Thoughts on the KH4 Trailer
I'm making this post just to share my own opinion on what we've been shown so far and not to yuck on anyone's yum, but this post isn't going to be a positive one for the KH4 trailer, sadly. This may be an unpopular opinion or hot take, I don't know. I haven't had time yet to gauge Kingdom Hearts' fandom take on this new trailer yet, but here are my thoughts.
There was literally nothing I liked about that trailer (outside of, I guess, Strelitzia, her character design is fine) and unless we see something other than just Unreality/Basically Just Tokyo (the Hub World, Quadratum) then I'm not really going to care about KH4.
I personally did not like or enjoy KH3. It destroyed a lot of my positive feelings towards the franchise and KH4 is kinda my last chance. I WANT to like it. This is kind of the make-it or break-it game for me and this franchise. The one that will really solidify whether or not I've outgrown the series or, maybe a better way to put it, whether or not the series has evolved in a direction that just no longer appeals to me.
When ordering all the KH games that I've played, my order from favorite to least favorite (or enjoyable) is: KH1, DDD, KH2, BBS, COM/MelMem, KH3. I played some of Days, but never finished it and I haven't had the chance to play Re:coded or 0.2, though I want to play both of them and get around to finishing Days. I've seen all of the movies and have watched play throughs of the games I haven't played and watched recaps of the mobile game stuff (excluding Dark Road), but I'm not a fan of the mobile stuff AT ALL. Not at all. Oof.
The things I liked the most about KH1 was the whimsical nature of the game. I loved the cartoonish style and colors and there's also a cozy feeling to Traverse Town. I loved just walking around and exploring Traverse Town. KH1 had more traditional RPG mechanics and other elements like puzzles and platforming and well-done collectables that had good rewards and carried a sense of progress with them. There were alternative scenes based on choices you made in the game: whether you won or lost a fight, what world order you chose to go in, whether or not you revisited a place, etc. etc. You also had a fantastic blend of Disney Villains that actually held importance to the plot, Final Fantasy characters who also held importance to the plot, and Kingdom Hearts original characters. There was a natural blending. You had great pacing, dynamic camera angles of cut scenes, and the character development and writing was strong.
DDD doesn't have the FF element, replacing that element with TWEWY characters, but those characters have wonderful, colorful designs and fun dynamics with Sora and Riku. and the plot is largely convoluted garbage, but Riku's character development in that game is top notch, the world list is interesting, unique, and fresh, and the Dream Eaters have cute, whimsical designs and make gameplay different but fun. Also, the hub world was Traverse Town, which was expanded upon, and nice to revisit. You got a great interaction scene between Riku and Queen Minnie and it felt like a different but familiar game. Things were changed up enough, but vibes where the same still.
KH2 has game play that was very fluid and fun for me to play (I liked the simplicity of KH1 gameplay as well, I enjoy the heaviness and slight clunky feeling over the more weightless gameplay mechanics), and the game had some truly memorable moments and high highs. Twilight Town had a similar, though different, coziness to it, and all of the emotional moments hit in the game. That being said, I think the strongest element of this game was having a strong beginning, strong middle fight segment, and EXTREMELY strong boss fight and ending. The game was iconic, utilized Final Fantasy very strongly and still some interesting stuff with Disney (Steamboat Willy World), though the Disney elements were weaker than in KH1, and it suffered more from pacing than KH1 did.
All of the above games have their flaws and their lovers and haters of them, which is all very valid. But, I wanted to talk about the elements that I liked in the KHs games that I liked to make it easier and clearer to see and understand why KH3 and why this trailer for KH4 may not be appealing to me at all.
So far we've only really seen Quadratum in the KH4 trailers. We get glimpses of Donald and Goofy likely in the Underworld, but that's about it. The only style we've seen Sora in is a hyper realistic style, with very muted colors and boring realistic like clothing. The other characters we see present in Quadratum have rather boring character designs to me as well, but you are talking to someone who's idea of peak character design is Albel Nox from Star Ocean 3 (image to character in the comments below). When it comes to stuff like Verum Rex and its characters, that whole "series" and element felt very forced into KH3 and the characters feel like Faux Final Fantasy characters instead of the actual ones that we got in previous games (and which were only brought back in KH3's Remind due to fan demand).
I have no personal interest in the mobile gacha game storylines and I am so tired of the black hooded robe characters. Can those please be done? ALSO! Is that fucking Young Xehanort holding an umbrella over Sora? UGH. I am so done with Xehanort. He was a fine villain in BBS, but then just went to complete shit in DDD and KH3 and the DARK SEEKER SAGA was meant to be OVER after KH3, yet this villain keeps getting brought back again and again (Dark Road, MelMem and now apparently in KH4?). Ugh. Let a character rest please? Just please, Nomura.
The gameplay looks too flashy and while I do like Reaction Commands like in KH2, I'm not liking these chain things we are seeing in the trailer. It's giving me KH3 Attraction flashbacks. When it comes to the story elements, we see some Disney stuff, but not a lot and we have a mix of the mobile gacha KH storytelling stuff (which I don't find to be particularly good or strong writing) mixed with Faux Final Fantasy Verum Rex shit and boring, generic JPRG character designs. The music in this KH4 trailer is so dramatic and serious and the game feels like it is trying too hard to be realistic and a bit cool (in a bad edgy way). Where's the whimsy and charm? Where's the Utada Hikaru music?
I don't like the Heartless character designs, and I don't find Tokyo to be a charming hub world. I LIKE Tokyo, but I also have visited, lived near/in, and worked near/in/around Tokyo for 6 years, so there isn't that same sense of wonder surrounding the city. When I think of a cozy Japanese city I think of Nara or Kobe instead. Especially Nara. I loved Nara! <3
Tokyo is just so hard, cold, and flashy. A fun city for sure, but not a city I want to explore in a video game like Kingdom Hearts. This is definitely a very personal aspect though and may also be the point of this particular hub world for this game.
We really haven't gotten much of the actual story here, just more boring gameplay footage that doesn't entice me in any way. In the damage control screenshots that we got for KH4 after Missing Link got cancelled, we saw a potentially playable Mickey and some potential platforming, which I did find appealing and fascinating. I also thought it was interesting that they felt a landline phone deserved its own screenshot. So those two things are what are still keeping me around to see more of KH4 before I fully say, "No, this doesn't look like it is for me at all and I am ready to move on from this series."
Basically, I just need to see more and different things for KH4. I'm not saying I want them to show EVERYTHING, like they did with KH3. No, that was too much. But I would like to see more than just Quadratum. I feel, as of right now, that's all that DOES exist for KH4. That and like Donald and Goofy visiting Hades. So there just isn't anything there that I find appealing or exciting, so this trailer just doesn't do anything for me. Sadly. I'm still going to check out any new updates or trailers that come out after this for KH4, because I hope I start to see some elements and things that I like about it, but so far, I just...don't. It just doesn't even feel like KH to me anymore, tbh, and that feeling already started in KH3 for me and is just getting stronger. Maybe I'm just getting too old and nostalgic.
