History YMMV / KINGDOMHEARTS

** [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVanitas Vanitas]], Number XI of the [[Characters/KingdomHeartsOrganizationXIII Thirteen]] Seekers of [[DarkIsEvil Darkness]], desires to [[OmnicidalManiac spread Darkness across all worlds]]. His first known attempt would be by possessing [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVentus Ventus]] and forcing him to kill Strelitzia and take her place as a union leader, causing Ventus to be haunted by nightmares of the deed and tricked into thinking he did it of his own will. Vanitas would then attempt to use Ventus and the data works as means to grow stronger and consume more worlds along with his brethren. After gaining his own body as Vanitas, he would become [[Characters/KingdomHeartsMasterXehanort Master Xehanort]]'s apprentice and be the forerunner in his cataclysmic plan to restart the Keyblade War by having the Unversed beings inside his body cause destruction across multiple worlds to lure Ventus from home, so he could torment and goad him into fighting him to forge the X-Blade and take over his body so he could begin a war that could "reduce all worlds to nothing". Returning once again for another Keyblade War via time travel, Vanitas restores his heart with the negative emotions of children and begins tormenting his "brothers" [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]] and Ventus again so he can once again claim Ven's body. In his final moments, deciding to [[RedemptionRejection reject redemption]] from his brothers despite having the capacity to do good, Vanitas shows himself to be the worst out of all the villains in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' universe.

** [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAxel Axel]], the Nobody of Lea and number VIII of Organization XIII, is a quick-witted and smooth-spoken "fixer" for the Organization responsible for silencing those who try to betray Xemnas. Axel acts as a mole for Larxene and Marluxia's scheme, killing loose ends like Vexen and Zexion with an impenetrable smile on his face, while manipulating Sora's group, Namine, and the Riku Replica, eventually dismantling Marluxia's scheme in preparation for his and Saïx's own attempt to seize power from Xemnas. Axel shows humanity and depth unique for a Nobody far earlier than most of his comrades, bonding fiercely with Xion and Roxas, and once his love for them overrides his loyalty to the Organization, Axel goes turncoat. When his attempt to take Roxas from Sora back fails, Axel decides to help him instead, sacrificing his own life to save Sora and paving the way for Lea to ally with the heroes against Xehanort's overlapping scheme. Always ready with a quip and a smile for any occasion, Axel leaves little room for wonder as to how the fandom memorized his name so universally.

** The PC ports have been subject to this as well as one common argument fans defending the games' exclusivity to the Epic Games Store use is that the ports were developed in collaboration with Epic directly meaning a NoPortForYou for Steam users. However this loses weight as Epic's involvement in the ports would have been confirmed outright by both studios with the official statement regarding the exclusivity being considered vague at best by many fans. The fact that the ports would eventually be released on Steam in 2024 would also effectively [[{{Jossed}} joss]] the claim entirely.

** The PC ports have been subject to this as well as one common argument fans defending the games' exclusivity to the Epic Games Store use is that the ports were developed in collaboration with Epic directly meaning a NoPortForYou for Steam users. However this loses weight as Epic's involvement in the ports would have been confirmed outright by both studios with the official statement regarding the exclusivity being considered vague at best by many fans, many pointing out some titles having exclusivity periods longer than the standard year, and some theories point towards Square holding off on a Steam release in order to use it as a way of promoting ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIV'' much like how ''The Story So Far'' bundle was done to help promote ''III''.

* AmericansHateTingle: Roxas is a BaseBreakingCharacter in the West, but the second most popular character after Sora in Japan. Likewise, ''358/2 Days'' is the second most popular ''KH'' game after ''[=KH2=]'' in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, above even the original game and ''Birth by Sleep'', whereas it is [[ContestedSequel far more divisive]] in the West.
** Kairi (and her counterparts Namine and Xion, though the latter isn't entirely played straight in this regard...) has a very divisive fanbase in the West as well. She is more popular in Japan than in the US (to the point where Nomura worried that Aqua wouldn't become as well-received as she is because she was different from Kairi, Namine, and Xion; a notion that's laughable in the West) but that's most likely because the YaoiFangirls in Japan are much less [[VocalMinority vocal]] [[DieForOurShip about their feelings]] than the ones in the West.

** Sora gets this treatment, too. He's the most popular character of the series in Japan (after all, he's the protagonist), but is a BaseBreakingCharacter in America.

** The Platform/NintendoSwitch "ports" are infamous for being UsefulNotes/CloudGaming ports rather than natively developed for the Switch. While this isn't much of a problem in Japan due to its solid Internet infrastructure, it has caused a ton of problems for Western players, who have experienced all manner of buffering, desync, freezing and disconnecting issues. Even with all the porting issues with the games being ported to other consoles, the Nintendo Switch versions are considered the ''worst'' way to experience the series. Furthermore, while many could at least understand ''3'' being cloud-based and maybe leave some room for ''2.8'', the ''1.5 + 2.5'' pack being cloud-based is downright insulting considering they were originally released for the [=PS3=], a console that is ''orders of magnitude'' weaker than the Switch.

* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: The Osaka Team (who developed ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'') are often compared negatively to the Tokyo team who developed ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', with many people considering the former two games to be much weaker gameplay wise than the main installments. Commonly cited complaints are poor balancing and an emphasis on LevelGrinding and grinding for powerful commands/items over actual skill, plus the lack of the Revenge Number system introduced in ''[=KHII=]'' that was so beloved by a portion of the ''KH'' community
* OvershadowedByControversy: Starting from ''Dream Drop Distance'', the series started to suffer of this. Between the convoluted time travel plan of the villains that invalidated everything the heroes did and the DarkIsNotEvil aesop, further convolutions brought in by [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX the mobile game]] and the general uproar at ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII's'' ending, many fans [[FanonDiscontinuity refuse to accept the mobile game as canon]], and even those who do only see the Lost Masters arc with apathy. Those games also turned Xehanort, previously well-liked as a villain, into [[BaseBreakingCharacter the most divisive character in the series]], with his time-travelling young self in particular being [[TheScrappy a fandom pariah]], until Xehanort as a whole became one when he was EasilyForgiven despite ''there literally being no reason to forgive him''. The Master of Masters is also seen as a fandom pariah himself for the same reasons as Young Xehanort: namely that everything that happened in the series was what the Master of Masters wanted to happen, just like how Young Xehanort made sure everything that happened up to ''Dream Drop Distance'' was what Xehanort wanted to happen. Due to the fact [[YouCantFightFate the heroes can do nothing that can harm the villains' plans]], the series ended up suffocatingly nihilistic.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Starting from ''Dream Drop Distance'', the series started to suffer of this. Between the convoluted time travel plan of the villains that invalidated everything the heroes did and the DarkIsNotEvil aesop, further convolutions brought in by [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX the mobile game]] and the general uproar at ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII's'' ending, many fans [[FanonDiscontinuity refuse to accept the mobile game as canon]], and even those who do only see the Lost Masters arc with apathy. Those games also turned Xehanort, previously well-liked as a villain, into [[BaseBreakingCharacter the most divisive character in the series]], with his time-travelling young self in particular being [[TheScrappy a fandom pariah]], until Xehanort as a whole became one when he was EasilyForgiven despite ''there literally being no reason to forgive him''. And the reveal that Xigbar and Luxu are the same person also turned the two, also previously well-liked, into fandom pariahs themselves.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Starting from ''Dream Drop Distance'', the series started to suffer of this. Between the convoluted time travel plan of the villains that invalidated everything the heroes did and the DarkIsNotEvil aesop, further convolutions brought in by [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX the mobile game]] and the general uproar at ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII's'' ending, many fans [[FanonDiscontinuity refuse to accept the mobile game as canon]], and even those who do only see the Lost Masters arc with apathy. Those games also turned Xehanort, previously well-liked as a villain, into [[BaseBreakingCharacter the most divisive character]], with his time-travelling young self in particular being [[TheScrappy a fandom pariah]], until Xehanort as a whole became one when he was EasilyForgiven despite ''there literally being no reason to forgive him''. And the reveal that Xigbar and Luxu are the same person also turned the two, also previously well-liked, into fandom pariahs themselves.

* TheScrappy: As [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive]] as Xehanort became over the years, what with his plan becoming more and more convoluted, at least most of his incarnations do have fans who love them for [[LoveToHate being entertaining villains]]. Not Young Xehanort. That incarnation is nothing but a DiabolusExMachina that exists to make the plot more convoluted and [[HappyEndingOverride tear apart Sora and Kairi again]]. Not even the battles against him are fun, as he works entirely on randomness, as his fights in Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance show. Because of this and Xehanort being EasilyForgiven at the end of III ''in spite of everything'', Young Xehanort is a fandom pariah.

** It's common to hear or read fans of the series claim that the series is a Platform/PlayStation exclusive series despite Square not being a console-exclusive company and there being more games that originally came out on Nintendo handhelds and mobile devices than Platform/PlayStation platforms prior to 2013, when they were all ported in ''I.5,'' ''II.5,'' and ''II.8.'' Then ''III'' got announced for the Xbox One alongside the [=PS4=]. Some fans will also claim that there's an exclusivity contract which is the reason that the collections haven't made it off the UsefuPlatformlNotes/PlayStation consoles yet, which is contradicted by Nomura's own statements in a few interviews where he said it's entirely possible to port them over to Platform/XboxOne and the Platform/NintendoSwitch, but they're waiting until after ''III'' is done being developed to start doing so, as well as still needing to discuss the prospect with Microsoft, but haven't had time to yet.

** '''Everything''' regarding the existence of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Verum Rex]]'' and its potential application of resurrecting [[{{Vaporware}} the scrapped]] ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII''. Fans who felt disappointed by ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' (the game ''Versus XIII'' ended up after Creator/TetsuyaNomura was removed from the project) or believe its cancellation came from being ScrewedByTheNetwork look forward to its story and characters being applied to the future of the franchise. Meanwhile, fans who blame the DevelopmentHell, and eventual cancellation, of ''Versus XIII'' on Nomura feel the game's potential reapplication in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' franchise will lead to the series' characters and ongoing storyline getting neglected in favor of a project that Nomura is better off moving on from.

'''Everything''' regarding the existence of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Verum Rex]]'' and its potential application of resurrecting [[{{Vaporware}} the scrapped]] ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII''. Fans who felt disappointed by ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' (the game ''Versus XIII'' ended up after Creator/TetsuaNomura was removed from the project) or believe its cancellation came from being ScrewedByTheNetwork look forward to its story and characters being applied to the future of the franchise. Meanwhile, fans who blame the DevelopmentHell, and eventual cancellation, of ''Versus XIII'' on Nomura feel the game's potential reapplication in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' franchise will lead to the series' characters and ongoing storyline getting neglected in favor of a project that Nomura is better off moving on from.