This Pot Centipede boss is an absolute bullshit trial and error bellend. Who thought this was a good idea?

Are you fucking kidding? I literally got the boss down to quarter health, and then the head just spins around forever with his electrical sparks forever activated. The attack is unblockable, takes away a third of my health, and I can't attack him or else I take damage? How the fuck do I win?

It is a Disney game so did you try the power of friendship or love.

Apr 23, 2020 22:57:13 GMT X-zero said:

It is a Disney game so did you try the power of friendship or love cold hard cash.

:ness: Just gotta max out the munny meter.

Well, beat the Pot Centipede through a bit of a luck and a lot of patience. Straight onto another boss, the Cave of Wonders. Haven't fought it enough to determine if it's worse than Pot Centipede, but it's certainly in the same order of bullshit magnitude.

The more the game goes on, the less I like it, and it's down to the way the game increases it's difficulty. Essentially it throws more and more bullshit at you. Take Agrabah. I'm getting placed in narrower and narrower environments where the dumb camera angles make it impossible to see everything that's coming, so every battle is a luckfest because I can't possibly fight in any kind of skilful way. Plus I have to platform on the same screens that infinite enemies are spawning. If I try to fight them, I will inveitably fall off and it's down to the bottom and I have to start again. I've managed to rush through screens jumping around while avoiding enemies. Best I can manage.

I've already talked about how bullshit the bosses are getting. Starting to dread the next world, assuming I manage to finish Agrabah without chucking my Playstation out of the window :lol:

I'm not entirely sure what the intent was behind the Pot Centipede. The most effective strategy I've found is to actually attack his head from behind while he's marching around, and then only try for one combo when he initially breaks away and wait for him to reform to start the process.

I don't think it's good design because the tail is the most exposed part of his body, but it doesn't allow you to attack his head quick enough when it's stunned. It's also far more dangerous in it's 'stunned' state than in it's regular state.

Maybe it's teaching you not to get too greedy? Get your hit it, get out and be patient.

I've had really inconsistent experiences with Cave of Wonders. Sometimes I've had good runs where I've kept my footing on it's snout and blown through it's hp, other times I get thrown off right away and a bandit will come off screen and kill me.

It's a good argument for why they removed a lot of platform elements in the sequel because it can feel so janky attimes. The fight is meant to get you to take care of hazards and keep your eyes peeled for any opening. I've always just hung out around the side, and either janked my way onto his snout when he's thrasing around or just preparing myself for when he opens.

The game is actually sending you the right way in the cave of wonders. You want to go through the underground cavern and here's another tip, you can swim upstreams. I had forgotten this a few years back and spent ages figuring out where to go.

Another tip, I would recommend choosing the north path when you've got a choice between the two locations after Agrabah. You'll get intercepted the first time, but go up there again. You'll enjoy it more than the other location.

I actually had a similar impression to you when I first returned to the game. The game felt cumbersome to play and the jank was really starting to become irritable. I found it picks up after the next world.

Apr 24, 2020 14:15:58 GMT Big Pete said:

I've had really inconsistent experiences with Cave of Wonders. Sometimes I've had good runs where I've kept my footing on it's snout and blown through it's hp, other times I get thrown off right away and a bandit will come off screen and kill me.

See, that's the thing. The boss battles have become about having a good run of the cards rather than having any actual skill.

I've landed on his snout a buncha times and whittled him down to low health, but at some point Goofy and Donald die. After that, everything piles up on me and it's game over very quickly.

Apr 24, 2020 16:05:28 GMT Emperor said:

Apr 24, 2020 14:15:58 GMT Big Pete said:

I've had really inconsistent experiences with Cave of Wonders. Sometimes I've had good runs where I've kept my footing on it's snout and blown through it's hp, other times I get thrown off right away and a bandit will come off screen and kill me.

See, that's the thing. The boss battles have become about having a good run of the cards rather than having any actual skill.

I've landed on his snout a buncha times and whittled him down to low health, but at some point Goofy and Donald die. After that, everything piles up on me and it's game over very quickly.

I view it as an argument against playing expert as a first time player since it presumes you know the optimal strategies and you're making the most of your items. Are you equipping yourself with Mega Potions?

Which isn't to say these parts aren't poorly designed regardless. However, I presume on this difficulty the game presumes your skillful enough to take the bosses head down or knowlegeable enough to buff Sora and the party to make the game manageable.

I'm interested to get your thoughts on the Jafar fight.

I used almost all of my healing items in that Pot Centipede fight :lol: Got tons of munny though, so I could stock up.

I'm interested to get your thoughts on the Jafar fight.

Does that mean it's going to be ten times as awful as the previous two boss fights?

You'll see.:ness:

Another pro-tip, you'll need Aladdin in your party for the Cave of Wonders. I think he's the only party member you have to have in order to progress the game.

Finally beat that asshole Cave of Wonders. I found a nice to stay on top of him while bashing his remaining eye. It's sort of Shadow of Colossus, standing on top of a giant creature and trying to kill it while it shakes you off. Nowhere near as good of course, but I get the same vibe.

Back to the fight, I got distracted by those sword bandit assholes, allowing him to throw me off. Literally two hits to kill. So I spent the rest of the fight spamming dodge roll, waiting for his snout to drop down so I can get at the eye. Took several attempts because minions kept getting in my way, but finally I was able to make the final jump and score that slam dunk keyblade shot.

Now onto more torture in the Cave of Wonders, where yet more Heartless spawn infinitely.

Big Pete wants a report on Jafar? Well, here's my report.

Piece of cake.

In fact, I don't even understand how it was meant to be difficult. Because he floats around in the air? So what? Jump and attack him! The second phase was more of the same. I got Yago down to a tiny shred of health and he flew out of range for several minutes. I was finally able to catch him.

I really like the Hundred Acre Wood. The Honey minigame was frustrating at first, but I figured out a little trick which made it trivial. Turns out you don't get anything extra if Pooh eats 100 honey or 200.

In fact, I don't even understand how it was meant to be difficult. Because he floats around in the air? So what? Jump and attack him!

He's notoriously easy, which I thought you'd appreciate after your struggles.

I don't think it's meant to be difficult, Jafar is just supposed to be a pain to hit and it's just staying on your toes so Genie won't be forced to attack you. Jafar has some nasty spells as well which can hurt if you can't stun lock him. On a regular playthrough you should be fine, I had one challenge playthrough where he was a handful because my attacks were doing so little damage.

Have you been to Olympus Colosseum yet and competed in the first tournament?

I did the Olympus Colosseum tournament and even managed to beat it solo. Not done the time trial yet, but I've gained a few levels and ugpraded some spells since then, so maybe now is a good time.

Did I miss the omg Cloud Strife! post?

Unless one of the chipmunks informs you there's a tournament taking place, don't worry about it.

I don't remember if I posted about it. Cloud whooped my ass a few times, but I did the first leg of the Colosseum including Cerberus before even entering Deep Jungle, so it was a while ago.

Would have fought Cloud 'til I beat him as I did with Squall Leon, but you have to go through a whole gauntlet just to fight Cloud, and it wasn't worth the pain. Maybe if I did Deep Jungle first and gained a few levels, I'd have stood a chance against the Braver?

Instead of clogging up the What Games Are You Playing? thread with my frequent updates, I thought it'd be better to keep it all in one thread.

Last time we left off I had finished Agrabah and the walkover that was Jafar.

Since then I did a bit of exploration in Traverse Town, completed all the Colosseum Challenges, and headed to a new world.

That world was Monstro the whale.

In general my enjoyment of the worlds has gradually declined over time, but Monstro was very refreshing. It's relatively short, not overly bloated or mazy, and I got through the whole thing in not much longer than an hour. I learnt the High Jump ability. I have been endlessly teased with out of reach treasures, and finally I can access them. Which means, of course, I have to revisit every single world again. Including Agrabah. Shudder to think. Furthermore the dungeon is a great grind spot, where you can rack up Experience, Items and Munny very fast. I'm a rich bastard now.

Another Final Fantasy cameo here, namely the boss of the area.



Prison Cage, the first mini-boss in Final Fantasy 9, makes a reappearance. The Kingdom Hearts version is more colourful, yet a lot more formidable.



The first fight against this boss was trivial. The second one, not so much. It's easy to whittle his health down but his attacks are fast, do a ton of damage and are impossible to predict. He whooped me a couple of times, then I came in ready to Guard and Heal a lot. That I did, and I stayed alive for a while. Genie gave me a helping hand to deal some damage. I used a Mega Potion to revive my party, and barely stayed alive as he got down to his final third and started spamming attacks like crazy. Sora went down to tiny amounts of health several times (perhaps the Second Chance ability saved me), Donald was on the ball with healing. Eventually I took the fucker out.

There seems to be a way to get him to open his cage and expose his core for some risk-free attacks, but I couldn't figure out how to trigger it.

Now I'm going to be revisiting a lot of areas and hopefully buying lots of goodies.

This was why I bought a ps2 in 01. Dedsrs.

Will be following this. I bought a PS2 a year ago specifically for this game and Madden '05 (just have to get the disc drive fixed whenever this pandemic dies down enough) and have been wanting to introduce this amazing series to my gf who loves all things Disney but avoided KH because "Final Fantasy". Little does she know it's like 30% FF, 70% Disney.

I'm sure some of the worlds aren't as amazing as they used to seem when I was a teen first playing this. Ahhh, "Munnys" -- I forgot about that.

Agrabah had no business being as boring as it was. I do remember it being rather tedious and uneventful now, basically just a grinding maze of rooftops is what I personally recall. How could they ruin one of the best landscapes in all of Disney? Looking forward to the rest of this review, about to circumnavigate my way over to the op thread.

rad if you wade through my posts in What Games Are You Playing, there have been a few updates and mini-discussions in there.

Maybe if our esteemed moderator Big Pete has the time or patience, he could move the posts in here.

Boom, I screwed up once and had to select all 46 posts to send over again but here they are.

Holy shit, that was fast. How did you find all the posts? What's your secret?

It even merged them in correct order. Bravo! Two Rock gifs for you.

I headed to Wonderland to test out my high jump ability, turns out those treasure chests surrounding the Mad Hatter's table are still out of reach. The internet suggests I need more abilities to get them. Ugh.

Did manage to reach a previously unreachable chest in the Deep Jungle, but it only contained a bloody gummy cube. UGH.

Then I headed to the Colosseum. The Pegasus Trophy gauntlet was fairly easy, until you have to face Squall Leon and Yuffie in the final round. I gave them a good go in our first fight, but I was woefully underprepared. They both got their glowy Ultimate Weapons out at around the same time and they destroyed me.

Second time went much better. I focused on Yuffie. For the first minute Squall Leon was focused on me, so it was hard to get a shot in on Yuffie with the other guy on my tail. Eventually Donald and Goofy distracted Squall Leon and I slowly but surely took out Yuffie.

Even on his own Squall Leon was a tough customer. After you damage him enough he gets out the Lion Heart sword and starts wrecking everything. He focuses exclusively on Sora, so all I did was run around and dodge while Donald and Goofy chipped away at his health. Eventually I figured out the right timing for Sora to get in some shots, and he went down without too much difficulty.

Running the gauntlet with just Sora was surprisingly difficult, considering how easy it was with my comrades. Looks Donald is now proving his worth as an awesome mage who has the ability to wipe out swathes of enemies effortlessly. My teammates have become useful fighters in their own right, instead of just grunts who exist only to distract the enemies. The three Large Bodies and two Fat Bandits completely wrecked me. I barely got a hit in. I'll return to that when I've levelled up some more.

This thread is even more intense than my frequent AEW updates that I spam Emperor with. I didn’t know Emperor had it in him. I must be a positive influence.

Donald is amazing once you set him with the right stuff like putting cure as a point of emphasis, Goofy is the one who can take a hike for the guest characters.

Mar 17, 2020 13:12:24 GMT Emperor said:

What an adventure it is! Not even five minutes in and I've been presented with many crippling choices. I chose Expert difficulty because from a brief gander online it seems that Normal mode is "kiddy" mode.

What fucking pro gamer hardcore site did you look up? This game is no walk in the park. I recall it being one of the most challenging games I’ve played...on Normal.

Also, what Harry Potter fan chooses the SHIELD? Roman Reigns fanboy bullshit pick is what that is...

Hardcore isn't that difficult. It's the right level of challenge. Makes me feel Normal would be way too easy.

Jul 3, 2020 16:54:28 GMT Emperor said:

Hardcore isn't that difficult. It's the right level of challenge. Makes me feel Normal would be way too easy.

WHAT ABOUT THE 27 POSTS ABOUT BOSSES / PARTS THAT WERE TOO INSANELY DIFFICULT AND POINTLESS THAT MADE YOU HATE THE GAME!?

Those were exceptions. On average, the game has been moderately challenging. Not constantly hard. There are more easy sections than ultra-hard sections, but I'm not going to talk much about the easy bits because what's the point?

I finally finished the first game earlier this year! I first bought it in about 2003, so I took my time.

Then I started on Re: Chain of Memories right after and the combination of weird card stuff and the familiarity of the bosses/levels did me in. I got to the Pinocchio level boss by sheer luck from spamming random cards, then kinda gave up.

I'm not sure if I'm going to bother finishing it off or I should just jump to...er...whichever the next one is!