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Is Kingdom Hearts 1 regarded as difficult?

Miker

Member
I'm at the preliminary fights in the Olympia Coliseum in Kingdom Hearts 1, where you fight through six groups of enemies then fight
Cloud
, and after more than a few attempts, I keep dying on the sixth group. This is on normal, too.

Maybe it's because I picked the sword and gave up the shield, but I can only take about 6 hits or so before dying. The combat is mashy and mindless, and trying to manually target the appropriate red/blue enemy and use the corresponding magic is a crapshoot. The camera is really bad at keeping track of multiple enemies, and I keep on getting hit from offscreen by magic missiles that take off a sixth of my health. Goofy and Donald are usually dead by the third round because they can't dodge anything and I don't trust AI characters with potions.

I wasn't expecting Platinum tier combat out of this game or anything, but it's genuinely clumsy and beyond not being very fun, it's also kinda hard. Anybody else have similar experiences? Didn't expect Kingdom Hearts of all games to put up a roadblock this early on.
 
I think it can be tough because of the controls being kinda clunky, but at least you aren't playing it on Proud. The first half of the game on Proud can be a bit tough, especially for a newcomer. Also use your abilities. Button mashing will get you nowhere unless you are playing KH2 on normal.
 

sn00zer

Member
Its not easy thats for sure. Yes the game is well known for being moderately difficult which made KH2s normal mode seem unusaaly easy. KH2 critical fixed this and is only moderately more difficult than KH1 on Normal even with the spooky name
 
It's somewhat hard basically until you get Cure, after which it becomes much easier.

you can actually get Cure before Olympus Coliseum if you head to the third world on the map
 

jennetics

Member
I had a ton of trouble with KH1, especially in Alice in Wonderland's boss (Trickmaster or something). Died so many times...

Keep leveling up, that's all I can recommend. The game gets easier once you get a feel for the combat and camera. Plus you get more abilities as you level up, so it can make fights a lot easier.

Don't give up!
 

RRockman

Banned
I remember Clayton's gun, which if you didn't know any better it could have been a magic sniper rifle with its range and accuracy. But sorry OP, sword is like the biggest mistake in these games on the harder difficulties.
 

Mcdohl

Member
I remember fighting Sephiroth was challenging. It was fun pulling it off.

Then it was such a disappointment in KH2 with the QTE :(
 

Ray Down

Banned
Ursula was such an awful boss. I remember my friend and I were stuck on her for weeks.

Yeah I remember even being stuck on her even when I was playing the HD collection.

Never found Kingdom Hearts 1 all to difficult even as a kid or on proud mode today besides for her.
 
No, at least not on standard. Proud mode can be tough if you're new to the series.

If you need to grind, go to the coliseum.

Edit: my bad for not reading the whole OP. What level are you? Have beaten Wonderland yet?
 
This thread makes me feel a lot better; I'm generally pretty good at games but I don't play many (well, any really) JRPGs. Was playing the HD version on PS4, and was having a lot of trouble, mainly because the combat system feels clunky and dated, and the camera and movement are just awful.
 
C

Contica

Unconfirmed Member
I gave upnat the last boss when I played the remaster, but other than that I had no issues.
 

LordKasual

Banned
It has the most well-tuned combat in the series.

KH2's was improved in pretty much every way. But the combat was braindead.

In KH2/BBS, the only real way to make a boss "difficult" is to make them throw crazy hitboxes and teleport all over the place.
 

Apath

Member
Get through it because KH2 is worth it. The upgrade in combat is ridiculous.
Ridiculously awful. It's been a long time since I've played KH2, but I remember spamming triangle a lot and the combat not feeling nearly as strategic as KH1.

It is much faster and looks cooler, so ridiculous may be fitting. I'll give you that.
 
Maybe before cure, but I played through Proud recently and I surprisingly didn't have much difficulty with it. I even beat some bosses I remember being huge pains in my ass when I was a kid on the first try (and I think I played on easy back then).

Ridiculously awful. It's been a long time since I've played KH2, but I remember spamming triangle a lot and the combat not feeling nearly as strategic as KH1.

It is much faster and looks cooler, so ridiculous may be fitting. I'll give you that.

You're probably talking about the base game, but KH2 Critical (only available through Final Mix) is without a doubt the height of the series. Though I'd say even base KH2 is better than KH1 which is a huge slog fest.
 

Miker

Member
Glad to see it's not just me. The camera and lock-on mechanics are just godawful. It's weird in that the game is clearly throwing extremely simple trash mobs at me, and yet I still feel like the basic moveset and controls are so limited that I can't deal with them properly.

I remember Clayton's gun, which if you didn't know any better it could have been a magic sniper rifle with its range and accuracy. But sorry OP, sword is like the biggest mistake in these games on the harder difficulties.

Yeah, so I'm only now realizing.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I'm playing birth by sleep on normal and it's more challenging than I would expect on normal. When I get to the rest i'll be playing on easy. Not like I need the end game teasers for sequels that are already out
 

Kinsei

Banned
Not really. The most difficult parts of KH1 are all in the beginning when you don;t have access to the cure spell. I would recommend you skip Olympus for now and head to Deep Jungle as that's where you get cure.
 

Icolin

Banned
That has more to do with the godawful camera and controls more than actual difficulty, although even so it's not a cakewalk.
 

mp1990

Banned
It's the crash bandicoot of ARPGs.
this is a very accurate description

i finished it this year and thought it was preeeetty hard, but for all the wrong reasons. i thought 60fps would have helped with it since you'd have more reaction time but guess i was wrong
 
Glad to see it's not just me. The camera and lock-on mechanics are just godawful. It's weird in that the game is clearly throwing extremely simple trash mobs at me, and yet I still feel like the basic moveset and controls are so limited that I can't deal with them properly.

Yeah, this is easily the hardest thing about the game to overcome if you're used to more recent games. Most of us managed back then because cameras in games were still generally awful at the time.

The sad thing is that the camera in the PS3/4 versions is actually a huge improvement on the original game.
 
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