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Old 02-24-2020, 07:28 PM   #1
ShadowDRGN
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Kingdom Hearts 1 and The Tale of SE's Forgotten Mechanics (Game Design Breakdown)

Preface
So recently (as in last month) I came to the rather horrifying realization when I tried to play KH3's ReMind DLC and failed miserably trying to beat the very first fight that this expansion was basically going to be a torrent of Final Mix-worthy superbosses.

This is significant(ly terrifying) to me because it's a kind of content that I've never actually engaged with before in the time that I've played the previous games. I dabbled in Sephiroth in KH2, as well as the Org XIII Absent Silhouettes that were sadly wasted on an inferior card-based video game, akin to a shitty proto-Slay the Spire, but those were small potatoes compared to the behemoths that are Lingering Will and the Data Org. Fight's I've heard plenty about, and seen people play, but never actually attempted myself.

Though KH3 is not a super hard game, I knew that I was extremely out of my element, especially as the last time I really played a KH game was when I beat KH3 in all of a month starting the day it released (give or take a few hours for installing the fucker). I hadn't gone back and played KH1 in a very long time, or really any of the other games for that matter. I was rusty, my experience drained away by more turn-based endeavors like Fire Emblem and Persona in the time between, and my skills for action shifted over to more grounded systems such as Jedi: Fallen Order and Dark Souls 3.

And so, feeling like I needed to sharpen my grasp on both the gameplay and the story, I decided: It's time to make like a Xehanort and yeet myself back to the beginning. Trading in my PS3 copies of 1.5 and 2.5, I synthesized them for a more efficient package: 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix on PS4 (doesn't that technically make it KH4?).

My prior memories of KH1 were mostly as an obligation, along with Chain of Memories being the time sink required to really get into the good shit: KH2. Not to say I thought KH1 sucked, but with voice acting poorer than my wallet will be by the end of all these 2020 spring releases (RIP Cyberpunk), and a strange combat style that wasn't anywhere near as flashy as the game that brought me into this mess of a series (Dream Drop Distance), I felt like it was a downgrade.

However, after some time replaying the game... I actually, honestly think it's my favorite of the series. Don't get me wrong, KH2 is still an amazing game with amazing systems, but there's actually something here in the very first game that's deep and special... and sadly isolated to this game as every entry after 2 has gone more and more towards flashy, combo-y action.

Why do I feel this way, and what mechanics am I talking about? Well, let's break it all into parts and get into it, shall we? This is gonna be a long post breaking down the mechanics of this series, so should I continue to be motivated to talk about it I'll update things regularly as I go along. Expect Part 2 tomorrow-ish, I just can't write everything down coherently all in one day.

Hope people enjoy my ramblings about how this stupid baby game was made and balanced. Feel free to chime in with your own opinions or questions, too, though I'm mainly doing this as a fun little way to get the thoughts that consume my head out there as I replay this honestly quite fantastic game and progress through my replay of the series. When all is said and done I might do a story breakdown too, if I have the constitution for it.

Part 1: Abilities and "Class" Progression
So, to start off, let's get into the biggest aspect that differentiates the three mainline KH games.

It's been a staple of the numbered KH games to offer something akin to a "Class" system right as the player is starting the game. I say "Class" because Sora's equipment and overall capabilities are not altered in any way. Rather, his starting stats and how he develops is changed by the choices he makes.

As you're diving into the heart and playing the tutorial for each of the three games, Sora (or Roxas) is offered a series of choices that will define his playstyle: The Warrior, The Guardian and The Mystic, also known in KH1 as the Sword, Shield and Staff. Each of these is tailored towards three different aspects of the game's systems: Swinging a Keyblade, negating and managing damage, and casting magic. You choose one to become your primary playstyle, and in KH1 and KH2 you choose another to become your weakness. Do you want to emphasize combos and drop magic? Do you want to be a good tank to the exclusion of physical strength? It's just 3 options and 2 choices to make between them, but even with such a simplistic set-up you can end up with many combinations, making Sora feel like a personalized character despite not changing him fundamentally.

Though each game looks like it treats this choice with the same weight, in actuality, I've found that the choice matters less and less the further into the series you go. What do I mean? It all comes down to Ability progression and the mechanical density of each game.

In KH1, there are very few combat mechanics. You have a very simple, 4-slot command menu, with little in the way of context-sensitive actions as seen in later games. You can swing your Keyblade, cast a spell, use an item, or when you unlock them, call upon a summon. That's it. Those are the only base mechanics present in the combat system, and outside of Summons that take some story progression to access, all of it is available from the start and works the same throughout the whole game. Of course, Stats matter, and we'll get into the MP system and how interesting it is later, but for now we'll stick to one topic.

So with so few options, what stops the action from just being boring as sin? Abilities. In KH1, the Abilities you gain are almost entirely dictated by your choice of "Class" at the beginning of the game, outside of a few Abilities that are granted to you by other characters (more on that later). If you pick up the Sword, you will get pretty much all of the Abilities that augment your Keyblade Attacks by the end of a typical playthrough, with Abilities that other "Classes" specialize in being dotted around. Some are granted early enough still that you're not stuck only focusing on a single aspect of the mechanics (Guard being something that you will have by mid-game, even if you chose the Staff, which gets Defensive Abilities the latest), but others very late into progression to the point where you'd have to grind like a madman to get ahold of them as that "Class".

What this results in is a genuine feeling like your choice of "Class" matters in KH1. Because Abilities are the only mechanic that change your playstyle, either by adding new capabilities, or altering or enhancing existing ones, the order in which you get your Abilities changes how you play the game.

If you choose Staff, you gain most Abilities that enhance your Magic first, and gain most Defensive Abilities last, with Offensive Abilities taking up the middle. This leads to a playstyle where you are always in the Magic Menu or optimizing your spell shortcuts to exploit weaknesses and sow total annihilation. You benefit greatly from the MP increase you receive from your choice of Staff, as well as MP-increasing equipment and Abilities that allow you to gain MP back quickly. You also gain a Keyblade Combo finisher that uses your Max MP to determine the damage rather than Strength, allowing you to leverage your Magic as your main damage-dealing tool even when you can't cast spells.

However, the lack of Defensive Abilities also means that you need to play carefully in order to survive, parrying blows or evading enemies in-between casts of magic since the Ability Guard only becomes available much later on. On the flip-side, a player who chooses the Sword gains Offensive Abilities first, Magic Abilities last, and Defensive Abilities in the middle, meaning that they'll be able to deal devastating combos in the middle of the fray with their Keyblade at the expense of having lacklustre Magic, and while they must still be careful in the early game, having access to Defensive Abilities sooner than Staff means they can be a little more gung-ho and can take on tougher challenges with less preparation than what's necessary with a player using Staff.

Compare this to KH2's handling of Abilities. In that game, the difference between the "Classes" is more like a series of segmented shuffles, rather than a total re-arrangement of the deck. Basically, Abilities are grouped into loose sets of early-game, mid-game and end-game. Your choice of Struggle Bat changes the order that each Ability appears within that set, but by the time you reach the next set you will still have all of the Abilities that the other "Classes" get, you just got them in a different order. This is drastically different to KH1, where Abilities that might be early-game for one "Class" are practically at the Level Cap for another "Class" (an infamous example being the all-but-nessecary for superbosses Second Chance being learned at Level Fuckin' 90 for Staff-users, in a game that ends around the Level 40 or 50 mark, while Shield-users gain it at Level 36 during the late mid-game).

The effect this has is that Sora feels like a generalist in KH2, with a slight advantage in the playstyle that you chose at the beginning of the game as Roxas. You will always have every Ability you could possibly have in the early-game once you start the mid-game, meaning that you could entirely pivot into an offensive playstyle even after choosing to be defensive.

This is further compounded by the presence of Drive Forms, which are essentially temporary playstyle swaps that allow you to pivot in the middle of combat, and even become much stronger than normal. Drives add to your equipped Abilities with pre-set Abilities that are optimized specifically for that playstyle, meaning that even the mage-iest of mage Sora's can become a physical powerhouse with Valor Form, or a Sora who doesn't touch the Magic command at all becomes perfectly optimized for casting with Wisdom Form, or a mix of both Magic and Physical with Master Form. While this is incredibly fun and part of the charm of KH2 as a game, it also means that most playthroughs of the game follow the same progression route, where you hit the same breakpoints at the same time as the story gives out Drive Forms for you to diversify your arsenal with, along with other universal mechanics like Limits that allow you to clear rooms of enemies at the cost of all your MP, a resource that recharges on its own when depleted in KH2 (more on that later).

In KH3, they returned to the convention of completely shuffling Abilities between the levels as in KH1. However, one of the big problems with KH3 is the fact that the game simply has too. many. mechanics. Formchanges, Grand Magic, Shotlocks, Links, Team Attacks, Attraction Commands, fucking Attraction Commands. If there was any semblance of a playstyle that came from your Abilities, it would be entirely drowned out by the wealth of extremely powerful mechanics that add new Abilities to your arsenal, including attacks that last forever and offer complete invincibility. Not to mention that the flood of AP dumped onto you means that once you have an Ability you will never have a reason to unequip it. There's simply no meaning to your choices when most of the game is played using mechanics that the game gives you regardless of what your playstyle was intended to be.

For that reason, coupled with KH2's generalist feel, it results in KH1 being the one game where your choices can drastically change how you experience the combat, all by keeping said combat light and focusing on the very thing that "Classes" change as your main avenue for improvement and growth, rather than mechanics that exist outside of those choices.

And speaking of combat...

Part 2: Combat Dynamics
Coming Soon!

Last edited by ShadowDRGN; 02-24-2020 at 07:51 PM.
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Old 07-27-2020, 06:16 PM   #2
Izicomics
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I am a big fan of this saga I hope someday I can get to play KH3
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