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Kingdom Hearts Series explained in a video

Mike D said:
The VO in our video won't be that rushed. That's a problem we saw in earlier versions of the Zelda Timeline -- too much lore dump = VO guy racing through paragraphs to cover all the info and the audience couldn't keep up. What this video does is just dump everything onto you, bringing up specific names and terms, and either skipping over them assuming you know what they are or going into a tangent to fully explain the term and in the process probably causing some people to just get lost.

KH Timeline will be structured like the Zelda one. Part 1 will be the release order to give you the frame of reference that fans had when the games came out, so you can see how certain questions arose in the first place and understand why the narrative got confusing for some. I firmly believe giving this narrative is important. It lets people who weren't around then know how the fan base's perception of the "timeline" evolved with each new release, which is something usually neglected as a series progresses.

Then we'll need to establish some common lore stuff so the average person can grasp the final part, which delves into the big points of contention for the average person trying to follow this series (mainly who the **** everyone is). I think that's more the problem with KH - the terminology and the characters. It's not so much the events themselves that are confusing, as the actual chronology is pretty straight forward.

And yes, when we have a script, I'll run it by KHGAF (and other fansites) to ensure we don't get anything wrong. Best part of these is working with the community and getting to discuss this type of stuff.
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I think the best part of this post is that you're not making an insular video but consulting with the community. It's very cool and I think the Timeline video will definitely benefit from it. You don't see this type of work that often and honestly this feature is one of the best things to come from GT in the past decade. It's really cool to see your thought process on how to approach this feature and I thank you for it.

One question I have in mind is do you plan on releasing the timeline video as one whole thing like the Zelda one or planning to make it multiple releases like the retrospective?
 
Mike D said:
KH Timeline will be structured like the Zelda one. Part 1 will be the release order to give you the frame of reference that fans had when the games came out, so you can see how certain questions arose in the first place and understand why the narrative got confusing for some. I firmly believe giving this narrative is important. It lets people who weren't around then know how the fan base's perception of the "timeline" evolved with each new release, which is something usually neglected as a series progresses.
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Sounds good. Looking forward to it.
 
Drkirby said:
They made the series far to convoluted with these spin offs.
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The side stories only make things more complex if you don't play them since all the mainline entries directly reference the events that take place in them without introducing you to them at all.

Played straight through it's a pretty linear narrative.
 
This is my favorite series of all time and I really want 3 to come out. I really hope they don't do other sagas like they said. I've been waiting to long ever since I was like 12.
 
I'm not one to exalt video games unless there's some serious merit deserving in a video game but I find it so easy to invest my time and energy into this series. I think part of it is the nostalgia but I think deep down it's the charm it has. I think in ways Kingdom Hearts reminds me of an animated children's movie. It can be complex and sometimes there are themes outside of what a child can comprehend or it's convoluted and pointless altogether. However, beyond that it's a simple story that even a child can understand. You have to beat the bad guy and restore happiness to everyone. From that standpoint I think I'm willing to write off many of the narrative faults it has as a fan.
 
Anival said:
This is my favorite series of all time and I really want 3 to come out. I really hope they don't do other sagas like they said. I've been waiting to long ever since I was like 12.
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I, as a human being, cannot live long enough to see the end of another Kingdom Hearts saga. As far as I'm concerned, this series ends with the Xehanort Saga in Kingdom Hearts III. Lol.
 
Holy shit. I kind of lost it about half way through that. Though I got a better idea of the plot from this, going so fast through it and throwing names out left and right without allowing down to really explain who is who and what of who else just makes it confusing. I agree that the actual plot isn't that confusing but the details of how we get anywhere definitely are.

Looking forward to the GT timeline vids.
 
I liked the video, and learned a detail that I hadn't previously known, but sheesh it sounds just as, if not more convoluted hearing it explained.
 
GameTrailers is about to release a Timeline video of Kingdom Hearts as well, and with reason... this series has a LOOOOOOT of plotlines.
 
"And Namine says 'sure, I didn't mean to do it in the first place, I was made to by the organization,' and it turns out she's a very nice girl. Yay."

I spit soda all over my keyboard. The monotone explanation sells this thing.
 
Holy shit just finished watching the video in the OP. My head actually hurts trying to make any sense of that. So convoluted.

Mike D said:
The VO in our video won't be that rushed. That's a problem we saw in earlier versions of the Zelda Timeline -- too much lore dump = VO guy racing through paragraphs to cover all the info and the audience couldn't keep up. What this video does is just dump everything onto you, bringing up specific names and terms, and either skipping over them assuming you know what they are or going into a tangent to fully explain the term and in the process probably causing some people to just get lost.

KH Timeline will be structured like the Zelda one. Part 1 will be the release order to give you the frame of reference that fans had when the games came out, so you can see how certain questions arose in the first place and understand why the narrative got confusing for some. I firmly believe giving this narrative is important. It lets people who weren't around then know how the fan base's perception of the "timeline" evolved with each new release, which is something usually neglected as a series progresses.

Then we'll need to establish some common lore stuff so the average person can grasp the final part, which delves into the big points of contention for the average person trying to follow this series (mainly who the **** everyone is). I think that's more the problem with KH - the terminology and the characters (and there are a lot of characters). It's not so much the events themselves that are confusing, as the actual chronology is pretty straight forward.

And yes, when we have a script, I'll run it by KHGAF (and other fansites) to ensure we don't get anything wrong. Best part of these is working with the community and getting to discuss this type of stuff.
Click to expand...
Awesome. I really enjoyed the Zelda videos. How long do you think till part 1 comes out?
 
Mike D said:
The VO in our video won't be that rushed. That's a problem we saw in earlier versions of the Zelda Timeline -- too much lore dump = VO guy racing through paragraphs to cover all the info and the audience couldn't keep up. What this video does is just dump everything onto you, bringing up specific names and terms, and either skipping over them assuming you know what they are or going into a tangent to fully explain the term and in the process probably causing some people to just get lost.

KH Timeline will be structured like the Zelda one. Part 1 will be the release order to give you the frame of reference that fans had when the games came out, so you can see how certain questions arose in the first place and understand why the narrative got confusing for some. I firmly believe giving this narrative is important. It lets people who weren't around then know how the fan base's perception of the "timeline" evolved with each new release, which is something usually neglected as a series progresses.

Then we'll need to establish some common lore stuff so the average person can grasp the final part, which delves into the big points of contention for the average person trying to follow this series (mainly who the **** everyone is). I think that's more the problem with KH - the terminology and the characters (and there are a lot of characters). It's not so much the events themselves that are confusing, as the actual chronology is pretty straight forward.

And yes, when we have a script, I'll run it by KHGAF (and other fansites) to ensure we don't get anything wrong. Best part of these is working with the community and getting to discuss this type of stuff.



::Looks at avatar::

Oh. I see what you did...
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I dunno, the VO being that rushed kinda works. Reminds me of CinemaSins. It's a good flow and the deadpan humor really works.

Mikey Jr. said:
That doc is so fucking stupid.

Its just "these guys" and "those guys".

Ok, so when I say the name Ansem, do you know who the hell that is? No, all you know him by is "that guy".
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Problem is when you say the name Ansem, you could be refering to one of 4 different people. It's not really any more clear as "these guys" or "those guys"
 
Mikey Jr. said:
Ok, so when I say the name Ansem, do you know who the hell that is? No, all you know him by is "that guy".
Click to expand...

Ansem the Heartless?
Ansem the Wise?
Ansem the Terra-Xehanort?
Riku, under the guise of Ansem the Heartless?

If names mattered then KH was over before it began.
 
Imm0rt4l said:
What an overly convoluted turd of a story.
So much potential squandered.
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tetsuya-nomura-294x300.jpg
 
The Lamp said:
I, as a human being, cannot live long enough to see the end of another Kingdom Hearts saga. As far as I'm concerned, this series ends with the Xehanort Saga in Kingdom Hearts III. Lol.
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Same here 3 will be my last. If there are going to be more, I will make my future children play them lol.
 
I want to see Square attempt to make an official one of these just to communicate how batcrap crazy the story is post-Dream Drop Distance
 
Mikey Jr. said:
That doc is so fucking stupid.

Its just "these guys" and "those guys".

Ok, so when I say the name Ansem, do you know who the hell that is? No, all you know him by is "that guy".
Click to expand...
Does everyone not get that the doc is written in a joking tone to point out the absurdity of the KH plot? If it was confusing to you, good, that was partly the point. It's not meant to be the end-all summaries of summaries.
 
Even watching this proves how fucked up the story is. How do the people who make fucking dumb stories like this have jobs?
 
So, I still don't get it.
Especially the 3DS stuff.
He lost me so bad there. And I REALLY want to understand the games.

Is there a more efficient way to learn the story. Playing them all is not an option at this point. :/
 
It doesn't really matter how you explain it, a convoluted mess of ideas is just that, no matter how you slice it. It's pretty obvious that several different people are writing this as they go along, with very little, if any forethought. The handheld games probably take the prize for being nonsensical because they mess around with prequels and time travel.
 
Good vid. Having played (most of) the games I can follow it pretty closely, so not confusing... but most definitely convoluted as fuck. So much of it feels just tacked on, which it essentially was through spinoffs that all needed their own stories. KH1 is fantastic and 2 is mostly great, though it can get confusing if you don't know know some of the side-stories or simply don't read/listen very carefully. I'm worried that KH3 would just be a total clusterfuck.

With KH3 they need to scale it back, try to keep it understandable while still acknowledging all of the information that came before it. Conveying both a compelling and understandable story is a huge problem with a lot of JRPGS with Square-Enix being the WORST of the bunch. FFXIII was just *one* game with story that isn't all that complex yet the delivery and hodgepodge of confusing terms makes it feel like a lot more than it is. IMO it's just poor storytelling and inexcusable out of a company with such resources. Graphics are great and all but hire some good writers as well.

KH3. PS4. NO fucking Agrabah with minimal reuse of the other past worlds. I'm also sick and tired of Olympus, but they'd have to find something to replace the coliseum. If they can use Tron then why not Star Wars or Marvel or Pixar... they'd better be investigating this stuff.
 
I would HOPE that a half hour video could do a decent job at explaining Kingdom Hearts' storyline. In that time you could cover the majority of the lore in the Mass Effect universe, you could explain all of the symbolism in the smt games, and hell you can probably even cover in detail what happens in any one Metal Gear Solid game. And if 26 minutes was the deadline you'd still have time to be home in time for cornflakes.
 
So Xenahort is the real bad guy of the series? I can't in anyway believe that Nomura planned the story out like this. To me it feels like he made KH1 (I guess chains also as the bridge) and then the plot got so screwed up from 2, that he went back making the portable games to try and explain the story, which only made it more confusing lol.

That or SE said no more console games for now so Nomura instead did portable games, and unable to advance the story decided to do prequel/in between stuff.
 
Every character is just a version or distortion of another character. I don't know how Nomura thought this was great story telling.
 
Fraull said:
Even watching this proves how fucked up the story is. How do the people who make fucking dumb stories like this have jobs?
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Like how the people who made Lost?

Some people like stories that are intricate and complex. Like me. I also like the Metal Gear Solid lore/plots, which are about as complicated, albeit more realistic (no time travel, dream crap)

Silver_DNA said:
I still don't get it. And at this point I don't think I want to get it.
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Have you ever played the games though?

If you play the games it's chronological and pretty straightforward. The problem is that the story is spanned over 10 years, 7 RPG games. Lol.

Jarnet87 said:
So Xenahort is the real bad guy of the series? I can't in anyway believe that Nomura planned the story out like this. To me it feels like he made KH1 (I guess chains also as the bridge) and then the plot got so screwed up from 2, that he went back making the portable games to try and explain the story, which only made it more confusing lol.

That or SE said no more console games for now so Nomura instead did portable games, and unable to advance the story decided to do prequel/in between stuff.
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Yeah, Xehanort is the bad guy (I guess he started planning for this after KH1). It was after KH1 that he started to devise a "bigger picture" to all these events and relationships, like Xehanort.

I agree in some cases though; I think some niggling questions ended up being explained later with even more confusion. Lol.
 
The Lamp said:
Like how the people who made Lost?

Some people like stories that are intricate and complex. Like me. I also like the Metal Gear Solid lore/plots, which are about as complicated, albeit more realistic (no time travel, dream crap)
Click to expand...

I am not necessarily saying there is anything wrong with an intricate or complex story, but when it is that hard to understand, especially since the game seemed more geared towards a younger crowd, the story is ridiculous. I love playing the games, but following the story and seeing how weird it has gotten has made me angry as a fan. They had something real special with the first game, but over time the story has really gotten out of hand. It is great you appreciate how the story is in its current state, but a lot of people don't agree.
 
Yeah, I just finished watching this. Video completely lost me when they got to Dream Drop Distance. Before that it made sense on some level. Freaking time travel.

Like I've played through the entire series, I enjoyed 3D. But that game makes no sense at all.
 
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