[DISCUSSION] Reaction Commands and difficulty

[Ballad of Caius]

Hey.

I've been replaying KINGDOM HEARTS II, and I don't seem to get the hate or hyperbole concerning Reaction Commands making the game easier and being an OP mechanic. Like, I'm playing on Standard, and still feel that the game's difficulty is just right. And I think that they added a layer of gameplay by simplifying the defeat of enemies such as Large Bodies, and adds "style" to KH's gameplay. Plus they aren't mandatory to use on common enemies.

 

[Luminary]

I loved the introduction of Reaction Commands in KH2. Given the technological limits of KH2’s time, it was a way to trigger more cinematic moments in battle that couldn’t have been realized any other way. Imagine that last battle with Xemnas without reaction commands. It could never have had the epic moments like the laser barrage.

You’re totally right. They brought so much more style to the game. In my opinion, they’re one of the biggest improvements over KH1.

However, now that gaming technology has advanced so much since then, I appreciate that KH3 is allowing players more control during the battle events that are similar to reaction commands. It seems like we’re getting a natural evolution of those cinematic moments, but now we have to do more than press one button to achieve the effect we want.

So I loved reaction commands for KH2, but I’m glad KH3 is moving us forward from them.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

I think the issue is less on common enemies and more on boss and bigger fights, where they became sorta mandatory in order to progress and/or the only way to inflict significant damage.

I think the introduction, and I mean the literal introduction of the first Reaction Commands in battle was great: Dusks aside, the Twilight Thorn was Darkside and yet not really Darkside thanks to them, and when you face the Soldiers again and they do the cyclone, a semi-unbreakable attack those who played KH1 knew all too well, the feeling of seeing Sora doing it against them was a REALLY nice touch.

That being said. You replay the Twilight Thorn fight ten, fifteen, dozens of times and you'll notice that behind the flashiness is quite a substantial dead time where you can't do anything on your own volition and HAVE to sit through the entire Reaction sequence. (This is THE problem of KH1 to KH II if you ask me, the first one gave you almost full control everytime and a bunch of alternative ways to do this or that, while the latter sacrificed your agency in order to show you just how great and cool the new stuff was).
By the time you face Grim Reaper or Jafar, the Reaction Commands are just... there. They're a given gimmick. Deplete something, press Triangle, rinse and repeat. Which is not a terrible thing to be called, but their charm kinda dims. In fights like the Experiment, they really feel like they're filler and got in there just to fill a quota of some sort.

Going into basically nitpicking territory, it also didn't help in my opinion that they are so... random and they go from a believable physical feat to Sora gaining Sharingan-like powers and using the enemy's technique against him, molding space, time and gravitiy while doing so.
I liked the Twilight Thorn ones because they "tell" how a certain part of that fight went. I like the Soldier and Large Bodies ones because they show Sora's plausible response to these old attacks they used to throw at him.
I don't feel as involved when I have to grab Jafar's Genie dongle, jumping over Earthshaker's steps (because doing that myself with Circle was too hard), and hate me all you want... cutting skyscrapers. Was fun the first time (and I mean the very first ones you cut near the door), then it was just more of the same and a way to NOT make me move around in Xemnas' rad place.

I don't mean to say the Commands needed to be only believable physical moves or throwbacks to the previous game, but they are kinda hit and miss. And the misses can be that because they're a tad cumbersome.
I don't think "hating" on them is justified, KH II was a product of his time and 2005-6 was definitely an era where many videogames tried to be "in the zone" with skateboards and backflips (and KH II is pretty similar to hack'n slash to top it all off) and as a game it's still plenty good and with a deep gameplay, but I do agree that with KH III we deserve something better, the next step with less of the misses.

 

[Ballad of Caius]

I think the issue is less on common enemies and more on boss and bigger fights, where they became sorta mandatory in order to progress and/or the only way to inflict significant damage.

I think the introduction, and I mean the literal introduction of the first Reaction Commands in battle was great: Dusks aside, the Twilight Thorn was Darkside and yet not really Darkside thanks to them, and when you face the Soldiers again and they do the cyclone, a semi-unbreakable attack those who played KH1 knew all too well, the feeling of seeing Sora doing it against them was a REALLY nice touch.

That being said. You replay the Twilight Thorn fight ten, fifteen, dozens of times and you'll notice that behind the flashiness is quite a substantial dead time where you can't do anything on your own volition and HAVE to sit through the entire Reaction sequence. (This is THE problem of KH1 to KH II if you ask me, the first one gave you almost full control everytime and a bunch of alternative ways to do this or that, while the latter sacrificed your agency in order to show you just how great and cool the new stuff was).
By the time you face Grim Reaper or Jafar, the Reaction Commands are just... there. They're a given gimmick. Deplete something, press Triangle, rinse and repeat. Which is not a terrible thing to be called, but their charm kinda dims. In fights like the Experiment, they really feel like they're filler and got in there just to fill a quota of some sort.

Going into basically nitpicking territory, it also didn't help in my opinion that they are so... random and they go from a believable physical feat to Sora gaining Sharingan-like powers and using the enemy's technique against him, molding space, time and gravitiy while doing so.
I liked the Twilight Thorn ones because they "tell" how a certain part of that fight went. I like the Soldier and Large Bodies ones because they show Sora's plausible response to these old attacks they used to throw at him.
I don't feel as involved when I have to grab Jafar's Genie dongle, jumping over Earthshaker's steps (because doing that myself with Circle was too hard), and hate me all you want... cutting skyscrapers. Was fun the first time (and I mean the very first ones you cut near the door), then it was just more of the same and a way to NOT make me move around in Xemnas' rad place.

I don't mean to say the Commands needed to be only believable physical moves or throwbacks to the previous game, but they are kinda hit and miss. And the misses can be that because they're a tad cumbersome.
I don't think "hating" on them is justified, KH II was a product of his time and 2005-6 was definitely an era where many videogames tried to be "in the zone" with skateboards and backflips (and KH II is pretty similar to hack'n slash to top it all off) and as a game it's still plenty good and with a deep gameplay, but I do agree that with KH III we deserve something better, the next step with less of the misses.

Yeah. You have a point. I noticed this in the Hydra fight in OC. Though I think they sacrificed simplicity over cinematic experience, which back then was what every video game developer wanted to convey: a cinematic experience. Nowadays, I dout that KH3's iteration of the Reaction Command and its evolution will sacrifice simplicity.

 

[KH2Rulz]

I think the issue is less on common enemies and more on boss and bigger fights, where they became sorta mandatory in order to progress and/or the only way to inflict significant damage.

Eh I disagree.

The only bosses where RCs were mandatory (off the top of my head) were Twilight Thorn, Possessor/Door, Oogie, Grim Reaper, kinda Stormrider, kinda Hades, kinda Groundshaker, MCP, kinda Xigbar, and 1st Xemnas (+ final sequence obviously).

The 'kindas' above are barely required and are short sequences that don't take that much control from Sora.

Secondly, RCs are not always the best ways to deal damage to bosses. Look at speedrunners for Xaldin and you see better methods than stocking up Jumps. Look at the recent run at Groundshaker where it got annihilated with Dash Attacks before the leaping up RC was even used. It's more efficient to use Wisdom Firaga than Wild Dance on Demyx's water clones.

Jafar is probably the most well known example where it's better to not complete the RC so that you can deal enough damage to skip his Desperation Move completely (on level 1).

In general, I'd say RCs were there to add some flavour to the combat and I greatly appreciated them. They were actually very rarely random. They generally triggered by one of the following:
1. reaction to Sora's attack/Finisher - i.e. Large Body, Morningstar, Soldier's cyclone, Berserker, etc.
2. Enemy-health - Crescendo, Assassin, Lance-soldier, Large Body, etc.
3. blocking moves - Samurai, Dragoon
4. location - Cerberus' middle head, cyclones for Stormrider

I would gladly trade the currently iffy balanced Magic Finishers for proper RCs. While they also don't use resources, their situational use makes them much less spammable.