I guess you could call this the *_Final Mix_* of my Form Study Volume 1 👀 Like I said in the video, feel free to comment any additional info, criticisms, etc. I'm learning this stuff alongside all of you after all.
One more thing about Kairi. That Strike Raid she has? Sora's never done the "Throw the weapon, then teleport to it to catch it" version of the move. But you know who HAS used that particular variation of the technique? Axel in Re:CoM.
Sora is so kind and unassuming, people forget that this boy will make the block hot in a heartbeat for his friends. Boy was ready to dive into the realm of darkness to save Aqua, who he never met, even at the cost of his own heart. If you got Sora in your corner, there isn't anything to worry about
So then Riku fighting style and stance is hyper focused on attack? That means by defult, sora adapted a more defensive stance to counter it as they grew up sparring!
There's also the case of Sora needing to be the well-rounded, adaptable character to play: his absolute prominence in gameplay kind of makes him the Mario of the roster, and a defensively capable moveset that doesn't overcommit is very suitable for that.
As someone who _has_ fenced irl for around a decade, I'm impressed by your analysis! It's clear that a lot of it comes from your diligent research, and you're synthesizing some good points on top of that! When I look at RIku's stance, I imagine using that offhand to pin an enemy down or wrestle their weapon out of the way. That's where his 'swapped' footing comes in; if an enemy is close enough that you can put hands on them, that's too close to get the sword between you and them -- _unless you pull it back like he's doing._ This pulled-back version of high ward isn't a stance we'd walk into the fight with, but rather, one we'd switch into _if_ we got close enough that we needed to wrestle the enemy with the other hand. On a less realistic note: when you face Riku as a boss, he tends to _cast his spells_ with that offhand, rather than firing them out of his Keyblade! Where other characters in KH focus exclusively on their weapon, Riku has an awareness of both sides of his body in combat -- _and an awareness of both side of his heart, light and dark._
Riku is kinda like a little shit fighting, he wont engage you unless he haves too and much rather wear you off from far away, Riku is actually a realy lazy fighter
An interesting thing I noted about Riku's stance is when he uses it. Before being possessed by Ansem he had a completely different stance but after it changes and his original stance is never taken again. It makes me think it was Xehanort's influence leaving its mark on Riku in a subtle way
He basically got a crash course brain dump of combat knowledge from Xehanort, you don't just go back to the dinky way you were holding a sword before after getting most frontest of front row seats on how it's done.
@@jeffdcgamer1077 Which was after he was being influenced and possessed, consider when he shows up in Traverse Town, where he just slashs a heartless without any particular posture taken afterwards, despite still being momentarily on guard
Sora: "Beware the wrath of a patient man." He doesn't start fights, he ends them. Riku: "Bring me the horizon." He's moving forward, and if you get in his way, he's going through you. Kairi: "This is my story." She might look weak at times, but she never surrenders.
Something about Riku's stance that I think should be noted is the subtle change it goes through as he develops as a character. Initially, his free hand is held out with his palm turned upward, as if he's beckoning and taunting his opponent. Daring for them to strike. This certainly fits with his more aggressive and antagonistic nature at the start of the series. But then, starting around KH2, there's a slight shift in his stance. He still holds his Keyblade in a provoking stance, but his palm is instead held out in more of a defensive manner. It's a subtle change, but I think it definitely seems indicative of his character development, and how he's mellowed out just a bit.
I was hoping you'd mention how POPULAR Rikus stance is. You got the classic Riku, you got Xehanorts, then Young Xehanort, Vanitas. They all do it SLIGHTLY differently in their variations, but the formula is the same.
@@ChampionAnalysis It also makes sense in a way: Riku was possessed by Xehanort, and so it was Xehanot's fighting style. Riku seems to have adapted it himself, since it's a bit different than his Destiny Island sparing stance. And Vanitas was Xehanort's star pupil, and was likely trained by him with that stance.
There is the matter of Kairi hitting like a frigging freight truck. She doesn't have as much power and experience as Sora and Riki but it doesn't stop the fact that she is a Princess of Light and she doesn't mess about when she's fighting with some of her moves being the warp strike techniques similar to Noctis right after doing Strike Raid to kick the crap out of Xehanort which fits nicely with the battle tactics and mindset of Gedan and the Fool's Guard of taking advantage of opening to its maximum capacity. Square absolutely cooked with her moves, especially being her first playable outing against Xehanort himself. It's a strong starting point for her and I think and hope and pray that Square and Nomura will capitalise on that with her taking the time to train under Aqua and gain more experience, awareness and confidence in herself.
Side note which I forgot to mention is that Riku finds strength in his natural abilities and uses his darkness to fight fire with fire, Sora’s finds his strength from his friends and to have someone or something to protect and Kairi greatest strength comes from her having a lot of heart and the courage and inner strengthby having the belief in herself, just as much as she believes in her friends.
Riku keeps the high ward and lets the sword first because he's more of a Sorcerer than Sora, he uses his free hand to cast shell and firaga constantly in fights, with his melee weapon as more of a sidearm. About what concerns Sora and Riku stance, High Ward is actually, more of a defensive stance, it focus on delivering quick ripostes on wiffs, whereas Waki no Kamae is somewhat more aggressive and uses the body to conceal the lenght of the Weapon, despite having a more agressive personality, Riku is much more of a reactive fighter, seeking balance, keeping the enemy away with Dark Firagas, only going into melee after he lands a counter attack. The High Ward wants to poke farther, the Waki no Kamae wants to strike first, from an akward angle and from a fuzzy distance. The thing about fencing is that its kinda unintuitive like, applying too much pressure and keeping your tip presented if somewhat defensive, despite looking like offensive maneuvers, where as conceiling your blade shows confidence, its basically a balsy much. That's because Riku actually tries to be a good fighter, he respect sword strikes because he knows they're lethal, he's also somewhat of a lazy fighter, choosing not to engage unless its on his own terms, where Sora is a bit of a monkey with a ponty stick, he's more of an intuitive fighter that tries to pull a lot of clever gotchas that somehow work because he's naturally clever. All this to say, Sora is Musashi, he's cocky and balsy and he knows he's gonna win, Riku is Kojiro, he respects the threat of his opponent, but because he tries so much to be mindful during a fight, he often ends up taking Ls that he wouldn't if the just stuck with his gut.
You could take the change in Kairi's stance to mean that she's stopped compensating for her lesser experience with deception, and shed some of her ego such that she doesn't care about whether she's seen as weak or not, taking from Sora's example. He seems weak, after all, but he's one of the strongest.
One thing I think about when I have thought of all the stances of characters in this series is how many have their right side, with the weapon, on the back foot. I figured that was for animation, and effectively, added reach on all basic moves from a standing position. Basically, performing an attack will almost always start with the character in question stepping forward, and giving the swing more range as now they have moved their sword from the back facing side to the front over the course of the move. Characters move forward as they attack to keep up with enemies getting knocked back slightly from their strikes.
Another very subtle detail to Sora is that he copies his Friends Attacks and Styles. His "Imagination" is implied to be the key to his victory. When he does his Risk Dodge Counter in KH3 it's literally Ventus' Fever Pitcher Finisher animation. That's the more obvious one but the rest are much more subtle like "How did Sora think about Keyblade Transformation?" Because he fought Lingering Will. "How and why did Sora learn Attraction?" Because they rode the Statue Hercules threw.
This goes all the way back to KH1 Sonic Blade: Learned after fighting Cloud who likes to lunge at his opponents. Strike Raid: Learned after fighting Yuffie, who throws projectiles Ars Arcanum: Learned after fighting Hook, who swings his rapier wildly.
It makes sense, this series' entire thesis is that the connections you make will empower you. Your friends and family will influence your behavior. Sora just happens to take in the tactical influence like a sponge. It's not just friends for him either. Note how in kh2 he can perfectly imitate many lesser Nobodies' signature abilities, which often are the key to Org battles. Kiddo's just great at improvisation and dirty fighting in general too. He stomps on enemies' weapons, hurls projectiles, allies, or random stuff back at them, uses enemies as weapons, generally just a ton of shenanigans that no one taught him that just come up as reaction commands. He's got the attitude of a shonen meat head but is surprisingly fast and clever in a fight.
as someone who actually uses the riku kh 1 and 2 stance irl in sword fight i can safely say yes it is practical. it keeps your sword in eye view of you opponents and it can be used to quickly guard from a incoming attack, it basically makes your opponent focus on the sword rather then you and is actually great for catching them off guard while protecting yourself. if used for too long it can make your shoulder hurt though, but most of my fights weren't 2 day long crusades/battles so i was fine. im sure this comment will be deleted but regardless i wanted to say my piece and tell you that this video was great.
@11:20 yeah like i said its taxing, but most things now and days are 1 to 4 hour matches so if you train with the stance then it becomes less taxing on your body. as with anything we humans do, we adapt to it.
Axel is a dude who managed to turn “chucking frisbees at other kids’ heads” into a competent and deadly fighting style, so the answer is… don’t worry about it?
Lea is also an expert pyromancer immune to his own flames. What better way to bait the opponent into roasting range than to act like you're not taking them seriously? Plus his Keyblades meld into his chakrams which have a slightly different stance. Ranged flames and close range blazes gives him surprising battlefield control. See his fight against Roxas in KH2 and the data recreation of it.
@michaellevin664 I mean, if we're making a serious argument about it, then it's entirely impractical. Holding a weapon by your fingertips over shoulder could not provide less combat maneuverability or offensive/defensive capability. Psychological warfare has its limits, especially since he has to plan to actually use his weapon at some point, otherwise he could just go unarmed for the same effect. The chakram stance is almost entirely different, slight crouched with his weapon at his side. While still holding by his fingertips he does grip his weapon more firmly in preparation to perform his attacks, attacks which are easier to perform due to the less awkward position of the weapon. His keyblade requires getting around his shoulder, neck, and head, meaning the closest you can get to practical without adjustments is a wide overhead chop or swing. As for the inclusion of magic, while Axel's magic is impressive, it is secondary to his fighting style. The most we've ever seen in regards to pure elemental ability for gameplay has clearly telegraphed windup times, though the firewall he sets up and the anti-Vexen snap he sets up in cutscenes show that he should be capable of better if he was designed with that in mind.
@@vadandrumist1670 Everything about Lea is impractical, and I think that's the point. We are applying real world stances to these characters in fantasy, here, but in the goal of understanding the characters. And sometimes the understanding is that they eskew normal logic. Lea is NOT shown to be a defensive fighter. Multiple times he's gotten opened up and punished for it. But that's not what he's about. Lea is a *mobile* fighter. He uses the flames he makes to move around, and his own agility to stay ahead. The enemy can't hit you if they can't reach you. This feeds into his chakram techniques. And it would be unfair to not combine his Keyblade stance with his chakrams as he quite literally uses them interchangably. And even in KH3, he's shown to sometimes hold his chakrams in a similar stance to his Keyblade. Almost as if he has a relaxed stance with weapon drawn along with an actual battle stance. Sora is the same way, actually. His battle stance is the one we see here, but his relaxed stance is more of a one-handed grip, often slung over his shoulder in an idle animation. For characters like Lea, unfortunately, it's hard to get a *sword* stance for him down because his Key has way less screentime compared to his chakrams, which has all the footage in DS Days' mission mode to work with.
I cannot wait for the Wayfinder Trio! Especially Aqua's stance in particular. It has always been interesting to me that she hides the blade, as if to invite unsuspecting foes, as magic is more her strength, but knows to make descisive strikes as well. Also, well done! I love listening to videos like this, fighting stances, blade stances, etc!
The stances are representative of the wielder's personality. Sora's backwards stance is defensive, making him better at parrying and slashing counter to Riku's forward stance which is purely offensive and revolves around piercing and thrusting moves. Ventus has the backward stance for the same reason as Sora, Aqua isn't a physical attacker she's a mage and she uses her keyblade like a wand, Terra uses standard greatsword stances for offense. Much of Nomura's sword stance design philosophy comes directly from Star Wars. Hell, Mickey Mouse even directly copies Yoda from Episode 2.
A good followup to this video could be a look at how the stances, mainly sora and riku's, change over time. Like how you can see from 1 to 2 that sora's stance and movement shows how more experience he is and how the weighted down by the keyblade. And with riku you can see in his render that the positions of his arms changed. In 3 his arms are more even with each other than they were before, the hand in front even looking less confrontation and more defensive, showing how sora has affected him.
An interesting thing to remember about Riku is that whenever he doesn't use the weapon but a magical barrier that he casts with his left hand, in other words the hand that is free.
A few other things I've noticed about Kairi in battle!! (I had an infographic showing all this, but YT kept deleting the comment cause it had a link lol) - She runs with her Keyblade held lower than Sora does. She holds hers evenly at hip level, while Sora holds his up to his chest. I imagine this is mostly to reduce the strain on her arms. She also seems like she doesn't bend forward quite as much as he does. - Kairi's pose while jumping upwards is almost identical to her original stance! She's the only character who doesn't flip while doing jumps in KH3. (She also has a similar one when she's offscreen in the Keyblade Graveyard preview fight lol) - Kairi's normal first hit is visually identical to Sora's Slapshot ability from KH1 and KH2. Her "thrust" (in marks here because she doesn't thrust with the point like everyone except for Terra and Lea) is visually similar to Sora's Flash Step ability from KH2 and KH3. - Kairi's Flower Shoot projectile actually uses the FIRE element in-game, just like all of Lea's attacks, instead of the NEUTRAL element, like every other light-based attack does. She also casts Firaga in Melody of Memory. (Her dodge is also similar to Terra's Slide dodge from BBS) Overall, while Kairi is similar to Sora at rest, she does incorporate her more unique flair during other actions. She does take a lot of elements from her friends and incorporates it into her own moveset, which is far more offensive focused than Sora's, but as equally as reactionary. She a pretty pragmatic fighter, in our limited experience, waiting for openings to trip up opponents and keep the pressure up on them, but she also quickly loses steam and momentum (reflected in how she has the worst HP and MP stats in KH3).
sora's stance being off works well with the fact that his fighting style is _entirely_ self-taught, and is realistically a fusion of sword fighting and _club_ fighting, because it was built from play-sparring with his friends using a few planks glued together into the shape of a sword. it's something that, from my experience, you can just _feel_ throughout the games, as the speed, coverage, and weight of his attacks don't really have the feel of a sword, but of a blunt rod that just bashes through his opponents. it's helped a lot by the significant hitstun and knockback of kh, of course, but there's also how easy it is to incidentally deflect enemy attacks just by swinging wildly. it very much has the vibe of how a dull, ordinary boy _would_ try wielding a sword, and i think there's something to the fact that even as his attacks and acrobatics have been refined throughout his many journeys, he still takes the exact same stance he used back when stick-fighting with riku all those years ago
Something interesting is that Riku actually has another battle stance only seen in KH1, with the wooden sword. He has the sword one handed towards the side facing the ground in front of him. There's no direct analogue to this stance though it's broadly similar to Lingering Will (which oddly has a different stance to Terra) or more closer to No Heart's stance albeit in different directions. After he got Soul Eater and the power of darkness he then switched to forward upright stance forever, never looking back. Though we do see him use the "darkness" stance in a memory in CoM.
Riku's constant offensive stance is cool too, because later on, he learns to use his offhand to create magical barriers instead of dropping that offensive threat to block.
I think there's a really cool secondary reason for Riku's stance continuing to be what it is. He also uses a lot of Dark and other magics so him holding his hand out is now a secondary threat. Do you watch his blade for his powerful physical ability, or do you watch his hand for what magic he might use? Something very fitting for somrone like riku.
This was really good. Cool to see there is at least some historical precedent for these which almost certainly can't be accidental. Then again, maybe it's easier to work backwards to ascribe meaning to stances from existing characters. I do wish Kairi had kept her unique stance that lasted so little time I never even noticed it.
Sora’s stance in KH3’s cover (basically the one at 0:55) is his best one, it’s a combination of kingly authority, experience gained through his many battles, resting his energies so that he can quickly react if needed, and ability to observe and study his opponents. O’m actually surprised that I found Western (specifically Italian) martial arts in KH, but then again, Square lately in their games have lots of characters with Italian names.
Wow, I love this. The sword stances matching with the character's personality is the best part for me! Especially Sora's-- the whole "He waits for the enemy, rather than striking first" is great.
I'm so excited to see all of these pieces! I do think one mega video of all the parts in one at the end could be a fun addition for anyone who wants to watch them all back to back sometime, in case you weren't already planning that.
The key blades usually aren't sharp because they don't need to be, they cut magically, not sure if they just go through ppl or how it works exactly but it's a similar deal as when they slice buildings in half, they're just unlocking your body apart ig Edit: Aside from the reasons mentioned, I figure a big reason kairi adopts so much of sora's style is because she was with him through kh1 so she already had experience with the stance/moves
They cut through people's souls/hearts. The buildings thing happened the World That Never Was has an unstable reality structure, due to the lack of a Heart.
what's funny is that I always noticed that the characters all used certain stances, and I always noticed some common elements and tried justifying it myself as "because of the weird handle, Keyblade Wielders actually use specific stances to avoid the drawback of the guard), like how Sora, Eraqus, almost everyone from Union Cross, etc. always had stances using 2 hands, and how most of the characters who use darkness (Riku, Vanitas, Master & Young Xehanort, etc.) almost all use the exact similar stance, being High Guard. However, I never once in my life would have figured out that they used Real Life sword stances.
It also kinda threw me off why is Riku and Vanitas stance is sooooo similar. Like it’s almost one to one. Then you throw in Xehanort who also used that stance and it make me go what the heck? What is sooo special about that stance to them!? I tried to come up with a good theory about but I don’t think I can figure it out. My best guess is as you said it might have something to do with darkness powers. But even still I thought the dark power would come from their Keyblades.
@@connorburris4846 Hmm I guess that’s one explanation. But then you gotta remember Riku was using this stance or a very similar one before he left Destiny islands. You can spare with him as Sora an unlimited amount of times before the real adventure begins. And I can’t lie Kid Riku battle stance does almost match up with the other Darkness users. Maybe he learned about in a book or something when he was kid before KH story began.
@@ZX-Gear Yeah, and I think the choreographers tend to see this contradiction a lot too. He always stances up like Riku but the instant an attack is thrown at him, he ALWAYS lowers the blade to his hips.
I like to think that Sora has no real fighting experience. The fighting stance could’ve just as easily been a instinctive choice with no thought Early Sora might just be mindlessly swinging the keyblade And then he learns new skills through the adventure
But as another commenter pointed out, this is not entirely the case, as Sora and Riku had been sparing on the island for ages, during this time they adopted the fighting stances that we know and love
Sora has a basic stance picked up from Destiny Islands, true, but to say he has proper experience from training with kids using toys would be a bit of a stretch. He's very non-formally trained, but that's his strength. He makes everything up as he goes along, leading into, once again, being a reactive fighter. This means it's hard for others to get a read on him in battle, because he never really has a plan.
I'd argue that the Destiny Trio all have similar moves, the ranged Raid attack (Although Riku's only used his as an extension while possessed by Ansem) and the dashing Rave attacks (Riku's being Dark Aura) being the most prominent examples
Comparing Sora and Riku.... "Knock on the Devil's door long enough and somebody will answer". Sora is the one who answers. Riku represents the Heisenberg quote: "I am the one who knocks."
@Angelus_The_Red_Dragon he isn't...I didn't say Sora was the Devil. I used a cool phrase to visually depict and describe, or encapsulate, Sora's fighting style. Gotta be careful with those leaps of logic
@Angelus_The_Red_Dragon Those who tempt Fate (Luck/Fortune) recklessly, seldom enjoy when it takes them up on their offer. Or....Fuck around and Find out
Okay, this is really cool. Looking forward to the next parts. And when you have all 4 done, you'll have to make a super-long video of all four as...uh...just one video. :D
I agree with Sora in not respecting the rule. Yes, there are worlds not ready for it, but there are others that are starting to ask the big questions, and I think some information, along with the beginning of some support network thanks to the phones, could prevent more Xehanorts, young Rikus, DiZ... My favorite part so far of "Sea-Change of Fate" was seeing the Princesses act like the queens they are and call out Yen Sid on his outdated practices and zealotry over the world order ! If only the canon roster grew this big of a spine to get the old man to reveal his tiredness and break his ego...
Probably the most egregious use of the rule being invoked for no reason is with Alladin in KH1. Not only was Jasmine kidnapped, but Alladin already knew about the existence of other worlds. Not bringing him along didn't do jack to "preserve the world order."
I think the problem here is the usual one. We've never actually seen the long-term consequences of outsiders crossing over into other worlds. It's usually like 3-5 in one world at once. I'm hoping the lost masters arc explores this rule more.
@@Chaoshadow-SA2 We have absolutely seen this: Maleficent is what happens when the wrong person finds out about the outside world. Xehanort explicitly broke the world order by telling her all about Kingdom Hearts, the Princesses of Heart, the darkness, other worlds… and the results were catastrophic, as she soon went about a campaign of destruction and conquest thereafter.
@@HunterStiles651 This is a Disney problem, not so much a KH problem. Disney tends to have very specific rules about how their properties can cross over, which is what “world order” _really_ means on an outside-of-canon level: Villains have a lot more leeway to move about and interfere with plots outside of their own, but that’s not kosher for heroic characters to do. Maleficent is allowed to appear in Agrabah, etc, because she’s evil-so it’s fine if she fucks up the plot. She already sucks, so her throwing everything off the rails doesn’t besmirch her reputation. Aladdin isn’t allowed to come with you to the next set of worlds because having Aladdin-a hero-screw up the plot of another Disney world would be bad juju. Meanwhile, Beast _is_ allowed to go all the way to Hollow Bastion entirely on his own because Hollow Bastion is an original world with an original plotline that isn’t going to get thrown off by a heroic character showing up.
Riku’s stance would be borderline cheating in an epee or foil touch match. Any time an opponent gets close enough to get a hit, his blade would touch the head or chest of the opponent, giving him the point. We had a kid back in the day at a local tournament get carded for it, but only after he racked 4 out of 5 points doing it.
rly intrigued by what youve covered so far!!! i remember long ago learning that riku's stance is inspired by fencers, so its rly cool to find out that there are irl analogues to the other characters as well! also i loooooove that ur using the menu design to break up sections of the video, such a cool idea. cant wait to see the next one!
HEMA practicioner and weapon historian here. This is a pretty fun analysis and I'm happy that it's pointed out beforehand that it's fantasy, because a lot of HEMA people can hit a point where they forget to seperate fantasy from reality. There are a few things to talk about from a HEMA point of view, but one of the main points I wanted to bring up is that stances are not supposed to be static. You use them based on what you're wanting to do as well as from your opponent. Meyer talks greatly about how attacking is simply transitioning between stances. With Sora, as a character he holds his keyblade much more like... a bat? I think it's a great character trait that he's a rather inexperienced self taught fighter. This also shows in his attacks where he's throwing his body into them and has his hands very close together (like you would with a bat, and the OPPOSITE of what you do with a longsword.) For Riku, his legs being swapped is actually a BIG issue. He's not only giving himself less power in the Thrust, he's leaving his unguarded side most exposed. You also don't want to stick your hand so far out as the hand is a very popular target in swordfighting. It's not a stance you want to hangout in. But hey, again it's fantasy and looks cool. For Kairi, Fool's guard is wonderful as long as you don't overuse it as a skilled duelist won't fall for it as much, and even a fool won't fall for it every time. But again, our boy Meyer talks about these transitions. I like that it's talked about as a rest stance, as while that is true, most fencers rest in what's called in English "The Plow" where you keep the sword at the hip pointed towards the opponents chest. Overall, I'd love to see more variety in fantasy characters in their stances, and see them transition more to different stances. A good fighter is a balanced fighter.
Wow! Can I just say everything about this video is fantastic- nevermind the actual topics and research themselves! The presentation and usage of KH UI/sound effects always pleasantly tickles my brain; music choices are stellar (love Enrico's works), and even your avatar is excellently designed! As someone striving to be a concept artist/designer, your character and the way he's drawn is top notch.👌 Plus one subscriber who's looking foward to the next set of stances!! Keep it up!❤👑🗝
I've always worked under the assumption that Sora and Riku's stances were due to their only method of combat training being playfights on the island. I mean, it's not like anyone on the island had any REASON to expect self-defense being necessary before the Heartless showed up (all indications are that Destiny Islands are pretty peaceful), so they basically had to work with what they got.
I see the keyblade as some kind of magic sword, with a lot of emphasis in the "magic" part. It only cuts when the user wants to and what the user wants to. However, it also depends of the power and expertise of the wielder. That explains why Sora's keyblade can cut through buildings (inanimated big objects) but can also be stopped by Xemnas hand (second on command of the villains).
Amazing video! Loved the respect you show towards the videogame, its characters, its creators, and their inspiration! The fact that you went out of your way to show content from other creators really speaks volumes on bow much you value your fellow colleagues :) Happy festivities ❤
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I figured it's only fair to highlight them properly when I'm relying on them for all the knowledge. They're giving us free education essentially 😂 Also I'd be left with no kingdom hearts music if it wasn't for these cover artists on youtube. The copyright system would have my head if I used the actual soundtrack. Thank you for your kind words and happy holidays as well!
This video is GAS. I’m kinda mad it’s broken up into parts. Crazy to think the developers probably have looked up actual stances and copied or fully based them off real word combat. Details most of us never even really took notice.
Something I also notice is that Riku and Sora's main keyblades by the time of 3 perfectly envision their character type: Sora's is an old-type key. His fighting style is all about reaction and protecting others, keeping the past chains of friendship alive to protect the future. Riku's is a new-type key. His fighting style is active, aggressive, and seeks to destroy threats before they can threaten others. He looks to the future to protect his past, his friends. And NEITHER actually focuses on defense. Sora is focused on reaction while Riku is focused on action.
You know Square and Disney were cooking in the kitchen also love how each playable fighter and notable badguy has a unique fighting style the toon slash animation styled disney characters are performance based the square enix characters are bit more technical while the Original Characters of Kingdom Hearts a mix of each camp
Man when i first played KH and saw more wielders the stances were always the thing that stood out. It was soooo iconic seeing all the characters summon their keyblades at once in KH3 and take on their unique stances that i just got super hype about that shit. This video is so fun to see the possible real world influence and the analysis was expertly told and articulate i cant wait for more!
After seeing her moves in the remind dlc, especially with the barriers, I have thought for years that she is a person who isn't as agile as her friends but relies on counterattacks to get the job done. I feel pretty vindicated after seeing her original stance centered around countering and how the idea of it translated to her actual mechanics. Also given how literally every kid on that island was swinging around some weapon in their spars/play fights and how Kairi shows no hesitation in wielding a sword handed to her out of the blue, defaulting to that position even in the DDD illusions seemingly based on Sora's past experiences at the end of the game (an implication he's seen her do this stance before), I wouldn't be surprised if Kairi picked up her style a long time ago. Maybe she spent spars by baiting her overconfident friends into attacking her. It's a fun idea to consider.
One thing i'd like to point out is that, Sora when in Valor Form looks and fights much more aggressively than the other dual wielder we have, which is Roxas, while yes Sora only dual wileds when in either Valor (Final is more focused on spells than physical combat) or while using Oath or Oblivion in 3, Valor looks the part because his stance is one that looks more guarded than Roxas', however, that stance ends up favoring much more aggressive and brutal attacks, like a waist and head swing at the same time, than Roxas' open wide stance which he seems to favour fluidity and constant pressure rather than full power strikes (if you exclude his outburst on the ending of his data battle in 2 or the teleport and spell casting in 3), hell, you could even see that brutality in Xion which seems to adopt the Valor form's philosophy of guard and destroy, especially her lunge in her data battle in 3 despite having the same stance as base Sora. Its funny to think that Roxas takes Sora's fluidity, ability to pressure and ironically more guarded approach with a seemingly aggressive stance while Xion favours destruction and speed with a more guarded stance.
An almost dead ringer for Riku's guard, from the blade held high to the extended hand to the footing, is actually employed in some forms of cane-fighting, particularly Bartitsu. The point of the stance in that context is to rest on the back foot, passively guard high attacks with the cane, and present the lead arm and leg as bait. Then, spring the trap by pivoting on one's back foot. This pulls your front limbs out of reach and allows you to rotate your entire core, shoulder, and arm into a strike to the attacker's limb which, despite being one-handed, will still break bones thanks to centrifugal force and biomechanics. This sounds a lot like Sora's defensive, almost invitational stance at first, but while Sora's stance still allows him to effectively block in reaction to being attacked, Riku's defense relies almost entirely on footwork and evasion instead. Where Sora stands his ground to defend himself and others before countering, Riku more often than not cedes ground to counter immediately. And of course, if the bait isn't taken, one's weapon is still cocked and ready for thrusts and strikes to the head, neck, and upper body, all of which are vital areas. In fact, by shifting one's weight to the front foot, this stance immediately becomes almost wholly offensive, priming the user for lunging thrusts and more rotating strikes as they advance on more defensive enemies. It's not just the stance of someone who approaches combat with aggression and intention, it's also the stance of someone who is less interested in going directly sword to sword, in directly clashing with and overcoming an opponent, and more in simply negating and neutralizing them and carrying on. Where Sora stands in front of his friends and dares enemies to act, Riku adopts his guard with the intention of moving past whatever enemy is in front of him. Also, Kairi using Sora's stance feels less like an in-universe evolution of her character, and more like the devs hastily copy-pasting together a 20-dollar "true ending" DLC to address fan outrage at KH3's original ending. Maybe I'm only saying this because I was one of those people pissed off at the first ending, who spent that money and had nothing to show for it aside from still being pissed off at the new revised ending. A sheer lack of forethought on that front would perfectly track with how Kairi's been treated throughout the series, though, and also with the fact that the original "payoff" of Kairi being built up for all of KHIII as training super-hard off screen was... Xehanort damsel-in-distress-ing her in a single move, such that Sora has to strand himself in an alternate reality to save her.
I hope that if Kairi ever gets her own proper game (other than Melody of Memory) that she gets to develop her own stance and have a fighting style of her own. Very interesting video, looking forward to the rest!
Besides Kairi's stance, there's her Axel/Noctis-teleport on her strike raid, and her combat moves that are 'light' version of Riku's end game moves; 360 light shield as a block, light dash that gives invuln frames. Her combos allow enemy knockback/air juggling, meaning *she hits like a gaddamn truck*. She honestly mirrors Terra's gameplay but better, with strong magic as backup and faster movement/teleporting (And the ability to just...stay in the air the entire Xehanort fight like the ground is lava)
Something I wanted to note, in KH1, Sora occasionally switches to a relatively proper tail stance, notably, the first fight with that tiger in deep jungle. Edit: Forgot to mention, it's only in the cutscenes where you can see him take a proper tail stance, he switches back to his altered version of the tail stance once the fight starts.
I can understand the rule because people like Maleficent and Pete exist. Imagine if she actually was able to recruit Hades and Jafar again, then got other, more threatening villains like Frollo or Lotso to work with her, think we'd see the long term consequences of too many people having this knowledge.
Riku being the only one of the trio to use a one-handed stance also reflects his apparent status as a prodigy in KH1. It makes his weapon appear effortless to hold and swing. Meanwhile, Sora's starting 3-hit combo is visibly heavy, bordering on clumsy.
I know I’m a bit late but I got to throw in two my 2 cents. It’s also important to note two things. First is so far Sora is the only balance Keyblade wielder in the series. He got Speed, Strength, and is great at Magic. 2nd is he offers share certain moves with the three other wielders in his heart. Roxas, Ventus, and Xion. Besides the dual wielding which I could argue is more a combination of Roxas AND Xion. He can also be pretty aggressive like Roxas with his attacks. He’s agile as heck like Ventus especially in the air, plus he tend to put his blade into the backhand position during his combos. Not to mention how fast these both of them can move on ground. Xion I’m pretty sure helps with his magic skills, but also with his defensive. In being patient and counter attacking when you see an opportunity.
It is cute that you think Kairi will get to do anything (ever) in this series when she got told to sit there and wait while Riku goes on twink recovery duty. In her own spin-off game, no less. In all seriousness, Kairi mirroring Sora's battle stance makes a lot of sense when you consider two factors: 1. Kairi's heart (the major repository of memories in this setting) spent most of KH1 riding the heart clown car known as Sora. It is entirely possible that she has retained memories of his fighting style from that time and based her style on them. 2. Her main training partner was Axel/Lea, who retained subconscious memories of Xion, who looks like Kairi but fights with a stance similar to Sora's. This could have led to him subconsciously guiding her down a similar path.
I always reckoned, just from looking at the animations and some key blade wielders not exactly holding their blades, that key blades kinda propel themselves and wielders just sorta hold onto them while controlling them
I think it’s half-and-half actually swinging the blade, half psychic swordsmanship. KH2 Final Form for example is pretty much 100% telekinetic wielding
Amazing video ! Riku is my favorite character in kingdom hearts so far but honestly I love all the characters ! What about Yozora’s battle stance ? He’s from a game called Verum Rex . Yozora fights wielding 2 weapons instead of one weapon . He reminds me of Roxas and axel in that way .
something else to note about Sora is how his stance translates into gameplay. At least for all of the superbossess in Kh2 and 3 when sora is on "even" ground with his opponents you're rarely in the advantage. While you have bursts of offence where you can land your combos it's always after the opponent leaves an opening, which you can't force. It's always defense>opening>strike. It's always about reacting to the oponents mistakes rather than forcing them to make them.
Short answer to why they are weird: the more unique and original a pose is, the easier it is to make it iconic. Now, what I *really* wanna know is why Riku and Vanitas share their stance (and outfit, but there are pæausible explanations for that.) Riku had his stance at destiny islands before he started imteracting with darkness, so I don't really feel like one could say Riku had the stance because he was influenced by darkness/Ansem. If anything, he would have been influenced by Terra. And Vanitas is easily more connected with Ventus and Sora than he is with Riku. The things that *are* mirrored seem entirely coincidental, and that annoys me so much
What a lovely video. I never thought Riku's edgelord stance had some semblance of merit in real sword fighting. I think it's a bit of a shame that Kairi "lost" her original fighting stance along games; even if her current stance is fine. It feels somewhat ironic too given all the discourse surrounding her, poor girl can't even be her own fighter.... Maybe soon she'll come into her own. I can't wait for the, what I can only assume is a dumpster fire of a stance that Roxas carries dualwielding his inherited keyblades (Which Sora himself found through the Oblivion Riku left in his path, mirroring the flames and chaos Axel sowes in the Org and Roxas' mindset, and the Oath Sora made to Kairi, echoed through Xion's last wishes buried deep within memories Roxas no longer has)
Sora battle stance does leave him open but his attacks he does in KH2 make up for it in the end. Like for example, Valor form is a form that seems to be disliked for not having guard which is true but it does make up for what it lacks by the stance he has in that form. Sora holds the left hand of his keyblade to his right waist while the right hand keyblade is above his right shoulder. What's facisnatting about valor form battle stance is how strong it looks when he wields the keyblade around his body to protect himself with any swing he does to parry oncoming attacks. It is one of the reasons I like valor form is because of it's agility to out run most attacks & the defensive capability when he is on offense. I know this video was not talking about drive form battle stance but it was just something I wanted to add in since I always found Sora's stance in that form to be pretty cool. Enjoyed the video.
worth mentioning that sora's stance and fighting style, especially in kh1, pulls a lot from kendo, which is a swordfighting-based sport thats a stereotypical "kid's sport" in japan. in kh1 a lot of his attacks are basic kendo techniques, but as the series goes on they get replaced with more flashy and elaborate moves both as he levels up in that game and as the series goes on, representing his growth as a warrior beyond a kid playing with swords. its also worth noting that some japanese swordfighting philosophy associates waki-gamae with light
Hey champ you know how I asked commented on vexan fighting style and it might be close to xaldin fighting style if pushed to phase 2 he had ice blades formed both ends of his shield Forming dueling shield not crazy but practical
I read Sora's stance as a mix of fool's guard and tail guard, very unassuming as a combatant, but he is more inclined to talk than fight, so it absolutely fits. Riku is more of a sabre/rapier fencer, though I feel a spear would fit in his hands the best. A literal lancer. Though his stance kind of reminds me of great katan stances. Kairi... eh... pass. I don't have much to say about the bulk of the others, Tera, Roxas, Ventus, they're basically just unga bunga with complete abandon. Axel's keyblade stance is an adaptation of his assassin/dancer fighting style, Xion is a another Sora like, Erecus just does kendo, basically. Aqua is a weird one because she basically has a sword and shield stance without a shield, which she absolutely does not needs because of her robust barrier magics and acrobatics.
I guess you could call this the *_Final Mix_* of my Form Study Volume 1 👀 Like I said in the video, feel free to comment any additional info, criticisms, etc. I'm learning this stuff alongside all of you after all.
Because they look COOL. Also good vid.
More please! This is a stellar video that ive always wondered 😁
this truly is your kingdom hearts moment
One more thing about Kairi. That Strike Raid she has? Sora's never done the "Throw the weapon, then teleport to it to catch it" version of the move. But you know who HAS used that particular variation of the technique? Axel in Re:CoM.
YOOOOO! That's a really great observation! I was so focused on the similarities that I didn't notice
AND AXEL TRAINED HER- YOOO
Right. She mimics sora stances her fighting story is close to axel in way.
@@creepyasgramdpa9916well her and axel was training but now she’s training under aqua so she’ll probably copy aqua now
Honestly, I am down for Kairi being such a person influenced by her teachers she takes moves from all of her teachers.
Sora is so kind and unassuming, people forget that this boy will make the block hot in a heartbeat for his friends. Boy was ready to dive into the realm of darkness to save Aqua, who he never met, even at the cost of his own heart. If you got Sora in your corner, there isn't anything to worry about
Except for his own emotional state. That is too often overlooked due to the light of the pedestal they put him on, blinding everyone's eyes.
Fr fr
Bro can summon Disney Land and Disney World on a whim, I'd be terrified even if he was on my side.
Sora’s stance is actually really good if he went into left-handed tennis. Just saying. It’s perfect backhand.
He has put many folks on T-Shirts starting the age of 14 mind you all. He is NOT to be messed with.
So then Riku fighting style and stance is hyper focused on attack? That means by defult, sora adapted a more defensive stance to counter it as they grew up sparring!
awesome detail tbh ur genius for figuring that out
There's also the case of Sora needing to be the well-rounded, adaptable character to play: his absolute prominence in gameplay kind of makes him the Mario of the roster, and a defensively capable moveset that doesn't overcommit is very suitable for that.
Also serves to reinforce the duality between them and how vastly different they are
As someone who _has_ fenced irl for around a decade, I'm impressed by your analysis! It's clear that a lot of it comes from your diligent research, and you're synthesizing some good points on top of that!
When I look at RIku's stance, I imagine using that offhand to pin an enemy down or wrestle their weapon out of the way. That's where his 'swapped' footing comes in; if an enemy is close enough that you can put hands on them, that's too close to get the sword between you and them -- _unless you pull it back like he's doing._ This pulled-back version of high ward isn't a stance we'd walk into the fight with, but rather, one we'd switch into _if_ we got close enough that we needed to wrestle the enemy with the other hand.
On a less realistic note: when you face Riku as a boss, he tends to _cast his spells_ with that offhand, rather than firing them out of his Keyblade! Where other characters in KH focus exclusively on their weapon, Riku has an awareness of both sides of his body in combat -- _and an awareness of both side of his heart, light and dark._
Riku is kinda like a little shit fighting, he wont engage you unless he haves too and much rather wear you off from far away, Riku is actually a realy lazy fighter
whoa i love this take on riku!
@@philipearakaki my kinda guy. That's the way I'd prefer to fight to, when long range is unavailable for me.
Thanks for the analysis!
You can even kinda see it at 10:39 where he gets right in there and tries to pull Vexen's shield out of the way.
An interesting thing I noted about Riku's stance is when he uses it. Before being possessed by Ansem he had a completely different stance but after it changes and his original stance is never taken again. It makes me think it was Xehanort's influence leaving its mark on Riku in a subtle way
He basically got a crash course brain dump of combat knowledge from Xehanort, you don't just go back to the dinky way you were holding a sword before after getting most frontest of front row seats on how it's done.
Oh dang, you're right! I just watched a video of his Destiny Island fight, and he doesn't use that stance in that fight.
Actually you’re wrong because Riku used that stance when he fought sora in hollow baston
@@jeffdcgamer1077 Which was after he was being influenced and possessed, consider when he shows up in Traverse Town, where he just slashs a heartless without any particular posture taken afterwards, despite still being momentarily on guard
Sora: "Beware the wrath of a patient man."
He doesn't start fights, he ends them.
Riku: "Bring me the horizon."
He's moving forward, and if you get in his way, he's going through you.
Kairi: "This is my story."
She might look weak at times, but she never surrenders.
Something about Riku's stance that I think should be noted is the subtle change it goes through as he develops as a character. Initially, his free hand is held out with his palm turned upward, as if he's beckoning and taunting his opponent. Daring for them to strike. This certainly fits with his more aggressive and antagonistic nature at the start of the series.
But then, starting around KH2, there's a slight shift in his stance. He still holds his Keyblade in a provoking stance, but his palm is instead held out in more of a defensive manner. It's a subtle change, but I think it definitely seems indicative of his character development, and how he's mellowed out just a bit.
I was hoping you'd mention how POPULAR Rikus stance is. You got the classic Riku, you got Xehanorts, then Young Xehanort, Vanitas. They all do it SLIGHTLY differently in their variations, but the formula is the same.
Yeah, I believe that is a very deliberate choice by Nomura to make us see the similarities in them
@@ChampionAnalysis It also makes sense in a way: Riku was possessed by Xehanort, and so it was Xehanot's fighting style. Riku seems to have adapted it himself, since it's a bit different than his Destiny Island sparing stance. And Vanitas was Xehanort's star pupil, and was likely trained by him with that stance.
There is the matter of Kairi hitting like a frigging freight truck. She doesn't have as much power and experience as Sora and Riki but it doesn't stop the fact that she is a Princess of Light and she doesn't mess about when she's fighting with some of her moves being the warp strike techniques similar to Noctis right after doing Strike Raid to kick the crap out of Xehanort which fits nicely with the battle tactics and mindset of Gedan and the Fool's Guard of taking advantage of opening to its maximum capacity. Square absolutely cooked with her moves, especially being her first playable outing against Xehanort himself. It's a strong starting point for her and I think and hope and pray that Square and Nomura will capitalise on that with her taking the time to train under Aqua and gain more experience, awareness and confidence in herself.
Side note which I forgot to mention is that Riku finds strength in his natural abilities and uses his darkness to fight fire with fire, Sora’s finds his strength from his friends and to have someone or something to protect and Kairi greatest strength comes from her having a lot of heart and the courage and inner strengthby having the belief in herself, just as much as she believes in her friends.
i like to think kairi can buff herself and attacks with her higher magic affinity like weiss from rwby
@@FlutterSwag That is actually pretty cool
Regarding Kairi hitting like a truck, let us not forget that she cut through Interdiction.
@@devonm042690true!!
Riku keeps the high ward and lets the sword first because he's more of a Sorcerer than Sora, he uses his free hand to cast shell and firaga constantly in fights, with his melee weapon as more of a sidearm.
About what concerns Sora and Riku stance, High Ward is actually, more of a defensive stance, it focus on delivering quick ripostes on wiffs, whereas Waki no Kamae is somewhat more aggressive and uses the body to conceal the lenght of the Weapon, despite having a more agressive personality, Riku is much more of a reactive fighter, seeking balance, keeping the enemy away with Dark Firagas, only going into melee after he lands a counter attack. The High Ward wants to poke farther, the Waki no Kamae wants to strike first, from an akward angle and from a fuzzy distance.
The thing about fencing is that its kinda unintuitive like, applying too much pressure and keeping your tip presented if somewhat defensive, despite looking like offensive maneuvers, where as conceiling your blade shows confidence, its basically a balsy much. That's because Riku actually tries to be a good fighter, he respect sword strikes because he knows they're lethal, he's also somewhat of a lazy fighter, choosing not to engage unless its on his own terms, where Sora is a bit of a monkey with a ponty stick, he's more of an intuitive fighter that tries to pull a lot of clever gotchas that somehow work because he's naturally clever.
All this to say, Sora is Musashi, he's cocky and balsy and he knows he's gonna win, Riku is Kojiro, he respects the threat of his opponent, but because he tries so much to be mindful during a fight, he often ends up taking Ls that he wouldn't if the just stuck with his gut.
You could take the change in Kairi's stance to mean that she's stopped compensating for her lesser experience with deception, and shed some of her ego such that she doesn't care about whether she's seen as weak or not, taking from Sora's example. He seems weak, after all, but he's one of the strongest.
One thing I think about when I have thought of all the stances of characters in this series is how many have their right side, with the weapon, on the back foot. I figured that was for animation, and effectively, added reach on all basic moves from a standing position. Basically, performing an attack will almost always start with the character in question stepping forward, and giving the swing more range as now they have moved their sword from the back facing side to the front over the course of the move. Characters move forward as they attack to keep up with enemies getting knocked back slightly from their strikes.
Another very subtle detail to Sora is that he copies his Friends Attacks and Styles. His "Imagination" is implied to be the key to his victory. When he does his Risk Dodge Counter in KH3 it's literally Ventus' Fever Pitcher Finisher animation. That's the more obvious one but the rest are much more subtle like "How did Sora think about Keyblade Transformation?" Because he fought Lingering Will. "How and why did Sora learn Attraction?" Because they rode the Statue Hercules threw.
I was reasy to be like pssssh
By by the end I was like hmmm....
This goes all the way back to KH1
Sonic Blade: Learned after fighting Cloud who likes to lunge at his opponents.
Strike Raid: Learned after fighting Yuffie, who throws projectiles
Ars Arcanum: Learned after fighting Hook, who swings his rapier wildly.
It makes sense, this series' entire thesis is that the connections you make will empower you. Your friends and family will influence your behavior. Sora just happens to take in the tactical influence like a sponge.
It's not just friends for him either. Note how in kh2 he can perfectly imitate many lesser Nobodies' signature abilities, which often are the key to Org battles.
Kiddo's just great at improvisation and dirty fighting in general too. He stomps on enemies' weapons, hurls projectiles, allies, or random stuff back at them, uses enemies as weapons, generally just a ton of shenanigans that no one taught him that just come up as reaction commands. He's got the attitude of a shonen meat head but is surprisingly fast and clever in a fight.
as someone who actually uses the riku kh 1 and 2 stance irl in sword fight i can safely say yes it is practical.
it keeps your sword in eye view of you opponents and it can be used to quickly guard from a incoming attack, it basically makes your opponent focus on the sword rather then you and is actually great for catching them off guard while protecting yourself.
if used for too long it can make your shoulder hurt though, but most of my fights weren't 2 day long crusades/battles so i was fine.
im sure this comment will be deleted but regardless i wanted to say my piece and tell you that this video was great.
@10:50 WOW i didn't know any of this.
good work.
@11:20 yeah like i said its taxing, but most things now and days are 1 to 4 hour matches so if you train with the stance then it becomes less taxing on your body.
as with anything we humans do, we adapt to it.
It's the same sword stance that Obi-Wan Kenobi uses in the star wars prequels, Form 3
Can't wait for part two where we learn the practicality of Axel's "Japanese schoolbag over-shoulder"-style.
👀👀👀
Axel is a dude who managed to turn “chucking frisbees at other kids’ heads” into a competent and deadly fighting style, so the answer is… don’t worry about it?
Lea is also an expert pyromancer immune to his own flames. What better way to bait the opponent into roasting range than to act like you're not taking them seriously?
Plus his Keyblades meld into his chakrams which have a slightly different stance. Ranged flames and close range blazes gives him surprising battlefield control. See his fight against Roxas in KH2 and the data recreation of it.
@michaellevin664 I mean, if we're making a serious argument about it, then it's entirely impractical. Holding a weapon by your fingertips over shoulder could not provide less combat maneuverability or offensive/defensive capability. Psychological warfare has its limits, especially since he has to plan to actually use his weapon at some point, otherwise he could just go unarmed for the same effect. The chakram stance is almost entirely different, slight crouched with his weapon at his side. While still holding by his fingertips he does grip his weapon more firmly in preparation to perform his attacks, attacks which are easier to perform due to the less awkward position of the weapon. His keyblade requires getting around his shoulder, neck, and head, meaning the closest you can get to practical without adjustments is a wide overhead chop or swing.
As for the inclusion of magic, while Axel's magic is impressive, it is secondary to his fighting style. The most we've ever seen in regards to pure elemental ability for gameplay has clearly telegraphed windup times, though the firewall he sets up and the anti-Vexen snap he sets up in cutscenes show that he should be capable of better if he was designed with that in mind.
@@vadandrumist1670 Everything about Lea is impractical, and I think that's the point. We are applying real world stances to these characters in fantasy, here, but in the goal of understanding the characters. And sometimes the understanding is that they eskew normal logic.
Lea is NOT shown to be a defensive fighter. Multiple times he's gotten opened up and punished for it. But that's not what he's about.
Lea is a *mobile* fighter. He uses the flames he makes to move around, and his own agility to stay ahead. The enemy can't hit you if they can't reach you. This feeds into his chakram techniques. And it would be unfair to not combine his Keyblade stance with his chakrams as he quite literally uses them interchangably.
And even in KH3, he's shown to sometimes hold his chakrams in a similar stance to his Keyblade. Almost as if he has a relaxed stance with weapon drawn along with an actual battle stance. Sora is the same way, actually. His battle stance is the one we see here, but his relaxed stance is more of a one-handed grip, often slung over his shoulder in an idle animation.
For characters like Lea, unfortunately, it's hard to get a *sword* stance for him down because his Key has way less screentime compared to his chakrams, which has all the footage in DS Days' mission mode to work with.
I cannot wait for the Wayfinder Trio! Especially Aqua's stance in particular. It has always been interesting to me that she hides the blade, as if to invite unsuspecting foes, as magic is more her strength, but knows to make descisive strikes as well.
Also, well done! I love listening to videos like this, fighting stances, blade stances, etc!
The stances are representative of the wielder's personality.
Sora's backwards stance is defensive, making him better at parrying and slashing counter to Riku's forward stance which is purely offensive and revolves around piercing and thrusting moves.
Ventus has the backward stance for the same reason as Sora, Aqua isn't a physical attacker she's a mage and she uses her keyblade like a wand, Terra uses standard greatsword stances for offense.
Much of Nomura's sword stance design philosophy comes directly from Star Wars. Hell, Mickey Mouse even directly copies Yoda from Episode 2.
A good followup to this video could be a look at how the stances, mainly sora and riku's, change over time. Like how you can see from 1 to 2 that sora's stance and movement shows how more experience he is and how the weighted down by the keyblade. And with riku you can see in his render that the positions of his arms changed. In 3 his arms are more even with each other than they were before, the hand in front even looking less confrontation and more defensive, showing how sora has affected him.
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 you might be cooking here
An interesting thing to remember about Riku is that whenever he doesn't use the weapon but a magical barrier that he casts with his left hand, in other words the hand that is free.
your visual effects are so cuuute ❤
I tried to capture the cute vibes of the Kingdom Hearts system :D
A few other things I've noticed about Kairi in battle!! (I had an infographic showing all this, but YT kept deleting the comment cause it had a link lol)
- She runs with her Keyblade held lower than Sora does. She holds hers evenly at hip level, while Sora holds his up to his chest. I imagine this is mostly to reduce the strain on her arms. She also seems like she doesn't bend forward quite as much as he does.
- Kairi's pose while jumping upwards is almost identical to her original stance! She's the only character who doesn't flip while doing jumps in KH3. (She also has a similar one when she's offscreen in the Keyblade Graveyard preview fight lol)
- Kairi's normal first hit is visually identical to Sora's Slapshot ability from KH1 and KH2. Her "thrust" (in marks here because she doesn't thrust with the point like everyone except for Terra and Lea) is visually similar to Sora's Flash Step ability from KH2 and KH3.
- Kairi's Flower Shoot projectile actually uses the FIRE element in-game, just like all of Lea's attacks, instead of the NEUTRAL element, like every other light-based attack does. She also casts Firaga in Melody of Memory. (Her dodge is also similar to Terra's Slide dodge from BBS)
Overall, while Kairi is similar to Sora at rest, she does incorporate her more unique flair during other actions. She does take a lot of elements from her friends and incorporates it into her own moveset, which is far more offensive focused than Sora's, but as equally as reactionary. She a pretty pragmatic fighter, in our limited experience, waiting for openings to trip up opponents and keep the pressure up on them, but she also quickly loses steam and momentum (reflected in how she has the worst HP and MP stats in KH3).
sora's stance being off works well with the fact that his fighting style is _entirely_ self-taught, and is realistically a fusion of sword fighting and _club_ fighting, because it was built from play-sparring with his friends using a few planks glued together into the shape of a sword. it's something that, from my experience, you can just _feel_ throughout the games, as the speed, coverage, and weight of his attacks don't really have the feel of a sword, but of a blunt rod that just bashes through his opponents. it's helped a lot by the significant hitstun and knockback of kh, of course, but there's also how easy it is to incidentally deflect enemy attacks just by swinging wildly. it very much has the vibe of how a dull, ordinary boy _would_ try wielding a sword, and i think there's something to the fact that even as his attacks and acrobatics have been refined throughout his many journeys, he still takes the exact same stance he used back when stick-fighting with riku all those years ago
Something interesting is that Riku actually has another battle stance only seen in KH1, with the wooden sword. He has the sword one handed towards the side facing the ground in front of him. There's no direct analogue to this stance though it's broadly similar to Lingering Will (which oddly has a different stance to Terra) or more closer to No Heart's stance albeit in different directions. After he got Soul Eater and the power of darkness he then switched to forward upright stance forever, never looking back. Though we do see him use the "darkness" stance in a memory in CoM.
I never thought I'd watch a video on swordplay of my favorite childhood game, but here I am and I love it
Riku's constant offensive stance is cool too, because later on, he learns to use his offhand to create magical barriers instead of dropping that offensive threat to block.
omg the editing in this is so fun
i love the fake menu
I think there's a really cool secondary reason for Riku's stance continuing to be what it is. He also uses a lot of Dark and other magics so him holding his hand out is now a secondary threat. Do you watch his blade for his powerful physical ability, or do you watch his hand for what magic he might use? Something very fitting for somrone like riku.
This was really good. Cool to see there is at least some historical precedent for these which almost certainly can't be accidental. Then again, maybe it's easier to work backwards to ascribe meaning to stances from existing characters. I do wish Kairi had kept her unique stance that lasted so little time I never even noticed it.
So i wasn’t being dumb when pretending to hold a sword like riku as a child 😂
Sora’s stance in KH3’s cover (basically the one at 0:55) is his best one, it’s a combination of kingly authority, experience gained through his many battles, resting his energies so that he can quickly react if needed, and ability to observe and study his opponents. O’m actually surprised that I found Western (specifically Italian) martial arts in KH, but then again, Square lately in their games have lots of characters with Italian names.
You're right, I think she is imitating Sora's stance. I hope she'll be adopt Aqua's stance or maybe just a mix of the two. It'd be super cool!
Phenomenal Video. It's great to have you back! An as always our champion, thanks for creating.
Wow, I love this. The sword stances matching with the character's personality is the best part for me! Especially Sora's-- the whole "He waits for the enemy, rather than striking first" is great.
I'm so excited to see all of these pieces! I do think one mega video of all the parts in one at the end could be a fun addition for anyone who wants to watch them all back to back sometime, in case you weren't already planning that.
The key blades usually aren't sharp because they don't need to be, they cut magically, not sure if they just go through ppl or how it works exactly but it's a similar deal as when they slice buildings in half, they're just unlocking your body apart ig
Edit: Aside from the reasons mentioned, I figure a big reason kairi adopts so much of sora's style is because she was with him through kh1 so she already had experience with the stance/moves
They cut through people's souls/hearts. The buildings thing happened the World That Never Was has an unstable reality structure, due to the lack of a Heart.
what's funny is that I always noticed that the characters all used certain stances, and I always noticed some common elements and tried justifying it myself as "because of the weird handle, Keyblade Wielders actually use specific stances to avoid the drawback of the guard), like how Sora, Eraqus, almost everyone from Union Cross, etc. always had stances using 2 hands, and how most of the characters who use darkness (Riku, Vanitas, Master & Young Xehanort, etc.) almost all use the exact similar stance, being High Guard. However, I never once in my life would have figured out that they used Real Life sword stances.
It also kinda threw me off why is Riku and Vanitas stance is sooooo similar. Like it’s almost one to one. Then you throw in Xehanort who also used that stance and it make me go what the heck? What is sooo special about that stance to them!? I tried to come up with a good theory about but I don’t think I can figure it out. My best guess is as you said it might have something to do with darkness powers. But even still I thought the dark power would come from their Keyblades.
@@sleepylmguy9968 It's cause Xehanort taught all of them. By possession or instruction.
@@connorburris4846 Hmm I guess that’s one explanation. But then you gotta remember Riku was using this stance or a very similar one before he left Destiny islands. You can spare with him as Sora an unlimited amount of times before the real adventure begins. And I can’t lie Kid Riku battle stance does almost match up with the other Darkness users. Maybe he learned about in a book or something when he was kid before KH story began.
Young Obi-Wan uses a similar stance to Riku as well!
In a sense, the Lightsaber Form 3 style seems to serve as the basis for Riku's style, and old Xehanort and Vanitas.
Isn't Form 3 a Defensive Style?
@@ZX-Gear Yeah, and I think the choreographers tend to see this contradiction a lot too. He always stances up like Riku but the instant an attack is thrown at him, he ALWAYS lowers the blade to his hips.
I like to think that Sora has no real fighting experience. The fighting stance could’ve just as easily been a instinctive choice with no thought
Early Sora might just be mindlessly swinging the keyblade And then he learns new skills through the adventure
But as another commenter pointed out, this is not entirely the case, as Sora and Riku had been sparing on the island for ages, during this time they adopted the fighting stances that we know and love
Sora has a basic stance picked up from Destiny Islands, true, but to say he has proper experience from training with kids using toys would be a bit of a stretch.
He's very non-formally trained, but that's his strength. He makes everything up as he goes along, leading into, once again, being a reactive fighter. This means it's hard for others to get a read on him in battle, because he never really has a plan.
"Because it's cool."
- holographic Martian head (Invader Zim)
I'd argue that the Destiny Trio all have similar moves, the ranged Raid attack (Although Riku's only used his as an extension while possessed by Ansem) and the dashing Rave attacks (Riku's being Dark Aura) being the most prominent examples
Comparing Sora and Riku....
"Knock on the Devil's door long enough and somebody will answer".
Sora is the one who answers.
Riku represents the Heisenberg quote:
"I am the one who knocks."
Why is Sora the Devil ?
@Angelus_The_Red_Dragon he isn't...I didn't say Sora was the Devil.
I used a cool phrase to visually depict and describe, or encapsulate, Sora's fighting style.
Gotta be careful with those leaps of logic
@@thedappermagician6905 then what does the quote mean ?
@Angelus_The_Red_Dragon Those who tempt Fate (Luck/Fortune) recklessly, seldom enjoy when it takes them up on their offer.
Or....Fuck around and Find out
Okay, this is really cool. Looking forward to the next parts. And when you have all 4 done, you'll have to make a super-long video of all four as...uh...just one video. :D
I agree with Sora in not respecting the rule.
Yes, there are worlds not ready for it, but there are others that are starting to ask the big questions, and I think some information, along with the beginning of some support network thanks to the phones, could prevent more Xehanorts, young Rikus, DiZ...
My favorite part so far of "Sea-Change of Fate" was seeing the Princesses act like the queens they are and call out Yen Sid on his outdated practices and zealotry over the world order ! If only the canon roster grew this big of a spine to get the old man to reveal his tiredness and break his ego...
Probably the most egregious use of the rule being invoked for no reason is with Alladin in KH1.
Not only was Jasmine kidnapped, but Alladin already knew about the existence of other worlds. Not bringing him along didn't do jack to "preserve the world order."
@@HunterStiles651indeed.
I think the problem here is the usual one. We've never actually seen the long-term consequences of outsiders crossing over into other worlds. It's usually like 3-5 in one world at once. I'm hoping the lost masters arc explores this rule more.
@@Chaoshadow-SA2 We have absolutely seen this: Maleficent is what happens when the wrong person finds out about the outside world. Xehanort explicitly broke the world order by telling her all about Kingdom Hearts, the Princesses of Heart, the darkness, other worlds… and the results were catastrophic, as she soon went about a campaign of destruction and conquest thereafter.
@@HunterStiles651 This is a Disney problem, not so much a KH problem. Disney tends to have very specific rules about how their properties can cross over, which is what “world order” _really_ means on an outside-of-canon level: Villains have a lot more leeway to move about and interfere with plots outside of their own, but that’s not kosher for heroic characters to do.
Maleficent is allowed to appear in Agrabah, etc, because she’s evil-so it’s fine if she fucks up the plot. She already sucks, so her throwing everything off the rails doesn’t besmirch her reputation. Aladdin isn’t allowed to come with you to the next set of worlds because having Aladdin-a hero-screw up the plot of another Disney world would be bad juju. Meanwhile, Beast _is_ allowed to go all the way to Hollow Bastion entirely on his own because Hollow Bastion is an original world with an original plotline that isn’t going to get thrown off by a heroic character showing up.
Riku’s stance would be borderline cheating in an epee or foil touch match. Any time an opponent gets close enough to get a hit, his blade would touch the head or chest of the opponent, giving him the point.
We had a kid back in the day at a local tournament get carded for it, but only after he racked 4 out of 5 points doing it.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up the Reaction Commands in regard to Sora being a reactive fighter.
Ooooo that's a good point too! I was focused on the story telling and didn't consider other combat features
I see a follow up series coming on~
rly intrigued by what youve covered so far!!! i remember long ago learning that riku's stance is inspired by fencers, so its rly cool to find out that there are irl analogues to the other characters as well! also i loooooove that ur using the menu design to break up sections of the video, such a cool idea. cant wait to see the next one!
HEMA practicioner and weapon historian here.
This is a pretty fun analysis and I'm happy that it's pointed out beforehand that it's fantasy, because a lot of HEMA people can hit a point where they forget to seperate fantasy from reality.
There are a few things to talk about from a HEMA point of view, but one of the main points I wanted to bring up is that stances are not supposed to be static. You use them based on what you're wanting to do as well as from your opponent. Meyer talks greatly about how attacking is simply transitioning between stances.
With Sora, as a character he holds his keyblade much more like... a bat? I think it's a great character trait that he's a rather inexperienced self taught fighter. This also shows in his attacks where he's throwing his body into them and has his hands very close together (like you would with a bat, and the OPPOSITE of what you do with a longsword.)
For Riku, his legs being swapped is actually a BIG issue. He's not only giving himself less power in the Thrust, he's leaving his unguarded side most exposed. You also don't want to stick your hand so far out as the hand is a very popular target in swordfighting. It's not a stance you want to hangout in. But hey, again it's fantasy and looks cool.
For Kairi, Fool's guard is wonderful as long as you don't overuse it as a skilled duelist won't fall for it as much, and even a fool won't fall for it every time. But again, our boy Meyer talks about these transitions. I like that it's talked about as a rest stance, as while that is true, most fencers rest in what's called in English "The Plow" where you keep the sword at the hip pointed towards the opponents chest.
Overall, I'd love to see more variety in fantasy characters in their stances, and see them transition more to different stances. A good fighter is a balanced fighter.
This was some fascinating stuff. Definitely looking forward to the rest of the series.
Wow! Can I just say everything about this video is fantastic- nevermind the actual topics and research themselves! The presentation and usage of KH UI/sound effects always pleasantly tickles my brain; music choices are stellar (love Enrico's works), and even your avatar is excellently designed! As someone striving to be a concept artist/designer, your character and the way he's drawn is top notch.👌 Plus one subscriber who's looking foward to the next set of stances!! Keep it up!❤👑🗝
I know thats not the point of the video but the transitions are adorable! They add so much personality to your videos
This is so cool! High ward sounds really similar to Highwind, don't you think?
I've always worked under the assumption that Sora and Riku's stances were due to their only method of combat training being playfights on the island. I mean, it's not like anyone on the island had any REASON to expect self-defense being necessary before the Heartless showed up (all indications are that Destiny Islands are pretty peaceful), so they basically had to work with what they got.
Yeah...this video is pure heat. Great job my dude
I see the keyblade as some kind of magic sword, with a lot of emphasis in the "magic" part. It only cuts when the user wants to and what the user wants to. However, it also depends of the power and expertise of the wielder. That explains why Sora's keyblade can cut through buildings (inanimated big objects) but can also be stopped by Xemnas hand (second on command of the villains).
Amazing video! Loved the respect you show towards the videogame, its characters, its creators, and their inspiration! The fact that you went out of your way to show content from other creators really speaks volumes on bow much you value your fellow colleagues :) Happy festivities ❤
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I figured it's only fair to highlight them properly when I'm relying on them for all the knowledge. They're giving us free education essentially 😂 Also I'd be left with no kingdom hearts music if it wasn't for these cover artists on youtube. The copyright system would have my head if I used the actual soundtrack. Thank you for your kind words and happy holidays as well!
Now I want you to go into detail about everybody else' stance cuz this was really cool to watch and learn from
This video is GAS. I’m kinda mad it’s broken up into parts. Crazy to think the developers probably have looked up actual stances and copied or fully based them off real word combat. Details most of us never even really took notice.
Hey, if Sofia the First, or Elena of Avalor got a Keyblade, what do you think the stance of each one would be like ? What would each reflect ?
Something I also notice is that Riku and Sora's main keyblades by the time of 3 perfectly envision their character type:
Sora's is an old-type key. His fighting style is all about reaction and protecting others, keeping the past chains of friendship alive to protect the future.
Riku's is a new-type key. His fighting style is active, aggressive, and seeks to destroy threats before they can threaten others. He looks to the future to protect his past, his friends.
And NEITHER actually focuses on defense. Sora is focused on reaction while Riku is focused on action.
Best video on this channel so far in my opinion.
You know Square and Disney were cooking in the kitchen also love how each playable fighter and notable badguy has a unique fighting style the toon slash animation styled disney characters are performance based the square enix characters are bit more technical while the Original Characters of Kingdom Hearts a mix of each camp
Great video. Commenting to hopefully boost you in the algorithm
Man when i first played KH and saw more wielders the stances were always the thing that stood out. It was soooo iconic seeing all the characters summon their keyblades at once in KH3 and take on their unique stances that i just got super hype about that shit.
This video is so fun to see the possible real world influence and the analysis was expertly told and articulate i cant wait for more!
Riku isnt actively reacting to violence.
HE IS THE VIOLENCE
After seeing her moves in the remind dlc, especially with the barriers, I have thought for years that she is a person who isn't as agile as her friends but relies on counterattacks to get the job done. I feel pretty vindicated after seeing her original stance centered around countering and how the idea of it translated to her actual mechanics.
Also given how literally every kid on that island was swinging around some weapon in their spars/play fights and how Kairi shows no hesitation in wielding a sword handed to her out of the blue, defaulting to that position even in the DDD illusions seemingly based on Sora's past experiences at the end of the game (an implication he's seen her do this stance before), I wouldn't be surprised if Kairi picked up her style a long time ago. Maybe she spent spars by baiting her overconfident friends into attacking her. It's a fun idea to consider.
One thing i'd like to point out is that, Sora when in Valor Form looks and fights much more aggressively than the other dual wielder we have, which is Roxas, while yes Sora only dual wileds when in either Valor (Final is more focused on spells than physical combat) or while using Oath or Oblivion in 3, Valor looks the part because his stance is one that looks more guarded than Roxas', however, that stance ends up favoring much more aggressive and brutal attacks, like a waist and head swing at the same time, than Roxas' open wide stance which he seems to favour fluidity and constant pressure rather than full power strikes (if you exclude his outburst on the ending of his data battle in 2 or the teleport and spell casting in 3), hell, you could even see that brutality in Xion which seems to adopt the Valor form's philosophy of guard and destroy, especially her lunge in her data battle in 3 despite having the same stance as base Sora. Its funny to think that Roxas takes Sora's fluidity, ability to pressure and ironically more guarded approach with a seemingly aggressive stance while Xion favours destruction and speed with a more guarded stance.
I really loved how you made it look like the kingdom hearts pause screen
Royal W bro 😎 ❤
Man i love watching a video of a series i literally never played before and somehow still enjoy it
An almost dead ringer for Riku's guard, from the blade held high to the extended hand to the footing, is actually employed in some forms of cane-fighting, particularly Bartitsu. The point of the stance in that context is to rest on the back foot, passively guard high attacks with the cane, and present the lead arm and leg as bait. Then, spring the trap by pivoting on one's back foot. This pulls your front limbs out of reach and allows you to rotate your entire core, shoulder, and arm into a strike to the attacker's limb which, despite being one-handed, will still break bones thanks to centrifugal force and biomechanics.
This sounds a lot like Sora's defensive, almost invitational stance at first, but while Sora's stance still allows him to effectively block in reaction to being attacked, Riku's defense relies almost entirely on footwork and evasion instead. Where Sora stands his ground to defend himself and others before countering, Riku more often than not cedes ground to counter immediately. And of course, if the bait isn't taken, one's weapon is still cocked and ready for thrusts and strikes to the head, neck, and upper body, all of which are vital areas. In fact, by shifting one's weight to the front foot, this stance immediately becomes almost wholly offensive, priming the user for lunging thrusts and more rotating strikes as they advance on more defensive enemies.
It's not just the stance of someone who approaches combat with aggression and intention, it's also the stance of someone who is less interested in going directly sword to sword, in directly clashing with and overcoming an opponent, and more in simply negating and neutralizing them and carrying on. Where Sora stands in front of his friends and dares enemies to act, Riku adopts his guard with the intention of moving past whatever enemy is in front of him.
Also, Kairi using Sora's stance feels less like an in-universe evolution of her character, and more like the devs hastily copy-pasting together a 20-dollar "true ending" DLC to address fan outrage at KH3's original ending. Maybe I'm only saying this because I was one of those people pissed off at the first ending, who spent that money and had nothing to show for it aside from still being pissed off at the new revised ending. A sheer lack of forethought on that front would perfectly track with how Kairi's been treated throughout the series, though, and also with the fact that the original "payoff" of Kairi being built up for all of KHIII as training super-hard off screen was... Xehanort damsel-in-distress-ing her in a single move, such that Sora has to strand himself in an alternate reality to save her.
"this stance isn't too different from how Sora holds his keyblade, except for everything about it"
Think this needs a sequel. Nice video dude !!!
I hope that if Kairi ever gets her own proper game (other than Melody of Memory) that she gets to develop her own stance and have a fighting style of her own. Very interesting video, looking forward to the rest!
Besides Kairi's stance, there's her Axel/Noctis-teleport on her strike raid, and her combat moves that are 'light' version of Riku's end game moves; 360 light shield as a block, light dash that gives invuln frames.
Her combos allow enemy knockback/air juggling, meaning *she hits like a gaddamn truck*. She honestly mirrors Terra's gameplay but better, with strong magic as backup and faster movement/teleporting (And the ability to just...stay in the air the entire Xehanort fight like the ground is lava)
Something I wanted to note, in KH1, Sora occasionally switches to a relatively proper tail stance, notably, the first fight with that tiger in deep jungle.
Edit: Forgot to mention, it's only in the cutscenes where you can see him take a proper tail stance, he switches back to his altered version of the tail stance once the fight starts.
Really ? I wonder what that switch entails to him.
I really like this video and would honestly love more videos like this. Idk what else could be talked about but I really love this lol.
The yap is eternal with I
I can understand the rule because people like Maleficent and Pete exist. Imagine if she actually was able to recruit Hades and Jafar again, then got other, more threatening villains like Frollo or Lotso to work with her, think we'd see the long term consequences of too many people having this knowledge.
Riku being the only one of the trio to use a one-handed stance also reflects his apparent status as a prodigy in KH1. It makes his weapon appear effortless to hold and swing. Meanwhile, Sora's starting 3-hit combo is visibly heavy, bordering on clumsy.
I know I’m a bit late but I got to throw in two my 2 cents. It’s also important to note two things. First is so far Sora is the only balance Keyblade wielder in the series. He got Speed, Strength, and is great at Magic. 2nd is he offers share certain moves with the three other wielders in his heart. Roxas, Ventus, and Xion. Besides the dual wielding which I could argue is more a combination of Roxas AND Xion. He can also be pretty aggressive like Roxas with his attacks. He’s agile as heck like Ventus especially in the air, plus he tend to put his blade into the backhand position during his combos. Not to mention how fast these both of them can move on ground. Xion I’m pretty sure helps with his magic skills, but also with his defensive. In being patient and counter attacking when you see an opportunity.
It is cute that you think Kairi will get to do anything (ever) in this series when she got told to sit there and wait while Riku goes on twink recovery duty. In her own spin-off game, no less.
In all seriousness, Kairi mirroring Sora's battle stance makes a lot of sense when you consider two factors:
1. Kairi's heart (the major repository of memories in this setting) spent most of KH1 riding the heart clown car known as Sora. It is entirely possible that she has retained memories of his fighting style from that time and based her style on them.
2. Her main training partner was Axel/Lea, who retained subconscious memories of Xion, who looks like Kairi but fights with a stance similar to Sora's. This could have led to him subconsciously guiding her down a similar path.
I always reckoned, just from looking at the animations and some key blade wielders not exactly holding their blades, that key blades kinda propel themselves and wielders just sorta hold onto them while controlling them
I think it’s half-and-half actually swinging the blade, half psychic swordsmanship. KH2 Final Form for example is pretty much 100% telekinetic wielding
You've never been in a duel before I have two keyblades in my house we can fix that real quick
Amazing video ! Riku is my favorite character in kingdom hearts so far but honestly I love all the characters !
What about Yozora’s battle stance ?
He’s from a game called Verum Rex .
Yozora fights wielding 2 weapons instead of one weapon . He reminds me of Roxas and axel in that way .
I really enjoyed this video I been waiting for something like this keep it up:]
I love this video so much. The edit screens at 1:10 are awesome!!
something else to note about Sora is how his stance translates into gameplay. At least for all of the superbossess in Kh2 and 3 when sora is on "even" ground with his opponents you're rarely in the advantage. While you have bursts of offence where you can land your combos it's always after the opponent leaves an opening, which you can't force. It's always defense>opening>strike. It's always about reacting to the oponents mistakes rather than forcing them to make them.
Damn man im enjoying this, and like the real world inspiration for the way go hold the weapons
Short answer to why they are weird: the more unique and original a pose is, the easier it is to make it iconic.
Now, what I *really* wanna know is why Riku and Vanitas share their stance (and outfit, but there are pæausible explanations for that.)
Riku had his stance at destiny islands before he started imteracting with darkness, so I don't really feel like one could say Riku had the stance because he was influenced by darkness/Ansem.
If anything, he would have been influenced by Terra.
And Vanitas is easily more connected with Ventus and Sora than he is with Riku.
The things that *are* mirrored seem entirely coincidental, and that annoys me so much
Saw the short of Roxas’ ultra-aggressive style post-Xion, looking forward to a much more complete analysis.
Riku's stsnce reminds me of a character in rouroni kenshin who excells in a specialty thrust technique.
What a lovely video. I never thought Riku's edgelord stance had some semblance of merit in real sword fighting. I think it's a bit of a shame that Kairi "lost" her original fighting stance along games; even if her current stance is fine. It feels somewhat ironic too given all the discourse surrounding her, poor girl can't even be her own fighter.... Maybe soon she'll come into her own. I can't wait for the, what I can only assume is a dumpster fire of a stance that Roxas carries dualwielding his inherited keyblades (Which Sora himself found through the Oblivion Riku left in his path, mirroring the flames and chaos Axel sowes in the Org and Roxas' mindset, and the Oath Sora made to Kairi, echoed through Xion's last wishes buried deep within memories Roxas no longer has)
I didn't know i needed this, thank you.
Sora battle stance does leave him open but his attacks he does in KH2 make up for it in the end. Like for example, Valor form is a form that seems to be disliked for not having guard which is true but it does make up for what it lacks by the stance he has in that form. Sora holds the left hand of his keyblade to his right waist while the right hand keyblade is above his right shoulder.
What's facisnatting about valor form battle stance is how strong it looks when he wields the keyblade around his body to protect himself with any swing he does to parry oncoming attacks.
It is one of the reasons I like valor form is because of it's agility to out run most attacks & the defensive capability when he is on offense.
I know this video was not talking about drive form battle stance but it was just something I wanted to add in since I always found Sora's stance in that form to be pretty cool.
Enjoyed the video.
worth mentioning that sora's stance and fighting style, especially in kh1, pulls a lot from kendo, which is a swordfighting-based sport thats a stereotypical "kid's sport" in japan. in kh1 a lot of his attacks are basic kendo techniques, but as the series goes on they get replaced with more flashy and elaborate moves both as he levels up in that game and as the series goes on, representing his growth as a warrior beyond a kid playing with swords. its also worth noting that some japanese swordfighting philosophy associates waki-gamae with light
Kairi's stance could revert to the Fool's Guard since she's going to be trsining with Aqua.
I've wondered this for years!
Hey champ you know how I asked commented on vexan fighting style and it might be close to xaldin fighting style if pushed to phase 2 he had ice blades formed both ends of his shield
Forming dueling shield not crazy but practical
I read Sora's stance as a mix of fool's guard and tail guard, very unassuming as a combatant, but he is more inclined to talk than fight, so it absolutely fits.
Riku is more of a sabre/rapier fencer, though I feel a spear would fit in his hands the best. A literal lancer. Though his stance kind of reminds me of great katan stances.
Kairi... eh... pass.
I don't have much to say about the bulk of the others, Tera, Roxas, Ventus, they're basically just unga bunga with complete abandon.
Axel's keyblade stance is an adaptation of his assassin/dancer fighting style, Xion is a another Sora like, Erecus just does kendo, basically.
Aqua is a weird one because she basically has a sword and shield stance without a shield, which she absolutely does not needs because of her robust barrier magics and acrobatics.
Sora's stance always stuck out as weird to me. It's interesting to see how it does have some basis in actual sword stances.
Sora and Xemnas both have stances that are dripping with FAFO vibes.