Well so far all those tips i've been doing all along. I've actually been saving up all my UPs so I have like 28 AP ups so I may use those as well as my strength ones for sora to help me along in the battle.
Button mashing it doesn't seem to work since he sometimes gets all hyped up.

Also, I tend to go into boss battles with just ethers equipped. After using the cure spell at the last minute, I may wait for the MP bar to refill on its own if I have the upper hand in a battle, or if there's no opportunity to attack, I use the ethers.

well for me I have only Hi-potion (with the item boost ability on) so mainly I use cure to heal me because it's fast and iwht the ability (leaf ... somthing XD) you ar not interrupt while casting and most of the time (well more end game) I can fight long enough for my mp bar to recharge before having the need to cure my self again. So in emergency I distance myself for the boss and use an hi-potion that is as good as my cure spell. I don't really ike to use item mainly because it take time and that you get cure only when the "item animation" is finish, so you can get killed while using an item. So I think that using an hi-potion is a little bit faster then using an ether than casting the spell...

Xaldin's not THAT hard on Proud.

only reason im playing on proud, is to see the secret ending :P

Actually....

You're right, he can't. But I was able to restore Sora and beat him.

I have never died in this game even in proud mode. I have lost those reaction command parts of some battles but never died. I beat the whole thing and never once had Mickey come rescue me.

At what part of the game does Mickey come in and save Sora if you go down? O.o

Here's a list of bosses that he appears Shonos if you die:

Yeah, same thing happened to me. I've only played on Proud Mode so I don't know what the differences are with stats and junk, but I was 2 levels above the recommended battle level for the world (I thought it was 34, but it was actually 36) and mostly survived on reactions, 2 drives into Valor, and casting Cure occasionally. He got me right when my MP was out and before I could use a Hi-Potion. It was challenging but mostly just tedious and annoying because you never seem to get a real break away from Xaldin. It was the first challenging boss battle I faced since trying to take on the first boss in Beast's Castle while rather underleveled, though.

hmm I'll try proud mode soon... but first... I plan to go through KH1 again on Expert, Chain of Memories and then KHII... haha that'll make the journey extra long... yeah... even though I've played through KH1 Expert before... I'm not even going to bother looking for hidden bosses on the normal setting... they'll probably all be pushovers... haha

You may find it useful to refer to this quest guide:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/f...s_ii_quest.txt

I was lucky enough to have anti-form pop during xaldin, (that was also my first time seeing it so I didnt know wtf was going) that tore him up pretty bad.
I'm not finding proud mode that much more difficult. I guess the enemies do hit harder...when they hit, but that rarely happens.

Beat it last night. I'll post more detailed thoughts later, but on the whole I loved it. Too bad the story fell to shit in the end. And some of those final boss battles...

I beat it last night on proud mode,I'm try to fight sephiroth,I hope is there way to win on proud mode

Another point I forgot to make about the Xaldin battle. Did anyone else find it incredibly lame when...

*shrug* I thought it was cute. Especially with her silly expression. Most times, I would consider almost all of the humor in the game to be "lame" but I anticipate it so it makes me enjoy it.

Poster duty will have to wait untill you level up all your forms to get stuff like Glide and aerial dodge, since those will help alot.

Once all your forms are at MAX level and you equipped all those jump and glide abilities, watch this video below and see what this guy did. His route is probably the easier to navigate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrZ7dQ23GAo

Remember with the final level of Glide, as long as you hold the button down and don't let go, you will keep floating. (Unless you hit an up ramp.) Practice around the town abit till you get the hang of what the above player did. The player is also using Aerial dodge to speed his way to the posters spots.

So out of curiousity... is Proud mode harder than Expert in the original KH?

Is it just me or did anyone like KH1 better.

I don't know what it is. Maybe the novelty is gone, or maybe it's the cutscene every 5 steps or the entire going to "new" worlds and "It's Sora and the gang! We remember you! Help us with problem A, B, C and resolution D." Even in Proud Mode, it feels way too much like they're holding your hand going through the game. I wish they'd let me solve a puzzle instead having various characters hint, no, practically tell you where to go , what to do to solve the puzzle and how it's pretty much going to end.

Granted I'm only 8 hours in.

I don't think so, in my opinion. Reaction commands make things way easier than what they could have been.

The battles are the new worlds are better than the first game. However, the first game wasn't very hard to advance through the worlds, I thought. Didn't see much in the way of puzzles. Basically if you've played KH, KH II isn't much different.

I'm at Twilight Town the second time now and I'm having a terrible time with those Beserkers : /