[PS2] Kingdom Hearts 2

These are just some thoughts I've posted at other places since I'm too lazy to reformulate past opinions:

"Sanctuary" sounds weird after basically snorting "Passion" every single day since I ever heard it. I liked "Simple and Clean" more than "Hikari" when I finally heard it, though. I'm interested in the fact that "Sanctuary" really came before "Passion," especially. But something about the English just doesn't really "flow" to me. I really don't like the way "land" and "away" sounds when she sings it...I just wanted it to sound "smoother" I guess, not to try and diss Utada or anything like that. But I'll definitely wait until the full song is released to really judge it, of course. It's hard to really give it a chance when my ears are so used to the Japanese.

And how odd to hear Haley Joel's voice deep as ever in the interview. Still deeper than Sora's voice in the game, it seems. I don't even know why I brought that up. Maybe because even though Sora's 16 now, I still think of him as a 14 year old, and hearing what is pretty much an adult's voice come out of that character would be "funny" to me.

And "Nam-ih-nay," eh...? Makes me think of Inuyasha and "S'show-m'roo."

So, both Suvari and Cook make their characters sound younger than I expected (Suvari moreso than Cook). I don't know if I feel that "Kairi-aged young" sounds really good with Aerith, I always imagined her to have a playful but strong voice, but what I'm hearing is a schoolgirl. I don't really care for that. But hey, Cook really surprised me, y'know? With the scene they show of Tifa in her interview, she doesn't sound bad at all. It's kind of funny, actually, and in a good way. It fits with what happens in the scene, made me laugh. She just might make me gladly eat my previous words about her voice once the game and FFVII:AC is out.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

That's how I pronounced it. Nah-mee-nay.

I say nah-mee-nay, too, like the way you'd pronounce it in Japanese. But they say nam-ih-nay, it's different. Like NAM(BLA)-ihnay. It's horrible nitpicking, I know, but this stuff tends to bug me. Like when tourists here go on and on about singing carry-okie. Gotta learn to stop that...but at least I draw the line at stuff like Aeris/Aerith debates and junk.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

And I'm not going to listen to Sanctuary until the actual game comes out. I've always wondered, when does Passion/Sanctuary play in the game? Is it in the opening FMV?

Yeah, opening. Piano version at the end.

Oh and, yeah, I don't watch whatever it is you mentioned, so I wouldn't have known about his voice.

Also, I saw that artwork of Seifer from the Ultimania book a KHU...something about the way Nomura draws characters like him and Riku with hugely muscular arms creeps me out...

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It was almost opposite for me. I'm not necessarily a big fan of Utada's, the only other songs I've ever really listened to from her are the other KH themes and some songs that my teacher plays before Japanese class (not familiar with the songs she plays, but she definitely plays Passion everyday since I gave her a copy, heh...she LOVES that song now), but I fell in love with Passion almost right away. Being dreamlike is probably what appeals to me so much, I love those types of songs. I remember a Mitsubishi car commercial that I loved so much because the music that played was dreamy...techno, but dreamy.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

"Music inside?" Sounds kind of...out of place. Unless I think about the Atlantica...

How ya doing, buddy?

Hmm, Sanctuary isn't too bad. Listened to it a few times now. I'm not the biggest fan of the way she sings the chorus, but the other verses sound pretty good. Better than I expected (and it's nice to finally hear those lyrics) but so far, the lyrics for Passion just flow nicer to me.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Oh my god, lion cub Sora is the cutest thing ever. Just wanna grab him and snuggle. I finished last night, played on Proud Mode. Forgot my Journal completion but second playthrough starts tonight for 100%. Combat is great, so much spinning and stuff, heh. Fat Bandits still annoying as ever. Game didn't disappoint me at all, and the ending was sweet.

I never once used a summon in the KH, nor did I ever switch out Donald or Goofy for the world character, so it was interesting this time around to use them. Poor Goofy almost always got the shaft, I felt sorry. So I always used the little money I earned to buy him good stuff. I still kinda wish there were a little less cutscenes...and also a little less of those Information boxes that pop up at the start of every single fixed battle just to give me some blindingly obvious message like "Defeat all the Heartless!" I don't think I saw a way to turn those off in the instruction manual, though...ah well.

All in all, game was goodness. Didn't die very much, thankfully. In fact, I mostly only died during the dungeon boss in Beast's Castle because I went there before the Land of Dragons. Thank god for the "I won't give up..." option -_-

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Heh, yeah, I love that he gets so excited for Santa.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

And you can't honestly call the game easy after that Xaldin battle. That guy's insane (and my personally favorite design of the Organization members. It's like General Grievous, only not the movie version). Maybe I'm too low a level to win (32).

Hmm, 32? I'm pretty sure the battle level for that world is upped to 34 at that point. Xaldin was a tough fight but...I was around level 39 when I took him on. I didn't even spend much time leveling up, only revisited worlds to search for missed treasure, but I fought every enemy I encountered. Prolly should've leveled up a bit, would've helped.

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Originally Posted by Motsy

Xaldin's not THAT hard on Proud.

Spoiler:

I got him down to his last HP bar, he killed me but Mickey showed up and I managed to beat him.

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.

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Originally Posted by SOLDIER

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

Spoiler:

Belle managed to get away from Xaldin's grasp just by elbowing him in the gut? This is the same inhuman who can take a ton of keyblade and magic damage, but all it took was a little girly hit to the stomach to relinquish his captive. Belle isn't Tifa, Disney.

*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.

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Kairi Li provided a list earlier in this thread (it's spoiler tagged).

http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/rp...html#post81345

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shenlon

I'm trying to do the minigames and I can't seem to find where I'm suppose to do the StreetRave (I think thats what its called) in twilight town.

I think you can do that one by talking to the woman that usually asks for mail delivery help in Station Heights.

As for drives/summons, I used different places earlire in the game. You can pretty much do Valor and your Summons anywhere, but personally I used these places towards the end of the game:

Spoiler:

Valor can be done pretty much anywhere that suits you. I just did it in Land of the Dragons because I was already there leveling Master.

Like someone already mentioned, Land of the Dragons is great for leveling Master form. Just warp to the Throne Room and clear the palace out (Magnega+Thundaga if you're impatient), you get tons of the big drive balls. Then if you need to, you can run outside the palace where about 3 more of those spearmen guys appear, then you can just run back in the palace for the Drive recovery trick.

For Wisdom, the very beginning of The World that Never Was is the best choice, hands down. Tons of shadow heartless pop up for you to take down, and you're only a screen away from the save point.

For Final Form, I actually like Yen Sid's Tower in Twilight Town. Clearing out the entire tower with Magnega+Thundaga nets you 30 nobodies, and if you have enough form bar left (after level 5 or so you should since the magic makes it very quick), you can still go outside his tower and defeat the nobodies there and you can bump the total run to 40 nobodies.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You need the Dark Crystal, it seems. This synthesis guide says Air Pirates drop 'em (Land of the Dragons/Port Royal).

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You don't actually need Fenrir. Just try to hit those large pots so that Sora guard breaks through them (forgot what this ability was called) and flies them into the big groups of smaller pots. They all drop bigger orbs that way, and you get mucho points. And I guess you could try using a keyblade like Wishing Lamp. But you should definitely use Negative Combo.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Spam Whirli-Goof, especially the last phase of the limit. Really, just constantly use it, Goofga (whatever it's called) can net you tons of point orbs if it defeats the enemies. I usually come away with 2800 points when I get to the final match. And you can use that same limit to end the last match very quickly. And remember to have those Ethers handy so the MP charge time ends quickly and you can continue the limits. If there's only a few enemies left and you don't want to "waste" a limit, then just use Magnega.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Goofra is just the second stage (the limit has levels like magic does). You want Goofga. THAT one gets you big points. If you have to, just button mash between triangle and x until the limit runs out and at some point the reaction command will become "Whirli-Goofga," during which Goofy and Sora kind of roll and tumble over each other and deal big damage. If you do that over and over, it should work, but you have to be quick. Try to move Sora and Goofy around so that they hit several enemies at the same time. And if there are enemies above ground, like those little yellow things, then just use Magnega.

For extra support, try equipping Wishing Lamp (has Jackpot ability), and the Jackpot abilities on everyone to increase amount of orbs dropped. I just ran through the Pain and Panic Paradox to test it. Had 1129 points by the end of Round 5, I entered double score mode in Round 6 (don't know how this is triggered exactly) and had 1829 at the end of that round. Then Round 8 was pretty much just spamming Magnega over and over, I was able to clear all the yellow enemies out with 18 seconds to spare, and end the match with 2646 points.

Goofga is veeery powerful, but like I said, you gotta be quick during the Whirligoof limit. If you just target Yuffie at the end and activate the limit, you can take her out within just a few seconds.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

Didn't know the limit could be raised that far. How do you level limits anyway? Just use them repeatedly?

Yar, you can get all the stages of any available combo attack at any point, really. As long as you keep the combo active long enough to trigger the reaction commands, as well as activate them before the option disappears), you should be able to reach the final phase of all combos the first time you even try them. I think it's mostly a matter of being quick to hit the triangle button (at least it is in Whirli-Goof's case) but Jiminy's Journal should probably let you know some info on that kind of stuff.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

Also, I wasn't sure if Wishing Lamp increased the rate of tournament orbs or not (it says it only increases the rate of HP/MP orbs).

Me neither, but it doesn't hurt to be safe

I'd be surprised if it doesn't actually help, though, 'cause it sure looks like it does.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

All my forms are leveled, and everyone is 99. The only thing left to level is Summons. What causes a summon to gain experience? Is it based on each enemy they kill? What's the best spot to level summons?

It's based on how many drive points/bars are used up in the gauge. It's really just a matter of wasting time with the summon activated...you can just look at the summon status page to get more info on that, too If you put the cursor over the summon experience level in your menu, the info box will tell you how to level it up, just like with the drives.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

If Mickey's crest ain't on there, it ain't complete, and it ain't 100%. If you're on Proud mode, then you don't need to worry about the treasure, and just worry about sealing all the keyholes.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Okay, for synthesis you need to complete all the "Lists" in the Synthesis menu, things like "collect 25 of this" or "collect all types of items." You also need to create every recipe possible (complete all recipes, free developments, then go to your creations and remake every item with a Serenity item to create a new item).

I used this synthesis guide when I was doing that stuff. I'm not sure if GameFAQs has one anywhere yet (Kouli has one up but it's based on the Japanese version, though I'm sure it could also help).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Yar, Proud mode for the win... Haven't even tried Standard on this game and I don't see much of a reason to now. Proud mode's difficulty level was just right for me, plus, ya know, no need to get 100% on the journal. One of my friends was complaining about how if he played Proud mode he wouldn't be able to take the game in at a relaxing pace and really enjoy it. I did that just fine, don't know what he's complaining about. Save for one or two boss battles, it was hardly stressful.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I don't even think he played the first KH on Expert mode, let alone got his hands on FM. I tried to get him to explain what he was griping about but he just started saying something about how he hates the way Roxas runs. He's such a whiner

I was speaking idiomatically.

She was that sassy football loving little girl in Remember the Titans, too.

KH2:FM+ news sounds cool...now I just hope it'll actually release here so I can play..

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?