I'm puzzled, because BBS had the same style as the PS2 era games.
It did, you're right! KH has great platforming, great combat, and a great story to it, while Kingdom Hearts II has similar good qualities to it, if a bit more foundationally flawed in my honest opinion. What I was getting to was that, while it looked the part, it didn't act the part. That's what I meant by I wasn't a fan of the visual presentation. You can look like Thebes, for example, but if you can't inject any of the life of Hercules then you're just a pointless grinding world in that game to me.
I know it may sound scathing, but I'm critical because I love it. The ending of BbS was great, and I love all the characters for it; it's a shame, for me anyways, that the level design is so bland and hardly ever shines. I believe that, in worlds like Deep Space and Neverland, they did explore that a bit and created interesting level design, and, at least from what I've played, a big factor of interesting level design is platforming. There is other things obviously, like environmental effects and barriers that can add to the battlefield, but the most prominent of these in the series have been the platforming of several of the titles, as interacting and exploring the level is just as important as the gameplay of combat.
This is something that tends to be an afterthought to the series; don't get me wrong, when it is added it's great, such as the secret episode of Birth by Sleep and Cavern of Remembrance from KHII, but these are both significant in that they were added post-game, and I believe that, if implemented earlier, they could have made traversing the worlds more interactive, as walking through straight-aways was a big and disappointing departure to the magic of the original, in my opinion at least.
And, again, you can disagree with me. You can say that visuals are divorced from that entirely and I won't argue with you. I just believe that level design and visuals are a two-for-one package, and if I have to pick one over the other it would be the platforming from 0.2 over the bland, blocky levels from the princess worlds in BbS any day. I hope I don't come off rude, I'm just trying to state my position
Style vs substance is a valid argument, though each item in your laundry list could be applied to many of the games in the series, not just BBS. I'd wager a majority of the KH audience does not expect a hearty platforming experience each entry given its track record.
And I'd agree with you! But just because they don't expect it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be implemented. The most exciting part of III to me is the level design and the liveliness of each world shown so far, as I believe that that is far more immersive and rewarding than just vaguely looking like the movie you're currently in. It's hearkening back to the first game in that way, and I love it for that. I bring up BbS only because it begs to be compared to its sequel, 0.2.
Re:coded seemed to be on the right path, but DDD cheapened those possibilities with Flowmotion. In the end, it's not a platforming series, however welcome those elements are. And it's not as though the overall experience is much more rewarding in 0.2 when it does engage these ideas.
Eh, I'd disagree, but I think you know that
And someone complimented Coded's level design for once! I feel like that never happens!
Oh, we have an excuse to not have NPCs in the Dark World? Great it can make sense this time! Only it doesn't evoke a different tone than the other games, because that's basically all we've known, so it's not exactly worth celebrating? Previous towns never appeared bustling regardless if they held a few NPCs to a room. So, the Dark World only ever felt creepy to me, because it was doused in pitch and backed with haunting tracks. Oh look! We get to dress Aqua up in pretty things! I like pretty things, sure... that's fine they serve no function,... unlike the clothes in KHUX. k
I agree that the tone of the dark world is... samey. Even with the idea that these areas are all technically part of the same world, you'd hope that they at least would have had a little more life injected into each of them to feel different. They were on the right track with the different arrangements of the dark world theme, but... it's still just one song arranged differently! It can only feel like one place but a little different!
That NPC argument I made was dumb haha, I was just venting about my recent frustrations with DDD and the fact that NOTHING EXISTS ANYWHERE. Sorry!
I just feel like you're getting derailed defending 0.2 by solely deconstructing BBS. There's still way more to do in CoD and ED over the course of TAV's journeys in BBS than there is in 0.2's counterparts, and since aesthetics are a huge part of a game based off the art of timeless animated classics I'd say the former achieves both the style and substance award more than the latter, IMHO~
I mean, deconstructing BbS only makes sense, since this is the direct sequel to that game. Sorry if it sounds like I'm singling it out, but I only do it because it begs to be compared with its counterpart.
I would say that the TAV argument is valid, but, to be fair... each segment in 0.2 is only 30 minutes or so. You can't really do much with that. Granted, they totally cockblocked us by not allowing us to enter the castle and see horrors and the twisted ballroom or anything, so you got me there. It really was pretty lame what they decided to do with CoD. I would say that ED and DW really expanded upon their original and really brought something interesting, puzzling, and Gothic, overall really impressing me when I finished them.
And, I wrote this earlier, but I would argue that exploration and interactivity is what substance is, and in that case KHII, BbS, and DDD have to take a backseat to most anything else in the series. 0.2, though short, is very interactive, gives an incentive for replayability, and is pretty exploratory. I remember finding stuff even on my fifth playthrough that I never found before, which is pretty significant for such a small game.
I will say that, for BbS, a little bit of the magic is gone for me, and I won't claim that I'm not a little bit biased. I do enjoy the combat quite a bit on Aqua's side, and the painfully slow keyblade combos and barren maps combined with Terra's awful voice acting really affected me the first time I played it, as using the commands and building my arsenal was really fun and interactive. I especially loved the stickers and the entirety of the final ending story, which I believe includes the best villains in the entire series to date.
I don't hate BbS, I'm just very critical of it because I always see something that could be improved significantly in it, and for its sequel the first and most important thing that I noticed was the deep sense of verticality to it, something I had been craving since the first game and was only partially quenched with the bug blox from Coded.
Less can be more, but for me, it didn't take advantage of the opportunities it was afforded. In fact, I'd like to trim the fat off some of the "meat" we got in 0.2 to make it just an anemic story rather than an anemic story that further tortures matters. There's obviously nothing wrong with you, OP or anyone liking the game. I like it too, though I embrace the points of criticism.
I think we can both agree with the end of this line
I embrace the criticism of 0.2, even though I seemed to have liked the gameplay more than some who played it, and I hope I got across that I don't hate BbS or any other game in the series. I just think that 0.2 took older elements from the series and really gave them a much-needed fresh coat of paint, and I appreciate that.
That and, no matter what the style is, the graphics are so prettttyyyyyyyyy