The Grid actually makes total sense to be included in DDD Someone probably just put Ansem's computer in sleep mode and forgot the password so they couldn't get back in
Can we talk about how they went from an incredibly uncrackable 47-character password to a much more guessable 15-character one. Great safety check, Tron.
I think the coolest thing in DDD will always be that the worlds actually foreshadow the ending of the game. There's always the concept of being trapped/imprisoned (in a bell tower, in a datascape, trapped by the a nightmare, trapped in the reaper games, and so on-) or literally falling in a trap (being swallowed by Monstro, or kidnapped by the Beagle Boys), because Sora IS being trapped by the Organization, imprisoned in his own dreams so that he can be turned into a vessel. Meanwhile Riku is never following the "main" story of the world, because he's following a reflection of Sora's dream, and working in the back to reach him in the end.
@@AeonKnigh432 I have and still say Arendel is just watching the movie. Edit: at least in 3D you feel like you’re talking apart in the events half of the time.
As for the thing about TWEWY and Monkeys, the reason the final boss is a big ape is because Neku's favorite clothing brand (and the clothes he wears) is actually the brand Jupiter of the Monkey! Its also one of the few brands to stay in both TWEWY games
I kinda feel the same, but I dunno, I feel Treasure Planet deserves to be in a main console game and being given the KH3 Caribbean treatment as opposed to what I assume would've just been exploring a scaled down version of the RLS Legacy and a few areas of Treasure Planet itself.
DDD was the last non-mobile side game. We didn't even get a Switch exclusive. Because spending 3 years making a crappy cloud port of KH III was SO MUCH BETTER than putting a team on a smaller, Switch original title.
@@KeybladeMasterAndyI wouldn't say that when NieR and DragonQuest are fine enough. But even if they insisted on keeping 3 as a cloud game because reasons. Why couldn't the 3PS2 games, 1 PSP game and 2 movies get native ports?
Given the fact that both TRON movies depict the virtual world existing in the machines of the modern world, it stands to reason that modern earth is, itself, the world that fell to darkness. Which means Ansem paid a visit to ENCOM's offices circa 1982.
the battle theme is “all for one” because that part of the expression is the more aggressive part, saying all treasure should go to one person. “one for all” means working together and splitting rewards evenly
I came to mention My Hero Academia, but @ShyRanger already did it. I'm still tempted to write a whole ass essay about the matter and why it's so good. But I won't. That'd be inappropriate. I'll just rant about this series' greatness to myself like I'm sure Pat talks to himself about Kingdom Hearts. But you're right though.
Wait, I thought “all for one” meant “if one of us is in danger, we all help them.” Like a camaraderie thing. I suppose it still applies, since battle is when the aforementioned danger shows up.
@@AshZucchini8168 That's what it originally meant, but it can be interpreted in other ways, like the idea of everything belonging to just one person. It's the case in the manga/anime series I and another user mentioned. The English preposition "for" is vague, so it invites many interpretations.
About the Grid specifically I remember a few years ago the idea was floated that Sora specifically *wasn't* in a Sleeping world during it. That it was the first blatant attempt by the Organization to meddle with the test by pulling him out of the Realm of Sleep. The presence of Dream Eaters being a consequence of "sleep" leaking out and following Sora or a pure gameplay conceit. Riku's version was in the Sleeping Realm but it was via Sora's own dreams and memories since thats where he actually was the whole time. There's still a few holes in it but considering Xemnas's speech about how "data can't dream" it lines up pretty well.
I think the main reason why they chose Musketeers was because the series had already been sourcing from it for aspects of how the Disney Crew operate from the beginning. "All for one, and one for all." Donald and Goofy have Sora join in on that chant as part of their growing relationship in KH1, and only people who had watched that one random movie would've known why they were doing the musketeers thing.
@@superwooper5210 Wow, bizarre. Apparently the phrase wasn't even in the JP version of KH1, the localizers added it in. They just got lucky with a coincidence I guess.
Kinda makes strange sense for Julius to be in Traverse Town, don't it? A world meant for those who have lost there's. And there are few disney characters as lost as he is
I honestly think Julius is more of a product of Sora's imagination than a real character (like a nightmarish version of Pete), so it makes kind of sense for him to appear in a dream world.
Wow, okay now it’s officially my headcanon as well that Sora’s dumb in this game because you’re dumber in your dreams. I never thought of it like that. Whenever something happens in my dreams, no matter how absurd or questionable it is, I always just go along with it. Like one I always remember is how I had one where my substitute teacher was a velociraptor that killed everyone, and I just accepted that was my reality now.
It’s less that Sora is dumber and rather that people overstate how smart he is in the previous games. Especially since now he doesn’t have Goofy or Donald to help him.
@@pn2294 Sora has never been the brightest bulb. People seem to confuse him being agitated and hostile towards organization 13 with him being smarter because he’s giving them sass and not treating them as a joke.
@@oreotaku4017He does come across as quite a bit less stupid in KH2 and 3 though. That "this is so unfriendly" line doesn't feel like something this character would say at this point in his development.
Dream Drop is actually one of my favorite games in the series. And, no, I'm not joking the rest of the comment section; I'm being genuine about this. I find Dream Drop's gameplay fun, the characters are entertaining, I really love the Dream Eaters, and the fact that you play as Sora and Riku simultaneously is incredible! I do admit that the game definitely has its fair share of flaws, but for me, when it comes to Dream Drop, the positives outweigh the negatives by a very significant margin.
It's top 3 for me! I don't prefer it to 1 or 2 but I do really love it. I think it has some serious flaws for sure, and it kinda gets worse the higher you pump the difficulty, but it has so so much charm that makes me always so excited to revisit it.
Dream Drop Distance was one of my first 3DS games alongside Pokémon X and Epic Mickey Power of Illusion. I never really finished it because I got stuck on Xemnas.
One thing I thought was interesting about the Grid was how, in Sora's visit, CLU is actually cognizant of the Keyblade's powers to open any lock and is willing to use it as part of his own master plan. On one hand, it's cool to see Disney characters aware of the outside KH world, but on the other, I have no idea how CLU knows about this.
Well it's because... um... Assembly the Wise? Accessed that computer? So maybe he somehow input info on the Keyblade into it? Or the person who made the Grid has knowledge of the Keyblade?
The only logical explanation I can come up with is that information being accessible from tron's disk but being he's not the same tron....yeah it's questionable overall
@@DarkOverlord96 Everyone on the grid gets an Identity disc that maintains any and all information on the user, CLU doesn't have any more or less power than any other programs while on the grid beyond his influence. What they could've done is give sora a false impression on CLU similar to sam in Legacy and allow him to access his disc that way he'd know every detail about sora.
To me, Symphony of Sorcery is probably the most underrated world in the entire franchise. Fantasia really deserves more love for being as innovative as it was. Also, am I the only one who thinks The Grid should've been saved for KH3?
I'm super biased on the Country of Musketeers. I grew up with the movie and would have never believed they'd add it to Kingdom Hearts. And as a classic Disney fan, I love that there are multiple fights with the Begale Boys in the game.
Same here, MD&G: Three Musketeers was actually a big part of my childhood, I practically had it on repeat and if I heard any of the songs I'm sure it would activate something in me like a sleeper agent, lmao
The Grid is actually fairly easy to explain in the meta narrative, as Tron outright states that the Space Paranoids we visit in KH2 is a copy of the original program, which means The Grid would simply be the original that Ansem the Wise copied.
5:40 "But The Grid is still a program, or virtual space, that had to have existed in some other world, and that world couldn't have been Radiant Garden, since The Grid wouldn't exist as a sleeping world if that were the case, because Radiant Garden never fully fell to darkness in the KH1 era." So, the missing piece of the explanation is "where did The Grid come from?" What world was it originally contained within, whence Ansem the Wise yoinked it?
Yeah my understanding is the sequence of events goes like this. Ansem the Wise visits the earth world Tron takes place in with Flynn's Arcade and copies Space Paranoids. After he leaves, the plots of Tron 1 and Legacy happen in Tron world. Tron world falls to darkness after Ansem, Seeker of Darkness' attack before KH1. KH1 happens and Tron world becomes a sleeping world. KH2 happens and Sora enters Ansem the Wise's copy of Space Paranoids. DDD happens and Sora and Riku enter the sleeping Tron world during the events of Tron Legacy. It's very convoluted, but it IS DDD.
I personally theorize that they picked Julius as the DDD superboss specifically because the game is trying to hearken back to KH1 as an anniversary thing, and KH1 had a Disney superboss. I don't know... *why* it was Julius in particular, but I think that's why there's a Disney superboss.
40:37 “So let’s just do Monstro again, and I mean that in a game design way, and not a Shape of Water way.” I thrust my head back from laughing so much that i hit a well and still didn’t stop laughing, how do you come up with this??? 😭 😭
In the Hunchback section, I do appreciate the perspective of this being a "victory lap" for Riku in a sense. I like that the game almost had a feeling of giving Riku a taste of the fun Disney-style world adventures where he gets to help others. It feels very deserved after having to be in the shadows for so long, not interacting with many of the world characters, and especially not in a helpful way. Proud of my edgy teenager dude for being able to get out and have the same kind of fun Sora's been having.
36:40 I get what you're saying but Ven isn't the only heart inside Sora's. Both Roxas and Xion (and Vanitas by extend) are also trapped within him and they didn't exactly want to give up their autonomy and life for a guy they didn't know.
Thought this was funny too because Sora surely would definitely be concerned by this given how he unknowingly had Kairi in him for the entirety of KH1 and the only way he got her out was self-sacrifice. Considering the Org in this game were trying to soften Sora’s resolve and make him more receptive to darkness, giving him doubt and anxiety reflecting a situation he already experienced is a great idea.
the most wild thing about the Hunchback world is the fact that they really had Frollo go up to Sora and call him a slur to be clear, i like that scene because you AND Sora immediately get a sense of who this guy is then, and it makes it more satisfying to see him die later. i do wish we got to directly beat him up though.
What made the Young Xehanort fight so great to me was that during the gimmick with the clock in the middle of the room he was using the attacks Mysterious Figure had in BBS. This was a craaaazy reveal to younger me, after reading so many theories online and dying to him so much in BBS. I wonder if this reveal still hits new players to the series going through blind and beating all the secret bosses.
20:38 As someone who is going through the Metal Gear games for the first time, I will always appreciate it when you call this moment the MGS4 microwave hallway scene.
"lucid mode" would've been really cool, basically a driveform gauge that when you activate it gives you your full flow motion kit, as if you are lucid dreaming and have full control
Well it makes sense that Julius is in Traverse Town a place where those who lost their world to go and you know Disney wants to make sure the world he came from goes away.
Dream Drop's world selection always struck me as "aimed almost exclusively at 2000's Disney kids." Being one myself, I popped off at almost every one of these, as you say, "WTF" world picks because I saw them and went "THEY MADE THIS FOR *ME*!" Like, Tron Legacy, Notre Dame, especially MDG Three Musketeers, that felt like Nomura was staring right at me when he made that choice. Even the TWEWY cast, while not Disney, felt like they were included to appeal to a very specific age demographic, kids who were growing up with KH, Square and Disney.
Also, on the topic of Sora and Riku, my personal wish for KH4 is for Riku to be a permanent 4th party member, maybe even with an FFXV-style player-switching mechanic. Yes, even to play as Donald and Goofy. It's a silly wishlist idea, but I feel like with XV and VIIR doing the same, it's not unlikely!
I dint understand how you forgot about Roxas and Xion when talking about the cathedral scene. Yes, Ventus is fine being in Sora's heart, but Roxas and Xion would love more than anything to be their own person, but are trapped in Sora's heart. So yes, Sora's heart, for them, is a prison, as nice a prison as it is.
I always take that scene as more of Young Xehanort trying to gaslight Sora because when you think about Sora and Master Xehanort. Both are opposite when it comes to opening their hearts. Xehanort is imposing his will over other hearts, while Sora is allowing other hearts to be healed or act as temporary haven.
Y'know with Roxas & Xion being so thematic with discovering one's self, and also being associated with a tower, I feel like there's a bit to explore with Quasimodo.
Hunchback was the first Disney world revealed in DDD’s first trailer, before we had any idea about the gameplay beyond Flowmotion. Dream Eaters weren’t even present yet, they showed Heartless instead. Makes me wonder if the world options were once less focused on Mickey + reinterpreting old worlds bc Hunchback being the only truly independent world really stands out now you mention it. Might have been a cost saving measure to pick Musketeers over a new property like Treasure Planet; reuse Mickey + Donald + Goofy + Pete’s design, maybe repurpose some of Hunchback’s assets.
Oh my god I just figured out why Hockomonkey makes sense for Traverse Town! Jupiter Of The Monkey is the clothing brand that Neku wears in The World Ends With You, and his clothes are purple. Hockomonkey is a purple monkey. That also explains why Hockomonkey is on one of Traverse Town's keyblades.
The Coachman is rarely ever acknowledged outside of most Pinocchio media. Probably because he's arguably one of the most sinister and creepy villains in the Disney canon. Still, would've been nice to drop a meteor on him.
As somebody who was raised in that era in the early 00s with zero knowledge of any separation between Disney Canon and Direct to Video films, any of them were equally as Disney to me thanks to those sweet memories I got from watching DVD stuff in that era. So like, I know everyone in the internet nowadays likes segregating those two as different (and one less worthy of praise than the other), I do like how Nomura didn't feel restricted by those labels? Like, when pitching KH1 he had a Toy Story world sketched with likely not much context of how separate Pixar was from Disney back then, and I feel a similar thing can be roughly felt in Kingdom Hearts? Sure, examples are few (Country of Musketeers as a world, KH2 Agrabah's inspiration in Return of Jafar, Sparky in BBS or the Heffalump in KH3's acre woods), but I like how stuff from there is viewed just as valuably to the Disney brand as Disney Canon is. Country of Musketeers in DDD really makes me think of the potential some of those films could have as worlds. Your poll on the KHIV World Watch for returning worlds did get my gears thinking on how those worlds could be expanded, and my mind set to vote based on the potential of any sequel content. Made me think how King of Thieves could make for an interesting Agrabah 3, Lion King 2 could really give Pridelands a boost taking place in the more lush version with Simba as king, Return to Neverland play out with its sequel 's era setting of WW2, seeing Ariel as a mother in an icey follow up to Atlantica, or a fun time travelling plot with Cinderella 3. I'm gonna miss the bridge games that had this on potential a ton, the era of bridge titles being gone thanks to the death of handhelds makes me appreciate Dream Drop so much more despite its faults.
As someone who loves DDD, I have to say, I totally understand and actually agree with your criticisms of the game. Like I’ve never noticed the fact that the enemies don’t really correspond to the worlds like they do in previous titles. That’s very interesting.
I saw a theory on GameFAQs once that YX mentions Symphony of Sorcery is beautiful to Sora because this is the last world in the story before TWTNW, which is where they plan to totally mindfuck Sora and make him a vessel, so the Org is taking pity on him and letting him visit such a beautiful place.
just playing devil's advocate here, but the grid in dream drop doesnt seem to be a sleeping world. young xehanort straight up admits that to be the case, he literally says the grid is actually the real world. so for this one pitstop, seems like sora and maybe also even riku might have left briefly their dream shenanigans to actually contribute in the real plot that is happening in the grid, before plunging back into the sleeping worlds again later with the sleeping keyholes. both sora and riku seem to actually help at different point in the movie the main cast, they just seem to have missed each other by happenstance, which is further corroborated by the fact its the only world in the game where actually one of the runs, sora's, doesnt actually have an ending to the plot in any real way, it's riku who gets the ending, and it's the only time a riku ending actually matches the movie's ending. all the other times all of the endings and how the plot goes in riku's worlds is influenced by sora's heart changing how the events take place in, the prime example being in monstro. you seemed confused every time it happened but that is the reason why riku's worlds are generally weirder, and sora's are much more to the books. riku spends his gameplay in sora's heart biased recreation of the events of what he experiences. also the riku that appears in monstro is most definitely not dark riku from kh3, it's almost certain it's supposed to be the nightmare coat boss you fight as riku at the end of ddd
While I do ultimately agree that I think The Grid might not be a sleeping world, I think your take has some significant flaws. It seems unlikely that Sora and Riku are really just inhabiting the same space at roughly the same time and just keep missing each other as you suggest. For one, it would be really odd for NONE of the characters to mention the other newcomer to one or the other. Something like Flynn telling Riku that they just met another boy with a weapon just like his, or Quorra mentioning that she wished Sora was there to help deal with CLU/Commantis. Something like that. Think back to bbs, where the disney characters are constantly mentioning the other members of the trio they've met. 'That Terra guy helped me and won the games', 'Oh, that's Ventus' treasure', things like that. You get none of that with the grid crew. To your point about the Riku in Monstro...no, that very much is the Dark Riku from KH3, it's sort of his soft reveal as a member of the true organization, even if we didn't really know that at the time because DDD discourse in general ran on "it's all a dream but what's the secret meaning" logic. Riku has nothing to do with the anti-black coat, Nomura has literally stated in interviews that the ABC really is just a particularly strong Nightmare, in the same way that Redeye is just a particularly strong Heartless, or the Iron Imprisoner is a particularly sreong Unversed, or the Dark Inferno in KH3 (for now, at least). I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if some of that got retconned in the future, especially since the ABC shares a lot of aesthetic real estate with the Darklings, but I doubt any such retcon would involve the ABC taking the time to chill with Pinocchio in Monstro for no reason. Your claim that the ABC is the Riku in Monstro really only seems to stem from two points, being that, well, they're both wearing black cloaks, and I guess that you fight him as Riku? It's not much. Back to the Grid, I think if we believe what Xemnas said to be true, I think it is more likely that Sora does visit the real version of that world, but Riku is going through Sora's dream of that world. After all, Sora is the only one who gets the " This world is real" speech, and Riku spends the majority of the adventure in Sora's dreams specifically. You can sort of make the dream eaters still appearing work as Sora still being tethered to the Realm of Sleep via the Organization's designs, and the dream eaters being pulled into the real world by proxy. In a way, it sort of echoes the Space Paranoids heartless breaking out of the system and appearing in Hollow Bastion in KH2, funnily enough.
@@NN-ge2wf oh ehy, finally someone actually willing to discuss stuff! hello! about the grid thing, it totally get what you mean, and i am not 100% sure of it either, i suppose nothing is against the possibility that it was just sora who ended up in the real grid, and it wouldnt really change much, but i think its not as farfetched as you think. many things in ddd are left purposefully ambiguous or in the air, because a lot of information can only be correctly read after knowing the plot twists at the end that recontectualize everything that has happened in the game. if the game did the bbs trick of mentioning the other characters, it would give away that aspect, and also, it would break the game because sora and riku would absolutely try to wait and find the other first before continuing. oh no, seems like you got the nomura interview on the topic mixed up! because he actually said the opposite! but lets go in order. so first, it cant be anyone from kh3, because the one you're referring to is repliku. there is no way, no hows, that repliku would just show up for no reason in monstro, not say A WORD or insult, and then disappear into the aether. secondly, it literally cannot be anyone from kh3 because this particular riku doesnt have golden eyes, which is the giveaway for the seekers even in this game. thirdly, the connection to the antiblack coat. first off, the animations abc uses are the same as riku's, it does the same battle stance that is unique to him and always a giveaway to riku being related and same sword swiping animations, people have compared them and i would send you the links if i could here, if you look you should be able to find em. secondly, what nomura actually said on the matter. what the coat originally was meant to be was a nightmare version of sora's dream eater that would have fought one another, so originally he said it would have been a dark meow wow. the same concept is in union cross, where player has a chirithy and a dark chirithy, the latter starting out as a normal identical chirithy before maturing into the nightmare version. if you rewatch the cutscene of the battle, the camera deliberately shows how riku and abc have mirrored dream eater symbols too. riku is a dream eater, so if a dark version of him should exist, it is very obviously abc. then, there is the most important aspect of this, the thematic and narrative reasons for this! the abc riku only appears when sora's heart is reminded of the events of kh1 in monstro, which is the world where riku actively becomes antagonistic towards sora, which causes riku to end up there instead of prankster's paradise. here, we see the kh1 events repeating, but now our riku has the chance of a do-over and can help pinocchio instead, while the role of kh1 riku takes shape as the not-speaking riku. as the game progresses, and sora is led through layers of sleep into nightmares and darkness, with the way he is first put to sleep is by young xehanort mimicking riku's reaching out hand pose. the riku in monstro is as such a recreation of kh1 riku, the one who hurt and even tried to kill sora, causing sora a lot of unspoken and bottled up pain he has been carrying even now, to give you an example it is the kh1 riku betrayal that causes roxas to cry for the first time. so, the monstro riku developed like the dark chirithy did in union cross until it actively traps sora in the nightmares. riku betraying and hurting sora is quite literally sora's "biggest nightmare", alongside im sure losing again kairi and riku and needing to find em again but not managing to, which we also see in the nightmare visions. so, this makes the actual riku's intervention and huge proclamation of devouring the abc nightmare as one more statement of his complete devotion to sora and never letting him down again like he did before, smashing to a pulp the literal representation of what he did in kh1 and sora's fears it may happen again. as i said, yeah the "both in the grid thing" is not completely flawless (unlike the abc being the nightmare version of riku which doesnt have a single aspect that is incongrous with everything else, tho id be happy to hear if you have anything that i may have missed), just sora is in the real world would work, but i still am unsure because of the reasons i said, and also riku getting the real ending in sora's heart doesnt make sense because sora never witnessed that, and also the dream eaters being around is not a good argument since they can exist in the real world too supposedly. they are in the real world when riku is going to find sora, and they are in kh3 and tecnically union cross.
I think the 3 musketeers was actually the world that did the most with the premise. Or at least had the most opportunity too. This is basically a time travel plot with extra steps so the whole “meeting your friends but they don’t even know you” in a series where friendship equals power or something seems like the logical choice.
The Three Musketeers was released around the time The House of Mouse was getting very popular overseas with the reruns on Disney Channel, so it was one of my favorite movies as kid, as it featured characters from my favorite show. It's probably part of why I loved KH1 and 2 so much, as it perfectly depicts this era of Disney in which Mickey was a very active mascot. Dream Drop as a whole feels like a love letter to early Gen-Z KH fans who's childhood took place in the early 2000s. Shame that Treasure Planet couldn't be featured to bring forth this feeling even more.
Hey Pat, if you need more games to stream (and haven't yet), a possible neat choice is a game called Rocket Robot on Wheels. Why am I bringing it up? Well aside from it being kind of obscure so would be a neat look, the ENTIRE game is a theme park, so every level is theme park based in some way.
I fucking love the Tron Legacy movie. Not even as a movie because the plot is dodgy and the CGI bad guy is horrific (in a bad way). But it’s one of the best films from a visual design standpoint ever and has one of the best film scores ever and honestly that’s all I need. A Kingdom Hearts adaptation that isn’t able to translate the visuals and music from the film was always going to be an absolute disaster. Only way to save the world would be with the 2 mini games; Light Cycle and Disc Wars. Light Cycle is fun enough but the version we see in Legacy would have been so, so fun to play in the series. And then Disc Wars isn’t even in the world which I get I wouldn’t even know how that would look like in KH but damn it would have loved if they tried because it’s so damn cool in the film
This video is so good. As someone who’s very fond of DDD, I think your criticism is perfectly valid and welcome about the game. These aren’t notes about the video so much as DDD stuff itself! - Did you ever see the trailer for DDD where Sora was running in first person in Bell City and jumped out to a bunch of confetti? It stuck with me so vividly, and considering that and other information we know about its development, I can’t help but wonder about how different of a game we could have gotten. - Did you know that, in Traverse Town, Riku can’t do the shortcut from the 3rd to the 1st district, but Sora can? I genuinely believe it’s because Riku, by all means, had no reason TO know about how to unlock the shortcut, but Sora did from his memories of KH1. It’s super charming to me! On top of that, I believe this is a moment of Dream Eaters Going ❓at something, but I could be wrong on this front. It’s the only other time /I/ know of that’s not mentioned in the video.
for the musketeers world not making sense, i always thought of it as a dream based on a memory. specifically mickey's memory of how he and minnie got together. based on timeless river in KH2, mickey wasn't the king because he worked for pete on the steamboat and lived in a house too small for royalty. i think that mickey went off and trained under yensid and learned to be a better person, then yensid sent him on a mission back home, or just kicked him out of the tower after mickey flooded it, and then mickey teamed up with his old friends or made friends with donald and goofy and ended up fooling a plan by pete and the beagle boys. princess minnie saw that, fell in love, and the two got married and mickey returned to yensid to complete his training after he became king - which led into KHBBS timeline. i think pete got away with his scheming and the beagle boys got blamed, because those guys don't show up again in the later games, but mickey knows in retrospect that pete was bad news, so the dream reveals that pete was a bad guy. or pete wasn't fully bad but the dream makes him bad because he turns bad. but yeah, i think its just a dream formed from a memory.
Pat, I don't know if you ever saw it, but I left a comment way back on your KH2 world ranking about Space Paranoids and how a scene in KH2 that you praised was from Tron itself-I'm glad that you've been able to watch both movies now! I can get why people wouldn't like either film (I certainly have strong opinions about Legacy), but I'm glad they've at least allowed you to appreciate both Space Paranoids and The Grid more, because I probably wouldn't appreciate either as much if I hadn't seen the films either.
All I’m going to say about Twewy is part of the reason people love Neku so much is throughout the game he naturally grows out of being such an ass. He doesn’t flip on a dime, he’s challenged and has to work on what he thinks of others. You hate him at first and then you get to like him a lot later.
I randomly found just the TWEWY DS card on the floor of a bowling alley once, and while I never actually got very far into it (something that’s true for a lot of handheld games I tried to play), I never quite forgot about it and was blown away to see the gang pop up in KH.
Pretty amazing that even though you’re not that fond of the game, you managed to still thoughtfully pick out the game’s strengths and articulate them in a way I couldn’t, and it reminded me specifically why this game is actually one of my favorites lol
The racism in the Hunchback world is also sort of interesting because it's basically the closest the series really gets to acknowledging the main characters are pretty clearly Japanese, or at least some fantasy flavor of it, with Frollo instantly recognizing them as an 'other.' Of course, the game contextualizes it by their strange clothes for the time period, but there's still subtext. It's kinda interesting.
Not Japanese, ISLANDER. The he has the tan skin and dark hair of a Pacific Islander ethnicity, which makes him visually similar to the darker fearures of the Romani gypsies, hence why Frollo mistakes him for one.
Solid work as ever. Well worth the wait! Back in 2012 I was really looking forward to seeing a proper return to Traverse Town as it's my favorite world, but was ultimately left a bit disappointed by how it was handled in KH3D. Yeah it was nice being back there and seeing some new areas, but the whole thing felt a bit lacking. Your analysis of it - especially the celebration aspect - has made me see it from a new light and appreciate it a whole lot more. Random observation: it's also so strange/hilarious that all the rooms you could enter in KH1 (but can't in DDD) have now been blocked by boxes, just to make it super clear that those are inaccessible now.
I am glad you were at least fair with your criticisms. Even if your preferences are known, you do your due diligence. It's not a Schaffrilas situation where you just rage for extended amounts of time and everyone laughs at the haha funny angry man.
Congrats to RegularPat for 50K subs on TH-cam!! And congrats to @tenworms for guessing the world's for this list correctly on the post from the day before it came out. Good job man.
I always thought this game would have benefited if kick dives were tied to a skill, so that you don't get unlimited kick dives until TWTNW. This is because I'm stupid and played the game like that so my memory of the level design is much better!
Great video to see! DDD was my first new kingdom hearts game since the PS2, so despite any issues it may have, it holds a special place for me. For that, and finally truly moving the story Forward for the first time since KH2
I'm watching on T.V., and needed to "rewind" once again at the end because I blank out on listening to what I'm hearing, and I got the scrobble bar up _right_ when the outro "notes" hit, and I was wheezing.
I think The Grid existing separate from Space Paranoids actually makes a lot of sense. Think about it, its the same thing that happened with Twilight Town. Ansem The Wise created a digital copy of the original world. The real Space Paranoids was allowed to evolve into The Grid, whereas Ansem's digital Space Paranoids ended up being stuck as its original copy forever. Even the whole 'Tron remembers Sora' thing is similar to how the real Hayner, Pence and Olette react to Roxas, even though the real versions of them never knew him until KH3.
To answer the Hockomonkey theming question, it’s probably a little weak but monkeys are generally used for subtext within the TWEWY series. Both of its protagonists are based on one of the four wise monkeys of Japanese proverb with Neku being based on the “hear no evil” one. As such, the brand that Neku (and protagonist successor, Rindo) get their clothes from is called Jupiter of the Monkey. That brand also gets the honor of being named after the TWEWY developer, Jupiter.
What a great World Ranking, Pat. It's been awhile since we got something like this since BBS. And it's so much fun. I may disagree with some placements for the worlds like how low the Country of the Musketeer is, but at the same time, it's such a great video
How I see the country of musketeers, I headcanon that country of musketeers is just another past version of disney castle/town. Maybe that's the name of the wider world that the town is a part of. "Timeless River" could be just that: a river. Or maybe it doesn't exist, maybe it's just how they remember the more distant past. Minnie is the princess of this world and marrying her is how mickey becomes king. Since mickey is in timeless river, maybe he's originally from this world but came back mid-keyblade training for this mission. This could also be how he met Donald and goofy. Pete being allowed in Disney Town could be answered by "captain justice": maybe Pete told them he wanted a second chance to do good (when really he's just gonna betray them again), and sweet Minnie is so trusting that she supported him. Cuz maybe he said "sorry" and pouted. And maybe being betrayed twice is why Minnie banished him
1:17:21 You showing the Phantom here gave me a great idea. Imagine the Fifth District have a large clock face as a focal point that's somehow synced up with the Reaper Game. Suddenly, you're assaulted by a Nightmare version of the Phantom from KH1 complete with its own version of Doom. It's no longer immune to physical attacks, but you could still get some bonus damage by matching the elements. You can even use Reality Shift to throw something at the clock to slow or stop it. It would show Sora and Riku's progression from the first game, tie into the celebration of KH, tie into TWEWY by letting you participate in a Reaper Game, and even vaguely hint at the fact that there is an actual Super Boss hiding somewhere else in Traverse. You could even go one step further and give it two different designs based on its original colors and its FM recolor.
I originally thought that Country of Musketeers was Mickey's ascent to becoming Minnie's husband and thus the King of Disney Town, and by the lore of the same movie this would have to happen BEFORE Mickey's work as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, as the MDG trio had been janitors in the palace their whole lives according to their origin story in that same movie.
While it’s undermined to a degree by flow motion I love the level design for this game in how vertical it is compared to the games since 1, as well as how expansive the areas are not to mention how many there are for a handheld compared to the DS games or Birth by Sleep (although like BbS the NPC shortage still stands out). The reality shifts add a component of environment interactivity as well, navigating areas and uncovering secrets or accessing chests.
My theory on One for All and All for One is that Sora/Riku have all these areas to explore (One for All) and that all the Nightmare Dream Eaters are trying to get you (All for One). Also, Symphony of Sorcery is my favorite Disney world in the franchise and unlocks my favorite Keyblade: Counterpoint, which is a clever name, considering a counterpoint in music is multiple melodies working in tandem, just like Sora and Riku. I’m always happy to see some appreciation for it!
I’m sure you’ve been asked this before but have you ever considered making content about the games with KH DNA? Like FFs XV, VIRemake/Rebirth, and XVI? Or SE games that are featured in KH like FFs VI, VII, VIII, IX, X and TWEWY? You make the most supreme KH content imo and would love to hear your takes about the KH adjacent games out there. 💖
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
The Grid actually makes total sense to be included in DDD
Someone probably just put Ansem's computer in sleep mode and forgot the password so they couldn't get back in
And it has like 8 passwords so yeah DDD was needed for MoM probably😭😅
Or the actual "real world" in Tron: Legacy became a sleeping world and, in true KH fashion, the Grid is just a core slice of that.
Can we talk about how they went from an incredibly uncrackable 47-character password to a much more guessable 15-character one. Great safety check, Tron.
@@xenothekami888 Thanks, Xehanort.
I mean you at least have to be able to *type* it to begin with, heaven forbid you get ONE character wrong on that password.
I think the coolest thing in DDD will always be that the worlds actually foreshadow the ending of the game. There's always the concept of being trapped/imprisoned (in a bell tower, in a datascape, trapped by the a nightmare, trapped in the reaper games, and so on-) or literally falling in a trap (being swallowed by Monstro, or kidnapped by the Beagle Boys), because Sora IS being trapped by the Organization, imprisoned in his own dreams so that he can be turned into a vessel. Meanwhile Riku is never following the "main" story of the world, because he's following a reflection of Sora's dream, and working in the back to reach him in the end.
Ah yes. Pat's favorite game in the franchise. I can't wait for his thoughts on The Grid. His absolute favorite KH world of all time.
People who say that Arendel is just watching the movie clearly haven't played 3D
@@AeonKnigh432
I have and still say Arendel is just watching the movie.
Edit: at least in 3D you feel like you’re talking apart in the events half of the time.
@@HeadHunter-mv2ht I disagree. I really don't want to sit by while some old guy and a goth woman wax poetic about the nature of computers or whatever.
@samlewis6487 so what?? You'd rather watch frozen ft sora, Donald, & goofy?? Loser. No one loves you
@@AeonKnigh432as opposed to just watching a ice lady sing a song and fall down a mountain 3 times and then fight a snow wolf.
As for the thing about TWEWY and Monkeys, the reason the final boss is a big ape is because Neku's favorite clothing brand (and the clothes he wears) is actually the brand Jupiter of the Monkey! Its also one of the few brands to stay in both TWEWY games
Jupes my beloved
They were my favorite clothing brand as well as Gatito and Natural Puppy. I could see myself wearing them irl.
I’m shocked you don’t call the Mickey Remind scene the “Michaelwave Hallway”.
I hate that I love this name so much lol
Every time someone mentions that treasure planet was potentially a world in this game, a little part of my heart honestly hurts.
I kinda feel the same, but I dunno, I feel Treasure Planet deserves to be in a main console game and being given the KH3 Caribbean treatment as opposed to what I assume would've just been exploring a scaled down version of the RLS Legacy and a few areas of Treasure Planet itself.
DDD was the last non-mobile side game. We didn't even get a Switch exclusive. Because spending 3 years making a crappy cloud port of KH III was SO MUCH BETTER than putting a team on a smaller, Switch original title.
You _do_ know hurt.
@@Volvagia1927 A switch port of KH3 was always going to be crappy. But hey, Switch got the definitive version of Melody Of Memory outside of PC.
@@KeybladeMasterAndyI wouldn't say that when NieR and DragonQuest are fine enough.
But even if they insisted on keeping 3 as a cloud game because reasons.
Why couldn't the 3PS2 games, 1 PSP game and 2 movies get native ports?
Given the fact that both TRON movies depict the virtual world existing in the machines of the modern world, it stands to reason that modern earth is, itself, the world that fell to darkness.
Which means Ansem paid a visit to ENCOM's offices circa 1982.
the battle theme is “all for one” because that part of the expression is the more aggressive part, saying all treasure should go to one person. “one for all” means working together and splitting rewards evenly
Agreed. It's like how the hero's power in My Hero Academia is One for All, and the villain's power is All for One.
In spanish, it's Even more clear, since the words are uno para todos y todos para uno (todos being a way to Say everyone)
I came to mention My Hero Academia, but @ShyRanger already did it. I'm still tempted to write a whole ass essay about the matter and why it's so good. But I won't. That'd be inappropriate. I'll just rant about this series' greatness to myself like I'm sure Pat talks to himself about Kingdom Hearts. But you're right though.
Wait, I thought “all for one” meant “if one of us is in danger, we all help them.” Like a camaraderie thing. I suppose it still applies, since battle is when the aforementioned danger shows up.
@@AshZucchini8168 That's what it originally meant, but it can be interpreted in other ways, like the idea of everything belonging to just one person. It's the case in the manga/anime series I and another user mentioned. The English preposition "for" is vague, so it invites many interpretations.
That "Wake up, Kevin" got me. Not because my name is Kevin, but because the sheer possibility that it could have been
stay vigilant, steven
About the Grid specifically I remember a few years ago the idea was floated that Sora specifically *wasn't* in a Sleeping world during it. That it was the first blatant attempt by the Organization to meddle with the test by pulling him out of the Realm of Sleep. The presence of Dream Eaters being a consequence of "sleep" leaking out and following Sora or a pure gameplay conceit. Riku's version was in the Sleeping Realm but it was via Sora's own dreams and memories since thats where he actually was the whole time.
There's still a few holes in it but considering Xemnas's speech about how "data can't dream" it lines up pretty well.
That's a fascinating take. It'd lead into them throwing him into other worlds, other times, and eventually into sleep within sleep.
I think the main reason why they chose Musketeers was because the series had already been sourcing from it for aspects of how the Disney Crew operate from the beginning.
"All for one, and one for all."
Donald and Goofy have Sora join in on that chant as part of their growing relationship in KH1, and only people who had watched that one random movie would've known why they were doing the musketeers thing.
Something confusing to me is that KH1 is older than that movie. Did the movie base it off of KH, or was there an older version of MDG saying that?
@@superwooper5210 Wow, bizarre.
Apparently the phrase wasn't even in the JP version of KH1, the localizers added it in.
They just got lucky with a coincidence I guess.
Kinda makes strange sense for Julius to be in Traverse Town, don't it? A world meant for those who have lost there's. And there are few disney characters as lost as he is
I honestly think Julius is more of a product of Sora's imagination than a real character (like a nightmarish version of Pete), so it makes kind of sense for him to appear in a dream world.
@@saxor96 if that was the case then why can riku fight him
@@KINGOFTHESPARKS755 Well... Because of the whole plot of DDD.
Riku is inside Sora's dreams for the entirety of the game after all.
@@saxor96 why can Sora fight him then? Aren't Sora's worlds the actual Dream Worlds?
@@odd-eyes6363 They're still dream worlds and are influenced by the people present there. I don't see the issue here.
Wow, okay now it’s officially my headcanon as well that Sora’s dumb in this game because you’re dumber in your dreams. I never thought of it like that. Whenever something happens in my dreams, no matter how absurd or questionable it is, I always just go along with it. Like one I always remember is how I had one where my substitute teacher was a velociraptor that killed everyone, and I just accepted that was my reality now.
Riku gets to be a master at the end of the game because he has the magical power of lucid dreaming
It’s less that Sora is dumber and rather that people overstate how smart he is in the previous games.
Especially since now he doesn’t have Goofy or Donald to help him.
@@pn2294 He’s dumber.
@@pn2294 Sora has never been the brightest bulb. People seem to confuse him being agitated and hostile towards organization 13 with him being smarter because he’s giving them sass and not treating them as a joke.
@@oreotaku4017He does come across as quite a bit less stupid in KH2 and 3 though. That "this is so unfriendly" line doesn't feel like something this character would say at this point in his development.
I believe Minnie was from the Musketeers. Mickey married into royalty.
55:37 cleanest cut I’ve ever seen in my life
"I'm sure the movie has its fans." Oh it do.
It truly and honestly do.
Dream Drop is actually one of my favorite games in the series. And, no, I'm not joking the rest of the comment section; I'm being genuine about this. I find Dream Drop's gameplay fun, the characters are entertaining, I really love the Dream Eaters, and the fact that you play as Sora and Riku simultaneously is incredible! I do admit that the game definitely has its fair share of flaws, but for me, when it comes to Dream Drop, the positives outweigh the negatives by a very significant margin.
It's top 3 for me! I don't prefer it to 1 or 2 but I do really love it. I think it has some serious flaws for sure, and it kinda gets worse the higher you pump the difficulty, but it has so so much charm that makes me always so excited to revisit it.
I would rather play DDD then play kh3 to be totally honest with you all 😅
Re:Coded is SO much worse; I don't know how people hate DDD
Dream Drop Distance was one of my first 3DS games alongside Pokémon X and Epic Mickey Power of Illusion. I never really finished it because I got stuck on Xemnas.
You're not alone there!
One thing I thought was interesting about the Grid was how, in Sora's visit, CLU is actually cognizant of the Keyblade's powers to open any lock and is willing to use it as part of his own master plan.
On one hand, it's cool to see Disney characters aware of the outside KH world, but on the other, I have no idea how CLU knows about this.
Well it's because... um... Assembly the Wise? Accessed that computer? So maybe he somehow input info on the Keyblade into it? Or the person who made the Grid has knowledge of the Keyblade?
@@AeonKnigh432
I always thought Assertation the Wine just copied the Grid and used that for Radiant Garden? Both of those are still possible I guess.
The only logical explanation I can come up with is that information being accessible from tron's disk but being he's not the same tron....yeah it's questionable overall
I've always assumed CLU just has the ability to fully scan and get all the data on anything.
@@DarkOverlord96 Everyone on the grid gets an Identity disc that maintains any and all information on the user, CLU doesn't have any more or less power than any other programs while on the grid beyond his influence. What they could've done is give sora a false impression on CLU similar to sam in Legacy and allow him to access his disc that way he'd know every detail about sora.
To me, Symphony of Sorcery is probably the most underrated world in the entire franchise. Fantasia really deserves more love for being as innovative as it was.
Also, am I the only one who thinks The Grid should've been saved for KH3?
I'm super biased on the Country of Musketeers. I grew up with the movie and would have never believed they'd add it to Kingdom Hearts.
And as a classic Disney fan, I love that there are multiple fights with the Begale Boys in the game.
Same here, MD&G: Three Musketeers was actually a big part of my childhood, I practically had it on repeat and if I heard any of the songs I'm sure it would activate something in me like a sleeper agent, lmao
About frollo thinking the gargoyle wasnt a demon, actually the gargoyles were used as ways to scare dark spirits
Makes sense. Big churches are decorated with them.
It's color scheme also kind of reminds me of stained glass
thank you for making a video about the best kingdom hearts game. im glad you finally came around
That's GBA CoM.
Ok, best is kinda pushing it. Kh1 Kh2 and possibly even Kh3 are so much better. I also prefer BBS over DDD. Sooooo
@@IcedCube0310" i also prefer BBS over DDD" BATTLE OF MID.
@@matheus-nice TRUE
Even reading the comment made me wince
The Grid is actually fairly easy to explain in the meta narrative, as Tron outright states that the Space Paranoids we visit in KH2 is a copy of the original program, which means The Grid would simply be the original that Ansem the Wise copied.
Nice! 🙂
5:40 "But The Grid is still a program, or virtual space, that had to have existed in some other world, and that world couldn't have been Radiant Garden, since The Grid wouldn't exist as a sleeping world if that were the case, because Radiant Garden never fully fell to darkness in the KH1 era."
So, the missing piece of the explanation is "where did The Grid come from?" What world was it originally contained within, whence Ansem the Wise yoinked it?
Yeah my understanding is the sequence of events goes like this.
Ansem the Wise visits the earth world Tron takes place in with Flynn's Arcade and copies Space Paranoids.
After he leaves, the plots of Tron 1 and Legacy happen in Tron world.
Tron world falls to darkness after Ansem, Seeker of Darkness' attack before KH1.
KH1 happens and Tron world becomes a sleeping world.
KH2 happens and Sora enters Ansem the Wise's copy of Space Paranoids.
DDD happens and Sora and Riku enter the sleeping Tron world during the events of Tron Legacy.
It's very convoluted, but it IS DDD.
He literally said this in the video.
Not just that, but From says the original was destroyed, hence wht it's in the dream realm.
I personally theorize that they picked Julius as the DDD superboss specifically because the game is trying to hearken back to KH1 as an anniversary thing, and KH1 had a Disney superboss. I don't know... *why* it was Julius in particular, but I think that's why there's a Disney superboss.
40:37 “So let’s just do Monstro again, and I mean that in a game design way, and not a Shape of Water way.”
I thrust my head back from laughing so much that i hit a well and still didn’t stop laughing, how do you come up with this??? 😭 😭
In the Hunchback section, I do appreciate the perspective of this being a "victory lap" for Riku in a sense. I like that the game almost had a feeling of giving Riku a taste of the fun Disney-style world adventures where he gets to help others. It feels very deserved after having to be in the shadows for so long, not interacting with many of the world characters, and especially not in a helpful way. Proud of my edgy teenager dude for being able to get out and have the same kind of fun Sora's been having.
36:40 I get what you're saying but Ven isn't the only heart inside Sora's. Both Roxas and Xion (and Vanitas by extend) are also trapped within him and they didn't exactly want to give up their autonomy and life for a guy they didn't know.
Thought this was funny too because Sora surely would definitely be concerned by this given how he unknowingly had Kairi in him for the entirety of KH1 and the only way he got her out was self-sacrifice. Considering the Org in this game were trying to soften Sora’s resolve and make him more receptive to darkness, giving him doubt and anxiety reflecting a situation he already experienced is a great idea.
I mean, Xion did. Kind of
@@homestuck_officialWilling to and truly wanting to are different things.
the most wild thing about the Hunchback world is the fact that they really had Frollo go up to Sora and call him a slur
to be clear, i like that scene because you AND Sora immediately get a sense of who this guy is then, and it makes it more satisfying to see him die later. i do wish we got to directly beat him up though.
What made the Young Xehanort fight so great to me was that during the gimmick with the clock in the middle of the room he was using the attacks Mysterious Figure had in BBS. This was a craaaazy reveal to younger me, after reading so many theories online and dying to him so much in BBS. I wonder if this reveal still hits new players to the series going through blind and beating all the secret bosses.
20:38 As someone who is going through the Metal Gear games for the first time, I will always appreciate it when you call this moment the MGS4 microwave hallway scene.
"lucid mode" would've been really cool, basically a driveform gauge that when you activate it gives you your full flow motion kit, as if you are lucid dreaming and have full control
Well it makes sense that Julius is in Traverse Town a place where those who lost their world to go and you know Disney wants to make sure the world he came from goes away.
Does Julius even come from a Runaway Brain world, though? For all we know he might come from one of the "Classic Disney" worlds.
Dream Drop's world selection always struck me as "aimed almost exclusively at 2000's Disney kids." Being one myself, I popped off at almost every one of these, as you say, "WTF" world picks because I saw them and went "THEY MADE THIS FOR *ME*!" Like, Tron Legacy, Notre Dame, especially MDG Three Musketeers, that felt like Nomura was staring right at me when he made that choice. Even the TWEWY cast, while not Disney, felt like they were included to appeal to a very specific age demographic, kids who were growing up with KH, Square and Disney.
Also, on the topic of Sora and Riku, my personal wish for KH4 is for Riku to be a permanent 4th party member, maybe even with an FFXV-style player-switching mechanic. Yes, even to play as Donald and Goofy. It's a silly wishlist idea, but I feel like with XV and VIIR doing the same, it's not unlikely!
I dint understand how you forgot about Roxas and Xion when talking about the cathedral scene. Yes, Ventus is fine being in Sora's heart, but Roxas and Xion would love more than anything to be their own person, but are trapped in Sora's heart.
So yes, Sora's heart, for them, is a prison, as nice a prison as it is.
its because Vanitas is specifically talking about Ven, he doesn't know the other two trapped in their heart.
I always take that scene as more of Young Xehanort trying to gaslight Sora because when you think about Sora and Master Xehanort. Both are opposite when it comes to opening their hearts. Xehanort is imposing his will over other hearts, while Sora is allowing other hearts to be healed or act as temporary haven.
Y'know with Roxas & Xion being so thematic with discovering one's self, and also being associated with a tower, I feel like there's a bit to explore with Quasimodo.
Hunchback was the first Disney world revealed in DDD’s first trailer, before we had any idea about the gameplay beyond Flowmotion. Dream Eaters weren’t even present yet, they showed Heartless instead. Makes me wonder if the world options were once less focused on Mickey + reinterpreting old worlds bc Hunchback being the only truly independent world really stands out now you mention it.
Might have been a cost saving measure to pick Musketeers over a new property like Treasure Planet; reuse Mickey + Donald + Goofy + Pete’s design, maybe repurpose some of Hunchback’s assets.
Oh my god I just figured out why Hockomonkey makes sense for Traverse Town! Jupiter Of The Monkey is the clothing brand that Neku wears in The World Ends With You, and his clothes are purple. Hockomonkey is a purple monkey. That also explains why Hockomonkey is on one of Traverse Town's keyblades.
Should have called it Jupiter Monkey or something
The Coachman is rarely ever acknowledged outside of most Pinocchio media. Probably because he's arguably one of the most sinister and creepy villains in the Disney canon. Still, would've been nice to drop a meteor on him.
"Sorry about the sentences I say sometimes"
That's why we love ya Patty boy
As somebody who was raised in that era in the early 00s with zero knowledge of any separation between Disney Canon and Direct to Video films, any of them were equally as Disney to me thanks to those sweet memories I got from watching DVD stuff in that era.
So like, I know everyone in the internet nowadays likes segregating those two as different (and one less worthy of praise than the other), I do like how Nomura didn't feel restricted by those labels?
Like, when pitching KH1 he had a Toy Story world sketched with likely not much context of how separate Pixar was from Disney back then, and I feel a similar thing can be roughly felt in Kingdom Hearts?
Sure, examples are few (Country of Musketeers as a world, KH2 Agrabah's inspiration in Return of Jafar, Sparky in BBS or the Heffalump in KH3's acre woods), but I like how stuff from there is viewed just as valuably to the Disney brand as Disney Canon is.
Country of Musketeers in DDD really makes me think of the potential some of those films could have as worlds. Your poll on the KHIV World Watch for returning worlds did get my gears thinking on how those worlds could be expanded, and my mind set to vote based on the potential of any sequel content. Made me think how King of Thieves could make for an interesting Agrabah 3, Lion King 2 could really give Pridelands a boost taking place in the more lush version with Simba as king, Return to Neverland play out with its sequel 's era setting of WW2, seeing Ariel as a mother in an icey follow up to Atlantica, or a fun time travelling plot with Cinderella 3.
I'm gonna miss the bridge games that had this on potential a ton, the era of bridge titles being gone thanks to the death of handhelds makes me appreciate Dream Drop so much more despite its faults.
As someone who loves DDD, I have to say, I totally understand and actually agree with your criticisms of the game. Like I’ve never noticed the fact that the enemies don’t really correspond to the worlds like they do in previous titles. That’s very interesting.
wait you actually edited this video right after the DDD nuzlocke? mad respect
I saw a theory on GameFAQs once that YX mentions Symphony of Sorcery is beautiful to Sora because this is the last world in the story before TWTNW, which is where they plan to totally mindfuck Sora and make him a vessel, so the Org is taking pity on him and letting him visit such a beautiful place.
Do they know where he's going? Or are they only following him?
Like number 14: Xion
just playing devil's advocate here, but the grid in dream drop doesnt seem to be a sleeping world. young xehanort straight up admits that to be the case, he literally says the grid is actually the real world. so for this one pitstop, seems like sora and maybe also even riku might have left briefly their dream shenanigans to actually contribute in the real plot that is happening in the grid, before plunging back into the sleeping worlds again later with the sleeping keyholes. both sora and riku seem to actually help at different point in the movie the main cast, they just seem to have missed each other by happenstance, which is further corroborated by the fact its the only world in the game where actually one of the runs, sora's, doesnt actually have an ending to the plot in any real way, it's riku who gets the ending, and it's the only time a riku ending actually matches the movie's ending. all the other times all of the endings and how the plot goes in riku's worlds is influenced by sora's heart changing how the events take place in, the prime example being in monstro. you seemed confused every time it happened but that is the reason why riku's worlds are generally weirder, and sora's are much more to the books. riku spends his gameplay in sora's heart biased recreation of the events of what he experiences. also the riku that appears in monstro is most definitely not dark riku from kh3, it's almost certain it's supposed to be the nightmare coat boss you fight as riku at the end of ddd
While I do ultimately agree that I think The Grid might not be a sleeping world, I think your take has some significant flaws. It seems unlikely that Sora and Riku are really just inhabiting the same space at roughly the same time and just keep missing each other as you suggest. For one, it would be really odd for NONE of the characters to mention the other newcomer to one or the other. Something like Flynn telling Riku that they just met another boy with a weapon just like his, or Quorra mentioning that she wished Sora was there to help deal with CLU/Commantis. Something like that. Think back to bbs, where the disney characters are constantly mentioning the other members of the trio they've met. 'That Terra guy helped me and won the games', 'Oh, that's Ventus' treasure', things like that. You get none of that with the grid crew.
To your point about the Riku in Monstro...no, that very much is the Dark Riku from KH3, it's sort of his soft reveal as a member of the true organization, even if we didn't really know that at the time because DDD discourse in general ran on "it's all a dream but what's the secret meaning" logic. Riku has nothing to do with the anti-black coat, Nomura has literally stated in interviews that the ABC really is just a particularly strong Nightmare, in the same way that Redeye is just a particularly strong Heartless, or the Iron Imprisoner is a particularly sreong Unversed, or the Dark Inferno in KH3 (for now, at least). I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if some of that got retconned in the future, especially since the ABC shares a lot of aesthetic real estate with the Darklings, but I doubt any such retcon would involve the ABC taking the time to chill with Pinocchio in Monstro for no reason. Your claim that the ABC is the Riku in Monstro really only seems to stem from two points, being that, well, they're both wearing black cloaks, and I guess that you fight him as Riku? It's not much.
Back to the Grid, I think if we believe what Xemnas said to be true, I think it is more likely that Sora does visit the real version of that world, but Riku is going through Sora's dream of that world. After all, Sora is the only one who gets the " This world is real" speech, and Riku spends the majority of the adventure in Sora's dreams specifically. You can sort of make the dream eaters still appearing work as Sora still being tethered to the Realm of Sleep via the Organization's designs, and the dream eaters being pulled into the real world by proxy. In a way, it sort of echoes the Space Paranoids heartless breaking out of the system and appearing in Hollow Bastion in KH2, funnily enough.
@@NN-ge2wf oh ehy, finally someone actually willing to discuss stuff! hello!
about the grid thing, it totally get what you mean, and i am not 100% sure of it either, i suppose nothing is against the possibility that it was just sora who ended up in the real grid, and it wouldnt really change much, but i think its not as farfetched as you think. many things in ddd are left purposefully ambiguous or in the air, because a lot of information can only be correctly read after knowing the plot twists at the end that recontectualize everything that has happened in the game. if the game did the bbs trick of mentioning the other characters, it would give away that aspect, and also, it would break the game because sora and riku would absolutely try to wait and find the other first before continuing.
oh no, seems like you got the nomura interview on the topic mixed up! because he actually said the opposite! but lets go in order. so first, it cant be anyone from kh3, because the one you're referring to is repliku. there is no way, no hows, that repliku would just show up for no reason in monstro, not say A WORD or insult, and then disappear into the aether. secondly, it literally cannot be anyone from kh3 because this particular riku doesnt have golden eyes, which is the giveaway for the seekers even in this game. thirdly, the connection to the antiblack coat. first off, the animations abc uses are the same as riku's, it does the same battle stance that is unique to him and always a giveaway to riku being related and same sword swiping animations, people have compared them and i would send you the links if i could here, if you look you should be able to find em. secondly, what nomura actually said on the matter. what the coat originally was meant to be was a nightmare version of sora's dream eater that would have fought one another, so originally he said it would have been a dark meow wow. the same concept is in union cross, where player has a chirithy and a dark chirithy, the latter starting out as a normal identical chirithy before maturing into the nightmare version. if you rewatch the cutscene of the battle, the camera deliberately shows how riku and abc have mirrored dream eater symbols too. riku is a dream eater, so if a dark version of him should exist, it is very obviously abc. then, there is the most important aspect of this, the thematic and narrative reasons for this! the abc riku only appears when sora's heart is reminded of the events of kh1 in monstro, which is the world where riku actively becomes antagonistic towards sora, which causes riku to end up there instead of prankster's paradise. here, we see the kh1 events repeating, but now our riku has the chance of a do-over and can help pinocchio instead, while the role of kh1 riku takes shape as the not-speaking riku. as the game progresses, and sora is led through layers of sleep into nightmares and darkness, with the way he is first put to sleep is by young xehanort mimicking riku's reaching out hand pose. the riku in monstro is as such a recreation of kh1 riku, the one who hurt and even tried to kill sora, causing sora a lot of unspoken and bottled up pain he has been carrying even now, to give you an example it is the kh1 riku betrayal that causes roxas to cry for the first time. so, the monstro riku developed like the dark chirithy did in union cross until it actively traps sora in the nightmares. riku betraying and hurting sora is quite literally sora's "biggest nightmare", alongside im sure losing again kairi and riku and needing to find em again but not managing to, which we also see in the nightmare visions. so, this makes the actual riku's intervention and huge proclamation of devouring the abc nightmare as one more statement of his complete devotion to sora and never letting him down again like he did before, smashing to a pulp the literal representation of what he did in kh1 and sora's fears it may happen again.
as i said, yeah the "both in the grid thing" is not completely flawless (unlike the abc being the nightmare version of riku which doesnt have a single aspect that is incongrous with everything else, tho id be happy to hear if you have anything that i may have missed), just sora is in the real world would work, but i still am unsure because of the reasons i said, and also riku getting the real ending in sora's heart doesnt make sense because sora never witnessed that, and also the dream eaters being around is not a good argument since they can exist in the real world too supposedly. they are in the real world when riku is going to find sora, and they are in kh3 and tecnically union cross.
I knew when you got to World That Never Was you were gonna throw shade at that Lea line 😂😂
To think most people were put off by The Grid's aesthetic while I consider it to be the world's strongest point makes me feel objectively wrong😂
I think the 3 musketeers was actually the world that did the most with the premise. Or at least had the most opportunity too. This is basically a time travel plot with extra steps so the whole “meeting your friends but they don’t even know you” in a series where friendship equals power or something seems like the logical choice.
After the Soriku video there is no way Symphony works without both of them to compose Dearly Beloved. It made me cry
The Three Musketeers was released around the time The House of Mouse was getting very popular overseas with the reruns on Disney Channel, so it was one of my favorite movies as kid, as it featured characters from my favorite show. It's probably part of why I loved KH1 and 2 so much, as it perfectly depicts this era of Disney in which Mickey was a very active mascot. Dream Drop as a whole feels like a love letter to early Gen-Z KH fans who's childhood took place in the early 2000s. Shame that Treasure Planet couldn't be featured to bring forth this feeling even more.
The treasure planet could be perfect in KH4 as one of the first 2 or 3 worlds. The way sora or his friends uses to reach eachother
Hey TBF Pooh's VA is also the Master from Fallout.
5:24 Look Sora, a lucky emblem
The brainrot takes it's toll.
Hey Pat, if you need more games to stream (and haven't yet), a possible neat choice is a game called Rocket Robot on Wheels. Why am I bringing it up? Well aside from it being kind of obscure so would be a neat look, the ENTIRE game is a theme park, so every level is theme park based in some way.
I fucking love the Tron Legacy movie. Not even as a movie because the plot is dodgy and the CGI bad guy is horrific (in a bad way). But it’s one of the best films from a visual design standpoint ever and has one of the best film scores ever and honestly that’s all I need. A Kingdom Hearts adaptation that isn’t able to translate the visuals and music from the film was always going to be an absolute disaster. Only way to save the world would be with the 2 mini games; Light Cycle and Disc Wars. Light Cycle is fun enough but the version we see in Legacy would have been so, so fun to play in the series. And then Disc Wars isn’t even in the world which I get I wouldn’t even know how that would look like in KH but damn it would have loved if they tried because it’s so damn cool in the film
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention how Sora and Riku’s bosses diverge the further you get in the game.
This video is so good. As someone who’s very fond of DDD, I think your criticism is perfectly valid and welcome about the game. These aren’t notes about the video so much as DDD stuff itself!
- Did you ever see the trailer for DDD where Sora was running in first person in Bell City and jumped out to a bunch of confetti? It stuck with me so vividly, and considering that and other information we know about its development, I can’t help but wonder about how different of a game we could have gotten.
- Did you know that, in Traverse Town, Riku can’t do the shortcut from the 3rd to the 1st district, but Sora can? I genuinely believe it’s because Riku, by all means, had no reason TO know about how to unlock the shortcut, but Sora did from his memories of KH1. It’s super charming to me! On top of that, I believe this is a moment of Dream Eaters Going ❓at something, but I could be wrong on this front. It’s the only other time /I/ know of that’s not mentioned in the video.
for the musketeers world not making sense, i always thought of it as a dream based on a memory. specifically mickey's memory of how he and minnie got together. based on timeless river in KH2, mickey wasn't the king because he worked for pete on the steamboat and lived in a house too small for royalty. i think that mickey went off and trained under yensid and learned to be a better person, then yensid sent him on a mission back home, or just kicked him out of the tower after mickey flooded it, and then mickey teamed up with his old friends or made friends with donald and goofy and ended up fooling a plan by pete and the beagle boys. princess minnie saw that, fell in love, and the two got married and mickey returned to yensid to complete his training after he became king - which led into KHBBS timeline. i think pete got away with his scheming and the beagle boys got blamed, because those guys don't show up again in the later games, but mickey knows in retrospect that pete was bad news, so the dream reveals that pete was a bad guy. or pete wasn't fully bad but the dream makes him bad because he turns bad. but yeah, i think its just a dream formed from a memory.
Pat, I don't know if you ever saw it, but I left a comment way back on your KH2 world ranking about Space Paranoids and how a scene in KH2 that you praised was from Tron itself-I'm glad that you've been able to watch both movies now! I can get why people wouldn't like either film (I certainly have strong opinions about Legacy), but I'm glad they've at least allowed you to appreciate both Space Paranoids and The Grid more, because I probably wouldn't appreciate either as much if I hadn't seen the films either.
All I’m going to say about Twewy is part of the reason people love Neku so much is throughout the game he naturally grows out of being such an ass. He doesn’t flip on a dime, he’s challenged and has to work on what he thinks of others. You hate him at first and then you get to like him a lot later.
I admittedly adore Dream drop distance…
…’s remixes of twewy music and all of traverse town. Its good music and remixes.
55:06 if you said WAKE UP MABEL here i probably would have jolted up 😭
I randomly found just the TWEWY DS card on the floor of a bowling alley once, and while I never actually got very far into it (something that’s true for a lot of handheld games I tried to play), I never quite forgot about it and was blown away to see the gang pop up in KH.
Traverse Town and The Grid are at the top for me. The music, level design and story sync so well. Then TWTNW for plot significance.
Pretty amazing that even though you’re not that fond of the game, you managed to still thoughtfully pick out the game’s strengths and articulate them in a way I couldn’t, and it reminded me specifically why this game is actually one of my favorites lol
He did it!!! Wanted this for ages. Thank you Pat!!!!
Also my favourite film is actually Tron Legacy lol so I'm glad you at least have it a shot.
It’s ok Pat, I’ll be the Grid/Tron Legacy stan between us.
46:51 I played DDD in the 3DS. Didn't know that ray was there
I’ve been waiting! Yes my favorite KH game, thanks for the heartfelt attention!
The racism in the Hunchback world is also sort of interesting because it's basically the closest the series really gets to acknowledging the main characters are pretty clearly Japanese, or at least some fantasy flavor of it, with Frollo instantly recognizing them as an 'other.' Of course, the game contextualizes it by their strange clothes for the time period, but there's still subtext. It's kinda interesting.
2012 truly was the LATEST you could do Hunchback and not get major backlash from it.
Not Japanese, ISLANDER.
The he has the tan skin and dark hair of a Pacific Islander ethnicity, which makes him visually similar to the darker fearures of the Romani gypsies, hence why Frollo mistakes him for one.
@@Cri_Jackal Come on man you said the correct word and then instantly followed it with the slur. You were so close.
@@Cri_Jackal Some sort of islander ethnicity is a fair take, but if you're gonna go that route, it'd probably be Ryukyuan?
@@Evnyofdeath GYPSY
Solid work as ever. Well worth the wait! Back in 2012 I was really looking forward to seeing a proper return to Traverse Town as it's my favorite world, but was ultimately left a bit disappointed by how it was handled in KH3D. Yeah it was nice being back there and seeing some new areas, but the whole thing felt a bit lacking. Your analysis of it - especially the celebration aspect - has made me see it from a new light and appreciate it a whole lot more.
Random observation: it's also so strange/hilarious that all the rooms you could enter in KH1 (but can't in DDD) have now been blocked by boxes, just to make it super clear that those are inaccessible now.
Thank you for making this video, I appreciated the vibe of these worlds and I appreciate it a lot that you made it!
Amazing vid as always, the very end bit with Kevin Flynn over your intro had me burst into tears lool
country of musketeers actually ended up being one of my favourite worlds but only because the music is so damn good
I am glad you were at least fair with your criticisms. Even if your preferences are known, you do your due diligence. It's not a Schaffrilas situation where you just rage for extended amounts of time and everyone laughs at the haha funny angry man.
Your voice is so smooth and relaxing, I like listening to your videos like a podcast on my way to work
Congrats to RegularPat for 50K subs on TH-cam!!
And congrats to @tenworms for guessing the world's for this list correctly on the post from the day before it came out. Good job man.
I always thought this game would have benefited if kick dives were tied to a skill, so that you don't get unlimited kick dives until TWTNW.
This is because I'm stupid and played the game like that so my memory of the level design is much better!
Don't know if it's related but in french we say "Un pour tous, tous pour un." (One for all, all for one.)
Great video to see! DDD was my first new kingdom hearts game since the PS2, so despite any issues it may have, it holds a special place for me. For that, and finally truly moving the story Forward for the first time since KH2
I'm watching on T.V., and needed to "rewind" once again at the end because I blank out on listening to what I'm hearing, and I got the scrobble bar up _right_ when the outro "notes" hit, and I was wheezing.
i hope next time i get a "Bradley from michigan" to scare me awake, thank you in advance Pat. :)
I think The Grid existing separate from Space Paranoids actually makes a lot of sense. Think about it, its the same thing that happened with Twilight Town. Ansem The Wise created a digital copy of the original world. The real Space Paranoids was allowed to evolve into The Grid, whereas Ansem's digital Space Paranoids ended up being stuck as its original copy forever. Even the whole 'Tron remembers Sora' thing is similar to how the real Hayner, Pence and Olette react to Roxas, even though the real versions of them never knew him until KH3.
The Redbull wings joke about the Wargoyle was one of the funniest things I have ever heard.
To answer the Hockomonkey theming question, it’s probably a little weak but monkeys are generally used for subtext within the TWEWY series. Both of its protagonists are based on one of the four wise monkeys of Japanese proverb with Neku being based on the “hear no evil” one. As such, the brand that Neku (and protagonist successor, Rindo) get their clothes from is called Jupiter of the Monkey. That brand also gets the honor of being named after the TWEWY developer, Jupiter.
Here for the Beat Stanning
What a great World Ranking, Pat. It's been awhile since we got something like this since BBS. And it's so much fun. I may disagree with some placements for the worlds like how low the Country of the Musketeer is, but at the same time, it's such a great video
How I see the country of musketeers, I headcanon that country of musketeers is just another past version of disney castle/town. Maybe that's the name of the wider world that the town is a part of. "Timeless River" could be just that: a river. Or maybe it doesn't exist, maybe it's just how they remember the more distant past. Minnie is the princess of this world and marrying her is how mickey becomes king. Since mickey is in timeless river, maybe he's originally from this world but came back mid-keyblade training for this mission. This could also be how he met Donald and goofy. Pete being allowed in Disney Town could be answered by "captain justice": maybe Pete told them he wanted a second chance to do good (when really he's just gonna betray them again), and sweet Minnie is so trusting that she supported him. Cuz maybe he said "sorry" and pouted. And maybe being betrayed twice is why Minnie banished him
My name is Kevin and 55:09 startled the hell out of me 😂😂😂
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Hey a new video by Pat! I can’t wait for him to talk about my favorite world from DDD, The Gri-
Another banger from Regular Pat! The ending jingle segment really is the cherry on this video! Literally burst out laughing!
1:17:21
You showing the Phantom here gave me a great idea. Imagine the Fifth District have a large clock face as a focal point that's somehow synced up with the Reaper Game. Suddenly, you're assaulted by a Nightmare version of the Phantom from KH1 complete with its own version of Doom. It's no longer immune to physical attacks, but you could still get some bonus damage by matching the elements. You can even use Reality Shift to throw something at the clock to slow or stop it.
It would show Sora and Riku's progression from the first game, tie into the celebration of KH, tie into TWEWY by letting you participate in a Reaper Game, and even vaguely hint at the fact that there is an actual Super Boss hiding somewhere else in Traverse.
You could even go one step further and give it two different designs based on its original colors and its FM recolor.
i wish Treasure Planet and Bug's Life were in this game
This was a masterpiece. I know it takes a lot of work to make a video like this, so thank you!
1:05:32 Stuff like this is why Pat is one of my all time favourite TH-camrs 😂😂😂
Loved the little Harp counter, that was very clever after it finally clicked what it meant.
I originally thought that Country of Musketeers was Mickey's ascent to becoming Minnie's husband and thus the King of Disney Town, and by the lore of the same movie this would have to happen BEFORE Mickey's work as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, as the MDG trio had been janitors in the palace their whole lives according to their origin story in that same movie.
While it’s undermined to a degree by flow motion I love the level design for this game in how vertical it is compared to the games since 1, as well as how expansive the areas are not to mention how many there are for a handheld compared to the DS games or Birth by Sleep (although like BbS the NPC shortage still stands out). The reality shifts add a component of environment interactivity as well, navigating areas and uncovering secrets or accessing chests.
My theory on One for All and All for One is that Sora/Riku have all these areas to explore (One for All) and that all the Nightmare Dream Eaters are trying to get you (All for One).
Also, Symphony of Sorcery is my favorite Disney world in the franchise and unlocks my favorite Keyblade: Counterpoint, which is a clever name, considering a counterpoint in music is multiple melodies working in tandem, just like Sora and Riku. I’m always happy to see some appreciation for it!
I’m sure you’ve been asked this before but have you ever considered making content about the games with KH DNA? Like FFs XV, VIRemake/Rebirth, and XVI? Or SE games that are featured in KH like FFs VI, VII, VIII, IX, X and TWEWY? You make the most supreme KH content imo and would love to hear your takes about the KH adjacent games out there. 💖
I appreciate the subtitles in these videos. Espacially when they are over an hours long.
Ah, I was replaying DDD as well while I recover from a cancerous tumor in my side, This came at the right time. I just wish the game wasn't so short.