Yeah, so since Epic Mickey turned out to have some kinda sucky graphics, I decided that when it comes to Disney video games, I'm sticking with the Kingdom Hearts series. I've never been a fan of Final Fantasy, (And I probably won't be ebcause the only real FF game I played was FFIII for the DS which... Kinda sucked, IMO) so I was skeptical when I heard about this back when I was a ten year old and Disney could do no wrong in my eyes (This was before Disney Channel became Tween Girl central and back when Toon Disney still showed stuff like Gargoyles and Ducktales and before I learned how much of a jerk Eisner was), so I got the first one for Christmas... And I couldn't find the stuff to pass the tutorial

I went back a few years later, and just went ape on it. I was getting a chance to beat the crap out of Ursula and Maleficent, who terrified me when I was a toddler. Jafar, Hook and Hades never terrified me, and Oogie Boogie... I never got around to seeing the Nightmare Before Christmas until I caught it on HBO when I was around 14. But this game is definitely one of my favorite things ever. I didn't pick up either version of Chain of Memories, but when KHII came out, I bought it. Everything that the first game didn't do quite right was fixed, like the sometimes wonky camera. The Reaction commands were fun to do. Atlantica... Well, we'll try to forget KHII Atlantica. Even though I like the music from the movie, it didn't turn out well...

And now, having just beaten 358/2 Days, I can say I nearly cried when HIGHLIGHT to view:
Xion died. Go and buy 358/2 Days. Now. And I pretty much hate every member of Organization XIII now except Roxas and Xion (Since, y'know, HIGHLIGHT to view:
Sora), Xigbar (He's too cool to hate), Luxord (Same thing as Xigbar), Axel (Because he's definitely not a bad guy, but not good, either) and Demyx (Because he's hilarious.). It's still fun playing as them in Mission Mode.

Also, Birth By Sleep is the reason I took my PSP out of its long retirement. And I can't wait for it!

Also, fortunately, the enemies in Birth By Sleep are called Unversed. Thank the lord the pevious translation was an error...

Are they even working on Kingdom Hearts III? I would love to see a Kingdom Hearts game on the PS3 or 360.

I believe Nomura has said they are making a third main title to be released after Birth by Sleep.

I still need to pick up the DS KH, as well as the PS2 remake of Chain of Memories and give both of those a go. I've played a little bit of the original CoM, but kind of lost interest in it. Birth by sleep as well, eventually.

Strangely, I've never really been able to get into KH1 again. once I played it through, I was pretty much completely done with it, while I still enjoy warming up KH2 now and then.

We have one article for epic mickey, I'm not sure how you can judge what the entire game is gonna be like based off that, then there's the fact that you're complaining about graphics yet you praise the KH series, in particular 358/2 which uses that pseudo 3D that looks horrible on the DS.

Plus Epic is on the Wii, you can't expect much.



So you played one piss poor port of one of the worst FF's out there and based of that you've judged the entire series, yea that makes perfect sense, after all there's no way the other installments could be better, I mean its not like FF3 came out 19 years ago.

Honestly it sounds to me like you're just a KH fan which is fine.

After birth?

Seriously though, what's "Birth By Sleep"? Let me guess, another KH game on a hugging handheld?

yeah it's for psp. Comes out in January and is a prequel to the first Kingdom Hearts game.


so you hate pretty much every member except for half of them..?

I love how you say KH is so graphically better than Epic Mickey when I really see no difference graphically. Art direction yes, there is a big difference, but I say graphically these two seem on par with each other from what we have seen. And using the DS game to compare is not a strong point in your argument.

That being said, I am tired of every sidestory being on a seperate platform. I want the full story but I don't want to buy every system out there to get it. Of course saying that I am so hoping KH 3 isn't PS3 exclusive. Another shared PS3/360 game won't hurt Squenix.

Yeah, that really hurt KH in my eyes. Kingdom Hearts 1 blew my mind on the PS2. By the time Kingdom Hearts 2 came out...I was lost for half the game, and by the time I figured out what was going on, the story had taken a major turn for the weird.

What is with Square not being able to keep attention on a single villain over the course of the story? Ansem and the Heartless were fine by themselves, without dragging Organization XIII and the Nobodies into it. Needlessly complicating the story, especially with the Ansem-isn't-Ansem lunacy. It might have made more sense if some hints were dropped in Kingdom Hearts 1, rather then waiting to set all this up in the hand held sidestory.


I also didn't care much for Kingdom Hearts 2's retread of so many of Kingdom Hearts 1's areas and especially the bosses. Malificent was one of the most epic fights in all of Kingdom Hearts 1 so to see her still kicking in KH2 without much explanation was...confusing.


Still, for as wonky as the story got in Kingdom Hearts 2, the original was a masterpiece.

Indeed. I'm hoping for a KH game on the 360, as the first two I didn't get until after I was spoiled by HD Games on the 360, and it just saps my enjoyment of the game.

Another prequel! God damnit...

And on the one system I don't have. So frustrating.

well, A prequel, technically? 358/2 and CoM are between KH1 and KH2, while BbS is pre KH1, right?

So, BbS would be KH0.5
KH1
CoM KH1.5
358/2 KH1.7
then KH2 and then eventually KH3, timeline wise?

Didn't it stop being a neat crossover story about Disney and FF stuff and basically turn into Sora and People in Black Coats, guest-starring a few Disney guys?

Yeah, for these side games. Presumably KH3 will return to the original formula...

Well, I am starting to get interested in trying FFIV or something. I'll give Final Fantasy another shot.

Still, THe reason lots of us were disappointed in Epic Mickey is because the graphics... Don't look at all like the art direction. Kingdom Hearts, they really were able to get the different art directions of, say, Nightmare Before Christmas and Aladdin to work well in the same game. Plus, Kingdom Hearts has some of the coolest boss fights. I do think I'll search for Re:CoM, but hey. Organization XIII used to be cool, but after seeing how they treated Roxas and Xion as disposable... Eh.

Let's not argue about how good Final Fantasy is, or if Epic Mickey is good or not... let's just talk about KH. I did feel that 358/2 didn't focus enough on the Disney characters, but that was made up for with some pretty cool boss fights like the Antlion or the Ruler of the Sky. It did feel wierd not seeing Peter Pan in, well, Peter Pan's world

I have a Kingdom Hearts related question that Wikipedia can't answer for me, so maybe some of you know.


Has the Kingdom Hearts II manga been canceled in the US? I never got around to playing the games because I don't like RPGs, but I was reading the manga because I still wanted to follow the story.

They completed KH1 and Chain of Memories, but stopped after only two volumes of KH2 and never continued. Is the series on hiatus or has it just been canned? Is it still going in Japan but just not getting released in the US anymore?

Dissidia is kicking my ass... I might not be ready for birth by sleep when it comes out... maybe when it goes up for download on the psn i'll get it for the ps3

I dunno... Maybe it has been canned. Go fig.

I read somewhere (khinsider.com maybe) that the KH2 manga was cancelled after volume 2, but didn't see if that was only stateside or if it was in Japan as well.

Ok, from what I can cobble together. It looks like Kingdom Hearts II volumes 3 and 4 of the manga were both released in Japan. All I really have to go on though is a scan of the third volumes cover, and the ISBN numbers on wiki.

As for when it's comming out here. I've heard reports on various Kingdom Hearts message boards that Borders (And I've checked Amazon, and it says the same thing) gives a release date for January 2010.

Hopefully the art picks up in The KH manga, vol2 suffered some seriously foul art. Most of the disney characters that weren't Donald and Goofy looked like rough outlines that weren't inked properly.

Thanks!

I hope that's true. But wow, it'll have been about a 3 year hiatus between volumes, right? I wonder what the hold-up was.

I'm not a huge manga fan, but the Disney fan in me wants to at least keep up with the Kingdom Hearts storyline, but without putting the hours and effort into playing the games. So the manga was right up my alley, even if I didn't really care for a lot of the played out tropes in the story (and they didn't visit nearly as many Disney worlds in the comics as are apparently available in the games).

... I just unlocked Mickey on 358/2 Days.

Question for you guys. I've played through both sides of CoM and have a very vague understanding of KH1 (never played it though). Is that enough to play 358/2?

Storywise? You should play KH1 if you want a better understanding during certain scenes in 358/2, KH2 as well.

Well, 358/2 explains the newer parts of its story while explaining why Axel wasn't as evil in KH2 and why Axel and Roxas are best buds, why Roxas left the Organization... And it even allows you to finally play the events Deep Dive secret video at the end of KH1 in-game.

Yeah, and that's what really turned me off to the spin-off titles, and by association, the franchise. I just never found the Organization characters to be compelling enough to carry an entire game story themselves. I sorta lost the child-like wonder I had when playing the PS2 games.

But if the next game can restore that, then I'm definitely on board and not bored.

Whatever. It's all George Lucas backwards thinking prequel bull jive, regardless of whether it comes before one or all games.

Play Kingdom Hearts 1. You should not be entertaining the idea of playing a 3D game without an analog stick if you haven't played the good game it's loosely based on.

Post necromancy, but Re:Chain of Memories is probably the most boring game in the series. Fair warning.

It's more of a Your Mileage May Vary case on Re:Chain, having played both that and the GBA version (mostly prefer Re:Chain because my hands doesn't cramp as much).

Any idea what the Third KH game will be based on and if it will be the final one in the series.

KH2.co.uk has the latest updates on most KH news and no word whether there will be a KH3.

Loved the KH games, some ideal worlds for the game would be a Toy Story world, Gargoyles world, Princess and The Frog world, Treasure Planet world, Sword in The Stone world, The Incredibles World and maybe even a Spider-Man world now that Disney got Marvel.

That's...an interesting thought. W/ Disney's acquisition of Marvel, does that indicate the possibility of a Marvel world?

Wouldn't it be more "Marvel world" than just "Spider-Man world"?

I still want a PR or Digimon World. *ducks*

*throws*

*catches*

Ironbite-I too would love a Kingdom Hearts PR or Digimon world.

PR? How about Sentai? "GOYOU DE!"

Any one of the Kamen Rider worlds. Preferably some of the later Heisei series - would love to see Sora be either possessed by any of the Imagin or is turned into an Imagin, the "what is human" measuring when encountering Orphenochs, someone who is a world-traveler like he is, or a detective with a partner who takes "Wiki Walking" to a new level.

The worlds I'd want to see would be Pinocchio (We almost got one in 358/2 Days...), The Great Mouse Detective (Hey, if Ven can be shrunk down to mouse size in Cinderella's world, let's go for friggin' broke and have an entire level like that.), 101 Dalmatians (Because fighting Cruella while she's trying to run you over in her car would be awesome), Pocahontas (Say what you will about the movie, but Sora as a double agent trying to get both the settlers and the Powhatan tribe to live in peace would be fun.), Hunchback fo Notre Dame (Frollo. As a Heartless. Guy's got more darkness in his heart than frakking Chernabog.), The Emperor's New Groove (Would be an excuse for the writers to be just plain wacky for an entire level.), Atlantis (Again: Say what you will about the movie, but it would make a good level.) Treasure Planet (Think Port Royal, but in space!), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (It'd have the humans of Port Royal with the toons of... Everywhere else.), and Princess and the Frog (Dr. Facilier controls shadow demons, Swap Heartless with said shadow demons, and you've got it easy! And HUG YEAH, KEITH DAVID!).

2 and a half hours in and still doing tutorials in this hugging game. I'm not sure how much more of this analog stickless tutorial filled talkie I can handle. Does it get better?

The tutorials finish at Day 14, I think? The plot picks up at around Mission 43.

The game is mostly Roxas turning into his own person (which is boring). Expect a lot of ice cream scenes.

Unless you are a DIEHARD and I repeat DIEHARD HK fanboy/girl, you will likely find the story sappy and irritating. The gameplay is spot-on, and the real reason to play this game.

Oh good. I think I'm at like day 13 or 14.

Well how about a Black Cauldron, Gargoyles or Ducktales world? maybe one on Emperor's New Groove or Toy Story 1 & 2 or Bug's Life.

I love all kingdom hearts...save Chain of Memories...didn't like the gameplay.

Came up with another clever idea for a world, The Jungle Book world.

They actually were gonna put that in KH1, but it was too similar to Tarzan, so they scrapped it.