i do think it’s kinda funny how nomura was like ‘hee hoo let’s make a kingdom hearts mmo! it can just be a fun little browser/phone thing on the side not connected to the story hehe’ and now a decade later there is literally an entirely new branch of the timeline that’s like close to as long as all the ‘main’ games combined and a small yet significant and completely rabid group of fans on the internet dedicated to its insane deep lore and worldbuilding
You know the feeling of growing up and suddenly your friends are married and having kids and moving on without you? I think Brain probably feels that but times 1000
I think it really is a testament to how good the storytelling in Kingdom Hearts is that it can make expected moments still feel significant and emotional. Like, even if I ignore the fact that I got spoiled on a lot of story-beats before I ever played the games: We knew that Xion would disappear at the end of Days. We knew that the Wayfinder trio would fall to darkness at the end of BBS. We knew that most of Xehanort's classmates would die, that Roxas would come back, that Sora would save Aqua etc and yet when it happens it's executed so well that it still feels as important as it should be. We know that Scala and the people living in it will probably be fucked at the end of Missing Link and we know that Sora will probably escape from Quadratum in KH4, but you bet I'll cry when it happens nonetheless
just saw someone say squeenix should stop wasting their time with unnecessary side things like Missing Link and make "actual kh titles"??? my brother in kingdom hearts it is nearly 2024 and Strelitzia was in the kh4 trailer how do you still believe this
generally speaking i will always jump to the kingdom hearts series’ defense when it comes to creative choices in the story that come across as being really silly or something (think ‘who else will i have ice cream with?’ or ‘my guess is no one’s ever loved you before!’ or ‘mickey it’s riku they put bugs in him!’) because it’s always either actually really good in context the second time around when you really think about it, or like yeah it’s funny what are you gonna do about it it can be cool and meaningful at the same time
HOWEVER. i don’t think i will ever get over the khux/khdr ending where player2 just. collapses unceremoniously on the sand on destiny islands. sudden heat stroke from wearing that full robe on a tropical island after all those years. old age heart attack. they just fall over before fading away and xehanort doesn’t even hear or see anything or seem to care. apologies to those animators that whole epilogue is such a heartfelt scene but that’s hysterical