BonsaiForest
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
03/30/2016 00:00:00
You said everything I would have said! I really don\'t have much more to add. I do think the gameplay went through the floor, the story got too complicated and dumb, and... everything else you said.
I do feel the first game, while it has lots of platforming, overdoes the combat. It\'s like, everywhere you go, you\'re constantly seeing groups of enemies spawn out of thin air and fight you. It\'s constant constant fighting as you explore and platform. I\'d like to see it tweaked so that there are more places with no enemies but plenty of platforming or puzzle solving, and the combat isn\'t so constant. This is something I noticed as I revisited the game, that I hadn\'t considered back in the day.
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Simple and Clean(-ish)
Even after nearly fifteen years of a metric fuckton of sequels, prequels, midquels, and milk-quels, and the long-awaited third series installment waiting in the wings, as far as I'm concerned, the particular charms of Kingdom Hearts seem forever destined to have found their most sincere and pure form of expression in the series' very first outing, warts and all (and there are a few). Again, this series and I have a long and storied history, and I'm willing to cut it a degree of slack for simply managing the seemingly-impossible feat of marrying JRPG gameplay and story elements to that patented Disney magic with enjoyable results.
It's a cheesy and hackneyed metaphor to use, but it's hard to attribute the first game's success to anything but its being the simplest(-ish) and cleanest(-ish) game in the series where everything just works to best effect, later series gameplay improvements bedamned. From the instantly iconic symphony orchestra opening (that still inspires goose pimples that vastly outnumber how many holes could conceivably fill the Albert Hall) to the nostalgia-tinged happy ending orgy that litters the credits, there exists a level of child-like wonder that should put a smile on anyone lucky enough to have grown up Disney... despite Nomura's much-maligned fish-faces rearing their ugly heads at opportune times.
It isn't the most user-friendly of games, I'll admit. The platforming can often be... problematic... but throwing that whole design philosophy out the window for the sake of easier navigation and consequently, blander game worlds, was never the best alternative. I'm glad to see they've re-assessed this approach in some newer titles, in which they come close to realizing its potential. Navigating the menus can be a bit of a chore, often costing you dearly at inopportune moments. Some of these problems, along with the notoriously un-cooperative camera were alleviated to some extent in the definitive Final Mix version, but will prove a sticking point for most. (Hell, even me, at times.)
Even in these times of yore, stirrings of the great Kudzu Jerky Plot Beast of Christmases Yet-to-Be were noticeable from the word "Ansem." Though more sparse in these earlier times, the series' patented jarring switches between the happy-go-lucky "BEING GOOD IS GOOD" overarching theme of the series (...and most things Disney, I guess) to needlessly cryptic—and, dare I say—outright poorly-written attempts at telling a larger, more convoluted story are definitely present, and clearly poised to take center stage. It might've worked if executed better... but, here we are.
You need only play this game to find out if Kingdom Hearts is for you. Everything that makes Kingdom Hearts what it is—whether good (LIGHT!) or bad (DARKNESS!)—can be found here. For what it's worth, I know I've played this game more times than I can count, and will again before I am RETURNED AGAIN TO DARKNESS!