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KH II could have been a fantastic story



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Veritas7340

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For old time's sake, I completed KHII again this summer. I was astounded that KHII saves the vast majority of its actual plot for the last level. The World that Never Was (TWTNW) had remarkably great moments.

Almost all of the characters had shining moments such as the following: Axel's nobel sacrifice, Namine's rescue, DiZ's atonement, Sora's emotional reactions, Riku's rebirth, Xemnas and Saix's speeches, and even Kairi's assistance.

If these moments had been diffused throughout the game, it would have been significantly better! From what I hear, KHII Final Mix does include some more Organization XIII scenes. Nevertheless, how would you modify KHII's story?

Personally, I don't have much in mind admittedly, but I do have one small revision. I would make it so you only visit each world once. Flesh out the plot of the worlds so they are not filler; make them connected to the Organization from the start. In each world, an Organization XIII member, sometimes veiled and sometimes introduced, would supply an army of Heartless and Nobodies to the world's villain. Occasionally, such in Beast's Castle, you would fight one of these members. After the plot reveal in Radiant Garden's 1000 Heartless Battle, you would go directly to Twilight Town instead of the second round.
 

MrFranklin95

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KH2 is my favorite game in the series but even I can admit the story has a lot shortcomings and that's only really because of the Disney Worlds not being a huge part of the story, some characters becoming small roles until the eventual climax, just not having fully developed characters like Kairi or Most of the Organization as a result, and the story kind of having all types of shenon stereotypes and cliches (but the shenon stuff I've always seen in the KH series, so that aspect never bothered me really and I've seen it done much, much worse). The only real important parts of the story is the beginning, the middle, and the end. All the stuff in between you can pretty much chalk it up pretty much filler and gameplay. But, unlike a lot of people, I still like all of the Disney because I get to see my favorite Disney characters again but the only time the Disney worlds come into play is the second half of the game. Which I guess makes sense, the game is a sequel and about reuniting with old friends, but even then, its just the characters going, "Look, that organization member is here causing trouble! Oh darn, let's kick his ass!" The only Disney world with any relevance to the actual plot was Tron's world and a few bits and pieces of the Pete/Maleficent and Organization stuff throughout some of the first act and mostly the second act of the story .

But, for me at least, it makes it all up because the beginning, the middle, and the end stuff is good stuff and creates a lot of good dramatic and character moments (except for the Goofy death, which didn't really need to be there) and the final mix stuff adds more meat to the story and the Organization that aren't "dead". It's not the best but I was still emotional invested with the characters and the twists were good twists. I still understood who these characters are, their different personalities (well, some are different), and their emotional motivations for the most part and I like them all. You also get a few moments that tie in to a larger story, like Xigbar mentioning Ven, Terra, and Aqua and Xenmas' whole deal (although, that's never fully explained and I still don't think it is). Even in the filler stuff, you get more out of it because I feel the Disney characters are much better represented here; I like the stories and interactions more then I did in KH1. And you still get moments of the Organization and Pete really messing with the worlds and its characters like Mulan and Beauty and the Beast and the stuff is done fairly well and its entertaining. Plus, KH2 has the best ending out of all the games.


Either way it goes, BBS has best plot. I just love that story and how tragic it really is. Chain of Memories was more confusing then engaging, 358 has the best character development out of all the games but it's super slow, Re:coded could've just boiled down to a simple secret cut scene, and DDD is just... yeah.

As far as how would I modify the story? I'd say just make the Disney worlds and the other original characters more involved throughout instead of in the beginning, middle, and end. That's all you really need to do and the story would be fine. I wouldn't change anything else about it besides just more character involvement and interactions. I would've also liked to have seen other keyblade wielders.




But we can all agree on one thing: The mangas do the stories much better justice.
 
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Blackdrazon

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If these moments had been diffused throughout the game, it would have been significantly better! From what I hear, KHII Final Mix does include some more Organization XIII scenes. Nevertheless, how would you modify KHII's story?

I think you've hit on something important here. KH2 being back-heavy also clusters all its important moments to the back (and front) of the game. It's often said that KH2 doesn't make its Disney worlds very important, but that's just another way to say "nothing substantial is happening." I wonder how one could spread those scenes around? Axel's sacrifice probably needs to be at the end, but they could have arguably spread out most of the others to other key points in the game.
 

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KH2's story definitely could've been handled better. It had everything to be grand but it isn't. It improves on the gameplay part from KH1 this much is true but KH1 still handled it's storytelling superior. Even the gameplay was faulty due to hold your hand ease which was fixed in the final mix with a critical mode and level one option.

I still can't believe how it's supposed to be about nobodies and the mysterious Organization yet you hardly ever see them. I literally forgot they was there most of the time until they actually appeared.
I was also rather stiffed that Kairi never played a part till she was a damsel in distress. Why couldn't have Sora visited her? Why couldn't he have saved her in Twilight Town before Axel carted off with her?
Plenty of opportunities to get her into the story and interacting with Sora and his other friends building her character.
 

Divine Past

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It's funny how they were successful in integrating Xaldin into Belle's world, yet they didn't feel like doing that for the other members. I mean it's one thing to not do it all, but to do it successfully and just not bother to do it again was just weird.
 

The Dark Mamba

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KH Story Rankings
1. Birth By Sleep
2. Chain of Memories
3. Kingdom Hearts
4. Dream Drop Distance
5. Kingdom Hearts II
6. 358/2 Days
7. Coded

KH2FM is my favorite game in the series but storywise it's not even close to being the best though the Final Mix version did help things greatly by giving some well needed scenes for the Organization. My main reason for 2 being my favorite game is just the colorful fun nature of the game, the great FM additions and it's the first game of the series I played.
 

Chuman

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358/2 was pmuch the organization's story and I've come to accept that. It asked the hard questions, like why isn't luxord at castle oblivion? Where were the other nobodies? Why can't be punch more protagonists during the first act? It, to me, was the remedy to II's storytelling which is what made it a necessary title. II needed more backstory, DiZ showed up, like, two times. Mickey was shit at explaining the difference between ansem and xehanort's heartless, goofy's "death" was forced as hell.

The nobodies had veteran voice actors and its not like I wanted them to become more than what they were, the enemy, but some context would have been appreciated. The one good part was said being a douche to sora, giving him reason to want to kill him. Other than that, he was unnecessarily bloodthirsty for the org XIII.

In the first game, sora had his home, family, friends, life taken away. There was a clear evil, manipulating his friend and doing harm, destroying worlds. Hollow bastion showed how truly cruel he was, sacrifing his subordinate, while end of the world showed the remnants of worlds he destroyed and the experiments he was performing. No explanation needed.

Chain of memories had his memories manipulated by the nobody, nonetheless, of one of his best friends, who was in turn being manipulated by an evil group. But the characters, man. Axel had an agenda, marluxia and larxene had an agenda, vexen had one but it mostly complimented the agenda of the organizatiom, it was great. Riku fought his demons and found the road to dawn despite being lost in darkness.

But II felt like an opera rather than a story, as if george Lucas wrote it chalking the whole thing up to minimalism. If the worlds had more story and were as connected as that of the first title, everything would have been more satisfying and the game would have held up in spirit rather than design, but it isn't too late.

III has the potential to turn the franchise around, DDD provided a glimpse at the gameplay returning to form while improving and despite the wallops it had for plot twists, III can fix things. Square should have shiro amano oversee the stories and strengthen the ongoing themes and built up story for an excellent conclusion that makes the wait feel worthwhile, and it can be the game we should have gotten in 2006.
 

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chuman said:
II needed more backstory, DiZ showed up, like, two times. Mickey was shit at explaining the difference between ansem and xehanort's heartless, goofy's "death" was forced as hell.

If the worlds had more story and were as connected as that of the first title, everything would have been more satisfying and the game would have held up
To be honest if the story had been more fleshed out, connected and had actual backstory and explanation games like Days wouldn't have been needed.

I think it says a lot about KH2 that it needed not one, not two but THREE games to give it backstory and explanation. THREE people. Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep and Days. It took all of those for the KH2's story to be fully fleshed out and make better sense.
 
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