Hello! I wrote a thread about Keyblade Design a while ago, however I'm not satisfied with it as a whole and would like to go game-by-game and briefly talk about the keyblades in each one.
Light spoilers for every KHIII keyblade! If you haven't seen them yet, you might perceive them as very light spoilers! You have been warned!
KINGDOM HEARTS
Kingdom Hearts' keyblades are beautifully simple in my honest opinion. When I originally talked about keyblades I had ragged a bit on the crabclaw and the spellbinder keyblades, and honestly I don't think the latter is all that bad now. Not only is it a shorter keyblade, but it fills a unique niche gameplay-wise and it's a nice, very lightly themed type of keyblade that we don't see a lot.
In the first game, a lot of the weapons were toned down and more environmentally themed as opposed to themed around the movies. Think about it: Jungle King appropriately looks like it was tied together with vines and has a simple butterfly as the keychain, pumpkinhead is just black and scary looking, and lady luck is a gorgeously simple keyblade themed around cards. If these keyblades were in later games, I'd imagine the jungle king to have a weird Tarzan skirt around the base with a baby Turk keychain, the pumpkinhead to be Jack Skellington's face on the top with the mayor's head as the keychain (which would still be okay), and the lady luck to have the cheshire cat, the rabbit, and a bunch of other stuff plastered all over it that would just clutter the design.
Overall, KH gets a 8/10 from me in regards to keyblade design. Still don't like how ugly and polygonal Wishing Star and Crabclaw are, however. My favorite ones from this game are jungle king, lady luck, lionheart, oathkeeper, and divine rose. My least favorites are the crabclaw, wishing star, and diamond dust.
KINGDOM HEARTS II
Ah, Kingdom Hearts II. Some of these keyblades are legitimately great designs while others are absolutely awful. For your great designs you have the two become one, winner's proof, fatal crest, bond of flame, way to the dawn, sleeping lion, monochrome, and decisive pumpkin keyblades. In fact, monochrome was, at one point, my favorite keyblade in the series. The way that these keyblades represented their themes worked really well, and some keyblades, such as the two become one, have been unfairly shafted in my honest opinion. Even the fenrir brought a new type of keyblade design to the series that wouldn't be seen again until Kingdom Hearts III!
For your middling designs we have the hero's crest, wishing lamp, follow the wind, destiny's embrace, and star seeker keyblades. I want to include Gullwing on this list too, however, after playing Final Fantasy X-2, I appreciate the design of this keyblade a little more, but not quite enough to consider it a "favorite". These designs aren't bad per say; in fact, some of them are better for their worlds than their KH counterpart! However, they certainly didn't catch my fancy all that much. Kairi's new keyblade, for example, could have benefited from the ocean theme at the base more and been a lot less flowery, and the star seeker just looks... off-putting.
There are stinkers, though. The hidden dragon and photon debugger are hideous, sorry to say. So are the sweet memories, rumbling rose, and circle of life keyblades. I really, really can't get behind the design of Guardian Soul no matter how hard I try. It frustrates me because I want to love it, yet... it just looks weird.
Overall, I'll give KHII an 8/10 for keyblade design, just like KH. While the bad ones are way worse than anything in KH, the good ones add to the canon wonderfully and really make me love looking at them. Already listed the best and the worst, but if you want to know my favorite it's probably two become one while my least favorite by far is the butt-ugly photon debugger.
KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 DAYS
Um, not much to say here. To be honest, the reason is because:
a) I haven't finished the game yet
and
b) there's a lot of repeat designs here.
I guess for favorite I'd say that twilight blaze, maverick flare, omega weapon, aubade, astral blast, aubade, and umbrella really stick out in my head. These are the main reasons why I want the game remastered! The omega weapon is a nice shift from the ultima weapon tradition, I love me my red keyblade, aubade is a legitimately unique and interesting keyblade design that honestly beats one winged angel on my list, and umbrella is cute and funny (and the snail keychain is cute).
The bad ones aren't that bad either. I honestly like how the Days keyblades stick purely to "original" designs as opposed to being strictly themed and don't have too many callbacks to other keyblades, with the only exceptions really being the kingdom key, oathkeeper, and oblivion keyblades making an (admittedly great) return.
I'll give days a 6/10 for looking bland, but I stress that I don't hate them. I actually like the ones I listed a lot, and the boring ones don't really stick out to me in a negative way necessarily.
KINGDOM HEARTS CODED
Zero/One is pretty cool. Otherwise, I won't give this a rating.
KINGDOM HEARTS BIRTH BY SLEEP
Ah, Birth by Sleep. Much like KHII, your keyblades can be simultaneously be some of the best designs in the series and also some of the most bloated, terrible designs in the series. Favorites of mine include the brightcrest, stormfall, ends of the earth, gazing eye, void gear, lost memory, royal radiance, no name, and chaos ripper keyblades. If you notice, every keyblade listed here is either an endgame or post-game keyblade or a keyblade you obtain in the story. Some of these are just plain good, while others fit right in with the rest of the series. Lost memory will always hold a special place in my heart for being drop-dead gorgeous, while the gazing eye (the confirmed name of MX's keyblade as of KHIII) fits right into the series like a glove and works perfectly.
As for middling designs... wow, there's a lot to unpack here. Most of them are... fine? For middling designs we have the darkgnaw, sweetstack, victory line, pixie petal, and stroke of midnight keyblades. All of these serve their function (and honestly stroke of midnight wouldn't be middling if it wasn't so busy), but that's the issue. These keyblades are paradoxically visually bland and way too busy in the visuals department. Darkgnaw's jaw looks cartoonish and jarring, Sweetstack looks weird and out of place like it was made in a different engine, and pixie petal is functional but just not interesting to look at.
Now, for the awful designs? Hoo boy, these keyblades look AWFUL! I'm looking at you treasure trove, mark of a hero, fairy stars, hyperdrive, frolic flame, and the GOD DAMNED X-BLADE! The beginning of this game has some rough new keyblades, with the treasure trove being way too busy and weird looking and the fairy stars just looking like dogshit. Mark of a hero is super bland, hyperdrive looks like nickelodeon slime and I hate it, and the X-Blade has been clowned on since the beginning. What can I even say about it at this point? The keychain is stupid and the fact that it's two identical kingdom keys crossing is weird and doesn't really make any sense. I mean, did Sora inherit the ultimate keyblade? Why is the X-Blade fashioned like that? Why couldn't it have just been like the Keyblade of Heart from KH? That would have been a way better design! Oh, and the frolic flame isn't getting away that easy. It's like a preschooler drew the bond of flame in crayon and they programmed it! It's especially weird since the interaction with Lea is so short and shouldn't warrant a whole keyblade themed after the encounter. Destiny's embrace only got an excuse because that was already a keyblade designed around Kairi and there was no reason not to put it in there.
Overall, 6.5/10 for Birth by Sleep. My favorite is probably Lost Memory while my least favorite is Frolic flame or Fairy Stars.
KINGDOM HEARTS DREAM DROP DISTANCE
Some of these keyblades are okay and some of them are eww. The best here are colorful and innovative while the worst look like they were made out of rainbow play-doh and pulled from a unicorn's asshole. The good looking ones here are the guardian bell, combined keyblade, Young Xehanort's keyblade, counterpoint, and skull noise. The combined keyblade is honestly gorgeous and I wish it was reserved for more than just a reality shift in TWTNW. Young Xehanort's keyblade is a welcome addition to the series that won me over in III, however the counterpoint is purely a biased perspective since I'm a musician and we need more music themed keyblades! Skull Noise and Guardian Bell look good, however I don't have anything to say about them really. Consider sweet dreams on here too, but it really had to warm up to me first (and it's still a bit too visually busy).
The middling ones are really meh. We have the divewing, end of pain, unbound, and ferris gear keyblades for Sora as well as Lea's new keyblade. Lea's is fine I guess, but I was hoping for it to be more reminiscent of the bond of flame myself and not some weird fanmade-looking thing. The divewing and end of pain are fine but bland, and honestly I haven't bothered to get the divewing once since I dislike the diving sections of the game so much. The ferris gear looks fine? I don't have anything to say about that one. The unbound is also just kind of there.
Then we have the stinkers. The dual disc is especially ugly and somehow makes me wish that the photon debugger would come back. Sure, the colors are better than the photon debugger, but why does it look like it's mean to be back-wielded like Ventus? It just looks extremely awkward and uninspired. The all for one is especially bland, I wouldn't be surprised if an employee at Osaka just designed this thing during the first half of his lunch break and called it quits. Ocean's Rage is maybe the worst keyblade design in the entire series, honestly. It's absolutely atrocious to look at and unwieldy to boot.
Overall, I'll give the keyblades from DDD a 5/10. Not very exciting or memorable, however some good work came out of them.
KINGDOM HEARTS X SAGA
Look, most of the keyblades here are... fine. Starlight looks good, Moogle O' Glory is a bit cluttered but mostly keeps a consistent look, and the foreteller keyblades all look great. The designs I will praise are the upgrades for the divine rose, missing ache, lady luck, sleeping lion, and stroke of midnight keyblades, as all of these do well to "upgrade" the design of the originals and elevate them. Missing ache gets a special shout out since it was a keyblade that absolutely was begging to be expanded on and I fully support that decision.
The olympia, fairy stars, darkgnaw, fenrir, and treasure trove designs, however, did nothing to impress me. They're all either already ugly keyblades with no improvements to clear the visual clutter that some already had or just redesigns of already fine looking keyblades that turn them into gaudy, ridiculous messes. A special calling out goes to the fenrir, which went from a wrapped, crude-looking blade to a god damn car engine.
Overall, 5/10 for X's keyblades. While I like the foreteller's keyblades a lot and think that the starlight is a nice, simple design, the gaudiness problem still seeps into this game like a virus.
KINGDOM HEARTS III
Now, here's where I think the series is making a return with the keyblade designs. It doesn't mean that every design is perfect, but some of them are less messy than they used to be. SOME. The best ones in my honest opinion are the crystal snow, grand chef, classic tone, shooting star, and ultima weapon keyblades. Crystal Snow absolutely blows diamond dust out of the water in my opinion in regards to pretty ice-themed keyblades, only losing one point due to a stupid olaf keychain that completely takes away from the rest of the aesthetic. Grand chef is a fun transformation with a fantastic initial aesthetic, which is odd since I'm not usually one to like the aesthetic of Disney keyblades that are so heavily themed from different parts of the movie. Classic tone is simple and non-specific, and surprisingly toned down in regards to other Disney-themed keyblades in the past. I also like how it has a steering wheel as a keychain (Steamboat Willie reference?) and makes a little horn sound when hitting enemies. Shooting star is just plain good looking, nothing more to say. Certainly more than star seeker ever was. The ultima weapon is honestly the best ultima weapon design in any game FIGHT ME!
The middling ones are the ever after, nano gear, hero's origin, and rudder of fate keyblades. The ever after is a little visually bland on the battlefield but a good design, the nano gear has a cool aesthetic but is a little too visually busy, the hero's origin has terrible color on the actual keyblade but a good design for its transformation, and the rudder of fate is just not very visually interesting to me. (Riku's new keyblade is pretty bland too)
The bad ones, for me at least, are the happy gear, hunny spout, and favorite deputy keyblades. The happy gear is just way too busy and not nearly as fun as the movie it's based on. The hunny spout, while certainly having a fun transformation, is way too busy for its own good and should have taken notes from the sweet memories. The favorite deputy is just a mess visually. While the transformation concept is fun, the keyblade is not well-designed by any means and often leaves me to scratch my head wondering what went wrong down at pixar.
Overall, KHIII gets a 6.5/10 for me on keyblade design. While I really like the ones listed above, the bad looking ones stick out like a sore thumb, especially with a weirdly low keyblade count in the game. My favorite would be the grand chef probably while my least favorite to look at would easily be the favorite deputy.
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Well, which ones do you like the most from each game? Comment below and let me know! ^u^
P.S. If I didn't mention a keyblade from a game it pm means I have no solid opinion on the keyblade!
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