Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Exists

THEY PUT BUGS IN HIM!!!

"Nomura was drunk one night" sounds like the pretext for how all of his projects were created

Why does releasing a Re: Coded retrospective on April Fool’s day make too much sense?

"I drifted off somewhere in Alice in Wonderland" Literally cannot get more ironic

I know this game is the definition of filler in the series, but the gameplay and especially the customization options keep me wanting to come back and try every single new thing that's available. I always have a ton of fun with this game, but I can also understand people dismissing it. I love Kingdom Hearts for both story and gameplay, but if someone is more in it for the story, then I can see Re: coded not having much to offer them

Re: Coded being reduced to just cutscenes is a god damn shame because its best aspect was absolutely the gameplay.

I've always seen the DS games for Kingdom Hearts as direct opposites. Days: great story, eh gameplay Re:Coded: eh story, great gameplay

"What did you want to tell us" Namine: "it was just a prank" -just a pancake

For me, the only real significant story element that comes from Re:Coded is when Data-Sora's Data-Keyblade is shattered, and he soon forms a new one. Why is this significant, you ask? Because Data-Sora isn't real. He's an artificial being, created without a heart, from the memories stored in the journal; in a sense, a Puppet-Nobody identical to Xion. His Keyblade is similarly fake, which is why Malificent is able to destroy it easily. When Data-Sora forges a new Keyblade, it's a subtle hint that this artificial being has formed a REAL heart, which foreshadows the big reveal at the end of Dream Drop Distance. Now, I'll grant this is hardly enough to justify the story or the game's existence.

Honestly I am hoping that Data Sora becomes an important character just so that I can cackle at the actual debauchery of lore that is Kingdom Hearts

The whole point of the “hurt” is that Sora contains within him the means to restore a number of lost people, however doing so comes at immense cost. By testing Data Sora and his capability to deal with this kind of pain it’s Data Namine making sure the outside world (note that a Mickey never refers to it as the real world) Sora also can handle the cost. The movie especially highlights that the origins of an individual don’t dictate their lot in life. Much like how Roxas had angst over the fact that as a Nobody he wasn’t meant to exist, there are people who feel that he does have the right to his own existence. Data Sora grew a heart and from that obtained his own proper Keyblade. Mickey, Donald and Goofy never see him as a copy of Sora, indeed Goofy enjoys it because they get to become friends all over again.This is very important foreshadowing for later games. The way Mickey, Donald and Goofy treat Data Sora and Data Riku is great contrast to how the protagonists treat the Nobodies in the Organisation in Kingdom Hearts 2. They’re utterly dehumanised, despite being fully thinking sentient people and Sora thinks nothing of cutting them down like he does with regular Heartless or even the clearly evil Ansem Seeker of Darkness. They have personalities that make them different, like Vexen being more interested in his experiments, Demyx clearly isn’t self-motivated until a certain point and Axel desires reunion with Roxas against odds like amnesia and alternate identity.

According to Nomura, the points of Re:Coded were: A) Field Test the hypothetical of Sora being ready for the "Hurt". Pretty much exactly as you broke it down in the video is exactly how it was on that front. B) Introduce concepts that would be important later in the series, particularly in regards to Maleficent, Pete, and the Book of Prophecies. This WAS important as while UX/Back Cover introduced the Book and KH3 introduced Maleficent wanting the Black Box, Re:Coded is what set the plot thread up that connected these two elements (although later KHUX story updates would ALSO connect these plot elements, that wouldn't be for years after). C) Answer a hypothetical/philosophical question in-universe regarding whether Data can have its own heart. I'm not sure why Nomura thought this needed answered when KH2 had Tron and DDD had Rinzler, but that's what he SAID was the point so whatever. Data Worlds have become a lot more important in the fallout of KH3 so maybe there's some grand foreshadowing going on here. All of these concepts were better explored in other games, in my opinion, but at least in Nomura's mind Re:Coded did have reasons for being made beyond "hey let's cash in on KH1 again".

This has to be peak confusion for someone who's not into Kingdom Hearts Also those first couple of minutes REALLY made it seem like this was an April Fool's joke

It's nice that you had good things to say about Re:coded's gameplay, because it really doesn't get the praise it deserves. But I cannot stress how tired I am of everyone treating it like the red-headed stepchild because the story isn't important enough. Like, all the cool and fun gameplay doesn't matter because there isn't a huge series-changing plot twist at the end. Like Data-Sora's journey is for some reason less valid because he's not the "real" Sora. I just wish people would let this game be what it is, instead of maligning it for not being something else. It's a great game with a lot of offer, if you let it.

This is actually my favorite KH game in the series for gameplay alone. The story is so irrelevant that I cant believe they let Nomura make it, but I love absolutely every system in that game and my favorite keyblade is in it too. Zero/One is so broken, the only weapon in the series that tops it is KH3s Ultima

The customizable difficulty options in ReCoded actually remind me a lot of TWEWY, which actually does a lot of what ReCoded did before it came out. You get the option to chain enemies in a row, up to 16 fights back to back by the endgame, with the overall strength of enemies increasing in each round and also increases the exp and drop rate of items in exchange, greatly rewarding you for challenging yourself. You can also decrease your health to enhance this effect as well and unlock more difficulty options as the game goes on. Combine this with the vast amount of customizable attacks at your disposal and the partner system keeping you on your toes on even basic encounters and it’s an absolute blast. Considering how involved Nomura was in developing the gameplay for TWEWY, it actually makes me wonder if he got some inspiration from it for ReCoded.

I think it was less the feelings of the virtual twilight gang transferring to the real ones and more Roxas' heart from within Sora reaching out to them.

Funnily enough Re:Coded to me as a kingdom hearts fan is important when it came to bein introduced to the series. Not having the mission structure and more linear for the ds, and I straight up got intrigued in kingdom hearts from a cartoon network commercial for Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded straight up playing Simple and Clean. Also I saw how cool Sora looked, it's the least important story wise but I really jive with how digital the aesthetic was and sorta relaxing nothing much happens? And then it led to me watching various kingdom hearts lets plays and allowing myself to get spoiled on everything.

I don’t exactly see why people need this game to be relevant to all others, maybe it’s because of the nature of the series but idk it’s quite refreshing seeing a standalone game in this series where everything is connected

8:12 That anything can have life, and you can't just say that life comes from one source, or something isn't alive just because of the concept it's made of. That DATA SORA HAS A FREAKING HEART AND ANYTHING CAN GROW A HEART P.S: That's the whole point of the game, it isn't story importance overall what makes it important, but the world building, such as 358/2 gives you the doubt of Nobodies not being just empty beings as you are made to assume. The point of Re:Coded it's to make you think that not everything is as it looks, and life can exist where you less expect it.