So about a month ago I discovered Kingdom Hearts 1.5 on the PS3 and figured I'd give it a go, especially having seen a lot of love from fans of the Kingdom Hearts games all over the internet. I finished 1 Final mix and ReChain of Memories in about 3 weeks, and I think I've had enough time to digest the games to give a *quick* review of it. I figured this might be interesting to post on these Kingdom Hearts forums, since I doubt there's much newbies on here. Also I'm planning to play 2.5 and maybe make some review on it. Who knows, I might even consider a 358/2 Days and Re Coded (I hope I got those names right lol) playthrough after all this. For now though, I think I'll stick with the movies.
Quick note: I played all the games so far on Standard Mode, although I might consider revisiting them on higher difficulties.
Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix was, overall, an excellent game. I've heard people calling the game a button masher, and I can see where they're coming from, at least to some degree. The attacking options are pretty primitive, and there's really not much you can do aside from spam physical attacks over and over. Magic is the other main option of attacking, and while it can be useful in areas, I don't see myself using it all that often. Perhaps there's some trick that I'm just not getting, but I find mashing out physical combos to be easier and it works just fine (at least on Standard Mode).
It's always cool to see action RPGs incorporate fancy combo abilities, as you get to see how your characters evolve and get stronger throughout the game. I think that's a big aspect in my liking of the game's gameplay; sure, it's simple, but it works and you get stronger as you go on. My personal favorite has to be Ripple Drive; I dunno, something about the flourish Sora does with his Keyblade at the end makes it look super awesome. Practically, it launches enemies into the air which allows me to usually follow up with some type of aerial combo. Pretty cool.
I don't have much to say about the other gameplay elements; perhaps it requires more experimentation, but stuff like Magic, Limits, and such really didn't have too big of an impact on my gameplay. I will say that Cure is definitely the most useful Magic in my opinion, although its usefulness is so good that items such as Potions and Hi-Potions became kinda pointless, especially near the end. I ended up using a bunch of Ethers and Elixirs for the final world and final boss, mainly so I can Cure and maybe use Aero on myself. Otherwise, the other magics just sort of...sat there. The same can be said about the Limits. While they are flashy and cool looking, I never found myself using them too much because I really didn't need to, and I'd much rather conserve the MP in case of an emergency Cure.
The world design was...clunky at times (most notably, Agrabah). Platforming was attempted, but because you don't really get much movement options until the end of the game, it wasn't the best executed. Also, Atlantica swimming controls are godawful, and if you say otherwise, you're wrong. On the other hand, I did enjoy the typical exploration aspect that many action RPGs have, and the fact that these were my childhood Disney worlds made it all the more exciting. So yeah, while platforming in Agrabah or swimming in Atlantica may not have been the best, I damn well still enjoyed those worlds for the exploration and many things to interact with.
The story was pretty typical and I don't have much to say; it was definitely interesting to see how they intertwined Disney stories with its own Kingdom Hearts plotline though, and I'd say they did a pretty decent job at it. The main game uses the whole "7 Princesses of Light" as its driving plot, and it works...kinda. While it did drag on sometimes, I think the most impressive part is they managed to fit individual Disney World stories into this overall "big" plotline. I was a big fan of Disney movies as a kid, so seeing them in this game created this air of nostalgia for me that I appreciated very much. The big problem however, is when the ending occurs. It feels very...rushed. You have Riku, who is taken over by Ansem, and then a giant clusterfiretruck of things occur in a short span of time (one world, mind you) and then suddenly Mickey's there, and Riku's behind the door, and wait what's Kindgom Hearts again? Overall, it felt really confusing and I actually had to personally go online and look it up to fully understand what happened (at the risk of finding spoilers; luckily, I came out unscathed). I would've enjoyed the ending a lot more if they just took more time to explain the whole thing, and maybe hint and build up at it a bit more.
Overall, a solid 8.5/10. Pretty damn good.
Re:CoM was apparently highly controversial on whether it's good or bad, and I can see why; it's so vastly different from the very first game that I was taken by surprise at first. What are all these cards doing here? What's with Sora's voice? wtf is happening man
Okay, the incredible thing about this game is that you get immersed in the gameplay after you understand the concept, which is definitely not easy. However, I find myself understanding more and more as the game goes on, and eventually it all starts making sense to me. How to arrange my deck, how to use Sleights, how to manipulate my attacks in such way to deal maximum damage, etc. I'd say the gameplay is only for certain types of gamers, but it definitely hit my sweet spot and I loved it. On the otherhand, I can see why people would dislike it, especially with a LOT of the game time being spent on arranging your deck for bosses. Oh yeah, bosses. Some get REALLY damn hard near the end, such as the last Axel fight (took me a dozen attempts for that one). There's a pretty big difficulty spike within the last few floors, and it caught me kind of by surprise. Also, holy crap the Castle Oblivion map was ginormous.
Despite that though, I loved the experimentation aspect of the game, and had a lot of fun with it. Trying new sleights, attack patterns, and just new combos; it was super fun to play around with, and I appreciate the game devs changing up the concepts between games just for a more diversified gameplay. On the other hand, I did find the repetition and layout of the worlds somewhat boring, especially in giant worlds such as Hollow Bastion or Castle Oblivion; by the end, you see the pattern and layout of each and every map card, so the feeling of exploration that the first game had sort of disappeared.
The story is excellent. I was wondering how they were going to expand upon the ending of Kingdom Hearts 1, because it clearly was not finished, especially with Riku being locked behind the door. Turns out, they were gonna have Sora and co. go into a castle and lose all their memories. Yeah, it sounds absurd, but after we reveal the whole Namine plot, it genuinely made sense. Some parts are still confusing though, although I assume that Kingdom Hearts 2 will answer all my questions. The Organization is a pretty cool group, and having only seen a few of them makes me excited to see the rest. I also got the whole thing about Axel kind of being an assassin for the group that's supposed to sniff out and disloyalty, and considering the whole gang in Castle Oblivion were plotting a plan to overthrow the leader or something, seeing Axel slowly change sides was one of my favorite parts.
Sora is really damn angry in this game, way more than the first game where he was always this light hearted naive kid. It's nice to see this type of character development, especially since a lot of his anger is justified. His best friend is gone, he's just trying to save everyone, he's the Keyblade Master so he has a lot on his shoulders, and to top it all off, he's losing his memories thanks to Namine's shenanigans. Riku Replica was such an interesting character with really weird and philosophical motivations behind him, and that eventually lead to his demise; questioning his own existence, as he was a mere puppet. This was super cool to me, and I hope he would somehow return in the future games (although I don't personally see it happening). The other characters were interesting too; it's cool to see how they had individual personalities to them, although I did find Marluxia as sort of the "main villain" to be the cliche "cool, monologue" type.
Reverse/Rebirth was a post game thing that changed up the gameplay mechanics as you can no longer rearrange your deck, which is set in stone for you in each world. So yeah, while I enjoyed the whole Card Duel mechanic, I felt that it was merely an extension to further your understanding of the story and nothing more, so I dont' have much to say on it. I appreciate the effort, but I still enjoy Sora gameplay more. Sorry Riku!
Really fun gameplay and excellent story, so it earns a 9/10 for me.
So yeah, that's my "short" opinion on the two games I played so far. I have yet to watch the 358/2 Days movie (how do you SAY that name?) and I already have a copy of 2.5 ready to play. Honestly, I've enjoyed this series much more than I expected so far. Hope I can say the same for the rest of the games; but yeah. I might post something once I finish the others, but for now, this should suffice
So about a month ago I discovered Kingdom Hearts 1.5 on the PS3 and figured I'd give it a go, especially having seen a lot of love from fans of the Kingdom Hearts games all over the internet. I finished 1 Final mix and ReChain of Memories in about 3 weeks, and I think I've had enough time to digest the games to give a *quick* review of it. I figured this might be interesting to post on these Kingdom Hearts forums, since I doubt there's much newbies on here. Also I'm planning to play 2.5 and maybe make some review on it. Who knows, I might even consider a 358/2 Days and Re Coded (I hope I got those names right lol) playthrough after all this. For now though, I think I'll stick with the movies.
Quick note: I played all the games so far on Standard Mode, although I might consider revisiting them on higher difficulties.
Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix was, overall, an excellent game. I've heard people calling the game a button masher, and I can see where they're coming from, at least to some degree. The attacking options are pretty primitive, and there's really not much you can do aside from spam physical attacks over and over. Magic is the other main option of attacking, and while it can be useful in areas, I don't see myself using it all that often. Perhaps there's some trick that I'm just not getting, but I find mashing out physical combos to be easier and it works just fine (at least on Standard Mode).
It's always cool to see action RPGs incorporate fancy combo abilities, as you get to see how your characters evolve and get stronger throughout the game. I think that's a big aspect in my liking of the game's gameplay; sure, it's simple, but it works and you get stronger as you go on. My personal favorite has to be Ripple Drive; I dunno, something about the flourish Sora does with his Keyblade at the end makes it look super awesome. Practically, it launches enemies into the air which allows me to usually follow up with some type of aerial combo. Pretty cool.
I don't have much to say about the other gameplay elements; perhaps it requires more experimentation, but stuff like Magic, Limits, and such really didn't have too big of an impact on my gameplay. I will say that Cure is definitely the most useful Magic in my opinion, although its usefulness is so good that items such as Potions and Hi-Potions became kinda pointless, especially near the end. I ended up using a bunch of Ethers and Elixirs for the final world and final boss, mainly so I can Cure and maybe use Aero on myself. Otherwise, the other magics just sort of...sat there. The same can be said about the Limits. While they are flashy and cool looking, I never found myself using them too much because I really didn't need to, and I'd much rather conserve the MP in case of an emergency Cure.
The world design was...clunky at times (most notably, Agrabah). Platforming was attempted, but because you don't really get much movement options until the end of the game, it wasn't the best executed. Also, Atlantica swimming controls are godawful, and if you say otherwise, you're wrong. On the other hand, I did enjoy the typical exploration aspect that many action RPGs have, and the fact that these were my childhood Disney worlds made it all the more exciting. So yeah, while platforming in Agrabah or swimming in Atlantica may not have been the best, I damn well still enjoyed those worlds for the exploration and many things to interact with.
The story was pretty typical and I don't have much to say; it was definitely interesting to see how they intertwined Disney stories with its own Kingdom Hearts plotline though, and I'd say they did a pretty decent job at it. The main game uses the whole "7 Princesses of Light" as its driving plot, and it works...kinda. While it did drag on sometimes, I think the most impressive part is they managed to fit individual Disney World stories into this overall "big" plotline. I was a big fan of Disney movies as a kid, so seeing them in this game created this air of nostalgia for me that I appreciated very much. The big problem however, is when the ending occurs. It feels very...rushed. You have Riku, who is taken over by Ansem, and then a giant clusterfiretruck of things occur in a short span of time (one world, mind you) and then suddenly Mickey's there, and Riku's behind the door, and wait what's Kindgom Hearts again? Overall, it felt really confusing and I actually had to personally go online and look it up to fully understand what happened (at the risk of finding spoilers; luckily, I came out unscathed). I would've enjoyed the ending a lot more if they just took more time to explain the whole thing, and maybe hint and build up at it a bit more.
Overall, a solid 8.5/10. Pretty damn good.
Re:CoM was apparently highly controversial on whether it's good or bad, and I can see why; it's so vastly different from the very first game that I was taken by surprise at first. What are all these cards doing here? What's with Sora's voice? wtf is happening man
Okay, the incredible thing about this game is that you get immersed in the gameplay after you understand the concept, which is definitely not easy. However, I find myself understanding more and more as the game goes on, and eventually it all starts making sense to me. How to arrange my deck, how to use Sleights, how to manipulate my attacks in such way to deal maximum damage, etc. I'd say the gameplay is only for certain types of gamers, but it definitely hit my sweet spot and I loved it. On the otherhand, I can see why people would dislike it, especially with a LOT of the game time being spent on arranging your deck for bosses. Oh yeah, bosses. Some get REALLY damn hard near the end, such as the last Axel fight (took me a dozen attempts for that one). There's a pretty big difficulty spike within the last few floors, and it caught me kind of by surprise. Also, holy crap the Castle Oblivion map was ginormous.
Despite that though, I loved the experimentation aspect of the game, and had a lot of fun with it. Trying new sleights, attack patterns, and just new combos; it was super fun to play around with, and I appreciate the game devs changing up the concepts between games just for a more diversified gameplay. On the other hand, I did find the repetition and layout of the worlds somewhat boring, especially in giant worlds such as Hollow Bastion or Castle Oblivion; by the end, you see the pattern and layout of each and every map card, so the feeling of exploration that the first game had sort of disappeared.
The story is excellent. I was wondering how they were going to expand upon the ending of Kingdom Hearts 1, because it clearly was not finished, especially with Riku being locked behind the door. Turns out, they were gonna have Sora and co. go into a castle and lose all their memories. Yeah, it sounds absurd, but after we reveal the whole Namine plot, it genuinely made sense. Some parts are still confusing though, although I assume that Kingdom Hearts 2 will answer all my questions. The Organization is a pretty cool group, and having only seen a few of them makes me excited to see the rest. I also got the whole thing about Axel kind of being an assassin for the group that's supposed to sniff out and disloyalty, and considering the whole gang in Castle Oblivion were plotting a plan to overthrow the leader or something, seeing Axel slowly change sides was one of my favorite parts.
Sora is really damn angry in this game, way more than the first game where he was always this light hearted naive kid. It's nice to see this type of character development, especially since a lot of his anger is justified. His best friend is gone, he's just trying to save everyone, he's the Keyblade Master so he has a lot on his shoulders, and to top it all off, he's losing his memories thanks to Namine's shenanigans. Riku Replica was such an interesting character with really weird and philosophical motivations behind him, and that eventually lead to his demise; questioning his own existence, as he was a mere puppet. This was super cool to me, and I hope he would somehow return in the future games (although I don't personally see it happening). The other characters were interesting too; it's cool to see how they had individual personalities to them, although I did find Marluxia as sort of the "main villain" to be the cliche "cool, monologue" type.
Reverse/Rebirth was a post game thing that changed up the gameplay mechanics as you can no longer rearrange your deck, which is set in stone for you in each world. So yeah, while I enjoyed the whole Card Duel mechanic, I felt that it was merely an extension to further your understanding of the story and nothing more, so I dont' have much to say on it. I appreciate the effort, but I still enjoy Sora gameplay more. Sorry Riku!
Really fun gameplay and excellent story, so it earns a 9/10 for me.
So yeah, that's my "short" opinion on the two games I played so far. I have yet to watch the 358/2 Days movie (how do you SAY that name?) and I already have a copy of 2.5 ready to play. Honestly, I've enjoyed this series much more than I expected so far. Hope I can say the same for the rest of the games; but yeah. I might post something once I finish the others, but for now, this should suffice