soratothamax said: First of all, while the story was convoluted because of past games, at least there was a story and I always felt engaged and wanted to know what will happen next. Click to expand...

soratothamax said: And with every step Sora got closer to saving everyone I was moved.

In KH2 there was no story. Sora was looking for Riku, found him in the Land of Dragons, and the rest was just random plot twists while he was trying to fight the nobodies. And Sora didn't learn anything in KH2 nor did he evolve. The worlds taught him nothing they were just there. At least in Kh3 each world taught him something about the heart. He grew as a person and in the end he was a lot wiser and was able to finally learn the power of waking and save everyone. Click to expand...

soratothamax said: In Kh2...Sora just went home and nothing was resolved for Roxas at that point. That's why we got all those side games because KH2 just left a lot of things hanging. :frown: Furthermore, I was disappointed with Kairi in KH3....but I thought it was random for her to get a keyblade in KH2 and she only used it that one time anyhow. At least in KH3 she was in our party. Click to expand...

soratothamax said: Also the boss battles were more environment friendly and creative in KH3. In KH2 Jafar genie was not a creative way to do that battle. That robot thing in Christmas Town was also not creative. And I don't have to say how much of a let down Port Royal was compared to the Caribbean. The boss battles in KH2 were bland. Click to expand...

soratothamax said: The gameplay in KH3 also encouraged you to use your various mechanics. Not in KH2. They only encouraged the use of triangle..the rest of the mechanics were just there for extra measure. I found myself using everything in KH3. Click to expand...

soratothamax said: And as far as post game content...KH2 had one secret boss and a skateboard... before final mix. At least KH3 has things you can collect and a lot of mini games to play, like Classic kingdom and flantastic heartless, and Little Chef's bistro. And it does have a secret boss and battle gates. Click to expand...

Let it be clear that with my reply I'm not trying to make you feel bad for liking the game, but merely to try and convey why I'm on a completely different page. I feel like more people than we know of are more confused about the other party's feelings than anything.I'm not trying to be rude and mean-spirited and if you only made this thread to search for validation, feel free to skip my post entirely.I didn't. Like, I wanted to find out about the finale and the war, but only because previous entries made me interested. KH III does nothing to propel my curiosity for what's going to happen, mainly because the 85% of a game is the main character being sent off into worlds for no logical reason at all while trying to achieve a power only mentioned in another title and that suddenly it's suppsoed to be this huge plot point I'm supposed to be interested about.KH II gave you a mystery person and an Organization to defeat, linear and simple. There were baggages from previous games too, but well there's a reason why so many people started with KH II no problem.You sure about all you wrote? Every world in KH III taught Sora something? Like? Donald himself stated that going to see Hercules was a waste of time.All the KH worlds since Chain of Memories have kept up the shtick of just having a heartfelt discussion about friendship and hearts, and make it look like they all learned the Sunday Morning Cartoon's lesson for the day, but honestly it's always the same stuff.What Woody says in Toy Box isn't all that different that what Tarzan tries to convey in Deep Jungle. Or Stitch in Deep Space. Or any Pooh visit. It's always the same core concepts: "Be strong, be good, love your friends, reject negative emotions".Elsa being in balance and Larxene (rightfully) telling Sora he isn't exactly justified in meddling every single time is the closest I can think of a different moral, but it gets abandoned because again, KH runs on the same notions every time. This is not KH III's fault in my mind, but it's definitely not like KH III is any better in it. Every KH game is square on this, with the exception of maybe KH1 who was at the very least the one which did it first.The worlds also do not get Sora any step closer to the power of waking, which is one the biggest gripes I have. There was always a bit of trouble connecting the Disney visits to the main plot and KH II itself struggles, but the Disney worlds in KH III are the very definition of pointless.At the very least, in KH II Sora was actively searching for people who might've been in any random world, it made sense.But him going to the worlds in KH III doesn't, because all he needs is the power of waking. Which isn't acquired through level-ups or Disney magic. Yen Sid said it himself, there wasn't a clear plan and they were just waiting for a miracle. And I would be fine if the Disney visits were that very same miracle, but they weren't. Sora goes to save Aqua like he could've been done all along and the wakes Ventus because "the power was in you all along". They tried to mask that with the "oh and Sora is also weak", but... no. It doesn't cut it.I'd call Sora the opposite of wise. Xigbar warned him since the beginning about the risks of rushing into danger (like DDD itself wasn't enough), and Young Xehanort could've been less subtle only by shouting "POWER OF WAKING IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH".The finale speaks for itself about how well that turned out. Sora has stopped growing as a person since KH1 - CoM era. His KH II character was... a mixed bag, but he has remained stationary since.And look how well that also turned out. Also "in our party"... she was with us for a full 40 seconds of fight before being kidnapped. At the very least KH II didn't try to lie to our faces about her becoming a fighter beforehand.As shoddily as KH II handled some B plots I'd hardly say it left a lot of things hanging, in fact it might've been the most conclusive entry in the series. All known enemies were defeated. All doors and Kingdom Hearts-es were down. Sora, Riku, Kairi were at home and Mickey was at his Castle with Donald and Goofy. Ansem the Wise vanished to make amends for his sins. Roxas and NaminÃ© didn't get "solved" because KH II never even considered them existing as their own selves, but always portrayed how them going back to Sora and Kairi was the good ending that led all of them living happily.The game tries to convince you that that was good at the time at any given chance.Storm Rider was creative. Luxord was creative. Xigbar was creative. Demyx was creative. Final Xemnas was creative. Honestly, even Barbossa and the Reaper had their own gimmick despite being in a letdown world.You picked some of the least interesting and most criticized bosses, but they're hardly the norm. KH II had a lot of good fights that remained as staples in the fandom, and some were also close to stunning for a ps2 game.KH III has giant bosses galore up until Davy Jones. And giant bosses are usually boring, because they're a huge wall that doesn't stagger much and does big damage with big aoe attacks. I'd hardly call the most of them "creative", and some are even... well, bad. Skoll can rot wherever he's stayed.Same with the Air Titan, which is in my mind Jafar Genie but somehow even worse due to the limited movement and resources you have. I think Air Titan isn't one of the worst fights in the game simply because it's one of the first bosses so even if you get hit it's not such a big deal most of the times.Sometimes being too "creative" and utilizing too much of the environment can be bad. There is such a thing as overperforming.I could tell you just the opposite. I used nothing but Storm Flag and Ever After in my KH III playthrough and even forgot Links and Shotlocks were a thing. Never felt the need to do anything else, and that stayed true up to the Secret Boss.Also, KH II wasn't "press triangle to win" not even in its earlier stage... yours is a conflicting stance, because you fault KH II for having many mechanics that were also optional should you not wanting to use them then you praise KH III for having essentially the same thing. Trust me when I say that KH III did nothing more than KH II in encouraging you to experiment on your own.You must've missed quite a lot of KH II's extra content when you played it, because I distinctly remember tournaments, Twilight Town being full of different extra challenges, training with Phil, light cycle, cave of wonders challenge, Pooh minigames that were way more than one repeated three times, making presents, escaping from the ruins in Agrabah, and an entire optional world besides Pooh dedicated to optional stuff and minigames.Not to mention that in KH II there is a bunch of minigames and challenges in the story that are different from the postgame stuff, meanwhile KH III's postgame challenges are the same minigames you've encountered in the story with the exception of flans.If anything, I'm perplexed whenever people claim that KH III's extra content is on par or even better than KH II's when that's really not the case.Some often says that KH II FM is an overly glorified game put on a pedestal, but I'm starting to realize there's also this misconception that vanilla KH II was this unplayable garbage with maybe two hours of content stretched in.That's just not true. Final Mix improved upon a lot of things, yes, but it improved on a game that was already kinda nice on its own.Then, as me and others already stated elsewhere, if we really want to compare a 2019 game for the ps4 to a ps2 one from 2005... well, I think that speaks volume about the supposed quality and balance of the ps4 game.Like, even if KH II barely loses, it's that really a huge win for KH III? The very same notion that this comparison is being made should tell us there's something off with KH III, regardless of how much it emotionally resonates with you and how much you like it.I'm not the biggest supporter of KH II, not even final mix, hence why I didn't try and confront you on every points you made because I'm not entirely against what you said.KH II has the worst worlds in the franchise. It replaced depth and immersion with 2005/6 era of "cool skillz" and "fill the bar" minigames everywhere. And I'm not happy about its pacing and how it hastily wrote many scenarios, especially anything concerning DiZ and NaminÃ©.But to me KH III was at its best on par (again, on par with a ps2 game from almost 14 years ago), and at its worst even worse. And due to emotional value, expectations and technical advantage KH III had an even higher bar to reach, so when it falls it makes an even louder crater.You say it redeemed you love for the series and I'm glad it did that for you, but as I said the sheer fact that we're here taking everything apart with a microscope yelling "See, look, this is actually salvageable! This part isn't AS offensive to the eyes!" is just depressing and not the epic finale I wished to have.I have nothing wrong with who likes this game, the moment I finished KH III I was disappointed but well aware that for some this will be even the best KH game ever, and I want to respect that as much as I emotionally can.This was less of a "why people who deeply love KH II think of it as better" and more of a "why people who were let down by KH III feel the way they do", so I hope it was of some help and offered some insight.We do not feel like we rag on a good game because we do not feel this even is a good game at all, or not a good "Kingdom Hearts III" at the very least.