jbmasta

Not relevant to the plot, just Wendy since that's how Hook knows he can get to Peter Pan. Out of the recreate the plot of the film worlds, Neverland has never been one of them.

The worldbuilding around the Land of Departure is also lacking, even by Kingdom Hearts standards. Sora, Riku and Kairi, we know they live on the larger island with what looks like a rural Japan type community, and Kairi goes to school with at least Selphie (Tidus and Wakka are definitely the jock type). We can also work out how the Castle That Never Was runs. But the Land of Departure feels like a concept that's severely undeveloped. Only four people who live there full time, one of which has been there for four years and along with two others restricted to that world. I know it's meant to be like the Jedi academy, but the Star Wars films and if you explore it, the expanded media material, provide enough context it's not a glaring worldbuilding omission. It's not a good place to grow up as the only adult authority figure preaches a strong pro-light anti-darkness message, which has negative impact on Terra. At the very least a therapist was needed. What's also left largely unexplained is travel between worlds, as in how the trio know how to do it. It's up to supplementary material to explain that Terra and Aqua have made excursions before, but Ven hasn't and that's why he's in reduced circumstances for Castle of Dreams. This could have been touched up in game more for world and character building, as well as more interesting scenarios. Keyblade armour and gliders also go undeveloped, a plot device or inter-world traversal but not explored to flesh out how they fit into lore and practice. How does one gain armour and the ability to transform their keyblade as such? It's a really cool concept I want to see delved into, perhaps to introduce for gameplay mechanics in future games (the keyblade glider to fly or as a motorcycle for example).

The Is Roxas in Love with Xion? thread on the general subforum, where Jennifer Chen bends over backwards to interpret romantic feeling between Roxas and Namine (and displaying appalling use of uppercase letters while doing so).

My main issue with the game is that the dynamic of the trio is very much tell don't show regarding their allegedly close friendship. We're told they're the closest of friends, but the game demonstrates their connection is more for lack of other peers than out of choice. Aqua has spent at least four years growing up and training alongside Terra, but her faith in him is flimsier than a politician's promise when challenged. She puts more stock in what the dark fairy who sent her tumbling into a dungeon and turned into a dragon by all the powers of Hell regarding Terra over personal experience. KH1 and 258/2 Days show us the main trios in those games being friends and having a normal day so we can feel for them when it all goes wrong. Birth by Sleep only shows us a tutorial training session that most of us rush through or skip over after the first time and a single battle against balls of light that again, most of us rush through.

KH1 still plays well and is recognisable in basic presentation compared to KH3 (contrast to Final Fantasy 7, the Remake being very different even in visual presentation and gameplay mechanics). The KH1FM remaster on 1.5 visually looks better than the remaster of Assassin's Creed 2 that was included with The Ezio Collection release, and that's a 2016 PS4 remaster of a 2009 PS3 game. Rather than a 2013 PS3 remaster of a 2002 PS2 game. Granted, Square put in a lot more work with 1.5 than Ubisoft put in the the AC2 remaster (the less said about the Siege of Forli and Bonfires of the Vanities DLCs being mandatory to progress to the final part of the game the better). Days is still a game worth playing if you've got the time and patience, with good replayability and the fact it's out of print on a system whose successor has been discontinued sadly means fans of the series who haven't played it need to source a second hand copy or use an emulator. Between the PS3 and PS4, including PS5 through backwards compatibility, KH1 is available in four different releases (1.5, 1.5+2.5, The Story So Far and All in One), three of these being on a current gen system that's being actively supported. Days is more than deserving of a remake. Union X does need a release in another format to be more accessible than just cutscenes on an app that's nearly 2GB minimum or YouTube videos.

The manga makes the final scene of the KH2 prologue even sadder, Roxas saying that despite the world he was in being fake it was all real to him as he looks at his hand fading like he's Marty McFly, with flashbacks to his time in the Organisation. There's also more comedic effect, like Sora at one point ending up in a dress when Flora, Fauna and Merriweather fight over what his clothes should look like.

A small quality of life change, being able to make the minimap full screen. In Kingdom Hearts 3 there are some areas like the swamp in Kingdom of Corona or the various snowfields of Arendelle that are so easy to get turned around and lost in. If this kind of expansive world design continues, it'd be good to pull up the map and see the whole map rather than just a section of it in the corner of the screen. More than nine save file slots. That this wasn't patched into 3 with the various updates is baffling and many players have had to sacrifice save files due to replaying or having saves at specific points like boss fights.

How do we know Roxas knows how to articulate love on as deep and understanding a level as Sora and Kairi for example? Sora and Kairi spent years growing up together, and have put so much on the line for each other. Sora sacrificed his physical existence to save Kairi despite knowing there was a price to pay, and in the time he had left chose to spend it with her specifically rather than a final good bye to everyone else. That's love. By his own experiences Roxas is less than a month since "who else will I have ice cream with", I doubt he's ready to know romantic love when he feels it. Physically Roxas, Namine and Xion are teenagers, but emotionally they're still toddlers, albeit ones who have gone through more emotional strife than anything should have gone through at any age. You say you don't like kids dating, but ship Roxas and Namine? Roxas smashed the computer not because of Namine (who he'd had only a couple of interactions with at that point), but because he was frustrated at being manipulated, his past and very nature concealed from him. What he believed to be his whole world, being in Twilight Town with Hayner, Pence and Olette, was completely undermined by someone who couldn't even dignify his existence as a person. Only minutes later he's duel wielding against the friend he only just remembered walking out on, and then being told by DiZ he's just a pawn, taking swings at Diz. If you're going by KH3 evidence, there's more to suggest a Riku/Namine connection. He's the one to escort her to the Destiny Islands in her gummi ship chariot (taking her hand like he's her prince), and Repliku is very protective of Namine in Chain of Memories. Who's the one in the Keyblade Graveyard to sacrifice a chance at a replica body so Namine can have one? That's actual on screen evidence, not reading between the lines.

To be honest, identity matters aside collectively the three have spent fewer than five years existing by the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. Despite everything they've been through they're still emotionally children (by his own personal experience of time Roxas still associates friendship with ice cream specifically) and need time to find their own identities separate from Sora and Kairi before any possible matching up is done.

Anyone else excited by the Breath of the Wild sequel trailer? I like how it's coming full circle with the floating islands, like in Skyward Sword.

Getting Donald to heal you is a matter of adjusting his settings. I figured this out just by exploring the menus. Besides, "I think this might be a good place to find some ingredients" has replaced Donald's healing tendencies as the overused Donald meme.

Ah to the men on the Gummi Ship garage. It took me forever just to exit out of there, completely unintuitive and even counter-intuitive. Sometimes the gummi controls you go up instead of down or vice versa, but it's not hair pullingly frustrating.

Big changes like this aren't new to the show. The War Games at the end of the Second Doctor era expanded on the Doctor's backstory and gave us the name Time Lord, as well as showing other Time Lords who weren't rogues like the Doctor and the Monk. The Deadly Assassin a third of the way through Tom Baker's era, for better or for worse characterised the Time Lords on Gallifrey for the rest of the classic series and introduced concepts like Rassilon and the twelve regenerations limit. The Cartmel Master Plan with the Seventh Doctor was about making the Doctor mysterious again, intending to reveal he was a reincarnation of one third of an ancient Gallifreyan triumvirate that also included Rassilon and Omega (in Remembrance of the Daleks the Doctor mentions "we" had trouble with the prototype of the Hand of Omega before hastily correcting himself). So the Timeless Child isn't anything new in terms of scope, but rather happened to air not only during the period of a controversial casting but also when people had the internet to bitch about their dissatisfaction. Rather it's a different adaptation of the Other concept, except when that was used in the show in the 80's and the novels in the 90's (most prominently in the penultimate New Adventure, the highly expensive to get second hand Lungbarrow) the internet wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as it is today. Brock's jelly donuts and the trainer's choice that stated Seviper was part of an evolution line? The dub for the first movie wasn't well received.

One thing I like about Days and re:coded on the DS that the console games didn't do was being able to replay story points once you'd completed them. Days of course it's the missions, and re:coded you can choose the whole world or just the boss fight (just the boss fight is something Dream Drop Distance did with battle portals, with the exception of Riku's Symphony of Sorcery battle likely due to how that worked).

Covers for the upcoming volume of Dalek Universe are up, and let me know what this, the cover for the third story, The Lost, reminds you of. Because I'm getting Grunkle Ford vibes.

It's impressive the 3DS was visually closer to the PS2 quality graphics than one would expect.

Kingdom Hearts 1 still plays very well, and although first game teething is present it's still very playable in 2021 as it was back when it released and 2-13 when 1.5 was released with the quality of life changes like skipping cutscenes. It also holds up visually, particularly the HD remastered version released with 1.5. Days and re:coded are definitely more deserving. There's some of the Disney world story arcs like Phil mentoring Roxas, Jack's observations of Roxas and the steady exploration of the Cave of Wonders in Agrabah, which the movie with 1.5 doesn't even touch on but flesh out the worlds and characters. Maybe add more areas to the World That Never Was hub beyond the Grey Room, flesh out the hierarchy of the Organisation members and the Nobody types each member leads. In KH2's prologue Axel says he's not being turned into a Dusk over Roxas, perhaps hint at previous members who failed and were turned into Dusks for extra feels. In light of how Union X has used data worlds, that could be explored more in a re:coded remake as well as tease that the data Sora who challenges the Remind organisation data is based on the Data Sora from re:coded in some way. The gameplay of re:coded is very enjoyable and varied, both in the series as a whole and within the game itself and some of the features that were great for extending playtime haven't been used since. For example, being able to replay the story of a world you've cleared. Perhaps you want to try a late game technique on Pete, or the fight against Roxas is so good you want to revisit it.

Ice Cream Beat is a rhythm game for sure, the cues are synchronized to the triplets clapping along to the beats of the songs. Believe me, It's a Small World is imprinted into my brain. Ice Cream Beat is a rhythm game for sure, the cues are synchronized to the triplets clapping along to the beats of the songs. Believe me, It's a Small World is imprinted into my brain.

I don't mind Atlantica. The swimming controls, while taking a bit to get used to, allow the world to use more verticality without resorting to platforming or multiple rooms to achieve it and it's rather ambitious IMO, giving the world a more distinct identity. KH2 Atlantica is completely optional so if you don't like the rhythm games, you don't need to play them (unlike Ice Cream Beat for Ventus in Birth by Sleep, which is mandatory to progress the story) unless you're going for the Ultima Weapon. The songs are catchy and HJO can really sing (just don't invite Donald to karaoke night), with enough variation in mechanics between each song to include something new. That the songs are unlocked by conditions met across progression of the game means you can either do each song as it's available or wait until you've met the conditions for the final song, so that's one aspect that's your choice. Maybe you want to take a break from standard gameplay for a few minutes and chill in Atlantica. There are worse gimmicks a world could go for, like making a plot-irrelevant mini-game compulsory for story progression (Disney Town in Birth by Sleep, go sit in the corner). If I never hear It's a Small World again it'll be too soon.

Those costumes look more like cosplay. I know the original has a simplistic art style but live action there's so much more scope for costuming especially since the girls are aged up for this version. The rogues gallery is going to be either effects or prosthetics heavy. If Legends of Tomorrow has taught us anything it's that the more CGI required, the more likely the powers will be downplayed or sidelined. Would they even dare try doing Him?

While it did negate the Metroidvania factor of previous games (returning to old areas with moves from later in the game), flow motion did add more for the verticality of the worlds (the town area in the Hunchback world for example). I'm impressed that areas of the scale were included on the 3DS cart, as there are multiple large maps with various possible routes as well as nooks and crannies that for the most part offset linearity. For gameplay mechanics the bug blocks in re:coded do a lot to evoke the platforming that was largely abandoned after the first game. There is a fun bit of platforming in one of Riku's maps for The World That Never Was in Dream Drop Distance, that wall with the blocks that protrude at various points but the wall surface hurts you so you can't flow motion up it. If the game had included more things like that then flow motion wouldn't be quite as game breaking for exploration as it is. I enjoy platforming in Kingdom Hearts.

Nomura specified that a kanji difference or something was key to the Shibuya referenced in Dream Drop Distance and the one seen in the Yozora secret movie at the end of KH3 not being the same. It also makes easter eggs with the kanji harder to identify if you don't know the Japanese text and nuances, such as Oath Keeper and Oblivion's teeth being the kanji for light and darkness respectively (which also appear on Sora's clothes in Kingdom Hearts 3 for Light Form, Dark Form and Double Form).

If you want to see how bad localisations can get, how about Final Fantasy VII telling you how to get killed by the first boss?

One thing I'd like to see going forward is that if there are time skips within the narrative of the game, then alter character models if it's a significant chunk of time. In Birth by Sleep the models for Ventus, Terra, Aqua, Eraqus and Master Xehanort are the same in the Four Years Prior flashbacks as they are in the main story. Eraqus and Xehanort, they're older men so four years isn't a big deal. The Wayfinder trio however are teenagers (late teens at youngest for Terra and Aqua if they're not early twenties already) or pre-teens, suggesting Terra and Aqua weren't late bloomers while Ventus was. PSP game I know, so probably not worth doing four years younger sprites for for the three since it's five or ten minutes collectively across all three stories in terms of cutscene length in a game. The game is very economical with NCPs to the point a couple of cutscenes bring attention to a crowd of people who aren't there! Still, it can take you out of the time progression when the main characters don't appear to age at all.

As it's been a long time since I've desired to know the current slang, I'm guessing flammable in some way, or at least luminous.