NocturnalMelody

AWESOME news, this is very exciting! I was so disappointed when Tokyopop shut down and the manga wasn't being picked up...can't wait to buy them!

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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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...

This is ridiculous. I speak English, but I still don't think it's fair...especially since there are a LOT of Spanish fans, and I'm sure there's a lot of Italian fans too. Just getting the English with subtitles isn't the same as having the game in your own language. Square Enix is just trying to release the game as quickly as possible.

Monster's Inc, Toy Story...and Brave if it's good! I love Up but it doesn't seem like the kind of movie that would be in a Kingdom Hearts game, although I'm sure Sora would love Dug to pieces Finding Nemo I could do without...not just cause I wasn't too crazy about the movie but also because I can't stand the ocean levels that have been in KH.

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.

It was a good interview Good to know that he FINALLY wants to put KH back on a console! I'm also happy that while the plot of KH is difficult to grasp, Nomura didn't feel the need to dumb it down just because it has Disney characters in it. The storyline was even able to get darker and darker, regardless of Donald and Goofy and even Winnie the Pooh being in the same story.

You'll never get me alive!! :ph34r: LOL I wish I could like Xion, I really do. I tried.

I do support pairings, but that automatically means I'm a butthurt fangirl to people who get offended when I say I hate Xion http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/sleep.png She gets in the way in the sense that I was looking forward to see ROXAS struggling with his identity, instead all you have to do is look at his diaries and EVERY PAGE after Xion arrives is all about her. He's obsessed the entire time, and Xion is the one struggling with her problems and running off to find out who she is. Her personality is also flawless, bland, and boring, which makes it even harder to stomach the game http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/sleep.png I would have liked to see a lot more development of the other Organization members too, including bits of their past lives. I think the creators made her with the intention of being a strong female, but the result was a character that goes between fainting into the arms of the hot guys and killing major enemies in one hit. http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.png