Yelling About Kingdom Hearts 2.8 (Birth by Sleep 0.2)

Welp, kingdom hearts at it again

Gamefly 30 day free trial (treat yo self to something real nice)

SEND ME STUFF!
SuperButterBuns
PO BOX 64069
Virginia Beach, VA 23467

FOLLOW THE CO HOSTS & CREW

[zeriam]

1.5+2.5+2.8+0.2= 7

As in seven warriors of light.

[Jeremmeuh]

It's 2019. Just finished KH3.. I kinda laughed at "thinking that 2.9 could possibly be a thing". You must have died when you saw the beginning of KH3 haha. Love your vids btw !!

[JuanAguirre-pbyf]

Glad to know that the mystery behind mickey's shirt has finally been resolved

[Mr._Sherwood]

"if 2.9 becomes a thing I'm boycotting Square Enix"

Well then... At least it wasn't its own game...
That bait and switch at the start of 3 though was positively evil.

[Nimdonomuskid]

"kingdom hearts: ground zeroes"

[JetSetDex]

Nomura is not a storyteller, he is an artist.

[StankiSmelli]

I now realize a piece of garbage is holding my heart at gunpoint.

[Erikthedood]

@ 14:01. I have an answer for your plot hole, albeit in not justifying the laziness of the wring. In 0.2, when Mickey meets Aqua again, we learn that it's been 10 years since BBS, putting it around the same time as KH1. Meaning the scene with Aqua and Ansem takes place at least a year later, because that takes place AFTER KH2. Which means that in a year it's very likely that Terra and Ven could have been saved and plus Aqua doesn't even know how long it's been since that time so it would make sense that she would ask that. Also it still makes sense that Aqua would cry after hearing Sora's name because of everything she heard about him up until this point.

[b.a.m.]

I like the new graphics because everybody wanted the new games to look like the old CGI cutscenes, but that look, or at least I thought, made every character look...strange. The new look combines the amazing CGI graphics with the cell shaded cartoon/anime style the characters were designed with. On another note, someone PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one frustrated that we waited 15 years to find out that the Kingdom Key D is the only thing behind that door?!

[IrfanFakhrianto]

You say that, but my entry point to Kingdom Hearts was DDD when it was first released on the 3DS.
Also, Nomura DID say they LITERALLY CUT OFF THE BEGINNING OF KH3 AND TURNED IT INTO 0.2.
Not kidding. Search through the interviews on KHInsider or something, you'll find that statement.

[marvmarv]

3:43 that's them practicing their hair cutting skills for Riku

[xrossplayxino]

"It's like watching a dog walk on it's hind legs. You know it CAN do that, but it doesn't feel right." I'm laughing my ass off right now. Poor neglected kairi.

[bennettdoe]

Watching this almost 2 years later and... it's still holds up.

[TophinatorStreamsYT]

I agree with you Buns. Namora had no idea how it was all going to fit: he just kept creating plot points and then panicked when they didn’t quite work without being too obvious. But in the end, I think he’s thought about 3 and how Seeker Saga will close out and THAT is exciting!

[TennelleFlowers]

Beat Fragment last night and I'd agree with all your points. The graphics were a little odd to me at first, but I think I'll get used to them. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were strange, but again, I think I'll get used to it. Loved the gameplay, and I loved the level design aspects you talked about! Just makes me so eager to explore every nook and cranny of 3 when that comes out! :3
I'll not even lie, I love the KH story to bits, even the wonky stuff added in Dream Drop Distance. I know it's clunky and was never planned from the beginning, but that just makes me all the more impressed at how they can tie 15 years worth of games together into one big ridiculous story. If anyone else did it, I'd probably call bullshit, but coming from Square I'm just like, "YES, ADD MORE TIME TRAVEL. ADD MORE UNNECESSARY LORE, MORE CONNECTIONS, MORE BELTS, MORE ZIPPERS! It's just too ridiculous not to love for me. ^^

[FrustratedJacob]

Nothing happens in 0.2 and that's probably the biggest problem with it. It can maybe be defined as a 'character study' of Aqua and her time in the Realm of Darkness, but her arc can basically be summarized as such:

- Depressed and exhausted, feeling isolated.
- Finds some new resolve because she's reminded of her friends.
- Gets sad again because she talks to a ghost, falls unconscious or something but Mickey saves her.
- Decides that she is fine with being in the Realm of Darkness, because it's now her job to help people who get trapped there... even though she... never... did that?

Like. Did she help Mickey? The guy who wanted to be there and would've been fine without her? Or did she help Riku, the guy who apparently has no peripheral vision and terrible hearing? I guess he did need help, that's fair.

The final shot (or one of them, at least) of this game is Aqua falling down into Darkness, which was the final shot (or one of them, at least) of her story in Birth By Sleep. Like, she's back where she started! But now she has new resolve? She had that at the ending of Birth By Sleep. So... what was the point of this exercise? Except to squeeze more money out of KH fans?

And, as Buns so astutely points out, the only new information Aqua gains in this adventure (Terra and Ven are out of commission, Sora and Riku are the new coolest and strongest dudes) is stuff that she learned in Blank Points. Which is actually indicative of a larger problem...

Consider: when Aqua hears Sora's name in Blank Points, she starts crying for joy. That boy is now the hero of the Realm of Light! There is hope, both for herself and everyone else!

In 0.2, it's really cut and dry. Mickey tells her that Sora and Riku are helping him out. She says, "Oh, okay. Neato." No time to reflect on it or get emotional, we have to get around to wrapping up important plot details, like how Mickey lost his shirt! Oh, he got hit by some Heartless? Fascinating. Oh, the Kingdom Key D was just sitting behind that door all along? Fascinating. I used to have the vague idea that Mickey went on some long, epic quest to get that thing, but now I know the explicit details of how he opened a door and it was hovering there like a weapon from Quake. These are all things that I care about more than how the characters are feeling.

People talk about the story becoming more complicated or convoluted or whatever, but that's not really the problem. The problem is that the story is now divorced from the emotions of the characters. Yeah, Kingdom Hearts is great at giving its fans 'the feels', but it used to be a _lot_ better at it.

Sora wants to find and save Kairi because he's in love! Riku wants to stop him because he needs to maintain his position in the group and he's insecure about Sora's _cool new friends_ and his _cool new sword_. Ansem is a bad guy because he spent too much time studying evil stuff and eventually lost himself to it, but in the end he is beaten not because Sora was stronger than him, but because his understanding of the nature of the universe was limited, inaccurate, because all the research in the world couldn't tell him about the true nature of kindness in people.

Now Sora has to kill Xehanort because he's gonna do a thing. He's gonna do a really evil thing, and he's gonna do it soon! We gotta stop him because h-he's a... a, a BAD, BAD guy!

Similarly, we're not really here playing 0.2 because someone wanted to tell a story about how sad Aqua is. We're here because someone said, "Wait, crap, why didn't Mickey ever go look for Aqua in the last ten years? We better give some explanation for that!" So their explanation is he found her by chance, then lost track of her because a monster separated them. Yes, truly the pinnacle of the franchise's storytelling.

Also, while I'm here and complaining, Mickey, *_what on earth are you talking about_*?!? You were _"respecting her wishes"_ by not going after her? Dude, the last time you saw her, she was screaming and being swept away by a monster!

Man, it's almost like putting all of these narrative issues under a microscope doesn't resolve them, but instead emphasizes how bad they are!

[thecheshirewolf]

Spoiler warning: it funny that it took Aqua 2 hours to travel to 10 years later

[spaciouswheat]

Btw, 3 is gunna be only the ending of a saga. So be ready to cry waiting for the master of masters plot line that runs through KH 4-6 and the side games on mobile :D

[datguynuma]

So in a nutshell, Kingdom Hearts is a beautiful mess.

[LombaxOttsel]

"Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Shouldn't Exist"