KH2FM HD Review from a first time player.

[thatkingdomheartsguy 153]

http://kh13.com/forum/topic/103316-kh15-review-from-a-first-time-player/

 

I dunno how many of you guys saw that, but I recently got in the KH series and decided to make a "documentary" of my overall opinion on games. I finished 2FM in 8 days (yeah that's right), which mean I spent probably wayy too much of my time playing this game, but it's for a good reason. Anyways, a couple people wanted to see this from me sooo I guess I'm doing it now

 

Also reason why I don't wait and talk about BBS in one post is  because I have LOTS to say on this game, and I don't want a single post to drag out for too long. Anyways, I guess I'll just do my thing now.

 

This game was...really good. Before I begin though, I should preface this: this was my first playthrough, and it was on Critical Mode. No, I'm not kidding. Why did I choose Critical Mode? Well it's mostly due to the convincing of one of my friends, who said you can only truly experience KH2 at its fullest on Critical Mode. In addition, he claimed that my style of gameplay is perfectly suited for Critical Mode, and that even though I'll have a LOT of trouble adjusting at first, it'll get better and add so much more to the gameplay experience. So I took his word and selected Critical Mode as my first playthrough.

 

Initially, I thought I had made a horrible mistake. I'm pretty sure it took me well over 10 tries to beat the first boss as Roxas, just because of the absurd amount of damage that the enemies dealt. About 5 attempts later, I realized I had a CRAP ton of abilities and a TON of AP, which I later found out was NOT a part of every mode, only the advantages of playing on the hardest difficulty. So I equipped them (aside from Zero EXP obviously) and I made a bit more progress, but it still took me a couple dozen attempts to win.

 

And it really just spiraled from there. Something this game does really well at is utilizing all itsi combat features to the fullest. You have SO many more options in comparison to the first game; Drives, Limits, Magics, Summons, and with each new form and summons come another set of Limits and usable attacks. The variety is pretty absurd, and it really reminds me of what I loved in ReCoM; the experimentation aspect of the game, where you can try different things and see how they work. 

 

The really cool thing is that playing on the hardest difficulty, I assume, made me so much more aware of what my abilities are. I soon learned where to best use certain Magics (Reflect is SO useful, Magnet is excellent for a lot of enemies, Blizzard is great when there's a line in front of you, etc.), and when to conserve (making Cure take away ALL your MP really nerfed it, and while a little annoying at first, I grew to love this decision because it made me think of other methods of healing myself). Drive Forms have their own individual advnatages, though I admit Valor and Wisdom Form each ran out of their uses pretty quickly (aside from Growth Abilities) soon after I got Master and Limit Form (which was insanely useful to just pop in when I'm near death).

 

Limits were super nice to get out of a tight situation and to do some nice damage, but I had to use them very conservingly because it drained all of my MP. Summons on the other hand, turned out to be quite useful. I don't think I ever figured out how Peter Pan works, but the other ones were really neat, notably Chicken Little from my personal experience. I remember being stuck on a fight in Port Royal for a good while, then trying to experiment with some other attacking options. Chicken Little turned out to be a good choice, because he has this ability where he drags in enemies from afar AND stuns them. I haven't really found a use for his Limit though, but I'm sure there is some. 

That's just a small example of the insane depth I realized the game had for its gameplay system. The AI is no joke either; I later found out about some "revenge value" system through research after finishing the game, but throughout my playthrough, I had a vague idea about its existence. I think this was most prominent in the Marluxia Absent Sillouhette fight (I haven't beaten the Datas/Lingering Will yet) where, through trial and error, figured out his attack patterns and HOW he retaliates to me when I do certain combos to him so I can dodge his attacks accordingly. It's super cool when games do things like this because it FORCES you to learn how to play in a smart way, and I can see why many suggested Critical Mode to me; I can imagine that on easier modes, spamming the X button is all you need.

 

So yeah, you might be pretty shocked at how much I got from the game in my first playthrough, and I was too, especially seeing how primitive other reviewers of this game seemed to make it. From a design standpoint, its probably not the smartest choice that they made to make things like Limit and Summons seem apparently useless due to lack of explanation, but because I was able to discover some of the deeper mechanics through my playthrough, I absolutely loved it.

 

That isn't to say the game is perfect though; I did prefer the exploration aspect of KH1 more, and I do have a bit of complaints about the story. And yeah, while the Roxas section seems to be universally hated because it's so long and boring, I did learn quite a bit for the basics of the game (although granted, that's probably because I was on Critical Mode)

 

They didn't...integrate Disney as well. The plot of the first half of the game is basically Sora going around looking for his friends with occasional Organization XIII interferences (why didn't they just call it that in ReCoM???). And yeah, Disney Worlds have their own individual story and stuff, but it just felt disconnected to the overall plot. While I did enjoy worlds such as Land of Dragons, Beast's Castle, and Halloween Town, some were also kind of disappointing (what did they DO to Atlantica good lord, thank god it's optional). Something I absolutely adored in the first game was the fact that they put the KH plot "Maleficient is gathering Princesses of Light" INTO the worlds itself, so you had a clear overall purpose with the individual world's stories and problems (i.e. saving the Gorillas from Clayton). KH2 really didn't do this much until the 2nd half where Organization members were revealed to be putting Heartless in worlds for you to kill so they would create Kingdom Hearts, but then again, it wasn't as good as the first game. Not saying it's bad, just saying it could've been better. It makes sense though, since it seems they're moving more towards a Kingdom Hearts centered plot rather than small Disney ones. Still though, being a collaboration of Disney and Square, I was hoping for a bit more synthesis between the two.

 

The idea of Kingdom Hearts still confuses me. From what I understand, Kingdom Hearts in the first game was behind the door but we didn't see it, and Kingdom Hearts in the second game is an artificial one made by Xemnas? I dunno, the whole thing is confusing. This worries me because it can only get more complicated from here, so if they make the story absurdly convoluted (which I heard the later KH games have a tendency to do), I may not enjoy it as much.

 

That being said though, I did enjoy the expansion of lore on the games, and the idea of Nobodies make sense to me. Also, yes, I saw the Days movie and while it didn't explain everything, I was able to figure stuff out based on a bit of research and rewatching scenes. One thing that I kind of found annoying was that Kairi got a Keyblade..? Not sure how that works, since it seems to mess up my main foundation of understanding how one obtains a Keyblade, but I'm sure it'll get explained in later games. Maybe.

 

I wanna talk about 2.5 itself though. People said it was glitchy and had bad load times, and...you were right. The load times were pretty atrocious, especially after dying like 500 times to Marluxia, I can even tell (despite not having played the original games). Even more, apparently Drive Forms loaded nearly instantaneously in the previous games, which is NOT true for this game. It's kind of obnoxious because enemies would be able to escape your Drive stun thingy and attack you as you become not-invincible. I later found out you can prevent this by pausing thanks to a good friend, but still. That's kind of bad.

 

Apparently the Final Xemnas fight's reaction commands are glitched, which would explain why I died 3 times at the very begining of the fight (I literally thought I was doing something wrong or my controller was dying). That's definitely something Square will have to fix in the upcoming PS4 version. Lastly, I've heard about crashes, but haven't experienced any myself. That isn't to say they don't exist though; I'm sure they do, especially seeing how the game performs rather unstabley. I constantly get weird 1 second freezes at the beginning of some fights or if I'm turning into a Drive Form, which, while doesn't affect the gameplay, does look kind of unprofessional.

 

If I ignore all the issue the HD Port has, it's a solid 9.5/10. With the issues though, I'd take it down a little to a 9/10. Still really good.

 

Anyways, that's my long explanation of what I thought 2FM was. Gameplay wise, definitely the best so far, and I can see why many place this game at the top of the series. Anyways, onto BBS next. Lots of controversy over this one as far as I can tell; some people absolutely love it while some others seem to hate it. Guess I'll just have to see for myself

[Guest]

Dude, you should get a PlayStation 4 and do this sort of analysis for 2.8.

 

Well, congratulations on catching up with Kingdom Hearts like the rest of the majority of fans. 1.5 and 2.5 are the core titles required to understand the series, and seeing as you've dabbled into all the content for them, you know the core elements of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. You're no longer a newbie.

 

As far as Kingdom Hearts as a series goes, the director has a tendency to change things here and there to create this epic of a narrative. Once Disney approved of a sequel, Tetsuya Nomura knew that he could add his own lore elements outside of the Disney constricts. That's why things are complicated as they are.

 

Can't wait to see what your thoughts are for Birth by Sleep.

[Kello 310]

I think it's because of your style or aesthetics or I don't know,

but your reviews and gameplay analyzes are the most in-depth and the best I've seen in text format. I usually skip most of the reviews and only read the verdict, but not yours.

 

So good work, you got this one hyperactive person to read ANOTHER long review.

 

Gimme BbS now I want your opinios now

[Neoshadow99 31]

I hope you're enjoying BBS if you've decided to start playing it yet.  It is without a doubt one of my absolute favorite entries in the series, even in my Top 3.  Keep in mind that I have not played any of the Nintendo titles, except the PS2 remake of Chain of Memories. 

 

While I did watch 358/2 Days "The Movie", I never did get a chance to play the actual game.  Still haven't watch the Re:Coded "Movie", but plan to soon (never played the game for this title, too).

 

Oh, about BBS, it is recommended, but not required, to play the through the story in this order: Terra, Ventus, and then Aqua.  Terra's story is typically an "introduction" to the world and its characters.  Ventus' story is usually set right in the middle, after learning about Terra's presence (and actions).  Aqua's story typically resolves and concludes the conflict in most of the worlds, with more to follow (but that would be a spoiler, so I won't say any more).  I hope this helps.

Edited January 17, 2017 by Neoshadow99