I think these kinda videos, where you analyse something on what works or what doesn't and why, are among your best work. I'm always happy to see these kind of videos pop up and watch them with much enjoyment. Thanks for making these.
I personally like to compare modern KH writing to a Rube Goldberg Machine. In that it has a lot of needlessly complicated components to it and none of it is necessary to accomplish the very basic task it needs to accomplish. It's not that any of it is beyond understanding, it's that most of it is unnecessary and most of people's critique is pointing that out. Meanwhile defenders of this series will look at the critique thinking nobody understood how it works and so think the problems with this series is entirely on the critics rather than the story itself.
@kollie79 right at the end of KH2, after the ending and before the BBS teaser. that's when the focus went from telling a story to keeping the story going. now it exists for the sake of not ending instead of having an actual message or purpose.
Two things I disagree with. Calling kg writting complicated instead convoluted. Complicated is neutral term that can be good if each of the parts; while convoluted stories have several unnecessary parts to them. The second point I disagree is when this type of writting started to become like this. Com was the game the started the unnecessary mystery and weird logic.
@@fightingmedialounge519 not really, CoM's story focuses on character drama and is pretty simple. there are "unneeded mysteries" like what the organization actually is, but they aren't even brought up because they don't matter to that story. unlike newer games where the unneeded mysteries are the plot.
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz that's just it. They weren't needed. Unlike the ansem mystery, the story gained nothing from keeping it a mystery and would loose nothing from giving basic information on the organization. The mystery only exist for the players to get excited for the next game. To paraphrase what Jacob says about 2; because the problem wasn't too distracting in com people chose not to call it out, and now look were we are.
not even a quarter of the way through; but i just wanna say your point around the 27 minute mark is PERFECT! the problems in the first few games, especially KH2, usually aren’t so dramatic that they kill the character drama and stakes, but more so bloat and convolute the plot, but if you know what’s happening and care about the characters, you can appreciate them more! but as the series went on and nobody severely criticized the issues they had, they compounded and became much much worse to get to the point where we are now. now the main focus is the lore itself instead of using that confusing lore and weird storytelling to make interesting drama. thank you thank you thank you. i’m excited for the rest of this video and will surely be commenting more as i go through.
Just in case no-one has mentioned this already, in the 'Lore Serves Drama' section, you talk about possible character friction scenarios for Riku and Sora having unresolved issues with wanting to kill each other or Kairi coming along on the mission and Sora being conflicted about her having her own power and him being her protector. Dude, these are great scenarios and are totally the sorts of character exploration I was expecting considering the first games.
First of all, those dogs are hella adorable and I demand names. Second of all, thanks for making this video. I can only imagine how huge of an undertaking this video must have been.
stupid shit like a door opening at the end of kh2 to save our favorite characters doesn't bother me. I dont care about the mechanics. I am not a kingdom hearts mathematician. Stupid shit like the x symbol being "the thing that connected us from the start" is where a big fucking problem emerges. No, the thing that connected you from the start was shared goals, character chemistry, overcoming difficult circumstances and overall decent writing in a game that used to mean something to me
I forgot that that's exactly how Sora and Riku get back to Destiny Islands in KH2; going through a door and falling into the sea, where Donald, Goofy and Mickey are waiting on the islands with Kairi. That's a great example of people being able to overlook stuff so long as the story is strong enough. Even with Riku's rushed development in KH2, the friendship between all the characters built up in the three games makes the ending of KH2 so satisfying.
Anytime I think or hear about the plot of 3, I can only think about how much could've been fixed if the heroes spent the majority of the game trying to avoid "keyblade war".
I have to say I pretty much agree with everything in this video 100%. In my opinion, the saddest thing about KH3 is that the developers spent like 15 years after KH2 came out setting up all these new plot threads and characters with Days, BBS, etc, and then all those plot threads and characters were wasted in the last couple hours of the game. They just threw everything together at the end in the most boring, arbitrary way possible. For example, it was fun watching Roxas kick butt at the end of KH3, but it didn't feel earned. The characters spent the entire game saying, "Oh, SOMEHOW we're going to get Roxas back," and then they never actually did anything. The happy ending is just handed to Roxas, Axel, and Xion without any real rhyme or reason. Sora's supposed goal for the game is to get the Power of Waking back. So he ends up goofing around in Disney Worlds for 10 hours, and then what? At the end of every world, Goofy and Donald are like, "But SORA????? What about the Power of Waking?" as if to remind the audience that it's still a thing, even though Sora hasn't learned a darn thing. Then when he finally gets the power, it just kinda... happens. There's no real growth or change that goes on there. Just like you said --- there's nothing to engage with. Things just happen. For the most part, the characters don't really even make choices. Things just fall into their laps, and they're either like, "Oh yay, that's great!" or "Oh no, that's bad!" It's a shame, honestly. The Kingdom Hearts series always had so much potential. I guess I'm glad that there are still people out there who enjoy it so much. But I'm no longer really interested in waiting to find out what happens next. Kingdom Hearts now seems to operate in two extremes --- a lot of setup with no payoff, or "payoff" with no real setup. Oh well... it is what it is I guess.
@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14 Except that's not what happened. Roxas just appeared out of nothing. He came down from the sky at the most convenient possible time --- just because. They "recreate" Xion, but it doesn't make sense how they actually manage to do that. All that's explained is that they somehow create a new heart for her I guess and then infuse her with some Xehanort vibes --- and then suddenly when she comes in contact with Sora and her friends, she just happens to remember who she was at the most convenient time. It's a very weak and vague explanation if you ask me. And if it was that easy to bring her back, then everything that happened in 358/2 Days was pretty much pointless.
@@supremeoverlorde2109 Roxas came back because he needed a special connection to come back and a replica body prepared for him all this is explained in Kingdom hearts 3.Xemnas says they are using replica's vessels for org members at the beginning of twilight town. did you forget the entire context of KH3 was in fact explained by characters? the end battles of KH3 are not the only important thing there is actual story context in some worlds and in between worlds like using the replica project to time travel replica bodies this is also explained in KH3.remind actual lets you play as some character temporary.
@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14 Ah yes --- right, good old time travel. If you can't figure out how else to bring a character back, that's always a great fallback. XD I only watched the Re:Mind version once (and not even the entire thing), so indeed there are probably things I don't remember, especially since it didn't interest me all that much. But that doesn't change my feelings that they made everything way too easy and it all just kinda --- happened --- without giving me any reason to feel emotionally invested. It is what it is. I don't really want to get into a debate about it, honestly. Talking about KH and why I'm disappointed in the character direction just makes me exhausted. And I'm certainly not a big enough fan to get invested in every last detail of the lore at this point. I probably shouldn't talk about it at all because I don't have the motivation to stay fully up to date anymore and I miss things lol. All I know is I'm not a fan of the storytelling these days.
1:26:18 I never really thought about Days as a corporate allegory but when you explained it, I kinda bought into it. If that allegory was indeed intentional, then it’s probably one of the few times Nomura actually wrote a deep story. Like actually deep and profound, not faux-deep (oh look at this time traveling and 13 copies of ourselves and the x blade and the power of waking and wow all this complex story) which is really superficial and not deep at all. Your take on Days made me appreciate it in a way I hadn’t before.
Writing, storytelling KH and doggos. This is gonna be a fun video Edit: I really enjoyed it. I like storytelling and narrative and Jacob's points are really interesting. I enjoyed KH3 while playing it but the last 5 hours drained me emotionally. I thought they would wrap the saga up with a decent finale but it was all over the place and confusing and kinda rushed up -and it's 5 hours of final act!-. I hope they make a soft reboot for the next main title, but with this Melody Of Memory thing I expect it less and less everyday.
Another couple of points to add about the Sora screaming scene: It's a scene in one of the trailers. I am 100% convinced it only exists to be a trailer scene... or, at least, that it only exists because it's another Nomura scene he thought up without thinking how to get there during the storyboarding for the trailers. For me, that scene was not just everything you outlined, but it was WILDLY out of character for Sora. In KH1, he watched his world get destroyed, and everything he heard since indicated that it was just totally lost to darkness. He had no real strength or experience. And he was unnerved. At worst. Losing his shit because a Heartless tornado grabbed his friends, after Terranort JUST told them they'd all come back from their deaths? No. Just... no. But it's time for a cool shot in which the stakes are so high that Sora of all people is broken down and weeping, so Square made the shot and then scripted the rest the night before they had to animate the scene, I guess.
There’s so much I agree with here but your point about lore is supposed to be in services of the story and drama hit me the most. Because that’s what I want in these games, but lately there is hardly and story or drama. It’s all just lore that... doesn’t actually mean anything.
Thanks for the content Jacob I really enjoyed the video. This was sort of therapeutic because it verbalized what i felt was missing after I finished Re:mind. I'll be sticking around for more
There's a general sentiment in this video that sort of captures why I don't care for most entries in the Kingdom Hearts series following the original game: there’s nothing meaningful to engage with on an emotional or thematic level. The characters aren’t explored or developed in any interesting way, and the narratives don’t communicate much of substance beyond the characters waxing poetic about friendship. Maybe I’m just expecting too much from an anime boy / Disney crossover, but I like the original game well enough.
Looking at the timestamps in the description before watching the video, I saw the “what I liked about ReMind” section and thought, “oh cool wonder what it was he liked about the story” Hahaha Loved listening to this whole thing, and also love hearing your opinions about games
Hey man, my favorite part of your channel are your analyses and impromptu story pitches, so this was such a treat to listen to. I really enjoy listening to all of the points you make and you do a great job of explaining it. Just wanted to let you know you guys are making awesome stuff, and I'm always glad to see y'alls content :)
11:24 Yeah, its true that Kingdom Hearts TH-camrs are kind of in a dry spell for content right now. TheGamersJoint has mostly been covering hidden content in previous KH games and emulator-related stuff, as well as some minor stuff for the Melody of Memory demo.
I’m excited for this video. I love listening to your dissertations on narrative and how to fix KH. Also, your dogs are so cute and fluffy and I want to love on them.
2:06:07 Now I’m imagining Union X as some kind of Danganronpa game where Marluxia and Larxene investigate Striletzia’s death, and then at the class trial, reveal that Ventus killed her. That sounds awesome af.
Best fucking video, for a long time i couldnt point that well why after kh2 i didnt like how things were moving (narrative wise, some of the actual gameplay is amazing) this helped a lot to actualy frame what doesnt click with me Thank you for the 3 hours ~
This was great to watch over the past few days! I’ve taken a lot of my opinions on KH from you over the years because you articulate the problems that my mind can’t piece together! And I hope you can piece those reviews together eventually!
As someone who played kingdom hearts 1 at like 5 years old when it was the only one and 2 on release in 3rd grade. I'll admit my feelings on the earlier games may be a bit nostalgia blind. But I can't help but agree with you there at the end Jacob. I love this series, and it's because I love it that I'm gonna leave it. I went into 3 with low expectations because I don't like days, 3d, coded, and bbs very much. Shit I got 3 a few months late on a 50% deal because I was so apathetic, and was still disappointed with the ending. I know there's people who go into the series for different things than me like the no death no lvl up hard mode runs. But I'm in this series for the story and I'm a firm believer in "a good story focuses less on what's happening and more on who it's happening to" and the creative team for KH doesn't seem to get that. So because I love this series I'm done and I'm gonna leave before it squanders the good will I have left. I'll leave and keep a mostly positive outlook on the games I enjoy. Like a friend/relative who took a wrong turn in life. I'm not gonna hang around while something I love keeps making decisions I don't agree with. At that point my frustration is self inflicted.
Thanks for those last 15 minutes of the video. The chill, soft vibes made my day a little bit less gloomy, and I always enjoy listening to your thoughts P.D. your dogs are absolutely beautiful!
This is why you're one of my favourite TH-camrs. Especially the last part. And especially the potential of inspiration and education of others, and the appreciation of media as a whole and wanting to love stuff, and loving other things more because of what you learn thinking about KH. Edit: Two/three sittings btw.
24:10 while I agree with this point (despite loving these villains), I'm pretty sure that in Re: mind terranort isn't a time travel character but rather both xehanort and terra were recompleted it's just that terras heart was still in guardian. Then xehanort puts a fraction of his heart in terras body and I think that's how terranort came back.
You're correct, this has been pointed out to me. Their explanation is kinda insane and doesn't make any sense, but it is what happened, and I was wrong. Though really that just reinforces my feelings about the time travel, because that means it gave us NOTHING.
@@ResearchRuns oh yeah definitely. I love the old villains but except for vanitas (who also didn't time travel) they just don't have that much purpose. Like they completely forgot ansem is a heartless. Why would ansem help xehanort if he plans to get rid of darkness and ansem with it?
I'm not done watching this yet, but the bit where you basically played Xemnas as a teacher was hilarious. Honestly, I would love to attend that class just to watch every student complain about him droning on only for him to be like, "Every day I stand here and every day I expound upon the history of this world to each and every one of you, yet you still understand nothing about it." I imagine at one point a kid would try to leave class early only for Xemnas to summon his laser sword and say, "Leaving?" Really enjoying this. :) Thanks for putting this video together. Best wishes and God bless you. Edit: You know, it would have been more sane of me to not listen to this in one sitting...but I had to listen to something while cleaning up the house for three hours. XD And honestly, it was pretty fun. I feel that KH3 was always going to be a bit messy in the story department thanks to DDD. I haven't really engaged with Union Cross or Dark Road either because I don't really care to know every little detail about the background lore. With the announcement of KH4, I am more interested in the possibilities of what can be done with the Versus 13 concepts Nomura is determined to incorporate into the series. I only learned about Versus 13 and the history behind it after FFXV came out, and elements of those concepts mixed with Kingdom Hearts has potential to be something truly unique, especially because you know Nomura is passionate about this story he never got to tell. The result of that determination could be great or it could break the series entirely. Either way, I want to find out. Kingdom Hearts is...kinda unpredictable in that way. From the time it was conceptualized to now...it's gone in many different directions, so each game is a unique experience for better or worse. Anyway, I enjoyed listening to you rant about the series. :) Best wishes to you on future projects and God bless you.
Now i want to read a fan fic of "Stralizia the drug dealer." Haha for real though I really love and appretiate your takes on KH. Personally i had an empty feeling after KH3. This is good because now i have a tampered expectaion of entertainment, like pokemon when it came out i enjoyed it and looking forward to the next installment but i see where other people are coming from too with thier complaints. Anyway I've been jumping into your lets play, loved the sonic one, it felt like a full circle with all the sonic references you guys drop on the kh LP and kinda doing the reverse. Anyway man keep up the good work! Also I am curious to see your take on the sly cooper games. Not sure if you are/were a fan but if so i would be nice to see you, joey, Joshua, and Aiden go through it.
@@Velvetx4cove Exactly. Hell one of the Xkeepers skyward wing straight up ended his channel after kh3 and steven universe wrapped. To be fair he got a job writing for a gaming site so better income for him for sure, but like he even felt empty at the end like its an obligation to continue playing.
I think its just franchise fatigue. I can't imagine Nomura or the writing staff feels attach to the story spanning over 20 year's. I'll probably be called a shill but I'm honestly excited for what comes next. Its a new start the usual anime problem of having 25 characters to keep track of isn't as much of an issue. People don't give Nomura credit but he was involved in FF7 beyond just the superficial and I think its because he's got something to look forward to and KH VXlll might be the spark
Also hope the I don't get KH meme dies as an audience we never acknowledge how much our perception of games effects them. It felt like the take away was always " they don't get what that meant " and over the years over explaining just became a habit. Its like with Disney's beauty and the beast it focused on the "criticism" people had with the original and it bogged down the movie. Same with Star War the loud fans said its just a copy then its to different and in the end they went backwards because they thought they were give fans what they wanted. I hope with FF7R there take away is just not needing a 40 hour game and not they overly dramatic hate for the ending
The main issue with your point is that while Nomura had some involvement in the writting of the original ff7, as Jacob pointed out previously, he wasn't the main writer nor did he have the final say in it. So while I don't think you're a shill; I do think you're dangerously close to the willfully ignorant mindset the some fans tend take.
Great video, you articulated really well the problems I have with the series currently. I'm also on the "wait and see" camp toward future games. Never gonna pick it up blindly on release again.
34:29 "Jacob, let's take a break and listen to the music" Yeah, the series will do that to ya. Also, I've dropped Union X around mission 250. Sh*t was getting waaayyy too repeatitive and I got tired of waiting for nothing to happen every 100 missions. Only stayed for the character customization.
If a story is entertaining enough, usually because of its characters, I can see people enjoying it despite not making sense. Kingdom Hearts doesn't fall into that.
@@casualvanilla You could argue that entertainment is subjective. I think that a story is going to be good or bad regardless of people opinion: so you can enjoy something bad because you just don't stop to think about it HOWEVER the way the question was phrased "oh you just want stories that make sense" is laughable and pitiful at best: yes, that's generally the purpose of a story. It's like saying "oh you just want a car that works". Just because you like to do vroom vroom sounds doesn't mean we are the crazy ones.
I actually get it 'cause I love Jojo, and that's the epitome of a story that just doesn't make sense. Like, it's just deeply entertaining and bizarre, it's great. Kingdom Hearts...like, I get how it could fall under that, but there's just so much boring exposition, I'd rather just watch the most ridiculous moments in a compilation or something :/ it's not consistently crazy enough to be thoroughly entertaining. And as someone who came into KH cause I liked the story, it sucks to see it go to shit (where with Jojo it's the opposite- I got into it 'cause it was so ridiculous, but the writing does improve and more importantly, the fight scenes are engaging as shit)
Jacob: It doesn't matter if you like those pitches or not. I was just thinking of examples off the top of my head. Me: That would be awesome if Riku was scared of using darkness around Sora after Xeanort pointed out that he did try to kill him with that power and Sora was too busy doting on Kiari to notice.
One thing I would like to mention, is that what makes 3 so different from 1&2 is the acting and voice acting. Especially when you compare it to chain of memories. I made a whole video just comparing that
If you're still looking for a title, what about - The Modern Story of Kingdom Hearts: Through the Door and Down the Rabbit-Hole. And I can understand not releasing it, but I'd still be interested to see the re:Mind LP. (And my favorite part of the re:Mind DLC was how the Data Greeting photo builder that didn't include any Disney movie characters and was missing half the maps was somehow more entertaining than any of its narrative.)
For me I started playing kingdom hearts for Disney and final fantasy and I grew to like the original characters that popped up. I enjoyed the series and I felt worried about the direction due to bbs and how it framed it's story and then as you mentioned kh 3 is a product of everything that came before it. I did actually read the big dream theory and remind does destroy it in the first few minutes. It gives a lot of love and care on the minute details of how things work and of specific sound cues. One big one was how kairi had ears similar to chirithy on her hoodie and how that was similar telling the audience that she was bound to sora to protect him and guide him like a chirithy would. Similar to riku being a dream eater. Other theories about how they are in multiple dreams due to riku and sora supposedly dropping due to sound cues at the end of hercules and when riku gets swallowed by the shadows in the realm of darkness, which is why his hair style changes. I actually appreciated the theory because alot of care and thought went into how it worked. And while I didn't expect remind to be this theory, I would have appreciated something more interesting so that everything we learned was put into play. I like thearyhtm final fantasy and melody and memories looks like a sequel to those style of games so I'm looking forward to it more for gameplay then I am for story at this point. Which is sad because I first came into kh for the exact opposite.
I started with the first game for the Disney and final fantasy, but as the series went on they became less and less important. Disney no longer has any connection to the overall plot(and majority of the time it follows the movie directly now), and there aren't really any final fantasy characters at this point.
This...is amazing...I enjoyed the crtiticiem/rant in this video, (basicly the whole video). I especally loved the bit where you talked like xemnas, who is a professor of a class...I couldn't stop laughing! :'D these rants are like lectures, but becaues your criticizing my favorite game series, with good points, its even more entertaining! :D I've seen all your KH let's plays. :3 thank you for all the thoughts and analysis you put into these videos! :D
2:27:45 While I agree with almost all of your points here, I really gotta disagree with the idea that "nobody didn't get the aqua scene." While I and many other read it as an attempt at PTSD, I can't tell you how many comments I saw asking questions like "Why did Aqua freeze up." or "She's a master, that shouldn't happen to her." I'm not saying those people are smart or are even a majority, but I saw quite a few of them, so I understand it being one of the points of revision to spell it out for those people, considering some of the other changes they made.
1:35:41 What!? That’s the stupidest decision Disney could make. People want to see characters in a crossover actually cross over. I’ve been saying for a while that the series went downhill as a result of the increasing dependence on an ever-lengthening list of poorly-written OCs that people don’t care about. What would make the series more interesting is if they could actually play with this toy box full of characters and settings that have a wider fan base than the rather insular group oh KH diehards. I also just think it sends a weird xenophobic message that it’s fine that long ago the world was shattered into a thousand smaller worlds that largely have no knowledge of each other unless the Darkness breaks the barriers between worlds.
For whatever reason, Disney's gotten more strict with Kingdom Hearts over time. You'd think the relationship would loosen up and it would become closer to Square Enix, but if anything it's grown more apart. Worlds like Arendelle were forced to be the way they were because Disney gave the movie makers the shots to control the worlds, instead of the actual developers who work on the game. Disney characters remaining in their own worlds was a restriction since KH1, but applying it to Summons is dumb. They've always been temporary and Kingdom Hearts isn't canon to the movies anyway.
I think this is one of the few points Jacob got wrong. I believe it was a Polygon interview where the developers actually made the decision themselves to make most links/summons as ethereal beings instead of their “real” selves, but they hadn’t shown disney execs yet. Once they showed Disney execs their plans for links, Disney gave them the okay, and SE developers were surprised by how quick and easy the process was (unlike some of the Disney worlds that were under tight scrutiny). The developers just happened to make the links that way. Disney didn’t actually order them to do it that way, but once they saw it they were okay with it. I might not have gotten that 100% but I think I got the gist of it. It also doesn’t really make sense that Disney would be so uptight about links/summons considering 1. if you go to Jimminy’s Journal (or gummiphone or whatever it is), under the character files, all the summons are listed by their actual names (Ariel, Simba, Stitch, etc.) and their respective movies and 2. Literally no one playing the game doesn’t immediately recognize that the lion summon is literally Simba from the Lion King (same with all the other summons). Wreck it Ralph is clearly Wreck it Ralph. I think people misconstrue interviews or just straight up jump to conclusions and blame Disney for everything bad about the game, even though it was SE who actually made certain decisions.
And finished! Took me 2 days but worth it! My thoughts and opinions are as scattered as this was! So can't form a cohesive opinion right now hahaha 😅 All I have to say is that I enjoyed this video! it was an experience to watch. In a good way! You did a fantastic job! and hopefully, now you can have a... separation from KH for a while lol
Well...it took all day...cause I had to pause and do other stuff before coming back...but I finished it... "It's JUST a video game series about anime characters running around!?" Clearly you're not a fan. lol As soon as I saw the words "chapter selection" I was like, oh wow, this is gonna be his final research paper, magnum opus, greatest video ever. Great video, though. I think. There's a lot here, I gotta rewatch it a few times. Also, yeah the dogs are cute, but I have that same lawn chair! :D And your property is really beautiful. It's my favorite part of the Re:Mind DLC.
never understood why youtuber absolutely try to avoid making long videos. Maybe the algorithm does not like it, but I swear fans love a big juicy vid jacob.
You sounded a little disappointed towards the end. Especially about the direction of the series. I’m kind of the same way. What made me feel better was Persona 5 Royal. That game came out this year and it’s so freaking good man 🥰👌 I love it. Literally everything about its story & characters is almost like the antithesis of recent KH. You can tell the writers actually cared _So Much_ about the characters they were crafting. It’s just so good man.
At 3:00:39 I almost thought (like a book or a movie) you were about to somehow include Frustrated Jacob as an ‘Aha! There it is!’ moment, my ear caught the ‘almost’ first word, but the second one never came...
Haven't finished the whole video yet, but just over an hour in and I agree with what you're saying. I have not been able to play every game, but I have invested time in reading the lore and watching videos about it, and, even with that effort, I think the plot that I'm seeing is stupid and makes no sense, and it has been that way for a while. It's clear that Nomura wrote huge chunks of the story long after the time where those plot points would have been relevant if they had been there all along. That's my problem with the storytelling. Huge chunks of the story are written, rules are established, people give statements about what is happening, and that's as far as the writers got. Then the next game rolls around and the writers finally get to what is supposed to happen next, they dramatically expand the scope of the plot, and in order to do that they contradict things that came before. To get around that, the writers have to force memory loss on every character, or, more egregious, another character will inform us that the person who told us what was happening before was lying. The story may have been fun and decent and not totally incoherent at that point, but there is no denying that KH2 was lazy storytelling and that's ultimately where the problems began. All of this stems from the fact that no one knew there would be sequels when they made the first game, and they clearly didn't write the plot for that game with sequels in mind. Nomura can't help himself. His ever-expanding vision for this series has all but swallowed the plot that was there in the original. He has retroactively added major plot points, added time travel (which itself is a plot theme that invariably becomes complicated), and he has added dozens of new characters without resolving the plot threads for existing characters. You're right, and it needs to be said, Nomura is not a good storyteller, and even worse, he clearly isn't surrounded by good storytellers.
Since this probably going the last chance Jacob or any of his fan see this; might a well give my two cents. I always operated under the idea that you should give back what they put out when it comes to fiction. In the case of avengers and kh. Both have scenes detacated to how there time travel works, so what I give back is my attention and criticism if it isn't consistent. In the case of the former the movie goes with an easy explanation for time travel thefore it screws up less and shows the audience that isn't the main focus. For the latter; not only does it face more problem in terms consistency as the result of all of it's rules, but looks far worse do it unearned belief that it was actually clever as indicted by said rules and time it takes to explain it. It's why I feel like a lot of the issues discussed in this video started when kairi turned sora back to normal after he turned into a heartless. The game both presents the idea of becoming a heartless as one of the major consequences of the villains plot, and also gives the audience a short scene where said outcome becomes immediately undone without any prior explanation for sake of emotional catharsis for the characters and the audience. This leads to giving back the question: is anything in the series subject for change regardless of how long it's established purely because thinks doing so will lead to a emotional scene? If so should I care about anything. Likewise, it's hard for me to subscribe to the idea that kh would be so much better if Nomura had the authorization to write what he wants; when interviews concerning his decisions in the story gives off the impression that he will and does add significant details and aspects to the world purely for frivolous reasons without actually thinking through the implications. It's also likely what fans mean when they say they like the wacky storytelling of modern kh. After all, what's more wacky then making your side villain identical to your protagonist simply because his VA wanted to voice a villain. The only part of the story that sees significant push back when it comes to this writting style is how the characters are used. This leads to debates of whether kairi is useless with one side feeling like she is do to he seeing less use then her peers in the form of riku and sora. As well as less use then characters with less importance to overall story then her( not to mention the way she was used). It's why some fans(even one's who haven't touched a page of fanfiction) want irredeemable villains like marluxia to get redemption. They so focused on how he can be used as a allie of the hero's, they don't consider how doesn't fit with who he is, or simply change who is in their mind.
Amazing Video. That's how I also feel. The lack of emotions and acting is what makes modern kingdom hearts so boring. And the story is just made out of cliffhangers.
3 hours of Jacob explaining everything I found inconsistent during my time with this game(and watching videos of ReMind{I damn sure wasn't going to pay for that overpriced glorified overused assets called a DLC})
Oh boy. Now I'm genuinely afraid of FF7Rs future sequels. There's already rumoured that suggest that Jessie is alive in the sequel. IIRC someone noticed that Jessie's english V.A posted on social media that she was recording something in the same studio as Tifa's/Aerith's EN V.A. Good god. Reviving characters for the sake of fanservice is just lazy writing.
TBF, at least with VII Remake it appears that there is a point/solid direction towards whatever they are going for. It's not lazy nor is it boring. Some parts of KH3 feel lazy and boring, so I guess I'm more optimistic.
Something just hit me... DDD is in a dream realm (whataever that is)... If they wanted to have these fights with old, already-dead people, they could have just had a "young Xehanort learned how to timetravel in a more convinient and sense-making way, and used it to go to when Sora and Riku are, then entered the dream realm and brought old bad guys from Sora's dream/memories to fight them" plot.
As one of the people who enjoy current Kh much more than the earlier entries i figured i should probably write a comment nitpicking every point i feel the series has given enough infomation to be assumed, but since this is clearly a video made in good faith with pertinent criticism i will attempt to provide the perspective of someone who enjoys Kh3/ReMind, considering i have a bit of free time to write this. Since i am going to try defending the current writing, or at least equate it with the old one , i am going to try to push back on a few things in this video. Firstly, id like to push back on the notion that an intesting metaphysical setting cant justify its own existance and, like it or not, the Kh metaphysics are interesting, different from the real world in significant ways, and somewhat consistent. This really isnt common in fiction, because it takes time for something as bizarre as the Kh cosmology come to exist, and even more so to exist as what we would call a metaphysical framework. It has to take itself seriously, which is one of my favorite things about Kh, and it has to have plenty of details and explanations and these are also abundant in Kh. I dont see any plausible negation to an Kh fan if his primary focus is just watching the Kh universe itself exist and how it develops and behaves, even if i were to grant that a supermajority of the fanbase does not think like this. Secondly, i would argue that the "what is happenign" mystery is not necessarily bad. I think that theorizing, for example, in DDD what Xehanort is doing, how he is doing something, why, etc ( ignoring what may be of the writing in this case) is much more intriguing than simply solving one particular problem. Likewise in KhUx, as i view the whole MoM plot as a much more interesting and consequential thing than the Strelitzia killing, and even more so as it receives build up in the Kh3 secret reports. Thirdly, lets adress the most important point: the characters, their arcs and personality. I would heavily disagree that any Kh character has ever been stellar or anything close to it, but i guess it can be argued that they were better. Id disagree, save for perhaps ansem the wise being interesting and i guess maybe some CoM characters, since that game had the best characterization. Kh1 barely had a plot and all characters were tropes and badly written. Kh2 does not have much more interesting development from most of the cast and they recycle Rikus arc from CoM, i suppose you could argue for the org as good antagonists but that would be final mix only, and even then, not that interesting. BBS has arcs at least, but those arent really that well written. To single out the latest Khs as the only ones with mediocre characters seems, at least to me, to be heavily influenced by nostalgia. Lastly, i would posit that the overexplanations that Nomura does, as well as the recontextualizations of past entries that are brought by them are also kinda rare in most mediums, at least to the extent they are present in Kh, wich makes it at least a bit unique. Weird things like malficent time traveling in Kh1 and Nobodies having hearts makes enough sense to give the plot itself some "replayability", to use the gaming term, since it changes the meaning of a lot of things. Good video, i wish most critiques of Kh as a series were in the format of someone who understands the series and have problems with it making a "video essay" about it, rather than the bad and nonsensical critiscism frequently launched at it.
Where do I begin Your first point basically boils down to" well i find it intresting" which you are allowed to do. The same way you're allowed to like a car with a faulty engine; doesn't stop it from being a car with a faulty engine. The apsect you're missing when it comes to Jacobs point is that he doesn't have problem with mystery, but rather he doesn't like a mystery that the characters aren't trying solve or that just uses unexplained information to look clever. At that point just cut the middle man out and just have it be a detective game. While agree the writting has never been great, to say that jac's feelings towards the first couple of games is primarily motivated by nostalgia is a poor interpretation since he goes in detail as to why he thinks those games are better written, such as the motiavtions being more personal and leading to growth and introspection. And were back to you just saying you just don't have problem with it. That's fine but doesn't require a comment like this.
Streletzia: elrena? You're with them. Elrena: I was tired streletzia: tired of all the running, the stealing, the dealing. This isn't what ava would have wanted Streletzia: don't you dare say her name? Elrena: it doesn't have to be this way' raises her keyblade' you can turn yourself in Streletzia: then take the shot elrena Elrena: hand trembles Streletzia: TAKE THE SHOT ELRENA! Take the shot! Elrena: 'falls to her knees crying' Streletzia: you're a coward elrena. You always were. Goodbye. Elrena: you damn bitch. You damn bitch.
Good job on this video. It’s long, but that’s ok because it’s all quality content. Basically a long diatribe/review already. Good God. This series is a freaking mess.
This was a pretty good video, though I'm a little frustrated with how you ended it. You spent hours breaking down how the writing and characters don't quite work, only to last-minute staple on "subjectivity is implied", thereby trapping yourself into an objective/subjective paradox. Let's use your segment on Lauriam and Elrena's investigation as an example. You lay out what happens in the scenes, then propose alternative takes to the scenes that would tell us more about the characters and their dynamics than what actually happened in UX. If it's subjective, then how are your proposed scenes any better or worse than the canonical scenes? They'd all be equivalent to one another, and ultimately come down to opinion; some would agree with your changes, while others would say that the canon scenes are actually better than yours. So what was the point in brainstorming those alternative scenes? If it's not subjective, then you've just contradicted yourself at the end of the video. You were attempting to make the scenes objectively better, but you've told us that it's subjective, yet the whole point of making the alternative scenes was to improve the lackluster character writing...do you see what I mean by paradox? You would have been better off not saying "subjectivity is implied". All it did was weaken your points and muddle your message.
You may be able to make objective statements about media such as plot holes and contrivances but how you ultimately feel about something is subjective, he only brings up things like plot holes because the characters are so boring that the only thing he’s left to engage with is the terrible plot
There's no way to be objective with opinions. If someone disagrees, it's their prerogative, he's just analyzing from his point of view and providing alternate ways of handling things according to his own tastes and what he thinks would help KH, which may line up with ours. He's not objectively right about any of it.
Subjectivity must be implied in all narrative construction. He is making an argument to convince a majority of people who think likewise to adopt his opinion on the media in question, as all narrative analysis is made, and is arguing that the proposed changes, for example, would lead to the work being more enjoyable to the people that current enjoy it and peharps make it enjoyable to new people who would come to like it as well. What would be an argument here to subjectivity not being implied? Id like to see it.
@@CaioPCalio I took Jacob's essay as his attempt to analyze the content of the games, creating alternative scenarios as a way to improve the writing and characters, to appeal both to people that feel similar to him, and those who might not have thought about the series quite as deeply as him. I'll admit, the part towards the end of the video where he pulls a Plinkett and asks us to describe each of the characters at the end of KH3, was something I hadn't really thought about. I've had my own thoughts on the series that mirrors a lot of what he said, but the disclaimer at the end feels like a safety net of sorts, and perhaps an admission that he isn't all that confident about the nearly 3 hours worth of essay preceding it. If that's true, then it's a shame, considering the months of work he put into it in the first place. I do believe he's trying to be objective on some level, whether he means to or not. But thinking on it, there is a level of subjectivity in regards to the alternate scenarios he brings up. I don't think he was trying to say that his solutions were definitive, but possible improvements on what we get in canon. There are a million different what-ifs that can be brought up by a million different people, and there would be a lot of agreeing and disagreeing between each and every interpretation. I myself don't know the definitive ways to improve the KH story. However, I do think that, objectively, there's a lot of room for improvement in the story and character department. Jacob would probably agree with this (at least with the characters), seeing how thorough he was in trying explain what doesn't work. The subjective part is what exactly you would do to improve it.
@@TheVideogamer07 Sure, it probably is objective that there is room for improvement in the Kh story, unless we think it is some sort of platonic ideal of storytelling. He is trying to be objective and logical in his argument, of course, but the underlying factor is that all media analysis is subjective, and media cannot be considered "bad" at a fundamental level unless it causes some sort of utilitarian harm ( or other harm, depends on your moral framework). His ideas, in his opnion, would make the game better, but that is only by his perspective, and what he would suppose are most others. Media being objectively "good" or "bad" isnt a thing.
I think these kinda videos, where you analyse something on what works or what doesn't and why, are among your best work. I'm always happy to see these kind of videos pop up and watch them with much enjoyment. Thanks for making these.
I personally like to compare modern KH writing to a Rube Goldberg Machine. In that it has a lot of needlessly complicated components to it and none of it is necessary to accomplish the very basic task it needs to accomplish. It's not that any of it is beyond understanding, it's that most of it is unnecessary and most of people's critique is pointing that out. Meanwhile defenders of this series will look at the critique thinking nobody understood how it works and so think the problems with this series is entirely on the critics rather than the story itself.
@kollie79 right at the end of KH2, after the ending and before the BBS teaser.
that's when the focus went from telling a story to keeping the story going.
now it exists for the sake of not ending instead of having an actual message or purpose.
You explained it so perfectly🙌🏼😂
Two things I disagree with. Calling kg writting complicated instead convoluted. Complicated is neutral term that can be good if each of the parts; while convoluted stories have several unnecessary parts to them. The second point I disagree is when this type of writting started to become like this. Com was the game the started the unnecessary mystery and weird logic.
@@fightingmedialounge519 not really, CoM's story focuses on character drama and is pretty simple.
there are "unneeded mysteries" like what the organization actually is, but they aren't even brought up because they don't matter to that story. unlike newer games where the unneeded mysteries are the plot.
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz that's just it. They weren't needed. Unlike the ansem mystery, the story gained nothing from keeping it a mystery and would loose nothing from giving basic information on the organization. The mystery only exist for the players to get excited for the next game. To paraphrase what Jacob says about 2; because the problem wasn't too distracting in com people chose not to call it out, and now look were we are.
not even a quarter of the way through; but i just wanna say your point around the 27 minute mark is PERFECT! the problems in the first few games, especially KH2, usually aren’t so dramatic that they kill the character drama and stakes, but more so bloat and convolute the plot, but if you know what’s happening and care about the characters, you can appreciate them more! but as the series went on and nobody severely criticized the issues they had, they compounded and became much much worse to get to the point where we are now. now the main focus is the lore itself instead of using that confusing lore and weird storytelling to make interesting drama. thank you thank you thank you. i’m excited for the rest of this video and will surely be commenting more as i go through.
holy shit your school analogy was so goddamn funny and also incredibly accurate
Looks at the length: well this where the fun begins
Just in case no-one has mentioned this already, in the 'Lore Serves Drama' section, you talk about possible character friction scenarios for Riku and Sora having unresolved issues with wanting to kill each other or Kairi coming along on the mission and Sora being conflicted about her having her own power and him being her protector. Dude, these are great scenarios and are totally the sorts of character exploration I was expecting considering the first games.
"Aerith is the definition of kawaii in the streets and senpai in the sheets."
-Frustrated Jacob 2020
SHE IS
@@ResearchRuns I’d argue for Jessie to hold that title.
First of all, those dogs are hella adorable and I demand names.
Second of all, thanks for making this video. I can only imagine how huge of an undertaking this video must have been.
This video should be called "Re:Mind me why I like Kingdom Hearts again?"
stupid shit like a door opening at the end of kh2 to save our favorite characters doesn't bother me. I dont care about the mechanics. I am not a kingdom hearts mathematician. Stupid shit like the x symbol being "the thing that connected us from the start" is where a big fucking problem emerges. No, the thing that connected you from the start was shared goals, character chemistry, overcoming difficult circumstances and overall decent writing in a game that used to mean something to me
I forgot that that's exactly how Sora and Riku get back to Destiny Islands in KH2; going through a door and falling into the sea, where Donald, Goofy and Mickey are waiting on the islands with Kairi. That's a great example of people being able to overlook stuff so long as the story is strong enough. Even with Riku's rushed development in KH2, the friendship between all the characters built up in the three games makes the ending of KH2 so satisfying.
Anytime I think or hear about the plot of 3, I can only think about how much could've been fixed if the heroes spent the majority of the game trying to avoid "keyblade war".
I have to say I pretty much agree with everything in this video 100%. In my opinion, the saddest thing about KH3 is that the developers spent like 15 years after KH2 came out setting up all these new plot threads and characters with Days, BBS, etc, and then all those plot threads and characters were wasted in the last couple hours of the game.
They just threw everything together at the end in the most boring, arbitrary way possible. For example, it was fun watching Roxas kick butt at the end of KH3, but it didn't feel earned. The characters spent the entire game saying, "Oh, SOMEHOW we're going to get Roxas back," and then they never actually did anything. The happy ending is just handed to Roxas, Axel, and Xion without any real rhyme or reason.
Sora's supposed goal for the game is to get the Power of Waking back. So he ends up goofing around in Disney Worlds for 10 hours, and then what? At the end of every world, Goofy and Donald are like, "But SORA????? What about the Power of Waking?" as if to remind the audience that it's still a thing, even though Sora hasn't learned a darn thing. Then when he finally gets the power, it just kinda... happens. There's no real growth or change that goes on there. Just like you said --- there's nothing to engage with. Things just happen. For the most part, the characters don't really even make choices. Things just fall into their laps, and they're either like, "Oh yay, that's great!" or "Oh no, that's bad!"
It's a shame, honestly. The Kingdom Hearts series always had so much potential. I guess I'm glad that there are still people out there who enjoy it so much. But I'm no longer really interested in waiting to find out what happens next. Kingdom Hearts now seems to operate in two extremes --- a lot of setup with no payoff, or "payoff" with no real setup. Oh well... it is what it is I guess.
they did explain how Roxas and the other nobody's came back through replica vessels with sora's heart data.
@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14 Except that's not what happened. Roxas just appeared out of nothing. He came down from the sky at the most convenient possible time --- just because. They "recreate" Xion, but it doesn't make sense how they actually manage to do that. All that's explained is that they somehow create a new heart for her I guess and then infuse her with some Xehanort vibes --- and then suddenly when she comes in contact with Sora and her friends, she just happens to remember who she was at the most convenient time. It's a very weak and vague explanation if you ask me. And if it was that easy to bring her back, then everything that happened in 358/2 Days was pretty much pointless.
@@supremeoverlorde2109 Roxas came back because he needed a special connection to come back and a replica body prepared for him all this is explained in Kingdom hearts 3.Xemnas says they are using replica's vessels for org members at the beginning of twilight town. did you forget the entire context of KH3 was in fact explained by characters? the end battles of KH3 are not the only important thing there is actual story context in some worlds and in between worlds like using the replica project to time travel replica bodies this is also explained in KH3.remind actual lets you play as some character temporary.
@@supremeoverlorde2109 Xion is actually being forced against her will her memory was not wiped look at KH3 remind.
@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14 Ah yes --- right, good old time travel. If you can't figure out how else to bring a character back, that's always a great fallback. XD I only watched the Re:Mind version once (and not even the entire thing), so indeed there are probably things I don't remember, especially since it didn't interest me all that much. But that doesn't change my feelings that they made everything way too easy and it all just kinda --- happened --- without giving me any reason to feel emotionally invested.
It is what it is. I don't really want to get into a debate about it, honestly. Talking about KH and why I'm disappointed in the character direction just makes me exhausted. And I'm certainly not a big enough fan to get invested in every last detail of the lore at this point. I probably shouldn't talk about it at all because I don't have the motivation to stay fully up to date anymore and I miss things lol. All I know is I'm not a fan of the storytelling these days.
1:26:18 I never really thought about Days as a corporate allegory but when you explained it, I kinda bought into it. If that allegory was indeed intentional, then it’s probably one of the few times Nomura actually wrote a deep story. Like actually deep and profound, not faux-deep (oh look at this time traveling and 13 copies of ourselves and the x blade and the power of waking and wow all this complex story) which is really superficial and not deep at all. Your take on Days made me appreciate it in a way I hadn’t before.
Writing, storytelling KH and doggos. This is gonna be a fun video
Edit: I really enjoyed it. I like storytelling and narrative and Jacob's points are really interesting. I enjoyed KH3 while playing it but the last 5 hours drained me emotionally. I thought they would wrap the saga up with a decent finale but it was all over the place and confusing and kinda rushed up -and it's 5 hours of final act!-. I hope they make a soft reboot for the next main title, but with this Melody Of Memory thing I expect it less and less everyday.
Another couple of points to add about the Sora screaming scene:
It's a scene in one of the trailers. I am 100% convinced it only exists to be a trailer scene... or, at least, that it only exists because it's another Nomura scene he thought up without thinking how to get there during the storyboarding for the trailers.
For me, that scene was not just everything you outlined, but it was WILDLY out of character for Sora. In KH1, he watched his world get destroyed, and everything he heard since indicated that it was just totally lost to darkness. He had no real strength or experience. And he was unnerved. At worst.
Losing his shit because a Heartless tornado grabbed his friends, after Terranort JUST told them they'd all come back from their deaths? No. Just... no.
But it's time for a cool shot in which the stakes are so high that Sora of all people is broken down and weeping, so Square made the shot and then scripted the rest the night before they had to animate the scene, I guess.
There’s so much I agree with here but your point about lore is supposed to be in services of the story and drama hit me the most. Because that’s what I want in these games, but lately there is hardly and story or drama. It’s all just lore that... doesn’t actually mean anything.
Thanks for the content Jacob I really enjoyed the video. This was sort of therapeutic because it verbalized what i felt was missing after I finished Re:mind. I'll be sticking around for more
There's a general sentiment in this video that sort of captures why I don't care for most entries in the Kingdom Hearts series following the original game: there’s nothing meaningful to engage with on an emotional or thematic level. The characters aren’t explored or developed in any interesting way, and the narratives don’t communicate much of substance beyond the characters waxing poetic about friendship. Maybe I’m just expecting too much from an anime boy / Disney crossover, but I like the original game well enough.
Looking at the timestamps in the description before watching the video, I saw the “what I liked about ReMind” section and thought, “oh cool wonder what it was he liked about the story”
Hahaha
Loved listening to this whole thing, and also love hearing your opinions about games
Hey man, my favorite part of your channel are your analyses and impromptu story pitches, so this was such a treat to listen to. I really enjoy listening to all of the points you make and you do a great job of explaining it. Just wanted to let you know you guys are making awesome stuff, and I'm always glad to see y'alls content :)
Realy do love your insights on video games and story telling. Realy helps me appriciate good games. Will keep supporting you guys! Gl on other videos
11:24 Yeah, its true that Kingdom Hearts TH-camrs are kind of in a dry spell for content right now. TheGamersJoint has mostly been covering hidden content in previous KH games and emulator-related stuff, as well as some minor stuff for the Melody of Memory demo.
I’m excited for this video. I love listening to your dissertations on narrative and how to fix KH.
Also, your dogs are so cute and fluffy and I want to love on them.
I can proudly say I finally finished this video in about 15 sittings
I've been waiting for this! Thank for the video that expressed my feelings on this game accurately
2:06:07 Now I’m imagining Union X as some kind of Danganronpa game where Marluxia and Larxene investigate Striletzia’s death, and then at the class trial, reveal that Ventus killed her. That sounds awesome af.
probably the most underrated person on youtube.
Sadly people only like to hear things be praised. The moment someone starts criticizing it's instantly seen as toxic.
I can honestly say idk how to even feel about the future of the series the music is probably the only thing I'm looking forward to
2:50:55 Nah, not aggressive. You're just frustrated Jacob.
Best fucking video, for a long time i couldnt point that well why after kh2 i didnt like how things were moving (narrative wise, some of the actual gameplay is amazing) this helped a lot to actualy frame what doesnt click with me
Thank you for the 3 hours ~
This was great to watch over the past few days! I’ve taken a lot of my opinions on KH from you over the years because you articulate the problems that my mind can’t piece together! And I hope you can piece those reviews together eventually!
As someone who played kingdom hearts 1 at like 5 years old when it was the only one and 2 on release in 3rd grade. I'll admit my feelings on the earlier games may be a bit nostalgia blind.
But I can't help but agree with you there at the end Jacob. I love this series, and it's because I love it that I'm gonna leave it. I went into 3 with low expectations because I don't like days, 3d, coded, and bbs very much. Shit I got 3 a few months late on a 50% deal because I was so apathetic, and was still disappointed with the ending.
I know there's people who go into the series for different things than me like the no death no lvl up hard mode runs. But I'm in this series for the story and I'm a firm believer in "a good story focuses less on what's happening and more on who it's happening to" and the creative team for KH doesn't seem to get that.
So because I love this series I'm done and I'm gonna leave before it squanders the good will I have left. I'll leave and keep a mostly positive outlook on the games I enjoy. Like a friend/relative who took a wrong turn in life. I'm not gonna hang around while something I love keeps making decisions I don't agree with. At that point my frustration is self inflicted.
Days was a damn good title in terms of story
Oh my God he’s gone full ReportoftheWeek. My excitement is immeasurable and my day is made.
Thanks for those last 15 minutes of the video. The chill, soft vibes made my day a little bit less gloomy, and I always enjoy listening to your thoughts
P.D. your dogs are absolutely beautiful!
Jacob with his red shirt almost has a dante aesthetic about him. All he needs is the white hair
This is why you're one of my favourite TH-camrs. Especially the last part. And especially the potential of inspiration and education of others, and the appreciation of media as a whole and wanting to love stuff, and loving other things more because of what you learn thinking about KH.
Edit: Two/three sittings btw.
24:10 while I agree with this point (despite loving these villains), I'm pretty sure that in Re: mind terranort isn't a time travel character but rather both xehanort and terra were recompleted it's just that terras heart was still in guardian. Then xehanort puts a fraction of his heart in terras body and I think that's how terranort came back.
You're correct, this has been pointed out to me. Their explanation is kinda insane and doesn't make any sense, but it is what happened, and I was wrong. Though really that just reinforces my feelings about the time travel, because that means it gave us NOTHING.
@@ResearchRuns oh yeah definitely. I love the old villains but except for vanitas (who also didn't time travel) they just don't have that much purpose. Like they completely forgot ansem is a heartless. Why would ansem help xehanort if he plans to get rid of darkness and ansem with it?
I'm not done watching this yet, but the bit where you basically played Xemnas as a teacher was hilarious. Honestly, I would love to attend that class just to watch every student complain about him droning on only for him to be like, "Every day I stand here and every day I expound upon the history of this world to each and every one of you, yet you still understand nothing about it." I imagine at one point a kid would try to leave class early only for Xemnas to summon his laser sword and say, "Leaving?"
Really enjoying this. :) Thanks for putting this video together. Best wishes and God bless you.
Edit: You know, it would have been more sane of me to not listen to this in one sitting...but I had to listen to something while cleaning up the house for three hours. XD And honestly, it was pretty fun. I feel that KH3 was always going to be a bit messy in the story department thanks to DDD. I haven't really engaged with Union Cross or Dark Road either because I don't really care to know every little detail about the background lore. With the announcement of KH4, I am more interested in the possibilities of what can be done with the Versus 13 concepts Nomura is determined to incorporate into the series. I only learned about Versus 13 and the history behind it after FFXV came out, and elements of those concepts mixed with Kingdom Hearts has potential to be something truly unique, especially because you know Nomura is passionate about this story he never got to tell. The result of that determination could be great or it could break the series entirely. Either way, I want to find out. Kingdom Hearts is...kinda unpredictable in that way. From the time it was conceptualized to now...it's gone in many different directions, so each game is a unique experience for better or worse.
Anyway, I enjoyed listening to you rant about the series. :) Best wishes to you on future projects and God bless you.
Now i want to read a fan fic of "Stralizia the drug dealer." Haha for real though I really love and appretiate your takes on KH. Personally i had an empty feeling after KH3. This is good because now i have a tampered expectaion of entertainment, like pokemon when it came out i enjoyed it and looking forward to the next installment but i see where other people are coming from too with thier complaints. Anyway I've been jumping into your lets play, loved the sonic one, it felt like a full circle with all the sonic references you guys drop on the kh LP and kinda doing the reverse. Anyway man keep up the good work! Also I am curious to see your take on the sly cooper games. Not sure if you are/were a fan but if so i would be nice to see you, joey, Joshua, and Aiden go through it.
I watched TeamFourStar's playthrough and they said they felt empty after completing the game. My best friend and I had the same feeling.
@@Velvetx4cove Exactly. Hell one of the Xkeepers skyward wing straight up ended his channel after kh3 and steven universe wrapped. To be fair he got a job writing for a gaming site so better income for him for sure, but like he even felt empty at the end like its an obligation to continue playing.
I think its just franchise fatigue. I can't imagine Nomura or the writing staff feels attach to the story spanning over 20 year's.
I'll probably be called a shill but I'm honestly excited for what comes next. Its a new start the usual anime problem of having 25 characters to keep track of isn't as much of an issue.
People don't give Nomura credit but he was involved in FF7 beyond just the superficial and I think its because he's got something to look forward to and KH VXlll might be the spark
Also hope the I don't get KH meme dies as an audience we never acknowledge how much our perception of games effects them.
It felt like the take away was always " they don't get what that meant " and over the years over explaining just became a habit.
Its like with Disney's beauty and the beast it focused on the "criticism" people had with the original and it bogged down the movie. Same with Star War the loud fans said its just a copy then its to different and in the end they went backwards because they thought they were give fans what they wanted.
I hope with FF7R there take away is just not needing a 40 hour game and not they overly dramatic hate for the ending
The main issue with your point is that while Nomura had some involvement in the writting of the original ff7, as Jacob pointed out previously, he wasn't the main writer nor did he have the final say in it. So while I don't think you're a shill; I do think you're dangerously close to the willfully ignorant mindset the some fans tend take.
Right after the end of the intro the trailer for kingdom hearts memory of melody plays, that's just too perfect for further words
Loving these type of vids
Great video, you articulated really well the problems I have with the series currently. I'm also on the "wait and see" camp toward future games. Never gonna pick it up blindly on release again.
34:29 "Jacob, let's take a break and listen to the music"
Yeah, the series will do that to ya.
Also, I've dropped Union X around mission 250. Sh*t was getting waaayyy too repeatitive and I got tired of waiting for nothing to happen every 100 missions. Only stayed for the character customization.
I'm actually shocked people like stories that don't make sense. The world we live in is an upside down one.
i think most of the people don't really stop thinking what they are watching most of the time they just accept it for what it is
If a story is entertaining enough, usually because of its characters, I can see people enjoying it despite not making sense. Kingdom Hearts doesn't fall into that.
@@casualvanilla You could argue that entertainment is subjective. I think that a story is going to be good or bad regardless of people opinion: so you can enjoy something bad because you just don't stop to think about it HOWEVER the way the question was phrased "oh you just want stories that make sense" is laughable and pitiful at best: yes, that's generally the purpose of a story. It's like saying "oh you just want a car that works". Just because you like to do vroom vroom sounds doesn't mean we are the crazy ones.
I actually get it 'cause I love Jojo, and that's the epitome of a story that just doesn't make sense. Like, it's just deeply entertaining and bizarre, it's great. Kingdom Hearts...like, I get how it could fall under that, but there's just so much boring exposition, I'd rather just watch the most ridiculous moments in a compilation or something :/ it's not consistently crazy enough to be thoroughly entertaining. And as someone who came into KH cause I liked the story, it sucks to see it go to shit (where with Jojo it's the opposite- I got into it 'cause it was so ridiculous, but the writing does improve and more importantly, the fight scenes are engaging as shit)
Jacob: It doesn't matter if you like those pitches or not. I was just thinking of examples off the top of my head.
Me: That would be awesome if Riku was scared of using darkness around Sora after Xeanort pointed out that he did try to kill him with that power and Sora was too busy doting on Kiari to notice.
One thing I would like to mention, is that what makes 3 so different from 1&2 is the acting and voice acting. Especially when you compare it to chain of memories. I made a whole video just comparing that
36:17 i never notice that about the plan
I could listen to hours of Jacob impersonating Xemnas as the boring history teacher. It's comedy gold.
god this series is a clusterfuck
If you're still looking for a title, what about - The Modern Story of Kingdom Hearts: Through the Door and Down the Rabbit-Hole.
And I can understand not releasing it, but I'd still be interested to see the re:Mind LP. (And my favorite part of the re:Mind DLC was how the Data Greeting photo builder that didn't include any Disney movie characters and was missing half the maps was somehow more entertaining than any of its narrative.)
Great video Jacob and BTW i watched this in one whole sitting.
For me I started playing kingdom hearts for Disney and final fantasy and I grew to like the original characters that popped up. I enjoyed the series and I felt worried about the direction due to bbs and how it framed it's story and then as you mentioned kh 3 is a product of everything that came before it.
I did actually read the big dream theory and remind does destroy it in the first few minutes.
It gives a lot of love and care on the minute details of how things work and of specific sound cues. One big one was how kairi had ears similar to chirithy on her hoodie and how that was similar telling the audience that she was bound to sora to protect him and guide him like a chirithy would. Similar to riku being a dream eater.
Other theories about how they are in multiple dreams due to riku and sora supposedly dropping due to sound cues at the end of hercules and when riku gets swallowed by the shadows in the realm of darkness, which is why his hair style changes.
I actually appreciated the theory because alot of care and thought went into how it worked. And while I didn't expect remind to be this theory, I would have appreciated something more interesting so that everything we learned was put into play.
I like thearyhtm final fantasy and melody and memories looks like a sequel to those style of games so I'm looking forward to it more for gameplay then I am for story at this point. Which is sad because I first came into kh for the exact opposite.
I started with the first game for the Disney and final fantasy, but as the series went on they became less and less important. Disney no longer has any connection to the overall plot(and majority of the time it follows the movie directly now), and there aren't really any final fantasy characters at this point.
This...is amazing...I enjoyed the crtiticiem/rant in this video, (basicly the whole video). I especally loved the bit where you talked like xemnas, who is a professor of a class...I couldn't stop laughing! :'D
these rants are like lectures, but becaues your criticizing my favorite game series, with good points, its even more entertaining! :D
I've seen all your KH let's plays. :3 thank you for all the thoughts and analysis you put into these videos! :D
2:27:45 While I agree with almost all of your points here, I really gotta disagree with the idea that "nobody didn't get the aqua scene." While I and many other read it as an attempt at PTSD, I can't tell you how many comments I saw asking questions like "Why did Aqua freeze up." or "She's a master, that shouldn't happen to her." I'm not saying those people are smart or are even a majority, but I saw quite a few of them, so I understand it being one of the points of revision to spell it out for those people, considering some of the other changes they made.
1:35:41 What!? That’s the stupidest decision Disney could make. People want to see characters in a crossover actually cross over. I’ve been saying for a while that the series went downhill as a result of the increasing dependence on an ever-lengthening list of poorly-written OCs that people don’t care about. What would make the series more interesting is if they could actually play with this toy box full of characters and settings that have a wider fan base than the rather insular group oh KH diehards. I also just think it sends a weird xenophobic message that it’s fine that long ago the world was shattered into a thousand smaller worlds that largely have no knowledge of each other unless the Darkness breaks the barriers between worlds.
For whatever reason, Disney's gotten more strict with Kingdom Hearts over time. You'd think the relationship would loosen up and it would become closer to Square Enix, but if anything it's grown more apart. Worlds like Arendelle were forced to be the way they were because Disney gave the movie makers the shots to control the worlds, instead of the actual developers who work on the game. Disney characters remaining in their own worlds was a restriction since KH1, but applying it to Summons is dumb. They've always been temporary and Kingdom Hearts isn't canon to the movies anyway.
I think this is one of the few points Jacob got wrong. I believe it was a Polygon interview where the developers actually made the decision themselves to make most links/summons as ethereal beings instead of their “real” selves, but they hadn’t shown disney execs yet. Once they showed Disney execs their plans for links, Disney gave them the okay, and SE developers were surprised by how quick and easy the process was (unlike some of the Disney worlds that were under tight scrutiny). The developers just happened to make the links that way. Disney didn’t actually order them to do it that way, but once they saw it they were okay with it. I might not have gotten that 100% but I think I got the gist of it.
It also doesn’t really make sense that Disney would be so uptight about links/summons considering 1. if you go to Jimminy’s Journal (or gummiphone or whatever it is), under the character files, all the summons are listed by their actual names (Ariel, Simba, Stitch, etc.) and their respective movies and 2. Literally no one playing the game doesn’t immediately recognize that the lion summon is literally Simba from the Lion King (same with all the other summons). Wreck it Ralph is clearly Wreck it Ralph. I think people misconstrue interviews or just straight up jump to conclusions and blame Disney for everything bad about the game, even though it was SE who actually made certain decisions.
And finished! Took me 2 days but worth it! My thoughts and opinions are as scattered as this was! So can't form a cohesive opinion right now hahaha 😅 All I have to say is that I enjoyed this video! it was an experience to watch. In a good way! You did a fantastic job! and hopefully, now you can have a... separation from KH for a while lol
will this ever be titled
Nice. This Will be my source of content for the upcoming week.
Do you live on a farm Jacob? Because that´s a whole lot of animals counting the other dog and the donkey.
Rather than a rant, perhaps catharsis would be more accurate
A bit of both.
Well...it took all day...cause I had to pause and do other stuff before coming back...but I finished it...
"It's JUST a video game series about anime characters running around!?" Clearly you're not a fan. lol
As soon as I saw the words "chapter selection" I was like, oh wow, this is gonna be his final research paper, magnum opus, greatest video ever. Great video, though. I think. There's a lot here, I gotta rewatch it a few times.
Also, yeah the dogs are cute, but I have that same lawn chair! :D And your property is really beautiful. It's my favorite part of the Re:Mind DLC.
25:51 Uhh you sure??? Cause your research stream of that game definently says otherwise.
never understood why youtuber absolutely try to avoid making long videos.
Maybe the algorithm does not like it, but I swear fans love a big juicy vid jacob.
34:38 thats the face of a defeated man
I prayed three times a day to the melted sea-salt ice cream pop I keep in a glass case, and lo, this video has descended from the heavens
You sounded a little disappointed towards the end. Especially about the direction of the series.
I’m kind of the same way. What made me feel better was Persona 5 Royal. That game came out this year and it’s so freaking good man 🥰👌 I love it. Literally everything about its story & characters is almost like the antithesis of recent KH. You can tell the writers actually cared _So Much_ about the characters they were crafting. It’s just so good man.
This is the best video ever.
At 3:00:39 I almost thought (like a book or a movie) you were about to somehow include Frustrated Jacob as an ‘Aha! There it is!’ moment, my ear caught the ‘almost’ first word, but the second one never came...
This is gonna be good *grabs popcorn*
(I was expecting it on the main channel tho...)
That's what I get for commenting before being even 5 minutes in... I totally get your explanation
Clicked the video and I saw doggos. Haven’t watched it all but it’s already a 10/10 in my book
Haven't finished the whole video yet, but just over an hour in and I agree with what you're saying. I have not been able to play every game, but I have invested time in reading the lore and watching videos about it, and, even with that effort, I think the plot that I'm seeing is stupid and makes no sense, and it has been that way for a while.
It's clear that Nomura wrote huge chunks of the story long after the time where those plot points would have been relevant if they had been there all along. That's my problem with the storytelling. Huge chunks of the story are written, rules are established, people give statements about what is happening, and that's as far as the writers got. Then the next game rolls around and the writers finally get to what is supposed to happen next, they dramatically expand the scope of the plot, and in order to do that they contradict things that came before. To get around that, the writers have to force memory loss on every character, or, more egregious, another character will inform us that the person who told us what was happening before was lying. The story may have been fun and decent and not totally incoherent at that point, but there is no denying that KH2 was lazy storytelling and that's ultimately where the problems began.
All of this stems from the fact that no one knew there would be sequels when they made the first game, and they clearly didn't write the plot for that game with sequels in mind. Nomura can't help himself. His ever-expanding vision for this series has all but swallowed the plot that was there in the original. He has retroactively added major plot points, added time travel (which itself is a plot theme that invariably becomes complicated), and he has added dozens of new characters without resolving the plot threads for existing characters. You're right, and it needs to be said, Nomura is not a good storyteller, and even worse, he clearly isn't surrounded by good storytellers.
Since this probably going the last chance Jacob or any of his fan see this; might a well give my two cents.
I always operated under the idea that you should give back what they put out when it comes to fiction. In the case of avengers and kh. Both have scenes detacated to how there time travel works, so what I give back is my attention and criticism if it isn't consistent. In the case of the former the
movie goes with an easy explanation for time travel thefore it screws up less and shows the audience that isn't the main focus. For the latter; not only does it face more problem in terms consistency as the result of all of it's rules, but looks far worse do it unearned belief that it was actually clever as indicted by said rules and time it takes to explain it.
It's why I feel like a lot of the issues discussed in this video started when kairi turned sora back to normal after he turned into a heartless. The game both presents the idea of becoming a heartless as one of the major consequences of the villains plot, and also gives the audience a short scene where said outcome becomes immediately undone without any prior explanation for sake of emotional catharsis for the characters and the audience. This leads to giving back the question: is anything in the series subject for change regardless of how long it's established purely because thinks doing so will lead to a emotional scene? If so should I care about anything.
Likewise, it's hard for me to subscribe to the idea that kh would be so much better if Nomura had the authorization to write what he wants; when interviews concerning his decisions in the story gives off the impression that he will and does add significant details and aspects to the world purely for frivolous reasons without actually thinking through the implications. It's also likely what fans mean when they say they like the wacky storytelling of modern kh. After all, what's more wacky then making your side villain identical to your protagonist simply because his VA wanted to voice a villain.
The only part of the story that sees significant push back when it comes to this writting style is how the characters are used. This leads to debates of whether kairi is useless with one side feeling like she is do to he seeing less use then her peers in the form of riku and sora. As well as less use then characters with less importance to overall story then her( not to mention the way she was used). It's why some fans(even one's who haven't touched a page of fanfiction) want irredeemable villains like marluxia to get redemption. They so focused on how he can be used as a allie of the hero's, they don't consider how doesn't fit with who he is, or simply change who is in their mind.
34 minutes in... and my rose tinted glasses of KH3 & Remind's story have been shattered. What is this BS!?!?!?
Are these background videos the Remind playthrough?????
Please release the videos in deep web
Amazing Video. That's how I also feel. The lack of emotions and acting is what makes modern kingdom hearts so boring. And the story is just made out of cliffhangers.
well that was long, but i enjoyed it
3 hours of Jacob explaining everything I found inconsistent during my time with this game(and watching videos of ReMind{I damn sure wasn't going to pay for that overpriced glorified overused assets called a DLC})
Oh boy. Now I'm genuinely afraid of FF7Rs future sequels. There's already rumoured that suggest that Jessie is alive in the sequel. IIRC someone noticed that Jessie's english V.A posted on social media that she was recording something in the same studio as Tifa's/Aerith's EN V.A. Good god. Reviving characters for the sake of fanservice is just lazy writing.
TBF, at least with VII Remake it appears that there is a point/solid direction towards whatever they are going for. It's not lazy nor is it boring. Some parts of KH3 feel lazy and boring, so I guess I'm more optimistic.
1:52:57
O______________O
Something just hit me... DDD is in a dream realm (whataever that is)...
If they wanted to have these fights with old, already-dead people, they could have just had a "young Xehanort learned how to timetravel in a more convinient and sense-making way, and used it to go to when Sora and Riku are, then entered the dream realm and brought old bad guys from Sora's dream/memories to fight them" plot.
Or they could have just made the time traveling villains replicas from the characters memories.
As one of the people who enjoy current Kh much more than the earlier entries i figured i should probably write a comment nitpicking every point i feel the series has given enough infomation to be assumed, but since this is clearly a video made in good faith with pertinent criticism i will attempt to provide the perspective of someone who enjoys Kh3/ReMind, considering i have a bit of free time to write this. Since i am going to try defending the current writing, or at least equate it with the old one , i am going to try to push back on a few things in this video.
Firstly, id like to push back on the notion that an intesting metaphysical setting cant justify its own existance and, like it or not, the Kh metaphysics are interesting, different from the real world in significant ways, and somewhat consistent. This really isnt common in fiction, because it takes time for something as bizarre as the Kh cosmology come to exist, and even more so to exist as what we would call a metaphysical framework. It has to take itself seriously, which is one of my favorite things about Kh, and it has to have plenty of details and explanations and these are also abundant in Kh. I dont see any plausible negation to an Kh fan if his primary focus is just watching the Kh universe itself exist and how it develops and behaves, even if i were to grant that a supermajority of the fanbase does not think like this.
Secondly, i would argue that the "what is happenign" mystery is not necessarily bad. I think that theorizing, for example, in DDD what Xehanort is doing, how he is doing something, why, etc ( ignoring what may be of the writing in this case) is much more intriguing than simply solving one particular problem. Likewise in KhUx, as i view the whole MoM plot as a much more interesting and consequential thing than the Strelitzia killing, and even more so as it receives build up in the Kh3 secret reports.
Thirdly, lets adress the most important point: the characters, their arcs and personality. I would heavily disagree that any Kh character has ever been stellar or anything close to it, but i guess it can be argued that they were better. Id disagree, save for perhaps ansem the wise being interesting and i guess maybe some CoM characters, since that game had the best characterization. Kh1 barely had a plot and all characters were tropes and badly written. Kh2 does not have much more interesting development from most of the cast and they recycle Rikus arc from CoM, i suppose you could argue for the org as good antagonists but that would be final mix only, and even then, not that interesting. BBS has arcs at least, but those arent really that well written. To single out the latest Khs as the only ones with mediocre characters seems, at least to me, to be heavily influenced by nostalgia.
Lastly, i would posit that the overexplanations that Nomura does, as well as the recontextualizations of past entries that are brought by them are also kinda rare in most mediums, at least to the extent they are present in Kh, wich makes it at least a bit unique. Weird things like malficent time traveling in Kh1 and Nobodies having hearts makes enough sense to give the plot itself some "replayability", to use the gaming term, since it changes the meaning of a lot of things.
Good video, i wish most critiques of Kh as a series were in the format of someone who understands the series and have problems with it making a "video essay" about it, rather than the bad and nonsensical critiscism frequently launched at it.
Where do I begin
Your first point basically boils down to" well i find it intresting" which you are allowed to do. The same way you're allowed to like a car with a faulty engine; doesn't stop it from being a car with a faulty engine.
The apsect you're missing when it comes to Jacobs point is that he doesn't have problem with mystery, but rather he doesn't like a mystery that the characters aren't trying solve or that just uses unexplained information to look clever. At that point just cut the middle man out and just have it be a detective game.
While agree the writting has never been great, to say that jac's feelings towards the first couple of games is primarily motivated by nostalgia is a poor interpretation since he goes in detail as to why he thinks those games are better written, such as the motiavtions being more personal and leading to growth and introspection.
And were back to you just saying you just don't have problem with it. That's fine but doesn't require a comment like this.
Everything through days and 2 (chronologically) are super good. Just a fucking great story (mostly because I love Roxas and Xion)
Any excuse for doggo videos is a good excuse
Your dogs are cute!!!
Pog
Can someone remake KH the right way and hire Jacob as a consultant?!
Omg double doggie videooooo 🤩
Streletzia: elrena? You're with them.
Elrena: I was tired streletzia: tired of all the running, the stealing, the dealing. This isn't what ava would have wanted
Streletzia: don't you dare say her name?
Elrena: it doesn't have to be this way' raises her keyblade' you can turn yourself in
Streletzia: then take the shot elrena
Elrena: hand trembles
Streletzia: TAKE THE SHOT ELRENA! Take the shot!
Elrena: 'falls to her knees crying'
Streletzia: you're a coward elrena. You always were. Goodbye.
Elrena: you damn bitch. You damn bitch.
just a side-note: it's pronounced "Déstati" and means "Wake up" in italian
First things first, I either didn't know you had dogs or forgot.
He has a donkey too.
Eh. I’ve learned to take the storytelling as seriously as a modern superhero comic
Just here to say I liked this vid and I am proud it is now 200 likes due to my brilliance! >:D
56:46 - more like 4 MONTHS later...
Ly Jacob 🥺❤️
Good job on this video. It’s long, but that’s ok because it’s all quality content. Basically a long diatribe/review already.
Good God. This series is a freaking mess.
REMIND DLC
Voldenort 😂
DOOOOOOGS!!!!!! GOOD BOOOOYYYYS!!! WOO!!!
This was a pretty good video, though I'm a little frustrated with how you ended it. You spent hours breaking down how the writing and characters don't quite work, only to last-minute staple on "subjectivity is implied", thereby trapping yourself into an objective/subjective paradox.
Let's use your segment on Lauriam and Elrena's investigation as an example. You lay out what happens in the scenes, then propose alternative takes to the scenes that would tell us more about the characters and their dynamics than what actually happened in UX.
If it's subjective, then how are your proposed scenes any better or worse than the canonical scenes? They'd all be equivalent to one another, and ultimately come down to opinion; some would agree with your changes, while others would say that the canon scenes are actually better than yours. So what was the point in brainstorming those alternative scenes?
If it's not subjective, then you've just contradicted yourself at the end of the video. You were attempting to make the scenes objectively better, but you've told us that it's subjective, yet the whole point of making the alternative scenes was to improve the lackluster character writing...do you see what I mean by paradox?
You would have been better off not saying "subjectivity is implied". All it did was weaken your points and muddle your message.
You may be able to make objective statements about media such as plot holes and contrivances but how you ultimately feel about something is subjective, he only brings up things like plot holes because the characters are so boring that the only thing he’s left to engage with is the terrible plot
There's no way to be objective with opinions. If someone disagrees, it's their prerogative, he's just analyzing from his point of view and providing alternate ways of handling things according to his own tastes and what he thinks would help KH, which may line up with ours.
He's not objectively right about any of it.
Subjectivity must be implied in all narrative construction. He is making an argument to convince a majority of people who think likewise to adopt his opinion on the media in question, as all narrative analysis is made, and is arguing that the proposed changes, for example, would lead to the work being more enjoyable to the people that current enjoy it and peharps make it enjoyable to new people who would come to like it as well. What would be an argument here to subjectivity not being implied? Id like to see it.
@@CaioPCalio I took Jacob's essay as his attempt to analyze the content of the games, creating alternative scenarios as a way to improve the writing and characters, to appeal both to people that feel similar to him, and those who might not have thought about the series quite as deeply as him. I'll admit, the part towards the end of the video where he pulls a Plinkett and asks us to describe each of the characters at the end of KH3, was something I hadn't really thought about.
I've had my own thoughts on the series that mirrors a lot of what he said, but the disclaimer at the end feels like a safety net of sorts, and perhaps an admission that he isn't all that confident about the nearly 3 hours worth of essay preceding it. If that's true, then it's a shame, considering the months of work he put into it in the first place.
I do believe he's trying to be objective on some level, whether he means to or not. But thinking on it, there is a level of subjectivity in regards to the alternate scenarios he brings up. I don't think he was trying to say that his solutions were definitive, but possible improvements on what we get in canon. There are a million different what-ifs that can be brought up by a million different people, and there would be a lot of agreeing and disagreeing between each and every interpretation. I myself don't know the definitive ways to improve the KH story.
However, I do think that, objectively, there's a lot of room for improvement in the story and character department. Jacob would probably agree with this (at least with the characters), seeing how thorough he was in trying explain what doesn't work. The subjective part is what exactly you would do to improve it.
@@TheVideogamer07 Sure, it probably is objective that there is room for improvement in the Kh story, unless we think it is some sort of platonic ideal of storytelling. He is trying to be objective and logical in his argument, of course, but the underlying factor is that all media analysis is subjective, and media cannot be considered "bad" at a fundamental level unless it causes some sort of utilitarian harm ( or other harm, depends on your moral framework). His ideas, in his opnion, would make the game better, but that is only by his perspective, and what he would suppose are most others. Media being objectively "good" or "bad" isnt a thing.
Then Play SMT: Nocturne Fool!