From heartwarming to horrific, Games Radar counts down gaming's most memorable holiday scenes:
"Christmas is tomorrow, and that means those of you who celebrate the holiday are just hours away from opening the free stuff you've been looking forward to all year. In the spirit of the season, we extend our warmest wishes that you find at least one of the games we've recommended under the tree, and that you don't get stuck with any well-intentioned but misguided crap. And to keep you occupied for a few minutes while you wait for the hours to tick away, we've gone through years of yuletide memories to pick out the seven in-game moments that scream 'Christmas!' the loudest. Some are time-locked bonuses, others are appearances by Santa Claus himself, but all of them have warmed our hearts or scarred our minds in their own special way."
Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers writes:
"When it comes to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, fans have had a variety of ways to play it throughout its incredibly long length. They could have followed it from 2002’s original release and subsequent questionably canon releases on handheld devices only to return to the core game again with Kingdom Hearts II to find out that yes, they were canon. Then in that wait until the third game the mixture of titles along the way and other numerous platforms would make following Kingdom Hearts‘ story a challenge even for the most eager fan. Square Enix made up for this prior to Kingdom Hearts III’s release by bringing together an HD pack collecting the game’s together in an easier to digest package for fans and releasing them on consoles only for PC fans to be left in the dark. That is of course until all of the games arrived on PC, but not in a way that many had hoped. See, PC users can be a fickle bunch and when the Kingdom Hearts collection arrived on PC exclusively through Epic Games, it may as well not exist. Now, three years after the fact, these same PC players can now enjoy the exact same games on Steam with a bit of extra support including Steam Deck compatibility with Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece. The question is, do all of these games still hold up on their Steam PC ports?"
Far from a 9, Square have left these games a janky mess since their epic release. Even now they have not said anything about fixing some of the problems that many steam reviews mention. You gotta download the re:fined mod to fix what square refuses to do.
"SQUARE ENIX®’s beloved KINGDOM HEARTS series has launched on Steam®, bringing the iconic RPG series to a whole new world of players. All three collections released today—KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, KINGDOM HEARTS 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and KINGDOM HEARTS III + Re Mind DLC—can be played both on PC and on-the-go on Steam Deck devices, and available at a special discounted price for a limited time*." - Square Enix.
My main complaint about the series is that it mixes Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters, but they are actually not important at all to the plot. I read summaries and watched videos about the series, even played the music game which tries to summarize the plot of each game, and the Disney and FF stuff are barely mentioned at all.
All the series really is, is an amalgamation of convoluted plots that tries too hard to be mysterious and edgy, with some cameos to attract fans of Disney and FF, who wouldn't care at all about the franchise otherwise.
Heck, even in the trailer above, the Disney/FF characters are... just there.
The Animal Crossing franchise may lean towards casual gaming, but it has laid the foundation for a future title to have a survival mode.
merry Xmas to all the bitter fanboys out there =)