#kh3 rant

[ryanthel0ser]

I literally just got all of Kingdom Hearts this weekend blasted into my brain and I already have mourned over KH2 Riku 5 times

come home long hair Riku from KH2 and 358/2 days, I miss you

[xiiiwayfinders]

While I absolutely love kh3 and will defend the whole series to the death, it still kind of bothers me that Subject X just suddenly became a major thing in kh3 despite like literally no prior mention of her. Like all of a sudden it's just "oh yeah Lea and Isa had another friend and no one know who she is or where she came from but she's super important and also everyone is interested in finding her :)" Like it just comes out of nowhere and it bugs me a little. Unless I'm forgetting something or there's something in the Secret Reports or something that mentions her before?

[rhythmmortis]

kh lovessss making the girls interesting anf giving them major potential only to push that all aside and do almost nothing with them. WE NEED A FEMINIST RETELLING OF KINGDOM HEARTS ‼️

the game we deserved

[arialerendeair]

An Immortal, an Endless, a Human-Turned-Dream-Eager Walk Into A Bar (and find a Missing Ray of Sunshine)

By @arialerendeair

Chapter: 1/?

Pairing: Dream/Hob, Sora/Riku

Rating: Teen (for now)

Word Count: 1,361 (SO FAR)

Summary: Dream comes across a boy who is able to do the impossible - use the Power of Waking, and has fashioned himself into a Dream Eater.

He is looking for someone.

--

Hob comes across a boy who is able to fight the Instances - who doesn't hesitate to leap into the fray regardless of his own pain.

He is looking for his Light.

--

A story in which Sora falls into the Sandman world - and he is found by Hob. Riku comes after him and goes through the Dreaming to get to him, and comes across Dream of the Endless, who is trying to find the source of the tear in between dimensions.

[caitas-cooing]

My twewy mood has shifted somewhat to a kh mood so while I'm in that mood I would just like to say fuck yen sid

[mejomonster]

In other news. I caved. ;-; I bought Final Fantasy XVI

I will review at some point once I've played, if it's consistent quality (as in the story was clearly fully planned and executed and the combat/level design was planned consistently) a la Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, and the older ones.

Or inconsistent, a la Final Fantasy XV, where because of long development and some major switches mid project, it has the odd situation where part 1 of the game feels very different than part 2. (I'd say combat was thankfully consistently designed for ff15, but story wise there wasn't a clear paced path like 7, 9, 10, 12, 13). I expect and hope for main line final fantasy games to have consistent game play (which I don't have to like personally, but does indicate they clearly committed to some combat design and tried to execute it well), and to have a consistent story that feels in character and plotted at a fairly consistent pace that feels concluded satisfactorily at the end (which again I don't have to like it, but from what I can tell at least 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 all provided that experience - I didn't play 8 so I'm not sure). Final fantasy 15s (to me) biggest issue was the long development and switches during it, caused some major inconsistencies where the game feels inconsistent between the main part and the end. Combat design was good, and whether one likes or hates it the combat does feel purposefully designed and they committed to trying to execute it well). Final Fantasy VII Remake, unfortunately, had some issues as well. Combat design: committed to and done consistently (yay). Story: committed to and feels consistent quality all the way through (like or hate it, from what I can tell its consistent so yay). Pacing: yikes (I absolutely cannot forgive the game ever for dragging out some sections like the reactors 5+ hours longer than they should've been, since they were just dungeons with little added plot or character moments, and I suspect the dungeon time was increased to pad gameplay time to get it closer to 40 hours... when I'd have prefered a 20-30 hour game that did not waste my time with meaningless extensions of sections). I imagine (though I have no idea) what happened is ff7 remake realized it would have to be more than 1 game, and also took a LONG time to make part 1. So instead of releasing part 1 as a 20-30 hour game, and looking "bad" for releasing a shorter than usual final fantasy game despite a HUGE amount of development time? They probably decided to pad the game play so it looked like they released a game as "long and good quality" as is expected of a mainline game. However I think the pacing decision, a weak point I have to endure every single fucking time I play -.- makes the game noticeably worse. I'd forget the development took so long after X years, and forgive it for being a 25 hour GOOD game. But after X Years, I'm never going to forget how annoying it is to be stuck in boring dungeons for X extra hours every single time i play. I have a very low tolerance for pointless dungeons for hours if theres no plot payoff during it to justify it, I don't usually play games that have them. Final fantasy 15 also had a long development, and I assume they decided to push it out with the weird inconsistent feeling between the bulk of the game and the end, because making it reel more consistent may have required a significantly longer development they just could not afford any more.

So anyway. My point is (aside from constantly wishing immensely square enix would Hire tons of fucking project managers and stop putting directors onto multiple major games at once so they can focus on one main game at a time and therefore do more consistent work instead of being divided) that I hope ff16 is a Return to consistent experience in mainline final fantasy games. Combat design already looks good based on the demo, so they succeeded at that. Story, assuming it can maintain the quality of the intro demo, will be fine (like ff7 remakes is consistent). Pacing? God I really hope its good. If it's fine, it will be a return to solid quality that will be really good for Final Fantasy. From what I can tell, the team they put on ff16 is all good decision wise in terms of talent, assuming square enix didn't fuck up and overschedule anyone major on multiple big projects (but knowing square enix they probably did). I'd love to see a game proving square enix can make a reliably good mainline game again. It would be nice to see. I hope so.

On a side note lol I'm happy ff16 is rated M. I heard ff7 remake took out the blood trail sephiroth left cause it would've increased rating. And that was a weak point (although a very small one compared to the pacing issue). So making ff16 Mature so they can show blood as needed for the war plot they intend? Solid choice i think, that will pay off for them. I personally think it's better to commit and tell the story you intended to tell, then suddenly change and edit your story as you make adjustments for more marketability (like making ff7 remakes trail of blood into non-blood to lower the age rating to sell to wider audiences). Yes, as a product, choices should be made to sell. But I think the bulk of those choices should be made early on when making the plot, not at the end of game production when everything's already made. Better to plan what audience you want, what rating and it's limitations you aim for, what gameplay you want it to have and the game players that play that type, at the start when you're writing the plot and designing the game (it helps with CONSISTENCY).

[strayheartless]

Okay so here’s the thing…

I know everyone is freaking out about Riku being taken out of kingdom hearts but y’all need to calm down for various reasons.

This wide spread panic is fuelled by the fact that we have had no news on the games in a while and so we are panicking over nothing.

Namora has already told us there is a lot we don’t know about Riku and therefore it would be commercial suicide to take him out of the games. Square knows this; Disney… well Disney’s stupid enough not to listen fans but they are not dumb enough to get rid of a cash cow. Riku is a big selling point for KH fans. As much as we are invested in Sora’s journey we are ALL also collectively interested in Riku.

There is literal set ups in 3 and MoM that tell us he is MASSIVELY important to the events of KH 4 and Sora’s arc specifically.

And this is the most important one so listen closely. I’ll say it loud for the people in the back. SCREEN/GAME RANTS IS NOT THE PLACE YOU SHOULD BE GOING FOR RELIABLE INFORMATION ABOUT KH OR ANYTHING ELSE! How do I know this? Well because I used to be in the marvel fandom and I got ridiculously used to bullshit articles with nasty tag lines that made the fandom squawk in horror every week. These people are paid to stir the pot my dudes. They know the same as we do.

The article is someones opinion. It’s not an unbiased source using article relating news directly from an “inside source” or Namora. It’s someone on the internet saying “hey I think I can predict Kingdom hearts. Let me tell you why Riku’s looking musty!” It. Is. Conjecture. Not fact.

I get that we are starved of news and so we’re all jumping on the panic wagon, but just take a deep breath. It’s just an opinion article.

[greenpanda-djg]

I'm back on my Kingdom Hearts bullshit-

I've always been annoyed at Kingdom hearts but even tho I love the fandom I can't help but think If I point something out as "This doesnt make sense-" I'll be called stupid and I obvs wasn't playing the game/paying attention and its right there but honestly? Theres just some things in KH that annoy me when I remember them because the game is just jam packed with so much lore and bullshit that even matpat from game theory just did one video about frozen and dipped and thats-

Armour. This one bugs me.

It was Introduced in BBS and 365/2 days later, and then dropped it like it was yesterdays news.

Like Aqua, terra and ventus even Xehanort in KH3 had armour.

Strangely enough Eraques armour looks like Xemnes [Mansex kh2 villains final boss thing]

Okay fair enough because Xehmnes is a possesed Terranort/nobody so his armour nobody resembles Eraques for some reason? Even though it SHOULD resemble Xehanorts -_-

But then the next thing that pisses me off is Xion.

even SHE got armour in 365/2 days later and the armour looks like Sora thats what EVERYBODY was saying which was why the BBS trailer of seeing all the armour of Terra/Aqua/Ven in the keyblade graveyward because of the reds/yellows we all assumed that Terra at the time was an older Sora or Soras dad [Man I miss those old theories]

So we have lingering will that hosts Terras [idk his heart? His soul? something] And we fight it in kh2- and its used to protect Terra [who then becomes that weird heartless thing attatched to Ansem how that happened I still idk] Aquas armour is also locked in Xehmnes basement but she used it to push Terranort away from the realm of darkness to save him and Xehmnes even keeps the armour as if he had some emotional attatchment to it. So Xehmnes is strange as a character coz you assume he IS xehanort but theres moments he acts like Terra you would think such emotions would be seen as foolish.

Also why does Terras armour have a cape? Pretentious much?

Then Vens armour that was used to protect Sora in DDD but got corrupted so Riku had to beat the shit out of an unconcious Sora being puppeted by a dark armour to 'save' him.

Riku: Don't worry Sora! *Smack* I'm SAVING YOU *SMACK!*

But THEN in KH3 we don't GET armour? Why? Don't we need protection!??!?!?!?! Yen Sid?

What is the point of introducing Armour just to say-

Nah, plaid jeans and zips and belts are a better aesthetic* Like sure I understand if they drop it because it doesnt HAVE a place in KH its also to differentiate the generations like "Wow Armour is so old school." But its annoying because KH lore and details and other such bullshit is like "It wouldn't be put into the game unless it had a reason! It has purpose!" But then to not include armour in KH3 like Riku could've used it in the realm of darkness or the seven could've had it before the keyblade war-

OR Re-introduce the fairy god mothers and how they used their magic in Soras clothes in kh2 [new duds/drive forms] could say that they've advanced to the point of not needing armour anymore which fair enough. I take everything back. It just gets me that Ven/Aqua/Terra wont look at the new keyblade weilders and be like...

"Wheres your armour?" If kairi and aqua are going to 'train' Aqua would be like "This would've been helpful in the last battle -_-."

Oh and another seperate thing that gets on my nerves.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? I thought oh cool this guy is norted and just EMBRACING being possesed by some crusty old guy sure coool coool cooooolio!

Just to find out that its HIS Keyblade and his name is LUXU and he's part of the old apprentiences under MOM [Master of Masters]

Like he was supposed to observe I guess but him wanting a keyblade [because the one xehanort has is HIS which means Luxu was Xehanorts master and bequithed him his blade? But in BBS when his eyes got FUCKED by Terra and he was whining how it wasn't part of the deal of when Xehanort stabbed him to turn his body into a heartless/nobody and said "Wait you never lost your memory?" Xigbar/Braig/Luxu was just riding the currents and pretending to follow Xehanort only to have his own ultierior motives?

I just I just gyah!?!?!?!? do people still understand Kingdom hearts because I don't. Just when I think I've got it figured out it does this and I'm lost all over again -_-

...my head hurts...

[miriclebunny]

I think I figured out why season 3 felt a little off to me. Don't get me wrong, I like it, like its solid. But I have a feeling Disney had a very big sway with the script this season because how much money the show is making. Which makes sense.

But the way they are showing how the New Republic fell feels off. The fall of The Old Republic felt so much different because of how deeply the fall was planned, whereas here, it doesn't really feel as fleshed out or thought out as much. Or just the way it is portrayed doesn't really show the whole picture, which can be revealed later, which would be cool.

With Bo and Din. Din's character feels different because Bo came to the forefront, and Din's personality lowkey faded. It's still there, but he comes off as actually helpless a bit this season. Which, don't get me wrong isn't necessarily a bad thing. Side characters are great. But when they take over the MC for ages, it comes off strangley and comes off as the side character taking over the show. This has happened before in other media, and it was fine, I'm not complaining about that as much. Bo is solid, but I wish they would address her sister and the other events that happened before the purge, but thats just me being lore hungry. Stories can have side plot and have side characters be part of the main plot.

Also, the romance plot with Bo and Din. I don't really see it. Like, at all. I may be missing some subtext, but I see like nothing.

I may be wrong. Something cool may happen next week, which would be pog. But I am starting to notice something going on with the script and Disney. I saw it with Kingdom Hearts 3, I hope they don't so it with this show.

I like this show very much. Also, I'm glad Din got to throw the dark saber at Bo. Mans did NOT want it.

[tarofel]

been in a very Kingdom Hearts mood recently so a small KH3 rant about random topics.

since it's the obvious ill just go over it, but the disney worlds have a lot of problems. several just have sora exist while the movie plays (tangled/frozen), others are just kinda bad (bighero6/monsters inc). i enjoyed olympus, toy story, and pirates most of all (they all have gameplay problems sadly), but all of the worlds mean nothing to the story in total.

there are also no original worlds you go around. twilight town is a... hub area? but not utilized barring one cutscene. it had more to it in KH2 than 3. yen sid's tower area was removed, nothing like traverse town or hollow bastion, not even like the world that never was (in this game you have a single hallway and then a gauntlet).

im not a big fan of the world design in this game. for me it's a step up from KH2 that was literally just hallways for most of it, but in a way KH3 feels like lengthy hallways of no consequence a lot of the time. though KH1 had its problems, its areas felt compact and connected. at times in KH3 i feel like im running forever getting to the next section, especially bad when grinding.

KH3 resolves all the problems set up all at once with no consequence, that'll be the next few sections.

xion comes back because the new organization just kinda found a person they didn't know and put them in a body bc they needed xehanort fodder. sure, that much is cool, but because of her being put in the final gauntlet she comes back very quickly. personally (i think i have a soft spot for xion) it feels like there's a lot more that could have happened with her that could helped sora grow. those funny nobody xion bosses from 358/2 could've made some sort of comeback too.

aqua is saved pretty easily by sora with one fight. meh.

ventus gets awoken because sora just believes in himself enough, despite the disney worlds being useless. you'd think there'd be more to either castle oblivion or the land of waking, or both even, but it's just a vanitas boss fight.

terra is probably fine (dont care too much about the bbs story too much honestly) but it still suffers being put in the gauntlet.

axel and kairi got to train in the dragonball hyperbolic time chamber but are still useless. honestly everyone was aside from sora donald and goofy (and mickey/yen sid at times) outside the gauntlet. not helped by every enemy being all-powerful in cutscenes.

i really despise xehanort as a character. he straight up is irredeemable and evil, grinning madly when he is killing and traumatizing children throughout the series. and then at the end of kh3 they go "actually you should feel bad for him, he's actually good(???). he wanted to destroy all worlds to function as a universe reset." i... straight up don't enjoy him.

attractions are incredibly unfun aside from a few times. i took too long to turn them off. the combat in the game is a mixed bag. i think shotlock dash is neat, but shotlock itself isn't that fun to me, basically just slowing down the game and needing you to point at the enemy for 5 seconds (while also losing your lock-on and pointing you in a random direction). removal of combo variations with square feels bad too.

i think this game has the worst gummi ship. it plays like a generic space exploration game with random guff scattered everywhere. WHY the HELL do you have to grind on SHOOTING ASTEROIDS to upgrade keyblades are you KIDDING ME. the golden ship makes it less painful but wow it's harder to get in critical mode.

the minigames suck. winnie the pooh is a single minigame copy-pasted 3 times. cooking is better but not by much, and im not a fan of having to find ingredients and cook them for a one-use meal.

i still haven't done the data organization in KH3 Re:Mind yet but it seems pretty fun, if a bit tough on critical mode. grinding out stat boosts is... a time. it's funny how i only got into the series only a few years ago, but it really grabbed me. wish 3 was more enjoyable, but i have some hope for 4.

[freshkidpeach]

I don’t know why I let internet discourse get to me so much lmao

[mintyvoid]

i have been tempted to try and play kh3 again...

(if you didn't know i am or was..havent quite decided yet on that- a huge kh fan, like just obsessed)

i have played every game but the time waiting for a new mainline title game had almost entirely distinguished my passion for the series. and honestly kh3 just decimated it- god it was so sad.

like i feel like we were all kinda getting nervous after the mobile game was confirmed canon and imo a bit of a fucking mess storywise and game wise. i forget if it predated ddd, but that too made me question everything. but not many games make me feel numb and hollow inside- but i almost didn't finish kh3, it just sucked the life out of me.

i wanted to like it, i want to like every kh game- i love the characters and story built up from the first three games and then it just went so fucking whatever afterwards. i dont know how explain it other than downhill. And like i dont want to dismiss the people who DO love all the later stuff, who love kh3 and the mobile games. honestly im jealous cause i wish i still was obsessed with the series

[butter-goat]

I feel like we as a community don't speak enough about soras psychology. He as a character clearly (if you look a little deeper than what he intentionally is letting people see) does not deal with his emotions very well. Especially when his friends are in danger or in trouble. For example during the "everyone's dead scene" (which isn't what it's called but I can't be bothered to look it up rn) in the keyblade graveyard in kh3 sora only lets a little bit of what he believes out. He has sunk down into a depression in as little as a couple of seconds. Indicating his ruined mental state. He depends almost entirely on his friends for his self worth and it's not healthy. He screams and cries when his friend are dead. (Which is completely understandable they just DIED for gods sakes) but he reacts in such a harsh way. He immediately begins blaming himself and considers himself worthless. While it could have been something that just happened in the moment because he was in shock, I believe there is evidence indicating that he may actually believe that. there's evidence that he blames himself for riku and mickey getting trapped in kh's version of hell; the dark world. There's evidence that he blames himself for kairi going missing every game. There's evidence that he blames himself for Roxas' ... Everything. When he remembers her, he blames himself for everything that happened to Xion and immediately begins trying to bring her back after he learns that she can be brought back. And namine.... Ohohoho namine. When he sees her for the first(?) time I believe he collapses like he does for riku in kh2. And he starts saying things like "I'm so glad i found you!" And "I'm sorry for taking so long!" Which is indicative of a guilty conscience in my opinion. And when he forgets her and half-remembers her at the end of kh2 he feels bad for keeping him from roxas because at the moment he believes they are friends who have been kept from each other because of him. And when he leaves twilight town for the first time, he cries. And although this could be chalked up to Roxas' memories living through him I believe that it is not the case. He's leaving his friends, hayner, pence, and olette for the first time which makes him sad. As we covered before, he thinks he's worthless without his friends and that is why I believe he started to cry. Anyways sorry for going on a long rant, I wanted to get my feelings down so I could explain it better to other people.

[dreamsy990]

so it all comes to this.

to say i was excited to play 3 would be wrong. actually i was sort of dreading the game. i went in with expectations for the worst and was pleasantly surprised. which is not to say that its good. but its certainly a game! that i played! and now you get my thoughts. unfortunately a lot of my thoughts about the end of the game are kind of hard to separate so. if youre wondering where my thoughts on endgame stuff is. its at the end.

(also i havent played remind so theres no remind thoughts here. its all just base game kh3)

combat (with some other gameplay notes)

so. im not a big fan of the combat. to preface, i played the rest of the series on standard, but with kh3 i was told it was easy so i did proud! and yet it was still the easiest kh game.

kh3 is the first game in the series where i feel as though 'mash x to win' is a valid criticism <- thats not entirely true at the start, but later in the game it does feel a lot like that. almost every fight is mindless because of how easy it is. you can see it in the enemy health bars, theyre absurdly large because of how easy it is to take them down. they need to have that high of health so the fight isnt over in under a minute.

i dont think the base combat is bad. unsatisfying, maybe. But not bad. except for attraction commands.

attraction commands feel like part of a pattern in kh3, where they try to recreate what made the other games so good without understanding WHY it was good. what theyre recreating ofc being reaction commands. technically its the same as some reaction commands, sure, being a giant dramatic attack, but it doesnt work because theres no situational awareness in them.

attraction commands dont feel cool because theres nothing in them that requires use of your surroundings or that is tailored to the enemies youre fighting, since theres only a couple that can be used at any time. there's nothing strategic about using them either- reaction commands normally would give you a specific advantage, or could be used to avoid attacks, only sometimes dealing damage on their own. in kh3, all attractions do is deal damage. they are impersonal and often obtrusive- if youre like me and hate attractions, youll still often accidentally use one, since theres no way to disable them.

this is more abstract than anything, but something about attacking feels unsatisfying. the combat feels like it lacks any real sense of impact or weight to me. but thats all personal and not exactly good criticism so. i digress

also the bosses in 3 suck. you know its bad when the most memorable boss fight in your game is the tutorial. most of the boss fights in this game are so unmemorable that ive literally forgotten them. except of course demon tide. i despise demon tide. it was fine in 0.2 but not here. every time you fight it feels like a missed opportunity for something cooler.

i think flowmotion is worse now. i get that it was a bit too overpowered, but with how much it was limited i ended up hardly using it. i didnt like flowmotion because of the attacks, i liked it because of the movement. so to me, it ended up being a reminder of how kh3 failed instead of a fun feature.

also i know a lot of people like being able to switch keyblades in fights, but honestly i feel like it removes an element of strategy the other games had

the ui (and other visual things)

this isnt something i talked about in my other reviews. but in kh3 i must bring it up. if you follow me you may know my hatred for kh3s ui. so im going to talk about it again! this is the abridged version though. heres my whole rant if you want my full thoughts on it. but the short version is that i dont like it. i am someone with terrible vision and i can play every single kh game without glasses because the ui is just big enough that i can read it. most of the time i can read subtitles too. but in 3? i struggle even WITH glasses to read anything. the ui is too small to make out anything almost all the time. its really only by muscle memory that im able to play. my glasses broke while i was playing, and i literally couldnt play until i got new ones because i couldnt make out a single word on screen. its bad design.

im also upset that there ui art has been replaced with renders. its just a shame honestly. i loved the art in the older games. the renders feel bland in comparison.

and thats generally my take on the look of modern kh. sure its pretty, but its bland. kh has always had a certain cartoonish vibe to it thats starting to die out, and i think the shift to unreal engine was the first marker of that change. i like the look of old kh. its not too technically impressive but its incredibly charming. kh3 is anything but. the characters feel far less expressive, the worlds are realistically rendered, it feels unfitting for a series like kh. its hard for me to find kh3 as charming as the other games. the only word i can think of to really describe it is corporate.

i dont know if this is a rare take, but i think technically impressive visuals are far worse than distinct ones. kh used to have a unique look! now it just looks like every other semi-realistically rendered rpg.

story (featuring: more gameplay notes)

my problem with kh3's story was unavoidable really. dream drop distance set this game up for failure and so im not going to complain about dream drop distance. ANOTHER TIME ill talk about dream drop distance. i dont have time to make a post that long. i do have a lot of problems with the story that werent a result of ddd being terrible so i guess ill just bring up those.

one of my biggest issues with the game is how unimportant the roxas plot is. youre led to believe the game will revolve around it but then sora does nothing to further it. at all. at the start he CONSIDERS doing something, and then hes told by ienzo "no its fine ive got it. go do something else" and its barely ever mentioned again until the end.

this relates to my overarching problem with the plot: it feels aimless. in every kh game theres a REASON theyre going on a journey. soras looking for his friends, roxas is working a 9 to 5, the wayfinders are all following each other, etc. but in kh3 sora is looking for "the power of waking". what is the power of waking? i literally have no clue. thats how poorly defined it is. its an abstract goal, its not tangible or even really achievable. its just a macguffin. when the plot suddenly decides to happen at the end the whole journey feels pointless. you could skip every disney world past twilight town and you would probably be fine. it's not a journey, you're not exploring for a purpose, you're just killing time until other people handle the plot.

i also really hate the new organization (i refuse to call them the real organization. theyll never be the org). theyre painfully boring and poorly put together. the old org had structure, they had very specific goals, every member had a purpose. you knew how they worked and why they did what they did. the new org is just completely lacking in that. calling it an 'organization' is stupid because there's nothing organized about it. and even disregarding all that, the new organization also lacks any real personality. the members feel so boring, which sucks, because almost all of them are returning characters who used to be really fun. and why are most of them even there? no one except maybe xigbar seems to actually care about their mission. the old organization had a common goal and a reason everyone was there. they were nobodies, they wanted their hearts back. there's no reason for any of the new members to stick with xehanort. and if you say "well they were norted!" i then must ask. what exactly is norting? like really. it hasnt been possession since birth by sleep. norting is whatever nomura needs it to be in the moment. its not clearly defined, its just another macguffin.

also because i dont know where to put it, the battle of 10,000 heartless is just a terrible successor to the original fight. there's no stakes, no buildup, no friends fighting by your side, no reason to care. they just throw thousands of heartless with no ai at you. literally no ai, if you stand still they wont attack you. its a drag if anything, an homage to a better game done absolutely no justice.

back to what i was saying about the roxas plot, roxas' return is just such a nothing scene. theres nothing about it thats cathartic, his lines are impersonal and bland, theres nothing 'roxas' about it. roxas' defining feature has always been how emotional he is, and there's none of that here. its nothing. and then he does nothing afterwords. he has seven whole lines in this entire game, six of them are in this scene, and the last one is an inconsequential jab at sora at the very end. and then he fades into the background.

the writing in this game in general is actually weirdly worse than normal. it feels a lot less, idk, human? the older games were weird and absurdly cheesy but this is just. strange. look at the scenes with riku and mickey in the realm of darkness and youll see what i mean.

WHILE IM ON THAT SUBJECT. RIKUS KEYBLADE BREAKING IS BULLSHIT. remind me to rant about that another time though im not gonna go on a tangent about that here

also i would give my thoughts on the ending but i literally couldnt care less about xehanort. so i dont really have any! the final boss was alright though

i have more specific thoughts, but generally, the game feels aimless and underwhelming.

positives

i love axel and kairi! theyre a fun duo and ill never shut up about their parallels so seeing them together is nice. i wish they did anything but thats BESIDES the point im being POSITIVE here

also. the music is great. i love the music sm. its nowhere near my favorite kh soundtrack, it feels a lot more grand which isnt my thing but its still some of yoko shimomuras best work. also hearts as one. its the PERFECT conclusion to roxas' theme and arc. the progression of it from melancholic (roxas) to desperate (the other promise) to triumphant (hearts as one) is just so good. i wish the rest of this scene was as good as the music so i could compliment it more wholeheartedly yknow?

its actually funny also! kh isnt the funniest series, most of the time when it IS funny its completely on accident. but kh3 is like days in the way that it just. actually has funny writing. the jokes intended DO land and its just a breath of fresh air.

oh also riku being well adjusted is the funniest possible conclusion to his character arc. 10/10 im so happy hes normal. never give that boy an emo arc again nomura

conclusion

over all, kh3 is exactly like how my teachers described me in elementary school: it has a lot of potential, but doesnt apply itself. this couldve been a decent game but it simply doesnt do most things very well. i give it a 5.2 / 10. its not an actively bad game but its a game i have trouble enjoying. sidenote im retconning my opinion on bbs to say its 4.7 / 10 because a: my opinions have changed and b: i think 3 is better but i dont want to give it a very high score.

[thefirstknife]

Sorry to dump this rant in your inbox but the community’s attitude this entire season has legit got me tilted to the point I ignore pretty much the entire community outside of tumblr and a few irl friends. A lot of it has been frustrations I’ve had since Lightfall dropped wrt acting like the story was dogshit bc it didn’t give all the answers.

I legit got so fed up with Byf’s whole “oh all this season of the deep lore should have been in Lightfall” stuff bc like. My guy. You were one of the biggest complainers about the seasons having zero lore or story relevance. Fucking pick one or the other. Either seasons are all filled bullshit or you’re gonna get cliffhangered and expected to have some damn patience for storylines to get picked back up over time in the seasons after the main campaign of an expansion is done.

Especially bc like. IMO anyone expecting anything not a cliffhanger from the end of Lightfall when we KNEW The Final Shape was coming after it was just setting themselves up for disappointment, you need big tension and shit like that before the final act and this way getting dripfed answers in the lead up feels less like we’re dicking around doing nothing useful for the entire year as we wait for TFS to drop. It legit felt like being a KH fan back when KH3 dropped who had payed attention and played all the games and knew wasn’t the end of the series, just the conclusion of an arc and anyone mad about the stuff left unfinished was being unreasonable when it was made pretty explicitly clear it would either be answered in the future bc this wasn’t the ending or had been answered ages ago and people just hadn’t bothered to pay attention to it. Lightfall was never going to have all the answers bc it wasn’t the ending, and Bungie has proven they’ll circle back around and answer questions and pick up story beats if you’d just have a little patience! I’ll agree it wasn’t done perfectly and could do with more focus on the Veil and less on Strand but come ON my guy!

Combine that with the general toxicity of non-story focused Destiny YouTubers, especially PvP only typesc about Destiny and the way their fans have behaved and I’m full on not watching Destiny content creators anymore. Genuinely never seen content creators who need to touch grass and maybe just. Take a break. I’m not saying Lightfall was perfect or that Bungie hasn’t fucked up but I’m honestly just. Extremely fucking tired of how the community outside of tumblr has reacted to everything. And I’m especially sick of crybaby crucibros being obnoxious. Much as I don’t actually think it’d be at all good for the game there’s a part of me that thinks the idea of them splitting PvP stuff and PvE stuff into separate Destiny games in the future might have some merit to it purely so those of us who just want to explore and enjoy the story in peace can never bother with them again

Go off, honestly. So true. I've felt the same and I've pretty much not watched any Destiny youtube content in months. I started a few of them, but then stopped because of how utterly annoying and just plain wrong they were. The Lightfall situation is such a shitshow, not because of Bungie or the expansion itself, but because I genuinely believe that Destiny is above the reading level of most gamers.

Obviously, I still have some issues with how some stuff was handled, just as you do. Literally nobody is saying that everything in Lightfall was perfect. And I extend that to all expansions btw. Every expansion had faults. None of them are perfect. I think Lightfall's mysterious storytelling could've been a little bit clearer. And make no mistake, Lightfall WAS clear that nobody knows about the Veil, it just wasn't as clear as it could've been. Nothing would've really changed about the mystery if this was made more obvious earlier on in the campaign.

But dear lord, the bullshit around it is so tiring. I get it. I was confused at first too. I even posted here that I found certain things not as good and that they made me a little annoyed! And like that's fine! Your first impressions are your first impressions. But please move on. Are you seriously deciding everything based on first impressions? Do you never look into things and see if maybe there were things you missed or were wrong about? Like, it's okay to be confused at first and then realise later that you missed things. That's how learning works.

And yeah, the whole "everything should've been in Lightfall's campaign right away" is not only annoying because of the stuff you said, it's also annoying because it ignores that there's too much content to fit inside of a single campaign and also that this content has a theme. The campaign is a self-contained story with a theme and a plot (and the plot is NOT "learn what the Veil is." The plot of Lightfall is "stop Calus and the Witness from destroying Neomuna" which has concluded perfectly well in the campaign). Post-campaign stuff, the Witness cutscene and the Veil Logs are all things that don't fit thematically with the high action 80s movie story about protecting a city from destruction. These things were deliberately spread out through the year to give us multiple stories to follow while we wait for TFS. It's a live service game. You're here for the whole year. And it's fine if that's not the storytelling type you like. It's fine! That doesn't mean the story is objectively bad.

But yeah, agreed with what you said. It helps to vent! There's definitely people out there who are in the same situation and who just want to enjoy the game as usual and not having to deal with crybabies who make the whole experience absolutely miserable and make it impossible to engage with anything. Luckily, there's also always people who are still engaging with the game normally. We like the game and we like engaging with the game. And when I stop liking it, I'll just stop engaging with it. I wish other people could do the same.

[mejomonster]

i nice thing about liking ryu ga gotoku studios games, that was not a benefit of final fantasy/square enix (their ones, not the ones just published by them like Nier Automata), is wow the gift of knowing there’s actually a game coming out every 2 years. when rgg say they’re making a game, they mean it, and they mean it reasonably soon with pretty good certainty. after square enix’s habit of saying a games being made for 5-10 years this is just refreshing