The baroque Hollow Bastion and ethereal End of the World sections are genuinely brilliant examples of level design, in pure aesthetic terms, in this game and games in general. Especially for what must have been a fairly big concept in the PS2's first years. They're huge, towering ideas inspired by Beast's castle and the Chernabog sequence from Fantasia (no small task). They look great, the music in them is a treat, and the enemy design becomes very interesting all of a sudden (especially the pureblood heartless).
The soundtrack has aged the best of all, but there are things this game did well, objectively. The mashy, sloppy combat mechanics will never be one of them, and will only age more poorly with time, which is why most have no problem writing the game off. That and the cringe-worthy writing. It's a kids game, let's not forget that, but I won't pretend it's good from nostalgia. I am probably the biggest KH fan on Giant Bomb, too -- it's my favourite game because of being a massive Disney + Nightmare Before Christmas fan, and feeling connected with Sora and Riku, boys who feel lost in their birth places like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, and whose ambitions are bigger than their realities, finally escaping it -- but we gotta be real here, it's fucking corny overall, with some more subtle heartfelt moments/undertones that I genuinely like, few as they are.
Riku and Sora's weird obsession with Kairi has a girl-out-of-time vibe that is never explored well. She just appeared on their island when her world was fractured, changing their whole concept of what 'the world' is; that there were magical things to see; that their lives didn't need to revolve around where they're from, something I've heard younger Japanese people talk about before IRL and in other games (Persona). There's a moment with Ansem's heartless later where he references their island as a prison surrounded by water, and eleven-year-old me was so into that almost Billy Zane monologue.
The gameplay has aged horribly outside of some real cool special movies you unlock later (ars arcanum, ragnarok, sonic blade), plus a few handy spells that look neat (stop, gravity, and aero).
This is an explanation rather an excuse, but Wonderland, Deep Jungle, and Atlantica are three of the worst examples of level design I can think of from memory, and anyone with a brain would think it trash after those six or seven hours, rightly so, but if you stick with it once you get to Monstro, Neverland, Halloween Town, and Hollow Bastion, it really starts to shine as a successful cross-over, and the main storyline, corny as it is, actually starts to steer the game in a more linear and natural way.
The music in those levels, and the end, is some of the most bombastic instrumental work of the PS2-era, also. Check out the track Destati, which I would call the opus of the soundtrack, and one of the dopest in gaming.
I give this game 10/10 from my heart, but it's more like a 9/10 for concept, 10/10 for music, and 4/10 for gameplay. KH2 is significantly better when it matters, but the story is no less dumb with the one saving grace being the pretty charming Organization XIII.
Edit: Also, I think the heartless are adorable, so I'm doubly biased.
If it wasn't Bungie, the lack of a big story wouldn't really be a talking point, but they are known for making you feel inclined to help fight a cause like they did with the Halo games. Destiny 2 clearly has all the gameplay seals of quality, but the longevity of that is bolstered by two core things: getting loot with your pals and leveling your character. That's cool. However, it's in such a similar package as the first game, which the marketing and live demos all pointed towards being a space epic with the tight mechanics Bungie are famous for, the sense of community of great MMOs, and the shiny pull of loot-based classics. For years they framed it that way, but it turned out to only be the latter three of those promises, and that was a big disappointment to those who were hoping for an exciting new sci-fi universe to marry beloved genres into one ultimate gaming experience. It wasn't that. Great fun, no question, but no legs unless you're prone to gameplay loop addiction.
So here we are, I thought: 2017, lessons learned, criticisms noted, and all that time to come out guns blazing and show us naysayers that the ship has been righted! Full potential reached! But it isn't that, at all. It's a more finely tweaked recipe and nothing more, as far as I can see. If the reviews, user feedback, and GB staff's comments are accurate, including the fudging of the shader model, this looks like -- to those of us who yearned for more diverse locations and interesting plot hooks to make all your leveling up and loot-gathering equate to more than surface-level magpie behaviour -- a cynical sequel in some ways. I expected way more variety from this universe in its second outing, three years later. It's kind of incredible.
People who want that pure gameplay rush will get it, love it, feed on it happily and without irony, and have no need for a deep narrative worthy of the gorgeous character design weaving it all together. I'm glad that so many millions accept it for what it is and love the heck out of it, but it's not fair to to point out valid criticism like it's some kind of infectious disease endangering your game. Trolling and reductive statements are pointless on both sides, we all agree there, but it's okay to feel that these games are hollow, or didn't come close to their original vision of what Destiny was going to be, and to share that disappointment. I'm merely shocked this time, not stung.
It is now clear it will never be that, and I can live with it. There are plenty of games that have and will have those things I love. Farewell Destiny! Good luck.
Saying a movie is too slow is one of the things a lot of movie watchers point out as a flaw rather than a style or choice which niggles me when said repeatedly. If you don't like it that's cool, I just enjoy it when people explain in a quick way why they don't instead of screaming and wah-ing. We're all different, though; I rip every Bond movie to shreds (minus the amazing music).
I thought it was a breath of fresh air for a movie of that era to takes its time and soak in the atmosphere a bit instead of going for the quick action formula. I think the fight scene could've been edited better for the pace's sake, though -- definitely -- but it's always fun to see.
These salty game dogs being dumb, drunk buddies is a breath of fresh air every year, but Jeff being a bit '...' and trying to rein them in for an actual answer to a question now and then was a bit of a struggle for him it seems, haha.
Greg Miller came across great here. Has he calmed down or something? Seemed quite disarming and insightful for a change. Or was he just less drunk? ha.
Spider-Man was a nice surprise; that looks promising.
Detroit's writing was laughable in what they showed; excuse my negativity, but it really seems like Blade Runner for idiots. I thought A.I. seemed like that when I first saw it, but nah. It had something. Heavy Rain was highly derivative of Noir and late nineties/early '00s thrillers, but there was a real sense of urgency about it, and some of the dialogue -- whether by accident or a lot of hard work -- actually resonated. This seems so much more forced in comparison.
God of War was weird. Kratos as a salty patriarch makes me cringe, and the gameplay looked so slow and plodding. Hope that changes once the adventure begins for real. I assume he'll dust himself off when the kid gets taken away or killed.
That zombie thing was pretty, and the animations as they tear through compounds and camps is extremely satisfying, but the characters weren't popping for me. I want to say it looked utterly generic, but those animations and the lighting... It could be a sleeper hit with some more tricks up its sleeves than we've been shown. Still, it was another super serious thing to show with some C-grade Drake quips sprinkled in.
Even that Uncharted side-game got super serious mid-way through its trailer. So depressing. Ubisoft showed fun stuff mostly, and I hope Nintendo continues that today. Microsoft slung a near-constant stream of stuff I've never heard of that looked interesting.
Monster Hunter looked great, and seems like the version with less system-focused stuff to finally get me into the series.
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