Ammar on 24 Apr 2012 11:17 pm
Editorial: Dear ScrewAttack “Kingdom Hearts is not hard to understand”
Or rather, ‘Dear Critics’. As you may know, ScrewAttack released their new video, titled “Top 10 Franchises that should die”.
Kingdom Hearts is not hard to understand. It lies under a lot of symbolism and the Xehanort Clones can be overwhelming at times. However there is an underlying difference between ‘complexity’ and ‘missing information’. Kingdom Hearts is certainly the latter as far as each new title is concerned.
Now, now, put your torches down. I meant ‘missing information’ as in that each new title brings something new to the plot. Each new title has a wealth of new information that the majority of it won’t likely be referenced in the next title. For dedicated fans, it is not much of a problem as they are the type of people who will keep up to date on everything ‘Kingdom Hearts’ related. But for other, more casual fans, and they do exist, Kingdom Hearts II is the last Kingdom Hearts game they have played and are still waiting for Kingdom Hearts III.
The franchises’ main problem is that every game is ‘important’. The traditional ‘spin-off’ of a video game franchise have very little to nothing in common with the main series’ plot. You can miss it out and the next main title will have at the very least subtle references.
Kingdom Hearts expect you to have played every iteration to this point (excluding the V-Cast title) or it will try to make you dumbfounded. So it’s not complex, it just requires your previous knowledge of the series thus far.
It hasn’t been a new problem per se. It even existed in Kingdom Hearts II. Even the CG intro of Kingdom Hearts, which shows beautiful CG goodness of Castle Oblivion Events from Chain of Memories, doesn’t do much to tell you why Sora went into hibernation for a year. If you have not played Chain of Memories and you jumped right into Kingdom Hearts II, you may not have a clue. From your perspective: Sora, Donald and Goofy were chasing Pluto in the Ending of Kingdom Hearts and Sora was waking up in Kingdom Hearts II, in which the events has progressed in one year.
SquareEnix must have recognised the problem that they bundled up Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories with Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+. Alas, like all Kingdom Hearts that gains the Final Mix tag, they are cursed to stay within Japanese Territory.
I propose the next game should have its own optional introduction that details the events that happened so far. It should solve a lot of the problems the series have. It would solve the huge misinterpretation that ‘Kingdom Hearts is too complex!’
But really, ScrewAttack? Kingdom Hearts can be understood if you pay attention.
on 24 Apr 2012 at 11:32 pm 1. Aqua's Sacrifice
Totally agree. Kingdom Hearts is one of the easiest games in my opinion to understand. Screwattack just really doesn’t know what they are talking about and need to go play The 3rd Birthday…then tell me what’s confusing.
on 25 Apr 2012 at 12:14 am 2. Dreg27737
I don’t think Kingdom Hearts is hard to understand at all. I first discovered the series when the 2nd was released. Convinced my mom to by me 1 and 2 and i played both. Realizing he was asleep randomly becasue I didnt play COM was no big deal. I just wanted to play a good, and interesting game. And like you said filling in that “missing information” with a new good story is my favorite part. Playing COM and 358/2 days I found very enjoyable. Then reading about BBS, because i dont have a psp, was like wow what a story. (I appreciate story because I like reading) I have yet to play re:coded but i own it and will and I plan on buying a 3DS to play 3D because like you said they all are important. Plus I hate how people like Screwattack think its necessary to blast games that many people hold dear
on 25 Apr 2012 at 1:49 am 3. Domo
Being that I only played 2 and BBS, I found this series quite confusing. I mean sure i didnt play all the other games, but still a LOT did not make sense. I really just played these games for gameplay. KH2 was awesome for gameplay. The whole having KH on different platforms really turned me off of the whole story. I didnt want a ds or 3ds to have to play the new KH and get with the story. It should have been more straight forward. But thats not how it turned out to be, and thats why KH fans are so crazy. Hopefully they release Kh 1 2 and some other spin offs that are needed for the story to ps3 or something.
on 25 Apr 2012 at 2:45 am 4. Caius
@Domo: Before you judge a game series, don’t you think you should play the very first game at least? Of course the series is going to be confusing if you play the games out of order. >>;
But yeah, you are amazing Ammy, you should just be a full site staff member. 8D
on 25 Apr 2012 at 2:47 am 5. Cody Goins
I honestly believe,(being a huge “Kingdom Hearts” fan). THEY SHOULD BE COMBINED ( BBS, KH1, COM, KH2, 358/2 DAYS, CODED, 3D, AND KH3), ON ONE “BLU RAY DISK”. THEY CAN DO IT I KNOW THEY CAN. THE DISK CAN HOLD A LOT OF DATA ON IT.
on 25 Apr 2012 at 12:57 pm 6. Aikijitsu
The one thing I do agree with ScrewAttack: Finny Fun IS unforgivable. My mom and step dad looked at me like there was something wrong with me when I was playing that song.
on 25 Apr 2012 at 9:54 pm 7. ethan23lol
You do a rant on this but not Ign’s post a while back when they said the story was messed up, confusing AND ”TWILIGHT for geeks” The fact they even compared that piece of $#!% to Kingdom Hearts is unbelievable.
on 26 Apr 2012 at 12:38 am 8. alex
LOL, this reminds me of the time when 2 critics from rotten tomatoes said toy story 3 is the worst movie of all times.
on 26 Apr 2012 at 8:01 am 9. Arthur
Well, I guess they need games that are like you just need to go around, bash things and basically plot is this: ‘bash and survive’ without using even brain cells to think. Oh wow, I swear the more games like CoD, the degraded people become. Kingdom Hearts is easy to understand, like stated before, if you actually FOLLOW the plot and pay attention to things rather than just play it as ‘bash and survive’. Of course, you won’t get anything if you play it like that.
on 26 Apr 2012 at 9:30 am 10. AxelFTW
ive played and won every kingdom hearts game from kiingdom hearts 1 i got kingdom hearts 1 weeks after it came out. but let me tell you guys something you should really play the games in order instead of playing kingdom heart 358/2 then bbs then kingomd hearts 2 thats how you can get confused you should start like this if your new and confused. #1 KH1 #2 KH2 # 3 KH R:COM then BBS then 358/2 then coded um then im mixed up now xD but something like that anyway im sure your like well i cant play these games and learn the story becuase i dont have the system if your thinking that im one step ahead of you! you have a pc right? then why not wacth the game walkthroughs thats what i did for BBS and KH 358/2 i bought a DS though after then i played re coded. but im planning on watching the walkthrough missions for KH3D becuase im not getting a 3ds.
on 26 Apr 2012 at 9:49 am 11. (-_-)
well kingdom hearts will be even better when they announce and then release kingdom hearts 3!
i have no idea if they noticed but they can make alot of money off of KH3 i just hope it isn’t about the money(witch of course it is) i just hope it will not be like what happened battlefield 2 to battlefield 3!
i just hope the next kingdom hearts game will be everything we have waited for! most of os have waited since a year after KH2 ive waited ever since i won KH2 witch was like a week later anyway my point is take your time on KH3 becuase if you rush it for the moeny it will turn out like trash i dont want a garbage pal game i want a kingdom hearts 3! i wonder sometimes if they are already working on it
on 27 Apr 2012 at 1:08 pm 12. bakaneko
Kingdom hearts games is easy to understand once u actually played ALL the games and use ur head a little =P. But I have to admit, sometimes I need to pause the game just so I think think a little and understand whats going on -_-
on 27 Apr 2012 at 3:21 pm 13. Khfan
I just looked at the comments on the screwattack video. And i thought that almost all of the comments about kingdom hearts actually isn’t that bad. A lot of people stood up to the franchise.
on 05 May 2012 at 12:02 am 14. Editorial: We should have got Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ - Kingdom Hearts 3
[...] between the remaining Organization members and even the birth of Roxas’. In my last article, Dear Screwattack: “Kingdom Hearts is not hard to understand”, Kingdom Hearts has a habit of ‘missing information’. Well, Kingdom Hearts II: Final [...]
on 06 May 2012 at 2:16 pm 15. Rukishou
Kingdom Hearts is possibly not the easiest plot to follow, especially if you only play a few of the games and/or play them out of order, but this doesn’t mean it’s difficult either. Just not as easy as say, the Super Mario franchise. XD
The only thing I have ever been even slightly confused about was the multitude of Ansems, Xemnas, and Xehanort, but that was before I had even played all the games released at that time.
on 08 May 2012 at 4:49 am 16. Nicole
Ok. I have barely played the series and even I understand what’s going on. My first encounter with kingdom hearts was from the intro scene of kh1 through maybe the first 10% of the game at a friend’s house. She went to the last save and showed me the game ending before I left. Later I borrowed kh2 from a different friend. I started at her save point just before the second battle with Demyx. I continued until I beat the game. From there I have gone back to the beginning and just won the fight with Axel at the mansion as Roxas.
From this you would think I should be totally lost and hate the franchise.
Not so. I may have some missing information, but the underlying ideas behind the plot are easy enough to pick up, especially if you have seen Star Wars or Disney movies. Allow me to explain:
Common themes between kh and star wars – light and darkness, yin and yang, love and hatred, condemnation and salvation, the idea of balance within the worlds, brotherly love, romantic love, reserving judgement.
Common themes between kh and Disney: unconditional love, the power of friendship, the power of the heart/faith, the idea of believing in the magic of imagination and dreams, ultimate redemption, ultimate sacrifice, and the idea that dreams can come true.
In addition, like star wars, the lesson or moral is presented in such a way that you can be blessed by it regardless of your worldview. For instance, a Christian and a Bhuddist could both play it and see the above themes.
From the early game and late game cutscenes in both, it’s not hard to glean the relationships between the characters, the complex yet simple motives of the Nobodies in Organization 13 (if I only had a heart, says the scarecrow) , the fact that nobodies are not true dopplegangers but are in fact “half” of a person, the fact that Roxas was former Organization and bailed on them to follow his heart and the idea that nobodies actually CAN have a heart, or “regrow” one etc. If you’re really still that lost, a couple of trips to YouTube or GameFaqs should clear things up. Honestly, if you look for the details, are they really that hard to miss?
Personally I think if kh loses you that easily then you must not have been paying much attention. Like Rafiki says: “look harder”