What's the point of Donald and Goofy in the series?

[Wallflower3582]

It was actually an argument between (back then) Squaresoft and Disney executives.
Square wanted to use Mickey as the central main character but Disney insisted on having Donald in that role.

It was then that Nomura stepped in and proposed a compromise by using an entirely new original character.
This was accepted and further fleshed out by adding Donald as a central sidekick to that OC and pay homage to Mickey by designing the OCs clothes in Mickey style (hence why Sora has giant yellow shoes and a red onesie in his KH 1 outfit).

Lol I know I was just kidding

 

[kaseykockroach]

To keep me company when I'm lonely and depressed.
Twas quite effective. Running around Traverse Town with them was practically an anti-depressant for me as a kid. I sought out other games where you had teammates keeping you company, but very few of them were nearly as effective.

 

[Elysium]

To me, even though Donald and Goofy (like all Disney characters) have got the shaft for most of the series post-CoM, the games wouldn't be the same without the SDG interactions for me. Still, I understand the desire to have an option to play with Riku and Kairi. With PS4 (or PS5 for post-III), hopefully they'll give you the option to choose 2-3 from a 5 or 6 list of characters to make up your party (Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, world-specific party members) while showing all the characters in cutscenes.

I daydream about playing through a battle version of Atlantica with PS4 graphics and the huge world designs of 3D/III, with Riku, Donald, and Ariel as my party members.

 

[Neo_]

OP that's blasphemous; it's because it's a Disney/Square crossover.

The way KH fans want to diminish the diddly out of the Disney aspect saddens me given that's the reason the series exists in the first place; there's a reason the meat and potatoes of the games is just visiting Disney worlds. The rest of the game could be anything.

Disney characters are always going to be one dimensional because Disney is mostly for children or for people with nostalgia of their childhood. They're not supposed to be complex, so I somewhat disagree with you. Also, while they do not affect the plot as a whole. I will say that in games like CoM/Re:CoM, you can see their bonds with Sora a lot better.

lol just because Disney is cartoons doesn't mean the characters don't have layers/complexity. Go watch The Fox & The Hound or something and feel emotion compared to Nomura's soulless shell of a plot.

 

[TheMostRad]

It was actually an argument between (back then) Squaresoft and Disney executives.
Square wanted to use Mickey as the central main character but Disney insisted on having Donald in that role.

Oh dip, the more you know! I never knew that Kingdom Hearts almost turned into a Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers ​sequel.

 

[Recon]

Every hero needs allies. Just look at the Avengers.

 

[kaseykockroach]

OP that's blasphemous; it's because it's a Disney/Square crossover.

The way KH fans want to diminish the diddly out of the Disney aspect saddens me given that's the reason the series exists in the first place; there's a reason the meat and potatoes of the games is just visiting Disney worlds. The rest of the game could be anything.


lol just because Disney is cartoons doesn't mean the characters don't have layers/complexity. Go watch The Fox & The Hound or something and feel emotion compared to Nomura's soulless shell of a plot.

Today's hip kids want to feel cool and mature by preferring edgy anime to that baby Disney stuff.

 

[Launchpad]

Today's hip kids want to feel cool and mature by preferring edgy anime to that baby Disney stuff.

This is nothing new. The subsection of KH fans that don't like Disney has existed since like KH2. What's worse is that these people were somewhat catered to in the late 2000s with Days and BBS de-emphasizing characters more than ever before. I've grown to love all parts of KH, no matter how cringey or dissonant, but I've never felt like Disney was the problem.

 

[TheMostRad]

Today's hip kids want to feel cool and mature by preferring edgy anime to that baby Disney stuff.

I mean, Kingdom Hearts is some semi-edgy Disney. Didja pop-pop ever mourn the loss of Goofy, or did he see the sacred mouse conjure a blade?

 

[DarkosOverlord]

I knew me going into detail about this was coming.

Let's look at "one dimensional" Donald:

- King's gone. He said "find the key bearer". Donald goes.

- Traverse Town. A kid has the key, he's worried about his friends. Donals says he's sure he'll find them by coming with him and Goofy, then openly admits in front of the camera (and Goofy) that he doesn't know and doesn't care, he just wants the boy to come with them.

- Deep Jungle happens. A bit I find important here is that the reason why Donald was refusing to go into that world wasn't because nobody was there, buyt merely because he doubted the KING was there. He wasn't ruling out that Riku and Kairi could've been there, he just didn't care. Sora and Donald aren't on speaking terms. Donald wants to leave him there for good. Tarzan and the power of *&&X% reconcile the two.

- Traverse Town. Sora finds Riku, the friend he was screaming about the entire time. Donald refuses to let him come along.
"Come on! He's my friend!"
"I don't care!"

- Hollow Bastion happens. Donald and Goofy lave Sora, because their purpose was always to support the key bearer.
They will later come back to his keyless side because of their newfound friendship. This is also the first time Donald'll say "all for one, one for all" to Sora.

We can surmise a few things from this, aside from the fact that Donald hardly cares about stuff.
He was never truly Sora's frined until the Hollow Bastion scene. Throughout the game it becomes clear that he's just tagging along, and at times he and Sora clash. Which is obvious, they've just met and now they have to endure a perilous journey together. Still, when you look at things from this perspective you'll see Donald only does stuff because he's working on his goal, and will ditch or refuse Sora's requests just because they aren't useful to him.
Again, he was (possibly) leaving two kids on a jungle. He didn't care whether they were there or not. And when he does tag along, it's only because he found a gummi.

I know the way Donald and Goofy ditch Sora has been met with some criticism throughout the years, but to me it seems justified when taking all of this into account. Abd it makes their face turn when they come back to Sora's side all the more earned: it's the first time they'll disregard their main purpose to come to Sora's aid, because they realized they're his friends.
This is how Sora and Donald's friendship was forged, and I adore it. I wasn't kidding when I said it's a character arc way better than others the series gave us. I certainly buy this friendship more than eating ice cream while looking at the sunset over and over.
My only complain is that Goofy just seemed there for the ride.

This is nothing new. The subsection of KH fans that don't like Disney has existed since like KH2. What's worse is that these people were somewhat catered to in the late 2000s with Days and BBS de-emphasizing characters more than ever before. I've grown to love all parts of KH, no matter how cringey or dissonant, but I've never felt like Disney was the problem.

Yeah.
People like that were always there, but when KH went through its "only main characters" period, they even felt entitled to that.
If you tuned in from KH II onwards, I can see why some would think of Disney characters as mere accessories to the main story.

 

[kirabook]

Donald and Goofy are Sora's uncles, he can't do right without them. Look what happened in DDD, completely off the trails.

Something I really hope to see if Xehanort and his croonies trying to do the same tricks to lure Sora into darkness, but Donald and Goofy keep stepping in setting Sora back on the right path.

Sora is too.... "passionate" sometimes. He needs Donald to yell at him and keep him on track with their mission (most of the time). He needs Goofy to encourage him to think before acting and getting into a bigger mess. They LOVE Sora.

I so want to see them get to protect him this time. It's why I love the angry Goofy meme. That's right Goofy, protecting your nephew from the weirdo dudes in black coats. SDG is arguably the best trio in this series.

 

[kaseykockroach]

Funnily enough, I find SDG a wholly more believable friendship than BBS, Sora with Riku and Kairi, Days, etc.
So much of the others are just them TELLING us what great friends they are.
On a side note, I like that Goofy’s just along for the ride. He doesn’t understand what’s going on, doesn’t try to make sense of anything. Heck, he didn’t seem THAT worried about the missing king, probably figured the king could handle himself.

And who can blame Donald for wanting to avoid Deep Jungle, easily the dullest chapter of the game?

 

[Pokie]

Also they are very one-dimensional characters who barely have anything to do with the plot.

I wish that for Kingdom Hearts III that Square Enix would've replaced Donald and Goofy with Riku and Kairi as your main allies.​

How dare. Donald Duck and Goofy are incredible characters.


Question: Did you grow up watching the old Mickey Mouse cartoons? Or Goof Troop and the Goofy Movie? Because they hold a lot of special childhood memories for a lot of people.

 

[Neo_]

Stuff like Donald and Sora feuding in Deep Jungle was a cool part of the story that is kind of dead these days.

Today's hip kids want to feel cool and mature by preferring edgy anime to that baby Disney stuff.

I don't get why they chose this game instead of Final Fantasy or something else tbh.

 

[kaseykockroach]

Because only dweebs like turn-based combat.

 

[That_one_Sora]

i get it, it usually something bad and if the hero fails the world ends.

 

[Deleted member 246005]

Stuff like Donald and Sora feuding in Deep Jungle was a cool part of the story that is kind of dead these days.


I don't get why they chose this game instead of Final Fantasy or something else tbh.

Most people started playing KH when they were kids so they probably grew up with the series. As you grew older your tastes change so you would have to rethink how you view the stories you love. So people preferring the Organization 13 over the Disney Villains is a consequence of that.

Plus the disney elements became more disconnected from the core plot and more like rethreads of the movies as time went on, giving them a stale feeling. So you can't really blame fans for losing interest in the disney stuff as it doesn't grow with them and relying on the same old same old.

 

[sephydark]

I used to be one of those people who only liked the original stuff and thought Disney was stupid during the KH1 days. For myself, the reason I played the game was mostly that I had it; it was a gift and I didn't have a whole lot of other games to play. Afterwards I was invested enough in the original characters and story to want to play future games regardless of how I felt about the Disney aspects.

Though, by the time KH2 came out I had rewatched some of Disney's classic animated movies and realized they were actually good and it wasn't just nostalgia making me remember them that way, so I was much more on board with the Disney elements. Especially since one of the worlds was Beauty and the Beast, which has pretty much been my favorite Disney movie ever since it came out.

 

[Neo_]

Most people started playing KH when they were kids so they probably grew up with the series. As you grew older your tastes change so you would have to rethink how you view the stories you love. So people preferring the Organization 13 over the Disney Villains is a consequence of that.

Plus the disney elements became more disconnected from the core plot and more like rethreads of the movies as time went on, giving them a stale feeling. So you can't really blame fans for losing interest in the disney stuff as it doesn't grow with them and relying on the same old same old.

This is true; the crossover aspect has not been handled well tbh. The games at their core are just part replaying Disney films and then the original stuff, and the dumb "world order" thing is the barrier between. Somecallmejohnny had a really salient point in one of his reviews that he wants the true KH experience where Disney characters can leave their worlds and stuff; that's the only way they're going to matter. I don't know if this was enforced by Disney, but it seems like something they would do.

My whole thing is that Disney is such a huge aspect of most of the titles that I don't get how people even play the games if they hate it; it's certainly what sold me. I mean, I love the silicon graphics of FFVII and am a fan of Square, but pretty much along with the Muppets and Looney Tunes, Disney was everything to me, so this game literally hit me at the perfect time in my life - one of the rare reasons I can be proud of being an early-2000s kid.