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[Let's Play] Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories - C'est Finit!
Dragonatrix
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Name: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
Started: 18/02/2009
Ended: 20/03/2010
Genre: JRPG/Action RPG/Roguelike Dungeon Crawler
Mini-Description: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (no semi-colon in the name; Wikipedia be damned!) is the sequel to Kingdom Hearts but the prequel to Kingdom Hearts II making it effectively Kingdom Hearts 1.5. It basically recaps the events of the original game but adds a whole new story to the events, as well as a few new characters.
Name: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories - Reverse/Rebirth
Started: 22/03/2010
Ended: 11/06/2010
Genre: JRPG/Action RPG/Roguelike Dungeon Crawler
Mini-Description: Reverse/Rebirth is the second story to Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories; it follows the journey of Riku (the real one) throughout Castle Oblivion's basement levels. It manages to accomplish less in a longer timeframe, as 358/2 Days established that Sora's story lasts roughly two-three days, and Riku's goes beyond Sora's ending and does so technically faster; a few plot points happen seemingly earlier for Riku and gameplay wise it's sort of inferior to Sora's story and it's slightly easier to break because of it. R/R is basically nothing but plot with a few very fun fights thrown in, but the actual floors, outside of plot events, take about 5 minutes to finish meaning that it ends up being a lot shorter. Difficulty wise, it's also ridiculously easy in comparison and all of Riku's stats, unlike Sora's, can be maxed. He also has an interesting mechanic, which allows him to use his only three sleights... one of which is awesomely overpowered. But, more on that later! Maybe!
~~
Why this game? It's fun, yeah, but the plot is confusing as hell without knowing the plot of the sequel and, well, that world...
It's one of my favourite games. That's why. As for that world, it's technically optional. I'm not skipping it though.
So, why not the far superior PS2 remake?
When I started this - a long time ago, I'm lazy - it wasn't released in Europe then.
Uh-huh... reader participation?
Naturally; whilst I have approx. 16 updates already written and ready to be posted, I'll introduce reader participation from there onwards. If there's anything you dislike about the way I'm handling something (for example, the emotes for transcribing) let me know and I'll change it (unless it's changing the image filetype; I've already done that but it doesn't become apparant for a short while). As for making it funnier, if it's requested enough times I'll try but when I intentionally write comedy it usually falls flat; most of the time, I prefer to let the jokes write themselves.
16... updates...? How often will you be updating then...?
Whilst I don't have a fixed schedule (I wouldn't be able to follow it if I did; I've tried), I'll update every day or every other day until they're posted then I'll update once/twice a week depending on how busy I am and whether or not I'm doing a crappy world and want to end it faster.
The optional second half is being done too?
Already underway! And it's not a "half" so much as it is a sixth.
~~
You can find the game intro here.
- Ye Ol' Table O' Contents -
Sora's Story
Part 1: Introduction (bottom of this post and such)
Part 2: The First of Many
Part 3: Spergin'
Part 4: Like A Boss
Part 5: Exposition Station - Platform #1
Part 6: An Emo in MY Mythology?
Part 7: Remenissions
Part 8: Exposition Station - Platofrm #2 - Home of Amnesia
Part 9: Just for Pun
Part 10: Elenar?
Part 11: Endless Desert... Town
Part 12: Djinn
Part 13: White Rabbit for Supper
Part 14: Trickster is from Final Fantasy XII You Stupid Bastard
Part 15: Quirky Villain Union
Part 16: In the Belly of a Whale
Part 17: Ars Arcanum - The Secret Skills
Part 18: Hollow Bastion is a Cool Ass Name
Part 19: Crowning... In A Different Sense
Part 20: The Good Ship Yaoi
Part 21: An Escort Mission
Part 22: Plot Contrived Bullshit
Part 23: That One Boss
Part 24: A Villain Emerges
Part 25: Under the Sea
Part 26: The Beast and The Harlot
Part 27: Burn It Down
Part 28: The Worst Evil Plan Ever
Part 29: The Best Item Ever
Part 30: Mime is a Really Shitty Job Class
Part 31: Emo Punting
Part 32: Our Plan Is Dumber!
Sora Bonuses
Bonus 1: Fire and Ice
Bonus 2: Gotta Drop 'Em All
Bonus 4: With These Cards...
Reverse/Rebirth
Part 1: A New Beginning
Part 2: Speed Breaking
Part 3: Damn, He's Zexy
Part 4: Icy Disappointment
Part 5: Repliku Goes To Washington
Part 6: The One Where Things Happen
Part 7: Bad Luck and Mass Stupidity
Part 8: The Golden Sun Effect
Part 9: Riku Happens, Everyone Dies (Except the Ones That Live)
Part 10: Twilight Warrior
~~
Fan art/content?
If you want to make some, go ahead - make sure it doesn't spoil anything that hasn't been seen yet though.
Chronic Backstabbing Order (TF2) by Kadorhal
Chronic Backstabbing Order (GG2) by NotPigeon
Goofarian by Phermida
~~
Part 1: Introduction
Ah, the good ol' title screen. Interesting thing about this, is that - much like the original Kingdom Hearts - when you beat the game the title screen changes! Since there's only the one difficulty for this game, as opposed to two on the original (and three on the sequel), you merely need to beat the main story for a new title screen (on KH1 you had to beat it on Expert, and in KHII I have yet to see a 2nd title screen (or maybe I have it and just haven't realised) and I've combed every inch of that game on Proud Mode (the hardest difficulty)).
As you may recall from the opening cutscene - presuming you watched it - Sora, Donald and Goofy came across a castle, after being led there by someone in a black cloak - that appeared like it was in the middle of a field. This is the interior of said castle.
This is a constant recurring theme of the first game, and it keeps up in this one. The king Donald is referring to is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Mickey Mouse. Donald and Goofy have been searching for him since the very beginning of Kingdom Hearts.
That's... pretty vague, and is in no way helpful.
I don't think he was messing with your head Goofy... I don't think he's capable of any form of psychological warfare for that matter.
By they, he means the king and one of his friends from his home.
Since when was Goofy a "great mind"? He beats things up with a shield for christ sake; that doesn't sound like a smart idea to me.
And now the killjoy puppet conscience decides to ruin their fun.
"Your leaving?"
A minor plot point of the original was worlds being destroyed. This isn't a spoiler since you're told this very early on; around the same time as Jiminy is introduced in fact... because his world was destroyed (well, a bit later than that but that's one of the reasons anyway). Read the spoiler box if you're interested in why I've brought this up, or already know but want reminding.
At the end of the first game, all destroyed worlds were restored including Sora's and Jiminy's (different worlds obviously). Sora chooses to not return to his, for whatever reason, but Jiminy can just leave any time since he hasn't gotten any obligations. His entire mission in the first game was to keep all the notes of the journey in his notebook (which included minigame scores, bestiary data (to an extent) and dossiers on the characters). By the end of the game, this mission was - insofar as it matters - complete so he has no logical reason to stick around.
Since this scene drags on for over 50 screens (which is more than the longest Final Fantasy IV cutscene so far) I'll just summarise some of it (i.e the pointless part; a lot of it is plot related).
Donald becomes paranoid, Sora wants to explore the castle, and Goofy thinks they should close the door. (This would take up about 8 screens worth... and I condensed it into a single line)
I love Goofy's portrait here; as this picture helps me demonstrate (to an extent) the portraits are actually animated. The mouths move as the characters talk, and they even blink. I caught Goofy mid-blink and it looks like he's taken something with hallucinogenic properties...
Hey, it's that cloaked person from before. We were actually let into the castle.
And via awesome teleporting magic they're behind the little troupe.
Y'know how game series' (where they actually run on; like Metroid, unlike Suikoden) have the characters revert back to level 1, when you start the next one in the series? This game tries to explain that, but doesn't really do a good job. It doesn't really do a bad one either though.
There's our reason. Cloaked Person also likes speaking in riddles apparantly;
Whilst this might not make sense now, it definitely will later.
Well, now we have a name to go with the location. All we need now, is the Cloaked Person's and everyone's introduced!
Riku is Sora's friend I mentioned before. As for whether or not he is here... I'll save that for later.
Hard to capture, but Cloaked Person (avoiding using gender-specific pronouns for now) dashed across the screen directly through the party.
Also: teleported to the door that isn't the exit.
Yes, that is in fact a card Cloaked Person is holding.
[img]http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5361/scene153do8.jpg[/img Not pictured: Cloaked Person throwing the card, and Sora catching it. Pictured: Sora asking a stupid question.[/img]
And I'll save Traverse Town for later, since it's effectively a great big tutorial level.
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I can't say I'm surprised.
And, yes, I prefer CoM as well.
It also has a better story.
~~
Part 2: The First of Many
I'm also going to show very few of the "!" or "..." bubbles that appear over characters heads. They're not always required.
Traverse Town is the first "proper" level/world in Kingdom Hearts (which is likely why it's the tutorial level in this game), Destiny Islands notwithstanding.
This town is an illusion conceived by your memories ingrained in that card
If this is an illusion, does that mean Sora doesn't take any damage?
Sora, much like many other RPG protagonists, feels the need to repeat information stated mere seconds ago as if he didn't understand it very well.
Meh, it's only Donald and Goofy. We can do without them... or at least, I'd like to think so but Sora runs around the room looking for them as if he expects them to pop out of nowhere.
What did you do to them?
I don't particularly consider this to be a huge loss, myself. In the first game, Donald was effectively useless for... the entire thing really. Goofy was only really useful for one ability (and due to this, one optional boss) that he doesn't get for a while. {That was all my opinion, but I'd like to think it's also common consensus.}
Master the cards, and their strength will be yours again.
Sora can more than handle Traverse Town enemies on his own. The entire first visit there, he had to and at level 1 it's an easy place.
Either way, it's tutorial time.
This is the battle screen. Our "enemy" for this fight, is Cloaked Person. The blue reticle indicates Sora's target, and in every fight but this one the targeted enemy's HP would be in the top-right corner of the screen. Sora's HP is the small green bar in the top left corner of the screen (I intend to keep it this size for most of, if not the entirety of, the game), but it can double over (in Sora's case) and get an extra blue bar. Enemies can go beyond that and get upto 4 bars (which is red; 3 is orange). In the original, once you got so far an enemy with 4 bars had about average max health (presuming it was a boss; if it was a regular encounter it's glitched), since it went up to ~6 (green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, invisible; not necessarily in that order).
A card with a picture of Donald on it starts bouncing around the battlefield now;
Now we get told how to move (obvious how to do that... I hope), and have to pick up the card.
Use them, and your friends will come to your aid.
Now we get told how to use cards (press the A button... a lot of this is pretty obvious), and by following the command, we automatically use Donald at the same time.
This isn't entirely true; Friend cards appear randomly and can't be reused unless they randomly re-appear, Item cards are a one-use per battle thing, and Premium cards (or the first card used in a "sleight" which is a special type of combo; more on them later) can't reappear at all (other than by items).
Everything in this castle is ruled by cards.
I think most people would have figured that out by now...
This is a pretty important thing to remember, since you need Map Cards to enter rooms; they are only acquired one at a time at the end of battle, which requires a deck to initiate (if you have an empty deck equipped you can't even leave the menu screen).
This is referring to two more controls: by pressing B you can jump, and by double-tapping either left or right Sora will roll in that direction (not as useful as it sounds).
Now we get to perform 3 hits... before returning to the tutorial.
Every move you make causes a card to disappear.
Again, not entirely true. Cards aren't required to move around, jump or roll... but everything else in battle? They do require cards to perform.
At this point, all it takes is to mash the A button, til you run out of cards.
If you want that power back, you must focus. Bid the cards to you, and they will return.
You don't actually need to run out of cards to do this; strategically, it's better to actually not wait since everytime you do so it takes an extra charge (up to a maximum of 3).
You can recall spent cards at any time - you need only wish it.
I've omitted his next line, since it's basically a repeat of what I just said.
Anticipate the flow of battle and choose the most effective cards.
Shame this isn't the end of the tutorial though... although those lines make it seem like it.
Now we get told how to alternate the cards we use (L and R buttons); nothing amazing, nothing unexpected.
Normal cards: Attack (red), Magic (blue), Item (green)
Enemy cards: these are temporary buffs that grant various effects based on the enemy. My favourite enemy card allows you to reload while moving. This is a very useful effect; since you'd be wide open otherwise (fortunately, bosses are always stationary while reloading). These are black in colour, and are - for the most part - rare.
This is something I see asked time and again. Most people don't pay attention and so are unaware that enemy cards need to be used to grant their effects. This should be obvious, but that doesn't stop many from thinking just having the card in the deck is enough.
As can be noted from the second screen above, the starter deck doesn't have any enemy cards. Unless you drop-farm for ages in Traverse Town, it's likely to be like this for a while (even then, it could take a while - one of the most annoying, and yet rewarding, aspects of this game is trying to acquire every enemy card).
But it is up to you to decide when to attack and when to defend. Do not forget it.
The irony of these statements is that there is no button to defend (in Kingdom Hearts, and KHII, Sora does have an ability called Guard. Unfortunately, he doesn't retain that here).
Fortunately, this ends the tutorial!
and the rest is a big blank.
Apparantly, when Donald and Goofy are in card-form (any time it's not a cutscene inside a world/level) they can't remember anything that happens during that time.
There are more important things to worry about, and yet all Jiminy's concerned with is his damned Journal. For a conscience, he doesn't help much.
All things considered, this could've been spotted a bit earlier.
Well, that's not very helpful. It doesn't particularly matter either way, since the whole clothes-thing is never mentioned again.
Donald may be a cartoon icon at this point, but he's an annoying cartoon icon.
Even Sora's beginning to think so.
For most of the original Traverse Town these guys were wandering around not even looking for Sora, let alone trying to help him. He's managed this very world without there help before, and as far as I care he'll do it again!
Walk the avenues of latent memory, and you shall meet someone dear to you.
Could he be referring to Riku? If he is, yaoi fangirls would have a field day with this very statement...
Anyway, he now decides to vanish, leaving the Junior Heroes to... talk more... :sigh:
Damn right [strike]I am[/strike] you are!
As far as I care, not very... as far as various message boards on the internet care, it's a difficult task.
Now we get told how to move/jump/attack on the map (exactly the same as in battle)... this tutorial is pretty degrading all things considered.
This is one of three story map cards, and is acquired at the end of the first scene when you enter. There are two more that can be obtained, but they aren't until the end of story events. Now that the tutorial is over (for now...), we can actually play the game! ...Well, we can next time anyway.
The Wonderland boss was weird: usually if I play an attack card that's higher than the enemies, it card breaks and the attack goes through, but with that guy it seemed to card break and cancel both attacks. Is that a special ability that certain bosses have? It's really really annoying. I guess the Jafar card nullifies that effect, though?
Right now in Halloween Town I'm discovering that a deck stacked with tons of Fire cards is pretty great; you can just stand back and blow shit up without dealing with the spazzy camera/auto-targeting that melee brings to the table.
Also, I haven't found much use for sleights yet: I have my decks in a very specific order, and losing those first cards messes it all up.
Keep it up, this is great!
EDIT: Few more things
1) (KH ending spoiler)
3) Finishing KH1 and pretty much just swapping discs to CoM is hilarious; Haley Joel Osment's voice is completely different now.
As for your comment on sleights, they can be very useful. Case in point:
That happens whenever you play a card that has the same value as the opposing card. As for Jafar nullifying it, I can't say I've ever tried it since other than for high-end sleights with low requirements (and 0s) I mainly load my deck with 7s/8s/9s. Did you have Incremator in effect per chance? I like the effect but it throws off my strategies at times.
And for those that like battle mechanics and such, you'll love the next update
~~
Part 3: Spergin'
From one tutorial to another... fortunately, this one is relatively short and this single screen effectively sums up everything you need to know. The number on the outline that can be seen is the minimum number required to open the door (a 0 can be used on almost every door instead, but if the door requires a 0 you can't use an alternative). Most storyline doors have different requirements to normal so I'll cover them later.
Fortunately, we start out with a map card - and it's one of a save room. As can be noted from the bottom right corner, it has a value of 1.
Just in case you forgot what the world was.
That's what a save point looks like. There are a few locations where save points are guaranteed to be found (this being the first, and it's only temporarily a guarantee) but they're few and far between. I reccomend using a Moment's Reprieve just before entering a boss room if you feel unconfident, so as to avoid having to re-do a massive chunk of the level.
Whilst I can't argue that this is helpful, I can say that it's also not that great: whenever you quick save the game ends temporarily, so you'll have to load it when you want to continue from that point. The catch is, if you do load it, the temp-save is gone. Instantly. Not worth using before a boss then.
Usually a save room has no enemies in it (hence why it's called a reprieve), but for fairly obvious reasons this one is a temporary exemption.
Whenever you strike a heartless on the field, the first few enemies that spawn are stunned. There are ways to adjust this effect, but that ability doesn't come for a while.
The heartless here are called Shadows and are the weakest enemy in all Kingdom Hearts games. They have the lowest HP, deal the least damage and give the worst experience. Here, every card they use has a value of 1 so unless you spam 1s or 0s (the latter should never be used unless you use it after the enemy since it has an inherent break-all ability) they should never hit you. This is achieved by card breaking the enemy.
Card breaking is an interesting gameplay element, but if done right it makes Sora (literally) invincible. Every card has a number on it ranging from 0 to 9, inclusive, which helps give an idea of how useful it can be. Higher numbered cards cost more CP (see below) to put in your deck, but this is so you can't just throw in a bunch of 9s and kick everything's ass since they won't be able to card break Sora. If either Sora or the enemy use a card whilst the other is using one of a lower number (say a Heartless uses a 2 and Sora uses a 7) the lower number gets negated, the attack is instantly cancelled and whoever used that card is temporarily stunned. The great thing about 9s is that, aside from against very few enemies, they will never be broken. However, if the enemy plays a 9 (more likely to happen against bosses and end-game enemies) then you can just play a 0 (Sora's deck comes with one already) and the enemy's card is broken. 0s are extremely useful in that they break every number - from 0 to 27 (see below) - but are also broken, in return, by every number. These can't be used casually, and should be used strategically.
This is the only map card that's a guaranteed drop (with a guaranteed number of 2 - the number requirement to create a new non-plot room from an adjacent map is one greater than the number you used to create the room you are in), and it's the most basic type (doesn't mean it's the most common though). Tranquil Darkness creates the only map type in the entire game that has no effects at all.
If what I said in the paranthesis was confusing, this'll explain it better. I used a card with a value of 1 to enter this room, so to create a room leaving (in any direction; rooms can be replaced) I need to use a 2 (or greater). From there, I'd need to use a 3 (or greater - if I used a 3 before then it'd be a 4. If a 4, it'd be 5 etc. If I used a 9, however, it'd have to be a 0) and so on and so forth.
This is a Red Nocturne. They aren't overly powerful, but they spam fire attacks. Conveniently, Sora's default deck comes with a Blizzard card so they aren't that bad. (It also comes with several low numbered cards that I get rid of pretty quickly, and I reccomend everyone does the same - you can collect more cards by interacting with the things that you see on the map; strike lamposts, break crates, jump on things that can't be attacked etc).
Whever Sora levels up, you can choose between a 15 HP increase, a 25 CP increase or a new Sleight. The way I'll be playing, isn't the way I'd reccomend anyone to play on their first playthrough: I'll be boosting CP and getting every Sleight as soon as I can as soon as it becomes available. This will work fine until my level reaches the mid-50s at which point my CP will reach it's max value and I'll have to raise HP above 80 but I should be finished by then so it isn't a problem.
Card Points, or CP for short, is a value that works as a limit on your deck. Each card has a CP value that it consumes by being placed in your deck (this value per card won''t exceed 99 though). As a rule of thumb, better cards cost more than weaker ones, and those with higher numbers cost more than those that are lower (although for obvious reasons, this only applies to cards of equal strength - a 1 for the best keyblade is going to cost more than a 9 for the Kingdom Key). Enemy cards don't really have any reasoning as to why they cost what they do, but late-game enemy cards usually cost more than early-game (one of the last enemy cards has a CP value of 99 for instance). Your deck's total cost cannot exceed this value, nor can it contain more than 99 cards.
Sleights are like combos, but have their own requisites/restrictions. They are usually more powerful attacks than you'd normally be able to perform and are performed by stacking cards with the L + R buttons (pressed at the same time). If the value of 3 cards is within the parameters for the Sleight, pressing L + R again will perform it (some sleights don't have a combined value requisite, but certain cards; Cura, for example, requires 2 Cure cards). Regardless of whether or not a Sleight would be performed, the first card is temporarily lost for good (it comes back at the end of the battle, or if the right type of Item card is used) but there are ways to work around this. One is an enemy card that can't be acquired for a long time, and the other is use a Premium Card.
Premium cards cost less CP than the exact same card would if it was a non-Premium. However, using a Premium Card in any manner other than having it go 2nd or 3rd in a Sleight causes it to become temporarily lost (it only comes back at the end of battle, or if the right type of Item card is used). This can be a convenience when attempting to perform Sleights, since the first card in one is lost anyway it makes sense to use a Premium Card.
Since this is the first Sleight Sora learns by levelling up, it makes sense that it's gonna be pretty weak. I don't particularly like Sliding Dash, since it has a relatively annoying card requirement (3 attack cards of the same type means it has to be the exact same Keyblade card (e.g. 3 Kingdom Keys)).
The pallette swapped version of a Red Nocturne is called (somewhat unsurprisingly) Blue Rhapsody. As you may have already guessed, this bugger uses Ice attacks (and can use cards with a value of 4... by the time I encountered this, I had replaced every Kingdom Key from 3 and below with a 5 or higher so I'm practically invincible right now). Since Sora has no Fire cards yet there is no elemental weakness to abuse. Hitting it with an ice attack will restore it's HP, and Donald apparantly prefers using Ice spells... (another reason why Friend cards are damn pointless)
This is the last new Heartless for this world, and it's a Soldier. These are basically just upgraded Shadows, and thus aren't that hard (they occasionally use... 2s!).
Plot Doors are notable for having a crown over them, and (usually) different card requirements to normal. The first one? Not so much. It takes a 1+ card, and the Key to Beginnings to get in. Nothing major.
I'd like to point out, that at this point I'm level 6. I fight everything I come across and I hardly ever run away from a battle, unless I'm in critical HP with no means of healing left. Since you should be able to finish every regular encounter in this game without taking a hit there's no reason to retreat at any point, and I have 2 Cures in my deck right now so if I do take a hit (exceptionally rare) I can use one to fully heal and continue beating the loving crap out of everything
Basically, Sora's a damn liar.
Cards descend from who-knows-where, screen flashes, and...
Sora's 14... he's also an RPG protagonist, so he's got to be stupid and a coward. I'm surprised that's not a cliche in all honesty.
I believe I've expressed my opinion on this matter enough, but just to drive the point home: yes. You guys are useless. I'm barring friend cards from this playthrough just to prove as much. Come back in Kingdom Hearts II where you have some semblence of decent attacks.
Now who could this be? Opens with a put down so... it's Emo Git err, Squall!
Wait, "Leon"? He took the first part of his surname and made it his first name?! Yes. Yes he did.
No one finds this incredibly stupid either, which is amazing.
And how do you know my name?
Clearly, Sora has played Final Fantasy VIII.
This is an outright lie. He's one of the first cameo NPCs Sora meets in the original (that stick around for the entire game; he's about the 5th introduced though).
I thought this was Squall, and not Galuf... maybe he's in disguise!
It's called amnesia. Sora has clearly forgotten that he had a brief amnesia stint himself at one point. During said time with amnesia, he became a demi-god and it was awesome. He's apprantly forgotten all about it though.
Wait... what? Sora? You just said that you didn't know their names!
Thank you Donald. Always eager to chime with the obvious, aren't you?
Also, there's some generic chatter, about whether or not Squall is joking...
Oh, boohoo. Sora's a 14 year old... and he fights with a giant key. The universe is practically mocking him, let alone Squall.
Squall likes nostalgic animation? I never would've guessed myself.
It's called amnesia. I said that mere lines ago. Try and keep up.
...? A ninja with a lisp?!
Oh, wait... never mind. It's just Yuffie. I was kinda hoping for Shinobi for some reason, even though it wouldn't be the case.
Maybe we should bring Sora and the others to Aerith.
Really? No way! It's not like you've never met before, or she just said it or anything!
She looks like she's planning something of malicious intent here. Somewhat ironic when you think about it...
Strange, yes, but convenient! We can skip the introductions.
Not really... introductions took place like normal before you even turned up.
Squall: ever the sarcastic bastard. I didn't show any of them, but he constantly "..."'s in this scene just like the real thing!
There is no "grand tour". It's another tutorial... I'm not kidding either.
Be careful, though. There are still Heartless wandering around town.
That's the least of your worries...
*insert tutorial here*
We learn absolutely nothing new in this tutorial (it's all covered above or even self-explanatory). Hurray for wastes of time... if I want a repeat of a tutorial, or instructions on the obvious, I'll play Shin Megami Tensei: Online.
You don't need to "pick up the rest"! You already know it all. You're level 6 for crying out loud!
He gives us a card. It's blue. Therefore it is a magic card. I wonder how useless it is!
Simba is a summon. He's somewhat useful, but I won't use him. He stuns all enemies that are in the direction he is facing when summoned. Not all that great, and not worth using often.
Plot card #2.
That'll do for the story for now, so time to hightail it back to the save point, but on the way there:
This is a worse version of Simba. I'll never use it intentionally (other than to demonstrate later).
Next time: even more of Traverse town! Near enough done.
~~
Part 4: Like A Boss
Within this door, there is an exceptionally pointless scene: just about all of the plot events of this world get forgotten afterwards. The others do as well, but it's interesting here since the plot events of Traverse Town are based on the main plot events as well.
I know it's the "canon" name and all, but it makes the Japanese seem like they have a lisp.
Good to meet you? Nice to see you again? A minor emalgamation that still works fine either way.
A lot of pointless banter occurs next, so let's skip to the important stuff:
My thoughts exactly.
Basically Sora's memories influence those of others. This is forgotten very shortly.
Now that I've shown the names of all 3 plot-cards, I'll never post them again.
The "G" and green border should be a pretty clear indication that you have to use a green-map card. I didn't realise this at first -_-"
Green map cards have in-battle effects (affecting Sora) whilst red cards affect heartless. There are also blue map cards which affect the room but we can't get any of these (other than Moment's Reprieve) yet.
For those keeping count, this makes 3 Final Fantasy VII characters in this world. Poor Squall.
Cid's going senile? He's not that old.
Anyway, maybe you can help me out. A friend of mine's supposed to be somwhere in this castle-er, town.
Code for boss fight? Bring it on!
Okay Donald. You're banned from use. (Goofy can be useful iff I sleight him to get quick healing and damage simulataneously without losing a decent card.)
The bell rings now, and the fight begins!
Boss #1: Guard Armour
This boss has several damagable limbs. In total, the combined HP of each part amounts to a little over a full HP bar. At this stage, this can be pretty bad... except I have a killer deck for this stage. (I took a bit too long, since I didn't notice that the combined value of my best 3 cards wasn't 20-23 (19...), but at least I showed off Simba and Slide Dash). This fight also has a green card with a fixed 0 and a mickey mouse symbol that only appears in certain boss fights, and grants you a (temporary) advantage which varies from fight to fight.
More trivial dialogue which serves no purpose at all. I get that it's a tutorial world and all, but the plot scenes could at least try to be relevent for the entire game rather than a few minutes. If this was a Disney world I wouldn't care, but it's not.
Oh Cid. You have no idea!
Anyway, every but Sora pisses off and Aeris comes back on screen.
Here comes the...
This is paraphrased; there's 6 screens of pointless dialogue between those two.
Beyond the plot door, there is a room with a giant fricking ladder and access to rooms we can't do much with. Yet. Don't worry, we'll see more Traverse Town later (in what I like to call the post-game completionist section).
And in the room with a ladder there's a save point. Convenient? (There's a save point at the end of every world; it doesn't always indicate a boss fight)
Part 5: Exposition Station - Platform 1
The guy from the tutorial was behind it... how long had he been waiting there?
Welcome to Exposition Station #01. Please, mind the gap and try not to fall into any plot holes should they appear.
So, why do you look so annoyed?
Cloaked Guy is suddenly looking more... well...
Anyway, some guy suddenly appears and hopefully he won't be so creepy...
I couldn't have put it better myself...
Cloaked Guy w/Hood passes Red a random card anyway.
Cloaked Guy w/Hood fades away or something now leaving this guy alone with us.
Now, before I link the video, I think Axel is worth explaining since he's the first real boss (and a total pushover).
None of his attacks are too damaging (for one he slices normally, and another he throws a chakram across the screen and teleports grabbing it), except for this:
Fire Wall. This is Axel's sleight, and it's still not worth worrying over since if you dodge roll through the flames you take no damage. If you fail at double pressing one button, you can let him spam these and he'll eventually stop as he runs low on cards.
Axel also enjoys teleporting around the fight area, and ice completely wrecks his shit.
Boss 2: Axel
I'm not sure what's worse: Sora's GBA voice acting, the track playing (which was improved for KH2 fortunately) or that I delivered the final blow with Simba.
Notice how this took me about half the time it took me to beat Guard Armor? Yeah, this is what happens when I don't dick around.
Oh, and we got some world cards at the end of the video.
I just said that Goofy. You're not as bad as Donald ([insert deity of choice here] no), but you're ge-
Considering they're WORLD cards, I hope they are.
I can't help but feel like this is foreshadowing something... maybe that's just me though.
Wasn't that said before I kicked Axel's ass? Seriously, you're slow Sora.
Hmm... I wonder who that can be.
So basically
Just when I thought this place wouldn't have any exposition or foreshadowing. Axel didn't fail to disappoint there.
...I never would've guessed. But did you have to make a comment that makes you seem like Vincent Valentine?
I like how Goofy didn't give Sora time to answer.
I appreciate the gesture and all Donald, but... bwahahahaha who am I kidding? Donald, you're pathetic.
Could it be...? Yes it is. It's even more foreshadowing!
Axel buggers off now, leaving our heroes (and Donald) alone thus the scene ends.
Well, that achieved pretty much nothing at all other than allowing Sora to kick Axel's ass, and Axel to drop foreshadowing bombs (some of which don't even apply til KH2).
Part 6: An Emo In MY Mythology?
A basic attempt to stifle backtracking but since backtracking is pointless for most of the game, it's wasted.
Anyway, on the second floor...
Every scene with you ends up bad in some way, cricket. You're like the harbinger of this game.
No. There is absolutely nothing wr-
Well... (MAJOR, MAJOR, MAJOR KH1, CoM (to a much lesser degree) AND KH2 spoilers ahead peoples)
Look, Jiminy, shut up. You're currently on-par with Donald for worst character in the game (thus far; there is one much worse than either of those two coming later...), if for no reason other than he isn't a harbinger.
It's Oblivion...
I'd be annoyed, but you don't suck and this place does have an effect on your memory...
Also, for the rest of this scene, Donald and Jiminy don't exist as far as I care; it makes some of the dialogue much more accurate.
Like that for example. Goofy is worthwhile to a degree, and Sora kicks ass (at the moment) so it's exceptionally accurate.
A castle with contraptions? Are you making shit up again?
If Goofy were to be more specific, I could tell you. How about a name?
Hmm... nope. No idea. Well, I do... and it is rather obvious but I digress.
I already asked that, but I'm sure Goofy'll answer now...
Grand. Thanks for nothing; at least we learned something: either Goofy has a crap memory/overactive imagination, or Castle Oblivion fucks with your mind really damn fast. This is only the second floor.
Hmm... a save point on the left, and a weird orb on the right. The orb isn't worth worrying about for now; I'll go over it next time we come across one.
Now we're journeying to:
Ancient Greece!
(Jiminy then explains the Olympic Games and how Hercules in competing and has never been beaten before (which is a lie)... I practically paraphrased it at the very beginning anyway)
Meanwhile...
I'm certain we all recognise the Disney villain voiced by James Woods... if not, I'll be surprised. Very surprised in fact.
Wasn't that line used in the film? It sounds like it.
Everytime I read this, I always read the last part as "he makes me blood boil" for some reason, despite that the word blood is omitted. Just seems like it should be there.
He'd tried before, and failed. I don't think it's gonna work, what with 'Herc' being a demi-god and all.
Hmm...? Who could this be? (Note that for the sake of actual suspense on this matter, I'm omitting the rest of the scene; I'll include it in the next update).
Each world has a keyblade unique to it in a sense. Whilst there is another way that the keyblade variants can be found, certain types are only found in certain worlds (such as the Kingdom Key being unique to Traverse Town) map items. I'll cover the other way when we get access to it.
Moogle Rooms are, in my opinion, one of the best map types you can get. They have no enemies in them at all, but they function as shops. You buy cards here in packs of 5; weapons, magic, items, and a mixture of the three. The chance of getting a decent card out of one is directly proportional to the rarity of the pack, which is based on how far through the game you are.
Large Bodies are annoying to fight as explained above, but are one of ~3 enemies in the entire game that it's worth using Sora's slide sleight on. Powerwilds have one of the better enemy cards in the game in my opinion, but don't really have much else going for them. In general, neither enemy actually has the ability to make you worry too much (unlike in the console games where Large Bodies are much more annoying...), but can use non-crap card values.
Just thought I'd lime these.
Also, looking forward to future updates.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
Story-wise, it looks like there was a whole bunch of shit way bigger than Ansem going on behind the scenes in KH1 that we weren't privy to?
My current deck is set up to cycle through a bunch of fire and blizzards 3 times (2 ether cards after the fire/blizzard sequence), then 3 combos worth of >7 physicals, with a potion and a couple of cures just in case. That seems to be more than enough to stomp any basic mook fight by just aiming at stuff and mashing X without having to manually reload.
Going from Agrabah to Halloween Town, I miss the Aladdin card's free Moogle Points
The only early game sleights that are even worth half a shit are friend card related (your milage may vary with these), Fire/Ice/Cure 2/3, and (elemental) Strike Raid and every summon, bar one, seems tacked on.
I usually use one deck (appropriately named "Crusher") for mook bastards that just consists of me using a bunch of decent physical sleights. Most of the time, this is overkill but it becomes fun when you take out enemies that don't even get a chance to fight back.
I also have an elemental deck, designed for abusing boss weaknesses (you'll see the first variant of this deck in the next boss fight) wherein I swap the relevant magic card depending on the boss, and a third deck which is the one I use in most boss fights since it's got some degree of balance to it. No need for any healing cards in the first deck since fights are usually over before they begin... and in the event that I need to reload, I have one enemy card in to make that effortless. I love how breakable this game is with a decent deck.
Part 7: Remenissions
I'll give you a moment to mourn.
Done? In that case, on with your regularly scheduled tournament.
Another green door; it's nothing new at this point, and I just threw a Meeting Ground at it.
Y'know, I think Phil just showed how much of a jerk he is... and I don't think he ever gives us his name. It is found out, just not from him.
Oh, Goofy! Ever so naive... But at least with you it's bearable.
And there we have it. Philoctetes and Hercules... only abbreviated, and I think I may have spelt the prior wrong.
I think the death of the announcer is a pretty big deal... Then again, I might be wrong with that.
I gotta admit, that is a pretty good idea.
I like how the game prevents any and all suspense being built up here with this
I suppose it's good that they included his name as part of the dialogue and all, and I get that it's so later dialogue doesn't seem weird but... How many people can say that they don't know who Cloud Strife is?
Is it just me, or does that seem like something Phil would never actually say? When/if I change the dialogue, I at least try to make it seem authentic...
Did Sora... just perform a somewhat decent zing? I'm impressed.
Even though I expected this kind of reaction, did they have to recreate early disc 1 Cloud? Why not mid-disc 2 where he was somewhat likable... due to being confined in a wheelchair.
This is just to look good; no matter how fast you move you will never be the first one through. Story and whatnot takes precedence to speed runs.
Which is basically saying that rule #2 is also just there to look good... Rule #3 makes something very obvious... No prizes for guessing what.
As you'll see later, Sora might have taken this a bit too literally.
I accidentally misread the in-game map for the world, and stumbled across a little something..
The blue card is relatively self-explanatory, but the other card is one we can't acquire til the seventh floor at a minimum. Trying to get one is far from an easy task, but - for the most part - the reward is worth it. Even if I have to go out of my way to get one, we'll see what's in these doors at a later date.
As you can see here, the area is empty aside from one chest and the next plot door. This room type is the Calm Bounty room, and each world (aside from Traverse Town) has a unique treasure that can only be gained with this card type. The one for Olympus Colliseum:
This is, without a doubt, the best ability available for this world. Doesn't sound like much, right? Well, it's a multi-hit Ice-elemental Area of Effect attack, that's much easier to perform than Blizzaga and can even outdamage it at times...
Since the plot door is within arms reach, might as well go take a looksee.
A door with a requirement of 15? This is the first instance of a door that can only be opened by using multiple cards that total adds up exactly to the number on the door. 15 isn't that bad, in comparison to some, and I took the easy way out (a 9 and 6).
And who's behind door number 2?
If you picked Cloud you win absolutely nothing!
Ordinarily I would probably have just transcribed this, but look at Donald's face. That makes it worth it to me.
As much as it pains to admit it, I think this is the one cutscene in the entire game where Donald and Goofy swap places in terms of likability. It's not enough to save Donald, or hinder Goofy, overall though.
It's almost as if they weren't listening to Cloud at all.
A drawn blade? I like what Sora's thinking!
I'd like to call this a boss fight, but it's more of a mini-boss, so expect to see some use of Goofy.
As for the fight itself, Cloud's main attack consists of...
Flying around the area to try and slash Sora. He also has 2 sleights: Cross-Slash (which doesn't correlate into screenshots well at all) and
Omnislash, which consists of Cloud flying around the area faster than normal to try and slice Sora thrice. He doesn't retain Braver from the original battle with him in the Colisseum unfortunately, which makes sense to an extent. He has the potential to use cards that are actually a high number (he uses 7s fairly frequently which you need to go out of your way to break at times).
Sora (and Goofy) vs Cloud
As you will have noticed at the end, I got a Hi-Potion card which works the same as a Potion only it takes up more CP but it does reload the first card used in a sleight as well as Premium cards. Regular Potions don't actually do that.
If I hadnt cleared out every single room yet, I'd be able to show off a few more enemy types (actually, at this point I wouldn't be able to...) but for the time being, explaining a few room types will suffice for a change.
This is a Moogle Room. They act as shops, but there's no Munny (the, somehow, univeral currency of the Kingdom Hearts universe) in this game. So, what do we use? If you look in the top-right corner of the menu, you can see Moogle Points. Moogle Points are what is actually used to buy extra cards, and what you get from selling spare cards. The first time you enter the actual Moogle Shop, you get an explanation of this.
And here's something that happens the first time you speak to the Moogle in the generated room (which means if you just cycle through Moogle Room cards, you can get free cards ad infinitum), unfortunately you only get one type of card:
They're always attack cards, which dont actually cost much anyway.
At this point, you can only afford basic packs which cost:
Attack - 100 Moogle Points
Magic - 200 Moogle Points
Items - 150 Moogle Points
Mixed - 150 Moogle Points
I had one goal in mind, as I ran a minor circuit of selling excess cards (which amount to anything with a value below 5 and duplicates where they're unnecessary such as 2 of the 3 Blue Rhapsody cards I had), I managed to pick these cards in a Magic pack: two Cures (one if which I'm selling since it has a value of 2), two Blizzards (I'll be keeping both for now), and a Simba card (which I'm also selling since it has a value of 4).
Once I ran out of MP for the time being, I re-ordered my deck with one specific purpose in mind...
And that purpose can be seen behind the final door...
Well, both of you are still living so he's kind of correct.
Before now, I'd probably ridicule Sora for doing this but during this world he has acted somewhat badass... for who he is of course.
Ah, the sub-plot from the original game in this world that has somehow become what we know as the main plot of this game.
It's like they don't even try to build suspence any more
Deals with the Devil hardly ever go well... (or Lord of the Underworld in this case, but that's just splitting hairs)
Considering this is Hercules' world, who else was going to be the antagonist?
Sora is acting out of character for this world... if only he kept it up for the entire game...
That's a challenge if I've ever heard one!
Hades is considered by many (new... for the most part) players as one of the hardest bosses in the game since this world is supposed to be done last which is when he's most difficult; his moves aren't different, but he can deal more damage and has a fair bit more HP.
His sleight, Temper Flare, is pretty much all he will do until it succeeds (that's not to say he won't fight back before he performs it) and when he does he gets slightly trickier.
He gains two new attacks:
This one is a standard move that has a larger range than it seems. I reccomend breaking it before he performs it, since it can be hard to dodge.
He also gains a second sleight whilst under the effects of Temper Flare:
Firaga Ball; this move is a total bitch to avoid and it is the sole reason for the 0 card in my deck during this fight.
As you can tell, he also uses enemy cards (making him the first boss to do so); Berserk is granted via the Hades enemy card (most bosses will, indeed, use their own cards against you which is really bloody annoying at times) and he also uses a Red Nocturne card which - as you can probably guess - gives Fire Boost; which is the same thing as what Blue Rhapsody does, only for a different element.
Boss #3: Hades (this video is worth watching if only to see how badly I broke the fight)
That's a pretty good middle ground; 2 words, 4 syllables...
I couldn't have made that up if I tried...
Oh, and the next part is actually plot relevent in general :O (each world actually ends with something like this, but the plot of the actual worlds are self-contained)
As a return for some actually good advice, Cloud gives Sora one of the best cards in the game.
Oh Sora, you have no idea do you?
And there we have it. One of the, if not the, best summons in the entire game. As an interesting twist, Cloud is actually only a summon in this game, and he's remarkably overpowered... especially this early, and when 3 are sleighted.
Uh-huh... and it's called Radiant Garden Hollow Bastion.
I already answered that, and it was called Hollow Bastion then as well.
You don't know, do you Donald?
...Really? I've only said it twice. Maybe you'll remember later in the game? Nah. That's not gonna happen.
I coulda swore I finished it before the final battle with
Oh mon dieu! ...Wait, why do I care? This means a whole new journal to fill in, which means more perfectionistic tendencies get to shine through!
Is it weird that I find it funny that Jiminy looks like he's going to cry? It's just a book.
What kind of question is that...
Anyway, time to see what Donald and Goofy has to say about this.
So, let's head on up to the third floor (making progress now!).
During the transition;
Now, doesn't she look familiar? Hmm... nope, can't remember.
Anyway, back with our heroes on the third floor:
Is Sora actually being a decent character two updates in a row? Shame it's not going to last, but it's good for now.
And if you needed any more reasons that Donald is the worst character in the game, there you have it.
Well, I can't argue with that. Jiminy's slowly losing his crappy status I must admit, the intro doesn't do him justice.
Hmm...
Main Entry:
obliv·i·on Listen to the pronunciation of oblivion
Pronunciation:
\ə-ˈbli-vē-ən, ō-, ä-\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin oblivion-, oblivio, from oblivisci to forget, perhaps from ob- in the way + levis smooth — more at ob-, levigate
Date:
14th century
1: the fact or condition of forgetting or having forgotten ; especially : the condition of being oblivious
2: the condition or state of being forgotten or unknown
Yup, makes perfect sense... if you look up what oblivion means in the dictionary that is.
As long as you forget how to be a bad game character I'm content with that.
That's the least of your concerns, I can tell you that.
Just because one character being awesome and logical isn't enough for the cutscene, there's another!
Now that is why Goofy is the best character (we've met) in the entire game, by far.
For once, I'm inclined to agree with Donald. Just this once though.
Time to get Goofy's input again before continuing.
...Right, a repeat of what you said in the scene. That's just plain lazy.
Our next destination:
Ta-ta for now.
I'm half-tempted to reference Marilyn Manson going into this. Maybe it's for the best if I don't.
Or Vampires, or Mummys, or Lycans... Who knows what creatures we'll encounter in an eternal Hallowe'en setting? Probably not flowers though; that'd be stupid.
With a face like that, I can't take Donald seriously. I can't at the best of times, either, but this is just an outright impossibility.
You know, I've been thinking: maybe all the hatred I give him isn't justified. Maybe he's actually a good character who's useful and I'm just biased against him for whatever reason. Maybe I just hate ducks. Then I remember that's wrong, and the reason is simple: he tries hard to be funny, and he tries to be useful in combat... actually, it's purely because he isn't Daffy.
I don't, but then again I can say what's coming for certain. I'm sure most other people can as well, and agree that even not knowing what's coming in this case isn't scary. In other cases, knowing in advance can make it much, much worse.
Mysterious shadowy figure... being welcoming? There's a paedophile joke there somewhere, but either I can't find it or I'm not looking hard enough.
Anyway, who is this mystery man? Might as well find out;
By flicking a lightswitch? That's not exactly dramatic, and it's not scary either you two three.
I'm half expecting him (not Donald; the floating skull) to start reciting Shakespearean prose for some reason. Can't be anything important though.
You don't get out much do you Jack? Considering you're in your 20s -- if not more -- you must have a good nightlife or something.
Did I just get sassed by a fictional character?
Really? If I wanted chills I'd rather go to the local-
...It was. Now, I'll just wait until I'm needed again.
Did he just summon Heartless? That's not what I expected from the Pumpkin King.
Anyway, new world, new heartless;
Remember what I said about flowers? Yeah, they're here. As you can see, I haven't edited my deck since the end of Olympus Colliseum; this doesn't make the fight any harder. The difficulty of the game is fairly constant throughout really, until near the end where it's noticably a bit more challenging. 3 specific boss fights in particular... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The heartless encountered here are Wight Knights and Creeper Plants. The Creepers are pretty much stuck in one place, but are potentially a threat (as much as is possible) if you don't have a 6 or higher. Wight Knights are a bit more fun to deal with, but are easier to kill (to me at least). Contrary to what you'd expect, neither is weak to fire.
Wait, you didn't call them...? But you acknowledged them as a problem, then moved your arms as if to summon them and they appeared. Either your a bad liar or horribly unlucky but it doesn't matter, since Sora'll believe you anyway.
Same reason they're any where: the darkness in people's hearts attracts them. This is basic information Sora! If you don't remember this, then... your memory is fried already.
If I know Sora, you'll end up going regardless of the possible dangers.
I like to think my hate for Donald is justified after things like this.
Terror? Sounds like a new ability. I wonder what it does:
...Another one of them? Jeez, it's like they try and get you to stun the enemies so badly by making it an integral gameplay mechanic but trying to stun anything in the actual battle usually doesn't work anyway so it's redundant.
Requirements:
The initiated of you will have noticed there's an alternate way to activate this sleight, but that way requires some optional cards than can't be acquired for a while, so I'll save that til we can do it.
As for Jack? Well, he is our first world specific friend card, and I'll go over his abilities and such sometime in the next update.
Ah, THE iconic hill from Nightmare Before Christmas. Everyone who's seen that film should recognise it.
Well, I don't know where else she'd be. The only other plot door leads to the boss fight.
Hmm... Didn't I pose that very question before? The game thinks like I do!
I can't for the life of me think of WHY Sora would be sullen looking. The situation isn't overly dire, and we haven't even met the antagonist yet which is surprising really.
Well, speak of the devil. Just, er, who are you?
With his second piece of dialogue, Oogie manages to make the longest speech yet. It's 6 screens and there's nothing but
On the way to the plot door, I manage to pick up one of my favourite sleights;
The requirement can be awkward, but since I have two premiums that add up to 12 (one's a Kingdom Key and the other is an Olympus) I can just use a card I picked up on my way to the last plot door: a 0 Pumpkinhead (the keyblade from this world) and it's easy enough to perform. As I said before, it's best to always open a sleight with a one-use card anyway since they're gone for good. I use Sleights fairly often from this point since they're convenient and normally outdamage a regular attack.
I also picked up this:
Out of all the enemy cards I use, this one is one of my favourites. Its ability, Incrementor, increases the value of all cards (apart from a 9) by 1. This is useful for the most part, it's very handy in a few fights where using high numbered cards helps immensely, but it wrecks your 0s, and can make a sleight unusable until the effect wears off.
As for the actual plot door itself, it's got a fairly different variation on what applies to the vast majority of regular doors:
As you may have guessed, the downward arrow indicates it has to be less than or equal to 3 (3, 2, 1 or 0). It's very easy to use, but - like before - it is a new requirement.
Oogie then proceeds to drink most of the potion.
There's one memory that he may not want to remember...
...Too late.
At this point, Oogie starts convulsing. It really doesn't transfer well to screenshots.
I'll explain my theory for this behaviour after the boss fight. Speaking of which, Oogie's attacks:
The dice rolls are always a 7-card. This isn't a direct attack, but it does determine what else he can do.
This is one of his most common attacks. It's also, unfortunately, really hard to dodge. It's always a low numbered card though (in the picture it's an obscured 0; I've never seen it above a 2) so it's not hard to break.
This is an attack that doesn't get used fairly often, but it can be pretty much any number. I've seen it as low as a 3, and as high as an 8 before. Fortunately, it is really easy to dodge so it's not overly troublesome.
His last way of directly dealing damage is to summon 2 heartless. They can be any type that appear in Halloween Town as far as I am aware. This may seem handy, but there's a catch: they don't drop any experience. This is a major annoyance, since it only exists to drain your recharges. This is probably the only reason you would ever use Gifted Miracle.
I've never seen him use this before. From what I can gather, it's supposed to heal his HP. How much? Not a damn clue. Does it make the battle last longer than it should? Probably not. I only found out he could do this by complete accident since my recharge took a bit too long.
For parts of the fight, Oogie is undamagable. During this part, is when he attacks. You gain the ability to damage him by card breaking his dice rolls (8+ or 0). Once you do, he runs around for what I think is a fixed period of time. After that time,
A giant red die falls from the sky, knocking Sora off the platform. The battle shouldn't last too long.
As you may have noticed, Oogie - unlike Hades - didn't have a deck, or the ability to use his own card. He has no sleights, and his card would make this battle extremely annoying. Another thing that's easy to pick up on, is that unless Oogie's dice roll is successful he will not attack. This means that, with a reasonably strong deck you should never take damage from this fight.
^ Click for video.
Oogie's card is my third favourite in the entire game. I've mentioned it's effect in the description of the boss fights already, but I'll elaborate now. It grants Auto-Regen; this is like the Drain ability from Search Ghost, only better. It will restore your health during the battle -- like a summon from the original -- but there's a catch; it only lasts for 10 uses. It's still exceptionally useful, however, since there's no boss battle where I would say you shouldn't use it. It's just as useful now as it will be later; I believe the amount of HP restored is proportionate to Sora's maximum but I could be wrong.
You know, he reminds me of that one guy we all know who thinks everything's just a game to some extent and never takes everything seriously. Only the Doctor thinks everything is a science experiment and can be tested enough times until it works. It's kind of like a less stupid version of Scientology.
This is the only time where an Organisation member is name dropped outside of the main plot... although considering this world's plot is like an offshoot of the main game it is explainable.
This leads perfectly into my theory of Oogie's sudden fear of Sora. My guess, is that Oogie DID regain his true memories. One more vivid than the others (KH1 spoilers ahoy):
As we learned very early on, the world cards are formed from Sora's memories and as Aeris explained, Sora's memories have an affect on those who reside in the worlds.
Of course, this is all just a theory. Chances are there's a more plausible explanation but this is what I came up with during my last playthrough anyway.
The thing to remember from this world isn't as black and white as the one from Olympus, but I have an idea anyway, and it stems from a notion originally brought up in the original game: the heart is a lot stronger than it appears at first. This strength is what makes life worth living, as if the heart was weak you would feel eternally depressed. Or something like that anyway.
Pretty heavy on the KH1 spoilers here (mainly given by the game, but I mention some because it's relevent). Don't say I didn't warn ya. Also contains KH2 (and "KH3") foreshadowing.
Aww. If it weren't for the fact that it's Donald I might feel sorry for him here.
Well, it's quite clear he hasn't. He wouldn't be able to even MENTION the king if he had but I'm digressing.
Donald looks like he's
And with that, this scene ends so before advancing let's check in with Goofy.
Taken out of context, this could be a Yaoi fan's dream come true...
Oh all right; I'll speak to Donald too. I may be biased against (using) him but this is plot-Donald. So... not that much better. Arguably worse.
Oh, you never know. Stranger things have happened before.
Between the floors;
A new (and awesome) blonde chick! This lass is probably my 3rd favourite member of the antagonist's group. My first doesn't exist in this game, and my second does but not for a very long time.
Like Riku was at the start of Kingdom Hearts 1? Only he didn't become a heartless; just Ansem's puppet.
Axel is some kind of foreshadowing grand master I swear. You won't find out who that "other man" is until KH2 so I won't say anything about it.
I don't think Larxene is confused here; just thinking about who that could be.
This is probably a silly question, but why can't I use the keyblade here anyway? I get that I have cards that sort of are, and sort of aren't, Sora's keyblade with their various keychains but I don't get to use the real thing. I've never really thought about it before, but Sora should - in theory - be able to just pull out the keyblade and pretty much destroy everything here. Yeah, I remember what the Tutorial Guy said at the beginning but we only lost our abilities/spells; not out weapons as well.
Hurray for enigmatic foreshadowing that has no meaning at all until the sequel!
Back with out "heroes"...
Within that one piece of dialogue, Goofy went from
"Forgotten it" Sora... why am I even trying to correct a video game character's grammar?
You can't see it very well, but Sora is holding the Oathkeeper pendant that Kairi gave him near the end of Kingdom Hearts 1. You'll get a better view of it later though. Since Sora promised to give Kairi back Oathkeeper, and that's an important memory, he'll never forget Kairi... or so the logic shown thus far would have you believe.
As a display of both good and bad timing, you can see Kairi here... along with the other blonde haired lass (the one from the intro cutscene).
And there she is more visible (BHL not Kairi).
You'll find out eventually Sora. Worry not.
That is Sora's answer to the question. I don't see the relevancy either but details...
And thus the scene ends; before heading off to the next level/dungeon/whatever you want to call it, might as well speak to Goofy (...and Donald);
Something tells me that won't be the only reason she'd be happy if Sora made it back to Destiny Island (with Riku)...
If Sora does that, he'd lose one of the best keyblades in KH1 (it's like the 3rd strongest as I recall).
Next time;
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
A level starting off like this can only mean good things... right?
Or, not... but if someone's in trouble why does Goofy look like he's happy? Schadenfreude?
I'm sure he can handle 5 Shadows. He has a Scimitar after all.
But, we do end up actually helping anyway (yes, this is a video link).
Just under half of this world's new Heartless types are prevalent in the video. The Green Requiems (pallette swaps of the Blue Rhapsody) are arguably the second most dangerous heartless in this world. Sure, they only heal but therein lies the problem: they can heal any heartless. They also absorb all elemental attacks so just bash them to death (like normal) or use non-elemental summons. I think they can use a card value of 4 but I've not seen anything higher.
As for the Bandit (the one with a turban and scimitar of its own), they're nothing overly lethal card-wise but their attack is strangely annoying to dodge. Highest card value I've seen them use is a 2 (...yeah) so they should never break you, unless you do something stupid and use a 0 before they attack.
Oh, I guess there's another fight to be had.
Or, not.
Anyway, Aladdin pulls out a hard to see lamp and raises it in the air.
And here's Robbie Williams
Wanna swap then? I'd like to have no rain for a while.
The Heartless vanish and there's more exposition-y goodness.
Wait, what? Aladdin didn't say anything (seriously)
You just made that up. We've never said we're off to the Palace but it's a convenient lie to allow the plot to proceed so I'm fine with it.
Sora's fine with it too, so let's go!
Fat Bandits (the large thing with an orange... coat?) are this world's equivalent of Large Bodies. They're immune to all physical damage taken to the front so smacking them around from behind is the only way to kill them that way. Superior alternatives include: sleighting Blizzaga or Blizzard Raid. Yeah, ice wrecks their shit. They can use numerics up to, and including, a 6 so sometimes breaking them can pose as something of a challenge (well, insofar as it can be considered a challenge anyway).
Air Soldiers are able to dodge a lot of attacks by flying but they seem to only be able to use a card with a value of 4 so breaking them is simplistic. They have the best regular Enemy Card in the game, in my opinion, but getting it at this stage can be difficult since there's only four of them per battle and they all appear at the start, and then other heartless spawns (mainly Green Requiems). There's a good chance that if you can get the card at this stage then you're a good enough strategist to not need it; it's easier gained later when you can get encounters with just these in them.
Never mind then.
This card grants one of the best abilities in the game (the second best in my opinion) and I love it. I've barred myself from using it this playthrough though, since Reload Kinesis is exceptionally potent. It allows you to reload whilst moving; this is something most of the time Sora can't do and no bosses have that ability at all. It does, however, only have a 3 reload duration; not uses reloads, so if you use any item cards that affects it. If you do use this, I recommend not using it until the charge is at 3 since that's when it's most annoying to reload.
Yellow Opera. The last of the heartless with this appearance and just as strong as the others. It uses Thunder attacks (no surprises there), and absorbs them (again no surprises). Unlike Red and Blue, it doesn't have an actual weakness so all non-Thunder elemental attacks hurt it just as much.
The Calm Bounty treasure for this world is
A fairly useful/useless spell. It has its uses, and we can now use it outside Halloween Town, but it doesn't truly shine until we reach the end-game heartless and it's useless against bosses (like most things).
You can likely guess what this does already since we know what Blue Rhapsody and Red Nocturne do, If you can't guess, then you lack logical thought processes. Also: makes Cure spells heal more. Doesn't affect Donald's cure (or Auto-Regen) as far as I can tell.
Behind Plot Door #1;
So instead of wishing to be at the palace, you decided to walk there risking life and limb (and we know you got ambushed by Heartless at least once) despite there being a much easier way?
What Aladdin said was a question, not a statement...
A girlfriend?
...Luxury camels? Does that make sense to anyone? What the heck IS a luxury camel? There's something wrong with that, but...
I don't think Aladdin understands what he means either, and he's Arabian!
* Also, the world's antagonist but this should be obvious since it's Aladdin's world and what he said. Doesn't help that vizier is a political position either...
I don't claim to be an expert in these things, but isn't that an infringement of free will? Surely, it would be in some way and I'm fairly certain that not even magical genies can dick about with that.
How long is that exactly? A term like that really needs explaining...
I guess we can do that instead of wandering around... but it'll have to wait until next time.
Oh, and I'll try to loosen up on the Donald hate since it's getting a tad overused at this point in my opinion, and the characters at this point just talk incessantly for no real reason so I've tried to condense it to the important stuff. Hopefully this won't wreck the shit out of the "plot".
What? What is it?
Crap... doesn't look like we'll make it in time. Oh well, she's dead.
You can just go and do that I guess.
I wanted to feign it being impossible and then save her at the last second.
Well, this is a predicament. Guess there's only one thing to do: use Robin Williams Genie again.
That line would be badass enough to save Sora, but it's one line and he's had his proper moments already (see: Olympus).
Another forced battle; nothing too difficult, and I open with Blitz to show it off.
The reward was an Ether. Ethers are pretty useless; they're to magic what Potions are to weapons. They cost more CP as well - I don't use magic enough to justify putting one of these in my deck.
The screen flashes and everyone "!"s; something's gone awry naturally. In this case, the lamp has disappeared!
No prizes for guessing who this smug bastard is. He also has a tendency for speaking in larger walls of text than Finkelstein did before (yet he doesn't quite reach Oogie's one-off speech, he does beat him overall).
Jafar thinks Aladdin was going to use the lamp to "win" Jasmine (...yeah...) but he's the one whom Jasmine will marry, for this will let him become king!
Yup, he actually says that if he marries Jasmine, nothing can prevent him from becoming the king. This raises a number of questions for a very simple reason: Agrabah doesn't have a king, it has a Sultan. This either a translation error (possible) or Jupiter fucked up big time. The prior is more believable, but I prefer the latter.
Well, looks like he has a bargaining chip of some kind... Nah, he's probably going to mess with things he shouldn't be able to (i.e. free will). The fact that he buggered off pretty much straight after proves as much.
Deep words of wisdom from Sora. His intelligence seems to vary from world to world; he got a good deal here it seems.
Looks like we'll need a plan of attack, since Jafar's going to be untouchable at the moment. Hmm... Only one thing to do: head to the next room!
Not quite, for this is the wonderful plan!
Al gets punted to a different part of the screen, but at least it made Jafar waste a wish. Naturally, this makes Jafar get very pissed and use his last wish, to... well...
Guess what that means? Yep: boss fight!
This fight is pretty unconventional for one reason:
Jafar is immune to all forms of damage. So, how do you beat him? See that shadow beneath Jafar's hand? That's Iago, and he's carrying the lamp. You wreck the lamp instead of the Djinn. As for Jafars attacks?
He dives into the lava, gets a giant rock and throws it at you. Can be easy to dodge, but can be hard to dodge. Depends on floor placement.
Eye lasers. Unless you're idle, or stupid, these should never hit you. Ever.
He hits the ground causing the smallest shockwave ever. Requires poor timing to get hit by.
As for his cards? He can any value he pleases, so be aware of that. He won't use his card though.
This fight is one of the few ones where magic is outright useless (exception: Cure of course) since most of the time, it'll miss Iago making it a waste. Just stock up on high-numbered weapons and your set (I added a few more physical enemy cards to my deck to use in this fight; I forgot to use them). Oh, and in case I haven't said it yet: the floor changes height. At random. You can get the Disney Card (from Guard Armor) in this fight, which sets the three tiles at the hightest level but there's no real use in it since that's more of a hinderance.
(Boss link like normal; picture looks different to the rest because I forgot about it until after I saved at the end of the world)
I don't fully remember what this does, but it's some form of attack boost; it's not quite as useless as a bigger attack range, but it still lacks any feasible uses. I can't recall ever using it and I've used some of the other stuff that's pretty useless.
Genie gains his freedom. And legs!
Aladdin learns his lesson about how he should just be himself and not "win" Jasmine via Genie's magic. D'aww.
Genie also gives us a card so we can leave this world with a happy ending for everyone!
It's not a bad card, but it's not great either. Genie doesn't really get good until KHII anyway IMO.
Something interesting I noticed: despite being very important to KH1's plot, here Jasmine never said a damn thing.
If I wanted to be ever so cliché at this point, I'd make a joke about the main a character having amnesia and how it's ridiculously overused but I'd like to think I'm more original than that (even though I likely aren't). Besides, the joke wouldn't really work in this case anyway since we've established that the party is losing (and, in Sora's case, gaining) random memories as they progress through the castle.
Donald walks off and Sora's left to lament his forgotten friend some more.
And that's the end of this floor. Well, there's always talking to Goofy and Donald before advancing, but I digress.
I'm not entirely sure if I should mock this for being a (bad) pun or not, so I'll take the safer option and not do so since I can't think of a means to do it without it coming across as forced and likely end up being stifled in the first place.
When in doubt, refuge in familiarity it would seem,
Between the floors:
I shit you not, this is the entire interlude scene. BHL drawing something. No dialogue, no action, nothing but her in that chair drawing.
So, what does Sora remember this time?
There was...? I haven't played KH1 for a while, but I don't remember this.
Oh, I know who he means now! It's Selphie (yes, the Selphie from Final Fantasy VIII).
Unfortunately, Sora still doesn't remember her name (Selphie Timmit) but I guess it's only a matter of time. I'm amazed he hasn't mentioned Tidus or Wakka (both from Final Fantasy X) in some context yet actually.
Since this update would be rather short, I'll just leave you with the knowledge that we're eventually off to:
By eventually, I mean right now.
Something about roasted rabbit sounds oddly appealing...
Err, anyway;
Yes, Sora, that's what he said so let's go see what the hell he meant by a trial.
Wonderland boasts an amazing total of new enemies. That total is none other than one.
Crescendo is the most pointless enemy in the game. Shadows are more threatening than this thing, I don't think it can even attack. In Kingdom Hearts II it summons more heartless, so I'd presume it does the same thing here but I've never seen it do anything so I'm just guessing.
Since there's not much to detail this time, I might as well just continue on with the plot and clear out the entire map as per usual. Lets see what new cards I'm able to acquire on the way.
Sonic Blade is okay, I guess, the only major problems are that a lot of the time you'll accidentally trigger Stun Impact since that has the exact same numerical range but a slightly different card requirement, and I've never managed to get 6 attacks per use out of it - you need pretty good timing from my experience. I'll try and use it sometimes, but it's not as good as Blitz which is gotten quite a fair bit earlier.
This world's Calm Bounty treasure:
Ah Stop, how so very useless you are... This spell does exactly what you'd expect which seems awesome, but it has the biggest down side ever. The down side? It lasts for the better part of 3 seconds (give or take) which makes it incredibly useless, and the few things you'd like to use it on are immune in the first place.
I appreciate that it's somewhat hard to see here, but just behind the Keyblade, there's a little gold drop that isn't experience. It's, quite possibly, the rarest thing to get in the entire game (I'd estimate it as being an approximate 1/256 chance) and it's arguably not worth it. What does it do?
It allows you to change one card from your deck into a Premium. It's nothing fancy but it can be helpful I suppose. I ended up with a Premium Blizzard, which is somewhat useful but I already have about 6 of them.
Speaking of premiums, I managed to get this from the Moogle Shop - and it was in the free pack;
Two Lady Lucks, Two Three Wishes and a Pumpkinhead. The stats for the Three Wishes are identical to the Lady Luck but with one difference, Three Wishes has an attack of C+ making it slightly stronger.
Since I now have nothing new to display (yet; there is one thing I can do at any time but I'm saving it for later due to it being actually feasibly possible then) let's finally advance the plot.
If I were to guess, I'd say that this is the trial the White Rabbit mentioned.
As you'd expect, this is a mini-boss battle (no video though since I am a moron and forgot to record). You get the Card Soldier card for winning, which has another pointless attack effect. This card changes slightly, however, depending on which Card Soldier you beat last. The effect is static, the variable is the appearance. Nothing fancy then. I ended up with the Red Card Soldier graphic but it doesn't make a difference either way.
Next time, the rest of Wonderland. Maybe I'll get it done by tomorrow, maybe not. Depends how lazy I feel.
And that's the end of the backlog!
I no longer have a static update schedule, but I'll try and get one or two done a week. No promises though.
Sadly, Re:CoM made the elemental raids a lot less useful, they were no longer screen clearing attacks, so they were much less useful for blasting away mobs of heartless.
If you'd like I could go over the differences between Re:CoM and the original as they come up
* The game is, well, in 3D. This alone changes things up. The battlefields are much larger, and so are the areas.
* The cutscenes in between floors are voice acted. Though the cutscenes in the memory worlds are just text.
* There are three difficulties to choose from. Beginner, Normal, and Proud. In Proud Mode, the enemies are tougher. They do more damage and have better cards. Boss fights can be brutal.
* Each world has a few unique elements to it now, rather then them just being reskins of eachother like in the original.
* Pluto appears as a friend card when your deck is low. He'll dig up either Moogle Points or cards you've used up, or a bone that Sora can trip over
* There are a few new slights, as well as some slights changing, I'll just reveal the ones you could do right now.
* Wild Crush - (Goofy + Donald + Attack Card) Donald and Sora pick up Goofy and use him to ram enemies. You can control Sora during this time, so try and get the most out of it.
* Blitz now requires you to press Triangle to get all three attacks instead of doing it automatically
* Sonic Blade uses Triangle, this actually makes the attack easier to use. :P
* Roulette Room - They're like the Premium Room, but instead they drop Roulette Bonuses. These allow you to pick the map card you get after a fight. This is useful when you need to find a 3 Blue card and you don't have one
* Random Joker - Can be anything you want it too. Also, the rarest room card in the game. I never got one in my first playthrough.
Interesting that. It's the same requirements as
Also, and update.
Part 14: Trickster is from Final Fantasy XII You Stupid Bastard
Initially, instead of getting on with the plot of this world (because, well, it's fucking Wonderland) I decided to go and gather up some enemy cards/moogle points to buy decent magic (i.e. Cure and Cloud) and I got a few repeats of enemy cards and stuff (which basically correlates into being far more Red Nocturnes than a sane person would want) I found myself reaching level 27 and getting this:
This is, without a doubt, my favouritest sleight in the entire game. I know I harp on, to some degree, about how Blitz is extremely useful given how early you get it, but this is even better and can break some of the harder boss fights by rendering them incapable of doing shit. Whilst I don't show it off against the boss of Wonderland, because it's a pussy, I can assure you that this sleight is, by far, one of the most useful (even though it is highly situational). The costs, for example, ensure that it is impossible for pretty much everything to break it unless it decides to pull a 0 out of its ass, but the bosses you would use this against actually have decks and thus don't have that luxury.
After enough dicking around trying to farm Moogle Points (I got a few extra cards but I actually decided to use one for a bit to make random encounters easier because, really, Large Bodies are annoying as hell to kill normally, so I threw in a Gravity-9 I picked up) it's time to get on with the plot!
Alice: I don't mean to be ungrateful, but was that true what you said back there? Are you really the thief?
Sora: Of course not! Why would I steal the Queen's memory?
Well, it's true that Sora does have frequent bouts with stupidity but I doubt even he would... where was I going with this again?
Alice: Well, you saved me all the same. Thank you, Sora.
Everyone's favourite cat with an insanely large grin and it just loves spouting off a wall of text, that make€s absolutely no fucking sense whatsoever but is still useful in the end.
Cat: The queen's a stickler for justice! She won't forget you till she remembers! She won't stop hounding you till you get her memory back! Did she forget because she remembers? Did she remember that she forget? Doesn't matter I suppose. You should do something. But you don't have to do anything. If you can't remember something, it's like it never even happened. Likewise, if something never happened, you can't remember it. Try too hard to remember, and your memory might lie to you. That's all I'll say. The rest is for you to figure out.
Now he finally shuts up and not a moment too soon. The boss is fightable once the cat pisses off, but first it's important to realise that out of all he said, none of it is important at all other than the very last sentence re memory. The rest of it, is completely pointless. Chain of Memories!
It's the Bizarro Room, which was used for a fetch quest disguised as not being a fetch quest in the first Kingdom Hearts. Twice. I'm glad that part was omitted at least.
Queen:Thought you'd seen the last of me, did you? Well, game's up scoundrels! For stealing my memory, I sentence you to...
This is supposed to represent the screen flashing, but I don't think it quite works as planned. Still, I digress.
Queen: I sentence you to...I...sentence...What's going on? Where am I? What in the world am I doing? Confound it, I can't remember!
Goofy: Maybe somebody swiped her memory again.
Alice: Something's coming!
The Trickmaster. Second easiest boss in the game - just harder than Axel because he can put up a fight and you can't hit him easily - under normal conditions, and he still is for that matter. He technically has a whole two attacks, but he has three animations and can step on you because it's that tall. Other than standing on you, its attacks include:
Fire!
Quake!
And...
That's it. It has a third animation where it basically twirls its flaming batons but that does absolutely nothing.
In case it isn't already painfully obvious, Fire can be dodged by moving either up or down and Quake can be dodged by jumping. And this fight has a lot of jumping anyway. I think Trickmaster is supposed to be weak to Ice since that does extinguish his batons in Kingdom Hearts but it just deals the same mediocre damage here as it does against everything that isn't Fire elemental. (It's actual weakness would be Thunder Lightning, but the Thunder card can't be acquired until after finishing every early-game world.) And, of course, like every other boss he's immune to every status-type attack worth using; I just took this opportunity to prove it once with Gravity so that I don't have to again.
As for card values it can use, it could go up to a 7. I think I saw an 8 try and come up, but I broke it with a 9 immediately. Of course, since this isn't a Disney boss (well, technically it is but I don't want to get into that argument again) the Dinsey card is usable and it causes a giant table to generate in the middle of the room. This is more useful than it seems but be careful to get off it when its use is over since when Trickmaster removes it, it can damage you.
At this stage, this thing is more of an endurance match than challenging (I let it do some stuff for fairness since I did obliterate Hades and he's supposed to be the hardest in this portion of the game). The reward isn't worth it either way;
This enemy card is, without a doubt, one of the most useless - if not THE most useless - as its effect requires YOU to get cardbroken to work. In the event that this does happen, it reduces the value of the card that caused the break by a whole 1 point. If you do get broken, it's going to be either by a sleight (which can't be reduced) or a 0 (which also can't be reduced) so it's completely, fucking pointless. Boss cards!
Queen: What is the meaning of this? Where did that Heartless come from?
Well, I'd guess the ceiling since in Kingdom Hearts it does descend from there even though there's no sign of it when you're on the ceiling. So, hammerspace is a logical guess.
Queen: So, you refuse to answer? You're hiding something! They're plotting against me! Seize them immediately!
Alice: Please, Your Majesty, wait! It was you who commanded us to destroy the Heartless. Your Majesty, in her prudence, didn't trust us as first. So, at Your Majesty's command, we fought the Heartless to prove ourselves. Isn't that right, Sora?
Sora: We did? I, uh, mean, we did! Your, erm, Royaliness.
Queen: I...told you...to do that?
Alice: Don't you remember?
Queen: Don't be ridiculous! I never forget anything! Of course I gave the command. Alice, you did splendidly.
At this she leaves, leaving the troupe on their own.
Sora: Way to improvise! I never would've thought of that.
Alice: But the Cheshire Cat said as much. "Try too hard to remember and your memory might lie to you." The Queen would never admit she forgot, so she remembered something...that didn't happen.
Sora: ...
Alice: What is it?
Sora: I guess you'll be safe now.
Yeah, like I said, the only thing useful the Chesire Cat said was that one line and it didn't make a lick of sense until just now.
Now with this done, there's just Monstro left until I've run out of World Cards. In light of this, I'm going to be insane and let you guys choose my deck for Monstro for me (since my playstyle should be something you're aware of by now). The cards you can choose from are:
Three Wishes: 7
Pumpkinhead: 0, 1, 8, 9
Olympia: 5, 8
Lady Luck: 2, 3, 5
Kingdom Key (P): 6
Olympia (P): 6
Lady Luck (P): 2
Fire: 0, 8
Ice: 0, 6
Cure: 7, 8, 9, 9, 9
Gravity: 1, 9, 9
Stop: 1
Simba: 0, 6, 7
Genie: 8
Cloud: 2, 4
Ice (P): 3, 4, 5, 8
Cure (P): 4, 5
Simba (P): 2, 7
Genie (P): 2
Potion: 6, 7
Hi-Potion: 2, 6
Ether: 6
Shadow
Soldier
Red Nocturne
Blue Rhapsody
Search Ghost
Guard Armor
Trickmaster
Card Soldier
Hades
Jafar
Oogie Boogie
Note that (P) denotes a Premium card, the numbers given after a cards name are the values I have of it, cards without numbers are - obviously - enemy cards, and I have 800 CP (which allows for pretty much any plausible deck given the above cards and then some).
If you need a reminder of what anything does re the latter, or want to know the CP value of something ask away.
(And the update title is what I found myself saying after initially referring to the boss as Trickster and then realising it's not that, correcting it and realising where Trickster came from.)
Also, Differences between this and Re:CoM!
*A few doors in random rooms in Wonderland are blocked off, you need to search the room to find an evil flower and whack it a few times to remove the vines and open the way.
*Trickmaster is even easier.
Also, for a deck, I demand you do nothing but Fire Raid and Blizzard Raid + Blue Rhapsody and Red Nocturne.
Strangely enough, I don't actually have Fire Raid for some reason. I'll probably pick it up eventually; I have more Calm Bounties than I know what to do with >.>
Regardless, even with just Blizzard Raid I found how broken raid attacks are in regular battles. I gained two levels in mere minutes and have yet to take a hit; heck, my lowest combined value for one is still in the double digits so being card broken is pretty much a fleeting dream. The only minor concern I have with this deck is due to the way Element-Raid sleights are used, it drains your Magic cards in no time and, of course, Hi-Ethers/Elixirs aren't obtainable yet and regular Ethers are useless. This leaves me with no options left but to resort to my usual methods of wailing on the enemies until they die. I'm not complaining about this, since before long I'll have Ars Arcanum unlocked and I'll likely be able to spam that for a short while, but the catch here is with the nothing but Fire/Blizzard Raid (and respective boost enemy cards) restriction. Ordinarily, this deck on its own would be hilariously broken - spamming boosted Firaga/Blizzagas, easy Blitzes, full screen annihilation via the raids - but as is, I basically have to win entire fights in 5 hits. For the generic mooks, this won't be a problem in the slightest, but for any boss fights I encounter it won't be so simplistic* and I'll end up being unable to sleight before too long. I'm currently grinding MP to get more Blizzard/Fire cards (the latter for if/when I get Fire Raid) but it's tedious as hell since each magic pack costs 200 MP, and whilst mixed packs only cost 150 MP I seem to have even worse luck getting what I need out of them.
Tl;dr: Under the Elemental Raid only restriction, what do you suggest I should do if/when that becomes an impossibility? (For normal mooks, in this unlikely event I'd merely run even though I normally never run. Ever.)
*
E; Just so it's clear, I'm only asking because it's not something I'd normally do and it's not even my idea in the first place. Ordinarily, I'd just reload and laugh as the enemies die their usual deaths.
E2; I am literally just outside the boss room now, so... yeah. I think it's safe to say I'll probably go about it my normal way after running out of magic at the moment, but I'll probably stick a Cure (or 2) in my deck as well just to be on the safe side. Same with Hi-Potion. If I do it my normal way that is.
Part 15: Quirky Villains Union
Well, that sounds like someone we know (of) already. She actually hasn't even spoken yet, and won't do so for quite a while.
Sora: While we were all swimming at the beach, she'd draw a picture of it instead. Sometimes she drew us, too! She was really good at it. I think sometimes Riku and I would fight over who would get his picture drawn next. But one day, she was gone. Just like that. I think our parents knew the reason. They might've even tried to explain it to me. But I was little. I probably didn't understand what was happening. I remember crying a little after she was gone. But that's it. I still can't remember her name.
We're around halfway through the game, and the exceedingly long monologues have only just really began. We still don't even know who the main villain is after all, and considering the genre...
Jiminy: Anyone notice something odd? Sora's remembering things, instead of forgetting them. Hmm... Maybe forgetting things is the only way to reach the memories buried deeper down.
Sora: So it's like those black-robed guys said. "Our most precious memories lie deep in our hearts, out of reach." And all that stuff about losing being finding and finding being losing... I didn't get it at first, but maybe this is what they were talking about.
We found that out quite a while ago. The buzz word of this part of the floor is "repetition"!
Going up...
Hey, it's those guys again! It's a fair bet these are our villains (well, I'd say it's been obvious since we met Axel but details) but none of them has decided to take centre stage as of yet.
Axel: Let's see how far our boy will go, then. Think it's time for another round?
Larxene: Only if it's my turn to play. You had your fun on the first floor.
Larxene is, by far, my favourite antagonist in this game even though we don't really see her that much. She can be a complete dick, and she acts like this as basically a game but you do not want to fuck around with her. It's pretty obvious she's going to be our next plot boss.
Larxene: Fine. But who says I can't have my way with him first?
Axel: Don't break him.
Larxene: Do I detect a soft spot?
Axel: He's partly one of us.
Do not expect to find out what the hell he means with this, in this game. That's Kingdom Hearts II information.
Larxene: I'm not going to break the toy, Axel - just play with it. I'm not dumb.
Axel: Then you won't mind the warning. Remember, Sora is the key. We need him if we're going to take the Organization.
Larxene: So you're in on it, too? Well, keep it under your hood until the time is right.
Well, it appears like our currently known villains are not happy at all with their superiors. In-fighting within the villains is a shame, but most of these traitorous bastards deserve to die anyway. By that I mean all but two; Larxene is one, but Axel is not the other.
Oh and Larxene teleported away.
Dun dun dun.
Back with the party;
Sora: Nope. For whatever reason, her name's the only thing that isn't coming back.
We do learn mystery girl's name... eventually.
That said, next time is the only place we can go to:
I'm still open for deck suggestions. Same cards as before, only now with a 950 CP limit (since I've been using an Element Raid deck for the early parts of Monstro, and to call it broken is to call Larxene merely "cool". It is an understatement).
As for the obvious post-Monstro fight, I swapped a deck in just for that fight because fuck doing that with a gimmick deck regardless of how broken it is for mooks.
E; Unless said gimmick deck revolves around spamming a sleight I got straight after kicking that bosses arse. Of course, said sleight is horrendously broken against things technically stronger so, yeah.
Part 16: In the Belly of a [strike]Shark[/strike] Whale
It's so fucking cold, and so fucking dark. In the belly of a [strike]shark[/strike] whale.
I just love Sora's face in that portrait; he looks kind of like he wants to lick the walls or something.
(Incidentally, I was wrong about it being cold and dark. I guess that truly does apply to sharks. Go figure.)
Goofy: Nice and warm, too. I'm starting to feel like a nap.
One must wonder what feeling like a nap is like.
???: Shouldn't you be a little more worried? Don't you get it? You're inside the belly of Monstro the Whale.
Jiminy: Why, I know that voice...
Is it an old man? I think it's an old man. I bet it's an old man.
Oh, it's a child. Dammit.
Jiminy: You can't get away from me, son. I'm your conscience. Remember?
Pinocchio: Sure, Jiminy. I've been a good boy while you were gone. How did you end up inside Monstro, anyway?
Sora: We sort of used a special way...
Goofy: It's so special, we don't know how we did it!
Christ, this is like the 6th floor. You should know by now that it's world cards.
Pinocchio: That's too bad. I was hoping you could help me and Father get out of here.
Jiminy: Well, I'll be! Geppetto's here, too?
Pinocchio: Sure. Follow me!
That's the least reassuring confirmation possible. I think Pinocchio might secretly be evil.
...What? It makes sense!
Anyway, new enemies and stuff;
Tornado Step. It comes in a group of five, usually, and dies in a boosted Fire/Blizzard Raid.
Barrel Spiders are annoying as crap. They only have one attack and it instantly kills them but it can hurt a lot and you don't get any EXP out of it. Fortunately, they only use cards with a value of 6 so they're not that tough in the long run.
The rest is pretty much stuff that's in every single world in some form (Shadows, Large Bodies, Yellow/Green Elementals) and Search Ghosts.
As for the unique treasure?
Oh, hell yes! The fire version of Blizzard Raid.
And, of course, one last thing on the way to the next room;
I can't say I've ever used this before since the only summon worth a crap is Cloud, and you'd be hard pressed to want to use Aero and Gravity in the same deck anyway. Incidentally, this shows how overlevelled I am, since we don't get Aero cards for quite a while.
Second Premium Bonus; another Blizzard card. I have more Premium Blizzards than I know what to do with.
Watch out, man! You're a part of the plot this time!
In Kingdom Hearts 1, Monstro had to be entered but didn't need to be finished. It was 100% optional; you didn't even need to do anything beyond entering and you could go on ahead. Here, it was put in. Instead of Deep Jungle. I cannot even begin to fathom why.
However, in Kingdom Hearts 1, finishing Monstro was beneficial as it was the requirement to open up Geppetto's "shop" wherein meeting certain requirements would net you free Gummi Ship blueprints.
Geppetto: Bless my soul, it's Jiminy Cricket! How did you get here?
Jiminy: You tell me! How does a clockmaker wind up in the belly of a whale?
Geppetto: Well, it's a long story...
Cue mandatory fade to black.
Donald: So you sailed out to look for Pinocchio...
Goofy: ...and Monstro swallowed you!
Really. The game sums it up in two lines, and thinks this requires a fade to black to indicate a passage of time hinting at an epic tale but... Japaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
Geppetto: Well, it was worth it, because I found my son.
Sora: But now you can't get out, can you? It must be awful being stuck inside Monstro.
Geppetto: There's nothing better than being reunited with someone you care about.
He's made of wood. That's just a little weird.
Sora: I feel the same way.
Geppetto: I don't care if I'm trapped here, so long as I have Pinocchio.
Sora: Speaking of which... Where is he?
Geppetto: I expect he's off exploring. That boy has been poking around just about every square inch of Monstro. He won't tell me why it's so important. I tell him it's dangerous, but he won't listen.
That's weird; he won't tell his own father but he told us in the world's introduction.
Sora: You want us to find him, right? C'mon guys, let's get going!
On the way to the next plot door...
So, I missed the screencap of the original acquisition, since I wasn't really paying attention (although I didn't need to). Regardless, this proves I got it and saves me explaining it. That said, I wouldn't use this unless the reload counter got to "3" and even then there's better alternatives.
Useful! This is one of those aforementioned better alternatives. What it does, is an automatic reload when you run out of cards, and any sleighted count as being in stock so if you want to hold on to a sleight whilst reloading it wastes a reload (it lasts for 3 reloads).
It's the puppet! In a room with one platform... and lots of acid. Must be the stomache.
Jiminy: Pinocchio, you naughty boy! You know Geppetto worries when you wander off by yourself.
Sora: What are you doing, anyway? Looking for something?
Christ, Sora. He told us not that long ago he wants to find a way out. Keep up.
Pinocchio: I'm looking for treasure!
No you're not, and - of course - it's obvious when he's lying.
Jiminy: Here we go again!
Goofy: Now, don't be so hard on the little fella. We promise not to get mad, Pinocchio. Is that why you're afraid to tell? No need to fret. Tell us the truth - we'll understand. Put yer trust in Goofy!
Pinocchio: I was looking for a way out. Father says he's happy, but it's my fault we're stuck here. I shouldn't have run away from home. I want to help Father get home to the workshop. But he'll worry if I tell him what I'm doing.
Jiminy: So that's why you had to lie.
Donald: All you need now is courage! Tell Geppetto the truth. If you tell him how you really feel, I bet he'll help you find a way out.
And thus the redemption begins.
Sora: We'll give you a hand!
Pinocchio: Really? Okay, I'll give it a try! Wish me luck, Jiminy!
Jiminy: No more keeping secrets, then. Have we got a deal?
Pinocchio: Sure! I'll be brave and tell Father how I really feel. No lies this time!
This is supposed to be a... quake... inside the stomache of a whale.
Donald: I got a bad feeling!
Jiminy: Pinocchio, run for it!
This can't end well. This won't end well.
...But it's only the second plot room. Aversion!
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/6762/capture12122009031644.png
Meet Parasite Cage. He's sorta hard, not because he's a hard fight but because the floor is made out of fucking acid and it hurts, for like 1 HP every four seconds or something. It's easy to get sort of stuck in it though so it racks up pretty fast, well fast-ish.
See! It hurts!
Other attacks:
This leads to him smashing the ground and it causes a mini-quake. See: Trickmaster for a, somehow, more effective version of this. Yes, really.
Spitting stomache acid at Sora! Illogically, this doesn't cause instant death. It doesn't really hurt either.
(Since it seems to have been forgotten; card reward contains link to the video)
Very useful enemy card. Causes a guaranteed break to the opponent's card. I probably won't use it though, since it's basically a weaker Zantetsuken.
Oh, yeah, in case you can't tell Parasite Cage is eating Pinocchio. Kind of. He's supposed to be in the thing's stomache... cage... mouth... area... but in the fight PCage opens his gaping maw wide at least once and Pinocchio's not there at all.
Sora: Pinocchio, be brave! Don't give up! Try fighting your way out!
Pinocchio Be brave... Okay, I'll try!
Is... is it just me, or is his nose even longer now?
Pinocchio: Don't worry, I'm okay. Just a little sticky... But I have a great idea! The Heartless spit me out when I started struggling. Why don't we try the same thing with Monstro?
The idea of being a little sticky after being inside something...
Sora: Of course! If we're lucky, Monstro might cough us up!
Donald: Great idea! Let's go deeper and try it!
That's really not helping...
Pinocchio: I'm goi-
Jiminy: No, it's too dangerous. You should be with Geppetto. No use escaping from Monstro if you two get seperated again!
Pinocchio: I guess you're right. Be careful, everybody!
Nothing exciting happens between here and the next room, but I do reach level 36. This is important.
I think this is new? I don't really remember, any more. It's different to the normal stuff at least.
Basically, in here, is aout 3 lines of forgettable dialogue and the only time we see the worst gimmick in the game. It really is easier to describe visually, so I made a video;
Oh. And we got Dumbo's card. Another useless summon to add to the pile labelled "NOT CLOUD". I swear there'll be a point where I use these, but I'll be damned if it's either not-ironically or not in (a) bonus video(s) where I do it for the sake of showing off everything.
Mini-quake. Again.
Goofy: Where's Pinocchio and his dad?
Jiminy: They're gone. They must've gotten out safely.
Sora: Without you? I thought there was no escaping your conscience!
Jiminy: I don't mine being left behind, as long as they're both safe. Maybe Pinocchio doesn't need me after all. That little puppet used to have trouble telling right from wrong. But he's come a long way. Maybe he doesn't need Jiminy Cricket anymore. Maybe he's better off without me nagging him all the time...
Sora: Don't you remember what Geppetto said? "There's nothing better than being reunited with someone you care about." I bet Pinocchio's counting the days till he can see you again.
And on that d'aww note, the mood whiplash that is Monstro ends.
Next time; beating the first genuinely difficult boss of the game! And fuck using this deck for that; it's a good deck, sure, but it's not that good.
Unlike normal, there's someone waiting here for us. I'm show you remember who it is; it's not like it was made obvious at the previous floor or anything.
Hey, it's Larxene. I'm sure you can guess what this means as well, and how exceptionally fun it may or may not be.
Larxene: Ooh, aren't you clever? The name's Larxene. Are you enjoying your stay in Castle Oblivion? I bet it's nice to peel all the worthless memories away...and awaken the true memories that lie deep in your heart. But you're still forgetting something, aren't you, Sora? The most importnt thing. When that poor girl hears you've forgotten her name, she'll be heartbroken.
Sora: You know her?! Is she...here?
Larxene: U-huuuuh. The bad guys are holding her deep within the castle. And you, the hero, have to go save her. Sadly, there's a catch...
Cue ridiculously short FMV. It's like 5 seconds long.
That charm... it was a plot point of Kingdom Hearts 1. Even if it does look different to the one he got then. Of course, Larxene attacked during cutscene so she had an unfair disadvantage; at least, or maybe annoyingly, it wasn't a quick time event.
Sora: What's...that? Is that mine?
Larxene: Tsk, tsk. You've been wearing it all this time, and you forgot? No, you couldn't have. The memory is engraved in your heart. Now think, Sora. What, oh what, could it be? Who gave it to you?
Nami? That contradicts my memory of the events, but I'm sure Sora knows better since he's remembering these things. Maybe I'm forgetting things as we go through the castle as well.
Larxene: That's right! Free the memory from your heart!
Sora: Nami...Naminé.
Larxene: Well, it's about time. That's right...She's the one that gave you the cheesy good luck charm. Not that you remembered. No surprise, seeing as you forgot her NAME. Talk about heartless! It'd serve you right if I smashed this piece of junk!
I can see where this is going to lead. Most people hate the conclusion of this, but I for one love it.
Sora: Don't you touch it! It's precious to me!
Larxene: Precious? Spare me! Ten seconds ago you didn't even know what it was!
Cue the boss fight! To a lot of people, this is that one boss - especially on Re CoM apparantly - but I don't find it that bad any more. On the first playthrough, though, this fight is very difficult since you don't know what to expect. You could guess her element easily, but she has no weaknesses. Regardless...
The reward for kicking her ass?
But, I got something far more satisfying than a mediocre spell card out of this fight as well...
This is, by far, one of the most broken sleights in the entire game... if not the most broken one. As long as you keep your deck kept up to date, you can one shot every random encounter with this one sleight. The only drawback to it, is the low numeric combination needed but that can be easily circumvented with two 0s and a 6 which is the most sane way of doing so anyway.
Sora: Who asked you?!
Larxene: Does it hurt 'cause it's true? Grow up. If you're going to be a baby, then here - play with these. They're more cards made from your memories. Say "thank you" like a good boy. Ta-ta!
Atlantica, Hundred Acre Wood, Neverland and Hollow Bastion are now available. One of these, is not like the rest.
Sora: Wait, Larxene! Where are you? Don't you dare hide from me! Show yourself!
Goofy: Sora?
Sora: I hate her. It's not fair that sge's the one who made me remember...
Moving on.
Back with the Organisation, I see.
Axel: Throwing the battle? Looks to me like you plain old lost the battle.
Larxene: H-How dare you?! You just don't appreciate the finer nuances of -
Axel: Can we help you, Vexen? It's not very often we see you topside.
Possibly the second best character of the main story, Vexen is an interesting individual as he, well, seems to prefer being on the sidelines more than going on the offense which seems unlike an Organisation member based on what has been seen so far, i.e. Axel and Larxene fighting Sora as soon as it was logically possible.
Vexen: I came to lend a hand. I remain unconvinced of any potential in this "hero" you've been coddling. Perhaps an experiment would put my doubts to rest.
Larxene: I knew this would happen. Everything's an experiment with you.
Vexen: I'm a scientist. Experimentation is what I do.
Axel: Whatever. Do what you want. But cut the act. Testing Sora is just an excuse to test your little follower.
Vexen: I'll have you know he's the product of much research.
Hmm... this would be something interesting. Probably not, though, but it could be.
Axel: Have your fun. But take this with you. A wild card to keep the game fresh.
Jeez, that was an awful, awful pun. Really, trite.
Axel: Now don't tell me I don't respect my elders.
Vexen: I dare say I won't.
Vexen's follower? But that looks like someone important to the "plot". Hrm...
Sora: We don't have time! They've got Naminé. We have to rescue her!
Goddammit Sora. It wasn't that long ago, you didn't even remember who she was and was angsting over her name and before that you were having angstgasms over Riku! Have you forgotten him, inspite of what you said near the beginning?
Goofy: Sora sure seems worked up.
Donald: Can you blame him? After all this time, he finally remembers her... only to find out she's being held prisoner!
Goofy: Good point. If we heard the king was in danger, we'd be upset, too.
They remember their king, but Sora seemingly doesn't remember his best friend? Oblivion must be damaging his memory more than theirs for some reason. It is the only logical conclusion.
Next time:
or
or
or
Which one? I don't know. You tell me!
Well, it's a kind of awesome name, but it's got some major plot importance in Kingdom Hearts 1. It's set up as being the final world, and it feels like a final world; you even have two fights with the character touted as being the main villain up to this point as well as a few other fights that, sadly, are omitted from this world. Regardless, it is an awesome world in that respect that isn't quite as good here but it's still pretty fun.
Oh, I could hazard a guess. Unlike normal, here the camera pans over to said voices so no silhouette portraits this time.
[img]http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/3797/capture18122009000009.png[/img Jeez, what a bitch. To think she's supposed to have a pure heart, and she does something like this.[/img]Belle: It doesn't matter anyway. I'm not going back with you, so you're wasting your time.
Beast: Have you lost your mind? How can you stay here with that witch?
Belle: I've nothing more to say. Now leave, before Maleficent finds you.
Maleficent? I might not be some kind of Disney lore master, but I'm certain she was the antagonist in Sleeping Beauty. Regardless, she is, for the most part, the main antagonist in KH1 but not truly. Apparantly, her original world is not Hollow Bastion, but rather Enchanted Dominion (which doesn't actually exist in any games thus far but it'll probably be in Birth By Sleep). This actually makes sense, since Hollow Bastion is the home world of... the Final Fantasy characters from Traverse Town.
Beast: Belle...why?
Sora: I'm not sure what's going on, but...is everything okay?
Beast: Keep your sympathy. No one could ever care for a beast like me.
You'd expect him to be some kind of hardass, but no such luck.
Regardless, there's a lot of new things to be discovered.
Defenders. Defenders are the first of many new enemies Hallow Bastion brings and are one of the most annoying. You can only attack them from behind, normally, but as soon as you get behind them without stunning them, they will automatically turn around. Want to blast them with Fire/Blizzard raid? No such luck as they're immune to Fire and Ice. Want to cheaply one shot them with Ars Arcanum? I'm sure you do, but they have 9s. Fuck Defenders.
Comparatively, Wyvern's aren't that bad. They don't have cards which can break your broken sleights, but they are the first enemy that will actively try and stunlock you and everytime it happens you lose just over 1/3 of your max HP (provided your HP is still at the minimum of course). Despite this, they're pretty simple and go down in no time.
Dark Ball... there really isn't anything to say about these guys. They were a bit annoying in Kingdom Hearts 1 since they liked to basically teleport around whilst being unhittable but here they are really, really nerfed. They can actually use 6s, but it seldom seems to happen.
Wizards... Wizards are Green Requiems only much, much more annoying. Unlike Green Requiems, they won't just heal - heck they won't heal period - but they do like to fly out of the way of an Ars Arcanum and then throw a 7 at you. In mid animation. It's more annoying when you don't even know they are there. Unlike Defenders, however, you can render this a moot point by using a Feeble Darkness map card (-2 from the value of every card the enemy uses) but it's annoying when you don't want to do this, or can't. However, that doesn't change their most annoying aspect: they are immune to Gravity. This might not sound too bad, however Gravity spells are the most convenient way of preventing an enemy from hitting you since the damage animation lasts longer than Stop's effect. Or at least feels like it.
Speaking of Wizards, the first encounter I had with one netted me this:
This must be the easiest enemy card to get that doesn't belong to a boss since I got like 5 of these things without even trying to get any. Its effect is pretty crap too; it prevents you from using summon cards to power up regular ol' magic. Could be useful in a deck where you have no summons, but it's still not worth using unless you need desperate healing and can't Curaga or something.
I'm not done with these yet though:
A pretty good effect, that's worth using in some of the end game boss fights but it still leaves you vulnerable. Best used at the very, very beginning of a fight (or after you run out of items), since it allows you to restock (or "recharge") your deck without the amount of charges needed increasing.
As for the Calm Bounty treasure?
Cross-Slash+. No prizes for guessing one of the cards required here.
The Stop card is simple; this is just regular ol' Cross-Slash (two Clouds) with the original effect it had of stopping the enemy for a while. Since Stop lasts for such a pisspoor time, this sleight isn't really worth using.
Fortunately, there is one more treasure you can get here...
It's like Strike Raid only better/worse. I've only ever used it once, and that was by accident because I forgot I had it, and it doesn't appear like it stuns enemies unlike Strike Raid however, it can cover the whole screen so it's got a potentially higher damage output.
No, I couldn't guess why Cloud is the only card that needs to be used.
Oh, whilst I remember I did get one more thing...
The only "Key to..." you can get from a regular fight, it's important because it's the only one that can be taken between worlds as well. You can only acquire it from Floor 7 upwards; don't try opening floor 7 and then heading back to Traverse Town; you won't get one from it. This key is the second rarest post battle drop and you'll only need to get a few of them, but each and every world has one room which requires this to get in. Inside that room, is a unique treasure that you absolutely cannot get anywhere else until you've got it once. In ReCom, however, they have another use. Using it on certain worlds after finishing the game allows you to get unique enemy cards representing certain enemies that weren't in this game but were in KH2. I probably won't use the KtR immediately, since they take forever to get when you actively try, but I'll use at least one eventually.
Outside of multiplayer (yes, there's a versus multiplayer. It's presumably shit unless you have two max HP/CP Sora's duking it out with overpowered sleights), this card is completely fucking useless. It prevents your opponent from seeing the cards in your deck. They can, logically, still see the cards when you use them so why would you even want to use this?
Lastly, a very... different enemy.
Black Mushrooms can only be encountered in one specific room type which spawns only them. Don't try fighting them to grind; it's useless since they give a meagre 10 exp each and they are more hassle than 10 exp is worth. They can be encountered at pretty much any point after Traverse Town but the relevant room cards are ungodly rare until this point and they are buggers to fight normally. The most convenient way to fight them is to just spam Ars Arcanum since, otherwise, they may make themselves invincible - which doesn't require a card for them to do so - and then proceed to stunlock you to death. All good things have a flaw, however, since they could go invincible just before the first strike hits... or one behind you, and there almost definitely will be one behind you, will use a 7 breaking the Arcanum and then stunlock Sora.
Just before the last plot door, I did manage to get my hands on this...
Now the game is even moreso my bitch than every before. There's just one little catch however...
It requires a Mega-Ether and a Megalixir to be sleighted - in that order - to be activated. Short of outright cheating, this can't be used until end-game because of the Megalixir (I don't even have access to a regular Elixir yet).
Anyway, there's no dicking around left to be had so it's off to the plot.
I just realised how retarded Goofy's walking animation can look.
...No?
Sora: Uh...not exactly. It's a long story. Hey, wait a sec... So you've been kidnapped? You don't want to be here?
Belle: That witch, Malefucent, forced me to come here. I have no one to talk to. Books are all I have to ease my loneliness. And then there's him...Oh, I've missed him to much.
Hey, books are awesome. There's a lot of cool places that you can only get to via books. I wonder if she's re- ahem, moving on.
Goofy: You mean the best? You were so mean to him before.
Sora: You really huty his feelings.
Belle: You don't understand. I can't let him see how I really feel. It's just that - Oh no, she's coming! Hide, quickly! There's no time to explain. Hide yourselves! Now!
All their walking animations look silly now. Aside from maybe Donald's, but I can't see it so I'm not sure.
She means Beast, and not Sora. Although in the given context, it could have been either.
Maleficent: He risked his life to come and save you. Why do you reject him?
Belle: I won't ask for his help. I'm not going to fall into your trap!
Maleficent: Then I have no choice but to make you BEG for his help!
Well, it looks like it's time to track down the villain rather than run away from them or have them crowbarred in at the end to make sense. This world is definitely my favourite of the first two sets due to the characterisation if nothing else.
Moogle shops are updated it seems. There's barely any difference in the more expensive shops, but you have slightly better chances of getting rarer cards.
Moving on...
Belle: No! I won't let you hurt him!
Maleficent: Then I shall make you scream! The fool will come running the moment he hears your cries.
She really is a good villain... for a Disney character that is. She actually has some competency unlike most of the others. Chernabog is the most awesome though,
Sora: The Beast isn't the only one you have to deal with!
Maleficent: Begone, boy. You have no business here. Unless, of course, you wish to join in the screaming! Yes... When the brute hears your shrieks of terror, he'll come right to me!
As good as this plan is, the real flaw in it, is that Beast has no reason to rush to the aid of Sora.
Sora doesn't know what the fuck.
Belle: You came! No! You mustn't! I told you to leave this place! Leave me alone! I never want to see your face again!
I like exclamation marks! They are really fun! Useful too! Also, 180-degree personality change, right there!
Also, incoming lengthy ass monologue.
Beast: All right. If that's how you feel, I understand. My hideous form is punishment for being selfish and unable to love. Transformed into a monster, loved by no one, I only became more selfish. And then I met you. You're the only person who accepted me. Little by little, you warmed my cold, selfish heart. The memories of our days together are my most precious. I won't cast them aside. So I'm sorry, but I can't leave you here...even if you hate me for it. Consider it my final selfish act.
This feels even longer in the game since it drags on and on and on and on and on and on.
Maleficent: Well, well. I never dreamed such ugliness could hide so beautiful a heart. This calls for a change of plan. Beast, I shall claim your heart instead of Belle's!
And Sora just stands there watching. Some hero he is.
Maleficent: Well, so much for the change of plan. Belle's heart it is. It seems her cold words spoke little of her true feelings. Ha ha ha, she loves you! I can feel it shining in her heart!
Beast: You fiend! Release Belle's heart at once!
Maleficent runs away like a scaredy-bitch at this point. If this were Kingdom Hearts 1, you'd fight her right about now.
Sora: She went that way! That's the way the shadows fled.
Donald: We gotta go after them right away!
Beast: You'd help me?
Goofy: You bet!
Sora: Let's go get Belle's heart back!
At this point, Beast's friend card becomes usable. It's basically the same as Goofy's only a bit more powerful.
I guess that it's time to "cr0wn" a witch.
Maleficent: As your reward, I'll tell you why Belle rejected you. My dark magic requires hearts of utmost beauty. Belle was perfect. Deep in her heart, her love for you shone with uncommon radiance. But she guessed my plans. By denying her love for you, she put her heart beyond my reach.
So Belle wasn't being a bitch after all. She was being caring.
...What the hell Jupiter?
Beast: But she saved me! She protected me!
Sora: She couldn't hide how she really felt...
Beast: Release her heart, Maleficent!
Maleficent: Hm hm hm...
Beast: Witch! Do not try my patience!
Maleficent: Don't you realize why I am telling you this? Did you think it was oout of kindness? I did it to erase your doubts. Now your heart is beginning to shine with love for Belle. The perfect fuel for my dark magic! I shall have your heart, too, monster!
No prizes for guessing where this is going to lead.
Sora: Not if we stop you!
Maleficent: You dare to challenge me? Pitififul fools!
A useless-useful card. It boosts the strength of attack cards, but it makes your deck take longer to recharge.
Killing Dragon Maleficent released Belle's heart... somehow. I don't know how, and it's probably best that way.
Beast: Belle!
Belle: Please forgive me. I had to be cruel to you. But I guess I couldn't hide my true feelings...
Beast: I'm the one who should apologize. For just a moment, I doubted your love. I never want to remember those feelings of despair.
Belle: Then don't. Let's replace the sad memories with happier ones - starting now.
Sora: We'd better give them some privacy.
There's just one last thing to do before the end of this update:
All the current Key to Rewards... rewards.
Traverse Town:
A keyblade that's stronger than almost everything available at this point (it matches Hollow Bastion's keyblade - Divine Rose - in terms of strength) but unlike all the others which have an element of Physical, it's a Fire elemental card. This can be a bugger if the target is immune to fire (see: Defender) or absorbs it (see: Green Requiem).
In Re:CoM, if you've completed the post game content, a unique enemy card can be found here as well: the card of Saïx, an Organisation member introduced in Kingdom Hearts II. The card has an effect of Combo Boost, which is a useful ability as it increases the strength of attack cards with each hit in a combo.
Olympus Colisseum:
Whilst it doesn't have the same base power as Lionheart, it's also different from the rest of the keyblade cards in that it has no element at all. Not even Physical. The journal lists it as Neutral.
Halloween Town:
Just like the other raids, only with Gravity instead of an element. I guess it could be useful, but it'd be pretty limited in its uses.
Agrabah:
I have never been inclined to use this so I have no idea how useful it is. I'd have to presume it had some degree of decent use other wise it wouldn't be in a KtR room.
Conveniently, as is the case with Traverse Town, in ReCoM completion of the post game allows another unique enemy card to be acquired here: Luxord. Another Organisation member introduced in Kingdom Hearts II. What he does, is the same as Parasite Cage... only much more usful. It essentially makes all your cards a 0 as its effect (All-Break) makes it so that you always break the enemies cards. Again, a very useful ability.
Wonderland:
Another Raid ability, only it's the worst one yet. Whilst this would be nice if Stop was worth using, as it is it's just utter crap.
In ReCoM, however, once again completion of the post game allows another enemy card to be acquired in this room: Xemnas. Once again, an Organisation member introduced in Kingdom Hearts II; Xemnas' effect - Quick Barrier - isn't quite as useful as the previous two as it presumes you're fighting an enemy with the ability to combo and that said enemy will try and do so as it guards against the second hit in the combo.
Monstro:
The biggest problem I have with this ability, is that you need to sleight a Blizzard card and then a Fire card and then an Aero card (of course, it can be argued that the application of an Aero card is a damper on its use in and of itself), as the order is important. If you were to do the Fire card first, for example, it would just use the three spells rather than Aqua Splash.
Ironically, in ReCoM completion of the post game will allow you to get Xaldin's card here. Xaldin's card has the exact same effect as Aero, only it can last until you game over or for even less time than the spell card as it has an attack duration... of 3 attacks. Ironic because the sleight requires Aero and the same room hands you an enemy card that's even more of a useless-useful version of the same effect.
Hollow Bastion:
Another summon card than can be added to the growing pile of "Not Cloud". I can't really rag on Mushu like the others, because his effect is pretty much unchanged from the original but it's a bit less useful now than it was then.
Another unique enemy card can be acquired here, in ReCoM, after the completion of the post-game: Xigbar. His effect, Shot Charge, powers up the strength of anything that is considered a projectile attack. This includes sleights. Fire, Blizzard, Strike Raid etc. are all increased in strength by this one card. Very useful indeed.
Of course, this just leaves the matter of the next world to go to: Hundred Acre Woods, Never Land or Atlantica?
Once again, something is up at the very end of the floor. There's been a very minor amount of foreshadowing as to what this something is. If you guessed, you get a cookie. If you already knew, you get bupkis.
Sora's putting on his O-face already. Only one person is able to make him feel "this" way...
His "best friend", Riku, who Sora would apparantly rather date than be mere friends with. He's having a goddamn orgasm just by looking at the guy!
...No sign of the king though. Something must be up.
Riku: Let me know if I'm getting in the way of something more important.
Sora: No, of course not! I only meant -
Despite his ever-so-blatant crush on the guy, he did basically forget about him... but then again, there is nothing more important than Riku to Sora. Nothing.
Riku: Spare me. I bet you'd all but forgotten about me.
Sora: Are you crazy? I came all this way because I was LOOKING for YOU!
Riku: But not any more, right? Now it's Naminé this, Naminé that. You don't care about me any more than you care about how Naminé feels.
Sora: What's that supposed to mean?
Riku: Never even gave it a though, did you? Just 'cause you want to see Naminé doesn't mean it goes both ways. Naminé doesnt even want to look at you.
Sora: Why not?!
Riku: Ask your memories. If you bothered to remember why Naminé left the islands...
Looks like he's trying to get Sora to pack for a guilt-trip. It'll probably work actually, so it's a clever plan.
Riku: Go home, Sora. I can take care of Naminé. Anyone who goes near her...
Riku: ...goes through me!
Sora: What's your problem?! We finally find each other and you do this!
Sora is ever-so-blatantly in love with the guy. I wish I was making this up. I really do.
Riku: Since when have you cared about me? She's not the only one who's sick of you!
Fighting With Riku
The music does seem like it's trying to make you feel sad about the whole thing... at first. But it doesn't really succeed. Also: Aero. Hurray for even more useless spells. Aero was just as useless in Kingdom Hearts 1, and Aeroga was the (technically) hardest spell to even get. It was not worth the effort.
Apparantly, he is so prideful that losing to Sora makes him at a loss for words.
And, of course, he runs off like a chicken-bitch. Literally in this case. None of the other villains have made their getaways on foot.
Apparantly Sora realises this too, and runs after him.
Goofy: Sora, as you okay?
Sora: Forget about me. What's happened to Riku?
Like I said, I'm not even making up his infatuation with the guy.
Jiminy: It's almost as if the Heartless were controlling him again.
Sora: No way! Ansem got to him once, but Ansem's history. We saw to that.
Bastards destroyed Mensa! If anything proves Sora's lack of intelligence, it must be that.
...That was bad. I'm so sorry.
Donald: Hold on...Isn't the king supposed to be with Riku? If something's happened to Riku, then the king might be in danger!
Sora: Yeah...
Jiminy: Hey, Riku is still your friend, and that's no mistake. I know he said some awful things to you back there. But don't forget - we're in Castle Oblivion. People lose their memory a little bit at a time. Riku's probably forgotten that he and you were friends. That's all.
Oh, how easy it is to forget inside Castle Oblivion indeed. You seem to have not realised this, yet, but that directly contradicts what was said earlier in the game. More specifically: that you'll never forget your friends! And let's not forget so suddenly what Riku said mere moments ago; he testified that it was Sora who had forgotten their friendship and not the other way around!
Sora: So, it's not that he doesn't like me-he just forgot?
Jiminy: That'd be my guess. So instead of being sad, let's figure out a way to make Riku remember. It's not like you to mope. Let's work together and get through this.
Hey, listen to me dammit! My logic is flawless I tell you. Flawless!
Sora: Yeah...okay.
Donald: No, no, NO! That's not what the Keyblade master should sound like!
Sora: Huh? Okay, how's this then...
Now this I would like to see.
Regardless, next time:
The worst world in the entire game. Joy of joys.
Do I really have to do this world? Yes? Dammit!
This world is the best/worst in the game. It's entirely optional, but it must be done. There's nothing to fight, and you don't even have to do what's inside it if you really don't want to.
Oh, sure, it starts off as innocent as possible. A cute "wikkle" teddy wandering back and forth, but beneath this visible cuteness lies the evils of this level. And there are many of them.
Sora: Are they here? It looks like nobody's here.
Bear: So I guess I'm looking for nobody. I keep looking, but I'm getting nowhere. All this searching is making me hungry. I wonder if there's a bit of honey around here. But if I start eating I'll have to stop searching...
Sora: Why don't we look for your friends together? They might be around here. Let's find them together.
No, Sora! Don't do it! You're making a deal with the devil!
Bear: Are you looking for my friends too?
Sora: No, but I'm looking for some friends of my own.
Bear: Are they Pooh's friends? Now, just a minute... I'm Pooh, not you.
Sora: That's right! My friends are different from your friends. But I know what it's like to miss your friends. So, why don't we look for them together?
Pooh: That sounds perfect.
This entire world is one giant minigame. You get a bunch of rewards out of it, but only one is even worth a damn. And, of course, it's tried to be made as hard as it can possibly be; about half the time, if not more, Pooh will completely ignore you and when he does decide to follow you he takes forever since he moves unbearably slowly. This is basically a fucking escort mission. Only without the fun.
The jar in the topright corner is Pooh's "HP". It depletes over time, and is refilled by letting him waste time eating a jar of honey. If you let him stand around long enough, he'll fall asleep and that won't cause his "HP" to be depleted thankfully.
Moving on...
Most of the time, when you want him to get one of the jars you have to lure him there but if you try and follow the level normally, he'll head towards one of hiw own accord.
The first reward you'll get if obtained from this... guy.... thing. Unlike all the others, but one, it doesn't require any special tasks to be done to be acquired. Just keep walking,
Thing: I-I-I'm nobody. You needn't pay me any mind!
Sora: You're not Pooh's friend?
Thing: N-N-N-No! Um, oh, no, I mean, I'm not NOT Pooh's friend... I'm...
Pooh: Why, hello there, Piglet.
That thing has a name?
Piglet: Oh! It's you, Pooh! I'm so relieved... I finally found someone! I got seperated from the others. I was so worried, I didn't know what to do.
Sora: That explains why you were so fidgety.
Actually, it doesn't. It really, really, doesn't. That's just... Piglet... being him/her/itself.
Pooh: Why don't you come look with us to look for the rest of our friends?
Piglet: What? Oh my, I don't know... Hm... What should I do...
Sora: Guess he doesn't want to come. Let's go, Pooh.
Piglet: Oh! Wait! I found something strange in the bushes. I wouldn't know what to do with it. You can have it.
Well, since the regular menu is inaccesible in this world, what this needs etc. will have to be saved until later.
Now, I might be doing this world, but there's only one thing that's even worth a damn in it so I'm going to skip all the crap (for now at least) and just head to there:
This hole is the most important thing. Luring Pooh into it it required, but also pretty difficult, because as you can see... there's a fucking honey pot/jar/whatever in the way. Dammit Pooh. Move your fat arse into this hole already!
Once you get him in there, he floats out... with balloons... and a little kangaroo holding on for dear life. What?
Yeah? Great. I really don't care though.
Roo: I was so busy waiting for Tigger to come along! Then when Tigger fell in the hole, why there I'd be! He'd be so surprised! Doesn't it sound fun?
Pooh: I think Tigger would bounce right over the hole.
Roo: To tell the truth, I was getting a little lonely and tired of waiting for him to fall in.
So why not jump out then? Common sense does nary a story have, it seems.
Sora: Instead of waiting, why don't you see if you can find him?
Roo: You're right! That's a great idea! By the way, I found this in the hole. Why don't you take it?
The only reward worth a damn is this. It's also one of the only item cards even worth using. It restocks all available Weapon and Magic cards. Very useful indeed.
Eventually...
You'll make it to the end of the level, and the peasants will rejoice.
Sora: So what do you think, Pooh? Wasn't it more fun looking for friends together?
Pooh: Yes...you were right, Sora. I'd like you to have this, with my thanks.
It's a Bambi card. Not particularly worth using, but it's something at least. The elixir is the true reward, however.
Pooh: Whew...I've walked so far, I think I need a little rest. If only I had a nice pot of honey to keep me company...
Sora: Well, I'd better be going. I've gotta keep looking for my friends.
Pooh: You mean...this is goodbye?
Sora: No way! I'll always know where to find you. If I don't forget...
Pooh: Don't worry, Sora. You can count on me. Even if you forget Pooh, I won't forget you.
Next time: plot. And maybe another world. But which one? Atlantica or Never Land?