Finished my replay of the original Kingdom Hearts! I startled myself by sobbing throughout the entire ending and half the closing credits. This game. Those poor kids!
(If you are not familiar with Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts is a lovely, fun, charming, Disney-filled series of games about friends being torn apart from each other in horrible, horrible ways. If you haven't played it and you own a PS2 (and, er, you're not overly prone to motion sickness, because the first game is good but the camera is terrible), I fiercely recommend giving it a try. You can probably pick the main titles up quite inexpensively nowadays.)
I keep catching myself humming the Traverse Town music. It's going to be stuck in my head for ages. I love Traverse Town; something about it makes me feel so comfortable and at home. Twilight Town is nice, but it feels very empty, somehow. (Not that Traverse Town is exactly thriving beyond the First District. The Kingdom Hearts games could definitely do with making their worlds feel more populated; the sheer emptiness of the Traverse Town hotel or the Tram Common in Twilight Town gets a little eerie.)
I'm still ill at ease with the fact that Monstro's bowels lead straight into its mouth. That's just bad whale design.
As I seem to be in a rather Kingdom Heartsy mood, I thought I'd try replaying Re:coded next.
I've got a lot of problems with Re:coded - the combination of 'atrocious camera' and 'LOADS OF PLATFORMING' makes it fantastically frustrating to play, and the plot is paper-thin - but I suppose I do sort of owe it something, because this was the game that made me realise how fond I was of Sora as a character (even if the protagonist of Re:coded is technically a digital replica of Sora, rather than Sora himself). He's ridiculously loveable. There's a lovely moment where Riku tells Sora to run to safety so Riku can sacrifice himself for the good of all, and Sora basically laughs in his face and saves him instead. You should know by now that you can't sacrifice yourself for Sora's sake, Riku; he just won't let you.
It's a lot more addictive than I remember, actually. The plot may be a cop-out, but a lot of effort's gone into the gameplay. The levelling-up system is pretty clever, too. SHAME ABOUT THE TERRIBLE CAMERA.
I sort of want to write Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. I'm a little sad that my only contributions to this fandom are a ridiculous Derren Brown crossover and a work of terrible teenage romantic angst I'm too embarrassed to reread. But I have no idea where to begin! The world of Kingdom Hearts is so sprawling and the plot is so convoluted! It's like going to buy a toothbrush and being paralysed by the sheer amount of choice on offer. Do I want to write about Hayner and Seifer having reluctant adventures together, or Sora-Riku-Kairi friendship, or Data-Sora having an existential crisis, or poor tragic Roxas having a nice day for once, or Hayner and Pence and Olette feeling as if something's missing, or Riku struggling with his past, or Sora visiting all of my favourite fandoms and meeting all of my favourite characters? I just don't know!
(If you are not familiar with Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts is a lovely, fun, charming, Disney-filled series of games about friends being torn apart from each other in horrible, horrible ways. If you haven't played it and you own a PS2 (and, er, you're not overly prone to motion sickness, because the first game is good but the camera is terrible), I fiercely recommend giving it a try. You can probably pick the main titles up quite inexpensively nowadays.)
I keep catching myself humming the Traverse Town music. It's going to be stuck in my head for ages. I love Traverse Town; something about it makes me feel so comfortable and at home. Twilight Town is nice, but it feels very empty, somehow. (Not that Traverse Town is exactly thriving beyond the First District. The Kingdom Hearts games could definitely do with making their worlds feel more populated; the sheer emptiness of the Traverse Town hotel or the Tram Common in Twilight Town gets a little eerie.)
I'm still ill at ease with the fact that Monstro's bowels lead straight into its mouth. That's just bad whale design.
As I seem to be in a rather Kingdom Heartsy mood, I thought I'd try replaying Re:coded next.
I've got a lot of problems with Re:coded - the combination of 'atrocious camera' and 'LOADS OF PLATFORMING' makes it fantastically frustrating to play, and the plot is paper-thin - but I suppose I do sort of owe it something, because this was the game that made me realise how fond I was of Sora as a character (even if the protagonist of Re:coded is technically a digital replica of Sora, rather than Sora himself). He's ridiculously loveable. There's a lovely moment where Riku tells Sora to run to safety so Riku can sacrifice himself for the good of all, and Sora basically laughs in his face and saves him instead. You should know by now that you can't sacrifice yourself for Sora's sake, Riku; he just won't let you.
It's a lot more addictive than I remember, actually. The plot may be a cop-out, but a lot of effort's gone into the gameplay. The levelling-up system is pretty clever, too. SHAME ABOUT THE TERRIBLE CAMERA.
I sort of want to write Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. I'm a little sad that my only contributions to this fandom are a ridiculous Derren Brown crossover and a work of terrible teenage romantic angst I'm too embarrassed to reread. But I have no idea where to begin! The world of Kingdom Hearts is so sprawling and the plot is so convoluted! It's like going to buy a toothbrush and being paralysed by the sheer amount of choice on offer. Do I want to write about Hayner and Seifer having reluctant adventures together, or Sora-Riku-Kairi friendship, or Data-Sora having an existential crisis, or poor tragic Roxas having a nice day for once, or Hayner and Pence and Olette feeling as if something's missing, or Riku struggling with his past, or Sora visiting all of my favourite fandoms and meeting all of my favourite characters? I just don't know!
