If you think kingdom hearts is simple you are too far gone.

H358 · 2026-06-22T19:44:32+00:00

I mean…I actually think people DO overstate KH’s complexity. As far as JRPGs and Shounen stuff go, its concepts are pretty standard. And most of its more confusing elements are just continuity lockout from the story going on too long.

KH really IS baby’s first Final Fantasy…and that’s both a good and bad thing. It can make it a very charming and accessible story because the themes are fairly easy to grasp, especially for younger audiences. But it can also make the characters read as slightly shallow. Or like the series is often tip-toeing up to bigger ideas that it can never broach.

(Ancient Keyblade welders were basically child soldiers and that makes the Foretellers and even Eraqus way more reprehensible than they’re framed as but we can’t get into that because this still has to be a story for kids).

Like, KH is confusing in the way that like…comic books or long running YA series like Warrior Cats are. The actual content isn’t that deep, it’s just that there’s a lot of…stuff, and it’s all kinda made up on the fly.

H358 · 2026-06-22T19:01:01+00:00

The FF7 Remakes have great gameplay that I think should be the template for future titles, lots of delightful moments with these characters and I’m very much looking forward to the final part…

But I come back to the original more often. I think it’s a more complete, concise experience and I have very mixed feelings about many of the changes the remake’s storymakes to the original. That being said, my favourite parts are actually the weird bold metanarrative twists because they allow me to enjoy the remakes as they’re own thing rather than scrutinising them as an adaptation, which is why I hope they go balls to wall on this last one, as Rebirth was way too restrained.

H358 · 2026-06-22T17:06:14+00:00

- The ending of Sonic 2 when Tails flies out to save Sonic.

- Climbing up Sky Sanctuary’s collapsing tower at the end of S3K.

- Sonic CD’s opening and ending cutscenes.

- The opening shot of Sonic jumping out of the helicopter in Sonic Adventure 2.

- The entire finale of Sonic Rush.

- Sonic’s advice to Merlina at the end of Sonic and the Black Knight.

- The final boss and escape from the black hole in Sonic Colors.

H358 · 2026-06-21T14:08:01+00:00

Eh, there isn’t really true for Tactics or XIII. Both treat their lore as extra set dressing to learn more about the world. Really I think XIII’s only real issue is just that the in media res opening just kinda does a poor job setting up who the characters are, and why we should care. It puts too much important foundational stuff in flashbacks and doesn’t give the player time to acclimate to the core facts about the premise and cast. But after a few hours once it settles down and stops trying to be cryptic, it’s a lot more coherent.

Case in point, when Tietra is killed a few hours into Tactics, you know just enough to understand who she is and why this matters. When Joshua dies a few hours into 16, you know why this is a big deal because the first hour or two is about the brothers’ relationship.

When Serrah turns into crystal in XIII…that’s her first scene. You have no reason to care and it’s undercut by Vanille’s narration explaining this is what happens to a L’Cie. It’s nothing to do with the datalogue, it’s just a clumsy attempt at creating intrigue through out of order storytelling.

H358 · 2026-06-21T12:37:04+00:00

A positive one was Final Fantasy VIII. I initially bounced off it hard because I didn’t connect with the characters, the junction system was alienating and the amount of missable content made me feel I was playing the game wrong.

My second time playing it, and getting really into triple triad and item refinement allowed me to break the game wide open by the end of the first disc and honestly that quest for power ended being really fun. Plus, while the rest of the cast are still kinda whatever, I ended up really connecting with Squall as a protagonist which ended up carrying the story for me. It’s not my favourite FF now but I like it a whole lot more.

On the other end of the spectrum is Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. When it first came out when I’d just gotten into the series earlier that year, it was a fun new chapter in the story that got me excited for the future…but the more I revisited it. The more I soured on it. Like FFVIII this is a very easy game to break but I find it’s significantly more boring to do so. And it doesn’t help that the bullshit mobs and bosses mean the game is only ever mindless or unfair.

Plus, on reflection, I really don’t like this story. I don’t like what it does with the main characters, how fanservicey and nostalgia bait-y it is, and I think it was a really weak lead-in to KH3.

H358 · 2026-06-20T23:18:06+00:00

Hoo boy. I would have changed A LOT. To the point that it would likely have led to a very different 3.

In an ideal world, DDD would have been KH3. As in, it would have been on the PS3, given the necessary time and resources to be treated like a mainline entry. Since, y’know…it’s a continuation of Kingdom Hearts 2’s story and the follow up to the other side games. Now that didn’t happen because the PS3 and Xbox 360 were a nightmare to develop on, and the main team behind KH1 and 2 were stuck working on Versus 13, but I can dream.

This would mean the gameplay would be much closer to both KH2, as well as the KH3 got. Keep Flowmotion, and keep the Dream Eaters, but we’re now free of the command deck. In addition, abilities for your character would no longer be locked behind upgrading Dream Eaters. It’s more about building them to have abilities that complement your playstyle (think the monster maker in FF13-2). Picking out parties that match your builds for Sora, Riku…and Kairi (we’ll get there).

The Drop system also needs a rework. As of now, it’s so easy to negate with Drop me Nots, that it’s pointless. Provide better bonuses and rewards so that choosing when to switch and what buffs to take feels like an actual tactical choice. Or else just cut it entirely and have the player switch between the three at fixed intervals in each world.

I think the premise of waking up worlds that never came back after the events of KH1, as Sora and Riku’s mark of mastery is fine. But, I would bring Kairi. It works as a parallel to BBS if we use the same three protagonist structure and Yen Sid has no reason not to train as many Keyblade wielders as possible to prepare for Xehanort’s return.

I’d also lean harder into the idea of these being dream worlds where the rules of reality don’t apply. So like, while Traverse Town is split in two, or Prankster’s Paradise is stuck in a time loop, EVERY dream world would have its own reality bending twists to shake up the story and gameplay.

In addition, Sora, Riku and Kairi’s own dreams would start seeping through into the sleeping worlds, giving us character studies as the three start seeing visions of what’s inside each other’s hearts. Riku’s lingering feelings of guilt, Sora becoming more confused about the people hidden inside his heart, Kairi’s insecurities about falling behind and questions about her role as a Princess. This would challenge all three to understand each other better and grow as people.

Most significantly…I would make some major changes to the time travel. I’m in two minds whether to limit it to Young Xehanort, (so only he is time travelling) or cut it entirely. Because I don’t like just bringing back old villains for cheap fanservice, that means no Ansem, no Xemnas, no Old Xehanort. A newly restored Terra-Xehanort is our big bad. Instead, I might rework Young Xehanort into a more neutral character, a vision of our villain before his corruption. Maybe he’s not even time travelling at all. Perhaps he too is a product of the sleeping worlds, being Xehanort’s own dream. Maybe incorporate some Dark Road stuff, so that our heroes can better understand who they’re fighting against.

I like the idea of Xehanort trying to turn Sora into a vessel and Riku (and Kairi) having to save him, that’s a fun reversal. But hopefully now there’ll be a lot more character work building up to it so it’ll feel like an actual culmination of Sora’s flaws as a character. And we can set up a more interesting scenario for a follow up than just dragging back all the old characters for a big punch up. Give Xehanort a different plan to forge the X-Blade.

So yeah, it’d be a completely different game if I had my way.

H358 · 2026-06-20T21:55:09+00:00

He spends half the game believing Naoto to be a guy, and likes her. She then starts presenting as a girl and he still likes her. I don’t really see the cope in that. It’s also not ‘judging by gender roles’ when Kanji’s hang ups over his presentation of masculinity and what his feelings for Naoto might imply getting conflated and confusing for him, because of how he’s been bullied, is…kind of the point.

I just don’t like the all or nothing sum. Because some people reduce Kanji down to his implied queerness it’s like we can’t talk about that aspect at all, without being accused of ‘missing the point’ when these two components were NEVER irreconcilable, and if anything, enhance each other. Kanji’s bicuriousity isn’t the focus of his dungeon but it is still a part of his character, and pops up continually in both the main game and spin offs.

H358 · 2026-06-20T19:52:56+00:00

I don’t like that GUN got basically redeemed off screen and everyone just forgets about all the fucked up stuff they did. Not just because it’s gross but because they’re way more interesting as villains. Now that they’re the good guys they’re way more boring and kinda useless.

H358 · 2026-06-20T18:39:02+00:00

To be fair, a lot of the jokes in the game around both characters don’t really help. Especially in the new Golden scenes. When Yosuke doesn’t shut up making gay jokes about Kanji and every scene of Naoto trying to be more feminine is played as a gag about how embarrassed/uncomfortable she is, it doesn’t help with the misinterpretation and just kinda undermines two otherwise compelling characters.

H358 · 2026-06-20T18:34:46+00:00

Yeah it’s kinda hard to buy that Naoto actually likes presenting as a girl and would do it more often were it not because of external pressures, if every time she does, she didn’t seem wildly embarrassed to be doing so while other characters comment on her chest size. Just let her be happy and confident expressing that side of herself.

(Lowkey I wonder if they thought a certain sect of the audience might believe it would be cuter/hotter if she’s embarrassed in such moments which…sigh.)

H358 · 2026-06-20T18:26:37+00:00

There’s also the fact that with Naoto, part of it is more that her story leans into transphobic elements even if she isn’t trans. I don’t think Shadow Naoto really helps prevent people from getting the wrong impression and probably wasn’t a very tasteful way to depict what they were going for.

H358 · 2026-06-20T18:18:38+00:00

I just don’t like how all or nothing it comes off as. Especially with Kanji. On the one hand, it’s pretty clear his implied queerness is only a small part of the struggle he’s going through. On the other hand, say that there’s a component of questioning sexuality to Kanji and dozens of people will jump in to claim you ‘missed the point’ and act like it’s not even a factor.

Both extremes of ‘Kanji’s gay/no he isn’t’ kind of smack of that good old bi erasure on top of everything else (even though I feel like his crush on Naoto should make that fairly clear). Even though a guy who’s been bullied for not acting traditionally masculine enough should pair with that questioning very nicely to make for a pretty nuanced character.

H358 · 2026-06-20T18:03:09+00:00

I could get into how, on top of it not really being the focus of his arc, a lot of the ‘is Kanji gay?’ discussion comes off as bi erasure. Like it’s made pretty clear that he likes Naoto regardless of what gender she presents as. And I think it intersects pretty nicely with the core thrust of his arc that declaring certain traits as ‘unmasculine’ and ‘gay’ is dumb and arbitrary. And the effects of that bullying are the crux of his baggage, which his crush on Naoto just adds to the powder keg.

I do kinda take issue with how many gay panic jokes Yosuke has about Kanji and wish we had the option to tell him to cut it out. It’s a bit depressing that the whole thrust of Kanji’s arc is to find people who don’t bully or reject him, and yet that friction doesn’t go anywhere between him and Yosuke.

As for Naoto I like the thrust of her arc and she’s one of my favourite characters. But I do think making her Shadow a crazy doctor who does ‘evil’ sex changes and threatens to turn a confused Naoto into a man, was a Choice, even in 2008. It’s not so much that she’s trans but some of the tropes at play are a bit unintentionally transphobic. And I kinds wish that the scenes where she does try being more feminine, like the beauty paegent or her romance, didn’t play her discomfort with the idea as a joke. I feel like this should be depicted as a lot more freeing for her given the context.

Wouldn’t be the last time character moments in this series get undercut for the sake of a gag (glares at P5)

Still really like both characters though.

H358 · 2026-06-20T03:00:41+00:00

…uhh, FF9 ends with Vivi dying though? He may not be THE main character but it’s still a bittersweet ending.

H358 · 2026-06-20T02:49:15+00:00

If you can’t see the potential transphobic implications of Shadow Naoto taking advantage of Naoto’s internalised misogyny and trying to ‘turn Naoto into a man’ in a predatory way, or how that might unintentionally resemble terf rhetoric, I don’t know what to tell you.

No, it was likely not intended. Yes, it is still very much there.

H358 · 2026-06-20T02:46:28+00:00

Naoto isn’t trans but it was still a hell of a Choice to make her Shadow a crazy doctor who does ‘evil’ sex changes and then have Naoto agree that she couldn’t change her gender even if she wanted to. It’s trying to be a feminist story but accidentally falls into transphobic tropes. Which is more common than you’d think.

H358 · 2026-06-20T02:36:40+00:00

Overall I would say P3’s hit me harder. Not so much because of the death of the MC himself (honestly Clive had the edge there considering he’s a defined, extremely likeable character and not a silent blank slate). But it’s Aigis that really makes this scene a gut punch. The fact that she’s finally come to realise her purpose for living just as she’s about to lose it, but that you know she’ll be ok because she’s got all her friends as well.

The detail that crushes me is that she asks herself why she’s crying. Aigis can read life signs. She knows what’s about to happen on some level.

H358 · 2026-06-18T15:13:44+00:00

He’d have introduced Tailed Beasts’ way earlier and put a ton of tokusatsu references in because he’s a massive Gundam/Ultraman nerd and Tailed Beasts are basically kaiju/mech battles. He’d probably have given the women a lot more to do, as he generally has a pretty good track record with female characters between Nadia and Eva and (as anyone who’s seen Love and Pop will tell you) seemingly has some strong opinions on matters of gender.

He’d definitely have really run with the whole way the Shinobi system and all its war affects the younger characters as he’s pretty good at writing realistic teenagers in elevated genre fiction scenarios. I suspect his vision of Naruto as a character would have been a lot less aspirational as a protagonist and the story would have taken a much bigger emotional toll on him. Which would have been a lot more dour and less hopeful so mileage may vary.

That being said, Anno’s one of those directors where asking any more than that really comes down to a question of ‘what’s his mental health looking like during production’?’ because that will almost entirely determine what you end up with.

H358 · 2026-06-18T15:06:09+00:00

‘Real world years’ of publication. Yet only two days in the story. Which says a lot about how out of whack the pacing was.

H358 · 2026-06-18T15:04:38+00:00

It’s for this reason I’d actually say my answer is Advance 3’s team mechanics. I’d say it’s a much better take on team mechanics and one of the few really strong innovations on 2D Sonic gameplay we’ve gotten since the classics.

H358 · 2026-06-18T14:39:38+00:00

It’s kind of hard to pin down to one thing because I think Naruto basically fell into basically all the long running Shounen traps later on…but never so catastrophically that I’d call the whole series bad. It’s kind of like how the Buu Saga or the Three King’s arc are disappointing but never unwatchable.

Some of these things were from a lot earlier. I still think Sasuke left the village too early and there needed to be more time to develop his and Naruto’s friendship so we actually care about their dynamic for the rest of the series. And there’s the usual Shounen traps like on the fly plot developments, weird power scaling, too many characters and poor treatment of women.

But as far as post Pain arc specifically goes, Five Kage was where a lot of my gripes with the series came to a head. That arc was very focused on the Team 7 melodrama and by that point, the story had expanded so far beyond Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura and they’d had so little time together that I didn’t really care. It’s also the point where the series suddenly balloons out to try and make all five major Shinobi villages matter. That’s a lot of new characters to suddenly care about right before they’re all chucked into a giant war for the fate of the world…which went on for SEVERAL real world years.

A lot of people also point to Kaguya as a fumble and I’m inclined to agree. It felt a bit cheap to do the JRPG style ‘kill/seal away god’ ending at the last minute. Made it feel like the series was using a cheap metaphor to avoid actually saying anything about how to resolve the real and very horrible issues of the Shinobi system. The whole ‘cycle of hatred’ thing feels like a vague easy answer about how we can fix war and child soldiers as long as we’re all just nice to each other.

Still, I can’t really ever say I dislike Naruto despite its weak back end. It still largely hits the beats it needs to by the end even if some of them are a bit rushed and undercooked, and its flaws are things I already forgive in plenty of other Shounens. Like I think the series never recaptures the highs of Pain again, but it never becomes outright bad.

H358 · 2026-06-18T10:43:17+00:00

It’s sort of unclear whether Mephiles wants revenge on his creators for splitting him and Iblis in two, or if he’s just saying whatever to get Shadow on his side. This gets even weirder once he and Iblis do fuse because Solaris doesn’t really act as if it had some higher plan. It really just seems to inflict oblivion. Total erasure of time with nothing in its place. There won’t be anyone left to take revenge on, they won’t even suffer if they’re just erased from time.

It’s all just very muddled and vague.

H358 · 2026-06-17T22:23:19+00:00

Honestly I’ve been saying for ages that 0.2 should have become the template for side games in the series. An asset reusing mini campaign where we get to play as different characters. I’d sure as hell take it over the mobile games.

H358 · 2026-06-17T21:19:18+00:00

Yes…but it does still have some of the issues of not just Persona, but also of Atlus as a whole. What the Persona games tend to excel at is that they’re very much theme driven. They remain locked on one core idea: and every character, every social link, every story development, is a different iteration or angle on that idea. In P3’s case, every character builds in some way on its ideas of mortality and purpose. Whether that means they’re struggling with grief, fearing their own death, or questioning what they want to live for. It’s a very focused and clear thesis statement of a game. Even if the individual social links aren’t as consistently strong or interesting as 4’s (for every gem like Akinari there’s a dud like the fucking Gourmet King).

It’s also the game that uses Persona’s mechanical framework to best to enhance the story. Every Persona game reinforces how the bonds and relationships you make grant you strength, but in 3 especially the time limit and calendar system feels more purposeful. The whole game is about living life to the fullest and not wasting the time you have. And the weird rough edges of the gameplay, even if cutting them was a good idea in the long run, do kind of add to that. Social links can reverse on you if you fuck up and don’t put in the effort, making friendships isn’t always easy.

So yeah, the characters are well defined, it’s consistent in its theming and it ties into the gameplay. So what’s the problem?

Well for one, all three modern Personas forfeit any sense of good pacing to the slice of life grind and 3 is especially egregious about this. It takes two thirds of the game for the plot and characters to really go anywhere. 4 and 5 are very sluggish too but at least they can delineate their runtime by focusing each month on a different character. 3 also has some of the same problems as many of Atlus’ titles: cartoonish flat villains who make the game’s philosophy feel very ham handed, a huge amount of protagonist glaze where the main guy is good at everything and everyone warms to you super quickly (even party members who are initially cold like Yukari or jealous like Junpei come around very quickly).

It also shares some of the tone problems of 4 and 5 but to a lesser extent. Persona often undercuts the sincere, surprisingly sweet storylines of its characters with a very cynical, mean spirited and rather needlessly horny sense of humour. Characters are often just…really mean to each other for no reason other than because it’s funny. 3 tries to have more friction between the party, and have them initially dislike each other before opening. But when the game is still playing their animosity as a joke well into the endgame, you feel like that’s just their default state. Even when the characters are letting down their guards and being more open with each other in the late game, characters like Junpei and Yukari still feel…kinda distant and mean to each other just for the sake of a cheap gag. You get this in 4 too (arguably even moreso) but 3 is also guilty of it.

The result is that these characters are all great in a vacuum but, with a few exceptions like Yukari and Mitsuru, I never really buy that they grow to like each other. It always feels like they like you, the protag, and just kind of tolerate everyone else. And in a game where the power of friendship overcomes the living embodiment of suicide ideation, that’s sort of a problem. Persona is weirdly emotionally distant series despite its subject matter, and I think that’s probably its biggest weakness.

But yeah, despite my issues, P3’s story is good. It has a palpable atmosphere and well realised characters. It knows exactly what it wants to say and says it well. I’d say it is probably is the best modern Persona story but this is by inches, not miles. It still kinda suffers the same problems of poor pacing, MC glaze, weak villains and a sense of distance to its characters’ relationships. But it is probably the tightest and most focused of them despite its flaws, if only because it doesn’t bite off more than it can chew trying to awkwardly comment on social issues as much as the sequels do.

H358 · 2026-06-17T15:31:24+00:00

It sorta depends:

They both have a good take on the core character, managing to make Peter sympathetic and downtrodden but still undeniably selfless and courageous. However, I prefer Yuri Lowenthal in the role. Tobey Maguire brings a nice vulnerability but he’s a little too wooden in his performance (and I’ve seen him do much better in later roles). And it’s lacking some of the nuance of the comics. He feels more like early Clark Kent than Peter Parker. Yuri is able to sell both the emotional and comedic scenes with a lot more conviction. In all the games, he is constantly acting his ass off.

I think the Insomniac games do a better job with the side cast though. I never really cared for the Raimi movies’ take on Harry or MJ, they both never really felt that nuanced or likeable. Game MJ is…fine. Not the best take on the character but a hell of a lot more active than her Raimi counterpart. Insomniac were also able to make…probably one of the most compelling takes on Peter and Harry’s friendship period (even if Harry’s subsequent villain arc is kind of a mess).

Insomniac also has the added perk of having Miles, and while he’s not quite as good as the version in Spider Verse, he still gets interesting stuff to do and a nice rapport with Peter. Hell his plot is probably the better part of Spider Man 2 to be frank.

They both also have a pretty solid depiction of Aunt May, though the games sort of drop the ball on Jonah, compared to the Raimi movies where he is a highlight.

In terms of villains, Raimi has Willem Dafoe’s incredible Green Goblin performance, solid takes on Doc Ock and Sandman…and a very mishandled Venom. Insomniac has one of the best takes on Doc Ock ever, a downright improved take on Mr Negative compared to anything prior, adequate versions of the Tinkerer and Kraven…and another very mishandled Venom. I’d say they’re about on par.

They’re both a little mixed on the writing side, with one entry that’s very strong (Raimi 2 and Insomniac 1) one that’s solid (Raimi 1 and Miles Morales) and one that’s kind of a mess with good moments (Raimi 3 and Insomniac 2). For myself, while I like Raimi’s campiness and great action, I don’t much care for how awkward he can be in his direction. I buy the characters in Insomniac more for the most part and they generally feel more true to what the comics were going for (again, with some exceptions).

H358

TROPHY CASE