I Asked People About Their WILD Kingdom Hearts Hot Takes 

May or may not be a Hot Take: I’ll forever be glad that the Kingdom Hearts series takes itself seriously and is being genuinely fun & sincere about it all. Not winking at the camera constantly telling you how absurd it is that Donald Duck & Sephiroth are in the same scenes together.

To me there isn't a single bad kingdom hearts game. There are some that are better than others but overall. All of them are enjoyable

My hot take is, Having a disney world be a carbon copy of the movie with SDG in the background is worse than just not having Disney elements at all. I don't want to wade through the movies, I want the crew to be IN THE WORLD, mucking things up, having their own story. The sanctity of disney purity can be on my dvd on my shelf. I'd rather be without it than to be on such a restrictive rail.

I understand the Way to Dawn versus Braveheart debate in which is better but Riku gaining Braveheart is character development. It means he finally made it to Dawn, he’s completed his character arc in his struggle against the darkness. Way to Dawn is so much better looking (rip car key) but story wise, way to Dawn served its purpose and it’s breaking make sense.

I said this on a different Twitter thread, but Kairi is not a bad character. Her journey is just slower than Sora’s. As the kids say, let Nomura cook.

It would be okay if no new Final Fantasy characters were added but the original ones, they are Sora's friends they shouldn't suddenly dissapear.

Hot take: Riku x Naminé actually does make sense. They spent a year together between games and Riku-Replika's feelings likely became part of Riku during this time. Riku was just focused on the mission at the time and DiZ basically made Naminé interactions with others very limited.

My Kingdom Hearts hot take: I absolutely loved Kingdom Hearts 3 and while it felt rushed at times, I think it delivered on some big things in some big ways that had me covered in goosebumps

Union X is the best KH game....in terms of community. As good as the series is, we can only really gush about it from outside sources. Be it social media, discord, ect. With Union X, we had in game groups to share our love of the series with. The different factions, the chatting between group members, raiding together, discussing optimal medal set-ups, it was amazing. If we get anything like that with Missing Link, instant 11/10.

It's reaaally stupid that some people harass streamers for playing on easy.

KH1FM synth is not bad and it's something that forces you to use all your tools to conquer. You have to strategically fight special heartless, which is why I love it. ReCoM is also a masterpiece of a game and the learning curve feels so good to understand.

The hate the fandom has for Master Eraqus is greatly exaggerated. His hatred for the darkness was pretty reasonable considering that while aspects of darkness such as anger and hate are not inherently bad, you can easily be consumed by them, and evil characters are OVERWEMINGLY darkness users compared to light. Riku is a darkness-using hero, but it cost him greatly, and he had to go through a whole arc to be able to use it safely. Not to mention he described his journey specifically as "the road to dawn", and later says in DDD "consume the darkness, return it to light" showing that he is still more light leaning. While Eraqus did try to do some bad things for the purpose of a greater good (killing Ven to stop the x blade), he was not "just as bad" as Master Xehanort.

My Kingdom Hearts Hot Take: I actually really like Face My Fears (KH3's Opening) I personally like the electronic sound it has, and I think it gets way too much hate.

I dont like the new keyblade, but a representation of his growth was something I had been looking forward to. Same with the outfits, its a sign of growth and good change. I feel like a lot of fans want every game to be kh2 and not let the series grow.

To me, I feel Final Fantasy characters should make a return as it is an essential part of the franchise’s identity and intial appeal. The series has more than spawn as its own thing, but it is the most iconic and essential element in the series outside of Disney properties.

My hot take is that I do like Braveheart as Riku's own fenrir, but I will agree Way to Dawn slaps really hard and too iconic.

I love videogames, but I suck at them. Always have, probably always will. I just have poor reflexes and coordination. A lot of people joke about KH being a "press X to win" type of game on the easier modes, but I really appreciate that the easier modes exist. As a kid I would often get stuck on games indefinitely and give up without finishing (especially Final Fantasy ones lol). I like that KH has a nice range of difficulty between fairly easy (except for a few boss fights) and Proud/Critical. It means that people who aren't as skilled get to participate in the fun too instead of being forced to just experience it through cutscene compilations.

Honestly, as someone who's played this series since literally day 1 in america (which, is also on my dads birthday so thats neat,) I can honestly agree that the elitism is honest to God the reason I don't like talking about it to other people as much anymore because I could literally go to someone else who's played the series for a long time who I can simply just disagree with and say "Well, personally I do kinda get where you're coming from, and I definitely don't think X game is as good as X, but I think it's still a really good game, I enjoyed my time with it, and I got the closure I personally wanted." and then I immediately will get met with "Ok, first of all you fucking idiot, if you don't see why X game ruined literally everything because it didn't have X, X, or X in it, you aren't a fan, what you should do is delete the game and only play X, otherwise you're just a fucking shill." If it's not obvious X games in question are 3 and 2 respectively. I love 3, and I love 2, and 1 will always be my favorite above all. I will not change that for someone who constantly wants to try to be as good as bl00dybizkits yet they don't even know who they are.

I've actually grown to like keyblade transformations more then drive forms recently.

Hot Takes: Deep Jungle is good, actually. KH1's platforming is rough on account of being Square's first foray into the realm, but the jump attack helps ease the jank, and while you do have to constantly go back and forth between the treehouse and the camp, it basically begs the player to start experimenting with the route they take, be it players who start by crossing the lagoon to climb the hanging vine, at the top of which they need to climb a vine on a tree, priming them to notice the vine on the tree that leads to the vine swinging area, skipping the platforming segment in exchange for a longer quick time event segment or players who start by climbing the tree vine, at the top of which they stand atop leaves, priming them to realize that those trees in the hippo lagoon are platforms, and with how vertical the level is, they'll almost certainly fall a few times and notice that they end up in different places depending on where they fall. It hopefully should help push you to start experimenting with your paths before you reach worlds like Agrabah, Atlantica, Monstro, and Hollow Bastion. That said, Notxclay and the Stealth Sneak is the absolute worst, that fight really showcases the limits of KH1's camera. Atlantica is good, actually. Your melee attacks suck and you have no summons, but basically every enemy is weak to magic or has some cheese you can pull on them using magic, and it hopefully should help push you to start using magic before you reach lategame and start fighting heartless that are designed specifically to kill anyone who spams their base combo. That said, the conditions for using the dolphin are really dumb. Monstro is... nah I can't type this with a straight face, that world is basically either aimless wandering or a walk in the park. If your world needs glowing doorways for people to not get lost, you're doing something wrong.

Chain of Memories (GBA version) is an amazing game, my personal 3rd favorite, and gets a lot of hate because it's challenging

Hot Take: KH3 is super fire because it completely foreshadows and lays out Soras upcoming character arc in every single world.

30 min gamersjoint vid yes please

Mine is that KH2's intro is incredible and I wish it lasted longer. Was my introduction to the series.

I don't agree with Disney dissapearing from the games but id say that the original content should have a higher time on screen right now is like less than 20 percent of the games lenth.

My hot take is that Aqua has the best story in BBS. terra struggled being easily manipulated by Xehanort Ven dealt with being one half of a weapon Aqua deals being caught between the responsibility that comes with the position she trained so hard for, and learns the hard way what that means. she is always late to the punch and before she knows it, it's too late. I find her saving Terra at the end to be a bittersweet victory for her after failing the whole game, which perfectly fits the tragedy of BBS's plot, I love it.

This may or may not be a hot take but imo kh 358/2 days has an interesting combat system once you learn it in depth. It has such risk vs reward system with limit break and once you get so much of your movement, days goes hard. Magic was also great once you learn what you can do with it.

here’s my hot take: Dream Drop Distance is genuinely one of my favorite games. it’s not stupid or annoying as a lot of people say. it’s actually a super important game that further developments riku and sora’s relationship/bond. whether you view sora and riku as friends or lovers, it doesn’t matter. you can’t deny the fact that it shows how much they both care about each other. and how riku is the knight in the store and sora is a prince. the fucking subtext is crazy and that’s why i love the game so much. the sublet nod that the story is kind of a re-telling of sleeping beauty. LIKE COME ON. but again, whether you ship them or not it doesn’t matter. i love the story, the gaming mechanics, all of it! and the fact i can play as riku for half of it. i’m literally a simple person to please when it comes to KH.

My hot take is that the command deck was never a good implementation. I feel like it's used the worst in BBS since you need to level up your command deck spells and stuff to unlock your abilities. As someone who enjoys KH when it's fast paced combat, I'd rather not scroll select abilities and would rather have my whole library of items, spells, etc there to use in real time.

KH II Hot Take right there : " We should have been able to play the same section of Hollow Bastion Castle, like we have seen in the Kingdom Hearts II E3 2004 Trailer"

My own personal hot take: 358/2 and Re:coded should of gotten the remaster over Re:com

Another banger! Thanks for touching on the elitism dude. It’s exhausting having to curate every bit of nuance in a take to talk about KH so that people don’t come after you. We’ve all got our own opinions (for me I strongly stand by Disney elements being important) and while I agree with some more than others, this is a game that should be enjoyed by everyone in their own way.

I'M SO GLAD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS TOMATOES DON'T BELONG ON FUCKING BURGERS

Strelitzia probably hid Sora’s shoes because that fashion is a no go in wherever they are

I didn't post it on the tweet like I should have, but my hot take would probably be that, while I loved both, I think I love and prefer KH3 more than I do with KH2

I dunno that this is a hot take, but I also really miss the crossover element. Seeing the classic Disney villians shooting the shit together. All the Final Fantasy characters running around, getting involved in the plot, however minor. I also loved boss fights against the characters! I think the last game you got to fight a Disney villain was back in Birth by Sleep where you fought Captain Hook and Put Peter Pan in his place.

My hot take is the 358 has the most distinct mood and vibe compared to the rest of the series and it definitely deserves a full on remake

I love both intro songs for KH1 and KH2, but Sanctuary edges out just by a little bit for me. The drums during the break continue to amaze me till this day.

I don't know if this is a hot take but...Melody of Memory should get some DLC songs

Love the content Jared , first KH youtuber I ever watched back in 2014, your support to this community is unmatched :)

xion always deserves more love

I don’t know if these counts as a hot take, but kingdom hearts would make an amazing dynasty warriors style game and if KHUX was remade into like an ESO or PSO style MMO it would be one of the best

Hearing "BBS" and "Peak of Quality" in the same sentence is crazy

I like how sophisticated Sora looks in KH4, and that's probably my favorite outfit of the ones he's worn. It makes me hope that he's going to start being less childish and more serious in this upcoming game. And yeah, Riku's Keyblade breaking so early in KH3, especially after what he accomplished in Dream Drop Distance, felt rather unnecessary. It didn't help that we didn't see how he got Braveheart, nor learned anything about that Keyblade's origins. As such, we're not as connected to the new one as we are to the one that was made from the sword given to him by Maleficent, which we look upon more fondly. Let's get some backstory behind his new one at some point.

Hot Take but not a Hot Take: Riku is in love with Sora and if he was a girl everyone would ship them over Sora and Kairi. Another hot take: KH Dark Road has one of the best, if not THE best storylines in the entire series. And I feel a big part of that is because it has a proper beginning, climax and conclusion. Not enough people even gave it the time of day which is unfortunate.

my friend HATES kingdom hearts 2 and considers it inferior to kingdom hearts 1 in many ways and i find him crazy

My Hot Take: People need to accept preemptly that Disney villain presence will no longer be as emblematic as in KH1. I hope into KH4 Maleficent & Pete will have a bit more involvement as the front of the Disney villains since we will soon see a re-take of the princesses, which will sure make us fight Facilier (I'm looking forward to that). the earlier Disney villain failed at mid KH2, but the villains being a way to mix the worlds in the overall story and not just the single worlds was a central point of the first story

29:10 That ALWAYS get annoying. In any scenario for any game. It's like the concept of preferences doesn't exist or is so far fetched to them. Also, on another note, it's equally irritating when a person tells people to play the "right" way. When the whole point of playing a video game is for your own self enjoyment. It's like people mocking others for playing on lower difficulties. It's so stupid. I'm ashamed to say that I was one of those people when I was younger, but jeez, was I dumb. Also for my hot take, even with it's flaws, KH3: Re:Mind still remains as my favorite game in the series. With KH2FM being a close second.

Firstly this is an excellent video. This conversation style video is one of the best I've seen you do. I really enjoyed hearing your opinions and how you linked it with your personal experience. Would love another one these someday! Secondly my hot take: KH3 peaked in the toystory / tangled segment.

I've never seen the elitist side of the KH community. There are tons of people who say they hate kh because of the toxic community, but I've never seen them, only ever heard of them through others. I'm not saying people are wrong, I'm just really really confused by that notion, because I find it ridiculous to be toxic and love KH of all things. Loving KH requires compassion and a tolerance for wackiness. So how can toxic people in the community even exist? So weird, but I'm glad I haven't come across those people. I've only seen good and loving people.

I have one. AXEL DID NOT NEED A KEYBLADE!!

Tomatoes not belonging on burgers is a BASED take - they compromise the texture of a good burger! 👏🍔 (And cheers for featuring the Atlantica take!) 👑💙

Hot take, Riku and Mickey breaking their keyblades in the Realm of Darkness was a gigantic mistake on every level

My favorite moment from Kingdom Hearts is when Mario, Sora, Cloud, and Sephiroth fought each other.

Kingdom hearts didn't need the FF characters, but it would have been cool to have the most recent FF protagonist in each kingdom hearts game. Would have been cool to see Lightning or Noctis

Kingdom Hearts was started as a Disney final fantasy fusion. I like that fusion, so even if they can stand on their own, I appreciate the cameos and don’t want them to exit please and thank you.

You should do another one of this, it was fun

My hot take is that the first KH game is the best one by far. KH2 is great and all, but there's something about the first one I just can't quite explain...

I had no issue with the controls in KH1 atlantica. Circle to rise, square to descend, and if you lock on, sora will home in to the enemies. Simple tbh

I would love to have this be a recurring series on the channel ngl. Even though I strongly disagreed with some of the takes it was super dope to hear some KH opinions

Neku should have a role in a future KH game. Especially now that he has an older design which coincides with Sora appearing as a kid in DDD

My personal hot take is that Sora shouldve "died" at the end of 3 and been retired as the main character of KH. End of the Xehanort saga, end of Sora's journey. only to end up being replaced by Yozora. The entire game they're telling him not to abuse the power of waking, and what does he do? he does exactly that trying to save everyone and Kairi at the end. It couldve been a real tragic hero moment. The best part is that he ends up in Quadratum only to get beaten by Yozora, who takes over the series saying," It's my turn to save you ,now". Now we can follow Yozora's story, play as him, even have an entire new cast of Disney characters to follow. Maybe Yozora being alternate Sora, could be traveling with Oswald instead of Mickey lol who knows?

Riku's new keyblade will always be the Kingdom Car Key. Let's talk about it.

My hot take: The story is at *least* as important as the gameplay, and there has never been an official Kingdom Hearts game with a bad story. Maybe bad story*telling*, but I wouldn't even go that far. But while I've appreciated some more than others, I've never come out of a Kingdom Hearts title feeling like it made the overall story any less. Also musical worlds would be fun.

Cold take: Sora should've been made a Master after KH2. Blud saved the worlds 2 times at that point.

istg jared! your content has been nothing but banger after banger! 🎉

My hater ass hot take: Disney is just a vehicle to utilize fairy tales as part of the story, and the overwhelming majority of people's wishes for worlds in KH are downright dumb and don't get the general theme and use of the worlds in the games.

“Not touch but consume some grass” - Jared 2024 : D

legit just ate a burger with a tomatoe in it🍅 1:11

I have a hot take. I think that there should have been a remaster of recoded. Either that or they should have maybe a couple fans helping make kh4. They are so many people who remake games like the kingdom hearts series which is so amazing.

Hot Take: Cure belongs on the Triangle button shortcut and you are an absolute mad man if u map it to any other button that isnt the Triangle button 🤷🏾‍♂️

I missed the twitter post, but my hot take is that Re:Coded is the best handheld Kingdom Hearts game, at least gameplay-wise. It sucks the story is mostly text and images, but the mechanics and deck system are really at their peak in that game. Also if we get a Kairi + Aqua game of some kind, I would love to see them visit Atlantica. Both because of the points Cynical made surrounding a modern rendition of the world, and because mermaids.

the main turn-off to Missing Link imo is that it's gonna be like Pokemon Go, which makes it near unplayable for people in rural areas like myself, I want it to not be reliant on its gps gimmick and instead have that be more of an idle thing rather than the main gameplay style

I love Com played both versions and found it fun once you get use to the card system 😊

Megara deserves better. The Hercules world is the most important Disney (movie) World and she one of the most important characters of that movie, but yet is only ever Hercules who saves her in KH. The fact that she sacrificed her life for his in the movie (and basically her whole story, except for her being connected to Hades in some way) is not important in the games. A lot of female characters deserve better actually (KH, Disney and FF). It feels like the purpose most of the women is to be a "damsel in distress" or get killed, so that one of the male characters has something to get mad about....or exist as a supporting character. Give the girls more moments to shine and let them also save the boys. After all a lot of them are also supposed to be in romantic relationships and those work best when both are treated equally.

Sora need to wear Flanel *Wayward son playing in the background* Yeahhh!! 😂

Some of these were wild lmao keep it up buddy

As a kid I was allowed to get kingdom hearts 1 purely because it had Disney involved. Highly doubt I would’ve played it otherwise

Kh 3 needed that sephiroth boss fight 😢

About the toxicity id like to add there's a decently sized part of the community that absolutely lambast you if you criticize their fav game. Let's not kid ourselves, this is surprisingly common.

Hot Take: I have read the Sleeping Realm Theory, and I believe they are right about almost everything. They have predicted the Unchained State and many other things already when a ton of people just took all the time they put into analysing the series to say "haha it's not that deep bro" as if there weren't people writing for the series and as if Nomura didn't love to play with our expectations, and as if their work was completely stupid and useless, which I find really disrespectful. I also believe either the ending will be full platonic or soriku endgame. It's one or the other

My hot take is everyone is not a Sora, but that everyone is a Ventus

Decisive pumpkin is the worst looking keyblade in the series. I never use it even in the most difficult battles just because it looks like i fight with socks.

The bbs command board is the best kingdom hearts mini game in the series.

my take may not be as hot but i believe the kh gachas were a mistake

I agree with Jared when he said union X cross needs a proper redo.

I’m glad the command deck is getting more love I actually really liked it and wish it was used more

Definitely agree that while a days remake would be very cool, it doesn't compete with how crucial a union x /dark road remake/remaster would be

My hot take is that Soras KH1 outfit is his worst. I like the colors but not the structure

Here’s my hot take: Melody of Memory is trash, absolute garbage and it should never have been a thing, EVER! I have a seething hatred for that “game”. Now usually I don’t mind spinoffs, but of course Nomura couldn’t help himself and put relevant story content in that rhythm garbage sold to action RPG players. No, I don’t care that it’s one cutscene. Often times it was one cutscene that linked certain games. I really wish developers would stop assuming that their players are able or willing to switch and play any game genre just because we’re gamers. No, Nomura, I do not want to play an entire game of Atlantica!

Atlantica in kh1 has one of the hardest bosses and I got stuck on Ursula as a kid and stopped playing and came back after I beat kh2 and got stuck on malificent and stopped again lol

Bring back the Sephiroth fights as one of the super bosses

Sometimes, when reading hot takes, you have to wonder if some people just have a fetish for getting yelled at. Like, I refuse to believe that some of these takes are genuine.

A lot of hot takes on here. Got to love it

Does anyone know the song at 21:50?

another fire vid, good stuff!

The coolest thing of KH were FF characters. Not the same without

Melody of Memory is one of the best games in the series, I'd say it's better than Birth by Sleep gameplay wise (definitely not story wise). It's fun, it's so replayable, and it highlights one of the best aspects of Kingdom Hearts, it's incredible music. I wish more people would play it just for the gameplay and ignore its lackluster story, and I wish it got DLC because giving us more songs would be awesome.

No idea if this is a hot take, I will let other judge, but I pretend the series ended at KH2 and everything after was a bad fever dream I had.

10:58 My man really skipped over the existence of the “Let him cook” meme lol