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#1  How can Kingdom Hearts appeal more to mainstream Disney fans? I have a strange feeling that Kingdom Hearts appeals more to Square Enix fans than Disney fans, at least in the United States. While Kingdom Hearts is featured prominently in Japanese pop culture, it is largely underground in American pop culture. How can the franchise reach out to the mainstream Disney crowd? |
10-23-2009, 04:58 AM
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| Cid's Knight  | I think you would need to define the "Disney" audience. Disney's main appeal is that many of us grew up with it so we know the stories and series but it may not necessarily make us a fan. KH only appeals to RPG fans really, as the FF characters are terrible shadows of themselves and barely warrant a mention in the plots of the games. Its the original cast that has real development. Personally, to appeal more to old school fans, we need either older films or song numbers. Why just let Xemnas speak about his heart? He could have a wonderful musical interlude. In all seriousness, I feel we need to define what a Disney fan is and then we can discuss what they would look for. I myself do like Disney and I actually do enjoy going through the various Disney worlds, the only issue I see is that the Disney characters themselves are static cause most of them are stuck within the constraints of their original films. Aladdin in KH2 was a bit weak cause the cast did not grow. We just got the KH version of the awful Aladdin 2. I think Winnie the Pooh has been the most successful world cause its the only one that kinda grows and changes from game to game and I like the concept of Sora replacing Christopher Robin in the story. The other Disney worlds haven't fared as well with Little Mermaid rehashing its film plot (which was kinda done in the original game) though I do prefer it in KH2 cause for me, Little Mermaid was always more about the emotions and the music rather than a plot about good and evil so I prefer the campy singing. Basically, I think they need a better writer ( kick Nojima to the curve and let Watanabe do it instead) and also bring in some people from Disney to help with the Disney worlds as well so we can generate original story content without compromising the original IP. |
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10-23-2009, 09:50 AM
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| | Yes, add in some AMERICAN Disney staff to the team. I was wondering this because I have seen Disney stores at numerous malls, and about 9/10 Disney fans don't know anything about Kingdom Hearts. In terms of promotion, they should have extensive coverage on the Disney Channel, and more Disney Channel actors should cast as character voices (they recently casted Meaghan Jette Martin of Camp Rock fame as Namine in Re: Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days), as well as Disney Channel characters Kim Possible and Jake Long (American Dragon), as Sora's allies, and perhaps more music from Disney Channel stars such as Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, etc.... Perhaps the games can be developed jointly in both Japan and the United States; Square Enix U.S.A., Inc. can join forces with the domestic Disney studios in Los Angeles to develop and promote games, and with that, launch the franchise into mainstream Disney fandom. On a side note, while many Square Enix fans disliked the Atlantica musical number in Kingdom Hearts II, keep in mind that they were just paying homage to traditional Disney movies. In addition, Sora also means "chirping songbird" in Native American languages (I found that on a cultural names website somewhere), which seems to tie in with his participation in the musical. |
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10-24-2009, 06:21 AM
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| Cid's Knight | I agree that Disney has sorta mismanaged their role in the series. I do find it funny that Disney won't allow cosplayers to do any of their personal characters though... Can't say I agree with you on this, I feel most of Disney's newer characters are pretty poor and annoying and I would prefer to Disney to stick to classic characters especially sense the newer characters would only appeal to a smaller fanbase. Hell no, that music is utter  . I know cause I do have to listen to it every day. KH has great music, if we're going to add music from Disney, it should be restricted to music based from the Disney worlds and managed by KH's very talented composer. I would like to point out that Disney and SE did actually work together to make the first entry from both their gaming divisions. I just feel Disney should promote it as well as give a creative consultant to help with building the Disney worlds. I think that's a minor coincidence for Sora's name. Its Japanese meaning actually seems to be gaining more importance though... As for the singing, as I said, I enjoyed it. The Little Mermaid world was one of the more poorly designed worlds in KH1 and I felt KH2 did a better job representing it. I also like the fact they were willing to throw in new game mechanics and make the gameplay experience much more diverse. Besides... I love rhythm games.  If SE insists on keeping Aladdin, Hercules, and The Little Mermaid though, I feel they need to look towards the TV series that were made in order to expand the stories. Aladdin alone had a wonderful set of villains and stories that could be explored and fit nicely into the KH universe. |
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10-24-2009, 10:14 PM
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 | Why are we trying to appeal to mainstream Disney fans though? I don't get it. Gamers will play it because: a) It has FF characters; b) It is an RPG; c) It has Disney in it and they like Disney. I just don't see why non-gamers would go to all the effort of getting a console and Kingdom Hearts just to get a taste of Disney. They would be better off going and watching the movies again. More sales would be nice though. Advertising on theDisney Channel sounds like a smart move. |
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10-25-2009, 03:02 AM
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