Thanks for the honest feedback, harsh as it is I do appreciate hearing people's opinions. And I know if you thought it was total crap you probably wouldn't address me directly, so in that way I'm oddly flattered.

I do take your points, and these were things that I grappled with as I made it. Namely whether using the grunt sounds were a good idea, because they are less quotable (though I have to disagree about the "hm-hmm": that line stuck with me back when the Demyx fight was a huge roadblock for me and many others). I won't argue it's perfect, but I decided it was the best solution to what I was going for. It was a sacrifice on "quotability", so that the animation and audio flow didn't suffer, while keeping with the core concept of spelling out the name. And while yes, I did use that as my starting point, I didn't think that little stumbling block with the grunts was worth throwing the whole concept out the window.

Fact is, I'm competing with people's nostalgia, which you can never really win against, so the best thing to do is add something new and make it your own. If I just had a string of random quotes, people would just miss the old quotes (and maybe that's still the case). So my goal was to have a callback, starting it off exactly the same as the original, but then let it stand on its own so people who don't have the nostalgia factor can still like it. That's where the production value and the music and the little name gimmick come in.

About the music, I was worried that contrast too. That the mood would change too abruptly and it would be weird. But having used the new intro with 0.2, that fear of mine is totally gone and I think it works just fine. And yes, maybe that's because 0.2 is a somewhat darker game, but I don't think it makes a huge difference. Honestly though, I don't see at all where you're coming from about it being intense final boss music: it sounds pretty upbeat and mellow to me. Truth be told, my first version of this DID have final boss music (Rage Awakened from 2.5), but I was talked out of that, haha. But this one, I don't know, different strokes I guess, but I find it a pretty relaxing little melody.

Going back for a moment on how fondly people remember the old intro, I'd like to touch on an important detail. Back then, capture cards were few and far between, and KH-Vids basically had a monopoly on the cutscene market for Kingdom Hearts. So essentially, anyone who was making a KH AMV or parody was using our videos. But now, you can search YouTube and easily find 5-6 high quality walkthroughs: people have plenty of options. And that's not to take anything away from the old intro, because I love it too, but it's a moot point that everyone remembers it, because everyone in this fandom HAD to know it. And while there's plenty that we can do to help get this site back to its former popularity, there's no way we're ever getting back to that same pivotal role that we once had: the times are just too different.

But I digress. Thanks for your critique, I know you were hesitant about posting it, but I'm glad you did. As I made this intro, I shared my progress with staff, and I took their criticisms to heart to make it better. I'm glad that I was able to get it to a point where most of them were fully on board, with a straggler or two who weren't completely sold, but thought it was passable enough. Something I've learned in my professional career (says the 24 year-old kid lol) is that you're never going to please everyone, and it's not because they're wrong, but because different things are important to them. And they may have strengths where you don't, and nothing's gonna be perfect and blah blah blah. If someone was paying me for this it would be a different story, but I'm happy with how it turned out, and I think most people are too (you can correct me if I'm wrong). It does suck to hear someone doesn't like your work, but it's a reality and I'm cool with it. I take your criticism and will remember it the next time I make something, so maybe slightly fewer people will not like it lol. But for real, thanks for stepping out and speaking your mind.

There's a lot to cover here, but for my own sanity I'll try to cut this down to our main point of contention.

This wasn't my master plan to save our brand. In short, I made this because we needed a new intro. We've had a different one for each console generation, and I was a little indifferent to the previous one, so I took the initiative and made something I thought was pretty and fun. The little callback is just a small nod to what I hope will be our return to form. And what that means to me more than anything else, is getting out the highest quality cutscenes in a timely fashion. Yes, people love the old intro, but they know it because we were the first ones out of the gate, and what we offered was good. Unfortunately, I think the main reason we lost our spot is because we fell behind: releasing videos many months and even years after the games released.

I think that needs to be our focus: getting cutscenes out fast, organized and optimized for video editors. Which is why the new intro was just a footnote in this post about the 0.2 scenes. And if I obsess over this intro, it's going to knock me off schedule with recording, editing, completing the games to get the secret endings and all that good stuff.

I stand by that I think it works as is, and that I'm proud of how it came out. As someone who does art for a living, I am never 100% satisfied, but I know when to walk away (you don't hear me say pleeeeaase...).

You're more than welcome to start a thread with a poll or whatever, where people can voice their opinions, positive or negative (and no, you won't get banned for it, people ). Heck if you want, I can start it myself if it'll make you more comfortable. I do care what people think, and even if I don't have the capacity to do anything about it right now, I'd still like to hear feedback.

No hard feelings man. I know you're saying it cause you care. And even if it's hard to hear, it's healthy to take criticism.