A Smashing Success - A Kingdom Hearts 2 Retrospective Critique 

If you got to the point in the video where I mentioned a musical interlude and are looking for a link, here it is! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SRCszQrSX_Y.html

The unfortunate thing about the exploration and level design in Kindom Hearts 2 is that it was directly a result of complaints players had about the first game. Many of the reviews for Kingdom when it first released were about how confusing and tedious some of the worlds were to trek through. Apparently someone at square, upon hearing this, decided to tell Nomura to make a much more linear and streamlined worlds for 2. Thus they ended overcorrecting and pretty much scrapping all the exploration and platforming puzzles in the game. If I remember correctly Nomura was really upset about it because he felt the movement abilities that were apart of KH2 weren't really being utilized. It's sad because you can see a lot of what the world design could have been in the cavern of remembrance which was added in the final mix version and had a lot of the ideas that were left on the cutting room floor.

Title of the video is a smashing success but spent half the video just complaining about a majority of the mechanics??

Reviewing KH2 without beating the Data fights or Terra fair and square is like reviewing Elden Ring without actually beating the game, you're missing out on the most rewarding and entertaining part of the game

I love the Roxas prologue. I often would start new save files solely to play the prologue simply because I felt like it. I loved how different it felt. It was a tragic mystery for Roxas, seeing how he started off a normal life, before seeing it unravel as revelations are discovered, with themes of friendship, life, death, rebirth, purpose, melancholy, and more. The gameplay was fun, and things like the struggle tournament and seven wonders were great because they were important to Roxas. He just wanted to have a good time with the last of his summer vacation, but everyone on both sides of the conflict are using him, taking away what he values.

Yeah...apparently during the first game's development, Disney made a rule that Disney characters like Aladdin and the other guest party members along with their worlds were not allowed to interact and know of each other, with the excuse they had Square use being "world order". I believe it stems from a "only we're allowed to do it" thing cuz they basically broke that rule with their cartoons.

29:11 It’s strange how you have this massive tangent on RCs but seem to have missed the point of them IMO. RCs are meant to be a reward for correctly fighting in combat. They’re the solution, not meant to create problems. The point of enemy design is usually to earn the ability to use the RC, not the RC itself. For example, the Juggernaut RC only shows up either right when the enemy spawns or when you stagger it enough to get it to drop its weapon.

Alternative title: Nitpicking the shit out of KH2

Funny enough KH2 was my first KH game when I was a kid. Randomly picked it up from a local games store when I would get excited trying to buy a game for $20 with the scraps of dollars and change I had. Was left so confused with the story but got hooked in and loved the gameplay.

ngl it actually pissed me off when you complained about running out of MP against the ghost gold boss. What sort of argument is "I don't want to use ethers"???? It's l ike saying Mario is frustrating to play if you don't use the run button. Like, duh! That's why that's there! So you don't have to be frustrated! But now I am frustrated instead!

You can tell he’s doing a challenge run in his Hydra footage, because *who in their right mind would equip Hidden Dragon?*

I couldn’t disagree more about magic. I think it’s inherently designed to use in tandem with other options available to you, hence why it’s so powerful. For example, all the spells are so powerful and if you want to juggle continuous use, you must use Stitch, or drive forms, or items, or general strategy. I think it’s amazing how much synergy it brings to overall combat. MP charge is genius in my opinion because it forces you to change your play style while it’s charging. You have the options I brought up, but otherwise without those, you’re forced to play more defensively or more precisely to ensure you can stay alive. I think you missed that part of magic completely. Sure it’s not as obvious to newcomers, but I don’t think it needs to be. I have replayed KH2 so many times and I often neglected to use magic because I wanted to save it for cure and I never really cared to use other systems. Instead on my most current playthrough, I decided to MAKE SURE I used everything available to me. I read all the tutorials and holy shit. Everything comes together at that point. I think that was an unfortunate oversight but the game design is also to blame since it basically forces you to go out of your way to see how these utilities can be used Edit: I just thought of this as another strategy I was using often throughout the game. I would use chicken little to continuously heal me so that I could use magic without worrying about holding onto it for cure. But in addition to that, since chicken little is always healing, I would purposely take damage to refill HP, back away for health, and then continue on. So many neat ways to use magic

I watched almost 2 hours full of nitpicks. Titles quite misleading if you ask me…

I have to massively disagree with your arguments on the magic system. I agree its poorly explained in its mechanics, but arguing that you dont like it because you like hoarding ethers or dont feel incentivised to use items is simply not engaging with a games systems. Now not engaging with a games systems is fine, but the argument that it doesnt operate exactly how you want it considering the absurd power magic was given as a trade off isnt a strong basis to argue. In my eyes the trade off is essentially forced. If you had more mp on normal difficulty (as you said assuming a casual players perspective) the game would become even more laughably easy, as well as magic would become less fun to use as its no longer a choice as its the best way to clear enemies. If you increased mp and decreased magics power then magic would lose its fun factor as it wouldnt feel like a strong spell and mashing X would do the job better. The balance is required to allow both combat and magic to remain fun and viable.

19:04 "in STITCHing together the more individualistic elements of this game's universe" Very fun pun very clever editing I give big thumbs up

Ragging on about the lack of crossover is kind of pointless considering that's a Disney mandate. Like. That's not something any developer could do... anything about. Considering this is one of your big points, this really drags down the video.

Honestly I didn't have much of a problem with the magic system. I think it's because I would just buy a bunch of ethers and use them when my magic bar was low. But I can understand why a lot of people didn't like it.

It’s awesome to see two different Kingdom Hearts 2 retrospective videos and see two totally different opinions, one man’s favorite boss is another man’s least favorite, either way this game holds a special place in my heart through its many flaws and even many more high points KH2FM is the best Kingdom Hearts game hands down

I love long analysis videos like these because I can have them going on while at work

One gripe I have in terms of the worlds is that Hollow Bastion returned in name only, to the extent that they drop its name altogether by the end. Sure the music is a continuation of the same themes, but the twisted steampunk fantasy castle you climbed up in the first game is gone, and I'm not even sure which area in KH2 is meant to represent it. I get it still has a role to play for the FF crew and the Ansem/Xehanort lore, but the level itself felt like a fakeout for someone who loved one of the most exciting parts of the first game.

That was a fire intro hook. Fantastically written and very smooth transition. Hooked me into a 1h30 video

1:03:19 Sometimes you don't want to have all of the movement abilities on for certain fights. Especially when it comes to quick run or dodge roll. Usually you want one or the other. I think KH1's separate movement abilities section was the best way to do it.

Honestly, I liked the magic system in KH2. Since Cure was so powerful with a high cost, you want to save it for as long as possible. When you go into MP recharge, I never viewed it as that much as a downside because being in MP recharge drastically boosts your drive gauge, which will refill your MP once you change form. Because of that, MP charge didn’t feel like a strict debuff. I’m genuinely surprised you didn’t mention it. It created a cycle that I thought was fun. Choosing when and how to manage your MP was always an interesting choice because of the layer that the drive gauge adds onto it.

32:42 I just have to disagree with that point. Each enemy having a unique way of engaging them (Reaction Commands) is good enemy design, not a bad Gameplay/'gimmick'/mechanic. It's what makes the nobody enemies in KH2 great and really generic in KH3. It can also induce extrinsic motivation to change playstyle, which KH2 really needs. People already complain how KH2 is too button-mashy (those people never played critical). it's also not at the whim of the enemy. Most mob-enemy-RCs have a special Trigger. For example Release, Bat-Cry, Cyclone, All the nobody RCs are triggered by either attacking or staggering/launching them with exception for Gamblers. 33:20 I, again, need to disagree. Having an auto-cut-scene once one of the Heads HP falls to 0, as in the example, would just wrestle control away from the player and would be LESS engaging. It feels good because YOU DID THE THING, YOU PRESSED THE BUTTON. It's also why people hate the KH3 Magnet-Blast coz' among other things it takes control of you camera. Or how about the contextual movement nobody cared about and some despised (me included). 34:47 I kinda agree? The Hydras Boss design is flawed not because RCs tho. It's because it's a house sized enemy who doesn't attack or track you directly. The Tail-Swipe and the Head-Stomps are "to whom it might concern" type of attacks which might as well be environmental hazards. Tracking projectiles from a house-sized-Enemy is what I would actually describe as an annoying mechanic/feature/ *gimmick* . Alright. Im going to stop editing my comment and enjoy the rest of the video, as it is enjoyable and I like it, even tho I disagree with some points Ok. Final edit: Hording Ethers? Have you looked into the Shop? Skill issue. lol

The KH series changed me, I’ve played every game plus the moba and as a child picking up kh 1 was so beautiful and how it made me laugh and cry and when kh2 came roxas was such a amazing written character I didn’t want his summer to end. And a twitch streamer said “ sora is so bright that everyone else has to live in the darkness “ has never been so accurate and tragic yet beautiful

I don't agree on most of the negative takes you have, however this was a well crafted video and a refreshing perspective! I will agree that the mini games can go get deleted haha

Your point about KH1's world design (Especially, coming back with new abilities!) is something sorely missing from new Kingdom Hearts games. I want more exploration and cool places to see! Awesome video.

Ansem and DIZ aka, the guy pretending to be Ansem, but not really, and actual Ansem, but he's in mummy cosplay and he's also some kind of copy. The fact that this actually makes sense to me is actually astounding, to actually explain who these two guys are and what their interactions mean you basically need to explain ALL of their history AND KH 1 and CoM. It's like a late game factory in Satisfactory, unless you follow it from the origin point, paying attention to each step in-between you will have no earthly idea how or why it works.

You didn't like the Pridelands much, huh? As a The Lion King fan, I enjoyed the area a great deal, so much so that when prepping for end game content, I used the Pridelands to level to 99. Yeah, it completely disoriented me when I had to go back, but I had fun.

The kingdom hearts games are a weird franchise that I love & enjoy and could talk about forever, but somehow when I fo talk about them all that comes out are criticisms and complaints and missed opportunities.

Are you actually complaining that the tutorial for a children's game is too comprehensive?

ur videos are great this deserves way more views! hoping for a kh3!

I don't agree with a good bit of what was said but for the most part I think you did a great job at conveying your opinions in a way that makes your perspective on what you're saying understandable and interesting to listen to. It's also just cool to hear different perspectives from my own in general. Good vid brotha

6:31 Yen Sid's hand did something funky lol

Kingdom Hearts 2 remains to this day my all time favorite game and I can say hands down it has the best battle system out of all KH titles I've played so far. I was waiting as many of us for years KH 3 to come out and I'm really disappointed on it's battle system if I'm being honest.. The analysis was really well made, even if I may not agree with everything, it did give me food for thought! Great work!

Jeeeeeez. This is a movie. Commenting to help the algorithm.

You know what’s funny? KH can’t have the Disney characters interact; but an app game can throw all em together.

I played this game for the first time last summer and it's now one of my favorite games of all time. Honestly I don't really know what's happening in the story most of the time but I don't really care. Roxas is my boy and my favorite character. The gameplay is fantastic. The music is the best. I love this game!

note to self; come back at 1:25:17 ~ ! Want to finish this. Amazing work on this video.

Gonna save this to my watch later list for later

I disagree heavily about your claims about players not using items. We don't get cure at the start in KH1 or KH2 and we can only use items to heal so it makes the player very comfortable using them. You can equip items to your Quick Menu in Kh2 making it very easy to use items in a pinch like a elixir which is craftable and drops from multiple enemies or the very cheap potions. The magic system is meant to be used in tandem with the Drive gauge since it refills your mana and just so happens the Drive Form you obtain in Port Royal before that fight is Wisdom Form. Think about that. 1:30:30 If you're going to judge how the story is told you should read the Ansem reports. Leon in KH1 made it very clear about their importance to the mystery especially when you find out Ansem is the villian it's hard to not read them especially when they'll be the reward for beating the story bosses and super bosses. Ansem Reports are a huge part of the games story telling and you completely glossed it over.

The way I understand it, the AP system makes more sense if you reframe it slightly. If you think of it as abilities like guard or dodge roll being a default, then the game is letting you choose to disable them in exchange for *BONUS* points you can then put into other abilities. This was probably even the intent, but it would have been too confusing if you could end up with a *negative* AP.

1:00:11 you can actually skip the jobs. The seven wonders is the only requirement

Disney doesn't do dumb multiverse stuff, that's why the characters in their world's don't interact with each other, also it's a videogame not a movie or a book, those world's exist to fulfill videogame purpose (levels)

Btw final form is not unlocked "randomly" it is unlocked by going into anti form when you get to the point of beating roxas in TWTNW.. It is unlocked within 10 transformations into anti form.

I recommend the kingdom hearts refixed mod, solves the problem you have with the whole "retrying bosses takes too long" thing

A huge thing you failed to mention was how the drive gauge goes up like crazy when doing attacks on MP recharge When i played i would try to sometimes cure even on full mp to get that drive gauge boost to then use a drive, refill mp through the drive, use the magic and combos, and repeat. If i really wanted to use mp more though id use an item then but you implied that you just stop yourself from using items which makes me ask why you critique a part of the gameplay when you actively stop yourself from using its full potential. A large part of RPGs is to prepare for the battle the best you can. Need more mp? Bring more mp items and your best magic keyblade. Want to play it safe this fight? Bring hp items and change your equipment accordingly. You also bring up how the game isnt very good for beginners but i think thats where the action game part comes in. Like no one expects you to completely understand bayonetta or DMC the first time you play, so why expect that for kingdom hearts. Granted, KH is not as complicated in terms of input memorization as those games but its still an action game and understanding on more playthroughs is just part of the genre. I disagree with alot said for the gameplay so i decided to just put my input. Great video though

I have sort of a mixed opinion on reaction commands. While I can’t really disagree with anything you said, at the same time they gave so much personality to the enemies and the encounters that I feel are missing from other KH entries. Also, some reaction commands only appear if you block or dodge a certain attack so it also helped me memorize attack patterns. So I can’t say I hate it. I think that if they ever decide to come back to reaction commands, though, they could definitely implement them better so they feel less “press /\ to win” and more “you did this correctly, so here’s a lil bonus babes

i agree with your points of the story, but in terms of disney characters interacting, Im pretty sure a rule disney had for some reason for these games was that the worlds couldnt interact.

Silly me for expecting a positive Kingdom Hearts video. Gotta say, you got me with that title. It’s really something when you only have 1 positive section in the video, and even there is still riddled with complaints. Of course people only love Kingdom Hearts for nostalgia, right? No way people could genuinely love it. That’s always the narrative… At first, I thought you were going to be fair to the game, but once you did the tried and true “Purposely explain the story in a rushed and abridged way, then proceed to act confused”, I knew this was just gonna be another “Is Kingdom Hearts even good?” type video. I think the biggest fault of this series is that so many people played it. Because of that, we always get guys like you, who try and tell everyone else that the series is nothing but a mess, and is just thriving off of nostalgia and the time it came out. Funnily enough, the minute someone says that about it something you like (I’m guessing FF7), you cry foul and say how it truly is a timeless masterpiece. Hilarious.

Donald is the MOST POWERFUL wizard. zeta flare baby he’s cracked

1:30:34 "I'm not interested in the story itself more the way it's told" But Ansem Reports are literally how the story is told. It's why in KH1 Leon and gamg know anything. There's a full cutscene dedicated to explaining how Mickey main goal is to find Ansem Reports to find the Keyblade. KH2 Secret Ansem Reports also directly references KH1 Ansem Reports so if you haven't read the first batch you'll be even more confused. KH1 Ansem was this interesting. A kind hearted scientist who was studying the Heart, Keyblades, and Worlds. Each Report you get before you see the big reveal was making him seem like how Leon and Aerith described him. But after the reveal Ansem is the big evil the rest of the reports you receive are all about his evil experiments. I'm sorry but the biggest misconception was that you should be reading the reports as you get them. Otherwise it's a mind numbing plot dump that won't make much sense. Trust me when I say replay the game but read the reports as you get them. Otherwise just don't even pretend you know the story If you ask anybody else they'll just say the same thing everyone else does but then sit there with ridiculous fan theories about why Triton knows about Keyblades when Ansem Reports literally answer everything.

(Stopped at the 18 minute mark) so you want the series to be something like House Of Mouse? Honestly, same. I’d very much like it if they introduced interplanetary travel to tell new stories and allow you to create a custom party with your favorite characters. Similar to something like Rogue Galaxy.

I honestly don't think that your criticisms of the reaction commands is valid... outside of the larger problem of KH2's difficulty. The way you describe it makes me realize that the reaction commands are one of the main reasons why the game is so damn easy (the real problem as far as I'm concerned).

There's a lot of information that was wrong in this video. A lot of information tends to come from other games in the series explaining quite a lot that occurs in number two but it really comes across as someone that has only played the first couple games in the series without knowing the greater lore.

As comparatively annoying as Atlantica is, I’ve always thought that it was a nice break from all of the mayhem and jet lagging world swapping. It’s cool that as you get regular abilities, they correlate with what is needed to be done in Atlantica and unlocks more progression. My only gripe is that there’s no real combat.

I don't really agree with a lot of your arguments 😅 i like the triangle thing because it gives variety to the fights, and i never felt like it was too easy or too hard any time i played it, depending in what difficulty i chose. I don't think reaction commands are inherintly bad because they are part of your strategy and they don't pop up too much (unlike kh3 😅)

I very much do not agree with removing anti form. I actually LIKE anti form's speed-blitzing, glass cannon style.

Part 3 of an extended comment I couldn't post all at once: Exploration: Yeah I have pretty much nothing to add or critique next to what you said honestly. KH2 may be my favorite for the combat and the still coherent story at this point (At least I find it coherent), but I simply can not deny how bland and flat KH2's world design is. Even if you redid the visuals to be on par with 3, you'd be left with virtually nothing. I think the closest 3 gets to being this lifeless is ironically a world full of life evrywhere, plant life. That being Kingdom Of Corona. Yeah there's some treasure chests to be found that are very very slightly out of the way, and yes there are a lot more hills than flat surfaces, but the way it flows is very much like a KH2 world I find. I know, it probably sounds like a bad head scratching joke for a KH2 lover to critique an aspect of 3 BECAUSE one of the worlds gives a feeling like 2's: but it's my honest opinion. Out of all the worlds in 3; I think it would fit the most in 2's world structure. I guess I did have some things to say though huh? Oh and screw the map chests, at least in this game of 2. Why not just, have the maps? Not like we really needed them anyway. TL;DR for exploration: It's bad and practically nonexistent. Roxas prologue: "You lose HP when you take damage, did you know that one?!" Pretty much this, hehe. Only difference really in my opinion is that I am an extremely patient individual with slow starts in action RPG's. And I feel Roxas's section does a great job of getting me to love Roxas and being heartbroken for his plight. Also I tend to skip the cutscenes on repeat playthroughs, so that certainly helps. And I find that this section of the game if you know what you're doing is easy to breeze through to quickly get to Sora. Unless you're doing Level 1 of course, in which case best of luck to you against Twilight Thorn and his cheap Nil lightning bolts. Get past that and you probably won't be roadblocked again until Beasts's Castle part 1. Get past that and you'll probably beat the game Level 1 eventually. But yeah; I actually like this section, a lot. Maybe I'm just a sucker for existential crises or something. I can acknowledge this section kind of objectively sucks in terms of pacing and unskippable handholdy tutorial. But I deeply enjoy it in spite of that. Roxas Prologue TL;DR: I agree it's too long and handholdy but I love it anyway because ma feelz. Combat: I absolutely love the combat. But I can agree that some of the abilities have no business being optional, like guard and Dodge Roll. And while I want to disagree that there are too many abilities, Dodge Slash exists. And Dodge Slash is literally just a worse combo attack to proc a stronger Combo Boost. I don't like the attack and I never did. When Sora started doing his stupid little dance when I was 7 and my reading skills needed refining; imagine how pissed I was when I couldn't find which ability is causing it because the description is nowhere close to the ability's function of "do a little dance for a stronger combo boost but get beat up by mobs". I eventually figured it out and unequipped it. As for combo length; I do this day still stick with three hit combos. They're just, more efficient against mobs of enemies. As seen in KH3, five hit combos let small enemies whale on you for free because it takes too long to get to the finisher. The finishers in this game however do far more damage and leave you far less open than 3. And if you really want to, you can shorten it to a 2-hit combo or just finishers only with Fenrir. 3-hit combos just feel the most natural. Yes I can do more damage to certain bosses with extended combos, but it's annoying to switch out abilities to modify my combo length out of combat just for a specific boss and back again, so I often leave this particular system alone. I think the game not challenging you to learn its mechanics properly is just a side effect of leveling up. As when you are playing a Level 1 one, unless you're playing a nuzlocke on top of that restricting Drives, Summons, and reflect and the like, you're more than ever encouraged to experiment. I feel that this exists for 3 as well, despite it having core flaws with the basic key combat as well that I find harder to look past, and I think this will remain true as long as the ability to level up enough to make the numbers swing greatly in your favor is possible. Which as long as this remains an RPG with proper leveling up and stats; I don't think that's ever going away. Ultimately forcing the player to play Level 1 to really get a feel for the game's depth, or lack thereof in the case of most 3 bosses. *Cough*. As for Xaldin; try using the square button more and jumping away from his attacks when he disappears and drops spears down on you. Not only is it good for dodging, but you can easily get 9 Jump commands this way. He gave me a fair amount of trouble as a kid, but I was stoked when I finally beat him. And I didn't do insane level grinding beforehand either. I probably left and fought a few enemies at one point, likely upset as a kid would be. But by the time I beat him he quickly became one of my favorites. I lacked the skill to properly time guards at the time but I could dodge just fine with Quick Run and jumps. When I finally had him figured out I never had trouble with him again. He's still one of my favorites. But his stupid warping into you move after he uses his desperation move can shove off. I still don't know how to properly avoid that and just use Beast's limit after the desperation move to make him skip that follow-up entirely. And I completely agree they should have added an immediate retry button. It's not the worst thing in the world in the data fights, but boy howdy is it bad against Roxas. I can assure you that when you play the game level 1 that it is not just the Organization fights and data fights that make you need to learn how to play properly and know what you're doing. I find the experience to be much more consistently challenging and engaging this way. Although I can admit that needing to play the game low level cap or just straight level 1 doesn't sound like very high praise. And admittedly it's not, at least not fully. I just think this is an inevitable system of this combat system with RPG stats in an action game environment. I think it's an inevitable flaw as the only times a game like this will feel challenging is when a particular boss fight forces you to learn or grind to be crazy overleveled. Level 99 is absolutely not necessary for the Data Org fights. Maybe I just lack imagination, but I can't see how this kind of gameplay with typical RPG stats can maintain its engagement and need to properly learn the action element as long as you aren't capped in some way. Whether deliberately by player choice with a Zero EXP ability, or worse, a deliberate power cap until you reach a certain point in a game. (Looking at FFXIII, even if that's an ATB game ...) Maybe the devs will figure something out for the future of KH. Combat TL;DR: I find 3-hit combos to be the magic number out of the gate and never change it despite specific bosses where longer is better. In my honest opinion; these games can only highlight their proper depth (and flaws) when leveling is stripped away from the player.

I actually really like the magic in this game. It really helps with combos and combining that with it. Like if you have ground pound and magnet and you use magnet then ground pound right after there which does a good amount of damage.there a good amount of stuff you can do with it. The whole thing with cure is also really smart. Having players think before using it. Especially in tough battles where I have to think “do I wanna use my items where it takes longer animation and I could get hit or do I want to use cure where im invincible during the animation but my MP is gone or just take the damage “ and I usually like battles where I think like that. I do wish there were more magic like in KH1 but the magic system id something I do like

I disagree with everything.

I can't really get behind complaints about most of the extraneous systems you mentioned. Most of the mini-games are fun little pallet-cleansers and some mechanics challenge you under restrictions that force you to use options you might not have before, or have to figure out a mechanic to survive, in the case of Luxord. Reaction commands are perfectly suited, in my opinion, because they allow me to pull off awesome move that I wouldn't be able to otherwise with standard controls. I'm not really worrying about being challenged purely on my player skill until I face the likes of the Data Organization or the Lingering Will. And the Gummy ship segments are a lot more deep than you give them credit for with how they need to build a proper ship to handle them. I also feel you completely missed out on a core mechanic regarding the magic system of KH2. The way they make depleting your magic bar a dynamic and strategic choice is by making it so your MP recharge state massively increases how quickly you build up your Drive Gauge. Depleting your magic could be the difference for you pulling off that Wisdom or Valor form at just the time you need to. Or even use a summon like Stitch that allows you to recharge your MP over and over again like crazy. The MP Recharge state is not at all an entirely negative state like you make it sound.

Just watched both your videos on KH! Love them! I think on a technical aspect of combat, you can consider checking out Bio-roxas' youtube channel. He does an awesome job breaking down the combat and finer details of kingdom hearts! Any chance you'd cover the rest of the KH games too? :DDD

The Winnie the Pooh Minnie games are what I like about this game

Just started the video but I wanted to say that this game means so much to me as it was my birthday present when I turned 7. And I can admit there are things other KH games did better, namely I think the original kept more intrigue and had more interesting world design. Even if Deep Jungle and those stupid vines can go off itself. But for me, KH2 wins me over with the satisfying combat system. And the story, while imperfect, makes way more sense and is far less convoluted at this stage until BBS reared its ugly head. Not to say I don't like BBS; I think it's a fun game. But this whole Prequel nonsense and making it with all these Xehanort's makes it look like fanfiction within fanfiction. KH2 could have and frankly probably should have been the end of Xehanort with no deeper mysteries involved with this villain as they move onto the next. I will say real quick, though I intend to leave another comment once I finish this video and hear your points and whatnot: that I think one of the big reasons KH3's story was such a big disappointment is how long they've built up this villain only to somewhat treat it like its just kind of a big fight and not much else. KH2 already had the problem of characters not communicating as well as they should, but at least they had their excuses. Like Riku being edgy boi and making Mickey promise not to tell Sora about his dark makeover. By the time KH3 rolls around; the lack of communication between the characters lacks excuse and is pure pain. Characters don't speak to each other enough and the ending feels rushed. Anyway, considering this is a video about KH2; I should probably not think too much about 3 right now. Looking forward to watching the whole thing.

Edit: Part 1 of a huge comment that RU-vid wouldn't let me post: I decided to write my second comment as I watch so I don't forget to much. Also I decided to basically make them replies to your sections with my own rambling opinions and whatnot. Whether it be me giving my take on that aspect of the game or agreeing or respectfully disagreeing with your opinion. For the story; I always knew something seemed a bit odd but it wasn't until years later that I realized how uninvolved Organization XIII was in many of the worlds. Of course I was satisfied even if Pete was there, but still. I did however find the Heartless and Nobody thing to be quite simple. I mean heck; I hadn't played 1 or Re:Chain yet and I think the game was pretty straightforward about what Heartless and Nobodies are. The only thing I was left wondering was why these Organization members were doing bad things if all they wanted were hearts. And pretending the sequels with the Xehanort madness don't exist for a minute; I'd still be puzzled as to why. If that were their real goal; to gather hearts so the power of Kingdom Hearts can restore Hearts to them, then their chances of success would have shot up tremendously if they just like, politely asked good key boi Sora. Explained their plight and why they need his help. At this point in the story, Sora doesn't much know what Kingdom Hearts is aside from "it's light". And even to this day we the players are still left with ambiguity about it. Admittedly their motivations make zero sense with their methods in isolation. It does make a bit more sense with added context from later titles, but just barely. Not one member that isn't Xemnas, shooty boi, or goth moon juice man went "so uh, why exactly are we harassing these people?" Oh well. I can forgive the lack of connectivity of the worlds in KH2 because Sora still technically has a clear goal in mind. Several really. Find the King, find Riku, and find and defeat Organization members when they show up and he has the opportunity. And after the halfway mark with Hollow Bastion; it gets semi simplified as they're not strictly looking for King Mickey anymore. But they're still trying to find Riku. And while not every second visit makes sense, a few do. Beast's Castle, Olympus Coliseum, Port Royal, and Agrabah especially. As they all feature some level of Organization XIII or Pete interference. Technically The Pride Lands did too, but eh. Overall I think the story is, while imperfect, not horrible either. Even if most of the journey you're not facing the big bad, Sora still at least has reason to be looking around these worlds. He's on a wild goose chase trying to pin down Riku. And Yen Sid expositioned Sora to death about how he's the key and to trace connections yada yada yada. So effectively he's following Yen Sid's advice. He's not necessarily making forward or consistent progress, but he's trying his best, following his heart. Oh, and unlike KH3 the goal is way more clear. In KH2 we know what he's after and pretty much why. In KH3 he's after The Power Of Waking that I don't think was ever properly explained or even NAMED in DDD. And considering he was supposed to get it by traversing dream worlds previously but somehow is expected to do it again not doing that now, well, there's just no damn excuse for him wandering aimlessly in KH3. You sadly can't even argue it's to try and interrupt Organization XIII early, as not once does he take a swing at them. Darn I rant a lot. Oh I forgot to actually mention how I feel about the Disney Worlds themselves. Really not much to say other than I like them, minus probably Atlantica. TL;DR if my story opinions: I think Sora has adequate reason to be wandering worlds without it feeling completely pointless.

I'm back 1 year later (somehow?) to say, this is such a beautifully made video. I watched it earlier, but I actually sat down and watched the full thing start to finish tonight. You make so many good points. All very valid. But I love that the ending, you said what I was thinking; KH1 and 2 have something special in them that the other games just don't, and that doesn't mean the others are bad, but there is something to this recipe that just works so well, and I hope we get to see a glimpse of it in the Kingdom Hearts games to come. I love BBS, I love KH3, and I think I'll always love KH1 and KH2 the most, by far. Maybe that's a product of nostalgia, but I don't think it is. Those games were truly something special that I grew up with as a young child and explored every corner of. As an adult, I still feel the same. You can feel the heart and soul that was put into these games, every section, every cutscene, and every song, especially. The music never gets old to me. This is a beautiful love letter of a video ♥

If you want to skip the tutorial just make a save file at the end of it

"kingdom hearts will be coming to pc!" yeah at fuckin retail price for a series of games that most of which are 5+ years old

I think reaction commands are brilliant except for rising sun spam. I'd take all the gimmicks and reactions in the world over whatever the fuck kh3 was

LOL They had a fake out death for Goofy? They should have had him really be dying and had the party turn him into a nobody before he dies and then to save him, you have to later kill the brooding, serious, hyper-vigilant Fooxyg in a boss fight. Nomura, call me; I can fix your mess.

Um, quick question, do you have any specific things you block in comments or something? Because I'm trying to post my frankly insanely long comment or comments as I tried splitting it in two to fit. Or am I just doing something wrong or what? I keep getting the message "Returned Error" and zero explanation.

Im still waiting for my boy sora to get back to his girl kiri, the girl he gave up going home for back in kh1

Edit: part 2 of a long comment RU-vid wouldn't let me post together. Now as for Gimmicks: I hate the Light Cycle so damn much. Even spamming Charge it sucks in Level 1. You die way too easily and it's mandatory. It's a neat distraction if you're playing normally, but at level 1 it's just evil. Port Royal pirates is probably one of my least favorites because of how squishy you are in level 1. It'd be one thing if the moonlight actually moved dynamically with clouds overhead, but it doesn't so it sucks. They should have made them more resilient out of moonlight, not invincible. And the Nobody gamblers or whatever they are are near impossible to fail their minigames when you know what to do. Also like, if you're bad at it, it's technically an optional reaction command that hurts you if you do it poorly, just like Duel Stance. I have to vehemently disagree regarding the carpet however. I think it is extremely easy to use and it pretty much a direct upgrade to Sora's verticality with the normal enemies he sees. His normal gameplay style is virtually identical minus Drives and Summons. Also maybe Trinity Limit? I don't think I ever tried that though. Let's see uh, Atalantica can screw off, especially with KH MoM now a thing. Winnie The Pooh to me isn't so bad and in fact the one minigame at Rabbit's House is freaking awesome. I'd say that I don't mind most of the gimmicks. The Reaction Commands in general I don't mind that much. Although maybe I'm more forgiving toward them since now I feel KH3 made triangle so much worse than ever before. I'll take a few little cinematic reaction commands versus specific enemies with unique animations over using 3-4 aoe nukes with triangle spam any day. Although I can respect how Reaction Commands can feel cheap to you. I can absolutely understand the reasoning. I forgot about Lion sora, heh. Once you realize his Square combo aerial is broken and Thunder decimates the big annoying spin to win enemies it's not actually all that hard to adjust to the different controls in my personal opinion. Not being able to guard sucks though. TL;DR of my opinion of the gimmicks: I hate the Light Cycle and Atlanatica with a passion. Lion Sora is fun but no guarding sucks. Everything else is either alright or I enjoy greatly. And now my thoughts on magic: Even as a little kid; I found the magic to be hit or miss. I wasn't fond of the MP recharge system even back then and when magic is first introduced in the game, you have a flimsy Blizzard spell. It does like no damage at base at that point of the game and you can't heal with Cure magic yet. Magic had left a sour taste in my mouth to the point where I only use, Curage, Reflega, Magnega, and occasionally Thundaga. To this day I'm still not wholly fond of it. At this point, for me it's the Reflega and Magnega meter. With occasional Thundaga finisher. I only Cure in an emergency, opting to use items. While I almost never used items and hoarded them in the past, Level 1 trains you to use items liberally, so now I do. And frankly outside of Port Royal and Drive Forms enhancing them; I still don't see the the point of normal Blizzard and Fire. Something that particularly bothered me as a kid was how uncreative we are with it. We see Axel able to use flames into his combos. We have those ice witch thingies in Agrabah that don't shoot their blizzard spells completely horizontally and can actually freeze you, something you can only to do Pirates in moonlight and the reaper boss thingy. Not only do I want some new way to manage magic that isn't KH1, 2, or Light forbid, Days; but I want a future title to balance the offensive and utility nature of magic. I can applaud KH2 for at least like, having good utility with magic. KH3 does a better job making it an offensive force to be used liberally to great effect, particularly Blizzaga and Thundaga, but it lacks a lot in the utility department. Blizzaga can freeze and allow you to flowmotion grind, Waterga gives a brief aoe shield around you, and Aeoroga forces you into a Flowmotion jump. But overall it lacks the level of utility KH2 has with its magic. I just wish we could have a title that has magic able to be good in both ways while not detracting from the usefulness of fighting physically with your keyblade. Maybe someday. Oh and aside from all of that, because of using items more liberally; I find MP finishing to be way better off with Limits. Limits get a bad rep for being overpowered, and sometimes they are (looking at you Duck Flare), but I think they're more balanced than Links at least, eugh. Oh and that reaper boss thingy is easy as pie. And yes it goes damage immune while spinning its weapon and the skull heads. I have like, zero issue with this boss and I don't entirely follow the logic of it being bad. Also like, Stitch exists lol. But in fairness, the game does a horrendous job explaining Summons to the player and why you should never ever use their garbage do nothing limits, instead letting them be upgraded party members with their somewhat insane utility. And then there's Genie, Genie is good to abuse with a Master Genie infinite Summon gauge exploit and not much else. TL;DR for magic: I hope for a new resource system as well. I'm also hoping for better balance of offence and utility that doesn't diminish basic keyblade strikes. Limits are better than Links and are generally fair and balanced but Duck Flare is op as balls with its boss stunlocking shenanigans.

I adore the Kingdom Hearts series, but only played the 3 main titles. Each one of them has something that I will always remember. The sad as fuck ending of Kingdom Hearts 1, the amazing soundtrack of 2, and the sad as fuck ending of 3. 2 is probably the peak of the franchise, mainly because it was just overly convoluted enough to still keep people interested, before the story went way too far and needed pages and pages of exposition to explain each and every little thing going on. Sure, it's not too bad once you know what's happening, but even if you watch hours of story recaps and explanations to prep for the next entry of the series...the story will just randomly and sometimes very subtly retcon EVERYTHING. I still don't know what the rules are in that world regarding heartless and nobodies. I doubt even the creator does. But those soundtracks tho. 10/10. Every game.

Part 4 and the final part of the original comment I tried to post. I am so sorry for commenting multiple times. I swear I intended to put this all into one comment but RU-vid just wouldn't let me. Drive forms: Ironically the Drive Gauge filled far slower in base KH2 to the point you basically couldn't spam them anyway unless you synthesize those Drive refill thingies. In retrospect I think Anti Form is just stupid, not only based on how it works, but because I don't find using these forms, aside from debatably Limit and Final, to be abusing the game's mechanics in the first place. The Drive gauge charges far faster in Final Mix because it charged too slowly before. Aka they buffed it, which encourages more use of it. It just seems odd to keep Anti in its current state. As for the form leveling; I love form leveling as a concept, and I dearly missed in in KH3. What I don't love are these requirements. They seem just weird and there's not enough meat on the bone of the game to organically level them all up without going out of your way to do it. Yes there are optimal strategies to leveling them up quickly that I take advantage of every time I play through this game, but the fact I need to go out of my way for an extended period for each of them really sucks. Granted Master Form if you know to use Drive Converter on the Nobody Gamblers in the Mysterious Tower ironically becomes the fastest form to level up by a mile when in normal gameplay it is undoubtedly the slowest. Additionally the way they actually give not just movement abilities, but useful passive ones, or at least Wisdom, Limit, and Final do, further discourages Summons. Summons ironically are the actually borderline op thing. They can absolutely break some encounters. Chicken Little is crowd control heaven and makes all your normal hits life drain, making you basically unkillable if you have both Second Chance and Once More. Stitch keeps refilling your MP and even negates a bunch of attacks, deflecting projectiles or hitting physical swings causing them to lose their hitboxes. They're absolutely ridiculous. And the leveling method is absolutely maddening. They all gain summon levels each time the summon gauge counts down by 1. This wouldn't be a problem if the coliseum battles gave you exp as you could just spam Genie limits there and level it relatively quickly. But you can't. So instead you need to use the Agrabah Mushroom XIII with an exploit with fire magic to make it tick up and down repeatedly giving you loads of progress quickly. I don't like that we're basically forced to do this or use Summons an ungodly amount of times to get their full duration. And a mechanic that goes often forgotten at that! Oh and that same Mushroom XIII is great for Valor Form leveling. As for the forms themselves; I always liked all of them except Master Form. I just don't understand what it's good for. It's magic isn't actually that great because he uses them in gimmicky ways. And you're forced to do air combos with a ton of animation lag. And that galaxy spinning finisher thing is extremely slow and drawn out like a KH3 Keyblade Transformation Finisher. And its overall damage output just felt worse than Valor's in general. On top of that, Aerial Dodge is great for a quick defense in the air, but the higher the level the higher in the air you go. And since you can't glide in Master Form, you're just slowing your descent back down to safety where you still can't guard with this form. Master Form always felt like a gimmick to me, even before my sister accidentally discovered Final Form in The Cerberus Cup. I used Valor and Wisdom both way more and still do to this day. It must be over a decade since I used Master Form for anything other than leveling it up in The Mysterious Tower for my Aerial Dodges. But hey, that's just how I feel. Drive Form TL;DR: Anti form sucks, Master Form feels wack, form leveling is a nice concept I hope will return but with a better means of acquiring xp (or at least a less gimmicky one), Chicken Little and Stitch are basically op but nobody cares because the game doesn't teach that to you and Drive Forms are cooler conceptually. Story part 2: The Nobody stuff is way simpler than they make it out to be. And the idea that they allegedly don't exist at all is stupid. They clearly do exist. Maybe they shouldn't, but they clearly do exist in some capacity. Just ask the wounds Sora keeps probably getting from them all game before healing. And straight up fuck the Goofy death copout. I hated it as a kid and I hate it now. I was a trusting kid and I felt very betrayed and tricked when Goofy wasn't dead. Maybe it's just because of how much anger and hate (ARE SUPREME!) I felt boil up inside me as a 7 year old, but I will never ever forgive this scene. That's probably my biggest personal bias in the entire game's story from my experience playing this as a small child. I hate hate hate that moment now. Oh well, could be worse, it could be a multi person clusterfuck with the universe's own rules falling apart every 2 seconds and then the bad guys pretending they weren't straight up wrong HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. (Examples of the rules falling apart or not making sense in universe: The way time travel works was disproven by Sora in Re:Mind. Vanitas is supposed to look like Sora because of Ventus's connection he made to Sora, but Vanitas came into existence before that connection was formed. Later games reveal your Nobody is supposed to look basically identical to you if humanoid but nobody questions why Roxas doesn't look like Sora. You used to be able to say "well Nobodies must not look identical to their Sombodies", but it's ruined by later games. The idea of using Light and Darkness in proper balance is introduced in Re:Chain and while still incorporated into Riku's attacks, has yet to be proprly addressed again. Geezernort proposed the same idea but he didn't actually want Terra to do that, he just wasn't him angry so the darkness could sustain Geezernort's heart. Terranort in KH3 is transported from the past but everyone acts like saving this past Terra in the future won't change the past and like they saved the modern day Terra when he would still exist fractured between Ansemnort and Xemnas. All they'd be doing would be creating a Nortless Terra that gets sent back to Radiant Garden before Aqua showed up, creating a completely separate timeline where Xehanort inexplicably disappeared from Terra's heart, with him having no memory of what occurred and why his heart, mind, and body are free again. Aqua can somehow bubble Terra, her armor, and her summoned keyblade with her bare hands faster to return To The Realm Of Light than her Keyblade glider can fly. On top of that, she can fly him faster with magic and all of that but not carry herself with it. There are many many many more cases of this garbage but we'd be here all day if I went over it forever.) Whoo boy I made a far longer response than I imagined I would. I don't blame you if you don't read this because I went totally balls off the walls with this. Clearly I had a lot to say about this. KH2 is a game I will always hold for special and dear to me. It may have its flaws, and its story may be made worse with each passing KH game thickening the mystery for the sake of it and not much else, but it's a damn good time. I enjoy almost every minute of this game to no end. And maybe it could be seen as cheating, but man the music. This game would not be half the game it is if not for Yoko Shimomura's amazing work. The world's may have virtually no exploration, but the music gives them all a unique feel that just the graphics alone wouldn't achieve. And man when the game hits its highs with the Organization fights, it skyrockets to the stars. It is a game I will forever love, flaws and all (except the light cycle). It's also a game I can admit did some things worse than KH3 despite KH3 being a game I'm not all that fond of. But that's a story and a critique for another time. If you took the time to read my uh, whatever this comment is, thanks! :D

bloodborne mentioned, video upvoted

I watched your video. I’m guessing you hate kh 3, considering it basically doubles down on everything complaint you had. Minus the fact that it added in a retry button for button and tried to have more expansive level design. But that’s probably a video for the future. The complaint I agree with the most is that this game has WAY too many cutscenes

Am I the only one who finds it strange that Mickey is not the Wizard. I mean he ones was an apprentice to one.

All the "Problems" you have with KH 2 are 100 time worse in Kh 3 so have fun. For me none of this are problems but rather minor inconveniences that you can work around, again Stop hoarding your Items, use them.

Kingdoms Hearts 2 has great combat gameplay with better camera controls. It's the plot of the story of Kingdom Hearts 2 that's needs to be redone. I love the story of Kingdom Hearts 1. After Kingdom Hearts 1 they over complicated the storyline plot of the series that became a mess. It seems like within each newer Kingdom Hearts game the storyline just gets more complicated and just poorly written.

TBH Sephiroth isn't all that hard once you hit maybe level 60 as long as you've obtained all the story abilities and learn the strategy. Also Lingering Will, while very frustrating, is much less than some of the data fights (Demyx I hate you and i love you and i despise you)

I *completely* disagree with you about not using Ethers. If they're not meant to be used, then why are they there? They're meant to reduce the amount of time you have to wait to get your magic back and they ultimately fulfill that goal. I definitely prefer the way Cure affected the magic bar in the original. It's just annoying for it to be completely used up by one cure, especially when you might need to use that spell again.

Honestly I don't know how have you taken 3h in the tutorial. Maybe with the cutscenes it can take about 1h - 1:30h. With skipping it takes me about 40min. That being said I agree that it it definitely too long.

The moment he started complaining about reaction commands i was HOPING i WISHED his argument to be even a little convincing, but all he used as an argument in his footage and his example of the Hydra was just SO BAD, the Hydra is literally the 3rd worlds boss, if you never played the game thats still early game so that boss being forgiving and kinda easy was THE POINT, the Demyx fights doesn't rely in the RC as a matter of fact, it's actually more efficient to use the Fire spell but he never tried that and just used the RC he complains about without even trying to do other stuff, youre not even forced to use reaction commands in most of the game, it's at best an extra push to help you make the fight look cooler if nothing else, the Hydra neck cut looks MUCH cooler with the RC than if it Lazily just got cut when you deplete the HP bar. He had no points actually worth listening to, and i TRIED to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he failed to convince me of his argument, which boiled down to "i wanna tryhard in the first bosses", Lingering will is literally the Boss he wants all the bosses to be

Magic recharge bad Use ethers I don't wanna Bro... o.o

I honestly don't really get where some of your critiques are coming from? You complain that the tutorial holds your hand too much and yet you also complain when the game throws you a curveball that you need to maneuver around and figure out? Also you complain about the mechanics of cure and MP recharge when there are ethers that you basically explicitly said you never use? I have my problems with this game too (mostly the Disney worlds and level design) but some of your critiques either feel like reaches, nitpicks, or bad faith readings of elements which really aren't that bad. As if you refuse to engage with the combat in the way it's intended to be engaged with.

I really think I'm in the minority in lime KH1 much more than KH2.

56:08 In all my years of living, I've never met anyone who didn't understand how to control a character on the screen with a controller. Except maybe a kid 2-3 years old, but then he's to young to be able to read anyway, so a text prompt teaching you how to move is pretty wasted there. I agree. The tutorials are completely unnecessary.

You didnt beat seperoth? Dude hes 10time easier then 1

It seems like you either came to this game too late (experiencing games like dark souls for mechanics and other games with story telling) or came with an already sour opinion. Even for its time, it had great mechanical gameplay. There are definitely problems, but not enough to make a 50+ min review video mostly negative in my opinion. The fact that it came out in 2005 or 2007 if you consider FM, it’s an exceptionally good game. At this time, the story wasn’t even confusing either. Kh1 was made without the intention of a sequel, and KH2 picked up random threads of KH1 and did an excellent job with its story. First game introduced heartless from tainted hearts of ppl, kh2 addresses that the left over body becomes a nobody. They aren’t who they were originally, usually mindless and aimless, and disappear when they die. In that sense, they don’t really exist if they have no past or something to remember them. Of course, you’re entitled to your own opinion, and the game can feel aimless in the few beginning worlds but they did well with the structure that they set in traveling to other worlds that are separated.

You make a kh3 vide yet hahahaha

This video is good

but really dude, just use some eathers u're not gona die if u spend some lol

Yeah I hear this complaint alot about how the disney worlds arent tied to the main plot and even if it is a weakness it's such a minor and subjective one. Sora is put into scenarios where he is compelled to help people hes met before and new. It doesn't make much sense thatd he ignore them and revealing that all the fighting he is doing is helping the org come closer to their goal is such a compelling dynamic to put the character in because either living up to his destiny or just in his nature sora is always compelled to help the worlds. I always enjoyed going to these worlds because 1 I always loved these movies and they are compelling even in their retelling/cliffsnotes. And 2 it made the adventure feel like an adventure that spanned a long time. No game is perfect, but kh2 is as close it gets for a sequel. Theres too much good that outweighs nitpicks like these to ever convince me otherwise. Bestguyever has made videos detailing how good KH2 is and I would point to there someone who can articulate why the first 3 games are classics.

Definitely don't agree about the magic. Cure taking the entire bar incentivizes using the other spells, because every player WILL use cure, so they'll naturally want to use other spells BEFORE a cure cast. It also incentivizes playing better as well, as you know you can't just spam cure. As for the magic refresh rate, it clearly also incentivizes using items. Saying "well I hoard ethers so the game trying to get me to use them is bad" or "the MP bar recharging over time means I don't wanna use items to restore it" are really weird complaints. Magic is an addition to combat, and its strength in KH2 means you shouldn't be able to just spam it like in 1. KH2's magic system is undoubtedly the best in the series for all of these reasons, and just from the design of cure AND the design of the recharge rate it also incentivizes item usage, which soooooo many RPGs just don't do. It also recharges the drive gauge faster when you run out of magic, which is an incredible touch too But I agree that KH 2's world exploration is just much worse than KH1. They took feedback over something that was actually a positive about KH1 and changed it, sadly. Lol

So I feel like the combat section of the video super underwhelming. Feels super under researched that the combat system as a whole. The main four things that missing that overall effects each fight in drastically different ways and systems that overlap each other all the time. Magic: You didn't talk about how spells changed from KH1 and how effective spells like Reflect and Magnet are in casual combat encounters. Summons: How each summom is drastically different from each other. It works so well with the brand new magic system. Abilities: Some abilities that can combo into each other that can change Sora's overall combat. For example you can equip berserk charge and hori slash. Drain your MP to be able to use a nearly infinite attack until your MP is back. That is a example of some basic equipping and unequipping some abilities in the menu. Limits: This one overlaps the magic system heavily since it uses all of it. But the cool part about limits that they can be used as long you have any amount of magic. Also some party limits are so broken that it feels like you could easily just spam them out to win. Duck Flare easily the most broken thing in the game. It deals massive amount of damage and while still having full control of Sora. You can end up chaining together Duck Flare into Duck Flare with enough MP recovery items. KH2 has the most rewarding, deepest and most satisfying combat system in gaming. I am a active randomizer runner for this game. I help teach others in basic combat configurations and setups to give them a better fighting chance against some bosses. Many of those casual players thanked me because they learn something really cool without feeling hand holding.

I agree with most of your observations and experiences but you gotta remember, this game was made for pre teen children

I never really got into the combat, but I think I just need a few more attempts in the future, because I am more at home with the DS-games that play completely diffrent. However, a really big issue I have with the game is the story. And I don't mean in the "flowery mystisism takes away engagement"-thing, because I actually love the series conceptually. It's just that this plot is kinda junk in a similar way to the later KH3D and KH3. Going in the internal timeline, I think that bar Riku acting out of character once, the narrative evolves in a very natural way from KH1 to Days with storylines that make sense and have at minimum decent payoffs in its internal logic. But then this happens and it all goes to the bin. The game is a lot of pointless meandering until the very end that could have been avoided if anyone actually told Sora what was going on(and what the audience already knows from the tutorial). More interessting interactions between characters just don't take place because idk, Nomura lost his creativity for a hot minute before Days. A lot of anti-climaxes where the current tone and pacing work against what is happening in the current batch of scenes.(Like the goofy-fake death being awkwardly placed to give Mickey an excuse to have a moment of dramatically rushing fourth). Some characterarcs or development from prior games is either halted or regressed for the sake of drama. Even more anti-climaxes for literally no reason.(Like the door to light that was teased since KH1 being absolutely worthless besides escaping the Realm of Darkness, which is a usecase that only comes up by sheer coincidence, so why was it ever made out to be a relevant mission to find it?) It's just, none of this works. Except Roxas. Roxas is the story's saving grace because near everything he touches becomes silver at worst and platinum at best. Minor funfact, the scene at 1:33:02 is a giant translationerror. It was very diffrent in japanese.(Though which version is better is subjective) The game has a good number of translationerrors from japanese to english, by the way. They don't help.

Feeding the Algorithm .