There are some games out there that, in their core gameplay, are extremely fun, but are let down severely due to certain quirks, so to speak, within the game. For me, there’s nothing that breaks the immersion and fun of a game more than a lull in gameplay where, instead of battling monsters (to use a stereotypical example), you’re told to run around an area and fetch objects.
If done well, this mechanic will not break a game, but complement the core gameplay. More often than not, however, this is not the case.
Recently I’ve been playing a lot Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep in an attempt to catch up on the story of Kingdom Hearts, with the end-goal of finishing Dream Drop Distance, which was only just recently released on the 3DS.
So far, I’ve played through Terra’s story; one of the three available characters storylines. Everything was going swell. Gameplay had been tight, navigation was easy and the story actually sucked me in. So, naturally, going into the story of one of the other main characters, Ventus, I was excited.
That was, until I found myself in the domain of Cinderella, guided by a mouse whose voice made my ears bleed as I collected things like silk and a ball of yarn in order to fix Cinderella’s dress.
Now, I know that the Kingdom Hearts universe requires a whole lot of open-mindedness to really enjoy, but there was something in the back of my mind upon reaching this part in the level that had me really questioning things.
The deviation between where the story was now and the dark, emotional story I was experiencing only a few hours prior, was (get ready for it… drumroll…) heartbreaking.
It broke me instantly.
It really took me a while to get around to even starting the game, regardless of my being coaxed relentlessly by a friend to do so. I was getting really drawn in by the darker side of the story, which was something I feared Kingdom Hearts lacked.
So far, I have not been disappointed. What has been disappointing is the lack of consistency in gameplay. For those that haven’t played Birth By Sleep, Terra’s and Ventus’ story run parallel, with each character having different story elements.
I had a hell of a lot more fun in Terra’s story, than in Ventus’ so far. The tight gameplay and surprisingly engaging story had me hooked so far. I could handle the small, Disney-oriented tasks that were included in Terra’s story, but as soon as I hit the fetch quest in Ventus’, I felt let down.
I honestly feel like the staff simply tacked on the quest as a time killer, and as an arbitrary reason for Ventus to stay and help Cinderella. At this point, anyone who has been playing for the story has two options: gritting their teeth and pushing through the banality of it all in hopes of the main storyline re-emerging, or to put the game down out of frustration and move on to something better.
This is the hubris of the Kingdom Hearts series as a whole, in my opinion, as has no doubt scared off a lot of fans who would have otherwise really appreciated the story, as well as the gameplay.
Shoot me for saying this, Kingdom Hearts fans, but I truly believe the series would have a whole lot more potential to be amazing if the whole Disney thing was scrapped and the story of the Keyblade wielders and their plights were the main focus. I’ll admit, it is a ridiculous concept, because the whole game was based on Disney to begin with.
I think the series has evolved an incredible amount since Kingdom Hearts one, and has gained a much more mature fanbase who want a real story and deep gameplay, not tacked-on fetch quests where the character is quite happy to forget about all the dark going-ons in the world to help Cinderella repair a god-damn dress.
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