Yeah, I feel that's why I enjoy the spin-offs more, because they were more experimental. I find it amusing people whine that KH keeps changing their battle mechanics a little with each installment, but forget that this series is made by Squenix and several members of the FF team which does that with all of their games. Speaking of, I guess we've witnessed that as well with FF since VII was the sacred cow and then had it's years of backlash against it. I feel the only way to stay a sacred cow sometimes is to just be too obscure to be popular. I'm waiting for the Persona series to get hit with this as well.
I honestly think CoM is becoming more important with every subsequent entry. It’s almost like every new game takes one bit from its story and expands on it. I remember back in the day some people were like “I played II, so I got a summary of all the important stuff in CoM anyway.” In come Days, BBS, DDD, and even smurfing coded, and now I am pretty sure III does it again. It’s honestly hilarious how crucial this entry is. But yeah, no one who actually cares about the plot says that. Though I do kinda see why people would want to believe that? Like, I get that people complain that crucial plot elements are in “spin-offs”, but Caddicarus summed it up nicely that there’s a very good reason for the distinction between the numbered games and the subtitled games - with the numbered games pretty much evolving the same gameplay, and the subtitked ones being more experimental in that regard. How many people would’ve completely noped out of this series had CoM been labeled II (which would suggest this is the direction the series is going) is probably hard to fathom. Anyway, as you said yourself, they’re still just a minority, even if a vocal one. Stop Having Fun Guys exist in every fandom and since our been a big buildup for III, I’m just hoping they got active now and all this talk will subside a little bit now and we can all just.. enjoy the KHs we enjoy I guess. But yeah, if you’re really into this story, like I am, it’s really impossible to hate any entry really and consider it skippable. I’m in this for the long haul, for better or worse. On the topic of shifting public opinions, a kind of similar thing happened in Pokémon where Gen 2 used to be the sacred cow of the franchise and now a lot of people criticize it for... basically being the first sequels the series ever had I guess? Tamashii Hiroka touches on this in her review of Gold and Silver (a cool watch that I recommend btw)
I get more annoyed by the increasing misconception that Chain of Memories's plot is pointless because it somehow doesn't tie into later games? I had one guy trying to convince people that CoM was created for marketing and was never meant to be made, and yet time and time again, the later installments feature heavy callbacks to it. Now that I'm delving more into the fanbase, it's so weird seeing how eschewed it is about the series. I'm used to this nonsense in FF, but that franchise is designed to work like that when you think about it, but KH is a giant narrative mess, so it's weird seeing fans say certain entries don't matter when they kind of do. Granted I think this vocal minority is the "play the game, skip the story" group who would argue the very premise of the story was stupid to begin with and thus the plot never mattered, but damn. Fanbases can be so fascinating from a sociological level.
Yeah that part is genius. It’s really the reason why I’m much less annoyed by people who hate the battle system than by those who say the story is terrible because Sora “becomes an unkillable bastard”. Like, that’s the entire point of this game???
Ah that's nice. I'm actually delving into the part of the story I really love, which was watching Sora slowly lose his memories and be unaware of it. I think he's just reached the point where Namine has almost completely usurped Kairi in his memory. It's so subtle how they did it and it's why I love the plot of this game.
In slightly more heartwarming news, I found some forum thread somewhere where someone was asking why CoM was hated. Cue tons of people saying they loved it, and those who didn’t saying they appreciated the experimentation, and even those that completely hated the gameplay loved the story
Yeah, I remember the boss rushes being intense, but I also remember the remake being way easier. But that may be because I was just older and more experience, idk. I also played it on standard.
Glad you're back to reading and it's inspiring you to write again. I'm a bit annoyed because I caught the tale end of a documentary on Hayao Miyazaki working on Ponyo, and I wish I caught the whole thing. I simply adore the fact he's this crotchety old man who seems like he hates everything and yet he makes these beloved children classics. I have heard of the group, but I haven't listened to too much of their work. In CoM news, I have played this game a few times and I never tried using the slight that stops time and has Sora just murder his target. I also forget how broken Sonic Blade is in this title. Anyway, I busted through both Atlantica and Neverland. Forgot how easy Ursala was in this game compared to the first one. She was one of the Disney bosses who seriously gave me trouble, but here she's manageable since you can actually stop her from attacking you. Captain Hook feels like the first real casualty of the move to 3D. I remember this guy being a bit of a nightmare in the GBA version for Sora, but since we now get to play on his new spacious and huge deck. Avoiding most of his attacks are easy. The move to 3D has largely made card breaking less necessary unless it's a room hitting attack or you know the attack is lethal. Even the Riku fights are a little easier in terms of avoiding his flashy attacks, though his regular attacks and relentless combos are still an issue. I always forget how often you fight the Replica Riku. I just did my second battle with him, and while he whooped my ass the first two times, I took him down on the third and even in the prior fights he was down to little health as well and was simply faster with his card break than I was. I will say, I'm not sure if the game just changed a few things, or if the RNG loves me, but I am finding a ton of 0 cards in this playthrough. I think I have live five Kingdom Keys, one Olympia, and at least two Hi-Potion 0 cards. I'm also getting better drops with enemy cards than I'm used to. Usually I see maybe three or four in a playthrough, but I've got like nine or ten right now. I am taking advantage of finding the Room of Rewards cards and backtracking to older zones to pick up the loot. With the 358/2 complete, I've gained a few interesting items. Traverse Town gets a unique bounty award finally and now gives a keyblade from 358/2. The Organization Cards on the other hand are a little over the top. I've only obtained two so far, but my goodness they feel a bit unbalanced. To start off, they all give a passive resistance to all three element types and special attacks when used, at least the two I have so far. Saix special effect makes your combo attacks stronger with each passing hit until you get card break. Luxard's card allows all of your card to card break an opponent for a set amount of card, making him a more broken and useful version of the Pirate Heartless Card. I can only imagine what Xaldin, Xemnas, and Roxas cards are going to be like. I'm on the ninth floor. Will likely do Hollow Bastion and save the 100 Acre Woods for just before I have to deal with Destiny Islands and Twilight Town. I'm around level 40 right now. Though I feel like I should be maybe five levels higher than where I'm at. Still, I'm holding my own pretty well, started finally using Moogle points to buy more cards, though I often get better cards from the free pack they give me than what I buy. I make sure to use a Unrelenting Darkness card in each world and clear the room just to keep my levels from dipping too far below. I usually raise my CP by 100 points for every level I give in HP, but I may change that before I have to deal with the BS boss bonanza at the end with Larxene, R. Riku IV, Axel, and finally Marluxia.
Well, turns out the Sora save actually is an endgame save, so all I need to do now to get some cool new cards is finish the Riku save, so I did a little bit of that. I need to say this, though, the GBA graphics have aged like fine wine. Like holy crap, I forgot how great this game looks. Btw have you heard of Project Destati? They’ve been doing some very ambitious KH rearrangements and I’ve been listening to their two albums non-stop recently. One’s called Light, the other is Darkness, and I know a third one titled Dawn is on its way. I highly recommend you listen to them if you haven’t already. Still, all this talk about games aside, I’ve actually been reading a lot more recently, and it feels good. Finishing the second Earthsea book and I’m hooked. It’s actually got me in much more of a writing mood.
Well your retrospective as well as everyone around me fangasming over KHIII got me to replay the franchise. One thing I will say that re:CoM got right, even over the original KH1 is that Sora is now able to cast magic while jumping, which has upped the usability of magic in better light than the first game. Irritated the hell I couldn't do it in the first title when I believe it was possible in every other game. I don't think I've ever acquired the NG+ cards because every time I decide to play CoM, I always start a fresh file. I'm honestly really bad about starting NG+ files anymore. Even CT, I often start a fresh file instead because I love watching my characters really progress and I don't usually care for starting the game with some kind of advantage.
