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So! We've finally reached the point where we get not only magic, but also a Drive Form! While in KH1 there was only magic spells and summons to really talk about, in KH2 we have four different types of special powers to talk about. Drive Forms, Magic, Summons, and Limits. The last two of these will wait until we get them. Instead, before I explain the spells that we now have, I should explain how magic works in KH2. The most important thing to know is that MP works entirely different. You'll remember in one that your max MP also was your magic power. Now, MP and magic are two separate stats. In addition to that, MP is no longer a stat that you can manipulate with accessories and levels. (There are a couple of fights in FM that upgrade your max MP a bit, but for 90% of the game it will be set at 100 MP.) It also does not recharge with hitting enemies. Here's the way it does work. You have that blue bar there, and every time you cast a spell, that bar goes down. When it runs out, you enter something called MP Charge, where it's replaced with a pink bar that slowly empties. You can't cast any magic while the pink bar is on screen. When the bar fully empties, it brings back the blue bar, only full once more. Collecting MP orbs, or using Ethers, will restore blue MP to the bar, or take off portions of the pink bar. You can actually turn off MP Charge, though. Through the Customization menu, you can set spells to not trigger MP Charge. When this is set, using that spell will only be available if you have the MP to cast it. If your MP is too low to cast it, that spell will simply be unavailable, and MP Charge will never trigger off of it. Honestly, I've never used that function. I always feel it's better to just get into MP Charge, wait a bit, and get back your MP. With some MP Haste-type abilities equipped, it can go pretty fast. One more thing to note! In KH1, spells did not key off of your combo. Here, they do, and getting through a magic combo will make the final cast on the finisher more powerful. However, this does leave time between combos, so you can't just constantly be spamming magic like you could in KH1. Now, for the spells. Fire: Returning from KH1, the Fire spells are the ones that have changed the most. They're no longer a ranged spell in the slightest. When Sora uses Fire, fireballs appear and circle around him, making this a short-range attack at best. Most people will automatically dismiss the use of this after trying it a few times, particularly if they're coming off of the first game, where Fire was really easy to hit with and could be spammed. However, it's important to note one thing: With the exception of a later spell that is broken by ALL accounts, Firaga is THE most damaging spell in the game. Later Drive Forms will make it easier to hit with, Fira and Firaga are more spread out from Sora, ALSO making it easier to hit with... and it fills a niche no other spell does, as it can hit all enemies in a circle around you, at least in later versions. Another spell can do this, but it's the one that's absurdly broken, and there are requirements for that. There are some things later in FM that liberal use of Firaga makes much easier. Blizzard: Blizzard, of course, also returns from KH1! It likewise was also changed. While it's still a ranged spell, Blizzard is no longer a shotgun spreadfire. Instead, Blizzard shoots a single ice crystal forward in a straight line from you. Sounds purely inferior to both KH1 Fire and KH1 Blizzard? Well, not really. Blizzard's strength is that it pierces through enemies. So it'll hit one enemy... and then the next one behind it... and then the next one behind it... etc. etc. Higher level versions increase the size and damage of the crystal. Again, certain Drive Forms modify it a bit, but we'll talk about those when we get them. Blizzard is a good solid spell regardless, able to do significant damage from a distance in one combo. Now, you know what Drive Form DOESN'T modify your magic? The one we just got: Valor Form! Valor Form: This Drive Form requires Goofy to be on the field and conscious. When in use, Goofy vanishes, and Sora gains a second Keyblade. His fighting style changes completely, going into fast, long combos with powerful finishers at the end. It costs 3 Drive Gauges to use, and its Growth ability is High Jump. Drive Forms each have their own condition to level up. Valor Form's is that each time you hit something, the form gets one EXP. Each level gives you an ability, but levels 3, 5, and 7 level up the High Jump ability that Valor Form has... and Sora's base form has access to these abilities, only one level lower. So at level 3, Sora can start using High Jump for himself! Now, I'll be honest, I don't like Valor Form. It can do a lot of damage to single targets, but it fares less well in groups, mainly good for large groups of weak enemies if anything. It's best used for bosses, both for getting lots of hits and doing lots of damage. It's also definitely fun to just pummel someone over and over again! Valor Form also has special abilities that let you press Square in the middle of a combo to skip straight to the finisher. However, Valor Form has one downside I can't get over. In Valor Form, you cannot use magic. Even if you're not using magic offensively, this is still a significant downside, as it means that after you get Cure (yes, you do get Cure, not really spoilers), you can't really heal yourself without using items, which are strictly inferior to just casting Cure. Valor Form also has a nasty habit of getting you used to the long combos, which leaves you vulnerable to other enemies near you as you focus on a single target. Valor Form is great, don't get me wrong! It's just my least-favorite of the forms, because as fits the first one you get, it's overall the weakest, even if it still has some niche use after getting other forms.
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Jan 26, 2015 19:51
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Limits So, we got our first Limit this video, with Mulan. Every world-specific character has or will have a Limit over the course of this game, and Donald and Goofy actually get two each. They are powerful combo attacks that consume all of your MP, named after (of course) Limit Breaks from the regular Final Fantasy series. Each Limit has its own special moves, but typically the way it works is that you activate it, and then alternate X and Triangle until you reach the final part of the Limit. There IS a bar at the top of the screen that, if it runs out, automatically ends the Limit, so you can't just sit in a Limit and be invincible! The one we're looking at today is Mulan's Limit, Red Rocket, and the ability you need to equip to use it is Dragonblaze. When you use Red Rocket, Mushu opens up by dropping an enormous amount of fire around you. After this, you're in the interactive portion of the Limit and have access to two commands; Heat Lance, which is your Reaction command, and Flametongue, which replaces attack. Heat Lance immediately hits an enemy with fire, and Flametongue causes Sora to surround himself in flames and charge straight at enemies. You can alternate, or use one more than the others, but it's definitely better to alternate. As soon as you've used one of the commands around four or five times, it gets replaced by Red Meteor, the finishing move of the Limit. Alternating lets you get closer to 9 or 10 attacks. As an added note, Red Rocket is special in that while you're in the interactive part of the Limit, you can fly. I think a lot of people may not realize this because they're busy mashing the buttons during the Limit, but there it is. Now, after getting to Red Meteor, the Limit is over, and Mulan and Sora shove Mushu into the air, where he shoots a bunch of fireballs out that rain down everywhere around you. Red Rocket is honestly a pretty great Limit, but it's also one of the weaker ones, I'd say. Use your Limits! They're really powerful! (They'd better be, using all of your MP...)
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Jan 29, 2015 19:37
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Silegna posted:Did we ever go over how MP was different in this game? Look at the post for the update above, where I go over magic. 
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Jan 30, 2015 04:55
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bman in 2288 posted:Just because you're stuck in that mode doesn't mean you're unable to beat the boss. Like Arcturus said, there are other moves that are flagged as finishers, and they don't have to be magic attacks or actual finishers. Recognizing these moves as such will make your life a lot easier. Specifically, though in Berserk you have no access to spells or regular combo finishers, many Reaction commands count as finishers, and I believe every single Square-based move counts as a finisher. So just start a combo and then hit square if you have access to any of them. Failing that, using a Drive Form or Summon, if you can, will also give you access to more finishers. I'm pretty sure Aerial Retaliation also counts as a finisher.
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Jan 30, 2015 20:21
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So, before I go over our new spell and summon, I wanted to make a couple of notes about the Heartless in Beast's Castle. The Gargoyles, Thresholder/Possessor, Shadow Stalker, and Dark Thorn are all part of the same Heartless 'family'. They're all Purebloods of the Darkball/Possessor line. I thought it was a neat touch. You can see the small Possessors leave the Gargoyles when you break them or use the Release command, as I recall, and the Dark Thorn actually has the power to summon small Possessors that try to possess Sora, only to explode instead, doing damage. In Days, Possessors were actually a common enemy, but the one we see in this game, with the Thresholder, is actually the Large Possessor in Days, which is made of three Possessors. Also, the Lance Soldier is actually two different Heartless; the soldier, and the lance. They don't get along, if I remember the journal entry correctly. Now, onto magic! Cure: Returning from KH1 is the most useful spell in the game. However, it isn't as spammable as it once was. The cost to use Cure is ALL of your MP. Yes, all of it. This makes it simultaneously the most expensive and cheapest spell in the game, and also makes it so that you aren't completely invincible, like in KH1. I suspect they changed this for two reasons. Firstly, with a large enough MP bar, you could cure yourself all the time in KH1, which meant you'd only die if you weren't paying attention. Secondly, KH2 is the first game in the series that Leaf Bracer existed in the base game. (It was in KH1FM, but they didn't change the basic mechanics of the spells in regards to FM-only abilities.) With Leaf Bracer, every time you cast Cure, for the duration of it, you have invincibility frames. You will Cure yourself and attacks just pass through. This means if you could spam Cure magic? You could literally Cure your way past long damaging super-attacks from bosses. However, there is a beneficial change to Cure! Unlike in KH1, Cure now has an area of effect. With Donald and Goofy close enough to you, you can heal them up as well, which is very useful if you have to revive them for some reason or another. (Say, going into a Drive Form?) Summons We also got our first Summon, Chicken Little. Summons work differently in this game. Instead of using MP, they use up bars of your Drive Gauge, and like Drive Forms, have multiple bars in it that act as a time limit on how long you can keep them out. This is also how they get their experience; for each time the number of the gauge goes down, they gain one experience point. It's possible to game this but hitting enemies to gain gauge right as the number goes down, sending it back up a bar and then down again a second later. Finding a good way to do this is key for grinding their levels. They still require both of your party members to be alive, and they still aren't game-breakingly powerful if you use them randomly. But each one does have a niche to fill that makes them extremely good in general. I know I made the mistake when I first played KH2 of thinking they were essentially worthless, but playing on Critical changed my perspective about that. (Critical is really good, guys. It's the only difficulty in the game where the game has reason for you to try using all of your options. Even in Proud, there's no real reason to use Summons or Square-button prompts. You can just mash X and Triangle and use the occasional spell and get through the game just fine.) Anyways, every Summon is completely invincible to enemies, have different attacks (instead of just one thing they do like in KH1), and have a Limit that doesn't consume MP. Instead, it consumes parts of their Drive Gauge, drastically lowering their time available. Chicken Little: Chicken Little's summon is actually really useful, with one exception: His Limit. But we'll get to that. Chicken Little is one of the best summons in terms of support. He doesn't really do any damage to enemies, but he will be constantly stunning them with thrown baseballs and fireworks, and better yet, he can whistle, pulling all of the Heartless into an area. The fact that he can do this is what really makes him useful on Critical, as the enemies can't really fight back and are clumped together, in the perfect position for Sora to blast them all with magic or combo through them all. In addition to that, when Sora gets to low health, Chicken Little can heal him. (This is something most summons can do, in one way or another.) His Limit is FPS Mode. Sora goes into a first person mode, aims the camera with the analog sticks, and shoots attacks at the enemy. X throws baseballs that do very little damage but you can spam them easily, Triangle throws a firework that knocks nearby enemies back, Square ends the Limit. It's basically completely worthless, though; it barely does any damage, and Chicken Little is infinitely more useful as support for Sora's normal actions.
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Feb 1, 2015 23:53
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Come to think of it, I never covered Beast's Limit, did I? Alright, let's do that as well as Auron's this time. Beast's Limit is Twin Howl, equipped with the ability Howling Moon. When you first use the Limit, Beast and Sora charge up a roar attack that hits everything around you. After that, your two interactive moves are Stalwart Fang and Outcry. Stalwary Fang, as your reaction command, is the move that involves Beast. He will slam the ground, creating damaging shockwaves. Meanwhile, Outcry replaces Attack, and Sora will do his own roaring attack, creating a burst of energy around him. While using this, he'll automatically charge towards enemies, allowing for you to hit them very easily! The finisher of this Limit is Last Howl, which is basically a more powerful version of the Twin Howl opening. Beast and Sora charge up energy, and essentially hit everything around them with a powerful shockwave. Auron's Limit is actually one of my favorites in the game. Not because of how it works, but because every part of it is a reference to his Overdrives in Final Fantasy X, one of my favorite RPGs. (Yes, yes, I'm aware of how many people claim it's bad.) Anyways, his Limit is Bushido, available through the ability Overdrive. (His Overdrive command in FFX was Bushido, so.) The opening Bushido move is a simple attack where Sora and Auron spin back-to-back to create a damaging circle around them. The other two moves actually replace both Attack and your reaction command. The way it works is that you only get access to the reaction command, causing Auron to use Shooting Star. Then your attack command changes to Shooting Star, and while Auron is doing it Sora will be able to do his own. After Auron is done, the reaction command changes to Banishing Blade, and the pattern continues. Shooting Star is a spinning attack similar to the opener, and is based on the Shooting Star Overdrive from FFX, although it's very different. (There, it was a hit with the flat of the blade that could remove enemies from the battle.) Banishing Blade is actually a combination of two Overdrives. It takes its name from the Banishing Blade Overdrive, but functions like the Dragon Fang Ovedrive. Auron/Sora jump up into the air, slamming down near an enemy and creating pillars of fire. After a bit of using those, the commands change to Spiral, Bushido's Finisher. Sora and Auron put their weapons together, spinning them, and then jump apart, creating a giant tornado that sucks up and damages enemies. This is based on Auron's final Overdrive, Tornado. All in all, a good couple of Limits.
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Feb 9, 2015 19:13
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We got two things to cover here. Yeah, Olympus is long and just FULL of goodies. Two Limits to play around with, and a spell! Magic So. Thunder. The last returning spell from KH1. (No, we don't get Gravity or Stop, and I'm honestly kind of sad about that. But what we do get is better than them, so.) While in KH1, Thunder brought down a whole bunch of lightning around the target area (or around Sora if you weren't targeting), instead it brings down one. It still serves basically the same purpose (long range instant hit). And this is why they changed Fire. As they had it in KH1, Thunder and Fire ultimately served the same basic purpose. So instead of doing the same thing here, they took the AoE properties of Thunder and gave it to Fire, and then removed the long-range component from Fire, giving each spell a single distinct niche. I actually prefer it this way! Thunder's finished combo is similar to Blizzard and Fire, at least with our current available forms. That is, it does more damage, is slightly slower, and is slightly larger. Limits So, when we beat Pete, we got Trinity Limit, available from the ability of the same name. Trinity Limit is FANTASTIC, and also really unique as far as Limits go. First off, Sora can use it without both Donald and Goofy, and by doing so, do the Limit by himself, where he'll teleport to whatever enemy you're locked onto, and do an aerial combo ending with a dash attack through the enemy. If you press the Triangle button at appropriate times, you can manage this three times! It's actually really powerful even by itself, though not quite as powerful as most Limits. However, the true power of Trinity Limit is when you use it with Donald and Goofy. Your entire menu gets replaced by three options; Major Drive, Ultima, and Break. Break is Sora's move, triggered by X; Sora-Donald-Goofy ( ) will all gang up on an enemy with a powerful midair combo. Essentially, the same thing Sora does by himself, but with Donald and Goofy joining in. Ultima is Donald's move, and once you press Square, everyone gathers together to cast a powerful magic spell, creating firework-like explosions all around you. (This is similar to a Limit that Donald will get later.) And then there's Major Drive, used with Triangle, for Goofy. Everyone gets together and they fling a spray of drive orbs out, hitting all enemies in the cone multiple times. You can aim this, incidentally, turning around to hit everyone.After you use each move, its prompt in the menu gets replaced by 'Begin Combo'. You see, each of those three moves above don't do any damage. At all. However, once you begin combo, depending on how many hits you've managed to accumulate through the process is how many bits of damage you deal to everyone around you. Sora-Donald-Goofy raise their weapons together, creating a bunch of light over them with colored lights swirling around it, which gets brighter and brighter until the screen fades out, similar to how Trinity Limit ended in KH1 and CoM. Potentially very powerful, but you should be careful! Trinity Limit, not dealing any damage during its three starter attacks, is an all-or-nothing attack. If the Limit gauge runs out before you hit Begin Combo, then you've wasted all your MP for nothing. And if you let all the moves play out their full animation (you can, I believe, interrupt them with another of the moves), then you have VERY VERY little time remaining to press Begin Combo.
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Feb 13, 2015 19:38
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So we got three things worth talking about today, and one is the most broken spell in the game. Magic Reflect: Reflect is a spell so broken that people who do ridiculous things like level 1 challenges against bonus bosses refuse to use it because it feels like cheating. What Reflect does is put up a barrier around Sora, and if an enemy hits it, it explodes, dealing damage equal to that enemy's attack to everyone around you. However, Reflect hits multiple times, so I'm fairly certain that it hits for multiples of the enemy's attack. Now, Reflect is amazing just in this, so I'm going to tell you now: The upgrades to Reflect only give you larger explosions. That's all it NEEDS. I'm sure everyone can see just how broken this is, so I'll move on. Limits Donald Duck's Limit is Comet, accessible by equipping his ability Fantasia. Now, Donald's Limits are different from other Limits in that the only special attacks belong to Donald. Sora just runs around and can attack like normal, and if you can master this, it becomes really effective. So, the starting move, Comet, creates a few small, colorful explosions near an enemy. And then you can use Comet again. And again. This isn't really a complex Limit. The finisher, Comet Rain, does the same thing, but the explosions are in a full circle around you. Decently powerful, can hit many times (particularly if you're attacking at the same time), but otherwise unremarkable. But let's get on the most important part of this post. Forms We got Wisdom Form today. And like Fire, Wisdom Form is CRIMINALLY underappreciated, but again, I can understand why. It's Donald's equivalent of Valor Form, and like it, takes 3 bars. The first thing you'll see when you go into Wisdom is that you're floating a few inches off the ground. This is because Wisdom literally slides around on the battlefield. Constant motion. There is no action (except, I think, Cure) where you will be stopped. This is because the Growth Ability from Wisdom is Quick Run, where you press Square and suddenly zip forward a bit. The second thing you'll notice will be that Attack is replaced with Shoot. You fire sets of three magic homing bullets from the tip of the Keyblade, which of course acts like magic. It bypasses things like Fat Bodies physical resistances. Its combo finisher is a burst of 9 bullets. There is a downside, though; you can't do midair combos. Also, the damage of your shots is based on magic. (Not necessarily a downside.) This is because, obviously, Wisdom specializes in casting magic. Wisdom Form Sora has an extremely fast casting speed. In addition to that, every spell besides Cure is changed in Wisdom Form. Aside from Cure, they can ALL be cast while moving, removing one of the main downsides of magic; standing still and risking being hit by other enemies. Fire becomes a lot more useful, as Sora will automatically zip forward at enemies while he casts it, making it much easier to hit with. Blizzard's finisher is changed to five chunks of ice that home in on a single target. Thunder's radius gets larger, and its finisher has multiple lightning bolts, much like how KH1 Thunder worked. And our new Reflect spell gains a larger shield when it hits its combo finisher. The main reason most people don't use Wisdom Form is that Wisdom is much more powerful when you have more powerful spells, so most people try it out with first level spells, and find it about as effective as Valor Form or less so. This is partly because you can't just spam X, and some people aren't in the habit of casting spells, which is where Wisdom shines. So they try it once and then put it aside, much like Fire. But it's really a powerful Form by the end of the game, Just remember, KH2 does not give you any useless tools. EVERYTHING is useful, one way or another. In fact, one of the bonus bosses in this game is very difficult to defeat without liberal use of Wisdom Form!
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Feb 21, 2015 02:15
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Rigged Death Trap posted:It also is a bit of an rear end in a top hat to level up since it levels up based on heartless killed. Ack, yeah, I forgot to mention this. Yeah, you get 1 XP per Heartless kill. So of course anywhere you have lots of weak Heartless is good, but also Timeless River is pretty good for almost every form. Since going through the door refills your Drive Gauge if you're in a form, and the windows are right there with large amounts of Heartless. Also glad I could make the car Heartless less annoying for people.
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Feb 21, 2015 03:26
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bman in 2288 posted:It's not completely useless, but everything else is better. So! I've been reminded that this happened and I left it out of my post.  Major apologies, everyone.Also, I do generally agree that many things are better than it, but for some things it just wrecks face, so. I stand by my statement that everything the game gives you is useful one way or another, particularly in Final Mix. Anti-Form So... the downside to abusing Forms is Anti-Form. AND IT'S AMAZING. First I should go over the downsides to it, and how it works. First off, Anti-Form is, unless you have a specific Keyblade equipped, completely a matter of chance. Every time you use a Form, you gain a point in an invisible counter. 0 is 0%, 1-4 is 10%, 5-9 is 25%, and 10+ is 40%. Gaining a new Form resets the counter, going into Anti-Form subtracts 4 from it, and going into a specific form later subtracts a full 10. There are multipliers to this counter, however. Certain boss fights (and any fight where you have a guest ally that isn't a party member) are multiplied by 0, meaning no Anti-Form. Fights with Organization members are multiplied by 5. Mission battles (any battle where the outline around your menu is red) are by 2. And in the ending sequence of the game, you get a full multiplier of 10! (Meaning you will, unless you're at 0, always go into Anti-Form.) Other downsides: Its Drive Gauge maxes out at 6 bars, you cannot chose to leave it until you're out of battle, and you cannot heal. Health orbs remain where they are, you can't use items or cast magic, and you cannot use Reaction Commands. Drive orbs, by the way, can be collected, but reduce your gauge instead of filling it. In addition to this, it will always take all of your Drive Gauge once you're out of it, leaving you at 0. Remember, this is meant to be a downside to Drive Forms, of sorts. So what's good about it? Well, Anti-Form is a glass cannon. He was already decently powerful to use at certain points in the original game, but in FM they straight up doubled the damage Sora deals in Anti-Form. While each individual hit is still only okay, he hits VERY FAST, and across an extremely wide area. Anti-Form has some of the largest finishers in the game, and they all hit multiple times on anyone caught within it. He's also pretty good at single-target damage. With all the hits you're doing, odds are you're going to stunlock whatever you're fighting. All in all, it's actually really powerful now. It can wipe out large groups of enemies or stunlock bosses. It moves fast, hits hard... the only downside is that you cannot heal or use Reaction Commands. That WILL get you killed in some fights. And now, you can even go into Anti-Form by choice, using a specific Keyblade, so you can choose to play around with it if you like! One of the problems of it being random, and no way to purposely trigger it in the original, is that you couldn't go in it at will so you couldn't actually get used to how it played that well. And, of course, it didn't do as much damage, so it was more stunlocking and hitting as many times as possible.
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Feb 21, 2015 20:40
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As far as I can tell (feel free to yell at me if I'm wrong), the only thing I have to cover this time is Jack Sparrow's Limit, yeah? Let's get started. Jack Sparrow's Limit, Bluff is available by equipping Treasure Isle. Bluff is fairly simple, actually. The opening Bluff has Jack create a fake treasure chest, and Sora opening it up, which makes a vortex that sucks in surrounding enemies. From there, Sora is stuck at the bottom of the vortex, whereas Jack is floating around the top. Then Jacknife and Slasher are your next commands. Jackknife causes Jack to slash at the enemies in the vortex, and Slasher is the same for Sora. After a bit of that, the commands change to Final Trap. Final Trap has Jack throw a bomb into the chest. Sora then shuts it, and then they haul rear end. Very shortly after, it explodes, hurting the enemies that it had gathered up.
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Feb 24, 2015 04:41
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FinalGamer posted:Is there any normal enemy that is not affected by this vortex? I'm gonna assume bosses don't get sucked in but I wonder if any Heartless or Nobodies are, shall we say, able to call your Bluff? Not in Port Royal. Any enemies that might've been able to resist it just don't show there. Limits We got Goofy's Limit this time, Knocksmash! And I love it. While Donald's Limits focus on doing lots of little damage to wide groups of enemies, Goofy's Limits tend to deal with large single-target damage. Knocksmash is available when you've equipped Teamwork. The opening move is that Sora hits Goofy's shield towards whoever you're locked onto (or whoever's closest if you're not locked on. This actually happens multiple times before it switches to the next move, Duo Raid. Sora and Goofy throw their weapons together, spinning like a buzzsaw to hit an enemy. If you rush through this part, you won't get much damage, since it hits multiple times for less damage per hit. And after a few times of that, the finisher appears: Cosmo Boost. Sora picks up Goofy and then fires him forward like a rocket. Whoever you're locked onto, after Goofy goes right through them, he'll turn around and do it again. And again. And ag- you get the idea. If he kills whatever you're locked onto, I believe he'll pick a new target and go for that. Knocksmash is by far the most damaging limit you'll have by this part of the game. Hell, maybe for the entire first half. Not counting possibly Trinity Limits, that is, but since that varies in power... yeah.
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Feb 27, 2015 15:42
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Nameless Fool posted:So, Prythian, where are those effort posts you were talking about in today's video. oh gently caress poo poo goddamn I MEAN HEY WHAT IS THIS I FOUND IN MY POCKET Magic Magnet is our last spell in the game! And much like Gravity and Stop in KH1, a lot of normal players completely ignore it because they use it once and it doesn't seem too useful. Magnet creates a sphere of energy about Sora that draws in enemies, and does several small hits to them while they're caught. Magnega and Thundaga are actually one of the most broken combos in the game. One Magnega, spam Thundaga, and you have an entire enemy encounter gone. It's also just generally useful for doing large aerial combos, since, again, all the enemies are in one place. Any enemy you have trouble hitting? Use Magnet. It changes in Wisdom Form to allow you to keep moving when you cast it instead of staying still. I think it may also hit more often. Forms Limit Form is the Final Mix exclusive Form! It's also incredibly powerful. While I maintain that most forms, aside from maybe Wisdom, each have situations where they are the most powerful, Limit Form is one of the, if not THE, easiest form to use to break the game over your knee in most situations. There's another form we won't see for a long time that is comparable. In any case, Limit Form is the only form to not require anyone, allowing you to use it even when they take away your party members. All of its abilities are based on KH1FM. Its Growth ability is Dodge Roll, allowing you to bring its much-loved invincibility frames into KH2, when Quick Run from Wisdom Form doesn't really have that. Amongst its finishers are Zantetsuken and Ripple Drive, doing massive damage to everything they hit. Zantetsuken is, as I think I mentioned, probably the most damaging finisher in the game, while Ripple Drive clears out enemies all around you. Limit Form also replaces your magic with Limits. These are the four special moves from KH1, brought in and converted into reaction commands. I'm pretty sure I already talked about Ars Arcanum, Sonic Blade, Ragnarok, and Strike Raid when they came up before, and they aren't really all that changed here, except for fewer invincibility frames and their names were retranslated. It is also both one of the easier and more annoying forms to level up, as it gives you one experience for every Limit you use the last reaction command on. You can't use these out of combat, and they take up massive amounts of experience, typically taking up half your bar or more. However, it doesn't rely on any specific enemies, the numbers for how much experience you need are generally well balanced, and it doesn't rely on picking up certain things. Which brings me to the next form, and second-to-last in the entire game. Master Form is a form that combines both Valor and Wisdom's specialties, but with its own peculiarities. You'll see a lot of people just say it's those two forms combined and has no real specialties of its own, but that's entirely wrong. You see, Master Form is a form about MOBILITY. While it has powerful magic and physical attacks, its attack combo lets you move around a lot, and it has a special ability called Endless Magic, which makes it so that spells simply don't count for the purposes of combos. You'll never see Master Form do a combo-finisher magic spell, and you can mix spells into your regular attack combos easily, more than doubling the length of your attack combo instead of it replacing one of your attacks. The thing that makes it so mobile, though, is its Growth Ability, Aerial Dodge. Aerial Dodge is a double-jump, but it's also one of the fastest, most versatile methods of motion in the game. The double jump comes out really quickly and lets you go in any direction you want regardless of how you were jumping previously. In addition to that, Master Form is both faster at running and jumping, with an increased jump range. Master Form also has an extra 2 hits to its aerial combos and falls slower. Mostly, Master Form is meant for jumping into aerial combo, mixing up both magic and physical attacks, and jumping back out. And like Wisdom Form, Master Form changes the mechanics of your spells. Fire is, similar to Wisdom Form, a charge straight at the enemy while using it. With Blizzard, Sora does slices with his Keyblades and then shoots a shotgun blast of crystals much like how KH1 Blizzard was, only it pierces enemies. Using this at point blank? MASSIVE damage, especially since hammering on the button makes Sora jump into and out of point-blank range with it, allowing you to also avoid counterattacks. Thunder is honestly just fun, though; Sora cartwheels around the enemy, while lightning rains down on it, allowing you to continuously be on the move without having to move yourself. Magnet doesn't really integrate any physical movements that I can remember, but it not only sucks in the enemies and hurts them, but it then spits them out and sucks them back in, doubling the effectiveness. Reflect? Reflect doesn't change much. It just gets a bit more powerful when it explodes. Master Form levels up in what was one of the most annoying ways in the original KH2. You have to get Drive Orbs while in it. Size determines how much. In the original, the best way to do this was fighting in Beast's Castle, Land of Dragons, or Hollow Bastion; any of those areas have enemies that drop lots of orbs, and the first two have orbs coming from destructible terrain as well. In FM, however, there's an area in Hollow Bastion we've mentioned, the Cavern of Remembrance. It won't give you lots of drive orbs, but there is something right inside there that drops orbs when you hit it to a certain extent, and refreshes when you leave the world. Considering the entrance to the place is right next to a save point... yeah. Limits Fortunately, I only really missed two of these. Jack Skellington's Limit is Dance Call, equipped with Applause, Applause. Dance Call starts out with Jack pulling Sora to him to starting dancing, spinning Sora to turn him into a spinning top that damages enemies nearby!  Then there's Synchronization and Downbeat. Downbeat replaces your attack, and Synchronization is the Reaction Command. Both of them do generally the same thing, though. In fact, as far as I can tell, there IS no real difference. Maybe they're two commands for alternating?  What happens with either command, though, is Sora and Jack summon jack-o-lanterns, one in the air, one on the ground. Whichever one Sora summons sends out red bat-like attacks, and the one Jack summons sends out ghosts. Each time you use it, they switch positions. I like that Sora's thing is bats, though, since his costume is being a vampire. It's the little touches.It ends with Finale, where Jack and Sora go into the air to summon a large ring of ghosts and bats, and then drop to the ground, sparklers bursting up around them for a short-range attack. Tron's Limit is Setup, equipped with Complete Compilement. It is also probably one of, if not the, best world-specific limit in the game. Setup starts with Tron creating an interface, and Sora lifting up his Keyblade, creating bits of data on nearby enemies to damage them. After that, Cluster Code replaces Attack, and you get the Burst Pulse reaction command. Burst Pulse creates a bunch of bits around you to damage nearby enemies, while Cluster Code is a long-range that sends a line of bits towards an enemy. Each bit, regardless of where it is in the limit, will hit multiple times. They do mediocre damage, but there's almost always multiple bits hitting the enemies, so they take large amounts of damage overall. The finisher for the limit is Reprogram, which creates a bunch of bits in the air that chase down enemies for the rest of the limit's time. Sora can run around during this portion and has his normal menu back, similar to how he can still attack during Donald's Limits. As a special note, while making sure I hadn't forgotten anything about this, I ran into some information on the internet that claimed that Burst Pulse raised the damage of Cluster Code or Reprogram if they were used directly as it ended. Summons Stitch is the first of the two summons we're going over today. He is also, bar none, my favorite summon in the game. (Previously, that was the one summon we haven't gotten yet.) When you summon Stitch, he goes onto your screen and crawls all over it. He can fire his gun at enemies, but this is one of the rarer things he'll do, and it doesn't do too much damage from what I can remember. But, like Chicken Limit, Stitch is not a summon you use for damage. His main purpose is that while he's out, you become pretty much immortal as long as you're touching the controller. Firstly, he can use a ukulele to stun enemies, and make them drop health orbs. In fact, when you're on low health, this is the only thing I've seen him do. I also have seen very, very few enemies able to resist the stun while he's playing. In addition to that, Stitch can lick your MP bar when it gets low, refilling it. This is one of the only methods of restoring MP in the game without using an Ether or emptying your bar. (The other one I can think of at the moment is MP Rage.) Presumably he can do the same to your health bar? I've never seen that happen, myself. Finally, Stitch can SHOOT ENEMY PROJECTILES OUT OF THE AIR, destroying them. His Limit, Ohana, is also fairly good. Sora jumps into the screen, joining Stitch in the fourth wall. You cannot be hurt, and your options are Shoot, Ukulele, and Blast. Shoot has Sora and Stitch target a single enemy for fairly good damage by shooting him (obviously), Ukulele has Sora join Stitch in his ukulele playing (using his Keyblade, no less!). This not only stuns enemies, but also causes them to drop HP, MP, and Drive Orbs. Blast is a combination of both of these; Stitch shoots at the enemies (not doing much damage), Sora plays his Keyblade for more orbs. That ends the Limit, being the finisher. The main way you want to use Stitch is just blasting everything with magic. He shoots down any projectiles, you stay away from enemies blasting them, he refills your MP, rinse and repeat. Peter Pan is our other summon, and is usually the last summon. (Arcturus skipped over getting the usual third one, we'll get there soon :V) He comes with Tinkerbell, the best summon from KH1, who retains ALL of her healing powers from the first game! She'll constantly be regenerating your health, and if you happen to die, you get resurrected! Other than that, Peter Pan is not really all that impressive. He flies around, stabs the enemy that you're targeting, etc. Tinkerbell is the real star of the show.However, Peter Pan's limit is fairly good! It's called Never Land, which feels like both the obvious name AND a pun given that Sora gets to fly during it. It also acts like a regular limit instead of just giving you the option to end the limit off the bat. Note that EVERY ATTACK in this limit causes enemies to drop orbs of various kinds. Your options are Tiny Fairy and the Flying Boy. The Flying Boy draws enemies into your attack (which is basically a loop in the air), while Tiny Fairy does more damage but has regular knockback. Journey's End is the finisher, showing up after a while, and... I find it hard to describe. I think it's basically the Flying Boy but with Tiny Fairy's power? The thing is, it's hard to see what's happening, because each time you use one of these moves, translucent images of scenes from Neverland in KH1 show up. I actually like that detail, though! Remembrances of Sora's journey with Peter Pan. Anyways, while I could cover Aladdin's Limit now since we got him at the very end of this video, I'll save him for next time with two others things that I'll need to cover.
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Apr 7, 2015 06:51
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gatesealer posted:I personally liked the summon we are fixing to get. I tried out all of the others before and, while I find stitch and chicken little fun, I just didn't feel like they added to much for me. Maybe it's because I waited too long to actually try using them. The thing about the upcoming summon is that the rest are almost entirely support for Sora and their offensive options are really kind of awful. They're better for keeping Sora alive and setting up groups of enemies for Sora destroying them. This is pretty much reversed from KH1, where the summons were primarily offensive with a couple of support ones. (Though they tended to be mediocre in terms of doing damage, anyway.) Either way, their support is exceptional, but it also goes a little against how KH2 plays, where it's all about you destroying everything you can. However, the next (and last) summon is one that's entirely offensive based, even if (like every other summon) it can heal Sora. And yeah... it's really, really fun to use.
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Apr 8, 2015 04:27
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Right, now for the rest of the stuff I need to cover. Limits First off, we have Aladdin with his Speedster limit, equipped using Trick Fantasy. When it starts, Sora and Aladdin do some sword moves while the screen fades to black, hiding any potentially interesting animations. :V But also to show off how fast these attacks are. All the enemies get damaged, and drop orbs. After that, both attack and your reaction command become Quickplay. Obviously, as normal, Reaction Commands control Aladdin, while the attack controls Sora, but they both do the same thing; their respective character fly to an enemy and hit them, causing them to drop orbs. It's possible that the orbs are random, but they could also be based on which attack is done. As far as I can tell, though, the opening tends to drop health orbs, while Quickplay does health and MP orbs. The finale is Trickster, which is essentially the same sort of thing as the opening move, just slightly more hits to everything, and this time they drop all sorts of orbs; Drive, Munny, MP... This is considered one of the decent ways to try leveling up Master Form. Then, even though we got this before Aladdin, Donald has his second Limit, Duck Flare. Its ability is Flare Force. It opens with spawning a bunch of rockets that aim at enemies nearby, while Donald jumps onto Sora's shoulders. After this, Duck Flare is like Comet; Sora can run around and hit things while mixing in Donald's Reaction Commands. Each use of Rocket Flare sends more rockets at each enemy, doing little damage individually but helping stunlock them for Sora to hit them. It's fairly useful as a Limit, though again the damage primarily comes from Sora. Its finisher, Megaduck Flare, is probably the only really damaging part of the move, and that's because Donald spawns dozens and dozens of rockets that fly at enemies. All that little damage adds up a lot, then, particularly if there's only one enemy for them to target. Summons Finally! The last summon, and the only offensive one. The one, the only GENIE OF THE LAMP! Genie is far better in this game than he ever was in KH1. Like every other summon, he can heal you when you get hurt. Unlike every other summon, he does literally nothing else while he's out... except for his Limit. Unlike the other summons, Genie is designed to use limits to just deal tons of damage. The best part is, he has multiple Limits, because Genie mimics your Drive Forms! The Party command is replaced with the 'Drive?' command, from which you can select from your Drives (except Limit) to change Genie's appearance. The limits we currently have available from him are Sonic, Strike, and Arcana. That's right, just like Limit Form, Genie's stuff is named Sora's four special moves from KH1! His Valor Form Limit, Sonic is probably the most entertaining, for me, and does the best single-target damage. Genie turns into a fist and just kind of puts himself on the end of your Keyblade, and each use of the Reaction Command swipes at an enemy in a combo, culminating in Rave, where Genie gets flung out and flies through the target. Strike is his Wisdom Form Limit, and it works by Genie shootings lots of magic bullets at enemies. The finisher there, Judgment, has Sora swinging Genie around in a small circle, while Genie continues blasting enemies. Arcana is his Master Form Limit, and starts with Genie swinging Sora around like a weapon against enemies. After using Arcana a few times, the finisher becomes Bash, where Genie and Sora essentially turn into a turret that blasts any enemy around. There is one more Form, and therefore one more Genie Limit, but we'll leave it until we get to that one.
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Apr 11, 2015 20:20
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gatesealer posted:God drat it Arcturus, learn to use magic, or at least unequip all of those combo pluses. One of the two. Arcturus will NEVER learn. This is our hell now.
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Apr 12, 2015 06:11
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Silver Falcon posted:All right so those gachapon things are kinda like the Magic Pot enemies from Final Fantasy? Give 'em an Elixir and they give you a prize. Exactly, except with less giving them items. (Definitely glad about that; I remember how many items I had to use on the Grand Ghost and the flowers in KH1FM, and it bothered the hell out of me. Felt like such a waste.) As their health goes down, they get more mobile. On their last bar of health, they do nothing but decently long jumps all over the place, making it an exercise in frustration to catch them. While all of their prizes give some amount of orbs, it's not really their main point. The main point is the items. Capsule Prize gives you a Serenity Shard, and each reaction command up gives you the next step up in materials. Each Capsule ALSO has a chance of dropping Orichalcum, going higher the harder the command is to get. (There's conflicting information out there on what the chances are, but I feel confident in saying even the highest is under 20%.) In the original KH2, instead of Serenity materials, they gave you Bright Materials. Gotta get those gachapons!
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Apr 18, 2015 00:52
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Silver Falcon posted:I reiterate: The Pridelands are great. I won't fight you because I also liked it. But I have a feeling a mob is going to murder both of us now.
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Apr 22, 2015 16:17
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Black Balloon posted:Can ya'll stop making GBS threads on Arcturus so much? It feels like it's half of the total commentary and it's pretty lovely. And not particularly deserved. I can certainly try! Part of the problem is that it started when Arcturus, well, mostly deserved it and we were all exhausted from a long recording session, so now we're more inclined to be critical. I'm going to try to stick to my whole thing of being the informative one a little more closely, if I can, and that'll shut down most of it from me. I can't say anything about the others, of course. Also it's spelled y'all. I will fight you.  Anyways, while I'm not covering Simba's Limit today for reasons stated in the video, there is something I need to talk about, and have been neglecting. Physical Combos So, I started out posting only about magic for these games because I thought it was, well, unappreciated. I was told recently that it almost seemed like I didn't think physical attacks were worth anything. This is the opposite of true. The way I play these games is to try and use every option available to you. (The fact that it's not effective to do this in a later game or two is actually why I have complaints about those games.) The truth is, combos are your bread and butter for the game. You base everything else in your fighting style on mixing things into your regular attacks, nothing more. And the game is built specifically for that. The Growth abilities are designed to help you get into and out of different situations in combat, half of the benefit of any given form is the way it changes your attacks, and you have tons of options for customizing what your attacks are. Sora starts out with a basic three-hit combo, with the third hit counting as a finishing blow to bosses. However, the number of moves in your combo can go up to five using the Combo Plus and Air Combo Plus abilities, and that's only in default form. While a Lion, Sora gets two more attacks onto each combo from what you currently have. Valor Form gets one more to each combo, and Master Form has two extra attacks to its air combo. In addition to that, equipping the two Finishing Plus abilities (one from Critical mode, and one from normal gameplay) adds another extra two moves. And aside from that, Star Seeker has Air Combo Plus and Sleeping Lion has Combo Plus as equipment abilities. That's a potential total of ten(!!!) attacks in your physical combo! Not only that, but you can also lower your combo. With Negative Plus both from leveling up and from a later Keyblade, you can get your combo down to one hit. So, you've got a 1-10 range on your attack chains, or 1-8 if we're only talking default form. How do you set it up? Well, that's also where you get several options. You get quite a few different abilities that change your basic attacks, and some that change your finishers. In addition to that, you get abilities you activate with the Square button in the middle of a combo, replacing your next attack with something else, or that can be used at the end of your combo to replace your finisher. So there are a few questions you need to ask yourself when setting up your abilities. What length do I want my combos? Remember, Air Combo Plus and Combo Plus are two different abilities. You can set them up to different lengths if you want. I, for example, prefer to keep my ground combo shorter than my air combo, because the air combo is better at keeping enemies from doing anything. Also, keep in mind that Finishing Plus moves add onto your combo, instead of replacing non-finisher moves near the end of it. In addition to that, one of the reasons you may want a longer combo is because of Combo Boost and Air Combo Boost. These abilities can greatly increase the damage a combo finisher does, based on how long the combo is. How do I want to do normal attacks? Personally, I tend to throw every attack-changing ability on, because your attack only changes if the conditions are right, and the game's good at detecting that. However, some people may not like one of the attacks and want to turn it off to keep with something else. The abilities that change your normal attacks are Slapshot, Dodge Slash, Flash Step, Sliding Dash, Round Break, Aerial Spiral, Aerial Dive, and Aerial Sweep. Again, these tend to replace your normal attacks to each different attack based on the number of enemies around and who you're targeting and their distance from you. What finishers do I want, and how many? There are four abilities that can replace your finisher; two for the ground, two for the air. Explosion and Guard Break are the ground finishers. Guard Break is a very powerful single-target move that breaks through, well, guards, and Explosion creates orbs of light that circle around you and knock enemies away, doing large amounts of damage. The air finishers are Magnet Splash and Aerial Finish. Magnet Splash gathers any enemy nearby to you before sending them flying away, while Aerial Finish is a powerful three-hit attack with the Keyblade, creating lines of light around Sora. It's important to note that the way Finishing Plus abilities work is that they add on the other finisher, alternating between. So if you have one equipped, you will go from one finisher to the other finisher. If you have both, then you'll go one-other-first one. Explosion, Guard Break, Explosion. Aerial Finish, Magnet Splash, Aerial Finish. That sort of thing. What tactical moves do I want to have access to? The Square button moves all have specific uses, but they're invaluable in their specific situation. Upper Slash allows you to knock an enemy from the ground into the air. Horizontal Slash is a very fast aerial move. Finishing Leap is a guard-piercing finisher. And then there's Retaliating Slash, which I've always referred to and thought of as Aerial Counter, since it's just an attacking version of Aerial Recovery. This one is particularly useful, as every time you get knocked into the air or knocked away through the air... or basically any time you get hit and the air's involved somehow, you can immediately go from being stunned to flipping and attacking the enemy that hit you. How easily can I finish bosses? This was actually given an example during Arcturus's fight with the Volcano Lord. His combo was long, and the Heartless moved around so much, that he couldn't finish his combo to land a finishing blow. There are four things that can count as finishing blows in this game: Combo finishers, Square-button moves, magic, and Reaction Commands. If your combo is too long, you can easily go through the health on some bosses, but you'll have difficulty landing the final blow. If you have a really short combo, you can easily land a final blow, but you won't do much damage because you'll have a wait period between each combo, where the boss can either get away from you or hurt you significantly. Square-button moves like Horizontal or Upper Slash are great for this, as is just using magic, but you don't always think of those options or are in a position where you can use them, so the length of your combo and how many finishers it has at the end are important. Now, when I said that the Growth Abilities are designed to allow you to get in and out of combat quickly, I meant it. Quick Run lets you zip in and out of ground combat swiftly. Aerial Dodge lets you do the same for air combat. High Jump and Dodge Roll have more niche uses in combat; High Jump obviously lets you reach enemies you otherwise couldn't, or places you couldn't that are tactically better, while Dodge Roll is, well, Dodge Roll, letting you avoid attacks. I will say that while I like to have a moderate amount of combo during the game, at endgame gameplay my preferred playstyle is to Negative Combo myself down to a 1-hit combo, and then use both Finishing Plus abilities, allowing Sora to have a three-hit combo of nothing but finishers. It's not really the most practical, because all of the attack-changing abilities no longer apply. Combo Boost abilities are useless, and it somewhat limits how Square moves work... but it's definitely fun to do and watch, just because all finishers all the time. While no one needs to puts this much thought into physical combos except for possibly challenge-and-speedrunners, it can definitely be a good thing to find the set-up that works for how you play the game.
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Apr 24, 2015 21:42
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MatteusTheCorrupt posted:I distinctly remember not being able to defeat a future boss with a square move (the air one to precise) under the effects of Berserk, but that might be a quirk of Berserk, or faulty memory (it was some time ago). I'm almost entirely positive that Horizontal Slash is supposed to be able to finish bosses. Maybe it does interact with Berserk Charge in some odd way. I'd have to find the right boss to test in on to figure out whether or not it's not a finisher during Berserk. Everything I can find online though says it counts as a finisher. That being said, Horizontal Slash + Berserk is a very potent combination. While Horizontal Slash does less damage that Sora's average hits, it is extremely fast to combo into, and especially so with itself. With Berserk Charge active, and Horizontal Slash available, just leap at an enemy, hit them with a regular attack, then Square-Square-Square. Edit: Not only does everything online says Horizontal Slash is a finisher, the wiki page on Berserk Charge explicitly points out Upper and Horizontal Slash as available finishers during Berserk Charge. Prythian fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Apr 24, 2015 |
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Apr 24, 2015 22:44
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Alright, so, I've got two limits and technically a form to cover! Limits First we'll cover Goofy's new limit, since that's the last of the limits from the main party members. We just got Whirli-Goof, equipped with Tornado Fusion. Much like Knocksmash, Whirli-Goof is a REALLY SIMPLE Limit, where it doesn't matter whether you're pressing the reaction command or the attack command. It starts out with Goofy and Sora, well, grabbing each other and spinning like a horizontal disc. It hurts any enemy it touches for small damage but, as usual, it adds up since it hits multiple times. Whirli-Goofra, the next command, is that except that Sora and Goofy go up and down a bit, like they're doing a small hop while spinning. Honestly, neither of these are really impressive. No, it's the FINALE where Whirli-Goof becomes one of the best limits in the game. Whirli-Goofga has Sora and Goofy essentially turn into a wheel. Where they go is fully controllable, and anything that touches them will get DESTROYED. Whirli-Goofga against bosses is, like Knocksmash, something that does massive amounts of damage simply because it hits decently and hits OFTEN. We're talking at least two, if not three, hits per second. Then there's Simba's Limit, Wildcat, equipped with King's Pride. (Sometimes I think that the intended name of the limits was always the names of the abilities, and it was just because the first move is what you select from the list that everyone calls them by their current names.) It opens up with Simba and Sora jumping to create a large shockwave and boulders all around them to damage enemies while knocking them up in the air. Then, Sora and Simba start using X-Claw and High Fang. X-Claw is a 360 degree spinning attack, and High Fang is when they shoot straight towards an enemy. This limit is primarily about small bits of damage but lots and lots of hits. It's not a hammer so much as a grinder, which is evident when you see how it works against the Groundshaker; his health just goes down quickly, as if it's being drained rather than taking damage. The Finale is, of course, Proud Roar. Until Beast's Limit, Proud Roar hits for lots of small damage (as is keeping with the general theme of the limit) before doing a powerful hit at the very end. As a side note, Simba's Limit is honestly kind of mediocre in my opinion, but the fact is it's the only one available in the Pride Lands, so it seems fairly good. Which gets me to my next point... Forms(?) Up until the video before now, I couldn't actually go over Lion Form. Much like the other non-humanoid forms (Card Sora, Dice Sora, Merman Sora (Spoiler, Sora's a merman in Atlantica again)), you can't use Drive Forms in this state because it itself counts as a form. As a side note, Card and Dice Sora can do nothing, except both can attack, and Dice Sora's attack is the only way he can actually move around since it's a jump forward. But, now that we have all the important abilities for it... Lion Form keeps a few of his Support Abilities, but for the most part Sora's abilities don't really apply. Lion Sora cannot Summon or use any Limits besides Wildcat. He even loses access to any Reaction Commands he'd have normally, since Lion Sora has his own Reaction Commands for the world-specific Heartless. His power hasn't really changed; he still hits about as hard as normal. He's even more mobile than normal! The downside is, of course, since Sora's abilities don't really apply, he has his own entirely different fighting style. As I mentioned in the Physicals post, Lion Form gets extended combos. It also has its own Square moves! But most of them are just slightly altered, renamed versions of Square moves Sora normally has, except mapped to work with the Lion. The only truly special things that Lion Form gets unique to it is Dash and Running Tackle. Dash is, as we kept saying in those videos, one of the best things in this game. You hold the square button, Sora zooms around the area, and even drifts when you turn. Running Tackle makes it even better by letting you attack without interrupting your Dash; Sora spins like he does in Wildcat, going right through enemies while damaging them. Key points for using Lion Form to its best advantage? Move in and out of combat, use your Square moves during or at the end of your combo, and while you're on the ground, Dash a lot. It's almost like a ground-based version of Master Form, now that I think about it. In fact, doesn't Sora use magic a bit quicker in Lion Form, and also move somewhat? I think that's the case, and I can't be bothered to check at the moment. Point is, like Master Form: MOBILITY. That's its strength. Use it to your advantage.
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May 2, 2015 04:05
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Rahonavis posted:Finally caught up with the "Days" and "KH2" portions of this LP and it's been hilarious. You know, I never said how much I appreciate this.  This is simply amazing.
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May 11, 2015 18:14
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RareAcumen posted:What episode was it where GMA totally got games mixed up? The one where he thought ya'll were talking about Bioshock infinite. I know it was in one of the four Reverse Rebirth videos in Re:CoM, and I'm PRETTY sure that it was the Clusterfuck episode.
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May 12, 2015 04:26
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So to try and lay all this to rest... (though I was waiting for Final Form to actually get unlocked) So, as far as I can tell from my own experiences and from what information I can get off of the internet, and I think Rhio mentioned this in the video, Final Form has a chance of taking the place of Anti-Form in a transformation. The way it works is that after the events at Memory's Skyscraper, every time you would normally go Anti-Form after that, you have a chance to go Final Form instead, until it's unlocked. The first time you have a 25% chance of Final Form unlocking, the second time is a 50%, and then the third Anti-Form, if you've gone that far without being lucky enough to get it, will be 100%. And as is usual, Anti-Form's chances of appearing are based entirely on the points you have. Come to think of it, this may be why Organization fights have such a high multiplier to your chance of getting Anti-Form. What Two Become One does is that Light & Dark makes it so that your drive will ALWAYS be Anti-Form. However, if you haven't unlocked Final Form yet, obviously that's still part of the formula, so you can get Final Form. It takes the counter out of the equation, which is nice since 'grinding' for Final Form in KH2 sucked. If you somehow haven't gotten it to work like this, it MIGHT be a possibility that you need 5 Drive Bars for it to work? But I really don't think so.
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May 31, 2015 07:58
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Nameless Fool posted:I am disappointed that there was no talk about the Pooh mafia in this video. That was the best part of the KH1 version of these videos. ...also, is it just me, or do the controls look a bit too lose in the Hunny Slider minigame? Part of that might be Arcturus using/not using dash respectively, but part of it is that it looks loose. From my experience with the game, you get to know exactly how much you need to move and the timing and whatnot, so it actually ends up being good, tight controls. In all honesty I find the Light Cycle controls looser than Hunny Slider.
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Jun 8, 2015 20:28
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paragon1 posted:Any chance we could see the pages of Jimminy's journal and what Arcturus needs to actually do to finish it at some point? Generally, you can split up what you need to do to finish the journal into four parts: story, minigames, fights, and collection. Story is obvious; finish the story parts, talk to all the characters, etc. Basically if you don't skip worlds you'll get this. Minigames are generally either 'Do them again' or 'Get a specific score on them'. Some of the scores can be fairly tricky, and one of the major stopping points of this is the tournaments, which have score requirements to complete the journal. It's not particularly difficult, but for some cups it can be really tedious, as you have to grind points via Stitch. FM also added a post-game sidequest that is essentially ALL minigames, and is required to see the true secret ending on any difficulty, even critical. Fights are self-evident: Beat one of everything in the game. This includes hidden enemies like the gachapons, and optional bosses (of which there are a bunch in FM). This is probably the most difficult of all the parts to complete, because of the superboss FM added. The other two requirements for getting the true secret ending are connected to this. Collection is, well, collection. Get all the treasure chests, get all of the puzzle pieces. I THINK this might include something about synthesis as well? I honestly don't know as I aim to completely all synthesizing whenever I play the game, including all the things you can unlock for better synthesizing or gathering materials. As far as I'm aware, Arcturus is not getting the score requirements for some of the minigames, and might not be doing all the synthesizing (which may or may not be required, again.) Just imagine Arcturus went back and played those minigames again until he got a sufficiently high score, and the journal will basically be complete.
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Jun 9, 2015 07:59
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Well, uh... this is awkward. Haven't posted anything in a while. So... Effort post! Limits Our final Limit, Riku's, is Session, equipped with Eternal Session. It is also one of the most versatile in the game. It does a large amount of damage as you'd expect by our last Limit, but it has a tool for dealing with just about every situation you'd use it in. Long range combat, short range combat, groups, bosses... something for everything, but it does do better against single-target enemies. It starts out with Riku and Sora slashing the CRAP out of an enemy. After that, your options become Dark Cannon and Last Saber, which are Reaction and Attack respectively. Unlike some limits, Sora and Riku don't act independently during Session; each command is given to both of them. Dark Cannon is a long range volley of homing dark orbs. Last Saber, on the other hand, is a short combo of slashes against an enemy, similar to Session's opening move. After using those commands for a bit, you gain access to another two commands, Master Hearts and XIII Blades. Master Hearts is your Reaction, and basically Sora and Riku's Keyblades get covered in light and darkness, extending them out as fuckin' rad energy swords that they swing in front of them twice. XIII Blades, your attack, is the same thing, only this time they get thirteen energy swords surrounding them while they spin around to hit everything nearby. Of course, no Limit would be complete without its finisher. In Session's case, this is All's End. Riku and Sora send their Keyblades up into the sky, where they shoot out blasts of energy at each other, hurting every single enemy around multiple times for powerful damage. It ends with a big flash of light, doing severe damage to every enemy as well. Oh, and did I mention that Riku and Sora are basically flying the entire time this is active? Summons Okay, so I already went over Genie. But with a new form comes a new Drive? for him to use. His new Final Form Limit is called Infinity. It's best used to deal with groups of enemies that are fairly spread out. While it's running, Sora and Genie run around with their Keyblades spinning around the air near them. As it progresses, they'll go to a different formation with Genie spinning around wildly. Basically, expect a lot of spinning and constant attacks wherever you decide to move to. At the end is Impact, where Sora holds his Keyblade up and Genie's Keyblade spins in front of it while Genie counts down from three. When he finishes, the Keyblade stops, lining up with Sora's, and then there's a bunch of explosions nearby. Forms Hoo boy, this one is a doozy. Final Form is, well, our Final Form, and definitely the most powerful. It's at least on par with Limit Form, which, as has been shown, is overpowered as all hell. It costs 5 bars of your Drive Gauge to use, and we've already discussed the quirks in unlocking it. The first thing you'll notice is that not only is Sora floating above the ground, both of his Keyblades are floating around him, much like how Master Form has one Keyblade that he controls telekinetically. In fact, they put effort into the placement of the Keyblades; when Sora is standing still, they hover behind him, and when he moves forwards, they spread out almost like wings. I can't help but think this is a deliberate design choice, especially given certain things later in the series. More importantly, the fact that the Keyblades float and move on their own allows for Final Form's special attribute. Every single action or motion you make counts as an attack. Yes, really. Using an Item or Cure? The Keyblades spin around Sora in a large area horizontally. Jumping? They do the same thing closer, blocking attacks and hitting enemies. Magic? Well, we'll get to that in a bit. What this means is that Final Form is both the ultimate offense and defense, intercepting attacks and hitting enemies without you hitting the attack or guard button. Final Form also takes attributes from all of the Forms that were in the original KH2. It hits as hard, physically and magically, as Valor Form and Wisdom Form; it hits in large areas and pulls enemies in, like Master Form; AND its combos hit very quickly and last a long time, like Anti-Form. Speaking of its combos, attacking with Final Form is basically throwing enemies into a buzzsaw. Sora will hit around him, drag enemies closer to him, and basically just obliterate his target. Mix in some magic and nothing stands a chance. Fire acts like Wisdom Form's, where Sora moves towards an enemy while engulfed in flames. However, in Final Form it hits harder, but covers less distance. Blizzard... well, each use of Blizzard shoots two blocks of ice at the enemy, but its finisher is a rapid barrage of ice that pushes Sora back but also generally deals massive damage. Thunder summons multiple lightning bolts, and its finisher makes them most powerful and hit a larger area. Magnet lasts for only an instant, but the damage it deals to enemies is just massive, often instantly killing weaker ones. Lastly, and this might be one of the more important parts, Reflect has Sora's Keyblades spinning around him, dealing damage even without the shield exploding. Last but not least, its Growth Ability is the always-useful Glide, which lets you simply fly through the air horizontally. While you will descend, the higher level your Glide, the less you fall down. In fact, at the higher levels of Glide, you actually will not touch the ground as long as you're gliding. Just holding the button without moving lets you slow down your fall, and just hover over the ground at higher levels. Glide is, after a brief moment of acceleration, the fastest way to get around areas. And, as a neat tip? Using Aerial Dodge and then going immediately into Glide skips the acceleration. So with a double jump, you'll rocket off around the room instantly. Final Form levels up by killing Nobodies. The easiest way to do this is, of course, the World That Never Was, but there's an alternative in the Sorcerer's Tower in Twilight Town, which is filled with weaker Nobodies than TWTNW.
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Jul 10, 2015 20:47
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Nameless Fool posted:Also, Prythian, where's that list of commands for the Zexion fight that you mentioned in episode 57? Funnily enough, I can't find one online. Lots of people saying to choose what command to get out of him changing your menu, no one listing anything else. That said, I'm pretty sure the general rule is that the other commands you can use give you health, mp, drive, or munny.
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Jul 21, 2015 04:55
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GMArcturus posted:I'm actually curious Prythian, there is a set list of terms that can appear on the command menu during the Book Zone, correct? If so, is there any possible way to find all the terms that can show up? We could easily figure out what each does from what it is called if we have that list. You could always go fight Zexion and flip through the book while writing down all of the commands.
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Jul 21, 2015 09:13
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Alright, at the end of KH1 I did an overview of the information I did in the game. At the end of CoM, I didn't do poo poo. But now, here at the end of KH2, I'm going to link to every single info post I made for it because why not. Fire, Blizzard, and Valor Form Mulan's Limit Cure and Chicken Little Beast and Auron's Limits Thunder and Trinity Limit Reflect, Donald's First Limit, and Wisdom Form Anti-Form Jack Sparrow's Limit Goofy's First Limit Magnet, Limit and Master Form, Jack Skellington and Tron's Limits, Stitch and Peter Pan Aladdin's Limit, Donald's Second Limit, Genie Let's Get Physicals Goofy's Second Limit, Simba's Limit, Lion Form Riku's Limit and Final Form I was going to go over Lingering Sentiment, but to be honest there's not much to say about him. He randomly chooses one move to favor when you start the battle, pray you get one that's not difficult to deal with. Also he takes more damage for each finisher landed on him, though this resets after a bit.
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Jul 31, 2015 05:21
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GMArcturus posted:I'm actually looking forward to KH3 specifically because of that because I think it's about time to retire the Gummi Ship concept. Look at this wrong opinion. Now to talk about the Command Deck. So, new to Birth By Sleep is the Command Deck. Instead of having just plain magic and various special abilities, instead you have a deck you can fill with commands, which each do their own specific thing. They have different cooldowns, some of them take up more than one slot, and even your items go in the Command Deck. Let's go into a bit more detail for each type. Note that the groups I'm coming up with for all of the commands, like the Edge commands, are just something I'm doing for convenience to group up commands by how they act. Also, the reason there are so many commands right now even without us having seen them is that they're from the D-Links. Attack Commands Attack Commands use physical strength, and are generally based around your Keyblade. We have several new ones this episode (and by new I mean this is the first time we're REALLY playing the game.) Quick Blitz is a jumping downward strike. It is part of the Edge commands, and is the most basic one. All of them are just jumping strikes. Stun Edge is the same thing, basically, only with stunning attached to it. Blitz is a reaction-command like command, where you can get up to three attacks by pressing triangle at the right time. Sliding Dash is, obviously, a dash attack across the ground. It's the most basic command of the Dash commands. Of which, ahem, there is only one other with Dash in the name. Freeze Raid is throwing the Keyblade forward with ice damage and a chance to freeze. It's one of the Raid commands. Similarly, we have Strike Raid, which is the same thing without any ice. Fire Strike is a spinning flame attack, and is part of the Strike commands. Magic Commands Obviously, these work off of your magic strength. Confuse can, well, confuse enemies. It's one of the Status commands, which hit an area of effect around you. Mine Square is part of the Mine commands, which make mines on the ground around you that explode when enemies touch them. Fire is a single homing fireball, with Fira as an upgraded version. Blizzara is an upgraded version of Blizzard, which shoots forwards a piercing block of ice. Thundara is an upgraded version of Thunder, which hits every enemy near you within a certain area with lightning. Magnera, an upgraded version of Magnet, drags enemies into a single spot. Aerora and Aero creates a vortex of wind that drags enemies in and then spits them back out. Lastly, Cure and Cura are exactly what you expect. Action Commands These are all of your mobility commands along with other things. Block is counted as part of this. Slide is a short dash that Terra uses to move in bursts. It has the least invincibility frames compared to Ven and Aqua's movement abilities, which leads to Terra being somewhat harder to avoid damage with. Shotlock Commands Shotlocks break the game. They let you lock onto an enemy and then deal massive damage to them. During it you're invincible, and if you get the maximum lock-on targets with it, you get reaction commands to do even more damage. They're absurdly good, and the only downside is that they take up some of your Focus, which... is only used for Shotlocks and can be gotten back fairly easily, either by being damaged or damaging other enemies or picking up orbs. It honestly doesn't make up for how good they are. Sonic Shadow is a Charging Shotlock, which is where you rush the enemy repeatedly, zipping through the air. It has a chance of blinding enemies, and like most Charging shotlocks, you can do the reaction command to hit the ground in an explosion around an enemy. Ragnarok is a Projectile Shotlock, where you spam the enemy with homing projectiles. You get more projectiles out of the reaction command here. Finish Commands These are interesting. Instead of being something you buy or otherwise obtain, Finish Commands have a 'tree' for unlocking new ones. Every finisher has an unlock condition that must be met while using a finisher that leads into it. These act as powerful attacks you get when you fill up the bar above your command deck. Oh! And did I mention you can rename them as you see fit? Everyone starts with Finish, but it's different for each character. For Terra, it's a powerful jump attack. For Ven, it's a series of quick attacks. For Aqua, it's a burst of magic around her, knocking enemies upwards. Normally I'd save those for when we get to those characters, but they're relevant for something later in the post. Item Commands These act as regular items from the other games, except they take up valuable room in your deck. Generally I never use them unless I need them for a specific strategy or boss. Command Styles These activate when you fill up the bar above your deck with specific commands, so long as you have that style unlocked. They change your regular attacks and your finish command. Generally, you want to get more powerful physical attacks, you're going to have to use these. Using a finisher in a style ends the style, so if you want to get the benefits of it for longer, you'll want to try to keep the bar from filling up too quickly, or use commands that take advantage of the bonuses the style gives you. Critical Impact is a style unique to Terra. It requires physical attacks to fill up the bar. Generally it just gives your attacks more damage and punch. Its finisher is Terra doing a jump attack that does a shockwave around him. Woo.  D-Links Finally! Something more interesting to talk about! D-Links are your drive forms or summons for the game. They let you take on the powers of a character you've met. While active, they replace your entire command deck and finish command, and can give you extra abilities you can't otherwise get in the game. There are three levels of each D-Link, which you increase by getting a special drop from an enemy while you have one active. While the base form has no abilities, the next two levels each give a passive ability and more commands, and at maximum level you get a new finisher. If you want the old finisher, though, you can change it back in the menu, while retaining the passives. I won't be giving lists of the commands you get here, but I will mention where they come from in their normal sections above if we have any unique commands. The Ventus D-Link, at base form, gives you his Finish. At the next level, you gain Haste, which speeds your attack speed up tremendously, and is a fantastic help for Terra. At maximum, you get Auto Counter, giving you a chance of automatically attacking when you get hit. Your finisher becomes Air Dive, where you fly into the air and then dive down at enemies with reaction commands. The Aqua D-Link, at base form, gives you her Finish. At the next level, you gain Magic Deflector, which has a 50% chance of blocking damage from elemental damages. At the max level, you get Auto-Life, which gives you 25% life back when you die. This obviously happens only once per D-Link. The max finisher is Magic Volley, where you create several magic orbs and then use reaction commands to hit them towards enemies.
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Aug 8, 2015 06:04
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BioEnchanted posted:I don't know about Terra's attack power being disappointing, he hit's like a truck compared to the others. When I played this (on normal difficulty) Terra was taking entire health bars off some later bosses in one 3-hit combo. He was different to play as but I guess if you aren't directly asking the game to be unfun by playing on the hardest difficulty he is still very satisfying to play because of that. Make no mistake, I find Terra to be my favorite character. He hits like a truck compared to the others, it's just the others don't hit very well. He can be very strong at later stages, it's true, which is when he shines. But he's very difficult to get started early on. Admittedly, I've never played on normal, so maybe that's my fault.
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Aug 8, 2015 07:59
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Emery posted:In my opinion, Terra is the character you play when you already have waaaaaaaay too much time spent on the KH series. The other two have mechanics that give you more grace in how you approach situations that I'm sure will be addressed when we get to them, but to cite Prythian, the difference in i-frames is huge for players who aren't amazingly skilled. Which is, of course, the opposite of the order Nomura wants you to play the stories in for full effect.
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Aug 8, 2015 19:22
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