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Hello, I am playing (almost) every single Kingdom Hearts game, join me on this silly adventure!
- Thread starter Kaitos
- Start date
Yes, it's an absolute must to read the Reports for all the games. It's supposed to be a twist that the main villain is Ansem because the Ansem Reports make him seem like a benevolent ruler.
Light in darkness. Basically Kingdom Hearts is light but it's surrounded by darkness because it's in the Dark Realm.
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KINGDOM HEARTS: RE:CHAIN OF MEMORIES (2008)
I'm currently about 6 hours into RE: Chain of Memories (I've beaten Traverse Town, Agrabah, Wonderland, Monstro, and I'm currently on Olympus).
I truly have no idea what to make of this game.
There's a part of me that's a little sad that I don't get to play the game like this:
Because this is obviously how the game was "meant" to be played. Coming straight off of Kingdom Hearts, it feels like a downgrade in a very strange way of the battle system with weird restrictions that I don't think would be as noticeable in a 2D version. This is also the only Kingdom Hearts game I remember playing -- and I have fonder memories of it on the GBA, though that could just be nostalgia.
I mean, it's *fine*. The boss battles are actually really great, it's just that everything else is fairly repetitive. I'm going to keep playing because there's enough there to keep me engaged, but I can see why this is divisive.
I will say: after JUST playing KH1, going through almost the exact same story with every Disney world is super tiring and is probably making the experience much worse than if I had a year in between the games.
Out of curiosity, how long is it?
I'm currently about 6 hours into RE: Chain of Memories (I've beaten Traverse Town, Agrabah, Wonderland, Monstro, and I'm currently on Olympus).
I truly have no idea what to make of this game.
There's a part of me that's a little sad that I don't get to play the game like this:
Because this is obviously how the game was "meant" to be played. Coming straight off of Kingdom Hearts, it feels like a downgrade in a very strange way of the battle system with weird restrictions that I don't think would be as noticeable in a 2D version. This is also the only Kingdom Hearts game I remember playing -- and I have fonder memories of it on the GBA, though that could just be nostalgia.
I mean, it's *fine*. The boss battles are actually really great, it's just that everything else is fairly repetitive. I'm going to keep playing because there's enough there to keep me engaged, but I can see why this is divisive.
I will say: after JUST playing KH1, going through almost the exact same story with every Disney world is super tiring and is probably making the experience much worse than if I had a year in between the games.
Out of curiosity, how long is it?
Basically, the Door to Darkness is an extension of Kingdom Hearts. Through the door is the realm of darkness, but the light came directly from the door, not from what was on the other side of the door. Ansem believed Kingdom Hearts was darkness because he believed that the true nature of all hearts was darkness.
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what is even happening in KH2??? i'm traveling between the worlds to unlock the gates, but weren't the gates already unlocked? am i not unlocking the gates during the gummi ship missions?
what exactly are the gates? how can sora, donald, and goofy reach the new worlds if the gates are locked to begin with
what exactly are the gates? how can sora, donald, and goofy reach the new worlds if the gates are locked to begin with
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That's honestly the best way to explain it. The series later shows that scene from Mickey's perspective, and there's nothing but darkness on his side of the door.
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I chose the normal difficulty whoops.
The boss battles are super fun and challenging. The rest...
I started this last week and just got to Hollow Bastion in KH1. This game hasn't aged as well as FF X, but it's still ok. Looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds. I heard you could skip Atlantica so I did after swimming around for 15 minutes. Based on everything I have heard I will look up the secret endings online instead of wasting time unlocking them (don't have that kind of free time anymore), skip playing COM but watch the story online, and then watch 358/2 before starting KH2.
How much of the mobile game do I have to play to get the special weapon for KH3, and is it worth it?
How much of the mobile game do I have to play to get the special weapon for KH3, and is it worth it?
A lot and no. You can get it in KH3 without playing the awful mini games in UX. They just unlock it early.
Also play 2 before watching Days.
If anyone is still looking for a copy of The Story So Far, check brickseek.com for local inventory near you. I got it for MSRP a week ago at a store whose name starts with W. Good luck.
Hmm I guess people are really split on the whole 2 > Days or Days > 2 thing?
I just finished Kindgom Hearts 1, and I feel like I might have been playing the whole game wrong.
So from the very first tutorial fights on Destiny Island, I've pretty much been playing most of the boss battles in Kingdom Hearts like Dark Souls. Observe the boss' attack patterns, find an opening, bait them into an attack, and then do a safe number of hits before retreating. Super methodical.
I get to the second fight with humanoid Ansem, and he's pretty tough! The "Submit!" attack has the potential to kill me out of nowhere if it hits me and I screw it up, so I equip Aero to help mitigate it. I also optimize my Abilities a bit to equip Leaf Bracer, because why not. A few tries later, I have a near-flawless attempt where I take almost no damage and kill him. Whittling away at that last bar-and-a-half of health takes a long time to do safely, but it happened!
So then I get to Ansem's spaceship form and I suddenly feel like I'm in over my head. The boss doesn't stagger and the controls suck. I try to poke him down with Fire but know that I don't have the MP to do all of his health that way, so I try to play carefully. I realize that if I wait for the lasers to pass, the flying Heartless to despawn, and for him to take a break from swinging his sword around randomly in front of him, then I can get a combo or two in on his back before having to retreat again. So I do that. Slowly. For like 3 healthbars.
But eventually he hits the point where the lasers are spawning non-stop. There are no longer any safe windows; it's pretty much impossible to hit him without getting pelted. After flying around and watching my MP dwindle, I decide to just YOLO it, cast Aero on myself, and whack away at him.
And lo and behold, it works amazingly well.
I didn't realize that your blue MP bars regen quicker at lower MP, so you're able to just spam cast Curaga as long as you're hitting something. I pretty much spam Aero and Curaga on myself while going to town on him, and I actually feel safer than when I was trying to play conservatively. I do that for pretty much the entire rest of the fight and it works flawlessly.
So now here's the question that's been nagging my brain: did I play the whole game wrong? Was all that dodging and conservative playing just making things hard for myself? Should I just have been charging into enemies spamming Cure and Aero at low MP? Is that the correct way to tackle stupid bosses like Dragon Maleficent that required me to just poke at her with Magic for like 10 minutes?
I get to the second fight with humanoid Ansem, and he's pretty tough! The "Submit!" attack has the potential to kill me out of nowhere if it hits me and I screw it up, so I equip Aero to help mitigate it. I also optimize my Abilities a bit to equip Leaf Bracer, because why not. A few tries later, I have a near-flawless attempt where I take almost no damage and kill him. Whittling away at that last bar-and-a-half of health takes a long time to do safely, but it happened!
So then I get to Ansem's spaceship form and I suddenly feel like I'm in over my head. The boss doesn't stagger and the controls suck. I try to poke him down with Fire but know that I don't have the MP to do all of his health that way, so I try to play carefully. I realize that if I wait for the lasers to pass, the flying Heartless to despawn, and for him to take a break from swinging his sword around randomly in front of him, then I can get a combo or two in on his back before having to retreat again. So I do that. Slowly. For like 3 healthbars.
But eventually he hits the point where the lasers are spawning non-stop. There are no longer any safe windows; it's pretty much impossible to hit him without getting pelted. After flying around and watching my MP dwindle, I decide to just YOLO it, cast Aero on myself, and whack away at him.
And lo and behold, it works amazingly well.
I didn't realize that your blue MP bars regen quicker at lower MP, so you're able to just spam cast Curaga as long as you're hitting something. I pretty much spam Aero and Curaga on myself while going to town on him, and I actually feel safer than when I was trying to play conservatively. I do that for pretty much the entire rest of the fight and it works flawlessly.
So now here's the question that's been nagging my brain: did I play the whole game wrong? Was all that dodging and conservative playing just making things hard for myself? Should I just have been charging into enemies spamming Cure and Aero at low MP? Is that the correct way to tackle stupid bosses like Dragon Maleficent that required me to just poke at her with Magic for like 10 minutes?
Yeah kinda. Although Dragon Maleficent in particular is best done by spamming magic from afar. Stop and Gravity magic to be percises. If you do that while Bambi is summoned she goes down in no time at all.
I'm just done with the Pirates of the Caribbean part in KH2.
Jack had probably around 10 minutes of dialogue and they still had someone put minimum effort in to mimicking Depp.
It also made me go " Whoah, Pirates did come out at that time huh? It's that old huh?"
Jack had probably around 10 minutes of dialogue and they still had someone put minimum effort in to mimicking Depp.
It also made me go " Whoah, Pirates did come out at that time huh? It's that old huh?"
The first Pirates movie came out the same year as the first Kingdom Hearts.
Days gives added context, particularly to the start of KH2. However, there was a bit of a shift in story direction after KH2, which can make things awkward if you play KH2 after watching Days. Without going into spoilers, there's some stuff KH2 treats as a good thing that later games (including Days) are way less positive towards.
Pirates 1 was a year after actually. KH1 released 2002, but Pirates 1 was summer 2003. Nonetheless, KH2 took great advantage of the popularity of that first film for sure. Pirates 1 was a massive success and still beloved during development of KH2. Definitely recall people losing their shit online when the first scans of that world were revealed.
I too just wrapped up that world and now Agrabah replaying KH2. I'm starting to waver on my enjoyment a tad for Critical mode. Much of the time it feels way too easy, where spamming attacks or reaction(QTE) counters are all you need still, but then you get plenty of OHKO situations where it can be so difficult to plan or react to the incoming dmg because Sora dances about spraying stars, and fireworks and wild animations that obscure anything I am fighting. Enemy tells and animations can be impossible to see unless you literally keep distance and watch carefully, because the moment you dive in you are blinded.
Barbossa fight is a good example as he can suddenly decide to do a stinger dash at you while you are juggling him and he has no real good tell(and no QTE counter). Instant kill if he hits me once with his sword lunge, so I did that fight like 15 times until I accidentally discovered blizzard freezes him(and thus kind of stunlocked him to death). But doing a normal combo and guessing when to peel off was hard due to him being so obscured by nonsense.
These boss fights at the end of KH1 are not that fun. The camera is horrible. I may be underleveled - 39 for the dragon and 41 Riku - but the game wasn't that difficult for me up to this point except for the Wonderland boss.
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Yup. It's stupid.
Made it to the first Riku fight in re:CoM. He kicked my ass, so I'm going to have to rethink my deck. However, I stand by that I think the boss fights are super fun, it's just the rest of the game that's a bit of a slog.
Try Sonic Blade Sleight, I think you should have it by that point
Hmm so it basically depends on personal preference, I might go for release-order than rather than remaster-order alright.
Also it might be because of my specific playstyle but I didn't find Dragon Maleficent any hard, I just kept healing myself with Cure and air-combo whacked her head which made her miss 50% of her attacks and the other 50% I just healed away. Ansem Rikku however I still can't beat. I mange now to get to phase 3 but since the safe-phases disappear I die rather quickly.
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So once he starts to disappear, you have time to get Cura. Make sure you have Aero on. Then just dodge like crazy while he's zipping around then jump and glide once he does his thunder and hope for the best. Even if he only hits you on the thunder, you should live.
Okay I'll try that, thanks! My problem isn't so much survival though, it's more I don't find any opportunity to attack anymore without eating damage myself. If I solely concentrate on defense and evasion he barely hits me but yeah I can't win the fight like this :P
I've always packed a bunch of ethers and spammed Ars Arcanum in the last phase.
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You should have an opportunity after. And remember you can hit his flying sword back at his and momentarily stun him. And you can use Ars Arcanum too.
The Disney worlds are just way too much of a grind, and like you said before it's only made worse by them all being KH1 repeats while having no bearing on the main plot.
The actual story and Organization 13 intrigue is interesting enough, and the card system works great when you're fighting the bosses who are designed around it. If you're just bashing low AI Heartless encounters it sucks.
That's a good call, I will grind a bit more AP then as currently most of my AP goes into MP recovery.
I've made lots of progress since my last post. Finished Re:Chain of Memories. By the end of Riku's path I was fully invested into the story though I wish the game was a little shorter. There's too much combat and it isn't too hot.
I also watched 358/2 Days which was a huge gut punch by the end and hit me emotionally. Id definitely watch this before playing KH2 as it adds so much context to the intro of that.
Speaking of which I'm also 6 hours into KH2 and boy is the combat a HUGE upgrade over KH1 and especially CoM. I know people say you should play on Proud mode to get the most out of the combat but I went with Normal just to get through the game quicker.
Goal is to get through as much Kingdom Hearts as possible until DMC5 and Sekiro release. Hopefully I can finish the 2.5 stuff by then.
I also watched 358/2 Days which was a huge gut punch by the end and hit me emotionally. Id definitely watch this before playing KH2 as it adds so much context to the intro of that.
Speaking of which I'm also 6 hours into KH2 and boy is the combat a HUGE upgrade over KH1 and especially CoM. I know people say you should play on Proud mode to get the most out of the combat but I went with Normal just to get through the game quicker.
Goal is to get through as much Kingdom Hearts as possible until DMC5 and Sekiro release. Hopefully I can finish the 2.5 stuff by then.
The main benefit of playing on Proud Mode is that you get to see the secret ending by just beating the game, honestly, though you could just Youtube it.
I went to the colosseum and got Cloud's Keyblade, leveled up once to 42 and unlocked a third accessory slot, then beat Ansem Riku on my first try and only cast Aero twice and healed once. Maybe it was luck.
Having done the same recently, my only real headscratcher with the transition of 358->intro of KH2 was...
How exactly did Roxas lose his memories? Where is he living? He doesn't know what a keyblade is anymore?? Suddenly he's best buds with these kids on summer break..?
358 ends with Roxas getting knocked out in a keyblade fight with Ansem-possessed Riku...then suddenly he awakes in Twilight Town for "Day 1". Umm...okay?
I sort of just assume that as Sora's memories are rewoven while sleeping, Roxas loses his, but the transition was jarring AF. Like did I miss some key bit of dialogue that explains how he suddenly has amnesia over his Org XIII life so quickly?? Did Riku and Diz do something to him before setting him up in that kids room?
Again, just felt like some key piece of info was missing and I was left thinking "umm...WHAT?" after the climactic fight of 358 and the start of KH2
358 ends with Roxas getting knocked out in a keyblade fight with Ansem-possessed Riku...then suddenly he awakes in Twilight Town for "Day 1". Umm...okay?
I sort of just assume that as Sora's memories are rewoven while sleeping, Roxas loses his, but the transition was jarring AF. Like did I miss some key bit of dialogue that explains how he suddenly has amnesia over his Org XIII life so quickly?? Did Riku and Diz do something to him before setting him up in that kids room?
Again, just felt like some key piece of info was missing and I was left thinking "umm...WHAT?" after the climactic fight of 358 and the start of KH2
OP, I am kind of doing the same thing too and am in the middle of playing KH2 final mix. Maybe it has been so long since I played KH1 but I can't say I've noticed improvements in the battle system or gameplay control other than adding in drives and limits. Magic felt like it got nerf'ed for various reasons. I hardly use magic now other than to heal. I'd love to hear what others with fresher KH1 memories have noticed are differences between the two games :)
Yeah that's a little confusing but I'd wager it will be explored further in KH2 or a later game.
The game has a really spacey, dream like narrative style where its hard to completely piece every detail together over dozens of hours spanning several games yet its still compelling to unravel.
I'm playing KH2 currently and magic is showing its use the further I get. Cure is obvious, but Reflect is very helpful. It's stupidly powerful and a single basic attack counter with it can screen wipe if a bunch of fodder are clumped up on you(though spamming keyblade is effective too). Real good way to level your Drives up, like Wisdom.
Some elements are real effective on certain worlds. Blizzard for whatever reason makes Pirates world a breeze(especially Barbossa). Though the game is not great at communicating what elements are useful without trial and error...which well keyblade spam can be effective. Even on Critical difficulty I do find I am spamming keyblade often, but some difficult fights have had me relying on magic for assistance such as the above examples.
Drives and Limits...slowly getting used to them as navigating the menu to activate each is not in my muscle memory, so I end up getting effed over as I am trying to activate them. I took them off auto because I found I was wasting them on needless battles accidentally hitting triangle to counter, so I have to manually activate them. But I am finding them very helpful as I remind myself to use them in tricky encounters.
I still enjoy COM because of the combat. You should be creating separate decks for regular encounters so that you finish them in seconds. A lot of the enemy rooms you create should be skipped anyway.
2 before Days is the correct order and the only one that makes sense.
Days assumes that the player has already played 2, and its story and emotions are all built around the player knowing how it ends. It's robbed of so much pathos if you play it before 2.
Originally, the worlds were all separate and only a few people could travel between them (Keyblade masters unlocking paths because they can unlock literally anything, beings tapping in to the dark realm). Ansem wrecked shit up by unlocking the heart of each world which has the side effect of causing heartless to appear and go crazy (because it literally wrecks a world's heart to do this). This basically opens a world up to traversal. Before having it's heart unlocked, worlds are covered by some weird shit that literally comes apart. The pieces of that barrier are the gummi blocks that you build gummi ships out of. Gummi ships can survive traversal between worlds because it's made of the barrier material that could withstand the trans-universal forces to begin with. The shooting star Sora and the others see at the start of Kingdom Hearts 1 is literally the barriers of the worlds coming apart (gummi pieces falling from space).
In Kingdom hearts 1, Sora travels around closing different world's hearts to stop the heartless from roaming free in them, basically healing their hearts, and at the end of the game they close the main door to the dark realm cutting off all heartless and closing the doors to every world. By the end of Kingdom Hearts 1, no one should be able to travel from world to world by traditional means and all heartless should be gone (But they still can the old way, IE doorways of darkness such as the Organization uses, or keyblade users). Sora is literally traveling around in Kingdom Hearts 2 opening pathways between worlds because he closed them all in the first one. I'm not sure why that didn't screw shit back up again.
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I will never recommend playing Days before 2 because it completely spoils Riku's story. You can still understand plenty of the Roxas prologue without touching Days first and some of those questions you had after that we're supposed to be left unresolved until you actually picked up Days later. Also, Roxas being an Organization member was supposed to be a huge reveal for the players but of course that doesn't work these days considering everyone knows who Roxas is even if you haven't played the games before considering he's wearing the black coat on the cover.
Yep. A blizzard deck wrecks every random encounter in like 10 seconds.
Goddamnit. Four copies up north and it's dumping snow. :(
Okay I'll definitely go with that then! Was there ever explained why the collections set a different order?
I recommend doing this, but play it after KHII. It may be a mid-quel, but a lot of the narrative weight depends on knowing the events to come later. (I only became a KH fan about a year or two ago and I was really glad I didn't skip Days when I played through them all.)
The game is extremely tedious and will strain your patience, but the movie version on the HD collection is even worse. 90% of the cutscenes consist of the same three kids eating ice cream on the same ledge, and without actual gameplay in the disney environments to break it up you will slowly descend into madness.
Some of the best moments of KHIII will straight up not make sense without exposure to Days.
Also there's incidental dialogue on missions that aren't in the movie version in which you learn some cool stuff about some of the members of MS-13. Mild spoiler:
Xemnas and Saix are stunningly terrible at team management.