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Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX |OT| Press to pay respects

ReCoded is a pretty pointless release in many ways, but it doesn't suck. It's a fun action RPG, it just doesn't have much function from a story perspective + it recycles some of the worlds for the 6th or so time, which kind of bring the experience down. All in all, it's still probably one of the best Nintendo DS action RPGs from a gameplay perspective.



Critical.

Critical is the best mode.

Goddamn, death seems Ineitable.
 

Kain

Member
First time playthrough proud or critical?

It depends, I would go for Proud, unless they adjusted the difficulty Normal is stupid, Critical is hard as balls and Proud is the right challenge.

But I guess if you are experienced in action games you'll have more fun in Critical.
 
First time playthrough proud or critical?

Critical. Can't recommend enough unless you prefer easy games.

Critical isn't THAT hard. It's quite fair and I think 2FM Critical it is the best balanced KH difficulty mode in any of the games yet. And it's not just making the game more challenging, you get a bunch of bonus abilities right from the start, including Lucky Strikes that increase item drops from enemies. This results in much less grinding for synthesis materials if you want the best items in the game.

Plus secret movie is easier to unlock. Plus you can platinum the game on 1 playtrough if you like trophies.

If you played KH1FM on Proud you can definately take on 2FM on Critical.
 

Famassu

Member
Educate me, guys. How do we get Sora to level 99 in this game :|
Pride Rocks has a good leveling up spot, IIRC. Just use some of the MASSIVE DAMAGE AoE spells to kill all enemies quickly (Magnet, especially). Also, remember to put the AI on stand-around mode. Enemies they kill are Exp. Sora isn't getting.
 
Pride Rocks has a good leveling up spot, IIRC. Also, remember to put the AI on stand-around mode. Enemies they kill are Exp. Sora isn't getting.

They nerfed the Pride Rock leveling in FM. Best way now is just kill high level enemies in TWTNW with Exp+ abilities in critical condition. It's actually pretty fast.

Luckily Drive Form leveling is easier in FM.
 

Evo X

Member
Sweet. I didn't know this was 1080P. Kind of makes a PS4 version unnecessary I suppose.

I bought 1.5 last year and still haven't played much unfortunately. I'd pick this up now, but I know I won't get to it for a while. Might wait until a few months before KH3 launch to go through the whole series.
 
Sweet. I didn't know this was 1080P. Kind of makes a PS4 version unnecessary I suppose.
It is quite good for PS3 but it's not perfect. Mainly it has no AA and of course 60 fps would be nice.

Also I'd REALLY love to let my PS3 go and have all the games on PS4.
 

hohoXD123

Member
Critical. Can't recommend enough unless you prefer easy games.

Critical isn't THAT hard. It's quite fair and I think 2FM Critical it is the best balanced KH difficulty mode in any of the games yet. And it's not just making the game more challenging, you get a bunch of bonus abilities right from the start, including Lucky Strikes that increase item drops from enemies. This results in much less grinding for synthesis materials if you want the best items in the game.

Plus secret movie is easier to unlock. Plus you can platinum the game on 1 playtrough if you like trophies.

If you played KH1FM on Proud you can definately take on 2FM on Critical.

How big of a difference in difficulty is there though? I finished KH1FM on Proud but found it very frustrating on some of the bosses, if 2FM on critical is anything like that then I'll probably enjoy it more on the regular difficulty.
 

Tirod

Member
I've been too much of a wuss to play any KH game on Critical. /:

With the way you guys are talking though, I think I'll do Critical for the first time with KH2. I find by the end of my Proud playthroughs I mow through everything anyways, may as well go for a challenge.
 

TEJ

Member
I'm gonna start off on critical for the hell of it.

I was able to beat 1.5 on proud and get the trophy for beating the game in under 15 hours.
 
I thought KH2 was better due to the insane combat? I've never played 2 so I can't have a say.

I didn't really like how flashy the KH2 combat was, too much press X/triangle to awesome.

Plus 1 has the vastly superior story and Disney elements, and much better exploration and platforming.

I haven't played 2 Final Mix though so we'll see how I feel after playing it.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
God I have to buy this physical don't I...

Q: Is there a digital version?
A: No. KH games never seem to get digital releases. The reason isn't entirely clear but most likely it's tied to Disney or problems with having licensing issues with the Utada Hikaru songs.

This sucks.
 
How big of a difference in difficulty is there though? I finished KH1FM on Proud but found it very frustrating on some of the bosses, if 2FM on critical is anything like that then I'll probably enjoy it more on the regular difficulty.

It's kinda hard to compare the two when I think about it. I think KH1 Proud at it's hardest is more frustrating than Critical but overall 2FM keeps the difficulty up while KH1Proud takes a nosedive.

KH1 Proud (and KH1 overall) kinda is most difficult right at the start at least for me. Especially the unholy trinity of Guard Armor+Trickmaster+Clayton before you get the cure spell. After that it was pretty smooth sailing for me at least compared to the beginning of the game. I know some people have issues with some bosses like Ursula but I never really got any issues past the middle point.

KH2 Critical on the other hand feels not to have any huuuge difficulty spikes or drops outside of the optional bosses. I feel KH2 in general is more fair than KH1 since you have a lot more tools for surviving. It's just that the combat is faster so you need to pay attention.

If you found KH1 Proud very frustrating I wouldn't be sure if to recommend Critical mode. There are few bosses that require you to learn the pattern/how to react or they will destroy you. But honestly KH2 Proud mode IMO is too easy (and I'm not some super KH2 expert either. I get destroyed by pretty much all optional bosses if tried ASAP when available).
 

sappyday

Member
It's good to know the difficulty trophy stacks and this one doesn't have stupid "Beat the game in under 15 hours" trophies. Although it still has gummi ship mission trophies.
 

Kinsei

Banned
It's good to know the difficulty trophy stacks and this one doesn't have stupid "Beat the game in under 15 hours" trophies. Although it still has gummi ship mission trophies.

A doughnut ship will make the gummi trophies a complete joke.
 
I didn't really like how flashy the KH2 combat was, too much press X/triangle to awesome.

Plus 1 has the vastly superior story and Disney elements, and much better exploration and platforming.

I haven't played 2 Final Mix though so we'll see how I feel after playing it.

Really? I thought 1 barely had any story - it was more like hey this is what would happen if somebody went into this world - repeat. Platforming I can't really comment on since I was a kid when I played it so I didn't pay attention to things like that , but others have said the same thing.
KH2 combat was more complicated and faster. However, apparently there's strategies to spam a move like in a lot of games which makes combat easy. It's pretty simple not to use it.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
It's good to know the difficulty trophy stacks and this one doesn't have stupid "Beat the game in under 15 hours" trophies. Although it still has gummi ship mission trophies.

True, that's really good. BBS trophies good too? I couldn't handle Chain of Memories boredom.
 
My Amazon copy has shipped and will be here tomorrow via UPS. I can't wait, I own 3 copies of this on PS but never made it out of the first town for some reaosn. I can't fucking wait. Dropping all games I'm playing atm for it,
 

RPGCrazied

Member
So if I did Proud on KH FM, I should be fine with KH 2 critical? Won't lie, some spots I did die a few times. Mostly on bosses though.
 

Kinsei

Banned
I mean all the OTHER reviews. like from the major sites. I know this game is worth a review from gamespot or IGN

I think it has to do with release timing. I imagine that this is probably one of the busiest times of the year for reviewers so an HD remaster probably isn't a very high priority.
 
It's kinda hard to compare the two when I think about it. I think KH1 Proud at it's hardest is more frustrating than Critical but overall 2FM keeps the difficulty up while KH1Proud takes a nosedive.

KH1 Proud (and KH1 overall) kinda is most difficult right at the start at least for me. Especially the unholy trinity of Guard Armor+Trickmaster+Clayton before you get the cure spell. After that it was pretty smooth sailing for me at least compared to the beginning of the game. I know some people have issues with some bosses like Ursula but I never really got any issues past the middle point.

KH2 Critical on the other hand feels not to have any huuuge difficulty spikes or drops outside of the optional bosses. I feel KH2 in general is more fair than KH1 since you have a lot more tools for surviving. It's just that the combat is faster so you need to pay attention.

If you found KH1 Proud very frustrating I wouldn't be sure if to recommend Critical mode. There are few bosses that require you to learn the pattern/how to react or they will destroy you. But honestly KH2 Proud mode IMO is too easy (and I'm not some super KH2 expert either. I get destroyed by pretty much all optional bosses if tried ASAP when available).

Fucking. URSULA.
 
There are 2 boss battles I'm really looking forward to in game for KH 2. Both vs Keyblade wielders. Its gonna be some good fun.

Probably gonna do a Proud run to remember everything and then Crit it to finish off.
 

Seda

Member
KHII vanilla was, for the most part, boringly easy on Proud, but I liked the Xaldin boss fight. If you go in mashing buttons, you'll find a lot more difficulty than if you actually take some time to understand the battle pattern.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Probably gonna do a Proud run to remember everything and then Crit it to finish off.

Yeah, probably going to do this too. I haven't played KH 2 in a long time. So, I want to take my time and relive the story without worrying about the difficulty. I'll do the hardest mode later.
 

Soulflarz

Banned
KHII vanilla was, for the most part, boringly easy on Proud, but I liked the Xaldin boss fight. If you go in mashing buttons, you'll find a lot more difficulty than if you actually take some time to understand the battle pattern.

Dont worry, they up the difficulty overall. I'm playing on proud I think. Because I would do normal again, but the only thing I didnt do was crush terra, so I dont really wana replay the exact same game again.
 

Seda

Member
Dont worry, they up the difficulty overall. I'm playing on proud I think. Because I would do normal again, but the only thing I didnt do was crush terra, so I dont really wana replay the exact same game again.

BBS's hardest difficulty in the US release (whichever it was) was fine.

Also, the Aqua boss fight in Neverland is super fun
 
I'm playing the japanese version for a while now during the downtimes after capping Poetics in FFXIV. Just got to Space Paranoids, can't wait to see the
1000 heartless battle
in HD!
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Is anyone going to wear, or sell the pin? I'm not really a pin collector, but will probably keep this. I know Disney pins can be quite collectable with the pin crowd, might be worth something later.
 

Soulflarz

Banned
BBS's hardest difficulty in the US release (whichever it was) was fine.

Also, the Aqua boss fight in Neverland is super fun

Wait, you mean hardest normal, or critical, where you die in like 2 hits?
I only tried critical on ventus, and got to the very end. Didnt really want to waste a ton of time trying to do that boss.

Oh, but something to note about the difference- In kh2fm, i think its...nearly one up? Like normal=kh2s original proud, and fms proud is harder than anything the US got notably.
 

BasilZero

Member
Is anyone going to wear, or sell the pin? I'm not really a pin collector, but will probably keep this. I know Disney pins can be quite collectable with the pin crowd, might be worth something later.

I might wear it but only once or so lol.

Anyways just got my copy of the Limited Edition just a few min ago :)!
 

Caladrius

Member
Part 2- Item Synthesis
Part 3- Sephiroth and Data Organization members #13-#8
Part 4- Data Organization members #7-#4
Part 5- Data Organization members #3-#1
Part 6- Duel with the Lingering Will

Figured I'd make an entry-level guide to 2 Final Mix's extra bosses and the preparation for them. If you've played or are playing Lvl 1 critical you'll probably not find much use for this (and could probably one-up me in knowledge, which I encourage you to do for the sake of people who are looking into going that route.)

As a word of warning, it's been awhile since I've played the game (my PS2's Broke) and I don't know the official translations of items, so details may be off here or there.

Part 1: The fundamentals and leveling up.

Pre-challenge pointers: For first-timers I recommend you be at least in the 70's or higher for the Data replicas.(And Sephiroth, if you're not confident in your skills) They have excellent damage output, and if you haven't gotten a full grasp of how they work it's going to be a rough experience. The Lingering Will is something you really shouldn't be ashamed to go to level 99 for, just so you get more leeway to get hit (as well as a better chance to survive his most insidious attack).

-Essential strategies-

1.) For the love of God, use your shortcuts. This is mostly targeted at first-timers, but it's easy to forget how much shortcuts and shortcut setup can make or break a fight. Items and Magic are both available to equip on shortcuts. Cure and reflect should be stuck on the two most convenient buttons 99% of the time. The other two slots can usually be whatever you want (I personally prefer thunder and gravity), with a few exceptions I'll note when I actually get to the bosses.

2.) Abuse Drive forms. One of my favorite tricks in KH2: whenever you enter a drive form, your HP and MP (I think?) are automatically restored to full. Use this for healing when your MP is depleted. You can either revert immediately or try to pummel your adversary in Drive mode, though the latter is very risky. There is a risk of going into anti-form this way, however. If it proves to be a problem use Final form beforehand on the next attempt. It reverts the Anti-Form chance to its minimum, so you can use subsequent drives without risking a change into anti-form.

2.a) Abuse limit breaks, if they're available and safe to use, Limits can give you scads of invincibility frames while dealing immense damage. Special mention goes to Goofy's limit, Tornado Fusion. Credit to Fauve for this one

3.) Limit form: One of Final Mix's more important new additions, Limit form requires no party members, and as such can be used in nearly all fights after you acquire it. Limit form is granted the dodge roll, and on top of this, the form's special attacks regenerate HP, including Strike raid, which is extremely powerful and easy to use.Limit form also has access to the powerful Zantetsuken combo finisher, which has the best damage output of any finsisher in the game, barring possibly limits. (Credit to Seven_Force for that) This makes it a potent defensive asset, and should be your go-to form choice in most Boss battle situations.

4.) Reflect reflect reflect reflect reflect. This is THE best magic spell in Kingdom Hearts 2. Damage immunity to nearly everything as well as dealing damage to anything within melee range. If you're having problems blocking something or you're being attacked from behind or afar, reflect solves almost all of your problems.
Except enemies using Aeroga

5.) Learn to guard! This is one of those things even returning players are going to neglect, since the original Kingdom Hearts 2 was pathetically easy. Guard is very useful for stopping some bosses in their tracks and keeping them from getting in combos. Marluxia, Lexaeus and Axel in particular demand you learn how to guard effectively.

6.) Get dodge roll from Leveling up limit form. Quick Run (earned form Wisdom form) has its uses, but dodge roll provides more consistent invincibility frames and is much easier to control. Once you get dodge roll there's little reason to keep quick run(and in fact if you try to have both equipped you're almost sure to end up doing a Quick Run when you want Dodge Roll and vice versa).

7.) Your party members aren't completely useless. They will indeed die within a minute 90% of the time, but while they're still alive they can use items and spells to assist you. This can be a huge help in tight situations and you shouldn't overlook their item inventories for especially difficult fights. Make sure to set their AI to conserve items, because they're liable to use them all up quickly otherwise. As a side note, disable all of Donald's offensive magic. No reason for him to use any of it over cure.

8.) As a final point, if you're finding that bosses keep nailing you mid-combo, it may be worthwhile to reduce the amount of combo plus and finisher plus abilities so that it doesn't take as long to finish a string of attacks. You may not do as much damage over time, but that's preferable to being slammed in the middle of an offensive and having the tables turned against you.

-Leveling up-
Unlike vanilla Kingdom Hearts 2, there is sadly no hotspot for level grinding. At the very least, you can go to The World That Never Was, equip the Gullwing Keyblade, bring yourself close to death and go ham with Final Form using Graviga and your keyblade. This doubles as a good way to level up Final Form as well. This should go by reasonably quick (maybe 4-6 hours if you're going for level 99.)

-Form Leveling-
This is probably one of the more annoying mechanics in Kingdom Hearts 2, since all 5 forms have different requirements to gain experience. The main trick used to level up drive forms effectively is heading to the World map from a save point before the drive gauge expires. Doing this resets the drive gauge to maximum and allows you to use drive forms over and over so long as you return to the save point before it runs out.

Valor Form: Mushroom #5 in the Cave of Wonders' treasure room. Right next to a save point and #5 is incredibly beefy, so you won't have to keep looking for new targets.

Wisdom Form: Heartless Swarm in the first street (coming from Twilight Town) in the World That Never Was. A humongous amount of heartless are ripe for the picking. Make good use of your keyblade shots and magic to rip them to pieces. Timeless River's Black Hole room is also good for doing this earlier in the game.

Master Form: Head to twilight town and enter the mysterious tower. Head up until you meet a squad of hgambler nobodies. If you use drive converter and jackpot and repeatedly play their minigames, you can get scads of drive orbs to level up and stay in master form longer. (Credit to Seven_Force again)

Final Form: World that Never Was, starting in the room just before the Hall of Empty Melodies (Where you fought Xigbar). The route between here and the Proof of Existence (The Nobody gravestone room) has a large amount of weak nobodies that can be shredded to pieces with a healthy application of Graviga and keyblade strikes.

Limit form: Can be leveled in the same place as Valor form. Since #5 is so difficult to actually kill, you'll be able to fire off your limits in succession. Even better is that he won't attempt to interrupt your limits.


-Part 2 coming soon-

Next up is the synthesis stuff, which I should have by the end of the night. Bosses are going to take a little bit longer, since I have to look back through my own posts on the subject and attempt to recall what I can from memory.
 

Pappasman

Member
I only played KH1.5 once on the normal difficultly. Would critical be too much of a difficultly jump for my first play through of 2? Whats the difference between critical and proud?
 

RPGCrazied

Member
I only played KH1.5 once on the normal difficultly. Would critical be too much of a difficultly jump for my first play through of 2? Whats the difference between critical and proud?

I think enemies and bosses have more HP, they hit harder, but so do you. But I don't know. Might want to try out KH proud to see if you can handle a harder mode.
 

Fauve

Member
Adding on to what Caladrius said, Limit Breaks can also save your ass when used at the right time. They have a lot of invincibility frames and also do decent damage.
 
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