The Evolution of Motion in Kingdom Hearts Games

Re: coded still somehow has the best Air Slide in the series. Instead of that horrible midair stop in BBS and DDD, you maintain your momentum from the Air Slide, which feels very smooth and natural.

"Places have walls" I know what I'm getting for my next tattoo.

Woaahh!! I saw this video come up on my homepage and I'm like "Hey I made a comment about this!" then I started watching and you mentioned me??? I was so surprised. I was about to go to bed and that just gave me the biggest smile in a while. I watched the whole thing and here I am making a comment, this video made me happy enough to get out of bed and do that so awesome job. Contextualizing the movement from a world design perspective is definitely important in this discussion so I'm super glad you went in depth on that. I really do love the world design in KH3 and how it fits really well with the movement options that are given to the player. When I first experienced the wallrun mechanic, it felt so good. I loved the Prince of Persia games on PS2, and the smoothness in transition of wallrunning / vaulting over obstacles really reminded me of how fun that can be. I like BBS since I think it's a really good blend of the tight, vertical world design seen in KH1 along with varied movement options. BBS is a super stand out game in the series for me on many levels, so I'm glad to see it featured in the video. The feeling with DDD where you can just skip the platforming really put a damper on it for me as well; in games like KH that encourage creative world design, I try to appreciate that design as much as possible since I know how much work it takes both from an artistic and gameplay perspective. So to see half of it skippable by nature of the gameplay mechanics themselves just makes me a little sad. I really do want to enjoy the puzzles... but I can just skip them! It just seemed like a weird disconnect in design paradigms. I'm really interested in where the next entry in the franchise will go with movement. To be honest, I'll most likely be satisfied regardless. I'm not just saying that as a blind fan, but because they seem to have nailed the blend of free movement with world design in KH3, and naturally they would be able (hopefully) to scale that back if they wanted to go for a more KH1 'clunky' feel. In my opinion, I would appreciate smaller, more constrained but focused worlds but with the design improvements and philosophies the team has learned over the past decade. Can you imagine having a seamless world, with focus on small details, puzzles you can't solve yet since you don't have high jump, details you uncover every playthrough, and more? Maybe it's the metroidvania lover in me, but I would love to see that kind of world design in a KH game. Hopefully that made sense. Also, I actually did like the puzzle piece stuff in KH2. For some reason, it really hyped me up when I got the pieces and made the art. Maybe I'm just a dumb child who likes collect-a-thons? I dunno. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I still enjoy when games offer just that little extra to encourage you to go back to places now that you're stronger. Even if the methodology in KH2 wasn't for everyone, I still think the idea is a pretty solid one from a replayability perspective. I really loved this video and how you were able to take my comment and do so much with it! It made me feel super special and I'm really glad I provided some impetus for a video idea. You're really awesome at this kind of thing! I dunno if you'd be into it, but I would love to help out any way I can in the making of a video if possible! Obviously I love talking KH so I'm always down to do some voice overs. Just wanted to throw that out there but it's totally cool if not, your videos are gonna be awesome regardless :D

12:55 I think the camera being pulled further back is also a factor. In KH1 you felt a bit cloustraphobic during battles and exploration you don’t feel that in this game

There are a lot of languages in this world, and this guy chose to speak facts

That was great! I learned a whole lot about how to express how I feel about moving in these games and really appreciated listening to how you thoughtfully explained the progression of movement throughout the series

It's honestly so weird that in KH2 they didn't build the levels to have treasure chests you could only reach through growth abilities, because like, treasure chests are optional too! You can beat KH1 without ever equipping a shared ability, but they still had content that was locked behind using them. Also I've watched like over a dozen of your videos in the past 3 days and am now a KH1 truther thank you for your service.

Scaling in KH has always been all over the place because I think KH1 had such a great balance! KH3 really impressed me as well and made the worlds feel a lot more packed than the past Osaka entries.

"You beat the devil and suddenly you're an anime jet plane." me, also a fan of undertale: brb I'mma draw Sora as Tsundreplane

I’m frequently impressed by your ability to add insightful commentary about game design that I never would have thought of despite having played these for over a decade. You really have a gift my man.

I love just how absurdly large some of the levels are with no loading screens.

So, here's the thing, Pat - DDD actually DOES have walls you straight up cannot Flowmotion on. They have an entire room made of these walls, in fact, to cement in your mind that this is a surface they are capable of making and throwing at you when they want you to do Real Platforming. It's just that that room is in The World That Never Was and IIRC the only thing you need to platform for in that room is some chests.

Actually missed high jump on a playthrough and was like "I remember being able to jump higher than this."

Randomly found this channel and I love it. Someone with a soothing voice, a good mic, and just talks about random KH stuff? Instant subscribe

Love you highlighting how bland the KH2 level design is because the drive forms are all optional to use. The only area in all of KH2 that was designed to utilize those movement abilities- the Cavern of Remembrance, as you said, is so much more fun and satisfying to complete than any other area in the game. And I just think about WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN, if they'd bothered to put effort into the platforming/level design ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE GAME. The cavern was so good and you feel PROUD of yourself for finally getting through it. And I love that you can make a little progress as you go through the game, then reach a point you can't go past until you unlock or level up another form, but there's little rewards along the way before those points. If those abilities hadn't been so strictly limited to the drive forms.... man.

in KH3, I like how we can slide in the ice trail left by our magic, or make a high jump in the wind magic... not that necessary, but it's fun would be really cool if they manage to implement more things like that on future games, and maybe incorporate it as ways to acess areas and pass plataforms

Think my favorite change in KH3 is that Sora can utilize the wisdom shot in certain scenarios, as if he maintained and strengthened the ability

Apparantly I am sleep deprived, because 'acrobat-retardant walls' just had me dying of laughter. It's perfect. The best part is that you can sorta use it to describe the phenomenon in other games. BOTW shrines have rock-climber-retartdant walls, for example.

I remember the movement in Days being actually pretty good. Every movement ability has multiple upgrades and you can very easily transition between them without a lot of recovery frames or awkwardness in-between.

Leveling up the forms is kinda “grindy” but I don’t mind since I don’t have to spend 15 hours grinding synth materials like in kh1