I’m almost done with Kingdom Hearts 2…again.
To say that I have
mixed feelings about the game would be an understatement the size of a
double-decker bus. Keeping in mind that
I was one of the wide-eyed fans getting mega-hyped about its arrival (probably
because I was a part of THE target audience), I have to wonder what state of
mind drove me to get so excited. Was it
because of the flashy attacks? Bashing
enemies with pure style? Going
boosh-boosh-boosh and doing flip-de-loops?
If that’s the case, then anyone who needed evidence for their thesis on “How
Teenagers Are All Idiots”, I’d make for some fine proof.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is not an awful game by any stretch. It’s just full of things that make it hover
dangerously close to the edge. Roxas and
his pain-inducing prologue, the disorganized Organization XIII, the shift from
the east/west hybridization to cookie-cutter anime fare, the segregated plot,
the still-piddling minigames, the absurd gameplay decisions, the unevenness of
Reaction Commands, the mash-happy nature, the handling of the worlds…there’s a
lot to discuss, and I will in due time.
But for everything the game does wrong,
there are just a number of things that it does so right.
The same, of course,
could be said for Kingdom Hearts 1. Frankly, I find it funny that a game could be
so flawed, yet so fantastic at the
same time.
(There’s your
alliteration for the day.)
Part 3: Gameplay
Exploration
I’ve already spoken at
length about the worlds, but in the days since writing that I’ve been wondering
about why they’re set up the way they are.
Having considered it, I’d argue it has as much to do with planning and
map design as it does the abilites available to Sora.
Think of it this way:
what could you do in the original Super
Mario Bros? Move and jump. Jump on stuff for leverage, or enemies to bounce
off and get some extra height and distance.
Fair enough. And then in Super Mario World you could run, spin
jump, and (in situational moments) ride on a dinosaur and fly. Flash forward to Mario Sunshine and you’ve got a water cannon that lets you hover,
rocket-boost into the sky, and turbo dash across land and sea. What determines a level’s structure isn’t
just what the engine can produce; it depends on the skill set at hand.
What does Sora have in
comparison? The basic moves you’d expect
from a light platformer: walk, run, jump, climb trees, and grab onto
ledges. Pretty simple stuff. But once Donald and Goofy join up, you gain
access to Trinity moves; as long as the three heroes are on the field together,
they can act in tandem to affect certain marked areas on the map. Blue marks expose items, green ones give
access to ladders, red ones are for bashing through obstacles, yellow is a team
push, and white reveals rare items. You
learn new Trinities as the game progresses (cementing the team’s growing bond),
and in doing so can access new parts of the map. The same can be said for passive abilities
like High Jump and Glide…although the latter is used more for reaching distant
treasure chests and getting the hell out of the way of Riku’s mega-boosh super
attack.
Still, abilities like
High Jump only help emphasize the “vertical element” of several levels. Traverse Town is an early example; you have
the basic horizontal plane that encompasses the town’s ground floor, give or
take a few inclines. But in addition to
that, you also have rooftops you can climb on and strut across. There are multiple tiers of walkways, from
the ground floor to the multi-store plaza to the gizmo shop, all the way to the
bell tower overlooking the town.
Reaching vertical limits is often a major component of an area; even if
it’s not, there are still times where the objective is to find a way to the
inevitable boss arena, either by swinging across vines or investigating the
cabins of Hook’s ship.
So for the most part,
even if the levels aren’t as expansive as you’d hope you still get a fair bit
of mileage out of them. The same can’t
be said for the…
Minigames
…All right, let’s see
what we’ve got.
I think that the
biggest problem with all the minigames (and by extension, the Gummi Ship) is a “lack
of speed.” The Deep Jungle has Sora
tree-surfing alongside Tarzan, which was probably one of the most iconic
moments in that movie. Naturally, the KH developers made it so that you can
barely move, can walk faster than you can surf, and inexplicably get smacked by
tree branches even after you’ve cleared one of them from your path. Another example: Agrabah has the cave escape
while riding Carpet, where you’re given as much agility as a drunken moose, and
a quarter of the speed. Olympus Coliseum
can’t be arsed to give you anything fun, so you just fritter away your time by
hitting barrels until Phil says you’re ready to fight the hordes of darkness --
in spite of having ended several generations’ worth of the things on your way
through the front door.
I can understand what
they were trying to do here. Disney
movies -- lots of movies -- put their characters through a slew of wild
moments. Aladdin doesn’t just pine after
a princess; he escapes some guards (in song!), explores the Cave of Wonders,
escapes, meets a genie, spearheads a parade, goes on a ride with Jasmine,
nearly gets crushed by a tower, fights a giant snake, and outwits another genie
who probably should have known better. KH1 tries to have that same level of
variety, but it consistently mucks it up.
There’s little to no excitement to be had. While they’re not broken, they’re something almost as bad: they’re boring.
Oh well. At least that’s the least of the game’s
problems, right?
The Gummi Ship
Well, shit.
You know, it’s been a
while since I’ve played Star Fox 64. I never owned it, but I rented it enough
times to have some pretty fond memories.
That said, I know instinctively that any given level from that game is light-years ahead of this game.
It’s slow. It’s clumsy.
The visuals are bland. It’s a
slog shooting and shooting and shooting again.
Upgrading your ship (which you’ll have to do if you’re on Expert/have
some shoddy reflexes) is time-consuming and clunky. If you screw up, you have to start all over
again. Even if you don’t -- even after
you’ve cleared the rote and unlocked the next world -- for the first part of
the game you can’t skip the Gummi levels.
So if you’re starved for items and need to go to the only place in the
universe that cares about medical attention, guess what? Get ready for a long-ass trip!
To be fair, once you
upgrade the Gummi Ship it’s actually…not as bad. You can plaster multiple weapons on there,
although some of them seem kind of useless (why do I need a laser that shoots
in three directions?). And once you get
the shield, you can practically fly on auto-pilot, making an already dull
segment even duller. So to call this
part of the game a wash would be too kind; the mode is just as bad as you’ve
heard, and DEFINITELY hasn’t aged well.
On the other hand, in
my first playthrough I made a ship that could transform into a flying Optimus
Prime. So I imagine that there are more
than a few players who made Gummi schlongs to pass the time.
Combat
You know, I’ll never
understand the naysayers who claim that turn-based RPGs are awful. It gives you plenty of time to think out your
next move -- to plan a strategy and act upon it, changing up your plas only in
accordance with your enemies’ attacks.
Okay, you could argue that it just boils down to mashing attack and then
mashing heal in and endless cycle, but there are still plenty of nuances in the
game that make blind mashing only a small sample of what the game has to
offer. Give the game a chance and
explore its systems, and you can find combos that make mashing utterly
bourgeois.
Given that, you’d think
that I’d laugh at KH1 while sipping
tea and extending my pinky finger. Well
the joke’s on you; I lost both my pinkies in a tragic poodle accident.
Just because a game
progresses in real time doesn’t mean it’s inherently stupider. Nor does having one attack button. Much like the levels, it’s how you use your
tools that makes your game.
Right at the start, you’re
given a choice that’ll shape your experience.
See, Sora stands before three pedestals: one with a sword, one with a
shield, and one with a staff. Jump up
and touch one, and you’ll get a boost to that particular stat…as well as decide
the order in which you learn skills.
Sounds pretty cool, right? In my
recent playthrough, I decided to go all in as a mage, so I could put the spells
through their paces. The catch is that
while you get to boost your standing in one area, you ALSO have to give up a
stat. In my case, I gave up the sword,
meaning that physical offense and skills would be in short supply for my
Sora. It’s a minor yet effective move
that really makes you think about your in-game destiny -- and given the
foreboding nature of the Dive into the Heart,
Admittedly, at the
start of the game you can’t do much else besides jump, run, attack, and use
items. (This makes the first real boss
an utter pain in the ass on Expert.) But
once -- IF -- you clear it, the game starts to open up. Donald teaches you how to use magic, which
you can use via hotkeys accessed via L1.
You can use them in the middle of Keyblade combos, too, meaning you can
bash an opponent and finish them off with a thunderbolt. Or you can do the standard three-hit combo
and shoot a fireball to finish an enemy while holding your position. I call ‘em “Magicombos.”
Meanwhile, Goofy gives
you the most important skill in the entire damn game: Dodge Roll. It’s just your basic tuck and roll on the
surface, but it proves indispensible almost immediately after getting it. Dodge Roll is central to the game’s theme:
you are a weak little kid who will get mauled
if you can’t defend yourself, so always get the hell out of the way when
you can. Cerberus summoning pillars of
darkness? Dodge Roll! Guard Armor sweeping its arms around the
field? Dodge Roll! Captain Hook going on a slashing frenzy? Dodge Roll!
Need to back off from a fight to heal up? Dodge Roll!
And if you can’t solve a problem with Dodge Roll, you use Guard!
If anything, Guard is
even more important to the combat than Dodge Roll; I’d argue it changes the
face of the entire game. In the same
sense that blocking is the most basic yet most vital skill in Street Fighter, using Guard is a great
way to turn the tide of battle. It
reflects most, if not all projectiles.
It lets you parry enemy attacks, leaving them wide open for a
counterattack (especially if you’ve got the MP-restoring Counterattack skill
equipped). But most importantly, it gets
you to stop swinging wildly for a moment and pay attention; in order to block
attacks, you have to perceive them first.
You need to watch the enemy’s movements carefully, and when the time is
right, hit that square button and pull up your Keyblade. Sometimes blocking is the best way to deal
with enemies; other times, it’s the use of magic. Still others, wild swings from your metal
club of a weapon. Use the options
therein and you can pull off a win.
And you certainly have
your options. In the fight against one
boss, I was struggling. He had me on the
ropes, and I was running low on MP and items.
He started charging up for an attack I was pretty sure would tear a new
ass onto my face, so out of sheer desperation I started Dodge Rolling while
searching for an answer. Suddenly, I had
it; I rolled behind a wall and took cover, saving myself from a lethal blast. This is a feature that, in some thirty hours
I’ve yet to see reproduced in KH2;
whereas the sequel has fights occurring in mostly-flat areas and boss arenas
being little more than empty squares, KH1
made the terrain a part of the equation.
Use a few platforms to launch an attack against a too-high foe. Use the stands to nullify Cerberus’ ground
pound. Don’t jump into the acid moat.
Take cover from Jafar’s magma attacks by using the rising and falling
tiles, making sure to move in and out of hiding to hit his lamp. Granted, this would come with the risk of
making the finicky camera sputter out of control, but the fact that you could
apply some tactics to the field was a welcome addition.
Speaking of welcome
additions, Donald and Goofy. They’ll
give you help when you need it, healing you and blocking attacks and peppering
enemies with magic and shield bashes.
While it’s great to have them around, and the bond you forge with them
grows as you take to the battlefield, they come with two major problems.
One: they have no idea
how to hold onto items. Even if you tell
them to use items sparingly, it’s not uncommon to give Goofy eight potions to
hold onto as you head to the boss, only to stare at his empty pockets the next
time you open the menu. It’s
doubly-frustrating if you entrust a rare or expensive item to them, only to
have them blow that item first…like when only Donald’s hurt, so Goofy will toss
out a Mega-Potion.
The second, and much
bigger problem, is the cause of the first.
See, surviving in KH1 depends
on the player’s ability to move and defend.
Putting yourself in a position where you’re safe from enemy attacks --
or reverse them entirely -- is tantamount.
You learn and understand that very quickly.
Goofy and Donald don’t. Goofy and Donald will stand right in front of
Cerberus and let him chomp them to pieces.
They’ll take hits from Heartless and get smacked off the edge of a
castle. When Hades spins around in a
circle with flames a-spewing, they’ll take those hits and burn to cinders,
while you’re running in a circle without so much as a singed hair. They have no preservation instincts and no
common sense; Goofy CAN defend, but I’m convinced he does it on accident rather
than consciously.
This can be problematic
in a game like Kingdom Hearts.
For what it’s worth, it’s
still a surprisingly enjoyable battle system.
Yes, you have to do some X-mashing every now and then, but the game isn’t
mashing alone. Mobility, positioning,
defense, combos -- all things you’d expect to see in a fighting game are
entwined within the decade-old RPG. Does
it work? When you’re not fighting the
camera and Donald and Goofy aren’t just on decoy duty, yes. Yes, far more than you would have
guessed. Is it fun? You know it.
Is it complex? Not at all; you
have your basic skill set, but it’s your wits and gambits that win you battles
just as often as the taps of your thumb.
And that’s all I ask
for, really. Simple, but effective. A shame that KH2 would jettison that lesson into the sun…no, I’m just kidding.
(But only a little
bit.)
Well, that’ll wrap up
this section of the retrospective. Next
time, I’ll talk about the only part of this series that I’m qualified to
comment on: the story. Till next time,
then, don’t give in to the darkness…unless you want to get possessed by
shirtless black guys who junction their bodies to demon ships.
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