This is a reupload of the Kingdom Hearts video with improved video quality. The previous video was uploaded in 30fps since all footage in this video is from 30fps games. I forgot though that Kingdom Hearts is interlaced, meaning that by rendering my video out at 30fps I lost frames from my 60fps recording. Long story short the loss of these interim frames meant a loss in overall quality for the video. The video now truly represents the original look of the game far more accurately. I saw a lot of comments praising me for my decision to stay accurate to the original game by using authentic Ps2 footage at the highest quality. I didn't feel like it was right to keep the older video in place when the authentic look of KH1 wasn't being preserved in the original release of this video. If you'd like to support my continued efforts to use high quality game footage from original hardware in my videos please consider backing me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/thegamingbritshow If you'd like to copy your comment from the original video it will remain unlisted for the time being here: czcams.com/video/ZKAklToDmn0/video.html
What I love about this review is that it analyzes the first Kingdom Hearts from the perspective of someone playing it in 2002, back when none of us knew if there would ever be a sequel. The ending hits so much harder from that vantage point.
Still not as bad as that one time they had kids turn into literal donkeys for a pack mule trafficking racket.... ....or this other one about a psychotic bitch who wanted to make a fur coat out of puppies.... ...then the one about a selfish governor who overtaxed the lower class to the point of throwing them in jail.... ....then the one about a self entitled politician that literally killed his brother to become the new ruler only to let the country go to complete shit.... ....or just recently the one movie about racism..... ....and the other recent one about climate change.....
"Sora and your party members can only equip a set amount of recovery items... so you can't drip feed your entire supply of collected health items or magic recovery items to get through a tricky encounter" Oh man, I wish they had this kind of technology while they were making FFXV.
I like the atmosphere in this entry. There's this little, cosmos-surfing Dickens feeling that is lost in the follow-up games, once the setting and circumstances are more known.
I've always felt the original KH1 stuck out to me. It just felt like that title that not only was amazing for the time, but as a rated E game, didn't shy away from trying to tell dark stories, and respected the audience enough to understand the emotions and themes behind it. I enjoyed this alot Brit, just reminded me of simpler times of playing this with one of my school friends together on his PS2. Also The Beast is raw af. I didn't realize through sheer will he traveled through worlds. Hot damn.
That's all thanks to Jun Akiyama, the game's event director. Dark storytelling and cinematography was his thing that he brought to some extent in most projects he worked on. Unfortunately, he didn't work on the series after KH1, which explains the tone shift.
@@Phyllion-Akiyama has barely got to work on anything since being cutscene director for kh and ff12. Really sucks because both games are directed incredibly well.
Hearing you discuss the sheer brilliance of the writing in KH1 blew my mind, specifically in regards to the Beast encounter and Sora/Donald/Goofy being the "comedic relief" when compared to Riku and Mickey. The first KH1 may not have had the best gameplay of the series, but it's tragic that its many sequels do not nearly have as much depth regarding narrative devices.
The fact that i at times forget that Kingdom Hearts is a crossover, speaks alot of how exceptionally well the series manages to meld the different themes and tones of Final Fantasy/Square Enix and Disney. To create an experience so unique and one of a kind from any other video game series in my opinion.
Kingdom Hearts has an especially special place in my heart. The games are all very earnest and genuine in each of their approaches that even at their worst, I can't really help but get the emotions it wants to convey swelling up inside myself even. It's also been there for me in some of the worst times of my life, and has been how I've gotten closer to a lot of special people in my own life, Dearly Beloved being the first piece I've learned on Piano, Hikaru Utada is one of my favorite music artists outside of just Simple and Clean now. Needless to say that this very goofy and earnest series about anime characters beating shadows up with key shaped swords in the biggest entertainment corp's worlds has had a lot of impact on me, and millions of others
This Re-upload will never have as many views and engagement as the original. You obviously know this and yet you still chose to do it in order to give us the best quality review and representation of this game. That takes some real integrity as a content creator and most others don't have it. Thank you for taking pride in your work, I will now refer to this re-uploaded review as the simple and clean review 👍. God speed
There's something magical about KH1 that square can't recapture. There's so much interaction within the worlds and their design that I don't think they could capture the essence of what made KH1 such an incredible entry. Every world pretty much has a hidden interaction that rewards you for exploring. Maybe it might seem clunky, but the game has a learning curve to it.
I knew that KH1 didn't look *that* jaggy back when I was a kid! Though, admittedly, some of that might've been my CRT TV smoothing the visuals out a bit too, haha. I don't think I left a comment on the first edition of this video, but this was an incredible video. Hearing your thoughts on the game and its many aspects was a joy to listen to and I think this is probably the most insightful video on Kingdom Hearts 1. I was surprised to find two thoughts of my own turning up in this video that I've thought about discussing in a video of my own. The final fantasy side of the crossover being more in the themes that those games engage with, rather than primarily characters of that ip interacting with Disney owned characters. The second thought of mine that I was surprised to find in this video was comparing using KH's command to fighting game inputs. Again, great video! I found it refreshing to get a full review of the vanilla original Kingdom Hearts as released in western territories again after all these years.
The first Kingdom Hearts game is the only one that I can honestly say I liked. Everything from the combat, level design, world selection, music, and even story are surprisingly well done. And I say 'surprisingly' because the series took a hard, fast turn into crazy town with KH 2 and never recovered. Such a shame. I miss KH1's simple yet heartfelt story, magical yet dark and melancholic atmosphere, the Zelda-like sense of adventure and discovery, the Mana-esque combat system that was neither too over-the-top nor too stiff and limiting, and the central focus of Disney characters/worlds in the narrative. You weren't just visiting Disney worlds to "take a break" from the (ludicrous) main story. They WERE the main story, whereas all of KH's sequels would relegate the Disney stuff to inconsequential, episodic side-diversions while all of the main focus is placed on the Organization, Nobodies, time travel, and the approximately 3.5 billion clones of Ansem and Xehanort running around
Yeah and it's really fuckin rad that they went that direction lmao. Ok, but in all seriousness, the Disney worlds reached their lowest peak in KH2 and have been rising ever since. Birth By Sleep had a lot of relevant Disney story content that tied into the conflict and the themes of the story and also brought back better level designs (2s is particularly bad). KH3 did this to an even better extent. As a huge fan of the series, the Disney part still feels as important, but I can see why it fades into the back of people's minds.
What a fantastic review. So much of the discourse around KH is mired in cheap shots about the convoluted story and cheesiness that it's refreshing to get a fresh, honest perspective like this. I feel that a lot of the things you talk about in this review are emblematic of the first game specifically, as the series goes on it tends to lose that ominous yet whimsical quality that defines a lot of KH1's tone in favor of a more shonen-esque, action-y vibe, for better and worse. The story gets harder to follow and more dependent on you actually caring about the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo and archetypical characters even as the gameplay and presentation improve. Whether it's better or worse is up to you, but I love this series to death and hope Charlie reviews more of them. (Though, if he insists in playing the original versions as he appears to have done with KH1 he might have a hard time, as there are several entries for the GBA and DS, and besides, KH2 at least really has to be experienced as the Final Mix version. But I digress.)
I only vaguely remember my original comment, but I've still thought about the "theme parkification" of Disney worlds and Final Fantasy mechanics, both combined with Sora being as an audience surrogate. Makes me appreciate some more of the later entries (including in narrative, still focusing on the cost of Heroic actions) as they try to keep this balance while the world of real time action combat evolved. Do still wonder how you're going to tackle FINAL MIX, as it established a lot of major stays in how the series goes, like Leaf Bracer and survival.
While the review mostly written as if the other games don't exist, I find the part about how the world building and science is delivered in a way that hinders the effectiveness of the emotions the story is going for, to be accurate to the franchise as a whole. I think the story of KH is actually really powerful, so powerful in fact that it can overpower the many hurdles the delivery puts in front of it (Mickey doing the MGS4 segment and the whole ending of KH3 and the DLC still manages to be super effective), but the janky and cryptic dialogue, practically each entry being on a different console, the over-convoluted science that keeps getting ret-conned and ignored and sometimes even the pacing of the games make it difficult for any newcomer to get invested in the series and it's grand narrative.
You made a great point about why this game's optimism and sentimentality feel so sincere. The entire game is based around Sora trying to revive one of his childhood friends while stopping the other from destroying himself, and Riku turns to darkness mostly for Kairi's sake which makes it more complicated. Sora suffers a lot in this game and you can feel it, that's why it's so satisfying to see him win at the end. What's sad is that character development has mostly disappeared from KH as the series has gone on. Sora in Chain of Memories is just as interesting as in KH1 and it's awesome, he's enraged now because Org. XIII is trying to steal his memories, so you run through the castle beating the shit out of each member, and as far as we know they're basically dead once you beat them, which is fitting since Sora has grown up a bit and is less willing to take shit from people, it's a cool evolution. 2 is weird because it has great character writing here and there (Roxas and Axel's friendship, Riku at the end), but Sora now is a bit blander, his arc is done and I guess he has no room left to evolve. Another big problem is the lack of an interim story woven throughout the Disney worlds like in KH1 - you fight Pete every once in a while but it's not like he matters like Riku did. So there's a huge plot vacuum in the middle of the game that only became more of an issue as the series went on. This could honestly be an entire essay/video but I think you get me. The series continually ups the ante with every new release in terms of power level and stake, but it actually feels less of a big deal than in the first couple games since our protagonist can just shrug anything off. Can't blame them too much for running out of ways to evolve Sora, but damn it would be nice if they at least tried.
They DEFINITELY tried. Re:Coded is (a waste of time but that's besides the point) a character study focusing on Sora learning to accept the hurt inside him. DDD attempts the same thing with the real guy, but it's undermined by time travel hijinks. Even 3 pokes at his over reliance on others (though not much has come from it yet). As for 2... This is actually interesting to hear. From what I gathered, people found Sora more expressive/fully realized in 2. That said, the character still undergoes a good few mini-arcs.
Fun fact about monstro'a labrynthian design. All doors you're meant to go through glow green, and a green nocturne will spawn atop them when you come close.
You may have deleted the one-episode retrospective, but I still remember, Charlie. I know you didn't realize Kingdom Hearts had Disney elements until you saw Donald Duck first appear in a cutscene. All the video essays in the world won't change the fact that you said there'd be a part two, and I'm still waiting for the promised day to come.
I just replayed KH1 last year. I never beat a KH game until then, but I got KH1 and 2 at launch as an 11 year old kid, and I got all the way to hollow bastion before quitting. I went on to finish all the final fantasies, dragon quests, mother, demons souls etc before returning to KH. Your take aligns with mine after returning to finally finish it: In a vacuum, the first KH game stands on its own before the series became a huge hit. I like to imagine a world where this is the only one, and it was relegated to an obscure, half forgotten cult classic. It’s significance as the first 3D take on Squares excellent action RPG franchise Seiken Densetsu should not be understated. There is a clear, bold line that can be drawn from Seiken Densetsu to Final Fantasy 7 remake, with Kingdom Hearts in the dead center between the two. Like anything else, the fandom’s homogenized opinions often distract from any outside view or overlooked truths. I don’t care about official canon. My headcanon, as of today, includes only KH1. It makes vague sense, a coming of age story. The focus on Kairi totally aligns with my elementary school and early middle school crushes. I’m going on to play KH2 on original ps2 soon, but I may also detour to try the GBA game on the various gba-compatibles I have. It will be an interesting experience to play chain of memories over composite via GBI on my 27” 90’s CRT, for a classic square soft 16/32bit ARPG feel. Squares other early GBA offerings (FFTA and Dawn of Souls) are some of my all time favorites that I’ve played over and over, so I’ll cherish the opportunity to play something totally blind one last time. I’m still only 1/3rd through the video, just wanted to drop my own takes from a recent, controlled and premeditated experience. I may reply to this comment if I have anything further to say from your take here. Ps: I played KH on a crt, over component on ps2 hardware in 2020. Original US release version.
I dunno why, but even though this is literally the same game currently on PS4, as well as said version being the only way I've played those games, the way KH1 and KH2 look on PS2 feel strangely nostalgic to me. It's weird, but good.
I find funny that you say Cloud is the FF character that feels most in-character when compared to his canon counterpart. A lot of people (specially Nomura haters) have internalized the idea that KH was the birth of "Emo Cloud", the bastardized version of the character that dominated the perception of mainstream audiences up until FF7R recovered his actual original characterization. I think you're right of course. People who claim KH Cloud was Emo Cloud 1.0 seem to miss the parts where he pretty much sasses Hades in literally his first line of the game, or his cocky attitude towards Sora's challenge. The actual birth of Emo Cloud was "Advent Children", which was an abomination that made tangible damage, not only to the FF franchise, but the entire JRPG genre as a whole. But that's a story for another time.
@@amnorela Yeah, of course he's emo in FF7R, OPs just trying to explain everyone's hypocrisy in stating that KH started emo Cloud while FF7R "ended" it.
This, your KH3 review & some of Kbash's videos really are the closest interpretations to how I feel about the series than many of the other ones found on CZcams.
Hello again, wonderful KH review! This one is still a joy to watch, and just like I said before, I love that you approach the game with such an earnest viewpoint. And I love that the video is in 4:3 :D
Great video and analysis! Only thing I'd say could improve it would be some background music, but your voice and scripting are entertaining enough that it wasn't a big issue
I love that this has PS2 footage, post kh3 and the remasters. I've always had soft spots for the vanilla versions of games. Darksiders 2 NON-Deathinitive edition, Sonic Adventure 2 on the dreamcast, PS2 versions of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
Kingdom Hearts rules because if Square (or any company for that matter) tried their elevator pitch today, no way would Disney ever agree to making a game that uses their IP like this and if they did, it would be done in the most audience insulting, corporate, key jingling, IP prioritized way imaginable to where it would just feel more like a soulless advertisement than a creative genre defying experience. Its something that only could've came out in 2002.
I'm glad the mechanical depth of Kingdom Hearts has received a closer look lately. When it came out it seemed to me that the common reception was meh on the combat and tossed aside as gimmicky.
14:21 In the Final Mix version you can manually command your party members by pressing triangle as long as there isn't any prompts for the button, but it doesn't allow for a specific command, only the special magic using abilities, like Goofy's spin attack for example. When commenting this I hadn't seen the video all the way through, so I don't know if you compare the final mix version or not.
beautiful review quite touching of you to use the original version as coverage/source material in testament to its quality would be nice to hear your thoughts on the rest of the series...
Charlie, you're easily one of the best creators on this platform, I love your videos. But, damn man, please get an upscaler/video capture device that doesn't use bob de-interlacing. It makes the games looks worse than they actually are.
I love the first Kingdom Hearts 1. I love it just as much as 2. I found the game very simple, gameplay and story throughout. I think you over analyze this and it's really just a boy losing everything and now he has to save all the world's story. The series definitely gets complicated later but the first one is really simple to follow. Also, just...really? Wonderland have fake ceilings doesn't seem right? It's pretty clear on what they're trying to do. It's world with a child artstlye.
Ive played this game since release i never know you could navigate the command menu with the right stick. I have always just switched to dpad quickly during a jump or something. Crazy
I'd argue BBS and KH3 are very good, better than CoM IMO. And if we're talking story, CoM is when the story went off the rails honestly. It's just been a spiral down ever since, and personally I find the insanity entertaining so I don't care.
I'm playing kh2 first time in my life after finishing kh1 and com. Omg the start of this game is MINDBLOWING in its execution. Storytelling and game design GOLD.
Oh we’re doing this again. It’s a good critique of the original Kingdom Hearts so I don’t mind. Still wonder why you completely ignored the existence of final mix and the hd remasters especially considering that the hd remasters changed the controls
@@cillbipher2613 exactly. in a review of ninja gaiden 2/3/sigma/RE, etc there are enough gameplay/directorial decisions they're worth bringing up, but kh/final mix what does he want him to say about load times, resolution and small balance tweaks lol
@@cillbipher2613 I don't meant to disagree for the sake of disagreeing, but KH1FM changes a ton of tiny details everywhere (new abilities, replaced contents of most chests, changed order of levelup bonuses, altered equipment stats) but adds only a tiny bit of content. That's why its changes aren't as obvious, it's mostly balancing tweaks. Not all of it was for the better though (they did Oblivion dirty!)
Most of the super bosses are fun, specially ziza but Xemnas and the clocktower ghost can just be absolute bullshit in a very unfun way, the former just in general and the latter if you chose the wrong combination of Take and give up with the 3 weapons in the tutorial (Sword/Rod) and get bad RNG
Yeah. I hear people like Kurt Zisa more than Phantom, and personally it's the complete opposite for me. Kurt Zisa is just a huge pain in the butt every time I fight him, but Phantom is actually pretty fun.
This is the only good review of Kingdom Hearts I've seen of read. If for nothing else, just for the fact that it doesn't pull a "haha silly quirky" by getting 'lost' in the obviously purposefully nonsensical inner workings of the world building, but instead presents the plot in the way that a player actually experiences it, and how it relates to the feeling that the gameplay produces. Bonus for the pretty accurate description of the atmosphere and expectations of someone playing it at the time it released. I really wish even half of what made this game and its PS2 sequel so influential and iconic made it out in KH3.
I played Kingdom Hearts last year on PS4 and I love it. I could've played the game as a kid, but I'm glad I didn't because the game is hard. Either way, I was happy to play and beat the game.
This is the Final Mix of the Kingdom Hearts Review.
@Jarclizzy That was exactly the first thing I thought.
what changed between this and the last one?
:D
@@at0micl0bster 60fps
This is a reupload of the Kingdom Hearts video with improved video quality. The previous video was uploaded in 30fps since all footage in this video is from 30fps games. I forgot though that Kingdom Hearts is interlaced, meaning that by rendering my video out at 30fps I lost frames from my 60fps recording. Long story short the loss of these interim frames meant a loss in overall quality for the video. The video now truly represents the original look of the game far more accurately.
I saw a lot of comments praising me for my decision to stay accurate to the original game by using authentic Ps2 footage at the highest quality.
I didn't feel like it was right to keep the older video in place when the authentic look of KH1 wasn't being preserved in the original release of this video.
If you'd like to support my continued efforts to use high quality game footage from original hardware in my videos please consider backing me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/thegamingbritshow
If you'd like to copy your comment from the original video it will remain unlisted for the time being here: czcams.com/video/ZKAklToDmn0/video.html
Nice, the 30fps upload didn't really play nice with the deinterlacing
E: Oh I guess you elaborated on that
Do you plan on doing the rest of the KH series as well?
That's very respectable
I thought something looked funny. Thanks for the fix!
yeah, bob-deinterlacing is meant to be seen at 60fps
What I love about this review is that it analyzes the first Kingdom Hearts from the perspective of someone playing it in 2002, back when none of us knew if there would ever be a sequel.
The ending hits so much harder from that vantage point.
Tbh KH3 kinda goes back to KH1 more than I thought, especially after the DLC
It’s baffling that wars fought solely with child soldiers is an integral part of a Disney property
Thank you, Kingdom Hearts
Not that baffling anymore lol
Well disney made a pedo racist priest that falls into fire so
square enix, too.
@@TheBonkleFox nah if anything it’s surprising it took this long for it to appear in a square enix game
Still not as bad as that one time they had kids turn into literal donkeys for a pack mule trafficking racket....
....or this other one about a psychotic bitch who wanted to make a fur coat out of puppies....
...then the one about a selfish governor who overtaxed the lower class to the point of throwing them in jail....
....then the one about a self entitled politician that literally killed his brother to become the new ruler only to let the country go to complete shit....
....or just recently the one movie about racism.....
....and the other recent one about climate change.....
"Sora and your party members can only equip a set amount of recovery items... so you can't drip feed your entire supply of collected health items or magic recovery items to get through a tricky encounter"
Oh man, I wish they had this kind of technology while they were making FFXV.
I like the atmosphere in this entry.
There's this little, cosmos-surfing Dickens feeling that is lost in the follow-up games, once the setting and circumstances are more known.
This. Glad the mystery seems to be returning in the next saga!
@@genyakozlov1316 no it isn't
I've always felt the original KH1 stuck out to me. It just felt like that title that not only was amazing for the time, but as a rated E game, didn't shy away from trying to tell dark stories, and respected the audience enough to understand the emotions and themes behind it. I enjoyed this alot Brit, just reminded me of simpler times of playing this with one of my school friends together on his PS2.
Also The Beast is raw af. I didn't realize through sheer will he traveled through worlds. Hot damn.
That's all thanks to Jun Akiyama, the game's event director. Dark storytelling and cinematography was his thing that he brought to some extent in most projects he worked on. Unfortunately, he didn't work on the series after KH1, which explains the tone shift.
@@Phyllion-Akiyama has barely got to work on anything since being cutscene director for kh and ff12. Really sucks because both games are directed incredibly well.
Hearing you discuss the sheer brilliance of the writing in KH1 blew my mind, specifically in regards to the Beast encounter and Sora/Donald/Goofy being the "comedic relief" when compared to Riku and Mickey.
The first KH1 may not have had the best gameplay of the series, but it's tragic that its many sequels do not nearly have as much depth regarding narrative devices.
The fact that i at times forget that Kingdom Hearts is a crossover, speaks alot of how exceptionally well the series manages to meld the different themes and tones of Final Fantasy/Square Enix and Disney. To create an experience so unique and one of a kind from any other video game series in my opinion.
Kingdom Hearts has an especially special place in my heart. The games are all very earnest and genuine in each of their approaches that even at their worst, I can't really help but get the emotions it wants to convey swelling up inside myself even. It's also been there for me in some of the worst times of my life, and has been how I've gotten closer to a lot of special people in my own life, Dearly Beloved being the first piece I've learned on Piano, Hikaru Utada is one of my favorite music artists outside of just Simple and Clean now. Needless to say that this very goofy and earnest series about anime characters beating shadows up with key shaped swords in the biggest entertainment corp's worlds has had a lot of impact on me, and millions of others
This Re-upload will never have as many views and engagement as the original. You obviously know this and yet you still chose to do it in order to give us the best quality review and representation of this game. That takes some real integrity as a content creator and most others don't have it. Thank you for taking pride in your work, I will now refer to this re-uploaded review as the simple and clean review 👍. God speed
There's something magical about KH1 that square can't recapture. There's so much interaction within the worlds and their design that I don't think they could capture the essence of what made KH1 such an incredible entry. Every world pretty much has a hidden interaction that rewards you for exploring. Maybe it might seem clunky, but the game has a learning curve to it.
I knew that KH1 didn't look *that* jaggy back when I was a kid! Though, admittedly, some of that might've been my CRT TV smoothing the visuals out a bit too, haha. I don't think I left a comment on the first edition of this video, but this was an incredible video. Hearing your thoughts on the game and its many aspects was a joy to listen to and I think this is probably the most insightful video on Kingdom Hearts 1. I was surprised to find two thoughts of my own turning up in this video that I've thought about discussing in a video of my own. The final fantasy side of the crossover being more in the themes that those games engage with, rather than primarily characters of that ip interacting with Disney owned characters. The second thought of mine that I was surprised to find in this video was comparing using KH's command to fighting game inputs.
Again, great video! I found it refreshing to get a full review of the vanilla original Kingdom Hearts as released in western territories again after all these years.
The first Kingdom Hearts game is the only one that I can honestly say I liked. Everything from the combat, level design, world selection, music, and even story are surprisingly well done.
And I say 'surprisingly' because the series took a hard, fast turn into crazy town with KH 2 and never recovered. Such a shame. I miss KH1's simple yet heartfelt story, magical yet dark and melancholic atmosphere, the Zelda-like sense of adventure and discovery, the Mana-esque combat system that was neither too over-the-top nor too stiff and limiting, and the central focus of Disney characters/worlds in the narrative. You weren't just visiting Disney worlds to "take a break" from the (ludicrous) main story. They WERE the main story, whereas all of KH's sequels would relegate the Disney stuff to inconsequential, episodic side-diversions while all of the main focus is placed on the Organization, Nobodies, time travel, and the approximately 3.5 billion clones of Ansem and Xehanort running around
Yeah and it's really fuckin rad that they went that direction lmao.
Ok, but in all seriousness, the Disney worlds reached their lowest peak in KH2 and have been rising ever since. Birth By Sleep had a lot of relevant Disney story content that tied into the conflict and the themes of the story and also brought back better level designs (2s is particularly bad). KH3 did this to an even better extent. As a huge fan of the series, the Disney part still feels as important, but I can see why it fades into the back of people's minds.
It's been over a decade, and that ending still makes me feel *something*
over a decade? more like practically 2
What a fantastic review. So much of the discourse around KH is mired in cheap shots about the convoluted story and cheesiness that it's refreshing to get a fresh, honest perspective like this. I feel that a lot of the things you talk about in this review are emblematic of the first game specifically, as the series goes on it tends to lose that ominous yet whimsical quality that defines a lot of KH1's tone in favor of a more shonen-esque, action-y vibe, for better and worse. The story gets harder to follow and more dependent on you actually caring about the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo and archetypical characters even as the gameplay and presentation improve. Whether it's better or worse is up to you, but I love this series to death and hope Charlie reviews more of them. (Though, if he insists in playing the original versions as he appears to have done with KH1 he might have a hard time, as there are several entries for the GBA and DS, and besides, KH2 at least really has to be experienced as the Final Mix version. But I digress.)
I only vaguely remember my original comment, but I've still thought about the "theme parkification" of Disney worlds and Final Fantasy mechanics, both combined with Sora being as an audience surrogate. Makes me appreciate some more of the later entries (including in narrative, still focusing on the cost of Heroic actions) as they try to keep this balance while the world of real time action combat evolved.
Do still wonder how you're going to tackle FINAL MIX, as it established a lot of major stays in how the series goes, like Leaf Bracer and survival.
Leaf bracer honestly makes final mix easier than the original western ps2 version
Based melty blood player
@@shacka95 it's really just Leaf Bracer I'm thinking about, especially when he talks about sora's survivability lol
I cannot believe that KH1 came out 20 years ago today. Well, yesterday.
I feel caught in a time loop.
I feel caught in a time loop.
The Brit is a real legend for re-uploading this with higher quality despite the algorithmic consequences. The integrity of this man is serious
While the review mostly written as if the other games don't exist, I find the part about how the world building and science is delivered in a way that hinders the effectiveness of the emotions the story is going for, to be accurate to the franchise as a whole. I think the story of KH is actually really powerful, so powerful in fact that it can overpower the many hurdles the delivery puts in front of it (Mickey doing the MGS4 segment and the whole ending of KH3 and the DLC still manages to be super effective), but the janky and cryptic dialogue, practically each entry being on a different console, the over-convoluted science that keeps getting ret-conned and ignored and sometimes even the pacing of the games make it difficult for any newcomer to get invested in the series and it's grand narrative.
“Why it looks so good, I think I’d like to watch it a second time!”
Quick update: The previous upload contained multiple racial slurs and Disney came down on it, so hopefully this one can pass the censors.
What slurs?
@@burtbiggum499 LMFAO
@@jakejutras5420 im serious l dont remember anything in the first one that jumped out at me but l was listening to it while doing other stuff?
@@burtbiggum499 Pretty sure Chiyo-Chan was just being bit of a cheekster here.
You made a great point about why this game's optimism and sentimentality feel so sincere. The entire game is based around Sora trying to revive one of his childhood friends while stopping the other from destroying himself, and Riku turns to darkness mostly for Kairi's sake which makes it more complicated. Sora suffers a lot in this game and you can feel it, that's why it's so satisfying to see him win at the end.
What's sad is that character development has mostly disappeared from KH as the series has gone on. Sora in Chain of Memories is just as interesting as in KH1 and it's awesome, he's enraged now because Org. XIII is trying to steal his memories, so you run through the castle beating the shit out of each member, and as far as we know they're basically dead once you beat them, which is fitting since Sora has grown up a bit and is less willing to take shit from people, it's a cool evolution. 2 is weird because it has great character writing here and there (Roxas and Axel's friendship, Riku at the end), but Sora now is a bit blander, his arc is done and I guess he has no room left to evolve. Another big problem is the lack of an interim story woven throughout the Disney worlds like in KH1 - you fight Pete every once in a while but it's not like he matters like Riku did. So there's a huge plot vacuum in the middle of the game that only became more of an issue as the series went on.
This could honestly be an entire essay/video but I think you get me. The series continually ups the ante with every new release in terms of power level and stake, but it actually feels less of a big deal than in the first couple games since our protagonist can just shrug anything off. Can't blame them too much for running out of ways to evolve Sora, but damn it would be nice if they at least tried.
They DEFINITELY tried.
Re:Coded is (a waste of time but that's besides the point) a character study focusing on Sora learning to accept the hurt inside him.
DDD attempts the same thing with the real guy, but it's undermined by time travel hijinks.
Even 3 pokes at his over reliance on others (though not much has come from it yet).
As for 2... This is actually interesting to hear. From what I gathered, people found Sora more expressive/fully realized in 2. That said, the character still undergoes a good few mini-arcs.
major respect for reviewing the OG on the ps2 rather than the remastered version aka final mix, final mix changes a bunch of stuff
Why we didn’t get a Sephiroth secret boss in KH3 is beyond me. That was literally one of the things I was looking forward to most 😩
Fun fact about monstro'a labrynthian design. All doors you're meant to go through glow green, and a green nocturne will spawn atop them when you come close.
You may have deleted the one-episode retrospective, but I still remember, Charlie. I know you didn't realize Kingdom Hearts had Disney elements until you saw Donald Duck first appear in a cutscene. All the video essays in the world won't change the fact that you said there'd be a part two, and I'm still waiting for the promised day to come.
I just replayed KH1 last year. I never beat a KH game until then, but I got KH1 and 2 at launch as an 11 year old kid, and I got all the way to hollow bastion before quitting. I went on to finish all the final fantasies, dragon quests, mother, demons souls etc before returning to KH. Your take aligns with mine after returning to finally finish it:
In a vacuum, the first KH game stands on its own before the series became a huge hit. I like to imagine a world where this is the only one, and it was relegated to an obscure, half forgotten cult classic. It’s significance as the first 3D take on Squares excellent action RPG franchise Seiken Densetsu should not be understated. There is a clear, bold line that can be drawn from Seiken Densetsu to Final Fantasy 7 remake, with Kingdom Hearts in the dead center between the two. Like anything else, the fandom’s homogenized opinions often distract from any outside view or overlooked truths. I don’t care about official canon. My headcanon, as of today, includes only KH1. It makes vague sense, a coming of age story. The focus on Kairi totally aligns with my elementary school and early middle school crushes.
I’m going on to play KH2 on original ps2 soon, but I may also detour to try the GBA game on the various gba-compatibles I have. It will be an interesting experience to play chain of memories over composite via GBI on my 27” 90’s CRT, for a classic square soft 16/32bit ARPG feel. Squares other early GBA offerings (FFTA and Dawn of Souls) are some of my all time favorites that I’ve played over and over, so I’ll cherish the opportunity to play something totally blind one last time.
I’m still only 1/3rd through the video, just wanted to drop my own takes from a recent, controlled and premeditated experience. I may reply to this comment if I have anything further to say from your take here.
Ps: I played KH on a crt, over component on ps2 hardware in 2020. Original US release version.
I dunno why, but even though this is literally the same game currently on PS4, as well as said version being the only way I've played those games, the way KH1 and KH2 look on PS2 feel strangely nostalgic to me. It's weird, but good.
I find funny that you say Cloud is the FF character that feels most in-character when compared to his canon counterpart. A lot of people (specially Nomura haters) have internalized the idea that KH was the birth of "Emo Cloud", the bastardized version of the character that dominated the perception of mainstream audiences up until FF7R recovered his actual original characterization.
I think you're right of course. People who claim KH Cloud was Emo Cloud 1.0 seem to miss the parts where he pretty much sasses Hades in literally his first line of the game, or his cocky attitude towards Sora's challenge.
The actual birth of Emo Cloud was "Advent Children", which was an abomination that made tangible damage, not only to the FF franchise, but the entire JRPG genre as a whole. But that's a story for another time.
@@amnorela
Yeah, of course he's emo in FF7R, OPs just trying to explain everyone's hypocrisy in stating that KH started emo Cloud while FF7R "ended" it.
"Dilly dally shilly shally"
This, your KH3 review & some of Kbash's videos really are the closest interpretations to how I feel about the series than many of the other ones found on CZcams.
Hello again, wonderful KH review!
This one is still a joy to watch, and just like I said before, I love that you approach the game with such an earnest viewpoint.
And I love that the video is in 4:3 :D
Great video and analysis! Only thing I'd say could improve it would be some background music, but your voice and scripting are entertaining enough that it wasn't a big issue
I love that this has PS2 footage, post kh3 and the remasters. I've always had soft spots for the vanilla versions of games. Darksiders 2 NON-Deathinitive edition, Sonic Adventure 2 on the dreamcast, PS2 versions of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
I'm glad they made getting the ultima weapon easier in later Kingdom Hearts games
Honestly happy for any reason to rewatch this really good and charming review
Nice decision to use footage of the original game. Really helps view the game for what it was rather than what came later
Kingdom Hearts rules because if Square (or any company for that matter) tried their elevator pitch today, no way would Disney ever agree to making a game that uses their IP like this and if they did, it would be done in the most audience insulting, corporate, key jingling, IP prioritized way imaginable to where it would just feel more like a soulless advertisement than a creative genre defying experience. Its something that only could've came out in 2002.
I'm glad the mechanical depth of Kingdom Hearts has received a closer look lately. When it came out it seemed to me that the common reception was meh on the combat and tossed aside as gimmicky.
14:21 In the Final Mix version you can manually command your party members by pressing triangle as long as there isn't any prompts for the button, but it doesn't allow for a specific command, only the special magic using abilities, like Goofy's spin attack for example. When commenting this I hadn't seen the video all the way through, so I don't know if you compare the final mix version or not.
This is the best review for Kingdom Hearts ever honestly.
beautiful review
quite touching of you to use the original version as coverage/source material in testament to its quality
would be nice to hear your thoughts on the rest of the series...
Just look at his channel?
@willuigi64 hes done 1, 2 and 3 but none of the other games inbetween iirc
Oh baby, don't go
Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight
It's hard to let it go
I praised this review when it first happened and I have to praise it again it was really good.
Charlie, you're easily one of the best creators on this platform, I love your videos. But, damn man, please get an upscaler/video capture device that doesn't use bob de-interlacing. It makes the games looks worse than they actually are.
You've put this on my radar! Thank you :)
I love the first Kingdom Hearts 1. I love it just as much as 2. I found the game very simple, gameplay and story throughout. I think you over analyze this and it's really just a boy losing everything and now he has to save all the world's story. The series definitely gets complicated later but the first one is really simple to follow. Also, just...really? Wonderland have fake ceilings doesn't seem right? It's pretty clear on what they're trying to do. It's world with a child artstlye.
Aye. Charlie finally covering my favorite game series ever
Back when kingdom hearts was nice and simple and clean and not with all the time travel stuff unlike nowadays
@@10tailedbijuu what about 2? Also, you recall the mysterious figure, right? Then there's the Master of Masters.
I miss KH1's charm and sense of adventure the other games just can't match it
_"...Generally approaching the world around him with bitter cynicism masked as maturity."_
and I took that personally!
Did I go back in time or is this a reupload?
Ive played this game since release i never know you could navigate the command menu with the right stick. I have always just switched to dpad quickly during a jump or something. Crazy
Love this game wish more game were light hearted as this nowadays
Finished 1 not too long ago and currently playing KH2 on Critical. A fun time overall. I love these games
KH1-CoM-KH2 is genuinely fucking incredible. Not perfect by any means but they’re quality. Everything else is hit or miss
I'd argue BBS and KH3 are very good, better than CoM IMO. And if we're talking story, CoM is when the story went off the rails honestly. It's just been a spiral down ever since, and personally I find the insanity entertaining so I don't care.
I’d argue KH2 is close to perfect. Gameplay wise anyway.
I'm playing kh2 first time in my life after finishing kh1 and com. Omg the start of this game is MINDBLOWING in its execution. Storytelling and game design GOLD.
@@DATskorge Ah yes, the beginning of "Roxas isn't allowed to be happy ever". Get used to that.
@@northwindkey I thought 3 was very fun gameplay wise but the story was a massive let down.
Oh we’re doing this again. It’s a good critique of the original Kingdom Hearts so I don’t mind. Still wonder why you completely ignored the existence of final mix and the hd remasters especially considering that the hd remasters changed the controls
it's in the video title. this is a review of Kingdom Hearts. not a review of kingdom hearts final mix/hd.
@@thosediamonddreams this, and the fact that unlike KH2FM, KH1FM is pretty much identical to the original.
@@cillbipher2613 exactly. in a review of ninja gaiden 2/3/sigma/RE, etc there are enough gameplay/directorial decisions they're worth bringing up, but kh/final mix what does he want him to say about load times, resolution and small balance tweaks lol
@@cillbipher2613 I don't meant to disagree for the sake of disagreeing, but KH1FM changes a ton of tiny details everywhere (new abilities, replaced contents of most chests, changed order of levelup bonuses, altered equipment stats) but adds only a tiny bit of content. That's why its changes aren't as obvious, it's mostly balancing tweaks. Not all of it was for the better though (they did Oblivion dirty!)
Most of the super bosses are fun, specially ziza but Xemnas and the clocktower ghost can just be absolute bullshit in a very unfun way, the former just in general and the latter if you chose the wrong combination of Take and give up with the 3 weapons in the tutorial (Sword/Rod) and get bad RNG
Yeah. I hear people like Kurt Zisa more than Phantom, and personally it's the complete opposite for me. Kurt Zisa is just a huge pain in the butt every time I fight him, but Phantom is actually pretty fun.
While it didn't bother me much, the initial video had a very funny look to it, rendering only one half of the fields of 480i res.
I previously said I was excited for every vid in this retrospective in the original vid and I still am
Reupload? Still a great review.
Im replaying it. Trying to act like I'm first playing and its such a great game 10/10
This is the only good review of Kingdom Hearts I've seen of read.
If for nothing else, just for the fact that it doesn't pull a "haha silly quirky" by getting 'lost' in the obviously purposefully nonsensical inner workings of the world building, but instead presents the plot in the way that a player actually experiences it, and how it relates to the feeling that the gameplay produces. Bonus for the pretty accurate description of the atmosphere and expectations of someone playing it at the time it released.
I really wish even half of what made this game and its PS2 sequel so influential and iconic made it out in KH3.
I wonder how long it'll take us to get a KH2 or CoM/Re:Com video.
Only kh1 was good, the others feel like bad fanfiction
Gotta review KH2 now.
Mm hmm. And maybe even the others. He might skip right to KH2 though. I wouldn't be surprised.
The definitive review. Neat.
Why have I never seen that secret scene with kairi on the beach????
Appreciate it when 4:3 games are covered in 4:3 like this vid, mainly cuz it looks great on an iPad
Oh no, I have to watch this greatly crafted video again. Woe is me
KH1 such a classic game
Travis Town? Sounds like my kind of place.
I used the Dpad ro go trough the menu and never used the quick menu. Honestly I forget it is there.
*higher quality reupload*
*looks at aspect ratio*
*looks at pixels*
....
Ok I believe you.
Rewatching this on the game's anniversary
How come the reupload?
Yesssss here we gooo
A review so nice, you post it twice
Wait, wat?
Why the reupload? Copyright stuff? Hope not, the original video was awesome
The Church of the Algorithm officially certifies this video in the ones and zeroes of The Recommending Holiness.
Kingdom Hearts is a fever dream I will never understand
Yes. Thank you Mr. GamingBrit
'Not every game needs a surrogate' me laughing as I just started jump force
goddamn im appreciating the ps4 remaster way more after seeing just how much smoother it is to the original lol
32:02 and of course is no longer canon 🙁
Wait? Isn't this a re-upload? Or am I a time traveler?
Welp, I am a mobile viewer but I want to still boost ya vid. So just know I can't wait for when you cover KH2 and give us more based takes
A masterpiece of a review for a masterpiece of a game
As much as I clown on KH I still love it.
I watched this video yesterday and didn’t realize I was watching it again until 7 minutes in long story short it’s a great video
did luxord make this review?
"And, of course, a boss with a shotgun riding a giant chameleon" well, when you put it that way...😂
I played Kingdom Hearts last year on PS4 and I love it. I could've played the game as a kid, but I'm glad I didn't because the game is hard. Either way, I was happy to play and beat the game.
No more heroes 3?
My favourite video game series. It’s guilty of being a bit convoluted and cash grabby at times but it’s been a huge part of my life.
@@amnorela When they put out countless spin-offs on new consoles just to cash in on the market.
I say again, HELL YEAH DUDE
Reupload?
Another reason to rewatch the video
Re-upload?
Yess let's gooo