LeYenrz

Oh gosh I would LOVE It if actual disney characters became relevant and were norted

Well FFXV came out on PC so I wouldn't be surprised if it came out on the platform

I recall a quote from Nomura saying that there is plenty of secrets left and that there are still new worlds to be unveiled. So I wouldn't go saying that he's been spoiling us. Also we still know next to nothing about the story.

"I thought I was supposed to worry about you." - Roxas "Well for your information...I worry you about you all the time Roxas!" - Xion C'mon even if you don't ship these two, they're still really good to each other as friends!

Kind of obvious that it isn't. Character portraits are all copy pasted from old official art

I'm fine with Final Fantasy taking a seat from the series. But it would be a real pity to see it completely disappear, as is what is probably close to what we will be seeing in KH3. If that were the case, this could be turning out to be a sort of bait and switch. As for what KH3 will do to improve the character writing...I would say it's a bit optimistic to say that everything will be fixed. One wouldn't expect a quality of a fanfiction to go from a C+ to an A in a fortnight. Of course we'll get resolutions which will put the overall story arc to a close which in itself will be quite satisfying. For now, I'm probably going to be satisfied with whatever KH3 gives me because my expectations are at what are appropriate for Kingdom Hearts. lol I really only care about seeing Roxas and Xion happy again But it would be really wonderful for Kingdom Hearts to step it up a notch in its character writing. I'm not asking for it to become conventional in its methods of storytelling. I'm fine with it being abstract and arbitrary with its concepts, but as for the actual structure of the plot and characters they could really use a lot of reformation. Also the fact that KH3 has so many character's stories to resolve is probably what will be the bane of its ambition. Resolution is priority, so we probably won't see much development. Rather just making sure that everyone is happy in the end and that the methodology behind the bringing of that ending is sound. Like-you know that feeling when you're carrying your groceries all fine and dandy and then it just gets all jumbled up in your arms. And then you open the door to your house and it just takes all of your effort to settle all of the groceries on the kitchen counter without dropping and destroying everything? That's sort of how I see it. But I'm definitely still hopeful for the future o/

So are they seriously going to somehow bring a data Roxas to life? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

*10 years later* "Welcome to the ____ News Network. Good morning! I'm your host John Doe and this just in: Breaking news! Disney has purchased Viacom and is now the sole owner of all media in the world!"

Definitely agree with you on the first one. However, I didn't say that the characters were executed badly...it's just that there hasn't been any execution for most of them. Just blank friendly slates that are put in sad situations for the audience to cry at because it's a sad situation. Yeah it's odd that Disney takes up so much of the content in the game, but in the story it's treated like filler. Also what you said about maybe square just doing both sounds absolutely great. That would probably be the best outcome for everyone. However, that would be the option that would take the most effort. But for the bare minimum, Square has to do one or the other in order for the series to still work in the future. Is KH3 improving on Disney worlds? How is that? Not that i'm refuting your claim, just curious what you mean.

Roxas. I'm tired of seeing him in an angsty light

I'm posting here again even though it's been a while since I totally forgot about the last time I posted. I would still like to change my name to LeYenrz, please

So the other day I came across this video from a gaming Youtuber I follow, DarkPixelGaming And it made me really think about the current direction of the Kingdom Hearts series. Is how things are right now okay? Is Kingdom Hearts as a series strong enough to have all of its appeal depend on the original characters and story alone? Is the current methodology and direction in the writing of the story and characters good enough to satisfy fans in the short and long term? Does Kingdom Hearts NEED the original draw of its premise: Disney and Final Fantasy? So here's the answer I came up with after reflecting over the history of the fandom as well as the actual objective quality of the writing in the series so far. So to answer DPG's original question: Kingdom Hearts doesn't NEED Final Fantasy, but it NEEDS a main gimmick in order to keep it alive. Despite the optimistic answer DarkPixelGaming gave at the end of his video, I believe, as well as many other's iIve discussed with, that the original story and characters are not written well enough to hold up the series on its own. KH is a series whose lifeblood is made of gimmicks. Its combat is and has always been experimental, its plot elements and characters are haphazardly pasted together, and the original draw of the series was its elements of Final Fantasy and Disney. However, nowadays, FF and Disney cameos are slapped in without much effort. The only main reason it's been able to stay alive at this point is due to fan investment and its aesthetic. Disney worlds and characters used to have a very significant role back in the first game, enough to be actively involved in the plot. But it is also true that following that game, Disney worlds have become side attractions, becoming second to the main original story with the game's original characters. (personally I feel that the series should reintegrate the story structure of the first game but maintaining its current status quo. a sort of hybrid) The same goes for Final Fantasy, although its presence in the series was weak from the start. Kingdom Hearts's original cast does have a pull and charm that has managed to engage its many fans. However it's a fact that most of the writing of the story is kind of done by the seat of its pants. Although Nomura did say once that he plans two games ahead when he writes out the story, Kingdom Hearts has been called out for being a convoluted mess, which is a direct result of the lack of thorough planning put into the writing of this series. I'm not saying that there is none to be had, but it is definitely not great. When placed under the magnifying glass, this series's story fails to have much substance and the draw of many of its characters is mostly based on concept alone and not execution. (eg. the writing in BBS and DDD is prime showcase of this). Many of the characters lack a distinct personality (I don't mean no personality at all) asides from cookie cutter friendship do-gooders, and most lack any character development whatsoever. The only ones I can recall that get at least one of those right are Roxas, Riku, Axel, and Xion. The first three are the only ones that get both down. (again this is all debatable depending on who you ask, but those 4 stand out the most) On the surface, they are very well designed and have the appeal to draw players in, but beneath that surface there is simply not enough to satisfy those who are looking for more depth. You might read this and might totally disagree with me. And that's fine. BUT I encourage you to look back on the cutscenes on the previous games (if you have the time) and think to yourself: "are these actually interesting characters beyond their friendship?" A very good video that goes over the weaknesses of BBS's story can be found here: So where am I going with all of this bashing of the series that I actually still love very much? Look at the current direction of the series: over the years, more and more focus has been put on the og story and cast. This is not inherently bad. But if you look at all of the flaws that I had pointed out earlier, the story and ocs are not strong enough in construction to be spearheading the appeal of Kingdom Hearts. This is especially problematic because as the franchise began to age, the fanbase aged along with it. Most KH fans are either in their late teens or twenties. Some in their thirties. As minds mature, they desire more substance to chew on. Of course, this is a cheesy JRPG series along with the rest of them, and some might not have high expectations for this series and that, compared to the writing of other JRPG series, this is actually above average the quality of some other games of the same genre. However, because Kingdom Hearts has become so focused on the story, it cannot stick to having its cake and eating it too. If a series is going to put heavy focus on the story, it must have substance. I have to admit this at least: I am still very invested in the Xehanort saga and what will happen to the characters. This series has so much heart (heck it even involves the heart) and that earnest core of the series is what makes me love it to this day. Nostalgia goggles probably have something to do with it also, but there is something else that is at play here. There is a certain magic of KH's story as to how it's specifically constructed in just the right way for fans to be able to fill in its holes with their enthusiasm and still find a lot of fulfillment, no matter how mature the fan is. This is an observation, not a criticism; hell, even I do this. Technically, this can be done with any series, no matter how good or bad they are in quality. Despite what I said before, most of the characters have a lot of potential for development. They all have good character designs visually, the voice acting for each of them is solid, and what writing exists for each character is decent to pull anyone in. There is so much we do not know about organization 13 despite Days existing and there are characters that have the potential for an amazing character arc (Saix is a prime example). The concept is there. It's just that nothing is executed. To quote a friend of mine: "It's almost the vagueness to it all that keeps us involved (I think) and loving the characters. bc we can see the potential, it's just not there yet" To me at least, Kingdom Hearts has become a sort of frankenstein of a series as the years have gone by. Its pieces are all haphazardly glued together by the convoluted story that is KH, but nonetheless it is still a lovable frankenstein at that. I don't know what it is, the aesthetic, the odd mishmash of gimmicks, etc. that make me love this series still despite all of its flaws in its writing and world construction. But I have to admit at this point, if no further development is put into its og cast, its direction as a series is going to fall apart as its roots in Disney and Final Fantasy wither away, which really seems to be where this series is going. I've heard from many fans that the past few entries in the series have been trying their patience as the story has gone by, and have been very forgiving of its shortcomings, such as the mess that is DDD's story. This is directly the result of Nomura relying too much on the main story's self importance. Yes, it is the main story, but the ignoring of its Disney and Final Fantasy ties is starting to make the series lose its momentum. I am not asking that KH rebuild its tone and construction in Kingdom Hearts 3. It's too late to abandon ship with the focus on the og cast leading up to the end of the Xehanort saga, so for the time being, Disney and Final Fantasy isn't needed in Kingdom Hearts 3. But in the long run, beyond the Xehanort saga, it is absolutely critical that they be more integrated into the series instead of being treated as side attractions, or you risk series burnout with its original fans. At this point I see two options: Keep the heavy emphasis the original story and characters but actually put in the effort for them to become more fleshed out. Disney continues to be fun side attractions for the story but has no main significance in the plot while Final Fantasy is phased out of the series entirely. Or Kingdom Hearts goes back to its roots and starts fleshing out Disney worlds and characters' involvement in the plot and starts incorporating Final Fantasy characters and themes into its story. Og cast and characters can remain as they are. Either way, if the series continues as it is, I am regrettably sure that the series will lose my as well as other's investment in the series. I still love the series as it is despite being aware of all of its flaws. But I am invested in only a few of the characters, and that is not because the actual characters are actually any good... I've become attached to what the concept of those characters have become in my head, gradually pieced together over the course of many years. And it has caused a lot of dissonance when I go back to the source material and notice that in the actual games, there actually isn't much to these characters I care a lot for. For some of you, that might be enough to keep you invested and involved in this series. But many other fans and I want more out of this series. For the chance for Kingdom Hearts to become something truly great and timeless. The potential and pieces are already there. It just needs a little more love and a lot of effort for it to happen.

It's a possibility it's just a bait and switch. I mean, things are shaky as is

I know there are no iconic FFXIV songs that are well known throughout the FF fandom but... damn. It even holds the world record for the most original songs in an OST.

TBH I don't understand why any newcomers with an XBone would be interested in playing KH3 if not for the gameplay. They should be completely aware that if they jump into KH3 with no background info they're going to be completely lost, due to KH having a reputation for its convoluted story. Anyway, I'm betting the kinds of people who are newcomers that are going to start with KH3 are going to be the types that either don't care about the story at all, thus they wouldn't care about playing the other games much, or are completely ignorant as to what Kingdom Hearts is about and are probably just buying it because of the game's triple A status. So in the end, it's kind of pointless to throw out the message that they should play the rest of the series before KH3 comes out. The message will just fall on deaf ears. I completely understand that it's possible to get drawn into KH even if you start in the later games though. Heck, I started at 358/2 days, and if it weren't for the fact that I was a content blind teenager that thought anything that wasn't downright ugly was good, I would have quickly become disillusioned with the series and judge it from the fragment of perspective I got from playing Days. But that won't be the case for everyone.

Nice job editing it in! Since 1.5 came out, I've been kind of disappointed with the opening, since the timing of the music with the visuals is totally different from the og opening which kind of ruined it for me (silly I know) so when I saw this forum post I was kind of excited and expected it to be edited like the og opening was. Sorry to sound like a butt though. Do you think you could try your hand at editing it to be more true to the original? If not, then that's fine. We've all got our own lives to tend to.

You can relate to Xehanort solely because of his role. He's the villain, which adds some sort of dynamic to the whole series. It isn't as necessary to have a relatable villain than as the hero. You're right though. Xehanort is a op bland piece of cardboard

The big gap in your theory is how one would turn data into something tangible. If that were the case, we would probably be seeing data Sora walking around in the real world. Plus, if they were somehow able to even bring data Roxas into reality, then you've already got it solved. But Roxas wouldn't necessarily be "back". The original Roxas would still be trapped in Sora, and now you're left with two sentient Roxas' existing. I really doubt Nomura would deal with the philosophical implications of the equivalent of "killing" a character off by replacing the conscience within data Roxas with the real Roxas. I'm pretty sure that Ven's heart only affected Roxas's regarding appearance. Recall that his heart was already broken at that point and was permanently handicapped and was just using Roxas as a host. In time, Roxas most likely grew his own heart while in the organization. Roxas's and Ven's personalities are quite distinct from one another, which is evidence of this.

Honestly it makes sense. People say that Sora is a blander sort of protagonist because we're supposed to project ourselves onto him. But how can you relate to a character that basically is immune to hardship?

I'm tired of this old username. It's sort of cringey to me nowadays. Could you change it to LeYenrz please? Thanks o/

it was pretty good. Last year was more of a blast for me though i guess, but for a KH fan, this year was really really good.

i recall those Book Fairs we had in school every few times a year back when i was in elementary and middle school and without fail, there would always be Kingdom Hearts manga there. I live in California btw, and that's how most of my classmates back then were introduced to it.

It would be really neat if we would be able to have full access to the castle too along with the relationship building feature. This way we would really get a look into who the Organization really is and that being the meat of the game. Days did have some of this, with the optional dialogue with the other members in the Grey room, but it was scarce.

I know this isn't really what first comes to mind when it comes to remakes, but if KH remakes ever do happen, I REALLY hope that the writing will be revamped. Especially in character/relationship driven games like BBS and Days. BBS needs it moreso than Days, but it would be really nice if we got that...