Gaming Backlog - Blog Posts

Gaming Backlog Side Quest: Kingdom Hearts Re:Visited - A Fragmentary Retrospective (Part 1)

So it's only my second blog post in this backlog series, and I'm already veering off-course from what I originally thought it was going to be lol. Basically I want these KH Re:Visited posts to be a way for me to look back on how I got into this series while I share it with a friend of mine: @plzdonthitmewithyourcar. I think both fans of the series and people with <1% knowledge about this funky ass series should be able to enjoy the post though.

(Start of backstory) My introduction to Kingdom Hearts was very unconventional; I essentially stumbled across a volume of the manga while browsing my local library as a kid:

So to my naive self, I assumed that this was the first volume of the whole series, and the "II" of the logo was lost on me (cuz I was a 11 year old lmao). I knew nothing about it, and the cover stood out to me so I decided to take it home and give it a read.

My introduction to the series consisted of what I think is still my favorite false-start to a game I've played. I fully went into this book, and by extension the KH series thinking that it was all about this young teen named Roxas and his friends living in Twilight Town slowly discovering a series of odd events relating to strange creatures called "Nobodies"; Enough to say that by the end of the first volume the rug got pulled out from under me as I was introduced to the true protagonist of the series, Donald, and Goofy: the first truly Disney characters (which also took me aback because I didn't know that the Square Enix x Disney crossover was so literal)

So with that first volume consumed and my pre-teen mind absolutely blown, I voraciously looked for anything else I could consume about the series. (End of backstory)

So now that I'm introducing a dear friend of mine to the series, I've decided to essentially follow the same path that I went on when I was learning the series while introducing them. I've only played the opening of KH2 with them, before we have now switched over to KH1. I'm very pleased that the opening still has the same charm that captured me years ago. The pleasant coziness and simplicity of Twilight Town, contrasted to the feeling of ominous foreshadowing when the supernatural elements begin to become more present and Roxas is forced to confront the answers to the questions he's been asking himself.

Game cinematics are sick AF, gameplay holds up so well (looking at you KH1), and the writing is very recognizably that charming yet unnatural approach to character-driven story.

Some of the things that I hadn't appreciated as much on my first playthrough was the interactions with Seifer, and how Hayner was essentially behind-the-scenes rallying people in the town to help figure out what was going on with Roxas and all the strange events that were beginning to show up around their quiet town. I think noticing interactions like those made me appreciate even more the tragic story of Roxas.

So yeah, this series is really special to me, and I'm really glad to be able to share it with people and blog about it. :)

Gaming Backlog: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

I've decided that I want to post more about my experiences playing through my gaming backlog and share my thoughts on stuff that I've been holding off on:

This one was a nice break from the 3rd person action games and 1st person online shooters that I've been spending a lot of time with lately. I don't play a lot of visual-novels or interactive comics, so the presentation of the story through some really charming visuals and quippy writing was really cool to me! Each segment getting broken up by the running minigame was refreshing; and I think the designers did a great job introducing a new mechanic to the hazards that could show up that fit the aesthetic of the section you were playing.

Writing was really fun and didn't take itself very seriously, and the way things wrapped up was cute, which was pretty clearly the aim: to have a fun romp with lots of humor and fanservice, and do a story that wouldn't have worked in another format as well.

I think the ending felt pretty fast-paced compared to everything else with all the information it was throwing at you, and for me that was a little jarring compared to the relatively relaxed leadup.

I still really enjoyed it, and if anyone who has a passing interest in either Sonic or Visual Novels and wants to play a good, free, game; pick it up and bang it out after work one day.