Hatok's Big List O' Ways the Kingdom Hearts is Being Undermined by Recent Games (Sporadic Spoilers)

[hatok 6,413]

I'm just going to rattle these off as they come to me:

 

The Worlds

 

Recently, worlds have been a joke in the KH franchise, most games completely reuse worlds, yet DDD, a game featuring all new worlds managed to be just as boring by having worlds that combine the boredom of traversing large open worlds with the lack of freedom previous KH games have offered. Additionally, while previously, KH1 and KH2 featured assorted background NPCs, as well as frequently giving you the opportunity to talk to party members and Disney characters, previous games have shied from this completely, leading to a sense of isolation.

 

The Command Deck Delgitimizes Magic

 

You may or may not know, but I love the command deck. I think it's a great addition to the KH franchise... however... it is only great when you want to use flashy special moves. Using magic as your primary fighting style was never overtly encouraged in KH, but it was very possible with some doing in KH1 and 2. Not so in new games, with the command deck. Now, if you want to rattle off three fire spells, you need to put three fire spells in your deck, which is half of your deck, by the end of the game. The command deck is overall bad for weak attacks because they still offer long cooldown periods, longer animations, no possibility for a combo, yet not much of an increase in damage either. Days had a similar problem, thanks to the panel system

 

We're Losing Options

 

With each passing game, the tactics available to the player decreases. In KH2, arguably the peak, you could attack using magic or physical attacks, as well as use various forms with unique abilities, and summons. Additionally, parties and abilities could open up new possibilities, and using a form completely changed how both magic and physical attacks were used. Birth by Sleep still offers freedom, though abilities no longer offer new techniques, but rather are purely supplemental. Party members were lost as well. That said, shotlocks, D links and command styles, in addition to a flexible command deck is still plenty of variety. But that variety has been slipping away ever since. Days and Re:Coded feature very limited assets, while Dream Drop Distance only has flowmotion and link attacks/styles to its name, while simultaneously severely limiting the command deck.

 

There is too Much Focus on New Playable Characters

 

Stop and think about it. While you could briefly control a limited version of Mickey or Riku in KH2 (As well as a heartless in KH1) every game since has made it their goal to have multiple playable characters. Not only does this lead to problems with the narrative is most cases, it is also most likely the cause of our loss of options

 

Flowmotion Destroyed the Environments

 

This one is obviously specific to DDD. Flowmotion was poorly implemented. It is far too easy to find an invisible wall in the game, most jarringly in places where they don't belong. Nomura has said that it was intended to let 'clever' players find items before getting abilities such as high jump and the like. Only it doesn't take a very clever player to find out that if they wall jump and slide back into the wall, they can get anywhere. Because of this, you cna get any treasure chest in the game right off the bat, which in turn means there is almost never anything worthwhile inside and that they are rarely well hidden. This leads to my next point

 

Treasure Chests are Becoming Meaningless

 

As the games have gone on, the contents of treasure chests have gotten less and less exciting. What could have once held stat boosting items, useful synthesis material, or even a whole keyblade now tends to contain more junk than anything; commands you probably got ages ago, potions and the like, or if you're lucky, something actually useful. This is probably most noticeable in DDD, where most chests hold ONLY potions, and other minor items that can be bought for spare change, while the big 'special' chests, which appear infrequently, will ALWAYS give you a command; probably not one you'll be using.

 

The Story is Wallowing in the Fact that it's Convoluted

 

I'm fairly certain at this point that the writers are doing it on purpose. Compare the final moments of these games:

KH1- Sora completes his journy to stop the destruction of all worlds by going to a place called the End of the World, he battles through versions of all of the worlds he has been to, and ultimately finds the main villain, Ansem. He is able to defeat him, and thanks to his friend's sacrifice, is able to thwart his plan. Sira then finds himself in a open field, and prepares for a new adventure

 

CoM- After finding out the truth about his tampered memories, Sora confronts Marluxia. Namine gives him a choice to either keep is fake memories, or to gain his old ones back. He chooses the latter but promises to find a way to remember her. He then falls asleep for a year in order to regain his memories

 

R/R- Riku finally comes to a decision about how to handle the darkness, defeats his inner demons, and decides to walk a path between light and darkness, in order to help Sora regain his memories

 

KH2- Sora's chase of Organization XIII as well as Riku culminates in The World that Never Was. Sora fights his way to the top of the castle located in this world, trying to reach Xemnas, an entity created when Ansem was created, only Ansem isn't the real Ansem, but in fact Xehanort. Riku has taken the form of Ansem previously, but regains his true forms when the real Ansem sacrifices himself in order to thwart Xemnas' plan. After defeating Xemnas he and Riku are transpaorted to the Dark Meridian. they believe they are trapped until they find a message in a bottle sent from another planet, which opens a door made of light that transports them home. Later, they get a letter from mickey Mouse and prepare for their next journey.

 

Days- Roxas has an existential crisis and defects from the Organization that raised him in order to go after a puppet made from Sora's memories of Kairi who takes the face of different people depending on who is looking at her. She decides she wants to rejoin with Sora, so she fights Roxas to the death. She bursts into crystal and everbod forgets her, though Roxas remembers that she told him to stop Xemnas, his boss, and free Kingdom Hearts. Roxas gains another keyblade and storms The World that Never Was, only to be stopped by Riku wearing a blindhold who took the form of Ansem from the first game. Afterwards Roxas was taken to a digital version of a world he visited frequently, given a new personality, and proceeded to live through the last seven days of Summer vacation in order to throw off pursuers from the Organization.

 

BBS1- An elderly keyblade master named Xehanort lures Terra Aqua and Ventus to the Keybladed Graveyard. He announces his plan to start a keyblade war by having his pupils; Ventus and Vanitas (Vanitas being made of the darkness in Ventus' heart, Ventus being the light in his heart supported by a four year old Sora) fight, creating the X Blade, which is pronounced key blade. He fights Terra, who gives in to the darkness, allowing Xehanort to free his heart from his body and possess Terra. However, Terra;s armour gains a will of its own and fights Xehanort, after a fight, the armour curls up and rests, while Terra/Xehanort has possibly lost some memories. Meanwhile, on the ground, Aqua saves Ventus after Xehanort freezes him and fights Braig who has been possessed by Xehanort, but is knocked out by Vanitas, causing Ventus to get so angry the ice melts off of him. Ventus fights Vanitas but it turns out that him dying was part of the plan, as it would force them to become one; forging the X Blade. Inside Ventus' mind, he fights Vanitas, which in the real world causes the X Blade to be damaged as Aqua fights Ventus possessed by Vanitas, wielding said X Blade. When they both simultaneously defeat Vanitas, they X Blade begins to fall about causing gigantic explosions and such. Aqua risks her life in order to save Venus, and takes him to her home; The Land of Departure, which she transforms into Castle Oblivion as a safeguard, as well as creating a safe haven for Ventus' now comatose body, as his heart has now taken shelter in four year old Sora's. Aqua then hears a psychic plea from Terra to put an end from him, so she tracks him down, and finds that he most most of his memories when the X Blade blew up. She fights him and he falls to darkness, but Aqua sacrifices her keyblade by turning it into a ahang-glider and using it to fly him to safety. Meanwhile she remains trapped in darkness. Terra, possessed by Xehanort, but without most of his memories, goes on to be a sicentist, and would eventually be split into the forms Ansem and Xemnas in future games.

 

Coded- A data recreation of Sora defeats a data version of his heartless in a data world with the help of a non data Mickey Mouse, successfully clearing the journal of Jiminy Cricket of glitches. Data Sora then resets and is taken to data Castle Oblivion, where he fights Data Roxas in order to find Data Namine who reveals that there is data hidden in the real Sora.

 

DDD- Braig, still posessed by Xehanort, lures Sora into a dream within a dream along with Xemnas, brought back from the past, as an attempt to lure Sora into the darkness by using his dreams to have him remember the many hearts connected to him. He calls upon his friend's for power, and defeats Xemnas, causing him to fall to darkness and be taken to teh real World that Never Was by a young form a Xehanort broguht from the past. Meanwhile, Riku explores the Wolrd that Never was and finds Sora sleeping, he attempts to wak him and and defeats a red eyed cloaked figure. Ansem, brought back from the past, shows up and tells Riku that he dove into Sora's dreams without either knowing and became a Dream Eater in order to protect him. He explains that succumbing to darkness is the only way to save Sora from succumbing to darkness, but Riku rejects him and defeats him. He then enters The Hall Where Nothing Gathers, and finds Sora, sleeping on a chair. Young Xehanort, brought back from the past, explains that in the first game, when Ansem left behind his body, he traveled in time in order to tell young Ansem, in his original time, that he should gather the thirteen forms of Xehanort in the future at this exact point. Old Xehanort, brough back from the past, begins to appear, when Mickey Mouse appears and freezes time, stop Xehanort from completely travelling through time. Young Xehanort breaks through time being stopped and fights Riku. Time unfreezes and old Xehanort appears, explaining that he plans to possess Sora, as hearts regrow whenever lost, infinitely. He also explains that Organization XIII wasn't actually a group of people attempting to get their hearts back, but instead a group of people intended, but ultimately rejected, for being possessed by Xehanort. Mickey tries to stop him but is stopped by Xemnas, brought back from the past, and Riku is similarly stopped by Ansem, brought back from the past. Xehanort is almost able to possess Sora, when suddenly Lea, the complete from of Axel, appears and blocks the possession with fire. He rescues Sora and the three prepare to deal with their problem, when the forms of Xehanort all start to fade. Xehanort announces that they are out of time, and are returning to their own times. In the real world, Sora is still asleep, so Riku dives into his dreams again in order ro bring him back. He finds Sora, who is encased in the armour of Ventus, whose heart is proetecting him, which has been corrupted by darkness and has become a nightmare. defeating Sora/Ventus allows Riku to go deeper, where he meets data versions of Roxas, Ventus, Xion and the real Ansem, the latter of whom gives Riku the data within Sora in teh form of a bottle with a letter in it, In the rel world again, Sora and Riku pass the exam, and Riku is made a keyblade master.

 

Seriously, look at that. A complex plot doesn't mean an overabundance to of plot twisty explanations to previous plot points. Previous KH games were complex in their mythos, and their use of abstract ideas as real world laws. Recent KH games have simply filled missing plot points with bigger plot points, to the point of stuffing, with a ridiculous disregard to any attempt to bring in new fans, or even appease more casual ones.

 

Worlds are Treated as Levels-

 

More and more KH worlds have been devolving into "Visit world > get abridged plot points > fight boss"

This might not be so obvious as first: you might say that all previous KH games did this, but that's not the case. Previously, a world could end with a fight against a group of enemies, or no fight at all. A boss could occur right in the middle. Now every world treats it as though bosses are a strictly 'end of level' affair, even when it makes no sense, and an enemy is simply brought in in order to have a boss fight. In KH1, a boss rarely ended a world, as the keyhole still needed to be found, while KH2 opted to instead mx up the boss formula; you may fight a boss in the middle of a level, or some such. You would get things like the big heartless fight at Hollow Bastion, which was a mash up of fights with exclusive party members, a boss fight with Demyx, and ended with a battle against 1000 heartless. We don't get stuff like that anymore.

 

There is too Much Focus Being Placed on Introducing New Characters-

 

It feels like the developers are worried that if they don't introduce an exciting new character to steal the show from Sora, Riku, Roxas and the like, they are failing at their job. Additionally, fan outcry is weighed too heavily, at the detriment to the story. I mean, Axel has been revived four times! Each time emerging more perfect than before.

 

Moves are Getting too Flashy and Feeling Progressively Less Satisfying-

 

In KH1, Sora had a pretty basic menagerie of moves, but pulling them off all had a nice and effective feel to them. KH2 had a massively improved combat wardrobe, but managed to make all of the options satisfying. This has not been the case in recent developments. Sure, at the press of a button you can send your character into a triple flip teleport whirlwind death slash, but during that entire animation, your enemy probably wont flinch one bit. In fact, they'll probably be ATTACKING you the whole time, probably dealing more damage to you than you are to them. And that leads to my next point;

 

Enemies are Getting Worse-

 

Enemies are getting ridiculous. In a misguided need to accommodate for the player's increasing repertoire of death, enemies are getting more and more overpowered. From crazy countering, to an inability to flinch, to being able to use powerful moves instantaneously, to simply comboing you to death, these enemies have you covered. Heartless and Nobodies made for great enemies; they had clear tells that meant that in theory you could guard and counter them. Even if you did get hit, it wasn't a very big deal, as it simply meant retreating and healing, and that was only if you got hit a LOT. But now enemies love to fly across the screen, raining death in completely unpredictable ways. Whether an Aura Lion is teleporting in from offscreen to hit you from an angle you can't block, or you're being sniped by a Mandrake, or simply fighting the butchered versions of the heartless in Days and Re:Coded, the fact remains that these enemies are getting ridiculously unfair. I feel special mention needs to go to DDD, which seems to be motivated entirely by what looks cool as opposed to what actually works ingame. here's an example: in the final boss against Ansem, the hitbox for Guardian's punches hit WELL BEFORE the actual punch connects (This should be clear to anybody who blocks those punches) the reason being that the Guardian's punches strike SO fast, anime style. This is something that looks cool, but is unfair to the player. Additionally, the Dream Eaters have access to the same moves as Sora and Riku... only they can swarm at you, and spam.

 

Nobody Wants Status Effects-

 

More specifically, nobody wants things like frozen and air tossed, or time stopped of zero gravitied. Why? Because they waste your time. Odds are an enemy will never hit you when affected by one of these... they just waste your time by taking control from the player.

 

Attention is Being Drawn to the Lifelessness of the Worlds-

 

Things like Terra looking for the crowd cheering for him at Olympus Colosseum. I can understand not wanting to make a bunch of Hercules style NPCs... but don't draw attention to it and then never explain it. But the lifelessness of the worlds is getting worse, which is strange considering...

 

There is Less Content with Each Game-

 

It's strange, a LOT of games have an excuse; they are pushing for new technology, and expanding, and that costs a lot of money. KH doesn't have this excuse. They've been using the same graphical style for years, and reusing worlds at a constant rate. Yet there are fewer NPCs, minigames, bonuses, keyblade, items, you name it... with each game in fact...

 

There are fewer Worlds and Yet...-

 

They are lighter on content. There are only a few cutscenes in each wordl in DDD, and it has the fewest worlds in the series to date. people may argue that the worlds are huge, however, this is note the case; there are large maps, but still only a few rooms, and considering most of the area has become wasted space to be used by nothing, they might as well be small.

 

There are No Longer Alternate and Extra Scenes-

 

In KH2, things like being defeated by Seifer and Setzer offered unique scenes. Similar siutuations could occur by losing to Leon or Cloud in KH1. There were lots of optional moments to pursue as well; Olympus Colosseum was mostly optional, there was the whole bit with Sephiroth. The extar scenes you get by talking to scrooge in KH2. All sorts of odds and ends. What ever happened to those?

 

Sora has Stopped Evolving-

In KH2, you could play as Roxas, who functioned like a slightly smoother KH1 Sora... then you got your hands on Sora. His moves were faster, more stylish, more focused. He was a big improvement and it showed how his skills had evolved. Fast forward, any playable instance of Sora has been INSISTENTLY the KH1 version. Rather than go with the smooth moves of KH2, or even evolve him further, we are constantly saddled with KH1 Sora's awkward chunkiness.

 

i may continue with more. I have more to say, but I can't think of anything at the moment so I'mma publish.

Edited August 18, 2012 by hatok

[Epic KH Fan_13 64]

Well,everything you sad is right...but that is kingdom hearts and if you are a fan you don't mind any of those things

[hatok 6,413]

Well,everything you sad is right...but that is kingdom hearts and if you are a fan you don't mind any of those things

 

What kind of logic is that?

Being a fan doesn't mean being a blind follower. If you see these flaws, and think they matter, then they should be treated as such

I'd go as far as to say a person a person who sees yet ignores the flaws of something they enjoy is a bad fan, in the same thread of logic that a friend who sees their friend's problems and says nothing.

[VentusX 20]

i agree with some of it, except the bit that i definitely dont agree with is the freedom part, DDD has the best world freedom in the entire series, and if thats not what you meant, please clarify

[hatok 6,413]

i agree with some of it, except the bit that i definitely dont agree with is the freedom part, DDD has the best world freedom in the entire series, and if thats not what you meant, please clarify

 

An open world does not equal freedom. Sure the area's are big, but it just equates to a bigger distance between point A and B. There's nothing inbetween, and you can't go anywhere special or interact with anything meaningful. Most of the area is blocked off as well, to a ridiculous degree (Sliding off of roofs and such)

Here's a very clear example: Compare Traverse Towns. Despite the fact that Sora has more potential exploration abilities this time around, he can go to fewer places and stand on fewer surfaces than in KH1. The brand new areas, despite being much bigger, have LESS to do in them than in the reused area.

DDD may APPEAR to give you freedom, but it's giving you the same as before, spread over a bigger area.

[Epic KH Fan_13 64]

I know...some flaws bother me but you can't really do anything about it...but you can tell your friend about his problems...I think if you are a good friend with someone you are going to ignore some of his flaws.I just enjoy playing kh games and even if it has it's flaws,for me kh is the best series http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/happy.png

 

An open world does not equal freedom. Sure the area's are big, but it just equates to a bigger distance between point A and B. There's nothing inbetween, and you can't go anywhere special or interact with anything meaningful. Most of the area is blocked off as well, to a ridiculous degree (Sliding off of roofs and such)

Here's a very clear example: Compare Traverse Towns. Despite the fact that Sora has more potential exploration abilities this time around, he can go to fewer places and stand on fewer surfaces than in KH1. The brand new areas, despite being much bigger, have LESS to do in them than in the reused area.

DDD may APPEAR to give you freedom, but it's giving you the same as before, spread over a bigger area.

 

You have a point there...In KH1and KH2 you could interact with characters in every world but in bbs there is less of it and in DDD you can't interact with characters at all...

[hatok 6,413]

I know...some flaws bother me but you can't really do anything about it...but you can tell your friend about his problems...I think if you are a good friend with someone you are going to ignore some of his flaws.I just enjoy playing kh games and even if it has it's flaws,for me kh is the best series http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/happy.png

 

You have a point there...In KH1and KH2 you could interact with characters in every world but in bbs there is less of it and in DDD you can't interact with characters at all...

 

Fans have a voice. It's just hard to remember that. There's a pervasive stigma that companies are gigantic entities beyond our mortal minds, but they really aren't, and they're a lot more accessible, and reliant on us, than we tend to think.

[Uncle Dolan 963]

I just want the original system back, and with it combined with the command deck for some simple combo-ish moves. (The CD would be limited to attacks like Shock Dive or Sliding Dash, magic would be on the regular menu.)

[Jim 2,990]

You made a lot of really good points, but I just want to point out that with the NPCs (or lack thereof) in DDD, the developers were cramming for space as it is with the game. Having to put NPCs in the game would have meant sacrificing other features that made the game more enjoyable (although that's debatable too, I guess, depending on your viewpoint). I personally am still enjoying the game, and I think it's an excellent game, but your points do make a lot of sense to me.

[Shard the Gentleman 2,891]

I agree, but I believe if we let Nomura know what we think, the series will pick up again. Of course, they are all great games, but we all had that something's missing feeling in some of the later games. once again: Great series, and I'm still a hardcore fan, but something is definitely missing.

[AnsemTheWise 1,114]

Unfortunately, I've been thinking the same things, too. I'd make a fancy-pants list like Hatok... but then I'd be late for work.

[Namikaze 654]

I agree with eveyhing you are saying. The world designs are gettin worse. I think bbs takes crown for most blan and boring worlds. I think bbs also had the fastest worlds. I just hate how lifeless the worlds are. they are getting lazy. I dont think the enimies are getting overpowered, but the moves are. I find the enimies weak and unsatisfying. The biggest problems for me are i think KH is dated and things need to be improved. I thought flowmotion was petty fun and didnt really take away from anything. One i can really agree on is that treasures are really pointless. They give useless things. Even in the later worlds of ddd you would get potions. Most of the other times they were just stupid confetti candy and ice cream cones. I got was starting to gt mad at how they were giving me such uselsss things. Whenever i found a big chest it would be for a move i have already. I was left very unsatisfyed.

[darkchaser 788]

Very good list. I agree with it. I hope for KH3 we get some of these issues fix. Like the empty worlds. If square can make random NPC that walks around like they did for FF13-2 i would be happy (with some of them offering side quest to do on that world or a different one). Also i would love more choice in the game.

[Raziel 248]

Put it this way: Kingdom Hearts 3 will be SO fcking outstanding and mind-blowingly amazing that everyone will forget the flaws in past-games, since there would pretty much be no point in playing them anymore if you already beat them.

 

They have 25-50 gigs to work with, so the amount of content in KH 3 will be out of this world. Unless they rush it...Which I doubt they will. They will want to make it as epic as virtually possible.

Edited August 18, 2012 by Raziel

[hatok 6,413]

Put it this way: Kingdom Hearts 3 will be SO fcking outstanding and mind-blowingly amazing that everyone will forget the flaws in past-games, since there would pretty much be no point in playing them anymore if you already beat them.

 

They have 25-50 gigs to work with, so the amount of content in KH 3 will be out of this world. Unless they rush it...Which I doubt they will. They will want to make it as epic as virtually possible.

 

Having tonnes of space doesn't equate to using it. Most of the space used in Final Fantasy XIII was dedicated to high quality prerendered cutscenes.

[Kirux 1,224]

What I found amazing about your list hatok was how ell you summed up each and every game, I let a friend read it who was confused as to what was going on; and came back understanding it perfectly.

 

Now, I agree with majority of this; especially talking to NCPs, seeing as how game have made it so you only talk to someone to progress the plot these days. Worlds feel amazingly empty and devoid of life. Worlds them self are just easy to go through and leave little reason to revisit them. All in all, the game are stream lined, geared towards getting you through it and to the end.

 

I disagree, however; with the gripe against flowmotion. I absolutely adore it, and think it has the potential to become really great if implemented in KHIII. I personally think the best way to do this, is make it more reactionary based in battles. I was disappointed there was really only one flowmotion you could do by running into enemies, and that it was rather tricky to actually pull off. Bosses should have flowmotions specific to them, that fit the theme of what they are much like reaction commands.

 

Also, I played DDD thinking things like sonic blade, slot edge, etc were still interactive like BBS. I really love the big moves, because I'm a power monger in videogames, but I hate feeling like I've no control over whats going on. Sometimes in the middle of Dark Aura, I want to stop because I have to heal, in BBS I could do that, stop mashing triangle, in DDD I have to wait for the move to finish and hope it's not too late.

 

As for the enemies, I'm suprised to hear someone say they've gotten harder. Personally, I find very little difficulty in the regular modes of the newer KH games, especially DDD. I beat the final bosses with RIku amazingly fast, and didn't come truly close to dying once. This is mostly due to the fact that, if knowing what you're doing, it because WAY to easy to over power your characters with commands in the game, especially in New Game+, where you start with all your Dream Eaters. I wasn't even done with Traverse Town when I had Meteor Crash, Dark Splinter, Dark Break, and Curaga. Sora's commands are a bit harder to get, needing your DEs at level 20 or 30 before you can unlock them, but I'm nearly finished with Cite des Cloches and have the three main DEs I need leveled to level 17. I find this second playful frightfully boring, due to how OP I am, and I'm having to find creative ways to make it a challenge. granted, if I had been on proud mode like I wanted; this may not be an issue, but even in my original play through of DDD, it was just too easy.

 

I also like the notions of different playable characters. When in a connected multigame franchise like KH, it can get droll playing as Sora every single time, especially if they don't truly change him in anyway. RIku gives a nice breath of fresh air to the game, and I genuinely prefer his style of fighting to Sora's, mostly because even in KHII Sora has always felt clunky. I am truly looking forward to playing as Lea, if that's possible (which I hope it is) and highly interested in what how his controls will feel. I also really hope they give us a feature like mission mode from Days (without it being so boring).

 

I think that's all I really had to say, might have had more but I've forgotten by now.

 

Having tonnes of space doesn't equate to using it. Most of the space used in Final Fantasy XIII was dedicated to high quality prerendered cutscenes.

 

And some of the prettiest Hallways I have ever seen. Edited August 18, 2012 by Kirux

[hatok 6,413]

What I found amazing about your list hatok was how ell you summed up each and every game, I let a friend read it who was confused as to what was going on; and came back understanding it perfectly.

 

Now, I agree with majority of this; especially talking to NCPs, seeing as how game have made it so you only talk to someone to progress the plot these days. Worlds feel amazingly empty and devoid of life. Worlds them self are just easy to go through and leave little reason to revisit them. All in all, the game are stream lined, geared towards getting you through it and to the end.

 

I disagree, however; with the gripe against flowmotion. I absolutely adore it, and think it has the potential to become really great if implemented in KHIII. I personally think the best way to do this, is make it more reactionary based in battles. I was disappointed there was really only one flowmotion you could do by running into enemies, and that it was rather tricky to actually pull off. Bosses should have flowmotions specific to them, that fit the theme of what they are much like reaction commands.

 

Also, I played DDD thinking things like sonic blade, slot edge, etc were still interactive like BBS. I really love the big moves, because I'm a power monger in videogames, but I hate feeling like I've no control over whats going on. Sometimes in the middle of Dark Aura, I want to stop because I have to heal, in BBS I could do that, stop mashing triangle, in DDD I have to wait for the move to finish and hope it's not too late.

 

As for the enemies, I'm suprised to hear someone say they've gotten harder. Personally, I find very little difficulty in the regular modes of the newer KH games, especially DDD. I beat the final bosses with RIku amazingly fast, and didn't come truly close to dying once. This is mostly due to the fact that, if knowing what you're doing, it because WAY to easy to over power your characters with commands in the game, especially in New Game+, where you start with all your Dream Eaters. I wasn't even done with Traverse Town when I had Meteor Crash, Dark Splinter, Dark Break, and Curaga. Sora's commands are a bit harder to get, needing your DEs at level 20 or 30 before you can unlock them, but I'm nearly finished with Cite des Cloches and have the three main DEs I need leveled to level 17. I find this second playful frightfully boring, due to how OP I am, and I'm having to find creative ways to make it a challenge. granted, if I had been on proud mode like I wanted; this may not be an issue, but even in my original play through of DDD, it was just too easy.

 

I also like the notions of different playable characters. When in a connected multigame franchise like KH, it can get droll playing as Sora every single time, especially if they don't truly change him in anyway. RIku gives a nice breath of fresh air to the game, and I genuinely prefer his style of fighting to Sora's, mostly because even in KHII Sora has always felt clunky. I am truly looking forward to playing as Lea, if that's possible (which I hope it is) and highly interested in what how his controls will feel. I also really hope they give us a feature like mission mode from Days (without it being so boring).

 

I think that's all I really had to say, might have had more but I've forgotten by now.

 

 

And some of the prettiest Hallways I have ever seen.

 

The enemies aren't HARDER... they're cheaper. It's way easy to be knocked down to 1 HP (Or death if you don't have Second Chance) by on offscreen enemy, and when enemies used things like Sparkga twice, it was pretty much inescapable. That and the fact that you can rarely cause them to flinch. This may be partially attributed to the fact that I was playing on Proud and quite underleveled (I was in my mid twenties by the final boss)

 

The hallways mean nothing The entirety of FF XIII could have fit on the Xbox 360, the only thing that changes on each disk is the FMVs.

[lizzie1238 538]

For me, commands actually make me use magic more often. In KH2, I would use magic solely for curing and the odd thunder to finish off a boss (since you needed to kill bosses with either combo finishers or magic in that game). I find it easier to use magic with commands since I don't have to worry about any MP, but that's just me.

 

Other than that, I agree with everything you said, and that is why KH2 still remains my favourite game in the series.

[Henne 150]

There is too Much Focus on New Playable Characters

 

Stop and think about it. While you could briefly control a limited version of Mickey or Riku in KH2 (As well as a heartless in KH1) every game since has made it their goal to have multiple playable characters. Not only does this lead to problems with the narrative is most cases, it is also most likely the cause of our loss of options

 

Well, I think, it would be the best for the series if we would just follow Sora's story but if other characters are in the team that we can also play as them. When I played my first KH game I thought I could switch the characters - I was a bit sad that I could not.

So everyone could play as person X and the story would not repeat as it did in BBS/DDD.

 

 

Worlds are Treated as Levels-

 

More and more KH worlds have been devolving into "Visit world > get abridged plot points > fight boss"

 

Yeah. I think, it worked best in KH2 - It was kind of nice to revisit the worlds and to have still a plot/other things to do.

 

 

Attention is Being Drawn to the Lifelessness of the Worlds-

 

Things like Terra looking for the crowd cheering for him at Olympus Colosseum. I can understand not wanting to make a bunch of Hercules style NPCs... but don't draw attention to it and then never explain it. But the lifelessness of the worlds is getting worse, which is strange considering...

 

In this case, I thought, it was because of the limits of the PSP. However, 3DS could handle these things so yeah, they are just lazy.

 

 

There are fewer Worlds and Yet...-

 

They are lighter on content. There are only a few cutscenes in each wordl in DDD, and it has the fewest worlds in the series to date. people may argue that the worlds are huge, however, this is note the case; there are large maps, but still only a few rooms, and considering most of the area has become wasted space to be used by nothing, they might as well be small.

 

I don't have a problem with fewer worlds, however, it was a bit jarring that the plot of each world was so short. If the storys (hello, Notre Dome!) would at least be long enough to make up for it.

Never played Coded or Days - but was that the same with them, too?

I guess, "rushed" is the word for this? Some of the 'new' Disney characters were... just there. If I would not know about the movies I would have never got some relationships at all. I look at you, Esmeralda!

 

[hatok 6,413]

For me, commands actually make me use magic more often. In KH2, I would use magic solely for curing and the odd thunder to finish off a boss (since you needed to kill bosses with either combo finishers or magic in that game). I find it easier to use magic with commands since I don't have to worry about any MP, but that's just me.

 

Other than that, I agree with everything you said, and that is why KH2 still remains my favourite game in the series.

 

Ah, no, you misunderstand. I don't use magic much either, and found myself using it a lot more in BBS. But it's magic is still a perfectly viable style. My friend played KH1 and 2 relying on magic. It's not so practical in BBS, where every piece of magic is a command, and you have very limited deck space. It basically forces you to rely on other things fairly regularly, making a focus on magic a fairly non-legitimate tactic.

[Henne 150]

It's not so practical in BBS, where every piece of magic is a command, and you have very limited deck space. It basically forces you to rely on other things fairly regularly, making a focus on magic a fairly non-legitimate tactic.

 

They could fuse this with KH2's system.

[Kirux 1,224]

I like the command system, it gives a bit more of an RPG feel, and to me a lots easier to navigate than the shortcuts menu, which rather limits what you use in battle. Having 2 menus to have to sift through w/o the command deck just takes too much time for me, and I end up dying during real time battle.

[hatok 6,413]

They could fuse this with KH2's system.

 

I was actually going to mention this; a command deck that runs on an MP bar would be great.

[Xail 113]

I agree with everything you said. A online which people actually use would be nice.

[Austin South 33]

I honestly believe they've done nothing wrong with Kingdom Hearts. The most of the games out now have been plot fillers and what not. They don't have to be the same as KH and KH2 worked. It's all different each time from what I've seen. Nothing wrong has happened, everything makes sense now and every game filled more to the story, though Coded/Re: Coded was kind of unneeded in my opinion. All that matters to me in Kingdom Hearts is the story, the characters and the gameplay. All of that put together has become something great with each game they release.