I don't think anyone is being toxic. Merely commenting on the foxholes people dig when they feel a certain way about something they haven't even experienced themselves yet. Both positive and negative. I find people's opinions fascinating when it comes to entertainment, I love the discussion, my post was more for people who internalize all these different view points and maybe find themselves being weighed down or maybe their excitement tempered.
Just as hype can be dangerous for expectations so can cynicism. I'm actually glad these guys did this, tempered expectations aren't going to hurt anyone in the long run.
Sorry, I meant "you" in a general sense of the word. Gotta get better about clarifying that.
I don't disagree with you (now singular) on the whole. I'm ready for KH3 to release just so we can all thrash it out in the forums: I love the conflict, not because I want people to be unhappy, but because I want to engage in critical conversations that aren't purely speculative or based around what we
don't know. I disagree that people should be discouraged from digging their feet in, because at the end of the day, we all come here with a bias. Going into KH3, I'm expecting...maybe not the worst, but I'm braced for dissatisfaction. Could be a good game, and then I'll talk about why I feel differently after playing it. OTOH, many people are going in ready for it to astound them, and they might find it's a bad game and this community will be a place to express that feeling, too.
That's the value of these (and similar) forums. It's to rub elbows with people who have different perspectives on the same material and develop a collective dialogue where everyone has a place at the table. I suspect those who think that there's a "split" in the fandom which began in December of 2018 are really just frustrated because they wanted to see everyone check their actual opinions and keep the hype train going somehow.
edit:
Oh get out of here with that crappy strawman argument. First off it only works if there is actually an issue, difficulty is a very subjective thing it takes a pretty big mistake like the one KH2 made to make it a real issue. Second having a variety of difficulty levels is important that's why to address the issue they added critical mode instead of just made Proud mode harder. If you find Proud Mode to easy, and I know plenty people do and don't, then you have Critical mode to whet your whistle. So when you argue "we should expect them to be better" what are you really saying? That they should make Proud mode harder? If so they already did that, it's called critical mode and it's included in the game. If critical is not hard enough for you then you also have the zero exp ability so you can do level 1 run's of the game. If level 1 critical mode is still not hard enough for you at this point there isn't much left they can do, it's you a thing.
KH3 offers critical mode and lv1 critical mode, it's not lacking in difficulty and this is not an issue. You can argue making it an unlockable is an issue I guess but the actual subject of difficulty? Nope or at least not until we actually have someone/people who experienced critical and lv1 critical mode and the masses will make the judgement then.
I'm not using a strawman, you asked why people were complaining about it and inferred that they shouldn't be because SE didn't change anything about Proud mode, which is the exact reason people are complaining about it. Like I said, I have no personal investment in the difficulty features of the franchise, I never play Critical and it's not important to me, but it shouldn't be a surprise to you or anyone else that something which has been a recurring feature in critical receptions for games in the franchise is being lampooned again for failing to fix what some people perceive to be a problem.
I tied that into the larger attitude surrounding problems with the game series because that's the bad logic you chose to apply. If your argument is that difficulty is subjective and critical mode already fits the criteria for a harder game setting, sure, I agree with that. I also think there's no reason it should be locked for the first playthrough-- Nomura makes this big deal about wanting to make the games so people can play however they want (hence the broken physics in the recent games and the constant referrals to complainants that they should simply choose not to use those abilities if they don't like them), but then he places a restriction on the hardest difficulty settings forrr what reason exactly? To prevent people from playing it the way they want.
But it's cool, there's no problem here.