Conversation Between Wolf Kanno and Fynn

6688 Visitor Messages

  1. So it took me a while to admit this to myself but... I don’t think I like Dragon Quest XI so much. And it’s really weird because I don’t think it’s because it’s made more accessible. It’s probably because, despite the fact that the series has always relied on tradition, this one really feels like being derivative is it’s entirely essence. Like yeah I still don’t really like how the world map is since it feels very claustrophobic, but more importantly, almost every character, side quest and plot point feels to me like it’s really there to fulfill a quota rather than just be compelling on its own. The music really compounds this - there are very few original tracks, the majority is reused verbatim from older games, adding to that feeling that this game really has no identity of its own. Despite IX never really wowing me, this is the first time I actually feel the game would probably be better if those old, tired guys just retired already. I think this is the reason I’m having such a big problem finishing it. I thought it was maybe the fact that I have it on PC as I find it much easier to get sucked into a game on handheld but no - other PC games suck me in just fine.

    Although maybe that wasn’t quite fair. The party is fine, especially Sylvando who is really fresh for the series, but even though I like them all individually, the party just feels less organic and more like they’re there to fill quotas. They are fun, but I can’t help but feel like this is one of the least organic RPGs I’ve played.


    Sorry for the random rant lol. Felt I needed to vent to someone
  2. Yeah that's definitely an issue. I also feel this is the game where the Disney/Pixar involvement got a bit too heavy handed as well. Like I just finished the Frozen world, and I don't really know what to make of it. Like the writing and design choices feel very... calculated I guess. Granted, this may have to do with the fact I'm not a fan of Frozen. Like it's a good film, well animated, but a wee bit overrated. You know it's bad when I got more excited when Larxene showed up.

    I think what really hurts the world is that they follow the plot to a tee but have Sora and co. bounce around the whole cast so you never really feel any attachment to anyone. It's not like previous worlds where you really get to hang out with the characters. It's likely why the Tangled world feels so much better since you're with Rapunzel and Eugene for like 90% of the world making them really endearing. Pirates is next, so we'll see if the world lives up to the hype but I've got to comb Frozen world for the rest of the treasure and Lucky emblems first.

    I have also finally come around to the Gummi ship segments. I still find controlling the ship is a bit more awkward than I would like but I'd still take it over the Gummi section from KH1. It's still not as fun as KHII's version though. My last playthrough of the game made remember how much I really loved the Gummi sections in that game.

    I'm also getting more breadcrumbs of plot here and as usual I get something I love and wonder why the series hates giving it to me. Got a fun sequence with the old members of Organization XIII discussing why they are all back and finally getting the banter and character interactions I really wanted more of in 358/2. Larxene is such a fun alpha bitch and I love the fact that her an Marluxia are still plotting together. Her Nobodies are a pain as well Not quite as annoying as Demyx or Xemnas' troops but certainly one of the rare enemy types in this game that makes it's presence known fairly quickly when they show up in a group.

    I also just realized I'm probably going to have to go back to Monther's Inc world to grind Unverse for the Synthesis shop since it's the only known place for the Sinister series of materials. Ugh... I'm like both happy and annoyed the synthesis shop is back. I'm also annoyed that I have to keep the Toy Story Keyblade on me at all times because it has Lucky Strike as an innate skill. Really wished the Kingdom Key had gotten that skill instead. The Monster's Inc keyblade is way more fun to play with and has about the same stats but not as useful skill for mob battles.
  3. Yeah, from what I’ve heard, that’s a big issue and honestly it just doesn’t make me excited for the story at all. I think this may stem from the fact that SE kind of shot themselves inbtgr foot with the non-numbered titles. You’ve got the more hardcore crowd like us who’ve played pretty much all the games and are invested in the characters and need a resolution for them, but then there’s the crowd that says “this is the first KH game in ten years!!!” That just doesn’t care about any of the other titles and just wants to have a fun romp around the worlds as Sora. That’s not even going into the newcomers, but since KH3 is this big budget AAA title, they needed it to cater to as many people as possible. The end result doesn’t look like it satisfies anyone from the groups I listed
  4. So far the biggest issue with the overall plot is not so much the fact it's just a slow build up to a battle the series has been teasing since BbS, but really how much potential is being squandered here. One of the main reasons my interest in this entry took a dive besides 3D was the fact the game focused solely on Sora when this was meant to be the game to finally bring back all the other characters we've grown to love in the past fifteen years. Like there is a painfully brief moment early in the game where you get to use Riku and while he's not as mechanically as interesting as Sora is, it was still taste of something I was hoping to see with this entry and that was finally being able to really play as all these cool characters the series has made over time.

    Honestly the supporting cast in this game have been terribly underutilized. Riku and Mickey are just kind of dicking around after their first foray into the Realm of Darkness went south, and I love how these two managed to find a way in and out, yet Aqua has been stuck for ten years. Kairi, Lea, and Aqua have all been one scene wonders so far and I only have three more Disney worlds to explore. Telling me this is really not going to actually start until I finish San Fransokyo.

    There's also a silly plot line about needing to find bodies for all the hearts locked away in Sora, but with the exception of Xion, I don't exactly understand why Roxas or Namine need to go through this considering their Sombodies were still walking about while they were physically active. Where did their original bodies come from? I mean at least the TOXIII's reasons for needing the program makes a little more sense because 3D stated the time travel rules makes it impossible for them all to be there at once physically and borrowing their hearts to place in replicas would potentially avoid a time paradox in case they physically killed one of them.

    It's the main problem here is that the plot has the cast dealing with problems that felt like they were created for this game to drag this out, while simultaneously shooting itself in the foot by keeping the game focused solely on Sora and not wanting to give the rest of the cast any meaningful screen time or utilize their characters better. Hell one of the new arbitrary rules the game introduced alone gives a better justification for why Sora should be exploring worlds since he could be searching for the new Princesses of Hearts.

    Another issue is with Maleficent and Pete's subplot, which flat out ignores what happened in 3D (them trying to get the Data on all the world's Sora has explored) and now they're looking for the Black Box that is suppose to be with Luxu. I know KHUX explains all of this but again, wished the game did a better job of keeping the player up to speed on what's going on in other titles. I mean it's not like the entire opening of the game wasn't just the ending to A Fragmentary Passage re-used. They could have done a short remade scene from the ones in UX. It's just a bit aggravating.
  5. Yeah, but the point is to see how they do it, though once again, I feel the plot is over complicating the process by ignoring it's own flimsy cosmology. Granted, it's to bring back a plot element from CoM and 358/2 but I still feel like this is more of the writing staff trying to make one off elements feel more important than initially planned to be. The real humor in all of this is that Xehanort's group isn't even trying to hide their intentions and are blatantly helping Sora and his group to figure out what they need to do in order to help them. It's kind of laughable really.
  6. Yeah, the keyhole business was cool but I never got on board with the Lanes Between in KHII. Good to hear they’re not bothering with a gimmick this time lol.

    Honestly the thing that put me off KHIII the most for now is just the fact that it is pretty much all just buildup for the final battle, which had been basically built up towards from BBS. Even II, which has probably the weakest plot, at least had some intrigue to it and made me wonder where it’s going but with III I’d be going in like “yep, we’re bringing back these characters and killing Xehanort dead. Just like we’ve been told over ten years ago”
  7. It's been a bit more subtle now that I'm knee deep in Disney worlds. Toy Story world was cute but kind of a shaggy dog story when it comes down to it. The Verum Rex thing was a bit... awkward and I don't think Yazora is as appealing as Noctis was from the vXIII trailers but whatever. For having five party members active at all times, this world was a hassle due to the Mecha toys that will wreck you if you don't commandeer one ASAP. They did a great job capturing the films though and I appreciate the scale of the world from the eyes of a toy. With that said, it was the world that has overstayed it's welcome the most and seemed to drag in a lot of places. I managed to find like 90% of all the treasure and Lucky Emblems with no help just because of all the backtracking and vague instructions on where to go next.

    On the other hand, Tangled world was a complete joy and Rapunzel is likely my favorite character so far from the Disney side of things. Her world went by super fast and I still managed to find most of the item stuff on my first go. It has a lot of cute moments and I'm fanboying over a few select scenes they kept from the film I was not expecting. It also seemed to be the world that really tried to show off the beauty of the games graphics the most. Very scenic world. I also gained the Flowmotion wall jump ability back in this world. It is called Superjump in this game.

    The Keyblades also get more and more ridiculously overpowered with each new one I gain. Toy Story's Keyblade transforms into a massive hammer that functions like a more user friendly version of the Berserk hammers from KHII and it can even transform into a drill weapon, but honestly, nothing lives long enough from using the hammer for me to see it. The one from tangled transforms into a staff that summons energy copies of Sora and fires beams everywhere. It's fully charged deathblow has Sora transform it into a massive tower that proceeds to nuke the entire screen. Maybe not useful for a boss, but certainly useful for mobs. I also learned that there is a third tier skill attached to the Kingdom Key and Starlight Key. Both share the first two skills so Stun Impact and Sonic Blade. The OG key's third tier skill is Ars Arcanum while Starlight uses an areas of effect Holy spell that I'm pretty sure was a counter move used in KHUX.

    I also always forget how much I love Marluxia. He is just a treat even if he is a bit more muted than he was in CoM. I also appreciate that the game is going to show us what the other member's Nobody guards are like. In fact I prefer fighting the Nobodies because they tend to take more of a beating and often have better means of no selling Sora forcing you to be less mash X to win against them. I do miss Situational commands though even if they were completely broken.

    The plot has been a bit of a slow grind at the moment. Like you get a bunch of stuff between worlds but it's all just the a slow buildup for the lat 3/4ths of the game. I'm actually laughing because the game doesn't even give Sora a reason to explore the new set of worlds. No Lanes of Light, or locking keyholes or nothing. He's just derping around until he can regain his old abilities. Which is not a bad reason mind you, I just appreciate the fact we're not given some cosmological nonsense that is never going to amount to anything relevant in the plot.
  8. Honestly, the main reason I like the story of DDD is that Sora gets set back so much and needs to finally grow again instead of just being the Pollyanna. I’m not sure III delivers on that potential yet, but hopefully I’ll learn soon enough.
  9. Been a bit slow going through KHIII, part of it is just my OCD requiring I find all the treasure and Lucky Emblems in a world. Really annoying for Hercules world because the Gummi Phone doesn't even unlock until after you leave. There was also a few minigame/sidequest dealios unlocking after I returned so I hit them all up.

    The other issue is that my next world is Toy Story world and I really just don't care for the franchise. I'm sure I'll change my mind once I dive into it. I did have to take out a boss in the Gummi ship section before evne getting there. The GS sections are still a bit awkward. I think the biggest issue is that the ship's mobility is awful but the camera is independent and fast, so it doesn't take much to screw yourself by convincing yourself the ship is moving in the direction of the camera when it's still trying to mid turn. I don't really understand why the camera isn't just glued to the back of the ship like in previous installments. Like combat is treated as on map encounters that engaging in sends you to a whole new screen with different controls. So it's not exactly like there are a lot of environmental hazards that require you to be aware of your surroundings at all time. It's really been the most awkward part of the game so far. I'm waiting for it to click.

    I have come around to the style/formchanges. Seemed like a weird gimmick when I first heard of it, but finally playing it has eased my concerns about it. It's a nice evolution on the Style systems from BbS. Shotlocks are nice as well, but I'm really terrible at remembering I have them just like I did in BbS. I think the two things I'm the happiest about is finally getting an air block after nine games. Because somehow Sora can leap 50ft. into the air and sky walk while slicing building in half with a blunt instrument but being able to defend himself in mid-air was breaking physics too much.

    The other nice thing here is the new way Keyblades work in this game. They brought back a lot of elements from KHII but thankfully resolved the biggest issues that hampered all of the ideas in that game for me. Keyblades have support skills again but now that you can equip up to three at one time, and have the ability to raise their stats, you're no longer required add artificial difficulty to the game but using less optimal keyblades just so you can get more XP or item drops. Likewise you don't need to go to the menu screen to switch out a less effective weapon for a better one. So combat is a lot smoother. The style change on the OG Kingdom Keyblade is also amusing because instead of giving you some new weapon, it simply expands Sora's moveset to a watered down version of himself from KHII including a lot of the finishers. A nice shout out. The Starlight keyblade uses a slightly modified version but is essentially the same as the default one. I also like the fact that Shotlocks are tied to your keyblades instead of being a separate thing. Gives me one less thing to collect. Also flowmotion is back but severely neutered, mainly they kep the combat sid eof it but you can no longer use it to really get around areas like in 3D so now the movement abilities will likely be useful again. I find it amusing that the game fixes the brokenness of a lot of mechanics from the spin-off titles, but... doesn't bother addressing the main issues from KHII's combat which is how easy the combat feels and button mashy the controls are.

    Storywise, it has not been too bad, I think the most surprisingly good thing coming out of it so far is that Sora might actually get some real character development he's been lacking since CoM. 3D may have set up the most narmtastic final battle in gaming, but it at least finally gave Sora some real internal conflict he's needing to work past so that's been a real treat. He's not quite Pollyanna his way out of his problems like he did in KHII and 3D. Other than that, it's still too early to make any real opinions. I do think it has the weakest opening to a KH game so far, mainly because it rehashes the ending of A Fragmentary Passage with one little exception I wasn't expecting. It made me long for the openings of the first two numbered entries.
  10. No just the base game. I'll see how I feel towards the end before picking it up. I did get the Starlight Keyblade from UX though.
Showing Visitor Messages 61 to 70 of 6688