The Forgotten Depth of Kingdom Hearts ~ Design Doc 

"You don't get to decide if your'e a hero or not. They do." [focuses on rows upon rows of empty seats] Always found that hilarious

To be fair, the "Who else will I have ice cream with?" is actually really powerful because to Roxas, that's all he knows to do with friends. He's only ever had ice cream with his friends, so, to him, that's what friends do. He was basically saying "Who else will be my friend?"

I'm so happy someone else sees that KH1 had the best battle system due to lack of fluff. Though I absolutely love KH2's critical mode.

Good to know I'm not the only one who misses Tech Points. *memories of grinding to LV20 at Destiny Islands by blocking Tidus' attacks for hours*

2 days later, they say it comes out in 2018.

I totally want a buster sword pickaxe

I'm still irritated how ppl think roxas's line at shion death is silly... Like did you actually play the game? Didn't you understand why he says that?? He's a nobody, his concept of friendship and nice time is that few hours he spends with axel and shion eating ice cream. In his head ice cream represents friendship he doesn't know any other way to "hang" or do things normally, he's a Nobody not a normal human. He's literally 358 days old ppl!!! Anyhow.. Who wants ice-cream?

The best part about this mechanic is that its simple enough for any new player to eventually pick up on, but complex enough to have investment. This is a fascinating video.

2 Things 1. The "never" bit is just a joke. I know the game is out in January 2019. 2. Just wanted to address an error made regarding the point on the Tales’ grade system. This point was made based on Tales of Symphonia which did not include an option for battle details. I ended up using footage from Tales of Vesperia under the false assumption that it was the same case for that game (it wasn’t) and we simply overlooked it.

I loved KH1 for this reason. The added emphasis on weaknesses and parry's meant you could win a tough match on skill rather than excessive grinding.

this video was too good man. We need more people to talk about this recurrent "problem" in JRPGs. Being more fast-paced is good, but shouldn't make the game broken and in the end, kill every replay value and fun through progression.

Why everyone bashes at the Roxas ice cream part? Is this like the "Tidus laugh" where everyone just mocked it because they didn't fully understand it? I mean, if you wanna call out to Squeenix on poor dialogue choices, you got better examples, like Beat's infamous "It's a party in my mouth".

Doc: "The most anticipated game in their storied history..... Kingdom Hearts III." FF7 Remake: "Hold my beer."

The Devil May Cry series has a mechanic that incentives players to maintain the Stylish gauge from dropping: Upon defeating enemies rewards the player with a larger amount of Red Orbs (depending on stylish rating) compared to just button-mashing till they die. Also at the end of a mission Stylish points & Red Orbs are added up to an overall ranking which would in-turn rewards more Red Orbs to the player thus "Get good" vibes

I like that KH 1 has a more grounded gameplay: smaller jumps, shorter combos and less special attacks. Also, the other party members are vastly more important than in KH 2, and I assume. KH 1 feels much more like an old Final Fantasy game than it did 2, and that has to do it with the fact that it was just Squaresoft, not Enix. KH 2 is just way too easy, and you don't have to do anything expectional to soar through the game. Sora is simply too OP. That was fixed in the Final Mix version, but the difficulty implemented in FM should have been in the main version all along.

KH1 is one of the best games to utilize "Action RPG" brand at its best. It's a tried-and-true action game and it's a good role playing too. I mean, beside this Tech bonus thing, the command gimmick in KH1 is not less of a gimmick than one can expect. You can give certain flowers an item to have them give you items with this command thing as if it's part of the combat. KH1 is the closest to its brother: FF series.

1:38 I have never played Kingdom Hearts, but I always love the way they handle the health/mp gui stuff, especially how Sora's little headshot changes when he gets hit and when his health goes down

Totally true. I thought I was the only one to see it like that. There is another big problem with later KHs: exploration. I can't believe how good areas was in KH1, with secrets, fake pits and a bit of metroidvania, in relation of what KH2 does. Big, plain, boring boxes. And they decided to introduce the minimap here lol

Before that scene with zack i had always thought the fans were in a seperate stadium watching from a distance, like for their own safety lol. Then in BBS Zack is like look at the invisible crowd and random confetti! xD

This guy nailed why KH1 is my favorite out of the series. I think KH2 is deeper than some give it credit, but KH1 required a lot more thinking as each attack and action were slower and riskier

Finally, someone who understands the beauty of KH 1 and it's combat system. I mean yeah it had it's clunky flaws here and there but I loved how (and take this with a grain of salt) more realistic it felt with how slow and weighted your movements were. If you were a kid and just had this giant metal weapon tossed at you, you would NOT be swinging it around like nobody's business. You'd just do your best to put some power into your swings and be extra careful with how you fight, it'd be a struggle to even lift the darn thing. That doesn't mean KH2 should have kept that though, it's fine that it became more fast faced, it showed progression in Sora's skill as a Keyblade wielder.

I agree with you, but personally KH2’s combat just feels better in my opinion. It’s more fun, especially on Critical Mode.

Hi Design Doc, I like how you break down your analysis on game mechanics. As an interaction designer, your review on games somehow inspires me on my designs. Keep doing the good job man!

Awesome man! The original Kingdom Hearts was underrated and is often forgotten about because it doesn’t have the fan favorite characters like Roxas and Aqua(not that there is anything wrong with those characters).

man how do you not have more views for your production value But anyway, I feel like... one of the biggest things Square Enix lost in its transition to other Kingdom Hearts titles is its attempts to make the combat less like a real-time, tactical RPG and more of just a beat'em'up sort of experience. In Kingdom Hearts 1, while you could totally get through a lot of the game just mindlessly hacking through like many of us did as children, magic (and doing a magic-based run) was very rewarding. Both in that a myriad of magic attacks on the right enemies could net tech points, but also in that magic was pretty useful on most of the bosses in this game (until the end-game where bosses become mysteriously immune to all magical attacks hmhmhm). I feel the clunkiness of the menu was something that was intentional after enough gameplay; instead of casting speed or attack speed, it was just literally how fast you could do these operations versus how fast the enemy could do them. You had your nuanced status spells- Stop as a stun, Gravity as a lesser stun and burly foe crusher, Aero as the party's self-buff- you had straight forward attacks spells which all had different shapes, and you had the spammable cure spell which was the one thing between your party and certain doom. In KH1, with some proper precautions and set up Donald and Goofy are actually pretty useful, even if you shouldn't be purposefully relying on them. The shapes of the various spells felt like you had to position yourself tactically to use them, and the MP system encouraged varied combat as well as heavily discouraged being totally one type except when it came to hitting things with your sword and ignoring everything else since the standard attack was made super viable. The game had all the marks of being an RPG where you spammed heals and statuses to not die horribly, played it tactically, had teammates do their supportive things and keep a sort of stat economy going, and it was great. ...Chain of Memories rolled around, and it tried to be similarly tactical. The Gameboy game did it alright, the fact there was a 3D rendition was really something else but after going the mage route and inadvertently finding that multiple casts of Blizzaga could cheese nearly every fight later on, it kinda lost allure for me. That, and the higher difficulties make the card system more a sort of "cheese the enemy or get cheesed" situation which just wasn't for me; it stopped being engaging or challenging in a meaningful way. Kingdom Hearts II... did what it set out to do. Did it very well, in fact. On that note, though, I'm pretty sad it wasn't like KH1 much at all, unless you went all of KH1 hitting things. Even there, the KH1 route of hitting everything to death was pretty varied because of the tech point system you described being quite nice and encouraging tactical swordplay and such. In KH2, it's... different. Definitely more combo-centric, although now the focus is far removed from the tactical gameplay. KH1 was more about fighting enemies on equal ground, while the premise of KH2 seems to be moreso that "sora's so powerful he can just mow down all the small heartless without trying, and the big heartless that actually take effort are basically the equivalent of KH1 bosses". Despite this I feel like they could've given Sora some kind of magical capacity above what he has, since the spells he got were basically just flashy special extensions for his physical combos, the only exception being Cure and Magnet. That brings me to the Cure spells. In KH2 it now immediately depletes your mana meter but heals everyone fully or nearly fully (if your party members are in radius that is). It's more of a 'get out of jail free card' than it is tactical, and just seems to accent comboing enemies, avoiding damage and generally not making mistakes. That's alright in its own right, but it's a far cry from the more RPG-like gameplay of KH1. It's also slightly deceptive in that you'd think a party heal would be a good alternate balancer for more cost, but one would notice that: Goofy and Donald did NOT follow in Sora's footsteps for the power increase. Not a bit. Donald gets shelved with a worse version of Sora's cure and some basic attack spells (which accent him even worse because his physical attacks are pretty ennngh), Goofy still has some old as well as new survivability techniques but no way to deal damage or help other than to forcefeed everyone potions, and that's that. _Additionally_, Donald and Goofy now do only ONE damage to all enemies the game counts as a heavy enemy. This includes bosses, and all enemies that'd probably qualify for KH1 bosses. This is both to balance the fact that Sora and by extension party members who do Sora-tier damage would utterly annihilate bosses if they actually worked together, but also the fact that Donald and Goofy are supposed to look weaker than Sora. Like, Donald and Goofy are supposed to clean up the weak guys and take attention off of Sora in crowd fights, whereas Sora's the entire operation otherwise. They're stuck in KH1 while Sora's livin' in KH2, doing an immesurably higher amount of damage- as the Keyblade's chosen one- than these two mortal warriors could ever hope to accomplish. The game was built for the focus to be around Sora, his party members are just kinda there because y'know, they're his pals and they adventure together and stuff. ...This does lead to fun "what" moments, like Jack Sparrow doing one damage per slash to Barbossa just because he's a heartless now yet Sora's Keyblade does hundreds upon hundreds of damage and saves the day. Certain specials of party members still a little more than one damage, but it's still a sliver by comparison to Sora's combomania. Birth By Sleep kept it clean and kinda just came off as a cool beat'em'up simulator which I was pleased with. The DS games... eheh. I don't think I even wanna talk about Days, but Re:Coded was alright. My main issue with Kingdom Hearts 2 was that it came off a lot like KH1 in presentation and even with the command menu mechanic, but it was just not KH1 at all. I'm not saying it's not tactical; it is in its own ways, but as a whole it's just... so different and kinda misleading in that sense. I wanted more KH1, and I got a different game that I'm alright with, but I'm just like "uuh what day is it again" XD Just kinda disoriented and discouraged, y'know? ...KH:3D had a similar problem, I feel. You go in expecting more KH2, and you get this tactical status-y system where enemies can combo you really easily, and it plays more like Pokemon except real-time and you can't tell your Pokemon what to do. That, and you fight not only with them but like them. I feel that premise is pretty awesome. Flowmotion in that sense is kinda a slap on the face. You jump around, you can do these crazy broken attacks, it's total disparity from how clunky otherwise the combat feels. Clunky's not bad, but y'know, you gotta dedicate to game design decisions. The only thing I like flow motion for is getting around; I removed all those attacks from my command deck so I'm not tempted to use them. Except for obvious ones you need like rail grinding. That said, Flowmotion's pretty cool, though. KH:3D is like the game took a half step back towards the gameplay of KH1 while still trying to half be like KH2 while mixing in some other third party tactical elements... it was really bold, and I feel like it came out a very varied and strong game, but it coulda been better. Thematically, it doesn't make much sense for Sora or Riku to suddenly regress like that just because of this new dream world concept they shoehorned in for the sake of a spinoff title, but y'know... at this point I feel like fans don't really care that much whether it makes sense or not XD they just want to see this hype train keep on rollin'! For all of its faults, the Kingdom Hearts series still holds a dear place in my heart, and I still really like how boldly the things it does right stands, and how resolute it is in being innovative and different, even if not always true to itself. It changes, people change, so forth. It's pretty cool. ...I need a fucking blog at this point.

I actually forgot about the Tech system in KH1 and, now that you mention it, I did miss it in future installments.

I’ve never seen such an awesome analysis on KH1 vs. KH2. I always knew I preferred the original, but when I’m asked why, I never knew what to say. You hit it SPOT ON. Thank you, and keep up the great content!

Great video, doing my first playthrough of KH1 in years and I feel the exact same way. I was 11 the game was released and I loved it then. I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying it as an adult now. It's definitely held up!

If anyone hasn't already, try KH2 on Critical mode, You need to learn more of the fights at that difficulty, especially the organization fights. KH2 still has one the best combat systems in the series, with added verticality to worlds and more variety, it would be incredible. Also neither games are true "button mashers". Certainly not KH1, play with more magic, and when it comes to KH2 do the same, play with more magic, in fact KH2 requires a bigger variety of inputs to truly pull off the tougher battles. KH2 also actually required more timing in terms of dodging and guarding. Sorry but a few points are just disagreeable, I watch KH speedruns everyday and they can be anything but button mashers at times especially since You have a mix of four buttons to constantly press in KH2.

Finally someone else that appreciates and prefers the feel of KH1's combat system over 2's... I'm not alone.

Your Content is INCREDIBLE, High production value, awesome information! Thanks for posting

I think i still prefer KH2, the magic combos, the zoomed out camera; it is more flashy, but its equally a good battle system. I do wish they bring back aspects of KH1 (tech points, purpose to the worlds, collectibles and secrets, etc) If you combine KH1 and KH2, i feel like we'd hit the true gold mine

I miss the tech points. They made kid me feel pretty smart and always willing to learn new ways of fighting enemies, never rushing through a battle unless needed. Also glad to see the ice titan in this video. To this day that's still my favorite KH fight.

Explained it perfectly why KH1 in terms of game design is a great game and imo better than some of its future entries. I remember the heartless actually dodge attacks in KH1 where in all other KH games they kinda don't really do much to counter Sora. Like take the monkey heartless in the Tarzan level, they actually dodge Sora's 3 hit combo and counter and then take KH3 where they brought them back and it literally doesn't matter anymore. My friend was baffled at how easy defeating the large body heartless was in KH3 saying they were a lot tougher in the 1st game. It's like yeah, the devs went too hard with all the flashy moves and making Sora "awesome" and didn't spend enough time making the enemies match Sora's new abilities. The only one's that come to mind would be the final boss and the ReMind DLC bosses, but enemy design like that should've been spread throughout the entire game on all enemies (heartless, nobodies, unversed, etc) not just some super bosses that you have to pay for and can only fight at the very end.

I love the video with the good arguments and production value, and I also love the good civilized discussions that are in the comments. This seems like a great channel.

If you do not exploit weaknesses in Persona games (aka, you do not "fight properly") you're probably good as dead tho And to know why you get negative grades just press Y

Very thought-out and well executed videos, extremely underrated channel! I hope more ppl come around to seeing this one, I really do!

Finesse in XV is for doing parries, linkstrikes, blindsides, warpstrike kills, and counters, aka the very same thing you are praising KH for doing with Techs from parries.

I complete KH1 without knowing what where those tech points, know that i finally know i think of replaying it.

Literally just started replaying the series again on PS4 within the last week. I had no idea what Tech points were, but I am glad I understand the subtle depth from this video. Reminds me of Nero's missions in Devil May Cry 4. He has points in boss fights where he can do a very unique highly damaging move, a sort of invisible QTE button press, or rather a specific type of parry of sorts, during specific parts of the fight, rewarding skilled gameplay.

I always loved the first game and still love to play it now and then, i love how it has small easter eggs as well, for example in the first world you go to after destiny islands there is one in the second district to the left area involving the paintings

I legit thought this was about how, in KH1, it gives everything you have a real use. Blizzard is for crowd control, fire is for range, thunder is an AoE ranged attack, stop, cure, and aero are support while Gravity is the risky slow but strong move

The first game is my favourite as well. The different classes you can choose early on can lead to a lot of replay value. It's also the best in the series for if you want to be a mage. If you take the Staff and sacrifice the Shield, you become a glass cannon magical sniper that can clear entire rooms with a single AOE spell, but who insta-dies if you miss a dodge against a strong attack (like Hades' fire spin). And it's extremely fun as a result.

You just earned a sub with this. Thank you for bringing a new perspective to my favorite game.

This reminds me of staling in smash 4. It forces you to use different moves which not only helps auto balance overpowered moves, but forces players to learn variations to setups and combos. Another example is in Tony hawk's pro skater where doing the same trick multiple times decreases the amount of score it adds to your total (though it can easily be circumvented by just brute forcing it, it still rewards more varied play). Damage scaling in fighting games is sort of an example of that, but to a much lesser degree. I definitely forgot that was a mechanic in KH since I was a kid when I first played it. Great Video :D Edit: also bloodborne's rally mechanic.

You earned a sub just because you talked about "The World Ends with You". Nobody seems to talk about it much.

Good video. I think you underestimated the depth of the Grade system in the Tales of series. When you learn how it works, it rewards players for taking advantage of the battle mechanics.

THANK You. I've been bringing this stuff up as to why I think the original KH was my favourite in the series for years.

I'm pretty sure all recent tales of games give you a full rundown of your grade on a battle with the press of a button, not to mention that tales of vesperia which is the one you showed even gave you extra grade on boss battles for specific actions.

I would love if you did a video about the fighting mechanics in Chain of Memories, where you explain why or why not the decision to have real-time strategy card-based combat worked.

Great editing, very good overall point, and you are hitting a good niche here. Only thing I would take a look at is the writing in the beginning. It is sort of sloppily done in that you half-mention the tech points (the focus) after the first minute, but give the full delivery of the idea at minute three. This creates a weird suspension in-between that leaves the viewer hanging unnecessarily. If you would have chosen to write in the line and commit to that focal mention, the video would have better engagement and cohesion. Overall, the video is well done. Statement with good supporting evidence.

In defense of the ice cream line, that memory is the only thing Roxas associates happiness with because that’s the only thing he knows friends do.

'Xion who else will I have ice cream with' gotta be one of the saddest lines i've heard in gaming or TV because it's those little things that you do with people that make u love them

My dream Kingdom Hearts game would've combined the slow, tech point-based combat of the first game with TWEWY's willful level-down mechanic and a streamlined distillation of the panel system from Days, which forced you to choose which upgrades to keep and which ones to leave behind. A .hack// style NPC trading system could've rewarded you for paying attention to side characters, and the Command Melding from Birth by Sleep would've turned this into a _buffet,_ especially with the Command Gauge and Limit Breaks. It seems like Square's less concerned with interesting tradeoffs and timing, and more focused on mashing all of the buttons, all of the time for combos so flashy they circle around to being pointless :' )

Oh come now the ice cream line is actually good writing mang. Like, in an actual snobby literary sense, since it uses established facets of the characters in question to write a lot more emotion into a simple question than would otherwise be possible

Wow man, nice video! Subscribed!

I too hold KH1 as my favorite. KH2 had a good main story (though most of the side stories in Disney worlds were examples of horrible writting - looking at you Pride Lands), but the combat was missing elements from the first installment.

"Who else will I have ice cream with?" is actually one of the best lines ever written. 😤😤😤

Love how you put the lesser known cult following games like the bouncer and drakengard in the beginning.

KH1 is the only game in the series with a "difficult to deflect" property to keychains. Abilities attached to keychains in KH2 might make them seem important, but in KH2 this choice only affected how much of the green bar you take off the enemies' HP per hit. In KH1, your keychain choice is way more important; it can increase your MP (the most important stat in the game), reach farther (longer keyblades can hit Large Body from the front in the air), and your attack might not get deflected (Sora has a stagger where he's vulnerable, and another stagger where he is actually poised for Counterattack). The "Kingdom Key only" playthrough is way more difficult in KH1 than in KH2. Keyblade length didn't matter in KH2 because the long list of Abilities make all your attacks fling toward the target anyway. The duel with Riku, apart from the Darksides, is my favorite battle, and both I feel are properly fought with the Kingdom Key; it feels like you're fighting someone who is your skillful rival, instead of a monster you need to impale with your weapon many times before it will collapse from the assault. I wish "difficult to deflect" was part of all the KH games. But unfortunately not all enemies in the sequels stagger from attacks, activate your riposte, give opportunity to magic (Magic was WAY more powerful and varied than Attack in 358/2 Days), or challenge you to block attacks to reflect projectiles back, stunning the enemy and giving you an upper hand. You know KH has gone off the rails when you can instantly revenge-strike raid with your keyblade whenever you get struck because you suck at the game and can't block/counter/reversal/use magic; then use your 1-time Cure causing cooldown for all magic because they had to ruin that too.

I do agree agree that KH should be more in depth by rewarding players by learning how to fight a specific enemy and using tricks outside of the basic attack. Like persona, learn the enemies weaknesses and use it against them and the fight will become easier and less costly. PS warbot, I never got the chance to thank you. Your LP on KH 1 YEARS ago is what brought me into kingdom hearts and I would never have gotten into it without you. So thank you SO MUCH!

Recently I've began doing my level 1 critical/proud mode runs, starting with KH1. I've gotta say, I have a newfound appreciation for the battle system with combos and magic and abilities, and now I can only play the game on the hardest difficulty since I love being challenged and having to use all at my disposal. The tech system helps only by parrying or stunning in a level 1 run, but in a proud mode run this unique trait of the game makes KH1 one of the best games in terms of combat.

Bruh the presentation of this channel is unreal. I'm calling it, this channel is gonna get big as fuck real soon - I was here at 15k!

The game "Stories: Paths of Destiny" still has a "tech-point" system in which you also gain more xp by defeating enemies by using all your available abilities

Literally didn’t know what tech points did before, cool!

I feel like the concept for Tech Points eventually got rolled into Reaction Commands. But I feel that's less satisfying since not only do you not get bonus EXP for Reaction Commands, they're also more automated which makes it feel like you yourself aren't doing something cool, but the game is doing something cool for you.

I never noticed that tech system. I bruted force all my way.... back in the day on my first play. Great analysis!

good video, adequately explained your point and gave reasoning for an objective value of better self improvement in the game

Awesome video. KH2 is still my personal favorite, specifically for 2 Final Mix and its addition of Critical Mode, which you mentioned helped to alleviate a lot of KH2's button-mashy problems. When playing Critical Mode you begin to realize that almost everything in the game - Drive Forms, Summons, Limits, and Magic - Are all just as useful as combos, given that you know the situations to use them in. If KH2 kept the tech system, I don't think a lot of the nuance would have been lost. For instance, if the game told you that pirates can be frozen with Blizzard, or that Limits made you invincible, then more people would realize their usefulness. Certain attacks synergize incredibly well with each other. For instance, Magnet counts as a finisher, so you can use it to group up enemies and lead it into a Finishing Leap to deal extra damage. Summons like Chicken Little and Stitch are extremely useful, but people rarely use them outside of speedruns. Chicken Little can interrupt enemies and bring them all close to you for a group attack, and Stitch can parry enemy attacks for you and replenish your MP. When you find this out you realize that you can use Stitch to protect you from enemies, and endlessly employ the Magnet + Finishing Leap strategy, assuming he's replenishing your MP often. If the game gave you a tech point every time Chicken Little whistled enemies close to you, or every time Stitch parried an enemy attack, it would have helped a lot more people realize the usefulness of the different abilities. And that's only 2 summons I'm using as an example, there's so much more that adds to the game's depth. Where KH1 was simple in its complexity of using certain magic at certain times or simply blocking & parrying attacks for tech points, KH2's complexity comes from the synergy of its abilities and the satisfaction of realizing how much nuance is in the game, in that almost everything you can employ helps you become more effective at spamming combos and destroying enemies. Still, the game is easy enough to button mash through and occasionally use Drive Forms to power yourself up if you're on anything lower than Critical Mode, but these are strategies that many people don't know about even on Critical Mode, where using Reflect magic, waiting for combo attacks, and occasionally popping into a Drive Form is still the strategy most people use most of the time. The 'synergy' argument is even more relevant in Critical Mode because of how the game lets you constantly avoid death. The game gives you the tools to be a nonstop aggressive powerhouse and never let the enemy get the upper hand. KH2 was a fantastic game with loads of nuance, but so much of that nuance felt like it was hidden to make the game easier and more accessible.

The Devil May Cry style system rewarding you with more Red Orbs and/or Proud Souls is another good example of a skill-encouraging progression element, by the by.

As someone who just beat it for the first time today. It’s really interesting to hear this and realize the different way I could have used the system better

I was very young playing KH1 for the first time, and even though I beat it 3 times in the course of 2 years, I never did know what TP meant. Only as an adult playing through the PS3 version of the game is that I finally caught on. I think making them both XP instead of TP for one of them would be a clearer and more immediate message. Still a great system

i also miss the exploration and puzzle-solving from the first game

I must have spent and extra 2 hours at destiny island grinding tech points. I later obsessed with doing the same to the regular enemies of the game. Who would have thought the tutorial actually helped me at "gitting gud". Now that you point it out I want this system in every game :p I came here from DarkPixelGaming video and I have to say I really like this channel.

Wow, so many cross-examinations between other JRPGs, I love the depth, amazing work

I agree with everything here except for SMT and Persona games not rewarding good gameplay. Intelligent gameplay in the middle of combat in those games is always IMMEDIATELY rewarded with an extra turn, but you also have to be wary of party composition and equipped demons/personas before the encounter, or you'll by punished by the enemies hitting your weakness and getting an extra turn themselves. Some boss fights can be either nearly impossible or incredibly easy depending on the player's understanding of this mechanic and how weaknesses and resistances work.

get ready for an army of people swearing by kh2fm

That whole except critical mode is very true for kh2. My first playthrough was pretty much just press x and ri triangle for cure. But when i went to critical mode i learned how to use al my spells, drives, abilities, and defensive and movement manuvers and it showed me how good the total battle system was. Things like grind sephiroth for hours even though he is immune to magic also showed me this because i had to learn his AI and how it reacts to, how to dodge and guard his attacks , and when its safe to attack interupt him.

I think the defensive style of KH 1 is because Sora is still weak as a fighter while KH 2 Sora is from fairly powerful to downright godlike

I totally agree with the video when it comes to Tec points, it has been an interesting addition that we have been missing in all the other titles, if gave them more button mashing then thinking before striking like KHI. I hope that KHIII returns such idea

Everything you said about 1 applies ten fold for 2s critical mode. It has more depth than the other games combined

Other thing, the combat strategies change completely depending of what weapon you pick, and this is great

I can't really disagree with anything said. But I still have to say 2 (especially on critical/final mix) is better, I love the combat the wealth of abilities and the individual progression of the drive forms. I honestly feel that while parrying and tech were cool features nobody used them on normal enemies much it was a cool system for bosses however. In KH2 that depth was there in abilities, keyblades and drive forms you could have it so you do infinite combos with no mp. Or you could turn on specific limit commands. Do you use a drive form to attack or switch real fast just to heal amd revert, do i level up Wisdom to dash final to glide or Limit to roll? KH2 on harder difficulties and on bosses has just as much if not more depth

What I liked about Kingdom Hearts 1 besides the gameplay more than the rest was the fact that the characters from Disney and Square had almost the same ammount of screen time, specially the villains.

KH1 Sora in my opinion reacts more serious and cautious to characters and events in the outside world as he's just thrown outside his comfort zone and couldn't apply his common sense. That part resonates with the players as we know just as much as Sora does when exploring. KH2 Sora became a little bit too carefree and like, nyeh nothing I can't handle. It's the process of seeing everything for the first time like your first ever field trip versus you've seen it all and know what to expect. And the first adventure is always memorable. The plot is layered by different villains with different goals in KH1. First you have the mysterious Heartless, the Disney villains threatens each world, Maleficent who has a greater plan with the Heartless, and finally Ansem who is pulling the strings. KH2 instead tells you the main threat right in the beginning that is the Organization XIII (they even tell you how many villains to expect), which makes feels it not more than a mission.

Behold, the arrival of Never, January 29th.

THIS is why KH1 is the best game in the series. I’ve loved every game so far, but every skill, every magic spell, and every enemy felt unique in KH1. The tech point bonus made it easier to understand what worked best, and while the blocking function felt clunky at first, practice made it smooth and rewarding. Granted, the way later games gave each element its own status effect was cool, but I didn’t change my gameplay for it. I just hack-and-slashed everything until it died. Will KH ever go back to solid gameplay like this? I hope so.

Thank you for giving me another reason on why I love Kingdom Hearts.

you start hitting for max damage on enemies at around 45-50 STR, or when you get the Ultima Weapon. levelling up sounds great, but when youve hit max stats at level 60, theres little point to these bonus tech points when they do nothing for you. still, it is a great design decision to have them in, as it does teach the player that they can do things that help them, but they need to make them useful for the whole game, not just the first half.

Came here with the implication we were going to talk about the plot. I was wrong and refreshed. :)

GOD BLESS THE MINE

Never... Would have been better... I didn't even notice those mechanics when playing through Destiny Island. KH1&2 bosses are among the ones I remember the most, the secret ones being unusually challenging compared to the games I played at the same period. The data organization XIII ones they added in the final mix version were an excellent addition.

I agree with this sentiment so much, I wish Kingdom Hearts wouldn't rely so heavily on action commands rather than cool ideas like this.

I’m fucking rolling at those empty stands

I honestly never knew what those Tech Points were until now.

I can't see what people love so much about this series. I tried playing KH II, got bored to death with the 2 hour long cutscenes, convoluted plot and constantly changing worlds when things were about to get somewhat interesting.

I feel like tech points are in the final mix versions because I have seen it in my replay of the HD remixes.

I want to bring up that with KH2 while magic was not a requirement, the game really opens up when you start to embrace it. Also we got the Almighty Triangle Button.

Wow.... wish they had said something about the tech point system because I don't remember them EVER being explained in the first game, I didn't even know that was a thing.

This channel is =very good=. Glad I found it.