Tag Archives: Kingdom Hearts

Top Anticipated Games: #gamersonwatch

With E3 at a close, I must make a confession.  While I have certainly heard of this important gaming event, I admit that I don’t typically pay it much heed, and any news I do hear comes from random people or articles on the Internet.  Nevertheless, I have a short list for you all in celebration of E3 and our June community post, and I’m keeping it simple.  My favorite gaming news is whatever involves the release of interesting games, so I shall list (and briefly describe) the five games I look forward to most (whether they were mentioned at E3 or not).  In no particular order. Continue reading Top Anticipated Games: #gamersonwatch

Listmas: Games I Need to Play Next Year

Image from Flickr user: FaruSantos
Image from Flickr user: FaruSantos

I’ve already listed all the game I played this crazy year of 2014, and now it’s time for all the games I need to play in 2015 AKA my gaming backlog! Not including games not yet purchased… Continue reading Listmas: Games I Need to Play Next Year

What is so Good About Kingdom Hearts?

Image By Flickr user: mattjerome_88 (cc)

Does anybody else find it a little strange that it’s been over 12 years since the original Kingdom Hearts made it’s debut on the PS2 and we’re still no closer to figuring out what exactly is so good about it?! Continue reading What is so Good About Kingdom Hearts?

The Inanities of Video Game Bosses (Created by Square, I Mean)

Image from Flickr User: lites_in_thee_skyy
Image from Flickr User: lites_in_thee_skyy

Some time ago, I replayed “Kingdom Hearts”, a game I had gone through two times prior, and yet, for some reason, this was the first time that something struck me. Video game bosses are weird. Not just the concept (why are they even called “bosses” to begin with?), but…you know what, have you ever beaten “Kingdom Hearts”? Or really, any Square Enix game for that matter. Because, sometimes, they have the absolute strangest abominations you’ve ever seen. It almost seems to be a requirement in such games that the final boss is the most distorted and ridiculous creature they can possibly come up with.

And so, when I was battling the final boss of “Kingdom Hearts” during my third playthrough, it was only now that it hit me just how goofy the end of the game is (goofy, not Goofy). Honestly. I mean, okay, I can accept the earlier fight against Ansem, when he has that funky Heartless thing hovering behind him all throughout the entire battle (which would bother me, personally, as I don’t do well with anyone breathing down my neck, monster or not-monster alike). But, then, once you beat him, you have another fight that is so much more absurd, where Ansem and his funky minion thing have somehow merged with a…I don’t know…a psychotic cruise ship of death that is floating out in nothingness, with faces all over it (including one face with a chin that could poke your eye out…nay, to be more accurate, it could poke your entire face out). And I don’t know why I never thought that much about it before, but the last time I saw this thing…

Continue reading The Inanities of Video Game Bosses (Created by Square, I Mean)

The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 3-Sony Still Can’t Think of Creative Names

Image from Flickr User: alessandrofaj
Image from Flickr User: alessandrofaj

Today is the last day of my series of posts on what I like and dislike about the last generation of consoles, the Wii, the 360, and the PS3.  While I loved the PlayStation 2, I actually didn’t have any intention of getting the PS3 because Naughty Dog was still refusing to make any more “Jak and Daxter” games, the “Kingdom Hearts 3” release date was nowhere in sight, and because I could just keep up with the “Final Fantasy” games on the 360.  And then, because of a sale on used games at GameStop, I bought myself a few PS2 “Ratchet and Clank” games, causing me to really get into the series.  And that’s when I found myself with an unstoppable need to buy the PS3 and catch up on all the “R&C” games I had missed.  Nevertheless, at first, my PS3 didn’t have much to motivate me to play it aside from a few short “R&C” games, and I wondered if I may have wasted my money.  The console did become much better, however, when I added to my collection “Portal 2”, “Rayman Legends”, and the Final Mix version of “Kingdom Hearts”, and now I’m starting to really love it.  Not as much as my PS2, but it still turned out to be a pretty grand console.  And now, I present you with my pros and cons for the PS3!  (With the focus, again, on gaming, and information found on Wikipedia.) Continue reading The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 3-Sony Still Can’t Think of Creative Names

Resonance: The End of the World

Screenshot from Flickr User: Esperino.com
Screenshot from Flickr User: Esperino.com

Video from Youtube user: Video Game Soundtracks

A little while ago, I wrote about a song called “Night of Fate” from “Kingdom Hearts”, and today, I will be discussing another song that stuck with me from this game, the music that plays in the End of the World.  The song is also found at the beginning of the game, but here is where it is most effective, in the last level of the game and the place containing the remains of worlds that no longer exist, after they were ravaged by the Heartless.  This is a very strange, empty place, most chilling at the beginning and end, with the empty expanse of nothingness, aside from a few bits of stone and a large, bright light when you first enter the world, and the bizarre, narrow hallways towards the end, with images of twisted buildings and trees on the walls that defy explanation.  This is a dead, empty place, and the music makes you feel that.

Without this song playing in the background, this place would still be depressing, but it is the music that helps complete this place, making you feel as empty and lonely as the world you are wandering.  You know if you don’t act fast, other worlds will share this same fate, and you can’t help but feel a despair as you work your way through this world, a despair and a loneliness that eats at you the longer you hear this music, slow and simple, but filled with sorrow, the vocals filled with the empty sadness that characterizes such a hopeless place.  There isn’t a whole lot to say about this music, and there isn’t really a lot to it, but maybe that’s the point.  There’s not much left in this world, either.  It is the result of destruction, the result of worlds brought to their knees by the Heartless, worlds where countless people once lived, now displaced or simply gone, like their world. Continue reading Resonance: The End of the World

Resonance: Night of Fate

Video from Youtube user: Merhawk102

“Kingdom Hearts” is one of my favorite series of all time, with the ingenious blend of Disney, “Final Fantasy”, and original elements, not to mention the fact that these games are some of the most beautiful and emotional games I’ve ever played.  And so it stands to reason that, when I was recently playing the first game of the series over again, I managed to find several songs that would make perfect Resonance posts because of the emotions they manage to convey.  The one I will be discussing today is “Night of Fate”.

The most notable instance this song is played is early on in the game when Sora’s world of Destiny Islands is under attack by the Heartless.  It is quite an unexpected thing when he wakes up one night to find a storm over the islands, the sky enshrouded in dark clouds.  When he rushes off to ensure that the raft he and his friends had built is safe from the storm, he finds the islands to be overrun by small, black creatures he’s never seen before.  Shortly after arriving, he receives the Keyblade, the only thing capable of defeating the creatures, but no matter how many he kills, they will never stop coming. Continue reading Resonance: Night of Fate