Kingdom Hearts III Pre-Release Spoiler Discussion Thread

[UltimaXOmega]

Spoiler Show

Leveling up Keyblades doesn't give them more abilities. Also, the Happy Gear maxed out is still 3 points lower than default Ultima. So forget that all Keyblades are good endgame nonsense.

 

[Elysium]

Spoiler Show

So Rapunzel isn't a party member post-world. That is just stupid. We've already established that Flynn SUMMONS BARRELS! There is no excuse for Rapunzel magic hair or no being incapable of fighting, any more than Elsa and Anna. I like Marshmallow just fine. It's still ridiculous.

 

[Zexelf]

Spoiler Show

Leveling up Keyblades doesn't give them more abilities. Also, the Happy Gear maxed out is still 3 points lower than default Ultima. So forget that all Keyblades are good endgame nonsense.

Spoiler Show

How Ultima weapon being the best take out the fact that all other keyblades still good until the late/end game/until get the ultima weapon? Just because something is better doesn't not make all other things bad.

 

[Leaferian]

Also, in regards to Keyblades, the leaker said that you get new passive abilities by leveling them up. In his recent twitter post, he specifies in one of the comments that he is talking about how when you unlock the last level there's a cinematic sort of pop up, but that the keyblade doesn't change form, gain any new passives at that level, and doesn't get any new transformations. So yeah, just to set that straight.

 

[CDD]

So thus far we have:

Spoiler Show

No character allies in Frozen (Marshmallow is not a character and does not deserve to be counted as one)
Only Baymax out of six main characters in BH6. Not even Hiro, the actual MC, is a party member
Rapunzel, the only female Disney party member, is taken out after the story for that world ends.

Job well done Osaka. Much hype. So glad they focused time and energy on these specific world choices so that we could get the best possible experience out of our Disney visits.

You're insane if you expected all the members of Big Hero 6 to be a party members.

Also, your posts show a stunning lack of understanding of how game development works. You think "Osaka" is purposely not including things in the game to personally spite you, when deadlines are a real thing and this game has to come out at some point.

The fact that you and other posters compare this to the other games in the series that are mostly re-uses assets to the first KH game made in a modern dev environment is quite something.

 

[alexis.anagram]

Spoiler Show

Look, I'm fine with you being overly critical of the game. It's healthy to keep this community in check and realistic. This, however, I felt a need to comment on for some reason.

1. I mean, he is a character? Like, objectively a character. Elsa would have been cool, but I WAY prefer her cool snowman bodyguard over her as a creative choice. This is the coolest option they could have chosen to surprise us, and he looks like a fun addition to the world. The last part's just my opinion, however.
2. A HUGE portion of Hiro's fighting in the movie is behind Baymax. He's there for his brains and because he's the leader of the group, not because he has a special superpower or suit his own. I'm fine with Baymax, he looks fun. No use complaining about not having 6 god damn party members to me, honestly. Again, my opinion. Some people really love these characters and wanted to see every single one as a party member, but I'm not really into that. Good for you, though.
3. I mean, it REALLY wouldn't make sense for her to continue being a party member in this universe. They would have either had to remove one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the movie ENTIRELY for her to keep her hair or have Xehanort kidnap her, with the second option leaving her out of the world anyways. I don't see how they could have gotten around this without severely compromising Disney's story. And, no, I don't think going the route of the new Disney cartoon would have made it better.

Spoiler Show

Look, I'm fine with you being overly forgiving of this game even as it fails to get basic stuff like this right, but none of your points actually answer my grievances or function as qualitative defenses of the Osaka approach to these worlds or the game in general, so:

1. Your argument presupposes that we can only fight with one ally in Arendelle and that has to be Marshmallow for the "surprise" factor. So then how about keeping Marshmallow a surprise all the way up until release and disguising its involvement by actually incorporating Anna and Elsa as playable characters within the campaign? Would that not be an even nicer surprise? I'm perfectly fine with mixing up the world structure once in a while, and at least for the story playthrough of the world having Anna and Elsa be temporary party members for the specific events that involve them would be perfectly fine with me. Bringing them together to fight alongside you in the final battle would make the whole world feel even more complete and it would add a new dimension to their story that would be unique to KH, enhancing the justifications for that world's involvement. Marshmallow could still be part of the team during the same segments it probably already is. Everybody wins.

2. It's funny because you talk about the "surprise" factor of adding Marshmallow as an ally to change up the routine in Arendelle, but then the idea of bringing the whole party system of KH to a climax for a world that is literally perfectly positioned to do that is somehow "not worth complaining about." There is literally no reason to develop BH6 for KH3 if they aren't going to use all 6 titular characters to tell the story and construct the gameplay around that. Having six characters to swap in and out of one's party while roaming around the massive cityscape and beating up baddies is so intuitive it is actually shameful that Osaka didn't implement this as the full stop argument for doing San Fransokyo in the first place. It would be such an obvious call back to the classic FF party system and it would allow every character to feel individually useful and important (Baymax as the White Mage/healer, Hiro as the Scholar/buffer, Honey Lemon as the Chemist I mean FFS this shit writes itself) and it would add a unique structure to the enemy lineup for that world because you would want some enemies to be stronger or weaker against members of the team as incentive to swap them out situationally. You don't have to care, but to argue that this is a defensible omission because you don't care is just silly.

3. I totally appreciate that you love Tangled and I hope the world is everything for you, but my complaint has nothing to do with removing or altering anything about the story of the world or Rapunzel's arc as a character (I've never seen the film and have no opinion on that either way). I'm strictly concerned with the idea that she will no longer function as a supportive ally in combat, and this goes right to that lack of imagination that continues to characterize KH3 in general. So her hair gets cut? And? Give her something else to fight with. Give her light-based magic and Holy. Isn't she supposed to be a new PoH? I'm meant to believe there isn't anything that could possibly happen over the course of her arc within an explicitly magic-themed world within a KH game that could awaken a new power within her? Come on. "It wouldn't make sense" because the developers got lazy and decided it would be better to use those resources towards not developing party members in Frozen or BH6. Whoops.

Again, this one is especially egregious to me because she's the only female Disney ally in a game that is looking increasingly regressive when it comes to female characters and their role in the series. Like, I was not personally aware that women are incapable of adapting to change and learning to find new ways to defend themselves and their friends and continue to be active participants in the world around them after a setback. Great defense there, buddy.

On the whole, I am trying to withhold judgment on this front because there are a lot of unknowns here. But between Aqua, the new PoH, and literally everything that we have seen of or about Kairi, I can not shake the feeling that something terrible is about to transpire. That is to say, there was a sense that the series was finally beginning to make some progress (incremental though it was) with female protagonists like Aqua and Xion, who were, to whatever extent possible given their circumstances, commanders of their fate and agents of change within their own personal stories. That excited me for their potential in KH3, and the idea that a less proactive character like Kairi might be able to ride that wave of progress towards real development and a storyline of her own. But the more we see of KH3, the more entrenched it appears in those old, stupid ideas of positioning women as interchangeable, defenseless, a reward for boys and men to go after and prove their heroism. And if KH3 turns out the way I strongly believe it will, I am certain there will be dudes and some clueless chicks who are just eagerly waiting in the wings to explain why it's totally OK in a game releasing in 2019 that the only female protagonist we've ever gotten to play as gets fridged for the drama, or why it's Roxas that gets to play the badass while Xion is stuck somewhere waiting for him and Axel to come get her even though that's a total bastardization of that trio's established dynamic, or why Kairi is stuck getting kidnapped again so that players can literally get a trophy for rushing to her rescue, or why Namine isn't even in the opening and as a matter of fact doesn't get to do diddly all but Nomura really had us going for a minute there!

I mean look at the apparent world plot for Frozen (often misguidedly regarded as a paragon of pop feminism) in which it's been reimagined so that actually it was Sora protecting Elsa from Larxene all along! Because that's what was missing from the movie: a strange guy to stalk Elsa against her will and make sure she's safe while she karaokes the one memorable song from that film in self-imposed damseldom. The scene where Sora talks about how he won't let Elsa turn to darkness is also actually the worst, because his best boyfriend eats darkness for breakfast and Sora doesn't even care. But a woman, having darkness in her heart? Especially one he just ran into, who explicitly told him to diddly off and who seems like she's being threatened by mysterious forces beyond her comprehension? Lol, what else is even the point of being a Keyblade Master.

So yeah, look. I'm sorry Nomura and Osaka couldn't deliver and KH3 is not the best version of what it could have been, and now it seems like that the only way to justify the reason things are the way they are is to evade the core issues with their approach and regurgitate their own preemptive excuses back at the audience. I'm disappointed that fans will apparently be encouraged for the rest of the decade and most of the next one to wait for another KH game to do what this one, the one we already did all that waiting for, was supposed to. But I'm not sorry for being "overly" critical or taking this shit to task, because I only know how to do that unapologetically.

 

[Unusual1290]

Spoiler Show

Look, I'm fine with you being overly forgiving of this game even as it fails to get basic stuff like this right, but none of your points actually answer my grievances or function as qualitative defenses of the Osaka approach to these worlds or the game in general, so:

1. Your argument presupposes that we can only fight with one ally in Arendelle and that has to be Marshmallow for the "surprise" factor. So then how about keeping Marshmallow a surprise all the way up until release and disguising its involvement by actually incorporating Anna and Elsa as playable characters within the campaign? Would that not be an even nicer surprise? I'm perfectly fine with mixing up the world structure once in a while, and at least for the story playthrough of the world having Anna and Elsa be temporary party members for the specific events that involve them would be perfectly fine with me. Bringing them together to fight alongside you in the final battle would make the whole world feel even more complete and it would add a new dimension to their story that would be unique to KH, enhancing the justifications for that world's involvement. Marshmallow could still be part of the team during the same segments it probably already is. Everybody wins.

2. It's funny because you talk about the "surprise" factor of adding Marshmallow as an ally to change up the routine in Arendelle, but then the idea of bringing the whole party system of KH to a climax for a world that is literally perfectly positioned to do that is somehow "not worth complaining about." There is literally no reason to develop BH6 for KH3 if they aren't going to use all 6 titular characters to tell the story and construct the gameplay around that. Having six characters to swap in and out of one's party while roaming around the massive cityscape and beating up baddies is so intuitive it is actually shameful that Osaka didn't implement this as the full stop argument for doing San Fransokyo in the first place. It would be such an obvious call back to the classic FF party system and it would allow every character to feel individually useful and important (Baymax as the White Mage/healer, Hiro as the Scholar/buffer, Honey Lemon as the Chemist I mean FFS this shit writes itself) and it would add a unique structure to the enemy lineup for that world because you would want some enemies to be stronger or weaker against members of the team as incentive to swap them out situationally. You don't have to care, but to argue that this is a defensible omission because you don't care is just silly.

3. I totally appreciate that you love Tangled and I hope the world is everything for you, but my complaint has nothing to do with removing or altering anything about the story of the world or Rapunzel's arc as a character (I've never seen the film and have no opinion on that either way). I'm strictly concerned with the idea that she will no longer function as a supportive ally in combat, and this goes right to that lack of imagination that continues to characterize KH3 in general. So her hair gets cut? And? Give her something else to fight with. Give her light-based magic and Holy. Isn't she supposed to be a new PoH? I'm meant to believe there isn't anything that could possibly happen over the course of her arc within an explicitly magic-themed world within a KH game that could awaken a new power within her? Come on. "It wouldn't make sense" because the developers got lazy and decided it would be better to use those resources towards not developing party members in Frozen or BH6. Whoops.

Again, this one is especially egregious to me because she's the only female Disney ally in a game that is looking increasingly regressive when it comes to female characters and their role in the series. Like, I was not personally aware that women are incapable of adapting to change and learning to find new ways to defend themselves and their friends and continue to be active participants in the world around them after a setback. Great defense there, buddy.

On the whole, I am trying to withhold judgment on this front because there are a lot of unknowns here. But between Aqua, the new PoH, and literally everything that we have seen of or about Kairi, I can not shake the feeling that something terrible is about to transpire. That is to say, there was a sense that the series was finally beginning to make some progress (incremental though it was) with female protagonists like Aqua and Xion, who were, to whatever extent possible given their circumstances, commanders of their fate and agents of change within their own personal stories. That excited me for their potential in KH3, and the idea that a less proactive character like Kairi might be able to ride that wave of progress towards real development and a storyline of her own. But the more we see of KH3, the more entrenched it appears in those old, stupid ideas of positioning women as interchangeable, defenseless, a reward for boys and men to go after and prove their heroism. And if KH3 turns out the way I strongly believe it will, I am certain there will be dudes and some clueless chicks who are just eagerly waiting in the wings to explain why it's totally OK in a game releasing in 2019 that the only female protagonist we've ever gotten to play as gets fridged for the drama, or why it's Roxas that gets to play the badass while Xion is stuck somewhere waiting for him and Axel to come get her even though that's a total bastardization of that trio's established dynamic, or why Kairi is stuck getting kidnapped again so that players can literally get a trophy for rushing to her rescue, or why Namine isn't even in the opening and as a matter of fact doesn't get to do diddly all but Nomura really had us going for a minute there!

I mean look at the apparent world plot for Frozen (often misguidedly regarded as a paragon of pop feminism) in which it's been reimagined so that actually it was Sora protecting Elsa from Larxene all along! Because that's what was missing from the movie: a strange guy to stalk Elsa against her will and make sure she's safe while she karaokes the one memorable song from that film in self-imposed damseldom. The scene where Sora talks about how he won't let Elsa turn to darkness is also actually the worst, because his best boyfriend eats darkness for breakfast and Sora doesn't even care. But a woman, having darkness in her heart? Especially one he just ran into, who explicitly told him to diddly off and who seems like she's being threatened by mysterious forces beyond her comprehension? Lol, what else is even the point of being a Keyblade Master.

So yeah, look. I'm sorry Nomura and Osaka couldn't deliver and KH3 is not the best version of what it could have been, and now it seems like that the only way to justify the reason things are the way they are is to evade the core issues with their approach and regurgitate their own preemptive excuses back at the audience. I'm disappointed that fans will apparently be encouraged for the rest of the decade and most of the next one to wait for another KH game to do what this one, the one we already did all that waiting for, was supposed to. But I'm not sorry for being "overly" critical or taking this shit to task, because I only know how to do that unapologetically.

Saying that fans will be encouraged to wait for the next game to do what KH3 was “supposed” to do is completely self righteous because you say it as though you’re speaking for everyone else.

Everything you said is YOUR opinion and YOUR expectations. There will clearly be plenty of fans who will be satisfied with the outcome of the game. No one said you’re at fault for “taking this shit to task” but to think that you’re representing the entire fan base is ignorant.

 

[Xblade13]

Can we all just agree to disagree on whether the game is good or not? I mean, it's not even out yet. This argument back and forth is getting nowhere. The only reason opinions are shared is to try to get someone else to agree with you, and when you reach someone that is trying to do the same to you with their opposite opinion, it leads to an argument with no end.

KH3 was always going to disappoint someone, the same way any "finale" does. There was always going to be something plot or gameplay related that ticked off a portion of the KH fanbase.

Something I've noticed is that, for the most part, the ones spelling the most doom for KH3 are the ones that favored KH2 over KH1, and the reverse is true for those who think everything is fine. For me, I wanted KH3 to be more like KH1 anyway, and it looks like it's taking the KH1 approach to world intigration and mixing it with KH2 level combat. Perhaps a bit floatier in 3, but still looks great.

Do I think KH3 is going to be the best in the series? No, of course not. It might, I have no experience playing it through to actually give that claim. But in my experience, "finales" have never, ever, been the best a series has to offer. Return of the King was not the best Lord of the Rings. Deathly Hallows was not the best Harry Potter. The list goes on and on.

Also, this game will be the breaking point for a large part of this community. I believe half of the forums will leave forever after 3. Those people will be a mixture of members who are disappointed in the game, those who wanted the series to end there, and those who want to move on even though they loved it. The other half will probably be people like me. Either they will love the game unconditionally, not like it but still be invested going forward, or not care one way or another. In short, the ones more forgiving of KH3 are the ones who are most likely to keep going with the series after.

The Kingdom Hearts fandom as a whole will be fractured, and any complaints about KH3 will be used as feedback for the absolutely inevitable KH4. I personally believe it won't even take long to get to that one after this, because like KH2 they could just use the same engine and make new models and worlds, saving tons of development time.

I guess I'm just tired if the bickering at this point. Having an opinion is fine. Trying to get others to admit your opinion is right is not. There is no higher power that determines what quality is anyway. None. Personally I just settle for things in life and learn to find happiness out of mediocrity. Striving for better is a waste of time to me anymore.

Sorry for the rant but both sides are being a bit aggressive,, cynical, and sarcastic against each other. I'm just tired of it. If you like KH3, great. If you don't, then what more can we do?

 

[sorawild]

Spoiler Show

Again, this one is especially egregious to me because she's the only female Disney ally in a game that is looking increasingly regressive when it comes to female characters and their role in the series. Like, I was not personally aware that women are incapable of adapting to change and learning to find new ways to defend themselves and their friends and continue to be active participants in the world around them after a setback. Great defense there, buddy.

On the whole, I am trying to withhold judgment on this front because there are a lot of unknowns here. But between Aqua, the new PoH, and literally everything that we have seen of or about Kairi, I can not shake the feeling that something terrible is about to transpire. That is to say, there was a sense that the series was finally beginning to make some progress (incremental though it was) with female protagonists like Aqua and Xion, who were, to whatever extent possible given their circumstances, commanders of their fate and agents of change within their own personal stories. That excited me for their potential in KH3, and the idea that a less proactive character like Kairi might be able to ride that wave of progress towards real development and a storyline of her own. But the more we see of KH3, the more entrenched it appears in those old, stupid ideas of positioning women as interchangeable, defenseless, a reward for boys and men to go after and prove their heroism. And if KH3 turns out the way I strongly believe it will, I am certain there will be dudes and some clueless chicks who are just eagerly waiting in the wings to explain why it's totally OK in a game releasing in 2019 that the only female protagonist we've ever gotten to play as gets fridged for the drama, or why it's Roxas that gets to play the badass while Xion is stuck somewhere waiting for him and Axel to come get her even though that's a total bastardization of that trio's established dynamic, or why Kairi is stuck getting kidnapped again so that players can literally get a trophy for rushing to her rescue, or why Namine isn't even in the opening and as a matter of fact doesn't get to do diddly all but Nomura really had us going for a minute there!

I mean look at the apparent world plot for Frozen (often misguidedly regarded as a paragon of pop feminism) in which it's been reimagined so that actually it was Sora protecting Elsa from Larxene all along! Because that's what was missing from the movie: a strange guy to stalk Elsa against her will and make sure she's safe while she karaokes the one memorable song from that film in self-imposed damseldom. The scene where Sora talks about how he won't let Elsa turn to darkness is also actually the worst, because his best boyfriend eats darkness for breakfast and Sora doesn't even care. But a woman, having darkness in her heart? Especially one he just ran into, who explicitly told him to diddly off and who seems like she's being threatened by mysterious forces beyond her comprehension? Lol, what else is even the point of being a Keyblade Master.

So yeah, look. I'm sorry Nomura and Osaka couldn't deliver and KH3 is not the best version of what it could have been, and now it seems like that the only way to justify the reason things are the way they are is to evade the core issues with their approach and regurgitate their own preemptive excuses back at the audience. I'm disappointed that fans will apparently be encouraged for the rest of the decade and most of the next one to wait for another KH game to do what this one, the one we already did all that waiting for, was supposed to. But I'm not sorry for being "overly" critical or taking this shit to task, because I only know how to do that unapologetically.

If you were expecting any sort of progressiveness from a Japanese game developed by a Japanese company (who notoriously do not give two shits about western gender politics) in [Insert Current Year], you were setting yourself up for disappointment. It seems you're more angry at the current state of the female characters of KH than anything else.

 

[CDD]

Watching these leaks send some of you off the deep end is entertaining, I admit.

 

[2 quid is good]

Can we all just agree to disagree on whether the game is good or not? I mean, it's not even out yet. This argument back and forth is getting nowhere. The only reason opinions are shared is to try to get someone else to agree with you, and when you reach someone that is trying to do the same to you with their opposite opinion, it leads to an argument with no end.

KH3 was always going to disappoint someone, the same way any "finale" does. There was always going to be something plot or gameplay related that ticked off a portion of the KH fanbase.

Something I've noticed is that, for the most part, the ones spelling the most doom for KH3 are the ones that favored KH2 over KH1, and the reverse is true for those who think everything is fine. For me, I wanted KH3 to be more like KH1 anyway, and it looks like it's taking the KH1 approach to world intigration and mixing it with KH2 level combat. Perhaps a bit floatier in 3, but still looks great.

Do I think KH3 is going to be the best in the series? No, of course not. It might, I have no experience playing it through to actually give that claim. But in my experience, "finales" have never, ever, been the best a series has to offer. Return of the King was not the best Lord of the Rings. Deathly Hallows was not the best Harry Potter. The list goes on and on.

Also, this game will be the breaking point for a large part of this community. I believe half of the forums will leave forever after 3. Those people will be a mixture of members who are disappointed in the game, those who wanted the series to end there, and those who want to move on even though they loved it. The other half will probably be people like me. Either they will love the game unconditionally, not like it but still be invested going forward, or not care one way or another. In short, the ones more forgiving of KH3 are the ones who are most likely to keep going with the series after.

The Kingdom Hearts fandom as a whole will be fractured, and any complaints about KH3 will be used as feedback for the absolutely inevitable KH4. I personally believe it won't even take long to get to that one after this, because like KH2 they could just use the same engine and make new models and worlds, saving tons of development time.

I guess I'm just tired if the bickering at this point. Having an opinion is fine. Trying to get others to admit your opinion is right is not. There is no higher power that determines what quality is anyway. None. Personally I just settle for things in life and learn to find happiness out of mediocrity. Striving for better is a waste of time to me anymore.

Sorry for the rant but both sides are being a bit aggressive,, cynical, and sarcastic against each other. I'm just tired of it. If you like KH3, great. If you don't, then what more can we do?

One of the best and most level headed posts I've seen here that has actually convinced me to simmer down, thank you man, your words really hit deep and you haven't been condescending in the slightest.

Watching these leaks send some of you off the deep end is entertaining, I admit.

I'm glad I got spoiled now, I probably would have cried if I found out whilst playing what TT would be like.

Well not cried but I certainly would have been upset.

 

[sorawild]

There is already a tiny yet fairly loud portion of the fanbase that says they wont buy KH3 cause they dont like the opening theme lol.

 

[Squood!]

There is already a tiny yet fairly loud portion of the fanbase that says they wont buy KH3 cause they dont like the opening theme lol.

Do they think Skrillex is still all dubs and wubs

 

[The_Echo]

On the whole, I am trying to withhold judgment on this front because there are a lot of unknowns here. But between Aqua, the new PoH, and literally everything that we have seen of or about Kairi, I can not shake the feeling that something terrible is about to transpire. That is to say, there was a sense that the series was finally beginning to make some progress (incremental though it was) with female protagonists like Aqua and Xion, who were, to whatever extent possible given their circumstances, commanders of their fate and agents of change within their own personal stories. That excited me for their potential in KH3, and the idea that a less proactive character like Kairi might be able to ride that wave of progress towards real development and a storyline of her own. But the more we see of KH3, the more entrenched it appears in those old, stupid ideas of positioning women as interchangeable, defenseless, a reward for boys and men to go after and prove their heroism.

Holy shit calm the hell down

I don't even know what you're talking about here
I have never, do not now, and will never see the women in KH the way you apparently do.
And I can't fathom the headspace you'd have to put yourself in to do so.
I imagine it's rather bleak.

or why Kairi is stuck getting kidnapped again so that players can literally get a trophy for rushing to her rescue

Funny that's where you took that trophy description, because I figured it was about Sora and Kairi meeting up after she's completed her training, during which she's been secluded from the others.
It doesn't say "save Kairi," it says "reunite with Kairi."
But if you want to make yourself upset over things that haven't happened, I suppose I can't stop you.

I mean look at the apparent world plot for Frozen (often misguidedly regarded as a paragon of pop feminism) in which it's been reimagined so that actually it was Sora protecting Elsa from Larxene all along! Because that's what was missing from the movie: a strange guy to stalk Elsa against her will and make sure she's safe while she karaokes the one memorable song from that film in self-imposed damseldom. The scene where Sora talks about how he won't let Elsa turn to darkness is also actually the worst, because his best boyfriend eats darkness for breakfast and Sora doesn't even care.

Let's just forget Riku's four-game long redemption arc for having done exactly that involving a constant internal struggle with himself and the ghost of the man that made him that way, including a complete transformation of his physical form.

Or how Sora was very recently trapped in a darkness coma from which he had no power to engineer his own escape.
But yes, how very dare he endeavor to prevent someone else from sharing a similar fate.

Anyway sorry for going off on you
I just get unreasonably upset about people being unreasonably upset

 

[drew0512]

Do we know if maxing a keyblade has some effect on their appearence? I'm high-key wanting that cool glowing aura from KHUx.

 

[Greenice]

Do we know if maxing a keyblade has some effect on their appearence? I'm high-key wanting that cool glowing aura from KHUx.

Unfortunately it doesn't.

Spoiler Show

Look, I'm fine with you being overly forgiving of this game even as it fails to get basic stuff like this right, but none of your points actually answer my grievances or function as qualitative defenses of the Osaka approach to these worlds or the game in general, so:

1. Your argument presupposes that we can only fight with one ally in Arendelle and that has to be Marshmallow for the "surprise" factor. So then how about keeping Marshmallow a surprise all the way up until release and disguising its involvement by actually incorporating Anna and Elsa as playable characters within the campaign? Would that not be an even nicer surprise? I'm perfectly fine with mixing up the world structure once in a while, and at least for the story playthrough of the world having Anna and Elsa be temporary party members for the specific events that involve them would be perfectly fine with me. Bringing them together to fight alongside you in the final battle would make the whole world feel even more complete and it would add a new dimension to their story that would be unique to KH, enhancing the justifications for that world's involvement. Marshmallow could still be part of the team during the same segments it probably already is. Everybody wins.

2. It's funny because you talk about the "surprise" factor of adding Marshmallow as an ally to change up the routine in Arendelle, but then the idea of bringing the whole party system of KH to a climax for a world that is literally perfectly positioned to do that is somehow "not worth complaining about." There is literally no reason to develop BH6 for KH3 if they aren't going to use all 6 titular characters to tell the story and construct the gameplay around that. Having six characters to swap in and out of one's party while roaming around the massive cityscape and beating up baddies is so intuitive it is actually shameful that Osaka didn't implement this as the full stop argument for doing San Fransokyo in the first place. It would be such an obvious call back to the classic FF party system and it would allow every character to feel individually useful and important (Baymax as the White Mage/healer, Hiro as the Scholar/buffer, Honey Lemon as the Chemist I mean FFS this shit writes itself) and it would add a unique structure to the enemy lineup for that world because you would want some enemies to be stronger or weaker against members of the team as incentive to swap them out situationally. You don't have to care, but to argue that this is a defensible omission because you don't care is just silly.

3. I totally appreciate that you love Tangled and I hope the world is everything for you, but my complaint has nothing to do with removing or altering anything about the story of the world or Rapunzel's arc as a character (I've never seen the film and have no opinion on that either way). I'm strictly concerned with the idea that she will no longer function as a supportive ally in combat, and this goes right to that lack of imagination that continues to characterize KH3 in general. So her hair gets cut? And? Give her something else to fight with. Give her light-based magic and Holy. Isn't she supposed to be a new PoH? I'm meant to believe there isn't anything that could possibly happen over the course of her arc within an explicitly magic-themed world within a KH game that could awaken a new power within her? Come on. "It wouldn't make sense" because the developers got lazy and decided it would be better to use those resources towards not developing party members in Frozen or BH6. Whoops.

Again, this one is especially egregious to me because she's the only female Disney ally in a game that is looking increasingly regressive when it comes to female characters and their role in the series. Like, I was not personally aware that women are incapable of adapting to change and learning to find new ways to defend themselves and their friends and continue to be active participants in the world around them after a setback. Great defense there, buddy.

On the whole, I am trying to withhold judgment on this front because there are a lot of unknowns here. But between Aqua, the new PoH, and literally everything that we have seen of or about Kairi, I can not shake the feeling that something terrible is about to transpire. That is to say, there was a sense that the series was finally beginning to make some progress (incremental though it was) with female protagonists like Aqua and Xion, who were, to whatever extent possible given their circumstances, commanders of their fate and agents of change within their own personal stories. That excited me for their potential in KH3, and the idea that a less proactive character like Kairi might be able to ride that wave of progress towards real development and a storyline of her own. But the more we see of KH3, the more entrenched it appears in those old, stupid ideas of positioning women as interchangeable, defenseless, a reward for boys and men to go after and prove their heroism. And if KH3 turns out the way I strongly believe it will, I am certain there will be dudes and some clueless chicks who are just eagerly waiting in the wings to explain why it's totally OK in a game releasing in 2019 that the only female protagonist we've ever gotten to play as gets fridged for the drama, or why it's Roxas that gets to play the badass while Xion is stuck somewhere waiting for him and Axel to come get her even though that's a total bastardization of that trio's established dynamic, or why Kairi is stuck getting kidnapped again so that players can literally get a trophy for rushing to her rescue, or why Namine isn't even in the opening and as a matter of fact doesn't get to do diddly all but Nomura really had us going for a minute there!

I mean look at the apparent world plot for Frozen (often misguidedly regarded as a paragon of pop feminism) in which it's been reimagined so that actually it was Sora protecting Elsa from Larxene all along! Because that's what was missing from the movie: a strange guy to stalk Elsa against her will and make sure she's safe while she karaokes the one memorable song from that film in self-imposed damseldom. The scene where Sora talks about how he won't let Elsa turn to darkness is also actually the worst, because his best boyfriend eats darkness for breakfast and Sora doesn't even care. But a woman, having darkness in her heart? Especially one he just ran into, who explicitly told him to diddly off and who seems like she's being threatened by mysterious forces beyond her comprehension? Lol, what else is even the point of being a Keyblade Master.

So yeah, look. I'm sorry Nomura and Osaka couldn't deliver and KH3 is not the best version of what it could have been, and now it seems like that the only way to justify the reason things are the way they are is to evade the core issues with their approach and regurgitate their own preemptive excuses back at the audience. I'm disappointed that fans will apparently be encouraged for the rest of the decade and most of the next one to wait for another KH game to do what this one, the one we already did all that waiting for, was supposed to. But I'm not sorry for being "overly" critical or taking this shit to task, because I only know how to do that unapologetically.

I love this comment. Thank you. This is exactly how I feel.

 

[rodx]

I just feel sorry for the people who will not play a great game just because of so small things,people can have wathever opinion they want,will not interfere on my experience after all,every KH for me is so especial and bring so many memories (Girls I met,jobs I have at every release) that I just will enjoy independant from the community .

 

[drew0512]

Unfortunately it doesn't.

Ow, missed opportunity. It would have looked dope.

 

[Zexelf]

Spoiler Show

Look, I'm fine with you being overly forgiving of this game even as it fails to get basic stuff like this right, but none of your points actually answer my grievances or function as qualitative defenses of the Osaka approach to these worlds or the game in general, so:

1. Your argument presupposes that we can only fight with one ally in Arendelle and that has to be Marshmallow for the "surprise" factor. So then how about keeping Marshmallow a surprise all the way up until release and disguising its involvement by actually incorporating Anna and Elsa as playable characters within the campaign? Would that not be an even nicer surprise? I'm perfectly fine with mixing up the world structure once in a while, and at least for the story playthrough of the world having Anna and Elsa be temporary party members for the specific events that involve them would be perfectly fine with me. Bringing them together to fight alongside you in the final battle would make the whole world feel even more complete and it would add a new dimension to their story that would be unique to KH, enhancing the justifications for that world's involvement. Marshmallow could still be part of the team during the same segments it probably already is. Everybody wins.

2. It's funny because you talk about the "surprise" factor of adding Marshmallow as an ally to change up the routine in Arendelle, but then the idea of bringing the whole party system of KH to a climax for a world that is literally perfectly positioned to do that is somehow "not worth complaining about." There is literally no reason to develop BH6 for KH3 if they aren't going to use all 6 titular characters to tell the story and construct the gameplay around that. Having six characters to swap in and out of one's party while roaming around the massive cityscape and beating up baddies is so intuitive it is actually shameful that Osaka didn't implement this as the full stop argument for doing San Fransokyo in the first place. It would be such an obvious call back to the classic FF party system and it would allow every character to feel individually useful and important (Baymax as the White Mage/healer, Hiro as the Scholar/buffer, Honey Lemon as the Chemist I mean FFS this shit writes itself) and it would add a unique structure to the enemy lineup for that world because you would want some enemies to be stronger or weaker against members of the team as incentive to swap them out situationally. You don't have to care, but to argue that this is a defensible omission because you don't care is just silly.

3. I totally appreciate that you love Tangled and I hope the world is everything for you, but my complaint has nothing to do with removing or altering anything about the story of the world or Rapunzel's arc as a character (I've never seen the film and have no opinion on that either way). I'm strictly concerned with the idea that she will no longer function as a supportive ally in combat, and this goes right to that lack of imagination that continues to characterize KH3 in general. So her hair gets cut? And? Give her something else to fight with. Give her light-based magic and Holy. Isn't she supposed to be a new PoH? I'm meant to believe there isn't anything that could possibly happen over the course of her arc within an explicitly magic-themed world within a KH game that could awaken a new power within her? Come on. "It wouldn't make sense" because the developers got lazy and decided it would be better to use those resources towards not developing party members in Frozen or BH6. Whoops.

Again, this one is especially egregious to me because she's the only female Disney ally in a game that is looking increasingly regressive when it comes to female characters and their role in the series. Like, I was not personally aware that women are incapable of adapting to change and learning to find new ways to defend themselves and their friends and continue to be active participants in the world around them after a setback. Great defense there, buddy.

On the whole, I am trying to withhold judgment on this front because there are a lot of unknowns here. But between Aqua, the new PoH, and literally everything that we have seen of or about Kairi, I can not shake the feeling that something terrible is about to transpire. That is to say, there was a sense that the series was finally beginning to make some progress (incremental though it was) with female protagonists like Aqua and Xion, who were, to whatever extent possible given their circumstances, commanders of their fate and agents of change within their own personal stories. That excited me for their potential in KH3, and the idea that a less proactive character like Kairi might be able to ride that wave of progress towards real development and a storyline of her own. But the more we see of KH3, the more entrenched it appears in those old, stupid ideas of positioning women as interchangeable, defenseless, a reward for boys and men to go after and prove their heroism. And if KH3 turns out the way I strongly believe it will, I am certain there will be dudes and some clueless chicks who are just eagerly waiting in the wings to explain why it's totally OK in a game releasing in 2019 that the only female protagonist we've ever gotten to play as gets fridged for the drama, or why it's Roxas that gets to play the badass while Xion is stuck somewhere waiting for him and Axel to come get her even though that's a total bastardization of that trio's established dynamic, or why Kairi is stuck getting kidnapped again so that players can literally get a trophy for rushing to her rescue, or why Namine isn't even in the opening and as a matter of fact doesn't get to do diddly all but Nomura really had us going for a minute there!

I mean look at the apparent world plot for Frozen (often misguidedly regarded as a paragon of pop feminism) in which it's been reimagined so that actually it was Sora protecting Elsa from Larxene all along! Because that's what was missing from the movie: a strange guy to stalk Elsa against her will and make sure she's safe while she karaokes the one memorable song from that film in self-imposed damseldom. The scene where Sora talks about how he won't let Elsa turn to darkness is also actually the worst, because his best boyfriend eats darkness for breakfast and Sora doesn't even care. But a woman, having darkness in her heart? Especially one he just ran into, who explicitly told him to diddly off and who seems like she's being threatened by mysterious forces beyond her comprehension? Lol, what else is even the point of being a Keyblade Master.

So yeah, look. I'm sorry Nomura and Osaka couldn't deliver and KH3 is not the best version of what it could have been, and now it seems like that the only way to justify the reason things are the way they are is to evade the core issues with their approach and regurgitate their own preemptive excuses back at the audience. I'm disappointed that fans will apparently be encouraged for the rest of the decade and most of the next one to wait for another KH game to do what this one, the one we already did all that waiting for, was supposed to. But I'm not sorry for being "overly" critical or taking this shit to task, because I only know how to do that unapologetically.

>I'm sorry Nomura and Osaka couldn't deliver and KH3 is not the best version of what it could have been, and now it seems like that the only way to justify the reason things are the way they are is to evade the core issues with their approach and regurgitate their own preemptive excuses back at the audience.

Of course they couldn't deliver everything because people have different expections ffs, this game was announced 6 years ago and some people are waiting for 13 years.

People hyped up this and obvious that even if the took 10 years to make and had everything that you mention + every world from every game someone would come and say ''I'm dissapontied that X character didn't as much devemploment as i wanted'' or '' That this characters wasn't in the game as companion''.. It's impossible to fulfil ALL people expection.

I'm very sad that TWEWY characters are in the game even if it's a no brainer to have them in BH6, now i gonna say it that Nomura couldn't deliver? Of course not , i didn't played the game.. KH3 is supposed to be the end of Xehanort Saga , expecting everything to happen and to done in this ONE game, it's delusional even if the game was really on devemploment for 13 years;

 

[Chainofmemories]

The problem i have with this game is that i feel it is a rushed game made in a very short time. I don't like this has to answer all questions related to previous games and link all things into this game (it feels messy and confusing, that's my perception, i can be wrong).
The number of worlds is very low and the choices of allies for each world are weird. Marshmallow... really? Why not Elsa, Kristoff or even Olaf? The same goes for Rapunzel, she can fight in other ways. And BH6 world only has Baymax as ally... what happens with the other members? Aren't they important?
The lack of FF characters is disappointing and don't tell me is just a KH game, because the success of KH1 was thanks to FF and Disney characters along with the KH original characters all included perfectly well... In this game there should be much more FF references.