The little things

[BlazeHeatnix]

Unpopular opinions, things you don't like...too many threads actively criticize this series nowadays. How about we sit back and look at the little things in the series that we just love? Either subtle details, or just stuff we've noticed that nobody else seems to notice.

For me, it's gonna be the box art for KH1. Has anyone really stepped back and looked at this? It's brilliant, and my favorite box art of all time. Right up there with Ico.

Also, the commercial. Equally brilliant. There is not a single commercial that has instantly made me think "Oh my god, I need this game." Except this one. Apparently, I'm not alone. Several other people in the comments feel the same way.

[video=youtube;QNvTWohCFjI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNvTWohCFjI[/video]

 

[MrFranklin95]

Yay, positive things! (granted, the complaining is out of love... for the most part). But The one thing I love about the series is the art. That what drew first to the series was the way the boxart and the concept art looked (except for Recoded, every boxart had the characters looking super serious.) As an aspiring artist, I've always been a fan of Noruma's designs and it shows in the games. I've never had a problem with any of the way the characters looked or how the worlds look. For all its negatives, one of the big positives is the visual style of the series that blends the Disney and the Final Fantasy aspects very well.

 

[Anagram]

If its love towards KH1, CoM, or Recoded then count me all in! I always loved that boxart and I miss when KH games actually got commercials.

 

[Dandelion]

If its love towards KH1, CoM, or Recoded then count me all in! I always loved that boxart and I miss when KH games actually got commercials.

There have been commercials for all of the games... Except maybe the remixes

 

[Anagram]

There have been commercials for all of the games... Except maybe the remixes

I dont mean twenty seconds of slight spoiler scenes and what system it's for. I mean something with actual effort. What commercials there are are short and rarely played. Though DDD's lasted a while.
I remember what let me know of KH1 was disney channels constant commercials of some gorgeous opening and those old and long gone toondisney inside looks things.

Good ol days. =w=

 

[Chuman]

Dearly beloved. Like if u cri every time. Its just excellent.
Kh DDD. All of the musical and gameplay touches were fantastically improved.
The build up in between titles helped keep me on board for so long.
The III announcement trailer. Got me fucking hooked again.
The first three games were the pinnacle of my childhood, truly.
The side games afterwords I loved too.
The voice acting is nearly always solid.
The speeches.

Despite all of its issues I couldn't love this franchise more. Its like a flawed painting that's been in your home as long as you can remember, I even have the cardboard cutout for DDD despite being crushed in the middle. I will hang onto this stuff until I die probably.

 

[MrFranklin95]

I dont mean twenty seconds of slight spoiler scenes and what system it's for. I mean something with actual effort. What commercials there are are short and rarely played. Though DDD's lasted a while.
I remember what let me know of KH1 was disney channels constant commercials of some gorgeous opening and those old and long gone toondisney inside looks things.

Good ol days. =w=

I always thought the lack of commercials was because of KH's declining popularity as the series went on. The series isn't exactly the most popular nowadays. At least, not as popular as in its hey day. The only time I heard gamers talk about KH outside of the fanbase is KHIII.

 

[Divine Past]

I always like it that Sora was the only one who can enter Pooh's book. Makes their friendship with each pretty unique and more sweet imo.

 

[DarkGrey Heroine]

Among many other things I love, there are the openings. They are so dynamic and beautiful, well-thought and true to the story. I rarely skip the openings because the music simply captivates me, Simple and Clean makes me dance, while Sanctuary makes me sing especially for the reversed lines, "I need more affection than you know", "I need true emotions", "So many ups and downs". Almost always when I see Riku and Vanitas streching out their hand to (apparently) the viewer, I respond doing the same xD Another thing about the openings is the impact they have, I show the openings to my non-KH player friends and they all are like "Woah, that's crazy! / beautiful!" , "wait, was that Donald and Goofy??", "This looks epic!", "What's just happening??", "The music is so darn good", "This looks amazing! Is it available for insert-console-name-here ?" and I remember myself when I first saw the openings~

 

[Rage-Roxas]

For some reason I like Rising Falls really much. It just looks like a really cool place.

 

[hemmoheikkinen]

I really love all of the title screens, especially KH1. I think I might have told this already on some other thread, but I have to open about it again.
Most of the games before KH that I had played were mostly Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro games. So plat-formers and what not, not saying that there is something wrong about them. Their title screens were cool, but when I got KHI as my birthday present and saw the title screen for the very first time, I knew this game would be different than any other game I had played before it. When the image with Sora on the beach appeared, and Dearly Beloved started to play, I was mesmerized. I had seen nothing like that before. It was simple put beautiful. And the waves in the backround oh man, those waves completed it:
[video]https://youtu.be/tMwU9zRp8r8[/video]


So um, what I wanna say is that I really like the art style of the KH games overall.

Oh, I also like the little touches the make. Like how Sora wields his Keyblade in KHII. I kinda wish they would make stuff like that in KHIII. Oh and I also really like that the opponents(mainly bosses) talk something when you fight against them. It makes them feel more alive I guess is the word I wanna use.

 

[The_Echo]

I love that every game gets its own Dearly Beloved. They could have easily just reused the same Dearly Beloved the whole time, but it became so much more than that, much more than just a theme for the series. It became an musical identity for each title, representing them all individually, with their own deviations and their own instruments, but maintaining the same underlying theme, not unlike the contents of the games themselves.

Though one could gush on and on about Shimomura's masterful composition work across the franchise.

Also, one of my favorite moments is definitely a "little thing."
https://youtu.be/hdcSkq9R5PQ?t=10m48s
The way Naminé reacts is perfect. It gets to me every time.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

The music in general has to be mentioned I'd say.
Much of KH's intensity actually comes from Shimomura's brillant compositions.

As disliked as some characters may be for their various faults or for the scenario writing butchering their characterizations, I think it can be safely said that every single major character theme is something beautiful and noticeable.
Be it Sora's or Riku's theme, The other Promise/Roxas, Ventus, Vector to the heavens etc., they all have something that stands out.

Much of the charm of the world settings comes from their (mostly) catching field themes and battles underlined with epic songs like Dark Impetus, L'Impeto Oscuro, Guardiano Nel Buio, Darkness of the Unknown, Black Powder or the (sadly much underused) Fate of the Unknown can send chills down one's spine.

 

[Joker'sHeartless]

I love how the main series opening cinematics portray past and future events. It's kinda fun to watch them again and pic apart what each piece of symbolism means, watch the progression through the timeline, or even look at how abstract it can get sumarizing the events of the previous games.

While the BbS and KH1 openings preview events to come and are basically just setting up the tone, the KH2 and DDD ops are summarizing all the events since KH1. 3D has to fly through the story just to get everything in before its little foreshadowing bit at the end.

I also love how meticulously they reuse visual motifs and themes between games and videos: Riku and Vanitas reaching out, watching the sunset from the islet with the paopu tree, falling like a comet over Destiny Islands, Kairi and Aqua's little wakeup thing. I know some people might consider it lazy, but I like how it visually ties the series together.

 

[Divine Past]

I love that every game gets its own Dearly Beloved. They could have easily just reused the same Dearly Beloved the whole time, but it became so much more than that, much more than just a theme for the series. It became an musical identity for each title, representing them all individually, with their own deviations and their own instruments, but maintaining the same underlying theme, not unlike the contents of the games themselves.

Though one could gush on and on about Shimomura's masterful composition work across the franchise.

Also, one of my favorite moments is definitely a "little thing."
https://youtu.be/hdcSkq9R5PQ?t=10m48s
The way Naminé reacts is perfect. It gets to me every time.

Aw that was a cute moment. I rewatch the scene today and it was such a heart warming moment.

 

[kuraudoVII]

Sora's interaction with Sandy Claws. I had forgotten how funny that scene was until recently.

 

[Anagram]

Bump because spread some positive feels now and then.

I liked the additions to Christmas Town as a whole within the KH2FM. It gave it the theme it drastically needed and I could finally enjoy SD&G's Xmas styles without importing or swap magics. (was important because them being all halloween form in xmas town bothered me)

 

[duchessa]

Yay, I love threads like these


I love the poems at the end of CoM that appear on screen when you finish Sora and Riku's stories, especially Sora's. They're simple but, well, poetic which kind of reflects the series at its core (minus the craziness of the plot you get simple themes on friendship, etc). GBA CoM was the first KH game I finished and seeing that poem along with Roxas, or then known as the mysterious blond kid, who was watching the sunset was mysterious and all feel-y. I believe the sparkly sounds from the end of Simple and Clean play at the same time, and all of it gave me this feeling like "wow, I want to know everything about these games." I can't describe that happy mixed with sad feeling, but I think everyone's got it while playing Kingdom Hearts at least once.


I also love Naminé's mannerisms and voice acting in general. She is portrayed as mysterious, sad, and resigned all at once. When Sora decides for her to "make him the way he was," her response was so sad but nuanced. She covered it in reassurance that of course anyone would choose the same. All of which of course flew over Sora's head. In fact, despite being one of the "hurting" ones, her hurt is never really brought directly in the limelight, making it so easy for us to forget her while that is exactly what happens to her within the game. Though almost all of the characters have the right to vent their pain, she never does. Sorry to go sad in the end, but I really appreciate her character overall.

 

[Genocide]

The thing I miss most about the series - Billy Motherdiddlying Zane

 

[Larxene012]

i personally love the interactive+ openness of kingdom hearts 1 worlds. i feel like since KH1, the worlds never fully felt like "Worlds".