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[Jimnymebob]

Weird. I'd say that all of the other portable games (except for the original Chain of Memories) have better gameplay than 358/2 Days.

It's odd; I agree with you there, but I think BBS and DDD would have worked just as well as a console title. Days, for me, is a perfect pick up and play title- it had the panel system, which the later games expanded on, the combo system with different attack chains, instead of just tapping one button to attack, the mission mode/multiplayer with all the different characters who played pretty different from each other for the most part, and the mission a day story structure.

It recycled a lot of stuff, but it was the perfect Kingdom Hearts handheld game for me.

 

[Seda]

If you play Kingdom Hearts for the story instead of for the crazy-fun gameplay you are making a big mistake, IMO.

I enjoy the story because I enjoy watching it get more and more absurd. The fact that the story is ridiculous is what's appealing about it. I don't remotely think it's a "good" story anymore, though, but that's fine with me.

Also it totally does not 'follow its own logic.'

This is basically how I feel. I found the first game to be simple and felt very 'Disney', with the only real twist being that

Spoiler

The guy researching the heartless fell to the temptation of 'darkness' (before THAT plotpoint got out of hand in later installments)

which was a typical twist. But then things have gotten stupid, especially with Dream Drop Distance. I still try to understand what the plot explanations are for certain things and what is actually happening - I'm not going to ignore it outright because it is stupid - but the storyline is definitely not a positive in my mind.

 

[Data West]

Kingdom Hearts 1 is my favorite because, for the most part, it felt like a Disney story. You are a young boy trying to save your friends while making new ones along the way. There's some weird characters but most are fairly shallow or ones you're already familiar with due to knowing the movies. It's Disney fanservice central, and I loved that.

After that though, Chain of Memories is the only one I never played, it went from feeling like a Disney move to an anime series. An anime series that you joined in at season 3 episode 24.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Kingdom Hearts 1 is my favorite because, for the most part, it felt like a Disney story. You are a young boy trying to save your friends while making new ones along the way. There's some weird characters but most are fairly shallow or ones you're already familiar with due to knowing the movies. It's Disney fanservice central, and I loved that.

After that though, Chain of Memories is the only one I never played, it went from feeling like a Disney move to an anime series. An anime series that you joined in at season 3 episode 24.

Chain of Memories is dissapointing on the Disney aspect because it is a total rehash of KH1 and it doesn't do that very well. But I still think while CoM is the first game where it started to get pretty animu the original non Disney stuff is quite intriquing and has some great elements to it. I like it way more than Days for example and CoM is definately my favourite of the ''lesser titles''.

Reminds me how Jiminy just dissapeared after CoM. He did have a decent role in KH1+CoM but KH2 he just vanished after the few lines in the beginning. They even joked about that in the game.

 

[Zonic]

Yeah, KH1 was simply "HEY, your friend's gone! Go travel with Donald, Goofy, and meet some Final Fantasy cameos along the way while ya travel to different Disney worlds finding her!". Simple, but it worked. CoM, to what I remember, was "HEY, this organization is trying to stop you! Travel through different worlds and fight them!". Then KH2 got WEIRD and I stopped playing the series because the story was getting out of hand, plus I wanted another console entry in the series.

 

[Luigi87]

Hm, since people are saying it requires three playthroughs to complete, I take it that means beating it on Proud, doesn't unlock the trophies for completing on the other two difficulties then?

 

[Zonic]

Hm, since people are saying it requires three playthroughs to complete, I take it that means beating it on Proud, doesn't unlock the trophies for completing on the other two difficulties then?

Difficulty trophies don't stack. Rather annoyed when games do that.

 

[MrSaturn99]

The original KH has COM beat on the Disney front in terms of level design and whatnot, but I have a strange preference for COM in that the Disney worlds are actually well-written and even touching at points (the ending of Neverland and 100 Acre Wood, in particular). Meanwhile, KH just has really awkward cutscenes and the lines try to sound deep but end up being super cheesy.

This isn't to say COM is a literal masterpiece or something, but I've always found the difference in script quality between the two to be equivalent to night and day.

 

[Rhiwion]

Hm, since people are saying it requires three playthroughs to complete, I take it that means beating it on Proud, doesn't unlock the trophies for completing on the other two difficulties then?

Yup. Otherwise it could be probably done in two. One 100% playthrough on Proud and the Speedster/No Gear trophy on Beginner.

Spoiler

KH has an interesting story. Period. :<

 

[SirMossyBloke]

100 acre woods. My favourite world in KH. Can't wait to go back there in HD.

 

[hamchan]

I got really invested into the KH story when I was younger even though I had to read a bunch of forum posts explaining to me what the heck was going on.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

100 acre woods. My favourite world in KH. Can't wait to go back there in HD.

Ranking time!

Agrabah>HWTown>Olympus>Monstro>DeepJungle>100Awoods>Neverland>Atlantica>Wonderland for Disney worlds.

Tho I never liked AIW as a movie either.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

Neverland>HWTown>Olympus>Deep Jungle>Agrabah>100 Acre Woods>Wonderland>Monstro>Atlantica

Think KH3 will have a Tim Burton's Wonderland world?

Spoiler

No god, please no.

 

[badcrumble]

Ranking time!

Agrabah>HWTown>Olympus>Monstro>DeepJungle>100Awoods>Neverland>Atlantica>Wonderland for Disney worlds.

Tho I never liked AIW as a movie either.

1. Agrabah - it's fantastic, dungeon-y, full of puzzles, and getting new movement abilities is *seriously* rewarding here, especially with the way that High Jump transforms the way you fight Large Bodies
2. Neverland - flying!!!
3. Olympus - the tournaments are still the best in the series.
4. Halloween Town - mainly because I appreciate the aesthetic.
5. 100 Acre Wood - nostalgia and none of the minigames here are *too* awful.
6. Deep Jungle - this is one world where it's really easy to get lost early in the game because you have to keep running back and forth a *lot*.
7. Monstro - a bit too much of a maze.
8. Wonderland - a bit too much of a maze.
9. Atlantica - this has the Deep Jungle problem of making it hard to tell where you have to go next, plus the addition of really poor swimming controls.

 

[Luigi87]

Difficulty trophies don't stack. Rather annoyed when games do that.

Yup. Otherwise it could be probably done in two. One 100% playthrough on Proud and the Speedster/No Gear trophy on Beginner.

Ah thanks.
Yeah, I hate when difficulty trophies don't stack. Killer is Dead was the same, but at least that game can be gotten through in two hours speed running.

KH... definitely not.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Halloween Town>Wonderland>Olympus>Deep Jungle>Agrabah>Monstro>Neverland>100 Acre Wood>Atlantica

Wonderland suffered a bit for being too overused, same with Agrabah, but I thought the music and level design was better in Wonderland. I never liked the city section of Agrabah though, it was literally just a corridor with a few alleys, so to speak.

 

[WeaponKnight]

KH... definitely not.

It's not as bad as it was before, tough, now that you can skip scenes freely.
And by skipping two of the worlds you can get some extra scenes later to boot.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

I am sad at Wonderland being so far down on people's list. First time I actually felt I was in a "world" in that game, regardless of the obvious walls and cut-offs.

 

[badcrumble]

Wonderland suffered a bit for being too overused, same with Agrabah, but I thought the music and level design was better in Wonderland. I never liked the city section of Agrabah though, it was literally just a corridor with a few alleys, so to speak.

Eh, I love the vertical parts of Agrabah, though - it's got lots of platforming and it's one of the areas that rewards you most for having additional movement abilities.

 

[redtails64]

Halloween Town is my least favorite world. It seemed so out of place with all the other bright, colorful worlds.

 

[SoraanTribal]

Fucking FF14:ARR, I won't get to play this anytime soon but I'll be buying it anyway come Tuesday.

This is going to be my biggest obstacle,lol. I'm totally hooked on ARR, but... I might have to take a break from it to play some KH!

----------

So even though I have replayed KH countless times, I still don't really know which weapon to choose at the beginning. Why is staff so good? Do I learn certain abilities sooner with the shield?

 

[Bladenic]

I'm weird but I love Atlantica. Plus Ariel is an awesome party member.

 

[brandnew]

This is basically how I feel. I found the first game to be simple and felt very 'Disney', with the only real twist being that

Spoiler

The guy researching the heartless fell to the temptation of 'darkness' (before THAT plotpoint got out of hand in later installments)

which was a typical twist. But then things have gotten stupid, especially with Dream Drop Distance. I still try to understand what the plot explanations are for certain things and what is actually happening - I'm not going to ignore it outright because it is stupid - but the storyline is definitely not a positive in my mind.

This is how I feel. I liked the story up until 358/2 Days and it got so terribly incomprehensible and, when I could understand what was happening, just plain dumb. I have only played every game once, usually right when they launched, so that didn't help with my understanding of the story either. Hopefully, these HD remakes will help clarify things and I may be able to appreciate the games more.

 

[badcrumble]

This is going to be my biggest obstacle,lol. I'm totally hooked on ARR, but... I might have to take a break from it to play some KH!

----------

So even though I have replayed KH countless times, I still don't really know which weapon to choose at the beginning. Why is staff so good? Do I learn certain abilities sooner with the shield?

This has been discussed several times in the thread - on the previous page, and around post 100, most notably.

 

[Seda]

So even though I have replayed KH countless times, I still don't really know which weapon to choose at the beginning. Why is staff so good? Do I learn certain abilities sooner with the shield?

Honestly, I don't even care about order of abilities. More MP alone makes staff the only choice!

 

[PshycoNinja]

I LOVE the Kingdom Hearts story and lore. It's story is only incomprehensible if you skip a game. Which isn't Nomura's or SE's fault. It's like watching LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring and then skipping the second movie for the third. Of course you're not going to know what's going on! You skipped important story and lore.

I remember my friends booting up KH2 and not understanding what was going on because they didn't play COM. It's like skipping a book in a series (ala Harry Potter). I have never had trouble following the story personally.

I always wanted less Disney and more original KH story and I got that with titles after KH1. Which is why BBS and 2 are my favorite KH stories. The world follows its own set of rules and lore pretty closely.

 

[rataven]

Just realized this is getting a hardcover strategy guide. And it looks like it's written by a different author than the original. I don't really need it, but the cover is so pretty and it looks like they put some effort into revising it. Think I might pick it up.

 

[darkjedi187]

Just realized this is getting a hardcover strategy guide. And it looks like it's written by a different author than the original. I don't really need it, but the cover is so pretty and it looks like they put some effort into revising it. Think I might pick it up.

I dug out my original copy I had saved with a couple others. (FFvii-XII,rogue galaxy and okami). Don't think I'll need it at this point but still cool to flip through it.

 

[badcrumble]

Honestly, I don't even care about order of abilities. More MP alone makes staff the only choice!

Yeah, this - MP is probably the best stat in the game, considering that it's not only a resource, but also your max MP is your magic power stat and affects the strength of all spells and some other moves. Increasing MP is doubly useful.

 

[TheChits]

Halloween Town is my least favorite world. It seemed so out of place with all the other bright, colorful worlds.

It had the best heartless designs though

 

[Prologue]

Kingdom Hearts 1 is my favorite because, for the most part, it felt like a Disney story. You are a young boy trying to save your friends while making new ones along the way. There's some weird characters but most are fairly shallow or ones you're already familiar with due to knowing the movies. It's Disney fanservice central, and I loved that.

After that though, Chain of Memories is the only one I never played, it went from feeling like a Disney move to an anime series. An anime series that you joined in at season 3 episode 24.

I still say that Disney/Square should have made only 3 console kingdom hearts games, each with the same tone, themes and simplicity as kingdom hearts 1.

Kingdom Heats 1 was one of the many highlights I've had as a gamer.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Top 3 best and worst Final Mix 1 recolours:

Best:

Worst:

 

[Alo81]

Top 3 best and worst Final Mix 1 recolours:

Best:

Worst:

That second worst one is straight goofy.

What's going on with the remix colors? Are enemies just recolored in Final Mix?

 

[WonkyPanda]

You should play the game. They did a really shitty job with the ''movie'' because they left out all the boss fights. The emotional impact of the ''end'' is totally ruined because of this.

This is actually kind of disappointing to me. 358/2 seems like it has a rather interesting story (Xion love aside), and I was hoping the movie would capture that.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

.... Candy Armor? Looking at this is giving me a migraine.

 

[Ultimadrago]

Honestly, I don't even care about order of abilities. More MP alone makes staff the only choice!

I honestly wasn't aware of the differences until reading this thread. As someone who chose Sword originally way back when, I'm certainly going Staff this time around thanks to this (personally) new-found information.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

That second worst one is straight goofy.

What's going on with the remix colors? Are enemies just recolored in Final Mix?

Most enemies are recoloured in Final Mix versions.

 

[Step]

Time to rev the old times with these assholes, they always made me fall to the lower levels on Monstro, God, I hate them.

 

[MrSaturn99]

I dunno, I actually kinda like the new Guard Armor.

That Garygoyle is just nasty, though. Doesn't gel with Halloween Town's style at all.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

I dunno, I actually kinda like the new Guard Armor.

That Garygoyle is just nasty, though. Doesn't gel with Halloween Town's style at all.

Luckily the Wright Knight balances it a little. I really like the more dirty looking bandages.

I can't stand the Guard Armor. Luckily KH2FM and BBSFM don't really have any too offensive recolours.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

I honestly wasn't aware of the differences until reading this thread. As someone who chose Sword originally way back when, I'm certainly going Staff this time around thanks to this (personally) new-found information.

Day, afternoon, night?

What's that??

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

Time to rev the old times with this assholes, they always made me fall to the lower levels on Monstro, God, I hate them.

God, yes. That combined with the maze-like structure of the level was such an evil design choice.

I'm actually not sure if there's anything about that level I like; maybe the beginning area before you go spelunking through the intestinal tract.

 

[sqwarlock]

Amazon hasn't shipped my pre-order yet, but that's ok because last night my PS3 decided to stop reading discs.

I'm not cancelling my order, but I'm unemployed and re-playing this will have to wait until I can afford a new PS3.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Day, afternoon, night?

What's that??

At the tutorial section of the game you answer 3 questions. Depending on the answers your ''adventure starts at dawn/midday/night''

What this means is that your leveling is either sped up in the beginning, evenly balanced or sped up in the end. The total exp needed for lvl 100 is lowest in the night but it makes the first half of the game hardest.

 

[jrcbandit]

.... Candy Armor? Looking at this is giving me a migraine.

It's obviously a tribute to Gundam coloring.
http://www.absoluteanime.com/gundam/rx-78-2.htm

 

[SirMossyBloke]

At the tutorial section of the game you answer 3 questions. Depending on the answers your ''adventure starts at dawn/midday/night''

What this means is that your leveling is either sped up in the beginning, evenly balanced or sped up in the end. The total exp needed for lvl 100 is lowest in the night but it makes the first half of the game hardest.

Oh shit yeah, I kinda remember that. It's been a very long time since I originally played it.

I guess afternoon is the safe choice.

Going staff this time around though. Always went sword.

 

[Shadow Ranger]

In a way, I'm surprised Disney are still letting this story take place given how strict and particular they normally are. But I guess most Disney worlds for the majority of the game are really just disconnected from the overarching story at hand. I dunno, this is just my reasoning with it.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

I remember having to replay through the game the first time I played it after getting hopelessly stuck at the

Spoiler

Rikku 2 fight at Hollow Bastion.

And it was because of the slow early game leveling from starting my adventure at "night."

It's obviously a tribute to Gundam coloring.
http://www.absoluteanime.com/gundam/rx-78-2.htm

I think what's bothering me about the Guard Armor is the yellow waist and midsection.

 

[Step]

Since it looks like staff is the way to go now, I wonder what should I discard.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

Since it looks like staff is the way to go now, I wonder what should I discard.

Discarding the sword gives you more even stats, I believe. While discarding the shield will give you high strength but low defense.