Thank you so much for checking out my video. CORRECTION: - Some of you have pointed out to me that hidden in the menu's you actually can find the info on how to level drives. Can't believe I never knew this, but you still shouldn't have to go digging to find that important info which should be explained when we obtain the forms. This video was a big undertaking for me, and took WAY longer to make than I had intended. But I did have a ton of fun revisiting this game from an analytical angle.
Also, I did refer to the "opening new routes" sequences as "sealing the keyholes" in this game. Which is simply an oversight on my part, so my bad! Although I'm pretty sure this concept is only mentioned like once by YenSid. Still, it serves the same function as keyholes as a way to cap off the end of each world, and yet Sora still randomly stumbles into them with zero effort. This also means that this game REALLY de-emphasized the keyhole concept because they're not relevant at all here.
@@Jheff99Sora mentions it multiple times almost every time he unlocks a new route. The Disney party member would exclaim "What was that?" which Sora replied "A new path has opened". Which was a very poor way to progress the story because it's just arbitrary McGuffins until the plot says we can progress. Like Sun Tzus sword was somehow the thing we needed? How does that make any sense? I prefer KH3's way of doing it which is just Sora tapping into his ability to feel and sense Hearts. So he literally just follows his Heart which works much better thematically and narratively. They abandoned the Keyhole idea once they realized it makes Worlds less relevant. Instead focus on the immediate threat of getting your Heart Stolen rather than the World being Destroyed. Which then allows them to revisit older worlds if need be. If we stuck to the Keyhole concept all the way for each game we'd quickly run out of Disney films that are appropriate to the videogame. Once Sora finds out Organization 13 was behind the entire thing they revisit the Worlds purely on the assumption they're under attack again. Which doesn't make sense because in the first visits they're trying to unlock pathways to find the Organization. So how does killing Heartless reveal more worlds? The "Unlocking Pathways" narrative is introduced and quickly dropped after the halfway point and it actually makes the reasoning for Sora finding the Organization World a bit messy. The majority of Sora's world visits are just Sora waiting to get permission to go back to Worlds where the plot is actually happening. If he could go back to Twilight Town immediately that would have made the story significantly shorter. I think the idea is okay but narratively it comes across as just bloat to find pathways AND revisit them.
I've had this weird belief that some people actively replaced their memories of Vanilla KH2 with 2FM, partially cuz they don't really make the distinction. And in a couple times where I brought up how we shouldn't ignore Vanilla 2 in the discussion, people legit told me that Vanilla 2 was straight up irrelevant since 2FM existed.
I honestly used not not like KH2, there was a solid 5 year chunk where I thought it was pretty good but really lacking (basically flawed in every way this video describes), but I went back and played 2FM and it became one of my favourite games ever, easily my personal fav in the series. I think it really is that important of a duality, the difference in quality between Vanilla and FM is staggering, but fortunately most players today are only gonna be playing FM and getting that experience. I definitely think vanilla deserves a place in the conversation, but I also think it's only normal for the baseline of the conversation to be these games at their best (i.e. KH3 with updates and DLC)
Finally, a good and practically unbiased review of KH2. I love the game, but a lot of people act like it's the best thing ever created and no KH game will ever come close, it's so annoying. KH3 (with ReMind) is easily just as good as KH2FM. 34:39 The info is actually in game, if you click the form and put the cursor in the "experience" box. But I get it, 10 year old me never knew that.
Strongly agree as a challenge runner. Kh3 + remind and patches is easily as good as kh2fm for me, combat-wise and regarding bosses. And yes, kh2fm has (a lot of) flaws as well but the community often ignore them because of pure favoritism and un-equal criticism
Yeah, it's either that or they HEAVILY overcompensate with their KH2 criticisms and treat it like it's a bad game. KH2 is my least favorite out of the Numbered titles, but it's still a 9/10 at least! I don't get why we can't just agree that the 3 games are all good?
Kh2FM and Kh3(ReMind) are the S-tier standards of kingdom hearts games. I would put Kh2FM slightly above Kh3 just because I feel that the weight of combat is slightly better by not having 'too' much mobility. This becomes more apparent when you are playing the games on the extremes of it's difficulty like lv1 runs, where the movement abilities in kh2 feels like much more of a strategic tactic as much as drive forms themselves are. But that's only a slight advantage, and is really only apparent for those extreme players. Surprisingly, I think people also in their love for KH2 underrate other games combat systems that are totally amazing in their own right. For instance, KH Re:coded's combat system is undoubtedly the best out of all the handheld games, however is entirely held back by the movement controls of the console with it using a d-pad instead of a joystick, and the janky AI of enemies due to the hardware limitations. It's got a good enough combat/leveling/ability system that I personally feel that if was on a better system it would make top 3 for the series on the combat side of things.
1:20:43 It's kind of crazy how the community claims Birth by Sleep Keyblade ceremony was a huge retcon when KH2 has Riku casually handing Kairi a Keyblade with no explanation. Which has so many implications that we basically have to just assume we know literally nothing about the Keyblade up until BBS which does explain Keyblades a lot better. It's weird Sora was highlighted by the story to have Two Keyblades but then this plot point is literally never brought up again. Where did Sora get Star Seeker?
In KH2, the objects where sora does his "swooshy keybalde" animation wasn't necessarily him re-sealing the worlds. Its him opening up new paths to other worlds since everything was separated at the end of KH1 when we defeated ansem. So the 1st trip to every disney world still makes sense in terms of them looking for Riku and Mickey. I think Yen Sid confirms this fact before getting leaving his Tower after Sora's wake.
That is true, but at the same time the "going entire worlds without mentioning Riku" thing still stands. And it's not that far off to see how someone could actually forget the Unlocking Gates part and default to sealing keyholes. Hell I once saw a stream where someone straight up had an entirely different interpretation of the Gate Unlock animation that wasn't either of those.
I've been saying all along Kingdom Hearts 2 is a great game, definitely one of if not *THE* best in terms of gameplay. But it's not the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ like everyone thinks. It has it's flaws and it's imperfections just like every other game out there. Other games improve in areas where this game lacks, just like this game improved from Kingdom Hearts 1, and a major thought i see of why Kingdom Hearts 3 is hated, is because it's not a clone of Kingdom Hearts 2. Honestly don't get me wrong, I love Kingdom Hearts 2, but I don't want Kingdom Hearts 2 to be the template standard for Kingdom Hearts games going forward. Where the future games try to clone Kingdom Hearts 2 in every regard. The game has flaws and I appreciate u bringing the strengths and the weaknesses of this game to the front.
Complaining about having to Google how to level up drive forms, but liking the personality quiz that determines level ups it’s kind of wack. There’s no way you would know that personality quiz does anything without googling or what each choices does.
I'm not sure if they're quite comparable. The personality quiz is a single decision early on that generally doesn't your lock you out of other options in the game, but still allows some customization across playthroughs. Drive forms lock notable movement tools that the game losses quite a bit of it's complexity without, and don't really have an alterative outside of not using it. I think I'd agree that these both should be more intuitive, but the compliment to the quiz was more towards it's customization, and not it's obtuseness. Even then, it's not that unreasonable to figure out "your quest begins at dawn/midday/midnight" relates to exp across multiple playthroughs, especially if you can actually feel the difference between the levels. Granted I think he similar exaggerated the obtuseness of the drive leveling, because for the most part it's not that hard to brute force them just by using them a lot, and by checking how much it takes to level them you'll probably also learn how to level them anyways.
That's literally the point of the game, nowadays you can literally do whatever, but KH allows a RPG aspect that can be talked to you're play style Every initial choice can lead to sora doing massive damage, so it's really up to you
Kingdom Hearts is my favorite series of fiction of all time, and KH2 is my favorite game. I was actually one of the weird ones that experienced KH2 first, before knowing about 1 or CoM, as I was watching a friend play it for their first time. I didn't know who Sora or Namine was at all, but my friend and I were a mess of tears at Roxas's "looks like my summer vacation is over." I don't have contact with that friend anymore, but that memory will always be near and dear to me. What I want to say is, thank you for sharing your first memory of the game. It was beautiful to hear.
Thank you for bringing up how they dropped a lot of the RPG mechanics in a game that's supposed to be an action RPG! Like why? Was it a complaint of the first game? Or were they just excited about showing off their new combat system at the detriment of everything else kh 1 did well. But I don't really hear a lot of people bring that up in reviews. Although I have to push back on the relevance of the Disney worlds, while they might not be explicitly relevant to the main plot, they are important in more subtle, thematic ways. Like how Beast is used as a parallel to Riku and how Mulan is about accepting different aspects of yourself instead of trying to be someone you're not to please others. There is foreshadowing there for Riku's journey of self acceptance and I think the worlds prime Sora to see Riku for who he is inside even if he doesn't look like himself on the outside. But I guess if you're only looking at surface level plot relevance you probably would miss the deeper symbolism. I know I did for a long time.
I swear to god, it feels as if any KH2 fanboy actually hasn't played the game in ages, and just likes spitting the same arguments prasing a game which isn't by any means perfect. YET, despite its flaws, KH2 is and always will be one of the most influential and beautiful games ever. It's just great to not be blinded by nostalgia, it makes you appreciate not only the actual strengths of the game, but also how far the series has come. KH3 has improved on almost all KH2's flaws, despite it too being far from perfect, and that's also thanks to years of Osaka team experimenting with new mechanics and gameplay ideas with the non-numbered titles. Of course there are things that KH2 does better than KH3, but there are also things that KH1 does better than both KH2 and KH3. Each of them has its strengths and weaknesses, and it's annoying to see some people just prasing KH2 as if it's a flawless videogame.
I'm glad someone acknowledges how awful the pacing and Disney usage is in kh2. People say kh3 sucks here but like kh2 does not even try to be thematically relevant to the organization member. Larxene is a diva so it makes sense she would be in Frozen, Marluxia is obsessed with flowers and beauty so tangled makes sense and Luxord is a gambler so Pirates and looking for the Box makes sense too and these are just the worlds that follow the movie not even the ones that have unique Disney stories. People who criticize kh3 in this area are delusional and I don't say that lightly. Regardless I love videos willing to critique the flaws of kh2 because they actively are worse than the first game.
i love kh2. but the disney worlds are so boring imo. the only places i like visitng are olympus coliseum and lion king worlds. kh3 rly made pretty much every world so much more intereting to explore while adding minigames to come back to those worlds. I do wish they weaved in more non-disney story plots in between thr fisney worlds, or made them feel all connected like they did in KH1 (best story utilization of disney worlds in all KH), but they’re still fun
First off this whole thing of "its great but far from perfect" can obviously be applied to literally ANY video game. Yes there's KH2 glazers out there but not everyone is saying its the perfect video game like that
@cillbipher2613 thats why I said it's obscure, it's been awhile but I think the tutorial splash screen information when you first enter the drives menu tells you how to check
To be fair, the sealing keyholes thing being an afterthought is more because you're actually unlocking the "special Gates" between worlds that Yen Sid mentioned right before you leave the Mysterious Tower. But at the same time he doesn't exactly elaborate on how this whole thing works outside of "when a beam of light radiates from the Keyblade return to the Gummi Ship", and for a couple worlds, namely Atlantica and Pride Lands, the Gate Unlock animation is pretty pointless outside of signaling that you finished the world. And I wouldn't blame ya for forgetting about that and defaulting to "sealing keyholes", as the Gate fact isn't brought up often.
It's funny to learn that people call KH2FM a near-perfect game while dismissing KH2 vanilla. When vanilla came out, everybody raved about how it was, in fact, a near-perfect game that improved upon all of the first game's supposed flaws. I'm one of the old school KH fanboys that only played the first three releases in the series (KH1 vanilla, CoM GBA, and KH2 vanilla) and, while playing through KH2 for the first time on its weekend of release was like a religious experience for me, I do, in retrospect, have two major complaints on it: 1 - The world maps were way too linear and lacked platforming. It didn't encourage the exploration that was so prevalent and, for me, enjoyable in the first game. 2 - In addition to simplifying the world maps, KH2 introduced the objective header, making an already easier story progression even easier than it really needed to be. KH1 allowed you to infer what needed to be done through its cutscenes, but KH2 really took hand-holding to new levels, which retrospectively led me to appreciate the first game much more than its successors.
OH Kingdom hearts 2 has flaws, for certain. But it's heaps better than 3. It accomplished what it should have - both in story and gameplay. KH3 on the other hand, had the job of closing out the saga, and tying together threads from 4 or 5 other games. And although the gameplay and graphics were great, KH3 failed at some more critical junctures. Re-mind solved some of that, but I didn't play KH3 to get a set-up for something in the future. I played it to get a conclusion, with a possible teaser at the end, KH1 did this the best, but even KH2 was better at wrapping up things in a satisfying way, while still hyping the next installment. KH3 was just...underwhelming.
They never said KH3 would wrap up the entire series. Only that it would wrap up the storyline up to that point, which it did, pretty conclusively. Whether you *liked* how it wrapped it up is entirely subjective. Every single game, including KH1, teases the next installment. Why is this something you only hold against KH3?
Eh. I'm pretty indifferent to the mini games. Don't hate them or love them. They're just kinda there. I actually enjoy playing as Lion Sora. I wish it was a drive form outside of Pride Lands.
Its a great game but not perfect, but the people that ignore its flaws and only focus on the positive while ignoring kh3 positives and only focusing on the negatives and treating it like the worst game in the series are the worse type of people. P.S Don't be that person
@@rosies69 no it’s not, but they look at a select few negatives and then use that as an excuse to meatride old games instead of actually Caring about in game content
Amazing video. It definitely was informative and addressed the flaws of KH2. while also addressing the things it did well. Because despite what it's stans say...those of us who criticize the game don't hate it. I especially don't. I literally get so hyped when I boot it up. I just wish people would stop acting as if the flaws KH3 had weren't present in KH2 in some cases.
I’d argue that Roxas and sora’s base combo abilities in kh2 are actually pretty slow and floaty and don’t start to feel fluid until halfway through the game. KH2 devs understood this, which is why they rebalanced the abilities and gave us better ones like flash step, etc.
@ Vanilla proud was incredibly easy, and lacked a damage multiplier that beginner and critical provide. Also vanilla knock smash and whirli goof were incredibly powerful
Seeing videos like this is really vindicating. Although KH2 and KH2FM have played a huge role in my life growing up, I've grown to appreciate all KH games as new entries have been added to the series. So it's really saddening how aggressive and toxic how the fandom has grown towards games after KH2FM. People are welcome to have their opinions, but I've noticed a huge spike of people claiming KH3 and other Osaka made KH games to be inherently bad and point out every flaw as facts. Meanwhile the same people would praise KH2 + KH2FM despite there being flaws as in there well. Not to mention the constant complaints of wanting KH4 news to come out simply because KH3 was awful and didn't match up to KH2FM. It's partly why I strayed away from the vocal KH online community in recent years since it no longer feels like the community as a whole appreciates what every game has to offer. So it's really refreshing seeing more unbiased and non toxic opinions in the comments sections.
I've personally seen more KH4 pointing towards the opposite side of the spectrum. Of not wanting anything to do with the series after KH3. (Which is fine for the record) But yeah. Everything else I do agree with. Like you said, everyone can have their opinions and there's nothing wrong with that, but to be honest, I've always found it ridiculous that some people claim that Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 are literally the only Kingdom Hearts games worth playing. More power to them if they feel that way, but pushing that notion onto others and expecting them to agree due to their sheer distaste for most of the series is just absurd.
@@DADA-yt1pt Fair point about your perspective with the fandom and KH4. And I totally agree that pushing on the notion that KH1 and KH2 are the only good KH games onto others is absurd. It's nice running into conversations like this since it feels pretty unbiased and fair!
It's funny how KH2 is seen as the best in the series nowadays. I remember back in 2006, it was criticized as not as good as the first game for all the reasons you brought up. It was a huge departure from KH1, and that was seen as a bad thing.
It think that it's equally funny that we're in a similar position with KH3 in this generation. Not taking any jabs at 3. I love it despite it's imperfections, but it's interesting to see discussion about older games changing just like that. Like Sonic 06 suddenly being looked backed upon lot more positively (Which honestly, isn't a bad thing. People can like what they like as long as it isn't hurting anyone) compared to back when it pretty much was THE game to hate.
Hi I'm one of the lunatics who played KH2 first due to not knowing how roman numerals worked. I spent the whole game feeling a massive want for Roxas back in vanilla and I ALMOST got it with the fight cutscene but it still stung. It actually got me annoyed with Sora though I mellowed out of that. Overall a great video, I heavily agree with everything and its even got me back to putting my soul into KH2, its not my favorite of the games since 1 just scratches every itch I like at once. But I appreciated what it did right. I just wish other fans didn't hold it to this impossible standard that's somewhat infected the series ever since.
My guess is Xaldin wanting Beast's heartless and Nobody was because the Nobody would have been a powerful asset, and the heartless could have gone towards making the Kingdom Hearts by making Sora fight it (as more heartless for Sora to fight means more heartless to contribute to Kingdom Hearts). However, this is only a guess based on an assumption I made when I first played That said, if you highlight Exp in the Drive menu (or what it the drive form in the stats menu?) you can actually see the "how to", you don't actually need Google. But, I can see how a kid would not think to do that.
Finally someone in the kh community that doesn't just glaze kh2fm like it's best thing since sliced bread. My favorite is kh3 and even I admit it has its flaws, thanks for keeping things bro, mad respect.
@@EmeraldBlade98it’s not delusional to have a different opinion than you. I can see why a lot of people would prefer 3’s combat to 2’s and vice versa. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.
@@ErikthedoodNah it’s delusional. I get you but this is just wrong. Everything in 3 is free and easy. You will get free commands that save you without thinking. In 2 everything is intentional. 3 is easy mode. The only thing that is arguably better than 2 is keyblade swapping
One thing I'm not a fan of is Twilight Town having a completely different song when you switch to Sora, rather than keeping the one we had during CoM and the Roxas portion of KH2. The original Twilight Town theme is better than the "post returning to Sora" version. Also not a fan of how Atlantica was handled, I'd have legit taken a repeat of KH1 Atlantica but actually giving us the full list of movie locations to actually explore in, since IMHO the swimming controls were slightly better outside of the dolphin kick being completely useless in KH2. And preferably, handle the story the way Pride Lands does. I can take Part of Your World, Under the Sea and Ursula's Revenge, but Swim This Way is... Cringe. Same with the finale song. Donald should really stick to Davey Crocket as far as songs are concerned. Also, the trio's parting song is... Hell no. Hollow Bastian/Radiant Garden was chef's kiss all around... Mostly. Maleficent really should have stayed dead, I think the only real reason they brought her back is because they specifically needed a powerful evil witch for what they were doing in Halloween Town, since I don't recall the Organization specifically having Necromancy at the time the game was originally made. Which makes sense, why worry about being able to revive people if you know you're gonna fade away anyway? However, Hades could have done it since he's literally God of the Dead.
Half agree on the Twilight Town part, Lazy Afternoons is so much better than The Afternoon Streets, but Working Together is a lot better than Sinister Sundown imo.
We always say "complex," but the series really became contrived. KH2 definitely jumped the shark vs. the narrative style & flow of 1. CoM was a precursor to the rest of the series.
My biggest complaint about this game is how to have to redo an entire battle of you die before you make it to the next non scripted section. Not having a retry option is extremely annoying.
During the Mrs Potts mini game I had her get stuck and I had to restart because she just couldn’t go anywhere. It was really annoying as it was also my first playthrough and I was worried I’d lose heaps of progress, luckily it did only just go back to the start of the mini game
This was a really great video and I enjoyed watching it and hearing your thoughts. Im definitely going to sub, its really cool seeing a small channel have videos this in depth and thoughtful. However, theres a few things I disagreed on while watching through as well as general thoughts I had, so I typed them up as I went along. My goal is to make the case that kh2 is, actually, as great as people say. For context, like you, I have also played this game probably ~30-40 times, and these days I usually play on level 1 critical but I had to work up to that over many playthroughs starting at standard my first time. Firstly, the idea that kh2 is perfect is obviously absurd. I'm with you in the criticism of its level design, of the 3 main titles kh2 obviously has the weakest levels. I think I would argue that rather than being a game that is great because its good at everything, kh2 is a game that is great because it is uniquely good at one specific thing, that being the combat. I would argue that it is very hard to find a game that both has a combat system as deep and polished as the one in kh2 and difficulty levels and post game bosses designed to utilize that combat system to its potential. And that's today, back in 2007 this was unheard of. Just looking at how incredibly well designed critical difficulty and the level 1 limit are designed in kh2 shows how ahead of its contemporaries it was in this regard. Later kh games like bbs handle difficulty much closer to what I would expect from a typical game, which is to say making enemies damage sponges that deal massive damage rather than kh2s dynamic systems. You also mention the lack of rpg mechanics behind a hindrance to kh2, but I think its the opposite, the rpg mechanics held kh1 back. Kh2 focusing more on combat skill and abilities and less on stats makes the game more fun. I never feel like I need to grind or buy better equipment to beat a challenge in kh2, I just need to play better. On the topic of armor/accessories, I think you do have a point, but I will push back on it a little. In kh1 by far the best stat to increase was MP, so 95% of equipment was outclassed by default due to not increasing MP. Out of the remaining equipment you could get buffs to hp, strength, defense and ap. Kh2 has equipment that buffs strength, defense and ap, and while it doesn't have hp buff equipment, it has equipment with abilities like mp rage or haste, which in my mind more than makes up for that. Basically, while I dont think kh2s system is perfect, I also dont think its worse than the system in kh1. And im not sure what you mean by resistances make very little difference in kh2, thats absolutely not true in my experience. Try fighting demyx for example with full blizzard resistance gear and it is so much easier than if you optimize for the defense stat. Or use lightning resist armor in space paranoids. Trust me, it matters a lot. I also find myself using accessories to boost ap a lot, but thats a side effect of playing at level 1 most likely as I dont think I had ap constraints playing at level 99 critical. About the choices at the beginning of kh1: maybe im wrong but I dont think they are all that different from the choices you make in kh2. Yeah you dont drop a weapon in kh2, but those are just minor stat differences. The real choice is which ability path you want, which works the same in kh2 as it did in kh1. I think theres also a lot of build variety in kh2s combat. For a fight I might plan out my strategy ahead of time and know Im planning to finish off the fight with final form firaga, so ill make sure i have oathkeeper and bond of flame available as keyblades, and pick armor with good resistance against the boss. Ill pick which abilities I have on or off depending on the boss Im going to fight. Its not elden ring or anything, but I feel like I switch up my equipment and abilities pretty frequently depending on the challenge. And theres also the mid-combat 'build switching' baked into the form system, as different forms are inherently designed to play like different builds which tackle challenges in different ways. You mention in kh2 you can just equip every ability, and while for the most part this is true, something I think is interesting about kh2 is you generally dont want to actually do this. Many abilities in kh2 are situational and downright bad a lot of the time, and its left to the player to figure out which abilities they want to have on and off in different fights. Often the answer isn't as obvious as a first time player might think, I find myself turning off many abilities that first time players might keep on their whole playthrough. edit: you mention this later in the video but im leaving it in. Beyond the stuff you mentioned like combo plus, theres many combo modifiers id say you want to have off between some and all of the time and this is a great example of designing a build depending on the situation and your playstyle. World design: im not going to argue kh2s world design is good or anything, but I will throw in one hot take: i dont think kh2s worlds need to be as good as the ones in 1 and 3. I have the most fun in kh2 when i am in combat, and if the world design is just linear paths that get me to the fun fights more quickly Im not super upset by that. It does suck not having the cool secrets hidden all over from kh1, but I think kh1 needed that level more complex level design while in kh2 I think i prefer just being able to get to the next boss and back to the combat. There is actually a section in the status screen that tells you how to level each drive form, but it is fairly hidden so fair enough, kh2 drive form levels were not handled as cleanly as they could have been for multiple reasons. Im not sure why you think quick run is infinitely worse than dodge roll. Both have uses but most of the time either one works in my experience. Quick run has s, same as dodge roll, and you can quick run straight through attacks if you time it properly. The main defensive mechanic in kh2 though was clearly intended to be blocking, both quick run and dodge roll are secondary options. One thing I feel doesn't get mentioned often enough is how interactive most reaction commands are. We all know about the ones that are just scripted to happen where the boss does a thing and we press triangle, but theres a huge amount of RCs that require you do something specific to trigger them, which encourages experimenting and approaching fights in different ways. The hookbats are a great example, if you hit them once and then back off you can utilize their RC and turn them from an enemy to a tool. Cure: while I appreciate both, I like kh2s system more. Kh1 for me often boiled down to run in, tank damage to hit the enemy, build up mp, retreat a bit, heal, repeat. Kh2 encourages me to play more carefully and try not to take damage as once ive used my heal, thats all I get for a while without using a more powerful resource like a drive form. You say that this system deemphasizes other spells, but i think itsw the opposite. Being able to use magic down to 1mp and then heal essentially for free is a super awesome mechanic that encourages using cheaper magic, unlike kh1 where you often wanted to preserve your mp for defensive magic. In kh1 I found tech points were infrequent and small enough to not really affect how I played. The only time I ever really used them beyond incidentally was the mushrooms that you juggle up to 99. I think kh2 removing some of these less utilized mechanics from kh1 in favor of focusing on its strengths and new mechanics is fine. Kh2 actually has 15 secret bosses, unless youre not counting lingering will for some reason. The end of kh2 is, actually, probably my least favorite part of the game. I like the fight against normal xemnas by the skyscraper and zebra xemnas, but everything in between feels so dragged out and unengaging to me. This is a common complaint I also have for the ending of kh1 and, to a much lesser extent, kh3 and i guess im probably in the minority here as i never hear anyone else complain about these sections but if i could cut like 80% of this ending sequence I would. As a final note, while kh2 is my favorite game in the series, im also someone who will heavily defend and praise kh1 and 3, as well as some of the side games like com. They all have something they do particularly well, and while it happens kh2 best aligns with what I want, I can easily see someone preferring kh1 or 3 over it. Also, the goofy scene is 100% necessary. It doesn't matter if it doesn't actually serve a purpose, its the best cutscene in video game history and the world would be worse without it.
it's easy to praise kh2's strong suits, as its flaws were largely mitigated in later entries; meanwhile, it's battle systems continues to be practically peerless
PART 1 OF 3 (continues in the answers) While i personally disagree with most of these things i can see what you are coming from and why so i think it is more of a matter of perspective and i since i get yours i will share mine While i get why you feel like kh2 gameplay improves in some aspects while also taking some steps back (i feel the same about other titles such as some jojo parts) i see it more as an diferent gameplay philosophy and focus. How kh1 manages stats is great yeah but kh2 tries to intead have a gameplay more focus on the diferent mechanics and how to use them giving a plenty variaty of different things to experiment on. While kh1's mechanics also had depth here we see them even more expanded while putting the focus more on how you use them and your ability as a player more than said pre planning while also having a fair share of preplaning. Instead of losing said depth i see it more as chosing to present it in a diferent manner. In fact you can see that you also have to choose mid battle since many different mechanics use the same gauge sistem so you still have to plan acordingly wich is further explored with the new keyblades. Would it be better to have the old equipment in that regard? Probably, i wont deny it. But its such a minor thing wich is replaced with things that sustityde that need while doing a hood job at that so i cant really mind about it. I still wouldnt probably hurt and i get you, by thats how i see it Something similar happens to the level desing. While kh1 had a great balance of combat and level desing and exploration kh2 decides to further put the focus on the combat having a diferent objetive than its predecesor. This can further be seen not only in how diferent and more simple it is but in how it adapts to combat, spaces are now mpre open perfect for the new gameplay that gives you more mobility and to be able to fight the enemies in this new format. The enemies also make use of this by being in diferent positions (such as in diferent layers or zones such as the pirates world) wich also correlates with the situational command and the various ways it can be activated or used. And aside from that they also serve their pourpose, leaving you through similar areas giving you a sense of advancement and to have reached diferent and iconic places while also giving you a sense of curiosity as to what you will encounter next through the diferent posible paths being blocked at first and feeling it is an actual place in wich you also have to navigate just like kh1, just having a lesser atention to exploration and interaction and more in combat and how the story will progress since the new places feel more conected to the story now so there is a higher incentive to reach them. And i mean yeah, there are a few times in wich i would like to have a further exploration seeing the backround pieces to take advantage of what we see and the new mobility mechanics we have (cavern of rememberance is a good example of what can be done from time to time) so yeah it could be better than what we got, but as i said since what we were given is also very good in its own right just with a diferent focus i cant say it is as big of a flaw as most people claim, even if i agree it could be better. The blame I think resides in those who were critical of the exploration in the first game even if it was the best level design in the series. Tho i also think level design has to merge well with the rest of the gameplay so it can be presented in various ways As for the worlds per se i think it makes sense. The objective is not to find Riku in them but to explore so they can get to other words wich can get those clues about them, about the organization and other misteries while also having time to explore them. In this games its the worlds themselves that open the new gates to new worlds for Sora to explore so it makes sense to really dwell into the story of said worlds and to have the new gate at the end of said story after the world is saved and it gives us a new pathway. This makes us look forward it and wonder in what way or new object will be the catslisis of that same as the pay off of having the worlds being the ones that gives us a door to fight Xemnas. In that sense the objective to explore the worlds is to get if they can find more clues with no clear sense of direction while also facing the various menaces the worlds face. It makes sense that various diferent things will present themselves from time to time, from minor apearances of the org that will forshadow the events to come, minor clues about the characters they are looking for etc... while also having the liberty to really dive into thise worlds and whatever the game will throw at you. This is further seen in the revisit, were not only the conpletition of the world and all the have to present is met (wich is a high pay off if you ask me) but there is a further focus on Sora and the characters thenselves along what they are going through or the ending events. Personally i feel it does a good job presenting and balancing those elements, it really feels like a great adventure, one that knows when to throw various new story pieces while also letting you inmerse in the world and where you are, throwing new things at you constantly while also hooking you, wich can also be seeing in the use of the gameplay wich also includes the defeating of heartless and thus the collecting of hearts. The gang has to face those entities while exploring and having no set path getting involved in said conflicts in a natural way, all to be revealed that it actually helped the organization, its a great story telling that includes the pacing and use of the ganeplay and this is something we see further in the revisits, Sora still has to end the conficts there while also having his own conflict, wich is explored in a natural way in said worlds and giving a great pay off one we can finally reach the end game having a satisfying use of the worlds that connect with the meat of the story. Thats why I think kh2 actually has a great pace, one wich I like. I could probably have explained it better but i guess you can get my drill As for Xaldin, it makes sense, not only gives us a good narrative conected to the org in a Disney world in a natural way but it nakes sense to have his heartless since they want Sora to defeat them and to have his nobody join in order to regain a sit in the organization along the fact that it fits Xaldin's backstory as seen in days while also being implied he does more things than being in that castle. The fight also makes sense, he was antagonizing the characters for a long time to the point of even stealing the rose and kidnapping Belle so the fight comes as natural same way as that for him testing Sora and trying to fight Beast to further try to convert him also makes sense. Same with Xigbar, the organization members do plenty of research missions to be in constant knowlegde of the worlds so it makes sense to find them from time to time, works great as world building and to set up interactions wich will be further explored in the endgame. You get to see X character, get to be intrigued by him to then see him again in order to get more out of it, wich also fits Xigbar's characters becsuse he is always giving further forshadowing of the next games, first giving the sensation that he is a simple grunt that does random things, to then see that there is more of his character that it seems while also making sense as to why he wants to have a low profile while also researching on his own once you know more about him. To me it seems as a great set up for the rol he has. And i completly disagree with Luxord and Demyx, Luxord creates a natural conflict using the elements of the world in order to have Sora defeat more heartless, he even congratulates Sora for that. And Demyx not only does the exploration antics while failing to properly do so due to him not being the most competent but he also wants to check the state of Roxas and get him back as instructed
PART 2 OF 2 All their acts have a reason in the great scheam of things while also showcasing their personalities interactions and paybacks I think the issue of the org apreances of the org in kh3 is how it is executed (to me at least). Some are great per example Luxord being a charismatic antagonist that makes good use of his smarts while also not being too antagonistic since he has his own defined objectives in the world that correlates both with the owrld story and the main story and i love how they use Riku Replica in San Francistokyo. While other are mediocre and others not too great. Per example look at Vanitas, the idea of being the one behind the conflict in other to recover using the negative feelings is a great one (except for the fact that we were spoiled of that in the trailers), but once he appears in the ending, it feels forced, in both the ways he interacts with Sora and how they get him out of there. It feels too expository while also forced and unnatural, something that i feel could be managed diferently. In the end that a member appears in every world makes it so it gets to feel overdone and you know what to expect, and it dosent help that sometimes it dosent really feel natural nor that it takes advantage of what they could do with them and it is worsen by the fact that you could have done more with those characters. You could have used them more as characters (specially knowing about the khux thing) instead of just momentary obstacules that dont really tend to lead to something that sticks, one of my issues with kh3 is how most of the characters are underused as characters knowing they can offer more and seeing they could have used they apearences for that but it just felt forced in general dosent really leave a good taste. It feels both overused and underused at the same time. Kh2 had the set up that we didnt teally know about the org and their members nor when we would know more about them, this allowed them to play with it and have these little interactions that serve as set ups for the future while playing with the mistery, world building and a first character look. Meanwhile in kh3 the oposite happens, we know how and when they will face the org, we know the characters and that there is more to them, but instead of further develop that aspect in an interesting way it tends to do the oposite and just having them there because you want to. They do have solid reasons (as they did in kh2), but it dosent have a good use of said characters in general taking advantage of the reason they are there no the character behind them As for Maleficent, I again get what you are coming from but also disagree. I think i like the use the give her (perhaps she could have had a bit more of a presence in kh3 but thats it), she gets to be a much more complex character than in other apareances in media while also being in character and fitting the story. I like that she is not the main focus (it would be too overdue and i dont think she would fit that rol) while also having her own agency and being wise about knowing what she can or can not do and playing with that infornation in mind in the backround. All of that by having enough impact in the story, not too much and not too along with good interactions with other people in wich we see how they react, what they think, how they feel, how they plan thing and get to conclusions and why. I honestly like it and i think it is a good way to handle it while having her own agency separated from the big fishes while also being relevant. And yeah, she actually has relevance. And i dont talk about minor things such as being one of the reasons of the minor conficts in X worlds (wich includes Pete) but bigger things: she is the responsible of the 1k heartless invasion and we know how it relates to the story and how it lets further plot points develop and she also helped the crew showing that she still rivals them but has her own personality and agency and how she decides to move towards it in a fitting way even if that includes to alling that moment with them while staying in character. And lets not forget not just recoded but also khux and how she was the one to activate the last step and how she knowing about those elements is part of her goal and could be used in the next arc To me Atlantica is a guilty pleasure, i enjoy the minigames and the sillynes that comes from it. And the good thing is that it is completly optional. It feels like a divergent that you can do when you feel like, like a vacation from the main game. I think I actually like the minigames, they add variaty, the game throws constantly new things to you and they are short so even if they arent the greatest things they dont oversatate their wellcome. But i get they are not for everyone As for the Disney usage I again both disagree and think it is actually one of the strenghts of the series. It gets to be its own thing while also being built in the Disney elements that its is composed of, it would be easy to just use Disney as marketing stand point or rely mostly in the original Disney elements, but kh builds its own things through that. And it actually develops things, Tron is a key plot point that directly correlates with the lore and story and being one of the Disney characters that connects the most with SDG. Pooh also connects fairy well with Sora touching themes such as remembering, the elements of frienship and how what matters it to be connected along as the impact Sora left. In Beast castle we see tge shenanigans Xaldin does with not only correlates with the main story but also gives a good use of it in Beast's character and how everything connects to him. In Mulan we see Riku wich takes use of the fact that Sora dosent know what happens to him or if it is even him while also having him act like him giving clues and helping the Disney characters, wich also correlates that same as Mulan Riku also acts as someone who he is not trying to hide his identity in order to be able to help the people he cares about and do the right thing and also having the fact that Sora already knows the summons from kh1. In Hercules have the whole Hercules thing about his exhaustion, depresion and the shrenght of heart wich we see more developed (and of wich we would see again in kh3, just more rushed) along the other characters. In Pirates it is shown that Sora and Jack are similar along with being part of tge plans of the org, if they turn the habitants of port royal into heartless then they will be able to gain more hearts and they use good use of the elements of the world in order to do so and even have Jack want to have the keyblade. In Aladin we see the theme of redemption through Iago eyes in a developed way as well as what someone actually has to do to be forgiven and have a friendship same as having Sora show stress about his loved ones and being conforted by Aladin. I Halloween we see them interacting further with Santa Claus having therefore a bigger rol even to the point of having Sora look and react strongly to it, get hopew to find his friends and even touch themes such as having s being feel empty trying to gather objects with sentiment value in order to be whole (wich correlates with the org) as well as that wgat matters is not the present but the semtiment seeing Sora himself and Kairi in Jack and Lilly (therefore it touches more things than the film). And finally in Simba we see him face not only Scar but his "ghost" as well, wich gives him a even further and more comolex struggle literally facing his fears as well as the dificulties he faces in his first days as king while also correlating to Sora story, both with the akuna mattata philosophy that if you think about it it applies well to Sora since as explained he also has a neverending struggle to face from wich the key is having a strong heart. The rest of the Disney characters are also given more focus being Mickey the biggest example of that along a bigger use of characters such as Minney, Merlin, Chip and Dale etc.... along with furter and better interactions among SDG and the disney characters in various worlds For the plot development my problem with kh3 is the execution per se. I wont go into detail since it would take me a whole lot and my coment is already too long but generally speaking there lots of threaths in kh3 that arent developed that well compared with other titles. Most of these plot lines are solved too quickly oŕ dont get to develop the elements it needs to. Yea ee have scenes every time we finish a world, but the way it is included feels ackward and shallow breaking inmersion and pace and not really giving us much of a development. The beggining is also more solid at the time of telling a premise that will have its bearings in the future and kh2 is about the trip and the mistery, to travel and see what they find next and see how they end up in the right course while not only everything ends up getting wrapped up but you get to feel you lived an adventure in wich you could be inmersed in, by both getting inmersed in the Disney worlds and also trying to connect to the main threath. In kh2 things are developed more tighly with better pace leaving the story be able to fully develop while in 3 everything feels over the place feeling directionless and ackward without having things properly developed and without much room to breath. Scenes feel too long for what they really share same with choreography. I know i didnt explain it that well but i dont want to be here too long I think I like the finisher in order to defear a boss, it feels that you defeat it by dealing a powerfull blow and there are so many ways of doing so that it can hardly make you lose while also having the boss be staggered during the combo Kairi can hold the keyblade because she was actually the first of the 3 to develop that ability in bbs after touching Aqua's by accident
PART 3 OF 3 As for Riku returning to normal he had Ansem's body because he unleashed his darkness, meanwhile the machine he was using was interacting with the hearts of Kingdom Hearts to revert it causing it to overload in a light flash. Knowing what hearts and light are capeable of i think it makes sense to say that Riku now shows his true self after being afected by that light specially if we also consider the intention of the machine. As for your alternative, I think it would have felt ao easy. Riku knew he would probably be like that forever so having simple interactions with Sora wouldnt be that easily the key. The reason why Sora's speach in kh1 worked was because it showed the strenght of heart he gained while here Riku is also using his own strenght of heart in certain way. I feel like it would be hard to connect the 2 I get your point about that reaction command. if anything i would say that it changes too quick so you can actually notice it and it being in slow motion may also help. But i get your point Do you know where i can check that every member was going to have an alternate outfit? Its the first time i hear it I dont really get the jelousy part, that conversation with Sora and Riku is the only time in wich i recall it being brought in the series
The best way to start off this topic is to inform the audience on how many game companies were purposely making arbitrary side quests, hidden items, and hard bosses to sell guidebooks. Many of KH2 flaws can be boiled down to "The game didn't tell you unless you bought the official guide".
I actually agree with you on this. But id summarise my opinion with the following sentence. KH 1 is better as an RPG then KH2 whilst KH2 is better as an Action game with Light RPG Elements They're both great games they just have different merits and styles (but then again my favourite genre is immersive sims
I agree with most of what you’ve said, with exception of magic, the KH2 magic system encourages using all your spells, since you only need 1 mp for cure. The KH1 system discouraged it by making every spell you cast a cure you could have used, so magic exists for cure, aero, tinker bell, and gimmick fights that force you to use spells.
KH 2 is the game that i fell in love with Axel, roxas, sora and goofy (fk donald) i spent my entire childhood hating Disney until King Mickey unlocked the chains on my heart. I cried when goofy managed to get bonked.. i let out war cries as we battled the waves of enemies in the valley below hollow bastion.. i spent hours retrying the fight with sephiroth.. unlocking valor, wisdom, and master forms is epic.. and.. well im done, even if this game is technically trash.. i loved it enough to get the "nobody symbol" tattooed on my chest..
First of all I am happy with the points you brought up, a game that focuses all its efforts into one aspect of itself at the detriment of everything else cannot be classed as a perfect game. I'd rather a game that does everything decently than a game that forces me to dredge through crap looking for the good stuff. That said, when you said the drive forms don't tell you how to level up, they do, you just have to highlight the XP option and read the flavor text. Very obtuse, so its no wonder you missed it, but its there.
I'm not sure what your goal is in the first 2 minutes you contradict yourself multiple times saying you're not going to judge the game by today's standards but then you're going to say when people talk about kh2 they're really talking about kh2fm what are you implying that it matters if kh2fm is the one that's liked only because it wasn't released people make the same argument with kh3 and the DLC of remind the game was good even before Final Mix I just don't understand how you can say you're going to judge by modern standards but then say the modern standards of liking kh2fm aren't valid?
You missed the point. Today standards refers to what current gen games can offer: size of playable maps, use of full instrumental soundtrack, graphics, direct patching via online updates... He is saying that people should not use KH2FM as substitute for Vanilla KH2, specially in the context on how it's brought at day one release of other titles of the series, just because is the version currently available, based on being an expansion that took 2 years to release after the original, and another 7 to get overseas. Summary: KH2 should not be criticized by today's standards in gaming, but also (e.g.) there is no one in the world that waited 16 years for a complex post game because KH2 did not have that, at least to the average player, for many, many years.
@enriquea4160 there is no point to be made when you contradict yourself when you make one statement and then another statement that contradicts it it doesn't matter what point you're trying to make. You're basically saying that just because he's trying to make a point the contradictions he's making with himself are valid and that's not true
I literally completed kh2 yesterday and throughout the entire game I was like “roxas will come back I just know it, I know it! The game is slowly building up to em I know it!!!” Then in the endgame he just kinda runs up on me in middle of the street. Thought that was the funniest shit in the game for me
I havent watched the whole video yet, but when you talk about leveling drive forms you point out googling but I recall they tell you that the leveling requirements are in the status/i fo menu of the pause/character screen. I know this was alsways a feature because I did it as a kid when I wanted to get it done on my ps2 pre-fm. I dont know if they tell you directly as its been a looong time but I do know its there and I had found it fairly fast as a kid just by wondering how much i had left to grind to the next level and lo and behold each form has a section and even told you more than youd expect about each form including stats.
52:32 Demyx first encounter had read a letter during Olympus. "If subject fails to respond use aggression". Their ultimate goal was still Roxas... They wanted to see if they successfully created a Heart that was distinct from it's Original. When you fail Demyx's minigame Sora just stands there and pouts. Almost as if the character themselves is disappointed in the player as he didn't even expect to die. That's why when we visit the Graveyard with all the Organization Members Emblems we still see Roxas lit up. Meaning they successfully made a Nobody into a "Real Boy". The story telling has to be subtle because it's straight up Atheist Nihilism vs Christianity/Catholicism. So much of Final Fantasy is pro-relgion and this gets very poorly misunderstood. In the original FF7 the visuals was very clear "The Hand of God" saved Cloud. There's many times the "False Religion" is defeated by "The True Religion" within these stories. Roxas was able to exist because "Sora accepted him into his Heart".
Hey, uhm, not for nothing, but the menu tells you how to level up each form, and even summons. In the stats menu, select the form you want, then go to Experience, and it'll spell it out right there.
Even younger me found vanilla KH2 to be piss easy. Even on Proud mode as my first playthrough. I literally button mashed X and Triangle my way through the whole game, occasionally using the odd limit or two. Heck I used auto limit to use them in general.
I played through the entirety of vanilla kh2 as a kid without equipping abilities (I didn’t know how to do it back then) and still was able to breeze through it. It wasn’t until KH2FM came out and they rebalanced the game with critical mode that the combat actually became well designed and rewarding.
Oh so you just mashed x against the hades escape portion and demyx and xaldin and xigbar and sephiroth the hades paradox cups, lmao yeah okay you definitely did not fool😂
@ You missed the part where I mashed triangle too. And really the Hades escape was kinda obvious. I’m exaggerating slightly true, but the bulk of the game can be brute forced through on Proud mode, and that’s a fact. 13 year old me did not have too much trouble with the game on Proud. Sephiroth is easier in KH2 than he is in KH1. I know because it took me a decade to beat him in KH1, but in KH2 when I got there I had learned that Trinity limit could be spammed on him. Yeah vanilla KH2 is piss easy.
It isn't as good as people make it out to be, especially as most put it above the superior first game. It is still a really good game, but one that is held back by regression in exploration and RPG mechanics on the gameplay side, and the start of convoluted+badly paced story. I like KH2, but it also was the beginning of the end for my enjoyment of the series, and I find that I'm a KH1 fan not a KH fan. What people don't often know is that KH1 was created by a sort of dream team, that included the likes of Keiko Nobumoto who wrote the script for Cowboy Bebop+created Wolf's Rain, and Jun Akiyama who has done scenario writing+event planning for games like Vagrant Story & Final Fantasy XII. Cutscene direction continually got worse as the series went on, with much worse pacing and dialogue, and the loss of Nobumoto+Akiyama after KH1 is easy to point to as a major reason why. I would also say that with other big names leaving after the first game, and the financial success of KH1, that Nomura likely got too much creative control with later games which is why they jump the shark. Kingdom Hearts 1 was an Action-Adventure RPG, whilst KH2 is an Action game. If you're just in it for the raw moment to moment combat it's the best in the series (despite some shortcomings compared to KH1), but everything else is just worse than the first game. The regression reminds me of Mass Effect 2, which also removed many exploration and RPG mechanics compared to the first game, yet like KH2 it's propped up as the best in the series. The general gaming audience doesn't seem to give a damn about level design or actual RPG mechanics.
I feel like the Drive Forms for Organization members was scrapped once they decided on what the origins of the Black Coat came from. That way it makes it so it was purely the Fairies and Yen Sid Magic Clothes that gave access to Drives and not worry about any moments like "Why didn't they do that sooner?". Also power scaling wise it would be weird to fight a powered up version of a member before understanding how strong they are in their base form. Plus Chain of Memories would've have had to introduce this idea before Drives were even a thing.
My Suggestion is you ready Nomura Interviews and watch the violent howlers Analysis Videos. Nomura statet since atleast 2003 to have the final Scene written and recentky revealed kh 4 is the Game that heads towards the conclusion of the series. Kh is doing the heroins Journey trope. It Starts with the Heros Journey but continues from ther. I also understand Frustration with Kairis character but based with the fact that initily kh 1 was suposed to end with quadratums apearance and Kairis Connection to IT Nomura build her Arc of accepting Change and showing her strength around that a Bit and moving quadratum to much later meant He Had to ajust her Arc wich i think Overall helped her as now she aculy has to train. Like she Had to fail in kh 3 . And If you noticed she only failed when Sora was Ther sort of Like she unconciously falls Back onto the fact that Sora is Ther. But in MoM WE already saw a Change. She got saved by him but she sayed thank you.that i think suggest she nolonger Sees Sora saving her as normel but as Something she should be gratefull for.
I will say only this. I only played and beat og kh2. I have 2fm on the epic games launcher but it runs like trash and crashes so u never got super far. But base 2 is a great game. Fm is better objectively but base 2 still had leagues more content and stuff fun end game content than base 3 did especially considering that 3 came out in 2019… 2 had sephiroth and the colosseum and 3 had that extremely generic heartless fight and the flan things. It was horrible
3 has Yozora and the data organization xiii. Which are much better than the data org from 2. Why are you only talking about the vanilla games? Both 2 and 3 did not have great post games in their vanilla release, not just 3.
I accidently played kh2 first, I somehow overlooked the 2 in the title and did not even knew there was already a second game. Playing through the beginning just made me dislike Roxas to this day. XD The whole time I was like "wait, was the adventure with disney stuff only in the first game? And now we are stuck with that confused blond kid for this game?" XD
I enjoyed KH2 and it's one of my favorite games in the KH series but in my opinion, Hot Take Kingdom Hearts 2 is overrated, KH2 only became good when final mix became a thing, KH2 has plenty of problems like the trash world design which KH3 obviously did better and I think keyblades were handled better in KH3 including how they handled rage form compared to the annoying antiform Personally in my opinion I prefer KH3 in many ways since despite it's faults I think KH3 is overhated and Im not a fan of how many people put down KH3 just to prop up KH2, despite KH3's faults it did do some good in my opinion, im totally ok saying this because I feel better having my own opinion and going against the majority of opinions that praise KH2 and consider it a masterpiece because instead of just being like everyone else im ok with just being different and staying in the realm of unpopular opinions and I appreciate seeing some people actually criticizing KH2 because KH3 gets constantly hated on to death and I feel like I hardly ever see people actually criticize KH2 and pretty much only praise it
Couldn't agree more, I love KH2, it's nowhere near the worst in the series but I'd be lying if I said it even made my top 3 games. The standalone stories of KH1, Birth By Sleep and KH3 ALL beat out KH2 by miles. KH3 has the same great combat without all the issues everywhere else, KH1 beats it on world design, villains and character development. I just wish people would stop acting like it's an unbeatable masterpiece with nothing to criticize about it.
@@mimicsforge definitely bro, now that I think about it I think form changes are better than drive forms because form changes have their own shot locks, the form changes are actually tied to Sora's power and you can use them whenever you want without them being tied to your party members like drive forms were in KH2 where there were multiple times in KH2 where they would take your party members away from you which would make you unable to use your drive forms except for limit form which I always found super annoying Plus some form changes have an extra transform like oathkeeper and shooting star which in my opinion is a better wisdom form in many ways while ultimate form sounds cooler than final form and gameplay wise was more fun and op especially when it's shotlock is just Sora saying f*ck it and just nuking the entire area lol, So when it comes to forms, I think KH2 had better looking forms design wise but gameplay wise I think KH3 has better forms Gameplay wise I think Sora was more fun in KH3 because he had more in his arsenal than he did in KH2 with shotlocks from birth by sleep, flowmotion from Dream Drop Distance and also he can even block in the air which he couldn't do in KH1 and KH2, Plus magic in KH3 is OP and really fun in my opinion and he can still dual wield Roxas style, Sora can even slam the ground while he's falling
FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT 😭 😭 😭 I LOVE KH2 BUT ITS NOT THE #1 BEST GAME!! But also imo i like kh3 outfit better or kh1. I seen kh2 outfit many times that im kinda tired of seeing it. Sorry. But i feel like kh3 did a better job at world expanding and sora becoming more mature. But also, he cried when seeing riku again and his hug to kairi was so awkward sorry 😅. It makes it more gay (i don't judge cus im one of the gays). Cus the Japanese version makes it more gay while eng is more erasing the Dialogue that shows a more of a friend relationship between sora and riku. Example: kh com selphe said "special person" in Japanese meaning about riku. Because the way they say it means more of a male special person. And the memory of sora being scared of the meteor shower and riku say he will protect him and hes the one who gave him the crown necklace. The kh3 Dialogue jp ver mickey says riku finds the strength to protect someone. Eng he says find the strength to protect what matters. Erasing the relationship between sora and riku. Even if its just about best friends. Its werid 😅 they are afraid to have a good relationship wording but instead they make it more straight and bland. Thats why i like Japans relationships. Because they are not afraid to say love you to their best friend and just be best friends. Also about maleficent, watch khux scenes. VERY IMPORTANT ❤.
@rosies69 In defense of my opinion, I really wanted to Beat up Elsa in KH3 and they just took that from me, and instead forced me to Listen to "Let it go" AND "do you want to build a snowman". That's my mildest most Personal letdown of that game. There is more, but this one is the least relevant I am mad about.
As opposed to having to listen to the entirety of the little mermaid soundtrack (you have to play the songs, you can’t just skip it like the let it go scene in kh3) to unlock all the keyblades, ultima weapon, and the secret bosses in kh2?
I mean I don't think anyone would disagree that KH2's story is pretty...bland? Lacking? As a militant KH1&2 defender as well as a hater of combat and kinda story after that I can't ignore two's flaws. It has a lot of exceptionally standout moments however with the explosion in quality there is a massive dip too that KH1 I honestly feel doesn't struggle from. This I think is actually due to the lack of a enduring narrative and a focus to tell a comprehensive and character driven story that coulda easily ended with just enough room to move forward. One of the things I think KH2 did better than any game today though is expanding on character interactions and their dynamics. Nothing will beat Sora's return to all these worlds, my favourite personally is him and Beast. Also no even KH2 fans aren't "okay" with Riku's explosion incident and Nomura's handwaving. Something I noticed is a lack of maybe...mutual communication about mechanics and the shifting of spells or development of the RC system. It can "suck" that we lost basic projectile fire but we were given honestly a solid AoE spell until you either level up into explosion or thunder. The combat team were very focused on the utility of abilities so not many share one unless it puts a spin on the use of it. I honestly feel like this is suppose to be a continuation of KH3 (no shit) and is trying to validate it by deconstructing KH2. All it does for me personally though is highlight the impending signs of Nomura if I could be candid, stretching the overall gameplay too thin in certain areas and getting way too lost in expanding the overall world without finishing the primary story we are focused on. I do think KH3 is bad and a noticeable decrease in gameplay and story BUT I am not going to make it anyone's problem. I do hope we eventually leave Sora sooner than later because his story IS over, Sora did everything he set out to do and hasn't been interesting to me post KH2.
Thank you so much for checking out my video.
CORRECTION:
- Some of you have pointed out to me that hidden in the menu's you actually can find the info on how to level drives. Can't believe I never knew this, but you still shouldn't have to go digging to find that important info which should be explained when we obtain the forms.
This video was a big undertaking for me, and took WAY longer to make than I had intended. But I did have a ton of fun revisiting this game from an analytical angle.
Also, I did refer to the "opening new routes" sequences as "sealing the keyholes" in this game. Which is simply an oversight on my part, so my bad! Although I'm pretty sure this concept is only mentioned like once by YenSid. Still, it serves the same function as keyholes as a way to cap off the end of each world, and yet Sora still randomly stumbles into them with zero effort. This also means that this game REALLY de-emphasized the keyhole concept because they're not relevant at all here.
@@Jheff99 ReCoded in general has great gameplay, it’s just swept under the rug due to the story.
@@Jheff99Sora mentions it multiple times almost every time he unlocks a new route. The Disney party member would exclaim "What was that?" which Sora replied "A new path has opened". Which was a very poor way to progress the story because it's just arbitrary McGuffins until the plot says we can progress. Like Sun Tzus sword was somehow the thing we needed? How does that make any sense? I prefer KH3's way of doing it which is just Sora tapping into his ability to feel and sense Hearts. So he literally just follows his Heart which works much better thematically and narratively.
They abandoned the Keyhole idea once they realized it makes Worlds less relevant. Instead focus on the immediate threat of getting your Heart Stolen rather than the World being Destroyed. Which then allows them to revisit older worlds if need be. If we stuck to the Keyhole concept all the way for each game we'd quickly run out of Disney films that are appropriate to the videogame. Once Sora finds out Organization 13 was behind the entire thing they revisit the Worlds purely on the assumption they're under attack again. Which doesn't make sense because in the first visits they're trying to unlock pathways to find the Organization. So how does killing Heartless reveal more worlds? The "Unlocking Pathways" narrative is introduced and quickly dropped after the halfway point and it actually makes the reasoning for Sora finding the Organization World a bit messy. The majority of Sora's world visits are just Sora waiting to get permission to go back to Worlds where the plot is actually happening. If he could go back to Twilight Town immediately that would have made the story significantly shorter. I think the idea is okay but narratively it comes across as just bloat to find pathways AND revisit them.
I've had this weird belief that some people actively replaced their memories of Vanilla KH2 with 2FM, partially cuz they don't really make the distinction. And in a couple times where I brought up how we shouldn't ignore Vanilla 2 in the discussion, people legit told me that Vanilla 2 was straight up irrelevant since 2FM existed.
I honestly used not not like KH2, there was a solid 5 year chunk where I thought it was pretty good but really lacking (basically flawed in every way this video describes), but I went back and played 2FM and it became one of my favourite games ever, easily my personal fav in the series.
I think it really is that important of a duality, the difference in quality between Vanilla and FM is staggering, but fortunately most players today are only gonna be playing FM and getting that experience. I definitely think vanilla deserves a place in the conversation, but I also think it's only normal for the baseline of the conversation to be these games at their best (i.e. KH3 with updates and DLC)
We should, because 2fm is the easiee version to get your handa on now.
Those same people are the ones that rather critique Kh3 as it was released instead of the patched version after remind
@Shadessmh It's easier to obtain yes, but that doesn't mean we should just act like the Vanilla version is totally irrelevant
@@phonesjuda7318If ReMind was a free Update then maybe it would make up for the Release Version. But unfortunately it's not.
Finally, a good and practically unbiased review of KH2. I love the game, but a lot of people act like it's the best thing ever created and no KH game will ever come close, it's so annoying. KH3 (with ReMind) is easily just as good as KH2FM.
34:39 The info is actually in game, if you click the form and put the cursor in the "experience" box. But I get it, 10 year old me never knew that.
I actually accidentally bumbled into it when I was 12 but yeah having no DIRECT explanation was horrendous.
Strongly agree as a challenge runner.
Kh3 + remind and patches is easily as good as kh2fm for me, combat-wise and regarding bosses.
And yes, kh2fm has (a lot of) flaws as well but the community often ignore them because of pure favoritism and un-equal criticism
Yeah, it's either that or they HEAVILY overcompensate with their KH2 criticisms and treat it like it's a bad game. KH2 is my least favorite out of the Numbered titles, but it's still a 9/10 at least! I don't get why we can't just agree that the 3 games are all good?
Kh2FM and Kh3(ReMind) are the S-tier standards of kingdom hearts games. I would put Kh2FM slightly above Kh3 just because I feel that the weight of combat is slightly better by not having 'too' much mobility. This becomes more apparent when you are playing the games on the extremes of it's difficulty like lv1 runs, where the movement abilities in kh2 feels like much more of a strategic tactic as much as drive forms themselves are. But that's only a slight advantage, and is really only apparent for those extreme players.
Surprisingly, I think people also in their love for KH2 underrate other games combat systems that are totally amazing in their own right. For instance, KH Re:coded's combat system is undoubtedly the best out of all the handheld games, however is entirely held back by the movement controls of the console with it using a d-pad instead of a joystick, and the janky AI of enemies due to the hardware limitations. It's got a good enough combat/leveling/ability system that I personally feel that if was on a better system it would make top 3 for the series on the combat side of things.
@@t_g_gamerftw5075 Agreed. Re:Coded has really good things, but I really can't with the controls, a remaster for the 2.5 would have been amazing.
1:20:43 It's kind of crazy how the community claims Birth by Sleep Keyblade ceremony was a huge retcon when KH2 has Riku casually handing Kairi a Keyblade with no explanation. Which has so many implications that we basically have to just assume we know literally nothing about the Keyblade up until BBS which does explain Keyblades a lot better. It's weird Sora was highlighted by the story to have Two Keyblades but then this plot point is literally never brought up again. Where did Sora get Star Seeker?
In KH2, the objects where sora does his "swooshy keybalde" animation wasn't necessarily him re-sealing the worlds. Its him opening up new paths to other worlds since everything was separated at the end of KH1 when we defeated ansem. So the 1st trip to every disney world still makes sense in terms of them looking for Riku and Mickey.
I think Yen Sid confirms this fact before getting leaving his Tower after Sora's wake.
That is true, but at the same time the "going entire worlds without mentioning Riku" thing still stands. And it's not that far off to see how someone could actually forget the Unlocking Gates part and default to sealing keyholes. Hell I once saw a stream where someone straight up had an entirely different interpretation of the Gate Unlock animation that wasn't either of those.
I've been saying all along Kingdom Hearts 2 is a great game, definitely one of if not *THE* best in terms of gameplay. But it's not the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ like everyone thinks. It has it's flaws and it's imperfections just like every other game out there. Other games improve in areas where this game lacks, just like this game improved from Kingdom Hearts 1, and a major thought i see of why Kingdom Hearts 3 is hated, is because it's not a clone of Kingdom Hearts 2. Honestly don't get me wrong, I love Kingdom Hearts 2, but I don't want Kingdom Hearts 2 to be the template standard for Kingdom Hearts games going forward. Where the future games try to clone Kingdom Hearts 2 in every regard. The game has flaws and I appreciate u bringing the strengths and the weaknesses of this game to the front.
Complaining about having to Google how to level up drive forms, but liking the personality quiz that determines level ups it’s kind of wack. There’s no way you would know that personality quiz does anything without googling or what each choices does.
I'm not sure if they're quite comparable. The personality quiz is a single decision early on that generally doesn't your lock you out of other options in the game, but still allows some customization across playthroughs. Drive forms lock notable movement tools that the game losses quite a bit of it's complexity without, and don't really have an alterative outside of not using it. I think I'd agree that these both should be more intuitive, but the compliment to the quiz was more towards it's customization, and not it's obtuseness.
Even then, it's not that unreasonable to figure out "your quest begins at dawn/midday/midnight" relates to exp across multiple playthroughs, especially if you can actually feel the difference between the levels. Granted I think he similar exaggerated the obtuseness of the drive leveling, because for the most part it's not that hard to brute force them just by using them a lot, and by checking how much it takes to level them you'll probably also learn how to level them anyways.
Fr its like a 15 yo game
That's literally the point of the game, nowadays you can literally do whatever, but KH allows a RPG aspect that can be talked to you're play style
Every initial choice can lead to sora doing massive damage, so it's really up to you
It tells you how to lvl up drive forms In game
@@jasonnapier4171I KNOW RIGHT? And the instruction booklet
Kingdom Hearts is my favorite series of fiction of all time, and KH2 is my favorite game. I was actually one of the weird ones that experienced KH2 first, before knowing about 1 or CoM, as I was watching a friend play it for their first time. I didn't know who Sora or Namine was at all, but my friend and I were a mess of tears at Roxas's "looks like my summer vacation is over." I don't have contact with that friend anymore, but that memory will always be near and dear to me.
What I want to say is, thank you for sharing your first memory of the game. It was beautiful to hear.
KHS2 Final Mix is literally the Goat of Action JRPGs.
KH2 Vanilla was certainly far from perfect
KH2FM isn’t perfect either
@@JPer811 Agreed
But KH2 Vanilla is better than 1 and 3 Vanilla
I’m the only person who doesn’t hate Atlantica in this game also I do love the pridelands but even on beginner the bosses can be weirdly difficult
Thank you for bringing up how they dropped a lot of the RPG mechanics in a game that's supposed to be an action RPG! Like why? Was it a complaint of the first game? Or were they just excited about showing off their new combat system at the detriment of everything else kh 1 did well. But I don't really hear a lot of people bring that up in reviews. Although I have to push back on the relevance of the Disney worlds, while they might not be explicitly relevant to the main plot, they are important in more subtle, thematic ways. Like how Beast is used as a parallel to Riku and how Mulan is about accepting different aspects of yourself instead of trying to be someone you're not to please others. There is foreshadowing there for Riku's journey of self acceptance and I think the worlds prime Sora to see Riku for who he is inside even if he doesn't look like himself on the outside. But I guess if you're only looking at surface level plot relevance you probably would miss the deeper symbolism. I know I did for a long time.
I swear to god, it feels as if any KH2 fanboy actually hasn't played the game in ages, and just likes spitting the same arguments prasing a game which isn't by any means perfect. YET, despite its flaws, KH2 is and always will be one of the most influential and beautiful games ever.
It's just great to not be blinded by nostalgia, it makes you appreciate not only the actual strengths of the game, but also how far the series has come.
KH3 has improved on almost all KH2's flaws, despite it too being far from perfect, and that's also thanks to years of Osaka team experimenting with new mechanics and gameplay ideas with the non-numbered titles.
Of course there are things that KH2 does better than KH3, but there are also things that KH1 does better than both KH2 and KH3. Each of them has its strengths and weaknesses, and it's annoying to see some people just prasing KH2 as if it's a flawless videogame.
I'm glad someone acknowledges how awful the pacing and Disney usage is in kh2. People say kh3 sucks here but like kh2 does not even try to be thematically relevant to the organization member. Larxene is a diva so it makes sense she would be in Frozen, Marluxia is obsessed with flowers and beauty so tangled makes sense and Luxord is a gambler so Pirates and looking for the Box makes sense too and these are just the worlds that follow the movie not even the ones that have unique Disney stories. People who criticize kh3 in this area are delusional and I don't say that lightly.
Regardless I love videos willing to critique the flaws of kh2 because they actively are worse than the first game.
i love kh2. but the disney worlds are so boring imo. the only places i like visitng are olympus coliseum and lion king worlds. kh3 rly made pretty much every world so much more intereting to explore while adding minigames to come back to those worlds. I do wish they weaved in more non-disney story plots in between thr fisney worlds, or made them feel all connected like they did in KH1 (best story utilization of disney worlds in all KH), but they’re still fun
First off this whole thing of "its great but far from perfect" can obviously be applied to literally ANY video game. Yes there's KH2 glazers out there but not everyone is saying its the perfect video game like that
You’d be surprised, especially if you’ve been on the internet long enough and noticed the amount of glazing KH2 gets.
They definitely exist, I've seen more than one video calling KH2's ending "the greatest in gaming", which is frankly absurd.
34:18 it's not unexplained. if you clicked onto the forms and navigated to the XP part of each form, it's obscure but not unexplained
True, but it is a knock against the game to not tell you from the jump. Shouldn't it tell you how the Form XP gain works when you first get the form?
@cillbipher2613 thats why I said it's obscure, it's been awhile but I think the tutorial splash screen information when you first enter the drives menu tells you how to check
I'm the one guy that enjoyed kh 2 Atlantic 😅
I HATE the Crimson Jazz, with a burning passion. On the harder difficulties them and the Dancer Nobodies are a nightmare!
To be fair, the sealing keyholes thing being an afterthought is more because you're actually unlocking the "special Gates" between worlds that Yen Sid mentioned right before you leave the Mysterious Tower. But at the same time he doesn't exactly elaborate on how this whole thing works outside of "when a beam of light radiates from the Keyblade return to the Gummi Ship", and for a couple worlds, namely Atlantica and Pride Lands, the Gate Unlock animation is pretty pointless outside of signaling that you finished the world. And I wouldn't blame ya for forgetting about that and defaulting to "sealing keyholes", as the Gate fact isn't brought up often.
It's funny to learn that people call KH2FM a near-perfect game while dismissing KH2 vanilla. When vanilla came out, everybody raved about how it was, in fact, a near-perfect game that improved upon all of the first game's supposed flaws.
I'm one of the old school KH fanboys that only played the first three releases in the series (KH1 vanilla, CoM GBA, and KH2 vanilla) and, while playing through KH2 for the first time on its weekend of release was like a religious experience for me, I do, in retrospect, have two major complaints on it:
1 - The world maps were way too linear and lacked platforming. It didn't encourage the exploration that was so prevalent and, for me, enjoyable in the first game.
2 - In addition to simplifying the world maps, KH2 introduced the objective header, making an already easier story progression even easier than it really needed to be. KH1 allowed you to infer what needed to be done through its cutscenes, but KH2 really took hand-holding to new levels, which retrospectively led me to appreciate the first game much more than its successors.
OH Kingdom hearts 2 has flaws, for certain. But it's heaps better than 3. It accomplished what it should have - both in story and gameplay.
KH3 on the other hand, had the job of closing out the saga, and tying together threads from 4 or 5 other games. And although the gameplay and graphics were great, KH3 failed at some more critical junctures. Re-mind solved some of that, but I didn't play KH3 to get a set-up for something in the future. I played it to get a conclusion, with a possible teaser at the end,
KH1 did this the best, but even KH2 was better at wrapping up things in a satisfying way, while still hyping the next installment. KH3 was just...underwhelming.
They never said KH3 would wrap up the entire series. Only that it would wrap up the storyline up to that point, which it did, pretty conclusively. Whether you *liked* how it wrapped it up is entirely subjective. Every single game, including KH1, teases the next installment. Why is this something you only hold against KH3?
Eh. I'm pretty indifferent to the mini games. Don't hate them or love them. They're just kinda there.
I actually enjoy playing as Lion Sora. I wish it was a drive form outside of Pride Lands.
Its a great game but not perfect, but the people that ignore its flaws and only focus on the positive while ignoring kh3 positives and only focusing on the negatives and treating it like the worst game in the series are the worse type of people.
P.S Don't be that person
Kh3 is the worst but it most certainly has an absolutely huge list of positives, I think people just get too attached to the story
@@gabrieldevoogel6225the story isn't bad?
@@rosies69 no it’s not, but they look at a select few negatives and then use that as an excuse to meatride old games instead of actually Caring about in game content
So glad someone finally made this video! mfs always be glazing the hell out of kh2
Amazing video. It definitely was informative and addressed the flaws of KH2. while also addressing the things it did well. Because despite what it's stans say...those of us who criticize the game don't hate it. I especially don't. I literally get so hyped when I boot it up. I just wish people would stop acting as if the flaws KH3 had weren't present in KH2 in some cases.
Vanilla kh2 still has a the snappy combos and strong foundations for its combat systems despite its poor balancing on proud.
I’d argue that Roxas and sora’s base combo abilities in kh2 are actually pretty slow and floaty and don’t start to feel fluid until halfway through the game. KH2 devs understood this, which is why they rebalanced the abilities and gave us better ones like flash step, etc.
What is this poor balancing on Proud that you speak of
@ Vanilla proud was incredibly easy, and lacked a damage multiplier that beginner and critical provide. Also vanilla knock smash and whirli goof were incredibly powerful
Seeing videos like this is really vindicating. Although KH2 and KH2FM have played a huge role in my life growing up, I've grown to appreciate all KH games as new entries have been added to the series. So it's really saddening how aggressive and toxic how the fandom has grown towards games after KH2FM. People are welcome to have their opinions, but I've noticed a huge spike of people claiming KH3 and other Osaka made KH games to be inherently bad and point out every flaw as facts. Meanwhile the same people would praise KH2 + KH2FM despite there being flaws as in there well. Not to mention the constant complaints of wanting KH4 news to come out simply because KH3 was awful and didn't match up to KH2FM. It's partly why I strayed away from the vocal KH online community in recent years since it no longer feels like the community as a whole appreciates what every game has to offer. So it's really refreshing seeing more unbiased and non toxic opinions in the comments sections.
I've personally seen more KH4 pointing towards the opposite side of the spectrum. Of not wanting anything to do with the series after KH3. (Which is fine for the record) But yeah. Everything else I do agree with. Like you said, everyone can have their opinions and there's nothing wrong with that, but to be honest, I've always found it ridiculous that some people claim that Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 are literally the only Kingdom Hearts games worth playing. More power to them if they feel that way, but pushing that notion onto others and expecting them to agree due to their sheer distaste for most of the series is just absurd.
@@DADA-yt1pt Fair point about your perspective with the fandom and KH4. And I totally agree that pushing on the notion that KH1 and KH2 are the only good KH games onto others is absurd. It's nice running into conversations like this since it feels pretty unbiased and fair!
It's funny how KH2 is seen as the best in the series nowadays. I remember back in 2006, it was criticized as not as good as the first game for all the reasons you brought up. It was a huge departure from KH1, and that was seen as a bad thing.
It think that it's equally funny that we're in a similar position with KH3 in this generation. Not taking any jabs at 3. I love it despite it's imperfections, but it's interesting to see discussion about older games changing just like that. Like Sonic 06 suddenly being looked backed upon lot more positively (Which honestly, isn't a bad thing. People can like what they like as long as it isn't hurting anyone) compared to back when it pretty much was THE game to hate.
@@DADA-yt1pt it's simple, the kids who grew up playing the game game are older now and talking about it online.
To this day, i know all the lines in the scene before the dark riku fight by heart.
I always wonder, why doesn't Goofy hold the switch instead of Cogsworth?
That is.. An incredibly good point, wow.
Hi I'm one of the lunatics who played KH2 first due to not knowing how roman numerals worked. I spent the whole game feeling a massive want for Roxas back in vanilla and I ALMOST got it with the fight cutscene but it still stung. It actually got me annoyed with Sora though I mellowed out of that.
Overall a great video, I heavily agree with everything and its even got me back to putting my soul into KH2, its not my favorite of the games since 1 just scratches every itch I like at once. But I appreciated what it did right. I just wish other fans didn't hold it to this impossible standard that's somewhat infected the series ever since.
My guess is Xaldin wanting Beast's heartless and Nobody was because the Nobody would have been a powerful asset, and the heartless could have gone towards making the Kingdom Hearts by making Sora fight it (as more heartless for Sora to fight means more heartless to contribute to Kingdom Hearts).
However, this is only a guess based on an assumption I made when I first played
That said, if you highlight Exp in the Drive menu (or what it the drive form in the stats menu?) you can actually see the "how to", you don't actually need Google. But, I can see how a kid would not think to do that.
Very informative video, absolutely incredible the amount of effort and passion put into these essays!!
Finally someone in the kh community that doesn't just glaze kh2fm like it's best thing since sliced bread. My favorite is kh3 and even I admit it has its flaws, thanks for keeping things bro, mad respect.
3 has better gamepay
@@schemar17delusional
@@schemar17not at all
@@EmeraldBlade98it’s not delusional to have a different opinion than you. I can see why a lot of people would prefer 3’s combat to 2’s and vice versa. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.
@@ErikthedoodNah it’s delusional. I get you but this is just wrong. Everything in 3 is free and easy. You will get free commands that save you without thinking. In 2 everything is intentional. 3 is easy mode. The only thing that is arguably better than 2 is keyblade swapping
One thing I'm not a fan of is Twilight Town having a completely different song when you switch to Sora, rather than keeping the one we had during CoM and the Roxas portion of KH2. The original Twilight Town theme is better than the "post returning to Sora" version.
Also not a fan of how Atlantica was handled, I'd have legit taken a repeat of KH1 Atlantica but actually giving us the full list of movie locations to actually explore in, since IMHO the swimming controls were slightly better outside of the dolphin kick being completely useless in KH2. And preferably, handle the story the way Pride Lands does. I can take Part of Your World, Under the Sea and Ursula's Revenge, but Swim This Way is... Cringe. Same with the finale song. Donald should really stick to Davey Crocket as far as songs are concerned. Also, the trio's parting song is... Hell no.
Hollow Bastian/Radiant Garden was chef's kiss all around... Mostly. Maleficent really should have stayed dead, I think the only real reason they brought her back is because they specifically needed a powerful evil witch for what they were doing in Halloween Town, since I don't recall the Organization specifically having Necromancy at the time the game was originally made. Which makes sense, why worry about being able to revive people if you know you're gonna fade away anyway?
However, Hades could have done it since he's literally God of the Dead.
Half agree on the Twilight Town part, Lazy Afternoons is so much better than The Afternoon Streets, but Working Together is a lot better than Sinister Sundown imo.
We always say "complex," but the series really became contrived. KH2 definitely jumped the shark vs. the narrative style & flow of 1. CoM was a precursor to the rest of the series.
My biggest complaint about this game is how to have to redo an entire battle of you die before you make it to the next non scripted section. Not having a retry option is extremely annoying.
During the Mrs Potts mini game I had her get stuck and I had to restart because she just couldn’t go anywhere. It was really annoying as it was also my first playthrough and I was worried I’d lose heaps of progress, luckily it did only just go back to the start of the mini game
3:00 "before listening to a Nobody like me-"
Come on, you did that on purpose.
And I'm absolutely here for it
This was a really great video and I enjoyed watching it and hearing your thoughts. Im definitely going to sub, its really cool seeing a small channel have videos this in depth and thoughtful. However, theres a few things I disagreed on while watching through as well as general thoughts I had, so I typed them up as I went along. My goal is to make the case that kh2 is, actually, as great as people say. For context, like you, I have also played this game probably ~30-40 times, and these days I usually play on level 1 critical but I had to work up to that over many playthroughs starting at standard my first time.
Firstly, the idea that kh2 is perfect is obviously absurd. I'm with you in the criticism of its level design, of the 3 main titles kh2 obviously has the weakest levels. I think I would argue that rather than being a game that is great because its good at everything, kh2 is a game that is great because it is uniquely good at one specific thing, that being the combat. I would argue that it is very hard to find a game that both has a combat system as deep and polished as the one in kh2 and difficulty levels and post game bosses designed to utilize that combat system to its potential. And that's today, back in 2007 this was unheard of. Just looking at how incredibly well designed critical difficulty and the level 1 limit are designed in kh2 shows how ahead of its contemporaries it was in this regard. Later kh games like bbs handle difficulty much closer to what I would expect from a typical game, which is to say making enemies damage sponges that deal massive damage rather than kh2s dynamic systems.
You also mention the lack of rpg mechanics behind a hindrance to kh2, but I think its the opposite, the rpg mechanics held kh1 back. Kh2 focusing more on combat skill and abilities and less on stats makes the game more fun. I never feel like I need to grind or buy better equipment to beat a challenge in kh2, I just need to play better.
On the topic of armor/accessories, I think you do have a point, but I will push back on it a little. In kh1 by far the best stat to increase was MP, so 95% of equipment was outclassed by default due to not increasing MP. Out of the remaining equipment you could get buffs to hp, strength, defense and ap. Kh2 has equipment that buffs strength, defense and ap, and while it doesn't have hp buff equipment, it has equipment with abilities like mp rage or haste, which in my mind more than makes up for that. Basically, while I dont think kh2s system is perfect, I also dont think its worse than the system in kh1. And im not sure what you mean by resistances make very little difference in kh2, thats absolutely not true in my experience. Try fighting demyx for example with full blizzard resistance gear and it is so much easier than if you optimize for the defense stat. Or use lightning resist armor in space paranoids. Trust me, it matters a lot. I also find myself using accessories to boost ap a lot, but thats a side effect of playing at level 1 most likely as I dont think I had ap constraints playing at level 99 critical.
About the choices at the beginning of kh1: maybe im wrong but I dont think they are all that different from the choices you make in kh2. Yeah you dont drop a weapon in kh2, but those are just minor stat differences. The real choice is which ability path you want, which works the same in kh2 as it did in kh1. I think theres also a lot of build variety in kh2s combat. For a fight I might plan out my strategy ahead of time and know Im planning to finish off the fight with final form firaga, so ill make sure i have oathkeeper and bond of flame available as keyblades, and pick armor with good resistance against the boss. Ill pick which abilities I have on or off depending on the boss Im going to fight. Its not elden ring or anything, but I feel like I switch up my equipment and abilities pretty frequently depending on the challenge. And theres also the mid-combat 'build switching' baked into the form system, as different forms are inherently designed to play like different builds which tackle challenges in different ways.
You mention in kh2 you can just equip every ability, and while for the most part this is true, something I think is interesting about kh2 is you generally dont want to actually do this. Many abilities in kh2 are situational and downright bad a lot of the time, and its left to the player to figure out which abilities they want to have on and off in different fights. Often the answer isn't as obvious as a first time player might think, I find myself turning off many abilities that first time players might keep on their whole playthrough.
edit: you mention this later in the video but im leaving it in. Beyond the stuff you mentioned like combo plus, theres many combo modifiers id say you want to have off between some and all of the time and this is a great example of designing a build depending on the situation and your playstyle.
World design: im not going to argue kh2s world design is good or anything, but I will throw in one hot take: i dont think kh2s worlds need to be as good as the ones in 1 and 3. I have the most fun in kh2 when i am in combat, and if the world design is just linear paths that get me to the fun fights more quickly Im not super upset by that. It does suck not having the cool secrets hidden all over from kh1, but I think kh1 needed that level more complex level design while in kh2 I think i prefer just being able to get to the next boss and back to the combat.
There is actually a section in the status screen that tells you how to level each drive form, but it is fairly hidden so fair enough, kh2 drive form levels were not handled as cleanly as they could have been for multiple reasons.
Im not sure why you think quick run is infinitely worse than dodge roll. Both have uses but most of the time either one works in my experience. Quick run has s, same as dodge roll, and you can quick run straight through attacks if you time it properly. The main defensive mechanic in kh2 though was clearly intended to be blocking, both quick run and dodge roll are secondary options.
One thing I feel doesn't get mentioned often enough is how interactive most reaction commands are. We all know about the ones that are just scripted to happen where the boss does a thing and we press triangle, but theres a huge amount of RCs that require you do something specific to trigger them, which encourages experimenting and approaching fights in different ways. The hookbats are a great example, if you hit them once and then back off you can utilize their RC and turn them from an enemy to a tool.
Cure: while I appreciate both, I like kh2s system more. Kh1 for me often boiled down to run in, tank damage to hit the enemy, build up mp, retreat a bit, heal, repeat. Kh2 encourages me to play more carefully and try not to take damage as once ive used my heal, thats all I get for a while without using a more powerful resource like a drive form. You say that this system deemphasizes other spells, but i think itsw the opposite. Being able to use magic down to 1mp and then heal essentially for free is a super awesome mechanic that encourages using cheaper magic, unlike kh1 where you often wanted to preserve your mp for defensive magic.
In kh1 I found tech points were infrequent and small enough to not really affect how I played. The only time I ever really used them beyond incidentally was the mushrooms that you juggle up to 99. I think kh2 removing some of these less utilized mechanics from kh1 in favor of focusing on its strengths and new mechanics is fine.
Kh2 actually has 15 secret bosses, unless youre not counting lingering will for some reason.
The end of kh2 is, actually, probably my least favorite part of the game. I like the fight against normal xemnas by the skyscraper and zebra xemnas, but everything in between feels so dragged out and unengaging to me. This is a common complaint I also have for the ending of kh1 and, to a much lesser extent, kh3 and i guess im probably in the minority here as i never hear anyone else complain about these sections but if i could cut like 80% of this ending sequence I would.
As a final note, while kh2 is my favorite game in the series, im also someone who will heavily defend and praise kh1 and 3, as well as some of the side games like com. They all have something they do particularly well, and while it happens kh2 best aligns with what I want, I can easily see someone preferring kh1 or 3 over it. Also, the goofy scene is 100% necessary. It doesn't matter if it doesn't actually serve a purpose, its the best cutscene in video game history and the world would be worse without it.
it's easy to praise kh2's strong suits, as its flaws were largely mitigated in later entries; meanwhile, it's battle systems continues to be practically peerless
PART 1 OF 3 (continues in the answers)
While i personally disagree with most of these things i can see what you are coming from and why so i think it is more of a matter of perspective and i since i get yours i will share mine
While i get why you feel like kh2 gameplay improves in some aspects while also taking some steps back (i feel the same about other titles such as some jojo parts) i see it more as an diferent gameplay philosophy and focus. How kh1 manages stats is great yeah but kh2 tries to intead have a gameplay more focus on the diferent mechanics and how to use them giving a plenty variaty of different things to experiment on. While kh1's mechanics also had depth here we see them even more expanded while putting the focus more on how you use them and your ability as a player more than said pre planning while also having a fair share of preplaning. Instead of losing said depth i see it more as chosing to present it in a diferent manner. In fact you can see that you also have to choose mid battle since many different mechanics use the same gauge sistem so you still have to plan acordingly wich is further explored with the new keyblades. Would it be better to have the old equipment in that regard? Probably, i wont deny it. But its such a minor thing wich is replaced with things that sustityde that need while doing a hood job at that so i cant really mind about it. I still wouldnt probably hurt and i get you, by thats how i see it
Something similar happens to the level desing. While kh1 had a great balance of combat and level desing and exploration kh2 decides to further put the focus on the combat having a diferent objetive than its predecesor. This can further be seen not only in how diferent and more simple it is but in how it adapts to combat, spaces are now mpre open perfect for the new gameplay that gives you more mobility and to be able to fight the enemies in this new format. The enemies also make use of this by being in diferent positions (such as in diferent layers or zones such as the pirates world) wich also correlates with the situational command and the various ways it can be activated or used. And aside from that they also serve their pourpose, leaving you through similar areas giving you a sense of advancement and to have reached diferent and iconic places while also giving you a sense of curiosity as to what you will encounter next through the diferent posible paths being blocked at first and feeling it is an actual place in wich you also have to navigate just like kh1, just having a lesser atention to exploration and interaction and more in combat and how the story will progress since the new places feel more conected to the story now so there is a higher incentive to reach them. And i mean yeah, there are a few times in wich i would like to have a further exploration seeing the backround pieces to take advantage of what we see and the new mobility mechanics we have (cavern of rememberance is a good example of what can be done from time to time) so yeah it could be better than what we got, but as i said since what we were given is also very good in its own right just with a diferent focus i cant say it is as big of a flaw as most people claim, even if i agree it could be better. The blame I think resides in those who were critical of the exploration in the first game even if it was the best level design in the series. Tho i also think level design has to merge well with the rest of the gameplay so it can be presented in various ways
As for the worlds per se i think it makes sense. The objective is not to find Riku in them but to explore so they can get to other words wich can get those clues about them, about the organization and other misteries while also having time to explore them. In this games its the worlds themselves that open the new gates to new worlds for Sora to explore so it makes sense to really dwell into the story of said worlds and to have the new gate at the end of said story after the world is saved and it gives us a new pathway. This makes us look forward it and wonder in what way or new object will be the catslisis of that same as the pay off of having the worlds being the ones that gives us a door to fight Xemnas. In that sense the objective to explore the worlds is to get if they can find more clues with no clear sense of direction while also facing the various menaces the worlds face. It makes sense that various diferent things will present themselves from time to time, from minor apearances of the org that will forshadow the events to come, minor clues about the characters they are looking for etc... while also having the liberty to really dive into thise worlds and whatever the game will throw at you. This is further seen in the revisit, were not only the conpletition of the world and all the have to present is met (wich is a high pay off if you ask me) but there is a further focus on Sora and the characters thenselves along what they are going through or the ending events. Personally i feel it does a good job presenting and balancing those elements, it really feels like a great adventure, one that knows when to throw various new story pieces while also letting you inmerse in the world and where you are, throwing new things at you constantly while also hooking you, wich can also be seeing in the use of the gameplay wich also includes the defeating of heartless and thus the collecting of hearts. The gang has to face those entities while exploring and having no set path getting involved in said conflicts in a natural way, all to be revealed that it actually helped the organization, its a great story telling that includes the pacing and use of the ganeplay and this is something we see further in the revisits, Sora still has to end the conficts there while also having his own conflict, wich is explored in a natural way in said worlds and giving a great pay off one we can finally reach the end game having a satisfying use of the worlds that connect with the meat of the story. Thats why I think kh2 actually has a great pace, one wich I like. I could probably have explained it better but i guess you can get my drill
As for Xaldin, it makes sense, not only gives us a good narrative conected to the org in a Disney world in a natural way but it nakes sense to have his heartless since they want Sora to defeat them and to have his nobody join in order to regain a sit in the organization along the fact that it fits Xaldin's backstory as seen in days while also being implied he does more things than being in that castle. The fight also makes sense, he was antagonizing the characters for a long time to the point of even stealing the rose and kidnapping Belle so the fight comes as natural same way as that for him testing Sora and trying to fight Beast to further try to convert him also makes sense. Same with Xigbar, the organization members do plenty of research missions to be in constant knowlegde of the worlds so it makes sense to find them from time to time, works great as world building and to set up interactions wich will be further explored in the endgame. You get to see X character, get to be intrigued by him to then see him again in order to get more out of it, wich also fits Xigbar's characters becsuse he is always giving further forshadowing of the next games, first giving the sensation that he is a simple grunt that does random things, to then see that there is more of his character that it seems while also making sense as to why he wants to have a low profile while also researching on his own once you know more about him. To me it seems as a great set up for the rol he has. And i completly disagree with Luxord and Demyx, Luxord creates a natural conflict using the elements of the world in order to have Sora defeat more heartless, he even congratulates Sora for that. And Demyx not only does the exploration antics while failing to properly do so due to him not being the most competent but he also wants to check the state of Roxas and get him back as instructed
PART 2 OF 2
All their acts have a reason in the great scheam of things while also showcasing their personalities interactions and paybacks
I think the issue of the org apreances of the org in kh3 is how it is executed (to me at least). Some are great per example Luxord being a charismatic antagonist that makes good use of his smarts while also not being too antagonistic since he has his own defined objectives in the world that correlates both with the owrld story and the main story and i love how they use Riku Replica in San Francistokyo. While other are mediocre and others not too great. Per example look at Vanitas, the idea of being the one behind the conflict in other to recover using the negative feelings is a great one (except for the fact that we were spoiled of that in the trailers), but once he appears in the ending, it feels forced, in both the ways he interacts with Sora and how they get him out of there. It feels too expository while also forced and unnatural, something that i feel could be managed diferently. In the end that a member appears in every world makes it so it gets to feel overdone and you know what to expect, and it dosent help that sometimes it dosent really feel natural nor that it takes advantage of what they could do with them and it is worsen by the fact that you could have done more with those characters. You could have used them more as characters (specially knowing about the khux thing) instead of just momentary obstacules that dont really tend to lead to something that sticks, one of my issues with kh3 is how most of the characters are underused as characters knowing they can offer more and seeing they could have used they apearences for that but it just felt forced in general dosent really leave a good taste. It feels both overused and underused at the same time. Kh2 had the set up that we didnt teally know about the org and their members nor when we would know more about them, this allowed them to play with it and have these little interactions that serve as set ups for the future while playing with the mistery, world building and a first character look. Meanwhile in kh3 the oposite happens, we know how and when they will face the org, we know the characters and that there is more to them, but instead of further develop that aspect in an interesting way it tends to do the oposite and just having them there because you want to. They do have solid reasons (as they did in kh2), but it dosent have a good use of said characters in general taking advantage of the reason they are there no the character behind them
As for Maleficent, I again get what you are coming from but also disagree. I think i like the use the give her (perhaps she could have had a bit more of a presence in kh3 but thats it), she gets to be a much more complex character than in other apareances in media while also being in character and fitting the story. I like that she is not the main focus (it would be too overdue and i dont think she would fit that rol) while also having her own agency and being wise about knowing what she can or can not do and playing with that infornation in mind in the backround. All of that by having enough impact in the story, not too much and not too along with good interactions with other people in wich we see how they react, what they think, how they feel, how they plan thing and get to conclusions and why. I honestly like it and i think it is a good way to handle it while having her own agency separated from the big fishes while also being relevant. And yeah, she actually has relevance. And i dont talk about minor things such as being one of the reasons of the minor conficts in X worlds (wich includes Pete) but bigger things: she is the responsible of the 1k heartless invasion and we know how it relates to the story and how it lets further plot points develop and she also helped the crew showing that she still rivals them but has her own personality and agency and how she decides to move towards it in a fitting way even if that includes to alling that moment with them while staying in character. And lets not forget not just recoded but also khux and how she was the one to activate the last step and how she knowing about those elements is part of her goal and could be used in the next arc
To me Atlantica is a guilty pleasure, i enjoy the minigames and the sillynes that comes from it. And the good thing is that it is completly optional. It feels like a divergent that you can do when you feel like, like a vacation from the main game.
I think I actually like the minigames, they add variaty, the game throws constantly new things to you and they are short so even if they arent the greatest things they dont oversatate their wellcome. But i get they are not for everyone
As for the Disney usage I again both disagree and think it is actually one of the strenghts of the series. It gets to be its own thing while also being built in the Disney elements that its is composed of, it would be easy to just use Disney as marketing stand point or rely mostly in the original Disney elements, but kh builds its own things through that. And it actually develops things, Tron is a key plot point that directly correlates with the lore and story and being one of the Disney characters that connects the most with SDG. Pooh also connects fairy well with Sora touching themes such as remembering, the elements of frienship and how what matters it to be connected along as the impact Sora left. In Beast castle we see tge shenanigans Xaldin does with not only correlates with the main story but also gives a good use of it in Beast's character and how everything connects to him. In Mulan we see Riku wich takes use of the fact that Sora dosent know what happens to him or if it is even him while also having him act like him giving clues and helping the Disney characters, wich also correlates that same as Mulan Riku also acts as someone who he is not trying to hide his identity in order to be able to help the people he cares about and do the right thing and also having the fact that Sora already knows the summons from kh1. In Hercules have the whole Hercules thing about his exhaustion, depresion and the shrenght of heart wich we see more developed (and of wich we would see again in kh3, just more rushed) along the other characters. In Pirates it is shown that Sora and Jack are similar along with being part of tge plans of the org, if they turn the habitants of port royal into heartless then they will be able to gain more hearts and they use good use of the elements of the world in order to do so and even have Jack want to have the keyblade. In Aladin we see the theme of redemption through Iago eyes in a developed way as well as what someone actually has to do to be forgiven and have a friendship same as having Sora show stress about his loved ones and being conforted by Aladin. I Halloween we see them interacting further with Santa Claus having therefore a bigger rol even to the point of having Sora look and react strongly to it, get hopew to find his friends and even touch themes such as having s being feel empty trying to gather objects with sentiment value in order to be whole (wich correlates with the org) as well as that wgat matters is not the present but the semtiment seeing Sora himself and Kairi in Jack and Lilly (therefore it touches more things than the film). And finally in Simba we see him face not only Scar but his "ghost" as well, wich gives him a even further and more comolex struggle literally facing his fears as well as the dificulties he faces in his first days as king while also correlating to Sora story, both with the akuna mattata philosophy that if you think about it it applies well to Sora since as explained he also has a neverending struggle to face from wich the key is having a strong heart. The rest of the Disney characters are also given more focus being Mickey the biggest example of that along a bigger use of characters such as Minney, Merlin, Chip and Dale etc.... along with furter and better interactions among SDG and the disney characters in various worlds
For the plot development my problem with kh3 is the execution per se. I wont go into detail since it would take me a whole lot and my coment is already too long but generally speaking there lots of threaths in kh3 that arent developed that well compared with other titles. Most of these plot lines are solved too quickly oŕ dont get to develop the elements it needs to. Yea ee have scenes every time we finish a world, but the way it is included feels ackward and shallow breaking inmersion and pace and not really giving us much of a development. The beggining is also more solid at the time of telling a premise that will have its bearings in the future and kh2 is about the trip and the mistery, to travel and see what they find next and see how they end up in the right course while not only everything ends up getting wrapped up but you get to feel you lived an adventure in wich you could be inmersed in, by both getting inmersed in the Disney worlds and also trying to connect to the main threath. In kh2 things are developed more tighly with better pace leaving the story be able to fully develop while in 3 everything feels over the place feeling directionless and ackward without having things properly developed and without much room to breath. Scenes feel too long for what they really share same with choreography. I know i didnt explain it that well but i dont want to be here too long
I think I like the finisher in order to defear a boss, it feels that you defeat it by dealing a powerfull blow and there are so many ways of doing so that it can hardly make you lose while also having the boss be staggered during the combo
Kairi can hold the keyblade because she was actually the first of the 3 to develop that ability in bbs after touching Aqua's by accident
PART 3 OF 3
As for Riku returning to normal he had Ansem's body because he unleashed his darkness, meanwhile the machine he was using was interacting with the hearts of Kingdom Hearts to revert it causing it to overload in a light flash. Knowing what hearts and light are capeable of i think it makes sense to say that Riku now shows his true self after being afected by that light specially if we also consider the intention of the machine.
As for your alternative, I think it would have felt ao easy. Riku knew he would probably be like that forever so having simple interactions with Sora wouldnt be that easily the key. The reason why Sora's speach in kh1 worked was because it showed the strenght of heart he gained while here Riku is also using his own strenght of heart in certain way. I feel like it would be hard to connect the 2
I get your point about that reaction command. if anything i would say that it changes too quick so you can actually notice it and it being in slow motion may also help. But i get your point
Do you know where i can check that every member was going to have an alternate outfit? Its the first time i hear it
I dont really get the jelousy part, that conversation with Sora and Riku is the only time in wich i recall it being brought in the series
The best way to start off this topic is to inform the audience on how many game companies were purposely making arbitrary side quests, hidden items, and hard bosses to sell guidebooks. Many of KH2 flaws can be boiled down to "The game didn't tell you unless you bought the official guide".
I actually agree with you on this.
But id summarise my opinion with the following sentence.
KH 1 is better as an RPG then KH2 whilst KH2 is better as an Action game with Light RPG Elements
They're both great games they just have different merits and styles (but then again my favourite genre is immersive sims
Not with that horrible camera 😂
My one main complaint about this game is that everything you need costs so freaking much like I’m always short on money 😂
I agree with most of what you’ve said, with exception of magic, the KH2 magic system encourages using all your spells, since you only need 1 mp for cure. The KH1 system discouraged it by making every spell you cast a cure you could have used, so magic exists for cure, aero, tinker bell, and gimmick fights that force you to use spells.
KH 2 is the game that i fell in love with Axel, roxas, sora and goofy (fk donald) i spent my entire childhood hating Disney until King Mickey unlocked the chains on my heart. I cried when goofy managed to get bonked.. i let out war cries as we battled the waves of enemies in the valley below hollow bastion.. i spent hours retrying the fight with sephiroth.. unlocking valor, wisdom, and master forms is epic.. and.. well im done, even if this game is technically trash.. i loved it enough to get the "nobody symbol" tattooed on my chest..
First of all I am happy with the points you brought up, a game that focuses all its efforts into one aspect of itself at the detriment of everything else cannot be classed as a perfect game. I'd rather a game that does everything decently than a game that forces me to dredge through crap looking for the good stuff. That said, when you said the drive forms don't tell you how to level up, they do, you just have to highlight the XP option and read the flavor text. Very obtuse, so its no wonder you missed it, but its there.
You can tell they didn't think about Sora's Level Ups too well because the very last ability you can get at Lvl 99 is Thunder Boost.
I really really like kh2.. how can you not but it’s always been behind kh1 and kh3 for me
I'm not sure what your goal is in the first 2 minutes you contradict yourself multiple times saying you're not going to judge the game by today's standards but then you're going to say when people talk about kh2 they're really talking about kh2fm what are you implying that it matters if kh2fm is the one that's liked only because it wasn't released people make the same argument with kh3 and the DLC of remind the game was good even before Final Mix I just don't understand how you can say you're going to judge by modern standards but then say the modern standards of liking kh2fm aren't valid?
You missed the point. Today standards refers to what current gen games can offer: size of playable maps, use of full instrumental soundtrack, graphics, direct patching via online updates...
He is saying that people should not use KH2FM as substitute for Vanilla KH2, specially in the context on how it's brought at day one release of other titles of the series, just because is the version currently available, based on being an expansion that took 2 years to release after the original, and another 7 to get overseas.
Summary: KH2 should not be criticized by today's standards in gaming, but also (e.g.) there is no one in the world that waited 16 years for a complex post game because KH2 did not have that, at least to the average player, for many, many years.
@enriquea4160 there is no point to be made when you contradict yourself when you make one statement and then another statement that contradicts it it doesn't matter what point you're trying to make. You're basically saying that just because he's trying to make a point the contradictions he's making with himself are valid and that's not true
I would love to see a video of what you would want to see from Kingdom Hearts 4.
I feel called out for playing KH2 first😭😂I found it in a charity shop when I was 15 and it didn’t have the first one😭
I literally completed kh2 yesterday and throughout the entire game I was like “roxas will come back I just know it, I know it! The game is slowly building up to em I know it!!!” Then in the endgame he just kinda runs up on me in middle of the street.
Thought that was the funniest shit in the game for me
Sephiroth in KHS2 FM is much easier because you can use your drive transformations.
I havent watched the whole video yet, but when you talk about leveling drive forms you point out googling but I recall they tell you that the leveling requirements are in the status/i fo menu of the pause/character screen. I know this was alsways a feature because I did it as a kid when I wanted to get it done on my ps2 pre-fm. I dont know if they tell you directly as its been a looong time but I do know its there and I had found it fairly fast as a kid just by wondering how much i had left to grind to the next level and lo and behold each form has a section and even told you more than youd expect about each form including stats.
52:32 Demyx first encounter had read a letter during Olympus. "If subject fails to respond use aggression". Their ultimate goal was still Roxas... They wanted to see if they successfully created a Heart that was distinct from it's Original. When you fail Demyx's minigame Sora just stands there and pouts. Almost as if the character themselves is disappointed in the player as he didn't even expect to die. That's why when we visit the Graveyard with all the Organization Members Emblems we still see Roxas lit up. Meaning they successfully made a Nobody into a "Real Boy". The story telling has to be subtle because it's straight up Atheist Nihilism vs Christianity/Catholicism. So much of Final Fantasy is pro-relgion and this gets very poorly misunderstood. In the original FF7 the visuals was very clear "The Hand of God" saved Cloud. There's many times the "False Religion" is defeated by "The True Religion" within these stories. Roxas was able to exist because "Sora accepted him into his Heart".
Hey, uhm, not for nothing, but the menu tells you how to level up each form, and even summons. In the stats menu, select the form you want, then go to Experience, and it'll spell it out right there.
Even younger me found vanilla KH2 to be piss easy. Even on Proud mode as my first playthrough. I literally button mashed X and Triangle my way through the whole game, occasionally using the odd limit or two. Heck I used auto limit to use them in general.
I played through the entirety of vanilla kh2 as a kid without equipping abilities (I didn’t know how to do it back then) and still was able to breeze through it. It wasn’t until KH2FM came out and they rebalanced the game with critical mode that the combat actually became well designed and rewarding.
Oh so you just mashed x against the hades escape portion and demyx and xaldin and xigbar and sephiroth the hades paradox cups, lmao yeah okay you definitely did not fool😂
@ You missed the part where I mashed triangle too.
And really the Hades escape was kinda obvious. I’m exaggerating slightly true, but the bulk of the game can be brute forced through on Proud mode, and that’s a fact. 13 year old me did not have too much trouble with the game on Proud. Sephiroth is easier in KH2 than he is in KH1. I know because it took me a decade to beat him in KH1, but in KH2 when I got there I had learned that Trinity limit could be spammed on him.
Yeah vanilla KH2 is piss easy.
Also you can fight Roxas as the secret boss.
1:00:47 i very physically recoiled when you ran right past that treasure chest 😅
Still one of the greatest games of all time afterall.
It isn't as good as people make it out to be, especially as most put it above the superior first game. It is still a really good game, but one that is held back by regression in exploration and RPG mechanics on the gameplay side, and the start of convoluted+badly paced story. I like KH2, but it also was the beginning of the end for my enjoyment of the series, and I find that I'm a KH1 fan not a KH fan.
What people don't often know is that KH1 was created by a sort of dream team, that included the likes of Keiko Nobumoto who wrote the script for Cowboy Bebop+created Wolf's Rain, and Jun Akiyama who has done scenario writing+event planning for games like Vagrant Story & Final Fantasy XII. Cutscene direction continually got worse as the series went on, with much worse pacing and dialogue, and the loss of Nobumoto+Akiyama after KH1 is easy to point to as a major reason why. I would also say that with other big names leaving after the first game, and the financial success of KH1, that Nomura likely got too much creative control with later games which is why they jump the shark.
Kingdom Hearts 1 was an Action-Adventure RPG, whilst KH2 is an Action game. If you're just in it for the raw moment to moment combat it's the best in the series (despite some shortcomings compared to KH1), but everything else is just worse than the first game. The regression reminds me of Mass Effect 2, which also removed many exploration and RPG mechanics compared to the first game, yet like KH2 it's propped up as the best in the series. The general gaming audience doesn't seem to give a damn about level design or actual RPG mechanics.
KH2FM and Re:Coded are the best games in the series
and RE:CODED? HUH?
@sequitur7222 Story is garbage but the combat is ridiculously good
Stop putting KH2FM on such a pedestal
@@JPer811 why?
@ it’s not this perfect game everyone makes it out to be and it gets real old seeing it.
I agree It’s not perfect but it’s still way better than KH3 😂
It’s not.
Yeah, it definitely is in my opinion.
KH2 final mix is my favorite video game and I HATE playing Atlantica
I feel like the Drive Forms for Organization members was scrapped once they decided on what the origins of the Black Coat came from. That way it makes it so it was purely the Fairies and Yen Sid Magic Clothes that gave access to Drives and not worry about any moments like "Why didn't they do that sooner?". Also power scaling wise it would be weird to fight a powered up version of a member before understanding how strong they are in their base form. Plus Chain of Memories would've have had to introduce this idea before Drives were even a thing.
My Suggestion is you ready Nomura Interviews and watch the violent howlers Analysis Videos. Nomura statet since atleast 2003 to have the final Scene written and recentky revealed kh 4 is the Game that heads towards the conclusion of the series. Kh is doing the heroins Journey trope. It Starts with the Heros Journey but continues from ther.
I also understand Frustration with Kairis character but based with the fact that initily kh 1 was suposed to end with quadratums apearance and Kairis Connection to IT Nomura build her Arc of accepting Change and showing her strength around that a Bit and moving quadratum to much later meant He Had to ajust her Arc wich i think Overall helped her as now she aculy has to train.
Like she Had to fail in kh 3 . And If you noticed she only failed when Sora was Ther sort of Like she
unconciously falls Back onto the fact that Sora is Ther. But in MoM WE already saw a Change. She got saved by him but she sayed thank you.that i think suggest she nolonger Sees Sora saving her as normel but as Something she should be gratefull for.
I will say only this. I only played and beat og kh2. I have 2fm on the epic games launcher but it runs like trash and crashes so u never got super far. But base 2 is a great game. Fm is better objectively but base 2 still had leagues more content and stuff fun end game content than base 3 did especially considering that 3 came out in 2019…
2 had sephiroth and the colosseum and 3 had that extremely generic heartless fight and the flan things. It was horrible
3 has Yozora and the data organization xiii. Which are much better than the data org from 2. Why are you only talking about the vanilla games? Both 2 and 3 did not have great post games in their vanilla release, not just 3.
I accidently played kh2 first, I somehow overlooked the 2 in the title and did not even knew there was already a second game. Playing through the beginning just made me dislike Roxas to this day. XD The whole time I was like "wait, was the adventure with disney stuff only in the first game? And now we are stuck with that confused blond kid for this game?" XD
I enjoyed KH2 and it's one of my favorite games in the KH series but in my opinion, Hot Take Kingdom Hearts 2 is overrated, KH2 only became good when final mix became a thing, KH2 has plenty of problems like the trash world design which KH3 obviously did better and I think keyblades were handled better in KH3 including how they handled rage form compared to the annoying antiform
Personally in my opinion I prefer KH3 in many ways since despite it's faults I think KH3 is overhated and Im not a fan of how many people put down KH3 just to prop up KH2, despite KH3's faults it did do some good in my opinion, im totally ok saying this because I feel better having my own opinion and going against the majority of opinions that praise KH2 and consider it a masterpiece because instead of just being like everyone else im ok with just being different and staying in the realm of unpopular opinions and I appreciate seeing some people actually criticizing KH2 because KH3 gets constantly hated on to death and I feel like I hardly ever see people actually criticize KH2 and pretty much only praise it
Couldn't agree more, I love KH2, it's nowhere near the worst in the series but I'd be lying if I said it even made my top 3 games. The standalone stories of KH1, Birth By Sleep and KH3 ALL beat out KH2 by miles. KH3 has the same great combat without all the issues everywhere else, KH1 beats it on world design, villains and character development. I just wish people would stop acting like it's an unbeatable masterpiece with nothing to criticize about it.
@@mimicsforge definitely bro, now that I think about it I think form changes are better than drive forms because form changes have their own shot locks, the form changes are actually tied to Sora's power and you can use them whenever you want without them being tied to your party members like drive forms were in KH2 where there were multiple times in KH2 where they would take your party members away from you which would make you unable to use your drive forms except for limit form which I always found super annoying
Plus some form changes have an extra transform like oathkeeper and shooting star which in my opinion is a better wisdom form in many ways while ultimate form sounds cooler than final form and gameplay wise was more fun and op especially when it's shotlock is just Sora saying f*ck it and just nuking the entire area lol, So when it comes to forms, I think KH2 had better looking forms design wise but gameplay wise I think KH3 has better forms
Gameplay wise I think Sora was more fun in KH3 because he had more in his arsenal than he did in KH2 with shotlocks from birth by sleep, flowmotion from Dream Drop Distance and also he can even block in the air which he couldn't do in KH1 and KH2, Plus magic in KH3 is OP and really fun in my opinion and he can still dual wield Roxas style, Sora can even slam the ground while he's falling
Mad copium to its fonest
I agree. Kh2 is great but i believe kh3 is kinda better 😅
@@dianceperez8540 No I just understand the series a lot better than you do.
FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT 😭 😭 😭 I LOVE KH2 BUT ITS NOT THE #1 BEST GAME!!
But also imo i like kh3 outfit better or kh1. I seen kh2 outfit many times that im kinda tired of seeing it. Sorry. But i feel like kh3 did a better job at world expanding and sora becoming more mature.
But also, he cried when seeing riku again and his hug to kairi was so awkward sorry 😅. It makes it more gay (i don't judge cus im one of the gays). Cus the Japanese version makes it more gay while eng is more erasing the Dialogue that shows a more of a friend relationship between sora and riku.
Example: kh com selphe said "special person" in Japanese meaning about riku. Because the way they say it means more of a male special person. And the memory of sora being scared of the meteor shower and riku say he will protect him and hes the one who gave him the crown necklace. The kh3 Dialogue jp ver mickey says riku finds the strength to protect someone. Eng he says find the strength to protect what matters. Erasing the relationship between sora and riku. Even if its just about best friends. Its werid 😅 they are afraid to have a good relationship wording but instead they make it more straight and bland. Thats why i like Japans relationships. Because they are not afraid to say love you to their best friend and just be best friends.
Also about maleficent, watch khux scenes. VERY IMPORTANT ❤.
So this game is problematic but 3 is a masterpiece? This is as biased as it gets
Lol nobody made either of those claims here.
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34:39 look at the status menu
Yes, next question.
Level design is a$$ for the most part, vanilla doesn't have a dodge, it's missing the Roxas bossfight.
Id still argue Vanilla KH2 > KH3 Release.
Lol 😂
@rosies69 In defense of my opinion, I really wanted to Beat up Elsa in KH3 and they just took that from me, and instead forced me to Listen to "Let it go" AND "do you want to build a snowman". That's my mildest most Personal letdown of that game. There is more, but this one is the least relevant I am mad about.
As opposed to having to listen to the entirety of the little mermaid soundtrack (you have to play the songs, you can’t just skip it like the let it go scene in kh3) to unlock all the keyblades, ultima weapon, and the secret bosses in kh2?
I'm going to be honest, you talk too fast and the music in the background make this stressful to watch.
I mean I don't think anyone would disagree that KH2's story is pretty...bland? Lacking? As a militant KH1&2 defender as well as a hater of combat and kinda story after that I can't ignore two's flaws. It has a lot of exceptionally standout moments however with the explosion in quality there is a massive dip too that KH1 I honestly feel doesn't struggle from. This I think is actually due to the lack of a enduring narrative and a focus to tell a comprehensive and character driven story that coulda easily ended with just enough room to move forward.
One of the things I think KH2 did better than any game today though is expanding on character interactions and their dynamics. Nothing will beat Sora's return to all these worlds, my favourite personally is him and Beast. Also no even KH2 fans aren't "okay" with Riku's explosion incident and Nomura's handwaving.
Something I noticed is a lack of maybe...mutual communication about mechanics and the shifting of spells or development of the RC system. It can "suck" that we lost basic projectile fire but we were given honestly a solid AoE spell until you either level up into explosion or thunder.
The combat team were very focused on the utility of abilities so not many share one unless it puts a spin on the use of it.
I honestly feel like this is suppose to be a continuation of KH3 (no shit) and is trying to validate it by deconstructing KH2. All it does for me personally though is highlight the impending signs of Nomura if I could be candid, stretching the overall gameplay too thin in certain areas and getting way too lost in expanding the overall world without finishing the primary story we are focused on.
I do think KH3 is bad and a noticeable decrease in gameplay and story BUT I am not going to make it anyone's problem.
I do hope we eventually leave Sora sooner than later because his story IS over, Sora did everything he set out to do and hasn't been interesting to me post KH2.
It's not better than 1 and 3.
it's better than 1 for sure
it's better than 3 for sure
@@interrobangingsbetter combat only than kh1
@@mememaster9735strict downgrade than 3 in pretty much every single way
@@720pchannel ya
Sorry but you're just wrong, II is the best game in the franchise bar none
Ye
Overrated