actually, with it's ability being buffed from the transition from KH2 to KH2 FM, it's not exactly useless. in cases where you can't do the trick to auto-fill your drive gauge back to full, oblivion stacked with other increases will fill that gauge back up INSANELY fast
It's a huge shame that in most KH games Keyblades are just stat/range increases and that's all. Keyblades having abilities is just an amazing idea that I wish was used more.
MeteorFalcon In re:coded none of them give stat boosts, all of them have different ability trees. 3D also played around with it that there were definite upgrades to some Keyblades conpared to others, due to the addition of reality shift rate it should take (if only a bit) more consideration to what Keyblade to use compared to BBS which just had STR, MAG, Crit dmg And Crit rate
Birth By Sleep is disappointing in the fact that it only went halfway with 2's mechanics. It kept how each Keyblade has different forms of Strength/Magic boosts, but when they don't have Abilities with them, they feel worthless.
well the recommended level for the mulan world is lower than beasts castle so technically no. though they are both available at the same time and the level difference isn't that big anyway so it doesn't matter much
For a casual run, I always love Fenrir. My personal skill setup is to use the Negative Combo, and the Berserk Charge in tandem with Fenrir's natural Negative Combo to deal a bit of damage to enemies, and when I'm low on HP, just use a Curaga and keep pelting them with normal attacks. Not the smartest idea, but after doing everything in the game, I deserve my fun! Heck that's how I do my Data Roxas fight.
Ik I’m really really late but one other thing you could do is equip Rumbling Rose as a sub weapon to Valor or Final form (whichever one you use more). It works a small bit better on Final because Valor has a combo plus but it’s still great either way
Negative combo cheese strat: unequip all air finishers, default air finisher stunlocks enemies, used it to beat Lingering Will, you do need the other negative combo you get from leveling up for this to work tho
I personally almost never take off the Ultima Weapon, partially because I like balanced stats, partially on its range, and partially because Curaga is my go to healing option because I dont trust Donald and Goofy with items and you cant use High Potions in the air
Don't forget Leaf Bracer. Items don't let you tank hits, so Second Chance/Once More won't quite save you if you can't back it up with Cure to get above 1 HP again.
Yeah, and with 4 Full Bloom+s, your MP recharges stupidly fast, with the only way to make it go faster would be to use Wisdom Form in Critical mode, but then again, why would you use Wisdom Form over Final Form?
UltimaKeyMaster Yeah, but while in Wisdom Form, Sora gets a buff to his magic and can shoot with the Keyblade, in Final Form, Sora waves his hand, and then there's no more anything
One of the best early game combos is. Valor Form + Star Seeker + Hero's Crest. You have a key blade that extends your air combos and the other one increases the damage at the end. You can really go to town with this combo.
Damn straight, you really do it bizkit XD I actually like this keyblade abilities system, it's really good idea if they do equipment adjustment like this ala FF X but with better scale like KH2 (because FF X is really broken in late game)
Every keyblade has a specific design. Even what is considered the worst keyblade, Hidden Dragon, still has some use early on if you haven't fully grasped how the magic system can be useful or how the new Keyblade perks work now. Hidden Dragon served that purpose for me, but it is one hella useless weapon after that.
I remember when I first played 2FM that I was so confused when Sweet Memories didn't have lucky lucky and I started to doubt myself on whether or not it had that ability in the original since I was basically banking on having lucky lucky for item farming.
Hidden Dragon was useful when I did a crit run with a busted X button. Since my basic attack was a 50/50 shot whether the button would work I had to focus on magic as early as possible after not going for the magic build options at the start since I didn't realize until after that just how screwed my controller was. Intentionally taking damage strategically to use MP Rage and never run out basically carried me until I got Wisdom Form and was surprisingly fun.
That's something I love about KH2, especially with the mushrooms. A lot of keyblades have specific uses, which helps you towards completing the game. In KH3, all you do is press X spam, and just use higher numbers. In KH2, those niche abilities and stats matter! You need to swap around entire equipment and item sets for different bosses or enemies, and I love it.
interestingly enough to me matching keyblades and drive forms based on colour works well to me. valor gets decisive pumpkin which gives it combo boost, which is good because his groung combo is already long master gets hero's crest with air combo boost which is good because all master does is air combos final gets oathkeeper or because form boost makes it last longer which works well with the ones you gain for leveling it up as for my main keyblade i choose between oblivion, to really complete the looks and go drive faster, or ultima weapon to match wisdom and restore magic quickly overall
I use every keyblade I get until I get the next one, but after I stop getting new ones I use the one I like the most.My favorites are Fenrir, Guardian Soul, Oathkeeper, Oblivion, and a few others I can't think of right now.
I agree with the main point that there really is no "best" key blade, and that the situation really dictates what is better at the moment. But I think another point of comparison that was overlooked is length. Having a longer keyblade does make certain things easier, "like mushroom minigames", and you can notice it in fights. Maybe you don't notice it as much in this game as you do in KH1 and BBS, but it is noticeable. That's why I prefer Ultima over DP. Its also why I cant stand Oath keeper. I love the form boost ability, but its like you are smacking heartless with a foot long ruler.
I.... I don't understand, You're telling me people judge which keyblade to use based on stats and abilities, and _not_ aesthetics? Seriously, I will never voluntarily use Rumbling Rose because it's possibly the ugliest keyblade in the series, and that's saying something. Meanwhile, Sleeping Lion is easily one of my favorites. Also, the idea that there are people who would choose Decisive Pumpkin over Oblivion hurts me on the inside.
People play smarter with Keyblades generally when playing on higher difficulties, like Critical Mode. If you're playing Beginner or Standard, it really doesn't matter aside from possibly superbosses
I had always used Ultima and Fenrir keyblades by the end of the game when I've played numerous of times, but this has given me food for thought to change up strategies considering I still haven't beaten lingering will yet and just from your randomizer runs seeing you play, its astonishing what I've not known I could do in certain fights.... and has also made me want to play KH2 again cause its my favorite in the whole series. XD
I had kind of hoped that you'd do a summary at the end of what the best keyblade for common playstyles or certain situations would be, and go over synergies inside drive forms where multiple keyblades can be equipped but overall this is a well done overview. Well done!
i always thought there was something interesting with decisive pumpkin. i liked the design, i like the pattern it would give during combos, and i just love halloween town in general. i never paid any attention to whatever skills these keys have, but now i know, i really did like the right keyblade for almost every fight that i need. also thanks to this video, i should probably use bond of flame and mysterious abyss during vexen and axel fight respectively.
Great video. Highly informational. I'll definitely keep most of this in mind for when I do challenging battles. However I still think I'll use Keyblades like Follow the Wind when I get them due to the enjoyment of seeing a cool looking Keyblade in a cutscene. Hell, that's pretty much the sole reason I learned to git gud enough to beat Sephiroth pre-World that Never Was. I wanted to see the cutscene between Sora and Roxas while Sora had Fenrir equipped. Not sure why, but hey, it as a learning experience.
My favorite Keyblade to use is the Wishing Lamp :) I like it because I love the Jackpot ability it has and it definitely helps for farming munny. If I'm not using that, I usually use the Ultima Weapon but I'll use other Keyblades for other situations
DP+Zantetsuken= Death especially if you're fighting someone like Larxene and her clone warps literally straight into the hit. Killed her from over 3 full health bars on crit
So, if you're a heavy magic user, would Winner's Proof + Ultima or one of the Elemental keyblades in a form make for a ton of damage? Also, while I don't mind DP's design too much, I do prefer the design of other keyblades (even Kingdom Key somehow gained a level of respect that I prefer using it). I also figured that Hero's Crest and Star Seeker would make a good air combo in forms too wouldn't it?
Funami2006 Yea, it really depends on what you plan to do. For example, on someone that's weak to Fire, you'd want to use Bond of Flame, and you could put it on Final Form and pair it with Ultima or Winner's Proof (Ultima is a much safer choice tho). And yea, Hero's Crest/Star Seeker are monster aerial keyblades, though Star Seeker is only strong with Horizontal Slash equipped mostly.
Funami2006 My issue aesthetically with DP is that it doesn't look like a key. It's a snake thingy that's curled. Almost all the others look like Keys in some form and I just can't get over the way DP looks. I usually never use it, but as I'm currently doing a level one challenge, I'm actually looking forward to it.
I remember when Sweet Memories made item farming so easy. I guess leveling up Master Form is considerably easier though instead of in the original KH2. Your speaking voice is so calm and really good at conveying the message. I very much have enjoyed your videos these past few years, man. ^u^
One thing you left out of the analysis was keyblade length. It’s usually irrelevant on boss battles but on mob fights (cavern of rememberance in particular), it can be extremely helpful to have a long keyblade to hit multiple enemies and parry more hits. Short keyblades can also whiff often with slapshot (and dodge slash but if you’re using that you’re really hurting yourself).
I think you should've also taken each keyblade's range into account as well. This can be very important for combat situations in which you'll need longer reach to hit the enemy consistently. Some of the shorter ranged ones have pretty useful abilities, but their size can make them whiff attacks here and there which can make them bad in certain areas.
In endgame, you can get permanent stat boost items from farming the data org fights so the stats can actually be ignored at that point. But as he said, there are a lot of situations that call for different keyblades. There's early, mid, and late game stats where you don't have the data org on farm. There's minigames and mushroom 13 and more.
Since I'm a mainly casual player, Decisive Pumpkin is uuuusually my go-to keyblade (otherwise I use Oblivion, or Hero's Crest in certain battles when I do air combos) Useful video! :D
I'm surprised that you said Sleeping Lion is a poor keyblade. 5 STR 3 MAG is pretty good for when it's obtained in my opinion and its Combo Plus can increase the effectiveness of Combo Boost. Decisive Pumpkin has better physical damage but Sleeping Lion is more balanced in my opinion and I used it as my mid-game keyblade over Oathkeeper until obtaining Decisive Pumpkin.
+RushStudios101 The thing is DP does Combo Boost WAY more justice, so it just outclasses it about every aspect. You usually won't want a super long combo anyway, that's what combo plus abilities are for. Before getting DP? Yea it's okay, but once you have DP you shouldn't be in a scenario where you'd put that on over DP
I have a question. Does the reaction boost abillty increase the damage Sora does when he has Roxas Keyblades? In the pause menu it says something about reaction commands. So this "the end" thing when Sora steals Roxas Keyblades is a reaction command. Is reaction boost helpful when fighting with 3 Keyblades?
DP would be more desirable if it didn’t look so stupid. I mean, I’m going to vanquish all enemies with a freaking candy cane? I wished it switched states with Oblivion or something.
Cali AirmanB17 yeah would’ve been cool and more worthy of the endgame keyblade that is, here’s hoping they do Oblivion (and oathkeeper) justice in 3 because they could even not put them in the game, that would suck tbh
For me is Fenrir Good damage, the negative combo can be a little bricky, but i don't mind much, and one thing it gets over Decisive Pumpkin. The Design.
This was a very helpful video and I appreciate it very much! I still prefer the Ultima weapon but that's just because I rely heavily on curaga ;). And Bond of Flame against Vexen makes it such a walk in the park xD.
My personal favorite is Fenrir. Because thanks to it’s negative combo modifier you can close the distance between enemies followed by quickly executing a finishing move. It comes in handy during mob fights.
If you could only have 5 keyblades in kh2 what would you have? Me: 1. DP because stats 2. Ultima Weapon because stats and design 3. Oblivion because design 4. Hero's Crest because good design and ability is great 5. Oathkeeper since it looks amazing and it is my favorite
No love for star seeker ? Used it for a complete run and was really worth it. 1. Star Seeker 2. Oblivion 3.kingdom key 4.Ultima ( kh1 ultima was way better) 5. Oathkeeper
As a kid, I just went with what looked the coolest (when I figured out that I could change keyblades that is lol). So I liked being original and stayed with the kingdom key for the majority of the time and yeah, that just caused a lot of pain and suffering for 10 year old me. But it's nice to look at this game now as an adult from a different perspective on the technicalities of the keyblades. There's just so much about this game I didn't even know about, including the keyblades.
[Preface: I own both KH1.5 & 2.5 Collections on the PS3. I'm playing through 1:FM & BBS:FM, and have not played 2 since I was 6 back in 2006. I have very little experience with this game.] Are there any particular Keyblades (Besides Oathkeeper) that works particularly as the Second Keyblade for Drive forms? How about any particularly fun Drive Form combos that take advantage of the fact that you have two Keyblade Abilities on at once?
So what you're sayin is it comes down to preference? Mine would be ultima weapon. It's well balance in magic and strength and the fact you have to go through so much farming to get it makes me like it even more.
I always knew how strong DP was but I want to use the Ultima Weapon, damn it. It's big, it's cool, it makes a kickass sound effect and unless you're doing a lvl1 run, it's really not THAT big of a dealbreaker.
I love Photon debugger and Bond of flame. End game using these along with some really strong accessories can wreck enemies, stitch also helps so much with his MP restoration.
In my experience, hidden dragon has one use and one use only. Data axel. It basically allows for infinite ars spamming. constant damage = basically infinite mp and you get all your health back on every hit because limit form. by hitting his revenge value and only doing the first RC hit you can loop him without getting hit. really helps when grinding magic boosts as each fight maybe takes 90 seconds. the mp rage you get from wisdom form might suffice but with HD you don't have to worry about it.
honestly, when it comes to forms, I use these setups: Valor leveling- any keyblades increasing combo count Valor use (after leveling)- keyblades with most damage output or drive duration wisdom (any use)- keyblades that increase damage as needed master leveling- oath keeper and follow the wind master use (after leveling)- star seeker and hero's crest final leveling- photon debugger and oath keeper (cause thundaga is OP as fuck when killing nobodies) final use (after leveling)- keyblades that increase damage as needed limit (any use)- keyblades that increase damage as needed
Now that i'm rewatching this, there's two cases where you have to clear 2 of 3 worlds to move on. the first is any 2 out of beast's castle, land of dragons, and olympus coliseum. the other instance is Agrabah, Halloween town, and Pride Lands. So that said, technically all 6 of the keyblades from these areas are optional. but if you're like me and do as much as possible, nothing is optional anyway
I mean I'm pretty sure the only skippable worlds are Pride Lands, 2nd visit OC, 100 Acre Woods, Space Paranoids 2, and Atlantica. The rest are required to get to the final world IIRC
This is a very informative video and it's great at specifically analyzing each keyblade's strengths and weaknesses without bias. I also enjoyed that it was fairly short given the amount of keyblades in the game, making it short and sweet. Good job. Points++ for the keyblade times in the description. I'm not sure if Kingdom Hearts II is played as much as it once was. However the video is one of, if not, the best and most informative KH2FM keyblade battle analysis video on TH-cam making it useful to have. I personally prefer Ultima Weapon for overall general use and for its looks, although I usually use Decisive Pumpkin for most grounded boss fights. I do have a question, does the length of a Keyblade effect its battle performance at all or is it just visual?
Level 1 critical mode is an interesting way to play through considering that you use a few of these keyblades in specific situations that you otherwise might not have used for casual play. Monochrome's item boost + magic stat is pretty nice after timeless river, Follow the wind is great for 1k heartless, star seeker for ground shaker, ect.
On a different topic, I can at least suggest which Keyblades can be used for certain forms. I will say that these are my particular choices and I tend not to use magic all that often. My most used spell is Cure/Cura/Curaga by a long way. For Valor Form, you probably either want Sleeping Lion, if you're still levelling it, or Decisive Pumpkin. Star Seeker or Hero's Crest are also viable options, but those are better saved for Master Form. For Master Form, I'd recommend Star Seeker or Hero's Crest. Because it doesn't have any ground combo attacks. Whenever you hit the attack button, you go into an aerial combo, so anything that affects ground combos isn't advisable. For Final Form, I tend to just use Oathkeeper, so I stay in the form for longer, but to be honest? Most keyblades work pretty well for it. Including Hero's Crest and Decisive Pumpkin if you're not using Valor or Master Form. Of course, that's just my opinion. You may prefer to use a different Keyblade, or use one of the ones suggested for the one you wield. I tend to just stick to my favourites as for the ones I wield all the time, like Follow the Wind, Oblivion, Bond of Flame and Ultima Weapon.
I know this video is old, but one good use of Fenrir for people who don't know is that if you equip it and negative combo from your abilities and remove all combo and air combo pluses, magnet burst (air ability) and aerial finish, you can do an infinite loop on Terra/Lingering Will that he can't escape. The only downside is that you got to block/react to his 1st attack when the fight starts since he always changes it. Outside of that, the keyblade is meh.
honestly I like using oblivion the best just because until I have 8 bars of drive form, I like using limit form, using 2 limits, then reverting, curing, doing 2 or 3 combos and reactivating limit form
Only time I've ever used Hidden Dragon was whenever I was farming Valor form. Reason I chose that specific keyblade? Simply due the keyblade matching Valors clothes, it looked nice together.
I have been playing KH for a while and I never understood that each keyblade could be good for different battle styles. Wow. I am right now trying to find a fighting style fit for me. I normally would go with strength for a quick victory, but after a while I notice that strength can't help everything. I am not sure if I should go with magic or keep on the defensive. Would defense and magic go hand-in-hand if I got the chance to use both? Anyway, 10/10 video. It's very insightful.
ULTIMAWEAPON for the win !!!! Some great key blades in KH FM 2 though decisive pumpkin another personal favorite of mine as well as hero’s crest because of its aerial combo abilities :))
Technically if you have over 100 strength and magic every keyblade can have solid stats since anything past 100 doesnt do anything so if you have maxed strength and magic with stat boosting items all there stats will be the same and only the abilities will change.
What I do is start with Kingdom , switch to Heros crest for ages until Circle of life and keep that until decisive pumpkin which I never remove once I have it.
Something you missed out is that some keyblades actually have longer ranges. Ultima Weapon and I belive Fenrir have Long Range. They're not just larger for show. This is why I like Ultima Weapon for mob fights. You actually swing wider and hit more enemies.
Keyblade length isn't as big of a factor in this game as it is in KH1, because of early game combo modifiers like Slide Dash and Aerial Spiral/Aerial Dive that fix most length problems you could possibly encounter, baring very few exceptions. Hero's Crest true benefit is Air Combo Boost, in this game keyblade abilities heavily outweigh length properties
Now I have a question, when fighting Vexen would it be better to run the Bond of Flame on Sora but winners prof for Final? What's your opinion? I normally use the oblivion in that fight oddly enough cause I always screw up and lose my second Final.
I personally find Hidden Dragon useful (still very situational) when combined with Limit Form on Crit. Coupled with Sora's own MP Rage, the Limit Form leveling strat in the 1000 Heartless battle is much easier to pull off without worry of getting a Game Over. The Final Fantasy rounds in the Hades Paradox Cup (especially the semifinal) are made into jokes with Limit Form + Hidden Dragon & MP Rage. Same can be said for any fight where Sora taking damage can be turned around on the boss for more than they dealt to him.
When I was a kid I used Sleeping Lion to beat Sephiroth for the first time because I thought hitting him more times before he retaliates would be better than anything else. It's funny how at a young age that I generally understood revenge values, but didn't understand that combo boost would have been better.
I have a question about 2.5's KH2FM: If I didn't have much of an issue with vanilla 2's Proud Mode, should I immediately jump into Critical or play Proud Mode again just to experience the differences and so I can learn how to fight the extra bosses first?
UltimaKeyMaster If you did well in Proud, Critical isn't that much more difficult to jump into, especially cuz grinding can solve most problems. And if that's still too much of a breeze, LV1 Critical exists
I’m not sure how Drive form leveling works in FM, but in the standard version Hidden Dragon & Sweet Memories were my ‘go to’ for Valor leveling, since all you had to do was get successful HITS on a target, so naturally keeping them alive for longer was in your favor, which of course means using the two weakest blades in the game.
Hidden Dragon is not all that bad. You can actually use it
to switch your main keyblade to Star Seeker early
Nice one!
Its so useless that even players using keblades only for stats wouldn't use it
I used it on Valor form early on to get more hits in.
We've found a use for Hidden Dragon!! Every keyblade now has a use! Except for Winner's Proof I guess, idk what they were thinking with that ability.
T D you get it super late game so they were probably intending you’d be level 99 by the time you got it
My only counter to any of your points against Oblivion is that...
Shit looks cool man
pretty much
Recken 😂
Fashion > Stats
roxas clearly knew that better than anyone, you can't beat the look of oathkeeper and oblivion when dual wielding
actually, with it's ability being buffed from the transition from KH2 to KH2 FM, it's not exactly useless.
in cases where you can't do the trick to auto-fill your drive gauge back to full, oblivion stacked with other increases will fill that gauge back up INSANELY fast
I love your "no bullshit, lets get to it" approach. subbed.
It sounded like this video was to get people in your chat to stop asking the question "Why aren't you using ultima weapon? " lol
Fireblaze3127 You know, that wouldn't surprise me.
Fireblaze3127 XD
It's a huge shame that in most KH games Keyblades are just stat/range increases and that's all. Keyblades having abilities is just an amazing idea that I wish was used more.
MeteorFalcon In re:coded none of them give stat boosts, all of them have different ability trees.
3D also played around with it that there were definite upgrades to some Keyblades conpared to others, due to the addition of reality shift rate it should take (if only a bit) more consideration to what Keyblade to use compared to BBS which just had STR, MAG, Crit dmg And Crit rate
Birth By Sleep is disappointing in the fact that it only went halfway with 2's mechanics. It kept how each Keyblade has different forms of Strength/Magic boosts, but when they don't have Abilities with them, they feel worthless.
MeteorFalcon kh3 is fixing that from what i see
yep
each keyblade will have a unique keyblade transformation
whether or not they will have unique abilities as well, is unknown
You’re gonna love kingdom hearts 3 friend(:
Hidden dragon does have a use. It lets you get star seeker on sora if you do Milan before beasts castle.
Steven Schmitz I'm weak
Steven Schmitz That's literally what I do everytime I play kh2
Steven Schmitz wait... youre supposed to do beasts castle first?
well the recommended level for the mulan world is lower than beasts castle so technically no. though they are both available at the same time and the level difference isn't that big anyway so it doesn't matter much
At Beasts Castle, u get Cura, so it's more easy to complete Mulan later.
"Wow this looks cool, I hope it's better than my hero's crest"
It never is
Circle of life and then end game decisive pumpkin
It figures that the one that is "made in china" is the shoddiest keyblade
arbitor365 You're a genius.
+arbitor365 I never would've picked up on that had you not said it. Well done sir.
+arbitor365 That was actually pretty clever. Props to you.
+arbitor365 I'm Chinese myself, and yet this shit is too true
They didn't bother to take lessons from Koei about kickass weapons from China lol
lmao
Personally i like doing a Roxas and wielding the Oathkeeper & Oblivion combo with Oblivion as my main
Yeah the only time I use Oblivion is for the swag
I mean, it makes sense to stick Oathkeeper in a drive slot to wring more time out of Final Form, so
Also, Oathkeeper and Oblivion are two of the best keyblades in the game
I mean who doesn't they are soo cool
A man of aesthetics
I love the Decisive Pumpkin solely for the jingle sound when you beat up enemies. Oh, and the hilt/guard looks very nice
Bizkit047, is "it gets outclassed by Decisive Pumpkin's ground damage" your catchphrase?
I think it's KH2's catchphrase
@@Bizkit047 that's disturbingly accurate
For a casual run, I always love Fenrir. My personal skill setup is to use the Negative Combo, and the Berserk Charge in tandem with Fenrir's natural Negative Combo to deal a bit of damage to enemies, and when I'm low on HP, just use a Curaga and keep pelting them with normal attacks. Not the smartest idea, but after doing everything in the game, I deserve my fun! Heck that's how I do my Data Roxas fight.
Ik I’m really really late but one other thing you could do is equip Rumbling Rose as a sub weapon to Valor or Final form (whichever one you use more). It works a small bit better on Final because Valor has a combo plus but it’s still great either way
IIRC double negative combo is actually a legit strat for data roxas because of something about the way his retaliation works.
@@TwilightFlower9 it gives you time to guard
Negative combo cheese strat: unequip all air finishers, default air finisher stunlocks enemies, used it to beat Lingering Will, you do need the other negative combo you get from leveling up for this to work tho
Shit, if you beat data Roxas with that set up, that says enough! Carry on lol
I personally almost never take off the Ultima Weapon, partially because I like balanced stats, partially on its range, and partially because Curaga is my go to healing option because I dont trust Donald and Goofy with items and you cant use High Potions in the air
Don't forget Leaf Bracer. Items don't let you tank hits, so Second Chance/Once More won't quite save you if you can't back it up with Cure to get above 1 HP again.
Yeah, and with 4 Full Bloom+s, your MP recharges stupidly fast, with the only way to make it go faster would be to use Wisdom Form in Critical mode, but then again, why would you use Wisdom Form over Final Form?
Zero Ace ...If you like silly pew pew lasers? Besides, you see my name, I never take off Ultima Weapon. XD
UltimaKeyMaster Yeah, but while in Wisdom Form, Sora gets a buff to his magic and can shoot with the Keyblade, in Final Form, Sora waves his hand, and then there's no more anything
Zero Ace Also, are the Keyblades active hitboxes when you Glide in Final Form? I mean, they're doing the whole propeller thing.
One of the best early game combos is.
Valor Form + Star Seeker + Hero's Crest.
You have a key blade that extends your air combos and the other one increases the damage at the end. You can really go to town with this combo.
I like a lot how you explain things, thanks a lot for doing analysis like this!
Defákinbos The best part about this video is his monotone voice.
Winner's Proof is so weird. You get it very late so its ability would be useless on any difficulty.
Damn straight, you really do it bizkit XD
I actually like this keyblade abilities system, it's really good idea if they do equipment adjustment like this ala FF X but with better scale like KH2 (because FF X is really broken in late game)
Every keyblade has a specific design. Even what is considered the worst keyblade, Hidden Dragon, still has some use early on if you haven't fully grasped how the magic system can be useful or how the new Keyblade perks work now. Hidden Dragon served that purpose for me, but it is one hella useless weapon after that.
Hidden Dragon is very useful for leveling up Limit form in Battle of 1000 Heartless.
I remember when I first played 2FM that I was so confused when Sweet Memories didn't have lucky lucky and I started to doubt myself on whether or not it had that ability in the original since I was basically banking on having lucky lucky for item farming.
Hidden Dragon was useful when I did a crit run with a busted X button. Since my basic attack was a 50/50 shot whether the button would work I had to focus on magic as early as possible after not going for the magic build options at the start since I didn't realize until after that just how screwed my controller was.
Intentionally taking damage strategically to use MP Rage and never run out basically carried me until I got Wisdom Form and was surprisingly fun.
Gosh, then you must have had a bad time in the reflect section in final Xemnas fight with that busted X button.
@@Enity-qb4gp triangle
@@tumultuousv Triangle is for Riku, and X is for Sora. You need to press both of the button for the two of them to reflect the lasers.
Thank you for annunciating so well! I know that definitely helps non-native English speakers who have a hard time hearing accents. Great video.
That's something I love about KH2, especially with the mushrooms. A lot of keyblades have specific uses, which helps you towards completing the game. In KH3, all you do is press X spam, and just use higher numbers. In KH2, those niche abilities and stats matter! You need to swap around entire equipment and item sets for different bosses or enemies, and I love it.
Bruh
Bruh
Ironic because KH3 is the most flexible entry in terms of allowing you to use any keyblade through the whole game with upgrades
Am I the only one who choose the Keyblade I use depending on what it looks like ? :3 Except for training and optional bosses of course !
+Wilford111 same
interestingly enough to me matching keyblades and drive forms based on colour works well to me.
valor gets decisive pumpkin which gives it combo boost, which is good because his groung combo is already long
master gets hero's crest with air combo boost which is good because all master does is air combos
final gets oathkeeper or because form boost makes it last longer which works well with the ones you gain for leveling it up
as for my main keyblade i choose between oblivion, to really complete the looks and go drive faster, or ultima weapon to match wisdom and restore magic quickly overall
I use every keyblade I get until I get the next one, but after I stop getting new ones I use the one I like the most.My favorites are Fenrir, Guardian Soul, Oathkeeper, Oblivion, and a few others I can't think of right now.
+RedfurredPikachu I use fenrir fatal crest two become one(4 fun) and decisive pumpkin
+RedfurredPikachu and oath keeper and oblivion
I use Ultima Weapon because it looks cool, and it was a pain to get, so why not use it?
The Accursed Hunter01 No one said you can't or shouldn't
Bizkit047 Exactly. Although with some of the Org Mushrooms, optimizing with the right Keyblade is essential.
The Accursed Hunter01 Why do you call it org mushrooms when it's canonical name is Mushroom XIII?
The Accursed Hunter01 MP Hastega, with enough MP Haste/Hastera/Hastega you can get MP Recharge down to about 12 seconds
Its actually super easy to get in kh2 tho
I agree with the main point that there really is no "best" key blade, and that the situation really dictates what is better at the moment. But I think another point of comparison that was overlooked is length. Having a longer keyblade does make certain things easier, "like mushroom minigames", and you can notice it in fights. Maybe you don't notice it as much in this game as you do in KH1 and BBS, but it is noticeable. That's why I prefer Ultima over DP. Its also why I cant stand Oath keeper. I love the form boost ability, but its like you are smacking heartless with a foot long ruler.
That's true, though the abilities on the keyblades easily outweigh the length difference
You are god-sent. been waiting for a channel that goes in depth on this game
also I love your tech videos
I.... I don't understand, You're telling me people judge which keyblade to use based on stats and abilities, and _not_ aesthetics?
Seriously, I will never voluntarily use Rumbling Rose because it's possibly the ugliest keyblade in the series, and that's saying something. Meanwhile, Sleeping Lion is easily one of my favorites. Also, the idea that there are people who would choose Decisive Pumpkin over Oblivion hurts me on the inside.
People play smarter with Keyblades generally when playing on higher difficulties, like Critical Mode. If you're playing Beginner or Standard, it really doesn't matter aside from possibly superbosses
@@Bizkit047 78
@Fervidor This is the main reason why the Sleeping Lion is my favorite.
I had always used Ultima and Fenrir keyblades by the end of the game when I've played numerous of times, but this has given me food for thought to change up strategies considering I still haven't beaten lingering will yet and just from your randomizer runs seeing you play, its astonishing what I've not known I could do in certain fights.... and has also made me want to play KH2 again cause its my favorite in the whole series. XD
just started kh2fm a little while ago this will help a lot thanks man
I had kind of hoped that you'd do a summary at the end of what the best keyblade for common playstyles or certain situations would be, and go over synergies inside drive forms where multiple keyblades can be equipped but overall this is a well done overview. Well done!
i always thought there was something interesting with decisive pumpkin. i liked the design, i like the pattern it would give during combos, and i just love halloween town in general. i never paid any attention to whatever skills these keys have, but now i know, i really did like the right keyblade for almost every fight that i need.
also thanks to this video, i should probably use bond of flame and mysterious abyss during vexen and axel fight respectively.
Great video. Highly informational. I'll definitely keep most of this in mind for when I do challenging battles.
However I still think I'll use Keyblades like Follow the Wind when I get them due to the enjoyment of seeing a cool looking Keyblade in a cutscene. Hell, that's pretty much the sole reason I learned to git gud enough to beat Sephiroth pre-World that Never Was. I wanted to see the cutscene between Sora and Roxas while Sora had Fenrir equipped. Not sure why, but hey, it as a learning experience.
How about fighting Roxas with Oblivion equipped?
@@jordanholloman5907 you can't get Oblivion before Roxas at all
@@Cross-chan I meant in a data battle.
To this day, still the guide I come back to when I need to know something about this game's keyblades.
This man speaks great truths. Please continue granting us your vast analytical prowess.
Hey bizkit you where one of my go to kingdom hearts guys, trust me, ya rock, thanks!
Any boss: exists
Decisive Pumpkin: *So anyway I started slashing*
i like using hiden dragon to level up limit form during the 1000 heartless battle
My favorite Keyblade to use is the Wishing Lamp :) I like it because I love the Jackpot ability it has and it definitely helps for farming munny. If I'm not using that, I usually use the Ultima Weapon but I'll use other Keyblades for other situations
DP+Zantetsuken= Death
especially if you're fighting someone like Larxene and her clone warps literally straight into the hit. Killed her from over 3 full health bars on crit
Yeah its a super good Keyblade but good lord fore me personal it looks awful. I rather hit the enemy a few times more than using this Keyblade.
I always spammed Reflega on Larxene and either killed her or died in about 2 minutes. I really just flipped a coin, lol
Always cool to learn more about kingdom hearts and nice video
So, if you're a heavy magic user, would Winner's Proof + Ultima or one of the Elemental keyblades in a form make for a ton of damage?
Also, while I don't mind DP's design too much, I do prefer the design of other keyblades (even Kingdom Key somehow gained a level of respect that I prefer using it).
I also figured that Hero's Crest and Star Seeker would make a good air combo in forms too wouldn't it?
Funami2006 Yea, it really depends on what you plan to do. For example, on someone that's weak to Fire, you'd want to use Bond of Flame, and you could put it on Final Form and pair it with Ultima or Winner's Proof (Ultima is a much safer choice tho). And yea, Hero's Crest/Star Seeker are monster aerial keyblades, though Star Seeker is only strong with Horizontal Slash equipped mostly.
Funami2006 My issue aesthetically with DP is that it doesn't look like a key. It's a snake thingy that's curled. Almost all the others look like Keys in some form and I just can't get over the way DP looks. I usually never use it, but as I'm currently doing a level one challenge, I'm actually looking forward to it.
I remember when Sweet Memories made item farming so easy. I guess leveling up Master Form is considerably easier though instead of in the original KH2.
Your speaking voice is so calm and really good at conveying the message. I very much have enjoyed your videos these past few years, man. ^u^
One thing you left out of the analysis was keyblade length. It’s usually irrelevant on boss battles but on mob fights (cavern of rememberance in particular), it can be extremely helpful to have a long keyblade to hit multiple enemies and parry more hits. Short keyblades can also whiff often with slapshot (and dodge slash but if you’re using that you’re really hurting yourself).
This guy makes a keyblade guide
Diehard KH fans: Ah ic time to take notes
Me playing the game trying to be flashy: Wait these have stats?
Just watched all your KH2 vids, and the dissecting of negative comments people post... You're the shit dude, keep being awesome!
Good review on the keyblades, thanks it helps out.
I think you should've also taken each keyblade's range into account as well. This can be very important for combat situations in which you'll need longer reach to hit the enemy consistently. Some of the shorter ranged ones have pretty useful abilities, but their size can make them whiff attacks here and there which can make them bad in certain areas.
Dude nice doing the thing you do!!!
In endgame, you can get permanent stat boost items from farming the data org fights so the stats can actually be ignored at that point. But as he said, there are a lot of situations that call for different keyblades. There's early, mid, and late game stats where you don't have the data org on farm. There's minigames and mushroom 13 and more.
Since I'm a mainly casual player, Decisive Pumpkin is uuuusually my go-to keyblade (otherwise I use Oblivion, or Hero's Crest in certain battles when I do air combos)
Useful video! :D
I'm surprised that you said Sleeping Lion is a poor keyblade. 5 STR 3 MAG is pretty good for when it's obtained in my opinion and its Combo Plus can increase the effectiveness of Combo Boost. Decisive Pumpkin has better physical damage but Sleeping Lion is more balanced in my opinion and I used it as my mid-game keyblade over Oathkeeper until obtaining Decisive Pumpkin.
+RushStudios101 The thing is DP does Combo Boost WAY more justice, so it just outclasses it about every aspect. You usually won't want a super long combo anyway, that's what combo plus abilities are for. Before getting DP? Yea it's okay, but once you have DP you shouldn't be in a scenario where you'd put that on over DP
I have a question. Does the reaction boost abillty increase the damage Sora does when he has Roxas Keyblades? In the pause menu it says something about reaction commands. So this "the end" thing when Sora steals Roxas Keyblades is a reaction command. Is reaction boost helpful when fighting with 3 Keyblades?
DP would be more desirable if it didn’t look so stupid. I mean, I’m going to vanquish all enemies with a freaking candy cane? I wished it switched states with Oblivion or something.
Cali AirmanB17 yeah would’ve been cool and more worthy of the endgame keyblade that is, here’s hoping they do Oblivion (and oathkeeper) justice in 3 because they could even not put them in the game, that would suck tbh
straw Hat yeah and the oathkeeper what about it? That doesn’t 100% mean Sora gets to use them, but as they were in 1&2 I really hope so.
For me is Fenrir
Good damage, the negative combo can be a little bricky, but i don't mind much, and one thing it gets over Decisive Pumpkin. The Design.
This was a very helpful video and I appreciate it very much! I still prefer the Ultima weapon but that's just because I rely heavily on curaga ;). And Bond of Flame against Vexen makes it such a walk in the park xD.
My personal favorite is Fenrir. Because thanks to it’s negative combo modifier you can close the distance between enemies followed by quickly executing a finishing move. It comes in handy during mob fights.
Will you make a KH3 one?
Im gonna complete the game thanks to you and other 🔑🗡 weilder TH-camr
great video lm looking foward to ur next one
If you could only have 5 keyblades in kh2 what would you have?
Me:
1. DP because stats
2. Ultima Weapon because stats and design
3. Oblivion because design
4. Hero's Crest because good design and ability is great
5. Oathkeeper since it looks amazing and it is my favorite
Ultima
Two become one
Luxu's keyblade
Winners Proof
Lea's keyblade
1. Ultima
2. Decisive Pumpkin
3. Fenrir
4. Monochrome
5. Two Become One
GhostlyRipper
Winners Proof
Ultima Weapon
Decisive Pumpkin
Two Become One
Heros Chest
No love for star seeker ? Used it for a complete run and was really worth it.
1. Star Seeker
2. Oblivion
3.kingdom key
4.Ultima ( kh1 ultima was way better)
5. Oathkeeper
Kingdom key
Dp
Hero crest
Oathkeeper
Guardian soul
Great video, Biz!
Star Seeker and Hero's Crest on Valor form got me through the first half of my second KH2FM playthrough.
As a kid, I just went with what looked the coolest (when I figured out that I could change keyblades that is lol). So I liked being original and stayed with the kingdom key for the majority of the time and yeah, that just caused a lot of pain and suffering for 10 year old me.
But it's nice to look at this game now as an adult from a different perspective on the technicalities of the keyblades. There's just so much about this game I didn't even know about, including the keyblades.
[Preface: I own both KH1.5 & 2.5 Collections on the PS3. I'm playing through 1:FM & BBS:FM, and have not played 2 since I was 6 back in 2006. I have very little experience with this game.]
Are there any particular Keyblades (Besides Oathkeeper) that works particularly as the Second Keyblade for Drive forms? How about any particularly fun Drive Form combos that take advantage of the fact that you have two Keyblade Abilities on at once?
So what you're sayin is it comes down to preference? Mine would be ultima weapon. It's well balance in magic and strength and the fact you have to go through so much farming to get it makes me like it even more.
Yeah, I don’t equip DP besides on Valor. (Which I almost never use except for how cool it looks.)
Sleeping Lion has 5 Strength, not 3?
SpiderNik You're right, I'll fix it with an annotation. I typoed it when writing down the stats apparently.
I always knew how strong DP was but I want to use the Ultima Weapon, damn it. It's big, it's cool, it makes a kickass sound effect and unless you're doing a lvl1 run, it's really not THAT big of a dealbreaker.
I love Photon debugger and Bond of flame. End game using these along with some really strong accessories can wreck enemies, stitch also helps so much with his MP restoration.
In my experience, hidden dragon has one use and one use only. Data axel. It basically allows for infinite ars spamming. constant damage = basically infinite mp and you get all your health back on every hit because limit form. by hitting his revenge value and only doing the first RC hit you can loop him without getting hit. really helps when grinding magic boosts as each fight maybe takes 90 seconds. the mp rage you get from wisdom form might suffice but with HD you don't have to worry about it.
TSfish94 Mysterious Abyss is still much better for that fight when grinding magic boosts.
I guess I'll have to try it out. Considering I rarely even use blizzard magic past the early game I never found a use for mysterious abyss.
@Bizkit047, Correction: You get Winners Proof keyblade after B-Ranking all Org Mushrooms, not S-Ranking them.
honestly, when it comes to forms, I use these setups:
Valor leveling- any keyblades increasing combo count
Valor use (after leveling)- keyblades with most damage output or drive duration
wisdom (any use)- keyblades that increase damage as needed
master leveling- oath keeper and follow the wind
master use (after leveling)- star seeker and hero's crest
final leveling- photon debugger and oath keeper (cause thundaga is OP as fuck when killing nobodies)
final use (after leveling)- keyblades that increase damage as needed
limit (any use)- keyblades that increase damage as needed
DarkFrozenDepths For post leveling master form I find it better to have rumbling rose and hero's crest
So, is Oathkeeper good to stick in one of the Drive slots then, like maybe for Master or Final Form, to wring a bit more time out of them?
yeah
Now that i'm rewatching this, there's two cases where you have to clear 2 of 3 worlds to move on. the first is any 2 out of beast's castle, land of dragons, and olympus coliseum. the other instance is Agrabah, Halloween town, and Pride Lands. So that said, technically all 6 of the keyblades from these areas are optional.
but if you're like me and do as much as possible, nothing is optional anyway
Not exactly, you need to beat BC to finish the game, due to story reasons with Xaldin and such
so in that case it'd make it 5 optional instead of 6 then, right?
I mean I'm pretty sure the only skippable worlds are Pride Lands, 2nd visit OC, 100 Acre Woods, Space Paranoids 2, and Atlantica. The rest are required to get to the final world IIRC
This is a very informative video and it's great at specifically analyzing each keyblade's strengths and weaknesses without bias. I also enjoyed that it was fairly short given the amount of keyblades in the game, making it short and sweet. Good job. Points++ for the keyblade times in the description.
I'm not sure if Kingdom Hearts II is played as much as it once was. However the video is one of, if not, the best and most informative KH2FM keyblade battle analysis video on TH-cam making it useful to have.
I personally prefer Ultima Weapon for overall general use and for its looks, although I usually use Decisive Pumpkin for most grounded boss fights.
I do have a question, does the length of a Keyblade effect its battle performance at all or is it just visual?
ScaredX length/range exist but not really matters as you can use Slide Dash and you get Sonic Rave/Strike Raid in Limit Form too...
Vexen in the bond of flame bio:
"AAEEGHHHH"
Who wouldn't love using Ultima Weapon? It has the coolest sfx and visual fx :D
I wouldn't. I really don't like the design and size of either the first or second games' iterations.
Level 1 critical mode is an interesting way to play through considering that you use a few of these keyblades in specific situations that you otherwise might not have used for casual play. Monochrome's item boost + magic stat is pretty nice after timeless river, Follow the wind is great for 1k heartless, star seeker for ground shaker, ect.
1:45 PTSD INTENSIFIES
On a different topic, I can at least suggest which Keyblades can be used for certain forms. I will say that these are my particular choices and I tend not to use magic all that often. My most used spell is Cure/Cura/Curaga by a long way.
For Valor Form, you probably either want Sleeping Lion, if you're still levelling it, or Decisive Pumpkin. Star Seeker or Hero's Crest are also viable options, but those are better saved for Master Form.
For Master Form, I'd recommend Star Seeker or Hero's Crest. Because it doesn't have any ground combo attacks. Whenever you hit the attack button, you go into an aerial combo, so anything that affects ground combos isn't advisable.
For Final Form, I tend to just use Oathkeeper, so I stay in the form for longer, but to be honest? Most keyblades work pretty well for it. Including Hero's Crest and Decisive Pumpkin if you're not using Valor or Master Form.
Of course, that's just my opinion. You may prefer to use a different Keyblade, or use one of the ones suggested for the one you wield. I tend to just stick to my favourites as for the ones I wield all the time, like Follow the Wind, Oblivion, Bond of Flame and Ultima Weapon.
So ultimately, Use the corresponding Keyblade best suited ability for whichever boss you're currently fighting or Farming/leveling.
Could you do a Kingdom Hearts 3 what we want stream or do a video for it? I really want to know what cool ideas you have.
I know this video is old, but one good use of Fenrir for people who don't know is that if you equip it and negative combo from your abilities and remove all combo and air combo pluses, magnet burst (air ability) and aerial finish, you can do an infinite loop on Terra/Lingering Will that he can't escape. The only downside is that you got to block/react to his 1st attack when the fight starts since he always changes it. Outside of that, the keyblade is meh.
honestly I like using oblivion the best just because until I have 8 bars of drive form, I like using limit form, using 2 limits, then reverting, curing, doing 2 or 3 combos and reactivating limit form
You have earned a subscriber I just recently got the 1.5+2.5 and have been getting my ass kicked by some regular heartless
Please keep making more videos like these!
Decisive Pumpkin is so ugly, though...
+uknownada Agree... Pumpkin King from KH1 was ways cooler!
+Isaiah Cox Pumpkin Head?
+ventusvanitas11 yes (:
not really
RaXZerGamingZ Yes really.
I had a hard time fighting Roxas because I refused to use this Keyblade so I don't have to see it in the cutscene.
Can you do your top 10 Favorite keyblades/Forms/Bosses/Worlds etc? All before E3?
Titxnium-_- Not a fan of top 10 lists. They are heavily opinionated and look like they should be passed as fact instead of an opinion.
Alright. Thanks for replying ^_^
Bizkit047 T-thats the point of Top 10s. They're a specific person's favorites.
Evnyofdeath Not when they're stated as "top 10 (insert whatever here)" instead of "my top 10 (insert whatever here)"
Bizkit047 That makes sense, though I feel the "my" is implied. To each his own I guess.
Guess we can all just agree that we want KH3 even more now.
I couldn't even speak after you explained bond of flame. Seeing you melt that guys health was baffling
Only time I've ever used Hidden Dragon was whenever I was farming Valor form. Reason I chose that specific keyblade? Simply due the keyblade matching Valors clothes, it looked nice together.
I have been playing KH for a while and I never understood that each keyblade could be good for different battle styles. Wow.
I am right now trying to find a fighting style fit for me. I normally would go with strength for a quick victory, but after a while I notice that strength can't help everything. I am not sure if I should go with magic or keep on the defensive. Would defense and magic go hand-in-hand if I got the chance to use both?
Anyway, 10/10 video. It's very insightful.
ULTIMAWEAPON for the win !!!! Some great key blades in KH FM 2 though decisive pumpkin another personal favorite of mine as well as hero’s crest because of its aerial combo abilities :))
Technically if you have over 100 strength and magic every keyblade can have solid stats since anything past 100 doesnt do anything so if you have maxed strength and magic with stat boosting items all there stats will be the same and only the abilities will change.
It's actually 80 stats where the cap is, and at that point it's only Keyblade abilities that matters.
What I do is start with Kingdom , switch to Heros crest for ages until Circle of life and keep that until decisive pumpkin which I never remove once I have it.
Something you missed out is that some keyblades actually have longer ranges. Ultima Weapon and I belive Fenrir have Long Range. They're not just larger for show. This is why I like Ultima Weapon for mob fights. You actually swing wider and hit more enemies.
You should talk about their size, it's crucial, hero's crest for example is great because it's long during early game
Keyblade length isn't as big of a factor in this game as it is in KH1, because of early game combo modifiers like Slide Dash and Aerial Spiral/Aerial Dive that fix most length problems you could possibly encounter, baring very few exceptions. Hero's Crest true benefit is Air Combo Boost, in this game keyblade abilities heavily outweigh length properties
Bizkit047 But it still is pretty significant, for example, I don't use divine rose as much because of its length, great video btw
I would say that aerial combos benefit marginally from length (see: Mushroom VII).
My usual setup is Decisive Pumpkin for Sora's main Keyblade, Rumbling Rose for Valor, Hero's Crest for Master, and Ultima Weapon for Final.
Now I have a question, when fighting Vexen would it be better to run the Bond of Flame on Sora but winners prof for Final? What's your opinion? I normally use the oblivion in that fight oddly enough cause I always screw up and lose my second Final.
I personally find Hidden Dragon useful (still very situational) when combined with Limit Form on Crit. Coupled with Sora's own MP Rage, the Limit Form leveling strat in the 1000 Heartless battle is much easier to pull off without worry of getting a Game Over.
The Final Fantasy rounds in the Hades Paradox Cup (especially the semifinal) are made into jokes with Limit Form + Hidden Dragon & MP Rage. Same can be said for any fight where Sora taking damage can be turned around on the boss for more than they dealt to him.
I'm hoping that you're going to make a similar video for KH1FM sometime soon.
When I was a kid I used Sleeping Lion to beat Sephiroth for the first time because I thought hitting him more times before he retaliates would be better than anything else. It's funny how at a young age that I generally understood revenge values, but didn't understand that combo boost would have been better.
I have a question about 2.5's KH2FM: If I didn't have much of an issue with vanilla 2's Proud Mode, should I immediately jump into Critical or play Proud Mode again just to experience the differences and so I can learn how to fight the extra bosses first?
Real men play critical.
On a serious note, if you had no issue with proud you should be fine with critical
UltimaKeyMaster If you did well in Proud, Critical isn't that much more difficult to jump into, especially cuz grinding can solve most problems. And if that's still too much of a breeze, LV1 Critical exists
I’m not sure how Drive form leveling works in FM, but in the standard version Hidden Dragon & Sweet Memories were my ‘go to’ for Valor leveling, since all you had to do was get successful HITS on a target, so naturally keeping them alive for longer was in your favor, which of course means using the two weakest blades in the game.
Sorry, combo hits, but you get my point.