So people are saying this video is 'outdated' now because of *_Kingdom Hearts 2.8_*. That's hilarious. Here's a summary of all the important things that happen in 2.8. Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers, and what-not. We find out that time does not flow normally in the Realm of Darkness, something that we could have surmised from the 'Blank Points' movie at the ending of BBS. Anyway, Aqua hasn't aged despite the passage of time in the real world. Aqua is sad about being trapped in the Realm of Darkness, then she helps Mickey for a little bit, they get separated, and she's still trapped in the Realm of Darkness, but she's not as sad about it anymore. So basically nothing has changed, and Aqua is right back where she was at the end of BBS, trapped, without friends, and satisfied that she's made the right choice. Mickey is proven to be an incompetent idiot. Back in the present, Riku asks Mickey why he's an incompetent idiot. He explains that he didn't tell Riku or the others about Aqua because he "Wanted to respect Aqua's wishes." Um, dude? What freaking 'wishes'? The last time you saw her, she was picked up by a monster and carried away, screaming. What on God's green earth are you talking about? Then Yen Sid says that they didn't tell Sora and Riku because it would've been really, really hard to go save Aqua, so he didn't want them to do anything reckless. But now, he says, it is time to go save her. Because the script says so. So Riku and Mickey leave to go and rescue Aqua, something we've known they would do since Coded, and could have surmised since BBS. Also, Kairi is going to be trained alongside Lea, something we also could've surmised from DDD. Then Sora comes in too late for all the important exposition. Yen Sid tells him he's Level 1 again, shocking no one and angering everyone. Then Sora leaves to go to the first level of KH3, Olympus Coliseum, something that, again, we already knew he would do. Meanwhile, an unspecified amount of time in the past (or possibly in a simulation of the past inside a magic book, idk, it's not clear as of right now), five willful idiots try to stop a prophecy about the Keyblade War from coming true. They argue a lot about which one of them is a traitor, but fail to actually accomplish anything. Then a probably evil guy hands another probably evil guy a secret box labeled 'Do Not Open Until KH3'. Then the movie ends, and a message pops up that says, "To find out the identity of the traitor and literally any plot, be sure to play the microtransaction laden cell phone game. We know that the story already concluded in the Japanese browser version, and we didn't tell you who the traitor was in that version either... But hey! The cell phone game is an _expanded_ version of that game! So maybe we'll give you plot info this time! If not, all will be revealed in Kingdom Hearts 3!"
Well there are some problems. Ansem doesn't die in the explosion, although that's not major. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus must be saved in order to win the final battle, which is elaborated on in 2.8. We learn that Terranort is having an identity crisis, they are going to save Aqua, and Sora will save Ventus. It was only a ~3hr game, but it was nice setup. Also, the time-traveling is stupid I agree, but DDD was a fun game with some interesting story. I wish they found an alternative to time-travel though...
Frustrated Jacob he forgot to say recoded was stupid and i think its pretty up to dat just the thing about how aqua was there the whole time is just what isnt in there right now and back cover isnt really needed in the synopsis cause a gentle glance of the key blade war is enough of what is needed for the main story
Kingdom Hearts- The one that started it all Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories- The one nobody (no pun intended) played but contained vital parts of the story Kingdom Hearts II- The one that made the franchise so popular Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days- The one that made you cry Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep- The one that answered all of our questions but then proceeds to create 200 new ones Kingdom Hearts Recoded: The one that has absolutely nothing to do with anything Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance: The one that isn't Kingdom Hearts 3
+Celso Soares I do too I never said it was bad just before the release of Kingdom Hearts 2 most of the people who played the first Kingdom Hearts didn't bother playing Chain of Memories leaving them very very confused in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2 while the people who played Chain of Memories weren't as confused
Imo is throw chain of memories in a fire for any other one other than dream drop distance which was don't get me wrong still fun just nowhere near as fun as the others for me
"Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days- The one that made you cry" As far as I'm concerned, it's the one I never finished because of this darn demonwall-like boss in Beast's castle. Also, the one with pointless multiplayer since I have no one to play this with. But I enjoyed it, for the most part. I just wish I could have finished it before getting spoiled (it's not this video, I got spoiled last year... don't remember how).
Best summary of KH I’ve ever seen, because you took the time to not only recap the events but also to (try to)explain the reasons behind them with an healthy dose of synthesis, wits, humor and meta-criticism. Good job! Thank you, it helped my memory immensely.
One thing you forget to mention is that Xehanort believes that too much light and no awareness over the darkness is extremely dangerous as well - for one thing, it's the reason why his plan succeeds. Because Eraqus was so focused on keeping light's superiority over darkness that he distrusted Terra and was willing to kill Ventus (whom he considered like his children) in order to keep darkness out. It's also the reason Sora doesn't realize that he's being corrupted in KH3D: because he is never exposed to darkness beforehand. Think of it like Artorias from Dark Souls, if you would. One of the NPCs mentions that the reason Artorias succumbed to the Abyss is because he didn't feel fear because he was never exposed to the Dark. In fact, the ideal person is someone who has learned to balance darkness with light, like Riku, who struggled with the darkness before taming it by the end of KH2 and throughout KH3D.
Zenith Tempest while yes, that's important, he did say that this was just a straightforward retelling of the plot. That's a very important plot point, but I don't think people missed too much without it in the specific video
"because he is never exposed to darkness beforehand" You what now? Sora was literally a heartless. If that's not exposure then I don't know what is....
I now imagine Aqua finding Eraqus's key blade lying on the floor at the Land of Departure, looking around to see if anyone is there, then taking it and running away while yelling MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE at the top of her lungs.
Can we talk about the fact that Riku and Sora give literally no shits about their families after Destiny Islands was destroyed? We know at least Sora has a mom (heard in KH2) and a dad (mentioned by Riku in Birth By Sleep). So... why is he not at all concerned about finding them? It's just a little concerning.
Eddie Martin okay that literally made no sense whatsoever... there were soldiers in ww2 who always worried about their families, just bc you are saving the universe doesn’t mean you can’t worry about your fam “worried about himself right now” TF does that mean he isn’t worried about himself but about his mom...
Eddie Martin Whatchu mean he only cared about finding Riku and Kairi in KH1 from the jump. Literally no mention of family in the entire first game. He cared more about that than actually saving the universe. He was always extremely one track minded. Kinda like Naruto short of not being a complete idiot.
arguably just as he has remembered some memories as is full self he could remember feelings which is why is enjoys eating sea salt ice cream and things like that
kenneth bautista DDD explaijed that nobodies aren't quite as heartless as we thought and can technically feel emotion (vaguely) as their bodies reach to find new hearts
DDD explained that nobodies slowly replace the hearts over time. No-one is truly without a heart forever, and thus no-one is truly emotionless. Xemnas knew this, but wanted to keep them on a short leash under their assumption they were working to get hearts back. In reality, he was going to turn them into copies of himself.
Kingdom Hearts series summarized by my friend: Ahem Birth by sleep: Terra, Aqua, Ventus are good guys. Xehanort is the bad guy. Xehanort is very old and wants ultimate weapon. Ventus becomes ultimate weapon, dies, then soul fuses with baby Sora. Aqua trapped in alternate dimension. Terras body stolen by Xehanort Orochimaru style. Kingdom Hearts: Riku is given keyblade. Rihu is too evil. Keyblade chills with Sora instead. Riku accidentally destroys world. Sora fixes everything, but loses Riku and Micky Chain of Memories: New bad guys Organization 13 want Sora because they dont have hearts and they want them for some reason. Sora and Riku kill half of them. One member destroyed soras brain. Sora sleeps for like 2 years while she fixes it. Riku decides dakness is kinda cool and learns how to control it. 358/2: Cause Sora became a heartless in KH1, he became a heartless. If you become a heartless, your body reanimates as a Nobody. Like a snake shedding its skin and the skin turning evil and walking away. Soras Nobody is actually Ventus from forever ago, they split now cause mumbo jumbo. Organization thinks hes cute, invite him to the club. He befriends a robot, then kills the robot. He is best friendsies with Axel, who likes him despite not supposedly having emotions. Kingdom Hearts 2: Sora wakes up and looks for Riku and Mickey. He eventually does and kills the last half of Organization 13. Main bad guy officially dead. Everything is fixed for realsies this time. Re: Coded The game sucked, and Sora gets a note saying just cause he knows how to drive the keyblade doesnt mean he actually has his keyblade license yet. Him and Riku have to go get notes saying they are good with keyblades Dream Drop Distance: Sora and Riku go to a new dimension to test themselves. They are helped by new monsters that are made out of dreams. Riku passes and becomes a master. Sora doesnt pass and goes back into the dimension to thank the people that helped him in the test. Somehow select members from Org. 13 are alive again. Axel can use a keyblade now cause why not. Story right now: Aqua wants ventus to live again Sora is in dreamland playing with animals Riku is going to keyblade school, which exists Axel now has feelings and is much less cool Mickey and every other character is just chilling Xehanort still wants the best weapon
I watched this video when I was 11 and completely understood that entire plot. I've been fan of this amazing series since I was 4 ever since my two older brothers got me into it :>
He should have mentioned that Aqua sacrificed herself for Terra and was sent to the realm of darkness. All he said was "oh Aqua is in another realm now" which is probably pretty confusing for people who are learning the story for the first time.
Very interesting video. I found it very enjoyable, especially the bits of comedy you put into it. XD I really hate to be that guy, but I want to explain something. Xehanort actually did not gain a humanoid Heartless. His heartless became what we know as the robed figure (the guy in the brown cloak that we see in Destiny Islands). He later possesses Riku's body and because of this possession, Billy Zane manipulated the body to look like Xehanort in his thirties (maybe forties but you get the idea). While Billy Zane possessed Riku's body, Riku's heart was lost into the Realm of Darkness until the end of KH1. Also, something I want to mention is that Sora from when he reunited with Kairi till he reunited with Roxas, Sora has technically been a Heartless still. He was just given human form thanks to the powerful light of Kairi's heart, due to her being a princess of heart. Also (XD) the only real Kingdom Hearts so far was the on in KH1. The one in KH2, as you said, was a gathering of people's hearts, while the one in BBS was a gathering of hearts of worlds. (Don't ask how Xehanort got them there cause I have no clue either). BTW, the door at the end of KH1 wasn't actually Kingdom Hearts itself. It was a door that led to a specific place within the Realm of Darkness where Kingdom Hearts was located. It's pretty clear why Roxas, Axel and Namine have feelings. Namine and Axel most likely grew their own hearts as stated in DDD that Nobodies can grow hearts. As for Roxas, Ventus' heart did not leave Sora's body as it still needed healing. So it stayed within Sora's body, which ends up being Roxas. Xion was able to get Sora's most precious memories (those of Kairi) through Roxas as she was spending time with him. Let me explain why a person is reborn after the destruction of the Heartless and the Nobody. When a Heartless is destroyed, the heart is released. When a nobody is destroyed, the body fades away. Picture the body as if it was water. Let's say the body is ice and when the Nobody is defeated, the ice melts into water. The water is still there just in different form.
I actually really enjoyed playing Dream Drop Distance, but I have to agree that it did add some CRAZY and (possibly) even unnecessary mechanics to the story. What I mean by that is that the time-travel aspect could've been left out of the plot completely in hindsight, but I guess we will have to wait and see in KHIII if it is actually necessary to the story as a whole. It will hopefully develop (instead of convolute) the story further and maybe even clear up some confusing plot points already made.
Braden Welke The reason it is needed is because the X blade that Xehanort forged in BBS was unstable due to the means of its creation the only way to make a stable X blade is to have 13 seekers of darkness and 7 guardians of Light to clash to reforge the X blade. The reason for this is that when the X blade was destroyed in the first Keyblade War it shattered into 13 pieces of darkness and 7 of light
Gaming Legend Because Xehanort needed 13 hearts of pure darkness like himself he tried to do this once with the original Organization 13 so he got a bunch of different versions of himself together using time travel to form the true Organization 13
JEDIandMUSHplayMC Again why time-travel? I know he needs 13 vessels for his plan but he couldn't be bothered to just look for beings with darkness in them? I guess it would be just similar to the original Org XIII about recruiting members but I guess the only he can count on is Xehanorts. Am ok with the time travel stuff it's other people like Braden Welke who might get turn off with that kind of thing.
Braden Welke So the present day me can try to go along and keep up with Roxas' ass kicked and being put into a virtual word by Riku or unversed coming from Vanitas, which basically seems just like pseudo heartless. but Vanitas being a part of Ventus who mixes with the heart of Sora therefore creating a Sora looking Vanitas and also creating a Ventus looking Roxas who comes from Sora who's heart took in Ventus who was fragmented creating Vanitas !? This is sounding whack, and not in an Inception dream within a dream within a dream cool daydream. And now Lea/Axel can use a keyblade? Damn soon everyone's gonna be wielding one; preteen me would've gone along with this, but now it's starting to feel like Nomura's trying to dig as deep as he can into his ass and pull out whatever else he can put into the story.
There are some details you left out that you could have explained like how terra gave riku the ability to wield a keyblade, how riku was the intended wielder and riku being a keyblade master. There is also some story on the organisation that you haven't included like how the members believed that they could become whole when kingdom hearts was formed, but they were just being deceived by their leader because xemnas wanted to create the x-blade. Nobodies also do have feelings to some extent, that was outlined in the series. In addition to this there are other story points that could have been covered like kairi's back story i.e. where she originally lived, why she moved to destiny islands. Then of course there is some story on aqua, terra and ventus like what happened to them after the keyblade war. Overall, this is a good summary, there are just some key story points that could have been discussed in the video.
dark132 You weren't really the target audience as you know the entirety of the series. As for me, someone who only played Kh1, CoM, and Kh2, I got a whole lot of information that proved to be very helpful. Also that extra information that you brought up would've probably ruined the under 20 minutes goal for the video. Thx for the extra info though.
MrSomebody54 I know the video is meant to be brief but it should also cover all important details of the story. Not much point of this video otherwise.
dark132 There is also the whole entirety of that weird japanese kh game that adds the five major keyblade wielders that is difficult to explain as well as the fact that the Chi-Blade (X blade) broke into 13 pieces of darkness and 7 of light. Hence why Xehanort a) is obsessed with 13 people of membership and b) doesn't outright kill the protagonist because he feels he can use them to reforge the blade in KH3.
I'm not sure if it was confirmed, but strong sources say that Sora wasn't meant to be a keyblade wielder to begin with, Riku was chosen by the keyblade, but Sora, with his power of light and strong will, happens to stumble upon it, and the keyblade changed its mind. I recommend looking this up though, it's unconfirmed on my part
This was an excellent video! You've got a great talent for condensing important info in a clear, humorous, and entertaining way. Subbing and adding this vid to favorites....mostly so I can come back and "re-study" this crazy, over-complicated story again when KH3 finally comes out!! :)
Thank you so much for explaining the plot of the kingdom Hearts series. It's honestly baffled me on the exact chronological order of the story! You saved me tons of hours of research and watching videos to understand the storyline. Keep on the great work
Aimee Hodson literally at this point of my life i decided my gamertag/username for any thing in life would be AxelShifter aha RIP AXEL. I was always shifter before this event
Axel is a good caracter he just wanted to get his best friend back! nothing bad is within him! when he finds out that sora is roxas! if u put it like that.... he choose to die by saving Sora/roxas... He is a wery important caracter they shall make a game about him as well!
Thank you for 3 things; Clearing up the story for a old-school fan who lost the plot around KH2. Reminding me at the end of why I love KH, not the complexity of the story but it's "heart" so to speak. Third as a result of the two former points, you've made me hyped for the new games as opposed to "Oh no I'll be so lost story-wise I won't feel connected". Also bravo on the succinct explanation of such (even way more than I thought) a complex story. It's quite funny how another video spent a good 50+ minutes explaining this, although in fairness he took it in normal speed maybe even slower for people to be able to digest as well as understand easier. I would watch that one as well to get it even more clear but overall I really felt I got the main idea now. I don't think there's a need to go nit-picking exploring every detail, plot-point, etc. As you more or less said, who really gets why it's just the way they did it. While it is clearer what still makes it a bit dizzying is the fact that I see now the game is based on layers of Heartless>Nobody>real selves, and so it goes in succession, which pretty much defines the entire story. Am I right on that one?
I wouldn't say that the Heartless/Nobody/Real Self relationship defines the entire story, per say. In fact, as of one of the larger twists of DDD, you can argue that Nobodies as an entity were effectively rendered irrelevant. I didn't talk about it in the video, partly because it's absolutely infuriating, and partly because I doubt there will even BE any Nobodies in KH3, so knowing everything about them probably won't even be important. Basically, since there aren't even any Nobodies in the story anymore, the twist was only brought up to show that Xehanort was even more evil than we already thought, and mwuhahahahaha, and so on and so forth.
MY girlfriend loves KH. I never played it. Ever. So in order to get on the hype train and be prepared for watching her do a KH3 playthrough I watched her replay the first 2 games. No idea what was happening. Was totally lost. She did her best to explain it to me but even she would devolve into "Yea its complicated." This video made EVERYTHING clear, and it also explained why she was so angry about "time travel" even tho i saw no time travel. I was with you...until I saw the time travel part at the end. Thats where my head went from throbbing to spinning. Good god lmao. Thank you for the video tho
*spoiler alert for Star Wars: The Last Jedi* Interesting that TLJ isn't the first time a Mark Hamill character considers preemptively killing off his apprentice!
I’ve been watching these damn things all day trying to brush up before release day tomorrow, and I think this is the best one. Not the most in-depth, but in a good way. Makes it way easier to understand and follow. Nice job!
As much of a prejudiced KH fan that i am, i never stopped laughing throughout the entire length of this video, you brought up some unspoken questions like " he has....feelings? idk it's unclear :( " xDDD rofl gets me every damn time lol. And despite the comedy and dissing, this was the best summary of Kingdom Hearts franchise i've ever seen ^^
Matt Gray It's not really an unspoken question if Roxas and co have feelings. It's just one of the many things left up to the Fans' imagination. It's explained in KH3D, that even if someone loses his heart, it can come back. It's kinda like this Warm Bodies Movie thing. There was a zombie whose heart started beating again because he lied to his self about having feelings, right? It's the same in KH.
+VanitasTheBest sorta the other way really, its denying that they CAN have feelings the prevents them from recovering and forming a heart, same idea though, you think you have feelings? YOU HAVE FEELINGS!
X Scythe Roxas IS Sora's Nobody. Everyone in-universe acknowledges this. Even Xemnas. Roxas looks like Ven because Ven's hearts was inside Sora. It took characteristics of Ven because Sora got back his body when Kairi hug him. 358/2days- I don't remember they weren't supposed to look like Sora. The whole point of the Replica program was to copy Sora's Keyblade powers. The chess pieces representing who will join who is just speculation at the moment. Org.XIII comprising of Heartless is BS except for Ansem SoD since Xehanort explicitly state the "his 12 selves would welcome me on this day" in DDD. And YX say his been given a task of "visiting splintered version of myself in many times." Vanitas is NOT a heartless. He is the embodiment of Ven's darkness.
For anyone who legitimately wants to understand the story without playing all the previous titles before Kingdom Hearts 3, I highly recommend watching GameTrailers' timeline instead. This was a valiant effort in a way, but too often were things gotten wrong, theories were presented as facts, or opinions were made far too present. Like with Dream Drop Distance, you can hate the game's story (although I personally loved it) but that is no reason to gloss over it; especially when that's the game that's really going to impact KH3 the most and the main reason so many more people are coming to these sort of videos. A lot of people don't want to get a 3DS, but relying on this extremely brief summary of the game in favor of hearing someone complain about it is going to cost you in the third installment. I know countless things also had to be left out to make the 20 minute mark, and although I think more could have been included if some jokes were scrapped, which I wish took precedent, I really think trying to make sense of all these games' intricate stories in just 20 minutes isn't going to do it much justice anyway. I know some want a quick explanation, but it's just not possible. With all of the misinformation and plot points left out here you will be more confused then you should be in KH3. So if you really do care about making it a more enjoyable experience, don't rush and watch a longer, more comprehensive video. That or play the games for yourself. Either will be worth your time.
I was like 7 and thought I knew it all about kingdom hearts...fast forward 10 years and I get this weird nostalgic feeling (watching my brother in law play it) by just hearing the background music and seeing the animations and what not. Thanks for the video
A video about the game shouldn't tell you more about the Games story if you played it. If that did happen you just legit have a hard time paying attention
So after replaying kh 1.5/2.5/2.8 this month, I was looking for a series story recap to show my friend who couldn't play all those games before kh3. THIS VIDEO (despite being made before 2.8's release) = the BEST kh series story recap vid I've found on youtube (and like a million times less confusing to follow than that OTHER "2million views" kh series story recap vid on youtube) probably because it's told like you actually know what you're talking about and played all the games like you're explaining to a friend, while the other one was like some guy who didn't play all the games and was just reciting a list of historical facts chronologically (well this happened, and this happened, then this happened etc.) Plus THIS video's side jokes about how stuff kinda doesnt make sense or is unclear at the exact perfect moment = hilarious/true thanks!
I tried to read the plot on Wikipedia to try to understand it, and I kid you not I threw my head away because it just hurt so much trying to understand it, and this before I reached the table of contents.
I am a big fan of all the games, and really loved this recap. Very well done, great summary and while there are plenty of plot holes, those of us that are fans will still play this game because of the reasons you mentioned! Thank you!
Lovely, now I understand the story just a bit better. Would probably help to play all the games and not just two of them, but that requires more consoles. :P
Guard Passer true the frist game s story is self contained makes sense by it's own rules and ends fairly clearly. So they've kept adding to it over and over.
Except that wasn't the case and that the entire series was planned by the time the second game came out. Even a secret ending within the first game shows the battle with riku and roxas at the dark city skyscraper.
unless you know your gonna have funding for 7 sequels down the line that's kind how most series are. Always have to write it like its going to be the end.
Adorabunny nah dude, I forced myself to play through it purely for story. I would definitely agree that the game play and battle mechanics were interesting, but with the way it was setup you would have to change your deck drastically for each boss on proud mode to have 0s for counters and whatnot. it was very taxing.
Amazing video! Thank you so much you did an incredible job and I understood pretty much everything your went over! I’ve tried watching other videos explaining the story of kingdom hearts over and over and over again and I cannot understand a single freaking point of what they explain or make. Your video on the other hand, was excellent and now I i believe I’m ready for kingdom hearts three!
Santeh Colon D The setting and the tone, I guess. Well, actually, in the first game, all of the Disney worlds ARE important to the plot, both in that the represent the objective (sealing the Keyholes to protect the worlds from destruction) and also in the various lessons they teach Sora. Since I was focusing on the PLOT in this video, I didn't get to talk about what the games are actually about, or the character arcs. The first game is mostly about Sora slowly becoming a hero, and a big part of that is how he expands his horizons beyond the world he used to know and his small circle of friends, until he's eventually traveled to all sorts of different places and made friends with lots of different people. So they are sort of important to the story in that one. They're kinda pointless in KH2, though, and some of the others. But of course, that's assuming you even care about the plot of the Kingdom Hearts games. Most people just play these to live out their favorite Disney stories.
Frustrated Jacob I really love the plot, thank you for the clarification. My first Kingdom Hearts game was actually KH2, which I love, but that's where most of my questions about the presence of Disney came from. I've only played that one, Birth By Sleep, and the one on the GBA... Because of KH2, I always wondered why they couldn't replace Disney with places from Square, only keeping Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Anyway, thanks.
I've understood everything since my first introduction to the series through the GameTrailer's KH Timeline video. I like how this vid is short and funny at the same time.
One of the few videos that take a stab at explaining everything that I could get behind, definitely, I think what made this video great is the fact the he didn't try to go so in depth with the purposely complicated bits and stayed on point with the main, underlying story.
THANK YOU FOR THIS VID. I'm trying to get back to this series after a loong time. From all the summary vids I watched, this one really hit the crucial parts and is easier to understand.
Does anyone else miss the days when Kingdom Hearts was just about a little boy going on a fun, linear adventure, and kicking the bad guys butt at the end? What the hell happened?
i feel like it was something they tried and a lot of people didnt like it. it was very difficult to use. i am used to it now however the gameplay is still very infuriating
Both Kh Recoded and Dream Drop Distance was good... Recoded was actually the game that got me in the series for the DS which was followed By 368/2 and DDD.... then I went back n played the rest
The story pacing in 3d was amazing! Gameplay could of been better in terms of having better fancy combos like in 2, but i think because 3d was on a 3ds they couldnt use a gaming engin to make the combat more like kh2 (Where Sora would be doing cool horizontal slashes and magnet spirals as part of normal attacks). I agree with it being one of the best in the series!
Dream Drop Distance is not bad. The story is convoluted but the gameplay is amazing, the flow motion mechanics and Dream Eater partners are the best thing about it.
Frustrated Jacob I would like to see you do explanations of the more complex video game plots (since you already managed to explain arguably one of the most complex plots in video game history ever so well) I would really like to see you do something like Metal Gear Solid (this would be especially cool because MGS:V is coming soon) or maybe Resident evil, Castlevania, Deus ex, xenosaga like stuff like that... Even an explanation of FF:VII (then I mean Advent children, the original game and also Crisis Core)
Frustrated Jacob hmmm how about....Metal Gear ? I mean from the first NES game to MGS 4 that should cover a lot of story that a lot of people don't really get.
I've gotta know why you hate 3D. For the past 4 years all I've heard is it's the best one since BbS. Ya the story is convoluted, but that doesn't make it a terrible game.
bad plot=bad game. There is no amount of positivity that can redeem a god awful story. Not when the primary pull of the KH games, at least originally, WAS the story. KH1 and 2 are solid, bbs is decent and explains backstory without overly complicating things, but i would have to agree with jacob that coded and dds are both unnecessary and stupid. They don't mesh well with the other games. They are like the creepy uncle that shows up and the family reunion, and you don't want to talk to him but your mom makes you because "he's family".
JakandCrash Perhaps i should say "not a game i find fun" rather than objectively "bad". For me personally, i cannot enjoy a game if the story is garbage unless it is something where the story isn't supposed to matter, like a racing or fighting game, or something like dark souls where the grindy-ness of it is the whole point.
Between 2 and Dream Drop Distance. The only reason I didn't include it in that little lineup at the beginning is because it looked really small and awkward. By removing one game I found the lineup looked a lot better, so I decided to get rid of Coded because it's the closest thing to a filler episode the series has.
Not really. It's got some fun gameplay but in terms of story relevance, you could skim the story summary on the Kingdom Hearts wiki and you'd probably get everything of importance. All it really did was set up some very basic stuff for the future games. Nothing actually happened in it, the only important things were a few characters saying, "We're going to do X for nebulous, unexplained reasons!" So when they show up in KH3 or whatever to do those things, you won't have actually missed anything. You may go, "Huh? What? They want what now?" But you'd be saying that even if you knew what happened in Coded. I still am. Seriously, Maleficent wants to steal a hard drive. She went from trying to conquer the worlds in KH1 to trying to steal a hard drive. That's her evil mission now. Then they realized how lame that was, so in the cutscene version of Coded that was on PS3, they added an extra scene where she explains that she also wants a magic book that can see the future. Which still feels like a step down from conquering the universe, but in all fairness, it IS a step up from stealing a hard drive.
Wow dude, I'm impressed how popular this video suddenly became. when I first saw it, it had 20k views. I guess the released of KH on the PS4 really spiked this video up since the plot is IS very confusing.
I just wish I'd done a better job on it, considering how popular it's gotten. The audio editing on this isn't exactly graceful. But then again, I expected this to get like 15k views tops and then fade into obscurity. Oops.
This is a wonderful question. I also wonder the answer. So Kingdom Hearts is still kind of an abstract concept that hasn't been fully elaborated upon. I swear that this isn't just me as a nitpicking fan saying that. Tetsuya Nomura, the series director, stated in an interview that the "true nature" of Kingdom Hearts will be revealed in KH3. So it's actually been intentionally vague. Across seven games. For 15 years. But I digress. Here's what we know, from a purely factual standpoint. Billy Zane shouts about how darkness is the true essence of everything, and how everything comes from darkness, and thus Kingdom Hearts must be full of darkness. Then he shouts at a big silver door and asks Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of darkness, because a 14 year old boy and his anthropomorphic pals just kicked his butt, and he wants that supreme dark power so he can recover. The door starts to open, and darkness oozes out. I get the feeling that was just a dramatic effect meant to add tension to the scene, or something, and not a real lore consideration. But whatever. Darkness starts coming out, and Billy Zane looks evil, then Sora says something optimistic about how Kingdom Hearts is light, and then light shoots out of the door in a big blast. Then Billy Zane goes, "Light?!? But... why?!?" Then Billy Zane dies. The big blast of light goes away, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy run over to the door. On the other side of the door they see The Realm of Darkness. There are lots of bad Heartless here, and though the limited scope of the PS2's processing power doesn't convey it well, the implication seems to be that there's a horrible eldritch army on the other side and it's about to flood over into our world. So the heroes try to close the door. They have trouble closing the door until Riku suddenly shows up and starts pulling on the door from the other side. Mickey Mouse also shows up and pulls out a Keyblade. He tells Sora that they have to lock the door, then says something vague and poetic that I think was meant to be a reassurance, like, "Don't worry, Riku and I will find a way out of the Realm of Darkness somehow." Then they lock the door, leaving Riku and Mickey trapped on the other side. So. What happened to the light that exploded out and killed Billy Zane? Did it get really tired after that one attack, and it had to take a nap? Maybe the sudden release was just really extreme, and that was what killed Billy Zane, and then after that it dissipated a bit, so it was still there, but less concentrated. We could talk for hours about what might have happened, but it would all be useless, because at the end of the day we don't really know what happened. The best I can figure is that the door ITSELF was Kingdom Hearts, or that Kingdom Hearts is inside the Realm of Darkness, and after all the light exploded out, it dissipated a bit, and a bunch of Heartless that were hanging out just outside Kingdom Hearts saw the big door to the Realm of Light and went, "Oh wow, that looks like a nice place to pillage and plunder for a while." In all honesty, it seems to me like the developers said, "Okay, we want a scene where Billy Zane gets killed by the light from Kingdom Hearts, and then Sora sees a bunch of monsters coming and has to stop them. Then Mickey and Riku get trapped, and we have our potential sequel hook." Then they threw those two scenes together at the very end of the game without giving too much intensive consideration to the lore, because hey, it wasn't that important in the first game. Of course, now that we're seven games in, it's becoming increasingly apparent that there are no rules in this universe, and Kingdom Hearts is a MacGuffin for villains to chase and the heroes to defend that doesn't need to be properly defined. In defense of the ending of KH1, I do think that it works really well from the standpoint of KH1's isolated story. The whole plot with Ansem is that he was a wise king who was beloved by his people, but was secretly a power-hungry megalomaniac who started kidnapping and experimenting on his own people by the hundreds. Eventually he sacrificed his world, his people, and even his human form, all for the sake of pursuing that great power, darkness. Then, in the very end, his plan succeeds, and he destroys countless worlds, has great power, and gets to Kingdom Hearts... only to discover that the thesis he'd based his entire quest on, that darkness is the source of all power, was wrong. In actuality, it's light, and he's killed both physically AND mentally by the discovery. He was killed by the light of his own hubris, one might say. Then they rolled all that back and said, "Nah, he wasn't REALLY a king, he was just some guy pretending to be a king named Xehanort, and Xehanort was a bad apple from the start, and this whole 'Billy Zane' thing was really just an offshoot of his main plan that he was never really all that committed to." It's kind of remarkable how almost every consecutive release in this series has undercut the previous games in some way.
Wasn't expecting a response, more the less such a long detailed one. Thank you. I figure Kingdom Hearts is probably a combination of both light and dark. I mean, aren't Hearts both light and dark, or are they just light? Don't most people who die, and aren't transformed into heartless have their Hearts go to Kingdom Hearts? And if a Heartless is made, it has to be defeated before the Heart is released to Kingdom Hearts. So you'd think it must need the darkness with it. Plus all the talk about keyblade wielders needing an equal amount of both dark and light in balance, would have me assume Kingdom Hearts is likely no different with it be an amalgamation of both. Perhaps Billy Zane was killed by a burst of light that came out first, whilst darkness lingers. Or does a person's darkness go to the Realm of Darkness? What even is the Realm of Darkness, why is it a thing, and is it directly linked to Kingdom Hearts? -__- I love these games, but boy lordy is our relationship complicated. XD
Kingdom Hearts actually IS light. Not darkness at all. You're correct to assume that there is a connection between Kingdom Hearts and the Realm of Darkness. One of the first lines in the game says "The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes." Since Kingdom Hearts is made entirely of light it casts a gigantic shadow. The Realm of Darkness is literally the shadow of Kingdom Hearts. Hope that clears this thing up. That should also explain why Kingdom Hearts resided within the Realm of Darkness. Also, nobodies can have feelings. Just thought I should point that out since the creator of the video doesn't seem to realize this.
Thank you, appelsinu! I always wondered about the dichotomy of KH being light and dark at the same time, and your shadow explanation makes sense. I think the creator did know that nobodies could develop feelings and was hinting at the suspiciousness, but never really elaborated on this when explaining the 3D storyline.
I'm gonna call this Ansem.. Ansem And i'm going to call this Ansem.. Billy Zane. No lie, I laughed my ass off during that part. Here, have a sub! LMAO.
Yup, this series is a prime example of what an overinflation of the plot can cause. With a LOT of suspension of disbelieve, you can kinda connect the dots here and there but yeah, its convoluted at best. On the other hand, this plot escalation is also its strongest asset. From a writers perspective, you can do pretty much everything you want with it. You can inject games wherever you want in the timeline, expand it with yet another prequel or even claim that major parts of it have all been "false data". As convoluted as it is, its also a pretty robust story overall, probably because its rules of reality, space and time are so vague and alien.
Y'know I'm honestly surprised that so many people are so confused about this story, and while I'll definitely admit it is rather convoluted I still understand it perfectly.
+MisterX867 If you played it from the beginning, yes it's fairly easy to understand. But if you're recently getting into Kingdom Hearts or even skip a KH game (like how numerous people did with Chain of Memories), you are insanely lost because this series expect you to have played every single game.
+HeroMystic yep, i hardly have played any of the handheld games, other than BBS and one of the handheld GBA games, so i'm completely lost as to most of the plot. xD i always thought the handheld games were just spinoffs that weren't relevant to the plot so i didn't bother buying them, and i'm just beginning to learn that this isn't the case.... which to me is a shame, because i've tried to play some of them and didn't like the change in gameplay that a lot of them offered, and i just can't bring myself to play games that i don't find fun gameplay-wise even if i enjoy the story that the games hold (i still can't bring myself to finish the GBA game because of this; i may end up going back to it and using cheats though, just to blow through the gameplay so i can see the plot unfold).
+Jasmine Reeve Most people don't have to. The KH series is pretty easy to understand and does a good job of catching the player up on anything important enough to be relevant to the game one is playing. There is a lot of subtly and complexity to the series if one looks into it far enough but it's actually pretty easy to understand the plot, those who can't understand the plot of Kingdom Hearts are the types who need plots spoonfed to them in the most blatant manner possible to be able to get it.
So Xenohart possessed Terra who later separated in to a Heartless who possessed Riku and a Nobody who created Organization XIII. They both get defeated and Xenohart returns as his full self and Terra is somewhere in space or something. . . . . . . . WAT?
Me too. I like how they made bringing sleeping hearts back a story device. Xeanort is boned once Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Terra, Ventus, Aqua, (and Lea?) team up!
Not really, if you actually listen, a Nobody has the potential to grow a heart. They are still not truly a real human as their darkness is technically missing and their light is gone, but it is not in nature to have an empty shell. Xenort twisted his followers and prevented them from growing hearts, and only a few Nobody were able to grow hearts because of this. Axel is shown to have a heart when he "gives it his all" for fighting with Sora. Its later explained that Xeanort was "cultivating" the Nobodies to be vessels for himself like Terra.
+AlphaWolvesGamer if I'm not wrong it's implied that Axel was able to grow a heart because of the influence of Sora(by his nobody Roxas, of course), that gave it a help for it to start growing.
Milenart Meire Actually, if you've played or seen the Kingdom Hearts 3D story, it was implied that Axel was able to grow a heart because of the influence of Sora BECAUSE the Nobody's Hearts were being suppressed by Xehanort to use their empty shells as vestiles. It was revealed in Kingdom Hearts 3D that actually can cultivate new hearts within their bodies and develop emotions on their own. However, Xehanort was actively suppressing this and the fact from the other Nobodies. The only reason Xion, Roxas, and Namine weren't affected by this was because they were "special" nobody. The only reason Axel was not affected by this was because of the influence of Sora and his Nobody because they were "special" Nobodies. Does this make more sense now? 1) Hinted that Roxes/Sora had a key in making Axel's Heart 2) Find out that Nobodies can Naturally make hearts. 3) Find out that Xehanort was suppressing this ability so they would become perfect empty vessels for Xehanort. 4) Find out the reason why Xion, Namine, and and Roxas were unaffected was because they were not "Normal" Nobodies. 5) Find out the reason why Axel was able to surpass this supression was BECAUSE he was so close to Roxas, Xion, and Sora. 6) Find out that Roxes/Sora/Xion DID have an influence over Axel creating his own heart. Got in memorized?
AlphaWolvesGamer I...didn't understood your point in that reply to me, since it was exactly what I meant in my comment o-o I was just complementing your comment saying that Axel was able to grow a heart because of Sora's influence. I knew all of this already o-o But thank you anyway for taking the time to explain ^^'
I've literally played all the games in the series, even chain of memories(hate it though), but the the story still hurts my brain when I think about it lol
So people are saying this video is 'outdated' now because of *_Kingdom Hearts 2.8_*. That's hilarious. Here's a summary of all the important things that happen in 2.8. Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers, and what-not.
We find out that time does not flow normally in the Realm of Darkness, something that we could have surmised from the 'Blank Points' movie at the ending of BBS. Anyway, Aqua hasn't aged despite the passage of time in the real world. Aqua is sad about being trapped in the Realm of Darkness, then she helps Mickey for a little bit, they get separated, and she's still trapped in the Realm of Darkness, but she's not as sad about it anymore. So basically nothing has changed, and Aqua is right back where she was at the end of BBS, trapped, without friends, and satisfied that she's made the right choice. Mickey is proven to be an incompetent idiot.
Back in the present, Riku asks Mickey why he's an incompetent idiot. He explains that he didn't tell Riku or the others about Aqua because he "Wanted to respect Aqua's wishes." Um, dude? What freaking 'wishes'? The last time you saw her, she was picked up by a monster and carried away, screaming. What on God's green earth are you talking about?
Then Yen Sid says that they didn't tell Sora and Riku because it would've been really, really hard to go save Aqua, so he didn't want them to do anything reckless. But now, he says, it is time to go save her. Because the script says so. So Riku and Mickey leave to go and rescue Aqua, something we've known they would do since Coded, and could have surmised since BBS. Also, Kairi is going to be trained alongside Lea, something we also could've surmised from DDD.
Then Sora comes in too late for all the important exposition. Yen Sid tells him he's Level 1 again, shocking no one and angering everyone. Then Sora leaves to go to the first level of KH3, Olympus Coliseum, something that, again, we already knew he would do.
Meanwhile, an unspecified amount of time in the past (or possibly in a simulation of the past inside a magic book, idk, it's not clear as of right now), five willful idiots try to stop a prophecy about the Keyblade War from coming true. They argue a lot about which one of them is a traitor, but fail to actually accomplish anything. Then a probably evil guy hands another probably evil guy a secret box labeled 'Do Not Open Until KH3'.
Then the movie ends, and a message pops up that says, "To find out the identity of the traitor and literally any plot, be sure to play the microtransaction laden cell phone game. We know that the story already concluded in the Japanese browser version, and we didn't tell you who the traitor was in that version either... But hey! The cell phone game is an _expanded_ version of that game! So maybe we'll give you plot info this time! If not, all will be revealed in Kingdom Hearts 3!"
Well, thanks for the update.
No problem. Not much to update.
Well there are some problems. Ansem doesn't die in the explosion, although that's not major. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus must be saved in order to win the final battle, which is elaborated on in 2.8. We learn that Terranort is having an identity crisis, they are going to save Aqua, and Sora will save Ventus. It was only a ~3hr game, but it was nice setup. Also, the time-traveling is stupid I agree, but DDD was a fun game with some interesting story. I wish they found an alternative to time-travel though...
you were right about the kingdom hearts thing
Frustrated Jacob he forgot to say recoded was stupid and i think its pretty up to dat just the thing about how aqua was there the whole time is just what isnt in there right now and back cover isnt really needed in the synopsis cause a gentle glance of the key blade war is enough of what is needed for the main story
The Entire Story of Kingdom Hearts in Under 2 seconds:
Its unclear.
ginko 😂😂
Uhhhh. It’s somewhat clear.. I just really don’t know what Kingdom Hearts is..
Darkness bad, love is light, light is good. There you go, you're welcome.
More like in 2 words
Okay, I believe you.
Kingdom Hearts- The one that started it all
Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories- The one nobody (no pun intended) played but contained vital parts of the story
Kingdom Hearts II- The one that made the franchise so popular
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days- The one that made you cry
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep- The one that answered all of our questions but then proceeds to create 200 new ones
Kingdom Hearts Recoded: The one that has absolutely nothing to do with anything
Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance: The one that isn't Kingdom Hearts 3
haha yes
Are you mad? I loved Chain of Memories
+Celso Soares I do too I never said it was bad just before the release of Kingdom Hearts 2 most of the people who played the first Kingdom Hearts didn't bother playing Chain of Memories leaving them very very confused in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2 while the people who played Chain of Memories weren't as confused
Imo is throw chain of memories in a fire for any other one other than dream drop distance which was don't get me wrong still fun just nowhere near as fun as the others for me
"Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days- The one that made you cry"
As far as I'm concerned, it's the one I never finished because of this darn demonwall-like boss in Beast's castle. Also, the one with pointless multiplayer since I have no one to play this with. But I enjoyed it, for the most part. I just wish I could have finished it before getting spoiled (it's not this video, I got spoiled last year... don't remember how).
Xehanort be like "the only person I want on my team is me"
Ivan Navarro apparently there IS just I in team
Should named him Kanye instead
mjmh92 That means I is the team!
Ivan Navarro Xehanort be like there's thirteen i's in teiiiiiiiiiiiiami
lol
The fact that calling him Billy Zane cleared up literally all confusion, is incredible.
when a gurl ask me what i think about her... imma qoute this "I have Feelings Maybe, Its unClear".
Lol yes!
Jango Nauta who would like a nobody like me
Jango Nauta 😂😂😂
Jajajaja
Jango Nauta 😂😂😂😂
pretty simple story, just gotta rewatch it for the tenth time
Mohammed H lol
LOL
I wanna rewtch the whole cinematic
but Sora's Doll face and unsuitable voice irks me.
TL;DR
yeah pretty much
Best summary of KH I’ve ever seen, because you took the time to not only recap the events but also to (try to)explain the reasons behind them with an healthy dose of synthesis, wits, humor and meta-criticism. Good job! Thank you, it helped my memory immensely.
YOU'RE XEHANORT!
I'M XEHANORT!
WE ALL ARE XEHANORT!
Enclinker ARE THERE ANY OTHER XEHANORTS I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
Miauw
Lol spongebob
X-blade!
In the world of Kingdom Hearts, you're not important unless your a Xehanort or a Sora
So...basically, clown feet and lots of amnesia everywhere?
Don't forget 'light against darkness' mambo-jambo. Its a staple in every Square-Enix storyline
Don't forget spiky hair, zippers, light and dark, and complicated plot
Carlo Barbosa don't forget the light and darkness mumbo-jumbo blah! and the Keyblade blah! AndSora got really old part and is hot part!
Carlo Barbosa yes.
Don't forget Disney for some reason.
One thing you forget to mention is that Xehanort believes that too much light and no awareness over the darkness is extremely dangerous as well - for one thing, it's the reason why his plan succeeds. Because Eraqus was so focused on keeping light's superiority over darkness that he distrusted Terra and was willing to kill Ventus (whom he considered like his children) in order to keep darkness out. It's also the reason Sora doesn't realize that he's being corrupted in KH3D: because he is never exposed to darkness beforehand.
Think of it like Artorias from Dark Souls, if you would. One of the NPCs mentions that the reason Artorias succumbed to the Abyss is because he didn't feel fear because he was never exposed to the Dark.
In fact, the ideal person is someone who has learned to balance darkness with light, like Riku, who struggled with the darkness before taming it by the end of KH2 and throughout KH3D.
That's a great observation and one I totally agree with.
Zenith Tempest while yes, that's important, he did say that this was just a straightforward retelling of the plot. That's a very important plot point, but I don't think people missed too much without it in the specific video
"because he is never exposed to darkness beforehand" You what now? Sora was literally a heartless. If that's not exposure then I don't know what is....
Anti-Form beckons
he was a heartless because he gave his heart away to save kairi it had nothing to do with him being exposed to the darkness
I now imagine Aqua finding Eraqus's key blade lying on the floor at the Land of Departure, looking around to see if anyone is there, then taking it and running away while yelling MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE at the top of her lungs.
ShinobiXMC Sage My PRECIOUS!!!! XD
Can we talk about the fact that Riku and Sora give literally no shits about their families after Destiny Islands was destroyed? We know at least Sora has a mom (heard in KH2) and a dad (mentioned by Riku in Birth By Sleep). So... why is he not at all concerned about finding them?
It's just a little concerning.
Right????
Kaiden Daland EXACTLY what i was thinking like why you ain’t worried about your fam...
Eddie Martin okay that literally made no sense whatsoever... there were soldiers in ww2 who always worried about their families, just bc you are saving the universe doesn’t mean you can’t worry about your fam
“worried about himself right now”
TF does that mean he isn’t worried about himself but about his mom...
When you think about it, he’s more than likely seen them after he got back home to Destiny Islands after KH2.
Eddie Martin Whatchu mean he only cared about finding Riku and Kairi in KH1 from the jump. Literally no mention of family in the entire first game. He cared more about that than actually saving the universe. He was always extremely one track minded. Kinda like Naruto short of not being a complete idiot.
mybrain.exe has stopped working.....
now im in a bot net
Yolo Blade Still easier to understand than Jojo
meh
Onyx Blacc SAME TO THE MOON AND BACK.
Didn't Axel prove that nobodies have hearts when he cried over the loss of roxas? Or in an event similar to that?
It's unclear
arguably just as he has remembered some memories as is full self he could remember feelings which is why is enjoys eating sea salt ice cream and things like that
kenneth bautista DDD explaijed that nobodies aren't quite as heartless as we thought and can technically feel emotion (vaguely) as their bodies reach to find new hearts
he developed his own ability to feel emotions
DDD explained that nobodies slowly replace the hearts over time. No-one is truly without a heart forever, and thus no-one is truly emotionless. Xemnas knew this, but wanted to keep them on a short leash under their assumption they were working to get hearts back. In reality, he was going to turn them into copies of himself.
Kingdom Hearts series summarized by my friend: Ahem
Birth by sleep:
Terra, Aqua, Ventus are good guys. Xehanort is the bad guy. Xehanort is very old and wants ultimate weapon. Ventus becomes ultimate weapon, dies, then soul fuses with baby Sora. Aqua trapped in alternate dimension. Terras body stolen by Xehanort Orochimaru style.
Kingdom Hearts:
Riku is given keyblade. Rihu is too evil. Keyblade chills with Sora instead. Riku accidentally destroys world. Sora fixes everything, but loses Riku and Micky
Chain of Memories:
New bad guys Organization 13 want Sora because they dont have hearts and they want them for some reason. Sora and Riku kill half of them. One member destroyed soras brain. Sora sleeps for like 2 years while she fixes it. Riku decides dakness is kinda cool and learns how to control it.
358/2:
Cause Sora became a heartless in KH1, he became a heartless. If you become a heartless, your body reanimates as a Nobody. Like a snake shedding its skin and the skin turning evil and walking away. Soras Nobody is actually Ventus from forever ago, they split now cause mumbo jumbo. Organization thinks hes cute, invite him to the club. He befriends a robot, then kills the robot. He is best friendsies with Axel, who likes him despite not supposedly having emotions.
Kingdom Hearts 2:
Sora wakes up and looks for Riku and Mickey. He eventually does and kills the last half of Organization 13. Main bad guy officially dead. Everything is fixed for realsies this time.
Re: Coded
The game sucked, and Sora gets a note saying just cause he knows how to drive the keyblade doesnt mean he actually has his keyblade license yet. Him and Riku have to go get notes saying they are good with keyblades
Dream Drop Distance:
Sora and Riku go to a new dimension to test themselves. They are helped by new monsters that are made out of dreams. Riku passes and becomes a master. Sora doesnt pass and goes back into the dimension to thank the people that helped him in the test. Somehow select members from Org. 13 are alive again. Axel can use a keyblade now cause why not.
Story right now:
Aqua wants ventus to live again
Sora is in dreamland playing with animals
Riku is going to keyblade school, which exists
Axel now has feelings and is much less cool
Mickey and every other character is just chilling
Xehanort still wants the best weapon
Alycia Ramirez thank you
the way you described it sounded like an anime
KH would make a great anime
Alycia Ramirez lmfaoooo this is gold.
N.B Herust well.... It does hav a manga if that counts
Breaking it down in the simplest way ! Thank you! cx
Lol how are 10 year olds supposed to grasp any of this
MisstaLocke honestly its for people who were 10 about 10-12 years ago lol
I watched this video when I was 11 and completely understood that entire plot. I've been fan of this amazing series since I was 4 ever since my two older brothers got me into it :>
I was eight years old when kingdom hearts two came out, literally all the kids who played all the kh games are now grown ass adults
MisstaLocke no I played it when I was around 6 or 7 I'm 14 now I had no clue what was going on when I was 6 lol
Itara the KH Otaku yeah but it becomes hard to remember all of this.
''Ha ha. Idiot. Killed by the power of peace and love...''
L.O.V.E =
Levels
Of
ViolencE
If you get this reference your awesome
Best part
Cid, Squall, Cloud, Yuffie, Aerith, Tifa...and Merlin. One of these things is not like the other. lol
aerith, the mistake
It's Leon because all the others are from FFVII
Merlin lol Merlin isn't in ANY final fantasy games
He should have mentioned that Aqua sacrificed herself for Terra and was sent to the realm of darkness. All he said was "oh Aqua is in another realm now" which is probably pretty confusing for people who are learning the story for the first time.
Got it memorized... - Axel
What I got out of the Kingdom Hearts story line is that.... well.... "It's unclear". XD Especially with feelings.
Very interesting video. I found it very enjoyable, especially the bits of comedy you put into it. XD
I really hate to be that guy, but I want to explain something. Xehanort actually did not gain a humanoid Heartless. His heartless became what we know as the robed figure (the guy in the brown cloak that we see in Destiny Islands). He later possesses Riku's body and because of this possession, Billy Zane manipulated the body to look like Xehanort in his thirties (maybe forties but you get the idea). While Billy Zane possessed Riku's body, Riku's heart was lost into the Realm of Darkness until the end of KH1.
Also, something I want to mention is that Sora from when he reunited with Kairi till he reunited with Roxas, Sora has technically been a Heartless still. He was just given human form thanks to the powerful light of Kairi's heart, due to her being a princess of heart.
Also (XD) the only real Kingdom Hearts so far was the on in KH1. The one in KH2, as you said, was a gathering of people's hearts, while the one in BBS was a gathering of hearts of worlds. (Don't ask how Xehanort got them there cause I have no clue either). BTW, the door at the end of KH1 wasn't actually Kingdom Hearts itself. It was a door that led to a specific place within the Realm of Darkness where Kingdom Hearts was located.
It's pretty clear why Roxas, Axel and Namine have feelings. Namine and Axel most likely grew their own hearts as stated in DDD that Nobodies can grow hearts. As for Roxas, Ventus' heart did not leave Sora's body as it still needed healing. So it stayed within Sora's body, which ends up being Roxas.
Xion was able to get Sora's most precious memories (those of Kairi) through Roxas as she was spending time with him.
Let me explain why a person is reborn after the destruction of the Heartless and the Nobody. When a Heartless is destroyed, the heart is released. When a nobody is destroyed, the body fades away. Picture the body as if it was water. Let's say the body is ice and when the Nobody is defeated, the ice melts into water. The water is still there just in different form.
i love how this game mixes with disney and final fantasy🤗
After watching this recap... all I'm thinking is: "It's unclear"
I actually really enjoyed playing Dream Drop Distance, but I have to agree that it did add some CRAZY and (possibly) even unnecessary mechanics to the story. What I mean by that is that the time-travel aspect could've been left out of the plot completely in hindsight, but I guess we will have to wait and see in KHIII if it is actually necessary to the story as a whole. It will hopefully develop (instead of convolute) the story further and maybe even clear up some confusing plot points already made.
Braden Welke The reason it is needed is because the X blade that Xehanort forged in BBS was unstable due to the means of its creation the only way to make a stable X blade is to have 13 seekers of darkness and 7 guardians of Light to clash to reforge the X blade. The reason for this is that when the X blade was destroyed in the first Keyblade War it shattered into 13 pieces of darkness and 7 of light
JEDIandMUSHplayMC That doesn't really explained why time-travel had to be involved.
Gaming Legend Because Xehanort needed 13 hearts of pure darkness like himself he tried to do this once with the original Organization 13 so he got a bunch of different versions of himself together using time travel to form the true Organization 13
JEDIandMUSHplayMC Again why time-travel? I know he needs 13 vessels for his plan but he couldn't be bothered to just look for beings with darkness in them? I guess it would be just similar to the original Org XIII about recruiting members but I guess the only he can count on is Xehanorts.
Am ok with the time travel stuff it's other people like Braden Welke who might get turn off with that kind of thing.
Braden Welke So the present day me can try to go along and keep up with Roxas' ass kicked and being put into a virtual word by Riku or unversed coming from Vanitas, which basically seems just like pseudo heartless. but Vanitas being a part of Ventus who mixes with the heart of Sora therefore creating a Sora looking Vanitas and also creating a Ventus looking Roxas who comes from Sora who's heart took in Ventus who was fragmented creating Vanitas !? This is sounding whack, and not in an Inception dream within a dream within a dream cool daydream. And now Lea/Axel can use a keyblade? Damn soon everyone's gonna be wielding one; preteen me would've gone along with this, but now it's starting to feel like Nomura's trying to dig as deep as he can into his ass and pull out whatever else he can put into the story.
the "X blade" is prononced "Khi blade" as the "X" is the grec letter "χ" (khi)
***** they all prononce "Khi" in the cutscenes of birth by sleep
it is meant to be confusing i guess
Shut up
+nathan limon ye great education boya
You know what ? I never even noticed that...I always took the slanted X as simply stylization...
It's much more confusing when "Khi" sounds like "Key", thus it sounds like they say Keyblade instead of X blade (Khi Blade)
It's unclear.
This comment is 2 years old, has 223 likes, but literally zero comments LOL
@@user-pw4qi4gc60 Amazing, right?
There are some details you left out that you could have explained like how terra gave riku the ability to wield a keyblade, how riku was the intended wielder and riku being a keyblade master. There is also some story on the organisation that you haven't included like how the members believed that they could become whole when kingdom hearts was formed, but they were just being deceived by their leader because xemnas wanted to create the x-blade. Nobodies also do have feelings to some extent, that was outlined in the series.
In addition to this there are other story points that could have been covered like kairi's back story i.e. where she originally lived, why she moved to destiny islands. Then of course there is some story on aqua, terra and ventus like what happened to them after the keyblade war.
Overall, this is a good summary, there are just some key story points that could have been discussed in the video.
dark132 You weren't really the target audience as you know the entirety of the series. As for me, someone who only played Kh1, CoM, and Kh2, I got a whole lot of information that proved to be very helpful. Also that extra information that you brought up would've probably ruined the under 20 minutes goal for the video. Thx for the extra info though.
MrSomebody54 I know the video is meant to be brief but it should also cover all important details of the story. Not much point of this video otherwise.
dark132 There is also the whole entirety of that weird japanese kh game that adds the five major keyblade wielders that is difficult to explain as well as the fact that the Chi-Blade (X blade) broke into 13 pieces of darkness and 7 of light. Hence why Xehanort a) is obsessed with 13 people of membership and b) doesn't outright kill the protagonist because he feels he can use them to reforge the blade in KH3.
+dark132 NERD.
I'm not sure if it was confirmed, but strong sources say that Sora wasn't meant to be a keyblade wielder to begin with, Riku was chosen by the keyblade, but Sora, with his power of light and strong will, happens to stumble upon it, and the keyblade changed its mind. I recommend looking this up though, it's unconfirmed on my part
This was an excellent video! You've got a great talent for condensing important info in a clear, humorous, and entertaining way. Subbing and adding this vid to favorites....mostly so I can come back and "re-study" this crazy, over-complicated story again when KH3 finally comes out!! :)
Amazingly, you have simplified Kingdom hearts for me. Splendid.
Thank you so much for explaining the plot of the kingdom Hearts series. It's honestly baffled me on the exact chronological order of the story! You saved me tons of hours of research and watching videos to understand the storyline. Keep on the great work
I'm just gonna get kh3 and hope that Xehnort or Xemnas or Billy Zane finally dies
MexicanSnoopGuy ....ummm, i don't know what say here.
my thoughts exactly
Yeah whoever Billy Zane is lol
billy zane is heartless ansem bro
So we're just ignore MexicanSnoopGuy's comment....okay. Ya Billy Zane needs to finally end.
Who else cried when Axel faded? Me... 😭
***** screw you
Aimee Hodson literally at this point of my life i decided my gamertag/username for any thing in life would be AxelShifter aha RIP AXEL. I was always shifter before this event
Axel is a good caracter he just wanted to get his best friend back! nothing bad is within him! when he finds out that sora is roxas! if u put it like that.... he choose to die by saving Sora/roxas... He is a wery important caracter they shall make a game about him as well!
+Sondre Illing hold up...Axel is dead?!?!
+Ségan Sandiford Axel is dead, but in dying Lea's body was freed and he was brought back.
Thank you for 3 things; Clearing up the story for a old-school fan who lost the plot around KH2. Reminding me at the end of why I love KH, not the complexity of the story but it's "heart" so to speak. Third as a result of the two former points, you've made me hyped for the new games as opposed to "Oh no I'll be so lost story-wise I won't feel connected". Also bravo on the succinct explanation of such (even way more than I thought) a complex story.
It's quite funny how another video spent a good 50+ minutes explaining this, although in fairness he took it in normal speed maybe even slower for people to be able to digest as well as understand easier. I would watch that one as well to get it even more clear but overall I really felt I got the main idea now. I don't think there's a need to go nit-picking exploring every detail, plot-point, etc. As you more or less said, who really gets why it's just the way they did it.
While it is clearer what still makes it a bit dizzying is the fact that I see now the game is based on layers of Heartless>Nobody>real selves, and so it goes in succession, which pretty much defines the entire story. Am I right on that one?
I wouldn't say that the Heartless/Nobody/Real Self relationship defines the entire story, per say. In fact, as of one of the larger twists of DDD, you can argue that Nobodies as an entity were effectively rendered irrelevant. I didn't talk about it in the video, partly because it's absolutely infuriating, and partly because I doubt there will even BE any Nobodies in KH3, so knowing everything about them probably won't even be important. Basically, since there aren't even any Nobodies in the story anymore, the twist was only brought up to show that Xehanort was even more evil than we already thought, and mwuhahahahaha, and so on and so forth.
+Frustrated Jacob I love the way you didn't even mention coded...
Still come back to this video every now and then, you're hilarious. Ever plan on making an updated version?
dam you billy zane
Best full explanation of kingdom hearts I've ever seen. Thank you for filling in a lot of plot holes I had from not being able to play the ds games.
Gotta love complicated Japanese RPG storylines
Kiyo Where else might i get my doze of story complications if it wasn't for the Japanese ? xDD
+Kiyo honestly! it took me forever to understand a fraction of Final Fantasy and now this is so complicated! it's a love/hate thing tbh
Only in Japan
MY girlfriend loves KH. I never played it. Ever. So in order to get on the hype train and be prepared for watching her do a KH3 playthrough I watched her replay the first 2 games. No idea what was happening. Was totally lost. She did her best to explain it to me but even she would devolve into "Yea its complicated." This video made EVERYTHING clear, and it also explained why she was so angry about "time travel" even tho i saw no time travel. I was with you...until I saw the time travel part at the end. Thats where my head went from throbbing to spinning. Good god lmao. Thank you for the video tho
Buddy, this is just the beginning of the story.
JayWillCatchYou KH also makes my head throb... 🤫🤫🤫
I can follow this but it is pretty needlessly complicated.
*spoiler alert for Star Wars: The Last Jedi*
Interesting that TLJ isn't the first time a Mark Hamill character considers preemptively killing off his apprentice!
Also Sora has feelings for riku..maybe...it's unclear.
I’ve been watching these damn things all day trying to brush up before release day tomorrow, and I think this is the best one. Not the most in-depth, but in a good way. Makes it way easier to understand and follow. Nice job!
As much of a prejudiced KH fan that i am, i never stopped laughing throughout the entire length of this video, you brought up some unspoken questions like " he has....feelings? idk it's unclear :( " xDDD rofl gets me every damn time lol.
And despite the comedy and dissing, this was the best summary of Kingdom Hearts franchise i've ever seen ^^
Matt Gray You and me both mate. I'm a KH fan and this video made me laugh. This video wasn't being condescending and was actually funny.
Matt Gray It's not really an unspoken question if Roxas and co have feelings. It's just one of the many things left up to the Fans' imagination. It's explained in KH3D, that even if someone loses his heart, it can come back. It's kinda like this Warm Bodies Movie thing. There was a zombie whose heart started beating again because he lied to his self about having feelings, right? It's the same in KH.
+VanitasTheBest sorta the other way really, its denying that they CAN have feelings the prevents them from recovering and forming a heart, same idea though, you think you have feelings? YOU HAVE FEELINGS!
X Scythe What's with the Ventus/Roxas? They're different people and no Vanitas is Ven's darkness taken form.
X Scythe Roxas IS Sora's Nobody. Everyone in-universe acknowledges this. Even Xemnas. Roxas looks like Ven because Ven's hearts was inside Sora. It took characteristics of Ven because Sora got back his body when Kairi hug him.
358/2days- I don't remember they weren't supposed to look like Sora. The whole point of the Replica program was to copy Sora's Keyblade powers.
The chess pieces representing who will join who is just speculation at the moment.
Org.XIII comprising of Heartless is BS except for Ansem SoD since Xehanort explicitly state the "his 12 selves would welcome me on this day" in DDD. And YX say his been given a task of "visiting splintered version of myself in many times."
Vanitas is NOT a heartless. He is the embodiment of Ven's darkness.
For anyone who legitimately wants to understand the story without playing all the previous titles before Kingdom Hearts 3, I highly recommend watching GameTrailers' timeline instead.
This was a valiant effort in a way, but too often were things gotten wrong, theories were presented as facts, or opinions were made far too present. Like with Dream Drop Distance, you can hate the game's story (although I personally loved it) but that is no reason to gloss over it; especially when that's the game that's really going to impact KH3 the most and the main reason so many more people are coming to these sort of videos. A lot of people don't want to get a 3DS, but relying on this extremely brief summary of the game in favor of hearing someone complain about it is going to cost you in the third installment.
I know countless things also had to be left out to make the 20 minute mark, and although I think more could have been included if some jokes were scrapped, which I wish took precedent, I really think trying to make sense of all these games' intricate stories in just 20 minutes isn't going to do it much justice anyway. I know some want a quick explanation, but it's just not possible. With all of the misinformation and plot points left out here you will be more confused then you should be in KH3. So if you really do care about making it a more enjoyable experience, don't rush and watch a longer, more comprehensive video. That or play the games for yourself. Either will be worth your time.
Well I know people online tend to prefer smaller paragraphs, but apparently RUclips mobile won't let you. I tried.
+Lunar Blossom Couldn't agree more *starts applauding*
I was like 7 and thought I knew it all about kingdom hearts...fast forward 10 years and I get this weird nostalgic feeling (watching my brother in law play it) by just hearing the background music and seeing the animations and what not. Thanks for the video
A video about the game shouldn't tell you more about the Games story if you played it. If that did happen you just legit have a hard time paying attention
This video+my stupidness =mind blown
Its stupidity
This video is fucking amazing and perfectly explained,thanks man.
we learn new thing everyday......
I. Think. KH. Made. Me. Smarter.
Kingdom Hearts is my absolute favorite video game series of all time.
Same
So after replaying kh 1.5/2.5/2.8 this month, I was looking for a series story recap to show my friend who couldn't play all those games before kh3.
THIS VIDEO (despite being made before 2.8's release) = the BEST kh series story recap vid I've found on youtube (and like a million times less confusing to follow than that OTHER "2million views" kh series story recap vid on youtube) probably because it's told like you actually know what you're talking about and played all the games like you're explaining to a friend, while the other one was like some guy who didn't play all the games and was just reciting a list of historical facts chronologically (well this happened, and this happened, then this happened etc.) Plus THIS video's side jokes about how stuff kinda doesnt make sense or is unclear at the exact perfect moment = hilarious/true thanks!
I tried to read the plot on Wikipedia to try to understand it, and I kid you not I threw my head away because it just hurt so much trying to understand it, and this before I reached the table of contents.
I am a big fan of all the games, and really loved this recap. Very well done, great summary and while there are plenty of plot holes, those of us that are fans will still play this game because of the reasons you mentioned! Thank you!
Lovely, now I understand the story just a bit better.
Would probably help to play all the games and not just two of them, but that requires more consoles. :P
a ps3 and soon a ps4, that's all you need
They're all gonna be on PS4 soon. 1.5+2.5 are coming in March, 2.8 this January, and KH3 sometime in humanity's future.
John Sky all I played was kh1 along time ago. How long does it take to finish one kh game?
+Ss .Blurr Kh2 took 40-50 hours, DDD took me 20-30, Kh1 has taken me around 30 hours. So around 20-50 hours depending on the game.
John Sky dang
This was bloody perfect man, great video!
Its so obvious that they made up this plot as they went along with the series. The were just winging shit with each game.
Guard Passer true the frist game s story is self contained makes sense by it's own rules and ends fairly clearly. So they've kept adding to it over and over.
Except that wasn't the case and that the entire series was planned by the time the second game came out. Even a secret ending within the first game shows the battle with riku and roxas at the dark city skyscraper.
unless you know your gonna have funding for 7 sequels down the line that's kind how most series are. Always have to write it like its going to be the end.
What's the problem with DDD. I pretty much get the plot from one playthrough, and the gameplay's fun and stuff
KHDDD isnt the worst, KHReCoded is the one
Completely agree
lolno
ReCoded has the best gameplay out of all of the Portable KH. The plot itself is Kingdom Hearts: Abridged Series, so it's less bad than mediocre
Adorabunny nah dude, I forced myself to play through it purely for story. I would definitely agree that the game play and battle mechanics were interesting, but with the way it was setup you would have to change your deck drastically for each boss on proud mode to have 0s for counters and whatnot. it was very taxing.
Adorabunny oh shit my bad I thought we were talking about re chain of memories
There's so many repetitions though..
Amazing video! Thank you so much you did an incredible job and I understood pretty much everything your went over! I’ve tried watching other videos explaining the story of kingdom hearts over and over and over again and I cannot understand a single freaking point of what they explain or make.
Your video on the other hand, was excellent and now I i believe I’m ready for kingdom hearts three!
Probably one of the most convoluted plots ever conceived, and yet I still love this series.
Especially since everything Disney in it besides Mickey, Donald, and Goofy is irrelevant to the plot...
Wait, quick question: if this was the main plot, what was the point in the Disney stuff???
Santeh Colon D The setting and the tone, I guess. Well, actually, in the first game, all of the Disney worlds ARE important to the plot, both in that the represent the objective (sealing the Keyholes to protect the worlds from destruction) and also in the various lessons they teach Sora. Since I was focusing on the PLOT in this video, I didn't get to talk about what the games are actually about, or the character arcs. The first game is mostly about Sora slowly becoming a hero, and a big part of that is how he expands his horizons beyond the world he used to know and his small circle of friends, until he's eventually traveled to all sorts of different places and made friends with lots of different people. So they are sort of important to the story in that one.
They're kinda pointless in KH2, though, and some of the others. But of course, that's assuming you even care about the plot of the Kingdom Hearts games. Most people just play these to live out their favorite Disney stories.
Frustrated Jacob I really love the plot, thank you for the clarification. My first Kingdom Hearts game was actually KH2, which I love, but that's where most of my questions about the presence of Disney came from. I've only played that one, Birth By Sleep, and the one on the GBA... Because of KH2, I always wondered why they couldn't replace Disney with places from Square, only keeping Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Anyway, thanks.
"And I'm gonna call this 'Ansem'…Billy Zane" I truly lol'd
…and you kept calling him that, I love it.
This helped a lot! thanks!. but my brain hurts now
Same cuz im forgetting something😒
It takes until the halfway point to finish KH1, that says a lot about how this story is structured.
Who’s watching this right before the release of KH3?!
Was I the only one who didn't get confused? If not who else understood?
• Rogue Thief • I understood everything
I understood perfectly fine and I've never touched one game
I've understood everything since my first introduction to the series through the GameTrailer's KH Timeline video. I like how this vid is short and funny at the same time.
Played all the games and this was a pretty accurate summary.
One of the few videos that take a stab at explaining everything that I could get behind, definitely, I think what made this video great is the fact the he didn't try to go so in depth with the purposely complicated bits and stayed on point with the main, underlying story.
I liked Dream Drop Distance. Man, they had some tough bosses, especially towards the end! I think its gonna be great on ps4.
THANK YOU FOR THIS VID. I'm trying to get back to this series after a loong time. From all the summary vids I watched, this one really hit the crucial parts and is easier to understand.
Does anyone else miss the days when Kingdom Hearts was just about a little boy going on a fun, linear adventure, and kicking the bad guys butt at the end? What the hell happened?
DDD is so much fun
moeman813 I loved DDD
Dream drop isn't that bad, sure it's kinda dumb lol but it's not bad. Recoded, now that's bad.
i think you also mean rechain of memories that battle system was dumb the story was good though
+theponiesofequestria I actaully kinda like Chain of Memories Gameplay
i feel like it was something they tried and a lot of people didnt like it. it was very difficult to use. i am used to it now however the gameplay is still very infuriating
but it is nice that atleast some liked it
Both Kh Recoded and Dream Drop Distance was good... Recoded was actually the game that got me in the series for the DS which was followed By 368/2 and DDD.... then I went back n played the rest
Considering the size of the KH fandom, this video should be considered a public service. Good on you.
Billy zane😂😂😂😂 the time you used this name when the evil Riku showed up I laughed so hard😂😂😂😂
KH3D is one of the best in the series. Can't wait to replay it in HD when KH2.8 comes out.
SAME!
I agree.
The story pacing in 3d was amazing! Gameplay could of been better in terms of having better fancy combos like in 2, but i think because 3d was on a 3ds they couldnt use a gaming engin to make the combat more like kh2 (Where Sora would be doing cool horizontal slashes and magnet spirals as part of normal attacks). I agree with it being one of the best in the series!
Dream Drop Distance is not bad. The story is convoluted but the gameplay is amazing, the flow motion mechanics and Dream Eater partners are the best thing about it.
DDD was fun to play, but the story went sour.
Thank you! I couldn't keep watching all the game cut scenes because I didn't understand a single line! Now, I'm ready for KH3 26 years from now.
Got to 5:40 before I had to rewind
Absolutely love this format! Will you be doing more? Pls?
Shafaat Hussain I am thinking about it. Do you have anything in particular you'd like to see me cover?
Frustrated Jacob hmmm how about the Bioshock series? Or maybe Uncharted? or FF10/10-2 or FF13/13-2/lightning bla blaa?
Frustrated Jacob I would like to see you do explanations of the more complex video game plots (since you already managed to explain arguably one of the most complex plots in video game history ever so well) I would really like to see you do something like Metal Gear Solid (this would be especially cool because MGS:V is coming soon) or maybe Resident evil, Castlevania, Deus ex, xenosaga like stuff like that... Even an explanation of FF:VII (then I mean Advent children, the original game and also Crisis Core)
Frustrated Jacob hmmm how about....Metal Gear ? I mean from the first NES game to MGS 4 that should cover a lot of story that a lot of people don't really get.
Frustrated Jacob if you want to be really ambitious, make a video explaining the greater Shin Megami Tensei timeline/universe.
I've gotta know why you hate 3D. For the past 4 years all I've heard is it's the best one since BbS. Ya the story is convoluted, but that doesn't make it a terrible game.
bad plot=bad game. There is no amount of positivity that can redeem a god awful story. Not when the primary pull of the KH games, at least originally, WAS the story. KH1 and 2 are solid, bbs is decent and explains backstory without overly complicating things, but i would have to agree with jacob that coded and dds are both unnecessary and stupid. They don't mesh well with the other games. They are like the creepy uncle that shows up and the family reunion, and you don't want to talk to him but your mom makes you because "he's family".
+kingofbudokai Metal Gear Solid V. Terrible story, awesome game.
JakandCrash yeah no. I disagree whole heartedly.
+kingofbudokai How so? I'm legitimately curious.
JakandCrash Perhaps i should say "not a game i find fun" rather than objectively "bad". For me personally, i cannot enjoy a game if the story is garbage unless it is something where the story isn't supposed to matter, like a racing or fighting game, or something like dark souls where the grindy-ness of it is the whole point.
seriously.. thanks for taking the time to do this video!!!
Now where does re:codes fall into the timeline?
Between 2 and Dream Drop Distance. The only reason I didn't include it in that little lineup at the beginning is because it looked really small and awkward. By removing one game I found the lineup looked a lot better, so I decided to get rid of Coded because it's the closest thing to a filler episode the series has.
+Frustrated Jacob so I guess in other words Coded is not necessary to play?
Not really. It's got some fun gameplay but in terms of story relevance, you could skim the story summary on the Kingdom Hearts wiki and you'd probably get everything of importance.
All it really did was set up some very basic stuff for the future games. Nothing actually happened in it, the only important things were a few characters saying, "We're going to do X for nebulous, unexplained reasons!"
So when they show up in KH3 or whatever to do those things, you won't have actually missed anything. You may go, "Huh? What? They want what now?" But you'd be saying that even if you knew what happened in Coded. I still am.
Seriously, Maleficent wants to steal a hard drive. She went from trying to conquer the worlds in KH1 to trying to steal a hard drive. That's her evil mission now. Then they realized how lame that was, so in the cutscene version of Coded that was on PS3, they added an extra scene where she explains that she also wants a magic book that can see the future. Which still feels like a step down from conquering the universe, but in all fairness, it IS a step up from stealing a hard drive.
Can't argue with that lol. Thanks mate!
It's inbetween 2 and DDD.
Still a better stroy that twilight....
Still a better story than 2011 meme
khzeldanerd True story
Sapu im not saying its a bad joke, im saying its an old joke
You can’t compare kh to garbage. you just can’t !
Wow dude, I'm impressed how popular this video suddenly became. when I first saw it, it had 20k views. I guess the released of KH on the PS4 really spiked this video up since the plot is IS very confusing.
I just wish I'd done a better job on it, considering how popular it's gotten. The audio editing on this isn't exactly graceful. But then again, I expected this to get like 15k views tops and then fade into obscurity. Oops.
I actually downloaded this video last year so I could watch/listen to it over and over. I found it both helpful and entertaining.
Finally, some one who explains simple and clean, u really helped me out, thanks
So... how is Billy Zane killed by the power of Light when the door opens... if the door opened to the Realm of Darkness...
This is a wonderful question. I also wonder the answer.
So Kingdom Hearts is still kind of an abstract concept that hasn't been fully elaborated upon. I swear that this isn't just me as a nitpicking fan saying that. Tetsuya Nomura, the series director, stated in an interview that the "true nature" of Kingdom Hearts will be revealed in KH3. So it's actually been intentionally vague. Across seven games. For 15 years.
But I digress. Here's what we know, from a purely factual standpoint. Billy Zane shouts about how darkness is the true essence of everything, and how everything comes from darkness, and thus Kingdom Hearts must be full of darkness. Then he shouts at a big silver door and asks Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of darkness, because a 14 year old boy and his anthropomorphic pals just kicked his butt, and he wants that supreme dark power so he can recover.
The door starts to open, and darkness oozes out. I get the feeling that was just a dramatic effect meant to add tension to the scene, or something, and not a real lore consideration. But whatever. Darkness starts coming out, and Billy Zane looks evil, then Sora says something optimistic about how Kingdom Hearts is light, and then light shoots out of the door in a big blast. Then Billy Zane goes, "Light?!? But... why?!?" Then Billy Zane dies.
The big blast of light goes away, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy run over to the door. On the other side of the door they see The Realm of Darkness. There are lots of bad Heartless here, and though the limited scope of the PS2's processing power doesn't convey it well, the implication seems to be that there's a horrible eldritch army on the other side and it's about to flood over into our world. So the heroes try to close the door.
They have trouble closing the door until Riku suddenly shows up and starts pulling on the door from the other side. Mickey Mouse also shows up and pulls out a Keyblade. He tells Sora that they have to lock the door, then says something vague and poetic that I think was meant to be a reassurance, like, "Don't worry, Riku and I will find a way out of the Realm of Darkness somehow." Then they lock the door, leaving Riku and Mickey trapped on the other side.
So. What happened to the light that exploded out and killed Billy Zane? Did it get really tired after that one attack, and it had to take a nap? Maybe the sudden release was just really extreme, and that was what killed Billy Zane, and then after that it dissipated a bit, so it was still there, but less concentrated. We could talk for hours about what might have happened, but it would all be useless, because at the end of the day we don't really know what happened.
The best I can figure is that the door ITSELF was Kingdom Hearts, or that Kingdom Hearts is inside the Realm of Darkness, and after all the light exploded out, it dissipated a bit, and a bunch of Heartless that were hanging out just outside Kingdom Hearts saw the big door to the Realm of Light and went, "Oh wow, that looks like a nice place to pillage and plunder for a while."
In all honesty, it seems to me like the developers said, "Okay, we want a scene where Billy Zane gets killed by the light from Kingdom Hearts, and then Sora sees a bunch of monsters coming and has to stop them. Then Mickey and Riku get trapped, and we have our potential sequel hook." Then they threw those two scenes together at the very end of the game without giving too much intensive consideration to the lore, because hey, it wasn't that important in the first game. Of course, now that we're seven games in, it's becoming increasingly apparent that there are no rules in this universe, and Kingdom Hearts is a MacGuffin for villains to chase and the heroes to defend that doesn't need to be properly defined.
In defense of the ending of KH1, I do think that it works really well from the standpoint of KH1's isolated story. The whole plot with Ansem is that he was a wise king who was beloved by his people, but was secretly a power-hungry megalomaniac who started kidnapping and experimenting on his own people by the hundreds. Eventually he sacrificed his world, his people, and even his human form, all for the sake of pursuing that great power, darkness. Then, in the very end, his plan succeeds, and he destroys countless worlds, has great power, and gets to Kingdom Hearts... only to discover that the thesis he'd based his entire quest on, that darkness is the source of all power, was wrong. In actuality, it's light, and he's killed both physically AND mentally by the discovery. He was killed by the light of his own hubris, one might say.
Then they rolled all that back and said, "Nah, he wasn't REALLY a king, he was just some guy pretending to be a king named Xehanort, and Xehanort was a bad apple from the start, and this whole 'Billy Zane' thing was really just an offshoot of his main plan that he was never really all that committed to."
It's kind of remarkable how almost every consecutive release in this series has undercut the previous games in some way.
Wasn't expecting a response, more the less such a long detailed one. Thank you.
I figure Kingdom Hearts is probably a combination of both light and dark. I mean, aren't Hearts both light and dark, or are they just light? Don't most people who die, and aren't transformed into heartless have their Hearts go to Kingdom Hearts? And if a Heartless is made, it has to be defeated before the Heart is released to Kingdom Hearts. So you'd think it must need the darkness with it. Plus all the talk about keyblade wielders needing an equal amount of both dark and light in balance, would have me assume Kingdom Hearts is likely no different with it be an amalgamation of both. Perhaps Billy Zane was killed by a burst of light that came out first, whilst darkness lingers. Or does a person's darkness go to the Realm of Darkness? What even is the Realm of Darkness, why is it a thing, and is it directly linked to Kingdom Hearts? -__- I love these games, but boy lordy is our relationship complicated. XD
Kingdom Hearts actually IS light. Not darkness at all. You're correct to assume that there is a connection between Kingdom Hearts and the Realm of Darkness. One of the first lines in the game says "The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes." Since Kingdom Hearts is made entirely of light it casts a gigantic shadow. The Realm of Darkness is literally the shadow of Kingdom Hearts. Hope that clears this thing up.
That should also explain why Kingdom Hearts resided within the Realm of Darkness.
Also, nobodies can have feelings. Just thought I should point that out since the creator of the video doesn't seem to realize this.
Thank you, appelsinu! I always wondered about the dichotomy of KH being light and dark at the same time, and your shadow explanation makes sense.
I think the creator did know that nobodies could develop feelings and was hinting at the suspiciousness, but never really elaborated on this when explaining the 3D storyline.
or maybe the real kingdom hearts was inside us all along.
I'm gonna call this Ansem.. Ansem
And i'm going to call this Ansem.. Billy Zane.
No lie, I laughed my ass off during that part. Here, have a sub! LMAO.
I laughed so hard I woke up my mom XD
+Cory Daniels It is I, Billy Zane Seeker of Darkness
My head exploded watching this. .--.
I super enjoyed this and it was legitimately helpful. Thank you a ton!
Yup, this series is a prime example of what an overinflation of the plot can cause.
With a LOT of suspension of disbelieve, you can kinda connect the dots here and there but yeah, its convoluted at best.
On the other hand, this plot escalation is also its strongest asset.
From a writers perspective, you can do pretty much everything you want with it. You can inject games wherever you want in the timeline, expand it with yet another prequel or even claim that major parts of it have all been "false data".
As convoluted as it is, its also a pretty robust story overall, probably because its rules of reality, space and time are so vague and alien.
Y'know I'm honestly surprised that so many people are so confused about this story, and while I'll definitely admit it is rather convoluted I still understand it perfectly.
+MisterX867 If you played it from the beginning, yes it's fairly easy to understand. But if you're recently getting into Kingdom Hearts or even skip a KH game (like how numerous people did with Chain of Memories), you are insanely lost because this series expect you to have played every single game.
+HeroMystic
yep, i hardly have played any of the handheld games, other than BBS and one of the handheld GBA games, so i'm completely lost as to most of the plot. xD i always thought the handheld games were just spinoffs that weren't relevant to the plot so i didn't bother buying them, and i'm just beginning to learn that this isn't the case.... which to me is a shame, because i've tried to play some of them and didn't like the change in gameplay that a lot of them offered, and i just can't bring myself to play games that i don't find fun gameplay-wise even if i enjoy the story that the games hold (i still can't bring myself to finish the GBA game because of this; i may end up going back to it and using cheats though, just to blow through the gameplay so i can see the plot unfold).
+HeroMystic I didn't follow it from the start, and I understand it
+Jasmine Reeve Most people don't have to. The KH series is pretty easy to understand and does a good job of catching the player up on anything important enough to be relevant to the game one is playing. There is a lot of subtly and complexity to the series if one looks into it far enough but it's actually pretty easy to understand the plot, those who can't understand the plot of Kingdom Hearts are the types who need plots spoonfed to them in the most blatant manner possible to be able to get it.
best recap of the game that i can find. thank you.
Great Job for providing a detailed analysis, which notes all the small details needed to fully grasp the story.
So Xenohart possessed Terra who later separated in to a Heartless who possessed Riku and a Nobody who created Organization XIII. They both get defeated and Xenohart returns as his full self and Terra is somewhere in space or something.
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WAT?
Xehanort*
Jean-Luc Maske-Stockdale Tera is also an optional post game boss in KH2 so that makes thing even weirder.
But I liked Dream Drop Distance >:
Me too. I like how they made bringing sleeping hearts back a story device. Xeanort is boned once Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Terra, Ventus, Aqua, (and Lea?) team up!
avalon629h Pretty sure Terra ain't coming back, but here's hoping
Geary The reason why people don't like that game is because sora is a specially stupid
Geary never played DDD....
Well to be fair you aren't actually playing Sora through it... lol
If you think that Nobody's "having feelings maybe" is a weird thing, you have no idea what the lore for KH 3D was
+AlphaWolvesGamer Its unclear :)
Not really, if you actually listen, a Nobody has the potential to grow a heart. They are still not truly a real human as their darkness is technically missing and their light is gone, but it is not in nature to have an empty shell.
Xenort twisted his followers and prevented them from growing hearts, and only a few Nobody were able to grow hearts because of this. Axel is shown to have a heart when he "gives it his all" for fighting with Sora.
Its later explained that Xeanort was "cultivating" the Nobodies to be vessels for himself like Terra.
+AlphaWolvesGamer if I'm not wrong it's implied that Axel was able to grow a heart because of the influence of Sora(by his nobody Roxas, of course), that gave it a help for it to start growing.
Milenart Meire Actually, if you've played or seen the Kingdom Hearts 3D story, it was implied that Axel was able to grow a heart because of the influence of Sora BECAUSE the Nobody's Hearts were being suppressed by Xehanort to use their empty shells as vestiles.
It was revealed in Kingdom Hearts 3D that actually can cultivate new hearts within their bodies and develop emotions on their own. However, Xehanort was actively suppressing this and the fact from the other Nobodies. The only reason Xion, Roxas, and Namine weren't affected by this was because they were "special" nobody. The only reason Axel was not affected by this was because of the influence of Sora and his Nobody because they were "special" Nobodies.
Does this make more sense now?
1) Hinted that Roxes/Sora had a key in making Axel's Heart
2) Find out that Nobodies can Naturally make hearts.
3) Find out that Xehanort was suppressing this ability so they would become perfect empty vessels for Xehanort.
4) Find out the reason why Xion, Namine, and and Roxas were unaffected was because they were not "Normal" Nobodies.
5) Find out the reason why Axel was able to surpass this supression was BECAUSE he was so close to Roxas, Xion, and Sora.
6) Find out that Roxes/Sora/Xion DID have an influence over Axel creating his own heart.
Got in memorized?
AlphaWolvesGamer
I...didn't understood your point in that reply to me, since it was exactly what I meant in my comment o-o I was just complementing your comment saying that Axel was able to grow a heart because of Sora's influence. I knew all of this already o-o But thank you anyway for taking the time to explain ^^'
made me so nostalgic watching this, some of my favorite games in the world, thanks for the video.
I'm literally just gonna send this to everyone who asks me what Kingdom Hearts is about
Why do you say DDD sucks? I'm not challenging you, I just wanted to know why you say that...?
Cuz no heartless.
You know, there aren't any Heartless in the original Birth by Sleep too (Only Unversed), but BbS is still an amazing game.
Did2013 exactly my point.
BigK the controls were extremely easy for me, so I can't relate...
Peaceful Dawn shadows, Morningstars, soldiers, those pot-bug things? What about those were intimidating?
I've literally played all the games in the series, even chain of memories(hate it though), but the the story still hurts my brain when I think about it lol
Marielle Cariño lol
birth by sleep and 356.5 days literally made me cry you have no idea 356.5 days is so heartbreaking