Kingdom Hearts 2 Retrospective

[Muke]

You're right, I'm not sure where that came from!

Maybe it's because that Track is friggin' amaziiing.

By the way, I just wanted to say: Thank you for all of this! It's so enjoyable to read your Retrospectives while sitting in the bus, lmao.
Keep up the good work, buddy!

 

[Blackdrazon]

Thanks Muke, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

Maybe a sense of too much reality? Building off of what you said in later paragraphs, the scene is pastoral but lacks any sort of Disney magic whatsoever. Even Twilight Town had a sense of "eternal summer" about it (hell, in Days I'm not even sure the sun sets, so the sense of a captured moment remains).

^That's it!
I could have replied back when you did, but I don't like doing "^This" comments if I can't add anything else to it so I thought I'd take another look at the Destiny Island scene and it caused me to examine the Roxas prologue.

Aside from having a shift in genre (KHI: Kid's world is attacked and swallowed by demons. Fantasy. KHII: Kid living a normal life finds it's all a lie and was virtual reality. Sci-Fi.) Roxas' prologue, despite being so connected to the overall story, feels oddly standalone. To the point that you really don't need to play the prologue at all for the rest of the game to work.

KHII's story even pretends like it didn't happen as once the prologue is over, it tries to start over in building up the "reveals" of Roxas being Sora's Nobody and Ansem actually being Riku and stretches those out until the endgame, even though the prologue made things pretty darn obvious (the Riku one not as much but the Roxas one most definitely.)
The scene right when Kairi removes Riku's hood (only to reveal "Ansem") even looks to be set up for a surprised reaction from the player.

While there's nothing wrong with having the player know something the character's have yet too, timing is key. KHII gave us answers from the start (the tedious, three-hour start) yet does nothing with it until the last world. There's no pay off in giving the players this information 20 hours in advance.

I think I had more to add, but my comment looks jumbled enough already so I'll end it here.

 

[Blackdrazon]

Roxas' prologue, despite being so connected to the overall story, feels oddly standalone. To the point that you really don't need to play the prologue at all for the rest of the game to work.

KHII's story even pretends like it didn't happen as once the prologue is over, it tries to start over in building up the "reveals" of Roxas being Sora's Nobody and Ansem actually being Riku and stretches those out until the endgame, even though the prologue made things pretty darn obvious (the Riku one not as much but the Roxas one most definitely.)
The scene right when Kairi removes Riku's hood (only to reveal "Ansem") even looks to be set up for a surprised reaction from the player.

While there's nothing wrong with having the player know something the character's have yet too, timing is key. KHII gave us answers from the start (the tedious, three-hour start) yet does nothing with it until the last world. There's no pay off in giving the players this information 20 hours in advance.

These are some great observations, you've got me wondering about them now. KH2 shows a lot of signs of late-stage edits - I try to mark them when I see them - and now you've got me wondering if maybe the prologue is the biggest edit of all?

Often I feel presumptuous when I point out what I see as edits in KH2, but if other people are seeing them too, maybe I should make a bigger deal? It might be interesting to have a late-stage post guessing at what early-draft KH2 Might Have Once Been, you know?

 

[maleficentfan123]

Would you ever consider going from 2 to 3 updates a week? Lol just can't wait for Saturday!

 

[Blackdrazon]

Heh, I wish! I'm glad you're excited! But right now, I have to go carefully. Kyle and I have already been talking about what to do once the Final Fantasy section catches up to our play progress in a few months, and I wouldn't know what to do if KH started drying out too! (It would take a while, but you know!)

 

[maleficentfan123]

I absolutely understand! Keep up the great work!

It makes me want to go back and replay the games!

 

[dlppictures]

Sora gets on the train and they’re taken away from Twilight Town, where Sora takes out the crystal orb and looks at it, much like Roxas could not when he was on the train with his friends. Roxas’ theme plays.

This time I had to look up the name of the song, but the music playing is 'Friends in my Heart'.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

Sora, Riku and Donald are saved the ignominy of a TPK in the first five minutes of their game

0_0
Plot twist: Goofy was actually Riku the whole time!

These are some great observations, you've got me wondering about them now. KH2 shows a lot of signs of late-stage edits - I try to mark them when I see them - and now you've got me wondering if maybe the prologue is the biggest edit of all?

Often I feel presumptuous when I point out what I see as edits in KH2, but if other people are seeing them too, maybe I should make a bigger deal? It might be interesting to have a late-stage post guessing at what early-draft KH2 Might Have Once Been, you know?

That sounds like a great idea!

 

[Blackdrazon]

This time I had to look up the name of the song, but the music playing is 'Friends in my Heart'.

Geeze, what is it with me and music these past few days? Thanks for the correction!

0_0
Plot twist: Goofy was actually Riku the whole time!

*everyone begins unmasking, revealing infinite Rikus*

 

[PeaceLoveArt]

I reading these retrospectives on Kingdom Hearts II it makes me think and view differently about the whole game and series. Its interesting to read.

 

[Blackdrazon]

Thanks, PeachLoveArt, I hope you continue to enjoy!

 

[PeaceLoveArt]

Your welcome I will! Keep up with the retrospective!

 

[Rolands]

Personally I don't much care for Pete. He might've been a decent world villain (and indeed, he fills his role in Timeless River just fine), but as perhaps the most recurring villain in a 50 hour long video game? There's just not enough depth to him to justify all the screentime, especially when there are so many other villains that need time devoted to them more. And this is a personal thing, but I tend to prefer villains that aren't jokes.

 

[redcrown]

Personally I don't much care for Pete. He might've been a decent world villain (and indeed, he fills his role in Timeless River just fine), but as perhaps the most recurring villain in a 50 hour long video game? There's just not enough depth to him to justify all the screentime, especially when there are so many other villains that need time devoted to them more. And this is a personal thing, but I tend to prefer villains that aren't jokes.

Everything about pete perfectly put into words. I don't know why the writers decided to put us through this.

 

[dlppictures]

Pete can actually be a pretty great villain when written well.
But that is the thing with these characters who have 80+ years worth of different stories. Their personalities change to fit the current story.

My favourite story with Pete as the main villain is 'The Prince And The Pauper'. In that Pete is actually terrifying, but the KH writers decided to go with a version of Pete more subdued to a point where he willingly takes orders from someone else, something TPATP Pete would never do.

tl;dr
Pete stands and falls with the way he is written.
(And we all know KH's way of writing is subpar, more often than not.)

 

[Blackdrazon]

Boy, I know I mention it somewhere but I haven't actually seen Prince and the Pauper in years. I really should, if only to check its quality against my memories.

 

[ShardofTruth]

Man how I wish they'd gone for the Prince and the Pauper instead of this awful Three Musketeers movie in DDD.

 

[Antifa Lockhart]

And then they'd have to deal with Mickey having a lookalike and he's one of the few characters in the series who doesn't

 

[Muke]

Is there anyone else who can't wait until Saturday? lol