Evolution of the series

The Kingdom Hearts series is pretty expansive now, with a game on practically every single console - couldn't possibly do multiplatform releases, oh no, you have to buy a whole damn new console if you want to play the next instalment - and an ever expanding universe. There have been dramatic changes in gameplay and themes, as well as a shift away from both Disney and Final Fantasy characters towards entirely original content. Unfortunately I'm not one of those moneybags who can afford to keep up with Square Enix's schizophrenic platform decisions - seriously, are they just using KH to pamper to people? Because you surely can't have a current game series with independent instalments on competing platforms - and so I'm not as well versed with the universe as I might have been previously.

However, I would still wager a guess that I liked Kingdom Hearts better when it was a simplistic, in your face metaphor for the goodness and the power of heart and all that other corny bulltrout. Sora might not have been the most lovable of characters, and Kairi is a complete ditz in the original game, plus Riku is unnecessarily standoffish with his "best buddy", but overall the first Kingdom Hearts game was a light hearted jaunt through Disney worlds in order to save them from darkness. Sounds pretty good to me.

The second game started this completely whack bulltrout with the introduction of Nobodies and I feel that the series has just become more and more insane as time goes on. Judging purely from the naming scheme, you've got random as trout like 358/2 and Dream Drop Distance. Birth By Sleep is just smurfing creepy sounding. Honestly I don't really know what is going on.

I just miss the youthful naivety that the series as a whole seemed to exhibit. They honestly thought they could perform planetary exploration on a wooden raft. :roll2

KH1 does have it's appeal due to it's simplistic story, but I personally like the direction the series has gone. The newer games fit into the storyline quite nicely.

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Originally Posted by Jiro

are they just using KH to pamper to people?... you surely can't have a current game series with independent instalments on competing platforms - and so I'm not as well versed with the universe as I might have been previously.

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Awesome. It was probably unintentional, but you managed to combine "pandering to" and "pampering" into a singular connotation without even creating a new world.

As for the constant release of newer titles on varying platforms, some do get migrated back to PlayStation as was the case with Re:CoM and Re:coded. I really hope they'll release a Re:Birth by Sleep.
I'll wait till they've pandered to the XBOX audience to get irrtated.

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the naming scheme, you've got random as tit like 358/2 and Dream Drop Distance. Birth By Sleep is just smurfing creepy.

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They'll explain it in 3D...?

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They honestly thought they could perform planetary exploration on a wooden raft.

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Actually, it was "worlds" not "planets". I don't even think they considered other worlds to be other planets or even know what a planet really is. The whole travel by Gummi Ship plot device is like some kind of metaphor and really only exists in imaginary space which itself supposedly has real-world applications. Blah science blah factoids blah open-minded blah hearts connect worlds blah reality is a dream blah blah blah.

A day late and a dollar off... has anyone seen this youtube postings of KH2FM "vs spectacular"... they even have an anti-final Sora.

LOL... Leon has no respect for a man's intro.

I'm with Jiro. I think the series went to crap basically after the first game. Not that any of the individual games are bad, it's just that when I think of the first game, the expansion of the series seems an incoherent mess. The elegant simplicity of KH1 didn't make it past the first game. Instead they did to the game what Lucas did with episodes 1, 2, and 3.

I disagree. I think that the series started getting really good with Chain of memories, and if you follow the stories of all the games, it's quite coherent. The problem is the multi-platform aspect, which I can understand is a hindrance, but once you play all of them, it all falls into plays nicely. 358/2 Days and BbS are such huge tear jerkers :cry: Love the series to bits.

I don't own a GBA or a PSP, so I've never played CoM or BBS. But I have played Days and Re:Coded. Days, I'm iffy on, but I love Re:corded. IT reminds me of the the first game. More nostalgic than Days had towrd II. I love the Matrix system, so rad. I wasn't playing very long when in Traverse Town, I unlocked Heat/Spark Sweep Lv 14. Well, I guess that depends on your definition o f playing long. I like being able to decide the difficulty I'm playing at mid-game. I forgot I set it to Critical and got crushed by final-form Darkside over and over again with a total play time of 11 min. It made me feel dumb afterward.:-/

Oh my god! I just got Re:coded and I had the same experience with Darkside. At first, I just thought that being a Japanese game (the island country inhabited entirely by computer pwning game masters) originally made for a cell phone, that this was the default difficulty of the battle. It wasn't until roughly 11 minutes in (or 12) that I beat the thing and then I realized I'd set the diff at Critical. I left it there since because no battle could possibly be as difficult as that battle against the buggy Darkside when I start to get new abilities. I'm just beginning in Wonderland now.
And A-Z, you can play CoM on your DS.

By the way... has no one seen those Final Mix videos?

You're talking about the cheats on Utube with Anti-Final and whoever else you want to play?

So, my DS will play CoM, I'll have to look into that. Or I could just get Re:CoM.

Speaking of CoM, I had such a b of a time fighting Ansem. I had to look up a strategy online before I finally beat him. I'm already close to beating Re:coded too (on Critical!)... the result of toning down the difficulty for the American release, I suppose.

HAHA ,you are right..