Kholdstare
Nightmare Weaver
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2008
- Messages
- 1,441
Link to original post: [drupal=2850]My Analysis: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days[/drupal]
So I recently got a game I had high hopes for, and got something different from my expectations... not to say that it's bad, however.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is the first KH game that DOESN'T star that goody-two-shoes Sora and his anthropomorphic pals. It instead focuses mainly on his Nobody, Roxas, for the main game and allows you to play as the whole Organization in Mission Mode, which I have been longing to see. There are also six secret characters, but I won't reveal those for the sake of spoilers.
Now, the good things I like about this game is the overall feel of it. You do missions to further the Organization's goals, including taking out Heartless, recon, and the like. This really lets you feel like you're a part of a secret underground Organization with actual jobs and such. The focus on the Nobodies is something I really like, as they are the only characters in the series I like... except for Commander Sark and Tron (Tron was a f***ing epic movie.). The upgradeable options you have with them are great, as you can change their weapons and give them equipment and abilities. Each member, save for a few, has their own unique stats, and there's a character for every playstyle. There's also something I've long waited to see: multiplayer. Yes, multiplayer. Team up with your friends and go on missions as members of the Organization. Me and my friend had so much fun playing as Luxord and Demyx together through mission mode.
While all these are great, there are some pretty glaring flaws. The camera is absolutely terrible, even worse than the God-awful KH1 camera. I fought the camera more than the Heartless themselves. I noticed this immediately when I started playing. While this may seem like a nitpicking complaint, you will ragequit when you can't see around a corner or see enemy attacks flying at you while emo kid Roxas is blocking 75% of the top screen running at you. This is especially terrible in recon missions.
The system for equipping weapons, magic, items, equipment, and abilities uses things called panels. Everything, and I mean everything, you get is a panel, and to equip that you must put the panel into a slot. The Slot Menu has about 40 slots on three different tabs, making 120 slots available total. While many panels are single slot, most weapons are 3-6 slots (so you can equip boosts to it) and while this is good, if you dodn't have the things to equip it to... your slots are taken up and useless for then. Many key things you may want might not fit, especially in the early parts of the game when you have from 10-20 slots available and the latter parts when you have too much stuff to fit it all. It's like... a puzzle. Or Tetris.
As for battling, 70% of your missions are "defeat X" or "collect hearts and defeat Heartless". I love combat, and it's what made KH2 the most fun for me, but the combat system is terrible in this game. Yeah, I know that it's a DS yada-yada, but the enemies have super-high defense and EVERY battle comes down to locking on, getting up close, and hammering the A button to slash wildly at the enemies. Half the enemies and most of the bosses are BROKEN (I swear, Leechgrave is the most annoying boss in any video game, ever). It sounds like a challenge, and it is, it's just... a challenge to see who will get the most whacks in at a time. Doing it with friends actually lightens it a bit, and it can get fun quickly, but solo... it is not fun, at all.
There's my two cents. Overall, I give 358/2 Days a three out of five. The multiplayer and mission mode is fun, but the terrible camera, fights, and panel system make it fall short of what I expected. Way short.
So I recently got a game I had high hopes for, and got something different from my expectations... not to say that it's bad, however.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is the first KH game that DOESN'T star that goody-two-shoes Sora and his anthropomorphic pals. It instead focuses mainly on his Nobody, Roxas, for the main game and allows you to play as the whole Organization in Mission Mode, which I have been longing to see. There are also six secret characters, but I won't reveal those for the sake of spoilers.
Now, the good things I like about this game is the overall feel of it. You do missions to further the Organization's goals, including taking out Heartless, recon, and the like. This really lets you feel like you're a part of a secret underground Organization with actual jobs and such. The focus on the Nobodies is something I really like, as they are the only characters in the series I like... except for Commander Sark and Tron (Tron was a f***ing epic movie.). The upgradeable options you have with them are great, as you can change their weapons and give them equipment and abilities. Each member, save for a few, has their own unique stats, and there's a character for every playstyle. There's also something I've long waited to see: multiplayer. Yes, multiplayer. Team up with your friends and go on missions as members of the Organization. Me and my friend had so much fun playing as Luxord and Demyx together through mission mode.
While all these are great, there are some pretty glaring flaws. The camera is absolutely terrible, even worse than the God-awful KH1 camera. I fought the camera more than the Heartless themselves. I noticed this immediately when I started playing. While this may seem like a nitpicking complaint, you will ragequit when you can't see around a corner or see enemy attacks flying at you while emo kid Roxas is blocking 75% of the top screen running at you. This is especially terrible in recon missions.
The system for equipping weapons, magic, items, equipment, and abilities uses things called panels. Everything, and I mean everything, you get is a panel, and to equip that you must put the panel into a slot. The Slot Menu has about 40 slots on three different tabs, making 120 slots available total. While many panels are single slot, most weapons are 3-6 slots (so you can equip boosts to it) and while this is good, if you dodn't have the things to equip it to... your slots are taken up and useless for then. Many key things you may want might not fit, especially in the early parts of the game when you have from 10-20 slots available and the latter parts when you have too much stuff to fit it all. It's like... a puzzle. Or Tetris.
As for battling, 70% of your missions are "defeat X" or "collect hearts and defeat Heartless". I love combat, and it's what made KH2 the most fun for me, but the combat system is terrible in this game. Yeah, I know that it's a DS yada-yada, but the enemies have super-high defense and EVERY battle comes down to locking on, getting up close, and hammering the A button to slash wildly at the enemies. Half the enemies and most of the bosses are BROKEN (I swear, Leechgrave is the most annoying boss in any video game, ever). It sounds like a challenge, and it is, it's just... a challenge to see who will get the most whacks in at a time. Doing it with friends actually lightens it a bit, and it can get fun quickly, but solo... it is not fun, at all.
There's my two cents. Overall, I give 358/2 Days a three out of five. The multiplayer and mission mode is fun, but the terrible camera, fights, and panel system make it fall short of what I expected. Way short.
