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Kingdom Hearts II Review
- Title: Kingdom Hearts II
- Developer/Publisher: Square/Enix
- System:PS2
Four years later, and the next chapter in the tale has been released to the PS2. The title begins in a somewhat confusing place if you've never played the card-battle Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories title for the GameBoy. Suffice it to say that Sora has lost his memory, and the first several hours of the game are spent with an alternate persona for the first game's protagonist. This hours-long ordeal is something of an extended tutorial. You're introduced to the concepts you'll be using throughout the game, and slowly begin to crack into the simply enormous plot that flows throughout the title. If the idea of an hours-long tutorial mode isn't intimidating, you're already set to play this game.
Your patience will be well rewarded, though, because once you're out of the introductory plot there's lot of great story to enjoy. Just as in the original, you'll find yourself traveling with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to various world representing Disney movies. Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King are among the properties on display. The Nightmare Before Christmas makes a return with the more traditional titles, and two new live-action pieces are introduced to Kingdom Hearts' stable of worlds. The Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as Tron, make appearances at points along the road to your ultimate destination. With so many worlds to explore, it's unsurprising that you'll encounter varying levels of quality. At one end of the spectrum, you have Mulan. The Chinese fable is one of the first worlds you'll explore out of the gate, and happily so: it's fantastic. You'll fight hordes of opponents (ala the Mongols in the movie), and battle alongside Fa Mulan to defeat the Heartless. The gameworld not only retells the story of the movie, it draws you as a player into the events of the film in an enjoyable way. Tron, similarly, does a fantastic job of getting you into the story. While you might at first see the inclusion of the MCP's system as gimmicky, it's explained in a wholly reasonable fashion. It also looks great. Of course, not everything can be perfect. The other end of the spectrum is inhabited by The Little Mermaid's world. It's a very dull, and generally disappointing experience. I'm a fan of rhythm games, but the attempt they muster is lackluster at best. Attempting to mash a button in a timed interval is not rhythm, it's muddling your game experience. Overall, though, the Disney elements in the game are tremendously satisfying.
I wish I could say the same about the Final Fantasy characters included in the title. As in the first Kingdom Hearts, the more staid RPG characters are standoffish in general, aiding you only when it suits their needs. Aerith, Squall, Yuffie, and Cid are important plot drivers, and clashes between Cloud and Sephiroth are fairly important battles in the latter half of the story. Despite that, the Final Fantasy characters are in general not as well treated as their Disney brethren. Many of them have odd or simplistic dialogue, and some characters (like Tifa Lockheart) come off as quite confused. It's very neat to see the FF characters step out of their normal roles, but the blend that I felt worked so well in the original title doesn't seem as polished here. The Disney characters definitely get the better end of the stick here, and for those of us who have outgrown some of the 80's Disney films that's more than a little frustrating.
Those (small) frustrations aside, the entire experience of Kingdom Hearts II is an improvement over the original. The plot is tighter, with the older protagonist necessitating a more grown-up story. The ramifications of Sora's actions from the first game are very thoroughly explored, and you get a real sense of connection between the young man and the individuals he encounters on his journeys. The worlds themselves are improved as well. They're a good deal 'tighter', with less meaningless space thrown into the mix. If they built a part of a level in this game, it has a point. This results in the worlds feeling shorter, but more fulfilling. There's no need to wander aimlessly through caverns in the Cave of Wonders; You go there, get what you came for, fight a boss battle, and leave. The level design and story dovetail tightly together. The result is a grand story that is also very approachable; It can be played in smaller bites and more completely understood overall. It's a testament to the team that weaknesses from the first game have been directly addressed here.
One of the big weaknesses of the original title, combat, has also gotten some love since the first time around. In addition to the magic and summons that were possible in the first game, limit breaks, drives, and context-sensitive actions have been added to the battleground. Limit breaks are interesting combo moves you can perform with your partners. Goofy, Donald and Sora can hook up for 'Trinity' maneuvers, and each guest star from the Disney gameworlds offers their own thematically appropriate move to help the spikey-haired protagonist take down the baddies. You use limit breaks by filling up a bar, which is just one of the many meters you fill during combat. Your drive bar also fills as you fight, eventually enabling you to enter a function-specific mode. For example, 'Valour' steals Goofy's strength and turns Sora into a dual-wielding dynamo. 'Wisdom' enhances Sora's magical abilities (by borrowing Donald's) and turns his keyblade into something like as submachine gun. Context actions are new to the game, but have seen use frequently in recent titles, and frequently allow Sora access to the 'Trinity' moves. All of which sounds good ... but at the end of the day these new elements aren't that helpful. They look great to be sure, further fleshing out the fantastic imagery of Kingdom Hearts and giving you the impression of options. The reality, however, is that the air combo moves Sora performs just by bashing the 'X' button are so effective as to make much of this superfluous. Some boss fights can get a little tough, and benefit from use of flashy fireworks, but generally speaking you can achieve victory with your thumb firmly on the attack button. The combat still feels more developed than in the first game, but don't expect God of War complexity to the fighting.
Outside of combat, they've continued the push for improved gameplay. A particularly onerous element of the original game was the 'Gummi Ship' rail shooting sequences. They've been revamped from their utilitarian roots into something a lot more enjoyable. It's not an attempt at a full-fledged game within a game; Holding down the fire button will still get you through relatively safely. At the same time, there's a good deal more to do here. Treasures and mini-bosses abound, and the occasional reorientation of the map adds some stylistic changes to the experience. On foot, the camera has been overhauled since the original as well. Fighting with the often asleep-at-the-switch cameraman was another frustration of Kingdom Hearts. The result isn't a watershed, but it's yet another rough edge that's been smoothed out in this incarnation.
For all the complaints that were leveled at the first game, the graphical presentation was a subject avoided by even the stoutest of detractors. Kingdom Hearts looked great, and its sequel goes about improving on the original in a very calculated way. The PS2 just isn't the graphical powerhouse it once was, in comparison to what we're seeing on Microsoft's new console. What were cutting-edge graphics in 2002 look a little dated. The art team has tackled this frustration by honing in on the 'look' of each character, place, and situation with a dead-on push for accuracy. The original's art style tended to blend the game worlds together; The art direction for Tarzan's jungle was generally the same as Alice's Wonderland. With the sequel, the movies are evoked more fully by conjuring the artistic style of the animation into electronic life. The rocky surrounds of Isle de la Muerte have a fundamentally different stylistic base than Beast's castle or 'The Timeless River', the black and white old-timey cartoon world. The game sounds just as good as it looks, the well-earned reputation Square/Enix has with composition once again reaffirmed. The title piece is the most evocative, in typical Jpop fashion, but the moment-to-moment pieces recall the film soundtracks quite successfully. Aurally, my biggest complaint is one I had with the first title as well: Almost all of the musical elements evoke Disney moments and ignore the sound history written by Nobuo Uematsu for the Final Fantasy series. Whether a deliberate decision or not, I would have preferred more than just 'One-Winged Angel' to make an appearance within the Kingdom Hearts series.
The second title to bear the Kingdom Hearts name accomplishes exactly what a sequel should set out to do. It recaptures successful elements of the original, and shores up weak elements of the first game's vision. What we're given, then, is a melding of Disney and Square storytelling in a way that recaptures innocent times through a more adult lens. It's very hard indeed to grow up in America without watching at least one Disney film. That cultural building block makes the image of Sora fighting alongside the Beast, Peter Pan, or Jack Skellington a very hard one to ignore; In fact, it lies at the center of Kingdom Hearts' appeal. For all the fighting and angst, any story that features Mickey Mouse is going to have a happy ending somewhere down the line. In an industry cluttered with amoral vigilantes, objectified women, and escort missions, it's nice to occasionally play a game where you know the good guys are going to win at the end of the day. The game does have a prerequisite though: while the GBA title can be skipped you're definitely not going to get the full effect out of Kingdom Hearts II if you don't play the original. Beyond that, Disney-haters and Final Fantasy foes should look elsewhere; Unless you've got the hate on for Donald Duck you're probably going to find at least one moment in this epic quest that will make you smile like a kid again.
Fun game though, if you liked the first one you'll definitely like this one.
Yes. Some gamers are geeks, but not all geeks are gamers.
But I swear, this one's 90% cut scenes. Some of 'em stretch on for 10 minutes plus, and the time between cutscenes is as little as 15 to 30 seconds, sometimes.
It's like watching a bad, low poly CG movie.
If you're a fan of older Final Fantasy stile grinds, it may start to wear on you a little.
this is not really the second title to have the kingdom hearts name as you own artile points out there is a game in between called kingdom hearts: chain of memories
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
It's not perfect. C'mon, best Disney movie ever made.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The Kingdom Hearts series is many things, most of them good, but "difficult" isn't one of them. If you want a challenge, then only play KH2 on the hardest difficulty level it offers. This holds true for the rest of the series.
On one other note, the GBA game Chain of Memories was not a card-battler. Although cards were used as an interface metaphor, you never once set out for any remotely-traditional card game. It feels more like Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles than solitaire.
Ignoring some of the other elements of KH2 I feel the most distinctive thing in this game is the "brawling" action. There are some parts of the game where you are surrounded by hundreds of opponents that all want to take their portion out of you. Now granted they aren't as burly and strong as you are but that is still a lot of opponents to square off against especially if surrounded with no escape.
This game shows a refinement of the idea of mass brawling which seems to be a cathartic experience found in many movies and TV shows anyway. The Hero is surrounded by The Bad Guys and some how he fights his way out. Who wouldn't want to play this roll? Hopefully Ninty-Nine Nights and a possible KH3 will refine the idea even farther. The fights in KH2 aren't a "gimme" but I feel with some tweaking it would turn from a "fighting off the mindless horde of attackers" to a more pitched battle which feels more exciting and satisfying.
From the review, this looks like a game I would let my 5 year old neice play.
I don't use Linux. I couldn't care less about the latest Linux release. Do I comment on every one pointing out that not all geeks use Linux? No. If Slashdot only posted articles that would interest every single person reading the site, there wouldn't be a single article here.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
I was excited about a new RPG until hitting the line "Just as in the original, you'll find yourself traveling with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to various world representing Disney movies. Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King are among the properties on display."
Disney has over-merchandized itself for years. Just don't have the heart to help them do it some more.
But, enjoy...
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
When "fan service" was mentioned, I first thought of typical anime, but then I realized there would be no nekkid Disney characters.
Hardly a sterling recommendation:
... This term is, however, occasionally used in the video gaming community, most notably in MMORPGs. The meaning remains mostly the same, content added for the sake of fans and not for any actual gaming value, and is almost always derogatory.
Fan service (Japanese simply "saabisu", "service"), sometimes written as a single word, fanservice, is a vaguely defined term used in visual media -- particularly in anime fandom --to refer to elements in a story that are unnecessary to a storyline, but designed to amuse or excite the audience.
Breakfast served all day!
You got mad skillz!
Is bringing these disparate worlds together successfully in one game a point in favor of a Metaversehttp://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid= 06/03/24/1646249?
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
This game pales in comparison to the first, in many ways. Mainly:
-The level design isn't "tighter", it is a complete phone-it-in effort. You go from one square room to another, with absolutely no element of exploration. Gone are hidden chests or doorways, or anything hidden for that matter You will easily get every single treasure chest in this game without much of an effort. You walk into a room, and you can see them plain as day.
-The difficulty has been reduced to nill in every manner. Any enemy that would present a challenge is instead defeated very simply by a 'reaction command'. Which means you press triangle once, and watch Sora kill the enemy in ridiculous fashion. Side quests for glory have been vastly simplified and reduced. (Not that I am sure I have encountered everything in KH2, i am not using a strategy guide). The best weapons in the game are quite simple to synthesize, it is extremely easy to get to max out your level due to the incredible amount of experience you gain from basic enemies, the colliseum levels are incredibly easy, and optional bosses are taken down with some simple X-mashing (with the occasional triangle press....when the entire screen lights up green, a triangle appears on the enemy, and your command list adds a new triangle command to the top).
Dear god please stop with the cut scenes. A cut scene is a crutch used when you are not creative enough to mix story with gameplay. Silent Hill is another great example of this where you do little else than kill stuff and find items to view the next non-interactive cut scene. Seems like they finally got it right and made it into a movie like they should have in the first place.
Half Life on the other hand never once in either game takes you out of your character. You are a part of every cut scene. While it seems impressive they didn't really have to change much.
Silent Hill and Half Life are two different extremes, but the game industry should try incorporating these together a bit more.
A metaverse based on cross-licensing among a few large companies would cover only a tiny subset of MMOG space. Anything larger would require the support of the U.S. Congress and other national legislatures to roll back the scope of exclusive rights under copyright. Given that The Article is about a game that takes place in Disney's world, and that Disney was the major corporate backer of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and has supported all the MPAA's pet legislation, will this happen?
The theme song for the game by Utada Hikaru, titled "Passion", is awesome as well. I recommend everyone find a way to listen to it if you're open to Japanese music. If you like the song, check out the music video.
Especially at the beginning. Every once in a while you would have a brief break from the cutscenes, where you might be given the choice to walk into the right area (and no other area, lest a text box come up saying, "no not this way!"), and just as soon as you walk into that area, BAM, new cutscene.
It honestly feels like you have absolutely no control whatsoever. As has been stated earlier, it's also a little too easy. All that said, this is still a pretty good game. Just a warning to those who don't like to ride the RPG rails (ie. fallout and morrowind fans), minus some minor character modification, this game allows 0 degrees of freedom.
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
For some reson I can't see Disney doing a game with loads of T&A shots it in.
Does anyone else remember the _White_Fang_ disaster.
Overall this is a nice review, and I agree with most of it.
The new worlds are very fun but Atlantica is my worse nightmare of boredom coming true. I really thought they would take advantage of the new right-analogue-stick floating movement and make us use it in a "real" world... but no. Instead we get "finny fun". Thanks for nothing.
Combat for me is hit and miss. I like the drive forms and the limits. The summons are awkward compared to KH1 though. As for fighting, just mashing the X button usually does the trick: I feel like you have less control over battles. In KH1 dodge-roll and glide were tactics I often used to get around enemies and avoid hits. In KH2 there's not much you can do to avoid hits. On the other hand you can bring up some amazing combos if you hit SQUARE at the right time instead of keeping to X. It somewhat compensate for the lack of control over the character.
Overall I would say it's a great game.
You can buy the game here: Kingdom Hearts 2. And if you use the "secret" A9.com discount, you can save an extra 1.57%!
I'm so lonely. :(
The 3 hour (playable) intro was WAY too boring. Everything you do in the 'intro' is pointless. None of the mini-game scores are kept and you don't actually have to even play them.
My friend's girlfriend (he's not a geek, sadly) bought KH2 without playing KH1 at all. She was bored stiff and I offered to buy the game from her. She accepted, but then I had an idea. I'd buy KH1 again and trade for a while, instead of buying KH2. She LOVES KH1. And after the first 3 hours, I loved KH2.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Square's shit hit the fan when they buddied up with Disney, and ceased competing with Enix (THEIR GAMES WERE BETTER WHEN THEY WERE COMPETITORS -- simple as that). At least they seemed to warn us in advance of the decline of the quality of their games as of FF8 -- it was all downhill from there. I'm just surprised that I seem to be in the minority of people who have a problem with Square making games with... DISNEY, of all companies. Disney is the epitome of mediocrity in filmmaking -- all eyecandy, but with mediocre and childish stories, afraid of straying off the path of the conventional. Disney's reputation is one of the reasons that animation is still seen as a primarily "kiddy" genre here, as American filmmakers who aren't Matt Stone and Trey Parker are afraid of handling mature themes in the animated paradigm. Any other time you see cartoons being used in mature situations, you get the moral minority right-wingers and the big government lefties crying "you're trying to sell drugs and alcohol to our children". See: Joe Camel.
By the way, "Heavy Metal" was a Canadian movie.
<3 <3 <3
The gameplay between the first and second game is dramatic. The first Kingdom Hearts had a very solid gameplay, and some very difficult levels. The second Kingdom Hearts is more like an interactive movie. So far, I am in the Atlantica level, and I feel I have had more cutscenes than gameplay. The gameplay is overly simplistic, the first game required strategy on most of your oponents, the second game is a button masher. You equip your abilities, and then just lay on the X button. While the story is great, there is just too much of it, too much is revealed too early in the game, and interaction with the enviornment is misrable. The minigames are extreamely easy, I usually beat the scores in the strategy guide with my second or third attempt. With the first Kingdom Hearts, I could not put the game down, with this game, I have not picked it up in two weeks, I have spent more time playing We Love Katamari, which has excellent replay value. Truthfully, Kingdom Hearts 2 would have been a great game if there was less focus on story and more on gameplay, I bought a game, not an interactive movie. The levels are also MUCH smaller than they were in the original Kingdom Hearts, I can usually beat a land in an hour on the new game, whereas I would spend about 4-5 hours a land on the original Kingdom Hearts. And I am not alone with this, I know three other people who have played the game, and 2 of them are more annoyed with the endless story boards than I am. The third thinks its the greatest game ever made. So, in the small community of people I know, 75% of the audience was disappointed in it. This is not to say its not a good game, its just that Square rarely disappoints on delivering sequals, and we were expecting Kingdom Hearts 2 to be at least as good as Kingdom Hearts. I will have to admit, it is MUCH better than Chain of Memories. I am not complaining about graphics or anything on Chain of Memories, for a GBA game, it was excellent, but to go from an RPG to a card battle game was the stupidest move Square ever made.
What would I have done differently in Kingdom Hearts 2 if I was on the design team? Bigger levels for starters, the underworld, China, and Beast's Castle are WAY too small. I mean, the first level is freakin China, they could have done some really amazing stuff with this level. (First level, that is, after the game officially gets started, roughly after about 8-9 hours of play and storyboard, or 2 hours if you skip the story board, I know, we tried both). A little strategy needed on the bosses would have been nice, they are way too easy.The coolest level so far has been timeless river. I would have loved them to do more with this level, the animation and boss fights were simply amazing. I was really disappointed that this level took me 20 minutes to play. Puzzles would be nice. The first game had a few puzzles, the second seems to have none. I have litterally found myself falling asleep late at night playing this game, wake up 10 minutes later, and still be alive. I mean, I can litterally play this game in my sleep.
I know my opinions do not reflect everyones, but I do not think anyone would complain if the game had just a bit more depth to it.
(1) I'm carrying around this HUGE FRIGGIN' KEY that can BASH enemies who have THREE HEADS and can unlock PATHWAYS between WORLDS, and yet I'm stopped by locked gates?
(2) People who live in RPGs like to own small treasure chests. In one they'll put a healing potion, in another they'll put a ring of fire protection, etc. I'm glad they still don't mind me wandering through their homes and looting them.
(3) This game's a real button-masher. The battles are fast-paced and well-animated, and the battle engine allows for jumps and attacks and blocks and spells and special moves; but when there are ten characters dukeing it out in a small space, I find it really hard to see who's doing what. There's many a time I've ended up standing a distance away swinging my keyblade at empty air until the camera swings around to show me I'm not part of the action.
(4) The plot is interesting, but I'm getting tired of the pointless side-quests. Not just in KH2, but in *all* RPGs. "Yes, I will give you the combination to the safe so that you can recover the Amulet of Quendor, but first you must journey through that dark mountain cave in which lives a terrible dragon, because I want you to fetch me a sandwich from the little deli on the other side."
(5) The voice acting in KH2 is a mixed bag. Christopher Lee is good, really good. Most of the rest of the actors are obviously just reading lines from a script without any real emotion. The pause between lines is really awkward - even when a character is interrupted in mid-sentence, there'll be a second or two before the character who's interrupting him says anything. But the real nadir of the voice acting in this is Mena Suvari as Aerith - she's just hideously terrible; she sounds as if she's reciting lines while she's doing her hair. I'd much rather imagine Mena Suvari in a bathtub with rose petals.
I beat the game, and I wish I'd played it on the hardest difficulty level instead of on Normal; it was just too darned easy. Gameplay consisted of cutscenes followed by wandering around fighting random attacks until I reached the next cutscenes. None of the treasure chests were any difficulty whatsoever to find. I hardly made any use at all of the synthesis Moogle; I never had enough stuff for him to make much with.
And neither KH nor KH2 ever reach the emotional heartaches or plot complexity that any of the Final Fantasy series reach, but the original KH's ending was wonderfully bittersweet, whereas KH2's ending kind of fell a little flat for me. Tacked-on opening left for KH3, anyone?
Why, oh why, did they not release a version for the gamecube? Fire emblem was great, but one good RPG just ain't enough (Crystal Chronicles hardly counts). I thought Nintendo and Square Enix "resolved their differences"?
"Recursive bipartite matching"- try it!
This Kingdom Hearts stuff is a bit of a poison pill for fanart, isn't it?
Square's one of the most fanart-friendly companies out there, and suddenly they're collaborating with one of the absolute least friendly. It's inviting trouble.
DNA just wants to be free...
There has to be a 'Hot Coffee' style crack to get to her mini-game.
And also don't forget there is an option in your profile to block stories from certain categories from ever appearing.
I had the highest hopes for it too.
I rented it when it came out way back when and while the production values were impressive, the god awful camera and boring levels killed it for me.
A friend of mine thought I must have been nuts to hate on the sure-fire Square "masterpiece"...until he played it. The guy tried to like it but it was just too dull.
This game blows.... Anime is for tards....
Show me one owner of a Intellectual Property (think game) that misuses the verry seal of quality and approval for a good work on your daily labors, "emBossed" is a trademark endowed on a work for it to bear a competent nature in his performance and not that which is to be hated as though an unjust criticism.
So, someone emBosses the Disney Seal of Quality, or the Nintendo Seal of Quality on a game; and yet everyone still hates the Boss because the game is causing the Owner to retrain his experiences from the game and into the living area of the World.
Look at those pictures(c) for Kingdom Hearts; they aren't even the original Disney-style of comic and artisanry. Why does anyone want to accept Japanese softcore comic mixed with some irrelevant Disney characters that have incorporated idiotic personalities and disorders to adapt to the title of presentation? Mickey with a sword? Donald, Goofey, a big tall Japanese inspired Arian man with Grey hair, a young girl with green hair and big eyes? BULLSHIT!
Boycott Disney! Even in the area where I do business, just because to not over-crowed Disneyland at Anaheim California, they modify the Public Schools and Private Schools are set at variance by that DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION to modify Holiday recognition and vacancies as to not overlap. That's how much Disneyland and Disney has affected life. They're just another plundering beast, like Walmart; and Disney is known to steal cartoons and art to incorporate it into its IP without permission.
without prejudice
What zonk's been doing instead of reading story submissions for the past month at the slashdot offices.
It sucks. Give up.
I really wished that games with optional difficult levels, such as Kingdom Hearts 2, actually described them the way Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 did. It's clear from a lot of the reviews and a lot of veteran gamers' complaints that their biggest problem with the game isn't the game itself, but the fact that they were somehow convinced that "Normal" was their choice. The game should've said:
Easy - "Are you a young child? Is this the first video game you've ever played?"
Normal - "Are you a very casual gamer? Is this only the second or third PS2 game you've picked up?"
Hard - "Have been played and/or beaten Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Prince of Persia, or any other action game?"
If you're actually at the point where you can REVIEW video games, Hard Mode was definitely your choice, and you would actually be using the games' different systems in that mode, instead of saying "Why bother? Air combo works just fine!"
In Hard Mode, instead of finding myself skipping the reaction commands, I started wishing that Devil May Cry would implement them, because they're a great way to pull off an action sequence. In DMC, getting skyscrapers thrown at you and trying to parry them would probably kill you two or three times before you got it, but in KH2, it's just a matter of pressing the reaction command at the perfect moment, and suddenly you're doing amazing things that were obviously ripped straight out of Advent Children. Also, in Hard Mode, the Drive command is every bit as essential as Devil Trigger in DMC, and summoning Stitch was the only logical way to get out of a couple of the Organization XIII fights without getting rescued. Unfortunately, because they picked Normal Mode, most players probably never bothered with Summons, Drives, or many Reaction Commands, and I doubt that many of them were ever rescued during the Organization XIII fights (I was only rescued once, but it was an awesome idea).
Sephiroth on Hard was also probably the coolest boss battle outside of Vergil 2 and 3 in Devil May Cry 3, because he literally had no pattern. It was like I was fighting another player online. If I tried to get a breather for a second and use the temporary invincibility that you get when using Cure to fully heal yourself, he'd wait patiently and hit me in the back as soon as it finished. If he wanted to use an attack that I could only block with a Reaction Move on the ground, he'd wait until the very second that I jumped. He'd even announce "Sin Harvest" and start floating up in the air, which is a move that you can only stop if you hit him, and then decide midway through that he'd rather do a different attack that makes him temporarily invulnerable and does massive damage. Instead of having a pattern, he baits you, randomly changes his mind, and abuses the Hell out of the game system. It was brilliant.
Roger Rabbit
Bonkers
http://liquidben.com - Aspiring to an 'under construction' gif
Your key is too frigging huge for the gate locks.
Eww. That sounded dirty.
Sorry, not really interested in reading a review from some crackpot who thought the first Kingdom Hearts suffered from gameplay that was "weak". The fighting was extremely fun, and relied on quick reflexes. It feels a lot like a 3D Secret of Mana, with special moves and abilities thrown in.
No comment.