Merilly

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.

That would be absolutely fine by me. 60 FPS aren't really important to me as long as the game runs smoothly most of the time. Since I play on consoles a lot, 30 FPS is more common on the older ones anyway. Some frame drops are to be expected but that's neglectable in my opinion. Btw, Happy Birthday since it's already the 9th here.

I hope so too but you're right, it would be no big deal if they had to postpone it.

On mine too. Though it is still a tentative schedule, so they could potentially change it last minute.

It would be nice to see, though I understand it's as you said... They want to show it off in the most advantageous way possible. Though to be honest, I won't upgrade to a Pro either way because it's still expensive and I have a working PS4. However, it may be a good thing for those who have neither yet and are trying to decide if it's worth it or are debating to upgrade in the near future. Though I'd be fine with it if it works like 0.2. While the game wasn't smooth sailing all around, I did not experience any major frame rate issues. The only thing I'm worried about is a potential input lag persisting, though it seems like that's more of a general problem.

The Ultimanias contain a few snippeta here and there in the interviews and I'm sure those can be found online and translated. However, most information is worded really ambiguously and often in the form of questions so we sometimes don't exactly know. Other than that, most Ultimanias are basically guides which contain no exceptionally important information but tell you where to find what, enemy stats and the like. They also contain character info and sketches, etc. I'd personally search for the interviews. I'm sure most of them are either fully translated or at least have a summary/abridged version.

I think a lot of people are under the impression that everything needs to be highly original to be good and that cliché tropes are to be avoided, but they often forget that there's reason these themes became so well-known in the first place. People like them and can relate to them and even though they're not new, a lot of them will still be well received in the end if they occur. Especially if they fit into the narrative. It will forever not be funny when a character is prompted to remove all weapons and spends the entire evening emptying their pockets. Or similar tropes. That's always a bit hard to predict since I feel like there's a lot of luck involved to become a popular author. Considering what is popular, I don't think it's always good, creative writing, though that's only my opinion. I'm not too fond of Harry Potter, Twilight and the like since their main characters are really dull and Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu. It's not always the story which bothers me but also character portrayal and general writing style. For example, I enjoy reading about emotions. I don't need elaborate descriptions of environments like Jane Austen tends to do. That's what my imagination is for, unless it's vital. These works all are world-driven and don't focus much on actual emotion. My readers actually like my style because I focus a lot on the psychological aspect. But that's always a matter of taste. I also don't think characters need to evolve drastically unless there's reason to. If a character is balanced from the start, there's no need to force a development through tragic events. That's what I like about Sora for example. He virtually stayed mostly the same. He became a bit more snarky, but he's still the happy-go-lucky type who cares about everyone, but most of all his close friends. I don't mind We all have phrases or words we tend to use more often than others. I've actually gotten used to seeing it from you and immediately connect it to you when I see it, regardless of actually seeing your name.

From what I can deduce, it sounds like a good concept. It's not too original to feel foreign to readers and only appeal to a small niche but original enough to stand out among other works. I don't have something against extreme originality, it's just hard to relate to at times. Cliché concepts are often belittled quite a bit although there's a reason there are common tropes. They are well-liked and not too strange and hard to understand. It's what you make of it that makes the difference. I also enjoy that it seems to be more set on the actual forging of the blade and not wielding it (though that's of course the part that usually comes after if it's not ceremonial.) That's the original part that makes it different from other fantasy novels. Depending on how it's thought through, fhat can be a very interesting concept to explore. I think fanfictions are a good method of writing, especially for practice but also for fun. You don't have to create a whole setting and lots of characters on your own if you don't want to. Admittedly, I don't read that much KH fanfiction since I'm so invested in the series. It may sound odd, but the more invested I am, the more reluctant I am to write or read about it. Probably because I don't want to disturb the canon too much? I don't even know why.

To some degree, I don't even mind it if it doesn't disturb the overall experience. I agree that KH1 wasn't the most child-friendly, considering 8 year-old me put it on hold for a while after I couldn't get through Wonderland well enough. But the newer games are rated a bit differently and nowadays, there're so many guides available everywhere that it's done a little bit extremely. Of course KH isn't the only game which does it, but it makes a difference if the game tells me I need to go this way or that, or explicitly makes everything glow to show me the way. Though the glow doesn't even do that. It just tells you that you can run up that wall. Which should be known at some point since it feels like you can run up almost any flat surface. I'm just bothered they have to indicate something that seems to pertain to anything with such an outageously noticeable effect since it's anything but subtle and really disturbing with all the sparkly effects which are already present. This type of hand-holding is an abomination, like people can't figure out on their own anymore what to do. That's like telling you how to solve a puzzle without letting you try on your own. And it's such a simple mechanic too. I know Flow Motion also had objects stand out to show where you could hang onto at times because it wouldn't have been that clear, and even then it was subtle and mostly present ahen you used it, but otherwise people knew what they could use after the introduction. I know I'm ranting but this type of flashing really aggravates my eye migraines. My eyes can't deal with such an overwhelming information very well if it's a constant factor.

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.

Wah, can you give a summary what it'll be about? And good luck with that! I mainly write for other people and only fanfiction because I'm otherwise too lazy. I'm not a good writer nor do I aspire to be one.

Yeah, though to be honest, I find every DLC pertaining to story questionable. It would really make me angry for KH3 for example. Not because I don't recognize the work that went into it but rather that I fins it inexcusable to cut content in the form of story to include even more mini games. Apart from my fundamental dislike for them as a whole, they serve little to no purpose except for prolonging the game. I'm fine with a few since they're also common practice but KH3 has so many that I'm beginning to wonder if they didn't focus too much on those and running out of space lead to them cutting actual content. Just for a brief overview, we have 100 Acre Woods as a whole world dedicated to them, then there's probably at least one more in each of the Disney worlds at the very least, the gumi ship can also be considered a mini game and to top it all off, there are an abundance of Classic Kingdom mini games. I feel that's a little too much, especially those which are mandatory, because they cheaply prolong a game. If there's some understandable context I can overlook them, I just don't know why we need an entire world then. I'd rather trade them for some cutscenes showing the characters bonding or little spars between them. Though to come back to the main issue, I think it's balance that matters for DLCs. It's better if there aren't any at all but I can also understand the need since game development has become more costly and not any easier. It just depends on what is offered. For example, I wouldn't mind a multiplayer mode being added as a DLC since one of the directions always suffer. Either the multiplayer or singleplayer campaigns. But with a DLC, they have enough time to work on this once the game is done.

Thank you for the encouraging words The long break impeded my style quite a bit but I'll probably just need to get into it again. Compared to my other chapters, it's a little worse but I'm at least almost done now. Then I can perhaps change a few things here and there ans adjust some of the more boring syntax issues.

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.

That's true. The story is a major factor for me personally but also for the genre and while it's subjective ahether you like one, there's no denying that FFXV omkted too much. Not only Ravus lacked presence but also Lunafreya, considering how deeply her death should have impacted the player but simply didn't. Their relationship was not believable. Had she just been an unknown fiancée it may have been fine but the way she was meant to be ssen did not work out. But I truly hope that they learn from that. Fans don't want a game to release incompletely and then buy the rest of the game in small packages that are meant to patch holes. They want the full story when it's a full game release and not episodic like FFVIIR. For example, I don't want to finish KH3 in tiny snippets for the next two years or more. Then I'd rather wait. (Although I still believe there are too many mini games.) It also prevents them from moving to a possibly more successful title. Yeah, they wanted and needed FFXV to work since it was their biggest title. But after all the problems with FFVIIR, it may have been better to focus on that a little more. This way they wouldn't have lost so much time by depending on companies to which it was outsourced to. I think Final Fantasy can still survive. After all, the franchise is not limited to anything. Though Square really needs to overthink their development decisions, I also believe the fans need to stop their demands. It's this kind of double morale that they're unhappy with faulty games coming out every year but they're also not patient enough to wait any longer than that. 3-5 years for a big game are the norm, but many can't see that quality needs time. Even a movie can need 1-2 years at the very least, how should a long and compelling game be thrown out in the same time without reusing assets, etc? I'm not defending SE but I also see the problem for content creators, especially looking at the competition. Indie developers are successful because they put a lot of effort into beautiful games without just relying on graphics and recycling ideas. Of course not all games do that, but Assassin's Creed is a good example of using an IP for promotion rather than the games being what AC was actually about in the beginning. Taking a chance is good but being too afraid to create new franchises isn't. Which isn't to say the new AC is shabby. It looks good and all, but its story doesn't have much resemblence to the original plot anymore or even the title. But some games like God of War showed that they implemented change and were auccessful with a simple but compelling game. No paid DLCs, no planned story add-ons but instead, they're working on what comes next.

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.

True. We've really received a lot, more so than most other games did, and while they could probably show off even more without spoiling too much, it's not like the game didn't get enough promotion. Everything new is just a sweet extra and the game and its sales won't suffer even if it were to reveal nothing exceptionally new until release and just go with trailers such as the new Tangled one. There's no harm in being surprised when the game comes out after all. That would be why I don't watch them either. With games, the competition is fairly strong and people like a lot of different things. It would be hard to predict at times but with Anime, it's often reduced to a few shows that appeal to the masses and not just certain people. Which is a shame because there so many great niche Anime which deserve at least some recognition... Award shows are nice ways to give back a little to the developers, etc. but I find them boring because knowing that this or that received an award won't make me change my opinion toward the media at hand. It won't make my favorites worse if they don't win nor make me wanna play a game I dislike if it wins. I guess most peole won't be swayed by it either when deciding to purchase something since they don't show a lot of what's nominated. But to each their own. I think they're catered to the masses and other opinions are often disregarded. In the end, they rarely reflect more profound opinions. I'd rather watch nicely done press conferences than those types. You can actually see more of the games and compare them directly. And yeah, you often have the same nominees for a lot of categories which makes it boring... And sometimes you don't understand how something won this because it's so subjective and biased at times.

If we think about it, it's not that long until December anyway. There are two more events which could have something but the chances are not so great. The Game Awards is always fairly boring to watch in my opinion and I feel that news appearing there are mainly to keep people interested in watching it. Though that might just be because I dislike award shows.

Thanks for the clarification, though I was aware of that function. It's not that I'm completely against it and the site overall looks cleaner, better assorted and easier to navigate. I appreciate the work that went into it. Though I also liked getting an overview of the most recent updates by just visiting the front page. No customization necessary. It's only natural that there will be a new focus, otherwise it would make little sense to restructure it in the first place, but it will also take some time to get used to not seeing everything on the front page anymore. Meaningful content is of course admirable but I also like seeing just the small updates in life within the community since I'm not that much into social media and some statuses don't need in-depths discussions, which subjectively have become a little less since Discord. So yeah, it's not a big deal in the end. Just different, but different doesn't need to be worse in the long run. I think the good is far more notable than, what my personal opinion considers, the "bad". (Though it's not even bad but just feels strange.)

And a reboot will always be compared to the original anyway and quite often, it doesn't manage to uphold certain standards because the things fans loved the most are missing. Of course that's not the case for every franchise, especially if there's a good reason for a reboot that doesn't come down to just easy money, but the PoC franchise feels complete, regardless of what people like or dislike. Mainly because those who dislike the franchise won't watch the reboot either. I feel like companies are so afraid to try something new nowadays and rather stick to quick money prequels, sequels and reboots instead of going for different IPs. Finish PoC and then be done with it.

It's bit harder now and I wish we had a window for recent status updates again. I don't mind that it's like this but the reactions seem to be fewer because you can't come across them by chance anymore when skimming through news. May be due to the Discord server too that discussions are held there instead?

I don't even know why they need a reboot... The franchise may not be the youngest anymore but they still look good and I see little need for a reboot. I could understand it for other movies due to their age/quality/relationship to other movies, but there's nothing like that going on for PoC which would warrant a reboot, except for money. (But I like the Hugh Jackman idea.)

It's probably uncommon to have that many because developers tend to announce their games when they're almost done and not when they start development. Due to that, Square has to appease the fans by giving more or less frequent updates and to be honest, I found it interesting see how much has changed in the course of 5 years. (Then again, 1 1/2 hour movies also get 2-3 trailers if they're popular enough so for a game that is supposedly around 50 hours long and also needs to compete with countless other games, it's not the worst idea if fans want it.)

I honestly didn't notice since the app was working just fine for me the entire evening. Just saw the comments on Twitter and was confused because I was watching videos throughout the day.