It's only been 3 days... besides, my copy of Re:CoM arrived today so I've been playing that; it's a bit easier than this game - even on Proud Mode - in my opinion, but that may be because you get to use a real controller now.
~~
As for the omitted worlds mini-game: I found it fun myself... then again I also found the Mushroom Juggling fun. I wanted that Mishatke (or however the hell you spell it) Rank; and I've to this day only gotten it three times.
~~
Since this scene is
even bigger than the previous one, I'm gonna start transcribing text now. Saves time in the long run.
This is the one time in the game that a little extra dialogue happens after you choose the world you're going to visit;
I'm also going to show very few of the "!" or "..." bubbles that appear over characters heads. They're not always required.
Traverse Town is the first "proper" level/world in Kingdom Hearts (which is likely why it's the tutorial level in this game), Destiny Islands notwithstanding.
This town is an illusion conceived by your memories ingrained in that cardIf this is an illusion, does that mean Sora doesn't take any damage?
Sora, much like many other RPG protagonists, feels the need to repeat information stated mere seconds ago as if he didn't understand it very well.
Meh, it's only Donald and Goofy. We can do without them... or at least, I'd like to think so but Sora runs around the room looking for them as if he expects them to pop out of nowhere.
What did you do to them?I don't particularly consider this to be a huge loss, myself. In the first game, Donald was effectively useless for... the entire thing really. Goofy was only really useful for one ability (and due to this, one optional boss) that he doesn't get for a while. {That was all my opinion, but I'd like to think it's also common consensus.}
Master the cards, and their strength will be yours again.Sora can more than handle Traverse Town enemies on his own. The entire first visit there, he had to and at level 1 it's an easy place.
Either way, it's tutorial time.
This is the battle screen. Our "enemy" for this fight, is Cloaked Person. The blue reticle indicates Sora's target, and in every fight but this one the targeted enemy's HP would be in the top-right corner of the screen. Sora's HP is the small green bar in the top left corner of the screen (I intend to keep it this size for most of, if not the entirety of, the game), but it can double over (in Sora's case) and get an extra blue bar. Enemies can go beyond that and get upto 4 bars (which is red; 3 is orange). In the original, once you got so far an enemy with 4 bars had about average max health (presuming it was a boss; if it was a regular encounter it's glitched), since it went up to ~6 (green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, invisible; not necessarily in that order).
A card with a picture of Donald on it starts bouncing around the battlefield now;
Now we get told how to move (obvious how to do that... I hope), and have to pick up the card.
Use them, and your friends will come to your aid.Now we get told how to use cards (press the A button... a lot of this is pretty obvious), and by following the command, we automatically use Donald at the same time.
This isn't entirely true; Friend cards appear randomly and can't be reused unless they randomly re-appear, Item cards are a one-use per battle thing, and Premium cards (or the first card used in a "sleight" which is a special type of combo; more on them later) can't reappear at all (other than by items).
Everything in this castle is ruled by cards.I think most people would have figured that out by now...
This is a pretty important thing to remember, since you need Map Cards to enter rooms; they are only acquired one at a time at the end of battle, which requires a deck to initiate (if you have an empty deck equipped you can't even leave the menu screen).
This is referring to two more controls: by pressing B you can jump, and by double-tapping either left or right Sora will roll in that direction (not as useful as it sounds).
Now we get to perform 3 hits... before returning to the tutorial.
Every move you make causes a card to disappear.Again, not entirely true. Cards aren't required to move around, jump or roll... but everything else in battle? They do require cards to perform.
At this point, all it takes is to mash the A button, til you run out of cards.
If you want that power back, you must focus. Bid the cards to you, and they will return.
You don't actually need to run out of cards to do this; strategically, it's better to actually not wait since everytime you do so it takes an extra charge (up to a maximum of 3).
You can recall spent cards at any time - you need only wish it.I've omitted his next line, since it's basically a repeat of what I just said.
Anticipate the flow of battle and choose the most effective cards.Shame this isn't the end of the tutorial though... although those lines make it seem like it.
Now we get told how to alternate the cards we use (L and R buttons); nothing amazing, nothing unexpected.
Normal cards: Attack (red), Magic (blue), Item (green)
Enemy cards: these are temporary buffs that grant various effects based on the enemy. My favourite enemy card allows you to reload while moving. This is a very useful effect; since you'd be wide open otherwise (fortunately, bosses are always stationary while reloading). These are black in colour, and are - for the most part - rare.
This is something I see asked time and again. Most people don't pay attention and so are unaware that enemy cards need to be used to grant their effects. This should be obvious, but that doesn't stop many from thinking just having the card in the deck is enough.
As can be noted from the second screen above, the starter deck doesn't have any enemy cards. Unless you drop-farm for ages in Traverse Town, it's likely to be like this for a while (even then, it could take a while - one of the most annoying, and yet rewarding, aspects of this game is trying to acquire every enemy card).
But it is up to you to decide when to attack and when to defend. Do not forget it.The irony of these statements is that there is no button to defend (in Kingdom Hearts, and KHII, Sora does have an ability called Guard. Unfortunately, he doesn't retain that here).
Fortunately, this ends the tutorial!
and the rest is a big blank.Apparantly, when Donald and Goofy are in card-form (any time it's not a cutscene inside a world/level) they can't remember anything that happens during that time.
There are more important things to worry about, and yet all Jiminy's concerned with is his damned Journal. For a conscience, he doesn't help much.
All things considered, this could've been spotted a bit earlier.
Well, that's not very helpful. It doesn't particularly matter either way, since the whole clothes-thing is never mentioned again.
Donald may be a cartoon icon at this point, but he's an annoying cartoon icon.
Even Sora's beginning to think so.
For most of the original Traverse Town these guys were wandering around not even looking for Sora, let alone trying to help him. He's managed this very world without there help before, and as far as I care he'll do it again!
Walk the avenues of latent memory, and you shall meet someone dear to you.Could he be referring to Riku? If he is, yaoi fangirls would have a field day with this very statement...
Anyway, he now decides to vanish, leaving the Junior Heroes to... talk more...
Damn right
I am you are!
As far as I care, not very... as far as various message boards on the internet care, it's a difficult task.
Now we get told how to move/jump/attack on the map (exactly the same as in battle)... this tutorial is pretty degrading all things considered.
This is one of three story map cards, and is acquired at the end of the first scene when you enter. There are two more that can be obtained, but they aren't until the end of story events. Now that the tutorial is over (for now...), we can actually play the game! I'll save all of Traverse Town for the next update though, since this one is pretty big for just a tutorial and two scenes.
