Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days - Living down to every expectation

[rallamajoop]

Despite a lot of objections from me about how we're only going to encourage Squeenix if we keep giving them money for this crap, pinneagig ordered in the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days a little while ago to see how it held up against our first impressions. Neither of us were very surprised when the game proved to be every bit as bad as we'd

Comments

[lorelei76]

Color me disa-fucking-ppointend. I was thiiiiis close to buying my own DS (err, rather than absconding with my 8 year old nephew's) because I was so stoked about a new KH chapter.

Thanks for the review - I'll save my money and buy the PS3 instead and wait for the newest Final Fantasy game to come out.

[riicchan]

You should still buy a DS for Scribblenauts, or Okamiden. There's a lot of great games out there for it. =)

Though PS3's are pretty dandy. And they've gone down in price recently. Whatever works for you. :D

[rallamajoop]

I can also highly recommend at least the first 95% of The World Ends With You - a Squeenix RPG for the DS that was vastly more fun to play. We've got much better hopes for the KH game for the PSP too, though FF13's supposed to be out a month sooner, and does look pretty shiny.

[anonymous]

Great review. Days doesn't look that great to me either, but you gave a very thorough and convincing review. Now I know that it's even WORSE than it seems!
One question: concerning Sora and his endearing character, what did you think when, after killing Demyx, he shouts, "Anyone from the Organization who'd like to be next?!" Would you consider this one of Sora's stupid moments, or do you think Demyx (and others from the Organization who later get killed) deserved it?

[rallamajoop]

Hm, we were playing the game in Japanese, and I vaguely recall that line coming across a bit differently (more 'where are you' than 'who's next', though it's been a while and I may be misremembering), and I can't say it bothered me at the time. I think what I find defining there is that Sora was talking to a group of enemies, who he had been lead to believe to that point were only capable of faking emotion, and who had already gone out of their way to threaten him and his friends - so the fact he made it clear he wasn't going to go easy on them was actually something I liked about him

[anonymous]

Forgive me for being blunt, but the game isn't as bad as you say. Just coz you think its crap other may enjoy it, so please don't bad mouth it until its out here.

[jaseroque]

Why does she need to wait until it's been released in America if she's already played it? I don't see how that would make any difference to what she thinks about it.

[mishiru_shi]

Also, speak anonymously?
pffff ~

[rallamajoop]

Well, 'good' and 'bad' are always going to be subjective judgements. Certainly there are going to be people who enjoy the game more than I did - and I'd hope most people reading this compare at least one or two other reviews before they make up their minds about whether they want to buy the game. Though I'm puzzled by how you stated this - have you played the game, or are you merely asserting it isn't as bad as I say because someone else has told you so

[koree]

(Was directed here by Risachantag on Deviantart.)

Argh. Thank you both for the review. You saved me a lot of bother saving up for a DS and this game. D: I think I'll go ahead and save towards a PSP for Birth by Sleep instead.

[nekogonya]

I found this on someone's DA account and I was fairly pleased with how you reviewed it

[rallamajoop]

I think the main problem female characters have is that female Sues are so much more common than male ones, both in fanfiction and published work like this, so when you see one introduced as member 14 of Org 13 it sends off even more alarm bells. I hear you on the lack of good female characters though, the 'evil organisation with exactly one token female character' thing gets so very old.

Honestly, he is really starting to bother me. I can get being stretched thin, but why even work on all these games at once if you're going to produce shit work?Very likely partially executive mandate, compared with the fact that the ridiculously long development times for games these days increases the odds they'll have several in the pipeline at once. It's pretty clear they are going out of their way to cash in on their most popular titles, but that's pretty much just how the game industry works

[nekogonya]

I agree with both of you about good female characters. The one FF game with a female lead is old and harder to get/play and people are less interested because of the graphics*I'm guilty, I'm an art fiend and I like things with detail* though I hear she is very cool. (I don't know if I would count X-2 since it is a branch) so hopefully the character in XIII will be good(Seems a bit like Ashe with being fairly independent and functional though I haven't got much experience with her) I honestly don't think I've ever played a good game with a female lead

[rallamajoop]

The one FF game with a female lead is old and harder to get/play and people are less interested because of the graphics*I'm guilty, I'm an art fiend and I like things with detail* though I hear she is very cool.

You mean FF6? Played it ages back, didn't particularly grab me compared to some of the later installments to the series, but I remember liking Terra, and I did like that she and Celes got such major roles. Like you, I'm hoping FFXIII is good - Lightning's definitely got potential.

If Sqeenix keeps releasing such low quality games, especially that ruin their old stories and characters, their credibility will be gone. They got fans by being good and those fans were willing to wait a long time(whilst moaning and groaning) and had a reason to celebrate when a new one came out.*shrug* Games are so expensive to produce these days, I think it's unrealistic to imagine money isn't always going to be a driving force. Sequels are considered 'safe', because they've got the proven formula and an established fanbase. A lot of the same