@@Schizobateman lmao bro you need some serious help. The way you answer is lame. I guess you have no friendsb nor a life. Keep wasting your time. And keep playing kh1 because I don't give a fuck. I will continue to enjoy newer games while you cope like a bitch
In a "fandom" full of people who heavily favor KH2, I always felt in a small minority of people who didn't find it that incredibly amazing, for every single reason you listed in this video. I absolutely loved having to figure out how to progress in KH1 and all of the "hidden" parts of the world, and I was so disappointed in KH2 when all of the treasure chests were just littered along a linear path. Great video!
Im one of the few who totally agree! KH1 is better than KH2 in so many of the lil small nuanced ways that most ppl overlook when they're distracted by all the special effects lol
The story makes more sense, the beggining of the game on destiny islands and that mysterious feeling after what happens all of a suden, traverse town, the better implemented disney villains, Hollow bastion and its OST, the more simple quest with only kairi riku and sora, better spells such as gravity, better magic system, a less button masher and more tactical combat style...overall i think it is more unique aswell, i didnt like how kh2 just puts this sort of minigames to defeat bosses etc. made some of the parts annoying, also yes the linearity doesnt help much but there are some awesome things in kh2 too.
Kingdom Hearts 2 sucks because have censorships in the USA, is not like put less blood in Dark Souls 2, (I hate it) no, it's worse! - Xigbar guns are censored but they aren't like real guns. - the guns on Port Royale are censored but Sora didn't lose blood when being hit. - The Green Blood on The Hydra is removed, but on Hercules Movie, the green blood appear, and "It's Rated G" (for young childrens) - Donald spank is removed but it isn't put a reference to domestic violence and Sexùality. - Too much discrepancy between Japanese and English Dub, the bad localization it's the fault. - The "Bloodless Stab" on Jack Sparrow is removed, but it's "Bloodless"! - Alex flames are removed for stupid reasons. (Americans sucks) - Possible Censorships in some dialogues! (I think Hayner say "Shìt" in the Japanese version) - Possible censorship on a dialogue of Luxord! (I think he says "Die" on his battle in the Japanese version) This Game must be rated PEGI 7 and not PEGI 12. Play Kingdom Hearts 2 in the Japanese version!
My thing was I loved the boss battles of 1 and the combat of 2. Now, with added features to the final mix the combat is a lot more similar so it's really hard for me to go back to 2 when I feel like 1 is the superior game.
It is kind of amazing how a lot of people disliked 2 on release, but to current date everyone seems to almost unanimously laud KH2 as superior to 1. I certainly understand some aspects, back when 2 came out I actually thought people were being too critical, but I have since flipped as I have gotten older and think the games after 1 don't quite capture the same feeling that made it so good. In my mind, Kingdom Hearts works as an amazing standalone game.
It's Prop Hunt game except it's also hide and go fight. Everyone can hide and everyone can seek, but you don't know who got the op characters and who got unlucky and got mario party swapped to be Krillin.
I agree, I love the exploration of kingdom hearts 1. I loved that levels were puzzles to solve and that you could go back later with glide and high jump and get to all the places you couldn’t reach the first time through.
I can see where you're coming from with you favoring KH1 over 2, but I think a lot of that comes down to personal preference. I straight up cannot return to KH1 because the combat and the absolutely janky platforming. While others love the exploration and puzzle solving nature of the first title, it always felt like a slog to get through. I felt like the gameplay in the first game is so lackluster and really doesn't do anything for me. IMO IMO IMO. Now, 2 isn't super perfect or anything but it captures EXACTLY what I want out of my Disney Anime Game. I want really over the top hype shit and good combat. Yeah there's a lot of cutscenes and it's terribly convoluted, but on the real here it's pretty hype. Also don't ever talk about Atlantica in KH2 again. Please? The nightmares never end.
You're definitely not wrong! Like, a lot of my issues come down to what I prioritize in what I want from a KH game. KH2 has a lot of really great stuff going for it!
Lol I think the combat in KH1 is still pretty good. Sure it's simplistic and a little bland, but there's a lot of emphasis on timing your attacks so that you either don't get hit or parry attacks. Tech points reward players who play well, making experimentation fun and rewarding. KH2 has the form and summon levelling, while a nice incentive, levels up instead of providing a consistent bonus. ...No arguments about the platforming though.
completely agree with that i don't even want to go back to kh1 to 100% it, it was such a slog to get through it all the first time, while with kh2 i pretty much enjoyed every minute of it(minus atlantica)
Kh1 didn't age well, try making a friend who is new to the series play it, they get bored really fast and you need to keep pushing them to play it. Personal experience
If you include the Final Mix version, Kingdom Hearts 2 actually goes overboard with the optional bosses. There's a whole extra section where you fight enhanced versions of the Organization for example. :3
1. J-Pop, not K-Pop. Utada Hikaru is Japanese. 2. Monstro sucks. 3. Sora already knew flight & the other abilities you unlock in the first game. Why would he have to unlock them again naturally while exploring the worlds when he already knows them, but needs a nudge to get them relearned? 4. Dude, the 1000 Heartless battle was epic, don't lie. 5. I'd say that exploration still is in KHII, but to a lesser extent. 6. Grinding was a HUGE part of KHI as well, but it was even worse. At least KHII's combat was exciting to look at & experiment with. KHI's was clunky & stiff. 7. You can speed by in KHI as well. 8. You didn't HAVE to do the tournaments in the first game either. You could easily skip them if you wanted. Literally the only thing completing the tournaments will do is unlock some optional stuff. The only thing they did to make it different in KHII was not make the tournaments bad & kept the story in the world away from them. I agree on the experience thing, though. It's stupid those don't give you any if you're not max level. 9. Oh, like KHI's story didn't have annoying filler? Atlantica & Deep Jungle were the worlds that felt the most like filler to me. 10. Really? You're complaining about the programmers actually making it worth the trip back to the worlds the second time outside of collectables? 11. Dude, KHII delivered on the optional boss fights. I really don't get most of these complaints. I felt, outside of the story, KHII improved on all aspects of the first game. There's not a lot to complain about with the second game in terms of these things.
Sora forgot those skills when he entered Castle Oblivion. Namine did say she was going to restore his memories but apparently she did not that good of a job when it comes to the memories regarding combat skills.
1) Yes 2) Very yes 3) Because plot 4) Yes (though not well designed for Critical) 5) I think it's pretty neutered tbh. The most obvious being the lack of trinities. Normally this doesn't mean much but remember synthesis? In KH2 it's unlocked from the get go but I was always pretty excited for it in KH1. The worlds are FAR more interactive as well, such as Traverse Town, Wonderland, Agrabah, and Hollow Bastion, though I'll give you that it wasn't always a good thing (Deep Jungle, Halloween Town) 6) I've beaten KH1 with no grind. And while it was a bit stiff, it had more emphasis on parrying as you could reflect projectiles or create your own openings. 7) But you just said grinding was a huge part of KH1. You don't have to worry about anything other than character level for KH1 either. In KH2 you had drive forms and summons to level up, which is optional but do you want those cool and flashy abilities or do you want those cool and flashy abilities? Synth grinding in 1FM sucks ass tho 8) Yeah 9) While I agree on that, at least it didn't make us revisit the worlds again. 10) Yes 11) Hell yes -and they absolutely murder me-
Man shut the fuck up. People seem to forget UA-cam videos contain these things called opinions. It’s almost like you need to read the same label before every video
I understand your points and I do agree with most of them to a degree. But ultimately I find Kingdom Hearts 2 to be the vastly superior game Is it more linear? Indeed it is, but I don't see this as a bad thing at all, I think it outright works to the game's advantage. I never found exploration to be a focal point of Kingdom Hearts, if anything its one of the most annoying parts. The platforming is usually tedious and too many of the worlds are maze-like with nothing much to see. I think it's the combat that takes center stage and Kingdom Hearts 2 perfectly refined the honestly clunky and slow gameplay of 1 and also made it more approachable whilst also making it more strategic and immensely fun to watch. The only thing I think the first game has over the second is it's intro... In terms of gameplay. In terms of story I found the tale of Roxas' fake life and Sora's reawakening more impactful than 3 tweens deciding to make a boat and then bad stuff happens. Heres hoping that Kingdom Hearts 3 combines the best elements of 1 and 2, as well as the other games.
Dracomut I feel kh3 is taking more from the handheld games instead of the main ps2 titles. Even though it's more polished than the other two titles in the main timeline; it just feels like bbs and ddd on beautiful steroids.
@@EJ-wr8bl ye because the team which developed bbs,ddd and so on was the main team developing kh3 :/ the other team from kh1&2 worked on ffxv i think for a very long time even after xv was released
This reminded me of my 10y old self feeling bad for one of my friends because he only had KH1 and not KH2. Little did I know, KH1 became my favorite game in the series after I replayed/actually finished it on PS4. KH1 certainly stands out against the rest of the series, not just for its simplicity, but also due to its charm; it has so many little details and interactions you don't get to see in the rest of the series. I dunno, it kinda feels like the devs saw this then-weird concept of mashing Disney and Square characters together and decided to go ham with it, throwing in there every little thing they thought looked cool or interesting. KH2 certainly has the better battle system of the two, but this is about all that is has over KH1 in my honest opinion. -------- Though, I gotta say, the games failling to give an incentive to do aything beyond mashing X and Cure isn't the only reason why KH1 and 2 are/were seen as button mashers. KH1 and KH2 also have a huge problem in regards to their tutorials and descriptions, as only the very basic/pointless stuff is explained, while everything is left to a short two-lines description in the pause menu. When you get a new spell or a new ability, you aren't told anything about it or how it can be used, you're just told you got a new thing you can use. Combining that and the lack of incentive led many players to completly ingnore new abilities, or to try them out once and then quickly dismiss them if they didn't seem useful in the situation they used it in. I'm all for letting the player figure stuff by themselves, but KH1 and KH2 did a very poor job at that.
KH1 put a much greater emphasis on the disney and final fantasy characters, which made sense since the game was meant to be a cross-over. Starting with KH2 (although this gets much worse later on), the focus shifted primarily to new characters, with disney characters being used less than them and FF characters showing up even less frequently.
Exactly, the charm of the first game is so undeniable. All the little easter eggs and details and secrets make it feel like such a tight, well thought out game that a lot of care went into. The story’s pacing is practically perfect and the way the Disney worlds and villians actually tied into the story and themes and moved the game along was so great. It’s a perfect mix of silly and serious while KH2 went too far in both directions at times. KH1 just has this whimsical aura about it that made it feel really unique. KH2 is a good game but ultimately feels a little sterile to me in comparison. It was made by a different team at Square and it really shows
Great video man, I’ve always preferred the first game. But in all honesty I think I prefer the slower weightier combat of the first game. I think it had a bit more strategy with physical attacks and magic. A bit being the key word. I love how flashy the second game can be, but it could come across as shallow sometimes.
I think what really makes me enjoy 2 way more than 1 comes down to polish, and game feel, with a little attributed to characters and story. The atmosphere in the game was so much richer than the first, movement felt so fluid yet still weighty, I thought the worlds were so much more fleshed out with more interesting choices for worlds as well. The story of roxas and naminé and ansem the wise and king Mickey, all of them were so interesting to me, causing me to look deeper into the game on subsequent play throughs, deep reading all of ansems reports, paying a ton of attention during cutscenes. I did love playing kh1, and it’s an amazing game, but I would rather play kh2 3 times in a row to completion then pick up kh1 for another critical run. Kh2 just truly seems more, to be blunt, fun than kh1
Agreed , although KH1 is a great game I really enjoyed the second one more. I was a kid when I first played them, so I didn’t get to experience KH1 until after already loving KH2. I was confused but after playing KH1 the flash backs in KH2 I had a good idea of what was happening in the story but I still thought 2 was better.
Personally I never thought Kingdom Hearts' story was that complicated, and (at least from what I've seen) people tend complain about this because they haven't played all the games. That'd be like complaining that the story of hairy potter doesn't make sense if you only read two books. And yes I agree with you that most of the mini-games were unnecessary and when I was a kid playing these I would basically ignore the fact the extra rules and stipulations and still get through them no problem. So if their goal was to spice up the combat it didn't quite work. As for the exploration there were definitely problems with it in Kingdom Hearts 1, specifically the areas meant for exploration like Monstro and the Cave of Wonders didn't have a lot of distinguishing features so it was very easy to get lost which made me just avoid them. But I do think it was a bad idea to get rid of them all together rather than fix them.
Tony's Tech Thoughts yes, if you play both PS2 games, then that GBA game, then those DS games, then that PSP game, then that 3DS game, then that mobile game, then you'll know what's going on in the story
I don't know why people say that the Kingdom Hearts Story is konfusing and a mess, on the other hand... I didn't played Dream drop distance yet and... I have a bad Feeling.
KH doesn't have a complicated or complex plot, it has a dense plot. You can't explain who Roxas is in a timely fashion, but nothing about him is hard to understand. There's just a lot.
I am probably in a minority but i hated the convoluted level designs in the first kingdom hearts. It felt like most of the time i just wondered aimlessly revisiting older rooms sometimes hoping i trigger the next story progression cut scene. It honestly felt like a tedious waste of time sometimes. I enjoyed the more streamlined design KH 2 mostly because i play KH games more like they are Stylish action games such as Bayonetta or DMC than RPGs. Not that i dont enjoy metroidvanias or RPGs but its not what i play KH for.
djukor Trust me, you aren't in a minority. In fact, most people hate the dumb world design in KH1. I get flashbacks to Tarzan everytime and I just want to die. That alone is the reason I can't replay KH1, but replay KH2 100% every couple years.
Funny story, as a kid I was stuck in Traverse town for weeks (no joke). Kept picking it up to fight some heartless, then quiting I guess. I never knew that you had to walk into Cid's shop, then walk out to trigger the fight with Leon. I still don't really know how I managed to waste that much time, but yeah. NOTHING indicated that. You just had to wander forever until you found it
@@AntiSoraXVI you got to like how unintuitive the plot can be in Kingdom Hearts 1. I was left stuck in Wonderland trying to figure out what to do after Alice disappeared yeah. I didn't know that I had to go to the ceiling. Or the fact that Halloweentown shares the same problem as Twilight Princess where the world is so dark you can barely see it on the screen.
I played kingdom hearts 1 without even getting past traverse town about 5 times. Then once I got a little older I would get farther and farther. Kingdom hearts one is my favorite for nostalgia reasons. One of the coolest adventures I’ve ever been on without leaving my couch lol.
I was pretty disapointed with 2. The combat system in 1 was simple so fighting was more about movement, while in 2, the fighting had so much stuff that it boiled down to mashing the attack button with the fanciest combo for damage. I can't really remember how the end game felt except that it was pretty easy while 1 was always a challenge. I also like the worlds in 1 better, the story felt like an actual mix of Disney plots with the trio mixed in, and the worlds were connected feeling like an actual place. By 2 though, it felt like the story brushes through Disney movies just for the sake of it and the worlds themselves are treated the same. I remember being really excited going to the Mulan world, only to be massively disappointed at how quickly it brushed through the Mulan story with the only addition being hearltess being thrown here and there, while each room teleports you massive distances to another part of the movie.
I disagree with your point about drives. The early game heavily encourages you to use drives. Your first introduction to them is explosive, you see two keyblades, which was incredibly hype with Roxas vs Axel, and Final Mix gives plenty of drive, so the player is pushed to use it. It also happens that Valor Form is incredibly easy to level. With the player going crazy with valor form, it won't be long until they get their first Valor Level, which clues them into drives having levels.
That's fair! I was the type of player that always tried to save it up for boss fights or something because I didn't want to waste it and not have it when it was important. But I'm also the player that saves up all my potions and never uses them, so there's that :P
The 1st kh was very deep. Sora being the very embodiment of 'good' he was pure and inocent in every way. He was created as the very thing our society needed. The keyblade was a metaphor of sorts with its connection to "the heart of all worlds" Kingdom hearts itself was a representation of heaven,heaven also reffered to by many as' THE KINGDOM' a place where all souls come from or in this case HEARTS. Sora-"I know now,that kingdom hearts is light" and lets not forget about the message that shows up when waiting at the title screen -WE PRAY FOR OUR SORROWS TO END ,AND HOPE THAT OUR HEARTS WILL BLEND .NOW I WILL STEP FORWARD TO REALIZE THIS WISH . THE HEARTLESS=the heartless people of today's world. But as we move towards kh2,the series becomes more "entertaining" and the"deeper meaning" it was meant to have somewhat vanished,not by choice of course. Creators are often forced to change direction when those in charge decide on it. Many artists musicians and so on have spoken out about such things,all you have to do is listen
i just wanna point out that a lot of the options that "don't give you a reason to use them" are actually really good, they just don't explain them well enough in game to get players to understand how to fully and effectively utilize them. a lot of speedrun strats for kh1 and 2 make great use of summons and other abilities to more efficiently deal with any given fight. for example, summons in kh1, along with all your spells, have their strength determined by your overall max mp. so a fire spell when your max mp is 3 is going to be less powerful than if it was 6, and your summon gauge will be much lower at 3 mp compared to 6. there's also some more advanced/technical mechanics that i'm not quite familiar enough to accurately explain, such as damage storage, which can make something like mushu exponentially more powerful when used correctly. (whether damage storage is an intentional mechanic or not definitely seems debatable though) summons in kh2 also are really underrated. chicken little, which you get pretty early on, basically functions like the magnet spell in that he will pull enemies towards you, provided you aren't right next to them (it's a little finnicky though) a lot of the limits like duckflare and flametongue are actually a lot better than what most people give them credit for, myself included for quite a while. hell, i'm pretty sure the strategy guides they make don't really go into any of that for either game, so most players just aren't going to really bother trying most things out outside maybe once or twice and then just go back to mashing x or triangle, which is a shame since these games actually have a lot more depth to their combat that just gets ignored. kh2 also added revenge value for boss fights, which is probably one of the better things in the game since it actively deters you from just spamming attacks without thinking. (short version is if you hit a boss x amount of times, they immediately retaliate) bizkit047 has a lot of videos going over at least the kh2 stuff pretty well and i'd definitely recommend anyone interested to check them out.
So true. Like how mature Sora is in this game : KH1 : Caring, understanding and hopeful KH2 : Overconfident and just dumb ( like in Hollow Garden where he spend minutes understanding there can be two Ansems )
Yeah but he's also tougher when he responds to the enemies Hes still Sora he still wants to have fun and mess around but he is definitely more mature in Kingdom Hearts 2
@@rodrikgalliant3749 that's a pretty major reveal dude and pretty hard to understand even for people who played the game because it wasn't mentioned once in Kingdom Hearts 1
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369I love kh2 but Sora was definitely more of a goofball in kh2 in kh1 and re:com he was a goof in some scenes but in kh2 and after he gest turned up to 100 in terms of goofyness I mean I like it because it gives him more character but saying he is more mature is definitely not ture in my opinion
Wow, I ended up heavily disagreeing with this video, which was unexpected. Usually I really gel with your opinion but not this time. I actually much prefer KH2's focus on its combat and movement mechanics, than KH1's explorative design. I will admit though, that KH1 had a bit more of that "Disney Magic" feeling to it that KH2 lacks. That being said, I cant bring myself to care if the bosses or sections are made into minigames. They are just changing up the gameplay for the sake of variety and I think it works well most of the time in testing your abilities in various scenarios.
Kingdom Hearts was more fulfilling with the puzzle like scenarios (such as the Clock in the Phantom boss or the Candles in Traverse Time). There was even more exploration and Trinities which were fun to find. Kingdom Hearts 2 seemed really easy with reaction commands and advice/tips.
@@ArloMathis Final Mix Change the combat system dramatically with the addition of new attacks abilities but seeing as it looks like you just spent through the game and only went through with battles that he had to fight I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't see many of them. The change to the synthesis mechanic where are you Forge equipment staff buffs and higher-quality healing items. Also Final Mix also adds new enemies as special encounters similar to the white mushroom, or black fungus. Overall all the complaints from this video sound like a casual fans complaints.
And that's what I want from KH3 to be more mixed of KH1 with Good Plot and Disney involvement and KH2 with gameplay and fast paced attack with free optional technique and revenge value on bosses. That's all we really want from KH3 to be KH1 and KH2!
I'll agree with a lot of your points. While KH1 is extremely cohesive in how it presented its narrative (especially through exploration), KH2 takes it a bit further than I remember feeling comfortable with re: all the minigames and linearity in level design. Revisiting this video now that KH3 has been expanded with Remind reminds (hah) me of how appreciative I was that--despite 3 feeling like the worlds were even further disjointed from how they were in KH2--they reduced the minigames and made the core gameplay loop more of the experience...while making the disney worlds much more interesting than they ever have been in the series. I love how exploratory KH1 is; such a fun game to replay every few years. KH2 just wanted to go in a more combat-focused direction, I think. KH3 trying to marry the two styles, from a *gameplay perspective*, was pretty successful, imo!
I agree with you on the story : it suffers from a huge Super Saiyan Syndrome applied to Keyblades : in the first game, it was this special weapon like the Master Sword with ONE chosen wielder, and now it's like "you get a keyblade and YOU get a keyblade !" ( shoutouts to charii5 ). The biggest problem with this lore is that instead of having each game building up a different story while expanding on the older ones, every new game REQUESTIONS what happened in the previous one , like " Ansem was not truly Ansem " or " That Kingdom Hearts was not the real Kingdom Hearts" : you just kinda feel betrayed by those twists instead of excited and i'm very afraid for Kingdom Hearts 3 if it builds up from the whole time travel elements introduced in Dream Drop Distance. Gameplay-wise though, i'm gonna have to go with KH2 : the core drug of this franchise to me is the combat, and in terms of game feel, those crazy ass combos from 2 are just MILES above the 1st game : harder, better, faster, stronger.
Great video ! I disagree with most of your opinion in KH2 but I see your points. The changes from KH1 to 2 just didn't bother me. It's more linear and "streamlined" but it felt more condense, more polished, better. And the combat system is so great in KH2, with all of the options you have (sad that the game doesn't introduce you to it properly), even in term of movement, once you've unlocked every growth ability; and the boss design, which is great and can reach excellence with bosses like Roxas or the LW. And about the optional bosses; in KH1, they're great (ex : the one in Agrabah, Unknown or Sephiroth) but some feel gimmicky (Ice Titan you keep on reflecting its projectiles or the Phantom's gimmicks). In KH2, even if most are harder version of previous bosses, they're more skill-based (again, Data Roxas and the LW). I personally prefer KH2 over 1 for their opening. KH2 set the mood better, and even if it was longer, it wasn't as rough and somewhat painfull as KH1. And finally for the story. I prefer KH1's plot. Like you said, it's simpler and has more charm to it. Though I didn't find 2's plot to be that bad, yes it (and Chain of Memories) started this habbit of having a "convoluted" plot, but it is nowhere as dumb and out of place as Birth by Sleep or as insanely complicated as Dream Drop Distance (I say that because BbS and DDD are considered as big KH games just like KH1 & 2). KH2's Organization XIII look cool though, too bad they don't feel threatning at all (which lead to an underwhelming climax, which is all the more disapointing after KH1's awesometacular climax) If I had to compare every big game to a chocalate cake it would be : KH1 : home made, it's not perfect, but it was made with passion KH2 : from a five-star restaurant, it doesn't have that much passion, but it was made and cooked better BbS : from a two/three-star restaurant, it has no savor/flavor, it's lean DDD : somewhere between KH2 and BbS
358/2: Its from a five-star restaurant, but something went wrong in the kitchen and it got messed up. Certainly palatable, but it could have been so much better Chain of Memories: They got the order wrong, this is vanilla cake! That said, its still tasty and you decide to eat it anyway Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix: home made and refined, but it seems to not have had as much passion put into it and is covered in pointless decorations Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix: from a five-star restaurant made by a chef who took your criticism to heart, it is nearly a perfect cake made with great passion. Also came with a delicious side dish for free
I love your cake analogy, and I totally agree with kh1 and kh2. For me, bbs: an imitation of kh2 cake made by a lesser restaurant. It's not bad, and you can tell there are similarities, but it's just not the same. ddd: it looks pretty, but after you bite into it you realize that there's not much flavor, and it's just filler until more food is finished being cooked. re:com: not at all what I ordered. That said, it's an acquired taste, so after taking a couple bites to get used to it, it's quite enjoyable. re:coded (haven't played this one but this is what I've heard): certainly a cake you could do without, but if you're hungry, feel free to order, as it's quite good days: I agree with what dracomut says- 5-star restaurant cake that got messed up
What makes KH2 (and FM+) so great is having the best action RPG gameplay out there. And it knows it. Which is why the game is almost a Devil May Cry game in its structure (basically just corridors between forced enemy/boss encounters). So if you dig those kinds of action games, you should really enjoy KH2 (primarily on the hardest difficulty settings, where one has to actually play mindfully) more than KH1. If your tastes lean more towards the story-telling or platforming/exploration aspects of games/RPG's than KH1 is definitely more that speed. I just hope that they tighten up the combat seen in the KH3 event to better match the quality of KH2's (less floaty, etc.).
PREACH! No one ever understands when I say I prefer the first game over the second - you hit the nail on the head. The second one just felt like a long list of chores and I never even got excited about the world's anymore because it was so robotic at times. I loved the first one because i had options and freedom and could take the time to search for the Dalmatians or the missing pages or hidden things or whatever. The second one just felt like checking things off a list. However, I do still love it to an extent.
Kingdom Hearts 1 is mystical and other-worldly. I will never understand why people prefer 2. KH1 goes beyond the game: it's the immersion, music and atmosphere (as limited as it was) of areas like Hollow Bastion and Traverse Town. KH1 was almost like lightning in a bottle and the series has been on a decline since (not to say any of the other games are bad). Kingdom Hearts 3 was a further step backward. The game felt so damn impersonal cause Sora could run and jump 50 feet in the air. It was obnoxious how he could run up the sides of buildings. I booted up the DLC with Riku in the Radiant Garden cottage recently and he could just jump and touch the ceiling. These characters have turned into Spiderman or DBZ characters. The KH1 charm and groundedness is out the window. KH3 has no soul; KH1 has transcendent soul (as cringe as that may sound).
Kingdom hearts 2 was released during a time in my life when id paid little to no attention about video games. I was literally totally in the dark about the game, didnt even know that it was being developed when it was, and id coincidentally walked into a toys r us store with an old highschool friend of mine the day after his 24th birthday (march.30th. 2006) and saw it on the shelf. That was two days after its official north american release date (i recently looked it up), i bought it instantly as i still had my ps2, and loved the first Kingdom Hearts, and played the shit out of it, even tho i hadnt been much of a gamer since 2003, and fricking loved it!!! Since then, i bought and played most of dream drop distance, cuz i found a used copy, but i dunno if ill be playing kh3. I dont have a ps4, i have a switch that i play, but nearly as much as i used to game. Bottom line is...its been almost 13 years between kh2, and 3, and i havent owned a playstation since my ps2...i just, i dunno...:p
I can only agree with a handful of these opinions. I will agree to most of the facts. Where it comes to enjoyment, I personally felt KH2 was way better, with a more complex and interesting plot, more in-depth combat and a larger world. It also takes its challenging modes seriously and forces players to have a heavy understanding of the game. They upgraded a lot of things, even the gummi ship missions -which I didn't hate in KH1 but definitely enjoyed in KH2. As for facts, yes, KH2 limited exploration and platforming. This is not necessarily a bad thing (I hated Monstro and Deep Jungle's nonsense) but if you need some of that, the Cavern of Remembrance stands out to me. I also agree there is a lot more minigames forced in the story; I believe they were trying to address your concern of "mash x to win" by giving a little variety on the game even on easy difficulties.
“More optional boss fights since 2 dropped the ball a bit there” Did you play kingdom hearts 2 or kingdom hearts 2 final mix? Kh2fm has tons of optional endgame bosses that are the hardest and have the most combat depth of any bosses you play in the story. Once you unlock the garden of assemblage at the end of the cavern of remembrance (an entire optional “world” with plenty of high level mob fights) you can play all 13 of the organization members’ boss fights, even though only like half of them appeared in the story. They all have more health than any boss you play in story mode, and each one has unique mechanics and different ways to approach each fight. It’s like the perfect endgame boss arena. Not only those but the 13 mushrooms as well, though they’re mini games and not bosses some of them are extremely hard and require endgame abilities. They drop lots of useful items too so even if they don’t give XP they still have a use. Also terra (the lingering will) and sephiroth of course are amazing optional boss fights. I also like how in kh2, in order to level up you have to “grind”. Most story missions have that “minigame dilemma” you talked about but if you only do story missions, you won’t level up everything and unlock all abilities or items by the end of the story mode. You have to “grind” by not skipping all the enemies in between story missions, even targeting certain enemies and areas to unlock certain abilities faster or to collect certain synthesize items. If you automatically had everything at the end of the story mode it wouldn’t feel as rewarding. The synthesis system is also really good in kh2 and improved a lot on kh1, forming megalixirs, weapons and armor for yourself, donald and goofy and of course the ultima weapon still gives that huge sense of satisfaction. Oh, and if all of that seemed too easy, you could play on the hardest difficulty AND stay at level 1 the entire game (and throughout all that endgame content and bosses) for even more difficulty. The skill ceiling that kh2 has gives the combat gameplay so much depth and replay value. I don’t really think kh2 dropped the ball with any optional bosses or optional content. It’s bursting at the seems with it especially where it matters most, at the endgame. I can’t argue against the story being worse than kh1 for a lot of people though, lol.
Kh1 has better story and exploration/level design, but KH2 is better in pretty much everything else; trust me, I can absolutely understand how KH2 would look like a button masher, and it definitely does not telegraphs/explains well all of its options (although that's also because it doesn't want to overload new players with them, though it went a bit too on the other extreme), but, to truly experience the best/most balanced combat I've ever seen in any game, or at least an ARPG, play Critical or Hard Mode in Final Mix: it definitely lets you see how great of a game it is. Unfortunately, 3 doesn't look like it will have nearly the same tight and perfectly balanced combat 2 had.
I too prefer Kh1 over Kh2. Both are my 2 favorite games of all time. But I felt that Kh2 relied too heavily on Triangle commands and collecting orbs throughout the worlds including struggle! In the beginning of the game. Both games have so many great things about them. KH1 just feels a little bit more special to me for some reason. KH2 nailed combat for sure.
I very much disagree with your opinions on KH II, but I totally respect it. I actually really love the story in the Kingdom Hearts series overall, I find it really engaging.
Same, and I love the attention to detail. Every time I go back and play them I find stuff that gives me the "oh, so that's what that meant/why that happened".
I am biased I prefer KH1 overall I loved the combat in it, the story, atmosphere and most of all it was an RPG not an action game. It suffers the same fate WoW does. Less of an RPG more of...something else.
I like Kingdom Hearts dedication to exploration focused gameplay, but I don't think it was able to fully live up to its potential, as the convoluted story-progression triggers make it so you're often not so much exploring as just wandering around trying to trigger the next cutscene, especially you're first time through Traverse Town and Deep Jungle. Now did they have to take that confusion as a sign to scrap exploration completely? No, that was a a mistake, something that KH3 looks to be fixing based on the gameplay we've seen of the Toy Story world, but I think they supplemented for the lack of exploration well with the increased focus on combat, basically giving the player the chance to "explore" different skills and combo variety.
My man, you've explained pretty much every point that I've ever wanted to make on why I prefer the original. The near-complete removal of exploration in 2 took a lot of the fun out of it for me. What's the point of playing through all of my favorite Disney worlds if I'm just running through empty corridors? Sure, the visuals look better, but that's to be expected from a sequel. The level design in 2 just has way less of an impact, because you aren't as involved with the worlds, from an exploration standpoint. Sure, Kingdom Hearts 2 has a better flow to its combat, but arbitrary combat objectives kind of water down that improvement. Through most of the game, you never get to just let loose and explore the variety of attacks you have, because you have to complete some absurd goal. Sacrificing exploration for combat is not bad per se, but action oriented games shouldn't restrict you from having fun with it. (Also, they removed tech points and I'll never forgive them for that).
There is still a very large problem, and that comes from replay value. Exploration is fun, yes, but only once. Once you explored the world and you know the solutions to every puzzle you just run from one trigger point to the next to get to the bosses, which just cant hold a candle to 2FMs boss design. This is where 2FM wins by a grat margin. Because the options in KH1 are so limited, you got Summons Limits and Magic coming from the same resources, so using one stops you from using others, and magic is really powerful in KH1, which means it comes down to mash attacks and use your magic in specific situations. 2FM has so many more options, We have again Magic and Limits from the same resource, but then add 5 Forms and 4 Summons on another resource that each change the main combat design in various ways. Each of the forms uses magic in a different way, each of the summons have different limits that work diferently. Each comes with a diferent strategy, which changes how each boss can be and is fought. Just compare both games Sephiroth fight done by challenge run players. Or Unknown and Lingering will. I suggest Bizkit047 for all combat relation to KH2FM.
Toasted Danish I prefer the original. It’s the one I’ve grown up with and it’s a game I always go back to and beat and every time I have just as much fun. I’ve beaten kh2 twice but idk if I’d want to beat it more than that many times but I enjoy both games. I just hope kh3 is a mixture of both. But get rid of those annoying mini games unless is 100 acre wood
I respect your opinion, but pretty much disagree with most of what you said about KH2. I was a bit confused when you said KH2 dropped the ball on optional fights because there's an entire area where you can fight harder versions of Organization XIII, Sepiroth, and the Lingering Will which is said to be one of the most challenging boss fights in the franchise. Also, it seems judging by your gameplay that you may not have played on Critical mode, which most certainly gives you the incentive to use all of your options and not just mash X and occasionally heal most of the time. I used to think summons were absolutely worthless, then Critical made me realize how tremendously useful they ALL were depending on the situation. Not to mention limits and drive forms. It's the only mode that really makes you have to learn the game properly, and I recommend you give it another go on Crit if you find the time. I also disagree with your statements on the story, but I also understand that it's not for everybody. I don't think the story is that bad (especially considering later entries like DDD), but it kind of unintentionally requires for you to care about the characters in order for you to care enough to comprehend the lore surrounding them. If not, and you just came to KH expecting wacky Disney shenanigans, it'll probably just sound like dumb convoluted gibberish. But I've always made the argument that KH's plot is no worse than a standard shounen anime. I think a lot of it just has to do with Disney and people expecting something less heavy and complicated. Reading the Ansem Reports might help. And did you play COM before jumping into 2?
Well, the characters of Sora and Kairi were a dummer and pale version of what they were in KH1 so yeah ! KH2 best game ! No let's be honest, the only reason some think that is for Roxas and I understand that his story is really tragic and powerful, but Sora's is just a straight copy of the first game ( save kairi and find riku and the king ) only dummer and duller
Rodrik Galliant ok but if you played kingdom hearts 1 & Chain of Memories you would understand that Sora’s journey to find his friends wasn’t over plus had a fight a greater threat
I only wished that Sora would have matured a bit in KH2. And i think of Xemnas as an equal of Ansem, i never thought of one superior of the other. But Marluxia was the greater threat Sora had ever faced ( i hope we can see more of him and Larxene in KH3, hopefuly about Strelitzia in some shape or form )
Thank heavens, I'm not the only one prefering KH1 over 2 ! I agree with a lot that you said in your video but to explain my point, let's say that, even if i do like having a good gameplay at hands, i always had a much more interest in the story the game wants to told me and KH1 have a simple, good and yet beautiful story to tell, with lovable characters, cool worlds to explore ( Atlantica is my favorite ), and great values to learn. KH COM was a good sequel with an interresting gameplay and a neat story to tell : Sora going crazy because of his fake memories and becoming obsessed with it and Riku struggling against his darkness and finding a way in between, that was good. Then KH2 came and... Well it started slowly but efficiently : Roxas is a well-made character with a beautiful and tragic problematic : finding out all his existence was a lie, he goes on an adventure, Keyblade in hand, in search for answers. Or that was the story i hoped the game will tell because right after that big resolution on his goal to stop the organization that destroyed his life ( KHDays has the most perfect trio of friends ), Roxas his stoped by that dickhead of DiZ and put right in Sora like a thrashbag in a very heartbreaking scene. I thought then "well maybe Sora will fix this and explore the goal of the Organisation and stop it, after all he is the same courageous, kind-hearted and comprehensive boy he was, right ?" I was dead wrong : Sora is now a hot-headed, show-off and overconfident dummy who cannot think straight until the very end of the game. Even if the gameplay was fun and intertaining during combats, the middle story of KH2 is a straight copy of the one in KH1 ( find the king and riku and save kairi ) but this time the Disney worlds are pointless in the main story with only four or five exceptions in the visits were the organisation is involved which cause the plot to advance a little and the story goes back on track only in the end after Axel's sacrifice in the World that Never Was. I don't like Kairi in 2 : she wants to help, that's good ; she wants to help when cannot do anything and putting her life at risk when she is a freaking princess of heart, that's dumb, plus her clothes and the boy's are not my type, especialy her's and Sora's. The game ends and debutes well but the middle is unsuitable. Fortunately, BBS came along with the great Wayfinder trio and a interresting plot that mix well with the rest of the story. My hope for KH3 is a more involvment of the Disney worlds in the plot and a Sora more like he was in KH1 with a bit of adultness ( a side we unfortunately didn't see in KH2 ). Kingdom Hearts will stay in my heart as a wonderful story of a boy welding the key to the light to save the worlds and the ones he love. Keep up the good work, you have a good analysis.
I won't claim everything is equally useful but you owe it to yourself to try KHII on higher difficulties, especially final mix. This is one of the few RPGs I know of that is so finely tuned that everything is viable in a level 1 run by design (which is why bosses offer bonuses rather than exp, which are typically more useful than levels which only give one or two stat points), and it has one of the most intricate systems ever made to achieve this. I also think the design philosophy is sound, because, although most stuff is optional, a ton of the optional content enforces the primary gameplay loop. As somebody who has 100 percent KH1 like 3 times, there was nothing in there as exciting as most rewards in KHII, which also had a fair amount of interesting platforming to 100 percent. Scene skip and load times in PS4 also cut the Roxas section down to about 20 minutes. I do agree minigames should be less compulsory (100 percent in KHII involves not only doing every minigame and basically every summon/skill, but an arbitrary HIGH SCORE) but the way, say, Hades cup worked with the limiting gimmicks allowed you to experiment with some otherwise forgotten systems and it also provided some decent rewards, it is a shame you can't use it to grind anymore but the last world allows you to top out in a couple hours if you're efficient.
Yeah I suppose if you count all the Organization fights, I sort of just lumped them all together, plus I never got to the end of the Cave of Remembrance because I didn't want to level all my drive gauges
@Snoman Gaming Well it's kinda difficult to do an analysis of a game that you never fully explored tbh, especially when you left out the best dungeon in the game. It's also a little... wrong to lump them together, as each is unique and difficult in its own way.
@@snomangaming so you got lazy and didn't want to do the necessary grinding. It is very simple to level every time you get a new Drive form You Can level your previous drive gauge to a certain level cap along with the new one that you have gained thus far. Leveling up the drive forms are incredibly easy Valor only takes a number of hits to level up, wisdom relies on the number of Heartless killed in that form, Master forum gains EXP off the number of Drive orbs you collect, limit form is leveled up by the number of finals you do for your special commands, and lastly final form is leveled up from beating nobodies while in that form.
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After watching this series for so many years, I finally played Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5. I liked them before, but playing them felt like my first experience. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix is my favorite Kingdom Hearts game.
Honestly, I love both KH 1 and 2 for different reasons. I love 1's simple but enjoyable story, the varied puzzles and designs in almost each world, how challenging the game was, and exploring every nook and cranny for secrets. I love 2 for its more flashy gameplay, fun boss fights, Improved Gummi Ship sections, the more varied worlds with the trio looking different to fit in said world, and Sora's character growth. But after 2...I stopped caring about the connected plot points because oof...
Nice comparison. I never thought about how often the minigames popped up in kh2. Overall i do believe that is the better game, I can see why you would see otherwise.
In regards to your point about story, I understand why you feel the way you do. Personally, I love the story of Kingdom Hearts and I think there is a lot more appealing about it than what people may see under the surface - even in convoluted titles such as KH2 and beyond. And despite your feelings on it... I'm telling you straight-up if you're expecting KH3 to have a relatively simple story, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. DDD ended on a cliffhanger that KH3 is supposed to conclude, and it involves Xehanorts from multiple paths in time. KH3 is not going to have a simple story, but it will be meant as a conclusion to the "Xehanort/Ansem" story. (meaning future KH games will still have Sora as a protagonist, but Xehanort/Ansem will no longer be the series' villain). Hopefully in the future games after KH3, they'll return back to making the story more simple and straightforward, but expecting that to happen in KH3 itself is just asking for the impossible.
@@snomangaming that's what happens when you only play two games of the franchise. It would be like playing only Ocarina of Time in Twilight Princess but never playing Majora's Mask in trying to figure out who the Hero shade is.
Ansem wasn’t the clear cut villain in KH1, it turned out that it was a plot twist he was in KH1, but Maleficent was thought to be the main villain at first
"Let's talk about the first two games-" I'm gonna have to stop you right there. Edit: to clarify what I mean, I'm pretty sure some games came out in between, such as Chain Of Memories.
Kh1 is my favorite just cuz it's so deep and had it's own set style and aesthetic to it also Sora is my favorite character and he actually felt like a main character and important in this one he felt important in 2 also to be honest he was the only one besides Riku that could carry a keyblade now everyone and their mother has a keyblade it makes me feel like my boy sora has lost his spotlight
A lot of good points here. KH2 lacks exploration and a sense of proper direction. It also has that "filler" feel. When I got to the midway point, I definitely thought "oh I have to go back to every world AGAIN?" to myself. However, the gameplay itself was so enjoyable (most of the time) that it really didn't bother me. KH1 had a better direction, even if it was more rough around the edges I still enjoyed it a lot. Which KH you like better boils down to this much: KH1: Do you want a clear goal with a consistent connection to the player character with some simple yet satisfying gameplay KH2: Do you want to play a mechanically deep and complex game that, at times, goes nowhere, but at other times blows you the heck away.
Also if you REALLY want a chore, do 100% Jiminy's Journal. There's a goddamn checklist of every minigame in the game, usually with an extra condition like "get 2000 points or more".
How can a game lack exploration and also lack direction? Do you mean direction story-wise? Because I definitely disagree. But if you mean you get literally lost in KH2, then I'm confused You know what does lack direction? The worlds in KH1. Monstro, Tarzan, Traverse town to an extent, and even agrabah. I played through the entire game 4-5 times without ever knowing that if you had Aladdin in your party, Abu would trigger the hard to reach statues. What triggers the leon fight in KH1 is the dumbest thing ever IMO Monstro is just... You need some barrels to progress through it and get high jump AFTER. Most of it looks the same etc etc And as a kid I quit the game because of Tarzan lol. Story-wise it seems straight forward, but what about Kairi and her grandma? How did she get to destiny island? Why was ansem at the island as well? What Kingdom Hearts actually was was never made clear, etc. On the surface yeah it's just "exploring these worlds looking for my friends", but the whole was never that simple
What I mean by direction is a little of both; for one you only had to revisit Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion...however the Trinities were excellent little nuggets of extra exploration detail that gave the worlds more depth. If KH2 did something like that I would think more highly of it and not address it as just filler. And for story, let's face it...KH2's story goes all over the goddamn place. I like it, but it can't decide if it wants to be silly good fun or melodramatic (goofy's death anyone) which makes it hard to take either way. While I like 2's story a bit more I think 1 had better pacing and mood. And there's a little bit of a reason why you never hear too much about the characters, destiny island or Ansem or whatever called "not explaining every little goddamn thing" which the series later fucked up. 2 had a better balance of "explaining shit" and "not explaining shit" than the rest of the games imo.
D MAS putting story points in without any hints to help speculate isn't "every little thing doesn't need to be explained" it's lazy writing. Fortunately, what wasn't explained there, was explained later on. What's so complex about the story that everyone hates so much for some reason? The game supposedly can't decide, but a journey doesn't have to be dark and depressing the entire time. Goofy didn't even die and was just supposed to be a moment of drama. I mean in KH1 donald and sora got into a whole dispute over landing in the Tarzan world A journey has its high points and low points and both games have a mixture of both, but 1 was significantly less impactful because Sora and Kairi weren't really characters. They were just archetypes (the good, dumb kid and the helpless girl) and that can't really be argued. They're supposed to grow as people throughout the games and that's what I think the beauty of these games is. The end of KH1 had Riku and Mickey (whom we had never seen until that point) disappearing into the realm of darkness. There's the question of why he wanted to go there to begin with (wasn't explained, but clearly shown) etc etc. KH2 just expanded what wad already there, so what's so confusing about it? Nobodies and heartless? In terms of exploration, trinities were nice and yeah shouldn't have been completely removed, but they really didn't add anything to the experience for me. Some trinities were even required to get throw the maze-like worlds (green trinity in peter pan) and some only gave me potions and stuff. Moving the stone in Olympus was probably the only highlight for me cause I saw it so many times and was never able to move it until I got yellow trinity
I don't think it's lazy writing. In KH1 it made sense why they got into a dispute; they were still mild acquaintances. Every friendship has some rough romps. Let me also clear up that I think that a game's story can be light and dark at the same time; if everything was all sunshine and rainbows it'd get boring pretty quickly, same with darkness and despair. FF6 does a pretty good job at this with the comic relief boss Ultros. Sora did have a character in KH1, and he progresses quite nicely into KH2. He's quieter, more awkward and not terribly optimistic until the end of the game. You can kinda feel the shock of him losing goddamn everything. Hell that was a big driving point; not only are the heartless bad (most of them) but you want to just get this damn kid back on the island with all of his friends. It's not just the trinities either; the worlds in KH1 are far more interactive, which I think planted seeds for that extra bit of exploration. KH2's worlds are still a bit more fun to navigate just for the growth abilities you can get.
I 100% agree w/ EVERYTHING you said about Kingdom Hearts II. While the first game was full of a lot of exploration, wonder, and creativity the second entry feels more like style over substance. Kh2 just didn’t have the same impact on me that the first one did.
Exactly this is basically the split between Kingdom Hearts players. You have those who played Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 and those that have played basically all of them.
@@TonyTheChad I mean… the problem is, European players had to live with the GBA version and had no PS2 version at all. In all honesty, I never knew that CoM existed on the GBA as a kid before knowing about Kingdom Hearts 2.
I'll always prefer the first game. Sure, the second game upped the combat but KH1 had such a tighter focus, and a better narrative as a result. Plus, Billy Zane was Ansem. And he NAILED that role!
So in all honesty the reason the coliseum probably no longer has EXP farming in 2 is because it was butt easy to grind in 1. Don’t get me wrong I prefer the pure coliseum in 1, and it may have been my fault , but once I got to the final boss at level 84 and beat the optional bosses , I probably spoiled the ending stretch for 1FM because I was way overpowered As for my choice between the 2 games , I prefer 2 because it’s mechanically tighter , the combat feels quicker and more intense . However , the exploration was dropped for combat zones in 2 and it caused some worlds that returned to regress in 2 (agrabah especially )
kingdom hearts 2 easily one of the most rewarding game that you put more time into understanding how it works and some of the best boss fights in video gme history. it goes from the adventure game syleings of kh1 to be more like a devil may cry game or a platnum game in how it works. though if you want to play through a game and not really dig into it and try and understand it well kh1 is a pretty fun ride from start to end. if you only did the sephoroth boss fight in kh2 your missing out cause all of the orginization bosses are the best in video game history and you should give them a chance.
I didn't want to waste time leveling up my drive gauges just to reach them :/ but I did hear that they are really good. The organization fights throughout the main story are real good tho
Snoman Gaming That use a levling guide. If you play youre cards right leveling up DRive Forms does not take all that long. To be frank the fact that you are ready to miss out the best part of this game just becuse of that makes me kind of pity you. I am glad I dont mind a bit of grinding.
nice, it's rare to find someone that actually prefer some other different game of kingdom hearts besides kingdom hearts 2. me personally i prefer BBS over all other kingdom hearts game. Keep up the good work mate
Kingdom Hearts 2 nailed it for me! I absolutely love the story and as a kid I couldn't wait to meet the next organisation member. I cried when I beat Xemnas because of how beautiful and amazing this game is!
From my memories the main problem of the stories KH2 can be separate in 2 point 1 The stories are litteraly stories. Most of them can be understood separately from one another 2 The Disney films stories are the same as the films Not like what I felt in KH1, where I felt that the stories were really different from the films Ps I quit KH2 at the pirate so I may be wrong for the rest of the game And sry for my bad english
No, that's exactly right. In KH1 the villains are working with Maleficent on a totally separate story from their films. KH2 has a lot of the films plots.
Thank you! You've explained my feelings about KH2 perfectly. The lack of exploration, the empty hallway-like worlds, and the over-saturation of tedious mini games really killed the experience for me. Exploration was half the fun of KH1. Unlocking secret passages and collecting hidden items really helped bring the worlds to life for me. In KH1 when you finally finished a world it seemed a lot more climactic and often added to the overarching story. A good example is when you reach the boss area of Agrabah and just manage to catch a glimpse of maleficent before she disappears. Or how your run-ins with Riku progressively get more antagonistic in the Monstro/NeverLand worlds. KH2 may have looked better, but it was missing that sort of character development. I feel like they sacrificed soul for style in KH2. I hope KH3 finds a good middle ground.
Gon Arguably, Sora had already developed as a character at that point. He had already gone through 2 journeys and you can't really learn the same lessons twice. Riku drastically changed and they even used his keyblade to reflect that Kairi wasn't even a character in the first game. In 2, I think, the character interactions on the same level as, if not better than, 1. The reason Riku started becoming 'evil' was way too simplistic considering his perceived maturity at the start of the game to me. I mean, it basically boils down to him being jealous of Donald and Goofy while being mad at Sora for not finding Kairi Besides that, Sora's conversations with the many disney characters has always been good, though I feel that they're more realistic in 2. KH2 is more linear, but while you enjoyed exploration, I still, to this day, feel relieved when I finish a KH1 world. Exploration, I think, was done better in 3D because moving around was fun. KH1 platforming on the other hand (along with the camera) is so incredibly bad. While 1 was my first KH game I tried to base my opinion on how I felt 13+ years ago as well as how I feel now after playing through it again a few days ago. I love the tech system, the nostalgia, certain spells, and the story (which people say is simple while ignoring the fact that it had so many missing pieces). The issue, I think, is the fact that people think KH was simple until 2 when they decided to "shove everything in" And that's just plain wrong. Kingdom hearts was never actually found, No one knew what "Ansem's" (xehanort's) connection to the island was We knew nothing about Kairi's grandma and why they were in hollow bastion There was a picture of hollow bastion in the Tarzan world We didn't even know why the keyblade went to Sora either. It was sorta kinda touched on, but mainly we had to speculate. most of the lore existed from the beginning. It didn't 'become' convoluted. It was from the start. The other games just expanded it
KH2 is definitely where the plot goes all over the place. KH1 and Chain of Memories, unmentioned in the video, focus on Sora, Donald and Goofy and to a certain degree Riku. Then Kingdom Hearts 2 opens up Roxas and drops foreshadowing towards the origins of Xemnas and establishing we’re dealing with the same villain in all the games so far, all of which get their own games expanding on these points. It’s like Star Wars. A New Hope is it’s own self-contained story while Empire Strikes Back is clearly the next chapter but not the final chapter while introducing many plot threads and characters who are used and explored in other films, like Yoda, Darth Vader’s connection to Luke, even Lando as a figure from Han’s past. Both KH2 and Empire Strike Back end on a clear sequel hook. At least Chain of Memories is far better than the Holiday Special, both being lesser known entries between the first two major entries.
I always thought KH2 was more edgy than mature. What part of KH2 was darker again? There was Roxas but his story was poorly paced and overstayed his welcome for me to give that much care, the whole Nobodies and Organization was inconsistent, Maleficent and Pete were a joke (and not a funny one), the worlds seemed mostly unscathed and rarely touched the themes of the game. The game's higher age rating was because of the Pirates of Caribbean and not because of the actual plot or themes of the game. KH1 seemed darker to me because I saw Sora's world collapse, a man lose his heart in front of me, NPCs with broken pasts in Traverse Town, heeling fallen souls to become summons, exploring an eroded castle in Hallow Bastion, and descending a heartless world past the pieces of lost worlds.
Yeah, like the more I think about it...it's less that it's darker and more that it went from general themes of light, darkness, etc. and instead made it all more detailed and complex. For example, in KH1 Ansem goes on and on about "darkness in the heart, etc. like just non-tangible feelings. But in KH2, they have stuff like the "Door to Darkness" which is a computer program, Ansem tries to suck up hearts and turn them into data (?), it's all just like...more...digital? for lack of a better word? and doesn't translate very well
In addition, I didn't like what they did to Sora's character in KH2. After KH1 Sora was essentially thrown into stasis for a year as a reset. When he pops out he's practically a different character which may be attributed to the whole Roxas thing but I don't know. The game-play and animations can change a character as much as dialogue. From this I perceive KH2 Sora as more aggressive and relentless towards enemies rather than focusing on countering blows in KH1. A great example with animations is comparing how Sora opens a chest. In KH1 he lightly knocked on chests like a door practically asking them to be opened while in KH2 he wacks them and they suddenly open. And finally the dialogue, there are plenty of instances of Sora needlessly mocking the Organization and Pete. From the tone it almost feels like Sora viewed them as pests the way he shouts "You're Nobodies. You don't exist." The closest thing in KH1 I can think of like this is when he called Riku stupid when he learned he used darkness but thats a different character dynamic with how he treats villains and strangers.
Nukara Rikova "not having interesting characters" in KH1 can be considered an opinion rather than a fact (that I can understand in some regards). However, I can point to a few character dynamics and varying scenes that may argue there is more to them that others can find interesting. The game does have some generic dialogue in addition to some that can be considered interesting. The story beats are what you expect f(or the most part( but then again how else could sell this concept. Simple and clean was the way to go for a first game of this nature.
OwN Avenged I admit that I played KH2 before 358/2 so that may have skewed my opinion. But that "amazing story" bored me to tears once I tried to watch that story in 2.5, look up lets plays of it, and story reviews of it. Never bothered to get the game because I only ever heard it played "okay". Although I can understand why someone might like him because his story does have some minor intrigue to me and that Roxas battle in KH2 Final Mix did make me feel something for him (which may have been the awesome music but that still counts). Either way KH2 was not a good way to be introduced to him.
Yes, i can agree with you I loved the two games, even if i missed a lot of part of them. In Kh1 i couldn't pass ansem in the Island, i was too yung. I haven't even found glide. But i still love the game. I should play it again some days. I really like the gumship in kh2 thought. It was difficult to get an S and i spent a lot of time trying to improve the gumship. Also, the long introfuction in kh2 is important to bound you to Twilight town. It's a city familiar like the traverse town or even the Destiny Island. I still Remember the Song, and man, there is Vivi, i LOVE Vivi
One of the charms of this series is that there is just so much different to love, be it story, nostalgia, combat etc. While i don't agree with a lot of what is being said, the vid is presented in a way i can really respect and learn from the author. The KH1 stuff you went over hits the nail on the head and there definitly are aspects of KH1 all the other games in the series could learn from (or remember idk) so gg my guy
@I Have Skill I think BBS is a good game, and have a powerful connection with KH 1 and 2,and the colors and soundtrack is great as always,but Terra is dumb for following Xehanort even knowing he's obviously a villain,Ventus is annoying (but his connection with Sora is simply amazing),and Aqua,well,I like her the most. In fact,i think Aqua is the best female character over the other girls. Well, i respect your opinion,buddy,and i hope you respect mine. :)
Thank you! I absolutely love kingdom hearts ll’s story progression and combat, but I agree completely about the whole exploration and grinding thing. On my first play through, I had no idea how to get glide. So I played through the entire game, until the World that never was, and still had no glide. It wasn’t until I unlocked the final save point, and wanted to finally get the ultima weapon, and needed to get through the cavern of remembrance (and obviously needed glide to even try to get through) I finally did research in order to learn to get it. And then had to spend hours grinding just to max final form and get glide lvl. 3. It was extremely time consuming and was quite annoying, especially after spending so much time not knowing I needed to level up my form. I loved the game non the less, but that’s one of the reasons why I say KH1 is my favorite.
KH1 had an undefinable charm that KH2 didnt have. Yes KH1 was a bit more clunky, not as polished , little confusing in parts. The cutscenes , exploration, and overall charm isnt matched by 2. KH2 of course polished the combat a bit but ultimately was more linear so I could see either side of the argument. Kh1 is special to me personally
14:06 "Roxas, I don't feel so good."
Bætnet "I don't want to go"
"Roxas please.. Roxas please I don't want to go"
Dank Starscream good thing I don't pay attention to all the wierd anime KH storylines
Bætnet nooooo stop omg 😂😂😂
Oh my god! Namine is falling victim to Thanos' finger snap from Infinity War!
While I highly disagree with your opinion, I can respect it
Kh1 is better that's a fact go cry
@@Schizobateman fact? Kh2 has double of everything kh1 has.
@@johnpantag472 double the boredom
@@Schizobateman lmao bro you need some serious help. The way you answer is lame. I guess you have no friendsb nor a life. Keep wasting your time. And keep playing kh1 because I don't give a fuck. I will continue to enjoy newer games while you cope like a bitch
@@johnpantag472 ok incel
In a "fandom" full of people who heavily favor KH2, I always felt in a small minority of people who didn't find it that incredibly amazing, for every single reason you listed in this video. I absolutely loved having to figure out how to progress in KH1 and all of the "hidden" parts of the world, and I was so disappointed in KH2 when all of the treasure chests were just littered along a linear path. Great video!
Im one of the few who totally agree! KH1 is better than KH2 in so many of the lil small nuanced ways that most ppl overlook when they're distracted by all the special effects lol
The story makes more sense, the beggining of the game on destiny islands and that mysterious feeling after what happens all of a suden, traverse town, the better implemented disney villains, Hollow bastion and its OST, the more simple quest with only kairi riku and sora, better spells such as gravity, better magic system, a less button masher and more tactical combat style...overall i think it is more unique aswell, i didnt like how kh2 just puts this sort of minigames to defeat bosses etc. made some of the parts annoying, also yes the linearity doesnt help much but there are some awesome things in kh2 too.
Kingdom Hearts 2 sucks because have censorships in the USA, is not like put less blood in Dark Souls 2, (I hate it) no, it's worse!
- Xigbar guns are censored but they aren't like real guns.
- the guns on Port Royale are censored but Sora didn't lose blood when being hit.
- The Green Blood on The Hydra is removed, but on Hercules Movie, the green blood appear, and "It's Rated G" (for young childrens)
- Donald spank is removed but it isn't put a reference to domestic violence and Sexùality.
- Too much discrepancy between Japanese and English Dub, the bad localization it's the fault.
- The "Bloodless Stab" on Jack Sparrow is removed, but it's "Bloodless"!
- Alex flames are removed for stupid reasons. (Americans sucks)
- Possible Censorships in some dialogues! (I think Hayner say "Shìt" in the Japanese version)
- Possible censorship on a dialogue of Luxord! (I think he says "Die" on his battle in the Japanese version)
This Game must be rated PEGI 7 and not PEGI 12.
Play Kingdom Hearts 2 in the Japanese version!
My thing was I loved the boss battles of 1 and the combat of 2. Now, with added features to the final mix the combat is a lot more similar so it's really hard for me to go back to 2 when I feel like 1 is the superior game.
It is kind of amazing how a lot of people disliked 2 on release, but to current date everyone seems to almost unanimously laud KH2 as superior to 1. I certainly understand some aspects, back when 2 came out I actually thought people were being too critical, but I have since flipped as I have gotten older and think the games after 1 don't quite capture the same feeling that made it so good. In my mind, Kingdom Hearts works as an amazing standalone game.
I respectfully disagree with everything you said. I joined KH for the Square-Disney stuff and stayed for the *darkness*
Eichro "darkness within darkness awaits you"
*keyblade!*
Pingas!
Same. Heart light dark heart
Kh2 final mix had a crap ton of optional bosses. But even normal kh2 had a decent amount as well
I think I'd want to play Captain Ginyu's Body Swap Bonanza
lol the ginyu force
Can we just be Goku and body everyone?
It's Prop Hunt game except it's also hide and go fight. Everyone can hide and everyone can seek, but you don't know who got the op characters and who got unlucky and got mario party swapped to be Krillin.
Sounds kinda like Geist for the GC
I agree, I love the exploration of kingdom hearts 1. I loved that levels were puzzles to solve and that you could go back later with glide and high jump and get to all the places you couldn’t reach the first time through.
I can see where you're coming from with you favoring KH1 over 2, but I think a lot of that comes down to personal preference. I straight up cannot return to KH1 because the combat and the absolutely janky platforming. While others love the exploration and puzzle solving nature of the first title, it always felt like a slog to get through. I felt like the gameplay in the first game is so lackluster and really doesn't do anything for me. IMO IMO IMO. Now, 2 isn't super perfect or anything but it captures EXACTLY what I want out of my Disney Anime Game. I want really over the top hype shit and good combat. Yeah there's a lot of cutscenes and it's terribly convoluted, but on the real here it's pretty hype. Also don't ever talk about Atlantica in KH2 again. Please? The nightmares never end.
You're definitely not wrong! Like, a lot of my issues come down to what I prioritize in what I want from a KH game. KH2 has a lot of really great stuff going for it!
Lol
I think the combat in KH1 is still pretty good. Sure it's simplistic and a little bland, but there's a lot of emphasis on timing your attacks so that you either don't get hit or parry attacks. Tech points reward players who play well, making experimentation fun and rewarding. KH2 has the form and summon levelling, while a nice incentive, levels up instead of providing a consistent bonus.
...No arguments about the platforming though.
completely agree with that i don't even want to go back to kh1 to 100% it, it was such a slog to get through it all the first time, while with kh2 i pretty much enjoyed every minute of it(minus atlantica)
PerrydactylShow
Lol u sed cumming.
Kh1 didn't age well, try making a friend who is new to the series play it, they get bored really fast and you need to keep pushing them to play it. Personal experience
If you include the Final Mix version, Kingdom Hearts 2 actually goes overboard with the optional bosses. There's a whole extra section where you fight enhanced versions of the Organization for example. :3
"Roxas, I don't feel so good" . I'm not sure if that was in the original or if that was added in.
Pretty sure he added it in, I audibly laughed.
nah not in the original
1. J-Pop, not K-Pop. Utada Hikaru is Japanese.
2. Monstro sucks.
3. Sora already knew flight & the other abilities you unlock in the first game. Why would he have to unlock them again naturally while exploring the worlds when he already knows them, but needs a nudge to get them relearned?
4. Dude, the 1000 Heartless battle was epic, don't lie.
5. I'd say that exploration still is in KHII, but to a lesser extent.
6. Grinding was a HUGE part of KHI as well, but it was even worse. At least KHII's combat was exciting to look at & experiment with. KHI's was clunky & stiff.
7. You can speed by in KHI as well.
8. You didn't HAVE to do the tournaments in the first game either. You could easily skip them if you wanted. Literally the only thing completing the tournaments will do is unlock some optional stuff. The only thing they did to make it different in KHII was not make the tournaments bad & kept the story in the world away from them. I agree on the experience thing, though. It's stupid those don't give you any if you're not max level.
9. Oh, like KHI's story didn't have annoying filler? Atlantica & Deep Jungle were the worlds that felt the most like filler to me.
10. Really? You're complaining about the programmers actually making it worth the trip back to the worlds the second time outside of collectables?
11. Dude, KHII delivered on the optional boss fights.
I really don't get most of these complaints. I felt, outside of the story, KHII improved on all aspects of the first game. There's not a lot to complain about with the second game in terms of these things.
Sora forgot those skills when he entered Castle Oblivion.
Namine did say she was going to restore his memories but apparently she did not that good of a job when it comes to the memories regarding combat skills.
Saying you can just spam x in kh2 can be applied to kh1. Dont say kh2 is simple if you never played critical or even critical level 1
1) Yes
2) Very yes
3) Because plot
4) Yes (though not well designed for Critical)
5) I think it's pretty neutered tbh. The most obvious being the lack of trinities. Normally this doesn't mean much but remember synthesis? In KH2 it's unlocked from the get go but I was always pretty excited for it in KH1. The worlds are FAR more interactive as well, such as Traverse Town, Wonderland, Agrabah, and Hollow Bastion, though I'll give you that it wasn't always a good thing (Deep Jungle, Halloween Town)
6) I've beaten KH1 with no grind. And while it was a bit stiff, it had more emphasis on parrying as you could reflect projectiles or create your own openings.
7) But you just said grinding was a huge part of KH1. You don't have to worry about anything other than character level for KH1 either. In KH2 you had drive forms and summons to level up, which is optional but do you want those cool and flashy abilities or do you want those cool and flashy abilities? Synth grinding in 1FM sucks ass tho
8) Yeah
9) While I agree on that, at least it didn't make us revisit the worlds again.
10) Yes
11) Hell yes -and they absolutely murder me-
Man shut the fuck up. People seem to forget UA-cam videos contain these things called opinions. It’s almost like you need to read the same label before every video
It's almost like everyone has opinions. Which...they can express regardless of the video. Oops.
I understand your points and I do agree with most of them to a degree. But ultimately I find Kingdom Hearts 2 to be the vastly superior game
Is it more linear? Indeed it is, but I don't see this as a bad thing at all, I think it outright works to the game's advantage. I never found exploration to be a focal point of Kingdom Hearts, if anything its one of the most annoying parts. The platforming is usually tedious and too many of the worlds are maze-like with nothing much to see. I think it's the combat that takes center stage and Kingdom Hearts 2 perfectly refined the honestly clunky and slow gameplay of 1 and also made it more approachable whilst also making it more strategic and immensely fun to watch. The only thing I think the first game has over the second is it's intro... In terms of gameplay. In terms of story I found the tale of Roxas' fake life and Sora's reawakening more impactful than 3 tweens deciding to make a boat and then bad stuff happens.
Heres hoping that Kingdom Hearts 3 combines the best elements of 1 and 2, as well as the other games.
Dracomut I make your words mine. Definitely agree with everything.
Dracomut
Agree
Dracomut I feel kh3 is taking more from the handheld games instead of the main ps2 titles. Even though it's more polished than the other two titles in the main timeline; it just feels like bbs and ddd on beautiful steroids.
Dracomut Totaly agree...
@@EJ-wr8bl ye because the team which developed bbs,ddd and so on was the main team developing kh3 :/ the other team from kh1&2 worked on ffxv i think for a very long time even after xv was released
Really enjoyed this--you made great points regarding KH2's focus on combat in game progression in comparison to KH1's more exploration-based one!
Why are you on every Kingdom Hearts video.
Wait, dumb question. Your channel has my ans(em)wer.
Dolphinboi aight that was good :D
Yea regardless of opinions he put both in many accurate angles of spotlight.
This reminded me of my 10y old self feeling bad for one of my friends because he only had KH1 and not KH2.
Little did I know, KH1 became my favorite game in the series after I replayed/actually finished it on PS4.
KH1 certainly stands out against the rest of the series, not just for its simplicity, but also due to its charm; it has so many little details and interactions you don't get to see in the rest of the series.
I dunno, it kinda feels like the devs saw this then-weird concept of mashing Disney and Square characters together and decided to go ham with it, throwing in there every little thing they thought looked cool or interesting.
KH2 certainly has the better battle system of the two, but this is about all that is has over KH1 in my honest opinion.
--------
Though, I gotta say, the games failling to give an incentive to do aything beyond mashing X and Cure isn't the only reason why KH1 and 2 are/were seen as button mashers.
KH1 and KH2 also have a huge problem in regards to their tutorials and descriptions, as only the very basic/pointless stuff is explained, while everything is left to a short two-lines description in the pause menu.
When you get a new spell or a new ability, you aren't told anything about it or how it can be used, you're just told you got a new thing you can use.
Combining that and the lack of incentive led many players to completly ingnore new abilities, or to try them out once and then quickly dismiss them if they didn't seem useful in the situation they used it in.
I'm all for letting the player figure stuff by themselves, but KH1 and KH2 did a very poor job at that.
KH1 put a much greater emphasis on the disney and final fantasy characters, which made sense since the game was meant to be a cross-over. Starting with KH2 (although this gets much worse later on), the focus shifted primarily to new characters, with disney characters being used less than them and FF characters showing up even less frequently.
Exactly, the charm of the first game is so undeniable. All the little easter eggs and details and secrets make it feel like such a tight, well thought out game that a lot of care went into. The story’s pacing is practically perfect and the way the Disney worlds and villians actually tied into the story and themes and moved the game along was so great. It’s a perfect mix of silly and serious while KH2 went too far in both directions at times. KH1 just has this whimsical aura about it that made it feel really unique. KH2 is a good game but ultimately feels a little sterile to me in comparison. It was made by a different team at Square and it really shows
I'll take Kingdom Hearts 1 over 2 any day
Great video man, I’ve always preferred the first game. But in all honesty I think I prefer the slower weightier combat of the first game. I think it had a bit more strategy with physical attacks and magic. A bit being the key word. I love how flashy the second game can be, but it could come across as shallow sometimes.
I think what really makes me enjoy 2 way more than 1 comes down to polish, and game feel, with a little attributed to characters and story. The atmosphere in the game was so much richer than the first, movement felt so fluid yet still weighty, I thought the worlds were so much more fleshed out with more interesting choices for worlds as well. The story of roxas and naminé and ansem the wise and king Mickey, all of them were so interesting to me, causing me to look deeper into the game on subsequent play throughs, deep reading all of ansems reports, paying a ton of attention during cutscenes. I did love playing kh1, and it’s an amazing game, but I would rather play kh2 3 times in a row to completion then pick up kh1 for another critical run. Kh2 just truly seems more, to be blunt, fun than kh1
Agreed , although KH1 is a great game I really enjoyed the second one more. I was a kid when I first played them, so I didn’t get to experience KH1 until after already loving KH2.
I was confused but after playing KH1 the flash backs in KH2 I had a good idea of what was happening in the story but I still thought 2 was better.
Personally I never thought Kingdom Hearts' story was that complicated, and (at least from what I've seen) people tend complain about this because they haven't played all the games. That'd be like complaining that the story of hairy potter doesn't make sense if you only read two books. And yes I agree with you that most of the mini-games were unnecessary and when I was a kid playing these I would basically ignore the fact the extra rules and stipulations and still get through them no problem. So if their goal was to spice up the combat it didn't quite work. As for the exploration there were definitely problems with it in Kingdom Hearts 1, specifically the areas meant for exploration like Monstro and the Cave of Wonders didn't have a lot of distinguishing features so it was very easy to get lost which made me just avoid them. But I do think it was a bad idea to get rid of them all together rather than fix them.
There's a difference between complicated (potentially positive) and convoluted (almost always negative).
Tony's Tech Thoughts yes, if you play both PS2 games, then that GBA game, then those DS games, then that PSP game, then that 3DS game, then that mobile game, then you'll know what's going on in the story
Or play the collections that just came out and save a bunch of money.
I don't know why people say that the Kingdom Hearts Story is konfusing and a mess, on the other hand... I didn't played Dream drop distance yet and... I have a bad Feeling.
KH doesn't have a complicated or complex plot, it has a dense plot.
You can't explain who Roxas is in a timely fashion, but nothing about him is hard to understand. There's just a lot.
Thank you for your video. I was wondering why have I some troubles with KH2 comparing most other fans but now you gave me an answer.
I am probably in a minority but i hated the convoluted level designs in the first kingdom hearts. It felt like most of the time i just wondered aimlessly revisiting older rooms sometimes hoping i trigger the next story progression cut scene. It honestly felt like a tedious waste of time sometimes. I enjoyed the more streamlined design KH 2 mostly because i play KH games more like they are Stylish action games such as Bayonetta or DMC than RPGs. Not that i dont enjoy metroidvanias or RPGs but its not what i play KH for.
djukor Trust me, you aren't in a minority. In fact, most people hate the dumb world design in KH1. I get flashbacks to Tarzan everytime and I just want to die. That alone is the reason I can't replay KH1, but replay KH2 100% every couple years.
Funny story, as a kid I was stuck in Traverse town for weeks (no joke). Kept picking it up to fight some heartless, then quiting I guess. I never knew that you had to walk into Cid's shop, then walk out to trigger the fight with Leon. I still don't really know how I managed to waste that much time, but yeah. NOTHING indicated that. You just had to wander forever until you found it
@@AntiSoraXVI you got to like how unintuitive the plot can be in Kingdom Hearts 1. I was left stuck in Wonderland trying to figure out what to do after Alice disappeared yeah. I didn't know that I had to go to the ceiling. Or the fact that Halloweentown shares the same problem as Twilight Princess where the world is so dark you can barely see it on the screen.
Because the game doesn't hold your hands, you need to actually use your brain
@@OwNAvenged so u prefer linear corridors? Lmfao
I played kingdom hearts 1 without even getting past traverse town about 5 times. Then once I got a little older I would get farther and farther. Kingdom hearts one is my favorite for nostalgia reasons. One of the coolest adventures I’ve ever been on without leaving my couch lol.
I was pretty disapointed with 2.
The combat system in 1 was simple so fighting was more about movement, while in 2, the fighting had so much stuff that it boiled down to mashing the attack button with the fanciest combo for damage. I can't really remember how the end game felt except that it was pretty easy while 1 was always a challenge.
I also like the worlds in 1 better, the story felt like an actual mix of Disney plots with the trio mixed in, and the worlds were connected feeling like an actual place. By 2 though, it felt like the story brushes through Disney movies just for the sake of it and the worlds themselves are treated the same. I remember being really excited going to the Mulan world, only to be massively disappointed at how quickly it brushed through the Mulan story with the only addition being hearltess being thrown here and there, while each room teleports you massive distances to another part of the movie.
I disagree with your point about drives. The early game heavily encourages you to use drives. Your first introduction to them is explosive, you see two keyblades, which was incredibly hype with Roxas vs Axel, and Final Mix gives plenty of drive, so the player is pushed to use it. It also happens that Valor Form is incredibly easy to level. With the player going crazy with valor form, it won't be long until they get their first Valor Level, which clues them into drives having levels.
That's fair! I was the type of player that always tried to save it up for boss fights or something because I didn't want to waste it and not have it when it was important. But I'm also the player that saves up all my potions and never uses them, so there's that :P
@@snomangaming so ur bad at video games
@@psyphile1330 that's your response really
The 1st kh was very deep.
Sora being the very embodiment of 'good' he was pure and inocent in every way. He was created as the very thing our society needed.
The keyblade was a metaphor of sorts with its connection to "the heart of all worlds"
Kingdom hearts itself was a representation of heaven,heaven also reffered to by many as' THE KINGDOM' a place where all souls come from or in this case HEARTS.
Sora-"I know now,that kingdom hearts is light" and lets not forget about the message that shows up when waiting at the title screen -WE PRAY FOR OUR SORROWS TO END ,AND HOPE THAT OUR HEARTS WILL BLEND .NOW I WILL STEP FORWARD TO REALIZE THIS WISH .
THE HEARTLESS=the heartless people of today's world.
But as we move towards kh2,the series becomes more "entertaining" and the"deeper meaning" it was meant to have somewhat vanished,not by choice of course.
Creators are often forced to change direction when those in charge decide on it.
Many artists musicians and so on have spoken out about such things,all you have to do is listen
All the symbolism is still in the second game but they also introduced ambiguous characters the organization 13
I don't care how "clunky" these fans call it Kingdom Hearts 1 is my all time favorite one.
Good for you👍🏿
Fr, there is just something about that game man
That KH2 title screen music instantly brought me nostalgia.
i just wanna point out that a lot of the options that "don't give you a reason to use them" are actually really good, they just don't explain them well enough in game to get players to understand how to fully and effectively utilize them. a lot of speedrun strats for kh1 and 2 make great use of summons and other abilities to more efficiently deal with any given fight. for example, summons in kh1, along with all your spells, have their strength determined by your overall max mp. so a fire spell when your max mp is 3 is going to be less powerful than if it was 6, and your summon gauge will be much lower at 3 mp compared to 6. there's also some more advanced/technical mechanics that i'm not quite familiar enough to accurately explain, such as damage storage, which can make something like mushu exponentially more powerful when used correctly. (whether damage storage is an intentional mechanic or not definitely seems debatable though) summons in kh2 also are really underrated. chicken little, which you get pretty early on, basically functions like the magnet spell in that he will pull enemies towards you, provided you aren't right next to them (it's a little finnicky though) a lot of the limits like duckflare and flametongue are actually a lot better than what most people give them credit for, myself included for quite a while. hell, i'm pretty sure the strategy guides they make don't really go into any of that for either game, so most players just aren't going to really bother trying most things out outside maybe once or twice and then just go back to mashing x or triangle, which is a shame since these games actually have a lot more depth to their combat that just gets ignored. kh2 also added revenge value for boss fights, which is probably one of the better things in the game since it actively deters you from just spamming attacks without thinking. (short version is if you hit a boss x amount of times, they immediately retaliate) bizkit047 has a lot of videos going over at least the kh2 stuff pretty well and i'd definitely recommend anyone interested to check them out.
"Things are more mature" as Sora, Donald, and Goofy jump in a circle holding hands. Yup. Totally more mature than kh1
So true. Like how mature Sora is in this game :
KH1 : Caring, understanding and hopeful
KH2 : Overconfident and just dumb ( like in Hollow Garden where he spend minutes understanding there can be two Ansems )
@@rodrikgalliant3749 Sora's memories were a little jacked up
Yeah but he's also tougher when he responds to the enemies
Hes still Sora he still wants to have fun and mess around but he is definitely more mature in Kingdom Hearts 2
@@rodrikgalliant3749 that's a pretty major reveal dude and pretty hard to understand even for people who played the game because it wasn't mentioned once in Kingdom Hearts 1
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369I love kh2 but Sora was definitely more of a goofball in kh2 in kh1 and re:com he was a goof in some scenes but in kh2 and after he gest turned up to 100 in terms of goofyness I mean I like it because it gives him more character but saying he is more mature is definitely not ture in my opinion
Wow, I ended up heavily disagreeing with this video, which was unexpected. Usually I really gel with your opinion but not this time.
I actually much prefer KH2's focus on its combat and movement mechanics, than KH1's explorative design. I will admit though, that KH1 had a bit more of that "Disney Magic" feeling to it that KH2 lacks. That being said, I cant bring myself to care if the bosses or sections are made into minigames. They are just changing up the gameplay for the sake of variety and I think it works well most of the time in testing your abilities in various scenarios.
Kingdom Hearts was more fulfilling with the puzzle like scenarios (such as the Clock in the Phantom boss or the Candles in Traverse Time). There was even more exploration and Trinities which were fun to find. Kingdom Hearts 2 seemed really easy with reaction commands and advice/tips.
woof I don't think I've ever disagreed so hard with a man made of snow
Game Sharks relatable
There are 16 optional bosses in kh2, the data org fights, sepheroth and Terra
*15
Most of those are final mix exclusive though
Vanessa Colquhoun The Remixes are the FM versions. Most people play the games on PS4 now, so it being FM exclusive doesn't really effect much
On top of that, he called out KH1FM earlier for 'only adding optional bosses' which seems disingenuous.
@@ArloMathis Final Mix Change the combat system dramatically with the addition of new attacks abilities but seeing as it looks like you just spent through the game and only went through with battles that he had to fight I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't see many of them. The change to the synthesis mechanic where are you Forge equipment staff buffs and higher-quality healing items. Also Final Mix also adds new enemies as special encounters similar to the white mushroom, or black fungus. Overall all the complaints from this video sound like a casual fans complaints.
And that's what I want from KH3 to be more mixed of KH1 with Good Plot and Disney involvement and KH2 with gameplay and fast paced attack with free optional technique and revenge value on bosses. That's all we really want from KH3 to be KH1 and KH2!
I'll agree with a lot of your points. While KH1 is extremely cohesive in how it presented its narrative (especially through exploration), KH2 takes it a bit further than I remember feeling comfortable with re: all the minigames and linearity in level design. Revisiting this video now that KH3 has been expanded with Remind reminds (hah) me of how appreciative I was that--despite 3 feeling like the worlds were even further disjointed from how they were in KH2--they reduced the minigames and made the core gameplay loop more of the experience...while making the disney worlds much more interesting than they ever have been in the series.
I love how exploratory KH1 is; such a fun game to replay every few years. KH2 just wanted to go in a more combat-focused direction, I think. KH3 trying to marry the two styles, from a *gameplay perspective*, was pretty successful, imo!
I agree with you on the story : it suffers from a huge Super Saiyan Syndrome applied to Keyblades : in the first game, it was this special weapon like the Master Sword with ONE chosen wielder, and now it's like "you get a keyblade and YOU get a keyblade !" ( shoutouts to charii5 ).
The biggest problem with this lore is that instead of having each game building up a different story while expanding on the older ones, every new game REQUESTIONS what happened in the previous one , like " Ansem was not truly Ansem " or " That Kingdom Hearts was not the real Kingdom Hearts" : you just kinda feel betrayed by those twists instead of excited and i'm very afraid for Kingdom Hearts 3 if it builds up from the whole time travel elements introduced in Dream Drop Distance.
Gameplay-wise though, i'm gonna have to go with KH2 : the core drug of this franchise to me is the combat, and in terms of game feel, those crazy ass combos from 2 are just MILES above the 1st game : harder, better, faster, stronger.
Great video !
I disagree with most of your opinion in KH2 but I see your points. The changes from KH1 to 2 just didn't bother me. It's more linear and "streamlined" but it felt more condense, more polished, better.
And the combat system is so great in KH2, with all of the options you have (sad that the game doesn't introduce you to it properly), even in term of movement, once you've unlocked every growth ability; and the boss design, which is great and can reach excellence with bosses like Roxas or the LW.
And about the optional bosses; in KH1, they're great (ex : the one in Agrabah, Unknown or Sephiroth) but some feel gimmicky (Ice Titan you keep on reflecting its projectiles or the Phantom's gimmicks). In KH2, even if most are harder version of previous bosses, they're more skill-based (again, Data Roxas and the LW).
I personally prefer KH2 over 1 for their opening. KH2 set the mood better, and even if it was longer, it wasn't as rough and somewhat painfull as KH1.
And finally for the story. I prefer KH1's plot. Like you said, it's simpler and has more charm to it. Though I didn't find 2's plot to be that bad, yes it (and Chain of Memories) started this habbit of having a "convoluted" plot, but it is nowhere as dumb and out of place as Birth by Sleep or as insanely complicated as Dream Drop Distance (I say that because BbS and DDD are considered as big KH games just like KH1 & 2).
KH2's Organization XIII look cool though, too bad they don't feel threatning at all (which lead to an underwhelming climax, which is all the more disapointing after KH1's awesometacular climax)
If I had to compare every big game to a chocalate cake it would be :
KH1 : home made, it's not perfect, but it was made with passion
KH2 : from a five-star restaurant, it doesn't have that much passion, but it was made and cooked better
BbS : from a two/three-star restaurant, it has no savor/flavor, it's lean
DDD : somewhere between KH2 and BbS
358/2: Its from a five-star restaurant, but something went wrong in the kitchen and it got messed up. Certainly palatable, but it could have been so much better
Chain of Memories: They got the order wrong, this is vanilla cake! That said, its still tasty and you decide to eat it anyway
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix: home made and refined, but it seems to not have had as much passion put into it and is covered in pointless decorations
Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix: from a five-star restaurant made by a chef who took your criticism to heart, it is nearly a perfect cake made with great passion. Also came with a delicious side dish for free
I love your cake analogy, and I totally agree with kh1 and kh2. For me,
bbs: an imitation of kh2 cake made by a lesser restaurant. It's not bad, and you can tell there are similarities, but it's just not the same.
ddd: it looks pretty, but after you bite into it you realize that there's not much flavor, and it's just filler until more food is finished being cooked.
re:com: not at all what I ordered. That said, it's an acquired taste, so after taking a couple bites to get used to it, it's quite enjoyable.
re:coded (haven't played this one but this is what I've heard): certainly a cake you could do without, but if you're hungry, feel free to order, as it's quite good
days: I agree with what dracomut says- 5-star restaurant cake that got messed up
What makes KH2 (and FM+) so great is having the best action RPG gameplay out there. And it knows it. Which is why the game is almost a Devil May Cry game in its structure (basically just corridors between forced enemy/boss encounters). So if you dig those kinds of action games, you should really enjoy KH2 (primarily on the hardest difficulty settings, where one has to actually play mindfully) more than KH1. If your tastes lean more towards the story-telling or platforming/exploration aspects of games/RPG's than KH1 is definitely more that speed. I just hope that they tighten up the combat seen in the KH3 event to better match the quality of KH2's (less floaty, etc.).
DMC games combat blows KH2 out of the water. you cant compare the two.
@@youtuberguy123 He said similar not better than DMC
@@youtuberguy123 i feel like the people that compare them have never actually played a DMC game because it's nothing like the trash in kh2
PREACH! No one ever understands when I say I prefer the first game over the second - you hit the nail on the head. The second one just felt like a long list of chores and I never even got excited about the world's anymore because it was so robotic at times. I loved the first one because i had options and freedom and could take the time to search for the Dalmatians or the missing pages or hidden things or whatever. The second one just felt like checking things off a list. However, I do still love it to an extent.
younger me thought KH2 was better, now after replaying both.. KH1 is better
I would LOVE to play "Captain Ginyu's Bodyswap Bonanza"!
Kingdom Hearts 1 is mystical and other-worldly. I will never understand why people prefer 2. KH1 goes beyond the game: it's the immersion, music and atmosphere (as limited as it was) of areas like Hollow Bastion and Traverse Town. KH1 was almost like lightning in a bottle and the series has been on a decline since (not to say any of the other games are bad).
Kingdom Hearts 3 was a further step backward. The game felt so damn impersonal cause Sora could run and jump 50 feet in the air. It was obnoxious how he could run up the sides of buildings. I booted up the DLC with Riku in the Radiant Garden cottage recently and he could just jump and touch the ceiling. These characters have turned into Spiderman or DBZ characters. The KH1 charm and groundedness is out the window. KH3 has no soul; KH1 has transcendent soul (as cringe as that may sound).
KH II destroys the first one. 1 aged like milk in a lot of aspects, II aged like fine wine.
You mean 1 turned into a good cheese, while 2 turned into vinegar?
rmsgrey nah
Tyke
stupid fake fans
Tyke true.
Cannot disagree more
Kingdom hearts 2 was released during a time in my life when id paid little to no attention about video games. I was literally totally in the dark about the game, didnt even know that it was being developed when it was, and id coincidentally walked into a toys r us store with an old highschool friend of mine the day after his 24th birthday (march.30th. 2006) and saw it on the shelf. That was two days after its official north american release date (i recently looked it up), i bought it instantly as i still had my ps2, and loved the first Kingdom Hearts, and played the shit out of it, even tho i hadnt been much of a gamer since 2003, and fricking loved it!!!
Since then, i bought and played most of dream drop distance, cuz i found a used copy, but i dunno if ill be playing kh3. I dont have a ps4, i have a switch that i play, but nearly as much as i used to game. Bottom line is...its been almost 13 years between kh2, and 3, and i havent owned a playstation since my ps2...i just, i dunno...:p
Edit: my highschool friend, Tom Rhodes' birthday is March.29th 1982, KH2 was released on March 28th 2006..;)
I can only agree with a handful of these opinions. I will agree to most of the facts.
Where it comes to enjoyment, I personally felt KH2 was way better, with a more complex and interesting plot, more in-depth combat and a larger world. It also takes its challenging modes seriously and forces players to have a heavy understanding of the game. They upgraded a lot of things, even the gummi ship missions -which I didn't hate in KH1 but definitely enjoyed in KH2.
As for facts, yes, KH2 limited exploration and platforming. This is not necessarily a bad thing (I hated Monstro and Deep Jungle's nonsense) but if you need some of that, the Cavern of Remembrance stands out to me.
I also agree there is a lot more minigames forced in the story; I believe they were trying to address your concern of "mash x to win" by giving a little variety on the game even on easy difficulties.
“More optional boss fights since 2 dropped the ball a bit there”
Did you play kingdom hearts 2 or kingdom hearts 2 final mix? Kh2fm has tons of optional endgame bosses that are the hardest and have the most combat depth of any bosses you play in the story. Once you unlock the garden of assemblage at the end of the cavern of remembrance (an entire optional “world” with plenty of high level mob fights) you can play all 13 of the organization members’ boss fights, even though only like half of them appeared in the story. They all have more health than any boss you play in story mode, and each one has unique mechanics and different ways to approach each fight. It’s like the perfect endgame boss arena. Not only those but the 13 mushrooms as well, though they’re mini games and not bosses some of them are extremely hard and require endgame abilities. They drop lots of useful items too so even if they don’t give XP they still have a use.
Also terra (the lingering will) and sephiroth of course are amazing optional boss fights.
I also like how in kh2, in order to level up you have to “grind”. Most story missions have that “minigame dilemma” you talked about but if you only do story missions, you won’t level up everything and unlock all abilities or items by the end of the story mode. You have to “grind” by not skipping all the enemies in between story missions, even targeting certain enemies and areas to unlock certain abilities faster or to collect certain synthesize items. If you automatically had everything at the end of the story mode it wouldn’t feel as rewarding.
The synthesis system is also really good in kh2 and improved a lot on kh1, forming megalixirs, weapons and armor for yourself, donald and goofy and of course the ultima weapon still gives that huge sense of satisfaction.
Oh, and if all of that seemed too easy, you could play on the hardest difficulty AND stay at level 1 the entire game (and throughout all that endgame content and bosses) for even more difficulty. The skill ceiling that kh2 has gives the combat gameplay so much depth and replay value. I don’t really think kh2 dropped the ball with any optional bosses or optional content. It’s bursting at the seems with it especially where it matters most, at the endgame.
I can’t argue against the story being worse than kh1 for a lot of people though, lol.
Kh1 has better story and exploration/level design, but KH2 is better in pretty much everything else; trust me, I can absolutely understand how KH2 would look like a button masher, and it definitely does not telegraphs/explains well all of its options (although that's also because it doesn't want to overload new players with them, though it went a bit too on the other extreme), but, to truly experience the best/most balanced combat I've ever seen in any game, or at least an ARPG, play Critical or Hard Mode in Final Mix: it definitely lets you see how great of a game it is.
Unfortunately, 3 doesn't look like it will have nearly the same tight and perfectly balanced combat 2 had.
Cringe
I was transported back to my childhood as soon as I heard Dearly Beloved.
I too prefer Kh1 over Kh2. Both are my 2 favorite games of all time. But I felt that Kh2 relied too heavily on Triangle commands and collecting orbs throughout the worlds including struggle! In the beginning of the game. Both games have so many great things about them. KH1 just feels a little bit more special to me for some reason. KH2 nailed combat for sure.
I very much disagree with your opinions on KH II, but I totally respect it.
I actually really love the story in the Kingdom Hearts series overall, I find it really engaging.
Same, and I love the attention to detail. Every time I go back and play them I find stuff that gives me the "oh, so that's what that meant/why that happened".
W
I am biased I prefer KH1 overall I loved the combat in it, the story, atmosphere and most of all it was an RPG not an action game. It suffers the same fate WoW does. Less of an RPG more of...something else.
The camera on kingdom hearts 1 just drives me nuts and the combat feels more clunky
Low iq comment
I like Kingdom Hearts dedication to exploration focused gameplay, but I don't think it was able to fully live up to its potential, as the convoluted story-progression triggers make it so you're often not so much exploring as just wandering around trying to trigger the next cutscene, especially you're first time through Traverse Town and Deep Jungle. Now did they have to take that confusion as a sign to scrap exploration completely? No, that was a a mistake, something that KH3 looks to be fixing based on the gameplay we've seen of the Toy Story world, but I think they supplemented for the lack of exploration well with the increased focus on combat, basically giving the player the chance to "explore" different skills and combo variety.
Neither of those levels were confusing, i easly beat the game when i was 6. Maybe you are just stupid?
My man, you've explained pretty much every point that I've ever wanted to make on why I prefer the original. The near-complete removal of exploration in 2 took a lot of the fun out of it for me. What's the point of playing through all of my favorite Disney worlds if I'm just running through empty corridors? Sure, the visuals look better, but that's to be expected from a sequel. The level design in 2 just has way less of an impact, because you aren't as involved with the worlds, from an exploration standpoint.
Sure, Kingdom Hearts 2 has a better flow to its combat, but arbitrary combat objectives kind of water down that improvement. Through most of the game, you never get to just let loose and explore the variety of attacks you have, because you have to complete some absurd goal. Sacrificing exploration for combat is not bad per se, but action oriented games shouldn't restrict you from having fun with it. (Also, they removed tech points and I'll never forgive them for that).
yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes
There is still a very large problem, and that comes from replay value. Exploration is fun, yes, but only once. Once you explored the world and you know the solutions to every puzzle you just run from one trigger point to the next to get to the bosses, which just cant hold a candle to 2FMs boss design.
This is where 2FM wins by a grat margin.
Because the options in KH1 are so limited, you got Summons Limits and Magic coming from the same resources, so using one stops you from using others, and magic is really powerful in KH1, which means it comes down to mash attacks and use your magic in specific situations.
2FM has so many more options, We have again Magic and Limits from the same resource, but then add 5 Forms and 4 Summons on another resource that each change the main combat design in various ways.
Each of the forms uses magic in a different way, each of the summons have different limits that work diferently.
Each comes with a diferent strategy, which changes how each boss can be and is fought.
Just compare both games Sephiroth fight done by challenge run players. Or Unknown and Lingering will.
I suggest Bizkit047 for all combat relation to KH2FM.
Combat does not make everything unfortunately, sure it's fun but the story ( Sora's to be exact ) does not follow. BBS is better
Toasted Danish I prefer the original. It’s the one I’ve grown up with and it’s a game I always go back to and beat and every time I have just as much fun. I’ve beaten kh2 twice but idk if I’d want to beat it more than that many times but I enjoy both games. I just hope kh3 is a mixture of both. But get rid of those annoying mini games unless is 100 acre wood
I respect your opinion, but pretty much disagree with most of what you said about KH2. I was a bit confused when you said KH2 dropped the ball on optional fights because there's an entire area where you can fight harder versions of Organization XIII, Sepiroth, and the Lingering Will which is said to be one of the most challenging boss fights in the franchise.
Also, it seems judging by your gameplay that you may not have played on Critical mode, which most certainly gives you the incentive to use all of your options and not just mash X and occasionally heal most of the time. I used to think summons were absolutely worthless, then Critical made me realize how tremendously useful they ALL were depending on the situation. Not to mention limits and drive forms. It's the only mode that really makes you have to learn the game properly, and I recommend you give it another go on Crit if you find the time.
I also disagree with your statements on the story, but I also understand that it's not for everybody. I don't think the story is that bad (especially considering later entries like DDD), but it kind of unintentionally requires for you to care about the characters in order for you to care enough to comprehend the lore surrounding them. If not, and you just came to KH expecting wacky Disney shenanigans, it'll probably just sound like dumb convoluted gibberish. But I've always made the argument that KH's plot is no worse than a standard shounen anime. I think a lot of it just has to do with Disney and people expecting something less heavy and complicated. Reading the Ansem Reports might help. And did you play COM before jumping into 2?
Well, the characters of Sora and Kairi were a dummer and pale version of what they were in KH1 so yeah ! KH2 best game !
No let's be honest, the only reason some think that is for Roxas and I understand that his story is really tragic and powerful, but Sora's is just a straight copy of the first game ( save kairi and find riku and the king ) only dummer and duller
Rodrik Galliant ok but if you played kingdom hearts 1 & Chain of Memories you would understand that Sora’s journey to find his friends wasn’t over plus had a fight a greater threat
I only wished that Sora would have matured a bit in KH2. And i think of Xemnas as an equal of Ansem, i never thought of one superior of the other. But Marluxia was the greater threat Sora had ever faced ( i hope we can see more of him and Larxene in KH3, hopefuly about Strelitzia in some shape or form )
14:07 Oh god damn it XD. I honestly forgot how KH1 played out, the fact that there was more exploring and figuring shit out on your own.
and that's why Kingdom Hearts 1 is my favourite game of all time... wow perfect video
Thank heavens, I'm not the only one prefering KH1 over 2 !
I agree with a lot that you said in your video but to explain my point, let's say that, even if i do like having a good gameplay at hands, i always had a much more interest in the story the game wants to told me and KH1 have a simple, good and yet beautiful story to tell, with lovable characters, cool worlds to explore ( Atlantica is my favorite ), and great values to learn.
KH COM was a good sequel with an interresting gameplay and a neat story to tell : Sora going crazy because of his fake memories and becoming obsessed with it and Riku struggling against his darkness and finding a way in between, that was good.
Then KH2 came and... Well it started slowly but efficiently : Roxas is a well-made character with a beautiful and tragic problematic : finding out all his existence was a lie, he goes on an adventure, Keyblade in hand, in search for answers. Or that was the story i hoped the game will tell because right after that big resolution on his goal to stop the organization that destroyed his life ( KHDays has the most perfect trio of friends ), Roxas his stoped by that dickhead of DiZ and put right in Sora like a thrashbag in a very heartbreaking scene. I thought then "well maybe Sora will fix this and explore the goal of the Organisation and stop it, after all he is the same courageous, kind-hearted and comprehensive boy he was, right ?" I was dead wrong : Sora is now a hot-headed, show-off and overconfident dummy who cannot think straight until the very end of the game. Even if the gameplay was fun and intertaining during combats, the middle story of KH2 is a straight copy of the one in KH1 ( find the king and riku and save kairi ) but this time the Disney worlds are pointless in the main story with only four or five exceptions in the visits were the organisation is involved which cause the plot to advance a little and the story goes back on track only in the end after Axel's sacrifice in the World that Never Was. I don't like Kairi in 2 : she wants to help, that's good ; she wants to help when cannot do anything and putting her life at risk when she is a freaking princess of heart, that's dumb, plus her clothes and the boy's are not my type, especialy her's and Sora's. The game ends and debutes well but the middle is unsuitable.
Fortunately, BBS came along with the great Wayfinder trio and a interresting plot that mix well with the rest of the story. My hope for KH3 is a more involvment of the Disney worlds in the plot and a Sora more like he was in KH1 with a bit of adultness ( a side we unfortunately didn't see in KH2 ). Kingdom Hearts will stay in my heart as a wonderful story of a boy welding the key to the light to save the worlds and the ones he love. Keep up the good work, you have a good analysis.
I won't claim everything is equally useful but you owe it to yourself to try KHII on higher difficulties, especially final mix. This is one of the few RPGs I know of that is so finely tuned that everything is viable in a level 1 run by design (which is why bosses offer bonuses rather than exp, which are typically more useful than levels which only give one or two stat points), and it has one of the most intricate systems ever made to achieve this.
I also think the design philosophy is sound, because, although most stuff is optional, a ton of the optional content enforces the primary gameplay loop. As somebody who has 100 percent KH1 like 3 times, there was nothing in there as exciting as most rewards in KHII, which also had a fair amount of interesting platforming to 100 percent. Scene skip and load times in PS4 also cut the Roxas section down to about 20 minutes.
I do agree minigames should be less compulsory (100 percent in KHII involves not only doing every minigame and basically every summon/skill, but an arbitrary HIGH SCORE) but the way, say, Hades cup worked with the limiting gimmicks allowed you to experiment with some otherwise forgotten systems and it also provided some decent rewards, it is a shame you can't use it to grind anymore but the last world allows you to top out in a couple hours if you're efficient.
Kingdom Hearts 1 is still my favorite in the series. KH2 is more fun for casual play tho
13:50
2:FM had way more optional boss fights than 1:FM. I can think of 15 off the top of my head.
Yeah I suppose if you count all the Organization fights, I sort of just lumped them all together, plus I never got to the end of the Cave of Remembrance because I didn't want to level all my drive gauges
@Snoman Gaming Well it's kinda difficult to do an analysis of a game that you never fully explored tbh, especially when you left out the best dungeon in the game. It's also a little... wrong to lump them together, as each is unique and difficult in its own way.
@@snomangaming so you got lazy and didn't want to do the necessary grinding. It is very simple to level every time you get a new Drive form You Can level your previous drive gauge to a certain level cap along with the new one that you have gained thus far. Leveling up the drive forms are incredibly easy Valor only takes a number of hits to level up, wisdom relies on the number of Heartless killed in that form, Master forum gains EXP off the number of Drive orbs you collect, limit form is leveled up by the number of finals you do for your special commands, and lastly final form is leveled up from beating nobodies while in that form.
Hey man! Just want to say that I fucking love your channel. You've got impeccable taste in games. My god. Everything from your you need to pay videos and good game design videos have been complete fire. You actually know what the fuck is good and you do an amazing job explaining why while showcasing the very best games. Also your writing & delivery style is spot on. Keep on rockin with this shit dude!
dude, captain ginyu's body swap bonanza!! the quality of your channel is mega high, but that literally made my sub worthwhile xD kudos and much success to you!
After watching this series for so many years, I finally played Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5. I liked them before, but playing them felt like my first experience. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix is my favorite Kingdom Hearts game.
"Roxas I don't feel so good"
Honestly, I love both KH 1 and 2 for different reasons. I love 1's simple but enjoyable story, the varied puzzles and designs in almost each world, how challenging the game was, and exploring every nook and cranny for secrets.
I love 2 for its more flashy gameplay, fun boss fights, Improved Gummi Ship sections, the more varied worlds with the trio looking different to fit in said world, and Sora's character growth.
But after 2...I stopped caring about the connected plot points because oof...
Nice comparison. I never thought about how often the minigames popped up in kh2. Overall i do believe that is the better game, I can see why you would see otherwise.
KH 1 is just so magical and exploratory.
In regards to your point about story, I understand why you feel the way you do. Personally, I love the story of Kingdom Hearts and I think there is a lot more appealing about it than what people may see under the surface - even in convoluted titles such as KH2 and beyond. And despite your feelings on it... I'm telling you straight-up if you're expecting KH3 to have a relatively simple story, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. DDD ended on a cliffhanger that KH3 is supposed to conclude, and it involves Xehanorts from multiple paths in time. KH3 is not going to have a simple story, but it will be meant as a conclusion to the "Xehanort/Ansem" story. (meaning future KH games will still have Sora as a protagonist, but Xehanort/Ansem will no longer be the series' villain). Hopefully in the future games after KH3, they'll return back to making the story more simple and straightforward, but expecting that to happen in KH3 itself is just asking for the impossible.
Yeah I saw in some trailers there were characters I didn't recognize and I went down a wiki-page rabbit hole and now I'm just upset lol
@@snomangaming that's what happens when you only play two games of the franchise. It would be like playing only Ocarina of Time in Twilight Princess but never playing Majora's Mask in trying to figure out who the Hero shade is.
Ansem wasn’t the clear cut villain in KH1, it turned out that it was a plot twist he was in KH1, but Maleficent was thought to be the main villain at first
"Let's talk about the first two games-" I'm gonna have to stop you right there.
Edit: to clarify what I mean, I'm pretty sure some games came out in between, such as Chain Of Memories.
Kh1 is my favorite just cuz it's so deep and had it's own set style and aesthetic to it also Sora is my favorite character and he actually felt like a main character and important in this one he felt important in 2 also to be honest he was the only one besides Riku that could carry a keyblade now everyone and their mother has a keyblade it makes me feel like my boy sora has lost his spotlight
A lot of good points here. KH2 lacks exploration and a sense of proper direction. It also has that "filler" feel. When I got to the midway point, I definitely thought "oh I have to go back to every world AGAIN?" to myself. However, the gameplay itself was so enjoyable (most of the time) that it really didn't bother me. KH1 had a better direction, even if it was more rough around the edges I still enjoyed it a lot. Which KH you like better boils down to this much:
KH1: Do you want a clear goal with a consistent connection to the player character with some simple yet satisfying gameplay
KH2: Do you want to play a mechanically deep and complex game that, at times, goes nowhere, but at other times blows you the heck away.
Also if you REALLY want a chore, do 100% Jiminy's Journal. There's a goddamn checklist of every minigame in the game, usually with an extra condition like "get 2000 points or more".
How can a game lack exploration and also lack direction? Do you mean direction story-wise? Because I definitely disagree. But if you mean you get literally lost in KH2, then I'm confused
You know what does lack direction? The worlds in KH1. Monstro, Tarzan, Traverse town to an extent, and even agrabah. I played through the entire game 4-5 times without ever knowing that if you had Aladdin in your party, Abu would trigger the hard to reach statues.
What triggers the leon fight in KH1 is the dumbest thing ever IMO
Monstro is just... You need some barrels to progress through it and get high jump AFTER. Most of it looks the same etc etc
And as a kid I quit the game because of Tarzan lol.
Story-wise it seems straight forward, but what about Kairi and her grandma? How did she get to destiny island? Why was ansem at the island as well? What Kingdom Hearts actually was was never made clear, etc.
On the surface yeah it's just "exploring these worlds looking for my friends", but the whole was never that simple
What I mean by direction is a little of both; for one you only had to revisit Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion...however the Trinities were excellent little nuggets of extra exploration detail that gave the worlds more depth. If KH2 did something like that I would think more highly of it and not address it as just filler. And for story, let's face it...KH2's story goes all over the goddamn place. I like it, but it can't decide if it wants to be silly good fun or melodramatic (goofy's death anyone) which makes it hard to take either way. While I like 2's story a bit more I think 1 had better pacing and mood.
And there's a little bit of a reason why you never hear too much about the characters, destiny island or Ansem or whatever called "not explaining every little goddamn thing" which the series later fucked up. 2 had a better balance of "explaining shit" and "not explaining shit" than the rest of the games imo.
D MAS putting story points in without any hints to help speculate isn't "every little thing doesn't need to be explained" it's lazy writing. Fortunately, what wasn't explained there, was explained later on.
What's so complex about the story that everyone hates so much for some reason?
The game supposedly can't decide, but a journey doesn't have to be dark and depressing the entire time. Goofy didn't even die and was just supposed to be a moment of drama.
I mean in KH1 donald and sora got into a whole dispute over landing in the Tarzan world
A journey has its high points and low points and both games have a mixture of both, but 1 was significantly less impactful because Sora and Kairi weren't really characters. They were just archetypes (the good, dumb kid and the helpless girl) and that can't really be argued. They're supposed to grow as people throughout the games and that's what I think the beauty of these games is.
The end of KH1 had Riku and Mickey (whom we had never seen until that point) disappearing into the realm of darkness. There's the question of why he wanted to go there to begin with (wasn't explained, but clearly shown) etc etc. KH2 just expanded what wad already there, so what's so confusing about it? Nobodies and heartless?
In terms of exploration, trinities were nice and yeah shouldn't have been completely removed, but they really didn't add anything to the experience for me. Some trinities were even required to get throw the maze-like worlds (green trinity in peter pan) and some only gave me potions and stuff.
Moving the stone in Olympus was probably the only highlight for me cause I saw it so many times and was never able to move it until I got yellow trinity
I don't think it's lazy writing. In KH1 it made sense why they got into a dispute; they were still mild acquaintances. Every friendship has some rough romps.
Let me also clear up that I think that a game's story can be light and dark at the same time; if everything was all sunshine and rainbows it'd get boring pretty quickly, same with darkness and despair. FF6 does a pretty good job at this with the comic relief boss Ultros.
Sora did have a character in KH1, and he progresses quite nicely into KH2. He's quieter, more awkward and not terribly optimistic until the end of the game. You can kinda feel the shock of him losing goddamn everything. Hell that was a big driving point; not only are the heartless bad (most of them) but you want to just get this damn kid back on the island with all of his friends.
It's not just the trinities either; the worlds in KH1 are far more interactive, which I think planted seeds for that extra bit of exploration. KH2's worlds are still a bit more fun to navigate just for the growth abilities you can get.
I 100% agree w/ EVERYTHING you said about Kingdom Hearts II. While the first game was full of a lot of exploration, wonder, and creativity the second entry feels more like style over substance. Kh2 just didn’t have the same impact on me that the first one did.
0:49 "First two installments.
CoM is the second game though.
Exactly this is basically the split between Kingdom Hearts players. You have those who played Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 and those that have played basically all of them.
"First two installments"
"Fite me"
Your'e not wrong, I just never had a portable system growing up (other than Gameboy Color, that was it)
well, worry not. cuz the ps4 has your back. with this amazing thing, you can play all the KH games. amazing.
@@TonyTheChad I mean… the problem is, European players had to live with the GBA version and had no PS2 version at all. In all honesty, I never knew that CoM existed on the GBA as a kid before knowing about Kingdom Hearts 2.
I'll always prefer the first game. Sure, the second game upped the combat but KH1 had such a tighter focus, and a better narrative as a result.
Plus, Billy Zane was Ansem. And he NAILED that role!
9:26
A Heartless killing machine as in killing the Heartless, or as in Sora is heartless?
Akira Kurusu Both.
So in all honesty the reason the coliseum probably no longer has EXP farming in 2 is because it was butt easy to grind in 1. Don’t get me wrong I prefer the pure coliseum in 1, and it may have been my fault , but once I got to the final boss at level 84 and beat the optional bosses , I probably spoiled the ending stretch for 1FM because I was way overpowered
As for my choice between the 2 games , I prefer 2 because it’s mechanically tighter , the combat feels quicker and more intense . However , the exploration was dropped for combat zones in 2 and it caused some worlds that returned to regress in 2 (agrabah especially )
So hyped for Kingdom Hearts 3! Hope we get a release date at e3!
Improvements in 2: bad!
Basic gameplay in 1: good!
kingdom hearts 2 easily one of the most rewarding game that you put more time into understanding how it works and some of the best boss fights in video gme history. it goes from the adventure game syleings of kh1 to be more like a devil may cry game or a platnum game in how it works. though if you want to play through a game and not really dig into it and try and understand it well kh1 is a pretty fun ride from start to end. if you only did the sephoroth boss fight in kh2 your missing out cause all of the orginization bosses are the best in video game history and you should give them a chance.
I didn't want to waste time leveling up my drive gauges just to reach them :/ but I did hear that they are really good. The organization fights throughout the main story are real good tho
Snoman Gaming You haven't even fought the Data-org yet? What about the Lingering Will?
Snoman Gaming
That use a levling guide. If you play youre cards right leveling up DRive Forms does not take all that long.
To be frank the fact that you are ready to miss out the best part of this game just becuse of that makes me kind of pity you.
I am glad I dont mind a bit of grinding.
I loved how varied the minigames made kh2 feel. gave the whole game a sense of real adventure and surprise.
nice, it's rare to find someone that actually prefer some other different game of kingdom hearts besides kingdom hearts 2. me personally i prefer BBS over all other kingdom hearts game. Keep up the good work mate
Kingdom Hearts 2 nailed it for me! I absolutely love the story and as a kid I couldn't wait to meet the next organisation member. I cried when I beat Xemnas because of how beautiful and amazing this game is!
From my memories the main problem of the stories KH2 can be separate in 2 point
1 The stories are litteraly stories.
Most of them can be understood separately from one another
2 The Disney films stories are the same as the films
Not like what I felt in KH1, where I felt that the stories were really different from the films
Ps I quit KH2 at the pirate so I may be wrong for the rest of the game
And sry for my bad english
No, that's exactly right. In KH1 the villains are working with Maleficent on a totally separate story from their films. KH2 has a lot of the films plots.
Wow...very good points! now I'd love to see you and KingK debate this out XD
Thank you! You've explained my feelings about KH2 perfectly. The lack of exploration, the empty hallway-like worlds, and the over-saturation of tedious mini games really killed the experience for me. Exploration was half the fun of KH1. Unlocking secret passages and collecting hidden items really helped bring the worlds to life for me.
In KH1 when you finally finished a world it seemed a lot more climactic and often added to the overarching story. A good example is when you reach the boss area of Agrabah and just manage to catch a glimpse of maleficent before she disappears. Or how your run-ins with Riku progressively get more antagonistic in the Monstro/NeverLand worlds. KH2 may have looked better, but it was missing that sort of character development.
I feel like they sacrificed soul for style in KH2. I hope KH3 finds a good middle ground.
Gon Arguably, Sora had already developed as a character at that point. He had already gone through 2 journeys and you can't really learn the same lessons twice.
Riku drastically changed and they even used his keyblade to reflect that
Kairi wasn't even a character in the first game.
In 2, I think, the character interactions on the same level as, if not better than, 1. The reason Riku started becoming 'evil' was way too simplistic considering his perceived maturity at the start of the game to me. I mean, it basically boils down to him being jealous of Donald and Goofy while being mad at Sora for not finding Kairi
Besides that, Sora's conversations with the many disney characters has always been good, though I feel that they're more realistic in 2.
KH2 is more linear, but while you enjoyed exploration, I still, to this day, feel relieved when I finish a KH1 world. Exploration, I think, was done better in 3D because moving around was fun. KH1 platforming on the other hand (along with the camera) is so incredibly bad.
While 1 was my first KH game I tried to base my opinion on how I felt 13+ years ago as well as how I feel now after playing through it again a few days ago.
I love the tech system, the nostalgia, certain spells, and the story (which people say is simple while ignoring the fact that it had so many missing pieces).
The issue, I think, is the fact that people think KH was simple until 2 when they decided to "shove everything in" And that's just plain wrong.
Kingdom hearts was never actually found, No one knew what "Ansem's" (xehanort's) connection to the island was
We knew nothing about Kairi's grandma and why they were in hollow bastion
There was a picture of hollow bastion in the Tarzan world
We didn't even know why the keyblade went to Sora either. It was sorta kinda touched on, but mainly we had to speculate.
most of the lore existed from the beginning. It didn't 'become' convoluted. It was from the start. The other games just expanded it
KH2 is definitely where the plot goes all over the place. KH1 and Chain of Memories, unmentioned in the video, focus on Sora, Donald and Goofy and to a certain degree Riku. Then Kingdom Hearts 2 opens up Roxas and drops foreshadowing towards the origins of Xemnas and establishing we’re dealing with the same villain in all the games so far, all of which get their own games expanding on these points.
It’s like Star Wars. A New Hope is it’s own self-contained story while Empire Strikes Back is clearly the next chapter but not the final chapter while introducing many plot threads and characters who are used and explored in other films, like Yoda, Darth Vader’s connection to Luke, even Lando as a figure from Han’s past. Both KH2 and Empire Strike Back end on a clear sequel hook. At least Chain of Memories is far better than the Holiday Special, both being lesser known entries between the first two major entries.
I'm guessing a comparison of these two with Kingdom Hearts 3 will be coming up, no?
^He's right you know (mostly)
I always thought KH2 was more edgy than mature. What part of KH2 was darker again? There was Roxas but his story was poorly paced and overstayed his welcome for me to give that much care, the whole Nobodies and Organization was inconsistent, Maleficent and Pete were a joke (and not a funny one), the worlds seemed mostly unscathed and rarely touched the themes of the game. The game's higher age rating was because of the Pirates of Caribbean and not because of the actual plot or themes of the game.
KH1 seemed darker to me because I saw Sora's world collapse, a man lose his heart in front of me, NPCs with broken pasts in Traverse Town, heeling fallen souls to become summons, exploring an eroded castle in Hallow Bastion, and descending a heartless world past the pieces of lost worlds.
Yeah, like the more I think about it...it's less that it's darker and more that it went from general themes of light, darkness, etc. and instead made it all more detailed and complex. For example, in KH1 Ansem goes on and on about "darkness in the heart, etc. like just non-tangible feelings. But in KH2, they have stuff like the "Door to Darkness" which is a computer program, Ansem tries to suck up hearts and turn them into data (?), it's all just like...more...digital? for lack of a better word? and doesn't translate very well
In addition, I didn't like what they did to Sora's character in KH2. After KH1 Sora was essentially thrown into stasis for a year as a reset. When he pops out he's practically a different character which may be attributed to the whole Roxas thing but I don't know.
The game-play and animations can change a character as much as dialogue. From this I perceive KH2 Sora as more aggressive and relentless towards enemies rather than focusing on countering blows in KH1.
A great example with animations is comparing how Sora opens a chest. In KH1 he lightly knocked on chests like a door practically asking them to be opened while in KH2 he wacks them and they suddenly open.
And finally the dialogue, there are plenty of instances of Sora needlessly mocking the Organization and Pete. From the tone it almost feels like Sora viewed them as pests the way he shouts "You're Nobodies. You don't exist."
The closest thing in KH1 I can think of like this is when he called Riku stupid when he learned he used darkness but thats a different character dynamic with how he treats villains and strangers.
MAD Master001 Roxas only "overstayed his welcome" if you know nothing about him. Roxas is an amazing character, with an amazing story.
Nukara Rikova "not having interesting characters" in KH1 can be considered an opinion rather than a fact (that I can understand in some regards). However, I can point to a few character dynamics and varying scenes that may argue there is more to them that others can find interesting.
The game does have some generic dialogue in addition to some that can be considered interesting. The story beats are what you expect f(or the most part( but then again how else could sell this concept. Simple and clean was the way to go for a first game of this nature.
OwN Avenged I admit that I played KH2 before 358/2 so that may have skewed my opinion. But that "amazing story" bored me to tears once I tried to watch that story in 2.5, look up lets plays of it, and story reviews of it. Never bothered to get the game because I only ever heard it played "okay".
Although I can understand why someone might like him because his story does have some minor intrigue to me and that Roxas battle in KH2 Final Mix did make me feel something for him (which may have been the awesome music but that still counts). Either way KH2 was not a good way to be introduced to him.
I agree. Kingdom hearts 2 doesn’t break my top 10 list. But Kingdom hearts 2 final mix, now that’s a mastapiece BABY
Sora4Smash followed by KH3 on Switch this E3
Eduardo Barbosa lol
Best vid on this series I’ve seen in a while.
"First two installments?" I'm already suspicious... but continue
Yello Duzzit I'm waiting for red flag #2: calling it a "disney game"
Semantics are so much fun
Yes, i can agree with you
I loved the two games, even if i missed a lot of part of them. In Kh1 i couldn't pass ansem in the Island, i was too yung. I haven't even found glide. But i still love the game. I should play it again some days.
I really like the gumship in kh2 thought. It was difficult to get an S and i spent a lot of time trying to improve the gumship.
Also, the long introfuction in kh2 is important to bound you to Twilight town. It's a city familiar like the traverse town or even the Destiny Island. I still Remember the Song, and man, there is Vivi, i LOVE Vivi
I have always loved 1 more than 2 and you explained why perfectly. Thank you
One of the charms of this series is that there is just so much different to love, be it story, nostalgia, combat etc. While i don't agree with a lot of what is being said, the vid is presented in a way i can really respect and learn from the author. The KH1 stuff you went over hits the nail on the head and there definitly are aspects of KH1 all the other games in the series could learn from (or remember idk) so gg my guy
Both these games are better than the rest in the series though.
Facts my guy!!
true true
Actually I thought Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was good
@@sebastianrivera6076 Didn't say the rest were bad,
@I Have Skill I think BBS is a good game, and have a powerful connection with KH 1 and 2,and the colors and soundtrack is great as always,but Terra is dumb for following Xehanort even knowing he's obviously a villain,Ventus is annoying (but his connection with Sora is simply amazing),and Aqua,well,I like her the most. In fact,i think Aqua is the best female character over the other girls. Well, i respect your opinion,buddy,and i hope you respect mine. :)
Thank you! I absolutely love kingdom hearts ll’s story progression and combat, but I agree completely about the whole exploration and grinding thing. On my first play through, I had no idea how to get glide. So I played through the entire game, until the World that never was, and still had no glide. It wasn’t until I unlocked the final save point, and wanted to finally get the ultima weapon, and needed to get through the cavern of remembrance (and obviously needed glide to even try to get through) I finally did research in order to learn to get it. And then had to spend hours grinding just to max final form and get glide lvl. 3. It was extremely time consuming and was quite annoying, especially after spending so much time not knowing I needed to level up my form. I loved the game non the less, but that’s one of the reasons why I say KH1 is my favorite.
Can't believe they decided to kill goofy in kh2 😱
10:58
top 10 anime deaths oof
he didnt die .-. he was knocked unconscious
LiL MaRc r/woosh
KH1 had an undefinable charm that KH2 didnt have. Yes KH1 was a bit more clunky, not as polished , little confusing in parts. The cutscenes , exploration, and overall charm isnt matched by 2. KH2 of course polished the combat a bit but ultimately was more linear so I could see either side of the argument. Kh1 is special to me personally