Wait, your biggest gripe was that the plot of the Disney worlds were the same as the Disney movie?

I hated it when the worlds didn't use the plot of the movie in some way, because it just felt like they tried to shoehorn in some sort of plot to the world, and they were usually dumb.

No no no. That's Rikku with two k's. This Riku is Riku with one k. Yep.

And as far as the plots go, it's pretty much like that the whole way through. Tarzan is trying to gain acceptance from his gorilla pack while Clayton hunts them down under the guise of an ally. You actually meet Aladin just as he finds Genie, and then it's off to save Jasmine from Jafar. I mean, that's typically how the movies generally went.

But that's kind of the question I have with the whole thing. Does this game take place before anything that happens in the movies (Disney) or games (FF)? Or did they already happen and the experiences that we the people who've either watched the original movie and played the original games.

What I'm GUESSING is that this is supposed to be like a completely parallel universe where NOTHING that we already know to be true is real... because this is a completely different set of characters that had a completely different set of events happen to them that we don't know. But if that's true, then there's really no point in it, because we like these characters based on the movies or games they were originally in. So if it isn't the same Aladin or isn't the same Squall, why would we be attached to them at all?

And to that degree, I've really never enjoyed the whole existential storylines that go above and beyond to be overly confusing. It's not that I don't eventually get it, it's that it's just too over the top to be taken seriously and still be entertaining. Like people who defend the Matrix trilogy will just hock it up to people just being to dumb to get it... when that series really does just blow a load. And Kingdom Hearts isn't exempt from this. But while the Matrix tried to explain it, Kingdom Hearts seems to go out of it's way to avoid explaining anything. Half way through the game and I quite literally understand nothing. And the questions stack up like a cartoon depiction of a football game dog pile. And I promise you, I'm giving it as much patience as I can. I'm sticking with it and trying to be open minded about it. But the game is making it really hard.

I think you're thinking too hard about all of this. There's no point in trying to figure out why they're all together when they're from separate or the same game when this is a different universe. We know none of these characters are originally from Hollow Bastion (the FF ones), so that should already just discount their individual games. I think you need to separate them from the games they come from and their connections. Take everything as part of the Kingdom Hearts universe and isn't connected to its original content.

I understand what you are saying. And I really wish I could just turn it off and not care. But it's an RPG, a genre that's primarily built around it's store (unlike fighters or FPSs that are more substance that story), and I have a hard time accepting something that just doesn't make sense simply because it WON'T make sense. And I don't think it's really my fault for being in that mind set.

If it helps, I always just thought of it as parallel universes.

A-FREAKIN'-Men. The Matrix story past the first movie is retarded. The entire series can just eat me.




Sorry, SF, Myoky, but I have to go with Lantis on this one (and you know I would usually try to avoid that ^_^ ). If KH isn't explaining anything and is just throwing a bunch of off-shoot stories from the Disney movies together as it seems to be doing, we have a right to find that unacceptable. I mean, Thousand Arms and Earthbound I think were meant to be comedic as RPG's, and I sure as heck can understand their plots a lot better than this one.

As I mentioned in the chat, I found it so distracting that the Disney level plots were just dumbed down versions of the movie plots, that I really couldn't take the time to enjoy them. Especially with the Mulan and Pirates levels. On the flipside, the Beauty & The Beast stage and the Hercules stage, while sharing the premise of the movies, were still original enough that I was able to enjoy them more.

The story minus the disney characters is actually pretty cool (in my opinion anyway) but you need to literally play like all of them to fully understand the story. Yeah I never liked the fact that the disney worlds were just following the movies it was all predictable for the most part.

Had a few days break, so my tolerance levels are much higher now. I find it interesting how so many different people in this thread see this game from such a different perspective. Though I have noticed something. I can put into words exactly why I feel the way I do about the game. Those who have enjoyed the game haven't. Other than "Oh that just didn't bother me" or "I can ignore it." Things that really don't offer up really good counter points to the issues I've been having thus far. So I hope you don't hold it against me if my opinions don't change very drastically.

I only say this because being half way through the game, I expect at least something to click by now. But great voice acting and a good sound track can only carry you so far. After my initial "ooooh new world" feeling goes away, I go back to the kind of disappointed state I've found myself in repeatedly.
___________________________________

After running around the cave of wonders for a long time, we eventually find Jafar forcing Genie to show were the lock is using a wish. If I were Jafar, I'd just wish that all the keyblades would be destroyed. That way you don't have to worry about Sora coming around and unlocking all of them. Sora eventually catches up with Jafar and you fight him along with Genie as Jafar uses his second wish to order Genie to fight the party. So this is the first major boss fight in the game as Jafar seems to be one of the main bad guys. And I really enjoyed how Genie would apologize before he attacks talking about how he can't help it. It was amusing. And the next fight was actually really interesting. Jafar uses his final wish to be turned into a genie and you have to fight him in genie form. Gilbert Gottfried flies around with Jafar's black lamp, and that's your target while dodging all of Jafar's really big attacks. After beating Gilbert Gottfried, we get the lap and force Jafar into it. Then Jasmine is kidnapped by someone and we unlock the lock and leave on a magic carpet ride back to Agrabah. Aladdin free's Genie and we get a look at the bad guys again as you find Riku being being somehow manipulated by the bad guys. Apparently Hook is going to take Riku to where Kairi is being kept. Anyways, Genie becomes a summons and Aladdin gives you a keyblade. What he was doing with one, I have no idea. I thought those things were picky about who could have them... but I guess not.

The team mention heading back to Transverse town but once there we just find out we can make accessories or something but then we are stuck... once again. So it's back to the walkthrough. So now we need to head out past Agrabah and look for a giant whale. One gummi ship mini game later, and we found it. And then we got ate. Then came a series of flashbacks of Sora and Riku's childhood. Sora comes to inside the whale and we are greeted by Pinocchio and Geppetto. Seems they've been stuck here for a while. Pinocchio runs off and we're left to follow. We catch up with him only to find Riku who challenges Sora to chase him and Pinocchio. I'm sure there's a point to this, but I don't quite see it. But instead of actually chasing them, it was more wander around another dungeon until you stumble across them again at some point. When we do, he questions if Sora even cares about saving Kairi... which he didn't even know she was in trouble. He was just... looking for her in general. Anyways, at some point Pinocchio got caught by the boss from Lord Jabu Jabu's belly and you actually fight with Riku. Not as cool as the Jafar fight. Afterwards, everyone jumps in a hole. Once there, Riku kidnaps Pinnochio and it's hinted he's going to use Pinnochio's heart to help Kairi in some way or another and then leaves. After chasing him down again, we have the big scene (I guess) where Riku and Sora finally have decided they are against one another and my prediction of Riku being the good-guy-gone-bad come true. Anyways, you fight the boss from Lord Jabu Jabu's belly again. Afterwards, we see that Kairi was on Hook's ship. Riku is there with her and Maleficent who's leading him on telling him that getting all the 7 princesses is the wave to save Kairi. Then Maleficent gives Riku the power to control the heartless.

It's here we are sneezed out of the giant whale and back into Agrabah. So we save and quit for the night.
___________________________________

The story seems to be chugging on fairly slow. The only thing that happens is Jasmine gets caught, we unlock a door, and Riku is a declared bad guy now. But I can say that I genuinely liked the Jafar fights... both with Genie and Jafar as a genie. But everything else has been fairly lack luster. And the combat still hasn't taken any turns for the better. It's still mostly hit X till everything dies... heal when needed. Donald still dies way too easy too. Is there anything I can do to spice up the combat? Or is this pretty much how it is the rest of the time.

Combat basically remains press X to win, up until the last section of the game, where you will have to pull out some strategy in order to survive the boss fights.

One minor correction of the characters giving you keyblades thing, they aren't actually giving you a new keyblade, they are giving you a keychain, which when attached to your keyblade, gives it new properties. Though, why they have these keychains, I don't know.

Gilbert Gottfried's voice alone should be reason enough to make you hurl the controller through the TV and put this game in a microwave.

For once I have to disagree with you. I think that Gilbert Gottfried's voice, while irritating, fits perfectly for Iago. You know, a squawking bird. And honestly, he didn't even speak that much in the game. I find Donald endless quacking in battle far more irritating worse than Iago. It's funny too. Whenever Donald dies (which is frequent) he just lets out this low tone sigh in his voice. And usually I'm glad because I don't have to listen to him for a while.

And, and because you're about the only person in this thread who hasn't played KH now, one interesting thing in battle is that if you leave a party member dead long enough, they'll just... get back up. Which, I'm fine with. I always assumed that in any given RPG, when a character hits 0 HP, they don't die, but are knocked unconscious. And like, phoenix downs just make people regain their consciousness. It would explain why a phoenix down wouldn't work on Aeris (zombie Aeris now) in Final Fantasy VII. So it kind of makes sense if you fall unconscious, you'd eventually wake back up on your own eventually.

Speaking of the unconcious thing Lantis, I don't suppose you've noticed the complete lack of reviving items and spells in the game right?

If you cast Cure or use a Potion on an ally that has 0 HP, it will bring them back into the fight, no reviving needed.

Didn't know that. I've just waited out however long it takes them to get back up. Wouldn't have thought to used a healing item on a KO'd party member. Thanks!

I don't know. I not only thought of it as unconsciousness but also being mortally wounded, so you would need special help instead of just coming back on your own. Like, that's what I really liked about FFT, concept wise; I saw the counter over a person's fallen body as the time you have to help them before they eventualy die of their grievous wounds and crystallize.

And yeah, I know Gottfried is appropriate for the character. I was just overexaggerating how annoying his voice seems like it SHOULD be.

But speaking of stuff I find annoying, if Zidane shows up anywhere in this game then I'm outta here.

According to Myoky, I've met just about every FF character in the game already... which is surprisingly few.

It's not really a spoiler, but the only character you haven't met is Sephiroth, and you only meet him by doing optional sidequest stuff. He is the game's secret boss.

I, more than likely, won't be doing that...

It's staturday morning. So what better thing to do then play Kingdom Hearts. Planning on taking a good chunk out of it this sitting.

___________________________________

So now we have two options of new places to go as shown by the world map. So we went to the one with the lower "battle level" of five stars. But it being new, gummi ship mini game! Weeeeeee! We end up in Atlantica and immediately meet Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian. And apparently Sora turning into a mermain/shark, Goofy into a turtle, and Donald into a 6 legged octopus is a result of Donald's magic. Which is really kind of half-assing an explanation at best. Though if Imp, Toad, and Moogle are spells, Merman, Turtle, and Octopus can be spells too. Anyways, soon after we are attacked by heartless. And with new controls for moving around underwater it freshens up combat, if only just a little bit. Anyways, we're working our way to the heart of Atlantica. While grinding our way to the castle, I noticed they disabled our summon spells. Not that we were using them seeing as Cure is all you really need. It's here I also noticed that 'munni' is a lot harder to pick up here. Which got me thinking. We haven't really bought anything since the very beginning of the game. What do you even do with money? Like the game gives you plenty of healing items through drops and chests. Accessories are drops too. And the new weapons are given after you beat a world. So we're sitting on thousands of... munnies(?) and really don't know what to do with them.

Anyways, we make it to King Triton. When asked about the keyhole he makes it fully obvious that it's there, but lies his kingly ass off about it. I'm sure we'll get the "I'm sorry, I didn't know I could trust you" speech later. So Triton tells Ariel she can't leave the palace, so obviously we go immediately outside the palace. After visiting Ariel's collection of human stuff, Ursula has a little cutscene very similar to all the other bad guys "Blah blah blah, never find the keyhole. Blah blah blah heartless on my side." Despite the worlds being dramatically different, it's actually starting to get a bit formulaic. New world very very loosely follows the movie, have to fight the antagonist from the movie, princess of movie gets caught, unlock keyhole, and move on. Aside from the, the story doesn't make any real advancement until your run into Riku, which has only been twice since the beginning of the game.

It took us a long time to eventually wonder around long enough to find out where it wanted us to go next. Long enough to make me tired of hearing Under the Sea on loop. We eventually find a thingy that was shaped like the thingy in Ariel's human stuff room. We get there after fighting the shark and try to put thingy one in thingy two. Triton comes in and breaks thingy two. Ariel runs away crying... you know, because she was soooo emotionally attached to a thing that she didn't even know what it was or what it does. Triton reveals that he knows we are the key bearer and that we're from another world and commands us to leave (so obviously we won't). It then shifts to Ariel weeping over the loss of her unkonwn thingy. Ursula comes in and starts talking Ariel into taken the both of them to the palace to find the keyhole. In exchange, Ursula well show Ariel how to go to other worlds like Sora. Anyways, Usula makes off with Triton's trident and Ariel joins back up with Sora to pursue. And by pursue, I mean try and remember how to get back to were we found thingy two as supposedly, that's where she went. So we eventually make it to Ursula's place. The key to the fight was making her magic pot backfire on her, which was interesting. We beat her and she runs off, and for whatever reason, we LET her run off... with Triton's trident. Smart. Now we go all the way back to Atlantica. Making this the FIFTH trip through this dungeon with Under the Sea on loop the entire time. I hope you can understand and forgive why I'm getting tired of this. Anyways, on our trip back to Atlantica Ursula breaks us off and attacks us. She turns giant and for some reason, she's now wearing Triton's crown. Really shouldn't have willingly let her run away, guys. So after beating Ursula, Triton gives us the whole "sorry for not trusting you" bit. Also, Triton's trident also works like thingy two, so I guess that makes the trident thingy three? So yeah, we get another keyblade, unlock the lock, and I assume we are free to leave.

The next trip through the gummi ship take us to the Halloween Before Christmas. I think the world looks as good as it can despite the fact taht the movie was shot in stop motion and not the traditional method. Anyways, Jack is trying to put a heart into a heartless they've found. So the best option instead of you know, immediately slaying the heartless is to actually help Jack. And to do that, we need to go through a dungeon slaying the heartless. A bit conflicting to the current objective. As we travel through the world, the magic of it all seems to kind of drain about this time. I don't really know why that specifically is. Could be because of the incredibly basic combat. Maybe it's all the random encounters all over the place. Or the overly complicated dungeons that require way more traveling then necessary. Either way, by the point where it's time to move on, I'm usually really glad. Anyways, we meat up with Sally and she gives Jack the item needed to give the heartless a heart. So it's back the way we came... On our way, we get a scene with Oogie Boogie. And it's another "Blah blah control heartless" scene. Got to keep up that formulaic status quo!

So we finally get back and make the heart for the heartless and it is then stolen by Oogie Boogie's cronies. So back into the dungeon we go to get it back. Seems like every other world is a fetch quest, and I'm not really fond of it. So we head to Oogie Boogie's place. Part way, we have to fight Oogie Boogie's little kids. Eventually we get to Oogie Boogie himself. He eats the heart we made for the heartless and somehow that gives him the ability to control the heartless. Really don't get how that works, but whatever. After you beat him, Jack mentions that the heart was a failure. Despite the fact it actually worked to control the heartless. I dunno. Anyways, Oogie Boogie turned into his own tower. So now we have to fight Tower Oogie Boogie, which wasn't really a boss fight and more just a platforming from orb to orb, breaking them. It wasn't very good platforming either as has been par for the course most of the game. It seems I either just don't notice it, or hate it. After breaking all the orbs, Oogie Boogie silently dies and a giant lock appears under him. So we unlock it and then see Sally and Jack talking about how they will better prepare for the next Halloween. So once again, new keyblade and off we go. GUMMI SHIP, HO!

So we meet with Hook's ship at the end of the mini game, but once we board, they say we are on Neverland. Which is weird. But Riku is there and Sora finally sees Kairi for the first time. Riku talks evilly and dumps Sora in the ship's hold. It's there we meet up with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. With that out of the way, I assume it's time for some more dungeon crawling. Half a dungeon later Hook and Riku have a conversation about how Kairi's heart is gone for good but Riku won't give up. Then Peter and Sora find the place Wendy and Kairi are being held, only to be stopped by rope. So the long way around they go. After the other half of the dungeon, we face a shadow clone of Sora as created by Riku. Then Peter finds Wendy and immediately leaves. And then immediately comes right back being like "didn't think I'd leave you here did you?" ¬_¬

Anyways, now we can fly because Sora attempted to jump off the ship into the croc's mouth... the one the scared off Hook. And his faith gave him the ability of flight. It works just like swimming in Atlantica. After the fight, Hook comes back out. After beating him, he gets chased off by the croc, and you head to clock tower in Wendy's home town. And here we found the keyhole. Unlocking it gives us a flashback. Which revealed absolutely nothing. Then we get a scene of Maleficent powering up Riku again. I guess the first time wasn't enough. Anyways, we are awarded a new keyblade, ability, spell, and Tinkerbell as a summons. Then we are ordered to go back to Transverse town. Once we get there, we talk to Cid and he upgrades our ship, I think. Sora then has some kind of vision of an old lady talking to a young Kairi about light and how people were fighting over it and it caused people to turn evil.... or something like that. Once Sora snaps out of it, we head to the new location. What's really great about this though is that it's the LAST TIME we have to fly around in a gummi ship. This entire time we never upgraded the ship and it never increased in difficulty either. So my original of curiosity of why this is even a thing still remains.

So we made it to Hollow Bastion. We meet up with Riku and he takes the keyblade. Since Goofy and Donald were specifically told to follow the keyblade master, they leave Sora. But as luck would have it, Beast from Beauty and the Beast is here looking for Belle. So he teams up with Sora. So now that Sora was without keyblade has to use a wooden sword that Riku gave him in it's place. So it's here we save for the day and quit.
___________________________________

Three worlds down this time and we've started the final one. Having played through them all now, I wasn't super impressed with really any of them. The initial wonder of being in any given Disney world degraded fairly quick. Neglecting all the story in the Disney segments and just going on the core story with the three main characters, I don't really feel that involved. The main story has only made very little progress at very few intervals of the game. And at the tail end of it, there's a lot that has gone unanswered. So next time I write, it'll probably be the end of the game and my final review. I promise I'll do my absolute best to be fair with it and not bias-ly just blast it. I will admit that the game has merits and I'll be sure to account for them.

The only real purpose of munni, is to buy new weapons for Donal and Goofy, which you can buy in Traverse Town.

I think I said in a hangout to you recently that the game has very bad story pacing. All of the story is concentrated at the beginning, and then at the very end, with little to none throughout the main game.