Kingdom Hearts Sucks (But it Doesn't Have To)
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I've never played any KH, partly because I have other stuff to play, partly cause it doesn't seem that great, but mainly because the story seems super confusing, and I don't know where to start. Plus, I wouldn't want to have to play all the side/not-as-important games just to get the full story.
It only seems confusing cause people keep telling you that it's confusing. It's not.
And even if you only played 1,2, and Birth by Sleep, you wouldn't miss anything. (Chain of Memories has a bit, but not enough to ruin the fun. The two DS games are filler)
The only shitty Kingdom Hearts games were RE:Coded and 358/2 days. I prefer Days though b/c it focuses more on Roxas than Sora.
You're now my officially favorite kh hater. But though the arguments on here are getting quite insane. Just accept the fact that people have negative opinions (however insane it is to me) on the series. So people find the story complicated, I know people who finds the story to Star Fox 64 complicated.
I think a big source of the confusion/arguing here stems from a confusion of terms. When people say it's complicated, they don't mean that it deals with big issues or anything. The base story is pretty simple (Guy teams up with friends to thwart evil, learns joys of friendship, etc.).The problem comes from the way that simple story is needlessly tied to a convoluted mess of organizations and backstories and systems of magic that is never made entirely clear to the audience; with each successive game, the web only grows larger and larger (Kind of like an algae that sucks all the oxygen out of a body of water as it expands).
For a complex, intricate, and richly written narrative, this sort of approach makes sense (and some genres, like those focused around espionage, demand it). Kingdom Hearts, however, is not that narrative. As it stands, the story essentially has its head placed squarely in its own rectum; with each new game, it tries to dig itself out by going deeper and deeper.
For a complex, intricate, and richly written narrative, this sort of approach makes sense (and some genres, like those focused around espionage, demand it). Kingdom Hearts, however, is not that narrative. As it stands, the story essentially has its head placed squarely in its own rectum; with each new game, it tries to dig itself out by going deeper and deeper.
And wow, great job just dismissing any argument against your favorite series out of hand; it sure must be convenient to not have to consider the legitimate points other people make!
I agree, I really like the series as a whole but the DS titles just felt half-arsed. The story in Days was total rubbish until the last few hours when it suddenly jumped to being brilliant, and the gameplay was just too repetitive. And I'm getting a bit sick of seeing the intro video from KHII rehashed over and over again. To be honest, I didn't really care about the story while I was playing KH 1 or 2 either, they were just plain fun. It was Chain of Memories that got me interested in the plot side of things.
About the main characters, when I think of Kingdom Hearts it's always the original characters who spring to mind. Donald and Goofy spend the whole of the first 3 games as major party members, and yet they don't actually do anything to make them worth remembering. Kinda odd when you think about it.
The problem with KH story is that it's too complex, harder than understanding hieroglyphs. Just start by playing any spin-off game at your brain will be melted down in the first ten minutes or so because nothing makes sense (at least i felt like that when i played days...). At this point you have two options:
- Throw the game to the trash and hate it forever
- Play Kh1 and Kh2 OR read a wiki (I know its tedious, but worth it)
So far the only KH games I've really enjoyed are KH and KH2. CoM gameplay was.. well I'll just say it wasn't meant for me. Not necessarily bad, but just too different considering I just played KH and KH2 a few days before. The DS games, oh the DS games.. 358/2 Days was interesting gameplay wise and the story wasn't that bad. Not necessarily great, but certainly a way below the level of the PS2 games. Re:Coded was just a waste of my time story wise, gameplay wise it was basically a clone of 358/2 Days. 2 games nearly 100% the same gameplay wise without a good story to back it up, I'll pass on the second one. I'm 1/3 done with the PSP game, but we'll see if the 2/3 will be worth it once I find my PSP Go again..
Bottom line: If KH: Dream Drop Distance is a piece of shizhl, I'll completely skip all games before KH3 regarding the series. No matter what
Bottom line: If KH: Dream Drop Distance is a piece of shizhl, I'll completely skip all games before KH3 regarding the series. No matter what
Birth by Sleep was awesome, one of the best ARPG's of all time, up there with all time favorites like Secret of Mana (if you ignore the multiplayer elements).
The article posted in the OP was clearly written from a "I played KH1, sorta played KH2, screwed around with the DS one and found it sucked (because it did), and looked at promo material for BBS and didn't play it" perspective.
Hell, it even mis-counts the number of titles in the series.
It's just a comment-fisher for ad revenue, or even worse, a poorly written article by a "gaming journalist" who bases his reviews off other reviews he read.
Seriously, KH1 was interesting but jumbled. KH2 was a stellar game with a bunch of the worst elements ever in an RPG, so it's hard to say if it's good or not. CoM was strikingly odd, seemed like they wanted to make a game with that battle system and decided to use the KH name to get sales. 358/2 was possibly the most boring video game I've ever played.
However, BBS was amazing. The combat was tight and varied, very little "button spam." You had 3 choices of playstyle to either choose from or replay several times and still keep it fresh. Instead of generic "you gain some levels" garbage like the other games, your playstyle influenced the advancement of your character through powering up your spells and making them able to be combined into all-new abilities that were often much more than "That spell from before, with 15% extra damage." There was even a "i'm on the bus and only have 10 minutes to play today" Monopoly style game, that in addition to being a nice way to waste a bus-ride to work, actually got you new abilities and powered up existing ones.
BBS was an amazing game. The best thing about DDD is that it seems to be following in the footsteps of BBS.
I haven't even mentioned the story in BBS, which while convoluted, was fairly coherent for a post FFVII Square-Enix game (yes, I said it, deal with it). At least it didn't beat me in the face with unnecessary cutscenes replaying stories from movies I watched 20 years ago. I think that's a good start.
If DDD manages to move forward in the vein of BBS while improving on it, it will be an excellent game. That's that.
Also, people don't seem to know what a "spinoff" is. CoM and 358/2 were blatant spinoffs. BBS was KH3 as advertised by the hidden FMV unlockable in KH2. Yeah, it's odd that it's called "Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep" instead of "Kingdom Hearts 3", but haven't we all realized that SE is staffed by primarily lunatics at this point? I mean, what is a "Dissidia?" and then "Why duodecim instead of 12?" also all the extreme weirdness of the names of FFXI expansions, and even "The World Ends With You", which while vaguely catchy, had basically zero to do with anything. They could have named it "Melancholy Overcoming Despair" and it would have made just as much sense.
I don't feel like blaming the game for the fact that the SE guys bought an english thesaurus and went nuts. BBS was a main series title with a weird name. It fully wrapped up missing plot points from KH1&2. It was teased as the sequel to KH2 at the end of said game. Just translate "Birth By Sleep" from SE crazy-talk to english numbers as "3".
The article posted in the OP was clearly written from a "I played KH1, sorta played KH2, screwed around with the DS one and found it sucked (because it did), and looked at promo material for BBS and didn't play it" perspective.
Hell, it even mis-counts the number of titles in the series.
It's just a comment-fisher for ad revenue, or even worse, a poorly written article by a "gaming journalist" who bases his reviews off other reviews he read.
Seriously, KH1 was interesting but jumbled. KH2 was a stellar game with a bunch of the worst elements ever in an RPG, so it's hard to say if it's good or not. CoM was strikingly odd, seemed like they wanted to make a game with that battle system and decided to use the KH name to get sales. 358/2 was possibly the most boring video game I've ever played.
However, BBS was amazing. The combat was tight and varied, very little "button spam." You had 3 choices of playstyle to either choose from or replay several times and still keep it fresh. Instead of generic "you gain some levels" garbage like the other games, your playstyle influenced the advancement of your character through powering up your spells and making them able to be combined into all-new abilities that were often much more than "That spell from before, with 15% extra damage." There was even a "i'm on the bus and only have 10 minutes to play today" Monopoly style game, that in addition to being a nice way to waste a bus-ride to work, actually got you new abilities and powered up existing ones.
BBS was an amazing game. The best thing about DDD is that it seems to be following in the footsteps of BBS.
I haven't even mentioned the story in BBS, which while convoluted, was fairly coherent for a post FFVII Square-Enix game (yes, I said it, deal with it). At least it didn't beat me in the face with unnecessary cutscenes replaying stories from movies I watched 20 years ago. I think that's a good start.
If DDD manages to move forward in the vein of BBS while improving on it, it will be an excellent game. That's that.
Also, people don't seem to know what a "spinoff" is. CoM and 358/2 were blatant spinoffs. BBS was KH3 as advertised by the hidden FMV unlockable in KH2. Yeah, it's odd that it's called "Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep" instead of "Kingdom Hearts 3", but haven't we all realized that SE is staffed by primarily lunatics at this point? I mean, what is a "Dissidia?" and then "Why duodecim instead of 12?" also all the extreme weirdness of the names of FFXI expansions, and even "The World Ends With You", which while vaguely catchy, had basically zero to do with anything. They could have named it "Melancholy Overcoming Despair" and it would have made just as much sense.
I don't feel like blaming the game for the fact that the SE guys bought an english thesaurus and went nuts. BBS was a main series title with a weird name. It fully wrapped up missing plot points from KH1&2. It was teased as the sequel to KH2 at the end of said game. Just translate "Birth By Sleep" from SE crazy-talk to english numbers as "3".
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