I've played it for a few hours. Did all the missions for every song and A+++ right up to the end of the Re:CoM section (I did the first KH2 song, looking forward to starting there tomorrow).
Like so the different style for the boss battles is more similar to Theatrhythm, but it's kind of randomly dropped in after like 25 or something songs done the normal way which... is bad design. It functions almost completely differently to the normal stages. I think I might prefer it though?
OK this suffers from the same issue as Theatrhythm where you can't switch difficulty when you're in the song's menu. This game has weirdly long loading times (they're not long at all, but they're too long for a rhythm game) so WHY are you giving me missions that require playing on different difficulties, and then forcing me to go back to the world map to change the difficulty and re-enter?
Maybe it's different in song selection mode, I haven't been in there yet. This wasn't a problem on the demo lol
not that i have something to add, i haven't got it yet. i tried it on the switch first and when i realised that the trigger icons (? the beats you're meant to hit, theatrhythm called them hold triggers, etc.) corresponded to the playstation buttons i wondered if it would be easier to play on the ps4. but i tried the japanese demo on my uk ps4 and it switches x/o around but afaik the onscreen icons remain the same. so you're pressing x for the circle triggers
so maybe if i mentally imagine the ps4 buttons on the switch it would be more intuitive visually/mentally. but i have every other kh game on the ps4 now so it'd be splitting my collection
i don't know what i'm talking about, it wasn't that hard on the switch beyond my general lack of rhythm. but i only have a switch lite so i wouldn't be able to play it on a big screen
I'm playing the PS4 version and I'd recommend it just because it feels a bit smoother. I played the demo on both and couldn't get used to the Switch version, though I initially thought that's the one I would go for.
So now we know for sure who the bodiless heart was that resided in the Final World that Sora spoke to. The "missing star."
Not!Stella Nox Fleuret
The woman who was taken away by the Gigas in the Verum Rex commercial trailer.
Yozora resides in a universe, a world that's on the other side of reality. An "unreality" or rather, a world of "fiction." Quadratum. This is where Not!Stella came from, lost her heart and drifted to the Final World Limbo of KH. And apparently Xehanort (Terra!Xehanort) was aware that such a world was out there.
Part of his research involved finding a way to worlds beyond the known universe and he warned Kairi that if his experiment of sending her to another world to find a Keyblade Wielder drawn to her heart failed, she would be lost and drift to "unreality." A world that is neither light, darkness, or in-between. This is the clue that allows Kairi and the others to surmise where Sora ended up after blinking out of existence due to overusing his power.
Apparently Riku has been dreaming of Quadratum, too. And Riku, Kairi, and Not!Stella are the 3 keys necessary to open a path to this unknown universe. And Riku goes there alone. Hence the KH3 secret ending where he falls into Quadratum alone.
Didn't think we'd get an answer of who they were so soon but apparently they didn't keep that bit of info from us for long. Will be interesting where they go with this "fiction" world.
At least it didn't take us over 2 years to figure out who this mystery character is. *stares at KH Ux*
Kingdom Hearts has served as the warehouse for discarded Versus XIII ideas ever since Dream Drop Distance. He's now taking it to its natural conclusion.
Nomura will get to recycle the characters and concepts he didn't get to actually use in his own interesting way. "Fantasy Fiction Based On Reality."
And lest anyone hold any doubt about this fact, examine Yozora's renders closely. You'll find an interesting charm on them that screams "Final Fantasy." Not to mention the skull motif and name he carries.
As Ardyn would say, "So, that, is how you would end it..."
Depends what the ideas were/are. For all we know these are mere aesthetics and designs. He seems very fixated on the Stella/Noct/Versus XIII aesthetic so he could easily just use it in a game he actually created, versus watching it be used by someone else.
In terms of gameplay, the Versus XIII combat/gameplay/etc has essentially been recycled in various KH games, particularly III. Through gameplay snippets, Nomura utilized various gameplay gimmicks and design ideas that were originally to be in Versus XIII in KH3. The Osaka Team realized those ideas thanks to Nomura, so it's natural we'd see those things going forward.
You have to clear all songs on every difficulty for the platinum in this game. I don't know if I can stomach the beginner stages tbh, even proud is boring on some of the songs.
OK so I did all that and I'm only one trophy away from the platinum - the one for beating 100,000 enemies. I'm currently sitting at 75,724. The hardest song in the game is Dark Domination on Proud, and that has 429 enemies. So pointlessly grindy ;-;
I have a theory on how the next Kingdom Hearts game may play out.
As Riku goes to the "other reality" to bring back Sora, once he does in the prologue gameplay similar to KH2 and KH3, in order to return Sora to their reality, he must take his place and remain trapped in that other world where the Nameless Star resides, and once Sora returned, under strict orders from Yen Sid, he must first gain new strength without misusing his power again in order to rescue Riku, with Donald and Goofy by his side once more, while Kairi may hopefully get more gameplay time and story-time as she may journey with Aqua and/or Mickey to help, while Lea/Axel, and Isa, along with Roxas and Xion, journey to find the missing mysterious girl, and Namine may help in any form.
And that's when Luxu and the Foretellers begin their plan, whatever it may be.
so i got the ps4 version so i could play it on a big screen, which helps because i find it easier to notice when the timing guides glow compared with the switch lite screen. even though i wish they would like change colour or have a rainbow pattern for rainbow excellent timing. just so it's more different and easier to recognise when things speed up. i know you get rainbow guides when using king's call but. idk think of something else for that. make it a mickey shape or something.
i didn't have trouble adjusting to the guides not matching the button shapes, which was a minor nagging concern. i'm not sure if sometimes the button inputs just don't register or i am simply bad at rhythm games, but sometimes i am sure i pressed the right button but get a miss. or maybe it's the generally chaotic nature of the screen with enemies moving around and the backgrounds scrolling. also i never really got into the button mode in theatrhythm so that being the only control method has been an adjustment.
i've found the game enjoyable and all, but after curtain call on the 3ds it feels like a bit of a step back. it didn't really feel like it iterated on previous games and in some aspects seems to have gone backwards almost.
like, you can level up your teams and then... that's it. i'm not asking for it to be like curtain call where you have dozens of characters to level up, i'm fine with it being a few teams. but whereas curtain call lets you learn abilities and reset levels in this one you... get stronger, i guess. (what attack does in this game i have no idea since it doesn't do battles like theathrhythm, what does higher attack do? stun larger enemies? idk.)
i have hundreds of collectable cards and many, many duplicates now. but whereas in curtain call you could use those to stat boost characters, here you get a collection and the support bonuses but after that... what? i have all the bonuses maxed now, so i just gather extra cards with no use. maybe you could have let people expend cards to make the support level go up and let you do stat boosting. maybe let you convert them to crafting materials. just something instead of watching a number go up in the corner of the screen when i try to synth cards and get 3 new ones and like 57 dupes.
also did we need like 3 versions of the hollow bastion field and battle themes. while kh3 worlds get one track each and they're all one of those memory dive stages. it would have been nice to see more variety in stages. why only 4 boss tracks? why not have something like theathrhythm's field tracks? i had a thought that it was so you could have more choice in the versus mode but it has two versions of certain tracks i assume for that reason. do more.
can i just say
right when i was like, oh cool we're going to get some kairi battles. let's give my girl some spotlight
she transforms into sora at the last second and it's sora's battle
she can't even catch a break in a rhythm spin-off game
plus during the ending cutscenes when she's like "nah i shouldn't go look for sora with you riku, i'll just get in the way" i was almost shouting at the screen. metaphorically because i'm too chill to get literally angry at a video game, but i did say "oh come on" out aloud. if the next spin-off isn't going to be a kairi training with master aqua story, it will be completely in line with my expectations of how this series treats kairi. which is "oh you're here?"
i have ragged on the game a bunch and the bit of story there was kinda washed right over me, but i think it's alright. i still enjoy it, i just wish it was more of an evolution of the theathrhythm formula instead of what feels like a cutdown version
i gave myself a little challenge to try to get all the trophies for all the kh games. it's not something i'm intensely focused on, i am just casually making my way through. i only have kh1 and days complete so far (i am counting days and cannot be stopped). i actually have almost all the trophies for this now. unfortunately the only ones left are the most grindy one (100,000 enemies), 20 com versus victories, plat rank 1, and 50 full chains on proud. and i'm not very good so that's tricky for me. hopefully i will end up getting the last enemy one just trying to get 50 full chains.
