The Unpopular Opinions Thread
- Thread starter AegisXIII
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Not trying to argue but curious, I thought most of them were successful financially?
As for Roxas and Xion, yeah I definitely understand that. Their arcs seem complete already.
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I agree with all these. KH3 was the first Kairi design I liked.
Also agree about KH3 looking a little ugly sometimes (mostly some of the facial movements and the teeth looking freaky sometimes). I sort of wish they'd kept the same design style of the older games, but it's alright.
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A movie is considered a flop if it doesn't make 3x its production budget, and that's just for breakeven (and if it pans with the critics and normal reviews). To truly be a blockbuster is a lot more nuanced and complicated to explain, but yea, basically non of the Disney movies post-2020 reached that mark.
I've always said KH is actually surprisingly coherent, it's just A LOT of info and side games most people do not want to play or watch a cutscene movie of it. I get why that turns a lotta people away. For me, I've always loved how the lore was always expanding, even if it was in a game I only have access to the cutscenes for. I think I just have a high tolerance for Nomura's work. I've put more hours in FFXV than most and I'm also really enjoying how FF7R is going so far.
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My personal opinions:
1. It's really hard for me to stand any KH game outside of the first one (despite the first game making me cringe at certain story points as well). Now don't get me wrong, I liked KHII (especially for its artwork and some of the concepts, music, etc.), but it felt like a huge tonal shift for me. From KHII onwards, the KH series went full anime, which bugs me. And it also bothers me, because it's not like how anime/manga was in the 80s or 90s, it's like 2000s anime/manga (usually the cheaper, less (personally) expressive, mass-produced, lack of artist creativity manga), which disturbs me. (I once read a translated 1993 interview with Square's Takashi Tokita, the co-writer/director of Live A Live, who was talking about how the individuality of manga was a way of the manga artists of "cutting through the noise and to the heart" of its readers, which I feel modern manga, let alone video game writing, seldom accomplishes.). The first KH had broader roots with what the writers were going with, despite the homage to elements from FFIX (You cannot tell me that -strictly in terms of roles and structuring, not entirely character- that Riku doesn't bare similarities to Kuja, Maleficient to Queen Brahne, and Ansem to Necron/Eternal Darkness.). Also, I have found more direct parallels between Riku and Ansem to Dyluck and Thanatos in a certain scene from Secret of Mana, although I think that will pass over most people's heads.
2. Chain of Memories retconned Riku's "death"/status as a ghost/phantom at the end of KHI, which I don't like, even though I've happy that Riku's been alive in the series since then. It undercuts the tragedy of what happened to Riku from Ansem, imo, and it also undercuts the consequences of Riku's poor choices and jealousy as well in KHI.
3. KH:BBS was INCREDIBLY disappointing to me. I can understand why some like it- it's still beautiful graphically, and the gameplay may be fun to some, but the characters and plot just don't cut it for me. And part of it is how the final mix+ trailer was handled versus the actual game. The final mix+ trailer conducts itself like the Knight Chapter from Live A Live, or, at the very least, like (part of or the main core of tone from- and I say main core because KHI's tone was whimsical and goofy at times, but I do think that people overlook its apparent and evident Final Fantasy/Mana-styled darker tone) the first KHI game- dark, tragic yet meaningful.
I did not really find BBS meaningful, as a LOT of its situations were contrived. Master Xehanort isn't scary enough nor can he be taken seriously.
Look, when it comes to villains, I don't need a Xanatos gambit-running one, this "Thanos"-type of villain, or even a "super-villain", a be all, end all, type of villain. Which is what Xehanort attempts to be- in this game, in DDD, and even in KHIII, where he has slightly better characterization, but is still a massive fail, imo. Another thing is HOW he was able to summon Kingdom Hearts which wasn't answered until the Foreteller's story/saga, which bugged me for years.
The best kind of villains/antagonists, or at least my cup of tea (I apologize to those who do like the ultimate-type of villains.) are the ones who tell a story. Which is why I like Live A Live's villain.
4. Another thing is that the KH series has been lacking in proper thematics since KHII, to which I admit I am a sucker for- or having a story told through the music. To this, I cite, "Ceremony", "The Curse" (Haunting), and "The Oracle" (Shaman) from Secret of Mana. I still have not found ANY music in video gamedom that can top "The Oracle" in terms of sheer intensity. There are some that surpass it in terms of complexity and maybe emotional output ("One-Winged Angel"), but not in terms of intensity.
Like I will even put "The Oracle" above "Dancing Mad" from Final Fantasy VI, which I find to be full of hot air, despite its sheer length and complexity. "The Oracle" has a point to it- the anger and fury and yearning of a sorcerer who cheated death for centuries, who's now a skeletal-ghost-like entity who needs your bodies as a desperate attempt to stay alive and to fulfill his plan of remaking the world "as it was meant to be" (to which I'm not sure what what Thanatos wants- I guess he wants everyone undead/under his control, which would be conducive to Mavolia/the demon world.). But you also get the mechanical aspects of the Mana Fortress into the music. And everything (every note) is calculated.
Like most video game music is intense (Pokemon music does this well), but never makes you go- WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO-mode. Not even Dancing Mad (I repeat, Dancing Mad) does this, on account of its hot air.
Yoko Shimomura's music is very thematic and kinetic, as it typically is, but it NEVER gets to understanding WHAT a villain is. Forze del Male gets close. VERY CLOSE. It's a good (audio) depiction of the darkness and terror harassing the worlds as they are blinked out, one by one, and of Ansem's resolve to turn all to darkness and conquer the darkness in KH and harness it as he seeks to gain its power and knowledge.
But whenever I listen to "The Oracle", I KNOW EXACTLY- EXACTLY WHAT sort of threat the villain poses. It's not the composer meandering to their tendencies (I.e. Square-Enix's FF's composer Uematsu loves rock, so he will occasionally just focus on "the rock music", so you hear "We Will Rock You" during Kuja's boss fight music in FFIX, which is very distracting- Shimomura has a similar problem- she loves kinetics, so though a lot of her music is good, it will fail to understand or convey the meaning behind a villain, motive, or battle.).
5. Part of what makes KH good, I believe, is STILL the old echoes and ties it has to the Final Fantasy and Mana series and unique writing, not the anime-influence. The first game had a lot of heart and heartbreak. Tell me that you didn't feel sad for Riku leaving at the end of the first game or Kairi being split from Sora. I feel like some of the "tragic" aspects, like Aqua being stuck in the realm of darkness but surviving and being okay (and not supposed to be dead or a "dark shadow" like Riku or whatever state that Mickey was in during the first game, too.), or the tragedy of Terra being taken over by Xehanort are cut short by weird circumstances (Terra-Xehanort losing his memory in his main body, but the separate Terra and Xehanort parts still seem to maintain memories of each other.). I don't like the anime-influence, as it's often cheap, undercuts genuine character and emotion.
1. It's really hard for me to stand any KH game outside of the first one (despite the first game making me cringe at certain story points as well). Now don't get me wrong, I liked KHII (especially for its artwork and some of the concepts, music, etc.), but it felt like a huge tonal shift for me. From KHII onwards, the KH series went full anime, which bugs me. And it also bothers me, because it's not like how anime/manga was in the 80s or 90s, it's like 2000s anime/manga (usually the cheaper, less (personally) expressive, mass-produced, lack of artist creativity manga), which disturbs me. (I once read a translated 1993 interview with Square's Takashi Tokita, the co-writer/director of Live A Live, who was talking about how the individuality of manga was a way of the manga artists of "cutting through the noise and to the heart" of its readers, which I feel modern manga, let alone video game writing, seldom accomplishes.). The first KH had broader roots with what the writers were going with, despite the homage to elements from FFIX (You cannot tell me that -strictly in terms of roles and structuring, not entirely character- that Riku doesn't bare similarities to Kuja, Maleficient to Queen Brahne, and Ansem to Necron/Eternal Darkness.). Also, I have found more direct parallels between Riku and Ansem to Dyluck and Thanatos in a certain scene from Secret of Mana, although I think that will pass over most people's heads.
2. Chain of Memories retconned Riku's "death"/status as a ghost/phantom at the end of KHI, which I don't like, even though I've happy that Riku's been alive in the series since then. It undercuts the tragedy of what happened to Riku from Ansem, imo, and it also undercuts the consequences of Riku's poor choices and jealousy as well in KHI.
3. KH:BBS was INCREDIBLY disappointing to me. I can understand why some like it- it's still beautiful graphically, and the gameplay may be fun to some, but the characters and plot just don't cut it for me. And part of it is how the final mix+ trailer was handled versus the actual game. The final mix+ trailer conducts itself like the Knight Chapter from Live A Live, or, at the very least, like (part of or the main core of tone from- and I say main core because KHI's tone was whimsical and goofy at times, but I do think that people overlook its apparent and evident Final Fantasy/Mana-styled darker tone) the first KHI game- dark, tragic yet meaningful.
I did not really find BBS meaningful, as a LOT of its situations were contrived. Master Xehanort isn't scary enough nor can he be taken seriously.
Look, when it comes to villains, I don't need a Xanatos gambit-running one, this "Thanos"-type of villain, or even a "super-villain", a be all, end all, type of villain. Which is what Xehanort attempts to be- in this game, in DDD, and even in KHIII, where he has slightly better characterization, but is still a massive fail, imo. Another thing is HOW he was able to summon Kingdom Hearts which wasn't answered until the Foreteller's story/saga, which bugged me for years.
The best kind of villains/antagonists, or at least my cup of tea (I apologize to those who do like the ultimate-type of villains.) are the ones who tell a story. Which is why I like Live A Live's villain.
4. Another thing is that the KH series has been lacking in proper thematics since KHII, to which I admit I am a sucker for- or having a story told through the music. To this, I cite, "Ceremony", "The Curse" (Haunting), and "The Oracle" (Shaman) from Secret of Mana. I still have not found ANY music in video gamedom that can top "The Oracle" in terms of sheer intensity. There are some that surpass it in terms of complexity and maybe emotional output ("One-Winged Angel"), but not in terms of intensity.
Like I will even put "The Oracle" above "Dancing Mad" from Final Fantasy VI, which I find to be full of hot air, despite its sheer length and complexity. "The Oracle" has a point to it- the anger and fury and yearning of a sorcerer who cheated death for centuries, who's now a skeletal-ghost-like entity who needs your bodies as a desperate attempt to stay alive and to fulfill his plan of remaking the world "as it was meant to be" (to which I'm not sure what what Thanatos wants- I guess he wants everyone undead/under his control, which would be conducive to Mavolia/the demon world.). But you also get the mechanical aspects of the Mana Fortress into the music. And everything (every note) is calculated.
Like most video game music is intense (Pokemon music does this well), but never makes you go- WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO-mode. Not even Dancing Mad (I repeat, Dancing Mad) does this, on account of its hot air.
Yoko Shimomura's music is very thematic and kinetic, as it typically is, but it NEVER gets to understanding WHAT a villain is. Forze del Male gets close. VERY CLOSE. It's a good (audio) depiction of the darkness and terror harassing the worlds as they are blinked out, one by one, and of Ansem's resolve to turn all to darkness and conquer the darkness in KH and harness it as he seeks to gain its power and knowledge.
But whenever I listen to "The Oracle", I KNOW EXACTLY- EXACTLY WHAT sort of threat the villain poses. It's not the composer meandering to their tendencies (I.e. Square-Enix's FF's composer Uematsu loves rock, so he will occasionally just focus on "the rock music", so you hear "We Will Rock You" during Kuja's boss fight music in FFIX, which is very distracting- Shimomura has a similar problem- she loves kinetics, so though a lot of her music is good, it will fail to understand or convey the meaning behind a villain, motive, or battle.).
5. Part of what makes KH good, I believe, is STILL the old echoes and ties it has to the Final Fantasy and Mana series and unique writing, not the anime-influence. The first game had a lot of heart and heartbreak. Tell me that you didn't feel sad for Riku leaving at the end of the first game or Kairi being split from Sora. I feel like some of the "tragic" aspects, like Aqua being stuck in the realm of darkness but surviving and being okay (and not supposed to be dead or a "dark shadow" like Riku or whatever state that Mickey was in during the first game, too.), or the tragedy of Terra being taken over by Xehanort are cut short by weird circumstances (Terra-Xehanort losing his memory in his main body, but the separate Terra and Xehanort parts still seem to maintain memories of each other.). I don't like the anime-influence, as it's often cheap, undercuts genuine character and emotion.
I may have said this somewhere before (maybe even here in this very thread) but;
I don't understand why people hated Mena Suvari's version of Aerith. I actually thought the voice was kinda fitting; Aerith strikes me very much as being the down-to-earth, hippie flower child type.
I don't understand why people hated Mena Suvari's version of Aerith. I actually thought the voice was kinda fitting; Aerith strikes me very much as being the down-to-earth, hippie flower child type.
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Referring to her voice, I absolutely agree. I think it's more her delivery that people had a problem with? I don't remember it much myself though.
You're entitled to your taste, but your claim that "most of them are flops" simply isn't true. Not in the slightest.
In Advent Children her delivery was a LOT better. Its just really flat and montonous in KH2.
Honestly, Mandy Moore is still *the* best voice for Aerith to me.
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Fair enough, I should've worded it better. I believe most of the post-2015 films aren't all that appealing, and anything post-2019 is a financial flop.
The music in Kingdom Hearts 3 is the worst out of the numbered titles. Most of it is forgettable and bland, compared to KH1 and 2 that have some of the most recognizable tracks in the series, while many of the kh3 tracks are underwhelming. Specifically Dark Domination, for a final boss track, it doesn’t sound very climactic.
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I think you pretty much nailed it on the head. The voice was fine in Advent Children, but the delivery in KH2 felt off for the most part. Though the “Bon appétit” scene was pretty good
Arendelle is a good world. It's a great world, perhaps-- better than the average KH3 world. I shall address the common criticisms and where I land on 'em.
"The story is bad/Sora doesn't participate enough"
LMAO fair. But this isn't too dissimilar from other worlds in the series, it's just a more macro example of how little Sora's participation really matters. I also skip the scenes on repeated playthroughs, so this point doesn't exactly nag me the way it does others.
"You keep going up the mountain over and over again!"
This is not really your opinion-- It's a second hand opinion that comes from a group misremembrance of how the game actually goes. Yes, Sora, Donald and Goofy are knocked off the mountain in different stages of the story, but the paths you take to go back up are never the same, these are completely different parts of the level that you're getting to explore. You never actually set foot in the same place twice. It has more exploration than most KH worlds, and it's fun, vertical exploration that tests your movement. This is a fake complaint.
"Skoll is a bad boss"
Skoll is not a bad boss, it's just a bit too long. The DM phase occurring twice is something that really shouldn't happen, but the fight is general readable, fair, and enjoyable, while also feeling quite epic.
It's a good world ya jabronis!!
"The story is bad/Sora doesn't participate enough"
LMAO fair. But this isn't too dissimilar from other worlds in the series, it's just a more macro example of how little Sora's participation really matters. I also skip the scenes on repeated playthroughs, so this point doesn't exactly nag me the way it does others.
"You keep going up the mountain over and over again!"
This is not really your opinion-- It's a second hand opinion that comes from a group misremembrance of how the game actually goes. Yes, Sora, Donald and Goofy are knocked off the mountain in different stages of the story, but the paths you take to go back up are never the same, these are completely different parts of the level that you're getting to explore. You never actually set foot in the same place twice. It has more exploration than most KH worlds, and it's fun, vertical exploration that tests your movement. This is a fake complaint.
"Skoll is a bad boss"
Skoll is not a bad boss, it's just a bit too long. The DM phase occurring twice is something that really shouldn't happen, but the fight is general readable, fair, and enjoyable, while also feeling quite epic.
It's a good world ya jabronis!!
TL;DR Kairi is an underappreciated character and her current arc is a good one and no I’m not joking
I liked Days but it come at the cost of a fan remake of the game though.
Yeah, the whole point of Riku's CoM journey is gone. It's really sad.
The idea of "smelling" darkness was an interesting idea.
Yen Sid is a lousy leader.
We need more non-Keyblade wielders in the story. I also want a Kingdom Hearts story with a non-Keyblade wielder as the main character.
A lot of the girls deserve better than what they got. Kairi, especially.
I'm upset about the Aqua vs. Xehanort's Heartless cutscene because Aqua didn't use magic. I thought someone can use magic without relying on a Keyblade.
That's all for now.
Yen Sid is a lousy leader.
We need more non-Keyblade wielders in the story. I also want a Kingdom Hearts story with a non-Keyblade wielder as the main character.
A lot of the girls deserve better than what they got. Kairi, especially.
I'm upset about the Aqua vs. Xehanort's Heartless cutscene because Aqua didn't use magic. I thought someone can use magic without relying on a Keyblade.
That's all for now.