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So, Sora's out in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But how does he play, exactly? Over the past day, I've played around with him a bit in Classic Mode, online, and World of Light, and I have pretty positive thoughts! Honestly, when it comes to his overall feel, there's not much to say here; he's pretty fun and shockingly faithful to the games. However, it isn't just his moves; even his movement feels very Sora in a somewhat tricky way to pin down. He's light, agile, and pretty much everything he does is taken directly from the Kingdom Hearts games. He even dual-wields in the style of Valor Form if you pick up an item, which I thought was a pretty nice touch! His basic attacks reference various moves and abilities throughout the series, such as his dash attack being reminiscent of Sliding Dash. Additionally, he retains his basic 3 hit combos for both air and ground. And, although most of his kit is taken from KH1, several of his moves originated elsewhere in the series, including his up smash being taken from KH3's Magic Flash ability. The stage is also beautiful; it's an exceptional recreation of Hollow Bastion. Unlike many other stages, it has no area-specific hazards to deal with, letting you face off against your opponent(s) without worrying about the location itself being an enemy. I also like the touch with the Station of Awakening, which lets a few of the KH characters that we got as Spirits cameo in the background with their stained glass designs, making for a dramatic finale His Classic Mode seems decently well crafted and primarily utilizes Stamina Mode, which makes sense to me given how Kingdom Hearts’ combat works. It pits you against a series of opponents mimicking his enemies. Mr. Game & Watch as Heartless, the white-haired Robins as Xehanort, and a fun little reference to KH1 with him facing off against Cloud in a coliseum map; not to mention a mirror match against Sora himself. His ending image seems to reference KH3, being extremely reminiscent of the Final World, with Sora staring off into the distance… Compared to other characters, Sora seems reasonably well balanced, in my opinion. He is both light and agile, letting him pull off insane recoveries, but also having the weakness of being relatively easy to catapult off the stage entirely even at moderate levels of % damage. There were some fears of having a repeat of SSB4 (Wii U and 3DS) Bayonetta, but while he has some decent combos, they aren't quite as horrifying as hers was, so far as I can tell. Although, ultimately, we'll see how other, more experienced players hash out the details of his kit. Overall I am delighted with how he's turned out in the game. The only real complaint I have is the sheer amount of mirror matches online. But… then again, what could be more appropriate to Kingdom Hearts than Sora facing off against himself? View full article -
Sora in Super Smash Bros Ultimate: Gameplay impressions!
Aqua_Wren posted an article in Kingdom Hearts News
So, Sora's out in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But how does he play, exactly? Over the past day, I've played around with him a bit in Classic Mode, online, and World of Light, and I have pretty positive thoughts! Honestly, when it comes to his overall feel, there's not much to say here; he's pretty fun and shockingly faithful to the games. However, it isn't just his moves; even his movement feels very Sora in a somewhat tricky way to pin down. He's light, agile, and pretty much everything he does is taken directly from the Kingdom Hearts games. He even dual-wields in the style of Valor Form if you pick up an item, which I thought was a pretty nice touch! His basic attacks reference various moves and abilities throughout the series, such as his dash attack being reminiscent of Sliding Dash. Additionally, he retains his basic 3 hit combos for both air and ground. And, although most of his kit is taken from KH1, several of his moves originated elsewhere in the series, including his up smash being taken from KH3's Magic Flash ability. The stage is also beautiful; it's an exceptional recreation of Hollow Bastion. Unlike many other stages, it has no area-specific hazards to deal with, letting you face off against your opponent(s) without worrying about the location itself being an enemy. I also like the touch with the Station of Awakening, which lets a few of the KH characters that we got as Spirits cameo in the background with their stained glass designs, making for a dramatic finale His Classic Mode seems decently well crafted and primarily utilizes Stamina Mode, which makes sense to me given how Kingdom Hearts’ combat works. It pits you against a series of opponents mimicking his enemies. Mr. Game & Watch as Heartless, the white-haired Robins as Xehanort, and a fun little reference to KH1 with him facing off against Cloud in a coliseum map; not to mention a mirror match against Sora himself. His ending image seems to reference KH3, being extremely reminiscent of the Final World, with Sora staring off into the distance… Compared to other characters, Sora seems reasonably well balanced, in my opinion. He is both light and agile, letting him pull off insane recoveries, but also having the weakness of being relatively easy to catapult off the stage entirely even at moderate levels of % damage. There were some fears of having a repeat of SSB4 (Wii U and 3DS) Bayonetta, but while he has some decent combos, they aren't quite as horrifying as hers was, so far as I can tell. Although, ultimately, we'll see how other, more experienced players hash out the details of his kit. Overall I am delighted with how he's turned out in the game. The only real complaint I have is the sheer amount of mirror matches online. But… then again, what could be more appropriate to Kingdom Hearts than Sora facing off against himself? -
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road has now been live for a week! Upon completion of the first episode, here are our staff's impressions of this new chapter in the series! Gameplay We found the responses to the gameplay of KHUχ to be simplistic and bland. While it is certainly more new-player-friendly than KHUχ, and has the option to speed you through to the story scenes, the lack of depth in gameplay can make it a dull affair to those looking for a challenge. Either way, the lack of AP was appreciated! The KHDR home screen is simply a static screen of the current world, very unlike KHUχ, where you can move your character around and see what quests and events are available. In KHDR, you don't travel around worlds anymore. There are currently 20 brief quests, interspersed by several "Kill X amount of enemies in Y place" missions. You simply start a battle and continue until you either die or just want to stop. You can also put the game on auto battle mode and relax; some members of our staff liked the option to press "World Battle" and progress with the story without having to commit to hours of grinding, which can be monotonous while battling wave after wave of enemies with no exploration. However, the game on auto play can be a bit slower than the speed at which you can play it manually play; there's always a brief pause before the AI selects cards, whereas you can do this right away on manual. If you were not a fan of the card mechanics in Chain of Memories/RE: Chain of Memories and Flick Rush in Dream Drop Distance, you will most probably not like it in KHDR! Battle is a matter of using cards randomly drawn from your (customizable) deck with enemies attacking in real time, but there's relatively little strategy to it beyond making sure the first one is a good one, trying to use 3 of the same color (green/red/blue), and praying that your RNG is decent on which ones show up out of your deck. The chance to get the Key Art cards (some of the strongest cards in the mobile games) is unfortunately very low, sitting at a measly 0.19%. You can change the last party member with any of the four new characters (Hermod, Urd, Bragi and Vor) but it's doesn't seem like they add much to the gameplay. KHDR has the player grind excessive amounts of BP to level up, especially after Level 10. The difference in strength between the Rank 1 and Rank 2 enemies seems disproportionate; you can be stronger than a Rank 1 enemy, but find it incredibly difficult getting through more than two or three enemies at Rank 2. The difficulty spikes on the quests are also enormous, leading the player to grind even more to simply get a chance to complete the quests that are currently avaliable. There are no Keyblades to swap between, no equipment. Instead, there are two main routes to gaining power. The first is pulling for cards depicting various features of the series (enemies, art, Keyblades, and characters) in return for draw tickets, or jewels (shared with KHUχ, so pulling here reduces your jewels there and vice versa), which, if you get duplicates of, automatically merge to power up up to +10. The other is by acquiring BP, which so far serves only one purpose in KHDR: spending it to level up and increase Xehanort's base stats, although there is an empty shop tab labeled for it. As a side note, you can also gain tiny, incremental increases to various stats, mostly HP, either by collecting duplicate cards, or by killing 1, 10, 100, and 1,000 of the same enemy. BP is gained in small increments by defeating Heartless, or in fairly large amounts in the current event, which grants large amounts of it in return for special event keys, which you can of course buy with premium currency, or earn with weekly and monthly missions. You can also gain a minuscule amount of BP while the game is off. But it feels like it's something you might need to save for whatever is available in the future that requires it. Should you use all your BP to level up Xehanort now, or save it for whatever item that the game might have in store in the future? We don't know! But by far, the cheapest (and least soul-crushing) way of gaining BP is by entering an endless battle mode too weak to kill you, and then turning on auto mode. The gameplay is, at its core, very simplistic. While KHUχ has, over the years, veered into being overly complex and convoluted with its numerous ways of powering up the medals you attain, KHDR avoids that by requiring little to no thought whatsoever. If you're playing on auto mode, we suggest you turn it off if you see that you're out of cards, and tap to refill your cards faster. Just try to get through the quests fast to get to the story events. Characters and Story Based on our experience of the chapter available for KHDR, and our experience of playing it in the past week, it seems to have much more of a story-focused feel than KHUχ. But this is compromised by the incredible amount of grinding you have to do to progress to five brief cutscenes, which can demotivate the player into stopping (or turning on auto mode). The characters are interesting and the story is enjoyable. The relationship between Xehanort and Eraqus is one we were excited to see. They have an easy chemistry one expects from a pair of actual, real-world friends. Furthermore, the story has the distinction of moving faster and being more tight and focused than KHUχ, in our experience. The four new Keyblade wielders, however, are effectively entirely interchangeable as party members with no difference to the story, saying the exact same things where they appear, with no difference whatsoever on who you choose despite having different personalities. They unfortunately seem to serve as set pieces and props more than actual, well-written, influential characters, especially considering... KHDR is certainly bound to be even more compelling than its counterpart KHUχ. It seems to be a more personal tale with a shocking twist at the end of Episode 1 (see in spoiler box). The story, though short, has a strong beginning, enticing hardcore fans to follow along, craving future lore and insights into how and why Xehanort became the Seeker of Darkness. Overall Impressions KHDR is a simple, fun game to play on your phone, but not a title with much to write home about. It starts very slow, with only time to tell if it will get livelier or stay an idle experience. While the mechanics may be new-user friendly, we don't actively recommend it for those who have not played KHUχ as it relies, for now anyway, too much on your KHUχ progress to even get to a decent point in it. In fact, as a KHUχ player, it's possible to use it as an easy way to make more jewels for KHDR due to its almost entirely idle nature and fairly generous weekly/monthly rewards. While KHDR's story is compelling, engaging, and appreciatingly fast-paced, and the friendship between the younger versions of Master Xehanort and Master Eraqus are a joy to experience, the gameplay grind is likely to be too monotonous and uneventful and to be skipped over on auto mode. KHDR apparently had a relatively small team that worked on it, and some of the limitations are somewhat understandable given the lack of focus it received. The KHUχ team was still working on KHUχ when developing KHDR, and with only two animators. With time, updates, expertise and a bit more focus on it, perhaps that can be changed. It's too early to tell. Overall Rating 5.8 out of 10 ⭐️ Many thanks to @Allwil13, @Otti#8624, @Ryuji_Shiryu, @Aqua_Wren, @OrpheusJoshua, PowerJusho_KH13 and others for sharing their first impressions of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road! Let us know what you thought about it, and what you expect in the coming developments! View full article
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KH13's Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory Review
OrpheusJoshua posted an article in Kingdom Hearts News
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory Review- Played on PlayStation 4. Review code provided by Square Enix. *Note this is a spoiler free review. Please mask any new story heavy plot points you wish to discuss inside a spoiler box, in accordance with our site spoiler policy. It is still incredibly unbelievable to me that not only did we get another Kingdom Hearts title announced so soon after the Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind DLC was released, but that same title has already been released this same year. It truly is a wild time to be a Kingdom Hearts fan. With that being said, however, the expectations for Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory were a rather mixed bag. This was due to the minimal timeframe of hype that we were allotted and the game's genre itself. Ultimately though, I found Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory to excel mostly with flying colors at what it was driven to do, with some of its other elements leaving more to be desired. The meat of this game is, without a doubt, the rhythmic action gameplay. The demo gave us all a taste test of how this gameplay system would generally work, and at least, personally speaking, it made my hype for the full release go full throttle. Needless to say, I became easily addicted once I got my hands on the full release. You can play three types of songs: Field Battles, Boss Battles, and Memory Dives. Of these three song types, Field Battles are easily the most frequent, and they're certainly the ones I had the most fun with. They consist of the player's chosen team automatically running down lanes fraught with enemies and other obstacles. Players must time either singular or multiple X, L1, or R1 button presses in time with the markers that appear. These markers obviously follow the song's beat, so if you know the song well, there's a likely chance you'll be able to pick up on the foundation of the rate that you should be pushing buttons at. Clearing songs and missions in the World Tour mode rewards players with items and various kinds of collectibles. In a way, Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory is the most fun and satisfied I have had when playing a rhythm game. While this genre is always centered around perfection, Melody of Memory takes a unique approach and does not simply depict button icons during the songs. (at least for Field Battles) You instead have to coincide your button presses with enemies on screen, and while they do have markers, the lack of guided button prompts makes success feel all the more cathartic. Boss Battles and Memory Dives are more akin to standard rhythm game titles. You have to time appropriate button presses with incoming icons. The Boss Battles are my largest critique in regards to gameplay. Their mechanics offer an enjoyable and unique challenge. However, there are only a handful of boss fights sprinkled throughout the game, and there are some that really felt like they should have been included. It was in no way a deal-breaker, but this was one of the concepts I would have found to be more fulfilling with further refining. With such an astronomically low number of them, the boss battles certainly stood out, but it also disappointed me with how few of them there were. There are also stats the party members have, which increase once they level up. These are oddly implemented since they really only impact your damage intake and health, but it does help players with learning songs on greater difficulties. Memory Dives are the stages I'm the most indifferent on. While not as numerous as the Field Battle songs, there are a fair bit more than the boss battle tracks. They felt like the laxest of the three stage types. They were a convenient method to wind down after dealing with some particularly challenging Field Battle tracks. Synthesis is a massive part of this game's content. You can craft new songs (Memory Dives), new collectibles, other synthesis materials, and items from the synthesis menu. Performing synthesis also increases the catalog of what the shopkeeper Moogle offers, so there is an addicting, continuous cycle of effort and reward. The amount of what you can make is a tad overwhelming, admittedly, but it made the overall gameplay loop increasingly more satisfying. The museum is another massive part of this title's content. Containing a magnificent amount of art and other collectibles make it an engaging way to spend some time. You can also check on your gameplay records as a nice reflection point. Admiring past entries of the franchise and your own gameplay history are these menus' sole purposes, and they depict it all remarkably well. Moving on from the gameplay, there are two elephants in the room regarding this release, the first of which is the story. The story has not been a heavily marketed aspect of this game, and not many were expecting much from it in that department. However, this, without a doubt, feels like the briefest inclusion of story for the series on consoles. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed most of the new story content, but the issue I have with it is the implementation. There are a mere 20 or so minutes of new cutscenes, which, even for an entry not centered around the story, feels incredibly needless. The new story content felt as if it would better fit the confines of the Re Mind DLC rather than being backloaded to a new game's ending. It also doesn't help that the gameplay and new story don't synergize well enough. While I found myself invested and engaged in the new story content as a whole, it almost felt like I was consuming a completely different product than what I was playing. All that said, though, the new story content may rub some fans the wrong way for certain reasons, but it ultimately does a fairly enticing job of directly setting up what the future of the series has in store, in a much more conclusive way than what the Re Mind DLC did. Some notable aspects of this new story content have to do with Kairi and the voice acting. Kairi's tale not being done justice is a tale as old as time, so I won't bother getting into that now, but this new story content does end up respecting her as a character far more than the past. While still far from ideal, she has some more agency in what ends up happening to her, which is a step in the right direction. She also had a fair bit of personality for some of the story scenes. Speaking of personality, a small gripe I had with this title was the narration, or recap, of the prior games. Clearing certain songs and worlds will award players with very brief recaps of the franchise's prior games from Kairi's perspective. Unfortunately, I found these recap scenes to skirt being barely serviceable. Due to their brevity, I don't think these scenes would be enough to entice prospective fans or inform them enough on what has happened in the prior entries. Kairi also has no personality in these recaps either. She is merely the narrator, but at the same time, the lack of any uniqueness from Kairi's point of view for these scenes makes them feel very dry, dull, and barebones. This is not a massive detractor by any stretch of the imagination since these scenes do technically accomplish what they set out to do in a sense, and they are rather infrequent and brief, but the way they were handled still did rub me the wrong way. All in all, the best way to describe the narration is that it does its job as acting as a very lite recap. Still, it does not go into enough detail into the past games to act as a serviceable conduit. It also lacks any notable uniqueness from Kairi as a narrator, making me question its overall point. The second elephant in the room has to do with the game's price tag and overall length. First and foremost, it is rather obvious that this game is aimed towards either rhythm game fans or Kingdom Hearts fans who are in love with the soundtrack. This is not a title for those who expected a decent chunk of the story, and if that is what a potential buyer desires, they are better off skipping this title entirely or purchasing it on sale. However, if you are a fan of rhythm games or are easily enthused by the wondrous Kingdom Hearts soundtracks, this game is definitely worth the full price tag. Compared to most rhythm games, Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory offers a jaw-dropping amount of content. Including over 140 songs and tons of collectibles to the degree that it has is well beyond what most games of the genre do. The inclusions of synthesis, online versus mode on top of that, as well as co-op, make Melody of Memory an incredibly stellar experience for those hooked to its gameplay. I am personally hoping for more songs to be added as DLC at some point down the road. There is still a decent chunk of songs not included, such as the data battle tracks in Kingdom Hearts 3 Re Mind's Limit Cut Episode. Regardless of whether or not that happens, though, I am delighted with the impressive slew of songs we got in one package. Overall, most of the critiques I have with Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory are minor and are not major aspects of the game. At its core, this title is an absolute delight, and I see myself sinking dozens upon dozens of more hours into it as we await the next entry in the franchise and beyond. The cathartic nature of perfecting songs, the inclusion of 3 gameplay modes, and 3 difficulties make the replay value sky-high. For rhythm game connoisseurs and those merely interested, there is more than enough to keep you hooked. KH13 gives Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory an 8.5/10. -
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory: Demo impressions
Aquaberry posted an article in Kingdom Hearts News
The Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory playable demo is now available to play worlwide! Releasing on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on November 11 in Japan and November 13 worldwide, MoM (as the fans affectionally call it) is the very first rhythm action game in the series, featuring over 140 tracks from its exceptional soundtrack. Our expectations of the demo were high, being fans of the rhythm game genre and the highly esteemed series composer Yoko Shimomura, and knowing the game has been developed in collaboration with the same studio behind the Theatrhythm Final Fantasy series and Theatrhythm Dragon Quest. The idea for a "Theatrhythm Kingdom Hearts" was first proposed in 2012, and has finally come to fruition under a different name. The Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory playable demo wasted no time in meeting our expectations of a high quality musical experience with unforgettable tracks to tickle our nostalgia. It was an extremely enlightening and engaging experience that made us discard any doubts we had for purchasing the full game, which has set itself up to be more fun than it looks. The MoM demo contains 4 single-player songs and 2 co-op songs, with 3 difficulties (Beginner, Standard, and Proud) and 3 gameplay styles (Basic, One Button, and Performer), giving players plenty to sink their teeth into. It also contains zero spoilers of the series story-wise, so it's safe to play if you still haven't caught up with the more recent entries! This title is certainly different from normal rhythm games in its gameplay, but easily one of the most satisfying games of the genre that we've played. With our previous experiences with Theatrhythm and a handful of other games such as Guitar Hero, Muse Dash, Groove Coaster, Ride Zero, and Cytus, we were interested to see how our beloved Kingdom Hearts music would translate into a game like this. Kingdom Hearts has always been known for amazing music, especially those boss themes that get your heart racing and complement the difficulty of battle and tension rising. But it can be difficult to imagine these pieces getting justice in a rhythm game, especially world and field themes, which aren't the most fast paced and may deny your metal fingers a chance to go blazing when craving an exigent level. And so came the demo and, boy oh boy, this game is more fun than it appears. It melds Kingdom Hearts-style combat and rhythmic timing amazingly well, and only by playing it will you understand how masterfully this combination works. As demonstrated in the announcement trailer, you get to play as Sora, Donald and Goofy, or a combination of other main and Disney characters, as they run along a path through different worlds, with different lanes resembling sheet music. The tracks available in the demo are Welcome to Wonderland, Hand in Hand, The Rustling Forest (from The Enchanted Dominion world) and Wave of Darkness I; you are able to filter tracks based on which game they appear in, challenge level, and even by marking your favorite ones. As the game beings and the track plays, the party of characters come across different enemies they have to attack according to the rhythm of the song, and crystals that they have to use to execute a special skill or magic. It takes a while to get used to the controls; the game was made in a way that gives the feeling of playing one of the RPG titles (Circle to jump, Cross to attack, Triangle for special attacks, hold Circle for gliding, and so on). The sound effects also blend efficiently with the track without being an annoyance and instead encouraging the player if they have timed their reactions just right. (And in case they do annoy you, you are able to adjust SFX and Voice Volume in the game's settings.) Fans of rhythm games can rejoice in knowing that the game will provide a fun, challenging experience – at least, according to the demo. The game seemed fairly difficult even on Beginner and Standard difficulties, especially when it requires you to execute combo moves. The enemies are not static; they have a range of movements that may confuse you into reacting too slow or too fast, or taking too much of your attention that you don't notice the next enemies sneaking up on you! MoM is a rhythm game at its core, but it wonderfully incorporates the RPG elements we are already familiar with, such as a variety of incoming enemies (Heartless, Unversed, people...), who have their own range of dynamic movements, that you have to react with by attacking, casting spells, gliding, changing direction, jumping, evading, and employing a combination of these, all the while keeping to the rhythm and timing of the song. We grew to like the system overall, as you do when scoring well on a song; the satisfaction of seeing the Full Chain icon show up and that Excellent Bar filling up is incredibly rewarding and can add hours to your day, making you wonder where the time went... Which is exactly what happened to us this past week! The co-op mode brings another layer of fun and challenge to the game. The tracks on the demo for co-op are the very playful All for One and the elegant battle theme Sinister Shadows. It's a fun way to spend time playing with your friends, whether they are Kingdom Hearts fans or not, and can also present a level of challenge as you will have to coordinate your actions with someone else's. We recommend for all players, of any skill level, to take some time training with the easier songs to get used to the flow of the songs (double taps, triple taps, multi-taps and directional changes, with a single or multiple fingers, based on timing). We also recommend to definitely try the demo out first – while we found the demo extremely enjoyable, it did fall short for some of our staff for whom the rhythm game genre was not their cup of tea. For those players, the One Button mode might be a good place to start. If you really fancy yourself a challenge, however, we dare you to try the Performer mode, which requires you to react with pressing some more, extra buttons than in Standard mode. We've tried it, and... let's just say MoM seems to cater to a range of difficulties, inviting novices as well as experts who can dish out some absurd coordinated ninja moves! Graphically, this title is modest and not impressive for modern hardware; it is almost a time capsule back to the PlayStation 2 days. This can be a turn-off for prospective players, but we find the lack of focus on graphical fidelity to be a strength. This makes the performance of the title nearly faultless, and the game's mechanics aren't held back by lavish visuals. These visuals are also quite nostalgic for longtime Kingdom Hearts fans and add to the thematic intention of the title. We became aware of some issues, which have also been reported by many fans. There is an odd input buffer; when mashing X, you'll notice that there is a noticeable delay between each input and output action. In a rhythm game, this can spell disappointment as it will force players to miss more notes than intended, at no fault of the player's timing. In a song like Wave of Darkness I or others with lots of notes, you may end up missing out on 3–5 notes because the input hasn't finished buffering yet. Additionally, in the heat of the moment, you won't think of pressing L1/R1 to hit notes alongside X. One missed or badly timed note can really throw you off getting the subsequent notes, which can be quite frustrating if you're aiming for a Full Chain or playing on Proud. You are able to configure the music timing in Music Stage Settings to account for lag, but it doesn't seem to solve the issue entirely. Secondly, the overall timing for some notes is a bit odd. Thankfully, enemies have a circle that closes in to let you execute the perfect timing, but the way the enemies' positions transition (such as during the last section of Wave of Darkness I) prevents you from seeing exactly in what order the notes are coming in. You might read ahead and see 2 Shadow Heartless in a row, only for a random flying double tap to come in instead. Of course, this element of challenge pushes you to learn the track and get better scores the second, third, fourth time around. Finally, the jumps. They don't have a circle to indicate timing, but rather the arrows move upwards to indicate a jump. This means different songs might have different timings on when to jump given how fast they go, and oftentimes you can find yourself reacting to a jump signal visually as you would in an RPG, and not to the rhythm of the song. Again, it's a matter of learning the moves and their timings with practice, especially as you aim for Full Chains or All Excellent. Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory has a lot going for it, and we have no doubt it is rich of content justifying its price. With the full version offering over 140 tracks, we can easily see ourselves and many others dedicating hours to this game, learning and mastering its mechanics while reminiscing the memories in the melodies. 140 songs, multiple attempts to Full Chain, All Excellent, or both, at least 3 different modes, online VS and multiplayer, 20+ playable characters, scoring and leveling up, completing missions in the World Tour... All this on top of the story and collectibles that we've seen so far in the trailers? We are impatient to get our hands on the full experience. This review was written by OrpheusJoshua, GoldenDrummer73, PowerJusho_KH13, and Aquaberry. OrpheusJoshua played the demo on PlayStation 4, while the others experienced it on the Nintendo Switch. Watch the Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory—Experience the Music! – Gameplay Compilation Watch @Power Jusho's gameplay of the demo's tracks in Standard difficulty: Tutorial: Dive into the Heart -Destati- (1:05 – 4:15) Welcome to Wonderland Hand in Hand The Rustling Forest Wave of Darkness I -
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road has now been live for a week! Upon completion of the first episode, here are our staff's impressions of this new chapter in the series! Gameplay We found the responses to the gameplay of KHUχ to be simplistic and bland. While it is certainly more new-player-friendly than KHUχ, and has the option to speed you through to the story scenes, the lack of depth in gameplay can make it a dull affair to those looking for a challenge. Either way, the lack of AP was appreciated! The KHDR home screen is simply a static screen of the current world, very unlike KHUχ, where you can move your character around and see what quests and events are available. In KHDR, you don't travel around worlds anymore. There are currently 20 brief quests, interspersed by several "Kill X amount of enemies in Y place" missions. You simply start a battle and continue until you either die or just want to stop. You can also put the game on auto battle mode and relax; some members of our staff liked the option to press "World Battle" and progress with the story without having to commit to hours of grinding, which can be monotonous while battling wave after wave of enemies with no exploration. However, the game on auto play can be a bit slower than the speed at which you can play it manually play; there's always a brief pause before the AI selects cards, whereas you can do this right away on manual. If you were not a fan of the card mechanics in Chain of Memories/RE: Chain of Memories and Flick Rush in Dream Drop Distance, you will most probably not like it in KHDR! Battle is a matter of using cards randomly drawn from your (customizable) deck with enemies attacking in real time, but there's relatively little strategy to it beyond making sure the first one is a good one, trying to use 3 of the same color (green/red/blue), and praying that your RNG is decent on which ones show up out of your deck. The chance to get the Key Art cards (some of the strongest cards in the mobile games) is unfortunately very low, sitting at a measly 0.19%. You can change the last party member with any of the four new characters (Hermod, Urd, Bragi and Vor) but it's doesn't seem like they add much to the gameplay. KHDR has the player grind excessive amounts of BP to level up, especially after Level 10. The difference in strength between the Rank 1 and Rank 2 enemies seems disproportionate; you can be stronger than a Rank 1 enemy, but find it incredibly difficult getting through more than two or three enemies at Rank 2. The difficulty spikes on the quests are also enormous, leading the player to grind even more to simply get a chance to complete the quests that are currently avaliable. There are no Keyblades to swap between, no equipment. Instead, there are two main routes to gaining power. The first is pulling for cards depicting various features of the series (enemies, art, Keyblades, and characters) in return for draw tickets, or jewels (shared with KHUχ, so pulling here reduces your jewels there and vice versa), which, if you get duplicates of, automatically merge to power up up to +10. The other is by acquiring BP, which so far serves only one purpose in KHDR: spending it to level up and increase Xehanort's base stats, although there is an empty shop tab labeled for it. As a side note, you can also gain tiny, incremental increases to various stats, mostly HP, either by collecting duplicate cards, or by killing 1, 10, 100, and 1,000 of the same enemy. BP is gained in small increments by defeating Heartless, or in fairly large amounts in the current event, which grants large amounts of it in return for special event keys, which you can of course buy with premium currency, or earn with weekly and monthly missions. You can also gain a minuscule amount of BP while the game is off. But it feels like it's something you might need to save for whatever is available in the future that requires it. Should you use all your BP to level up Xehanort now, or save it for whatever item that the game might have in store in the future? We don't know! But by far, the cheapest (and least soul-crushing) way of gaining BP is by entering an endless battle mode too weak to kill you, and then turning on auto mode. The gameplay is, at its core, very simplistic. While KHUχ has, over the years, veered into being overly complex and convoluted with its numerous ways of powering up the medals you attain, KHDR avoids that by requiring little to no thought whatsoever. If you're playing on auto mode, we suggest you turn it off if you see that you're out of cards, and tap to refill your cards faster. Just try to get through the quests fast to get to the story events. Characters and Story Based on our experience of the chapter available for KHDR, and our experience of playing it in the past week, it seems to have much more of a story-focused feel than KHUχ. But this is compromised by the incredible amount of grinding you have to do to progress to five brief cutscenes, which can demotivate the player into stopping (or turning on auto mode). The characters are interesting and the story is enjoyable. The relationship between Xehanort and Eraqus is one we were excited to see. They have an easy chemistry one expects from a pair of actual, real-world friends. Furthermore, the story has the distinction of moving faster and being more tight and focused than KHUχ, in our experience. The four new Keyblade wielders, however, are effectively entirely interchangeable as party members with no difference to the story, saying the exact same things where they appear, with no difference whatsoever on who you choose despite having different personalities. They unfortunately seem to serve as set pieces and props more than actual, well-written, influential characters, especially considering... KHDR is certainly bound to be even more compelling than its counterpart KHUχ. It seems to be a more personal tale with a shocking twist at the end of Episode 1 (see in spoiler box). The story, though short, has a strong beginning, enticing hardcore fans to follow along, craving future lore and insights into how and why Xehanort became the Seeker of Darkness. Overall Impressions KHDR is a simple, fun game to play on your phone, but not a title with much to write home about. It starts very slow, with only time to tell if it will get livelier or stay an idle experience. While the mechanics may be new-user friendly, we don't actively recommend it for those who have not played KHUχ as it relies, for now anyway, too much on your KHUχ progress to even get to a decent point in it. In fact, as a KHUχ player, it's possible to use it as an easy way to make more jewels for KHDR due to its almost entirely idle nature and fairly generous weekly/monthly rewards. While KHDR's story is compelling, engaging, and appreciatingly fast-paced, and the friendship between the younger versions of Master Xehanort and Master Eraqus are a joy to experience, the gameplay grind is likely to be too monotonous and uneventful and to be skipped over on auto mode. KHDR apparently had a relatively small team that worked on it, and some of the limitations are somewhat understandable given the lack of focus it received. The KHUχ team was still working on KHUχ when developing KHDR, and with only two animators. With time, updates, expertise and a bit more focus on it, perhaps that can be changed. It's too early to tell. Overall Rating 5.8 out of 10 ⭐️ Many thanks to @Allwil13, @Otti#8624, @Ryuji_Shiryu, @Aqua_Wren, @OrpheusJoshua, PowerJusho_KH13 and others for sharing their first impressions of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road! Let us know what you thought about it, and what you expect in the coming developments! -
KH13's Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind scenario review
OrpheusJoshua posted an article in Kingdom Hearts News
Some members of our staff have taken the time to share their experiences with the Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind main story scenario, and other included features such as Data Greeting. Due to our KH3 Re Mind spoiler policy, everything below will be in spoiler boxes so viewer discretion is advised. We have covered the Limit Cut Episode, Secret Episode and Premium Menu in a separate article. Raxaimus's thoughts on Update 1.09, the Re Mind scenario and Data Greeting: Orpheus Joshua's thoughts on Update 1.09 and the Re Mind scenario: Delenn Deszcz's thoughts on the Re Mind scenario: -
Some members of our staff have taken the time to share their experiences with the Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind main story scenario, and other included features such as Data Greeting. Due to our KH3 Re Mind spoiler policy, everything below will be in spoiler boxes so viewer discretion is advised. We have covered the Limit Cut Episode, Secret Episode and Premium Menu in a separate article. Raxaimus's thoughts on Update 1.09, the Re Mind scenario and Data Greeting: Orpheus Joshua's thoughts on Update 1.09 and the Re Mind scenario: Delenn Deszcz's thoughts on the Re Mind scenario: View full article
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KH3 ReMind Review (SPOILER REVIEW) HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO KINGDOM HEARTS III !!! ❣️ So, it has been a year since KH3 released. Here we are with new content since then.....and boy do I have stuff and a hoot to say about them! Before we get started, I will dive into spoilers later in the review. I will display my thoughts on gameplay and technical changes made for the past year. The story I will not shy away from spoilers. This is, however, my personal take on the story. So it will be different points of view. Heck, even a few complaints I have you should take it with a pinch of salt. As for when I will talk about the spoilers, I will let you know about the spoilers with second warning and this ⚠️ That being said, let’s talk about the updates! So, before the recent update and remind, we received critical mode. I heard some positives towards this for the challengers and here is my take. Consider how I have been playing critical for KH2 and even BbS, this does feel like the toughest. I will admit, it’s harder getting into KH3 because of the difficulty spike. Not saying it’s bad, I’m just a big baby LOL I will say it was worth it for the sake of the new keyblades that released with the update. I will be dead honest when I say Oblivion and Oathkeeper were never my favorite (do not hate them, just not an instant fav). However, I think it was time to reconsider after using them for awhile. I can’t really pick which one is better because they are both so good! But I may love Oblivion. Of course having to dual wield them makes the experience all the more fun! As for the new move set, again, I never really had major issues. I will say that it originally was not as responsive as it is now in this update. Every move felt fast and responsive and just satisfying. Sota wasn’t as floaty like he used to be. Nice stuff to boot, definitely could not complain. Another addition they had was the premium menu. I decided to try EZ codes to speed run in another file to play remind again. Now, keep in mind, I did finish remind on critical. But I felt awful for not finishing up some segments because being on critical was a little difficult. So, I decided to try EZ codes to speed run using deadly blow.....it was hilarious to say the least. Just wanted to get these stories done LOL Anyway, to adjust the experience through premium how I desire is something to boot. I actually love this on proud. I adjusted to HP + MP regan and auto-block. This is could end up being useful to see and check out the hard bosses and study their move sets before doing block myself without the premium menu. That being said, a MAJOR PSA! When you do this going through these hard bosses and expect a trophy from using the EZ codes (and even PRO code), you will not receive a trophy for those bosses. You’d only get these trophies without premium menu (which I assume is the case for both sides, do correct me for the pro code). You do get a a couple trophies for completing merits of the premium menu. Also to briefly state that I never tried PRO code yet. I think you can guess that it is the coin flip of EZ codes. It will be something to try out in the future, but definitely not any time soon LOL One final thing before I talk about the story, is the Data Greeting. You can access this once you enter the limit cut episode. Can I just say it one of my absolute favorite features in this game. The artist in me having to place my favorite characters in these desired areas was an unexpected dream come true. Sadly, I do have a few issues with this feature. I understand the modeling had to be limited. But I was surprised how a couple characters were left with only a couple of poses (Naminé for instance). Because of how limited some of these poses are, it is difficult to find the right perfect spot and angle without being awkward. Definitely meme fuel, but my artist brain needed some good shots LOL A few nit picks are down to the auras should have the option to have some opacity scaling, areas should be expanded, and even add some Disney/summon Characters to the mix (I was actually shocked to not see any despite their worlds featured in the data greeting). If I had it my way, I’d love the Disney characters to be added to any world....THAT would be a meme feast to stuff us with LOL Another small complaint I want to address (for the game in general and forgot to mention in my original review) is the expansion of the save slots. Almost all KH games consists about 90-99 slots......but we now only have....9. I’m sorry, I just cannot deal with feeling so claustrophobic over the piling of saves I wanted to keep. This also applies to the data greeting save files. Alright, here is where I start going to spoilers. I couldn’t bring myself to hold back on this this time. So, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT EITHER PLAYED KH3’S BASE GAME AND/OR REMIND (INCLUDING LIMIT CUT AND SECRET)! You have been warned!!! ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ So........ ........That Re:Mind content...... ........made KH3 my second favorite KH game! WHERE? DO I? BEGIN???? This was almost everything people wanted! From explaining Sora’s use of the power of waking, explorable Scala, certain character’s return (Xion and Roxas mostly), group interaction, playable characters (especially Kairi)....to even moments and references we did not expect! First to talk about is Sora’s power of waking arc. The base game did not explain the use of PoW (yes that’s what I’m calling it). As such, the ending left everyone in controversy. I can’t say for sure how everyone else feels about it currently from the clarity, but it was more impactful now we understand the context. Plus, seeing the other characters interacting from battle to the beach was all the more special. Speaking of which.... It was also really nice to see the perspective of the other characters aside from Sora and Co in the base game. Sora witnessed each certain guardians struggles and helps them achieve to where they need to be. In other words, we get more context for each character’s predicament. I mean, we all speculated why Aqua gave up during the timeline of their failure, but we now see what she sees in the heartless tornado thing (which happens to school of flying anti-Aquas). Of course, I will not go through every single character for it, but this DLC does answer a lot of questions we had. I’d like to express my favorite moments in a bit, but I’d like to address another feature they added that everyone really wanted: Scala ad Caelum is now explorable! Being able to look around the world (albeit two areas) is a major treat. It is incredibly beautiful. It leaves people with their imagination of certain parts of the area. I’ll be honest, going through a couple areas felt really familiar. I even heard from someone that it felt like it was in their dreams. I do have a small nit pick for this Scala. I was hoping we get more background on Xehanort, even through small posters or abandoned books somewhere. However, there is a machine that literally tells you the story of it’s origin. So, my nit pick is merely small and doesn’t ruin the overall experience. Now to talk about my favorite moments: I thought the conversation between MoM and Young Xehanort was fascinating. It seriously makes me want to learn more about Xehanort and what he was like as a kid. Luckily, I hear there is a mobile game coming up in spring relating to Xehanort (so definitely something to look forward to). Of course MoM just made the spotlight still being funny and being very mysterious. Currently I still could not read him and love every moment of it. I find the sea salt trio segment more satisfying. The fact I get to see more Xemnas and Axel is totally worth watching. But what stood out was Kairi standing up for herself by fighting briefly against Xemnas (I swear I could not believe that’s real life). This is an example of what most people really want from Kairi and I’m glad she finally got a decently memorable moment like this. Continuing the sea salt segment, Roxas was the best playable character of the bunch. It feels so great to play as Roxas again but not in a DS game and no longer the tutorial boy. The reversal reaction command was definitely a throwback. What more is there to say, it’s Roxas! We now have the Key Squad battle! From here to the end is where it all gets incredibly memorable. Playing each character briefly and guarding at the same time, having them talk to each other was just precious to my fan girl heart, and the visuals are just astounding. We also have probably one of the best moments not only in ReMind, but probably the entire series. You play as a wounded Mickey trying to walk to the open keyhole and fighting against 12 hollow armors of Xehanort along the way. The setting of this moment....would it be stretching to say that it’s not only the most magical in KH, but for Disney in general. I’m telling you all I have not felt genuine Disney magic in a very long time. This made the moment all the more memorable for both KH and Disney as a whole. 10/10 This next moment was what made me cry (this might be a weird one to some LOL). But as soon as Kairi’s pieces were put together only to be an item that leads to a keyhole. The way Sora locks the keyhole is very identical to KH2. Our of all the scenes in this content, that one hit me the most emotionally. The fact how much of a throwback it was and nostalgia overwhelmed me is what made it the sorts for me. I grew up playing KH2 (because it was the only KH I had for a long time) and it’s also my #1 favorite KH game and generally of all time. So, of course that hit me hard in the gut LOL OF COURSE, we also get playable Kairi. For the first time in KH history we get to play a character that barely had much decent recognition. Sadly, because I was on critical, I failed so much I had to move to Sora. But, when playing on proud, it felt so surreal to play as a person like Kairi. There’s so much to consume about the amazing content. But I had a couple of issues only the first time playing. The idea of the Sigil X thing confused me. I tolerated all the talk on the fact they’ve been making things up on the way. But, I do not understand this addition to the meaning of the sigil. After thinking about I do think the sigil is marked by Xemnas. I remember seeing a video talking about how he was the person that gave them a name, a home, and a purpose. The X in their name is a form of their identity in the organization. From that organization, the sea salt trio became friends with that identity. Therefore, with the Sigil, they form a bond. With that being said, I think it was weird to add this because I thought it was simply to symbolize yourself as part of the organization. I don’t know, I felt the Sigil thing confused me. Ok.....I originally was so angry at this issue, I am mostly a little thrown off as I watched it again and again. I know that a different person had to voice Xehanort after the recent passed away. At the time, I did not know it was Christopher Lloyd. The new scenes with Master Xehanort were really good. It was the reused lines in the Keyblade Graveyard was rushed and too over the top I guess. I thought it was the worst acting I’ve heard when I first heard it. I did get used to them a little bit since it is exclusive in ReMind. Between the two for that segment, Rutger Hauer had a better performance. He is over the top and being a villain, just not sky rocket over like Christopher Lloyd. It was only that segment that really bothered me. That ends the Remind story.....now we have Limit Cut and the secret episode! I want to point out that the content for remind “reminded” me of BbS final mix. That game also had a couple of playable segments (final episode and secret episode). I think it’s really neat to see KH3 is doing the same thing, only incredibly beefy! As mentioned before, Limit Cut now allows me to access Data Greeting. But I can also do the Data Battles like I did with KH2FM.....only more difficult. When I first played this, I was on critical and trying to get into these bosses. Sadly, I couldn’t even get through 1 boss and kinda why I regretted playing on critical on my first (I had to because it had Oathkeeper and Oblivion). I had to quickly speed run in a new save file on Proud with the EZ codes to go through remind again to get to limit cut and fight the bosses. Even with EZ codes with HP regan, I did fail a few times for a couple of bosses. So, not perfect but definitely got through them swiftly just for the story. Speaking of story, limit cut and tiny episode of what has been going on currently....1 year later (funny how that worked about because it had been a year since KH3’s launch day). Turns out Kairi has been asleep in hopes something would trigger to find Sora, to which everyone in the Key Squad is contributing I their way. The Fairy Godmother comes along to ask Riku about his dreams, one of which is relevant to the secret ending. Speaking of secret.... Now we have the secret boss...aka Yozora. I thought it was the most interesting segment throughout this DLC. Not only was he first appeared in a commercial in Toy Box, not only is he a tough boss, not only now confirming the stars we talked happened to be aquatinted with Yozora (so long Strelitzia and Skuld theories), and most certainly not only does it have 2 endings.....but it seems to heavily referencing Final Fantasy vs XIII with the shots used from the trailer in 2011. Nomura can deny this all he wants, but I think he will be adding this as part of the universe of KH. I am actually looking forward to it regardless if it’s the case or not. I find Yozora seems to be really interesting and I want to see where this goes. Especially when he says what he is to Sora is not what he looks like. So, I wonder if he’ll show up as a different form. I find fascinating to see Kingdom Hearts have 2 endings (bad and good). Bad ending is when you lose and Sora turns to crystal and Yozora waking up in a car quoting the very first lines of the series being the “weird thoughts”. Good ending Yozora particle-lizes and still wakes up in a car....only for the driver to wake him up. When I first heard the driver, I firmly believe it was Luxord. For the first time, he truly now got my attention. I am now fascinated with his character. Cannot wait to see more with this series. I swear, this lore diving keeps getting deeper and deeper and never fails to impress me. As for the battle, it is difficult....but I actually might love this over Lingering Will. I find the music and setup to be a lot cooler and mysterious. His battle sets are a new step to test your skills in this particular fight. I find him the most unique and most unforgiving. Lingering Will you can cheese your way. You can dead shot through Yozora, but there really is no way to cheese this fight (do correct me if I’m wrong though). At the end of the day, I just find it funny to joke around that Yozora asked Sora how he knew his name and if met him I’d answer “a toy dinosaur told me!” ROFL ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ That is all I have! Boy has it been a ride or what. I know some people were iffy on whether the price it worth it. Personally, I think it was. I am willing to spend so much time deciding what to do on the data greeting and I continue to trophy hunt to make this journey in the game more worthwhile now. I love Kingdom Hearts for the wackiest concept I’ve ever seen in my life. It is the wackiest game with the heart of a diamond. How much it has shined for me for so many years and the fact the it is somewhat a crossover of what felt is impossible. When I think of Disney being the place where dreams come true. This is one of them, one we thought we never expected. It was series that is forever one of the most unique of media out there. I am forever grateful to Tetsuya Nomura, Tai Yasue, the Osaka team, Yoko Shimomura, the actors, and the fans for making the series incredibly special. Thank you so very much! —————— ARTIST NOTES Artist: https://www.deviantart.com/mns-prime-21/gallery/ ALRIGHT, when I drew this, it was only from what was shown in the trailer. I feel it is the perfect setting. For the first time, I truly do a full on night sky in this series of posters I’ve in Summer 2018 till early 2019. I do feel it is a bit difficult to set up the night sky with the sunrise/sunset look. I didn’t want it to feel the same. I do love a clear night sky though. It always felt haunting and peaceful whenever the full moon shines and the stars gleam in the empty space of the night sky. I really don’t how what else to say other than I am proud of this piece. Sora ©️ Kingdom Hearts-
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A good while ago, I did a review video for Kingdom Hearts 3, but I decided to wait before posting it here so that everyone had a good amount of time to play the game. So, if you want someone else's thoughts on the game, then this is a pretty good video for you. -
Kingdom Hearts III has recently released in Japan and worldwide now, the highly anticipated game is still needing one final touch; the Kingdom Hearts community’s thoughts and opinions on Kingdom Hearts III. You can now submit your very own review of Kingdom Hearts III for a chance to have it featured on KH13's front page as part of KH13's compilation of community reviews! To enter a Kingdom Hearts III review, guidelines are in effect after the release and must be met regarding the Kingdom Hearts III spoiler policy. You must: Keep your reviews based on Kingdom Hearts content released officially from Square Enix and other official outlets. No inappropriate language Reviews must be reasonable and written with common sense Any review that contains story spoilers will NOT be accepted. In your review the length must be short; a paragraph (3-4 lines) is the maximum length allowed, accompanied by a rating out of 10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best). The rating should be decided after considering the game's: story gameplay level design character designs, including allies and enemies music replayability and post-game content creativity Make sure you take everything into consideration including the spoiler policy before submitting your review. To submit your review just sign in or sign up to KH13.com and reply to this article. We look forward to seeing your reviews! -
Our spikey-haired hero has returned to continue his fight against the darkness in a brand new and most awaited installment of the 17-year saga, Kingdom Hearts III! Kingdom Hearts III is a masterpiece that flourishes through the cinematic cutscenes, gameplay, and story while retaining bits and pieces from past games. This preliminary review will go over our staff's takeaways of the game without spoiling the story. An in-depth analysis and video review will also be coming soon! Update [Feb 11, 2019]: Our video review, which includes our rating and a fuller discussion on the game, is now up! Watch it here or scroll down to the bottom of this article! The charm of Kingdom Hearts III lies prominently in the amazing cinematic scenes Square Enix developed working in unison with Disney and Disney Pixar. Compared to the past games in the series, Kingdom Hearts III’s cutscenes are more vibrant and the characters are far more expressive, both in cinematics and in gameplay. No more robot face Sora! Sora blends in smoothly with Pixar characters as if he were originally part of the movies. The scenes transition into battle flawlessly and without delay. Along with the beautiful visuals, Yoko Shimomura’s arrangements amp up the emotion throughout the game and resonate nostalgia, beginning with the new arrangement of Dearly Beloved. Hearing Dearly Beloved brought back many memories and emotions from the years of playing the series. To top it off, the dialogue is delightful; written by director Tetsuya Nomura himself, the scenarios were scripted naturally, with humor scattered throughout that underlined the theme of friendship. You will find yourself chuckling even at the cheesiest lines! The story is an engaging experience with contributions by the player itself but also succeeds in delivering the immersive of the original Disney movies themselves. As expected, Kingdom Heart's storytelling's staple convolution throughout over a dozen different games may hinder new players from grasping the core plot elements - even at a basic level. Actually, it's not even an issue of understanding the plot, which is partly aided by references to past events, flashbacks, and the Memory Archive summary videos; but rather it is an issue of appreciating it. Longtime fans may make jokes regarding the series's plot but we still find ourselves enraptured by plot twists (and holes), tangled dialogue, vague implications, abstract references, and symbolism in the story. For brand new or fairly new players, their inexperience with the "side games" of the story (whose stories can be accessed at once via the 1.5+2.5 and 2.8 collections for PS4) may not hinder the fun of playing Kingdom Hearts III or even understanding the superficial plot points, but can sadly interfere with the delight that comes with both comprehending the underlying plot and characters' personalities or pondering about its mysteries. Despite this, whether Kingdom Hearts III can encourage new players to try out the other games (or at least read multiple wikis on the series) is a question that needs to be asked exclusively to those very players. Before we dive in to discuss battle, let's take a moment to talk about the amazing Gummiphone. The Gummiphone is first introduced as a way to communicate in the Kingdom Hearts universe and as a way for Jiminy Cricket to record your adventures. But as with any smartphone, its main use becomes quickly evident; selfies! Characters will pose when you aim the front or back camera at them, and you can make Sora give a cheesy smile (pun intended). Some characters are more photogenic than others (*cough* Rapunzel *cough*) and you may find yourself taking a few dozen pictures of or with them. The views are also breathtaking, in some worlds more than others, and you can't help but want to record this in photographs. Unfortunately, the maximum number of photographs allowed is 100; but you can easily save your favorite ones externally on social media, and delete some as you go along, such as the Lucky Emblems photos, which are stored in their own separate album. Speaking of Lucky Emblems (just another name for Hidden Mickeys, really), snapping a good picture of them will enable you to unlock the secret ending movie after beating the game upon installing Update 1.03. The requirements are to snap all 90 Emblems in Beginner mode, 60 on Standard, and 30 on Proud, and the movie can be viewed either after the Epilogue or in the Theatre. Now, onto battles. Kingdom Hearts III’s gameplay feels very fluid and has improved from the demo. There are factors that pay homage to past games such as the return of Flowmotion and Shotlock. The game also has many new varieties of mechanics. Formchanges, in which Sora and Keyblades transform into powerful forms with very effective combos, and a mechanic called Attractions, that unveil beautiful cinematic scenes of Sora, Donald, and Goofy riding recognizable Disney rides that release powerful finishers. The detail and time put into the Attractions are amazing, and many, like Splash Run, leave you feeling like you're riding them yourself; but they often feel excessive and overpowered in battle. There are times during battle when I accidentally trigger the Attractions and it feels more in the way than helping. (By the way, you can change between different reaction commands using L2!) There are many layers in this game that enable you to vary your strategy from world to world, battle to battle, and within the same battle! As always, you can equip your favorite abilities, but in Kingdom Hearts III it is one of the keys to making gameplay more challenging. In fact, selecting Proud mode is only one way to test one's abilities; for more competitive players, equipping and unequipping certain abilities (such as MP Safety, Zero EXP, or Auto-Finish) is highly recommended. A monumental change has been implemented in the Keyblades in this game; along with formchanges, each with their own gimmicks and abilities, even more variety can be added by switching between 3 Keyblades in a single battle or even during combos! Switching Keyblades also helps in retaining forms by preventing their timer from depleting. And if that isn't enough, you can power up your Keyblades with the help of Moogles, the meisters of synthesis! After formchanging your Keyblade, you can choose to deal powerful finishing attacks; some can leave you with a sense of accomplishments as you knock down enemy after enemy; others... not so much. (Try the Hero's Origin Keyblade finisher for the Counter Shield formchange when you get the time; you will know exactly what I mean!) Among Kingdom Hearts III's plethora of battle elements to use at your disposal, other examples include Links with other Disney Characters (and Dream Eaters) and Team-up Attacks with your allies. It feels refreshing to be able to hear your party members call out to alert you that they are ready to deliver a special move together. Some of these moves can also be used outside of (or exclusively in) battle to overcome barriers in your exploration, such as burning debris with Goofy's shield or tall cliffs with Rapunzel's hair. Variety in combat would mean very little if not accompanied by a variety of battles. Fortunately, in Kingdom Hearts III, the two go hand-in-hand. (Yes, pun intended.) The enemies in the game are quite diverse and therefore push you to choose different combat strategies; this aids even the least creative, most stoic players to come up with their own styles - and enjoy doing so! Almost every fight - from the hordes of Heartless to the small, medium, and big boss fights - has a different fighting experience to offer. The boss fights are always interesting and ask you to change strategies during the battle and relish in figuring your way out of it. The worlds of Kingdom Hearts III also introduce new mini-games for players to enjoy! Each world has its own set of games along with recurring ones. A favorite of mine is the Tangled rhythm mini-game where Sora dances at the festival in Corona. The mechanics are very similar to Atlantica’s mini-game in Kingdom Hearts II, but the music is instrumental and amps the rhythm as you proceed through the different stages. Classic Kingdom mini-games are also accessible through the Gummiphone, inspired by LCD games and themed after classic black and white Disney shorts; these are simple yet addictive, and fun to spend time playing during breaks from grander fights and breaking previous records. Something convenient in Kingdom Hearts III is Remy's restaurant in Twilight Town - which can be accessed through the world map as well! At Remy's Bistro, you can use the ingredients you've collected to cook new recipes through a pleasing mini-game and the outcomes are beneficial! When dishes are consumed, it raises stats for a temporary amount of time (and you get a bonus for a full-course meal). Ingredients can be bought in Moogle Shops but also collected in different worlds; make sure to check every cranny, smash every barrel, hit all the bushes, and swim every way! Even if those broken barrels don't yield anything on your shopping list, they might give you some extra Munny to spend - which is great, because you might find yourself strapped for cash otherwise. Apart from looking for ingredients and Lucky Emblems, another element that rewards the player for exploration comes with the Gummi Ship's "open-world" mode, but let's talk about that within the next section of our review: the return of the Gummi Ship. It could not have been imagined in any better way. The Gummi Ship element of the gameplay has been completely overhauled in Kingdom Hearts III. You can now explore the universe freely and multi-directionally, leading your own way across asteroids, avoiding enemies, marveling at space lights or venturing to find treasures hidden inside puzzle-like Treasure Spheres while bathed in the light of faraway stars. The stars themselves may represent a constellation that you can take pictures of (yes, you can use your Gummiphone in space) to be rewarded with new blueprints. And then, when you're well rested, you can dash towards enemies of your level of choice and engage in a fight in the Gummi Ship's battle mode. The Gummi Ship can be customized to boost appearance and stats at an even greater level in this game, and can be equipped with auxiliaries such as special weapons and "teeny ships"! It is something I suggest you play yourself to experience the marvel of. Below are some of our favorite Gummi Ship designs! In conclusion, Kingdom Hearts III isn't perfect, but it's definitely a masterpiece. Following the series for years, this game stirs up so many emotions and is a rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. It makes you laugh so hard that you can't breathe, it also breaks your heart and makes you cry. It is incredibly fun to play and easy to immerse yourself into as it offers you the freedom to choose your own play style, all this in a gorgeous Disney and Square Enix original settings. If you haven't picked up Kingdom Hearts III yet, you should! If you are new to the series, the game offers a memory archive in which you can watch videos recapping the past games, and is not timid in bringing back events from the past to remind old players and recap new ones. If you are Disney fans, all the better experience as it takes you on a nostalgic adventure as you re-experience beloved stories or a new storyline altogether with your favorite Disney characters. But to truly appreciate the charm of its storytelling, we recommend playing Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, both on PS4 and also available as a physical bundle in Kingdom Hearts -The Story So Far- and digitally in the All-In-One Package. If all else fails, there's always fanmade recap videos such as the Kingdom Hearts Timeline series to help you out! But whether or not this is your first Kingdom Hearts game, it will be an insanely fun ride. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr for more news on Kingdom Hearts, and keep in touch with the latest highlights through our Kingdom Hearts III master coverage! UPDATE [Feb 11, 2019]: You can also watch our video review for a fuller discussion by Staff @Toominator and @SeaSaltShelby on what they enjoyed, the most and the least, about Kingdom Hearts III! Kingdom Hearts III review codes were provided by Square Enix. This review pertains to Version 1.00 played on a standard PlayStation 4. This review was co-written by Erica-Janine Sanguir and Fatima Kaiyum; it been updated with additional comments after Update 1.03. The video review was made by @Toominator and @SeaSaltShelby. For more reviews by critics, click here. View full article -
[Updated] KH13's Kingdom Hearts III review and video review
xionskeyblade posted an article in Kingdom Hearts News
Our spikey-haired hero has returned to continue his fight against the darkness in a brand new and most awaited installment of the 17-year saga, Kingdom Hearts III! Kingdom Hearts III is a masterpiece that flourishes through the cinematic cutscenes, gameplay, and story while retaining bits and pieces from past games. This preliminary review will go over our staff's takeaways of the game without spoiling the story. An in-depth analysis and video review will also be coming soon! Update [Feb 11, 2019]: Our video review, which includes our rating and a fuller discussion on the game, is now up! Watch it here or scroll down to the bottom of this article! The charm of Kingdom Hearts III lies prominently in the amazing cinematic scenes Square Enix developed working in unison with Disney and Disney Pixar. Compared to the past games in the series, Kingdom Hearts III’s cutscenes are more vibrant and the characters are far more expressive, both in cinematics and in gameplay. No more robot face Sora! Sora blends in smoothly with Pixar characters as if he were originally part of the movies. The scenes transition into battle flawlessly and without delay. Along with the beautiful visuals, Yoko Shimomura’s arrangements amp up the emotion throughout the game and resonate nostalgia, beginning with the new arrangement of Dearly Beloved. Hearing Dearly Beloved brought back many memories and emotions from the years of playing the series. To top it off, the dialogue is delightful; written by director Tetsuya Nomura himself, the scenarios were scripted naturally, with humor scattered throughout that underlined the theme of friendship. You will find yourself chuckling even at the cheesiest lines! The story is an engaging experience with contributions by the player itself but also succeeds in delivering the immersive of the original Disney movies themselves. As expected, Kingdom Heart's storytelling's staple convolution throughout over a dozen different games may hinder new players from grasping the core plot elements - even at a basic level. Actually, it's not even an issue of understanding the plot, which is partly aided by references to past events, flashbacks, and the Memory Archive summary videos; but rather it is an issue of appreciating it. Longtime fans may make jokes regarding the series's plot but we still find ourselves enraptured by plot twists (and holes), tangled dialogue, vague implications, abstract references, and symbolism in the story. For brand new or fairly new players, their inexperience with the "side games" of the story (whose stories can be accessed at once via the 1.5+2.5 and 2.8 collections for PS4) may not hinder the fun of playing Kingdom Hearts III or even understanding the superficial plot points, but can sadly interfere with the delight that comes with both comprehending the underlying plot and characters' personalities or pondering about its mysteries. Despite this, whether Kingdom Hearts III can encourage new players to try out the other games (or at least read multiple wikis on the series) is a question that needs to be asked exclusively to those very players. Before we dive in to discuss battle, let's take a moment to talk about the amazing Gummiphone. The Gummiphone is first introduced as a way to communicate in the Kingdom Hearts universe and as a way for Jiminy Cricket to record your adventures. But as with any smartphone, its main use becomes quickly evident; selfies! Characters will pose when you aim the front or back camera at them, and you can make Sora give a cheesy smile (pun intended). Some characters are more photogenic than others (*cough* Rapunzel *cough*) and you may find yourself taking a few dozen pictures of or with them. The views are also breathtaking, in some worlds more than others, and you can't help but want to record this in photographs. Unfortunately, the maximum number of photographs allowed is 100; but you can easily save your favorite ones externally on social media, and delete some as you go along, such as the Lucky Emblems photos, which are stored in their own separate album. Speaking of Lucky Emblems (just another name for Hidden Mickeys, really), snapping a good picture of them will enable you to unlock the secret ending movie after beating the game upon installing Update 1.03. The requirements are to snap all 90 Emblems in Beginner mode, 60 on Standard, and 30 on Proud, and the movie can be viewed either after the Epilogue or in the Theatre. Now, onto battles. Kingdom Hearts III’s gameplay feels very fluid and has improved from the demo. There are factors that pay homage to past games such as the return of Flowmotion and Shotlock. The game also has many new varieties of mechanics. Formchanges, in which Sora and Keyblades transform into powerful forms with very effective combos, and a mechanic called Attractions, that unveil beautiful cinematic scenes of Sora, Donald, and Goofy riding recognizable Disney rides that release powerful finishers. The detail and time put into the Attractions are amazing, and many, like Splash Run, leave you feeling like you're riding them yourself; but they often feel excessive and overpowered in battle. There are times during battle when I accidentally trigger the Attractions and it feels more in the way than helping. (By the way, you can change between different reaction commands using L2!) There are many layers in this game that enable you to vary your strategy from world to world, battle to battle, and within the same battle! As always, you can equip your favorite abilities, but in Kingdom Hearts III it is one of the keys to making gameplay more challenging. In fact, selecting Proud mode is only one way to test one's abilities; for more competitive players, equipping and unequipping certain abilities (such as MP Safety, Zero EXP, or Auto-Finish) is highly recommended. A monumental change has been implemented in the Keyblades in this game; along with formchanges, each with their own gimmicks and abilities, even more variety can be added by switching between 3 Keyblades in a single battle or even during combos! Switching Keyblades also helps in retaining forms by preventing their timer from depleting. And if that isn't enough, you can power up your Keyblades with the help of Moogles, the meisters of synthesis! After formchanging your Keyblade, you can choose to deal powerful finishing attacks; some can leave you with a sense of accomplishments as you knock down enemy after enemy; others... not so much. (Try the Hero's Origin Keyblade finisher for the Counter Shield formchange when you get the time; you will know exactly what I mean!) Among Kingdom Hearts III's plethora of battle elements to use at your disposal, other examples include Links with other Disney Characters (and Dream Eaters) and Team-up Attacks with your allies. It feels refreshing to be able to hear your party members call out to alert you that they are ready to deliver a special move together. Some of these moves can also be used outside of (or exclusively in) battle to overcome barriers in your exploration, such as burning debris with Goofy's shield or tall cliffs with Rapunzel's hair. Variety in combat would mean very little if not accompanied by a variety of battles. Fortunately, in Kingdom Hearts III, the two go hand-in-hand. (Yes, pun intended.) The enemies in the game are quite diverse and therefore push you to choose different combat strategies; this aids even the least creative, most stoic players to come up with their own styles - and enjoy doing so! Almost every fight - from the hordes of Heartless to the small, medium, and big boss fights - has a different fighting experience to offer. The boss fights are always interesting and ask you to change strategies during the battle and relish in figuring your way out of it. The worlds of Kingdom Hearts III also introduce new mini-games for players to enjoy! Each world has its own set of games along with recurring ones. A favorite of mine is the Tangled rhythm mini-game where Sora dances at the festival in Corona. The mechanics are very similar to Atlantica’s mini-game in Kingdom Hearts II, but the music is instrumental and amps the rhythm as you proceed through the different stages. Classic Kingdom mini-games are also accessible through the Gummiphone, inspired by LCD games and themed after classic black and white Disney shorts; these are simple yet addictive, and fun to spend time playing during breaks from grander fights and breaking previous records. Something convenient in Kingdom Hearts III is Remy's restaurant in Twilight Town - which can be accessed through the world map as well! At Remy's Bistro, you can use the ingredients you've collected to cook new recipes through a pleasing mini-game and the outcomes are beneficial! When dishes are consumed, it raises stats for a temporary amount of time (and you get a bonus for a full-course meal). Ingredients can be bought in Moogle Shops but also collected in different worlds; make sure to check every cranny, smash every barrel, hit all the bushes, and swim every way! Even if those broken barrels don't yield anything on your shopping list, they might give you some extra Munny to spend - which is great, because you might find yourself strapped for cash otherwise. Apart from looking for ingredients and Lucky Emblems, another element that rewards the player for exploration comes with the Gummi Ship's "open-world" mode, but let's talk about that within the next section of our review: the return of the Gummi Ship. It could not have been imagined in any better way. The Gummi Ship element of the gameplay has been completely overhauled in Kingdom Hearts III. You can now explore the universe freely and multi-directionally, leading your own way across asteroids, avoiding enemies, marveling at space lights or venturing to find treasures hidden inside puzzle-like Treasure Spheres while bathed in the light of faraway stars. The stars themselves may represent a constellation that you can take pictures of (yes, you can use your Gummiphone in space) to be rewarded with new blueprints. And then, when you're well rested, you can dash towards enemies of your level of choice and engage in a fight in the Gummi Ship's battle mode. The Gummi Ship can be customized to boost appearance and stats at an even greater level in this game, and can be equipped with auxiliaries such as special weapons and "teeny ships"! It is something I suggest you play yourself to experience the marvel of. Below are some of our favorite Gummi Ship designs! In conclusion, Kingdom Hearts III isn't perfect, but it's definitely a masterpiece. Following the series for years, this game stirs up so many emotions and is a rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. It makes you laugh so hard that you can't breathe, it also breaks your heart and makes you cry. It is incredibly fun to play and easy to immerse yourself into as it offers you the freedom to choose your own play style, all this in a gorgeous Disney and Square Enix original settings. If you haven't picked up Kingdom Hearts III yet, you should! If you are new to the series, the game offers a memory archive in which you can watch videos recapping the past games, and is not timid in bringing back events from the past to remind old players and recap new ones. If you are Disney fans, all the better experience as it takes you on a nostalgic adventure as you re-experience beloved stories or a new storyline altogether with your favorite Disney characters. But to truly appreciate the charm of its storytelling, we recommend playing Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, both on PS4 and also available as a physical bundle in Kingdom Hearts -The Story So Far- and digitally in the All-In-One Package. If all else fails, there's always fanmade recap videos such as the Kingdom Hearts Timeline series to help you out! But whether or not this is your first Kingdom Hearts game, it will be an insanely fun ride. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr for more news on Kingdom Hearts, and keep in touch with the latest highlights through our Kingdom Hearts III master coverage! UPDATE [Feb 11, 2019]: You can also watch our video review for a fuller discussion by Staff @Toominator and @SeaSaltShelby on what they enjoyed, the most and the least, about Kingdom Hearts III! Kingdom Hearts III review codes were provided by Square Enix. This review pertains to Version 1.00 played on a standard PlayStation 4. This review was co-written by Erica-Janine Sanguir and Fatima Kaiyum; it been updated with additional comments after Update 1.03. The video review was made by @Toominator and @SeaSaltShelby. For more reviews by critics, click here. -
Famitsu, the most popular and respected video games magazine in Japan, have finally released their rating for Kingdom Hearts III! Previously, they had published two preliminary reviews for the game online. In the most recent issue that released on February 7, they published their rating of the game, summing up the score of four reviewers to 39/40. In the same issue, they also featured different gameplay elements from the game. You can read a translation of the reviews below, and take a look at the scans from the issue at the end of the article. Translations are courtesy of @Keytotruth. Read KH13's review of Kingdom Hearts III here! For more Kingdom Hearts news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, and check out the highlights on our Kingdom Hearts III master coverage! Recent Kingdom Hearts III news: - A special version of Dearly Beloved plays with Kingdom Hearts III Limited Edition PlayStation 4 Pro theme - Square Enix Cafe ARTNIA reveals the Kingdom Hearts III commemoration campaign menu - Kingdom Hearts III ships 5 million copies worldwide View full article
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So, I decided to do what I never do: talk about it. This is going to be a kind of review, which many of you already made or read, but I didn't, so far. I've been avoiding the internet for the past weeks and now that I've finished the game, I just wanna talk about things I really liked, things I think could be improved upon and the thinks I really didn't like. And that's it for today, I guess. Some notes before I go: I'm not a native American. I'm actually from Brazil (so yeah, I'm American, just not from the North one where English is Spoken =p), so I'm sorry if my English sucks in some parts of this review or in all of it. I only felt like sharing an opinion and so I did. I stressed it while writing but I'm going to say it again: everything above is just my humble opinion. If you end up reading all these lines, first of all thank you, really, but second, feel free to disagree and show your own point of view. I might've forgotten to say something I wanted to, so if I end up editing, I'm gonna put the new stuff in other color. Thank you for your patience and for being an awesome community. We all love this series very much, and I only wrote so many lines because I felt like you might relate to loving KH so much to the point of doing so. Tl,dr yet another review-ish. -
Famitsu releases review for Kingdom Hearts III, rating it 39/40
Aquaberry posted an article in Kingdom Hearts News
Famitsu, the most popular and respected video games magazine in Japan, have finally released their rating for Kingdom Hearts III! Previously, they had published two preliminary reviews for the game online. In the most recent issue that released on February 7, they published their rating of the game, summing up the score of four reviewers to 39/40. In the same issue, they also featured different gameplay elements from the game. You can read a translation of the reviews below, and take a look at the scans from the issue at the end of the article. Translations are courtesy of @Keytotruth. Read KH13's review of Kingdom Hearts III here! For more Kingdom Hearts news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, and check out the highlights on our Kingdom Hearts III master coverage! Recent Kingdom Hearts III news: - A special version of Dearly Beloved plays with Kingdom Hearts III Limited Edition PlayStation 4 Pro theme - Square Enix Cafe ARTNIA reveals the Kingdom Hearts III commemoration campaign menu - Kingdom Hearts III ships 5 million copies worldwide -
Weekly Famitsu's next issue, releasing on January 17 (JST), states they plan to publish a 30-page Kingdom Hearts III special feature! According to the preview by the blog Hokanko-Alt, Famitsu will publish its review for the game after the February 7 issue of the magazine. Keep an eye on our website for scans of the Kingdom Hearts III feature when we have them! View full article
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Weekly Famitsu's next issue, releasing on January 17 (JST), states they plan to publish a 30-page Kingdom Hearts III special feature! According to the preview by the blog Hokanko-Alt, Famitsu will publish its review for the game after the February 7 issue of the magazine. Keep an eye on our website for scans of the Kingdom Hearts III feature when we have them! -
Back again for the first time, for the last time... probably not the last time depending on my mood, but hey, I'm doing another review! ... You guys are going to read this one, right? I mean, I know you're probably busy with your everyday lives, but you know, I like writing these things and it kinda disheartens me that I keep seeing nobody really comment on them or anything. Yeah, views are a thing, but for me, actual written responses are much more valuable. I mean, am I not that good of a reviewer, do I need to do things differently? If that's true, then you can tell me that, but you actually do have to comment-okay okay, I'll stop. Just forget, let's just dive in. So, when this movie was coming out way back, I did my best to cover as much news as possible because I was genuinely excited and was looking forward to seeing it when it come out... and of course, I missed it when it hit theaters because I'm a broke loser. HOWEVER -- I got to see it finally! And now, I feel obligated to say my complete thoughts about it to honor those past threads I made about the news. So here we go. Without further ado, IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DWPGbmx_9U What are your thoughts on Corpse Party: Book of Shadows? I'd like to hear them.
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Oh boy, another review! It's been so long since I've had the drive to do one of these. Well, except Donkey Kong Country of course because I obviously meant every word of that. For realsies. Anyways: I'm a huge fan of Tekken, if I haven't made that clear before, and I'm all abuzz with anticipation now that Tekken 7 is coming out soon. Still working on getting that PS4 though. Because of that, I went back across Tekken content gone past and I decided to check out this little gem right here. I hadn't seen it beforehand and had only heard about it in passing and saw images of it online, so I was fairly optimistic... boy, was that wasted effort. Much like this movie as well. I honestly don't know what I was thinking at the time. Much like other video game series, adapting Tekken from the consoles to the big screen has always resulted in mixed results. A total of four films have been released, and I had already seen two others beforehand, the first being the 2009 live action film and the 2011 "Blood Vengeance" tie-in to the second Tag game, and both were pretty much stinkers too (although the latter is still probably the best of the bunch by not by much). The only film that I haven't seen being the sequel to that live action one, but uh, not breaking my neck over seeing that. Back to this film: this was released in 1997 right before the release of Tekken 3 in order to promote the game, and possibly to cash in the success of the Street Fighter II movie released earlier under the simple name "TEKKEN" (later "Tekken: The Motion Picture for its English dub release by ADV and spoiler warning, the dub is cheesy and lame so I'm not going to go into detail about it. Imagine that, a 90s anime english dub being bad, what are the odds). It adapts the main story of the first game, but also shoves in a bunch of elements from the second game haphazardly. For those who don't know, the basic story of the first Tekken game centers around the King of Iron Fist Tournament sponsored by the Mishima Zaibatsu where fighters compete in matches for a chance to defeat the Zaibatsu's leader Heihachi Mishima and earn a large sum of prize money. One of these fighters is Heihachi's son Kazuya who aims to take revenge on Heihachi for throwing him off a cliff at the age of give in order to test his strength. Sounds like it has potential to be a kickass thrill ride, right? Well sorry, but you get this instead. Okay, without further ado: FIGHT!
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Video Kingdom Hearts 0.2 review and what it means for kh3
Exiblade7 posted a topic in Creative Media
What do you guys think what 0.2 means for kh3? -
It's been a while since I've written a full review, one that wasn't just mostly me about a bad movie day experience like last time, so I figured I'd rectify that with a review of one of my favorite anime of all time. That's right: DKC, baby. BANANA SLAMMA! Oh, there's so much to talk about. The animation, for one, is superb. I've never seen a cartoon series, let alone that uses computer animation, that is able to masterfully emulate natural movement and choreography its in characters and settings as this one does. It is stunning, Miyazaki couldn't top it. Pixar couldn't top it. Hell, not even Van Gough, Picasso, or that drug addict hobo who lives in your gutter and draws pictures of horses with his own feces could top it. It is that good. Then there's the voice acting. Just one line from the big man himself, Donkey Kong, will make you shiver with out immaculately he captures the character from the games. And you know what, the same goes for pretty much everybody. Cranky is wise, Diddy is the perfect wingman, Candy is totally how she should look and act, same for Dixie, everybody else is good, and even that new guy who wasn't in the games is well done. I feel like I"m rambling here, let me just go in depth with how I feel in the full review down here. In short: it is, in fact, one of the best anime ever made. 10/10. 5 stars. Two thumbs up. Dongs out for Harambe. Better than sex, better than life itself, and I would willingly trade half of my organs plus a hair of a Swedish pianist just so I could meet with and possibly have sex with the guy or girl who came up with the idea of making this show. Possible coconut creme pie action included. Thank you, and goodnight.
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Too much aqua .....
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I haven't done one of these in a while and I have a lot of thoughts to dispense on this "movie" given that I had the pleasure of seeing it on Christmas Day instead of, oh I don't know, Rouge One: A Star Wars Story or literally any other movie playing in the Goddamn theater at the time... You know what, I'm just going to jump into it, and spoiler alert: this plot is cliche as all f*ck and doesn't deserve a spoiler tab. Let's start with that actually. See, this film was directed and written by John Hamburg, writer of the "Meet the Parents" franchise and the Zoolander movies. I bring this up because this film is basically just another Meet The Parents. Like, an exact copy of Meet The Parents. The only differences are that the boyfriend is the antagonist instead of the dad and it feels like it's sucking away at your IQ points with all the sex, drugs, and bodily fluids injected into every other scene... Also, as you can see on the poster, Bryan Cranston is the dad and James Franco is the boyfriend? Yeah. Bryan Cranston. Walter White. Future incarnation of Zordon of Eltar. In this movie. James Franco, unfortunately, isn't very surprising because while I and other people love him to death, he's pretty much pigeonholed himself into these kinds of movies at this point... but Bryan f*cking Cranston??? Forget all of his former experience in comedy, I wouldn't wish this role on my least favorite comedian, because... *sigh*... this review is going to be nothing but me losing my shit unless I knuckle up a bit, so... let's just talk about the story... Except I'm NOT because there basically IS no f*cking story. Swerve! Yeah, I already called the plot cliche and frankly, it is. It's literally every single f*cking "disapproving dad" plot that you've seen before. Cranston as the dad is clean cut and traditional. Franco, the boyfriend, is a bare chest showing, foul-mouthed, douchebag zillionaire app/video game developer. They don't like each other for every reason you can think of. The boyfriend is "eccentric". Everybody but the dad warms up to him. He has a weird foreign servant played by Keegan Michael Key (who is literally the only bright spot in this movie above all us to no surprise...) Blah blah blah blah blah awkward first impressions blah blah blah blah blah daughter gets mad blah blah blah they go on hi-jinks and bond a little blah blah blah blah blah they fight blah blah blah everybody is upset blah blah blah blah blah f*cking Gene and Paul from KISS of all people show up and then cue sappy not-even-in-the-ballpark-of sentimentality wrap-up and they all lived happily ever after... uuuuuugggghh... By the way, you know how raunchy and offensive this film tries to be with its comedy? Early on, we see that the boyfriend has a dead moose hanging in one of the rooms and enclosed in a glass tank full of piss... because art, of course. Guess what happens when he and the dad get in a fight. G-guess what happens. No really, I want you to guess. Think for a second, think about everything you know about foreshadowing or Chekov's Gun and wrap your head around what that could possibly symbol-THE TANK BREAKS, PISS GOES EVERYWHERE, AND THE DEAD MOOSE FALLS ON THE SON WITH ITS BALLS LANDING DIRECTLY ON TOP OF HIS FACE. WHOOPDY FREAKING DOO, DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... ... 2/10. I'm done. Someone just give me a ticket to go see Rouge One already, I'm begging you. DX Make the bad thoughts go away, make the bad thoughts go awaaaaay-haaay... *sobbing in corner while rocking back and forth in the feeble position*
