complicating its self-contained narrative to the benefit of no one, then does a half-measure in untangling the snarl of its invented technicalities and calls it a day. That's what sets it apart in some ways, for me: with divisive games like Days or BBS, or even KH2, while I totally get the case to be made for lost potential (and the overcooked plotting that touches every installment in the series), I don't get the sense that these games failed to accomplish what they set out to do fundamentally. They have their issues in terms of the execution of their popular mandate, but they don't so much actively undermine the stated purpose behind them. KH2 caps off the first trilogy of games and provides an ending of sorts while expanding the scope of the KH universe in franchise-building fashion; Days is a staid character piece examining the story (perhaps not the anticipated or desired story, but nonetheless) behind Roxas' time in the Organization; BBS does the actual work of setting up KH3 for delivery and consecrates all of the disparate elements of the series into one overarching narrative.

DDD...gives us Dream Eaters. I wonder how KH3 will function as a narrative without them.
 

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I personally see it as a case of a pretty decent story being told in a very poor manner. I'd ascribe it the same thing as Final Fantasy XV. While the story itself upon examination is fine, albeit unnecessarily over-complicated, the way it is presented often makes it less enjoyable that it should be.

Explaining a plot point or two is alright in my book just to clear things up. Kingdom Hearts has so many supplementary materials and interviews that it gets to a point where you have to question why some of this stuff wasn't explained better or at all in the games.
 

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That's just how I now continue to live with this knowledge. )) I just watched KH through and KH2 went to me more than KH1 and then I opened from scratch on all the comments that KH2 in terms of writing is bad. It seems I'll have to force myself to love 1 part, maybe something will open up and I'll love it more.
I just do not want to become a black sheep, so that my opinion would be in a minority, I was so hard and uncomfortable.
 

The_Echo

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Interesting perspective. Both Days and CoM adhere to the same structure for delivering their narratives, and are driven by mirrored themes and intentions, which make them the two strongest stories in my opinion.
They are both character-driven narratives with themes of memory and identity, but those things do not a good story make.

I've gone on and on about all the ways I think Days failed as a narrative, but in short
- Bad and sometimes repetitive dialogue
- Terrible pacing
- Main protagonist has no agency
- Supporting cast is woefully underused

I feel very confident when I say that Days is the worst story in KH.
 

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I feel very confident when I say that Days is the worst story in KH.
Mm, and more power to you. I also stand by what I said before: all of those items you listed are intentional in their presentation, and the game is stronger for them. But I've likewise gone on and on about why Days is great and ~deep~ (fate, choices, time, identity), so I'll leave it at that.

Back on topic: one character who is consistently well written in KH is Ansem the Wise. I kind of wish he could be our new Yen Sid. He kind of effortlessly encapsulates all of the grey areas KH alludes to but rarely lives in, and I'm always impressed by how efficiently he dramatizes the simplest of events. Whether it's that dialogue between him and Xemnas in KH2 where his whole history as a character is pretty much laid bare and without any fanfare, but the writing for him totally sells it, or Blank Points where he seems like the least likely candidate to deliver a gratifying, full-circle kind of sermon on the whole journey of the series but he just does it anyway, dang. I mean he literally doesn't even remember who he is at that point but he still does a better job of explaining what's going on than the Sorcerer ever does.
 

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I wanted to add something else in this thread. From this it turns out that probably you are really right. ;)
I always noticed that I like what people do not like most.
From this it turns out that I'm really a blind hardcore fan with a bad taste, as one commentator on YouTube said.
I tried to show my point of view, but alas she was in a minority. So I just give up ...)) It's hard to love something that you can not share anywhere. It is better to love what people accept and love most people))
 
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Day's main problem was using Roxas as the lead. He's a good character (i prefer him over sora) but his story was already told in full with KH2. It left no room to add Xion and her character as well as Days became a dimishing return to his arc in 2.

The story would have benefited from a different character as the focal point. One with more wiggle room and less of a close loop.

The lesson here is to be a bit more careful post kh3 about who give prequels to.
 
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Nukara

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Day's main problem was using Roxas as the lead. He's a good character (i prefer him over sora) but his story was already told in full with KH2. It left no room to add Xion and her character as well as Days became a dimishing return to his arc in 2.

The story would have benefited from a different character as the focal point. One with more wiggle room and less of a close loop.

The lesson here is to be a bit more careful post kh3 about who give prequels to.
Xion was just the opposite much. So much so that even many people complain that it took too much screen time.
And Roxas in KH2 is not really that open. For that Roxas that we saw erased the memory and in fact replaced by another person. The real Roxas appeared only in flashbacks and at the end of the prologue.
 

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"Moments of great characterization but the plot makes no sense." - my review of Kingdom Hearts.

CoM and the first game were pretty engaging both plot-and-character-wise, though, in my opinion.
 

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"Moments of great characterization but the plot makes no sense." - my review of Kingdom Hearts.

CoM and the first game were pretty engaging both plot-and-character-wise, though, in my opinion.

And were there interesting characters in addition to the plot?((
It's just that I'm still trying to understand the formula for loving KH1 from fans. What is your best character in KH1?))
 
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Nazo

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Short answer, yes. Kingdom Hearts is a poorly written story. But I don't think that makes it a "bad" story, just a heavily mismanaged one.

If you examine the overall narrative of the series without delving too deep into specific plot devices (like time travel) the core concepts, themes, and universe-building are actually quite solid in my opinion. The heart, if you will, of the series is very well crafted and has a powerful emotional resonance to it that has clearly touched the lives of millions. The issue arises in the fact that the execution of the story itself is often very badly done. That is how I always describe the story of Kingdom Hearts; excellent concept, poor execution.

But here's the thing. We can speak all day on the shortcomings and flaws of how the series' narrative has been handled. However, in my opinion, at the end of the day what truly matters is if the story did its job of making you feel something. Did it speak to you? Did it teach you something about life or yourself? Did you connect to the events and the characters? If the answer is yes, then I still consider the story a success even if the quality of the writing itself is mediocre.

Let me give you an example. When it comes to storytelling and writing, I consider the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien to be among the best of all time. Another example of masterful storytelling is the narrative of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. These are expertly written, masterfully crafted narratives with powerful themes, incredible characters, and moments that will stay with you long after the story is over. But guess what? I still like Kingdom Hearts better. For all its stupidity and mishandled storytelling, the universe of KH is still my absolute favorite. Why? Because the emotions that it's made me feel, the lessons it's taught me, and the way I personally connected to the franchise have elevated it into something very precious and meaningful to me. In the end, it comes down to the fact that Kingdom Hearts makes me feel happy, moreso than any other piece of media ever has. I might not be able to properly explain why that is, but the fact is that it does and I'm glad that it does.

The truth is there are a lot of poorly written stories out there like Sword Art Online or RWBY that still manage to be successful in their overall goal. But even if a story isn't "expertly written" I think that as long as the story resonates with you and makes you feel happy, then it's a good story. It might not be good for everybody, but that's okay because nothing is. Everybody has their own opinions. As long as it makes you happy, that's all that really matters.
 
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