I basically decided to continue with my NG+ Critical run. Going through Critical with all the new Keyblades is *way* better than playing through Critical mode fresh. I agree with whoever said that Critical feels way fairer with all the Keyblades available. On my progress so far:
CORONA
I finally beat Gothel on this second run. I had a few dumb deaths because of weird interactions like "Sora sliding down the hill, making me unable to block Gothel's incoming headbutt" or not properly reacting to her bird-headbutt attack (depending on if you're on higher or lower ground, you might have to block the birds earlier or you might have to use two blocks against the birds and then Gothel herself) but things weren't too hard.
Her fight isn't too different overall. She's the boss I think has had the most new moves so far: she has her Bird-Headbutt/Bird-Spin attack (on easier difficulties, these were separate attacks; now she never summons birds without an immediate follow up) and her Triple Spin (this always happens right after you clear a Tower phase).
There's no other new moves (the Flower move is not new), though as I mentioned, her AI has changed. She'll randomly fly away while doing nothing, she'll also usually activate the Tower Phases at specific points (i.e. first time is consistently around 2 healthbars depleted, not sure about second time). You can actually delay the activation if you manage to stagger and combo her (I did this with Pirate Flag but I assume that it's possible with the Toy Story's Drill or Hammer if you do Toy Story first). That's it though.
TOY BOX
This wasn't too hard, though that might have been because I went to it after Corona. The hardest fight was, ironically enough, the first fight (before the save point) because I kept getting sniped off-screen. The Mech sections are still easy overall, though since you take more damage in the Mech, you'll probably have to hijack at least 1 other Mech during the mandatory encounters.
I was expecting Anime Doll to be dramatically changed up from the comments here, but if you've cleared Level 1 Proud, you know what to expect. She's still got like only 2/3 really telegraphed attacks, and she's still not as threatening the mooks who can snipe you off screen, she just hits harder is all.
The final boss (the big UFO) seems about the same too. Getting 2 shotted by the homing missiles and 1 shotted by the cannon attack is new (even on Level 1 Proud, those attacks weren't dangerous) but he's still pretty easy overall, you just have to be more patient when he fires the missiles now. I don't know if he got any new attacks as he went down pretty fast (as in "our DPS was so high that we ended up skipping the tornado phase") and I don't really care tbh. I don't mind Toy Box being easy as it's the first major world anyway.
MONSTROPOLIS
Now this world was pretty disappointing. When they mentioned tweaking things, I was really, really hoping Monstropolis would get changed up the most as it was a pretty boring world overall (you fight that stupid snail-crab every other encounter, and the only combat variety is in the arenas, like the "Make Boo Laugh Gauntlets" or the "Put Out the Fire Sections" or the "Electric Room"). Things did get changed up a little (the Fire Room was noticeably harder, the stealth section now has lasers that will 1 hit kill you because of course it does) but that's it.
You still have to fight that awful sub-boss type (though it's far less annoying since you get Risk Dodge unlocked by default), the enemy variety is still awful (except now the generic Unversed are a bit more aggressive), the rail segments are still pointless as you can just hide behind the door and it's still a really boring world overall. Even the Lump of Horror didn't seem to get any tweaks. It still has stupid amounts of defense and health, it still bumrushes you 3 times in a row (4 times if you get it to low health) for 80% of the fight, it still has that annoying time-wasting phase with the tentacles (except now the AI will sometimes open the phase with that fight).
I'm pretty damn disappointed with how this world was handled. Because if there was a world that really needed to be tweaked, it was absolutely this one.
CORONA
I finally beat Gothel on this second run. I had a few dumb deaths because of weird interactions like "Sora sliding down the hill, making me unable to block Gothel's incoming headbutt" or not properly reacting to her bird-headbutt attack (depending on if you're on higher or lower ground, you might have to block the birds earlier or you might have to use two blocks against the birds and then Gothel herself) but things weren't too hard.
Her fight isn't too different overall. She's the boss I think has had the most new moves so far: she has her Bird-Headbutt/Bird-Spin attack (on easier difficulties, these were separate attacks; now she never summons birds without an immediate follow up) and her Triple Spin (this always happens right after you clear a Tower phase).
There's no other new moves (the Flower move is not new), though as I mentioned, her AI has changed. She'll randomly fly away while doing nothing, she'll also usually activate the Tower Phases at specific points (i.e. first time is consistently around 2 healthbars depleted, not sure about second time). You can actually delay the activation if you manage to stagger and combo her (I did this with Pirate Flag but I assume that it's possible with the Toy Story's Drill or Hammer if you do Toy Story first). That's it though.
TOY BOX
This wasn't too hard, though that might have been because I went to it after Corona. The hardest fight was, ironically enough, the first fight (before the save point) because I kept getting sniped off-screen. The Mech sections are still easy overall, though since you take more damage in the Mech, you'll probably have to hijack at least 1 other Mech during the mandatory encounters.
I was expecting Anime Doll to be dramatically changed up from the comments here, but if you've cleared Level 1 Proud, you know what to expect. She's still got like only 2/3 really telegraphed attacks, and she's still not as threatening the mooks who can snipe you off screen, she just hits harder is all.
The final boss (the big UFO) seems about the same too. Getting 2 shotted by the homing missiles and 1 shotted by the cannon attack is new (even on Level 1 Proud, those attacks weren't dangerous) but he's still pretty easy overall, you just have to be more patient when he fires the missiles now. I don't know if he got any new attacks as he went down pretty fast (as in "our DPS was so high that we ended up skipping the tornado phase") and I don't really care tbh. I don't mind Toy Box being easy as it's the first major world anyway.
MONSTROPOLIS
Now this world was pretty disappointing. When they mentioned tweaking things, I was really, really hoping Monstropolis would get changed up the most as it was a pretty boring world overall (you fight that stupid snail-crab every other encounter, and the only combat variety is in the arenas, like the "Make Boo Laugh Gauntlets" or the "Put Out the Fire Sections" or the "Electric Room"). Things did get changed up a little (the Fire Room was noticeably harder, the stealth section now has lasers that will 1 hit kill you because of course it does) but that's it.
You still have to fight that awful sub-boss type (though it's far less annoying since you get Risk Dodge unlocked by default), the enemy variety is still awful (except now the generic Unversed are a bit more aggressive), the rail segments are still pointless as you can just hide behind the door and it's still a really boring world overall. Even the Lump of Horror didn't seem to get any tweaks. It still has stupid amounts of defense and health, it still bumrushes you 3 times in a row (4 times if you get it to low health) for 80% of the fight, it still has that annoying time-wasting phase with the tentacles (except now the AI will sometimes open the phase with that fight).
I'm pretty damn disappointed with how this world was handled. Because if there was a world that really needed to be tweaked, it was absolutely this one.
