Andriasang: This week's Famitsu has a lengthy feature on Square Enix, containing retrospective interviews, and bits and pieces about about the company's upcoming titles. While waiting for our usual full writeup from Sokuho@Hokanko, here's what has surfaced regarding Kingdom Hearts 3D, the Kingdom Hearts series, the Dissidia series, and Final Fantasy XI (yes, that's XI as in not XIV).
Trying to break into Kingdom Hearts is a nightmare.
My advice; play the games in release order. Alot of people say story chronological order but that can be really confusing. Trust me.
I think a problem that SE is going to run into (or already has run into) with this series is that a lot of the people still following it were kids / teens when they played the first one, and are now much older. I know I'm finding it increasingly hard to tolerate the childishness of some of the stuff in these games, and I'm sure there are plenty of original players who have since just stopped following the series for this reason. I can't count the number of times I was playing KH3 and just feeling like, "What the f*** am I doing?"
SE can keep the series PG-13, and try to get a new audience of kids, but how do they intend to get kids into a series with a story that has been expanding since 2002, and over the course of like a dozen games? Especially when there are already loads of newer franchises out there that have already pretty much cornered the kids / teens market.
Honestly, I think they should either end the series once and for all, or take it in a more mature direction, and ditch the Disney stuff (I know, unpopular opinion, probably). It is a series that hasn't really grown with its audience, I feel. Alternatively, they could try to steer it in a more all-ages Studio Ghibli direction, sort of like Final Fantasy.
I felt this way with KH3 as well, ended up dropping it around half way through. I won't even bother with KH4.
Same here. Kingdom Hearts 3’s dialog was way to childish for me and I only played just to finish the story and wrap up the near 15 year wait.
I doubt I would be buying any other games unless they go in a more mature (all-ages) direction as OP said.
you gotta remember Disney has to sign off on everything they do with KH. Disney is super protective of their IP,
Either way I don't disagree with you on a lot of this stuff becoming more and more of an issue. But it's okay that fans grow out of things like this. But if they do decide to keep it more for the young audience then they will have to solve the problem that the article mentions.
Yeah, I just don't know what they could do to get all the kids invested in it at this stage. The only thing I can think of is a total reboot, but that would be an enormous project, and they clearly have no intention of doing it. I mean, the series has just embarked upon another "saga", which, if it's anything like the last "saga", will take another 2 decades to complete, will consist of 6+ games, and will convolute the overall narrative even further (if that's even possible). It seems to me that, if this is SE's plan, and if they want people to still care about the series in 5-6 years time, then their only real option is to try to appeal more to a non-adolescent audience. Otherwise, the kids won't care because they won't have a clue what's going on, and the adults won't care because the series is too childish.
Having said all that, the Yozora stuff, and the footage we've seen from KH4, does seem to MAYBE indicate that the series is going in the direction I'm talking about, but it's too early to say for sure. KH4 might look completely different the next time we see it, knowing SE.
Kingdom hearts 3 is horrible ..that's why you felt that way. It's the worst in the series by far.
My issue is with the decline of the writing which has been an issue for Square-Enix games across the board. KH3 should have gone out with a bang and felt very satisfying, but instead it was like a wet tissue and left feeling like I missed a lot of content. Having said that, KH3 was probably the last KH game I'll purchase.
Im playing 3 as my first one and I got that same feeling. Enjoying the variety and combat but im not into the story...too confusing.
Indeed. If you wanna give it a try, just go with 1-3. The other games are unfortunately needed to know but you can just youtube all the cutscenes by order of release of each game.
The latest update for Final Fantasy XI Online, the 'November Update', is now live across all platforms where the game is playable.
Can't believe this game is still getting updates 21 years after it launched. That's crazy! XI remains the only main numbered FF that I haven't played.
At the time, it was an amazing game if you had a good Linkshell and/or friend to play with.
A MMOROG that actually required teamplay to be played.
Easily one of the best games ever. As you said, it had the caveat of NEEDING a good group to play with, but I've never had memories/experiences like that in ANY game since.
I've been chasing that experience since I stopped playing it, and the closest I've come to is FFXIV. And even that is still vastly different.
Played the shit of this 20 years ago. Getting the Serket ring was epic. Idk how many mornings we spent camping before we finally got the pull and I won the roll upon defeat. It was great solo, but you really need a good link/squad for some of the notorious monsters....
@Seraphim
I loved those camping hours for every NM of interest.
Leaping Lizzy or what was it's name. Damn, so many days and nights 😅
And first time you got attacked by the Kraken on the boat, omg...
To get more engagement with his article, and drive clicks. DUH!
(Thanks, I'll go ahead and report that).
Wish they'd release it for PS4, 5, Xboxes and Switch - it ran on ps2 and still works on potato PCs so should run well everywhere
Live service games are vehemently criticized and companies need to rethink & prioritize respectful game design for consumer benefit.
Gabe says not being publicly owned is a huge part of what makes Valve so successful.
"The whole point of being a privately held company is to eliminate another source of noise in the signal between the consumers and producers of a good."
Looks at Destiny 2 > I used to go into a store to find a game. Now I go into a game and find a store.
"Bungie reportedly expressed concerns over how engaging The Last of Us multiplayer project was"
Bungie at GDC "Beware of overdelivering, quality doesn't matter, a live service being fast is more important than quality"
meh
I remember that headline about Bungie and Factions. I’m not a Bungie guy, but I am a Factions guy. Can’t help but wonder if their GaaS input will be to my liking. 🤔
I always thought Destiny would be better if Bungie built the game and then handed it off to another company to run it.
That's kind of the GaaS whole thing, though. This is like telling wolves to stop behaving like wolves.
Was looking at the top games in my country as per the PS Store and it’s overwhelmed by service games. Blood is in the water.
The issue is that journalists mostly ignored this issue as it was arising. Games like Overwatch were considered exciting until lesser news websites and organisations began taking opinion pieces on the problem. From then it’s just gotten worse.
A lot of “game journalists” are just extensions of the corporate PR teams. Remember when Bungie flew people out to Bungie HQ and showed them the 4v4 multiplayer in Destiny 2? Everyone who attended said this was the best decision for multiplayer. Less than a year later, Destiny 2 went back to 6v6. Everyone who attended said this was the best decision for multiplayer.
The issues are so prelevant, that I just immediately skip over the majority of GaaS games, hardly any are worth the time. The mainstream media glossing over the issues is nothing new, you always have to wait a few months for the real reviews or opinion pieces (that tends to include video game reviews as well).
This is why I won't spend money on a lot of these games, not only do they nickle and dime you at every opportunity, but a lot of these games have a very short life span, not many of them survive for multiple years like Fortnite has.
I also feel like most MMOs in generally are more aqueduct in terms of content, for what you pay, I feel like a lot of them give you a decent amount to enjoy.
I bought Kingdom Hearts on the DS and it is not even a fraction as good as its ps2 counterparts. What in the heck are these devs and publishers thinking?
its all about money man.
Square Enix must be trolling the KH fans by releasing each game on a separate console.
I wouldn't be surprised if KH3 doesn't come out until the PS4 is released, just so they can follow their tradition of making it impossible to keep up with the series if you don't own every console on the market. :/
still waiting for kingdom hearts 3 or kingdom hearts hd collection including the psp one
You can tell when a franchise is in hot water when they are talking about porting the OLD VERSION of Final Fantasy MMO and not the new one released 10 months ago. Your just pathetic Squarenix, pure fail