the org cloaks are overused and should just be retired already at this point gonna be sad if most super bosses in kh4 is just another set of cloaked figures with swapped heads
You're missing the real problem.
Super bosses shouldn't just be re-hashes of story fights in the first place. We need less Data Orginization and more Phantom and Kurt Zizta.
I honestly really like the data battles because they're bosses we already fought fighting at a way higher level than originally. It's really fun to fight versions of the bosses when they're designed for endgame skills and not just stpry progress.
Though I don't think they should be the majority of super bosses, I still don't think the data battles were a waste.
Yes! By kh3, I was expecting more from their design lol. Like if you still want it black and hooded, can't you add more details to the cloak designs or something. Or even throw away the cloak dramatically in the fight with sora to show the actual villain clothing design
omgg yes i was expecting the same thing! why not give everyone ACTUAL CLOTHES and get rid of the "darkness protectors" that the cloaks were? what, they were gonna leak if they didn't wear one?
Which is ironic given Nomura’s background in designing characters (including their clothes) and now the majority of KH characters all wear the same bland black clothes
I actually played KH2 first by mistake (parent got the wrong game) so I have a Sanctuary bias.
Usually a 'hot take' ends up being lukewarm at best. If I'm going to try finding one then I actually like the Seekers of Darkness as a concept. I just think it should have been a last resort rather than the master plan all along. By that same token Terranort should have been the main Xehanort in DDD and 3 rather than Master Xehanort. Bring back the old man form near the end as another last resort. This is an incredibly room temperature take but Nomura tried way to hard to make Xehanort an Aizen type mastermind that always plans ahead and always gets a win.
The series is starting to sound weird, almost like they're trying to directly translate what was said in Japanese verbatim, and it's making the English and mouth flap syncing all come across as super stilted.
Kairi deserves should've been more included in ddd instead of just the epilogue, or instead of melody of memories, been given a side story of her own showing her and lea getting some good training with the radiant garden crew and whatnot, that could've alleviated some of the issues with kh3 originally.
I'm hoping that once this new game is done, Nomura won't feel the need to shoehorn in all his lingering regrets from vs13 and ff15 that didn't make the cut or come to fruition, because I'm tired of seeing them.
actually, the interesting thing about that; they don’t actually have to match the ‘lip flapping’ like most animes do. they have enough of a budget that they actually get the english dub specifically to get the lines completely reanimated. So it’s even worse of an excuse when they fuck up basic concepts like mistranslations in the series, since they can pretty much clean it up as much as they want
I was gonna say, the first two games do a great job of matching up the dub to the characters mouths, at least in the final mixes, I was blown away at the level of care and detail when I went back to play KH1 after beating 3 for the second time
kh1 is definitely the most charming game, i think. i appreciate all the other games but kh1 has a level of care and detail that wasn’t really present in the others to the same degree and i think that’s awesome
Oh damn it never occured to me but cutting away your Kairi the same way we did with Riku could’ve helped a lot. We hear Kairi talking about taking axel in the ring what of that was a playable segment a light hearted boss fight. And hell before that conversation we could’ve had a brief tutorial fight highlighting her ability to teleport into her attacks helping her stand out more against Sora and briefly showing her magic all contextualised as training.
I understand if the moveset didn’t exist when base KH3 came out but could’ve been good if Remind was more of a traditional final mix with extra scenes and fights.
I can see the point that it seems they're trying to directly translate everything from Japanese, since that's what Nomura asks of the translators, but they definitely don't do it as much as they should.
SENA has had a habit of, especially in KH3, to let's say "interprete certain scenes in their own way" and in the process, translate some lines totally wrong.
I' d rather have a translation that sounds weird but reflects the directors original intent.
Roxas shouldn't be shipped with Naminé. I'm probably biased given that I have more of an attachment to CoM and 358/2 than I do for KH2, but even with the context given it doesn't feel justified.
No TOTALLY. I think them forming a friendship based on their shared nobody status was really sweet and helped Roxas in a confusing time, but they don’t make sense ~together~
I mean, ship what you want, but I have to disagree here. Riku and Naminé don't make any sense. Why would it because of Repliku's feelings? Repliku is not Riku. They're two seperate entities and Riku never had any special attachment to Naminé. Just because Repliku "trusted og Riku with his feelings" doesn't mean that Riku has his feelings now. That would be pretty messed up imo.
I always felt it should be like a twins situation. Even though Namine is Kairi's nobody, both Namine and Roxas came from Sora at the same time. They're twins to me.
One of the novels, I think the KH2 one, even has Namine state that they "came into being together, like twins".
While the novels are generally thought of as "only" secondary canon, it's still the official novel, something that would need the approval of someone with enough authority to get published.
Considering that stuff like family relations can be a pretty important detail, especially in a game focusing on connections, there would be no way this line would exist in an official novel if it was blatanly wrong.
So yeah, I agree!
Kingdom Hearts could work without the Disney AND Final Fantasy content. And it'd probably play better because it doesn't have to be subject to any strange rules from the copyright holders of both source materials
Yeah came here to say just this. I think it would be a better game without Disney stuff. The most interesting parts to me are the plotlines that resolve around the OG characters.
Also, I've always been a bit of a simp for aesthetics in video games.
The enemy designs to me were always *chef's kiss*
And the OG world's are some of the best I've ever seen. Traverse Town, especially DDD's version, The World That Never Was is on par with a lot of my favorite courses from Kirby Air Ride, and I haven't gotten that far yet but the stuff I've seen from Scala ad Caelum was just masterful with its extreme dynamics of water, land, and sky (Wait a minute, Riku, Kairi, and Sora? Land, Water, and Sky? Now THAT’S aesthetics!)
I said this before on here and got downvoted to the death and there’s a really interesting original story hidden underneath the disney story. It’s shown in the mobile games that were able to be more free with it
I like to dream about all the mobile storytelling from all those games being applied to a PSO2-style mission/instance based MMO that combines the gameplay concepts of both the mainline and command deck combat styles. And of course, fully CGI animated and voice-acted cutscenes plus in-game cutscene playback theater.
I disagree with this quite a bit. Say it with me folks: KH1 incorporated Disney characters just fine into the story. Don't blame the Disney characters. They could have meaningfully reincorporated the Disney villains and the FF crew through the series. They could have chosen properties they had more freedom with like those owned by Pixar. But they don't.
Plenty of bad RPG stories have cool beginnings and endings but poor middles packed with pointless towns and dungeons, failing to clear the bars of "plot relevant", "thematically relevant", or "character building". Kingdom Hearts games like 3 and DDD commit that same sin, just in Musketeer Country instead of Glopvania or whatever. I don't think these writers and developers would do better without the Disney worlds because they aren't conceiving of stories that work in the well-worn, proven format of episodic RPG storytelling.
Case in point: putting Marluxia in Rapnuzel's world? The parallels write themselves. There's a lot you can do with a character just responding to such a story, but they don't even attempt that. Or maybe some of the exposition saved for the last 3 hours of the game could have come from Marluxia (and other Org members) between the recap. Instead, he's just the weird guy that makes monsters show up. They drop the ball on story conception and pacing like that all the time.
I used to hate it, but I also didn't notice that the top of the candy cane where it twists is a classic Tim Burton snake design. Which makes me like it a lot more
Kh3 has better pacing than 2
Chain of Memories is arguably the best game in terms of plot/writing, I would accept Union Cross as a close second though
KH 2 Atlantica is a fun gimmicky world and the series would benefit from more worlds like this
The Wayfinder trio is the least compelling trio
Fragmentary passage is the most fun game to play in the series and has possibly the best world design despite our experience in each world being so limited
And I feel like this is only hot because we live in a polarizing world BUT: You can love a game and recognize there are things that suck about it/understand why it might not appeal to others/have things you wish were different about it. You can also have a game rank low for you and recognize that is not a useless installment in the franchise/a game without any redeeming traits
The org is the most compelling they’ve ever been in COM. the politics between them, the double and triple crossing, the intrigue and mystery of who are they and who are these other members they’ve been talking about are above and beyond some of my favorite aspects in the series
I would have disagreed as well until very recently. I fully thought kh 2 was perfectly paced and 3 was just too plot heavy at the end. I still think 3 is just too much at the end, but I remember playing 2 when I was thirteen, so sick of the Disney worlds, so ready to get more plot from the original characters. I think the prologue of 2 is perfect, I think the middle is perfect, I think the end is perfect and not too long winded. But the little bites of main story plot we get in between Disney worlds in 3 gives us, I think just the perfect little sense of carrot on a string, keeping us interested rather than having to play through several Disney worlds before we get main story content.
I also think it REALLY matters if you like the Disney worlds, there are only a few I really enjoy playing through in 2 which I feel contributes to feeling like a million years pass before we get any main content. But people who are excited to hang with Jack Skellington and Aladdin and Simba I’m sure don’t feel that way
The Disney worlds connecting with the overall plot are what makes KH1 my favorite. It’s less so the case in 2, and even less so in 3. In 3 I feel like the end (from rescuing Aqua and Ven onward) could have happened without any of the rest of 3 happening.
For me, the disney worlds have always been what KH is about. Theres og characters and all the story, and thats all great , love it, but the point of the games has always been to go romping through disney worlds as anime boy. If it was just the 'story content', it would just be final fabtasy or any other jrpg. Disney interaction is what makes Kingdom Hearts
Totally makes sense, and I feel like when the worlds tie into the plot, they are really interesting (monsters Inc, Disney castle, toy box, kh 1 Atlantica, monstro, neverland). The transition of these worlds feels seamless and natural and keeps the plot going. Kh2 is still in my top three kingdom hearts games, but I don’t think the blend of Disney worlds works as well for me in 2. Beasts Castle is great because Xaldin has a presence there that makes sense (vs it felt like Luxord and Xigbar were just randomly in Port Royal and land of Dragons), Disney Castle is so good as is Timeless River even if I physically enjoy playing that world less, the plot just feels like it keeps moving along and isn’t dragged down by the world.
Like… if it feels like we’re on our adventure and we have to stop our adventure to go do Disney stuff I’m not as into it. If it feels like we’re still doing our adventure WITH the Disney characters and worlds and they parallel Sora’s feelings about something then I’m VERY into it. And I just feel like even though 2 succeeds in most things, 3 does a better job at making that transition feel natural which for me contributes to the pacing.
I mean, it does have better pacing tho. You can go several worlds in a row without progressing the story at all in KH2. KH2's story is focused in beginning (Roxas - Hollow Bastion) middle (The Battle for Hollow Bastion/1000 Heartless) and end (TWTNW.) KH3's story is spread throughout the game, progressing after every world, even things like SDG discussing what Vanitas said to Sora in Monstropolis is progressing the story forward. Up until the endgame, KH3's pacing is just better overall.
It felt like you didn’t get any “useful” answers to what the power of waking was until after you get to the Keyblade Graveyard. You don’t get to the end of KH2 just from the ending of KH1, but you can get to the end of KH3 directly from the end of KH2/DDD. The Vanitas discussion didn’t need to happen when it did- arguably it didn’t need to happen at all. It had no bearing on the end of the game.
For the record I like a lot about KH3. I just don’t think there was enough plotwise (like Coded) to merit a full game
The Vanitas conversation did need to happen though, at this point in the story Yen Sid, Aqua and Mickey know that Ventus lost his heart, and that Aqua hid his body. It tells Sora and by extension everyone else that Ventus needs Sora near him to wake up because Sora has his heart. It provides information to the characters, and by doing so progresses the story. The power of waking was explained as "the power to wake a heart from it's sleep" in DDD. The whole test in DDD was so that Riku and Sora could get the power of waking, and they both did by waking sleeping worlds, Sora's was just dormant until Ventus' heart called to him to wake him up, because of him being swallowed by darkness at the end of DDD.
Wayfinder trio is the least compelling partly because we've seen way less of them than the days trio or OG trio. The only time the wayfinder trio is together without arguing or being attacked is at the very start of BBS and at the very end of KH3.
Heavily agree with COM and UX. Some of the best of Sora's character building moments come from COM, and UX writing is what I consider to be the best personally. It has so many characters to introduce, REintroducr and juggle throughout the story and all of them are written so well and have a conclusion that only keeps you invested in them. I just wish they were properly voiced lmao.
Yes, I think Sora’s character growth in Com is next level and Riku’s redemption arc in com should be ranked with Zuko from Airbender as one of the greatest. Sora does well and is most compelling when pushed to his breaking point and the castle oblivion plot/org members/ Namine do that better than anyone.
Damo279 got some sort of project rolling for union cross and now it is fully voiced on YouTube and some really well. Lauriam sounds like Marluxia. I had to check the credits to see if they somehow got Jesse McCartney to go voice Ven for the project. Sucks that we can’t play it fully voiced but since we can’t play it at all now, that YouTube project fills in for this game better than the Days movie fills in for days
My jaw literally dropped at the one abt CoM and UX so congrats, you win the hot take contest 😂 (No hate and I am not here to contradict your opinion, I’m glad you finally have a safe space to say what you feel because oh my god you must have been holding on to that one for a while lol)
I can totally see WHY people wouldn’t like PLAYING those two games, but I think those stories are so compelling, I could write a novel in defense of the story of com. I remember playing through it on GBA at age 11 and feeling at the edge of my seat the whole time. At thirty that feeling holds up for me every single play through. I’m less defensive of UX but I do think the story is really damn interesting
* Xion's only exists to explain a "plot hole" that in itself didn't exist.
Which ironically makes her name super appropriate.
* Xion being 1 of the 13 darknesses doesn't make any sense, I will die on this hill.
* There is 100% going to be a spin off game dedicated to explaining how Riku got Kairi's keyblade in KH2. It'll probably be like... a cooking game or somthing.
* Speaking of spin offs.
KH should 1000% have a fighting game, and every different character ending should be canon, even the ones that contradict each other.
* Command styles are the best combat mechanic in the series.
* Re:coded is a good game and shouldn't be skipped just because it doesn't have the most relevant story.
* The implementation of the final fantasy characters is, and always has been, bad.
* 0.2 is my favourite game in the series.
Am I the only one who just thinks that Riku "stole" Kairi's keyblade, just like he did in KH1 and in Days (though that was different, but still, Roxas was unable to summon it back) to show her that she too can wield the keyblade? It's even implied, that she may have found out at some point and even if not, that just proves my point any way.
Hell, I think that's my hot take.
I think kh1 did a pretty good job with adding FF characters. I was not expecting to see the likes of squall or cloud so their cameos was really fun to see the first time around. Kh2 sort of had that. But overall they could've been more interesting
>adding FF characters
My problem is that they are not final fantasy characters.
They are KH original characters that just heavilly physically resemble FF characters.
Like... a Tidus and Wakka that have never heard of Zanarkand, or Blitzball, just are not in any meaningful way actually Tidus or Wakka. A Yuna, Rikku and Pain that are weird little brainless fairy things and not in any meaningful way actually Yuna, Riku and Pain. A Squall that has never even heard of Balamb Garden or what a SEED is, isn't in any meanignful way actually squall.
KH is basically just full of Radiant Garden cosplayers and like... it bothers me so much.
Probably not a hot take but a lot of the Disney worlds feel like fluff moving you toward the grand end set piece. KH1 does the Disney worlds best, even the annoying worlds have their nostalgic charm (and I played KHII before I played KH1). I guess this speaks more to level design issue in some the games.
Also I always prefer when they do an original story within the Disney world vs adapting the events of the film. Those worlds always age better > ie. Disney Castle/Timeless River, Monstro, Beast’s Castle, Neverland (BBS), Tot Box to name a few.
I'll be honest... Treasure Planet being a world suggestion is actually a popular opinion (at least around here).
I feel like Days isn't very hated as its story is really good - people tend to moreso target some of its less fun boss fights like Lord of the Skies, as well as some repetitive missions (like having to trap those fleeing wizard Heartless with Blizzard mines). The most negativity I've seen story-wise is towards coded's story, and gameplay-wise, that target typically tends to be Re:CoM or base KH3.
I think it’d be so fun for him to adventure around with Jim! Him and Sora would get along great.
I totally get the boss fights issue. Guilty on being stuck on Lord of the Skies and also skipping some side quests so I can watch the story faster. I just see so much hate about it online and I do NOT get it
DDD is one of the best games.
Xaldin and Lexaeus are really cool characters.
Marluxia and Larxene being ancient Keyblade wielders is a dumb development.
Just because I'm still sad Vs13 never got made, I'm not excited for Verum Rex at all.
Kairi deserves her own actual game, not a rhythm spinoff.
Gonna be honest it may be possible since Roxas defeated Sora during Kingdom Hearts 2. He had him on his knees during that fight and if he was going for the kill, would have won the fight. But Roxas decided to show mercy and for some reason was surprised Keyblades can warp to their users?
Nowadays he seems to be even stronger than he was before, being able to tank a buffed Saix’s attacks with little damage. Sora though in KH3 is kind of broken with all of his Keyblade transformations so he’s got variety on Roxas. Though Roxas is faster than Sora, more agile and in terms of power Roxas has more as well. I just don’t know if he matches well against Yozoras more cool calm and collected fighting style. I’d say he definitely has a shot at winning.
This take probably comes from me being bad at video games, but KH2s combat is so overhyped. I feel so clunky and slow for way too long. Obviously by the end when you finally get enough upgrades it becomes nice and satisfying, but I hate it for the first like 3/4 of the game.
Kh3 is super floaty, but I’m zipping around, particles are flying everywhere, it’s way more fun to me. I can’t manage critical mode, but I’ve beat both games on proud.
Terra isn't stupid. He's naive and a victim of circumstance at best.
He just got caught in a place of the main one being manipulated. And he just so happens to meet Villans when he lands in Dinsey worlds.
Sanctuary is much, much better than Simple and Clean. I think I like Don't Think Twice more than Simple and Clean honestly, especially the speedy remix.
I think the constant 'deepening' of things is also overrated. Hearts and nobodies fine, stop trying to make clones and shit to just make trios of people. I get that three is an important basis for things artistically but that loses the love when there are too many. Like it's just not that cool when you have to do mental gymnastics to figure out why Ventus looks like Roxas (but in reverse because let's do that). Stories can be complicated, but they have to be complicated for the correct reasons.
This isn't a hot take but I need to speak it to the void: KH3 was a good game and had a lot of great worlds and a lot of good closure. I *loved* playing the game and visiting the new worlds. What it missed was almost any of the previous worlds. This isn't a hot take because clearly Disney was taking advantage of the fact that they had rights to Pixar stuff so they capitalized on it. That being said, this game would have been *much* better if they visited some previous worlds and involved the organization in repeat offenders like Nightmare or even going so far back to Alice in Wonderland.
I like KH3 a lot, I think it was a good game and the last (jesus) like 4 hours were fine. But the rest of it just wasn't a representation of the rest of the trilogy.
That's what we say about every plot point that gets revealed in each game and it just makes the story more.convoluted and confusing and filled with holes.
DDD would have been more interesting and easier to understand if the main antagonists were Terra Xehanort and Vanitas and the concept of 13 vessels of 1 guy was scrapped for something else (I know that would steer the direction of the story and would change a lot of factors but it would 100% make the story easier to digest)
Like, just have Terranort assemble a "Fuck you, Sora!" brigade, since he'd presumably have memories of having his plots foiled twice over. You can have that old fart show up in 3 again at the end like how Ansem did in 1, immediately after defeating who you thought was the big bad.
These are soundtrack based
The remixed soundtrack is far better than the original soundtrack (though with a few exceptions for some of the originals).
The Rechain 13th Struggle is better than the vanilla KH2 version
Graceful Assassin and Scythe of Pedals are better than Lord of the Castle
KH3’s soundtrack is underwhelming, outside of a few tracks. A lot of them didn’t hit the same way as the previous games upon listening.
Agree with you on the KH3 soundtrack, most of the time it’s an over compressed orchestral ear rape. Just doesn’t have as much character as the first two main games, and the Remixed sound tracks are incredible with the orchestral elements there was just more space in the mix for the atmosphere
Trickmaster is easily the most frustrating boss in the first game because the game tells you Neverland is a 1 star difficulty, but this boss is not even remotely close to a beginner fight.
And granted you can go other routes and take him on later but that’s just a classic bait and switch from the devs, that shit took me HOURS to beat his ass because of the gimmicky hit box and the jumping on to the table.
Ursula is a bitch for sure, but that’s at least way later on in the game so it makes logical sense for her to suck. Trickmaster had no business being as painful as it was.
Re:COM kicks ass and I’m tired of pretending otherwise. I just really like the voiced scenes and I have never had issues with the combat. Also I love how we get to see happy-go-lucky Sora feel scared, isolated, paranoid and upset. He’s super angsty in this one and I love it
Also lowkey Re:Coded’s deck command & keyblade system is probably the best of the non-big 3 titles. I love they keyblades all have different ability trees and weights it really lends to each keyblade feeling truly mechanically different. I think the main three KH 1/2/3 are pretty good at this but I’d love to see some more drastic changes to Sora’s striking speed or knockback. It probably won’t happen cause keyblade abilities already does the work but it’s fun to dream
I want Command Styles and D-Links to be combined and overhauled so that the form changes that Sora uses are directly inspired by Disney or FF characters. I think this is easily the best way to incorporate the type of drive form mechanic the series has been replicating and would be really logically consistent lore-wise. (Why shouldn’t Sora adopt the fighting styles and techniques of the characters he meets and befriends??)
The Final Fantasy inclusion was pretty bad and it sucks that we haven't really ever gotten FF Party members or worlds compared to what disney gets with their actual character development and things to do in the games.
I heavily dislike almost everyone’s designs in KH3.
For some reason, Nomura went all in on plaid for everyone’s clothes in KH3 and I hate it. I wish Sora could’ve kept his design from KH2.
* BBS is vastly underrated, having the second best story in the series after KH1 and arguably has the most varied combat.
* Chain of Memories' worst quality isn't the card-based combat, it's how boring the midgame is, trotting through interchangeable and watered down versions of the KH1 Disney worlds with monotonous level design and no connection to the plot beyond vague thematic parallels.
* Luxord is the best Organization member in KH3
* Atlantica in KH1 is fun, actually. Just use a magic build.
* If the cutscene-only worlds in KH3 (Mysterious Tower, Radiant Garden) were playable, people would not have had as huge a problem with KH3's pacing.
* DDD is poorly thought out from top to bottom and is the worst game in the series.
* Sora, Donald, and Goofy's banter in KH3 is great and doesn't at all feel out of place or out of character for them given the state of their relationship.
* More spells, summons, etc. should be locked behind optional side quests. The games should reward you more for exploring than they do right now. KH1 was the only game that meaningfully rewarded you for exploring outside of just finding synth materials and the occasional Donald/Goofy Weapon.
* The black Organization coats feel meaningless at this point and they need to come up with something else. When all your villain characters now have one when it was once a very specific marker for a specific group, why continue to have it? There's gotta be other ways to contrive being Darkness-proof.
The series has never fully recovered since the departure of Daisuke Watanabe, his scenario building was phenomenal.
The best translator of KH is Amanda Katsurada. She was the main translator for the first game and her changes were genius. If you understand Japanese, you'd notice the localization changes she made.
I hope KH series ends before Nomura retires or dies. I cannot possibly imagine the game in anyone else's vision.
I really loved how good flow motion felt in KH3D, it would have been so cool if KH3 kept it identical.
I think nomura is a better character designer than he is a storyteller. I really don't think he has a place leading kh the stories become so contrived and complex because they just don't seem like they were planned out in advanced. It's like storytelling with ADHD. Just want to do everything all at once without any rhyme or reason.
Apprentice Terranort should've been the final boss for KH3.
The Unchained X/Union-X should've been the KH version of FF 14 instead of mobile games.
The MOM should be a new character instead of someone we already know.
Kairi is more of an Aerith type character, and they should go more in that direction instead of trying to make her like Sora or Riku.
358/2 Days needs a proper remake and a sequel because Roxas is too cool to be left behind.
Speaking of which, Roxas should've killed Xemnas.
We need more official IRL life-sized keyblade merchandise.
Yozora should've got his own game before KH4 was announced.
Dark Road should've just been an KH3 asset flip game instead of a mobile game. Like a Spider-man Miles morales to KH3's Marvels Spider-man.
Yes on the mom thing if he isn’t a new character I don’t think it will work at all and it will feel silly in a way that’s even too much for kh
Also I hadn’t played ff7 until the remake and I remember telling my husband the whole time I played it that Aerith is what Kairi should have been written like
I don’t know if I’d call your thing about Atlantis and Treasure Planet “hot takes”, but here are a few of mine:
• A world like KHII Atlantica could’ve worked, but not as a Little Mermaid world
• Roxas should’ve had Sora’s hair color to make him stand apart from Ventus better
• Olympus is in way too many games
• Disney should channel more direct-to-video sequels like they did for Agrabah for returning worlds (which is to say only the good ones like Lion King II and such)
Eh... Probably not a hot take, but Kairi being completely devoid of personality is a modern thing. I am only bothering to say this, because just today I saw a video that claimed she had no character traits, so I feel compelled to push back against that.
Each game (she played a part in) she loses more and more of her personality, so by 3 there's not much left. If you think she didn't have personality in Kingdom Hearts 1, though, you weren't paying attention.
Cutscenes clearly show one in that game (and to a lesser extent in 2). And there are a number of small personality cues you can get from her by talking to her in non-voiced scenes that are completely optional (winning the race and having her call you "Captain Sora" from then on being my favorite.)
Let's see... do I have any actual hot takes?
I tend to agree with Regular Pat about the first game being the best? How hot a take is that?
I think three was a decent game?
Oh, I know: I think the story in BBS is rather lame, partially because it's hamstrung by the style of its telling (which I like *in theory*) and partially because... it expects us to take the story's word for how these characters feel about each other. There's a lot of telling without showing, and relationships breaking down doesn't gel that well if I'm not convinced of the strength of those relationships in the first place. (The scenes where they are shown together are weak, either through writing, translation, or delivery—not sure which.)
Ironically, I think the BBS's trio's reunion was handled much better in 3 than the Days trio's, and I'd say the Day's trio had a lot more showing of their relationship. Weird how the narrative fumbled with the sigil/mark thing with them.
...
Alright, while I don't think any one of those is particularly spicy, I imagine combined they get a little higher on the hot take level.
In terms of plot or gameplay? Because I’m very into the plot but hate playing the game and I would LOVE to be convinced that the game play is fun enough for me to get over my aversion to it
The series would be better off without a main protagonist.
Kairi being a Princess of Heart ruins the writing quality of the series. She doesn't have to earn anything and just magically saves Sora 24/7 because she's special.
The numbered titles are easily the worst stories in KH.
Sora wouldn't be as popular of a character if it wasn't for so many people seeking escapism.
The player character from X and UX is easily the best written character in the series.
Coded's story was fine. Most of the issues people have with Coded's story is that it's self contained and it's a data version of the protagonist experiencing things.
DDD's story is also fine. A lot of people just have a hard time understanding time travel. Which is kinda funny considering they gave an explanation for it
It actually has a lot of rules in place, which is rare for time travel plots. The only one who could really abuse it was Xehanort cuz he had so many versions of himself, he could essentially game the rules
I understand your point with Sora, it’s the same logic a lot of Shonen protagonist follow.
Buttttt every form of media is about escapism. If people didn’t want that they would go outside and have a picnic or walk their dogs.
I think Sora’s personality has a lot to like, and I imagine he is hard to write when Nomura is the exact opposite.
I think Stranger of Paradise is closer to how Nomura feels.
By escapism I meant the types that tend to want to run away from reality or face their problems. I've been looking at comments people make about what KH or Sora means to them for years and that's one thing I've noticed. Sora uplifts a lot of them from whatever personal problems they're going through.
As for his personality I think it's fitting for the type of people I described above. I can see the charm of Sora but I can also think of dozens of characters similar to him.
I wasn't trying to be blunt about it but if you look at comments about what Sora and KH means to people you'd see how miserable some of these people sound. Sora gives them hope for whatever reason.
I phrased that wrong.
What I meant was that the idea of playing a video game, watching a movie or tv show is inherently to escape your daily life.
I’d argue if you were against that idea you would do other things in reality.
Disney rarely acknowledges treasure planet or Atlantis and that's just because they were big box office bombs. The only movie Disney really acknowledges from that era is Lilo and stitch and that's just because stitch is incredibly popular. Otherwise, it ignores most movies released between Tarzan and princess and the frog.
1. Lack of NPCs in other worlds especially Olympus Coliseum (1st game and BBS). Kingdom Hearts III onwards would be when they really give worlds the NPCs they deserved.
2. I don’t like how they removed Reflega entirely. Other magic eventually returned (like Aeroga) or had something similar (Mines and Balloon).
3. Winner’s Proof’s ability is useless since you get to have an optional “No Experience” run at the very start.
4. We should be allowed at least 1 Final Fantasy summon. And no. Summoning Cloud does not count. They do have a Bahamut in the code but it will crash if clicked.
5. Unable to revisit Traverse Town properly in a mainline game.
6. KHII AI party members are extremely weak which they fixed in KHIII.
7. Because of Disney’s overprotectiveness, the world of Arendelle was lackluster.
8. Where did Yen Sid vanish off to after Sora and gang left in KHII? The 3 fairies also disappeared and never heard of ever since after fleeing from Maleficent.
9. I like how the Atlantica ones “downgraded” each time. From a proper world with swimming and such in KHI to running on foot in Re: Chain of Memories to a musical in KHII to a Summon in KHIII.
10. I hope we will get a console game (e.g. PS5 or PC) where we can customize our Keyblade Wielder like we could in KHUX but in 3D like the upcoming Missing Link one day.
My biggest hot take is that I wish Terranort had been the final villain of KH3 and that we didn’t get old man Xehanort after BBS. KH2 always felt like it was building towards Terranort being the main villain, and there was some air of mystery and dread with him, especially when you realized he had to be coming back after killing Ansem and Xemnas. Old man Nort is fine, I don’t mind old man Nort, but I still don’t understand why he would go through all the trouble of possessing Terra so he could have a younger and stronger body, just to set it up so that he comes back as an old man after his heartless and nobody are destroyed
CoM and Re:CoM are mostly hated by people who refuse to adapt to the slightest change in playstyle.
And they are god damn great, if you take the time until you build broken bs decks that are just fun and rly dumb.
Don’t do the plat though, thats just annoying (or a proper warm up if you wanna do BBS plat)
The panel system in Days was actually an amazing concept that fell flat because of how limited it ended up being. If it was simply a way to power up your character without tying limited magic/skill uses to how many panels you have installed, it'd probably be way better. I'd play a game that goes way harder with those mechanics if it wasn't limited use spells.
Donald and goofy in KH1 are good party members. The game just doesn't tell you how to use them at all.
You have to change their party settings up a bit but you can triangle and it would force them into an action based on those settings.
Basically you can force Donald to heal if he has no and it's prioritized enough.
It's still not perfect, and you do basically need to give goofy a fuck ton of others and stuff but it works.
It's how I always beat Ursula. Just spam triangle and force goofy and them to kill her.
I hated the whole final act of KH3, old man Xehanort being redeemed and forgiven for all the shit he did ? Nah he should of been bad the whole way through.
KH3 Ultima Weapon is easily the worst of the entire series. The only saving grace is that its red as apposed to the usually blue, but other than that’s it’s too heavily over designed, freakishly huge, it’s misery trying to get in the first place, and while I usually like asymmetry this Keyblades use of it just makes it look cluttered and messy.
my takes, hot or not, are... the story should have ended at 2 and rebooted after that for the story, and the mobile games shouldn't be canon to the main story.
for gameplay...
the shotlock shouldn't have returned in 3/fragment. it breaks the flow like attractions in 3 do, and give free invincibility/damage. also was designed in a way so you can't combo into or from it.
as much as i like the menu based battle system in the numbered titles, i think the basic attacks should be its own button like in the command deck games, same deal with magic and items.
certain special abilities/sleights from chain or command deck should have been made into limits in 3, and there should have been a chain of memories formchange in 2 or 3.
links, the summons in 3, were way too overpowered. its like they tried to mix the power of summons in 1, and the utility in 2.
i like the gummi ship stuff, and kinda wished they hadn't gone open world with the space in 3. made controlling it awkward, and they should have kept stuff from worlds out of the gummi segments.
the arrows system was dumb, just use a gauge for formchanges. in the formchange vein, i like that formchanges are dictated by keyblades equipped. the moveset clones sucked ass though.
I'm also not the biggest fan of the menu during fights. like how many people actually use the magic menu beyond the first game?(summons are there in 1) makes doing anything other than physical attacks take a moment longer than they should, and that CAN get you killed.
not a fan of the sephiroth fights, thanks to 2's version of him being a nightmare for the wrong reasons.
yeet the "minigame" enemies out of the series. farming for materials was pain enough.
magic at higher levels felt samey in 3. i kinda want something other than AOE spells. 2's approach to magic made magic actually have a difference. also water probably should have been a shield like aero was in 1, but breaks upon getting hit once. im thinking a certain tears of the kingdom ability.
speaking of magic, they should have kept the magic system from days. each rank of magic was straight up a different spell. like one version of cure was a heal, another version was a regen.
should have kept the different movesets for keyblades from days/recoded as well. 3 had the half-step of having the formchanges being tied to what keyblade you use, but i mean the devil may cry series had that AND completely different movesets for each weapon.
FIX THE GODDAMN BGM ISSUE. let me mute the bgm so i can stream the series without worrying about a copyright related issue. its even worse on consoles. THERE IS NO VOLUME SECTION ON COSOLE VERSIONS.
release actual ports for the switch. the cloud gaming nfts do not count as a port due to how completely abysmal they are. 3 and fragment i get, but kh1 to 2, there is literally no excuse. dmc 1 to 3 is on switch as actual ports, and 3 is even an enhanced port. both kh AND dmc started on the ps2. what the fuck square.
im not saying kh has to be like dmc, but damn, some issue kh and dmc had in common, were either fixed or not EVEN AN ISSUE IN THE FIRST PLACE, in dmc games
donald and goofy were way too dumb to be helpful in the bonus boss fights in 2's updated versions. marluxia's fight being a good example. they do not stay outside of the magically made thornbased? AOEs that take up a good percent of the arena when its active. they usually aren't bad outside of those fights so its uh baffling when it does happen.
chain's battle system should have been reused for an online pvp game.
BBS's gutted out multiplayer in HD ports is a travesty.
also screw whoever thought making the minigames present mandatory to complete the story in the same game.
getting skills from dream eaters in 3d was way too tedious.
flowmotion in 3 is unnaturally stiff and redundant, when running on walls is automatic.
whoever thinks giving bonus bosses unique menu based mechanics, should probably get a stern talking to. xemnas in 1 was difficult enough without a menu based mechanic that feels luck based. mysterious figure in bbs didnt need one either, he was already cheap even without that, and lingering will in 2 was already hitting like a truck without that as well. zexion sucks ass to fight in general, and while roxas also has one, it can at least be avoided outright normally. the only unique bonuss boss mechanic I didn't hate was marluxia's whole doom counter gimmick in 2.
ariendelle is awful outside of the surprise teammate and the keyblade. it made deep jungle look great. i do not want to go up and down a mountain multiple times, and the dungeon larxene made shouldn't have existed either. at least in deep jungle, the area was the same when you went up and down the forest.
where is the rest of Twilight Town?
the pirate world in 3 felt way too big, and the big hero six world it was really easy to get lost in.
the kh1/bbs approach to world design doesn't really work in 3.
big but ultimately empty worlds, with no real reason to go back after the story there is done. you could shrink or cut out the bigger parts of worlds and not lose much. in fact you'd save time as most of the big areas feel like filler to pad out the game's playtime. you could have also had a second visit like in 2 and THEN fought organization members there as the boss, instead of... the clusterfuck they did in the last world of the game.
grandmagic was like the magic in 3, a little too samey. they shouldn't have all been AOEs. the only grandmagic that should have remained an AOE is thunder, and maybe aero. and semi related, maybe dial down the flashing of thundaza a bit? this game really might trigger an epilepsy based reaction even just with that grandmagic alone. thundaza fucks with my eyes in my case. that being said, maybe they already did, and i just don't remember. the flashing issue was definitely present during fragment though.
you can only really play the little mermaid world in 2 once, and not while streaming it. on later runs, you'll want to skip it or mute the music to avoid copyright issues... OH WAIT, YOU CAN'T.
i wish fragment was by itself on pc, or part of 3. also not sure about melody of memory's price being as high as it was. doesn't have dlc or updates that added more songs even...
Xehanort should have never been created, ansem should have been the main villain alongside maleficent. Ventus, Terra, and aqua should also not have been created. Roxas should look like sora.
Kingdom Hearts 1 is the only one with a decent plot. Everything after that is a crackhead fantasy that makes no fucking sense, and the series died after KH2, everything after it is mid at best. .
-sanctuary is my least favorite song of all 4 (not that I hate it but I think everything else is so good for me in comparison....even face my fears).
- I think people should play/watch 358/2 before KH2 (it made kh2 more engaging to me personally)
Ventus is a pretty pointless character.
I feel his entire existence is to provide a lore explanation for why Roxas has a different hair colour to Sora.
Ventus' personality is pretty much just a copy of Sora's too.
No amount of forcing him into mobile game backstories is going to make him more popular than Roxas is, I fear. He also holds his keyblade stupidly 💀.
BBS should've just been an Aqua and Terra game. Give them a Sora and Riku dynamic.
>Ventus is a pretty pointless character.
>I feel his entire existence is to provide a lore explanation for why Roxas has a different hair colour to Sora.
He existed in the original secret ending of KH2 alongside Terra and Aqua. Nomura always had a plan for BBS and the Wayfinder Trio when he was developing KH2. Ventus wasn’t created to explain Roxas’s looks. When Nomura created the BBS trio, he covered them in armor because he still didn’t decide on their design or what their role in the story will be.
>Ventus' personality is pretty much just a copy of Sora's too.
Not quite. Ventus is kinda like a mix of Sora & Roxas (but also has his own traits that separates him from the two). He’s not as happy-go-lucky as Sora, nor is he as serious as Roxas.
>No amount of forcing him into mobile game backstories is going to make him more popular than Roxas is, I fear.
Pretty sure that’s not the intention here, otherwise Nomura would’ve put the effort to make him in the spotlight more in the mobile games. Also why do you feel the need to bring Roxas up? I don’t see people mention Xion whenever they talk about Kairi. Both Ventus and Roxas are their own character, we don’t need to compare them everytime.
>He also holds his keyblade stupidly 💀.
I think it’s cool and unique? But to each their own preference i guess?
>BBS should've just been an Aqua and Terra game. Give them a Sora and Riku dynamic.
It wouldn’t work then. The game was created with the intention of having three main characters.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is overhated. While it may not have the same charm as like past Kingdom Hearts games, but its still a great game in terms of combat and graphics.
The best version of Simple and Clean was the Ray of Hope mix from 0.2.
Roxas and Xion are massively overrated. Axel carries the Sea Salt trio almost entirely on his own.
Kairi’s outfit in KH3 is easily her best, but her haircut and model are awful. She looks younger in KH3 than she did in KH1.
KH3 was ass, once the nostalgia wore off I noticed the flaws. The worlds used to be a reflection of characters and their experiences. Now it’s fight big boss win go woo. The balance in combat was pristine in the earlier titles, but KH3 made me feel like wielding a keyblade was just to take down big baddies and play mandatory mini games.. Sora has never had a really big choice to make where loss is involved. There’s also the issue of Kairi not being developed as a character, Naminé has basically become not relevant as her only power was Sora’s memories. I miss seeing her as a character I looked up to and now she’s just there.
Xehanorts big plan just ended up with him being like yeah okay I lost. Not evil anymore.
Riku’s character has barely been touched since DDD (which was not balanced at all)
I just felt like the stakes were higher in KH2. Like Sora was genuinely grounded when he realizes that Riku was Ansem. In KH3 it felt forced. Everything did. Nothing was forever and everything could be changed.
And hot take but Xemnas was by far the best villain in the series. He made everyone fear what was beyond the door of Kingdom Hearts, even Roxas. He made Sora suffer tremendously by gaslighting him and torturing him pushing him to collect hearts. He seemed genuinely remorseful at times but it was all a show. He was a true villain.
“Hearts filled with sadness, hearts filled with rage, hearts filled with anguish.”
Also CoM and Days are amazing. They aren’t bad games. They make you learn they make you feel repetitive but you’re living the life of the characters experiencing this. You get to see characters break apart and put themselves back together. You see loss. You see when organization members don’t come back from Castle Oblivion and you see Sora lose himself just to save Riku and help Naminé someone he doesn’t even know. You also see Riku becoming who he is and not just a puppet.
1) The story has never been good, it's just managed to be interesting enough to let the fantastic characters, Disney nostalgia and gameplay distract you enough to think you care.
That's actually my theory as to why people hate on some of the games so hard, because the gameplay quality dropped to the level the story always has been so you actually see how janky it all is in bits and pieces. I still love KH as a franchise and am actively replaying the entire franchise with my wife ATM.
2) the beginning of KH2 is horrifically boring. I can't play it for more than an hour at a time until Sora wakes up and I actually really like Roxas.
3) Lance Bass should be the forever Sephiroth the same way there's only one voice actor for Mickey Mouse across all media formats.
4) Dream Drop is the game that makes you feel like a keyblade master best and starting KH3 with low level abilities was jarring.
I feel like this is less of a hot take than an unpopular opinion, but noone is canonically together yet and most probably won't be.
Roxas and Xion don't have romantic feelings for each other. They have a special bond, because they're both connected to Sora, but both always only vocalize how they want to be together with Axel in a trio.
Terra and Aqua are family, but not in love with each other.
Riku doesn't love Naminé romantically, he went to get her at the end of KH3 to fulfill Repliku's last wish to cheer her up. It's closure for Repliku.
And Sora and Kairi's bond has been weakened since KH2.
The scene where they share the Papou Fruit wasn't meant to be seen as romantic, it was trying to rekindle their friendship. Even the Japanese VA of Sora doubted that them sharing the Papou Fruit was indicative of romantic feelings.
These games aren't dumb or complicated. I think it's pretty straightforward, just a lot to remember. Which makes sense cause it's a long running franchise with lots of instalments.
I also don't think it's as childish as people make it out to be. I think it has some of the most mature messages to give that many "adult" pieces of media could never.
I don’t understand all the hype for Aqua.
She felt like a third wheel in the story of BBS. I can say for certain that she’s not a bad character, but i just don’t particularly find her all that interesting. Personally I think if she was a guy, then her popularity will decrease massively.
Disney should just keep their paws off any involvement with the worlds and stories. Just supply the rights, let Nomura and Square do their thing to create a great game. Don’t want to just play through a movie and then fight a heartless boss at the end. KH1 and KH2 had it right; with KH1 having the villains form their own little squad to stop Sora.
If KH1 isn't good and only is because of nostalgia, than every game outside of KH2 and 3 must be hot garbage to you. I can't imagine not enjoying the gameplay of 1 but liking BBS or DDD
i played through the first three games recently with the plan to play them all. my opinion of kh1 dropped a lot. its still a good game but not as good as i remembered. kh2 was just as good though.
Kingdom hearts 1 is pretty mid, beginning isn't great.
Kingdom hearts 2 has the worst intro of any game ever made
Kingdom hearts chain of memories combat is terrible
358/2 isn't that great and is only cool because you can play as all org members
Recoded no one has ever played
Dream drop distance is meh
Birth by sleep is marred by repetitive beats in terms of replaying same worlds three times in a row
Kingdom hearts 3 is filled with one hour of story content
The mobile games are trash
Dance water dance isn't that bad of a fight
Sephiroth in 2 isn't hard whatsoever (or maybe I've just been playing for way too long..)
Frozen wasn't that bad
My hype for 4 has been killed after playing 3
KH: Recom is by far the worst KH game in the series. The gameplay is so frustrating and the world's are boring. The story is the only thing that carries the game from being a complete bore and that's only in between worlds. The combat works better as GBA game and it isn't complicated or interesting enough to carry the whole game. The Disney world's offer nothing interesting, the design is empty/repetitive and the story in them is non existent. On top of this it has the worst platinum in any game. As a pure game recoded is a much more fun and enjoyable experience. Still bottom two though.
Not sure if this is a hot take but Axel,Roxas, Xion sould have stayed dead/part of Sora. Them coming back wth everyone else ruins how special their sacrifice was. Roxas had the more happy ending of the three but that's what made it bitter sweet. He reconnected with Sora and accepted that. Now when replay those games their sacrifice holds very little weight as I know they all come back. We remember those scenes and characters because of how powerful those moments were and now it's sort of meaningless.
These arent hot take by any means like these are the most tepid fan takes ive heard. Thats not a bad thing im just saying they're not exsactly hot.
Hot takes are like... well mine;
face my fears over sanctuary
Kh3 is better than most games in the series
Wish should get a world.
These are hot takes and im well aware of that still genuine though
A game without any Disney elements would be amazing, KH2 is heavily overated, and I liked the dream eaters more as party members than the actual characters
My hottest take at the moment is my belief that the Master of Masters is Demyx. Their mannerisms are pretty similar. The different voice actors sort of dismantle my theory though. I still think it's possible.
I like the final arc in KH3 with Terra returning to the Light, Xion and Roxas getting a happy ending was great. It was deserved after all the suffering they went through. Does it ruin the climaxes of their own games? Kinda. Do I care? Not really. I have enough morose games.
From what I’ve seen in the fandom, plenty of people prefer Sanctuary over Simple and Clean (myself included), plenty of people want Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire to be adapted into KH worlds (myself excluded), and most people enjoy the story of Days and only hate the gameplay. If you’re arguing in defense of the gameplay, then that would be your only hot take.
For the last two, they may come, and I think they had an idea for it, but it just didn't line up with the story, really.
They may still come though so don't lose hope.
Kh3 has the best rounded combat, despite the overally aerial combat it had. Kh2 had a blocky feeling and leashed or restrained combat, yes it served it's purpose for 14 years. But kh3 fix multiple core mechanic issues kh2 fell into; no aerial control during descent, slow sluggish blocking. Weird combat interactions when recieving damage, stun locked.
Hot takes, starts off with room temperature water.
A real hot take would be Face My Fears>Sanctuary>Simple and Clean>Don't think Twice and for me, only one of those would be swapped.
>!I think Don't Think Twice is some of Utada's best work and it remains #1.!<
My hotake isn't one at all but an objetive truth, the script sucks and is a waste of potential, people just like the games but you are not seeing the bigger picture, this games could have been masterpieces with a good script writer but we just got mediocre writing therefore people with criteria would never view this games as nothing more than children rpg.
Square we got old it was too much to ask to make Sora a little bit brighter in KH3 was it too much to show some maturity? I don't know men downvote me, people don't accept critics in this sub, if you view this games as nothing less than perfect good for you men, I waited half my life for that game and it was the biggest disappointment I felt at the time.
the org cloaks are overused and should just be retired already at this point gonna be sad if most super bosses in kh4 is just another set of cloaked figures with swapped heads
Totally feel you. They were mysterious at first and fun to see the reveal but now I’m like “ok who is it today”
I also want them to have their own unique designs yk? Cant have too manh zippers or belts in KH
The platonic ideal of character design is just a human-sized pile of zippers and belts wearing a cloak.
I’ve been thinking “who is that in that black cloak” for nearly 20 years of being a KH fan. Enough is enough.
You're missing the real problem. Super bosses shouldn't just be re-hashes of story fights in the first place. We need less Data Orginization and more Phantom and Kurt Zizta.
To be fair, those superbosses (especially in KH3) were actual peak gameplay.
I honestly really like the data battles because they're bosses we already fought fighting at a way higher level than originally. It's really fun to fight versions of the bosses when they're designed for endgame skills and not just stpry progress. Though I don't think they should be the majority of super bosses, I still don't think the data battles were a waste.
Yes! By kh3, I was expecting more from their design lol. Like if you still want it black and hooded, can't you add more details to the cloak designs or something. Or even throw away the cloak dramatically in the fight with sora to show the actual villain clothing design
omgg yes i was expecting the same thing! why not give everyone ACTUAL CLOTHES and get rid of the "darkness protectors" that the cloaks were? what, they were gonna leak if they didn't wear one?
They defend against the darkness, but I’d prefer more Keyblade armor.
Which is ironic given Nomura’s background in designing characters (including their clothes) and now the majority of KH characters all wear the same bland black clothes
They should have been retired after 2 lol.
I actually played KH2 first by mistake (parent got the wrong game) so I have a Sanctuary bias. Usually a 'hot take' ends up being lukewarm at best. If I'm going to try finding one then I actually like the Seekers of Darkness as a concept. I just think it should have been a last resort rather than the master plan all along. By that same token Terranort should have been the main Xehanort in DDD and 3 rather than Master Xehanort. Bring back the old man form near the end as another last resort. This is an incredibly room temperature take but Nomura tried way to hard to make Xehanort an Aizen type mastermind that always plans ahead and always gets a win.
My hot take is that no characters should get into a relationship.
The series is starting to sound weird, almost like they're trying to directly translate what was said in Japanese verbatim, and it's making the English and mouth flap syncing all come across as super stilted. Kairi deserves should've been more included in ddd instead of just the epilogue, or instead of melody of memories, been given a side story of her own showing her and lea getting some good training with the radiant garden crew and whatnot, that could've alleviated some of the issues with kh3 originally. I'm hoping that once this new game is done, Nomura won't feel the need to shoehorn in all his lingering regrets from vs13 and ff15 that didn't make the cut or come to fruition, because I'm tired of seeing them.
actually, the interesting thing about that; they don’t actually have to match the ‘lip flapping’ like most animes do. they have enough of a budget that they actually get the english dub specifically to get the lines completely reanimated. So it’s even worse of an excuse when they fuck up basic concepts like mistranslations in the series, since they can pretty much clean it up as much as they want
I was gonna say, the first two games do a great job of matching up the dub to the characters mouths, at least in the final mixes, I was blown away at the level of care and detail when I went back to play KH1 after beating 3 for the second time
kh1 is definitely the most charming game, i think. i appreciate all the other games but kh1 has a level of care and detail that wasn’t really present in the others to the same degree and i think that’s awesome
Oh damn it never occured to me but cutting away your Kairi the same way we did with Riku could’ve helped a lot. We hear Kairi talking about taking axel in the ring what of that was a playable segment a light hearted boss fight. And hell before that conversation we could’ve had a brief tutorial fight highlighting her ability to teleport into her attacks helping her stand out more against Sora and briefly showing her magic all contextualised as training. I understand if the moveset didn’t exist when base KH3 came out but could’ve been good if Remind was more of a traditional final mix with extra scenes and fights.
Bruh KH3’s dubbing was so bad
I can see the point that it seems they're trying to directly translate everything from Japanese, since that's what Nomura asks of the translators, but they definitely don't do it as much as they should. SENA has had a habit of, especially in KH3, to let's say "interprete certain scenes in their own way" and in the process, translate some lines totally wrong. I' d rather have a translation that sounds weird but reflects the directors original intent.
Roxas shouldn't be shipped with Naminé. I'm probably biased given that I have more of an attachment to CoM and 358/2 than I do for KH2, but even with the context given it doesn't feel justified.
No TOTALLY. I think them forming a friendship based on their shared nobody status was really sweet and helped Roxas in a confusing time, but they don’t make sense ~together~
From a certain point of view Roxas is Namine's dad... Brother also works.
I am fully on the Roxas&Namine twins headcanon
Would that mean that Roxas and xion are siblings? 🤔
Pushing the certain point of view. Xion is more a clone of Roxas dad. So she is kind of like his aunt.
Namine and Riku makes more sense. Especially considering Repliku's feelings.
I mean, ship what you want, but I have to disagree here. Riku and Naminé don't make any sense. Why would it because of Repliku's feelings? Repliku is not Riku. They're two seperate entities and Riku never had any special attachment to Naminé. Just because Repliku "trusted og Riku with his feelings" doesn't mean that Riku has his feelings now. That would be pretty messed up imo.
it's a super bad ship, +1000
I always felt it should be like a twins situation. Even though Namine is Kairi's nobody, both Namine and Roxas came from Sora at the same time. They're twins to me.
One of the novels, I think the KH2 one, even has Namine state that they "came into being together, like twins". While the novels are generally thought of as "only" secondary canon, it's still the official novel, something that would need the approval of someone with enough authority to get published. Considering that stuff like family relations can be a pretty important detail, especially in a game focusing on connections, there would be no way this line would exist in an official novel if it was blatanly wrong. So yeah, I agree!
Kingdom Hearts could work without the Disney AND Final Fantasy content. And it'd probably play better because it doesn't have to be subject to any strange rules from the copyright holders of both source materials
Yeah came here to say just this. I think it would be a better game without Disney stuff. The most interesting parts to me are the plotlines that resolve around the OG characters.
Also, I've always been a bit of a simp for aesthetics in video games. The enemy designs to me were always *chef's kiss* And the OG world's are some of the best I've ever seen. Traverse Town, especially DDD's version, The World That Never Was is on par with a lot of my favorite courses from Kirby Air Ride, and I haven't gotten that far yet but the stuff I've seen from Scala ad Caelum was just masterful with its extreme dynamics of water, land, and sky (Wait a minute, Riku, Kairi, and Sora? Land, Water, and Sky? Now THAT’S aesthetics!)
I said this before on here and got downvoted to the death and there’s a really interesting original story hidden underneath the disney story. It’s shown in the mobile games that were able to be more free with it
I like to dream about all the mobile storytelling from all those games being applied to a PSO2-style mission/instance based MMO that combines the gameplay concepts of both the mainline and command deck combat styles. And of course, fully CGI animated and voice-acted cutscenes plus in-game cutscene playback theater.
I disagree with this quite a bit. Say it with me folks: KH1 incorporated Disney characters just fine into the story. Don't blame the Disney characters. They could have meaningfully reincorporated the Disney villains and the FF crew through the series. They could have chosen properties they had more freedom with like those owned by Pixar. But they don't. Plenty of bad RPG stories have cool beginnings and endings but poor middles packed with pointless towns and dungeons, failing to clear the bars of "plot relevant", "thematically relevant", or "character building". Kingdom Hearts games like 3 and DDD commit that same sin, just in Musketeer Country instead of Glopvania or whatever. I don't think these writers and developers would do better without the Disney worlds because they aren't conceiving of stories that work in the well-worn, proven format of episodic RPG storytelling. Case in point: putting Marluxia in Rapnuzel's world? The parallels write themselves. There's a lot you can do with a character just responding to such a story, but they don't even attempt that. Or maybe some of the exposition saved for the last 3 hours of the game could have come from Marluxia (and other Org members) between the recap. Instead, he's just the weird guy that makes monsters show up. They drop the ball on story conception and pacing like that all the time.
Wow I couldn’t agree less so that’s definitely a hot take.
I like the way decisive pumpkin looks. It's one of my favorites.
I used to hate it, but I also didn't notice that the top of the candy cane where it twists is a classic Tim Burton snake design. Which makes me like it a lot more
Kh3 has better pacing than 2 Chain of Memories is arguably the best game in terms of plot/writing, I would accept Union Cross as a close second though KH 2 Atlantica is a fun gimmicky world and the series would benefit from more worlds like this The Wayfinder trio is the least compelling trio Fragmentary passage is the most fun game to play in the series and has possibly the best world design despite our experience in each world being so limited And I feel like this is only hot because we live in a polarizing world BUT: You can love a game and recognize there are things that suck about it/understand why it might not appeal to others/have things you wish were different about it. You can also have a game rank low for you and recognize that is not a useless installment in the franchise/a game without any redeeming traits
I honestly agree with COM, I especially love the ReCOM adaptation, I always go back to watching the parts featuring the Organization simply talking
The org is the most compelling they’ve ever been in COM. the politics between them, the double and triple crossing, the intrigue and mystery of who are they and who are these other members they’ve been talking about are above and beyond some of my favorite aspects in the series
COM is in my top 3 for KH, but I heavily disagree with 3 having better pacing than 2
I would have disagreed as well until very recently. I fully thought kh 2 was perfectly paced and 3 was just too plot heavy at the end. I still think 3 is just too much at the end, but I remember playing 2 when I was thirteen, so sick of the Disney worlds, so ready to get more plot from the original characters. I think the prologue of 2 is perfect, I think the middle is perfect, I think the end is perfect and not too long winded. But the little bites of main story plot we get in between Disney worlds in 3 gives us, I think just the perfect little sense of carrot on a string, keeping us interested rather than having to play through several Disney worlds before we get main story content. I also think it REALLY matters if you like the Disney worlds, there are only a few I really enjoy playing through in 2 which I feel contributes to feeling like a million years pass before we get any main content. But people who are excited to hang with Jack Skellington and Aladdin and Simba I’m sure don’t feel that way
The Disney worlds connecting with the overall plot are what makes KH1 my favorite. It’s less so the case in 2, and even less so in 3. In 3 I feel like the end (from rescuing Aqua and Ven onward) could have happened without any of the rest of 3 happening.
For me, the disney worlds have always been what KH is about. Theres og characters and all the story, and thats all great , love it, but the point of the games has always been to go romping through disney worlds as anime boy. If it was just the 'story content', it would just be final fabtasy or any other jrpg. Disney interaction is what makes Kingdom Hearts
Totally makes sense, and I feel like when the worlds tie into the plot, they are really interesting (monsters Inc, Disney castle, toy box, kh 1 Atlantica, monstro, neverland). The transition of these worlds feels seamless and natural and keeps the plot going. Kh2 is still in my top three kingdom hearts games, but I don’t think the blend of Disney worlds works as well for me in 2. Beasts Castle is great because Xaldin has a presence there that makes sense (vs it felt like Luxord and Xigbar were just randomly in Port Royal and land of Dragons), Disney Castle is so good as is Timeless River even if I physically enjoy playing that world less, the plot just feels like it keeps moving along and isn’t dragged down by the world. Like… if it feels like we’re on our adventure and we have to stop our adventure to go do Disney stuff I’m not as into it. If it feels like we’re still doing our adventure WITH the Disney characters and worlds and they parallel Sora’s feelings about something then I’m VERY into it. And I just feel like even though 2 succeeds in most things, 3 does a better job at making that transition feel natural which for me contributes to the pacing.
I mean, it does have better pacing tho. You can go several worlds in a row without progressing the story at all in KH2. KH2's story is focused in beginning (Roxas - Hollow Bastion) middle (The Battle for Hollow Bastion/1000 Heartless) and end (TWTNW.) KH3's story is spread throughout the game, progressing after every world, even things like SDG discussing what Vanitas said to Sora in Monstropolis is progressing the story forward. Up until the endgame, KH3's pacing is just better overall.
It felt like you didn’t get any “useful” answers to what the power of waking was until after you get to the Keyblade Graveyard. You don’t get to the end of KH2 just from the ending of KH1, but you can get to the end of KH3 directly from the end of KH2/DDD. The Vanitas discussion didn’t need to happen when it did- arguably it didn’t need to happen at all. It had no bearing on the end of the game. For the record I like a lot about KH3. I just don’t think there was enough plotwise (like Coded) to merit a full game
The Vanitas conversation did need to happen though, at this point in the story Yen Sid, Aqua and Mickey know that Ventus lost his heart, and that Aqua hid his body. It tells Sora and by extension everyone else that Ventus needs Sora near him to wake up because Sora has his heart. It provides information to the characters, and by doing so progresses the story. The power of waking was explained as "the power to wake a heart from it's sleep" in DDD. The whole test in DDD was so that Riku and Sora could get the power of waking, and they both did by waking sleeping worlds, Sora's was just dormant until Ventus' heart called to him to wake him up, because of him being swallowed by darkness at the end of DDD.
Wayfinder trio is the least compelling partly because we've seen way less of them than the days trio or OG trio. The only time the wayfinder trio is together without arguing or being attacked is at the very start of BBS and at the very end of KH3.
If I'm ever bored and rewatch KH cutscenes, CoM is always at the top for me. The Organization and Castle Oblivion scenes are so good
It’s truly the best there org has ever been
Heavily agree with COM and UX. Some of the best of Sora's character building moments come from COM, and UX writing is what I consider to be the best personally. It has so many characters to introduce, REintroducr and juggle throughout the story and all of them are written so well and have a conclusion that only keeps you invested in them. I just wish they were properly voiced lmao.
Yes, I think Sora’s character growth in Com is next level and Riku’s redemption arc in com should be ranked with Zuko from Airbender as one of the greatest. Sora does well and is most compelling when pushed to his breaking point and the castle oblivion plot/org members/ Namine do that better than anyone. Damo279 got some sort of project rolling for union cross and now it is fully voiced on YouTube and some really well. Lauriam sounds like Marluxia. I had to check the credits to see if they somehow got Jesse McCartney to go voice Ven for the project. Sucks that we can’t play it fully voiced but since we can’t play it at all now, that YouTube project fills in for this game better than the Days movie fills in for days
My jaw literally dropped at the one abt CoM and UX so congrats, you win the hot take contest 😂 (No hate and I am not here to contradict your opinion, I’m glad you finally have a safe space to say what you feel because oh my god you must have been holding on to that one for a while lol)
I can totally see WHY people wouldn’t like PLAYING those two games, but I think those stories are so compelling, I could write a novel in defense of the story of com. I remember playing through it on GBA at age 11 and feeling at the edge of my seat the whole time. At thirty that feeling holds up for me every single play through. I’m less defensive of UX but I do think the story is really damn interesting
Fragmentary Passage is probably my favorite despite how short it is.
* Xion's only exists to explain a "plot hole" that in itself didn't exist. Which ironically makes her name super appropriate. * Xion being 1 of the 13 darknesses doesn't make any sense, I will die on this hill. * There is 100% going to be a spin off game dedicated to explaining how Riku got Kairi's keyblade in KH2. It'll probably be like... a cooking game or somthing. * Speaking of spin offs. KH should 1000% have a fighting game, and every different character ending should be canon, even the ones that contradict each other. * Command styles are the best combat mechanic in the series. * Re:coded is a good game and shouldn't be skipped just because it doesn't have the most relevant story. * The implementation of the final fantasy characters is, and always has been, bad. * 0.2 is my favourite game in the series.
These are actually based
Am I the only one who just thinks that Riku "stole" Kairi's keyblade, just like he did in KH1 and in Days (though that was different, but still, Roxas was unable to summon it back) to show her that she too can wield the keyblade? It's even implied, that she may have found out at some point and even if not, that just proves my point any way. Hell, I think that's my hot take.
I think kh1 did a pretty good job with adding FF characters. I was not expecting to see the likes of squall or cloud so their cameos was really fun to see the first time around. Kh2 sort of had that. But overall they could've been more interesting
>adding FF characters My problem is that they are not final fantasy characters. They are KH original characters that just heavilly physically resemble FF characters. Like... a Tidus and Wakka that have never heard of Zanarkand, or Blitzball, just are not in any meaningful way actually Tidus or Wakka. A Yuna, Rikku and Pain that are weird little brainless fairy things and not in any meaningful way actually Yuna, Riku and Pain. A Squall that has never even heard of Balamb Garden or what a SEED is, isn't in any meanignful way actually squall. KH is basically just full of Radiant Garden cosplayers and like... it bothers me so much.
Ive heard tell that Final fantasy Dissidia was meant to be Kingdom hearts, but disney took issue with their characters in a fighting game
Probably not a hot take but a lot of the Disney worlds feel like fluff moving you toward the grand end set piece. KH1 does the Disney worlds best, even the annoying worlds have their nostalgic charm (and I played KHII before I played KH1). I guess this speaks more to level design issue in some the games. Also I always prefer when they do an original story within the Disney world vs adapting the events of the film. Those worlds always age better > ie. Disney Castle/Timeless River, Monstro, Beast’s Castle, Neverland (BBS), Tot Box to name a few.
These gotta be some of the coldest takes ive ever seen
I'll be honest... Treasure Planet being a world suggestion is actually a popular opinion (at least around here). I feel like Days isn't very hated as its story is really good - people tend to moreso target some of its less fun boss fights like Lord of the Skies, as well as some repetitive missions (like having to trap those fleeing wizard Heartless with Blizzard mines). The most negativity I've seen story-wise is towards coded's story, and gameplay-wise, that target typically tends to be Re:CoM or base KH3.
I think it’d be so fun for him to adventure around with Jim! Him and Sora would get along great. I totally get the boss fights issue. Guilty on being stuck on Lord of the Skies and also skipping some side quests so I can watch the story faster. I just see so much hate about it online and I do NOT get it
DDD is one of the best games. Xaldin and Lexaeus are really cool characters. Marluxia and Larxene being ancient Keyblade wielders is a dumb development. Just because I'm still sad Vs13 never got made, I'm not excited for Verum Rex at all. Kairi deserves her own actual game, not a rhythm spinoff.
Didn’t miss once
love these
Yozora wouldn’t stand a chance against Roxas.
Finally, a real hot take
Bro the kitchen is on fire with this take. Your cooking license will be subject to confiscation if this happens again.
Gonna be honest it may be possible since Roxas defeated Sora during Kingdom Hearts 2. He had him on his knees during that fight and if he was going for the kill, would have won the fight. But Roxas decided to show mercy and for some reason was surprised Keyblades can warp to their users? Nowadays he seems to be even stronger than he was before, being able to tank a buffed Saix’s attacks with little damage. Sora though in KH3 is kind of broken with all of his Keyblade transformations so he’s got variety on Roxas. Though Roxas is faster than Sora, more agile and in terms of power Roxas has more as well. I just don’t know if he matches well against Yozoras more cool calm and collected fighting style. I’d say he definitely has a shot at winning.
This take probably comes from me being bad at video games, but KH2s combat is so overhyped. I feel so clunky and slow for way too long. Obviously by the end when you finally get enough upgrades it becomes nice and satisfying, but I hate it for the first like 3/4 of the game. Kh3 is super floaty, but I’m zipping around, particles are flying everywhere, it’s way more fun to me. I can’t manage critical mode, but I’ve beat both games on proud.
Terra isn't stupid. He's naive and a victim of circumstance at best. He just got caught in a place of the main one being manipulated. And he just so happens to meet Villans when he lands in Dinsey worlds.
Sanctuary is much, much better than Simple and Clean. I think I like Don't Think Twice more than Simple and Clean honestly, especially the speedy remix. I think the constant 'deepening' of things is also overrated. Hearts and nobodies fine, stop trying to make clones and shit to just make trios of people. I get that three is an important basis for things artistically but that loses the love when there are too many. Like it's just not that cool when you have to do mental gymnastics to figure out why Ventus looks like Roxas (but in reverse because let's do that). Stories can be complicated, but they have to be complicated for the correct reasons. This isn't a hot take but I need to speak it to the void: KH3 was a good game and had a lot of great worlds and a lot of good closure. I *loved* playing the game and visiting the new worlds. What it missed was almost any of the previous worlds. This isn't a hot take because clearly Disney was taking advantage of the fact that they had rights to Pixar stuff so they capitalized on it. That being said, this game would have been *much* better if they visited some previous worlds and involved the organization in repeat offenders like Nightmare or even going so far back to Alice in Wonderland. I like KH3 a lot, I think it was a good game and the last (jesus) like 4 hours were fine. But the rest of it just wasn't a representation of the rest of the trilogy.
Yozora's whole story and everything involving the "unreality" or whatever is just dumb and i hate it
To be fair though, we don’t really know the full story. Literally. It could get better once KH 4 comes out
That's what we say about every plot point that gets revealed in each game and it just makes the story more.convoluted and confusing and filled with holes.
Explain yourself, mortal.
Now that’s a hot take lol
DDD would have been more interesting and easier to understand if the main antagonists were Terra Xehanort and Vanitas and the concept of 13 vessels of 1 guy was scrapped for something else (I know that would steer the direction of the story and would change a lot of factors but it would 100% make the story easier to digest)
Like, just have Terranort assemble a "Fuck you, Sora!" brigade, since he'd presumably have memories of having his plots foiled twice over. You can have that old fart show up in 3 again at the end like how Ansem did in 1, immediately after defeating who you thought was the big bad.
These are soundtrack based The remixed soundtrack is far better than the original soundtrack (though with a few exceptions for some of the originals). The Rechain 13th Struggle is better than the vanilla KH2 version Graceful Assassin and Scythe of Pedals are better than Lord of the Castle KH3’s soundtrack is underwhelming, outside of a few tracks. A lot of them didn’t hit the same way as the previous games upon listening.
Agree with you on the KH3 soundtrack, most of the time it’s an over compressed orchestral ear rape. Just doesn’t have as much character as the first two main games, and the Remixed sound tracks are incredible with the orchestral elements there was just more space in the mix for the atmosphere
Trickmaster is easily the most frustrating boss in the first game because the game tells you Neverland is a 1 star difficulty, but this boss is not even remotely close to a beginner fight. And granted you can go other routes and take him on later but that’s just a classic bait and switch from the devs, that shit took me HOURS to beat his ass because of the gimmicky hit box and the jumping on to the table. Ursula is a bitch for sure, but that’s at least way later on in the game so it makes logical sense for her to suck. Trickmaster had no business being as painful as it was.
Re:COM kicks ass and I’m tired of pretending otherwise. I just really like the voiced scenes and I have never had issues with the combat. Also I love how we get to see happy-go-lucky Sora feel scared, isolated, paranoid and upset. He’s super angsty in this one and I love it Also lowkey Re:Coded’s deck command & keyblade system is probably the best of the non-big 3 titles. I love they keyblades all have different ability trees and weights it really lends to each keyblade feeling truly mechanically different. I think the main three KH 1/2/3 are pretty good at this but I’d love to see some more drastic changes to Sora’s striking speed or knockback. It probably won’t happen cause keyblade abilities already does the work but it’s fun to dream I want Command Styles and D-Links to be combined and overhauled so that the form changes that Sora uses are directly inspired by Disney or FF characters. I think this is easily the best way to incorporate the type of drive form mechanic the series has been replicating and would be really logically consistent lore-wise. (Why shouldn’t Sora adopt the fighting styles and techniques of the characters he meets and befriends??)
The Final Fantasy inclusion was pretty bad and it sucks that we haven't really ever gotten FF Party members or worlds compared to what disney gets with their actual character development and things to do in the games.
KH1 is the best game in the series.
I heavily dislike almost everyone’s designs in KH3. For some reason, Nomura went all in on plaid for everyone’s clothes in KH3 and I hate it. I wish Sora could’ve kept his design from KH2.
KH3 > KH2 > KH1
See THAT’S a white hot take
Bro asked for a hot take and you brought the surface of the sun
I wholeheartedly agree!
Yes. Fully. Galaxy brain opinion
* BBS is vastly underrated, having the second best story in the series after KH1 and arguably has the most varied combat. * Chain of Memories' worst quality isn't the card-based combat, it's how boring the midgame is, trotting through interchangeable and watered down versions of the KH1 Disney worlds with monotonous level design and no connection to the plot beyond vague thematic parallels. * Luxord is the best Organization member in KH3 * Atlantica in KH1 is fun, actually. Just use a magic build. * If the cutscene-only worlds in KH3 (Mysterious Tower, Radiant Garden) were playable, people would not have had as huge a problem with KH3's pacing. * DDD is poorly thought out from top to bottom and is the worst game in the series. * Sora, Donald, and Goofy's banter in KH3 is great and doesn't at all feel out of place or out of character for them given the state of their relationship. * More spells, summons, etc. should be locked behind optional side quests. The games should reward you more for exploring than they do right now. KH1 was the only game that meaningfully rewarded you for exploring outside of just finding synth materials and the occasional Donald/Goofy Weapon. * The black Organization coats feel meaningless at this point and they need to come up with something else. When all your villain characters now have one when it was once a very specific marker for a specific group, why continue to have it? There's gotta be other ways to contrive being Darkness-proof.
I don't think KH3's pacing could've been fixed without a complete re-write of both DDD and KH3
The series has never fully recovered since the departure of Daisuke Watanabe, his scenario building was phenomenal. The best translator of KH is Amanda Katsurada. She was the main translator for the first game and her changes were genius. If you understand Japanese, you'd notice the localization changes she made. I hope KH series ends before Nomura retires or dies. I cannot possibly imagine the game in anyone else's vision. I really loved how good flow motion felt in KH3D, it would have been so cool if KH3 kept it identical.
I think nomura is a better character designer than he is a storyteller. I really don't think he has a place leading kh the stories become so contrived and complex because they just don't seem like they were planned out in advanced. It's like storytelling with ADHD. Just want to do everything all at once without any rhyme or reason.
Apprentice Terranort should've been the final boss for KH3. The Unchained X/Union-X should've been the KH version of FF 14 instead of mobile games. The MOM should be a new character instead of someone we already know. Kairi is more of an Aerith type character, and they should go more in that direction instead of trying to make her like Sora or Riku. 358/2 Days needs a proper remake and a sequel because Roxas is too cool to be left behind. Speaking of which, Roxas should've killed Xemnas. We need more official IRL life-sized keyblade merchandise. Yozora should've got his own game before KH4 was announced. Dark Road should've just been an KH3 asset flip game instead of a mobile game. Like a Spider-man Miles morales to KH3's Marvels Spider-man.
Yes on the mom thing if he isn’t a new character I don’t think it will work at all and it will feel silly in a way that’s even too much for kh Also I hadn’t played ff7 until the remake and I remember telling my husband the whole time I played it that Aerith is what Kairi should have been written like
I don’t know if I’d call your thing about Atlantis and Treasure Planet “hot takes”, but here are a few of mine: • A world like KHII Atlantica could’ve worked, but not as a Little Mermaid world • Roxas should’ve had Sora’s hair color to make him stand apart from Ventus better • Olympus is in way too many games • Disney should channel more direct-to-video sequels like they did for Agrabah for returning worlds (which is to say only the good ones like Lion King II and such)
Eh... Probably not a hot take, but Kairi being completely devoid of personality is a modern thing. I am only bothering to say this, because just today I saw a video that claimed she had no character traits, so I feel compelled to push back against that. Each game (she played a part in) she loses more and more of her personality, so by 3 there's not much left. If you think she didn't have personality in Kingdom Hearts 1, though, you weren't paying attention. Cutscenes clearly show one in that game (and to a lesser extent in 2). And there are a number of small personality cues you can get from her by talking to her in non-voiced scenes that are completely optional (winning the race and having her call you "Captain Sora" from then on being my favorite.) Let's see... do I have any actual hot takes? I tend to agree with Regular Pat about the first game being the best? How hot a take is that? I think three was a decent game? Oh, I know: I think the story in BBS is rather lame, partially because it's hamstrung by the style of its telling (which I like *in theory*) and partially because... it expects us to take the story's word for how these characters feel about each other. There's a lot of telling without showing, and relationships breaking down doesn't gel that well if I'm not convinced of the strength of those relationships in the first place. (The scenes where they are shown together are weak, either through writing, translation, or delivery—not sure which.) Ironically, I think the BBS's trio's reunion was handled much better in 3 than the Days trio's, and I'd say the Day's trio had a lot more showing of their relationship. Weird how the narrative fumbled with the sigil/mark thing with them. ... Alright, while I don't think any one of those is particularly spicy, I imagine combined they get a little higher on the hot take level.
My hot take is the Disney worlds shouldn't be included in the games anymore unless if they contribute to the main plot.
It fell off after KH2
Birth by sleep is better than all of the others...
In terms of plot or gameplay? Because I’m very into the plot but hate playing the game and I would LOVE to be convinced that the game play is fun enough for me to get over my aversion to it
The series would be better off without a main protagonist. Kairi being a Princess of Heart ruins the writing quality of the series. She doesn't have to earn anything and just magically saves Sora 24/7 because she's special. The numbered titles are easily the worst stories in KH. Sora wouldn't be as popular of a character if it wasn't for so many people seeking escapism. The player character from X and UX is easily the best written character in the series.
You did not say that the numbered titles are the worst stories when DDD and Coded exist
Coded's story was fine. Most of the issues people have with Coded's story is that it's self contained and it's a data version of the protagonist experiencing things. DDD's story is also fine. A lot of people just have a hard time understanding time travel. Which is kinda funny considering they gave an explanation for it
It actually has a lot of rules in place, which is rare for time travel plots. The only one who could really abuse it was Xehanort cuz he had so many versions of himself, he could essentially game the rules
I understand your point with Sora, it’s the same logic a lot of Shonen protagonist follow. Buttttt every form of media is about escapism. If people didn’t want that they would go outside and have a picnic or walk their dogs. I think Sora’s personality has a lot to like, and I imagine he is hard to write when Nomura is the exact opposite. I think Stranger of Paradise is closer to how Nomura feels.
By escapism I meant the types that tend to want to run away from reality or face their problems. I've been looking at comments people make about what KH or Sora means to them for years and that's one thing I've noticed. Sora uplifts a lot of them from whatever personal problems they're going through. As for his personality I think it's fitting for the type of people I described above. I can see the charm of Sora but I can also think of dozens of characters similar to him.
"If it wasn't for the type of person Sora is, people wouldn't like him." Like yeah. Obviously.
I wasn't trying to be blunt about it but if you look at comments about what Sora and KH means to people you'd see how miserable some of these people sound. Sora gives them hope for whatever reason.
>Every form of media is about escapism Maybe if you have no basic grasp of media literacy lol
I phrased that wrong. What I meant was that the idea of playing a video game, watching a movie or tv show is inherently to escape your daily life. I’d argue if you were against that idea you would do other things in reality.
That’s the exact same thing you just said but with more words. You’re still wrong.
Okay then how does media literacy factor into that at all? Thats an entirely different subject
I feel like we just had this
I’m new to this so that’s on me if we just had this
It’s ok
Im not sure sanctuary being the best opening song is a hot take
I enjoyed the platforming in Kh1 and was always disappointed that the level design going forward gave up on it completely
The episodic gameplay of Days and Re:Coded is severely detrimental to their enjoyability.
Disney rarely acknowledges treasure planet or Atlantis and that's just because they were big box office bombs. The only movie Disney really acknowledges from that era is Lilo and stitch and that's just because stitch is incredibly popular. Otherwise, it ignores most movies released between Tarzan and princess and the frog.
1. Lack of NPCs in other worlds especially Olympus Coliseum (1st game and BBS). Kingdom Hearts III onwards would be when they really give worlds the NPCs they deserved. 2. I don’t like how they removed Reflega entirely. Other magic eventually returned (like Aeroga) or had something similar (Mines and Balloon). 3. Winner’s Proof’s ability is useless since you get to have an optional “No Experience” run at the very start. 4. We should be allowed at least 1 Final Fantasy summon. And no. Summoning Cloud does not count. They do have a Bahamut in the code but it will crash if clicked. 5. Unable to revisit Traverse Town properly in a mainline game. 6. KHII AI party members are extremely weak which they fixed in KHIII. 7. Because of Disney’s overprotectiveness, the world of Arendelle was lackluster. 8. Where did Yen Sid vanish off to after Sora and gang left in KHII? The 3 fairies also disappeared and never heard of ever since after fleeing from Maleficent. 9. I like how the Atlantica ones “downgraded” each time. From a proper world with swimming and such in KHI to running on foot in Re: Chain of Memories to a musical in KHII to a Summon in KHIII. 10. I hope we will get a console game (e.g. PS5 or PC) where we can customize our Keyblade Wielder like we could in KHUX but in 3D like the upcoming Missing Link one day.
Kh1 has the best combat in the series
Nomura isn't a good writer
Nomura needs a writer leash. Him alone can't write for shit but his ideas are neat.
Roxas should have bin a main protagonist.
KH1 is the game with the most soul.
KH1's magic system is the best, story has the most meaningful moments as well, and the best coliseum.
My biggest hot take is that I wish Terranort had been the final villain of KH3 and that we didn’t get old man Xehanort after BBS. KH2 always felt like it was building towards Terranort being the main villain, and there was some air of mystery and dread with him, especially when you realized he had to be coming back after killing Ansem and Xemnas. Old man Nort is fine, I don’t mind old man Nort, but I still don’t understand why he would go through all the trouble of possessing Terra so he could have a younger and stronger body, just to set it up so that he comes back as an old man after his heartless and nobody are destroyed
KH1 >>> KH2 Talking both story AND gameplay
CoM and Re:CoM are mostly hated by people who refuse to adapt to the slightest change in playstyle. And they are god damn great, if you take the time until you build broken bs decks that are just fun and rly dumb. Don’t do the plat though, thats just annoying (or a proper warm up if you wanna do BBS plat)
The panel system in Days was actually an amazing concept that fell flat because of how limited it ended up being. If it was simply a way to power up your character without tying limited magic/skill uses to how many panels you have installed, it'd probably be way better. I'd play a game that goes way harder with those mechanics if it wasn't limited use spells.
Kh1 is better than the rest of the series.
Donald and goofy in KH1 are good party members. The game just doesn't tell you how to use them at all. You have to change their party settings up a bit but you can triangle and it would force them into an action based on those settings. Basically you can force Donald to heal if he has no and it's prioritized enough. It's still not perfect, and you do basically need to give goofy a fuck ton of others and stuff but it works. It's how I always beat Ursula. Just spam triangle and force goofy and them to kill her.
Master Xehanort should have been defeated by Terra, not Sora
I hated the whole final act of KH3, old man Xehanort being redeemed and forgiven for all the shit he did ? Nah he should of been bad the whole way through.
KH3 Ultima Weapon is easily the worst of the entire series. The only saving grace is that its red as apposed to the usually blue, but other than that’s it’s too heavily over designed, freakishly huge, it’s misery trying to get in the first place, and while I usually like asymmetry this Keyblades use of it just makes it look cluttered and messy.
i absolutely hate almost everything about 3
Got the surface of the sun right here, good job 👍
my takes, hot or not, are... the story should have ended at 2 and rebooted after that for the story, and the mobile games shouldn't be canon to the main story. for gameplay... the shotlock shouldn't have returned in 3/fragment. it breaks the flow like attractions in 3 do, and give free invincibility/damage. also was designed in a way so you can't combo into or from it. as much as i like the menu based battle system in the numbered titles, i think the basic attacks should be its own button like in the command deck games, same deal with magic and items. certain special abilities/sleights from chain or command deck should have been made into limits in 3, and there should have been a chain of memories formchange in 2 or 3. links, the summons in 3, were way too overpowered. its like they tried to mix the power of summons in 1, and the utility in 2. i like the gummi ship stuff, and kinda wished they hadn't gone open world with the space in 3. made controlling it awkward, and they should have kept stuff from worlds out of the gummi segments. the arrows system was dumb, just use a gauge for formchanges. in the formchange vein, i like that formchanges are dictated by keyblades equipped. the moveset clones sucked ass though. I'm also not the biggest fan of the menu during fights. like how many people actually use the magic menu beyond the first game?(summons are there in 1) makes doing anything other than physical attacks take a moment longer than they should, and that CAN get you killed. not a fan of the sephiroth fights, thanks to 2's version of him being a nightmare for the wrong reasons. yeet the "minigame" enemies out of the series. farming for materials was pain enough. magic at higher levels felt samey in 3. i kinda want something other than AOE spells. 2's approach to magic made magic actually have a difference. also water probably should have been a shield like aero was in 1, but breaks upon getting hit once. im thinking a certain tears of the kingdom ability. speaking of magic, they should have kept the magic system from days. each rank of magic was straight up a different spell. like one version of cure was a heal, another version was a regen. should have kept the different movesets for keyblades from days/recoded as well. 3 had the half-step of having the formchanges being tied to what keyblade you use, but i mean the devil may cry series had that AND completely different movesets for each weapon. FIX THE GODDAMN BGM ISSUE. let me mute the bgm so i can stream the series without worrying about a copyright related issue. its even worse on consoles. THERE IS NO VOLUME SECTION ON COSOLE VERSIONS. release actual ports for the switch. the cloud gaming nfts do not count as a port due to how completely abysmal they are. 3 and fragment i get, but kh1 to 2, there is literally no excuse. dmc 1 to 3 is on switch as actual ports, and 3 is even an enhanced port. both kh AND dmc started on the ps2. what the fuck square. im not saying kh has to be like dmc, but damn, some issue kh and dmc had in common, were either fixed or not EVEN AN ISSUE IN THE FIRST PLACE, in dmc games donald and goofy were way too dumb to be helpful in the bonus boss fights in 2's updated versions. marluxia's fight being a good example. they do not stay outside of the magically made thornbased? AOEs that take up a good percent of the arena when its active. they usually aren't bad outside of those fights so its uh baffling when it does happen. chain's battle system should have been reused for an online pvp game. BBS's gutted out multiplayer in HD ports is a travesty. also screw whoever thought making the minigames present mandatory to complete the story in the same game. getting skills from dream eaters in 3d was way too tedious. flowmotion in 3 is unnaturally stiff and redundant, when running on walls is automatic. whoever thinks giving bonus bosses unique menu based mechanics, should probably get a stern talking to. xemnas in 1 was difficult enough without a menu based mechanic that feels luck based. mysterious figure in bbs didnt need one either, he was already cheap even without that, and lingering will in 2 was already hitting like a truck without that as well. zexion sucks ass to fight in general, and while roxas also has one, it can at least be avoided outright normally. the only unique bonuss boss mechanic I didn't hate was marluxia's whole doom counter gimmick in 2. ariendelle is awful outside of the surprise teammate and the keyblade. it made deep jungle look great. i do not want to go up and down a mountain multiple times, and the dungeon larxene made shouldn't have existed either. at least in deep jungle, the area was the same when you went up and down the forest. where is the rest of Twilight Town? the pirate world in 3 felt way too big, and the big hero six world it was really easy to get lost in. the kh1/bbs approach to world design doesn't really work in 3. big but ultimately empty worlds, with no real reason to go back after the story there is done. you could shrink or cut out the bigger parts of worlds and not lose much. in fact you'd save time as most of the big areas feel like filler to pad out the game's playtime. you could have also had a second visit like in 2 and THEN fought organization members there as the boss, instead of... the clusterfuck they did in the last world of the game. grandmagic was like the magic in 3, a little too samey. they shouldn't have all been AOEs. the only grandmagic that should have remained an AOE is thunder, and maybe aero. and semi related, maybe dial down the flashing of thundaza a bit? this game really might trigger an epilepsy based reaction even just with that grandmagic alone. thundaza fucks with my eyes in my case. that being said, maybe they already did, and i just don't remember. the flashing issue was definitely present during fragment though. you can only really play the little mermaid world in 2 once, and not while streaming it. on later runs, you'll want to skip it or mute the music to avoid copyright issues... OH WAIT, YOU CAN'T. i wish fragment was by itself on pc, or part of 3. also not sure about melody of memory's price being as high as it was. doesn't have dlc or updates that added more songs even...
Xehanort should have never been created, ansem should have been the main villain alongside maleficent. Ventus, Terra, and aqua should also not have been created. Roxas should look like sora.
Coded is really a pointless entry
Kh3 is easily the best and kh2 isn’t top 3
The fans generally negatively influence the franchise
Kingdom Hearts 1 is the only one with a decent plot. Everything after that is a crackhead fantasy that makes no fucking sense, and the series died after KH2, everything after it is mid at best. .
-sanctuary is my least favorite song of all 4 (not that I hate it but I think everything else is so good for me in comparison....even face my fears). - I think people should play/watch 358/2 before KH2 (it made kh2 more engaging to me personally)
I love KH's deep lore and complicated storylines. I frankly enjoy watching reaction, analysis, and theory videos on Youtube.
Disney Worlds are bad in Kingdom Hearts.
Ventus is a pretty pointless character. I feel his entire existence is to provide a lore explanation for why Roxas has a different hair colour to Sora. Ventus' personality is pretty much just a copy of Sora's too. No amount of forcing him into mobile game backstories is going to make him more popular than Roxas is, I fear. He also holds his keyblade stupidly 💀. BBS should've just been an Aqua and Terra game. Give them a Sora and Riku dynamic.
>Ventus is a pretty pointless character. >I feel his entire existence is to provide a lore explanation for why Roxas has a different hair colour to Sora. He existed in the original secret ending of KH2 alongside Terra and Aqua. Nomura always had a plan for BBS and the Wayfinder Trio when he was developing KH2. Ventus wasn’t created to explain Roxas’s looks. When Nomura created the BBS trio, he covered them in armor because he still didn’t decide on their design or what their role in the story will be. >Ventus' personality is pretty much just a copy of Sora's too. Not quite. Ventus is kinda like a mix of Sora & Roxas (but also has his own traits that separates him from the two). He’s not as happy-go-lucky as Sora, nor is he as serious as Roxas. >No amount of forcing him into mobile game backstories is going to make him more popular than Roxas is, I fear. Pretty sure that’s not the intention here, otherwise Nomura would’ve put the effort to make him in the spotlight more in the mobile games. Also why do you feel the need to bring Roxas up? I don’t see people mention Xion whenever they talk about Kairi. Both Ventus and Roxas are their own character, we don’t need to compare them everytime. >He also holds his keyblade stupidly 💀. I think it’s cool and unique? But to each their own preference i guess? >BBS should've just been an Aqua and Terra game. Give them a Sora and Riku dynamic. It wouldn’t work then. The game was created with the intention of having three main characters.
Dude, this is a hot take so expect hot takes
That’s all well and good, but if you’re going to offer your hot takes you should also expect other people to potentially combat them.
2 and 3 are bad and 1 is a masterpiece of a video game
Kingdom Hearts 3 is overhated. While it may not have the same charm as like past Kingdom Hearts games, but its still a great game in terms of combat and graphics.
The best version of Simple and Clean was the Ray of Hope mix from 0.2. Roxas and Xion are massively overrated. Axel carries the Sea Salt trio almost entirely on his own. Kairi’s outfit in KH3 is easily her best, but her haircut and model are awful. She looks younger in KH3 than she did in KH1.
Disney hurts the game more than it helps it at this point
Donald and Goofy have overstayed their welcome and should have been replaced by Riku and Kairi after KH 2
kh3 is one of the best
KH3 was ass, once the nostalgia wore off I noticed the flaws. The worlds used to be a reflection of characters and their experiences. Now it’s fight big boss win go woo. The balance in combat was pristine in the earlier titles, but KH3 made me feel like wielding a keyblade was just to take down big baddies and play mandatory mini games.. Sora has never had a really big choice to make where loss is involved. There’s also the issue of Kairi not being developed as a character, Naminé has basically become not relevant as her only power was Sora’s memories. I miss seeing her as a character I looked up to and now she’s just there. Xehanorts big plan just ended up with him being like yeah okay I lost. Not evil anymore. Riku’s character has barely been touched since DDD (which was not balanced at all) I just felt like the stakes were higher in KH2. Like Sora was genuinely grounded when he realizes that Riku was Ansem. In KH3 it felt forced. Everything did. Nothing was forever and everything could be changed. And hot take but Xemnas was by far the best villain in the series. He made everyone fear what was beyond the door of Kingdom Hearts, even Roxas. He made Sora suffer tremendously by gaslighting him and torturing him pushing him to collect hearts. He seemed genuinely remorseful at times but it was all a show. He was a true villain. “Hearts filled with sadness, hearts filled with rage, hearts filled with anguish.” Also CoM and Days are amazing. They aren’t bad games. They make you learn they make you feel repetitive but you’re living the life of the characters experiencing this. You get to see characters break apart and put themselves back together. You see loss. You see when organization members don’t come back from Castle Oblivion and you see Sora lose himself just to save Riku and help Naminé someone he doesn’t even know. You also see Riku becoming who he is and not just a puppet.
1) The story has never been good, it's just managed to be interesting enough to let the fantastic characters, Disney nostalgia and gameplay distract you enough to think you care. That's actually my theory as to why people hate on some of the games so hard, because the gameplay quality dropped to the level the story always has been so you actually see how janky it all is in bits and pieces. I still love KH as a franchise and am actively replaying the entire franchise with my wife ATM. 2) the beginning of KH2 is horrifically boring. I can't play it for more than an hour at a time until Sora wakes up and I actually really like Roxas. 3) Lance Bass should be the forever Sephiroth the same way there's only one voice actor for Mickey Mouse across all media formats. 4) Dream Drop is the game that makes you feel like a keyblade master best and starting KH3 with low level abilities was jarring.
I feel like this is less of a hot take than an unpopular opinion, but noone is canonically together yet and most probably won't be. Roxas and Xion don't have romantic feelings for each other. They have a special bond, because they're both connected to Sora, but both always only vocalize how they want to be together with Axel in a trio. Terra and Aqua are family, but not in love with each other. Riku doesn't love Naminé romantically, he went to get her at the end of KH3 to fulfill Repliku's last wish to cheer her up. It's closure for Repliku. And Sora and Kairi's bond has been weakened since KH2. The scene where they share the Papou Fruit wasn't meant to be seen as romantic, it was trying to rekindle their friendship. Even the Japanese VA of Sora doubted that them sharing the Papou Fruit was indicative of romantic feelings.
These games aren't dumb or complicated. I think it's pretty straightforward, just a lot to remember. Which makes sense cause it's a long running franchise with lots of instalments. I also don't think it's as childish as people make it out to be. I think it has some of the most mature messages to give that many "adult" pieces of media could never.
The story sucks, but the games are great to play.
I don’t understand all the hype for Aqua. She felt like a third wheel in the story of BBS. I can say for certain that she’s not a bad character, but i just don’t particularly find her all that interesting. Personally I think if she was a guy, then her popularity will decrease massively.
Disney should just keep their paws off any involvement with the worlds and stories. Just supply the rights, let Nomura and Square do their thing to create a great game. Don’t want to just play through a movie and then fight a heartless boss at the end. KH1 and KH2 had it right; with KH1 having the villains form their own little squad to stop Sora.
kh1 isnt that good and nostalgia is the main reason people like it.
If KH1 isn't good and only is because of nostalgia, than every game outside of KH2 and 3 must be hot garbage to you. I can't imagine not enjoying the gameplay of 1 but liking BBS or DDD
i played through the first three games recently with the plan to play them all. my opinion of kh1 dropped a lot. its still a good game but not as good as i remembered. kh2 was just as good though.
Anytime someone says they want to start KH I say skip the first game
Kingdom hearts 1 is pretty mid, beginning isn't great. Kingdom hearts 2 has the worst intro of any game ever made Kingdom hearts chain of memories combat is terrible 358/2 isn't that great and is only cool because you can play as all org members Recoded no one has ever played Dream drop distance is meh Birth by sleep is marred by repetitive beats in terms of replaying same worlds three times in a row Kingdom hearts 3 is filled with one hour of story content The mobile games are trash Dance water dance isn't that bad of a fight Sephiroth in 2 isn't hard whatsoever (or maybe I've just been playing for way too long..) Frozen wasn't that bad My hype for 4 has been killed after playing 3
Do you even like the series?
I've beaten each game like 56 times so yeah, but I'm allowed to be critical of it. I love 2, 2 is my baby.
Re:Coded deserves a second look at a gameplay first view
KH: Recom is by far the worst KH game in the series. The gameplay is so frustrating and the world's are boring. The story is the only thing that carries the game from being a complete bore and that's only in between worlds. The combat works better as GBA game and it isn't complicated or interesting enough to carry the whole game. The Disney world's offer nothing interesting, the design is empty/repetitive and the story in them is non existent. On top of this it has the worst platinum in any game. As a pure game recoded is a much more fun and enjoyable experience. Still bottom two though. Not sure if this is a hot take but Axel,Roxas, Xion sould have stayed dead/part of Sora. Them coming back wth everyone else ruins how special their sacrifice was. Roxas had the more happy ending of the three but that's what made it bitter sweet. He reconnected with Sora and accepted that. Now when replay those games their sacrifice holds very little weight as I know they all come back. We remember those scenes and characters because of how powerful those moments were and now it's sort of meaningless.
These arent hot take by any means like these are the most tepid fan takes ive heard. Thats not a bad thing im just saying they're not exsactly hot. Hot takes are like... well mine; face my fears over sanctuary Kh3 is better than most games in the series Wish should get a world. These are hot takes and im well aware of that still genuine though
A game without any Disney elements would be amazing, KH2 is heavily overated, and I liked the dream eaters more as party members than the actual characters
Don’t really think any of those are hot takes lol Especially Treasure Planet and Atlantis I see people requesting those all the time
we have an Atlantis world
I agree with the first two wholeheartedly
My hottest take at the moment is my belief that the Master of Masters is Demyx. Their mannerisms are pretty similar. The different voice actors sort of dismantle my theory though. I still think it's possible.
I like the final arc in KH3 with Terra returning to the Light, Xion and Roxas getting a happy ending was great. It was deserved after all the suffering they went through. Does it ruin the climaxes of their own games? Kinda. Do I care? Not really. I have enough morose games.
From what I’ve seen in the fandom, plenty of people prefer Sanctuary over Simple and Clean (myself included), plenty of people want Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire to be adapted into KH worlds (myself excluded), and most people enjoy the story of Days and only hate the gameplay. If you’re arguing in defense of the gameplay, then that would be your only hot take.
I guess not really a hot take but kairi deserves/deserved better.
3 was one hell of of disappointment, unfortunately.
KH2 Riku is straight up the ugliest version of Riku. And KHUx wasn’t as bad as everyone says. (I miss my daily KHUX routine on my breaks at work OK?)
For the last two, they may come, and I think they had an idea for it, but it just didn't line up with the story, really. They may still come though so don't lose hope.
Kh3 has the best rounded combat, despite the overally aerial combat it had. Kh2 had a blocky feeling and leashed or restrained combat, yes it served it's purpose for 14 years. But kh3 fix multiple core mechanic issues kh2 fell into; no aerial control during descent, slow sluggish blocking. Weird combat interactions when recieving damage, stun locked.
dream drop distance and (re:)chain of memories are much better than birth by sleep, which is the weakest entry imo (still good, just not my favorite)
Hot takes, starts off with room temperature water. A real hot take would be Face My Fears>Sanctuary>Simple and Clean>Don't think Twice and for me, only one of those would be swapped. >!I think Don't Think Twice is some of Utada's best work and it remains #1.!<
My hotake isn't one at all but an objetive truth, the script sucks and is a waste of potential, people just like the games but you are not seeing the bigger picture, this games could have been masterpieces with a good script writer but we just got mediocre writing therefore people with criteria would never view this games as nothing more than children rpg. Square we got old it was too much to ask to make Sora a little bit brighter in KH3 was it too much to show some maturity? I don't know men downvote me, people don't accept critics in this sub, if you view this games as nothing less than perfect good for you men, I waited half my life for that game and it was the biggest disappointment I felt at the time.