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Aug. 17th, 2007 07:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
felis_ultharusSo I just finished Kingdom Hearts I. I have to admit to admit I avoided this one for awhile -- Disney makes me squeamish and even a Disney-Final Fantasy crossover made me worry.
Overall, though, it was an excellent game. As it progresses, it becomes less and less Disney and more and more Final Fantasy.
The story is more intelligent than you'd expect from Disney, and it reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Black Orchid -- where a true master of fantasy-writing tackles the dull, clichéd superheroes of DC, and weaves them into something mythic and brilliant.
Final Fantasy dileuted a lot of Disney's saccharine, and did the usual Disney theme of following your heart instead of your head much better than Disney ever has.
Still, it wasn't perfect. My criticisms:
On the other hand, I knew the game would get much better when I reached Nightmare Before Christmas world, and it did ^_^
For those with no interest in video games, I'll just mention that there's a black squirrel here in Verdun, living in a tree on fourth avenue.
This is significant -- Montrealers are always fascinated by black squirrels, and often tell me that there are no black squirrels in Montreal, that you only find them at Oka, or up in the Laurentians, etc.
I've nicknamed him Kokki. Fans of 12 Kingdoms will know why ^_^
Overall, though, it was an excellent game. As it progresses, it becomes less and less Disney and more and more Final Fantasy.
The story is more intelligent than you'd expect from Disney, and it reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Black Orchid -- where a true master of fantasy-writing tackles the dull, clichéd superheroes of DC, and weaves them into something mythic and brilliant.
Final Fantasy dileuted a lot of Disney's saccharine, and did the usual Disney theme of following your heart instead of your head much better than Disney ever has.
Still, it wasn't perfect. My criticisms:
- I could not kill Goofy. Try as I might -- drive him off of cliffs, put him in the way of harm without a weapon -- nothing works. If he gets knocked out, he just wakes up a few minutes later.
- In Final Fantasy games, you can summon Bahamut, King of Dragons, to exhale a blast of continent-obliterating hecatomb at your enemies from orbit. In Kingdom Hearts, you can summon Bambi, who makes useful objects pop out of the ground. I feel the game could have been significantly enhanced if Bambi could exhale a blast of continent-obliterating hecatomb at my enemies from orbit.
- I could not kill Goofy. Putting him in the way of the full force of the major enemy attacks, getting him stomped on by a Behemoth, and targetting him with your own weapon all don't seem to work.
- I remember seeing a documentary on Edward Said, where his voice discussing stereotypes of Arabs was overlaid on top of footage of Disney's Aladdin. well, I suspect Agrabah-world was the nightmare Said woke up screaming from every night. I doubt there'd be quite so many faceless horrors in turbans if the game hadn't been programmed so soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.
- I could not kill Goofy. I couldn't abandon him to the Heartless to have his soul devoured -- he must not have one to steal. I tried replacing him with other Disney characters, but they don't let you keep them. When the Darkness devours Goofy towards the end, they make you rescue him to progress the game. I felt that was totally unfair.
On the other hand, I knew the game would get much better when I reached Nightmare Before Christmas world, and it did ^_^
For those with no interest in video games, I'll just mention that there's a black squirrel here in Verdun, living in a tree on fourth avenue.
This is significant -- Montrealers are always fascinated by black squirrels, and often tell me that there are no black squirrels in Montreal, that you only find them at Oka, or up in the Laurentians, etc.
I've nicknamed him Kokki. Fans of 12 Kingdoms will know why ^_^