Fool Reviews Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Final Mix
"My Sanctuary":
Well, it finally happened. I played a Kingdom Hearts game and fully enjoyed it. There's a lot to say about this one, especially in regards to comparing it to the previous entries, so I'm going to separate things into sections.
Gameplay:
It cannot be understated how fucking spectacular the gameplay of KH2 is. Combat is unlike the first game, which was slow, repetitive, and visually boring, and it's not complete bullshit like Chain of Memories, so it isn't fully luck based either (at least most of the time).
I played in Critical Mode, which was recommended by both of my friends who got me into this marathon of KH to begin with. Critical Mode starts you off with a fuckton of skills and AP right off the bat, allowing you access to some incredibly devastating and visually appealing combos very early on. I do have a few gripes though, mostly involving how it effects the prologue. See, you start the game off as Roxas, who does not have access to all of Sora's abilities. Due to this, the opening three hours of the game are... well, beyond difficult. You have no access to those long reaching combos, and aerial combat is more or less non-existent. It was a bit annoying, especially losing to the first Axel fight (the one in the Sandlot area), mostly because losing to some bosses means going through an entire set of encounters again which can be rather exhausting at times.
After the prologue though, things seriously open up. Never before have I played an ARPG with such a grand focus on Aerial Combat. Compared to the first game, the amount of flippy shit you can pull off and the amount of damage you can deal is insane, and thanks to abilities like Combo Plus and Air Combo Plus, you can make those attacks even longer and more powerful as the game progresses. You don't even have to worry about lacking the AP for it, this game loads you up with AP Boosts at every given opportunity so you will always be able to push through with combos. Magic has been made more resourceful than the first game, but is still something I ultimately didn't find much of a use for. It's good that you can interchange magic and keyblade in the middle of a combo and that each spell has its own finisher, but I really didn't see much use for the spells beyond Thundaga and Reflega.
As for platforming, that is all but removed from this game. Platforming is no longer mandatory, and is overall smoother regardless. Sora has a way better jump, and with the addition of Growth Abilities, he has access to a variety of ways to get around areas. However...
Ok, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. Drive Forms, while cool to use for both their utility and visual spectacle, are a fucking drag to grind. Each of them has a unique requirement for their own level up, and you need to level them up to get access to those Growth Abilities. Things like Glide, High Jump, and even the Dodge Roll are locked behind these level ups, and they are abilities you are basically required to have by endgame if you don't want to have your ass torn in two during boss fights. A friend of mine who played this game before me did not grind the Drive Forms, and it resulted in him having an absolutely ridiculous time getting through the game. He still did it, but he did not hesitate to tell me how brutal it was. In response to another friend who said that grinding Drive Forms happens naturally, I argue no, no it doesn't. A lot of these level ups become exponentially harder to pull off, especially with things like Wisdom and Final form which require a kill ratio of Heartless and Nobodies respectively, Nobodies being relatively rare outside of the final world and even then, not very common. I like the Drive Forms but the need to grind them for necessary abilities is pretty fucking absurd, even for RPG standards.
This game also introduces Limits, which are exactly what they sound like. Super Moves that you can pull off with your respective Disney (and even Final Fantasy) characters. Some are pretty damn good, like Simba's and Donald's, and others are... ok, like Jack Sparrow's and Tron's. They do a decent amount of damage and are key to blasting through enemy defenses.
Onto Gummi Ship missions, these have never been better. They fully went into the Shoot-Em-Up genre with these, and it is awesome. Just make sure you set the firing mode to Automatic in the Pause Menu though. I didn't until nearly the end of the first half of the game and it hurt my hands like a motherfucker.
Also there's Atlantica's... thing. It's a Rhythm Game... and also optional. I did it though, and it really wasn't as bad as I had been told, but definitely not something you must do to progress.
Boss fights in this game can be hit or miss for me, and that usually depends on the action commands required for them. You see, every so often in combat you'll get the chance to press the Y button to do a reaction command. It's essentially a quick time event, but way simpler, and also way faster. It usually allows you to unleash a super attack on your opponent based on one of their own skills, and it can be super cool. I mean, you cut through literal skyscrapers using it, so yeah you bet your ass it's cool. However, some of these feel super fucking intrusive such as the case with Xaldin. A boss the requires you to dodge and use the Learn reaction command at the same time in order to progress the fight. It required me to go into a completely different hand formation on my controller, which actively hurt my hands to do, just to pull it off. Most bosses aren't like this and the Reaction prompt is usually way less cumbersome, but the ones that do this are actively unfun to deal with. There's also Giant Bosses, which I think is one aspect this series just never seems to get right. They're either really boring like Jafar, or require you to play with a completely different fight scheme like the Nobody Dragon, which was probably the most irritating fight of the game for me.
The last thing I'll say is that my friends demanded I play Critical Mode because playing any difficulty lower would make the game boring to play. If your game has to be played on the hardest difficulty to be considered "fun", then there's definitely something wrong. I won't let that reflect on this review personally, but that is a thought I had.
Overall, I think the gameplay is fantastic. Better than the first game, a fuckton better than Chain of Memories, just an overall excellent experience.
Story:
To be quite honest, it really doesn't feel like there is one for like 75% of the game. The prologue starts you off with the stuff with Roxas, and it was interesting, but after you start as Sora and get your new duds, the plot takes a major backseat until the second half of the game, where only a few minor beats are mentioned.
You fight a few Organization members, have the Battle of a Thousand Heartless, and work with Tron to fix the Hollow Bastion defense network and turn the place back into Radiant Garden, but outside of that there's not much to talk about until the final revisit to Twilight Town where you go into The World That Never Was.
DiZ is revealed to be the actual Ansem, Riku gets his original form back, and Sora and Riku stop Xemnas from using Kingdom Hearts. It was... not really much. I don't know, maybe the past two games really shut my brain off, but I didn't care much about the story for this game.
It didn't have as preposterous writing as the last two games, except for when Mickey Mouse goes "They'll pay for this" and I laughed my ass off. For the most part the story is borderline non-existent. I don't mind though, since it allows each Disney world more spotlight.
I think these are done way better than the first game since a good number of them are allowed to have original stories, such as the Coliseum bringing Auron from Final Fantasy X to fight alongside you. Even as someone who dislikes FFX, that was a cool moment. There's also Halloween Town where you go to Christmas Town and help Santa Claus, which was pretty visually fun.
I've never watched Tron (well, the first one anyway, I've seen Legacy), but the Tron world was easily the most fun to go through except for the mandatory bike shit, that wasn't fun at all.
Story is definitely the weakest aspect of this game, but I'm fine with it honestly, the gameplay more than makes up for it.
Final Thoughts:
Well, I have the post game to do, and unlike KH1, I actually feel like doing it. I was really hoping this game would be good, I had a lot of fear after playing the last two games and not enjoying them in the slightest, so to see that KH2 is as good as I've heard is a relief. This is a game I see myself coming back to in the future, just for the combat alone. I don't know if I'd fully recommend it, but I know that overall I had a pretty good time.
It is my Sanctuary in this franchise, at least so far.
Next is Birth By Sleep, another game I've been curious about. I'll have to see how that unfolds then.
"My Sanctuary":
Well, it finally happened. I played a Kingdom Hearts game and fully enjoyed it. There's a lot to say about this one, especially in regards to comparing it to the previous entries, so I'm going to separate things into sections.
Gameplay:
It cannot be understated how fucking spectacular the gameplay of KH2 is. Combat is unlike the first game, which was slow, repetitive, and visually boring, and it's not complete bullshit like Chain of Memories, so it isn't fully luck based either (at least most of the time).
I played in Critical Mode, which was recommended by both of my friends who got me into this marathon of KH to begin with. Critical Mode starts you off with a fuckton of skills and AP right off the bat, allowing you access to some incredibly devastating and visually appealing combos very early on. I do have a few gripes though, mostly involving how it effects the prologue. See, you start the game off as Roxas, who does not have access to all of Sora's abilities. Due to this, the opening three hours of the game are... well, beyond difficult. You have no access to those long reaching combos, and aerial combat is more or less non-existent. It was a bit annoying, especially losing to the first Axel fight (the one in the Sandlot area), mostly because losing to some bosses means going through an entire set of encounters again which can be rather exhausting at times.
After the prologue though, things seriously open up. Never before have I played an ARPG with such a grand focus on Aerial Combat. Compared to the first game, the amount of flippy shit you can pull off and the amount of damage you can deal is insane, and thanks to abilities like Combo Plus and Air Combo Plus, you can make those attacks even longer and more powerful as the game progresses. You don't even have to worry about lacking the AP for it, this game loads you up with AP Boosts at every given opportunity so you will always be able to push through with combos. Magic has been made more resourceful than the first game, but is still something I ultimately didn't find much of a use for. It's good that you can interchange magic and keyblade in the middle of a combo and that each spell has its own finisher, but I really didn't see much use for the spells beyond Thundaga and Reflega.
As for platforming, that is all but removed from this game. Platforming is no longer mandatory, and is overall smoother regardless. Sora has a way better jump, and with the addition of Growth Abilities, he has access to a variety of ways to get around areas. However...
Ok, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. Drive Forms, while cool to use for both their utility and visual spectacle, are a fucking drag to grind. Each of them has a unique requirement for their own level up, and you need to level them up to get access to those Growth Abilities. Things like Glide, High Jump, and even the Dodge Roll are locked behind these level ups, and they are abilities you are basically required to have by endgame if you don't want to have your ass torn in two during boss fights. A friend of mine who played this game before me did not grind the Drive Forms, and it resulted in him having an absolutely ridiculous time getting through the game. He still did it, but he did not hesitate to tell me how brutal it was. In response to another friend who said that grinding Drive Forms happens naturally, I argue no, no it doesn't. A lot of these level ups become exponentially harder to pull off, especially with things like Wisdom and Final form which require a kill ratio of Heartless and Nobodies respectively, Nobodies being relatively rare outside of the final world and even then, not very common. I like the Drive Forms but the need to grind them for necessary abilities is pretty fucking absurd, even for RPG standards.
This game also introduces Limits, which are exactly what they sound like. Super Moves that you can pull off with your respective Disney (and even Final Fantasy) characters. Some are pretty damn good, like Simba's and Donald's, and others are... ok, like Jack Sparrow's and Tron's. They do a decent amount of damage and are key to blasting through enemy defenses.
Onto Gummi Ship missions, these have never been better. They fully went into the Shoot-Em-Up genre with these, and it is awesome. Just make sure you set the firing mode to Automatic in the Pause Menu though. I didn't until nearly the end of the first half of the game and it hurt my hands like a motherfucker.
Also there's Atlantica's... thing. It's a Rhythm Game... and also optional. I did it though, and it really wasn't as bad as I had been told, but definitely not something you must do to progress.
Boss fights in this game can be hit or miss for me, and that usually depends on the action commands required for them. You see, every so often in combat you'll get the chance to press the Y button to do a reaction command. It's essentially a quick time event, but way simpler, and also way faster. It usually allows you to unleash a super attack on your opponent based on one of their own skills, and it can be super cool. I mean, you cut through literal skyscrapers using it, so yeah you bet your ass it's cool. However, some of these feel super fucking intrusive such as the case with Xaldin. A boss the requires you to dodge and use the Learn reaction command at the same time in order to progress the fight. It required me to go into a completely different hand formation on my controller, which actively hurt my hands to do, just to pull it off. Most bosses aren't like this and the Reaction prompt is usually way less cumbersome, but the ones that do this are actively unfun to deal with. There's also Giant Bosses, which I think is one aspect this series just never seems to get right. They're either really boring like Jafar, or require you to play with a completely different fight scheme like the Nobody Dragon, which was probably the most irritating fight of the game for me.
The last thing I'll say is that my friends demanded I play Critical Mode because playing any difficulty lower would make the game boring to play. If your game has to be played on the hardest difficulty to be considered "fun", then there's definitely something wrong. I won't let that reflect on this review personally, but that is a thought I had.
Overall, I think the gameplay is fantastic. Better than the first game, a fuckton better than Chain of Memories, just an overall excellent experience.
Story:
To be quite honest, it really doesn't feel like there is one for like 75% of the game. The prologue starts you off with the stuff with Roxas, and it was interesting, but after you start as Sora and get your new duds, the plot takes a major backseat until the second half of the game, where only a few minor beats are mentioned.
You fight a few Organization members, have the Battle of a Thousand Heartless, and work with Tron to fix the Hollow Bastion defense network and turn the place back into Radiant Garden, but outside of that there's not much to talk about until the final revisit to Twilight Town where you go into The World That Never Was.
DiZ is revealed to be the actual Ansem, Riku gets his original form back, and Sora and Riku stop Xemnas from using Kingdom Hearts. It was... not really much. I don't know, maybe the past two games really shut my brain off, but I didn't care much about the story for this game.
It didn't have as preposterous writing as the last two games, except for when Mickey Mouse goes "They'll pay for this" and I laughed my ass off. For the most part the story is borderline non-existent. I don't mind though, since it allows each Disney world more spotlight.
I think these are done way better than the first game since a good number of them are allowed to have original stories, such as the Coliseum bringing Auron from Final Fantasy X to fight alongside you. Even as someone who dislikes FFX, that was a cool moment. There's also Halloween Town where you go to Christmas Town and help Santa Claus, which was pretty visually fun.
I've never watched Tron (well, the first one anyway, I've seen Legacy), but the Tron world was easily the most fun to go through except for the mandatory bike shit, that wasn't fun at all.
Story is definitely the weakest aspect of this game, but I'm fine with it honestly, the gameplay more than makes up for it.
Final Thoughts:
Well, I have the post game to do, and unlike KH1, I actually feel like doing it. I was really hoping this game would be good, I had a lot of fear after playing the last two games and not enjoying them in the slightest, so to see that KH2 is as good as I've heard is a relief. This is a game I see myself coming back to in the future, just for the combat alone. I don't know if I'd fully recommend it, but I know that overall I had a pretty good time.
It is my Sanctuary in this franchise, at least so far.
Next is Birth By Sleep, another game I've been curious about. I'll have to see how that unfolds then.
3 Comments
based and redpilled
Based and redpilled
LukeGirard
2 years ago