So you think...
I only fought the Lingering Will once, and died pretty much immediately. I can't judge that fight until I actually go back to it with a proper level. Mysterious Figure is definitely the toughest. You basically have to cheat in order to win. Because he also cheats. I felt bad equipping all those Fire Surge and Curaga commands, but like...he turns invisible...so f*** him. Xemnas in KH1FM is also pretty infuriating. The core of the battle is kind of tricky, but mostly standard stuff. His draining/shock attack is ridiculous though. Sometimes it feels completely random whether it lets you release it or not. Really had to take advantage of invincibility during limits, which I don't generally like doing. Smooth voice, by the way.
I was kind of full, but not too bad. I had to go for it though, because no one else had a slice. And it was amazing.
Nah, but I had a slice of cheesecake at the end that I probably shouldn't have.
Filling, I suppose :P
Thanks :P
lol I just posted about this
Ah, therein lies the problem. Coders are a nebulous part of the staff, so I'm pretty sure I don't have access to the staff section.
Part of what now?
Maybe you should get on that :P
Secret Ansem's Report 11 talks about how Traverse Town is a special world. When Destiny Islands was destroyed, Sora was sucked into the massive corridor of darkness and appeared in Traverse Town. Mickey and Pluto (as seen in Re:Coded) found their way into the Realm of Darkness through the corridors that appeared there (though it's unclear if they went together or separately). The Robed Figure said that Destiny Islands had been "tied to the darkness", possibly meaning that it was accessible through the End Of The World. End Of The World is a world without a heart, and seems to act (at least in KH1) as the hub world for heartless. It consists of the remnants of worlds that are destroyed, and entryways to worlds that are not (interestingly, the worlds that have been locked have different colored portals in the World Terminus than those that are still unlocked). In Birth by Sleep, Mickey uses a Star Shard (a form of Gummi Block) to travel across worlds, though he doesn't know how to control it. Donald and Goofy also use it at the end of Dream Drop Distance to get to The World That Never Was, presumably under Yen Sid's guidance. And at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, Sora and Riku use the Door to Light to exit the Realm of Darkness. My point is there are many ways to travel between worlds. The most obvious, physical way is through the Sea of Skies. However, this is only ever used in KH1, because the "walls" between worlds prevent travel without special methods. In KH2 and BBS, you use the Lanes Between. In BBS, Master Eraqus unlocks them for you. In KH2, you have to do it yourself. The Lanes Between is said to have "darkness loom[ing] closer than usual within [it]", facilitating the need for armor. But it's not explicitly stated that this is also true of the Sea of Skies. Assuming the heartless don't destroy you first, it's possible that you can drift through the Sea of Skies without fear of corruption, though you won't be going anywhere fast without a Gummi Ship or Keyblade Glider. That's probably what happened to Jiminy, Pinnocchio, Geppetto, and most convincingly of all, Monstro, who is actually seen swimming in this "sea", totally fine, except for a few heartless that found their way inside him. The Beast may have done this too, though it's also possible that he followed the heartless back to Hollow Bastion through a Corridor of Darkness. Or he even could have gone through a Corridor of Light, since "simply believ[ing]" is how Sora and Riku made it back to Kairi. I'm doing a bit of speculating about some things, particularly on the nature of the Sea of Skies. It seems logical, but there's no confirmation on it, at least that I could find. So take that with a grain of salt. There's a lot of mysterious elements in the Kingdom Hearts universe, some of which we probably won't get any official clarification on. So while there may not be an official answer, there are plenty of viable conclusions.
Totally agree. Didn't want to talk about that because my post was long enough already, and it didn't get fixed in the Final Mix version. But yeah, one of my biggest problems is that Sora feels like a noticeably different character than in 1 or CoM. It felt like he lost almost all capacity for being serious. And he has such a strong hatred for nobodies, even though he knows nothing about them aside from what Yen Sid (someone he doesn't know) told him. Spoiler: KH3D I feel that DDD retroactively made that last part better though. We got to see him take time to think, and actually sympathize with nobodies, in a way pointing out how misguided he was in KH2. It also broke him down a bit. In recent games, Sora was basically perfect and had very little internal conflict. In KH1 and CoM, Sora was relatable because he struggled with things, so it was nice to see a return to that.
I know. I'm messing with you because you're giving me a hard time :P
There's a million ways to do things. In the Yen Sid scene for example, there's a lot of repetition and information dumping. Cutting out the repetition and revealing the relevant information little by little at different points in the game, rather than all at once would keep it interesting. It's tough going into detail though, since the script is so ingrained in my head as is. Honestly, I don't want to spend the time thinking about it, because it doesn't matter at this point. It's done, and there's no going back. And really, it's not a huge deal. There are pacing issues here and there, but it's solid where it counts. There are much worse problems than having too much content.
I usually do, and I was going to, but I sometimes worry that I'm too formal with my grammar, and people think that I'm a robot. I thought it might...
I think a lot of cutscenes dragged on. Specifically the Disney ones. Worlds like Port Royal and The Pride Lands tried to compress the full movie into them, which just ends up being very exposition-y, boring, and less-heartfelt versions of the originals. I think worlds are much more successful when they change up the story a bit and just drop you in the middle of things. And though I like to defend the Roxas prologue, it is a little ridiculous that the first 3 hours of the game are 85% cutscenes. Yen Sid talks for quite a while too. I wouldn't recommend just cutting stuff out, because that wouldn't work. It would need a complete overhaul to punch up the timing while keeping all the necessary information.
It's a little odd to say this now, since I already knew what was in the game, and even played through it on an emulator before. But playing FM at not a horrible frame rate, with everything fully translated and voiced in english, it really put in stark relief how much better all the additions make this game. Of course the new optional bosses are all good stuff (possibly my favorite addition), but I won't talk about that, because they aren't as necessary as some other things. *mild content and story spoilers below* I was really excited when vanilla KH2 came out, but after the new-ness wore off, I was kind of underwhelmed. Aside from a few curveballs, it was a very straightforward, almost obligatory sequel, and with the exception of a few boss fights, combat was really easy. The extra scenes work wonders for fleshing out the universe and its characters. The Organization is cool and all, but most of them you barely got any sense of, so it wasn't that satisfying to beat them. Seeing their round room discussions let you see more of them as people, and not just how they are when they're on the job, messing with you. As someone who played Chain of Memories before KH2 was released, I felt slightly disappointed by how little recognition that game got. Obviously KH2 picked up a little ways after CoM left off, but it seemed like it was tip-toeing around talking about it as much as possible (probably wise, given sales, but frustrating nonetheless). As you may recall, Final Mix was originally released alongside ReCoM, so it was reasonable to assume that pretty much everyone with FM played it, which allowed them to throw in a few references to Castle Oblivion, as well as having a few appearances from the other Org members (I think I had a couple friends who were confused about what the "XIII" in Organization XIII meant). Those little throwbacks, along with the hints to Birth by Sleep, made it feel less like a one-shot, standalone title, and more like a satisfying entry in a series. More than anything else though, the playable Roxas fight and the new scenes that followed felt like the most necessary inclusion. Having an animated fight sequence was a first for the series, and on that level it was a really awesome moment, albeit a bit of a missed opportunity. Getting to fight the guy who's a better version of you is always a top-tier video game moment. As is getting to fight another playable character. Still one of the better moments in the game, but the overhaul it got for FM made it hands down my favorite part. In no small part because of the music change. It went from a sort of ominous, yet tame theme, to a powerful and sad tone. Instead of presenting Roxas as an evil character, it made him look really tragic, which is a lot more accurate. And one of the following scenes gave much needed closure for both Roxas and Axel, in what is one of the most touching parts of the series. I have been highly critical of Kingdom Hearts II in the past, and to a degree I still am. It's definitely not perfect: for one thing, I think it could have used a bit of editing. 11+ hours of cutscenes is a bit much. Looking past that however, I think it's come a long way since its first release, which I consider to be the most disappointing game in the series. It's gone from being one of my least favorites to one of my favorites, and now it actually feels like a worthy sequel to me. I want to know if anyone else had a similarly transformative experience. I understand a lot of people love vanilla KH2, and many hail it as the best in the series, so I'm probably in the minority here. But either way, I'm glad we finally got Final Mix internationally, and I'm glad I changed my mind about it.
I noticed that also. It might be a variable, but more than likely it's a bug. There are weird audio issues throughout the game. For one thing, they localized audio to the camera in a very extreme way, where sound fades off very quickly if it's far away from the camera. If you look at the fight with Zexion, his laugh at the start of the fight gets quiet when it cuts to a shot of Sora, then gets louder again. In the fight with Jafar, I couldn't hear some of his lines, since that fight has a big scale. There may also be problems with overlapping audio coming from the same source. When Xigbar does his ultimate attack, you only hear about half the number of shots that you originally did. And originally Saix grunted with every berserk attack, but he only does every other one now. I've also yet to hear him say "All shall be lost to you", which is odd. I don't mind the localized audio, because I think it helps with surround sound, but it should have been double the distance threshold, so you can still hear things that are far away.
Four, actually. Xehanort and Sora are known. Honestly, I don't think it's that important, so it probably won't come up unless Spoiler: KH3D they're members of the true Organization, which is unlikely, since the remaining ones were, in order, considered weak, unimportant, and traitorous. If they ever go back and make Birth by Sleep - Volume 2, maybe they'll make an appearance. But I think it's unlikely for KH3.
Unfortunately in Final Mix, they seem to have gotten rid of the best Wisdom Form grinding spot after you clear the game. Fragment Crossing used to have tons of shadows, but they replace them with nobodies after you fight Xemnas. I haven't found a comparable replacement. I primarily used The Land of Dragons, because there's a decent number of weak-ish heartless there. Though afterwards I realized Timeless River is probably a better spot. Casting magic is the fastest way to get rid of enemies, especially fire and reflect. Unless you're out of MP, don't even both with the basic wisdom form attacks. Also recommend equipping Oathkeeper, so you stay transformed for longer. As a reminder though, you don't need Quick Run at all to get through the cavern.
