I've always found it strange that visually they appear and should be as powerful as Gods, like with Ansem's final ship form deal in Kingdom Hearts then Xemnas' huge dragon/castle/space ship. You'd think if Sora could defeat them, he'd have some sort of insane final form like that once things were looking rough for him. Even Xion turned into that colossus at the end of Days, and if she's only half of Sora then there's no way he wouldn't be able to do that eventually. I think Square needs to make Master Xehanort and co. ridiculously hard at the end of Kingdom Hearts III, so you'll actually have to train and get skilled at the gameplay mechanics. It'd be a nice voila. Then have Sora assume some ultimate final form like them maybe, just as an awesome boss mechanic.
I think his behavior in that moment is a reflection of how pure of a heart he has, and because he says how real the promise felt, even if it was fake. To me, that was one of my favorite parts about Chain of Memories. I think it has something to say for the human heart and the types of decisions we make, and I've found people usually live like Riku more than Sora and what I mean by that is like your post. You thought more like Riku did, the rationale main character, why should I help this person who has put me through hell and all for a fake connection? But at the end of Kingdom Hearts II Riku tells Sora how he wishes he could live life the way he does, following his heart, and I find that especially true for me as well. I feel like I would have been a better person if I had helped and forgave Namine at the end of Chain of Memories, and I think that would be the heart's decision moreso than one made through the mind. All of the problems that Sora gets into start with him following his heart, but at the end of the day we all still love Sora for these decisions because it shows how powerful the heart can be, even if it leads him astray, as a concept being brought up in Dream Drop Distance. So, in my opinion, Sora shouldn't be ridiculed for his decisions, instead, he should be given a pat on the back, like Riku did. Even after Riku went through so much to essentially save his life at the end of Dream Drop Distance, he still loved Sora all the same. And instead of Sora getting angry when Riku got the title of Keyblade Master and he didn't, he congratulated him. I wish I could be like Sora, even if that means being naive, because even through all the suffering he endures, he still ends up with a smile on his face at the end of every title.
I agree that Kingdom Hearts' difficulty was the best in terms of actually feeling like the Heartless actually posed a threat to you, or Sora, even at a higher level. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix' critical mode was difficult throughout the whole game, especially the added on content. I found critical mode to be hardest in terms of bosses, but proud mode on Kingdom Hearts was the most difficult considering the gameplay in general. I'm not sure if either of you have played Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix so I guess just take my word for it until 2.5HD comes out. It is kind of ridiculous how much is fixed in the Final Mix versions of the games, though. You'd think critical mode would be included in the original Kingdom Hearts II, or at least replace proud mode or expert mode. But I also feel as if Sora was overpowered in Kingdom Hearts II because Nomura was trying to use his newly gained superpowers as a means of showing Sora's matured and is becoming fit to be a Keyblade Master eventually, and I think I vaguely remember him saying something about that in an interview. Although I find it kind of game breaking, I can see why Sora would be so much more powerful in the second game, and why Terra, Ven, and Aqua would have that same kind of power. It's just kind of a mess because it seems as if being a Keyblade Master, or having the potential to be one automatically equates to being gamebreakingly overpowered. You'd think the Heartless and Nobodies would have become even stronger enemies for Kingdom Hearts II. Hopefully Kingdom Hearts III is a return to Kingdom Hearts' gameplay. You actually had to plan out all of your battles. Maybe not so much as a return to it but at least have the Heartless and probably Nobodies be much more powerful in Kingdom Hearts III. I found myself dreading encounters with Heartless on Kingdom Hearts because I didn't want to deal with them at all, whilst in Kingdom Hearts II, and the other games that followed, you can sort of just cut through them. Also, I feel like Square makes up for this Inverse Difficulty problem through the secret bosses, or at least tries to, which doesn't fix the problem of gameplay at all. If anything, the secret bosses just become more of a headache because you're used to everything else being so much easier than said boss. I found Dream Drop Distance's gameplay to be broken in the sense that you could manipulate the Free Motion to a ridiculous extent. Plus for some reason I didn't feel like the BBS mechanic that was added to the gameplay really fit with DDD. It seemed like they intended DDD to be way more of a free-running, Kingdom Hearts II esque game, so implementing the BBS mechanic of the ability deck thing whatever it was called kind of made the gameplay feel awkward a lot of the time.
Yeah, just like the villains set up their base in Hollow Bastion in Kingdom Hearts. Is Hollow Bastion defined by that?
I get what you're saying and I totally agree, I just don't fault Nomura for it at all because I think it's an understandable situation that can simply be ignored, but that's me. I totally get your viewpoint though, not trying to discredit or anything
But the difference there is that those are real games. They fit in and create more canon. The whole point of this game is to give a tiny, vague hint at Kingdom Hearts III.
No, what that other guy was saying is that The World That Never Was isn't the home of the nobodies because they weren't even there, other than the castle, until Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+, and that was more of a gameplay thing. It was said, I'm pretty sure, that they set up base in the world, they being the organization, and that the castle is the Nobody's. Other than that, Neo Shadows spawn everywhere and it seems to be their home more than Nobodies.
Okay, I honestly think that's pushing the whole what's canon or not canon idea. They're just enemies being fought. It'd be difficult to come up with a whole new enemy just for, again, an iOS game that most of the casual fanbase isn't even going to hear of.
I completely agree with everything you're saying. The gameplay mechanics of Sora and Riku differ on a huge level towards the end of the game, when you get all of abilities for Riku. You can really mimic Dark Mode with those abilities and attacks if you chose to, but the attacks honestly aren't as effective and overpowered as they were in Chain of Memories, which could be a good thing rather than a bad one. Riku's character development is also the most believable out of all the characters in the franchise and I think that makes him the least boring, honestly. Not that I even find the characters boring, because I think they all offer something different, but Riku definitely takes the cake for being the most interesting due to his humanity and, I don't know how young you were when you played Kingdom Hearts, but growing up with the series (I'm 17 now and played Kingdom Hearts when I was 7), I feel like Riku is the most relatable and genuine because he's like a teenager coming to maturity and learning to become more of a man, like Riku has done, and his character development sort of gives off a certain inspiration to do some inward thinking of your own.
If you feel this negatively about the series, why the hell are you on a forum dedicated to it? It's obvious the site isn't as active as it used to be, so I've seen your posts from time to time and honestly it seems like you rarely have anything good to say about the series or things in general. Of course you're going to pass me saying this off as, Oh this kid lost the argument so now he's attacking me personally, but that's not the case at all. We both obviously disagree with each other and we're not going to find a common ground on this so you can think whatever you want of me but seriously man, you have the tendency to be way too critical of the series and the other members of the site. I know pointing out you calling us lamers is ridiculous, considering how unoffensive the word is itself, but the intent was that because we had a different opinion than you, you think yourself above us. And the reason for that is because you have rarely anything positive to say about the subject you're discussing. It's easy to criticize something rather than defend it, which superficially makes you look smarter in the process, and I feel like you take that route way too often. You don't need to research the plot to have any idea of what's going on either, so stop twisting my words around. The plot of the franchise is presented on a surface level, it's just that the Ansem reports dive into subjects far more, which is incredibly interesting to those who want to take the time to get behind the deeper story. That's what I meant by research. Details of the story that aren't vital to know to enjoy it, but are added bonuses to those who are willing to take their time to read the reports, and honestly if you don't have time to read in-game content, and you complain about the obscurity of the franchise, then you expect your hand to be held way too much. No, I'm not talking about you in particular because I'm sure you've read the reports yourself, I'm saying in general 'newcomers' like you said afraid to approach the series because of its complexity? I feel like that's idiotic. Kingdom Hearts II did a fine job of explaining what happened in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories. Dream Drop Distance does a great job of piecing everything together as well. I think the opposition is to the amount of unnumbered titles and how they're on so many different consoles, and that scares people off. But the handheld titles are being produced because of the development of Final Fantasy XV and Nomura wants to dedicate his time to Kingdom Hearts III, which is important. I think the franchise is complex, but not confusing at all, and if people feel that way then just play the numbered titles and let them use exposition to clear things up easily. I find it incredibly lazy to oppose a franchise simply because one feels like it's going to take some thought to fully understand it. And it's not like the handheld games, aside from BBS, DDD, and Chain of Memories, are even somewhat crucial to understand the plot in full. 358/2 Days and Coded, well maybe even Chain of Memories because of Kingdom Hearts II's exposition, are all games admittedly produced to pass the time, and a person shouldn't feel like the franchise is a mess because of all these different pieces. The Halo franchise is really similar to Kingdom Hearts in the sense that terminals are the equivalent of Ansem reports, and no one criticizes the complexity of Halo's story, and to understand it all there are books, animes, short series, all different forms of media to explain the plot of a game franchise. So I feel like it's unfair to criticize Kingdom Hearts for the same thing when the director of the series is extremely busy working on something else. And the writing of the series, I don't even feel like arguing with you about that anymore because no matter what you're going to put it down. I think the writing of a game is successful if it can evoke genuine emotion in the player, and every Kingdom Hearts game I've played has done that in one way or another. But seriously dude, stop being so narcissistic with your opinions and expressing them as facts, and work more on trying to find good aspects of the series I think you like?
Then we both see Kingdom Hearts characters a lot differently. I look at them more as archetype characters that represent different aspects of humanity, rather than yes, as you said, being extremely complex characters. But I really enjoy that about Kingdom Hearts, to be honest. The story as it is portrayed outwardly isn't nearly as complex as what's really going on, and we have the Ansem Reports to thank for that, but I find that aspect of the franchise to be enthralling. For the people who truly are invested, there's information and elements of the plot that only reveal themselves clearly through research. That urges me to find out more about the series and look into things, and I feel like that's the aim of Kingdom Hearts. It's almost like a Disney movie in that way, as in it's simple and outwardly emotional on the outside, and it does take looking deeper to find the humanity of the plot. That way, I feel like I can enjoy the Kingdom Hearts franchise on multiple different levels. And to argue against you, but to also agree, I did find Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep to have great writing. Of course I'm referring to the plot, not the translated dialogue that's never as good when it's dubbed in English, so I suggest looking into the subbed videos, as the dialogue is far more intelligent. But I saw Terra has the archetype character that he is, a young man struggling to deal with his inward emotions. Although his approach to darkness wasn't as good as Riku's, I still saw that he was a guy trying to do right but ended up being tricked into doing wrong and that everyone goes through that at one point or another, good intentions that end badly, so I loved seeing Terra's character and I didn't think it needed extreme development because his character already accomplished what it needed to, in my opinion. I think you saying that Ventus was just traveling to random worlds is flawed in the sense that Ventus was explicitly searching for Terra and sort of running away from Aqua. Ventus was obviously the innocent archetype character that belonged to the light, but had to struggle with the dark side of himself (Vanitas), and again I think that metaphorically we can all relate. Then yeah maybe Aqua sucked but I felt like she wasn't even needed in the story to be honest. Or, at least she didn't need to be expanded upon or have the attempt thereof. But I think you're forgetting that one of the biggest attractions to the Kingdom Hearts franchise is its accessibility to all ages. So of course you're going to need a story that's more simple on the surface, like Disney films, but have complex subplots and elements dedicated fans have the liberty to look into, under the surface. I think the accessibility of Kingdom Hearts is one of the things that makes it incredible, and an incredible story, so I don't agree with you in the idea that the story is only good when you look into it, because even as a child I loved Kingdom Hearts more than any other game and it was because of how much I related to Sora and co. I don't think you're giving the franchise enough credit in that respect.
From my experience, I don't see the writing of Kingdom Hearts to be bad. Sure, sometimes it contradicts itself but what plot on the scale of the Kingdom Hearts franchise doesn't? The only bad writing I see is the whole concept behind Nobodies. I think Nomura was trying to say that people who hide their emotions and put on a fake persona to the world only exist as a hollow shell of a person. That you need to be in touch with your feelings/heart to be a full person. And I felt like this idea was conveyed well until Dream Drop Distance *spoilers, I guess* decided that Nobodies did in fact have hearts the whole time, and I don't even remember why that was relevant, I think it was so that Master Xehanort could split his soul into each of their bodies and to do that they needed to have hearts to be possessed or something? I don't get why, if that was the case, they couldn't just be given hearts and then be taken over. Then their mission in Kingdom Hearts II wouldn't have been void, since they were looking for their hearts. The only reason I could think of that Nomura would say they had hearts the whole time was to make Master Xehanort look like even more of a villain, which he already does so there's no point in contradicting a well-established concept just to make the bad guy look even more bad. But other than the Nobody concept, I don't see how the writing of Kingdom Hearts is bad. Almost every great story has at least one flawed concept to it, so I think the Nobody thing can be given a pass. Birth By Sleep's writing was fantastic, along with Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories. I think Chain of Memories had the most to say about people and what we give value to in life, and what we should give value to. Kingdom Hearts II showed the importance of emotions, but other than that it did start the whole Nobody concept that has contradicted itself ever since it was introduced, but not nearly enough to call the writing of Kingdom Hearts bad in general.
Replaying Kingdom Hearts, I've found myself to have an outward personality more like Sora's, as in the social and randomly nice guy, but in a more introspective sense I'm a lot like Riku, and I think that can be said for most people. That being said, I chose Riku. Sora's more realistic when it comes to how people are towards other people, but when it comes down to who we are fundamentally I think Riku is a more human character due to his constant struggle with darkness. Although that may seem redundant, I think its redundancy is something people can relate to more. There's always going to be a constant struggle with one's demons and I think Riku's character conveys that idea perfectly. This is why I think Sora and Riku being the two main characters make sense and is a great move on Nomura's part when it comes to human story-telling because they're foils for each other. You can't have Sora without Riku, as in, you can't live life fully without being social (on some degree at least) by having true friends, like Sora, but also you need to reflect on who you are and in doing so face your demons and overcome them, like Riku. I think this is a great idea to convey subconsciously, like Kingdom Hearts does, to a young audience, me in particular as I started playing Kingdom Hearts as a young kid and always felt more of an attraction to Riku because I could see why he did the things that he did. In my opinion, people's reasoning for liking one character over the other is due to what each of the characters mean to the story and their basic character traits, when in reality one should examine the humanity of both of the characters and what elements they represent. That being said, I think Riku is a better character due to the fact that he's more human in the sense that he's not consistently happy like Sora is. While Riku's depression may get annoying at times to some people (never did to me, though), Sora's consistent happiness just doesn't feel real. But then again, that's why it's so powerful when Sora is upset. Plus I see Riku as more of an Itachi and Loki character in the sense that he contributes to the overall story line a great deal but does so in a way that's undercover, unlike Sora or Naruto/Sasuke or Thor who drive the story outwardly since they're the main characters, and because of that I find that it's more difficult to write Riku's character in such a successful way that Nomura has done.
Does anyone know whether or not it'll exclusively be for the PS3 or will it be downloadable to the PS4? I know that the PS4 isn't backwards compatible with the PS3, but I've heard about those games that have been released for the PS3 that have been converted to the PS4 for some sort of emulator type deal. That being said, does anyone know whether or not HD1.5 and HD2.5 will be like that for the PS4? I want these two collections but I'm getting a PS4 for my birthday and an Xbox One for Christmas, and it'd be ridiculous to buy a PS3 just for Kingdom Hearts remakes. But then again, it would be about the third time I've bought completely new systems for Kingdom Hearts. The only game I've had for almost a year now for my 3DS has been Dream Drop Distance.
No way, I mean, obviously from my profile picture I'm going to say that Riku is a great character and undergoes great development, but the darkness inside of him is just a metaphor for what he's done. He isn't redeeming himself for giving into the darkness, on the contrary in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories he matures and sees that darkness is just as important as light and that they balance each other out, which is a huge understanding to come to. To realize that evil must exist for good to exist too. So Kingdom Hearts II and past that isn't him dealing with darkness at all, it's him doing whatever it takes to reach redemption. To make up for the wrongs he's done. All of the characters are obvious archetypes, Riku happens to be the one that seeks redemption. I think he truly reaches it in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance when he saves Sora. A story is more interesting if there's someone who has done wrong and is trying to make it right. So again, Riku isn't trying to run away from the darkness, he's trying to make things right. He grew from being selfish and insecure (his saving of Kairi instead of Sora, him getting jealous of Donald and Goofy) in Kingdom Hearts, then in Chain of Memories we see him mature and stop blaming the darkness for his problems and start taking responsibility for himself and in Kingdom Hearts II we see him finally begin redeeming himself truly, then in Dream Drop Distance he actually redeems himself. Ansem is to serve as a reminder of the awful things he did, not just that darkness once consumed him. He doesn't want Riku to give into darkness, he wants Riku to be selfish again. The darkness is very metaphoric in Kingdom Hearts, especially with Riku's character. Riku matures more than any of the other characters throughout the games, and that's what people like to see. A selfish and bitter boy growing into a selfless and humble man.
Nomura: “Kingdom Hearts 1 was created a long, long time ago, so actually the original data was lost. So, we had to research and we had to dig out from the actual games available, and recreate everything for HD. We had to recreate graphics, and it was actually not that easy.” Obviously it was for the better because the graphics are beyond impressive now, but still, if they didn't have to rebuild the game they wouldn't have. I'm sure they still have everything for Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ since it was more recent, and no doubt for Birth By Sleep and the rest of the portables. That being said, I think they can announce this so early because they really just need to update the textures and have a graphics overhaul for Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+. The size and contents of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ are so huge that just porting Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix and enhancing its graphics wouldn't bother anyone, since that game too has a lot of content for a PSP game. Then who really cares about Re:Coded? It'll more than likely just be a movie deal like with Days.
Alright I really, really need this code guys cause my game freezes at Beast's Castle. Does anyone know if there is a code that'll let Beast's Castle to be sealed or already completed and I'll be able to save? Edit: What I'm looking for is similar to Kingdom Hearts code that already comes with the ArMax codelist. For Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix though, I just need to have Beast's Castle completed.
I personally think it's going to take place at the Keyblade Graveyard then work its way into Kingdom Hearts. What I would LOVE to see is the original plan for Xemnas' boss in Kingdom Hearts II: http://i.imgur.com/oke18.png. I think finally seeing that boss in-game would be absolutely incredible.
That makes no sense whatsoever. I've seen a making-of for South Park and they seem to pull most of it out of their ass and have a great time while doing it. But they're obviously talented because the show keeps getting better and better. South Park is 20x better than Seth's work because South Park actually deals with real things like politics and consumerism (multiple episodes for the latter actually), but makes it hilarious through the characters and that takes great skill. But Family Guy does do a good job with one character at least, and that's Stewie. He's unpredictable and actually has depth on some things, but he's the only character that's like that on Family Guy so it's not redeeming unfortunately.
I wish I knew the difference before I wrote that. I obviously feel like an idiot but I only pay attention when Facebook is lighting your News Feed up with Movie Awards. Has Seth ever won anything then?
