mattmanganon

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred Hmmm, i see what you mean, although i think people probably would have prefered the Maleficent angle to be played into more. I mean, the first game is the most coherent because it plays with familiar characters with a simple "Bad guy wants to get the maguffin and take over the world" story. The Organization, as Bacon said, are mostly intollerable as people, and yet the game still treats them as characters that you should like.

I think trying to expand the Disney villains roster would also have actually given you in-game reasons to be visiting the disney worlds. I mean, everyone agree's that one of the biggest problems with KHIII's story is that, despite a lot of the worlds being fun, almost none of them actually play into the wider story or have any lasting impact. Maybe even bringing in some of the other Final Fantasy villains would have also done some good. Would loved to see my mans Kefka serve a role in it.

And i think that that's the franchises biggest failing as a whole. It's whole premise only exists in that first game. "A crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy!" when that barely ever actually happens after the first game. I mean, Squall and his gang pretty much disappear after the first game, only showing up briefly every now and then. Vivi and Setzer show up in 2 in glorified cameo's. Zack has a glorified cameo in BBS. Cloud and Sephiroth keep showing up for cameo's across the games, but they only ever serve as window dressing to what's going on around them. The franchise is far more focused on its original characters. Now, wanting to focus on original characters isn't a problem in itself, but kinda is when we look back at that tag line and realized that a good number of the audience did not sign up for that.

Now, i think that it'll work in this, because, we don't have the problem of having to sell this story to a wider audience. The organization being made up of evil versions of the PC's will absolutely work. When i ran my campaign, my version of the Organization (Or at least, the team of bad guy Nobodies i had running around) were evil reimagnings of Disney heroes which is why my party kinda were able to get emotionally invested with them, even if that emotion was "FINALLY, WE SHUT THAT BASTARD UP!!!" But i could tell they were kinda digging fighting an evil Aladdin and evil Arial, because there was that inbuilt familiarity.

Anyway, i'm just rambling at this point. I'm gonna go to sleep and hopefully come up with a way to help make this work better than the games when i wake up.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Bacon It's not bickering, i mean, i don't think anyone's wrong for liking him, i just don't and it's simple as that. I don't think he's a terrible character, just a harmlessly inoffensive character who simply outstayed his welcome with me personally. I do acknowledge that others have opinions and are entitled to them. The only hill i will die on in this franchise is the hill that everyone already conceded long ago "This series is a really great concept that was horrifically badly executed and was mostly saved by the Disney aspects and the absolutely top tier gameplay." Because even DDD when the story was at it's most confusingly convoluted, actually had just some really solid and fun gameplay and movement mechanics to fall back on. In fact, the only game i gave up on was Chain of Memories, which just became incredibly tedious to play.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred Honestly, i think it was DDD that did it for me, specifically because that was the game that took my feelings for the Organization from apathy to active hatred. Like, i didn't care about them in CoM and 2 and they were just on the cusp of outstaying their welcome, but didn't. Then DDD brought them all back in a "Hey, it's all your favourites!!!" kind of way that tipped me over the edge.

Reminds me of an old meme i made for a Simpsons group when i was playing through them.



@Sadu To be fair, that one was just a joke

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred Honestly, i sat down and watched all of the cut-scenes on youtube... Maybe it's because i played 2 and DDD first, but i'm gonna be honest, i cannot bring myself to give a shit about Axle as a character. Like, i tried, i really tried, but i could not motivate myself to even slightly care about him. And i should specify, i don't hate him. Because hatred is a feeling and i don't get those for him. He is a non-entity that the game tells me i should be emotionally invested in, rather than giving me a reason to:

Game: "Hey, it's Axle!"
Me: "Oh."
Game: "Aren't you happy he's back!"
Me: "Not really."
Game: "Well you should be."
Me: "Why?"
Game: "... Because this big, epic, fanservicey moment doesn't work unless you care about him."
Me: "But i don't."
Game: "... Hey, it's Axle!"

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Bacon

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

@Pacifista Come on, man. WAY too powerful.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Sadu His plan changed from game to game.

KHBBS: I am Xehanort and my plan is to brainwash a bunch of kids to make a X-Blade that will let me restart an ancient war that i have no idea who it was between or what it was over... That failed, my new plan is to kill myself and let the next 2 of me figure things out.
KH1: I am Ansem, i want to use the power of Kingdom Hearts to take over the World
KH358: I am Xemnas and i want... You know what, nobody gave a fuck about this game.
KH2: I am Xemnas, i'm gonna make my own Kingdom Hearts with blackjack and hookers.
KHDDD: I am Xehanort and i'm gonna use time-travel and shit to revive the 13 guys you didn't give a shit about in the last game, because Nomura is literally just flinging shit at the wall to see what sticks.
KHREC: Nothing happens
KH3: I'm Xehanort and turns out every time that you defeated me before WAS ALWAYS PART OF THE GRAND DASTARDLY PLAN TO CLONE MYSELF 13 TIMES in order to restart that war that i still know nothing about, because... I still don't fucking know. Also, apparently i'm a tragic good guy now? Also, apparently the guy with the eye-patch was the REAL bad guy all along.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred I have no idea what a Hiruzen is. So, what is Xehanort's motives in this? Is it one of his various, incomprehensible plans from the games (Creating his own Kingdom Hearts with Blackjack and Hookers, Starting a new Keyblade war for shits and giggles, ETC.) or is it something more straight forward?

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred So, i do have to ask what is the exact story we've got going on with the origin of Keyblades and the whole Ansem and Nobodies thing. Primarily because i kinda want to start doing some set up for tying Leon's story into the wider narrative, but i also don't want to contradict anything later on down the line.

Pretty much, i kinda want to do the thing Nomura categorically refused to. Make sure there's consistency in the story being told.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Leon and Launchpad watched Hoshi take her newfound strength and end the last 2 Heartless. As she asked about helping getting settled in, Leon looked at Launchpad, who simply shrugged back. Launchpad was the chatty one, Leon just... Well, he did what was necessary. Launchpad watched the diminuative ally struggling to come up with a response so he stepped in. "Oh yeah, Leon and me are the pinnacles of the community. We are here to help fight those guys and help anyone in need, especially if they've got a..." He guestured to the Keyblade in her hands. Leon, in the meantime was looking the Keyblade in her hands over. Taking out a monacular magnifier and putting it in his eye, before looking it over, not particularly taking Hoshi's personal space into account. "Don't worry about that, he's a Blacksmith, he loves all kinds of unique weapons and stuff." Launchpad explained. Leon ran his nose down the blade. "Yeah, Lilties are... Were... The umm..."

"We were the masters of the forge and the earth on my world." He began, before testing the edge of it with his finger. "The Mines of Cathuriges was the crucible from which the finest weapons my world has ever seen flowed and yet..." He then ran his tongue up the blade and smacked his lips a couple of times to distribute the flavour, before looking confused and saying something in what Hoshi could only assume to be his native language. "How... Did you get this weapon?" He asked, a very serious look on his face. The blade didn't taste of any kind of forging technique he knew of. Granted, Keyblades were a weapon of legend. Legends that the Lilties forbade even researching the creation of such items. He knew that, deep down in his soul... He knew something that was... He just couldn't remember... Flashes, faces, names... But that was it... Maybe an answer could help those memories to surface.