Kingdom Hearts

The link isn't working, so here's the table of contents for all the reviews.

I think this Dream Drop one was a real interesting breakdown on why the story feels so much more aimless than previous games.

Edited by Moth13 on Mar 21st 2019 at 9:24:14 AM

yeah tobias as someone who recently replayed vanilla 2 to get ready for 3 and its not just you who finds the revisits kinda boring for the most part. beasts castle was good, and I enjoyed pirates because I liked luxord being all into play acting a pirate and giant scar ghost fusion thing was fun but besides that ehh

Once through the access, Sora and the others are in the Realm of Darkness. Axel warns them to keep moving or the Darkness will take them. Meanwhile, everyone has to fight Dusks. That's an ugly position to be in. The Dusks don't have to worry about the Darkness consuming their Hearts, so really, the waiting game is theirs.

Axel gives us more information on what happened after he left with Kairi. He explains that Kairi "got away from him". Which is a flowery way of saying that he sorely misjudged the height discrepancy between them, which left him completely unprepared for a solid, full-strength haymaker right to the junk.

While Axel was doubled over on the ground crying and wondering why even without a Heart, he can still feel pain, Kairi ran like hell. Right into Saix, who was able to track them down via Isa's sixth sense for feeling whenever Lea is comically in pain.

Saix was then just like, "Yoink," in his growly monotone. Kairi attempted the Critical Blow on him as well, but it was woefully ineffective on account of those parts being in Xemnas's possession now and she was taken into Organization custody.

So now Axel urges Sora to go save Kairi and clears the path by killing himself. The suicide bombing is 100% effective because Japan holds kamikaze pilots in great reverence and is consequentially a lot more willing to have their characters self-destruct to achieve an objective. As opposed to the West which prefers to have its characters die in a blaze of glory but be very specifically killed by the enemy.

With his dying breath, Axel hits on Sora. It doesn't achieve much because, "Hey baby, you remind me of my ex, I miss her so much," is pretty terrible as pickup lines go. And then he expires tragically, and the world is deafened by the sound of a million fans screaming "NO EMOTIONS, HUH? BULLSHIT!!!" at once.

Axel forgot to die in 358/2 Boxes of Tissues but that's okay because he brought the heart-breaking tragedy with him, that goddamn precious cinnamon bun. It's okay. He's in a better place now, with the friends who love and cherish him. Except that's a lie because Sora's Heart is booked up with reservations and doesn't have a vacancy.

Meanwhile, the Organization who are apparently watching this somehow yet not tap-dancing on Sora's face discuss Axel's fate. Saix goes maximum emo to overcompensating extremes. He badmouths Axel so hard that you can tell he's crying on the inside. He's like, "Axel was a worthless idiot with stupid hair and a goofy smile that was stupid and I didn't like it at all when he brought me ice cream to cheer me up and SHUT UP."

And Xemnas is just like, "This might be the thing that awakens Ventus," while staring at Roxas's vacant throne. And it comes out of f*cking nowhere and has no relation to anything at all. And that line was probably in there from the earlier draft of the lore where Ventus actually was Roxas but now it's just a complete nonsequitor.

Like. I think Xemnas just does this. "Sora stubbed his toe." "This may be the thing that finally awakens him." "Or he could just be cursing a lot, who knows?"

Actual quote from the review.

I mean, I'm not mocking his opinion (I can't in good faith, since I haven't played 3D), but it's funny to hear given the consensus in hardcore KH communities is that it's one of the worst in terms of mechanics.

Yeah, I have no respect for this person after reading that, especially after they said II's combat was mindless. And they did play IIFM, so...

Edited by Karxrida on Mar 21st 2019 at 6:46:55 AM

It's easy to miss, but it's implied Axel was already dying in that scene, and that the culprit behind this was Saix.

I could *maybe* understand if they hadn't played FM. But, yeah. What?

Reminder that 2 Final Mix on Standard is still very much "mash X to win".

Did they play on Crit? Because I can understand thinking it's mindless if they only played on Standard; I mean, I get it, I mostly play on the "Normal" difficulty for most games too, but if that's the case then an average person has a better chance of finding the command deck in BBS and 3D more fun, since it gives you a lot of flashy options/customization and the flaws in the game design aren't as apparent.

That's actually a very good point. They are very different games depending on the difficulty level, which I tend to forget.

BBS and 3D are still just as mindless on lower difficulties. You're spamming Commands, possibly even moreso than normal attacks in II since some Commands have super armor or I-frames.

Cure is also free as fuck so you don't have to be careful about using it.

Edited by Karxrida on Mar 21st 2019 at 6:56:39 AM

yeah and thunder magnet takes care of every non boss in 2

Controversially, I didn't particularly enjoy 2's gameplay as much.

Like, I don't hate it by any stretch, but it just wasn't all that...interesting, I guess? Dodge Roll you only get halfway through the game in FM, the rest of the drive forms are annoying to level up separately just to get the movement abilities, and the magic system in just like 3's but with a worse selection of spells (Reflect acts like guard, cure combines the draining of all mp that 3 had while also being immobile like earlier games, and magnet was cool but no replacement for Stop or Aero). 3 also didn't have much in the way of spells, but their newfound mobility made them more worthwhile. And BBS may have had issues, but there was a wide selection of spells to play around with. 1's system was rough, but also had a good assortment of spells we never got to use again.

And as someone who just plays on Standard or occasionally Proud to get to the story more easily, the hyper-fixation on Critical mode gets grating after a while. Its as if you cannot gain satisfaction from the game unless its highest difficulty is crafted juuuuuust right. Like, I get people enjoy the challenge, and that's okay, but a game is not designed bad just because the highest difficulty isn't completely balanced.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Mar 21st 2019 at 10:13:51 AM

Yeah, I have to agree (as someone who strongly dislikes DDD and has IIFM as his favorite game ever) that the Command Deck games are quite fun if you're not doing an optimized playthrough. Like, sure, Thunder Surge and Curaga are all you'll ever need realistically for BBS and Baloonra for DDD, but I never gave a shit in my first couple playthroughs because I was too busy looking at all the cool animations and particle effects from Command Styles and Faith and Meteor and Chaos Blade and stuff. They're just very satisfying on a superficial, basic level, and that's something one has to take into account when discussing the overall quality of the game — not everyone does Critical playthroughs and the optional dungeons.

That said, DDD's generous handing of super armor to enemies, lack of i-frames in lengthy animations and bloated health bars among other things still got on my nerves even when viewed through that lens.

I mean, I'm not the kind of person to tell people that they need to play on the highest difficulty in any game, and I don't even do that myself, but I just didn't find KH 2 to be all that satisfying to play unless I was doing Critical. In fact when I played it the first time with Vanilla KH 2, I found it pretty hollow and underwhelming because of how mindless it was. And there was nothing to really compensate for it, since the story was also underwhelming and unsatisfying.

I don't think easy games are inherently bad or unfun either, but KH 2 was an example where being too easy was a bad thing for me. High difficulty modes are often hit or miss because the game was specifically designed in a way that number tweaking won't necessarily make it better or more fun to play, but Critical is honestly one of the best balanced I've ever seen. I get why people might be annoyed with how often people mention it if they don't care/aren't hardcore players, but there's a reason why it's so praised.

I don't think the long wait to get Dodge Roll is that bad. Quick Run is an acceptable substitute for most of the time you don't have it, and at the very least you have Guard so you're not completely out of defensive options.

Also, were Aero or Stop even that useful in KH 1? I barely used them. I find the spell selection in KH 2 to be pretty good for the most part, with each of the spells being carefully designed to be useful in specific situations. The way the MP system works is great because it makes casting Cure something very important in higher difficulties, and you pay a steep price for it, forcing you to consider it carefully.

I agree that leveling up the forms could be a bit of a hassle though.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Mar 21st 2019 at 10:20:47 AM

I recognize the sheer beauty of KH 2's mechanics but in all honesty I don't find it much fun to play because it's so samey after a while, and as far as I'm concerned the only thing KH 2 has going for it is its DMC-tier combat.

Every boss is a Lightning Bruiser in a flat arena where occasionally you hit Triangle to proc a reaction and Sora does something cool. There's no tweaks to the maps like in KH 1 where you had to pay attention to your surroundings and Sora is so ridiculously overpowered that it's hard to register enemies as a threat.

Edited by RodimusMinor on Mar 21st 2019 at 10:24:41 AM

I don't think the other games feel that much less repetitive? Like KH 1 for example probably feels more repetitive since you don't have anywhere near as many combat options.

KH 1 didn't have combat options but it had a much more raw and heavy combat system which, combined with more variety in places where you fight enemies, lead to more of a sense of variety. Sora feels like a kid even in gameplay and not Neo from the Matrix like he does in KH 2.

Also Drive Forms are overrated.

Like when it shines (Lingering Will) it shines like a diamond, but those moments are few and far between.

Edited by RodimusMinor on Mar 21st 2019 at 10:27:28 AM

You played 1 without using Aero? I'm legitimately impressed, it was super useful. Second only to Cure in my book. A shield that both damages nearby enemies and blunts incoming damage.

And Stop was about as useful as you'd expect time magic to be, it gave you time to heal or to get extra hits in. Maybe not on bosses, but against the tougher generic enemies.

Its not even a case of being a hardcore fan or not. I memorized most of the lore, and talk about the game rather frequently in person. Its my favorite series. I'd like to think I'm a "hardcore" fan. I just am not all that great at video games, and difficulty is not what I came for.

Like, I understand that a lot of people enjoy playing the games differently. It just gets annoying to have people discount games you enjoyed as "bad" because certain spells in the meta were too popular.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Mar 21st 2019 at 10:28:37 AM

To be fair, certain commands being overpowered is only one of the complaints people have with BBS and 3D. The enemy and boss designs are the other big sticking point.

Yeah mandatory block counter fest against the final bosses is a real snooze.

Aero was a nifty little spell in KH. I think it's overlooked because dodge roll and blocking are just so good.

I am an offensive only gamer so I never used aero or reflect

So is Luxu really a Man Behind the Man? As I understand it, he latched onto Xehanort because his plans dovetailed with his own, but Xehanort came up with the idea independently.

I see people here haven't heard the good deeds of the one true Aero!

Aero in 1 was really good though. Two magic points if I remember correctly, and it gave you a mobile shield that stayed with you for a decent chunk of time, where it could absorb some damage if enemies hit you and also damage anyone who got too close, giving some passive offensive capabilities. For such a cheap spell, it did give rather all around benefits.

Then it got changed repeatedly, in 358/2 it became Fire-lite, in 2 it was missing, and in 3 it became a target spell that gave some environmental benefits. I still will swear by the original when it came to wind magic though.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Mar 21st 2019 at 10:48:35 AM