Two revered gaming franchises. Two batshit insane storylines. Only one can prevail.
Make your choice, or forever hold your peace.
Make your choice, or forever hold your peace.
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Let's settle this once and for all: which has the most absurd & convoluted plot: Metal Gear or Kingdom Hearts?
- Thread starter FlaygletheBagel
- Start date
Are we talking about which is more outlandish, or which is harder to follow?
Metal Gear takes a lot of spy thriller tropes and elaborates on them to absurd degrees, but it's not actually difficult to understand what's going on most of the time. Some groan-inducing twists, yeah, but it's still mostly comprehensible if occasionally dumb.
Kingdom Hearts has characters who exist in morphic resonance and get split apart and reincarnated as a bunch of other characters thanks to heart/soul/body/whatever separation and my understanding of it disintegrates pretty quickly.
Metal Gear takes a lot of spy thriller tropes and elaborates on them to absurd degrees, but it's not actually difficult to understand what's going on most of the time. Some groan-inducing twists, yeah, but it's still mostly comprehensible if occasionally dumb.
Kingdom Hearts has characters who exist in morphic resonance and get split apart and reincarnated as a bunch of other characters thanks to heart/soul/body/whatever separation and my understanding of it disintegrates pretty quickly.
Kingdom Hearts and it's not even a contest. The ending of Kingdom Hearts 1 is they seal a boy away in a dimension of endless darkness with Mickey Mouse for eternity
There are like 5 different identical variations on Roxas/Sora that all have their own backstory and role to play
Malificent dies and comes back to life for no reason that i could discern
Characters' memories get wiped constantly and their worlds are constantly being destroyed or reborn
It's just a mess. I love it.
There are like 5 different identical variations on Roxas/Sora that all have their own backstory and role to play
Malificent dies and comes back to life for no reason that i could discern
Characters' memories get wiped constantly and their worlds are constantly being destroyed or reborn
It's just a mess. I love it.
Metal Gear lore isn't that absurd. It has dumb shit like nanomachines and foxdie but when you consider how they tried to make the story connected over so many years and in a bizarre, jumping around order, it's pretty impressive. Anyone working under the same conditions in the same order over that amount of time would have trouble coming up with something totally devoid of nonsense.
Metal Gear Solid is pretty cut and dry as far as I'm concerned. If the games were released chronologically, I doubt people would have any problem following them.
Kingdom Hearts is just nonsense.
Kingdom Hearts is just nonsense.
Kingdom Hearts has a more 'we want more money, so let's convolute this story to the point of ridiculousness to put out more product'.
While MGS story is ridiculous, at least it seems like some effort was put into each game story-wise - except for MGSV, which we all know why that happened the way it did.
While MGS story is ridiculous, at least it seems like some effort was put into each game story-wise - except for MGSV, which we all know why that happened the way it did.
Even when Metal Gear makes sense, you can at least follow with what they were trying for. Kingdom Hearts just makes your eyes glaze over.
Kingdom Hearts. Multiple realities and time travel. It is like a turd sandwich wrapped in a burrito grilled inside an easy bake oven being sold as post modern art.
i don't mean to downplay how convoluted MGS can get but it's at its core a fairly simple story with some really weird detours. there was once a badass dude who got cloned into other badass dudes so the badassery can live on
kingdom hearts is gamefaqs fan fiction after huffing paint thinner.
kingdom hearts is gamefaqs fan fiction after huffing paint thinner.
I could follow Kingdom hearts just fine until 3D. Even then I'm not that confused.
I've never played MGS. I'm thinking about buying the series.
Guess I'm not qualified to answer just yet.
I've never played MGS. I'm thinking about buying the series.
Guess I'm not qualified to answer just yet.
Anime James bond , instead of 20 xenahorts it's an old man and an implanted arm that's possesing him or something.
I've played 2.5 games in each series (MGS4 + V with a bit of Snake Eater, KH1 + 2 with a bit of 358). I have a MUCH better idea of what's going on in MGS than I do for Kingdom Hearts. It's mostly the weird character splits/unions/doubles/etc. that makes Kingdom Hearts so difficult to keep track of. There's dumb shit in Metal Gear, but it doesn't take a lot of mental gymnastics to keep it straight.
It's kingdom hearts, they can't even number or name their games right.
Dream Drop Distance? Birth By Sleep? 358/2 days, what?
Dream Drop Distance? Birth By Sleep? 358/2 days, what?
Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy, the game that retconned it's own ending in the second game.
The main sin of MGS is that is long winded, not neccessarily hard to follow.
They also at least, even if having a larger narrative going on, tend to tell a singular story within the game. Like MGS3 doesn't need 4 or Phantom Pain to feel like a complete satisfying story.
That being said the last handful of games kind of whiffed it on that element, leaning more into the overarcing story and telling less interesting main stories.
They also at least, even if having a larger narrative going on, tend to tell a singular story within the game. Like MGS3 doesn't need 4 or Phantom Pain to feel like a complete satisfying story.
That being said the last handful of games kind of whiffed it on that element, leaning more into the overarcing story and telling less interesting main stories.
The big picture stuff is pretty easy to follow, but some of those cutscenes are just loaded with references to a fictional world history that is filled with different shadow organizations which are all connected through a convoluted web of conflicts and conspiracies. Trying to follow some of those dialogue heavy exchanges where characters are stumbling over themselves to dump exposition, in the most incoherent manner possible, can get pretty obnoxious (none of it actually leads anywhere substantial anyway, so you are better just skipping them).
Kingdom Hearts isn't really that hard to follow but the lore is a complete mess and is just total nonsense. It's story also heavily relies on people making stupid decisions and lacking basic communication skills.
And I love every goddamn second of it.
And I love every goddamn second of it.
I'm going through the series right now (currently at MGS3), there are TONS of cutscene and dialogue but so far they are pretty straightforward and easy to follow.
It's not even close to Kingdom Hearts.
If folk are claiming Metal Gear is easy to follow, I'm going to assume they completely missed the vast majority of the lore and story in those games and take it as a victory.
Anyone who says they understand the insane plot of Kingdom Hearts is lying.
The people who just trimmed the fat, skipped the lore, and just followed the surface level conflict ARE victorious. They are certainly better at managing their personal time than I am.
I honestly can't think of anything dumber and more convoluted than Metal Gear.
I say this as someone who adores Metal Gear.
I say this as someone who adores Metal Gear.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty of things then Kingdom Hearts is harder to grasp . The big picture of KH is far easier to "get" than MGS in my opinion.