KHDays So 358/2 Days....

[Ammish 18]

...yeah, I hate it. I really do not know how to write up a title without sounding like a "Hater gonna Hate", so instead, I made a ambiguous title instead. But I like to say, even though I enjoyed all Kingdom Hearts games to an extent with some I love and some I'm indifferent to/dislike (I dislike Kingdom Hearts II. Really liked the FM+ version, so I don't know how that works), there's one game I cannot get any enjoyment out of. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

 

What really throws me off is the mission structure. Sure, that's fine, Crisis Core did it okay despite having a lot of repetitive missions. But Day's storyline revolve around these mission structures and even the story quests does boil down to a type of same structure. Go around, kill heartless, find something, etc. Sure, the other KH games does it, but it managed to seamlessly integrate it as if you're traveling on a journey. In 358/2 Day's case, it's boxed off and you tend to find yourself thinking "Wait, didn't I do that so many days ago?". Then there's the side missions, which consist of samey objectives such as "attack blob", "collect hearts", "defeat x heartless", etc. When I did a lot of these side missions, even though some were unique, it largely remind me of the 'mah-more-pa-guh'. It's obsessive compulsive without a sort of infinite goal you find in MMORPGs. These side missions have the traits of one and just serves to pad out the game. You also want to do them to get these extra stuff and more panels because trust me, the boss later on have lots of HP!

 

Oh, the bosses are hard you say? I'm sorry, I was too busy dodging slow attacks and find myself chiseling their HP very slowly. Yeah, I'm not going into that because the bosses I faced were amongst the worse in the series... until I be bothered to play and complete ReCoded. But they were bosses with a lot of HP and defence, but they are just damage soakers. They aren't challenging, just mundane to fight through.

 

Even then, I admire a few of its unique elements. Keyblades have different combo strings (through ReCoded have that), the panel system was pretty good as you can choose how powerful you can be and the multiplayer was a fun diversion. Trying out each organization members were interesting, but they were overshadowed by the game's fault. The multiplayer of BBS makes it a moot point, even though it's downgraded from the Day's version.

 

And then we get into the storyline, which is largely self-contained. The story is fine when you read it in the wiki page. But when you actually witness the story, it's hammered by mediocre lines such as "WHO WILL EAT ICE CREAM WITH ME?" and long absences of plot development in the latter half of the game. The fact that the organization XIII members, who didn't get much of their development in II (though it was solved by Final Mix+'s extra cutscene to give us conversation between them in the Throne Room), sorely missed out in Days. We saw more of Axel and Saix's development as well as Xigbar seeing Xion as Ventus. Oh and Xion... I would say she's not needed, but 3D is trying to give relevance to her. Who knows?

 

There's probably more things I hate about 358/2 Days, but it really destroyed my love for the series and I was cynical until Birth by Sleep got released. So yeah, I still love KH as a whole, but I absolutely hate 358/2 Days. There's very little good things about it from my perspective.

 

Thank you for reading, I guess. And I'm always up for a debate!

[Keyblade King 12 486]

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I couldn't disagree more.

For one thing, I'm just gonna point out that you don't like my two favourite games in the series (KH2 and Days).

As for your days review, well, I would probably only agree with you concerning the bosses, which admittedly were a pain to fight, particularly the ones in Neverland.

I found the missions enjoyable. I don't think they're as repetitive as you make them out to be. And then you say they're worse than the Crisis Core missions?! Those missions were the exact same formula for each and every one! And they didn't let you explore nearly as much as they do in Days. And the enemies in Crisis Core were way too common for those easy missions to be enjoyable. But back to the subject, Days' missions were repetitive a bit. Not going to lie. But find me a game that doesn't do that when it uses a mission system like the one found in Days.

One thing I find odd about this review is that you didn't even comment on the one thing that most fans pick out as Days' key flaw that makes it so bad. The gameplay. Kingdom Hearts Days has easily the worst game play in the entire series, although there were the additions of gears giving great combos and other such likes, Days did not handle very well. That is a flaw I will admit to.

And seriously? Seriously? The story of Days is probably the best in the series! I think it's even better than BBS'. This is because, Days had mystery to it. It had suspense and you got really connected to the character's friendship and saw that they were really alone in this whole group and you know after playing KH2, that they're being lied to the whole way through. The knowledge given in KH2 makes you really appreciate a lot of moments in this game and it pulls it together as a really emotional. And really the dialogue, if not a bit confusing at times, is good. That whole thing with the ice-cream. Many reasons for it. One; realism. You can't expect someone who's only been alive for like a year to go into this big speech about his friend and besides she would die before Roxas could finish saying goodbye if he went for the lengthy version. Two; You can't go too dark and depressing in a Kingdom Hearts game, because of Disney (honestly BBS has very sweet and happy endings when you think that Ven is fine, living inside of Sora. Aqua saved her friend and is still living with their friendship still strong and Terra is fighting against Xehanort. The ending of Days may have seemed nice but if you've played KH2, you'll know that it's actually incredibly depressing). Three; that line is symbolic. Ice-cream was the symbol of their friendship. That line is saying, who else will be my friend.

 

I'm also open to debate and I think you're dead wrong on a lot of what you've said here.

[Sandra_Nedelcheva1998 244]

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I couldn't disagree more.

For one thing, I'm just gonna point out that you don't like my two favourite games in the series (KH2 and Days).

As for your days review, well, I would probably only agree with you concerning the bosses, which admittedly were a pain to fight, particularly the ones in Neverland.

I found the missions enjoyable. I don't think they're as repetitive as you make them out to be. And then you say they're worse than the Crisis Core missions?! Those missions were the exact same formula for each and every one! And they didn't let you explore nearly as much as they do in Days. And the enemies in Crisis Core were way too common for those easy missions to be enjoyable. But back to the subject, Days' missions were repetitive a bit. Not going to lie. But find me a game that doesn't do that when it uses a mission system like the one found in Days.

One thing I find odd about this review is that you didn't even comment on the one thing that most fans pick out as Days' key flaw that makes it so bad. The gameplay. Kingdom Hearts Days has easily the worst game play in the entire series, although there were the additions of gears giving great combos and other such likes, Days did not handle very well. That is a flaw I will admit to.

And seriously? Seriously? The story of Days is probably the best in the series! I think it's even better than BBS'. This is because, Days had mystery to it. It had suspense and you got really connected to the character's friendship and saw that they were really alone in this whole group and you know after playing KH2, that they're being lied to the whole way through. The knowledge given in KH2 makes you really appreciate a lot of moments in this game and it pulls it together as a really emotional. And really the dialogue, if not a bit confusing at times, is good. That whole thing with the ice-cream. Many reasons for it. One; realism. You can't expect someone who's only been alive for like a year to go into this big speech about his friend and besides she would die before Roxas could finish saying goodbye if he went for the lengthy version. Two; You can't go too dark and depressing in a Kingdom Hearts game, because of Disney (honestly BBS has very sweet and happy endings when you think that Ven is fine, living inside of Sora. Aqua saved her friend and is still living with their friendship still strong and Terra is fighting against Xehanort. The ending of Days may have seemed nice but if you've played KH2, you'll know that it's actually incredibly depressing). Three; that line is symbolic. Ice-cream was the symbol of their friendship. That line is saying, who else will be my friend.

 

I'm also open to debate and I think you're dead wrong on a lot of what you've said here.

 

I completly agree with you

[Roxas Illini 49]

Day would have been better served with the command deck that was in BBS, Re:Coded, and 3D. Also, the bosses are a pain at any difficulty level. The multiplayer is great if you have friends who have the game. It should have been online multiplayer in stead of just local.

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

Opinions ,opinions,opinions. Everyone has one but personally i loved Days .

[Remains of Old 117]

I also loved Days, i played at the standard difficult, , the only boss i found ''hard'' to fight with, was that Agrabah sandworm-thing heartess, and honestly... I found most bosses easy to defeat. Anyway, the only thing i didn't like in Days were: The fact the keyblade in cutscenes are always the Kingdom Key, this bugged me during the whole game.

Also, there are 2 things that can't be said to say Days is a bad game: The graphics and the directional pad moving. These are hardware flaws, stupid things Nintendo did on the DS, which has nothing to do with the game. (I know you didn't said anything about this, but just saying)

[TheApprenticeofKingMickey 3,689]

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I couldn't disagree more.

For one thing, I'm just gonna point out that you don't like my two favourite games in the series (KH2 and Days).

As for your days review, well, I would probably only agree with you concerning the bosses, which admittedly were a pain to fight, particularly the ones in Neverland.

I found the missions enjoyable. I don't think they're as repetitive as you make them out to be. And then you say they're worse than the Crisis Core missions?! Those missions were the exact same formula for each and every one! And they didn't let you explore nearly as much as they do in Days. And the enemies in Crisis Core were way too common for those easy missions to be enjoyable. But back to the subject, Days' missions were repetitive a bit. Not going to lie. But find me a game that doesn't do that when it uses a mission system like the one found in Days.

One thing I find odd about this review is that you didn't even comment on the one thing that most fans pick out as Days' key flaw that makes it so bad. The gameplay. Kingdom Hearts Days has easily the worst game play in the entire series, although there were the additions of gears giving great combos and other such likes, Days did not handle very well. That is a flaw I will admit to.

And seriously? Seriously? The story of Days is probably the best in the series! I think it's even better than BBS'. This is because, Days had mystery to it. It had suspense and you got really connected to the character's friendship and saw that they were really alone in this whole group and you know after playing KH2, that they're being lied to the whole way through. The knowledge given in KH2 makes you really appreciate a lot of moments in this game and it pulls it together as a really emotional. And really the dialogue, if not a bit confusing at times, is good. That whole thing with the ice-cream. Many reasons for it. One; realism. You can't expect someone who's only been alive for like a year to go into this big speech about his friend and besides she would die before Roxas could finish saying goodbye if he went for the lengthy version. Two; You can't go too dark and depressing in a Kingdom Hearts game, because of Disney (honestly BBS has very sweet and happy endings when you think that Ven is fine, living inside of Sora. Aqua saved her friend and is still living with their friendship still strong and Terra is fighting against Xehanort. The ending of Days may have seemed nice but if you've played KH2, you'll know that it's actually incredibly depressing). Three; that line is symbolic. Ice-cream was the symbol of their friendship. That line is saying, who else will be my friend.

 

I'm also open to debate and I think you're dead wrong on a lot of what you've said here.

 

You said nearly everything I think.

[Kinode 3,056]

Guys

Days is awesome.

Best game in the series imo

/thread

[NocturnalMelody 4]

...yeah, I hate it. I really do not know how to write up a title without sounding like a "Hater gonna Hate", so instead, I made a ambiguous title instead. But I like to say, even though I enjoyed all Kingdom Hearts games to an extent with some I love and some I'm indifferent to/dislike (I dislike Kingdom Hearts II. Really liked the FM+ version, so I don't know how that works), there's one game I cannot get any enjoyment out of. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

 

What really throws me off is the mission structure. Sure, that's fine, Crisis Core did it okay despite having a lot of repetitive missions. But Day's storyline revolve around these mission structures and even the story quests does boil down to a type of same structure. Go around, kill heartless, find something, etc. Sure, the other KH games does it, but it managed to seamlessly integrate it as if you're traveling on a journey. In 358/2 Day's case, it's boxed off and you tend to find yourself thinking "Wait, didn't I do that so many days ago?". Then there's the side missions, which consist of samey objectives such as "attack blob", "collect hearts", "defeat x heartless", etc. When I did a lot of these side missions, even though some were unique, it largely remind me of the 'mah-more-pa-guh'. It's obsessive compulsive without a sort of infinite goal you find in MMORPGs. These side missions have the traits of one and just serves to pad out the game. You also want to do them to get these extra stuff and more panels because trust me, the boss later on have lots of HP!

 

Oh, the bosses are hard you say? I'm sorry, I was too busy dodging slow attacks and find myself chiseling their HP very slowly. Yeah, I'm not going into that because the bosses I faced were amongst the worse in the series... until I be bothered to play and complete ReCoded. But they were bosses with a lot of HP and defence, but they are just damage soakers. They aren't challenging, just mundane to fight through.

 

Even then, I admire a few of its unique elements. Keyblades have different combo strings (through ReCoded have that), the panel system was pretty good as you can choose how powerful you can be and the multiplayer was a fun diversion. Trying out each organization members were interesting, but they were overshadowed by the game's fault. The multiplayer of BBS makes it a moot point, even though it's downgraded from the Day's version.

 

And then we get into the storyline, which is largely self-contained. The story is fine when you read it in the wiki page. But when you actually witness the story, it's hammered by mediocre lines such as "WHO WILL EAT ICE CREAM WITH ME?" and long absences of plot development in the latter half of the game. The fact that the organization XIII members, who didn't get much of their development in II (though it was solved by Final Mix+'s extra cutscene to give us conversation between them in the Throne Room), sorely missed out in Days. We saw more of Axel and Saix's development as well as Xigbar seeing Xion as Ventus. Oh and Xion... I would say she's not needed, but 3D is trying to give relevance to her. Who knows?

 

There's probably more things I hate about 358/2 Days, but it really destroyed my love for the series and I was cynical until Birth by Sleep got released. So yeah, I still love KH as a whole, but I absolutely hate 358/2 Days. There's very little good things about it from my perspective.

 

Thank you for reading, I guess. And I'm always up for a debate!

 

 

I completely agree. Roxas, Axel, and the Organization are my favorite characters in the series and I still couldn't bring myself to like this game. The missions, which could have easily been made more fun and engaging, were very dull and repetitive, and mostly involved 'take out this heartless' or 'kill all the purple blobs' or, the least interesting kind of all, investigating all the event triggers of a world. And it didn’t help that the world’s themselves, especially Neverland, were devoid of anything interesting, just basically a bunch of rocks that you investigate.

 

The Organization, who Roxas spends time with for an ENTIRE YEAR, were sadly underdeveloped. What gets on my nerves is when people say, “Who cares, they’re meant to be underdeveloped villains”. They’re only under-developed because the staff CHOSE not to go in depth with their characters. I personally would’ve liked to see more to Demyx than just him being some lazy guy that puts all the work on the others. Or Luxord, and why he loves gambling so much. Or why Larxene’s as sadistic as she is. Hell, you know what ELSE would have been cool to see in Days? When Marluxia first decided he wanted to overthrow the Organization, and Larxene wanted in, and his decision to trust her. But the Castle Oblivion members are only around for the tutorials before they’re quickly killed off. And the members left behind do little else but sit around the lobby (which you’re stuck in for the entire game, even when there’s an entire freaking castle they should have let you explore) when they’re not tagging along with you.

 

Which brings me to XIon. Instead of developing the Organization members or even giving Roxas the opportunity to show more of his character, the spotlight is robbed by a new character who is forgotten by everyone in the end anyway, which was done so she couldn’t conflict with the events of Kingdom Hearts II. Her inclusion in the series is sloppy...it really feels as if she was put there last minute. For one thing, after she died, why did Roxas say, “Why did the keyblade choose me? I have to know.” Instead of mention the fact that Xion died? Shouldn’t a friend dying be more important than finding out who he is? Also, in KH II, Riku specifically said he fought Roxas more than once, and wanted to make sure that the second time they fought, he’d be “the stronger one”.

 

I’m not even going to go into how Xion even shoved herself into Deep Dive. Instead of involving the tension between Roxas and Riku, and how Roxas reminds Riku of Sora, it’s suddenly changed to be about Xion’s oh-so-precious memories fading from everyone’s mind in such an oh-so-tragic way (not that there WERE any precious memories besides a million and a half eating ice cream on the clocktower scenes). Roxas himself does little else throughout the ENTIRE game besides angst and moan about Xion – what she’s doing, where she is, etc. Don’t believe me, read his journals and you’ll find that 90% of them aren’t about him and his own existence but about Xion. One could argue that this is because he’s a friend and concerned - well, he never shows the same concern for Axel, who is ALSO his best friend. Roxas is known to be short-tempered and snap at people, why did he ever not get angry at Xion for constantly hiding things from him, and even pointing her keyblade at him?? Friends can still get angry at eachother, Ven is one of the most sweet-tempered and kind characters in the series and he STILL got angry at Aqua for spying on Terra and assuming that he’s turning from the right path. And yet Roxas instantly forgives poor little Xion for anything, because she has such a terrible life, getting picked on by random guys in blindfolds and mean ol’ Saix.

 

Axel’s character development suffered too. He goes from being a two-faced sneak in CoM, and then instantly becomes best friends with Roxas in Days, and basically becomes a nanny to him and Xion. Actually, he’s kind of just a third wheel, sitting in the background while Xion constantly angsts, faints, or runs off, and Roxas constantly obsesses over her. KH II set up the Axel and Roxas friendship to be something special that Axel was willing to die fighting for…well, Roxas in Days didn’t really seem worth fighting for, because the two never really seemed to bond to me. In fact, the entire Axel/Xion/Roxas friendship didn’t really seem to workwork unless Roxas was there…things were just awkward between Axel and Xion. Axel and Xion even sit a few feet apart on the clocktower when they’re alone, while Roxas and Axel always sit close together…why’s that?

Most of all, I wanna know what Xemnas and everyone in the Organization think they were doing for an entire year since they forgot about Xion.

Edited June 14, 2012 by NocturnalMelody

[OathkeeperRoxas 66]

Most of all, I wanna know what Xemnas and everyone in the Organization think they were doing for an entire year since they forgot about Xion.

 

^ this

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

^ this

 

 

This is a great question !

[Sora96 17,256]

Yeah, it was a good game, but definitely had it's flaws.

[venxas24 544]

When this game originally was released i remember only hearing good things about the story and gameplay. i do however not really lik the mission style and magic set up, i really wish we could get to use magic multiple times

[NightfallXIII 68]

Are you kidding? This was a great game! The missions were repetitive, but not as bad as you make them out to be. The missions in Crisis Core were way more repetitive. The bosses were a pain to fight, you are right about that, but the storyline was one of my favorites alongside II. The story was the first game that ever had me emotionally fired up, that made me really genuinely care about them. This game made me feel like no other did. And I cried at the end. The only other game that made me do that was Final Fantasy X. But of course, this is just my opinion countering your opinion. Opinions....

[Gambler'sApprentice 131]

@Ammish

To put it simply, I believe Kingdom Hearts 358 Days/2 is one of the strongest in the series, and does more than any other game to show us what the series can become.

 

The first complaint was regarding the mission structure. First when you consider the difference between Roxas and Sora in this game and Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II the structure makes sense. Early in the KH I & II Sora learns the worlds are in danger, and he needs to put an end to this. In contrast, Roxas comes into being and is told the Organization needs him to hit heartless with emblems. Sora has an emotional reason behind his actions, he seeks to protect his friends and save the worlds. Roxas is a newly born individual, whose only knowledge of life at the beginning is that he needs to fight Heartless because other people told him to. His missions are generally repetitive, because from the point of view of the Organization his greatest asset is not his individuality, but rather his weapon (as is witnessed by the Replica Project, designed to give the ever greater control over the wielder of the Keyblade, even if it meant losing Roxas). This means in the console games Sora is deciding what to do based on what will best help his friends in each world. He will fight the Heartless until he finds a way to keep his friends safe, whether by sealing the keyhole the Heartless are after, fighting whatever is summoning them, or even removing their greatest threat. This leads to a sytem of smaller stories in world, culminating to a climactic boss battle, and a scene where Sora says goodbye confident his friends are safe. Meanwhile Roxas has decisions made for him by people who are calculating the best return on their investment, they want the most Heartless possible, without putting the Keyblade out of their reach. This means they will test him (breaking jars, collecting emblems), remove elements that deter the most efficient growth of Heartless (shadow blobs, investigation of the Halloween Town Heartless disappearance), and foreknowledge of the area (reconnaissance missions). They don't care if Roxas is given repetitive missions, they care that Kingdom Hearts nears completion. The bonus missions give extra challenge, and make most things easier, but are not necessary if a certain of effort is put forth to learn the best approach to one's goal before hand and prepare appropriately.

 

Regarding the bosses there were three ways to go about fighting them. One was to attack them relatively constantly, 'chiseling their HP very slowly', the next was to wait for the point in time when they would be weakened or exposed and one could clear substantial portions of their HP at a time, and the final method was to become vastly overpower your magic, and use whichever spell was most effective against them. The first method is the most unsatisfying and difficult, because it requires you to spend much more time in combat then was intended. The second required one to look in the index of Heartless to find out what the weakness was, and exploit it, a safer and generally more satisfying approach, the best in fact. The third required a great deal of patience as one had to over level oneself, but led to great satisfaction as you succeeded in beating bosses with two well-placed spells. None of this is to say that the Heartless did not have vast amounts of HP, or impressive Defense, both are true. Rather at certain points one could do vast amounts of damage, complaints to the contrary would imply that these were never discovered.

 

In the brief tribute given to what is believed to be a small number of well-done portions, I should merely like to say that as Re:Coded came afterwords dismissing any attribute of Days on the grounds any subsequent game has it is illogical in the extreme. Also while the multiplayer system in Birth by Sleep is unquestionably better developed, it lacks in three key areas, first for those individuals who are fans of the Organization members, it gives a chance to play as them, secondly in Birth by Sleep one has three main characters, one who focuses on strength (Terra), one who focuses on speed (Ventus), and one who focuses on magic (Aqua). While there is a certain amount of diversity one can have within these sections, it is limited. Meanwhile each of the Organization members relies on a different style. Xigbar relies on a ranged attack system, while Saïx focuses on dealing critical damage, and some, such as Luxord can focus in any area they choose. Finally while Birth by Sleep has three multiplayer styles. A board game, co-op coliseum-style matches, and versus. Days is the only game so far that gives a multiplayer option that allows general goals, where you don't simply fight repeated waves of enemies until you reach a boss, but go out, as a team, to explore the world.

 

The greatest divergence seems to be in the subject of plot. The plot is the entire point of Days, the missions reflect, the gameplay reflects it, the plot defines the game, and understandably disliking the game's plot would lead to disliking the game itself. And therefore this is the area of greatest importance. I can excuse the claim that the game was mostly self-contained when it came out. It focused entirely on characters we had no reason to expect to come back. A tragic game, but not one that could be argued as integral to the plot of the Kingdom Hearts games, as they were not yet known to be the Xehanort Saga. The entire scene in which Roxas is holding onto the one person he views as a friend, having left his entire life behind, fade away and cease to exist, to be denied even the right to remember her, is one of, if not the, most emotional scenes in the entire game. When he asks, 'Who else will I have ice cream with?' he is asking who else can be his friend, for as far as he is concerned Axel has betrayed them, this is the one person he has left, his one friend, and the saddest part is the closest he can come to defining friendship is the person he shares Ice Cream with.

Contrast to Sora who in every game is almost always surrounded by friends, whose 'friends are my power!', and Roxas, betrayed by one friend, and having to watch the other erased from existence even in memory.

 

 

@Noctunal Melody

Having already discussed the missions above, I will just say the following. Yes, Neverland is terrible, and the best things about it for me are you don't have to visit it until much later in the game, and Luxord is your most common companion.

 

The Organization is not under-developed. They are not fully understood, there is a world of difference. This game is almost entirely from Roxas' perspective, there are a few cutscenes which the player is treated to, and the secret reports, but both of these show how strongly developed the characters are. Everyone has some identity they project, and Roxas is only going to see more of who they are if they let him. We see Demyx as an under-achieving slacker who foists his missions on others because that's who he chooses to be, but also to some extent he would much rather sit around doing work. Larxene is a sadistic freak for much simpler reasons. If you take away a persons ability to feel guilt or empathy why wouldn't they act in a way that reflects this. She can be cruel and sick and twisted, because it desn't influence her. It's just a way to get people to do things. That being said she isn't cruel or sadistic to Roxas, in mission she just doesn't really care about him. She doesn't need to be cruel, he'll do it no matter what. As for why Luxord likes gambling, that would require a game focusing on the Gambler of Fate, which while I would greatly enjoy, I doubt all of those individuals who eagerly await Kingdom Hearts III would be happy if Nomura postponed it any further, especially for a game so unlikely to be vital to the plot. But other characters also give information that one can use to gather information about them. Xaldin for instance is not much for romance, he has a passionate hatred for it in fact. Something that intense is not just him thinking love makes people stupid, something happened to him, most likely becoming a Nobody allowed him to reevaluate Dilan's life, and he saw he had been manipulated by someone he loved. As for the planning of the conspiracy, yes I would have loved to have seen it, but unless they came up with the plan in about two weeks it's impossible for that to occur without destroying the timeline. Furthermore You never have all the Organization members in the lobby at once, Xemnas doesn't even appear more than a dozen times in the game. Yes it would be nice to explore the castle, but again, the point is Roxas has a repetive life. He goes to the lobby, gets a mission from Saix, hits some stuff with his Keyblade, might have ice cream, and then goes to bed.

 

I will admit I'd have loved more development for the Organization members, but without going to the formation of the Organization it's not going to happen, Roxas was a mere tool in the eyes of the Organization, and the individuals simply saw him as a child. They are all teaching him lessons each time they 'tag along' Xion was not erased to prevent conflict for Kingdom Hearts II, she is a vital character who tragically ceases to exist, in a sacrifice for a boy she's never met. One might as well claim Master Xehanort was just tossed into Birth by Sleep because the needed a villain. By the time Roxas is fighting Riku he has to struggle to remember that she even existed, and he's just fed up with all the lies and secrets. He has reason to believe Riku knows why he can wield the Keyblade, why would he ask him about Xion? He wasn't even intending to fight him, he was going to free Kingdom Hearts for Xion. Xion isn't in Deep Dive, and since basically all it told us was

Nobodies

There's going to be an awesome battle between a blindfolded Riku and a mysterious hooded individual who wield Oathkeeper and Oblivion she didn't shove herself in anywhere. There wasn't actually any plot. Admittedly Riku's statement is weak, and the best interpretation is you kicked his but in combat, and then he fought you as Ansem. Essentially one fight, and not really much ambiguity for him to argue about what he said being true 'from a certain point of view'm sorry, if you only have one friend and you don't get to even keep the memories you would treasure of them, of the perfect day you said you would remember forever, how in the bloody hell is that not a tragedy? The reason Xion is so often the subject of the Journal entries, is that she is the catalyst in the game. Without her existence Roxas and Axel would have met up for Ice cream after most every mission, and he'd fight Heartless, Xemnas would unite with Kingdom Hearts, He'd filll the Nobodies with Darkness Merge with the Princesses of Heart and Form a X-Blade for Master Xehanort. Furthermore he hs a bond for Xion, they are younger Nobodies, with no memory of who they were, both wielders of Keyblades, both mysteriously black out, and both have a connection to Sora. And Axel doesn't have fainting spells, so less concern needs to be spent on her behalf. Roxas feels protective, let's face it Axel can handle himself, Xion can drop unconscious in mid-battle. Roxas gets mad and snappish at people when they threaten his friendship, and he believes running away does less to jeopardize a friendship then beating the person up and taking them where they don't want to go. Add to which Ven is a lot more emotionally mature then Roxas, I would expect him to be more reasonable.

 

Lea/Axel changes the most through the series, but slowly. In BBS he's a kid with a sense of fun ready to get up to Shenanigans. By CoM we see him as a clever and strong fighter, who will play either side in the hope of winning, but he'll take the side that promises him sfety. In Days we see him as an ally of Saïx as he seeks a heart he's willing to manipulate anybody. Saïx realizes the usefulness of having Roxas on ther side so he has Axel make 'friends' with him. Unfortunately for Saïx, Axel begins to actually care about Roxas and Xion, and decides an actual friendship beats Saïx's repeated reminders about thier former friendship. But in the end he values his life over that friendship. In KHII having to lose Roxas he decides to help Sora, because some of his friend is till there. In 3Ds we see that he's now willing to do anything to get his friend back, as Lea wielder of a Keyblade. He's willing to do anything for ths friendship that reminded him what it was like to have a heart. And he really did care about Roxas, the last week of Days shows that very well, he just never said anything until it was to late.

 

Finally during the events of Days the Organization probably thought they sent Roxas on missions, he collected hearts, bonded with Axel, got fed up for whatever reason (they didn't seem to make the connection about Roxas being mad about Xion, so they probably just hocked it up to the whims of the heart) fought Riku, lost, and was abducted by DiZ. Basically exactly what happened without Xion.

 

Kingdom Hearts 358 Days/2 is a tragedy in the truest sense of the word, three friends brought together to further Xemnas' plans find some happiness, only to break apart from betrayal, deception, and death. The worlds owe their survival to one individual whose closest friends could not say who she is because she sacrificed even that. It follows the life of Roxas as he struggles to protect his friends, without success. And in the end we aren't even given hope it can be undone.

[Shera Wizard 2,736]

358 was the first game I tried in the whole KH series, frankly, I'm a major nintendo gamer, but I had to agree the graphics were choppy and the multiplayer was sometimes buggy. But hey, not bad for the DS. Apart from the console, everything in the game was great, storyline point of view of course. And it's quite silly to say it myself but, if you have no idea what Kingdom Hearts is or what the story is about, 358 isn't going to help you lol. The first few hours of the game I understood nothing. Personal stuff aside, I think there was an option to fast forward the days until story progression, but you miss out on lotta stuff and level ups and a few bonuses I guess. Which sucks. It's quite tedious with the mission system and the same goals like 'Collect Hearts!' and 'Collect More Hearts~!' and even 'This strong guy hates us! Beat him~!' But it had a good side. The 'panel system' I think you call it, it's quite handy sometimes, well sometimes not. Win or lose, it's you fault. It becomes like that

 

The bosses on the other hand were okay, imo. Until the infernal engine. God I hate that one xC After that, it started being okay again.

 

But in the big picture, the biggest memory of 358 in me (apart from all these annoying stuff) is that ending T^T and of course, hats off to Dearly Beloved 358 version And yeah, no matter how crappy these games get or how many un-comprehensible plot twists this game'll have, there's always Yoko Shimomura

[Weedanort 8,786]

I actually enjoyed 358/2 Days a lot.

 

Especially the ending

[_The Door To Light_ 1,507]

The Organization, who Roxas spends time with for an ENTIRE YEAR, were sadly underdeveloped. What gets on my nerves is when people say, “Who cares, they’re meant to be underdeveloped villains”. They’re only under-developed because the staff CHOSE not to go in depth with their characters. I personally would’ve liked to see more to Demyx than just him being some lazy guy that puts all the work on the others. Or Luxord, and why he loves gambling so much. Or why Larxene’s as sadistic as she is. Hell, you know what ELSE would have been cool to see in Days? When Marluxia first decided he wanted to overthrow the Organization, and Larxene wanted in, and his decision to trust her. But the Castle Oblivion members are only around for the tutorials before they’re quickly killed off. And the members left behind do little else but sit around the lobby (which you’re stuck in for the entire game, even when there’s an entire freaking castle they should have let you explore) when they’re not tagging along with you.

 

^^I enjoyed the game, but I was really looking forward to possibly seeing some character development among the other members. Making this my only complaint.

[NocturnalMelody 4]

Meanwhile Roxas has decisions made for him by people who are calculating the best return on their investment, they want the most Heartless possible, without putting the Keyblade out of their reach. This means they will test him (breaking jars, collecting emblems), remove elements that deter the most efficient growth of Heartless (shadow blobs, investigation of the Halloween Town Heartless disappearance), and foreknowledge of the area (reconnaissance missions). They don't care if Roxas is given repetitive missions, they care that Kingdom Hearts nears completion. The bonus missions give extra challenge, and make most things easier, but are not necessary if a certain of effort is put forth to learn the best approach to one's goal before hand and prepare appropriately.

While I understand that storywise the repetitiveness makes sense, it makes for boring gameplay, at least for me. Even the bonus missions feel like just a repeat of the things that we've already done 80+ times. I feel like with a little more effort, they could have spiced up missions a bit...overall the gameplay just feels really dull, and the player shouldn't feel as bored as Roxas while doing missions. There was really no reward for trudging one's way through so many missions either.

 

I didn't like the gameplay of Re:CoM either, but at least there was a nice reward waiting for me at the end of each world - a fun cutscene to watch. Days was even repetitive in terms of cutscenes too, not just gameplay. I understand that ice cream is all Roxas and Xion look forward to because that's all they've ever known, but again, it was just boring to me. I was excited when Axel announced that they would be going to the beach, FINALLY some variety to their hanging out! But then Xion ran off. And then another ice cream scene.

 

@Noctunal Melody

Having already discussed the missions above, I will just say the following. Yes, Neverland is terrible, and the best things about it for me are you don't have to visit it until much later in the game, and Luxord is your most common companion.

 

The Organization is not under-developed. They are not fully understood, there is a world of difference.

This game is almost entirely from Roxas' perspective, there are a few cutscenes which the player is treated to, and the secret reports, but both of these show how strongly developed the characters are.

I have to disagree here. A few secret reports written by each member doesn't help to develop them as much as seeing actions would. We know no more about them than we found out already in KH II. Luxord is the only one that seems to show a different side to him when reading his secret reports, and he even gets along pretty well with Roxas. Demyx in KH II seemed to show genuine anger to a certain extent when fighting Sora and told he didn't have a heart, which had led many people to believe he had another side to him...but in 358/2 days all there was to his personality was laziness. While you mentioned that the game is in Roxas' point of view so he couldn't have seen, this wasn't a problem with Xion. There's many cutscenes of XIon without Roxas in them, her talking to Riku, her showing her face to Namine, facing off Axel...personally the scene where Namine says "I've wanted to meet you...Xion" was a pointless 2 second cutscene and took up DS space. They could have replaced it with something else, like a voiced cutscene of the Organization members. But since Xion is technically the main character of this game, and the plot as it is was focused squarely about her, there was no room to develop anyone else.

 

As for the planning of the conspiracy, yes I would have loved to have seen it, but unless they came up with the plan in about two weeks it's impossible for that to occur without destroying the timeline.

I'm sure Normua could have found some way to hint at it in-game, or at least shown when Xemnas was starting to get the hunch that a few members were going to betray him. Or even a short scene of Marluxia and Larxene talking to eachother. That couldn't have taken too long.

 

I will admit I'd have loved more development for the Organization members, but without going to the formation of the Organization it's not going to happen, Roxas was a mere tool in the eyes of the Organization, and the individuals simply saw him as a child. They are all teaching him lessons each time they 'tag along' Xion was not erased to prevent conflict for Kingdom Hearts II, she is a vital character who tragically ceases to exist, in a sacrifice for a boy she's never met. One might as well claim Master Xehanort was just tossed into Birth by Sleep because the needed a villain. By the time Roxas is fighting Riku he has to struggle to remember that she even existed, and he's just fed up with all the lies and secrets. He has reason to believe Riku knows why he can wield the Keyblade, why would he ask him about Xion? He wasn't even intending to fight him, he was going to free Kingdom Hearts for Xion. Xion isn't in Deep Dive

I think the make-it or break-it for people to either like Days or dislike Days is Xion. Xion is the center of the whole plot, and while Roxas is a tool for the Organization as well, it is Xion that is making all these life-changing decisions. She is a flawless, sweet, self-sacrificial character that always puts her friends before herself. She's perfect. Her only flaw, which really isn't one, is that she bottles up her emotions and doesn't tell anyone her problems, wanting to soldier on her own. This grated on me, since our main character completely obsessed with her and just sits around clueless while she runs away with Riku all the time. The only time Roxas actually begins to question his existence is when she dies, and then he says the whole "why did the keyblade choose me" which made no sense at all to me. He still remembers who she is at this point too, and tells Riku "I want my life back, I want Xion back!"

 

What especially bugged me is after the whole incident with Xion pointing her keyblade at Roxas, getting knocked out, yada yada yada, Xion and Roxas go eat ice cream at the clock tower...AND NONE OF THIS IS EVER ADDRESSED. >_< Roxas' naviety comes across as pure stupidity at this point. Their conversation goes something like this, from what I remember:

 

Roxas: Axel is such a jerk for knocking you out.

Xion: Don't call him a jerk. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here. He's your best friend, Roxas.

Roxas: So are you.

 

Okaaaaay why didn't you ask Xion why she's running around with Mr. Imposter, Roxas? DIdn't you tell Saix that she might be in trouble and forced to run around with this guy, and needs help? This is your chance to get some answers from her, or at LEAST question why she threatened you by pointing your keyblade at you! Seriously?!!

 

And I feel like Xion DID shove herself into Deep Dive. Nomura said in an interview before that Riku must have "summoned Roxas to a place of Shadows", and in KH II we know that he wants to fight Roxas to bring him back to Sora so his best friend could wake up. It made much more sense that Riku lured Roxas there with answers about who he is, thus making "Why did the keyblade choose me" make sense. So now we find out that Riku needed the motivation to stop Roxas...because Xion spoke from beyond the grave to tell Riku to stop Roxas. Riku didn't need Xion to tell him to stop Roxas, he was working for DiZ to wake up Sora. The fact that Xion, through Oblivion, CAUSED Roxas to throw his keyblade to Riku...is just silly. There could have been a few better reasons for this. One, he was using strike raid to attack Riku, and was shocked when Riku managed to grab it and use it himself. Or, the Neoshadows attacking were about to overwhelm them both, so Roxas needed a temporary ally, thus tossing the blade to Riku.

 

And Riku was completely OOC in this game as well. While Sora, his best friend since childhood, remains in a coma, he lets Xion run around and make her own decision. Meanwhile he knocks Roxas right out and doesn't give HIM the choice. One could argue that Riku sympathizes with her, because she's part of Sora and resembles Kairi, two of the closest people to him. But come on. Sympathizing is one thing, but risking his best friend EVER waking up again is a different thing entirely. He's over here brushing her bangs and gently reassuring her.

 

Admittedly Riku's statement is weak, and the best interpretation is you kicked his but in combat, and then he fought you as Ansem. Essentially one fight, and not really much ambiguity for him to argue about what he said being true 'from a certain point of view'm sorry, if you only have one friend and you don't get to even keep the memories you would treasure of them, of the perfect day you said you would remember forever, how in the bloody hell is that not a tragedy? The reason Xion is so often the subject of the Journal entries, is that she is the catalyst in the game.

Again this depends on whether or not someone likes Xion. You like Xion, so for you it was tragic and effective. I felt like she make the story make less sense, hogged all the attention from Roxas (who drove the introduction of KH II rather than a game that was supposed to be about his time in the Organization) a pointless addition to the story.

 

Without her existence Roxas and Axel would have met up for Ice cream after most every mission, and he'd fight Heartless, Xemnas would unite with Kingdom Hearts, He'd filll the Nobodies with Darkness Merge with the Princesses of Heart and Form a X-Blade for Master Xehanort.

Not necessarily. Roxas could have been fed up with the Organization, and his best friend lying to him. Axel refused to tell Roxas who he really was, and the Organization was basically using him for slave labor without any answers. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Riku to encounter Roxas the first time in a mid-game boss battle. Riku loses and fails to bring him back. Eventually Roxas deserts the Organization, encounters Riku a second and final time, and the Deep Dive battle begins. Things could have gone just fine without Xion, but instead Nomura relied on introducing a bland new character and repetitive gameplay.

 

 

Furthermore he hs a bond for Xion, they are younger Nobodies, with no memory of who they were, both wielders of Keyblades, both mysteriously black out, and both have a connection to Sora. And Axel doesn't have fainting spells, so less concern needs to be spent on her behalf. Roxas feels protective, let's face it Axel can handle himself, Xion can drop unconscious in mid-battle. Roxas gets mad and snappish at people when they threaten his friendship, and he believes running away does less to jeopardize a friendship then beating the person up and taking them where they don't want to go. Add to which Ven is a lot more emotionally mature then Roxas, I would expect him to be more reasonable.

This doesn't excuse his obsessiveness for her, which goes beyond simply being protective. And although he might believe running away does less to jepordize a friendship, XIon DID raise a weapon to him. Whether she was bluffing or not doesn't matter, it still deserves an explanation. In his eyes, he did nothing to deserve being threatened, all he wants is for her to come home, to have his friend back.

 

Finally during the events of Days the Organization probably thought they sent Roxas on missions, he collected hearts, bonded with Axel, got fed up for whatever reason (they didn't seem to make the connection about Roxas being mad about Xion, so they probably just hocked it up to the whims of the heart) fought Riku, lost, and was abducted by DiZ. Basically exactly what happened without Xion.

Then why was Xion needed in the first place if she can so easily taken out of the equation? One might argue that what COULD have happened would be boring without her, and she was an addition that brought something new to the table. Only...the game was just as repetitive with her as it could have been without her. The whole Xion plot could have been used to develop the other members more. Instead, it is entirely focused on her. She is really the main character, Roxas is just the observer to these events. Roxas could have easily been the one hacking into the computer to find out who he really is, he could have been the one sent to eliminate the imposter.

 

And why did Xemnas just sit around and do nothing about Xion running off, or the three of them being friends? If Xemnas somehow figured out that there was a conspiracy plot against him, he must have known Roxas and Xion and Axel were becoming friends and thus had the potential to ruin his plans to gain Kingdom Hearts. Why lose two perfectly valuable members, when he could have just tried to isolate them and kept them as soulless, emotionless beings? At first I thought it was because being emotionless himself, he had no idea such a friendship could exist. But then DDD comes along, and it's revealed that Xemnas KNEW they were developing hearts and thus emotions...

Edited September 22, 2012 by NocturnalMelody

[Nafees Rahman 35]

...yeah, I hate it. I really do not know how to write up a title without sounding like a "Hater gonna Hate", so instead, I made a ambiguous title instead. But I like to say, even though I enjoyed all Kingdom Hearts games to an extent with some I love and some I'm indifferent to/dislike (I dislike Kingdom Hearts II. Really liked the FM+ version, so I don't know how that works), there's one game I cannot get any enjoyment out of. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

 

What really throws me off is the mission structure. Sure, that's fine, Crisis Core did it okay despite having a lot of repetitive missions. But Day's storyline revolve around these mission structures and even the story quests does boil down to a type of same structure. Go around, kill heartless, find something, etc. Sure, the other KH games does it, but it managed to seamlessly integrate it as if you're traveling on a journey. In 358/2 Day's case, it's boxed off and you tend to find yourself thinking "Wait, didn't I do that so many days ago?". Then there's the side missions, which consist of samey objectives such as "attack blob", "collect hearts", "defeat x heartless", etc. When I did a lot of these side missions, even though some were unique, it largely remind me of the 'mah-more-pa-guh'. It's obsessive compulsive without a sort of infinite goal you find in MMORPGs. These side missions have the traits of one and just serves to pad out the game. You also want to do them to get these extra stuff and more panels because trust me, the boss later on have lots of HP!

 

Oh, the bosses are hard you say? I'm sorry, I was too busy dodging slow attacks and find myself chiseling their HP very slowly. Yeah, I'm not going into that because the bosses I faced were amongst the worse in the series... until I be bothered to play and complete ReCoded. But they were bosses with a lot of HP and defence, but they are just damage soakers. They aren't challenging, just mundane to fight through.

 

Even then, I admire a few of its unique elements. Keyblades have different combo strings (through ReCoded have that), the panel system was pretty good as you can choose how powerful you can be and the multiplayer was a fun diversion. Trying out each organization members were interesting, but they were overshadowed by the game's fault. The multiplayer of BBS makes it a moot point, even though it's downgraded from the Day's version.

 

And then we get into the storyline, which is largely self-contained. The story is fine when you read it in the wiki page. But when you actually witness the story, it's hammered by mediocre lines such as "WHO WILL EAT ICE CREAM WITH ME?" and long absences of plot development in the latter half of the game. The fact that the organization XIII members, who didn't get much of their development in II (though it was solved by Final Mix+'s extra cutscene to give us conversation between them in the Throne Room), sorely missed out in Days. We saw more of Axel and Saix's development as well as Xigbar seeing Xion as Ventus. Oh and Xion... I would say she's not needed, but 3D is trying to give relevance to her. Who knows?

 

There's probably more things I hate about 358/2 Days, but it really destroyed my love for the series and I was cynical until Birth by Sleep got released. So yeah, I still love KH as a whole, but I absolutely hate 358/2 Days. There's very little good things about it from my perspective.

 

Thank you for reading, I guess. And I'm always up for a debate!

 

Sorry but thats BULL#%^ The mission structure made it feel more like it was a day and you felt connected to roxas and what not and sad..

 

I also loved Days, i played at the standard difficult, , the only boss i found ''hard'' to fight with, was that Agrabah sandworm-thing heartess, and honestly... I found most bosses easy to defeat. Anyway, the only thing i didn't like in Days were: The fact the keyblade in cutscenes are always the Kingdom Key, this bugged me during the whole game.

Also, there are 2 things that can't be said to say Days is a bad game: The graphics and the directional pad moving. These are hardware flaws, stupid things Nintendo did on the DS, which has nothing to do with the game. (I know you didn't said anything about this, but just saying)

 

To be fair there were like ninety keyblades

[Gambler'sApprentice 131]

While I understand that storywise the repetitiveness makes sense, it makes for boring gameplay, at least for me. Even the bonus missions feel like just a repeat of the things that we've already done 80+ times. I feel like with a little more effort, they could have spiced up missions a bit...overall the gameplay just feels really dull, and the player shouldn't feel as bored as Roxas while doing missions. There was really no reward for trudging one's way through so many missions either.

let me just say befpore hand, I don't play video games often (I didn't play one all the way through until i was 15) and being who i am, when I do, I have to play them through 100%, often when I don't want to (Re:CoM specifically) because every time I think about it, it feels wrong. So playing through Days, I started knowing I was going through it all, and at least from that point, it wasn't that bad. Maybe for the people who don't have that problem maybe it was less enjoyable, but replaying almost every mission gets you a secret entry, and the ability to get some cool items. The problem you seem to have is that there's no plot resolution, which is true, but unavoidable, KHII resolved the plot, with the exception of those points that that are still undetermined.

 

I didn't like the gameplay of Re:CoM either, but at least there was a nice reward waiting for me at the end of each world - a fun cutscene to watch. Days was even repetitive in terms of cutscenes too, not just gameplay. I understand that ice cream is all Roxas and Xion look forward to because that's all they've ever known, but again, it was just boring to me. I was excited when Axel announced that they would be going to the beach, FINALLY some variety to their hanging out! But then Xion ran off. And then another ice cream scene.

Here the problem is Roxas' story. He doesn't do much, and there's a limit to how exciting you can make that. And the goal was to go the beach on the next vacation day (which happens because... I don't know, Xemnas and Saix got tired of not having to do anything?)

 

I have to disagree here. A few secret reports written by each member doesn't help to develop them as much as seeing actions would. We know no more about them than we found out already in KH II. Luxord is the only one that seems to show a different side to him when reading his secret reports, and he even gets along pretty well with Roxas. Demyx in KH II seemed to show genuine anger to a certain extent when fighting Sora and told he didn't have a heart, which had led many people to believe he had another side to him...but in 358/2 days all there was to his personality was laziness. While you mentioned that the game is in Roxas' point of view so he couldn't have seen, this wasn't a problem with Xion. There's many cutscenes of XIon without Roxas in them, her talking to Riku, her showing her face to Namine, facing off Axel...personally the scene where Namine says "I've wanted to meet you...Xion" was a pointless 2 second cutscene and took up DS space. They could have replaced it with something else, like a voiced cutscene of the Organization members. But since Xion is technically the main character of this game, and the plot as it is was focused squarely about her, there was no room to develop anyone else.

Personally I have my own Idea as to how I'd have preferred to have Days function, the entire game would limit you to what Roxas knows, no cutscenes that he is not present for. And then you unlock these other ones as you progress, with the secret journals being replaced with cutscenes between characters, where you can see what other people were doing, but the journals did a generally decent job of that, and while reading entries isn't as useful, it still functions. But let me just say Xion is not the main character, Roxas is. Xion is the driving force, she does more to influence the plot, but that's only because Roxas doesn't try and do much, he just sort of let's the Organization run his life for almost a year. Xion effects things, sometimes unwittingly but still more often than Roxas, or really any other Organization member.

 

I'm sure Normua could have found some way to hint at it in-game, or at least shown when Xemnas was starting to get the hunch that a few members were going to betray him. Or even a short scene of Marluxia and Larxene talking to each other. That couldn't have taken too long.have not been a very good idea

Everyone is gone by Day 7. It would have been nice to have more characterization of them, but there was really no time.

 

I think the make-it or break-it for people to either like Days or dislike Days is Xion. Xion is the center of the whole plot, and while Roxas is a tool for the Organization as well, it is Xion that is making all these life-changing decisions. She is a flawless, sweet, self-sacrificial character that always puts her friends before herself. She's perfect. Her only flaw, which really isn't one, is that she bottles up her emotions and doesn't tell anyone her problems, wanting to soldier on her own. This grated on me, since our main character completely obsessed with her and just sits around clueless while she runs away with Riku all the time. The only time Roxas actually begins to question his existence is when she dies, and then he says the whole "why did the keyblade choose me" which made no sense at all to me. He still remembers who she is at this point too, and tells Riku "I want my life back, I want Xion back!"

Xion isn't perfect, she is low on character flaws, but mostly due to lacking an independent character, and an innocence due to youth, much like Roxas. And they both bottle emotions, but they have no indication as to how to express them (surrounded by Nobodies, this is truly shocking.) And let's be fair, even without Xion, Roxas would be sitting around clueless anyway. Our main character obsesses over her, because he cares about two people, Axel and Xion, and Axel doesn't need worrying about (as far as Roxas knows). If you saw your friend disapearing, acting shifty, and randomly getting super depressed, I think you would worry about that individual. Roxas is having a massive identity crisis, who is she, why can he do what he can do, is any of this for real, or not? And he only has faded memories of what happened to her, he knows he's lost her, and that she's important, but couldn't explain why.

 

What especially bugged me is after the whole incident with Xion pointing her keyblade at Roxas, getting knocked out, yada yada yada, Xion and Roxas go eat ice cream at the clock tower...AND NONE OF THIS IS EVER ADDRESSED. >_< Roxas' naviety comes across as pure stupidity at this point. Their conversation goes something like this, from what I remember:

 

Roxas: Axel is such a jerk for knocking you out.

Xion: Don't call him a jerk. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here. He's your best friend, Roxas.

Roxas: So are you.

 

Okaaaaay why didn't you ask Xion why she's running around with Mr. Imposter, Roxas? DIdn't you tell Saix that she might be in trouble and forced to run around with this guy, and needs help? This is your chance to get some answers from her, or at LEAST question why she threatened you by pointing your keyblade at you! Seriously?!!

Right then, Roxas is lost, Add to that, he's not much of a forceful person except near the end, with Riku, and Axel, who as far as he can tell is betraying thier friendship. Xion is doing weird things, but Axel isn't bothering to find out why, he's just going to fight her. Roxas is trusting Xion's actions are rational, and that she's running from the Organization, a sentiment he shares, and from Axel, who apparently like to beat her up. While he no doubt would try and find out, it's nothing he's comfortable with, and so he's avoiding it.

 

And I feel like Xion DID shove herself into Deep Dive. Nomura said in an interview before that Riku must have "summoned Roxas to a place of Shadows", and in KH II we know that he wants to fight Roxas to bring him back to Sora so his best friend could wake up. It made much more sense that Riku lured Roxas there with answers about who he is, thus making "Why did the keyblade choose me" make sense. So now we find out that Riku needed the motivation to stop Roxas...because Xion spoke from beyond the grave to tell Riku to stop Roxas. Riku didn't need Xion to tell him to stop Roxas, he was working for DiZ to wake up Sora. The fact that Xion, through Oblivion, CAUSED Roxas to throw his keyblade to Riku...is just silly. There could have been a few better reasons for this. One, he was using strike raid to attack Riku, and was shocked when Riku managed to grab it and use it himself. Or, the Neoshadows attacking were about to overwhelm them both, so Roxas needed a temporary ally, thus tossing the blade to Riku.

Tetsuya Nomura trolls us, and couldn't give a straight answer were his life in peril. Xion talked to Namine about stopping Roxas, and a little to Riku, and since namine and Riku were spending so much time together, coupled with DiZ will-murder attitude, he had plenty of reason to stop Roxas. The scene where Roxas throws his Keyblade to Riku... I don't know what that is, Riku didn't need it, my best guess is that Roxas needs work on his strike raid or thougt it was Xion. Either way, it makes no sense. If you can find an interview explaining it I would be delighted. But I don't think he was trying to sabotauge his own purpose, if he were Riku wouldn't have needed to call on Darkness.

 

 

And Riku was completely OOC in this game as well. While Sora, his best friend since childhood, remains in a coma, he lets Xion run around and make her own decision. Meanwhile he knocks Roxas right out and doesn't give HIM the choice. One could argue that Riku sympathizes with her, because she's part of Sora and resembles Kairi, two of the closest people to him. But come on. Sympathizing is one thing, but risking his best friend EVER waking up again is a different thing entirely. He's over here brushing her bangs and gently reassuring her.

He is incharacter, regardless Xion and Roxas were rejoining with Sora, but he doesn't like the idea of just grabbing them and stuffing them kicking an screaming into Sora's subconscious (ya' know, like DiZ does) and so gives her the chance to make her own decision. He respects her rights as an individual, and will give her abn oppurtunity to make a choice, it's not like if she said no she'd be a threat. And that makes him a better person than Sora in my opinion. If Sora weighed the consequences, and decided killing thne Nobodies was the only way to prevent thier plans, I would disagree, and think him stupid, but not morally reprehensible. Instead the only thing preventing him from marching straight to the World that Never was is a difference of power level, and the fact he has no clue where they are. Riku respects them as individuals, but has decided his own friend is more important than a replica of a reflection of Sora, and someone who doesn't have their own identity, and even then they both have the chance to come back.

 

Again this depends on whether or not someone likes Xion. You like Xion, so for you it was tragic and effective. I felt like she make the story make less sense, hogged all the attention from Roxas (who drove the introduction of KH II rather than a game that was supposed to be about his time in the Organization) a pointless addition to the story.

I'm not overly fond of ion, mostly I like Roxas, and so the tragedy was less about Xion, and more about Roxas. But the idea that one can be deleted so completely is a terrible one, and it's a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone, if only so other people wouldn't try and repeat their mistakes. And this is the crux, Xion wasn't pointless, she was brand new, with no prior indication of existence, as were the Organization members, Terra, Ventus, Aqua, Master Xehanort, Yen Sid, and other characters I'm sure we'll meet in KHIII. I'll admit those characters are more interesting (except Yen Sid) but I wouldn't expect anyone to bemoan their inclusion. i would concede her being unimportant if the series just left her having disappeared, but as it seems to have further plans for her, I'd say one should at least wait to see if there is more she'll do before saying that because she was given the cosmic eraser she wasn't important.

 

 

Not necessarily. Roxas could have been fed up with the Organization, and his best friend lying to him. Axel refused to tell Roxas who he really was, and the Organization was basically using him for slave labor without any answers. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Riku to encounter Roxas the first time in a mid-game boss battle. Riku loses and fails to bring him back. Eventually Roxas deserts the Organization, encounters Riku a second and final time, and the Deep Dive battle begins. Things could have gone just fine without Xion, but instead Nomura relied on introducing a bland new character and repetitive gameplay.

Why would Axel lie to him? Excluding the Sora-Ven connection, which Roxas never really brings up, he's just like, I don't have memories? Huh, that''s wierd, well let's go back to work. And why would he get mad at the Organization, as far as he knows life is that feeling of drudgery, he can't feel bored, because even on his Day off he has nothing to do that's fun. It would have made more sense (especially considering Riku's dialogue in KHII) to have them meet earlier, if we had some idea what Riku was doing. As far as we know he could have been naming pebbles on every beach in every world, but if his entire focus was in finding Sora, if he found Roxas, he wouldn't have just been like, 'Looks like he's too strong, I'll come back in like 6 months, see if I'm stronger then.' He'd be back every day, fighting, and doing anything to get Sora back. A Xion-less game would be possible, and would have given more time with the Organization (probably) but unless you know if Xion had more purpose than being Days' catalyst, it seems early to be calling her pointless. Terra was pointless aside from giving Xehanort a new body, Ven was pointless aside from explaining dual-wielding and forming the X-Blade, Aqua was pointless because all she does is help Aqua and Ventus, and Xehanort was pointless aside from telling us what our villain's going to be up to in KHIII.

 

This doesn't excuse his obsessiveness for her, which goes beyond simply being protective. And although he might believe running away does less to jepordize a friendship, XIon DID raise a weapon to him. Whether she was bluffing or not doesn't matter, it still deserves an explanation. In his eyes, he did nothing to deserve being threatened, all he wants is for her to come home, to have his friend back.She feels threatened. At least as he sees it. The Organization will turn her into a Dusk if she comes back. (Again, as far as he knows). yes, he wants her back, but all he knows is that she runs off (again) and will do anything she can to avoid being brought back to the Organization.

 

Then why was Xion needed in the first place if she can so easily taken out of the equation? One might argue that what COULD have happened would be boring without her, and she was an addition that brought something new to the table. Only...the game was just as repetitive with her as it could have been without her. The whole Xion plot could have been used to develop the other members more. Instead, it is entirely focused on her. She is really the main character, Roxas is just the observer to these events. Roxas could have easily been the one hacking into the computer to find out who he really is, he could have been the one sent to eliminate the imposter.How often do you sit back and think, 'What exactly happened last year?' Add to that the Organization is having to deal with Roxas' capture, and then Sora blazing through worlds. No doubt Xemnas and Saix, possibly Xigbar would have reaklized the pieces didn't line up, but the rest of the Organization wasn't about to figure it out. You analogy is flawed, she couldn't be removed from the equation and still have it make sense, it only appeared to without scrutiny. As far as Luxord, Demyx, and Xaldin knew Xion kept running off, and then Roxas did, we don't even know if they knew about the clock tower meetings, they are all fairly closed off people, except Demyx, who's to lazy to maintain an internal wall.

 

And why did Xemnas just sit around and do nothing about Xion running off, or the three of them being friends? If Xemnas somehow figured out that there was a conspiracy plot against him, he must have known Roxas and Xion and Axel were becoming friends and thus had the potential to ruin his plans to gain Kingdom Hearts. Why lose two perfectly valuable members, when he could have just tried to isolate them and kept them as soulless, emotionless beings? At first I thought it was because being emotionless himself, he had no idea such a friendship could exist. But then DDD comes along, and it's revealed that Xemnas KNEW they were developing hearts and thus emotions...

Who knows what Xemnas was doing, as far as we can tell he spends all his time sitting around, either on his throne or in the Chamber of Repose. Perhaps he figured a stronger heart=stronger Keyblade, perhaps he believed Saix when he told him Axel had it covered, perhaps he didn't find out about the conspiracy, he was told about it by Saix (this actually makes the most sense, he never seems to have any involvement with the rest of the Organization, but notices Marluxia and Larxene are up to stuff, but not that his right-hand man's personal assassin kills his staunchest allies? He's clearly either stupid or uninformed)Regardless, he doesn't see the threat until it's too late.