The Kingdom Hearts Retrospective

An unprecedented collaboration. A first-time game director. And completely uncharted territory for one of the world's biggest entertainment conglomerates. This is a close look at 2002's Kingdom Hearts, including the game's conception, development, corporate red tape, director Tetsuya Nomura's meetings with the Walt Disney Company, and the creative decisions made for this landmark title.

Chapters
00:00 - Intro
1:54 - Part 1: Disney & Nomura
12:00 - Part 2: Skepticism
20:42 - Patreon
20:53 - Part 3: Kingdom Hearts
25:17 - Sora & The Ties That Bind Us
30:50 - Gameplay & Level Design
50:25 - Presentation & Adapting Disney
1:00:57 - Final Fantasy Characters
1:14:01 - Music
1:22:05 - "My Friends Are My Power"
1:27:55 - Riku
1:32:36 - Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
1:36:12 - The Confrontation & Saving Kairi
1:42:50 - The Heart of Darkness
1:53:51 - Personal Thoughts
1:55:20 - Part 4: Final Mix
2:07:19 - Part 5: Beyond Expectations
2:10:28 - Epilogue & To Be Continued...

Sources:
2. “Kingdom Hearts – Behind the Scenes, Part 1.” PlayStation Underground. Demo Disc 60. Sep 2002.
4. Pisha, Nicolette Lucinda. “Anime in America, Disney in Japan: The Global Exchange of Popular Media Visualized Through Disney’s ‘Stitch’.” College of William and Mary, Jan 2010.
7. Parkin, Simon. “The Never-ending Story.” EDGE. Jan 2018.
35. “Character Team Interview.” Kingdom Hearts Ultimania – Revised Edition. Square Enix. 2004. p. 109-110.
36. “Map & Event Team Interview.” Kingdom Hearts Ultimania – Revised Edition. 2004. p. 313-314.

[vijaydizzle]

Bro really pitched a chainsaw weapon for a disney IP, Legend!

[heartles_xyz]

1:36:12
Honestly my favorite piece of foreshadowing for the Kairi reveal was one you didn't even mention, when Sora seals the keyhole in Deep Jungle, and Tarzan tries to say that our friends are in our hearts

Jane: Oh, now I've got it. Hee-hoo, hoo-hoo-hah means heart. Friends in our hearts...
Tarzan: Heart...
Sora: Oh, so that's what it meant.
Tarzan: Friends, same heart.

When you watch it in context, it's clear they're talking about a more abstract idea of being connected to friends by our hearts. But if you choose to interpret it literally, he's saying that our friends are in our hearts, which Kairi literally is in Sora's heart!

killed me that i didn't notice this until my like sixth time through

[kaithartman]

To this day, no game opening has ever made me feel the way the Kingdom Hearts opening did 22 years ago.

[wolffster]

Honestly if it wasn’t for Kingdom Hearts I never would have played Final Fantasy. I remember seeing character like Squall, Yuffie, and Cloud wondering who they were and luckily the games journal has the name of their respective games in each entry. My favorite reaction was seeing Sephiroth I still vividly remember it. I go into the fight wonder who the heck is this guy with the long flowing silver hair the wing and OMG HOW LONG IS THAT SWORD!!!! The next thing I know I’m dead in two hits from it those were good times.

[CarterJackson]

Yoko Shimomura is THE reason I have so much nostalgia for Kingdom Hearts. She is a genius and what she created was a masterpiece. She deserves all the recognition, praise, and renoun for this absolute peak musical artwork

[zenmelodyy]

Honestly, the voice crack when Sora says "You're stupid" to Riku adds to the performance and I feel makes it more iconic

[goosiesmoosies]

KH was my childhood too! It was so formative for me. I loved its unabashed sweetness. I was disappointed by how complicated the story became in KH2 when it came out. I've come to accept it all for the whole that it was, but I think the relative simplicity of the original story and its core characters was better. It's contrary to a lot of people and I get why, 2 is also iconic and it plays way better, it's only really the immense amount of new lore that threw me off. Looking back at it all, I'm not sure I'm the happiest with where the story has gone since KH, but I'll always have the warm feelings that it gave me and I still enjoy revisiting the other entries as well.

[aquapyro]

It’s only a matter of time before Disney finally gives Nomura a Disney Legend Award. He deserves it for all he has done

[kluchepif]

Best kh 1 retrospective I’ve seen on YouTube

[eazybuxafew]

that was a GREAT Christmas. My mom did her thing! I got vice city, my younger brother got Kingdom Hearts, and my youngest brother Pro Skater 4 for his bday a week before Christmas. We were in heaven 😂😂🙏🏾

[charaznable]

This game and it's sequel's holds a special place in my heart.

[Brian-bwfh]

Kudos to you for diving into the background of the development team and the motivations for making KH. Especially liked the little known fact about Kairi being based on Utada. Also, props for using the PS2 version for footage. I haven’t seen these graphics in ages

[Treblebeatgames]

Your thoughts on how the emotional impact of characters and stories driving home the best stories, to me, rang so true.

I've found that treating characters as "real" as they can be has left me more and more in tune with writing and analysis than any cold read ever could. I feel more for the story because I empathize with fiction as I would a real person. It's why I can say I like melodrama. I like over the top moments that, when written out sound silly, but in the moment it hits different. I feel empathy is a dirty word anymore, but to me, empathy is the crux to what allows people to enjoy the world, and stories told therein.

[jimmayus]

This, quite literally, the most perfect form of content to have dropped mid work day on a slow Friday. Thanks for being a real one Andrew.

[BlueEye]

I've been a KH fan for as long as the series has been a thing and watched TONS of KH1 reviews and retrospectives and I gotta say this may be one of the best I've watched, I absolutely love how much you discuss the history of the game developer insight and reasons for the choices they made for characters, worlds, designs and gameplay. Everybody knows the "Disney and Square employee met in an elevator and thus Kingdom Hearts was born" but I had never heard this story how they were far into development without actually having Disney's full blessing until the meeting with Eisner. I also absolutely love how Nomura was so bold and passionate about his ideas, no fear in presenting what he wanted to do, love that man.

You got a subscriber for life, definitely watching all your other videos in the future.

[ludward]

1:28:11 There's actually a bunch of lines you can read from the FF kids on Destiny Island if you refuse to spar with them, and a few of those are about Riku. Wakka in particular really hypes him up during day 1.

But there's a line from Tidus that I really wish wasn't so easy to miss: he straight up asks Sora if him and Riku are really friends, because he thinks it's hard to tell if they are or not sometimes. That means there's been trouble between the two for a while already.

I think it's likely Riku's grown a bit of an ego from being the oldest and strongest of the kids on Destiny Island, and that he really doesn't know how to handle Sora being able to keep up with him or even surpass him in any way.

[andrewlavigne]

Only 30 minutes in but wow this is so deeply researched. When you said there would be a detour, I didn't expect this. Great stuff!

[netherworlde]

Them, 2000: "Both companies would remain tight-lipped about the project, not giving away even a single modicum of information about the game's title or status."

Me, 2024: You don't say.

[SevenSkylines]

Amazing and underrated retrospective of Kingdom Hearts, its honestly a miracle that this game even released to shelves with how many statistical improbabilities were in its path, Tetsuya Nomura and his team had some ridiculous drive to get this game out. Forever my favorite video game franchise ever created. ❤

[LunarWingCloud]

Kingdom Hearts is how I even got into Final Fantasy. This game is something special, it's insane what it accomplished in 2001/2002