Will Kingdom Hearts III help or damage Union X?

[DarkosOverlord]

I guess I'll put this in the general section.
Pretty self-explanatory title. When KH III will drop, will people be more interested in getting/getting back into Union, possibly also for what ties the two games will share? Or will many more say "Finally, the one game I wanted" and even stop logging in for daily jewels?
Got this discussion going with a couple of friends and wanted to hear what you people think.

Note: this is mainly about during KH III's release. I myself am fairly certain Ux will keep going regardless and will still be moderately relevant after the release hype for the other game will die out.

 

[VoidGear.]

I guess I'll put this in the general section.
Pretty self-explanatory title. When KH III will drop, will people be more interested in getting/getting back into Union, possibly also for what ties the two games will share? Or will many more say "Finally, the one game I wanted" and even stop logging in for daily jewels?
Got this discussion going with a couple of friends and wanted to hear what you people think.

I think the people who still regularly play UX don't really do it for the story. It's easy to catch up that on Youtube, or here, or wherever.
If anything, I think people will play more again after KH3, because then there's (probably) nothing major coming up in any near future. And since UX will probably be addressed further after KH3, that could also cause people to come back or stay.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

I'm pretty convinced myself that the fact that Union will continue after KH III will play in its favor, but I don't know about DURING KH III.

I should've been clearer about that: I'll edit the first post.

 

[VoidGear.]

I'm pretty convinced myself that the fact that Union will continue after KH III will play in its favor, but I don't know about DURING KH III.

I should've been clearer about that: I'll edit the first post.

Oh. Well, that depends on what you see as "during KH3".
Most people won't spend a lifetime on the game, and I doubt Square Enix will keep it running for two years or the likes like they're doing with Final Fantasy XV.
A few people will probably play less for a while, resulting in others playing more because they see higher chances in HSCs and coliseum, then the others will come back on the last day and steal all the prizes. xD

 

[Sora2016]

Overall, casual people would definitely prefer KH3 I imagine, myself included ha. But I mean...I can't literally play KH3 ALL the time lol, so like if I'm not home but I still haven't finished KH3 I would probably still play UX. I may forget to log in everyday, but I doubt I personally would stop doing the bare minimum. Many others probably will though yes lol. UX will definitely benefit that its totally not gonna stop by KH3 haha.

I mean, right now, it is the KH game I play the most...but I also find it hard to it down with a console RPG when I'm in the latter half of my college semester lol. I have plans to trophy hunt and finally play DDD HD on break. During that time I imagine I would much rather play them than UX as well lol. Mobile games just aren't as good as console or handheld games.

 

[Chuman]

UX is a shameless pay-to-win mobile game with a nondistinct gameplay loop and needlessly convuluted story with gameplay that drops to new lows of shoddy writing, even worse than KH2 at it’s most predictable. its entire audience consists of folk who just want new KH to play and are too desperate to get it. this is what’s going to happen: III comes out, 75% of players drop UX. 20-25% might go back. that 45-50% of players invested too much money to drop it and many might not even give a shit about KH.

so honestly? it doesnt really matter, the people that spend 1000s daily on this are the folks telling the devs to keep it running, and running how it is. and if they played AAA RPGs, they wouldn’t be investing so much in microtransactions*.













*unless their favorite publisher was EA

 

[Zul]

I can only hope it razes that miserable casino to the ground. Unfortunately these caricatures of games have been very profitable, I would not actually be that surprised if KH3 is the last real KH game to come out and the rest is KhuX updates just time-skipping past KH3.

 

[alexis.anagram]

I can only hope it razes that miserable casino to the ground.

I feel this.

I'm officially done with Ux in all its iterations as of its most recent JP update, and while I bear no ill will towards anyone who continues to invest in and enjoy the game, I think there's a lot to be said about the ways it has invaded and in some ways co-opted a fandom held hostage by a notable (though not unilateral) dearth of really solid and meaningful insight into the development of this series. While the narrative has been all but explicitly confirmed to carry water for the franchise post-KH3, I also think that its model of presentation is overdue to be reworked from the ground up, and I reflect and affirm the sentiment of others in this thread that, by and large, it would seem people only really play Ux in its present state because there is nothing else that could be considered current in the KH continuum. My feeling is that its "mythology" schtick is as tired and alienating as its innate structure; KH3's release is going to take the wind out of the sails as far as anticipation for the series' future, and if Square thinks they can keep that fire burning with a smartphone game that relies on burying every ethical standard and modicum of trust built with its core player base...good luck to 'em.

I'll be looking forward to the postmortem.

 

[Veevee]

I really hope it burns Ux and drowns its ashes.
No, seriously, I think KH3 won't do anything good to Ux. There are many people who still seem to believe the little Ux content there was would have some big effect in KH3 so they keep playing. My guess is that it's the setup for KH4 or 0.01234567 or whatever stupidity comes after that, so I guess a lot of people might be disappointed. Plus, I've heard a few people say they're exhausted with the way the Kingdom Hearts franchise behaved in the past, hopping from console to console, being ridiculously over-complicated (you have to read interviews with the creator to understand what's actually going on and why people do what they do) and they are not willing to wait for one game split whose story is split on a thousand smaller games anymore. While I think it's kinda interesting how the series handled itself, I agree with this getting tedious, so I think quite a lot of people will drop off (including Ux) if they finally reached the conclusion of their childhood's story. Plus, the narrative of Ux already polarizes people, not only because of the questionable performance of the foretellers, but also the appearance of certain characters and the incredibly slow pace. I don't want to start on the gameplay and Sena, anyway.

 

[raccoonscity]

It depends if the people spending money on it stick around. I imagine there will be a huge drop in casual players after KH3's release, but some people might return after playing KH3 a few times or if they're away from their consoles. There's also going to be people who can't play KH3 right away. When 2.8 released, I remember there was an event with free medals and such, so maybe they'll do something like that for 2 weeks to keep some interest?

I really want KHUX to die off.......

 

[DraceEmpressa]

Whoa, look at these comments wanting this game to go down. Am I the only one who expect that KH3 may boost UX's popularity.... but only in Japan? that they won't take this game down entirely and only the international server?

 

[DarkGrey Heroine]

I really hope it burns Ux and drowns its ashes.

^ the felt words of any fair KH fan who isn't a billionaire.

I think Ux is the on-going game that keeps many people still playing something KH, even if it isn't rewarding, meaningful or overall great. I for sure know I wanted to keep playing Ux casually, to get the story and spend some free time like that - I'm talking about the mobile version which I didn't expect to turn into such a money-sucking death competition like the browser Chi. This considered, to me it looks like many players will just drop Ux completely after KH3 is out, since they'll have the better experience to choose. (exception would be the plot-twist "most Ux players aren't fans who follow the whole KH series actually", a very strange but possible situation)

There will be nothing "damaging" Ux though, as Ux will be hit by KARMA

 

[Alpha Baymax]

The release of Kingdom Hearts III will clearly damage Union X because Union X was designed as the Kingdom Hearts fill before the third numbered installment releases. But Square Enix is very aware of this, so don't be surprised if the next game after Kingdom Hearts III is Kingdom Hearts Re: Union X. A Kingdom Shader remake of Union X.

After all, Nomura wanted all of the games associated with the Xehanort Saga under one system.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

As an outside observer I can only state that it would not really surprise me if Ux gets quite a drop in popularity and player base both during and after KH III's release if they keep up the current way of doing things both gameplay/-system wise and story wise.

The irony (or sad truth) of Ux is that it somehow manages to truly cater to neither the casual players (except if one has enough money around and is willing to spend on jewels etc. for a single mobile game) nor the die-hard KH fans who may be interested in the story, overall lore and possible connections to the overall series (because not only is the pace really damn awful in general, the whole story progression is apparently afflicted with Mickey's Stopza spell or at least a Slowza.)

In terms of "season 2" the story is barely past the introductory scenes and with the exception of the "Stelitzia-shanking-incident", the obvious attempts to hook up with the rest of the series and generate interest by introducing already known characters from an entirely different era (hello Ven and not-Marluxia) and a few glimpses of character exposition for Ephemer and Skuld nothing really impactful or groundbreaking has happened yet.
By the time the next true "main" story update hits most players and followers most likely have already forgotten most of the previous events because of the long gap.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

A lot of different answers, thank you all so much. If anything, this surely shown even more what are everyone's feelings about Ux.
Glad to see this thread managed to spark a few interesting takes on the game itself.
I come under the conclusion that many believe (like me) that Ux, while surviving as a whole, will feel damaged by KH III. I guess now we'll just see what happens.

The irony (or sad truth) of Ux is that it somehow manages to truly cater to neither the casual players (except if one has enough money around and is willing to spend on jewels etc. for a single mobile game) nor the die-hard KH fans who may be interested in the story, overall lore and possible connections to the overall series (because not only is the pace really damn awful in general, the whole story progression is apparently afflicted with Mickey's Stopza spell or at least a Slowza.)

Yeeeeaaaah.
Aside from what's truly messed up or not, it's undeniable people aren't happy with it. And some things can definitely be improved (at the very least from the NA version), but at times I feel it's a "damned if do, damned if don't" scenario for the game.

There will be nothing "damaging" Ux though, as Ux will be hit by KARMA

DarkGrey Heroine's Medal when.
After she's one of the most popular KH girls according to official polls

can only deal one damage though.

 

[Zul]

By the time the next true "main" story update hits most players and followers most likely have already forgotten most of the previous events because of the long gap.

That's the first thing that hit me when I tried to play it(I forgot how far I went), I was thinking that something of significance would happen by the first hundred or so missions, but nope. (I think you see a chirithy die, can't remember anything else).

Oh, one thing I do remember is my favorite mission, where the Agrabah royal guard says "we can't let you do all the work, let me show you what a royal guard can do!"

He then proceeds to sit in one spot, and do absolutely nothing the entire mission.

KhuX is the main-series equivalent of KH1 being composed entirely of building the raft on DI and KH:CoM being Sora waking up in a daze for the first time in Traverse Town.

Edit: and you have to pay extra real money for additional planks for the raft.

 

[redcrown]

I hope it damages it, because union/chi didn't need to be canon in the first place. The moment the numbered or other titles use the myth/plot of that game in it's central story of importance, is the moment I officially leave this series for good.

So probably after KH3.

 

[alexis.anagram]

I love how this thread turned the entire forum Slytherin just like that.

I hope it damages it, because union/chi didn't need to be canon in the first place. The moment the numbered or other titles use the myth/plot of that game in it's central story of importance, is the moment I officially leave this series for good.

I have the same contempt for X's plot, but I might stick around just for the catharsis of someday hopefully beating the light out of the MoM to an awesome Shimomura battle theme which almost redeems his character.

 

[BlackOsprey]

Yeeeeeeah personally I like it simply because it gives my ADD hands something to do when I'm really bored, but I definitely don't like the fact that KH's lore is getting entangled in it. Not a good way to go. If KHUX crashing and burning is what needs to happen to keep the lore from getting even more stretched out, then so be it I suppose.

Of course this is only talking about what I hope for, not what I actually think will happen. Honestly I'm not sure. I get the feeling the game might die off simply because it's showing the signs of a disconnected and incompetent staff, especially lately.

 

[ultima-demi]

I'm more interested in the character themselves at this point than the overarching lore/plot of khux.

The only way i can see KH3 boosting Khux popularity is if some of the characters do appear in KH3, they become popular/fan favorites especially among the more causal fans who weren't even aware they existed and they start following khux because they became interested in finding out what happened to them after KH3.