If anything KH3 has taught me a valuable about avoiding trailers more and more because apparently people in charge of marketing don't care to much about spoilers. Looking back I'm pretty sure EVERY world in KH3 was shown in some form (with or without context aside) in a trailer, as well as that 'Final Battle' trailer which had absolutely zero right to exist. Hoping to jump into future games a lot more blind, surprises are fun. Great video, looking forward to more.

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

I totally planned on not watching any more trailers for KH stuff after this...and then I read this comment right after I made a wholeass video on the leaked ReMind trailer lmao. Welp. I went like 2 days with that resolution.

@skibot9974

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah the marketing made me think Anti-Aqua would be the midpoint like Monstro or the Battle of 1000 heartless not the start of the climax

@jacobpourchot6294

3 жыл бұрын

Dark Aqua being spoiled sucked so hard. It would of hit me even harder if I saw it my first playthrough. I cried when I saw the trailer it hit me like a truck because I'm such a huge fan of Aqua and the BBS crew.

@tobyjack1238

3 жыл бұрын

Anti Aqua was the last trailer I saw for Kh3 and I feel like I knew a lot about the game at that point. That’s why I only watched the first trailers for remind and Mel mem

@dmas7749

2 жыл бұрын

i was spoiled on some stuff and i avoided all the trailers

Hate the fact I'm just now finding this hidden gem of a channel. Loving it already.

My understanding of Young Xehanort in Toy Box is thus: no one remembers Xion and the Organization needs a few more members. Young Xehanort does a test to see if they can create some new members artificially and put Old Man Nort's heart inside them and yields fruit. Presumably he shares his findings, at which point someone from the old Organization directed him towards Vexen (Secret Reports support this theory). Even becomes a Nobody again after being approached and uses this opportunity to right some wrongs while bringing back Roxas and Namine. So the Toy Story world winds up being fairly important to the plot, and that's ignoring the whole "Yozora will likely be in future games" thing.

@stuntmanorigins9

Жыл бұрын

Old comment but i'll do it anyways They already knew about Xion, that's why YX makes the experiment in the first place, Saix discovered the data about Xion before KH3 and approached Even so he can become a Nobody again and perfect the replicas YX made an experiment to see if they can put MX heart in ANYBODY, if you think about it, they only had to put his heart in another heart just for Repliku and Xion, everyone else were either Nobodies or they were past versions of Xehanort (and in Terranort's case, an empty body), and Xion was even more special so they wanted to make sure

So i know I'm late to the party, but... In defense of what both YX and Dark Riku were doing in their Disney worlds... Well, it boils down to Xion, no? Recreating a heart from data, if a "toy", or rather... A "puppet" could have a real heart at all... Plus YX was demonstrating that world splitting phenomenon that Joshua noted in Traverse Town in DDD, which i thought was cool.

@handsoaphandsoap

2 жыл бұрын

I'm fairly certain they just had him there so they could excuse half the Toy Story cast not being there lmao

@kagedehyoryu

2 жыл бұрын

@@handsoaphandsoap You're looking at it from a meta perspective, though. From a *narrative* perspective, I feel my explanation makes sense within the subtext presented.

@handsoaphandsoap

2 жыл бұрын

@@kagedehyoryu yeah I was just joking my dude, I gotcha

@c0mplex_Ale

2 жыл бұрын

@@kagedehyoryu Exactly, what handsoap said is true, but narratively it works regardless

I believe the reason young xehanort is in toy box is so that Woody can roast him.

I often hear people using "Critical Mode" as KH2's big advantage over KH3 (you know, before the free update later that gave KH3 its Critical). However, they forget that KH2's vanilla version ALSO didn't have Critical.

I think that having young Xehanort appear in Toy Box was supposed to foreshadow the appearance of Xion. He is there testing the strength of hearts by separating them. I always thought he was trying to see if Xion would be a reliable member for the Real Organization. You even get to see a scene of Axel remembering Xion right before you arrive to this world. Originally, Axel forgot Xion because she was erased, so the only way he would begin to remember her is if she was reappearing somewhere. Even pushing Sora into the Verum Rex game would give Young Xehanort the time he needs to study the data of Xions heart. Yeah, kh3 could have done way better explaining all this, but I think Nomura wanted people to read between the lines. I also think that the reason Dark Riku shows up in San Fransokyo is to test him and see if he is a reliable member for the Real Organization

I definitely agree that the trailers kind of ruined the experience for the story of the game. Too much was shown. Way too much. I still love KH3, a magical journey even with its flaws. Great video, I look forward for more from you!

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much! Ditto re: the trailers for suuure. I actually started to consciously avoid some trailers as we got closer to release date because I wanted to preserve a little bit of surprise. I was blown away by The Final World and Scala stuff because I hadn't seen any of it beforehand (honestly I'm not even sure if too much of that stuff actually WAS shown in pre-release materials).

I think the organization appearances in 2 definitely counts as snacks in between. Especially when you think about how it's the first time you see these characters (as opposed to kh3 where we already know them, and don't even get to fight them!). Xibar's reveal when you think it's going to be Riku had my childhood self freaking out! Taking down Xaldin in particular is significant since it's part of the plot to kill the organization!

The only real issue I had with KH3 was the attractions. Aside from Thunder Mountain, I felt like they were just super gaudy and ground the pace of combat to a screeching halt about 80% of the time.

@Thewindisyourfriend

3 жыл бұрын

Completely agree. This is the biggest flaw with the game. Wish Pat addressed it, but I think he was more focused on the plot/pacing.

@Jaxv3r

Жыл бұрын

same it kinda ruins the flow of combat for me, I wish they made it like a summon, so I at least have control whenver I used them especially Team attacks.

If Kingdom Hearts could cure my back pain and pay my rent, I’d be living my best life

18:10 it’s mentioned Xigbar turned one of the Dragons into a heartless which is what you fight as the boss. My theory is that the Dragon’s nobody is the dragon Xemnas rides in the final battle

@skibot9974

3 жыл бұрын

@DG to quote the KH wiki "The Storm Rider was originally a dragon sleeping under a mountain that gave strength to The Land of Dragons. However, when Sora and his friends return in order to search for Organization XIII, they find that a man in a black coat had transformed it into an immense Heartless and sent it to attack the Imperial City."

@skibot9974

3 жыл бұрын

@DG well it was stated to be a man in a black coat and the only other person in that world who meets the description is Riku

I think 3 is a perfectly acceptable sequel

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Honestly, my main goalpost in life is to aim for being perfectly acceptable

@FinalFantasyIXIIII

4 жыл бұрын

Regular Pat Unfortunately you've overshot yourself, your videos are way beyond acceptable. I genuinely find myself eagerly wait for each new vid from you man

@SaltedMallows

3 жыл бұрын

Underperforms for me personally but each their own

@tle398

3 жыл бұрын

That was the problem.

@MoreLikeDanny

Жыл бұрын

I think that I got everything I wanted out of kh3, I had my emotionally driven finales, the world's were fun to play and the combat was enjoyable. It's clear that the game was not made for the every gamer, it was made for kh fans, which I am.

Also speaking of Kairi, I would say she has even less agency in KH3. At least in previous games she takes actions and does stuff, in KH1 after returning from heart coma she has the “This time I’ll protect you” scene and her personality is pretty well defined before she gets damseled, and in KH2 she runs away from Axel when he attempts to kidnap her and eventually escapes (though this is thanks to Naminé and not really something she does all on her own) and when she gets a keyblade she immediately starts thwacking Heartless. It never really comes to anything but hey, it’s something. In KH3 she’s.... there. She has the cool scene with Axel near the beginning but that’s more of an Axel scene than a Kairi scene and, aside from the paopu scene which is like 2 seconds, her next significant moment is getting damseled and fridged immediately. At least she was kinda cool in Re:Mind, which was tbh also the first time I actually bought into her and Sora having any romantic chemistry.

@sketchios5158

3 жыл бұрын

I would argue most of the characters are "just there" a lot in kh3 but I wanna keep the positivity going xD

@handsoaphandsoap

3 жыл бұрын

@@sketchios5158 If that ain't the truth

@xXLunatikxXlul

3 жыл бұрын

@@sketchios5158 facts

@ldudley2

3 жыл бұрын

@@sketchios5158Maybe the suggestion of moving Aqua and Ven's rescue to the midpoint of the game would have assisted with that (or just having Kairi and Axel get out of the goddamn Hyperbolic Time Forest once in awhile).

@SoDoesTobi

3 жыл бұрын

She was great in Melody of Memory In her fight against Xehanort

I'm someone who always knew that the Disney Worlds in this game were never gonna matter, I mean they rarely have in the past, and I'm absolutely fine with it, I don't need meat in my Disney. However what I did not expect was there to be so few original worlds, and that's where my issue with the Disney comes in. Why is it 99% of the game, and if it is gonna be 99% of the game can it at least incorporate some original KH stuff? It hurts seeing a fully realised San Fransokyo but Radiant Garden is a cutscene.

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah that's understandable. I went into it really only expecting Twilight Town and the Graveyard as playable OG worlds, because I couldn't really think of a reason why we'd need to go to RG or even LoD for more than a few minutes. And so I was actually pleasantly surprised with Dark World, TFW and Scala, despite their relatively small size. But, I also made this before ReMind, and so I'm hoping explorable Scala will scratch that itch we all have!

@RaverRacer

4 жыл бұрын

@@RegularPat I suppose I can understand why someone may feel that way about RG, but Ventus was in the Land of Departure, surely you must have been expecting that? As for RG, I thought that perhaps all of the FF centred subplots would be concluded, but more importantly Aqua's keyblade and armour are there. And I'm pretty excited for explorable Scala, that wasn't really one of my gripes with KH3 but its welcome nonetheless

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

@@RaverRacer Yeah LoD was kind of a weird thing, because we knew it would have to revert from Castle Oblivion, and we knew only Aqua could change it back, so I figured if it wasn't handled exclusively via cutscene, it would be pretty quickly dealt with. They need Ven, they know where he is, they get him. Not a whole lot to do there otherwise, I guess.

I feel like the Xehanort reveal in KH2 is perfect because you never saw it coming and there is still more story, the characters can basically do something with what they learned, the Luxu reveal doesn't feel the same since it's an Epilogue and it just makes you feel like you have to wait for the next major entry.

@MrAuthor3DS

3 жыл бұрын

And then Final Mix kind of ruins the impact of that moment because a poorly-placed flashback spoiled the name beforehand.

@EmperorCorvinus

3 жыл бұрын

@@MrAuthor3DS true, I love that scene for adding more context to the secret ending buts definitely in the wrong place

I was definitely of the camp that was disappointed in the lack of a "middle" section and felt that the plot was backloaded, but you made some really good points about how KH2 wasn't much better in terms of pacing (and really was worse). I've spent a lot of time watching KH3 analysis and your video is one of the best I've seen, I really appreciate how you have a reason/fact for why something does/doesn't work. Keep it up!

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Hey thanks so much! I often see a lot of generalizing or labels applied to the game without all too much evidence to back it up. I'm not saying my arguments are objectively correct or that people can't have different preferences, but I do make it a point to justify my opinions whenever I can. Thank you again!

@xXLunatikxXlul

3 жыл бұрын

KH2 definitely had better pacing, as well with KH1. KH3's pacing is super hollow and feels barren, the power of waking plot is a literal copy of KH1's theme but far weaker in comparison. Edit: This is all, of course, my opinion.

@philmur18

3 жыл бұрын

@@xXLunatikxXlul idk how you can watch this and still think kh2 has better pacing. That's just objectively not true. Unless your idea of good pacing is literally nothing happening for most of the game. Your point about kh1 is also incorrect. The only time the power of waking was ever used (if that's even what it was) was that ONE scene with Kairi. Outside of that, the plot has no other references to it. The plot of one and three arent any more similar than any other games in the series. Don't let your nostalgia blind you in the face of objective facts

@philmur18

3 жыл бұрын

@@xXLunatikxXlul it's a fact that kh2 has less goin on between worlds than 3 (also known as bad pacing), kh1 and 3 not having more similarities in plot than one and any of the other games is also fact, there's no point in denying it

@philmur18

3 жыл бұрын

@@xXLunatikxXlul it's literally not an opinion that kh2 has less goin on during the game than 3, its a straight fact. You could play them side by side and observe that yourself. Same with kh1 not being any more similar to 3 than the other games. It's an observable fact. Denying something any player can go back and observe is just gonna make you look stupid in the long run, but please, continue with your defensive deflection. This is fun lmao

it really does seem like the middle section of kh3 was just cut out randomly. I really think that the middle point of kh3 should've been sora going back to twilight town and entering the data world to find Roxas, but unfortunately it doesn't work. that would've made more sense. not going back to find merlin to go the hundred acre wood. in fact I didn't go there until after I rescued aqua and ven. lol

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah there are a whole bunch of things that could've worked for big midpoint setpiece. 100 Acre Wood is not what I had in mind lol

@handsoaphandsoap

3 жыл бұрын

I think the Aqua rescue should’ve happened at the midpoint and then she can just be resting or something while Sora does more Disney stuff, and then she’s recovered after the Big Hero 6 world.

@BrennySpain

3 жыл бұрын

@@handsoaphandsoap yeah I definitely agree with that too. I remember when skyward sword was still active on KZread he did a big rewrite surrounding the game.

@jacksonwww5

3 жыл бұрын

I think leaving the most relevant events to the end made the solution look rushade. Roxas and Xion return in such a random way that ReMind had to try to explain the whole process of how it happened.

@austinbryan6759

2 жыл бұрын

But why would Roxas be in the digital world, when it was established in 2 and DDD that Roxas is inside Sora? While it would be cool, it would've been super inconsistent

I love love love Kh3. Growing up with the nostalgia of kh1, finally getting to play all of the games in my late teens, and going into kh3 completely blind a year after it came out definitely helped. I was shocked to see how much was revealed in those trailers later on and I'm so glad I never watched them before playing kh3. But wow did that frozen world suck lol.

@Road_to_Dawn

2 жыл бұрын

I’m so jealous that you went in blind lol. I completely regret watching all the trailers going into it because almost nothing was a surprise, and it definitely hurt a lot of my experience with it. I still really enjoyed the game, but it would’ve been so much better had I not known like 80%+ of what was going to happen and 90% of where we were going.

Also I think one of the coolest things is that apparently the story that takes place in the toybox is actually canon now to the toy story world, which hasn't happened for any other KH world.

Damn, dude. I'm so glad to have come across this channel. I feel like it's really hard to find a channel that really gets in-depth when it comes to the gameplay/mechanics of the KH series, as well as subjective material on the story and lore (that I fortunately agree with you on, mostly) There are several Kingdom Hearts focused channels out there, but I feel like most of them have a primary focus that they will rarely deviate from, such as speedrunning, lore theories, tips/strategies, etc. I really like the vibe of this channel. Kingdom Hearts has been my favorite game series since 2002, and I'll always have interest in every aspect of these games as a whole. Addressing this video, I still do enjoy KH2 more than 3, ESPECIALLY before ReMind came out. But every point you make is very valid. Like you said, the combat system in 2 to me is so precise, really snappy, and really benefits the player who chooses to deeply learn it's mechanics. And I just have a special love for the story KH2 tells. KH3 did cover everything I wanted for the conclusion, but for me it just didnt execute it too well. To each his own, I suppose. Anyways, thanks so much for the hard work you put into these videos, and I seriously can't wait for more! I very much appreciate it.

As much as I'm not a die hard fan of KH3 (this coming from a super fan) one of the most underrated scenes in Kingdom Hearts is when Woody stands up to Young Xehanort. Usually in those type of scenes they let Sora give the big monologue, but in this instance they Woody give it I was pretty impressed by that especially since they didnt use the original voice actors

Been going through a binge of your content, Pat. Thanks for inspiring me to pick up this series again and, alongside it, pick up streaming again. You've relit a flame in me for gaming.

@RegularPat

3 жыл бұрын

That's awesome to hear, and thank you for watching, friend!!

I really feel like if they wanted to do the whole power of waking thing, they should have brought back the Tron world DDD had a perfect setup where you could use the power of waking to bring back the Tron we know from KH2 by "waking" him up from a forced update from the company that made the original system. That update would turn him into legacy Tron and Sora would learn some elements of the power of waking through those events during the middle portion or shortly after the middle point I dunno but that was a missed opportunity

I definitely hold KH3 in much higher regard now thanks to the DLC update. Those combo modifiers and boss battles are a thing of beauty. It feels like a much more complete game now.

In my opinion, kh3 has Sora doing nothing in the Disney worlds, but nails how the organization experiments with the phenomena of said worlds. Ex: Young Xehanort learning that puppets can have strong hearts from toy story

Man I always love how detailed you get with your explanations🔥🔥Amazing Video

I really don’t understand why people online have such big problems with the game. I read one review where someone who said they were a kh fan complained that the world design was either a hallway or a big open world with nothing to do. They literally just described every world in the series. I found another where someone complained that they found it boring whenever someone in a black coat came along to beat Sora about unfamiliar names. You know they would be unfamiliar assuming you’ve never played another kingdom hearts game in your life, because the ending to the dark seeker saga has the audacity to make people play every other game in the series instead of showing up late to the party. I’m starting to go under the assumption that most people who talk about the series don’t know what they’re talking about. Thank you for sticking up for this game, people really need to develop their standards on what a bad game is and remember to apply their problems to their savior kh2.

Thank you very much for this video, you put in words what I've been thinking this whole past year seing people conveniently forgetting KH2 story pacing and thinking it's "flawless". In my opinion, KH2 has the worst story pacing out of all the KH games that happen in the "real worlds" (KH1, 2, 3 and bbs), specially regarding the disney world inclusion into the main storyline. A few notes I want to add: - KH1, the game with the best integration of disney worlds and story pacing, didn't have a huge middle point like KH2. It did have a 2nd visit to Traverse Town that moved the plot forward, but wasn't that much of an epic story and gameplay event like that of KH2. It's true that KH3 would benefit tremendously from including a middle point in an original world more related to the actual characters, and that KH2 middle point it's the most exciting of all KH games, but moving forward into the series I don't think we should expect the games to have a huge middle point to validate they have a good story. - While it's true that the main events of KH3 takes place in the climax and near the end (the reunion of the guardians of light, the comeback of most characters, the keyblade war itself), regarding only cutscenes the climax and ending of the story are 1/3 of the total cutscenes of the games. When people say everything was put at the end, it feels like everything was put in the last hour of the game, while KH3 has the longest climax out of every KH title. - Regarding Disney worlds, there is a more subtle tematic that connects them together and with both the power of waking and the ending; love, sacrifice and loss. While I do think that part of the game could have been more elaborated, it comes to a full circle after Sora uses the power of waking in KG and it's later saved by Kairi, showing flashbacks on some of his experiences in the disney worlds. And we all know how the game ends so... - Finally, while I agree with you that the inclusion of Young Xehanort and Dark Riku were the poorest out of the 7 worlds, the experiments they were carrying out do align with the overall story of KH3, giving insight on the creation of the 13th vessel (Xion) with the all puppet (replicas), how they interact when separated (xion true heart was still in Sora while they were making the new Xion) and how to create a new heart form the ground. Again, I still think this is another part that could have been more elaborated within the game. Really nice video overall, I hope you upload more stuff like this. A lot of videos are done in regards of the combat and the abilities and bla bla bla but not many take the time to analyze this games from a story point of view :)

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

I'm sorry that I somehow missed your comment; thank you for watching! To your point about KH1, I agree that it lacks an epic and definitive middle point; I actually tend to view Monstro as the middle thanks to the development of the dynamics between Sora and Riku there; I talk about it at length in my world rankings for KH1. That being said, I don't think it's strictly necessary that each game has a huge and flashy middle point. And as for the experiments being done by YX and DR, ReMind actually made me feel a bit better about their inclusion since they talk a bit about how those experiments are relevant. Thank you again for the kind words and so sorry again for my lateness! I appreciate when people take the time to write out their thoughts like this.

Faith in humanity restored

Awesome video! I really like how you had such a measured response to KH2 vs 3 criticism in terms of pacing. I definitely agree that I would prefer how KH3 spread out its scenes after / during each Disney world. IMO, the exposition at times felt a little forced, but I still appreciated it. Being the last game in the arc, it's hard to drop any "oh shit" moments during the game since the main narrative objective is to wrap things up, so I can see why some decisions were made. I'm excited for Re:Mind in how it handles fleshing out the current unfleshed moments. I'm also excited for your next video too!

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Yeah I do agree about the exposition at some points, I think especially in this one scene with Riku and Mickey in RG where they like explain DDD. They were like a few seconds away from just turning to the screen and giving a recap to the player lol.

awesome of you to finally talk about this game. I honestly loved this game but it definitely had a lot of story problems, but the gameplay was truly a lot of fun I thought. I played every single game before played 3.

I agree with most of your points. My main issue with this game's plot is its lack of context when visiting the Disney worlds (as you mentioned) and how each of the disney worlds in turn were so damn big and long. I really liked how KH1's plot was told through more consequential events occurring in the disney worlds, and even KH2's second trips to certain worlds gave a little bit more interaction when you met up with Organization 13 members doing shady things. That said, I'd also argue that as interested as I may have been in the "big finale" the game is seemingly try to rush to, I was left largely unimpressed. More time travel nonsense, people who should be dead somehow being alive or coming back to life, basically everything that Braig/Xigbar does... I played all the games save for the obtuse mobile one and could not believe how lost and unsatisfied I was by it all. I think you hit on the head that there is no real "middle point" of KH3 and that throws a lot of things off. I expected Sora to find his "power of waking" at a midpoint and then re contextualize events and the second half of the game with that in mind. I think I was also largely disinterested in many of the disney worlds they chose. Tangled, Frozen, and Big Hero 6 were all movies that came out during my college/adult years and I obviously do not connect to them as well as I do for the classic 90s films. It left me wondering "who is this game for?". I kept wanting for the game to send us a trip back to Agrabah or Halloween Town, or at least some reference to those areas to come up. And while I'm not as sour about the lack of Final Fantasy characters, the lack of any resolution or even mention about Cloud and Septhiroth was a real head scratcher for me.

@1KrossF

3 жыл бұрын

Also, for some reason both Kairi and Sora somehow look and act younger in KH3 than they did in KH2. Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't take Kairi seriously despite the promise (that you mentioned) that the game wanted me to.

Nah man this is really good and well thought is what made me really impress.

Damn. This was a solid argument in KH3’s favor. I might finally have the motivation to replay it, which is saying a lot. That being said, other than not getting to visit as many worlds as in KH2 (which goes a long way toward making KH2 a better game for me personally, even if they spread the butter a bit thin on that particular slice of toast), the thing that disappointed me the most about KH3 when I first played was the lack of new non-Disney characters, and even the ones we had before were rarely handled very well. I know the game is supposed to be a culmination of a bunch of different character arcs, but there was just nothing new or intriguing propelling me through the game. No new enemy types like Nobodies in KH2, no new wild card characters with motivations to discover like the Organization and DiZ in KH2, no new questions to answer. So it just felt like one big delaying tactic for the final fight at the end rather than a real narrative, and I guess that wasn’t really what I wanted from a KH game story. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@JaimeNyx15

2 жыл бұрын

@DG Well, the main plot was a bit anemic in KH3, so yeah, I think adding more twists and turns, intrigue, and worldbuilding would've made it better. Can't take away from what wasn't that substantial in the first place. Add some more intrigue to the Power of Waking, have some more plans going on in the background for folks trying to make sure the 7 vs 13 showdown goes how they want it to (darkness AND light sides), give characters like Pete and Maleficent actual plans so they have a reason to be there. KH3 was far too vague for its own good, and I think fleshing things out more along those lines would give me more of a reason to care.

@JPer811

7 ай бұрын

So you’re more quantity over quality? The worlds are the best in the series imo in KH3. It isn’t even close. Yeah there’s fewer worlds but so much exploration.

@JaimeNyx15

7 ай бұрын

@@JPer811 I do like the individual worlds quite a bit in KH3, though I think KH1 still had the best level design. KH2 drew a decent amount of substance from its flat world design by getting a "second pass" in each place narratively, which KH1 and KH3 didn't really do. So in some ways KH3 only had the exploration over the other two, and I don't remember that aspect being that much of a stand-out.

I think what makes kh3 so jarring in terms of pacing isn't the lack of story in disney world, the lack of a solid middle, or the "epic end of the game. I think it's the lack of a solid behinning to ground us like destiny islands and twilight town

I'm not sure what you mean about kh2 not having significant cinematic regarding the core story. They totally do a good amount of key antagonist scenes in between just about everything

Another amazing video! Absolutely agree with all your points, especially with how people misremember just how poor some of KH2’s story elements are (even tho its also in my top 10 games). I also like how you mentioned the lack of keyholes in the Disney worlds, I feel as though just adding that tiny cutscene at the end of the worlds would make them feel more “meaningful” even though I thought a lot of the worlds were executed greatly.

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah lol honestly it's practically splitting hairs, I have KH3 at #7 and 2 at #8. It really is a matter of preference regarding how these things get paced out, but yeah, the way KH2 is laid out really only hit hard for me the first time.

Very late to this party but your segment on the pacing is absolutely spot on. Replays of KH2 are SLOGS for me because there's just hours of...nothing. While I'm disappointed in the lack of a big midpoint in the story in KH3, at least I wasn't playing multiple Disney worlds with literally no interesting story cutscenes for hours on end.

HEY i’m coming from that other video i just commented on and i wanted to again commend you for how great of a job you did on this video too. you stated everything clearly and it followed good logic. you even changed my mind on a few things and i want to put down my thoughts on this comparison again. funny enough, right now i’m actually going through each game again and trying to pay extra close attention to writing and structure and all that stuff since i’ve gotten more into it over the past few years than i did when i last replayed the games around the time 1.5+2.5 for PS4 came out. i’m going through them, taking notes and thinking critically about everything to eventually write my own review thing for each giving my thoughts on the writing and some other general stuff. and the next one up for me is KH2, so i hadn’t fully replayed it again yet since 2017. and i gotta say, i can’t believe you did the timeline thing before me LOL, i was going to do the exact same with 2 and 3 trying to clearly illustrate the pacing of both and which was better, and which had the most plot points spread out. and in my comment on your other video, i had made the remark of KH2 rewarding you after many worlds with cutscenes of the main plot. but i see now that that is absolutely not the case, and i’ll concede that KH3 has technically more consistent pacing, and therefore as an experience would feel more whole that way perhaps. however, like you said in the video, i think the issue comes down to a matter of preference. for me, i prefer KH2 having more weight in each bit of story progression that is unfortunately way more spaced out, rather than the more minor bits after every world in KH3. BUT, you’ve totally opened my mind as to why some might find the latter more appealing. my main issue with KH3’s pacing still stands that the stuff that does happen doesn’t necessarily feel as impactful to me. i appreciate more now from your video and timeline that stuff does happen to pique your interest, and that it actually feeds you throughout, but i think in retrospect after my first playthrough, i notice it’s more so just them talking about things rather than things actually happening. which don’t get me wrong, i’m not so impatient that i get bored when there isn’t action, just from my memory i can’t think of any thematic or even overall story relevance many of those simple interactions between characters have, and it isn’t helped by the fact that the series has never had the best dialogue. Mickey and Riku in Hollow Bastion, Axel and Kairi training, it’s good to actually see the people and things that matter for once after a world, but it doesn’t seem to move things forward as much for my liking. again, i am still gonna replay all the games and pay extra close attention, but that’s just part of my thoughts on it. you did help me see a lot. and the Vanitas in Monsters Inc tie in was actually brilliant and i never even noticed, so thank you! it’s weird to see how smart and well done KH3 can be at time while at others be so... what??? but that’s just been the series ever since KH1 i suppose. your point about expectations being too high and how inevitable that was is also painfully appropriate. i also wanna make clear that even though i still have to replay KH2 again (for the millionth time) i am no stranger to its bullshit. it is by FAR the most overrated Kingdom Hearts game of all time, and does unfortunately overshadow some of the more interesting things narratively in some of the (early) spin-off games and the masterpiece that is KH1 (which i’m glad to see more appreciation for it, i always loved it but when i replayed it i never realized how brilliant a lot of it is on nearly every level). KH2 is a mixed bag because i genuinely think it has some of the best, smartest and most compelling story in the entire series (Roxas prologue, middle portion, certain themes, ending is great), but it’s bogged down by a less than desirable pace and a good bit of convolution. overall it’s still my favorite (what a shocker) but people are way too blind to its flaws. also, i wanted to thank you for pointing out KH2 as the start of just rehashing Disney movie plots. take me back to KH1 Disney worlds please. as a final aside, i have not ONCE seen anyone else complain about the over-marketing of KH3, and i want to give another bravo to you for pointing that out. i would have found things way more impactful and cool if i didn’t get spoiled on pretty much everyone involved and everywhere we’d visit. i miss that mystery from KH1. anyways, another long tangent done. sorry about that. overall, this video successfully changed some of my harsher critiques of KH3’s plot construction. i still prefer KH2’s story, just because of what happens in it being so great makes up for me the huge slags of nothing. that middle point saves is a huge plus too (but we shouldn’t expect every game to follow that formula). but i see now that on a technical level, that KH2’s structure is worse. i can understand your preference for KH3’s and respect it fully. so thank you. i know now, without a doubt, that KH3’s pace, is AIGHT! i am so happy i found your channel. keep it up man.

@RegularPat

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for watching and for your thoughts!! I'm glad I was able to share my perspective; my goal with these sorts of "argumentative" videos isn't so much to make the viewer think like I do, more so to present "do you see why I think this way?" Then it's up to them whether or not they change their mind. Basically, I echo your third paragraph exactly. The respectful and reasoned discourse happening between us is something I wish was employed more often but, y'know, welcome to the Internet right. Just like how you've said I've got you thinking about some of your own convictions, you've got me thinking about some of mine, specifically the quality of *what* is happening in those intermittent KH-character scenes. They're definitely more dialogue-driven and not super active, and I'll concur that the dialogue is not necessarily the series' strong suit, so that makes me more understanding of why people may be inclined to believe that "nothing important" is happening in these scenes. Like I said in the vid, I might just be "easy to please" when I get to actually *see* relevant characters more than once every, like, 6 hours lol. Thank you again for your thoughts and kind words, and for checking out the channel!

@godawful5600

3 жыл бұрын

Regular Pat of course dude! i have loved this series since the first game came out when i was a kid (which i don’t think i made it clear enough that i’ve been a lifelong fan too) and therefore i have strong opinions, but i don’t like attacking people for theirs. it’s not conducive for healthy discussion, and ironically is like, the opposite of the message of this series lol. i’m glad we could come to understanding on our perspectives, and it’s just a dream come true to be seeing this kind of in-depth talk of a frankly overlooked part of the series. everybody talks about the writing but i feel not enough people do it to the level of these kinds of videos. it’s awesome. and i love just any kind of talk about the design and gameplay and such. looking forward to more from you. :)

okay, now I'm gonna have to really agree with you, in kh3 every time you complete a Disney world you get a collection of cutscenes relevant to the main plot. I definitely liked how they did that. it definitely seemed like they wanted to see you invested until the very end. but the problem I had with it in kh2, after you complete agrabah or halloween town the first time, whichever you do first, is that you get the cutscene of axel sending kairi to twilight town, which was really good, but why couldn't they have done that after you complete those two worlds, as well as pride lands, because when I was a kid, I forgot about halloween town and pride lands the first run, and immediately went back to twilight town to be reunited with kairi, which obviously didn't happen, and I couldn't even beat some of the bosses the second time around in beast's castle and port royal, Xaldin and grim reaper respectively. so I had to restart my whole game all over again from the beginning. you can understand that frustration right? lol

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah KH2 could have easily remedied the problem I have with it if it just stretched out some of those Kairi/Axel scenes, or gave us some check-ins with the Organization, even after every 2 worlds like you said. Also I have definitely restarted my game as a kid for even worse reasons lol. Like I couldn't figure out how to customize my shortcuts to get cure on it, and I thought I had messed it up, so I reset around Disney Castle lmao

i think the definitive middle point for kh3 whould be the rescue of Aqua. Rescue her, let she sleep for a bit, recover herself from the hell she has been trought for 10 years. Then after completing the other disney worlds go rescue Ven

Just found your channel and binging all your videos! I think an important point to why some people think that the Disney worlds are less "filler" and more hyped in KH2 is because when we visit the worlds in KH2 we are revisiting old friends from the first game. Every world has a returning companion. Land of Dragon and Pride Lands are the only ones that don't have us revisiting a direct ally but they were summons in KH1 so meeting them fully in the flesh and in their own world made that all the more badass (Port Royal being an exception as well). I remember being hyped as a kid seeing all the old character's reactions to seeing Sora again, something that i definitely missed in KH3. But i still love KH3's pacing far more than KH2.

Yay, a new video! Commenting so the algorithm will hopefully recommend you to more people. :P

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Hahaha thank you! Some people think Kingdom Hearts is light, or darkness, but I think it's the algorithm that lies behind the door.

Yeetus vanitats is the best thing I’ve seen

You know what? I'm going to give it another try. I really didn't like it the first time I played it. I've played all of the KH games and have long-adored the franchise, but something about the third game really didn't gel with me. I know not seeing the Final Fantasy characters was a big blow, as that was one of my big reasons for being excited about the games way back when. One of my biggest issues with the game was the final boss rushes where we'd get this amazing 3-way battle that kept getting interrupted by cutscenes every time I beat someone. I didn't care for the ship combat in Pirates and the Frozen world was so, so forgettable. I think they just didn't take things in the directions I was hoping for, but I'm going to give it another try. Thank you.

Don’t know if this was covered in anything but I never noticed until this video. I think it’s a really neat touch that the unversed show up at monster’s inc where you also see vanitas. This may be a lore thing that’s very obvious but I thought it was a very cool detail.

That's why I skipped all the trailers for years until the game came out. I heard some people were disapointed that Rikue was played for so little, but I didn't even know youcould play as him so it wsa a huge bonus.

My problem with the Disney worlds was that I didn't get to spend enough time in them. I wish there was more story in the Pirates' world, I love it visually but there wasn't enough there other than empty exploration for materials. Same with most other worlds for me. All in all I guess the whole experience of kh3 felt very short for me. Overall liked it tho.

@austinbryan6759

2 жыл бұрын

Dude KH3 has by far the biggest and longest disney worlds, the game is as long as KH2, with like half the worlds. One floor of toybox mall is bigger than most kh2 worlds. Pirates is the only world that feels short but I still think its a fun free roam experience, but saying ALL the worlds are too short is baffling.

@mcwyman7928

2 жыл бұрын

@@austinbryan6759 I think it's only super egregious in the Caribbean and San Fransokyo, which if you go by the battle level order, are the last two Disney worlds in the game that you visit. Both of them are pretty light on story and you can breeze through them both pretty quickly, particularly San Fransokyo. It kind of feels as though the game is trying to rush you through the last stretch of Disney stuff to get you to the endgame stuff. I do think most of the previous Disney worlds are paced pretty well, but the fact that the last two are so nothing story-wise kind of skews perception a bit.

Definitely a B+ in my book. I was expecting much worse after seeing what Square Enix did with FFXV. I'm mostly just glad we're finally done with Xehanort and the main story has been more or less wrapped up. Major sins in my opinion: -Only 1/4th of Twilight Town, complete with that asshole kid who says "Hey want to go visit the [inaccessible] clock tower?" -Hundred Acre wood is just a one-stop mini game to get a special keyblade. I find this particularly weird because the other worlds are MASSIVE. -Just one lame super boss that isn't even very hard -No option to disable Attraction Flow. Pleasant surprises: -Grand Magic is really cool and a great way to encourage magic use. -It always felt incomplete to have only 2 elemental titans to fight in KH1, so despite how easy they are, it was nice to see them all together. -Love how you can skydive off a building and bust some heartless heads, then zip right back up to the top. -That thing at the end with the trillion keyblades was pretty epic.

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Have to agree with all those listed cons, as well as the pros. (The Union Cross moment in the KBG is one of my favorite moments in the series.) But yeah, out of those negatives, the micro 100 Acre Wood was a big WTF for me. I was shocked when it was just that one room. I still have the game as a 9/10 for me personally, I guess I just liked the good stuff more than I disliked the weaker stuff.

@tobyjack1238

3 жыл бұрын

I also thought the attraction flow showed up way too much to the point where I stopped using it after Olympus (except for using the shooter one in Toy Story since I’m a big fan of the Buzz lightyear shooter ride in Disney World). I just preferred using grand magic, one of the keyblade forms, or a party member limit. While I thought Goofy’s limits were kind of underwhelming, I thought everyone else had a good one that was either really effective or just fun to watch.

I will say that "doing-the-plot-itis" is also just a symptom of the devs wanting to flex their budget. They made a better looking version of Let it Go for KH3 because they could and it's the most iconic part of that movie, if you could do that on PS2 I don't think the devs would've skipped thay chance

My dude really said “oh Roxas that’s a good tutorial” like what!? 😂

@whungus4681

3 жыл бұрын

bruh it is 😭

@morganwest2873

3 жыл бұрын

@@whungus4681 it ain’t 😭 they don’t call STT jail for nothin 😂

Finally, there’s someone noticed that. God bless you!

i think kh3 definitely suffers from not having a midway point like kh1 and 2. i also found the worlds to be a lot less interesting overall - ESPECIALLY frozen which is by far the worst addition to the series

@raphaelmillon5061

2 жыл бұрын

I do agree. It's something that I never actually understood even when my hype was skyrocket, it's almost as if Nomura really didn't thought that the game needed this midpoint where shit hits the fan. It would be fantastic to have even a small event in some original world that would make us more, I don't know, aware that shit was getting real and that Sora needed to get the Power of Awakening asap. But other than this, I still love the game, it is my great favorite in the series!

Gonna have to get back to this one when I play KH3, I am the king of patience (and the peasant of funds) so I'm waiting until KH3 is in it's 'final' state so to speak before I play it for the first time. So look forward to an incredibly long comment after I've just come off of finishing it lmao

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

I'll be waiting Jamie! I'm glad you're waiting tbh, I meant to give an audible spoiler warning in the beginning, this vid would've ruined it for you lmao.

@JSeedProductions

2 жыл бұрын

@@PikminandOatchi People outside of Japan did that for eight years waiting for the full version of KH2 and eleven years for KH1

I just realized your title is KH3: DDD. Clever.

Beautifully said. I remember playing KH3 for the first time and thinking... this was.. OK. I think I put more stock in the cons like the phone more than anything and feeling tangled and frozen was to appease the shareholders. Once I played it a second time I thought it was a fantastic game and have given it more applause since

20:45 that’s never been confirmed. Saix called them “human in every way”

@tobyjack1238

3 жыл бұрын

I wonder just how it would be confirmed. In all seriousness, I feel like that’s the closest explanation.

@skibot9974

3 жыл бұрын

@@tobyjack1238 well a future game could have Roxas kicked in the groin at some point

I actually went in to kh3 completely blind, I painstakingly avoided any and all kh3 related information, ads, teasers etc. for years. If something even remotely smelled of kh3 I avoided it like the plague 😐 Which I think made the experience better for me

yes, just yes, this game on it own felt like an experience like no other and just because of that it is my favourite in the series

I’ve bindge to many of your video but idk we have a lot of the same ideals and I appreciate that.

I loved KH3. It’s my favourite game. I simply had the most fun playing it. Combat, Disney Worlds, story. Loved all of it

Can't say I agree, but I very much enjoyed the video and the articulation of your arguments

@RegularPat

2 жыл бұрын

thanks FDR

Dude you call him uncle Ziggy too!?! Great video as always. I'm glad someone is defending kh3 while also pointing out its flaws. Hopefully the ReMind dlc will fix some story plot holes and make more sense of the whole time travel thing. . . . Still pissed you don't have more subs like it's less than 100! Wtf! Quality stuff here! So triggered! *Flips table*

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Uncle Xiggy gang for life. Yeah I honestly considered waiting on this vid until after ReMind was out, because I am especially hoping it does some work in explaining those early KBG moments. Even if it does, it's still ideally something I would've liked to have had covered in the base game, but I won't complain if they improve on those weird parts. I wish I had more subs too lmaoo. But I've got a solid posse of 93.

Saying this in hope of people seeing it. The fact that pretty much every interaction is voice acted is fycking amazing to me. No more random switches between 2d an 3d mouths no more text boxes just seamless gameplay.

The thing I noticed about the Disney worlds in kh3 is that they tend to foreshadow Kairi's death and Sora's grief with losing someone important to him. In tangled, pirates, and arendelle the characters in the movies actually die or seem to die and each time Sora's reaction is one of sadness and even rage like it was at the end. In toy box and San fransokyo the characters are lost to darkness and have to be fought which Sora has to deal with later with Xion, Terra, and Aqua. All of this is foreshadowing the trials Sora will have to deal with (with the exception of monstropolis being the introduction to Ven being in Sora's heart) and I think that this is far more inclusive of the movies to the narrative then any other game!

I'd say you're being a bit unfair to KH2 pacing. Aside of the main highlights (beginning, middle point and conclussion), we have the Disney Castle/Timeless River arc (which at the time was huge given how important of a location it was in KH1) and the restorarion of Radiant Garden. Not only that, KH2 Disney worlds were interesting for themselves because KH1 connected us to some of the worlds already. Just watching how the game would carry on with already-visited-worlds (Olympus, Halloween Town, Agrabah) and previous characters (Beast or the Summons) was interesting enough. They were made relevant in KH1 so we care about them in KH2: like when after our first Olympus Colisseum visit, Hercules ends up in a bad state. This subverses the formula and made you eager for a second visit to give the man it's happy ending. This second-visit structure also made the game flow way more. You may feel the Disney worlds as a chore regardless of what I exposed, but you can finish one in around 1h and change completely the setting on the next one. I prefer this way more than spending more than 3h in the same world: feeling almost like I'm almost not progressing beacuse I'm still there. Not only that, KH2 allows you to skip worlds if you wish to do so: you're not forced to go through those "chores" if you don't want to. And in this case, these serve as amazing secondary missions to train against challenges you may be underleveled for due to the previous skipping. The only part I can understand the argument is for some second visits (Halloween Town, Pridelands or Agrabah) but not all of them (Xaldin Battle, Riku encounter in the Land of Dragons, finishing the Hercules plotline, etc)

thank you for this. Kingdom Hearts 3 is my favorite one and I'm so glad to have found just one person that doesn't immediately answer with "eww, bad game" when the topic comes up.

3 years late for this discussion but then again I bought the game 2 years late and only just now replayed it so going to put my 2 cents in anyway! I think KH3 hits the uncanny valley of storytelling. In so many ways it is a big improvement over past games, but it gets just enough things just enough wrong to make the entire plot feel off and wrong. This happens with the main plot, some of the worlds, and especially the final battle. Main plot wise it does an amazing job of giving every single major character, both good and bad, clear goals they are actively pursuing the entire game, something they’ve not always succeeded in. Both sides are gathering their forces and their power for the final battle, the Organization by investigating worlds with odd relations to hearts so they can learn how to better manipulate them and create vessels for them and the good guys by searching for the lost masters and training up their weaker members. The only place it falls flat is the place where it’s most important - Sora. His stated goals are to regain the power of waking he lost the previous game and to try to free Roxas and/or Ventus. However his actions are to wander from world to world stumbling on the organizations plots and interfering with them and all of his goals are accomplished without his efforts affecting their outcome. This makes the side character’s feel like they have far more agency over the story then the main character and makes most of Sora’s journey feel irrelevant, especially because all of the talk of him being weakened just doesn’t feel valid with him opening the game by spanking the titans so spectacularly. He feels stronger than he ever has and his stated goals and actions do not line up well. This all could have been fixed by explicitly giving him the goal of discovering the organizations plans while working to regain the power of waking. It makes all of his plot important discoveries feel intentional instead of accidental and it makes the player feel like they are accomplishing something beyond aimless wandering. The world’s individual plots run into a similar issue. Herc’s world is an amazing opening that perfectly melds Sora’s presence into the end of the original movie and the world that don’t follow the original movie plots all take the story somewhere interesting and plot relevant, but that means that some of the other worlds that follow the movie plots feel lackluster in comparison, especially the ones where Sora just gets sidelined from the main plot only to show up in the end like the Frozen and Pirate’s worlds. Overall the quality of the individual world stories are very good which makes these less good ones really stick out. Finally the ending. Looking at the intended story beats it’s not a bad idea, the problem is they undercut themselves repeatedly by accident. The game does a good job setting up demon towers and storms as dangerous with previous boss fights, but by placing the mass fight against heartless, nobodies, and unversed right before the demon storm appears they highlight how the heroes are easily capable of dealing with such massive swarms of lesser enemies. Then the scene where Terranort fights the party they again undercut themselves by having so many of the heroes fail to react while he attacks them. He is literally directly next to the heroes, back turned, at several points while they stare helplessly at him. It undercuts the moment, making the heroes seem incompetent rather than the villains powerful. Then Sora saving everyone’s heart and saving them is an awesome moment, and they even set up Namine contacting the lingering will to turn the tide of battle, but then everyone acts like time has passed right after returning before then repeating the same actions as before. Sora straight out says “it worked, I saved everyone!” and they’re all like “Yes you did, great job!”, yet clearly don’t remember minutes later. Despite this, Namine still somehow retains her memories and reaches out, or her attempt to reach out before the reset somehow works despite time seemingly being reset. It just muddles the whole thing, made worse by the party being stomped so thoroughly the first time it feels where 1 guys is somehow able to magically turn it all around. Again I think the plot intentions were good and powerful, they just failed to connect due to a few mistakes. If the 13 had overwhelmed the 9 as a group, especially with support from the tide, then on the reset the party adapting to the strategy and holding them off with Lingering Will’s help while Sora dealt with the tide it would have worked perfectly and been a powerful moment. I think all the problems with the plot were fixable and not even huge problems, the story is overall very well done, it just hits just enough points slightly off that rather than coming off as an improvement in storytelling it kind of fell flat, especially with all the trailer reveals discussed in your other video. Hopefully future games can avoid such mistakes and deliver on the intended story fully. I've heard Remind helps a lot and still need to play that so that'll be fun.

Given the argument for "More interesting stuff is happening during the interlude in KH3", my personal problem here is that interesting stuff is happening and we are decidedly not tangling with it. It felt like "Look a, a KH story is happening, but youuuu don't get to touch it yet", which was particularly egregious without the midpoint retouch. Also, bear in mind that II had a satisfying "bring it home" ending where virtually all current story threads were wrapped up. I feel that conclusive catharsis is robbed from III in favor of sequel bait. But that could just be me. Overall, you do probably the best job I've seen of defending this game from beyond an emotional stand point. Good job, and thank you for acknowledging the Kairi frustrations.

I waited 6 years for this game and when it finally cam out I was in a bad place and pretty depressed. I had no motivation to play whatsoever.. but months later I got on one day and just became addicted. I've never loved the story of KH games and it's the same with this one, but I love the characters and the gameplay. I had my problems with the gameplay on my first play through, but after doing a second on Critical mode I changed my mind and with Remind adding the new combat abilities it really did fix every issue I had with the game. I really love Kingdom Hearts 3. It feels like it just came out.. it's crazy that it's been 2 years

I think I have a somewhat interesting perspective, nostalgia-wise. 3 was the first KH game I had to wait for. I got into the series post-0.2. Actually, I had some distaste for the series before that because of a weird high school rivalry. But that isn't my point. 3 was such a hype for me. For the first time, I was getting longer-standing questions answered. For the first time, I was experiencing something new and fresh that hadn't been theorized to hell and back again. I couldn't just look up explanation and theory videos when I put the game down, I had to try to puzzle things out myself... and it was amazing. I look back on my first time experiencing the rest of the series fondly, but they don't hold a candle to playing through 3 the first time for me. Replaying, I find myself back at 1 all the time, but 3 just feels better.

In defense of the "waited 14 years" statement as someone who really likes KH3, everything that's come out since 2's release has been significantly less than 1 and 2 were in terms of scope and content. It's like we've been munching on snacks for 14 years and were desperate for a full course meal. That being said, I thought KH3 was fully worth that wait. It even had my favorite world in the entire series.

@tobyjack1238

3 жыл бұрын

Which one if you don’t mind me asking? For me it’s the Caribbean because I was one of the few people who liked it in 2. I don’t know why, but it blew me away when I was little to the point where half my online name comes from that experience. To see it fully realized 14 years later to such a great extent with big open areas, a bright sunny environment, and ship combat really made the game for me.

@deaj8450

3 жыл бұрын

Can you explain why you liked 3 cause I really just don't understand. Like it's one of my least favorite games I've ever played and it really upsets me, though I didn't like BBS or DDD either so I definitely saw it coming. I guess maybe my tastes are just that different from most people, idk

3 is my favourite of the series 😄. I think you have some very good points here though. Well said 👍

I definitely see your point. Personally, I liked the 2 visits because it allowed you to face off against Xaldin in Beast’s Castle and get a hint of Riki with the doubt of seeing Xigbar later in Land of the Dragons and because it made sure you weren’t in the same location for too long. I liked Toy Box, Arendelle, and The Caribbean all right, but I felt they just kept droning ON! And whenever the plot did die down into just kind of Disney filler, the gameplay was so tight and well-designed I didn’t really care, whereas KH3 is floaty to a point where it’s uncomfortable and sometimes unsatisfying and with so many mechanics that feel as if nobody cared how they’d work off each other and just put them all in anyway. A second play through helped me see the game is fine, but when I expected to finally be given answers to a bunch of questions, it just left me with just a cavalcade of more questions than when I started. KH2 ended wrapped in a neat bow. No loose ends. Only a new, presumably unrelated to the problem we just solved, message from the King. And I’m not even going to start with Maleficent and Pete in KH3. When referencing positives, there is still the charm, Kingdom of Corona, Monstropolis, and San Fransokyo being my favorites in the opportunities they take. Moments that stood out, Marshmallow being a party member was amazing and hilarious, Vanitas getting YEETed by Sully and Mike, Riki playing with the move set expected after DDD (Dark Slide and Dark Barrier) and best girl Aqua finally getting out of the Realm of Darkness and presumably a fucking nap and some hot cocoa. Enemies were great, new heartless and unversed had cool designs, the return of Power Wilds, Larxene and Marluxia’s Nobody types, the way the bosses near the end fought exactly like their original counterparts, the allies at the end doing the same. The cutscenes were more animated and characters were given more energy as a result and that helped a lot (My highlights being Riku’s “WHAAAAAT”, Even’s “I got benched TOO!”, and of course Hades’ “WHY is everyone so obsessed with that DOLT!”) It has moments, it’s just that though, moments. The gameplay of KH2 keeps the moments from fading. I still like KH3, but it gives us more questions than answers and has cluttered gameplay. Not bad, just disappointing.

Hey Regular Pat. I recently got into your content and I like it, good stuff. Randomly I noticed around 12:35 time frame the scene with the organization members in the badlands the background was loading up as the camera was moving in the scene. It threw me off for a second because I thought the video quality on my tablet was changing till I realized it's the gameplay footage. Lol

I'm a pretty big fan of the franchise but I didn't own all of the various platforms in order to play all the games between 2 and 3, and while I think people overblow how convoluted the story of Kingdom Hearts is, I do have to admit I didn't realise that the side games were important when I was a kid (when I knew they existed). I had a friend group that all loved KH1 and we played 2 alongside each other giving tips and directions, and absolutely none of us even knew Chain of Memories existed until the PS2 remake came out the next year. I bought a 3DS with the weird right joystick dock thing to play DDD but I didn't realise how important BBS was to the story because Sora wasn't in it so I didn't pick it up at the time. I think I've played everything except the mobile games at this point but growing up it was hard know which games had released or if they were important, let alone getting my parents to shell out hundreds of dollars on new consoles for what didn't seem to be core games. I quite liked KH3 aside from the new attractions getting boring long before the end of the game, but my tattoo artist was immensely disappointed. The KH friends from back in the day I'm still in contact with were pretty meh on it too. The Frozen world was a common complaint. I haven't played ReMind or Melody of Memories yet because my PS4 controller broke and I'm waiting on a Steam release to grab the entire franchise yet again.

Hmmmmm I like how you explain things, to me kh3 just went the movie route in some worlds and that’s my biggest problem and they’re long trek and it was easy but those intervals with story elements after worlds were good snacks thanks for pointing it out, I was getting swept away with the hate lol

Still watching the video (2 years later) but I just wanted to point out that even if the characters are 100% aware of what happened in the time travel part you "can't change the past" so they're being forced to repeat actions, with only a few people (Xigbar, Namine, Terra) being able to break the mold.

My problem with KH3’s interlude cutscenes is…they’re only cutscenes. As you said, KH2 has that momentous middle segment, and what makes it so great is it’s a playable scenario. The monkey’s paw of KH3 is, the scant times its interlude scenes are playable, it’s with guest characters who we don’t necessarily have a handle on dropped into boss battles; the cardinal sin of these for me is there is no means of modifying the shortcuts, making it where I’m dreading -having- to play as then rather than excited -getting- to play as them. I first played Re Mind through my Critical Mode save, and each guest character got about one attempt each before I went back to Sora, because I know how to use him (and he’s more capable, or at least has more than one Hi-Potion ffs). I might say BbS did better than either, since despite there being fewer interludes between Disney-focal segments, they were playable with the character we’ve been using. Oh buddy, but if Disney didn’t play way too close to their chest with Corona and Arendelle. I think the former got it worse than the latter, but both suffer so much from their non-SDG events being near 1:1 with the original movies, because those scenes rely on elements that were completely cut from KH3. Basically everything regarding Flynn’s failings, and the virtual absence of Hans. This hurts even more when the Pixar worlds were SO. GOOD., because they acted as entirely new scenarios, spin-off sequels in their own rights, allowing better integration of SDG, of TO13, a chance to more clearly theme what these worlds reflect in the greater narrative. Ah, yeah, Caribbean, too. Haven’t seen that one, but did stop to watch Tangled at my b/f’s insistence shortly into Corona (the world, not the global…event), and so glad I did or I’d’ve been trying to piece together half a puzzle. That said, and back to Xaldin, it’s a damn shame the DS games weren’t given room to breathe in full-on remakes, as both I consider to be fleshed out by their less spectacular elements, and Beast’s Castle especially in relation to KH2, where we get more time with Xaldin and see Roxas’s conflicted perceptions of what purpose a heart has and what role a leader takes (the comparison between the Beast and Xemnas still sits with me, years on.)

A couple of years late but ai just got to play KH3. I did so with everything spoiled for me. Before playing 3 I finally got around to playing KH2FM on crit (a goal I had for years) and also 1FM. I basically played all 3 of the numbered titles in a very short span. My takeaway is that all 3 games are different experiences and I think most people tend to forget that. Each of those 3 games has something to offer and is an overall good experience.

I think one of my biggest issues with KH3 is that it doesn't even seem to deliver on what KH3D set up. Xemnas says pre his KH3D battle with Sora "However-through weakness of body...weakness of will...or weakness of trust-most of the original members we had chosen for the Organization were inadequate", so why then has Demyx, Marluxia, and Larxene been invited back into the Organization? It would've made more sense to bring back Lexause and Xaldin as those were devoted and capable members. He also states that most of the original members were inadequate, yet they've brought back 9 out of 14 of them. Granted, two of them were benched. KH3D also sets up that once you've been properly assimilated into the real Organization you'll be under Xehanort's control hence why we must prevent them from getting Sora. Yet in KH3 Larxene jokes about overthrowing them, and Marluxia is aware they're empty husks and just pawns in Xehanort's game, yet they go along with it for no reason. And we know they're not being mind controlled 'cause Saïx orchestrates Demyx and Vexen's betrayal.

Coming late but oh well I do agree with most of your points made as they were backed up with evidence. Personally at some point I realised even before the game comes out that , the kh3's trailers were too revealing for it's own good. Also, while I see how technically they did try to give story progression while we travel through disney worlds with Sora, the story itself was the problem. Compared to previous titles kh3 had less to none reason for us to go to disney worlds. It felt as if we were taking long breaks while the story is continuing elsewhere but we are not taking part till the very end. While this idea makes sense for previous titles, in kh3 we know from the very beginning who,where and what is going to happen. That's why disney worlds felt even more problematical/ fillers. And while scenes with the organization and other characters were shown to progress the story, it felt less rewarding or/and worked as a reminder that we still couldn't take action to important stuff most of the time (compared to kh2 where something would happen and we would immediately run over to twilight town or hollow bastion and/or fight the thing) . Thinking about this over and over I just think that knowing, that fighting all the bad guys needed to happen in the end and all at once would solve and save the characters issues is something that would not match well with the exploring and fun aspect of Disney worlds in the first place. That would might work if the saving of some guardians took place or be referenced in the disney worlds effectively OR the disney characters themselves be involved more in helping. That did happen in toy box, but almost everything was a set up for the next game. Idk I think I could go forever mentioning flaws here and there but overall I did enjoy the game , and the mechanics and world building is fantastic, that's what keeps me coming back to it after all.

For what it's worth, I'd consider the stuff with Xaldin at Beast's Castle a chartworthy point of interest in II. I will concede, however, that he's not exactly a crucial character nor does his death really move the plot forward in the long run. As you touched upon, though, I do think that the death of an Organization member at least gives the player a sense of accomplishing something meaningful to the overall conflict, which more of the Disney worlds in II could have stood to utilize. Perhaps it's less of an overall story impact and more the sense that the larger conflict is spilling over even into the filler portions. II did some of this, but not as well nor as much as I, and III makes sure to do at least SOMETHING with each world, even if the execution could be better (hello, Arendelle). I will say that a one thing that helps make II a bit more epic overall (if not necessarily a better story overall) is not just a definitive midpoint, but a few parts where you actually have a proper confrontation with the overarching villains, at least for a bit. By contrast, III mostly pushes all of the proper fighting to the endgame, instead forcing you to be content with the usual ominous villain gloating (and the bits where they get dunked on by Disney characters, which is admittedly a lot of fun). To III's credit, 3D is a lot worse about this, as the plot barely moves forward at all even outside of the Disney worlds, and you have a much better sense of the villains' overall goal in for the majority of III. Of course, the whole rules of III's conflict means that the actually fights are being deliberately saved for the end, and that's a valid choice, but one I personally find a bit unsatisfying. I agree that more concrete reasons to actually visit the worlds would have been better, and I'd add that more Disney villains to fight would have helped as well. Olympus Coliseum and San Fransokyo scratch that itch just fine for me (even if I though I do think a fight with Yokai would have kicked ass, but hey, San Fransokyo has one of my favorite world stories this time around, so it's not a huge loss). As for Davy Jones and the Kraken, that's a fight I think a lot of people have wanted to see, and while I'm glad we GOT it, the execution left something to be desired, probably coming from how SDG for some reason have to skip out a large portion of the World's End's actual plot. End result is that we don't really actually SEE Jones until the final battle, when some time dedicated to him and Calypso (who just transforms offscreen for some goddamn reason, even though it seemed like Tia Dalma was building up to something important with Sora!) would have proved an interesting parallel to what happens with Sora and Kairi at the end. Granted, Will and Elizabeth already kind of do that, but it would have been nicer to see it emphasized more. The Carribean is a fun world and all, but man does the story need some work. As for the Disney worlds that DON'T have Disney bosses... Toy Box could have maybe stood to have a fight with Zurg or something, but it didn't need it really, and Zurg in particular might have felt a bit tangential to everything else going on. You have a lot of possessed toys to fight anyway (even if they're original creations and don't have any lines), so it at least makes something in the world an antagonist for you to fight. (As a side note, I love how they do actually make this world advance the overall narrative, by having it introduce what is one of the two most important plot points for the series going forward.) I will say that Corona isn't so bad as its other movie plot brethren, as aside from some plot holes (why, exactly, does Flynn go off on his own after the boat scene if the Stabbington Brothers don't exist in this version?), it does the best job at capturing what makes the movie great through the gameplay interactions with Rapunzel. Gothel (and for that matter Hans, but I'll get to Arendelle) isn't exactly a villain I'd say needed a boss fight - her threat comes more from who she is as a person rather than any physical threat on her part. She wields a weapon, but the conflict is not resolved through a fight (as opposed to someone like Clayton or Shan Yu, who are somewhat close to her role in the game, I feel). Having her transform into a Heartless is fine, I think. Onto Monstropolis, I would have originally grouped Randall in with Gothel, as while he's more physically intimidating I wasn't really sure if he was climatic boss battle material, even with his camoflage abilities would make for a fun gimmick. After some thought, however, I'm wondering if you could have had something more like the Oogie Boogie fights, where the environment was the real threat (the door vault in particularly could have gotten pretty crazy there - it's a fan favorite movie sequence for a reason). That said, while it might sound shallow, I'm honestly thinking you might want to just cut him if you aren't going to give him a fight and swap him out with Vanitas the whole way through, as like you said he's a natural fit for the world. And finally we have Arendelle, which...yeah, I think everyone's said it by now. Hans, looking back, is actually a bit more physically capable than Gothel strikes me as, but I still don't think fighting him as a human suits him - what made him notable as a villain (if not necessarily one of the greats) is how he manipulates and betrays Anna and Elsa. Now that would make him perfectly suited to be turned into a Heartless like Gothel...except they removed literally all of that and make him completely silent, while just kind of having him collapse and turn into Skoll. Now Skoll's a great fight, and I think it's at least an epic closer for a mostly disappointing world, but it's not really a satisfying STORY closer. This kind of leads to a bigger problem, which is...Elsa, who is neither a party member nor a boss fight, even though she would be great in both (doesn't help that this world also pulls the convenient SDG removal at just about the part where it would make the most narrative sense to actually fight her). Hell, doing both would help add to the "so what will Elsa accept? Light or darkness?" question that ought to be at the core of the world's story, but, well...isn't, or at least in a sense that we can see it happen properly. If I recall correctly Frozen was the Disney world that had the most creative interference, so if Elsa as a boss and/or party member was ever on the table...well, I'd assume Disney quashed it themselves, and instead we had to make do with fucking Marshmallow of all people. Here's hoping a return to Frozen will remedy that, though I have not actually SEEN the sequel yet, so I'm not really sure what to expect? That kind of ties into a larger problem with the Disney worlds, which is that the number of viable bosses has started to dwindle. Worlds that might seem likely candidates for future games (e.g. Zootopia, a bunch of Pixar movies) don't exactly have a lot of obvious boss candidates, and worlds that do have some cool potential bosses (e.g. the Great Mouse Detective, Treasure Planet, Atlantis) aren't exactly guaranteed to make an appearance in future games. There are some exceptions to this, mind you - Moana, for example, seems like a likely candidate for one of the New Seven Lights and has some pretty decent boss options. And maybe I'm just lacking in creativity for stuff like Zootopia. As it stands, though, I do hope that that they're able to continue to provide a good Disney boss output, as it'd be quite disappointing if three per game was all we got in every game going forward. Anyway, sorry for the rambling wall of text here - I guess this video just prompted a lot of my thoughts on III and I just felt the need to get them out.

@roromaniac8

3 жыл бұрын

All amazing thoughts, but the Randall environment one is just objectively a good idea. I get the need to vent about it all, I wanted to for so long.

Not entirely related to the video but is the general consensus that Monstropolis is the best Disney KH3 world? Like I'd love to hear arguments for other worlds, but for me it's just done really well, amazing soundtrack (as ever), the interweaving of main plot and world plot, the designs for SDG are brilliant and it's generally just a fun ol' time! I mean I generally have a lot of attachment to Monster's Inc. as a film so I expected to love it regardless because of that but it completely ascended beyond my expectations

Great way of explaining things very much like my thoughts you know how to word them

15:50 Just wondering... what about the organization appearances in worlds in KH 2.

I think the big difference that makes kh3 content at least feel more like filler is that players were primed to expect this incredible showdown. While Xehanort moves his chess pieces for the keyblade war, Sora and co are just like "whatever man" until the plot switches gears from the realm of darkness onward. This shift in pacing is jarring in a way kh2 never was. The game simply starts with more intrigue and momentum than KH2 after so many installments and build up. The plot gives this air of very dramatic finality, and so it's understandable that filler content will be judged more harshly and if any installment had to have decent plot progression between disney worlds, it was this one simply due to this being "the final installment of the dark seeker saga" etc. Even the story beats you mentioned between worlds don't actually reveal all that much and don't even have many interesting character moments. I personally feel that many of KH3's pacing issues would be solved if they spaced out assembling the warriors of light across the game as opposed to getting literally all of them in the Keyblade Graveyard. This last section, although cathartic, also highlights how rushed the story beats are.

Ironically Kbash boosting their channel via polls is how I found you. Also KH3 isn't a bad game but it honestly started out on a really bad note as soon as I got to Twilight Town. I was so excited and have waited so long to climb that tower and couldn't wait to explore a expanded version of it, and when you go to head to the tower it ask you if you want to leave. They shrunk it rather than expanding it

I wish I had seen this earlier. I love KH2, it’s my number 1 game of the KH series. Kh3 on the other hand on my first play through sorta disappointed me. There’s a lot of things that stack up for the reason I don’t put kh3 in my number 1 spot and I would love to discuss them with people that won’t rip my head off. Now that time has passed I come to love KH3, and with Remind it almost put KH1 into 3rd place for a top 3. I plan on getting a pc one day to experience mods and getting to experience moments I wanted out the series.

Young Xehanort in the Toy Story world. YOUNG Xehanort in the Toy Story world

@immanuel7306

3 жыл бұрын

ooooooooooooooooooh I get it now lmao

What's the music at 8:47 ?

you get a like for that yeetus vanitas scene

Good video. Just subbed

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you, appreciate it!

My biggest problem is how KH3 doesn’t really contextualize the plot developments with a world visit. Everything that pushed the plot forward before the end happened in Yen Sid’s tower, the realm of darkness, or Radiant Garden. You can’t visit any of those worlds, and when you do it’s as a quick pop-in boss battle. It feels really detached, like the game just started listing plot points at us. I also feel sad about it not having much of a beginning - which I understand was partly bc they chopped off the Aqua prologue. Still, it’s jarring to go straight from the Dive to the Heart into the post-DDD status quo.

I'm like 3 years late but idgaf. I was absolutely shocked to see people having this game have as much hate as it did. Maybe it's because I played it well after release and after doing an entire play through of the whole series before getting to it. I still really enjoy this game. 3 is the only game I've felt compelled to do actual challenge runs on. I've done a regular play through and one with the procodes for no attractions no cure no healing items and no summons. This game has so much room for challenges beyond the normal level 1s and critical. Honestly didn't even notice the lack of FF characters until limitcut. I probably rank this one as my favorite kh game right next to BBS. I haven't played melody of memory and I probably never will I suck at rhythm games hope in the 3.5 collection it gets the days treatment.

U just got a new subscriber.

@RegularPat

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

For me as a KH fan, the graphics and battle system of KH3 is by far the best part, and really shines in the Remind fights when the handicaps are off and you just have to have skill. The delivery of the plot though was just so watered down. For all the criticism one could place on Dream Drop, it left plenty of good material to make a deeper story in 3. Why wasn’t Xehanort still trying to take over Sora? Why did the gang have to fight the Organization even if it meant playing into Xehanort’s hands? Why wasn’t the so called “Keyblade War” fought on multiple worlds? Heck, if we just switch the thread that Org 13 had to fight Sora and Co. with “They need the new 7 princesses of hearts to complete the Keyblade” the game could’ve remained relatively unchanged while being more naturally flowing and compelling.

Interestingly, I actually disliked the short scenes at the end of each world because it showed other characters progressing the plot while I had made no progress toward finding the power of mcguffin. On the KH2 timeline, Sora is involved in every bubble except where Axel kidnaps Kairi. In the KH3 one, Sora isn't in half of the bubbles, so it feels to me like the story is going on somewhere else.

19:45 I think Young Xehanort was talking about adding Xion since they lacked an organization member before the keyblade graveyard and Dark Riku... maybe tried to create a plan c in case they needed quick replacements and creating hearts is easier than finding ones but idk