LIBEL:                                  


    Libel. The written counterpart of slander. The source of badmouthed publishing and mudslinging against things that tend not to deserve a bad reputation. That was the case today. I should preface this rant by saying that I am a very loyal fanboy of the Kingdom Hearts series, and have followed it from the very beginning, so I bear a certain bias. Today, a questionably-"respected" online game review website, IGN.com, opened fire about the the series  having a a terrible storyline. They warranted immediate "flame" reactions from us loyal fanboys by coaxing us with a picture of the main characters of the series, with the word "SUCKS" smattered diagonally. Blatant disrespect. As repulsed as I was to see such apparent disregard for the all the series has to offer, I figured the educated thing to do was to continue to read the subsequent article BEFORE posting any negative comments. And I must say, the article was pure and absolute cockamamiery. The author listed an inconsequential series of incoherent complaints that were both illegitimate claims and outright hatred.
    This hatred was unjustified, of course. The series is admittedly complex, but is rather digestible if one puts forth the initial effort to try to understand the plot. Word around the rumour mill is that the hateful post was in response to IGN no longer receiving profit from Square Enix, the company behind Kingdom Hearts. According to rumors, a rogue group from the Marketing Staff paid the writers at IGN to consistently give positive reviews for entries in the series up until only recently. Tetsuya Nomura, the head honcho behind the franchise, later found out about the Marketing-IGN cahoots, and fired the group and hired a new one, stating that "the public should state their opinions on our games truthfully and perfectly honestly." Concerning the actual plot of the game, a fellow fan said it the best:

"Anything explained in its entirety will sound downright ridiculous:

Harry Potter is about a boy who discovers he's a wizard and goes onto a quest to kill a snake-man that tried to kill him as a baby but failed due to his mother's love.

LOTR is a story about a bunch of different raced beings off to destroy a ring that grants power to its wearer and trying not to be seen by a giant eye in a tower-thing.

Anyway, if you wanted to critique Kingdom Hearts, by all means, go ahead. But don't go and say: The story sucks. It just makes you seem like a hater and will pretty much provoke a bunch of fans eager to defend one of their favorite games with just as much eloquence as you presented in this article."

Well said. Well said.