Hello guys! It's been a while since I was a kid and played the first two KH chapters on PS2, and now I'm really enjoying the 1.5+2.5 HD Collection that came out a year ago. So far I've played most of its contents, I'm missing only the Re:Coded movie and some stuff to get KH2 platinum. These four included in the collection (plus 358/2 Days) are the only KH games I've played this far, hence I don't know if what I'm going to say could also apply or not to the new 2.8 HD Collection games.
However, as the title states I had this feeling during my playthroughs that something was missing, and then I figured out that what were missing were the details. I mean, KH is an action-RPG game so what it REALLY needs are a good combat system and good fights (action), a good characters growt (role-playing) and a good plot or whatever that keeps us playing. Having variable face-models was not a priority, so I won't complain about Terra always looking at the ground even when talking to other people or Sora having a childish face expression even when facing the most fearsome foes. There are even some cutscenes in which this happens and clearly the voice actor can't match the lips movement, resulting in a poorly made act.
Talking about cutscenes details, I noticed how many of them don't have any soundtrack playing in the background, there is just plain silence interrupted by the dialogs, and I still wonder why since KH is well known for its OST.
Anyway here comes the real issue. Kingdom hearts revolves around people' hearts, around friends who love each other, is about empty people becoming nobodies, about warriors who protect the realm of light (and so the people living in it)... Wait, did I say people? WHERE is everybody? Apart a few exceptions, most of the places are totally empty and some situations are almost hilarious:
- Port Royal has literally 2 people to talk to (and it is supposed to be Port where people land and set sail)
- When winning a tournament in Olympus Coliseum you can actually hear people screaming from entusiasm and applauding you, even though there is not a single person in the entire stadium!
- When Hercules was defeated by the Hydra went depressed because he "left them unprotected". I Guess the Hydra must have eaten all of Tebes people?
- This is fantastic, I had to take the screenshot lol. When paying the first visit in Agrabah there's Jasmine who literally says "Aladdin doesn't like to live here (in the palace). He wants to be in the town, among people." And as she speaks, the camera moves to the main area with all the bazars just to let us see a town with NOT A SINGLE SOUL living in it.
These are just some of the strange situations that came up to my mind, but I'm sure there are a lot more. I believe that BbS was totally empty, was it? Lol.
The metaphor I used in the title came up to my mind from a web fan-comic I'm reading these days. It is totally free and made out just from the author passion, therefore as you can imagine there's not enough time nor resources to keep after details such as the backgrounds, so most of the panels are just the characthers interacting between them with low detailed or absent backgrounds. I can understand it since it is just an amateur work. KH isn't but made me feel like it was made in a hurry. KH 3 better add some people if they want me to believe that there are so many hearts out there.
And you, did you feel that same emptiness all around the KH world? Do you believe adding more (and more and more and more...) NPCs should be a priority to this series?
P.S.: I submitted this thread in the KH2 section since I majorly talked about it, but I guess this is a more general discussion that could go in the general 1.5+2.5 section, is it? If that's the case I kindly ask the moderators to move the thread to the appropriate section. Thanks and have a nice weekend:redface:
However, as the title states I had this feeling during my playthroughs that something was missing, and then I figured out that what were missing were the details. I mean, KH is an action-RPG game so what it REALLY needs are a good combat system and good fights (action), a good characters growt (role-playing) and a good plot or whatever that keeps us playing. Having variable face-models was not a priority, so I won't complain about Terra always looking at the ground even when talking to other people or Sora having a childish face expression even when facing the most fearsome foes. There are even some cutscenes in which this happens and clearly the voice actor can't match the lips movement, resulting in a poorly made act.
Talking about cutscenes details, I noticed how many of them don't have any soundtrack playing in the background, there is just plain silence interrupted by the dialogs, and I still wonder why since KH is well known for its OST.
Anyway here comes the real issue. Kingdom hearts revolves around people' hearts, around friends who love each other, is about empty people becoming nobodies, about warriors who protect the realm of light (and so the people living in it)... Wait, did I say people? WHERE is everybody? Apart a few exceptions, most of the places are totally empty and some situations are almost hilarious:
- Port Royal has literally 2 people to talk to (and it is supposed to be Port where people land and set sail)
- When winning a tournament in Olympus Coliseum you can actually hear people screaming from entusiasm and applauding you, even though there is not a single person in the entire stadium!
- When Hercules was defeated by the Hydra went depressed because he "left them unprotected". I Guess the Hydra must have eaten all of Tebes people?
- This is fantastic, I had to take the screenshot lol. When paying the first visit in Agrabah there's Jasmine who literally says "Aladdin doesn't like to live here (in the palace). He wants to be in the town, among people." And as she speaks, the camera moves to the main area with all the bazars just to let us see a town with NOT A SINGLE SOUL living in it.
These are just some of the strange situations that came up to my mind, but I'm sure there are a lot more. I believe that BbS was totally empty, was it? Lol.
The metaphor I used in the title came up to my mind from a web fan-comic I'm reading these days. It is totally free and made out just from the author passion, therefore as you can imagine there's not enough time nor resources to keep after details such as the backgrounds, so most of the panels are just the characthers interacting between them with low detailed or absent backgrounds. I can understand it since it is just an amateur work. KH isn't but made me feel like it was made in a hurry. KH 3 better add some people if they want me to believe that there are so many hearts out there.
And you, did you feel that same emptiness all around the KH world? Do you believe adding more (and more and more and more...) NPCs should be a priority to this series?
P.S.: I submitted this thread in the KH2 section since I majorly talked about it, but I guess this is a more general discussion that could go in the general 1.5+2.5 section, is it? If that's the case I kindly ask the moderators to move the thread to the appropriate section. Thanks and have a nice weekend:redface: