Let's Talk Disney - A BbS Editorial

[Sign]

Good day to you, everyone! Today, the staff would like to bring you a new editorial to keep you entertained during this unfortunate news drought, written by myself, Sign.

But what are we covering in this editorial, you ask? Why, the answer to that would be Disney!

We all know that the representation of Disney elements is one of the stronger, and the weaker points overall of the series. On one hand, they're, for lack of better words, amazing. We were able to fulfill our childhood dreams of dancing once upon a dream with Princess Aurora, or traversing through the backstreets of Agrabah with Aladdin on an Arabian... afternoon. On the other hand, it also suffers conceptually, thereby undermining the surreal experience with a rather peculiar feeling that something is just plain missing.

Please join me as we analyze the Disney aspect of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

~DESIGN~

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Kingdom Hearts exceeds visually by all means, and although our protagonists stick out like a sore thumb more often than not, the overall mood and atmosphere is still retained through making the transition from 2D western animation to the 3D world of a JRPG. It's clear that a vast amount of research was done in order to achieve the graphical clarity it has. The mouse holes in Castle of Dreams for example, are evidently designed with much attention to the assets found in 1750 Rococo architecture, due to a lack of conceptual artwork for these areas.

Now, if only these worlds were actually populated. Prince Charming has to be the least popular person ever if only four people showed up to attend his extravagant ball, considering he was intending to find his princess there, and Maleficent's sleeping spell seems to have the curious side effect of causing invisibility.


Speaking of which, this tends to be one of the bigger issues amongst the series. Tetsuya Nomura's character designs for this series aren't exactly normal. They're unique, jarring, don't really make much sense and are oftentimes just aesthetically pleasing rather than practical. A new outfit in various worlds however, may only be received as ridiculous (as popular magazine Game Informer has already made Sora out for being the video game equivalent of a Barbie), but last I checked, Japanese samurai don't exist in Ancient Greece. Oh well, wishful thinking.

3.5/5 - For the barely populated worlds and the protagonists sticking out like a sore thumb.

~MUSIC~

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If there's one facet of the series that never fails to disappoint, it's the music. Yoko Shimomura continues to amaze me with her brilliant compositions. The arrangements for the worlds and their corresponding battle themes feel not at all unlike Alan Menken's original pieces. Listening to Risky Romp creates the feeling that you're witnessing the Queen Grimhilde toss potion after potion into a boiling cauldron, producing multicolor fumes and bright flashes. Hau'oli, Hau'oli portrays the more whimsical and mystical side of the cosmos, travelling a vast ocean of unknown origins. Hey, maybe that's why the Durgon pulled a Monstro!

But- while I could go on and on about the music, it certainly isn't what makes or breaks a world.

4/5 - Because some of the tracks do tend to grate on your nerves. In this case, Hero or Heel is one of those that come to mind.

~CHARACTERS~

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Like the design of the worlds, the characters thrive in a very similar way. They're beautifully rendered, despite the initial choppiness reigning from the lower poly models used in most scenes within the game. Regardless of the simple designs, even Jumba's simple striped prisoner's uniform is able to retain detail in the texture. The voice acting is also up to par as some of the best I've heard, as the replacements for the originals do very well in replicating their voices to bring the characters to life. Notable mention goes to Bret Iwan, who gave an impressive performance for his debut as Mickey.


However, in comparison to their 2D counterparts, several characters are in fact, rather offsetting. While you can excuse Cinderella as being too preoccupied with the royal ball, it's unsettling that she would confuse Ven for a mouse. And even though Pete is known to be an egoistic sore loser at times, his attempting assault on the queen for losing a popularity contest is just a disappointment. But his presence in the series thus far has generally been that regardless.

4/5 - For being somewhat out of character and leaving little to no impact on the protagonists outside of their worlds of origin. However, special mention goes to Princess Aurora causing enough influence for Terra and Braig to refer to her long after the incident in Enchanted Dominion took place.

~SCENARIO~

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Ideally, I would imagine that the scenarios were designed to incorporate our heroes into the original stories, while mingling in the game's overall theme and plot. Did Birth by Sleep succeed? In some ways, yes and no.

Their stories are reenacted, while still managing to tie into the central narrative, albeit at a bare minimum at times. The worlds where this is accomplished best are without a doubt, those following the events of Radiant Garden and Disney Town. Using Stitch as a means to represent Terra's struggle with his inner darkness and lust for power as he tries to come to terms with himself, and Peter Pan and the Lost Boys symbolizing Aqua's current relationship with her comrades deeply facilitated our understanding in them as individuals.

On the other hand, Birth by Sleep is hindered by the fact that the three scenarios were actually not written simultaneously. Given that the story transpires over a short period of time, perhaps it would have been more constructive if they had done so. While we are given blatant references and remarks to serve as reminders that our actions are still relevant, the characters suffer for it. These events would have done great towards their development, but the experiences within the worlds leave a seemingly shallow impression on them. Aqua in the Castle of Dreams and Dwarf Woodlands for example, where the Fairy Godmother tells her that she shouldn't fight darkness with light, and her realization that it may have been Ven's time to spread his wings. Sad to say, she completely forgets about these points almost immediately afterwards. Truly, having her scenario written last, Aqua endures the brunt of this misfortune.

3/5 - What was done with the final few worlds should have also been done to those leading up to them.

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Well, nothing's perfect after all. Let's hope next time, heaven's light will be able to shine brighter upon the Disney features rather than the burning flames of hellfire.

 

[Jewelielie]

I agree, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the emptiness of the worlds. It still gets me that we hear a crowd cheer at the Colosseum but the seats are completely empty. XD; Some world areas give me the creeps because I feel like I'm the only one in the world, Terra's version of Dwarf Woodland sticking out the most in my head right now. I would have been happier with some 2D little people to fill the Colosseum arena seats and maybe some normal looking people wandering around (much like in Twilight Town in KH2).

 

[Smile]

I think the clothing design is a series-whole issue rather than something that only applies to Birth by Sleep, but seeing how TAV seemed out of place even in Radiant Garden, I do think Nomura raised the ante on this one xD

This was quite an enjoyable read. I agree some things could've been done better, but you did well pointing out why the game is still enjoyable :3
The chibi-SRK image at the end in particular left me hopeful and optimistic towards the future X3

 

[rac7d]

I think the clothing design is a series-whole issue rather than something that only applies to Birth by Sleep, but seeing how TAV seemed out of place even in Radiant Garden, I do think Nomura raised the ante on this one xD

This was quite an enjoyable read. I agree some things could've been done better, but you did well pointing out why the game is still enjoyable :3
The chibi-SRK image at the end in particular left me hopeful and optimistic towards the future X3

compared to who merlin the wizard or scrooge mcduck lol?

 

[Smile]

We never saw those two interact with the characters inside the worlds, as opposed to TAV. The rest of them have what can be described as 'modern' wear albeit with an S-E twist, which is more up SRK's clothing style's ally than TAV's.

 

[Maxyli138]

The lack of people in the worlds was pretty lonely. All the unversed running around you'd think there'd be other people trying to stop them, or at least frantically flapping about and screaming their heads off in the supposedly "populated" towns (i.e. Radiant Garden, Disney Town). TAV can't do everything.

No one ever seems to notice that the protagonists' clothing is out of place. The pieces of armor are a bit distracting if you live in a normal town with casual clothing. (A good example of a Disney character being totally oblivious to a protagonist's clothes is in KH1 in Deep Jungle when Jane assumes Sora is related to Tarzan even though the boy looks like he belongs in a circus)

One thing that bothered me about BbS is the inaccurate timeline. Even though Aqua didn't leave LoD too long after Terra, he has already visited two other worlds and is leaving the Castle of Dreams when he meets Aqua, who is just arriving at her first world. The scenarios are a little strange on when exactly they happened.

Good editorial. I agree with many of your points.

 

[rac7d]

the thought of what sora wears as modern clothing keeps me loling

 

[TotemoOishii]

I agree with you on everything, but I have to say the main character's clothing never bothered me. I thought they did well enough to blend into the worlds as they are wearing clothes that are just as bright and colorful as everyone else. And you can't expect all worlds to have the same style of clothing (which you have SE and Disney as the competing store brands XD) as all the worlds would have their own culture, including TAV's. But I think that after the Pirates of the Caribbean world, as long as they don't make that mistake again, I'm good.

Great editorial~

 

[Bobjam]

The music is definitely for me one of the strongest points in terms of conveying Disney atmosphere and interpretation of the worlds environment and what not. I would of personally given the Scenario point a lower mark especially in the last few games where Disney character interaction both within certain situations and other characters as seemed to be lacking real depth and substance. Not thats what Disney is about of course but I think more can be done to integrate a more FF stylized way of interacting with other environments and characters. Oh and I definitely agree this was harder to achieve in BBS with the overlapping story lines and seeming short time spans in which all the events seemed to happen.

 

[Zul]

The two things I wanted most out of what you listed were more people, better consistency, and more realistic reactions. People reacted very casually to unusually powerful teenagers in strange clothing. Still I felt the scriptwriting was better than KH2 and that Disney involvement itself was better than Days(did that even have Disney outside of grinding heartless?) and CoM(mostly for the fact that it was a near-repeat of KH1 outside of CO).


Castle of Dreams...for a castle it has an unusually small amount of knights(should have an army) to fight off unversed.

Although one of the reasons I would list for unpopulated worlds was PsP space, I think the game would have been better off on the PS2.

 

[ultima-demi]

The emptiness of the worlds is what really annoy's me.

 

[Norpthalomus]

The emptiness of the worlds was the biggest problem for me. It made going back to them dull, especially because you know that when you get there, it's just the same as the world you just played but with landscape changes; it's still just Unversed everywhere. Doesn't really make any sense and it bothers me.

 

[flurryflames]

The worlds when you travel in them are in fact empty and then it makes think huh where are all of the other residents? Sure you see a few of them, but still it like they vanished from their world or are in hiding from the heartless/unverse etc. Twlight Town is too empty it kind of makes you think everyone had shared a tragic fate. Yeah would like to see more inteaction with the people in their worlds.