Kingdom Hearts 3 Not the End of the Series

[Vivid Kazumi]

adam jensen is soooo gunna be in kh4

 

[The_Echo]

Square Enix has actually made the Kingdom Hearts Browser game take place during the Keyblade War actually. The browser game isn't bad, but it's not the best. It's only in Japan and you got the code to access it when you preordered HD 1.5 ReMix in Japan. I don't know if it is coming to the US or not, but it's not a preorder bonus for Americans or Europeans as you're all getting an artbook.

Check your sources man. Kingdom Hearts X[chi] is a browser game. All you need to play it is a Yahoo! JP account! I've been playing it since it went into open beta on the 8th. Nothing's been said about a translation, but that's not a super big deal.

People who pre-ordered HD 1.5 got codes for in-game items. (By the way they added a dynamic theme to the Western pre-order bonuses~)

Also, X[chi] is non-canonical. Sooooo...

I will admit, as much as I love the series, Sora's looking awefully generic... what happened to his big, cartoony eyes and goofy (troop) smile? Square!!! You better not have beaten him with the angsty stick like you do with EVERYTHIIIIIIIING else!

I mean... that's pretty much how (pre-rendered) Sora has always looked. Nomura's said that Sora will be "more mature" in III, however I can guarantee that doesn't mean angsty. It's actually stated in-game that Sora is essentially optimism incarnate. Riku's always been the angsty one.

As for KH3 itself, I dunno, I played and beat KH 1 and 2 (but it's been a very long time), but I kinda fell out of love with it due to the fact that in order to fully understand KH2, you had to play KH Chain of Memories or whatever...which I did not. I can only imagine that it'll be the same with KH 3 in that you'll only be able to fully understand the story if you played all the games in between 2 and 3.

Yes and yes. The bulk of the plot's development has happened in Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance. And while Nomura has said he's looking into ways he can make KHIII easier to get into for new players, there's no better way than actually playing the games (which is why the HD ReMIXes are being done).

 

[AgentLampshade]

As long as KHIII isn't another damn cliffhanger ending I'm more than happy for them to make more. And if there's going to be a Final Mix version (and there will be a Final Mix version) please release it internationally/give us the really tough secret boss. I'm looking forward to the final showdown with Sephiroth but once that's done, I want more. I want a gamebreaking boss that cheats and takes a week just to take down, even at the highest level.

 

[Roxas1359]

]Check your sources man. Kingdom Hearts X[chi] is a browser game. All you need to play it is a Yahoo! JP account! I've been playing it since it went into open beta on the 8th. Nothing's been said about a translation, but that's not a super big deal.

People who pre-ordered HD 1.5 got codes for in-game items. (By the way they added a dynamic theme to the Western pre-order bonuses~)

My mistake. And are the themes different from the ones you already unlock by completing the games? You get one for completing each one of the games in the HD 1.5 ReMix. So far I only have the 358/2 Days HD one, but I'll get the Final Mix one soon enough once I finish the GA LP of it.
I will admit that I've not used the code for the browser game yet because I've been too busy to do so actually, and I've been lazy as well.
Also, I don't know because I, and others, honestly thought that Coded was gonna be non-canonical but Square proved us wrong so anything is possible. Plus the code also gave you access to the closed Beta I believe because that ran from March 18 to March 22 I believe.

 

[Xathos]

]Check your sources man. Kingdom Hearts X[chi] is a browser game. All you need to play it is a Yahoo! JP account! I've been playing it since it went into open beta on the 8th. Nothing's been said about a translation, but that's not a super big deal.

People who pre-ordered HD 1.5 got codes for in-game items. (By the way they added a dynamic theme to the Western pre-order bonuses~)

My mistake. And are the themes different from the ones you already unlock by completing the games?

Actually, I'm pretty sure the new theme was just a thing they added recently. It's different from the ones that you unlock in the game normally. So when you pre-order 1.5, you now get the artbook and the theme. I don't recall if its only through gamestop or whatever, but I'm pretty sure its completely different than the themes in the game.

OT: Meh, most KH fans probably know this already. Nothing too surprising, as there are still a whole bunch more worlds they can use. As long as the games remain interesting to me, I'll probably continue to buy them.

 

[Roxas1359]

Actually, I'm pretty sure the new theme was just a thing they added recently. It's different from the ones that you unlock in the game normally. So when you pre-order 1.5, you now get the artbook and the theme. I don't recall if its only through gamestop or whatever, but I'm pretty sure its completely different than the themes in the game.

Huh, well that's neat. All I know is I just hope that they fix something that they left in Final Mix HD because it makes it to where you can only get 77 hits on the Pink Agaricus because triangle not only activates certain abilities, but they left it in to where it still tells Donald and Goofy to attack the targeted enemy. It makes the Pink Agricus impoosible to get 100 hits on because each time you hit it the counter increases, but each time Donald and Goofy hit it the counter decreases. Makes getting the Premium Cap impossible since you need 100 hits to get it, but the maximum you can get is 77 because of the oversight. Luckily it seems the new Heartless spawn and drop rate was improved so Sniper Wild hopefully isn't as much a pain. (I see it bouncing around but I don't have Stopga which helps greatly against it and pissing off the Sniper Wild is not wise. >.<)

 

[bjj hero]

Look at that face, hes a boy who knows what its like to be misunderstood. You can tell hes no stranger to tears... or keeping a diary.

hehe, wow .... your WAY the hell off on that one. me thinks you should actually play the game before running thy mouth. granted, he's STILL incredibly boring, but angsty? lol, nope, not even close

If youd read all of it instead of taking the first opprtunity to be offended youd see it was a tongue in cheek response to a post about "i love the game but with this new look you better not have beat him with the angsty stick".

Maybe you should read the whole post "before running thy mouth"...

 

[shrekfan246]

I hate it when people refer to the handheld titles as "Spin Offs" because that gives the impression that they aren't apart of the main plot. for example, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is a spin off Tales game, as the game is only very loosely connected to the mother ship titles. while Kingdom Hearts's "spin off" titles are important if you want to understand the main plot as they take place either before, in-between, or after the main "mother ship" titles. the thing is, if you think of them as side games, they loose their importunacy to the player who may or may not buy the games. I have had many conversations with people who actually thought that the handheld games were simply side titles that had nothing to do with the main plot, or refused to buy or play them simply because they are on a handheld device. which frustrates me to no end.

Half of them have been spin-offs.

Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance are the only post-Kingdom Hearts 2 ones that matter. 358/2 Days provides a lot of clarification around Roxas, but it's not integral to understanding the story at all, and Re:Coded is almost literally just filler.

Well shoot.

Looks like I'll have to be playing catch up before KH3 comes out then. My backlog is beginning to grow.

Oh well, I've been meaning to play Birth by Sleep, but have yet to get around to it.

Birth by Sleep ranks up next to II as my favorite in the series, if it helps at all. It plays really well, and while the environment details are a bit sparse, it looks absolutely gorgeous, especially when you remember that it's a PSP game.

The writing is pretty hilariously generic though, unfortunately. The most interesting parts are when the three main characters are interacting together, which doesn't happen near often enough. I wouldn't jump straight to calling it bad, and it services the franchise it's in well enough, but it's just not quite up to the same standards.

 

[Xathos]

Huh, well that's neat. All I know is I just hope that they fix something that they left in Final Mix HD because it makes it to where you can only get 77 hits on the Pink Agaricus because triangle not only activates certain abilities, but they left it in to where it still tells Donald and Goofy to attack the targeted enemy. It makes the Pink Agricus impossible to get 100 hits on because each time you hit it the counter increases, but each time Donald and Goofy hit it the counter decreases. Makes getting the Premium Cap impossible since you need 100 hits to get it, but the maximum you can get is 77 because of the oversight. Luckily it seems the new Heartless spawn and drop rate was improved so Sniper Wild hopefully isn't as much a pain. (I see it bouncing around but I don't have Stopga which helps greatly against it and pissing off the Sniper Wild is not wise. >.<)

Maybe they might? Usually when a KH game takes a longer time getting over here there is at least a subtle change. I mean, BBS had some problems (think it was more of a balance issue with Megaflare though) and they fixed that up and even added some stuff (granted, that was like a final mix lite, but still!). DDD had a save bug issue that they also worked around for the Western release, and changed something regarding the drop system (Think they made it so bosses don't recover ALL their HP, only whatever bar they are currently on when you drop. Can't remember, its been a while.)

But who knows? SE can be so fickle sometimes that its hard to really know what they are going to do.

All I'm asking is for them to at least fix the lip sync for re:COM. Don't think that will actually happen, but it is just so jarring when playing. =(

 

[Roxas1359]

Huh, well that's neat. All I know is I just hope that they fix something that they left in Final Mix HD because it makes it to where you can only get 77 hits on the Pink Agaricus because triangle not only activates certain abilities, but they left it in to where it still tells Donald and Goofy to attack the targeted enemy. It makes the Pink Agricus impossible to get 100 hits on because each time you hit it the counter increases, but each time Donald and Goofy hit it the counter decreases. Makes getting the Premium Cap impossible since you need 100 hits to get it, but the maximum you can get is 77 because of the oversight. Luckily it seems the new Heartless spawn and drop rate was improved so Sniper Wild hopefully isn't as much a pain. (I see it bouncing around but I don't have Stopga which helps greatly against it and pissing off the Sniper Wild is not wise. >.<)

Maybe they might? Usually when a KH game takes a longer time getting over here there is at least a subtle change. I mean, BBS had some problems (think it was more of a balance issue with Megaflare though) and they fixed that up and even added some stuff (granted, that was like a final mix lite, but still!). DDD had a save bug issue that they also worked around for the Western release, and changed something regarding the drop system (Think they made it so bosses don't recover ALL their HP, only whatever bar they are currently on when you drop. Can't remember, its been a while.)

But who knows? SE can be so fickle sometimes that its hard to really know what they are going to do.

All I'm asking is for them to at least fix the lip sync for re:COM. Don't think that will actually happen, but it is just so jarring when playing. =(

Sadly I don't think they'll fix that. They didn't even use the new Ansem model they made in Final Mix HD for Re: Chain of Memories HD for some reason. Also, cutscenes from Hollow Bastion actually aren't fully lip-synced at all either, in fact some are lip synced to the English audio of all things. I can't fault them too much though because according to Nomura they had apparently lost a lot of the data for KH 1 and the first Final Mix so they had to build a lot of it from scratch. Doesn't excuse the corners they cut for Re: CoM HD I think though.
For me though I know I'm gonna get crap because I'm gonna LP the PS2 version of Re: CoM soon because I don't wanna translate an entire game again. At least not until I do BbS Final Mix, which at the rate I'm going when it comes to LPing this series the 2.5 ReMix will already be out. XD

 

[The_Echo]

Half of them have been spin-offs.

Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance are the only post-Kingdom Hearts 2 ones that matter. 358/2 Days provides a lot of clarification around Roxas, but it's not integral to understanding the story at all, and Re:Coded is almost literally just filler.

That isn't even remotely true. Re:coded established the Datascape, which is Maleficent's current goal as of 3D, so we can expect her to still be after it in III. It also pushed the idea that hearts can be grown, something confirmed in 3D. It also brings to light Sora's connection to Terra, Aqua and Ventus, and their suffering. Which prompts Mickey to have Sora and Riku take their Mark of Mastery in the first place.

As far as I'm concerned, 'filler' is non-canon material, which, going by the context of 'filler' in anime... doesn't really apply to games much at all. :I And a spin-off is something that doesn't connect to the main plot and stands on its own. So in that sense X[chi] and Mobile are spin-offs, but nothing else is. I think Days' spin-off status depends on Xion's importance moving forward (which doesn't look like much).

[sub][sub][sub]Sorry I just kinda fanboy'd hard.. ._.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[shrekfan246]

Half of them have been spin-offs.

Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance are the only post-Kingdom Hearts 2 ones that matter. 358/2 Days provides a lot of clarification around Roxas, but it's not integral to understanding the story at all, and Re:Coded is almost literally just filler.

That isn't even remotely true. Re:coded established the Datascape, which is Maleficent's current goal as of 3D, so we can expect her to still be after it in III. It also pushed the idea that hearts can be grown, something confirmed in 3D. It also brings to light Sora's connection to Terra, Aqua and Ventus, and their suffering. Which prompts Mickey to have Sora and Riku take their Mark of Mastery in the first place.

As far as I'm concerned, 'filler' is non-canon material, which, going by the context of 'filler' in anime... doesn't really apply to games much at all. :I And a spin-off is something that doesn't connect to the main plot and stands on its own. So in that sense X[chi] and Mobile are spin-offs, but nothing else is. I think Days' spin-off status depends on Xion's importance moving forward (which doesn't look like much).

[sub][sub][sub]Sorry I just kinda fanboy'd hard.. ._.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

almost

Re:Coded is filler in the sense that three-quarters of the things that happen in the game have no reason for actually happening because they contribute in no way to the overall story, and barely even contribute to its own story.

The Datascape and growing hearts could've easily been part of another larger game entirely, and otherwise the only part of the game that actually matters is the very end, which is also brief enough to just be part of another game--Hence Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance, which build off of the only two actual important things in all of Re:Coded.

By the same token a large amount of Chain of Memories is also filler. It establishes Organization XIII, Castle Oblivion, and Nobodies, but a large amount of what actually happens in the game is just fluff. The only reason it actually makes any sense in the greater Kingdom Hearts narrative is because it directly ties the first and 'second' games together. Though even with the card battle system it was slightly less gimmicky than Re:Coded, so it was a bit more fun for me.

The distinction I'm making contrary to your definition is that filler in video games is pointless extra material that has little or no reason for being part of whatever it's in. Filler has no impact on whether or not something is canon; it just impacts how important that piece of canon is to your understanding of the story. And frankly, in my opinion you don't really need to play Re:Coded to understand Birth By Sleep or Dream Drop Distance.

 

[Roxas1359]

The distinction I'm making contrary to your definition is that filler in video games is pointless extra material that has little or no reason for being part of whatever it's in. Filler has no impact on whether or not something is canon; it just impacts how important that piece of canon is to your understanding of the story. And frankly, in my opinion you don't really need to play Re:Coded to understand Birth By Sleep or Dream Drop Distance.

Couldn't agree any more. Basically the things that happened in Re: Coded could have been part of something else and you don't need to play it in order to understand Dream Drop Distance in the slightest, especially since DDD gives some backstory of its own anyway. Out of all the games Re: Coded was probably my least favorite because it felt like it really wasn't contributing anything big to the overall story at all.

 

[Pyramid Head]

I wonder if in 20 years i'll be saying that Kingdom Hearts 13-2 was worse than Final Fantasy 13-2 or if Final Fantasy 25-7 was still the worst of the franchise.

 

[viranimus]

Ok, I know the game play is quite enjoyable (or so I have been told many times over) and satisfying, The collaboration of Square Enix and Disney is an abomination in its own right... Or would be if Square Enix somewhere along the way did not veer off track and sort of come off as trying to become their own Disney. So while I know that many will be elated by such news, Personally I wish it were the end of the collaboration so that SE would stop getting bad ideas from the plague rat bad influence that was born out support and funding for genocidal monstrosities bent on atrocities and has since built an evil empire around the premise of corrupting and defiling each corresponding generation of youth to ensure maximum impact.

Perhaps Disney could pull out away from SE and let EA build up their own incarnation of Kingdom Hearts that merges properties like Marvel & Starwars with wholesome standard bearers like uhh... The sims, Harry potter?!?, Plants v Zombies and other pop cap stuff. At least with EA it fills a niche they are definitely lacking in, whereas SE never really had any difficulty making their own "wholesome" "cute" "chibi" entities without outside influence. Disney really doesnt need SE for such a project. Sadly SE has benefitted far more than disney out of this arrangement simply because of the massive number and spectrum of missteps with their other properties that KH franchise has been one of their few generally favorably received properties in quite a while.

SE has really been dragged down recently and I dont think this anthropomorphic band of ravenous animals they have been running around with is making anything any better for them in the long run though. While I respect as a game and its mechanics the KH franchise is arguably the best thing SE has brought forth over the last decade. Perhaps the narrative end is unexpectedly more rich for SEs hand as well. However They certainly do not need the house of mouse to do it and the simple truth is that as the demographic of those who grew up playing KH1 has aged, perpetuation of this same collaboration will only lead to failure as Disney cannot and will not allow their content to mature in order to remain relevant to their target audience and really how long can you be 25 pushing 30 and not get an awkward feeling and diminished self esteem realizing you are getting hyped up to go running around with Winnie the pooh, Jimminy Cricket interspersed with completely out of place effeminate emo boys, hyper energized Jpop girls and unusually darker than normal depictions of mix and matched SE characters.

So more power to anyone who loves this IP. However personally I would prefer to see the collaborators part ways and due to disneys philosophy it is really only a matter of time before the franchise essentially abandons its original demographic in order to lure in a new generation to replace them as they simply cannot allow their property to show any signs of growth or maturity and their philosophy of corrupting the youth would be wasted on such actions anyway. SE really doesnt need Disney because simply utilizing the gameplay they are capable of crafting their own original chars when they truly put their mind to it and something more mature would likely be just as if not better received than KH anyway.

So please take no offense at me expressing my personal disfavor of the franchise. It is only me expressing an opinion. Its Just my 2cp... take it for what its worth, of which we all know how much that is.

Captcha: Seriously?!?! LOL "Worship Nothing" How the hell does this captcha thing manage to find such fitting key phrases so often?

 

[Lunar Templar]

Look at that face, hes a boy who knows what its like to be misunderstood. You can tell hes no stranger to tears... or keeping a diary.

hehe, wow .... your WAY the hell off on that one. me thinks you should actually play the game before running thy mouth. granted, he's STILL incredibly boring, but angsty? lol, nope, not even close

If youd read all of it instead of taking the first opprtunity to be offended youd see it was a tongue in cheek response to a post about "i love the game but with this new look you better not have beat him with the angsty stick".

Maybe you should read the whole post "before running thy mouth"...

offended? lol, that's funny, not offended, amused by how far off you where would be more accurate, personally, I stopped caring these games existed a long time ago. hard to be offended when you didn't care to begin with (unless it turns into another 'ME3 ending' level thing)

 

[Roxas1359]

Do the Kingdom Hearts games that came out after KH2 have anything to do with the story line? The only games I have played are KH1 and 2. Latest console I have is my PS2.

Sucks I wont be playing this, I will have to youtube a lets play or something, or hope against hope they port it to PC.

Sadly yes. Birth by Sleep is a prequel to KH 1 taking place ten years prior, 358/2 Days just tells about Roxas' time in the Organization, Re: Coded mainly just sets up to go into Dream Drop Distance, and Dream Drop Distance is leading directly into KH III like how Chain of Memories led into KH 2. Really just play Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance for backstory, or watch an LP as you said.

It's still possible I think for KH III to possibly be on PC since it's using DirectX 11 in it's programming. It's why it's not coming to the Wii U, because the Wii U doesn't support DirectX 11 and it would take too much time and money to effectively port it there, well then there's disc space limitation but that's another story.

 

[PunkRex]

Seriously? People are still excited by this? Look at the kid in the picture, is it 1997? That could be Cloud from FF7 with the ridiculous hair. Enough, show something new already. Its why Ive not played a JRPG in about 8 years.

There must be a market for it though as these titles keep getting released.

I will admit, as much as I love the series, Sora's looking awefully generic... what happened to his big, cartoony eyes and goofy (troop) smile? Square!!! You better not have beaten him with the angsty stick like you do with EVERYTHIIIIIIIING else!

Uh...

He looks almost exactly the same as he did when the first game came out. Minus the wardrobe.

Oh, and apparently looking serious about something is automatically considered angsty.

I swear, people will nitpick about the littlest things. Next thing you know there will be people complaining about Sonic's eye col... dammit! Too late!

Woooah, woooah, wooooooah! First off, im not implying the game is ruinedik hn

 

[PunkRex]

I will admit, as much as I love the series, Sora's looking awefully generic... what happened to his big, cartoony eyes and goofy (troop) smile? Square!!! You better not have beaten him with the angsty stick like you do with EVERYTHIIIIIIIING else!

I mean... that's pretty much how (pre-rendered) Sora has always looked. Nomura's said that Sora will be "more mature" in III, however I can guarantee that doesn't mean angsty. It's actually stated in-game that Sora is essentially optimism incarnate. Riku's always been the angsty one.

I will admit, as much as I love the series, Sora's looking awefully generic... what happened to his big, cartoony eyes and
goofy (troop) smile? Square!!! You better not have beaten him with the angsty stick like you do with EVERYTHIIIIIIIING
else!

Uh...

He looks almost exactly the same as he did when the first game came out. Minus the wardrobe.

Oh, and apparently looking serious about something is automatically considered angsty.

I swear, people will nitpick about the littlest things. Next thing you know there will be people complaining about Sonic's
eye col... dammit! Too late!

Okay, easy. I'm not saying the whole game is ruined forever!!! I'm just saying that if you switched his hair with Clouds
they'd look exactly the same. I understand that the series and its characters have matured but Square/FF doesn't have the
best track record when it comes to the chuckles.

See, goofy.

I swear, people will nitpick about the littlest comments, funah, funah, funah.

(I kid)