Kingdom Hearts fans, do you prefer the original material, or the Disney stuff?

[ggdeku]

I came to the series really late, with the ports on PS3, and I was surprised at how I felt on this issue. Before playing the series, i joined in making fun of the dumb titles and never really had any interest in the dumb, bad anime plot. But once I played the games I was surprised at how much I didn't care about the Disney stuff at all. I mean, I still enjoy the worlds and aesthtics, but any story content that had to do with the disney worlds was just brutal.

Even though the original stuff isn't great I felt invested in what was going on. I ended up really enjoying BbS on a story level just to see how things connected as a prequel to 1 and 2. I really don't care about any of the disney content. It's cool, but I'm here for the cheesy anime and really fun combat.

Yeah, this. Kingdom Hearts has a... serviceable amine plot, but the fact that it happens to Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy is what makes it unique. There are many Xehanort style villains with a convoluted plot then DARKNESS, but only one has gotten told off by Mickey Mouse.

Kingdom Hearts would be weaker as a pure Disney game and forgettable as a pure anime game. But put the two together and you suddenly have Donald Duck say "Look! It's Sephiroth!" and play it perfectly straight. And that is just... magic. Stupid, but magic.

Click to shrink...

Yeah this is a good way to put it.

 

[dlauv]

Disney. The further they go down that anime rabbit hole the worse and worse it happily gets. Like, god damn.

 

[GoldStarz]

When KH is at its best, there's not much of a difference between the two.

 

[Flame Lord]

I think it's at its best when they mix the two, like having a world not just being a retelling of the movie, but actually having it being involved in the overall plot. Overall though, yeah I like the original stuff. I honestly don't understand how you could like the series just for the Disney stuff. It all ranges from ok to boring as fuck.

 

[Vault]

without the disney stuff KH would be in the dumpster with all the other B tier PS2 RPGS

 

[Groof]

what made kh1 so great was how the disney stuff tied so well into the original & square stuff. as soon as the original shit started taking over it took a nosedive into a dumpster fire. DDD was absolutely terrible and i have no hopes for kh3 but i'll still play it because i'm too deep in this rabbit hole.

aqua is p peng tho

 

[doemaaan]

The original side grew into this hideous, untamable beast. Enjoyed it at first, now I can't stand it. And I haven't even played DDD yet.

 

[Sinfamy]

Only on it for the original and FF stuff.
The Disney stuff is a little cute background thing for me.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

I only play the games and was interested in them for the Disney stuff. Being able to explore the worlds and meet the Disney characters is what does it for me. The rest is very generic and dull in comparison.

 

[Strings]

I like the original stuff more, but it's the contrast that makes it great.

 

[Freddo]

The original stuff is hot hot garbage so it's Disney for sure.

Click to shrink...

Indeed.

 

[Much]

Original, even if it may be ridiculously convoluted and drawn out.

 

[RecRoulette]

Around the time of Kingdom Hearts 2 it was the original stuff. Nowadays I'm just treating the game like a theme park.

 

[gordofredito]

I used to like KH original stuff, but as I'm older now, I've realized I like Disney stuff a lot more. The dialogue in KH is painful to read and/or listen to

The rest is very generic and dull in comparison.

Click to shrink...

Kingdom Hearts is a lot of things, but "very generic and dull" are probably the few things it isn't. You could say it's hot trash because it is, you could say it's awesome because it's also awesome, the gameplay and the concept alone of FF x Disney as well as the world designs. But KH is anything but generic or dull

 

[Listai]

The original stuff is hot hot garbage so it's Disney for sure.

Click to shrink...

First post nails it.

In the original at least the plot was just a flimsy contrivance to get you to explore various Disney worlds.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Disney stuff, but when it was like KH1 and not just the film plot in a nutshell.

 

[Exentryk]

The original stuff is hot hot garbage so it's Disney for sure.

Click to shrink...

One and done.

 

[Mathieran]

I'm in the middle of KH2 right now and I would say I prefer the original material. The Disney stuff is just rehashed movie plots with Sora and the gang tossed in.

Overall none of it is very captivating.

 

[mrmickfran]

Disney stuff for story, original stuff for boss fights.

Those Organization XIII fights are so freaking hype

 

[KingdomKey]

Both but leaning more towards the original plot. Kingdom Hearts wouldn't exist to this day if they got rid of the Disney stuff, neither would I be a fan if they got rid of the original plot.

What they could do is execute both parts better.

 

[ara]

Original. It wouldn't be KH without Disney, but the dumb anime insanity of the original stuff is a big reason why I love the games.

 

[Nightengale]

Original. By a huge margin.

 

[lumenflower]

Original content for sure. KH wouldn't be KH without the Disney elements, and I love Disney movies, but I am completely over-invested in its silly anime nonsense plot. I love it, and it's what keeps me coming back.

Buying KH3 to see what happens to the characters, and how it wraps up. Cool Disney stuff is a just a nice bonus.

 

[Chibs]

The Disney stuff for sure, though Traverse Town has a very special place in my heart.

 

[clay_ghost]

Disney for sure. I want them to be important to the plot again like in BBS and KH1.

 

[Aprikurt]

The Disney stuff. I couldn't give a solitary wet fart about whatever clever plot Nomura's cooked up.

The day this series decided to sideline the entire reason it was novel in the first place was when I started to dislike it.

 

[bunkitz]

I love Disney and Final Fantasy, but I definitely prefer the original content. I think of the Disney worlds and characters as backdrops, with the Final Fantasy characters as cool cameos. The original content is what I'm after and what I love.

 

[Kurtelle]

Original material. Normally, Disney stuff is less exciting and has little importance to the plot with some exceptions. What I don't like is how the Disney part has monopolized so much the KH games nowadays and the Final Fantasy part has been almost forgotten.

 

[Glio]

As a teenager I preferred the original material and despised Disney

Now that I'm an adult, the original material makes me feel embarrassed and I adore the Disney parts

 

[Philippo]

Disney by a country mile, i wish Mickey was the protagonist instead of Sora and Maleficent&Co. more than just side villains to Xehanort.

 

[RockyMin]

Disney for sure. I don't even think the FF and other cameos are needed anymore either.

 

[NateDog]

I love both honestly, but I keep coming back primarily to see the end of the Sora / Xehanort arc so I'd have to say that.

 

[JP Cubish]

Disney stuff by far. Disney interactive's original idea was to have Square make a Disney RPG, but Square insisted on their own characters being involved.

I would love to have an RPG based solely on the Mickey & Friends characters. Have it set in Mouseton and/or Duckburg and draw upon the classic cartoon shorts and Carl Barks/Floyd Gottfredson comic books.

 

[Moogle]

Dumb FF cameos > Exposition XIII > Disney stuff

Infinity 3.0 scratched that Disney itch in a way none of the KH games ever really did for me

 

[Aprikurt]

The Chernabog fight was the coolest fucking part of the game.

Then you had a fight with a Resident Evil anime battleship... a metaphor of the potential this series would happily squander.

 

[BasilZero]

Both are great but I'm leaning towards original content, wish there were more original worlds that were actual worlds and not barren worlds like Keyblade graveyard, "End of the world", etc.

 

[Knight in Shining Armani]

Disney is the reason I tried them. The horrible story is what made me stay.

 

[JCal]

The Disney stuff for me. I love The Nightmare Before Christmas and that world being included, twice, was such a treat. i even liked the Pirates of the Caribbean world, I don't care what ya'll say. Olympus Coliseum and the Underworld, Disney Castle and the Timeless River, etc. There are so many great highlights.

Small problem though. I don't like the new Disney. The new Star Wars movies, the Marvel movies, the Pixar sequels, etc. Not my cup of tea. Once those IPs make their way into the KH series, I'll either not be playing anymore or be more interested in the nonsensical anime plot.

 

[RalchAC]

Disney stuff, I'd say. It's what makes the enviroments as varied and the "go through different worlds" motif in the series wouldn't work without it. Well, it could, if they used public domain fairy tales as the source material for most worlds, but it wouldn't be the same and it definitely wouldn't be as exciting wondering which property would be announced as part of the game next.

 

[Lappe]

Disney, none of the JRPG stuff interest's me in the least. Pretty much sour's me on the game.

 

[Calliope]

No shame here..... the main reason I even played the original Kingdom Hearts was for Cloud (this is back before he was in everything SE pushed out the door). And I stuck around for the original (and FF) stuff. I never identified much with Disney. The Disney princess crap has always been very off-putting to me.

 

[Viale]

Disney stuff is usually kind of boring or watered down versions of the movies with sora haphazardly thrown in. The original stuff is loads better and why I play and love the series.

 

[Waffle]

Disney stuff or I probably wouldn't be interested at all. I wish the Disney stuff tied in with the story more though.

 

[Wise]

It's 50/50 for me.

I like the original content and the Disney stuff equally. If they abandoned the original stuff, I'm not sure I would still enjoy Kingdom Hearts. Same for the Disney stuff.

 

[Echolocation]

The Disney aspects are the sole reason I was interested in the series and are probably 80-85% of the reason I'm still interested, with the rest going to gameplay/FF cameos/original story. I like roaming around the Disney worlds (and the original ones), and would prefer it if they integrated everything together rather than rehash the movie plots with Sora + co. in place of their protagonists, but they still haven't nailed that even with so many releases. Without the Disney parts I probably would have abandoned the series.

 

[Travo]

The Disney part is the appeal of the game so Disney all the way.

 

[Arthoneceron]

Disney, but done in the way that they did in the first game.

 

[Aprikurt]

Put it this way; there's a reason a JRPG that hasn't had a main instalment in 13 years has remained so strongly in public memory, and it isn't the clone/shadow clone/remnant of a shadow clone bullshit the narrative has made its jam.

 

[rochellepaws]

Original stuff. The trio of Sora, Riku and Kairi are strong and it's been nice watching them grow and develop over the games.

 

[KasumiYukari]

Kingdom Hearts was at its best for me in 1 when the Disney villains were an actual big part of the story, I don't care much for Organization 13 and once the mystery of them was revealed, they just felt cheesy to me. I do like some of the original elements in KH (Riku is the best) too but give me more of the Disney stuff.