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Randomly got antisora form on a beauty and beat boss fight, remember this forever 🙏👏👍

KH2 had a near perfect combat system developed like 2 decades ago; I still can't believe they threw this away in favour of the floaty nonsense of the handheld games. Madness.

Going into this video I didn’t know what to expect. Crash has a special place in my heart, and personally Crash 2 is my favorite, but I couldn’t disagree with your points. I think part of growing up is realizing how focused Crash 1 is, despite its roughness around the edges. It’s funny, I actually learned to appreciate Crash 1 through the N Sane Trilogy because it added time trials to the first 2 games, a feature previously unavailable. Effectively speed running Crash 1 gave me a huge appreciation for its simple yet effective atmosphere. The originals are definitely better and you were spot-on for many observations. Also points for appreciating the lightning in a bottle that was CTR. Would love to hear your thoughts on that game. Many people lamented the CTR Nitro Fueled Remake, and while it may not be the same as before, I find the addition of blue flame to more than make up for it. I truly believe it to be the best kart racing game, in terms of skill ceiling.

Revenge Value is what keeps me coming back to KH2 so many times over the years. Many action games require you to study the enemies attack patterns and learn when best to go on the offensive or back off. KH2 is no exception. As you pointed out with games like Bayonetta, a lot of action games either have the enemy slink away from your combo with i frames or transition into a second phase with i frames or super armor like a lot of Dark Souls bosses. What is cool about the Revenge Value system for me is a matter of perspective. In both Bayo and KH2 you know that the boss is going to break out after a certain damage threshold or mechanic. In KH2 it is able to be manipulated like you said with the speedrunning section. However, the speedrunning aspect of KH2 is where the game system becomes boring as you can program the fight to win basically. For me after playing the game for many years KH2s revenge values almost feel instinctual as if I know when the boss will retaliate and I can alter my combos accordingly which feels amazing. The system itself also encourages replayability instead of just headbutting the boss over and over like a Souls game using the same strategy hoping it will work, in KH2 if you recognise when a boss is escaping your combos you can alter them for future attempts.

9:18 actually MP costs were varied in KH1, for instance Blizzard and Fire didn't use a full bar of MP instead granting a cast for every Bar of your Current Max MP before Taking a single bar so if you had 5 bars and expended all your MP you'd have casted Fire/Blizzard 15 Times Where as Spells like Cure Took 1 MP and Aero Took 2 MP for example It actually gave magic builds in KH1 the aspect of thinking when to use what spells because managing MP was important when you didn't take The Shield or Sword.. (Also never take Sword unless you're really good at KH1) I won't argue that KH1 has more depth than KH2 cause its not even close.. but acting like depth wasn't there at all isn't right.. it's just KH 2 has more Action game Depth and KH 1 has more RPG Depth Also the way I play each game (With a dive to heart) is an interesting thing I point out.. KH 1 choose the Wand because magic is broken and because MP Recharge isn't a thing so Magic is more spamable cause Ethers and Melee combos allow you to spam it more plus party members with MP Gift and MP Rage also help you alot KH 2 I pick sword because Action game with amazing Melee combo potential so even with a lower magic stat you can do awesome things with magic in your combos KH 3 path of the Guardian (Shield) Defense is really important in the higher difficulties of KH3 alot of abilities in that game leave you vulnerable so having a strong defense is important

I like revenge values. It is a bit trial and error, and unintuitive, but I think it is fun finding the exact point where you'll trigger a counter-attack, and then intentionally dropping your combo early to prevent it. It feels like a reset in a fighting game.

Idk man sounds like a skill issue.

It’s all so well designed……. Except Revenge Value. RV is a terrible mechanic. It’s obtuse to new players, turns higher difficulty bosses into guessing games for upwards of 100+ deaths before you “get it”, and worst of all retaliation mechanics in countless other action games have been done WAY BETTER. It’s only in KH3 because of nostalgia, and I hope it’s not in KH4.

hot take but I like the Command Menu, and the games that skip over it are more icky for me. Probably just because I got so used to it, but it's a control system that feels very natural for me now

KH2(and KH2FM) is literally if DMC and FF had a child, and I’m all for it.

The onion hater has logged on

1:02:15 No, every FF game has to treat you like you're playing a videogame for the first time. 🙃 It's a bit of a random rant from me, but the beginning of FF16 pissed me off so much because it interrupts the flow *constantly* with tutorial windows (even hours into the game) and before any real battle happens it says "Hey, you can use these rings for auto-abilities, if you don't feel comfortable!", like you didn't even do ANYTHING yet.

Lmao the title, loved the stream!

Actually, one more comment because I'm about halfway through the stream. It's really funny how frontloaded the story is, b/c one of the huge complaints towards this game from the fan base is how sparse the cutscenes get, ironically once the story shifts focus from Vaan

Wait, fuck, I missed this?? Edit: I'm not gonna constantly comment on the stream, but I did want to let you know that the monologue after the opening FMV is given by a character the player doesn't meet until hours later. It's a weird narrative device that makes more sense on replay, but my first playthrough as a kid had me confused as well

My biggest problem with the reaction command is that you aren't punished for spamming triangle before the reaction is available

Kanzaki Tendou and Makoto; the siscon riders

Kh2 is basically "just spam reflect"

Modern boomer shooters kind of succeed in taking inspiration from the past, but adding / iterating to keep it fresh. Just mimicking what came before as seen in other genres isn’t enough anymore.

This video seemed pretty typical but actually made me think a bit good job

Alien Soldier mentioned!!

The Ziad <-> Björn / Björn <-> Ziad feedback loop

Really connect with the idea that the time we spend paying attention to certain games is disproportionate to how much we get out of them. A lot of the worst/most insidious games prey on this fact imo, more so than in other mediums.

For my part, I'd rather play through Crow Country than re-play a classic survival horror title if only because - even if it isn't novel mechanically, it's still fresh in other ways. Fresh story, ambience, environment, set of enemy behaviors to experience and intuit, set of puzzles, etc. Same goes for Signalis, it's a pretty by the numbers adaptation of classic survival horror mechanics but the narrative lens is totally fresh. The love story at the center of it is pretty potent, and it's a much more interesting take on sci-fi-space-station ambience than anything I can think off off the top of my head from the era. There's still new surprising things to find, but I totally feel you on the mechanical novelty kinda falling short. I think some people have a small handful of genres they love enough to keep checking out new riffs on it, although even that can get overexposed after a time. I'm a big retro FPS head, I follow all the Nightdive remasters religiously, but I'm suuuuper picky about which ones I spend my time on - and then there's the matter of whether or not they're still in early access...

Great video Ziad! Have you had a look at the KH3 ReMind combat, specifically the Data Org battles?

2:51 this used to be me as well, once I hit around 27-29 years old my gaming tastes sort of crystallized and I won’t waste time or money on things that I’m not at least fairly sure I’ll enjoy. Doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to try new things but I’m a lot more cautious with my time and money these days

I kinda wanna hear your take on Nier Automata's combat system. I personally really liked it and I think it has a good amount of depth and skill expression.

One of the problems is that indie devs are the cosmopolitans of gamedev - they aren't chained to IP's and specific series and aren't really forced to develop and oversee a whole bunch of sequels. So they set up a simple (and usually pretty uninspired) foundation and then instead of building on it with sequels they just jump ship and make something completely different. Indies are also rewarded by reviewers/gamers/etc. for simply repackaging existing games in a way that highlights certain aspects of their design which aren't obvious to casuals (sometimes even missing the point) and adding a lot of convenience/QOL/beginner friendly design. You can really see this in GnG clones - all of them play like a neutered, Castlevania-ified version of GnG driven by modern best practices. It took the original creator to not only re-capture the original's spirit but push it forward. Even shmups, which you'd think would be a genre where indie devs are *too hardcore* have basically stagnated in terms of difficulty & scoring design. Now it's mostly about presenting what 90's devs did to people who can't discover it organically. Hell, even speaking from personal experience - I have this exact issue myself that I'm trying to move away from actively. I also can't help but think that a contributing factor is a type of defeatism + fanboy mentality - they don't compete with older games they worship them. Older devs had to compete with each other and one up one another, not just recapture what they loved. They weren't following up the Old Gods they were jealously and arrogantly eyeballing their peers. A degree of competition and ego is healthy for art.

Rain World gang 🐌🐱

I hear you using that Bayo 3 music 👀

A little unfocused. Could use better examples. B+

Are interesting games obscure?

This is the kinda clickbait that works on me specifcally

Im always dedicated to using all my magic before using cure, kills me sometimes.

I played kh2 on master mode, it was not fun, I honestly prefer de kh1 or kh3 combat

28:46 THIS IS WAY OVER COMPLICATED! WHATS WRONG WITH YOU!?

Only a morron speak bad about nier automata. Kh2 is insanely good, but don't cross the line with nier automata.

作中一天道が取り乱したシーンがワームとかゼクトとか全く関係ないこのシーンなのガチでおもろい

このシーン個人仲い兄と妹一番シスコンね❤

Kh2 brings nostalgic to me

with your comment about bite-sized challenges in games like meat boy, how do you feel about stuff like spikes or pits which also tend to punish singular mistakes with failure? (and often the punishment for failure in mega man is much harsher which is why those bite-sized games are like that.) Do you think there's an argument that they defeat the purpose of having a healthbar and hurt the game's possibilities or nah

Pretty late recommendation CZcams. Seeing this 2020 could have been nice aswell.

I don't understand the hype for kingdom hearts 2

Good video! I love the ideas you gave about things that would improve the combat, but i wanted to talk abou the parts with the controlls. Its a great idea for people who are used to playing video games. However, if you start your journey on video games with KH2, its easy to get into with the controlls it has. You can play through the game just fine with a good amount of difficulty. If we had for like every other button a special function based on what kind of spell you want, that would be so much to understand and mix up, that alot of missinputs happen just because there is so much to do. Using reaction commands with triangle and circle like KH3D does it is a good idea, but i believe it wouldnt work as well as you would think, because you would need to press these two buttons in sync for that reaction, which sometimes could trigger only one of the two buttons, leading to frustration. Also, follow ups in those reactions would happen with the same two buttons as well. If you fail one input, you "failed" to react properly, which could get frustrating fast. But its great input, and again, a great video! :D

I know its your opinion but your opinion is wrong 😆

Really great video, I was looking for people talking about the combat, and you went in depth perfectly about it, talking about pros and cons. I think this is the best action combat ever but I was totally ignorant of the revenge meter stuff.

some human s whatching normly smt fans: persona 4 ost yaaaaaah😅

Great video❤

Okay. This was a great video. You mentioned so many specifics and did a great job showing pros and cons. Ive never dug deep into kh2s combat but ive heard people throw around things about revenge values and stuff. I hate how inconsistent they are. It should merely be a meter that the player is privvy to, imo. Or something along those lines. Ive also heard people talk about how its good but never explain it. Some of this is amazing though. Ive hated how many games have cool forms but theyre so limited that its hard to rely on them, but the way kh2 actually lets you regain Drive FASTER while out of MP is amazing. And the way they made magic so useful and interesting compared to similar things in, say, the original God of War titles, where MP was usually hogged making the abilities less useful. Or you didnt have spells, but guns in games like dmc but they dont provide the same potency. Again. Great video. Thanks for opening my eyes. I think i might replay KH2 for the first time in a long time now.