Kingdom Hearts Sucks (But it Doesn't Have To)

[Byronic Hero]

As a fellow RPG fan, I completely disagree with the article.

fixed

I am a KH fan and I personally love the story, its the main reason I keep playing. The people who don't understand it are the same people who play it for 30 min, quit, then bitch about how much it sucks. I just hope all this IGN KH trolling won't keep any future entries coming stateside.

Part of the charm of Kingdom Hearts is seeing how Sora and Gang transform to fit the worlds they visit. Pride Rock, Space Paranoids, and Timeless River are all awesome because the characters change. Having Sora travel to Sherwood Forest and team up with Robin Hood would be far more interesting than going to Agrabah ever again. Or how about bringing Pixar into the mix and seeing what happens to Goofy and Donald when they enter the world of Toy Story? The possibilities are vast, and there's no excuse for reusing any played out world like Wonderland.

Two places you will probably never see, even though they would be so cool.

Also, this paragraph ticked me off the most, the fact that he is complaining about what worlds will and won't appear in the next game shows just how ungrateful some people are. "oooh we got Tarzan, HOWZ ABOUT PUNNIN INZ DA TOY STORIEZZZZ!!!1!two!"

 

[Fear Zoa]

The only problem I have with kingdom hearts is some of the character voices, Goofy and Donald in particular

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I am a KH fan and I personally love the story, its the main reason I keep playing. The people who don't understand it are the same people who play it for 30 min, quit, then bitch about how much it sucks. I just hope all this IGN KH trolling won't keep any future entries coming stateside.

I played pretty much the entire first game and this is complete bullshit. The entire story is just overly complex. It's not deep or even compelling, it's just a giant twister.

Also the characters are so snooze and the whole "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC" thing is better left with the worst "subculture" on the internet.

 

[Byronic Hero]

I played pretty much the entire first game and this is complete bullshit. The entire story is just overly complex. It's not deep or even compelling, it's just a giant twister.

Also the characters are so snooze and the whole "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC" thing is better left with the worst "subculture" on the internet.

The story isn't complex really, its a simple Darkness vs Light affair, only thing people complain about really is the Nobody/Heartless thing, which isn't complicated in the least. But in regards to the story itself; what exactly is so complicated about it? I was like 12-13 when I first played it and I had virtually no questions at the end of the story.

Disney is Magic
Kingdom Hearts' Story revolves around friendship
You put the two together and that's going to be the obvious product. And since KH isn't KH without Disney, complaining about that aspect isn't going to change anything, cause it ain't gonna change anytime soon.

 

[Gahars]

Kingdom Hearts, despite the simplicity of the themes behind it, has one of the most pointlessly convoluted storylines in gaming history; I'd say it nears Hideo Kojima territory (The chart I posted, while obviously made as a tongue in cheek take on the series, reflects that pretty well.). You can like the storyline (I don't know why, but whatever), but you can't deny that fact.

Also... I don't know, I find the whole "It can't change so don't complain about it" argument to be pretty weak and unsatisfying.

It seems to me that people tend to underestimate what Disney (and to a lesser extent, SE) are capable of when it comes to producing storylines, characters, etc. I'd say it isn't the 1940's anymore, but then again, the 1940's gave us this masterpiece. Don't settle for bad writing just because you think that's all they're capable of; demand better from them, even if that was the case.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Also, this paragraph ticked me off the most, the fact that he is complaining about what worlds will and won't appear in the next game shows just how ungrateful some people are. "oooh we got Tarzan, HOWZ ABOUT PUNNIN INZ DA TOY STORIEZZZZ!!!1!two!"

...How is this necessarily bad? Toy Story is a gigantic part of Disney history. Although I believe Pixar is now separate, it's the pioneering 3D animated film. It's also one of the highest rated series of films ever.

Considering we get Tron but not Toy Story, it seems pretty silly. Although I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say there's probably licensing issues.

Still, the Disney aesthetic is completely useless. The characters add nothing, they're simply shoe-ins for generic cut outs. They could just as easily be replaced with any characters. You just have the two friends (Donald and Goofy), the ruler (Mickey), and the Legion of Doom random baddy cast of some Disney films. You can literally take any license (Marvel, Capcom, Nintendo, Final Fantasy) and fill those in... Or use no license at all and create original characters. But that would require some sort of character development and backstory so fuck that.

It is also uselessly complicated. It's trying to have childlike themes, like friendship and the power of the heart, but the game ends up being overly complex to throw off any kid and even the gameplay gets utterly difficult that a kid wanting a fun Disney game will most likely give up.

I believe most Kingdom Hearts fans love it to death because it's "nostalgic" and they've gotten to a point of believing that it can "do no harm" as a franchise. There is no "jumping the shark" for them or a "definitive moment of suck". It's just Kingdom Hearts, with every bad aspect either pawned as "passable" or "nonexistent".

 

[Byronic Hero]

...How is this necessarily bad? Toy Story is a gigantic part of Disney history. Although I believe Pixar is now separate, it's the pioneering 3D animated film. It's also one of the highest rated series of films ever.

Considering we get Tron but not Toy Story, it seems pretty silly. Although I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say there's probably licensing issues.

Only thing is, we're almost sure to get Toy Story in KH3, I'm pretty sure that Nomura is saving such a requested movie for a very requested game. Plus, there's a little evidence of it's (almost) appearence in some data found in the KH2 disc.

Still, the Disney aesthetic is completely useless. The characters add nothing, they're simply shoe-ins for generic cut outs. They could just as easily be replaced with any characters. You just have the two friends (Donald and Goofy), the ruler (Mickey), and the Legion of Doom random baddy cast of some Disney films. You can literally take any license (Marvel, Capcom, Nintendo, Final Fantasy) and fill those in... Or use no license at all and create original characters. But that would require some sort of character development and backstory so fuck that.

It's a mash-up of Disney and Square, so it goes without saying that you would need at least a little bit of Disney knowledge to enjoy it fully. And sure, you could replace the Disney characters with different franchise characters, but it wouldn't be Kingdom Hearts then, would it? No.

It is also uselessly complicated. It's trying to have childlike themes, like friendship and the power of the heart, but the game ends up being overly complex to throw off any kid and even the gameplay gets utterly difficult that a kid wanting a fun Disney game will most likely give up.

You obviously haven't played any other installments have you? There were complaints about the second's entry being too easy. Plus, its an JRPG, anyone who knows the genre, going in, should expect that it's not going to be all "run-and-jump"

I believe most Kingdom Hearts fans love it to death because it's "nostalgic" and they've gotten to a point of believing that it can "do no harm" as a franchise. There is no "jumping the shark" for them or a "definitive moment of suck". It's just Kingdom Hearts, with every bad aspect either pawned as "passable" or "nonexistent".

Oh I beg to differ. I consider myself a Hardcore KH fan, and I will admit right now, I absolutely HATED both DS entries in the franchise. I mean, damn, like they were some of the worst games I'd played at the time due to the re-hashing of the worlds and the (for lack of a better word) bitchassness of some of the characters. Though I believe some of the other fans will disagree, that's my take on it. But hey that's my opinion.

 

[gamefan5]

I played pretty much the entire first game and this is complete bullshit. The entire story is just overly complex. It's not deep or even compelling, it's just a giant twister.

Also the characters are so snooze and the whole "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC" thing is better left with the worst "subculture" on the internet.

The story isn't complex really, its a simple Darkness vs Light affair, only thing people complain about really is the Nobody/Heartless thing, which isn't complicated in the least. But in regards to the story itself; what exactly is so complicated about it? I was like 12-13 when I first played it and I had virtually no questions at the end of the story.

Disney is Magic
Kingdom Hearts' Story revolves around friendship
You put the two together and that's going to be the obvious product. And since KH isn't KH without Disney, complaining about that aspect isn't going to change anything, cause it ain't gonna change anytime soon.

Sorry but My opinion still stands, I agree with the article. As much as I love the gameplay, the story makes me want to turn away from this game. I also agree with Guild,I've seen more compelling RPG's than this.

 

[M[u]ddy]

I am a KH fan and I personally love the story, its the main reason I keep playing. The people who don't understand it are the same people who play it for 30 min, quit, then bitch about how much it sucks. I just hope all this IGN KH trolling won't keep any future entries coming stateside.

I played pretty much the entire first game and this is complete bullshit. The entire story is just overly complex. It's not deep or even compelling, it's just a giant twister.

Also the characters are so snooze and the whole "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC" thing is better left with the worst "subculture" on the internet.

Wait, you think the first game had a complicated story? The first games story was ridiculously simple. After that it got unnecessarily complicated.
My guess is that people complained about the weak story and Noamura was like "You want a complexer story? Here you go."

 

[gamefan5]

As a fellow RPG fan, I completely agree with the article.

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[Byronic Hero]

I would like to know what it is that makes the games so hard to follow. I couldn't follow Resonance of Fate (which I loved by the way) but I can easily explain this entire story to anyone? Why is that?

 

[Saken]

The main reason i play KH is the battle system.
The next reason is the story.
Why criticize it like fine wine and cheese? It's a game. You buy a game to enjoy it.

The story has never been complicated, and in my opinion, is not very generic. The "light vs. darkness" thing is, however his ideas of Nobodies, Heartless, a Realm of Sleep, Light, Darkness, Nothingness, is really unique.
If you think it's complicated you have never put enough effort in to maybe play the games (after 1 or 2, depending where you stopped) or try to think about it about. Nomura likes his cliffhangers and likes his audience to think.

Also the guy in the article really pulls things out of context in an attempt to attack the series. For example, he fails to mention that in KH1, Atlantica's story was much more dark and there was no singing or anything. In fact, the singing was placed in there in KH2 because of the reception they recieved about the combat on Atlantica in KH1. People again were complaining that it was too difficult or complicated (what a surprise) to successfully combat the heartless.

"We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish."
He used this one line, taking it right out of context and criticises it for not being related to the plot. It's a line from a letter Kairi sends out to Sora. Just one line that is meant to "convey emotion". You can't just take one line out of a game and conclude that it sucks from this one line that could be taken from anywhere...
It's like picking a random line from a song and criticising the whole song based on it. Kairis letter is poetically written, so that's basically what he did.

He complains about the new characters introduced having no relevance to the story. Except that he is completely wrong. Most original characters introduced have a significant impact on the storyline. If it wasn't for Terra, there would be no heartless. If there was no Master Xehanort, there would be nothing wrong with the worlds, no heartless, no nobodies, thus nothing to play. If anything, i can only complain that KH goes out of its way to explain everything. All the characters introduced have some sort of relevance to something that hasn't been told in the story, or contribute to the back story. KH BBS explains why the heartless started ravaging the worlds, who was the cause and how it happened. It introduces the key villain of the series in which most of the other enemy characters are based off. It would be more apt to complain about everyone being Xehanort, rather than being Sora, really.

 

[gamefan5]

The main reason i play KH is the battle system.
The next reason is the story.
Why criticize it like fine wine and cheese? It's a game. You buy a game to enjoy it.

The story has never been complicated, and in my opinion, is not very generic. The "light vs. darkness" thing is, however his ideas of Nobodies, Heartless, a Realm of Sleep, Light, Darkness, Nothingness, is really unique.
If you think it's complicated you have never put enough effort in to maybe play the games (after 1 or 2, depending where you stopped) or try to think about it about. Nomura likes his cliffhangers and likes his audience to think.

Also the guy in the article really pulls things out of context in an attempt to attack the series. For example, he fails to mention that in KH1, Atlantica's story was much more dark and there was no singing or anything. In fact, the singing was placed in there in KH2 because of the reception they recieved about the combat on Atlantica in KH1. People again were complaining that it was too difficult or complicated (what a surprise) to successfully combat the heartless.

"We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish."
He used this one line, taking it right out of context and criticises it for not being related to the plot. It's a line from a letter Kairi sends out to Sora. Just one line that is meant to "convey emotion". You can't just take one line out of a game and conclude that it sucks from this one line that could be taken from anywhere...
It's like picking a random line from a song and criticising the whole song based on it. Kairis letter is poetically written, so that's basically what he did.

He complains about the new characters introduced having no relevance to the story. Except that he is completely wrong. Most original characters introduced have a significant impact on the storyline. If it wasn't for Terra, there would be no heartless. If there was no Master Xehanort, there would be nothing wrong with the worlds, no heartless, no nobodies, thus nothing to play. If anything, i can only complain that KH goes out of its way to explain everything. All the characters introduced have some sort of relevance to something that hasn't been told in the story, or contribute to the back story. KH BBS explains why the heartless started ravaging the worlds, who was the cause and how it happened. It introduces the key villain of the series in which most of the other enemy characters are based off. It would be more apt to complain about everyone being Xehanort, rather than being Sora, really.

And you think it's as easy as that to understand the story like that in one take? Trust me It's not. And that's mainly why it ticks me off.

 

[Byronic Hero]

And you think it's as easy as that to understand the story like that in one take? Trust me It's not. And that's mainly why it ticks me off.

The only reason I can find for someone not understanding the story is due to said person not wanting to understand. When you get down to the root of KH's story (Strip the Disney worlds and their stories from it) and it's almost Naruto, (as much as I hate to admit it).

Sora = Naruto - Happy go lucky kid who values friendship above all else. Trying to save this guy from "darkness"

Riku = Sasuke - Emoish character who wants power, to do god-knows-what, and accepts darkness/evil as means to get it.

Kairi = Sakura - Woman......(Seriously though) Main character's crush

Mickey = Jiraiya - Experienced warrior who goes out to find a way to defeat the evilness that is (Madera/Pain and/or Xehanort)

Xehanort = Madara/Orichimaru - Antagonist who is the root of most of, if not all, problems in the world.

Organization 13 = Akatsuki - Help Antagonist in his plan.

Seriously, if you can grasp the "complicated" story of Naruto, Kingdom Hearts isn't hard to understand at all.

 

[gamefan5]

And you think it's as easy as that to understand the story like that in one take? Trust me It's not. And that's mainly why it ticks me off.

The only reason I can find for someone not understanding the story is due to said person not wanting to understand. When you get down to the root of KH's story (Strip the Disney worlds and their stories from it) and it's almost Naruto, (as much as I hate to admit it).

Sora = Naruto - Happy go lucky kid who values friendship above all else. Trying to save this guy from "darkness"

Riku = Sasuke - Emoish character who wants power, to do god-knows-what, and accepts darkness/evil as means to get it.

Kairi = Sakura - Woman......(Seriously though) Main character's crush

Mickey = Jiraiya - Experienced warrior who goes out to find a way to defeat the evilness that is (Madera/Pain and/or Xehanort)

Xehanort = Madara/Orichimaru - Antagonist who is the root of most of, if not all, problems in the world.

Organization 13 = Akatsuki - Help Antagonist in his plan.

Seriously, if you can grasp the "complicated" story of Naruto, Kingdom Hearts isn't hard to understand at all.

Dude, similar personalities, organizations does not mean same story. Those 2 are completely different. Naruto's story was simple (but a bit ridiculous). It actually got interesting when Jiraya came along and said what he wanted to do in the ninja world (rid the ninja world of hate). You can grasp that in one take. KH, however takes a bit more time to understand. I never said I didn't understand the story,. It's how the made the story that's bad. It's complicated for nothing.

 

[Byronic Hero]

Dude, similar personalities, organizations does not mean same story. Those 2 are completely different. Naruto's story was simple (but a bit ridiculous). It actually got interesting when Jiraya came along and said what he wanted to do in the ninja world (rid the ninja world of hate). You can grasp that in one take. KH, however takes a bit more time to understand. I never said I didn't understand the story,. It's how the made the story that's bad. It's complicated for nothing.

You do realize that I was doing those comparisons just for the sake of a comparison, not to say that they had the same story. It was meant to say that since they were similar, they shouldn't be too difficult to understand due to the fact that they were so similar.
Not getting into a Naruto argument right not.

But answer this, if you can understand Naruto's story in one take, and KH's story is dangerously similar to it, why is it that KH is so hard to comprehend? Again I believe that people hate the story because they do not want to like it.

 

[gamefan5]

Dude, similar personalities, organizations does not mean same story. Those 2 are completely different. Naruto's story was simple (but a bit ridiculous). It actually got interesting when Jiraya came along and said what he wanted to do in the ninja world (rid the ninja world of hate). You can grasp that in one take. KH, however takes a bit more time to understand. I never said I didn't understand the story,. It's how the made the story that's bad. It's complicated for nothing.

You do realize that I was doing those comparisons just for the sake of a comparison, not to say that they had the same story. It was meant to say that since they were similar, they shouldn't be too difficult to understand due to the fact that they were so similar.
Not getting into a Naruto argument right not.

But answer this, if you can understand Naruto's story in one take, and KH's story is dangerously similar to it, why is it that KH is so hard to comprehend? Again I believe that people hate the story because they do not want to like it.

Again you didn't get my post. I didn't say I didn't want to comprehend it. In fact, I do understand it. It's the fact that it's too complicated for no reason(That's why it's hard for many players.) It ticks players off and it makes the series less attractive.

 

[Byronic Hero]

But if people would come to realize that articles like this IGN one, as well as others, are just making the series seem more complicated than it actually is, it's story would be shown in a much better light.

The story isn't complicated, and I still don't see why anyone who can understand any of today's RPGs cannot understand KH. Also, I can understand KH's story better than I can Mass Effect's.

 

[Bobbyloujo]

I have opinions about this. I think you can all guess what those opinions are so I'll just keep my mouth shut.

 

[gamefan5]

But if people would come to realize that articles like this IGN one, as well as others, are just making the series seem more complicated than it actually is, it's story would be shown in a much better light.

The story isn't complicated, and I still don't see why anyone who can understand any of today's RPGs cannot understand KH. Also, I can understand KH's story better than I can Mass Effect's.

Trust me, I said I did agree with the article because I, MYSELF, find it complicated. Not because the editor said it.