Kingdom Hearts Critique - Opening the Door

The Kingdom Hearts franchise is well-worn to say the least. People that like it, love it. People that hate it, despise it. In this day of time-travel, ancient prophecies, Keyblade Wars, and more deus ex machinas than you could even imagine, does Sora's very first adventure hold up to scrutiny? Or is it destined to forever live in the shadow of the franchise it wrought?
Today, we find out.
Hi, thank you for taking the time to read this far down. I apologize about the frame rate at certain points, I'm not used to the recording device or editing software yet, but I'm working very hard to perfect my craft in a reasonable amount of time. Thanks for bearing with me, and I'll see you guys later.
Until the end, my friends
Sight

[@edl4654]

When talking about plotholes in KH, can we just quickly mention Jafar having access to the Genie. The almoghty being that can fulfill every wish. He doesn't wish for, you know, the kingdom hearts or the x-blade or whatever, and none of the ansems or xehanorts thought of that.

[@JoshDouble]

obviously just a silly little plothole, but if i had to apply my internal logic, i would have to guess that... jafar probably doesn't even know about Kingdom Hearts, or the X-Blade. also the genies wish granting is probably limited. similar to how the dragons in Dragon Ball can't grant wishes outside of their own power, Genie probably can't grant wishes that don't apply to Agrabah.

[@innerkaioken]

How have I just come across this gem??? Listening to it while I clean the house😊

[@Shadowsmoke11]

You didn't play the first Kingdom Hearts game in 2002 when it came out?

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

I was a literal infant lol

[@Jetsugai]

@@Shadowsmoke11 he's talking about the video, my man

[@elolawynladriel]

KH1 probably has the best history in the franchise, the best exploration and almost the best battle system.

[@everilliem3292]

That's a hard no!

[@Ingisen]

Everyone has their own opinion, but for me, KH1 has the best *atmosphere*. Everything is a mystery, you have to get out there and find out (as Riku put it). THAT has not been achieved on the same level since then... Here's hoping that KH4 will start fresh

[@whoathatsalotofdamage3718]

I'd certainly put kh1 above all the portable and mobile titles overall, and in certain aspects probably over kh2. I think even max level, most of the end game fights are still challenging unless you go and farm strength and defense ups, where as just simply max leveling in kh2 (specifically vanilla kh2, I realize end game challenge was vastly improved in final mix) trivializes most end game bosses

[@aricente]

Beast has the power of waking

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

Oh god...

[@ImmaniGregory]

I LOVE coming across extremely good retrospectives like this 🙏🏾

[@Vidiocity92]

Wow, I never realized it, but yeah, there's a lot of collecting in this game lol. It's amazing how KH1 is so special and it's own story, and then the rest of the series changed it, and the games aren't bad, but there's kind of magic lost almost

[@RareTruffle]

4:55 I'd argue that KH1 is one of the games in the series where Guard is of least importance due to the emphasis on parrying attacks. You still get tech points for doing it and counterattack is still usable off of a parry so you don't lose out on that either. I personally love to defeat both beginning darksides by only knocking the projectiles back at it for some nice early exp :)

[@dmas7749]

legit miss this part of KH

[@RareTruffle]

@@dmas7749 Same, man.

[@lukelyon1781]

It's actually irrelevant in all of the titles except for DDD, Recoded, and BBS. In Kh2 once you get reflect and unlock some of your movement abilities you never need to guard again(some Super Bosses like Sephiroth might change that). And in the first game once you get Aero you not only never need to guard again, it just eats chunks of health out of everything. Again Sephiroth was really the only time I ever used guard and that was for one of his moves. Parrying is actually way easier and the timing for it is much better than guarding, plus the hitbox is weird sometimes. I'm playing through BBS Final Mix now and guarding is incredibly not just necessary, but UBIQUITOUS for any fight that isn't against an Unversed. Especially once you get reprisals.

[@theccarbiter]

@@lukelyon1781 areo doesnt block stuff what are you talking about

[@lukelyon1781]

@@theccarbiter it actually does. It will occasionally allow you to tank hits from magic and physical attacks. Usually if they aren't ultimate or armor piercing attacks. It also seems to depend on the level of your magic and how long the aero shield has been deployed for(it weakens over time). At least in KH1. In every game after it doesn't do that at all.

[@Deoxys_Used_Mimic]

The funny thing about Riku 2 is that I found that you can defeat him purely off the damage from deflecting his projectiles with Guard. - he will dodge & counter any offensive spell you use on him with Dark Firaga (I used Firaga for cost-effectiveness) - his Strike Raids can be deflected and his normal attacks automatically use Strike Raid in Phase 3 I discovered this for myself when I did my ‘Magic Only’ run earlier this year. True story, I *never knew* about the Dark Firaga attack until I did this. Granted, the fight took about 20 minutes because I was too stubborn to resort to physical attacks, but at least I found that it’s possible. (I did consider using Aerora for the contact damage to speed it up a bit, but I found it was more a waste of MP than anything since I wasn’t really up in his face until Phase 3 where I needed the heals more.)

[@CQCorruptionQuest]

I went from birth by sleep to this video and I thought you were another KZbinr all together. Sound very different, love the videos man

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

Yeah, I've grown a lot haha

[@CQCorruptionQuest]

@@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall going to get through the rest of this today but yeah keep it up man. I always love seeing reviews of KH that don’t just praise it 24/7 and give valid reasons for things that the game does wrong. Also I agree with Alantica. Just a lot of people barely ever use magic but I think three and one have some of my favorite magic mechanics in the series.

[@scoresdonequick9849]

You have major balls, like their very big, for dropping the shield on proud mode

[@nixuniverse5240]

One thing about the Energy Stones. You can actually tell if the special Soldiers are going to appear based on the layout that the heartless spawn. For example in the room where you fought Riku 1, if 6 Dark Balls appear in a line then it’s not there, but if 4 Dark Balls spawn in a square formation, it’s there.

[@lindblumpickles3407]

I think this video highlights why I prefer to go a Physical attack oriented build for KH1. I have no problem mowing through anything by Hollow Bastion on Proud. As long as I have enough MP to cast Aero and Cure, I’m good.

[@Keaton_Ambrose]

Thanks for making my workday go a little quicker :)

[@khalidalsuwaidi8590]

i love the way you explain everything so cleanly, briefly yet in detail if that makes sense. keep it up

[@lovesgibson]

That ending gave me chills

[@aster4jaden]

I really enjoyed this, Kingdom Hearts 1 is my second favourite KH Game and I never thought that deeply about Agrabah and understand why you dislike it. About Beast and his belief, if it helps if you look at the "Wider Lore of the Series" what he says does make sense (not so much if you just count KH1), Breast has a extremely strong will and believed he would eventually find Belle and where does his heart lead him to? Hollow Bastion where Belle is.

[@mr.jeorgexiii1732]

Been binging your videos and have been loving them! Can't wait to see if you'll ever do a kh3 one 👀 that'll be spicy

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

Yep, DDD streams actually start tomorrow, and then I'll make a video on that, and then KH3, so stay tuned!

[@EU_Cafe]

Started the rest of your series on KH after the BBS video. You have a really strong sense of analysis and sense of comedic timing. It's been a very refreshing loom at the series. My only real complaint is the random burping thats been in both videos ive watched. Its probably a me thing but burps gross me out. Im still going to watch but they really did make you come off as immature and made me have to step away since it was gross. Again though thats entirely a me thing, maybe thats popular with your other viewers, an in joke or you find it funny. All are valid im just offering some feedback. Thanks for the content though these have been great to watch at work!

[@jakobos93]

1:16:23 you had me wheezing xD

[@lovesgibson]

Not gonna lie, Kingdom Hearts was one of the first PlayStation 2 games I had, and was one of my most beloved games that I played the most. Probably the age bracket I was in plus other factors, I never followed up with the other kingdom hearts games because I wasn’t trying to play chain of memories on a different system, and I was just out of the loop by the time Kh2 came out. I never played any of the other kingdom hearts games until a year or so before KH3 came out. You touched on it a bit in this video, but the lore of the Kingdom Hearts world was so vague that it gave this great feeling of something immense and grand about to be unveiled. I was a bit disappointed with the convoluted but also hollow lore that actually came with the subsequent games. I thought KH3 would tie it all together in an epic, emotional, and unforgettable way, but that also fell flat. And now it feels like the incredible lore and conclusions we’ve been waiting for may finally possibly come in KH4… but I’m really doubting it at this point. It’s like you said, Akira Toriyama made a lot of things up as he went a long, but he had a gift for being able to tie it all together very well, and able to develop a fairly consistent lore. KH series just falls flat and the lore that they develop as the story goes on just seems like it continually makes the previous games seem irrelevant, or it FEELS like it was made up as it goes along. A lot of DB/Z does not feel that way.

[@albigoat]

58:07 interestingly, this is actually purposeful, as its used to signify if the room is going to have you encounter the Chimera Miniboss upon entering, as if the trinity is there, it means you will not see the boss

[@dakotadoyle7573]

for the Kurt Zisa fight you have enough time to summon Tinker Bell before he seals off your magic at the start of the fight

[@nota13xx]

Underrated

[@Dayz_Ex]

I specifically remember having memories as a kid of getting high jump in deep jungle

[@dariusjarvis1992]

Me: "Door to the light." My darkside: "The everlasting of darkness...."

[@jakobos93]

Isn't it nice how I first played Kingdom Hearts 1 like 19 years ago and just now found out that spell power scales with your Max MP? xD

[@EvilM0nkeyRules]

Wakka is the easiest way to grind. You move far away from him and hit the ball. It goes over his head over and over again so you won't hit him. Got to level 20 in an hr. When the game moves wakka close to you. You go up to him and then he'll back up. Rinse and repeat while listening to a podcast and you'll get plenty of levels. Then you can go grind Riku for potions 😊

[@Thechaosmaster1997]

The next secret boss in Kingdom Hearts 4 will be Sora's mom. Also, I couldn't defeat final Ansem before the End Of The World ship thing for YEARS. And I couldn't defeat him until 2017, ten YEARS LATER!!!

[@Dragon_Lair]

Fun fact about the One-Winged Angel Keyblade. It made the super boss in Hallow Bastion an absolute breeze. Sure, Oblivion may have higher strength and Oathkeeper may have higher magic and strength, but One-Winged Angel didn't get you knocked off balance when blocking when the boss does his multiple lightsaber attacks. Which meant I could use the counter-attack skill, and since I chose the staff I also replenished mana by doing so so I could always have aeroga up and always have mana to heal myself if needed. It also did some pretty massive damage with its criticals, but other keyblades would have Sora knocked off balance so he couldn't counter-attack.

[@nickmclaren6844]

"I hate Sephiroth and think he's instantly the worst part of any game he's in" Me: *immediately likes and subscribes*

[@omnihelios4547]

use the wishing star keyblade on the black poisonous mushroom heartless for a guaranteed drop. Wishing star always ends the combo on a critical hit

[@kirkjirschefske7263]

One minor nitpick. You were calling bs on the Behemoth lightning attack. I thought it was bs at first too, but it only strikes lightning directly around it. So as long as you run away from it when you know the lightning is coming, you'll be fine.

[@dmas7749]

22:52 a chest...without a lock. 27:05 you can parry attacks in this game, which makes Guard feel much less vital than in KH2, but i fully share this notion for the Scan ability 31:07 i actually somewhat prefer the original versions of the OST; call it nostalgia, but we should've got an option to choose for the remaster 40:56 you just got Cure, and wanting to hold on to MP for healing is irresistible for all but the most reckless or experienced of players i still miss whacking stuff to get MP back, but i don't have strong feelings towards the charge mechanic in this game, and if i had to say, i'd prefer if the charge amount was consistent rather than being dependant on current MP 52:12 that's exactly whats happening, on OG PS2 you would see the 6th MP bar disappear for a fraction of a second 56:49 i've never heard someone say KH2 has more interesting world design, elaborate 1:16:22 what...the fuck 1:20:38 this isn't entirely new, Final Mix on PS2 would let you skip cutscenes if you already saw them in the session, meaning if you died to a boss you could skip cutscenes on refights

[@zachurich5046]

The only way I could defeat Ursula on proud mode was by stacking thunder resist gear.

[@trevorrawlins6025]

Bro your channel is so underrated. i feel like you're getting screwed by the bullshit youtube algorithm.

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

Thanks, I'm trying a whole bunch of stuff to appeal to people, including analyses, streaming, shorter essays, and other content coming up, so hopefully this channel will eventually stick!

[@trevorrawlins6025]

​@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall hopefully! Also in the future do you plan to do an analysis of persona 5? (that's not 5 hours long atleast😂) I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on it considering there are a few things plot wise that aren't good 😅

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

@trevorrawlins6025 probably not lol, but id be more than happy to share my thoughts on discord or on a stream if you pop in and ask!

[@iamawesome4026]

It seems better to grind with the heartless invading destiny islands. Just keep fighting them until you get to the level you want

[@tylercafe1260]

We never find any Ansem Reports in the Worlds. The Reports we get are the collections from Aerith, the page from Triton, and Malificent & the Disney Villians.

[@seankuchenbecker5436]

1:23:16 end of world definitely had some of the worst enemies in game, though i think the true worst one were the ones added for final mix.

[@manuelmialdea5127]

I love the video but I adore the YGOTAS reference

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

I hope they have a bathroom room

[@survivordave]

I don't think I've seen that episode of the Abridged series so why was Bakura speaking in Tristan's voice? 🤔😆

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

He wasn't, they just found bakura in the kitchen room, and tristan was being tristan

[@olelarson4725]

22:51 it only applies to the blue locked chests

[@tylercafe1260]

You seem to misunderstand why Staff is the "Best Choice". Strength is the best stat period but Sora gets so much strength regardless of choice it really doesn't matter. This is because there are bosses straight up immune to magic. So they had to make sure Strength was consistently strong no matter what choice you make. Your stat growth is the same no matter what choice you make. Hence why we opt for Magic over Sword. The strategies in Kingdom Hearts require using both Physical Attacks and Magic. So honestly the choice doesn't even really matter. This is further made redundant by the fact you will have learned all the same abilities anyways. Which is why they never did it ever again. The biggest illusion of choice I've seen in gaming.

[@johanandersson8252]

Meanwhile at Legion of Doom.

[@MatthewCenance]

2:17: The Kingdom Hearts Wiki doesn't say the player does triple damage in Final Mix: Beginner Mode in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix.

[@TheGermanWizard]

The dream Sword is inside of Ultima if you take a closer look. I also found out that the game has a hidden mechanic with the keyblades. There are Keyblades that are specifically for magic uses (duh for this part, i know), but that comes at a cost. You cant perform counter with those keyblades after guarding an attack, ever. This is specifically annoying when you have to fight the possessed Riku at the end of Hollow Bastion, because counter is one of the easier ways to damage him. You require a physical keyblade to utilize counter, like those from olympus. As far as i know the game and the ability description never tell you about this at all.

[@idiothead5511]

thats just a side effect of their low "weight" stat

[@EvilM0nkeyRules]

Complete Olympus Phil cup and get thunder before going to Alice and wonderland? What?

[@trevorrawlins6025]

I still feel like the unknown boss has too little openings. I often found myself beating him using aero and tinkerbell and just mashing whenever i get close not caring if i get hit but i guess that's what gravity is for. He feels like a kh2 boss which...i guess thats the point but it feels weird to fight with kh1 sora. man that fight annoying sometimes 😂

[@kimberlyfrye8116]

This game is a REALLY mixed bag for me, especially since the End of the World area is the worst final world of all time

[@lawgx9819]

i like how most criticism is just a result of skill issue

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

also that proud mode isnt particularly well balanced lol

[@DaniNyoMH]

​@@WhereIStandIsWhereIFallit's really more of skill issues...

[@jakebailey5834]

At around 1:57:00 and 1:59:00 Sight Avery you forgot to talk about The Unknown's deadliest Move which has Sora hit by Lightning and Sora's commands change to 3 Shocks and 1 Release,You have to be fast enough to hit release because The 4 commands will change rapidly while doing this you will be taking damage from the shocks and The Unknown will continue attacking Sora. The Tinkerbell Summon can revive if you die to This attack. But she disappears and I think you can't summon her back for The rest of The Unknown Fight if I Remember right.

[@gilgeaschwithkerk2344]

As someone that played on ps2, f** long cutscenes right before strong bosses. I hate Riku because of that. Also i think of Darkness and Light just like the Force in Star Wars. It can do everything as long someone wants it strong enough. It is just there for character development and not to make sense.

[@StagFiesta]

With the raft vs boat thing, we do see the island isn't too far from the main shoreline in Soras bedroom. So using a small paddle boat would make sense to go there, but "leaving" would need something a bit more viable. Yeah you can argue the raft isn't exactly smart either, but its more than small 1-2 person boats. Plus, you can always guess that their "raft" was more an activity to bring themselves together, not actually a means to leave to the outside world. Theyre young teens, so you can see them doing this kind of activity. At least, I HOPE the trio was smart enough to not go out on a boat trip on a dinky raft! At least Riku would be smart enough..

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

I mean...with the rest of the series, you never know lol

[@StagFiesta]

@@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall You can truly never know.

[@JakeMcTevia]

calling sora a scrub lord?! 16:25

[@madestmadhatter]

Nah, nah, waka's the best way to grind, run away he throws his ball at you, you knock it back for tech points, I think it only hits him on his special and even then it might just stun him, do this and you can draw the fight out for a fairly long time, until he starts stalking you and your options are to try and run around until he stops, eat the hit so he goes back to long range, or hit him, which will eventually 1 hit K.O. him as you reach like lvl 20 just owning him, and beating Roku 99 times because hey eventually this has to get you a trophy and you're still pissed at him for tricking you into getting a ring out all those times when you were 7 so you decided he'd get no quarter this day! until suddenly your score stops going up and you decide just to play with wala for a while because you're not going to risk letting him get a single victory against you.

[@demongodjr]

1:22:25 so you never make mention of the retaliation stat. The olympia keyblade makes riku 2 much easier

[@demongodjr]

And then right after that, you could change the flight controls so its not inverted

[@demongodjr]

And its even quicker to go from the green room to the balcony back to the green room. ONLY after you get the encounter plus ability

[@demongodjr]

When youre grinding the white mushroom, there are 6 other worlds besides the end of the world with weighted magic spell requests. Look up a guide for it, i forget them off the top of my head. The end of the world is unique as the white mushrooms can select all spells, where the other worlds are limited to 3ish i think

[@demongodjr]

The encounter plus ability will help with grinding out the special heartless. You need to craft 18 (i think) items before you get it, and going to the gummi ship to relog the save point will be faster than saving & soft reset

[@demongodjr]

Maybe i shoulda done time stamps, but great video just wanted to clarify some things i noticed that i learned replaying it very recently

[@billyhart5213]

Tbh, I don’t understand your criticism toward the Disney worlds. Most of the worlds made have decent level design. Fits the settings of the worlds. And provides themes that fits within their corresponding games.

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

have definitely softened on them recently, so you can take that particular criticism in this video series with a grain of salt, because they're really not that terrible

[@pikachufrankie]

I’m watching the videos in reverse, I don’t understand lol. Time to include your outlook again.

[@pikachufrankie]

“Ascend heartless angel!”

[@pikachufrankie]

How many times did you beat this game before you touched the Ansem Reports?

[@pikachufrankie]

Kingdom Hearts is light. The Door to Darkness isn’t Kingdom Hearts, rather, Kingdom Hearts is inside the Realm of Darkness. If I recall, that’s part of the story Kairi’s grandmother tells her. As for Nobodies appearing in a different place than where the original person became a Heartless, realistically it’s just a way to explain how they weren’t in the 1st game. However, you can also view it as the realm of light rejecting the body, since Nobodies aren’t really light or dark, as Xemnas said in 2.

[@pikachufrankie]

Also, I don’t think it’s remotely fair to blast earlier games in the series for the writing flops of future games. Yes, DDD, BBS, and 3 totally recontextualize the events of 1 and 2, but that’s not a fault of 1 or 2’s writing. That’s just bad writing from future games. Compare it to something like the Star Wars sequels; those movies recontextualize or retcon things from the older movies, but nobody would say that the originals are tainted because of this. It’s important to view the game in its own bubble, not through the lens of the future titles that shit all over it.

[@WhereIStandIsWhereIFall]

way too many, and way too few at the same time

[@Yurikon3]

Kh1's story gets a little fale for its plot being "simple" but that is con only if one considers "plot" being the most important part of the story. KH1's strength is that there is not much of that shoehorned overexplaining over its concepts and world and one is just sailing through it vibing in its strange athmosphere. Future titles might have more plot, but the overall plot in KH sucks anyway so essential thing has always been the vibes. Even in KH2 there is already too much explaining and someone just telling how shit works without leaving room to just either vibe or let one make their own readings of it. The more this story where Donald can one-shot its main villain tries to make sense, the less interesting it is. It has just become the lite version of some better JRPG stories out there instead of trying to make the best out of its unique aspects.