Welcome back to another thread where I talk about things that can be improved or added upon in the Kingdom Hearts formula to not only improve KH3's quality, but the quality of the series as a whole.
Now, I've mostly covered some of the more bigger issues in previous entries, so I admit that I'm not running on a ton of gas with this one. Still, it's a concept that was sort of used and then dropped after only one game, the first ever game in fact, and while it wouldn't affect KH3's quality if it didn't return, I think it would be at least interesting to see nonetheless.
So then: remember when Kingdom Hearts, the original Kingdom Hearts i.e. KH1, had alternate cutscenes? As in, if you failed certain objectives, completed certain objectives out of order, or plum just ignored certain objectives, the story would change to adhere to your decisions? An example would be if you lost to either Leon, Cloud, or Sabor, the story would show a cutscene to exemplify that you lost, or if you completed Deep Jungle or Olympus Coliseum before you completed Wonderland, the cutscene with Maleficient and the other Big Bads replaces Alice with Snow White, or if you defeat Dragon Maleficent before you clear Olympus Coliseum, she doesn't show up in the cutscene where Hades is raging about Hercules.
Yeah, I do too. Good stuff. Like I said before, that was a concept that was only used in KH1. It was sort of used in KH2, in the prologue during battles with Seifer both at the start and during the Struggle tournament, but those were so minor, I wouldn't even count them.
The reason I bring it up is because it was a mechanic that allowed somebody to take the story into their own direction, even if they did it by accident. There is a lot of intrigue, I think, to seeing various scenarios play out differently based on making different choices, which is what helps makes other RPGs and games of that nature so interesting and have high replay value. KH3, even though its bound to have other reasons to encourage replay value, can benefit from this as well.
Let me bring up the most interesting example in the KH1 "alternate canon" to help gauge my point, which would be Monstro. In KH1, if you complete Neverland, where Riku starts acting like a dick to Sora, before you complete Monstro, Riku's behavior and interactions in Monstro will be drastically changed. Instead of playing around with Sora while also trying to figure out the puzzle that is awakening Kairi, he'll just be straight laced, make less cracks, and in return, Sora will even flat out deny that he is Riku at all. This leads others to theorize that maybe the Riku we meet in this "alternate canon" could be Ansem possessing Riku's body, depending of course on the direct chain of events that leads to that conclusion.
It's that kind of narrative structure that could add a new layer to KHIII's story. After all, we've all been pretty set on what is going to happen story-wise in KHIII, so it's not exactly going to be a surprising tale. Even if some new twists and turns are thrown in that nobody expected, I doubt that its going to be largley different that what most of us have come to expect, especially since we've had almost a decade to speculate on it. So letting some events be judged in this manner spices things up a little.
Also, its an opportunity to put more emphasis on the Disney World aspect of the series. Granted, I'm in the party that isn't all bleeding heart about Disney Worlds and their importance and whatnot, but I'm not exactly uncaring about them either. And I would certainly care more if they were handled in this manner. Just imagine the scope of the worlds combined with the amount of alternate scenarios you could come up with if you go to this world before that world, or complete this world before that other world, or you help this person before you do that, or you completely leave that person to rot like an asshole and go on to do something else (Poor Pinnochio and Geppetto ), and then imagine how certain characters like Riku may say or do based on your actions, maybe even coming close to slightly altering their motives or just portraying their reactions to certain things in different ways, which in turn make you feel like you're pushing the story into a different direction.
Like I said, this isn't something that KH3 really needs, but I think it would be a good addition nonetheless.
Welcome back to another thread where I talk about things that can be improved or added upon in the Kingdom Hearts formula to not only improve KH3's quality, but the quality of the series as a whole.
Now, I've mostly covered some of the more bigger issues in previous entries, so I admit that I'm not running on a ton of gas with this one. Still, it's a concept that was sort of used and then dropped after only one game, the first ever game in fact, and while it wouldn't affect KH3's quality if it didn't return, I think it would be at least interesting to see nonetheless.
So then: remember when Kingdom Hearts, the original Kingdom Hearts i.e. KH1, had alternate cutscenes? As in, if you failed certain objectives, completed certain objectives out of order, or plum just ignored certain objectives, the story would change to adhere to your decisions? An example would be if you lost to either Leon, Cloud, or Sabor, the story would show a cutscene to exemplify that you lost, or if you completed Deep Jungle or Olympus Coliseum before you completed Wonderland, the cutscene with Maleficient and the other Big Bads replaces Alice with Snow White, or if you defeat Dragon Maleficent before you clear Olympus Coliseum, she doesn't show up in the cutscene where Hades is raging about Hercules.
Yeah, I do too. Good stuff. Like I said before, that was a concept that was only used in KH1. It was sort of used in KH2, in the prologue during battles with Seifer both at the start and during the Struggle tournament, but those were so minor, I wouldn't even count them.
The reason I bring it up is because it was a mechanic that allowed somebody to take the story into their own direction, even if they did it by accident. There is a lot of intrigue, I think, to seeing various scenarios play out differently based on making different choices, which is what helps makes other RPGs and games of that nature so interesting and have high replay value. KH3, even though its bound to have other reasons to encourage replay value, can benefit from this as well.
Let me bring up the most interesting example in the KH1 "alternate canon" to help gauge my point, which would be Monstro. In KH1, if you complete Neverland, where Riku starts acting like a dick to Sora, before you complete Monstro, Riku's behavior and interactions in Monstro will be drastically changed. Instead of playing around with Sora while also trying to figure out the puzzle that is awakening Kairi, he'll just be straight laced, make less cracks, and in return, Sora will even flat out deny that he is Riku at all. This leads others to theorize that maybe the Riku we meet in this "alternate canon" could be Ansem possessing Riku's body, depending of course on the direct chain of events that leads to that conclusion.
It's that kind of narrative structure that could add a new layer to KHIII's story. After all, we've all been pretty set on what is going to happen story-wise in KHIII, so it's not exactly going to be a surprising tale. Even if some new twists and turns are thrown in that nobody expected, I doubt that its going to be largley different that what most of us have come to expect, especially since we've had almost a decade to speculate on it. So letting some events be judged in this manner spices things up a little.
Also, its an opportunity to put more emphasis on the Disney World aspect of the series. Granted, I'm in the party that isn't all bleeding heart about Disney Worlds and their importance and whatnot, but I'm not exactly uncaring about them either. And I would certainly care more if they were handled in this manner. Just imagine the scope of the worlds combined with the amount of alternate scenarios you could come up with if you go to this world before that world, or complete this world before that other world, or you help this person before you do that, or you completely leave that person to rot like an asshole and go on to do something else (Poor Pinnochio and Geppetto
), and then imagine how certain characters like Riku may say or do based on your actions, maybe even coming close to slightly altering their motives or just portraying their reactions to certain things in different ways, which in turn make you feel like you're pushing the story into a different direction.
Like I said, this isn't something that KH3 really needs, but I think it would be a good addition nonetheless.
Edited by Firaga Sensei