Really? Well she didn't speak much in the movie anyway....why didn't they get crisis core Aerith back? She was really really good.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX |OT| Press to pay respects
- Thread starter Napalm_Frank
- Start date
Really? Well she didn't speak much in the movie anyway....why didn't they get crisis core Aerith back? She was really really good.
God damn it. I just came to a horrible realization. I've been playing PS4 almost exclusively, so I hadn't thought about it in a while but...
1) my OG Phat PS3 has a busted HDMI port (I forgot to take the PS3 off the wall and a lightning struck, like, right above my parents' place when I was visiting and had my PS3 with me, which destroyed the HDMI port)
2) there's something wrong with my my super-cheap 250GB PS3 Slim's (got it for 120€ or something) blu-ray drive. I think the lens might just be dirty, so I'll have to try to open it up and clean it. I does read a blu-ray occasionally, but only something like once out of every 30-40+ tries. So I know the whole thing isn't broken.
So.. basically, I have no way of playing KH2.5 HD (in HD) right now. :S
1) my OG Phat PS3 has a busted HDMI port (I forgot to take the PS3 off the wall and a lightning struck, like, right above my parents' place when I was visiting and had my PS3 with me, which destroyed the HDMI port)
2) there's something wrong with my my super-cheap 250GB PS3 Slim's (got it for 120€ or something) blu-ray drive. I think the lens might just be dirty, so I'll have to try to open it up and clean it. I does read a blu-ray occasionally, but only something like once out of every 30-40+ tries. So I know the whole thing isn't broken.
So.. basically, I have no way of playing KH2.5 HD (in HD) right now. :S
The Broken Ska Record
Member
I bet if they bring Aerith back in subsequent KH/FF games/movies, she will be voiced by Andrea Bowen.
That said, it seems like Andrea Bowen was in Advent Children as a random voice. Ha ha.
You should speculate and then post your speculation as fact like you always do.
Part 1- Essentials
Part 2- Item Synthesis
Part 4- Data Organization members #7-#4
Part 5- Data Organization members #3-#1
Part 6- Duel with the Lingering Will
Part 3: Sephiroth and Data Organization Members #13-#8
So we're at the real substance of the guide. this covers Sephiroth and Organization members 13 to 8. Feel free to correct me or offer contributions.
Sephiroth: Before I get to the new bosses, I feel obligated to detail the strategy against Sephiroth. For veterans of the first game, it's worth noting that he's much easier than he was in that game (and still easier than his Final Mix HD version). That doesn't mean he can't screw you if you're not prepared. I recommend that you not use Finishing plus for this fight for reasons detailed a little later. This is admittedly the one I have the haziest memory on, so don't hesitate to correct me on any errors.
The first phase of the battle is fairly simple. Sephiroth opens the fight with a reaction command. Be prepared for it and mash the triangle button until Sora successfully blocks it. The rest of this phase isn't too bad. Sephiroth likes to teleport and take potshots at you. Seph tends to come to you, so it pays to keep a little distance between you and him and wait for him to start coming at you. Block/reflect his attacks and punish them in turn with a combo. As soon as you're finished with your combo Sephiroth will use Teleport Slash. Roll to your side until he stops or you can manage to counterattack (you might not be able to do the latter). This is the main reason I suggested not to have finishing plus, as if you take too long Seph will interrupt your combo with Teleport Slash. If you get caught up in his Telepory Slash, you can use Sora's aerial recovery a bit after he hits you to avoid the next attack and potentially counter him, or just drop down to the ground.
Once his HP is down to about 2/3rds, Sephiroth stops messing around. The two new attacks to watch for are Shadow Flare and Heartless Angel. Dissidia players are likely all too familiar with Shadow Flare, which generates a ring of orbs that damage you on contact. Unlike Dissidia, however, Shadow flare surrounds Sora instead of Sephiroth. This can be difficult to avoid, especially if you're close to Sephiroth, and truth be told this was responsible for the vast majority of my deaths. The best thing I can say is to be mindful of when and how they spawn, and dodge/ jump well out of their reach when you can. The other attack is Sephiroth's trademark spell, Heartless Angel, which depletes all your HP and MP (he leaves you at 1 HP if you have Second Chance). As with the original Kingdom Hearts, if you can smack him before the distinctive glowing noise, the attack is canceled. Unfortunately Seph is in midair while doing this, so you need to be mindful of where he is at all times to make sure you can chase him to it in time. If you're too late, you might be able to use Limit form and activate Strike Raid while he's casting the spell. Your MP might still be depleted, but you'll at least be able to recover some HP to last you until you can use a proper cure spell. Alternatively, use an Elixir just after the noise to heal yourself almost as soon as your health is depleted.
The final phase of the fight has Sephiroth using a new version of Meteor, which sends a cavalcade of meteoroids down on Sora. You can either glide around the arena or spam Reflect to repel this attack. In addition to this, Sephiroth will speed up the casting time of Heartless Angel, so you have even less time to stop him. The last thing to worry about is his Blue-glowing Berserk mode, in which Sephiroth is nearly invulnerable and uses his attacks even more quickly. Keep your distance and stay on the defensive.
Sephiroth is fairly middle-of-the-road as far as difficulty goes, it's mostly a matter of learning how to counter his problem attacks (Teleport Slash, Heartless Angel and Shadow Flare).
Number 13
: #13 is probably one of the nastiest bosses in the game. He's got excellent range and speed, and mistakes can cost you dearly as he hammers you relentlessly. #13 starts out the fight with a wide range of attacks, so thankfully he's not full of many more surprises later in.
The first (and easiest) of his attacks is his cyclone slash, where he winds up and lets out a donut of pain. You can wait for him to start slicing, roll through and smack him with a combo without too much trouble. His next major attack is a series of slashes that cumulatively have a very long range, letting him chase you across half the field. Unfortunately for him, he's not fast enough to keep up with Superglide, so you can just travel to the other side of the arena, block/dodge his final dash attack and punish him with a oombo. Watch out for a retaliatory attack! Attack number 3 involves a reaction command of sorts, where you and 13 approach each other with 4 empty commands in you menu. You have to pick the command that fills in with a word. Unfortunately the timing for this is rather strict, so it's pretty much a crapshot as to whether or not you come out intact. I find it helps to have the cursor on the third command down, which makes you 2 flicks away from the top and only one stick flick away from the other two.
If you manage to nail the duel, you get to steal thirteen's weapons and use them against him. Unfortunately 13 isn't too pleased and will gladly laser you into oblivion. Use your roll to dodge his laser pillars and donut slash, then start hammering him. 13 may be able to fire additional lasers during this phase, so watch where they're headed and dodge appropriately.
The next of 13's attacks involve him levitating in the center of the stage as a massive rune appears on the floor and the sky turns bright. Get to the edge of the platform and start gliding around the stage. 13 fires a barrage of orbs at you that deal a ton of damage in succession. You may have to play with your flight paths the entire time, and it could take some experimenting before you get a flight pattern that works well. From what I remember, flying in a roughly triangular trajectory around the arena worked well. Once you get the hang of it, this becomes one of his breather attacks.
Late in the battle 13 will bust out acheating bastard powered up version of strike raid, flying around you and attempting to nail you with his weapons. The best you can do is try to stay on the ground and dodge when you seem him on your case. 13 also starts to use more laser pillars, including during the combo attack I mentioned at the start of this section, so for that one you absolutely must guard against his finishing strike. 13 also employs a pentagonal pillar formation that flies off in 5 directions. This is also one of those ones where you have to predict where it's going and stay clear from the firing trajectory.
13 is probably the second hardest of the replica Datas on a regular playthrough, after Xemnas himself. He loves to combine and mix up his attacks, which can make him tricky to play around as he constantly throws surprises at you.
Larxene: Larxene, as her personality suggests, is...special. Larxene is one of the few organization members whose attacks are reduced in strength by elemental resistance, so if you have good thunder resistance armor, it'd be worthwhile to equip. It's also recommended you wear the Shade Archive+ for this match, as Larxene has incredible damage output, and you'll need all the MP you can get for reflect.
Larxene opens the fight with a very long string of attacks. It can take a couple of tries to get this one down, since you need to do some major gliding and reflect spam to wither her assault. After the initial barrage, Larxene is slightly less brutal. The main gimmick of this fight is that Larxene, either through magic or super speed, is able to create doppelgangers that are capable of injuring you and your party. On top of this, Larxene is lightning-fast, sending out strings of attacks in no time at all. This makes her a very dangerous enemy if you're not prepared.
Larxene's primary mode of attack is splitting into two and spamming knife combos at you. The best defense against this is mostly to reflect, until you can get the magic finisher and make her flinch with the counterattack. You can alternatively block, if you have good timing. Either way, this gives you an opening to hit her with a short combo, alternatively, you may be given a chance to forcibly recombine her with a reaction command, which does some damage and makes her flinch and give you another opportunity to deal more damage.
Other times, Larxene will employ a row of clones in order to sweep the entire field. Hope you won't miss Donald and Goofy, 'cause they're pretty much dead. You can either dodge, block, double jump or reflect in order to counter this. Blocking may be your best bet, as you don't have to worry too much about placement and it doesn't leave you vulnerable like being in midair does. Larxene typically does this many times in succession, so be prepared.
Larxene's Ultimate attack is to head to the center of the field and create a turbine of electricity. This turbine is very fast, so you'll have to glide if you want to avoid it. On top of that, lightning bolts also pummel the field while this is happening. It helps to stay close to the edge of the area to prevent Bolts from hitting you in mid flight.
Lastly, Larxene can drop down on you from the air. Much like the rest of her clone attacks, this can be reflected without too much trouble.
Or, if this is all too hard for you, spam Strike Raid in Limit Form in combination with wearing 4 Shade Archive+. Since both Larxenes have the same HP bar, and they can be struck at the same time, this makes it so that strike raid does incredible damage, all while restoring your HP, and Larxene's attacks are strong and fast enough that your MP never runs out so long as you wait to get hit before using strike Raid again. Scummy, but very, very effective.
Depending on whether or not you choose to cheese it, Larxene is either one of the easiest or hardest Data Matches.
Marluxia: Marluxia has a very bizarre difficulty curve that makes him the hardest or easiest extra boss in the game. This is because of his central gimmick: At the beginning of the battle Marluxia casts a variant of the spell "Doom" on Sora. This creates a counter that goes down every time Sora is hit. However, the value for this counter isn't fixed, it scales with Sora's level. You get exactly one Hit point for each level, letting you have anywhere from 1-99 hit points before you buy the farm. This makes it so that level 1 runs require absolute perfection no matter your stats, while after about the level 60 mark he becomes pathetically easy.
Very few of Marly's attacks do any damage (for this reason Full Bloom+ is preferred). To compensate, Marluxia is quite fast and uses a bevy of dirty tricks to whittle at your Doom counter. Marluxia starts the fight employing strings of scythe attacks to hit you in rapid succession. The first of these combos is relatively easy to dodge. That said, if you want to do decent damage to him, you'll want to block or reflect (not recommended for reasons I'll elaborate on later) his combo. If you can manage to deflect his closing attack, you'll stun him, which gives you the chance to use a reaction command or start a combo on him. Don't use the reaction command until you've lost at least 13 Doom points. The reaction command gives progressively fewer points the more you use it, starting with 13 and lowering by roughly half until you only get 1 point for it. Marluxia's other main attack during this phase is to suck you In with a vortex and unleash a scythe attack. This takes off a lot of points, but is easily dodged and countered so long as you glide away as soon as you notice it. When you do manage to start pummeling Marluxia, keep in mind not to use your second finisher (if it's even equipped) as Marluxia will gladly counterattack and attempt to juggle you in the air. If you do get smacked, counter it like Sephiroth's teleport slash and dodge just before he warps in for another strike.
Marluxia's next phase begins with him going to the center of the arena and creating huge pools of nothingness (which is dark magenta for some reason). These are very dangerous and shouldn't be touched at all. If you need to escape Marluxia for whatever reason you'll need to glide. Donald and Goofy are almost certain to die during this phase. Marluxia will begin to generate a cage of thorns around Sora and friends. This is why I suggested not to use reflect for the initial phase, as you'll need plenty of juice to block this attack. Countering the Thorn cage is tricky, because if you do it too early you'll fall victim to Marly's follow-up combo. Wait until the cloud of Flower petals inside the cage starts to thicken, and then start spamming reflect, if all goes well you should be able to wall Marluxia's combo afterward. You may get unlucky and get pushed into the pools. If you do, run away and heal with an item if you can.
The pools will eventually disperse, and Marluxia will alternate between his scythe and Pool phases until you whittle him down enough. Marluxia eventually begins using a special scythe attack, where he basically becomes a wheel of death that zooms across the floor and deals many, many, hits to you. Pat attention to his trajectory and dodge roll appropriately. It can be hard to do this reliably, but I unfortunately haven't found success gliding. (Though I admittedly haven't tried using reflect on it, which might work better.) Marluxia has another attack where he'll teleport spam while swinging his scythe in a circle. This can be very hard to predict and dodge, as there's not much of a telegraph for it. Use either dodge roll or reflect to neutralize as many strikes as you can. I do believe Marly is also capable of using his rose cage in combination with his attacks from the beginning of the fight, so be prepared to reflect that and keep your distance when need be.
Marluxia's ultimate attack will have Marluxia hover behind you while pillars of nothingness erupt from the floor. After long enough his scythe will chase after you, and then Marluxia will come down from the ceiling to slice you. Glide (you can also dodge roll, but I prefer not having to jump off the floor or use up MP to prevent damage from his scythe) to dodge the floor columns, and continue to either glide or begin to use reflect to counter his scythe and finishing blow.
As far as normal play goes, Marluxia is a bit tricky, but he's not too much to fret about, and his attacks become fairly predictable with practice. For that reason he's the easiest to grind Lost Illusions from by a long shot, and he can reliably be faced the earliest of the Data Replicas.
As for the Level 1 players, I hope you bought some spare controllers.
Luxord: Luxord is one of the most frustrating Data Replicas. Luxord is reasonably easy for most of the fight, up until the very end. Make sure any abilities and gear that extend the length of drive forms are unequipped, you'll regret it otherwise.
Luxord basically has 4 attacks, two of which are action command minigames. For much of the battle Luxord will simply stand in place, beckoning you to start one of his reaction command minigames. Oblige him or refuse at your peril.
The first game is a somewhat simple game where the command menu is turned into a slot machine of sorts, with 3 "X"s and one "O". As you can guess, you need to pick the O. Pick a spot on the command menu (Once again, I prefer the third slot, though some might find more success on the bottom one.) Concentrate on it and make sure to press the attack button either just before or exactly when you see the O on your spot. This can be a bit of a pain if your timing is messy, and it's by far the more likely of the two to mess you up.
The second game is very easy. A stack of cards falls down onto the ground and you have to find the one with Luxord in it. You can either pay close attention to where he is, or cheat and force Sora to face the camera, exposing the cards to you and allowing you to find Luxord with ease. Barring the rather finicky lock-on, this should pose zero problems.
If you fail either of these games, Luxord uses his third attack, in which he turns you into either a die or a card. As you'll notice, this is technically a drive form, and as such is affected by its various modifiers, hence why I said to disable them. You have no choice but to run away by using the attack button to jump around as a die, or just move the stick as a card. You can attack Luxord this way, but I prefer not to, because Luxord will happily pummel both your health and your time gauge.
Luxord's final attack, "Do You Know The Rules" (Or as I call it, Satan's roulette) has Luxord summon a horde of giant cards that he then sends flying around the arena, most of these are easily dodged with some gliding (make sure to jump first if you're at the bottom of the slope!). When Luxord has had enough of flinging things, He'll summon a set of giant cards. This is where the pain comes in. The command roulette returns, but this time you have to select the commands so that you get 4 O's. With each O you get,the faster the Letters switch, which makes it exponentially harder to hit correctly. All I can say for this is to get the O's in the slots you have the most problems in first, and work your way up to your best. Pausing may also help you time the button presses, say if you can pause on a cross command and then immediately press the X button after unpausing to get an O
At the very least, If you fail this minigame, you'll get a least one more chance to get it right and turn the fight in your favor. This single attack is the only reason you'll have much of any trouble with Luxord.
Demyx: Demyx is one of the trickiest organization members, but with preparation can be one of the easiest (though resource inefficient). You'll want to equip everything before you go inside the Garden of Assemblage so that if you have to retry you won't have to re-equip everything when you continue.(I don't remember if your inventory is reset after a loss, so you might want to save after you finish setup and then return to the Garden). Make sure you have Oathkeeper and have your form-boosting abilities equipped, if applicable. Next, Get every single Ether, Elixir and Megalixir you can muster and stick them in everyone's inventory. For once I recommend turning off Donald Cure (as well as any MP-consuming skills), since if you don't your partners are liable to spam all the healing items on Donald, which is no Bueno. Make sure you have Firaga in your shortcuts, and dedicate whatever Shortcuts you can to MP-restoring items. Your choice of Accessory
Demyx starts out with his trademark Water Clone summoning. Start spamming Firaga on top of Demyx to destroy the clones as they emerge. You could theoretically also use reaction commands, but the water clones have colossal defense, so it's usually counterproductive. Once those are all destroyed, Demyx sends out a much larger second wave. Bust out Wisdom form and start using firaga until they're dead. At this point Your teammates should have their full stock of healing items, so don't fret if you run out. Demyx will sound out a third, even larger wave. Hopefully you'll still be in Wisdom form when this happens. Finish them off (and again, try to stay near Demyx) and after yet another wave, Demyx goes into his normal and far less dangerous attack pattern. You can either resort to regular keyblade attacks, or if you still have plenty of items, keep pummeling him with Firaga. Even if there's no risk of instant death, Demyx is still a nuisance. His dash attack is likely to catch you off guard, so it may be worthwhile to keep your distance until after he finishes an attack. At the end of his dash attack Demyx also tends to send a wave of water out to stop you from closing in. Wait it out and pounce him. Demyx's bubble attack is also a major nuisance. You can either glide away from it or use reflect (if you have it on your shortcuts) try to back him into corners if you can, that way if he starts a water clone wave they'll be forced to concentrate in a smaller area. That'll be extremely useful for the final section.
When Demyx is nearly cooked, he'll engage multiple waves of Water clones. Hopefully you have enough drive gauge left, as this is nearly impossible without going into Wisdom form. In the third or fourth wave, demyx will send out 99 water clones that have to be destroyed within 30 seconds. If all went well you'll have enough elixirs/Megalixirs conserved that you can flush them with firaga without delay. Provided you're vigilant with killing stragglers and you were able to back him into a corner, you should be able to rise to the occasion. If you manage to survive that, Demyx is practically finished.
Axel: Axel is a deceptively difficult boss, for reasons I'll go into in the body of this section. Axel should be one of the organization members who use magic affected by elemental resistance, and for that reason I recommend you equip fire-resistant armor. The standard Cure and reflect should be on your shortcuts. You can also use Blizzaga to good effect if you don't mind the casting time. It's your choice of Shade Archive+ and Full Bloom+. Shade Archive can give you more juice for reflect, while Full Bloom will decrease the cooldown for curaga. It really depends on whether you prefer reflect abuse or getting curaga as often as possible
Being the first boss of Kingdom Hearts 2, you would think Axel would be the easiest of the Replica Data. And you would be right, if not for one detail: The floor is perpetually on fire. This drains your HP for the entire fight. Provided you have second chance, this won't kill you, however it leaves you very vulnerable to Axel's attacks, which come out very quickly, and Axel's erratic movements will screw you if you're caught off-guard. Axel opens the fight by setting the floor ablaze. Stand back and when he's in the wind-down from his attack, use reflect. This should be able to stop him cold and give you an opening. After a combo, Axel frequently jumps into the wall of flames around the arena, roll out of the way of the jet of flame he sends out (you should be able to see where he's going to come out from the wall) and hammer the reaction command button, once Axel's pinned to the ground and the floor cools off, you can sneak in a cure before hammering on Axel. Axel will then resort to his standard chakram combos, most of these can be repelled using reflect. You have to be careful of his flying chakram blitzes, as Axel likes to get behind Sora and launch the Chakrams at his back, which can be a major cause of death if you're unprepared. Axel's ultimate attack works similarly to the rest of his chakram combos, so they can be reflected without too much trouble (I do believe that you can't block them, though).
Axel doesn't have all that many attacks, it's just a matter of learning the few that he has and not faltering (which, is always easier said than done). He's fairly middle of the road as far as difficulty goes because of that.
Part 2- Item Synthesis
Part 4- Data Organization members #7-#4
Part 5- Data Organization members #3-#1
Part 6- Duel with the Lingering Will
Part 3: Sephiroth and Data Organization Members #13-#8
So we're at the real substance of the guide. this covers Sephiroth and Organization members 13 to 8. Feel free to correct me or offer contributions.
Sephiroth: Before I get to the new bosses, I feel obligated to detail the strategy against Sephiroth. For veterans of the first game, it's worth noting that he's much easier than he was in that game (and still easier than his Final Mix HD version). That doesn't mean he can't screw you if you're not prepared. I recommend that you not use Finishing plus for this fight for reasons detailed a little later. This is admittedly the one I have the haziest memory on, so don't hesitate to correct me on any errors.
The first phase of the battle is fairly simple. Sephiroth opens the fight with a reaction command. Be prepared for it and mash the triangle button until Sora successfully blocks it. The rest of this phase isn't too bad. Sephiroth likes to teleport and take potshots at you. Seph tends to come to you, so it pays to keep a little distance between you and him and wait for him to start coming at you. Block/reflect his attacks and punish them in turn with a combo. As soon as you're finished with your combo Sephiroth will use Teleport Slash. Roll to your side until he stops or you can manage to counterattack (you might not be able to do the latter). This is the main reason I suggested not to have finishing plus, as if you take too long Seph will interrupt your combo with Teleport Slash. If you get caught up in his Telepory Slash, you can use Sora's aerial recovery a bit after he hits you to avoid the next attack and potentially counter him, or just drop down to the ground.
Once his HP is down to about 2/3rds, Sephiroth stops messing around. The two new attacks to watch for are Shadow Flare and Heartless Angel. Dissidia players are likely all too familiar with Shadow Flare, which generates a ring of orbs that damage you on contact. Unlike Dissidia, however, Shadow flare surrounds Sora instead of Sephiroth. This can be difficult to avoid, especially if you're close to Sephiroth, and truth be told this was responsible for the vast majority of my deaths. The best thing I can say is to be mindful of when and how they spawn, and dodge/ jump well out of their reach when you can. The other attack is Sephiroth's trademark spell, Heartless Angel, which depletes all your HP and MP (he leaves you at 1 HP if you have Second Chance). As with the original Kingdom Hearts, if you can smack him before the distinctive glowing noise, the attack is canceled. Unfortunately Seph is in midair while doing this, so you need to be mindful of where he is at all times to make sure you can chase him to it in time. If you're too late, you might be able to use Limit form and activate Strike Raid while he's casting the spell. Your MP might still be depleted, but you'll at least be able to recover some HP to last you until you can use a proper cure spell. Alternatively, use an Elixir just after the noise to heal yourself almost as soon as your health is depleted.
The final phase of the fight has Sephiroth using a new version of Meteor, which sends a cavalcade of meteoroids down on Sora. You can either glide around the arena or spam Reflect to repel this attack. In addition to this, Sephiroth will speed up the casting time of Heartless Angel, so you have even less time to stop him. The last thing to worry about is his Blue-glowing Berserk mode, in which Sephiroth is nearly invulnerable and uses his attacks even more quickly. Keep your distance and stay on the defensive.
Sephiroth is fairly middle-of-the-road as far as difficulty goes, it's mostly a matter of learning how to counter his problem attacks (Teleport Slash, Heartless Angel and Shadow Flare).
Number 13
Roxas
The first (and easiest) of his attacks is his cyclone slash, where he winds up and lets out a donut of pain. You can wait for him to start slicing, roll through and smack him with a combo without too much trouble. His next major attack is a series of slashes that cumulatively have a very long range, letting him chase you across half the field. Unfortunately for him, he's not fast enough to keep up with Superglide, so you can just travel to the other side of the arena, block/dodge his final dash attack and punish him with a oombo. Watch out for a retaliatory attack! Attack number 3 involves a reaction command of sorts, where you and 13 approach each other with 4 empty commands in you menu. You have to pick the command that fills in with a word. Unfortunately the timing for this is rather strict, so it's pretty much a crapshot as to whether or not you come out intact. I find it helps to have the cursor on the third command down, which makes you 2 flicks away from the top and only one stick flick away from the other two.
If you manage to nail the duel, you get to steal thirteen's weapons and use them against him. Unfortunately 13 isn't too pleased and will gladly laser you into oblivion. Use your roll to dodge his laser pillars and donut slash, then start hammering him. 13 may be able to fire additional lasers during this phase, so watch where they're headed and dodge appropriately.
The next of 13's attacks involve him levitating in the center of the stage as a massive rune appears on the floor and the sky turns bright. Get to the edge of the platform and start gliding around the stage. 13 fires a barrage of orbs at you that deal a ton of damage in succession. You may have to play with your flight paths the entire time, and it could take some experimenting before you get a flight pattern that works well. From what I remember, flying in a roughly triangular trajectory around the arena worked well. Once you get the hang of it, this becomes one of his breather attacks.
Late in the battle 13 will bust out a
13 is probably the second hardest of the replica Datas on a regular playthrough, after Xemnas himself. He loves to combine and mix up his attacks, which can make him tricky to play around as he constantly throws surprises at you.
Larxene: Larxene, as her personality suggests, is...special. Larxene is one of the few organization members whose attacks are reduced in strength by elemental resistance, so if you have good thunder resistance armor, it'd be worthwhile to equip. It's also recommended you wear the Shade Archive+ for this match, as Larxene has incredible damage output, and you'll need all the MP you can get for reflect.
Larxene opens the fight with a very long string of attacks. It can take a couple of tries to get this one down, since you need to do some major gliding and reflect spam to wither her assault. After the initial barrage, Larxene is slightly less brutal. The main gimmick of this fight is that Larxene, either through magic or super speed, is able to create doppelgangers that are capable of injuring you and your party. On top of this, Larxene is lightning-fast, sending out strings of attacks in no time at all. This makes her a very dangerous enemy if you're not prepared.
Larxene's primary mode of attack is splitting into two and spamming knife combos at you. The best defense against this is mostly to reflect, until you can get the magic finisher and make her flinch with the counterattack. You can alternatively block, if you have good timing. Either way, this gives you an opening to hit her with a short combo, alternatively, you may be given a chance to forcibly recombine her with a reaction command, which does some damage and makes her flinch and give you another opportunity to deal more damage.
Other times, Larxene will employ a row of clones in order to sweep the entire field. Hope you won't miss Donald and Goofy, 'cause they're pretty much dead. You can either dodge, block, double jump or reflect in order to counter this. Blocking may be your best bet, as you don't have to worry too much about placement and it doesn't leave you vulnerable like being in midair does. Larxene typically does this many times in succession, so be prepared.
Larxene's Ultimate attack is to head to the center of the field and create a turbine of electricity. This turbine is very fast, so you'll have to glide if you want to avoid it. On top of that, lightning bolts also pummel the field while this is happening. It helps to stay close to the edge of the area to prevent Bolts from hitting you in mid flight.
Lastly, Larxene can drop down on you from the air. Much like the rest of her clone attacks, this can be reflected without too much trouble.
Or, if this is all too hard for you, spam Strike Raid in Limit Form in combination with wearing 4 Shade Archive+. Since both Larxenes have the same HP bar, and they can be struck at the same time, this makes it so that strike raid does incredible damage, all while restoring your HP, and Larxene's attacks are strong and fast enough that your MP never runs out so long as you wait to get hit before using strike Raid again. Scummy, but very, very effective.
Depending on whether or not you choose to cheese it, Larxene is either one of the easiest or hardest Data Matches.
Marluxia: Marluxia has a very bizarre difficulty curve that makes him the hardest or easiest extra boss in the game. This is because of his central gimmick: At the beginning of the battle Marluxia casts a variant of the spell "Doom" on Sora. This creates a counter that goes down every time Sora is hit. However, the value for this counter isn't fixed, it scales with Sora's level. You get exactly one Hit point for each level, letting you have anywhere from 1-99 hit points before you buy the farm. This makes it so that level 1 runs require absolute perfection no matter your stats, while after about the level 60 mark he becomes pathetically easy.
Very few of Marly's attacks do any damage (for this reason Full Bloom+ is preferred). To compensate, Marluxia is quite fast and uses a bevy of dirty tricks to whittle at your Doom counter. Marluxia starts the fight employing strings of scythe attacks to hit you in rapid succession. The first of these combos is relatively easy to dodge. That said, if you want to do decent damage to him, you'll want to block or reflect (not recommended for reasons I'll elaborate on later) his combo. If you can manage to deflect his closing attack, you'll stun him, which gives you the chance to use a reaction command or start a combo on him. Don't use the reaction command until you've lost at least 13 Doom points. The reaction command gives progressively fewer points the more you use it, starting with 13 and lowering by roughly half until you only get 1 point for it. Marluxia's other main attack during this phase is to suck you In with a vortex and unleash a scythe attack. This takes off a lot of points, but is easily dodged and countered so long as you glide away as soon as you notice it. When you do manage to start pummeling Marluxia, keep in mind not to use your second finisher (if it's even equipped) as Marluxia will gladly counterattack and attempt to juggle you in the air. If you do get smacked, counter it like Sephiroth's teleport slash and dodge just before he warps in for another strike.
Marluxia's next phase begins with him going to the center of the arena and creating huge pools of nothingness (which is dark magenta for some reason). These are very dangerous and shouldn't be touched at all. If you need to escape Marluxia for whatever reason you'll need to glide. Donald and Goofy are almost certain to die during this phase. Marluxia will begin to generate a cage of thorns around Sora and friends. This is why I suggested not to use reflect for the initial phase, as you'll need plenty of juice to block this attack. Countering the Thorn cage is tricky, because if you do it too early you'll fall victim to Marly's follow-up combo. Wait until the cloud of Flower petals inside the cage starts to thicken, and then start spamming reflect, if all goes well you should be able to wall Marluxia's combo afterward. You may get unlucky and get pushed into the pools. If you do, run away and heal with an item if you can.
The pools will eventually disperse, and Marluxia will alternate between his scythe and Pool phases until you whittle him down enough. Marluxia eventually begins using a special scythe attack, where he basically becomes a wheel of death that zooms across the floor and deals many, many, hits to you. Pat attention to his trajectory and dodge roll appropriately. It can be hard to do this reliably, but I unfortunately haven't found success gliding. (Though I admittedly haven't tried using reflect on it, which might work better.) Marluxia has another attack where he'll teleport spam while swinging his scythe in a circle. This can be very hard to predict and dodge, as there's not much of a telegraph for it. Use either dodge roll or reflect to neutralize as many strikes as you can. I do believe Marly is also capable of using his rose cage in combination with his attacks from the beginning of the fight, so be prepared to reflect that and keep your distance when need be.
Marluxia's ultimate attack will have Marluxia hover behind you while pillars of nothingness erupt from the floor. After long enough his scythe will chase after you, and then Marluxia will come down from the ceiling to slice you. Glide (you can also dodge roll, but I prefer not having to jump off the floor or use up MP to prevent damage from his scythe) to dodge the floor columns, and continue to either glide or begin to use reflect to counter his scythe and finishing blow.
As far as normal play goes, Marluxia is a bit tricky, but he's not too much to fret about, and his attacks become fairly predictable with practice. For that reason he's the easiest to grind Lost Illusions from by a long shot, and he can reliably be faced the earliest of the Data Replicas.
As for the Level 1 players, I hope you bought some spare controllers.
Luxord: Luxord is one of the most frustrating Data Replicas. Luxord is reasonably easy for most of the fight, up until the very end. Make sure any abilities and gear that extend the length of drive forms are unequipped, you'll regret it otherwise.
Luxord basically has 4 attacks, two of which are action command minigames. For much of the battle Luxord will simply stand in place, beckoning you to start one of his reaction command minigames. Oblige him or refuse at your peril.
The first game is a somewhat simple game where the command menu is turned into a slot machine of sorts, with 3 "X"s and one "O". As you can guess, you need to pick the O. Pick a spot on the command menu (Once again, I prefer the third slot, though some might find more success on the bottom one.) Concentrate on it and make sure to press the attack button either just before or exactly when you see the O on your spot. This can be a bit of a pain if your timing is messy, and it's by far the more likely of the two to mess you up.
The second game is very easy. A stack of cards falls down onto the ground and you have to find the one with Luxord in it. You can either pay close attention to where he is, or cheat and force Sora to face the camera, exposing the cards to you and allowing you to find Luxord with ease. Barring the rather finicky lock-on, this should pose zero problems.
If you fail either of these games, Luxord uses his third attack, in which he turns you into either a die or a card. As you'll notice, this is technically a drive form, and as such is affected by its various modifiers, hence why I said to disable them. You have no choice but to run away by using the attack button to jump around as a die, or just move the stick as a card. You can attack Luxord this way, but I prefer not to, because Luxord will happily pummel both your health and your time gauge.
Luxord's final attack, "Do You Know The Rules" (Or as I call it, Satan's roulette) has Luxord summon a horde of giant cards that he then sends flying around the arena, most of these are easily dodged with some gliding (make sure to jump first if you're at the bottom of the slope!). When Luxord has had enough of flinging things, He'll summon a set of giant cards. This is where the pain comes in. The command roulette returns, but this time you have to select the commands so that you get 4 O's. With each O you get,the faster the Letters switch, which makes it exponentially harder to hit correctly. All I can say for this is to get the O's in the slots you have the most problems in first, and work your way up to your best. Pausing may also help you time the button presses, say if you can pause on a cross command and then immediately press the X button after unpausing to get an O
At the very least, If you fail this minigame, you'll get a least one more chance to get it right and turn the fight in your favor. This single attack is the only reason you'll have much of any trouble with Luxord.
Demyx: Demyx is one of the trickiest organization members, but with preparation can be one of the easiest (though resource inefficient). You'll want to equip everything before you go inside the Garden of Assemblage so that if you have to retry you won't have to re-equip everything when you continue.(I don't remember if your inventory is reset after a loss, so you might want to save after you finish setup and then return to the Garden). Make sure you have Oathkeeper and have your form-boosting abilities equipped, if applicable. Next, Get every single Ether, Elixir and Megalixir you can muster and stick them in everyone's inventory. For once I recommend turning off Donald Cure (as well as any MP-consuming skills), since if you don't your partners are liable to spam all the healing items on Donald, which is no Bueno. Make sure you have Firaga in your shortcuts, and dedicate whatever Shortcuts you can to MP-restoring items. Your choice of Accessory
Demyx starts out with his trademark Water Clone summoning. Start spamming Firaga on top of Demyx to destroy the clones as they emerge. You could theoretically also use reaction commands, but the water clones have colossal defense, so it's usually counterproductive. Once those are all destroyed, Demyx sends out a much larger second wave. Bust out Wisdom form and start using firaga until they're dead. At this point Your teammates should have their full stock of healing items, so don't fret if you run out. Demyx will sound out a third, even larger wave. Hopefully you'll still be in Wisdom form when this happens. Finish them off (and again, try to stay near Demyx) and after yet another wave, Demyx goes into his normal and far less dangerous attack pattern. You can either resort to regular keyblade attacks, or if you still have plenty of items, keep pummeling him with Firaga. Even if there's no risk of instant death, Demyx is still a nuisance. His dash attack is likely to catch you off guard, so it may be worthwhile to keep your distance until after he finishes an attack. At the end of his dash attack Demyx also tends to send a wave of water out to stop you from closing in. Wait it out and pounce him. Demyx's bubble attack is also a major nuisance. You can either glide away from it or use reflect (if you have it on your shortcuts) try to back him into corners if you can, that way if he starts a water clone wave they'll be forced to concentrate in a smaller area. That'll be extremely useful for the final section.
When Demyx is nearly cooked, he'll engage multiple waves of Water clones. Hopefully you have enough drive gauge left, as this is nearly impossible without going into Wisdom form. In the third or fourth wave, demyx will send out 99 water clones that have to be destroyed within 30 seconds. If all went well you'll have enough elixirs/Megalixirs conserved that you can flush them with firaga without delay. Provided you're vigilant with killing stragglers and you were able to back him into a corner, you should be able to rise to the occasion. If you manage to survive that, Demyx is practically finished.
Axel: Axel is a deceptively difficult boss, for reasons I'll go into in the body of this section. Axel should be one of the organization members who use magic affected by elemental resistance, and for that reason I recommend you equip fire-resistant armor. The standard Cure and reflect should be on your shortcuts. You can also use Blizzaga to good effect if you don't mind the casting time. It's your choice of Shade Archive+ and Full Bloom+. Shade Archive can give you more juice for reflect, while Full Bloom will decrease the cooldown for curaga. It really depends on whether you prefer reflect abuse or getting curaga as often as possible
Being the first boss of Kingdom Hearts 2, you would think Axel would be the easiest of the Replica Data. And you would be right, if not for one detail: The floor is perpetually on fire. This drains your HP for the entire fight. Provided you have second chance, this won't kill you, however it leaves you very vulnerable to Axel's attacks, which come out very quickly, and Axel's erratic movements will screw you if you're caught off-guard. Axel opens the fight by setting the floor ablaze. Stand back and when he's in the wind-down from his attack, use reflect. This should be able to stop him cold and give you an opening. After a combo, Axel frequently jumps into the wall of flames around the arena, roll out of the way of the jet of flame he sends out (you should be able to see where he's going to come out from the wall) and hammer the reaction command button, once Axel's pinned to the ground and the floor cools off, you can sneak in a cure before hammering on Axel. Axel will then resort to his standard chakram combos, most of these can be repelled using reflect. You have to be careful of his flying chakram blitzes, as Axel likes to get behind Sora and launch the Chakrams at his back, which can be a major cause of death if you're unprepared. Axel's ultimate attack works similarly to the rest of his chakram combos, so they can be reflected without too much trouble (I do believe that you can't block them, though).
Axel doesn't have all that many attacks, it's just a matter of learning the few that he has and not faltering (which, is always easier said than done). He's fairly middle of the road as far as difficulty goes because of that.
SilverArrow20XX
Walks in the Light of the Crystal
God I love this game. It's hard to believe that the last time I played this I'd never played a Final Fantasy before and didn't know who a lot of those characters were. Now I've played the whole series multiple times with some entries 4+ times.
Started playing using my DS4 since the skin on my DS3's left stick is peeling off and it's annoying. It had performance issues though. Roxas constantly suddenly stops running if I tilt the stick in a certain way. Had to switch back to my DS3.
Started playing using my DS4 since the skin on my DS3's left stick is peeling off and it's annoying. It had performance issues though. Roxas constantly suddenly stops running if I tilt the stick in a certain way. Had to switch back to my DS3.
You mean the one single time i messed up by posting slightly incorrect info and you gratefully corrected me? That's unfair of you.
I've never once noticed myself doing such a thing! You'd have to put out examples.
Also....i just started playing. The art style is still as beautiful as ever in combination with 1080p resolution and the mocap still holds up even today...but what really is out of place, is the goddamn fish mouths.
Its really jarring now that its so clear having beautifully animated lipsynch and facial movements, and then straight back to 2D facial texture with gaping mouths from scene to scene. And if it was just the text parts with no dialogue, it would be fine, but you switch after every cut even in cinematic cutscenes and its really jarring now that you can see it so easily
It's infuriating, honestly. That's the one thing I really wanted to see at least some improvement on, but nada.
Same. My old crappy PS3 has a busted BD drive.
Why there isn't a PS4 version is beyond me....................................
These aren't speedrun strats! By the way you can loop Axel and Demyx really easily.
Nice write up though.
Its especially annoying because we know SE technlogy wise, outgrew that in the jump to the 7th's gen.
It was there in FF10 and FF12, but FF13 had perpetual 3D faces even in gameplay, and every cutscene had lipsynch and mocap...its annoying how we're in the 8th gen now, and yet that 15 years old out of date effort saving technique is still rearing its ugly head in a series that for all purposes, should be almost timeless cause of the art style.
Atleast we can know KH3 will be over that stuff for good.
I don't remember any 2D faces in KH3D.
Heh, well hopefully its a possibility....
And about AC....having her as a random voice just seems so weird...maybe that was the role she was discovered for the part?
I'm sure it was somewhere or the other..they've been using 6th gen and below level tech for KH since the beginning. Glad with KH3 we're moving on up, to a newer advanced engine and much more capable hardware
Well, a lot of it also is in the vein of mild company bashing/speculation (specifically Square Enix and SEGA) and I'm coming from the angle that I actually know a little bit about what's going on in some cases due to work connections, but it would not be polite for me to talk about what I know (NDAs even), so you'll excuse me for being a little abstract.
But back on topic, it's hilarious how vacant a lot of the characters look with the low-poly models. SPECIFICALLY Genie gets me every time.
Low resolution hid so many things. Pluto skidding along the ground in that one specific flashback scene to when SDG are chasing him at the end of KH1 (it actually plays in the Roxas sequence) is another that gets me every time.
william_557
Member
#teamstaff
games out today but i can't play it for another two days!!
games out today but i can't play it for another two days!!
I played KH2 again in anticipation of this event and i can say for sure with composite cables and 480i, it makes a lot of things less noticeable
R10Neymarfan
Member
What font did they use for the subtitles and such?
Some kind of special font. Why, you want it?
Found it lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM_y5oi71ug#t=2h55s
edit: Youtube ads destroy the timestamp on the hyperlink. It's at 2h0m55s
Nah, its just really curvy. I still have the logo font >.>
SlasherJPC
Banned
Birth by Sleep is a prequel before all the other games correct? Just wondering cause I'm thinking of playing that, then 1, then 2 since I've played them all but that one.
Yes
That's Correct.
PixyJunket
Member
It is a prequel, but it is wrong to play it first.
NoctisVsStar
Member
So I'm playing KH2.5 for the first time and for some reason I'm getting MGS2 vibes with Roxas and I'm digging it so far it looks beautiful especially that place where Sora is like painted on the floor. I'm playing it on proud my first time around, currently at the struggle tourney.
Edit: Music so good.
Edit: Music so good.
Seven Force
Banned
Even though I've played english patched versions of both KHIIFM and BBSFM and have the JP version of the collection, I just started the game up, and it's still blowing my mind that as of today, we have HD, english localized versions of the three Final Mix games, something I would have never imagined a few years ago.
Between this, and the knowledge that KHIII is an actual thing that's in development, there's really no better time to be a fan of the series.
Between this, and the knowledge that KHIII is an actual thing that's in development, there's really no better time to be a fan of the series.
NoctisVsStar
Member
True even though I'm fairly new to the series these HD collections are a godsend since I missed the KH games during the ps2 era. During my lurker days Gaf always loved this game and always brought up " when are we getting KH3"
Maybe if you haven't played KHs before, but it's ok to start a replay of the franchise from BBS if you've already played the others before.
SoraanTribal
Member
It's a prequel, but I wouldn't recommend playing it first normally. However since you've already played KH1/2 before, then go ahead and start with that one.
RPGCrazied
Member
Finally got Sora, 3 hours later. Is all of the soundtrack remastered? So far it sounds like it.
Seven Force
Banned
All of KH2's soundtrack has been remastered. Two songs in Birth by Sleep (The
Keyblade Graveyard and Final Boss theme, specifically
Thanks. I tried to fit those into the Post but I hit the character limit (which is apparently 24000). I'll link it in the next post.
I imagine it'll mostly be finished afterward, at least.
Yes, but I recommend you play the other games first since BBS has a metric ton of callbacks.
Not accurate. Some things on KH2's soundtrack weren't touched. Intro for example.
pls don't hit me
dryuriev7777
Member
Heh, I totally forgot that Setzer was in this game. It's hilarious how they made him the distinguished reigning champion of a tiny, almost underground contest consisting of children whacking each other with foam swords. They did a good job on a wide variety of FF representation in 2.
Seven Force
Banned
I had half a mind to add "watch falk prove me wrong" in spoiler tags to my post haha
Oh shit
Can already tell I'm gonna regret going Proud when it comes to the new bosses and content.
Might end up doing 3 playthroughs for platinum like KH1 haha
Yeah, I'm only on the first world after hollow bastion, and I keep dying lol
Oh well. But note- even on normal, lvl 99, terras annoying.
SilverArrow20XX
Walks in the Light of the Crystal
Oh great. On the 3rd day as Roxas and I've already encountered a crash. Please tell me this is a freak occurrence and this isn't yet another broken game.
NoctisVsStar
Member
Freak occurrence.
SoraanTribal
Member
I want to do Critical, but I never did even beat the final secret boss on KH2FM last time I played it on Proud mode, lol. He's a very scary boss to me.
I'm just not sure... If you could change difficulty mid playthrough, it'd be much better imo. To be fair, I didn't choose Shield on my Proud playthrough though.NoctisVsStar
Member
Are you serious? I'm shocked that the game isn't in stock.