Oh no, I get that. In fact part of me was thinking of skipping his part until I remembered that his scenario is actually really short since the only thing that really matters for him is his levels. It's also just amusing playing the whole scenario backwards and having end game Heartless and bosses come across as weaklings. The battle with Maleficent in his scenario is rather cathartic.
I feel that with Riku the only right way to play is to just blaze through it. What you mentioned is just one of the things that seem to facilitate that
Yeah, the one issue with Riku's scenario is that it does feel really barren in terms of content. Like I never realized how much I enjoyed smacking random bits of the scenery hoping to find some Moogle Points or a new card, whereas Riku... really doesn't need to concern himself unless he's in need of health. I am trying to amass more Teeming Darkness Map cards since they are the best for leveling and they have the added bonuses of raising the enemy card drop rate. I may try to farm the Defender and Wizard cards as they'll be incredibly useful in Riku's scenario. It will be interesting to see how the KHII worlds fare, I haven't actually played KHII in over a decade since I got into that argument with Pupu over the nature of Kingdom Hearts. I was watching a video on KHII's combat that largely addressed my complaints about it, but he brings up the fact that a lot of people don't like Port Royal and explains that he feels it's due to being a world that's suppose to teach you something but by that point in the game, people are knee deep in complacent gaming syndrome for the combat so the change up is never appreciated.
Yeah it was the biggest draw of the remake, and they also added more scenes, all of which are canon, so that honestly makes Re:CoM a Final Mix of sorts. I’ll afmkt the original is probably a better game and I still hold it very dear to my heart and I’ve replayed it countless times, but damn did I enjoy playing the 3D remake. Kudos to SE for even doing this kind of huge overall of a remake because who does that? And yeah, I cleared up the rest of my Riku file quickly so now I can have all the extra features once I actually move on to CoM, and I actually made a beeline through the final three worlds, so I was woefully under leveled, but still managed to beat Ansem pretty easily with a couple of well-timed card breaks. Turns out regular attacks actually worked way better than sleights. And your deck for CO is pretty phenomenal. The lack of deck building really makes this scenario a real breeze. Btw, I saw you complain about the pirates world and that reminded me of the fact that, apparently, the Pirates world in KHIII is almost unanimously regarded as the best world in the game that’s just incredibly well designed and very fun to play around. So I’m really interested to see how it really plays. And yeah, I am convinced Lauriam and Marluxia are one and the same. It could be argued otherwise before, but now that Erlena, Larxene’s human form, is there as well and apparently has a crush on him, I think it’s pretty safe to say it’s him. He is pretty cool, I’ll admit.
Marluxia is down and Sora's chapter is finished. Just started Reverse Rebirth and got stuck in the silly tutorial fight with Ansem and decided it was too late at night to be playing anymore. I really do think Marluxia is my favorite member of Organization XIII that isn't Roxas. I'm excited he'll return in KHIII and I hope the likely possibility he's one of the Dandelions in Union Cross comes true because I really feel the past lives of the Org. Members was really short changed by the other installments. I'll admit that one of the best features of the 3D remake is honestly the VA cutscenes. Adds a lot of layers to characters and Namine is even more precious in this version than the original. So Now I just need to finish Riku's story mode, and against my better judgement, I opted for Proud mode because why the hell not? I mean technically Riku's story is much shorter.
Maybe they just changed his A.I. script so he's not a spammy bitch anymore unlike Larxene.
If I recall correctly, Riku’s sleights remain unchanged
I feel the real treat of CoM has always been the fact that the Organization got some real characterization here. I mean I feel like Demyx was the only member from KHII to leave an impression, even Xemnas just comes across as a more serious and less hammy version of Ansem Seeker of Darkness. Saix gets most of his character development in 358/2 but poor Xaldin and Luxord just feel one note, after three games featuring the organization whereas Marluxia and the rest of the game are far more sinister and vibrant in CoM. Also, is Dark Aura even in this game anymore? I feel like it got replaced with Helm Splitter for Riku because his Replica didn't seem to ever use it. I guess I'll find out after I take down Marluxia and his new third form. First I have to deal with Axel.
I do wonder how you’ll feel about Riku’s side as that has been further modified, what with the duel mechanic and, you know, actually getting to fight Zexion this time.
In CoM news, I'm finally on the final floor in Sora's game, forgot how huge this place is and that this is the game that makes me cringe when I thing about Neoshadows cause my goodness are they a handful. Thank god I learned Megaflare before destiny island. I've been seriously gaining levels like no business but I also feel I'm correct that battle drag on longer in this version because I feel the game loads the field with more enemies. To my surprise, Replica Riku was not "that one boss" for me like he usually is. I had more of a handful dealing with Larxene who seriously take advantage of the larger arena to keep her distance and like Vexen, she's smarter about using 0 cards to stall my sleights. After several attempts, I finally took her down with a desperate barrage of Strike Raids. I have a feeling her moveset has been improved since they are obviously just reusing the Data Organization models for this game, so she might be a bit faster in this version than the GBA one. Got to the real juicy part of the plot, acquired all but the three keyblades locked away until you finish Riku's quest, and obtained all of the Sleights. I do feel that the inclusion of the Party Moves like High Jump and Superglide have largely been pointless considering the level design isn't really built for it. I reached the point where I have to do the rematch with Axel. He kicked my ass, and I called it a night because the whole thing took longer than I thought. Now that I'm nearing the end, I really do feel the GBA version is the better version. Everything just feels like it takes longer in this version and battles don't quite have the snappiness they had in the original. Also that got rid of the hilarious Blazing Donald Sleight. The addition of more Reaction commands sounds neat, but honestly doesn't do much for me, and the balancing of the game feels really lopsided. I feel I made the right call when I skipped this back in the day.
