kalkwiese
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Last Active 09-12-21 11:15 am
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07.28.22 Nothing But Thieves ranked06.03.21 2020 - A year in books
06.01.21 2019 - A year in books07.20.20 Ranking Haken correctly
04.05.20 Ranking Rise Against01.05.20 Stuff I got into in 2019
10.31.19 You recommended me uplifting music10.16.19 Rec me some uplifting music
08.05.19 Dream Theater ranked correctly.06.24.19 Ranking The Kingdom Hearts Series
02.19.19 The difference between post rock, shoeg01.31.19 4 years on sput: favourties 1997 - 2018
01.18.19 Stuff I got into in 201801.14.19 kalk's 2018
05.28.18 Enter Shikari: Ranked from worst to bes

Ranking The Kingdom Hearts Series

My brother gave me the compilation Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 & 2.5 Remix as a birthday gift and since then I'm playing the KH games in chronological order. I will rank them here as I progress in the series.
1Yoko Shimomura
Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack

The first game of the series may be a bit rough around the edges gameplaywise, but the remixed version adds some details to hint the events of parts to come. There is some replay value to many worlds as well, because you can reach certain points you couldn't before and I enjoyed fighting new heartless enemies to gather materials. The additional endbosses are awesome and overall it was just very satisfying.

Sure, the story is pretty cheesy light/dark/black/white stuff, but I dig it nevertheless.
2Yoko Shimomura
Piano Collections KINGDOM HEARTS Field & Battle

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days quickly became a personal favourite of mine. It definetly deserves a remake similar to CoM, because it has the most emotional story so far. Roxas and Xion are a great pairing as well, the members of Organization XIII get a little more depth, overall 358/2 Days has a darker and deeper tone than the other games. Playing a game like this on a 3DS system was kinda weird at first, but I got used to it quickly and the fights were challenging yet rewarding.
Roxas is the best KH protagonist. Period.
There is no endgame content and it doesn't need any tbh. The final fight was super satisfying. Overall this game is tied with KH1 for the best game imo.
3Yoko Shimomura
KH Birth by Sleep & 358/2 Days OST

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is a cool departure for the series. Being able to play three characters with different abilities and character traits was a welcomed change and it made the game interesting until the very last second. Splitting everything into three had some downsides though. The story felt little rushed in places and you find yourself asking "Could these guys just talk to eachother to solve their problems?" But once you've seen the other point of view it's clear why they didn't.
I also very much enjoyed how everything there felt much more innocent than in the other games. It's before the darkness took over the universe and you can feel it.
Some of the fights were actually challenging (playing in Proud Mode). Like Terra vs. Braig? You need to be prepared properly!
4Yoko Shimomura
Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack

Kingdom Hearts II is the game I'm most nostalgic about. I played it a lot when I was little and I still remembered a lot about it. Maybe that's why I didn't fight the data replicas of the organization - I just had enough of it. The cavern of remembrance was a nice new thing to discover, the puzzle stuff as well.

Gameplaywise this is better than KH1. Everything is a lot smoother and player friendly. It's a lot of fun, but the fights were quite easy. I chose Proud Mode and still I had no troube defeating most enemies. Yea, I could have fought the data replicas to have some hard fights ... but it's just not the same thing to fight an enemy again compared to fighting someone new, who isn't part of the main story (like the optional boss fights in KH1).

Storywise this matured quite a bit and I really appreciate the direction they went here. Roxas' is probably the most tragic character in the KH-universe next to Xion (more about that at KH 358/2 Days)
5Yoko Shimomura
KH Birth by Sleep & 358/2 Days OST

Kingdom Hearts: 0.2 Birth By Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage has damn long name and yet it is the shortest game here. If Dream Drop Distance was the game that set the stage for KH3's story, this one sets the stage for its graphics. Hot damn, is looks so beautiful, it's amazing.
This is a lot closer to KH2 gameplaywise. One could call it "fluid" and "smooth" or one could say it's ususally just spamming one button, even though it's not as bad as KH2 in this regard. Personally I enjoyed it, because you were not able to put on a shot ton of abilities to deal a shot ton of combo finishers, like in KH2.
I always enjoyed playing Aqua. Actually she is (apart from Xion) the only cool female character in this game that's actually relevant, so that's a huge plus.
What annoyed me a little was the typical tripple-A-games stuff. I can figure out where to go myself, thanks game for thinking I'm stupid!
I also enjoyed the realm of darkness, a world that's barely making sense you're lost in. Beautiful
6Yoko Shimomura
KH: Dream Drop Distance Original Soundtrack

Kingdom Hearts III was a huge disappointment, to say the least. But let's start with the good stuff:
Gumi jet missions in an open world style? Hell yes!
Improved graphics and a more detailed world design? Damn yes!
A fluid gameplay similar to KHII and BBS 0.2? Good.
Kairi becomes a Keyblade warrior? Ha, this must be good, right? Right?
Well. Kairi has always been little more than a speaking puppet. I mean Xion has more personality and she's a real puppet. Making Kairi a Keyblade Warrior was a great opportunity to give her some depth, but the game didn't even attept to do so.
Gameplaywise it's fun, but also super super easy. Some worlds are just recreations of Disney movies and that's what makes them boring. The story is just meanders along with Sora not getting anything done at all and then jumps straight to the big finale. Characters like Sora being always super positive makes them cringy. At the end of the day KHIII fails because writing a convincing story seems like an afterthought
7Yoko Shimomura
KH: Dream Drop Distance Original Soundtrack

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is by far the weirdest game of the series I played. It starts off in a very confusing way and things start to make sense as the game progresses. But does everything make sense though? The worst thing about this whole thing is the time travel stuff. Like, seriously, why? And the way how it's revealed is so ... I lack the proper vocab tbh. I wish this didn't happen.
Apart from that there is a lot to enjoy here. The constant switching between Riku and Sora is an interesting feature and the whole journey is undeniably Riku's journey. This game is about him more than Sora (who's progressively becoming a worse character imo) and it's for the better. I enjoyed the dream eaters as well and the fights were actually challenging sometimes, but not in frustrating way.
Yea, this game is kind of a mess, but it's still enjoyable.
What's also notable is how you get a sense of how this is setting the stage for KH3. It got me really excited.
8Yoko Shimomura
Piano Collections KINGDOM HEARTS

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is easily the worst KH game so far. Every world is a rehash from KH1, the rooms and fights are repetitive as hell, the actually interesting stuff only happens on the stairways and far between, Sora is like a different much more stupid person here etc. The remake for PS4 improved the optics and the gameplay a little, but the major flaws remain.
Playing Riku is much more fun here, because you just enter a world and slay the boss. No sets to build, no unnecessary story and doing some cool darkness shit. But still I was glad when it was over. It's a shame this game is highly relevant to the canon, 358/2 Days would deserve a remake a lot more tbh.
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