Help with original Kingdom Hearts

[RikuOathkeeper]

:O I am still shocked that I managed to beat Ansem-Riku in only two tries. Especially considering it took me like twenty to defeat the Maleficent Dragon... The walkthrough I was reading to get through the game told me to use Sonic Blade and Ars Arcanum, but I didn't need to use them at all, I think the difference maker in my second attempt was an Aerora shield.

But now I have a question. Returning to Traverse Town I received the keychain to my favorite Keyblade, (I'm sure you can guess ) but using it almost seems as though the Counterattack ability isn't compatible with it. I died battling a swarm of Heartless that I'd've had no trouble with using Olympia because I could just keep bashing on with Counterattack. Heck, it's even wonky with Oblivion!

 

[Blackdrazon]

Congrats with Riku-Ansem! Aeroga really is a game-changer.

Hm, the Oathkeeper is a medium-length Keyblade, but so is the Olympia. No Keyblade should outright disqualify Counterattack, so I'm not sure what went wrong! You're saying the ability just straight-up isn't working?

 

[RikuOathkeeper]

Yeah! I mean, when I was in Hollow Bastion using Olympia, my tactic against Defenders was overwhelming them by bashing the shield using Counterattack. The Attack icon turned to Counter, and I'd just go hit after hit after hit, have the Defender reeling backward in a couple seconds, tops. Using Oathkeeper, it doesn't change to Counter, and after I hit the shield once, it takes me a moment to recover, a moment where I might get blindsided by another Heartless. Like I said, it cost me a couple battles that I should've had in the bag.

 

[Blackdrazon]

Ahh, wait, I get now that you've described it. If you go to the Keyblade's pages on KHWiki, you can see they all have a Recoil rate. This is the amount you'll be knocked back if you do something like hit the Defender's shield. The higher the number, the faster you'll recover. The Olympia has a recoil rate of 90, the Oathkeeper... 1. The Oblivion has 30.

Taking a quick tour, other Keyblades with 90 include the Metal Chocobo, the One-Winged Angel, and the Ultima Weapon. 60s may also suit your technique, but no promises: those include the Three Wishes and the Divine Rose.

I really wish KH1 didn't hide these stats. It's so bad that even the wiki doesn't properly cover Keyblade lengths (I imagine the data they have came from a strategy guide that didn't cover lengths), and I only even know about recoil because I looked it up a while back. And clearly it didn't come to mind!

 

[RikuOathkeeper]

That helped a lot. And it also solved why it seemed to work better when I used Divine Rose, with a recoil rate of 60. I'm currently using Divine Rose to beat the Hades Cup.