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Is Kingdom Hearts 1 regarded as difficult?

Poppy

Member
i thought sephiroth was pretty hard at the time but that was like first time playthrough on default difficulty

apparently there were secret bosses too which were harder, i think there was a clock tower one in peter pan world? that i didnt bother beating, and also some wacky scorpion thing in agrabah that i never bothered to try

i dont remember how hard the non optional stuff was
 
I had to grind a whole bunch in the coliseum to beat the final boss. Game's kind hard at certain points but overall I didn't think it was too difficult.

Ironically,
I never got past dragon Maleficent when I was a kid the first time I played it. Playing through it again recently I defeated Maleficent in one try.
 

meerak

Member
Really?

Kinda shocking to read this thread. Played KH when it came out and have only a few memories of struggles, but huh, maybe it was tough.
 

Falchion

Member
There were definitely some frustrating parts I remember in the first one so don't worry OP. Nothing is wrong with you.
 
I remember the walkthrough I used for this game (written by CJayC himself, the founder of GameFAQs) back in 04 when I first played it recommended skipping Olympus Coliseum at first and coming back after you've beaten Deep Jungle, where you get Cure and are also relatively overleveled.

The nice thing is you don't have to beat Cloud, either.
 

DJChuy

Member
It's difficult because the camera and controls suck ass. I'm amazed I was able to beat all the optional bosses back in the day. I don't think I can beat them again.
 
Not sure about level, but yeah, I beat Wonderland.
Hmm, well like someone suggested, you should probably beat Deep Jungle first to get access to Cure then come back since there is another boss fight in the coliseum.

Also, the whole sword, shield or staff thing is something newcomers don't know about unless someone tells them beforehand. Always go staff or shield.

As for leveling, in the beginning do you remember if the game said your journey begins at dawn, midday or dusk? That determines how fast you level up.

Dawn, faster leveling until level 40 and then it slows down. Midday is balanced and dusk is slow leveling until 40 and then it speeds up.
 

ryseing

Member
When I bought the collection a few months back I had issues with Clayton and ended up stopping during the bullshit that is Monstro. Still haven't had the desire to go back.
 

CheckMate

Member
It has the typical Square Soft 'you are to low level even though you were doing fine so far in the story, now go and grind' design mentality.
 

13ruce

Banned
As a kid the last boss was hell also those optional bosses.....

Funny enough i discovered Kingdom Hearts at my grandma/Grandpa as a kid wich thought it was a disney game. They also had Dragon Quest VIII and Ratchet and Clank.

Awesome times.
 

Mailbox

Member
there are a couple of bosses that will give you a good deal of trouble, yes. Especially on proud and critical difficulties. Some of the optional bosses are still some of the hardest fuckers i've ever fought against.
 

jennetics

Member
Also, if you think this is hard...wait til RE Chain of Memories (or don't, just watch the movie online. All the story, none of the awful combat).

KH2 is so much better.
 
The secret bosses in BbS go straight into BS territory.
I've never fought any secret bosses in Birth by Sleep before I will have to check them out at the end of my playthough.

Every single one of its endgame bosses is several times harder than almost any fight in the other games.

Outside of Terra's final boss I didn't find any of them that hard but to fair I did spend more time grinding then usual.
 

Syril

Member
It does give you a defense penalty for giving up the shield. The beginning can definitely be tough since you don't have many abilities and your only real defensive option is parrying. The fighting can feel mashy when you end up having to combo the same enemy multiple times to kill it, but careless attacking is actually a good way to get killed if you end up whiffing (especially easy against fast enemies like black mages) because Sora's recovery is so awful. Jumping attacks can be a lot safer since all the recovery gets canceled when you land.
 
The only hard thing is wrestling with the floaty controls, and the repetitive garbage boss fights. Especially Ursula and Chernabog.
 
Yeah it can be hard if you don't spend some time grinding to level up a bit early on.

It can also make a difference which choices you make at the start of the game, to how you level up throughout the game.

Level up fast early and slower at later levels. Balanced leveling.
Level up slow early and faster at later levels.
 

mas8705

Member
It can find ways to piss you off if you are underleveled. Otherwise, it was... Tolerable. Not as much of difficult was it was more of a nuisance to play in comparison to later titles.
 

Murugo

Member
My first playthrough I think I took the sword and gave up the shield, and accidentally chose slow level progression. Several of the harder bosses destroyed me.

If you're still struggling with the colosseum and haven't visited the third world yet, complete that first then come back. The EXP and Cure magic will help out.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
It can definitely be hard but it also depends on the difficulty you choose.

On that note, I'm about to start a new playthrough soon.

What should I pick at the beginning guys? It's been a while. Like, the whole dusk/dawn/sword/shield stuff.
 

Kinsei

Banned
It can definitely be hard but it also depends on the difficulty you choose.

On that note, I'm about to start a new playthrough soon.

What should I pick at the beginning guys? It's been a while. Like, the whole dusk/dawn/sword/shield stuff.

Take staff and drop sword. If you plan on getting to level 100 then go at night as it's the route that requires the least amount of EXP to go from level 1 to level 100.
 

Innolis

Member
I don't think it's as much hard as it has a somewhat unexpected difficulty curve by the second half. You are subtly told to go back to the various worlds as there are new things to get but you are not told just how critical this is for progression so you may decide to skip that thinking it's just some side stuff only to move on with the story and find out the enemies are now kicking your ass.
 

Syril

Member
It can definitely be hard but it also depends on the difficulty you choose.

On that note, I'm about to start a new playthrough soon.

What should I pick at the beginning guys? It's been a while. Like, the whole dusk/dawn/sword/shield stuff.

I like dusk/shield because I like having Guard as soon as possible and dusk helps keep the EXP curve from getting absurd at the later parts of the game.
 

MogCakes

Member
I'm playing through this currently with my girlfriend. It's her first time actually playing a game beyond a brief hour or two. We both got our asses kicked by Trickmaster and the Coliseum. That was rather humbling...
 

Miker

Member
You gave up shield? You done fucked up.

Hmm, well like someone suggested, you should probably beat Deep Jungle first to get access to Cure then come back since there is another boss fight in the coliseum.

Also, the whole sword, shield or staff thing is something newcomers don't know about unless someone tells them beforehand. Always go staff or shield.

As for leveling, in the beginning do you remember if the game said your journey begins at dawn, midday or dusk? That determines how fast you level up.

Dawn, faster leveling until level 40 and then it slows down. Midday is balanced and dusk is slow leveling until 40 and then it speeds up.

I didn't expect the sword/shield/staff thing to have such severe ramifications, especially this early on. And I don't even remember a question about when my journey begins. This is some early 2000s JRPG opaque bullshit.
 
Yeah, I think most people have had a pretty hard time with it their first time playing. Explore every map and fight every Heartless you encounter, this will help by giving you items, munny, and xp. For one, the level design is one of the highlights of KH1, and doing this should help you avoid too much level grinding. When it comes to bosses, approach them more like you would in Dark Souls, focus primarily on avoiding damage, and only try to get in hits when there are openings.
 
Every single one of its endgame bosses is several times harder than almost any fight in the other games.

Because they are straight up cheap as HELL! And I'm just talking regular extra boss, not the FM addition, who I hear is even worse. How, I don't know! Because the the original extra boss was cheap, cheap, freakin' cheap (I also did it with Terra at that!)
 
Even on Proud mode, I don't know about difficult. It isn't easy, but I don't consider it hard.

But I thought KH2 and BBS on critical mode were only mildly challenging (extra bosses included), so I accept that I'm probably not representative of the average gamer.

Really?

Kinda shocking to read this thread. Played KH when it came out and have only a few memories of struggles, but huh, maybe it was tough.

That's just how Namine wants you to remember it.
 
As someone who's never play a KH game this thread surprises me since I've heard my friends complain that the KH games are all too easy and "button mashy".
 

Nachos

Member
Hm, I'm seeing suggestions for staff AND shield.

Now I'm confused.
Staff for one extra MP (and the higher magic power that comes with it, even if it's not that important), and shield for one extra item slot. You can't get these any other way, unlike sword's bonuses. Only thing is, I remember the staff route backloading a lot of the more useful skills in Final Mix, though you do get the fancy attacks the earliest.
 
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