That's kind of how my Days playthrough has been for me. I remember feeling like it had some good ideas but was adequate at best. Now, I'm starting to feel like the gameplay might be one of the more underrated in the series.It helps that unlike most entries, the day to day monotonous missions serve a story purpose as well, which was really clever for it's time though garnered the ire of most of the game's detractors. I'm now watching someone's overview of Birth by Sleep, and how it relates to the series. I'm like barely five minutes in and I can already tell it' going to quickly spiral down into a circle jerk about KHII while ignoring a lot of the issues that game had and how BbS largely exists to rectify it. Not helping things is that he's already started the whole "I play games for the gameplay and don't necessarily need a real plot" so yeah,. it will be interesting to see how far I get into this video before my biases clash with his bias. It has been interesting to see how KHII has suddenly found itself on this strange pedestal as of late. Maybe it's largely because I never delved too deep into the fandom, but I don't exactly remember the fanbase treating this game like the pinnacle of the series back in the day. Maybe it's because our forum is more of a pro-story RPG forum which is where a good chunk of KHII's problems stem from has given me this skewed perspective, but there is also a part of me that just see a lot of this as revisionist. I find it all fascinating to say the least.
I’m honestly enjoying the second run so much more. I may think the plot is completely irrelevant, but I still like the fact that the Disney characters are given a lot of focus, and I think the Hollow Bastion segment really recaptured the magic of first visiting that place in KHI, despite doing so using a completely different gimmick. The gameplay is really fun and diverse though and I think it’s worth playing through for thay reason alone. Of course, that means this game being rereleased as a collection of cutscenes is even more of a shame than with Days.
Oh I agree. A large part of why I prefer the command deck system is because it gives the game a more traditional turn based feel to character progression that is sorely lacking in the numbered entries. It's a large part of the reason why I like the handheld entries better because they offer deeper and more strategic playstyle options whereas the console entries tend to be purely skilled based.I think the issue with KHII's combat I largely have is that while I can concur it has a lot of depth to it, it's like racing your Formula F-1 racing car on a Go-Kart track. There is very little outside of a handful of bosses in KHII that require the level of complexity the combat system can offer and this is a problem SE has had for a majority of all their games since post-FFV. Congrats on beating the area on critical. I may sometimes venture into coded, but I'm really not terribly as interested as I could be. It's not like CoM memories where the story ultimately drew me in to actually buying it and then I was floored by how much I loved the gameplay.
Well, I know that most of this has come to be after KHII FM became available here, so people have been using that version as the gold standard. However, I am annoyed that II is being treated as objectively better for the above reasons - people have different plat styles and the command deck simply has a different niche to fill than the more vanilla ARPG combat in KHII. Btw, got sick today trying to do the time Attack of Hollow Bastion part II for the trophy. Worst part is, I didn’t even manage to get he trophy, but I did manage to beat the world on critical, so whether I manage to get the time Attack trophy for the last world or not, if I beat it on critical (which should happen no problem), I’ll unlock the secret video and that’ll be it for me when it comes to coded. I’ll be taking a break of sorts from games after that.
I watched one video of someone trying to defend that part of the fandom; and while I can agree with several of his points, I honestly feel that the reason why SE has moved away from KHII's design is largely for balancing reasons. I feel the removal of the Revenge mechanic and the addition of more floaty controls is to give the enemies a fair shot and prevent the player from dominating combat so badly. KHII's combat is far too powerful for its own good, and I disagree that you have to have real skill to make it so. Granted, I did completely agree that the optional bosses in BbS and 3D are all bulltrout in there design. It's been nearly a decade since I played KHII, so we'll see how I feel about it when I reach that game.
Don’t even get me started on that one. The KHII circlejerk is so strong nowadays it’s not even funny anymore
No worries, I figured as much and was more worried you would be annoyed to have me sending you these long posts about me playing a game we're both familiar with. I feel most of the games after KHII have this problem. I think you get the Ultima Panel in Days by completing most of the difficult multiplayer challenge missions, so there isn't really anything left to use the weapon on besides bragging rights. Same deal with BbS as I think you basically just keep trading up with the final story keyblade being replaced by the Vanitas Remnant Keyblade only to be replaced by the No Name Keyblade when you finally beat that asshole and then there is nothing left to use the new weapon on. For Final Mix, I have mixed feelings about the new weapons. Thankfully for Donald and Goofy, you can acquire their new weapons decently easy compared to Sora, but the way the weapons are done simply adds a layer of customization as opposed to being better than what was already there. I would still argue Goofy's Save the King is his best weapon since it perfectly balances offense with an extra MP gain for support use, whereas his two ultimate weapons dive deep into either territory with one giving him a huge attack bonus but making him prone to take more hits and loss of MP, whereas the other one gives him a ridiculous MP bonus and very defensive while dropping his attack options below even standard gear. All of the new weapons follow this pattern with ll three party members. For me, Donald's new Fantasia Wand was the best for him as his physical attack isn't impressive to begin with and the new knowledge of how magic works ended up making me like the duck better this time around. Goofy's was more situational with me using his magic based weapon for the Phantom fight so I could get more MP from his his MP Gift ability, but overall, I found his original ultimate weapon his ideal one. Same deal with Sora as both Diamond Dust and One Winged Angel both have enough glaring faults to make them less ideal over his Ultima Keyblade. Now with KH1 almost out of the way, I can get back to my Days playthrough on the 3DS while I play CoM on the PS3. Sadly, I stopped Days right after the point in the plot where CoM ended but I figured it would still be nice to play through it because just watching the cutscenes will not be enough to really bring in that feel of the story as you get stuck in a routine but then slowly watch Roxas world unravel and wishing to go back to the simpler mission structure the game brings. I really wish they had more time to just remake the game for the collection. Funny enough, I've been watching a few videos on youtube for the KH die hards that bitch about the combat systems.
Sorry for not replying so long. Busy weekend. Im also still working through your magnet message becausecof this It’s good to hear the optional bosses have been such fun so far. Honestly, I’m just more sad I do t have a PS4 with that collection yet because of all this But wh, Maine somedat. Meanwhile I’m still missing six trophies in coded to unlock the secret ending, but I got the most challenging stuff oit of the way. And of course, I got the Ultima weapon and it basically doesn’t matter anymore since everything is cakewalk now anyway. As obnoxious as synthesis can be, at least in past game’s you could get the Ultima Weapon at a point where you could still uses - here you get it for clearing the toughest secret sector and beating the optional boss, and there’s literally nothing tougher than that left. 3D has the same problem where you got the UW for beating Julius
Well now... In Final Mix news, I had another surprisingly productive night. Finally took down Phantom after I adjusted Goofy and Peter Pan's A.I. to play defensively and let me do all the work while they kept me alive. Started grinding for Second Chance but quickly got bored going through the Hades Cup. I was going to call it a night when I thought it would be fun to attempt Sephiroth without Second Chance. Got him down to within two of his life bars, so I attempted one more time with a few elixirs for once, and actually beat the bastard fairly easy. Helps that I learned in my last playthrough about Strike Raid giving you invincibility along with Leaf Bracer, so I was able to time my moves enough to avoid the worst and Strike Raid dealt with Heartless Angel and his Omnislash/Octoslash move he likes to spam when he's pissy. The keyblade he grants is interesting because it's base damage is mid-tier but when it crits it does more damage than the Ultima Keyblade. It also has this cool flaming sword element going for it. Since I took down the last fight I was really dreading, I decided to check out Unknown, and again, first attempt, got him down to his last two life bars. He's like a proto-version of the Unknown Boss fight in BbS with his own version of that obnoxious rope hook attack except this one disables the whole team and you have a flash command that switches back and forth quickly between Shock and Release, all while the move slowly drains your health and he continues his offense. Got killed by this stupid move four times. Finally, I remembered I had all of these stat boosting items I was hoarding for Sephy and this fight and poured them into Sora to gain some noticeable damage/defense boosts. Managed to survive that stupid attack and restore my defense before he caught up to me and while his aggression level goes through the roof in his final life bar phase, I am grateful that Aero is such a bulltrout ability in this game which is why it's never returned in the same capacity again. Took him down and unlocked the last four trophies I'll likely get in this playthrough as a few require a new playhthrough, most involve the Gummi Ships, and the last is getting to Lv. 100. If it wasn't so late for me, I would have just finished the game tonight. I'll do it tomorrow and will likely start Chain of Memories as well. I'm feeling oddly excited to get to KHII though. Perhaps because I'm finally going to play the version I always felt was the definitive one. I also learned they fixed that Unknown fight in BbS: Final Mix so his damn beam rope attack is no longer an instant kill.
Well tonight was surprisingly productive in Final Mix. Completed the Hades Cup, all of it. Including solo mode and for the first time ever for me, I beat the Time Trial on the first attempt. Took down the Ice Titan and also finished off Kurt Ziza. I also finished collecting the last of all the synthesis materials so I have one of Donald and Goofy's new ultimate weapons, as well as Sora's actual Ultima Weapon. Completed most of the End of the World and reached the final door where I faced off with the Neo Shadows who turned out to be much tamer than I was expecting but still a cool fight. I also picked up the other two new weapons for Donald and Goofy in this place. This pretty much leaves only three things left to do. I need to beat Phantom and finally get the Stop spell upgrade as well as access to the last weapon I'm missing for Donald. I need to beat up old Sephy but that's going to have to wait because unfortunately for me, Wand Sora doesn't freaking learn Second Chance until Lv. 90 for some ungodly reason. Then it's time to battle Unknown, the new boss and see if I'm going to be adding him to the list with Phantom and Sephy as my two least favorite optional boss fights in the game. After that, I'll slam dunk Ansem and start Chain of Memories in 3D!
