Scsigs

They probably will. Those interviews were done as the actors were recording their dialogue, so they're probably doing them right now.

The thing I'm wondering is what's taking so long to announce most of the rest of the cast, since the majority of them have recorded their lines already. I mean, James Woods, Drake Bell, & Shanelle Workman had to confirm their involvement on social media, so what's the hold up?

I mean, look at the 2 reveals we've had so far for the dub. The first was earlier this year when the Monsters Inc stuff came out & that was just a confirmation of Mike & Sulley's actors. After that, all we had to go on were the trailers. Then in September, they only confirmed a baker's dozen amount of actors. They still have dozens, possibly over 100, to still officially announce. Hence why this thread exists.

I mean, Jack Sparrow seems like that kind of role for Johnny Depp that he'll play in everything that he can, like James Woods with Hades, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's him, but considering how good some voice mimics can be (I still hold that James Arnold Taylor sounded exactly like Depp, but just had off inflections due to poor voice direction, which is a thing that plagues some of the actors' performances in this series), I'm not gonna be surprised either if it's Jared Butler, considering he's been in several Disney video games as Sparrow (the latest being Disney Infinity from 2 years ago) & has been their Jack Sparrow in their video games for 11 years. He also voice matched Depp as Rango in the Rango game & as the Mad Hatter in Disney Infinity too. Seriously, this guy's list of credits as a voice double for Depp is pretty good, so I'm sure it is him. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2666826/

Updated to have more characters recently revealed in V-Jump in Japan, as well as by Square in the last few days, as well as the actors most likely to be in the game sourced from IMdB, links up top.

Yeah. These games could've come out on the 360 at the same time as the PS3. If KH3 were made 10 years ago, a port of it would've definitely come to the 360 as well, due to the popularity of it. The only reason they didn't is because by the time the collections were coming out, that generation was nearing its end.

It could be that kind of process, but then again, the HD versions of the games could have more streamlined codes for future porting jobs. Porting from the PS2 to the PS3 then again to the PS4, especially with the fact that they basically had to remake KHI, couldn't have been easy considering the newer tech. Seeing as the games were clearly not optimized for 60fps at all before porting to the PS4, but they got patches out pretty quickly to fix most of the errors, I'm assuming the code isn't too overly complicated to edit for future patch jobs & ports. Considering the Xbox One & PS4 have a lot of the same architecture, I'm sure it won't be too hard for them to create new builds for it for other consoles. I mean, we're not talking Red Dead Redemption here, where the code is SO screwed up that they can't port it to PC or anything.

I mean, I simplified the hell out of that, but I can't imagine it being that hard, considering how simplistic the games are designed. You laid out exactly what they have to do, which is what I was getting at. It, honestly, wouldn't take too much time or be that hard for the programmers, just replace the buttons, adjust the mapping for an Xbox One controller (which isn't much different from the dualshock 4, honestly) & optimizing the games for the console, which shouldn't be too hard. For 'Simple & Clean', I don't think what you heard was true, considering that Sony doesn't even own that song. It especially doesn't make any sense, since I'm sure they used it in some of the side games, or at least that remix of it. EMI owns the song, which isn't even owned by Sony either. They, I'm sure, pay a licensing fee for it every time they use it, especially with Disney paying for at least part of the games to be developed. Again, I put a few links up top quoting Nomura himself saying ports are possible.

I mean, look at all of the facts that we can gather. PS2 was insanely popular back in 2002. Square had a good working relationship with Sony. The GameCube discs couldn't hold as much data. The Xbox was just in its infancy & not a lot of people heard about it. Chain of Memories came out on the GBA only a few years later. It's more plausible that Square didn't have many options when it came to consoles to port the game to back then, so they just went with the one that made sense for them to publish it on. That was the same as any other 3rd party game studios back then. Nowadays, they have a lot of options to reach very different audiences with their games by publishing to the different consoles. And you're right.

I felt the need to put a thread here, since there's a TON of misinformation a lot of fans seem to think is fact, even though there's no actual proof for most of it. Now, my proof for everything comes from 2 articles from IGN from E3 this year & D23 last year where they interviewed Tetsuya Nomura himself on the matter of porting the games to Xbox One & Switch. I will cite my sources at the end of this text wall. Ok, now for the arguments & the counter-arguments. 1. "Xbox doesn't sell well in Japan." True, but if they didn't see any use in porting it to the system, then they wouldn't be porting III to it. 2. "They've never ported games to the system." This one confuses the hell outta me. Thanks to ITzDarthLordRaven for making me aware that this was even a think. Ok, first of all, Square has ported games to the Xbox before. The Final Fantasy series has had games on that system since FFXI, with the XIII series following & XV coming out just 2 years ago on it. There are also other games they've published to the system. They're also porting III to the system. They're well-versed in how to develop for the system. 3. "They don't pay attention to the KH community or anyone who want it on the Xbox." This is insanity on the face of it for one reason. Square has been listening to fans for the last few years. If they didn't, they wouldn't have made Re:Coded's cutscene movie on 2.5 better than 358/2 with the storytelling, they wouldn't have ported 1.5 & 2.5 to PS4 & subsequently patched most of the problems the 60fps patch caused afterwards, & they wouldn't be listening to the KH YouTubers' thoughts on the initial demo to improve the game. They listen, give them some credit here. 4. "They're waiting to see how III does in terms of sales numbers." This might be true, but there's a sizable number of people that are going to get the game on Xbox. Either people who're just trying the series for the first time, or are returning to the series after having played the original PS2 releases of the first 2 main games that now game on Xbox. 5. "It'd cost them a lot of money to do it." No it wouldn't. The games are already upscaled to 1080p & are put at 60fps. All they have to do is have a small group of programmers change some lines of code & optimize it for the Xbox One, which would only cost them for their time to pay them. Porting the games have already paid off on the PS4 versions alone. Around 25 million copies of 1.5, 2.5, & 2.8 don't lie. 6. "PlayStation has an exclusivity contract." No. No they don't. I've also read a person saying they heard Sony holds the distribution rights to the games. No they don't. The series is owned by DISNEY, one of Sony's direct competitors. Square is the main developer of the series. Since Disney isn't a video game/console company (yet), nor do they own any game companies (yet), this is their setup. Sony has only let them publish the games to their consoles. Nothing more, nothing less. For reference, Nomura has explicitly stated that it's possible to bring them to the Xbox. They're just waiting for III to be done with development first, as well as talk to Microsoft. So, it's only a matter of time, coupled with the Final Fantasy ports coming to Xbox, Switch, PC, & PS4. Sources: http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/16/kingdom-hearts-3-director-switch-version-maybe-possible-after-xbox-one-ps4-versions-are-released http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/13/e3-2018-kingdom-hearts-3-director-on-potential-for-dlc-15-25-collection-coming-to-xbox-one If there are any other arguments, please let me know.

Ok...counter argument time. 1. Just because it doesn't sell well in Japan does NOT mean you shouldn't port the game for the rest of the world. Region-exclusive ports exist. That's not a valid excuse. 2. Um, dude, Square HAVE ported games to Xbox before. Seriously, have you not been keeping up with this? Final Fantasy 11, the 13 series, Type-0, & 15 (as well as other games that are having ports developed right now) have all come out on the system, as have the Tomb Raider, Life is Strange, Just Cause, & a whole list of other games have come out on the system. They're well-versed in porting games to the system by now. That's not a valid excuse. 3. I'm sure they know. I'm very certain they've gotten a TON of feedback on porting the games to the Xbox from many people & I know they continually do whenever they announce anything new for the series, as well as how 3 is doing on the preorder sales so far. Square has also been listening to the feedback from KH YouTubers who played the games, so they ARE gauging fan requests. That's not a valid excuse. 4. That's not smart business-wise. There are a good number of people I've seen who either want to play the previous games on Xbox either because either they've never played the games before, or they played the original PS2 releases & would love to play the games on their newest console & don't want to buy a PS4 just to do so. It's up to the game companies to meet these demands. Like, I get Shout! Factory not instantly licensing every season of Super Sentai they can to rush out DVD sets of them. That's a niche market & it was untested. Kingdom Hearts is a well-known game series by now & has been getting a MAJOR marketing push in the last few years. Everyone knows about it & a lot of people wanna try it. Not a valid excuse. 5. It's not going to cost them ANYTHING major to port the games to another console. Yeah, they'll pay a small team of developers for their time, but the games are already upgraded to widescreen & 1080p 60fps. There are a few more bugs to patch up still that the 60fps patch caused, as well as voice clips that don't play for some reason ever since the games were ported to PS3. Patching these up for a port would be great for everyone, especially since they can just send out a patch for PS4 users. All they have to do is optimize the games for Xbox, which won't take a lot of time, especially since they're familiar with the architecture of the console. Not a valid excuse. 6. The only real valid excuse in this list that Nomura himself has given as the only real reason that they haven't done so yet (even though Square has several studios that could do it & Tai Yasue could oversee the project for Nomura's final review). Yes, they don't wanna hinder the development of III, which is the only leeway I'm giving them for now. They also still need to talk to Microsoft, which isn't gonna be much of a talk, since Microsoft want as many developers publishing to the Xbox as possible. Even if it's just a region-exclusive release outside of Asia, I'd take it. Please note that I've heard these excuses before from many people & they're at best bullshit arguments & at best just excuses as to why they haven't done it yet. Also, when I say "not a valid excuse," I mean mostly for Square Enix to use. I felt to throw this in here, since I knew someone would argue these points & I thought to remind people of certain things within this thread. Um, that's BS. Whoever you heard that excuse from is lying. Sony doesn't own JACK when it comes to this series. The entirety of KH is owned by DISNEY, Sony's direct competitor, with Square being the developer. How each is credited in the games clearly shows this. If Sony owned the rights to this series, absolutely NONE of the games would've been published to Nintendo handhelds, mobile devices, or Xbox One. Seriosuly, how could you believe this lie? Also, Nomura himself has said that it's entirely possible to port the games to other systems. http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/16/kingdom-hearts-3-director-switch-version-maybe-possible-after-xbox-one-ps4-versions-are-released And all they need to do is talk to Microsoft about it. http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/13/e3-2018-kingdom-hearts-3-director-on-potential-for-dlc-15-25-collection-coming-to-xbox-one Make sure you're presented with actual proof next time someone says anything to you about the distribution of this series please. Because they're too lazy to talk to Microsoft to port the games. Even just a placeholder preorder on online marketplaces would be great.

I corrected the first thing. I disagree. The worlds in KHI are fine, but some of them just seem to be chosen just because of how iconic they are, or because of how new they were, or how significant they were to DIsney, rather than being relevant to the story. Wonderland because Alice in Wonderland is a good movie, Deep Jungle because Tarzan came out when they initially planned out the game (fat lot of good, since they can't include the world again due to copyright issues), Atlantica because Little Mermaid started off the Disney Renaissance (& is garbage in every game it's used in), Neverland because Peter Pan, & Monstro because...Pinocchio? Even worlds I like in the game like Agrabah & Halloween Town are kinda just there. The stories of the movies never intersect with the story of the game in any meaningful way. Conversely, KHII at least tries to have the stories make sense to interact with the themes they're going with. Land of Dragons has Mulan struggling to be what she wants to be; a warrior, like in her movie, Olympus Coliseum adapts the part of Hercules where Herc wants to be a hero, Pride Lands has the themes of love, loss, & death retained from The Lion King (even though this world has garbage gameplay), 100 Acre Wood deals with Pooh's memory problems in a way that Chain of Memories wishes it did, & Beast's Castle has the plot point of the rose from the film, which deals with death. The only worlds that don't go with the themes of self identity, loss, & death are Agrabah, Atlantica, Port Royal, & Halloween Town, since 2 of those act as sequels, or adapt a sequel, to the movies adapted for the first game, one is a bad reboot of the adaptation from the first game that makes no sense, & one's a new game for the series that, while a bit frustrating, isn't that bad. Considering the themes expressed in the game, I think these are better done than in the first game, which is more focused on having the more famous Disney villains as part of the plot than actually having the worlds make sense in the context of the game's narrative. The only one I can think of that even remotely does that is Beast, but that's less of a world & more of his character randomly showing up at Hollow Bastion. The closer-up camera in KHI was kinda claustrophobic at times. You couldn't see a lot of the more up-close action, which is kinda important in an action RPG. Next you'll be saying that the subtitles being smaller on PS4 wasn't a welcome change either. "Glorified items"? What? You're talking about the Drive Forms, yes? That's not what they become from the removal of them at all. The Drive Forms are balanced out by the removal of Donald & Goofy from the party when you use them. It's like the Anti Form & the Drive Gauge. Otherwise, there'd be no incentive to not use the Forms. In KHI, they're the same as in KHII; not that useful. They're fine for back-up, but their AI is bad most of the time. I mean, Donald didn't get meme'd into a useless mage who wastes all of his MP & doesn't heal you when you actually need it for nothing & Goofy isn't bad, but he's not great either. At least they served more of a purpose in KHII outside of the story. Oh, there's platforming & exploration in KHII. The main difference is that Sora isn't a pain in the ass to try to traverse the levels with. His move-set was greatly enhanced for KHII. If he had the same movement in KHI, I think you'd be singing its praises because that design has aged like milk. As for those collectables, the trinity marks could've made a return, but they chose not to put them in. The 101 Dalmatian puppies were only there because of the fact that they were without worlds because of the Darkness. Same with Traverse Town. That place only existed because of the fact that people were without worlds. Radiant Garden was introduced in KHII as what Hollow Bastion was a while before the first game as a means of a new place to replace Traverse Town for people, mainly the OG Disney & Final Fantasy characters, to live. And, I don't think the Final Mix versions of either games changed these things. KHI just got some added bosses & cutscenes. In fact, KHII only got graphical enhancements, new bosses, & new cutscenes. The most significant addition is Limit Form, which is just great. That's how Sora should've controlled in KHI sans upgrades. I don't really get what that criticism what meant to say. I mean, if you like setting how fast you level up in different sections of the game, what you excel in more & what you don't, & the time of day you start at that doesn't impact the rest of the story whatsoever, then yeah, those must be great. The prologue helps out the rest of the story of KHII by introducing the concepts of Nobodies, the organization, creating intrigue through the visual storytelling. It may be a bit long on a replay, but it's nothing if not there for a reason. I prefer prologues that actually set up the story of the game & add to it. Yes, KHI felt more like a JRPG, but it also comes with the more worst aspects of them. Such as a downer, too serious, tone with no levity ever, a dated as hell combat system, stiff controls, & a villain that comes in 3/4 of the way into the story only barely introduced in the beginning, so you easily can forget about him while playing the game that replaces the main bosses of the game. KHII has a more streamlined, but also more involved, combat system with more loose controls & upgrades that improved it dramatically, a more optimistic tone you'd expect of a story like the game has, & more direct focus on the Organization. I mean, I know an Action RPG & a JRPG have differences, but KHI felt like a prototype for KHII in many ways. The fact that KHIII is going back to KHII's combat system only shows how much better it is. KHI just hasn't aged well. It's a game from the late-90s to early-2000s & it feels like it. KHII, meanwhile, has aged perfectly to the point that the games that came after it have more mixed combat systems that, while fun to break if they can be abused, aren't really up to par with the quality it has. Everything about KHII's combat has aged perfectly.

Dream Drop, to me, I really don't care for. Its story is unnecessary, it's badly told, & I don't really care. The mechanics, while can be fun, get pretty old with how little you can do with them. To me, Birth By Sleep has better mechanics & a better story by a landslide. I REALLY don't see how KHI is "almost perfect" tier, considering it's aged like milk in its controls & tone, but ok. How is KHII not almost perfect? That confuses the hell out of me. I ranked Birth By Sleep so high because of its story & the fact that I found the broken mechanics fun. The fact that it's so exploitable is the greatest thing about that game's mechanics. Hell, after I got used to them, & completed Terra's story, I found it much better. Ventus was so fun to use. Aqua was great too. Mostly because they're not as stiff as Terra, who can get near-KHI level stiff. But, that's only 1/3 of the game. The rest was a lot better. Also, never underestimate the power of Jesse McCartney & Haley Joel Osment. When they play characters that are against each other, it's great.

So, I feel the need to do this kind of list type of thing. Others have most likely done the same, so I feel the need to do it too. I'll be basing this on the games I've actually played & seen reviews of for the ones that have only gotten their cutscenes redone for the HD compilations, so sorry, no Union X here. Also, no 0.2, since that's just a chunk of KHIII they sliced off & finished to completely justify 2.8. If I add III to this in the future, I'll include 0.2 to it or Birth By Sleep, since it's a middle ground between the 2 of those. From least good to great/best: 7. Kingdom Hearts re:Coded. I know people don't consider this the worst KH game, but I do. Gameplay that, from what I've seen, isn't nearly as good as the console games, or even Birth By Sleep or Dream Drop Distance & a story that's essentially filler & worthless, though I'd expect nothing less than something that came from the mind of a drunk Nomura. Literally this game is unforgivable FILLER in the KH series, with only the last 30 minutes or so of the plot being of any worth from the cinematic movie in 2.5, though you can also easily skip it because all it does is set up Birth By Sleep & Mickey's quest to rescue Aqua in later games, which later games establish anyways, so this game is unintentionally rendered utterly useless & pointless by this stuff. The fact that Team Four Star bypassed this game entirely for their KH marathon & were still fine just shows the effect this had. 6. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Yeah, I know, "but it's got a good story." A good story doesn't preclude terrible gameplay & really bad mechanics that were either forgotten or refined in later games. Those being the slower & stiffer combat than even KHI & the terrible deck system where to even gain anything from levels, you have to attach blocks to Roxas to gain stat & other stuff. However, at the same time, the story IS the saving grace of this game, which is why I think it ranks higher than re:Coded. Though this is still hindered by the fact that most of the secondary characters are expanded upon & part of the story is told through text boxes with the other Organization XIII members in game & they didn't bother including those in brand new cutscenes in the 1.5 compilation, so even the cinematics are lacking a bit. It is still enjoyable in the storytelling, though, so there's that. Also, from what I can tell, the overabundance of missions makes this game last too long for no good reason from what I hear. 5. Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. It's the game that directly sets up III, but man is the storytelling & combat here significantly downgraded from KHII & Birth By Sleep. The story reaches all levels of convoluted thanks to the introduction of time travel into the series just to make this plot even remotely work, answering questions no one was asking in the process, & effectively jumping the shark. The storytelling is also bad with Sora. If you haven't noticed this before, this game really hammers in the fact that in the mobile games, Sora is reduced in his characterization to something of a halfway point between Goku from Dragon Ball Super & Luffy from One Piece. In other words, an idiot hero nice guy who isn't too bright, barely has a personality, & doesn't take anything seriously until he's effectively forced to. Also, he's lacking a bit in common sense. This characterization started in Chain of Memories (though at least there was some kind of reason for it, however forced it was), then was furthered in re:Coded with Data Sora, then reached its peak here to the point that I'm glad he's back, mostly, to how he was in KHII from the look of things in the trailers. Why is this? I'm assuming it was because none of the writers from KHII were brought back in to write for these games, so Sora was flanderized because of that, which is especially odd since Nomura himself cowrote this game's story, as well as Coded's, so that's probably why. Given that this game's story was more one for Riku, I'm surprised that they didn't just make a spin-off for him by himself. He's actually in-character in this game & serves as the main protagonist, since Sora's essentially just along for the ride. Then there's the combat. Flowmotion can be fun & I'm glad they're mixing it into Sora's move set from II in III, but geez did the game devs have to make this game revolve completely around it & completely break what worked from past KH games? In past KH games, while main bosses, like the Organization members, had their own was of defeating them, you were still free in your choices to figure out what worked best for all of them. KHII was absolutely excellent with this, giving you so many options with the physical attacks, magic, drive forms, & whatever else to defeat enemies. You were a one-man army with Sora in II. Here, you HAVE to rely on the magic abilities, which I wouldn't mind if the boss AI wasn't completely screwed to Hell & back. This was also a problem with Birth By Sleep, where the boss AI was completely randomized rather than having certain patterns that you could key in on, as well as stunlock & other things, which is also a thing that bogs down battle with the dream eaters, since they don't take stunlock at all unless you use certain magic abilities or flowmotion. This is an utterly broken system & feels completely unfair because it encourages cheesing the game with the most powerful abilities like the Balloon attacks, which you don't receive until a bit of the way into the main story, & makes everything from the previous games a complete chore to do. When you don't have a certain amount of freedom & the game stacks everything against you, that's a failure of game design. Not helping this at all is the removal of the ability synthesis from Birth By Sleep. That system was fun to use, since you can completely break the game by mixing abilities together to make better ones. Keeping that system in this game would've helped. Also, 3 words. New. Game. Plus. The New Game Plus system in this game sucks! tot he Underworld & back. When it comes to NG+, I expect to keep all of my previous perishable items & attacks, with some other stuff. Other games had this before DDD, so there's absolutely NO excuse why I can't keep all of those things when going through NG+, especially on the highest difficulty, where you NEED those things to start out with because you're both hindered even more & the fact that you need to play through one of the other modes to even unlock that difficulty, so keeping those from my past save would've been nice, but no. Just Dreameaters & whatever else. This is something I hope they get right with III & retroactively add to 1.5+2.5 & 2.8, but better. Even copying Final Fantasy XV's homework would be a godsend for it. So, yeah, not a big fan of this game too much. 4. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. This game was created while KHII was in development & served to be KHI on the GBA...except it's also an midquel between I & II, which it serves better as. This game is just a waste of time. It sets up the Organization & Namine...sort of, & explains what happened to Sora & co, as well as Riku & Mickey before KHII, but did this game need to turn out this badly? I don't think so. First of all the story. The heroes get trapped in Castle Oblivion & have their memories screwed with by the several Organization members that are tasked to do so. In the game, they revisit every location from the first game, except Tarzan's world because Disney lost the copyright on that property after KHI was made, & go through bare bones versions of the bare bones versions of those retold plots from the first game. However, these are, ultimately, worthless because they don't really connect to the main plot much & feel even more disconnected than in the first game. Then there's the storytelling. This is the first episode to alter Sora's personality to fit more into the idiot hero persona which he wasn't in the first game mind you. However, due to his memories being tampered with, though also just being dumb & not actually stopping to think about what's happening around him, leaving him to treat Donald & Goofy like shit for not good reason, as well as abandon them for a bit. I don't like this because it's not consistent with the rest of his portrayals, for the most part. Then there's Riku's story, which is mercifully short ('which I thank the devs for because Sora's goes on WAY too long) at about 5 hours as opposed to the 25-30 of the main story. Riku's story only serves to show that he knows about Sora's plight to restore his memories & that he's gonna try to control the darkness in his heart. That's fine. However, it's tacked on to the main story of the game afterwards rather than woven into the main game's story. If there's anything to this game, it's its focus on Riku, whom I think should've probably been the main focus of the game rather than an after thought. Now there's the combat. This game tries to take the formula from the first game, but mixes it with card games. This isn't really that good because, once you get a certain ways into the game, you can cheese the game & you win. The fact that the cards you get are determined by bad RNG & the fact that the bosses use strategies the game didn't teach you to defend against, thus MAKING you cheese the game. That's just bad combat design. Also, this game is easy to break with this system & becomes boring just a few hours in. I'm sure that the novelty of having mobile KH was great back in 2004, but now that the novelty's well worn off, & the 3D remake is the more prominent version out there, I think people can see my meaning here. Just watch KingK's retrospective on YouTube to get what I mean if you don't understand fully. 3. Kingdom Hearts I (Final Mix) Coming in at #3 is the very first game in the franchise, & specifically the Final Mix version, which added in things like new cutscenes & some new extra bosses. This game is, mostly, good, but a few things hold it back from being the best in my eyes. Naturally, though, since this is the first game in what was an untested formula of mixing Disney with Square's JRPGs & throwing in Final Fantasy elements, but that doesn't really matter if you start with this game, which you should because of that reason alone, since you have nowhere to go but up afterwards. Most of this game works, since it's a more basic tale about a boy getting betrayed by his best friend, losing their female friend, making new companions to find both of them, & defeating all of the enemies along the way. It's also the least stuffed of all of the KH games, so it's easy to understand & has no baggage behind or in front of it, so there's that. However, there ARE some bad parts. Tarzan's world is one I'm not sad that Disney lost the license to use in their media, though I think that they COULD do so if the works have since entered the public domain, or when they do. However, in this game, it's just bad. First is that it requires a lot of backtracking & second the traversal is just bad. The controls being stiff, & archaically so, are naturally to blame for the backtracking being awful. The game isn’t built around Sora’s abilities & Sora’s abilities aren’t enough for the worlds, at least before you unlock them & upgrade him with them. Even then, his movement & combos aren’t as fluid or fast as I’d like. I also think some parts of this game are a bit TOO dank & depressing. Like Hollow Bastion. It’s a bit too gothic for my taste. Definitely reminds me of late-90s/early-2000s. I also don’t care much for the music. The tracks are serviceable, but it all sounds like generic/stock video game music, except for Halloween Town, which just uses ‘This is Halloween’ from the film it’s based on. This is one place the later games definitely improved on, which I kind of feel disappointed to say, since Yoko Shimomura has quickly become one of my favorite video game composers. But, yeah, decent story, but everything else needed improvements. Also, the road to getting everything from the Moogle shops to synthesize took over 30 MORE HOURS than I was expecting. Bullshit RNG, too many synthesis items to grind to get the Ultima Weapon, & repetitive sequences. It’s everything I hate about RPGs. 2. Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (Final Mix) I originally had this one & 3 switched around. In fact, if you prefer KHI over BBS, I don’t blame you. Anyways, this one’s a prequel to everything that came before it in the preceding games. It has 3 protagonists & takes a page out of Sonic Adventure’s playbook by having the 3 stories of them take place at the same time, with more of their plots revealed as you go through their stories. This is the only game where I feel the experimentation was done right both in the story delivery & gameplay. Now, it’s a bit more stiff than KHII, but nowhere near as much as KHI. The music is also so much better than KHI’s soundtrack. You’ll notice that this is the only game to get a Final Mix version other than the 2 PS2 games. That’s because, unlike 358/2, which explored more of Roxas’ past, & Re:Coded, which is just a bad game because it’s basically discount Chain of Memories, only with 0 things you absolutely need to know about rather than a few, this game actually adds mythos & important information to the KH series, so it was necessary to have this version. I don’t get why they didn’t add back in the capes to the characters when they have their armor at the last world to keep continuity with he secret ending in KHII FM, since it was only a problem for the PSP, but whatever. Now, the stories are all tragedies, but leave open the possibility for future solving, which will be explored in III, as you all have no doubt gleaned from the trailers. In spite of that, we’re given 3 decently compelling characters. The only weak point with them is that Jesse McCartney is the only experienced voice actor of them. Jason Dohring does an ok job, but not great, & willa Holland always manages to sound bored. Basically like Aerith in KHII. I blame this on their lack of experience & the voice direction, which has always plagued this series with the actors who are more screen & stage actors than voice actors. Even some of the regulars get spotty in places with their voice direction. Though Dohring HAS improved in this department for 0.2 & I’ll see if Holland has done the same in III, which she kind of sounds like she has...if she’s supposed to be going for could & off rather than bored, which will probably work in Aqua’s case. Picking up the slack, though, is Mark Hamill as Master Eraqus & Leonard Nimoy as Xehanort. Both are great in those roles. I find this story to be a bit better told than KHI’s story. Now, the combat is experimental, but I like it. It makes the game easy to break, but in a fun way rather than a boring way, since it’s not tied to terrible RNG, or a card game system. Instead of an MP bar, you gain abilities & meld them together to get new ones. This is also how you get permanent add-ons to the characters outside of a capacity increase for the command deck & health increases. This system is the one thing I think this game has over KHI & II; making grinding FUN. The grinding in BBS never felt like a chore to me. Mostly because I was getting something out of it outside of levels & there was always some kind of reward for doing so. Grinding, even in KHII, felt like a chore. This is a faster system that doesn’t require 100% completion & is infinitely more rewarding. The pace of the game is also quick. Each story will take around 10 hours to do, but you don’t do the same thing twice. Each world takes around a half hour to complete, which is great for the pace of any game. Combine that with the grinding being relatively fast too (it only takes a few hours or so to grind all of the required abilities you need if you know what ones you want per character) & you have a well-paced game. 1. Kingdom Hearts II (Final Mix) This was probably obvious, but this game is great. First is the story. It's more involved than the first game's plot, but the way it's paced & the way it's told are really great. This game has a more bright & cheerful tone than the first game or even Chain of Memories, then mixes it really well with the more serious nature of the plot. Y'know, like a Disney film. The story is unfolded pretty well throughout the game, though the overabundance of cutscenes, especially in Final Mix CAN get pretty grating if you're looking for a more fast-paced plot. Then there's the combat. It is MASSIVELY improved from the first game & has aged like fine wine. There's a reason why the mobile games haven't simply ported it over or improved on it. One, the repetition of the same combat engine would maybe get boring eventually to some people & two, there's no way that they COULD improve it, since it's the best system in the series thus far, so the experimentation is there. The combat is sped up to a good degree from I & there's a good amount you can do with combos. Supporting it is a great magic system, which takes what worked for the hot bar in the first game & just uses it basically unchanged, which is fine with me. There ARE new magic abilities added to the game, which are extremely useful, at the expense of losing some others. Like, I wish Aero had stuck around, but I get why it was removed in favor of Reflect. I’m really looking forward to III, since its combat system is largely a port of II’s mixed with the flowmotion from DDD, but also has a floatiness to it unfortunately, but I’ll adapt to it. The music is also majorly improved from KHI. Rather than half of the pieces sounding generic, all of the music is really well written & composed to go with the mood of the scenes. They really make everything feel lively & engaging. Then the voice acting. This is something I have to compliment the actors for. The majority of them do a great job, though there’s the odd line every so often that sounds off in the direction from the actors who’re usually camera actors rather than voice actors, but it’s far from Birth By Sleep, where that was ⅔ of the main characters the majority of the time. The returning actors do well as always & the new ones fit the roles well. The only person who’s performance is iffy is James Arnold Taylor as Jack Sparrow. He nails the voice tone & accent Johnny Depp uses as Jack Sparrow, but he can’t stop sounding drunk when Jack isn’t supposed to be & he doesn’t deliver the lines as Depp would. Still, it’s far from the worst voice acting in the series. No, that would go to the actors for Will Turner & Elizabeth who don’t even remotely sound like the actors from the films, but also don’t fit in their own ways. Definitely the low point for KH voice acting. Then there’s the bonus content post game, where you hunt down the Mushroom XIII, face Data versions of the Organization members, then fight the Lingering Will, which only exist in the Final Mix version of the game. It also added in the Limit Form for the Drive Forms, which thematically works, since it lets you access a refined version of his KHI combat style & clothes. Next, the graphics. I haven’t mentioned this for the other games since they never stood out so much, but this is the game to get this level of polish in the graphics department. The HD collection brings this out by upscaling it to HD, putting it into widescreen, & upping the framerate to 60FPS. If they ever get Xbox One ports, the X upscaling it to 4K will be the best looking version of this game bar none short of a PC release. Seriously, the graphics are only beat out by III, since it uses Unreal Engine 4 & goes for a more realistic artstyle mixed with the anime aesthetic. The only place I’d say it falls short is the Pirates of the Caribbean world, which makes the more anime-esque visuals clash with the more realistic character designs & world design. KHIII is gonna make up for this as we’ve seen from the trailers, so I think it’s fine. The only thing I think this game is missing is a good new Game+ mode, where you retain your levels, perishable items, collectables, & the Ultima Weapon. Seriously, it would be great if Square could patch in a good FFXV-type New Game+ mode into the 1.5+2.5 HD Remix collection for the games in it as a reward for playing the games. Also, if they could remake this & KHI in Unreal Engine 4 for an upcoming anniversary, I’d buy it 10 times over, since, while I do love the graphics, having all of the necessary games be graphically the same again would be great, though it WOULD cut the framerate on the unenhanced consoles, but I’d be fine with that. All right. That’s my ranking of these games. I’ll probably do a reorganized list in February after I play KHIII, but we’ll see. Let me know if you guys agree. We’ll have a discussion.

Maybe referencing TS3?

"Right, Sor-ra?" Seriously, that was cancer.

I mean, I can understand, but it's not like Stoner's a bad actress, or a bad fit for Kairi. She just has a different tone than Panettiere.

A point was raised in my thread on the VAs for KHIII's English dub that I find interesting. Now, I think we can all assume that Alyson Stoner is voicing Kairi in KHIII. She already filled in for Re:COM & 0.2, & also played Xion in 358/2 Days. Thing is, I've never really had a problem with one or the other. Both are good in the role & sound pretty close to one another, with Stoner sounding slightly more high-pitched than Panettiere, but not bad in my book. With Panettiere having confirmed that she hasn't been called back in to record for Kairi, is it a bad thing that Stoner will most likely reprise the role? I'm sure not many people will mind outside of the hardcore Kairi dub voice fans, all 2 of them that exist, but does it matter which one they bring in at all for the game?

Now that I've heard a voice comparison, you're not wrong, but I still don't mind Stoner in the part.

I mean, there are probably a lot of circumstances around this too. It could be pay, it could be availability, it could be Disney favoring Stoner over Panettiere, it could be the timing, it could be for continuity of voices (even though Stoner was brought in to voice match her & there are several voice doubles who've already worked in the franchise getting replaced in later games, like James Arnold Taylor not voicing Jack Sparrow in KHIII despite doing so in II, Tate Donovan reprising Herc in II despite Sean Astin voice matching him in KHI, etc), or whatever. Disney has a pretty comfortable working relationship with Stoner, since she's been acting in TV shows, both animated & live action, for over a decade now, so her being their go-to is understandable. The fact that they got her for 1.5 & 2.8 rather than Panettiere just goes to show this. All in all, I'm not against Stoner replacing her, since Kairi hasn't really been a major player up until now. Panettiere will be missed by those who care, but for me, I think if they don't care enough to bring her in over Stoner, then ok.

They reused Jones' recordings from The Lion King for Mufasa. He didn't record that just for Kingdom Hearts. All they had to do was pay him royalties for the use of that clip.

No, sorry.

No. It's a voice double. Japanese companies do this all the time when an actor retires or dies or is otherwise unavailable to record their lines. In English, it's going to be a voice double too. Who, we can't say until we see an official cast list, but It's going to be someone who can simulate Nimoy's voice like this new actor is doing for Otsuka.

Update: Added Demyx & Vexen's VAs due to them showing up in the new extended Big Hero 6 trailer that just dropped. Also some others. Update: The official box art has been revealed, as well as the trailer above, & they both have Jesse McCartney's 2 characters in them. I think we can expect him to return. UPDATE: Confirmed secondary actors outside of Josh Gad & the main Monsters Inc characters, plus returning actors for the main cast from previous games: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/star-studded-voice-cast-unveiled-for-disney-and-square-enixs-kingdom-hearts-iii-300719139.html I shall update the list above immediately where fit.

I'd expect a Switch port of the games & an Xbox One port of the collections before a PC release of any of these games. Let's be realistic, Square prioritizes consoles over PC in this order: PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox. PC comes YEARS after them.