Beat Kingdom Hearts like 3 years ago on Proud mode, did everything BUT Sephiroth. Sin Harvest is an easy move to track, you have to superglide over to him to interrupt him, what is tricky are his omnislash moves where one hit wipes your health instantly. If I recall, auto curaga(Or the highest form of it) is a must. You have to have combos that do good damage to him and take away those auto combo abilities as they are a waste. I had him absolutely down as a kid on normal mode, to the point I can run it back and beat him. Issue with Sephiroth on proud mode is his damage output is insane, even one swipe of his took nearly all of your health bar and he combos it so he gets you in a 1-2 swing. I thought about lowering the difficulty JUST for him but I was burnt out by the game at that point :lol:

KH2 Sephiroth is a whole different beast. By far the tougher version. Even on normal mode he is ridiculous.

A lot of what Big Pete said is accurate, Phantom is a battle of magic. IF I RECALL you bring Peter Pan and not Goofy in that fight as Pan has better magic, you just need to set the AI for Donald and Pan to do attack magic as much as you can and rely on yourself to heal via potions. It is ultimately on you but I think theres a keyblade(the one from Neverland?) that boost your magic, equip that. Battle is a lot of micromanaging more than anything else, have to have those elixirs and MP restores READY and have them shortcut equipped. This is one of the very few battles you need elixirs so feel free to use them.

A lot of what Big Pete said is accurate, Phantom is a battle of magic. IF I RECALL you bring Peter Pan and not Goofy in that fight as Pan has better magic, you just need to set the AI for Donald and Pan to do attack magic as much as you can and rely on yourself to heal via potions. It is ultimately on you but I think theres a keyblade(the one from Neverland?) that boost your magic, equip that. Battle is a lot of micromanaging more than anything else, have to have those elixirs and MP restores READY and have them shortcut equipped. This is one of the very few battles you need elixirs so feel free to use them.

Goofy is better since Donald is prone to spam the wrong spell and throw the entire rhythm of the battle out of wack. Both Pan and Goofy are merely there to restore Sora's MP which you'll need plenty of since you have to keep a look out for his Doom spell (which requires you to cast stop on one of the clock hands on Big Ben).

KH2 Sephiroth is a whole different beast. By far the tougher version. Even on normal mode he is ridiculous.

Yeah I found him to be really difficult as well and that was at Lvl 99 with maxed drives. The post-game fights are among the most difficult challenges I've come across in gaming.

Jan 17, 2021 16:21:04 GMT Big Pete said:

A lot of what Big Pete said is accurate, Phantom is a battle of magic. IF I RECALL you bring Peter Pan and not Goofy in that fight as Pan has better magic, you just need to set the AI for Donald and Pan to do attack magic as much as you can and rely on yourself to heal via potions. It is ultimately on you but I think theres a keyblade(the one from Neverland?) that boost your magic, equip that. Battle is a lot of micromanaging more than anything else, have to have those elixirs and MP restores READY and have them shortcut equipped. This is one of the very few battles you need elixirs so feel free to use them.

Goofy is better since Donald is prone to spam the wrong spell and throw the entire rhythm of the battle out of wack. Both Pan and Goofy are merely there to restore Sora's MP which you'll need plenty of since you have to keep a look out for his Doom spell (which requires you to cast stop on one of the clock hands on Big Ben).

I remember taking off of Pan's regular moves and purposely just leaving him bare bones with him there to use offensive magic and adding whatever he can. I remember keeping Donald though and I think he was healing me :lol: I forget the exact format, maybe it was to set Donald to priortize healing?

Sephiroth is an enormous prick.

An enormous prick who just got his ass handed to him by yours truly.

Details later.

Kingdom Heart is a great game. Just wish they didn't make KH3. That game was straight trash.

Jan 19, 2021 14:32:02 GMT Emperor said:

Sephiroth is an enormous prick.

An enormous prick who just got his ass handed to him by yours truly.

Details later.

Holy shit done on proud mode?! Didn't think you'd find a way Emperor, I forget you grew up on PS2 and PS1 games.

Jan 19, 2021 18:40:55 GMT Da Gr8t I Is said:

Kingdom Heart is a great game. Just wish they didn't make KH3. That game was straight trash.

I don't even know what Proud Mode is. Something in the Remix? I played on Expert, original game.

What was your strategy for Sephiroth?

I played it when it was out, so I didn't really have Youtube tutorials, but I remember something like you glide over him to interrupt Sin Harvest and then it's just hit and run while avoiding his long range?

For the record I never beat him. I think I had him to the final health bar or close to it and I just ran out of Elixirs to heal myself. Didn't really feel motivated to keep going at it.

First off, I found the missing Dalmatian chests. One was in Hollow Bastion, where you fight Riku and Ansel. Chests appear after you win the battle but you have to re-enter the room after the boss fight. I never did. The other two were hidden away in Halloween Town. No way I would have found those without a guide.

Next up was Phantom. Fought him a couple of times. Did OK but couldn't figure out how his Doom mechanic worked. Do I have to Stop one clock face, or all four? Couldn't figure it out so I consulted a guide on the mechanics of the fight. Ended up reading the whole guide, including optimal setup. First time I really became aware of how the AI behaviour actually works. You can configure Goofy and Peter Pan to never use any MP abilities, and ensure that Goofy uses MP Gift on Sora as much as he can and that they don't waste items unnnecessarily. Perhaps I could have won the battle without those optimisations: once I figured out that I only need to stop one clock face at a time, it became a lot more manageable and I won on my first attempt.

Finally, the One Winged Angel.



No, no, not that One Winged Angel. As great as it is.



This asshole. This chumpstain. This dickweed.

Sora: Level 78. Sephiroth: Level God.

First few battles I got destroyed, naturally. Takes a few attempts to learn his attack patterns, phenomenal speed, movement. Eventually I found a reliable way to deal some damage. Air combos! Get him at the right distance, low jump, possibly a short glide, whack! Didn't always work, he had counters, but it was reliable enough. Have to dart away before he surrounds himself with fire columns.

Somewhere between fight 5-10 I was able to knock off a couple of health bars to reach his second phase. The phase where he uses Sin Harvest. This baffled me for a while. Takes your HP and MP down to 1, and after it hits he immediately charges at you for the kill. I learnt you can interrupt it by attacking him, but he tends to teleport away just before he does it. Sometimes I caught him but often he would teleport out of reach for me to react in time. Most of the time I could fire off an Elixir before he rushed in with his deathblow and the battle raged on. Strike Raid was useful, Sora's ranged skill: even if it was too slow to interrupt, it stalled him enough so I could comfortably use an Elixir.

Around fight 15 I got him down to two health bars left. Enter phase three. Absolute insanity. Sephiroth spams Shadow Flare, constantly teleports all over the place, swings his sword. I could keep up with the healing but couldn't get a single hit on the guy. Dark Orbs everywhere doing damage to me, Sephiroth appearing in front of me for half a second before running off. The Meteor attack was relatively harmless, everything else a nightmare. I stayed alive for a while. In the end he surprised me with another Sin Harvest and I was too taken aback to heal in time.

Few more fights where he killed me in phase two.

Fight 20 or thereabouts I reached phase three for the second time. He starts spamming his ungodly waves of bullshit. I take a more aggressive approach and I find that it's not so hard to hit the guy. Yeah I'm swinging for the fences and hoping I hit something, but that approach paid off quite a lot. I was able to balance this with healing. Whenever I connected I was able to combo 3-4 hits so his health was going down fast. He didn't try Sin Harvest again and I finished him off, just like that. Sephiroth down.

Sora reaches Level 80.

Took fewer attempts to beat Sephiroth than it did to beat Riku on Destiny Island at the very start of the game. Babyface Riku - hardest boss fight in the game.

I finish my more-or-less perfect run of Kingdom Hearts.

Game Over.

Jan 19, 2021 21:03:53 GMT Emperor said:

I don't even know what Proud Mode is. Something in the Remix? I played on Expert, original game.

It's the exact same mode, it just fits in line with the naming convention KH2 created.

KH2 introduces Critical mode in the remix version which is even harder but as a trade off Sora has access to more abilities from the start, so the flow of combat is far more intense from the start.

Well done on beating Sephiroth, it's pretty impressive you were able to beat him at such a low level. Perseverence definitely pays off and you definitely gave yourself the best chance of winning.

I'm pretty sure that's everything in the original game. In the remix they introduce another boss fight with the hooded figure from Destiny Island who turns out to be the final boss of KH2.

There's also more heartless that have special synthesis items, usually they require more strategy than regular heartless to beat. I believe I mentioned them in the past, but the Sniperwilds in the centre of Traverse Town are the worst. You have to kill them in clusters of 1-2-3 and if one of them spots you before you can kill it, they'll start spawning infinite copies and make getting the synthesis item impossible.

If you try and take them on ASAP it's incredibly intense where you have to camp at a specific spot and hope they jump in at the right angle, otherwise you can accidentally knock them off without killing them or they'll spot you from a blindspot. If you come in later on, there's a strategy that actually makes Dumbo useful since you can 360 no scope them as soon as they spawn, potentially clearing two waves.

There's a few enemies like that, there's one where you have to hit an 80 hit combo in about 20 seconds, another where you have to guess the right enemy as they shuffle in place (so basically spam pause to guess the right one) and another one where you can't allow these giant heartless to touch you. Your reward is more accessories at the synthesis shop which elongates the process of getting the ultima weapon.

They also introduced gummi missions but that's completely seperate and just gives them some more purpose. These are actually among the most challenging areas in the game, especially where you have to clear a mission by a certain time without getting hit.

Do you think it was worth doing all the side content? Personally I like how the game rewards you for completing them while also being entertaining in their own right. Even something like 100 Acre Woods which has the worst jank in the game dishes out some nice gear and somehow fits in seamlessly with the world.

Now I don't know what to do with myself. I thought we'd still be here until 2023, with the KH2 playthrough scheduled in 2025, concluding in 2031. I'm very curious to get your thoughts on KH2 coming off of KH but I could also understand taking a break. KH2 is about twice the size of the original. On the positive side, you do have the ability to skip cutscenes if you desire, which is something they didn't introduce to the original until the remixes came out.

Kingdom Heart is a great game. Just wish they didn't make KH3. That game was straight trash.

It's such a mixed game.

I enjoyed myself as I was playing through it, but it seemed like when it was all said and done, the Disney/Square stuff went together like oil and water. It was basically just a slog of Disney worlds where you replay the events of the movie and it isn't until the last couple of hours the actual plot of the game progresses. The division had already existed in previous games, but the gap appeared to be widened here, which is a shame because KH as a premise works as an epic Disney RPG in the style of a FF game. It seems like as the series progresses, they've steered further away from that and I miss locales like Traverse Town which seemed like the perfect mix.

The choice of worlds also lacked imagination. It just seemed like Disney execs told them to pick nothing but their biggest movies and franchises from the time of it's development (so from 2013) with the only exception being Hercules which was essentially just the tutorial level.

Jan 19, 2021 20:27:11 GMT @ness said:

Jan 19, 2021 18:40:55 GMT Da Gr8t I Is said:

Kingdom Heart is a great game. Just wish they didn't make KH3. That game was straight trash.

You know a game is bad when Ness and I agree on it lol


But seriously, I been playing this game when it came out during my middle school years. At the time there wasn't a game like it. I remember getting to school early everyday just to talk to friends about what level we were stuck on and what was the best key Sword/Blade. Great times. Then part 2 came out my Jr year of High School. KH2 was just as good as the first one. New abilities, some new levels and new key swords/blade.

Now with 2 great games, you would think KH3 would be epic...



My question is what were they doing all those years when they kept postponing the release date? During those years, Disney bought the rights to Fox, Star Wars and Marvel. You would think they were adding a Star Wars Level, a Marvel level, heck even a Simpson or Eek The Cat level.

Overall I'd give Kingdom Hearts a 7/10.

It has a wonderful aesthetic, pretty good voice acting, and for the most part well-designed. The combat is very fluid, most of the mini-games are pretty good. Mixes up the content so you're not usually fighting for too long at a time or platforming for too long. Generally pretty easy to figure out where you're going. Character progression is good. As is upgrades to equipment, magic, abilities, etcetera. Feel like the levelling up system is the strongest feature of the game. Even if you're overlevelled you don't often feel overpowered, and if you're underlevelled you still stand a chance if you have the skill or cunning.

However the game is flawed in many ways. The platforming is generally quite janky. Some of the mini-games are just annoying or tedious (gummi ship, I'm looking at you). The combat can also be clunky if you're trying to do anything that isn't shortcutted. Trying to navigate menus for the right item or spell while in real time combat is frustrating. Sure it takes skill to be good at it, but it's not a fun challenge. Worst part is Sora's skills. They just pop up randomly and you have to consciously move the menu selection from 'Attack' to the bottom item and time it right. Annoying.

Those are all fairly minor. The biggest issue I have with the game is the story. It's shit. Bringing all the Disney universe and some of the Final Fantasy universe together is wonderful, and I marked out many times in the early game. But the plot that holds everything together is kinda crap. After a while I just stopped caring, watching the cutscenes with a mixture of boredom and confusion.

These things prevent Kingdom Hearts being a truly great RPG. Instead it's just very good. Wouldn't play it again, but it was a very enjoyable 50-100 hours.

Jan 20, 2021 3:12:31 GMT Big Pete said:

Do you think it was worth doing all the side content? Personally I like how the game rewards you for completing them while also being entertaining in their own right. Even something like 100 Acre Woods which has the worst jank in the game dishes out some nice gear and somehow fits in seamlessly with the world.

Agreed, most of the sidequests are fantastic. The end-game secret bosses are the perfect level of challenge without feeling unbeatable or cheap. Takes a lot of skill and practice to take them down, but feels so good when you do.

Jan 20, 2021 3:12:31 GMT Big Pete said:

Now I don't know what to do with myself. I thought we'd still be here until 2023, with the KH2 playthrough scheduled in 2025, concluding in 2031. I'm very curious to get your thoughts on KH2 coming off of KH but I could also understand taking a break. KH2 is about twice the size of the original. On the positive side, you do have the ability to skip cutscenes if you desire, which is something they didn't introduce to the original until the remixes came out.

Didn't expect me to get my ass into gear, huh? Well, I'm not going to go straight into KH2, especially since you told me it's even longer. Stories aren't directly connected anyway, not that I care much, so it'll be a fresh JRPG whenever I get round to it. 2023.

I just got a new gaming PC this week. My old one was reaching peak temperatures even on middle-of-the-road games, which is one of the reasons I've been focusing so much on the Shantae series. However I'm going to try some games I've been itching to play for a while on the PC. Might also take up a lightweight platformer or shooter on the PS2.

Boredom and confusion is the perfect way to describe experiencing KH's story.

Jan 20, 2021 22:31:37 GMT Emperor said:

Overall I'd give Kingdom Hearts a 7/10.

It has a wonderful aesthetic, pretty good voice acting, and for the most part well-designed. The combat is very fluid, most of the mini-games are pretty good. Mixes up the content so you're not usually fighting for too long at a time or platforming for too long. Generally pretty easy to figure out where you're going. Character progression is good. As is upgrades to equipment, magic, abilities, etcetera. Feel like the levelling up system is the strongest feature of the game. Even if you're overlevelled you don't often feel overpowered, and if you're underlevelled you still stand a chance if you have the skill or cunning.

However the game is flawed in many ways. The platforming is generally quite janky. Some of the mini-games are just annoying or tedious (gummi ship, I'm looking at you). The combat can also be clunky if you're trying to do anything that isn't shortcutted. Trying to navigate menus for the right item or spell while in real time combat is frustrating. Sure it takes skill to be good at it, but it's not a fun challenge. Worst part is Sora's skills. They just pop up randomly and you have to consciously move the menu selection from 'Attack' to the bottom item and time it right. Annoying.

Those are all fairly minor. The biggest issue I have with the game is the story. It's shit. Bringing all the Disney universe and some of the Final Fantasy universe together is wonderful, and I marked out many times in the early game. But the plot that holds everything together is kinda crap. After a while I just stopped caring, watching the cutscenes with a mixture of boredom and confusion.

These things prevent Kingdom Hearts being a truly great RPG. Instead it's just very good. Wouldn't play it again, but it was a very enjoyable 50-100 hours.

Jan 20, 2021 3:12:31 GMT Big Pete said:

Do you think it was worth doing all the side content? Personally I like how the game rewards you for completing them while also being entertaining in their own right. Even something like 100 Acre Woods which has the worst jank in the game dishes out some nice gear and somehow fits in seamlessly with the world.

Agreed, most of the sidequests are fantastic. The end-game secret bosses are the perfect level of challenge without feeling unbeatable or cheap. Takes a lot of skill and practice to take them down, but feels so good when you do.

Jan 20, 2021 3:12:31 GMT Big Pete said:

Now I don't know what to do with myself. I thought we'd still be here until 2023, with the KH2 playthrough scheduled in 2025, concluding in 2031. I'm very curious to get your thoughts on KH2 coming off of KH but I could also understand taking a break. KH2 is about twice the size of the original. On the positive side, you do have the ability to skip cutscenes if you desire, which is something they didn't introduce to the original until the remixes came out.

Didn't expect me to get my ass into gear, huh? Well, I'm not going to go straight into KH2, especially since you told me it's even longer. Stories aren't directly connected anyway, not that I care much, so it'll be a fresh JRPG whenever I get round to it. 2023.

I just got a new gaming PC this week. My old one was reaching peak temperatures even on middle-of-the-road games, which is one of the reasons I've been focusing so much on the Shantae series. However I'm going to try some games I've been itching to play for a while on the PC. Might also take up a lightweight platformer or shooter on the PS2.

I'm curious what your experience would have been liked if you had have played the 1.5 version. A couple of issues you had with the game were acknowledged and fixed in later versions, such as Sora's abilities which can now be executed with the triangle button. It's one of the improvements two introduced as well as a few features I think you'll appreciate. Still, I think that's a fair assessment and falls in line with how people felt at the time. It wasn't the train wreck some thought it would be, but it wasn't the best Action RPG or Hack n Slash game out there and the story could be really cheesy.

The story only gets more convoluted from here.  I might be repeating myself here, but KH works better if you can relate to the characters and come into as a pre-teen. I was at just the right age to appreciate the story and I was going through a lot of things the characters were going through, like fighting the shadow version of myself in a pirate ship - they really did an unbelievable job of capturing that. As far as some of the crazy developments like Sora turning into a heartless or the deal at the end with Kingdom Hearts, I always hand-waved that as being vague enough where you could easily interpret it in a different way, or just crazy SquareSoft story-telling.

From two, the game really gets carried away with it's lore and becomes less relatable and more about the world of Kingdom Hearts. The main cast all return, but not as you remember since a few developments took place in two side-games, only one of which was released prior to 2 since they wanted to disorientate players the first time they played through the game.

I don't know what you're on about when it comes to KH's story Emperor