'Kingdom Hearts IIIsome' Was A Surprising Departure For The Series.

[rionaleonhart]

Hilariously, someone's started an e-petition to bring Kingdom Hearts III to the Wii U and PS3, because obviously Square are planning to release it on the most powerful consoles available purely out of spite. Why don't you demand a SNES port, while you're at it?


The Kingdom Hearts III announcement inspired me to resume my Kingdom Hearts replay, even though we probably won't actually be seeing III for a good while yet. I was at the first Hollow Bastion visit. Thoughts!

- The second Riku fight in Hollow Bastion? The one in front of the Keyhole, where Riku's wearing his grass skirt I ALWAYS DO THIS. Riku isn't wearing a grass skirt! For some reason he's always in a grass skirt when I picture his odd purple getup in my head, but when I pay attention to his clothes I can see that it is, in fact, a decidedly non-grass buttcape. Anyway! That fight. The one where you don't have Donald and Goofy with you. The one with a mile-long unskippable cutscene preceding it. The one I'd been dreading ever since landing in Hollow Bastion. The terrible fight.

I didn't have any trouble with it this time. I beat it quite comfortably on my first try.

It was weird.

- Dragon Maleficent, on the other hand, was a bit of a nightmare. Eventually I had to run back to Traverse Town and beg the moogles to make me something with really good defence.

- Some day I'm going to count up all the characters who've been literally inside Sora's heart at one point or another. By now I think it must be in double figures. Kingdom Hearts III will be set entirely inside Sora's heart.

- ♥ RIKU TRIES TO HOLD ANSEM BACK ♥ I'D FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT ♥

- (I've mentioned that I really, really love redemption stories, right? Rikuuuuu. The poor kid never really manages to escape from his guilt after this game.)

- 'Don't worry, Sora,' Leon says. 'If anyone can save your friend, you can.' But then if you talk to him again afterwards he mutters things like 'Maybe it's hopeless for ordinary people to oppose the darkness', of course, because Squall is terrible at being reassuring.

- It's strange to replay the first game, because the plot is so straightforward compared to the ridiculous mess it's since become. AND ALSO SORA'S BABY VOICE.

- It's also strange in the light of my realisation a while ago that, although I'd always thought of Sora/Kairi as a canonical couple, it isn't one. It never strays beyond subtext. Kingdom Hearts is very much about friendship and very much not about romance, which I think is quite nice. I feel that the first game toyed with the idea of making the Sora-Kairi relationship romantic, but then later games scrapped that and gave all the relationships in the Riku-Sora-Kairi friendship group the same weight.

I suppose it's possible that the Sora-Kairi relationship might become romantic in Kingdom Hearts III, but it would honestly surprise me by this point. (Unless I was correct in concluding that the Riku-Sora-Kairi connections were all weighted equally, but failed to clock that in fact that's because they're all weighted romantically? Maybe the next game is going to be all about their ménage à trois relationship. HOW DISNEY.)


There was a time in my teenage years when I didn't really have much patience for Sora. Looking back, I don't understand why I didn't love him from the start. He's such a sweetheart! As I've grown up, I think I've become much more kindly disposed to relentlessly cheerful, optimistic characters.

Something in Dream Drop Distance that I think sums up Sora perfectly: almost exactly sixty seconds after meeting Neku for the first time, Sora says, 'Why don't I just help you out as your friend?'

Oh, Sora. ('Do you trust every total stranger you meet?' Neku asks. He has a point, especially considering that he's been vaguely hostile during most of the minute they've been acquainted; the first thing he says to Sora is 'Shut it.' But still Sora considers him a friend within seconds, because he is Sora.)

Comments

[newbie1990.livejournal.com]

It is interesting that you did not like opmistic characters! I've always thought of you as very cheerful and optimistic.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm a more positive person now than I was as a teenager, I think. Perhaps I had trouble connecting with Sora at first because he was incredibly trusting and friendly and I was incredibly paranoid and incapable of interacting with people. (I'd like to see how Sora would have got along with my teenage self. Probably quite well. Sora gets on well with everyone. I could have done with knowing him.)

I think positive characters generally had trouble holding my interest when I was younger, too. I was fascinated by characters who had horrible issues and more or less ignored everyone else. I still love characters with horrible issues, of course, but I've come to value characters even if they aren't necessarily prime Silent Hill bait. It took me a while to realise that well-adjusted characters aren't necessarily uninteresting characters.

[newbie1990.livejournal.com]

Ah, I think I know what you mean about teenage social anxiety. And general social anxiety. It's good that things have improved for you! Things have improved for me too. (Everyone could do with a Sora, based on what you've written. Whether they're vaguely hostile irritable people or people with anxiety.)

I love characters with horrible issues too. I have an issue more with writing well-adjusted characters than enjoying them? Because it's easier and possibly more interesting to me to write SUPER-ANGSTY PEOPLE in original fic. But well-adjusted characters can have struggles with maintaining kindness and having terrible problems doesn't automatically make an interesting character: things I am learning.

[yumiboo.livejournal.com]

Personally, I always figured that there was a sora-kairi-riku ménage-trois. But it's also possible that I read too much into it, so.... :3 Kingdom Hearts is definitely one of my favourite games. It was the first game that I managed to complete (I am terrible at finishing games), and it was the first game to make me cry. I just want the three of them to be happy, and eating star fruit together, and running races against each other on a beach, and MAKING BOATS D: *sigh*

I am very excited for the release of the new KH3, and, for the first time in a very long time, i am tempted to get the new ps4 next year... However, I am definitely now going to get a ps3, so I might finally get around to being able to play final fantasy 13 (it's only taken me... 2-3 years???), so yeah. I'll probably comment spam you about the game. And red dead redemption.

[rionaleonhart]

They would be the most adorable ménage à trois. It's hard to envision any one pairing within that trio, because they're all so closely bound together; it's all three of them or nothing.

Oh, excellent! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about XIII and Red Dead Redemption, if you do play them! Take good care of your horse. (I'd also highly recommend Portal 2, if you're looking for other PS3 games to play.)

[yumiboo.livejournal.com]

Yes, agreed - it's the three of them all the way (sorry Donald and goofy).

I do plan on getting those games, mostly because you've spoken so much and so highly about them. And a ahh, portal 2! I really want to get this game as well! As well as Bioshock (I quite like the concept of an underwater metropolis), Nier, and The Last Of Us. And I shall be sure to let you know the moment I start playing it :)