Kingdom Hearts

...Holy shit, you're right, it does.

edited 5th Dec '16 5:45:59 PM by KarkatTheDalek

They did something like that; it was by groups of worlds rather than individual ones, but there was a token patch against using every Drop-Me-Never in the game to clear each story one at a time.

I think it was an attempt by the developers to manipulate gameplay flow. With the incentive of drop bonuses, you'd play as both characters for decent stretches of time, but not long enough to completely forget the other character's mechanics or relevance; regularly swapping between them would supposedly ensure equal progression through the game.

This in turn would allow for a unified gameplay experience even with two player characters in different settings. It would also pad the game's length organically, ideally. IMO, assuming this is the case it didn't work very well and it wasn't worth the effort.

If the gauge was at least disabled during a boss fight, I could maybe tolerate it. It would still suck to be switched against my will, but at least then I wouldn't be a single hit away from killing the boss, forced to switch and play as Sora/Riku for some arbitrary length of time, and then switch back to do the entire goddamn boss fight all over again.

Preferably, however, just get rid of that mechanic altogether.

I never understood that complaint. Whenever I was coming up to a boss fight (and it's usually pretty obvious when you are), I just dropped at the save point so that way I'd have an empty bar going in. If I really wanted to tackle that boss now (if, for example, I had great Drop Bonuses) then I'd just pop a Drop-Me-Never and be golden.

Not sure that should be necessary though.

Yeah, like, I've never had an issue with the Drop Gauge.

Honestly, I like the Drop Gauge for reasons others have stated: It forced me to travel through the game with Sora and Riku at mostly the same pace. If it hadn't been there, I would have likely ended up focusing on one more than the other and it would have made the plot feel very disjointed. For example, take Birth By Sleep. There's a really good playthrough of it on You Tube where all of the cutscenes and worlds happen in chronological order (or as close to it as possible), switching between the characters as needed. It makes the plot of the game feel so much better.

I think making it so it deactivates during boss fights would still be a good idea though. Or, like. If it runs during a boss fight it delays the drop until after the fight is over.

Like, Bosses don't give EXP. Just get bonuses. So it wouldn't affect the leveling rate.

...Also, is there a chronological order playthrough of Chain of Memories?

Asking because of fanfic reasons. It'd really help.

edited 6th Dec '16 7:38:15 AM by unnoun

If I recall correctly, the events of Sora's story don't really affect Riku's story so I highly doubt it. It's not like BbS were all of the stories play off of each other nearly all the time.

But they do though?

There's one scene where Axel and Larxene are talking to Vexen and then Repliku shows up, and then in Riku's story they show the rest of that scene and how Repliku gets his head fucked with.

And right before Riku goes to Destiny Islands the castle shakes and Zexion says Marluxia just died.

There are scenes where Zexion and Lexaeus discuss the deaths of Vexen and Larxene, so.

edited 6th Dec '16 7:50:00 AM by unnoun

There probably is, though I don't really feel like doing the work to determine what that order is. It can probably be determined by reviewing cutscenes and stuff, moreso the stuff from Riku's run than Sora's run. The stories more or less look like they run concurrently with each other.

I think Riku starts after Sora has finished a few worlds.

This is the best I've found.

edited 6th Dec '16 9:06:27 AM by LordVatek

The Drop Gauge is a passable idea with atrocious execution.

Accurate ◊

edited 7th Dec '16 7:41:07 PM by MadSkillz

While that might be the case they don't have to be so lazy about it. There's no reason Kairi can't get a keyblade and kick ass alongside the rest of the cast. Fortunately they seem to be taking steps to rectify this mistake.

Pretty much. It's depressing, because if they wanted her to be relevant, they could've done that. Apparently they just didn't care. At the very least, she should've been in the tower in 3D.

I guess what bugs me is that she consistently expresses interest in adventuring with everyone else, but the plot hasn't given her a chance. What's the point of that? Why write her that way if they're just going to be like "lol no" and have her do nothing, especially since they bothered giving her a Keyblade.

Hopefully KH3 will treat her better. I'm not expecting anything too dramatic, but 3D's secret ending implied we'll at least get something.

edited 7th Dec '16 7:58:21 PM by SapphireBlue

My guess/wish is that Kairi is the tutorial character of KH 3. It would show Yen Sid and Riku explaining the basics of using a Keyblade. Then the game would imply that she's continuing her training while the rest of the plot happens. By the end she'd be skilled enough to help out in the final confrontation against Xehanort.

for the love of god i just want the battle against the final boss to be you playing as Sora with Riku and Kairi as your party members

please se

i need this

Same. I think it's logical. KH 1 gave us Sora and then KH 2 added Riku. It's only natural that the final game would have the entire trio teaming up.

edited 7th Dec '16 9:00:35 PM by Kostya

I mean, I'd also like Sora, Donald and Goofy to be the ones to take the final boss on too.

I think the game should give us a Boss Bonanza of the various Norts in the final level. Each fight would give us a different set of party members. Kairi and Riku would just be the party members for the final battle against Xehanort.

I hope it's like Sora and one rotating member of the warriors of light against each Xehanort who is finished off with a dual limit attack until the end where it ends with Trinity Limit against Master Xehanort.

'd... kinda.

edited 7th Dec '16 9:09:31 PM by LordVatek

For reference I think the bosses matchups should be:

• Riku and Kairi against Master Xehanort
• Donald and Goofy against Ansem
• Axel and Roxas against Xemnas
• Terra/Lingering Will and Ven against Terranort
• Aqua and Mickey against Young Xehanort