Eh, I kind of feel like it's forced interest for me. I'm forced to follow the story because the characters are now tied to it, but that doens't mean I like it. I could very much be interested in the story simply because it's good and interesting, but instead it's just... well, I have to.
The whole plot is so confusing, I still have no idea what is the connection between Chi and Ux, there are the foretellers, but now there's suddenly new union leaders? Nothing is focused on enough, there's just waaay too much going on and new things happening before the old ones are wrapped up. Everything is just jumping all over the place and getting convoluted. For me it's not as much "wow this character I like is here, oh boy am I now hooked to the story and feel a connection", it's more "oh boy do I hope they find a way to somehow explain this in a way that makes some sense and isn't dumb... guess this will be important in the future so I'll have to pay attention". Like... yeah? I follow the story, but that doesn't mean I like it or think it's good. Just because I'm interested in X doesn't mean I wouldn't prefer Y if I had the choice.
Buut that's just me.
"Forced interest", that's a good moniker to describe it, lol.
I've already said it and I can only repeat it once more: The story of the X[chi]-era in itself is already intriguing and exciting
on its own. It is about a totally different era in the same universe as the main KH series, it doesn't
need the forced connections to the pre-existing cast to be interesting!
personally i think khux's story was more interesting than kh3's. i care about the foretellers, the master, ephemera, skuld, etc. and am more interested in them than i have ever been interested in xehanort and his gang of lackeys.
Certainly a valid stance and I dare to propose that it actually underlines/supports my previous assertion: The X-era story is fine on its own, it doesn't need the forced
direct connection to KH III and the current cast to be viable and enjoyable.
I wouldn’t classify new plot points as baggage, they’re just ongoing stories. Yes, there’s absolutely no denying that Kingdom Hearts has had a narrative issue regarding open questions, but sometimes Nomura makes them open ended in order to entice discussion between fans. The benefit with Kingdom Hearts as a series is that the fans can feel a sense of investment because they can add their own ideas as to why things are, and see as to whether the answers play out as they initially theorised.
What else should one call stuff that gets heaped on top of already ongoing stories from beforehand? The problem lies not with the X-era story bringing up its own mysteries and plot points, the problem lies with the fact that these mysteries and plot points do not remain localized to the X-era's narrative.
The problem is also not with Nomura liking open ended things to entice discussion, the problem is that Nomura overdoes it with this and instead of having maybe two handful of open ended things to discuss the audience gets a whole tangled web of them.
There is a thing of doing too much for it to be good, and frankly considering how it was handled series-wide beforehand I am not confident in the prospect of how this will eventually play out.
If this thread was solely about X Back Cover, then yes, I would be critising it to the ends of the earth. All X Back Cover did was give voices to the Fortellers, and gave a graphical showcase of Unreal Engine 4. X Back Cover felt like a forced advertisement for Unchained X at the time, and it’s such a shame of all the squandered potential the narrative had. I’d have loved to see the Keyblade War play out in that game, but as is, all it really did was pander to the X narrative far more than it should have.
I’m not really concerned about that. In Dream Drop Distance, there were entries of all the Kingdom Hearts games that came before it. You can just easily read them to get the main points of said games. And this is coming from somebody who’s first ever Kingdom Hearts game they played was Dream Drop Distance. Kingdom Hearts III will be guaranteed to have something like that.
Or to make an allegory: X Back Cover was like Roxas' prologue from KH II without the rest of the game attached.
Yea, because the fanbase is certainly known for reading always the available massive journal texts nor is that approach really an effective one to make the average person care for the overaching narrative.
Actually, I’m inclined to believe that we’re getting a Chain of Memories/Kingdom Hearts II style transition in which certain key characters transfer over from the former game to the latter game. For example, Axel, Namine and Diz were heavily involved in both the plot of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, however, for people who’ve never played Chain of Memories, they never felt alienated by the introduction of Axel, Namine and Diz because they had a re-introduction for Kingdom Hearts II. I feel that our “new†Kingdom Hearts III characters is going to be Ephemer, Skuld and Luxu (because he hints at surviving beyond the Keyblade War). They can get a re-introduction for Kingdom Hearts III and get involved with the Xehanort narrative.
What exactly do you mean with "heavily involved" though? Naminé and DiZ disappear completely from the narrative of KH II after Roxas' prologue and do not reappear until some glorified cameos in the final world.
There wasn't exactly much for the newbies playing KH II to be "alienated" from because these characters were pushed to the background for 90% of the available screentime.
See, and that's the thing. Why on earth do we
need Ephemer, Skuld and Luxu getting involved with the Xehanort narrative? Don't we already have a cast big enough involved with the whole conflict that started since KH I as it is?
We have Sora, Riku and Kairi, we have Terra, Aqua and Ventus, we have the Disney crew, the ex-members of the first Organisation, possibly Eraqus, Ansem the Wise and Lea, then Naminé, Roxas and Xion might also getting squeezed in somewhere so
more characters is actually
the least KH III's story needs I'd say.
As sad as it may be, so far the writing staff of the KH series has proven that they're too stupid to properly use a bigger cast of characters and do them justice, yet all they seem to do is further inflate the cast before properly using the assets they already have.
But the Keyblade War was already the core narrative point ever since Birth by Sleep, and in Dream Drop Distance, the context of the Keyblade War was solidified. The Keyblade War of the past has already been confirmed to be involved through the discussions that Young Eraqus and Young Xehanort had during the E3 2015 trailer. I don’t think that Nomura’s trying to pull an M. Night Shyamalan on us with twists, as opposed to make the story of Kingdom Hearts III more condensed. For instance, having Ventus origin story be explained in depth for Union X is much more beneficial for Kingdom Hearts III because then we don’t have to have cutscenes be backstory after backstory after backstory.
Correction, it is a narrative point correlating to Xehanort's motivation and serving as a
backdrop for the actions he takes, but it was never a
core plot point important to the current era's cast of characters. It was only with DDD that a shift started, but also still in the confines of "background story" serving as motivation for present events.
It wasn't until Unchained/Union X that there are actual direct correlations and connections between the eras made and the whole (stupid) prophecy bullshit came in, as the discussion between Young Eraqus and Young Xehanort in the KH III Trailer can still serve the whole background narrative stance without having actual past elements of the war-era intrude on the present story.
Or most likely have most people simply not care for Ven's origin story at all because it wasn't explored in the actual main medium or is delegated to just some text elements in the journal in KH III.
I'm in this fandom for quite a while actually, by now I know how a big part of it ticks.
You have to remember that the format in which the game is presented is through a mobile application. They have to be designed differently in order to keep player retention. It’s not like a console game where you pay an upfront price with the complete package and the story can be completed at your own pace. Mobile games require a consistent user base throughout its active lifespan because active servers are designed to maintain it. So, in order to make that investment worthwhile, content has to be broken down in a “Snail’s paceâ€, otherwise there wouldn’t be enough interest in the application in the long run, which results it in the application being terminated.
These plot points will be revealed in due time. Clearly, there’s more on the horizon that’s yet to be revealed, and I’m optimistic that a lot of these questions will be answered for Union X. And besides, wasn’t there a censored Kingdom Hearts III promotional image that had Sora petting a Fox?
As I mentioned earlier, I really do feel as though a lot of the plot points and current setups from the X narrative will be answered through Jiminy’s Journal, expository cutscenes and summaries of the previous games. That doesn’t change the fact that Nomura has indeed burdened Kingdom Hearts III with a lot to answer.
Which then, I can only reiterate, is an unfit medium to tell this kind of story when it is meant to connect to the rest of the overaching series, or as Kirabook stated:
That may be true, but they don't take months to reach a conclusion. The nature of Union X/Chi/WHATEVER doesn't suit well for an actual important story, not the way it's currently laid out.
Spreading out the story over different mediums was always a rightfully criticized problem of this series, and by perpetuating it further they're only aggravating the situation and getting people more annoyed because of all the extra stuff they have to read/watch to get a more full picture.
That's NOT good story telling by far.
All the stuff truly important for KH III
should have been in X Back Cover for those who either can't or don't
want to follow an online app with a snail's pace of story, period, and not like Nomura mentions here:
Famitsu about 2.8 said:
- That's just one instance where we can see the connection between those two stories... In [KHxBC], we catch a glimpse at the human side of each Foreteller, which wasn't evident in [KHx] or in [KHUx] and it was refreshing.
Nomura: It's the first time hearing the voices of those that appear in [KHxBC], and for the people that haven't played [KHx] or [KHUx], then this is also the first time ever meeting them. Being a bit short of an hour, during this restricted time, I had to be careful to display their individuality, and have the player feel a sense of attachment and empathy toward them. Now, it should be noted that [KHxBC] is a story about the Foretellers and the events that occurred behind the scenes, so for the parts of the story which are important and connected to the main story, including the Keyblade War, I have separated the story telling of that into [KHx] and [KHUx], which can only be experienced by playing them.
"The parts of the story which are important and connected to the main story", lol, with that statement bolded above Nomura essentially denoted that X Back Cover is in the wider image unimportant and is again spreading the story despite originally stating that he was "concerned" with the story being so spread out and the ReMixes being an attempt to exactly remedy this.
I think that Xehanort’s story and the Keyblade War during The Age of Fairy Tales are two entirely different beasts. Xehanort’s story is reserved for all of the console Kingdom Hearts games, whilst the X saga can focus on the history of The Keyblade War. Sure, the Keyblade War of the past has connections to Kingdom Hearts III, but it’s an Apples to Oranges situation. I don’t feel as though the X narrative is “forcing†its way into Kingdom Hearts III because the connections are minimal.
Well, if it would really be as you say here, there would be no direct connections between these narratives at all and considering the build up, Nomura's telling statement above and the fact that it was stated somewhere that X's and III's story are developed "parallel to each other" it does come over as much more than just "minimal" connections.
Kirabook said:
The problem I have is tying the mystery of the past to KH3 (possibly). I wish they would have dropped the big "OOO, THIS PLOT WILL BE RELEVANT TO THE FUTURE" bits of story for after KH3. I wish they would have waited to bring Chi into the real plot for after KH3 and reserve a whole saga for it. The current saga has too much going on already.
This is practically the main gist of the thing and the whole problem I see with the whole thing as well.
It is not about that the Xehanort narrative or the X-narrative are better or inferior to each other, they're both interesting and enticing to follow, but about them being thrown together to create an even bigger mess which hampers the whole thing.