My 1.5 + 2.5 Review

[kingdomlanelover 494]

Hey Guys, so I'm just gonna post a quick review for those of you thinking about picking up 1.5 + 2.5:

 

The Good

1.) 60fps is amazing, the combat feels more fluid and fast paced.

2.) While not much has changed with the graphics, there are some noticable differences in terms of character designs with facial features (especially in KH1 with "flat face".) and the drawings of characters that represent their health bars are now rendered in a higher quality.

3.) There are hardly any load times. You feel like you go from one room to the next in an instant, making a greater improvement for speed runners.

 

The Bad

1.) While 60fps is great, it was not implimented correctly in certain parts. Some enemy attacks are still rendered in 30fps (the shadows in KH2 are especially noticeable), so they look much slower than Sora. Also, some enemy movements have been sped up, like Sephiroth in KH1. It just looks strange, and hopefully Square puts in a patch to fix these issues.

2.) The same problems we had in 2.5 with combat are still there. Making it almost impossible to beat the game on level 1 for KH2FM players in that final battle with Xemnas.

 

Verdict: If you've played 1.5 and 2.5 already, the only thing this game does is render these games in 60fps. While that may seem appealing, I don't think it's necessarily worth another purchase if you already own these games. If anything, wait for a price drop, and wait for a patch that hopefully will fix these new problems that have come up.

 

(I reviewed the Japanese version of the game on a PS4 Pro)

[Tails 6,692]

I couldn't agree with you more on this review. The 60fps animations are so good and the  fast load times are incredible. But that's about it, honestly. I really want to get this PS4 port but I don't think it will be worth it for me until SE have patched it. Because that save crash is really bad especially for a casual player.

[Dustin Lübbers 933]

I dont have a ps4 Pro but the new loading times are nice

[neil98 313]

I dont get when people say a fight has become harder with 60 fps... I mean sephiroth for example. Wasn't he suposed to be hard in the first place? Then the 60 fps makes the fight as it was intended to be! I totally get the crashes though. That should be fixed asap.

Edited March 15, 2017 by neil98

[dabestgamer 62]

I dont get when people say a fight has become harder with 60 fps... I mean sephiroth for example. Wasn't he suposed to be hard in the first place? Then the 60 fps makes the fight as it was intended to be! I totally get the crashes though. That should be fixed asap.

"Supposed to be hard"? Yes.

 

Does 60 FPS make it what it's intended to be? No, it doesn't.

 

The meteors from Sephiroth's DM were never supposed to move that fast. It's "harder" because something is happening in some fights that aren't supposed to be happening.

 

A port should maintain mechanics, not make things randomly harder because "oops I forgot how physics were coded into the game". It's not that a player can't persevere through it and survive it, it's that it's not what it originally was.

 

I feel that most people are saying the games/bosses are "easy", but that's only because they've learned KH1/KH2 well enough to get used to them. And also because they don't play the games to the same extent that a lot of other veterans (such as speedrunners) have.

 

If you want hard, that's why you go on the highest difficulty setting the game offers.

 

If that isn't hard enough, that's what LV1 is for.

Edited March 15, 2017 by dabestgamer

[neil98 313]

"Supposed to be hard"? Yes.

 

Does 60 FPS make it what it's intended to be? No, it doesn't.

 

The meteors from Sephiroth's DM were never supposed to move that fast. It's "harder" because something is happening in some fights that aren't supposed to be happening.

 

A port should maintain mechanics, not make things randomly harder because "oops I forgot how physics were coded into the game". It's not that a player can't persevere through it and survive it, it's that it's not what it originally was.

 

I feel that most people are saying the games/bosses are "easy", but that's only because they've learned KH1/KH2 well enough to get used to them. And also because they don't play the games to the same extent that a lot of other veterans (such as speedrunners) have.

 

If you want hard, that's why you go on the highest difficulty setting the game offers.

 

If that isn't hard enough, that's what LV1 is for.

it's not like the games were intended to be played in hd, yet no one complains about that...lol. really, with the 60 fps i dont see that as a problem, i see it more of like a power buff for a few bosses, and those kind of things happen in games all the time (see smash bros, the most common game for nerfs and buffs). Edited March 16, 2017 by neil98

[dabestgamer 62]

it's not like the games were intended to be played in hd, yet no one complains about that...lol. really, with the 60 fps i dont see that as a problem, i see it more of like a power buff for a few bosses, and those kind of things happen in games all the time (see smash bros, the most common game for nerfs and buffs).

Apples and oranges. How the game appears graphically isn't comparable with how the mechanics of a game should work when being ported.

 

Difficulty shouldn't come from "welp we screwed up how the game is supposed to work".

 

These "power buffs", as you call it, simply do not belong. The physics and mechanics of the games should be the same.

Edited March 16, 2017 by dabestgamer

[neil98 313]

Apples and oranges. How the game appears graphically isn't comparable with how the mechanics of a game should work when being ported.

 

Difficulty shouldn't come from "welp we screwed up how the game is supposed to work".

 

These "power buffs", as you call it, simply do not belong. The physics and mechanics of the games should be the same.

Well still, even graphically, the game wasn't intended to be shown in HD, and thus sometimes we see strange textures, and no one complains about that. They actually how the game works, beacuase for what I have seen, it is exactly the same in terms of mechanics from older versions. Ther is nothing game-breaking aside from the crashes, thus in that sense the game is fine. And maybe the physics are kind of different, but you play a game and learn how to do it well, everyone did it back in the day when it first came out. Now that we have 60 FPS, we should start learning how to play it all over. It is also stupid to pay for an experience that will be exactly the same, so Square did well in that sense. And don't get me wrong, I expect Square to patch the game for the crashes, I hate that there is even a slight chance of crashes when the originals had them too, they shold have fixed those. And if people still complain, you can try have Square implement a 30 FPS patch. Again really, the problems with 60 FPS are for speedrunners, not for an average consumer such as me.

[dabestgamer 62]

Well still, even graphically, the game wasn't intended to be shown in HD, and thus sometimes we see strange textures, and no one complains about that. They actually how the game works, beacuase for what I have seen, it is exactly the same in terms of mechanics from older versions. Ther is nothing game-breaking aside from the crashes, thus in that sense the game is fine. And maybe the physics are kind of different, but you play a game and learn how to do it well, everyone did it back in the day when it first came out. Now that we have 60 FPS, we should start learning how to play it all over. It is also stupid to pay for an experience that will be exactly the same, so Square did well in that sense. And don't get me wrong, I expect Square to patch the game for the crashes, I hate that there is even a slight chance of crashes when the originals had them too, they shold have fixed those. And if people still complain, you can try have Square implement a 30 FPS patch. Again really, the problems with 60 FPS are for speedrunners, not for an average consumer such as me.

Again, apples and oranges.

 

And we shouldn't be learning the games all over again because of it being a port of an older game; it shouldn't have anything different than the original KH2FM other than graphical improvements. That's what a port is supposed to do, isn't it? Not have have old mechanics and physics screwed over and play the same way?

 

As for your comment on "problems only affect speedrunners", I don't think save-crashing, Data Vexen's instant Anti Sora spawning, the Xemnas 1 crash, or the Final Xemnas Reversal Reaction Command dropping are just "speedrunner" problems. They are problems for casual people as well. The "average consumer", as you put it.

 

And speaking of the speedrunners, they are people who played the game much more than the "average player" and want what's best for everyone when they criticize games. Yet they get talked down to like the only thing they care about is going fast when they know more about the game's mechanics the most anyone else and care about them a lot to where they won't hold back their criticism of the series. Even they enjoy casual play themselves from time to time.

 

If you don't care about the physics and all you care about is how pretty the game looks, that's all well and dandy.

 

But others do care about the mechanics, because it doesn't feel like the same game when things are wonky because all Square did was slap 60 FPS on the games and let it be released as is.

 

I'm almost completely a casual player, too, and I'd rather deal with the physics as they were originally intended, and NOT with new nonsense because Square failed to account for the game's mechanics and physics properly.

Edited March 16, 2017 by dabestgamer

[neil98 313]

Again, apples and oranges.

 

And we shouldn't be learning the games all over again because of it being a port of an older game; it shouldn't have anything different than the original KH2FM other that graphical improvements. That's what a port is supposed to do, isn't it? Not have have old mechanics and physics screwed over and play the same way? The only changes that should be made are intentional ones like adding EXP 0 to KHFM in 1.5 and the option to skip cutscenes, as they are completely intentional and don't completely screw over how the game is played normally (unless one wanted to abuse Damage Storage on Proud, and even that isn't necessary on a regular playthrough on that difficulty). The changes brought about by 60 FPS? Clearly not intentional, since that was not how they were originally.

 

As for your comment on "problems only affect speedrunners", I don't think save-crashing, Data Vexen's instant Anti Sora spawning, the Xemnas 1 crash, or the Final Xemnas Reversal Reaction Command dropping are just "speedrunner" problems. They are problems for casual people as well. The "average consumer", as you put it.

 

And speaking of the speedrunners, they are people who played the game much more than the "average player" and want what's best for everyone when they criticize games. Yet they get talked down to like the only thing they care about is going fast when they know more about the game's mechanics the most anyone else and care about them a lot to where they won't hold back their criticism of the series. Even they enjoy casual play themselves from time to time.

 

If you don't care about the physics and all you care about is how pretty the game looks, that's all well and dandy.

 

But others do care about the mechanics, because it doesn't feel like the same game when things are wonky because all Square did was slap 60 FPS on the games and let it be released as is.

 

I'm almost completely a casual player, too, and I'd rather deal with the physics as they were originally intended, and NOT with new nonsense because Square failed to account for the game's mechanics and physics properly.

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Bizkit047 and what he does, and I didn't see him having much trouble with Vexen even with how difficult his fight is now: you just have to learn how to deal with the fight. And believe me when I say that I don't really care about graphics, because if not I wouldn't be a Kingdom Hearts fan. Gameplay is first and foremost, and after that goes story and music. Graphics is the last thing I worry about. I just said that in a sense that if you complain, complain about everything, and not just what you see as problems. And again you mentioned the crashes, and I have said twice that crashes are supposed to be fixed lol. The Xemnas RC problem (see THAT is a minor problem, because normally, the average consumer wants to finish the game and not complete it (which is what Data Battles and Sephiroth are for, adding a plus of difficulty to the game), and thus they have to deal with Final Xemnas) is annoying, but I recall having finished the fight in the first go in my HD 2.5 ReMIX playthrough, so it's not that big of a deal. And last but not least, I haven't played the game yet, so I cannot say anything decisive, but so far of what I've seen, no one has said the game is broken and/or unplayable, so I really don't think the physics in the game break it, as you claim it, they have just changed a few fights, so again, it is a process of learning how to tackle them, nothing else.

Edited March 16, 2017 by neil98

[dabestgamer 62]

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Bizkit047 and what he does, and I didn't see him having much trouble with Vexen even with how difficult his fight is now: you just have to learn how to deal with the fight. And believe me when I say that I don't really care about graphics, because if not I wouldn't be a Kingdom Hearts fan. Gameplay is first and foremost, and after taht goes story and music. Graphics is the last thing I worry about. I just said that in a sense that if you complain, complain about everything, and not just what you see as problems. And again you mentioned the crashes, and I have said twice that crashes are supposed to be fixed lol. The Xemnas RC problem (see THAT is a minor problem, because normally, the average consumer wants to finish the game and not complete it, which is what Data Battles and Sephiroth are for, adding a plus of difficulty to the game, and thus they have to deal with Final Xemnas) is annoying, but I recall having finished the fight in the first go in my HD 2.5 ReMIX playthrough, so it's not that big of a deal. And last but not least, I haven't played the game yet, so I cannot say anything decisive, but so far of what I've seen, no one has said the game is broken and/or unplayable, so I really don't think the physics in the game break it, as you claim it, they have just changed a few fights, so again, it is a process of learning how to tackle them, nothing else.

Funny you should bring him up, because he DID struggle with Data Vexen, and even he has said that fight's a nightmare because of how fast the Data Gauge fills.

 

But you're using a veteran for your argument.

 

The same veteran that knows that the Data Vexen fight doesn't work the way it SHOULD be. The same veteran that just recently put out a video explaining the PS4 collection's pros and cons.

 

The Xemnas RC problem is kinda big when the INTENDED way to dodge that sequence is using the RC (even though Session is a way to dodge it, it was most likely not the intended way since that RC worked almost flawlessly on PS2). And it just drops for no reason. And people wonder what they did wrong when they die to it. The same casual people you're talking about. The same people who I've been seeing say that they're starting to have second thoughts about purchasing and/or regretting that they pre-ordered 1.5+2.5 once they saw the issues it had. Some probably most likely because of the crash, but I'm sure the gameplay issues have not been overlooked by others.

 

Casual people who've never fought Data Vexen, who may even be going for the platinum, will get shredded by Anti Sora because of it spawning immediately.

 

Being able to deal with a problem that shouldn't exist does not mean it's okay for that problem to exist.

Edited March 16, 2017 by dabestgamer