There. I made that thread I said I'd make. Post all of your frustrations and the stuff you do like here and stop clogging up the 2.8 Discussion thread <3

Back Cover was missing half of the movie somehow, it raised questions instead of answering them. That kinda bothers me because I thought it'd help me understand the whole chi stuff more. I expected to see the foretellers faces or at least learn who the traitor is or what it takes to be one.

As for 0.2, as already stated I feel like they're repeating BBS's problem with bosses that are artificially hard and dodge spamming is basically your way to go. At least they fixed the damage output problem which already helped me on my second playthrough which is on critical.

No complaints about 3D so far, just curious if the touch pad couldn't have been made more use of.

So, here's something I haven't really heard mentioned. Anyone else payed close attention to the first scene of 0.2 Birth by Sleep? When Kingdom Hearts is summoned, it sucks up the thousands of hearts from the battlefield that were released (I think). Nothing else to say, except damn, it looks chilling.

Back Cover was a waste of time. On a scale of 1-10 it gave me a 3 in terms of level of satisfaction of stuff I wanted to see.

0.2 was awesome. Gave me some great character development for Aqua, plus great visuals, gameplay, and the sendoff to KH3 I've waited years to see.

Haven't played 3D yet. Still going through the collectibles of 0.2.

0.2 has probably the most interesting and visually stunning level design in the whole series, I really liked all of the levels. The puzzles were perfect and fitted with the theme of the locations. If you have a world composed of mirrors, then the puzzles are centered among reflections and etc... absolutely brilliant. There are also hidden paths, height differences and platforming. Levels are no more flat and I like that a lot. The thorns appearing and blocking you`r path at the forest which you then had to clear out of the way made me feel that Realm of Darkness really wanted to stop you, that was cool.

The combat feels very nice. The spells back a punch and look visually very impressive. The normal Keyblade hits also feel very good and the way you can stun and combo enemies in is really well done.

Sometimes there were instances where I was beating an enemy and then suddenly another enemy came behind my back and stopped my combo. I am not sure if my reaction to it was too slow, but maybe to help to spot the enemies attack maybe the camera could be pulled back a little bit. Also, sometimes I managed to react in time because I heard that an attack was coming, so maybe increase the volume of the attacks sound to make it easier to notice? Also, lock on`s accuracy could be increased.

All of the bosses were visually very impressive and interesting looking. Mirror Aqua was a very fun boss to fought against. Demon Tower and Devil`s Tide might need some more tweaking, maybe to add more signals to what it is going to do and how to attack?

I liked that despite 0.2 was a short episode, the developers still put the effort to have secrets and hidden things in there, like the secret Zodiac Mirror boss rush.

Yoko Shomoura`s music is really, really good as always. Especially the song that plays in the mirror world, the last boss music, and Mirror Aquas creepy battle theme, that is a twisted version of Aqua`s original theme. It would not be a Kingdom Hearts game without Yoko`s music.

I am liking how the title menu, player icon/avatar and ending report card were done with the 0.2 graphics since it showcased how far the series has come and they were really well done pieces(especially the ending card with Aqua sitting on Destiny Islands). Still, if there is a change to have 2d hand drawn art by Tetsuya Nomura, it would be great. I feel like it gives KH a very personal feeling, and I am huge fan of Nomura`s art style.

Back Cover is practically a giant teaser for both KH III and Unchained X.
Besides that its main purpose was to give personality and a better understanding of the character traits of the different Foretellers and that's the part I would argue it excels at, certainly also due to the very good voice acting.
The Master of Masters is also hugely enjoyable.

If the "stuff you wanted to see" includes actual answers and solutions to mysteries I'm afraid that was out of the question to begin with since Unchained X is still running and there are also connections to KH III so they certainly wouldn't outright spoil major stuff.

---

Personally, the thing that irks me the most about X Back Cover is that it ends too abruptly and omits too much from the later story updates of the original Browser-Chi, practically cutting the story off after Lady Ava's speech to the Dandelions.

As for 0.2, I'll go more in-depth on this one later as I haven't fully finished it yet.

You know, after watching Back Cover and then going back and re-watching the ending of Kingdom Hearts X, it certainly does shed some light on the whole situation. It's also satisfying to hear Gula pour out his feelings to you and Skuld about how he's pretty much completely wrong in his interpretation of the final page, they do a good job at making it feel like he really did just give up on trying to save anyone and instead is just sitting there twiddling his thumbs waiting for the war to start. Although it does confuse me why every single Foreteller decides to fight you. With Aced I completely see his character challenging you to a duel, but with everyone else it feels like they fought you simply because you looked at them funny or something.

I wish they used Back Cover to lead up to season 2 a lot more, though, because the secret ending "Unchained Zero" STILL makes no sense after watching Back Cover.

While I understand they didn't want to show the actual war itself I think it would have helped hugely if they included the final two or three updates of Browser-Chi from the perspective of the Foretellers too, including the conversation/confrontation between Ava and Luxu and the scenes with Gula and Skuld (to avoid "canonizing" any form of "Player" they could just have set Skuld there alone) which would ensure Skuld at least one scene in the movie just like Ephemer.
As for why four of five Foretellers decide to fight you (you don't face the one of your own union) I believe that is actually said in-game (by Gula if I recall correctly): It is a battlefield and there's a war, you're from a different union so you're obligated to fight.
By the time this carnage starts all gloves are off and I would assume that the Foretellers do not specifically pick you out to personally fight, but that they just roam about the battlefield killing as many Keykids from the other four unions as possible to "bring it to an end" and, as in Ira's words, ensure that no victor is born.

We were deliberately not shown the end of the war (only the aftermath in the 0.2 opening when the world starts to go apocalypse with Luxu standing there [strike]making selfies[/strike]/recording everything with the Eww-eye), but I think it is safe to assume that once all the Keykids are dealt with the Foretellers turn on each other personally and go down as well.

Unchained Zero is meant to not make sense yet as it is probably something that will be addressed in Unchained X season 2. Addressing it in Back Cover would undermine that and Nomura did state that both Ventus and Maleficent are related to the new story unfolding in Unchained X (plus two more still unknown characters as well as Skuld and Ephemer who will then probably get more screentime than in Browser-Chi).

It's not that I necessarily wanted all of Unchained Zero explained, but at the same time it wouldn't have killed them to throw in any type of promotion for the new season. I mean, sure, I know Kingdom Hearts III is big and important to set up too, but I was kind of hoping that we'd get some kind of end credits-style teaser for Unchained X's new developments since that game is also going to become very important very soon. I don't know, I guess sometimes I am left wanting more as a fan. That's really what the ending of Back Cover ended up doing to a lot of us in the end, just expecting less questions and more answers.

Ah, do you mean by "promotion" something along the lines of i.e. Luxu bumping into Maleficent while he's pulling that huge box or a distant shot showing Ephemer approaching someone and in the last shot we see Ventus' green wayfinder or his checkered wristband?

Yo, this thread is for gameplay and presentation only you guys

A very important function that the game is missing is immediate enemy reaction-- In KH1 and KH2, if you hit a Shadow Heartless with just one swing, it would immediately attempt to attack you-- this led to interesting and fun ways to manipulate Heartless AI, learning their exact reactions so you could learn to beat them perfectly. 0.2 is lacking this-- if you hit an enemy, it still may wait around for a long or short random amount of time until it decides to attempt an attack. This is not as fun because the game doesn't give you the opportunity to learn; and isn't learning to master a game an important fundamental thing in traditional video games?

More critiques here: [video=youtube;BLOqBDg_sVk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLOqBDg_sVk&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Visuals were awesome - the best in all of KH to date, understandably.

Yeah, err, gameplay... I liked it, but it wasn't really flawless (whixh, yeah, it doesn't habe to be). After more obervation, I really don't like how Aqua runs faster after like a second. Other than that, casting magic while moving DEFINITELY is an improvement. I also still feel like they're repeating BBS' bosses problems, but I'm sure they will sort it all out until KH3 comes. I hope.
It's also really unfortunate there's no revenge value, considering they SHOWED IT OFF in one of KH3's trailers. Why not implement it in a tech-demo if it will be in the final game?

We don't really know if that moment in the trailer was revenge value, or if it was purely random-- we won't know until someone can get their hands on a demo. Enemies still sometimes immediately attack after being hit, but it's inconsistent- we want the consistency.

I mean, we were totally led to believe that at the very least BC would reveal who the traitor is.

NOMURA: As for the traitor, that is the keyword which the plot of KHχBC revolves around, so I think this too will be revealed in KHχBC.

please take the story discussion to the regular discussion thread. we don't need two trains derailing in two separate threads

EDIT:

Changed answer to other thread.

we get it, KH has a lot of details and narrative mechanics that could be examined and explained until we endure the heat-death of the sun, but can we spare this one thread of it?

What did I just say?

The first post even says gameplay and presentation. Back cover has cinematic style, music, light and art direction - plenty of visual affect stuff to dissect - and if you can't find yourself able to comment on anything but the story, please take it to the other thread

Does KHi have a direct line of contact with Square regarding feedback? Is there a more direct way to communicate critiques towards them? Like, an official discussion forum or something? It'd be nice considering they're still updating 0.2

Yes, and since KH3 is still going to be in progress for quite a while. There should be time to tweak some things. I think it would be good, there should be something like that at least. Good, direct constructive feedback.

Presentation wise for BC, I don't know if this counts, but I think the opening shot of 0.2 should've been moved to be a post-credit scene for BC. I think that would've helped the ending a little bit (still not great, mind you, but it would have given a bit of a fuller sense).

come on dude you've gotta be kidding me here

Thinking about it, I wondered if the following is just buggy or intended:

As for the water-enemies, sometimes using thundaga simply does nothing. It might do a little damage but it neither pulls them out of their bubble nor electrocutes them which can be reeeaaally annoying. >:

I'm only going to comment on 0.2 since DDD is just an HD port and back cover is a movie. My impressions are based on the 1.02 update since I just replayed the game on critical mode today. I'll just post a simple list of what I liked and didn't like and what I think could be added to 0.2 or at least KH3.

Good things:

Gorgeous graphics

Combat feels significantly better than the past entries

Platforming is more emphasized in areas

Wardrobe is a nice bonus feature but I have no idea if it'll be in KH3

The new music is great

They made magic feel great to use and flows well into combos (unlike in DDD where you stand there like a jackass)

They nerfed Aqua's invincible gymnastics

Phantom Aqua is a very cool fight and the dark side boss was alright

Bad things:

I'm not too big on command styles. They feel unnecessary and I would've preferred if they only kept the superior magic commands. This feature might've been better if there was more customization for it but this is a demo and the feature will probably be gone from KH3.

Enemies should react more to you attacking them. I can understand huge enemies like dark side and the heartless tower not reacting quickly but standard enemies should have a revenge value system that is more emphasized. It isn't as bad as it is in DDD where funny elephants just diddly off and do what they want but it can still be improved.

The heartless tower boss is kinda lame. I had a a big issue with it and they fixed it in the new update but it's still pretty boring.

There's this weird issue, rather prominent during the phantom aqua boss, where my screen will freeze for a second but the music and sound effects will continue. What the heck guys.

What they can add:

Using R2 + the right stick to switch the lock on target (it stinks having to press R1 over and over again to get the right guy)

Combo modifiers to give us a taste of what's in store for KH3

Kind of a insignificant thing but you should be able to use L1 and R1 to add or decrease the RGB value of the clothes in increments of 10 or 20


That's the gist of my thoughts. Anything I didn't mention (such as the jumping or using the shotlock) was because I don't feel strongly one way or the other about them. Make sure to like and subscribe.

What, does that not fall under "Presentation, Cinematic Style, (Art) Direction" type comments for BC? It isn't about the story or the specific writing or plot developments about the title, but about how it is presented to the player. (It's also something that can easily be fixed with a patch since it isn't adding any new content but rearranging it). I think that falls under those type comments, unless this thread is literally only for talking about the specific technical stuff of BC like lightning choices or some shit. And if so, I apologize.

it still really stood as a narrative critique more than anything else. You thought it'd be more beneficial to the STORY of BC to have that scene at the end.

KH has a weird understanding of the elements. Firaga causes the water heartless to shrivel up and steam.

Putting aside whether or not the final boss of 0.2 is good or bad in terms of gameplay, I find it a tad underwhelming that said final boss is in essence just a whole lotta shadows. It basically exists to be a showoff tech demo more than to be a fitting final foe.

I've notices in 0.2 the cutscenes stutter at times, and it bothers me. I'm playing on a ps4 pro. You know I get a pro to not have to deal with frame rate issues, but it still happens.

Really sucks that there seem to be more problems on the PS4 Pro :/

Random crashing on a regular PS4.. entered the door where it boots you where you first fight with Mickey and it never loaded, huh well okay..

And to also mention the final boss just disappeared from the map? It went blank before the mickey way finder and during the way finder style when Aqua chains it and you can attack it it's not even their lol so uh yeah..

As much as I loved jumping and dashing in DDD using flowmotion, I think what 0.2 did and probably KHIII will be doing, which is limiting flowmotion to certain parts and areas of the level works better.

I also have to agree with others here that while I still like the combat of 0.2 in it`s current form, the more extensive return of the revenge value mechanic from past games would be really appreciated.

I love 0.2, it's most likely my second favorite, third favorite, or just plain favorite game in the franchise. It's definitely high up there. I just wish the Demon Tide could've had more of a signal for it's next attack, because I really had a hard time seeing or telling anything. I most likely didn't catch it's pattern very well, but still.

The boss fight was still good regardless, and I just love 0.2.

Listen, they had me with the wardrobe until I got tbe Chesire Cat ears. I was expecting a shnazzy purple color scheme. Game ruined.

Not really a complaint, but I feel like the camera in 3D was pulled back a little TOO far. If it was made to make flowmotion look "better" then I guess it was a good idea but I still think it's weird how far away the characters are from the screen.

0.2: Auto-movement HAS to be improved. I don't want Aqua to jump over a ledge and fall to her death because I walked nearby it and she decides to do a mini-jump up.
Best would be if they made auto-movement optional in the settings.

Agreed with the camera. I feel like they should give us the option of pulling it further in and out. But yeah, not that big of a problem for me

I like ddd camera. It's 0.2 that needs to be pulled back. Except frame drops, that's my only complaint about 0.2.
Ddd should have make pressing the touch pad activate reality shifts. I keep using commands when I go to use reality shifts

They do read our forums from time to time, but the best way to get in contact with them is through their support channels Master Spockanort linked, as well as through social media like their Twitter account.

the update changed Critical from being completely pointless to being an extremely fun alternate way to play the game

Thankfully it no longer applies to me because I've done every boss fight in the game, but for other people I wish they would patch it so restarting a boss wouldn't make your entire deck command have the need to refill.

If I enter a battle with a full deck command then I expect the same when I restart after a death. I did not enjoy having to wait about a minute during Julius' battle, dodging back and forth, just to be able to load commands I should have access to in the first place.

Question. Starting my 3D playthrough today. Did they adjust Proud mode's difficulty? I'm asking because I remember being really annoyed by it in the 3ds version.

Annoyed how?
If any, they made it a bit harder in my opinion so that you actually die a bit easier. Could be my imagination though.

This is really bugging me, but it's just a tiny problem

Everytime they show you the controls in the loading screen, they're labeled under the wrong name.
The controles have "Counter Block", counter block has "Controls", etc
whyyy
(german version obv)

Anyone else notice that during the ending events in Dream Drop Distance HD, Sora's Station of Awaken had Riku, Kairi, Goofy, and Donald's images in

gold

instead of

blue

?

...so?
I mean, I guess you could mean Xehanort's golden eyes but
so what? :S

Anyone else notice that during the ending events in Dream Drop Distance HD, Sora's Station of Awaken had Riku, Kairi, Goofy, and Donald's images in gold instead of blue ?

Psst, this thread was created on the sole purpose to talk about the game`s visuals and gameplay, an overall feedback thread about these things. A quote from the opening post of this thread:

In the comments below, feel free to discuss any positive or negative criticisms about KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue 's gameplay and visual presentation.

Your comment is a story related thing so it`s a bit off-topic in this thread. We have a proper spoiler/story discussion thread that you can find here: http://forums.khinsider.com/kingdom-hearts-hd-2-8-final-chapter-prologue/213088-spoiler-kh2-8-discussion.html That thread would be a more proper place for you`r observation. :D

Almost done with 0.2, gotta say I don't like that one objective where you need to beat Darkside without taking damage, at all. The phantom Aqua no damage was fine, even though how hard it is still depends a lot on rng, but that Darkside fight is just complete bs. Luck based, there's no way of knowing when one of those spike balls is going to fall on you because the camera doesn't zoom far out enough and you just need to dodge and hope that you don't get hit. Also the attack patterns, if you get lucky the fight is easy, if you're willing to use elixir to spam shotlock that is. But even with that method he can still decide to ruin everything by spamming nothing but that spike ball attack and good luck not getting hit by any when they keep falling for like a minute straight.

Man, I've never been so salty about a KH boss, this was seriously the most annoying and unfair fight I've had to deal with so far. What makes it worse is the save point is super far away, so retry is the only option after struggling with trying to get good rng for 2 hours. So yeah thanks to this jerk and it's spike potatoes I have to do one more run to get the no retry trophy. 0.2 is so conflicting, it has lots of good, but some really damn annoying as heck stupid stuff as well.

if darkside is able to make you this mad, just you wait for the final boss is all i tell ya…

I'm talking about the "defeat Darkside while taking no damage" objective, the fight itself is fine and I like it. But no damage was annoying as heck to get done. I just had the worst luck but still. I don't like the final boss either but I haven't struggled with it much. It's just bad, more than hard.

Don't worry, she beat that.
And she's entirely with us here!!! She survived the pain, yet knows it.

Almost done with 0.2, gotta say I don't like that one objective where you need to beat Darkside without taking damage, at all. The phantom Aqua no damage was fine, even though how hard it is still depends a lot on rng, but that Darkside fight is just complete bs. Luck based, there's no way of knowing when one of those spike balls is going to fall on you because the camera doesn't zoom far out enough and you just need to dodge and hope that you don't get hit. Also the attack patterns, if you get lucky the fight is easy, if you're willing to use elixir to spam shotlock that is. But even with that method he can still decide to ruin everything by spamming nothing but that spike ball attack and good luck not getting hit by any when they keep falling for like a minute straight.

I had an opposite experience. I though that Mirror Aqua was way harder to no damage and I spent an hour doing that fight. Compared to that the Darkside fight was way easier in my opinion. I don`t know if I got lucky but by just beating his hands I rarely got hit by the dark spiky orbs falling from the sky. I though that the desperation laser attack was way harder to dodge. Despite having some struggles I did not get too salty and it felt dam amazing in the end when you were able to pull those fights off.

Well you definitely got lucky then xD And unlucky with Aqua, because for me she did that Spellweaver finisher move three times in a row so it was super easy to beat her. She did have one tricky move, where she spins her keyblade, it's really fast and hard to block but I got lucky and she didn't do that. Guess I used up all my luck there, because it really took me like an hour to beat Darkside..... and yes I definitely was getting hit by the spike balls while hitting it's arms. And head. Or just dodging. And it kept using that attack all the time. So glad it's over now never again.

I dunno if I should ask this here, but when I started watching Back Cover, the video doesn't cover my whole monitor?

EDIT: Never mind. Fixed it.

Uh that's not an error, it's just telling you what the next menu is if you're bored enough to be pressing R1 to scroll through.

I guess I'm sort of concerned with 0.2. For the most part, I loved it. I loved the visuals, the level design, Aqua's design and detail, and for the most part the game play as well. The only issue I have is that when you move, the controls don't feel as tight. If you run forward you can't just pull a hard left or anything. She builds up momentum and before going full speed and then it's harder to "steer". Beyond that, it felt like there were long delays between actions. Most notably blocking. Another thing I don't really like is that they regressed back to the old menu system. I really hope some form of the command deck comes back because combat flows so much smoother with it I think. Glad they brought back shot locks and style changes though.

^ Yes I agree on the movement actually, it didn't feel too bad but I still miss the perfectly fluid KH2 controls... Also jumping, you can't do a small jump by just quickly tapping the button, she always does a huge jump which makes aerial combat a bit clumsy and it's easy to miss enemies because you can't control the jump much. But since it's only a short chapter, it's fine. As long as they do stuff like that properly for KH3.

I really love the inventive level design in 0.2, I hope they expand on that even more in KH3

I actually believe the Command Deck + KH2 combat (flinch/cooldown) is possible to create and I welcome it but…

My assumption is that it introduces too many abilities and elements they need to optimize for a short game and for its Proud/Critical playthroughs which would probably need more time and thought.

When you fight against Phantom Aqua in the Secret Boss Rush or the Final Boss in Critical Mode, you will notice that the flinching, timed blocks, and cooldowns are the most important elements in combat.

In BBS or DDD, you'll notice how most secret bosses are imbalanced or you're locked into long dodges such as:

Mysterious Figure w/ Thunder Surge
Vanitas Remnant w/ Mine Square
Julius w/ Balloons.

Yeah... I know what you're saying. Those BBS secret bosses are just a chore. The KH2 secret bosses were all, well fun. But at the same time the command deck is more fun for normal fights. It doesn't have to have crazy abilities in it like BBS had but... something.

Alright, so I’ve finally gotten through KH3 Ground Zeroes here. And man, was I not prepared for what I was about to experience, I’ll tell you what.

Quick disclaimer: This is based on the vanilla version of the game. I’ll later make an addendum concerning the 1.02 patch.

But enough with the prelude, here’s the bottom line:


This demo... ...blows. With diddlying aplomb.

Remember when all those 0.2 previews started coming out and I along with others pointed out the physics and gameplay for the clunky and unpolished mess it would self-evidently end up being, only to be regaled with comments like “People who’ve played it say it’s good! So shut up!”? Well move over Nostradamus, did I not freaking call it?

If you thought BBS felt like a bootleg KH1. Then ladies and gentlemen, Osaka Team presents: Bootleg KH2!

Aqua controls like complete ass. Despite this running on an entirely different engine, Osaka for some baffling reason has copied and pasted the physics from BBS onto this game. Resulting on the same floaty movement and combat, utterly lacking in any amount of flow whatsoever. The bane of this game’s existence is undoubtedly the absurd amount of recovery frames on EVERYTHING. I hope you like having a 5-night stay with all of Aqua’s attacks, because until the very last frame of that animation is complete, your controller ceases to function. I feel the need to mash buttons because the game drops my inputs. And the double jump and air dash are basically impractical for anything except clumsily moving the environment; hell, sometimes the game will just drop my double jump for no reason. This game eats more inputs than Jim Sterling at a shit-eating contest.

I had already suspected that combo modifiers would be absent based on the last few trailers, and the confirmation still sends my nuts into orbit. But turns out Osaka was just reeling back their one-inch dongs, ramming them in with the lack of any and all equippable abilities. What in waterboarding Christ? What, did Todd Howard pay you guys a visit during development? But hey, at least you can put cat ears on Aqua. Osaka, if I wanted to play dress up, I’m 2 minutes away from downloading a Barbie game on my phone. Either put stats on that shit or put it down like GameTrailersdotcom.

And the enemies! This game features some of the absolute worst enemy design you will EVER have the misfortune to behold. PS1 era design flaws like enemies that attack you from off-screen and attack animations with half a second of buttpounding windup. With special mentions going to the total failure of a final boss. Untelegraphed attacks, blocking your field of view and stunlocking you for 5 hours because “durr wat is gaem desin?”. The retardation is strong with this trepidatious turd.

And finally, there’s Critical Mode. It’s at this point that Osaka’s retardation devolves into a full-blown brain aneurysm. A laundry list of the laziest instances of artificial difficulty in recent memory. No Combo Master, no Second Chance, no drops, chip damage output, and more bafflingly, almost no magic. Bitch, I’m playing as a mage! A MAGE! My MP bar should be longer than my health bar. So why, after about 3 casts, is my rod more flaccid than Lance Bass in a titty bar? To all those still decrying the myriad of mechanics that are going to be in KH3, choke on this game's Critical for a beat and have fun boring yourself to sleep with all that physical combo spam. And to think people in this very forum have somehow actually deluded themselves into believing that any of this equates to genuine difficulty, probably in the same breath they use to argue that Demon Tide is a good boss fight. If you think any of the above is indicative of good game design, yeah, go ahead and hold yourself back a grade or six.

Sure, if you compare this game to Osaka’s previous offerings it comes out smelling like tulips, but try and find me something that doesn’t. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

There. Rant over.

I don't necessarily share all the pessimism, I kinda liked the game overall, but I agree on many points.

I completely forgot to mention the bit about enemies attacking you off-screen: and seriously, the fire enemies are the bane of existence. My god they're awful and turn almost every Critical encounter in a tedious hit and run (at least they made it so the enemies keep the damage when they despawn) with their bullsh*t invincibile attack.

omg someone else who sees how bad designed the devil's wave is
am i in heaven??

Alright, so while I'm here, quick side question.

Can you not adjust the screen size like in the previous collections? Each title screen seems to change it to a different aspect ratio for some reason.

I really liked the Devil's Wave at first, but in retrospect I think that was just because I found it easy to play touch n' go with it. The stunlock in phase 1 was pretty terrible though. I definitely see where they made some poor design choices, and I prefer to work with an established pattern versus sudden unforgiving aggro.

I didn't like the way the camera in 0.2 closed in every time enemies appeared in the environment. I understand the interest in adding some stylistic flare but it was just distracting and compounded the extant issues with limited visibility. Also wasn't a fan of how Aqua would point out the gears or features of the environment in Castle Town; in the first place because I actually enjoy exploring and working through puzzles, secondly because once again the camera would rear in to remind me how much of a disservice it's always doing, and lastly because the mechanic never returns throughout the rest of the game so I'm left wondering why they even introduced it in the first place.

I thought Aqua's "dash" was too fast and an unnecessary increase from her running motion. Cartwheeling and air dashing are more effective at closing long distances anyway, and as a result I never once used the blizzard rail after achieving its related objective because there was never any good reason to do so. Plus as rawpower pointed out a page or so ago, she becomes more difficult to control in full tilt.

None of these things make a huge difference to me, but collectively with other issues mentioned here I think they point to an unfortunate lack of precision. But I definitely enjoyed playing 0.2 on the whole and consider it a positive experience. It was consistently more fun and challenging than BBS or DDD.

One thing I don't think I could bear to see return, though: those awful AMV tier swiping credit scenes for both 0.2 and Back Cover. Just why? They didn't even include new content, just rehashes of the same material from the game immediately preceding them. Whatever happened to our classy low-res epilogues boxed in on the left corner, or Disney characters standing about acting cute and modeling for us? :(

Agreed there.
My least favorite enemies of all were the neoshadows to be honest. They just fucking dash at you for super-damage out of nowhere, you can't expect it, can't predict it. Most of the other regular enemies at least somehow let you know that they're gonna fuck you any second now.

no drops, chip damage output, and more bafflingly, almost no magic.

First off I thought the no drops thing was a bug or glitch, until I realized they're serious about that. As for magic - I don't get it either. Especially since on easy, you can cast like seven or eight firaga spells in a row.

And to think people in this very forum have somehow actually deluded themselves into believing that any of this equates to genuine difficulty, probably in the same breath they use to argue that Demon Tide is a good boss fight.

I mean, to each their own (I absolutely detested the final boss fight), but I also still don't understand how one can speak of actual difficulty if a boss doesn't have a stunnable phase or a real pattern and instead just does what it likes to do and you're stuck between attacking and dodging for your life.

They fell in love with those after a while (Days, at least the one from the 1.5, if memory serves me correctly) and never let them go.
Kinda like Team Osaka.
And I'm sad with both cases.

If you stand on the edge of the battlefield when Demon Tide burrows under the ground, you can easily anticipate to block them and avoid stunlocks.

I can agree Neoshadows are pretty difficult to dodge especially if there's more than one but it's best to walk away or wait to block. Cast Blizzaga/Thundaga if there's too many.

Magic is really meant to use sparingly in Critical such as:
- Attack Flame Core a few times (do not finish your attack combo) before you cast Blizzaga to cancel their flame invincibility. Perform the combo again and they will be defeated.
- Using Thundaga to cancel Phantom Aqua's Dark Blizzaja.
- After the few Firagas, you continue the rest with physical combos and you can still cast Firaja.
- Don't use the last bit of MP for other magic that isn't Curaga if you're in a pinch.

I don't know how I never noticed they used this for Days HD. Must have never payed attention to the credits. I guess I can't argue a lack of consistency, then... But it's so crappy. :<


I never had much of a problem blocking Neoshadows, they just take some patience. Not a whole lot of strategy involved, though.

I love the new style of the credits. To me, the recapping perfectly fits with the tone of those games / cinematics and the way it just works with the music thrills me. I can see a mash up of that and the epilogue style from KH1/2 (during the longer credits).

It is an issue with overscan on TVs. It really needs to be patched tbh. FFXV had the same issue and they patched it eventually. They made KH3D and BC with overscan in mind but forgot to auto scale for 0.2. It needs to auto-scale or have a screen fit option. :\

When do you guys think will we be able to record the blocked scenes aka the last world? Forgot its English name

I was gonna mention this in my rant but it's already pretty long.
It's hilarious to see people compare this game to Dark Souls when Osaka can't even trust the player for 5 seconds before flat-out telling them where all the objectives are.



Neoshadows are easily the worst enemy when it comes to mob fights. You have to focus on them almost exclusively and that lunge attack sets the record for fastest time from 0 to "diddly you".

I mean, to each their own (I absolutely detested the final boss fight), but I also still don't understand how one can speak of actual difficulty if a boss doesn't have a stunnable phase or a real pattern and instead just does what it likes to do and you're stuck between attacking and dodging for your life.

Vanilla 0.2's horrid ending lag especially made this fight even worse. You weren't allowed to dodge or guard in time because you'd be stuck in another animation for a decade.
And anyone who defends it's atrocious DM should never be taken seriously ever again.



It can still stunlock you when you're attacking and it randomly activates it's hitbox or when it farts shadows at you. If this game was actually well designed like KH2 then Aqua would get knocked back at a certain point so the player could recover.

Magic is really meant to use sparingly in Critical such as: - Attack Flame Core a few times (do not finish your attack combo) before you cast Blizzaga to cancel their flame invincibility. Perform the combo again and they will be defeated. - Using Thundaga to cancel Phantom Aqua's Dark Blizzaja. - After the few Firagas, you continue the rest with physical combos and you can still cast Firaja. - Don't use the last bit of MP for other magic that isn't Curaga if you're in a pinch.

Which wouldn't be such a problem if:
A) Magic wasn't the best part of the game.
B) Aqua had a myriad of other abilities at here disposal.

Nerfing magic does nothing but bring the game down.

Wondering if there's a Japanese equivalent of this thread.

Well, finished my 3D playthrough today and I really enjoyed it. The game looked stunning in 60fps and it actually makes look forward to having to play KH1, COM, KH2, and BBS all over again when 1.5 + 2.5 come out(not really).

Unfortunately this was the first time I played 3D with the "Osaka bosses suck" goggles on and for bosses with enemies in your same weight class, yeah they do. Almost all of Rinzler, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort battles resort to just blocking and countering with almost no boss staggering whatsoever. I know I'm not saying anything new here but it's just the first time I experienced it personally. I hadn't done a 3D playthrough since 2014.

Patch 1.02 thoughts time, kiddies. (Yes, I know everyone’s pretty much over 0.2 at this point, but screw you, I’ll do what I want.)

And- Wait… Did… Osaka actually improve their game? Osaka Team? The barons of banality. The impetus of ineptitude. Fixing shit? What- Am I in bizarro world?

This patch was a godsend. Turning the backwards bootleg buttdiddlying that was the vanilla version into… Okay so it’s still bootleg KH2, but at least it’s a more enjoyable iteration.

Frame-data has been tweaked so performing an action is no longer the equivalent of choosing a freaking career path. Attacks and guards come out faster so you can properly react to incoming attacks. You can act out of different animations which improves the flow in battle. It still feels clunky because it’s BBS, but hey, it’s something.

Using magic is a bit better since you now have an additional cast, but it only gets good once you beat Phantom Aqua.

And oh god, Demon Tower actually telegraphs its attacks! Buuuuut it’s still a really boring fight because it only has like 2 attacks.

Overall a solid patch. All changes were good.

Alright since I already wore the base game like a baseball glove in my previous rant, I’ll now list all the improvements I’d like to see in case a mythical patch 1.03 were to materialize.
Actually, I’m going to drop any and all pretense of realistic expectations and just flat-out say everything that needs to be changed.

- Thrash the BBS physics. Pronto. This whole start-n-stop thing with combos (especially air combos) feels bad. I want the combo flow and momentum from KH1&2 back.
- Mobs are still a serious problem. Enemy AI has to be tweaked so either they can’t attack from off-screen, become less aggressive when off-screen, or constantly move to where the camera is generally looking at.
- Demon Tide was bafflingly spared from the telegraph nerf. And it can still randomly stun-lock you. Fix it.
- Critical Mode is still unplayable trash and I refuse to touch it until Second Chance and Combo Master are enabled.
- Platforming is so bad. Like, Sonic 06 bad. Guessing whether or not Aqua will grab onto a ledge could be a game all by itself. And air sliding needs to be rebuilt completely. My suggestion is to shamelessly steal the wonderful dash from Nier Automata. Also, you should be able to double jump immediately after your normal jump, as well as after an attack (if you haven’t used it yet).
- Let us immediately jump or attack out of auto-platforming sections (jumping through spires or sliding down a slope).
- You should be able to move freely while casting magic instead of being locked into whatever direction you were going. Like how it was with Lion Sora in KH2.
- What the hell is up with Counter Blast? It shows up whenever it wants. It seems to consistently activate against boss attacks, but with regular enemies it’s anyone’s guess.
- Get rid of that dumb dazed status effect
- The ice trail left by Blizzaga should work on slopes. Right now it’s utterly useless. You can tell whoever programmed it into the game had no contact with the level designers.
- Let us change shortcut menus with L2, since the button isn’t used for anything.

And while I have you on the line, Osaka; THIS:
[SPOILER][/SPOILER]
…is not an options menu. Not in an action game and not in the year 20-goddamn-17. You wanna see how it’s done?
[SPOILER][/SPOILER]
Now THIS is a diddlying options menu. Custom controls, camera distance from character, directional orientation. All that and a based waifu to boot.


TL;DR: Plagiarize Nier Automata to completion and I will blow you from dusk ‘till dawn.

I am bit late with this, but I hope that the destruction that was caused to the surroundings during the cutscenes of Back Cover will be a thing in KH3. I think the scenes, especially battle ones had more impact that way. Aced felt more dangerous when he slammed his Keyblade on to the ground, and smoke and all sort of debris and chunks of rocks flew into the air.

I want to at least mention how sad the late blocking of Aqua made me feel, it felt slow and made me get countless hits just because the animation/move started way some time after I pressed square to block accordingly to enemy moves. Wtf. This thing alone made me NOT want to re-do it on Critical, not even mention get all the objectives.
0.2 was stunningly beautiful visually and the music was extraordinary, but as for combat, DARN THE LATE BLOCK, Barrier whatevs

Everything wound up being just a lil slower than it should have been. I don't know if the slight delay is attributed to the graphics or more complex animations, but visual fidelity MUST always be sacrificed for a better gaming experience, and there is no case you could make for the opposite.

My very belated thoughts:

I've just finished playing 3D for the first time on PS4 last night. I hadn't played 3D in a while even on handheld, so it was nice to be reminded of how much I love this game. I tried to pay attention to Sora (behavior and voice acting) because of complaints I've read over the years, but I still don't get how Sora is perceived any differently than from KH2. Osment was perfect, imo. I can kind of understand the dislike for Diskin after re-playing, but I still like him myself (and I'd say he improves as the game goes along).

Looking back in time, I wish the Musketeer world and Prankster's Paradise had been switched in the order, because having two Mickey worlds one right after the other was a little much (especially since the Musketeer plot of having to rescue Minnie directly followed the scenes with MDG having to rescue her in the real world, lol). The audio was a little odd, with that weird effect like the voice were too loud (sort of like what happens on handhelds). I guess there's nothing they could do for that? SOOO much fun playing the Fantasia world with TV audio. I wish that, after you go back to the game after completing the ending, Riku was added into the Dream Eaters section of the Journal, lol.

I played through 0.2 and the movie about a week and a half ago. I have to say I'm looking forward to KH3 quite a bit more than I was after playing 0.2. I was a little hesitant on the change in graphics, but now I'm not as worried. I can't comment on patches or whatever since they are not available to me, but the gameplay and world design was so much fun. I loved the way they utilized Snow White especially--including the zodiac around the Magic Mirror. The way the pavement in the Cinderella world was broken outwards into the sky was so cool. Mickey's voice actor was a bit off to me. I hope that's not what he'll sound like in KH3.

As for Chi, I have to say I hated everything about it. So contrived and the characters were ridiculous. I'm not looking forward to the Foreteller nonsense playing a huge and undeserved role in KH3's storyline at all. The Master seemed like Xigbar to me, and I instantly thought the whole plot was nothing but one huge lie (just like the Organization) when he made them all believe there would be a traitor.