Today I woke up and finished off the last little bit of Kingdom Hearts. All that remained was two more challenge bosses (the desert thing in Agrabah and the flying thing in Wonderland) and the final boss of the game. In what should come as no surprise to anyone they were exceptionally trivial. It turns out when you power up to the point where you can beat the super challenge fight everything else pretty much pales in comparison. It's like how Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII is a complete joke after you've killed Ruby and Emerald Weapons. I'm just glad Sephiroth finally got some redemption and got to be the challenge boss himself.
The core of the ending video felt very familiar. You've got the female love interest waiting sadly at home wondering if the male hero is going to reappear after his battle with the final boss. Exactly the same as the ending video from Final Fantasy VIII. And the ending video from Final Fantasy IX. And, actually... If memory serves, it's going to be the ending video from Final Fantasy X as well. Huh. I guess it's a good tension device if you're not just going for a full on happy video?
This ending video also had little clips of various worlds getting 'fixed' after the final door was sealed. Pinocchio becoming a real boy, or Aladdin and Jasmine making out while Genie and Abu pretend to not watch. That sort of thing. One of them featured Cid (the one from FFVII) walking into a room where Squall, Yuffie, and Aeris are hanging out. (The four of them hung out together in the main town.) Cid brings in Cloud (who had been stuck in Hercules' arena trying to find Sephiroth) and there's a nice moment where he and Aeris react to seeing each other. If you were playing this game as a Disney fan I'm sure that clip meant absolutely nothing to you, but it was pretty cool from a Final Fantasy fan's point of view.
I also apparently completed all of the challenges required to unlock a special video at the end of everything. You need to rescue all the dalmatians, to have beaten the Hades cup, and to have locked all of the optional worlds. And maybe to have played the game on expert mode too? It's not clear. Anyway it turns out to just be a sneak peek at the start of Kingdom Hearts 2, which is nice I guess. It ended with a clip of a woman standing on a beach looking out longingly. The beach is clearly the one from the island in Kingdom Hearts and the wiki I found says it's the female love interest grown up (presumably indicating the main character never made it back, which is likely since the KH2 preview talks about going to look for him) but I thought the female character here was Rinoa who also looks out longingly from a beach in the intro/ending to FFVIII.
This game was a lot of fun. It had some aspects I didn't like (choosing a class changed the difficulty of the game to an extent similar to choosing a warrior or a hunter in the original World of Warcraft) but overall it was pretty good. The game controlled well, and it looked great, and it sounded fantastic. I don't know how much of the music was actually original but they had such a great library to adapt that it worked out pretty great. I hated the Little Mermaid world because it was 3D underwater combat which didn't mesh well for me, but I liked being in it because the background music was a take on the Under The Sea song.
They had a ton of material to mine for things like minigames and sidequests, and they made great use of it. Having Winnie the Pooh be a full fledged combat zone wouldn't have felt very good I don't think, but having a bunch of comic relief minigames that you unlocked as you progressed through the game was very good. The arena was excellent and sneaking in Sephiroth as the challenge boss there was a stroke of genius. Not everything worked out awesomely (the Tarzan minigame where you slide down a vine was just annoying for me and the gummi ship seemed pointless) but I think you need to accept that some stuff isn't going to work out in order to get a bunch of stuff that does.
Hooking up with Disney really worked out great for characters, worlds, music, and especially for voice acting. Square got a lot of real names for this game that I don't think they ever could have gotten on their own. I just went and looked up Final Fantasy X on IMDB and half of the 'stars' of the game had Final Fantasy X listed in their bio as their most known job. FFX doesn't really have bad voice acting, don't get me wrong, but they don't have anyone on the level of David Boreanaz, Gilbert Gottfried, Dan Castellenata, Mandy Moore, or even Lance Bass.
Where should this game fit on my ranked list? That's a really tricky question for me. I'm not even sure how I feel about this being a Final Fantasy game at all. It isn't a jRPG with turn based combat, though a lot of the other spin-offs I've played have been different genres too. It hardly has any actual ties to Final Fantasy. It uses some characters from FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX (why no FFIX I wonder). It uses the spell names too, I guess. But for most of the game you play a newly made up character teamed up with Donald and Goofy as you go to various Disney planets and play through riffs on Disney movie plots.
Most of the original stuff is pretty weak, actually. The plot tieing all the worlds together works well enough but it isn't very stirring. It's still not clear who Sora is or how he got stuck on an island with some FF kids. It feels like maybe the game was entirely a dream from a kid with an overactive imagination who watches Disney movies and forgot to play FFIX. But the stuff they pilfered from other sources is fantastic and there kept being little things cropping up as nostalgic throwbacks that were awesome and/or just there for the cheap pop.
But when it comes right down to it... This game was fun. The fights tended to have little tricks to make doing them easier which made me feel smart for figuring them out. The sidequests were pretty fantastic. It had legitimate challenge bosses. Awesome music and graphics. And I keep mentioning it, but the voice acting really does bump this game up some notches. But I think the less than stellar original story has to bring it down some, and I'm really not sure if I should be discounting it for not really being Final Fantasy. I don't think I should. Either it shouldn't be in the marathon at all, or it should be ranked on its merits once in. And 2011 me put it in. So I think it gets to go ahead of Final Fantasy IX for sure. How about V and Tactics? Kingdom Hearts is a really good game, but I don't think it's good enough at what it does best to push it over those job system games. So #7 it is!
Next up... Final Fantasy X (HD version) which is likely to push this down to #8. What else will it be pushing down? All?
Showing posts with label Kingdom Hearts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kingdom Hearts. Show all posts
Friday, March 21, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Kingdom Hearts: Sephiroth
For the early game in Kingdom Hearts I spent a lot of time dying and having to restart. Boss fights were killers but I'd often die to just random dudes. The game is non-punishing in that it restarts you in the previous room with all experience and loot gained from everything except the fight that killed you which is nice. Eventually I reached the point where dying was no longer something I could really do. Part of it I'm sure was getting better at the game and knowing how to avoid damage and when I needed to be healed, but part of it was also leveling up and getting more abilities. Second chance was the big one, where you get set to 1 health when you would die instead of dying which gave you a chance to heal up before taking another hit. There's a small delay in casting the healing spell but it was generally fine. Perhaps even more important was gaining inevitability. I learned an ability which gave me back mana when I took damage. Enough mana that I could constantly heal myself back to full after taking any damage at all! So playing safer and always healing coupled with not being able to get one shot coupled with experience with the game all combined to be essentially invincible.
Then I unlocked the Sephiroth fight. His attacks would hit me for about 60% of my max health and were essentially instant so there was no chance to respond. I could run away pretty well and it still took 3 hits to kill me but most of my time was spent running and healing and very little was spent trying to do damage. He also has an AE attack that hit everyone around him twice... That would put me to critical if I ever made a misstep and got caught in it. I played him a few times and eventually got the hang of not getting caught in it. I also learned his movement and attack patterns and was able to pretty consistently get in for a small amount of damage. I fought him for about 12 minutes and was starting to get cocky. I was on autopilot enough that I started writing a blog post about how easy he was. Then I got him down to a set amount of health (halfway through the pink bar I think) and his pattern changed. He teleported away, started chanting a spell, and then I got knocked to 1 health and 0 mana. My infinite play plan involves casting the heal spell which costs 1 mana... I can't cast it now! Oh, and Sephiroth immediately charged me after doing this and killed me.
Ok... Fine. Kingdom Hearts has items but you have to equip them before a fight and you're limited by how many item slots you have. I can equip 6 items so I put on 6 elixirs (full health and mana) and gave him another try. 12 more minutes and he changed phases again. I was able to drink my elixir and heal to full before he charged me. Yes! He was in a new attack pattern though, one that didn't seem to have the easily exploitable gaps for damage that the old one had. It also attacked much more frequently which was making it hard to stay healed and really gave no chance for offence, but that's fine... And then he teleported away and knocked me back down to 1 health and 0 mana. I'd been hoping it was just a phase change thing but no... He will repeatedly make me use an elixir over and over until I run out or I kill him it seems. And I was not going to kill him.
Was there some trick to this? I could turn to the internet to find out but I knew I could get a lot more powerful by gaining some levels and crafting some permanent stat boosts. So I wandered away to gather a ton of crafting materials and incidentally gain levels. In the process of doing so I had to look up where some of these things dropped and actually learned what some of the summons I'd never used could do. Turns out Bambi gives you infinite mana and drops crafting materials as you kill enemies based on what zone you're in! So I could just run in a circle spamming thundaga and get tons of loot. Most of the good stuff required some specific rare drops and one item required farming crazy mushroom dudes but I ended up making the Ultima weapon and something like a dozen strength and defense pots.
Back to Sephiroth... It turns out casting my protect spell to halve incoming damage along with having twice the max health and a lot of extra defense made a big deal to how much damage he could do to me. My first time around I had to spend a lot of time running away and healing. This time around I could take 3 hits without fear and then think about healing. I also seemed to be doing probably quadruple damage from the previous time so I could hit the phase change in a minute or two instead of a dozen minutes. It turns out power leveling your stats matters!
I was still having trouble dealing with running out of elixirs since I couldn't really find a good window to do damage in the second phase. Then at one point he teleported beside me to use his instant death attack and I attacked him while he was chanting. It interrupted the chant! And gave me a window to do a bunch of damage! Woohoo! Then I died a few times figuring out how far away I could be and still interrupt him. I was dead any time I failed because he'd knock me to 1 health and I'd be standing beside him which didn't give enough time to drink an elixir. So I ended up in a situation where if he randomly warped close to me I could hurt him, and if he randomly warped far away from me I'd lose one of my 6 elixirs. So I fought him over and over again until eventually he warped close to me enough times to trigger a transition to his third phase. Yes!
The third phase didn't seem to be anything special. I mean, Sephiroth was summoning meteors and flinging them around with his mind which was pretty cool, but I just tanked them all and healed up the damage. Eventually he stopped doing that and started trying to beat me down with his sword and some glowy balls and I was able to work out a pattern where I could just the balls and hit him with a jump attack. It didn't take too much of that to finish him off. I couldn't help myself... I ended up yelling suck it at the screen and went into the DX crotch chop. Oh yeah!
Expert mode Sephiroth dead! I guess I should go finish the game now. There are some other optional challenge bosses but none of those matter nearly as much as Sephiroth. And man, that introduction to the fight... I can remember that happening back when I first played the game and One Winged Angel started up before they announced who the enemy was and I marked out HARD. So good.
Then I unlocked the Sephiroth fight. His attacks would hit me for about 60% of my max health and were essentially instant so there was no chance to respond. I could run away pretty well and it still took 3 hits to kill me but most of my time was spent running and healing and very little was spent trying to do damage. He also has an AE attack that hit everyone around him twice... That would put me to critical if I ever made a misstep and got caught in it. I played him a few times and eventually got the hang of not getting caught in it. I also learned his movement and attack patterns and was able to pretty consistently get in for a small amount of damage. I fought him for about 12 minutes and was starting to get cocky. I was on autopilot enough that I started writing a blog post about how easy he was. Then I got him down to a set amount of health (halfway through the pink bar I think) and his pattern changed. He teleported away, started chanting a spell, and then I got knocked to 1 health and 0 mana. My infinite play plan involves casting the heal spell which costs 1 mana... I can't cast it now! Oh, and Sephiroth immediately charged me after doing this and killed me.
Ok... Fine. Kingdom Hearts has items but you have to equip them before a fight and you're limited by how many item slots you have. I can equip 6 items so I put on 6 elixirs (full health and mana) and gave him another try. 12 more minutes and he changed phases again. I was able to drink my elixir and heal to full before he charged me. Yes! He was in a new attack pattern though, one that didn't seem to have the easily exploitable gaps for damage that the old one had. It also attacked much more frequently which was making it hard to stay healed and really gave no chance for offence, but that's fine... And then he teleported away and knocked me back down to 1 health and 0 mana. I'd been hoping it was just a phase change thing but no... He will repeatedly make me use an elixir over and over until I run out or I kill him it seems. And I was not going to kill him.
Was there some trick to this? I could turn to the internet to find out but I knew I could get a lot more powerful by gaining some levels and crafting some permanent stat boosts. So I wandered away to gather a ton of crafting materials and incidentally gain levels. In the process of doing so I had to look up where some of these things dropped and actually learned what some of the summons I'd never used could do. Turns out Bambi gives you infinite mana and drops crafting materials as you kill enemies based on what zone you're in! So I could just run in a circle spamming thundaga and get tons of loot. Most of the good stuff required some specific rare drops and one item required farming crazy mushroom dudes but I ended up making the Ultima weapon and something like a dozen strength and defense pots.
Back to Sephiroth... It turns out casting my protect spell to halve incoming damage along with having twice the max health and a lot of extra defense made a big deal to how much damage he could do to me. My first time around I had to spend a lot of time running away and healing. This time around I could take 3 hits without fear and then think about healing. I also seemed to be doing probably quadruple damage from the previous time so I could hit the phase change in a minute or two instead of a dozen minutes. It turns out power leveling your stats matters!
I was still having trouble dealing with running out of elixirs since I couldn't really find a good window to do damage in the second phase. Then at one point he teleported beside me to use his instant death attack and I attacked him while he was chanting. It interrupted the chant! And gave me a window to do a bunch of damage! Woohoo! Then I died a few times figuring out how far away I could be and still interrupt him. I was dead any time I failed because he'd knock me to 1 health and I'd be standing beside him which didn't give enough time to drink an elixir. So I ended up in a situation where if he randomly warped close to me I could hurt him, and if he randomly warped far away from me I'd lose one of my 6 elixirs. So I fought him over and over again until eventually he warped close to me enough times to trigger a transition to his third phase. Yes!
The third phase didn't seem to be anything special. I mean, Sephiroth was summoning meteors and flinging them around with his mind which was pretty cool, but I just tanked them all and healed up the damage. Eventually he stopped doing that and started trying to beat me down with his sword and some glowy balls and I was able to work out a pattern where I could just the balls and hit him with a jump attack. It didn't take too much of that to finish him off. I couldn't help myself... I ended up yelling suck it at the screen and went into the DX crotch chop. Oh yeah!
Expert mode Sephiroth dead! I guess I should go finish the game now. There are some other optional challenge bosses but none of those matter nearly as much as Sephiroth. And man, that introduction to the fight... I can remember that happening back when I first played the game and One Winged Angel started up before they announced who the enemy was and I marked out HARD. So good.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Kingdom Hearts: Gummi Ships
Kingdom Hearts takes place on a series of unconnected worlds. You fight in the Aladdin world, and then The Little Mermaid world, and then the Pinocchio world. You get between these various worlds by flying through space. They could have done this with a simple point and click mechanic but instead they decided to add in a space shooter mini-game connecting every planet. It's not optional and a very different genre from the core of the game which is a little suspect. On the plus side they made it very easy with no boss fights or anything, but on the down side that makes it pretty boring...
They did put a lot of work into the mini-game. There's a whole subsystem built around designing your own ship. You have a 6x6x6 box to build a little ship out of all these bits you acquire through the space mini-game and through treasure chests in the main game. There are patterns of ships you can find if you don't feel like designing your own that look cool and have different strengths and weaknesses. I can see how someone who likes designing cool looking things could have a lot of fun with this aspect of the game; I am not one of those people...
They added a whole bunch of different pieces that make your ship more manoeuverable in a variety of shapes, colours, and sizes. I'm pretty sure the idea was to give you enough different bits to make the ship you had in mind. Me? I just stuck them all into the box anyplace it would let me. The ship doesn't have to look nice... It gets extra agility just by having more triangles somewhere on the ship! Fill the front up with guns, stick some engines on the back, and put ugly triangles wherever they'll fit. I am not playing the build a pretty ship game. I am playing the build a twinky ship game, and boy is my ship twinky.
I kinda wish there was something to do with my awesome ship. I just looked up a FAQ to see if there was something I was missing but no. Apparently you can get a 10x10x10 grid near the end of the game to make even cooler ships but there's never any reason to build a better or prettier ship other than to say you did. Which is a shame, really.
They did put a lot of work into the mini-game. There's a whole subsystem built around designing your own ship. You have a 6x6x6 box to build a little ship out of all these bits you acquire through the space mini-game and through treasure chests in the main game. There are patterns of ships you can find if you don't feel like designing your own that look cool and have different strengths and weaknesses. I can see how someone who likes designing cool looking things could have a lot of fun with this aspect of the game; I am not one of those people...
I kinda wish there was something to do with my awesome ship. I just looked up a FAQ to see if there was something I was missing but no. Apparently you can get a 10x10x10 grid near the end of the game to make even cooler ships but there's never any reason to build a better or prettier ship other than to say you did. Which is a shame, really.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Kingdom Hearts: Voice Acting
One of the first things I noticed when I started playing Kingdom Hearts again was Squall Leon's voice. It sounded really familiar. Like it was Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Turns out it actually was Angel from Buffy as they got David Boreanaz to do his voice. He had the perfect mix of "yeah, I'm awesome" and "I don't care a bit about what you think" to make the perfect Squall Leon.
A little later on I got to the Agrabah planet which featured characters from the movie Aladdin. Jafar's parrot Iago came on screen and started talking and it was definitely Gilbert Gottfried. This got me really pumped up, because it made me realize just how powerful it could be linking a Square video game up with Disney. Getting access to the real voice actors from their movies is a really big deal. Even if Iago has only one line in the whole game it was still really awesome that they got Gilbert in to do it. And the genie in that movie? Robin Williams! Oh yes!
And then Genie showed up, and it didn't quite sound right. That isn't Robin Williams at all. What a blow out. It sounded like they got a voice impersonator in, because it was close to the right sound, but not quite there. In fact it sounded like Homer Simpson pretending to be Robin Williams. I wanted to rant about it today, so I just went to look up who actually did the voice of Genie in the game... Turns out it actually was Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson. Not only that, but he was the voice of Genie in the animated series from the 90s. So while it wasn't really the 'right' voice, it was actually a very close second.
I did some poking around and they got the original voice actress from The Little Mermaid (Jodi Benson) to do Ariel in the game. Even the characters new to the game got some pretty big names with the main character voiced by Haley Joel Osment and the 'damsel in distress' voiced by Hayden Panettiere. Heck, Lance Bass is the voice of Sephiroth! (Man, I really want to kill that guy now...)
So, yeah, it's pretty great that not only did Kingdom Hearts get access to Disney characters, but they were able to leverage the link into some fantastic voice acting as well. Voices in video games are often pretty sketchy so this was a really nice twist for me.
A little later on I got to the Agrabah planet which featured characters from the movie Aladdin. Jafar's parrot Iago came on screen and started talking and it was definitely Gilbert Gottfried. This got me really pumped up, because it made me realize just how powerful it could be linking a Square video game up with Disney. Getting access to the real voice actors from their movies is a really big deal. Even if Iago has only one line in the whole game it was still really awesome that they got Gilbert in to do it. And the genie in that movie? Robin Williams! Oh yes!
And then Genie showed up, and it didn't quite sound right. That isn't Robin Williams at all. What a blow out. It sounded like they got a voice impersonator in, because it was close to the right sound, but not quite there. In fact it sounded like Homer Simpson pretending to be Robin Williams. I wanted to rant about it today, so I just went to look up who actually did the voice of Genie in the game... Turns out it actually was Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson. Not only that, but he was the voice of Genie in the animated series from the 90s. So while it wasn't really the 'right' voice, it was actually a very close second.
I did some poking around and they got the original voice actress from The Little Mermaid (Jodi Benson) to do Ariel in the game. Even the characters new to the game got some pretty big names with the main character voiced by Haley Joel Osment and the 'damsel in distress' voiced by Hayden Panettiere. Heck, Lance Bass is the voice of Sephiroth! (Man, I really want to kill that guy now...)
So, yeah, it's pretty great that not only did Kingdom Hearts get access to Disney characters, but they were able to leverage the link into some fantastic voice acting as well. Voices in video games are often pretty sketchy so this was a really nice twist for me.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Kingdom Hearts: Early Blind Choices
At the very beginning of the tutorial level of Kingdom Hearts you get asked to pick an item and reject an item between the trio of sword, shield, and staff. Presumably the sword lets you beatdown more, the staff lets you cast spells, and the shield makes you tankier. But you don't know what those things actually do. The first time I played the game I believe I was living with Byung and Tom and we all picked different items to start. I took the shield and the difference was insane. The shield seemed to us to be by far the best, and for one key reason: Second Chance.
Second Chance is an ability that converts any attack that would kill you into an attack that lowers you to one health. An attack that hits you when you're already at one will actually kill you, but if you're at two or more you're invincible. If you start with the shield you get that ability at level 18. If you start with the staff you get it at level 48 and if you start with the sword you get it at level 51. I don't remember what level you're expected to be at when you beat the game, but by the time I was fighting the boss of the third world I could have been level 18 easily. That boss was able to kill me when I was at around 40% health, so I was stuck healing myself with a potion and an awkward menu every two attacks. I wasn't even falling into the 'low health beep beep beep' window. The boss could just burst me over that window. I actually ended up running out of potions and had to fly around a bunch to go buy more before I could win.
There's also a second blind choice section where you choose your experience progression by answering inane questions from young Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. You can either have tougher levels early, late, or always have average progression. Early with the shield feels like it's by far the best for the early game and it's unclear if the actual game would even end before it peters out in power. I ended up taking the staff and going for the late game progression. I'll get to level 48 fastest this way! Assuming I don't get frustrated by not having Second Chance, anyway.
Having the staff means my magic is better and my attacks are worse. This feels wrong for me since I normally like to beat down in games, but I'm giving something new a try. It also turns out the staff significantly increases your spells (you get 25% more max mana and 25% more spell damage and deal 5% less physical damage). Will the extra max mana be worth losing a couple points of strength? I don't know!
I've now completed Alice in Wonderland, the first part of Hercules, and Tarzan. I'm a little sad that I don't have Second Chance since I've died a _lot_ so far. But you generally respawn in the same room where you died without losing any progress except for the fight that killed you, so it's only a little sad and not the absolute end of the world. I suspect I won't end up restarting to pick up the shield. Heck, if worse comes to worse I can just grind my way up to level 48, right? Right!
I think this is a terrible game mechanic though. I'm fine with different difficulty settings (the game actually has one of those as well!) but I don't like obfuscated difficulty settings. No one who just picked up the game would know that the shield is the best by far. And no one would know what answer combo to give the FF kids to get the right experience progression either. I like that there's this level of customization for difficulty, but I don't like that you wouldn't have a clue how to play the game you want to play without turning to the internet. Especially back in 2002, where turning to the internet was less of an expected thing, I think.
Second Chance is an ability that converts any attack that would kill you into an attack that lowers you to one health. An attack that hits you when you're already at one will actually kill you, but if you're at two or more you're invincible. If you start with the shield you get that ability at level 18. If you start with the staff you get it at level 48 and if you start with the sword you get it at level 51. I don't remember what level you're expected to be at when you beat the game, but by the time I was fighting the boss of the third world I could have been level 18 easily. That boss was able to kill me when I was at around 40% health, so I was stuck healing myself with a potion and an awkward menu every two attacks. I wasn't even falling into the 'low health beep beep beep' window. The boss could just burst me over that window. I actually ended up running out of potions and had to fly around a bunch to go buy more before I could win.
There's also a second blind choice section where you choose your experience progression by answering inane questions from young Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. You can either have tougher levels early, late, or always have average progression. Early with the shield feels like it's by far the best for the early game and it's unclear if the actual game would even end before it peters out in power. I ended up taking the staff and going for the late game progression. I'll get to level 48 fastest this way! Assuming I don't get frustrated by not having Second Chance, anyway.
Having the staff means my magic is better and my attacks are worse. This feels wrong for me since I normally like to beat down in games, but I'm giving something new a try. It also turns out the staff significantly increases your spells (you get 25% more max mana and 25% more spell damage and deal 5% less physical damage). Will the extra max mana be worth losing a couple points of strength? I don't know!
I've now completed Alice in Wonderland, the first part of Hercules, and Tarzan. I'm a little sad that I don't have Second Chance since I've died a _lot_ so far. But you generally respawn in the same room where you died without losing any progress except for the fight that killed you, so it's only a little sad and not the absolute end of the world. I suspect I won't end up restarting to pick up the shield. Heck, if worse comes to worse I can just grind my way up to level 48, right? Right!
I think this is a terrible game mechanic though. I'm fine with different difficulty settings (the game actually has one of those as well!) but I don't like obfuscated difficulty settings. No one who just picked up the game would know that the shield is the best by far. And no one would know what answer combo to give the FF kids to get the right experience progression either. I like that there's this level of customization for difficulty, but I don't like that you wouldn't have a clue how to play the game you want to play without turning to the internet. Especially back in 2002, where turning to the internet was less of an expected thing, I think.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Kingdom Hearts: Plan
There is no plan. I'm not checking out the internet for a potential plan, either. I'm just going to play the game.
Ok, maybe that's not quite true. I played this game once quite some time ago and I'm pretty sure I did everything there was to do in the game. I definitely remember eventually beating the challenge boss: Sephiroth! I guess my plan is probably going to be have fun and try to kill Sephiroth again. Because while I don't remember much about the game, I do remember that fight was awesome.
It's funny, my mind thinks of Kingdom Hearts as a new game, but I last played it over a decade ago. It's almost like my brain is stuck in the early 2000s. Oh well!
Anyway, Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG where you team up with Donald Duck, Goofy, and stars from various Disney movies in an attempt to fight evil and save Mickey Mouse. It plays a little like Secret of Mana in that you have two allies trying to help you out in combat. The Final Fantasy twist comes in by the addition of Final Fantasy characters to the Disney universe where you end up hanging out with Squall and a bunch of other dudes in town and fight Sephiroth at one point. It's a bit of a stretch, but I remember having a lot of fun with this game so it counts!
One thing that does make me sad about this game is I haven't seen all of the movies the game uses for worlds. I don't know why, but when I was a kid I felt like Disney movies were for girls and little kids and therefore I shouldn't want to watch them. My little sister had a lot of the movies and I did end up watching many of them as a result. I liked them. But I felt like I shouldn't like them. So I may not have full context for every level, and that's sad, but I can platform and kill enemies even when I don't know what they are!
Ok, maybe that's not quite true. I played this game once quite some time ago and I'm pretty sure I did everything there was to do in the game. I definitely remember eventually beating the challenge boss: Sephiroth! I guess my plan is probably going to be have fun and try to kill Sephiroth again. Because while I don't remember much about the game, I do remember that fight was awesome.
It's funny, my mind thinks of Kingdom Hearts as a new game, but I last played it over a decade ago. It's almost like my brain is stuck in the early 2000s. Oh well!
Anyway, Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG where you team up with Donald Duck, Goofy, and stars from various Disney movies in an attempt to fight evil and save Mickey Mouse. It plays a little like Secret of Mana in that you have two allies trying to help you out in combat. The Final Fantasy twist comes in by the addition of Final Fantasy characters to the Disney universe where you end up hanging out with Squall and a bunch of other dudes in town and fight Sephiroth at one point. It's a bit of a stretch, but I remember having a lot of fun with this game so it counts!
One thing that does make me sad about this game is I haven't seen all of the movies the game uses for worlds. I don't know why, but when I was a kid I felt like Disney movies were for girls and little kids and therefore I shouldn't want to watch them. My little sister had a lot of the movies and I did end up watching many of them as a result. I liked them. But I felt like I shouldn't like them. So I may not have full context for every level, and that's sad, but I can platform and kill enemies even when I don't know what they are!
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