Merilly

Personally, I like Blaine better because I feel it suits him so far. The only reason why I could accept something like that would be if Square knows something we don't about him so that it absolutely has to be Brain. I just think it's not a fitting name for any character unless it's meant to be some sort of nickname or code name or something similar. And if they mess up Lauriam in a way that's not understandable, then we know they just don't think when they make those decisions.

At the same time, we've gotten more relevant info with these 5 quests updates than with a lot of the 25 or 15 ones. Which is fine by me because you don't need to wait for AP to recharge and it's more condensed overall. Personally, I don't need to rush through maps I already know to defeat enemies we've already seen and then receive no cutscene whatsoever in return... At least not in a game which doesn't really have that much of an exciting gameplay to make it fun to do so. I sometimes wish they would pick up the pace a little but then again, we don't know where this is headed, how much content can be given without taking too much from KH3 and beyond, etc. And of course, dragging it out provides more money. Other than that, it's not particularly slower than before, neither in JP nor in global.

I don't have anything against them in particular, I just don't think a movie/series director would be suitable for a game on their own, especially if they don't have any experience with either the source material or games in general. A movie is different after all and games have a different focus since gameplay is a very important factor that is completely irrelevant to movies or a TV series. I'm not saying that their influence couldn't be helpful for certain aspects but a general director should be able to oversee the entirety of development and at least understand the different parts involved. They don't need to be able to do everything of course, but experience helps. Apart from that, I'll stick to Nomura and Yasue. Unlike Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts is a series which requires the in depth understanding of all previous titles to really progress on the next game, unless they decide to overthrow everything we know and reboot it. The question would be though if it could still be considered Kingdom Hearts then if Nomura and Yasue would be replaced. However, as the series evolves, I wouldn't mind some additional input from other people. I do think having Roy Conli assist in the development or the Pixar team work with them could potentially be worthwhile in the end. It's hard to tell how things would have turned out without them, but regarding Disney, it's probably better to have the creators aid with certain factors as long as it does not become too restrictive.

There's a difference between logic in fiction and our world's logic, I'm aware of that, but what I am referring to as problematic is when fiction defies the logic established by its own world. Time travel is such a device which is often implemented, which is fine, but then continues to break the rules of the fictional world it is used with. Problems with coherence are only the beginning there. When I talk about logic, I don't mean our logic at all. Same as when I talk about people when referring to characters, I don't think about them as existing humans. I've studied literature enough to make that distinction at least. You basically also assumed that I did compare our world's logic to a fictional setting, which I did not. Assumptions and theories are what allow us to interprete and analyze certain aspects because we are unable to see every minor little detail. I'm not saying my assumptions are true, indicated by words such as "likely" and "possibility", so I don't see why this should be bad. You can like what you want but assuming people are generally hating on mobile games just because they point out what they think to be flaws is doing the exact same thing you criticize. I am not hating on mobile games. In fact, I play Union Cross in both the Japanese and English version, I have from the very beginning, and rather intensively as well, but some quests are basically fillers. Side quests, so to speak. And saying that does not make the other KH games fillers. But seeing more or less the same story we already know play out again is redundant. Another point is that I assume it won't be finished when KH3 comes out. The reason for that is pacing and how things have been so far. It's been almost 1 1/2 years and we get a story update about every two to three weeks. And no matter how much you try to tell me Union Cross is separated as season two, it is still Chi in its original and became Union Cross for global before we even reached the Japanese point in the narrative. Nomura even said it was basically season two, not another game. Season 1 did not give us many answers. Which is fine. But it took them almost a year to do exactly that. If KH comes out 2018, that'll be 1 year and 4 months left to give us some answers. Not every answer, but some. That would be terrible pacing in my opinion. That's like spending half a book on introduction and then rushing the main part and ending into the last pages. Which is what 3D did. As for me contradicting myself: I'm not. I don't want more characters from the present in Union Cross because Nomura said he would wrap up the stories. KH3 already has a lot of questions to solve without treading into Union Cross territory. And quite frankly, you don't need every character's back story to wrap up the existing plot elements from the console games. Not every character needs a tragic past or connections to something existing in the past to make KH a compelling story. Why can't characters just have a more or less eventless, irrelevant to the plot, upbringing? That's why I don't need more characters in Union Cross from the present. For example, I don't need Xehanort to have a tragic past which somehow explains everything. I'm fine with him just wanting to leave the island and then do everything because he wants to, not because some stereotypical disaster befell him. It's not contradicting at all. Also, I know these are just assumptions. But that's what keeps the community alive. Theorizing how things can work when they apparently don't and then figuring out how Nomura planned it. I am not saying that it will be incoherent, just that there is a danger of contradicting itself. I'm not saying I don't like difficult concepts, I just don't like them when they make things more complicated than necessary. From my perspective right now, just an opinion, time travel was not necessary. Of course KH3 can prove me wrong because it is indeed needed, but 3D made me think that Xehanort could use other vessels and Young Xehanort did not necessarily need to appear. It could always have been existing people, recompleted characters and so on. That is, however, just how I see it now until we know more. Nothing more and nothing less. See, you complain about stereotypical hate on mobile games without even knowing that I play it daily. You're doing exactly what you complain about. My "irrelevant arguments" are not so irrelevant if you don't assume I have no idea about everything. I don't treat assumptions as a bad thing and I clearly indicated that some of my arguments were based on assumptions until we know more. Trying to denounce every argument of mine did not work because they are partly based on your own assumptions and opinions. I agree to disagree here. I don't want to continue an argument which doesn't essentially belong here and you can rest assured that I know enough about KH to understand the majority of it, excluding factors which have yet to be explained.

The problem is not that it's part of the story but how certain elements will be implemented. They put a lot of restrictions on time traveling to prevent more problems than there already are when it comes to that topic and now characters from the present appear in a game that is set hundreds and thousands of years in the past? The explanation for that has to be very precise and needs to fit the rest of the story to be plausible. It can cause a lot of problems in the future in terms of coherence for example if it isn't done properly. Quite frankly, I don't think fans need to accept everything blindly just because Nomura envisions it, especially if things are made exceptionally difficult without needing it to be that way. Or if every possible stereotype needs to be implemented. Time travel hardly ever works out well because there are too many issues. Then there's the issue with the psychological impact of basically losing an entire life and possibly being transported into an entirely different time with no recollection of what has happened. The whole unexplained thing with the two sides of Union Cross and sleeping worlds, the possibility of reincarnation, and so on and so forth. I don't think you can blame people for disliking concepts which are renowned for being problematic in other franchises. Questions aren't the problem. They are actually fascinating. What I have major issues with is how slowly it progresses. You said it yourself, after quest 730, it is still just the beginning. I wouldn't even mind that if the story actually progresses every two weeks. But there are just so many filler quests that it is getting annoying. I don't really want any more appearances. Nomura said that he wants to wrap up the stories of most of the characters in KH3. That's hard to do when some of the characters backstories are missing, especially when it's a crucial element to the overall plot. Since Union Cross likely will not be finished until then, it shouldn't use too many characters from the present or otherwise it wouldn't really be an end to their stories... And there would be no relevance to have all of that happen that far back if everyone is going to reappear anyway.

I wish I could shout something akin to "Stop! Stop! It's already dead!" but FFXV apparently is nowhere near done. I feel like these Pocket Editions are somewhat lazy and KH doesn't need another mobile title, even if it would only be an exact retelling of any game. But they would surely add tiny little details into it to coax people into downloading it because even if FFXV PE's first episode is free, the rest is likely going to require purchase. Instead of focusing on too many side stuff which is not strictly necessary, KH should strive more toward new entries instead of wasting resources on yet another retelling of the same story. KHUX is barely getting anywhere and is enough of a cash grab already. It's not like I dislike Apps or anything, I just don't believe we need a graphically reduced recap of a franchise which has manga and novels and has a very established style. I do like this old FFVII kind of feel but I'm not sure it would work for KH.

Are we really going over this again? It'll come out when it comes out. Quite frankly, we haven't seen that many worlds but that doesn't have to mean a thing either way. Even if there were 20 worlds, they can also reveal two or three at a time because a lot of worlds would not be surprising to appear. Radiant Garden and the Keyblade Graveyard are most likely going to appear for example so there's really no need to make a huge announcement for them as if no one ever expected those. Then again, they also said in an earlier interview this year that they haven't even started on some of the worlds. Additionally, what was said in an old interview does not necessarily apply to current plans. If I recall correctly, that interview stating that it'll have more worlds than KH2 is not exactly recent, so who's to say they didn't abandon those plans in favor of implementing fewer but vast worlds? We can't forget that the change in engine and also the general development in technology allows a different approach to KH now in terms of worlds and their size. One they may not have considered in the beginning. I wouldn't mind them scrapping worlds if they have no relevance to the overall plot and save them for sequels or maybe even a DLC if it works out better for the game itself. (Even if I'm not a fan of DLCs.) And delays can always happen but just because it happened to other games does not mean it will repeat itself with KH3. And even if it does get delayed, I wouldn't mind as long as it's done, the story is complete and the models are consistent and not so awkward at times. I mean, it's your choice what you make of it but there's no proof there will be 20 worlds just to fit a certain trope (which would be kinda idiotic if the game suffers just to make it 13+7) and neither is there any proof there will be a delay. And even if there were 20 worlds, they don't need to be the same size. Mysterious Tower could be a very short episode for example. The game will hopefully be released when it's ready. Saying 2018 is vague enough to calculate a certain amount of delays due to problems but even if it isn't met there's nothing we can do about it. I don't even care if it gets delayed as long as it doesn't get postponed indefinitely and it's as complete as it can be in the end...

Because she has long, orange hair? It's not exactly a rare color in Anime/Manga/Games and Asuna's hairstyle is very generic to boot... Not to mention that they're wearing it differently. Other than that, it wasn't too unlikely that it would be someone new and a girl. It's the same setup as the previous Foretellers', which is good and I appreciate another female character, though I'd like so see her non-chibi artwork first and how she turns out overall.

I wouldn't mind Kim Possible as a series becoming a world but not that movie. If I recall correctly, that movie also had some sort of time travel involved and KH doesn't need any more of that... It has its own share of that and would mess up the restrictions they applied. As for the others, I'm not too much of a fan of either of them in terms of becoming a KH world.

I also think it's best to go with a year instead of a specific date because 2018 is rather far away and we still have seen relatively few things of the game, even with the newest trailer being 5 minutes long. Not to mention that if they were that far into development to actually determine they're close to being finished, they could have mentioned a season at least. Not even a month or day but simply a season. That's why I think the beginning of 2018 is rather unlikely. Then there's the thing that any season can be used. Fall and Winter are great choices because of Christmas approaching. Summer because of longer vacations and Spring because March being the month where KH originally released. You can argue for any season and I would still think it's best to release it when it's actually ready, not to accomodate people and their vacations. Especially if you consider that a worldwide release is something they're going to attempt, there's no way they can make it right for everyone. In the end, I don't care when it releases as long as it's truly done, not because of schedules or convenience. And delays are something which happens frequently so it's not surprising if it does get delayed. We don't know how far they actually are but at the beginning of the year, Nomura said that they haven't even started on some of the worlds. It doesn't rule out delays at all and I don't even mind if it does get postponed as long as the result lives up to the expectations to some extent.

If a movie is made, I feel it should be made under the guidance of SE, preferably Nomura himself. Simply because even if they do it, it would be kinda pointless to the canon if it's made by Disney or some other studio on their own. I do enjoy other non-canon KH media like the manga or the novels (some of the concepts are a bit different in those after all) but their aim is different. That's why I wasn't too fond of an animated series in the first place because it looked like they were just going to do their own thing. However if one is made, it should be something original. A movie can never capture the entirety of a game and a lot of game to movie adaptions fail because the original source consists of so much more than just cutscenes. Not to mention that just the cutscenes of one game tend to amount to more than the span of a regular movie. With an original story, there wouldn't be the expectation to include everything of the game in the right way, although these expectations shift more toward the original story living up to certain standards. But they could definitely use it to fill some holes here and there or bridge the time between certain events.

Even though I consider them low quality and really ugly, I do think it's a good thing that merchandise for Kingdom Hearts is being published outside of SE's own department. It gives me at least a little hope that there will be some quality figures which are not action figures in the future and that they may decide to license them to GSC or Kotobukiya or other good companies which make quality figures at not too horrendous prices. I don't mind SE's own merchandise, I just like figures without joints better since I don't really pose them much anyway. Not to mention that they cost a lot without people knowing if they will get a nice paint job. With PAKs, faces are always a gamble.

I don't think he needs to be a lot more mature than in KH2. Of course he shouldn't be as naïve as in 3D, but Sora is a teenager. He was 16 in 3D and considering that KH3 probably won't take place 2 years after those events, he didn't have that much time to suddenly become that mature. Not to mention that he just isn't the type of person to act all adult-like. I do want him to be able to act according to the situation. It would make no sense for him to be extremely cheerful during the last battle for example. But he never was. He knew how to be serious before, too and he never took the main antagonists lightly. Quite frankly, I don't want his personality to change much from KH2. Especially in the last few games, it was made abundantly clear that it has to be Sora because he is himself. Suddenly altering his personality to a drastic extent would mean demolishing the concept they've tried to establish for quite a long time. That's why I don't understand these sudden calls for more maturity when he is still a teenager and was never very mature to begin with. Why would that suddenly need to change? They would have to provide a very good reason why he should be any different in comparison to 0.2s ending for example.

There's Vanitas' Remnant, too which is sometimes called Lingering Spirit or Lingering Sentiment, I believe? Other than that, I'd rather have new ones. There are so many possibilities and while I don't mind Sephiroth returning, I'd like to have them incorporate more Final Fantasy bosses as optional fights.

The Queen of Hearts and Lady Tremaine would somehow be very awkward to fight. I don't mind battling against human villains but fighting against characters which cannot defend themselves because they were never depicted to be capable of it just seems wrong. I cannot imagine those characters wielding a weapon and they cannot use magic either as far as I'm aware. Especially the Queen of Hearts doesn't even control the Heartless, it's just how Wonderland works. Other than that, CLU should have been a boss instead of that annoying insect. I think it would have provided a better closure at least and I'm not a fan of him, even though it's not even his fault he is like that. Zurg would actually be a very good choicefor KH3, too.

You mean more than the usual? It's basically just a confirmation that this is really the end of the saga. And I honestly think it's for the best to settle current elements now so they can start with a fresh story in the next title. There will already be nudges toward preceeding events anyway so there's no need to have too many loose ends. However, I do think this only applies to characters of the present. The Master of Masters was confirmed not to appear in KH3. Explicitly stating that he won't be in that game instead of ever again makes me think that KHUX will have an importance in later games. As for the story being dark... It already was dark before, that's nothing new. What I wouldn't like is KH becoming overly tragic because it doesn't suit the franchise and there's so many pseudo-profound, edgy games out there, KH doesn't need to become one of them. Not every dark game is necessarily more profound and touching and making it so doesn't immediately make it a good game. But with how Sora is and that he won't change, there will still be that light-heartedness I adore so much about the series. But of course it will have to be dark at times but honestly, all games had their dark moments.

I think I will miss the freedom of Flowmotion if they really did limit it... In 3D it may have been too free but with how large the worlds will be, I don't think it would be now. I actually think it would be a good possibility for quickly traversing through a world. But since we don't actually know how the mechanics work in detail, I won't see this negatively yet. It did have its flaws, but I don't think it was hard to handle at all after I got used to it, which did not take forever. I'm also glad that they will stick to Maleficent working independently. It wouldn't make sense to have her join forces with Xehanort now, though I do think the latter will still be the main antagonist. It is called the Xehanort saga after all.

Well, there has to be a reason it will be episodic, right? Otherwise it wouldn't make sense to split it up since KH3 was mentioned to be rather massive content-wise as well. (Though it is hard to tell if that's still the case or if they did not exaggerate like with FFXV.) But you're right, I wouldn't mind fewer worlds with how large they are and if they are incorporated into the main plot. KH2 had quite a few redundant worlds such as Pride Lands, Timeless River and Disney Castle to some extent, and worlds like 100 Acre Wood or Atlantica which did not really provide much other than optional content which was more or less nice to experience but not exactly necessary. Which is why I could imagine DLC to be something similar. I would also like to have the full experience upon purchase and I'm not fond of it at all, but if they're gonna do it, I'd rather have them include worlds which people might want to revisit for optional content but do not add anything absolutely relevant. I mean we're talking about Sora after all who promised all over the place that he'd come and visit again.

Let's be real here, people asking for a release date /window did the same as those asking what is taking so long. It does include the question when it's finally going to get released after such a long time. It's not like only a small part of the fandom did this and demanded a release window. And quite frankly, SE did not make the situation any easier. Of course it is wrong to blame Nomura for their decision and I do feel bad for him being the "face" of KH who receives all the blame. But it's not like SE's decisions were necessarily good ones either. After 4 years, people are getting restless to at least know more on the status of development but the questions are either evaded or answered rather vaguely. (Coming from a person who never wanted a release window until they are close to finishing the game.) Needless to say, there are entitled and demanding fans but a lot of people who ask for a release date or what is taking them so long do not ask that with an air of arrogance or ill will but simply because it's been 4 years and until recently, we knew next to nothing about the game. And the things we did know weren't exactly reassuring with the model issue, etc. It's only natural people will get anxious, especially when small tidbits like their struggle with the engine are revealed but nothing more is said about the issue or it's down-played. We only received news that they haven't even started on some worlds recently, but only through interviews which casual fans won't come across easily unless they're part of dedicated fan-made websites. As I said before, this is mainly SE's and probably also Disney's fault, not Nomura's, but the secrecy around the whole thing certainly did not help. Nomura once said that they announced it too early and they did. And that's not only due to the engine switch. I don't know if "tech issues" is that wrong, though. We can't know for sure, but if a big company suddenly decides to switch engines in the middle of developing a game, there has to be something wrong. Especially if they switch from their own engine to an external one. Even if this decision was made without Nomura's consent. SE may make questionable decisions but an engine switch when development on a game has already started likely isn't because they "felt like it". There may be more reasons involved than tech issues, but a lot of people were saying that, as great as it looks, the Luminous engine isn't entirely unproblematic to work with. It may have resulted in a longer developmemt cycle or would have been too costly or simply because there are, indeed, tech issues.It's weird that only FFXV uses that engine and while KH3 isn't comparable, it says a lot that even the FFVII Remake is made with UE4. As I said before, there has to be a good reason why a costly engine was discarded this easily for two of their major projects after only one game has been made with it.

I mean exactly what it says. No, really though, there's no real evaluation on how far they are but while more promotion is nice, I don't think there needs to be someone from the developing team there at this point, since I also think they're nowhere near completion. Maybe they are at over 50% in but even if they're at 99% , that last percent always takes the longest... They won't reveal too much anyway apart from the things which are plain to see. I'm delighted to see the staff on a stage but at the same time, the necessity is questionable in a situation where they simply stand there, reveal the new info (which may amount to 5 minutes at best?) and then leave without answering any questions. It's quite the trip from Japan to Anaheim for just that. And a video message probably isn't considered to be a special guest.

I also think Roy Conli wouldn't be entirely unlikely as a special guest. It's a Disney event after all and he's also working on KH3. Of course there can always be other special guests like VAs or developers as well, but I think he is one of the more probable choices to be there in person. I think people like Shimomura and Nomura could take a break and use their time to actually work on the game now. The Orchestra World Tour has just concluded and this whole back and forth is rather taxing. However, I do think a video message could show just about anyone related to the game.

Exactly. Most people hope for a 2018 release but aren't exactly sure that it will. But those hopes were not based on the rumor but rather on the possibility alone. It's not the unlikeliest release year, that's why people are thinking 2018 is not entirely out of the option. Which I agree to. While I don't believe in an early 2018 release, an end of the year release doesn't seem like wishful thinking anymore, though 2019 is just as plausible. Most people know that but of course they're wishing for 2018. In most cases, they neger acted liek they knew. If you think back on its reveal, people were hoping for 2015/2016 and then 2017, so 2018 is the next year to hope for. And don't forget that SE tends to reveal release dates rather late in comparison to the game's announcement. FFXV and 2.8 both got their actual release dates about 6 months prior and were then delayed.

You're right, it's usually different but if I were them, I would have chosen 2019 as well. A lot of people don't realize it's a placeholder date and when it comes to games like KH3 with no real tentative schedule disclosed to the public, it's probably better to choose a later date to avoid unnecessary changes until something official rolls around. It's not like 2018 is completely out of the question but for a game we know so little about, it's not unlikely it may become 2019. Either way, I won't pre-order anything until we get more information on a potential Collector's/Limited Edition since I do think we will get one. I don't want to cancel orders, and the regular version of the game will be available for pre-order at any point in time, I assume. There's no need to rush this for something that doesn't have limited quantities.

Same here I'm glad it's at a good time and not too late into the night, Saturday or not. Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of Jacksepticeye but beggars can't be choosers.

I can understand your frustration but I doubt it'll be "just" that. As nice as a theme song by Utada Hikaru would be, I'm not sure if a reporter focusing on games would freak out because of a song. I appreciate her music and she's certainly a talented musican, but it'll likely be only one or two songs she'll contribute and it doesn't have much to do with KH3 itself. Especially the statement "a god among games" would hint more toward something game-related than a theme song. As for a 2018 release: I wouldn't pressure the whole thing too much. 2018 will mark around 4 years of actual development in UE4. That is not a whole lot for a big title which can't recycle much of the old games like previous entries could or which other games do and is said to be rather big. I agree that they should definitely start with providing information more regularly from now on to keep people interested and show more progress. They can't just abandon one of the games which will likely sell more than KH3, especially considering how much time it'll take to finish that due to its volume and episodic nature. If the first episode comes out before KH3, I wouldn't even be mad because it'll have several episodes. I don't really want a rushed game just to get it out but SE certainly needs to reevaluate their business concept if all of their big games take longer than 6 years. Which is why 2019 should be the latest. But fans won't move on, regardless of when it comes out. I read it everywhere but most of them are back when the next trailer drops anyway, even if they just do it to get closure. They should have never announced it this early to begin with.