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Poltergust

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,819
Orlando, FL
I was hoping to do a Critical Mode playthrough of Dream Drop Distance now that I finished Birth by Sleep... and then I saw that it isn't unlocked until you beat the game for the first time.

Whyyyyyyyyyyy
 

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
These are some takes.... I really enjoyed DDD. The flowmotion stuff was fun and I feel like worked better in DDD than it did in KH3.
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
DDD was like if Birth by Sleep played to all its weaknesses. Instead of getting incentivized to constantly change up your moves and discover new ones with the melding system you just fucking buy them at a shop, so you don't see anything new until the next world. The intricate advancement system is tied to AI companions, which, since this is a Kingdom Hearts game, are occasionally helpful at best. Instead of blazing through a bunch of worlds three different times, you played through much larger worlds twice at the same time because they wanted you to do the stories in parallel. Birth by Sleep had some serious issues as a game, but the constant flow of new things in it did a lot to hide that.
 

RatskyWatsky

Are we human or are we dancer?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,931
It had the shortest development time of any KH game by far (~2 years), and it really, really shows. It's down in the dumps for me alongside Coded.

Interesting. Why the rushed development?

DDD was like if Birth by Sleep played to all its weaknesses. Instead of getting incentivized to constantly change up your moves and discover new ones with the melding system you just fucking buy them at a shop, so you don't see anything new until the next world. The intricate advancement system is tied to AI companions, which, since this is a Kingdom Hearts game, are occasionally helpful at best. Instead of blazing through a bunch of worlds three different times, you played through much larger worlds twice at the same time because they wanted you to do the stories in parallel. Birth by Sleep had some serious issues as a game, but the constant flow of new things in it did a lot to hide that.

All of this. Also, no staggering or invincibility frames means it's really hard to pull off most of the flashy moves (which is nearly all of them).
 

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,360
Interesting. Why the rushed development?



All of this. Also, no staggering or invincibility frames means it's really hard to pull off most of the flashy moves (which is nearly all of them).
I honestly have no idea. 2012 was the 10th anniversary of the series, so they probably wanted to get out a game to celebrate that?
 

AwShucks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,935
These are some takes.... I really enjoyed DDD. The flowmotion stuff was fun and I feel like worked better in DDD than it did in KH3.

I actually missed flow motion. The poles just weren't enough in KH3. But if that's the sacrifice we have to make to be mostly rid of the dream eaters or whatever, it's an acceptable trade off.
 
OP
OP
Kaitos

Kaitos

Tens across the board!
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
14,700
Had some friends in town and work stuff, but I finally beat the Sora part of Re:CoM.

Now just Riku...

😕
 

XaosWolf

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,935
I'm on this journey as of last week. Here's my catch-up so far:
  • Finished KH1 on PS2 and for this playthrough a couple months back on Standard difficulty. Its a solid game that follows a decent arc and gets a lot of usage out of both the Disney folks and the FF chums.
  • Completed CoM on GBA years ago so just watched the cutscenes online due to not wanting to put up with the card mechanic again. (Also I much preferred the sprites of the GBA version more) I forgot how wacky the plot got in this. Why is Goofy the voice of reason in every KH game.
  • Watched the 358/2 Days on the collection and ate some ice cream, we are best friends, you are right, ha ha ha ha ha.
  • Played through part of KH2 back on PS2 (dunno how far into it I got) but now completed it on Standard and had a blast. No idea what was happening at the end though, and I don't actually mean story-wise.
  • Now playing through BBS for the first time and just dumped it on easy mode to get through it. Apparently the story is what I'm doing this for but these worlds are short and empty. Finished Terra and am about halfway through Ventus' campaign.
Re:Coded is a movie so that's easy, but I dunno how I'm gonna go about DDD. I remember trying it on 3DS at launch and obviously had no idea what was going on or what I was doing. If the Pokémon mechanic doesn't sit right with me then I'll just watch it online.

I'm enjoying going through these though. It's a wild ride and BBS is making me ask wtf people are talking about (or who they're talking too) but it's been good to go all this franchise without the decades of waiting inbetween. =P
 

SCB360

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
1,639
I'm on this journey as of last week. Here's my catch-up so far:
  • Finished KH1 on PS2 and for this playthrough a couple months back on Standard difficulty. Its a solid game that follows a decent arc and gets a lot of usage out of both the Disney folks and the FF chums.
  • Completed CoM on GBA years ago so just watched the cutscenes online due to not wanting to put up with the card mechanic again. (Also I much preferred the sprites of the GBA version more) I forgot how wacky the plot got in this. Why is Goofy the voice of reason in every KH game.
  • Watched the 358/2 Days on the collection and ate some ice cream, we are best friends, you are right, ha ha ha ha ha.
  • Played through part of KH2 back on PS2 (dunno how far into it I got) but now completed it on Standard and had a blast. No idea what was happening at the end though, and I don't actually mean story-wise.
  • Now playing through BBS for the first time and just dumped it on easy mode to get through it. Apparently the story is what I'm doing this for but these worlds are short and empty. Finished Terra and am about halfway through Ventus' campaign.
Re:Coded is a movie so that's easy, but I dunno how I'm gonna go about DDD. I remember trying it on 3DS at launch and obviously had no idea what was going on or what I was doing. If the Pokémon mechanic doesn't sit right with me then I'll just watch it online.

I'm enjoying going through these though. It's a wild ride and BBS is making me ask wtf people are talking about (or who they're talking too) but it's been good to go all this franchise without the decades of waiting inbetween. =P


Wait, Pokemon mechanic?
 

XaosWolf

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,935
Wait, Pokemon mechanic?
The Dream Eaters - it's like Pokemon crossed with Nintendogs.

spirits.jpg
 

Ravelle

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,750
Just started a Criitcal Mode playthrough of KH2FM for the first time.

Help me survive Beast's Castle. What do I do in crowds? Fat Heartless kill me constantly.

They are really annoying and can wreck you early on but once you have some decent air combo stuff and launch you can pop them in to the air and finish them before they hit the ground. I rushed through the castle because I was not in the mood to deal with those assholes, they weren't worth the bit of xp, time and frustration.
 

XaosWolf

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,935
yea but I have 5 of these games left before KH3 so its gonna get weird I assume
Haha, don't worry. The pokémon is as weird as it gets as far as gamplay is concerned.
If you're playing the collection then its just:
  • The card deck in Chain of Memories - The standard battle system but as configurable card deck.
  • The Command Deck in Birth by Sleep - The standard battle system but with a customisable combo list.
  • Dream Eaters from Dream Drop Distance. The standard battle system but with some pokémon to assist.
Everything else is either the normal KH action system by itself or its a movie.
 
OP
OP
Kaitos

Kaitos

Tens across the board!
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
14,700
I'm an hour into Riku's story in Re:CoM and I've heard the phrase "The Darkness" about 379 times.
 

Joule

Member
Nov 19, 2017
4,232
i just finished watching 258/2 and started kh2. i skipped CoM because fuck all that. love playing these games again, there's nothing that holds me like kingdom hearts for some reason. 1.5 replay is done now on to 2.5 😁 (again). then 0.2 for the first time and finally 3 after that
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,322
I'm an idiot. I went to Beast's Castle BEFORE Land of Dragons. No wonder everything was killing me in one hit.
 

XaosWolf

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,935
Just finished up Birth by Sleep and watched the super secret stuff online.

I... didn't enjoy this one. I lumped it on beginner to get through it, but despite the command deck being a neat idea, the combat physics I just couldn't stand.
This is because of two things:
1. Your recovery time after an action sucks. Especially when landing. Triple all that for Terra. Triple it again for Armoured Terra.
2. Enemies break out of your combos seemingly at random. You cannot do the same due to point 1.

I didn't like the story for any of them. The Disney worlds are particularly filler-y in this game and the story is largely just them barely missing each other in each world and then glumly staring at their macguffin whilst saying each others names.

The only relevant bits are the Radiant Garden and end area cutscenes. Even the secret ending movie is just saying a name.

Meh. Roll on to Re:coded. ( Which I see a lot of people say to skip but I'll be damned if I'm outright bypassing any titles now. =P )
 
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Necromanti

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,544
Jist finished up Birth by Sleep and watched the super secret stuff online.

I... didn't enjoy this one. I lumped it on beginner to get through it, but despite the command deck being a neat idea, the combat physics I just couldn't stand.
This is because of two things:
1. Your recovery time after an action sucks. Especially when landing. Triple all that for Terra. Triple it again for Armoured Terra.
2. Enemies break out of your combos seemingly at random. You cannot do the same due to point 1.
It really is Stunlock: The Game if you happen to get hit by some enemies/bosses. It doesn't help that a lot of your attacks have a lot of windup, and the guarding isn't quick enough where you can reactively use it right after an attack or cancel an attack to use it. Such a disappointment. (Though some bosses were easy if you ONLY guarded them and didn't bother attacking.)
I didn't like the story for any of them. The Disney worlds are particularly filler-y in this game and the story is largely just them barely missing each other in each world and then glumly staring at their macguffin whilst saying each others names
This was especially egregious in Aqua's path for me. It was "They were here...?" x 100. Unbelievably dumb. And half of the conflict arises because no one actually talks to each other.
 

XaosWolf

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,935
It really is Stunlock: The Game if you happen to get hit by some enemies/bosses. It doesn't help that a lot of your attacks have a lot of windup, and the guarding isn't quick enough where you can reactively use it right after an attack or cancel an attack to use it. Such a disappointment. (Though some bosses were easy if you ONLY guarded them and didn't bother attacking.)
This was especially egregious in Aqua's path for me. It was "They were here...?" x 100. Unbelievably dumb. And half of the conflict arises because no one actually talks to each other.

Terra was absolutely stunlock fodder. Went back to get the Secret Report from the arena and the boss you have to fight for it does a repeated 3 hit combo that Terra just isn't fast enough to counter. He just gets nicked by an AOE and he floats for like 2 seconds before you can move again.

As for cutscene hilarity: theres a scene where Aqua tells Ventus to stay put because its dangerous for him to tag along (I have no idea why Ventus is treated like some toddler despite his clear keyblade skill) and his reaction is to slump his head and shoulders and just Charlie Brown on the spot for the rest of the scene. I was in tears.
 

RatskyWatsky

Are we human or are we dancer?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,931
I thought Ventus' story in BBS was good, one of the best in the series, but Aqua's was lacking in any real arc.
While Terra and Ventus grew and changed over the course of the game, Aqua basically just mindlessly chased them from world to world and was the same person at the end as she was in the beginning.
All three stories are way too thin to be honest though (Terra's especially) and overall the game felt like it needed a few more years in the oven.
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
Ventus' main thrust of being terrified of losing his surrogate older brother and finding himself at the center of a conflict that's putting both of his surrogate siblings against each other for reasons he doesn't understand is the kind of simple, big emotions-based story that actually plays to the series' strengths. Namely, setting the mood really well with the environment designs and music and having characters being emotionally vulnerable.
The villain plan was still more complicated than it probably needed to be (the X-Blade is really dumb in more ways than one), but it says something that the villains' species and revelations are actually things that Ventus is able to understand and react to appropriately, as opposed to the amount of times in the sequels that Sora is just confused by things that villains say.
 

RatskyWatsky

Are we human or are we dancer?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,931
Ventus' main thrust of being terrified of losing his surrogate older brother and finding himself at the center of a conflict that's putting both of his surrogate siblings against each other for reasons he doesn't understand is the kind of simple, big emotions-based story that actually plays to the series' strengths. Namely, setting the mood really well with the environment designs and music and having characters being emotionally vulnerable.
The villain plan was still more complicated than it probably needed to be (the X-Blade is really dumb in more ways than one), but it says something that the villains' species and revelations are actually things that Ventus is able to understand and react to appropriately, as opposed to the amount of times in the sequels that Sora is just confused by things that villains say.

Agreed on all points!
 

XaosWolf

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,935
Watched Re:Coded tonight. Its not as much of a rehash as I thought it would be but the only real information is the last few cutscenes and the secret movies.
Was nice to see and hear a lot more from Mickey Mouse which isn't something you get much of nowadays.

Started DDD too. It has the pokemon things which I think abilities are tied to and it also has the Command Deck from BBS. (but without the awful physics of that game)
HLTB says its 20hrs long so I'm gonna try and play through it but if I start disliking the mechanics then I can just watch the cutscenes on this one which boil down to 5hrs instead.
 

Fj0823

Legendary Duelist
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,633
Costa Rica
Watched Re:Coded tonight. Its not as much of a rehash as I thought it would be but the only real information is the last few cutscenes and the secret movies.
Was nice to see and hear a lot more from Mickey Mouse which isn't something you get much of nowadays.

Started DDD too. It has the pokemon things which I think abilities are tied to and it also has the Command Deck from BBS. (but without the awful physics of that game)
HLTB says its 20hrs long so I'm gonna try and play through it but if I start disliking the mechanics then I can just watch the cutscenes on this one which boil down to 5hrs instead.

SPAM DROP-ME-NOTS
 

RatskyWatsky

Are we human or are we dancer?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,931
I appreciate developers experimenting, but at some point they had to look at the situation of being thrown out of a boss fight from the timer running out and think "this is still a good idea".

It wouldn't be that bad if the boss' health didn't regen every time. :/
 

Faenix1

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,114
Canada
I'm at the final boss of Riku's Re: CoM.. and jesus christ. Why do I hate myself? Haven't had this much trouble since Vexen in Sora's part, but this is borderline impossible for me. -_-

I keep saying "fuck it" and moving to KH2, but then I think "one more try". lol
 

Mankoto

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,369
I'm at the final boss of Riku's Re: CoM.. and jesus christ. Why do I hate myself? Haven't had this much trouble since Vexen in Sora's part, but this is borderline impossible for me. -_-

I keep saying "fuck it" and moving to KH2, but then I think "one more try". lol

Just keep forcing a duel and keep mashing X until you win the duel. Works every time. Believe me.
 

Faenix1

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,114
Canada
Ya'll are making me not look forward to BBS and DDD though. "watching videos", for me, isn't possible. (Because I hate myself and I'm stubborn.. I guess. lol)

Just keep forcing a duel and keep mashing X until you win the duel. Works every time. Believe me.

Wait, just mashing X will win duels? (I have yet to win more than two duels, and one of those was the first one - which took me more than one try.)
 

unholyFarmer

Member
Jan 22, 2019
1,374
Ya'll are making me not look forward to BBS and DDD though. "watching videos", for me, isn't possible. (Because I hate myself and I'm stubborn.. I guess. lol)



Wait, just mashing X will win duels? (I have yet to win more than two duels, and one of those was the first one - which took me more than one try.)
Definitely duel makes Riku's route bosses way easier. Make sure you have most of your cards with you when you do this, or just draw more otherwise. Usually I try to be strategic for the first 3 or 4 cards on a duel, and after that I just mash X for an easy win.
 

Mankoto

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,369
Ya'll are making me not look forward to BBS and DDD though. "watching videos", for me, isn't possible. (Because I hate myself and I'm stubborn.. I guess. lol)



Wait, just mashing X will win duels? (I have yet to win more than two duels, and one of those was the first one - which took me more than one try.)
For bosses, basically yes. With Duels, it automatically destroies the opponents sleight regardless of outcome. And if you have enough high cards, you should win it pretty easily. Riku's reload time makes dueling bosses simple honestly.
 

Sh0k

Member
Oct 27, 2017
227
So I played through the remasters of KH1 and KH2 on PS4, I thought of dropping the game while playing part 1 because of the terrible camera and the no help on where to go or what to do, half the time I was lost in the game; but I finished the game. KH2 improved the camera a lot and you have a sense of direction and what to do next with the hints in your journal, I did really enjoyed part 2. I watched summary videos of the other games in the proper order, didn't want to play them because of the different mechanics and didn't want to get burn of playing too much Kingdom Hearts.

Now I'm playing KH3 and really enjoying the game, only to find out that before starting part 3, there is a set of 5 movies that lasts maybe 5-6 mins each and they explained the story so far like you are a 5 year old, super easy to understand, that if I jumped into part 3 without playing the other games before, I don't think I will be that lost.