We already know that KH3's magic system will be an evolved version of KH2's magic system, returning the MP Charge Gauge and scrolling through a separate sub-menu of spells, while also taking inspiration from BBS's Finish Commands with higher level Situation Command spells acting like the finishers to KH2's magic combos. 0.2 pretty much showcases how it will work in KH3, and it does have me excited. And yet, I'm still looking for much more.
Since we're going back to a more Attack Abilities and Magic command list style of combat, we're going to be loosing the degree of customization and variety that games like BBS and DDD gave us with the Deck Commands. Now I prefer the more action-based dynamic combat of KH2 and I'm glad KH3 is going there, but I'd still like to have some way of maintaining the variety in attacks and spells that BBS and DDD gave us.
Well thankfully that doesn't seem like that tough of an issue to fix. For attacks, just make more unique Attack Abilities. More combo attacks, more unique finishers, and more unique ways of changing up your combos and finishing styles and of course maybe even throwing in a few Situation Commands based on attack finishers.
And as for Magic? Even simpler, just give us a larger variety of upgradable spells. Don't just give us the bare minimum of Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, and Aero, throw in almost every other element and unique, weird, and quirky type of magic that we've come across in the series and others we haven't seen yet. Really all you would have to do is just make a larger list space for the Magic sub menu and give it multiple pages, and we've already seen in 0.2 that that is possible with the Shortcut Commands. And no, it doesn't have to be as huge as BBS and DDD got with like 7-10 different Fire and Blizzard based commands like Slow Firaga or Triple Plasma and Icicle Splitter, etc. We've already seen that we're returning to the original evolution style where spells like Fire permanently evolve into Fira and Firaga later on, so just stick with that basic three-tier level of evolution and just make more spells that that would apply to.
Just focus on putting in mainstays like the main returning nature elements (Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Aero), special elements (Gravity, Stop, Zero-Gravity, Slow, Magnet, Reflect), newer or more advanced nature elements (Quake, Tornado, Meteor, WATER!!), Light and Darkness based spells (Faith, Dark Firaga, maybe even new permutations), unique spells (Spark, Balloon, Poison, Sleep, Bind, Confuse), and maybe even new creative ones (like Lunar based spells, or Nil, Illusion based ones like BBS's Unversed Illusions or DDD's new Vanish, or Haste), and a few ultimate spells (like Mega Flare, Freeze, Zero Graviza, Transcendence, etc.).
That's easily like 3 sub menus of 10-13 spells each, and Final Fantasy games are infamous for having huge menus for spells anyway, so if anything it'd be just as fitting to see that in a KH game like this one. It's only fair too as we won't be using a Deck Command system anymore so we won't be able to make specialized attacks and spells like we've been used to for the past 7 years or so, so it makes sense to make up for that by executing unique finishers and having a larger variety in selectable spells that take up varying amounts of MP. All you would have to do is up the variety of element types that the enemies come in to rationalize the larger variety of available spell types, that way you always have a new strategy to go through. Plus, this could let you get more unique and creative with your shortcut menus. Instead of just keeping the same spells locked in the same shortcuts the whole game through, you could be given more incentive to constantly change your shortcuts depending on the types of enemies you're more likely to encounter in each world. You'd get to have more fun with customizing your shortcuts instead of just touching that part of the pause menu like 5 times max.
Don't get me wrong, I got on just fine with just Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, and Curaga in 0.2 and their powered up Situation Commands, but after a while it just kind of gets to be a bit stale, when in the original Secret Episode Fragmentary Passage you still had access to all of the varied super-spells you've made throughout the course of BBS. It's still a fun system, it just needs more toys to play with basically. That's why I'm hoping that KH3 will make up the difference by making more unique attack abilities and a larger variety of spells and element types to give us a larger and constantly fresh experience no matter which world we're in and what attacks or spells we're using and what enemies we're up against.
Also, I just really want Water, come on Square.
So what do you think? Does a 3-paged sub-menu of 10-13 or so spells each sound like a reasonable way of getting more variety of spells into KH3 without it getting too overboard? I know I'm asking for a lot, but I just want more ways to go about playing this game without getting bored, and I really don't want it to feel like XV where I was stuck to a very minimal amount of spell types. But what other kinds of compromises can you think of that would avoid this issue of too few spells to play with? Let me know!
We already know that KH3's magic system will be an evolved version of KH2's magic system, returning the MP Charge Gauge and scrolling through a separate sub-menu of spells, while also taking inspiration from BBS's Finish Commands with higher level Situation Command spells acting like the finishers to KH2's magic combos. 0.2 pretty much showcases how it will work in KH3, and it does have me excited. And yet, I'm still looking for much more.
Since we're going back to a more Attack Abilities and Magic command list style of combat, we're going to be loosing the degree of customization and variety that games like BBS and DDD gave us with the Deck Commands. Now I prefer the more action-based dynamic combat of KH2 and I'm glad KH3 is going there, but I'd still like to have some way of maintaining the variety in attacks and spells that BBS and DDD gave us.
Well thankfully that doesn't seem like that tough of an issue to fix. For attacks, just make more unique Attack Abilities. More combo attacks, more unique finishers, and more unique ways of changing up your combos and finishing styles and of course maybe even throwing in a few Situation Commands based on attack finishers.
And as for Magic? Even simpler, just give us a larger variety of upgradable spells. Don't just give us the bare minimum of Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, and Aero, throw in almost every other element and unique, weird, and quirky type of magic that we've come across in the series and others we haven't seen yet. Really all you would have to do is just make a larger list space for the Magic sub menu and give it multiple pages, and we've already seen in 0.2 that that is possible with the Shortcut Commands. And no, it doesn't have to be as huge as BBS and DDD got with like 7-10 different Fire and Blizzard based commands like Slow Firaga or Triple Plasma and Icicle Splitter, etc. We've already seen that we're returning to the original evolution style where spells like Fire permanently evolve into Fira and Firaga later on, so just stick with that basic three-tier level of evolution and just make more spells that that would apply to.
Just focus on putting in mainstays like the main returning nature elements (Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Aero), special elements (Gravity, Stop, Zero-Gravity, Slow, Magnet, Reflect), newer or more advanced nature elements (Quake, Tornado, Meteor, WATER!!), Light and Darkness based spells (Faith, Dark Firaga, maybe even new permutations), unique spells (Spark, Balloon, Poison, Sleep, Bind, Confuse), and maybe even new creative ones (like Lunar based spells, or Nil, Illusion based ones like BBS's Unversed Illusions or DDD's new Vanish, or Haste), and a few ultimate spells (like Mega Flare, Freeze, Zero Graviza, Transcendence, etc.).
That's easily like 3 sub menus of 10-13 spells each, and Final Fantasy games are infamous for having huge menus for spells anyway, so if anything it'd be just as fitting to see that in a KH game like this one. It's only fair too as we won't be using a Deck Command system anymore so we won't be able to make specialized attacks and spells like we've been used to for the past 7 years or so, so it makes sense to make up for that by executing unique finishers and having a larger variety in selectable spells that take up varying amounts of MP. All you would have to do is up the variety of element types that the enemies come in to rationalize the larger variety of available spell types, that way you always have a new strategy to go through. Plus, this could let you get more unique and creative with your shortcut menus. Instead of just keeping the same spells locked in the same shortcuts the whole game through, you could be given more incentive to constantly change your shortcuts depending on the types of enemies you're more likely to encounter in each world. You'd get to have more fun with customizing your shortcuts instead of just touching that part of the pause menu like 5 times max.
Don't get me wrong, I got on just fine with just Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, and Curaga in 0.2 and their powered up Situation Commands, but after a while it just kind of gets to be a bit stale, when in the original Secret Episode Fragmentary Passage you still had access to all of the varied super-spells you've made throughout the course of BBS. It's still a fun system, it just needs more toys to play with basically. That's why I'm hoping that KH3 will make up the difference by making more unique attack abilities and a larger variety of spells and element types to give us a larger and constantly fresh experience no matter which world we're in and what attacks or spells we're using and what enemies we're up against.
Also, I just really want Water, come on Square.
So what do you think? Does a 3-paged sub-menu of 10-13 or so spells each sound like a reasonable way of getting more variety of spells into KH3 without it getting too overboard? I know I'm asking for a lot, but I just want more ways to go about playing this game without getting bored, and I really don't want it to feel like XV where I was stuck to a very minimal amount of spell types. But what other kinds of compromises can you think of that would avoid this issue of too few spells to play with? Let me know!