[SPOILERS] Kingdom Hearts III Spoiler Thread

[ChipNoir]

I'd sooner play Chrono Trigger than most rpgs of a much longer length because it's a better experience. A shorter, but more enjoyable game becomes far more worthwhile than a much longer game that is nothing but padding.

Otherwise that's like buying bulk generic brand food. Sure you have more of it for the same or less price, but is it worth it if the taste is obviously inferior?

So right now I'm not that concerned about the length. If anything, longer games are an inherent risk for me as it means I might tire of it sooner.

 

[Makoeyes987]

You could make that argument by comparing it to say, other action games of this gaming era like say.. God of War 2018.

But I seriously doubt KH3 is God of War tier. I doubt that a lot.

I find it far more relatable and contextual, comparing games like KH3 to its previous entries and other games of its genre done by the same company and developers. But hey, we'll see. I just know that it seems odd someone that's so bad, and blind in how to play this game could beat a game like this so quickly. It's weird, to say the least.

And also. Given what the content was for Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix... That content which was extra and did make the game longer was certainly not padding. It was content people wanted, enjoyed and still enjoy to this day. Are we gonna really try and say most of KH2 FM was bad and just unnecessary..?

Radiant Garden had a lot of unresolved plot threads and potential that's now just gone. So did Castle Oblivion/Land of Departure. And Scala Ad Caelum not being fully explorable? I mean... People do remember how large "End of the World" And "The World That Never Was" were, right? Those were awesome, and epic final level worlds...

Why would that not be a thing anymore? Why do we have no final world level?

 

[ChipNoir]

Question:...What difficulty were they playing it on? Because KH has always come equipped with difficulty modes. It may be that they purposely made easy mode a bit more cheesed than past games to appeal to children. KH was in a bit of a strange place where it was playing off of nostalgia more than current disney films at the time. Now they're doing almost exclusively modern Disney/Pixar films, the type that MY kids would be fans of right now far more than the ones featured in the older games.

So I'm starting to develop a suspicion that Disney has put a bit more pressure on making this game more marketable to kids. That doesn't mean the there isn't a much more punishing gameplay feature in Hard/Proud mode.

And let's not forget that this is NOT the end of the series. Not by a long shot. This is the season finale, and it has a lot of OTHER stuff to wrap up that doesn't really have much to do with the Radian Gardens stuff. We may very well return to RG in the next game once all this Xehanort stuff is put to bed and we deal with whatever next layer of evil was manipulating HIM in the first place.

 

[Makoeyes987]

The leaker stated they were playing on Proud.

And I don't think it could all be Disney's fault. If you read that interview about the development, Square practically begged to give all their attention to Pixar and even go as far to match the number of stars on Andy's wallpaper because how much they wanted to put into it. Like they totally wanted to put most of the effort on the Disney side, KH and FF stuff was not their main focus. Frozen and Toy Story was where they focused on

 

[ChipNoir]

I'm really skeptical about this leaker's statements. There's no way a Proud mode KH could be that easily cheesed. That means normal mode would practically play itself.

 

[Lulcielid]

From the leaker days ago:

 

[ChipNoir]

...Well fuck.

 

[Tashasaurous]

Looks to me like Kingdom Hearts 3 is gonna be a disappointment, like how FF XV was. Hope not, but...the game now doesn't look promising. Maybe we should avoid the Spoilers now before we get to the point where no one will want to buy it at all.

 

[Makoeyes987]

This is arguably the best time to look at spoilers.

"Buyer Beware" is a thing. You wanna know what you're gonna purchase.

It's why my first impression of FFXV is the Royal Edition, thus I enjoyed it and am filled with happy memories

 

[Tashasaurous]

That's a good point.

Speaking of which, I hear that Merlin has moved to Twilight Town and can be seen standing outside of the Restaurant that Sora goes for that Cooking mini-game, with a suit case. Which not only confirms that Radiant Garden is no longer playable(at least until DLC hopefully-probably not) but also makes sense on where Sora needs to go in order to return to the Hundred Ache Wood if Radiant Garden was not playable.

*Jokingly* Wonder if the reason that Merlin decided to head to Twilight Town is because he couldn't handle Cid in the same building anymore. Especially since those two don't get on so well.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I was thinking the same thing about Merlin and Cid as well, lol

Twilight Town has inexplicably been shoehorned into a hub world. Which is kinda half-assed because if Hayner, Pence and Olette are there, why the hell are the rest of the TT kids not there? But they then randomly put the NPC characters from Radiant Garden there because reasons.

That seems so hilariously half-assed. I'm probably going to need 2 to 3 days max to play this game and beat it, and I'll be able to see what's up with this game myself, but this seriously screams DDD tier in terms of length and progression. DDD wasn't a bad game, but it was a 3DS game. That length and design aesthetic made sense for the game, not.. A PS4 one.

I can't stand the Battlegate mechanic tho. That's like the worst fucking thing to carry over from DDD. I don't know why they thought that was a good idea. That also just screams "lazy" to me. They didn't want to bother reanimating and doing Colosseum Cup seeds since they'd have to actually animate it to match and maybe put people in the stands this time, I guess.

 

[ChipNoir]

I'm probably going to be getting it day one from Walmart, because I really doubt even with the college student population here, there's enough competition to have any risk of them not having enough stock.

With that said, I'll be keeping the reciept someplace VERY safe in the event that this isn't a good game.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Given the game's length, you'll probably beat it and still be well within the time frame of a full refund if you want to return it! It works out for everybody

 

[ChipNoir]

Possibly, if the post-game content is as shrifted as you say. I'm an item completionist. I may not go after every boss in a game, but I'll be damned if I let a bit of equipment slip past me. Doubly so if I can get it early via stealing. I'm also a hell of a grinder. I don't tend to leave an area until I know I can one-shot everything shy of the area boss. That tends to extend 60 hour games to 100 hour commitments.

 

[looneymoon]

you can refund after opening the case? where the heck are you guys getting your games? unless this is just an American thing??

 

[Makoeyes987]

Wow, of course you can. Yeah, if you open the game but return it with all its materials within the time frame, you get a full refund or at least an exchange of equal or lesser value.

This is all predicated on you keeping the receipt however and the item being in acceptable condition.

 

[ChipNoir]

Walmart has a 60 day return policy on electronics. Although usually in these kind of cases, retailers can't resell the product. What they end up doing is selling it to companies that then bundle a bunch of stuff together in bundles at an extreme discount, which is auctioned off as sort of a semi-blindbox thing. Amazon does this a LOT.

 

[Tashasaurous]

At least we don't have to wait long for the Epilogue and Secret Ending. I just found out that the Epilogue will come a day after KH3 is released worldwide and Secret Ending will be released a day later.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

So, that MAGIC 2017 interview with Nomura a couple of years back (has it already been two years?? Holy shit!) got a lot of attention at the time for the "no more continuity between the Compilation and the Remake for the moment" comment, but it was really Nomura's last response before that we should have been paying attention to:

Final Fantasy Dream : Why are you distant with social media?

Tetsuya Nomura : Nowadays with the new modes of communication, we can be very close to fans. We notice it with other developers who communicate a lot. The only thing that displeases me is a tendency to find a situation where, as we have become closer, we have to pay attention to the information we share. I have to hold back about sharing information and I really don’t like this approach.

A former employee told me once to keep a certain distance with fans, with the people following you. Without this distance, we are exposed to the risk of losing objectivity. Today I still continue to follow this recommendation.

So much is explained by this.

 

[ChipNoir]

What happens though when Square's alleged objectivity means they stop caring about pleasing fans and more about meeting marketable factors?

I'm still very suspicious of many choices made here.

 

[Lex]

I think they crossed that bridge a long long time ago unfortunately.

 

[Theozilla]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1084328896441417728

Steve Burton apparently confirmed that he did not record anything for KH3, so barring patches/DLC Cloud is definitely not in the game. The only FF/SE characters are likely to be Twilight Town ones (so maybe Vivi, Setzer, and Seifer).

 

[Lulcielid]

What happens though when Square's alleged objectivity means they stop caring about pleasing fans and more about meeting marketable factors?

I'm still very suspicious of many choices made here.

Fans are not always right and they can be very irrational at times.

 

[Makoeyes987]

...So what? The market forces of corporate direction are right and rational?

That's who designers should be listening to?

If the fans are the customer base, the ones buying, enjoying the games, and the ones being marketed to for said games, it's simple common sense to keep abreast of their wants and tastes, rationality be damned. Whoever said they had to or should be rational?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It simply doesn't make sense for the guy overseeing their AAA titles in this day and age to be this deliberately out of touch with the built-in fanbase who has been eagerly anticipating KHIII and the FFVII remake for so long; who eat up any and every rare morsel about them; and who have not only guaranteed Nomura's past projects were successful, but can be counted on to go in blind and make successes of his upcoming releases as well.

Imagine the shitshow FFXV would have been and that FFXIV would have remained if Hajime Tabata and Naoki Yoshida were this averse to maintaining a dialogue with their customers. In Nomura's case, even his own employees have found him difficult to approach in the past, and it seems he's only recently begun improving on this one.

Sure, some fan expectations can be poor ones, but by all accounts, Tabata and Yoshida keeping their fingers on the pulse of the fanbase was one of the most important avenues to both FFXV and the relaunched FFXIV's success.