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Manga vs Game



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Ven_Roxas

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So i recently read the manga online and it was great: very entertaining. while i do think that some points about it were better than the game (mostly the repetition), I feel that overall, the game did a better job of getting the player (or reader) emotionally involved in the story.

While I feel the game was very repetitive and had lots of filler material, it was almost necessary. It made the player see how dull and eventless life in the organization was and gave more of a reason as to why the trio was so close. They were close because they had nothing else to exist for.

Perhaps the biggest moment of emotional involvement that the manga lacked was the most emotional part of the story. Xion's death. (insert moment of silence). That was probably the saddest, most heart wrenching scene in the KH series. Thank God it got an anticlimactic fight and 4-6 panels in the manga. I know a decent amount of the lack of emotion can be attributed to the face that there aren't voice actors and background music, but still... I feel that that scene (and the other scenes with high emotions) were not done up to the caliber to compete with the games.

And, back to that final Xion fight, why did Xemnas and Saix even mention "the devices" in the manga? Literally a waste of a page. "Are the devices ready?"
"Yes, Lord Xemnas"
"Good. Now shut them down and bring them back. We will not need them"
"As you wish"

The part where Xigbar sees Xion as Ventus.... Where was that in the manga? every time I play that game, I strive to see that part and i get so upset that it wasn't a voiced scene and i can't watch it in theater mode... and then... its not in the manga... :( there goes some of the "mystery" surrounding Xion.... oh well...

AND! (last gripe, i promise). the Roxas Riku fight. The manga didn't show ANY of the Ansem/Riku part of the fight. He takes off the blind fold and..... Roxas is somehow unconscious... What? Had I never played the game (or KH2) id be so confused.

well.. thanks for reading my rant. and the point of this wasn't to say the manga was terrible. I actually thought it was great. It moved the story along at a decent pace in a very logical manner, and it was entertaining to read. It actually gave more character to the Organization members and in some ways provided more insight into the actual events of the game.
The point of this post is merely to show some love to the game. I thought it was good and preferred it to the manga for the main reason of emotional investment, and with everything Roxas goes through, I think he deserves a little emotional support from the players. (poor guy.. never stood a chance....)

Well thanks again.
 

Xelon99

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The KH manga really isn't that great. It lacks a great deal of story plots and the few battles that are in it are barely interesting as oppose to the game. This counts for every of the adaptions.

The manga is simply more aimed at the humorous side. Like in the CoM manga, Sora, Donald and Goofy use a Trinity attack that involves freezing the floor and sliding on Goofy's shield. Invented on accident. However the manga does provide some new information, showing more personality of the Organization members. Like how Vexen has created clones of himself to help out with experiments. Canon or not, it's a very plausible thing what Vexen would do. Or the parts around the Castle where they eat, sleep and do regular human stuff. We did not know the Organization had those routines. But most importantly, the parts where Xion and Riku interact. Those aren't shown as much in the game, while they do work very heavily in the story.

So all in all I believe there can be plenty improvement in the mangas, but they're not horrible. It's just a question which parts are and aren't canon.
 

gamerobber7

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There's some good and bad between both the game and manga. I agree that it was disappointing that the manga didn't show Riku as Ansem beat Roxas. But the main pluses of the manga are the comedy and character development. For example Luxord is amazing in the Days manga while I didn't really care about him in the games. They even made me feel a little sympathy towards Captain Hook and I definitely wasn't expecting that.
 

Ven_Roxas

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There's some good and bad between both the game and manga. I agree that it was disappointing that the manga didn't show Riku as Ansem beat Roxas. But the main pluses of the manga are the comedy and character development. For example Luxord is amazing in the Days manga while I didn't really care about him in the games. They even made me feel a little sympathy towards Captain Hook and I definitely wasn't expecting that.

But that's kinda my point. Even I felt some sympathy for Captain Hook. The manga put a lot into that whole Neverland escapade, but barely anything into the actual plot relevant things like the Xion and Riku fights. I felt more sympathy for Captain Hook than Roxas, Xion, or Axel.
 

Unclear_Motive

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I too, have read the Mangas, but I never played the game (until now). I just purchased a DS and am playing 358/2 Days for the first time. So far, the game and Manga are pretty similar when it comes to the overarching story. As someone in this thread has stated, the Manga seems to be more on the humorous/entertaining side. I knew that going into the Manga and decided to read it in a foreign language (German) as I would like to improve my second language skills and read something that interests me. There is definitely some "lost in translation" parts. Overall, I think the Mangas are simply average. They aren't necessary, but are good pieces of entertainment.
 

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I find the manga far more enjoyable. It develops characters in a far superior manner and makes even ones I couldn't care less about entertaining. It being a manga I'm not bothered by lack of fights either. The fights are the games territory, it's gameplay, it's gotta have more. The manga instead only has to focus on the story.

Not that the manga should skip every fight or make them unenjoyable but I'm not going to expect to see what I see in games within the manga. I'll worry about fights in the actual game that revolves around boss fights.

If only the games developed characters half as well. It's easier to develop a character in a story driven media like a manga as opposed to games which balance other things but the games could stand to have more. A lot more.
 

Xelon99

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Now I wonder... and want to ask you all, would the KH Manga be more enjoyable if it were to have every (important) battle in great detail, yet being slow in progress and have hundreds of volumes like say the Naruto or Bleach mangas?

It's obviously very hard to even think of a concept like that for a manga based off a game, as we know the gameplay and we all have different styles to play with... but still I would think it would be enjoyable. Certainly worth reading
 

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Personally I would hate it immensely if it turned into another shounen were barely any plot progression took place. Trying to be flashy like shounen is one of my hates of KH2. What battles it does have could stand to be slightly, and I do mean slightly, better but no shounen levels.
Bleach itself is already a dead horse that needs put out of its misery.
 

Ven_Roxas

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I don't think the battles should be drawn out, but the plot relevant ones should be more than *dodge dodge strike victory*. Or at least show then being resourceful to overtake the opponent
 

Sephiroth0812

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The main problem with a manga/comic is, compared to a game or even a written novel, that it has very limited room to show important things when you want to stay below 10 volumes for a "series". Works like One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Hunter X Hunter or Shaman King can get away with showing battles going over an entire chapter because their entire scope is bigger than the KH manga and because they have a different purpose/genre.
With material as story heavy as an entry of the KH series you simply cannot afford to drag out a battle for more than two or three pages if at all.
While the manga may be even less canon than the novels are (which are themselves only third tier after the games and Nomura interviews), what it does certainly better is the characterization of most characters, even the minor support ones, and the pacing of the whole story.
Shiro Amano simply knows better how to pace a story and he makes you care much more about the characters themselves than the script/dialogue writers of the games ever managed.

And for that, in all honesty, I can easily go without any of the overly flashy battles that are the shtick of the games.
 

Unclear_Motive

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I wouldn't mind for the battles to be a little more drawn out, but not extremely long. I find the handful of Volumes/Game perfect. I don't think they are too long nor too short.
 
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