Kingdom Hearts

[burningflame]

So... yeah, Kingdom Hearts.

I love the series despite Square teasing us with constant mid-series titles that you kinda must play in order to get the full picture (like the recently announced 2.8 that will add more stuff to Aqua in the Realm of Darkness and other things), I played almost everything, except KH 3D since I don't have a 3DS.

It was one of the first series that really had me thinking about theories and stories inside of it, and I have books worth of theories about the series, from naming of characters, to event, to even symbols used, like an explation of how Sora could actually be the Keyblade's chosen one despite the fact that from Kingdom Hearts II is explained that anyone with a strong enough heart and that had the power passed by a keyblade wielder can use one; why Namine isn't exactly Kairi's Nobody and why she has power over Sora's memories etc.

From a gameplay perspective, the series really is pretty unique because of all the different things they experimented with throughout the series, instead of doing what most people would do and just use a tried and true generic Action RPG system. The artstyle is very characteristic (despite often suffering from Nomura's signature "too many useless belts and zippers"), and manages to mix both Disney and Final Fantasy (and just recently other Square IPs like The World Ends With You, finally) almost flawlessly. The character models themselves are always pretty good, even in the original PS2 game, though sometimes not using a full 3D model for the face and mouth animations and resorting to simply usin textures to save space and processing power.

And like every game from Square, good or bad, the soundtrack is 10/10, courtesy of Yoko Shimomura, that managed to create a both iconic and very Square-like soundtrack but keeping it fresh and new. Heck, I find myself listening to it when I'm doing other stuff, especially some of the more cozy ones like the Traverse Town or Twilight Town theme.

I even do a full playthrough of the first 2 games at the hardest difficulty setting each year just for funsies and because I love the series.

Though sometimes, as an italian, I wonder what a version with italian voice acting would sound like, since we only have the text translated, like every Square game.

What about you? What games have you played? Do you like the series?

[Ceas]

I've enjoyed all of them multiple times... not counting Coded. I can't stand that title. At least until the end of the game. I'm happily waiting for 2.8 and 3. The music, story, and everything about it is generally all great.

[SMFoxy]

I quite enjoyed KH1, from what I've played of it.
Disney/Square was a good combo.

On an unrelated note, I'd like to see them pair up for an FF (or KH) movie.
So far Square is batting one for two on their FF movies, with Spirits Within kind of sucking, but Advent Children being pretty awesome.
Whereas Disney's track record speaks for itself.

It'd also just be plain interesting to see (even just a short movie) FF in Disney style/what Disney could do with FF.
Just don't sell/sign the rights to them, Square... Don't you dare.

[burningflame]

The Spirits Within was ok, just it was too early. The CG was impressive for the time, and quite expensive at the time. Maybe if they made it  2-3 years later, around 2004-2005, it would have been cheaper to produce and they could have used the CG hype that was affected pretty much everyone in those years. Maybe we would have avoided the Squaresoft-Enix fusion, and Hironobu Sakaguchi would have still been there making Final Fantasy. But as we all know, this is the darkest timeline

[SMFoxy]

I don't know. I just don't think it was great movie overall.
I loved the animation, but the writing was too flat for me.
FF7:AC worked because it was based on an existing work.
The Spirits Within was a movie for the sake of having an FF movie, and the original story just didn't work.
If they'd based it, somehow, on an existing game, it may have been better.

Granted, I couldn't do any better, but I can still have an opinion on it. xD

Anyway, I digress. This was intended to be a topic about Kingdom Hearts...

[Ceas]

Woo, now that I have time to write this..

I absolutely hated Kingdom Hearts when I saw the first tv spot for it while watching some shit Disney show back in the day. I thought it was the most stupid idea ever. Then just to prove myself right I bought it day one. I went home popped it into my old phat ps2. I suffered through the confusing opening thinking, "what the actual fuck is this?" They were butchering my beloved Final Fantasy with child versions of Tidus, Wakka, and my then and for a long time waifu Selphie. I groaned to the catchy music (the only thing going for it at this point) and made it off the island I came to hate so much. Then, off to Traverse Town... oh boy...

 

I met Cid, and thought hey not so bad, met Squall... T^T ...Leon... Yuffie, Aerith, and basically I was just playing to see more Final Fantasy characters and I hated them all. Cloud was okay, maybe even cool, in the end I hated it and everything it was. I wanted it to burn for ruining FF. I actually kind of enjoyed the Disney stuff.

 

Then, I skipped Chain of Memories and decided to play II when it released. Then I absolutely fell in love it, so much so I re-bought the first one and completed it, then CoM, and re:CoM, needless to say The darker tone of II, the newly aged characters. The music was better, the combat was better, the skills and abilities were all amazing, I loved Roxas, Sora wasn't annoying and became a cutie, Riku, more or less kind of bad ass. Org. XIII. I even thought the weird fairy Yuna, Rikku, Paine were cute. I was hooked on it and couldn't wait for the next one.

 

358/2 days made me cry more than I'd like to admit, I loved Xion, and learning more about Roxas. It was just great.

 

Birth by Sleep... I loved this one, or at least Aqua, and Ventus' story, Ventus was a beautiful character in both development and where he ended up at the end, then when I saw him I died and fell in love with someone who was going to be my waifu/husbando forever. Vanitas. He was and is the best character in the entire series to me. He's my current avatar, and became a little obsessed with him. Terra.. was just a Riku character to me.

 

re:Coded... Skip, hated it, still hate it, will always hate it, the ending bits were alright.

 

Dream Drop Distance is probably my second favorite next to II (sorry BBS) I've only played it once, so I don't have much to say about it, but it was just great, and I can't wait to play it again in KH 2.8.

 

now on a side note. The Spirits Within.. not so great, AC was good but probably could have been better.

[burningflame]

I've seen a lot of people say that Kingdom Hearts ruined Final Fantasy, but IMHO it ruined itself.

To me though, the first game's soundtrack is the best so far

And Aqua <3 I love her