All right, maybe I'll just start at the beginning of the game and move forward rather than wait for people to ask me questions.
On the side, I think I read somewhere that the "need help ask me" threads will be closed or something like that. Am I right or just confused? I'm kind of new at this.
AWAKENING:
I doubt anyone's confused about this, but I'll put it anyway. After the introduction FMV, you find yourself on a platform. The sword means strength, the shield means defense and HP, and the staff means MP and probably AP, but I'm not sure about the AP thing. Anyway, choosing them effects your leveling up (what you get from the level ups) and your beginning stats, as well as the levels you will get.
The sword's probably the hardest, because although it gives you a boost in strength and makes it easier to kill things, you either have to give up the magic, which is really useful later in the game, or defense, which means your enemies will be killing you just as fast as you're killing them.
Choosing magic will give you one more MP than if you hadn't chose it, but then again, you have to either give up strength, which means you'll have to hack away more, and possibly get more damage, or the shield, which leaves you with medium strength, low defense, and high magic, which you can't even use at the beginning.
The shield is what I think of as the middle ground, with high defense, and either medium strength or magic. Giving up strength isn't all that bad, because you have more strength with the shield than with the staff (I'm not sure how, it's just true), and giving up magic isn't all that important until later in the game. Choosing the shield is probably good for beginners, as you definitely won't die in 3 or 4 hits like if you choose the sword or staff and gave up the shield.
Anyway, after fighting the Heartless, and following the directions (you can't lose by the way, if your HP drops to a certain level you are healed by some unknown entity), you come to a save point. After the save point, you fight Darkside, your first boss.
Darkside is a pretty simple boss. There's two ways you can fight him: the EXP way or the quick way. The EXP way is definitely harder, so I'll do the quick way first. First, he'll slam his hand into the ground. Just smack away until he pulls his hand out, then kill the shadows. Next, he throw balls of energy at you, but again, his hand is in perfect position. Smash away and he'll die. Simple as that.
Now, the EXP way can get you two level ups if you do it right. First, when he slams his hand into the ground, ignore it and jump onto his arm. Climb up his arm to his head and begin comboing him. Be careful not to fall off! You will get 2 EXP every time you combo his head.
When he pulls his hand out of the ground, you will fall off. Kill the Heartless, and if you've gotten enough combos on him, you'll get a level up. Turn around, and stand your ground as he shoots balls at you. Lock onto his head, and block the balls for more EXP and if you're locked onto his head, they'll hit his head giving you more EXP. He will die if you deflect all three waves and you will get a second level up.
That's Awakening, tomorrow I'll post Destiny Islands.
