[SPOILERS] My problem with 0.2 (specifically gameplay)

[thatkingdomheartsguy 153]

Alright, I've had a bit more time with 0.2 and I can make some final conclusions on the gameplay:

 

Graphically looks incredible. No complaints there.

 

Combos are faster than Aqua's in BBS and also good options in gameplay, but there's not many options to begin with.

 

Magic Combos are cool, and the way Magic effects enemies is neat. Kinda reminds me of Port Royal in KH2.

 

Shotlocks are super situational, but can be useful if used correctly.

 

Unfortnately, those three are ALL the options you have for damage output (not counting Style Changes which I consider as attacking or Magic Finishers which I consider as Magic obviously). Here's my issue, and I've noticed a lot of recent KH games falling into this trap:

 

They're making the harder difficulties hard. And in the wrong way. 

 

You can use up to 3 Magic spells on Critical Mode before running out of MP. Magic is literally eliminated as a reliable option for attacking in this mode. This means out of the 3 options you have for damaging enemies, one is pretty much useless, so you only have 2; normal attacks and shotlocks. What does this mean? Yeah sure, it makes the game harder and longer; it also makes the game LESS FUN. We don't CHALLENGE ourselves for punishment; we do it for the fun in the game, and when you literally eliminate a combat option as a method to make a game harder, it doesn't make the game any more fun to play.

 

This can be reflected in BBS and DDD; Critical Mode reduces your HP, lowers your damage output, and increases enemy damage output. THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE OR INCENTIVE TO PLAY ON THESE HARDER DIFFICULTIES, ASIDE TO PUNISH YOURSELF. Yeah, you get extra command slots in BBS, but you start of with crappy commands anyways, and you still ultimately end up with the same 8 slot command deck. So you don't get anything out of it.

 

What happened to 2FM? What happened to crippling you severely by reducing your MP, HP, and EXP received, but also giving you buffs such as more damage output and abilities to make you want to play the game? I want a REASON to play the hardest difficulty, aside from "make me hate my life." 2FM gave me that reason, but it seems like every other KH game from there on out makes me hate playing on the hardest difficulty. It sucks, and I'm almost sure they'll fall into the same trap the same way for KH3. 

 

Another annoying thing is that Square seems to have gotten the idea that a hard boss is one with 5 billion bars of health and takes forever to kill, when that really isn't what we consider a boss that's "hard" as; it just makes the fight that much more tedious and boring. I don't want to be hacking away at a 12 goddamned bar final boss when the rest of the bosses have 6 or 7 bars maximum. It doesn't even make the fight hard; it just takes forever, especially when that boss is never truly open to punishing. You're never safe to attack the Final Devil's Wave; it can easily hit you out of your combo, and on Critical Mode, you're dead. 

 

0.2 hasn't been living up to standards unfortunately. Apparently this is the game that's suppose to surpass KH2...clearly, Osaka team is doing something wrong, because it doesn't come close.

Edited January 18, 2017 by thatkingdomheartsguy

[KHLegendIII 709]

I played and finished 0.2 today on Standard Mode without getting a game over, even to the final boss. I do like the gameplay that 0.2 had, and made me more excited for KH3. Maybe the difficulty punishments are like this because it's a demo or maybe it's the way it is since it's a short game, and maybe they wanted to try something. Also, I do like final bosses having a lot of health, as long as they are interesting, and I did like fighting 0.2's final boss, I nearly died to it a few times, although I managed to survive.

[praveen utdboy 0]

I agree that they did shit job with mp in critical mode

This is a very short game and I don't think they gave much consideration for the critical mode and its rewards I guess

I'm pretty sure they will do something about rewarding for beating critical in kh3 and making it fun

Any non humanoid bosses in kh2 also broke you out of the combo so it is so unfair to judge

In 0.2 aqua is trapped in realm of darkness where it is full of heartless so you can't expect any good boss other than these broken badass bosses

It's really stupid to judge kh3 by 0.2,Osaka did a faaaarrrrr better job than BBS and DDD

sora is speed type of guy like Ventus, his combos will definitely be faster and non floaty

We saw lot of combos within these few kh3 trailers too,I'm sure kh3 won't disappoint

Edited January 18, 2017 by praveen utdboy

[thatkingdomheartsguy 153]

This is a very short game and I don't think they gave much consideration for the critical mode and its rewards I guess

I'm pretty sure they will do something about rewarding for beating critical in kh3 and making it fun

Hard to say really. Seeing as how DDD and BBS had godawful Critical Modes, I'm not really expecting KH3 to pull out anything amazing either.

 

 

 

Any non humanoid bosses in kh2 also broke you out of the combo so it is so unfair to judge

That actually isn't true; KH2 bosses all had some form of pattern or warning before they attack. Even fights such as Storm Rider or Twilight Thorn had patterns of attack that you can learn and dodge appropriately. This game gives no warnings or patterns whatsoever; they do what they want when they want, and because they're giant bosses which don't get staggered, it's impossible to combo safely. 

 

 

It's really stupid to judge kh3 by 0.2,Osaka did a faaaarrrrr better job than BBS and DDD

sora is speed type of guy like Ventus, his combos will definitely be faster and non floaty

We saw lot of combos within these few kh3 trailers too,I'm sure kh3 won't disappoint

Once again it's kinda hard to say; the trailers look decent so far, but once again in comparison to something like KH2, it doesn't seem too impressive. Still though, I'm sure we'll have a lot more options for attacking in KH3 so I still have hope.

[CriticalAssension 161]

While I haven't really played 0.2 yet due to obvious reasons like simply not owning it or even owning a Ps4 but I have seen A LOT of different playthroughs of the game on various difficulties by different channels and I can say from all of that gameplay I have watched, with the standard MP or the Crit damage buff, 0.2 would be a hell of a lot easier.

 

So from what I have seen, by the end-game, it seems that Aqua's Firagun can deal almost half a bar of damage to a boss. Now I dunno about you but applying a damage buff to increase the already large about of damage you can deal seems fairly...broken. Now of couse lets assume the Damage Buff was actually noticeable like it was in KH2FM, one would expect Firagun to at least deal a little bit more then 1/2 a bar of HP, assuming we had the Normal amount of MP in Critical Mode, that would litterally just mean the only downside to playing Critical Mode is that you have 1/2 HP and 1/2 exp gained and possibly the enemy attack patterns would be more aggressive. And then you apply the damage buff to 0.2 and BAM, your Tier 4 spells turn into Balloonra.

Now of course that was me just mainly talking about one of the Magic options but even if they consume a lot of MP practically making it so they cannot be used often during a fight limiting your damage options...at least they are kind of useful?

Magic in KH2 was awful! Besides Cure, Reflect was pretty much the only good one out of the bunch!...and they made it abusable as hell. The Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga commands had barely any use at all besides a few boss battles mainly the Data Battles in which, thanks to Wisdom and Final Form made them completely abusable because Critical Modes 1/2 MP barely made me feel theres any difference. Oh, and the Magnet spells were COMPLETELY useless! I wouldn't exactly praise KH2FM's Critical Mode seeing as the combat in KH2 was litterally just constantly dodging and reflecting.

 

The only thing imo which KH2 improved over KH1 was the Revenge Values which 0.2 did thankfully adapt as well. Yes, a few of the enemies were unstaggerable but it doesn't even matter much as they actually give you time to fet a combo in.

e.g The final Devil's Wave in it's final phase, once you actually manage to get inside it, you have enough time to get in 2-3 combo's before getting flung out. And thats mainly just the big doods, smaller heartless like the Shadows gets staggered and even the Aqua mirror boss gets staggered as well and retaliates after 1-2 combo's.

 

Also it should be a good thing that enemies are harder to predict as it simply makes them harder to exploit or cheese them which is kind of a good thing. They all still have their patterns, just now it requires more thought process to counter them.

 

I guess all I'm saying from my big wall of text is that maybe it's not all as bad as it seems and that several of the things they did like the high cost of magic may seem bad but was kind of their own way of balancing the game and preventing it from becoming too easy. Of couse, like I mentioned before, I haven't actually played the game so I can't really talk much from experience. I'm only necessarily saying what I picked up from footage and my opinion may change drastically once I manage to actually ply the game but yeah thats how I see it imo. But hey, atleast it was an improvement over BBS's and DDD's Crit modes which were AWFUL. If 0.2 can improve over the last 2 enttries (ignoring Re:Coded) then perhaps KH3 can improve over 0.2

[thatkingdomheartsguy 153]

While I haven't really played 0.2 yet due to obvious reasons like simply not owning it or even owning a Ps4 but I have seen A LOT of different playthroughs of the game on various difficulties by different channels and I can say from all of that gameplay I have watched, with the standard MP or the Crit damage buff, 0.2 would be a hell of a lot easier.

It's not just that though; I overall play the game for the fun of it, and if they're making the game harder but reducing the "fun" factor, I'd much rather have it be easier but still be fun to play rather than hard and tedious.

 

 

So from what I have seen, by the end-game, it seems that Aqua's Firagun can deal almost half a bar of damage to a boss. Now I dunno about you but applying a damage buff to increase the already large about of damage you can deal seems fairly...broken. Now of couse lets assume the Damage Buff was actually noticeable like it was in KH2FM, one would expect Firagun to at least deal a little bit more then 1/2 a bar of HP, assuming we had the Normal amount of MP in Critical Mode, that would litterally just mean the only downside to playing Critical Mode is that you have 1/2 HP and 1/2 exp gained and possibly the enemy attack patterns would be more aggressive. And then you apply the damage buff to 0.2 and BAM, your Tier 4 spells turn into Balloonra.

That's the thing; none of these are absolute, and it should be up to Square's team to decide which would be the most balanced option. What would I personally do? MP stays the same for Beginner, Standard, Proud, and is slightly reduced for Crit; not so much that it because a useless option, but not so little so that it can be just as abused as much. 2FM did a good job at this, so why can't this game?

 

Now of course that was me just mainly talking about one of the Magic options but even if they consume a lot of MP practically making it so they cannot be used often during a fight limiting your damage options...at least they are kind of useful?

Magic in KH2 was awful! Besides Cure, Reflect was pretty much the only good one out of the bunch!...and they made it abusable as hell. The Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga commands had barely any use at all besides a few boss battles mainly the Data Battles in which, thanks to Wisdom and Final Form made them completely abusable because Critical Modes 1/2 MP barely made me feel theres any difference. Oh, and the Magnet spells were COMPLETELY useless! I wouldn't exactly praise KH2FM's Critical Mode seeing as the combat in KH2 was litterally just constantly dodging and reflecting.

Hm. Interesting interpretation. Cure is actually pretty useless in KH2 on higher difficulties; the fact that you use all your MP is way too risky. You're left very vulnerable, without panic Limits for invincibility or any type of Magic. Reflect, I admit, is very useful. It is nowhere near abusable however; Reflega, while strong, is obtained at the dead end of the game so it balances out. In addition, spamming the spell will get you nowhere unless you know exactly when and how to use it, and that comes down to skill-based gameplay and knowledge of the game. Which is what games should do.

Fire, Blizzard, Thunder are all viable options of attacking, and can be really useful if you know how to use them correctly, especially early game. Fire on mob fights is a good way of crowd control, Blizzard for long range attacking and extra damage, and Thunder is an all around useful spell. Magnet, on the contrary, is debatably one of the best spells in the game. It drags enemies in, allowing you to follow up with more powerful attacks. Have you seen Magnet+Explosion or Magnet+THunder combinations? Do you realize how insanely useful that can be, especially in difficulty mob fights such as CoR Nobodies?

I'm honestly not sure where you got the idea that KH2 is "constantly dodging and reflecting" because that just isn't true; if you've seen KH2FM from some of the more hardcore players, you'll realize it's so much more. The IDEA of KH2 gameplay is to use different methods to avoid attacks (i.e. Guard, Limit invincibility, Reflect, Leaf Bracer, Drive Explosions, etc. there's so much more options) and countering and punishing at the correct time. And yeah, not all fights are like this, but it can be at least reflected in the optional boss fights which is where the gameplay really shines.

The only thing imo which KH2 improved over KH1 was the Revenge Values which 0.2 did thankfully adapt as well. Yes, a few of the enemies were unstaggerable but it doesn't even matter much as they actually give you time to fet a combo in.

e.g The final Devil's Wave in it's final phase, once you actually manage to get inside it, you have enough time to get in 2-3 combo's before getting flung out. And thats mainly just the big doods, smaller heartless like the Shadows gets staggered and even the Aqua mirror boss gets staggered as well and retaliates after 1-2 combo's.

You can get around 2-3 combos in, but then how do you get out? There should always be a method to punish a boss. KH2FM can do this correctly; giant bosses such as Storm Rider or Twilight Thorn had patterns and openings you can punish if you learned the fights. There is no truly safe moment here; you can get 2-3 combos, or you can try to attack and get hit out immediately. On Critical Mode, it's even worse; if you get unlucky and get randomly hit, you get stunlocked. You can't recover either because you don't have Second Chance, so two hits and you're dead. The only TRUE way to beat this boss without taking damage is to go in, hit him a few times, then run away for 20 minutes. It's literally BBS all over again. Dont believe me? Go check out no damage videos of this boss on YouTube. It's literally the only way.

Also, his DM is literally impossible to dodge, which is completely broken. No boss should ever have a move that cannot be avoided.

There isn't much wrong with Mirage Aqua; it has a built in Revenge Value and it staggers, so it's actually a good fight. My issue is with the other 2/3 of the boss fights, which don't stagger and don't give indications of attacking. Darkside is easy obviously, but the Devil's Wave are absolutely awful. 

 

Also it should be a good thing that enemies are harder to predict as it simply makes them harder to exploit or cheese them which is kind of a good thing. They all still have their patterns, just now it requires more thought process to counter them.

 

I guess all I'm saying from my big wall of text is that maybe it's not all as bad as it seems and that several of the things they did like the high cost of magic may seem bad but was kind of their own way of balancing the game and preventing it from becoming too easy. Of couse, like I mentioned before, I haven't actually played the game so I can't really talk much from experience. I'm only necessarily saying what I picked up from footage and my opinion may change drastically once I manage to actually ply the game but yeah thats how I see it imo. But hey, atleast it was an improvement over BBS's and DDD's Crit modes which were AWFUL. If 0.2 can improve over the last 2 enttries (ignoring Re:Coded) then perhaps KH3 can improve over 0.2

It's not that though; it's not the fact that enemies are harder to predict; it's the fact that they are IMPOSSIBLE to predict. This isn't a game of reaction time or skill; it's literally luck. You have no indication of when the boss will attack, and if it does and you're in the middle of a combo and you're on Critical Mode, you're dead. No sign of openings so you can't punish, no sign of attacks so you can't avoid. THe safest way is to chip away slowly with a few hits at a time. There is NO pattern to this boss whatsoever. Also his DM is still dumb.

But anyways, you're right; they did improve over BBS and DDD, but that's not much of a benchmark. It's kind of disappointing honestly; KH2FM was nowhere near perfect and I fully acknowledge its flaws, but they just can't seem to improve over that game. Basic fundamental combat techniques and usage isn't that hard to perfect imo, but there's just little tidbits that Osaka can't get down and it really brings down the game experience.

Edited January 18, 2017 by thatkingdomheartsguy

[Reyn 1,755]

Alright, I've had a bit more time with 0.2 and I can make some final conclusions on the gameplay:

 

Graphically looks incredible. No complaints there.

 

Combos are faster than Aqua's in BBS and also good options in gameplay, but there's not many options to begin with.

 

Magic Combos are cool, and the way Magic effects enemies is neat. Kinda reminds me of Port Royal in KH2.

 

Shotlocks are super situational, but can be useful if used correctly.

 

Unfortnately, those three are ALL the options you have for damage output (not counting Style Changes which I consider as attacking or Magic Finishers which I consider as Magic obviously). Here's my issue, and I've noticed a lot of recent KH games falling into this trap:

 

They're making the harder difficulties hard. And in the wrong way. 

 

You can use up to 3 Magic spells on Critical Mode before running out of MP. Magic is literally eliminated as a reliable option for attacking in this mode. This means out of the 3 options you have for damaging enemies, one is pretty much useless, so you only have 2; normal attacks and shotlocks. What does this mean? Yeah sure, it makes the game harder and longer; it also makes the game LESS FUN. We don't CHALLENGE ourselves for punishment; we do it for the fun in the game, and when you literally eliminate a combat option as a method to make a game harder, it doesn't make the game any more fun to play.

 

This can be reflected in BBS and DDD; Critical Mode reduces your HP, lowers your damage output, and increases enemy damage output. THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE OR INCENTIVE TO PLAY ON THESE HARDER DIFFICULTIES, ASIDE TO PUNISH YOURSELF. Yeah, you get extra command slots in BBS, but you start of with crappy commands anyways, and you still ultimately end up with the same 8 slot command deck. So you don't get anything out of it.

 

What happened to 2FM? What happened to crippling you severely by reducing your MP, HP, and EXP received, but also giving you buffs such as more damage output and abilities to make you want to play the game? I want a REASON to play the hardest difficulty, aside from "make me hate my life." 2FM gave me that reason, but it seems like every other KH game from there on out makes me hate playing on the hardest difficulty. It sucks, and I'm almost sure they'll fall into the same trap the same way for KH3. 

 

Another annoying thing is that Square seems to have gotten the idea that a hard boss is one with 5 billion bars of health and takes forever to kill, when that really isn't what we consider a boss that's "hard" as; it just makes the fight that much more tedious and boring. I don't want to be hacking away at a 12 goddamned bar final boss when the rest of the bosses have 6 or 7 bars maximum. It doesn't even make the fight hard; it just takes forever, especially when that boss is never truly open to punishing. You're never safe to attack the Final Devil's Wave; it can easily hit you out of your combo, and on Critical Mode, you're dead. 

 

0.2 hasn't been living up to standards unfortunately. Apparently this is the game that's suppose to surpass KH2...clearly, Osaka team is doing something wrong, because it doesn't come close.

Ive played 0.2 myself, and Critical Mode, so i see where you're coming from. I was frustrated with it too.

 

 

But, after finishing it and realizing the restrictions Critical Mode has, and after playing Proud Mode, i realized something. Proud Mode i felt was very akin to KH2's Critical Mode, hard and but fair, you gotta play smart but it isn't impossible by any means. Enemies could kill you pretty easily if you're not careful and mindful of your HP. Even the secret boss took adapting to its patterns and was brutal, but it was more on Lingering Will's hard but fair difficulty and not MF's ridiculous and badly designed fight based around BBS's unbalanced mechanics.

 

Critical Mode, however, had the same AI difficulty of Proud Mode, but had these crazy restrictions that Proud Mode didn't have on it, that we've NEVER seen in a KH game before. It had:

 

No HP/MP/Focus Orbs are dropped at all.

You can only use 3 items in any boss fight, after that they become Greyed out and restricted.

Leaf Bracer, Combo Master and *Second Chance* are not equipped, only Once More is left.

 

So, this mode is NOT intended for people who haven't played the game yet at all. If i hadn't played Proud Mode prior and got adjusted to the game there, it would have been so hard to adapt to this game with this kind of difficulty. It's only made for people who have played it on Proud and know the patterns and what to expect, that's the REAL reason it was locked. It's basically an insanity mode, like a Super Bonus Challenge Mode you'd see in other games. It's not *supposed* to be comparable to other critical modes, the ridiculous restrictions made that obvious to me.

 

And the reason they did is, is because this is the only game they could possibly get away with something like this. It's such a short game, and Proud Mode is already an example of what we'd expect a Normal Critical Mode to be. So, they added this in to cater to the insane players that do things like Level 1 runs, or Kingdom Key level 1 runs. It's not supposed to be like a normal critical mode, thats what Proud Mode was for.

 

I'm sure KH3 WILL NOT make a Critical Mode like this (at least, not a version of it that's not self imposed), for multiple reasons.

 

A) It'd be utterly ridiculous to make a game longer than KH2 (aka a 40 hour game like they say it'll be) that you gotta be forced to play on Critical with those kinds of restrictions, it was already really hard in a 3 hour game, let alone 40.

 

B) KH3 is confirmed to have the Abilities/AP system, so, they can't do something like not give you Second Chance and Once More through leveling in this game because it's part of the system.

 

C) If people really wanted, they can do this kind of self imposed Challenge in 3 regardless, there's no need to force you to play that way. 0.2 was different since you couldn't learn abilities or gain them. In 3, since it'll be set up like 1 and 2, you can just disable Leaf Bracer, Second Chance and Combo Master, and limit yourself to 3 items and play the game that way yourself at your leisure. You can do that own challenge yourself, Square would be crazy to make a mode that physically removes those abilities from the game, in critical mode anyways.

 

D) I get the feeling, given the reaction from Critical Mode in this game, that 3 will have a NEW Difficulty based on 0.2's critical mode. I can see it being named "Insanity Mode" or something of the like, which is clarified to be ridiculous, with the Items and Abilities restrictions. Normal Critical Mode is probably going to be akin to 0.2's Proud Mode, as it definitely had the balance and difficulty for it, and was very enjoyable. They found a good balance finally, and im sure they won't null it so easily.

 

Critical Mode was locked for a legitimate reason, it's not supposed to be something that you can play it the first time on Critical and be fine (like KH2FM's was, it was hard but not something that would completely turn away a player like this critical mode if you don't know what it *truly is* going into it). It's just a bonus hard mode that's not supposed to be comparable to other Critical Modes. Im sure it's not gonna be the direction Square is aiming for normal difficulty standards, unless it's a bonus new mode that's labeled as such in future games.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Reyn

[thatkingdomheartsguy 153]

Ive played 0.2 myself, and Critical Mode, so i see where you're coming from. I was frustrated with it too.

 

 

But, after finishing it and realizing the restrictions Critical Mode has, and after playing Proud Mode, i realized something. Proud Mode i felt was very akin to KH2's Critical Mode, hard and but fair, you gotta play smart but it isn't impossible by any means. Enemies could kill you pretty easily if you're not careful and mindful of your HP. Even the secret boss took adapting to its patterns and was brutal, but it was more on Lingering Will's hard but fair difficulty and not MF's ridiculous and badly designed fight based around BBS's unbalanced mechanics.

 

Critical Mode, however, had the same AI difficulty of Proud Mode, but had these crazy restrictions that Proud Mode didn't have on it, that we've NEVER seen in a KH game before. It had:

 

No HP/MP/Focus Orbs are dropped at all.

You can only use 3 items in any boss fight, after that they become Greyed out and restricted.

Leaf Bracer, Combo Master and *Second Chance* are not equipped, only Once More is left.

 

So, this mode is NOT intended for people who haven't played the game yet at all. If i hadn't played Proud Mode prior and got adjusted to the game there, it would have been so hard to adapt to this game with this kind of difficulty. It's only made for people who have played it on Proud and know the patterns and what to expect, that's the REAL reason it was locked. It's basically an insanity mode, like a Super Bonus Challenge Mode you'd see in other games. It's not *supposed* to be comparable to other critical modes, the ridiculous restrictions made that obvious to me.

 

And the reason they did is, is because this is the only game they could possibly get away with something like this. It's such a short game, and Proud Mode is already an example of what we'd expect a Normal Critical Mode to be. So, they added this in to cater to the insane players that do things like Level 1 runs, or Kingdom Key level 1 runs. It's not supposed to be like a normal critical mode, thats what Proud Mode was for.

 

I'm sure KH3 WILL NOT make a Critical Mode like this (at least, not a version of it that's not self imposed), for multiple reasons.

 

A) It'd be utterly ridiculous to make a game longer than KH2 (aka a 40 hour game like they say it'll be) that you gotta be forced to play on Critical with those kinds of restrictions, it was already really hard in a 3 hour game, let alone 40.

 

B) KH3 is confirmed to have the Abilities/AP system, so, they can't do something like not give you Second Chance and Once More through leveling in this game because it's part of the system.

 

C) If people really wanted, they can do this kind of self imposed Challenge in 3 regardless, there's no need to force you to play that way. 0.2 was different since you couldn't learn abilities or gain them. In 3, since it'll be set up like 1 and 2, you can just disable Leaf Bracer, Second Chance and Combo Master, and limit yourself to 3 items and play the game that way yourself at your leisure. You can do that own challenge yourself, Square would be crazy to make a mode that physically removes those abilities from the game, in critical mode anyways.

 

D) I get the feeling, given the reaction from Critical Mode in this game, that 3 will have a NEW Difficulty based on 0.2's critical mode. I can see it being named "Insanity Mode" or something of the like, which is clarified to be ridiculous, with the Items and Abilities restrictions. Normal Critical Mode is probably going to be akin to 0.2's Proud Mode, as it definitely had the balance and difficulty for it, and was very enjoyable. They found a good balance finally, and im sure they won't null it so easily.

 

Critical Mode was locked for a legitimate reason, it's not supposed to be something that you can play it the first time on Critical and be fine (like KH2FM's was, it was hard but not something that would completely turn away a player like this critical mode if you don't know what it *truly is* going into it). It's just a bonus hard mode that's not supposed to be comparable to other Critical Modes. Im sure it's not gonna be the direction Square is aiming for normal difficulty standards, unless it's a bonus new mode that's labeled as such in future games.

Secret boss was great; it was one of the most fun I've had fighting a boss in a KH game since 2FM Datas and Terra. All the Devil's Wave battles however, are absolutely awful. They've got the whole BBS approach to them. You can't react to their attacks, and they kill you in 2-3 hits on Critical Mode. What's more is that the time they're open gets smaller and smaller as their HP drops. There's no good way around it, you literally have to go in, hit it once or twice, then back off or else risk getting trashed.

 

And yeah, I can see why it was "unlocked" and all, but the point of a hard difficulty is to provide a fun challenge, not make you pull your hair out in absolute frustration because of bad design choices. It's just stuff like this that bothers me because they went absolutely overboard with it. You have no options of attacking. Magic is nerfed from little MP. Shotlocks are nerfed from lack of drops. You can't even use items more than 3 times in a fight. You deal chip damage to every enemy. Just stuff like that doesn't make the game fun, and that's my inherent issue with it. If someone goes into the game looking for a good challenge, chances are, they're not looking to have all their options taken away from them as a "fun" challenge. I just don't see the point in creating a mode like this; it's like creating a game, then have an option be "take all the fun things in the game out of the game." It's absurd, and I had no idea what they were thinking.

 

Honestly, when fighting the Devil's Wave/Heartless mob fights, I actually had to question myself if they playtested the mode, because the strategies you're forced to adopt to win is absurd. You literally HAVE to camp out the Heartless during the Boss Rush challenge; if you try to go in at all, you'll lose your MP and Focus immediately and have no way of defending or attacking. It's such a tedious process and really makes me wonder if the game devs honestly thought people would enjoy this.

 

I'm scared of KH3's Critical Mode for the exact same reasons that you list where KH3 won't have a Critical Mode like this.

 

A.) They made the mistake for BBS, for DDD, and now 0.2, on an even greater scale than the previous 2. I don't see any reason why they would change this formula. BBS and DDD were full games and their Critical Modes were awful as well, so it's very hard to say that they'll fix KH3's just because of its length. This is especially worrying since they said KH3 will play similarly to 0.2, so the chances of them changing up the modes will be even slimmer.

 

B.) True, but abilities are only one part of the whole picture. There's so many other things to worry about. Even with Once More/Second Chance, we have to consider our Damage Output, our options and abilities, how we are crippled, and whether if we'll receive ANY buffs at all for attempting the hardest difficulty.

 

C.) Right; once again, abilities are only one part of the big picture. Even if you have the option to these useful support abilities, it won't be any use of enemies reduce your HP down to 1 in a single hit, or if you're placed in a mob position with no way of defense, or if you deal chip damage. I can go on and on, because it's crucial they get this balance correct. I need an incentive to play Critical Mode, so they have to bring some sort of bonus deal into it to make the mode challenging, but fun to go through. I don't care if the mode is just as difficult as 0.2, so long it is still fun and has SKILL-BASED gameplay rather than "run around for 10 minutes waiting for MP to recharge".

 

D.) But who would want to play this supposed new mode? No one wants to torture themselves in a mode where you're completely helpless. It's like making a giant pizza, but then a challenge would be to take all the toppings off of it. If you take the fun things out of a game, no one would want to play the game, and therefore a mode like that would be pointless.

 

There's a really big difference between a fun challenge and an unfair challenge. 0.2 goes into the latter. It's by far one of the most difficult Critical Modes in the KH series, but the reasoning behind that difficulty is because the game cripples your player and takes away the fun parts of gameplay. That's not what I want. I want an extremely challenging mode that is challenging because you need skill and knowledge of the game to beat it. 2FM Level 1 captures this; no ordinary casual player will be able to beat the game at Level 1 on Critical Mode, so you can say it's just as hard or harder than 0.2's Critical Mode. But the difficulty isn't an issue because for the majority of the game, Im still having fun and learning. I get none of that from 0.2; 90% of the fights are relied on stalling and luck. And you see the same trends for DDD and BBS as well, so its clear Osaka Team can't seem to grasp what makes a challenging Critical Mode. I seriously doubt they would create a gameplay mode like this if they understood the concept of a fun challenge, so the only assumption is that they don't understand. And they very likely won't realize for KH3.

 

Then again, there's always that sliver of hope. 

[praveen utdboy 0]

all the little fishes stagger and has revenge value in 0.2 unlike bbs or ddd

Bosses like mirage aqua do stagger and has revenge value

I was really afraid kh3 is going to be something like bbs or ddd

But these two gave me lot of hope for kh3

Trust me i did lvl1 2fm runs like 5+times

I played 0.2 too

That aqua boss fight is soo gooood

IMO it is on par with lingering will

I'm pretty sure Osaka will catch the grip on how to balance these huge bosses just like how they did with aqua

Kh3 will be all fine!

[Reyn 1,755]

Secret boss was great; it was one of the most fun I've had fighting a boss in a KH game since 2FM Datas and Terra. All the Devil's Wave battles however, are absolutely awful. They've got the whole BBS approach to them. You can't react to their attacks, and they kill you in 2-3 hits on Critical Mode. What's more is that the time they're open gets smaller and smaller as their HP drops. There's no good way around it, you literally have to go in, hit it once or twice, then back off or else risk getting trashed.

 

And yeah, I can see why it was "unlocked" and all, but the point of a hard difficulty is to provide a fun challenge, not make you pull your hair out in absolute frustration because of bad design choices. It's just stuff like this that bothers me because they went absolutely overboard with it. You have no options of attacking. Magic is nerfed from little MP. Shotlocks are nerfed from lack of drops. You can't even use items more than 3 times in a fight. You deal chip damage to every enemy. Just stuff like that doesn't make the game fun, and that's my inherent issue with it. If someone goes into the game looking for a good challenge, chances are, they're not looking to have all their options taken away from them as a "fun" challenge. I just don't see the point in creating a mode like this; it's like creating a game, then have an option be "take all the fun things in the game out of the game." It's absurd, and I had no idea what they were thinking.

 

Honestly, when fighting the Devil's Wave/Heartless mob fights, I actually had to question myself if they playtested the mode, because the strategies you're forced to adopt to win is absurd. You literally HAVE to camp out the Heartless during the Boss Rush challenge; if you try to go in at all, you'll lose your MP and Focus immediately and have no way of defending or attacking. It's such a tedious process and really makes me wonder if the game devs honestly thought people would enjoy this.

 

I'm scared of KH3's Critical Mode for the exact same reasons that you list where KH3 won't have a Critical Mode like this.

 

A.) They made the mistake for BBS, for DDD, and now 0.2, on an even greater scale than the previous 2. I don't see any reason why they would change this formula. BBS and DDD were full games and their Critical Modes were awful as well, so it's very hard to say that they'll fix KH3's just because of its length. This is especially worrying since they said KH3 will play similarly to 0.2, so the chances of them changing up the modes will be even slimmer.

 

B.) True, but abilities are only one part of the whole picture. There's so many other things to worry about. Even with Once More/Second Chance, we have to consider our Damage Output, our options and abilities, how we are crippled, and whether if we'll receive ANY buffs at all for attempting the hardest difficulty.

 

C.) Right; once again, abilities are only one part of the big picture. Even if you have the option to these useful support abilities, it won't be any use of enemies reduce your HP down to 1 in a single hit, or if you're placed in a mob position with no way of defense, or if you deal chip damage. I can go on and on, because it's crucial they get this balance correct. I need an incentive to play Critical Mode, so they have to bring some sort of bonus deal into it to make the mode challenging, but fun to go through. I don't care if the mode is just as difficult as 0.2, so long it is still fun and has SKILL-BASED gameplay rather than "run around for 10 minutes waiting for MP to recharge".

 

D.) But who would want to play this supposed new mode? No one wants to torture themselves in a mode where you're completely helpless. It's like making a giant pizza, but then a challenge would be to take all the toppings off of it. If you take the fun things out of a game, no one would want to play the game, and therefore a mode like that would be pointless.

 

There's a really big difference between a fun challenge and an unfair challenge. 0.2 goes into the latter. It's by far one of the most difficult Critical Modes in the KH series, but the reasoning behind that difficulty is because the game cripples your player and takes away the fun parts of gameplay. That's not what I want. I want an extremely challenging mode that is challenging because you need skill and knowledge of the game to beat it. 2FM Level 1 captures this; no ordinary casual player will be able to beat the game at Level 1 on Critical Mode, so you can say it's just as hard or harder than 0.2's Critical Mode. But the difficulty isn't an issue because for the majority of the game, Im still having fun and learning. I get none of that from 0.2; 90% of the fights are relied on stalling and luck. And you see the same trends for DDD and BBS as well, so its clear Osaka Team can't seem to grasp what makes a challenging Critical Mode. I seriously doubt they would create a gameplay mode like this if they understood the concept of a fun challenge, so the only assumption is that they don't understand. And they very likely won't realize for KH3.

 

Then again, there's always that sliver of hope. 

I won't deny that, yes, on Critical Mode, the devil waves battles suck and you're forced to camp. It's the other fights that are actually fun even with this difficulty.

 

The point of creating a mode like this, is for those kinds of people who like masochistic gameplay like this and love to do No Damage Runs. You see alot of people who put themselves through ridiculous challenges or just ridiculously hard difficulty in games these days, like "I wanna be the guy", "Kaizo Mario games", "Prince of Persia", "Dark Souls", etc. I know a good amount of people who do stuff like Level 1 runs, No Heal Runs, Kingdom Key level 1 runs, etc. for KH, which i can imagine are torturous. But you'd be surprised what a good amount of people consider a "fun" challenge, it's subjective. That being said, i won't deny that for the general populace, yeah, people wouldn't find this fun. But, the length of the game is probably a major reason why they added a ridiculously hard mode like this. See, Square loves to add replay value to it's games, and, given the length of 0.2, there's only so many times people would play challenging but fair Proud Mode without getting bored. Even 100%ing the game with all the objectives don't take long.

 

So, since it's a short game, and because this is the only acceptable time they could get away with this with the fanbase because the game is so short (Square would be nuts to make a 40 hour game with these restrictions, it's just not good business practice and would drive people away if they did, not to mention immense backlash), they made this mode ridiculously hard to give us a "challenge" to struggle and struggle to perservere through and play the game longer. And honestly, like i said, from a balancing perspective and because this mode is so ridiculous, it's not that hard to see that Proud Mode is probably the way they're going to go for future installments with difficulty. Proud Mode was actually pretty challenging (more challenging than the Proud Modes of others KH games), was fair but difficult even with the devil waves bosses because they gave you all these tools to help you, and it's made even more obvious by the fact that when you pay attention, you see that Critical Mode's AI for the enemies play the same way as Proud Modes, they either didn't or couldn't go higher with the enemy difficulty, which is why they resulted in placing restrictions rather than bumping up the AI.

 

As for your counter arguments for my reasoning.

 

A) Not neccessarily. BBS and 3D, unlike 0.2, were unbelievably unbalanced with their critical modes, which is why they were actually do-able if you knew how to play the game the way they were designed. BBS (at least for the story, not going to go into the stupid Secret Bosses) had Infinite Invincibility frames for Aqua and Ven, gave a really high focus on Magic attack and power and moves that displayed magic power and invincibility (like the Thunder Surges, Mega Flare) , which both Aqua and Ven excelled in (Ven didn't excel but, he had a balance of strength and magic so he did well with it), Shotlocks were based off the magic stack and made you entirely invincible. If you can properly utilize those broken tools, it's not hard to get through the story with them. As for Terra, he takes more skill and patience since he doesn't have all those luxuries (minus shotlocks) but even his final boss is just a matter of timing your Blocks and Countering really. It's not as bad as you make it out to be, i've played through the game myself on Critical. And before you say anything, the Devs definitely knew in this case about the unbalanced mechanics of the game. If they hadn't, they wouldn't have made bosses like Vanitas Remnant or Mysterious Figure where you specifically take advantage of the ridiculous power of Magic based attacks and infinite invincibility frames.

 

As for 3D, yes, i will concede that it's Critical Mode was unfair at times, enemies were really strong and the bosses were annoying. But, there's a reason it was also unlockable. With the dream eaters you carry over from NG+, and a small bit of grinding, you can get the abilities you need to survive (Second Chance, Once More, Leaf Bracer, etc.) as well as the strongest commands the game has to offer right off the bat (Firaga Burst, Mega Flare, Ars Arcanum, etc.) You're far far from limited, you can have a strong team AND great moves offensively and defensively at such an early point in the game, that it's not too hard to get through the game. Now, without those abilities, yeah, it'd be impossible since you get them so late in the game normally. But the game devs. knew that and knew what you could have with NG+, so it's not too hard to get through 3D's critical mode if you know what you're doing, which you should if you've already beaten the game once prior.

 

Here in 0.2, the game is more balanced on a fundamental level, Enemies have patterns you can get used to and have revenge value and don't attack erratically/randomly, you can't abuse the mechanics of the game like you could before (Like Shotlocks can only be filled through orbs, not through giving or taking hits so you can't always use and spam it), Barrier has less active frames and requires better timing, you only have a handful of items in the entirety of the game since no moogles to buy it from, and Command Styles take longer to activate. But the tools it does give you are effective and will get you through the game fine (in Proud and below) if you are careful when needed and are skilled.

 

The Developers had to have known that because this game was more balanced and there isn't much B.S. mechanics to take advantage of compared to 3D or BBS, Proud Mode was the highest difficulty they could've done normally in the game AI and Balance wise because of so few yet effective and fair tools they give you (meaning they can't give us a boss like mysterious figure again without giving us something ridiculous like a broken Cartwheel or access to moves like Thunder Surge). Because of this, they had to make Critical Mode have restrictions to give us any higher form of a challenge. But for balance purposes, i'm sure you'll agree with me in saying that Proud Mode was definitely balanced, a challenge that was hard but fair, a "fun" challenge. The developers had to have known they finally struck a good balance, so why would they jeopardize that now in a full game in future titles (aka, a game that's longer than 4 hours) now that they've learned from the mistakes of BBS and 3D. You are right, they were full games, but Osaka team was still getting their footing in making KH games after taking over from the original teams at the time, this is now, when they've gotten feedback and know for a fact those games weren't made for fair challenge.

 

They only put in a ridiculous mode like this because: 

1. The game is short and they wanted to add replayability by making a hard mode people can struggle with for hours.

2. There are alot of People that love the kind of Level 1 run challenges and the like, more than you think. And in this game, you start off at level 50 and never learn abilities. Even by late game at that level you still do a good amount of damage if you know how to play right, and you already are given the neccessary abilities regardless of what you do (in the other difficulties) instead of through leveling up like you normally would (ergo, you cant normally do a run in 0.2 without Once More for example). 

So, that kind of challenge is really nulled for players who love that because the game starts you off at such a high level and gives you those abilities. Not to mention many people still love to do No Damage Runs of the bosses in KH games, and this games restrictions force you to try to do such runs. So this Critical Mode is probably supposed to make up for that to those insane people that love this ridiculous kind of challenge.

3. It's a short game, so, this is the only time they can get away with this kind of mode without backlash from the community/fanbase for doing so.

 

It's all the more reason im sure that 3 won't have any of this difficulty in Critical, because if 0.2 is a demo for 3, and we know 0.2 has these fair tools and is more balanced to be akin to 1 and 2's gameplay, they won't be giving us many B.S. tools to get through the game and take advantage of, you will be able to get these abilities as well as increase your stats through other means (Equipment, Keychains, possibly Power/Defense/AP boosts should those return, which i figure they will given the game is using 1 and 2 gameplay), it's a 40 hour game that'll already have a lot of replayability with the kind of content amount that can be put into it as well as how much longer the worlds are supposed to be, and again, backlash. 3 is gonna have all the stuff that 0.2 didn't have, the stuff 0.2 was lacking is the entire reason a difficulty like this was put into the game, because it was the only KH game ever that's presented itself in a way that allowed for and "required" it.

 

B) As for Damage Output, the thing about 0.2 is, as you noticed with Aqua's fighting style, her attacks don't seem to have much weight behind them and seem more graceful and she's more floaty compared to how we know Sora plays, right? From the gameplay we've seen of 3 and how we know Sora plays like in 2, it's safe to assume Sora will probably pack more of a punch with his attacks and be faster/heavier like he's been in the past. And again, unlike 0.2, 3 will be a full game that has the options that 1 and 2 gave to us, those being: Equipment (not just Keychains, actual armor like 2 had to offer), Keychains, Stat Boosts (both 1 and 2 had access to this, so it's very likely that they should come back as well), and leveling up of course. It's also worth noting that for leveling, while 0.2 lacked, 3 will DEFINITELY have EXP Boost as an ability in game as every single KH game since 2 has had it save for 0.2, so leveling shouldn't be hard at all and is another way to increase damage output.

 

As for our options, we've seen what 3 and 0.2 have to offer in battle so far. Sora has flowmotion again, Disney Summons, Style Changes similar to Aqua's with Keyblade Transformations, Drive Forms (remember that Nomura confirmed this), as well as access to more spells than just Fire, Blizzard, Thunder and Cure (remember Aerora), and Items and Normal Keyblade Strikes as well. We're far from limited in 3. They're not just going to completely remove those mechanics, sure, they might nerf them and make them less usable, but we still have a plethora of moves to use in 3 compared ot what 0.2 gives us, it wont' be nearly as difficult should they choose to do that, and KH2FM's level 1 run has those options to give you compared to here, which 0.2 definitely lacks.

 

C) Actually, that's where you're wrong, those abiltiies are useful for that reason that they help if enemies bring you down to 1 HP. Stops you from dying. Not to mention, alot of enemies, even in 0.2's Proud Mode did that, and it was still doable because you had access to those support abilities, compared to Critical Mode. And as for the "bonus deal", remember that in every KH game except 3D and 0.2, they DID give you a Bonus for starting off on Critical mode to buff you up and help you out. 2 had the 50 AP and new abilities thing at the start of teh game, BBS had the extra Command Deck slots at the start of the game. It's not hard to guess that they'll probably do something similar to 2 in the game, give you more abilities to make up for the challenge that'll come your way and combat it. And again, Sora has more options to draw from than Aqua ever did in 3.

 

D) You'd be surprised. Again, i know alot of people who impose these kinds of insane restrictions on themselves, and like i said before, alot of people love (for some reason) to put themselves through insane challenges and games like, "I wanna be the guy", "Dark Souls, "Prince of Persia", etc. This was probably made for those people who love doing No Damage Runs.

 

Also, you're wrong about no one being able to be beat level 1 run Critical Mode in 0.2, you start off at level 50. Even if leveling does help, that's still a pretty hefty amount of stats you're given even from the start of the game, and it's not hard to get through it if you can get through the game normally. I got through normal Critical Mode at level 55, so staying at level 50 shouldn't be too different. That's probably another reason they added this Critical Mode, because you can't do a normal Level 1 run due to the length of the game, the abilities are already given to you, and what level you start at. 

 

Besides, even in a KH2FM Level 1 Run, you lose access to a good amount of the same things too, you don't get the luxuries of Second Chance, Once More, and Leaf Bracer like here. You do get Items, and Orbs (though those don't really matter in a boss fight) and other Abiliites, so i admit that 0.2 doesn't do a good job of giving you other opportunities to use your abilities and restricts you more than i think is fair, but it's still similar in that Level 1 does restrict you a good amount. 0.2 just goes the extra mile because of it's limited abilities and short length, it's for replayability as well as to offer that insane challenge to those who are willing to put themselves through it.

 

I will concede that, while in retrospect i did enjoy Critical Mode, when playing it i got frustrated at the devil waves fights and secret boss rush, I liked the idea of limiting Items and no Second Chance, but taking away the orbs i thought was bad and made it even worse given how plentiful they usually are in normal game.  And, Osaka team DOES grasp what makes a good difficult mode NOW. Look at Proud Mode, Proud Mode had the EXACT same AI as Critical, but it gave us all those tools, so it was challenging AND fun. This Critical Mode, with all it's restrictions, makes it obvious that it's NOT supposed to be compared to other Critical Modes that precede it, for the reasons i stated above. Proud Mode found a perfect balance, which is why Critical Mode gave us the restrictions. They could've just as easily just made Proud Mode into Critical Mode in this game because they knew they found a good balance, and have made Beginner Mode even easier than it already is, because, i'm sure you'll agree, Proud Mode in this game was more challenging than Proud Mode of the past KH games. But they wanted to be trollsy and have a bit of fun and made this Critical Mode for those ridiculous people, and to have us play the game longer. In retrospect, it makes sense for THIS kind of game. But in a full game, after Osaka's learned from their mistakes, i really doubt they'll do this when they know we can just do a Normal Level 1 run again of the game for a good challenge, especially when the game is that long and is a game that Square is staking their money on heavily to sell well. If people started out on this kind of difficulty, so many people would be annoyed and outraged and that would hurt Square's sales as they'll vent to others about it and probably turn away potential buyers. It'd be bad business practice for them to do that, and that's just one of the reasons im sure that Osaka's found their balance in Proud, and that KH3's Critical Mode will be more akin to 0.2's Proud Mode.

 

[thatkingdomheartsguy 153]

all the little fishes stagger and has revenge value in 0.2 unlike bbs or ddd

Bosses like mirage aqua do stagger and has revenge value

I was really afraid kh3 is going to be something like bbs or ddd

But these two gave me lot of hope for kh3

Trust me i did lvl1 2fm runs like 5+times

I played 0.2 too

That aqua boss fight is soo gooood

IMO it is on par with lingering will

I'm pretty sure Osaka will catch the grip on how to balance these huge bosses just like how they did with aqua

Kh3 will be all fine!

-that's true, which is good

-true as well, but that's the only fight in the game that's good

-aqua fight is really good, but all other fights suck

-Really difficult to say considering how they've messed up these bosses time and time again

-I personally believe judging how good KH3 will be on one boss in a 4 hour long demo to be kinda ridiculous, but we'll just have to see.

I won't deny that, yes, on Critical Mode, the devil waves battles suck and you're forced to camp. It's the other fights that are actually fun even with this difficulty.

 

The point of creating a mode like this, is for those kinds of people who like masochistic gameplay like this and love to do No Damage Runs. You see alot of people who put themselves through ridiculous challenges or just ridiculously hard difficulty in games these days, like "I wanna be the guy", "Kaizo Mario games", "Prince of Persia", "Dark Souls", etc. I know a good amount of people who do stuff like Level 1 runs, No Heal Runs, Kingdom Key level 1 runs, etc. for KH, which i can imagine are torturous. But you'd be surprised what a good amount of people consider a "fun" challenge, it's subjective. That being said, i won't deny that for the general populace, yeah, people wouldn't find this fun. But, the length of the game is probably a major reason why they added a ridiculously hard mode like this. See, Square loves to add replay value to it's games, and, given the length of 0.2, there's only so many times people would play challenging but fair Proud Mode without getting bored. Even 100%ing the game with all the objectives don't take long.

Proud Mode has a Critical Mode syndrome to it as well, and while it's nowhere near as bad, there's a pretty big jump on limited options. Personally, I'd say I honestly had the most fun on Standard Mode because it was mildly challenging but you still had access to most resources. It's an opinion in the end though, so what can I say. I still don't see how length of a game gives them the excuse to add a ridiculous mode like this. If camping fights out and doing chip damage is a common concept throughout the entire game, why can't they just repeat it for 20-30 more hours to give the players even more of a "challenge"? Plus, Osaka has never designed a welll balanced Crit Mode so far, and saying that their first "attempt" on KH3 will definitely be perfect is a bit of a stretch.

 

So, since it's a short game, and because this is the only acceptable time they could get away with this with the fanbase because the game is so short (Square would be nuts to make a 40 hour game with these restrictions, it's just not good business practice and would drive people away if they did, not to mention immense backlash), they made this mode ridiculously hard to give us a "challenge" to struggle and struggle to perservere through and play the game longer. And honestly, like i said, from a balancing perspective and because this mode is so ridiculous, it's not that hard to see that Proud Mode is probably the way they're going to go for future installments with difficulty. Proud Mode was actually pretty challenging (more challenging than the Proud Modes of others KH games), was fair but difficult even with the devil waves bosses because they gave you all these tools to help you, and it's made even more obvious by the fact that when you pay attention, you see that Critical Mode's AI for the enemies play the same way as Proud Modes, they either didn't or couldn't go higher with the enemy difficulty, which is why they resulted in placing restrictions rather than bumping up the AI.

You're assuming that Square actually listens to their fanbase though, and also assuming the majority of the fanbase actually CARES about Critical Mode being bad. The truth is this: 80% of the fanbase will continue to remain ignorant of certain aspects of the game just because it's "0.2, and it's a demo for KH3 so that automatically makes it good." KH3 will sell ridiculously well regardless, and fans will still love it regardless of a bad Critical Mode. That's just how this fanbase works. Proud Mode is challenging, but not because of your own personal combat, but the awful AI for Devil's Waves and enemies. A good idea is this: revamping ALL enemy AI so they're actually good and you have plausible ways of dodging attacks and punishing them, like the Mirage Aqua fights. It can't be that hard; if they did it for KH2 10 years ago, why can't they do it again? I'm not talking about AI individually too; there's so much more to keep in mind. For example, mob fights involving enemies such as Water Core and Fire Core; those guys are STRONG. You can't just place 4 of them in the corner of a cramped room where they can shoot these homing projectiles at you; you get zero opening to attack them, and the moment you try, you get punished for not putting up a Barrier or dodging their attacks. 

The problem of the game rests here. Enemy AI sucks (aside from Mirage Aqua), and enemy placement and overall thought into fights suck. You have no means of crowd control, and you get punished for trying to take an offensive on higher difficulties. And yeah, I'm sure KH3 can fix the whole "crowd control" factor, but the fact remains that these issues still exist, and Osaka clearly doesn't understand complementing your combat system with the enemies; I just can't see how they can fix all this.

 

 

A.) BBS and DDD's Critical Modes were awful, yes. If they were aware of how unbalanced the game was, that makes it even worse. It means they've fallen into this trap of thinking it's OKAY to make the entire game based on a single mechanic, and if you find that mechanic, you win.

 

BBS is awful on balancing. Magnet and Thunder for all mob fights, Thunder Surges for bosses. Add in some Mine Square/Ignite/Poison and nothing can touch you. The final boss of Terra was awful; it's a repeated and boring fight of block, counter, Thunder Surge. There's literally nothing redeeming or good about that fight that makes it fun. I don't know about you, but blocking and countering for 30 minutes doesn't sound like a good fight to me; it's literally MF all over again.

 

And yes, they've fixed balancing issues for 0.2 fundamentally, but there's so much more involved that you have to keep in mind. If they were always self-aware of the non-balancing issues in BBS and DDD as you claim, that means they couldve made a balanced game any time they wanted. 0.2 was backed up by the KH2-style combat system, which undoubtedly help resolve the balancing. However you also have to keep in mind the multitude of options we'll obtain in KH3, and it'll be much harder to balance that game than this game.

Proud Mode was fair, but fights were still not fun. Why? Because of this consistent trap Osaka team falls into. The DW fights or enemies still force you to camp out their attacks, go in for a few hits, and back off. Enemy AI is awful, and Proud doesn't fix that. All these issues still linger in the game, it's just so much better on Standard and Beginner because you can actually take hits without fearing death. It's absolutely awful because Osaka's getting this idea that this type of fighting is a good thing. They're repeating Terranort. They're repeating Mysterious Figure. It doesn't make the game anymore fun. 

 

People loved no-damage runs of 2FM BECAUSE OF THE SKILL REQUIRED. You needed knowledge of a boss to no damage it, you needed fast reaction time. This is different. If you want to no damage DW, the only way is to go in for a few hits, then run away because it can attack at any random moment without warning. That is not skill, that's camping a fight out. And you see that consistently with all Osaka Team games previous made, which demonstrates their incompetence at creating a good fight. You'll notice no-damage runs for later games after 2FM is significantly less, because people didn't want to do them due to the ridiculously boring fight situations you're forced to put yourself in. It's just bad design, and there's nothing more to it. 

Another issue with difficulty: they're getting an impression that a "hard boss" is one with ridiculously undodgeable attacks and 50 billion bars of health. The Final DW is the worst boss in the game because of two reasons: Its health, and its last phase. It's DM, as far as I know, is completely undodgeable. Is this what a good boss is? Is this what you claim Osaka Team has learned through experience? Because if it is, I'm not looking forward to KH3's bosses at all. No safe openings, undodgeable attacks, a billion bars of health. It DOESN'T MAKE THE FIGHT GOOD.

 

B. ) They give us more options, but that also means more risk of balancing issues. Once again, your own combat is merely a part of a huge system of things they must get right. Even if you have a billion options and they're all balanced and viable in a fight, if the boss sucks, if the enemy placement sucks, if you deal chip damage, etc. the fight won't be anymore fun than the DW fights in 0.2, which is what I fear. There's so many things to keep in mind, but Osaka has never gotten them all right before, so counting on them to get it right for KH3 is a stretch to say the least.

 

C.) Yes, those support abilities can help. But as I've said continuously before, that's merely a part of an entire combat system. Your abilities may help you avoid dying, but what about enemy attacks? What's stopping them from designing an enemy that can juggle you to 1 HP, and the moment you land, kill you? They did that for the Water and Fire Cores in 0.2. They did that with the final DW. I just don't see what's stopping them from design decisions like these, because they're under the impression that a ridiculously unfairly difficult game is better than an easy one, which it isn't.

 

KH2 is the only one who did Critical Mode buffs correctly. You're severely crippled; enemies deal double damage, your HP is halved and MP is reduced, and you gain less EXP. On the other hand, you deal 1.25x more damage than Standard/Proud, and you have 50 abilities to start off right away. BBS gave you extra command decks, which were completely useless because your commands at the beginning of the game sucked anyway, and you still end up with the normal 8 by the end. You also took double damage and took half damage. You don't get any buffs, you don't get any advantages for playing on the hardest difficulty, and that is the inherent problem with Osaka's Critical Modes. They don't understand this concept of giving you buffs on the hardest difficulty, and that, as a result, makes the modes awful.

 

D.) People who do those insane challenge runs are different from the majority of people who play through KH game's hardest difficulties for a fun challenge, which they don't get. There is no "fun challenge" balance in 0.2. Beginner and Standard are fun, but lacks the challenge. Proud and Crit are difficult, but lacks the fun. It's the same mistake they make with the other games. This is more or less BBS 2.0 except with a slightly better combat system and 1 good boss. 

 

The problem with your arguments is that you continue to focus on your own combat system and nothing else. You have to keep in mind of the whole game; yeah, Osaka made some fixes to better your combat, but theyve also been consistently bad with enemy AI, boss design, enemy placement, so much more. These are the big issues as well; I have so many more problems. The vines in the forest area are obnoxious and get in your way. The automovements can actually get you killed on Critical Mode (I tried running back to dodge a Darkside's projectile, only to end up sliding right into it. Nice.) The level designs are clunky. Blizzard movement is super cool, but rarely utilized. ANd finally, while your combos are better, your movement and attacks still have annoying lag frames to them (Normal finisher, Air Slide, landing on the ground, Spellweaver attacks, etc.) which really ruins the fluidity of an otherwise pretty awesome combo system. Acceleration on Aqua's run look weird. These are small nitpicks, but all of them add together and just makes the game feel clunky and unfair at times. 

 

Anyways, my point is this: 0.2 has a lot of good things. However, it ultimately resembles BBS combat and gameplay over KH2, which is the problem. It means Osaka has learned nothing from bad design decisions in BBS/DDD. It means they'll continue designing the games like this. It also means that KH3 will undoubtedly have a number of these issues, and if we're unlucky, the Critical Mode will be just as bad.

[KHLegendIII 709]

-that's true, which is good

-true as well, but that's the only fight in the game that's good

-aqua fight is really good, but all other fights suck

-Really difficult to say considering how they've messed up these bosses time and time again

-I personally believe judging how good KH3 will be on one boss in a 4 hour long demo to be kinda ridiculous, but we'll just have to see.

Proud Mode has a Critical Mode syndrome to it as well, and while it's nowhere near as bad, there's a pretty big jump on limited options. Personally, I'd say I honestly had the most fun on Standard Mode because it was mildly challenging but you still had access to most resources. It's an opinion in the end though, so what can I say. I still don't see how length of a game gives them the excuse to add a ridiculous mode like this. If camping fights out and doing chip damage is a common concept throughout the entire game, why can't they just repeat it for 20-30 more hours to give the players even more of a "challenge"? Plus, Osaka has never designed a welll balanced Crit Mode so far, and saying that their first "attempt" on KH3 will definitely be perfect is a bit of a stretch.

 

You're assuming that Square actually listens to their fanbase though, and also assuming the majority of the fanbase actually CARES about Critical Mode being bad. The truth is this: 80% of the fanbase will continue to remain ignorant of certain aspects of the game just because it's "0.2, and it's a demo for KH3 so that automatically makes it good." KH3 will sell ridiculously well regardless, and fans will still love it regardless of a bad Critical Mode. That's just how this fanbase works. Proud Mode is challenging, but not because of your own personal combat, but the awful AI for Devil's Waves and enemies. A good idea is this: revamping ALL enemy AI so they're actually good and you have plausible ways of dodging attacks and punishing them, like the Mirage Aqua fights. It can't be that hard; if they did it for KH2 10 years ago, why can't they do it again? I'm not talking about AI individually too; there's so much more to keep in mind. For example, mob fights involving enemies such as Water Core and Fire Core; those guys are STRONG. You can't just place 4 of them in the corner of a cramped room where they can shoot these homing projectiles at you; you get zero opening to attack them, and the moment you try, you get punished for not putting up a Barrier or dodging their attacks. 

The problem of the game rests here. Enemy AI sucks (aside from Mirage Aqua), and enemy placement and overall thought into fights suck. You have no means of crowd control, and you get punished for trying to take an offensive on higher difficulties. And yeah, I'm sure KH3 can fix the whole "crowd control" factor, but the fact remains that these issues still exist, and Osaka clearly doesn't understand complementing your combat system with the enemies; I just can't see how they can fix all this.

 

 

A.) BBS and DDD's Critical Modes were awful, yes. If they were aware of how unbalanced the game was, that makes it even worse. It means they've fallen into this trap of thinking it's OKAY to make the entire game based on a single mechanic, and if you find that mechanic, you win.

 

BBS is awful on balancing. Magnet and Thunder for all mob fights, Thunder Surges for bosses. Add in some Mine Square/Ignite/Poison and nothing can touch you. The final boss of Terra was awful; it's a repeated and boring fight of block, counter, Thunder Surge. There's literally nothing redeeming or good about that fight that makes it fun. I don't know about you, but blocking and countering for 30 minutes doesn't sound like a good fight to me; it's literally MF all over again.

 

And yes, they've fixed balancing issues for 0.2 fundamentally, but there's so much more involved that you have to keep in mind. If they were always self-aware of the non-balancing issues in BBS and DDD as you claim, that means they couldve made a balanced game any time they wanted. 0.2 was backed up by the KH2-style combat system, which undoubtedly help resolve the balancing. However you also have to keep in mind the multitude of options we'll obtain in KH3, and it'll be much harder to balance that game than this game.

Proud Mode was fair, but fights were still not fun. Why? Because of this consistent trap Osaka team falls into. The DW fights or enemies still force you to camp out their attacks, go in for a few hits, and back off. Enemy AI is awful, and Proud doesn't fix that. All these issues still linger in the game, it's just so much better on Standard and Beginner because you can actually take hits without fearing death. It's absolutely awful because Osaka's getting this idea that this type of fighting is a good thing. They're repeating Terranort. They're repeating Mysterious Figure. It doesn't make the game anymore fun. 

 

People loved no-damage runs of 2FM BECAUSE OF THE SKILL REQUIRED. You needed knowledge of a boss to no damage it, you needed fast reaction time. This is different. If you want to no damage DW, the only way is to go in for a few hits, then run away because it can attack at any random moment without warning. That is not skill, that's camping a fight out. And you see that consistently with all Osaka Team games previous made, which demonstrates their incompetence at creating a good fight. You'll notice no-damage runs for later games after 2FM is significantly less, because people didn't want to do them due to the ridiculously boring fight situations you're forced to put yourself in. It's just bad design, and there's nothing more to it. 

Another issue with difficulty: they're getting an impression that a "hard boss" is one with ridiculously undodgeable attacks and 50 billion bars of health. The Final DW is the worst boss in the game because of two reasons: Its health, and its last phase. It's DM, as far as I know, is completely undodgeable. Is this what a good boss is? Is this what you claim Osaka Team has learned through experience? Because if it is, I'm not looking forward to KH3's bosses at all. No safe openings, undodgeable attacks, a billion bars of health. It DOESN'T MAKE THE FIGHT GOOD.

 

B. ) They give us more options, but that also means more risk of balancing issues. Once again, your own combat is merely a part of a huge system of things they must get right. Even if you have a billion options and they're all balanced and viable in a fight, if the boss sucks, if the enemy placement sucks, if you deal chip damage, etc. the fight won't be anymore fun than the DW fights in 0.2, which is what I fear. There's so many things to keep in mind, but Osaka has never gotten them all right before, so counting on them to get it right for KH3 is a stretch to say the least.

 

C.) Yes, those support abilities can help. But as I've said continuously before, that's merely a part of an entire combat system. Your abilities may help you avoid dying, but what about enemy attacks? What's stopping them from designing an enemy that can juggle you to 1 HP, and the moment you land, kill you? They did that for the Water and Fire Cores in 0.2. They did that with the final DW. I just don't see what's stopping them from design decisions like these, because they're under the impression that a ridiculously unfairly difficult game is better than an easy one, which it isn't.

 

KH2 is the only one who did Critical Mode buffs correctly. You're severely crippled; enemies deal double damage, your HP is halved and MP is reduced, and you gain less EXP. On the other hand, you deal 1.25x more damage than Standard/Proud, and you have 50 abilities to start off right away. BBS gave you extra command decks, which were completely useless because your commands at the beginning of the game sucked anyway, and you still end up with the normal 8 by the end. You also took double damage and took half damage. You don't get any buffs, you don't get any advantages for playing on the hardest difficulty, and that is the inherent problem with Osaka's Critical Modes. They don't understand this concept of giving you buffs on the hardest difficulty, and that, as a result, makes the modes awful.

 

D.) People who do those insane challenge runs are different from the majority of people who play through KH game's hardest difficulties for a fun challenge, which they don't get. There is no "fun challenge" balance in 0.2. Beginner and Standard are fun, but lacks the challenge. Proud and Crit are difficult, but lacks the fun. It's the same mistake they make with the other games. This is more or less BBS 2.0 except with a slightly better combat system and 1 good boss. 

 

The problem with your arguments is that you continue to focus on your own combat system and nothing else. You have to keep in mind of the whole game; yeah, Osaka made some fixes to better your combat, but theyve also been consistently bad with enemy AI, boss design, enemy placement, so much more. These are the big issues as well; I have so many more problems. The vines in the forest area are obnoxious and get in your way. The automovements can actually get you killed on Critical Mode (I tried running back to dodge a Darkside's projectile, only to end up sliding right into it. Nice.) The level designs are clunky. Blizzard movement is super cool, but rarely utilized. ANd finally, while your combos are better, your movement and attacks still have annoying lag frames to them (Normal finisher, Air Slide, landing on the ground, Spellweaver attacks, etc.) which really ruins the fluidity of an otherwise pretty awesome combo system. Acceleration on Aqua's run look weird. These are small nitpicks, but all of them add together and just makes the game feel clunky and unfair at times. 

 

Anyways, my point is this: 0.2 has a lot of good things. However, it ultimately resembles BBS combat and gameplay over KH2, which is the problem. It means Osaka has learned nothing from bad design decisions in BBS/DDD. It means they'll continue designing the games like this. It also means that KH3 will undoubtedly have a number of these issues, and if we're unlucky, the Critical Mode will be just as bad.

 

For all we know, this could have been Nomura's decision since this is a short game, I'm sure that Critical Mode and stuff won't be like that there, but if it does have some BBS vibes, it really wouldn't bother me. I understand how you feel, despite that.

Edited January 21, 2017 by KHLegendIII

[Reyn 1,755]

-that's true, which is good

-true as well, but that's the only fight in the game that's good

-aqua fight is really good, but all other fights suck

-Really difficult to say considering how they've messed up these bosses time and time again

-I personally believe judging how good KH3 will be on one boss in a 4 hour long demo to be kinda ridiculous, but we'll just have to see.

Proud Mode has a Critical Mode syndrome to it as well, and while it's nowhere near as bad, there's a pretty big jump on limited options. Personally, I'd say I honestly had the most fun on Standard Mode because it was mildly challenging but you still had access to most resources. It's an opinion in the end though, so what can I say. I still don't see how length of a game gives them the excuse to add a ridiculous mode like this. If camping fights out and doing chip damage is a common concept throughout the entire game, why can't they just repeat it for 20-30 more hours to give the players even more of a "challenge"? Plus, Osaka has never designed a welll balanced Crit Mode so far, and saying that their first "attempt" on KH3 will definitely be perfect is a bit of a stretch.

 

You're assuming that Square actually listens to their fanbase though, and also assuming the majority of the fanbase actually CARES about Critical Mode being bad. The truth is this: 80% of the fanbase will continue to remain ignorant of certain aspects of the game just because it's "0.2, and it's a demo for KH3 so that automatically makes it good." KH3 will sell ridiculously well regardless, and fans will still love it regardless of a bad Critical Mode. That's just how this fanbase works. Proud Mode is challenging, but not because of your own personal combat, but the awful AI for Devil's Waves and enemies. A good idea is this: revamping ALL enemy AI so they're actually good and you have plausible ways of dodging attacks and punishing them, like the Mirage Aqua fights. It can't be that hard; if they did it for KH2 10 years ago, why can't they do it again? I'm not talking about AI individually too; there's so much more to keep in mind. For example, mob fights involving enemies such as Water Core and Fire Core; those guys are STRONG. You can't just place 4 of them in the corner of a cramped room where they can shoot these homing projectiles at you; you get zero opening to attack them, and the moment you try, you get punished for not putting up a Barrier or dodging their attacks. 

The problem of the game rests here. Enemy AI sucks (aside from Mirage Aqua), and enemy placement and overall thought into fights suck. You have no means of crowd control, and you get punished for trying to take an offensive on higher difficulties. And yeah, I'm sure KH3 can fix the whole "crowd control" factor, but the fact remains that these issues still exist, and Osaka clearly doesn't understand complementing your combat system with the enemies; I just can't see how they can fix all this.

 

 

A.) BBS and DDD's Critical Modes were awful, yes. If they were aware of how unbalanced the game was, that makes it even worse. It means they've fallen into this trap of thinking it's OKAY to make the entire game based on a single mechanic, and if you find that mechanic, you win.

 

BBS is awful on balancing. Magnet and Thunder for all mob fights, Thunder Surges for bosses. Add in some Mine Square/Ignite/Poison and nothing can touch you. The final boss of Terra was awful; it's a repeated and boring fight of block, counter, Thunder Surge. There's literally nothing redeeming or good about that fight that makes it fun. I don't know about you, but blocking and countering for 30 minutes doesn't sound like a good fight to me; it's literally MF all over again.

 

And yes, they've fixed balancing issues for 0.2 fundamentally, but there's so much more involved that you have to keep in mind. If they were always self-aware of the non-balancing issues in BBS and DDD as you claim, that means they couldve made a balanced game any time they wanted. 0.2 was backed up by the KH2-style combat system, which undoubtedly help resolve the balancing. However you also have to keep in mind the multitude of options we'll obtain in KH3, and it'll be much harder to balance that game than this game.

Proud Mode was fair, but fights were still not fun. Why? Because of this consistent trap Osaka team falls into. The DW fights or enemies still force you to camp out their attacks, go in for a few hits, and back off. Enemy AI is awful, and Proud doesn't fix that. All these issues still linger in the game, it's just so much better on Standard and Beginner because you can actually take hits without fearing death. It's absolutely awful because Osaka's getting this idea that this type of fighting is a good thing. They're repeating Terranort. They're repeating Mysterious Figure. It doesn't make the game anymore fun. 

 

People loved no-damage runs of 2FM BECAUSE OF THE SKILL REQUIRED. You needed knowledge of a boss to no damage it, you needed fast reaction time. This is different. If you want to no damage DW, the only way is to go in for a few hits, then run away because it can attack at any random moment without warning. That is not skill, that's camping a fight out. And you see that consistently with all Osaka Team games previous made, which demonstrates their incompetence at creating a good fight. You'll notice no-damage runs for later games after 2FM is significantly less, because people didn't want to do them due to the ridiculously boring fight situations you're forced to put yourself in. It's just bad design, and there's nothing more to it. 

Another issue with difficulty: they're getting an impression that a "hard boss" is one with ridiculously undodgeable attacks and 50 billion bars of health. The Final DW is the worst boss in the game because of two reasons: Its health, and its last phase. It's DM, as far as I know, is completely undodgeable. Is this what a good boss is? Is this what you claim Osaka Team has learned through experience? Because if it is, I'm not looking forward to KH3's bosses at all. No safe openings, undodgeable attacks, a billion bars of health. It DOESN'T MAKE THE FIGHT GOOD.

 

B. ) They give us more options, but that also means more risk of balancing issues. Once again, your own combat is merely a part of a huge system of things they must get right. Even if you have a billion options and they're all balanced and viable in a fight, if the boss sucks, if the enemy placement sucks, if you deal chip damage, etc. the fight won't be anymore fun than the DW fights in 0.2, which is what I fear. There's so many things to keep in mind, but Osaka has never gotten them all right before, so counting on them to get it right for KH3 is a stretch to say the least.

 

C.) Yes, those support abilities can help. But as I've said continuously before, that's merely a part of an entire combat system. Your abilities may help you avoid dying, but what about enemy attacks? What's stopping them from designing an enemy that can juggle you to 1 HP, and the moment you land, kill you? They did that for the Water and Fire Cores in 0.2. They did that with the final DW. I just don't see what's stopping them from design decisions like these, because they're under the impression that a ridiculously unfairly difficult game is better than an easy one, which it isn't.

 

KH2 is the only one who did Critical Mode buffs correctly. You're severely crippled; enemies deal double damage, your HP is halved and MP is reduced, and you gain less EXP. On the other hand, you deal 1.25x more damage than Standard/Proud, and you have 50 abilities to start off right away. BBS gave you extra command decks, which were completely useless because your commands at the beginning of the game sucked anyway, and you still end up with the normal 8 by the end. You also took double damage and took half damage. You don't get any buffs, you don't get any advantages for playing on the hardest difficulty, and that is the inherent problem with Osaka's Critical Modes. They don't understand this concept of giving you buffs on the hardest difficulty, and that, as a result, makes the modes awful.

 

D.) People who do those insane challenge runs are different from the majority of people who play through KH game's hardest difficulties for a fun challenge, which they don't get. There is no "fun challenge" balance in 0.2. Beginner and Standard are fun, but lacks the challenge. Proud and Crit are difficult, but lacks the fun. It's the same mistake they make with the other games. This is more or less BBS 2.0 except with a slightly better combat system and 1 good boss. 

 

The problem with your arguments is that you continue to focus on your own combat system and nothing else. You have to keep in mind of the whole game; yeah, Osaka made some fixes to better your combat, but theyve also been consistently bad with enemy AI, boss design, enemy placement, so much more. These are the big issues as well; I have so many more problems. The vines in the forest area are obnoxious and get in your way. The automovements can actually get you killed on Critical Mode (I tried running back to dodge a Darkside's projectile, only to end up sliding right into it. Nice.) The level designs are clunky. Blizzard movement is super cool, but rarely utilized. ANd finally, while your combos are better, your movement and attacks still have annoying lag frames to them (Normal finisher, Air Slide, landing on the ground, Spellweaver attacks, etc.) which really ruins the fluidity of an otherwise pretty awesome combo system. Acceleration on Aqua's run look weird. These are small nitpicks, but all of them add together and just makes the game feel clunky and unfair at times. 

 

Anyways, my point is this: 0.2 has a lot of good things. However, it ultimately resembles BBS combat and gameplay over KH2, which is the problem. It means Osaka has learned nothing from bad design decisions in BBS/DDD. It means they'll continue designing the games like this. It also means that KH3 will undoubtedly have a number of these issues, and if we're unlucky, the Critical Mode will be just as bad.

Alright, fair enough, that's your opinion.

 

And Square does listen to the fanbase. Why do you think they put in the effort to put choreographed fight scenes into Re:Coded's movie when it was just a movie? Because Square listened to the fanbase that whined about there being no action in 358's movie. Why do you think we're moving back to the Battle Menu from 1 and 2 instead of the Command Decks from 3D and BBS? Because Square listened to the fanbase who all loved 2 and want 3 to play as such. I won't deny, Crowd Control definitely is an issue, but it's not hard to deal with on Proud and below, that's why we have the Command Styles AND Shotlocks to deal with, and on those difficulties, it's easier to utilize them often because resources are better. I admit that the Heartless and Devil Waves AI could be better, but i feel you're knocking the Darkside AI too much though. They had good patterns that you had to be wary of and weren't too hard to tackle. The only dumb part of the fight was the Balls reigning from the sky, but otherwise it was fair and challenging to counter Darkside's attacks.

 

A) Exactly, i agree, BBS was balanced horribly. It's fun, but not the kind of fun i enjoyed from say, 2 or 0.2. And i admit, you have a point, due to the options of 3, it'll be harder to balance. But, they've definitely shown that they're balanced it fundamentally with the new system, so they're on the right track. 0.2 is a demo after all. 

 

I feel you're being a bit too harsh in comparing Proud mode 0.2 to the likes of MF of all things. Terranort, yes, i can kind of agree with, but Devil Waves definitely give you more time and opportunity to attack then Terranort ever did. There's more to the fight than Countering and Attacking, and besides, you forget that there's other ways to do more than "chip damage" to him with the Reaction Command spells and Shotlocks, as well as the finisher for the Command Styles, which there are two of mind you. It's a far improvement from the, "Literally Only Guard and Counter" strategy that Terranort required, you're not giving it enough credit.

 

I admit, it's DM was not designed well, it's not fair that it's literally undodgable. But you're making a mountain out of a molehill, that's literally the Only attack in the fight that's impossible to block or dodge entirely. You can always Time Barrier to properly block the Tornado Slamming into you, the Heartless spray is easily avoided by jumping and weaving and bobbing from the ground, and the normal variation of the heartless spewing from the Tornado slamming into you is not that hard to time your Barrier too is you pay attention to their trajectory on where they're going to land. As for the Health, i admit, it's unorthodox for a Final Boss to have the health of a Secret Boss, but the fight goes by pretty fast for a boss with that much health (about 5-7 minutes on average i find). You do enough damage to compensate, as unlike Devil Waves 1 and 2, you have MORE time to attack between it's attacks and deal a great amount of Damage with Mickey by your side to whittle it down quicker. By the time you can do the Wayfinder Reaction Command, you'll typically have 5 bars of damage done, and the command usually lets you whittle down another bar and a half to 2 bars, and that's only 2/3 minutes into the fight.

 

Final Devil Wave DOES have Safe Openings, it has ONE undodgable attack and FIVE Evadable ones, and it lets you dish out enough damage to compensate so the fight doesn't take 20 minutes, but 7, especially when you HAVE a Party Member to help add additional damage on top of that. It has it's flaws, definitely, but it's more balanced than you acknowledge.

 

B) I admit, Osaka has had a bad track record, but, you're missing one important fact. FFXV is officially done now, and Nomura stated that after the game was done (which is where the OG team that developed 1 and 2 went to), the OG team would come back to help develop KH3. And Osaka has shown with this game that while, yes, they still have issues and haven't ironed them out properly yet, they're definitely going in a WAY better direction than the likes of BBS has shown now, because they've managed to properly balance the game on a fundamental level, it's a big improvement. And with the OG teams helping out on development, we're more likely now than ever to get a game balanced on a level comparable to 1 and 2.

 

C) The thing about that argument is, on Proud Mode, it's not hard to deal with those enemies (Fire and Water core) if you know what you're doing. You just wait for one of them to fire their Water/Fire at you and jump into the air and guard (so the enemies on the ground don't attack you after), then you stun said enemies with their opposite element (say, Freezing the Fire Enemies, and using Fire to dispel the Water barrier, then Thunder to get them to flicker and be stunned) and wail at them. And in the process of attacking their weakpoint for effective this, you'll gain the Reaction Command Spells in the process, which are great at Crowd Control due to their power and AOE effect and end them, as well as having a strong tool to use on surrounding enemies. Using this in conjunction with Shotlocks helps to dispel the crowd immensely and make you feel satisfying for destroying them because you played strategically, and they give you Orbs upon defeat to reward you and help you continue the onslaught. If you know how to properly use the mechanics to your advantage, it's not hard to deal with it because they still give you a good amount of tools to get the job done and done well. It's like the same reason you mentioned for people loving KH2FM Lvl 1 run, except instead of just the Bosses, you gotta know the patterns of the enemies and their weaknesses to counter them properly, but when you do, the game rewards you for doing so, and this is still prevalent on Proud, even if it's not as strong as it is in say, Standard. But that's part of the challenge, you still don't do chip damage to them with the tools you have if you use them properly. Critical Mode suffers because they strip you of it all, but Proud definitely does not. 

 

And i will concede that, yes, Osaka team proved with 3D and BBS that they can't properly buff you given the difficulty. But, like i stated before, the Original Team that worked on 1 and 2 DO know how to properly buff you with the difficulty, and Osaka team has shown with this they have improved in balancing, so i think we can rest a bit easier and have a little more faith in them with these things considered.

 

D) Proud i feel doesn't lack the fun at all, again, it's about making good use of the mechanics and knowing how the enemies fight. Critical i agree on you with though, it got ridiculously frustrating at times with how they strip everything away. However, I feel you are going too far in comparing this game to be on the level of the ridiculous balancing that was Birth By Sleep, BBS had broken evasion moves, Overpowered attacks, and the bosses had erratic attacks and NO revenge value at all and NO safe opportunities to hit them outside of a Command Move. 0.2 DOES NOT have those things save for a few instances, the majority of it is balanced MUCH better than that. 0.2 has a fair timing for Cartwheel and Barrier as well as cool down, you have strong attacks but not ones that you can spam like in BBS to null any thought of a challenge in the slightest, and the bosses have set patterns you can read and adjust to and do have revenge value. I feel that's going a bit far, but i admit, Critical Mode definitely was not balanced to prove itself to not be as extreme as BBS's level of balance. The rest of the game however, IS balanced to be NOT extreme.

 

And the problem with your arguments, is that you don't focus on the fact that a majority of the game is balanced well with the mechanics allowing you to deal with the enemies properly and without much hassle. It does have it's flaws, and those flaws become most glaring in Critical Mode, which is flawed in itself without considering AI. Yes, Osaka has been consistently bad in the past, but if you play smart, you'll notice that most of those problems are able to be dealt with with the tools you DO have at your disposal. 

 

As for the environments, i'm surprised you never noticed you could use said vines to your advantage in the battles. If you use spells on the vines or just keep building them up by attacking them rapidly, you'll build up the gauge for a Reaction Command Spell or Spellweaver, which you can easily carry over to give yourself an advantage in the Heartless fights you know are coming considering the typical level designs of a KH game (ergo, an open empty space). And in my experience, the automovements have helped me more often than not (like, i've had times where i was in the air falling from a height with a projectile chasing me, and the Impact Roll Aqua does actually has invincibility and has gotten me out of danger, not to mention you can still cancel the roll on landing by Cartwheeling regardless), but i can see the issue with it. How are the level designs clunky though, im genuinely curious on your thoughts about that. 

 

As for the laggy attacks, i admit, that is a problem, but you have to remember, this game is about Aqua not Sora. Aqua is supposed to play different from Sora, we know she's more graceful and laggy with how she fights compared to KH2 Sora, and has more focus on Magic for that reason, she's a different character altogether. Sora, we know how he fights because of 2 and from what we've seen of 3, we know he's going to fight very much close to the same as he does in 2. He falls faster and doesn't have as laggy attacks, the same KH2 guard, it's a given that he'll have his iconic Glide/Superglide which is way less laggy and more smooth than Aqua's pre-established Air Slide, and his quicker finishers. The point of 0.2 is that it's a mix of BBS and 0.2 combo system wise because the game focuses on Aqua and her playstyle, not Sora. It was established with BBS that she has laggy attacks because she fights more gracefully and doesn't hit as hard, her Air Slides were laggy, Spellweaver was laggy too.

 

And because Sora is known to be more powerful and quick and fluid altogether, 3 will reflect that in his playstyle. If there's one thing KH has shown itself to be consistent at, it's at differentiating the playstyles of the characters, so, given what 0.2 has shown is, and what we've seen of 3, Sora should play more like his 2 incarnation, which reflects the fluidity of the battle system very well. You have to keep that in mind as well, it's not only about the combo system and about the enemy AI and placement, but about the playstyle between characters as well, and they balanced 0.2 with that in mind for nostalgic and consistency purposes.

 

[Snicholicious 1]

Obviously everybody has their own opinion on what's fun and what's a challenge. For me, every time I play a Kingdom Hearts game I have fun. Regardless of what difficulty I play on or what parameters I set for myself, I always have fun. I found being forced in to 0.2's parameters on Critical mode to be immensely fun because

it was actually challenging. I always thought Critical in the other games wasn't too difficult until you got to secret bosses, when I really had to think about what I had equipped, my abilities etc. Whereas I felt a little more on edge the entire time in 0.2 Critical because I lacked the usual things I would rely on by that point. It felt like I truly accomplished something every time I got through a section. It was awesome. But of course, different strokes for different folks.

 

I also feel that you're being overly harsh on the balancing of BBS and DDD's Critical modes. I feel like the reason they don't give you a tangible buff at the start of those games is because of the potential for you to buff yourself. In BBS, with a bit of grinding you could easily get some powerful commands with awesome abilities through melding. In DDD you had the new game plus feature to bring over your dream eaters. Even though their level gets reset, it gives you the potential to get great abilities and commands far earlier. Even without these features, I feel that the base combat options of each game makes Critical mode challenging enough to enjoy without causing much frustration.

 

This is all my opinion on a very subjective topic, but I wanted people to understand why some people would defend these things.

[venxas24 544]

I agree that the critical mode in 0.2 is a lot like in BBS where its just annoying and not fun. KH2FM had the best Critical mode because you gave away hp and defensive to have more options and it was amazing. 0.2 has a lot of BBS "difficulty" where it feels more cheap that actually difficult. In the post game gauntlet fight where you battle phantom aqua again is a great example of a fight being difficult because its cheap. It's a lot like MF in BBS. You have to play extremely safely and even then you still die in 2 hits usually but she teleports and there are very few defensive options that can beat that. You can't barrier because her attacks ignore that, you can cartwheel but if you do it in the wrong direction you still get hit(and that's especially annoying because you can't reactively cartwheel to dodge you have to know the timing and move to where you hope she isn't). In the end cartwheel isn't usually a great option because the fast walk does basically the same thing but better. I think I'm starting to ramble but often times on harder difficulty it just feels annoying and cheap rather than actually difficult. The only time I ever had fun on 0.2 or BBS critical was when I grinded so I could stand a chance against anyone and I don't like KH being a really grind heavy game, its always been a follow the story and beat the enemies there then you'll do fine in fight but not with these. 

TLDR: I feel like 0.2 does a lot of stuff like BBS where it feels like they traded out difficulty for cheapness in a lot of boss fights.

[Raphael Millon 87]

*phoenix down*

 

0.2 post-patch is actually really good

[TheKeyofRose 282]

Just a tad reminder that Aqua is pretty much a demo of how KH3 will play just with a lot of the combat stuff that Sora will have cut out, it does happen to be a semi-problem in 0.2 I'll agree there.

Overall though the gameplay is really solid.

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Just a tad reminder that Aqua is pretty much a demo of how KH3 will play just with a lot of the combat stuff that Sora will have cut out, it does happen to be a semi-problem in 0.2 I'll agree there.

 

Overall though the gameplay is really solid.

 

Yeah, I was really confident in how the direction of the gameplay would go when I played 0.2! It wast just a taste of what we would get in Kingdom Hearts III, and since KHIII will have Sora with a wide variety of skillsets, I'm sure the gameplay will be mind numbingly awesome!