Why Kingdom Hearts Matters

the year is 2002. you're six years old just a few months away from Seven your dad puts a game into the PlayStation you've never seen before you see a cartoon boy with spiky hair running around a tropical island your dad doesn't play for long before your older sister takes over you spend much of your formative years watching her play this game you play it too but not as well you want to get as good as she is she beats up the gray-haired kid on the island she can even beat him in a race when she navigate to the menu she does it so fast you can't even see what she's doing all you hear are the clicks and beeps you wonder if you'll ever get that good in 20 years you'll introduce this game to a close friend he'll pass the controller to you to handle the menus because they're clunky and too hard to understand you navigate the menus not even reading them because you already know where the options are you wonder if In This Moment he feels the way you did watching your big sister play you later confirmed that he did by the time you start to play this game for yourself you've already cut your teeth on Pokemon and Tetris for your green Game Boy Color you can read the menus now and know the gray-haired boy's name is Riku you learn the brown-haired girl's name is Kyrie in time you'll learn that her hair is actually Auburn and you're just colorblind but for now your sister just called you stupid and says the names of colors that don't exist you still don't really know what color auburn is you spend more time in summers playing on the islands with your virtual friends than you do actually going outside eventually you leave the islands you watch as Riku gets swallowed by darkness and Kyrie turns into like a ghost or something it'll be a few years before you figure that one out eventually you start exploring worlds from different movies that you've seen Alice in Wonderland Tarzan Hercules you start to realize some of the worlds that you visit are from movies that you haven't seen and now you want to see them you watch the spiky cartoon boy Sora beats up Riku and gets his girlfriend back it'll be a few years before you understand that there's more going on than just that it'll be a few years before you ever even beat this game for yourself in fact you struggle to do most of it you should have played on beginner but you didn't want to look like a baby your sister could beat it on proud you watch your sister beat the game but neither of you stopped playing all of your formative childhood memories are inherently tied to this game the first time you drink hot apple cider was when you were playing through the Tarzan world to this day when you see Deep Jungle you can smell the apple cider when you smell apple cider you think of vines and hippos you have trouble remembering things most of your childhood is a blur the moment sit on the ground like a pile of photos that have fallen from the album anything more than a few years back is difficult to remember even sometimes you struggle to remember things that happened last week secretly you hoped this would go away with age you remember being in high school and thinking that it's normal not to remember your childhood but you still remember stuff from middle school so that's fine you don't really remember high school now either there's something deeply upsetting about this that everything you are and everything you've seen is being washed away at a steady Pace that it seems like your capacity for memory spans only a few years and beyond that you're staring into the void in that void is a game that you played more than any other that you watched your sister play you talk about it with your friends and online you wrote and read fan fiction for it it taught you what fan fiction was taught you that you love to write you forgot this for a long time this series is a beacon in the void it's a waypoint that memories cling to you remember playing chain of Memories on your Game Boy Advance on a park bench while you were waiting for your sister to finish horseback riding you probably would have forgotten she even did horseback riding if this memory didn't stick for some reason every time you hear Simple and Clean by Utada Hikaru you want to weep when Kingdom Hearts 3 came out you played it and you felt a visceral sense of existential dread that didn't go away for months and you couldn't explain you understand it now though it reminded you of all this it reminded you of being a kid you had forgotten that you forgot that remembering it reminds you just how fleeting life is remind you that one day you won't wake up in time you'll come to terms with this dread somewhat at least you'll start to appreciate this series for what it meant to you you start to realize just how important it is to you now I realized that my experience with Kingdom Hearts is somewhat unique but I think everyone can understand the emotional attachment that comes with playing the right game at the right time while I doubt that anyone has this exact experience with Kingdom Hearts I'm sure most of the people watching this video can understand the feeling it's not exactly profound to say that video games can have an emotional impact on people we like to think we can be objective and offer logic-based Arguments for the value of things but sometimes that isn't possible Kingdom Hearts is a part of me it's nestled into all of my childhood memories it's reached through to the core of who I am I can't objectively critique Kingdom Hearts any more than I could myself I want you to like Kingdom Hearts I want you to like me but deeper than that I want to like Kingdom Hearts I want to like me I can't just tear away the emotion and look at what's left because emotion is all that there is despite this I'm sad here writing a retrospective on Kingdom Hearts I'm not going to attempt to make an unbiased critique of Kingdom Hearts it's a 20 year old game there have been enough critiques and reviews made of this game instead I'm going to embrace my bias it's sad to see how much hate this series gets and how it's so often ridiculed it feels like Kingdom Hearts is the butt of every joke not trying to say I don't understand why I do this Series has always been weird and in recent years they've taken in weirder and more nonsensical directions making a giant mobile game that's plot relevant and required reading for the next entry in your series isn't exactly a popular decision after all but while we're so caught up in making fun of the direction the series is gone I feel as though we've lost sight of where it was Kingdom Hearts is an important game I'm not going to sit here and try and tell you that the entire series is a masterpiece and each entry is better than the last it has flaws and it has its ups and downs Kingdom Hearts 1 for the PlayStation 2 is flawed itself but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter I hope through this video you'll come to understand Kingdom Hearts to understand me just a little better before you even press start on new game Kingdom Hearts tells you what it is in full force know that I'm not being the least bit hyperbolic when I say this the title screen for Kingdom Hearts 1 on the PlayStation 2 is perfect I could write an entire essay on the beauty of this screen but for your sake I'll hold myself to just a few paragraphs the first thing we hear are the waves gently crashing against the shore as the title fades in we hear the beginning chords of dearly beloved a song which I consider to be yokoshimamura's magnum opus and no I won't be taking questions as we hear the somber yet hopeful notes play against the soft waves of the ocean were met by the full title screen at the Forefront is the logo Kingdom Hearts the font is aggressive it has the energy of an angsty teen in the early 2000s looking at the font Choice alone disregarding even the words that each letter spelled there's an edgy angsty energy this is often overlooked considering how the titles are used and so often placed among brighter elements but this is an intentional choice that has meaning this angry font is clearly juxtaposed against a heart from this title image alone we see two conflicting ideas right above it we see the logos of Disney and squaresoft Disney and Japanese role-playing game developer squaresoft two logos that have no right sitting in such close proximity again we see the juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas and beside it all we have an anime boy standing shoeless on a beach not an existing Final Fantasy character not a well-known Disney character a new design that's never been seen before except even in this design we can see the contrast of conflicting ideas the design of Sora is the perfect meeting point between Final Fantasy and Disney his hair is reminiscent of clouds the anime art style and aesthetic the infamous chains and belts of tetsuya nomura placed on top of a red jumpsuit with rounded shorts large gloved hands we don't see it in his title screen but he even has the giant clown shoes typical in Western cartoons most notably on Mickey Mouse the design itself looks just like the natural product of merging Cloud Strife in Mickey Mouse as a child in 2002 I didn't notice any of this I hardly heard even three notes of dearly beloved before I press new game today when I show people Kingdom Hearts I don't let them make the same mistake I made I have them sit and contend with this screen I ask them to take in what the game is showing them even though you've yet to hit start the game has already begun Kingdom Hearts is an inherently absurd idea the idea to make a jrpg where you visit Disney Worlds and interact with a mix of Disney and Final Fantasy character sounds more like a fever dream than an actual game pitch and yet it was a game pitch squaresoft presented this outlandish idea to Disney and they said yes this title screen exists to prepare you for a game which is filled to the brim with completely conflicting ideas the strangeness doesn't end at the pitch Kingdom Hearts is built on the juxtaposition of opposed ideas and it follows through to the very natural end if you go into Kingdom Hearts expecting a standard experience you likely won't make it to the end I know many people who enjoy the series for the gameplay but are disappointed with the story and design decisions to that I would say even this is intentional by the developers Kingdom Hearts was made from two contrasting ideas and it can't exist without this like it or not this is what kingdom hearts is and it told us from the very moment it appeared on screen whether or not you noticed this or even wanted this is another story but regardless it told you all the same once you finally Press Start you're met with what is perhaps the greatest opening sequence to exist in video games while that might be hyperbolic today I assure you that it was unmatched at the time where I Boulder and unafraid of copyright strikes taking down this video I would play the entire opening and song right now in total I would play it three times once at the beginning a second time now and a third right before the conclusion of this video analyzing the opening cinematic of Kingdom Hearts could be an entire video in and of itself for fear of putting the card before the horse I'll refrain from analyzing the entire thing with full knowledge of the plot of the game upon your first viewing the Cinematic exist to introduce you to the characters in the beginning of the game it shows you the island that you live on and it shows you your friend who you'll come to know as Riku it foreshadows the relationship that you'll have with him he gets swallowed by the ocean and in trying to save him Sora gets pulled under you see when he comes back up that his other friend Kyrie is waiting for him he runs to her but their reunion is cut short as Sora looks back to see that he's falling once again he's pulled beneath the waters to the location where you will begin the game though it's never stated in the game you could assume the Cinematic is something that Sora himself experiences we come to learn that this tutorial that you go through is a dream that Sora had and it stands to reason that as the Cinematic ends in the same way this tutorial Begins for Sora this was one continuous dream this doesn't really have anything to do with anything but it's an interesting idea nonetheless I suppose before moving forward I should warn of spoilers I'll be spoiling all of Kingdom Hearts 1 in this video rest assured I'll refrain from spoiling any other games with that said I don't think that Kingdom Hearts is a game that's even capable of being spoiled to spoil something is to give information which could retract from The Experience not all details about a story are spoilers only the ones that you wish you didn't know beforehand it isn't a spoiler to tell you the name of a Game of Thrones character but it would be to tell you if and when they die not really sure that there are things that happen in Kingdom Hearts that could retract from The Experience though it's a very standard story that doesn't do anything particularly surprising or unexpected and anything unexpected that happens feels less like a surprise and more like just another strange occurrence I think even without playing the game this video wouldn't harm your enjoyment of the game should you choose to play it at a later date that said my memories of Kingdom Hearts exist at the same time as my memories of existence in general and so I understand I may not be the best person to tell you how obvious certain events are to me the events of Kingdom Hearts are as natural as anything if you'd prefer to not be spoiled on the game please feel free to leave the video now and return once you've completed the game with that out of the way let's dive into the tutorial the tutorial for Kingdom Hearts is split into two parts the first half being dive to the heart and the second being Destiny Islands dive to the heart you get your typical tutorial how to move how to attack just generally teaching you what each button does set in an empty black void where you stand on stained glass pillars depicting various Disney Princesses while you listen to an eerie harmonic singing again with the strange juxtaposition dark Eerie environment bright and colorful Disney Princesses weirdly Cinderella is a brunette in her art here I can't explain why this genuinely baffles me to this day and so I thought I'd mention it despite it being wholly irrelevant to the overall experience the tutorial starts by asking you to pick between three items a sword a shield and a magic staff you choose one to keep and one to discard this is how you influence your starting stats in the game sword of strength shield for defense and staff is Magic after choosing your weapon the stained glass platform beneath you shatters and you fall to the aforementioned platform depicting the cursed art of Cinderella where you now get your battle tutorial fighting Shadows after you learn how to pick up and throw items you go through a door to find three kids standing on a wooden platform that you'll find out as part of Destiny Islands as a kid playing this these just seemed like random kids to me but many of you watching will likely recognize them the girl at selfie from Final Fantasy 8 while the two boys are Titus and Waka from Final Fantasy 10. you'd be forgiven for not immediately noticing this however because their designs have noticeable changes selfie looks about the same albeit a bit younger but Titus and Waka look different they look to be designed inspired by Titus and Waka rather than actual depictions of them I don't know why they were changed so much in design I could speculate or spend a lot of time doing research to find an answer but ultimately they're very minor characters who in this entire series only appear here in Destiny Islands selfie makes an appearance as a cameo in Kingdom Hearts 2 but Titus and Walker are only ever seen in the tutorial of this first game when you speak to each of the Final Fantasy kids here they ask you a question like what are you afraid of what's important to you what do you want out of life interestingly this isn't actually a meaningless choice and it changes the game a great deal depending on your answers you'll change the speed at which soar levels throughout the game the game tells you that your adventure begins at dawn then it means you'll level more quickly at the start and it'll slow down later on if your adventure begins at dusk it'll be the reverse with a slow start that ramps up later on if your adventure begins at noon it'll be a stable level progression through the entire game this is an interesting idea that you don't see very often on top of being able to alter your difficulty at the start of the game you're given this chance to alter your leveling curve which will change your experience playing the game quite a lot in addition to this the previous choice of weapons Alters the order in which you get these abilities combining these two systems means players will have fairly unique experiences through the game based on these early seemingly innocuous decisions where I will criticize the game is that this Choice actually matters a lot more than a new player would have any way of knowing the game doesn't ask you do you want to level up fast at the beginning fast at the end or steady all the way through the game asks you seemingly meaningless questions which it then uses to derive an answer from and it only communicates this to you in a vague fashion that would only make sense if you've played the game a lot or read a strategy guide hiding a choice like this can be interesting but when it's done to alter such a vital game mechanic I feel it can sometimes have an unintended effect of making the game a lot harder or easier at certain points without the player ever even realizing it if you chose a slow start and fast later levels then you'll struggle a lot in early on fights while still learning the mechanics you might feel like you're doing a lot worse than you actually are because Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG you can offset low levels with higher skill but the inverse is equally true poor skill can be offset by higher levels for children who are learning the game for the first time accidentally starting off with a much slower leveling curve and fighting early bosses at a low level before you even unlock the ability to see enemy health bars can make the bosses feel like impenetrable walls that you're just too bad at video games to overcome for some particularly sensitive children this could cause you to develop a complex where you just feel like you're bad at all video games you're just too dumb and have too slow of reflexes to be able to play any particular game well that's just hypothetical though not like that's actually happened to anyone after you make your choice that you aren't aware that you're making you end up back in the shadowy void where you fight even more shadows and eventually the tutorial boss your own shadow grows and turns into a giant shadowy monster who you now must defeat once it's vanquished you wake up on the beach from the opening cinematic this is Destiny islands and it's up there for one of my favorite opening gameplay sequences ever as weird as it might sound I compared a bit to the great Plateau from breath of the wild not informed but in function as both serve as microcosms of the overall experience the great plateau and breath of the wild contains a little bit of everything that you'll find in the overall game it falls just short of being considered a vertical slice due to the lack of a dungeon or boss as is found in the Divine beasts but that's not a criticism a tutorial isn't meant to be a vertical slice but by including a little bit of everything you'll experience in the game in the great Plateau breath of the wild teaches you how to play the game just by letting you play the game there are of course other systems and new things to do outside of the gray Plateau but by giving you a small taste of what the overall experience is It prepares you to engage with the game and to know how to have that's a concept that I think is often lost in tutorials tutorials exist for two reasons first the game needs to teach you what the buttons do your controller is how you interact with the world so you'll need to learn it before you're able to actually interact but the second and more important part is teaching you where the fun is I think this is where a lot of games fail because it's something that's actually sort of hard to do if you think to all the tutorials that you hate you probably hate them for this reason I should clarify that there isn't necessarily a single way to have fun in a game it's going to be a little bit different for everyone but there are going to be more common ways to have fun also I should clarify that fun doesn't always mean fun horror games or strategy games may not really bring someone joy in the moment for example by fun I just mean engaging with the game in such a way that gives you a fulfilling experience be that what it may you probably don't have a huge smile on your face while you're sitting in the training mode of Guilty Gear trying to figure out a combo but hopefully it's something that you found engaging the feeling of self-improvement and knowing that you've learned something and gotten better that's the fun and just as the great Plateau places the fun so clearly for the player to see so too does destiny Islands there's a lot to do on Destiny Islands actually all you want to do is progress the story and move forward in the game you can do the tasks Kyrie gives you pretty quickly race Riku do some more tasks fight a boss and Bam you're done but there's more to it than just that Destiny Islands begins with a cut scene the characters and story are a huge part of what people enjoy about Kingdom Hearts and Destiny islands is filled with some of my favorite moments we see the interactions between Kyrie Sora and Riku we're able to understand their relationships easily Kyrie gets a lot more characterization in this opening act than she gets in the entire rest of the series we get hints that she has a deeper backstory that she had to unfold we see the Rivalry between Riku and Sora Riku is the older cool guy that the protagonist is jealous of he's better at basically everything he's Stronger Faster smarter more mature you can battle many of the characters in The Island but when you battle Riku he keeps score just this little detail does so much to make the player themselves feel what Sora feels I want to beat him as a kid I really cared about beating Riku despite how much I tried though he'd always win more and each time who would remind me how many times I've lost and how rarely I've won on the start of the second day on Destiny Island you race Riku you decide to have a wager on who wins and Sora suggests that the winner becomes captain of their raft Riku swiftly and mercilessly robots this saying if I win I get a share a palapu fruit with Kyrie an action in Universe which is akin to entering a romantic relationship Sora the child says the winner is the captain Riku says he's gonna steal your girl he doesn't laugh he doesn't blink he means it I'm not interested in getting into Shipping Wars I've been in the Kingdom Hearts Community long enough to know better than that I'm not going to discuss or speculate the nature of the relationship between the three characters instead I'll discuss from the perspective of six-year-old me Kyrie is my girlfriend this gray-haired muscle head cool guy is going after her I need to win this race of course I lost I mean I was six it wasn't even close afterwards Riku says he was joking about the paupu fruit and says that you'll name the raft high wind in a way this makes you feel even more childish childish for thinking that he was serious riku's the mature one he wouldn't have a race to decide who gets to date your friend that's childish it's childish for you to have thought that that was what was happening was childish of me again the game reinforces this rivalry with Riku but not just by showing how Sora feels about Riku but by making you the player feel like he's looking down on you that he thinks he's better than you that makes you want to beat him all the more Beyond just the story elements of Destiny Islands Kingdom Hearts uses this tutorial Island to teach you how to engage with the game Destiny islands is a small level with only a couple of different zones on the first day you get access to half of the island while Kyrie blocks the door to the other half she gives you a list of things you need to gather and asks you to bring them to her the game doesn't have a quest log doesn't have arrows telling you where to go you need to talk to NPCs and get information from them and then use your own memory problem solving and navigational skills to complete the task the style of gameplay was the norm when Kingdom Hearts released in 2002 Quest logs and Waypoint markers being ubiquitous and games is a relatively recent thing but at the same time the game still needed to prepare you for the style of gameplay I'd wager most developers would want their games to be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their experience with games not all games achieve this fact but I think it's something that developers generally Aspire towards so Kingdom Hearts must teach you how to pay attention how to think Kyrie's task is mundane it isn't difficult at all get some logs some rope a sheet even this mundane task primes you to be ready for more complicated instructions though Kyrie's task is the equivalent of the first jump in a platformer it's obvious what to do how to do it and it's easy to achieve yet that first jump prepares you for the harder ones to come while doing this task you'll likely realize there's more to the island than just doing what Kyrie says though you'll encounter the Final Fantasy kids from earlier and have the chance to fight them you can fight Riku too this is completely optional but you'll get a small reward for beating them and it's a fun challenge there are also a couple of treasure chests hidden around Island these are completely optional but reward you for exploring here the game teaches you to do more than just walk forwards forward progression in Kingdom Hearts is incredibly easy if you know where to go there are even entire levels that are completely optional if all you do is put your head down and move forward you'll miss a lot of the game on this island Kingdom Hearts ask you to do things that you don't have to finishing your tasks causes the day to end you get a little cut scene one with Sora and his friends and another of Disney Castle this is the first moment where we see proper Disney characters sure during dive to the heart there are the murals but in this scene we actually see them moving and speaking as fully fledged characters this is also where we see the contrasting ideas so centrally the opening act of Kingdom Hearts feels a lot like a typical jrpg upon ending the first day on Destiny Island you're treated to a cutscene Sunset where the island Trio saw a Riku and Kyrie ruminate on life on the island contemplate what lies Beyond it's clear that riku's given this a lot of thought their plan for exploring other worlds is to build a raft and sail beyond their Island and find out what's out there when you first hear this plan it sounds silly and childish even when I played this game for the first time as a kid I understood there weren't different worlds if I just sailed off the beach looking into the sky and thinking about what's passed there and planning to get on a raft to get there seemed more like kids playing pretend than an actual plan but Riku speaks of it in a serious tone he isn't playing around he genuinely wants to find the other worlds and beliefs that they're out there we'll come to understand later in the game that the idea of sailing into outer space in the Kingdom Hearts Universe isn't actually that absurd Hook's ship from Peter Pan is flying through empty space as his monster from Pinocchio Kyrie herself comes from another world and though this is said to the player early on it doesn't really sink in a significant until much later as a child this cutscene just felt like three friends hanging out on the beach at Sunset as an adult it feels like a grave warning we understand the tutorial dive to the heart happened within sora's dream and so if we view the opening cinematic Simple and Clean as an extension of that dream it feels almost prophetic you add this to the serious tone that Riku speaks in when speaking of the other world and suddenly the talk of exploring other worlds doesn't sound so cheerful this cutscene is melancholic it feels like a calm before a storm and immediately after this cut scene we cut to an instrumental version of the Mickey Mouse March the theme song from the 1955 show The Mickey Mouse Club though it may be more recognized by modern audiences the song which is sung by soldiers marching through a war-torn Vietnam in the conclusion to Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket I can't say with certainty that the Mickey Mouse March being used to contrast the melancholic ruminations of Kingdom Hearts protagonists Against The Whimsy of Disney films is done as an intentional homage to Full Metal jacket's haunting final moments whether this song was used to reference this scene or simply because it was the song most ubiquitous with Disney's iconic mascot and its use in Full Metal Jacket is merely coincidental isn't for me to say what I can say with certainty is that the scene of Donald Duck walking up to 50 foot tall doors only to open a much smaller door that was hidden within the larger facade is the greatest piece of visual comedy that has ever existed within a Japanese role-playing game it is strange though even as a child playing through Kingdom Hearts I recognize the scenes at Disney Castle introducing Donald and Goofy and their goals and motivations felt so out of place they felt like they belonged in a different game altogether this isn't a criticism of poor writing or storytelling structurally this makes a lot of sense Destiny Island is our introduction to Sora and his goals and motivations but Donald and Goofy are also main characters who though the Vietnamese Sora will join him on his journeys to come it's important that during this Exposition we come to understand them all the same while the title screen of Kingdom Hearts prepared us for the juxtaposition of Western cartoons against Japanese games we don't truly feel this until we hear the Mickey Mouse March I said in the opening of this video that my dad didn't play Kingdom Hearts for long in truth he never made it past Destiny Islands if you were to ask him today why you stopped playing he'd say he didn't know what to do I don't believe that though my dad isn't a liar but he's in the best at articulating his thoughts either he's a software engineer that used to write code on paper he played first edition d d when it came out and is playing video games for as long as they've existed he could have figured out how to do a simple fetch quest in the tutorial zone of an early 2000s video game I think more accurate is to say that he lost motivation to figure it out Kingdom Hearts didn't hook him I think it's no coincidence the moment he stopped playing is the same as the moment where the game so clearly wears on its sleeve exactly what it is understanding and enjoying the absurdity that is inherent in Kingdom Hearts is necessary to enjoy the game and the series this is off-pitting to you you'll likely struggle to get into the series for me and I think it's many fans the absurdity is part of the appeal though the transition between the jrpg that is Destiny islands and the Disney cartoon humor and tone in Disney Castle is fun people who came to Kingdom Hearts wanting a jrpg action game or people who came wanting a silly and lighthearted Disney game are going to be equally disappointed by Kingdom Hearts because by being both it ends up as neither to enjoy Kingdom Hearts is to accept this duality day two on Destiny Islands plays out much the same as the first it's here that the island fully opens up and the players given the chance to explore their hearts content their goal is the same again though Kyrie asks for a few items that are scattered around the island and the player has to get them and bring them back to her once this is done the day ends once again with a Sunset Beach scene and another scene from Disney Castle these scenes are quite different from the first days though here we see Sora and Kyrie's hitting on the dock alone the scene exists almost solely as foreshadowing Kyrie comments on how Riku has changed she says at first that she was afraid but she was reassured knowing that they'll be able to return to the islands that once they set sail it'll be great truth Riku is yet to ungo as true transformation and the trio won't be able to set sail from the island it's only moments away from complete destruction it'll be a long time before the three of them are reunited again those players we don't know this for certain the tone of this scene hints to us that things won't stay peaceful for long the cut to the Disney Castle scene is a lot smoother this time the jrpg and the Disney are starting to come together though they've yet to fully join this scene starts on a much more serious note and slowly throughout it becomes more Whimsical and typical of Disney cartoon Kingdom Hearts isn't able to put Mickey Mouse standing right next with an anime boy right away in this opening scene and for the majority of the game Mickey Mouse is neither seen nor even mentioned by name only ever alluded to Kingdom Hearts knows better than to suggest that these two elements could stand beside each other so easily they had to earn that this whole video I've been stressing the absurdity of place in Final Fantasy characters next to Disney characters I find it hard to believe that the developers of the game weren't also extremely aware of how opposed these two properties are there are similarities don't get me wrong and those similarities are why I feel Kingdom Hearts actually works but all the same it's still a very strange idea on paper the opening act of Kingdom Hearts serves not only to introduce the game The Mechanics the world and the characters but also to make the player comfortable with the idea of these two properties interacting I said it myself even as a child who is unaware of what Final Fantasy was I could feel the dissonance present in the transition from Destiny Islands to Disney castle at the end of the first day on Destiny Islands they wanted you to feel it the end of the second day they didn't and for me at least they pulled it off by having such a hard transition that feels wrong and then deliberately making a softer transition Kingdom Hearts manages to make the two feel much more cohesive than they actually are The First Cut Is harsh in off-putting the second is smoother and more natural the scene between Sora and Kyrie ends on a similar note to the beginning of the Disney Castle scene here these two scenes still do Place jrpg characters right against famous Disney characters but it doesn't feel it wrong no matter what kingdom hearts Cesar does it is weird to have these characters standing next to each other but by slowly bringing the two together first in tone that in narrow narrative by the time Sora meets Donald and Goofy it feels fully natural to the player why wouldn't these characters be in the same world of course at this point the jrpg and Disney elements are still feeling disjointed while the transition is smoother as the Disney Castle scene continues it becomes much more like a Disney cartoon even ending with the iconic goofy screen the cut back to the islands feels strange as well we see Sora in his room as it establishes a storm brewing on their Island the cutscene Fades and we hear battle music start to play as Shadow creatures form the island the player is given control here but unlike in dive to the hearts or his attacks are useless against the heartless he only has a wooden sword after all once the player realizes this they'll eventually find Riku when a cutscene starts as they approach him Sora asks where Kyrie is but Riku talks past him saying how the door is opened they can go to the outside world we see a large black storm above Riku as he says he isn't afraid of the darkness reaching his hand out to Sora just as he did in the opening cinematic this time it isn't waves that consume him the Dark Shadows that begin to wrap around him Sora reaches out and the Shadows overtake him too the screen Fades to Black before a light appears and so his hand is a weapon and we see the text keyblade appear on the screen as though an inaudible voice is telling us its name this is the moment where Sora gains his iconic weapon Riku is gone and the shadow Monster's attack but this time when the player fights back they're able to deal damage it's likely the player will spend some time trying to defeat all the enemies but they'll likely quickly realize they're endless and notice a Dora by the waterfall that wasn't there before thinking back to riku's line on how the door is opened the player will approach the door through the door is a small cave where we've seen drawing sore and his friends made as children Kyrie is standing there and behind her is another strange door with no handles this one opens on its own throwing Kyrie back she disappears as she passes through Sora and he too was knocked away now outside the cave again we see the storm is groundnuts consuming the island all that's left is a Dark Void and a single piece of Sandy land that Sora stands on behind him is the Giant Shadow Monster that was fought during the dive of the heart but this time it isn't a dream though he succeeds into feeding the shadow monster Sora isn't able to stop the storm itself soon he like the rest of his Island is by it once again we transition from a sad moment in a jrpg to the cartoonish faces of Donald Duck and Goofy though this time there aren't any jokes they merely point to this guy and comment on a star that's gone out even at six I knew that this was the world that I was once on though I come short of connecting this with an earlier moment in Disney castle where they established that Mickey Mouse is off looking into why the stars are going out like I'm sort of realizing that what had just happened to Sora and his friends was what was happening to many worlds in this universe the camera pulls back as we see what is probably the best integration of Final Fantasy in Disney that could ever exist and we get a title card that says Traverse Town if jrpgs and Disney cartoons are on opposite sides of a line graph Traverse Town sits right in the middle at first it looks like a typical medieval town that you might expect in a jrpg European architecture Stone and wooden buildings with Cobblestone roads but the closer you look you'll start to notice the odd proportions of different buildings and structures the lamp post that curves and has white gloved hands pointing instead of wooden signs or arrows the mailbox has a tongue and a top hat it almost looks like a Toontown was a medieval village Traverse Town exists to connect Disney and Final Fantasy together this is the first time we see Disney characters standing right next to Final Fantasy ones Donald Duck's nephews Huey Dewey and Louis from DuckTales run a shop right across the street from a shop run by Sid from Final Fantasy VII after Donald and Goofy walk away we see Pluto Mickey Mouse's dog look sora's face this is the first moment we see Sora interact with a Disney character directly as you explore Traverse Town you'll continue to see more of the two properties so our fights Squall from Final Fantasy 8 now called Leon for reasons that elude me alongside Luffy and aerith from Final Fantasy VII these characters provide a lot of lore and guidance for our protagonists they teach us about the world but there's also the Dalmatians from 101 Dalmatians that you can find in even a full side quest to find all 101 Dalmatians and return them home you can find Merlin from The Sword in the Stone but also just Arthurian Legend alongside the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella and of course this is also the town where suara meets Donald and Goofy for the first time just as the title screen for Kingdom Hearts so boldly wears on its sleeve exactly what it is so too does Traverse Town on Destiny Islands the Disney and jrpg were distant and disconnected but in Traverse Town there's Harmony the two live and breathe together naturally just by the architecture and World design you can see these two ideas perfectly in sync here we finally see Kingdom Hearts fully Embrace what it is Traverse Town is one of a few Kingdom Hearts original worlds just as Destiny Islands was you can understand Kingdom Hearts through its original worlds on Destiny Island there was dissonance in Traverse Town there's Harmony in Hollow Bastion a world yet to come Kingdom Hearts fully Embraces the weird and begins to create its own unique aesthetic fully becoming something separate besides the two something of its own the world unique to Kingdom Hearts that exist based on no other property are themselves a three-act story the beginning middle and end though we'll discuss Hollow Bastion when the time comes for now in Traverse Town you're given Freedom you weren't exactly sure where to go or what to do so you run around and explore eventually you return to Sid at the start of the world and meet Leon again that Squall from Final Fantasy 8 but for Simplicity I'll use the name Kingdom Hearts gives him he sees you have the keyblade and challenges you to a fight regardless of if you as the player win or lose Sora isn't able to beat him and just passes out what follows is the first big lore dump we see Leon and yuffie talk to Sora as aerith speaks with Donald and Goofy in the adjoining room both conversations explain the central conflict soar welts the Keyblade a weapon that chooses a hero to fight darkness the shadow monsters attack him because they know he has it and they're after his heart the creatures are called heartless and they're born of people whose Hearts succumb to Darkness there are many worlds but they're hidden from each other something about the heartless coming means they're no longer hidden there's a man named ansem who studied the heartless and wrote about his findings but the pages are scattered across many worlds we'll need to go find them it's now that Sora realizes what's happened to his home he doesn't know exactly what happened but he knows it's gone and so are his friends before he can even come to terms with this though heartless attack Leon tells you to go for the leader though unhelpfully doesn't tell you where exactly that is after battling your way through Traverse Town you eventually find yourself in the Third District at the same time as Donald and Goofy the two Disney characters are knocked Away by a heartless and land on Sora noticing that he has the Keyblade Mickey Mouse told them to find a key and they realize this is it they're still heartless around though and so the three join each other in battle before they can introduce themselves after a wave of Heartless the boss attacks I suppose here is as good a time as any to discuss the combat in Kingdom Hearts while the final fantasy series is dabbled in real time combat through the active Time battle or ATB system they hadn't yet made the jump into action games in the ATP system the player was on time pressure but they still only had to navigate menus in combat instead of directly controlling the characters Kingdom Hearts took the classic Final Fantasy menus and put them in a full action game in Kingdom Heart there isn't an attack button instead there's a select button X or Circle if you're in Japan the player is responsible for controlling sora's movements as is typical in action games running jumping dodging but to actually interface with combat the player needs to use the classic Final Fantasy menu now plays conveniently in the bottom corner of the screen for the beginning of Kingdom Hearts X might as well be the attack Button as that's just about all you'll use it for the only time you need to navigate the command menu is to select the bottom option which is often the interact button in Kingdom Hearts 2 this interact button was moved to Triangle and was adopted and re-releases of Kingdom Hearts 1. so if this doesn't sound familiar to you that might be why in combat you can mostly just get away with mashing X early on and if you play on Lower difficulties you can get away with this for pretty much most of the game though it's far from the optimal way to play once Donald and Goofy officially joined you they'll each give you a new skill goofy will teach the player to dodge roll an ability you have to equip that allows you to press the square button to roll Donald will teach Sora how to cast magic specifically the spell fire as opposed to dodge rolling which has its own button magic is cast through the command menu you'll need to select Magic from the list and then fire to cast the fire spell while this might seem unintuitive and in some ways it is this system has a lot of potential like to think of the different attacks in Kingdom Hearts a lot like you'd think of a combo in a fighting game Street Fighter doesn't have a dedicated button for hadoken you need to input down diagonal down forward then the punch button that will result in the hadoken like Ryu Sora doesn't have a dedicated button to shoot fire the only difference is the button combo the player needs to input in Kingdom Hearts it's down XX to shoot fire after inputting any command the command menu will reset to its neutral position with attack being selected letting you resume your regular attacks or begin a new combo while it's easy to look at the command menu and say how am I supposed to read that menu and navigate it while in combat the answer is actually pretty simple you aren't you're meant to study the menu get to know it its options memorize the button presses needed to execute them the game doesn't give you every option right from the start it adds them slowly as the game goes on giving you plenty of time to get comfortable with each new item as it's added Kingdom Hearts combat becomes fun when you know where each item is and you don't need to think about it I don't even look at the command menu in combat or really ever I know what buttons I need to press in order to get to where I want to go this is true for every ability Sora gets each one is just a combination of directional inputs and the x button presses some spells or items like cure or potions require you to select a Target this just changes the combo if Sora needs to be healed your combo is down X down down XX if Donald means to be healed your combo just changes to down X down down X down X that sounds like a lot to remember I'm sure it's a bit inconvenient to make a single action like healing requires so many inputs but I actually find the system to be really engaging there's something satisfying about navigating the command menu while in the middle of combat it feels almost like a natural evolution of final fantasy's ATB system which was first introduced in 1991 with Final Fantasy 4. the idea of the ATB system was to add action and a sense of urgency to the fights in classic turn-based games there's no urgency the game will wait indefinitely for you to make your decision and select your input with the slight change of introducing independent timer for each combatants so that they act when their time refills rather than in a predetermined order the player is forced to make quick decisions or the anime will just continue to attack while they're set thinking Kingdom Hearts takes this a step further or perhaps several steps further by giving the player full control of the main character and asking them to navigate the battlefield Dodge attacks and position source that his attacks will land all while navigating the same classic command menu this is a weird combat system and in my years of showing Kingdom Hearts to people almost no one really gets it for the majority of their play time the idea of playing an action game that genuinely doesn't have an attack button and instead asks you to navigate a menu to attack while still playing an action game is wild as I've said many times Kingdom Hearts is weird but this weirdness isn't inherently bad while I have some qualms with the battle system in Kingdom Hearts 1 and I feel like Kingdom Hearts 2 manages to improve in nearly every way this system is actually quite fun what's especially interesting and unique to Kingdom Hearts 1 is the magic system see the Spells you cast aren't free Sora has a fairly small pool of MP and it doesn't grow much throughout the game what's interesting is how sora's MP recharges there's no passive MP regeneration aside from standing on a save point which heals you we're using items to restore MP of which you can only bring a small number into battle the way MP recharges is by attacking each attack that lands on an enemy fills up a small yellow bar once that bar fills up you're rewarded with one MP because of this there's truly no way to have a magic only build in Kingdom Hearts 1. if you want to cast magic you have to attack in melee eventually if you fuse all your items and are low on health needing a heal you'll be forced to approach the enemy and play aggressively inexperienced players will often complain about Donald not healing them but the problem isn't that Donald isn't healing them that they expect it to be bailed out to begin with you got your help that low it's your job to bring it back up on top of all this there's an extensive list of abilities you gain as you level up allowing you to customize house or a fights Beyond just the abilities or equipment armor and accessories that alter stats but also importantly different keyblades new weapons that you unlock which are often themed after a different Disney property or a specific character or theme not only are the stats different they each have unique modifiers as well as different weapon lengths resulting in each keyblade feeling unique all of this together creates a combat system where the player has a lot of freedom and how they want to approach each obstacle resulting in a very engaging experience while Kingdom Hearts can feel a bit dated at times this combat system holds up extremely well though I don't intend to discuss the combat system for most of this video and I'll continue to gloss over fights and boss battles as they occur know that I do that only for brevity's sake this video is long enough as is and if I were to discuss each boss battle with the level of detail I gave the title screen it would take an entire week to watch Kingdom Hearts has dedicated fans who only care about the game's combat and those fans are here for a reason it's genuinely that good together with Donald and Goofy Sora manages to defeat the heartless attacking Traverse Town it's here that they finally speak I think many people looking at the game would assume that Sora Donald and Goofy became instant friends but that isn't the case Donald and Goofy invite him to join them only because he has the keyblade they believe they need the keyblade to find King Mickey did I mention Mickey is a king he is Mickey's a king here Sora is hesitant to join them he mentions wanting to find Riku and Kyrie remember that Sora didn't choose to leave his island or his friends he's only just realized what's happened Donald tells him they'll be able to find his friends if he joins them goofy asks Donald if that's true when the little duck says he doesn't even know if it is he just wants to use Sora to find the King Leon encourages Sora to join them though and soar reluctantly agrees Donald then tells Sora not to frown and that he has to smile if he's going to join them he says this boat runs on happy faces there's two ways you could interpret this first you can understand that Donald Duck is most likely not trying to say that their ship is literally fueled by smiling the only logical conclusion is to assume that he's telling Sora this is a way of getting him to bottle his feelings up stop thinking about his friends because Sora is spending so much time worrying about his friends and being sad isn't useful to Donald and his line is a way of rejecting sora's feelings and instead forcing him to do what's most convenient for Donald but on the other hand this is a Disney game I mean their boat might actually run on happy faces there's a moment later in the game where Sora and Donald get into an argument while flying their ship causing it to crash seems like they crashed because they were fighting over the ship's controls but maybe they only crashed because they were both mad and the ship ran out of fuel from happy faces and in Kingdom Hearts 3 when sorodon and Goofy go to the Monsters Inc world and slowly tells them they collected laughter for energy goofy says our ship is powered by laughter too so maybe when Donald tells Sora he isn't allowed to frown it isn't said to force him to bottle up his negative emotions but rather just his genuine requirement to be able to fly in their ship is any of this important no not at all but conversations like this are what make Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Hearts while I don't plan to spend the entire video discussing lower implications of the full meaning of each line of dialogue I do want to give you a genuine feel for what kingdom hearts is in my Dragon Quest 5 video I tried to keep a focus on what my experience playing the game was I wanted the video to impart on The View where the feeling of playing Dragon Quest 5. I want to do the same with Kingdom Hearts in this video in an essential part of Kingdom Hearts is hearing a character say something pausing the game and having an utterly pointless conversation with yourself or whoever is in the room about what exactly that means part of the charm of the game is hearing Donald Duck Say our boat runs on happy faces and stopping to ask does it actually though from here the real meat of the game begins after meeting up with Donald and Goofy and seeing a cut scene of all the different Disney villains gathered together discussing evil plots you board the gummy ship something which I'm genuinely not going to discuss at all in this video and you'll begin exploring different worlds based on different iconic Disney films typically when doing story Recaps people will gloss over this part of the game each Kingdom Hearts game has a similar structure where you start out in a Kingdom Hearts original World explore a variety of Disney Worlds then end the game in a Kingdom Hearts original World people will say that the events of each individual Disney World are unimportant those people are wrong those Disney Worlds are the majority of the game to say that going to Halloween Town and exploring ohibugi's mansion with Jack Skellington isn't important because nothing plot relevant happens is the same as saying that the iconic episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion where Shinji and asika learn to dance as a form of team building is just a filler episode not only are you wrong you're admitting that you don't understand how character building and establishing themes provide value to a story if you've ever said that Disney Worlds and Kingdom Hearts don't matter to the story turn off this video go play Kingdom Hearts again then come back and leave a comment admitting you are wrong each World in Kingdom Hearts meaningfully contributes to the Characters themes and the greater story as a whole with that said each world can also be viewed somewhat as an independent episode of a TV show each one is largely self-contained and while it may be building up to something greater it still has its own story and these stories are built on the backs of established Disney properties the entirety of my thoughts and opinions on Kingdom Hearts could not possibly fit in a single video Just as I chose not to discuss each individual boss fight I won't be discussing each Disney World in detail it's important to me that you understand that I do this not because they aren't valuable and important but because I simply don't have the time in this video to do so each Disney World builds our understanding of the universe and the characters bit by bit in this way while they are separate and important they each serve the same purpose so rather than discussing each individually I feel safe in discussing them all together the Disney Worlds are split into two sections in the first group we have the worlds based on Alice in Wonderland Hercules and Tarzan after completing these worlds the player must go back to traverstown they then unlock a second Loop of Worlds these ones based on Aladdin Pinocchio The Nightmare Before Christmas The Little Mermaid and finally Peter Pan Once these worlds are completed you must return again to Driver's town before you can go to Hollow Bastion the penultimate World part way through Hollow Bastion you actually have to return to Traverse Town once more before you're able to progress into the final world making it a total of four mandatory visits to Traverse Town on top of this there's an extra optional world based on Winnie the Pooh that can only be accessed by visiting traverstown there are hidden Pages scattered around different worlds that are required to progress in the Hundred Acre Woods and so the player may choose to go there between mandatory visits to continue progressing in the Hundred Acre Woods perhaps more critically traverstown also exists is the only shop location in the entire game save for a single shop in agraba which has a very limited selection of healing items and a couple of weapons which one first visited are outclassed by other weapons you've likely already obtained traverstown has the only accessory shop gummy shop and send us this location and item shop will at all times outclass the offerings in Agrabah this means that while the player is required to visit Traverse Town four times it's extremely likely that they will choose to visit it significantly more frequently this is intentional as part of the purpose of Traverse Town is to teach the player that they're supposed to revisit other worlds the first two Disney World you get access to reinforce this thought as well Kingdom Hearts has very light metroidvania elements specifically it has light platforming and a growing moveset that Sora gets access to through the course of the game Sora will gain different movement options the two key ones are high jump and glide which both do exactly what they sound like Glide is upgraded near the end of the game to Super Glide which lets you Glide for longer without losing as much height on top of this after meeting Donald Lang goofy you get access to Trinity's little colored rings on the ground that let you interact with them to get new chests or items as you progress the game you'll be able to interact with different colors of trinities rather than a full metroidvania where these movement options are plentiful and unlock whole new areas in Kingdom Hearts they're just a minor supplementary feature that give you new items and Rewards for returning the previous areas and exploring Again by forcing you to return to traverstown multiple times the game communicates to you that this is a normal thing to do traverstown is filled with chests and rewards that are inaccessible when you first arrive each time you return to Traverse Town if you explore a bit you'll find something you couldn't have gotten before similarly Wonderland has many secrets and rewards hidden without most worlds give you a new keyblade upon completing them but Wonderland doesn't it has one it just doesn't give it to you they'll need to go back and find it yourself Wonderland rewards you for returning but it also reinforces the idea of exploration when you first arrive in Wonderland the Queen asks you to find boxes of evidence the Cheshire Cat tells you there are four it's explicitly communicated to the player that they only need one to progress but getting all four will give them a reward one of the boxes is very close to the entrance of the broom and easy to spot there's nothing stopping you from grabbing this box immediately going and giving it to the queen if you go out of your way to get all four boxes the Cheshire Cat will reward you with the blizzard spell which will be very useful against the boss of the world if you don't get all four you'll still get blizzard just only after you've beaten the boss these boxes have another use though when you return the boxes to the queen she says she'll only look into one of them and adds her own box so that they're a total of five then mixes them up and asks you to pick one at random her boxes contain either Donald Goofy or both while the boxes you provide have heartless if you pick a box with Donald or goofy you have to fight the mini boss without them if you choose the box with the heartless the fight happens is normal if you found all evidence there's a one in five chance of getting the boxes with Donald and Goofy into four five chance you get heartless if you only got a single box these odds are reversed there is of course a trick you can use to always find the right box but unless you had the strategy guide or a kid told you at school there's no way you'd know it to six-year-old me this was a random Chance by doing this the game once again in one of its earliest levels begs you to explore together with Traverse Town the first Loop of Kingdom Hearts serves to Prime the player for the overall experience of the game the boss fights in each of the three Disney Worlds are surprisingly difficult the level design particularly for Wonderland and Deep Jungle is dense and confusing exploration backtracking are both heavily rewarded but beyond mechanically these Disney Worlds prepare the player for the story as well we've already established the ways in which Destiny islands and Traverse Town introduce the concepts of Kingdom hearts's narrative to the player but the Disney Worlds established The Core theme of Kingdom Hearts friendship when Sora Donald and Goofy first met they aren't friends Sora is hesitant to go with them Donald is manipulative and selfish while goofy stands and watches while on the surface it looks like swordano and Goofy get along for most of the game with two standard exceptions their friendship develops naturally and plainly in view of the player in Wonderland donland goofy show up to the scene like two cops they see an innocent woman on trial and choose to do nothing and let her hang in the name of following rules Sora jumps out in front with no regard for rules or order and defends her we see Donald and Goofy follow the scene in Wonderland choses a huge insight into each character in their relationships sora's good-natured and quick to action when he sees people in need he'll help them regardless of consequences soar is the first to speak when they see Alice in trouble Donald and Goofy tell him they can't interfere with what happens in other worlds that it's against the rules as soon as Sora steps forward though they follow this isn't because they're friends and it isn't because they agree with him they follow him regardless of the rules because he has the keyblade they need him so where he goes they go then we see in Olympus Coliseum Phil brushes off Sora and Company saying the Coliseum is for Heroes only Donald bites back saying they are heroes goofy agrees and says Sora is a real hero chosen by the Keyblade that wording is important he isn't a hero for his strength his fighting prowess his experience fighting heartless or any attribute of his own he's a hero because the keyblade chose him the keyblade makes him a hero between Traverse Town Wonderland and Olympus Coliseum were made painfully aware that Donald and Goofy are only with Sora because of the keyblade they aren't following him they're following the keyblade while sorodon and Goofy mostly get along there's always tension between Sora and Donald this comes to a head when they arrive at Deep Jungle Donald doubts Mickey is there and says they should move on but Sora wants to land he thinks Riku and Kyrie could be there the two fight in the ship crashes Sora falls out and is separated from Donald and Goofy now in the jungle alone when Sora finds Tarzan he asks if he's seen his friends he's about to say Donald and Goofy but he stops himself he thinks for a moment are Donald and Goofy his friends they've only ever been concerned with their own goals they haven't once showed any care towards Sora and they've ignored his feelings the whole time they've been together instead he asks Tarzan if he's seen Riku and kairi they're his real friends they're the ones he's looking for we cut to Donald and goofy goofy expresses his concern for usura but Donald doesn't care he says they can find Mickey on their own the three meet back up shortly after this and decide to continue traveling together like most of the Disney Worlds the remainder of Deep Jungle puts the Disney characters at the Forefront telling a story inspired by the original film the conflict between Sora and Donald goes largely unmentioned until the end of the world where Tarzan contemplates the relationship between friendship and hearts something that's not only a Core theme of King of Hearts 1 but the series as a whole Sora and Donald apologized to each other and it seems the conflict is resolved for the time being at least from here the party returns to Traverse Town to meet with Leon as I mentioned before this allows the player the chance to re-explore Traverse Town with new tools at their disposal eventually the player will find Leon up to this point sauradonna and Goofy have been wandering aimlessly they want to find their friends but they don't really know how it's upon speaking to Leon and traverstown that their mission truly begins at the end of Deep Jungle a keyhole appeared which saw a lock choosing the keyblade Leon explains that every world has a keyhole like this that those keyholes are how heartless are destroying worlds they crawl through the hole and Into the Heart of the world sending it into darkness thinking back to Mickey's letter about stars going out and seeing the destruction of Destiny Islands we understand this to be the cause now Sora Donald and Goofy are aligned in a mission where before they were each following their own selfish wants these wands are now in sync the event which caused them to leave their home shares the same cause heartless are destroying Worlds the keyblade can be used to seal these keyholes and protect the worlds this unlocks the second ring of Disney Worlds and presents the goal moving forward visit the different worlds and save them from the heartless up to this point we've been seeing various Disney villains meeting and discussing evil plans but now with the second ring unlocked we actually fight them along with protecting the worlds from the heartless we dismantle the league of villains one by one it's also in the second ring that we see Riku again we see he's working with the villains throughout the game Riku is being manipulated by Maleficent his priority is gaining strength in Saving Kyrie Maleficent uses this to get him to do what she wants he kidnaps Jasmine and Agrabah Pinocchio and monstro monstro itself is where we see how much he's changed he jokes around and acts aloof just the same as when we were on the island but it feels different before I was lighthearted now there's a coldness to it Windsor asks about Kyrie he just brushes it off and runs away with Pinocchio baiting Sora to follow him we see a scene with Maleficent taunting Riku telling him this word doesn't care about him now that he has the keyblade when Riku and soar run into each other he's much colder echoing to soar the fears that Maleficent massaged Sora doesn't care about saving Kyrie he just wants to run around playing hero with the Keyblade after finishing monstro we understand why Riku was so obsessed with Pinocchio we see him standing over an unconscious Kyrie and learn that she's lost her heart Riku describes her as a lifeless puppet he had hoped he could use Pinocchio a puppet that's gained life to save kairi Maleficent tells Riku that the only way to save her is to bring the seven princesses of heart together to open a door to great power he can use to save her this is where each plot line begins to come together in Neverland you see Riku truly using the power of Darkness you can see he's cast everything aside for the sake of gaining power that power he wants to use to save Kyrie we don't get to confront Riku in Neverland though we see him there with Kyrie but he runs off before we can react we give Jason's conflict comes to a head and perhaps the most iconic World in all of Kingdom Hearts Hollow Bastion before we get to Hollow Bastion I want to take a moment to address some valid criticism that can be thrown at Kingdom Hearts way though specifically criticism of the level design new players of Kingdom Hearts often complain that the levels are confusing and it's easy to get lost you could criticize this as poor level design and a sign that the team that worked on it lacked experience designing levels for 3D games with platforming elements I don't think that's fair though I think Kingdom Hearts wants you to get lost I say this because you don't always get lost in Kingdom Hearts Destiny Islands was easy to navigate Traverse Town has some weird geometry But the rooms are conveniently named and it's easy to get a good idea of where you are once you've seen each room once or twice the streets of agribar are laid out fairly plainly and it's only once you start exploring the rooftops or going to the Cave of Wonders that the level starts to get confusing Hook's ship is only difficult to navigate due to its small size if you look at the levels that are most often described as being particularly difficult to navigate that being Wonderland Deep Jungle and monstro you can understand that they might be confusing and difficult to navigate on purpose Wonderland has weird level geometry and although it only has two main rooms the confusion comes from how they connect depending on where you enter the bizarre room from it may be turned on its side or upside down in both the bizarre room and the forest you can become either big or small which lets you interact with the level geometry itself when you're large and when you return small the level will be slightly different this is all perfectly thematic within the world of Alice in Wonderland to explore a level based on Alice in Wonderland that has a normal level design and is easy to navigate would feel thematically wrong part of being in Wonderland means you're confused and lost Deep Jungle doesn't mess with the level geometry to the same degree it's a fairly straightforward level the levels are just very interconnected and asks you to run back and forth between different points consistently it can feel like you're running around in circles which considering you're in a literal jungle feels appropriate as for monstro just like Alice in Wonderland Pinocchio is a very surreal film at times and so it feels somewhat right to be confused and lost not to mention you're literally exploring the bowels of a whale what makes it so confusing is the interlocking Chambers which all look identical and feel organic when running around inside of a whale it feels strange to know exactly where you're meant to go and where exactly you are on the whole much of the confusion of each level is intentional so as to put the player in the same mindset as Sora Sora is a young boy who's just left home completely lost both physically and metaphorically when you spend much of Kingdom Hearts confused and unsure where to go you begin to enter the same headspace that Sora is in I haven't replayed Kingdom Hearts many times in my life in truth the only full playthrough I've done was as a child I have however sat beside many people and watched them play Kingdom Hearts for the first time doing this has allowed me to see how different people with varying degrees of video game knowledge and experience wrestle with Kingdom Hearts mechanics most struggle with the combat early on but eventually adjust many never get used to the strange menus and esoteric steps required to Simply equip items almost everyone despises Deep Jungle while I say that the sense of confusion that most players experience while navigating the various levels in Kingdom Hearts is intended and adds to the overall experience I have to take a step back and recognize the pattern Deep Jungle is an incredibly frustrating experience for new players this is likely due to the unfortunate mix of poor early 2000s 3D platform and mechanics with confusing level design that makes it difficult for you to know where you are and where your destination is and on top of that objectives that require you to run back and forth between a small number of areas multiple times this frustration is felt most in the section of the level that connects the camps to the tree house where the player must either climb up on trees and hop between vines or jump across the backs of hippos in the water below perhaps this is because this section is the part of the game that most relies in engaging with the platforming it's strange I know that Kingdom Hearts has bad platforming I've seen many people play this game and all struggle with this section and with the platforming in general people who love Platformers struggle with this yet the platforming feels natural to me despite the fact that I generally dislike Platformers I mean I'm bad at them I don't even want to admit how long it took me to beat Green hell Zone when I played Sonic Mania for the first time but jumping across the hippos in Deep Jungle no problem it brings to memory when I bought a new car recently not a new car I'm not made of money but a used car that's from the century at least honestly every car I've ever owned prior to this one was from the last Millennia my previous car was a 1993 dark green Toyota Camry when test driving new cars they all felt weird and awkward to me when I stepped on the gas the car moved forward when I stepped on the brake they stopped the car would react each time I turn to the wheel that's not how cars are meant to be that's not how my sweet 1993 dark green Toyota Camry was she was a Fickle Beast you'd never count on her to do what you said if you wanted to break you needed to really press down and let her know it the car wouldn't just speed up just because you asked her to you stepped on the gas you'd really think about it before making her decision I've spent my whole life driving cars older than myself and it wasn't until I bought a newer car that I realized the impact of that cars aren't meant to be fickled cars were meant to be precise to do exactly what you ask of them each time in the same manner Kingdom Hearts is my 1993 dark green Toyota Camry Sonic Mania is a brand new Ferrari sitting behind that wheel I wouldn't even know what to do with myself Kingdom Hearts was the first platformer I played in anyone who has played Kingdom Hearts and any other platformer should understand immediately and deeply the ramifications that this has had on my platform in prowess I'm never reminded of this more than when I sit and watch someone new to Kingdom Hearts reach the hippos in Deep Jungle now they're forced to engage with the platforming where before it was a mild nuisance and now it's the entire game I've never seen someone play the section of the game without raising their voice I'm not sure that it's possible the reaction to this section that surprised me the most however was that of my mother's yes my mom has played Kingdom Hearts she did so recently in her 50s and despite very limited gaming experience did about as well as anyone else I've seen play Kingdom Hearts what surprised me though was how much she hated goofy my mother a children's Pastor which had the most vile things at this cartoon dog every time he appeared on screen she did this because she wasn't familiar with camera controlled in games and he would block her view of the jump she was about to make she didn't know how to readjust the camera and so when he would appear on screen in obscure view she would scream at him while my sister and I cackled on the couch beside her this was most notable during the aforementioned hippo hopping where he would routinely stand behind her right on the hippo's backs right in the center of the screen my mother was never once frustrated with this section of the level she never blamed the poor platforming mechanics or confusing level design she placed the entire weight of this frustration on a fictional cartoon dog it's tempting for me to turn this anecdote into a defense of the level design to say that we shouldn't criticize the confusing level design and frequent backtracking and instead Define the fun that when we first played games it didn't occur to us that the game could be bad that there's a human behind everything that happens and every experience you have in the game when I was six playing Kingdom Hearts I didn't even think to get angry with the dog that stood between Sora and the camera if I didn't know where to go or what to do it was a failure with me not with the game I needed to get better didn't occur to me that the game itself could get better Honestly though I don't tell this story in a defense of anything I said at the beginning of this video that it's impossible for me to criticize Kingdom Hearts earnestly and I'm sure by now you've seen this firsthand while I sit here attempting to critique the level design and analyze the game itself I find my mind wandering almost uncontrollably my mind shifts back to when I first saw these woods and first jumped across the hippos I think back to the smell of hot apple cider in truth I don't like hot apple cider yet each time I'm offered it I gratefully accept it reminds me of Deep Jungle more than that it reminds me of my sister while we sat playing king of heart she made it for herself and asked if I wanted any I'd never had it before and was hesitant I was a nervous kid and I didn't like trying new things she convinced me to try it and so I did my sister and I both struggled with mental health issues in our youth we treated shells we didn't spend a lot of time together in truth I don't have almost any memories of my older sister growing up I don't remember us talking or playing together maybe I'm wrong maybe we did spend a lot of time together maybe we were close if we were those memories are long gone all that I have left is sitting beside her drinking hot apple cider for the first time jumping across the hippos in Deep Jungle all I have are scattered memories that revolve around Kingdom Hearts as I sit here writing this I know that memories from this year are going to fade in 10 years time I doubt I'll be able to tell you anything about the year 2022. I hope I'm wrong but I know that I'm not a likely only remember sitting on the couch cackling with my sister because my mom yells at a cartoon dog while jumping across the hippos in Deep Jungle with this in mind it's impossible for me to look at Deep Jungle objectively it's impossible for me to look at Kingdom Hearts objectively this section began as an analysis of the level design of the various Disney Worlds and without me even realizing it it's transformed into existential ramblings as I contemplate mortality just as the King of Hearts exists it's a contrast of Disney and Final Fantasy my own thoughts on it are dissonant a juxtaposition of logic and emotion while I want to be able to provide a solid critique of certain mechanics I find the words evade me while this section was intended to address the valid criticisms thrown at Kingdom Hearts please take it instead as an acknowledgment Kingdom Hearts is flawed the platforming is Awkward the menus are clunky and the level design is confusing can often be confusing what your goal actually is I know this the weird thing is I just don't care yeah the platforming is awkward get used to it yeah the menus are clunky it was 2002. sure the level design is confusing not knowing where to go is part of the fun it's so easy for me to dismiss each and every one of these flaws as though they don't even matter and that's because the payoff is so strong the payoff is Hollow Bastion never once have I heard someone say that they dislike Hollow Bastion honestly I've never heard anyone say that there was a level in the entire franchise better than Hollow Bastion Hollow Bastion is Kingdom Hearts still has the confusing level geometry and some awkward platforming it has Disney and Final Fantasy characters running around together it has the melodrama and the comedy pressed against each other honestly I don't even want to talk about Hollow Bastion because Hollow Bastion is a level so good that it deserves an entire video to itself to throw together praise for Hollow Bastion and stick it at the end of the longest video I've ever made as an insult there will be people who will watch this video and never reach this point of the video that's a shame because what they're missing is the greatest moments in the entire franchise of Kingdom Hearts honestly some of the greatest moments in all of Gaming it begins with betrayal when you arrive at Hollow Bastion Riku is waiting for you he acknowledges your rivalry and for a moment Sora thinks he may not be fully lost but just as in Highlander there can only be one you can't both be the hero of the keyblade back on Destiny Islands it would felt like a lifetime ago Soren Riku had a race Riku threatened to Steal Your Girl today he takes more Riku reaches out his hand and the keyblade goes to him he doesn't steal it it chose him it was always meant to choose him you were just keeping it warm for him Riku throws you a toy sword and walks away Donald and Goofy follow see that conflict between Sor and Donald wasn't just for show at every step of the way Donald and Goofy made it clear that they were only with you because you had the keyblade now that riku's taken it they follow him and now Sora is left alone dejected with just a wooden sword Beast as in Beauty and the inspires Sora to push on Beast came here on a mission to save Belle Sora also came on a mission for this first segment traveling through Hollow Bastion the most elaborate dense and difficult World you've yet to face you are powerless the wooden sword you have barely damages enemies at all in future re-releases the sword doesn't actually deal any damage you instead have to navigate the level then survive while Beast takes care of the enemies it's now that we can feel the very thing that everyone has been saying to Sora throughout this game the keyblade is what made him special so it made him strong without it he can't even defeat Shadows let alone any of the stronger heartless we make it through this trial and find Riku with Donald and Goofy at his side just as Riku moves to strike Sora down though goofy steps in the way Donald joins him the king told them to follow the key and yet they stand to sore aside throughout this game Donald and Goofy Were Soldiers following orders in Wonderland they were prepared to sit by and watch an innocent woman be executed because they were told not to interfere with the world order it was Sora that pushed them forward but now they make the choice themselves Sora has changed them through their Journeys together this is the moment where Sora Donald and Goofy become true friends real partners yeah the king said to follow the key but they aren't going to sit by as their friend dies Riku taunt Sora still how will he fight without a weapon if you've made it this far in the video I'm sure you know how Sora responds but do me a favor and pretend just for a second that you don't this is a very common Trope you see it all the time in anime and superhero movies this idea that the hero gets something taken from them their magic their special weapon their power suit whatever it is then they have to face a challenge and succeed not through any tangible item or magic gift but through their own Merit it's a moment that reaffirms yes they are the hero we see the hero had the strength within them all along and didn't need any magic weapon or special power to win they were strong on their own Kingdom Hearts shows us this Trope at the beginning of Hollow Bastion but it completely subverts it Sora isn't strong on his own remember fighting through the heartless to get here you couldn't Beast did it for you Sora does need his weapon or does he In This Moment Sora declares defiantly I don't need a weapon my friends are my power this moment is Iconic and often joked about but I think the reason it has staying power through all these years and what makes it so iconic is that it's a powerful message that's been perfectly delivered because he's right we've seen it we've seen how Donald and Goofy have taught him given him new magic new abilities how he's learned from all the people on his journey and how his love for Riku and kairis propelled him forward into the unknown even when his weapon was taken away Sora still prevailed not through his own strength but through beasts so our strength is his ability to care for other people to learn and grow from them and to lean on them when he needs to Kingdom Hearts tells us that we don't need to do everything alone there's no shame in relying on those around you to move forward their help doesn't in any way diminish your accomplishments people often joke how the whole Kingdom Hearts series led up to a fight in Kingdom Hearts 3 of 13 xehanorts fighting against seven soras but that's missing the whole point of the series because it isn't seven soras itsora and his friends his friends who are sometimes clones and reflections of himself or who have at some point existed within him but I'm not going to get into all of the strangeness and the metaphor surrounding hearts in existence within Kingdom Hearts the point is that the battle between light and dark and the Kingdom Hearts series is really a battle between isolation and community a fight between two ideas relying on your strength alone or relying on those around you to share the burden even in the very first game we see this as Riku is so determined to save Kyrie on his own that Greed for power is what led him down in this dark path Sora opened his heart to others and let those around him push him forward towards his goals when Sora says my friends are my power he's telling us that yes he doesn't matter yes he is weak but he doesn't need to be strong alone for lack of a better phrase this moment is the heart of Kingdom Hearts this is the defining moment where Kingdom Hearts tells us what the point of it all is in many ways I consider this to be the climax of The Game sora's strength of character and love and appreciation for his friends wins over the keyblade it chooses him and here Sora and Riku fight this fight is the war between those two ideas relying on yourself or relying on others this isn't the final moment of the game after fighting Riku you're not even halfway through Hollow Bastion you still have multiple boss battles left the return trip to Traverse Town an entire other world that with a completely separate final boss while I like to imagine a world where this was the final boss and Kingdom Hearts ended cleanly with a battle between Sora and Riku that isn't Kingdom Hearts Soren riku's rivalry isn't the central conflict it's just one of many when sword features Riku it shows clearly that while Riku spent the entire game critical of Sword going and making friends while Kyrie was missing it was that friendship that gave Sora the strength to save her sore at one but this only closes one book after the first fight with Riku you continue to explore Hollow Bastion before fighting him again you fight and defeat Maleficent putting an end to Disney's villainous Council when you fight Riku and beat him again it feels like that should be the end but there is one world left with the True Villain waiting ahead one final destination the end of the world the final world feels like the inside of a black hole you see Dark Void all around and Scattered bits of various worlds that it swallowed up you fight through a gauntlet of enemies and bosses only be met by the final boss and some players that pay close attention would recognize his name at the beginning of the game we were told of a man named ansem who researched the heartless all through the game we find those secret reports of his which detail his findings and show his slow descent into darkness and now we fight him The Mastermind behind everything this fight happens on Destiny Islands we see sora's Homeworld torn asunder and it adds emotional weight to this fight for even the players who didn't pick up on the lore of who handsome is and who feel like he's just some random guy that showed up at the last minute placing this battle on Destiny Islands gets you invested whoever he is he's the reason your home was destroyed the end of Kingdom Hearts can feel very chaotic jumps between this focus on characters and their relationships and large High concept world-ending disasters its story is both small and large after jumping from the focus on Sora and his relationships to a giant world ending Calamity it's just as happy to jump right back and end its story right where it started focused on Sora his Island his friends after beating ansem we see he's left open a door to the Realm of Darkness where heartless come from leaving this open puts every World in danger so he rushed to close it riku's on the other side though but he can't leave Riku has to stay on the other side for some reason the store has to be closed on both ends you close the door Riku stays in darkness he doesn't get a happy ending he's left there in darkness alone you turn and see Kyrie defeating ansem and closing the door has allowed you to restore the worlds that were once destroyed including Destiny Islands you see Kyrie on a patch of sand that's going back to Destiny Island but she's Out Of Reach Sora shouts out that he'll come back to her in Simple and Clean ryutada Hikaru plays as Kyrie floats away we see Destiny Island reforming around her the palm trees burst from the ground and the ocean comes to shore we see stars shooting through the sky and know that the other worlds that were taken by the heartless are reforming just the same the ending lingers on Kyrie as she walks through Destiny Islands alone we don't see Sora again he was left in the void that is the end of the world when his Island was destroyed and Sora was forced into the role of Hiro he had only one thing on his mind find Riku and Kyrie reunite with them all he's ever wanted is to be with his friends the end of Kingdom Hearts Riku is trapped in the Kingdom Hearts equivalent of Hell Kyrie's back on their Island but Sora is left an empty void with Donald and Goofy Sora had one clear goal from the beginning of the game he just wanted to be with Riku and Kyrie he failed he saved countless worlds though his credits roll we see all the characters we've met on our journey reuniting with their loved ones living happily in their worlds now safe from heartless everyone gets a happy ending except Sora everyone gets what they want except Sora I was six years old when I played this game for the first time having heard what I've just said to anyone who had asked me dismissively you like Kingdom Hearts I have a question of my own you don't ending the game with a clean and happy ending were Sora defeats Riku with the power of friendship and reunites with his friend sounds nice but that just isn't Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Hearts is a series with a protagonist designed off of Mickey Mouse who ends the game in an empty void alone having sacrificed his own desires and happiness for the good of others Kingdom Hearts isn't normal and it shouldn't have a normal clean ending I like to joke that I've had my brain rewired by Kingdom Hearts it's a weird franchise and it's only getting weirder as the years go on I mean the trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 I'll show Sora has an apartment in Tokyo and looks like he's part of Final Fantasy xv's boy band it's hard for me to even keep track of the strangeness of it all at this point none of it really feels that weird to me anymore I said at the start of this video that I wasn't here to make a review this video felt messy and disorganized that's because it was I spent more time on the script than any other video and it isn't even close not even due to just the length of it I've spent hours sitting at my computer only getting a single paragraph out this game is just hard for me to talk about it's hard for me to organize my thoughts about it maybe I shouldn't make a giant Kingdom Hearts retrospective in that case I used to make videos because I wanted to practice video editing and I thought it'd be fun but that's changed recently ever since the Bakuman video These are sort of therapeutic for me I cried a lot while writing this script this is probably the most deeply personal thing I'll ever Post online I make these videos because I have something I need to express and I don't really know how else to express it while I did say I want you to like Kingdom Hearts I understand if you don't there's a lot to criticize and while I don't agree with it all I understand it everyone has a line of what level of absurdity they're willing to accept Kingdom Hearts leaps past that line for many fans with each entry for me though Kingdom Hearts isn't even really about Sora keyblade's heartless friendship or any of that for me Kingdom Hearts is drinking hot apple cider with my sister Kingdom Hearts is bonding with my sister who I don't spend enough time with Kingdom Hearts is picking up my other sister from her horseback riding lessons it's me rediscovering my love for storytelling it's my love for writing Kingdom Hearts is a reminder of my mortality and how impermanent my thoughts are it's a symbol of my childhood the knowledge that most of those memories are gone forever Kingdom Hearts is me it's probably easy for you to write that off is it just being the game that I played during a formative time that there's nothing special about this game itself and any game I played during that time would have left the same impression maybe I I don't know I'm sure a lot of you have stories about games that have touched you in the same way that's Kingdom Hearts has touched me to that I'd say tell me about it genuinely I'd love to hear it it's good at times to separate our Nostalgia from critique but Nostalgia isn't inherently bad acknowledging The Nostalgia and the power it has over you can be profound and I think embracing that should be normalized if anyone says you like a game just because of nostalgia don't fight them on it think about it what unique experience playing the game did you have that changed you those are the stories I'd love to hear and I hope in this video that's the story that I was able to tell either way I appreciate you watching this video especially those of you that heard me out to the end I hope you had a good time thanks for watching [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: justbilfo

Views: 74,101

Keywords: kingdom hearts, retrospective, final fantasy, Disney, square enix

Id: WepUiO4Ctrw

Length: 80min 4sec (4804 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 08 2023