Which KH Game do you Think is the Most Difficult?

[Grono]

This poll is pretty straight forward; which game do you find the most challenging?

Those convicted, state your case!

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix​

Kingdom Hearts isn't a terribly hard game per say, but it does challenge you in a way that post-PS3 era games just don't anymore. You hardly ever had any idea of where to go, many of the enemies were tough and unforgiving, and the game definitely forced you to carefully dole out every move as if it would be the last time you'd be able to pull it off in battle. This definitely wasn't a game where you could just grind and get better; the enemies required strategy, were very unique in how they interacted with the environment, and let's not even get STARTED on those diddlying secret bosses. Good GOD, the ice titan can go get diddlyed. Might just be me, though; I was never very good at post-game KH.

Oh, and your party members definitely weren't helping things either, with Goofy being a glorified trash dump for items you'd stupidly equip him with and Donald's AI not necessarily knowing when you've healed yourself.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories​

While Chain of Memories is certainly... a different type of game (yeah, let's say that), it is a medium difficulty dungeon crawler that never feels too hard yet never lets up at the same time. Every boss encounter in this game seems extremely fair in the long run, and the card gimmick is well-implemented into every facet of the gameplay. While I wouldn't say that CoM is for everyone, I also would find it hard for anyone to say that it's the hardest game in the series, and they would have to make a good case to cement it as the most difficult one to play. Riku's wonderland deck can go get diddlyed though

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix​

Ah, Kingdom Hearts II. A masterful revamp of the original game's combat, KHII highly expands Sora's combat skills and makes him practically unstoppable. While the party members definitely take a backseat in this game, Sora's combat skills more than make up for the lack of support. This game, however, is much too easy in the main game, and I feel like you'd have to play at an exceptionally high difficulty to quantify calling this the hardest game.

The endgame is a different story, though; the Lingering Will is brutally difficult and unforgiving, and the Cavern of Remembrance is a masterworks in level design and level difficulty. If someone were to tell me that KHII has the most difficult endgame, I'm not sure if I could disagree with them.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days ​

While Days isn't the most difficult (at least in my opinion), the difficulty comes in stupidly enormous health bars for enemies and terrible DS controls. If you're a fan of the controls from Re:Coded, don't touch this game with a 10-foot pole.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix​

Birth by Sleep is a steep cliff on the side of a plateau; the beginning is very easy, yet the first couple of worlds are extremely difficult to progress through. However, due to the advantage of being able to get many powerful commands early-game and being able to grind excessively to gain power, this game quickly plateau's towards the end and stays at relatively the same difficulty after Radiant Garden or so. The final bosses, while tough, are completely doable; you need to simply block Xigbar's shots, stock at least 2 Seeker Mines as Aqua, and USE SHOTLOCK while fighting Terra-Xehanort. All in all, not too bad.

While Dark Hide is tough in its endgame, I would consider it a baby compared to the other secret bosses in Birth by Sleep. Unlike Lingering Will, these bosses are not fairly designed, and I can't help but feel that these battles are just unfairly stacked as opposed to carefully crafted by expert game designers. Lingering Will is a tough but fair challenge; Vanitas' Lingering Spirit and Young Xehanort are just nightmares. And don't even TRY fighting Young Xehanort as Terra.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded​

Re:Coded is a simple DS game that's relatively easy. While the shooter sections are certainly tedious, and certain boss battles are just infuriating, this game ain't that hard, at least to my casual eye. Nice and easy for a KH game.

Kingdom Hearts HD: Dream Drop Distance​

Dream Drop Distance does not play around, and if you're not paying attention you will get smacked around like a ragdoll on higher difficulties. Dream Drop Distance follows a similar pattern to Birth by Sleep, but I'm not sure if "plateau's" is the right choice of words in this one. It gets a little easier as you gain levels, yes, but the final bosses this time around are definitely a challenge. While Flowmotion being fully unlocked right when you enter Traverse Town is a misstep in the series, I would have a hard time arguing with its implementation, as it is needed on a critical mode playthrough. If you didn't have Flowmotion on critical mode, I'm not sure if you could beat it in a reasonable amount of time.

The post-game bosses this time around are definitely a treat, that's for sure. While the story bosses you can re-battle are definitely harder, the one post-game boss that is new to the game is Julius, and he is definitely a hard one to beat. Beating Julius gets you the Ultima Weapon, and he will not go down lightly. He hits hard when you least expect it and can knock you out like a light in a matter of seconds. Anyone considering game difficulty should definitely take the whole of this experience to account.

Kingdom Hearts X,
Kingdom Hearts Unchained X, and
Kingdom Hearts X -Union Cross-​

Winning these battles is all luck-based, or at least it feels that way. Of course, you have to be strategic with your medals, but the medals you receive are very centered around luck, and those who paid extra to get better medals definitely have a competitive advantage in this game. Some of these bosses can be very difficult, while some are a pushover. This game's difficulty curve raises pretty high when you fight your first darkside; before that, each boss had a couple of health bars. Then, THIS thing comes around with WAY more, and surprises the hell out of you. Without my WoFF Cloud medal, I would have been burnt toast.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep
-A Fragmentary Passage-​

While the whole of this game is not difficult, and the inclusion of the -aja spells being so OP really takes away from the experience, the final boss and Zodiac Phantom Aqua definitely do not mess around. Zodiac Phantom Aqua has got to be one of the most difficult bosses in Kingdom Hearts history, and her appearance in this game unfortunately reminds me of how Vanitas' Lingering Spirit and Young Xehanort were handled in BbS Final Mix, albeit with a tad bit more fairness admittedly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

So, which game do you personally have the most difficulty with? I would say, for me anyways, that Dream Drop Distance on critical so far has been a huge challenge, and it has definitely made me relearn the way I play Kingdom Hearts games as a result of strategizing every enemy encounter.

What's your reasoning? Comment below and let me know pUq

 

[ImVentus]

IMO I had the most hardest time with Days.

When starting the game I didn't find it too hard but as we get to a boss in Agrabah desserts (sorry don't remember the level) it's like a metallic mole in the sand, the game started to get frustrating. The boss levels in Neverland, Beast's Castle & Halloween Town are unfairly difficult to deal with. I just found controlling Roxas in the end of the game to be a real slowpoke.

The combat system got repetitive and all I can say is that I wasn't fond of the gameplay later in the game.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

I mean, I just gotta go with CoM given how awful I am at card games. Give me a game when I HAVE to build a deck and you've already lost me.
Other than that, it depends difficult in what. BbS' minigames were hell on earth, but combat-wise KH II's postgame challenges made me look up on the Internet (so much for the "press Triangle and win game", eh?)

Whatever difficulty KH1 has got annihilated by sheer muscle memory in playing it, DDD was fairly easy in everything as far as I'm concerned, Coded was mighty fun to 100% and the only obstacle I had with Days was... you know what? In 2018, I don't feel like doing another "Days is boring" joke. Not that it's not (it really is), I just don't feel like it.

 

[Grono]

IMO I had the most hardest time with Days.

When starting the game I didn't find it too hard but as we get to a boss in Agrabah desserts (sorry don't remember the level) it's like a metallic mole in the sand, the game started to get frustrating. The boss levels in Neverland, Beast's Castle & Halloween Town are unfairly difficult to deal with. I just found controlling Roxas in the end of the game to be a real slowpoke.

The combat system got repetitive and all I can say is that I wasn't fond of the gameplay later in the game.

Yeah, I couldn't come up with a solid thing to say about it, but this was a good example of when it got to be too much. It just... didn't feel right. Roxas is so slow holy crap.

I mean, I just gotta go with CoM given how awful I am at card games. Give me a game when I HAVE to build a deck and you've already lost me.

Fair enough haha

Other than that, it depends difficult in what. BbS' minigames were hell on earth, but combat-wise KH II's postgame challenges made me look up on the Internet (so much for the "press Triangle and win game", eh?)

I can agree with that, KHII's endgame definitely pleased me with its difficulty (if you couldn't read through the bias in my editorial). And good god even as a professional musician Ice Cream Beat is just difficult I don't know what's wrong with it

Whatever difficulty KH1 has got annihilated by sheer muscle memory in playing it, DDD was fairly easy in everything as far as I'm concerned, Coded was mighty fun to 100% and the only obstacle I had with Days was... you know what? In 2018, I don't feel like doing another "Days is boring" joke. Not that it's not (it really is), I just don't feel like it.

And this Day Darkos came out as the better man.

 

[Chuman]

as far as actual difficulty is concerned?

kh1 is the most consistently difficult game, it was designed in a different era when “git gud” wasnt something people said; it was just something you did if you wanted to play. 0.2 and IIFM+ on critical are second, II was just “throw everything at you but make it super weak and arm you to the teeth for the most cinematic experience” whereas 0.2 was by far osaka’s most polished game, it shows that they finally have a strong grip on the series’ finer systems and mechanics, however, they had to give you all the tools in their disposal because it was a 3 hour demo just to get you nice and wet for III

and then there is artificial difficulty- bbs is terribly easy even on critical, the superbosses are all luck-based unless you exploit the game’s mechanics, which everyone usually does. a deck of thunder surges as terra and i beat YX, twice to make sure it wasnt luck. then there is re:com, osaka’s first and worst designed game. they were still fresh so i kind of excuse them, but there’s really no excuse for such loose mechanics in an action game (or ANY game), where their sense of difficulty was “make each world longer and more tedious and give every boss unlimited 0 cards explicitly to diddly you”.

DDD is a middle ground, where everything is hard on critical and it feels natural until you hit a brick wall during riku’s bosses and need once more/second chance just so its possible, where they’re then incredibly easy. i killed YX as riku before he entered his second phase.

edit: KHX is a disgrace of a game and honestly, diddly P2W.

 

[Grono]

as far as actual difficulty is concerned?

kh1 is the most consistently difficult game, it was designed in a different era when “git gud” wasnt something people said; it was just something you did if you wanted to play.

Ah, the good ole' days. I remember as a kid where being stuck on a level for 9 months was pretty typical of pretty much every game.

0.2 was by far osaka’s most polished game, it shows that they finally have a strong grip on the series’ finer systems and mechanics, however, they had to give you all the tools in their disposal because it was a 3 hour demo just to get you nice and wet for III

"nice and wet"

edit: KHX is a disgrace of a game and honestly, diddly P2W.

Agreed, Square unfortunately went balls-in when designing the pay-to-win elements of that game.

 

[DarkGrey Heroine]

Have you ever tried Days on Proud level 1?

'cause I have. Hohoho boi, and I shall go on with it till I will find it literally impossible.

Other than that, on CoM's GBA version, the Riku VS Repliku battle WAS INSANE. I NEVER USED 0 CARDS MORE DESPERATELY. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO FORGET REPLIKU
So I guess CoM can be a real pain in some moments, but it's really worth the experience imo

 

[AtDuskIThinkofU]

I was playing CoM on gba....uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First I got stuck on Hook's boss battle, then I got stuck on a battle with Replica Riku. I haven't played since. I really need to pick it up again....

 

[Grono]

Days is absolutely brutal. If it weren't for the bad controls and Roxas always moving like he's trying to get out of a tar pit it might be doable.

Personally, I've never had issues with Re:Chain of Memories. What is everyone talking about with balancing issues? I thought it played just fine.

 

[alexis.anagram]

CoM GBA was really tough in some parts, I remember the (Sora's Side) Repliku fight followed immediately by Larxene striking me as a huge fuck you moment as a kid struggling to sleight and 0 fast enough. Reverse/Rebirth kind of balances that out though since it's a breeze, Mickey is the best friend card and Dark Riku is fit. I don't hate RE: CoM like a lot of people but it's not at all the same experience as playing GBA.

After that probably KH1, like GronoTRIGGERED pointed out it's kind of the full package: a well-designed, deceptively straightforward game on pretty much every level. It didn't feel like combat was the end-all, be-all of the game's intention, so if it came off a bit rough and tumble it was balanced out by a depth of exploration and puzzle solving that kept the player involved in the guesswork that accompanied navigating many of the worlds. Wonderland and Hollow Bastion are especially good examples of this. The bosses are pretty unforgiving, too, for first time players: multiple people I know gave up on the game because of the Stealth Sneak fight.

I'm not especially gifted as far as video games go (I barely play any aside from KH), so it's a little surprising to me that people have trouble with any game post-KH2. I respect that everyone's different but other than some of the ridiculous boss fights none of them have felt that challenging to me, and in fact it feels like they get easier and more reliant on combat shortcuts over time, like overworked magic spells or easily triggered "auto attacks" (like the Flowmotion attacks in DDD, I have no idea what the proper terminology is). Of course any game can be made as a difficult as the player chooses, but all things being equal it's hard for me to view games like KH2FM, BBS, Re:coded or DDD as "difficult" when there are so many readily available methods of cheesing through all of the essential gameplay, and even a lot of the optional content.

 

[Grono]

CoM GBA was really tough in some parts, I remember the (Sora's Side) Repliku fight followed immediately by Larxene striking me as a huge diddly you moment as a kid struggling to sleight and 0 fast enough. Reverse/Rebirth kind of balances that out though since it's a breeze, Mickey is the best friend card and Dark Riku is fit.

Yeah, I remember that game very well. I put it down for 6 years and picked it up when I was fourteen. Before I knew it I - I beat it! I was stuck on Repliku IV from Sora's side and had no chance of beating it, and suddenly I - kicked his ass! It was the best feeling I had had for a long time, to say the least.

Riku's side is a breeze, except the shitty deck he's given in Wonderland. Have I mentioned the deck he got in Wonderland was unfair? Because it was very tricky to work with, just sayin'.

After that probably KH1, like GronoTRIGGERED pointed out it's kind of the full package: a well-designed, deceptively straightforward game on pretty much every level. It didn't feel like combat was the end-all, be-all of the game's intention, so if it came off a bit rough and tumble it was balanced out by a depth of exploration and puzzle solving that kept the player involved in the guesswork that accompanied navigating many of the worlds.

Kingdom Hearts, in my honest opinion, is one of the only games that took the level design and weaved it into the gameplay, so that it was not only an element of combat but part of the gameplay itself. You could also make a claim that levels such as the Post Office from Traverse Town in DDD did this, and that parts of 0.2 did this as well, but none have done it quite like the original. That's part of the reason why I'm so excited for KHIII; it looks exploratory!

Kingdom Hearts should take a lesson from D&D: combat isn't everything. In every one of the highly regarded D&D campaigns online almost none of them put combat first, and that's because, in the end, that's not what's compelling. Exploring, interacting, talking with the people, that's what it's about. Combat? No, that's not it. That's not the only reason I'm here.

Wonderland and Hollow Bastion are especially good examples of this. The bosses are pretty unforgiving, too, for first time players: multiple people I know gave up on the game because of the Stealth Sneak fight.

OKAY GOOD IT'S NOT JUST ME AS A LITTLE KID

Of course any game can be made as a difficult as the player chooses, but all things being equal it's hard for me to view games like KH2FM, BBS, Re:coded or DDD as "difficult" when there are so many readily available methods of cheesing through all of the essential gameplay, and even a lot of the optional content.

Weeeeeelllllll, this is true to a point. I don't think you can cheese anything on DDD's critical mode at least. Not even flowmotion will get you out of everything, as you can still be attacked when activating it. Maybe I'm just terrible at video games, though. Yeah, that's probably it.

 

[alexis.anagram]

Yeah, I remember that game very well. I put it down for 6 years and picked it up when I was fourteen. Before I knew it I - I beat it! I was stuck on Repliku IV from Sora's side and had no chance of beating it, and suddenly I - kicked his ass! It was the best feeling I had had for a long time, to say the least.

There really is nothing like pushing past a part of a game you've been stuck on for way too long. I can only imagine the rush of six years of delayed gratification, I'm usually on cloud 9 after a few days to a week of struggling haha.

Riku's side is a breeze, except the shitty deck he's given in Wonderland. Have I mentioned the deck he got in Wonderland was unfair? Because it was very tricky to work with, just sayin'.

It's been a long time since I played GBA CoM so I don't remember anything that specific, but it seems probable. Everything about Wonderland is tricky.

Kingdom Hearts, in my honest opinion, is one of the only games that took the level design and weaved it into the gameplay, so that it was not only an element of combat but part of the gameplay itself. You could also make a claim that levels such as the Post Office from Traverse Town in DDD did this, and that parts of 0.2 did this as well, but none have done it quite like the original. That's part of the reason why I'm so excited for KHIII; it looks exploratory!

I hope you're right about KH3, but I haven't really seen anything that leads me to believe it'll substantiate its world design with recurring, interactive reward elements like the Post Office, Jungle Slider, the Bizarre Room's secret passages, etc. The worlds look lush and full of detail, to be sure, but beyond that I'm not convinced yet. I'd love to be proven wrong though, since just fooling around in any given world in KH1 is, to me, as satisfying an experience as any boss fight. I just don't care about the combat system in any RPG game outside of its rote functionality: I want something immersive well beyond the battle design.

Kingdom Hearts should take a lesson from D&D: combat isn't everything. In every one of the highly regarded D&D campaigns online almost none of them put combat first, and that's because, in the end, that's not what's compelling. Exploring, interacting, talking with the people, that's what it's about. Combat? No, that's not it. That's not the only reason I'm here.

Yes, exactly. This is what I was trying to say. But it's why I'm actually worried about KH3: combat is so front-and-center in every trailer, and it's just stuffed to the gills in that regard. I have trouble believing they've given the world design element its due until they show me something concrete. Ultimately, I fear KH3 will have all of its "extraneous" non-combat gameplay subdivided into minigames just like most of the past titles, which, y'know, minigames are fine but they aren't the same as integrated level exploration

OKAY GOOD IT'S NOT JUST ME AS A LITTLE KID

Not unless you were simultaneously my next door neighbor, his older brother, my other next door neighbor and his sister, my friend in middle school, my best friend in high school's brother, and at least a couple of other coworkers/random people I've spoken with about the game.

Seriously you have to admire the guts Square had back then, introducing a hard-hitting, double-billed boss fight with both close-up and range attacks, when you're only on your third or fourth level depending on how you've gone about things, and you probably haven't learned the art of grinding yet so your party is massively underpowered, and the one or two spells you've learned are essentially useless so your only recourse is to hack-slash and dodge, and oh yeah did I mention the thing is invisible for most of the battle and you don't get Cure until after you beat it.

Not to mention over the course of that entire level you have a random chance of being ambushed by the leopard from Hell.

Gosh Deep Jungle was such a great world. After the constantly confounding level design of Wonderland and the uncertainty of what exactly the point of Olympus Coliseum is, it's like a litmus test of how far you're willing to trust this whacky Japanese crossover game with your deepest Disney fantasies. Maybe also why there aren't more KH fans in the world today.

Weeeeeelllllll, this is true to a point. I don't think you can cheese anything on DDD's critical mode at least. Not even flowmotion will get you out of everything, as you can still be attacked when activating it. Maybe I'm just terrible at video games, though. Yeah, that's probably it.

To be clear:
1) I suck at video games too
2) Purusant to point 1, I always play on Proud mode and therefore can only compare that version across games, although I still think that's fair since it's the toughest you can go before deliberately disadvantaging yourself from the outset, and probably the hardest difficutly level the average gamer would bother with.

 

[Grono]

There really is nothing like pushing past a part of a game you've been stuck on for way too long. I can only imagine the rush of six years of delayed gratification, I'm usually on cloud 9 after a few days to a week of struggling haha.

Honestly, one of the best feelings ever. And also looking back on it the GBA version was tough but pretty fair, I don't remember too many parts where its battles seemed luck-based.

It's been a long time since I played GBA CoM so I don't remember anything that specific, but it seems probable. Everything about Wonderland is tricky.

Ah, gotcha. Riku's deck was basically all 1's and 3's in that world, so it was very hard to break any cards.

I hope you're right about KH3, but I haven't really seen anything that leads me to believe it'll substantiate its world design with recurring, interactive reward elements like the Post Office, Jungle Slider, the Bizarre Room's secret passages, etc. The worlds look lush and full of detail, to be sure, but beyond that I'm not convinced yet. I'd love to be proven wrong though, since just fooling around in any given world in KH1 is, to me, as satisfying an experience as any boss fight. I just don't care about the combat system in any RPG game outside of its rote functionality: I want something immersive well beyond the battle design.

What I meant by that was expansive. I didn't mean that it was as much a labyrinth like KH, but rather the world looks unique in that it seems like a "if you can see it, you can go to it" type of map design. I always love those.

Yes, exactly. This is what I was trying to say. But it's why I'm actually worried about KH3: combat is so front-and-center in every trailer, and it's just stuffed to the gills in that regard. I have trouble believing they've given the world design element its due until they show me something concrete. Ultimately, I fear KH3 will have all of its "extraneous" non-combat gameplay subdivided into minigames just like most of the past titles, which, y'know, minigames are fine but they aren't the same as integrated level exploration

Which is why the gummi ship news and the Giantland minigame sneak peek give me hope for something more creative. I do agree that combat is very much a focus so far; we haven't even seen Ansem speak or Xehanort even show up as more than a little kid so far!

Seriously, we need a solid story trailer that doesn't have anything to do with Disney sometime soon. This is getting excessive.

Seriously you have to admire the guts Square had back then, introducing a hard-hitting, double-billed boss fight with both close-up and range attacks, when you're only on your third or fourth level depending on how you've gone about things, and you probably haven't learned the art of grinding yet so your party is massively underpowered, and the one or two spells you've learned are essentially useless so your only recourse is to hack-slash and dodge, and oh yeah did I mention the thing is invisible for most of the battle and you don't get Cure until after you beat it.

Ah, gotta love older video games.

Not to mention over the course of that entire level you have a random chance of being ambushed by the leopard from Hell.

Honestly, that boss fight made it so immersive. I remember how satisfying it felt as a kid beating that thing.

Gosh Deep Jungle was such a great world. After the constantly confounding level design of Wonderland and the uncertainty of what exactly the point of Olympus Coliseum is, it's like a litmus test of how far you're willing to trust this whacky Japanese crossover game with your deepest Disney fantasies. Maybe also why there aren't more KH fans in the world today.

Lol, I actually know of a lot of people that hold the first game in their heart. If not series fans, I certainly see fans of the first game practically everywhere.

2) Purusant to point 1, I always play on Proud mode and therefore can only compare that version across games, although I still think that's fair since it's the toughest you can go before deliberately disadvantaging yourself from the outset, and probably the hardest difficutly level the average gamer would bother with.

That's actually a very well-informed way to think about this, hmm.