Don't let this distract you from the timeline where three kids tried to build a raft and sail to another world armed with three coconuts, two mushrooms, a single bottle of clean water, no navigation materials and a complete lack of understanding for when a storm might occur and end up dying at sea while Sora's mom wonders why the fuck she let him hang out with Riku to begin with.

Lowkey KH1 and CoM story/Sora doesn't get nearly enough props for making him an ACTUAL CHARACTER and not a cheesey shounen protagonist. Also adding the Naruto moment is how to make any statement badass.

One thing I noticed recently is how inconsistent the "meddling with the world order" rules are. In KH1, Goofy was hesitant in mentioning the heartless to the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland, which would've helped Alice in her predicament. But then he casually says to King Triton that they're after the keyhole, while also hiding the fact that they're from another world. Would've been much easier to just straight up state their business and ask for help. Goofy in KH2, while Jack Sparrow is in the room, says that they're from another world. Also, the whole idea of Traverse Town was that people who lost their world to darkness would somehow, if they got lucky I guess, end up there, therefore, revealing to those people that there are in fact other worlds. Word definitely got around after that.

You see Batman... my father was a Kingdom Hearts enjoyer and a fiend. Until one day he came home and asked my mother, " How many Xenanorts are they?" When she couldn't answer ... He did not like that. Not one bit.

As someone who played most of these games as a kid, I had the opposite reaction to gameplay. To me, KH2 was "Mash X and Triangle everything else is worthless" because hey, that's what KH1 taught me, why would I use these weird summons and limits and stuff? Then BBS came and I thought "Woah I can't mash X through! I have to use commands and shotlocks and stuff this is waaaay more complex!" It's only in the last year or so, looking at KH2 FM+ HD videos and speedruns, that I discovered what insane depth the game had, and how everything just fell into place. Unlike BBS which can ultimately devolve to Megaflare spam. So ultimately, I think at what age you play these games factors in a lot on how you feel about them, and I have to assume Square might be taking simplicity and general easiness/mindlessness to appeal to a core demographic of children that might have moved on years ago.

Personally when I first played the game, the relationship between the trio never felt exactly like the friendship of other trios in the series. However, what it did feel like was a sort of pseudo-sibling relationship. I felt that way particularly because I myself have been in school with cousins and siblings in the past, male and female, and felt a distinct similarity. Aqua's a doting sister type, Terra's a big bro, Ven's a tag along little bro, and they all have fun learning and hanging out together as a family in the keyblade wielder order, living under the same roof and all. But not in the exact same way as one would when palling around with friends from other homes who you can just do and say the most idiotic outlandish things with. And thinking of it that way; what the game portrayed totally made sense to me, and didn't feel "problematic", or forced. I never saw it as something the same as Sora, Kairi and Riku, or Roxas and friends, because straight away, it felt like another legitimate kind of relationship. So in essence, their relationship was never a flawed point for me. It may have made references to past trio's interactions, but in the end it painted itself as something clearly different, and it made sense.

It's funny actually. In Kingdom Hearts 3, they treat Keyblades as actual "weapons" that you can "Break", and which does actually happen. They totally messed up that aspect of the universe.

Kingdom Hearts convaluted story summerized: children at war ending up at a haunted graveyard lol

That broom scene is gold.

My biggest gripe with this game was the weird difficulty spikes. The game had absolute horrible pacing. First 4 worlds piece of cake then all of a sudden you start getting wrecked by the unversed even if you would grind out 20 or 30 levels before then. Then the final bosses are bags of potatoes in terms of difficulty then the final bosses one shot you on any difficulty and have cheap attack patterns?? What the actual fuck xD

KH1`s story + KH2`s gameplay = Perfect KH game

I actually quite liked the concept that anyone can wield a Keyblade if their heart is strong enough. It sells the core idea of the series, that friendship and connections empower even the regular joes to greatness. I mean, the blades we see in-game were passed down, but that's just another version of the 'connections' we were talking about. The younger characters are carrying the will of past generations with them.

You're wrong, the Kingdom Key was Riku's inherited keyblade which moved to Sora, Ven's heart isn't what allows him to wield it. Ven's heart is the reason Sora can dual wield in drive forms.

I think your reasoning of the keyblade not choosing people, and Sora not longering being special is a bit off... they even said in KH1 that Sora was just basically the delivery boy for Riku... the fact that Sora was able to resummon the keyblade after his whole friendship speech proves that the keyblade still does have choice. It's still the same old shtick. What I liked about Sora wasn't that he was the chosen one or anything like that, but that he was just an average kid in the first game, but grew to be so much more, whereas Riku was the golden child and technically the rightful chosen one. Even if BBS retconned that, it doesn't change the angle that Sora was a normal boy, who basically earned the keyblade instead of it being passed down to him. I guess you could argue he could summon ven's keyblade, but from what I understand he doesn't know how. He has the ability to wield one, but can only access it through certain means (like drive forms). And yeah, everyone getting a keyblade has totally undermined it's importance. Many of your other arguments I can agree with, just have to add my 2 cents.

Funny thing is that you described all the reasons Re: Coded is my favorite of the commands. Proper stun, toned down command attacks, good combos, and every keyblade having a purpose combat wise (even with minigame bosses). Past that story wise Data Sora gained his true keyblade not because inheritance but his growth and connection to others even in a data-based form making him someone you can connect to..

All of the games after KH1, are the result of an otherwise brilliant game director making up the lore long the way, instead of planning everything out ahead of time. Lots of back-tracking, plot element recycling, and so forth....The Kingdom Hearts series is still very enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but to say that it's flawless and that nothing could have been done better, is just ignorant. Great video, sir!

I honestly feel like I am the only one who really likes Aquas voice.

At first I was iffy about this video due to the length. But as I watched I wasn't even checking the time. You had me hooked for the entire video. You have a good argument and brought up fantastic points and the use of humour was awesome. Although I have one teeny tiny correction to make. Sora can wield the Keyblade because he was indeed chosen. Not due to Ven's heart residing within him. Don't worry about it, it's a common misconception. Nomura stated this himself in the KH1 Ultimania. Although this does go back to your point on how convoluted the story is when you have to dig through interviews to obtain certain facts. If anything it supports your argument even further because Sora is like the only wielder legitimately chose by the Keyblade and the rest either were trained to wield it or inherited it. I'd definitely recommend this video for any KH fan.

I agree with almost everything said in the video, except for the title. I don't think BBS was the turning point, at least storywise the turning point clearly was CoM. The overplotting, the irrelevance of Disney elements, the tendency to add new elements to the story rather than deepening the ones that were there already... all of BBS's flaws come straight from CoM. I wouldn't say BBS is the "turning point", but it likely is the "point of no return". CoM and KH2 nicely wrapped up the plot, so that it was still very easy to go back to the basics after, just by starting a new story arc from scratch. But BBS retconned the series so heavily that the mess it has made will stick around.

From a retrospective, I think BBS set up the rest of the franchise for failure. Besides the departure from the main permits and features of the original plot (particularly where Xehanort is concerned), reusing Roxas for Ven's character model had a lot of people confused if they had just left off from KH2, and beginners starting at KH3. And where chain of memories and 358/2 act as good fillers to set up context between existing works, BBS set up the plot for way too many story points in the series for the series to hit true with its original premise. You had Unversed that were somehow different from Heartless because of Vanitas (not corrupted hearts, but incomplete hearts?). You had the Keyblade masters, the Keyblade War which then extends back to Kingdom Hearts X, then you had the power of waking in kingdom hearts 3D that ties back to this game... All so kh3 can revive what essentially are filler characters that had completed character arcs? And what should've been complete in 3D with Sora finally able to become a Keyblade master instead has him nerfed far below his peak in kh2 coming into 3. Not only had every game since bbs cheapen the experiences from 1-2 (as well as the fillers in between those, because even Roxas became a copy of Ventus instead of Sora and undermined the whole point of Nobodies being their own persons), but failed to create stories that really stood on their own two feet independent of the other titles. And when they were all contingent on KH3 being able to create closure, that turned KH3 from a sequel of KH2 to being a sequel of BBS, X, and 3D. All because SE kept taking Nomura away from his ff13 versus obsession, lmao.

Holy shit, this was like a less ranty and more informed version of Sequalitis

Kingdom Hearts 1's story was amazing, that is the best way to start a series.

Seven years later, and I still find myself returning to this video. It still very much encompasses how I feel about the state of the Kingdom Hearts series. I love seeing analysis videos from you, and I hope to see more from you in the future.

Regarding Terra being willing to believe Master Xehanort so easily: Terra knew that darkness was in his heart. He didn't ask for it. He had been trained only to accept light, and yet the darkness found a place in his heart. He probably didn't feel like he could ask his master about it and so when Xehanort offered him answers, it was only natural that he was open to it. For those of us who understand what it's like to be told that you have to be a certain way because it's "the right way" this kind of trust is totally understandable. Xehanort was kind to him and gave him the truth. The darkness inside us will only grow and become stronger if we avoid it and push it down. Darkness (like difficult emotion) has to be channeled and understood. We never defeat our demons, we only learn to live above them. The true genius of Xehanort, was that he exploited Terra's vulnerability and used the truth to manipulate him.

I liked BBS but I get where your coming from

why am i the only fucker that loves aquas voice acting? i wanna have love with her voice :/

Thanks for that little mention of Re:Coded; Re:Coded is easily one of my favorites in the series, gameplay wise, because it took the combat system from BBS and made it actually functional. Combos and commands are both equally viable and can be chained together really nicely, not like BBS where commands can't be used mid-combo most of the time and have so much starting and ending lag. I still like BBS and DDD for what they are, I'm just painfully aware of their flaws.

... Atleast BBS has good music right? Everyone can agree on that I think

I need more analytical Kingdom Hearts videos...

"Hey Jim?" "Yeah, Bob?" XDDDDDDDDDD

And yet mostly nothing was explained in kh3 Great job Nomura *WONDERFUL*

This is it! The perfect breakdown of what kingdom hearts has gone towards. The more games they’ve made the more they’ve separated the Disney worlds and characters from the KH Story. It was gold having a connection to the main villain in Riku and having him interact with the Disney villains and grooming them to give into the darkness. Riku influencing maleficent, maleficent influencing every other villain. It was amazing. So sad that it’s now just a Disney slideshow ending with anime battles.

I will say that judging from KH3's trailers, it seems to be adapting the original combat system which is a good sign.

I was pretty sure that Sora actually got Riku's Keyblade that he was supposed to get from Terra, because when the Keyblade tried to find Riku, he was too close to the Darkness, so it chose Sora instead, seeing as he was kind and showed all the traits of a true Keyblade wielder. Then later, Riku actually DID master his own Keyblade because of the raw power and ability that he possessed, and his willingness to brave the Darkness and risk being lost to Oblivion just to save a friend.

I felt like birth by sleep is stellar ideas with bad execution. I loved the game and see how its flaws can turn people away. However it's due to it's amazing ideas and imperfect flaws that make me adore this game. Also characters being bland is subjective, same thing with the appeal behind battle mechanics. However I very much appreciated your position of knowledge. I think square is doing well. I also noticed how bosses did discourage commands aside from magnera and Thundaga but as a child I didn't know that so I spent an AGONISING amount of time leveling up with time splicer and other commands to try and cope. The end game bosses can be beaten without minesquare but I just don't see it being practical agreed.

I mean, you can call Terra and Ven stupid, but Sora's not been the brightest bulb either.

This was funny as hell dude, great work

Aqua sounds like she was forced to record her lines after spending the day before crying

Even after all this time, I find myself returning to this video once again. From start to finish, the way you present information and then pick apart the series is captivating and each time, I forget that the video is even 50 minutes long. Hands down, one of the best videos out there for the KH fan base to watch.

The Keyblade did choose Sora though because his keyblade was originally Riku's, Him having Ven's heart allowed him to weild a Keyblade but it's not the reason why he has one. Once Riku started going towards the Darkness, the keyblade wasn't having any of it and moved over to Sora because he was worthy enough and good enough of heart to weild it.

10:11 It's like poetry, its sort of, they rhyme. Xehanort is the key to all this.

Terra spent years, at least four and probably his whole life, at the Land of Departure under the tutelage of Eraqus, who has a strict pro-Light anti-Darkness creed. Problem is, Terra has some of what his master deems heretical and doesn’t feel comfortable talking to anyone about it, so instead of confronting and overcoming his fears like Riku would later do he suppressed them, which to the surprise of no one makes the issue linger. Xehanort is offering him answers where no one else was, and also plays to Terra’s inferiority complex, like Palpatine tempting Anakin. To Terra there’s no reason to doubt Xehanort, as Eraqus never told his students about Xehanort’s shady interests and motivations. He could have told Terra, Aqua and Ventus that he got his scar confronting his old friend about risking an apocalypse for the sake of scientific curiosity. In a way, Eraqus is the one who makes the conflict happen. He keeps important information from Terra, Aqua and Ventus and even lets Xehanort into the Land of Departure for the Mark of Mastery exam, when he knows Xehanort is very bad news. He even lets Xehanort influence his view of Terra, which plays right into Xehanort’s gloved hands. His anti-Darkness creed gets drilled into Aqua so hard it continues to split the trio when they’re out among the worlds, Aqua’s ill-chosen words driving away Terra when he needs his friends the most, and when Terra straight up admits he has a problem, has done wrong and is willing to atone Aqua keeps telling him how he’s screwed up. And this is the last interaction between the two before the fateful battle at the Keyblade Graveyard, so that’s a long time of guilt for both of them on top of their ordeals over the next twelve years.

In Terra's defense, Xehanort's obviously evil appearance is only visible to us the player, while the other characters likely see him as a regular old guy. Not to mention that he was a well respected keyblade master.

im glad somebody finally took this entry down a peg.

Trust me shot locks are more OP than the command deck

I think the change in gameplay you're complaining about isn't so much a "turning point" so much as it is a symptom of the KH series appearing exclusively on portables post-KH2. Was Chain of Memories a turning point? Of course not, the game just happened to be on GBA so it had to play completely differently. Nobody was expecting KH2 to have card combat after that. I think the same principle is in play here. Days and Re:Coded were DS games, they never had a chance of emulating what could be done on PS2, so they tried other approaches for those games. Again, no lasting impression on the direction of the series, just doing what was appropriate for the games' platform. With BBS and DDD on systems with more graphical fidelity, they COULD have taken made a more classic approach to the games and have them more closely resemble the originals, but consider how these games are structured. Both require playing through the game with multiple characters. The command deck helps to build up a repertoire of spells and abilities in a shorter amount of time than it takes in KH 1 & 2 , which is a good thing because no one character's storyline is all that long, and you have to start your progression all over when playing another character. Your concerns over the story, badly designed bosses and changed mechanics are still valid, but I don't think you can look at the design of all these games made for portables and assume that they effect the direction KH3 is heading.

The bbs combat system was fun when you played as ventus without any commands. You felt very in control with reversals, blocks and counters and how fast he moves

Ever since the release of kh3 this video could not be more relevant.

I love this video more than life itself.

I need a 10 hour version of the finger wiggle montage

14:15 Considering that Goofy was the first character to get a close up during the Let-It-Go part in KH3, this is kinda prophetic.

loved this video, but I wish you discussed the lack of meaningful exploration in every game after KH1.

Honestly, Nomura really just needs to put actual writers in charge story-wise and put the KH2 team back in charge gameplay-wise.

Can I just say, I really like the way you present your videos. Your way of laying things out in the intro, developing the concepts that you brought up throughout the video and wrapping it all up at the end is a textbook formula. It makes your videos really clear and concise, which I love!

Ven is understandable as he’s only got four years worth of memories and those four years have only been spent sheltered at the Land of Departure, where Eraqus has deliberately kept him sheltered. The only characters he’s spent any decent amount of time around are Terra and Aqua, who aren’t very worldly either, and Ven defining his happiness through his friendships with them is perfectly logical. It’s like the infamous ice cream line in 358/2 Days, where the context is that Roxas doesn’t have the emotional understanding to equate friendship with more than just sitting on the station tower with Axel and Xion eating ice cream. If you look at Ven’s storylines he’s most reacting to events rather than initiating them (the Disney shenanigans don’t help either, as all three end up making the Disney plot happen most of the time). Terra gets pinned for being a bad judge of character, but in half the situations he finds himself in Ven would make the same choice, as would Aqua. What doesn’t help either is that we’re seeing the characters in crisis mode, events aren’t business as usual. Kingdom Hearts 2 showed us in the prologue what Roxas believed his normal life to be, so that when things take a turn for the weird we too are confused and disoriented. By seeing Roxas happily settle into the station tower ice cream routine with Axel and Xion we feel when things start spiraling and the tragic end to 358/2 Days draws nearer, making the freak out Roxas has even more emotional. Birth by Sleep gives us only a handful of interactions, all relevant to the plot in the opening sequence and in flashbacks to show what the characters risk and end up losing. It’s a big example of show don’t tell, and our emotional investment just isn’t as invested as it is for groups like Sora/Riku/Kairi or Roxas/Xion/Axel because we haven’t been able to invest in what we want to see restored. We’re told they’re close friends, but because the events of the game set them at odds for plot reasons and the breakdown of their friendship is a major plot point, we have only the aforementioned opening sequence and flashbacks to show this. Sora, Riku and Kairi building and assembling supplies for the raft didn’t contribute to anything plotwise, but established the character dynamics between them as well as foreshadowing later plot beats. It induces plot induced stupidity for the sake of justifying the storyline and the three campaign play feature. Aqua could suggest she and Ven look for Terra together, as they meet up in Enchanted Dominion and Radiant Garden, but each time Aqua’s insistence that Ven go home splits them apart again.

I'm glad to see someone loves Kingdom Hearts 1 as much as I do lol.

"Many say Birth by Sleep is a masterpiece..." I've never heard anyone say that, nor do I ever hope to lol

You totally called let it go in KH3

I'm halfway through the video. I reall wanna compliment with you. This video is really relaxing, yet informative. I'm having an amazing half-an-hour

This is why i'm wary about KH3 because Osaka team

22:17 After playing KH3, this statement did NOT age well lmao, since I came out of that game even MORE confused than before.

5:24 - 5:28 the timing is great on its own, but Bl00dy's comedic delivery of "he just fucking killed someone" is what makes this part so funny.

NGL I liked the bbs story an felt the friendship, then again I was like 8.

I love Birth By Sleep, it's my favorite in the series. Crazy how people can have such different experiences with the same media.

I love BBS so much, but we all got to recognize that all you speaked was on point, great vid

Something that you got wrong in this video is the part about sora only being able so use the keyblade because of ventus, sora was chosen by the keyblade in kh1 and then in kh2 he learned to use a second keyblade, that one is indeed because of ventus, but the first one that made sora special did choose him so that part of the lore hasn't changed.

I couldn't agree more man, especially about KH1 having the better story. KH2 has the best combat system, but KH1 did its story so well.

Great video, but I want to clear up a few misconceptions. The keyblade isn't passed down from person to person. The inheritance ceremony is a requirement to wield the keyblade. Wielding simply means being able to use it in battle like Kairi did in kh2. The inheritance ceremony is kinda like a security measure so that not anyone can steal the keyblade and use it. But to have your own keyblade a keyblade has to choose you. At first the keyblade sora has initially chose riku but then riku turned to darkness and his heart became weaker so it went to sora instead. After Riku learned to accept and control the darkness alongside light, another keyblade deemed him worthy and chose him, which is way to dawn. The game sets it up like there is only 1 keyblade per realm, but it is never actually said there is 1 keyblade for the realm of light. The keyblades are rare in the first game because there isn't suitable keyblade wielders. Nearly all of the keyblade wielders pereished in the keyblade war and it appears Eraqus, Yensid and Master Xehanort are the last few keyblade masters who can train pupils. TL;DR To have your own keyblade you need to fulfill two requirements: Have the inheritance ceremony performed, and have a keyblade choose you. Just having the inheritance ceremony doesn't mean you a guaranteed to have a keyblade or that a keyblade is given to you. PS: The reason why kairi had her own keyblade in Kh2 was because Riku actually split his keyblade in two and gave kairi one to use. Since Kairi had the inheritance ceremony when she was a kid, she was able to use the keyblade riku gave her to fight. But it isn't her keyblade, its rikus. How did riku just pull out two keyblades out of nowhere? He doesn't have two keyblades, he just has one but he splits it which is the same thing sora does when he goes into drive forms.

6 years later still such a good video

This video is brilliant and explains why I love the first game as much as I did when I was a child. Thank you for this!

Fun fact: square actually told Nomura to make the kh story complicated cause "people wouldn't like the simple story" or something like that

I agree with a lot of what you said; but here's something from my perspective. I kind of like that Sora's not the chosen wielder of 'the one and only Keyblade' and instead the Chosen wielder of one of many Keyblades - that only chose him out of necessity at first. Because it humanises him, he's just a kid who got given this amazing power. I was just a Kid, witnessing this other kid defeat all my childhood villains! Fucking sick, sign me the fuck up! And, when the time comes, Riku takes the power back. And then, because he's kind and whatnot the Keyblade does indeed choose him - you earn it rather than having bestowed upon you. He just gets chosen later in the game. (Also, side note: Am I the only person to enjoy 358/2 Days? ahaha)

Nothing really denies that Sora is a special case. There's certainly implication, but Ven's heart has been stated to have been dormant until the end of Days and I don't really think that Ven's heart had much to do with Riku's Keyblade jumping ship to Sora. The very first game also says without ambiguity that the Keyblade Sora received was supposed to be Riku's. Sora did, in fact, prove that he was more worthy than Riku. The Keyblade Riku received by the time The World That Never Was rolled around was one that Riku had to earn by himself. *Presumably*. It's not really clear how the cosmology of the inheritance ceremony works, but Riku lost his original Keyblade and I like to think that the universe wouldn't just give him a second one out of hand. Though I totally agree that the fact that everybody and their mother having a Keyblade cheapens it being very special in the first place and that the implications that Sora in particular isn't very special is troubling. I enjoyed BbS' story, honestly. I don't have any *major* qualms with it. But I do miss the Keyblade feeling like it was something special. Oh, but the whether or not Xemnas has a Keyblade thing is horse shit and one of the most glaring issues that I have with BbS. As for the gameplay, all that shit sounds about right. The dominant strategy is strong and the Cookie Clicker analogy was hilarious. I do really appreciate how levelly you talked about things. It's pretty clear that you hate the game, but I never felt like you were belittling me for enjoying it, even before your epilogue, and that's pretty rare. So thanks for that.

Watching this video after playing Kingdom Hearts 3 makes me sad. I wish Osaka could see this video and rethink their battle systems in future games.

birth by sleep is not a bad game by any means, but I think it's understandable why it's both liked and disliked by people. KH1 is my personal favorite, but I still like this game for its gameplay and levels regardless.

I love KKBBS, but I haven't realized all this. This video was great at looking at the whole series in a different way.

I got Kingdom Hearts 2.5 for Valentine's Day this year. The first thing I did was play Birth by Sleep. I played the original back when it came out, and missed it. I even played it on Critical this time because I'm better at games now. I died a lot, but I did enjoy it in the end. I'm doing all the hardest bosses with Ventus, but when I got to the point that I had the Ultima Weapon and ultimate shotlock, I thought it was time I played KH2 again. Played it on Critical mode. I hadn't played KH2 since I was in the 2nd grade, around 2007. At the time, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't use magic. What if I run out? I rarely used Drive forms because I thought they would be hard to get back. I equipped every ability I could on Beginner mode. All I did was mash X. Why block or dodge when you could deal damage? I could get through the whole game using X and Triangle... Except for one thing. Sephiroth. I tried him so many times as a kid, and couldn't even damage him past a bar of health. This time, I played on Critical mode. I experimented with everything. I died a lot, but I eventually mastered each boss I came across. When I would overcome a boss, I felt great. I eventually got stuck in the Cavern of Rememberence, wanting to get the Ultima Weapon for the first time before defeating Xemnas. I got the weapon, but didn't beat the area. I defeated Xemnas. Then, I tried Sephiroth. I did... better than I did as a kid. On Critical! Yet I still died. So I tried again and again. Eventually I realized that I should probably get Once More and Second Chance before fighting him. So, I grinded in TWTNW for a while. I also unequipped Dodge Slash. Seriously, it sucks. Then, I tried Sephiroth. Over and over again. For hours. One more combo. One more combo. Sonic Blade (or whatever that rushing Limit command is called)!... Then I exploded. 10 years, hours of trying, and I won!! Then, I fought the Absent Silhouettes. Minus Zexion, who I already defeated. So I was kinda overleveled, since I choose the staff at the start, and grinded to get those two abilities, and I beat these guys in one shot. All of them.. Except Marluxia. Okay, I few more hours of fighting him and dying, and... YES!! Got him. I also beat the Cavern of Rememberence and made it to the Data Battles. It took a while to get all of that done, so I've been taking a break and playing other games, but I am excited to return to KH2:FM HD Remix. What I noticed in playing these games is that KH2 is more... rewarding. It feels so good to finally overcome bosses. When I beat Vanitas Sentiment, it didn't feel special. Throughout the fight, I would rage at stupid thing he would do, like the teleportation out of combos, or healing if you use anything besides potions, which don't give you leaf bracer, causing you to die in the middle of using them sometimes. I felt relieved that he was dead. I didn't want to fight another. I could fight the Mysterious Figure... or I could not. Yet, throughout Sephiroth's fight, I raged... at myself. Crap!! Why did I do that?... I should have known better... WHY DIDN'T I TRANSFORM, I COULD HAVE SAVED MYSELFWKQKSB... Oh no you don't! Sonic (thing)!! My deaths were my fault, and when I won, it felt amazing, and it made me want to fight more challenging bosses, especially when I heard that Sephiroth is considered one of the easier hidden/post game bosses, especially compared to the Data Battles and Lingering Will. I wanted to keep going!... though I was kinda tired, so I stopped. TL;DR/Point: I still love both KH2 and BBS, but I much prefer KH2 and... while it was one of my favorite games of all time, it is now very close to the top of that list. Possibly number one, though that isn't the easiest decision to make. After I beat the Data Battles and the Lingering Will, whenever that may be, I want to do a Critical LV1 playthrough. Even if it takes a few hours for each and every boss fight. It's so much fun overcoming those challenges, while BBS... well, this video explains a lot of it. Sorry for the rambling, and congrats to anyone who read this comment.

I know I’m a little late to the video. But if I was Xemnas, I’d much prefer Lightsabers that I can manipulate to shoot thousands of lasers, over a keyblade.

I haven't heard a single gamer that wasn't a KH fan call this game a "masterpiece." KH fans really put these games up on an imaginary pedestal.

the super saiyan comparison is so acurate

your bit on the Lingering Will made me want to start fighting him. (just one battle at a time...learn from your mistakes...)

All very good points. My only gripe is you got Days's release date wrong. Days came out before Birth by Sleep did. In my opinion, 358/2 Days was the last decent game in the series. It's FAR from perfect, but I'd take it over the 2010s KH games. Definitely.

I was literally making dark souls parallels the whole time you were talking about kh1 story being lore based and kh2s strategic boss fights and I was really Happy when you brought it up solid video, my dude. really enjoyed it

So, i am totally adopting “Evil McFingerWiggles” as Xehanort’s name lmao XD

As someone who always felt like something was off about BBS without knowing why, this video has been incredibly useful in helping me understand what it was about it that made it less "magical" than KH1 and KH2 (and reassuring me that it wasn't just because i was losing the ability to have fun as i grew up), so thank you for this video.

I just figured that keyblades chose their users, and inheriting was just like “this heart is able to wield one” and basically a recommendation lmao

Damn, the Frozen joke was nearly prophetic

Sry peeps, Nomura is a hack. He should have kept just making those cool drawings for the sprite based Final Fantasies.

awh what.. aquas voice actress is my favorite. I thought she did an excellent job.

The effort you used in this video surely is something great. I don't agree with a lot of stuff you said here, but I think that, after almost two years, you won't be here to listen what I should say (BbS in particular); I'll leave you a like for the work you did, even if I don't agree with most of the things you said. I hope you'll answer me and listen to what I have to say, but I know everyone has a life full of things and problems that are such great that I already know that you won't be here to read this. Still, thank you for this video, everything you had to say, you did it perfectly

i think the IDEA of the command deck is absolutely fantastic if nothing else. its basically an advancement on final fantasy’s atb (active time battle) system that instead of waiting on individual turns, you weight on indivigual actions within those turns. I think the idea itself has a lot of potential if nothing else. The thing with the atb system though was that it usually still had mp costs and item usages you had to balance.

lol watching this waiting for my AP to recharge. My life is kh

Watching this again after beating KH3, made me realize why it ended up being disappointing and not living up to that immense hype

About their friendship, to me it's just like Roxas, Xion and Axel. They've been trained their whole life on this island (except for Ven but he can't remember what happend before) . They were taught that defending the Light is most important and as you can see, all 3 of them want(ed) to be keyblade masters. To them friendship is talking about their strengh, being like they are and stuff. Remember when Roxas said "Who else will I have ice cream with?"? Its because to him eating ice cream with people he liked was friendship. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Axel/Lea all had kind of a life we know. Going to school, having parents, talking to random people... Of course they have a larger personality.

I wanted to watch the whole video before commenting. I really like this review! Personally, I love BBS, and it's one of my favorites in the series, but you truly achieved your goal of getting me to think critically! Nice work! I subbed.

This is one of the best analysis/critiques of Kingdom Hearts I've seen in a while. I was just looking through your uploads for another good run, and ended up with something soooo much better.

There's more than one way to obtain a keyblade. You can obtain one by inheriting the power to wield one, yes, but you CAN actually be chosen to wield a keyblade by the keyblade. The keyblade, in essence, is more like different aspects of the same being. All keyblades are the same keyblade, but the different manifestations come about due to the personalities and hearts of the different wielders or even the different aspects of different worlds/realms. It's similar to spirituality, in how everyone is connected to Source, or the Godforce. Everyone in the KH universe can use a keyblade, but not everybody is CHOSEN to wield one because of how their heart is.

As a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep's story. I agree with most your points here. Fantastic video, homie..! And to add, you're extremely funny too..! 😂

Again, thank. you. Not only did KH1 establish THE (as in, the only) Keyblade as the only one, but Riku having a bastardized keyblade, after stealing The Keyblade, was a major plot point. He was only able to get his version of it (which was evel, and not the True KeyBlade) due to maipulation of dark forces. There was only ever supposed to be one Keyblade of light (excluding King Mickey's, to balance out the realm of darkness) (all the upgrades in KH1 were described as Keycahines you attached to the Keyblade). That was the most frustrating part about BBS, and I actually like that game a lot.