Why do people like Kingdom Hearts?

[Deleted User]

It's a warm and cuddly (albeit somewhat """edgy""") Hack n Slash mixed with RPG elements. I don't agree with people who say Disney characters ruin the atmosphere if anything they're looking for something that isn't what the series is about. The mix of Disney and Final Fantasy characters being put in situations out of their realm was very unique and enthralling as a kid. I've always praised games that are enjoyable for kids in one aspect yet enjoyable for adults in another.

Now like everything that has edgy elements and was a big part of misunderstood teen's childhoods, the fanbase is absolutely terrible and will gobble up anything Square Enix shit out. You can give them the same game over and over and they'll unequivocally praise it to no end.

 

[Glyptofane]

I know what you are thinking... KH is just too gay and Nomura freaking sucks. Sorry, but this has happened in life.

 

[The Catboy]

Because I enjoy them. I find the vast majority of the games fun.

 

[s157]

Kingdom Hearts had my attention when I was a young teenager. Rather fun action rpg elements (back in the day I thought all RPGs were turn-based) and hit nostalgia hard with final fantasy and disney. As I grew older I began seeing the storyline as cliche (there's light in everyone's hearts, and with that they shall overcome everything!!) and the gameplay as rather easy and babying. I went back and played 1.5/2.5/2.8 etc. and realized that they aren't too difficult, even with the secret bosses. I was a bit of a masocore gaming fan at that point, having beaten Ninja Gaiden, Demon/Dark Souls, Devil May Cry on Dante Must Die difficulty, etc., so my judgment of KH games' difficulty is harsher than it should be. However, even despite my general distaste for it (and Square Enix as a whole), it's not difficult at all to see why people are captivated by it. Storyline that's quite easy to be immersed in, action-based gameplay that's friendly to all gamers, and the nostalgia factor is quite strong.

 

[Bimmel]

I thought Zelda is that main guy character?

Zelda is the main antagonist. You play as guy named Link. The goal is to bring her in touch with your big and mighty "Master Sword" to purify her with "light". A lot like Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Jiehfeng]

Zelda is the main antagonist. You play as guy named Link. The goal is to bring her in touch with your big and mighty "Master Sword" to purify her with "light". A lot like Kingdom Hearts.

Yeah I was just joking about the common misconception that Zelda is the main character.

 

[The_Hulkster]

I haven't played any KH games either, been meaning to since they came out.

However, I genuinely, really dislike manga/anime/whatever games.
But I do like Disney...

What are the chances of me liking these games?

 

[Kourin]

Soundtrack is really nice, one thing that keeps me going in games.
The combat - especially in 2 is satisfying.
Sora is a bit floaty but one you get glide and such exploring worlds is neat
Exploring worlds is straight up just nice. I love the movie Nightmare Before Christmas and being able to explore Halloween Town and Christmas Town in 2 is really nice.
While Sora does harp on about the power of friendship a bit too much he's a lovable goofball.

That's why I like it anyway.

 

[FAST6191]

I feel compelled to ask - If you've never been a fan of either Final Fantasy or Disney, why on earth did you buy it ? What were you expecting ?

Never been a particular fan of Disney (as in straight Disney, not the mass of stuff they also own and stuff out of whatever brand suits their needs) here either, still love me some Capcom style 8 and 16 bit era games featuring characters from Disney properties.

Still I tried Kingdom Hearts to see what the fuss was about. Controlled barely acceptably, story in general was nothing to write home about (not that slash fiction often manages that) and gameplay challenge/design was also in the just about acceptable world for me (and I usually like PS2 era stuff). I could play it but would forget it 5 minutes after it was done.
I had similar things for Monster Hunter (on paper it should be pretty enjoyable, and seems to have a fairly big fanbase that claim to like the sorts of things I would like in this), though to this day I have not put anywhere near as much effort into Kingdom Hearts as I have put into Monster Hunter trying to see if I can get it to click.
Sitting here thinking what I would have to hack and redo to make it play well for me just sees the amount of work to be done far exceed my usual "tweak growth curves, nerf a bad/pointless mechanic, add an extra pickup/default something in the inventory, change some text and graphic design, maybe change an AI behaviour, maybe change controls in a subtle way" type thing. It could be done, and would recognisably be Kingdom Hearts at the end of it all, but it is not effort I would care to do as the end result would be matched by other things which I would spend the same amount of time on, and gain far more from.

Normally I rate games based on wasted potential, and find the worst games to be those that fail to live up to it (see also Monster Hunter). Kingdom Hearts is not that to me; I just see it as fluff really, albeit fluff that has entranced a fairly considerable fanbase.

I still cringe when people say zelda is an RPG

I still maintain ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/zelda-vs-the-term-rpg-august-2012-edition.332154/ ) it could classify as one. If I have to count Japanese games where you play no kind of role of your choosing/trying to be in line with a character as RPGs and make no meaningful decisions then story and setup tracks, you gain improvements to your character as you go through the game (it is a bit more abstract than experience and levels but it is there) and can choose your setup to go out into the world with.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I've only beaten one Kingdom Hearts game, and it was Kingdom Hearts on PS2.
Tried the 3DS one briefly, but couldn't really get into it.
I did enjoy the PS2 one though.

I don't really care for Disney so that wasn't a selling point for me, I am a Final Fantasy fan though, but the games play nothing like the Final Fantasy games I like, so that's not why I liked it either. I just enjoyed it for what it was. The large variety of levels was nice, gameplay is very Hack n Slash-y which can be fun sometimes. I must admit I did barely get through it to the end, it's not the kind of game I typically play but I had fun with it.

I'm glad I at least played through one game in the series. I see no need to play through the others, as I have a rather big backlog of games I'd rather play (but never do, as I don't play games very often and when I do it's usually either replaying an old game, or playing something new), so I can't exactly be called a fan of the series, but I can see why the series has so many fans.

 

[DinohScene]

Kingdom Hearts is amazing.
All I can say about it.

 

[RaMon90]

I never played, I can't say anything about it. I've grown up with games like super mario world snes, crash bandicoot for the ps2.

 

[Hells Malice]

The kingdom hearts games with Sora are shit. Sora is a shit character.

358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep were pretty fun though.

They're a bit clunky but you get used to it.

 

[GunzOfNavarone]

Never been a particular fan of Disney (as in straight Disney, not the mass of stuff they also own and stuff out of whatever brand suits their needs) here either, still love me some Capcom style 8 and 16 bit era games featuring characters from Disney properties.

Still I tried Kingdom Hearts to see what the fuss was about. Controlled barely acceptably, story in general was nothing to write home about (not that slash fiction often manages that) and gameplay challenge/design was also in the just about acceptable world for me (and I usually like PS2 era stuff). I could play it but would forget it 5 minutes after it was done.
I had similar things for Monster Hunter (on paper it should be pretty enjoyable, and seems to have a fairly big fanbase that claim to like the sorts of things I would like in this), though to this day I have not put anywhere near as much effort into Kingdom Hearts as I have put into Monster Hunter trying to see if I can get it to click.
Sitting here thinking what I would have to hack and redo to make it play well for me just sees the amount of work to be done far exceed my usual "tweak growth curves, nerf a bad/pointless mechanic, add an extra pickup/default something in the inventory, change some text and graphic design, maybe change an AI behaviour, maybe change controls in a subtle way" type thing. It could be done, and would recognisably be Kingdom Hearts at the end of it all, but it is not effort I would care to do as the end result would be matched by other things which I would spend the same amount of time on, and gain far more from.

Normally I rate games based on wasted potential, and find the worst games to be those that fail to live up to it (see also Monster Hunter). Kingdom Hearts is not that to me; I just see it as fluff really, albeit fluff that has entranced a fairly considerable fanbase.


I still maintain ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/zelda-vs-the-term-rpg-august-2012-edition.332154/ ) it could classify as one. If I have to count Japanese games where you play no kind of role of your choosing/trying to be in line with a character as RPGs and make no meaningful decisions then story and setup tracks, you gain improvements to your character as you go through the game (it is a bit more abstract than experience and levels but it is there) and can choose your setup to go out into the world with.

You and OP both share a similar statement and that is that both of you have have never been a massive fan of Disney. That's where you've both gone wrong in my opinion. Gameplay/control style aside, story aside, this is a game incorporating the various Disney properties and features a metroid-vania type system where you're back and forth to these worlds unlocking various items and further progression through them. The statement I used above comparing the subject matter to something which I don't like (i.e. football/soccer etc) is to say that even if it was infused with say Marvel Characters or laser guns or the like, I wouldn't be interested because at it's core it is still football. Take for example Final Fantasy X and 'Blitzball' - the blitzball element sucked in my opinion but it wasn't only about Blitzball, it just featured a compulsory game or 2 in order to progress and optional games if you wanted to level up and/or get certain items. Whereas Kingdom Hearts has Disney at it's core throughout, as do the many sequels. The story has become somewhat convoluted over time but 1 and 2 were absolutely fine for me, again people who take issue with them may not be used to Final Fantasy type stories. Maybe it's just that you and OP are picking these up at the wrong point in time and that gameplay style has moved forward that much that you're expecting certain elements from current gaming standards. These may be delivered in KH3, but right now the PS3/PS4 versions are obviously only a remaster in graphical terms.

 

[FAST6191]

I played them at the time, or near enough to it. I still find many of the PS2 era of games to be quite playable, and somewhat oddly actually find that as my games when I was 19 thing (usually you hear something like it phrased as the music you like for your entire life if that from when you were 19) despite not being 19 when the PS2 was active. I like action based games and while I am probably still done with pure turn based I can at least play them, still did not cut it for me.

Despite not being a fan of disney it is not a turn off either, I just find it utterly inoffensive and I am completely ambivalent towards most classic Disney properties. I can see if you are some kind of disney fan that having such an arrangement only serves to amplify enjoyment but for it to be the thing that carries a game is a bigger ask. In spite is probably a poor phrase to use here, but in spite of the disney characters I really did enjoy many of the capcom games with disney characters on the NES, SNES and such. Talespin on the NES- wonderful shmup, Chip and Dale - awesome, Aladdin on the megadrive was Virgin rather than Capcom but still fantastic, Castle of Illusion - I will still play it now,

On football did you ever play any of the speedball games? Football in all its forms (game, watch, play...) is enough to induce narcolepsy in me and while I did not care for speedball for other gameplay reasons it never flipped the football switch in my head.

 

[happydance]

it's like asking people why they love pineapple on... never mind...

 

[Meteor7]

if you don't like either Final Fantasy or Disney then you will find them boring.

I hate Final Fantasy and am completely uninterested in Disney, but I adore KH. For me, the appeal is ~80% combat, with the rest being the story involving the original characters, not the Disney ones.

 

[Deleted User]

The kingdom hearts games with Sora are shit. Sora is a shit character.

358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep were pretty fun though.

They're a bit clunky but you get used to it.

I'll respectfully disagree on this one. Most of the games in the series I've played have Sora in them, and it's a bit of a stretch to dismiss the game play in said games purely because of the character. Besides, Sora isn't that bad.

358/2 Days, imo, is the weakest gameplay-wise out of all that I played. The 8-directional movement just felt off to me, and there was little sense of exploration. It good for playing in short bursts, though.

On a side note, I enjoyed playing Chain of Memories, oddly enough, despite the clunky battle system and odd difficulty curve.

 

[GunzOfNavarone]

I played them at the time, or near enough to it. I still find many of the PS2 era of games to be quite playable, and somewhat oddly actually find that as my games when I was 19 thing (usually you hear something like it phrased as the music you like for your entire life if that from when you were 19) despite not being 19 when the PS2 was active. I like action based games and while I am probably still done with pure turn based I can at least play them, still did not cut it for me.

Despite not being a fan of disney it is not a turn off either, I just find it utterly inoffensive and I am completely ambivalent towards most classic Disney properties. I can see if you are some kind of disney fan that having such an arrangement only serves to amplify enjoyment but for it to be the thing that carries a game is a bigger ask. In spite is probably a poor phrase to use here, but in spite of the disney characters I really did enjoy many of the capcom games with disney characters on the NES, SNES and such. Talespin on the NES- wonderful shmup, Chip and Dale - awesome, Aladdin on the megadrive was Virgin rather than Capcom but still fantastic, Castle of Illusion - I will still play it now,

On football did you ever play any of the speedball games? Football in all its forms (game, watch, play...) is enough to induce narcolepsy in me and while I did not care for speedball for other gameplay reasons it never flipped the football switch in my head.

To answer the original question, for me I liked seeing the Disney characters brought to life in unconventional ways. The worlds were also well designed and realized and turning Disney properties into role playing games hadn't been done before. I haven't played the speedball games no, but really speaking I've never been that much into sports games. I'm more invested in a good story based game.

 

[Wiisel]

Out of curiosity I just looked at the wiki lists of square enix, Square Soft, Enix video games and was shocked to realise there's nothing I've played beyond a quick go with the only title that's really appealed being Sword of Mana GBA on my todo list since I saw it on the shelf near release. Back in the day I played Castle of Illusion on my SMS and a Jap import of Donald Duck on GG that's about as close as it gets to playing Disney, Not sure if KH is my cup of tea.