Skipping Olympus Colosseum

[sdr08]

I was wondering, is it possible to skip the first visit to the Colosseum, and going to Traverse Town then proceeding to Arabragh?

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Yes. You don't even have to go to OC ever in KH1 if you don't want to.

 

[Divine Past]

You can skip OC and either Halloween town/Atlantica if you wish.

 

[Blackdrazon]

And you don't have to finish Monstro. Some of the cutscenes with Riku will even change (kind of strangely) if you go back later after defeating Riku at Hollow Bastion.

 

[Gram]

^ You'll also get alternate scenes if you go to OC and Tarzan's world before Wonderland.

 

[Solo]

It's recommended that you skip OC if you're aiming to unlock that Speedster trophy legitimately.

Also, out of Atlantica / Halloween Town / Monstro worlds, you can choose one of them to be skipped. If you want to, it's recommended that you skip Atlantica due to its controls that might get some time getting used to. Also, if you don't know where you're going, chances are you'll become lost, and the maps in this world are huge and require some time to navigate through.

And High Jump is too good to pass up, so if possible, don't skip Monstro.

 

[Daxwren]

Be careful though, you need to do either atlantica or OC because you need Thunder magic to advance in Hollow Bastion and I only know of aquiring thunder legitimately from those two worlds. Take it from someone who tried to do hollow bastion without thunder.

 

[Solo]

Be careful though, you need to do either atlantica or OC because you need Thunder magic to advance in Hollow Bastion and I only know of aquiring thunder legitimately from those two worlds. Take it from someone who tried to do hollow bastion without thunder.

Actually, you can proceed without Thunder. It's only needed to "power on" the floating plates. The crest piece itself can be obtained from the middle of the huge platform suspended above the hall, and you can easily reach it by gliding.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

While Olympus can be skipped entirely, it is to question if that is really a wise decision as you can get such useful abilities like Strike Raid (godsend for fighting Maleficent Dragon, especially if you also go for Unchanged Armor and Undefeated trophy at the same run) or Sonic Blade from there.

The speedster trophy is entirely manageable if you just rush past every Heartless encounter that isn't scripted in the other worlds.
Since in KH 1 tournaments give also experience, you can hit two birds with one stone getting those abilities and some EXP in the Coliseum.
Even better, if you "lose" in the Coliseum it doesn't count as a defeat so the Undefeated trophy is still viable to get.

Despite doing the first three Coliseum Cups I actually managed to get to the End of the World with only 8 hours on the clock, meaning seven hours left to traverse the last world and beat Ansem to a pulp.

 

[Ventus_]

Be careful though, you need to do either atlantica or OC because you need Thunder magic to advance in Hollow Bastion and I only know of aquiring thunder legitimately from those two worlds. Take it from someone who tried to do hollow bastion without thunder.

Actually from one who has completed Hallow Bastian at least twice without the use of Thunder(though I acquired it), this is false. The floating panels in the Entrance Hall are all it's required for and even that's optional. With glide (to get to the platform hanging in the middle of the room containing an emblem piece) you don't need them unless you want a shortcut back to the upper level.

While the Colosseum is a completely optional world, it's quite a useful one for the prizes.
*Metal Chocobo, Olympia, and LionHeart are all powerful Keyblades that are acquired from clearing the Pegasus, Hurcules and Hades cups.
*Gigas and Hurcules shields for Goofy are acquired in the Hurcules and Hades cups.
*Violetta, a powerful staff for Donald is acquired via the white trinity in front of the gates.
*You also learn strike raid by clearing the Pegasus cup which is a good, long range ability.
*You learn Gravity from clearing the Phil Cup unless you want to wait until you defeat Oogie Boogie in HallowenTown (which is a much longer wait) but even then you'd still have to clear the cup if you want it fully upgraded.
- You need gravity to reach most of the Dalmations in Hallow Bastian if you are going for those prizes (which includes the final torn page of 100 Acre Wood though another optional world) as well as most of the other treasure chests in and around the castle.
- You need gravity to complete your spell collection to obtain the Spellbinder keyblade from Merlin. A very useful keyblade in the Ursula Caldron round in Atlantica.
*You learn Yellow Trinity by clearing the Hurcules cup which I don't think is crucially useful but you'll miss out on a lot of items without it, possibly including more Dalmatians and the keyhole to OC. Just FYI a lot of items acquired via treasure chests and trinities are used to synthesize accessories and other items on the second floor of the accessory stop. After a certain point you'll be able to synthesize the Ultima Weapon, the strongest Keyblade in the game.

Also according to my guide at DestinyIslands.com if you find all 99 Dalmatians, clear the Hades cup and sealed every Keyhole in the game (which includes OC and 100 Acre Wood) there is supposedly a special something after the end credits. Not sure what it is but I am going for it in my first file. I've nearly got all the Dalmations, and sealed every keyhole. I just need to get through the longass Hades Cup.

In conclusion although the OC is completely optional, to skip it entirely, unless you are going for Unchanging Armor or Speedster, is to limit yourself a lot.

On another note, I do NOT recommend waiting until after Hallow Bastian to complete Monstro. In my opinion that's too long to go without the high jump ability. Trust me with Sora's horrible jumping in this game, not having it will make the Oogie Manor round in Halloweentown that much more difficult and annoying. Though I have found by accidentally ending up in Neverland before Halloweentown that glide is what makes it easiest. Even for the first battle since you have to fall awkwardly to reach the Torture Chamber where it's held. But without High Jump or Glide it would be twice as hard, I've never subjected myself to that but I can feel it.

 

[LightUpTheSky452]

^ You'll also get alternate scenes if you go to OC and Tarzan's world before Wonderland.

Huh. I never knew this! Probably because I always went the Wonderland, OC, and Deep Jungle route, but this is interesting! What do the differences entail, exactly? I mean, I didn't think anything story-wise was affected if you did it in this order, but I was apparently wrong. LOL.

Huh. In my first playthrough of the game, I actually didn't complete Monstro until the end, and I don't remember any scenes being different... But it's been so long since I've held off doing Monstro, that I've probably just forgotten them. I'm definitely going to have to look up some of these alternate scenes now

I do remember that if you don't complete OC until defeating Maleficent, that she won't show up in the scene with Hades, though. And if you don't complete Wonderland first, you'll see Snow White as the first kidnapped Princess instead of Alice.

@Shady You, my friend, are referring to the secret endings, "Another Side, Another Story" and "Deep Dive"

 

[Ventus_]

Huh. I never knew this! Probably because I always went the Wonderland, OC, and Deep Jungle route, but this is interesting! What do the differences entail, exactly? I mean, I didn't think anything story-wise was affected if you did it in this order, but I was apparently wrong. LOL.

Huh. In my first playthrough of the game, I actually didn't complete Monstro until the end, and I don't remember any scenes being different... But it's been so long since I've held off doing Monstro, that I've probably just forgotten them. I'm definitely going to have to look up some of these alternate scenes now

I do remember that if you don't complete OC until defeating Maleficent, that she won't show up in the scene with Hades, though. And if you don't complete Wonderland first, you'll see Snow White as the first kidnapped Princess instead of Alice.

@Shady You, my friend, are referring to the secret endings, "Another Side, Another Story" and "Deep Dive"

Interestingly in my first file I did OC first then Deep Jungle and Wonderland last (after trying to visit Traverse Town the second time and having to realize that you need to seal Wonderland to unlock the entire story) but I didn't notice any different scenes. I certainly don't remember seeing Snow White. Had I known this I would have paid closer attention. XP

So there are two secret endings? Are they both seen by obtaining all Dalmatians, clearing the Hades Cup and Sealing all Key Holes?

 

[Solo]

Yeah, there are two secret endings. Those are unlocked via different sets of criteria. Both of them can't be unlocked by playing the game on Beginner mode, though.

The first one, the one that's in plain vanilla KH1 (Another Side, Another Story) can be unlocked on:
- Final Mix (Standard) by sealing all Keyholes and rescuing all puppies,
- Proud simply by beating the game.

The second one, the one that's FM-exclusive (Another Side, Another Story [Deep Dive]) can be unlocked on:
- Final Mix by clearing Hades Cup, sealing all Keyholes, rescuing all puppies, and completing Jiminy's Journal,
- Proud by clearing Hades Cup and sealing all Keyholes.

 

[Ruran]

KH1 had a couple of alternate scenes, though they weren't all that significant. They were moslty just to make sense of things were you to skip worlds or go to them out of order. Like if you complete to Deep Jungle before Wonderland I think it was, instead of Alice, you see Snow White with the league of not so super villains.

If you go to Monstro after your visit to Hollow Bastion you get a cutscene or two that are different, implying that the Riku you meet there is really Ansem.

Those are the significant ones though I don't think there are more. Or if there are they're very minor changes. I don't think the alternate scenes are canon anyhow.

Man, I miss when KH did this sort of thing...

 

[kuraudoVII]

KH1 had a couple of alternate scenes, though they weren't all that significant. They were moslty just to make sense of things were you to skip worlds or go to them out of order. Like if you complete to Deep Jungle before Wonderland I think it was, instead of Alice, you see Snow White with the league of not so super villains.

If you go to Monstro after your visit to Hollow Bastion you get a cutscene or two that are different, implying that the Riku you meet there is really Ansem.

Those are the significant ones though I don't think there are more. Or if there are they're very minor changes. I don't think the alternate scenes are canon anyhow.

Man, I miss when KH did this sort of thing...

I'm pretty sure we all miss it, too.

On that note, there are two alternate scenes in the Longest Prologue Ever in II. One of them, unsurprisingly, is where Roxas loses to Setzer in the Struggle tournament. The other was earlier where it shows Roxas losing to Seifer. That one nobody saw because you had to deliberately lose in order to get that scene.

 

[Max]

If you go to Monstro after your visit to Hollow Bastion you get a cutscene or two that are different, implying that the Riku you meet there is really Ansem.

Whoa, are these significantly different? I feel like I must begin replaying now...

 

[Solo]

Whoa, are these significantly different? I feel like I must begin replaying now...

Not significantly, if I recall it right. It's just missing a few lines of dialogue here and there, for example when Riku took Pinocchio away from Geppetto and before the second encounter with the Parasite Cage.

 

[Max]

Not significantly, if I recall it right. It's just missing a few lines of dialogue here and there, for example when Riku took Pinocchio away from Geppetto and before the second encounter with the Parasite Cage.

Does he still help out with the boss fight?

 

[Solo]

I remember that he still does. Although if you had defeated Rikunort beforehand, you shouldn't be needing his help at all in defeating the Parasite Cage.

 

[Antifa Lockhart]

There are lines that are changed as well.
(It doesn't look like he's there to assist you in the fight either)
[video=youtube;JHf0evYnvew]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHf0evYnvew[/video]