(Long thread)

Talking to people about Kingdom Hearts and their grievances with the series has made me reflect on how my view of what I consider to be good writing has changed a lot in recent memory, and why I'm enjoying these stories so far

I've experienced a lot of fantastic media (especially animanga) lately that really raised the bar for storytelling for me. Stuff like Umineko, Pandora Hearts, Haikyuu, Vinland Saga and much more. Monogatari especially had such an A+ cast all around, it was a pleasure to watch

And what this has made me do is rethink a lot of my prior favourites. At this point I'm of the belief that, aside from a few exceptions, video game plots just aren't "peak fiction." They are fun, enjoyable, entertaining, but most don't reach the heights of the best animanga

The series that I have probably soured the most on is Persona. It's a series where each of its respective games tries to go in depth with its themes, and personally, I'm no longer a fan of how P4 and P5 handles its character arcs and stories.

And as a result, I find the thematic execution of those games to be hollow. This doesn't mean that I find them to be bad or irredeemable. They're solid. But given that they try to be "serious" games with deep social commentary, they're a little disappointing to me

I've even had to rethink Kiseki a lot, which is thankfully a series I still love a ton. I can't really still say that Trails has a top tier story or character writing anymore. There's a frustrating lack of consequences in these games, there's a lot of bloat with the writing and-

many characters are kinda just there. Not to mention that it's clear that some aspects of the series weren't planned very carefully.

But what the series has going for it for me, is something no other series offers to this extent, a rich world and interconnected plot

I still think the worldbuilding is top notch, and I love that many of my favourite characters can grow up and make appearances in future games. It's not without its flaws, but Trails really takes advantage of gaming as a medium and I love it for that

Trails is pretty much a comfort series for me now. A "friends we made along the way" type of thing. I don't necessarily think it's peak storytelling anymore, but it's solid and it's fun and that's good enough for me

So basically, my point with all this is that with a lot of these plots, I could sit there and be super serious and get mad at every little issue, or I can suspend disbelief a little bit and smile along and enjoy the ride. And I generally try to do the latter

With Kingdom Hearts, it's been a little wacky so far, sure. But it's also been fun and entertaining, and I can't help but put a smile on my face when I'm playing them. Hopefully it continues to deliver when I get to the later games!

I apologize if the first bits of the thread come off as a little elitist. I didn't word it perfectly, but overall I think that a lot of stories, even highly regarded ones, have aspects that can be picked apart. So I'll try to relax and have fun even if a story is a bit silly