Birth by Sleep Consensus.

[Z3N]

It's somewhere around Alright/Good for me. I didn't even mind the load times. c:

Personal Downside:

While it was refreshing, my major issue was the fact I got bored.
I hardly did any of the extras. Didn't have the motivation. Didn't create fancy new commands/etc. Fanciest I got was Second Chance, Once More, and combo boosts, plus those mine things. They made me giggle. <3 It was total button mashing for me, with the square button as a major necessity during boss fights. For a bit I struggled, but then I caught on and breezed right through it. I zipped through it in four days; tried replaying it a few weeks ago and lost total motivation. Was almost to Radiant Garden with Terra I think. Grew very bored.

Another part that drove me nuts was the empty, dry worlds. When there are about three people per world in a game where they added a bunch of random mini-game stuff, it's seems rather silly to me. About the most fun I had plot/game/story-wise were Ven's scenario and Aqua's last battle. The rest of the game lacked a lot of the luster I'm used to. But I'll be eternally grateful with that when we get another Sora-esque game. (This is personal opinion. You can't change that.)

And the VA's. Some were amazing, others good, and then some that made me want to cry. Seriously. Whoever's brilliant idea it was to grab Jason Dohring should go save us the trouble and lock themselves away so they never see the light of day again. -_- And Terra was the one I was looking forward to the most. :/ Siiigh. Willa Holland is okay. She grows on ya after a bit.
Ven, Vanitas, MX, Braig, and Isa made the pain go away. ;-;


Positive:

Finally things are adding up!!! The story has pieced together. We know who Xehanort is, and all the other bits and pieces.

Refresh gameplay. Shotlocks were fun. Waaay overpowered and waaay too easy to use though. Drives were harder for me. x_x I managed to get hurt in them. And I'd miss the enemy. SOMEHOW. So yeah. xD

New characters. Made me realize how much I love Sora, Donald, Goody, Riku, and Mickey. Also made me realize I really don't like Kairi. Woohoo!!! They got the girl right in this game- no romantic love interest.

Music was good too. Mmmm. Vanitas's battle themes. <3 And Aqua's last battle. The music made me swoon. *w*

They gave me a character of Light I could hate. I hate Eraqus. He drove me nuts. xD So new refreshing character to hate. xD

The secret ending. Made me smile. <3 And little Sora and Riku. <3 <3 <3 -ignoring Kairi kthnx- Little Sora rivals Golden Retriever puppies. ;~; He made me squee so hardcore.


All in All:

I believe I voted Alright. Not my favorite. Not even close. Don't see myself playing it again for either several months, or in a year or two. Re:Coded looks like it'll give me what I need (at least in DS games they tend to be wonky enough where you can actually die); can't wait for 3D. In the end I was a bit disappointed, but still liked it...I think. I'll agree with some people, it's waaay overrated. I mean seriously. x_x Ah well. To each their own, nyeh?

I've played far better games. And even though execution-wise via gameplay in BBS exceeds the others (I'd actually rather have a toned down KH2 one back, or one similar. It was more limited and I actually got hit), I still didn't like it as much as KH1, Re:CoM, or KH2. The enjoyment wasn't there for me. :/

All in all, it's alright.

(You can bash me all you want. I honestly don't care. My opinion is mine and mine alone.)

 

[scubasteve]

Pretty sure the plot always had "generic ass" techniques.
The first game was about a rivalry between two best friends that becomes a metaphor for a clash between light and darkness, and saving damsels in distress.

i'm not one of these people that likes to put kh1 on a pedestal, but it handled these techniques and overall lore of the kh universe quite creatively as compared to future installments. it took a simple, generic story of a boy chosen to save the world from evil, and it threw in a few outlandish ideas like disney and final fantasy and keys and hearts and light and darkness and you know what? it worked. but now, i'm afraid, kingdom hearts has become nothing more than a convoluted mess of god knows what. clones? clones of clones? not to mention a clone of the clone of the fucking clone of the ACTUAL person? coming back from the dead? false memories? faking emotions? sensory overload, man. it's almost so ridiculous that i barely give a damn now.

don't get me wrong, i love complicated stories. when executed correctly, they work rather well, but i can hardly say that kingdom hearts does a good job of maintaining a complicated plot. for example, i've read your theories around the kh sections, grass, and while they are immensely interesting reads, the absurd lengths you (not you personally, but the fandom in general) have to go to in order to actually create a theory that makes sense is astounding.

just imagine if hideo kojima and george lucas had sex and the latter gave birth to a mentally defective crack-child that decided to write a star wars/metal gear solid crossover fanfiction. the result? the kingdom hearts series, especially as of late.

disclaimer: i don't really dislike the series. i actually still really enjoy it, but only in the same way you enjoy watching a spider try to escape a toilet. it's pathetic, watching it try and try again while you stand there knowing that the spider has no chance of making it out alive because you're just going to flush the toilet anyway, but deep down, you're kind of rooting for the little guy.

 

[Zarin I Yehudahi]

Steve summed it up pretty well. I for one liked the first one because despite being relatively simple, it got the job done.

 

[Malisteen]

It answered more questions then it raised, introduced some interesting new characters, set up future developments, and had pretty fun gameplay. It suffered from some of the issues all KH games suffer from - being button mashy, camera & lock on issues, small, sparsely populated worlds - plus it had some of the plot issues of KHII - being a bit contrived and convoluted, though less so then that game if I'm being honest, and I liked KHII.

Overall, I was impressed with it, considering that it was on a portable system, though I wasn't blown away. So I ranked it 'impressive'.

 

[destinykh]

It was horribly mediocre, to say the least. The story was so rushed and a lot of stuff happened, yet it lacked essence so it felt like NOTHING happened at the same time. And the pacing was HORRIBLE, I can't stress this word enough. I really could care less about Terra's struggle with the darkness. Ven was a Sora clone and I did not find anything truly interesting in his story. Aqua's character was unique but the potential there was not fully utilized. Vanitas was a troll who should have done more given that he was a being of pure darkness. However, I find MX and Eraqus truly fascinating, along with the concept that 'Light is not all good'. I'm actually rather satisfied with the bigger mythology stuff, (but my god the X-Blade looks severely awkward and bulky >.>), but the characters matter way more, and most of them fell flat.

I like that the writers are making the Disney worlds thematically relevant, cos that's probably all they are gonna be from here on out, but for god's sake, make it sensible. The themes are either very forced or non-existent (hello Aqua's Dwarf Woodlands) with a few execeptions.

Gameplay-wise, not a word of complaint against it actually. Yes, it's great, customizable, flashy, with some fun little platforming elements thrown in yadda yadda, but the story makes or breaks the game for me. In this case, it is sadly a break.

 

[Ophan]

what Steve and DestinyKH said
/thread

 

[Smile]

a lot of stuff happened

I can sum the game in three flashbacks or less. :\

Ven was a Sora clone

You mean Sora is Ven. :\ No way around that one.

Aqua's character was unique

I don't see the uniqueness, personally. She's as unique as Eraqus which is pretty damn unique but as she's the pupil it means she lacks her own essence.

 

[AkiraKiyoshi]

Instead of looking at what the game could have been, look at what it is because it seems a lot of the people giving it ok remarks are saying that based on what they were wanting. I thought the game in the end, was a great game, it could have been better, but that isn't what matters. What matters is how much fun you had playing it, and how much you enjoyed the overall storyline, and voice acting, not who should have put more emotion here and there, or who should have done this, etc.

I agree with this completely.

 

[Zarin I Yehudahi]

No actually thinking about what could've been is important since it's obvious that it changed so much and quite frankly the way Nomura slashed the story into three is probably its main weakness to begin with.

 

[AkiraKiyoshi]

No actually thinking about what could've been is important since it's obvious that it changed so much and quite frankly the way Nomura slashed the story into three is probably its main weakness to begin with.

You think of it the way you think of it, I think of it the way I think of it.