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Post by agent0042 on Apr 10, 2011 17:30:49 GMT -8
I've only ever played the PS2 version, so it was interesting to read about how it is in the original. I agree with certain of your comments regarding the battle system - it can be frustrating at times. However, the plot is quite cool. I think you probably should have mentioned that it ties in strongly to Kingdom Hearts II. I actually read the manga version before playing the game, but the game did fill in certain things that aren't quite so clear or are altered in the manga.
Anyway, you sounded pretty frustrated by certain aspects of the game, so let me just say this - if you ever have the chance to play the PS2 Re: Chain of Memories, do it. Everything you've heard about it is true - it's a vast improvement with not only graphics like the original Kingdom Hearts, but also the majority of the game engine improvements that were added in Kingdom Hearts II, plus the ability to bring up any scene from the game from the menu once you've beat it. There is, of course, much more voice acting, and while I felt the pacing of the battles took some getting used to, once I got the hang of it, I didn't find it nearly as annoying as it apparently is in the original version.
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Post by Bob on Apr 10, 2011 19:08:49 GMT -8
That's good to know. The battles didn't frustrate me quite as much as I let on, but I had just finished fighting Ansem with Riku, and holy crap that guy pissed me off. "I block everything you do! And my guardian will corner you and hit you so that you can't jump away, can't hop away, and have to basically hope for a high-valued Mickey to save you!
Sora had the ability to add magics to his deck, which I just chose not to, so that was my fault for those "can't hit from the front" guys, but for Riku, there's no option. He's only physical, which is my kinda guy, but he's horribly disadvantaged in so many ways, especially his lack of curing (Oogie and Mickey....woo...).
If I get the funds and time for it, I might give it a try in the future, but I think I'm good for now. I saw some screenshots and like, wow, it really is like the original.
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Post by agent0042 on Apr 10, 2011 19:45:25 GMT -8
Ah, okay. Yeah, the revamped version offers magic too. It also offers a wider range of special attacks from what I understand, called "sleights." Sleights can be extremely useful - I found myself using them a lot.
Oh, and since you didn't mention it, I'm assuming the original version doesn't offer you a choice of game difficulty, correct? In the Re: Chain of Memories, you get the choice of either Beginner Mode (easy battles), Normal Mode (for the regular player) and Proud Mode (for us Kingdom Hearts veterans, though given the unusual combat system, this should be handled with care.)
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Post by Bob on Apr 10, 2011 20:06:02 GMT -8
This one has magic and sleights, too. I'm just saying that I tend away from magic and most sleights didn't help (though I hear some of the really high-leveled sleights can be amazingly helpful).
But no, no game difficulty. And I won't say that it's a hard game, but definitely not for kids, which is ironic with all those Disney characters and other childish themes. There were a couple very difficult fights, one I remember having a very hard time with until Fleck told me to be more jedi and pace myself instead of going balls-to-the-walls, which helped me a lot. Zen for the win!
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Post by Fleck on Apr 10, 2011 21:07:13 GMT -8
When you can snatch the fly from my hand, then YOU will be the master.
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Post by agent0042 on Apr 11, 2011 13:24:19 GMT -8
Re: Riku - it's actually pretty amazing how fast he becomes really strong. If it weren't for the fact that he can't heal on his own, I'd say that he was stronger than Sora, because he really is quite powerful.
Oh, and I personally found both magic and sleights quite helpful, but I suppose like a lot of the other stuff, it's easier to pull off in the PS2 version.
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Post by agent0042 on Apr 17, 2011 18:35:42 GMT -8
So, Bob, I'm reading through the new leg of AFFR, and it's driving home a point to me that Id didn't quite process when originally reading your review - this card-rationing thing. So after a while, enemies actually stopped spawning entirely? Ouch. I don't recall this being a problem at all in Re: Chain of Memories. If you zoned two rooms, maybe even just one, then you could come back and the enemies would respawn. No having to exit a world entirely, like in the handheld version.
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Post by Bob on Apr 17, 2011 19:34:02 GMT -8
Yeah, in the version I played, they stopped spawning entirely. So I'd run from room to room looking for baddies, but they weren't comin'. I hear it depends on what cards you used, so if you used a Teeming Darkness, there were lots of baddies, but some made very few enemies. I didn't realize this until my final floor of Riku's quest where I was looking for a 7 and realized (see: looked up online) that using an Almighty Darkness would make harder enemies that dropped higher cards. It didn't help much, but it eventually worked.....eventually...
But the Fast Forward they're not allowed to find cards, so it's slightly different.
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Post by agent0042 on Apr 17, 2011 19:47:19 GMT -8
Oh yeah, I forgot that the cards had different conditions that do things like increase the number of monsters, spawn harder monster types, etc. But, once again, the PS2 version is much more clear in telling you that sort of thing, meaning that it actually explains on the card description that using it will change the battle conditions of the room, etc.
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Post by Bob on Apr 17, 2011 20:05:04 GMT -8
I finally figured it out in the menu when I looked up what cards I had and saw that there WAS a difference. I had no idea. I was wondering the whole time why the hell there were different red cards. Like, why can't I just have one? It'd be easier! Then I finally realized there was a difference (again, on like, the last level of Riku's scenario) and was like "ohhhhhh, I get it now!" I wish they would've explained that better. But that was a problem I had with KH:CoM that I didn't mention. Sometimes they have like, one line to explain how to do something, then never speak of it again. And sometimes I started to skim dialogue and was like "Wait, they just said how to do something. Come on, memory. What'd it say?"
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Post by Fleck on Apr 17, 2011 20:08:30 GMT -8
Yeah, I remember that enemies almost never respawned in the GBA version. Even if you used a series of Teeming Darkness cards, if you had to backtrack for any reason, you were honestly better off just resetting the world instead of looking for enemies respawning. The problem is addressed in the PS2 version, but respawns are still fairly uncommon and you have to dig around in the corners to flush 'em out, but at least they exist.
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