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KH3 Intro Video vs. KH3 "Let It Go"



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Face My Fears

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Am I the only one that can't help but think that more money, time, and effort was spent on the KH3 version of "Let It Go" than the intro video of KH3? All the scenes in Arendelle that are "movie quality" (not sure what the right term is), look way better and more highly produced than the KH3 intro video which kind of annoys me. Does anyone know if there is confirmation of this or if it was ever discussed how much time went into producing the "movie quality" Arendelle scenes? It kind of seems unfair that even the game's own intro (and I guess end video) didn't get as good treatment as "Let It Go".
 

okhi12

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It annoys me too. Maybe this time they changed the CGI art direction or something but I still can't believe the opening and other CGI scenes from KH3 look kinda rough in comparison to the opening of 0.2 that looks much better and polished. As an example, Aqua was amazingly well done in 0.2's opening but in the CGI scene when the land of departure is restored she doesn't look that good. Not bad at all but something is off about her. I think the colors are more oversaturated now and that doesn't help either.
And I really don't understand the design of Sora's face in most CGI scenes (and some in-game normal scenes) of KH3 in which he has a baby face that doesn't actually resemble his own face in most of the game normal scenes, it's almost as if he's a different person. The same goes for Roxas and Ven. Sora's face looked better in the openings of KH1, KH2 and DDD and it was more consistent with the concept art for the character and with how he looked in those games. However I liked his face in the Caribbean scenes and the Arendelle scene you mentioned. I don't know if they put more resources in those scenes than in the opening and ending, but whichever the reason is, I'm slightly disappointed with the result for the most important CGI scenes of KH3 when the previous CGI for all the other games was top quality. Not a very important flaw, I know, but it adds to the list.
 

Face My Fears

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It just was odd to me that the intro and ending scene weren't as good looking as some of the cutscenes in Arendelle. That showed a clear bias and it kind of irks me. IMO the intro and end cutscene should have been the best looking scenes in the game. The fact that "Let It Go" looked like a Pixar movie I was watching in an IMAX theater while the intro video wasn't near that quality is unfair.
 

Sign

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Being able to recreate film scenes from scratch for KH is something that SE has always prided themselves on, ever since the first title. All of that time studying the models and analyzing the animations while rewatching the scenes over and over, to be able to reproduce it with such quality that even the creators would be impressed by? It's a real testament to their efforts.

However, it's one thing to say "oh, I think X looks so much more impressive than Y" but to insinuate that they're half-assing things? Let's not do that. The dev staff strive to do the best in all aspects of their work. Like, people mocked Sony Pictures for The Emoji Movie after Into the Spiderverse was released, but the staff working on both of those projects certainly didn't feel like they gave one preferential treatment over the other.
 
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Face My Fears

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Being able to recreate film scenes from scratch for KH is something that SE has always prided themselves on, ever since the first title. All of that time studying the models and analyzing the animations while rewatching the scenes over and over, to be able to reproduce it with such quality that even the creators would be impressed by? It's a real testament to their efforts.

However, it's one thing to say "oh, I think X looks so much more impressive than Y" but to insinuate that they're half-assing things? Let's not do that. The dev staff strive to do the best in all aspects of their work. Like, people mocked Sony Pictures for The Emoji Movie after Into the Spiderverse was released, but the staff working on both of those projects certainly didn't feel like they gave one preferential treatment over the other.
I'm not saying that they half-assed it. I just found it odd that they would choose to have "Let It Go" look amazing and then choose to have the intro and end video look less than that quality. It was the choice they made, rather than the final product that I have an issue with, as I find the intro and end video still look great... just not as great as "Let It Go" and clearly that was a choice on their behalf.
 

Elysium

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It doesn't really bother me. The Frozen property is so much bigger than Kingdom Hearts--many of the individual properties are (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.)--so it's not surprising Disney would put pressure on them to make it perfect. And I thought the "Let It Go" scene was perfect except for the last little bit when Elsa changes her dress and walks out on the balcony. Something about her face (nose/mouth) didn't turn out quite right there.

That said, I thought KH3 was beautiful altogether. The cinematics were still gorgeous to me.
 

Katsagu

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I don't agree with this. Like at all.

I believe there were like 3 types of CG in KH3:

- The good CG - The one you see most during the game, including the let it go scene. In these CG scenes there is a clear pop to the colors, sora's hair almost looks orange in some of them. And the clothes hava a rubbery feel to them.

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- The great CG - That in my opinion are reserved to the Opening movie and Epilogue, in here it is clear that the animations (especially when they talk in the epilogue) are better and every material just looks better. Just compare the ammount of detail on one organization cloak:
f397f6cf02af08d5ad7d52716cd1a7c1.png

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In the axel one, the suit almost looks smooth to the touch, in the Opening the suits have this scaly texture to them, like this:
large-texture-mat-dragon-scale-lg.jpg


These are the types of details that are missing in most CG cutscenes in KH3, and there is no problem with that due to the sheer ammount of CG cutscenes we had.

-The amazing CG - Only in the secret ending. This is the one that really feels on par with CG scenes present in FF or even past opening CG cutscenes. Like seriusly the ammount of detail in this scene is amazing, drops of water in sora's fingers, hair quality, light reflection and again material quality. I wish all scenes could have been like this, but budget is a thing, and they can't blow it off on CG scenes.

Now one can argue, that spending money on "Let it go" scene was unnecessary, and it might have been, but it's a neat thing to see be made honestly, and I'm glad they added it in.

So I dont agree with your sentiment. I didn't even think the scenes in Arendele looked all that impressive.

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Sign

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I'm not saying that they half-assed it. I just found it odd that they would choose to have "Let It Go" look amazing and then choose to have the intro and end video look less than that quality. It was the choice they made, rather than the final product that I have an issue with, as I find the intro and end video still look great... just not as great as "Let It Go" and clearly that was a choice on their behalf.

You're still saying Visual Works "chose" to deliver a less-than-stellar product in the opening by comparison, and that's very insulting. Again, it's one thing to think "Let It Go" looks better than the opening. It's a perfectly valid opinion and one that many people agree with. But the VW team certainly don't think their work on the opening is inferior, and claiming that they intentionally didn't do as great of a job is such a shitty take.
 

redcrown

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In the same vein as this, the Verum Rex trailer in the beginning of the Toy Story world was ridiculously over-prioritized and insanely well animated. This isn't a terrible thing on it's own, but in comparison to some of the other plot important CG scenes (the scene of Sora in the ending leaving to find Kairi with his flat doll mouth comes to mind), it's just really baffling why the development team put so much production value into a nonexistent video game trailer over the actual video game itself, that really only barely hints at future games and a character (notice how that's singular) to come.

I mean, I think people would have been fine with the Verum Rex trailer in Toy Story being 2D or even the same textures as PS1 FF7-esque style graphics, while still animating Yozora the same in the secret ending to emphasize it as even more of a reveal that he's a real character. I don't know why they put more effort and budget into that 30 seconds of a fake trailer than actual 30 second CG cutscenes in the actual game we bought.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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In the same vein as this, the Verum Rex trailer in the beginning of the Toy Story world was ridiculously over-prioritized and insanely well animated. This isn't a terrible thing on it's own, but in comparison to some of the other plot important CG scenes (the scene of Sora in the ending leaving to find Kairi with his flat doll mouth comes to mind), it's just really baffling why the development team put so much production value into a nonexistent video game trailer over the actual video game itself, that really only barely hints at future games and a character (notice how that's singular) to come.

I mean, I think people would have been fine with the Verum Rex trailer in Toy Story being 2D or even the same textures as PS1 FF7-esque style graphics, while still animating Yozora the same in the secret ending to emphasize it as even more of a reveal that he's a real character. I don't know why they put more effort and budget into that 30 seconds of a fake trailer than actual 30 second CG cutscenes in the actual game we bought.

I think there are a few things going on here that have affected certain CG scenes.

1) Like I mentioned earlier in this thread in regards to the CG for the ending, Nomura was constantly revising the ending of the game which would mean any CG for it would have been constantly under revision or worked on with a rush order.

2) Visual Works was probably given a higher budget for specific scenes like "Let It Go" (specifically Elsa), every Pirates CG scene, "Verum Rex", and "Yozora"

3) Some scenes were likely planned earlier in development over other scenes, allowing Visual Works the time to work on these scenes versus other scenes that may have been planned out later in the development cycle

4) Perhaps Visual Works had other orders to work on from other divisions at SE

The truth lies somewhere in the middle all of those varying explanations. Budget and time were definitely a big factor in everything. I also wouldn't be surprised if pretty much anything that came after "Let It Go" was just constantly under revision since that is about where the quality changes in the CG, barring the Pirates CG and "Yozora".
 

Sakuraba Neku

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In the same vein as this, the Verum Rex trailer in the beginning of the Toy Story world was ridiculously over-prioritized and insanely well animated. This isn't a terrible thing on it's own, but in comparison to some of the other plot important CG scenes (the scene of Sora in the ending leaving to find Kairi with his flat doll mouth comes to mind), it's just really baffling why the development team put so much production value into a nonexistent video game trailer over the actual video game itself, that really only barely hints at future games and a character (notice how that's singular) to come.

I mean, I think people would have been fine with the Verum Rex trailer in Toy Story being 2D or even the same textures as PS1 FF7-esque style graphics, while still animating Yozora the same in the secret ending to emphasize it as even more of a reveal that he's a real character. I don't know why they put more effort and budget into that 30 seconds of a fake trailer than actual 30 second CG cutscenes in the actual game we bought.
I think Nomura's salt about FF15 is pretty obvious in KH3.
 

Face My Fears

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You're still saying Visual Works "chose" to deliver a less-than-stellar product in the opening by comparison, and that's very insulting. Again, it's one thing to think "Let It Go" looks better than the opening. It's a perfectly valid opinion and one that many people agree with. But the VW team certainly don't think their work on the opening is inferior, and claiming that they intentionally didn't do as great of a job is such a shitty take.
I'm not saying that they chose to deliver a less than stellar product. I'm saying that they chose for the intro and end video to have a certain aesthetic, while "Let It Go" got another aesthetic. That was a choice. I'm curious to why they made that choice.

I still think the intro and video look amazing. But this is Kingdom Hearts, not Frozen The Game. The intro and end videos were always the breathtaking visual spectacle of KH games, yet they chose for "Let It Go" to outshine them.
 

Amadeus

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Honestly, I'm satisfied with all the CG in the game as a whole. The only issues I have are nitpicks, like stiff eyebrows and (literal) upper lips (seriously! Check out Sora's and Riku's cupid's bows in the scene where Sora goes off to find Kairi; they don't really move??). There's also Xion's really strange-looking ending cutscene face, because it's completely different from her previous CG face (opening and Lea's vision; her "Sora leaves" face might be the same as the ending). I can forgive that, though, because I can totally believe the ending was a rush order. Here's hoping VW wasn't crunched too badly for this game, and that they're proud of their work. It brought me to tears multiple times :')
 

DizneyXBirds95

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Just a Random post but was the Kingdom of Corona Corona cutscene when Rapunzel used her Healing Incantation to revive Flynn/Eugene a Pre-Rendered cutscene? Because the lighting and the graphics didn't match the other pre-rendered cutscenes from Arendelle and The Caribbean and those that were in the game itself.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Just a Random post but was the Kingdom of Corona Corona cutscene when Rapunzel used her Healing Incantation to revive Flynn/Eugene a Pre-Rendered cutscene? Because the lighting and the graphics didn't match the other pre-rendered cutscenes from Arendelle and The Caribbean and those that were in the game itself.

It was a CG cutscene, yes.
 

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It was a CG cutscene, yes.

Hope this isn't too late or like... a weird necropost, was just browsing, and I thought I'd clarify that the scene where Rapunzel revives Eugene is in fact pre-rendered, but not a visualworks scene. They're using the UE4 game assets, but the effects and lighting are clearly a cut above what would be capable on PS4 in real time.
 
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Hope this isn't too late or like... a weird necropost, was just browsing, and I thought I'd clarify that the scene where Rapunzel revives Eugene is in fact pre-rendered, but not a visualworks scene. They're using the UE4 game assets, but the effects and lighting are clearly a cut above what would be capable on PS4 in real time.
That's kinda weird, huh. Like, out of all the worlds that have CG scenes, Tangled just gets "better lookin' UE4 scene".

But in my opinion, the best CG scenes are, the OP and ED, the Caribbean ones, Land of Departure's restoration despite my iffyness on how we were robbed of one more Castle Oblivion visit, and ALL THE QUADRATUM ONES INCLUDING THE IN-GAME ONE HOLY COWPIE
 

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Hope this isn't too late or like... a weird necropost, was just browsing, and I thought I'd clarify that the scene where Rapunzel revives Eugene is in fact pre-rendered, but not a visualworks scene. They're using the UE4 game assets, but the effects and lighting are clearly a cut above what would be capable on PS4 in real-time.
What's the point of that?
 
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