Current Events > I don't get why Kingdom Hearts doubled down on Disney over FF

(+) Yeah! (+)

The FF cameos were great and they should have kept them up. I was waiting a good decade for them to implement an actual FF world, but instead we just keep going through Disney worlds. Lately they don't even have FF characters in it much, didn't BBS only have Laguna or something? Does 3 even have Leon, or the Sephiroth battle?

BBS has Zack, no Laguna.

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Oh right, I think they said something about Laguna being planned for the tournament area but was cut or something. Been way too long since I played it

As someone that absolutely adores the FF parts of KH....it's quite easy to see why.
Disney is infinitely more recognizable than FF. FF was just used as a marketing tool to draw in the older Squaresoft fanbase.

If you want to sell games, use the IPs that the whole world knows.

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I mean, the project was Square x Disney. Would have been weird if they prioritized Final Fantasy over Disney once they established the Kingdom Hearts original characters. Maybe they shouldn't have dropped them entirely, but they were just there to fill the gaps until KH established itself.

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I mean, it's a literal Disney property. Disney owns it. The FF characters were just cameo'ing in a Disney product.

I mean, yeah, the FF cameos were part of the series' personality and core appeal, and it's stupid to remove them completely, but it's obvious why the series cares more about the Disney emphasis than them.

Darklit_Minuet posted...

Oh right, I think they said something about Laguna being planned for the tournament area but was cut or something. Been way too long since I played it

Laguna was going to be the one who built the Mirage Arena, but they scrapped the whole storyline. Squall's gang was also going to appear in Radiant Garden, since that was their homeworld, but Nomura felt like there were already too many characters in that world, so he cut them all as well.

As for your first post, Nomura said back in 2002 that there were never going to be any FF worlds, since the FF characters all hail from original or Disney worlds in this version of events. They're not the same characters from FF - they're basically original characters with the appearance of FF characters.

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When the series was new, the whole crossover thing was very much a part of the appeal

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The Popo posted...

If you want to sell games, use the IPs that the whole world knows.

Yeah except that it's a video game and the video game representation is what made it work. I enjoyed seeing goofy interact with Yuffie. I dont really care about how daisy interacts with Elsa (as examples).

It stops being a crossover if you remove half everything.

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Disney forced them to, at least in 3

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You don't get why they leaned into arguably the biggest IP in the world rather than some weebshit the general population has never heard of?

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Yeah, the ffxdisney interactions are great.

Of course, KH should be a Disney game first imo.

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It's more commercially viable, all things considered. But in particular, I'm wagering it's just coming down to agreements and concessions that need to be made in order to continue having the rights to Disney characters. Either they do X many worlds and characters including these particular ones, or no Kingdom Hearts.

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Relient_K posted...

Yeah except that it's a video game and the video game representation is what made it work. I enjoyed seeing goofy interact with Yuffie. I dont really care about how daisy interacts with Elsa (as examples).

It stops being a crossover if you remove half everything.

You may know who the Square characters are, but the potential for bringing in new customers is in the Disney characters. Far more people will be intrigued by Whats this game with Donald, Goofy, Ariel, Aladdin, etc? than Whats this game with Squall, Cloud, Yuffie, Tidus, Wakka, etc?

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Because when KH first came out, the Final Fantasy series was King Shit of Gaming Mountain, while Disney was in that awkward post-Renaissance, pre-Pixar-and-3D-boom where they didn't have as much clout. Obviously the scales have shifted considerably in the last 19 years.

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Probably because Disney is much more profitable

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Indeed

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TheSavageDragon posted...

As someone that absolutely adores the FF parts of KH....it's quite easy to see why.
Disney is infinitely more recognizable than FF. FF was just used as a marketing tool to draw in the older Squaresoft fanbase.

Yeah but the FF stuff is better.

Quality and recognizability are two different things.

Why use filler disney princesses when you can use Princess Garnet Til Alexandros?

They did my boy Setzer dirty though

And then YPR were fairies for reasons

I feel like Disney is a lot more of a novelty than Final Fantasy--especially since almost all of the original characters for the KH series are designed in the Final Fantasy style. So, in a way, it's equal parts Disney and Final Fantasy if you consider characters like Sora, Riku, Roxas, Axel, Ansem, etc. to be Final Fantasy representation.

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Gobstoppers12 posted...

if you consider characters like Sora, Riku, Roxas, Axel, Ansem, etc. to be Final Fantasy representation

They aren't