Step 1: create a new TH-cam account Step 2: publish a video that puts most of the stuff at GDC to shame Seriously, this was really good. Thoughtful critique, documented references, and super slick video editing. Great work. Looking forward to what comes next
Great video, but how do you beat Ursula (KH1) at level 1? It seems impossible with the swimming mechanics limiting your moveset and mobility even further than base level 1 already does.
Very good video, would recommend you slow down your speech a little tho and it's really really monotone so maybe vary your tone and add spacing in your speech
the problem is, when you just do an objective analysis of the combat systems of the three mainline KH games, the flaws in KH3's combat are literally impossible to ignore. which is why so many people think that everyone who talks about KH combat in general is a kh3 "hater". well, there's a reason it comes off that way. because if you actually take the time to break down each combat system, KH3's combat is found to be significantly lacking in comparison. and i say this as someone who really enjoys kh3 still, particularly the superbosses.
Kh2 is worse and it’s not even close. Boring story, boring hallways, can cheese any boss. Kh3 rules supreme and if you don’t think it you are just blind
Hi, LV1 speedrunner here. I appreciate the ambition and production of the video a lot! I wanted to mention something about a point made about damage storage - the old way people used to understand it working was that it gave the 2x multiplier that is applied to combat finishers, but after doing some investigation with Cheat Engine, it turns out this is incorrect. For example, with 4 MP against the Cave of Wonders Guardian, a Thunder spell will deal 10 HP damage; with damage storage active, the value increases...to 11 HP damage. 10 x 2 = 20, so the math shows us that what's going on under the hood is not a multiplier application, but a hard-setting of your value to be equal to that of your scaled combo finisher. Also, I should hope that you know that KH3 was not the first to introduce accessories having abilities tied to them, that was in KH2FM first with things like the Shadow Archive+ and Full Bloom+.
I wasn't aware that's how damage storage works. Either way the point was to get across that you get increased damage after combo finishers and the decision making that causes, which applies regardless of the specifics. Are there any situations where damage is reduced by using damage storage? I was aware that KH2FM added abilities with those accesories. What I meant to say is that KH3 extends to other accesories in a significant way through giving most accesories abilities and by making the abilities given more varied. It's much more incorporated into the design of KH3 than it is in KH2FM.
@@toowiggly The best way I can illustrate how damage storage doesn't reduce damage is by using Gravity as an example. At the start of the Behemoth fight, your Gravity will actually deal more damage than your combo finisher because EXP Zero allows you to exceed it, but as Behemoth loses more and more HP, each Gravity will deal less damage. If damage storage is up, though, there is now suddenly a limit to how low the damage per cast deals - the new minimum for your magic damage becomes equal to your combo finisher. The reason damage storage even works with spells like Fire and Blizzard is because, due to elemental resistances and damage caps, the most damage you can deal with a single cast is 10 HP most of the time - with damage storage up, if your combo finisher deals greater than 10 HP damage, then your magic will too (and the enemy max HP-dependent scaling is such that you will always deal more than 10 HP damage with a finisher unless you are fighting enemies with exactly 300 HP like Darkside 2). If you ever want to see the comprehensive LV1 damage summary, I can send you the Google doc.
almost a decade later and no can give a proper explaination on damage storage in JJ there are some fights that are legit odd ESPECIALLY those goddamn rare heartless
@@danielesquivel9326 send the google doc bro cause I also remember in kh1 the usage of key blade was important not for its damage value but it’s hidden “parry” value. The frames and lag u would get from parrying. And even with the same keyblade parrying certain attacks gave less stun than parrying others. It gave interesting counter timing to boss fights.
This video is a masterpiece. So informative, so clearly demonstrated, so well edited. This is so much more than a breakdown of lv1 in the games, you broke down the combat as a whole for multiple games. This is also really concise, the sections are exactly as long as they need to be. Also i heard that quiet "Keyblade!" from Xehanort lmao, i love little hidden jokes in a mostly serious informative video.
i love this way this video is edited but i especially appreciate the subtitles 🥺 so many videos leave them out even when they clearly have a script to turn into subtitles
Others have already said this, but the editing and concise nature of this video is insane. As someone who's never played kh, let alone level 1, I feel like I came out of it knowing basically everything I needed to get started on level 1. Hope this channel takes off!
While a lot of complexity was lost from KH2 to KH3, I'll always think its biggest issue is how easy it is to access 'cutscene' type attacks. I really like the combat in KH3, and from what I've played of Re:Mind it feels as though they're using the simpler combat system to put more of the complexity into the enemies hands rather than the players, but attraction flows, shotlocks and the like, weird summon system they have going on just makes it feel like you can facetank whatever an enemy throws at you because you'll always have some kind of panic button in your back pocket. I don't mind the reduced complexity for a variety of personal reasons, but it always felt a bit cheap to get hit a little too hard and immediately retreat into immortality to wait out the rest of a pattern. It feels as though something meant to test my skill was circumvented rather than accomplished (not to mention the colossal damage some of these can dish out). I think the 'situation gauge' system as a whole is kinda messy, though I do like the grand magic. The grand magic is a good way to reward people who prefer to deal damage primarily through spells, while not being overly rewarding by making singular spells do too many functions at once. Going into KH4, I hope they recognize that the powerful things it offers you shouldn't be achieved for, essentially, free, while also being accessible at any time.
Definitely! I started my first level 1 run if KH2 a minth or so ago, and finished it two weeks ago. The only things I haven't done, are the Data Battles and Lingering Will. Until that run, I never used Summons, Limits, items, or Reflect. And now that I think about it, other than Thunder and Cure, I never really use magic
@@deathseekergibbsyYeah on base KH2 is to easy, and outside of the Data and Lingering can easily be finished with very basic gameplay. LV1 big contribution IMO is removing Once More, Second Chance and Leaf Bracer cause let's be honnest even without LV1, without these abilities I'm pretty sure a big part of the communities wouldn't be able to beat the superbosses of KH2.
@@nesoukkefka1741 Crit "Level 1" in 2FM is also laughably easy if you know the rote counters to all the enemies, it's just a little more punishing of the most basic possible methods of play, such as the titular "mash Cross and occasionally use Cure" that the game is rightfully criticized for. Besides, 2FM strangely auto-scales the player's damage output if they're too underleveled, which basically means that even players who are Level 1 are having their base attributes increased automatically in the background as the game progresses, which means that they aren't Level 1 anymore after a certain point in the game.
This is quite literally the best vid I have seen regarding explaining Level 1 and the combat mechanics in general. I was pleasantly surprised when you mentioned things like world routing for certain abilities (no one EVER points this out in analysis) and recognizing what the point of KH2's level design was. (To service the combat as KH2 leaned heavier on the Action side of ARPGs versus the other numbered games) As soon as I heard those things I knew this was someone who really plays these games on a deep technical level. Good shit man. NOTE: Some things you forgot to mention regarding KH2 (If you are even aware of this) is the unique hit properties of certain moves and Magic. For example when Base Sora(only) gets the final Blizzard upgrade Blizzaga the finisher gains an extra property that the hardcore community calls 'Restrained Revenge'. Basically what it does is act as a combo optimizing tool. Normally, when you do a ground combo on a humanoid and you go past the revenge threshold the enemy will retaliate immediately. But say if instead of ending a combo with Explosion after a Guard Break to hit past the threshold you use the Blizzaga finisher instead, the boss's RV threshold will exceed but the boss will not be able to retaliate despite it the fact it should. This can be chained with more Blizzaga finishers (with more Finishing Pluses) to further keep them locked down to which you can safely poke them with magic like Thunder (Blizzaga finishers pushes them far way from Sora for more safety) to make them counter if ya want. This quirk was unintentionally removed in the post-PS4 HD ports of KH2FM with the addtion of 60fps (only works on the 30fps that the OG PS2 game ran at) There are other attacks in the game that have this unqiue property as well and I will list them all (that I know of) for those curious. -Base Sora Blizzaga finisher -Base Sora basic vertical ground finisher -Base Sora basic vertical air finisher (this is why the Neg Combo + Fenrir expolit works) -Wisdom Form's non finisher Fire hits -Final Form's non finisher Thunder hits Cool stuff. Others things ya didn't talk about (but I won't go into detail about unless you ask) the many synergies Magnet has with its rapid hit properties (Magnet+ Group Trinity, Magnet+ Genie etc Magnet+ Stitch Ukelele), the technical stunlocks (Berserk Charge Horizontal Slash loops and Horizontal Slash loops with Genie canceling) and the fact that Master Form can allow you to bypass the Revenge system entirely. Search up 'KH2FM- Master Form's 0 Revenge combos' to see my vid that shows what Im talking about. (TH-cam wont let me link :p) Tldr; KH2 is one of the best action games ever made.
I tried to restrain what I talked about to things that you'd reasonably use on an average level 1 run or things that I found conceptually interesting. I could have listed more specific tech for all of the games, but doing so would have made the video much longer (and I think less interesting). I was aware of some of the things that you mentioned, such as magnet's properties, but I found it too specific to elaborate on. A big reason I listed sources in the description was to allow people to get a deeper understanding without adding bloat to the video. Ultimately I want the video to be palettable to people who don't have the most knowledge on Kingdom Hearts, and getting too deep into the specifics might make it hard to follow.
I had this video sitting in my queue for a few days and I am so glad to have finally gotten around to watching it. What I expected from the title was a video talking about the methods of how Level 1 runs of the KH games worked, but instead I got a clear and concise breakdown of the individual combat systems in place and how they evolved between titles. Not to mention the beautiful style, editing, and song selection that makes rewatches a joy. It was a great watch and hearing you clearly and methodically break down the ways the three games clash in their styles of combat and the philosophy behind the changes even down to the movement speed and mobility options outside of combat shows just how much thought you put into the topic. I feel that this was a wonderful way of showing why people have the problems with each games' systems: from KH1's speed of combat, to KH2's power-scaling spells and lack of clarity of information (such as with the horizontal slash and vertical slash), and KH3's reliance on spectacle over complexity. You've helped me solidify what I would like to see from the series moving forward for the combat: a system that adds some challenge and complexity in the triggering of additional effects such as alternative activation requirements for team attacks, keyblade forms, and combo finishers, while still offering access to powerful recource dependent abilities such as the drive forms. Seeing people create different battle systems in the PC releases, such as with Nobody May Cry and Better Battle System, I believe it shows that there is a desire for either more customization of combat, or a bit more depth in favor of flashy screen clears, or at least having more effot put in for them. I dont expect the complexity of something like DMC but something more engaging than the situation meter and attractions would be nice. But once again, a wonderful video and i hope to see more!
as someone who has finished KH1 and 2 on lvl 1 this was a amazing walkthrough of how each of the games combat works and how they work with each games different systems. Definitely worth a subscribe from me
I always knew that the Kingdom Hearts series had a complexity to it's combat, especially when it's showcased in speedruns. But, I never had it explained so thoroughly and with such great editing. I appreciate this video a bunch because not only does it make me want to go play the KH games again, but it makes me want to interact more with the combat and truly understand the deep thinking that went into its balancing.
This is the perfect video that explains every single thing I love about the Lv1 challenges. Something that might be a bit niche but I find a lot of use of is the fact that items have a delay before activation. This is most useful in KH2 and KH3 with using and ether before using something that costs magic with fast menuing/effective shortcuts, as you can immediately restore MP/Halve MP Charge while still using the Limit/Spell/Link. This is done most effectively with Limit Form limits in KH2, as it instantly brings you back to full MP while giving all the benefits of the limit, but this can be useful for other things such as using it just before activating a standard form limit so that you only have half MP charge or only need to find the time to use one extra ether rather than 2. Or if done with an elixer, you can effectively do back to back limits while utilizing the invincibility for its entire duration. In KH3, especially with the cure converter ability found on some items, you can use Hi-Ether > Cure Hi-Ether > Cure to almost instantly get a form at the very start of a fight. I find it very rewarding to do this without shortcuts just for the extra challenge and the reward of essentially an instand form is a big plus. I feel as though it's worth mentioning how much quicker the situation gauge grows when in a form compared with when out of a form, which in some ways incentivises how you think about storing your forms. The timing of this can be pretty tight, but if you've ever done the speedrun strat for fighting data Roxas in KH2, that's honestly a great way of understanding how it can be useful, and applying it to other situations has been fun.
This video has put into words many things I have thought about the combat of these games and even managed to teach me a few things. There are moments where I'd like to add a few details here and there, and I might make comments to that effect later, but on a whole this feels like a very well researched and highly accurate video essay.
this was a really good video bud, there were some points here and there i thought to note, with a few responses i had in mind that i'll type but i liked watching it, also the editing was great, cool visuals i think an interesting way to view team attacks/situation commands is this; using a situation command will cause your situation arrows to completely deplete, so if you're trying to build up a formchange/grandmagic it might not always be desirable to go for a team attack, grand magic, or another form change. you could argue that this isnt anything too major but it stuck out to me during a replay as something of note also about revenge value systems that could have a visualization system, theres a game called neo: the world ends with you that actually does that, and even puts it on regular grunt enemies too, i havent played it in a while but from what i remember its a way to prevent full button mashing and some other stuff as the enemies will flash yellow/red, stop staggering, and usually counterattack, i recommend playing it cuz it's a really good game
I didn't notice situation commands removing your gauge because I didn't do a full playthrough with them on. It's a similar trade off to using a keyblade finisher. While these trade offs can affect the way you play, I probably would prefer a bigger commitment like KH2's forms.
This was a fantastically put together video, and I appreciate how objective you were in your analysis. This is less a response to a point and more a bit of an amusing note, but when you talked about how different game progression is on a level 1 run due to skipping non-mandatory encounters I couldn't help but chuckle because I generally don't play like that. Normal encounters can provide a lot of tension if you don't skip them especially in KH3 where the rooms are larger and thus you are set back much further if you happen to die.
Thanks for sharing the backgrounds for this on your reddit post. Came to watch the video and thoroughly enjoyed it. These thoughts will be in the back of my mind as I replay the series.
Went to go see your other KH videos and discovering this was the only one so far floored me. I don't have much expendable income currently, but I hope you get the support you need. You earned it.
There I was, going to leave a comment about the superb production on this video, only to find every other comment beat me to it 😄Which is awesome. But of course it's worth saying again - absolutely stellar work on the perfect KH themed graphics to show multiple game screens, in-game icons, segment titles, subtitles and even the BGM. So good. And within that is the script itself, which is amazingly thorough. I find myself constantly replaying segments because of how information dense it is. Must've taken so much work - such a gift to the community. 💝
Important and fair comparisons. Clear points. Good visualisation. If I had to nitpick this video I would say something like "Background audio that isn't narration needs to be toned down a bit." Really nothing to criticise with this. 👍
Listening to this while driving for work. Definitely actually watching it when I get off cause every time I look while at a stop and stuff I see awesome visuals and editing accompanying the narration. Edit: High effort video like this on a low sub channel! Awesome. You earned that sub.
EDIT: I haven't beaten KH1, and it turns out you leanr Cure in Deep Jungle, which is after the Cerberus fight in Hercules' World. 23:30 (the part where you explain the relationship between when to use ethers and casting fore and blizzard): Kingdom Hearts 1's magic system is so weird! It's better to use ethers when you have like half an MP bar rather than when you're MP bar is depleted: you can cast fire and blizzard way more times. I was always scared of using spells in KH1 because I though I would run out of MP quickly. Also, I didn't know that you could regain MP in KH1 just by kitting enemies with the Keyblade! Damn, boss fights could be easy for me: I could have simply hit the boss with the Keyblade to restore MP, and then use cure to heal myself. Still, amazing video! I love KH2 and I like the gameplay from the KH games, and I love games with depth. Seeing how deep the combat system can be in the KH games makes me happy!
As someone who has done level 1 runs for kh1fm, kh2fm, khbbsfm, kh3d, and recently kh3 (data org and yozora were still very fresh in my mind), this video is a very interesting watch. Something to note about level 1 runs in kingdom hearts is that the quality of its design is directly proportional to how the game plays on more "regular" difficulties (with the exception of not having scan for the entirety of kh1fm and not having guard in the ice titan fight, since this was the first attempt at a level 1 run these two blind spots are excusable). basically the problem with kh3 level 1, the way the mob fights are poorly designed for scaling difficulty even without the context of level 1.. every forced encounter in kh2fm is well designed no matter what difficulty you're playing at. khddd is baloonra spam. level 1 amplifies the highest highs and lowest lows of each game. Also alternate title: Why kh2fm's level 1 run is better kh3? (ft. kh1fm) (not a serious suggetion btw, I know this wouldn't get clicks from people who don't do level 1 runs, just thought it would be funny)
I gotta say, on top of you nailing every aspect about what LVL 1 playthroughs fun asf, the editing is top tier bro. Really makes the vid feel like a hidden KH tutorial. Keep it up 🙏🏽
My girlfriend has been getting onto me about recording some challenge gameplay or a playthrough. She enjoys video editing and wants us to collaborate. And I believe I found just the game to start with. I LOVE every single Kingdom Hearts game. Yes they all have their issues and sometimes VAST differences. But thats part of that I love about the series. It is so varied in gameplay but so true to its own lore. Yes there are issues with the lore. Anyway, I am going to start recording my first playthrough and you are the big thanks to this!
playing KH3 crit right now i need to complain very important difference is the lack of i-frames. when finishing a limit in 2FM the i-frames don't go away when the limit ends, but rather a cue for the bar moving off-screen, so you can frequently get a potion or ether off and quickly restore yourself. in KH3 there have been times where i have gotten hit, panic muscle memory into party attack or formchange, and immediately died because of the vulnerability afterward. the lack of control is really frustrating and it feels like times where i would've survived in KH2 rubs salt in the wound
Since group encounters have so many enemies in KH3, you often get instantly killed immediately after using a link. The huge group encounters just creates so much incosistency in battles because you can't play around all of them at once, especially considering how zoomed in the camera is.
DM manipulation feels similar to SKULL GIRLS Combo Limit Manipulation. SKULL GIRLS has an anti infinite combo measure in place. Combos that would normally be infinite has a direct counter in the form of an invincible counter move that resets nuetral. Exceptionally skilled players have figured out how to abuse this measure by baiting it out, avoiding it, and then continuing the combo to melt health bars. It's essentially a Touch of Death with extra steps.
I'll be honest, you're the first person I've listened to that: A.) Made me want to actually start a Lv.1 Run B.) Actually explain to me why KH3's combat is less rewarding than KH2's without being insufferably aggressive about it So I really appreciate that, this is a fuckin banger video.
KH3's damage floors are also notably lower than the previous games, leading it to feel a lot more like you're doing chip damage. This seems to be designed to encourage you to use the cooking system to compensate which can be pretty divisive as it feels less like an option to make fights easier and more a requirement to make fights tolerable. This is especially bad on Critical Mode which further stifles your options and compounds with KH3's frustrating enemy design to make it a rather miserable experience relative to the Level 1 Crit of KH2.
8:32 I thought I was going crazy. I was like is that xehanort in the background lmfao Besides that love the video! Wasn't expecting a whole ass analysis on the entire combat system was only expecting the lvl 1 combat analysis ahaha. It actually helped me understand why I love the combat in KH and how it felt a little off in KH3; I still love it regardless
Very cool video, editing was amazing and you talked about things I didn't even know about the game like timing your attacks in KH1 is better than spamming, and as someone who basically only used cure in KH1 i never knew about fire and other spells were better with more mp. Kinda sucks that with all that effort in the video, you aren't awarded as much as you should be. I hope your upcoming videos are the same quality
i love this video so much it appeals to my autistic need to understand everything i possibly can about kingdom hearts since it’s my special interest, thank you for such detailed explanations!!
This is a very interesting breakdown of Kingdom Hearts combat. I personally don't like the mp cooldown of KH2 and I think there could have been better alternatives to limit the behavior of cure spam. I would personally have cure be regenerative, making potions more viable than cure is some situations because they would offer immediate healing. Another idea is giving cure its own status and cooldown, not limiting use of cure but making it weaker with sequential use, forcing players to change to different spells. And have some abilities that augment or change spells that could have benefits and drawbacks, such as making cure heal everyone but at a higher cost, making cure stronger but limited to being in a circle of healing to make the most of its effect, I think things like this could create more utility and customizability.
this is a really cool video ive done multiple playthroughs of each game and even have a platinum trophy in kh2 (working on the kh1 platinum) and i still learned a bunch of cool stuff from this video
I've played through KH1/2/3 on critical and it already makes me feel like I have to have a good understanding of the system mechanics to do well, while allowing some cheese. I do want to do a lv1 run someday to master the games.
I really enjoyed the video for the first half, but I felt about halfway through that I kept noticing a lot of unfairly malicious digs at KH3. That when you talked about Reaction Commands v. Situation Commands you gave KH2 WAY too much credit. Yeah, reaction commands are easier to parse since you can find very consistent ways of triggering them, using them requires WAY LESS thought than you imply. And implying that Situation Commands are more random than they are: Team Attacks and Attraction Flow might be, but the weight of a formchange is so important that you're going to be using Critical Converter anyway. You gave KH2 more credit than it deserved when it came to Keyblades too. While it does offer a lot more than KH1 did in abilities to consider, very rarely will you ever use something that ISN'T Decisive Pumpkin. While KH3 uses transformations as a phenomenal way to offer the freedom of choice and expression-you said the game lacked compared to KH2-while also not punishing the player for preferring early Keyblades by allowing them to upgrade their stats as the game progresses. Also, why is it that when you talked about the weaknesses of Revenge Value as a system you almost EXCLUSIVELY used KH3 footage, like you're trying to subconsciously peddle this agenda against the game when you could easily use the same argument against KH2. What the fuck? There is only ONE point I can think of after my first watch of this video where you make a point in KH3's favor without IMMEDIATELY undercutting it by using KH2 as an example and that was when talking abou KH3's "Prepare & Retry". How about you Prepare & Retry making this video with a more honest approach to talking about Kingdom Hearts III.
I agree that Reaction Commands don't require much thought on most difficulties, but understanding how they work in the way I described is fairly beneficial to winning on level 1. And because of the way keyblade levelling works, you're not really incentivized to use several keyblades because some will just have worse stats due to not being levelled up. I don't really consider form changes as a situation command, so I wasn't making the comparison between them and reaction commands in that segment. There were plenty of times where I opted for keyblades that weren't decisive pumpkin. Most of the game you don't even have it, but wven after you obtain it there are still good keyblades like monochrome, rumbling rose, or fenrir that I used plenty. I actually think that KH3 isn't that much better with keyblade variety than KH2 because the later transformations are better in most cases. Favourite Deputy becomes irrelevant quickly, and a lot of the keyblades become irrelevant when compared to oathkeeper or ultima. I didn't realize I was showing KH3 footage when talking about the negatives of revenge value. I was just trying to balance the footage between the games and I guedd it judt happened to end up that way. I think it's because was using KH2 at first because it was easier to go through my footage of it, but then I realized I wasn't showing enough KH3, and that point I realized happened to be when I was talking about the negatives. Another point in the video where I talked about the positives of KH3 was at the end where I said the combat was expressive and let you play stylishly, unless you don't consider that a positive. Also how was I talking dishonestly about KH3? Being negative doesn't equate to being dishonest.
@@toowiggly You're right, being negative doesn't necessarily equate to being dishonest. But when damn near every single positive point you've made in service of KH3 in your video is almost immediately undercut about why 'KH2 Lv. 1 takes more skill and gives more options to the player and is a better game in every way shape or form', yeah I think that's a little dishonest. Especially when you're giving more leniency to KH2 for no discernable reason. LITERALLY IN THIS COUNTERARGUMENT you can see how bad it is. You're giving KH2 the benefit of the doubt in the Keyblade argument because you get Decisive Pumpkin so late in the game, and there are multiple good keyblades between the start of the game and when you get it (yeah, sure. There's only like, two, but go off). But what about KH3? You said that KH3's Keyblade variety is dominated by a handful of Keyblades, but you don't get those specific keyblades until POSTGAME. Y'know, even further out than you get DP in KH2? So do all the Keyblades between those points mean nothing because it's KH3 and not KH2?
@@yakov9903 I wasn't arguing why KH2 was better in every single way, I was primarily arguing that KH2 has more depth. The video is primarily concerned with depth, and it'd be dishonest of me to say that KH3 has more. If anything, I was actually cherry picking examples from KH3 to be more charitable to it. For example, I brought up Marshmallow as an example for the use of different forms, but that was one of the only fights where it felt relevant to use several types of keyblade forms and to save those forms for specific parts of the fight. Despite this, I thought it was cool conceptually and wanted to highlight the potential of KH3's systems. As for the variety of keyblades in KH3, I rarely switched out my keyblade loadout. I basically wanted to have one keyblade of every type in my 3 keyblade loadout, so that basically left me with hero's journey, ever after/twin guns, and whatever melee weapon I recently acquired. So only one of my keyblades was being switched out for the entire game, and it was basically never in favour of the older keyblades. I actually used a bigger variety of keyblades than necessary in a way thay was detrimental to me because I wanted to experiment with the trade-offs of the different keyblades, and rarely did I find the experimentation helpful because the upgrade materials discourages using a variety of keyblades because some of your keyblades will be stronger than others. Hero's Journey is acquired at the start of the game, is better than a lot of the early/mid game melee weapons at melee, and has counterguard that does a ton of damage. Similarly, the melee of ever after is better than a lot of the early/mid game melee keyblades, it has a ranged attack it can use as well, and it has one of the strongest shotlocks in the game. You're basically throwing if you don't have Hero's Journey and Ever After in your loadout for the majority of the game because you obtain them so early and they're just better than most keyblades. And late game keyblades being strictly better is more relevant in KH3 because of new game plus, so I had no reason to switch off of ultima or oblivion on that second playthrough. In contrast, I used quite a bit of keyblades in KH2. At the start of the game, I used a mix of star seeker and hidden dragon depending on whether I wanted better melee combos or if I wanted mp rage before you unlock it with wisdom form. Once unlocked, I opted for hero's crest over star seeker, but star seeker still had use on valor form. Hero's crest remains useful throughout the game for aerial enemies and for master form. Monochrome was a favourite keyblade that I used in every stage of the game because item boost is very helpful in a lot of situations. I used follow the wind in several places where picking up orbs is relevant, such as against grim reaper or against one of the mushroom XIII, since you don't gets draws from levelling and a draw ring takes an accessory slot. Oathkeeper was incredibly valuable to put on one of my forms because it extended the length of them. Photon debugger, mysterious abyss, and bond of flame were useful when a boss had an elemental weakness or to put on one of my forms where I used magic a lot. Rumbling Rose extended my combos and gave better crowd control, so I used that for a lot of encouters late game, especially group encounters. Wishing lamp was helpful for grinding munny, and sweet memories is good for grinding master form. Decisive pumpkin is obviously very good. Oblivion is helpful when you're relying on forms and summons a lot and want to enter them quickly. Fatal crest has a lot of cheesy strategies you can do and is useful against a lot of the mushroom XIII. Fenrir is so good for crowd control because you straight to using combo finishers like explosion, and it's so good when combining it with rumbling rose. The balance of the keyblades could be better because not every keyblade is super useful and is used constantly, but a lot of them have niches where they excel, and I was constantly looking through my keyblade selection for keyblades that could help with the current fight while also considering what keyblades I'd give my forms. Level 1 helps the balance of keyblades quite a lot because the late game keyblade's higher stats are irrelevant, so Decisive Pumpkin is actually somewhat nerfed because the high strength stat is irrelevant. I was biased towards KH3 in my video, and I was even biased towards it in my reply to you. I said that "I don't think that KH3 is that much better than KH2 with keyblade variety" not to sound too harsh to it, but I genuinely think it's worse than in KH2 for the reasons I've outlined in this comment. I cut out a lot of this stuff from the video because I didn't want to dwell on it too much.
I was gonna spend a moment calling this out, but I see you already got to it. I haven't played a KH game in 6 months or so, but I like seeing what folk have to say about some of its design decisions. Overall, it's not that serious of a game imo. I thought this video was gonna be a frame counting, math nerd's interpretation of these runs, but it is, once again, "why I like KH1 and 2 and don't really like KH3" made to look objective. Just had my earbuds in at work laughing at some of the glazing going on.
Phenomenal video my guy. As everyone has said already, the editing is just top notch. I do just want to add my 2 cents in the ring though, the audio mixing could be improved, at some points the background music is near the same level as your talking and it makes it harder to hear you. Love the video and by no means is an insult, moreso if you're keeping up with making videos, it could be something to look into making the music just that tiny bit quieter.
I should attempt a KH2 Level 1 run sometime, I definitely became more attuned to mechanics of KH2 when I started a critical file and like you said I relied on different options that I've never messed with before on all my playthroughs.
wow, I was expecting to just put that randomly cause I am utterly bored, and this was so good wtf. Makes me appreciate KH2 combat more, I remember being frustrated with it cause it felt mindless and confusing but it seems I was really not playing the game properly (I definitely wasn't using all the options, barely used magic at all except healing). Always liked KH1 combat cause even if it's a bit clunky the limited options makes it very clear what does what and how good it is (I think the tech points also help a lot). I never played KH3 and I'm not sure if it looks that good after your presentation, it was definitely the game you had the most negative to talk about but the video kinda makes me want to replay KH trilogy, not sure if I would do a level 1 run though but I'd want to try and engage with the mechanics a bit more deeply.
KH3 is still a great game that's worth considering despite having less than stellar combat. Streamlining most of the depth out of Sora's kit definitely reduces how meaningful the moment-to-moment options are, particularly with the basics. They replaced the depth by expanding complexity with the additions of more freely usable options, giving players more expression and moving the skill ceiling away from clear-cut optimization. For better or worse, they tried moving the depth elsewhere such as the enemy movesets and Keyblade switching, but I think it's generally agreed that more was lost than gained in the process. That said, the focus of KH3 is much wider than the combat-centric design of KH2. Though it also has a few hiccups in the other areas of its design, it's overall solid and easily slots into the top 3 of the wider franchise for most. You will probably enjoy it if approaching with tempered expectations.
as a passionate KH3 hater myself, I would say that it's still worth a playthrough and I would rate it somewhere around 7/10. I would recommend playing on crit for the Critical Converter ability if given the option. Just not not lvl1.
@@niklasw.1297 While I found Proud to be too easy and Attractions too abundant, I think recommending Critical on a first playthrough is a bit much. Starting with every ability ruins the learning progression, half MP and recharge speed is strict in both gameplay and build options, some of the fights can be very frustrating for inexperienced players, and it would be a shame to get hard walled at the very end or by the extra bosses in the Re;Mind DLC. The end and Re;Mind are the big payoff, after all. I personally recommend playing on Proud, using EXP Zero to stay below the recommended level, and ignoring standard Attractions. Resorting to a self-imposed "challenge" on a first run isn't ideal, but it's best to keep the door closed yet unlocked just in case.
I honnestly always love KH's Level 1 cause with the exception of KH1, Level doesn't limit your core gameplay's options so it really more of a mastery of the system kind of challenge, KH2 did it best in my opinion.
I wish cure was just very expensive instead of an instant cooldown, it would give it more use and add more depth. If it only cost 50-80 mp, then you could use it without the cooldown at the risk of avoiding magic and the expense of 5-8 reflects, and if you had a way to recover mp like mp rage or an ether, you could risk refilling the mp bar for another cure or more reflects, and if not then you would then have to consider dropping into mp cooldown for some reflects or another cure. As it is, I find cure useless and just rely on potions, since they're more reliable.
That would make cure too powerful because it'd make it only cost a single ether to use cure, making potions irrelevant and giving less reason to use other spells because doing so will put you into mp cooldown if you want to use cure
I think it's a bold and perhaps incorrect statement to say level 1 and crit level 1 are the ways KH was made to be played. Now I always always always play crit mode, you deal more damage and get more loot, but not everyone likes dying fast know? Sometimes crit is a bit much, even for me I really like how crit brings up the early game for me but it tends to be just a bit tedious in the late game for all the enemies and bosses to be doing more damage and taking longer to kill.
I never claimed that level 1 was the way Kingdom Hearts was made to be played, just that it was one of several ways it was made to be played. Level 1 was intended to be beaten, but only by specific people that enjoy playing a hard game. They wouldn't give the option to make the game harder if they didn't expect some people to use it, meaning it's an experience that has been designed.
well made video... but I don't think that kh3 being different is a good reason to say it's systems are less complex or less good. also, when you said that limits require more skill to use than links, I had to disagree there, I haven't used links a huge amount in kh3 but just the fact that you *can* take damage while using them makes them more difficult to use successfully. limits in kh2 are kind of overpowered in my opinion, since they can do a lot of damage while making you invincible.... kh3s links can be very good, but is a risk reward system like you were talking about with the kh1 mp system
When did I say that Kingdom Hearts 3 systems are worse, and when did I say this was due to it simply being different? Two huge reasons Links are easier to use is because they're easier to spam and heal you in between uses. Hi ethers, having more party members to hold items, and those party members not using ethers on themselves means it's very easy to chain them together, and the healing means there's little risk between each use. th-cam.com/video/Np8AgKwoQac/w-d-xo.html If you look at this video, Ralph did 12 health bars when used unoptimally, killing the boss in a single use. No Limits come close to dealing this much damage, even duck flare in the hd remake where he's bugged to deal way more damage than he's supposed to. Worse items and party members needing to be alive makes Limits much harder to spam, and the lack of healing makes it more risky despite giving invincibility. I still struggled even when using limits in KH2, but I had to turn Links off in KH3 because I beat most bosses without learning how they even worked.
@@toowiggly I don't mean to put words in your mouth, it just felt very much like you were saying kh3 was just worse. I don't mean to cause trouble I'm simply tired of people hating on kh3 as far as links etc go, imo they are all kind of busted, the invincibility with limits is a little crazy to me, and stuff in kh3 does generally seem to do too much damage, which is why I love critical mode in it. I haven't done level 1 playthroughs myself so maybe I'm just not getting the big picture.
@@FancyHatBossI like Kingdom Hearts 3 a lot myself, but especially after this video I would agree with what this video is saying - KH3's combat is less complex and intricate than especially KH2, and even though I've yet to engage with any of these games at the higher difficulties, may explain why I still find KH2 to be my preferred go-to for just good, all around fun combat. Perhaps I am slowly learning to those complexities as time goes on.
@@ajbXYZcoolI would say you're accurate in your assessment here. This video is mostly discussing the depth of the three games, and while I didn't directly say it, several people have naturally come to the conclusion that KH3 has less depth when combining the points I made. Saying that KH3 has less depth does not inherently make it bad because there can be other strengths the game has. One could even argue that depth isn't desirable because it distracts from what makes the game actually good. It's a matter of perspective, and this particular one isn't favourable to KH3 unless I'm genuinely wrong in my assessment. If I am wrong, I am willing to have a discussion on why I am.
Things like giving tech points when using a spell that is weak against an enemy, hitting a point on a boss that is harder to hit than normal and provides no extra damage, killing several enemies simultaneously, giving an exp boost for not using certain abilities, giving exp for killing enemies quicker, and giving extra exp for being low health like exp boost does. Perhaps I should have mentioned that parrying kind of does this because it's harder to time than guard is, but it gives tech points (and can be used earlier) to compensate.
41:15 Question, does KH1 Sora's crit chance synergize or affect the damage floor? Sora has an innate crit chance and crit damage and some keyblades affect those properties as stated in their descriptions. If not, then Jungle King is very valuable early on due to it's reach. which historically, outside of Lv.1 runs, is a pretty bad keyblade.
If you liked my video, I would appreciate if you liked, commented and subscribed
Patreon: www.patreon.com/toowiggly/membership
Kofi: ko-fi.com/toowiggly
Discord: discord.gg/dTVdBTNeTg
Chapters:
0:00 What Is Level 1
2:37 Progressing At Level 1
7:57 Setting Priorities
12:32 Simply Deep
18:15 Spelling It Out
20:39 Resourceful Thinking
30:38 Power In Commitment
35:29 A Rewarding Situation (Command)
37:53 Enemies Beyond Reacting
41:47 Keep Your Feet On The Ground
44:37 A Step Back From Level 1
Full Script:
docs.google.com/document/d/1U6px__l5wSDT9XafI4x_SlFkpy9h6KvhkYw_e8oovCA/edit?usp=sharing
Corrections and clarifications:
docs.google.com/document/d/1qJvuobplqR_2hBPqnI-Aj5D82f5_3A4bDQ79WH-mxVk/edit?usp=sharing
Sources:
Kingdom Heart 1 Damage Calculation:
khdata.web.fc2.com/khfm/damage.html#:~:text=The%20damage%20calculation%20in%20KH1,x-9)%2F4%7D
Kingdom Hearts 1 Ability Acquisition:
www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/6241r1/kh1kh2_kh1fm_kh2fm_ability_guide/
Kingdom Hearts 1 Level Stats:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hGMKp-g0IRkY4ktWDkQXjGBYtWTUL8E4E8THJylORsw/edit#gid=0
Kingdom Hearts 2 Damage Calculation and Other Details:
docs.google.com/document/d/10-XkqDEOKRMwXfVVMh9I52bYxRI-B3MG5SAqaQ1EZns/edit?usp=drivesdk
Kingdom Hearts 2 Level Stats:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/0B-53kNjuYFA9YjlhbkNaWW15NUU/edit?resourcekey=0-cFbJ2h2_elRySn9wUAH7bw#gid=879102488
Kingdom Hearts 3 Damage Calculation and Other Mechanics:
docs.google.com/document/d/1WMmh43qwqplIpwgfvBiwVGX70umuAwtp-Ms3CN271o0/edit?usp=drivesdk
KH2 Revenge Values:
khdata.web.fc2.com/index.html
KH3 Revenge Values:
www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/s/3e6cb9fVa1
KH3 Scaling:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1npbujAdLh8EbdqD4wkjUSpMDdG5VAJaoAA0CQ5fn_vg/edit#gid=0
KH3 Stats:
docs.google.com/document/d/1r9uzgR-tEr8Ux5dqFB48qYZZS5MrUUBENSvciPcKAR0/edit#heading=h.f679n26ahp81
Kingdom Hearts 3 Magic Data:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w2HRnPify_ozooI7AP0SRkiYYDGWyEb971wYjay_gLs/edit#gid=0
Anti-Form Activation:
kingdomhearts.fandom.com/wiki/Anti_Form
Kingdom Hearts 2 MP Bar Cooldown:
th-cam.com/video/MkCLbUoKJuU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0TqzhBzqb-7drLLp
Kingdom Hearts 2 Revenge Value:
th-cam.com/video/m6W0pDYj1g0/w-d-xo.html
Chart of Kingdom Hearts 1's Progression:
whats-in-a-game.com/non-linearity-in-kingdom-hearts-quest-progression/
Kingdom Hearts 3 Item Cancelling:
th-cam.com/video/8LAzqI8EuF0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=EgNUeVx5x86GIWzU
Sora Movement Speed:
th-cam.com/video/TGcc1CpJqeQ/w-d-xo.html
Floatyness Comparison:
th-cam.com/video/dKU92dWmp7Q/w-d-xo.html
Kingdom Hearts Interviews:
www.kh13.com/interviews/page/14/?d=6
Guard Consistency:
th-cam.com/video/iPAp8qNJghM/w-d-xo.html
KH1 Hidden Stats:
th-cam.com/video/NR-G0cYPiFQ/w-d-xo.html
Step 1: create a new TH-cam account
Step 2: publish a video that puts most of the stuff at GDC to shame
Seriously, this was really good. Thoughtful critique, documented references, and super slick video editing. Great work. Looking forward to what comes next
Great video, but how do you beat Ursula (KH1) at level 1? It seems impossible with the swimming mechanics limiting your moveset and mobility even further than base level 1 already does.
Very good video, would recommend you slow down your speech a little tho and it's really really monotone so maybe vary your tone and add spacing in your speech
this is secretly a KH3 roast video
Some ppl like their KH3 a little roasted
But did he lie tho
Can't talk about KH3 without roasting it, the game is shameful.
the problem is, when you just do an objective analysis of the combat systems of the three mainline KH games, the flaws in KH3's combat are literally impossible to ignore. which is why so many people think that everyone who talks about KH combat in general is a kh3 "hater". well, there's a reason it comes off that way. because if you actually take the time to break down each combat system, KH3's combat is found to be significantly lacking in comparison. and i say this as someone who really enjoys kh3 still, particularly the superbosses.
Kh2 is worse and it’s not even close. Boring story, boring hallways, can cheese any boss. Kh3 rules supreme and if you don’t think it you are just blind
reading through the comments i feel kinda bad i have you on in the background with such nice editing but my homework has to get done sometime
NAHHH U GOT ME FKD UPPPPP
@@its_myo ?
@@notkeracen3484i think they found your comment funny
Love how you can just faintly hear Xehanort in the background screaming: "X-BLADE !" everytime you say Keyblade lmao
Brilliant video !
Hi, LV1 speedrunner here. I appreciate the ambition and production of the video a lot! I wanted to mention something about a point made about damage storage - the old way people used to understand it working was that it gave the 2x multiplier that is applied to combat finishers, but after doing some investigation with Cheat Engine, it turns out this is incorrect. For example, with 4 MP against the Cave of Wonders Guardian, a Thunder spell will deal 10 HP damage; with damage storage active, the value increases...to 11 HP damage. 10 x 2 = 20, so the math shows us that what's going on under the hood is not a multiplier application, but a hard-setting of your value to be equal to that of your scaled combo finisher.
Also, I should hope that you know that KH3 was not the first to introduce accessories having abilities tied to them, that was in KH2FM first with things like the Shadow Archive+ and Full Bloom+.
I wasn't aware that's how damage storage works. Either way the point was to get across that you get increased damage after combo finishers and the decision making that causes, which applies regardless of the specifics. Are there any situations where damage is reduced by using damage storage?
I was aware that KH2FM added abilities with those accesories. What I meant to say is that KH3 extends to other accesories in a significant way through giving most accesories abilities and by making the abilities given more varied. It's much more incorporated into the design of KH3 than it is in KH2FM.
@@toowiggly The best way I can illustrate how damage storage doesn't reduce damage is by using Gravity as an example. At the start of the Behemoth fight, your Gravity will actually deal more damage than your combo finisher because EXP Zero allows you to exceed it, but as Behemoth loses more and more HP, each Gravity will deal less damage. If damage storage is up, though, there is now suddenly a limit to how low the damage per cast deals - the new minimum for your magic damage becomes equal to your combo finisher. The reason damage storage even works with spells like Fire and Blizzard is because, due to elemental resistances and damage caps, the most damage you can deal with a single cast is 10 HP most of the time - with damage storage up, if your combo finisher deals greater than 10 HP damage, then your magic will too (and the enemy max HP-dependent scaling is such that you will always deal more than 10 HP damage with a finisher unless you are fighting enemies with exactly 300 HP like Darkside 2). If you ever want to see the comprehensive LV1 damage summary, I can send you the Google doc.
almost a decade later and no can give a proper explaination on damage storage
in JJ there are some fights that are legit odd
ESPECIALLY those goddamn rare heartless
@@DJSALTYNUTZ ...I just gave a proper explanation of damage storage. If you want, I could give you more detail.
@@danielesquivel9326 send the google doc bro cause I also remember in kh1 the usage of key blade was important not for its damage value but it’s hidden “parry” value. The frames and lag u would get from parrying. And even with the same keyblade parrying certain attacks gave less stun than parrying others. It gave interesting counter timing to boss fights.
This video is a masterpiece. So informative, so clearly demonstrated, so well edited. This is so much more than a breakdown of lv1 in the games, you broke down the combat as a whole for multiple games. This is also really concise, the sections are exactly as long as they need to be. Also i heard that quiet "Keyblade!" from Xehanort lmao, i love little hidden jokes in a mostly serious informative video.
i love this way this video is edited but i especially appreciate the subtitles 🥺 so many videos leave them out even when they clearly have a script to turn into subtitles
Others have already said this, but the editing and concise nature of this video is insane. As someone who's never played kh, let alone level 1, I feel like I came out of it knowing basically everything I needed to get started on level 1. Hope this channel takes off!
While a lot of complexity was lost from KH2 to KH3, I'll always think its biggest issue is how easy it is to access 'cutscene' type attacks.
I really like the combat in KH3, and from what I've played of Re:Mind it feels as though they're using the simpler combat system to put more of the complexity into the enemies hands rather than the players, but attraction flows, shotlocks and the like, weird summon system they have going on just makes it feel like you can facetank whatever an enemy throws at you because you'll always have some kind of panic button in your back pocket.
I don't mind the reduced complexity for a variety of personal reasons, but it always felt a bit cheap to get hit a little too hard and immediately retreat into immortality to wait out the rest of a pattern. It feels as though something meant to test my skill was circumvented rather than accomplished (not to mention the colossal damage some of these can dish out).
I think the 'situation gauge' system as a whole is kinda messy, though I do like the grand magic. The grand magic is a good way to reward people who prefer to deal damage primarily through spells, while not being overly rewarding by making singular spells do too many functions at once. Going into KH4, I hope they recognize that the powerful things it offers you shouldn't be achieved for, essentially, free, while also being accessible at any time.
Playing KH2 on level 1 gave me a completely new appreciation for the game's combat system
Definitely! I started my first level 1 run if KH2 a minth or so ago, and finished it two weeks ago. The only things I haven't done, are the Data Battles and Lingering Will.
Until that run, I never used Summons, Limits, items, or Reflect. And now that I think about it, other than Thunder and Cure, I never really use magic
@@deathseekergibbsyYeah on base KH2 is to easy, and outside of the Data and Lingering can easily be finished with very basic gameplay. LV1 big contribution IMO is removing Once More, Second Chance and Leaf Bracer cause let's be honnest even without LV1, without these abilities I'm pretty sure a big part of the communities wouldn't be able to beat the superbosses of KH2.
@@nesoukkefka1741 Crit "Level 1" in 2FM is also laughably easy if you know the rote counters to all the enemies, it's just a little more punishing of the most basic possible methods of play, such as the titular "mash Cross and occasionally use Cure" that the game is rightfully criticized for. Besides, 2FM strangely auto-scales the player's damage output if they're too underleveled, which basically means that even players who are Level 1 are having their base attributes increased automatically in the background as the game progresses, which means that they aren't Level 1 anymore after a certain point in the game.
Jeez my guy, the editing in this video is immaculate. I really hope you make more videos because this video was just amazing.
Absolute hand-crafted, spine tingling, genre defining, slow-burning, high effort /v/ KINO
This is quite literally the best vid I have seen regarding explaining Level 1 and the combat mechanics in general. I was pleasantly surprised when you mentioned things like world routing for certain abilities (no one EVER points this out in analysis) and recognizing what the point of KH2's level design was. (To service the combat as KH2 leaned heavier on the Action side of ARPGs versus the other numbered games) As soon as I heard those things I knew this was someone who really plays these games on a deep technical level. Good shit man.
NOTE: Some things you forgot to mention regarding KH2 (If you are even aware of this) is the unique hit properties of certain moves and Magic. For example when Base Sora(only) gets the final Blizzard upgrade Blizzaga the finisher gains an extra property that the hardcore community calls 'Restrained Revenge'. Basically what it does is act as a combo optimizing tool. Normally, when you do a ground combo on a humanoid and you go past the revenge threshold the enemy will retaliate immediately. But say if instead of ending a combo with Explosion after a Guard Break to hit past the threshold you use the Blizzaga finisher instead, the boss's RV threshold will exceed but the boss will not be able to retaliate despite it the fact it should. This can be chained with more Blizzaga finishers (with more Finishing Pluses) to further keep them locked down to which you can safely poke them with magic like Thunder (Blizzaga finishers pushes them far way from Sora for more safety) to make them counter if ya want. This quirk was unintentionally removed in the post-PS4 HD ports of KH2FM with the addtion of 60fps (only works on the 30fps that the OG PS2 game ran at) There are other attacks in the game that have this unqiue property as well and I will list them all (that I know of) for those curious.
-Base Sora Blizzaga finisher
-Base Sora basic vertical ground finisher
-Base Sora basic vertical air finisher (this is why the Neg Combo + Fenrir expolit works)
-Wisdom Form's non finisher Fire hits
-Final Form's non finisher Thunder hits
Cool stuff.
Others things ya didn't talk about (but I won't go into detail about unless you ask) the many synergies Magnet has with its rapid hit properties (Magnet+ Group Trinity, Magnet+ Genie etc Magnet+ Stitch Ukelele), the technical stunlocks (Berserk Charge Horizontal Slash loops and Horizontal Slash loops with Genie canceling) and the fact that Master Form can allow you to bypass the Revenge system entirely. Search up 'KH2FM- Master Form's 0 Revenge combos' to see my vid that shows what Im talking about. (TH-cam wont let me link :p)
Tldr; KH2 is one of the best action games ever made.
I tried to restrain what I talked about to things that you'd reasonably use on an average level 1 run or things that I found conceptually interesting. I could have listed more specific tech for all of the games, but doing so would have made the video much longer (and I think less interesting). I was aware of some of the things that you mentioned, such as magnet's properties, but I found it too specific to elaborate on. A big reason I listed sources in the description was to allow people to get a deeper understanding without adding bloat to the video. Ultimately I want the video to be palettable to people who don't have the most knowledge on Kingdom Hearts, and getting too deep into the specifics might make it hard to follow.
I had this video sitting in my queue for a few days and I am so glad to have finally gotten around to watching it. What I expected from the title was a video talking about the methods of how Level 1 runs of the KH games worked, but instead I got a clear and concise breakdown of the individual combat systems in place and how they evolved between titles. Not to mention the beautiful style, editing, and song selection that makes rewatches a joy.
It was a great watch and hearing you clearly and methodically break down the ways the three games clash in their styles of combat and the philosophy behind the changes even down to the movement speed and mobility options outside of combat shows just how much thought you put into the topic.
I feel that this was a wonderful way of showing why people have the problems with each games' systems: from KH1's speed of combat, to KH2's power-scaling spells and lack of clarity of information (such as with the horizontal slash and vertical slash), and KH3's reliance on spectacle over complexity.
You've helped me solidify what I would like to see from the series moving forward for the combat: a system that adds some challenge and complexity in the triggering of additional effects such as alternative activation requirements for team attacks, keyblade forms, and combo finishers, while still offering access to powerful recource dependent abilities such as the drive forms. Seeing people create different battle systems in the PC releases, such as with Nobody May Cry and Better Battle System, I believe it shows that there is a desire for either more customization of combat, or a bit more depth in favor of flashy screen clears, or at least having more effot put in for them. I dont expect the complexity of something like DMC but something more engaging than the situation meter and attractions would be nice.
But once again, a wonderful video and i hope to see more!
as someone who has finished KH1 and 2 on lvl 1 this was a amazing walkthrough of how each of the games combat works and how they work with each games different systems. Definitely worth a subscribe from me
The fact that Xehanort chimes in with "χ-Blade!" every time you mention the word "Keyblade" is a goldmine. xD
I thought I was hearing 'boo-ray'.
I always knew that the Kingdom Hearts series had a complexity to it's combat, especially when it's showcased in speedruns. But, I never had it explained so thoroughly and with such great editing. I appreciate this video a bunch because not only does it make me want to go play the KH games again, but it makes me want to interact more with the combat and truly understand the deep thinking that went into its balancing.
This is the perfect video that explains every single thing I love about the Lv1 challenges.
Something that might be a bit niche but I find a lot of use of is the fact that items have a delay before activation. This is most useful in KH2 and KH3 with using and ether before using something that costs magic with fast menuing/effective shortcuts, as you can immediately restore MP/Halve MP Charge while still using the Limit/Spell/Link. This is done most effectively with Limit Form limits in KH2, as it instantly brings you back to full MP while giving all the benefits of the limit, but this can be useful for other things such as using it just before activating a standard form limit so that you only have half MP charge or only need to find the time to use one extra ether rather than 2. Or if done with an elixer, you can effectively do back to back limits while utilizing the invincibility for its entire duration.
In KH3, especially with the cure converter ability found on some items, you can use Hi-Ether > Cure Hi-Ether > Cure to almost instantly get a form at the very start of a fight. I find it very rewarding to do this without shortcuts just for the extra challenge and the reward of essentially an instand form is a big plus. I feel as though it's worth mentioning how much quicker the situation gauge grows when in a form compared with when out of a form, which in some ways incentivises how you think about storing your forms.
The timing of this can be pretty tight, but if you've ever done the speedrun strat for fighting data Roxas in KH2, that's honestly a great way of understanding how it can be useful, and applying it to other situations has been fun.
This video has put into words many things I have thought about the combat of these games and even managed to teach me a few things. There are moments where I'd like to add a few details here and there, and I might make comments to that effect later, but on a whole this feels like a very well researched and highly accurate video essay.
This is an incredibly well edited and high effort video. It looks great, dude!
I also really appreciate the baked-in captions
The editing, the music, the analyze. This video is gold. Subscribed, i really hope in other contents like this
I've had the pleasure of seeing this in production, and I'm very impressed by the final product! Hoping to see more in the future!
this was a really good video bud, there were some points here and there i thought to note, with a few responses i had in mind that i'll type but i liked watching it, also the editing was great, cool visuals
i think an interesting way to view team attacks/situation commands is this;
using a situation command will cause your situation arrows to completely deplete, so if you're trying to build up a formchange/grandmagic it might not always be desirable to go for a team attack, grand magic, or another form change. you could argue that this isnt anything too major but it stuck out to me during a replay as something of note
also about revenge value systems that could have a visualization system, theres a game called neo: the world ends with you that actually does that, and even puts it on regular grunt enemies too, i havent played it in a while but from what i remember its a way to prevent full button mashing and some other stuff as the enemies will flash yellow/red, stop staggering, and usually counterattack, i recommend playing it cuz it's a really good game
I didn't notice situation commands removing your gauge because I didn't do a full playthrough with them on. It's a similar trade off to using a keyblade finisher. While these trade offs can affect the way you play, I probably would prefer a bigger commitment like KH2's forms.
i love when the excellently produced video lecture is also generally knowledgeable about the many interlocking pieces of game design. bravo
well made! finally, an in-depth review that’s not a Wikipedia copy pasta 🙏
I swear, someday I’m going to tell my grandchildren stories about how good tech points were.
This video is a visual masterpiece, including the end screen. I am baffled, I have no words, just staring in awe
The visual graphs and diagrams are pretty good, they get across concepts and systems across very clearly. Neat editing too 👍
Came into this with little to no knowledge of kingdom hearts had no idea how complex combat was well made video
Your editing is an absolute treat to watch! Well done on this video :)
This was a fantastically put together video, and I appreciate how objective you were in your analysis.
This is less a response to a point and more a bit of an amusing note, but when you talked about how different game progression is on a level 1 run due to skipping non-mandatory encounters I couldn't help but chuckle because I generally don't play like that. Normal encounters can provide a lot of tension if you don't skip them especially in KH3 where the rooms are larger and thus you are set back much further if you happen to die.
Thanks for sharing the backgrounds for this on your reddit post. Came to watch the video and thoroughly enjoyed it. These thoughts will be in the back of my mind as I replay the series.
Went to go see your other KH videos and discovering this was the only one so far floored me.
I don't have much expendable income currently, but I hope you get the support you need. You earned it.
Honestly some of the best editing I’ve ever seen in a video. It’s like an instructional dvd 📀.
I love the KH UI so seeing it emulated so well in the editing is such a treat
There I was, going to leave a comment about the superb production on this video, only to find every other comment beat me to it 😄Which is awesome.
But of course it's worth saying again - absolutely stellar work on the perfect KH themed graphics to show multiple game screens, in-game icons, segment titles, subtitles and even the BGM. So good.
And within that is the script itself, which is amazingly thorough. I find myself constantly replaying segments because of how information dense it is. Must've taken so much work - such a gift to the community. 💝
Important and fair comparisons. Clear points. Good visualisation.
If I had to nitpick this video I would say something like "Background audio that isn't narration needs to be toned down a bit."
Really nothing to criticise with this.
👍
I would very much love to see tech points come back in a meaningful way 🙏🏾
Listening to this while driving for work. Definitely actually watching it when I get off cause every time I look while at a stop and stuff I see awesome visuals and editing accompanying the narration.
Edit: High effort video like this on a low sub channel! Awesome. You earned that sub.
Absolute Masterpiece of a video and I would like to see the KH spin offs version of Lvl1 since it's barely mentioned from other titles
Your presentation was fantastic. Loved the battle report at the end, loved the transitions, and adored built-in subtitles. Very nice!
EDIT: I haven't beaten KH1, and it turns out you leanr Cure in Deep Jungle, which is after the Cerberus fight in Hercules' World.
23:30 (the part where you explain the relationship between when to use ethers and casting fore and blizzard): Kingdom Hearts 1's magic system is so weird!
It's better to use ethers when you have like half an MP bar rather than when you're MP bar is depleted: you can cast fire and blizzard way more times.
I was always scared of using spells in KH1 because I though I would run out of MP quickly.
Also, I didn't know that you could regain MP in KH1 just by kitting enemies with the Keyblade! Damn, boss fights could be easy for me: I could have simply hit the boss with the Keyblade to restore MP, and then use cure to heal myself.
Still, amazing video! I love KH2 and I like the gameplay from the KH games, and I love games with depth. Seeing how deep the combat system can be in the KH games makes me happy!
This is a fantastic video! Excited for you to make more!
As someone who has done level 1 runs for kh1fm, kh2fm, khbbsfm, kh3d, and recently kh3 (data org and yozora were still very fresh in my mind), this video is a very interesting watch.
Something to note about level 1 runs in kingdom hearts is that the quality of its design is directly proportional to how the game plays on more "regular" difficulties (with the exception of not having scan for the entirety of kh1fm and not having guard in the ice titan fight, since this was the first attempt at a level 1 run these two blind spots are excusable).
basically the problem with kh3 level 1, the way the mob fights are poorly designed for scaling difficulty even without the context of level 1..
every forced encounter in kh2fm is well designed no matter what difficulty you're playing at.
khddd is baloonra spam.
level 1 amplifies the highest highs and lowest lows of each game.
Also alternate title: Why kh2fm's level 1 run is better kh3? (ft. kh1fm)
(not a serious suggetion btw, I know this wouldn't get clicks from people who don't do level 1 runs, just thought it would be funny)
"every forced encounter in kh2fm is well designed no matter what difficulty you're playing at."
ahem
1K heartless
@@dmas7749 you mention 1K heartless but not the FF Gauntlet after Demyx?
@@niklasw.1297 use guard and reflect. i don't think the particular fight is bad
the fact that dying makes you fight Demyx again, nah fuck that
My Crit Lv1 run in KH2 will always be a fond memory
Really appreciate the quiet xehanort saying keyblade
Amazing video. Playing the games for years and still learning about it is cool.
Realllyyyy love the design in these videos, the effort and thought that went into it !
How does this video only have 46k?? Amazing video and great work def gained a new sub
I gotta say, on top of you nailing every aspect about what LVL 1 playthroughs fun asf, the editing is top tier bro. Really makes the vid feel like a hidden KH tutorial. Keep it up 🙏🏽
Absolutely kino video, buddy. Keep 'em coming.
What an amazing video, lovely in all aspects and the UI design is so cool
My girlfriend has been getting onto me about recording some challenge gameplay or a playthrough. She enjoys video editing and wants us to collaborate. And I believe I found just the game to start with. I LOVE every single Kingdom Hearts game. Yes they all have their issues and sometimes VAST differences. But thats part of that I love about the series. It is so varied in gameplay but so true to its own lore. Yes there are issues with the lore. Anyway, I am going to start recording my first playthrough and you are the big thanks to this!
Amazing video, nothing else to add. Great job!
playing KH3 crit right now
i need to complain very important difference is the lack of i-frames. when finishing a limit in 2FM the i-frames don't go away when the limit ends, but rather a cue for the bar moving off-screen, so you can frequently get a potion or ether off and quickly restore yourself. in KH3 there have been times where i have gotten hit, panic muscle memory into party attack or formchange, and immediately died because of the vulnerability afterward. the lack of control is really frustrating and it feels like times where i would've survived in KH2 rubs salt in the wound
Since group encounters have so many enemies in KH3, you often get instantly killed immediately after using a link. The huge group encounters just creates so much incosistency in battles because you can't play around all of them at once, especially considering how zoomed in the camera is.
0:40 This didn’t stop 13 year old me accidentally putting this on until Agrabah LOL
this is such a well-edited video. great work!!
DM manipulation feels similar to SKULL GIRLS Combo Limit Manipulation.
SKULL GIRLS has an anti infinite combo measure in place. Combos that would normally be infinite has a direct counter in the form of an invincible counter move that resets nuetral. Exceptionally skilled players have figured out how to abuse this measure by baiting it out, avoiding it, and then continuing the combo to melt health bars. It's essentially a Touch of Death with extra steps.
Looks like a lot of effort when into this. Nice video.
I'll be honest, you're the first person I've listened to that:
A.) Made me want to actually start a Lv.1 Run
B.) Actually explain to me why KH3's combat is less rewarding than KH2's without being insufferably aggressive about it
So I really appreciate that, this is a fuckin banger video.
KH3's damage floors are also notably lower than the previous games, leading it to feel a lot more like you're doing chip damage. This seems to be designed to encourage you to use the cooking system to compensate which can be pretty divisive as it feels less like an option to make fights easier and more a requirement to make fights tolerable. This is especially bad on Critical Mode which further stifles your options and compounds with KH3's frustrating enemy design to make it a rather miserable experience relative to the Level 1 Crit of KH2.
wow the editing on this is top notch. good luck with regards to your videos.
8:32 I thought I was going crazy. I was like is that xehanort in the background lmfao
Besides that love the video! Wasn't expecting a whole ass analysis on the entire combat system was only expecting the lvl 1 combat analysis ahaha. It actually helped me understand why I love the combat in KH and how it felt a little off in KH3; I still love it regardless
Very cool video, editing was amazing and you talked about things I didn't even know about the game like timing your attacks in KH1 is better than spamming, and as someone who basically only used cure in KH1 i never knew about fire and other spells were better with more mp. Kinda sucks that with all that effort in the video, you aren't awarded as much as you should be. I hope your upcoming videos are the same quality
That presentation is just perfect
i love this video so much it appeals to my autistic need to understand everything i possibly can about kingdom hearts since it’s my special interest, thank you for such detailed explanations!!
thanks for giving a college course on Sora Physics
ggs
This is a very interesting breakdown of Kingdom Hearts combat. I personally don't like the mp cooldown of KH2 and I think there could have been better alternatives to limit the behavior of cure spam. I would personally have cure be regenerative, making potions more viable than cure is some situations because they would offer immediate healing. Another idea is giving cure its own status and cooldown, not limiting use of cure but making it weaker with sequential use, forcing players to change to different spells.
And have some abilities that augment or change spells that could have benefits and drawbacks, such as making cure heal everyone but at a higher cost, making cure stronger but limited to being in a circle of healing to make the most of its effect, I think things like this could create more utility and customizability.
Jesus the editing is absolutely beautiful
Incredible editing skills! Loved the video!
Holy shit how really nice edited this is!
this is a really cool video ive done multiple playthroughs of each game and even have a platinum trophy in kh2 (working on the kh1 platinum) and i still learned a bunch of cool stuff from this video
I've played through KH1/2/3 on critical and it already makes me feel like I have to have a good understanding of the system mechanics to do well, while allowing some cheese. I do want to do a lv1 run someday to master the games.
WHOA. Had no idea you were making this
Well done, well crafted video. Thank you.
I really enjoyed the video for the first half, but I felt about halfway through that I kept noticing a lot of unfairly malicious digs at KH3.
That when you talked about Reaction Commands v. Situation Commands you gave KH2 WAY too much credit. Yeah, reaction commands are easier to parse since you can find very consistent ways of triggering them, using them requires WAY LESS thought than you imply. And implying that Situation Commands are more random than they are: Team Attacks and Attraction Flow might be, but the weight of a formchange is so important that you're going to be using Critical Converter anyway.
You gave KH2 more credit than it deserved when it came to Keyblades too. While it does offer a lot more than KH1 did in abilities to consider, very rarely will you ever use something that ISN'T Decisive Pumpkin. While KH3 uses transformations as a phenomenal way to offer the freedom of choice and expression-you said the game lacked compared to KH2-while also not punishing the player for preferring early Keyblades by allowing them to upgrade their stats as the game progresses.
Also, why is it that when you talked about the weaknesses of Revenge Value as a system you almost EXCLUSIVELY used KH3 footage, like you're trying to subconsciously peddle this agenda against the game when you could easily use the same argument against KH2. What the fuck?
There is only ONE point I can think of after my first watch of this video where you make a point in KH3's favor without IMMEDIATELY undercutting it by using KH2 as an example and that was when talking abou KH3's "Prepare & Retry".
How about you Prepare & Retry making this video with a more honest approach to talking about Kingdom Hearts III.
I agree that Reaction Commands don't require much thought on most difficulties, but understanding how they work in the way I described is fairly beneficial to winning on level 1. And because of the way keyblade levelling works, you're not really incentivized to use several keyblades because some will just have worse stats due to not being levelled up.
I don't really consider form changes as a situation command, so I wasn't making the comparison between them and reaction commands in that segment.
There were plenty of times where I opted for keyblades that weren't decisive pumpkin. Most of the game you don't even have it, but wven after you obtain it there are still good keyblades like monochrome, rumbling rose, or fenrir that I used plenty.
I actually think that KH3 isn't that much better with keyblade variety than KH2 because the later transformations are better in most cases. Favourite Deputy becomes irrelevant quickly, and a lot of the keyblades become irrelevant when compared to oathkeeper or ultima.
I didn't realize I was showing KH3 footage when talking about the negatives of revenge value. I was just trying to balance the footage between the games and I guedd it judt happened to end up that way. I think it's because was using KH2 at first because it was easier to go through my footage of it, but then I realized I wasn't showing enough KH3, and that point I realized happened to be when I was talking about the negatives.
Another point in the video where I talked about the positives of KH3 was at the end where I said the combat was expressive and let you play stylishly, unless you don't consider that a positive.
Also how was I talking dishonestly about KH3? Being negative doesn't equate to being dishonest.
@@toowiggly You're right, being negative doesn't necessarily equate to being dishonest. But when damn near every single positive point you've made in service of KH3 in your video is almost immediately undercut about why 'KH2 Lv. 1 takes more skill and gives more options to the player and is a better game in every way shape or form', yeah I think that's a little dishonest. Especially when you're giving more leniency to KH2 for no discernable reason.
LITERALLY IN THIS COUNTERARGUMENT you can see how bad it is. You're giving KH2 the benefit of the doubt in the Keyblade argument because you get Decisive Pumpkin so late in the game, and there are multiple good keyblades between the start of the game and when you get it (yeah, sure. There's only like, two, but go off). But what about KH3? You said that KH3's Keyblade variety is dominated by a handful of Keyblades, but you don't get those specific keyblades until POSTGAME. Y'know, even further out than you get DP in KH2? So do all the Keyblades between those points mean nothing because it's KH3 and not KH2?
@@yakov9903 I wasn't arguing why KH2 was better in every single way, I was primarily arguing that KH2 has more depth. The video is primarily concerned with depth, and it'd be dishonest of me to say that KH3 has more. If anything, I was actually cherry picking examples from KH3 to be more charitable to it. For example, I brought up Marshmallow as an example for the use of different forms, but that was one of the only fights where it felt relevant to use several types of keyblade forms and to save those forms for specific parts of the fight. Despite this, I thought it was cool conceptually and wanted to highlight the potential of KH3's systems.
As for the variety of keyblades in KH3, I rarely switched out my keyblade loadout. I basically wanted to have one keyblade of every type in my 3 keyblade loadout, so that basically left me with hero's journey, ever after/twin guns, and whatever melee weapon I recently acquired. So only one of my keyblades was being switched out for the entire game, and it was basically never in favour of the older keyblades. I actually used a bigger variety of keyblades than necessary in a way thay was detrimental to me because I wanted to experiment with the trade-offs of the different keyblades, and rarely did I find the experimentation helpful because the upgrade materials discourages using a variety of keyblades because some of your keyblades will be stronger than others. Hero's Journey is acquired at the start of the game, is better than a lot of the early/mid game melee weapons at melee, and has counterguard that does a ton of damage. Similarly, the melee of ever after is better than a lot of the early/mid game melee keyblades, it has a ranged attack it can use as well, and it has one of the strongest shotlocks in the game. You're basically throwing if you don't have Hero's Journey and Ever After in your loadout for the majority of the game because you obtain them so early and they're just better than most keyblades. And late game keyblades being strictly better is more relevant in KH3 because of new game plus, so I had no reason to switch off of ultima or oblivion on that second playthrough.
In contrast, I used quite a bit of keyblades in KH2. At the start of the game, I used a mix of star seeker and hidden dragon depending on whether I wanted better melee combos or if I wanted mp rage before you unlock it with wisdom form. Once unlocked, I opted for hero's crest over star seeker, but star seeker still had use on valor form. Hero's crest remains useful throughout the game for aerial enemies and for master form. Monochrome was a favourite keyblade that I used in every stage of the game because item boost is very helpful in a lot of situations. I used follow the wind in several places where picking up orbs is relevant, such as against grim reaper or against one of the mushroom XIII, since you don't gets draws from levelling and a draw ring takes an accessory slot. Oathkeeper was incredibly valuable to put on one of my forms because it extended the length of them. Photon debugger, mysterious abyss, and bond of flame were useful when a boss had an elemental weakness or to put on one of my forms where I used magic a lot. Rumbling Rose extended my combos and gave better crowd control, so I used that for a lot of encouters late game, especially group encounters. Wishing lamp was helpful for grinding munny, and sweet memories is good for grinding master form. Decisive pumpkin is obviously very good. Oblivion is helpful when you're relying on forms and summons a lot and want to enter them quickly. Fatal crest has a lot of cheesy strategies you can do and is useful against a lot of the mushroom XIII. Fenrir is so good for crowd control because you straight to using combo finishers like explosion, and it's so good when combining it with rumbling rose. The balance of the keyblades could be better because not every keyblade is super useful and is used constantly, but a lot of them have niches where they excel, and I was constantly looking through my keyblade selection for keyblades that could help with the current fight while also considering what keyblades I'd give my forms. Level 1 helps the balance of keyblades quite a lot because the late game keyblade's higher stats are irrelevant, so Decisive Pumpkin is actually somewhat nerfed because the high strength stat is irrelevant.
I was biased towards KH3 in my video, and I was even biased towards it in my reply to you. I said that "I don't think that KH3 is that much better than KH2 with keyblade variety" not to sound too harsh to it, but I genuinely think it's worse than in KH2 for the reasons I've outlined in this comment. I cut out a lot of this stuff from the video because I didn't want to dwell on it too much.
Kh3 sucks
I was gonna spend a moment calling this out, but I see you already got to it. I haven't played a KH game in 6 months or so, but I like seeing what folk have to say about some of its design decisions. Overall, it's not that serious of a game imo.
I thought this video was gonna be a frame counting, math nerd's interpretation of these runs, but it is, once again, "why I like KH1 and 2 and don't really like KH3" made to look objective.
Just had my earbuds in at work laughing at some of the glazing going on.
Incredible video . The KH community thanks you
Phenomenal video my guy. As everyone has said already, the editing is just top notch. I do just want to add my 2 cents in the ring though, the audio mixing could be improved, at some points the background music is near the same level as your talking and it makes it harder to hear you. Love the video and by no means is an insult, moreso if you're keeping up with making videos, it could be something to look into making the music just that tiny bit quieter.
This is fascinating stuff, excellent work man
This is just a video essay about why KH 2 is the best game in the trio.
Too bad it isn't. It started the series' descent into button mashing flashiness instead of the slower and more strategic combat that KH1 had.
my lord I may contact you just to learn anything about editing from you, this is a BEAUTIFUL video and I'm only 49 seconds in.
I should attempt a KH2 Level 1 run sometime, I definitely became more attuned to mechanics of KH2 when I started a critical file and like you said I relied on different options that I've never messed with before on all my playthroughs.
Hope we find some ingredients around here
So, you have come this far and still understand nothing.
good video b-mask.
wow, I was expecting to just put that randomly cause I am utterly bored, and this was so good wtf. Makes me appreciate KH2 combat more, I remember being frustrated with it cause it felt mindless and confusing but it seems I was really not playing the game properly (I definitely wasn't using all the options, barely used magic at all except healing). Always liked KH1 combat cause even if it's a bit clunky the limited options makes it very clear what does what and how good it is (I think the tech points also help a lot).
I never played KH3 and I'm not sure if it looks that good after your presentation, it was definitely the game you had the most negative to talk about but the video kinda makes me want to replay KH trilogy, not sure if I would do a level 1 run though but I'd want to try and engage with the mechanics a bit more deeply.
KH3 is still a great game that's worth considering despite having less than stellar combat. Streamlining most of the depth out of Sora's kit definitely reduces how meaningful the moment-to-moment options are, particularly with the basics. They replaced the depth by expanding complexity with the additions of more freely usable options, giving players more expression and moving the skill ceiling away from clear-cut optimization. For better or worse, they tried moving the depth elsewhere such as the enemy movesets and Keyblade switching, but I think it's generally agreed that more was lost than gained in the process.
That said, the focus of KH3 is much wider than the combat-centric design of KH2. Though it also has a few hiccups in the other areas of its design, it's overall solid and easily slots into the top 3 of the wider franchise for most. You will probably enjoy it if approaching with tempered expectations.
@@Gehrich_ Thanks for the thoughtful answer ^^
as a passionate KH3 hater myself, I would say that it's still worth a playthrough and I would rate it somewhere around 7/10.
I would recommend playing on crit for the Critical Converter ability if given the option. Just not not lvl1.
@@niklasw.1297 While I found Proud to be too easy and Attractions too abundant, I think recommending Critical on a first playthrough is a bit much. Starting with every ability ruins the learning progression, half MP and recharge speed is strict in both gameplay and build options, some of the fights can be very frustrating for inexperienced players, and it would be a shame to get hard walled at the very end or by the extra bosses in the Re;Mind DLC. The end and Re;Mind are the big payoff, after all.
I personally recommend playing on Proud, using EXP Zero to stay below the recommended level, and ignoring standard Attractions. Resorting to a self-imposed "challenge" on a first run isn't ideal, but it's best to keep the door closed yet unlocked just in case.
I honnestly always love KH's Level 1 cause with the exception of KH1, Level doesn't limit your core gameplay's options so it really more of a mastery of the system kind of challenge, KH2 did it best in my opinion.
I wish cure was just very expensive instead of an instant cooldown, it would give it more use and add more depth. If it only cost 50-80 mp, then you could use it without the cooldown at the risk of avoiding magic and the expense of 5-8 reflects, and if you had a way to recover mp like mp rage or an ether, you could risk refilling the mp bar for another cure or more reflects, and if not then you would then have to consider dropping into mp cooldown for some reflects or another cure. As it is, I find cure useless and just rely on potions, since they're more reliable.
I think it's supposed to be more or less used at the cost of 1 mp, as you can customize your other spells to not activate mp charge.
That would make cure too powerful because it'd make it only cost a single ether to use cure, making potions irrelevant and giving less reason to use other spells because doing so will put you into mp cooldown if you want to use cure
@@toowiggly oh, that actually makes sense...
I think it's a bold and perhaps incorrect statement to say level 1 and crit level 1 are the ways KH was made to be played. Now I always always always play crit mode, you deal more damage and get more loot, but not everyone likes dying fast know? Sometimes crit is a bit much, even for me I really like how crit brings up the early game for me but it tends to be just a bit tedious in the late game for all the enemies and bosses to be doing more damage and taking longer to kill.
I never claimed that level 1 was the way Kingdom Hearts was made to be played, just that it was one of several ways it was made to be played. Level 1 was intended to be beaten, but only by specific people that enjoy playing a hard game. They wouldn't give the option to make the game harder if they didn't expect some people to use it, meaning it's an experience that has been designed.
Wait, you can command your party with Triangle in KH 1? Is that what that button was for?
Dude, the editing on this is so SLICK!
well made video... but I don't think that kh3 being different is a good reason to say it's systems are less complex or less good.
also, when you said that limits require more skill to use than links, I had to disagree there, I haven't used links a huge amount in kh3 but just the fact that you *can* take damage while using them makes them more difficult to use successfully. limits in kh2 are kind of overpowered in my opinion, since they can do a lot of damage while making you invincible.... kh3s links can be very good, but is a risk reward system like you were talking about with the kh1 mp system
When did I say that Kingdom Hearts 3 systems are worse, and when did I say this was due to it simply being different?
Two huge reasons Links are easier to use is because they're easier to spam and heal you in between uses. Hi ethers, having more party members to hold items, and those party members not using ethers on themselves means it's very easy to chain them together, and the healing means there's little risk between each use. th-cam.com/video/Np8AgKwoQac/w-d-xo.html If you look at this video, Ralph did 12 health bars when used unoptimally, killing the boss in a single use. No Limits come close to dealing this much damage, even duck flare in the hd remake where he's bugged to deal way more damage than he's supposed to. Worse items and party members needing to be alive makes Limits much harder to spam, and the lack of healing makes it more risky despite giving invincibility. I still struggled even when using limits in KH2, but I had to turn Links off in KH3 because I beat most bosses without learning how they even worked.
@@toowiggly I don't mean to put words in your mouth, it just felt very much like you were saying kh3 was just worse. I don't mean to cause trouble I'm simply tired of people hating on kh3
as far as links etc go, imo they are all kind of busted, the invincibility with limits is a little crazy to me, and stuff in kh3 does generally seem to do too much damage, which is why I love critical mode in it. I haven't done level 1 playthroughs myself so maybe I'm just not getting the big picture.
@@FancyHatBossI like Kingdom Hearts 3 a lot myself, but especially after this video I would agree with what this video is saying - KH3's combat is less complex and intricate than especially KH2, and even though I've yet to engage with any of these games at the higher difficulties, may explain why I still find KH2 to be my preferred go-to for just good, all around fun combat. Perhaps I am slowly learning to those complexities as time goes on.
@@ajbXYZcoolI would say you're accurate in your assessment here. This video is mostly discussing the depth of the three games, and while I didn't directly say it, several people have naturally come to the conclusion that KH3 has less depth when combining the points I made. Saying that KH3 has less depth does not inherently make it bad because there can be other strengths the game has. One could even argue that depth isn't desirable because it distracts from what makes the game actually good. It's a matter of perspective, and this particular one isn't favourable to KH3 unless I'm genuinely wrong in my assessment. If I am wrong, I am willing to have a discussion on why I am.
Came into this thinking it would have more views then it seems
Good grief, this was a great video.
The style of the video was amazing, how long did it take you to make this?
It took me a few months
Really good vid, keep it up
How would you implement the "style-based" tech points you describe in the context of KH1's relatively limited combo capabilities?
Things like giving tech points when using a spell that is weak against an enemy, hitting a point on a boss that is harder to hit than normal and provides no extra damage, killing several enemies simultaneously, giving an exp boost for not using certain abilities, giving exp for killing enemies quicker, and giving extra exp for being low health like exp boost does. Perhaps I should have mentioned that parrying kind of does this because it's harder to time than guard is, but it gives tech points (and can be used earlier) to compensate.
Incredible work!
41:15 Question, does KH1 Sora's crit chance synergize or affect the damage floor? Sora has an innate crit chance and crit damage and some keyblades affect those properties as stated in their descriptions.
If not, then Jungle King is very valuable early on due to it's reach. which historically, outside of Lv.1 runs, is a pretty bad keyblade.
Keep going buddy ,here from reddit