Kingdom Hearts

[ryannumber1gamer]

Title really says it all

I'm gonna start with i find really sad that Roxas spent the whole summer in a machine and has friends but they don't even know him and they don't try to become friends

[LuigiHann]

I liked the first Kingdom Hearts. It had a nice set of motifs that it incorporated into the story of each world that made it pretty clever. Kingdom Hearts 2 let me down a bit there, with its main plot sort of existing in a vacuum, and each world's story felt like a much more straightforward retelling of that movie's plot. Like I thought it was nice that the first game's Halloweentown story revolved around the heartless and not around Christmas, and so I was rather unhappy that the second game reused that location in such a less original manner. I'm hopeful that the eventual third game at least uses its increasingly convoluted main plot as an excuse to make the movie world plots more original.

I think it's neat that Neku from The World Ends With You is going to be in the 3DS one.

[Gman5852]

Kingdom Hearts is the only game Id buy a new console for(Yes Im a fanboy, shut up), heck its the only reason Sony's gaming department has gotten my money, minus the Vita, that thing is too convincing, KH would just be the icing on the cake for that

As for what you said, Roxas didnt spend the whole summer there, he spent 7 days, his mind was wiped in a way to make him THINK it was the whole summer. Plus the real kids never even met roxas to be friends with him.

Also, KH DD will have Augmented Reality features for the 3ds, so thats cool.

EDIT2:Agreed LuigiHann, no more retelling Disney stories, but the second half was of them exploring the worlds and having honest plot related issues to the story(such as Riku being found in Mulans world).

[ryannumber1gamer]

Originally Posted by Gman5852

Kingdom Hearts is the only game Id buy a new console for(Yes Im a fanboy, shut up), heck its the only reason Sony's gaming department has gotten my money, minus the Vita, that thing is too convincing, KH would just be the icing on the cake for that

As for what you said, Roxas didnt spend the whole summer there, he spent 7 days, his mind was wiped in a way to make him THINK it was the whole summer. Plus the real kids never even met roxas to be friends with him.

Also, KH DD will have Augmented Reality features for the 3ds, so thats cool.

EDIT2:Agreed LuigiHann, no more retelling Disney stories, but the second half was of them exploring the worlds and having honest plot related issues to the story(such as Riku being found in Mulans world).

Actually they did in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days you go in missions with Axel and you meet the kids in twlight town.

[LuigiHann]

Yeah I don't think I even got to the halfway point in KH2, but I was so consistently disappointed by the first half that it was hard to stay motivated.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by ryannumber1gamer

actally they did in kingdom hearts 358/2 days u go in missions with axel and u meet the kids in twlight town

Oh right. Well that means they DID try to be friends with him, but due to his job, he couldnt be friends.
EDIT:And valid point LuigiHann, the story doesnt honestly pick up until the second half. In fact KH2 probably had the slowest and worse start of a KH game.

[LuigiHann]

KH2 probably had one of the slowest and worst starts of any game period. I had even forgotten about that whole Roxas intro.

relevant

And it's kind of a shame because from what I've read, trying to avoid spoilers but often failing, the main ongoing plotline of the KH series is actually some fascinating meta crap that I would probably love if I could actually stand playing through all of it in order.

[DAISHI]

Loved KH2. When I went into TRON world, my heart leaped.

[GuruGuru214]

Originally Posted by LuigiHann

And it's kind of a shame because from what I've read, trying to avoid spoilers but often failing, the main ongoing plotline of the KH series is actually some fascinating meta crap that I would probably love if I could actually stand playing through all of it in order.

Took me three and a half months.

Originally Posted by GuruGuru214

Still going to try to unlock the secret ending, but I just watched it on Youtube (not like I haven't already read about what happens and seen it in Japanese before now) while I'm still fresh off the series. I'm not sure how accurate my time is, since the clock seemed to run while I was in Tag Mode.

Kingdom Hearts (series run): Started 10/25/2010

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - Terra's Story: Complete 11/10/2010, 76:05
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - Ventus's Story: Complete 11/21/2010, 50:38
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - Aqua's Story: Complete 12/02/2010, 35:20
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - Final Episode: Complete 12/02/2010, 162:52
Kingdom Hearts: Complete 12/30/2010, ~29:33 played + ~24:00 skipped = 53:33
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - Sora's Story: Complete 01/08/2011, 32:12
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - Reverse/Rebirth: Complete 01/14/2011, 19:48
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days: Complete 01/19/2011, 28:15
Kingdom Hearts II: Complete 1/31/2011, 56:51
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded: Complete 02/06/2011, ~12:00 play time + ~30:00 tag mode = 42:16

Kingdom Hearts (series run): 3 months, 13 days (105 days), Play Time - 392:47 (16 days, 8 hours, 47 minutes)

As for Kingdom Hearts II, the first three or so hours are pretty damn slow, but after that, it's my favorite game in the series. Since I'm lazy and have to go get the laundry room ready for the repair guy coming tomorrow morning, here's my thoughts on the series.

Originally Posted by GuruGuru214

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Holy crap. I couldn't have imagined that a Kingdom Hearts game on a portable system could be this good. The original storyline was very good, and a welcome departure from the rut of the same worlds over and over that we've fallen into. The battle system was amazing, with the Command Deck system adding a very nice layer of complexity that some of the other games are lacking. This was especially evident in the optional boss battles, which were by far the most difficult thing I've experienced in this series.

That's not to say the game doesn't have its flaws, though. Each character's story felt very short, though this is a bit understandable when you stop and consider that each world's story has three acts and the overall story is three times longer than each character's story. And the Command Deck system could get a little irritating when it had to be used continuously, like in the aforementioned boss battles, the problem being that when both the movement and command selection systems are mapped to the same half of the system, it's hard to manipulate both at once, and I found myself using my index finger on the D-pad at a few points, which can get painful after a while. Also, while most of the requisite journal report completion crap was actually pretty enjoyable this time around, the Mirage Arena was pretty ridiculous. I would be more okay with it if we only had to go through each challenge once for journal completion, but it's pretty irritating that you then have to do the same challenges over and over again to reach an arbitrary number of medals.

Overall, I thought it was one of the best games in the series, with a lot of innovations to offer and most of its faults being pretty forgivable. 8/10

Kingdom Hearts

Being the original game, it's sort of hard to compare it to the others and fault it. Nitpicks first. I felt it started out a bit slow. The Destiny Islands sequence doesn't bother me so much, but it feels like it took a little too long to get going once you reach Traverse Town, and the first few worlds aren't terribly exciting. Wonderland is all right, but Deep Jungle tends to feel fairly disappointing, and I always dread having to put up with Olympus Coliseum (the only damn world to be playable in all six games so far). Character growth can also be fairly irritating, with the gaining of new abilities and the AP to equip them feeling pretty unbalanced.

All that said, it's a solid first outing for the series, certainly good enough to hook me. Most of the Disney worlds either stick close enough to the original film plotlines to invoke nostalgia or have compelling original storylines, and the selection of worlds covered a nice spectrum. Maleficent was an excellent choice as a leader for the other villains, and Hollow Bastion had a great atmosphere for the game's climax. Xehanort's Heartless, while not necessarily a great boss in his first couple forms, made for a decent villain, and the original portion of the story was decently compelling and did a good job of tying together the Disney portions.

Overall, not my favorite game in the series by any means, but all together solid. 7/10

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

I'll admit, I wasn't a huge fan of the card system when I played Chain of Memories on the GBA for the first time. By the time I finished Sora's story and got to Riku, I was so burned out on it I just quit. I still had similar feelings about it when I started the PS2 remake some time ago. Then I took a break and started over after playing Birth by Sleep and using the Command Deck system. Suddenly, the card system makes so much more sense. Again, it adds a layer of complexity that the other games don't have. You can't just button mash, you actually have to think about how you've built your deck and what cards you have available to you, either to make the sleight you want or to break enemy cards. Once you wrap your head around it, the system actually becomes pretty compelling, and the changes made to the system for Riku's half of the game and the new strategies they require are a nice game changer.

That said, Castle Oblivion can get tedious as hell. I found that I would begin to favor certain types of room cards, with the result that I would end up going through the same rooms over and over again, until everything started to run together. I understand that this is the PS2 version remaining faithful to what allowed the GBA version (a valliant effort in iteslf) to even function, but it can become repetative and boring. It's also a sharp contrast to the more story-driven games, restricting the story to only certain special rooms and between floors. Riku's story is even worse in this respect, as the story rooms have been mostly eliminated, with most worlds only having one such room that only leads you into a boss battle with little to no context for why you're fighting this boss.

Overall, I had far more fun with it than I expected to, especially after playing the original GBA version, but it has some serious problems getting in the way of really enjoying it. 6.5/10

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

This game was something of a let-down, and a few of its problems can be traced back to making it fit Organization XIII. There's the change from open-world to mission-based, which makes sense for the Organization but takes away a lot from the game. Then there's the almost complete removal of any character interaction or story in the Disney worlds, which again makes sense for the Organization, but removed one of the major components that makes the series good and makes the Disney worlds feel pretty dull at times. Then there's the panel system for stat growth. An interesting idea, but it feels like it gets in the way more than anything else, and playing Tetris to equip myself isn't really my idea of fun. Then there's the challenges, which are just a way to make us play the same dull missions over again but now make some of them criminally difficult.

That said, it does a couple of things well. Some of the story missions with Xaldin in Beast's Castle were a nice nod towards upcoming events in Kingdom Hearts II, and it was nice to have that year gap between Chain of Memories and KHII filled in. The same goes for Roxas's past, as it was hard to care about him in Kingdom Hearts II when he had just popped up out of nowhere. It also made Axel a more compelling and relatable character and made a few nice nods towards the pasts of the Organization members.

Overall, I wouldn't call it a terrible game, but it certainly did a lot wrong and is the weakest in the series for it. 5/10


Kingdom Hearts II

I would probably call this the definitive Kingdom Hearts game. It has everything important to the series, and it has it in good balance. The original storyline takes a bit more presence, and while a lot of people have a problem with Organization XIII, I enjoyed having them as the antagonists and didn't think their presence was too overbearing. The selection of Disney worlds was also a nice balance of old and new and all pretty good choices (with the exception of you, Port Royal), and it was a great move to give each world two sections of story, giving you a reason to return other than item collection.

And speaking of item collection, the game took just about every grinding element and made it all much less annoying this time. Leveling up completely is made easy if you know how to do it right, and with seven Lucky Lucky abilities for a 627.5% drop rate, collecting items for synthesis isn't much of a trouble at all. And most of the minigames were actually pretty enjoyable.

If I want to come up with gripes about this game, I'm going to have to get pretty specific. First, there's Atlantica. As if a poorly executed rhythm game wasn't bad enough, the new songs are all annoying as hell, and the old songs have been redone and are grating to listen to, and then they make you play them all twice. Then there's the three hour prologue as Roxas. I don't have a problem with the premise, just the length. Other than that, my only major complaint is that Port Royal's take on the Pirates story is sort of weak, the undead pirates are annoying as hell to fight, and the character models and voices are...well, bad.

Overall, I'd have to say this is my favorite game in the series. Just about everything it does is done well. 8.5/10

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

Wow. It seems that they learned from every mistake they made on Days. We're back to a more or less open-world sort of game. The command deck system from Birth by Sleep has been brought over, modified to the DS's controls in a way that makes it very comfortable to use and some nice changes to the melding system. Gone is the panel system, replaced by the infinitely better Stat Matrix. And while all five of the worlds are lifted yet again from Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, the stories have been completely revamped and I found that I didn't mind at all. Even the boss fights, which all felt identical to Kingdom Hearts when I fought them again in Chain of Memories, were made fresh by changing the mechanics completely for each one.

Now the problems. It's short. Very short. The game is supposed to be filled out by encouraging you to go back to worlds you've already been to, playing the story over again, and doing things you couldn't before and completing ridiculous objectives for trophies. That doesn't feel very compelling to me. And the Stat Matrix has its share of problems. Chips can be swapped but never removed, and I always felt like I wasn't getting enough chips, only having gotten enough for 56% of the grid by the time I completed the story. Weapons weren't very good either. I pretty much used the Kingdom Key until I finished the Coliseum, then I used Olympia for the rest of the game until I got Zero-One at the end. I tried using Oblivion, one of the most iconic weapons in the game, only to find that I was taking damage with every hit. It took me a while to figure out why I kept coming close to death.

Overall, I enjoyed what I played of it, but it turned out to be less than I was expecting. While most of this can be understood, given that it's a DS port of a mobile phone game, it still left some to be desired. 6/10

[doodo!]

I've always felt that at least on a certain level the games were pulled from The Verse to give people some imaginary concept, or idea , how life may be. I love the Kingdom Hearts games, and I think people love the concept behind them because mentally it's a concept humans love and I think that psychic energy is there because there may be some truth in concept of our state of reality. I think the games actually show us in a fun, light hearted way what goes on in our Verse.

[RetroVortex]

I'd love the Kingdom hearts series if it were not for these two things:

1. The very silly plot. The first game is fine. Kind of cheesy, but its a great experience.
However 2nd game onwards, the plot get very silly, very quickly, and its hard to really care all too much about it.

Not a deal breaker though

2. Re-using worlds.
This series is VERY, VERY guilty of this.
Especially most of the portable ones.

I get dulled out everytime I go to Wonderland, or Agrobah, or Halloween Town.

And the funny thing is, there are so, so many disney properties out there still untapped.

Its pretty shameful really.

Still, if there was a proper Kingdom Hearts 3, and a 3DS remake of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep I would buy them day one!

[doodo!]

I've only played the two games. I like the feel of the first a little more than the second. I'd play a 3rd.

[ryannumber1gamer]

Did any of you really think Goofy was dead in KH 2?

[GuruGuru214]

Originally Posted by RetroVortex

2. Re-using worlds.
This series is VERY, VERY guilty of this.
Especially most of the portable ones.

I get dulled out everytime I go to Wonderland, or Agrobah, or Halloween Town.

And the funny thing is, there are so, so many disney properties out there still untapped.

Its pretty shameful really.

Still, if there was a proper Kingdom Hearts 3, and a 3DS remake of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep I would buy them day one!

Nomura's aware of the whole worlds thing, and he's said that none of the Disney worlds used so far will be returning again (though I'm really hoping that this doesn't exclude the possibility of a Tron: Legacy version of Space Paranoids). The original worlds will still be around, but Kingdom Hearts 3D's Disney worlds will be all new.

And speaking of Kingdom Hearts 3D, it's supposed to have a "story on-par with a numbered title" and tie together all the loose ends of the series, setting the stage for Kingdom Hearts III.

[RetroVortex]

Originally Posted by GuruGuru214

Nomura's aware of the whole worlds thing, and he's said that none of the Disney worlds used so far will be returning again (though I'm really hoping that this doesn't exclude the possibility of a Tron: Legacy version of Space Paranoids). The original worlds will still be around, but Kingdom Hearts 3D's Disney worlds will be all new.

And speaking of Kingdom Hearts 3D, it's supposed to have a "story on-par with a numbered title" and tie together all the loose ends of the series, setting the stage for Kingdom Hearts III.

Sounds great.

(To be honest, I haven't played one since the first, (well I played "Days" but thats basically a remixed and inferior version of the first really), but I have looked everything up and kept myself informed so if a good one comes out, I can jump straight in and enjoy myself)

Still it would be nice to eventually get the whole series on one console.
Probably a PS3 collection akin to the Metal Gear, Sly Cooper ect.

Maybe make it two volumes with 3 or 4 games on it each, then release Kingdom Hearts 3 seperately.

[GuruGuru214]

I think the best you can hope for is that rumored HD port of Birth by Sleep to the PS3 and possibly HD ports of Kingdom Hearts, KHII, and Re:Chain of Memories. I doubt that Days and Re:Coded will ever get ported over.

Really, my main hope for the series is that they pull a Final Fantasy XIII and release Kingdom Hearts III on the Xbox in the US. That's exactly the reason I wanted a PS3 over a 360, but a free 360 fell into my lap, so now I'm hoping that I can avoid having to own all three consoles from this generation.

[RetroVortex]

Originally Posted by GuruGuru214

I think the best you can hope for is that rumored HD port of Birth by Sleep to the PS3 and possibly HD ports of Kingdom Hearts, KHII, and Re:Chain of Memories. I doubt that Days and Re:Coded will ever get ported over.

I could see Days and Re:Coded being made for the PSN or something though.

(Since quite a few portable games have been ported over this gen)

Would be nice to see a HD pack of KH1, KH2, RE:COM and Birth by Sleep for about the same price as the Metal Gear Solid pack.

Guy can dream...

[ryannumber1gamer]

I agree with this pack.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by ryannumber1gamer

SPOILER ARERT

did any of u really think goofy was dead in kingdom hearts 2?

1.Just use spoiler tags.
2.No. Disney would NOT kill of one of their characters.


And also, I anyone else find the stupidity in KH 358 days ending.

Not the Xion thing, that part was supposed to be crazy and odd to add to it, but the Riku fight.

Riku sees Roxas, and Roxas even said he was going to
A.Destroy Kingdom Hearts and stop the organization when they are at their weakest moment. He would have saved all of the worlds, and then go off to find Sora which would have had him ultiamately fuse with him anyway, but NOOO Riku had to take Roxas out then, have him fuse with Sora, and then make HIM go fight the organization when they have recovered from the loss of Xion, Roxas, and the castle oblivion people. THAT IS STUPID! Just let Roxas take care of Kingdom Hearts, then when he goes to find sora and fuse with him, Sora and Riku can go home knowing the worlds were saved.
How hard was that? Not so hard since Roxas wouldnt have put up a fight, Riku wouldnt have injured himself or lost to the darkness and look like Ansem, and Ansem the Wise wouldnt be in the realm of darkness.

Ugh I hate nitpicking stories, ruins everything for me, Im already nitpicking Deus Ex:Human Revolution.

[GuruGuru214]

Letting Roxas go after Kingdom Hearts would've been a terrible idea.

Originally Posted by Riku

I can't let you go doing anything crazy... If you go after Kingdom Hearts, the last thing you'll get is your life back. The Organization will destroy you.

Roxas just didn't have the strength to take on the Organization, despite how badass he may have seemed in the last mission of the game. If Riku had let him continue, everything would've been lost. The only one strong enough to take on Xemnas was a complete Sora, and Xemnas still would've been too much for him without Riku's help. Roxas would've been torn apart.