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Kingdom Hearts Community Thread: Now everybody can be a Keyblade Wielder!

Tsunamo

Member
That's really the major one I've run into in the game, but the boss battles against Clayton and Captain Hook can be pretty bad too if you're not being careful. Definitely looking forward to a less-frustrating playthrough (even though Proud difficulty's greater challenge should also be a lot of fun).
Yeah, Clayton was always the one other than Riku 2 that gave me a bunch of trouble in the original release. It took me a long time back then to beat him due to being stubborn and not bothering to grind, and being too young at the time to use items/magic properly, he still gives me a bunch of trouble even now.

Hook's not too bad because you have the capability to fly for the whole battle, but having a Battleship heartless being outside of the ship (that respawns not long after it's defeated) certainly does make it frustrating on harder difficulty's to heal/recover.

But yeah, proud mode's a really fun challenge in Final Mix.
Due to this I actually thought that the weird laughing sound PP makes when he does that one move was Phantom and not PP. Made the boss pretty creepy :lol.
That would have freaked the heck out of me as a kid.
One thing I noticed about the Kingdom Hearts series is that people seem to find some more or less major issue with about every game. That's not like with most other well-established series, when there is often a game considered flawless or at least examplary and all others are compared to it (like Trials and Tribulations in the Phoenix Wright series, or whatever the favorite game of the person doing the comparison is). Am I wrong in assuming that (I very well might be, since I didn't really have a lot of previous exposure to the KH fanbase)? Is there a game which is a definitive Kingdom Hearts experience?
My main gripe with the series (personally) is that after the original it lost a bunch of things the original had like a heavy emphasis on exploration, NPC interaction or cut down them a bunch.

But everyone's right in that saying Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II (well Final Mix anyway) and Birth By Sleep are all brilliant games.
I do remember when I played KH2 for the first time and it was the greatest game ever made, not even joking :lol. It was only after when I really started to feel the flaws and appreciate many things the original did better.
I was prettymuch the same when 2 released. I hadn't paid much attention to the series after Kingdom Hearts (although I had seen Chain of Memorys at stores but assumed it was a GBA port of the original and wasn't aware it bridged the gap to 2) so I was just happy to play the sequel to my favorite game and get back into the series when I found it came out here.
I did not know such amazingness existed.
 
Maybe it's because I'm a bit older than the median age in this thread, but I remember my main impression of KH2 being of the flaws in the game when it first game out. Stumpokapow has mentioned that I made a a bunch of posts about it back on Something Awful at the time, and I've tracked them down (these are from April 2006). Some of them are pretty funny in retrospect:

In a lot of ways this game seems like an inverse of the first one, though they both share a slow and minigame-filled start. The combat is really not nearly as repetitive as in the first game, the whole thing is super fun all the way through, but suddenly at the end there's just nothing fun to do except beat the game. In KH1 though, the main body of the game was decent but not great, and then suddenly the last two areas in the game yield its very best battles by far and the story picks up and suddenly everything's interesting and there is tons of side material that is loads of fun to do.

Also, I'm going to reiterate the fact that the Coliseum fucking sucks now. It's not fun anymore, you don't get experience, and you don't even really win prizes for beating the tournaments. The only incentive for 99% of these minigames is just for completion, and that's stupid as shit. Even 100 Acre Wood doesn't give you little prizes anymore.
I miss the FF-themed gummi blueprints from the first game as unfun as it was, I did enjoy having a Cactrot fully outfitted with Thunder cannons, effectively doing a constant 1,000 Needles as I blasted my way through the level with maximum firepower.
Most of the journal stuff is pretty easy, but very little of it is genuinely fun. Square-Enix really fucked up IMO by having so few rewards for scoring well in the billions of shitty minigames (this is especially stupid in the Colisseum), and the Hades Paradox Cup is genuinely hellish. Also the synthesis stuff takes a fucking long time too.

You might find a playthrough on Proud more worthwhile, though (certainly more fun), since it's way easier to unlock the secret movie on that difficulty.
I've said it before in this thread, but this game feels REALLY empty without some kind of endgame superboss that you can fight repeatedly. Sephiroth was awesome but I only got to fight him once, and the Colisseum is a joke in this game. KH1 was a great game largely because of the huge epic superbosses toward the end of the game. ~*sigh*~

If this game gets a Final Mix I am going to kill Tetsuya Nomura.
 
Not so mad about that now, eh?

The only thing that wasn't fixed is the gummi ship, but LOL GUMMI SHIP!

I'm pretty glad that BBS and DDD got rid of the Gummi Ship in favor of something different.

I'd actually really love it if KH3 has the whole keyblade-armor riding-on-keyblade-in-space thing, but actually uses your in-game stats (and maybe even abilities). That way it'd be a minigame that'd actually help power Sora (or whichever playable character) up, while also becoming drastically easier once you're maxed out toward the end of the game.
 
Donald and Goofy would have to follow you on the gummi ship, so it would be hard to do.

.... ooor, they could have keyblades too! Problem solved!
oh god that could actually happen
 
Donald and Goofy would have to follow you on the gummi ship, so it would be hard to do.

.... ooor, they could have keyblades too! Problem solved!
oh god that could actually happen

If there's anything that the majority of the series (at this point) has shown, it's that Nomura is totally okay with having Donald and Goofy constantly disappear.
 

Tsunamo

Member
If this game gets a Final Mix I am going to kill Tetsuya Nomura
If I see a article about Tetsuya Nomura killed by fan mad about Kingdom Hearts game getting Final Mix years prior I'll look back and know that was badcrumble :p
I'd actually really love it if KH3 has the whole keyblade-armor riding-on-keyblade-in-space thing, but actually uses your in-game stats (and maybe even abilities). That way it'd be a minigame that'd actually help power Sora (or whichever playable character) up, while also becoming drastically easier once you're maxed out toward the end of the game.
I could picture something like the Xemnas sidecar glider battle in Kingdom Hearts 2 with Sora and Riku, replaced with enemys like in the gummi ship stages in 2 along with Sora using his keyblade armor glider with more advanced mechanics being incorporated in 3. I'm sure Nomura will probably stick to gummi ships though.
.... ooor, they could have keyblades too! Problem solved!
oh god that could actually happen
Don't jinx it D:
 
So I began playing Days again. I still have to finish RE:Coded but I had a KH itch and so I began a new File.

Anyway, I find it to be a nice game. I really like the Story, and I also love how you can use every member of the Organization. I think the Panel system is good, I love Roxas' Keyblades and how fast he can combo. I still hate the stupid Missions where you have to look around a world for intel. It's pretty good for a DS games and I still really love the game.

After giving it much thought here's my KH list:

1.Kingdom Hearts 2
2.Kingdom Hearts
3.Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
4.Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
5.Kingdom Hearts RE:CoM
6.Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded
*Haven't played DDD yet so idk about that
 
So I began playing Days again. I still have to finish RE:Coded but I had a KH itch and so I began a new File.

Anyway, I find it to be a nice game. I really like the Story, and I also love how you can use every member of the Organization. I think the Panel system is good, I love Roxas' Keyblades and how fast he can combo. I still hate the stupid Missions where you have to look around a world for intel. It's pretty good for a DS games and I still really love the game.

After giving it much thought here's my KH list:

1.Kingdom Hearts 2
2.Kingdom Hearts
3.Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
4.Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
5.Kingdom Hearts RE:CoM
6.Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded
*Haven't played DDD yet so idk about that

The endless ice cream cutscenes weren't what led me to hate that game. But I remember the precise moment when I was like "ugh, fuck this game" (and yes, I still finished it). It was when I went to Neverland (I think) to fight some even-higher-HP clone of the Ruler of the Sky - when said battle had already taken for-fucking-ever - that I realized that the missions in that game are utter crap.
 
The endless ice cream cutscenes weren't what led me to hate that game. But I remember the precise moment when I was like "ugh, fuck this game" (and yes, I still finished it). It was when I went to Neverland (I think) to fight some even-higher-HP clone of the Ruler of the Sky - when said battle had already taken for-fucking-ever - that I realized that the missions in that game are utter crap.
That's completely understandable because 358/2 Days is not for everybody. It''s kind of like Chain of Memories. To be honest I don't remember much of the game anymore, aside from the major things, so that's why I decided to replay it.

Though I do remember liking Neverland because Roxas was able to glide and I didn't think they would add that in Days.
 
What makes me dislike Days is a combination of things (Going to leave out story/plot stuff since that's entirely subjective):

- Boring world/level design. You would think that some of the maps being ripped wholesale from KH1 would make the worlds a little more enjoyable to traverse, but nope. And the only thing close to a new world in the game literally consists of a bare ship deck ripped straight from KH1 and an area with a bunch of rocks and nothing else.

- No hitstun whatsoever. Whereas Osaka games usually have this problem as well, it is present, albeit barely. In Days, it's completely nonexistent. At first I figured it was maybe a DS hardware/engine thing and it couldn't be helped, but imagine my surprise when I played Re:Coded and *gasp* enemies have hitstun! Bosses too! Enemies that should flinch when struck by a physical attack actually do!

- Lack of mission variety. I get the whole mission based structure for the game, and it works in the context of the game's scenario. But the missions in the game are filled with some of the most inane, tedious tasks imaginable. Collect these sigils. Destroy these purple blobs that pop up for some indiscriminate reason. Play this frustrating stealth mission. Go to these landmarks to collect intel. It's not engaging or fun at all, it's monotonous. I think the only reason most people hold the last 15-20% in somewhat decent regards is because the mission variety actually starts ramping up there.

- Limited magic casts are an awful idea.

- Ruler of the Sky may well be the poorest designed boss in the entire series.

It does do some things right. The Panel system is neat. Status effects show up in a big way. And Leechgrave is probably one of the more enjoyable bosses from any of the portable KH games. But the game is just filled with too many questionable design decisions and annoyances for my taste.
 
What makes me dislike Days is a combination of things (Going to leave out story/plot stuff since that's entirely subjective):

- Boring world/level design. You would think that some of the maps being ripped wholesale from KH1 would make the worlds a little more enjoyable to traverse, but nope. And the only thing close to a new world in the game literally consists of a bare ship deck ripped straight from KH1 and an area with a bunch of rocks and nothing else.

- No hitstun whatsoever. Whereas Osaka games usually have this problem as well, it is present, albeit barely. In Days, it's completely nonexistent. At first I figured it was maybe a DS hardware/engine thing and it couldn't be helped, but imagine my surprise when I played Re:Coded and *gasp* enemies have hitstun! Bosses too! Enemies that should flinch when struck by a physical attack actually do!

- Lack of mission variety. I get the whole mission based structure for the game, and it works in the context of the game's scenario. But the missions in the game are filled with some of the most inane, tedious tasks imaginable. Collect these sigils. Destroy these purple blobs that pop up for some indiscriminate reason. Play this frustrating stealth mission. Go to these landmarks to collect intel. It's not engaging or fun at all, it's monotonous. I think the only reason most people hold the last 15-20% in somewhat decent regards is because the mission variety actually starts ramping up there.

- Limited magic casts are an awful idea.

- Ruler of the Sky may well be the poorest designed boss in the entire series.

It does do some things right. The Panel system is neat. Status effects show up in a big way. And Leechgrave is probably one of the more enjoyable bosses from any of the portable KH games. But the game is just filled with too many questionable design decisions and annoyances for my taste.

I tend to classify it with the games (basically, all of the ones that didn't get Final Mixes) that are clearly more about experimentation than polish or fleshed-out content. Note that this isn't a comment on what is or isn't "mainline," a conversation I find completely tedious. But I do think it's fair to say that KH1, KH2, and BBS are much more polished than the other games in the series.

DDD is the best example of a game that is both clearly core to the storyline, has very high production values, and is still full of experimentation (and, if I'm being less charitable, was clearly a rushed product) and lacking in polish.

The attempt to get you to play through two separate storylines at the same time instead of completing one character's story and moving on to the next: an interesting idea, but one that was terrible in practice.

FlowMotion: an interesting idea, but one that was terrible in practice.

Dream Eater companions with their own Sphere Grid equivalents: an interesting idea, but one that was terrible in practice.

And so on.

I suspect that we'll see shadows of what happened in DDD in KH3 - most notably FlowMotion, since Nomura has straight up said that that in particular will make it into more games - but they'll look very, very different, be much better integrated with the level design, and have benefited strongly by the experimentation that took place, even if that experimentation led to a very flawed game.
 
Yeah, hopefully toned waaaaaaaaaaaaayyy down.

At least initially.

It's pretty obvious that FlowMotion and much of the level design in DDD were developed separately from each other. I kinda strongly suspect it'll be seriously toned down, yeah. It's only a few things that make it truly overpowered and gameplay-ruining.
 
Wasn't flowmotion possible only in the dream worlds?

Also, spirits weren't a good idea to begin with. Hell no. Should have gone with heartless and nobodies. Urgh.
 

aravuus

Member
I will not buy KH3 if flowmotion rules the level design again.

Well I will, but I will weep the whole time I play. I can never put it in proper words how much I despise DDD's level design.
 
Screw you Gummi haters! Gummi needs to make a glorious comeback and continue improving like they did in KH1->KH2 (tho I liked the gummi builder in KH1 more). The main things I would change would be to make it more challenging and add more real gummi bosses. Also I think adding 2D gummi sections would make it interesting too. Hell, just do a mix of sidescrolling, KH2 style 3D and top view.
 
They need to find a way to make it more exciting.

I guess it just needs to be faster and the mechanics more responsive and fleshed out.
 

TheMink

Member
Screw you Gummi haters! Gummi needs to make a glorious comeback and continue improving like they did in KH1->KH2 (tho I liked the gummi builder in KH1 more). The main things I would change would be to make it more challenging and add more real gummi bosses. Also I think adding 2D gummi sections would make it interesting too. Hell, just do a mix of sidescrolling, KH2 style 3D and top view.

Jacknicholsonnod.gif
 
They need to find a way to make it more exciting.

I guess it just needs to be faster and the mechanics more responsive and fleshed out.
I don't think it needs to be faster, the KH2 style is quite fast for your general casual fan. The problem is that bullets don't really mean anything. You are just spamming that dodge move all day and keep that auto-fire going (why the fuck is it turned off by default?). First of all they need to add a cooldown to the dodge for example and make the bullets do actual damage. That would be a start if it were exactly the style of KH2.

Oh and while weapon upgrading and customization is a must they need to tone it down so you don't get ridicilous screencleaning truck of doom that blocks half the screen. If you make a huge ship the camera needs to be adjusted accordingly.

And last but not least: we all want it to be flashy but they need to show restraint too. I mean what the fuck is going on here?:
iscQfQd4t23hL.gif

It's fine to be extra flashy if you go for very forgiving casual type experience but that doesn't make very fun challenging tight gameplay for repeated playthroughs ect.
 

Enfinit

Member
No, it must be mandatory and the haters will be shown the light when glorious Gummi v.3 shines upon us!

I want to be able to customize my Gummi Ship with personalized decals. Flying through space with Will Sasso's lemon face on the front of my gummi ship would be great.
 
Screw you Gummi haters! Gummi needs to make a glorious comeback and continue improving like they did in KH1->KH2 (tho I liked the gummi builder in KH1 more). The main things I would change would be to make it more challenging and add more real gummi bosses. Also I think adding 2D gummi sections would make it interesting too. Hell, just do a mix of sidescrolling, KH2 style 3D and top view.

Eh, I'm cool with keyblade-riding instead - you can offer similar gameplay but without the tedium of the gummi ship building (and the general disappointment that happens every time you open up a treasure chest and it's just some Gummi item).
 
Should Days have been a movie...a la Advent Children?

I mean, its gameplay was pretty terrible (even though the Panel system was okay), but blugh, no.

Also, part of the whole point of the story is Roxas being sent out to kill as many Heartless as possible in order to release those hearts to form an artificial Kingdom Hearts.
 
Eh, I'm cool with keyblade-riding instead - you can offer similar gameplay but without the tedium of the gummi ship building (and the general disappointment that happens every time you open up a treasure chest and it's just some Gummi item).

But KH2 fixed that already with gummi items gained only from gummi stuff! Also you can just use blueprints if you don't like building :3
 
Eh, I'm cool with keyblade-riding instead - you can offer similar gameplay but without the tedium of the gummi ship building (and the general disappointment that happens every time you open up a treasure chest and it's just some Gummi item).
Final Mix fixed that. Now most of the treasure chests that contained useless gummi in the original now have Orihalcon or Dark Matter, which are VERY welcome.

Especially Dark Matter.
 

Psxphile

Member
Good thing too. Hated finding all the puppies, being rewarded the full gummi set, then going to End of the World and finding MORE gummis in chests in the vanilla version. Useless, I already have them all!
 

Psxphile

Member
Would be 'ok with it' if they cribbed gameplay ideas from StarFox. Jus' saying.

...

I couldn't have been the only one who tried to make an Arwing.
 

Tsunamo

Member
How about this: unlock the warp gummi from the start. Then all the weirdos can play the minigames while we enjoy the actual game! :D
I like this idea!
No, it must be mandatory and the haters will be shown the light when glorious Gummi v.3 shines upon us!
I don't like this gummi preachers idea.
Should Days have been a movie...a la Advent Children?
I don't think it would have worked as a standalone movie due to the structure of Days being day by day.
I couldn't have been the only one who tried to make an Arwing.
I can't believe I never thought of doing this.
 
My main thing was always a Cactrot with tons of the littler guns on it so I'd just be constantly doing 1000 Needles with a massive, massive attack field.
 
I can't say any of the problems highlighted in that video aside from Re:CoM (Which definitely feels a bit shoddy in comparison to the effort put into KH1's port) and the pixel faces really bothered me all that much. It's still head and shoulders over a lot of other HD collections at the end of the day.
 
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