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00:05Welcome to MojoPlays and today we're looking at the first entry of one of the busiest series of
00:09all time to see if there's anything we missed in arguably the simplest entry. These are 20
00:14things you didn't know about Kingdom Hearts 1. Let's go. Before we continue, we publish content
00:19all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified of our latest videos.
00:26The greatest story of all time.
00:33Some of the biggest gaming ideas come from years of planning and endless meetings. Then
00:38there's Kingdom Hearts, which apparently owes its existence to two people sharing an elevator.
00:43For a series that combines Disney cartoons with the usually more serious worlds of Square Enix,
00:48you'd expect a mountain of paperwork to be involved. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. During Disney's
00:54D23 event in 2017, director Tetsuya Nomura explained that Square executive Shinji Hashimoto and a Disney
01:00executive regularly bumped into each other because both companies were located in the same Tokyo
01:06building. Casual chats eventually turned into discussions about working together. Before
01:11anyone drafted a grand proposal, the idea had already started. Imagine writing fanfic with your elevator home
01:17to me and it becomes one of the most profitable series of all time.
01:20What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? I'm here, I think.
01:24TP
01:31Few things get gamers digging through old files faster than the discovery of unused content. In 2016,
01:38a YouTuber poking around the data of Kingdom Hearts stumbled across something unusual, an unfinished 3D
01:43model of a ship hidden within the game's code. There was no textures or characters or events attached to
01:48it, making it look like a world that never made it past the planning stage. What caught people's attention
01:53was the label attached to the area. Other locations in the game used short abbreviations, such as Hollow
01:58Bastion being listed as HB, while this mysterious map was tagged TP. That immediately sparked speculation
02:04that it may have been connected to Disney's Treasure Planet. Whether it was cancelled content or an early
02:09tease, fans still love theorizing about it today.
02:18Plot blowhole
02:27Sometimes the biggest mysteries in a game aren't hidden bosses or secret endings. They're little details that make you stop
02:33and think,
02:33hang on, that doesn't seem right. Players noticed one of these odd moments in Kingdom Hearts involving Pinocchio.
02:38The story treats Monstro as the place where Sora, Donald and Goofy first meet the wooden troublemaker. Yet, if you
02:44visit Sid's shop in Traverse Town after unlocking Agrabah, Pinocchio can already be found hanging out around there.
02:50That creates a pretty strange situation. If his official introduction hasn't happened yet, how did he manage to show up
02:56in another world beforehand?
02:57The simple answer is that you are supposed to see Pinocchio first in Traverse Town, and then in Monstro.
03:03Unfortunately, most players didn't play the game in that order, creating forums upon forums of gamers asking,
03:10how does Sora know Pinocchio?
03:12It's me!
03:14Oh, it's just Pinocchio!
03:17Scrapped Riku Fight.
03:25Video game developers are constantly moving things around during production, and sometimes those abandoned ideas end up just as interesting
03:31as the final version.
03:32One example from Kingdom Hearts involves the showdown between Sora and Riku.
03:36Most players know this battle takes place in Hollow Bastion, but that apparently wasn't always the plan.
03:41Early development pointed towards a darker version of Destiny Islands as the Arena, an area referred to as Crumbling Islands.
03:48This location still exists in the game's data, and players using devices like GameShark have been able to access it
03:53and fight Riku there instead.
03:55It's a fascinating glimpse into an alternate version of the game.
04:04Secret Tarzan Minigame
04:11You'd think that after more than a decade of players picking apart every corner of Kingdom Hearts, there wouldn't be
04:16many surprises left.
04:17Apparently, the game still has secrets to find.
04:20During a 2016 livestream, YouTuber TheGamersJoint accidentally stumbled across a hidden area in Deep Jungle that many fans had never
04:27seen before.
04:28By making a very specific turn while sliding along the vines, he was led to a secret minigame centered around
04:33collecting fruit alongside Tarzan.
04:35The discovery left both the streamer and his audience completely stunned, which is half the fun of watching the clip.
04:41The minigame itself feels like a nice callback to Disney's Tarzan, featuring rushing water, twisting roots, and plenty of jungle
04:47scenery.
04:47Of course, the secret would have been in the worst level in the game we were all trying to rush
04:51through.
04:58Sora's Weight
05:04Hidden bosses are cool, and secret cutscenes are great, but sometimes the strangest discoveries are the most memorable.
05:11Tucked away in Traverse Town's First District is a tiny detail that lets players check Sora's weight.
05:16Inside Huey, Dewey and Louie's shop, a scale sits between the counter and the lower entrance.
05:21Don't stress, it's not for you.
05:23By switching to first-person view and looking at it, you can see exactly how much the Keyblade wielded tips
05:28the scales.
05:29It serves absolutely no gameplay purpose, which somehow makes it even funnier.
05:33Sadly, Donald and Goofy don't get the same treatment, so we'll never know what a talking duck weighs.
05:37I assume his weight doesn't often go... down.
05:41I hate myself.
05:46Player's Cloud
05:46Kinda
05:55For some fans, simply playing as Sora was never enough.
05:57Over the years, players have dug through Kingdom Hearts looking for ways to control other characters,
06:02and one of the more interesting discoveries involves Cloud from Final Fantasy VII.
06:05Through the use of cheat devices and modified game codes, players can actually take control of him during the Hercules
06:11Cup.
06:12It's not exactly a polished feature.
06:14Cloud can't run around normally and doesn't have access to abilities like High Jump.
06:18But on the bright side, he gains a pretty hilarious advantage, the ability to fly and attack enemies while floating
06:23through the air.
06:24It's a rough but entertaining experiment that shows just how creative the community can be with the codes they've been
06:29given.
06:35Changes depending on how you play.
06:45Not every choice in Kingdom Hearts leads to a different ending, but the game does sneak in a few small
06:49changes depending on the order you tackle its worlds.
06:52One easy to miss example happens after wrapping up the story in Deep Jungle.
06:56A cutscene plays featuring several Disney villains discussing Sora, the Keyblade, and why they see him as a problem worth
07:02keeping an eye on.
07:03It's an important moment because it helps establish the bad guys as an actual threat rather than a collection of
07:09familiar faces.
07:10Here's where things get interesting.
07:11The princess shown at the end of the scene can change.
07:15Most players see Snow White, but those who unlock Wonderland first will instead be greeted by Alice.
07:20It's a tiny detail, yet a neat reminder that the game's progression isn't completely set in stone.
07:27Speedrun Hack
07:33Here's a speedrunning strategy that sounds completely backwards.
07:36Instead of rushing through Kingdom Hearts as fast as possible, you can actually spend 100 hours doing the exact opposite.
07:42Take your time.
07:43Explore every corner, fight optional enemies, and generally play at the pace of someone with nowhere to be.
07:48Once you hit 100 hours, head to the final boss.
07:51Thanks to a quirk in how the game tracks time, defeating the ending within 15 minutes of 100 hours makes
07:58it appear as though your entire adventure was completed in under 15 minutes.
08:02The result?
08:03The coveted Speedster Trophy lands in your collection despite your marathon playthrough.
08:08Ha!
08:11Elementals
08:19The Kingdom Hearts series loves hiding meaning in plain sight, and the character names are one of the best examples.
08:25At first glance, Sora, Riku, and Kairi just sound like cool names, but they actually connect to the natural world.
08:30Sora translates to sky in Japanese, Riku is associated with land or earth, and Kairi's name comes from the sea.
08:37Put those three elements together and you've basically recreated the environment of Destiny Islands itself.
08:43It's a clever little detail that many players missed during their first playthrough.
08:46The trend didn't stop there, either.
08:48Years later, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep introduced Terra, Ventus, and Aqua.
08:51Their names come from Latin and translate to earth, wind, and water, respectively.
08:56But this list isn't about them, I just had to mention it because it's sick.
08:59Get off my back.
09:01Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater.
09:05Original Clothes
09:15It's funny to look back at the earliest footage of Kingdom Hearts because Donald and Goofy almost looked like they'd
09:20wandered in from a completely different game.
09:22Before release, both characters appeared in the clothes fans knew from the classic Disney cartoons.
09:27Goofy sported his usual green hat and blue jeans, while Donald was dressed in his familiar sailor outfit.
09:32The decision was made to give them designs that better match the fantasy adventure setting.
09:36The knight-inspired outfit seen in the final game ended up fitting the Keyblade quest much better than their everyday
09:42cartoon wardrobes.
09:43I disagree.
09:44I love the little sailor outfit.
09:45He's so freaking cute.
10:01One of the strangest moments in Kingdom Hearts arrives near the end of the adventure when Chernobog suddenly appears.
10:07Is it pronounced Chernobog?
10:09Whatever.
10:09For Disney fans, seeing the giant demon from Fantasia while Night on Bald Mountain blasts in the background is an
10:16unforgettable surprise.
10:18For non-Disney fans like myself, you probably had no idea what was going on and just thought, sick.
10:22The reason it feels so random may be because he was once planned to have a much larger role.
10:27Early ideas reportedly positioned Chernobog as the game's ultimate villain.
10:30A living embodiment of darkness, and even the origin of the Heartless themselves.
10:35That concept actually fits surprisingly well, especially since several pure-blood Heartless share features with his design.
10:48Replaced.
10:52One of the more impressive achievements of the early Kingdom Hearts games was how many original Disney voices the developers
10:58managed to bring back.
10:59Of course, that wasn't always possible.
11:01Characters such as Maleficent, Captain Hook, and the Queen of Hearts had to be recast because their original performers had
11:07passed away.
11:08Though the replacements did a remarkably convincing job.
11:11Then there's Hercules, who ended up being an entirely different story.
11:13His original actor, Tate Donovan, was still active at the time, yet someone else was brought in to voice the
11:20hero.
11:20That replacement turned out to be Sean Astin, best known for roles in The Goonies and Samwise Gamgee in The
11:26Lord of the Rings.
11:27It's an unexpected casting choice, especially for a character with relatively few lines.
11:32And also, Donovan returned for every game that followed, so what the hell was that about?
11:38Just between us?
11:39I'd already worn Cerberus down by the time the little guy jumped in.
11:44Square Enix
11:45Hey Sora, have you heard about the legendary power of the Pauku fruit?
11:50Most people remember the Disney characters in Kingdom Hearts, but the Final Fantasy guest appearances were a huge selling point
11:56too.
11:56Interestingly, several of these cameos almost looked very different.
12:00Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII was originally planned to be Riku from Final Fantasy X, but that idea was dropped
12:07somewhere during development.
12:08Considering the game already has a main character named Riku, that may have saved everyone a lot of confusion.
12:12Wakka's appearance on Destiny Island also came about after another change, as Final Fantasy VIII character Irvine was initially intended
12:19for the role.
12:20Director Tetsuo Nomura later explained that adapting Irvine to the island setting proved difficult, probably because he's a sex pest.
12:27The biggest swap involved Aerith, whose role reportedly belonged to Arya Bree from Parasite Eve, before developers pushed to the
12:34more recognisable Final Fantasy VII heroine.
12:37I'm shocked at how many of the Square Enix characters weren't originally those characters.
12:42Irvine and Arya? Who was smoking during that meeting?
12:47Haunted Tune
12:54Ask 10 Kingdom Hearts fans to name the series' most iconic piece of music, and there's a good chance Dostati
13:00will come up more than once.
13:01The track has become so closely tied to the franchise that it keeps reappearing in new arrangements across multiple games.
13:07Strangely enough, the song developed a reputation behind the scenes for all the wrong reasons.
13:12Composer Yoko Shimomura once revealed that whenever the chorus data for the piece was being loaded, odd problems seemed to
13:19follow.
13:19The most memorable incident reportedly involved a power outage that shut down the entire building, leading some staff members to
13:25jokingly label the song as Cursed.
13:28The music itself is sung in Italian, and all ghosts are Italian. Trust me, that's science.
13:40Kurt Zeezer
13:47Hidden away beyond the main story, some of the toughest fights in Kingdom Hearts are completely optional.
13:52Players can challenge famous opponents like Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, or take on mysterious enemies that hint at future
13:58games in the series.
13:59One of the more unusual bosses is the giant snake-headed creature lurking in Agrabah, Kurt Zeezer.
14:05At first glance, the name sounds like it belongs to some ancient legend or forgotten monster from mythology.
14:10The truth is, much less dramatic.
14:13Kurt Zeezer was actually a real person who won a contest held shortly before the game's international launch.
14:18As part of his prize, his name would appear somewhere in the game,
14:21and the developers decided to attach it to one of the hardest optional bosses around.
14:26Not a bad way to leave your mark on gaming history.
14:32Thunder!
14:36Never too old.
14:37Of course. I've done absolutely nothing wrong.
14:41Let's take a brief detour into voice acting trivia, because this one's genuinely impressive.
14:46A big part of making Kingdom Hearts feel authentic was ensuring that Disney characters sounded like fans remembered them,
14:52and the series has always gone to great lengths to bring back original performers whenever possible.
14:57One of the most remarkable examples is Catherine Beaumont.
15:00She wasn't just associated with Disney history, she helped create it.
15:04Beaumont originally voiced Alice in Disney's Alice in Wonderland,
15:07and Wendy in Peter Pan, when those films were released in the early 1950s.
15:12Decades later, she returned to play both characters in Kingdom Hearts.
15:16What's amazing is that she was already in her 60s at the time,
15:19yet somehow still managed to convincingly sound like the same young British girl audiences had heard generations earlier.
15:26That's a seriously impressive performance.
15:29Oh, quite, yes.
15:31But she seems to be asleep.
15:34She hasn't budged an inch.
15:35Donald the Duck
15:41Before Sora became the face of Kingdom Hearts,
15:43there was a very, very real chance the series would have gone a completely different direction.
15:47During early planning stages, the developers couldn't agree on who should lead the adventure.
15:51Since Disney was such a major partner, some people pushed for Mickey Mouse to take center stage.
15:57Others reportedly preferred Donald Duck as the hero, which certainly would have made for a very different game.
16:02The solution was to create an entirely new character that both sides could get behind.
16:06That's how Sora was born.
16:08His design even reflects the partnerships that inspired the series.
16:11I can't tell you how much I wouldn't want to play as Donald for a whole game, or Mickey, while
16:14we're on it.
16:15Oh, shut the f*** up, mouse.
16:18Oh, whoa.
16:21Rora.
16:24Hey, check us out.
16:26Wah!
16:27Looking at early concept art for Kingdom Hearts feels a little bit like peeking into an alternate universe.
16:32The Sora we know today almost look nothing like the cheerful hero who ended up on the box art.
16:37Early designs gave him a far more animalistic appearance, complete with claws and a tail,
16:41and even a bizarre chainsaw-like weapon instead of the keyblade.
16:44Some familiar ideas were already there, though.
16:46The weapon still featured what would eventually become the series' iconic keychain,
16:50and Sora was shown wearing a crown, a symbol that would continue appearing in official artwork for years.
16:55Oh, cramber.
16:56Yeah, that's right.
16:57Don't be silly.
16:59We love you to stick around for lunch.
17:01Huge cast.
17:04Now you're gonna...
17:08We locked in on Sean Astin because it was so out of pocket,
17:12but here's some casting decisions that still make me do a double-take.
17:14When Kingdom Hearts was bringing iconic Final Fantasy characters to life,
17:18Square didn't just hire experienced voice actors across the board.
17:22Instead, they brought in a surprising amount of television, movie, and music celebrities.
17:28Leon was voiced by David Boreanaz, best known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel,
17:32while Yuffie was played by Christy Carson Romano, the voice of Kim Possible and a familiar face from Disney Channel.
17:38Those choices are unusual enough, but then there's Sephiroth.
17:42One of gaming's most famous villains making his speaking debut was voiced by none other than Lance Bass from NSYNC.
17:48Not a professional game voice actor, not a veteran anime performer,
17:51a member of one of the biggest boy bands on the planet.
17:54Even stranger, it remains Bass's only video game credit.
17:58That's one heck of a random entry on a resume.
18:00Dodge this, and God, meet your fate.
18:04RAAAARGH!
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