Jul 3, 2020 19:33:18 GMT Emperor said:

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 see. So overall your experiences have leveled out and you think it is a pretty good game?

Will you be playing the second right after?

I wonder why you missed this game in the first place as a kid since you love FF? Did you have a PS2 at the time?

I doubt I'll play the second right after. Apparently there's some silly game called Chain of Memories that's in between, so there's a big gap between the plots which I am not planning to fill myself. I'll probably move on to a non-JRPG game.

I had a PS2 since the console came out. Doubt I had heard of Kingdom Hearts until many years later.

If you're concerned about the plot... stop. Honestly with how I rage quit KH3 out of frustration at how much the gameplay was interrupted with cut scenes I almost wanna just wish KH1 was just a standalone game. I adored it when I played it in 01/02.

Jul 3, 2020 22:12:04 GMT Emperor said:

I doubt I'll play the second right after. Apparently there's some silly game called Chain of Memories that's in between, so there's a big gap between the plots which I am not planning to fill myself. I'll probably move on to a non-JRPG game.

I had a PS2 since the console came out. Doubt I had heard of Kingdom Hearts until many years later.

Chain of Memories isn't essential.

The opening of KH2 is disorienting by design. While it references some characters that are introduced in CoM, it's largely based on events that took place in a later entry 358/2 days. Sora doesn't remember the events of CoM so a lot of the key characters are re-introduced in 2.

If you do want to check out CoM, I'd only recommend the GBA version. The PS2 port was a hastily made conversion that was released after KH2 as a budget title. The original game was an interesting 2D demake of KH1 with enough original content to be worth the revisit.

Blasted my way through Halloween Town. Not seen Nightmare Before Christmas, nor did I know it had any connection with Disney, but I like the characters and aesthetic. Sora and co. having their own costumes is a real nice touch. There's a little house where you can pull a little bell outside. Pull it, and it makes a screaming noise. Does it have any purpose beyond that? Surely there must be some treasure or something?

Oogie Boogie battle was easy but a little tedious. The second part, where you have to climb him and destroy the Darkness orbs, was pretty cool. Definite vibes from the final boss in Shadow of the Colossus, right down to the way the game trolls you to make you fall off the edge and start again. Gained a ton of levels from those two battles, so that was cool.

Moved on to a pirate ship in the cosmos. At first I thought I would be fraternising with Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver in Treasure Island, but nope, it's Peter Pan. Another movie I haven't seen. I called it a day in the first room of the ship.

Does anyone use the optional playable characters? I tend to avoid using them, because I will lose experience on one of my main party members. I did use Jack Skellington for a short while, what a fucking badass.

Does it have any purpose beyond that? Surely there must be some treasure or something?

It summons a Dalmations treasure chest underneath the staircase.

I thought you would like Halloween Town. It's got some of the most interesting aesthetic and since it wasn't well known it was a fresh breath of air. I could be off-base, but I feel Kingdom Hearts breathed a lot of new interest in the film. It was only three years later we'd see the release of a Nightmare Before Christmas PS2 game, the Corpse Bride and all that merch.

The movie is OK, I loved it since I was a huge fan of Burton but the sum of it's parts is greater than the whole. Some aspects of the story feel really under-developed, it seemed like they decided at the 11th hour to have a villain, so they bring in Oogie Boogie. Still, the original music by Danny Elfman is pretty catchy and thI love the design of the sets and characters.

What I like about the idea of including Halloween Town is that it seemed to be an inspired choice. Instead of just picking another popular Disney movie, Squaresoft wanted a fun horror themed level and they really had to stretch to fit it in the cannon. They could have easily just picked The Lion King or Snow White but instead they went with something less mainstream. I also like the decision to make the level optional, you can either skip it or the level underneath and miss out on nothing. I highly recommend playing through the other level for the sake of completion, but it's a very divisive level.

Of course I'm going to play all the levels. What do you take me for? A NON-completionist?

I got the treasure chest under the stairs without realising the bell cord caused it to appear.

Jul 9, 2020 16:15:22 GMT Emperor said:

Blasted my way through Halloween Town. Not seen Nightmare Before Christmas, nor did I know it had any connection with Disney, but I like the characters and aesthetic. Sora and co. having their own costumes is a real nice touch. There's a little house where you can pull a little bell outside. Pull it, and it makes a screaming noise. Does it have any purpose beyond that? Surely there must be some treasure or something?

Oogie Boogie battle was easy but a little tedious. The second part, where you have to climb him and destroy the Darkness orbs, was pretty cool. Definite vibes from the final boss in Shadow of the Colossus, right down to the way the game trolls you to make you fall off the edge and start again. Gained a ton of levels from those two battles, so that was cool.

Moved on to a pirate ship in the cosmos. At first I thought I would be fraternising with Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver in Treasure Island, but nope, it's Peter Pan. Another movie I haven't seen. I called it a day in the first room of the ship.

Does anyone use the optional playable characters? I tend to avoid using them, because I will lose experience on one of my main party members. I did use Jack Skellington for a short while, what a fucking badass.

Why have you not seen so many normal movies everyone has seen? Those are both movies that all kids are forced to watch here within their first five movies.

Did your parents not put movies on for you?

Jul 9, 2020 18:59:04 GMT Emperor said:

Of course I'm going to play all the levels. What do you take me for? A NON-completionist?

I got the treasure chest under the stairs without realising the bell cord caused it to appear.

After your confession in the movie thread that's exactly what I take you for. If nothing else, the level contains a few items you'll need for sidequests, so it's well worth going through, even if it's a departure from the norm.

Actually, with the door-bell in Halloween Town, if you ring it three times you'll get an Elixer. The Dalmations are underneath the staircase regardless. This could be different in the Remix.

Here's a tip. When you complete the Peter Pan world you'll be transported to Big Ben, if you hover around the top of Big Ben, you'll notice a glowing beam on top of a mini-door, interact with it and you'll receive a valuable stat increase item or something of similar value. This changes for every hour of play-time. This area will become inaccessible later on after you beat the world just after Peter Pan until you defeat the secret boss who you won't be ready to beat. It's not essential to collect these items, but they're extremely handy and it's an efficient use of time.

I did watch many Disney movies as a kid. Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, Jungle Book, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast were watched many times over. I even watched Bambi and Dumbo and The Little Mermaid maybe once or twice, but my memory of those is flimsy. All other Disney films went unwatched. I'd hardly describe The Nightmare Before Christmas as normal, though. My impression is that it's fairly niche. Peter Pan, sure.

Big Pete, what do you mean the item changes? Can I only pick up this item once, or many times?

The item will be different depending on the hour, so for instance at 13 hours of playtime you may receive a Power Up, at 14 hours of playtime you may receive a Defense Up.

I believe there's 24 items total. You don't have to get them all, but they're handy.

I'm already well over 40 hours playtime, but a large chunk of that is the in-game timer ticking away as I'm doing something else when I'm in the menu.

Jul 10, 2020 20:08:30 GMT Emperor said:

I'm already well over 40 hours playtime, but a large chunk of that is the in-game timer ticking away as I'm doing something else when I'm in the menu.

HATE game timers. I know it doesn't matter and not like anyone can see it, but I always insist on turning the game off if I'm not actively playing just because of those things. The amount of little things that annoy me even put Howie Mandel's OCD to shame.

Jul 10, 2020 20:08:30 GMT Emperor said:

I'm already well over 40 hours playtime, but a large chunk of that is the in-game timer ticking away as I'm doing something else when I'm in the menu.

That's okay, it's concurrent.

You'd be at 16 hours according to Big Ben.

The Peter Pan ship was a nice, fairly swift dungeon with a couple of nasty boss fights. Shadow Sora fucked me and my party a couple of times. Super powerful attacks and at some point becomes barely hittable when he darts under the ground constantly and creates clones of himself. Stopra helped a lot with this battle and the Hook fight.

Hook is a menace, especially since you have to replay 5 minutes of cutscenes + fighting before the actual boss fight. Fortunately it only took me four attempts to defeat the captain. Mostly the same strat I'm doing for every big fight: Heal spam with a side order of Stopra. Goofy's special shield attacks were also pretty good at keeping Hook at bay.

Glide is a fantastic powerup, especially when combined with High Jump. I find it weird that you have to equip them as abilities. They're permanent, and of course you're never going to remove them, and so why not just integrate them as part of your conntrol scheme as a default?

High Jump and Glide allowed me to grab a ton of treasure in Wonderland and Agrabah. Agrabah was not the menace it was before, the enemies go down in one hit so it became a cakewalk. The watery catacombs in the Cave of Wonders had a ton of secrets to unlock, which was nice. With Agrabah's promotion, my least favourite world is now Deep Jungle, which is a pain the ass to navigate even with my enhanced movements. The Vine section is particularly awful, and there wasn't even any hidden treasure up there so I spent ages swinging and jumping around for naught. Now I'm doing the very tedious slide-and-grab-fruits minigame. Trial and error tasks in video games is a pet peeve of mind, and here is a classic example. Just got 49/50 which is a crock of shit because now I have to do all 5 courses again and I don't even know where I missed the fruit.

Also gathering up the Big Ben treasures, which I wouldn't have known about if it weren't for the generous knowledge sharing of Big Pete. Already got six out of the twelve, gathered throughout the day during working hours and sidequesting.

There are different levels of goodies in Kingdom Hearts. Finding three dalmatians is awesome, even though it's essentially a trade for another goodie. Finding a rare synthesis item makes me happy. Healing items always come in handy for boss fights; Donald and Goofy go through them like wildfire. However, opening a difficult to access chest only to find a bloody gummi cube is always a massive disappointment.

Gotta say, Kingdom Hearts has one of the best levelling/growth systems in all of JRPGs. Every level gain, new ability or new spell feels significant, and the power increase is pretty apparent as I can go into previous worlds and wipe out enemies in the blink of an eye. Also stat boost items feel significant. In most Final Fantasy games, you get a Defense+ stat boost, you increase from 156 to 157 which is less than 1%. In Kingdom Hearts I might increase my defense stats from 25 to 26 which, while small, is a lot more significant.

What's the deal with the chest in Traverse Town that's just sitting there in the café area but you can never open?

Probably a chest you can only get in newgame+ and it'll be a potion.

What's the deal with the chest in Traverse Town that's just sitting there in the café area but you can never open?

That whole cafe is so gloomy, somebody should really brighten the place up.

That's a devious clue. You got it the wrong way round though. I had to put the candles out, not light them up!

So I have a ton of stat boost items now. Should I just dump them all on Sora? I feel like I should. Super powered Sora sound great.

Also did you guys use Sora's combat skills in battle? I feel like the combat is too fast paced to go into the menu and do things like use a battle skill, or use a spell that isn't in the quick cast list, so I never bother.

Completely wrecked the colosseum with my new superman Sora. Beat Squall Leon and Yuffie solo, then did the whole thing in the time trial. Three minutes to win all the gauntlet battles followed by Squall Leon and Yuffie. Didn't think I would even get close, but I dealt the final blow on Squall with about 15 seconds to spare.

Next up was the Hercules tournament. The one, the only, Cloud Strife makes a re-appearance as the mid-gauntlet boss, then you fight Hercules solo at the end. Hercules is a really stupid fight. He has an invincibility aura that can only destroyed by throwing a barrel at his head. Barrels that Hercules himself summons to the arena :lol: It took me a while to figre out the trick. Once I did the battle was fairly easy. Another hilarious thing is that we get this whole cutscene about Sora being a real hero solely because he has Goofy and Donald. Directly after Sora defeated Hercules on his own.

Cloud being relegated to a mid-gauntlet grunt is awful. Plus he gave me a way harder time than Hercules. Beat him first time, but it wasn't easy. Cloud zipping around the map like a maniac, dodging all my spells and attacks while rushing through my party member like a butcher's knife. Luckily his health isn't so strong, so whenever I got a hold of the guy I did a lot of damage. Couple of Stopras helped as well.

I was planning to post the next significant video game today, but it seems I have developed an addiction to Kingdom Hearts that completely covered my Thursday.

The Peter Pan ship was a nice, fairly swift dungeon with a couple of nasty boss fights. Shadow Sora fucked me and my party a couple of times. Super powerful attacks and at some point becomes barely hittable when he darts under the ground constantly and creates clones of himself. Stopra helped a lot with this battle and the Hook fight.

Hook is a menace, especially since you have to replay 5 minutes of cutscenes + fighting before the actual boss fight. Fortunately it only took me four attempts to defeat the captain. Mostly the same strat I'm doing for every big fight: Heal spam with a side order of Stopra. Goofy's special shield attacks were also pretty good at keeping Hook at bay.

Glide is a fantastic powerup, especially when combined with High Jump. I find it weird that you have to equip them as abilities. They're permanent, and of course you're never going to remove them, and so why not just integrate them as part of your conntrol scheme as a default?

Neverland is a great appetizer for the next world. It reminds me of Monstro and how that level gave Sora a new power up and moved the plot forward. A lot of worlds in Kingdom Hearts are enjoyable enough, but more or less feel self contained and there to tick a box. What the level lacks in terms of detail, it makes up for in terms of moving the plot forward.

You actually did pretty well considering the level is intended to be played after beating the other optional level. Sora's Shadow in particular is a sign of things to come and really tests your ability with the keyblade. I'm struggling to remember specific skills, but a few of them are handy since they have invincibility frames and allow you to get a chain off without triggering a revenge animation right away. The one you learn after beating Cloud in particular is very handy in a tight jam.

I'd recommend using Aero more and also making use of Tinkerbell. She functions as the game's regen which is very handy coming up.

High Jump and Glide allowed me to grab a ton of treasure in Wonderland and Agrabah. Agrabah was not the menace it was before, the enemies go down in one hit so it became a cakewalk. The watery catacombs in the Cave of Wonders had a ton of secrets to unlock, which was nice. With Agrabah's promotion, my least favourite world is now Deep Jungle, which is a pain the ass to navigate even with my enhanced movements. The Vine section is particularly awful, and there wasn't even any hidden treasure up there so I spent ages swinging and jumping around for naught. Now I'm doing the very tedious slide-and-grab-fruits minigame. Trial and error tasks in video games is a pet peeve of mind, and here is a classic example. Just got 49/50 which is a crock of shit because now I have to do all 5 courses again and I don't even know where I missed the fruit.

I typically skip the vines because outside of a few chests, there's nothing of note in that area.

The jungle slide has a few handy prizes, but it's also a pain. I find the hit boxes to be very inconsistent and tend to always miss one in the forth area where you've got to approach the fruit head on.

Gotta say, Kingdom Hearts has one of the best levelling/growth systems in all of JRPGs. Every level gain, new ability or new spell feels significant, and the power increase is pretty apparent as I can go into previous worlds and wipe out enemies in the blink of an eye. Also stat boost items feel significant. In most Final Fantasy games, you get a Defense+ stat boost, you increase from 156 to 157 which is less than 1%. In Kingdom Hearts I might increase my defense stats from 25 to 26 which, while small, is a lot more significant.

I love the Metroidvania aspect of it and how certain worlds really open up as you gain abilities. It's an unfortunate flaw of KH2 where all the chests are accessible on the first trip and there's no reason to return.

That's a devious clue. You got it the wrong way round though. I had to put the candles out, not light them up!

I'm so used to taking care of that puzzle early on, I'm used to the cafe looking gloomy. But like the door bell in Halloween Town, that was another one of those puzzles I remember scratching my head over.

So I have a ton of stat boost items now. Should I just dump them all on Sora? I feel like I should. Super powered Sora sound great.

Also did you guys use Sora's combat skills in battle? I feel like the combat is too fast paced to go into the menu and do things like use a battle skill, or use a spell that isn't in the quick cast list, so I never bother.

Yep, Sora is the first priority. Goofy and Donald are too dumb to deserve the power-ups.

I use the combat skills largely in colosseum or against other sword wielders. I tend to just stick with Ars Arcanum or that Cloud ability, depending on how safe I want to play it (Cloud's ability has more mobility making it easier to dodge out of a tough situation. That could be a HD Remaster adjustment though since you can just press triangle to activate it.

I feel like Kingdom Hearts picks up around Neverland, so I'm curious to see what you make of Hollow Bastion and the march forward. I'm also curious for your opinion of the optional level, it shouldn't be too difficult now that you've beaten Neverland but it's a change of pace and a few players can't stand it.

Just started Atlantis. Water levels have a bad reputation, and I think people have expressed their dislike in this thread of Atlantis. I've only done the swim tutorial and the first battle, but I already really like the vibe. Enemies went down in one hit to my super powered Sora, so perhaps this will be a breeze, or a mild current. Perhaps not.

Missing one Big Ben treasure. Unfortunately when I was going hour by hour yesterday I somehow missed the 1am prize, so I have to wait for 6-7 in-game hours before I get another shot. Love the Big Ben level though. It looks so beautiful, the flying controls are wonderfully smooth, and it has perhaps my favourite track in the game.

Gummi ship question: isn't your power meant to go down when you fire lasers? I've gone through the whole game holding X down, constantly firing the lasers, and my power stays at 100%. Glitch? If so, it's a very welcome one.

I'm Stuck In Atlantis.

Follow the Trident signs and you'll reach the palace, right?

Well, I've explored every inch and cranny of this rather pleasant underwater area, and I can't seem to make any progress. What's the deal? Am I missing something that's staring me in the face, or is it some Simon's Quest BS where I have to attack the right rock eight times in a row, or cast Aero on myself (I actually tried this) in the hope that it will nullify the strong current?

I need Big Pete's crpytic clues.

In the room with the current, hug the right wall (or the closest wall to which you entered) to access a room with a trident on it. Swim up and you'll be in a new area. Just keep following the tridents and you'll be in a new area in no time.

I thought it may have been another section where you've got to ride the dolphin since he has something to show you. However, the dolphin doesn't like company, so clear the room if he doesn't take you through the Calm Depths.

The least cryptic clue I've ever seen, but a necessary one. I did try to swim through the current somehow but couldn't make it work.

That's that done. The shark was a breeze. Beat Ursula Part One the first time, although I imagine I would have been messing around forever had I not talked to Triton before the fight, establishing that I have to cast spells on the cauldron. Even so, I didn't really get the gimmick of the battle. Ursula seemed super powered even when the cauldron wasn't all lit up, and trying to target it is really fucking difficult. But she never posed a threat to kill me so I could take all the time in the world.

Second Ursula battle is an amazing visual spectacle. Brilliant. She defeated me the first time as I was completely unprepared. Just sat in front of her face spamming attacks, but her spam trumped mine. I was smarter in round 2, occasionally swimming away with Sora when I anticipated some nastiness. That did the trick. Goofy and Donald haven't felt so irrelevant in a long time.

Finished off the Hundred Acre Wood. Some of the mini-games were a ballache, but for the most part I am very fond of that world and sad to see the saga end. I'm now fully prepared to move onto the next chapter.

The least cryptic clue I've ever seen, but a necessary one. I did try to swim through the current somehow but couldn't make it work.

Clearly 'follow the tridents' wasn't going to get the job done and since Atlantica is a chore I thought I'd be generous.

Beat Ursula Part One the first time, although I imagine I would have been messing around forever had I not talked to Triton before the fight, establishing that I have to cast spells on the cauldron. Even so, I didn't really get the gimmick of the battle. Ursula seemed super powered even when the cauldron wasn't all lit up, and trying to target it is really fucking difficult. But she never posed a threat to kill me so I could take all the time in the world.

It's an easy fight that harkens back to the Hercules fight. It teaches you to stratergise and to look for environmental hazards to exploit. If you take Ursula on head-on, it's going to be difficult, but if you continue to overload the cauldron, it makes it extremely easy to whittle her health down. The only difficult part of the fight is keeping everyone in sight, it's one of the few times where the player will have more difficulty with the camera than the actual opponent.

The next fight is the real challenge. It's a sign of things to come and a lot of bosses towards the end follow a similar design pattern where you've got to wait out their attacks and pick an optimal time to launch a counter-attack. It's also a good fight to spam stop and just go gung-ho to extend your raids.

Finished off the Hundred Acre Wood. Some of the mini-games were a ballache, but for the most part I am very fond of that world and sad to see the saga end. I'm now fully prepared to move onto the next chapter.

I was surprised at how well that whole saga played out. I used to ignore it during my initial playthroughs, but now I always make room for it since the items are extremely useful and it wraps up so nicely.

Embarrassing confession time, in the next world you go to you're going to come up to a puzzle filled with gates to open up the entrance to the level. I was stuck down there listening to the Stone Cold podcast for an hour because I was only half paying attention and remembered that you had to access the world from that area. The puzzle takes all of a minute to complete - it was the biggest AVGN style - 'you can just walk across' discoveries.

General Hint For the Upcoming World: It doesn't take an Issac Newton to reach those chests.

Before heading to Hollow Bastion I decided to build a Gummi Ship! Huzzah! I got the idea from a speedrun I started watching (not going to go ahead of where I am in the game obviously) and he just built a fast ship with like four blocks. So I did that. The menu system was nowhere near as painful as it first appeared, but I still had to Google how to delete blocks, and I had to Google why my ship wasn't flyable. Turns out I put the engine in the wrong direction :suspic:

So now I have a rudimentary ship with no armour but great manoeuvrability and a Haste block for acceleration. So I'm zipping around the map dodging everything. Pretty nice. During this process I also learnt there are two kinds of weapons: cannons and lasers. The whole time I was using cannons, which is why my power meter was never going down as I commented before. Now I have lasers, which are like homing weapons but drain power on use. Point is: flying between worlds is now a lot easier and faster.

Hollow Bastion is pretty epic. Kuja Riku nabs my Keyblade, leaving me with a wooden stick. And THE BEAST. Sora's magic is pretty pathetic in terms of damage so I just used Stop or Gravity and let THE BEAST do the rest. Gate puzzle was barely a puzzle at all. Library puzzle was pretty fun. I used to work at a bookshop so I know the geeky joy of putting books in the right places.

Then you find Kuja Riku, Sora gives a cringey speech about friendship which earns him back the Keyblade.

Kuja Riku was a pretty easy fight. For some reason I had the Sling skill equipped so I tested it out. Pretty sweet, especially if you get the Raid combos. Did this two or three times which did a lot of damage with little risk. Kuja Riku proved difficult to nail down in the final few hits. In hindsight a Stop would have done it, instead I just chased him around and eventually caught him with the decisive blow.

The whole dungeon reminds me of Kuja's palace in FF9. Futuristic style elevators, libraries, puzzles involving lighting candles.

Now I'm onto a daunting looking section with several elevators and a zillion different switches. That's gonna be FUN.

Hollow Bastion's elevator navigation was not as daunting as I imagined. I wonder how long it would have taken me to figure out the chest secret without Big Pete's hint? Probably a very long time.

As mentioned before, Sora's strength has been boosted significantly by all the powerups I grabbed along the way. This made Maleficent Part I and Maleficent Part II - Black Dragon pretty easy. With such huge damage output I can essentially tank the battles. The Black Dragon defeated me the first time, but that's because I was tanking very crudely, not making any effort to dodge. The Dragon has a ton of health, wipes out Donald and Goofy in an instant, and I couldn't keep pace with my healing. Dead.

In round two I made a greater effort to duck and weave. Clambering on the dragon's back to avoid all the stomping earthquake attacks was a foolproof method, although it was pretty hard to dodge everything. Nevertheless, I avoided quite a lot of attacks, to the point where I wasn't healing that much at all to stay in the game.

Here's where the story starts to become very contrived, if it wasn't contrived enough already. Riku pulled a dark Keyblade out of his ass, one that locks up the heart, or something. He does the heart-locking to Maleficent after we defeat her. Maleficent is cast to the Shadow Realm. Riku is possessed by the dude whose notes we are collecting (I forget the name, begins with 'A', @ness' area of expertise), Kairi doesn't have a heart because Sora has her heart (wtf?), and we have a one on one duel with Riku/A-hole.

I immediately get PTSD flashbacks to Destiny Island, where Riku whooped me 36 times in our duels before I defeated him the first time. Both of us are much stronger now, but would I be able to level the score? He was pretty easy for the first couple of health bars, but on his final health bar he advanced to god mode, darting across the map with powerful attacks, and I couldn't even catch a hit on the guy. He killed me.

1-0 Riku.

That's fine, it's never easy to beat a Kingdom Hearts boss the first time. Now I had the information I needed to give him a better fight. Commence round two.

Keyblades clashed many times, I took the upper hand early on. I hit him with Ars Arcanum just because, but seemed like a precious waste of MP considering the relatively little damage it did. The moment soon came. Riku's final health bar, and his transition to god mode. For the most part I was able to dodge or parry his attacks, but I was unable to deal any damage for several minutes. He always dodged my attacks, or launched an assault so quickly I had no choice but to guard or evade. I hung on in there, healing sparingly. As the battle raged on, I evolved, grew more capable, and eventually started connecting with Keyblade blows. Those blows became short combos, and I even scored a full combo once. The tides were turning, destiny unavoidable: light prevails over darkness. So it did. I defeated Riku.

1-1. I'll take it.

The general epicness of Hollow Bastion, and having to fight two big bags in Maleficent and Riku/A-Hole, started to convince me that this was the end of the game, albeit a seemingly premature one. Nope. Some nonsensical Keyhole/heart developments happen. Sora stabs himself with the Dark Keyblade, sending himself to the Shadow Realm. He does this to free Kairi's heart, which was inside Sora, for reasons nobody can explain. A-Hole reveals his true form, just-turned-face Riku is alive, somehow. Riku blocks A-hole, allowing Donald, Goofy and Kairi to escape. Sora returns from his brief visit to the Shadow Realm as a Heartless. Not one of the cool ones, but one of the piddly little squirts you face back in the tutorial level. I can't even melt into the ground and become two-dimensional like they do. What a crock of shit.

Nevertheless, I am intrigued. Where is this going? I don't know, and I am excited.

Before heading to Hollow Bastion I decided to build a Gummi Ship! Huzzah! I got the idea from a speedrun I started watching (not going to go ahead of where I am in the game obviously) and he just built a fast ship with like four blocks. So I did that. The menu system was nowhere near as painful as it first appeared, but I still had to Google how to delete blocks, and I had to Google why my ship wasn't flyable. Turns out I put the engine in the wrong direction

So now I have a rudimentary ship with no armour but great manoeuvrability and a Haste block for acceleration. So I'm zipping around the map dodging everything. Pretty nice. During this process I also learnt there are two kinds of weapons: cannons and lasers. The whole time I was using cannons, which is why my power meter was never going down as I commented before. Now I have lasers, which are like homing weapons but drain power on use. Point is: flying between worlds is now a lot easier and faster.

I can't believe I didn't touch on this. I remember making a mental note about the power question because I had the same opinion until I bothered with the section for completion purposes. Not only are they used for lasers, but they're also used for magnets which with the flick of dualshock can draw in all the loose power-ups on screen.

The gummi ship was easily my least favourite part of the game. A nice distraction but they were so mind numingly easy I never felt I needed to upgrade my ship. However, if you actually play around with it, it's satisfying especially when you can nuke everything on screen and rack up all sorts of blocks.

Hollow Bastion is pretty epic. Kuja Riku nabs my Keyblade, leaving me with a wooden stick. And THE BEAST. Sora's magic is pretty pathetic in terms of damage so I just used Stop or Gravity and let THE BEAST do the rest. Gate puzzle was barely a puzzle at all. Library puzzle was pretty fun. I used to work at a bookshop so I know the geeky joy of putting books in the right places.

Then you find Kuja Riku, Sora gives a cringey speech about friendship which earns him back the Keyblade.

Kuja Riku was a pretty easy fight. For some reason I had the Sling skill equipped so I tested it out. Pretty sweet, especially if you get the Raid combos. Did this two or three times which did a lot of damage with little risk. Kuja Riku proved difficult to nail down in the final few hits. In hindsight a Stop would have done it, instead I just chased him around and eventually caught him with the decisive blow.

The whole dungeon reminds me of Kuja's palace in FF9. Futuristic style elevators, libraries, puzzles involving lighting candles.

Now I'm onto a daunting looking section with several elevators and a zillion different switches. That's gonna be FUN.

Outside of Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion is my favourite world in KH because of how it unfolds. It doesn't have that annoying sense of deja vu of the other worlds. This isn't a Cliff Notes version of a Disney movie, it's a unique world that has Disney references through out and impacts the main narrative directly. I love that twist at the start, how the game confirms to you that Sora wasn't originally intended to be the hero and you're put into his shoes. You've come all this way, but unless you know what you're doing, you're completely powerless. It lasts just long enough without it being a total drag and when you re-unite with everyone it's such a nice video game moment. You got to experience what the character went through and not only that, but you're finally on an even keel with Riku who up to this point has been designed as your toughest opponent.

As mentioned before, Sora's strength has been boosted significantly by all the powerups I grabbed along the way. This made Maleficent Part I and Maleficent Part II - Black Dragon pretty easy. With such huge damage output I can essentially tank the battles. The Black Dragon defeated me the first time, but that's because I was tanking very crudely, not making any effort to dodge. The Dragon has a ton of health, wipes out Donald and Goofy in an instant, and I couldn't keep pace with my healing. Dead.

I'm surprised you had such an easy time with Maleficent's second form. It's one of the toughest fights in the game and if you're not ready for it, you'll get wiped out easily. My first time through I just completely cheesed it, by staying as far as possible, hitting fires and waiting until Goofy would MP Gift me. It took ages, but I accomplished it. Later on, I realised how handy Aero and Tinkerbell were, so I just tanked it and traded blows.

Here's where the story starts to become very contrived, if it wasn't contrived enough already. Riku pulled a dark Keyblade out of his ass, one that locks up the heart, or something. He does the heart-locking to Maleficent after we defeat her. Maleficent is cast to the Shadow Realm. Riku is possessed by the dude whose notes we are collecting (I forget the name, begins with 'A', Ness' area of expertise), Kairi doesn't have a heart because Sora has her heart (wtf?), and we have a one on one duel with Riku/A-hole.

I immediately get PTSD flashbacks to Destiny Island, where Riku whooped me 36 times in our duels before I defeated him the first time. Both of us are much stronger now, but would I be able to level the score? He was pretty easy for the first couple of health bars, but on his final health bar he advanced to god mode, darting across the map with powerful attacks, and I couldn't even catch a hit on the guy. He killed me.

1-0 Riku.

That's fine, it's never easy to beat a Kingdom Hearts boss the first time. Now I had the information I needed to give him a better fight. Commence round two.

Keyblades clashed many times, I took the upper hand early on. I hit him with Ars Arcanum just because, but seemed like a precious waste of MP considering the relatively little damage it did. The moment soon came. Riku's final health bar, and his transition to god mode. For the most part I was able to dodge or parry his attacks, but I was unable to deal any damage for several minutes. He always dodged my attacks, or launched an assault so quickly I had no choice but to guard or evade. I hung on in there, healing sparingly. As the battle raged on, I evolved, grew more capable, and eventually started connecting with Keyblade blows. Those blows became short combos, and I even scored a full combo once. The tides were turning, destiny unavoidable: light prevails over darkness. So it did. I defeated Riku.

1-1. I'll take it.

Ansem and believe me that becomes a lot more convoluted in the sequels.

Riku is really tough and it's the one occassion where I recommend using skills if only to get invincibility frames or land some big attacks when he's open. I view the fight as a real test of skill for the player. You can't rely on Donald and Goofy to tank hits, it's up to you as the player to read Riku and to know just how far to extend Sora otherwise Riku will whittle you down. It sounds like you got the hang of it, conserving just enough for his final dash which from memory was similar to the fight with Hook who pulls out all the stops when he's on low health.

The general epicness of Hollow Bastion, and having to fight two big bags in Maleficent and Riku/A-Hole, started to convince me that this was the end of the game, albeit a seemingly premature one. Nope. Some nonsensical Keyhole/heart developments happen. Sora stabs himself with the Dark Keyblade, sending himself to the Shadow Realm. He does this to free Kairi's heart, which was inside Sora, for reasons nobody can explain. A-Hole reveals his true form, just-turned-face Riku is alive, somehow. Riku blocks A-hole, allowing Donald, Goofy and Kairi to escape. Sora returns from his brief visit to the Shadow Realm as a Heartless. Not one of the cool ones, but one of the piddly little squirts you face back in the tutorial level. I can't even melt into the ground and become two-dimensional like they do. What a crock of shit.

Nevertheless, I am intrigued. Where is this going? I don't know, and I am excited.

The concept of 'Hearts' in KH are different to our own. They're not the vital organ that pump blood and keep you alive, they're more like souls. So when Destiny Island was destroyed, Kairi had her 'Heart' ripped from her body and we saw that when she seemingly rammed into Sora without knocking him over.

Sora killing himself here has huge ramifications for the series. In fact, the events of KH2 are inspired by this one event.

You're right at the end game. I'd recommend taking on the final Colosseum Cup and taking care of any synthesis you may want to. It's an easy feature to ignore, but it's very rewarding especially when you're decked out with lucky strike abilities. Completing the Synth shop gives you Sora's most powerful keyblade the Ultimate Weapon which grants strong attack and magic.

One enemy you may have trouble with are those white mushroom guys who pop up now and then. They're actually not your enemies, they're trying to play a game of charades. If you come across them again, try to guess the right spell, and if you guess it correctly three times you'll win a rare material. For bonus points, if you can wait for them to do the same animation three times and hit all three spells, it gives you another strong synth material.

There's some other side bosses including one that will block you from going to Big Ben, but I'd save them until after you beat the game.

Using Skills to get invincibility frames is not worth the effort. I find it extremely difficult to do anything in Kingdom Hearts combat that involves looking at/navigating the menu. Summons, magic that isn't shortcutted, Items, Skills. I usually end up taking a bunch of hits trying to set up these things. It's more manageable when Donald and Goofy are there to distract, in a 1v1 fight it's very difficult.

Yeah I've already figured out the white mushrooms and got a bunch of rare items from them. There's also the other mushrooms that you have to bounce in the air, but that's pretty much impossible and I'm not going to waste my time trying.