Jul 1, 2019
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seen from Malaysia
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aqua
world: dark world in destiny islands alternate world🏝
kingdom hearts 0.2 birth by sleep
Some thoughts on KH3…
After rewatching all of the previous trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3, something has just occurred to me. It’s been on my mind for a while but hasn’t been discussed yet, at least not to my knowledge. I’ll start by saying that every trailer consists of mainly 3 types of footage in relation to the game. Those types of footage are:
* Story cutscenes
* Combat
* Minigames
On the surface, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this. In fact, these are the things that I thought were, until now, the fundamental ingredients of what makes a Kingdom Hearts game both charming and memorable. And for the most part, they are. But within all these trailers, I’ve also noticed a lack of something.
...Where are the puzzles? Where’s the exploration?
In any given trailer, in every roundup of footage, all they’ve ever shown is combat sequences, or Sora running somewhere, only to end up in combat.
I know what you’re thinking. Puzzle-solving hasn’t exactly been an integral part of the Kingdom Hearts experience since the first game, and you’d be mostly right (Although the other games have sprinkled puzzles throughout their narrative in some small instances.) But given Kingdom Hearts 3’s theme of Resolution, you would expect it to be a celebration of everything that made the first two numbered titles great.
KH1’s focus on exploration and the evolutions KH2 has made to combat in the series could have met in perfect balance in KH3. But I fear because of the lack of focus on exploration in the trailers, it means that the game may end up falling short in that area.
Kingdom Heart’s version of a puzzle might not be as in-depth and challenging as other Action RPGs, but they offered a little something to the gameplay other than [Travel to this room > Watch this cutscene > Defeat this enemy > Rinse and repeat] which is something Kingdom Hearts games from KH2 and onward suffer from immensely.
Don’t get me wrong. KH2 excelled in both combat and presentation. The problem here is that it felt stale in almost every other regard. The few mini-games and extras it did offer that weren’t combat related were so thinly conceived and poorly executed that they fade into the background when reminiscing about the game. And that is the issue here. There isn’t a problem in the game that cannot be solved by smacking something with your Keyblade. The closest thing to a puzzle in that game were the Reaction Commands, in that, certain enemies would become invulnerable until you retired the attack button and performed an action that would get them to let down their guard again. Thus, for a split second, finally encountering a problem that couldn’t be solved by mindlessly pressing X.
Now let’s get back to the exploration.
“Exploration”, to me, doesn’t just mean traveling from place to place, and picking things up (which is basically what you tend to do in most KH games nowadays. It’s not jumping, swimming or Flowmotion-ing to shorten the distance between two points and receive a reward that you could have otherwise walked to. For me, exploration is at its most rewarding when it involves interacting with the environment and making things happen. The first KH game had loads of moments like this.
I miss the Trinity Marks. I miss striking the clock in the Green Room in Traverse Town. I miss casting fire on the secret door that leads to Merlin’s House. I miss activating the bells on top of the Gizmo shop. And trying to get all the flowers to bloom to destroy the giant fruit in Deep Jungle. Traveling Monstro’s innards in the correct order to find Pinnochio. Swapping out and rearranging the bookshelves at Hollow Bastion. Hell, simply navigating Hollow Bastion was a puzzle in itself.
With all the things they’ve teased and added since the game’s initial reveal, I don’t doubt that there will be secrets to find in every world. I just worry that when it’s all said and done, the "exploration" will end up taking a back seat to everything combat related. And what they’ve shown off so far with the Toy Box and Mount Olympus playthroughs hasn’t been very reassuring. I won’t spoil it, of course, but it mostly involves running from room to room and essentially doing what one does in a KH game: watch cutscene, fight enemy, rinse, repeat. Sure, there are things you can interact with along the way, but it’s purely cosmetic, for the sake of making the world seem real. It’s perfectly fine to have something to do on your first playthrough besides fighting and opening chests, but if it has no bearing on your progress, then it’s just meaningless padding.
That’s not to say "all padding is bad.” I mean, you want the game to keep you busy, right? The other things they’ve added to pad out the game are perfectly fine additions. I’m referring to the Hidden Mickeys’, The Flantastic Seven, the shotlocks, the treasures, the cooking ingredients, the synthesis items, etc. These things on their own are fine. But they are ultimately post-game content.
They are arbitrary and have no bearing on whether or not you complete the game and you can choose not to do them if you want to. And aside from that, they mostly involve...walking from place to place...and picking things up.
THAT. IS. NOT. EXPLORATION.
That is collecting.
I’m not saying any of this because I don’t think Kingdom Hearts 3 will be good. But I don’t want good. I didn’t wait half a decade for “good.”
I want to have faith that KH3 delivers on its exploration and puzzle elements, however few they may be. I really do hope I’m wrong. After all, 0.2 Birth By Sleep had puzzles somewhat. I mean, the game opens with you searching for the gears to a clock, then you have the disappearing platforms in the mine, and the entire "World Within” section of the game. Even if the full game ends up only having 2 or 3 "puzzle-ish" moments, as long as they’re somewhat rewarding, I’d be satisfied with a combat-heavy gameplay experience. The combat is arguably the best thing about the games. I just hope that fun, flashy combat isn’t all KH3 has to offer.
I want this game to blow my fucking socks off in every aspect.
Okay, but I would love to see how a KH animated series would handle Phantom Aqua. There are just so many cool mirror visuals that probably couldn't be done in video games that it wold probably be a spectacle to look at. Like, multiple mirrors making Phantom Aqua seem to surround or tower over our Aqua, maybe have her face be more detailed than our Aqua, maybe showing her face materialize in a glass shard to symbolize that she's not gone yet at the end of the episode, etc.
I’m always down to more Aqua if you know what I mean :3
I’m not really big into animated series so I can’t relate, but I like your ideas! Even when Aqua is back in the Realm of Light, a slow flash of Phantom Aqua in her own reflection would be a nice nod to the audience that Aqua is still shaken by what happened in the Realm of Darkness.
KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue's trophy list is finally here!
The game contains two trophy sets for KINGDOM HEARTS Dream Drop Distance HD and KINGDOM HEARTS 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A fragmentary passage-with a total of 70 trophies. KINGDOM HEARTS Dream Drop Distance HD contains 55 trophies, and KINGDOM HEARTS 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A fragmentary passage- has 15 trophies.
You can view them all HERE!
ohhhhh my goooooooshhhh