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Chronologically Confused about Kingdom Hearts? AVGN’s got you covered


Spork3245

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I have KH1.5/2.5 HD Remix and I thought to myself "well now would be a good time to actually play through these games so I know what the hell is going on."

 

I got to the string of final boss battles in the first Kingdom Hearts and that has to be one of the most infuriating games I've ever played. Put that controller down and never went back. Decided to just skip ahead to KH2 and played about an hour of it. After playing so much of KH1, KH2 is just kinda... weird.

 

And I still have no idea wtf is happening. 

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The story goes over a long period of time and many games, but all of it is relevant to the main plot, the more you can cram into your head, the less confused you'll be. Guy covers things pretty fast, so maybe pause every once in a while to take things in, there's a LOT of story to cover. You'll notice, of course, that like 0% of the story he references happens in Disney worlds, which, in my opinion, is the biggest flaw of KH. It makes the Disney worlds feel like filler when they shouldn't, and it also tends to front and backload a lot of the plot in the games.

 

5 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

I have KH1.5/2.5 HD Remix and I thought to myself "well now would be a good time to actually play through these games so I know what the hell is going on."

 

I got to the string of final boss battles in the first Kingdom Hearts and that has to be one of the most infuriating games I've ever played. Put that controller down and never went back. Decided to just skip ahead to KH2 and played about an hour of it. After playing so much of KH1, KH2 is just kinda... weird.

 

And I still have no idea wtf is happening. 

I did the same thing, but I started KH1 on Critical and holy shit it was a nightmare. Most of the game was kind of okay, then you get to this room with a million monsters near the end and I died so many times there. Then the shitty fucking final boss with a thousand forms legit almost made me give up on the series permanently. I've never, in my entire life, been so frustrated with a game as I was with the final boss of KH1 on Critical. It was utterly miserable.


I recommend just playing all the games except 2 on Beginner Mode, you'll breeze through them, get the story quickly, and have a much better time generally. Only 2 has combat advanced and deep enough to make a harder difficulty (including standard) feel worth the effort.

 

2, on the other hand, I started on Critical despite my bad time with 1 because I remember really liking 2's combat, and I was not disappointed. The combat was so fast and fluid and fun that I went and sought out every single extra boss I could and did as much as I could in the game to have an excuse to keep playing. It was fantastic. KH1 was frustrating because the combat was stiff and awkward, and it felt like powerful enemies had movesets that were meant for a character with a wider and more flexible moveset than Sora. In KH2, your moveset is greatly expanded, movement and even attacks just feel faster and smoother, the forms you can change into all feel great, it's so goddamn good. I remember actively thinking about how much fun I was having on each of the optional bosses, rather than just being frustrated or concerned about winning. Bosses that good are extremely rare. One of the few games that was significantly better than I remember it. It's why I'm excited for KH3, although I'm worried, because that 0.2 game was baaaaaaaaaaaaaad, I'm hoping it was just due to it being a side game.

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3 minutes ago, elbobo said:

I remember gametrailers did an exhaustive plot summary years ago, it was like 2 hours long

Yeah, and even that didn't cover every little detail, there's a lot of smaller scenes or character interactions (plus reports and non-cutscene dialogue) that usually get glossed over in the interest of time, but are important, I think, for making you actually care about these doofy ass characters.

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4 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

I love that there’s a fucking LIVE CONCERT that actually had new story elements and plot progression of the game :| ... :rofl:

That's what bugs me most. Not that they make every piece of media have value in the form of something related to the plot, but rather than large sections of the actual games (the Disney sections) don't. Fucking put that shit in the Disney worlds, even if it's not Disney characters helping advance it!

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9 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

I’m halfway through the story summary video and w........t.......f that has got to be the convoluted story in all of human history. 

It is! It's so up its own ass that I actually started to appreciate it for that. Like, Nomura knew it was for kids but probably got bored of writing a basic story forever and was like "Fuck it, I'm making the Square version of Metal Gear Solid plots!"

 

Some of the details are actually pretty intricate, and while I think a lot of the later games clearly sort of retcon (or rather, make something small appear bigger than it was thanks to ambiguity) it's still fun to see them keep building on it. Characters I initially rolled my eyes at thanks not only to their introduction but also their names (Aqua, Terra, Ventus, even Xehanort) I ended up really liking by the end of their games. They're all more fleshed out than Sora for crying out loud. Which, I guess is fine, Sora's not meant to be super deep. He's just a nice guy who likes his friends, a quintessential good boy, but not a Gary Stu, he gets his ass whooped constantly, which is good fun.


Xehanort in particular I really ended up liking. He's a way better villain than shitty ass Ansem or Organization 13 (the one we originally saw, not what we know now) -- he looks cooler, his voice is cool, he's a badass fighter, he's old as hell which is great, and he's absurdly patient. I don't think you see him lash out or get angry even once, which makes it so much more interesting.

 

Spoiler

Yes, I know Xehanort IS Ansem, and all of Organization 13 at this point. It's so stupid! It's great!

 

Once you deep dive enough into the madness, you give yourself over to it. You must accept KH's bullshit, just like MGS. Except MGS is preachy bullshit, where Kingdom Hearts, outside of "Friends yay!" is just NONSENSE, in the best possible way.

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35 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I really just play it for the Disney stuff. 

It's a shame it always seems to be the part they put the least effort into. I mean visually it's always great, but storywise it's always just this weird retelling of the movie for some reason.

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If you'd still like a more comprehensive catch-up, Barry (formerly of Game Grumps, was the editor, I think he's a funny dude) released this pretty detailed video. It's got fun little doodles and stuff to keep you from going insane.

 


That's the condensed version, there's also the stream where his friend explains the ENTIRE story... over 7 hours!

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Shit I didn’t know AVGN was still around.

 

i haven’t played any of these games. Should I try just jumping in?

 

crazy how for the holidays I bought one new game (RDR2, still haven’t finished it)

 

but I could legit blow hundreds on Q1 releases if I bought everything I’m interested in day 1.

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11 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

If you'd still like a more comprehensive catch-up, Barry (formerly of Game Grumps, was the editor, I think he's a funny dude) released this pretty detailed video. It's got fun little doodles and stuff to keep you from going insane.

 


That's the condensed version, there's also the stream where his friend explains the ENTIRE story... over 7 hours!

 

That summary was much more helpful. But yeah this story. I feel like even if I had played very single game there would still be a lot of “ohhhh that’s what that was supposed to mean?” When watching a recap 😂😂😂

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