Johnny vs. Kingdom Hearts II
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ส.ค. 2017
- In today's episode, I return to the Kingdom Hearts marathon with the one sequel we were all waiting for until Kingdom Hearts 3 took that mantle. Sora and friends return to the Playstation 2 with Kingdom Hearts 2!
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/ somecallmejon
/ somecallmejohnnyfanpage - เกม
Aw man finally Kingdom Hearts went back to it's roots I was sick of Sora becoming an echidna then a bandicoot good thing they finally went back to the old KH formula
I N B E D Aアート泥棒 agreed
I N B E D Aアート泥棒 I N B E D Aアート泥棒 Fuck you, the echidna saga was the best. Unlike Riku he don't chuckle!
It was nice to come back to this, but for whatever reason they decided to have Sora become a hedgehog for the next game. Donald and Goofy also turned into a fox and echidna exclusively for that game, which I'll never understand.
Disney worlds are one hell of a drug
Learn to apostrophe properly, shitlord.
"I think Nomura just writes the story as he goes along."
THANK YOU!!!!
FandeJay so the creater of dragon ball then
I find people who make that kind of criticism generally don't understand how the creative writing process works. Making it up as you go along is incredibly common and even recommended by many writers, including Stephen King and George R.R. Martin. Breaking Bad was written using this method as well.
Mike's L4IR dude. Seriously?
While that's true, I think he goes to good lengths to make most of the retcons make sense.
Didn't you hear what he said in that sams sentence... "...with no clear angle". That's important.
The nobody walking towards Kairi at 7:03 always cracks me up
Cue the cheesy sneak music
Use the Shut Up voiceline every time something happens because plot and doesn't have any explanation
Ocean Man Sgb memories
But I’d probably get sick of hearing it several times lol
Ocean Man SGB must've read your thoughts back in 2015.
Ocean Man Except Soras connection with Kairi gave Namine memory powers because shut up.
YOU BEAT DADDY CADDY, CONGRATULATIONS
Flame of Udun Caddy will catch up because Johnny will be distracted by Sonic Mania
axellovesanime I meant that he beat him to reviewing this game specifically
And both of them will beat Antdude and he started a year ago
he did comment he was going to do this because he could smell caddy's shit from a mile away
Hey, is it me or does the story-
rae ruoy fo tuo ezoo niarb ruoy ekam?
..
*Drops dead*
Tetsuya Nomura is... something else. I like him well enough, but sometimes it feels like he's just living out his childhood fantasies and getting paid for it!
More than that; He's sharing his childhood fantasies in a way other people can experience them, too. And given the creativity and wonder of many childhoods, that's a pretty awesome thing to do.
Wait until he gets his hands on a chance to make a Star Wars world.
I'll pre-order KH3 if they put in the Death Star and a rehash of Episode 4-6's story. I'd love a lightsaber keyblade and a fight with Vader. It would also give me an excuse to hear Mark Hammel and Harrison Ford reprise their roles as Luke and Han again.
Tetsuya Nomura is the Michael Bay of the videogame industry, just look what he did to Final Fantasy...
AntarianSPACE If Harrison Ford WANT to play Han Solo again
The story didn't lose me until time travel was introduced in DDD
Same
Kingdom Hearts 2 was a perfectly fine story but Dream Drop Distance really got confusing
Same, I was pretty much following along perfectly until then. I even read all the Ansem Reports up to that point, for gods sakes.
@@mrsombrero9956 KH2 still has BIG problems with it's storytelling.
Did you forget Timeless River exists in Kingdom Hearts 2?
I still think that the Ansem-Xehanort change of name happened like this:
Tetsuya Nomura: Hey guys! You know I thought of a cool villain name! Xehanort!
Rest of Staff: That's great Tetsuya, but we already named him Ansem in the first Kingdom Hearts.
Tetsuya Nomura:.......I can turn this around.
Rest of Staff: No....No you can't.
Tetsuya Nomura: JUST WATCH ME.
And that is how the Pandora's box of f*cked up plot twists started for this series....
What is wrong with Ansem - Xehanort. It's the classic apprentice who stole the name of their master.
@@soul6733 yea I dont see the problem either.
Because it's a pointless twist.
@@fightingmedialounge519 Not really, since it builds on the how and why things fell apart in the first game, and why DiZ is in the position he's in. It's fairly organic, all things considered.
Where it gets pointless is when they kept building onto it by having the apprentice really be this other dude whose body was taken over by an old man and trying to tie it all together into this larger plot revolving around other Keyblade Wielders who all coincidentally had an effect on the previous major characters' lives in the past, as if everything is all connected when it just made the universe feel smaller.
@@Sawngawkuh no. The first game already had natural progression of events, but because said events were in the reports most people didn't get it leading to the second game throwing all of that away for the sake of a twist. Seriously, what part of xeahnort lying about who he was to people didn't even know or care about ansem sounds organic to you? Kingdom hearts had bad habit of explaining plot points that were already addressed.
8:53 "I believe Tetsuya Namora, the director of the series, just writes as he goes along with no clear end goal. This is a man I think believes in visually captivating the audience and then thinks of the significance later, leading to meager payoffs."
Hey look, it's Japanese JJ Abrams.
And abrams couldn't even do that in Rise of Skywalker lol
J Jabrams
@Ewan Callister Nah. George ain't perfect, his execution didn't always land - but he at least set out with a story to tell and an end in mind.
@Ewan Callister I appreciate the comparison, I'm simply disagreeing.
While watching the prequels, whatever their other flaws, I never once had the sense he was winging it.
@@ArtaShrike yeah but he made some of the worst films Ive ever seen in the process
You really meant it when you said Caddy ain't beating you at reviewing Kindom Hearts 2 first.
Red Hood I saw his comment on Caddy's video and laughed
SomeCallMeJohnny doesn't fuck around
Nah, it has been in the works since CoM and Crash Bandicoot reviews. He just held it back, to review Crash N'sane trilogy.
Tetsuya Nomura is the Terrence Malick of video games. The man knows how to visually captivate you, but tries way too hard to be complex.
Nomura is a great monster designer and concept artist. I will always love his visual style. Story? No, not really.
I would say the overall plot for Kingdom Hearts is good. But Nomura seemly has no really idea how to tie it all together.
Some games are better than others when it comes to their individual plots and characters. But, yeah, the overall execution is pretty sloppy.
Even though I still don't think he's a particularly good writer (his story direction in that wretched Advent Children/AC Complete movie speaks for itself), to be fair on Nomura, a part of the series' sloppy writing can be attributed to the nonsense going on behind-the-scenes as well. People assume Nomura just screwed around with Versus XIII, but in actuality, it was SE constantly shelving that project so they could have more staff members working on other projects, while having KH3 pushed back till the Tokyo team was available, all the while desiring more side-titles pumped out annually to maintain sales and interest in the KH franchise. Then Versus XIII kept being put off, and then restarted nearly from the ground up as FFXV, prompting them to finally just say "Screw it" and have the BBS/DDD crew do KH3.
Such insanity hindering those productions and producing more non-mainline KH games into mix clearly would demand a lot of re-writing and planning going forward. Even if Nomura was a far better writer, we probably still would have wound up with one hell of a messy franchise-spanning plot due to all those problems. It's highly probable Nomura had a very different idea of how KH3 would go prior to all those unexpected setbacks. For all we know, the Sunset Horizons secret video may have been something hinting towards a hypothetical KHIII before Versus XIII was greenlit and BBS was later finally cemented around the time KH2FM+ came about with its new secret video showcasing those mysterious knights in action.
I fear the answers you'll get will disappoint you.
I definitely agree how the entire story of Kingdom Hearts is written alright. But when you tie all the game's plots, how they are executed, and even some of the character's intentions, it's certainly a clusterf*ck and not entirely the good kind.
7:16 "Sayonara, my fiery friend. See you next game."
*Stares at 3D.* Oh boy...
8:53 I hope you brought your elemental shields, Johnny.
I never clicked an alert so fast
ikr
Aye
Same!
Same here. When I got to the video it only had 3 views.
Refreshed it and it had 5.7k views like damn that was fast
Nomura Syndrome: Writing in a linear direction without any sense of end goal, SOLEY focusing on visual stimulation and creating a spectacle.
And making shit up as you go with plot contrivances and retcons.
Please tell me they make the joke of "I'm a Nobody." "Aw, don't say that, we care about you!" "No like, that's my species."
"oh."
358/2 Days makes a joke like that.
"Roxas, you and I are Nobodies."
"Well that's not very nice..."
"When Hades called up Auron from Final Fantasy X to do his bidding, I needed a change of pants!" A fairly accurate reaction. Speaking of story snarls, Auron creates many on his own. I'm pretty sure it's not even an AU version of himself. He just crossed over. Because he could.
Kh2 came out in 2006??? Jesus...
Im honestly jealous of the Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensai communities at this point. They got their FF15 and Persona 5 and us KH fans STILL don't have our Kingdom Hearts 3. :(
DetectiveEthanaterBobbyFulbrightGamer yeah, I want too want KH3 rushed out this week
DJ Crimson Sunbird NO please NEVER rush any game, especially kh3 when it offers very deep gameplay.
Breno Ranyere jebber! I was 7 back then😆
Feelin' old already man? xD
9:55 this is part of why I love KH3 in particular - they do give a couple winks and references to their own ridiculousness and have fun with it.
Recently re-played KH3 and that Axel line where he says something along the lines of, “I’m too popular to kill off” made me legit chuckle.
Yeah, that's breathtaking tbh
That was when Nomura got sick of people taking the story too seriously. Like “See, it’s supposed to be this way. Happy now Western fans?!”
Context: In Japan, a goofy story taking itself seriously is considered funny, and blatant self-awareness isn’t needed to convey that. In the West we have this idea that if the story takes itself seriously, the writer is too and thus it’s pretentious. There’s a cultural clash there. Resident Evil 4 is a good example. The story is meant to be stupid, but it’s tone was tailored to each region. In Japan the stupid story takes itself overly serious, in English it’s written as blatantly self-aware.
Your opinions are always firm but fair. I think that's why I love this channel so much. The format is also damn near perfect.
7:11 i cant stop replaying this part heh change of heart.....
You have to be invested in the characters for the story to have any real weight.
The first game was simplicity mixed with emotional depth, revolving around maturity and friendship (and how easy it can be to lose it with age) but after that things got more impersonal as the plot got bigger (and eventually mutated).
I am kingdom hearts trash. I love the games, the characters, gameplay and even that story, but I admit to knowing how much of a mess it is, too
I alternate between loving it unironically and loving it ironically.
Snorlaxation I completely agree. I know it's kind of ridiculous, but I can't help but love it anyway.
In terms of heroes KH1 strongly loses KH2.
For really interesting characters besides Riku in KH1 there
i can kinda understand the gist of the story but they do leave plot holes.
@Yay !!! Not really as easy as that - it's harder to tag them all since the series is so far-flung across many different platforms, and sometimes things get spilled in Japan-only interviews in the guides which has a bearing on things. (Though in those cases I'm prone to the SFDebris perspective: "You don't get credit for it because, and bear with me here, you *didn't* put it in the game!") And then there's a sizable mound of stuff which winds up left open to interpretation...
The biggest plot holes all revolve around the pretty solid problem at the root of this all: the first Kingdom Hearts release did not have things properly in place to really support all the complexity being layered in later. It's the same as what happened with Hideo Kojima...
The major reason I don't tear into it more is knowing I could not do a better job with such an ambitious level of crossover work myself, and won't even begin to try.
I just got into a very heated argument between my family and so many words was exchanged and hurtful words was said. I couldn't help but break down and cry as man who loves his family. After 2 hours I saw this video in my notifications on TH-cam and suddenly it brighten my evening. Johnny videos are always a little light of mines
I know it's been 4 years, but I just wanted to check if things are going better.
"Because I swear they're more than just best friends" You and alot of Kingdom Hearts fans.
Ok yeah i love KH but like... you nailed how Nomura writes his stories
Atlantica in Kingdom Hearts 2 was one of my high points, when I saw the Atlantica world on the world map I was dreading going back there and having to struggle with the clunky under water controls, but to my surprise, the entire world was just a succession of small and easy mini games. Some songs sounded a bit off at times, but it was way better than having to play through another KH1 style Atlantica level.
"Maleficent is brought back from the brink" Oooo boy, considering what we know now, that whole part is painful.
Riku accepting both light and dark hasn't been retconned considering he still uses his keyblade which uses the power of darkness
UltraPrincessKenny in the trailer for kingdom hearts 3 you see dark riku.
Yeah, that's a thing I think Johnny missed when going through these games. It's explained that, even though Riku wanted to go on a middle of the road path, he HAD to tap into the power of the darkness to capture Roxas, since Roxas was more than a match for him during the events of 358/2 Days. Rinu looking like Ansem also kinda makes sense, since a piece of Ansem still lingered within him after KHI.
Badboy2525, you know that's most likely Rikuplica, right?
Johnny didn't miss anything. His point was that suit and rikus road to dawn speech seem to imply that riku had made peace with the darkness in his heart and can use it properly. What happen in 2 imply's the opposite.
Jhonny actually managed to make a video off kingdom hearts 2 before Caddicarus.
They share a dualality
Caddy just released his chain of memorys review. Who u think he is. Donald duck
I'll tell ya what this game series needs; a sense of humor & a GOOD sense of humor. Pretty much everything is so serious all the time with not a lot of lighthearted stuff thrown in. I wish there'd be more comic relief every so often in these games to lighten the mood a bit & make the ride more comfortable & enjoyable.
The only funny thing I remember is Donald duck being mad at Sora in the Tarzan world and he wouldn't heal you.
@@spiritandtimeakalilroachie7014 I don't remember that. Plus, you can alter Donald's AI to heal you more often. in the game's menus.
@@ScsigsGaming maybe I could be dreaming 😂 but I swear Donald gets mad at Sora in a cutscene and it carries out during the playthrough.
@@spiritandtimeakalilroachie7014 I personally don't remember it going like that, but then again, I often heal myself when I play these games even if Donald won't, so I didn't notice if he wasn't programmed to do so.
Reply 5
This is my favorite entry in the KH series.
Speaking as someone who hasn't played the games... I really can't blame Johnny for not being a fan of this story. It's ridiculous. I could barely understand any of it even as he was saying it.
The plot isn't that hard to understand. It's just bad.
I think my brother said it best. "The story makes sense when you're playing through it and enjoying it, but then you try to explain it to someone 💀"
@@sodaftpm185 Actually no. Storytelling is bad
It's meant to be ridiculous. You aren't supposed to take it seriously. KH3 even constantly makes fun of how convoluted everything is.
Reply 5
The universe is at balance again
Don't forget Sonic Mania is due soon
I have some terrible news
You have Bug Eyes!
SFC mr Raccoon Christ, I've seen that ad so many times.
That ad need to DIE!
They dont know my eyes like I do.
_I have special eyes._
SFC mr Raccoon "They're destroying the whole town!"
Lol fuck that ad
Hahahaha. I never thought somebody would say that
Naminé is such a powerful Nobody because she's the Nobody of a Princess of Heart
Uncle Bubbles yet her powers are incredibly plot convenient
Joe Green that’s true, but there is an explanation.
Except there isn't concerning her particualr set of powers.
Where did the memory powers come from?
To be fair on the man, I think it's pretty much understood he's making the story up as he goes along just based on the nature of the medium he's working on. Game devs don't plan out sequels in advance, they just put all their resources and effort on the current entry and then build on what came before when the times comes for a continuation (if there's an opportunity to do one). Not many games have the luxury of having sequels just planned out in advance before they're even made.
What separates the good from the bad is how well their sequels develop what had been established and making it all feel organic instead of contrived and all over the place. It's always good to have a plan, but "making things up as they go along" is a lot more common than people think (not even just among games, but movies as well, since back in the day, you didn't have many companies intentionally planning out cinematic universes) and it isn't necessarily the root of the problem present in the likes of KH.
The issue KH faces is simply that Nomura and his team struggle to integrate some of their newer concepts organically, as well as often prematurely introducing little bites of foreshadowing to things that hadn't been fully conceptualized just yet.
Once a boy named Sora , next an echidna named Knuckles , then a woahing crash bandicoot
BUT NOW COMING AUGUST 15TH
*Sora Will Be a Speedy Blue Hedgehog!!!!*
*Edit*- Wow I didn't think this would get likes at all!! :D
*Edit x2*- As cool as it is to have over two hundred likes. I'm sad Johnny Senpai hasn't hearted my comment :(
DarkSpike 75 And Sora will learn that being a hedgehog is not as easy as it looks.
But he's not the only one.
Meet Donails the Fox
And Kncukfy the Echidna!
and they face their gretest foe dr anseman
You Mean Nipples The Enchilada right??
Because of 1 of 3 reasons
A. Just because
B. The person doesn't normally get a lot of likes (me)
C To be like everyone else doing it
To me, the biggest issue and the reason I can't personally go with these stories goes into more than just being would-be poetic and overly serious. Another reason why this series fails to captivate me with it's narrative is that, to be honest, nothing will ever matter in the series.
Why is that? Because no matter what happens, the next game is gonna backpeddle and undermine everything that happened. You beat Maleficent? Nope, she's back within the first hours. Well, at least Ansem is gone. Double-no, because not only is he inside Riku (ew), but Xemnas is just another Ansem (Who wasn't even Ansem, by the way). Well, if nothing else, it fed into Riku's ark towards maturity, as he accepts the darkness within hims- wait, no, he's still questioning it and got fucked by it. Well... they killed Axel, a bit of a risky move with how much fans love em'... HAH! Couldn't even keep that up. Well, at least we're left with the tragedy of the Nobodies, and how they simply seek completion once more......... right?
It's that kind of writing that absolutely demotivates me from ever getting engaged in Kingdom Hearts' narrative. Why should I be invested in a story if even the writer isn't going to be?
Hate to say but I think this might be the series' biggest fault. I actually have no problem with the time travel, the hearts, the nobodies, etc etc etc, I find it all funny but there's no risk to any of it. I hope KH3 finally has the balls to kill off someone
Jarvis Johnson What's that? You wanna bring back DiZ and the Keyblade wielders from X? Sure thing!
I have to agree. Although the only problem with killing someone off is who would that be? There are a lot of loved KH characters out there and considering how DDD brought back a whole bunch of characters i really hope none of them get killed off. If you ask me Riku should be the one to die although within saying that i fucking love Riku so i don't know how i would feel about that. But like you said, hope KH3 has the balls to kill so one off too lol. (And we all know its gonna be painful)
DetectiveEthanaterBobbyFulbrightGamer Honestly with how much Nomura likes to takesies-backsies on character death, it tells the audience that if you want to imply that anyone else died, they'll think that those characters those characters are in no danger, thus removing the element of suspense.
+DetetctiveEthanaterBobbyblahblahblah
I think the opportune time to let a character go is when their story is conclusively told. When the ark is met and the loose ends that came up are tied shut, a character should be allowed to leave. That doesn't necessarily mean death, but other sort of drop-offs, where they go to spend their days on something else.
Axel should have died. His story was wrapped up quite well enough during KH2. All that goes on with Roxas, that was his whole shtick and by the time he died during KH2, that was when that plot-thread had seen it's length's end, when it was squeezed for all it's worth.
However, this constant erasure of everything established appears in more than character death. It's a disease upon the series that feeds off every last bit of it's being. Chain of Memories is a whole story's worth of events and development that is rendered moot by it's own ending. The plight of the Nobodies is eventually revealed to have been just a hoax from the word "Go". Meddling was a piece of world-building undone so unceremoniously that I doubt Nomura even remembers including it anymore.
Confounding all this is, to me, a very weak main character. Sora's cluelessness and narrow list of priorities during Kingdom Hearts 1 was not the strongest foot into a "Save the world" story, but it worked. It was reasonable for the situation he was in and he was filling our shoes as the outsider to this new universe. By the second game though? I'd expect Sora to have more of a perspective on the worlds and what's going on. I'm tiered of being dragged along this world by someone that needs absolutely *everything* explained to him. I'd wish Sora could have a more informed opinion on Light and Darkness than "Well, they're things, and I fight one of them"
Actually, scratch that. I want the whole fucking series to have a more informed opinion on the matter. Honestly, in the context of Kingdom Hearts, what is light and darkness? What do these concepts mean? What is "The darkness within the heart" that turns one into a heartless? What is nothingness and how does that play into it? This issue delves into more than just lack of concrete context on anything. It's also a sign that the series lacks a central theme to revolve around and even if there was one, there exists nothing for that theme to express itself through. In any other narrative, concepts like light and darkness, pieces this central to the overarching narrative, would be used as tools of expression in order to speak about something. A message to be heard. The glue that everything in the story is built around.
And it's not like there was no foundation for this. Kingdom hearts has always been super-into the power of friendship and the first game had things like the story of worlds scattering and meddling as this intrusive story-tidbit. Wouldn't it make sense that the Darkness would represent the anxiety that comes with inter-social relationships? The fear of those we don't understand, the hatred that we refuse to let go, make it an element that continues to sever the ties between the worlds and the destruction of worlds by darkness could thusly represent the self-destruction that seclusion and prejudice will lead to.
Perhaps this could also be tied to Sora and Riku, the central characters of KH1. Sora, the messenger of light, is a wide-eyed, well-meaning extrovert, who desperately clings to others as he searches the worlds for his old friends, as he is weighed by low self-esteem and can't function without others helping him. Riku, the embracer of Darkness, is a selfish, cautious Introvert, perhaps motivated to set out to other worlds, because he fears the fragility of friendship and seeks to live a life on-the-road, never needing to worry about friends that abandon him, use him or betray him. Two flawed points of view and as the events of the narrative begin to unfold, both end up meeting each other halfway, as Sora is able to stand on his own and Riku learns to respect people. It's ultimately fundamental stuff that KH gets wrong from the very core.
3 hour long Prologue?!? Christ & I thought Twilight Princess's opening was the worst...
Meta Shade Assassin's creed 3 opening is much worse. imo
AC3 opening is half the game!
Pokémon super mystery dungeon Pokémon diamond and pearl, pokémon Susan and moon has a pretty long opening too
Kyle Campbell Pokemon Susan
Matthew The Autism Guy stupid autocorrect
Tetsuya Nomura is a character and monster designer. He is not a writer. I'm pretty certain he himself once stated that he's always going to leave plot holes and subplots hanging, probably to keep enticing players, which personally speaking, is just plain bad writing.
The fact that he literally wrote the last several KH games with someone himself, I'm sure, doesn't poke holes in that argument.
Actually he leave plot points unexplained so that he can have ideas for the sequels.
@@Scsigs ... It literally doesn't, though?
And here I thought Caddicarus would have a massive lead but Johnny is finally back in the race!
He might be logging brhind again with Sonic Mania (on the bright side tge next SomeCallMeJohnny video should be due by either next weekend or two weeks from now)
Nana-Kyoto Now I know I've seen you somewhere before... Was it on Markiplier's vids? Game Grumps? I'ma have to go on a comments section adventure.
John had a head start though
I was watching old video's and saw this
Random person: Man! Metal Gear has the most convoluted story ever!
Nomura: Hold my beer!
Kingdom Hearts 2 gameplay is insanely fun. For those that don't like KH story, but like the gameplay/designs, play The World Ends with You. Also directed by Nomura, but even better than KH imo and one of my favorite games of all time
I hope the future Kingdom Hearts games have better Disney worlds. I'm tired of them being unrelated to the plot and just worse versions of the movie's story.
Too much hope for a shitty writer.
Well, time will tell. But yeah, not too optimistic so far.
Yeah it be nice for once the other worlds, you know interact with each other. Most we get is the villain alliance but each of them are only a deal in their own worlds. Like come on let this be an actual crossover. And yes I know theirs an explanation why they can't interact, but frankly it's a dumb explanation.
VladNorris Let's hope the Shitty writer doesn't catch on to other people bashing on him, Jk
In any sense the story in my opinion is good until after BBS where I feel the writing gets "Shitty" I see your point.
But seriously, don't blame everything on the one guy and instead, blame it on the people in the company who thought this guy's writing was "yeah this is good, put it in the game without a second thought".
Just really.
BlueMageDanny I've read that KH3's Toy Story story will be its own new story. Will be interesting to see how it turns out. Story.
Can't wait for Kingdom Hearts 3: WONKY DICK's new adventure!
Anti Fanboy his feet are wonky too.
They didn't even TRY to make Atlantica an actual rhythm game. If any of the prompts were timed to any part of the song, I guarantee it was by sheer coincidence.
"you were the bomb in phantoms yo" this is why i love you
Johnny vs. my favorite game of all time. This will be good.
I know it's not just a specific thing you can find with this one aspect of the story but Xehanort's integration into the story as the main antagonist after this game feels like a prime example of the whole "Nomura writes as he goes along" theory.
The fact that the Xehanort we see in Kingdom Hearts 2 STILL isn't the real Xehanort (spoiler alert) kind of says something lol
I just recently finished playing through Kingdom Hearts 3D. And throughout the game, I honestly kept forgetting that Disney was even involved. I love these games, really, but it's becoming increasingly clear that they don't care about the Disney side of things. Hell, they don't even care about the Final Fantasy side of things, I can't remember a single FF character in KH3D, only some TWEWY characters. I will still play these games going forward, I'll always enjoy them for the batshit insanity they are, but I just really wish they would go back to being a FF/Disney crossover. Too many OCs have shifted the focus away from where it should have been. Waaaaaaay too many OCs.
I like what they did with Beasts Castle, Space Paranoids and the Underworld cuz they felt more important to the main story
Man, its weird. I never played these games but only watched the cut-scenes as a kid, and for some reason i still feel that pang of nostalgia from it.
Probably has to do with the music i guess and the cheesy amvs i used to see growing up.
Piers they are excellent games and are absolutely worth the price of the collection with KH1 and KH2 alone. The rest is just bonus if you enjoy the story. The games for them is... bland. Not bad per se but not great by any means.
I mean, you can call it not telling you the truth, as though your opinion is almighty fact... OR you can say you didn't like the games and they aren't your recommendation. People CAN like different things in differing amounts. For example I LOVE FFXIII, and honestly believe it gets a lot of hate just because it has a bad rep now. Its no less linear than many RPG experiences, its just a little more honest. I personally really enjoy basically everything about the game but I know its flawed, I just love it anyway. Don't expect for anyone else to like or dislike the things you do.
Just Michael Can you actually not?
I guarantee you there is a community of fans for FF13. Its not great, we know, we love it, its not trash. I love the storytelling as I felt it worked perfectly. I know it uses a hell of a lot of jargon and doesn't explain it to you immediately but it DOES explain all the jargon without the datalogs. Reading them just gets you there faster. Eveytime I saw datalog updated I would open it and read the new logs. I'm a giant fan of datalogs and other world-building concepts so my bias leaves me little ground to stand on. It has its fans and that's why it works, even if that fanbase is smaller than the majority. Each character experiences an excellent arc that really does improve them as a character. I actually like all the characters but definitely agree that Vanille (as well as Hope) can be grating at times. My favorite is actually Sazh who looks like a joke but is a pretty deep character, and arguably acts the most like a real human out of every character in the franchise. The "automatic" gameplay is something I don't really have the tools to change you on as it requires you to completely change how you see the combat. I can present the argument but I can't make you see it that way.
Individual actions mean far less, for one, making micromanaging your actions feel less rewarding and the time it takes to select up those actions is longer than other games, making auto-battle very enticing. Autobattle will clear most mobs in the game, with little issue. That doesn't account for the fact that you have to track everything happening in the battle and make changes to your paradigms on the fly, which a lot of people pass over but processing it all isn't automated by the game (though, through playing it becomes automated by you). That all said, if your are someone who shoots for 5-stars and cares about scoring the best you can by being the best, auto-battle will not get you there. When you fight late game bosses like the Barthandelus fights, and when you do the difficult hunts (as well as fighting the superbosses like the Adamantoise Variant) you can't just spam autobattle. You have to know exactly what actions you are taking, and will be taking, at every moment or you will just die, over and over again. I can beat every Adamantoise variant in the game consistently, and I can tell you that autobattle can't do that. Autobattle doesn't work for getting 5-stars on all Cie'th stone battles (or even beat a good number of them). Paradigms are so much more strategy then people make them out to be and there are plenty of times where you can find yourself trying to condense the 10 paradigms you want into the 6 you need. Managing the boosting and the maintaining of the stagger guage is another important skill altogether.
Anyway, that was way more of an essay then I meant it to be so, TLDR; your opinion is yours and most modern games are far more than objectively good or bad. If you don't like FFXIII and KH2, then I respect your opinions but disagree with them. Mine are not fact, if I can accept that, you can too.
Piers Love you bae
The main issue with the KH plot to me isn't the fact that it's convoluted or complicated or whatever (but that's certainly a fair point to criticize), but the fact that it puts all the focus on the wrong things and does it very poorly.
The series has put a lot of its narrative focus on the cosmology and lore and all the twists and turns that add to that, but the problem is that this lore for the most part isn't grounded in anything particularly relatable or interesting. It's just a bunch of convoluted systems propping up a bog standard light vs dark dichotomy. Nomura and co. seem to think this is what makes for good storytelling but that just isn't the case.
Not only that but for the most part the characters are just not that compelling. There's what, maybe 5 halfway decent characters in the series, and the rest are just bog standard JRPG stuff that isn't done particularly well. This isn't helped either by the often stilted and poorly written dialogue that really ruins any investment you might otherwise have (seriously, Aqua and Terra's VA's in BBS sucked and made it impossible for me to care about them). When you combine alll of that with how cheesy the series and how poorly implemented the Disney worlds are, it's fairly easy to say that the plot just isn't very good even if you understand it.
THANK YOU!!!!!
that actually sums up most of my thoughts as well,while i can understand the basic plot enough to like it(most of ff honestly is bog standard despite being the foundation but does still be innovated with it's cast and tell people what to play and what to skip it really adds too much to a not able to hold it all narrative that while still feel there are way more convoluted series i stopped caring about(guilty gear/blazblue,metal gear outside the main games.) and writers that pull stuff out of their ass to excuse writing by their underwear they handled it with more heartfelt interactions which the series started to outside a few moments miss considering both ff and disney can be both very goofy but mature & dark(even nightmare inducing at times.) yet charmingly caring.
that seriously in whatever the next saga is needs to dial it back with how forgotten(other ff characters as we haven't seen cloud,sephiroth & tifa since this game or other 7 characters like barret or the terks.),wasted(most of the organization,maleficent.) or underutilized(kairi/other playable characters,disney worlds meeting outside summons in a weird mandate,using the animated series or other square enix series like brave fencer musashi,hanjuku hero,dq,nier or chrono trigger that they could've used to explain how the time travel happened.) it is.
i think it has way too many detours with the handheld games(don't blame people for being confused if you had to sit through 4-8 hours of something that could've been summed up in one cutscene with coded being the worst of it.),the original villains not being as charmingly hateful as ff's/disney's(and trying to excuse there horrible actions close to naruto levels with xehanort.) and for some reason not having the disney worlds be involved outside retelling the movie(with frozen being the worst of it just only put in as an advertisement.) it makes it feel upsetting and tiring to not get a grand adventure the series was building itself up as but a tied up investment that gets pulled back hard to where compared to other longer series it doesn't feel as worth it.
The problem with Nomura is no one ever taught him about a story outline.
Lyric Ailove yet people read marvel/dc where story is written by a 7 year old, for 7 year olds..
@@HaohmaruHL ....
I swear to God every time I hear that theme music, it feels like I'm just tuning in to a SomeCallMeJohnny late night talk show. "Iiiiiit's the Late Night with Johnny Show! Featuring: Kingdom Hearts 2!! With musical guest: Tele Lopes! And now your host... heeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!!!!!"
I wonder what get's more delay ,the Kingdom Hearts marathon or Kingdom Hearts 3 release date.
SHHHHHHH Nomura might be listening!!!!
^- Aren't you the one always commenting in Nico's videos? xD
YaBoyAlan Kingdom Hearts 3 never got delayed.
Still loving how people have no faith in Nomura. Seriously, name *ONE* fucking time a KH game has been delayed due to development issues. You can't.
Kingdom080500
You can't delay a game when there's no release date!
We've been getting 'it's coming' for years and only recently got '2018'. So we have anywhere between a few months to a year and a half for it to actually drop.
I actually don't think it'll come out during holiday season though, since the competition is always so rough at that time and the hype will probably have died down too much by then. It'll be interesting to see when they decide to do it.
When he squeed about Toy Story being in KHIII, he sounded like Rex from Toy Story. LOL XD
Zinervawyrm haha nice spot! He really doesxD
OHHHGOD I''VE BEEN WAITING YEARS FOR YOU TO COVER THIS AND IM SO HAPPY THAT YOU FINALLY GOT TO COVERING IT AND ITS A REALLY GOOD REVIEW TOO.
BLESS YOU.
The prologue can be done in less than an hour. The pain appears with the mini games but you only need to do one mini game and then go to the station and you've saved your self more than an hour especially in critical. I honestly find proud mode to be the hardest.
Finally, I'm not the only one who thinks Proud is harder than Critical!
Definitely respect your opinion but I absolutely love the Kingdom Hearts Story personally.
I think it would be awesome if Square remade Kingdom hearts 1 and 2 with the same engine they used for kingdom hearts 3 and release it for PC, Xbox one and PS4.
Good for you.
It still is terrible.
To say Nomura doesn't have an end goal is likely untrue, but to say he didn't make up shit as he went along is a lie as well. He probably had like, pieces of BBS, 1, 2, and 3 all as a "yes this is happening" sort of deal, and everything else just kinda formed around all the money he was making.
That's pretty much how I think Normura writes KH. I think he comes up with a small handful of key details ahead of time (mostly character designs and lore concepts), but then makes up everything else in between as he goes along.
That's basically how like 90% of all the writers that ever lived has dealed with their sequels. Think of a main line or a concept and expand it.
One of my favourite games. So glad I got to experience this series over one year ago.
The lovable trio of Sora, Donald, and Goody.
Tetsuya Nomura is a fantastic artist and designer. What he is NOT, is a good writer. The guy knows how to bring characters and monsters to life, you can't deny that and if I was looking for someone to get me some concept art or to design characters and enemies, he would be pretty high on the list. So credit where credit is due. THAT BEING SAID, I would NOT put him in charge of writing the story for the game. He honestly feels like he makes stuff up as he goes and if he wants to change something he'll always try and find a way to change or twist around what he already set up, and I don't think that's a good approach to storytelling.
Legend of awesome productions at least he doesn"s give up say "fuck it" to reboot the whole thing when story is stupid and is driven into a dead end like basically every fucking marvel series out there which people praise and hype for some reason even though writers never try to make a coherent story which starts and ends to begin with
Nice to see someone liking a series I like for a reason that is different from me.
I liked the series for a number of reasons from the characters,the gameplay for most of them,and the moment where no matter how stupid it may seem to other or even to me still manages to hit you in the feels in someway.But the main reason would have to be the fact that this taught me alot of messages when I was younger and I will always hold the series in that regard.But I also will that there are those who find other ways of enjoying a series and hey if that what it takes to get more content from people like Johnny then more power to them. :)
Kingdom Hearts is one of the few game series where I don't really care that there is so much shit that doesn't make sense, or is at the very least convoluted as all hell. Normally, I like to dissect and make sense of a story, it's timelines and general Universe. Kingdom Hearts is just different...somehow. It's like being aware that you are inside of a dream, with plenty of random stuff occuring that it almost seems like it could collapse in on itself at any moment, but you play along cause you know it will remain stable because the basic concept is simple enough to follow. Light and dark clash, with good ultimately triumphing. Besides, while the story is all over the place, you can't deny the use of good story "elements". Darkness, friendship, time travel, etc...all set to a grand adventure spanning multiple games. Not short games either...Kingdom Hearts manages to take gameplay elements of a JRPG and mix it with satisfying, fast paced combat and even moments of platforming thrown in for good mix. For me, the series is all about it's gameplay, world's and characters. It's about the experience first and foremost, with the story surrounding it, being merely details of a wild and very vivid dreamscape.
"Has a change of heart-HA!"
Nomura has actually said in the KH2 Ultimania interviews that he has the entire plot in his head, but it's bound to change. So he doesn't write as he goes along.
So he makes changes as he goes along?
Sloppy execution is not a debate against him already having the plot thought of. That just means it's sloppy execution. Though I think he got better as the games went on, since a lot of plot twists were foreshadowed a few games in advance.
Everyone makes changes as they go along.
Could he's changes be more focused?
+KidSnivy96 It'd be nice if he could make his changes more focused. First he changes the series into a platformer with Echidnas and a Crocodile trying to find God, and then it's about a Bandicoot collecting crystals and gems!
0:21 Now it's January 29 2019. Thanks John......
Well, 13 months into 2018. Eh? Eh?
Thanos your dumb
Just wanted to give you a thanks Johnny! I started drifting from KH just before KH3D's release when I found out some story details and never found myself going back to the franchise, just sorta started to resent it over the years. But after your KH marathon started I've ended up going back and replaying literally all the games and am now awaiting KH3. This is the second time you've done that! I got into Castlevania from your Symphony review too. I've never actually played games based on what youtube reviewers say, there's just something about you I've come to respect over the years!
Holy shit, this is, legit, my favorite game of all time...Story, characters, and writing notwithstanding. The gameplay, the bosses, the visuals, the music, it's all PRONOMINAL! I was worried this whole review was going to be a whole "durrrrr, you press X to win!", but was presently surprised! Great review, man!
....
Even though KH2 is one of my favorite games of all time, I do have to agree it does more hidden message/wise-ass quote bullshit than any game in the series.
This was released on my birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
🎉🎊🎁🎂🍰🍧
Congrats mate
Good review. Thorough. The plot of the disney worlds being isolated retellings of the Disney movies got worse in the second game actually. The first game actually did a decent job of tying the overarching plot together with the day to day events of traveling the worlds. All the Disney villains were working together in a evil counsel, Sora and crew were searching for their friends, and in doing so discovered a purpose in sealing keyholes to save the worlds from heartless.
I can give some specific examples of why the stories in the disney worlds felt distinct and more connected to the plot. You go through none of the events of the Hercules movie. It's a colosseum for battling heartless in a tournament. The fact that Hercules is this badass hero and you're not even close to his level really drives Sora's personal narrative throughout the story. What's truly amazing about Kingdom Heart's story is how it makes you feel personally invested in the success of Sora. Riku on destiny Islands was actually an incredibly hard boss fight and the dick re-enforced his greatness over you by keeping score of how many times you lost. Phil in Olympic Colosseum tells you to push this giant stone pillar only for you to fail and have him call you "not a "real" hero." So the beginning of the game makes you feel like you suck, but by the end you not only grow stronger in game, but your personality (Sora's personality) and character have greatly developed and grown as well.
You best your dick rival Riku, sacrifice yourself to save your crush, and even defeat the giant dickwad that destroyed your island in the first place. Kingdom hearts 1 is really a story about developing yourself as a person and progression. Perfect theme for an rpg. Especially if you are a kid when you first play it because that's exactly how you feel. When you're a kid you're surrounded by adults, friends, and older siblings that all seem to know more than you. They've been around longer and all have you beat in life experience and capability. More than anything else as a kid you want to grow and progress, so Sora's narrative fits right in with that desire. That's how it made me feel anyhow when i played it as a kid.
I think everyone at this point (2024) knows nomura definitely makes it up as he goes but what KH2 does right for me is the cheeky shonen, action elements. IT LOOKS COOL. And sometimes that’s all I need for a video game to distract me.
So... Kingdom hearts is now Bleach?
I'm not gonna lie, i love complex plots, i grew up on metal gear solid at a young age, the phoenix wright games are some of my favorites, my favorite jrpg xenogears is so complex most people need to read the artbook to understand half the plot, but this shit just hurts my head. and this is only where it STARTS getting convoluted as fuck
It's not really, just a lot to remember
You summarize these games extraordinarily well
0:10 God, I love how the footage and music is synced up so well.
i actually would love to hear sora sing again
I have to respectfully disagree with the story construction. I think KH1's mini-adventures were better handled, if only because they stuck with the barest plot dots and made it more free, for lack of a better word. Though, there are some exceptions in KH2. But my main beef is the contradictions that hurt the mini-adventures. More specifically: ATLANTICA. Halloween Town and Agrabah I think did it right, though the former had its hiccups, but how can you suspend your disbelief when Ariel just works with Ursula with absolutely no recollection of the last time they made a deal? Olympus Coliseum is right there too, because the first game implied it was post-movie, but then the second game just plain ignored that. That just... irks me.
To paraphrase a Starbomb lyric: "Here's where things get a little convoluted"
But no earthquakes happened or snow fell, though there was a lot of shit that went down that Sora doesn't remember so there's that at least.
Johnny I appreciate you making these videos man
7:10 That laugh slayed me XD I've been laughing for like 3 minutes!
Tfw Sonic Mania is a direct sequel to Kingdom Hearts and Knuckles. (We know you will have Sonic Mania on the channel by the 18th, John. You’re not loyal.)
Shorter answer This Is Bleach.
I remember when this came out telling my nephew the Organization was the Gotei 13.
Once you see it you can't unsee it
Bro I cant help but hum when yout intro comes on ITS AMAZING
this game is my literal childhood
I have to agree. My memory of the story is very vague for this game, I really did enjoy the gameplay. Heh, though I was a stupid kid, and didn't know you could equip different keys. Ended up playin' through the whole game with just the Kingdom Key. ^^;
Wow, you totally articulated how I feel about Kingdom Hearts. I used to love the story but I fell off when 2 came out, but I really do love exploring g the Disney world and seeing Tifa try to take on Sephiroth makes my heart smile for so many reasons
THIS OPENING MUSIC IS SO GOOD
The next games are Sonic Mania
Kingdom Hearts
Metroid samus returns
Kingdom Hearts
Then depending on the release date Kingdom Hearts or Sonic Forces
Yea not the best year to do Kingdom Hearts Johnny
Also propably Super Mario Odyssey
Every time I hear the Anime Mickey Mouse part, I can't help but break into laughter.
Never been more excited to hear that sweet sweet intro!
I haven't played these games, but after watching these vs videos. It's hard for me to believe that this game has so many fans
Wait...
How does the stories of Knuckles Chaotix and N Sane trilogy fit into this?
Did Vector find god?
No... He finally found the computer room.
References is all we know
If you can't take Mickey Mouse in a darker tone seriously, the Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine is not for you.
Ooh dang, I was expecting like an hour long video, there is SO MUCH to this game. Not that the length is bad, condensed and to the point is great too lol
“I think Nomura just writes the story as he goes along.”
Is... is this supposed to be a secret?