Re: Message at the end of KH3D. (Take Everything With A Grain Of Salt General)
Uh yeah, and TAV, Naminé, Roxas or Donald and Goofy aren't main characters? Yet they get way less focus than Riku or Mickey, but still more than, say, Lea, Yen Sid or Ansem the Wise.
That may be the case, yep, but as long as his involvement isn't overly ridiculous and he has actual impact on how the story expands and unfolds I don't see what's so negative about that.
Goofy and Donald have been with Sora since his first adventure, therefore, they get just as much screen time with him as possible. Terra, Ven, and Aqua have only been introduced in one game,
one, and so far, with Xehanort, and Ven's mighty strong role indirectly affecting the main character, their purpose is important. Aqua's also alive, and no doubt will have her part to play. Naminé's been here since
CoM,
KH2,
Days, and now
Re: Coded. Not to mention her powers have flanderized to be very, very, if not powerful, then useful and resourceful. And Roxas? He gets it. I've never gotten the
feeling they were whoring Riku above everyone. In
KH2,
Re: coded, and in
Days, he was background.
Axel's was a simple Organization member not tied to anyone who was, once more, an ass, and got a lucky break in comparison to the rest. Riku didn't get his role expanded because they were popular with the staff and the fanbase. There was never a "he was supposed to die here, but we saved him cause everyone loves him". I just find that utterly unfair. Doomed, but since this one is so well-liked, let's milk him to the bone until there's nothing while ignoring the created potentials beside him. And then give him a Keyblade to permanently place his presence in the series forever.
It just bothers me.
The story is constantly expanding and more mysteries of the whole universe are unfolded and developed, but giving out Keyblades could be a sort of "fear" on the developer's side that a character might not be viewed as "cool enough" when he/she doesn't have a Keyblade.
But I'll seriously laugh (and facepalm) if we see then later on Naminé, Ansem the Wise, Donald and Goofy all running around with Keyblades, lol.
Just like the "fear" that if no one's connected to the main characters of DI, that they won't be popular? I remember facepalming when I read Nomura admitting this. Like, what in the world...
I consider both points troll logic. And shallow.
I wouldn't be shocked or surprised if the whole universe ends up getting Keyblades. Anyone and their mother can obtain one by this point. So why not? Let's have a free Keyblade party!
The KH series has focal points on the power and connections between hearts so relevant persons being tied somehow to the already established cast sorta comes with the territory.
The connections between Hearts are those centered most in the power of friendship. Once you meet someone, you're tied to them. That does not make it
justifiable to have 3/4 of the cast look like each other.
I would say that is highly subjective as several people expect different things from the series. I for myself actually find that the series has gotten (in an overall view, regardless of some even severe flaws) better than before especially with the addition of Birth by Sleep and its cast.
It's subjective, I know, and this is my opinion about it.
Birth By Sleep, though, was the one that didn't get
as much flack.
It's not uncommon though in fictional works that some former support characters get an increase in importance in the whole picture.
While I can agree with you that giving him a Keyblade is vastly stretching it and is, if no significant story purpose for it comes up, as unneccessary as a whoopee cushion, I don't necessarily see increasing his importance overall as a bad thing.
I went through most of that above. For the first sentence, usually those support characters don't overshadow characters. Their importance have increased, but the work also successfully balances everyone else's roles and not have them be second fiddle. They make them shine.
With KH, this isn't the case here. And it's possibly my main problem with what's going on with Lea.
In the past there were also vastly different circumstances, like a general younger and more easily pleaseable fanbase, no former titles to compare to and an oversimplified, cliché storyline. Not to mention many people tend to give KH1 extra points due to nostalgia.
KH2, while I do like it pretty much, it had admittedly some serious errors like story pacing and some awkward dialogue. The dumbed down difficulty though, which nowadays some people tend to whine about so much, was included due to fan complaints about the first game being too difficult in the battle department. Complaints over the controls in the Atlantica level (from the unpleasable fanbase! Yes, even back THEN!) led to the total revamp of Atlantica in KH2.
Another reason might also be that people nowadays (in comparison to 2002 to 2004) have just too high expectations in every area.
A good example for this is also the overall reactions to Final Fantasy X compared to those of Final Fantasy XII and, more strikingly, Final Fantasy XIII.
People complain about FF XIII being linear? Great, FF X was just as linear as XIII up to a certain point.
The fanbase has been pretty diverse since its start in terms of age range. And with the example you've given about
KH2, was also indecisive to a certain extent. It's not only the people, I feel, but the way the games are progressing. Maybe they were more pleased before because there weren't many plot decisions to disagree with. Unlike the errors, problems, and overall clash of opinions about a lot of matters that the side games brought. I've been here since 2005(?). Other than the common hatred of Kairi back when it was at its peak, I've never seen this much dislike and complaints about the series. I've heard some say that
KH2 was "the beginning".
BBS was more or less the shining light on all this darkness. Not enough, but it's the less controversial installment. In the same way
KH3D was supposed to be. Or that was the hope. We're going to have to wait to see if it accomplished it once it's officially released overseas.
For this it needs to be evaluated if there are really that bad plot discrepancies. Piecing Sora's memory back together did take so long because the Org interfered with their plan and the Replica they created sucked up Sora's memories through his nobody. Roxas would have never got a single memory of Sora inside himself if Xion would not have started to suck out the disconnected memories from Sora through him.
Roxas never had any "memory-sucking" powers so he alone would not have got any of Sora's memories, making the reconstruction-stuff taking that long and him being forced back into Sora unneccessary.
I'll give you that though, while TAV, Roxas and Naminé were reasonably foreshadowed and Nomura already made several cryptic comments about Roxas' "special status" and this having to do with "Xehanort's memories" (which was a metaphor for BBS back then) early on.
With Xion, her overall "weaving" into the overall plot outside of Days only started with Blank Points in BBS.
The Organization did not interfere at all. In fact, have you forgotten that Xemnas let Xion roam free to whatever the hell she wanted, and hang out with whoever the hell she wanted? Which was apparently "okay" because that was the will of Kingdom Hearts or something ludicrous like that? So his plans ruined would be perfectly fine. If Riku, for some weird reason that escapes me, didn't find it
alright to let the fate of his best friend since childhood and the world rest on this clone he met
twice (with an antagonistic first meeting) because of sympathy (it's okay to sympathize, but this is damn serious and actions need to be taken, not to mention it was
inevitable. So he lengthened something unnecessarily at that), it would've been over. Because I guess memories of his best friend are more important than the best friend
himself. So much for the guilt of what he's done to him.
And an interview explained that memory matter. Roxas was
getting the actual memories, but Xion
stole them
from him. So take her out of the equation, and you have Roxas being the placeholder for the leaking. As a Nobody, he could do that, he doesn't need "memory-sucking power"; he's connected to Sora. They were supposed to be his in the first place if Sora didn't come back so early from the Darkness, halting the process. Once Xion disappeared (at the
very end), Sora also didn't immediately awaken. They still needed
Roxas - he was a crucial component. So, really, it would've worked without Xion there. And I personally thought that the Organization had a tight watch on Roxas, through Axel, and through the people he went to missions with. Which is why Riku and Diz had a hard time catching him. It made sense. He's an important tool. Yet, as I've aforementioned, that...was kind of crapped on.
Ah, so like she's a friend of Nomura, or what? Like Nomura is best buddies with Kojima (who's Metal Gear series also has a convoluted plot)?
I thought I read somewhere that Nomura gave out some background material for the novels which he felt was unneccessary to add in the games because it would distract from the main characters.
When I look at Larxene and Marluxia from CoM they already have some decent depth I would say. And their attitudes and quirks were actually confirmed during the short time they were shown in Days.
Luxord had more screentime in Days than he had in KH2 and Demyx was also confirmed as the lazy, annoying dumbass who is too cowardly to fight himself and either bribes others to do his work (aka Roxas) or let his water clones do the job, pretty much fits together with the few glimpses we saw in KH2.
I remember in Days there was not always (although mostly) Xion moping, as we also got quite some stuff between Saix, Xigbar and Xemnas discussing their plans, references to BBS, Saix and Axel scenes as well as much insight into Xaldin's thought processes and how the plot in Beast Castle came to be.
Even Demyx got lots of screentime when on missions with Roxas and, personally, just annoyed the heck out of me.
She's friends with some of the staff I think, and maybe some SE folks. I know she drinks with them a lot, lol.
I think that's one of his flaws - his odd mindset. What he sees as "distracting" from the main characters (who could even be a hit or miss to the audience), might actually bring more
meaning to the story, and flesh out the others he's brought to life. I believe that should always be a creator's main goal. Enrich their universe. Obviously, people like reading what's going in the novels. It adds a lot. Like, who would have thought that Larxene didn't want her Heart because it was
painful? (what pain, I don't know, yet
that's what makes it so interesting to explore) And that she's better off without it? She also finds everything dull and boring, and that may be her reason to look for things to entertain herself with. Who knew that Axel played cards with Luxord and Xigbar? Who knew that Larxene and Marluxia had a common interest that bonded them enough to get to their place in
CoM?
Who knew that the characters, like Axel, Naminé, and Riku, were acting on their own and having their own feelings explored in the background? And that Axel was hurt when he came to help Sora because Saïx gave him a can of whoop ass before? In fact, a lot of the
KH2 novels explained certain scenes that were in the main game. It's pointless, little things, but pointless little things that brings everything together.
If one cares, I mean.
And what you spoke of is not depth. Depth's giving them 2-3 dimensional sides to them, to show that there's more to them than meets the eye. All we got was that Larxene loves being a bitch, and Marluxia strives for power (and the motivation we got from it in
Days was that he had a boner for the Keyblade, apparently, which isn't saying anything). That's one-dimensional, and focusing on those one-dimensional traits isn't given them development. That's what's going on with Luxord and his blabbering about advice, sayings, and rhetoric, and Demyx being lazy. Nothing new was learned. That's
not what they needed. It was the wrong kind of focus. The only ones who got something were Xigbar, Saïx, and Xaldin. Axel I won't include here, because that's predictable. Xemnas' the main big bad.
I'll give the game Larxene's death, however. That was unexpected. She sounded like she was almost about to cry, and that proud bravado she was wearing broke down pretty quickly to desperation. It works for Saïx and Luxord too.
Lol, no one knows what Nomura actually thinks, but I really doubt it's just giving Lea a keyblade.
Would make Xehanort definitely one hell of a difficult fellow to take out, if that is the case he can give Voldemort a run for his money and the good guys would need 13 people who are on Xehanort's level or higher to beat all of his "13 darknesses" simultaneously.
The use for "creating" them was actually to have someone fill the ranks and act as more bosses obviously from a gameplay-point of view. As for "focusing" on characters that is always a balance act depending on how they are needed in the overall picture. I remember Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace also not getting much focus at all and yet he was sort of the "final boss".
As with "bigger cast", do I sense a reference to Final Fantasy Type-0 there? Although class zero are all good guys as far as I remember, and the bad guys also only have Cid Aulstyne and Qator Bashtar really focused upon. Much like the Org focuses mostly on the important members like Xigbar, Xemnas, Saix, Axel and possibly Vexen.
Do we know that Nomura is keeping it? Maybe he just doesn't see it as important enough for the overall story and decided to leave it out?
I removed a part of it to somewhere else, since it's going to make me repeat things. Moving on:
Now we find out that those "13 darknesses" are actually some of the Organization XIII members all Xehanorted out. If this is true, then it's obvious he's preparing himself by creating his own army. I mentioned this on the other thread, but they probably might get keyblades too. He's a Master, after all, and might as well make sure they can meet all the opposition considering that they're strong and have Keyblades.
Everybody was Keyblade fighting, hah! Those cats were fast as lightning, huh!
I find that sad. I doubt that most of the members
decided willingly to look like him and be tools. He's preventing them from living their lives normally.
So this kind of comes to a head. I don't know why they needed more "bosses". I think those presented in the Disney Worlds were good. And there was no reason to fill the ranks for the sake of filling ranks. There's...what's the point? To get a number? If they can't handle too many, or if they won't be needed for the overall picture, then might as well not make them. It's saving a lot of space. I wasn't talking about
Type-0 only either, but that's a good example. The thing is, there's
358/2 Days. The main base of said bad guys, the main base where they live, they reside. If there was a good opportunity as any, this was it. But naaah.
I'm positive Nomura said he's keeping their names for certain secretive reasons. So it goes without saying...