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TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

:siren: Spoilers? All spoilers are allowed, as the game is well over a decade old. Spoilers for any other game in the series are also fine, up to and including trailers for Kingdom Hearts III. :siren:



Kingdom Hearts II was the third game released in the Kingdom Hearts series, and the last time where the games actually got released in chronological order for quite a while. It was initially released in December 2005 in Japan, and in March of 2006 for the U.S., and naturally not too long after, a Final Mix was released in 2007 with an exclusive Japan release. There was a second version called version called Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ that had an updated version of Kingdom Hearts II along with Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. It wasn't until 2014 where the Final Mix version of this game got an international release as part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX collection on the PlayStation 3. It was then released once more in 2017 as part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX collection for the PlayStation 4, which is the version I'll be playing.

There is a secret ending, but all it contains is a preview of Birth by Sleep. But I've done an LP of that already, so I'm not going to worry about unlocking it.

More Keyblades, More Problems:
Part 1 - Twilight Town Prologue I
Part 2 - Twilight Town Prologue II
Part 3 - Twilight Town Prologue III
Part 4 - Twilight Town Prologue IV
Part 5 - Hollow Bastion
Part 6 - The Land of Dragons
Part 7 - Beast's Castle
Part 8 - Olympus Coliseum
Part 9 - Disney Castle and Timeless River
Part 10 - Port Royal
Part 11 - Agrabah
Part 12 - Pride Lands
Part 13 - Halloween Town
Part 14 - Twilight Town and Hollow Bastion Revisits
Part 15 - Space Paranoids
Part 16 - Battle of 1,000 Heartless
Part 17 - Land of Dragons and Beast's Castle Revisits
Part 18 - Olympus Coliseum and Port Royal Revisits
Part 19 - Agrabah, Halloween Town, and Pride Lands Revisits
Part 20 - Space Paranoids Revisit
Part 21 - Hundred Acre Wood
Part 22 - Atlantica
Part 23 - Twilight Town Revisit and Absent Silhouettes
Part 24 - The World That Never Was
Part 25 - Optional Stuff
Part 26 - Xemnas

BONUS:
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Full Movie With Commentary

TheLoneStar fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Jun 18, 2018

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TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

(Reserve post for the following poll, and anything else I might need it for.)

Should I have the Data Organization XIII fights on-screen or no? I plan on doing them anyway, but they aren't exactly the most interesting fights since they're just buffed up versions of other fights. Vote here if I should include them or not.

Augus
Mar 9, 2015


The data fights are pretty substantially different from the standard fights. Different attack patterns and everything. They're also the best boss fights in the game. So yeah

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Augus posted:

The data fights are pretty substantially different from the standard fights. Different attack patterns and everything. They're also the best boss fights in the game. So yeah
I mean I was thinking more of how none of them bust out any new moves or anything. Axel's fire floor hurting you constantly and Demyx sending out wave after wave of clones are probably the biggest changes. Either way, seems like everyone wants them included, so I'll make sure to do so.

Also

Part 2 - Twilight Town Prologue II

It's a bit of a shame that Setzer's character changed from a decently likable character in Final Fantasy VI to a manchild that participates in nerf bat tournaments with teenagers and acts like a cool anime dude for it unironically. Well, that's his data self at least, his real self doesn't really appear enough to pin anything down in terms of personality. And I have to ask, was I the only one really confused by the whole Wonders of Twilight Town bit? Like how there were implications that both DiZ and the Nobodies were, for whatever reason, fooling Roxas into thinking the Wonders were real, or otherwise doing weird poo poo like the Vivi clones? Ever since I was a kid it confused me to no end, and that hasn't changed, even now.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 3 - Twilight Town Prologue III

Thankfully this is the last full part of the Twilight Town section of the prologue. As you may have gathered, I'm note entirely fond of it. Never cared for Roxas that much, and my first experience with this prologue is just burned into my heart and I just can't shake my negative feelings towards it. And, honestly, I just feel like it's poorly handled on an almost objective level, at least in certain parts. Admittedly, getting to wield two Keyblades without any kind of time limit was pretty kickass, and I'm hoping we get to somehow do that in Kingdom Hearts III, because that poo poo is just so satisfying. Thankfully, next part is what I consider the "true game" to begin, even though it's really still part of the prologue.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 4 - Twilight Town Prologue IV

It's nice to finally move on to the main game here, though it's still technically prologue/tutorial stuff. I gotta say that the Drive Forms are some of my favorite new things to come to this game, and I'm glad that they'll be coming back in III. It's also a bit frustrating at how that book of Yen Sid's gives the most basic, lovely rundown of Chain of Memories. I know when I first played the game years and years ago, I was still so confused about what was going on with Sora and this weird Organization and all that crap.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 5 - Hollow Bastion

Now we're really, officially done with the tutorial, and outside of Twilight Town. Yen Sid's tower counts as being part of Twilight Town in this game for some reason. Guess they didn't want to waste part of the world map for such a small world...though they did exactly that with Birth by Sleep. It bothers me slightly that nobody in the game questions why Organization XIII doesn't have close to thirteen members throughout the game. Even people like Sora who takes all of them down personally, save for Roxas and Axel, never seem to really notice. I remember this causing a lot of confusion for me as a kid, not knowing where all the missing members were.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 6 - The Land of Dragons

Oh man, an actual Disney world. I had heard these were in the series, but I wasn't sure. But really, as a fan of Mulan, I was glad to see this in the game when I first played it as a kid, with Mulan being my favorite Disney heroine. Though this world does give in to one of the problems I have with this game; events in the world's story that are there clearly because they were in the movie. As in, scenes that are shoehorned in or make no sense, like the rocket scene in this video. In the movie, a huge army of Huns were attacking Mulan and her allies, so she caused an avalanche to prevent casualties. Here, it's just Shan-Yu and about twenty small, weak Heartless which Sora just killed over seventy of. Yet she still feels the need to do the rocket thing, despite it making no sense. But, it was in the movie, so they gotta include it. Am I making sense here, or am I just nuts?

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 7 - Beast's Castle

The lack of a proper Gatson in this series will haunt me until the end of my days. At the very least, Xaldin does an alright job filling the void. I honestly consider his and The Beast's little relationship to be one of the most interesting relationships in the entire series. Xaldin just has this bizarre obsession with The Beast, and while he claims it's just for work...I'm not really buying it. There's definitely more to it than just creating a Heartless and Nobody. I mean the guy has probably been going to the castle every day for MONTHS just to gently caress about with The Beast and drive him deeper into his own personal darkness. It's honestly something I would've loved to see more of. It'd make for a far more interesting story than Days, that's for drat sure.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 8 - Olympus Coliseum

I gotta wonder if Hercules is just Nomura's favorite Disney movie or something considering how often it's appeared in the series. True, three of those appearances were in what I call "rehash" games; Days, Coded, and Chain of Memories, where every Disney world in each game is just copied straight from Kingdom Hearts I. Granted, I don't mind it appearing as much as some people might, one reason being that I love Hercules, and Hades in particular is always entertaining to watch. It's also pretty cool that we actually get a Final Fantasy companion here with Auron, and it certainly helps that he's such a cool badass. It says a bit about the series that he's the only true Final Fantasy companion in the entire series. I always thought it was odd how Final Fantasy's representation gets the shortest end of the stick considering it's Square making these games.

And a question to you all, who do you think will be the new Final Fantasy character in III? It's inevitable we'll get a newcomer; as each "main" game gets a new one with Cloud, Auron, and Zack. I know a lot of people say Noctis, but I just dunno how well he'd fit in. I myself am wondering if maybe they'll throw a curveball at us and use a character from the 2D Final Fantasy games, considering how rare those are.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

It could be Terra since that would be a great opportunity for them to rehash the whole brainwash & identity subplot (this time with hearts!!!)

Also her name is probably going to be changed to Tera or Tina.

Larryb
Oct 5, 2010

Or they could just throw in a character(s) from another Square Enix property like they did with The World Ends With You in Dream Drop Distance.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

It could be Terra since that would be a great opportunity for them to rehash the whole brainwash & identity subplot (this time with hearts!!!)

Also her name is probably going to be changed to Tera or Tina.
I could see that happening, honestly. It'd be nice for a pre-3D Final Fantasy character being important to the plot in some regard.

Larryb posted:

Or they could just throw in a character(s) from another Square Enix property like they did with The World Ends With You in Dream Drop Distance.
Like who?

Also, next episode:
Part 9 - Disney Castle and Timeless River

I really love the Timeless River world. It's not the longest world, nor does it really have the best gameplay or boss, but it's the creative aspect alone is enough for it to be one of my favorite worlds in this game. Going back to the black and white days of old Disney cartoons was a brilliant idea. Of course, it raises a bunch of questions such as why everything is black and white in the past, which Sora outright points out, but it's clearly not something we're supposed to linger on. I do kind of wish there was more rubber hose animation going on, but perhaps that'd be too difficult to make look good with the technology at the time or something, especially with the 3D models. Also, it's sad to see Maleficent stooping down so low in this game. So far the enteritey of her evil plans is just "I kind want this castle.", a huge step down from her role in the first game.

I'm hoping they do something like this world for III, but honestly I don't know what they could do.

Larryb
Oct 5, 2010


If you don't limit yourself to just games then FMA (or at least Ed and Al) would actually fit perfectly into Kingdom Hearts as there's a lot of similar themes between the two. I kind of doubt that's going to happen though. Something from Nier could also potentially work as Shades and Heartless are nearly the same thing anyway.

Larryb fucked around with this message at 01:06 on May 11, 2018

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Larryb posted:

If you don't limit yourself to just games then FMA (or at least Ed and Al) would actually fit perfectly into Kingdom Hearts as there's a lot of similar themes between the two. I kind of doubt that's going to happen though. Something from Nier could also potentially work as Shades and Heartless are nearly the same thing anyway.
I'd be pretty surprised, though pleasantly so, to get anime characters like Ed and Al into the mix, even with the ties to Square. Though I could honestly imagine Ed being the cynical, down-to-Earth type of guy that assumes that all hearts are good for is pumping blood, while with Al I could imagine a plotpoint regarding on if he can have a heart despite being an empty suit of armor.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 10 - Port Royal

As much flak as I see this world get, I honestly find myself liking it quite a bit. Well, the first visit at least. While the styles of Sora, Donald, and Goofy clash horribly with the rest of the world, I don't mind it. I mean aside from just not including the world at all, the only solutions would be to make the trio more realistic, which would probably be disastrous, or make the normal humans more cartoony, which would also not work out too well. They really had no choice but to let the clash happen, and while it's jarring, I don't necessarily dislike it. What I do hate are those loving cursed pirates with their lovely moonlight mechanic. Having enemies that can only be attacked half the time is inexcusable, and there's no easy way to draw them out of the shade except run into the moonlight and cross your fingers that they choose to follow you.

And I can't believe it; I went and mentioned One Piece, but didn't make a single Skull Joke about the skeleton pirates. I feel so ashamed.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 11 - Agrabah

It's weird, I see a lot of people go "Oh God, no more Agrabah, please." when future games are brought up, and I never really understood why. While the revisit in this game is pretty meh in quality, it's not an overall bad world throughout the series. Ah well. Either way, it's slightly odd to go to a Disney world and not ever see the villain associated with it. I mean I know Jafar will appear in the revisit, but it still feels odd. I'm also honestly surprised that, apparently, Maleficent sees a Heartless Jafar as being more useful than a potential ally in Genie Jafar. Or maybe a Heartless version of a Genie keeps his powers, who knows? Speaking of Genies, that bit with Genie and Pete near the end always makes me chuckle.

By the way, with some help, I'm tweaked the quality of the videos starting with the Olympus Coliseum video; is everything looking okay to everyone?

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 12 - Pride Lands

While I love the Lion King and am glad it has a part in Kingdom Hearts, I'm annoyed how fast they jumped the gun. The world's inhabitants just...don't look very good, at least with their faces and talking animations. I think if they waited until a game later in the series, it would have worked out better as technology would have improved. Though, on the other hand, that means they'd have to wait at least until Birth by Sleep, but that wouldn't fit in too well because Simba would just be a kid. All the other games up until III were initially released on systems on the same level of technology as the PlayStation 2 or weaker, so it wouldn't work there either. The way things look aside, I don't mind the way the first visit goes at all. It's pretty typical in comparison to most other first visits of the worlds in this game. I just wonder why Pete even bothered to show up, he didn't do a drat thing.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 13 - Halloween Town

It's always nice to visit Halloween Town, and Christmas Town is a nice treat as well. I will never get tired of seeing Sora's childish reaction to knowing Santa is real, mainly because I know I'd react the same exact way if I was in his shoes. The Prison Keeper is a somewhat interesting fight, but for some reason I always forget it exists and I don't know why. Maybe because when I think of this world visit I think more about Oogie Boogie than a Heartless boss. It's also kind of neat to play as Santa Sora after knowing about him for over a decade, even if it is just a cosmetic change. I never really understood why the game makers felt the need to even attempt to hide Maleficent's feature like that, I mean who else could it possibly be with that cloak, green skin, and voice? I swear I see that a lot in Japanese media; characters barely being concealed yet they're treated like their identity is totally secret. You all know what I mean with that, right? I pretty much only see it in anime and Japanese-made video games.

I also just noticed how fitting it is for Halloween Town to be video thirteen. Didn't even plan for that.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

It's kinda late for this, but I just found this neat little thing most people won't see.

In the Hollow Bastion fight in the bailey there's actually a reaction command when Leon's HP is zero (yes, it's possible). It's called "Recovery Run" and it's basically Sora running around Leon to somehow revive him and damage the enemies around him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNRSYPKpWGw

Also, are you going to do the Mushroom XIII challenges?

1234567890num fucked around with this message at 08:22 on May 18, 2018

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

It's kinda late for this, but I just found this neat little thing most people won't see.

In the Hollow Bastion fight in the bailey there's actually a reaction command when Leon's HP is zero (yes, it's possible). It's called "Recovery Run" and it's basically Sora running around Leon to somehow revive him and damage the enemies around him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNRSYPKpWGw

Also, are you going to do the Mushroom XIII challenges?
That's actually kind of neat. I never realized Squall even had HP to run out of. Though I gotta say the Reaction Command is so silly. Just running around in a circle somehow gets Squall off his feet.

And yes, I will do the Mushroom XIII as well as Data Organization XIII, Sephiroth, and The Lingering Will. But I'm going to do all of that in the second-to-last video all grouped together.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 14 - Twilight Town and Hollow Bastion Revisits

I kind of mentioned this before, but I really never liked the whole "The real Twilight Town trio remembers what happened with their data selves" thing. Or at least, they kind of seem to recognize Sora despite never meeting him nor Roxas before. Like even for Kingdom Hearts it's kind of a reach and too sugary sweet. Either way, I really enjoy the clever insertion of the Tron world here, where it's all inside Ansem's personal computer and you have to go inside to fetch data. Though, I don't remember anyone learning anything aside from Mickey seeing a picture of Ansem the Wise, but he was most likely going to explain the whole impostor thing even if he didn't see it. I also like how the developers gave Sora, Donald, and Goofy new duds along with changing all their weapons to the Tron neon look.

Oh, and I forgot to do this earlier, I think I mentioned this in the last video, but here's a pic of Anti Form Sora hanging from a ledge. It's just...weirdly unsettling to me.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 15 - Space Paranoids

Not too much else to say about the Tron world this time around. I mean I guess they really had to squeeze in a Light Cycle minigame in there somewhere. It's nothing special, but at least it's not overly long or difficult or anything. I almost wanted to have some kind of arena battle like in the movie, but I guess that wouldn't fit Sora quite as well, unless it was up against a Heartless. Speaking of which, it's always nice to fight a boss that isn't a Heartless, Nobody, or Disney character in this series. Hostile Program is one of like, two bosses in this game that falls under that category. The other being that Experiment from Halloween Town. And I guess Sora's stupidity shines on through here considering how hard it is for him to grasp the Xehanort/Ansem situation. It's really pretty simple.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 16 - Battle of 1,000 Heartless

The sequence with the 1,000 Heartless is pretty straight-forward and simple, I still really enjoyed it, especially as a kid. I imagine that, for the time, fighting 1,000 enemies in a row like that was a big deal, and was trying to show off how advanced Kingdom Hearts II could be. It as also pretty nice getting to actually see the Final Fantasy characters, minus Cid, actually going in and aiding with the battle and killing Heartless, especially since the first game I think we had Squall kill off a single Heartless near the beginning of the game. I was never able to take the Goofy "death" seriously, and I still have to question if anyone actually thought Goofy had been killed off for real. It just wouldn't make sense for that to happen for a multitude of reasons and that kind of sucks all tension and emotion from that scene, at least in my opinion.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 17 - Land of Dragons and Beast's Castle Revisits

I guess this is sort of the second half of the game, where we have to revisit all, or at least most, of the Disney worlds to progress. While not all of these are exactly fantastic, a certain Pirate-themed world coming to mind, some are pretty decent. I just enjoy that these second visits usually stray away from the movie plots, instead telling some kind of original story in their wake. Like in Land of Dragons, you are helping Mulan look for a mysterious spy, who turns out to be an Organization member. Or in Beast's Castle where Xaldin takes things too far and ends up dying for it. It's a bit of a shame, almost, that probably the most interesting relationship between a Nobody and another character was used up on Xaldin. I really wish we could have seen more of him and The Beast's interactions.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

Some thoughts regarding the 1000 heartless sequence in no particular order:
1. It would've been cool if Aerith used her limit to grant Sora invincibility while fighting the heartless.
2. The walls are probably broken by the Crimson Jazz heartless (the red one that makes bombs).
3. What difficulty do you usually play on? Demyx is hard because he only staggers during and right after a move (which is a lot, but those who button mash will get hit a lot).
4. Cid and Merlin are too busy buckering to bother with the heartless, obviously.
5. Goofy's "death" would've had a lot more impact if the only fights during it weren't all solo fight (not including the FF characters)
6. In critical mode the dancers' "grab and swing" attack took more than half of max HP in normal levels and one-shot in level 1. Technically, most attacks did that but I only mentioned this because you have 2 seconds of animation to contemplate about your lifegame choices.
7. In level 1 critical mode the 1000 fight is actually extremely hard since you die in 2 hits and there are so many of them. It's still a pushover even on regular critical, though.

1234567890num fucked around with this message at 04:58 on May 25, 2018

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

Some thoughts regarding the 1000 heartless sequence in no particular order:
1. It would've been cool if Aerith used her limit to grant Sora invincibility while fighting the heartless.
2. The walls are probably broken by the Crimson Jazz heartless (the red one that makes bombs).
3. What difficulty do you usually play on? Demyx is hard because he only staggers during and right after a move (which is a lot, but those who button mash will get hit a lot).
4. Cid and Merlin are too busy buckering to bother with the heartless, obviously.
5. Goofy's "death" would've had a lot more impact if the only fights during it weren't all solo fight (not including the FF characters)
6. In critical mode the dancers' "grab and swing" attack took more than half of max HP in normal levels and one-shot in level 1. Technically, most attacks did that but I only mentioned this because you have 2 seconds of animation to contemplate about your lifegame choices.
7. In level 1 critical mode the 1000 fight is actually extremely hard since you die in 2 hits and there are so many of them. It's still a pushover even on regular critical, though.
1. It would've been nice for Aerith to fight at all. I'm not too familiar with Final Fantasy VII, but isn't she a really powerful mage? All we saw her do was cast a Cure spell on Yuffie.
2. Yeah, that makes sense, I suppose. I hate those loving Crimson Jazz guys, those little bomb orb things will follow you forever.
3. Honestly, Standard is usually the hardest I play since I'm a filthy casual.
4. Good point, I hope their sitcom rivalry goes on in III.
5. Admittedly, getting to fight alongside Final Fantasy characters WAS pretty cool, especially given how surprisingly rare it is in the series.
6. I hate those Dancers too, I feel like even on Beginner that grab and swing attack does more than it should.
7. Yeah, I can see that. And I guess the fight is more about showing off the power of the PlayStation 2 rather than providing a huge challenge.

Also, new part.
Part 18 - Olympus Coliseum and Port Royal Revisits

Olympus Coliseum visit is fine; if anything it's the real proper conclusion to the story rather than an add-on like Land of Dragons or Pride Lands. Port Royal can kiss my rear end, though. Luxord was boring, the boss was tedious, and hunting for Gambler Nobodies is never fun. I will say that a Keyblade-wielding Captain Jack Sparrow better re-appear in the series. Can't let potential like that slip on by.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

In FF7 the stats of the party members are not that different, so you can turn them into anything you want with the materia system. Aerith's limits are all about support (healing, giving invincibility, stopping enemies, instantly filling the others' limit bar, etc).

I think proud mode is actually the hardest difficulty since the enemies deal the same damage as critical (both doubled from standard) and you don't get the extra abilities, the damage boost and the huge AP bonus (seriously, you start with 50).

Also, the game automatically unequips Jack when he left in the first visit. You just haven't reequip his abilities. This thing actually also happens with Auron. And the grim reaper fight is a lot less tedious if you use Stitch, since he can instantly restore ALL your MP.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

In FF7 the stats of the party members are not that different, so you can turn them into anything you want with the materia system. Aerith's limits are all about support (healing, giving invincibility, stopping enemies, instantly filling the others' limit bar, etc).

I think proud mode is actually the hardest difficulty since the enemies deal the same damage as critical (both doubled from standard) and you don't get the extra abilities, the damage boost and the huge AP bonus (seriously, you start with 50).

Also, the game automatically unequips Jack when he left in the first visit. You just haven't reequip his abilities. This thing actually also happens with Auron. And the grim reaper fight is a lot less tedious if you use Stitch, since he can instantly restore ALL your MP.
Ah, alright. I guess that makes sense, then. I could have sworn she was also especially good with offensive magic.

I've honestly never tried Proud or Critical so I can't really say.

And yeah, that makes sense. They do that with Goofy after his "death" in Hollow Bastion. Pretty annoying that it happens, but oh well. I still show off his Limit at some point later on anyway, and it was honestly the first time seeing it. I just assumed since Jack Sparrow was so realistic, having him do some weird anime moves wouldn't work out as well so they never gave him a Limit.

And another new part.
Part 19 - Agrabah, Halloween Town, and Pride Lands Revisits

Agrabah and Halloween Town are fine the second time around, I personally think. The Carpet segments aren't too great, but not too painful in my opinion either. The Jafar fight was just laughable though. The dude is a Genie, but he just shoots fireballs and flings buildings; there was just no creativity involved here. I liked the story with The Experiment, honestly, and I feel like it really fits in with the feel of Nightmare Before Christmas. Pride Lands is terrible, though. Like Simba being all insecure I feel is fine, but when Goofy gives him the proper speech he needs right off the bat and it STILL takes as long as it does for Simba to stop moping, it gets annoying. Not to mention the Scar Ghosts don't really do anything but just go "Haha, you're a lame king." over and over, and literally all Simba needed to do was pounce at it, or go "Go away" from the very start. Admittedly, fighting such a gigantic Heartless was kind of neat, but I don't think it was enough to make the other bullshit worth the revisit.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

You should try Critical. It actually forces you to think strategically, and it becomes a lot easier when you obtain reflect (after Timeless River). It's not for everyone, but just give it a try.

The whole second visit to Agrabah just screams "Pudding Padding" to me (do you get the reference). You can actually die in the carpet minigame because of the sand geyser and buildings. So gently caress the carpet minigame.

I agree with your opinions on the second Halloween Town, just want to clarify some things. The presents-collecting minigame is originally just 4 Wight Knight (mummies) each holding 1 presents. Everytime you beat the mummy, a Graveyard (jack in the box) appears. If you didn't pick up the presents, the Graveyards may pick it up and you have to beat them to make them drop it. I don't know if there's a limit to how many Graveyards would appear.

The Pride Lands second visit has OK story, but poor execution, which you already pointed out. The hyenas fight is pointless. They all have the same 2+ bars of HP (yes, for all of them. You just looked at the first one wrong) and none of them will attack Sora. Ever. And there's no other enemies so Sora can't die. It's just tedious.

Explosion is received after MCP in Final Mix. The second visit to Olympus Coliseum, Space Paranoids, and all visits to Pride Lands (also Atlantica and 100 Acre Woods but who cares) are all optional. The Bulky Vendors (gumball machine) appears at set locations, with 2 out of 5 locations spawning 2 instead of 1. It's detailed in this video.

And about Peter Pan summon here's what he (they, since there's Tinkerbell too) does:
1. Peter Pan attacks with Sora. The attack drops MP orbs. Useless except for stunlocking Saix
2. The limit which attacks the enemy and makes it drop HP or MP orbs depending on what you press (O/X or ^). Kinda useless. I THINK it has a magnet effect, but I'm not sure about this.
3. Tinkerbell heals Sora periodically. Amazing when paired with Second Chance and Once More.
4. Tinkerbell autorevives Sora. I don't need to say why this one is good. However, after this move she will disappear, so this effect and the one above won't work anymore. This is how I got through the Cavern of Remembrance on crit mode: Peter Pan MP orbs, Tinkerbell healing and reviving and LOTS of reflega).

Wow, that's a long post. Do you mind if I wrote too much things like this?

1234567890num fucked around with this message at 12:57 on May 28, 2018

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

You should try Critical. It actually forces you to think strategically, and it becomes a lot easier when you obtain reflect (after Timeless River). It's not for everyone, but just give it a try.

The whole second visit to Agrabah just screams "Pudding Padding" to me (do you get the reference). You can actually die in the carpet minigame because of the sand geyser and buildings. So gently caress the carpet minigame.

I agree with your opinions on the second Halloween Town, just want to clarify some things. The presents-collecting minigame is originally just 4 Wight Knight (mummies) each holding 1 presents. Everytime you beat the mummy, a Graveyard (jack in the box) appears. If you didn't pick up the presents, the Graveyards may pick it up and you have to beat them to make them drop it. I don't know if there's a limit to how many Graveyards would appear.

The Pride Lands second visit has OK story, but poor execution, which you already pointed out. The hyenas fight is pointless. They all have the same 2+ bars of HP (yes, for all of them. You just looked at the first one wrong) and none of them will attack Sora. Ever. And there's no other enemies so Sora can't die. It's just tedious.

Explosion is received after MCP in Final Mix. The second visit to Olympus Coliseum, Space Paranoids, and all visits to Pride Lands (also Atlantica and 100 Acre Woods but who cares) are all optional. The Bulky Vendors (gumball machine) appears at set locations, with 2 out of 5 locations spawning 2 instead of 1. It's detailed in this video.

And about Peter Pan summon here's what he (they, since there's Tinkerbell too) does:
1. Peter Pan attacks with Sora. The attack drops MP orbs. Useless except for stunlocking Saix
2. The limit which attacks the enemy and makes it drop HP or MP orbs depending on what you press (O/X or ^). Kinda useless. I THINK it has a magnet effect, but I'm not sure about this.
3. Tinkerbell heals Sora periodically. Amazing when paired with Second Chance and Once More.
4. Tinkerbell autorevives Sora. I don't need to say why this one is good. However, after this move she will disappear, so this effect and the one above won't work anymore. This is how I got through the Cavern of Remembrance on crit mode: Peter Pan MP orbs, Tinkerbell healing and reviving and LOTS of reflega).

Wow, that's a long post. Do you mind if I wrote too much things like this?
Perhaps I will, at some point. Though at the moment I don't quite feel like replaying the whole game all over again.

Afraid I don't get it. But either way I agree. Like the "trap" that activates when Iago knocks that old treasure over...does nothing. Like there's a sense of urgency but aside from more Heartless appearing, nothing happens and there's no reason Carpet can't just fly straight up out of the area and back to Agrabah. Goofy, Donald, and Aladdin can just walk.

Ah, I didn't know that about the Graveyards. I just saw Heartless and went in swinging, just like Sora would want.

Yeah, and it bothers me most about how Simba gets over his funk. Sora, Donald, and Goofy just pretending to be Scar's Ghost, who doesn't say anything out of the ordinary, but he only now acts because...I guess he just snapped? Who even knows.

Actually Explosion is after the Solar Sailor segment in Final Mix. I'm surprised the Olympus Coliseum and Space Paranoid revisits are optional considering how important they are. Auron getting his resolution and the revelation of Hollow Bastion's true name. Is beating all of Space Paranoids really optional? And good to know about the Bulky Vendors, though I never needed to go after them purposefully, personally. They're like an extra treat I stumble upon.

I never realized Peter Pan was so complex, honestly, but that's good information to have. I did notice the orb drops at one point, and I do believe he has a Magnet effect, yeah, but I don't know if it works on bosses or not. At least really big ones like the Experiment.

And I don't mind at all, man. I appreciate the discussion.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

I guess I forgot about where you get explosion. Most of the summons are pretty complex. Except genie. He just gives you a potion when you're at critical HP and has limits according to Sora's forms (except limit form, ironically) which all are just plain damage with no special effects (I think). I also know about the Bulky Vendor trick after I beat every boss, so same situation as most people.

Also, an annoying thing about the minigames is that most of them (100 Acre Woods, Twilight Town jobs, carpet ride, present shooting, Atlantica) has a score that needs to be reached to get an achievement in the Jiminy's Journal. The annoying part comes from the fact that the scores on the mandatory first try aren't counted. So you have to do all of them at least twice. Including Atlantica. Which doesn't actually have another score beside the one required to proceed. Joy. Granted, most people don't care about them, but it's still an annoying tidbit.

E: I think it's optional because there're no mention of Org XIII in the optional visits. Space Paranoids 2 is optional is kinda strange, but fits with the above guess.

1234567890num fucked around with this message at 19:32 on May 28, 2018

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

I guess I forgot about where you get explosion. Most of the summons are pretty complex. Except genie. He just gives you a potion when you're at critical HP and has limits according to Sora's forms (except limit form, ironically) which all are just plain damage with no special effects (I think). I also know about the Bulky Vendor trick after I beat every boss, so same situation as most people.

Also, an annoying thing about the minigames is that most of them (100 Acre Woods, Twilight Town jobs, carpet ride, present shooting, Atlantica) has a score that needs to be reached to get an achievement in the Jiminy's Journal. The annoying part comes from the fact that the scores on the mandatory first try aren't counted. So you have to do all of them at least twice. Including Atlantica. Which doesn't actually have another score beside the one required to proceed. Joy. Granted, most people don't care about them, but it's still an annoying tidbit.

E: I think it's optional because there're no mention of Org XIII in the optional visits. Space Paranoids 2 is optional is kinda strange, but fits with the above guess.
I honestly never found use from most of the Summons, I just wanted to show them all off at least once. Like in II, the only one I ever used more than once was Stitch for one or two of the Mushroom XIII guys.

Yeah, I personally never bothered with all the optional minigames, or replaying any of the mandatory ones for the Journal. I was never much of a 100% completion kind of guy for most games. And I did especially notice the Atlantica songs needing a repeat, which sounds like Hell on Earth to me.

And yeah, that makes sense. Any second visit with an Organization member could never happen after The World That Never Was is visited, for obvious reasons.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 20 - Space Paranoids Revisit

I kind of forgot how short this revisit actually is. I was about a third into the video before finally entering the computer and had everything wrapped up within about twenty minutes. Length aside, I enjoyed the revisit overall, and I especially appreciate the callbacks to the movie being integrated into the game like Sark growing five times his size. Of course, I played this game as a kid before ever watching Tron, but I can still appreciate it now. I do wish the MCP himself could do a bit more. He just shoots some lasers and...that's pretty much it, yeah. I mean I guess he lashes out with his barriers too, but that's normally only to prevent you from just killing him in one go. Also it stinks that Aerith of all people had to give the revelation about Radiant Garden, if only because her voice actress in this game is complete trash.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 21 - Hundred Acre Wood

This seemed like a good place and stop to do the completely optional worlds, starting with the Hundred Acre Wood one. I honestly like this visit more than in the first game, mainly because the entire Hundred Acre Wood gang is actually here. I guess they didn't have time or knew what to do with all of them in the first game and had to leave a couple behind. I honestly did find the idea of pages being torn from the book loving with Pooh's memories of those around him, though it raises a number of questions of how he works in the Kingdom Hearts series. I also always found it odd how he regains his memory; in that there seems to be no real rhyme or reason behind it. He just remembers his friends seemingly at random. Of course, if I start to question how loving Winnie-the-Pooh works in the Kingdom Hearts series too much it means I may just be going insane.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

You know, in Final Mix grinding master form is a lot easier. Here's how:
1. Go to the second room in cavern of remembrance (the one you need quick run to progress). All the heartless are at the bottom of the first room so you should be able to avoid them.
2. Attack the sphere to get drive orbs
3. Go back to the first room and die to the heartless (might be hard in beginner mode)
4. Repeat. You should be done in around 10 minutes probably

Enjoying your commentary, and I agree with Pooh probably faking it. It's at least more interesting than what we got. Also, the scores for the minigames are important only from the second time (and for the JJ, like I mentioned earlier). The scores required are actually obscenely high.

Anyway, I hope you have a finny fun at Atlantica :thumbsup:

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

You know, in Final Mix grinding master form is a lot easier. Here's how:
1. Go to the second room in cavern of remembrance (the one you need quick run to progress). All the heartless are at the bottom of the first room so you should be able to avoid them.
2. Attack the sphere to get drive orbs
3. Go back to the first room and die to the heartless (might be hard in beginner mode)
4. Repeat. You should be done in around 10 minutes probably

Enjoying your commentary, and I agree with Pooh probably faking it. It's at least more interesting than what we got. Also, the scores for the minigames are important only from the second time (and for the JJ, like I mentioned earlier). The scores required are actually obscenely high.

Anyway, I hope you have a finny fun at Atlantica :thumbsup:
I honestly wasn't even aware those spheres regained their Drive Orbs. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I play through the game.

And I'm glad you're enjoying it. Been trying to find the right balance of informative and ribbing of the game at hand. And yeah, I should've figured with the scores. I'm so glad I never bothered trying to 100% Jiminy's Journal. Sounds like a pain in the rear end no matter the difficulty setting.

I think I'd rather drown than go through Atlantica ever again.

TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

Part 22 - Atlantica

Uuugh. Atlantica. The bane of just about every Kingdom Hearts fan out there. For whatever reason, Nomura thought it'd be a fantastic idea to make an entire world in the game based all around singing. If it was like, JUST the minigames I wouldn't even mind it too much, but it's also the fact we have about thirty minutes of pure cutscenes to go along with it that essentially recap the entire Little Mermaid movie that really makes it painful. That and of course the weird selective amnesia going on with everyone and Ursula bothers me as well. I was honestly struggling to come up with some positives, and for that all I can say is they at least got two songs right from the movie, and that Jodi Benson and Pat Carroll came back for their singing voices. Other than that, it's pure hot garbage.

1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

TheLoneStar posted:

I honestly wasn't even aware those spheres regained their Drive Orbs. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I play through the game.

And I'm glad you're enjoying it. Been trying to find the right balance of informative and ribbing of the game at hand. And yeah, I should've figured with the scores. I'm so glad I never bothered trying to 100% Jiminy's Journal. Sounds like a pain in the rear end no matter the difficulty setting.

I think I'd rather drown than go through Atlantica ever again.

I think the spheres operate on the same rules as heartless respawning (move 3 rooms away/go to other world/die), not really sure, though. The Jiminy Journal doesn't require any Gummi Ship missions, though, strangely. And I see what you did with drowning and Atlantica.

At least you get an Orichalcum+ and Blizzaga? Atlantica was relatively least bad in CoM, and that's saying something. I think the problem with this one is kinda exactly the same things with 100 Acre Woods: the stupid plot and brainless gameplay. Atlantica may actually be even worse about it, since everyone forget about Ursula (even Ursula herself) without any explanation, and the minigames are brainless even with the Jiminy Journal requirement (which is basically just "replay the song"). At least Mysterious Abyss is useful for something, unlike Sweet Memories.

I guess it's understandable that on Beginner Mode Marluxia would be the hardest since he doesn't care about your difficulty mode, he'll beat you anyway. [sub]I actually found him the second easiest because of this. :v:[sub] I don't remember about him being the third strongest member, though. When was it mentioned? And who's the first and second?

E: I'm still confused why you succeed in the third song when the Ariel is at the land (top) of the bar when the whole purpose of the song is to convince her to stay at the sea.

1234567890num fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jun 3, 2018

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TheLoneStar
Feb 9, 2017

1234567890num posted:

I think the spheres operate on the same rules as heartless respawning (move 3 rooms away/go to other world/die), not really sure, though. The Jiminy Journal doesn't require any Gummi Ship missions, though, strangely. And I see what you did with drowning and Atlantica.

At least you get an Orichalcum+ and Blizzaga? Atlantica was relatively least bad in CoM, and that's saying something. I think the problem with this one is kinda exactly the same things with 100 Acre Woods: the stupid plot and brainless gameplay. Atlantica may actually be even worse about it, since everyone forget about Ursula (even Ursula herself) without any explanation, and the minigames are brainless even with the Jiminy Journal requirement (which is basically just "replay the song"). At least Mysterious Abyss is useful for something, unlike Sweet Memories.

I guess it's understandable that on Beginner Mode Marluxia would be the hardest since he doesn't care about your difficulty mode, he'll beat you anyway. [sub]I actually found him the second easiest because of this. :v:[sub] I don't remember about him being the third strongest member, though. When was it mentioned? And who's the first and second?

E: I'm still confused why you succeed in the third song when the Ariel is at the land (top) of the bar when the whole purpose of the song is to convince her to stay at the sea.
I suppose that makes sense. I guess I just never found myself backtracking through the gave very much. And yeah, I did notice that, nothing about Gummi Ship stuff is in Jiminy's Journal at all.

I mean yeah, I suppose. I mean honestly I kind of play up how torturous Atlantica can be here. I mean yeah, it's pretty bad, but at least it's relatively short and technically only one visit. And honestly I like the Hundred Acre Wood more, probably because I just have a soft spot for Pooh, and at least it tells a unique story, unlike this Atlantica which is pretty much the movie with Sora and the gang involved. And Sweet Memories at least has the Drive Converter ability for if you decide to use the Gambler trick for training Master Form. And I suppose it makes a good way to challenge yourself, like I saw a video of a guy using Sweet Memories to beat The Lingering WIll.

I swear I remember hearing about one of the Kingdom Hearts Ultimania books mentioning the top three Organization members; with Xemnas on top, Roxas second, and Marluxia third. I mean it makes sense, of course Xemnas will be the most powerful and Roxas is probably about as strong as Sora so he'd be second. And then Marluxia had the big multiform poo poo going on in Chain of Memories which is usually saved for final bosses in Square games.

And yeah, I kind of gave a bullshit reason that the gang trying to convince her to stay in the sea just made her long for the surface more or something. I think the real reason is just the meter goes up to the top to signify progress, and of course the surface is above the sea.

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