While I agree with the spinoffs and somewhat confusing story at times, saying things like "twilight for boys" and "a garbled mess of emo kids and Orlando Bloom cameos" makes it seem like the author didn't even play the game and is just trying to troll the fanbase. It looks like IGN will make any idiot an editor these days.

Wow! Totally my thoughts but spoken by somebody else! XD You go! ^^
But the singing in KH II didn't bother me--I saw it as a break from all the fighting and used it as a good laugh ;)

I wouldn't say this is IGN saying this, it's an editor who is an idiot. If you look at his "Blog" on the site, he has an article called "Zynga's Dream Zoo is Pretty Gay." This is nothing short of just someone being a ****** about a story he didn't really fathom.

There's a new drug they give reviewers and "bloggers". It's called IGN. Makes you stupid and think shallow games are deep and that CoD and GoW clones are original.

I'll state again, the story isn't hard to understand if you PAY ATTENTION and make the connections yourself. The game doesn't do it for you and you have to THINK. Something IGN is apparently allergic to.

I totally agree with this up here ^^^^

Did the author just compare kingdom hearts to twilight?! I mean...WTF?!

Anyways, most of my thoughts have already been said by others.

I also think the author the author did a poor job of articulating why he dislikes the series (listing the weird names as a major bullet point...again WTF?!). He was also flat out wrong about epic mickey, the "evil' gameplay is still in the game, and Warren Spector who (the designer) made the decision to change it around a bit.

Okay, Im done ranting about the author now XD

Since you guys pretty much covered everything, all I'm gonna say is...IGN is probably just jealous because Kingdom Hearts is so immensely popular despote its flaws

IGN always upsets me, but this... this takes Headache Puppy to a whole new level of upset...-ness.. >_>

The editor's a lazy guy for saying the story is too complicated or whatever. Attention! All you need to understand it is to pay attention. That is all.

I read this earlier the only thing I didn't agree with is the comment about the story.
What I like about the story of Kingdom Hearts that it is as in-depth as you want it to be. Meaning a 12 year old can pick up the game play through it and enjoy the main story with its Disney influence and friendship can get us through anything mentality. However it also caters to people who want a more in-depth experience. You just have to make the effort to find and connect things.

Personal story ahead might be a little off topic so I wrapped it in spoilers:

Spoiler

Just a few days ago I was thinking about how narrow-minded Master Xehanort was in Birth by Sleep with his "darkness this, darkness that, GIVE ME YOUR BODY TERRA!". Then I ended up reading the Xehanort Reports and I have to say he isn't just all darkness, he just has a want to renew the world with a balance of light and darkness, it's just he wants to do it by any means possible.

The story also intentionally keeps things vague/mysterious which allows for people to theorize about certain parts by bringing known facts and trying to connect them to form something that makes sense. And that is one of the things that brings the Kingdom Hearts story over other video games for me. It keeps things open and let's people invest in it at their own leisure and if they do there's a chance they'll come out feeling attached to it.

Oh and that part about not visiting Kingdom Hearts yet is crap. From what I read Kingdom Hearts is basically like the Triforce or One Piece of the series. Once you go in there the story is pretty much over, or something extremely bad or good will happen, depends on who goes in.

oooohhh, i don't normally post on this site...but that really ticks me off. There is so much story that's under the surface of this series. Not to mention on the surface. I'd like to take a keyblade and hit whoever wrote that over the head with it like they were a heartless....No one insults KH to my knowledge and gets away with it....*fumes*

Also don't we go in Kingdom Hearts for the final battle with Xemnas in KH2? (I have not played that game in ages) but I do remember that door popping out of nowhere and Sora, Riku and Mickey all open it.

We've been in Kingdom Hearts twice, if I remember right. It was, as Stoop Kid said, where the final Xemnas battle took place, and it is where Aqua's "secret ending" took place in BBS Final Mix. Plus, we saw inside of it at the end of KH1 when Riku and Mickey were stuck inside of it. I'm pretty sure that door is the border between Kingdom Hearts and the world(s).

As I said in exile's thread, this majorly pisses me off.

I have lost all respect for IGN, and the person who wrote this probably has never played Kingdom Hearts.

Lol, I guess it' s a good thing I pay more attention to the gameplay than the story, I actually agree with him on many levels. However he acknowledged that the Disney elements had to keep true to their roots, yet failed to acknowledge that a Japanese Squenix cross-over pretty much had to be an emo-filled shonen. The spiky haired characters, the feminine non-sense poetry monumentally failing at trying to appear deep (or, as he worded it, Twilight for boys) ... yeah, that' s Squenix for you, it' s akin to the singing goody-two shoes/animals/aaawwthatscuuuuuteandmoving Disney signature.

Now with that said, even keeping in mind that as a Disney-Squenix cross-over KH is supposed to be closer to Narubleach Piece than Akira, I do think Nomura' s narration can get irritating sometimes. For instance he announced a whole game dealing with the organization 13, namely 358/2 Days.

- Me :Neat, finally I' ll get what those weirdos are about !"

Turns out no, I really didn' t.

- Me : "In one of the diary entries Xaldin hints that some of them became nobodies on purpose ... wait, what the hell did they kinda suicided for ? To painfully try to become whole again ? Come on Nomura there' s obviously more than that to it, becoming nobodies was a mean, not an end, right ?"
- Nomura : "Sure, finding the Whatsitsname Room for instance." ::L:
- "............................................................................. Come again ?" :sideways:
- "Problem ? Try buying KH2 FM for a whooping 60 bucks again, if it was released in your country that is, I added a few scenes about that in there."
- "Sure. Wait, *shifty* those scenes aren' t just as cryptic, are they ?"
- "Noooooooooooo, why the hell would I do that." *poker face*

In the end all I got in that game was the story of Roxas and ... Xion ? Wh... ? Oh fine, nevermind, I' ll bite.

- Nomura : "BTW, you wanna know who Axel sees when he watches Xion ?"
- Me : "Yeah sure, whatever."

Spoiler

- Nomura : "I' m not telliiiing !"

Then came BBS, a solid game keeping the cryptic at a decent level ... and then Re-Coded, a sad filler excuse of a spin-off. So no, between the hard to get Final Mixes, the console jumping, the redundant content, the occasional fillers and the story often being cryptic for the sake of being cryptic it shouldn' t come as a surprise if some people complain about the narration.

While I think the article makes some valid points, I think the article's off in as many ways as possible. IGN, in my eyes, is an informative site, not a place to post your rants of frustration. Also, metaphors used are entirely wrong. Also, loads of stuff mentioned here happens in Final Fantasy-games too. Over-complicated plot? Yes. Emotions not entirely visible? Yes. (Altough I think it's not entirely legit to say this, but maybe I'm a woman and I can spot emotions more easily.)

But yeah, where's the informative, educational purpose? To me this is just whining, but it looks more shiny because it's on IGN.

I also want to make a Half-Life joke, but I guess only thinking about it makes me laugh out loud. At least we get new games.

You're throwing Naruto into that type of category? Naruto: a story that has heavy themes of Nationalism, political struggle, mythological and historical basis, social hierarchy and the bonds within them. Of course, there are things that only certain types of people would be able to understand. For example: Being from a noble clan myself that was betrayed and almost destroyed, I can personally relate to Sasuke's story and the familial and nationalistic feelings that go into his desire for revenge against the people who made his brother kill his clan. That series is far, FAR deeper than Kingdom Hearts is. It's just that no-one takes the time to really look at the series. Because it's so popular, they instantly assume it's just a silly story (even the people who like it assume that).

Now that I say that, that's sort of what I think IGN is doing here with Kingdom Hearts as well... hmmm...
I know it sounds weird, but this has happened before: because KH is so popular, they might think it cant possibly be a deep story. If it were, then it would have a more elite fan base since most people wouldn't be able to understand it or appreciate it.

Not EVERY game is perfect and so they all have their flaws. There were a few things that were true but overall it was pretty much an article of the negative things of kingdom hearts and lies. Whoever wrote it, better had played at least 4 games. If not then this is just a pointless /meaningless thing to read. The game has a great story that isn't that complicated to understand (if playing the games) and it gets more and more interesting.

I could say the very same thing about One Piece. They are both shonen nonetheless, focused on superpowers battles. In my book profound means smart, not loaded with cultural references (smart =/= cultured). But just because I do not view something as profound doesn' t mean I deem it to be completely dumb, there' s a middle ground (I do read it after all). I even agree with you about KH being way dumber than Naruto, mainly thanks to Shikamaru.

Does Naruto convey anything more than "friendship and hard work overcome anything, I' ll prove it with my ninpo" ? If so it escaped my notice. On the other hand the goal of any shonen is to try and surprise its reader while following the endless same tropes and stereotypes. I guess in that regard Naruto is as smart as any other popular shonen (surprising battle tricks and turns of events).

Well, I can understand why they'd say that. Entries like 358/2 Days and Re:CoM [have brought down the series for me personally, but I still find it to be an enjoyable experience.