Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ Plat Run

Plat Series
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance​

• It’s time for KH2 - the game I looked forward to more than any other in history when I was a kid. A game that defined that period of my life. What a time. I’m going to play this one slow and really enjoy it
• Crit Mode obviously
• Chills when the Twilight Town logo world comes in. I STILL remember the first time I saw that scene when this game came out and how I felt then. What a great scene!
• The entire Roxas segment is so good imo. KH3 really missed a soft intro like this to set up the bigger adventure
• Why do the skateboard segments play so well? Could be its own game
• I played CoM back before this came out but I know a lot of people didn’t. Imagining what this whole prologue and experience must have been like for them is hilarious
• Had to grind a quick level out vs Seifer before the Struggle to appease my inner child
• Did anyone feel like they could see/feel things others couldn’t as a kid? That’s basically what Roxas is going through when he sees the ghost train and Namine while no one else can
• The theme of hearts and thoughts connecting us forever is perfect for a forum like ours
• I’m in awe at the detail of Namine’s art in the mansion
• What a ****ing prologue lol. This was the most mind-blowing thing on the first playthrough and still holds up well
• I love how Sora's movement controls are slightly better than Roxas's. Great design choice
• The music in this game is seriously A+ tier. The TT theme is so nostalgic and beautiful
• I wish I could live in Twilight Town

 

• There’s so much detail in the background of the worlds compared to KH1. Honestly KH1 sucked at that, it put up arbitrary walls to cover up the sky, but here, like in Hollow Bastion, you can see the entire town and the castle spreading out before you. The game feels so much bigger as a result.
• Good god Aerith’s voice actor in KH2 is awful. Like actually awful
• Is Leon’s voice actor different, too? He sounds worse, but could have just been that one line.
• Merlin still on point, tho.
• Isn’t it funny how if you see Merlin’s house you can walk in Merlin’s house. Wish KH3 would have done that, you know, kind of obvious thing.
• Bout to grind up Valor form real quick before the Bailey fight. Always be maxing.
• Merlin’s House has more NPCs and interactive objects than the next 3 KH games put together…
• When you look at Merlin’s bed and it says “you see strands of Merlin’s long beard.” That ain’t his beard my guy.
• But seriously, the amount of stuff you can check in this game really calls back to its PS1 era FF roots. Square games in general now have less NPCs and things to read and world build, and also the developers of the later KH games simply put less love into the games themselves. It kinda sucks.
• Took all of 4 minutes to get High Jump using the save point in Merlin’s House. Love it.
• Bailey took me three ****ing tries LOL. Ugh... here we go again. Time to remember how to play this game for the 50th time.

 

• Well this game wins best Gummi Ship hands down. This is actually somewhat exciting.
• The ashen town through the bamboo in Bamboo Grove D:
• Donald in KH1: “No meddling!” Donald in KH2: *attacks random man waiting in line for lunch*
• The NPCs in the encampment have multiple sets of dialogue. An initial one, then one after your first mission and one more after your last mission
• I like how vibrant the town that gets burned down in LoD is before being blitzed. Like they put all that time into those models, and then immediately destroyed them.
• There’s a Monty Python reference if you talk to the Captain right after the village is burned down.
• One aspect this game destroys KH1 in is the menuing and UI, especially equipping abilities using triangle. There are other great updates like being able to equip items to the L1 menu too. They took something already good and made it better.
• Synth’d my first item: Drive Recovery. The Frost Shard in the chest before the Summit got me there.
• The music goes SO damn hard in this game. Battle themes especially.
• I remember getting the KH2 OST for Xmas back in 2006ish. Visited NYC that holiday season too, and this OST will always take me back to those streets.
• After Belle screams from the ballroom, you get new NPC text in the Parlor.
• Chicken Little LOL. Still leveled Summons up to 3 real quick.
• Sora has my favorite running animation in this.
• I have PTSD from running from Hades on my Lvl 1 Crit run. That bit was so hard it’s ridiculous.
• Oh ****, I think you unlock Zexion AS after this. Gonna try to knock him out now because beast mode. (Update: No, not yet. You can interact with the book but the fight won’t open up yet. Probably once you get the stone back.)
• The Demyx mini-game fight in Olympus is the perfect example of what KH excels at.
• Ok, Zexion time.

 

• Zexion ****ed us up too much (a couple friends were over making attempts too) so gonna get Wisdom and Quick Run then come back for him.
• Timeless River is such a random world, but really gives the game more depth. Love the world inside a world thing too, they do something similar with Tron in Radiant Garden.
• LOL the UI art for Sora, Donald and Goofy here is great.
• Ok I got Wisdom Form. Love this one. Gonna grind this and Valor up to max really quick to take advantage of all those extra abilities.
• Took 15 mins to grind up Valor and Wisdom. Got Quick Run and MP Rage out of that. You can go in and out of the door in Timeless River to reset your drive bar while grinding in the Mickey’s House window. I think I can take Zexion down now.
• Zexion = dead. That extra Item Slot is gonna be real nice for the rest of the game. Off to Atlantica and then Port Royal I guess.
• Wow these Atlantica songs. I can't believe I used to listen to this part of the OST, too.

 

• Santa reminding Sora of something he did 7 years ago is some weird guilt trip ****.
• I’ve barely made notes because I’m so sucked into this game. But I just finished Twilight Town and got Oathkeeper, so I think Tron is next. Gonna detour to Larxene AS first.
• Larxene is down, and now I want to see if I can take Lexaeus out too before going back to Hollow Bastion. Love getting the Silhouettes done early.
• Yep, he’s dead, too. Tron time.
• Sephiroth’s cameo is so random here that I actually laughed. Also I wish Yuna Rikku and Paine came back to do some treasure hunting side quest or something.
• Gonna pilfer the Cavern of Remembrance before moving on real quick.
• Some of the maps in this game look incredible. The use of backgrounds to make them seem huge is such a different take on KH1 that typically had small, closed rooms.
• The game trying to explain Xehanort’s Nobody and Heartless is hilarious. It’s so self-aware of how confusing it is.
• Does anyone else remember the first KH2 trailer that showed the 1000 Heartless Battle with multiple Behemoths in it? It’s so much tamer than that in the final version. Still cool tho.
• 2nd Disney world visits time. KH3 really needed something like this.
• Gonna have Gullwing equipped forever LOL. The incidental EXP gains are too worth it plus I’m shredding everything in sight due to doing all the Absent Silhouettes and Form grinding early.
• Nobodies! This is gonna be such a game changer for synthesis.
• The Keyblades having unique abilities is such a positive change from KH1.
  
• Forgot how good Warp Snipe feels against the Snipers. Oh baby.

 

• Beast’s Castle has really underrated music.
• Oh that’s right, Marluxia AS is here. Let’s do this.
• Xaldin was SUCH a gatekeeper back in the day. Literally just owned him.
• You know, Mickey kind of trivializes Xaldin. I did die once and he came back and Pearled the **** out of Xaldin, and then that was that.
• I got Peter Pan, gonna grind these Summon levels up real quick.
• Ok, so I’m in Agrabah and I’m almost level 50. I’ve had Gull Wing equipped since I got it and it’s INSANE the amount of random extra EXP I’ve been earning (I have EXP Boost equipped on Sora, too).
• I keep making sure I haven’t missed any side quests and I’m good so far. It’s just more fun this way, the AS are a good ass challenge when you reach them in the story but if you wait too long they’re trivialized.
• Oh ****. Vexen time. I’m gonna save here and then hit this when I get back.

 

• Vexen literally took 1 try lol. Wtf.
• That extra Armor Slot tho… I’m enjoying trying different equipment combinations vs. the early Silhouettes, cuz iykyk 4x Ribbons will be the end game setup no matter what.
• The ending of 100 Acre Wood is so damn cute.
• Omg, the scene were Sora dances with an imaginary Kairi. So cute as well. The scenes are so gooooood.
• Getting close to the end of the story now that I think about it. I don’t want it to end.
• I’m serious, if you ever play KH2 again and you’re reading this sentence, for the love of god equip Gull Wing as soon as you get it. This EXP is hilarious right now, and I’m not even trying to be low health. It just happens naturally enough on Crit that enemies are giving 1000 XP each…
• I have vivid memories of Pride Rock - I remember when it was discovered on the forums that it was best place to grind (I mean “train” - we didn’t say grind yet LOL) and I was in Florida on holiday using Magnega between Disney theme parks to get Sora to 99. I’m on vacation right now too so it’s kind of a weird deja vu throwback moment going on in my head. Wow.
• I won’t grind yet tho. I only have Tron left before Twilight Town finale and TWTNW. The trophies are finally starting to pop!

 

• The melding of Leon and Cid with Tron is so amazing. They did something similar in KH1 with Cloud in Olympus and again with Auron here. Where was this kind of thing in KH3…?
• When Hollow Bastion turns to Radiant Garden ._.
• Well you can fight Sephy now. And keeping with the rest of this play through, I’ve been doing everything possible as it unlocks. So… I’ll give it a try.
• Sephy waiting for you while he looks out over the castle is just insane. I know people complain about KH2 maps being “flat” but they have the prettiest backgrounds in the series. And they make actual sense.
• Managed to get a few bars of HP off him before he one shotted me. Not bad.
• Ok I’m moving on lmao. I’ll come back for him around level 65ish.
• The last visit to Twilight Town is so good. When Mickey shows up, it’s like the whole series has been building toward this giant finale. It really feels like the end.
• Omg, Axel sacrificing himself. This scene hits less hard knowing the future but I still give it a thumbs up.
• I keep forgetting to equip good Keyblades before bosses and go in with Gull Wing. Just beat Roxas taking only one hit with it on lol. Fight would have been over in seconds if I had Rumbling Rose on.
• Ok I have Final so now I’m commencing the level up all Forms time before I go deep into the Org’s castle.
• I haven’t reached the elevator bit yet and am using this area to grind Forms. It’s been about an hour and I only have two more levels of Final to go. I’m not in TWTNW anymore though, I’m in Twilight Town using the underground area + Firaga to level this form up basically instantly.
• It took all of an hour and ten minutes to get Final from level 1 to level 7 and every other Form from level 6 to level 7. Grind your forms, folks. I have friends who didn’t do this and it boggles my mind - you need those movement abilities.
• Well I’m only as far as the Roxas fight in TWTNW but **** it, I might as well collect all the puzzle pieces and then do Cavern of Remembrance first since I have full movement now. That’ll probably get me super close to being done with synthesis too.
• I got pretty deep into the Cavern but I’m craving the final cutscenes. So I’m turning back to do some TWTNW.
• Here come the wild story beats. DiZ reveal time.
• Xigbar’s dead.
• Riku reveal time.
• Jesus, I keep beating everything with no Cure on lol. Reflect is broken. Btw, I turned cure off everyone because I like to remain in red health for the EXP Boosts. But I never remember to menu before bosses LOL

 

• When Saix says “A heart… if I had a heart…” when you kill him… :’(
• I’ve never noticed how good the scene is where Xehanort and Ansem the Wise talk to each other before he blows up Kingdom Hearts… and then the ending with the Nobodies dancing in the streets while the hearts rain down. ****ing amazing.
• Riku joining the party is everything.
• This ending as a whole is simply too good in that no other game in the series could ever reach its level. Like, not many video games in existence have an ending this well thought out tbh.
• Easy Xemnas kill with Gull Wing lol. I hope I remember to switch it to something good before the final boss gauntlet.
• I’m trying to put my finger on why KH3’s ending was such a let down compared to this. Like it had all the pieces to be good but it was so underwhelming. Scala ad Caelum not being a real world has to be part of the reason though, compared to this game where you literally get to explore the ENTIRE city and castle of the main villains. Imagine if we could have explored the room where Xehanort played chess and learned more about him in KH3 before the final fight. Yeah, that game really ****ing sucked for long time fans. I hope this plat run will help me see it in a better light, but I’m not hopeful, because right now it’s only reinforcing how many poor decisions that game made.

 

• Look, I’ve beaten nearly every Final Fantasy and every KH game. I’m a Square simp and a huge nerd. But this game is without a doubt in the top 3 JRPGs I’ve ever played. There’s so much to collect and unlock. OG KH2 itself was great at this too, yeah, but the Final Mix edition is insane. New Forms. Abilities. Mini games. Bosses. I imported this ****, too. What a summer that was lol, and I’m having so much fun doing it all again. Except I don’t have to read it in Japanese LMFAO
• Cavern of Remembrance has such sexy music.
• I honestly miss dungeons. You don’t really see them in modern JRPGs as much as you used to.
• I beat Sephy at level 69 LOL
• Ok at this point I just have the Mushrooms, secret bosses and a bit of leftover synthesis to go.
• Goofy’s ultimate weapon is down, too. Ultimate Mushroom is busted. Someone should do a hack and make it so Sora learns Protectga
• And throw in his MAX movement abilities, too

 

• Ok, so much just happened. I beat all the Mushroom XIII and synth’d one of everything. Literally only have the superbosses and Hades Paradox to go. But I decided to synth ALL Full Bloom+ and ALL Ribbons for Sora, Donald AND Goofy lmfao. And stat max Sora. It only took a few hours, so keep reading.
• I’m going to talk about that process now. These are the spots you need to grind:
• The Mushroom in Christmas Town for Tranquility Crystals.
• The Reckless in Cavern of Remembrance (one Reflect kills them) for Remembrance Crystals.
• Bright Crystals from The Underworld, the long hallway between the Entrance and where you fight Zexion AS.
• Do this for about half an hour and you should have 10ish Serenity Crystals. You need these for the Full Bloom+. Do it again and make about 10 Manifest Illusions. Now make 10 Serenity Crystals again.
• Grind Larxene in CoR for Lost Illusions. She’s one of the easier fights. You need 9.
• Now you can make 9 Full Bloom+ so Sora, Donald and Goofy all have max MP Haste.
• Ok, you should have most of what you need for stat maxing now. The Mythril Crystals are the only tricky part but they’re quite easy if you grind the Naught’s Skyway in TWTNW. Load in by the Moogle, then run through killing everything to the next endpoint.
• What about Twilight Crystals? Load in at Ruin’s Passage (might be the wrong name, but where the Org’s gravestones are) then walk out of this room into the next map. You will fight one Sorceror, then go onto the ramp and cast Reflect to kill the 2 Nobodies that drop down, then jump up and kill one more Sorceror. Easy Twilights.
• Good, now you can farm Stat Boosts. This took me about one hour total. I reached level 99 JUST as I was finishing this, too.
• Yes, you read that right. I reached level 99 AFTER synthing all the best equipment and accessories.
• Gotta grind efficiently, you know? I don’t want to be doing this for too long after hitting 99.
• Ok, now for the Ribbons. You should have everything but the Orihalcums at this point. But you can simply chase Bulky Vendors and you’re almost guaranteed one if you let the Vendors’ HP go into the last bar. This seems tedious but only took me TEN MINUTES.
• So yeah, I have the best equipment on everyone and maxed stats on Sora. I may eventually max D&G too, but it will be through grinding stat boosts on the Data Org, not synthesis.
• Ok, it’s Terra time.
• Wow, I beat him on my 10th try. I swear there’s some muscle memory going on from when I was 14 and played this on PS2. Either way, I got his first 5-6 bars as normal, Duck Flared him once, Duck Flared again to survive his DM, then Final Form and Firaga’d his last 4 bars in like 3 hits. Epic ****ing ****.
• Popped off 5 of the Data Org as well, 2 of them on my first try… on Crit lol.
• Ok, bed time. What a day of grinding. If you ever want to go as far as I did, feel free to ask any questions. I can share even more tips to make grinding as efficient as possible. You want it to be quick, and it can be - and yes, it’s worth it. D&G are surviving everything and it’s completely epic.

 

• The Data Org are toast, I cleaned through them. Xaldin took around 6 tries to learn the exact guard patterns on his moves, and Luxord had some bullshittery that ****ed me a couple times, but most of them I beat on my first try.
• Wow, the Gummi ship stuff is all I have to do now.
• Ok I made the donut ship. Never done this before.
• Holy **** that destroyed everything. Easiest S rank of my life.
• Nothing notable happened on the way to the plat, I basically S ranked all the missions and got all the blueprints quickly and that was it. What a game.

 

I feel like I said so many good things about this game in my notes that I'm not going to wax and wane. It was truly a masterpiece in many ways. There were faults, but I can hardly hold them against it when so much was done right. I'll talk more about what I disliked at the end of this plat run when I rank all the games. Regardless, I'm sure this will be #1 on that list unless I have a life-changing experience during BbS, DDD or KH3.

This game's worlds were so much more expansive and detailed than KH1, and the gameplay was an all-around improvement. The world choices themselves are the most varied and interesting in any of the KH games. It'll be interesting to compare this to KH3 from a combat perspective when I've played the games so close to each other, but I think the genius of the Forms and tying movement abilities and other bonuses to them isn't really surpassed by any in-game mechanics from KH3 off the top of my head.

The music is probably the best in the series with it introducing so many classic themes.

The cutscenes are pretty top notch as well. I mean, they did kind of carry this site when it first got created.

This game was so anticipated by the fanbase and it really lived up to its name. And thank god it did, because look how close it brought together communities like KH-Vids. Thank you Nomura and Square for this incredible experience. I don't think there are many JRPGs that can tussle with this one in terms of how satisfying it is to play and master.