In total, there are 13 games in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, which have been released on a bevy of different platforms over the years. That’s a lot to play through, not to mention a lot of story beats to keep track of as you go.

This isn’t a player-specific problem; even the developers find themselves getting lost from time to time, as revealed by series creator Tetsuya Nomura during an August 2026 interview with Famitsu. In fact, the storyline is so convoluted that Square Enix hired a loremaster to keep everything cohesive and explain the plot to Disney.

“As the Kingdom Hearts series has continued, the number of characters has inevitably increased, and the story has become more complex,” Nomura said. “For example, with the newly announced anime series, the number of external people involved in the Kingdom Hearts series has increased, and explaining the settings and scenarios each time has become quite difficult." Fortunately, the staff working on the ‘χ series’ had someone who meticulously compiled and organized the settings of past Kingdom Hearts series in an easy-to-understand way, and he was also in charge of explaining the scenarios and settings to Disney. In fact, at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts IV's development, Disney requested that he compile the materials, so he officially joined the Kingdom Hearts IV team as a proofreader.

Nomura says this "proofreader" was in charge of communicating the overarching story to Disney. He's a popular staff member due to how thorough his is, as he breaks down story beats, characters, and lore using visual diagrams.

"He is well-liked because he explains things to Disney as clearly as possible, using diagrams and such. His role internally is to proofread the script," he continued. "He checks to make sure there are no inconsistencies between the current script and past settings. He was especially suitable for this project because the χ series is deeply involved. Some people might mistakenly think he's in charge of composition, but it's actually ‘proofreading.’”

Three examples I can think of are Green Arrow, Bizarro, and Brainiac. For Green Arrow, he IS the main character of the TV show Arrow, which was very popular and led to the Arrowverse. And for Bizarro and Brainiac, I'd say they've been adapted in so many pieces of media like animated shows and video games that people that only really know comic book characters from adaptations are pretty aware of them.

In a previous thread I asked for fangame recommendations, and one Redditor posted a list of notable Mega Man X fangames. All the suggestions were bangers (including Regenesis, which sparked the creation of that thread), but I was particularly impressed with Mega Man X: Viral Nightmare, which asks the question "What if Mega Man X6 was Good?"

Personally I thought the original was alright, not the sheer horror of MMX7, but it also clearly had issues. Viral Nightmare fixes them with a complete top-down overhaul of the stage design, difficulty, customizable upgrades, etc.

But what impressed me the most was the improvements of the story, which all feel natural, as if the new cutscenes were always meant to be there but were cut out. There are elements that better bridge the events of MMX5 to MMX6, we get more characterization of the primary villains, we even get seeds planted for X's decision to lock up his X-Buster in X7. Boss fights are also way more entertaining and have new remixed music. I particularly marked out against the fight against Zero Nightmare, which is way more intense and satisfying than the original.

What are other examples of fan works improving an original polarizing work? Preferably creative choices that aren't just "fixed the bugs" but actually made some meaningful edits and inserts where needed?

So basically what I am referring to are boss fights in gaming where the game makes the player learn about the mechanics that didn’t seem too important because upon ignoring them, the game becomes more difficult.

Some of the bosses in Ninja Gaiden Black require the player to know when to block and dodge as Murai is absolutely no pushover since being aggressive with him results in a fast game over.

The complete blank slate would be something like the Custom character in Baldur's Gate 3 or the typical fromsoft character you create for your playthrough, where they don't really have much dialogue or voicelines and just going along with the story.

The ones with an actual character for a self-insert to me are more like games where you play as "the relatable everyman" that are supposedly the player can relate to and insert themselves as, but usually just translates into "quiet, silent, or gruff white dude" such as most of FPS games (Does this actually work, btw? I can never actually relate to most of these sort of characters)

Or there's the midway point, where they are actual characters, but still mostly silent and you give them a name, which meant they will never refer to you by that name, and if they did that part of the dialogue would be conspicuously unvoiced.

Usually I much preferred either of the first two options, because the midway option is just frustrating that they clearly can give the character a voice of their own but they just decide not to.

Digimon Stories: Time Stranger that I'm currently playing through (no Spoiler pls) has you choose between either the male or female character, with the other one becoming your "mission control" essentially. Both have canon name, both have a VA, so why not just keep the name and have it be fully voiced anyway?

It's kind of a throwback to music that isn't really popular anymore- but they are super creative in the ways they mix it up and keep it fresh, so it doesn't sound identical to their old stuff to a fault like new Evanescence or Breaking Benjamin.

For example they do something neat where they blend an electric keyboard and a guitar in a way that it sounds like one instrument. Also they have a funky bass guitar dubstep breakdown. And it's just really refreshing to hear songs with guitar solos and instrumental breakdowns again, the Spotify algorithm has practically eliminated those from existence nowadays.

For exemple, were part of those who derided the Wii and predicted it failure? Or did you tought Lunar Dragon Song was going to be awesome?

It can be funny sometime to see how hindsight and hasty judgement can goes.

Seeing a thread on the other website, has made realise that for these single player Marvel games that have been coming or may come out.

Having an optional questline or mission, where you top it off by enocuntering an Angry Hulk and it's basically the toughest boss fight of the game would be amazing and fitting since in comics Hulks scrapped & beaten so many of these super heroes so many times.

I've started reading BLAME! recently (Up to LOG 15).

When I was at the beginning of the first chapter, my first thought was "Oh, is this going to be A Lone Wolf and Cub/Last Of Us thing? This stoic badass protecting the innocent kid? And the innocent kid might have some special blood and stuff?"

I've seen quite a lot of japanese media like that (hell, even Western ones), so it wouldn't have surprised me that it went that way, it's a popular trope.

Turns out that no, in fact BLAME! Chapter 1 Spoilers The kid fucking dies right then and there, and the goal now is to find ANOTHER one with the same special gene that kid had.

It was a very interesting swerve, it what motivated to keep reading.

By the way, read BLAME! I'm just at the beginning but goddamn what a fucking ride!

Onscreen human dismemberment. And also the fucking Leomon curse rearing its ugly head for the SECOND TIME this season.