Merilly

Detective Pikachu might actually become a case of a movie being so hilariously bad that it's good again.

I think it's hard to take a live-action movie of Pokemon seriously, especially with how terrifying/weird some of them look. However, if they take that to their advantage and actually don't try to be serious about it, it can still be a great and fun movie.

Movies like Sharknado were successful because they were so badly done you had to laugh. But that wasn't the only reason because there are many movies like that and they're just bad. The reason Sharknado was actually enjoyable to me was that you could feel that all parties involved did not take it seriously but rather just as it is: a bad movie with a ridiculous plot and fairly bad CGI. And that makes it good because the moment you feel that, it becomes a parody of itself without trying to be mean or being upset about the fact that it will never be a truly profound piece of art.

If Detective Pikachu does it right, it can also do it like Deadpool. (And not because Ryan Reynolds is also Pikachu's voice actor. This different, a bit less child-friendly image of a caffeine addicted Pikachu is refreshing rather than trying to copy a game.)

Let's be real. Live-action movies based on an anime or games with an anime-esque look have rarely ever worked out, apart from romance dramas perhaps. Having Pokemon, the epitome of child-friendly, translated into such a setting would likely be off-putting if they attempted that with a serious mindset.

The best they can do to appeal to adults (which make up a considerable amount of Pokemon fans even if Nintendo tries to ignore that at times), is to be aware that some of this just looks ridiculous in a realistic style and act on that. And it seems like they actually did that so far. I think there's a reason Detective Pikachu was chosen and not one of the main games or even a movie/the anime series. It's a spin-off with arguably a less grand fanbase while still having a story to follow and the potential to make it adequate for both adults and children.

I think I will actually watch it with the expectation that it will be a horrible movie but also with the potential to be a great horrible movie. And if not, I will at least have seen around an hour or so of a fluffy Pikachu with a Deadpool voice.

The concert in Cologne is already sold out... The tickets weren't nearly as swiftly gone the last two times. As a matter of fact, there were quite a few tickets left. I'm happy that it's that popular because the other concerts were already beautiful. >_<

Ah, I'm so excited. I got my tickets today and can't wait to go with my friends! 

Finally they started the regular sale of the tickets for the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World of Tres in Germany, 4 days after it was originally meant to take place. I unfortunately missed the pre-sale due to a hospital stay with zero internet connectivity and gosh, that was nerve-wrecking this time after it was sold out so fast the first time.

First the seats I had selected were not available anymore and then there was allegedly an error with my credit card which caused me to have to do the whole thing again. Fortunately, it worked this time around and they accepted it. >_<

So yeah, Cologne here my three friends and I come! I'm excited and thrilled to be able to go again. 

This won't contain any spoilers, but after finishing KH3, I really don't know what all this negative fuss was about. I was expecting them to do something horrendous which would tear apart our entire conception of Kingdom Hearts but got nothing that bad.

KH3 has flaws. Tons of them, just like every other game. There are quite a few things I personally would have done differently, paced in a different manner or excluded in favor of more story (like minigames), but for me, it was not nearly as atrocious as some people claim it to be.

Of course people can continue to believe that. It's their opinion after all and I can't tell anyone how to experience a game or how to deal with their expectations. We had a long time to envision how the perfect game would be for us. And KH3 doesn't come close to what I imagined.

But it is still Kingdom Hearts in every way by doing that. It's not much different than any of the other titles in that regard. Even KH2 had tons of complaints when it came out. The prologue, people complaining about mashing triangle too much and beating enemies without actually doing something, having so many cutscenes that you sometimes couldn't take one step, the Disney worlds being too detached from the overall plot way too often, etc.

People tend to forget that they complained a lot about KH2 too when it came out. Despite not having a lot of expectations. KH3 could have never lived up to the hype without being 200 hours long. And even then it wouldn't have been perfect for all of us because we all wanted different things and focused on different aspects of a game, be it gameplay, story, graphics, etc.

KH3 isn't what I wanted and I can't glorify my gripes to make it such. Certain aspects bug me and others were just downright not explainable. However, it also had a lot of good things.

I laughed so much. More like in any other KH title. I still got some things I wanted. What was shown was good, even if it could have been more. In some aspects it was even more than I could have asked for.

All in all, it just falls in line with the rest of the franchise as not making it more dramatic than KH actually ever was. And for that, I am actually glad.

More than anything, I am sad to see this saga go. It isn't as bad as a final goodbye to a franchise since it was confirmed to continue way before its release, but it's close. It has been 5 1/2 years since its announcement. Times where this site blew up from every little bit of information given. That time was wrought with so many emotions.

For now, we have to bid this farewell. Maybe until the next DLC or the next game. Maybe the wait won't be as long next time now that they somewhat have the engine under control. But I'll look forward to doing it again all over with all of the excitement, worries, happiness and fears. 

I don't think this is a spoiler, but I recommend watching/reading the two most recent story updates from the Japanese KHUx. A dialogue in the prologue makes much more sense when you've seen it.

It's not absolutely vital for the understanding but I can imagine that any question less is welcomed and you won't have to guess anything. If that's a spoiler, I'm sorry. >_<

Just got the call from my GameStop that they're allowed to sell KH3 from today onward so I can pick up my pre-order.

So if anyone lives in Germany and doesn't want to wait: They have the game.

More and more leaks... I'm just going to browse incognito from now on. I don't think I've gotten too spoiled since it was one sentence out of context where I'm not even sure it's from the game or just some video title so it's still good.

Clearing the watch history didn't work out for me, probably because I've subscribed to content creators which post KH stuff even when I haven't watched a video in weeks and clicked a lot of cat videos and the like. And I don't want to remove my subscriptions for that. But incognito mode works fairly well. I have to turn it on again from time to time but it does work.

One more week. Come one, time, run faster. =_=

Seems like more and more people are getting their copies early, which is why I'm probably avoiding Twitter, Youtube and the like earlier than originally planned.

To be honest, I could probably get it through connections as well but I don't see a point in this case. I want to finish the game when the epilogue is already out and not before and then having to wait a few more days to complete the experience. It would feel lacking without the epilogue included and not really satisfying.

When I start on the 29th (or maybe a day earlier), I likely won't be finished by the 30th (if I am, then the game is too short ) so that's fine but if I were to start now, it's possible for me to get to the ending before.

I just saw a KH3 commercial on TV for the first time.

It feels so real now and so close...

Today was the first time Youtube recommended me leaks. And not one but many despite a lot of security measurements being taken on my part to prevent it. Some of them were just recently posted but luckily, I don't feel like I have been spoiled since I didn't see much before removing it from my feed.

I didn't even search anything KH-related recently. It just came out of the blue, without a warning because the title was creatively working around my filters.

Stay safe, folks. It seems like the next few weeks will be hard. But I guess we all knew that. Though I still feel I'm not prepared.

KH3 releases in one month in Japan... Kinda crazy to see how fast time flies. Only a week left until the new year and then we only need to get through January.

It will also be a tough time for a lot of us. At least I imagine so, considering there might be more leaks to avoid and spoilers from early received copies revolving around the internet to block as well since each day closer to release makes it more likely. Not to forget those 4 days in-between the Japanese and global release date.

It's always strange how the last few weeks are perceived to be the longest and time still flies by so fast, as if December is over before it even began.

I will miss this hype after KH3. It will probably be a while until a new game will be announced and even then it might not generate the same excitement as Kingdom Hearts 3 did. Which is why I want to cherish this last bit as much as I can, even if the wait will become more and more painful.

In that regard, a Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it and to those who don't I also wish you the best for the last week of 2018.

 I saw someone write that the quality of the KH3 opening is lower than in the 0.2 opening. I don't know if it's due to the darker tones and the haziness lingering over the scenes, but it does seem a little more similar to some of the pre-rendered cutscenes rather than the 0.2 opening. Which I wouldn't mind. Maybe it does lose some details but on the other hand, it's closer to what we see throughout the game.

A good example would be the eyes. They look a little flat in comparison to 0.2's opening, where they were more glossy and had more depth and detail overall.

Especially the iris looks drawn on and the eyeball not really embedded into the skull. Of course that isn't so obvious in this shot but in others more. Still, you can see Sora's aren't as glossy, not as detailed and look flat in comparison. It's not that bad but noticeable in my opinion and I wonder where the change comes from since it looked subjectively more expressive before.

With all the trailer hype, I'm still immensely bothered by those glowing walls. It feels like nobody is talking about this anymore as if it's suddenly fine. It's not. It's super distracting and honestly, I don't need the game telling me that. It can establish that once in a tutorial stage but that's it. Tell me I can run up almost anything flat and I will try that if nothing else works. There's nothing wrong with letting people figure out things by themselves, especially if a game is rated 10+. It's not like someone would suddenly miss a wall to progress, considering Sora is running up on his own without pressing any buttons.

This isn't like other games that tell you which objects can be taken with a subtle, more outstanding color or other hints, especially when they're easy to miss otherwise.(Although that can often be adjusted.)  But if the 3 walls caging me in all glow then this would be a major deal-breaker. They're doing a great job with the environments and burying that beneath a layer of an unnatural wavy glow destroys that. That is especially noticeable in Toy Story and also BH6. It simply doesn't fit into the surroundings.

I sincerely hope that this can be turned off in the settings. I'm not 5 anymore, I know how to use environmental techniques if the game tells me once. Had no problems with Flow Motion either. I don't need to be taken by the hand to such a degree that I won't figure out how to move on if all the walls don't scream at me to push against them. Imagine if games like Mario 64 did that. The entire game would be shining.

I'm not really expecting much out of the Xbox event at this point. I've seen some people get excited for it because of Hashimoto's tweet that he's there. Back in the day that might have been a really valid reason to expect something but I feel that this year, he was present at lots of events without anything getting revealed at quite a few of them. 

So it's a bit of a situation like with Lucca. There could be something new coming or it's basically him being present for promotion and the like (i.e. how it was with the gamescom and PGW).

Even if KH3 is shown, they might decide to just reuse a recent trailer. I will watch the stream out of interest but I'll keep my expectations low as usual since nothing was confirmed so far.

I'm not really sad FFXV's DLC got canceled for the most part except for Episode Ardyn. Apart from the fact that I'm not fond of DLC and we all know that the main game's development was a train-wreck, I of course pity the losses that resulted from that.

However, I am glad that this might show what people think about adding crucial story elements to an RPG through paid DLC going on for over a year. In FFXV it couldn't be helped that their development time was greatly reduced due to the director change and the general change of direction. They basically tried to make the most of what was left without keeping it in development hell for another three years or so.

That still doesn't excuse the practice of delivering story elements through DLC to patch up the numerous plot holes though. RPGs are often story-driven and making money out of the fact that they failed to present a coherent story due to time issues after 10 years of development is not excusable for me. Yes, they need to make up for the loss but it's still their fault.

I'm fine with DLC as long as it's mainly cosmetic or add a few things here and there where you think that's not necessary for the understanding but nice to have. But that was not the cass for FFXV or even other games and when paying so much for a game, one can expect to get a full game. This practice of delivering content later is an abomination. Though not only developers are to blame for that with how impatient people are. They want the game and they want them now and perfect.

I'm not going to turn this more into a rant than I already have, but it's probably better to put a lid on FFXV now. It's not a terrible game at all but it's obvious that it's neither what it attempted to become and won't get a rehab with more DLC.

I hope that sets an example though and the same thing won't happen to KH3 or other SE games because they spent too much time on countless mini games for example. Cutting actual content for space should only be necessary when nothing else can be cut.

I feel like FFXV couldn't live up to the expectations and instead of moving on, they tried to revive it with countless gimmicks, games, etc. that won't magically erase its shortcomings. It's better to stop now and focus on different projects.

I'm not too worried about SE's financial department though. The mobile games alone should make up for a good portion of their loss.

It's somehow really hard to type off my fanfiction... I've only finished 20 pages out of 55 so far. Granted, I was sick again and my head felt all woozy but I wanted to have it done by the end of last week... It doesn't help that I'm unhappy with so many passages and want to rewrite them a second time but then I'm just brooding over it without actually improving anything. My long absence has really made my works worse and my register seems non-existent.

My sister told me Saturn is offering a 15€ discount on pre-orders for KH3 when paid with PayPal but unfortunately, it's only for the regular edition...

I don't quite understand why so many people think the chess scene looks better than in the 2015 trailer... Honestly, Eraqus is glowing orange and his face is flat and not as expressive in comparison.

As much as I like the trailer, I can't help hut feel they're overdoing it with the lighting again. The chess scene looked much better in 2015 with its lighter colors and more simplistic lighting. The faces also look rather flat, especially the eyes.

If someone in Germany wants a DMC5 T-Shirt (S size), I am giving one away for free since I have 3.

So Shinji Hashimoto is at gamescom. That seems very suspicious. Not expecting too much but I don't remember him being present before in terms of KH3.

My uncle's company has a water cutting machine and his employee made wooden components for my Destiny's Embrace. He said I could go into mass production if I wanted to since I gave them a pattern which they scanned. It's much more convenient than modeling paste...

I'm none too happy about KH3's demo being in an open area at gamescom with no real lines. That could end up in chaos and I don't want to be burried on the massed and have countless people cutting the line again like with the demos of 2.8.

Less than 2 weeks until gamescom and I'm only halfway done with my cosplay. That's gonna be close...

I can't believe that my friends and I may be attending Japan Expo next year. That would be our first convention in another country.