Man, I was so excited for this game! Remember seeing the commercial for the first time on an airplane of all things, thinking "the fuck is this shit? Looks gay!" but the more I thought about these weird clips the more I was intrigued, scowering the internet for news, images, etc.
And when I finally got the game... it was all I had hoped for and more! Man, I was so invested into it, so enthralled by the story, just, wow!
Even later on when I tried the PS4 release of it, it still felt good to play compared to any of the sequels. I know KHII is considered the pinnacle in terms of combat, and I believe them, but there just wasn't this sense of exploration and discovery that KHI had. KHII was just big empty arenas to fight in (Agrabah is the best comparison between the 2 games: KH1 has a nice vertical layout so that despite the city only being around 3 areas, obtaining the high jump and glide abilities unlocked more of it. KHII is just big empty spaces so you can skateboard.)
>>113818375Exactly! It was essentially an Isekai, with fun discovery with each world. Looking back, I love how the worlds were designed and how good they used the limited resources, with things like making Hercules an arena and coming back to it throughout the game to take part in newer tournaments, while the maze like Monstro was a confusing mess as one tried to navigate the bowels. Basically none of the worlds were simple palette swaps, compared to Chain of Memories for instance.
