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Play 358/2 Days Before or After KH2?



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Hirokey123

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Muke has the best answer, personally I think the narrative is stronger and more enjoyable with Days before KH2 even if you sacrifice a bit of mystery. (Though this order also makes certain things that aren't mysteries going into KH2 into mysteries so it's kind of a trade off)
 

Carnagewake

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I guess the opinions going one way or the other are basically this:

If you think the "big reveal" of Roxas being in the digital twilight town is super important you'll lean towards after.

If you think that knowing more about Roxas' and Axel's relationship and the story behind those two characters is worth knowing before hand, you'll appreciate Axel's character much more. There's also some more context added to Chain of Memories too, but that doesn't matter as much for spoiling.

I guess I'm curious why you would play it after and not before since it adds so much more context to the events of KH2.

Is the "big reveal" at the beginning the only thing that's "spoiled" you think?
 

Muke

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In my opinion, it also matters if this is your first time in the series or not.
Somebody who has never touched the series should, imo, play KH2 first and then move on to Days.
The entire prologue just has this huge air of mystery about it - playing KH2 first will preserve some of that mystery and make you question why the people know what they do. Then watch Days to fill out the missing information.

On the other hand, I can see how people would like it more to have actual context and knowledge about the characters' backstory.
I also feel like KH2 introduces the character a little bit better than Days.
I still think they are interchangeable titles. Days and KH2 take nothing away from each other.
 

Absent

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The best thing about Kingdom Hearts 2's prologue is the confusion and the wtf moments. You're trying to understand Spoiler but the problem is that Spoiler doesn't even understand itself. Truth and lies blur and you're desperate for the truth. Even then I still believe Kingdom Hearts 2 works best as Spoiler introduction.
 

Carnagewake

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Ahhh okay okay, I didn't really think about those things. The first impression is super important. That is making me lean more towards playing it after.

The person hasn't played the series yet. They're going to watch the 1.5 + 2.5 rendition of 358/2 Days.

I will totally agree that KH2 does the characters more justice... damn it is a really hard decision, but ultimately the experience is great either way.

Thank you all for your input!
 

DarkosOverlord

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The best thing about Kingdom Hearts 2's prologue is the confusion and the wtf moments. You're trying to understand Spoiler but the problem is that Spoiler doesn't even understand itself. Truth and lies blur and you're desperate for the truth. Even then I still believe Kingdom Hearts 2 works best as Spoiler introduction.

Same.
I play every game in release order. Unanswered mysteries are part of the storytelling, not something you should work around.
 

Hirokey123

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The best thing about Kingdom Hearts 2's prologue is the confusion and the wtf moments. You're trying to understand Spoiler but the problem is that Spoiler doesn't even understand itself. Truth and lies blur and you're desperate for the truth. Even then I still believe Kingdom Hearts 2 works best as Spoiler introduction.

Here is the thing though...playing Days first doesn't actually remove that. In fact the way Days ends it very deliberately skips over all everything that lead up to getting into the virtual town. Days actually frames it ending so a first time player may very well be lead to believe that everything they just experienced was something of a dream. Basically one second Riku is standing above a knocked out Roxas in an org cloak...next second Roxas is without any sort of transition running through twilight town dressed as a normal boy and wondering if he'll go to the beach today.

This is one of those things that you only think the confusion is gone because you already had the hindsight/previous knowledge of what goes on between those things, but from the perspective of a new player they don't have that knowledge.
 

ShardofTruth

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Playing Days first makes Riku's arc (if you want to call it that) even more strange though. KHII was full of bad ideas on this part but Days removes even the last coherent bits.

Because it was the release order, you aren't really missing anything when you play KHII first.
 

Hirokey123

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Playing Days first makes Riku's arc (if you want to call it that) even more strange though. KHII was full of bad ideas on this part but Days removes even the last coherent bits.

Because it was the release order, you aren't really missing anything when you play KHII first.

I'm....gonna need elaboration. CoM ends with Riku being hopeful, smiley, and only a slight talk that there are still some problems in Riku that might become something bigger. KH2 starts out with Riku in complete depression mode, no mickey, no real "immediate" sign of his experiences in CoM like literally KH2 makes it feel like CoM never happened and Riku's transformation is almost as badly done as the sudden 180 they pulled with Axel that makes him feel like a totally different character from CoM. Day is the place where we actually see the transition (well most of it) and how Riku goes from CoM to KH2. I stand by trying to watch Riku's arc with only CoM under your belt is physically painful with how badly KH2 handled it.
 

The Dark Mamba

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The debate continues.......

KH2, then Days. The reason why is Roxas. The opening of KH2 clearly wanted to establish him as a mystery character and that is lost if you watch the prologue in the context of watching Days before. Also Days is missing from KH2's opening and Days makes use of KH2 scenes for it's opening. I just think the context in which KH2's story was meant to be understood is f#%ked up in the context of watching Days first but I guess that's irrelevant if you've already played the games.


 

Infamita

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Rule of thumb: just play the games in order of release, not chronological order.

Additionally, I prefer playing KH2 before 358/2 Days because of Xion. Playing Days second creates a sense of dramatic irony, as it becomes even more apparent that literally everyone has forgotten about Xion throughout the events of KH2. Playing Days after KH2, adds replay value to KH2.

Edit: I also think that CoM should be played after KH2 (even though it was released before KH2 on the GBA). There's absolutely no mystery if you know why Sora's asleep at the beginning of KH2.
 

Muke

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that's a really silly reason to skip CoM… it's not supposed to be mysterious at all, anyways. and it's not like you benefit from playing CoM after KH2
 

Rydgea

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Yeah, with CoM taking place quite literally directly after KHI, there's no reason to bypass it, play KHII, and then backpedal. KH can get disorienting as it is, there's no need to upheave Sora's timeline for the sake of one 'mystery'?

I've played both ways (Days before and after KHII), though I haven't played the ReMIXes. If you can only access Days via the ReMIXes, you might as well just avoid the disc swap. There's nothing so emotionally emphatic that these MUST be played one before another.
 

Alpha Baymax

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I'd just play the games in the order that they were designated in the 1.5+2.5 Remix bundle. That's how the creators intended it to play out.
 

Muke

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No, it's the order they were in 1.5 and 2.5. And Days was in 1.5 so they'd have 2 for 2.5
 

Grono

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Definitely after Kingdom Hearts II, everything just has more intrigue that way. You're practically ruining Roxas' story in Kingdom Hearts II if you played Days first, it just seems contrived and disconnected if you played Days before II. Kingdom Hearts is a series that makes shit up as it goes along, Days was not meant to be played before any of the first three games. That, and days sucks *cough cough who said that*

Now, if they weren't new... I'd say play II and skip Days entirely, but that's just me. Unless you're part of the minority that loves the gameplay in Days.
 

Hirokey123

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No, it's the order they were in 1.5 and 2.5. And Days was in 1.5 so they'd have 2 for 2.5

You realize that means you're calling Nomura a liar right? He outright said the games in the collections have been ordered in a way that would let the player best understand the story. Basically his only admission (no matter how indirect it was) that his experiment of creating an entire story filled with holes to create intrigue and then come back to fill them in later was a terrible terrible idea that just created more confusion.
 
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If i was adapting it for the cartoon i'd put it after 2 so i think playing it after 2 makes more sense to me.

Playing it before 2 makes sense too but playing it after 2 feels more right to me.
 
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