Hello, I am playing (almost) every single Kingdom Hearts game, join me on this silly adventure!

XaosWolf · Feb 16, 2019

I decided to Dream Drop DDD as I got a bit too close to burnout. Watched the rest on Youtube.
The story towards the end is garbled but fun (Kingdom Hearts' forte!) and there is a lot of new Disney stuff in this one.
The only downsides here are the TWEWY characters and the Dream Eaters add absolutely nothing to the game. They should have brought back any other previous ability system instead.

Union X was a short movie that is completely new to the story. The only recognisable item is a certain keyblade and thats it. Its only an hour long so there is no point in skipping this one anyways.

0.2 A Fragmentary Passage was a first step into the KH3 engine and it looks great. Framerate on my Pro is unstable and suffers from terrible frame pacing issues but that was only really noticeable moving from the solid 60fps of the older titles.
As for the game itself: this short chapter makes Aqua into a far better character just by animating her a lot more and not have her incessantly banging on about her poorly written friendship with Terra and Ventus.
One huge negative about this one though is Mickey's weird face and its got a skin texture and eww stop.

Its been a wonderfully baffling and very back-loaded ride but you know what? Watching through the KH3 intro cinematic now makes me realize I do genuinely give a shit about these characters.

Time to end a journey that I started just shy of 17 years ago...

Syril · Feb 16, 2019

Playing this version of KH1 for the first time I have to say the extra cutscenes they added (the ones focusing on Riku that are conspicuously missing voices) are really pretty bad. There's no need to learn Riku's whereabouts immediately after both of the times when his date is unclear, and the information that's conveyed in them is redundant with the scenes where he shows up again and kind of kills some of the actually pretty decent "show, don't tell" moments. Also the lack of voices and dreamlike atmosphere to them clash really badly with the rest of the game and don't even fit with the actual dream sequences that were already there.

Faenix1 · Feb 16, 2019

Mankoto said:
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.

unholyFarmer said:
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.

HUGE thank you. I could of used that a lot sooner, no guides ever said you can basically just bullshit your way through duels, but I seriously thought I was going to have to spend hours just grinding for levels. I wasn't even a third of the way beating him without abusing duels.

Officially on 2 now. (I'm seriously missing Dodge Roll though)

Fj0823 · Feb 17, 2019

Faenix1 said:
HUGE thank you. I could of used that a lot sooner, no guides ever said you can basically just bullshit your way through duels, but I seriously thought I was going to have to spend hours just grinding for levels. I wasn't even a third of the way beating him without abusing duels.

Officially on 2 now. (I'm seriously missing Dodge Roll though)

Imagine playing vanilla 2 and NEVER getting Dodge Roll

Syril · Feb 17, 2019

Fj0823 said:
Imagine playing vanilla 2 and NEVER getting Dodge Roll

Imagine playing vanilla 2 and never getting the movement skills at all because it never occurred to you that they would be hidden behind the drive forms and the drive gauge refilled so fucking slowly why wouldn't I just save them for boss fights, there wasn't a critical mode, the normal enemies were never tough enough to need them!

Vanilla KH2 sucks.

giraffereyn · Feb 17, 2019

Syril said:
Imagine playing vanilla 2 and never getting the movement skills at all because it never occurred to you that they would be hidden behind the drive forms and the drive gauge refilled so fucking slowly why wouldn't I just save them for boss fights, there wasn't a critical mode, the normal enemies were never tough enough to need them!

Vanilla KH2 sucks.

yeah I don't know how the drive form gauge made it out of that development the way it ism i'ts so damn slow. Does KH2 do anything to assuage that I didn't catch?

I'm still using it until i'm on the last bar then using a save point to go to the world map then come back in with my full guage.

Syril · Feb 17, 2019

giraffereyn said:
yeah I don't know how the drive form gauge made it out of that development the way it ism i'ts so damn slow. Does KH2 do anything to assuage that I didn't catch?

I'm still using it until i'm on the last bar then using a save point to go to the world map then come back in with my full guage.

Actually the final mix version made it better as a baseline, but it charges way faster when you're in MP recovery mode.

Fj0823 · Feb 17, 2019

I gotta say, going from DDD, 0.2 and III back into to II...

Feels like I'm playing in slow motion lol

Kaitos · Feb 17, 2019

Chain of Memories finally done. Phew.

tiesto · Feb 18, 2019

So my girlfriend and I have been playing the original entry - I'm up to the point of no return, right at the end of Hollow Bastion, about to go back and do a sweep over all of the worlds for the items I missed. The stuff that caused me to jump off back in '03 were still issues but I managed to stick with it - a terrible camera and janky platforming mechanics, and environments the size of a Brooklyn apartment (which exacerbates the camera issues). Some of the platforming sections (the end of Tarzan's stage) and boss fights (the black dragon, Ursula's second form, or Ooga Booga on the torture wheel) were near unplayable due to the camera.

But I do like the story, especially towards the end as it moves away from Disney into more of a typical crazy SE storyline. The Hollow Bastion stage was really cool, felt like a classic RPG dungeon, going up through the waterways all the way to the castle chapel, unlocking new routes and solving puzzles. After this, we will go on to playing Chain of Memories, gonna try to eventually play them all in the order they're presented on the Story So Far collection.

Fj0823 · Feb 18, 2019

Kaitos said:
Chain of Memories finally done. Phew.

Did you like the ending?

"It's the Road to Dawn" is the anime bullshit I live for

Kaitos · Feb 18, 2019

Fj0823 said:
Did you like the ending?

"It's the Road to Dawn" is the anime bullshit I live for

So. No lie, in high school we all got a page in our yearbook because it was a tiny school, and the weirdest kid in our school wrote this page long manifesto about how he's better than all of us and has seen the light and titled it, no lie, the Road to Dawn (I graduated a little after CoM came out). I'm actually gobsmacked now because what I thought was super lame just got intensely cringey.

Fj0823 · Feb 18, 2019

Kaitos said:
So. No lie, in high school we all got a page in our yearbook because it was a tiny school, and the weirdest kid in our school wrote this page long manifesto about how he's better than all of us and has seen the light and titled it, no lie, the Road to Dawn (I graduated a little after CoM came out). I'm actually gobsmacked now because what I thought was super lame just got intensely cringey.

lmao, kid was quoting KH lol

Kaitos · Feb 18, 2019

Fj0823 said:
lmao, kid was quoting KH lol

Riku said it, I threw my controller and immediately texted about a dozen friends about it.

Kaitos · Feb 21, 2019

I'll post longer thoughts later, but I just beat the Colisseum in KH2, and I feel like I'd hate this game if I didn't play on Proud. It's still easy-ish, but not so easy that I never die.

Feeroper · Feb 23, 2019

So I've completed KH1, CoM, KH2 and 358, moving on to BBS.

I must say my replay of this series has me appreciating these games so much more playing them in such close proximity to one another as opposed to being spaced out over years. I'm so glad I opted to replay the whole series before diving into 3.

NetMapel · Feb 24, 2019

I just beat Kingdom Hearts 2 today and collected all the puzzle pieces. The things I have left but I'm not sure if I want to tackle are:
- Sephiroth fight
- Getting the last treasure from cavern of remembrance (I'm sure y'all know how much of a pain that is)
- Complete all the mini games in the journal including mushroom XIII stuff.

Think I'm ready to just move on to birth by sleep now though. If anybody here can point out why it's worth it to complete the above, do let me know :)

PlanetSmasher · Feb 24, 2019

NetMapel said:
I just beat Kingdom Hearts 2 today and collected all the puzzle pieces. The things I have left but I'm not sure if I want to tackle are:
- Sephiroth fight
- Getting the last treasure from cavern of remembrance (I'm sure y'all know how much of a pain that is)
- Complete all the mini games in the journal including mushroom XIII stuff.

Think I'm ready to just move on to birth by sleep now though. If anybody here can point out why it's worth it to complete the above, do let me know :)

If you already beat the game, Seph isn't too bad. Go ahead and tackle him.

TimeFire · Feb 24, 2019

I'm almost done with Chain of Memories! It's not bad per se as a lot of people say, but it's certainly pretty mindless. It's a great podcast game at least.

dasu · Feb 24, 2019

I'm (sort of) using the release of Kingdom Hearts III to kick out COM (GBA) and BBS (PSP) from my ridiculous gaming backlog. I have not played any of the other Kingdom Hearts games.

I am about halfway through COM (I think). So far, COM is more "interesting" than it is "good." It is built around some super cool systems, but due to a lack of balance it doesn't really come together. For example, the inventory management based procedurally generated dungeons is neat in theory, but in practice it does not offer any interesting choices to offset the necessarily generic room designs. And in one case, bad RNG resulted in me having to grind for room cards. Also, the Pooh level is awful.

Is the consensus that DDD has better gameplay than BBS? I had originally purchased BBS under the premises that it was the best of the spinoffs, but maybe people say that due to story bias / spinoff exhaustion.

RatskyWatsky · Feb 24, 2019

dasu said:
Is the consensus that DDD has better gameplay than BBS? I had originally purchased BBS under the premises that it was the best of the spinoffs, but maybe people say that due to story bias / spinoff exhaustion.

No, BBS is better.

Deleted member 35077 · Feb 24, 2019

dasu said:
Is the consensus that DDD has better gameplay than BBS? I had originally purchased BBS under the premises that it was the best of the spinoffs, but maybe people say that due to story bias / spinoff exhaustion.

BBS is better, but if you care more about gameplay than Re:Coded is easily the best of the spinoffs, and also has the best used of the command deck system.

Poltergust · Feb 24, 2019

All of the mainline games leading up to KH3 are done on my end! Just have 0.2 and the Kingdom Hearts X movie to go (I guess I'll also watch the browser game cutscenes on Youtube as well; I got far enough in Union X on my own end to reach all the relevant plot points, but I know the browser game actually diverges in story at some point and I want to see what's up with that).

Played a bit of 0.2 tonight, and I'm really liking all the extra flashy effects and increased presentation. I assume KH3 takes these things and makes them better, too. I'm taking my time exploring in this one since I know it's essentially a glorified demo and I doubt I'll be replaying it anytime soon.

PlanetSmasher · Feb 24, 2019

So, I'm in the World that Never Was in 2FM+. How the fuck do I get Final Form? I already beat Roxas and Xigbar and I have Two Become One equipped and every time I use Drive I just keep getting anti-form. Am I just getting really bad RNG, or are there specific fights where it's easier to trigger?

I do not remember it being this hard in vanilla.

Fj0823 · Feb 24, 2019

PlanetSmasher said:
So, I'm in the World that Never Was in 2FM+. How the fuck do I get Final Form? I already beat Roxas and Xigbar and I have Two Become One equipped and every time I use Drive I just keep getting anti-form. Am I just getting really bad RNG, or are there specific fights where it's easier to trigger?

I do not remember it being this hard in vanilla.

Go to the coliseum, go to the tournament where you get to use drive forms

Spam master form + retry until you get Final Form

2 become One will only get you final If you already have it I believe

PlanetSmasher · Feb 24, 2019

Fj0823 said:
Go to the coliseum, go to the tournament where you get to use drive forms

Spam master form + retry until you get Final Form

2 become One will only get you final I'd you already have it I believe

I thought the whole point of 2BO was to make unlocking Final easier. Huh.

Syril · Feb 24, 2019

PlanetSmasher said:
I thought the whole point of 2BO was to make unlocking Final easier. Huh.

It technically does by forcing anti form to trigger all the time, because you get final randomly when anti triggers.

PlanetSmasher · Feb 24, 2019

Okay, fuck this game. Fuck the Cavern of Remembrance and fuck Critical Mode. This shit is the absolute opposite of fun. I get games needing challenge, but this fucking hallway gauntlet of Nobodies needs to fucking die. The Berserker/Gambler/Sniper section is just fucking impossible.

NetMapel · Feb 24, 2019

PlanetSmasher said:
Okay, fuck this game. Fuck the Cavern of Remembrance and fuck Critical Mode. This shit is the absolute opposite of fun. I get games needing challenge, but this fucking hallway gauntlet of Nobodies needs to fucking die. The Berserker/Gambler/Sniper section is just fucking impossible.

I was just there yesterday myself and it got pretty hairy for me too. My suggestion is to use magnet a lot in those fight. Help with crowd control so don't be afraid to use ether in that fight. Good news is once you're done with it, you never have to go through it again if you don't want to. Good luck!

PlanetSmasher · Feb 24, 2019

NetMapel said:
It got pretty hairy for me too but my suggestion is to use magnet a lot in those fight. Help with crowd control so don't be afraid to use ether in that fight. Good luck!

Yeah, I've been using Magnet and the Berserkers just ignore it. I die in two hits, it's terrible.

NetMapel · Feb 24, 2019

PlanetSmasher said:
Yeah, I've been using Magnet and the Berserkers just ignore it. I die in two hits, it's terrible.

Yeah when they appear on screen, do your best to make them your top priority so you can grab their weapon and perform berserk yourself. There is no easy way, unfortunately. Also switch between final form to replenish your health too and gain experience for that drive form.

shimon · Feb 26, 2019

I just wanted to drop in and say:

Fuck the Ice Cream Beat minigame from BBS.

That is all lol

Poltergust · Feb 28, 2019

Finally... finally done going through Kingdom Hearts X. I used this playthrough that has an English translation.

For anyone that played the mobile game (Unchained/Union X), the story divergence happens at video #28, which splits off right after mission 585. For everyone else, I recommend not bothering watch any of the videos dealing with the Disney worlds as those are 99% filler. There are like one or two important scenes sprinkled in there, but they basically amount to just this:

-Chirithy was created by the Master of Masters to watch over the player character.
-The player character slowly comes to understand the strength of the heart and the bonds he shares with his/her friends.

Everything else that's important is pretty much exclusively shown in Daybreak Town, so only watch those videos in this playlist. Then, watch Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover.

Remember, this is the Japanese-exclusive browser game; the mobile game has a story divergence and does not show off the final parts of X. The reason for that is

while X is about the real events leading up to the Keyblade War, the mobile game is a sequel in which the player character is rescued and put into the Realm of Sleep where they relive the story of X but skip over the actual Keyblade War. Everything from the Enchanted Dominion onwards is completely new content to the mobile game. This is also why the final plot point of X is showcasing the player character being in the Enchanted Dominion, as they are now in the Realm of Sleep and have lost all memories of the Keyblade War.

As for why Maleficent (as in, the real Maleficent) is there... uh... I dunno, honestly. As of Dream Drop Distance she's still supposed to be looking for the Book of Prophecies, so I guess she actually finds it in KH3 or something? There's otherwise no way she could ever wind up in the same location as Union X's player character. I'm interested to see if KH3 addresses this.

All that said, I don't believe any of the new stuff exclusive to the mobile game is relevant to KH3, so you're fine skipping over that for the time being.

I did this so you wouldn't have to. You're welcome.

Now on to KH3! Hooray!

shimon said:
I just wanted to drop in and say:

Fuck the Ice Cream Beat minigame from BBS.

That is all lol

I got max rank first try on each song+difficulty with all 3 characters lol. I love those kinds of rhythm games.

Faenix1 · Mar 2, 2019

So, finally beat 2 and did about as much as I feel like doing, but before I start BBS I have some questions.

-how hard is Critical,
-how annoying is it to get the sticker album complete

Originally intended to run through BBS on "easy" but I noticed BBS had a final and secret episode. I'd rather play than watch, but I also dont want to have a stupidly hard time either. (I'm usually a standard difficulty gamer)

Limping my way to 3 here..lol

Fj0823 · Mar 2, 2019

Faenix1 said:
So, finally beat 2 and did about as much as I feel like doing, but before I start BBS I have some questions.

-how hard is Critical,
-how annoying is it to get the sticker album complete

Originally intended to run through BBS on "easy" but I noticed BBS had a final and secret episode. I'd rather play than watch, but I also dont want to have a stupidly hard time either. (I'm usually a standard difficulty gamer)

Limping my way to 3 here..lol

Final episode is unlocked by getting all the Xehanort reports across the 3 stories

Secret episode is by also having all the stickers

PlanetSmasher · Mar 2, 2019

Faenix1 said:
So, finally beat 2 and did about as much as I feel like doing, but before I start BBS I have some questions.

-how hard is Critical,
-how annoying is it to get the sticker album complete

Originally intended to run through BBS on "easy" but I noticed BBS had a final and secret episode. I'd rather play than watch, but I also dont want to have a stupidly hard time either. (I'm usually a standard difficulty gamer)

Limping my way to 3 here..lol

Play BBS on Proud. Its Critical Mode is...not balanced well.

Faenix1 · Mar 2, 2019

PlanetSmasher said:
Play BBS on Proud. Its Critical Mode is...not balanced well.

Good thing I asked, I was gonna jump in on critical.. because less requirements. Guess I gotta hope the sticker nonsense isnt a total clusterfuck. lol

RatskyWatsky · Mar 2, 2019

Faenix1 said:
Good thing I asked, I was gonna jump in on critical.. because less requirements. Guess I gotta hope the sticker nonsense isnt a total clusterfuck. lol

It's extremely easy to get the stickers.

Ravelle · Mar 11, 2019

My journey is complete!

I played through all the playable, Kingdom Hearts games, watched Back Cover and what happened in Union Cross. It brought up more questions than it answered but I'm now finally ready to play some Kingdom Hearts 3.

It has been a confusing and wonderful journey and I loved every moment of it.

Sinfamy · Mar 11, 2019

I beat Sephiroth and all other secret bosses in KH1 on Proud, but I can't beat Re:CoM on easy :(
Finally got to Marluxia final fight, ugh.

Faenix1 · Mar 16, 2019

Well, I've finally completed Birth by Sleep: Final Mix on Proud. Final/Secret episodes included.

Terra was probably the easiest, at least until that infuriating final boss. Ventus and Aqua started out pretty rough, but they eventually got better as I went. I expected I'd have a lot of problems, I'm normally on Standard NOT Proud, but I didn't really encounter anything outside my own stupidity.

Watching Re:coded now, but before I jump into DDD. How is it on Proud? Are the trophy things for the Secret Ending as much of a pain as they appear? I'm trying to experience as much as I can myself, but I'm contemplating just doing an 'easy run' to get it over with... lol

RatskyWatsky · Mar 16, 2019

Faenix1 said:
Watching Re:coded now, but before I jump into DDD. How is it on Proud?

It's fine. Maybe a tad more difficult than BBS on Proud, but nothing you can't handle.

Are the trophy things for the Secret Ending as much of a pain as they appear? I'm trying to experience as much as I can myself, but I'm contemplating just doing an 'easy run' to get it over with... lol

There are 3 requirements:

Collect 5 total trophies on Proud (will get this naturally by completing the main story)

Pick options 3, 2, & 2 during the quiz at the end of the game

During the credits, fly through the gold letters to spell out the secret message

Feeroper · Mar 23, 2019

I finally finished my replay of DDD and only the union x movie and 0.2 remain! So close to playing KH3 now! It's been really worth it replaying all these older games back to back in the OS4 collections. It's really made me appreciate the story so mick more as well as the evolution of the gameplay through the years.

I'm completely blind to KH3 so I am beyond excited. It's been a loooong 2 months.

RatskyWatsky · Mar 23, 2019

Feeroper said:
I finally finished my replay of DDD and only the union x movie and 0.2 remain! So close to playing KH3 now! It's been really worth it replaying all these older games back to back in the OS4 collections. It's really made me appreciate the story so mick more as well as the evolution of the gameplay through the years.

I'm completely blind to KH3 so I am beyond excited. It's been a loooong 2 months.

I'm waiting for the critical mode/Final Mix patch before I jump in to 3!

Faenix1 · Mar 25, 2019

Welp, the ride is finally almost over. Just have to play 0.2, finish watching the "X" stuff, and then start 3.
Thanks for the tips/suggestions, folks. Though how is 0.2 on Proud? Only played BBS on Proud, but I wonder how hard it is. I'd rather enjoy myself than hate my time. (For, you know, PS trophies)

I've never played so many games from a franchise back-to-back before. I've also basically done everything possible that didnt require a ton of time. (No secret bosses, or collectible BS unless otherwise needed for story stuff.)

If anyone else is just starting out, know that it starts pretty rough - I attempted Kingom Hearts 1 many times since the PS3 release, and Chain of Memories is just.. bad - but things get A LOT better. I wish 358/2 Days had more effort put in to make it more enjoyable to watch, but outside Re:coded feeling mostly pointless to watch.. things from 2 on are pretty good. I enjoyed Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance a lot more than I expected, I think I might of liked them more than 2. lol

tiesto · Mar 30, 2019

Well, after a whole bunch of time I finally beat the first KH game! Something I was unable to do back in 2002 when the game first released... That being said, the game is definitely dated and I really wish some of the more frustrating elements (the gummy ship, the atrocious camera, zones the size of closets) were fixed in the 1.5 remake.

I did manage to grind my ass to level 100 and beat Sephiroth, Unknown, the Phantom... see the "Deep Dive" ending. That extended the playtime another 10 or 15 hours for me.

What I did like about the game - the graphics still hold up extremely well, especially with the HD coat of paint. The selection of Disney worlds was great and kinda matched up with the usual worlds you'd venture to in a long RPG. The RPG mechanics were a tad more involved than I was expecting, with lots of FF style items and a bunch of skills/accessories you had to be picky about. The challenge level was surprisingly up there, too, but I don't know how much of that was due to the awful camera.

Best part of the game for me was the Hollow Bastion, since it felt like a true penultimate/final RPG dungeon, with lots of puzzles, challenging boss fights, and varied sub-sections.

Gonna probably start RE: Chain of Memories next, and I'm not really looking forward to this one. That weird mid 2000's trend where so many Japanese games got a card game spinoff or incorporated card game elements in their games was frustrating for me, I think Baten Kaitos Origins was the only card-heavy game I can say I truly liked. Plus it seems to have the lowest reviews of the franchise... any advice for helping me get through it as quick and painlessly as possible? Especially for someone not good at card games :P

RatskyWatsky · Mar 30, 2019

tiesto said:
Gonna probably start RE: Chain of Memories next, and I'm not really looking forward to this one. That weird mid 2000's trend where so many Japanese games got a card game spinoff or incorporated card game elements in their games was frustrating for me, I think Baten Kaitos Origins was the only card-heavy game I can say I truly liked. Plus it seems to have the lowest reviews of the franchise... any advice for helping me get through it as quick and painlessly as possible? Especially for someone not good at card games :P

CoM is great, but it's also easy to cheese if you just want to get through it as quickly as possible to see the story.

Follow this guide and the game will be a total breeze:

https://forum.psnprofiles.com/topic/42708-easy-way-to-do-proud-mode/

Hello, I am playing (almost) every single Kingdom Hearts game, join me on this silly adventure!

One Winged Slayer

Legendary Duelist

Legendary Duelist

Tens across the board!

Legendary Duelist

Tens across the board!

Legendary Duelist

Tens across the board!

Tens across the board!

The Abominable Showman

Are we human or are we dancer?

Self-requested ban

One Winged Slayer

The Abominable Showman

Legendary Duelist

The Abominable Showman

The Abominable Showman

The Abominable Showman

One Winged Slayer

Legendary Duelist

The Abominable Showman

Are we human or are we dancer?

Are we human or are we dancer?

Are we human or are we dancer?

Are we human or are we dancer?