Board 8 > RATE THE GAME - #88 - Kingdom Hearts

(+) Yeah! (+)

8.2

The memory of playing it for the first time gives me that huge dopamine rush of nostalgia, but I tried replaying it a few years ago, and even the updated version feels like a bit of a slog.

Maybe I just don't get nostalgia for gameplay, but it felt pretty much just like I remembered when I replayed the HD remix a few years back. I knew it was kinda clunky, and that's what I got.

Lopen posted...

7

Feel like if I replayed it'd go way down but haven't replayed in a long time so this feels right

I'm gonna change this to 7.5 actually.

I'm looking at my old rankings and the science says it should go there.

Maybe a 4.5? I honestly never got this or KHII love. I found both hella overrated

3/10

First game on this list that I've played and did not enjoy at all

8

I think the novelty of Disney and Final Fantasy characters carried this one pretty well. By the time KH2 came around, it was a "better" game but I didn't have as much fun with it. Still haven't touched KH3 either...

Leonhart4 posted...

Maybe I just don't get nostalgia for gameplay, but it felt pretty much just like I remembered when I replayed the HD remix a few years back. I knew it was kinda clunky, and that's what I got.

My standards have changed dramatically. KH1 was pre-Devil May Cry, pre-Dark Souls...pre-KH2 lol. KH1 is rough to play these days

FFDragon posted...

strip out 6 and its t-rex and family nonsense and it's not that bad

idk man, those revelations about Spencer in REViII are very KH-coded to me

0

what ffd said

KamikazePotato posted...

My standards have changed dramatically. KH1 was pre-Devil May Cry, pre-Dark Souls...pre-KH2 lol. KH1 is rough to play these days

Yeah, I guess so.

Maybe it's just because this isn't why I'm playing KH1, so I don't care as much. Just be good at the things I want you to be good at, and anything else is a bonus.

8

Kingdom Hearts was after Devil May Cry honestly

DMC and KH aren't trying to do the same thing though? Feels weird to compare them, same with Dark Souls.

KH1's combat holds up, even if its not perfect

It also wasn't trying to be just an action game though.

LiquidOshawott posted...

Kingdom Hearts was after Devil May Cry honestly

I played KH first. It was one of the first 3D action games I ever did play.

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

DMC and KH aren't trying to do the same thing though? Feels weird to compare them, same with Dark Souls.

The comparison is less with the games themselves and more personal. When I played KH1 I had very few frames of reference to go on for action games in general. When I branched out and discovered other action game styles that I liked a lot more, my personal barometer for what was fun had shifted dramatically. I just don't find KH1 enjoyable to play anymore (although the music and aesthetics are still good).

Overall, between the simple gameplay and straightforward-but-entertaining story, KH1 is like the perfect game to give to a young teenager trying out new things. I'm not surprised that others have expressed it didn't hold up for them either, because a lot of what initially made it special was the time period in which I played it.

I think KH's combat likely holds up-- I do have the games on my steam deck so Ill replay soon.

It's not trying to be DMC and never was. It's still an RPG.

Like I feel like the better analogy is to compare it to Zelda games. I've always considered Ocarina of Time to be dumbed down KH combat. Well more accurately KH is smartened up Zelda combat but yeah.

UltimaterializerX posted...

RE5 revealing Weskers clone army

come again

this is not a thing in the games

it is unfortunately a thing in the dumb netflix show

Lopen posted...

Well more accurately KH is smartened up Zelda combat but yeah.

the correct take

It was also took inspiration from Mario 64, hence all the platforming

UltimaterializerX posted...

You cant compare Mario 1 or Pac-Man to gameplay today.

Mario 1 holds up perfectly today

UltimaterializerX posted...

I understand this but I try to rate stuff based on how I felt at the time. You cant compare Mario 1 or Pac-Man to gameplay today.

I am rating every game in this topic series as if I was playing it today

I rate on a combination. Good memories are important but I don't want to ignore how I would feel today either. KH's 6.5 rating was a base 5 + 1.5 nostalgia boost.

There are very few games where my score would drop on a replay

It could potentially improve though

9/10

no but seriously ulti what clone army

I am trying really hard to rack my brain on what you could be thinking of

The Anderson movies have clones, but are only of Alice and Isaacs.

The Netflix TV show has three clones of Wesker.

The only cloning in the games is of Sergei for the tyrant models.

This is going to drive me mad.

8.7

9

6.5

I think he means the clones like Alex?

but alex isn't a clone

she's just some girl that scored high on an aptitude test as a child

project w was a eugenics thing, not a cloning thing

albert and alex aren't even related

well now I'm going to need you to elaborate on how it's worse than your clone army nonsense because the whole eugenics aspect is a completely elegant way to handle things and push things forward post-Albert, especially in the RE universe. And Alex was an exceptional villain in her own right, with potential to return still.

I'm with you entirely on the Carla stuff though. Again, most things from RE6 were just bad, but that's an outlier in the series overall.

but yeah, please do explain how it's worse so I know whether to keep arguing with you or not

So what you're telling me is that Wesker should've been Ansem

but arguing about resident evil is a favorite pastime of mine, I just needed to know where exactly you were coming from and if your information was accurate

Wesker, from the middle of RE1, has been altered (by Birkin's prototype virus). So if that's where your hang up lies, I can't really go any further. Before that he was just a dude. A smart dude. A smart dude that was under Umbrella's thumb since he was a child. Beforew RE5 the lore was he had been under Umbrella control since he was a teen, all this did was bump it back a few more years.

Now if you want to say that RE goes to the well on 'pitting children against each other' too much (Birkin vs Alexa, Birkin vs Wesker, Albert vs Alex), you might have a case. but that just seems to have been Umbrella's MO for quite some time.

I do think the series was a bit hamstrung by Wesker's continuing sphere of influence and should have leaned way more heavily into the Ada vs Wesker feud that RE4 set up before knocking him out for real, but I don't think the series could have evolved forward with him always looming. RE5 as mostly Wesker vs Ada with RE6 being the culmination of the fall of Wesker would have been better, but if things had to go down like this I think this was in fact the best way to handle it.

Alex's existence, or any of the Wesker children's existences doesn't negate the journey Albert took. Birkin is basically one half of Wesker's journey and Alexa is the other half. A running theme through the entire series is avarice and hubris taking down even the most powerful. Wesker being no exception.

FFDragon posted...

A running theme through the entire series is avarice and hubris taking down even the most powerful. Wesker being no exception.

Hey this applies to KH too

As well as Kingdom Hearts being light

Leonhart4 posted...

As well as Kingdom Hearts being light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8qG4AlK1qk

???

Dante wishes he were a Kingdom Hearts character

KH did steal its lore from DMC1 that is unquestionable