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Showing posts with the label Kingdom Hearts III

“Things Every Southern Woman Should Know How to Make”

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Alice clicked on the headline, mildly curious about what yet another stranger thought should be in her kitchen repertoire. Pictures of China plates mounded with crispy fried chicken, greens, cobbler, and a pile of biscuits a mile high flooded the screen, all set off with a pitcher of sweet tea beaded with condensation. The table was set; an apron draped off to the side next to a box labeled “Gramma’s Recipes” in fine calligraphy. She closed the browser and put away her tablet. She was born a Georgia peach, but she couldn’t make a cobbler to save her life. Did that mean she wasn’t southern? Or maybe just not “Southern.” For Alice, there was no recipe box full of family traditions. Her younger years were filled with rental homes in different states and her father’s voice coaxing her toward a text book rather than a cookbook. Metalworking and fabrication held more interest than learning to flambé or sauté. Did it make her less of a woman that her cooking skills consisted of fresh salads...
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Ramblings of a Gamer: Kingdom Hearts III Part 3: Final Rant

**** SPOILERS**** I have quite a few bones to pick with Kingdom Hearts III; I’ve already mentioned the POV fail and the overabundance of Disney, but there were a few other points that hit my editing nerve. The dialogue tags were excruciating. There was no need throughout the game to keep naming all the characters when they were talking to them. It came off very awkward the first couple times, and was painful the longer I played. The cut scenes were another problematic area. Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love those little mini movies in my RPGs, but in KH3, there were so many that the gameplay was interrupted. Cut scenes are good for a reward after a long battle or to tell a part of the story that can’t be told in the gameplay, but too many can pull the player out of the game, which was the case for me. Kairi got shafted in this game. She worked so hard to be a member of the team, and she doesn’t even get to use her skills. Instead of being the fully-fleshed out chara...
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Ramblings of Gamer: Kingdom Hearts III Part Two: Plug Much, Disney?

****SPOILERS AHEAD**** Kingdom Hearts started as a Final Fantasy/Disney mashup, and I loved it. I loved the incarnations of my FF favorites and how they were integrated into this strange new world that had me visiting Ariel in Atlantica and the Beast in Hollow Bastion. Somehow, they were balanced so that one didn’t overpower the other. That joy continued in KH2. And then we got to KH3. And there was something conspicuously missing. Where the heck did the Final Fantasy aspect go? Where were Cloud and Aerith and Sephiroth? What had happened to Leon and Cid? And why was everything so unapologetically pushing everything Disney? Everything was Disney; the worlds (per the norm, fine), the summons (okay), but then the special attacks? Theme park rides in full neon lights? Really? There was so much going on in this game when it came to battles, and some of it was completely unnecessary. With special skills, group skills, Rage form, weapon changes, and summons, the them...
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Ramblings of a Gamer: Kingdom Hearts III and a Storytelling Fail

**** SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVEN”T PLAYED AND HAVE MANAGED TO AVOID SPOILERS, RUN AWAY NOW! ***** Still here? For real, there’s going to be spoilers because I can’t talk about this without them. Staying? Okay! Here we go! I’ve been a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series since the early days. The thought of Final Fantasy mashed together with my fave Disney characters was just odd enough to make me check it out, and that gorgeous opening sequence with Utada Hikaru’s Simple and Clean absolutely drew me in. The game was beautiful and strange, and it had a compelling story that somehow made these characters from completely different franchises work. I bought a Gameboy Advance to play Chain of Memories, and I eagerly snatched up KH2 when it came out, but after that, I couldn’t keep up. There were too many games on too many platforms, and while I love my gaming collection, I’m not much of a handheld gamer, and I couldn’t justify all these extra purchases ...
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