As I've been teasing, I've been recording/attempting a Kingdom Hearts let's play series, starting with KH1 Final Mix on Proud Mode. I played all these games for the first time a couple years back, and they were really fun and truly implanted on me in a wild way. I've been dying to both play some I didn't get to (Re:coded, 358/2, and Re:Chain1) and some I didn't finish (KH1), so this would be a really fun series to do.
First, the methodology: For all of these games, I think I'd like to play on the hardest difficulty offered, if only because it means I have to do less of the other nonsense. A lot of these games, if you just beat them on higher difficulties, you'll basically get handed the secret ending(s). I don't necessarily want to get every single Dalmatian, or fill out the journal, you know? In the edit, I'll probably take out a lot of backtracking, or looking things up in guides, and the like. I want this to be a "casual-everything" playthrough, something where you're seeing most/all things a guide would show you.
Second, the games: I want to play basically every game except the mobile games. We're not watching a cutscene movie, we're gonna get 358/2 running on an emulator. Same with Re:coded! For the mobile games, I think I might have a "lore expert" friend come in and explain what happened, with footage of me getting my ass kicked in secret bosses happening in the background2. But, as much as possible, I want to play the games that are actual games to play, and I want to beat them!
Now, let's get to our first hurdle. I didn't actually finish KH1 the first time I played these games, and as of right this second I still haven't beaten KH1. When I played the first time around, I got stuck on one of the last Ansem bosses, the one where you're flying around. Because of how rough the checkpointing was, and because how awful it is to play the game when you're underwater or flying, I just never made it past. I watched a video of the entire ending sequence, from Ansem on the beach until credits & secret ending, but I never personally beat the game.
So, now that I've been recording gameplay of me on Proud Mode, and having beaten almost all the other games, how has KH1FM Proud Mode been for me?
Awful! I have given up during the Giant Ursula fight.
The thing I'm realizing, for my tastes and my preferences, KH1 is the worst-playing game in the series. This is a game based around a certain type of combat (not underwater or flying), and they give you abilities for that specific gameplay, and then they throw out bosses/levels that make almost half your abilities useless. In the Giant Ursula fight, you are being spammed with lightning, while also having a slow standard movement speed and no dodge roll. Your fast option, Dolphin Kick, locks you into a direction for far too long and is slow to wind up. In Proud Mode, at least with how I'm stat'd out, I will get two shot to any two hits if Aero isn't covering me. My Keyblade is the best offensive option I have, but because I'm underwater all my cool Keyblade skills are gone. I don't even have Summons to fall back on because, again, I am underwater. And the camera... just hope you can actually see the lightning about to strike you, or else OOPS you're dead.
And I know that it just gets worse! The bosses in Halloween Town are even worse, because the camera controls are so bad. That flying Ansem fight is awful because not only are you flying, again removing a lot of your offensive options, but in some cases your Party is just gone. I get, thematically, why you'd do this in that part, but like... The World Ends With You does that better! Later games do that better!
So, after trying for about half an hour to an hour to beat Giant Ursula, I think my journey with KH1 Final Mix Proud Mode is over. I'm gonna start over (lol) with an easy mode save, and this time I'll beat the game. But Proud Mode-only will start in earnest with Re:Chain.
At least I got this funny video out of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Oz06oIUjg
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Somehow the tutorial area bugged out for me in such a way I couldn't get a card to progress? Like, one of the story-beat cards I think? It was a pain. Everything works now, I've tried playing again just past the tutorial world and it totally works and is fun.
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In the "lore" or "fiction" of my YouTube channel, I've been stuck on an office building on The Moon. So I'm imagining this like a talk show set, like a SGC2C set, with footage being played where a window to a fake skyline (or space) would be. It'll work, I prommy.
