Kingdom Hearts What do you miss from KH1?

What concepts from original game do you miss (& may want to return in future games) from the first Kingdom Hearts game?

 

The simplicity of it to be honest. Before all the time travel and vessels. The concept was simple enough with going to different disney worlds and interacting with the characters to fight against the darkness and finding your (Sora's) friends. I hope for future KH games after 3 they downsize the concept a bit. It's all over the place now.

Another thing I had missed from 1 that I felt we didn't get back until DDD was the whimsical part of the series. CoM, 2, and BBS were more on the dark side. Not that, that's a bad thing, and it was important to the overall story, but it would be nice to get a little more back of that in future games.

 

The story and level design, and the way they were intertwined so well, is what I wish KH could get back. The first game felt like a fable; a traditional take on the hero's journey, with a few creative twists for taste. It didn't set its sights too high, it just told a simple story well. Same for the actual game design: each world is an adventure unto itself, using basic principles of level design (not to mention some of the coolest-looking enemies in gaming history) to make every moment a memorable one. Basically, it started with simple tools and used them to create complex set pieces.

The games after that seemed to reverse this process. They had all these lofty ideas for new mechanics and complicated new characters that all end up either not making sense or just falling flat. The "lol it's so deep guys!!!" thing gets old unbelievably fast when it becomes an exercise in keeping all these errant plot strains straight in your head, and a lot of characters from KH2 onward have Joker Syndrome: where the writers think a mysterious character with no clear motives is automatically compelling and cool, rather than obnoxious and obtuse.

I doubt KH is ever gonna go back to those simple roots. Not even sure they could. Unless they actually #RebootKH, true to my wishful thinking. 'Course reboots usually don't solve the problem either, so it's wishful on multiple levels.

 

Can't agree with you more. I also felt like the Disney worlds were a lot more relevant in the first game when compared to all the other games in the series. I mean I'm all for Square Enix original characters but I feel like the more they introduce them the more some characters (like Kairi) don't get the attention that they deserve & others like (Sora) just become exaggerated personas of what they used to be (like the more SEO characters there are the more the writers want to show how incompetent or dumb Sora is in comparison). But that is just me.
However, maybe they just might return to that way of storytelling after KH3 when the Xehanort sage ends? Possibly.

 

Well there are a couple of things that I liked in the first game that I want to return in future games:

1. Tech Points. I dunno, it just feels satisfying when I earn Tech Points by parrying or blocking certain attacks at the right time.

2. The Platforming between the different worlds. In KHI (Especially Hollow Bastion and Deep Jungle), platforming is required in order to progress to areas which can either progress the story or just give extra content/items to the player. In future games (Original KHII, BbS and DDD are huge factors in this), platforming is way, way less than in KHI which is kinda disappointing because while I do like that it is easier to progress to the next areas when speedrunning throughout the game, I really want platforming in the way KH2FM handled it with the Cavern of Remembrance.

3. Final Fantasy characters that actually have a role in the main story. KH1 and KH2 handled the Radiant Garden gang really well in my opinion, then Square decided to throw Final Fantasy characters out of the picture when Zack was the only one to appear in BbS. Although with how the TWEWY gang were handled back in DDD, I really hope something similar happens to the potential FF characters that will appear in future games

4. This is really important for me.... Boss battles that require actual strategy. In KH1 and KH2, boss battles are handled very well thanks to the revenge value system, and that there are different ways to battle the different bosses, like summons, limits, drive forms (For KHII), etc. Sure, you can just spam Reflect in KHII, but even then that does not guarantee an easy win against bosses. Bosses that I quite enjoyed from KHI like Kurt Ziza, Sephiroth, Phantom (Even though it is very time-consuming). BbS and DDD threw out the window where certain commands are so overpowered that they can end battles quickly, or in the case of secret bosses (I'm looking at you, Mysterious Figure), are absolutely necessary in order to defeat them.

 

Tech Points
World relevance
Simpler story or at least the better writing. Kh1 wasn't flawless but compared to the rest of the series it was written better
I also really miss how magic had varying effects on heartless. Like heavy ones being weak to gravity, fire ones to ice, etc.

 

the simplicity of the story, altough I actually like how convoluded it has become it just part of the character of the series, the very easy to understand story in KH1 is part of the reason why it is my favorit kingdom hearts, that and the fact that I never expected that a game with Disney vcharacters could or would be this good.

 

That simplicity and surprise of quality is what got KH going really. I know some like the convolution later but I think it's apparent it's did more damage than good since it's a common complaint of the series now.

 

Replaying I.5 on the PS4, after playing KH I Final Mix+ for the first time on PS3 several years ago, what I miss most is the original Heartless colors for the ones that were changed. It might sound odd, but I'd give quite a bit to play KH I as it looked when I first played it but with smoother graphics. The PS4 version was less depressing to this end than the PS3 version, and I'm not really certain why that is.

And I still feel like I'm in the minority that sort of gets the more complex aspects of KIngdom Heart's plot. Xehsnort in the brown robe that appears to Sora in Destiny Islands was always there quite literally from the beginning. I feel like this wider scope was a part of the original plan, so the simplicity of the first game fits with the theme of most franchises. "Nice story that introduces you to the main characters and in-world mythos, and things get real in future installments". Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc. I suppose that's why it doesn't bother me that KH expanded. I've been wanting to know the full story since I was seven and I'm twenty-three as of writing this.

But if those darn Soldier Heartless could be mostly black, blue, silver, and purple, that would be great.

 

I couldn't agree more on the colors. I do NOT like the final mix recolors. I know it's disney, but it makes the heartless more cartoony than shadow monsters should be.

The issues isn't just understanding the aspects but the aspects themselves. I also understand but I hate them since most quite frankly exist because Nomura wants to "surprise" people. Among other issues. Of course many also feel confused by it and dislike it for those reasons but some also hate them despite understanding I feel.