Why do people like Kingdom Hearts again?

Hmm..how do I answer this without falling into "hater" or "bashing" myself....I'll just be blunt.

I loved KH1. It wasn't a flawless game but it was amazing. I'd say it's 1.5 variant even shows that it is timeless. (so long as disney is around anyway) I started since I grew up on Disney and saw the commercials in 2002. It was the ultimate journey. Had some cliches like chosen one (although I hear that is translation error) and the camera could be a pain but it was a fun and very lovable story.

I'll just reuse something I've used before:

"This right here. This was the starting point. That simple beauty, that magic simplicity, that crossover everyone said was crazy. That game my twelve old self begged for because of Disney while not knowing what the hell Final Fantasy was.

Now before you start whining this is a “bashing” or “KH1 lovers rant” let me stop you. I’m well aware I have nostalgia. In my opinion only a fool would deny they have nostalgia for something they loved at a younger age. I’m also perfectly aware this game too isn’t without flaw. In fact Kingdom Hearts 2 actually had better design tech wise. Especially with it’s camera. (even if it was ultimately too easy)

So just take a moment to hear me out. This was the starting point. This right here. A simple but oddly charming tale of a boy flung into a magical Disney adventure that just so happened to have alternate versions of your favorite Final Fantasy characters roaming it to give it that little extra spice.

Many hate it, many love it, but no one can deny this game had a different feeling to it. A feeling none of the other games managed to replicate or carry. Call it the atmosphere, call it the zoomed in camera, call it what you want but I say it’s because of it’s story.

A simple tale you see in most rpgs, monsters destroying the world, magic, a young boy thrust into adventure. Nothing standout yet somehow it was. Heck thanks to mild mistranslation it even had the “chosen one” archetype in the english versions of the game. (in the original version Sora is never called a “chosen one” or “keyblade master” just a simple “keyblade hero” or “hero chosen by the keyblade”)

Ignoring lots of it’s metaphysical aspects, symbolism and so on (since that’d make this way longer than it is already) ya had a relative simple story of friendship here.
Sora, Donald and Goofy go from needing each other out of necessity to becoming true friends. Sora learns from his travels and unlike the games to follow is portrayed like a normal boy would be. Having an actual inkling of intelligence in contrast to his shounen “simple/stpuid hero” set up in games to follow.
Every interaction had meaning, almost everything was a lesson, Sora goes from only caring about Riku and Kairi to realizing there’s a threat he has to stop. His relationship with Donald and Goofy grows with each scene into that ever so loved trio fans loved so much in Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 2.

He learns form Tarzan that “friends are in our hearts”. From Hercules Sora learned that what’s important to being a true hero isn’t brute strength but “strength of heart” and that Donald, Goofy and his other friends are that strength. From Triton Sora learns the keyblade is just as feared as it is revered, and so on. Everything taught him a lesson and culminated in his famous ‘My Friends are my power!’ speech.

That’s what this game did, that to me, gave it it’s unique feeling. Almost everything mattered, even the Disney worlds and characters were interwoven in this original story contributing to the overall plot. Unlike later games which was mostly a copy & paste plot of the movies with Sora thrown in. (literally just rewatching the movie plot at times in many games)

I fell in love with this story. It was endearing to me. A true waltz into a Disney adventure that a Disney kid of the 90s like me grew up wishing for. When I finally beat that game for the first time I was a mix of sad, happy and fuming mad thanks to him being separated from his friends at the end. (most other fans of the day will say they cried, I could only rage lol)

I couldn’t wait for more to be honest and now I realize that I pretty much rode this feeling for years. Waiting for a title that would carry on this endearing story, that unique feeling.

Telling myself I couldn’t wait for more while never realizing that I liked each title released less and less from the one prior. Then one day after having spent a few years on reading interviews, in-game reports, disappointment and arguing theories I just asked myself “why?”.

That’s when I looked back and realized I had been fooling myself for years. This feeling never returned, in fact, each title strayed further from it. Over and over I just wondered “why?”. Then that’s when realized it was the games themselves and Nomura’s own faults.

The magic of the series had been lost and now so had my interest in it."

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This coupled with fun gameplay and what I consider the best use of magic made it into what is now a very good nostalgia title. It brings me joy when younger kids try it and love it as well.

Now it feels like I kinda linger waiting for something I can call a good resolution point. I'm thinking right now this is KH3 assuming we ever see it.

After KH1 things seemed promising enough, Chain of Memories was strong, Kh2 had very weak writing but gameplay was fun and unless you read the journal through you never knew of the amnesiac Xehanort bit so it made Kh1, CoM and KH2 a solid story in a sense.
The only issues of it all was KH2's writing, Kairi and Riku getting keyblades and the whole Namine, Roxas, Sora debacle.

Then the handhelds happened. They kinda overstepped their bounds. A side story shouldn't define a main line story like they have. It's bloated the story in a direction I can't really call good, great or really awful. If I had to beg it I'd call it dividing.

Now you have a fandom fractured and in some areas of the webs downright ridiculous. You dont have a Kh fanbase anymore it's more like fans of individual titles or characters.

I dunno....I could go into rants but at the end of the day I just feel the story tried to hard. Everything is relevant, everything is convoluted due to ambiguous scenes, things unexplained that need it or things that didnt' need explanation that got too much of it.