The method by which you make your kill is not laid out in a simple manner; you may explore different levels to discover new ways of killing your target. Similar older games have had a habit of placing a path ahead of you that acts as the obvious choice, but Dishonored gives you numerous choices where one is no easier than the other.

Take violent actions and the story changes according to your choices. It is possible to complete some missions in a non-lethal manner, and doing so will earn you a different gameplay experience. Dishonored took the further step of adding magical elements to diversify the way in which you fight and take out your targets.

The magical and physical methods by which you may take out your targets offer a variety of game play styles, and the levels have been engineered to accommodate this. Many of the play styles are seemingly unrestricted by environment and NPC actions. All of this adds up to a game with a fair degree of replayabilty because you enjoy a different gameplay experience depending upon your game choices and play style.

So Just what makes Dishonored Worth Playing

The game does have a few problems, and one of them is the overarching narrative. Anybody who has played story-based RPG games, or even people who have seen enough movies, are going to be able to guess the coming events and even the ending. Nevertheless, nobody said a game has to have an epic and unexpected story like Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X or X-2. The predictable gaming/story events do not ruin the game.

The Art Style Is Gorgeous

Instead of opting for ultra-HD textures and uber-polygon models, they went for a polished art style and a heavy focus on atmosphere. Add the level design to the artistic graphics, and you have a combination that makes for a very immersive game.

They Could Have Tried Harder With The Game Controls

Dishonored is a good game, however many feel they could have tried a little harder with regards to combat and especially regarding the controls. In some cases, tricky or clunky controls help to add to a game, such as the terror it causes with the Silent Hill games. However, in a game such as Dishonored where you rely on your dexterity as a player, the controls are a occasionally a hindrance. (I didn’t notice this being a problem when I played it)

Balanced Level Design

The developers obviously took a lot of time over each game map. The detailed levels suit people who wish to run in with weapons at the ready, in the same way it suits people who prefer sneaky stealth.

Plot Control Is Weak, But Buys You At Least One More Game

Some people liken Dishonored to Deus Ex HR because you can choose how the game ends, but doing so is like comparing a steak to a tofu log. With Deus Ex HR, you make moral decisions that put the player at odds with himself or herself, whereas with Dishonored you simply choose to kill or not kill. Still, you can play it one way, and then play through at least one more time to see the alternate plot.

No Leveling System Is A Plus And Minus

Role Playing Game fans may be disappointed with the fact there is no leveling system, but not having a leveling system was a smart move by the developers. If there were a leveling system, then the player would be overly encouraged to kill everything and everybody. Instead, you get to upgrade rather than level up.

The post What makes Dishonored Worth Playing – Gameplay Overview appeared first on Kaidus Games Like.

The Bow And Arrow Mechanics Are Sublime

Many people have admired Legolas on LOTR and then jumped right on to M&B to start spearing people with arrows. The physics are prefect, plus the effect of each arrow works according with your bow strength, shot power and the enemy’s armor. Even better is the fact you get more experience point for shots that are more difficult, so it gives you an incentive to aim right between your enemy’s eyes.

Training Your Troops Makes An Obvious Difference To Their Abilities

As you train your troops, they become better armored and more skilled. Your highly trained archers can darken the skies with their higher shot output and better aim. Your poorly trained horsemen will be hammered down by a small team of axemen, whereas your highly-trained knights will cut through clusters of enemies like a hot knife through butter.

Your Experience Points And Level Upgrades make A Noticeable Difference

Improve your strength, and your broad sword will cut through men in one slice. Improve your agility, and you will be firing off shots like as fast as a gangster’s Tommy Gun. If you improve your leadership skills, your army will swell from twenty to thousands. Each upgrade affects the way you play the game.

Set Your Own Course

Feeling imperialistic? Then start sacking towns one by one and stationing men in them to protect them. Want the life of a trader? Find the sexiest selling trends and make a fortune by exploiting supply and demand? Want respect and honor? Take up maiden’s and king’s quests and earn epic amounts of experience.

The Campaign Map Is In Real Time

Mount And Blade is not like Total War. It isn’t real-time battles with a turn-based campaign map. Your troop is represented by a walking man or a horse on the campaign map, and time passes normally as you move. It even turns from night to day. While on the map, you may camp out to refill your life bar and revive a few of your troops.

You May Gain Permanent Allies

Have troops join your cause as you go along and train them up to do your bidding. That is all fun and good, but you may also gain new allies. They are NPC characters that are just like you. You can add and remove armor, alter their levels to suit, and you can give them lands so that you do not have to defend your entire realm yourself. You can even train them up to plug the gaps in your own skills. For example, you can train one of them as a medic to ensure fewer of your troops are killed during battles.

The post Mount and Blade Quick Gameplay Overview appeared first on Kaidus Games Like.

If you have not played the previous games and wish to check them out they are available through EA origin.  I think Mass Effect 2, arguably the greatest in the trilogy is currently free via origin and I highly highly recommend it.  You can see some influence from other Bioware games like Dragon Age: Inquisition too – especially in map design and quests.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is an RPG merged with a first person shooter. You explore uncharted worlds whilst an array of hostile forces try to deter you with an unrelenting barrage of bullets.  So, there are a lot of fire fights, a lot of exploring and discovering both on planets and in space.

Due to a lot to the new locations, characters and a re-invention of the series it is friendly to newcomers to the series as well as having fan service to the veteran fans through upgraded features.

Overview

• RPG/Shooter with lots of exploration
• Main character with a vast array of powers and play-styles available
• A large array of weapons that can be made from researched blue prints and be custom made through development and augmentation.
• Great multiplayer action that enhances the main game-play
• Fantastic graphics for both aliens and fantastic worlds
• Great shooting action that has been improve through jump jets
• Mysterious and interesting story-line
• In-depth characters with great personalities
• Lots of optional pathways to increase replay value through outpost creation/Cyro revival
• A new ship to explore and command, The Tempest
• A nomad land-vehicle to explore hazardous and vast landscapes

Story line

It feels epic, lots of sub-plots and quests going on, lots of mysterious elements that hook you and great characters to talk to and get to know.

I don’t want to give away too much for people who have not delved into the first three games, but this game takes place in a whole new galaxy.

During the events of the first game arks left the milky way and traveled through the dark space between galaxies to Andromeda to settle on what they suspected to be golden worlds.  The passengers have been in cryogenic sleep for six hundred years as they travel through the dark space.

You awake to discover that all of the arks except yours have gone missing, the worlds are anything but golden and life sustaining, and that the cluster is being controlling by a kill first and never ask questions hostile race who is suppressing the local alien life.

So, your quest is to find viable planets to colonize, find out what happened to the other arks, who this mysterious alien force is, and what they want, as well as understand the scourge and explore ancient ruins to gain technology.

Your journey as the path finder begins… or as the game puts it:

This story line is good for new fans as it does not build off the old trilogy nor require you to be familiar with it at all. 

It also negates the endings of the third in the series which alters the milky way galaxy irrevocable. There is a cultural exchange center on the main space station which acts as an encyclopedia about aliens from the milky way and the locations reference, such as the Citadel.

The main theme of the story seems to focus around AI and biological life, and how the two would co-exist, so it is a familiar theme from previous games, but it doesn’t require any previous knowledge of the first trilogy.

Character Creation

Like the previous games in the series you are limited to a human character, I was hoping that the game would open up the character selection to alien race now that Shepherd was no longer the principle character, but for story purposes the human only option works very well.  You do get the chance to play as other races in the multi-player options of the game.

Here is a brief video showcasing the characterization that is available, as well as the classes that you can play:

For those of you that are new to the series there are three main skill areas, combat, technology and biotics.  Combat skills focus on weapon skills mostly giving you greater proficiency in the fire-arms that are available, as well as effecting the kind of bullets and grenades that you have.   Technology allows you to hack enemy robots, overload machines and shields. Biotics is like a physic power that has lots of abilities like throwing enemies through the air or charging to them in an instant with a powerful melee attack.

Unlike the previous games the Pathfinder has all abilities in each option available to him regardless of the class that he chooses.  This class just levels up with investments in future.   This allows you to create unique and interesting builds to play the way you like or create the team that functions better with favorite NPC.

Here is a greater look into the ability menu for combat:

Game-play

There are various planets for you to land on and explore as part of the story-line.  These worlds have a variety of interesting things for you to explore, as well as certain things for you to collect or discover – like forward stations, which act a lot like the camps in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

By setting up a forward station you create a fast travel point, a point to call your Nomad (the land-vehicle), a place to change your weapons and team, a safe area for health regeneration, and also increase the viability of colonization.

You will explore lots of planets in the Nomad as there are areas where there are hazardous environments, such as below freezing environment and radiation, that you can only survive in for a limited time before it fries your environment suit.

There are numerous things for you to discover on the sprawling world maps – quests for NPC characters, lost or fallen research outposts, ancient alien monoliths of dead and forgotten species that are guarded by the mysterious machines known as remnants, ruins of the same forgotten culture, enemy strongholds and camps, mining resources, geological and biological life samples just to name a few! I sure I have forgotten some.

The jump jet system also means that almost anything in the game is scale-able – and in fact encourages you to scale gigantic monoliths by hiding treasures on top of them.

The Nomad is easy to control, can switch between two and six wheel drive to tackle steep hills with a speed reduction, has a jets that allow it to jump and a booster to help tackle to most stubborn of hills.  It doesn’t have any guns yet, I am hoping for an upgrade later on, but it does have a mining drone.

You also have a handy scanning object that you access by pressing down on the control pad.  This allows you to scan enemies, wreck and near-by objects for more information and to increase your research points to develop better technology.

You explore these worlds in the hope of finding an area that is suitable for colonization. 

Outpost wise you get to choose between a military outpost or research outpost.  Each comes with different rewards, and your choices play into an existing power struggle between the races in the system, as well the races that came from the Milky Way with you.  This power struggle in the organisation you work for is very interesting and will give you a variety of ways to play politics.

The more you colonize and increase a planet’s viability, the more people you can choose to release from cryogenic suspension. You get to decide to who to thaw out, military people for combat boons, scientists for research bonus or merchants for commercial bonuses.

The battle system revolves around first person style shooting, with abilities that you can level up as you progress and gain levels.  The combat system has improved and is a lot more enjoyable due to the new mechanics such as a jump jets, that allow you to scale buildings in a single bound of rush across the ground at high speeds towards cover or away from melee attacks.

You explore this new galaxy from a ship called The Tempest which acts as the main base for the crew you recruit and the best place to interact with them.  As with the previous entries most of the crew have special quests and romance options. Your NPC mission team will include an Asari, a Krogan, a Turain, two humans and an Angara – a new race you find in the Andromeda system – who are like a Cobra with legs and threatened to kill me a lot in the sweetest of ways while I was playing.

For those of you new to the universe, there is a cultural archive and a journal that will explain the races to you as you play but here is a summary anyway.

Asari are a powerful biotic race, who appear like beautiful blue females but are actually gender neutral/can identify as either.  The Krogan are a warrior race who are almost invincible killing machines, think Klingons going through puberty on really strong steroids that are armed with a shotgun and you might be close. Turians are uptight lizard things that like rules and guns.  You will also encounter Salarains who also hail from the milky way, they are like hyper-active and annoying geniuses.

You will also still be able to explore planetary systems that have hidden resources, which can be found by scanning the area and then launching probes.

One big change is to the dialogue system within the game.  Previous games had a system where you could be a paragon or renegade by pressing certain buttons or partaking in various quick actions that appeared on the screen – where you punch reporters and stuff. Now you just have choices like emotional, logical and build up your personality overtime and less directly.

There are even alien Sudoku puzzles to complete.

The only problem I have encountered so far in the game is a little slow down in loading when changing areas and the system is loading the new area.  My character does a funny little drunk dance in the door way as it loads if it takes too long – and this hasn’t been very often.

Multi-player

Fast party creations, fun and quick with a lot of interesting things to achieve and unlock.  And a lot of new characters to unlock and level and integrates with the main story well.

Multiplayer maps are featured in the game as part of Strike Missions.  This is a system that require online capabilities where you can send out members of a Squad known as APEX on various missions.  These missions are either time or multi-player based.

Here are the starting options for a multi-player game:

You join up with three other players or friends and participate in a co-operative online battle that has a series of waves, like survival, find and destroy, or rescue.  By playing in multiplayer you unlock new characters that you can play as in future games, level the member of APEX you are playing as, as well as earn resources for development in game.

This is just pure outright fire-fighting. Duck, Cover, head-shot style.

There are loads of achievements linked to the multiplayer option that gives you special rewards such as weapon mods, armor, credits for the multiplayer shop where you can buy cards packs for equipment and unlocks.   There are pages and pages of things to unlock in this area.

They are quick and fun missions, the people you are randomly partnered with are usually helpful and polite but it is a big community so you will stumble across a total jerk.

Graphics

The graphics are awesome , they are fantastic and almost made me believe that rocks can float. And I hear if you have a 4k television/monitor these are so good that it is unbelievable.

Here is a cut scene from early on in the game and a few screens of environment’s that are not only beautifully drawn but also fantastic in nature :

The areas on any particular world are vastly different too. You could go from mapping an irradiated desert to exploring a machine driven ruin that extends miles and miles beneath the ground.  Different planets will also host a huge array of different life-form, climate, and foes.

Conclusion

A fantastic story.  Great Characters.  Loads to explore and discover. A fun multiplayer that adds to the main game.  Fantastic graphics.  Awesome battles.  A title I highly recommend.

It is also extremely friendly to new players in the series – as no previous knowledge is needed.

A solid game that I am going off to play again as soon as my eyes stop bleeding or maybe after I finish this sentence…..

The post Is Mass Effect : Andromeda Newbie friendly? A Review to Top the Rest appeared first on Kaidus Games Like.

When a few simple pixel monsters would frustrate you for hours on end until you were finally able to crush them to a pulp?

Have you been wishing for a game that mixes the best of the classics with the best of the newest releases?

Well then it’s time to wonder into the wonderful world of Hyper Light Drifter!

What does Hyper Light Drifter have to offer?

• challenging battle system
• limited power ups, healing, weapons, etc.
• retro graphics beautiful and vibrant
• smooth mechanics
• freedom, player chooses which direction to journey in what order
• almost no directions
• lots of puzzles
• decent replay value

The Best of Hyper Light Drifter

This is the easy part.

Hyper Light Drifter is an addicting, challenging, and gorgeous game to play.

Freedom

One of the best things about this game is the exploration. The world you are in is quite large and even after you go through an area when you go back you will often discover stuff you missed the first time. If you just decide to head in a direction and explore you will also randomly run into new discoveries. You can hack bushes, skeletons, and other stationary objects around the levels. Not to mention that when you start the game you are given a choice of directions to go and you can pick any of them, it’s up to you. Even though you have to solve puzzles in the right order and find items to unlock content overall the game feels very open to exploration and discovery.

Graphics & Audio

Although the graphics are simple don’t let that fool you, it might look like a game from years gone by but there is a vibrancy and smoothness to the graphics and gameplay that feel very much this generation. Along with the bright colors there is also plenty of pixel blood, creepy monsters, and run down robots that add a more mature theme to a game that can look kind of childish at first glance.

The audio track is also simple but adds a good amount of tension and drama to the graphics. Battle sounds are well balanced with the attacks so that you end up feeling immersed into the game.

Battle System

As far as battling goes, expect to die…a lot.

You only get five health bars and with enemies that can damage two of them in one hit that have a habit of spawning in large numbers to attack you, utilizing your dodging abilities along with careful aiming and attacking is a must.

You’ll often find yourself under fire and having to dodge and/or retaliate while solving puzzles or figuring out how to get from one area to another via platforms or jumping.

Different areas in the game have different difficulties to some extent but it is up to you which direction you want to go in from the four paths your given.

Gameplay

Overall, you will be running/dashing around attacking monsters, solving puzzles, and collecting stuff.

• As far as weapons you’ll get a light saber style sword, guns, and bombs that you can upgrade later on.
• Bombs can be used to blow larger sections of the map clear and your sword can reflect bullets back at enemies if you use it just right.
• You can dash as much as you want, even jumping across from platform to platform, or mix it with attacks.

• Below is an example of blocks moving quickly that you have to dodge quickly between as they move and change position while trying to avoid getting crushed.

• You also can’t jump and have to figure out what to do to get around obstacles by activating platforms or figuring out puzzles.

Story

With no dialogue or clear information, have fun figuring out just exactly what is going on.

There seems to be some sort of sickness going around.

Your character starts out by coughing up blood onto the ground which then turns into some sort of black mass monster that then begins to attack you, there are corpses all over as well as run down robots and you’ll learn more about the story as you play but it won’t help you much as the whole thing is up to individual interpretation.

There is a connection between the story in the game and the creators real life experiences that you can look up if the ambiguity in the game is too much for but trying to figure out the story from just what is inside the game offers a fun sense of adventure also.

Beauty in Simplicity

The map in Hyper Light Drifter is pretty basic. If you are looking for lots of details that will let you know exactly what to expect you’re not going to find it here.

The map is pretty much like the whole game.

When you look at it from the surface, it looks simple, but as you get further into it the true detail and beauty of the game starts to shine.

From battling it out in the action combat areas, to shopping in the towns, to exploring the levels for the fun of it, to the detailed pictures through which the story is inferred, Hyper Light Drifter really does feel polished

If we left something out feel free to leave a review or comment!

The post Hyper Light Drifter Review | You’ll Love It! appeared first on Kaidus Games Like.

How will you know if the game your about to play is just another loveless affair doomed to spiral you into some twisted state of boredom?

Reviews are often biased as each person will love or hate a game for different reasons. (It’s why I never trust movie critics)

The system I’m heading towards are called breakdown reviews, a system that of course expose all the good and the bad, yet will hopefully give you a good outline of what it’s like to actually play the game.    I could really use all the help I can get, so if you happen across this Final Fantasy review, please send some critique my way and I’ll do what I can.

Lets get a quick look at what Final Fantasy XV has to offer us.

• Huge Free to explore third person open world.  (bigger world, more travel)
• Third person real time battle system (battles no longer portal you into a battle stage, no longer turn based.)
• Realistic Graphics worthy of 2017
• NPCs will always have something to say that will add to the story.
• Level up your character and equip items to become stronger.
• More to explore and accomplish after the main story is finished.
• A sense of getting stronger and more powerful as you play.
• Epic storyline with flaws
• Lots of mini-games (fishing, racing, customization)
• Customize and drive a car or explore by Chocobo

What other Final Fantasy games should I play first?

The game is based off the Final Fantasy 15 Kingsglaive movie, and a short Anime series called Brotherhood.   While most recommend watching these first, I do not feel it’s essential to enjoy the video game, especially if you like a bit more mystery in the storyline.      Brotherhood will cover the backstory for the four main characters and roughly the first 30 minutes of the game while the Kingsglaive movie will cover more on the Kingdom of Lucis and some mostly unimportant side characters.

I do recommend watching brotherhood first as the four main characters are much less likable without this mini series and the game does not provide background on them. (roughly 70 minutes long, does give away the first 30 minutes of gameplay, personally nothing I got upset about)

As for other games, none.   Almost all the Final Fantasy games have an independent and unique storyline.   If your looking for something similar as far as gameplay in the Final Fantasy series, you might look into the Crystal Chronicles, on the other hand if you want a highly recommended title the majority love, you might try Final fantasy VIII.

Gameplay 

Exploration

The world of Final Fantasy 15 is one of the biggest and potentially most accurate real world scale video games I have played.  (sure the places are much closer together than real life,  then again I would get bored of hour long drives.)

At first you explore the world in an Auto driving car called the Regalia.   The very questionable manual driving controls for this car only allow for slight variation on set roads and paths, so unfortunately we don’t get to go exploring off-road.   The car serves it’s purpose for a quicker automated travel to anywhere in the game.    Later you get to explore on your Chocobo, a fast running bird mount that allows you to explore deeper into the vast world and even assist you in battle.   The Chocobo’s can be upgraded to run fast, fly higher and even be used in some Chocobo racing mini games.

By visiting pubs and restaurants you can get markers added to the map that show the location of items and other treasures.   By eating the food at these places, or with your party members cooking skill you can gain temporary buffs to help you on your journey.    Some sample buffs include extra attack, hp or an experience increase from battling monsters. (While this is a cool idea,  the cost of food is unrealistic, costing way more than your average weapons and potions)

Battle System

While Final Fantasy 15 gave up their traditional turn based battle system for a third person style, I really feel they were just not entirely committed to doing so.  They incorporated an optional “Wait mode” that basically freezes the game time when you stand still.   This allows you to scan your enemy for weakness, find warp points and scope out the battle arena. (this mode is optional,  I used the Active time mode that uses real time and makes the game more challenging)

By holding down Square you will dodge everything as long as your not performing an attack and have MP to spare.   Other methods of dodging including Warping (direction + Triangle on ps4) in any direction or to a warp point on the map. (Screenshot below shows point warping to dodge in battle)

Weapons include a variety of Royal Arms, Swords, Greatswords, Daggers, Polearms, Firearms, Shields and the Armiger weapons of past kings.   These weapons can be swapped during battle to try and expose your foes weakness as each weapon affects monsters differently.   The game can be paused during battle and gives full control to changing these weapons.

Items can be used during battle and in my opinion make the battle system feel incomplete.   When the item menu pulled up (R2) the game is paused which really breaks the illusion of the real time battle system.    Even if your entire party is wiped out (Including you), as long as you have a revive you can continue the fight. (Yes, you can even revive when dead…)   Consumables have become a vital part to succeeding in the game, and make you invincible if you have enough.

The Ascension Tree includes many upgrades for your character and party that make the combat more complex and rewarding later in the game.   These Ascension abilities apply and improve on every aspect of the game from trade skills to exploration and combat.

Your party members follow you around everywhere you go and are useful in battle.  They can perform teamwork attacks by pressing L1 that sorta feel like a cut-scene and of course make you invincible while you use them.   There are a variety of teamwork upgrades and attacks learnable through the Ascension Tree.

Graphics

Final Fantasy is what I would consider cut scene quality gameplay.    The world is really huge, so naturally not everything looks perfect, however it’s easily one of the best games I’ve seen on the PS4.

The atmosphere starts out in a dessert scene, however as you travel you will see more fulfilling fantasy elements such as giant rock formation and snow capped mountains.

What is crazy is how much room for improvement still exists in Final Fantasy.     Take a look at this shot from the Final Fantasy Kingsglaive movie compared to final fantasy 15’s graphics.  Even the best will always have room for improvement, and I for one can’t wait to see what the PS5 has in store for us.

Story

Spoiler free version

The first half of the story is told very loose where you have lots of freedom to do side-quests and hunts.   While some of the side quests are fun, the whole group feels very pressed for time, and somehow I can’t see them taking a pitstop to get some rare custom wax for their ride.   These sidequests really break the atmosphere of this crucial moment in the storyline.  Continuity issues aside, the characters are always talking to each-other and give you plenty of backstory which in my opinion helped me get hyped for what will come.

Later the storyline switches to a more linear version of storytelling that I would compare to the God of War games with lots of cutscenes and a really dramatic sequence of events.

I will be roughly and vaguely explaining the first 30 minutes of the storyline.

*Warning Spoilers*

The story begins with prince Noctis setting out to marry Luna as a marriage treaty to secure peace between the garrison state of Niflheim.   Noctis is more or less a whiny arrogant brat who comes off as moody and entitled, yet is spoiled further with three very loyal friends.(In reality he has begun to crack under pressure)    They make way to the harbor where they plan on setting sale to Niflheim when they encounter a stranger who tells them there are no boats, throws them a coin and quickly vanishes.   Noctis and his group are further delayed by being forced on a side quest while their kingdom falls overnight to Niflheim.   The four irrationally rush back with hopes of saving their seized Kingdom.

The post Final Fantasy XV Breakdown Review – Before You Play Gameplay Overview appeared first on Kaidus Games Like.

A Terrifying New World: Journey to a horror-filled gothic city where deranged mobs and nightmarish creatures lurk around every corner.

Strategic Action Combat: Armed with a unique arsenal of weaponry, including guns and saw cleavers, you’ll need wits, strategy and reflexes to take down the agile and intelligent enemies that guard the city’s dark secrets.

A New Generation of Action RPG: Stunningly detailed gothic environments, atmospheric lighting, and advanced new online experiences showcase the power and prowess of the PlayStation(R)4 system.

An action adventure RPG game which will again take a lot of your hours to beat. Bloodborne boasts immersive graphics and superbly made characters, paired with great audio and voice acting. bloodborne is on RPG game you shouldn’t miss playing. The world it has would literally eat hours of your time to explore. Tons of monsters to fight, and what’s really good about this game is you can ask other players of the game to help you out on hard parts of the game.

The post Bloodborne Trailer and Review appeared first on Kaidus Games Like.

Here at Kaidus we don’t care if Kingdom Hearts was once one of these games, we will simply embrace the good or bad in everything, and Kingdom Hearts has much to offer.

Lets get a quick breakdown of what you can expect playing Kingdom Hearts.

• Free to explore third person open world. (on par with Zelda)
• Challenging and creative boss fights. (quite challenging on hard mode)
• Rehash along side popular Disney stories and characters
• NPCs will always have something to say that will add to the story.
• Level up your character and equip items to become stronger.
• More to explore and accomplish after the main story is finished. (as well as a secret ending)
• Very challenging optional final boss
• A sense of getting stronger and more powerful as you play.
• Third person real time battle system with magical attacks and summoning
• Customize and create your own Gummy ship and use it to fly to different worlds.(much like legos)

Battle System

The battle system uses a 3rd person beat-em-up style where you move freely about the game.  Battles happen real time and do not portal you to a separate battle arena during fights.   The system is similar to the Zelda games. There are regular keyblade attacks, magic attacks, summoning spells, usable items and somewhat traditional Drive/Limit mode that powers up during fights and allows you to unleash powerful combos.

The game forces you to make your attacks count and can be very unforgiving of mistakes on hard mode.   By having a limited amount of moves  set to quick key commands,  you may develop a unique battle style that differs from player to player.  There really is a vast amount of attacks and spells to customize your character with, yet not so many where you are flooded with too many commands.

You can equip items in the game to help adjust to your fighting style. (For instance you can sacrifice your HP to deal more damage)

Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and 2.8 use the more traditional style battle system as described above,  however the others introduce a command deck style.    While essentially they are all very similar, the command deck system allows attacks to level up by gaining command points from defeating enemies in battle.

Recommended Order to play

I also recommend playing these games in this order, however I feel you can mostly get away with plaing only Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and birth by sleep.   There are two HD Remixes that will allow you to get  the first 6 of these games.    (358/2 and recoded are movie only games)

(If you buy the two remix version you can get away with only buying 4 of these games) (links at the bottom of page for more information on each game)

• Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 ReMIX (PS3)
  • Kingdom Hearts (ps2)
  • Kingdom Hearts:  Chain of Memories(GBA)
  • Kingdom Hearts:  358/2 Days(DS)   (play this game after you play Kingdom hearts II)
• Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX (PS3)
  • Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
  • Kingdom Hearts:  Birth By Sleep (PSP)
  • Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (DS)
• Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (3DS)
• Kingdom Hearts 2.8 (PS4)

Storyline.

I prefer doing so without giving away many spoilers, so I’ll keep this vague.

The root storyline of Kingdom hearts is a constant struggle between good and evil.  What makes the story more fun is all the bonds and friendship the main character Sora makes on his Journey and perhaps type of story where we have to ask ourselves to what end would we go for the ones we love.

Each game also covers different Disney worlds and usually drops your character in the middle of their classic tales.  (Aladdin, little mermaid, mulan..ect)

Vague yes?

Graphics

The graphics for Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 would be considered some of the best graphics for the time when they were originally released back in 2002.     Since the release of the HD remix versions, the quality of these core games have increased drastically in resolution.    The side by side comparison below really shows the age of the original Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 vs HD Remix screenshot

Kingdom Hearts Chain of memories 2D GBA version and 3D PS2 or PS3 versions

Chain of memories was released for the Gameboy Advance that utilizes depth of field for a convincing 3D effect. (At least it used to be convincing)   This game probably has the worst graphics out of the series.    Later this game was re-released in full 3D for the ps2 and is title “Re: chain of memories”

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

In the latest kingdom hearts release we can see some major improvements to the visual quality of this game,   however by no means perfect.    I feel most will be more than satisfied with the improvements as we near the release of Kingdom hearts 3

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