jbmasta

Minor differences where base, Final Mix and re versions are concerned (Chain of Memories to re:Chain of Memories is probably the biggest shift between versions so far), but for the most part it's the same games.

An upcoming mobile game that looks to be retelling the story of Final Fantasy VII and the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (Japan exclusive mobile game Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children, an OVA called Last Order has been rendered non-canon from the Compilation since VII Remake), most likely to serve as a companion for the Remake series. It's due out for a worldwide release some point next year.

Gameplay-wise there may be a small delay in triggering a style change and using it. Transfer as much data as possible for a smoother play process, and you get a cool screen of the characters walking across. If you're playing the vanilla version then the added features like unversed silhouettes won't be there, and the Secret Episode certainly won't be. Many Unversed got color changes between the vanilla and Final Mix editions. The hardest mode is Proud. Basically, it's worth looking up what was added with Final Mix so you won't be surprised by its absence in the base version.

Cavern of Remembrance is a lot of fun to travel through, even if that Air Slide+Aerial Jump bit can be tricky to pull off. It feels more like KH1's Hollow Bastion than any other world in KH2 does in terms of how twisty turny it can be as you enter to and exit from different points in the mineshaft, as well as in the platforming you do (a far more engaging use of the Ride the Wind reaction command than Land of Dragons achieves in the overworld), as platforming is something that was toned down in KH2. Space Paranoids is a world that's aged really well visually because of how it's emulated the visuals from the Tron film, and the foley effects like reverberating footsteps help it to stand out. Things like curvature of walls look gorgeous and it genuinely feels other worldly.

Did the last two posts get put in the wrong thread?

As the title says, what are your favorite worlds in terms of the design? Not factoring in story or characters, purely the environments you walk around in and sometimes interact with. Maybe it's just really fun to wander around in, or it's a faithful recreation of your favorite Disney film. Perhaps it's ambitious in terms of what you can do or how you move about. Dream Drop Distance is quite good at this, with the help of reality shifts. The Grid where you can manipulate coding (and the code that appears upon completion of the reality shift makes logical sense in computer terms), or Symphony of Sorcery's unique soundscape and the way Melody Catcher opens up new paths. Atlantica, mainly the first game is a world I admire the ambition in because while the underwater controls and combat aren't entirely intuitive, it's at least ambitious and makes the areas more three dimensional without resorting to platforming. Not to say that platforming is bad, but swimming offers variation. For sheer size and beauty, the Caribbean. It properly feels like exploration and you immerse yourself in the islands and the water. The islands are visually distinct, it's not the same basic asset copy and pasted for quantity over quality.

Managed to defeat Roxas in KH2FM Critical Mode! First step was to hightail to it the nearest save point. My strategy was a few rounds of Sonic Rave in Limit Form (had Ethers equipped), then using Reflega the rest of the battle. That cutscene with Roxas and Axel that follows is beautiful, especially "right back at ya, buddy". Now it's back to Drive Form grinding.

One thing about Dream Drop Distance on the 3DS that impresses me is world scope, in terms of size and variation (except for Riku's side of Prankster's Paradise as it's back to Monstro's innards). Large rooms with the only worlds overtly recycling assets being Traverse Town and the tower areas of Symphony of Sorcery (reused from Birth by Sleep). Just look and rooms like Mont St Michel in Country of the Musketeers with the size, nooks and crannies. For Symphony of Sorcery the tower areas are the only maps Sora and Riku both access, they have a number of exclusive areas that are very expansive and use the Melody Catcher reality shift to manipulate. Compare with the worlds in the other handheld games, which tend reuse assets or designs from previous games or spread the same assets across multiple character stories. Terra, Ventus and Aqua individually have no exclusive maps in Land of Departure, Disney Town, Coliseum (itself a world made of four small rooms, three of which are carried over from KH1 and Days) or the Keyblade Graveyard. So for Dream Drop Distance to run what it did on the 3DS, which was new at the time the game released, is remarkable. The mobile game was updated episodically across the second half of 2009 in Japan, the final episode in the end of January 2010 (Birth by Sleep was released in Japan earlier that month). re:coded on the DS was released January 2011. I have fun with it and being able to walk around Destiny Islands is something that's become far too rare an opportunity.

Is this the shortest amount of time between the chapter being released in Japanese and in English?

I’ve done all the Disney worlds and up to the Roxas boss fight in The World That Never Was. Any advice on strategy like abilities to equip or not equip, items to attach, Keyblade to use etc?

If there is a Moana world, it should be set after the events of the movie. When a world's story recreates that of the source material it severely limits the scope for what the protagonist can do because they're following the film's plot or helping it along. This showed and was to the detriment I feel in Kingdom of Corona (the Tangled world) and definitely in Arendelle because Sora, Donald and Goofy had bugger all to do with the main plot. Contrast with the KH1 worlds, Beast's Castle, the Pixar worlds and San Fransokyo, which weren't constrained by the narrative of the source material and were able to tell their own stories. Build off of the source material narrative sure, but don't emulate it with the player character inserted in events.

In terms of world design Moana would be a perfect successor for the Caribbean from KH3 with the highly prominent ocean that the player can freely navigate across to encounter and explore islands as well as underwater areas. There's massive opportunity to have enemy types and bosses based on Polynesian folklore (Tamatoa boss fight anyone?), and Maui as a party member would be amazing. His transformations as limits are obvious. As long as Sora or whoever the player character is gets a world appropriate appearance, all the better. Ralph Breaks the Internet, that would be fun but I need to see how world design and story would work. If Zootopia is used as a world, Sora needs to be an anthro lion, as a callback to an early character design.

How useful is Reflect for the Xaldin boss fight at Beast's Castle?

Call me crazy, but the KH2 Atlantica musical numbers are rather fun. I like going in to do new ones as they open up.

Yes, one of the Cure elements is received at Beast's Castle but it's annoying when you're trying to trigger the Learn reaction command and accidentally trigger Beast's limit attack when Xaldin is in immune to damage mode or takes little damage (ideally Beast's limit attack will knock off at least a bar's worth of health of Xaldin), also depleting the MP bar. It gets so bad I need disable that limit attack, and that bridge is not the best arena to take evasive maneuvers in while waiting for the bar to refill, and I only have so many item slots that need HP or MP restores (I think I've got five slots at the moment, so it's three Potions and two Ethers or two Potions and three Ethers). Then there's drive mode, which seems to always trigger Anti-Sora instead of Master Form. I'll be so glad when this battle is over. Xaldin is the second most annoying boss fight on that bridge, the first being Internal Engine as it's actually the width of the bridge and Roxas only has a small amount of space to move around in.

I'm a few days into my KH2FM crit mode run and onto the second visits, have finished Land of Dragons and keep dying to Xaldin with drive mode keeps activating on Anti-Sora. So basically grinding as I'm at the recommended level for Halloweentown and Agrabah, the latter which has fire chucking Large Bodies (who I absolutely hate because you need to hit their back and they're fond of rotating). Got the Beast's Castle keychain equipped. Took down Demyx in a couple of goes, the first time died because I didn't eliminate the clones in time. The trick with the final Reaper fight is put some gold in the chest to activate the Reaction Command to hit the Heartless. "The best strategy for defeating enemies is to reduce their health to zero while maintaining your own health above zero." Sounds legit.

For my background with KH2FM I've done the main story on Standard, although the Roxas fight has traditionally been a roadblock for me, and I haven't attempted Proud. Never defeated any of the data Org fights or Lingering Will, any attempts have been the asswhooping players usually get. Based on this is it recommended to try a Level 1 Crit run or just a regular Crit run?

I'm considering doing a KH2 Crit run, since I've done Birth by Sleep, Dream Drop Distance and 3 all on Crit. Birth by Sleep on Crit mode was the easiest of these IMO as the main challenge was not to die when underleveled at the start. Any advice or recommendations on doing KH2FM on Crit? I'm not even entertaining a Level 1 run because I'd never see it through.

For the fans, this is a good thing. The story is interesting but has been held back by being buried under hundreds of levels of repetitive gameplay and the amount of time between updates really killing the pacing. People jumping on with the story are usually recommended to just watch the cutscenes because of the sheer amount of time you'd need to invest playing for yourself.

Is there some crossposting with the tragic backstory thread going on here?

Roxas. His existence was sheer happenstance and yet seen as unsuitable even to exist by some. He was manipulated and used by Xemnas for his ability to use the keyblade, Axel's companionship with him meant only to make him more self-sufficient for missions and less zombie-like (which backfired big time). Even then Xion was designed as a back-up, eventually draining his strength and meant to erase his existence altogether. He lost trust in Axel and was forced to put an end to Xion without realising until her death, and in fighting to regain his life was stripped of his memories and used by DiZ, who treated him as sub-human and expendable. His last ditch effort to get back existence led to him being forced to admit defeat to Sora, accepting his fate. Xion. Created as a puppet, a replica designed to be a contingency in case Roxas didn't work out. Her growing confidence undermined she wasn't even declared fit to be seen in a group of Nobodies, a class of being already looked down on for just existing. Going through an existential crisis upon learning of her origins and begging her best friend, one of her only friends, to kill her so she couldn't be his demise, then completely forgotten to the point not even someone who specialised in memory manipulation could do anything, and knowing this would be the case. This one may be controversial, but Terra. Raised at the Land of Departure with only Eraqus and Aqua for company as far as we know (he was in his late teens when Ventus joined them), seeing the former as a father figure. Aqua shone despite Terra being just as good as her, and he didn't have an outlet or someone to talk to about his insecurities or the growing darkness inside him, which he knew Eraqus and Aqua wouldn't understand. Taking into account one of the short stories he also lacked the sweet tooth the others had, another connection he didn't have. Take out the context and it does sound like it could be applied to real life, a favoured sibling or student and the other is afraid to talk about their concerns, making it more tragic.

A couple of thoughts on the data version of Twilight Town: Shadow Roxas. He's a very mini-boss for the Seven Wonders portion of the prologue and does evoke the Dark Link fight from Ocarina of Time, but he's a one encounter wonder and never plays any part ever aside from this. Yes, he's a glitch but so much potential in him The inability to explore beyond the lab area of the mansion in data Twilight Town. Again, wasted potential since proper exploration is limited to the prologue.

If you're looking for an expansion on the story you're out of luck. It's a recap of the story, minus most of the Disney world material but interspersed with bits from Back Cover.

Not a lot of games wound up using the touchpad anyway, especially not for touchscreen type applications. Usually it was for bringing up a pause or customisation menu if used at all. KH1 didn't have maps at all, which would have hugely benefitted worlds like Atlantica.

Finished Dream Drop Distance on Crit Mode last night, Riku's Dark Aura move is a godsend for the Sacred Ansem boss fight, especially when you have to move down the canyon avoiding beams and balls to get back to Ansem.