Current Events > Kingdom Hearts 2 playthrough attempt (Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Found Sephiroth and beat him up.
Didn't really like the fight. Reminded me of Bed of Chaos the way he'd just swoop in from the side and do loads of damage.

What was with that cutscene after you go get Cloud though. Sephiroth goes "DARKNESS, CLOUD" and Cloud just groans and acts like he's struggling to think of a comeback. Then they say something about light and then they're gone. I haven't played FF7, are these characters always like this?

Nope. Sephiroth is the result of an experiment to create a superhuman with alien DNA and Cloud was an attempt to replicate that experiment.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Then they say something about light and then they're gone. I haven't played FF7, are these characters always like this?

No, not really. In the game itself, Cloud is actually a massive fucking dork and Sephiroth doesn't have this kind of personal rivalry with him.

I haven't watched it, but I think both Cloud's edgy, mooey attitude and Sephiroth's personal hatred of him come from Advent Children. But even there, I'm pretty sure Sephiroth is no way Cloud's darkness or whatever.

Beat the final boss again.
That run was on proud mode, picked the magic staff at the start, beat the story in every world except those colosseum rounds that unlock in the end, beat Sephiroth, got Ultima Weapon. That's decently thorough. Skipped cutscenes like crazy.

I'm definitely playing better than last time. I think my favorite moves are the explosion one, the master form lightning spell and the reflect spell. Those three felt like the biggest leaps in character strength. Didn't get as much mileage out of the levelled up drives as I'd hoped.

It takes a while but you get a pretty fun character in the end. NG+ would be nice. Would probably make the long, slow opening more tolerable if you could use a maxed out character.

pegusus123456 posted...

Marluxia is probably the one that can be done the earliest though. I won't spoil what he does, but he has a mechanic which makes him somewhat easier than the others if you play well.

I think you're right about this. After a couple tries, I learned his opening patterns, and after a few more, I got him down to his last threeish health bars. Not sure what decides which of the two reaction commands you can use, but this one feels very doable already.

Hambo posted...

Not sure what decides which of the two reaction commands you can use

I don't know if you want tips, but this one isn't super hard to figure out.

pegusus123456 posted...

I don't know if you want tips, but this one isn't super hard to figure out.

I have now figured it out. >_> Still struggling once he starts using all his moves at once, but with a good run, I could do this. I also grabbed Aerial Dodge so I don't keep landing in the puddles. I was gonna want that for the Xaldin fight immediately after this anyway.

Yoooo I beat him. Had a moment of panic during his last attempt at the desperation move where I forgot how to dodge, but I remembered just in time lol.

After normal difficulty with the sword and proud difficulty with the magic staff, I guess it'd make sense for the next run to be easy difficulty with the shield.

Trying to come up with things I haven't tried. The main one is limits. There were a few teammates who had auto-limit on but I never actively chose a limit attack over a heal or a drive.
I had valor form on hand the whole time as well, maybe I could try to prioritise wisdom. Different spells as well since I basically had thunder and reflect equipped the whole time.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Trying to come up with things I haven't tried.

coughFinalMixcough

The biggest easy trick with Marluxia is that once he starts floating and blasting his pillars at you, just keep in mind he does it 13 times. Dodge Roll through them while you count them, and then blast him with Reflega when he tries to finish his combo.

This topic finally motivated me to get the plat on KH2. I was never bothered to do the Gummi stuff but I just finished it up.

Rharyx211 posted...

The biggest easy trick with Marluxia is that once he starts floating and blasting his pillars at you, just keep in mind he does it 13 times. Dodge Roll through them while you count them, and then blast him with Reflega when he tries to finish his combo.

You can just walk in a circle and the pillars won't hit you, then start reflecting when he disappears.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

After normal difficulty with the sword and proud difficulty with the magic staff, I guess it'd make sense for the next run to be easy difficulty with the shield.

Trying to come up with things I haven't tried. The main one is limits. There were a few teammates who had auto-limit on but I never actively chose a limit attack over a heal or a drive.
I had valor form on hand the whole time as well, maybe I could try to prioritise wisdom. Different spells as well since I basically had thunder and reflect equipped the whole time.

Auto-Limit abilities suck but Limits themselves are definitely worth using, especially in vanilla before a few of them were nerfed.

From what I remember from watching a KH2 pro fight the secret bosses, limits are mostly useful for the i-frames. If you know you're going to get hit or if there's an attack that's very hard to dodge, you just start a limit to skip past it.

RE: Reflect - I played KH2 a billion times, and like, halfway through my first playthrough, I had to stop myself from using it because it was so fucking broken.