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 Birth by Sleep is the first major game in the Kingdom Hearts timeline, chronicling a story that takes place a decade before the original Kingdom Hearts. It tells the tale of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua; three young warriors trained in the way of the Keyblade, who must undergo a journey to stop the new threat of the Unversed, and the mysterious figure that commands them. Developed by Square, the original game was released on the PSP in 2010, with the Final Mix version being released solely in Japan the following year. Thankfully, an English translation of the Final Mix was included in the HD 2.5 ReMIX for the PS3 in 2014, and the HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX for the PS4 in 2017. The game features a new way of tackling combat, one that many fans, including myself, consider to be the best of the franchise so far. Why Birth by Sleep? With Kingdom Hearts III finally coming this year (hopefully with no last-minute postponing) I decided I want to cover the entirety of the main series. And because I'm just picky about these kind of things, I'm going in timeline order. About the LP: This LP will also not be live, I have no good way of recording it as such. I'll record the gameplay and the commentary separately. I will be playing on Standard Mode, with the plan on unlocking the secret ending, Blank Points, and the Final Mix exclusive Secret Episode. I don't plan on uncovering every little thing in the game, like all the commands, opening every treasure chest, or clearing the entire Mirage Arena. I will, however, fight the two optional bosses introduced in the updated version. To make things clear, I'm playing the version included on the HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX for the PS4. As a warning, since it came up in the Sandcastle thread, I WILL be talking during cutscenes, just so people know if that kind of thing bothers them. Schedule: As usual, there's no specific schedule. I'll simply get to the LP when I'm able to. Hopefully at least two or three videos a week. Spoilers?: Normally I'd avoid spoilers, but I feel Kingdom Hearts can be difficult to talk about, even just a single game, without giving things away. That said, I will also mention endgame spoilers for just about every game in the series barring Re:Coded (since no one cares about it and it barely matters) and Dream Drop Distance. Terra's Story: Part 1 - Terra's Departure Part 2 - Enchanted Dominion (Terra) Part 3 - Castle of Dreams (Terra) Part 4 - Dwarf Woodlands (Terra) Part 5 - Radiant Garden (Terra) Part 6 - Disney Town (Terra) Part 7 - Olympus Coliseum (Terra) Part 8 - Deep Space (Terra) Part 9 - Neverland (Terra) Part 10 - Keyblade Graveyard (Terra) Ventus' Story: Part 11 - Ventus' Departure and Dwarf Woodlands Part 12 - Castle of Dreams (Ventus) Part 13 - Enchanted Dominion (Ventus) Part 14 - Radiant Garden and Disney Town (Ventus) Part 15 - Olympus Coliseum and Deep Space (Ventus) Part 16 - Neverland (Ventus) Part 17 - Keyblade Graveyard (Ventus) Aqua's Story: Part 18 - Aqua's Departure and Castle of Dreams Part 19 - Dwarf Woodlands (Aqua) Part 20 - Enchanted Dominion (Aqua) Part 21 - Radiant Garden and Disney Town (Aqua) Part 22 - Olympus Coliseum and Deep Space (Aqua) Part 23 - Neverland (Aqua) Part 24 - Keyblade Graveyard (Aqua) Other: Part 25 - The Final Episode Part 26 - The Secret Episode Part 27 - Optional Bosses TheLoneStar fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Mar 5, 2018 |
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Jan 19, 2018 02:27
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Characters: Terra: One of the three playable protagonists of the story. He's the strong, slow, low-magic type of fighting class of characters. He has hints of darkness inside his heart, one that his Master is concerned over to no end. Despite his good nature and desire to help others, he can perhaps be too trusting at times, leading to trouble in various worlds. Voiced by Jason Dohring.  Ventus: The second of the playable protagonists. Ventus is fast and agile in combat, though not particularly strong in either strength or magic. He's the youngest and most inexperienced of the three, but at the same time, he's the purest, with the least amount of darkness in his heart. After a mysterious figure gives him a warning about Terra, he goes after the older boy, determined to help out the one he looks up to. Voiced by Jesse McCartney.  Aqua: The third and final playable protagonist. She is the fragile mage character of the trio. Aqua is the only one of the three to prove herself worthy of the title "Keyblade Master" at the start of the story. She is tasked along with Terra to investigate the recent unrest in the worlds by the mysterious Unversed. At the same time, she tries to convince Ventus to return home, with little luck. Voiced by Willa Holland.  Master Eraqus: Eraqus is the mentor of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, and the Keyblade Master who oversees their home world, The Land of Departure. With an almost obsession with eradicating darkness, he strives to "fix" Terra of his potential reliance on it, trying to help his pupil. Voiced by Mark Hamill.  Mickey Mouse: I mean...it's Mickey Mouse. Do I need to introduce him? Well, in the Kingdom Hearts series at least, Mickey is an powerful Keyblade user, trying to right wrongs and aid anyone he can. He meets up with our heroes at various points in the story, willing to to lend a helping hand whenever possible. Voiced by Bret Iwan.  Master Xehanort: A very unassuming looking character, he is another Keyblade Master and longtime friend of Master Eraqus. Unlike his friend, Xehanort sees a great use in the power of darkness, and seems to have a hidden, but probably completely non-malicious, goal of his own. Calm and collect, he guides Terra with honeyed words and a strong hand. Voiced by the late Leonard Nimoy.  The Unversed: The creature type unique to Birth by Sleep. The Unversed are a new and mysterious new problem in this game's worlds. Their goal, purpose, and exact origin are unknown. Though they seem to be linked with negative emotions.  The Masked Boy: Not much is known about this mysterious figure at first, except that he has ties to Master Xehanort, the Unversed, and Ventus.
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Jan 19, 2018 02:29
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(Reserving a post, just in case.)
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Jan 19, 2018 02:29
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Part 1 - Terra's Departure And so the Kingdom Hearts marathon begins. I have to say, I really don't like either Terra or Aqua in this game, and a lot of those reasons I'll be talking about as the game go along. But in a nutshell, I find Terra to be stupid, and Aqua to be too weak-willed, and almost spineless in nature. Ventus acts pretty stupid too, but I'm more willing to forgive him since he's probably fifteen at the oldest. Either way, not much happens here, just the tutorial and prologue really. A lot of aspects of this game are ones I'm hoping will return in Kingdom Hearts III. Like the command deck, command melding, the various finishers, the Keyblade armors and vehicles. It's all pretty neat stuff, and it's a bit of a shame we don't have this kind of stuff in other games. TheLoneStar fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Jan 19, 2018 |
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Jan 19, 2018 02:32
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Ephraim225 posted:What a coincidence, I'm actually playing through everything in the collections myself and just finished BBS on Critical Level 1 mode. It's not that difficult and you should totally try it. And yeah, that makes sense considering he's the first one listed to be picked. Like honestly I cut through the bosses like butter when I play as him. Ragnarok works wonders, it's let me beat most of the bosses in about a minute or so flat. And yeah, Aqua has awful voice acting, which I'll probably mock relentlessly. And I'm not overly fond of squishy wizard types myself, but her cartwheel is pretty OP with the invincibility frames.
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Jan 19, 2018 06:37
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Ephraim225 posted:In a way, it's something of a puzzle. Level 1 mode has some undisclosed properties you can take advantage of (damage scaling causes multi-hitting attacks to become amazing) but it was a pain to figure out some bosses. Especially as Terra. Ephraim225 posted:If you are planning on getting the Firewheel for her I highly recommend trying it on Zack Fair.
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Jan 19, 2018 14:16
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Augus posted:Terra is the best character in any KH game. He's got no common sense whatsoever and every decision he makes his hilarious. Augus posted:getting through fights without taking damage viable without resorting to cheap and boring tactics nine-gear crow posted:I’ve gotten back into watching Arrow this year, and I’m surprised that Aqua is voiced by Willa Holland. That’s an overlap I wasn’t exactly expecting.
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Jan 19, 2018 22:07
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Part 2 - Enchanted Dominion (Terra) Not even an hour into his quest and he royally fucks up. Thinking about it, it actually does take him a while to trust another Disney villain, not until the Olympus Coliseum at least. It makes it hard for me to feel bad for the poo poo he goes through because of how easily it could've been avoided. I mean right off the bat he's told Xehanort confided in this evil witch about stealing hearts, yet he doesn't seem all too concerned about it. At least, not enough to distrust Xehanort. It also bothers me that Terra doesn't stick around to fix his own mistake. He stole this innocent girl's heart, knows who the bad guy in the world is, and then he just leaves. Doesn't even bother to look for Maleficent or anything. And here's some Sleeping Beauty trivia: The sounds used for Maleficent breathing fire in the original film were provided by actual flamethrowers.
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Jan 21, 2018 00:07
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Part 3 - Castle of Dreams (Terra) As much poo poo as I give Terra for loving worlds up, he actually only helps out in this one. I can't even berate him for not taking care of the Disney villain since he had no idea Lady Tremaine was evil. I did notice that throughout a lot of the worlds, especially Terra's, he learns some kind of "lesson" at the end of it, usually given to him by a Disney character. It's nice in practice, but feels ultimately meaningless considering most of them never come up again, and the little internal problems these lessons quell within Terra were never even present before. Like later in Disney Town he talks about cheating against the Unversed, or at least not following the rules, then learns his lesson about it as if it was a problem he's always had. It seems a little forced to me. Also, I really hope we get crowds in Kingdom Hearts III, like I know the Olympus Coliseum will be a world once more, so I really hope we get a crowd watching the matches. I couldn't help but role my eyes as the Duke mentioned all the guests that were at the big royal ball. And some Cinderella trivia: Although he's called Prince Charming in the original story, he's never actually referred to by name in the Disney film.
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Jan 23, 2018 03:41
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Part 4 - Dwarf Woodlands (Terra) I can't help but be slightly frustrated once more at Terra's actions here. For one thing, he does nothing about the very obvious evil Queen, the one he knows is evil, from trying to murder an innocent girl. Technically, there's no "no meddling" rule in this game, all Eraqus said was not to let people know there are other worlds. It's just like with Maleficent, he just lets her go despite the awful poo poo she's done. He even has the audacity to call himself a peacekeeper. I mean, I know it's because then the entire world would be wrapped up in one trip, but there's not even a flimsy excuse for his actions here. And I also didn't like how he didn't keep berating the all-seeing magical mirror more questions. Literally the entire game, and by extension the entire series, could've been resolved if he just forced some more questions out of it. But I guess that'd just make things too easy. And some Snow White trivia: The Prince was supposed to appear more in the original film, this includes a scene where The Queen would have him trapped in her dungeon.
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Jan 24, 2018 23:14
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Ephraim225 posted:Anyhow, the mirror is one of the bosses that feels very...forced? Phoned in? Not sure what words to use, but it's not a bad boss battle, I actually rather like it, my issue is...just, the mirror? Seriously? The mirror is not strictly evil, unlike the Queen, though I suppose there are worse candidates for video game boss battles (in fact in my opinion Ventus's story has one, but that's a whole storyline away from now) and if they use Unversed too often then you'll start to wonder what the point of the Disney half of the game is. (Then again I've always wondered what the point of the Disney half of certain KH games is!) And yeah, I always felt the first Kingdom Hearts game had the perfect blend of Disney and Final Fantasy/Original stuff. I mean like Hell, in this game there's about ten optional bosses, and literally only one of them is Disney-related. And it's loving Monstro of all things. Apparently in Kingdom Hearts III, there'll be a bigger push from the Disney side of things, which I'm looking forward to. Not to mention some of the Unversed bosses have really bad designs, like the freakin' Wheel Master, or the Cursed Coach.
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Jan 25, 2018 01:12
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Ephraim225 posted:Yep, though come to think of it Terra has another boss later that, again, is not a bad fight, they just don't contextualize it well. I didn't know about the potions, but I did try with the Fission Firaga a bunch of times but still failed. I guess I just timed things wrong, because I later did it with Aqua without the Sliding Dash.
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Jan 25, 2018 03:21
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Ephraim225 posted:The Cinderella world has both Symphony Master and Cursed Coach (I kinda like the designs on both of them actually) so they had to reach far for one of the three bosses or they'd all be unversed. In retrospect they seem to have ran out of ideas with Dwarf Woodlands - it's the only world to repeat a boss.
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Jan 25, 2018 07:51
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Part 5 - Radiant Garden (Terra) While this video has the best Unversed boss and best Organization XIII member's Somebody in it, this video still ticks me off. This is the perfect opportunity for the group to sit down and just talk things out, but they don't because Aqua made it seem like she was spying on Terra (which she wasn't), and Terra refused to listen to her rational explanations as he sulked off. These kinds of story elements never fail to annoy me, especially since it makes it hard for me to sympathize with what happens to the main characters when their lovely endings could've been avoided with a bit of common sense. I mean, people talk about how Xehanort is a master manipulator, but honestly he didn't even need to try very hard to trick people like Terra or Venuts. And Hell, he doesn't even speak to Aqua at all in the entire story, she just happened to fall right into his plans. Also, I might start uploading more episodes more often, like maybe one episode on Saturday and Sunday, regardless of how the week's update schedule has been. Feels like things are going too slow. And some Radiant Garden trivia: The Final Fantasy cast from Radiant Garden were supposed to appear in this game, but there were too many characters in this one world already, so they got left out.
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Jan 26, 2018 23:03
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Gonna upload two videos today. Part of the extra weekend thing, and also the first episode is just too short. Part 6 - Disney Town (Terra) God, gently caress this place. This entire world is completely useless to have in the game. I almost feel like it was only included to tell us why Pete was banished to another dimension. Even then it was for a really dumb reason. In Kingdom Hearts II, it was kind of implied he did some pretty terrible stuff, but as it turns out he was just kind of an rear end in a top hat and hurt people's feelings. Hell, if anything he should've been thrown in a jail cell or something, not banished to an alternate dimension. That poo poo's just dumb. It doesn't help that this world has no interesting boss or anything, instead just having three awful mini-games instead. The worst part is if you want to get through the whole Mirage Arena, you have to do all the Rumble Racing tracks. Doing those to fight the optional bosses was almost not worth it, but I powered through. And some random Disney trivia: Goofy's original name was Dippy Dawg, and he was called George Geef in the 50s. Part 7 - Olympus Coliseum (Terra) I can't believe the Coliseum is once again filled to the brim with invisible people. What a startling coincidence. I actually only just realized that the Coliseum seems to attract Final Fantasy VII characters. First Cloud, now Zack. I do like how Zack actually has world-appropriate armor on, unlike Cloud's bizarre outfit in Kingdom Hearts I. Seems like Terra's picking the trend of trusting obvious villains back up again. I mean come on, Hades just reeks of evilness, even if the original mythology version of the character wasn't really that bad. It's also kind of weird how Hercules didn't really do anything during this visit, and he plays what I'd consider a kind of minor roll in the other two visits as well. And some Hercules trivia: Pain and Panic trying to kill Hercules as snakes was a reference to the old myths, where it was Hera that sent two snakes to try and kill Heracles when he was a child. TheLoneStar fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 02:18
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Ephraim225 posted:Wow. Okay. I had no idea Ragnarok could be THAT good. When I fought Zack in Critical Level 1 mode I wasn't doing any command board stuff, so it took DOZENS of tries for me. I don't even think you can dodge whatever move he uses at the start. Speedrunners actually found a way to trick him into never doing it more than one time. Of course I had to spam my best non-Ragnarok shotlock and carry Ethers while Igniting him over and over.
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Jan 29, 2018 06:13
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Part 8 - Deep Space (Terra) It actually took me until this playthrough to realize that Lilo, the main character of the Lilo and Stitch movie, doesn't even get an appearance or mention in this world. It's this way for obvious reasons, of course, but I can't help but find it kind of bizarre, and I actually kind of want to go to a Hawaii world in Kingdom Hearts III, but it probably won't happen. Either way, we clearly see Terra just being a complete idiot here, where he literally lets a criminal out of prison after Jumba sweet-talks him a bit. And he doesn't even clean up his own mess, he just leaves when poo poo starts going down. I also do kind of wish we got to fight just one more Experiment aside from Sparky, maybe as an optional boss (considering there's a severe lack of these in this game, with Monstro being the only one), and there's a number of Experiments that could work out with. Ah well. And some Lilo and Stitch trivia: The fight with Jumba and Stitch near the end of the movie was supposed to be a lot more violent. You can see a comparison of deleted footage and the replacements here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2POGTTwJi8Y
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Jan 31, 2018 01:01
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Ephraim225 posted:This is the fight I was talking about.
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Jan 31, 2018 02:21
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Part 9 - Neverland (Terra) Ah, finally the last Disney world. With Terra, at least. This trip seemed really...uneventful to me. Like it was just kind of Terra following Captain Hook's orders, but never actually fighting the guy at any point. All he really did was beat up a bunch of those jellyfish Unversed and let Tinker Bell out of a little lantern thing. Seemed kind of like a waste of a trip, but that just happens sometimes in this game. I kind of touched on this in the video, but sometimes I feel like Kingdom Hearts reuses a lot of the Disney-centered jokes too much. Like Hook and the crocodile thing. I feel like it happens more in this game than it did in the actually movie. And then there's Kingdom Hearts I too with the jokes, and probably in 358/2 Days, but I never got that far in it. I dunno, does anyone else feel that way? I wonder if I'm just being a buzzkill. And some Peter Pan trivia: The movie was the final one to be worked on by all of Disney's Nine Old Men.
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Feb 2, 2018 03:42
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Part 10 - Keyblade Graveyard (Terra) And so Terra's part of the game is finished. What a lovely God drat character he is. Basically Terra's role in Xehanort's plot requires him to be a massive loving idiot and blindly trusting the obviously evil old man with freaky orange eyes and a darkness fetish. He's supposed to be Riku's counterpart of the Birth by Sleep trio, but I don't think he fits the role very well at all. He never once does anything evil out of malice. He's either controlled, like when he stole Aurora's heart, or he's just being an idiotic twit that thinks the obvious villain in front of him (Xehanort, Hades, Captain Hook, Jumba) are to be trusted. And even then, when he makes a problem, he rarely actually goes out of his way to solve the issue. Like he never went to go stop Maleficent, didn't try to put Jumba back in jail, doesn't do anything about The Queen, and so on. He doesn't give in to darkness in the way Riku does, he just sometimes uses its power in combat. Yet Eraqus keeps going on like Terra has given completely into the darkness, when he really hasn't. Maybe if he did something evil as a necessity, like he has to work with X Disney Villain because it will somehow help him with his quest, even though he knows X Disney Villain is evil. Otherwise all the talk about him giving into the darkness just sounds like paranoia. As for the final fight, it's pretty drat cool. Getting to play as the Lingering Will was a treat, though the cutscenes before the fights were not nearly as cool as they were depicted in Kingdom Hearts II, for obvious reasons. Yet I still can't help but compare the two, even though one was an HD cutscene, and the other is a regular cutscene with gameplay graphics. Either way, next is Ventus, who has his own problems to deal with and headaches to give me.
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Feb 3, 2018 22:20
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Ephraim225 posted:Ooh, the first encounter with Vanitas. Too late to recommend the Peter Pan D-Link, but you'll have two more chances to try it on him. Shame you can't use it on Terranort, because for some reason, you have no D-Links. Well poo poo, I probably should've tried blocking. For whatever reason, it never crossed my mind. Maybe I'm just hard-wired into spamming the dodge button from playing as Ventus and Aqua, where the roll and cartwheel have a lot more invincibility frames, especially the cartwheel. As for Mega Flare, it took me a long while to finally realize it was essentially worthless in boss battles, and should really only be used on generic Unversed. It just seems like it'd be really OP, ya know? Since it covers the entire drat screen with a flashbang. Yeah, Second Chance and Once More were honestly mandatory with some of the optional bosses, just on Standard Mode. No Heart and the Mysterious Figure especially...I could never imagine trying to fight either of them without both of those abilities.
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Feb 4, 2018 00:25
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Part 11 - Ventus' Departure and Dwarf Woodlands Ventus' story can be just as frustrating as Terra's, in terms of how idiotic Ventus can be. Like not even five minutes into the episode, before his adventure properly starts he acts like a loving idiot. Oh, some guy in a mask breaks into his room and tells him Terra's gonna change? Well, better believe him, and not tell anyone about it. I want to be, and try to be, more lenient with Ventus and his stupidity because he's like, maybe fifteen at the oldest, you know? It's a lot more tolerable for him to be stupid than Terra, who is probably at least eighteen, or he at least seems that way to me. Still, despite his stupidity, Ventus is still my favorite of the three, a big part is because his voice actor has actual talent. As for the Dwarf Woodlands...were the Seven Dwarfs this mean in the movie? It's been a while since I watched it, but they just seem so mean-spirited here to the point where it's actually kinda funny. Well, Grumpy of course is a prick in the movie too, but the others, aside from Dopey, seem uncharacteristically nasty to me. Oh well, no big deal I suppose. And some more Snow White trivia: Despite lasting about a minute, the "Heigh Ho" scene at the beginning of the film where the Dwarfs are marching apparently took animator Shamus Culhane about six months to accomplish. A big part of the difficulty being seven continuously moving bodies on-screen, each marching in a unique fashion to match their personalities.
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Feb 5, 2018 01:30
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Part 12 - Castle of Dreams (Ventus) As redundant as some worlds can get with repeated visits, I'm at least glad here Ventus has shrunk down so the world gets a whole new perspective and change of rules. Using forks and matchboxes while inside the walls is the kind of creative thing I can appreciate in a game. Though I have to say, having Ventus say something heartfelt only to be met with Jaq's gibberish talk really sucks the feeling out of that ending scene. Of course, there's also the...boss fight of the world, against a loving cat. Not a cat Unversed or anything, just Lucifer being a little poo poo and needing us to shoot lasers at it. It just doesn't feel right, man. I get they were trying to be creative, but I felt they were reaching much too far here. Oh also, Cinderella needs some loving glasses. Her heart may be pure, but she has the eyesight of a ninety year-old. And some more Cinderella trivia: It's been said that Cinderella's tattered dress being transformed into her elegant ball dress was one of Walt Disney's favorite pieces of animation.
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Feb 7, 2018 01:40
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Part 13 - Enchanted Dominion (Ventus) I think this is the Disney world where Ventus makes the biggest impact, since he freed Aurora's heart and all. Yet at the same time it still felt like he didn't accomplish much since her heart is stolen in Kingdom Hearts I anyway. Getting to fight a more dynamic Maleficent was nice, since her boss battle in Kingdom Hearts I was kind of dull, even her dragon form wasn't very interesting to me. And I only just now noticed that Aurora never even gets to interact with any of the three protagonists, which I guess is almost fitting considering how much of a non-character she is, even in the original Disney movie. This is the first time Vanitas is actually battled solo and...I mean after this he doesn't change up too much, I felt. Like each time I fought him in the game, aside from the very final battle in Ventus' story, he felt so samey to me. And some more Sleeping Beauty trivia: The "Pink! Blue!" gag in the film originated from the filmmakers themselves trying to figure out what color Aurora's dress should be, pink or blue.
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Feb 9, 2018 01:56
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Part 14 - Radiant Garden and Disney Town (Ventus) Ventus has a rather unique visit to the garden as he's the only one to encounter the Somebodies of Organization XIII. Obviously it's a reference to Roxas, and foreshadows his and Axel's future friendship. I've honestly never liked Axel or Saïx, but seeing the others like Vexen or Xaldin were a treat. This visit also really exemplifies why I find Ventus to be such an idiot, and why Aqua is so spineless, but I'll get to her later. Ventus just can't get it through his thick skull to maybe listen to his older, wiser friends and just go home. Instead he berates Aqua for no reason and acts as Terra's number one fanboy. The Disney Town visit really gives little that's new. Just a different minigame that's at least less painful than Terra's. And some more random Disney trivia: Disney had actually wanted Donald Duck to be the main character of the original Kingdom Hearts. Could you imagine him wielding a Keyblade? Me neither.
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Feb 11, 2018 01:21
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Part 15 - Olympus Coliseum and Deep Space (Ventus) Of the three visits to the Olympus Coliseum, Ventus' is definitely the most pointless. Like really, aside from some character development that wasn't needed (Ventus' spontaneous and idiotic feeling he has no friends) nothing really got accomplished aside from Hercules needing a morale boost. Hades wasn't even seen this time around, for goodness sake. I also kind of wish that there was some kind of blatant connection to Cloud with Zack here, since unless I just missed something, everyone's favorite blonde sword-wielder is never alluded to. Though I suppose at this point he would still only be like, ten years-old. Deep Space really feels repetitive to me. It seems each visit is just "626 escapes, Terra/Aqua/Ventus find him, and some friendshipy thing happens." with the exception of Ventus' story ending with 626's escape. It was at least nice to see how 626 wound up on Hollow Bastion, as I had wondered about that since I first played Kingdom Hearts II. I had always thought that in the Kingdom Hearts universe he was an experiment of Ansem's or something. I do have to question how no one ever discovered 626 in a decade. Was he just hiding in a vent somewhere? I guess it can just be chalked up to Nomura not being very good at writing backwards. Hercules trivia: In the movie, Hercules fights Nessos, the centaur. In the original myths, he rescued his second wife, Deianira, from him rather than Megara. Lilo and Stitch trivia: There was surprisingly a lot of blatant racism in cut scenes of the first movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taPoeIQaOiQ
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Feb 12, 2018 01:45
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Part 16 - Neverland (Ventus) Honestly this feels like another pointless visit of Ventus'. I mean yeah, he beats up Captain Hook, but it hardly felt like he was even doing much, if that makes sense. Like Terra didn't do anything to Captain Hook combat-wise, but even that felt like a bigger thwart than what happened here. It's still a nice visit, I suppose. I always love seeing Captain Hook flounder about, even when they use that over-done gag with the crocodile. I still find it odd that Ventus never interacts with either Sora or Riku during his trip to Destiny Islands. I mean if the problem is that he looks like Roxas, I doubt they'd even remember the meeting. After all, neither Sora nor Riku seem to remember Aqua or Terra, and Riku doesn't seem to recall seeing a Keyblade in the first game. Though of course that can be chalked up to Nomura being bad at backwards writing. Peter Pan trivia: There was supposed to be a song centered around Tick-Tock the Crocodile called Never Smile at a Crocodile, but it got scrapped. The little tune that plays when Tick-Tock appears is an instrumental version of it.
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Feb 14, 2018 04:02
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Part 17 - Keyblade Graveyard (Ventus) Two of three protagonists completed. I do honestly like Ventus over Terra and Aqua, but it's really not by that much when I think about. He's still an immature, stupid kid that fucks things over for everybody because he refuses to just do what Aqua and Terra tell him to do and go home. Even when they tell him their reasoning he acts like they never told him why. Then he just spends the latter half of his story bumming about in Disney worlds with no real goal or motive aside from making friends. It's just...kinda stupid. The whole deal with the χ-blade is kind of nifty, even if its design is a little bit lame. And it still bothers me that it's just called "Keyblade" instead of saying EX-Blade or something. Or Chi-Blade. Literally anything than just "Keyblade" for gently caress's sake. As for Vanitas...not too fond of him. I was never too big on "evil twin" type characters, even if that's not exactly what he is, but close enough. He's just a bit too edgy for me, but I don't really hate him or anything.
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Feb 16, 2018 05:21
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Ephraim225 posted:Ouch, you missed him with the finisher twice?! That's gotta sting. I hated that part because I had no idea what to actually do, and the number of retries REALLY started to pile up on Critical Level 1. You can take ONE hit so it wound up being dice rolls, is he gonna use a move I can counter? Will the game count it as a hit? Is the finisher's hit detection going to screw up and miss? Yeah, she just gets Braig and Ventus-Vanitas, who fights just like Vanitas essentially. At the very least she gets two "final" bosses in the two extra episodes.
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Feb 16, 2018 14:44
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Augus posted:Vanitas is the loving worst. He is so loving random every single time you fight him. And that stupid finisher is such bullshit, it barely works half the time and doesn't even make an attempt to explain itself
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Feb 16, 2018 19:17
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Part 18 - Aqua's Departure and Castle of Dreams Just one protagonist left. Aqua's exceedingly weak physical strength is a real pain in the rear end at the start of her story. I mean yes, I get it, she's "The Mage", the one that relies on magic over attack power. Yet, when it's to the point that the very weakest enemy of the game still takes over five hits to kill, it's gotten a tad ridiculous. And it's not even because I'm playing Standard Mode, I played Beginner Mode recently, and Aqua STILL had this problem, and forced me to grind as soon as I stepped outside the castle. As for this world, I felt like there was a bit of bullshit going on with The Fairy Godmother. What beats darkness, but isn't light? I don't think even she knows. Love? Probably something corny like that. It was pretty satisfying seeing Lady Tremaine get a punishment here, as she pretty much gets off without any in the original film. A tad excessive with her getting blown to smithereens maybe, but still better than nothing. More Cinderella trivia: Cinderella was the first Disney film to be worked on by the Nine Old Men.
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Feb 18, 2018 01:21
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Part 19 - Dwarf Woodlands (Aqua) This is another one of those visits that I feel is almost entirely pointless. Aside form pointing The Prince in the right direction, Aqua does absolutely nothing of value during her stay in this world. Sure, she fights the Magic Mirror, but he wasn't really doing anything but just chilling in his mirror world. Of course, he DID attack Aqua for zero actual reason. That's another gripe I have here, the fight just comes out of nowhere. the spirit just sucks Aqua into his world for no given reason and is just like "Well, you beat me, congrats." when the fight's over. They really should've just made another Unversed boss. I also find it strange how we never get to see or take part in The Queen's demise during the game. That pretty much never happens in any other world in the series. The closest I can think of is The Queen of Hearts is kind of left unscathed in Wonderland. More Snow White trivia: There were over twenty songs written for the film, but less than ten got used.
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Feb 19, 2018 00:21
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Part 20 - Enchanted Dominion (Aqua) Here we see the first sign of Aqua's special brand of being incompetent. Her extremely poor attempt to make Ventus go the gently caress home. It frustrates me a bit that she doesn't just sit this kid down AT ANY POINT when they interact and explain why he needs to grow up, suck it up, and just go home. Aside form that, getting to fight along Prince Phillip was actually pretty cool, given that he was pretty much the only decent classical Disney Prince. Y'know, since he actually DOES something aside from show up to sweep the princess off her feet. It's a shame that you don't get to fight alongside more Disney characters in this game, though I suppose not all worlds really allow for stuff like that, like the Dwarf Woodlands and Castle of Dreams. The fight with Dragon Maleficent was pretty cool here too, a great step up from the one in Kingdom Hearts I, that's for drat sure. More Sleeping Beauty trivia: Maleficent's pet crow is named Diablo.
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Feb 21, 2018 02:18
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Part 21 - Radiant Garden and Disney Town (Aqua) I have to admit, it's a nice callback to run into Kairi in Radiant Garden. I just wish they modeled her face better, because it seriously looks...uncanny to me. There really isn't much else to say about Radiant Garden anymore, especially since Aqua pretty much does nothing else of value. The only other thing is I'm still annoyed at how Aqua made it seem like she was spying on Terra, when she blatantly was never told to do so by Eraqus, nor did she start doing so on her own. It's just a cheap, nonsensical way of making drama form between the main trio. As for Disney Town...gently caress Fruitball. I'm so glad that I never have to go to this nuisance of a Kingdom Hearts world ever again. I can appreciate what they were trying to do with it; giving us another look at Disney Castle, and an explanation as to how Pete got banished...but it just fell flat on its face. Random Disney trivia: Mickey's name was originally going to be Mortimer Mouse, but Walt Disney's wife convinced him to change it. The Mortimer Mouse we have today would be created years later to serve as a rival of sorts to Mickey.
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Feb 23, 2018 03:22
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Part 22 - Olympus Coliseum and Deep Space (Aqua) Even Aqua's trip to the Olympus Coliseum feels completely worth it, even though this is finally when we get to fight Hades. I guess it's just because Aqua is going after him for poo poo he did like, a week ago. "Oh, he was a dick to Terra and Zack in the past! Time to rough him up!" Like I feel like he should be doing something more in the present to warrant that reaction. I do at least find it kind of amusing how everyone except Hercules hits on Aqua in some manner in this world, especially since no one else in the entire game does so. I also had my issues with this visit to Deep Space, mainly in how The Grand Councilwoman treats Stitch. She keeps mentioning how horrible and violent he is, yet near the end of the world she personally escorts him and Jumba back to their cells, not restraining them in any way, yet she doesn't note how Stitch puts up exactly zero resistance. I mean yeah, Gantu does that too, but he's never been depicted as level-headed, so it's kind of expected of him to act like he does. The Grand Councilwoman's instant trust of Aqua also felt really odd to me. More Hercules trivia: While he didn't have a song in the movie, Hades gets one in the Hercules T.V. show. More Lilo & Stitch trivia: There was supposed to be a chase scene with Stitch chasing after Gantu, and it even got completed. It got scrapped because of the 9/11 attacks, as the chase scene involved a lot of damage to buildings.
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Feb 25, 2018 01:57
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Part 23 - Neverland (Aqua) Yet another world visit in this game that feels like it accomplishes nothing. Or at least, not enough to impact the main plot of the world itself or the grand scheme of things with Xehanort. Aqua and gang go around looking for treasure, Captain Hook comes and goes in the span of thirty seconds, and then Vanitas comes for a fight. And it's one of those bullshit fights that no matter how soundly you thrash the boss, your character acts like they only won by the skin of their teeth. That sort of stuff drives me nuts in games, and it's especially stupid in a series where Cure exists. The visit to Destiny Islands was just laughable, Aqua telling Sora about his five year-old friend (could've sworn he was four like Sora) going down a dark path. Like geez lady, that's a lot to dump on a kid that age, isn't it? Either way, next time is the last of Aqua's main story, and by next Sunday, the playthrough proper will be completely finished. More Peter Pan trivia: The film was originally going to be the second major Disney film produced, in fact the 1941 film The Reluctant Dragon (a film animation at Disney) a picture of Captain Hook can be seen during the studio tour.
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Feb 26, 2018 01:42
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Part 24 - Keyblade Graveyard (Aqua) The conclusion to Aqua's story is about as boring as she is. Well, in terms of the final bosses, at least. Terra got to fight Master Xehanort, and Ventus got a special type of fight with Vanitas with the shattered platform and all that. Aqua? She gets a slightly harder Braig and Vanitas fight. Only difference here is Vanitas is possessing Ventus and has a sillier looking Keyblade. That being said, she at least has two special episodes exclusive to her, so I guess that kind of makes up for her recycled final bosses in her regular story. I again have to wonder, just what did Master Xehanort promise Braig from the start? As far as I know, we're never told how they met or how Xehanort convinced him to go on his side. I can't help but be curious since Xigbar's my favorite Organization member, so I guess I just want to know more about him. Who knows, maybe in Kingdom Hearts III we'll get an answer...
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Feb 28, 2018 02:03
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Part 25 - The Final Episode There isn't too much to say for the final episode, before the ending at least. It's pretty much just another fight against Terra-Nort, except he summons his Stand this time around. I never really understood why Aqua couldn't fly to the tear between the Realms of Light and Darkness, yet she could just kind of push Terra-Nort and her armor to the opening with no issues. You know, aside from the fact the plot demands it. I do have to admit the creation of Castle Oblivion was actually kind of cool to see, even if I hate that place and those damned cards with a passion. One final thing is I don't like how you have to do specific things to unlike this Final Episode, aside from just beating the three main stories. I mean yeah, all you need to do is get all the Xehanort Reports, but this isn't some teaser for the next game, you have to go through the Final Episode to catch up on extremely important lore, same thing with Blank Points and the Secret Episode. I really hope they don't pull this kind of poo poo in Kingdom Hearts III.
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Mar 2, 2018 03:11
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Part 26 - The Secret Episode And now all story stuff is over with. Aside form the Blank Points playing near the start, this "Secret Episode" provides with very little worthwhile. All it really does is show that Aqua encounters Heartless and the worlds that fell to darkness. I admit though, even though there were only three variations, it was nice to fight some good-old-fashioned Heartless after going through the lamer Unversed for hours and hours. Dark Hide himself was a somewhat interesting fight, what with the mechanic of seeing Aqua from his point of view. The Blank Points ending itself doesn't tell too much either, it's almost a "Where are they now?" sort of deal, with the only major revelation is that Ansem didn't actually die at the end of Kingdom Hearts II. Either way, next time I wrap up this playthrough by beating all the optional bosses of the game. Yes, even the Mysterious Figure.
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Mar 3, 2018 23:47
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Ephraim225 posted:The Secret Episode, perhaps the most un-disguised advert for an advert out there. There's something curious here for players taking on the Critical Level 1 challenge. And that's a pretty big freaking oversight there. Surprised something like that managed to slip through the cracks. And I can confirm that you can recreate Secret Episode saves. I think you just have to delete any existing Secret Episode saves beforehand, then beat one of the main stories' final boss again.
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Mar 4, 2018 05:49
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