Kingdom Hearts III...more mature?

[Iscreamer1 100]

Do you think Kingdom Hearts III could have been a bit or a lot better if it was more mature? I'm starting to think that's what Kingdom Hearts IV will be, but for this game, I think it could have been better if it took the Harry Potter route and became more darker and mature than the game we got, because it still felt like a kid's game that was afraid to show blood, use the words "kill", "dead" and their synonyms more regularly and not even one ounce of profanity. Not to mention Sora not being mature himself until after the Disney worlds are completed.

Any other questions or ideas related to this post to help me along, if not opinions on what I have to say? You be the judge.

[WakelessDream 2,278]

Not really spoilers but just in case.  

Spoiler

I do see where you're coming from. It was a bit silly to use the word annihilate instead of kill when they were saving Jack. Or the fact that we never did see Jones's heart even when the chest was opened.It's in moments like those I'm like "Oh yeah I'm playing a Kingdom Hearts game." I will say I was surprised that they had Sora witness Will's death though, yeah it was censored, but anyone who's seen the movie knows exactly what's going on in that scene, didn't think they'd go that far, so I'll give them that lmao.  

I feel like Kingdom Hearts is always going to have that innocent/childish aspect to it though. Maturity-wise I'm not surprised with the game we ended up getting and wouldn't be surprised if future titles went the same route. Where I thought the game could have used some improvement was in how they chose to tie up certain loose ends and answer certain questions, and I'm not sure taking on a darker tone would have helped with that. 

[Sentient Potato 3]

Considering it's Disney, I doubt it would get much darker than it has. It was odd that Jack didn't use the word kill during that cutscenes, even though Beckett in later cutscene mentions the pirates all dying, like in the movie. I'm honestly disappointed there wasn't more interaction between Sora and the rest of the characters in that world

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

[ienzo628 548]

40 minutes ago, Sentient Potato said:

Considering it's Disney, I doubt it would get much darker than it has. It was odd that Jack didn't use the word kill during that cutscenes, even though Beckett in later cutscene mentions the pirates all dying, like in the movie. I'm honestly disappointed there wasn't more interaction between Sora and the rest of the characters in that world

  SPOILERS: Click to reveal

  SPOILERS: Click to reveal

 

 

 

Exactly, KH is so kid friendly that they changed the word "jackass" that was used by Jiminy and Pinnochio in Prankster's Paradise to "jack-alope" (I think it was in KH3DS). 

Edited March 16, 2019 by ienzo628

[Sentient Potato 3]

1 minute ago, ienzo628 said:

Exactly, KH is so kid friendly that they changed the word "jackass" that was used by Jiminy and Pinnochio in Prankster's Paradise to "jack-alope" (I think it was). 

Well, US society is trying to be more child friendly nowadays. Less violence and no cursing. Saying jackass would probably give the game a T rating. But as for my previous comment, I'm not sure how the concept of death would work in the KH universe. It seems like when people die, they still come back

[ienzo628 548]

3 minutes ago, Sentient Potato said:

Well, US society is trying to be more child friendly nowadays. Less violence and no cursing. Saying jackass would probably give the game a T rating. But as for my previous comment, I'm not sure how the concept of death would work in the KH universe. It seems like when people die, they still come back

Yeah and KH3 seemed to contradict that sentiment.  The Kingdom Hearts franchise and Disney itself deals with a lot of dark material since most of its influences comes from fairy tales and other video games (mainly the Final Fantasy games).

[Dave 5,715]

"Darker" does not equal "Mature."

[Fates Chance XIII 307]

I dont think equating adding grittiness/graphic/violent/cursing ect content into the game to the game being more "mature" is the correct way to look at it. 

Those things arent intrinsic to anything being more mature in nature it just means they have those things in it. Maturity is more in it's themes, messages, characters and their arcs and ect. Not in how dark or gritty the content or graphics or whats visually on scene.

Take something like Avatar TLA, or Korra which is similar in the vein of KH in being geared towards a younger demographics but is still deals with incredibly mature themes.

I would actually argue that KH3 and KH in general, despite being targeted for younger people is actually very mature.

Even if its not graphic, it deals with things like: loss, betrayal, treason, death of friends in a physical sense and death of friendships, the melancholy and cold feeling of people growing apart as they grow up, loss of innocence and the challenging of optimism in the face of extreme circumstances and so much more.

Those are very mature themes and arcs that these characters go through, without the need to be graphic. 

Sora stabbing himself and turning to light in HB to save Kairi, Xion fading to crystal in Roxas arms, Axel fading away into dark mist, Demyx screaming in anguish as he fades away (or in the manga where he looks right at Sora and crying says, "I...don't want to fade away...Roxas...") all of those have so much impact even though they are more cartoonish than graphic and are handled with a lot of maturity. 

And Soras journey from KH1 to KH3 also shows his maturing. He gets angry, he breaks down, he gets confronted with a world and situations that requires more than a cheery smile and hope to overcome. His optimism, his positivity his willingness to accept and encourage even fails him when talking to Vanitas in the KG, and we see him desperately trying to convince Vanitas and have that optimistic nature overcome the darkness. We see him fail to convince Repliku that he is his own person, and he sees that you can be so full of light, offer that to others and in the end it not work. It not save or convince someone. That is a very mature theme, a realistic and grown up theme. 

So no, I dont think KH would be better if it were more 'mature' by adding blood, gore, graphic violence, cussing or more intense dialogue. Sometimes it does get cheesy like saying 'hurt' a million times in Coded, or not saying the word kill (instead saying annihilated, or end their life) but I dont really think it suffers for those things because of everything else in the series. 

 

[Novayon 192]

I wouldn't mind if they used more words like "Kill", "Damn" and "Hell".

Other than that I think it's fine as is. 

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

On 3/15/2019 at 1:32 PM, Iscreamer1 said:

Do you think Kingdom Hearts III could have been a bit or a lot better if it was more mature? I'm starting to think that's what Kingdom Hearts IV will be, but for this game, I think it could have been better if it took the Harry Potter route and became more darker and mature than the game we got, because it still felt like a kid's game that was afraid to show blood, use the words "kill", "dead" and their synonyms more regularly and not even one ounce of profanity. Not to mention Sora not being mature himself until after the Disney worlds are completed.

Any other questions or ideas related to this post to help me along, if not opinions on what I have to say? You be the judge.

I honestly think that the tone for Kingdom Hearts III was perfect. It was dark when it needed to be, but it also had its fair share of amusing and funny moments, ya know? I do hope that for the next saga, the series will take on a slightly darker tone. I don't mean showing blood or curse words, because that isn't necessary, but kind of like in anime, how certain arcs turn dark and whatnot. But for what the series is, the story flows wonderfully, and I thought KHIII was fantastic!