NocturnalMelody, on 22 September 2012 - 10:45 AM, said:
While I understand that storywise the repetitiveness makes sense, it makes for boring gameplay, at least for me. Even the bonus missions feel like just a repeat of the things that we've already done 80+ times. I feel like with a little more effort, they could have spiced up missions a bit...overall the gameplay just feels really dull, and the player shouldn't feel as bored as Roxas while doing missions. There was really no reward for trudging one's way through so many missions either.
let me just say befpore hand, I don't play video games often (I didn't play one all the way through until i was 15) and being who i am, when I do, I have to play them through 100%, often when I don't want to (Re:CoM specifically) because every time I think about it, it feels wrong. So playing through Days, I started knowing I was going through it all, and at least from that point, it wasn't that bad. Maybe for the people who don't have that problem maybe it was less enjoyable, but replaying almost every mission gets you a secret entry, and the ability to get some cool items. The problem you seem to have is that there's no plot resolution, which is true, but unavoidable, KHII resolved the plot, with the exception of those points that that are still undetermined.
I didn't like the gameplay of Re:CoM either, but at least there was a nice reward waiting for me at the end of each world - a fun cutscene to watch. Days was even repetitive in terms of cutscenes too, not just gameplay. I understand that ice cream is all Roxas and Xion look forward to because that's all they've ever known, but again, it was just boring to me. I was excited when Axel announced that they would be going to the beach, FINALLY some variety to their hanging out! But then Xion ran off. And then another ice cream scene.
Here the problem is Roxas' story. He doesn't do much, and there's a limit to how exciting you can make that. And the goal was to go the beach on the next vacation day (which happens because... I don't know, Xemnas and Saix got tired of not having to do anything?)
I have to disagree here. A few secret reports written by each member doesn't help to develop them as much as seeing actions would. We know no more about them than we found out already in KH II. Luxord is the only one that seems to show a different side to him when reading his secret reports, and he even gets along pretty well with Roxas. Demyx in KH II seemed to show genuine anger to a certain extent when fighting Sora and told he didn't have a heart, which had led many people to believe he had another side to him...but in 358/2 days all there was to his personality was laziness. While you mentioned that the game is in Roxas' point of view so he couldn't have seen, this wasn't a problem with Xion. There's many cutscenes of XIon without Roxas in them, her talking to Riku, her showing her face to Namine, facing off Axel...personally the scene where Namine says "I've wanted to meet you...Xion" was a pointless 2 second cutscene and took up DS space. They could have replaced it with something else, like a voiced cutscene of the Organization members. But since Xion is technically the main character of this game, and the plot as it is was focused squarely about her, there was no room to develop anyone else.
Personally I have my own Idea as to how I'd have preferred to have Days function, the entire game would limit you to what Roxas knows, no cutscenes that he is not present for. And then you unlock these other ones as you progress, with the secret journals being replaced with cutscenes between characters, where you can see what other people were doing, but the journals did a generally decent job of that, and while reading entries isn't as useful, it still functions. But let me just say Xion is not the main character, Roxas is. Xion is the driving force, she does more to influence the plot, but that's only because Roxas doesn't try and do much, he just sort of let's the Organization run his life for almost a year. Xion effects things, sometimes unwittingly but still more often than Roxas, or really any other Organization member.
I'm sure Normua could have found some way to hint at it in-game, or at least shown when Xemnas was starting to get the hunch that a few members were going to betray him. Or even a short scene of Marluxia and Larxene talking to each other. That couldn't have taken too long.have not been a very good idea
Everyone is gone by Day 7. It would have been nice to have more characterization of them, but there was really no time.
I think the make-it or break-it for people to either like Days or dislike Days is Xion. Xion is the center of the whole plot, and while Roxas is a tool for the Organization as well, it is Xion that is making all these life-changing decisions. She is a flawless, sweet, self-sacrificial character that always puts her friends before herself. She's perfect. Her only flaw, which really isn't one, is that she bottles up her emotions and doesn't tell anyone her problems, wanting to soldier on her own. This grated on me, since our main character completely obsessed with her and just sits around clueless while she runs away with Riku all the time. The only time Roxas actually begins to question his existence is when she dies, and then he says the whole "why did the keyblade choose me" which made no sense at all to me. He still remembers who she is at this point too, and tells Riku "I want my life back, I want Xion back!"
Xion isn't perfect, she is low on character flaws, but mostly due to lacking an independent character, and an innocence due to youth, much like Roxas. And they both bottle emotions, but they have no indication as to how to express them (surrounded by Nobodies, this is truly shocking.) And let's be fair, even without Xion, Roxas would be sitting around clueless anyway. Our main character obsesses over her, because he cares about two people, Axel and Xion, and Axel doesn't need worrying about (as far as Roxas knows). If you saw your friend disapearing, acting shifty, and randomly getting super depressed, I think you would worry about that individual. Roxas is having a massive identity crisis, who is she, why can he do what he can do, is any of this for real, or not? And he only has faded memories of what happened to her, he knows he's lost her, and that she's important, but couldn't explain why.
What especially bugged me is after the whole incident with Xion pointing her keyblade at Roxas, getting knocked out, yada yada yada, Xion and Roxas go eat ice cream at the clock tower...AND NONE OF THIS IS EVER ADDRESSED. >_< Roxas' naviety comes across as pure stupidity at this point. Their conversation goes something like this, from what I remember:
Roxas: Axel is such a jerk for knocking you out.
Xion: Don't call him a jerk. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here. He's your best friend, Roxas.
Roxas: So are you.
Okaaaaay why didn't you ask Xion why she's running around with Mr. Imposter, Roxas? DIdn't you tell Saix that she might be in trouble and forced to run around with this guy, and needs help? This is your chance to get some answers from her, or at LEAST question why she threatened you by pointing your keyblade at you! Seriously?!!
Right then, Roxas is lost, Add to that, he's not much of a forceful person except near the end, with Riku, and Axel, who as far as he can tell is betraying thier friendship. Xion is doing weird things, but Axel isn't bothering to find out why, he's just going to fight her. Roxas is trusting Xion's actions are rational, and that she's running from the Organization, a sentiment he shares, and from Axel, who apparently like to beat her up. While he no doubt would try and find out, it's nothing he's comfortable with, and so he's avoiding it.
And I feel like Xion DID shove herself into Deep Dive. Nomura said in an interview before that Riku must have "summoned Roxas to a place of Shadows", and in KH II we know that he wants to fight Roxas to bring him back to Sora so his best friend could wake up. It made much more sense that Riku lured Roxas there with answers about who he is, thus making "Why did the keyblade choose me" make sense. So now we find out that Riku needed the motivation to stop Roxas...because Xion spoke from beyond the grave to tell Riku to stop Roxas. Riku didn't need Xion to tell him to stop Roxas, he was working for DiZ to wake up Sora. The fact that Xion, through Oblivion, CAUSED Roxas to throw his keyblade to Riku...is just silly. There could have been a few better reasons for this. One, he was using strike raid to attack Riku, and was shocked when Riku managed to grab it and use it himself. Or, the Neoshadows attacking were about to overwhelm them both, so Roxas needed a temporary ally, thus tossing the blade to Riku.
Tetsuya Nomura trolls us, and couldn't give a straight answer were his life in peril. Xion talked to Namine about stopping Roxas, and a little to Riku, and since namine and Riku were spending so much time together, coupled with DiZ will-murder attitude, he had plenty of reason to stop Roxas. The scene where Roxas throws his Keyblade to Riku... I don't know what that is, Riku didn't need it, my best guess is that Roxas needs work on his strike raid or thougt it was Xion. Either way, it makes no sense. If you can find an interview explaining it I would be delighted. But I don't think he was trying to sabotauge his own purpose, if he were Riku wouldn't have needed to call on Darkness.
And Riku was completely OOC in this game as well. While Sora, his best friend since childhood, remains in a coma, he lets Xion run around and make her own decision. Meanwhile he knocks Roxas right out and doesn't give HIM the choice. One could argue that Riku sympathizes with her, because she's part of Sora and resembles Kairi, two of the closest people to him. But come on. Sympathizing is one thing, but risking his best friend EVER waking up again is a different thing entirely. He's over here brushing her bangs and gently reassuring her.
He is incharacter, regardless Xion and Roxas were rejoining with Sora, but he doesn't like the idea of just grabbing them and stuffing them kicking an screaming into Sora's subconscious (ya' know, like DiZ does) and so gives her the chance to make her own decision. He respects her rights as an individual, and will give her abn oppurtunity to make a choice, it's not like if she said no she'd be a threat. And that makes him a better person than Sora in my opinion. If Sora weighed the consequences, and decided killing thne Nobodies was the only way to prevent thier plans, I would disagree, and think him stupid, but not morally reprehensible. Instead the only thing preventing him from marching straight to the World that Never was is a difference of power level, and the fact he has no clue where they are. Riku respects them as individuals, but has decided his own friend is more important than a replica of a reflection of Sora, and someone who doesn't have their own identity, and even then they both have the chance to come back.
Again this depends on whether or not someone likes Xion. You like Xion, so for you it was tragic and effective. I felt like she make the story make less sense, hogged all the attention from Roxas (who drove the introduction of KH II rather than a game that was supposed to be about his time in the Organization) a pointless addition to the story.
I'm not overly fond of ion, mostly I like Roxas, and so the tragedy was less about Xion, and more about Roxas. But the idea that one can be deleted so completely is a terrible one, and it's a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone, if only so other people wouldn't try and repeat their mistakes. And this is the crux, Xion wasn't pointless, she was brand new, with no prior indication of existence, as were the Organization members, Terra, Ventus, Aqua, Master Xehanort, Yen Sid, and other characters I'm sure we'll meet in KHIII. I'll admit those characters are more interesting (except Yen Sid) but I wouldn't expect anyone to bemoan their inclusion. i would concede her being unimportant if the series just left her having disappeared, but as it seems to have further plans for her, I'd say one should at least wait to see if there is more she'll do before saying that because she was given the cosmic eraser she wasn't important.
Not necessarily. Roxas could have been fed up with the Organization, and his best friend lying to him. Axel refused to tell Roxas who he really was, and the Organization was basically using him for slave labor without any answers. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Riku to encounter Roxas the first time in a mid-game boss battle. Riku loses and fails to bring him back. Eventually Roxas deserts the Organization, encounters Riku a second and final time, and the Deep Dive battle begins. Things could have gone just fine without Xion, but instead Nomura relied on introducing a bland new character and repetitive gameplay.
Why would Axel lie to him? Excluding the Sora-Ven connection, which Roxas never really brings up, he's just like, I don't have memories? Huh, that''s wierd, well let's go back to work. And why would he get mad at the Organization, as far as he knows life is that feeling of drudgery, he can't feel bored, because even on his Day off he has nothing to do that's fun. It would have made more sense (especially considering Riku's dialogue in KHII) to have them meet earlier, if we had some idea what Riku was doing. As far as we know he could have been naming pebbles on every beach in every world, but if his entire focus was in finding Sora, if he found Roxas, he wouldn't have just been like, 'Looks like he's too strong, I'll come back in like 6 months, see if I'm stronger then.' He'd be back every day, fighting, and doing anything to get Sora back. A Xion-less game would be possible, and would have given more time with the Organization (probably) but unless you know if Xion had more purpose than being Days' catalyst, it seems early to be calling her pointless. Terra was pointless aside from giving Xehanort a new body, Ven was pointless aside from explaining dual-wielding and forming the X-Blade, Aqua was pointless because all she does is help Aqua and Ventus, and Xehanort was pointless aside from telling us what our villain's going to be up to in KHIII.
This doesn't excuse his obsessiveness for her, which goes beyond simply being protective. And although he might believe running away does less to jepordize a friendship, XIon DID raise a weapon to him. Whether she was bluffing or not doesn't matter, it still deserves an explanation. In his eyes, he did nothing to deserve being threatened, all he wants is for her to come home, to have his friend back.
She feels threatened. At least as he sees it. The Organization will turn her into a Dusk if she comes back. (Again, as far as he knows). yes, he wants her back, but all he knows is that she runs off (again) and will do anything she can to avoid being brought back to the Organization.
Then why was Xion needed in the first place if she can so easily taken out of the equation? One might argue that what COULD have happened would be boring without her, and she was an addition that brought something new to the table. Only...the game was just as repetitive with her as it could have been without her. The whole Xion plot could have been used to develop the other members more. Instead, it is entirely focused on her. She is really the main character, Roxas is just the observer to these events. Roxas could have easily been the one hacking into the computer to find out who he really is, he could have been the one sent to eliminate the imposter.
How often do you sit back and think, 'What exactly happened last year?' Add to that the Organization is having to deal with Roxas' capture, and then Sora blazing through worlds. No doubt Xemnas and Saix, possibly Xigbar would have reaklized the pieces didn't line up, but the rest of the Organization wasn't about to figure it out. You analogy is flawed, she couldn't be removed from the equation and still have it make sense, it only appeared to without scrutiny. As far as Luxord, Demyx, and Xaldin knew Xion kept running off, and then Roxas did, we don't even know if they knew about the clock tower meetings, they are all fairly closed off people, except Demyx, who's to lazy to maintain an internal wall.
And why did Xemnas just sit around and do nothing about Xion running off, or the three of them being friends? If Xemnas somehow figured out that there was a conspiracy plot against him, he must have known Roxas and Xion and Axel were becoming friends and thus had the potential to ruin his plans to gain Kingdom Hearts. Why lose two perfectly valuable members, when he could have just tried to isolate them and kept them as soulless, emotionless beings? At first I thought it was because being emotionless himself, he had no idea such a friendship could exist. But then DDD comes along, and it's revealed that Xemnas KNEW they were developing hearts and thus emotions...
Who knows what Xemnas was doing, as far as we can tell he spends all his time sitting around, either on his throne or in the Chamber of Repose. Perhaps he figured a stronger heart=stronger Keyblade, perhaps he believed Saix when he told him Axel had it covered, perhaps he didn't find out about the conspiracy, he was told about it by Saix (this actually makes the most sense, he never seems to have any involvement with the rest of the Organization, but notices Marluxia and Larxene are up to stuff, but not that his right-hand man's personal assassin kills his staunchest allies? He's clearly either stupid or uninformed)Regardless, he doesn't see the threat until it's too late.
Spoiler