Fynn
is an EoFF Hero and/or Heroine
Radical Dreamer

Well I'm flattered you liked it well enough to incorporate some elements of it. Hope the writing is going well for you. I need to sit down and really go through your edits for my piece. My artist is actually excited for it. She's been annoyed because she has been having a hard time getting a consistent look for our heroine which is why it feels to me like the project has stalled.

Well thank you. I had a good idea for it which made it fun to write.

You get it for beating the prologue/Tutorial mission of Story Mode in Proud Mode. It's a Green Speed Medal type Keyblade, though I haven't fully unlocked it yet since the main Synthesis Material used to upgrade it are exclusive to Proud Mode. I'm going to assume that each time you unlock a Keyblade in story mode, you'll get a corresponding one in Proud Mode as well.

I currently have:
Starlight (Balanced)
Treasure Trove (Power)
Lady Luck (Speed)
Three Wishes (Magic)
Olympia (Balanced)
Moogle O' Glory (Balanced/Gold & Reversed)
Lionheart (Speed)

That sounds rough. I hate when you have to gamble away points for some big payoff.

The Wand build is a bit weird, it's starting to live up to the whole "early game hell, but end game bad ass" now that I'm starting to get more Keyblade options and seeing how powerful magic really can be once you actually bother to use and have power to back it up. With the Spellbinder Keyblade I just acquired from Merlin, I have about the same amount of MP as I usually do by endgame and learning the magic power = Max MP has finally shown me how good some spells can be. I just need more spells at this point.

One other minor complaint I did have with this game was how awkward the order Keyblades become availabel can be. If you're still trying to make the Ultima Keyblade by the time the final area opens up, you have no less than four different Keyblades unlock by this point. One story based, one from the final Trinity Mark access you get for beating Hollow Bastion, and two can be picked up at Hollow Bastion once you seal the keyhole. Feels like they could have paced them out better. Hell doing the Hercules Cup will net you two keyblades if you finish it in one shot. I vaguely remember KH2 having a similar issue.

In Union X, I finished the first jump into Hercules world and now I'm back in Agrabah helping Aladdin clear his name. The two most interesting discoveries I made was learning that you unlock new Keyblades in Proud Mode. I just picked up the Lionheart which is a Speed-centric keyblade like Lady Luck. The only issue I have is that your gear is determined by the mission in Proud Mode, and the keyblade uses a special material found only in proud Mode for upgrades. The Olympian Keyblade is interesting because it seems to be the only Keyblade you can use once you unlock the optional PVE/PVP Coliseum mode which is pretty clever.

I feel my only beef with Final Mix so far has been the fact that everything I found kind of tedious in the original got amplified a bit. Gummi Ship segments have a new mission objective feature which is thankfully optional but still annoying if you try. Synthesis has been retooled to make it more difficult to make some of the better gear and more obnoxiously, certain materials that were already a pain to get in the original have been attached to the new enemy types this game brings in.

I like the enemies, they're interesting, but they're all basically mini-puzzle bosses, and if they're wasn't an online community, you would have a hell of time figuring out what you need to do to beat them. Some also seem like they can only be beaten once you've reached a certain point of the game and have the right abilities.

As for the Wand build I'm trying, it has been interesting. On the one hand, it's been neat to get early access to a few of the new abilities the game added, in fact, I would almost argue many of these moves were designed specifically for the Wand build since many of them are based on Sora's MP or Magic power. On the other hand, I never realized how useful and how much I used Block until it was taken from me. In fact, I just learned I probably won't even see the move until I reach Hollow Bastion because it's a move the Wand build gets ridiculously late in the game and only if I seriously grind for it. It's like a level 70 skill for this build. So I have definitely been playing out of my comfort zone with this entry.

Just reached Monstro, grateful to have a better balanced Keyblade like Three Wishes. Not looking forward to Monstro as it's my least favorite world and probably the second most frustrating part of the game only behind the Little Mermaid.

I've taken a break from 358/2, I'm going to start diving into it more once I reach Chain of Memories in my marathon. So for handhelds, I've become addicted to KH Union X, which has been pretty neat so far. My only really beef is that the Story Mode is slow and it doesn't take much to break this game in two. I'm almost at the same level as some of the veterans in the Raid Battles. Not helped that my early draws got me some ridiculously powerful medals, I never thought I would say that Kairi is OP. I'm on missions like 150 at the moment, still 200 missions away from the real meat of the plot of this game.

I never really had a beef with Wonderland. It's trippy in the right way, though the boss battle in KH1 is kind of solid proof about how shoddy the lock on/camera combo is in this game, course a more thorough player will realize it when you try to fight Riku on Destiny Island. I didn't mind it in 358/2 either except for one particular missions but I frankly hated every mission like it, so it hardly was the world's fault.

As for my comments about 358/2 being a console entry, I agree the structure is better suited for a handheld, which is why I kind of wanted it on the PSP instead, or the 3DS. I honestly just would like the world's to have a little more meat to them is all, and I would have preferred co-op without having to deal with Nintendo's obnoxious Friend's Code nonsense. Still, I feel like the core battle mechanics of the game are great in theory, and considering the hardware limitations they have, are pretty well executed as well. I just feel like the system held this game back a little. This is a game that could have had DLC missions had SE been ambitious enough.

The weapon mechanics are cool but feel a bit too simplistic at times. Hell, I'm still annoyed the game doesn't have a genuine secret story boss like the Final Mix entries and BbS. Would have been pretty cool to have pulled the Vanitas Remnant fight out of BbS and put it in this game instead. Would have been cool foreshadowing. Most of all, I feel like better hardware with larger worlds would have given the devs the ability to fix some of the wonkier missions like the "follow the enemy without being detected" ones or the "Kill the Giant wandering Shadow". I really wanted the upgrade to simply refine the quality of what's here. Believe me, I love 358/2, it's not like I feel it's a bad game. It's honestly been easier to get into than trying to replay KH1, I just get annoyed because I know with some refinement and horsepower, this game could have easily been one of the stellar entries in the franchise. Hell maybe a bigger system would have allowed them to give the rest of Org. XIII a little more screentime.

In KH1 news, I'm back in Traverse Town trying to get the Gummi Ship upgraded while also unlocking 100 Acre Woods, Summons, and if memory serves me correct, my rematch with the area boss. I can honestly say that I hate the Gummi Ship sequences, they're ugly, control awfully, and the building mechanic is so cumbersome that I'm reminded why most people don't bother.

Seeing how Proud mode is murdering me with my fragile Wand build, I opted to do Tarzan's world before tackling Hercules world and the notorious Cerberus fight. If Sora didn't have all of these neat special combo finishers unlock ridiculously early in this game, I probably would have rerolled him cause his health is not any better than Donald's at the moment and he hits like a wet paper. Donald, bless his heart, is just not meant for Proud mode it seems. My only consolation is that the battle with the Phantom should potentially go pretty smoothly with this build.

You said you have informed yourself about it already but it is very possible that it still spoils something so I wanted to warn in advance.

Even though I normally do not post here anymore KHIII is one of the last excuses for me. I will put a lot of spoiler tags in it but you better think thoroughly about reading the thread that will span about 10 document pages or if you want to leave it alone. It is a post about my never-ending love of Kingdom Hearts with full frustration of the inconsistent narration that is ultimately brought in with the third installment.

Would have made it more novel at least. Honestly, I really enjoy 358/2's gameplay for the most part. I think the only thing I'm not partial to is the Challenge/Mission Modes which effectively force you to play the game almost three times to unlock everything. Kind of a hassle. I really wish Nomura and the dev team had the time to properly remake the game like they originally planned for the HD Mix. I still feel it's one of the more underrated games in the franchise.

coded, more than any other entry, feels the most tacked on overall. I was playing 358/2 again before Union X took over. I'll probably pick it back up once I hit Chain of Memories in the playthrough since they're co-current and I don't believe for a moment that the movie version on the Final Mix 1.5 I have will do the game justice. Still, it's because of that game, that I can see how off KH1 feels because even that title is better with the controls than KH1 has been.