Kingdom Hearts

The impression I get from the Summons in III are that they aren't the real thing given they are made of Fire, Ice, Lightning and such.

Jack Sparrow knows because Sora blabbed in II.

Also Beast.

Of the summons Sora actually interacts with, there’s Genie, Peter Pan (even though he was a party member before being a Summon), Mushu, and Simba.

The Gummiphone suggests they are the real thing, though. They're apparently friends who "answered Sora's call through the power of the Heartbinder".

They're probably all incorporeal because they're not physically there, and instead sending some of their raw power via the Heartbinder.

FUCK FROZEN SLIDER

Anyone else like the Organization's "non-signature" weapons, that you get through the Gears in Days? The average player will likely not use the vast majority of them, as there's so goddamn many and no character apart from Roxas is playable outside Mission Mode, but they're very intricately designed. I've noticed a number of commonalities throughout the designs, too:

• The ones that specialize in ground combos are typically yellow or orange, and have a motif of three prongs somewhere on them.
• The ones that specialize in aerial combos are sky-blue and have designs that resemble wings and/or waves.
• The ones that focus of strength are red and black, with designs that resemble hammers on them.
• The ones that focus on magic are purple and have designs resembling flowers.
• The ones that focus on having a wide attack range are usually orange and have a spade-like design.
• The higher-tier ones tend to have a combination of the above traits, with their designs reflecting this.
• There are two ultimate weapons for each character: one is their signature weapon from their boss fight, most of which resemble the Nobody simple in some way, while the other is unique to Days and is usually solid gold and very pointy.

I tried Frozen slider once and decided whoever designed it had suffered a recent head injury.

Data-Luxord is extremely frustrating

He's not even hard, he just throws pure timing puzzles at your face and you either get it or you eat dirt.

in a way aren't all boss fights in real-time games just timing puzzles

literal card fights can die in firaga

No we more of them.

I accidentally a word

doh

Shortly after that complaint I beat the data, with the only difference between a previous attempt being that I hit that final O, and it didn't feel by skilled timing...

Luxord was a neat gimmick, but they really shouldn't of ramped up the O/X game's speed for the data fight...

Kingdom Hearts III is top-selling game in Japan for the second consecutive month.

Guess people still haven't understood how bad the game is. /s

stupid people

People have shit taste, it is known. That's the only explanation for a five-thousand-page thread devoted to a game about Donald Duck fighting anime pretty-boys. sage nod

Based on these sales figures, we can conclude that Kingdom Hearts III continues to be extraordinarily popular among the "People who have not yet played Kingdom Hearts III" demographic.

Fortunately, the game has been out long enough to put together a pretty solid aggregate of opinions on Metacritic, with 82 critical reviews and 1,380 player opinions documented.

Said aggregate is sitting at 83% critical approval and an 8.0 user score. So, pretty good on an absolute scale. Xbox One version's a bit less popular with 80% critical and 7.1 user score, but that's still good. Not great, but good. Also based on much fewer opinions (22 critics, 242 users) and on a console not accustomed to Kingdom Hearts, so the PS 4 score is probably a better indicator of the game quality.

In terms of its place in the franchise as a whole, critics rank the games:

• Kingdom Hearts II - 87%
• Kingdom Hearts - 85%
• Kingdom Hearts III - 83%
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep - 82%
• Kingdom Hearts 2.8 - 76%
• Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - 76%
• Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days - 75%
• Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - 75%
• Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X - 70%
• Kingdom Hearts: re: Coded - 66%

Critics consider it one of the really good ones, with a wide variance of opinions across the franchise. It's the worst of the numbered titles, but still better than all the side games by a wide margin, save for BBS which it still beats but by a slim margin.

Players, meanwhile, rank the games:

• Kingdom Hearts II - 9.0
• Kingdom Hearts - 8.9
• Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X - 8.8
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep - 8.8
• Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - 8.8
• Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - 8.5
• Kingdom Hearts: Re: Coded - 8.4
• Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days - 8.4
• Kingdom Hearts 2.8 - 8.2
• Kingdom Hearts III - 8.0

For player satisfaction, III comes in dead last, but on a much smaller variance scale. The userscore aggregate opinion seems to be that Kingdom Hearts III is not bad, but it is the least amazing entry into a consistently stellar franchise.

Userscore aggregates are known to be very reliable and not at all a place where a hateful mob can review-bomb high profile titles.

Userscore aggregates have the advantage of reflecting the opinions of fans more than of the general public. Most people don't bother leaving reviews on games that were never, due to genre or simple lack of interest, their cup of tea and instead stick to drafting opinions on games they've actually played.

They are, however, prone to being abused for potential harassment which is why it's always important to be cognizant of how many user reviews a game has versus others in its series. Kingdom Hearts III has 1,380 user reviews versus the similarly high profile Kingdom Hearts II with 1,128. By comparison, it has a similar ratio of 82 critics to 64.

Critic scores are more indicative of a game's quality in a general sense. Userscore aggregates reflect, "Is it good compared to the rest of the series?" While critic score aggregates reflect, "Is it good compared to the video game industry and the massive library of good and terrible games that have ever been produced."

They are, however, prone to genre bias. Critics don't often get a choice on what they review, and so their personal preferences can seep out into a review. A critic who doesn't like racing games may have to review a racing game and the fact that it is a racing game will color that critic's perception.

But the tradeoff is that critics generally have no emotional investment in a game's success or failure. Judging media is literally a job to them. So on the one hand, you might have someone judging Chain of Memories who's never played a Kingdom Hearts game and may not particularly care for what it's about, but on the other hand, you have someone judging it who isn't going to let a strong attachment towards Kingdom Hearts as a franchise color their perspective.

Sales figures have the advantage of telling you how excited people are to get their hands on a title. They are, however, the opinions of people who by definition have not yet actually played the game, and are making a purchasing decision based on hype enthusiasm. Sales totals are a fairly accurate measurement of a game's marketing campaign.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 15th 2019 at 12:57:55 PM

I was going to say, KH 3 ranking behind Re:Coded and DDD seems a little...off.

The fact that Dream Drop Distance lets you play as Riku may be a factor in it having a significantly user score, whereas the critical reception is less quick to go "I can be RIKU? Best game ever!" due to a lack of pre-existing emotional investment in doing so.

Players are more likely to judge a game based on one really great or really terrible thing than as a whole. Kairi's fridging, for instance, probably had a strong influence on why Kingdom Hearts III ranked dead last in userscore.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 15th 2019 at 1:03:20 PM

Clearly we should have taken the Pokemon route

See also: the fact that the last five minutes of Mass Effect III have come to define the entire game as a whole in public perception and even got actual discussion of the game as a topic banned on the forum.

Please do not start debating the quality of Mass Effect III's last five minutes in response to this post because, as noted, it is banned as a topic. The point is, people's opinions of a game can be disproportionately shaped by a specific moment or part of the game, to the exclusion of the rest.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 15th 2019 at 1:05:40 PM

I liked Mass effect 1