picked rod twice, played on critical.
Story
Visually the opening of this game is so good though I think I like Simple and Clean more than Sanctuary musically. Love the Disney selection in this game but the lack of an evil Disney team means that most of the worlds here have little relevance to the overall plot and by the end of the game you’re left wondering what was the point of everything Pete and Maleficent did when their goals lead to nothing. That said, the Disney worlds are still pretty fun and are adapted well, some even having original plots. Timeless River, Space Paranoids, Port Royal and 100 Acre Wood are the highlights for me. The actual plot with Sora and the Organization is pretty cool but I wish we got more time spent on Roxas and the Nobodies in the plot. The plight of the Nobodies is a fascinating idea to me but I feel that they don’t utilise the emotional aspect of their existence enough. I love that Kairi is taking the initiative in this game to do things though, surely she will be like this for the rest of the series :clueless:. I will say that ending was really god tier
Gameplay
The melee combat is pretty good and the new aerial abilities, finishers and Limits you have with party members just destroy everything, even on Critical which is the hardest difficulty supposedly. I had a way better experience with Critical on this game than I did with Proud on KH1, in this game when I died it usually felt understandable and could be something I can learn from. That said most boss fights and fights in general can devolve to just mashing X and Triangle to get to your finishers and Limits. The only fights I felt that really pushed you to use the combat well were the ones with the Organization. The Disney bosses had some cool set pieces though to make up for that. The whole game has some awesome set pieces with the use of the reaction command with bosses and even normal enemies like the Samurai nobody. The final boss might have the best set pieces in the whole game but unfortunately as a boss fight itself it was underwhelming besides the first and last phase but even then, with the power of limit I-Frames and finishers I got through it on only one try.
Gummi Ship sections are actually fun now??? The locations you fly in are really cool visually and they even have set pieces for it now. I think the idea of losing medal levels with one hit is punishing but besides that its pretty fun and the music is great too.
I loved magic in the first game so you can imagine my surprise when I picked rod twice in this game only to find out they got rid of Aero, Stop and Gravity. Aero and Gravity are replaced by Reflect and Magnet which accomplish similar things but Stop is gone forever I guess. I like the idea of magic combos but I didn't really use magic outside of Wisdom and Master Form besides Cure which I only used if I ran out of potions.
Speaking of Drive Forms, they are a great but pretty flawed addition to the game. Each form has its own combat style and movement ability like glide or high jump from KH1 but to get those abilities you need to level up your forms and each form levels up in its own way, meaning the average player will not have all the movement abilities in a normal playthrough. Instead of accepting this and making levels with depth that can be revisited for more exploration once you get more movement, Square Enix decided to make basic linear levels. I really loved the platforming, interactivity, and hidden secrets of the worlds in KH1 but in this game that kind of design only kinda exists with the first area, Twilight Town and the Final Mix exclusive Cave of Remembrance. Final Mix also added some collectables in the worlds to encourage the use of movement abilities but did nothing to ease the grind required to get them. You are separated from your party members fairly often in this game, meaning you can’t even use Drive Forms when you may need them. Final Mix addresses this by adding Limit Form which can be used with no party members but this deemphasizes the other forms because a player never knows when they’re going to be separated from their party meaning they’ll come to rely primarily on Limit to save the day. The game discourages overuse of Drive Forms too by having a glass cannon form be forced on you if you transform too much which is a real pain in the ass when trying to grind the other forms. Valor and Wisdom Form have no purpose once you get Master and Final. To sum it up, you have these amazing form changes with unique combat and traversal abilities but there’s no point in using the enhanced movement and it feels like the game is taking nearly every step to discourage using Drive Forms.
Music
Banger music, cummer music even. Sinister Sundown, Tension Rising, Vim and Vigor, Cloudchasers, The Underworld, Cavern of Remembrance, Sinister Shadows, The Other Promise, etc. So many god like tracks, a definite step up from the first game which also had really good music.
Conclusion
I bitched a lot about the gameplay but I did really enjoy it in the end and I am definitely replaying this game in the future after I do the data bosses.
Story
Visually the opening of this game is so good though I think I like Simple and Clean more than Sanctuary musically. Love the Disney selection in this game but the lack of an evil Disney team means that most of the worlds here have little relevance to the overall plot and by the end of the game you’re left wondering what was the point of everything Pete and Maleficent did when their goals lead to nothing. That said, the Disney worlds are still pretty fun and are adapted well, some even having original plots. Timeless River, Space Paranoids, Port Royal and 100 Acre Wood are the highlights for me. The actual plot with Sora and the Organization is pretty cool but I wish we got more time spent on Roxas and the Nobodies in the plot. The plight of the Nobodies is a fascinating idea to me but I feel that they don’t utilise the emotional aspect of their existence enough. I love that Kairi is taking the initiative in this game to do things though, surely she will be like this for the rest of the series :clueless:. I will say that ending was really god tier
Gameplay
The melee combat is pretty good and the new aerial abilities, finishers and Limits you have with party members just destroy everything, even on Critical which is the hardest difficulty supposedly. I had a way better experience with Critical on this game than I did with Proud on KH1, in this game when I died it usually felt understandable and could be something I can learn from. That said most boss fights and fights in general can devolve to just mashing X and Triangle to get to your finishers and Limits. The only fights I felt that really pushed you to use the combat well were the ones with the Organization. The Disney bosses had some cool set pieces though to make up for that. The whole game has some awesome set pieces with the use of the reaction command with bosses and even normal enemies like the Samurai nobody. The final boss might have the best set pieces in the whole game but unfortunately as a boss fight itself it was underwhelming besides the first and last phase but even then, with the power of limit I-Frames and finishers I got through it on only one try.
Gummi Ship sections are actually fun now??? The locations you fly in are really cool visually and they even have set pieces for it now. I think the idea of losing medal levels with one hit is punishing but besides that its pretty fun and the music is great too.
I loved magic in the first game so you can imagine my surprise when I picked rod twice in this game only to find out they got rid of Aero, Stop and Gravity. Aero and Gravity are replaced by Reflect and Magnet which accomplish similar things but Stop is gone forever I guess. I like the idea of magic combos but I didn't really use magic outside of Wisdom and Master Form besides Cure which I only used if I ran out of potions.
Speaking of Drive Forms, they are a great but pretty flawed addition to the game. Each form has its own combat style and movement ability like glide or high jump from KH1 but to get those abilities you need to level up your forms and each form levels up in its own way, meaning the average player will not have all the movement abilities in a normal playthrough. Instead of accepting this and making levels with depth that can be revisited for more exploration once you get more movement, Square Enix decided to make basic linear levels. I really loved the platforming, interactivity, and hidden secrets of the worlds in KH1 but in this game that kind of design only kinda exists with the first area, Twilight Town and the Final Mix exclusive Cave of Remembrance. Final Mix also added some collectables in the worlds to encourage the use of movement abilities but did nothing to ease the grind required to get them. You are separated from your party members fairly often in this game, meaning you can’t even use Drive Forms when you may need them. Final Mix addresses this by adding Limit Form which can be used with no party members but this deemphasizes the other forms because a player never knows when they’re going to be separated from their party meaning they’ll come to rely primarily on Limit to save the day. The game discourages overuse of Drive Forms too by having a glass cannon form be forced on you if you transform too much which is a real pain in the ass when trying to grind the other forms. Valor and Wisdom Form have no purpose once you get Master and Final. To sum it up, you have these amazing form changes with unique combat and traversal abilities but there’s no point in using the enhanced movement and it feels like the game is taking nearly every step to discourage using Drive Forms.
Music
Banger music, cummer music even. Sinister Sundown, Tension Rising, Vim and Vigor, Cloudchasers, The Underworld, Cavern of Remembrance, Sinister Shadows, The Other Promise, etc. So many god like tracks, a definite step up from the first game which also had really good music.
Conclusion
I bitched a lot about the gameplay but I did really enjoy it in the end and I am definitely replaying this game in the future after I do the data bosses.