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Zackarix

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So why is Sora even the key to everything?
Main character privileges.

What bothers me is how inconsistently Sora's status is treated. In KH1 everybody thinks that he's the chosen one until the reveal that it was supposed to be Riku. The following games treat him as the Keyblade's chosen even if he wasn't the first choice. Then Blank Points declares Sora to be some sort of destined savior. But I guess while writing DDD they remembered Sora's Unchosen One origins so he's suddenly a "dull, ordinary boy that the Keyblade didn't choose." But that doesn't stop him from being the only useful character in KH3.

Trying to have it both ways is what makes it frustrating. Please don't try to insist that Sora is a perfectly normal boy with nothing special about him then turn around and write him as the specialist boy to have ever held a giant key.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Main character privileges.

What bothers me is how inconsistently Sora's status is treated. In KH1 everybody thinks that he's the chosen one until the reveal that it was supposed to be Riku. The following games treat him as the Keyblade's chosen even if he wasn't the first choice. Then Blank Points declares Sora to be some sort of destined savior. But I guess while writing DDD they remembered Sora's Unchosen One origins so he's suddenly a "dull, ordinary boy that the Keyblade didn't choose." But that doesn't stop him from being the only useful character in KH3.

Trying to have it both ways is what makes it frustrating. Please don't try to insist that Sora is a perfectly normal boy with nothing special about him then turn around and write him as the specialist boy to have ever held a giant key.
KH1 was pretty vague on who was suppose to be the true Keyblade wielder. Riku takes it from Sora and tells him he was just the delivery boy. Sora doesn't physically take the Keyblade back from Riku. The Keyblade itself openly leaves Riku and returns to Sora after his friendship speech. It's because of this that Sora can be argued as the only one "chosen" by the Keyblade as he didn't undergo any special treatment or ritual to get one. The Keyblade just preferred him.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there was ever any real info in KH1 that said Riku was the true Keyblade wielder beyond what Maleficent told him offscreen. It was the games after words that implied it before BBS fully confirmed it.

As far as the "dull, ordinary boy" thing they really play that up mainly to either mess with Sora or to prop up others in the Keyblade Master status. It is inconsistent because Sora will agree with it, even though his Keyblade really did pick him when it didn't have to at the time of Hollow Bastion. When it comes to Sora's chosen one status they've switched it more towards the power of his "heart" rather then his ability to hold a Keyblade because literally everyone has one now, even Kairi and Lea. But even then they have Sora fail his exam which is suppose to be about strength of heart, and this was a guy sheltering three other hearts at the time. So yeah it's frustrating how undecided they are on where to view Sora, and many just view it as "main protagonist power" now.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Having revisited Dream Drop Distance I just found a big missed opportunity. That is to compare the situation with the Grid between Kevin Flynn and Clu with Ansem/Diz and Apprentice Xehanort. Clu lead a revolt against Flynn and took over the Grid. Apprentice Xehanort revolted against Ansem the Wise and took over Radiant Garden. The parallels between these two were solid.

What's more shocking is DDD opens with Xehanort turning on Braig and the others so thematically I'm surprised they didn't expand on this. Just another missed opportunity to connect a Disney World to the plot of Kingdom Hearts further.
 

Soldier

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there was ever any real info in KH1 that said Riku was the true Keyblade wielder beyond what Maleficent told him offscreen. It was the games after words that implied it before BBS fully confirmed it.

As far as the "dull, ordinary boy" thing they really play that up mainly to either mess with Sora or to prop up others in the Keyblade Master status. It is inconsistent because Sora will agree with it, even though his Keyblade really did pick him when it didn't have to at the time of Hollow Bastion. When it comes to Sora's chosen one status they've switched it more towards the power of his "heart" rather then his ability to hold a Keyblade because literally everyone has one now, even Kairi and Lea. But even then they have Sora fail his exam which is suppose to be about strength of heart, and this was a guy sheltering three other hearts at the time. So yeah it's frustrating how undecided they are on where to view Sora, and many just view it as "main protagonist power" now.
Well in the flashback prior to entering Monstro, Riku looked back on the door to the secret place and saw the keyhole to Destiny Islands as a young boy. Seeing as he was the only one there (Sora already left) that sort of counts as a hint.

The "dull, ordinary boy" pretty much was just a jab by Xehanort to downplay what Sora had done prior to this point in the series. His actions in KH 1, COM (even if he forgot he did most of them) and 2 severely crippled the plans of the dark Keyblade master, even without him being the default choice. And even if you choose to believe he's still ordinary, the kid's capable of gliding like a sugar glider and casting magic without the use of the keyblade. Pretty sure that disqualifies him as being labeled that.
 

Guernsey

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Calling Sora 'ordinary' at this point would be a misnomer. Sora might not had been the 'Chosen One' but it seems though that most of the plot points gravitate towrds him. He made himself spacial through his relationship with others.
 
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MATGSY

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1655695472-comic776.png
 

Guernsey

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That is a mystery. How did Mickey transform form his classic self to his current self? A mystery for the ages.
 

Ven_Roxas

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I could be misremembering, but, while I think KH3Remind had great combat, the part that existed in 2 and BBS that was missing was the mini quests required. Escort this person, don’t let them take damage, collect materials, etc. would have been nice if there was more than “fight these enemies to progress”
 

Elysium

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Like I said in the KH Praises thread, I’m playing through the PS4 Story So Far compilation so far. Just finished KH1 today and started KH2, and had some thoughts about the first game so far that weren’t worth a whole new thread, so…

I do wish there was an option available in the menu to let you watch the cutscenes the way they were with the bars if you wanted. I feel the same way about wishing there was a way you could play without the triangle being used to replace the talk / chest-opening function, something they did to make KH1 more like KH2's Reaction Commands retroactively (it makes using abilities like Ragnarok, Ars Arcanum, etc. at conflict with controlling the party members—the Pink Agaricus bonus Heartless fight has a similar problem). But MOST of all, I wish there was an option to play the game with the original Heartless colors. I prefer the Final Mix version as the complete game--and with Proud-level difficulty—no doubt, but the re-colors specific to the Final Mix were always eyesores. Especially for Trickmaster, who had been very visually appealing in the original release. Too bad we can’t have the original colors with the Final Mix content. And why are there no Theater compilations of the cutscenes??? That seems like a very random omission since they were part of the ReMIXes on PS3.

Also, I know they built KH1 from the ground up when putting out the ReMIXes--I just wish they could've got everything right. I hate that there are so many moments where the timing between the voice acting and the motions has been lost--the only real way to see the game as it was is to play the PS2 version now. The ones I've noticed so far--how there used to be a beat where Riku and Sora look at each other before they both take off running; the dialogue being off as Sora says "What about my home? My island?! Riku?! Kairi...?" so that his headshake doesn't match the voice acting; when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice, the noise of the card soldiers standing to attention is not in sync with the scene; Phil laughing and then gesturing to the stone ("If you can't even move this!!") is out-of-sync, so that he points at it seconds after he's already said the dialogue; the entire first scene of Monstro when Sora wakes up is off; the first scene with Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Lock’s line and Shock’s line talk over one another, etc. Especially for the upgrade to PS4, they could've done another comb-over of the game to fix the little snags that were a part of the ReMIX. There is so much unnecessary glitchiness. Which is odd to me—how were they able to get so much of the facial animations and body movements to match so exactly to the original KH1 90% of the time, but then the timing of the voice acting is off at random moments???

I'm also wondering if anyone else feels like the motion is different in KH1 in the PS4 upgrade? It'd take too much effort to get my PS3 or PS2 out and attached to check, but I don't remember the game quite feeling like this in the PS3 ReMIX release. Admittedly, I could be wrong. It just gives me the feeling almost as if 3D's camera control was installed onto KH1, it sort of took me out at times. Speaking of other things I could be wrong about because I haven’t had time to check yet:

1. I think there might’ve been a change to the noise that occurs when the Stealth Sneak falls on Clayton and fades away, that it’s been altered slightly at the end to sound similar to the sound effect in KH2 that you hear when all the hearts are falling at The World That Never Was. I wanted to watch that cutscene again once I finished KH1, but the scenes “theater” wasn’t included for some reason.

2. Did they change the placement of the rip in Destiny Islands that you chase Ansem SOD into after the first boss fight or is that just me? I thought it used to be right in front of you, beside the wooden shack, now it’s way over to the left? Not a big deal, just seems like a random change.

One thing I do *know* they’ve changed--and for the worse--is the Hercules boss fight. I mean, it doesn’t kill the fight, but it takes some of the fun out of it. The dreaded spinning attack Hercules goes into pretty often (that is a little scary when you’re in the lower levels) now only lasts maybe a millisecond and you’d have to have been standing right next to him or deliberately run into it to have been affected…. :/ We don’t need to be making battles in KH easier, but harder, SE. At least they managed to "fix" the Sorcerer Jafar fight, which I talked about in the Praise thread. Another battle they could've improved without much effort is the first Maleficent fight. They should've had the platform she flies on too high for you to jump on until it's brought down (as it is, if you have High Jump, you don't have to even bother with it) and given the platform more HP so she might actually finish her lightning spell at least once.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Like I said in the KH Praises thread, I’m playing through the PS4 Story So Far compilation so far. Just finished KH1 today and started KH2, and had some thoughts about the first game so far that weren’t worth a whole new thread, so…

I do wish there was an option available in the menu to let you watch the cutscenes the way they were with the bars if you wanted. I feel the same way about wishing there was a way you could play without the triangle being used to replace the talk / chest-opening function, something they did to make KH1 more like KH2's Reaction Commands retroactively (it makes using abilities like Ragnarok, Ars Arcanum, etc. at conflict with controlling the party members—the Pink Agaricus bonus Heartless fight has a similar problem). But MOST of all, I wish there was an option to play the game with the original Heartless colors. I prefer the Final Mix version as the complete game--and with Proud-level difficulty—no doubt, but the re-colors specific to the Final Mix were always eyesores. Especially for Trickmaster, who had been very visually appealing in the original release. Too bad we can’t have the original colors with the Final Mix content. And why are there no Theater compilations of the cutscenes??? That seems like a very random omission since they were part of the ReMIXes on PS3.

Also, I know they built KH1 from the ground up when putting out the ReMIXes--I just wish they could've got everything right. I hate that there are so many moments where the timing between the voice acting and the motions has been lost--the only real way to see the game as it was is to play the PS2 version now. The ones I've noticed so far--how there used to be a beat where Riku and Sora look at each other before they both take off running; the dialogue being off as Sora says "What about my home? My island?! Riku?! Kairi...?" so that his headshake doesn't match the voice acting; when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice, the noise of the card soldiers standing to attention is not in sync with the scene; Phil laughing and then gesturing to the stone ("If you can't even move this!!") is out-of-sync, so that he points at it seconds after he's already said the dialogue; the entire first scene of Monstro when Sora wakes up is off; the first scene with Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Lock’s line and Shock’s line talk over one another, etc. Especially for the upgrade to PS4, they could've done another comb-over of the game to fix the little snags that were a part of the ReMIX. There is so much unnecessary glitchiness. Which is odd to me—how were they able to get so much of the facial animations and body movements to match so exactly to the original KH1 90% of the time, but then the timing of the voice acting is off at random moments???

I'm also wondering if anyone else feels like the motion is different in KH1 in the PS4 upgrade? It'd take too much effort to get my PS3 or PS2 out and attached to check, but I don't remember the game quite feeling like this in the PS3 ReMIX release. Admittedly, I could be wrong. It just gives me the feeling almost as if 3D's camera control was installed onto KH1, it sort of took me out at times. Speaking of other things I could be wrong about because I haven’t had time to check yet:

1. I think there might’ve been a change to the noise that occurs when the Stealth Sneak falls on Clayton and fades away, that it’s been altered slightly at the end to sound similar to the sound effect in KH2 that you hear when all the hearts are falling at The World That Never Was. I wanted to watch that cutscene again once I finished KH1, but the scenes “theater” wasn’t included for some reason.

2. Did they change the placement of the rip in Destiny Islands that you chase Ansem SOD into after the first boss fight or is that just me? I thought it used to be right in front of you, beside the wooden shack, now it’s way over to the left? Not a big deal, just seems like a random change.

One thing I do *know* they’ve changed--and for the worse--is the Hercules boss fight. I mean, it doesn’t kill the fight, but it takes some of the fun out of it. The dreaded spinning attack Hercules goes into pretty often (that is a little scary when you’re in the lower levels) now only lasts maybe a millisecond and you’d have to have been standing right next to him or deliberately run into it to have been affected…. :/ We don’t need to be making battles in KH easier, but harder, SE. At least they managed to "fix" the Sorcerer Jafar fight, which I talked about in the Praise thread. Another battle they could've improved without much effort is the first Maleficent fight. They should've had the platform she flies on too high for you to jump on until it's brought down (as it is, if you have High Jump, you don't have to even bother with it) and given the platform more HP so she might actually finish her lightning spell at least once.
Honestly I don't know if the motion in PS4 version of KH1 is different. But I have noticed some weird differences. The biggest one for me was the Riku race on Destiny Islands. They must have made him more challenging because I remember it took me almost six tries to beat him in that race, where as in the PS2 version the Riku race is laughably easy, and I could do it first try while barely even trying. PS4 Riku was somewhat faster and had smarter A.I. AND I HATE IT! It was the first time I ever lost that darn beach race and I growled.
 

Elysium

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Could be! I follow a specific trek, so I've always been able to beat the race easy, but I did notice he was right behind me a lot of the time whereas usually he wasn't even in sight when I'd play it in the past.
 

Sonofjafar

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Honestly I don't know if the motion in PS4 version of KH1 is different. But I have noticed some weird differences. The biggest one for me was the Riku race on Destiny Islands. They must have made him more challenging because I remember it took me almost six tries to beat him in that race, where as in the PS2 version the Riku race is laughably easy, and I could do it first try while barely even trying. PS4 Riku was somewhat faster and had smarter A.I. AND I HATE IT! It was the first time I ever lost that darn beach race and I growled.
I could never beat Riku at that race no matter what console I played it on. Also Riku is an asshole in Kingdom Hearts 1. Like what kind of guy is willing to trust a Disney villain’s word over the word of their best friend
 

Guernsey

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Riku was insecure and envious of Sora at that point.

I really wish that we got to see Kairi as a fully playable character in the mainline games.
 

Antifa Lockhart

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2. Did they change the placement of the rip in Destiny Islands that you chase Ansem SOD into after the first boss fight or is that just me? I thought it used to be right in front of you, beside the wooden shack, now it’s way over to the left? Not a big deal, just seems like a random change.
It was always to the left
 

WAluigipants

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Minor nitpick regarding KH3. I love that the levels are more open like KH1, DDD, and BBS, but I feel like there could have been a bit more creative level designs with some of the worlds. As much as I loved Toy Box, I felt like there were some parts of the Galaxy Toys toy store, like some shopping areas where we could have seen some more specific sorts of toys but the variety chosen was enough to keep me happy. Arendelle could have used a couple of cabins or two along the mountain where Sora could take a break. Monstropolis felt linear; for a such a massive factory, I expected the place to be a lot more explorable, but I still had enough fun with the world to enjoy it. I do wish, however, that there was a special minigame beyond the flan for the world as every other world in KH3 had one, like Olympus' figurine sidequest, Beat of Lead, Festival Dance, Frozen Slider, Leviathan upgrades, and Flash Tracer. Maybe a full-blown minigame on the rail segment of the Door Vault, like some sort of shooting gallery?
 

MATGSY

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Never had UX/DR installed on my current phone before now and the migrate data feature is gone. So it'll be a while before I'm caught up with the rest of ya.
 

Guernsey

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Never had UX/DR installed on my current phone before now and the migrate data feature is gone. So it'll be a while before I'm caught up with the rest of ya.
To be honest, you are not missing much as it seems like there is nothing else from what I had seen.
 
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