Sam and I stop playing games to talk about not playing games.

I appreciate Sam’s help in reminding all of us who Christopher Lee is and why you should be worshiping him.

Aside from that, it’s nice to have a Disney movie tie into the main thread in a way that makes sense without feeling too much like filler.

Today, we start to get into some of the more confusing aspects of Kingdom Hearts.

I love the way they leverage the fact that Tron exists in a computer system in order to write the scenario. The way they smartly link it back into the main scenario through the protagonist’s quest for answers was a nice way to keep the plot moving forward.

I was also very impressed at Sam’s ability work through his confusion and figure out the Ansem/Xehanort connection without my help. It shows that he’s been paying attention as we prime.

Finally, we’re back to talking about story content.

It’s actually pretty amazing that, after the original Kingdom Hearts, Kairi has a huge problem with almost completely ceasing to be relevant to the plot. Even though she spent most of the first game in a state of limbo, she still does contribute to the story in some ways.

In Kingdom Hearts 2, her only real contribution is being kidnapped, and then not being kidnapped anymore while Sora goes off and actually deals with the real plot. It gets worse from here on. At some point, you’d be hard-pressed to remember who Kairi is. I wish that they’d make more use of her. As it stands, she only serves as motivation for the real heroes, without taking any actions of her own.

Also, points to Sam for correctly figuring out the Xehanort/Ansem family tree on his first try.

And now, we leave the worst level in the game to go to the worst filler level in the game.

This world is another example of how the game just blatantly copy/pastes the story of the movie, and jury-rigs Sora, Donald, and Goofy into the mix as Mary Sues that solve all of the problems.

For that reason, I don’t have much more to add beyond what we said in the video.

From one of my favorite level, to what is easily my least favorite….

It’s amazing how quickly I can go from singing this game’s praises to groaning at how bad it is. Atlantica is, if anything, a microcosm for all that is wrong with Kingdom Hearts 2.

  • While easy and otherwise inoffensive, there’s nothing engaging about the musical segments. They’re nothing more than fluff.
  • The scenario is some of the most vapid writing I’ve seen from any Kingdom Hearts world. Not only is it blatantly coping from the first movie, but it does so in a way that almost directly contradicts the “character growth” that the people in the world underwent in the first game.
  • Facts revealed in this scenario (like the world *above* the sea), make me wonder just why we needed to blend in with the undersea world at all in the original Kingdom Hearts. Why not just land above the sea and interact with the people there.
If we never revisit Atlantica in another Kingdom Hearts game again, it’ll be too soon. It’s clear that nobody knows what to do with it.

This is Hollow… CHRISTMAS!

Please note that between the time we recorded this footage, and now, I have actually sat down to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time. When this was made, I had not seen the film.

Someone in the Square Enix offices is obviously a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, because out of all the Disney worlds, this one got the most love by far.

The script is so much more well written, they added a ton of cool little details into the Final Mix version, the enemy and scenario design is heads and shoulders above most other worlds. There is so much care than went into this level that I’m genuinely impressed by it.

Shame that the other worlds aren’t cared for as much.

Welcome to my personal hell.

I hate this world with a blinding, fevered passion. If you want a preview of my big problems with Atlantica, you can read about it in my post from way back in the day.

I touch on it here, but in truth we’ll need to wait until we come back a few times before I can really drive the point home. It’s bad, and just thinking about it makes me wonder why on earth did it turn out the way it did.

We skip Timeless River in favor of Port Royal instead.

When Sam and I talk about this game’s tendency to just recycle the stories from the movies they source from, this world is one of the worst offenders. Not only is this the same exact story, but it’s also the same shot more often than not. On top of the frequency in which they repeat scenes, it’s one of the worst ones in the game. It exists only to capitalize on the popularity of the franchise back when Kingdom Hearts came out.

It’s also just a strange world in general. The “realistic” visuals looked pretty good at the time, but it just hasn’t aged well at all. By modern standards, it just looks too uncanny. And to have Sora, Donald, and Goofy is juxtaposed to the much more washed out visuals of the world and characters is even worse. Sam’s right when he says it looks like it’s from a different game entirely.

When I went through this level way back when Kingdom Hearts 2 first came out, I was impressed by it. That said, it doesn’t hold up to the test of time. Nothing here is particular well done.
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