[Head on over to NordVPN.com/RegularPat or use the code regularpat to get a 2-year plan plus a bonus gift with a hearty discount!] Hope you enjoy the pseudo change of pace with this one, folks. I actually really enjoyed thinking/writing about this stuff, in spite of it being about parts of the game that I typically play nowadays while scrolling through Twitter.

I’ve always thought that the dives in DDD were supposed to represent a hypnic jerk: that freefalling feeling you sometimes get right at the edge of sleep

I want to explore the oceans between, as long as I don’t have to swim this way to get there

I never really thought about how much I missed that you didn’t know what world you were flying to in KH1 compared to other games. 6-year-old me lost my mind when I got to Olympus Coliseum for the first time and I was completely baffled when I got swallowed by a freakin’ whale. Funny story: I had no idea what Deep Jungle was before landing and I thought it was a giant pickle. There was just something so magical about it. Sure, every world is spoiled before release through trailers these days, but they should at least hide the worlds in-game so you don’t know where you’re going at what time.

If the worlds were once a single a world, I feel like the messiness of 3s space is like a metaphor for the damage the world suffered after the fall to darkness that split the world. Like it's the debris left over and each individual world likely was larger and merged into the other but are now divided by space debris and remnants (dead trees, space coral, ect)

"Unless the three of them are flat-earthers, I was fairly certain they need to divert their attention from picking mushrooms and focus on getting engineering degrees." Especially if they were flat-earthers, I would suggest that advice. I never noticed the Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots bit in Toy Box. I'll have to track that down.

The fact that you didn't know which world you were traveling to in KH1 was so fun, it really felt like an adventure. I have no idea why they got rid of that

“Fewer people are going to click on.” I clicked on this as soon as I saw this. I feel like I’m just going to immediately digest anything you post.

This is really well described. One example I would include to your point of KH1's ability to make you immersed in the movement and convey a presence in the game: The first time you go to Hollow Bastion, you use the regular gummy from Neverland that logically would take you there directly. But after the rescue, you're blocked off from that route. So Cid, a character who had to escape from that world, of course has a shortcut option available to provide. That's nice worldbuilding and consistency. But then in the Gummi section, when you take that shortcut warp route, you are very clearly on the outside of the path you took previously from Neveland (passing outside the wall/tunnel). AND it transitions through all 3 Blast Off tunes and color schemes because you're going from Traverse all the way to the other side of the map. Just another piece of small brilliance from that game, KH1 has so many great little gems.

To add to this, I kinda really like the psudo pirate ship theme going with the gummiships. For instance, in KH1, you run into Hook's ship during a gummi route. In KH2, you fight a haunted ghost ship and you see that same ship in the Oceans between in KH3. It's a nice touch and...well, I dunno, it just gives me something to smile at while I grind for munny/materials.

It was very cool to hear you make the point of each game's gummi feeling representative of the game as a whole because its something I noticed myself. I also like 3's the best because 3D space exploration with freedom is way up my alley. And good point about the mystery of the worlds, even for those of us who watch trailers it could still be cool to not know which is coming next. As a bit of a gummi enjoyer I would like them to evolve KH3's system into KH4 or whatever they decide to call it, which I think won't be the next game but the one after. The freedom of KH3 with a better builder (more like KH1's with the quirky parts), some more intense missions (bring a little of 2 in there maybe) or hell have *not* be in missions but rather encounter enemies out in the void and freely shoot them with a lock-on. Same for bosses and "capital ships". It wouldn't be popular probably haha but I did get my name from a space Sim game after all heh, I'd love it. But yeah there's my long winded comment haha. I'm glad you made this even if it won't have the largest audience because it's a topic so rarely talked about other than "I like 3's because I don't have to do it" 👍

The unknown world mystery of KH1 does fit a bit more in KH1, Sora is just starting out, going full steam towards finding his friends, or stopping ansem. By the time of even KH2 he's learned to slow down enough to actually read the navigation charts

Finished the entire video and here's my answer to the question at the end: No, I don't think the series needs interstellar travel for later entries, but I wouldn't complain if it did come back. I'm one of the select few who does enjoy Gummi travel in each game. Am I rushing out to play the next game for the Gummi missions? No. It's just a nice distraction that helps break up the core gameplay of exploring worlds and bashing in the enemy type of the week.

17:45 I had to go back at least three times to make sure I heard that right. That got a big enough laugh that I started coughing like crazy.

I thought DDD's dive segments was a giant callback to Kingdom Heart 1's intro where Sora dove into his own heart. Because he got their through his dreams at the time. (Kairi:Wake up you lazy bum.) Except instead of hearts Sora and Riku dove into the dreams of the worlds' hearts instead. Until the end when Riku has a segment like that to go into Sora' heart and it has the station of awakening, again like KH1. Diving into dreams, ocean between. It still keeps its water motif. Sora falls down water to his station of Awakening in 1. It also reminded me of going down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland which was her dream in the movie but that may be an actual coincidence. So yeah I never had a problem you did with DDD. Its more shown instead of told though.

I'm feeling called out, Gummi Ships in KHII is my favourite thing of the whole series and I wish there was a whole game on it

I have A ranked every single gummi mission in Kh2 and Kh3. I absolutely love the Gummi ship!

I think the Dive stuff in DDD is a call back to the KH 1 and 2 openings with Sora/Roxas falling to the Station of Awakening, which is usually represented as a dream when it appears in game.

Perfectly articulated. You’ve basically said everything I’ve ever been thinking about this aspect of the series. Nice to see that we both agree with Frustrated Jacob that the mystery element of the world map in the first game adds a lot even if it comes off like a nitpick.

Pat out here getting that VPN money, hell yeah let's GOOOO

wow i love this sort of stuff! not a typically explored topic! Thanks so much!!

@4:57-.-I like how the text still works after the release of the switch versions.

great vid allways enjoy your vids about things that arent that often talked about and i really like your takes on em also nice that your getting sponsors now !!!

This so perfectly captures my exact thoughts on gummi travel! As long as the segments provide items that help you in core gameplay like KH3, I personally wouldn’t mind seeing them again in future games.

KH2's might as well have made itself top-down and been an ikaruga clone, that'd be gold

Good on you for being able to make an ad entertaining. I watch a lot of youtube, and so few of the people I watch are able to make it interesting when talking about their sponsor. So kudos :)

@21:42-.-I personally interpret it as the spaces between worlds where is safer before the heartless started spreading.

Gonna be honest, the hunter x is one of my favorite enemies in kingdom hearts. The build up to a powerful encounter and the fact that you cannot complete the mission without killing it makes it one of the best, if not the best, enemy in the gummi missions. Too bad that doughnut ships exist. nice job not ranting about doughnut ships.

Thoroughly enjoyed, awesome video Regular Pat!

Great video! Thank you for mentioning the color and music progression throughout travel in KH1. Always loved that detail and missed it the first few times. 🙂

vod!! gummi shipss!! kinda more fun than I originally thought!! We love!

Enjoyed this one a lot! Another great video, thanks Pat!

I don’t know why, but I love when this dude makes vids. They’re just so good. Definitely underrated.

I feel like even if they’re not necessary, they’re a part of the series’ DNA at this point. Even just BBS’s little fly around around kind of helps separate the worlds from each other mentally. Also, massive bonus points to Kingdom Hearts III for having a handful of remains from previous gummi bosses in the overworld map. I thought that was clever.

Your essays are always well-edited and thoughtful. They’re fun to listen to even if I don’t agree with every point (mostly bc nostalgia clouds too much I admit) Another great vid!!

I think I still prefer 2’s the best, though I think 3 has objectively the best ones. I always found them to be high octane thrill rides before a world. I think the routes in 1 are definitely the low point of the game, but they’re pretty harmless overall.

I would love to see the KH3 gummi again, but with the enemy encounters being like the KH2 gummi, instead of what seems to be flying in a circle, like imagine if you were flying around that pirates area with the ship gummi boss from 2 chasing you.

Fantastic video as usual. Nice to hear discussion on gummi stuff in general. They're rarely given any limelight

When you compared the gummi ship segments from 1 and 2 I thought "but the sections in 2 are so cinematic and cool!... wait a minute" and that perfectly describes my opinion on kh2 I guess

Something I realized playing Kingdom Hearts II is that it's implied Sora, Riku and Kairi alongside the Final Fantasy trio found Destiny Islands just off the coast of their island town and that's what initially kickstarted Riku's fascination with other worlds. They essentially did what Sora, Donald and Goofy do throughout the series but on a much, much smaller scale. Riku's fascination with Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden being Kairi's original birthplace also helped give Riku motivation to leave the island to help Kairi remember where she came from.

Hot, maybe unpopular take: The gummi missions were a little annoying in one before the warp, but the ones in two were too much too fast and kind of anxiety-inducing. It made me appreciate how laid back the ones in 1 were

Great video :) !

Great video! Now we wait for the Regular Pat breakdown of the totally consistent and substantial lore on how the Ocean Between and gummi routes actually work

Gummi missions have always been interesting for the first time playing in my eyes, but whenever I want to replay a game it's always what I'm dreading the most.

I remember suggesting a gummi video like a year and a half ago. Glad to finally see it and hey it was also enjoyable as a bonus so ya know, that's pretty neat.

I distinctly remember the feeling of playing KH1 when it first came out (pre-YT and pre-osocial-media for spoilers/reviews), and one of the most exciting aspects was finding out which world I just unlocked, like you said (and this is coming from someone who hates the Gummi segments).

Hey, Pat, I actually just started KH3 yesterday, and I got to the Gummi ship part of the game, and... holy cow. I think I absolutely *love* the way the third game did the Oceans Between. It's just so relaxing just flying around, not constantly having to deal with Heartless ships, if you don't have to

Ancient video, but I think the reason that KH2’s gummi segments feel more static is because enemies will actually stop at a certain distance from the camera and literally stay static in the camera view, which kinda betrays the fact that the whole gummi setup is a literally on-rail shooter. Sometimes enemies will literally slide in from the side of the camera view and stay still in position to be fired upon. It’s the spaceship equivalent of watching a stage play, where everything happens at a static distance from you, on a “stage”. And that also makes it kinda feel like anything that has depth, AKA anything that moves closer or further from the camera, almost feels like a false depth, the kind they literally use in theater backdrops to make the illusion of a 3D space. I don’t believe this happens in KH1, where both enemies and environmental hazards will get closer and closer and eventually pass by the camera. In KH2 you and the camera are the center of the world with stuff happening around you, while in KH1 stuff is indifferent to you and the camera to a certain extent, which makes it feel less artificial. Deep Space doesn’t care if you want more time to shoot the blocks and ships passing by, if you snooze they’ll pass you by (as tends to happen when you are traveling forwards). I think this also kinda explains why the recurring wheel enemy feels slightly more real in KH2 compared to normal spaceship enemies in that game, because the game is doing a better job of selling the concept of 3D depth, and it does a better job of hiding when the enemy is staying in a static position in the camera view.

13:27 There's also Broken Highway for Halloween Town, since the route is filled with ruins, which can be a bit spooky.

I'm the resident freak that used to spend hours in the gummi garage when I played kh1 bc I wanted to make a sick transforming ship that would start as a dove and turn into a dragon. And then in kh2 I found the mini ships and subsequently made a mini for every organization member. I have perfected the art of making unreasonably cool battleships with limited polygons.

gummi ships aren't my favorite thing in the slightest (i'm one of those people who's just a huge sucker for disney and these games are honestly a major escape for me, especially as of lately when i'm trying to not think about my senior thesis haha) but i'm a sucker for a good video essay on kingdom hearts, especially from someone who's quickly becoming one of my favorite content creators. thanks homie

I think what I like particularly about the gummi ship missions in KH2 is the replayability. I was genuinely invested into doing all of the missions over and over trying to improve my score, and there's two things that helped with that. The actual ranking system, including the different mission types and especially the third mission type where S rank was not the upper limit and you could keep going to see how efficient you can be, and the way the routes sort of change depending on how well you do. By that I mean stuff like rare enemies only appearing if you get through the regular waves of enemies fast enough before a segment ends. Having something like that 6 armed miniboss appear in the first route and eventually being able to actually take it down only for a stronger version of it to appear right after, and then eventually taking that down, was really satisfying. This includes stuff like actually being able to destroy the giant pirate ship or the core of the Dreadnought if you were good enough. And of course I have to give a shoutout to the secret boss of the Dreadnought. What a fun surprise although I think it was a bit TOO aggressive. KH1 basically had NONE of this replayability, at least until they added actual missions in Final Mix, and while it did get me to engage with actually building a better ship (which I never actually did in the original game), it wasn't enough for me to want to do all of them (also some of them were really weird and specific). Another game that does this well, surprisingly, was Dream Drop Distance where you are ranked on both score and time, and you'd actually unlock a new keyblade if you did well enough on all of them. Although the actual gameplay was far less engaging. KH3 is a bit different as I wouldn't describe this as "replayability". It was very open and there was a lot to explore and do, so all the fun actually came from discovering new stuff, including constellations, treasure spheres, blueprints, unique parts and the battles themselves. The actual battles were fairly simple and I never felt like playing them more than once other than for grinding for achievements or getting the best rank, which I did more out of obligation that time. Once again shoutouts to the amazing secret boss though.

It's a video essay?! Wooooo

Let’s just hope that, in the dimension that Riku and Sora are now in, everything is within walking distance

As far as the worlds not being visible in later games I think at least for KH2's case it does add mystery to not see everything, and once you get into the loop of understanding that the map will keep expanding and revealing more worlds it adds to the mystery of what's available to discover.

Apparently I’m an outlier in that I really enjoy the Gummi Ship segments. I haven’t played 3 yet, but working my way through 1 and 2 I had a lot of fun with the Gummi Ships and I would be genuinely really sad to see them gone from the series

You get an A+ on this essay 💯

I never thought about the detail of kh1 not revealing the worlds on the map, but once you mentioned it I was like YOOOO! I remember that anticipation of wondering what was next when I experienced the game (through my sister playing, I was 7) for the first time, what a shame they don’t do that again haha

I can't wait to play the KH3 Gummi portions, it looks so cool!

I find it so interesting that every time we get a Gummi Ship in Kingdom Hearts, Square has made it a completely different genre of gameplay each time. (And I honestly did think the best part of Kingdom Hearts 3 was the space travel even though I hated it in all other titles.)

Uh oh! Survivor has finally found it’s way onto the main channel. There’s no telling what happens from here…

Have you ever considered how often Kingdom Hearts III puts you I a vehicle of some sort outside of Gummi Ships? Not even considering Attraction Flow? On my recent playthrough I noticed that Kingdom Hearts III kind of went deep on letting you ride things and off the top of my head I can remember these: The game let's you ride Goofy's shield in Olympus, The Caribbean and Arendelle at various points. The final form of your Olympus Keyblade, which the name evades me of, is a Chariot that you can somewhat control. The Gigasi in Toy Box ate an obvious one, but also Woody and Buzz's Rocket. The Kingdom of Heineken is probably the only world I can think of right now that doesn't have anything you outright ride besides Attraction Flow, but I could be forgetting something. Monstropolis, Arendelle and San Fransokyo all have those grindable rails for extensive portions of their world's. Arendelle also has the aformentioned Frozen Slider minigames, the Snowballs and Marshemellow. The Caribbean has its own ship mechanic and you get to ride those little Heartless and the Raging Vulture itself for a bit, albeit that's more akin to climbing than actually riding, so if you don't want to count the Vulture itself, that's understandable. San Fransokyo on top of the rails area also has the giant Shugyo Ball and Baymax himself. Also can't forget making grindable rails with the Blizzard line of Spells in this game! And of course, a bunch of the Flantastic Seven have you using various of these mechanics. There might be more, but I noticed at least these on my most recent playthrough and came to realize that, adding the Gummi Ship segments and Attraction Flow, alongside things like wall running, Flow Motion and air stepping, it seems like Kingdom Hearts III really went all in on making movement interesting, albeit not as conventional as I or II did, and also for whatever reason decided to make Sora be riding things more often than he's walking in every world besides The Kingdom of Bud Light.

I also liked the gummi ship stuff in 1 a lot more than in 2. Going for 100% helped me appreciate 2 more in recent years, but 1's customization stuff and actual gameplay is more interesting to me. Like 2 looks cool, but it's basically a clusterfuck of visuals as you spam weapons 1, for as clunky as it was, had obstacles to avoid and more deliberate enemies that you'd focus on, rather than spamming everywhere. You even had those walls you could break to pass through, with different panels giving set rewards for being broken. So even something as simple as shooting a wall gave you a choice to make between "do I want to refill my lasers or do I need that extra HP"

Pat I gotta appreciate your humor cause sometimes I'm just watching this while I'm working and then suddenly "Did he just say Kingdom of COVID" (Literal tears) LMAOOOOOO

super fun to see a video on something that the majority of kh fans don't really talk about much (me included) and what you said about how each game handled it made me realize how similar i feel about them, like kh2 gummi ship segments felt like they were *supposed* to be more fun and exciting but actually felt like more of a chore compared to kh1, despite having more to offer. kh3 made a really good effort to not make the player feel like they were slowed down when flying to other words, and i absolutely prefer the majority of the content in it being optional (and the variety in optional content was really nice). it's never something i enjoy or actively want to do, but i do think gummi ship segments add to the feeling of progressing through each world and that future games would be missing out if they were scrapped. a return to the more darker/heavy feeling of endgame kh1 gummi missions would be amazing though...

I think KH4 should keep the Gummi sections exactly how KH3 is. The only major difference being to keep the worlds unknown until you're approaching them like in KH1. I watched a stream when KH3 was new when the streamer closed his eyes every time the Gummi map would pop up, because he wanted everything to be a surprise. It was such a delight hearing their surprises as they saw the worlds actually come into view.

Your comparisons between Gummi Ship approaches in KH1 and KH2 remind me of the comparisons between bumper cars and a rollercoaster. Bumper cars are way less flashy than rollercoasters but you get to steer and moves wherever you want whereas the rollercoaster has a set path and pre-planned things to engage with. You made a really good assessment when bringing up this point. KH3 is still my favorite Gummi Ship for this reason.

Honestly, Kingdom Hearts 4 should have a Gummi Ship segment purely for the scenario of Sora rocking up to the Death Star in a technicolour lego ship.

I'm a Simple and Clean man. I see new Regular Pat video upload, I hit like button.

We have pretty much the same points. In particular, I love fooling around in the editor in KHI and collecting all the Blueprints feels immensely satisfying. With KHII, I just did everything I had to do to get through and nothing more. KHIII definitely was a lot of fun to go into but I definitely don't have as fond memories of messing around in the editor. I do want to see more Gummi ships though just because I love the thought that the worlds are divided like that. They also provide a good break and build up anticipation.

The space travel in 3 was really nice

I'mma be honest, I love the gummi segments. Mostly because it's an excuse to play with lego space ships and smash them against other lego space ships. My favorite ship design was a large nobody emblem. It was flat, but had space for all the gear you need without breaking logical design. And all the harsh angles made it look frankly kind of cool.

I was always spoiled by worlds in KH1 thanks to a strategy guide. That being said, the gummy ship sections in 1 feel more tangible to me and I like the world interaction as opposed to the on-rails shooting of 2. I'm not really a space shooter person so I'm not really fond of them in general but I like 1 more as it feels more 'right'.

I think I know what I want in the next few games in terms of Gummi stuff, and there are three possibilities: 1. If the game follows either Sora or Riku or both through Quadratum, screw Gummi stuff. It wouldn't even make sense. Just don't even attempt it, or anything close to it like the dives. Just give us gameplay, and only gameplay. 2. If it follows Aqua or Kairi or both through their training together, sure, let's have some Gummi stuff. Or just scrap it like in BBS, but in this scenario I really wouldn't mind Gummi stuff that much. It would actually make sense, and provide more to their arc. Just please make Kairi competent. 3. If the game follows three or more characters (ex. Lauriam, Skuld, Elrena) no Gummi please. In a BBS style game, any Gummi would just be too much to repeat over and over with 3+ characters. I commend BBS for making this sensible decision. And in the rare occurrence where we have an entire game dedicated to following Mickey around Scala, well... let's just cross our fingers and hope we don't have to spend 30+ hours playing as Michael Mouse.

my favorite gameplay parts of KH3 honestly are the gummi missions. like don’t get me wrong, the combat is fucking sick and the story hits me hard, but I dunno, something about flying around, exploring space, shooting a fuckton of asteroids for Keyblade materials, and fighting random bosses & enemy waves just makes me really happy

pew pew gummi yummi regularshipmeister!!

KH Gummi: Fun to build a custom ship to make it to your next destination. KH2 Gummi: Much more of an arcade feel. Necessary for progression but it had fun options if you wanted to try for those high scores. A lot of fun and scratched my Star Fox itch. KH3: Much shorter burst of those arcade style stages but now you can actually explore the space between worlds. I actually took time to just enjoy the scenery. If the next game in the series does give us more space travel I hope it's more of the KH3 style exploration.

The 3rd mission in KH2 is the best version in two. You having to turn the gummi ship around makes things more dire and fun

i actually really did like the kh3 gummi ship segment, and a lot of the time on my first playthrough id just run around doing whatever just cause i thought it was all fun, now after a couple playthroughs not so much, but still, the movement, the speed, even the combat is great

I never noticed the gummi routes in KH1 were different depending on wether you traveled from A to B or back from B to A, since I always used warp. There are so many little things in this game I never noticed as a kid.

I love the attention to detail and optional nature of the ship content in three. In four, I’d love to return to the open world format, but have “two-like” courses locked away behind doors.

TO answer your last question, I think it depends on what the next game is trying to go for. Like, we just don't know what the next "phase" is going to be like.

Great video on something no one ever talks about. While its not my favorite part of the game by a longshot, I do really love the gummi ships in KH3 and never bothered with it in KH1+2. Its really due to the exploration and design like you said, plus its more fun to customize ships imho I've actually watched a few streamers play the KH series blind recently and yeah I agree 1000% on the ? mark map. It would've been so much more interesting to see them realize it was a Toy Story/etc world if it was right in front of them instead of just sitting on the map.

KH3's gummi sections really did miss the opportunity to bring back the hidden world till you visit once. It would've been super perfect considering how vast the space is in that game, surprising the character by going to the wrong world first sounds absolutely hilarious too since it's so open

I have a soft spot for KH1 Gummi ship travel, yes its very basic and a slog if you have to back track and it basically get's deleted from existence when you get the teleport ability. Just going to the next world was exciting because you didn't know what was next, and when you get into the later worlds the background shifts it's color suddenly, you knew shit was about to be new and possibly real. Also I for some reason love blowing up the enemy gummi ships and you have a chance of getting their blue prints don't know why that's worth bringing up but I did.

I always thought Hoverboarding and Hoverbiking in Ratchet and Clank 1 and 2 were pretty fun vehicle sections I actually wanted to play.

As a kid, I always assumed the gummi route before Pride Lands was inside of a lion's nose. Don't ask why I thought that, it just made sense to me seeing all the mucous colored walls.

I've never bothered editing my gummy ship in any game other than the 1st. It just seemed simpler on that game than the others, and it's very satisfying to start off moving at snail's pace only to sonic through everything by the end.

I can understand showing the actual worlds instead of question marks in cases where the player can choose between two worlds. It makes the choice a bit more informed, so it feels more meaningful than just "do I wanna go to the hard question mark or the easy question mark?" That said, I think I do also prefer the sense of mystery and surprise, even if it's only during the first playthrough. Also, please play Star Fox 64 / Panzer Dragoon Zwei.

After KH3, my answer is yes I want this to continue in future titles. I spent SOOOOO much time in the Gummi ship sections in KH3. I loved it. I fully explored the space sections before clearing the worlds attached to them. And yes I made sure to fight and beat the Gummi Ship's super boss before I entered the Keyblade Graveyard. The old man can have his war, but I wanted to finish playing with my lego spaceship first! lol

From a game design perspective, Gummi routes were more of a solution to a hub world or overworld with SE's love of mini-games thrown in. If kh4 takes place in quadratum, it could be cool to see a fully realized world with different places that all fit in one cohesive environment, sort of like how a pre-keyblade war world eoyld have been imagined back when that was discussed in kh1. That being said, I really do enjoy Gummi routes. It feels like games today ate so focused on being the one thing that they are and try not to stray from that, but back in the earlier days of 3d games, developers would just stick whatever wherever and try to make sense of it. I'm really glad Gummi routes stuck around for 3 because I really think they blew it out of the park with that one, and maybe in 4 they could make it even better

Personally I’ve always loved the gummy ship segments…

I like the KH3 gummi section as it is. Maybe the next one will give you the ability to explore the interior of the ship like in Mass Effect or Rogue Galaxy

I always lean more towards the KH2 gummi missions because the music is fantastic, some of my favorite in the entire series actually.

I’m fully okay with more 358/2 Days Dark Corridor type stuff, just build some Betwixt and Between esque on foot levels in between them with maybe a boss or a task in them necessary to open the path and connect the worlds or whatever. Then you can dark corridor as usual.

Now that characters, including Sora, have shown that they can just open portals of light to new worlds, I'd be okay with not seeing the Gummi ship again

I'm not going to argue that I always thought the Gummi Ship segments were the best parts of KH2. However, my more recent playthrough have seen me sinking more and more time into them, trying to build the coolest ship and rack up high scores. It's addicting, especially for someone like me who actually enjoys rail shooters.

KH1 Gummi Ship: very boring until you reach the end. KH2 Gummi Ship: Very fun, until you get to the harder missions. KH3: OMG, THIS IS FUCKING DOPE!

The return of gummi ships actually was one of the things I was looking forward to in KH3. I sometimes go out of my way to fly the gummi ship even when I have nothing to gain from it. Any time I pop in KH2 just to run around and hit things for fun I always include a gummi ship run or two. I guess I'm just weird like that. Also, I wish there was some context to Assault of the Dreadnaught. I guess we're just supposed to ignore the fact that the Organization apparently has the resources to blockade an entire planet. One thing about the sense of movement is that in KH1 when you move in a direction the ship actually changes pitch and yaw accordingly, whereas in KH2 you just sort of slide around an imaginary plane with roll as your only axis of rotation. It makes it feel sort of two-dimensional. And because there's no boost, you can't affect your forward momentum at all. I think that's what makes it feel like you're not really moving towards your destination in KH2's routes. It does make it feel more like a scrolling background than an actual environment. I feel almost the same way about KH3's gummi ship as you do about BBS's lack thereof. It's doing something radically different, so I can't really judge it by the same standard. I do like it, for what it's worth, but I missed the rail shooter, and the generic heartless encounters were really boring to me. I also found it odd that the three areas were completely disconnected. I'd love to see a combination of the two where you explore freely like in KH3 but instead of going to each world directly you go to a KH2 style route that leads to the world. And maybe something like a KH1 style wormhole portal thing that leads into the next area instead of just picking it from the menu. Something to make it feel more connected. Reconnect. GUMMI SHIP ROUTES

@3:50 I guess they could have made Traverse Town into some Mario like hub world? Or a Final Fantasy overworld map? I kinda hope Quadratum is actually something that since Sora doesn't have his gummi ship.