[PS2] Kingdom Hearts 2

I've been looking forward to KH2, but then the other night I read that Setzer Gabbiani was in it and I was overjoyed. Finally, someone from pre-FF VII! Hurray!

...Then I saw this picture of what Nomura has done to his character design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Setzer_kh2.jpg

Great, so Nomura's taken the rough, lecherous gambler with long, scraggly silver hair and turned him into Seymour with Cloud's hair wearing a very gay swashbuckler's outfit. As for his role in the game:

Spoiler:

I asked a friend of mine who has a Japanese copy of KH2, and Setzer has practically no part at all. He's standing around somewhere, you fight him, and my friend beat him so quickly he barely gave Setzer a chance to attack. Worst of all, he doesn't have his airship.

So now I'm back to just looking forward to this since I loved the first Kingdom Hearts so much.

How ya doing, buddy?

I dunno, if they're going to completely screw up the character designs to the point where they look absolutely nothing like the original, I'd rather they didn't bother including old characters at all. Setzer is really there in name only, so it's more of a cash-in than a cameo.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Monkey King

Spoiler:

Setzer is an obscure character?

Myself, I'd love it if they cameoed Black Mage from 8-Bit Theatre. I don't think Brian Clevinger would mind.

Spoiler:

I suppose to anyone who hasn't played FF VI in ages or ever before he would be pretty obscure. Most people probably think more of Locke, Terra, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, and Cyan.

I was just thinking the other day how cool it would be to see Fighter over in a corner practicing with sword-chucks, and Black Mage being his usual evil and destructive self. At least there will be A black mage since

Spoiler:

Vivi Ornitier is in KH2.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I haven't seen Vivi's KH2 design, but surely there's no need to change a design that's been a staple since FF1. The crap Nomura calls Setzer does make me worry though... The only picture I can find is an artwork on Wikipedia labeled as the redesign, and other than some stripes on the shoes and some stuff drawn onto the hat (and a random zipper? Vivi must shop at Hot Topic now) there isn't much difference. I didn't see him in any of the RPGamer screens and art.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Sing

Because it's supposed to be an exploration of Disney media in video game format, not other fucking Final Fantasy game. You wanna play Blitzball in Luca? Play Final Fucking Fantasy X.

Someone has some unresolved issues.

I think the main reason that there aren't any familiar Final Fantasy worlds is because of the approach to Kingdom Heart's story. They said in the first game that their worlds had already been devoured by the Heartless, hence why all the characters were scattered and intermingling. I'm still hopeful that they'll stick more in KH3 (if it's made). Hell, even a generic RPG world to represent FF1 would be great. Just make sure the town in that world is called Corneria and they're all set.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Sing

Fuck you.

That's right, let out your anger. Go to your happy place.

Originally Posted by Sing

If you actually fucking paid attention in the first game: they state Hollow Bastion is their world.

I believe they said that Hollow Bastion was one of their worlds. The rest had already fallen completely to the Heartless.

Originally Posted by Sing

Packing a Kingdom Hearts game with generic worlds defeats the entire purpose. Where's the novelty?

FF1 was pretty generic overall, so there wouldn't be a need for much detail there for fans to appreciate it. It would be easier to do something from FF IV and beyond, but I'm pointing out that any of them could be done.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Sing

No, they didn't.

Normally I would concede since it's been several years since I beat the first game. However, you're just an asshat who has much proof as I do.

Originally Posted by Sing

If it's generic overall, how the Hell does it make clear that it's the world of Final Fantasy? Why should Square Enix waste their time pumping out boring and/or redundant worlds when they could be focusing on more Disney worlds, the actual purpose of the series' existence?

I believe I already answered in the previous response that town names and locations would be intact. They could easily use some of the old dialogue and such as well. It really wouldn't be that hard to make Garland into a servant of the Heartless. Besides, I'd rather see at least one generic RPG world in KH3 than a Pocahantas world. That's not to say that Disney worlds are bad at all, but I'd like to see a bit of variety in the selection so that the FF characters are there for more than show.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Sing

Go punch yourself in the face.

I will when I see that in screencap form, or someone else backing you up on that point who also wants me to punch myself in the face.

Originally Posted by Sing

Bypassing the fact that Pocahantas was a eh movie, the novelty still puts it above "generic grassland world that is a waste of development and without a meaningful connection with the player".

Way to miss the entire point.

Originally Posted by Tritoch

It would be easier to do something from FF IV and beyond, but I'm pointing out that any of them could be done.

Considering you're the only person here who's gung-ho about not wanting to ever see an FF world, I don't think you're qualified to say that it would have no meaningful connection for players.

Originally Posted by Sing

The worlds have already been explored in their own games. The characters have also been explored in those same games. Why do you desire another series to be filled with more of your fanboy crap?

Yes, heaven forbid they be referenced and create a true crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney. Despite my name, I'm no fanboy. FF VII was pretty blah, FF VIII sucked near the end and had a crappy magic system, FFX seemed pointless by the end, and FF X-2 made me want to bash my head against a wall from the very beginning. Just because someone enjoys a popular series of games and wants to see their favorite characters again in a new scenario doesn't mean they're drooling fanboys.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well, at least they found the perfect voice actor for Setzer despite his horrendous redesign. I can't think of anyone more suited for the character than Crispin Freeman.

I wouldn't worry about pre-orders, this should be pretty widely available once it's released. Square usually overanticipates the launches of its big games, so there shouldn't be any problem finding a copy. Besides, considering my Gamestop tried to get me to pre-order KH2 about 6 times when I came in to pre-order Harvest Moon:MM I doubt they'll be lacking in copies.

How ya doing, buddy?

Seymour became a swashbuckler and stole Cloud's hair. Considering by your example it's more that Sephiroth stole Setzer's hair, then yes I would prefer that. If they're going to include an old character they shouldn't change the look beyond all recognition, especially not into yet another one of Nomura's tired lookalike designs. How does this pretty boy look more like a high-stakes gambler than the rough, unshaven Setzer?

How ya doing, buddy?

Hm, maybe they were scars instead of stubble. All I have are memories and fuzzy jpegs to go by at the moment since I'm too lazy to dig out my FF VI manual. I agree though, the ultra-smooth skin is just weird for Setzer.

Originally Posted by Motsy

What do you expect, it's Nomura.

Precisely the problem.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm picking up a copy at Target on Thursday; it's on sale for $45 this week. I've got Thursday completely off from school, so I'll have all day to be enjoy the KH2 goodness.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Monkey King

Counterpoint: did you throw away Megaman 2 after a couple of hours because it kept kicking your ass? Difficulty was never a consideration in the olden times, and in fact everyone has fond memories of the old games they played at 10 years old that were hard as sin. Show of hands, younger crowd; how old were you when you played Chrono Trigger or FF7 for the first time? Did you grow to utterly despise the game when it got hard?

What you're seeing as making things easier for the target audience, I see as dumbing down the product for the lowest common denominator. Dumbed down products inevitibly are inferior to products that assume the user is at least capable of feeding himself without choking on his own spit.

But we'll see once I've actually played through the whole game. The game looked hard enough when my brother was playing, even though he tends to suck hardcore at video games.

I couldn't agree more. After spending my childhood playing Megaman 2 (repeating your example since the time I've spent on MM2 probably rivals my WoW time) I can't help but laugh when I hear people complaining about how hard Megaman X1 is, or that the problem with the Megaman Collection was that the games were too difficult. Hell, I play Fire Emblem games because of the challenge they provide.

Even if the difficulty is dumbed down I can still enjoy it with a good story. It only pisses me off when it's down to the insulting level of something like FF X's final boss. I don't know whose brilliant idea it was to inexplicably make your party invincible against an already lame excuse for a final boss, but they must have thought the target audience was bereft of basic motor functions.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

I do have one complaint with the voice acting, and that's the choice pronounciation of some FF names. Seifer is prounounced as "Sai-fer", instead of "Say-fer". I find the latter to be accurate, because it would have to be spelled as Siefer in order to be prounounced "Sai-fer". What's even worse is that the girl character (Omelett or something...) calls him "Say-fer"!

It gets worse though. Selphie briefly mentions Tidus, and calls him "Tai-dis", which is stupid since it was established in the original game that it's prounounced "Tee-dus". There was already prior arguments over which prounounciation was correct, and now this is going to start the debates all over again.

Finally, Vivi is prounounced "Vee Vee". I always used "Vi-Vee" (like Vivian). It really sucks to spend so many years prounouncing a character's name a certain way, only to find out you were incorrect.

Heh, I'm actually glad that they changed Seifer and Tidus' name pronunciations like that since those are the ways I normally say them. Vivi's is kind of odd, but not that bad. I just remember laughing at how horrible "Tee-dus" sounded in the original Kingdom Hearts.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

Oops? Forgive me, it's been quite a long time since I've last played FFVI. I didn't realize he had some similiarities. Wouldn't I give to see Locke though. He's my second favourite FF character.

His character design is pretty horrid, but at least it looks slightly better in-game. No justice done to the original character at all, it might as well have been Dressed Up Townsman #38 aside from one line he said when the battle started.

I'm only in Hollow Bastion, but I hate the new VAs for Squall and Aeris. I thought David Boreanaz was perfect as Leon, but the new guy just sounds kinda whimpy and doesn't synch with the mouth movements at ALL. Mandy Moore was passable in KH1, but her replacement is just terrible. I think it's mostly how her voice seems pretty flat in its range of emotion. She sounds like she's just reading lines off of a page rather than talking.

Other than those two things (and those dreadfully boring mini-games for money), I love the game so far. I've barely been able to put it down, which wasn't exactly a good thing for my Statistics test today.

How ya doing, buddy?

You mention the cure magic right after I go to Land of the Dragons instead.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Shenlon

well you could always go back ^_^

Yeah, but oh well. Should make for more of a challenge anyway.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Nah, I'm playing Normal mode for now. I might go back through Proud mode after I beat that though. I planned on keeping Donald in my party anyway, since it seems more balanced to have two fighters and one mage.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Kairi Li

The Lack of Billy Zane is a bit of a loss, Mena was terrible as Aeris, but dude, the guy who did Squall this time was actually BETTER than Boreanaz. And the rest of the voice acting was superb. Its only Aeris and Ansem that had a huge blow.

I have to disagree on that. I thought Boreanaz fit Squall much better than the new guy they picked. He just didn't sound right to me, though it's been too long since I beat KH2 to remember exactly why. Mena was just painful to listen to.

Originally Posted by Chip

Okay, I wanna know, how much will I miss if I dont complete the stuff for that extra ending or whatever. Jimny's (sp?) Journal is very irritating.

As far as I know, the only thing gained is this extra video tacked onto the ending. It doesn't really contain spoilers if you're even close to the end of KH2, just a video for what is likely KH3.

There's nowhere I can't reach.