I've got a few questions about Kingdom Hearts.

[Battleaxx90]

First of all, before I get started with this lil' forum thread, I have something zetta important to say.

If you're coming in here with plans to make a comment saying something about you not liking the series anymore, or how much you dislike the series, or just plannin' a big ol' hate speech against it and everything related to it, then here's something I want to show you.

Now go through it. Don't forget to lock it behind you.

I don't want to hear your complaints about Kindgom Hearts. I don't care if you think it's childish or stupid or overrated or too long over-due, this isn't that kind of thread. Aim your flames at somebody who might actually give a damn.

Now that that's out of the way...

If you're a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, you're probaly aware of the fact that to call the storyline "confusing" is to put it lightly. True, it COULD be worse, but it's still pretty bad. No doubt I would've given up on it a long time ago if it wasn't one of my favourite stories in a video game, or attatched to a game with zetta good gameplay, which it fortunately is.

That being said, I feel as if I understand the setting very well. Say what you will about the interequels (Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, etc.), they provide a lot of answers that the mainstream games leave unanswered, plus a few answers to which you didn't even know the questions to existed, if that makes sense. The intro sequence of KHII becomes a LOT more interesting once you've finished Days, lemme tell you.

But now I'm just fanboying; onto the point.

I've played all the games in the series EXCEPT for Chain of Memories and Birth By Sleep, or the Final Mix version of any of the games. I just finished Re:Coded this afternoon and you can bet your ass I'm preordering Dream Drop Distance (NEKU FUCKING SAKURABA, BITCHES!) During the ending of Re:Coded, I saw brief glimpses of the three main characters of BBS; Terra, Aqua and Ventus. That got me thinking about a few things, both CoM and BBS related.

Here are the questions I was thinking:

1. Do Terra, Aqua and Ventus have some sort of connection to Riku, Sora and Kairi? (Note: I just want a yes or no. I do NOT want to know what kind of connection it is, if there is one, even if it's NOT spoilerrific.)

2. If one were to play Birth By Sleep with only one character, which character would you reccommend one plays as to get the best handle on the story? (If it doesn't matter, I usually pick the sword in the tutorial levels, if that helps your reccomendation.)

3. Is it worth my time and money to get Chain of Memories, or are all the important plot points of the game fully explained in the later games?

4. Is the contents of the letter that Pluto had at the end of the first game elaborated on at any point in the series?

Okay, those are all the questions I can think of right now. Thanks for your time, and feel free to answer.

 

[Glover09]

I can answer #3. No, not really. It's a card based battle system in the first case, and secondly if you don't skip cut scenes at all, KH2 goes over the main points during the Roxas section.

However, If you want to get the information firsthand and in it's entirity, you'll probably want to play it.

As for the other questions; #1-Yes, and I'll let you find out what. #2-Haven't played enough, but I'm not sure it matters. You'd probably go with Terra. #4-Not to my knowledge.

 

[Auron225]

1) Yes. Play BBS and you'll see why. Its not really straight forward though.

2) I highly recommend you play as them all! You will want to! You pick a character at the beginning, play their story from start to finish, then choose the next and do the same until you've done all three. The order isnt all that important, but the recommended one is "Terra - Ventus - Aqua". Good news for you, you say you normally pick the sword? Terra's combat style is very physical based!

3) No. The combat is very annoying. I mean seriously, you even need a freaking card to swing the keyblade! I played it on an emulator and honestly could never beat the final boss (even though I have Sora level 70)! You can get the jist of what happens in CoM from the other games, but you could just watch the Re:CoM cutscenes on Youtube (Or just the CoM cutscenes but Re:CoM is more interesting to watch). You'll understand it all much better that way. Make sure you watch both Sora's and Riku's storys! It'll only take a couple of hours (in comparison to the 40-60 hours you could spend playing it, thats not long).

4) I actualy can't remember to be honest. It doesn't seem to be all that important to the plot - me forgetting its entire contents may be a sign of that? =P

Hope this helped!

 

[Battleaxx90]

1) Yes. Play BBS and you'll see why. Its not really straight forward though.

2) I highly recommend you play as them all! You will want to! You pick a character at the beginning, play their story from start to finish, then choose the next and do the same until you've done all three. The order isnt all that important, but the recommended one is "Terra - Ventus - Aqua". Good news for you, you say you normally pick the sword? Terra's combat style is very physical based!

3) No. The combat is very annoying. I mean seriously, you even need a freaking card to swing the keyblade! I played it on an emulator and honestly could never beat the final boss (even though I have Sora level 70)! You can get the jist of what happens in CoM from the other games, but you could just watch the Re:CoM cutscenes on Youtube (Or just the CoM cutscenes but Re:CoM is more interesting to watch). You'll understand it all much better that way. Make sure you watch both Sora's and Riku's storys! It'll only take a couple of hours (in comparison to the 40-60 hours you could spend playing it, thats not long).

4) I actualy can't remember to be honest. It doesn't seem to be all that important to the plot - me forgetting its entire contents may be a sign of that? =P

Hope this helped!

It really did help, bro. Play as Terra first, watch an LP of CoM on Youtube. Thanks!

BTW, on the off-chance that you actually enjoyed me fanboying about KH, I'm posting a big ol' blogpost soon on the themes of the game and how deep they go. Either that or the difficulty curve and why it's perfect. Keep an eye out for it.

 

[TheTygerfire]

Overly hostile, much? You could have just said "This topic isn't for complaining about the series" and not told people to get the fuck out and how you don't care about their opinions.

Also, you shouldn't complain about a game you said not even 10 seconds before hand no one could complain about in your topic.

 

[Fugitive Panda]

I'm getting a really weird impression from this topic. You seem to be a pretty big fan of the series, but also don't seem very interested in it at the same time. How can you talk about writing a blog about how 'deep' the themes go when just one post earlier you were asking if you could get away with only playing one third of BBS? Not to mention...

watch an LP of CoM on Youtube.

Please, do not do this. RE:CoM is easily the most fun I've had with the series in a long time, and you're seriously missing out if you replace it with friggin' Youtube. Even the original CoM is fun as hell, so long as you had an open mind about it.

Also, just because nobody's mentioned it, Mickey's letter is elaborated on in CoM.

 

[enzilewulf]

Overly hostile, much? You could have just said "This topi

c isn't for complaining about the series" and not told people to get the fuck out and how you don't care about their opinions.

Also, you shouldn't complain about a game you said not even 10 seconds before hand no one could complain about in your topic.

^^ this. You can easily say "if you don't like Kingdom hearts then this thread won't be much of interest" or something along the lines.

1. I only played the first two on ps2 so I can only assume yes.

2. never got it.

3. Yeah I actually ended up buying this, but never finished, the whole card thing took me a little bit off... should of done my research.

4. Contents are not really elaborated on from KH2 from what I can see at least. Maybe I missed something.

That really wasn't much help but I am a massive fanboy of kingdom hearts.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

1) Yes, they're connected to each other.

2) Haven't played it yet, but I do own it.

3) It's really a hit or miss game. Some people love it, others hate it. Personally, I would go for the PS2 version RE: Chain of Memories. Much easier to play than the GBA one. The combat can get a little annoying--especially against some of the later bosses--but once you get the hang of it, it plays just like KH. Also, once you beat it, you unlock all the cutscenes, so instead of having to play through it again, you can just go to the title screen and watch the movies. That's what I do now. And no, I don't think Kingdom Hearts II does a very good job of explaining what happened in Chain of Memories. If you're playing for the story, you need to play this game.

4) I believe the contents of the letter are explained at the very beginning of RE: Chain of Memories. Or I could be remembering that wrong, but I'm positive it's explained somewhere.

I don't really find the storyline behind the series all that confusing. Maybe a bit long and twisty, but not confusing. Did you play the 358/2 Days on the DS? You should play that one too.

 

[shrekfan246]

1. Do Terra, Aqua and Ventus have some sort of connection to Riku, Sora and Kairi? (Note: I just want a yes or no. I do NOT want to know what kind of connection it is, if there is one, even if it's NOT spoilerrific.)

2. If one were to play Birth By Sleep with only one character, which character would you reccommend one plays as to get the best handle on the story? (If it doesn't matter, I usually pick the sword in the tutorial levels, if that helps your reccomendation.)

3. Is it worth my time and money to get Chain of Memories, or are all the important plot points of the game fully explained in the later games?

4. Is the contents of the letter that Pluto had at the end of the first game elaborated on at any point in the series?

Okay, those are all the questions I can think of right now. Thanks for your time, and feel free to answer.

A bunch of other people have already answered, but I'll weigh in too:

1. Yes. Very much so.

2. Don't limit yourself like that. Having played 358/2 Days AND RE:Coded, Birth By Sleep is a much better game than both of them. If you're adamant however, Terra would be the best choice for options such as you've described.

3. No. However, it is worth your time to get RE: Chain of Memories for the PS2. It's still got the wonky combat system from the GBA version and there's less voice acting than the main series entries, but it's still got a solid connection between I and II.

4. I'm not sure because it's been too long since I've finished the first game. I believe it is elaborated on, though.

 

[Trivun]

1. Do Terra, Aqua and Ventus have some sort of connection to Riku, Sora and Kairi? (Note: I just want a yes or no. I do NOT want to know what kind of connection it is, if there is one, even if it's NOT spoilerrific.)

2. If one were to play Birth By Sleep with only one character, which character would you reccommend one plays as to get the best handle on the story? (If it doesn't matter, I usually pick the sword in the tutorial levels, if that helps your reccomendation.)

3. Is it worth my time and money to get Chain of Memories, or are all the important plot points of the game fully explained in the later games?

4. Is the contents of the letter that Pluto had at the end of the first game elaborated on at any point in the series?

Okay, those are all the questions I can think of right now. Thanks for your time, and feel free to answer.

1. Not sure because I haven't played it (damn console exclusivity - the scourge of the industry...).

2. I actually know this one, all three characters actually have their own seperate plot line and go different places, so you really should play as all three characters at some point.

3. Yes, because it explains most (though not all) of KH2, not to mention giving an explanation as to why half of Organization XIII are dead even before KH2 starts.

4. If I recall correctly, that is answered in the opening cutscene of Chain of Memories.

 

[Xathos]

Here are the questions I was thinking:

1. Do Terra, Aqua and Ventus have some sort of connection to Riku, Sora and Kairi? (Note: I just want a yes or no. I do NOT want to know what kind of connection it is, if there is one, even if it's NOT spoilerrific.)

2. If one were to play Birth By Sleep with only one character, which character would you reccommend one plays as to get the best handle on the story? (If it doesn't matter, I usually pick the sword in the tutorial levels, if that helps your reccomendation.)

3. Is it worth my time and money to get Chain of Memories, or are all the important plot points of the game fully explained in the later games?

4. Is the contents of the letter that Pluto had at the end of the first game elaborated on at any point in the series?

1. As others have said, they do.

2. You should definitely play BBS as all three. Again, you've been told the order of the story, and since Terra is the slow but powerful type, you shouldn't have a problem getting a hang of it. I'm sure you already know, but Ventus is the fast hitting, small HP guy, and Aqua is the low defense, awesome magic stat girl.

3. This...is hard to answer. Mostly because COM differs SO much from person to person. Personally, I think that it is worth your time. If you were to get one specific version though, get Re:COM. However you should know a couple of things, no spoilers, but I'm just going to put it in the spoiler box so my post doesn't see too long:

Spoiler

The cutscenes. The game's cutscenes are made up of FMVs, and not the ingame engine. As such, the localization team couldn't alter any of the mouth movements. And because the characters in Re:COM are very expressive, playing the game can sometimes feel awkward when you notice the lip flaps don't match up. It definitely isn't a game breaker since the acting is normally pretty good in the KH games, but I thought you should know.

The card gameplay. This is the major factor in why people hate it or not. Yes, you need cards to do everything besides jumping and dodge rolling. However, that's not the worst part. You may already know this, but I feel I should clarify. The cards are numbered from 0-9. Generally, you want very high number cards like 7-9, along with some 0's because they act as both the weakest and strongest cards. This becomes problematic, since the you get cards mostly from hitting the environment, beating bosses, or from shops. The shops give you packs of cards for a price, and the numbers on the cards are completely random from what I can tell. This can mean that you don't have access to very high numbered cards as the game goes on. For example, in my deck I had only 2 9s, 3 8s, 2 7s, a bunch of 6s, and 4 0s. For my specific playstyle, this was damn annoying when going against bosses, especially since I was constantly going to the shops. Now, like the cutscenes, this doesn't break the game. Sure, it can get annoying not having high numbered cards, but you usually get so many cards that it balances out. This doesn't happen too often (considering in the original GBA Version and had a lot of high numbered cards), but I wanted to bring it up.

The game can also be repetitive. This isn't obvious early on, but basically you go from room to room killing Heartless. There are "Main rooms" that further the story along, and its usually much easier to head to those rooms asap. However, if you were to try and clear out most of the other rooms of heartless like I did in order to level up, the game can tend to get boring. Not saying it will for you though, or that you will choose to do that. Its possible to be at a pretty low level when facing the final boss.

4. Actually, they brought this up in KH2. When you go to Disney Castle and talk to Queen Minnie, she says that she has been receiving letters from King Mickey, telling her a bunch of stuff. That's how she knew who Sora was, despite never meeting him. They don't go into too much detail about what he actually wrote, but its more implied.

If you can ONLY get one though, definitely get BBS. Such an awesome game, and its practically KH3 anyway. Has a secret ending/movie thats almost 10 minutes long too, so there's that(though if you want to get that, play on Proud or above. On normal you have to get 100% journal completion with all 3 characters....which takes a long time as I found out the hard way). It also answers a bunch of questions (although you MAY have to look online to make sure you got everything right). The game is also slightly more challenging than other KH games. Put about 120 hours into it, and I ALMOST got everything.

Both games are dirt cheap right now, so even if you don't like one, at least you don't lose a lot of cash. Worst comes to worst, I'm sure you can find some Let's Plays on Youtube or something.

Sorry if I stated things you already knew. Just wanted to make sure I was as helpful as possible! =D

 

[Battleaxx90]

Overly hostile, much? You could have just said "This topic isn't for complaining about the series" and not told people to get the fuck out and how you don't care about their opinions.

Also, you shouldn't complain about a game you said not even 10 seconds before hand no one could complain about in your topic.

About this thread's intro, sorry 'bout that. The last time I ran a thread on KH, it was to announce that freakin' NEKU was going to be in the game. I thought that everybody would be happy, but I swear that 3/4 of the comments were from flamers. Truth be told, I died a little inside.

And about the whole hypocrisy thing... yeah, I slapped myself once I realised that, which was after I posted the thread. Lol ^_^

I'm getting a really weird impression from this topic. You seem to be a pretty big fan of the series, but also don't seem very interested in it at the same time. How can you talk about writing a blog about how 'deep' the themes go when just one post earlier you were asking if you could get away with only playing one third of BBS?

Sorry 'bout that. Before writing all this, I didn't realise that to play through BBS with one character is to only play a third of the game.