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    Fair enough, I really liked his OST for the game, course I have a bias for SNES era music so take that with a grain of salt.
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    I feel one of the bigger reasons why I disagree with the idea it "wrapped up the series beautifully" was the entire introduction of Xehanort. Even back when this game came out, it was apparent the writers had a lot more to write about this guy because that twist was just so poorly handled. I also took issue with how muddled the nature of Kingdom Hearts and it's relation to the Door to Darkness was ultimately screwed up the cosmology of the series, but I guess in hindsight, the fact that Roxas and Namine are walking around despite their originals still existing already contradicts the nature of Nobodies.

    In KHII news, I finished Nightmare Before Christmas and the Lion King. I find it hilarious how obvious Nomura loves the Lion King. Of all the Disney worlds in the series, and despite still being truncated for space, the Lion King feels like the only world that happens to hit every major story beat from the film, whereas other worlds usually just gloss over all, but the most relevant parts. Most Disney Worlds are in media res, but this is the first world that actually has flashbacks to show what happened to start the plot. It's also been one of the longer worlds in general.

    Nightmare gets props for acting as a semi-sequel to the film in this version. Though it creates some continuity errors, as it's implied Oogie Boogie has been "dead" since KH1, so his role in the film would have never happened. Also, to my surprise, in addition to the new outfits the team gets in Christmas Town, I was surprised to learn they also gave the area new music as well. A bit disappointed it's not an arrangement of "What's This" as the film has a gorgeous instrumental version of the song anyway, but points for having a a theme that sounds like a Christmas song. I unlocked and finished new episodes of Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, and it looks like I opened up the second tournament in Hercules world. Once I finish that, I'm going to try my luck with Larxene one more time and then probably hit up Twilight Town again to start the second half of the game.

    I found this video, and I love it mostly because the guy's commentary is hilarious.
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    If I thought Zexion was a handful, Larxene is on a whole new level. She apparently was holding back in CoM cause holy hell is she a pain to fight in this game. In between just zapping you with thunder magic and shanking you with her knives, she loves to create clones of herself to help her do it as well. Will definitely come back later. Finished Agrabah and forgot how obnoxious the Fat Bandits were made in this entry, they pretty much always target Sora which makes getting around them a chore. I was able to get Valor Form to it's next checkpoint. Now I need to level Wisdom a little longer. Asusual for the series, Aladdin is OP as hell, though I would argue the game has done a great job of making all of the Disney guest characters pretty awesome, and the removal of the silly Trinity Marks, means I can switch out Donald and Goofy as I please.

    After that, I mostly played around with some Gummi Ship missions, finished the Panic and Pain Cup, and have been trying to complete Jiminy's abomination of a journal just so I can get the secret ending. Kind of annoyed they changed the rules on how to get them in Final Mix since the journal requirements are so annoying in this entry.
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    I feel my love for it stems both from having several of these shorts in my childhood since my family had the Disney Channel when I was growing up; and due to my fascination with early film and animation. It's why I was rather impressed here, because the team went above and beyond trying to recapture the feel of those cartoons with the scratchy record like music and the more mono audio voice work. It's just impressive to me. My other favorite world in KH2 is likely Tron, but I'm still a ways from there.

    Finished Port Royal, totally spaced that Crispin Freemen voiced Will Turner in this version. Actually made him charming for once. I think my real beef with PR is both the fact the enemies and bosses in this world fall a little too hard into gimmick territory, though I do appreciate having a magic-centric world; as well as just the overall VA work not doing the characters justice. The nice thing about all the other Disney Worlds is that most of them all voiced by their original casts because Disney owns their souls, but here we're dealing with newcomers, and while they do a pretty decent job, they just can't really recapture the original performances, especially the VA for Jack Sparrow who is just not as "loopy" as Johnny Depp's performance. I also forgot how gloriously awful the music in Atlantica was. Still enjoy this world.

    I finally took down Zexion. It helped that I leveled up Wisdom Form to get the Quick Step ability which comes in real handy during his final phase.Just as I figured from watching all those combat videos, it's really just the new boss battles that make the combat system really shine. Regular battles are still a clustersmurf of chaos and mashing X and occasionally Triangle to win, but the organization fights will punish you for that kind of fighting. I just unlocked the Larxene fight, and I'm already dreading that one but I'll check it out tonight. I'll admit the new content fixes a glaring issue with the original, which was namely how sparse the content was finally justifying several of the mechanics within the game like the movement abilities and the core combat system. So I do hope you get a chance to play it sometime in the future.
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    I cannot stress how much I think Timeless River is my favorite Disney World in the series. Had a blast going through it, even if the circumstances of it's existence in the plot feels unnecessary and creates a few plot holes later down the road for the series by haphazardly introducing time travel to the series. I honestly feel the writers totally spaced this sequence when they decided to come up with Xehanort's convoluted time travel plot twist in 3D. Regardless, the sequence is an absolute joy and I either forgot, or never realized since I last played KHII on an aging vacuum tubed TV back in the day, but the audio design of this area is really steller and perfectly emulates the audio of old timey cartoons with a strange mono dissonance to it and the feel of a record being played for the music. It's just a well crafted world.

    Challenged Zexion and was quickly thumped for my trouble. He's still annoying like he was in CoM, but here, it's a little less aggravating surprisingly enough. Partly because him sealing your commands is less of a hassle than him outright stealing your commands. I'll have to come back to him after I gain a few more levels or a stronger keyblade. I could probably beat him now, but I don't really want to focus too much time on this since I'll likely be doing so at the end of the game.

    In 358/2 news, I just tackled my second major boss, and was grateful I remembered the trick to fighting him. I'm now in Herc's world, but I quickly realized I had the wrong keyblade for the task at hand, so I backed out.
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    Totally spaced that one. I think it also has something like the Mushroom XIII and even a new style mode. Should be interesting.
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    It will be interesting to tackle BbS' Final Mix since I don't remember much about all of the new content added to it besides the extra optional boss fights against Xehanort and Eraqus' armored forms.
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    True, since KHII is more action packed, the maps don't need to be too involving, it just feels weird and a bit more barren since KH1 had platforming segments, and CoM places heavy emphasis on map construction for the core game, so coming into KHII, it feels a bit barren. My one gripe is really that some worlds are not created equally. Olympus Coliseum/Underworld is surprisingly huge, I guess as payback for being the smallest world in the first game, whereas Mulan's world kind of feels tiny and only seems longer than normal because it's bit heavy on backtracking and reusing areas over and over with the mission gimmick.

    I just finished Hercules world, and I'm heading Disney Castle to hit up my favorite world in the series. Despite my gripes, KHII does still have my overall favorite world selection in the series. Definitely the nostalgic "childhood" entry for me since I grew up with every film in this one.

    I've already reached the level limit for Valor form for the moment until I unlock the other drive forms, and acquired Chicken Little summon who I still feel was an odd choice for a summon in this game. He's still at base level, but I'll likely level summons better once the Underworld tournaments begin since that's the only place they're useful. I have discovered my first optional Org. XIII fight, and may backtrack to test it out, though considering it's Zexion, I'm not sure if I really want to deal with it. There is also another Mushroom XIII member here. These guys are pretty amusing minigames in themselves. The one in Mulan's world makes you play tag, but the longer you play the more clones he summons to get you. I'm waiting for Wisdom Form to unlock to get the Journal requirement completed. Overall, the extra content in this entry has actually been kind of nice.
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    Flowmotion's problem is that it ultimately undermined all of the standard movement abilities, and it was also often better for crowd control than actual abilities.

    What's interesting to me is comparing how some of these KHII worlds feel between entries. Like 358/2 manages to bring back a lot of platforming antics by slightly changing around established maps, but also by nerfing Roxas' movement abilities. It was interesting trying to get around Twilight Town in the prologue and realizing that despite lacking all of the standard movement abilities, Roxas had a pretty easy time reaching places that I'm still having trouble doing so in the handheld entry. Roxas' jump distance is much better in KHII for example.

    I am being reminded how boring the world design is in this title, especially for the starting worlds. I think Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden and Twilight Town are like the only worlds that really escape the issue since they're both huge, and the player spends the most time in those locations. The other world's are just kind of short and have to bring in gimmicks to add longevity to hide the pretty basic design. You can tell the game was designed more with the combat system in mind as the core. It will be interesting to see how BbS holds up because it had a similar issue, but at least it had the excuse of being on a smaller system.
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    Yeah, with the heart issue, I feel the easiest way to rectify it is to simply realize that KH's universe works on Plato's Theory of Forms, with Form/Idea being replaced by Heart. Though I would still argue it's a poor explanation overall.

    I just finished the first two Disney Worlds of Mulan and Beauty and the Beast. I completely forgot how every world has some weird mini-game gimmick going for it to cover the fact the platforming and exploration have been gutted from this entry. The funniest one is the one where you light the lanterns at Beat's Castle and you have to go back and forth between lighting the lanterns and restoring Cogsworth's stamina, yet here's Donal and Goofy just standing around killing time and never helping.

    I forgot how easy Proud mode is in this title compared to KH1's. I think the only fight I've died in was with Roxas dealing with the Twilight Thorn, and that was mainly because he summoned some Nobodies and then proceeded to turn the arena into a light and magic show so I kept taking unnecessary from the Nobodies because they blend in so well with everything else going on in the screen. After that, I've just been kicking ass and taking names. Still adore the Gummi Ship sequences in this title though.

    So far, the only really new element I've encountered is the Puzzle Piece mini-game, which I feel exists solely to justify all the of movement abilities and upgrades in this game. Have't finished a puzzle yet, and there are a few I've seen where I already know I won't be able to reach them without either Glide or a maxed out High Jump. I've also apparently unlocked Mushroom XIII as well, but have yet to check it out as I had gotten stuck in the plot doing a "But Thou Must" situation that has kept me from revisiting that world.
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About Fynn

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Date of Birth
June 22, 1990 (33)
About Fynn
Real Name:
Patryk
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dude
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Writer
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View Fynn's Blog

Recent Entries

Part of your world

by Fynn on 06-06-2017 at 04:37 PM
So there's this nagging issue I've had for quite some time now. It's a pretty abstract issue but one I think is pretty interesting and perhaps even important to share nonetheless. For many reasons, it has only become more pronounced recently.

As some of you may know, I want to be a writer. I try to do as much writing as I can. I even do writing for a living, though as an SEO copywriter, it's not exactly that I have an opportunity to spread my creative wings as part of what keeps giving

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On FFVII (part of my Fmarathon rant)

by Fynn on 11-23-2016 at 11:16 AM
Decided this is worthy of being a blog-post, since it turned out to be a much bigger rant than I expected and I'm not sure the marathon's audience is really there for that kind of stuff

Quote Originally Posted by Fynn View Post
Welp, got all the way to the Shinra building. I was thinking of barging in for once, but it just feels so stupid. I just had to take the stairs again. What sane person would just charge in, guns blazing, when there's a clearly safer, less-disruptive option?

So far, I can say that

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Frustrations of the writerly sort

by Fynn on 07-01-2016 at 11:13 AM
So there's this thing I've been struggling for quite some time. I don't want to call it a "writer's block" because it kind of seems like an excuse for being lazy. And it usually doesn't last long. This is something that's been eating at me for a long time.

I just kinda feel that I can't write anymore.

I mean, I still write articles for the site sometimes and I write other texts at my work, but it seems like, creatively, I've dried up. I'll come up with ideas

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On story expectations

by Fynn on 03-30-2016 at 11:57 AM
So this is kind of a general discussion, but the general rant I have is based on three popular 3DS RPGs: Bravely Default, Fire Emblem: Awakening, and Shin Megami Tensei IV. Sorry if this is chaotic, as I'm just writing this as it comes into my mind. Also, spoilers from the three games abound.

All of those games were very well received, though for different reasons. SMT is kind of here to serve as a neutral ground, as the evaluation of its story is pretty divided, whereas the consensus

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Character Appreciation: Junpei Iori

by Fynn on 03-30-2016 at 10:37 AM
This is in no way an idea I stole from Pumpkin, no siree.


Junpei Iori is a character from the Persona franchise. He first appears in Persona 3 and all of its subsequent releases as a playable party member. He becomes a social link character as well in the female path of Persona 3 Portable, though he isn't date-able. He is also playable in

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