Yeah, I was a little worried myself until I really started blasting my way through the game. Thank goodness I'm not too OCD about trophies, because I will willing admit that CoM has the worst requirements from the 1.5 collection. I think the two worst ones in KH1 is the "don't change equipment" trophy and the collect all of the Gummi Ship blueprints. CoM trophy lists is basically a completionist run requiring max levels and obtaining everything in the game. I'm grateful they didn't ask for something really ridiculous like having a Premium version of every number of every card or some trout. I've been slowly going through this fan video by an infamous speed runner who seems to be the source of a lot of the BbS hatedom on Youtube. I feel like his core issue with the plot of BbS rings true, but I also feel like he's glossing over the fact that a lot of the other issues he has with the story have been a growing problem within the series far earlier than this one, but he's kind of treating BbS like it did it first. Ultimately, his issue with the plot is that it's an idiot ball plot, which I'll concede is true, but his other issue is how much it retcons the canon from KHI, but it's obvious this guy was too young at the time to really know about a lot of the plot changes going on in the Ultimania. Not helped that he openly admits he doesn't really play games for story, which is probably why he's been glossing over a lot of KHII's story problems because he loves the gameplay side of things too much, though he does mention that KHII started a lot of the story problems but it's becoming increasingly obvious he never really followed the plot and greater lore of the series, which is why BbS was probably a real shock to him. Like he's whining about the whole keyblade chose Sora/Riku versus the implications of the three getting keyblades because they were picked by Terra and dealt with Aqua and Ventus, despite the fact Riku flat out tells you he was chosen by the keyblade in KH1, but this creates a plot hole because we never knew until BbS how he knew he was the chosen. I haven't even gotten into the gameplay part of his video, which is where I imagine the hate is really going to come in.
It's a good thing the game doesn;t expet you to be that high a level as Riku. Imagine the tedium.
I'm like Lv. 38 right now in Wonderland, so I'm not too concerned. I'll probably be around Lv. 50ish by the time I reach Ansem. Contrast that to Sora where I was Lv. 75 when I finally beat the game with him.
Yeah I just blazed through Castle Oblivion this time. I don’t think I fought a single Neoshadows. I think I beat Ansem at like level 40 or something
I didn't have too much of a problem with Atlantica, I think the key to victory in that place is spamming the new Friend Sleight with Mickey. I'm more concerned with when the Neoshadows show up in the last area cause they were a handful with Sora, and he at least had access to Mega Flare and Trinity Limit.
Yeah Wonderland’s deck is really bad, but I think so was Atlantica’s? I think there’s a reason they gave you the enemy card that randomizes your numbers for that world because that’s still better than the crap cards you get.
I understand how children become a handful once they're mobile. No worries about the story stuff, I'm not in a hurry at the moment. I've been struggling to get anything on paper myself so I can understand that as well. In CoM news, I finished Olympia, finally saw the final new Sleights for Riku fighting Hades. I enjoyed the fact Riku's deck in this world is practically designed for the Duel system, fitting since it's the Coliseum. I forgot to mention that I really do enjoy the Duel system. Shame they kept it exclusive to Riku's scenario, but the guy does need it far more than Sora did. I guess Sora gets version of it in the final boss battle when Marluxia plays his 666 Sleight that casts Doom on you until you break all of his cards. I peeked into Wonderland, and now we're at the point where I start to bang my head against the wall for Riku's whole "my deck changes based on the world" scheme because holy hell if Wonderland doesn't hand you one of the worst decks in the game. I'm already dreading the Taskmaster fight...
I’ve been pushing myself to write at least 1000 words daily. If I skip a day, I have to make up for it in the next. It still feels like pulling hair and I hate the thing that comes out on paper, but I’m pushing through, hoping the editing stage will save this third. And yes, the fandom is annoying as hell - which is why I’ve decided to ignore it, save for a couple youtubers that I know have more reasonable takes and that I enjoy watching (the Super Butter Buns person I linked you one time is an example). The way I see it, it’s a tend that’s prevalent now - you’ll get tons of counter-takes eventually and public opinions will shift again. As with all things fandom, once stuff gets toxic, the only way to really come out on top is to just walk away. I’ve still got both of your Mog net messages, one for Elly, one for The Other Side, permanently opened in my tabs, so I promise I will get to them eventually My fledgling spawn is now far more mobile than he used to be, so he requires additional attention
I'm on the second half of his levels. Just finished Atlantica, going to tackle Hercules and then Wonderland before hitting Halloween Town. Being reminded of how OP his Dark Mode is. In fact I always forget that his Sleights are kind of a red herring and his basic combo and innate stun effect is usually better against bosses than trying to use them. I'm curious to see if they "fixed" Asnem and got rid of the easy way to stun lock him by abusing Riku's Double jump attack. So I'm at a pretty good pace, my only issue with Riku's scenario is that it's a bit bare bones over all. Kind of wish they did more for the Disney Worlds, at least the two Riku actually visited. Would have been interesting to see him feeling remorseful about Pinocchio in Monstro, or elaborate more about his time on Captain Hook's ship. Yet like Sora, it's the in-between sections that are all the juicy parts. I also feel vindicated because I learned that Re:CoM did change up the bosses a bit and added in some of their new moves from Final Mix, which was why the Org. Members gave me issues in Sora's story and I'm sure that will repeat itself in Riku's plot. I will say that after listening to more fan videos online, I am really starting to hate large parts of the KH fanbase like yourself. My goodness the speedrunning community has really sucked the fun out of the series since all their videos are kind of single-minded. It's feeling eerily similar to the PvP community in Dark Souls, which loves to suck the joy of the franchise out of every new installment because one lousy element is not the same as the one from the game they liked. I have been noticing that a lot of the hate against BbS seems to stem from a particular speed runner who made several videos bemoaning that particular entry. I've been trying to get myself into a relaxed enough state to check out his more thoughtful video on the issues he has with the title. Other than that, I've been trying to implement the changes from the Elly story you did for me, I'm at the difficult task of changing Child Elly's speech pattern to be less annoying and cringy. That and all these mechanic videos is inspiring me to finally get around to writing the retrospective on FFV. How is your writing going?
So how’s Riku’s story coming along?
