Will contain spoilers for the first 14 hours of the game
I played the first Kingdom Hearts (Via the first HD collection) early in 2014, and I ended up really enjoying it, the combat system was fun, the worlds were nostalgic and well implemented, and the game looked absolutely gorgeous
I tried Chain of Memories, but after the first game found the combat system awkward and didn't have much motivation to play it after the 35 hours it took me to beat the first game, so more or less dropped it after an hour
Jump forward to a few weeks ago and I picked up the 2nd HD collection and jumped into the 2nd game. Well it looks amazing, but wow does it start off poorly. The pacing is atrocious, it's 5 hours of playing as someone else, with no explanation to why. There are cutscenes every few minutes, often giving you control back only for you to walk forward 5 paces just to trigger another cutscene. Then you finally get to Sora and still almost nothing is explained.
I know CoM takes place between 1 and 2, but really it seems like so much happens that is vitally important, and I'm 14 hours in and still almost nothing has been explained. I feel for the poor kids that picked this up after loving the first game and being totally and utterly confused. The first 5 or 6 hours also feature very little from anything Disney other than the flashbacks of the first game, with only Vivi from Final Fantasy making an appearance.
Once you get to Sora it reverts back to the formula of the first game, and as you get fewer cut scenes and more action, the game improves after the poorly paced start
I didn't hate the start, but it will be a chore to ever replay. People often criticise Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword for having long and slow intros, but this is definitely worse.
The last two sections I've played were by far my most and least favourite. The black and white world where Donald, Goofy and Sora have 1940s Disney designs was amazing. From the smoke effects to the sound effects, they were all so well done, as were the enemies. It really felt like you were playing an old Disney short
Then followed the Pirates of the Caribbean level, which was just so out of place and jarring. Seeing realistic characters mixed with cartoons was just bizarre, I'd have preferred they kept it to all Disney cartoons and had a more coherent art style like in the first game. Plus the voice acting for everyone in this area of the game is terrible. The guy voicing Jack Sparrow must give one of the worst voice acting performances in a video game ever
I was also disappointed to see the Gummi ship sections return, though they are better than they were in the first game, but hopefully this is something that is dropped from the third game. Both games look great on PS3, but the Gummi sections look more like something you'd see on an N64
So far I'm enjoying it though, the combat is fun and satisfying, and so is messing with all your skills as you level up. That said so far I think I liked the first game more
I don't know much about Birth By Sleep, which is also on the HD collection, so I may try that after I beat KH2, since it's apparently not like CoM
Please tag any spoilers as I'm only 14 hours in as of this post
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I played the first Kingdom Hearts (Via the first HD collection) early in 2014, and I ended up really enjoying it, the combat system was fun, the worlds were nostalgic and well implemented, and the game looked absolutely gorgeous
I tried Chain of Memories, but after the first game found the combat system awkward and didn't have much motivation to play it after the 35 hours it took me to beat the first game, so more or less dropped it after an hour
Jump forward to a few weeks ago and I picked up the 2nd HD collection and jumped into the 2nd game. Well it looks amazing, but wow does it start off poorly. The pacing is atrocious, it's 5 hours of playing as someone else, with no explanation to why. There are cutscenes every few minutes, often giving you control back only for you to walk forward 5 paces just to trigger another cutscene. Then you finally get to Sora and still almost nothing is explained.
I know CoM takes place between 1 and 2, but really it seems like so much happens that is vitally important, and I'm 14 hours in and still almost nothing has been explained. I feel for the poor kids that picked this up after loving the first game and being totally and utterly confused. The first 5 or 6 hours also feature very little from anything Disney other than the flashbacks of the first game, with only Vivi from Final Fantasy making an appearance.
Once you get to Sora it reverts back to the formula of the first game, and as you get fewer cut scenes and more action, the game improves after the poorly paced start
I didn't hate the start, but it will be a chore to ever replay. People often criticise Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword for having long and slow intros, but this is definitely worse.
The last two sections I've played were by far my most and least favourite. The black and white world where Donald, Goofy and Sora have 1940s Disney designs was amazing. From the smoke effects to the sound effects, they were all so well done, as were the enemies. It really felt like you were playing an old Disney short
Then followed the Pirates of the Caribbean level, which was just so out of place and jarring. Seeing realistic characters mixed with cartoons was just bizarre, I'd have preferred they kept it to all Disney cartoons and had a more coherent art style like in the first game. Plus the voice acting for everyone in this area of the game is terrible. The guy voicing Jack Sparrow must give one of the worst voice acting performances in a video game ever
I was also disappointed to see the Gummi ship sections return, though they are better than they were in the first game, but hopefully this is something that is dropped from the third game. Both games look great on PS3, but the Gummi sections look more like something you'd see on an N64
So far I'm enjoying it though, the combat is fun and satisfying, and so is messing with all your skills as you level up. That said so far I think I liked the first game more
I don't know much about Birth By Sleep, which is also on the HD collection, so I may try that after I beat KH2, since it's apparently not like CoM
Please tag any spoilers as I'm only 14 hours in as of this post
​