Kingdom Hearts II

[Renegade 0]

I need to finish the pride lands and tron a second time round and then finish 100 acre wood, then I can do the last world I think.

[AndrewTS 0]

So I'm not the only one who just wanted to pick him up and hug him.

 

Haha, nope. Sora isn't very intimidating in that form, but damn if he isn't adorable.

 

http://sorasdomain.net/images/Char/Sora%20LK%20Char.jpg

 

It's pretty obvious, though...

 

i sorta like KHII, but how long till we get a great old school RPG? How hard is it to do Suikoden II, which is my #2 RPG of all time, again?

 

Old school RPGs are overrated. Companies have been using the same crusty old concepts, characters, plotlines, gameplay conventions, battle systems, etc for 10-15 years. At least KH has different gameplay, which attracted me to the series in the first place. Everything still needs to be improved, though.

 

Why do we need to, in the year 2006, still be muddling around with repetitive turn-based battles and 4th generation ripoffs of ancient RPG storylines? I'm sick of the mysterious hero whose family was killed by the empire and his village burned down looking for a mystically sealed away city, who along the way encounters a magic-using chick with amnesia, and they encounter x comrades and jet around the world on an airship. My favorite "old school" RPG--Chrono Trigger--is basically as different as most other "old school" console RPGs get from its peers.

 

The first Suikodens did add lots of things to the the genre we hadn't seen before (or had rarely seen). I dig having my own pad and watching it gradually build up. However, I haven't touched the series since 2 and I haven't actually been able to own that one yet.

[Renegade 0]

I miss rolling from KH1, its hard to avoid taking damage now.

[devo 0]

http://sorasdomain.net/images/Char/Sora%20LK%20Char.jpg

 

It's pretty obvious, though...

 

Well hell, I hadn't seen THAT screenshot.

[Special K 0]

Old school RPGs are overrated. Companies have been using the same crusty old concepts, characters, plotlines, gameplay conventions, battle systems, etc for 10-15 years. At least KH has different gameplay, which attracted me to the series in the first place. Everything still needs to be improved, though.

 

Why do we need to, in the year 2006, still be muddling around with repetitive turn-based battles and 4th generation ripoffs of ancient RPG storylines? I'm sick of the mysterious hero whose family was killed by the empire and his village burned down looking for a mystically sealed away city, who along the way encounters a magic-using chick with amnesia, and they encounter x comrades and jet around the world on an airship. My favorite "old school" RPG--Chrono Trigger--is basically as different as most other "old school" console RPGs get from its peers.

 

 

Let me elucidate my point. I don't want another Lunar (which was a great story with fucking STODGY gameplay.) I just want RPGs to move faster, I guess. I read very quickly. A simple sprite image of Locke freaking out is now represented by a minute and a half cutscene of the hero looking pensive.

 

Valkyrie Profile is one of my favorite games of all time. And it really eschews rpg convention. But what it has? Fucking gameplay in spades. Same with Suikoden II, which is only a 20 hour game if you zip through it.

 

Suikoden II may be an abnormality, because the plot is so incredibly fucking good. However, it has gameplay in SPADES.

 

Xenogears is the ultimate example of this. It had, for the most part, the most INCREDIBLE plot. The gameplay sort of sucked, but it was THERE. However, it was the beginning of the end. S L O W text basically was a harbinger of the long, voice-acted sequences of today.

 

Basically, I want to zip through text. RPGs are not going to be Shakespeare, why try?

 

The best sequences of the best RPGs (FFVI, Crono) could be read quickly. Can you imagine the isle of Chaos scene in FFVI today? It would last for-fucking-ever.

 

I think modern RPGs are still searching for that moment in FFVII where Aeris died. It kicked ass, it was a great moment, but FFVII was framed with LOADS of gameplay. And its story sequences, while long, packed a lot of the game into a tight package. Text is good.

 

I'm enjoying KHII, but in all honesty, Suikoden II, with it's great story and simple, but deep gameplay, has kicked the SHIT out of every RPG since, except Valkyrie Profile.

 

Yeah, yeah I know. I should go play Zork.

[Renegade 0]

Oh dear

Kairi wielding a keyblade

. How retarded.

[Molotov The Bear 0]

Oh dear

Kairi wielding a keyblade

. How retarded.

 

No way.

Kairi wielding a keyblade rules! I was waiting for that to happen. I got tired of defenseless little Kairi getting kidnapped the moment Axel showed up on the islands. KHIII needs to end with Sora, Riku, and Kairi saving the worlds together. I'm assuming theres going to be a III because Malefecent & Pete are still out there.

 

And before that, Axel shows up and you HELP him? Fuck that, Sora shoulda been kicking Axel's ass, not being buddy-buddy outta nowhere with him.

[Renegade 0]

Axel is probably my favorite character in KH2. I'm up to fighting Luxord now, how the hell am I supposed to beat this guy?

[Molotov The Bear 0]

There's no doubting Axel's coolness. But it makes no sense for him to show up and be all "Hey, I kidnapped Kairi to turn you evil. But now she's in the hands of my even more evil partners. Sorry." And for Sora to not be all "You did WHAT, mothafucka? You die now!"

[AndrewTS 0]

Let me elucidate my point. I don't want another Lunar (which was a great story with fucking STODGY gameplay.) I just want RPGs to move faster, I guess. I read very quickly. A simple sprite image of Locke freaking out is now represented by a minute and a half cutscene of the hero looking pensive.

 

This isn't just RPGs, it's pretty much any mainstream genre. Developers like to pimp out their games with cinemas as part of the presentation. However, RPGs have *really* suffered from it. A five minute expository cutscene in GTA, then back to the action? Forgivable. Cutscenes for mundane things, or excessively long cutscenes? That's when you lose me.

 

Valkyrie Profile is one of my favorite games of all time. And it really eschews rpg convention. But what it has? Fucking gameplay in spades. Same with Suikoden II, which is only a 20 hour game if you zip through it.

 

Suikoden II may be an abnormality, because the plot is so incredibly fucking good. However, it has gameplay in SPADES.

 

That's fine. Old school presentation with innovation is the way I would totally dig it. It's more common these days to see the presentation updated, but the gameplay/story/damn near everything else is ancient.

 

Xenogears is the ultimate example of this. It had, for the most part, the most INCREDIBLE plot. The gameplay sort of sucked, but it was THERE. However, it was the beginning of the end. S L O W text basically was a harbinger of the long, voice-acted sequences of today.

 

Respectfully disagree. Yes, Xenogears' gameplay was abysmal. It had a decent plot but the writing wasn't any good in my opinion. The pacing was horrible, and Disc 2 is best served as a frisbee or clay pigeon.

 

Basically, I want to zip through text. RPGs are not going to be Shakespeare, why try?

 

Interesting parallel, if unintended. If you look at the *plots* of Shakespeare plays--they were cliche even when they came out. It's the writing that made them.

 

However, you still need to switch up the plots in your games. The example I gave of a stock plot is such an example. Done to death, and even the best writing can't really block out the same-ness. And if the gameplay is mediocre or sucks--why bother?

 

The best sequences of the best RPGs (FFVI, Crono) could be read quickly. Can you imagine the isle of Chaos scene in FFVI today? It would last for-fucking-ever.

 

Well, the reason those had such longevity with me--

 

FFVI - plot wasn't done to death quite yet, had interesting sideplots (subquests), the writing was exceptional for the time, the gameplay was fairly fresh.

 

CT - gameplay was aces, the plot was damn cool, and even though the writing was shallow it did so much you'd never seen in RPGs before.

 

And it didn't hurt that they had some of the most memorable music in all of gaming.

[Special K 0]

I just wanted to say, that having FFVI characters in the game has made my day.

[Renegade 0]

Just finished it. I must say having

Riku in your team is fucking badass!

It almost made up for the lackluster final boss. I still Kairi is a lame character though. Also did anyone get the secret ending?

Keyblade wars?

Too good.

[devo 0]

Hey Renegade, how did you get the sixth page to the Hundred Acre Wood? All the guides I've looked at says it simply shows up on the visit after completing the Spooky Cave, but that's not happening for me. I'm assuming completing the Hundred Acre Wood is necessary for the final ending...

[Renegade 0]

I don't recall there being torn six pages. I finished it with five. One in disney castle, one in pridelands, one in Agrabah, one in land of the dragons and one in hallow bastion.

[Molotov The Bear 0]

Yeah, I only needed five pages to finish 100 acre wood. Luxard is incredibly easy once you realize what you have to do, and Riku is awesome.

[devo 0]

Hmm. Would you happen to know offhand what the third keyhole in Radiant Garden is, then?

[Renegade 0]

Yeah once I knew what the hell I was doing Luxard wasn't too bad. I'd say the hardest is still Xaldin, followed by Xigbar and Demyx.

 

Shame the other members were offed in CoM.

[devo 0]

Bah. If I had known that all you had to do the get the secret ending is beat the game in Proud Mode, I definitely would have picked that difficulty. No way I'm doing all this busywork to complete Jiminy's Journal, I'll just download the damn thing.

 

Well, in any case, great game. I mainly wanted closure to the story, and I got that, so everything else was gravy. My only real complaint would be that the prologue was far too long, but otherwise, a very worthy sequel to the first game. The main ending makes me think that

they might even make a third game. I'd probably buy it, but I'm definitely not as excited over the prospect of a third game as I was over the second.

[Molotov The Bear 0]

Renegade, did you finish the game on Normal? And if so, did you do anything besides beat all the worlds? I'm pretty sure Jiminy's journals pretty well done if you get all the keyholes and heartless/nobodies, and Im pretty sure I've done that.

[devo 0]

I'm almost positive that you have to complete every aspect of Jiminy's Journal...find all the treasure chests, beat all the minigames (some with certain scores), complete all the missions...it'd take hours and hours of traveling from world to world to finish these objectives.

[Molotov The Bear 0]

Well, there was a whole bunch of stuff you were supposed to have to do for KHI to get the secret ending, and I ended up only playing through the whole story to get it.

[AndrewTS 0]

I just wanted to say, that having FFVI characters in the game has made my day.

 

It's about time, too. There is no novelty value to the FFVII characters anymore.

[Renegade 0]

Yeah I played on normal and got 100%. Doing just all the worlds twice gets you around 85%.

 

Sephiroth is much easier this time round.

[Scroby 0]

Man, this game is temping me to finally go and join the darkside and buy a PS2. I played it while at work today for the first time and actually bought myself a memory card so I can save my progress and when I go back into work, I can continue playing it. But I feel really tempted to buy a PS2 just for the game thats how much I liked it.

[devo 0]

The first minute or so of the secret ending looks like a Power Rangers episode. It gets pretty intriguing after that, though.

[Renegade 0]

Especially the words

keyblade war

.

[devo 0]

Definitely. It looks as though

there is going to be a III. I now have wild visions of the Keyblade somehow being mass produced and used as the weapons of an entire army. Sounds amazing if my wild speculation is at all accurate.

 

Of course, we know that Riku can just pump out the Keyblades, since he just made that shamefully girly one for Kairi near the end of the game.

[Renegade 0]

Apparently its already confirmed that the three shown in the video are new characters.

[Molotov The Bear 0]

They might be, but I dont think we've seen the last of Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Anyone notice the keyblades the three armored guys picked up? Two of them look an awful lot like the Kingdom Key and Riku's dark key. There were some other interesting phrases too.

 

"Ansem Report." "Memory of Xehonart."

[devo 0]

I really doubt they'd be written out of the story entirely. If that was the case, the

note in the bottle at the end

would be severely misleading.