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I like how KH3 was supposed to be the big finale of the Xehanort arc, and tbf it was, but then we get a prequel game about Xehanort's youth and after that this game where the final boss is... Xehanort

 

 

Yeah... if the real Xehanort shows up in any capacity after this it’s just gonna be kinda tiresome at this point

 

 

its been tiresome

 

 

and what I say this MF not going away we gonna see him in KH4

 

 

Xehanort will probably still be around, just not the main focus anymore

 

 

I expect his influence over the series to still be felt for a bit but like we need new antagonists to get their time in the spotlight

 

I feel like the first saga did the set up for the Org13 perfectly, and I kinda wish this second saga would have had that smooth of a transition.

the set up for the new antagonists so far has been the mobile games and a movie...... but we have yet to see them interact with the protagonists.

I don’t get why nomura didn’t follow that same sort of transition this time around. The formula worked perfectly between KH1 and 2. NFKCCKCJ

Spoiler

 

So like, my opinion of this game is that it's a complete and total joke. And the sad thing is that is had plenty of potential. The gameplay itself is much like Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, Birth By Sleep, and Recoded not to everybody's style but still very much has a portion of the public that will enjoy it. But the story...they could've really taken this game as a chance to fill in more gaps about Kairi's past simply by not insisting on the story coming from only her point of view. They could've shown us what happened to Kairi's grandmother and how she and Kairi got separated during the attack that started the Fall of Radiant Garden.

They could've shown us the Final Fantasy gang's defense efforts in the attack. And then for the scenes in the present they could've at least made Riku and Kairi's reunion when she woke up less stilted. We can't even snarkily blame localization for this, they just do not want to give us any scenes that make it apparent Riku and Kairi are friends because they like each other not just because they have a mutual friend in Sora.

Regarding the matter of if this game improves Kairi as a character, I'd say yes as much as most people would, but for all the wrong reasons. Kairi was essentially such a blank-slate as far as character development is concerned that doing literally anything with her that's not using her as a deus ex machina to undo something bad or forced Sokai scenes would be an improvement. In Re:Mind I hated what they did with her because none of it felt deserved or earned. She just trained off screen and could suddenly take on Old Man Xehanort like a boss alongside Sora when characters like Riku, Mickey, and the Birth By Sleep trio who all have much bigger bones to pick with him were relegated to the bench for the final battle with him in the base game and then a cluster-fXXk battle against his puppet like clones in Re:Mind.

Here what they essentially did was more damage control on their poor handling of Kairi over the years. They fleshed Kairi's character out by explaining a very tiny bit of her past in Radiant Garden and then gave her a single character development scene in that she was mature enough to recognize she needs improvement as a fighter instead of insisting on going with Riku. Yes, I know, Riku and Sora did just fine getting into adventures immediately, but if you go back and examine things that's not actually true. Sora was a majorly lost cause before setting out with Donald and Goofy and Riku's first adventure saw him siding with Maleficent (no matter his reasons the point is that he did) and then possessed by Ansem. It wasn't until he had Mickey at his side that things started going well for Riku in his adventures. And those weren't even the only people looking out for Sora and Riku.

In KH1 Captain Hook tries in his own odd way to stop Riku from further heading down the bad path he's treading if you pay attention to some of his dialogue, and on Sora's end there was the Final Fantasy gang looking out for him however they could across that same game. That's not even factoring in that while certainly not lacking in guts Kairi didn't exactly have a foundation as a fighter in KH1. We know Riku and Sora got up to sparring with their toy swords and we know that Tidus, Wakka, and even Selphie were into some form of fighting, but we never got anything from Kairi to imply she'd be able to fair well if suddenly thrust into a combat situation.

We were very much presented with someone who would certainly try, but fail miserably (even more so than Sora against Leon in that battle he gets into with him in Traverse Town that you can win by exploiting the game mechanics, but aren't narratively supposed to as the game so kindly reminds you in the cutscene afterwards if you do go out of your way to win it, in that if you just lost like you're narratively supposed to it doesn't make you feel bad by telling you Leon was overdoing it, but if you go out of the way to win it penalizes you by reminding you it was easy because Leon went easy on you, also cheekily warning you harder opponents are to come) because they hadn't even tried conditioning their body for an eventuality like combat.

Ultimately someone who has proven to be such a liability on a battlefield as Kairi has should definitely be prioritizing training. The only thing bad about it is that like most training related material in media it's not likely to be shown off in any meaningful way. I myself have very little interest in them running/continuing their attempts at damage control over their poor handling of Kairi, but I know some people still carry that faith that Kairi will be a worthwhile female lead someday so all I can do is hope for the sake of everyone who does still care that it eventually happens. That they can do enough of a good service to Kairi that everyone can eventually at least say "I don't like you, but I can at least respect you now."

A few closing thoughts:

It's quickly becoming a point of distaste for a lot of people from what I've read in forums and YouTube comments so here's my two cents on Kairi turning into Sora to battle Xehanort in this game, this ties back to what I'd said about her being put in a battle with him in Re:Mind, she has no business battling him when so many characters with genuine bones to pick with him got benched and the battle in this game highlighted that perfectly. In Re:Mind she had Sora at her side in the battle which is why she was able to triumph against him, in this game she was alone and even with an assist from Sora through what one can only assume is the strengthened bond between them after sharing the paopu fruit, it was still not the cakewalk that they fooled most of the fanbase into thinking it'd be after how overpowered they programmed her to be for the combat against him she got in Re:Mind. Thus I can't get too annoyed that a female character had to turn into her male love interest/friend to win the final battle of her own game.

False advertising: This was billed as a Kairi game, but you hardly get to use her and there is not enough story content to bill it as a Kairi game either. More like we got Riku to point A so he can rescue Sora in Re:Mind's Limit Cut episode, now we've gotten him to point B with this game. I'm reminded of how much more sense it would make if Riku and Aqua had accomplished some of the tasks that Sora ultimately accomplished in KH3 base game (ex: Riku and Mickey should've succeeded in rescuing Aqua their first go into the Realm of Darkness or Sora should've become a guest party member for Riku the 2nd foray to rescue her when Sora came to help out. Riku should've been the one to rescue Terra in a student saves the master type of scenario since Sora has next to no tangible connection to Terra while Riku does, Aqua should've woken up Ventus she has the ability and Sora doing it instead cheapens the impact of the promise she made by taking her chance to keep it away).

Pricing: It's way too high priced. This like the Re:Mind DLC is worth US$10 at best. The gameplay is something that'll appeal only to a very niche audience and the story content is simply way too little to convince even the most invested fan to purchase it. I expect a stiff price reduction within the first 3 months, but even then I'd advise anyone not into the gameplay to skip this one.

Ranking it within the rest of the Series: This to me is the worst Kingdom Hearts game. Worse than Coded in its original episodic mobile release, worse than Re:Coded, and certainly worse than everything Union Cross related. If I have to rank these games now it'd be
-Kingdom Hearts II (Either the Vanilla or Final Mix Version works for me, I appreciate the extra content in the Final Mix version, but not having it doesn't somehow take away from the great experience that the Vanilla release was and can still be).
-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance (I've turned into a sucker for the Dream Eaters and there's nothing to dislike about playing as Both Sora and Riku. There has yet to be a world as fun or engaging as Symphony of Sorcery implemented into the series since its introduction here and while not all of the story in this one is brilliant or cohesive it's not as terrible or messy as people like to claim. I have no preference between the 3DS version and the PS4 port though I appreciate the improvements of the PS4 port).
-Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (For as much as I think the campaigns between the three characters are not different enough that they couldn't have told the overarching story in a better way the gameplay mechanics in this game allow for a great deal of variety in how you'll win your fights if you don't just cheese the combat. This is a game I think is much better enjoyed in Standard and Proud difficulties than it is in Critical because Critical quickly forces you to cheese the combat due to the way the enemy AI is programmed compared to the playable characters. This is one of the games in the series that you can easily sink upwards of 200 hours into just messing around with how you'll approach killing the enemies and bosses.).
-Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (They handled both versions of this game really well in terms of creation, but the art style for the original version is so charming it made me happy to look at it every time I got a chance to experience it (to this day I can't remember if I ever owned my own copy of the GBA version or just borrowed it over weekends or during after school playdates with friends). The combat while not for everyone is still IMHO more appealing than Rhythm games are. The story of this game did so much for the series. The proper introduction of the Organization and Namine as well as the true start of Riku's character arc and his bond with Mickey.).
-Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (Some of the game mechanics in this one are really interesting to see in action once you familiarize yourself with them and the mission based structure was pretty cool IMHO. The story is of course the main draw with this one and the reason why its so well liked and so much more favorably reviewed than some of the other handheld entries, I just think Chain of Memories is better overall and I think at least 75% of the reason for that is how badly they incorporated the camera in this one by comparison. There are just too many points where the camera's a hindrance in this game for me to put it above Chain of Memories).
-Kingdom Hearts 1 (We wouldn't have a series without this one and although it was a success there were still plenty of glaring issues with it upon Vanilla release that were not all fixed in the Final Mix version and a lot of the issues with it are felt today as much as they were way back when. The story has also had a lot of retconing and filling in gaps because of later games that really just exacerbate how odd some of the main characters behave and the awkwardness of some of their motivations when comparing them here to their selves in later games. Like with 358/2 Days though the biggest issue is honestly the camera.).
-Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (If you happened to miss Kingdom Hearts 1, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 2 this game can really serve as a good entry point because of the fact that the story is essentially a faithful enough retelling meets re-imagining of the most important parts of those games stories on top of being its own funky tale. A lot of people dismiss Data Sora and Data Riku's journey because they're not real people, but there are genuinely touching moments in their journey even if the concept of sentient AI is a silly foundation to form a story around. The gameplay for this is the closest to that of Kingdom Hearts 1 and Kingdom Hearts 2 that the handhelds got, but still very much its own thing and like with Days it has some stuff going on there that's interesting to see in action.).
-Kingdom Hearts III (Generally speaking I was very disappointed by this game, but it was mostly the way the story was handled that disappointed me. Beyond that I just found the Disney Rides an obnoxious and intrusive feature. Re:Mind addressed a lot of the criticisms that were made about the base game, but the problem with Re:Mind is that it's meant to act as the Final Mix content of the game, but all the previous games that had a Final Mix were already very much satisfying from start to finish in their Vanilla release. Re:Mind was less like a cosmetic touch up and more like straight up major plastic surgery. At the end of the day it's because of how disappointing the base game was and the fact Re:Mind exists nevermind its added extra cost that I put even Recoded above this.).
-Kingdom Hearts Union Cross (I've not played it, but the story of this ongoing monster alone makes it better than Melody of Memory. There's so much lore and world building contained within this one and while a part of me feels like having the ancient Keyblade War explained ruins the mystique of such a major event it is at least being done as a necessary evil for us to get more games set in the present as the events of this ongoing monster's repercussions stretch into said present. From what I have heard of the gameplay of this one it can be quite fun so...insert shrug emoji here I guess.).
-Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory (If I really want to enjoy the music of the series I'll stick to listening to extensions of my favorite tracks thanks ever so much. They could've made this as worthwhile as Persona 4 Dancing all night, instead it feels as pointless as Persona 3 and Persona 5's dancing games. Also the best part of this game is in the bloody post credits scene (Mickey scrambling to go after his son Riku is such a mood) Hard pass, sorry not sorry.).

Frustration Mounting: I'm getting really sick of Tetsuya Nomura's inability to incorporate slice of life scenes. I'm also annoyed with the continued treatment of the Final Fantasy side of the equation that is this crossover series, but at the same time I wouldn't want him misusing them like how he did in Re:Mind by bringing some of them back for a single inconsequential scene.

Still Interested in the Series? Future Hopes?: Yes and hoping for a game where Riku is either the acknowledged protagonist (like he was in Reverse/Rebirth) or the hidden protagonist (like in Dream Drop Distance) as the next installment. Hope there's another Roxas game on the table too.

 

 

Edited November 12, 20204 yr by FadedSparkle

 

One thing to note about the ending is Sora and Riku both end up in different places in the kh3's secret ending, so where Riku ends up (Quadratum) could be either Shinjuku, Shibuya, or somewhere entirely different

 

9 hrs left

 

DDD2 but with a different title seems to be in order

 

@pablo5425 you got your wish, you can change dpad to the arrow inputs in bosses and dives lol

not the regular battles though

 

I’d assume the entire city is called Quadratum....

 

 

it feels like there's so much going on imo. The "fictional realm" with Quadratum and all, the MoM and the Foretellers, "Darkness" from UX, the pasts of Org members 9-12 and Ven and how they'll be relevant to the future, who knows what is gonna come out of Dark Road... Idk how Nomura plans to tie this all together into a single arc/saga, it feels like way too much and Quadratum and Yozora especially seem so disconnected from everything else

 

 

They literally have to establish some connection with MoM and Yozora in the next game just based off the fact that the secret movie doesn’t quite seem like just Riku’s dream anymore now that he’s actually going there, looking for Sora, alone, given that we also see the MoM there. Just seems like a big fat tease and limit cut was trying to throw us off for a bit when he said that was in his dreams, but now those very same dreams are about to become reality

 

Yeah I guess so, but I can't imagine how they'll do it in a sensible way haha

This all ties back to the fact Nomura isn’t transitioning us into this new saga smoothly.

and I’m very concerned considering there’s supposedly two more slots for games this saga.

yah versus 13 kh edition

then there's the bridge game between it and kh4

as long the foreteller saga isnt dragged out like dark seeker saga

at this point it’s gonna need to be dragged out

But once again the video of 2020 never implied it was all the games in the next saga

Just what possibly was in store for 2020-2029

5 games in 9 years?

Dev wise, that'd make sense

I mean. 2 games now, right?

One big one will take a few years

?

perhappsss

Id say the longest we’ll go without seeing a KH game this decade is gonna be 3 years

And with how things are moving rn I just mean console game cus god knows wtf is gonna happen with dark road or if we’re gonna get a movie for ux or anything