Kingdom Hearts

People really got overblown with the zipper and belts stuff. I admire Nomura for trolling so hard.

That's not to say all of his designs are winners. He's at his best when he's restraining himself.

x3 I'd still rank them over Sora, Rikue, and Kairi (SRK?). Maybe not above Roxas, Axel, and Xion (RAX?) because I thought their arc was the most complete and consistently written. TAV also had an intention and full arc with their relationship even if it stumbled a bit a long the way (Terra's turn to darkness is more informed than anything).

Sora, Riku, and Kairi feel like they're kind of a bit... I don't really know how to put it. Sora in KH 2 wasn't particuarly well executed, childish in really cringe ways, and over all a bit of an idiot to the degree that its not lovable or cute anymore. Riku has been fighting darkness and its great, but it feels like the writers are leaning too much on if he's finished fighting his internal darkness or if the battle is still going and I'm getting tired of the 'but maybe he's not!' the writers keep doing in a 'spooky' voice from the margins of the script.

And Kairi has... no personality to speak of. She's kind of a MacGuffin in KH 1 (semi-romantic lead gets kidnapped by the bad guys and hero wants to find her again) and spends the majority of the game sleeping. The memory of her and a clone of her are in Co M and Coded, but more as a motivator for the protagonists than as she herself. She barely appears in KH 2 as well and isn't even seen during 3D. Heck, most of her Tropes page are tropes about her looks and the powers that we assume she has been have never seen in action.

I think the reason that myself and many others are excited about her being a keyblade master is because it means she has a chance to NOT be so goddamn passive and actually do something plot important besides breathe.

edited 22nd Jul '17 3:27:13 AM by InkDagger

Honestly nowadays I feel people don't give Nomura enough credit as a visual artist. Sure some of his designs over the years have been pretty bad but he's still clearly quite talented, I have seen much worse artists work in the videogame industry and get nowhere near as much hate.

Nomura did the monster designs in Final Fantasy V as his first design role.

He also notably did the designs of the Warring Triad and Kefka's Tower of Gods in FFVI. I'm sure there's others I'm missing.

He just finished some art for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, as well.

edited 22nd Jul '17 8:22:16 AM by Demongodofchaos2

Wasn't that months ago? That's the impression I got. I'm sure it'll be good art, because i think he's had a good run in recent years. OH, and he does lots of Heartless, Nobody etc. enemy designs.

But yeah, love him or hate him - I'm closer to the former myself - the guy works hard and I think he really does want to do his best.

I wonder if it's stressful. KH became way more popular than anyone ever thought and FF blew up when he got more influence and now he's in charge of the most acclaimed and popular (and divisive) game in the series' remake.

I'm just saying I hope it's not getting to him.

edited 22nd Jul '17 9:59:52 AM by PolarPhantom

I actually like the figures he designs for Bandai's Playarts Kai line. Unlike most figures in the line, the crazily over-detailed look works because it's supposed to look like something out of Final Fantasy

I'm really tired of people talking down Kairi. I'll go as far as to say she's probably my favourite of the series' original characters alongside pre-Flanderization Sora.

That's fascinating seeing as how she's done very little.

Of course, one of the few things she did was swan dive off of a balcony into danger despite not having a weapon because Sora needed help. It was incredibly reckless but that's still some A+ bravery.

If nothing else, I'd say KH 1 Kairi had a fairly well defined and likable personality since about every other world you'd get a little bit of her as well as her relationship with Sora explored.

edited 23rd Jul '17 8:07:12 AM by lycropath

Yeah Kairi is really well defined in KHI. It's later games where the problems arise.

I think I've reached a point of liking Kairi the most because she's been given the least to do. Sora has been flanderized beyond recognition while Riku has become obnoxious for how much the games keep shilling him as a prodigious chosen one at Sora's expense, making him go through the same character arc in every game and then patting him on the back for it.

Personally I really like Kairi not so much because of what she's done, but rather all the potential she has. What we've seen of her personality I really like and if Nomura will just give her some screen time, it and her unique role in the story will be given a chance to shine. 0.2 does hint that he intends to do something with her so hopefully this will come to pass and more people will come to like her.

Exactly! She has some notable character traits - she's sweet, but also gutsy as hell, and she really wants to be strong enough to help her friends. Problem is, she's gotten so little screentime that her personality is more a rough framework than anything. I really hope that KH3 makes good on all those hints that she'll be back in-focus.

I'm sorry, but you keep saying this but I really don't see it at all. Sora's the same as he's always been, and the only thing that really adds any credence to that statement is the final scene of 3D (and even that is arguable).

Even the trailers for III show that he seems to be getting more aggressive towards the organization (well, Xehanort mostly. And Xehanort and Xehanort).

I feel like Sora in KHI was a bit quieter than he is in later games, though that's mainly due to the nature of the cutscenes. Compared to later games, the cutscenes of the first game feel more... incomplete? They're not as wordy, prolonged, or prone to explain things, at least, so I think that had Sora's goofier traits come across less frequently.

That said, I do feel like Sora in KHII onwards did have his goofiness toned up a lot more than in previous games.

I'd explain why II Sora is best Sora, but Ninety will probably come in and do a better job at it. I'm not the most eloquent person.

Also, maybe it's because I have yet to play the game myself, but I Sora barely feels like a character to me.

KH 1!Sora had character beyond being a generic Idiot Hero. That's all KH 2!Sora and 3D!Sora are.

I have a faint hope that those Idiot Hero tropes won't be as frequent in 3, but I don't expect him to get any real development at this point.

What character, wanting his friends back?

He was competitive, had a strong sense of justice, he was grounded and turned on Riku when he was being an evil little shit, he could hold a grudge something fierce, and he was endlessly curious about the worlds he visited.

He's far more complex than what he became in KHII and DDD.

edited 24th Jul '17 5:25:09 AM by Mr.Badguy

KHI Sora had emotional range. We saw him feel anger, pride, jealousy, boastfulness, despair and other feelings you'd expect a kid in his situation to feel. 3D Sora is a near-constantly happy-go-lucky, dimwitted Pollyanna who seldom ever deviates from his good cheer except for a few cases of moral outrage.

The idea of Sora as The Pollyanna wasn't really a thing at all in KHI or in Chain of Memories. In those games, he's an enthusiastic kid but never particularly more or less positive about the state of things than he has reason to be. Donald and Goofy had to force him to crack that smile when they first met. That aspect of his character is the result of 3D selecting bits of his characterisation from II and blowing them waaaaaayyyy out of proportion, acting as if there's never been anything else to Sora.

edited 24th Jul '17 5:41:55 AM by DrDougsh

The best Sora is Digimon Adventure 01 Sora.

I'm sorry but I kind of got to disagree with pretty much everything you just said. I'm going to break this down piece by piece.

"competitive"

That only came up in the beginning of the game on Destiny Islands, which is in a situation far removed from what happens in the rest of the series. It's not a personality trait that has been given the opportunity to present itself.

"strong sense of justice"

Are you suggesting that he doesn't have that later on? I would argue it's much stronger in II since he becomes damn near prejudice against Nobodies and how they mess up the world.

"was grounded and turned on Riku when he was being an evil little shit"

The reason he didn't turn on a friend becoming evil later on is because a friend never never became later evil on.

"could hold a grudge something fierce"

I don't remember Sora ever holding a grudge in I but I explicitly remember his hatred of Nobodies in II so I have no idea what you're talking about.

"was endlessly curious about the worlds he visited"

Again, how is this in any way gone in the later games? I would argue that the major change between I and II's personality is that Sora regains his love of adventure in II. In I he is always limited by his inexperience with his journey but once he's grown into traveling the worlds he is much more able to have fun with it. This is especially true in 3D where he doesn't have Donald and Goofy to reign him in.

Add in to all of this that Sora shows a lot more anger, sarcasm and sadness in later installments and I just can't get behind what you're saying.

As stated above, I think the reason for Sora's attitude in 3D is that he is traveling on his own. Donald and Goofy sort of ground him but on his own his inner child comes out even more. Furthermore, the way 3D is presented, most of the situations Sora is in, aside from the major plot stuff, is just a fun adventure for him to enjoy and in those plot moments he has the anger, despair and sadness that we saw in II. I'm not saying how 3D portrayed Sora was perfect, just that it makes some sense in-universe.