#Maybe I'll return to the scene sometime after the dlc drops... Maybe.

[vynnyal]

It's super late, but I wanted to do a quick "art vs artist" / summary of 2024 :] mostly long form animation and slugcat sketches this year, but I snuck in a few good ones.

[hyouta]

I have completed KH3 + ReMind

(Just to be clear, I have watched the Limit Cut episode but I haven't fought any data boss or Yozora - not sure when I plan to because I haven't tackled many secret bosses in the series yet...)

So, everyone was just mean about this game then. I don't remember how well it was received by fans at launch but I wonder if it's just the trend of hating on a game a few weeks after most people have played. (I don't care I will defend TOTK until I'm dead lmao). Though also, people have just gotten a lot meaner about things these days...

I'm not sure how I would rank the series overall because I didn't really dislike anything in the end (*cough* ReCom *cough* -- even that I enjoyed by the end)... maybe it's also recency bias again but...

358/2 days

Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts 3

I said what I said. (Actually, can it even be recency bias if I played the series basically back to back for the past few months?).

My opinion is subject to change... but right now, even though I do see the flaws, these are my favs. I don't think it's a perfect story and there's definitely things I would prefer to be different but it honestly earns number 3 for sea salt fam being united by the end of it lol... I'm a simple person.

NOTES (Again, I made quite a few but I'll pick a small handful -- I wanna say more but my original notes are like 9 pages long):

Got super teary eyed and emotional watching the Don't Think Twice orchestral opening movie... this was an incredible experience.

The graphical upgrade is cool but sometimes the lighting really makes the gameplay models look weird. Especially in the mysterious tower.

"Darkness from being alone is even stronger" ow.

I would not recommend playing the dlc DIRECTLY after the main campaign, it was weird having the cutscenes repeated at me even with the slight changes.

Admittedly even with the dlc I'm still not sure I fully understand how Xion came to be again; not the replica part, but the heart part. She was created from memories to begin with but then returned to Sora's heart... but unlike Ventus and Roxas, was never shown leaving? Like, the memories did, but I had to read the wiki (which I still take with a grain of salt) to understand how she got her heart back from Sora.

Despite my love for the reunions I think the keyblade graveyard had a lot of weak parts, in terms of storyboarding/direction. It just bothered me how much standing around and not reacting there was. It was high tension but then that'd get yanked away by characters just standing still or walking slowly.

(It was funnier than it needed to be imagining each boss wait for others to have their death cutscene before fighting me again).

The Terranort scene bothered me the most, and it's a shame because of how often you have to watch that scene. Though I did see a post on my fyp literally today about how characters like Kairi would have been frozen from trauma and YOU KNOW I forgive that scene a bit, but wish it actually showed that more.

Speaking of showing more. I think way back when before I played it myself I complained saying Re Mind should have been a part of the main game (and I don't mean an episode, post-game). Now that I've actually played it, I only half agree. I think there was still huge plot points that should've been main game, but I understand how the saving Kairi sequence wouldn't fit, in the way it is written.

Leave the disney worlds alone. They're actually so good in this game, I love the size of them! I wish there was more to explore but they've really stepped it up. This should be the standard of how big worlds should be at the MINIMUM.

My biggest complaint about KH3 is actually what they did to 100 acre wood, how we got the same minigame 3 times... besides torn pages there surely could have been a better way to give us more.

Fuck the cherry flan in particular (the others are fine/fun).

KH3 is so funny actually, one of the funniest in the series.

Lucky emblems and classic kingdom were really fun collectables, I managed to find everything before I did the endgame. More like that, please.

--Actually, I have too many notes for real and though I don't think they're that big I can't pick what to add without making this too long so I'll skip.

Keeping in mind that I really loved KH3 and it's my number 3, I think it's biggest problem is having too many characters to juggle and too many arcs to wrap up. I honestly think this game would have benefitted more from being longer, and/or having a bunch of mini episodic games to occur before it (like 0.2 length).

I loved loved loved getting to play as other characters here and there, especially in the DLC (Kairi's play style is so fun? hello? - but also Saïx almost ended me as Roxas). I wish there were more instances of this, and hope we have more in the future.

This was probably one of the easiest games (I died ONCE and that was against a heartless ship I was too slow to escape from) but I think that's more to do with how much freedom you have in terms of battle options. I don't know why people complained about the attractions because I swear besides 2 instances they were optional (and shut up, they were so fun and whimsical, I only didn't use them in the keyblade graveyard/scala ad caelum).

I don't necessarily agree with some of the takes I've seen regarding characterisation, usefullness etc but again, don't want this to be too long. I will say probably the bit I was most ? about was Xemnas' death and what he had to say, but maybe that's just me.

I actually finished on Friday, found out it was the 6th anniversary Saturday and wanted to post for then, but honestly I needed time to think on my feelings. I need to find a way to get them out but I'm not sure how in a way that is not too text heavy and boring.

tl;dr KH3 really good cause now I have these: