Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer!

I used to bop them on the head with Jungle King/other large keyblades or just zap 'em with magic. MAGIC, HAAR, MAGIC.

But magic barely does anything...also, is it weird that I hate Large Bodies but really like Defenders?

The only Keyblades I've used so far are Kingdom Key and Oathkeeper...the difference blew my mind. That's why I prefer the KH2 Keyblades. They don't affect your stats, just give you an ability...They don't affect your stats, right? I'm not crazy?

They don't affect them to the degree that KHI Keyblades do. Also, Edgar's right, Magic kicks ass if you use it right. ESPECIALLY if you chose the Staff/Wand. DOUBLE-especially if you equipped Spellbinder. Learning to balance melee combat and magic-use can get you through KHI rather comfortably. It made a JOKE of Clayton and his Stealth Sneak.

It's not that Magic barely does anything, it's that it doesn't do stuff that looks impressive. That little chunk of health-bar a Blizzard spell takes off of that group of pesky Shadows? Makes it so you can one-shot the rest, making them so much faster to clean up, you have NO idea. Those Fira spells you shot at that Boss can save you minutes of chasing them around and waiting for their weakpoint to get in range. In the case of Behemoth, though, it's easiest to just get on the back of its head and spam your Keyblade on its horn. Not combo-ing, just using the first strike again, and again, and again...!

Did I mention I kicked the game's ass about ten days after 1.5 came out? Which was the day I started the playthrough? Yeah. Magic made ALL the difference, and I wasn't even playing it for all ten days.

Ehhh, still not really a fan. I will admit, I did abuse the heck out of Gravity when it came to Wyverns, but...I dunno, I just don't like it much. Plus, I always choose the shield at the start, and give up the sword. Better to get Second Chance/Once More sooner than later, and I don't like losing that 1 AP from ditching the staff. In fact, most of my AP Ups go to Sora. I've given a couple to the others, but...Oh, man, Sora's sitting at Level 54 in front of the gate at Final Rest with 37 AP. And he has SO many Abilities equipped. Oathkeeper broke that game for me...SO much damage.

Kinda leaving it down for now, though. I want to do the fight with "Unknown" *coughXemnascough* before I fight ASoD, just because the fight is considered canon. Also, as far as Hades Cup goes...Wooooow. Rock Titan is about the easiest boss EVER. Most anticlimactic tournament I've ever played...

I would like to make mention of a couple more spells that I found insanely useful in some situations:

-Thunder: once you get it, go to the Third District and sit right in the middle of the open area. Use Thunder on each of the enemy waves for stupid easy Exp, go back to a save to refill and repeat. Painless, but a little time consuming.

-Aero: Ursula. I don't have to say anything else.

-Stop: Hilariously useful for Hollow Bastion, I remember you got at least Stop/ra before entering.

-Coliseum: most of these fights take a single Thunder/ra/ga or Blizzard/ra/ga for most fights up to Hades Cup, not including the mini-boss fights.

And honestly, when you max out magic (or at least stay on top of it) your Firagas do so much damage you make Beast look like a damn pussy. And for only one charge unit, not even a full MP charge.

I can understand the defense thing (and Sora's first level up is always Str, I think) but for damage? Magic alllllll the way.

And because it makes me have to go and farm one less Crystal Crown. Fuck those things. Fuck Defenders.

I'm not trying to diminish your playstyle (I love seeing other playstyles work, I just tend to Occam's Razor everything and go down the path of least resistance) in any way, just to confirm.

I never once said Aero was useless! Aero makes everything better! That second upgrade, though...every Dalmation found *shiver* I'm so lucky I've played through KH1 two or three times. Only beaten it once, but played it a bunch.

Do...you realize how long it takes to max out anything? The game is perfectly beatable at level 50, I see no reason to level-grind until I've maxed out my magic, especially not when most late-game bosses are immune to anything that's not Aeroga anyway. Heck, the game is perfectly beatable at level 1. Critical Mode and all that.

Also, for Hollow Bastion, I prefer Gravity, like I said. Gets off a good bit of damage to something that otherwise hovers over a pit of "HAHA YOU'LL FALL IF YOU TRY TO HIT THINGS OVER HERE!!!"

The other thing about it is...Leaf Bracer. My Magic all goes to Cure/ra/ga for several reasons. One, I run out of health a lot because of my "Go in guns blazing" style. Two, Leaf Bracer offers great protection from...uh, everything.

Oh, yeah, and the AP-Special-Attack-moves. Sonic Blade, etc. Personal taste, but Sonic Blade has saved me so many times now that I feel it's highly worth 2 MP, more so than Fire in *most* situations. Not all, but most.

Biggest thing for me, though, is MP as a whole. I don't like having to rely on MP. In this game, I don't run out of MP very often because of the "Hit things for more MP" system. However, if I were to regularly use Magic beyond what I do now, I'd be almost always out of MP. Even using only Cure and Aero, I'm usually hovering between 2 and 3 MP. And to be perfectly honest, I don't like the idea of carrying around Ethers, and Donald and Goofy...well, regardless of how I set their AI, I can't stop them from wasting their items...they kinda suck. I'd much prefer to leave the items in my own hands, except of course against secret bosses.

I never said you did. :PAnd only Monstro fucks me up with the puppies. I hope to GOD there's an area map or something for that now. Just... please dear God. Pleeeeeaaaaaase.

Yeah, I realize. And I power-play, I don't really like going into anything low-level, and I enjoy taking my time to get the ease of play. It's why I can play on Expert: because I grind, because I know the system, and I know how to best thwart it. Getting Crowns is just a small part of it, and it's mostly for show, since most end-game enemies have a resistance to one-hit kills (fuckin' Wizards).

Thunder and Fire are facepalming at that last part.

Tinker Bell and moar magic.

I... I'm starting to lose my love for SB. I love it to death and it's a rapist against Vexen in CoM (the main reason I love it) but... it's damage just ain't worth it. Ragnarok and Ars, now? Hell yes, I'd like moar.

Goofy has a gift ability that sacrifices one MP of his for a refill of three to you or Donald. Carry an Ether and set that Ability type to frequent and you'll stay closer to 3-4 instead of 2-3. And in common battles? Yeah I'll agree with you, but in Expert Mode items on them are a MUST.

DAMMIT! I had a counter point for everything and then the site goes and loses my post... The gist is as follows:

No area map, sorry.

Don't like being overleveled, no fun, no challenge, but I also hate being curbstomped. Oh yeah, and level grinding sucks because it's boring.

I hate Wizards so much...

Like I said, prefer Gravity. Low magic, maybe, but Fire and Thunder never do as much for me...though Fire's homing is nice...

Tinker Bell is broke. Healing, life-saving, and keeping both my party members is broke. Therefore, Tinker Bell is broke.

Sonic Blade has saved me countless times and is nice and fast for dodging. Ars would be better if I didn't suck at the timing, but Ragnarok is awesome too.

Goofy's AI sucks. I put that ability on him and he never gives me MP. I've also carried 3 Ethers ever since I played Final Battalion in the Hades Cup, but I never seem to get a chance to use them.

 Also! Regarding that one trophy for "Beat the game without changing your equipment." One, does that mean I can't put on Accessories, either? Two, does that include Donald and Goofy? Oh, yeah, and what about items, can I equip those?

I would assume so? What if you couldn't equip abilities, either? I'm not the one to ask, yo.

I wouldn't think Abilities would count. Kingdom Key only, No Accessories, No Items, No Abilities? That's just kinda asking the impossible...

It'd involve a crack ton of grinding, to be sure. And Magic.

And all the Tinker Bell abuse forever.

Oh no, you do not show brief gun transformation like that in a KH game, that is dipping a bit too far past what KH is about combat wise.

Also, why is KH3 "magical amusement park" themed?  Seriously, that worries me.

I thought the magical-amusement-park thing only showed up in that Rock Titan fight in the trailer. I doubt it'd be constantly present. It looked like it was only there so you could feasibly fight something that huge without having to whack its toes to drain its health bar... or rip off Shadow of the Colossus. In fact, it reminded me of the fight with that one Dream Eater, Spellican, in 3D.

Though, if you need justification, I'd point to Disney for that. Magical amusement park? Disney, of course.

Spellican...that one gave me Hell...I mean, I dunno, maybe I just suck, but I had a hard time with that fight, especially on Critical. Then again, it can't be as bad as that one praying-mantis looking boss from the Tron Legacy world...I had to turn off the rail-grinding to be able to beat that.

To me it feels more like it's a new form of limit attack. Or, in the case of Rock Titan, a reaction command exclusive to that boss fight.

No, that didn't look like a Reaction Command. There was clearly someone choosing to attack from the command menu.

That said, it definitely made Rock Titan look like a more interesting boss, in my opinion. I think he was the single easiest thing in the entire Hades Cup in KH1. So, here's hoping it's a little more fun and a little less curbstomp...

Reaction Command may have been the wrong choice of words. What it makes me think of is the sequence with Pegasus during the fight with the Hydra in KH2.

No, those were reaction commands. I dunno, maybe I'm wrong. I can't read Japanese. Just saying, that didn't look like reaction commands to me.

It also wasn't just the train, what about the giant ass boat that Sora was on?

There was that too. I figured it was just a Disneyland world...would that be considered breaking the fourth wall? Don't forget, it also showed Twilight Town, so I imagine the pirate ship and train are a one-world deal.

I've seen commentaries on the trailer, and from what I've seen, they actually seem to be summons of some kind. I saw that on IGN, although I'm not too sure on it.

The boat I think is some kind of limit attack, or at least something similar. If you notice, there's a meter above the command menu that's running down over time, as well as what seemed to be the name of the attack done in a very similar style to the command styles in BbS.

Oh, yeah, that pirate ship that moved like one of those oversized-swing-like amusement park rides! I thought it was something like that, too. I guess I just kinda forgot. Sorry, somehow, KHIII isn't generating as much hype for me as Mighty No.9. I don't know why that is. Maybe because the chance I'll play it is slim-to-none, and I'll have to watch the cutscenes on YouTube... just like I had to for the PS2 games before I got a PS2... and I'll probably get a copy and system eventually, just that the whole thing will have been spoiled for me. Like BBS.

Sorry for getting off-topic about my inability to purchase all of the most kickass games of the future.

...D'you guys think that 3D might have influenced Sora's fighting style a bit too much? I mean, that's probably where he got all this crazy stuff. It seems like it would fit right in with his dreams, you know?

Hmmm...it's possible. It does still seem different from 3D, though, dramatically different. But now that you mention it, it does remind me of some of the really cool stuff you could do that I can't at all remember the name for. The rail-grinding and pole-swinging and such, is what I'm talking about.

Flow-motion.