Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix+ (Secret ending available!)

Blackjack

I.H.N.I.W.T.R. wrote:

I am not saying it was a bad game. Not at all. But it was terrible when compared to the first. The, and I say this with great reluctance, gay obsession with Riku, the strewn together plot, the six hour tutorial ( six! hour! tutorial! ) and the terrible dubbing

Yeah, 'cause none of that was in the first one. :roll:

Indie Winter

Blackjack wrote:

I.H.N.I.W.T.R. wrote:

I am not saying it was a bad game. Not at all. But it was terrible when compared to the first. The, and I say this with great reluctance, gay obsession with Riku, the strewn together plot, the six hour tutorial ( six! hour! tutorial! ) and the terrible dubbing

Yeah, 'cause none of that was in the first one. :roll:

Tutorial was long, but not as long and not nearly as tedious. The focus of the game was to bring his friends back, but that was just the main premise. Sora's search for Riku in KH2 borders on the obsessive ( he cries when he holds the guys hand. I am well aware of Japan's love for touchy and emotional characters, but that's pushing it, even for them ), the plot was clear to understand, cohesive and with a surprising amount of depth to it. The dubbing, while not the best I've ever heard, was more than bearable, and the translation was decent as well. Let me repeat what I said in my original post:

They got Gilbert fucking Gottfried to suggest that a cartoon character has a secret girlfriend.

That is not something that should be forgiven or forgotten, no matter what other run-of-the-mill translation errors may pass in the porting process.

Unco-ordinated

I.H.N.I.W.T.R. wrote:

Blackjack wrote:

I.H.N.I.W.T.R. wrote:

I am not saying it was a bad game. Not at all. But it was terrible when compared to the first. The, and I say this with great reluctance, gay obsession with Riku, the strewn together plot, the six hour tutorial ( six! hour! tutorial! ) and the terrible dubbing

Yeah, 'cause none of that was in the first one. :roll:

Tutorial was long, but not as long and not nearly as tedious. The focus of the game was to bring his friends back, but that was just the main premise. Sora's search for Riku in KH2 borders on the obsessive ( he cries when he holds the guys hand. I am well aware of Japan's love for touchy and emotional characters, but that's pushing it, even for them ), the plot was clear to understand, cohesive and with a surprising amount of depth to it. The dubbing, while not the best I've ever heard, was more than bearable, and the translation was decent as well. Let me repeat what I said in my original post:

They got Gilbert fucking Gottfried to suggest that a cartoon character has a secret girlfriend.

That is not something that should be forgiven or forgotten, no matter what other run-of-the-mill translation errors may pass in the porting process.

I think you're being picky over stupid little things. If you did the same thing with KH1, you'd probably find it's far worse than KH2.

Personally, having played (and loved) KH2, I can't stand KH1. I enjoyed it far more, mostly because of the fixed camera and good level design (the level design was goddamn atrociously bad in KH1) but I also enjoyed the story a lot more. Having said that, I really didn't like the Disney worlds, they ended up feeling like side-stories, while the original worlds (like Radiant Garden, etc) played the important roles.

Aydr

PunkBoy wrote:

Hm, I'm playing KH II again, and I'm up to the part where Hayner, Pence, and Olette see Sora leave Twilight Town for the first time.

[spoiler:4d30c88daa] Why do they feel that they know Sora? I would have guessed it was because of their connection to Roxas, but that Twilight Town and it's inhabitants were data, right? I thought they weren't the real Hayner, Pence, and Olette.[/spoiler:4d30c88daa]

[spoiler:4d30c88daa]Because it would be horribly depressing and spit on Roxas' very existence if they didn't somehow feel as though they knew him?

It would really kind of go against the theme of the game. Plus, it would have made it really awkward when Sora started crying at the train station and all.[/spoiler:4d30c88daa]

SpeedySwaf

Once again, a minor update, but one everyone will enjoy: high quality scans.

Clint Eastwood

I agree with I.H.Whatever on the count that KH2 is inferior if only because the story in KH1 actually had direction, etc. The story in KH2 was pieced together and lacking. You could take out every single Disney character in the game, replace them with generic people, and not notice the fucking difference. How Squeenix managed to screw up the Pirates of the Fucking Caribbean is beyond me. Back to the story though, really, every world was exactly the fucking same. Sora looks for Riku and is sad because he isn't there. Meanwhile he inevitably kills some black-cloaked excuse for a villain and feels no remorse over the fact that, you know, he just killed somebody. For that matter, Sora struck me as a total dillhole in KH2. I mean, on one hand he has the whole Riku crush thing, and on the other hand, well, shit, he was a pretty big dick to the cloak dudes, all "YOU DON'T EXIST LARLARLARLARLAR". And frankly they were the worst "villains" ever considering that I don't remember their big evil plan actually injuring a single innocent.

It wasn't a bad game by any means but the first one was so much better I could cry.

Stigma

What's this about a new Final Fantasy Tactics for DS?!

Edit: Oh oh, and yeah Kingdom Hearts.
If this comes out. I might buy it. No, I will buy it. Happy?

Xeno

Yeah, I enjoyed KH2 more. I hated the fact that there was too much exploration in KH1. I hate using FAQ's and that game made me fucking use one.

Apparently Aladdin needs to be in your party for you to advance the story when you're in that tiger's mouth. Plus that whole Ariel world was shit.

But, I love the story and I finished it. I loved the story in KH2. And frankly, story comes before gameplay for me.

So I can't wait for this. I've been hankering to play KH2 again, so I'm waiting for this before I do it. Plus I skipped chain of memories.

SpeedySwaf

Cloudman wrote:

I agree with I.H.Whatever on the count that KH2 is inferior if only because the story in KH1 actually had direction, etc. The story in KH2 was pieced together and lacking. You could take out every single Disney character in the game, replace them with generic people, and not notice the fucking difference.

Except we would notice they replaced a very colorful cast with a very generic cast.

And I do think KH2 had direction: much like the first game, Sora and co. were looking for someone (Mickey and Sora's friends in Kingdom Hearts 1, Mickey and Riku in Kingdom Hearts 2), but unlike the first game the "real" action behind the scenes isn't immediately apparent. In Kingdom Hearts 1 it was made known through cutscenes that Maleficent was kidnapping people from other worlds, and the villainy from characters such as Jafar, Hades and others wasn't the primary goal. In Kingdom Hearts 2, this "real" action is from Organization XIII, who want to create a Kingdom Hearts of their own. However, we don't really get any hints of it until halfway through the game, and although most of the villains had some connection to Maleficent, neither Pete nor Maleficent had this connection with Organization XIII, giving the story a kind of disjointed feeling.

Back to the story though, really, every world was exactly the fucking same. Sora looks for Riku and is sad because he isn't there.

Except this happens in the first game too. The Trinity go to a world, are unable to find the people they're looking for, and do their heroic duty by defeating the villain that's terrorizing the world. Then they move on, and keep an extra eye out for any kidnapped girls.

Meanwhile he inevitably kills some black-cloaked excuse for a villain and feels no remorse over the fact that, you know, he just killed somebody.

I don't think it's fair to damn Sora for this. The "remorse for killing someone" thing isn't dealt with very often in these kinds of stories aimed at a younger age group, and I have my doubts Disney would even allow something like that in their game (especially when it needs to be done several times). Even then, however, it's been made clear the Organization XIII aren't neccesarily persons, and it's even stated that they're technically "nonexistant."

And finally, whenever Sora fights the Organization, they make it pretty clear they want to kill him. Sora really doesn't have much choice in the matter, and he doesn't seem to share a whole lot of sympathy for those who look to only exploit other worlds, even though they know full well the consequences of their actions.

For that matter, Sora struck me as a total dillhole in KH2. I mean, on one hand he has the whole Riku crush thing,

Riku is a close friend of Sora's. A close friend who he had last seen a year prior in the World of Darkness, so I would expect him to be worried about Riku.

and on the other hand, well, shit, he was a pretty big dick to the cloak dudes, all "YOU DON'T EXIST LARLARLARLARLAR". And frankly they were the worst "villains" ever considering that I don't remember their big evil plan actually injuring a single innocent.

He was a "dick" to them because they were exploiting him and all the worlds out there. They wanted him to destroy as many Heartless as possible so they could collect the released hearts for their own purposes, and to encourage this they sent armies of them to all the worlds so that Sora would have to do it. And of course if he didn't, the unleashed Heartless would attack a lot of innocent people, and probably put entire worlds in jeapordy. If no innocents were injured, it's only because Sora acted fast enough.

SpeedySwaf

Finally, a link to the official website (unfortunatly, no video).

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/kingdom2fm/

Clint Eastwood

You make good points, but I still like the first game better.

And I personally think it would make Sora's character a lot more interesting if he had shown some guilt over killing what were as close to people as you're going to get from a KH game. I realize that would never happen but it would certainly kick the story in the pants.

Narom

Cloudman wrote:

You make good points, but I still like the first game better.

Fair enough, I like it a lot better too.

And I personally think it would make Sora's character a lot more interesting if he had shown some guilt over killing what were as close to people as you're going to get from a KH game. I realize that would never happen but it would certainly kick the story in the pants.

Have you ever played KH: Chain of Memories (Riku's story in particular)? I think you would find it very satisfying. I personally thought the narrative in that game was magnificently done, at least on par with the original game--it was also easy for me to empathize with the characters. Seriously, play it if you haven't.

jothki

Narom wrote:

Cloudman wrote:

You make good points, but I still like the first game better.

Fair enough, I like it a lot better too.

And I personally think it would make Sora's character a lot more interesting if he had shown some guilt over killing what were as close to people as you're going to get from a KH game. I realize that would never happen but it would certainly kick the story in the pants.

Have you ever played KH: Chain of Memories (Riku's story in particular)? I think you would find it very satisfying. I personally thought the narrative in that game was magnificently done, at least on par with the original game--it was also easy for me to empathize with the characters. Seriously, play it if you haven't.

Heh, another reason to hope we get Final Mix.

Alec

Two things:

First:

God of War was not dual-layer.

Second:

The tutorial was NOT 6 HOURS. It was 3 hours, MAX, the first play-through. When you actually know what to do, you can chop it down to MUCH shorter. I stopped reading when I got to this part, because it looks like you don't know what you're talking about.

The only complaint I had with KH2 is that it was way too short. By the looks of your time in the tutorial, that wasn't an issue for you.

Ginsane

KH1 Level design was worlds about KH2.
KH2 had no secrets in any levels. There were odd out of the way chests in the first game. KH2 gave you.. a straight road through the level, with chests to your left and right. It was boring. KH2 level design was freakin' lame.

Graviija

Ginsane wrote:

KH1 Level design was worlds about KH2.
KH2 had no secrets in any levels. There were odd out of the way chests in the first game. KH2 gave you.. a straight road through the level, with chests to your left and right. It was boring. KH2 level design was freakin' lame.

I literally could not agree more. That was my number 1...2...3...hell, really, only big complaint in KH2. And yet, it really hurt it a lot in my eyes. Some people hated 'em, but I loved the exploring segments of KH1.

Furu

When you get down to it, KH1 was a platformer and KH2 was a beat 'em up.

Also this looks shit hot. I still have hopes we'll get it over here.

Xeno

Dunno, I think KH was meant for kids to play as well. My little brother was playing KH1 and he couldn't beat it by himself. It got really hard for him. So I played it with him, taking over the hard parts. It was ok for him, but he didn't like the fact that I had to help him. Then we played KH2 and this one he enjoyed immensely. He could play it by himself and he replayed it because he enjoyed it so much.

For an 11 year old, kh1 was hard. I think square realized that and made kh2 much more accessible. Dumbed down, I guess you could say.

Cilla Black

Meh, I played KH1 till the final boss then just gave up. It was fun but ultimately a lagging experience. Whereas with KH2 I picked it up and didn't even think of putting it down for some other game until it was completed. Adrenaline rush from start to finish. (Okay, maybe not so much with the Roxas part) None of the complaints about it being too linear bothered me in KH2 'cause I was having way too much fun to even notice. The story was good, the voice acting wasn't completely horrible, the gameplay was awesome, it was all great.

The Lovely Bastard

With Kingdom Hearts, I preferred the story and level design of the first one, and the game play and specific nerdgasm cutscenes from the second one.

The story in the second one just seemed too scatterbrained and plot twisty for me and Pete and Maleficient could have very well just parachuted into the middle of the game and they'd have the same real impact.

I just really hated the FFVII storyline that ran through the second one. It just seemed so pointless and irritated me and then Tifa comes out of nowhere and starts punching walls. It was ridiculous.

I never played Chain of Memories, so I'll probably pick this up because it was fun to play and I like seeing new stuff.

SpeedySwaf

The boards are back online, and with it I bring a little more info from recent magazines in Japan.
• The new mode added to KH2:FM+ is called "Critical Mode". The most difficult mode in the works now. It has some abilities from the beginning, and being in this mode makes it easy to reach the new Secret Movie.
• The scene where Axel and Roxas are eating sea-salt ice cream on Twilight Town's clock tower is added. It beocmes a quiet scene.
• Donald obtains a rod, or mace, from Zexion's weapon (?). Donald can also be equipped with the Axe Sword.
• Vexen's shield is added to Goofy's weapon collection.

• The special looking keyblade that Sora uses, in this picture below, is obtained by defeating one of the 13 Org. Mushroom.


And from a recent interview:

Interview Part 1
• VS. Marluxia (The reaction command...), VS Lexeaus, all Org. 13, 13 mushrooms, new maps (Addition to Hollow Bastion), and additional cut-scenes (member of the Organization and the mystery man of armor)
• Nomura feels that the 10 million break-through hasn't sprung yet.
• Is the reason that KH is accepted is because it's viewed from an operation sense?
• Because a mode of a higher level of Proud is added, it will be satisfaction to anyone who wants to play through it thoroughly.
• Since the feelings of "I wanted to use the ability of the previous work" were strong, the Limit From was added in.

Interview Part 2
• It's possible to fight with the Org. member who was knocked down by this volume.
• Marluxia uses the sentence of death, and gives you full attention because he attacks Sora continuously.
• In the VS. Lexeaus' battle, it's important to be be constant, and when he collects, is discharged by the POWER gauge very quickly.

Interview Part 3
• Mushroom is happy. (laughs) (O_o)
• The color of the enemies, discolors, just like in KH:FM.
• If the abilities are not put to good use, an additional map that leads to the deepest part of the world isn't shown.
• Making an additional map becomes complicated.
• The development of the cut-scene with the man in armor is to be a surprise.
• Nomura thought that if the new Secret Movie is seen, it'll only confuse the players more, and the condition of seeing it is severe (or very important).
• Xigbar's words will give players an advance hint.
• "I think the new KH project will be shown in some form by that time that it will be announced by the end of this year."
• By the way, the time is being adjusted.
• Other published images shown: Re:CoM's Sora, Namine, Vexen, Axel, Oogie Boogie, and the new map gimmick.

Interview Part 4
• As for the gimmick, the one that's better than the first project is made.
• It might be made more powerful than the original game, and the current strategy isn't to run to the Org. member.
• "I think I'm pleased with not just the pre-order privilege but also with the fans."

Bryse Eayo

PunkBoy

Cover art looks pretty cool, but what's up with the pillars?

SpeedySwaf

PunkBoy wrote: »

Cover art looks pretty cool, but what's up with the pillars?

Probably there to look neat.

Also, this makes me wonder if we'll be getting a lot of unique Organization-centric items from each member we defeat this time.

Aydr

Is Sora holding Riku's hand in that coverart,

or just touching his ass?

Edit: Also, Kairi has amazing balance, to be able to stand on that pillar despite sharing it with Namine.

Pata

SpeedySwaf wrote: »

• The new mode added to KH2:FM+ is called "Critical Mode". The most difficult mode in the works now. It has some abilities from the beginning, and being in this mode makes it easy to reach the new Secret Movie.

I think we can all agree this is the biggest improvement they can make on the game.

TheySlashThem

Pata wrote: »

I think we can all agree this is the biggest improvement they can make on the game.

Oh hells yes. Really wanting a harder mode.

Xeno

I started playing it again on proud mode.

This shit ain't as easy as I thought. I pretty much snoozed through standard mode and then took a break from the game after finishing it. Now I started again.

Although, if this does come to America, I'm gonna have a hard time purchasing the game again. It would be nice if they cut $10 off the price. But that's probably not gonna happen.

Pata

Xeno wrote: »

This shit ain't as easy as I thought. I pretty much snoozed through standard mode and then took a break from the game after finishing it. Now I started again.

Although, if this does come to America, I'm gonna have a hard time purchasing the game again. It would be nice if they cut $10 off the price. But that's probably not gonna happen.

I, reading the reviews and seeing the difficulty complaints, jumped straight into Proud Mode.

FM+ Looks like it's going to fix all the problems I had with KH2. Difficulty, the lack of exploration, and lack of post-game content compared to KH1.

With Re:CoM I can easily see them charging 60 bucks. D=

Zedro

Pata wrote: »

I, reading the reviews and seeing the difficulty complaints, jumped straight into Proud Mode.

FM+ Looks like it's going to fix all the problems I had with KH2. Difficulty, the lack of exploration, and lack of post-game content compared to KH1.

With Re:CoM I can easily see them charging 60 bucks. D=

I'll gladly pay full price for the game.

Gorilla Salad

Aydr wrote: »

Is Sora holding Riku's hand in that coverart,

or just touching his ass?

Edit: Also, Kairi has amazing balance, to be able to stand on that pillar despite sharing it with Namine.

It looks like they are.



How many fanfics are they incorporating into this game?

Zedro

Senor Fish wrote: »

It looks like they are.



How many fanfics are they incorporating into this game?

Trust me. Today's Square seems to cater more towards the crowd that squeals at possible pairings than those who just want to play a good game.

Gorilla Salad

Zedro wrote: »

Trust me. Today's Square seems to cater more towards the crowd that squeals at possible pairings than those who just want to play a good game.

Oh god. I think I'm gonna...*BLUGH*OH, OH GOD*insertbarfingsoundoremoticonHERE*

SpeedySwaf

More scans!

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/1.jpg

• Shows extra scenes involving Axel and Roxas. More perspective on their relationship, most likely.

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/2.jpg

• New abilities and weapons. Goofy and Donald get weapons based on Vexen and Lexaeus, and Sora seemingly gets a keyblade based on Roxas.

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/3.jpg

• We'll be fighting Vexen again in Twilight Town during KH2?

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/4.jpg

• KH2 Sora fighting Zexion (who's using books) and Larxene.

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/5.jpg

• Scenes from Re: Chain of Memories.

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/6.jpg

• A look into several of the world cutscenes.

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/7.jpg

• Atlantic and Monstro.

http://kh-2.net/image.php?image=/newimages/210207/8.jpg

• Shots involving Hollow Bastion.

The Organization XIII is considered stronger and higher in rank then Sephiroth is.
The Mushroom XIII's weapon is indeed formed from a battle against them, however no exact info on hw to get it.
The two new abilities seen in the scan are as following "Thunder Break" and "Magna/Magnet Splash" which allows Sora to knock away enemies.
Critical Mode is known to exceed Proud Mode by a good extent. (Prepare for some haaaard battles).
There's a special award for knocking down the XIII Organization (This might mean, that only after the first battle against Xemnas, they count it as defeating all XIII Members, like KH2 some things were only accessible after beating Xemnas the first time)

Xeno

Ohhh, those look good.

One question that maybe someone can answer.

Why does Riku where a blindfold when fighting Roxas?

Tabris

Has there been any further confirmation of whether this game is coming to the US?

I can't believe no one is in the know besides EGM.

Aydr

Xeno wrote: »

Ohhh, those look good.

One question that maybe someone can answer.

Why does Riku where a blindfold when fighting Roxas?

Well, did you catch that whole "fanfiction" discussion?

Yeah.

Pata

Xeno wrote: »

Ohhh, those look good.

One question that maybe someone can answer.

Why does Riku where a blindfold when fighting Roxas?

Because his eyes were Ansem/Xehanort's heartless's at the time instead of his own, so he hid them

SpeedySwaf

Tabris wrote: »

Has there been any further confirmation of whether this game is coming to the US?

I can't believe no one is in the know besides EGM.

Supposedly a Playstation magazine said the same thing, but so far we haven't heard anything concrete from SE themselves.

I'm also wondering if in KH2 you get to fight all of the Organization XIII again while they're super-strong, or if it only applies to the ones you killed in CoM.

SpeedySwaf

It's finally here, folks: The promotional video for Final Mix+!

Enjoy!