Kingdom Hearts III - #24 - Keyblade Hero 3

[@callowguru2611]

"I need Damascus" *Game immediately gives him 2 Damascus* Incredible power.

[@undeadlegion1805]

25:05 I absolutely love this cutscene. It's easy to forget just how long Sora's been fighting the forces of Darkness because he gets reset to 0 in every game, but every once in a while, the game remembers that Clownshoes McGee over here is a veteran of four different anti-Darkness campaigns, five if you count what Roxas was doing in Days. Even if he loses all of his keychains, spells and abilities every game, he remembers what he's experienced (except Chain of Memories). Between the card system in CoM, the Drive forms in II and the Command Deck and Dream Eaters in DDD, Sora has a lot of experience making do with what he has and adjusting to new combat styles as his skill set shifts every game, and it's nice to see him get to show off the benefits of all that experience.

[@treyslider6954]

It's also a nice way to hint at how Sora's regained what he lost at the end of DDD: instead of everyone commenting about how he's lost his strength and needs tutoring, now he's the one acting as a tutor to others, who value his strength.

[@velemamba260]

Yeah, I absolutely agree. It's so satisfying to see him flexing the full range of his powers and remind us that even if he as a lovable idiot, he's a lovable idiot that is really, really good in a fight. Having all these characters his age seeing and acknowledging that is super sweet.

[@pyrosianheir]

Even with them claiming "Oh, well he's SO much weaker and lost ALL of his powers" at the start of the game, he still took on ALL the titans - bosses that were individual postgame bosses in past appearances, without much to use. Not even Cure in his arsenal yet, and he still takes them.

[@blueserenity7]

Yes!! I seriously felt for him so much in this game, what with everyone, friends and enemies alike, mocking him for losing his powers and not being strong enough like?? Sorry, I couldn't hear you over our boi throwing a fucking TITAN off a cliff at his WEAKEST point in the game?? Show some respect to our dumbass OP son, y'all!

[@iantaakalla8180]

Honestly, that is Sora’s most defining skill. He just always fights with what he has. Even more than being a connector of hearts literally in taking hearts inside him or metaphorically in improving relationships and befriending others. It was even shown back in KH1 where he bothers to battle with a wooden sword and Beast. His tenacity meant he reached the point where Riku was not worthy of the keyblade bequeathed to him.

[@forrestib]

Can we talk about how amazing the characterization is in the animation of how Sora holds and uses his Gummi-phone? (4:35) He holds it as flat as possible, right up close to his face, and then points down with his index finger and moves his entire arm to touch the part of the screen he wants very deliberately. It's the exact pose of someone who loves and is fascinated by technology, is enthusiastic to use it, but has very near zero experience with it and doesn't understand how anything works. It's perfect characterization for Sora, not only how he approaches computers, but just the world around him in general too.

[@dragoniraflameblade]

It also reminds me of old Japanese movies and how exaggerated the movement is to give character.

[@dragoniraflameblade]

"Hey Riku!! I'm having so much fun!" "SORA, I'M IN THE PIT OF HELL, please send more pics. It helps. Idiot." *Floods Rikus phone with pics* I stan the Fred the Kaiju Fanboy, lol. He's my spirit animal.

[@treyslider6954]

For some reason instead of reading that as Riku needing an emotional pick-me-up, my brain decided Riku was using the flood of selfies from Sora as a weapon against the heartless, Digimon Movie style :P

[@dragoniraflameblade]

@@treyslider6954 LOL, I can see that! Or as a healing ability. Instead of clovers, it's pics Sora sends Riku that rain around him.

[@EbbyMaru]

Dan. The Hidden Mickey. Dan. Dan you almost accidentally got it in the sign off. Dan. It's right there.

[@aradraugfea]

Can we just talk about how Hiro made sure his new gadget worked with Sora's aesthetic? Dude's costume design chops are strong.

[@phobiandarkmoon]

XCOM has made me instinctively anxious about cars on bridges

[@fourcatsandagarden]

Hiro and Sora have a lot of the same energy and it's so nice seeing them together.

[@Raganui]

Highwind formchange becomes a Spear. I love that reference to Final Fantasy, where Highwind is a running name for many Dragoons or associated with Dragoons (and associated with Airships after VII). The fact that it's base form looks like it's made from a ship also tickles me cause of it.

[@TalonSky]

I never put the Dragoon reference together, but you're totally right!

[@startracings]

Dan: Damascus is what I really need.... Meteorite: Damascus Dan: You know what, never mind, let's go. Hope he gets pleasantly surprised later!

[@Wannapineappl3]

I love that the Hercules music is playing in this world from KH1. Because that world the kings fools were being trained as heroes. Now, nine games later, the kings fools are the ones doing the hero training.

[@Halosty45]

Man, thinking about the huge variety of styles they had to animate makes me realize how big of a project this game was. Especially since there are more people moving around (instead of just your team or one replacement buddy) instead of just standing in place being an NPC.

[@blueserenity7]

So true. Listening to Dan's playthrough and hearing his take on the animation throughout really makes you appreciate the work that went into this game. And kind of makes you roll your eyes even more at the faction of critics who said this game was too short and didn't show enough work for the years spent on it. Say what you want about the pacing of the narrative, but the quality of animation really shouldn't go unacknowledged, so hearing a positive take on it is very refreshing.

[@Tyler-sy7jo]

She had me at "Don't you just love chemistry?"

[@BoxStealthFox]

7:30 Dan: This is a good keyblade! Goofy: I KNOW! What a twist! Goofy was a keyblade wielder all along! Edit: 13:16 LIAR!

[@Kio_Kurashi]

He may be a master, but he does not at this time have his keyblade. One day Luxu will return it to him. Once he's ready.

[@AllieYea]

So, every KH game I choose a "home" for Sora. Basically, there would be a specific world I would save in right before I turned off the game so that when it boots up that's where the game starts. San Fransokyo was that world in KH3. It's maybe my favorite world in the whole series. Being this huge, modern city environment makes it so unique and fun to run around in.

[@dragoniraflameblade]

I would imagine world's Sora would want to spend time in or go to chill at. Kinda like his personal Traverse Town.

[@aradraugfea]

I also love the way this particular world integrates the home town heroes and Sora into a single cohesive narrative. The Pixar worlds do a generally good job of this too, but that feels much more 'Woody/Sully and the guys get dropped into a Kingdom Hearts Plot' while this one is basically Big Hero 6 2: The Heartless Attack. It even cashes on on some dangling threads from the original film, actually building on its story.

[@blueserenity7]

I've been doing the same thing in these games for years too! And this world was it for me in KH3 as well! 😄

[@KeybladeMasterAndy]

I usually park Sora in the outdoor movie theater in Twilight Town

[@thegustbag]

Okay, we barely spent any time here and already I love this world. It's pretty cool how Sora actually kinda fits in with this crew, and he clearly enjoys everything going on here! Though maybe his (complete lack of) computer skills make him stand out

[@ernestotorelli1209]

Stalling?! KH3?! Uhm... n-no, impossible, w-what possibly gives you this impression? *nervous laughter*

[@jaxonsazle]

Nobodies freaked out by the giant, talking duck and dog? And Sora's freak out about the one little heartless really shows how much they've affected him in his life.

[@jonathanfaber3291]

4:27 That’s an unusually long word for you Sora

[@andrew_ray]

4:30 Okay Donald, I will give you that that was actually a pretty okay joke. 7:17 That moveset is vaguely reminiscent of another spear-wielding person we know. 9:38 Fun fact: This is, I believe, the third world to appear in the KH franchise to have motor vehicles (as they exist in our world). The other two are The World That Never Was and Toy Box. 11:18 Yeah, I'm not sure that miniboss was supposed to go into the bike lane. 27:54 Hey, it's Dan's favorite music! I do like how much KH1 music they bring in for this world.

[@ImperatorPenguin]

Yeah, Kings Fools is a better name for Sora and company.

[@claresabri8796]

Seeing Sora run around San Fransokyo choked me up a bit as a San Francisco native far away from home. It's so amazing to see a version of my home in a kingdom hearts game :')

[@hadriennogueira3726]

23:54 thats gotta give Sora some Xemnas flashbacks

[@restlessDSM]

The highwind was probably my favorite form in the game. Brought a little dragoon into KH.

[@justember794]

The Caribbean keyblade is probably my favorite, but I never used it because I couldn't upgrade it (I didn't care for the gummi stuff). Glad to see it get some action here! It occurred to me last night, I really want to see a reunion between Sora and his mom. The entire series forgot about her five seconds after we got one voice line from her.

[@treyslider6954]

Destiny Islands is even back! He's totally had the time and opportunity to stop by for a visit...I do wonder if Riku dropped by to explain the magical memory-wipe between Realm of Darkness trips? I mean, if the Radiant Garden crew were all freaked out by suddenly remembering someone, imagine what Sora's mom would have gone through. "OH NO I FORGOT ABOUT MY SON WHO DOES THAT!?!"

[@Halosty45]

@@treyslider6954 Well fortunately in the case of Sora the answer is "literally everyone" but yeah it would be good to have someone to talk to about it :P

[@muttamerican4863]

The moveset that keybladespear gives you is something straight out of a KOEI game either Dynasty Warrios or Samurai Warriors. super cool to see.

[@dakirakage]

"Can we just appreciate what a big kid Sora is?" Hes 15 and when he gets to a new world he acts 2.

[@SchultzDorinda]

Sora is naturally very childish. He was quite 'sheltered' by Riku when they were on the Islands. Riku was always protective of him. Plus he slept throughout a whole year, so he is still very much 14 in his mind. 😅

[@TamTroll]

So... Did Sora ever "use that key to free (Calypso)" on the Pirates world? the "Power of the sea" i'm assuming was the crab-boat buuhht... i don't remember him doing anything to help Calypso.

[@treyslider6954]

That I saw, he didn't. He just got a free boat out of it because he showed up too late (I guess because Calypso got free anyway, she lets him keep the boat after the fact?)

[@unversedhero6028]

T Yes, when he found and freed the ship.

[@TamTroll]

@@unversedhero6028 Did he though? He kind of found the ship, and then the wall just conveniently collapsed in front of him leading to the open ocean. He had nothing to do with the actual freeing of the ship.

[@unversedhero6028]

@@TamTroll Yes, yes he did.

[@essneyallen6777]

@@unversedhero6028 That was it?!?? I had been warned not to expect much but!! This is cheap! I get it that they're not allowed to change the original story beats but come onnnn

[@TalonSky]

I absolutely LOVE our Fools acting as hero mentors. It's the perfect endcap for the whole "Sora losing his strength and needing to be trained by Herc" story. It's full circle.

[@thats_so_laven]

That voice acting when Sora put thd AR device on though

[@MrAuthor3DS]

6:22 As a reminder, this is technically the first Marvel world in Kingdom Hearts.

[@corwin32]

🎼 ‘Cause he’s a Keyblade Hero! 🎶 (Got a silly-looking key) 🎵 He’s a Keyblade hero! 🎶 (Wasn’t there a character named Kairi?) 🎵 Keyblade Hero! 🎶 (Plaid’s in season this year) 🎵 Keyblade Hero! 🎶 (Still don’t get what’s going on here)

[@KeybladeMasterAndy]

I love that after Sora calls his team "Keyblade Hero 3", Baymax senses the cold reception to that name.

[@Tayruu]

It's really weird to me how Sora freaks out in fear over the AR heartless, as if he's not been bravely fighting heartless the whole time. Why the sudden terror in his voice?

[@NotaWalrus1]

Probably because it wasn't there before and didn't make a sound before appearing.

[@cillbipher2613]

Amaterasu I mean, they're still monsters that murder you and rip your heart out of your body. Also to him it appeared out of thin air without making a sound.

[@essneyallen6777]

And he's in an extremely closed space with a lot of people in. I can justify the emotion with something like "oh no it's inches away from these nice people and if it touches them it's over"

[@muraalia]

Wheel of Fate is one of my fave keyblades too, it's so cool.

[@tsurbwobniar20]

Sora is already impressed with San Fransokyo but not with the previously visited world's?

[@treyslider6954]

I think this is the first time he's been to a city world. The closest he's had before that was Thebes, or maybe Radiant Garden (but he saw it when it was all wrecked up). I don't think he's been to a modern-looking urban world before either, not including the lower half of the World that Never Was...Twilight Town miiiiiight count, but he hasn't really ever spent time exploring TT, and it's got a pretty rustic feel to it compared to San Fransokyo

[@KeybladeMasterAndy]

@@treyslider6954 I'm sure he'd also never been to a colossal warehouse before visiting the Door Vault in Monstropolis, but he didn't seem too impressed by that.

[@treyslider6954]

@@KeybladeMasterAndy You say that, but I recall the camera doing a flourish and Sora staring when you first enter the door-warehouse...

[@thunderstar2526]

I love Dan’s reaction to the Carrbeian keyblade form change

[@ImperatorPenguin]

Hiro: Wait... why did none of us think of these upgrades before?! I'm fourteen I definitely would have thought of things this awesome without outside influence!

[@TamTroll]

when you have something that works, you don't feel the need or want to change it. "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" for example. When something comes along that the previous thing can't handle, you need to rethink, and sometimes you get stuck in your old ways and need a fresh point of view. "Necessity breeds innovation" etc.

[@ImperatorPenguin]

@@TamTroll And I'm thinking, 'imagination is more important than knowledge'... I might be paraphrasing but that's my point.

[@TamTroll]

@@ImperatorPenguin *Shrug*

[@Kio_Kurashi]

I know right? I mean some of them maybe not the most apparant, like changing the gauntlets of a close range fighter to be long range or creating anti-gravity that allows you to scale walls, but changing a weapon or belching out elements other than fire? Those should have been a no brainer.

[@ThulerPedro15]

so nice that sora's been doing nothing for the best part of his life except killing heartless, and still he just got so scared seeing the little shadow guy when with the AR visor

[@Caterfree10]

Oh lmao, I never noticed the giant bolder was a Daruma doll before! That’s neat! :D

[@TonyBIndie]

So I believe Dan is starting to notice my big problem with KH 3; Pacing. Some stuff happens at the beginning, and you're sent off with a flimsy excuse to "find the power of waking" and nothing happens other than Disney world shenanigans. I felt the other games had a midpoint or 2 where the story kinda had a bunch of plot happens that made it feel like you were doing something. In KH3 one, for 7 Disney worlds, everyone is in a holding pattern. The worlds are bigger but I kinda prefer heading back to visit twice like in KH 2.

[@NobodyC13]

Yeah, in KH1, the game had you return to Traverse Town after completing the first three Disney worlds to discover the keyhole plot, the again to upgrade you gummi ship in order to reach what was believed to be the final dungeon. In KH2, you visited all the Disney worlds, only to return to Hollow Bastion for the siege of heartless, and there you discover the Organization's agenda but that you've been unknowingly helping them, the rest of the game is returning to those worlds to either end the plans of outliers like Xaldin or finding a way into their stronghold.

[@Kio_Kurashi]

I'd prefer if they actually had some real merit to the worlds. Heck, Marluxia and Larxene being in those two world really didn't amount to anything narratively other than to say "Hey, We're here too!" The game just lacks the strings to tie the game together in between it's lore dumps.

[@KeybladeMasterAndy]

@@Kio_Kurashi They try to give the worlds thematic relevance(which I appreciate), but that's usually about it. It's par for the course for this series, unfortunately.

[@erwinlimawan3158]

Between the rings and sound effects, I'm surprised this episode wasn't titled "Sora, PLEASE."

[@pyrosianheir]

PS, my top 3 favorites (at least of the new blades, otherwise, Oblivion and Oathkeeper would be in my top three) are Tangled, Big Hero 6 and Ultima. One could argue that Ultima isn't really a new one, but with them changing up its design every game, I say it counts. XD

[@karfsma778]

Keyblade's formchange is "Highwind", turns into a spear... you know, you may have *gotten* it from Pirates of the Caribbean world, but that's final fantasy as fuck Like, Highwind is the traditional last name the Dragoon-type characters in the series. All of whom wield spears.

[@ptcarbonproductions2013]

BIIIIIG HEROOOOO SIIIIIX! One of my favourite movies of all time, and second favourite superhero movie. This is gonna be fun. Balalalalalah... Wow. Well done, Baymax. We're like 6 minutes into the video and you've already managed to burn your secret identity. I assume this takes place after first season of TV Show, which kinda made a big deal out of keeping it secret. Baymax, more responsibility. If you're going to reveal this left, right and centre, aunt Cass wil eventually learn about this too. Do you want aunt Cass to have a stroke? That stands in opposition to your health care mission! Oh c'mon! We were this close from increasing SDG counter! I guess we stay at 6 this time around. "For a second, I thought this is a monster w-" Continuity win! (ding) Oh, so this is where Fred started to throw ice. I guess this really is canon, since I somehow can't imagine him without that ability. Oh, Honey. Sora, Donald, Goofy counter: 6 With love, The Boy Who Holds The Keys

[@chan742]

16:07 - Apparently Honey Lemon's bag also contains lampshades in addition to goo grenades.

[@jjstarA113]

Was Baymax always this short?

[@Gilbot9000]

This world is the one I was looking forward to most.

[@TheUnspokenKibbles]

Similar to my thoughts when I actually played this game, I'm really starting to feel the Disney World Fatigue. I even kinda like the movie this world is based on, but hoo boy do I ever want to get back to the actual factual plot.

[@J_Halcyon]

5:13 Once again, Donald refuses to cast Cure at an opportune time.

[@pyrosianheir]

You should build your own gummy ship if you're going to go heavy into that part. The basic gummies that they sell you are workable, but you can definitely build WAY better. The overall story very much stalls for most of the game. While Sora's off "regaining his power of waking," the mainplot is just... kinda in limbo until you reach a point where the game is like "Okay, now go." There's an event that happens at the end of this world that honestly would've worked really well as kind of a mid-point boss-fight to interact with the main story more, but... instead it's crammed in as the start of the big crazy boss-rush that everyone knew would come at the end of the game.

[@Adrelamusia]

Yassssss that's my favorite keyblade! Me and Dan are like twins i swear

[@tsurbwobniar20]

Are Sora, Donald and Goofy traveling through outer space to visit the other worlds/planets?

[@profdracko]

Officially it's called the Oceans Between or something similar. More like interdimensional travel. It was stated in an interview from one of the earlier games that worlds aren't the same as planets.

[@tsurbwobniar20]

@@profdracko there parallel universes or different dimensions?

[@profdracko]

@@tsurbwobniar20 It's really unclear. KHUX said that all worlds were connected once in the "Age of Fairy Tales" but something related to the Keyblade War separated them and put up the barriers. The only ways through are using a Keyblade to access the Ocean Between, a Dark Corridor or, if the walls are broken (like in KH1) a Gummi Ship. Given that the only franchise with more than one world based on it is Tron, and that's explained in KH2 by Ansen copying the data of the original for his own use, it's probably safe to assume they're dimensions, not universes. Although now UX has intruduced something called "World Lines" which opens up a whole other can of metaphysical worms...

[@TamTroll]

@@profdracko to be fair, some of the worlds change shape / appearance between games. and a lot of them really don't look anything like what they do when you're on them. i really doubt that the giant sea you sail on in the pirate world is actually a giant skull with a hat and some tentacles underneath. Pretty sure that movie takes place on a version of real-world earth.

[@theendersmirk5851]

The implication seems to be that their version of space isn't what ours is like, thus they fly through something akin to space, but it isn't as closely related to each other as with our world, in some ways.

[@braedonschultz1929]

THE KINGS FOOLS

[@KumaKaori]

5:59, drink!. ;; Kings fools, indeed.

[@qwerty77772]

15:00 Why give Sora an AR device but not Donald or Goofy? You're learning from them too, BH6! 20:00 Now that you mention it, the Big Hero 6 gang always seemed to be stiffer in movement than the rest of the Disney world NPCs in this game. Wasn't sure if it's due the main film accuracy, the free-roaming world, possible lack of budget/time, or that we don't see the most of BH6 outside of their armor. Always caught my attention though.

[@lemmingrad]

I think Dan was more referring to how the characters in Big Hero 6, had a lot of thought put into it when it came to their movement. Look up Big Hero 6 - CHARACTER STUDY, where it showcases each character and how very different they approach sitting down at a table (from Baymax trying to be very careful, but is clumsily not dexterous, to Fred being so distracted, he's oblivious to a door slamming on him.) That kind of attention to small detail is what is called "subtle animation."

[@shandlespr]

Are we in end-game territory? (Checks remaining playlist.) No. :)

[@christophermauro-barias7451]

also quality unavailable? o o

[@1000PaperLilies]

Storm Flag is the beeeeeeeesssssst

[@penguinboy0969]

im here from an old extra credits link,so, um... hi?

[@essneyallen6777]

Uu I followed that link once :D you won't believe the treasure you've found xD

[@Artista_Frustrado]

-good point, why Donald & Goofy don't get Keyblades?! -so if anyone has played this with the JP audio... what does Fred Say in the Shugyo dialogue?

[@Artista_Frustrado]

also, screw you game for still making us get the Map Chest for San-Fransokyo despite Hiro giving us the AR googles that contain map data =p

[@seankearney5828]

Completing the synthesis list is really hard in KH3

[@Distruptor18]

I so badly want to play this game. One of the few times i regret not having a ps4.

[@romajimamulo]

Or Xbox One?

[@Distruptor18]

@@romajimamulo Hah. No.

[@bwminich]

Sora still doesn’t computer

[@christophermauro-barias7451]

to think i did this all on beginner Gummi

[@Paulina_the_luna]

Yeah Kings Fools 3 :'D