i love how in his character designs for the main 3 games (1 2 &3) it almost reflects how close sora and riku became. first kh1. they were rivals. Riku had longer, downed spiked hair. Sporting a kind of tank top. Meanwhile Sora had the weird jacket-tee thing, and more upwards facing hair. The shirt of riku was the color of soras shoes, and soras jacket was the color of rikus shoes. They were perfect contrasts to each other. Because they were friends/RIVALS in that game. Then in KH2, they’re one step closer to reuniting. Riku finally put on a jacket, but one thats sleeveless, sort of resembling his old shirt and soras jacket in one. You can also see how they sort of share the similar yellow black and white color scheme. Then finally you have KH3. Both their hairstyles got significantly shorter, and they share the similar top clothing idea of a V-neck, long fingerless gloves, and the same short sleeved jacket. Finally complementing each other in the game that shows them being completed and reunited.
I think Riku's homelife wasn't the best. Sure, they were trapped in a boring world, but he accepted to let his home get destroyed in return for a leaving ticket. That's an act of pure despair. And of course, there's the fact he loses faith in Sora's friendship super easily, even though he knows the creepy old woman Maleficent is. That's called having trust issues.
I think it goes a bit deeper than what you say. Riku for the most part was considered the pillar of his friends and as such he grew accustomed to having to take care of everything on his own like how it’s mentioned by others that Sora would usually just take a nap on the beach whenever they were working on their raft, then there’s his competitive relationship with Sora that starts out as both being friendly rivals like how they were in their home world but would eventually end up being more and more hostile towards Sora as he sees how much Sora has grown in their time apart from each other as well as the company he now keeps in place of him. Riku’s darkness is more complex than it seems on the surface, hence why it takes him so long to find his balance.
ANY appearance from our heroes' families would be absolutely welcomed. It's kinda weird at this point that these teenagers leave home, sometimes for over a year, and their parents seemingly don't notice or don't care lol. All three of them have basically died before. I wanna see THAT conversation. Like, imagine Riku talking to his dad or something, filling him in on where he was over the year plus between KH1 and the end of KH2.
@@michaelcarlton1484 That's what I imagine happened. Sora's parents at least were likely not too concerned until the start of KH2 when everyone remembered our protagonist. I don't have a problem with it, i'm just curious how their parents would react after being told the plot of KH1 and 2 and how their kids saved the world. Like I mentioned, I wanna see Riku tell his parents about all the stuff he was up to in those games lol. I just imagine his dad or something looking shocked at the end of it all and then going; "An old man did WHAT to your body?"
There are three numbers we can use for a timeline, We know the official ages of the Destiny Island Trio at the start of KH1, using the days from 358 and the KH2 prologue we know roughly the time span between KH1 and KH2 and we know that Birth By Sleep takes place about a decade before KH1
I’m always so excited to find a fellow fan! I love listening to Final Fantasy or Kingdom hearts videos in the background like a podcast. You deserve so many more subs for the quality and time you put into these videos.
I’m replaying Kh3 after finally watching back cover, and X - dark road (all the mobile stuff) and Kh3 is much more impactful and I’m loving it. I originally was disappointed by kh3, but just because it wasn’t what I expected or think I wanted, doesn’t mean it was bad. Having a better understanding of the story as a whole, I like where the story is headed. Kh3 is a lot of fun, regardless of certain lacking areas like no ff characters, defensive magic like reflect, kh1 aero, kh2 fire, stop, etc etc.
This wasn't exactly what I was looking for with a "character breakdown". It's basically just telling me the whole story where Riku pops in more than anything, but maybe I just didn't watch enough Also, I do agree that we'll prob kno more about it later, but Riku's darkness more came from him fearing that Sora & Kairi were just gonna run off without him. If you've watched Pixar's Luca, it's kinda similar to Alberto with Luca. He sees Sora make friends with others & he upsets him. He feels like he needs to prove to Sora that he'll just save Kairi without him. & it just buries him farther into the darkness until Ansem SoD convinces him that letting him in will get him what he wants. Riku in KH1 is a big jealous mess so ofc it makes sense why he does what he does. I didn't watch farther than 9 mins tho so idk what else you gotta say. I don't mean to be rude so I'm sorry if I did >< just misunderstanding Riku kinda misunderstands the series. I might come back to this vid later on tho
i tend to assume that there is more or less 1 yr between each main game (kh1, 2, 3 etc). we def know there's literally one calendar yr between 1 and 2, and that Kairi spends a year in dreams between 3 and MoM's end. (i'm assuming that MoM immediately precedes kh4.) based on this pattern, it makes sense to assume there's also 1 yr, more or less, between kh2 and 3. personally, i usually count the kh2-3 time gap as less than a whole year (6-10 months; long enough for the kids to age up but not a whole 365 days.) but tbf, that metric is based on vibes and not evidence lol. i'm a filthy casual first and a logical theorist second. great vid, man. even though Riku is my favorite character, there's so much stuff going on, there's always something i don't know. thanks for the high-quality summary!
The KH2 - 3 time is always up for debate since we've never been specifically told sadly lol the best we have is that the boys haven't aged hardly between kh2 and DDD but every game after DDD is right after the other so it's hard to tell haha. Thank you for the kind words!!
If I'm not mistaken, Jiminy's Journal does mention the TLTW kids are still in summer vacation so I don't think it's been more than a month between 2 & 3. I don't kno if the JPN vers says the same thing tho, but Just cuz summer was over for Roxas in KH2 doesn't mean it was the end of summer outside the digital TLTW. It wouldn't be surprising since it's possible for Coded & DDD to be within a day each (both adventures take place in different realms, digital & dream, & in DDD, they're just waiting around as if it's only been an afternoon like how tests can be) sorry if this is a long explanation! KH3's Limitcut & the end of KHMoM def are a year after 3 tho!
6:30 I like that you can tell the kingdom key was originally supposed to go to Riku by its color palette. Yellow, blue, silver, black similar to rikus design
5:56 Some actual confirmation is on this for anyone wondering. Riku is actually the one who opened the door to darkness. During rikus story in chain of memories Riku does encounter zexion, Zexion is classified by xemnas as Mr liar pants though so his word is shifty but he says to Riku “you were the one who destroyed your home!” And Riku doesn’t deny this. Riku also states: the door. Is open. The keyblade also is riku’s at this current time. Ansem/billyzane/xehanort/xehanorts heartless was not able to open the door because he’s more just a walking corpse at the time being but ansem looks like terra kinda loosely and terra is rikus dad. Riku was able to be tricked into causing literally the apocalypse because his adoptive and very absent dad literally just told him: hey man go use the keyblade to open up that ominous door it’ll let you go to Disney land
this is heavy speculation only, but Ursula said "that man was right, you 2 are here" or something alone those lines I believe that someone from the organization tipped off Ursula that two boys mathcing Sora and Riku's descriptions would be there and try to kill her in the near future and she could try to get the drop on them and a bit of a stretch, but maybe they used that to implant the χ sigil in sora's clothes
This is actually something I did come across when making the video. The cutscene does play after Monstro, however riku learns Kairi lost her heart in the cutscene which he already knows in Monstro which makes me believe it happens before. But as to your point he doesn't show the heartless control power till after so it's a bit controversial I agree
@@ogskraxx6678 Personally I time Riku getting control of the heartless while Sora was dealing with Oogie Boogie and while he was in Atlantica, Riku took Kairi to the clock tower. I also headcanon that Riku was the one in Wonderland who kidnapped Alice and before heading to Traverse Town he met Oogie, Ursula and Jafar.
I remember 11 year old me, in love with this game, losing the keyblade for the first time at the beginning of Hollow Bastion, I was devastated and felt like a part of me was taken. It was intense 😅 This is definitely “that game” for me that I’ve replayed dozens of times, I know at least KH1 and 2 like the back of my hand. Although, I’ve never been able to get Fenrir 😢😭 I should be ashamed of myself, I haven’t tried for a long time either
I just wanted to add one thing it isnt a dual at the land of dragons if you want to you can actually not fight him at all and just fight the heartless he doesnt ever pursue you and the only reason you get it hit is if you hit him or you get in range of his aeo attacks
Unpopular opinion, but I am so tired of Sora. Bring on more Riku. His character is so much more interesting and would love to see him have a much bigger role. Let’s see what KH4 brings us.
@@ffsAD That is far from true. Riku is not a shell of himself and his arc is far from over, hence why he is going to Quadratum to save Sora. There is a reason why he was faltering in KH3 which should hopefully be explored in KH4.
"Riku being the main character alongside Sora" Why do people pretend that this is the case? Riku literally has 25% of the screentime Sora does he is AT BEST a secondary main character in specific HANDHELD games
Because it was comfirmed in an interview, and I quote, “the main focus of the series is Sora and Riku, how their friendship develops, but also how they grow up.”
1:39 Birth By Sleep
4:16 Kingdom Hearts 1
19:52 Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
32:58 Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
36:32 Kingdom Hearts 2
43:27 Kingdom Hearts: 3D Dream Drop Distance
1:02:55 Kingdom Hearts 0.2
1:03:58 Kingdom Hearts 3
1:16:48 + Remind
1:19:00 Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
i love how in his character designs for the main 3 games (1 2 &3) it almost reflects how close sora and riku became.
first kh1. they were rivals. Riku had longer, downed spiked hair. Sporting a kind of tank top. Meanwhile Sora had the weird jacket-tee thing, and more upwards facing hair. The shirt of riku was the color of soras shoes, and soras jacket was the color of rikus shoes. They were perfect contrasts to each other. Because they were friends/RIVALS in that game.
Then in KH2, they’re one step closer to reuniting. Riku finally put on a jacket, but one thats sleeveless, sort of resembling his old shirt and soras jacket in one. You can also see how they sort of share the similar yellow black and white color scheme.
Then finally you have KH3. Both their hairstyles got significantly shorter, and they share the similar top clothing idea of a V-neck, long fingerless gloves, and the same short sleeved jacket. Finally complementing each other in the game that shows them being completed and reunited.
I think Riku's homelife wasn't the best. Sure, they were trapped in a boring world, but he accepted to let his home get destroyed in return for a leaving ticket. That's an act of pure despair.
And of course, there's the fact he loses faith in Sora's friendship super easily, even though he knows the creepy old woman Maleficent is. That's called having trust issues.
I think it goes a bit deeper than what you say. Riku for the most part was considered the pillar of his friends and as such he grew accustomed to having to take care of everything on his own like how it’s mentioned by others that Sora would usually just take a nap on the beach whenever they were working on their raft, then there’s his competitive relationship with Sora that starts out as both being friendly rivals like how they were in their home world but would eventually end up being more and more hostile towards Sora as he sees how much Sora has grown in their time apart from each other as well as the company he now keeps in place of him. Riku’s darkness is more complex than it seems on the surface, hence why it takes him so long to find his balance.
Bro you said this same THING in a whole new video about kingdom hearts in a different channel!! Stop strolling!!
I haven't had a chance to watch the entire thing yet, but DAYUM over an hour? Insane! Excited to dig into this when I have some time.
I'd love to see Riku's interactions with Naminé during 358/2, his family during the post-KH2 timeskip, and what he did in the year following KH3.
ANY appearance from our heroes' families would be absolutely welcomed. It's kinda weird at this point that these teenagers leave home, sometimes for over a year, and their parents seemingly don't notice or don't care lol. All three of them have basically died before. I wanna see THAT conversation. Like, imagine Riku talking to his dad or something, filling him in on where he was over the year plus between KH1 and the end of KH2.
@@Arc115YT To be fair, some of their memories were erased. So when everyone came back at the end of KH2, they probably told their families.
@@michaelcarlton1484 That's what I imagine happened. Sora's parents at least were likely not too concerned until the start of KH2 when everyone remembered our protagonist. I don't have a problem with it, i'm just curious how their parents would react after being told the plot of KH1 and 2 and how their kids saved the world. Like I mentioned, I wanna see Riku tell his parents about all the stuff he was up to in those games lol. I just imagine his dad or something looking shocked at the end of it all and then going; "An old man did WHAT to your body?"
There are three numbers we can use for a timeline, We know the official ages of the Destiny Island Trio at the start of KH1, using the days from 358 and the KH2 prologue we know roughly the time span between KH1 and KH2 and we know that Birth By Sleep takes place about a decade before KH1
I’m always so excited to find a fellow fan! I love listening to Final Fantasy or Kingdom hearts videos in the background like a podcast. You deserve so many more subs for the quality and time you put into these videos.
That means so much, thank you!!!!
Great video! I forgot a lot of these details and this saves a ton of time over me replaying the series. Looking forward to future characters!
I’m replaying Kh3 after finally watching back cover, and X - dark road (all the mobile stuff) and Kh3 is much more impactful and I’m loving it. I originally was disappointed by kh3, but just because it wasn’t what I expected or think I wanted, doesn’t mean it was bad.
Having a better understanding of the story as a whole, I like where the story is headed. Kh3 is a lot of fun, regardless of certain lacking areas like no ff characters, defensive magic like reflect, kh1 aero, kh2 fire, stop, etc etc.
This wasn't exactly what I was looking for with a "character breakdown". It's basically just telling me the whole story where Riku pops in more than anything, but maybe I just didn't watch enough
Also, I do agree that we'll prob kno more about it later, but Riku's darkness more came from him fearing that Sora & Kairi were just gonna run off without him. If you've watched Pixar's Luca, it's kinda similar to Alberto with Luca. He sees Sora make friends with others & he upsets him. He feels like he needs to prove to Sora that he'll just save Kairi without him. & it just buries him farther into the darkness until Ansem SoD convinces him that letting him in will get him what he wants. Riku in KH1 is a big jealous mess so ofc it makes sense why he does what he does. I didn't watch farther than 9 mins tho so idk what else you gotta say. I don't mean to be rude so I'm sorry if I did >< just misunderstanding Riku kinda misunderstands the series. I might come back to this vid later on tho
Great job with the video! Your hard work shows and is very appreciated!
This looks like it took a lot of work, and it honest to god helped me put together things I had forgotten about Riki's story. Thank you thank you!!❤
Thank you! Hope you're excited for the next one, it's in the works😁
I love the final Agni Kai music over the Roxas vs Riku scene
FINALLY SOMEONE POINTS THIS OUT!! lol glad you noticed
I will never get over Riku seriously asking MICKEY MOUSE to kill him. It cracks me up everytime.
i tend to assume that there is more or less 1 yr between each main game (kh1, 2, 3 etc). we def know there's literally one calendar yr between 1 and 2, and that Kairi spends a year in dreams between 3 and MoM's end. (i'm assuming that MoM immediately precedes kh4.) based on this pattern, it makes sense to assume there's also 1 yr, more or less, between kh2 and 3.
personally, i usually count the kh2-3 time gap as less than a whole year (6-10 months; long enough for the kids to age up but not a whole 365 days.) but tbf, that metric is based on vibes and not evidence lol. i'm a filthy casual first and a logical theorist second.
great vid, man. even though Riku is my favorite character, there's so much stuff going on, there's always something i don't know. thanks for the high-quality summary!
The KH2 - 3 time is always up for debate since we've never been specifically told sadly lol the best we have is that the boys haven't aged hardly between kh2 and DDD but every game after DDD is right after the other so it's hard to tell haha. Thank you for the kind words!!
If I'm not mistaken, Jiminy's Journal does mention the TLTW kids are still in summer vacation so I don't think it's been more than a month between 2 & 3. I don't kno if the JPN vers says the same thing tho, but Just cuz summer was over for Roxas in KH2 doesn't mean it was the end of summer outside the digital TLTW. It wouldn't be surprising since it's possible for Coded & DDD to be within a day each (both adventures take place in different realms, digital & dream, & in DDD, they're just waiting around as if it's only been an afternoon like how tests can be) sorry if this is a long explanation! KH3's Limitcut & the end of KHMoM def are a year after 3 tho!
6:30 I like that you can tell the kingdom key was originally supposed to go to Riku by its color palette. Yellow, blue, silver, black similar to rikus design
5:56
Some actual confirmation is on this for anyone wondering. Riku is actually the one who opened the door to darkness.
During rikus story in chain of memories Riku does encounter zexion, Zexion is classified by xemnas as Mr liar pants though so his word is shifty but he says to Riku “you were the one who destroyed your home!” And Riku doesn’t deny this. Riku also states: the door. Is open. The keyblade also is riku’s at this current time. Ansem/billyzane/xehanort/xehanorts heartless was not able to open the door because he’s more just a walking corpse at the time being but ansem looks like terra kinda loosely and terra is rikus dad. Riku was able to be tricked into causing literally the apocalypse because his adoptive and very absent dad literally just told him: hey man go use the keyblade to open up that ominous door it’ll let you go to Disney land
this is heavy speculation only, but Ursula said "that man was right, you 2 are here" or something alone those lines
I believe that someone from the organization tipped off Ursula that two boys mathcing Sora and Riku's descriptions would be there and try to kill her in the near future and she could try to get the drop on them
and a bit of a stretch, but maybe they used that to implant the χ sigil in sora's clothes
Correction: Riku gets control of the heartless after Monstro
This is actually something I did come across when making the video. The cutscene does play after Monstro, however riku learns Kairi lost her heart in the cutscene which he already knows in Monstro which makes me believe it happens before. But as to your point he doesn't show the heartless control power till after so it's a bit controversial I agree
@@ogskraxx6678 Personally I time Riku getting control of the heartless while Sora was dealing with Oogie Boogie and while he was in Atlantica, Riku took Kairi to the clock tower. I also headcanon that Riku was the one in Wonderland who kidnapped Alice and before heading to Traverse Town he met Oogie, Ursula and Jafar.
@@ogskraxx6678 But you do have a good point, it implied that he summoned the Parasite Cage
I also head Canon the Riku taking Alice, I wish we saw more of him actually capturing more princesses
This was a great video cant wait for your video on sora or kairi (even tho its not much to cover) keep up the good work m8
Working on the next one, and those 2 will eventually come!! Thank you!
I remember 11 year old me, in love with this game, losing the keyblade for the first time at the beginning of Hollow Bastion, I was devastated and felt like a part of me was taken. It was intense 😅
This is definitely “that game” for me that I’ve replayed dozens of times, I know at least KH1 and 2 like the back of my hand.
Although, I’ve never been able to get Fenrir 😢😭 I should be ashamed of myself, I haven’t tried for a long time either
Very nice work!
Road to Dawn reminds me of how if you put all the covers together, they make a road to dawn. From dark to light
Thanks for this video !
I just wanted to add one thing it isnt a dual at the land of dragons if you want to you can actually not fight him at all and just fight the heartless he doesnt ever pursue you and the only reason you get it hit is if you hit him or you get in range of his aeo attacks
Can you do Ventus, Aqua, and Terra Timeline?
Unpopular opinion, but I am so tired of Sora. Bring on more Riku. His character is so much more interesting and would love to see him have a much bigger role. Let’s see what KH4 brings us.
I agree.
Riku’s arc is done. There’s a reason why he was a shell of himself in KH3. There’s nothing more interesting to be discovered from Riku.
@@ffsADthere can be though, kh is Infamous for just winging it and making it up as they go lol
@@ffsAD That is far from true. Riku is not a shell of himself and his arc is far from over, hence why he is going to Quadratum to save Sora. There is a reason why he was faltering in KH3 which should hopefully be explored in KH4.
@@ffsADisnt Riku next arc is developing into the leader. Sora is just an ace.
You should do one for xehanort 🙏
Genuinely probably the one I'm most excited to make eventually🔥🔥
How did repliku come back in kh3?
Highly recommend playing the game
Dream drop distance and 358/2 days are fcked
How to turn a cool character into a soulless husk. only KH1 and 2 matter and nomura is a hack.
Kingdom heart timeline lea
Fun fact, by the time this comment has been posted , this video would be 13 years old~
... Any chance i can get a pin?
"Riku being the main character alongside Sora"
Why do people pretend that this is the case? Riku literally has 25% of the screentime Sora does he is AT BEST a secondary main character in specific HANDHELD games
Because it was comfirmed in an interview, and I quote, “the main focus of the series is Sora and Riku, how their friendship develops, but also how they grow up.”