Kingdom Hearts Retrospective

[FudgemintGuardian]

I can't believe I haven't said how much I love this retrospective. It's great work and I love that you go into detail about the more nagging problems the game has (and it always feels good knowing my issues with it back in the day was more do to the game itself and not my own inexperience. lol)

Loving the Final Fantasy marathons, too.

 

[Blackdrazon]

I appreciate it, Judgemint, thanks!

 

[maryadavies]

Been enjoying this. Thanks. Oh and I've noticed that there's been no new stuff linked up on the last page (Up until now, that's how I know you updated, I recently just subscribed). Fix that, please?

 

[Blackdrazon]

Oh shoot, I was wondering why people kept visiting that Traverse Town page. The first Agrabah page is here. I've corrected the link, thanks a lot! If you haven't read past the last Traverse Town entry, I have new entries up through Monstro!

For anyone worrying about missing posts through my screw-ups, you can always check the "Recent Posts" sections on the sidebar, click the Category links on the side bars for the Categorys' raw feeds, check the Directory Pages, or subscribe on Wordpress, email or RSS.

I recommend either the Recent Posts section or the subscription options, since those are updated automatically and can't be messed up by my slippery fingers. >.<

 

[Elysium]

I'm still reading, too. I check almost every day to see if there's an update. I would leave comments, but I can never think of what to say.

The one new thing I've learned from these is that the strength of the magic is based on the number of MP bars and not spell level or character level. I honestly never knew that.

 

[BlackOsprey]

... More. I want mooore! I really enjoyed the writing style- it's witty, engaging, and occasionally sarcastic. It kind of reminds me of a combination of a walkthrough, personal opinions, and an "Everything Wrong With __" video. So in short, I love it and I'm waiting for the next part eagerly.

 

[Blackdrazon]

The one new thing I've learned from these is that the strength of the magic is based on the number of MP bars and not spell level or character level. I honestly never knew that.

I didn't even believe that when I first read it on some GameFAQs board, but I learned I was wrong when I tried it out against a Pink Agaricus and nearly tripled my score! And lo, the clouds were opened--!

... More. I want mooore! I really enjoyed the writing style- it's witty, engaging, and occasionally sarcastic. It kind of reminds me of a combination of a walkthrough, personal opinions, and an "Everything Wrong With __" video. So in short, I love it and I'm waiting for the next part eagerly.

Thank you very much!

 

[Blackdrazon]

​

*nervous laughter intensifies* Well, we're here. The happiest place on earth!

 

[Elysium]

The hate for KH1 Atlantica has always mystified me, but it's always been a thing. Maybe it's because I played this game so many times and I'm also a little blinded by my TLM-love, but I've never had a problem with the controls there? I've never even used the lock-on feature to move around, except when fighting.

I can understand how the world can be confusing though. But I guess exploring every nook and cranny until I know everything about the world was fun for me. I also liked how the world is one of the most challenging; those screw-drivers and the shark/Ursula bosses all easily bring me close to a game over.

 

[Wander]

The hate for KH1 Atlantica has always mystified me, but it's always been a thing. Maybe it's because I played this game so many times and I'm also a little blinded by my TLM-love, but I've never had a problem with the controls there? I've never even used the lock-on feature to move around, except when fighting.

I can understand how the world can be confusing though. But I guess exploring every nook and cranny until I know everything about the world was fun for me. I also liked how the world is one of the most challenging; those screw-drivers and the shark/Ursula bosses all easily bring me close to a game over.

Seconding this. The controls took some getting used to but after that Atlantica was a pretty vast and fun world to explore.

 

[ShardofTruth]

Thirded, I agree that the controls are clunky if you want to specifically explore certain areas of Atlantica but fighting enemies and getting from a to b was never a problem for me.

I really appreciate how the first Kingdom Hearts did not only made the worlds visually distinct but also tried to make their exploration unique. Kingdom Hearts II cut heavily back on it and other main titles like BBS and DDD completely dropped it.

 

[Blackdrazon]

I really appreciate how the first Kingdom Hearts did not only made the worlds visually distinct but also tried to make their exploration unique. Kingdom Hearts II cut heavily back on it and other main titles like BBS and DDD completely dropped it.

Absolutely. Like I said earlier on - I think in Wonderland: it's like they were constantly experimenting, but they just gave up on the experiments, one game at a time... In a manner of speaking, Kingdom Hearts has calcified.

The funny thing is that I absolutely adore KH2's Atlantica movement controls, even though they weren't really used at all! I wish we could have fought with them! (You sort of do, on Carpet in Agrabah trip two, but it's not the same.) But I suppose I talk about that much, much later.

 

[Grono]

Absolutely. Like I said earlier on - I think in Wonderland: it's like they were constantly experimenting, but they just gave up on the experiments, one game at a time...

The funny thing is that I absolutely adore KH2's Atlantica movement controls, even though they weren't really used at all! I wish we could have fought with them! (You sort of do, on Carpet in Agrabah trip two, but it's not the same.) But I suppose I talk about that much, much later.

'shivers' we don't speak about kHII Atlantica in this sacred place

 

[Blackdrazon]

KH2's Atlantica actively resisted my attempts to document it. If you pause the game during the rhythm segment - say, to take notes - the game forces you to restart the song! It fights back.

 

[hemmoheikkinen]

KH2's Atlantica actively resisted my attempts to document it. If you pause the game during the rhythm segment - say, to take notes - the game forces you to restart the song! It fights back.

My god I hated that. I was playing one of the final songs and had pause to scratch my head, and I could not continue.... Who on earth decided that not putting an continue button was a good idea?

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

Oh noes, Atlantica! *hides*
Can't wait for your opinions on the Ursula fights. Especially Giant Ursula because to this day I still don't know the "proper" way the fight is supposed to be done! (I always just swam behind her and whacked away.)

KH2's Atlantica actively resisted my attempts to document it. If you pause the game during the rhythm segment - say, to take notes - the game forces you to restart the song! It fights back.

O_O That happens?! I've never had to pause during my playing so I've never noticed this horrible thing. How could they even think that was a good idea?

 

[Grono]

O_O That happens?! I've never had to pause during my playing so I've never noticed this horrible thing. How could they even think that was a good idea?

This particular pausing thing happened ten times to me by accident, and that question could also be asked for the entirety of KHII Atlantica.

 

[TheOtherPromise]

This particular pausing thing happened ten times to me by accident, and that question could also be asked for the entirety of KHII Atlantica.

They probably made it like that so you can't cheat and pause to see what button you have to press next.

 

[Blackdrazon]

Pretty much. Other rhythm games typically black the screen during a pause to avoid this same problem, but KH2 was released before the Guitar Hero golden age, and it may be that that hadn't been standardized at the time. I'm not familiar with most rhythm games from the period, but I do know they were largely ports of arcade games where you can't pause at all. I bet some people got weird ideas of how to deal with the problem...

 

[Blackdrazon]

​

Today we hit up Hollow Bastion and two of the most important scenes in the original game: Riku taking the Keyblade and Sora taking it back. As a result, I give the game's central and recurring themes a close, involved look, the likes of which we'll be seeing a lot more of towards the end of the game and into more narratively deep games like CoM. This, in other words, is where we begin the long game of Kingdom Hearts' extended narrative.