Final Mix Changes

[ExHaseo]

I thought I'd list out some of the bigger changes from Kingdom Hearts II to Final Mix, just in case people wanted to know. There were also various gameplay tweaks and palette changes, but I won't be listing those.
 
1) Puzzles - You can collect puzzle pieces, shaped like crowns, throughout the worlds. When you complete a puzzle, you get a prize. Here's the prizes, if you want to know:

Awakening - AP Boost
Heart - Serenity Crystal
Duality - Rare Document (Recipe used to make Lucky Rings)
Frontier - Manifest Illusion (New material used for synthesis)
Daylight - Executive's Ring (Acc boosting AP by 30)
Sunset - Grand Ribbon (Armor with 4 defense and a 25% boost to all all elemental resistances)

 

2) Limit Form - A new form that features moves from the original game. You get 1 exp for every limit you use to the end. Upgrading this form gets you Dodge Roll, Draw, and Lucky Lucky. Because of this, you no longer learn Lucky Lucky by leveling up.

 

3) New Difficulty Mode - They added Critical mode, a mode that's even more difficult than Proud. Here's more detailed info about Critical mode.

Enemies do twice the damage they do on Standard and Proud.

You start out with 50 AP

Once you get to the third day as Roxas, you get Draw, Reaction Boost, Finishing Plus, MP Hastera, 2 Lucky Lucky, and No Experience.

When AP increases on level up, it goes up by 3, instead of 2.

When you get Maximum HP/MP bonuses from beating bosses and what-not, the amount you gain is half that of Standard and Proud. Example, You normally gain 140 HP, but in Critical, you only gain 70 HP. 

Enemies only give 75% experience of what they normally give.

 

4) New Cutscenes - Various new cutscenes. In the original Final Mix, they weren't voiced, but lucky for us, they voiced them for 2.5.

 

5) New Bosses - There's a ton of new bosses. A secret boss, Lingering Will, which is available after you've beaten the game. Fights from all of the Organization members from Chain of Memories. They even made the Roxas fight playable now, instead of just being a cutscene.

 

6) New Dungeon - There's a new dungeon, called the Cave of Remembrance. To complete the dungeon, you have to re-fight all XIII Organization members again, except this time, they're more difficult.

 

7)Organization XIII Mushrooms - There's now special mini-game Mushrooms, similar to the Mushrooms in the first game. There's one for each of the XIII Organization members.

 

8) New Items - There's new accessories, keyblades, and armor. Most of them are gotten through synthesis using items obtained for defeating the CoM Organization members, or items obtained from the Org XIII Mushrooms. Here are the new keyblades, how to get them, and what they do.

Two Become One - Obtained after defeating Roxas at the Memory Skyscraper. With this keyblade equipped, you have a 50/50 chance to turn into either Anti-Form or Final Form. It's incredibly useful for getting Final Form quickly.

Winner's Proof - Obtained after completing all of the Organization XIII Mushroom mini-games. It has the highest Magic stat of any keyblade, but you don't get any experience while using it.

 

9) New secret movie - Now that BBS is out (and included on the same disc), this isn't quite as exciting as it once was, but it's still cool.

 

10) Lucky Lucky/Lucky Ring - This skill functions a bit differently than it did before. Put simply, it boosts the drop rate by a little more, but you don't learn the skill. Sweet Memories also no longer has it as an ability anymore. However, you can now make Lucky Ring's through synthesis, instead of just getting the one. Which ultimately makes item grinding way easier than it was before. It's also worth mentioning that while in Limit form, you have an extra Lucky Lucky skill. So, using Limit form when grinding for rare materials makes it a little easier.

 

11) Drive Gauge - The drive gauge now charges a lot faster. You also are able to get up to 9 drive gauges now, instead of just the 7 in the original. Here's how you unlock them.

Beat the game

Defeat Marluxia's Absent Silhouette

Defeat Lingering Will

 

12) Crown - Sora now gets a Bronze, Silver, and Gold Crown on his head after completing certain objectives. They can be done in any order, and you'll always get Bronze, Silver, and then Gold. This is what you have to do.

Beat all of the Org XIII Mushrooms

Beat all of the Org XIII Data fights in the Cave of Remembrance

Beat Lingering Will

 

There we go. There were quite a few more changes, primarily ones that make the game easier, but these are the most important ones.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Rawrgna

[Wdjat Prinny Doods]

Appreciate the info on the new content dood, looking forward to experiencing the new content especially the new bosses!

Edited December 3, 2014 by Wdjat Prinny Doods

[Beyondthegrave07]

I was wondering what the key differences were going to be.

Thanks for the info!

[Dragon-Archon]

Nice, thnx for the heads up.

[Chaosweaverkira-]

Cant wait to play this game on Friday

[MarcusTheShadow]

Yeah thanks for the infos.Didn't know about crowns or the items.

[ExHaseo]

No problem everyone, just happy I could help.

 

Just added more detailed info about Critical mode. It caught me off guard how different it was, so I looked up exactly what changed. Definitely going to be a challenge for those who go for the plat in a single playthrough.

[Ryumoau]

Thank you so much for this list. Seems like they added quite alot of news things, making the collection even more tempting to get.

[xKrAzY_8sx]

This was really cool info! Now if only someone would do the same for Birth by Sleep Final Mix. 

[PSNP is crap i left]

Haha, that's really awesome! Thanks for the info dude. Can't wait to start playing this game tomorrow! 

[DXBuster]

Nice job! I'm really enjoying this game, trying for platinum in 1 playthrough and I think I'm doing pretty good. Already beat the game, beat Sephiroth, and Lingering Will.... Oh my Jesús was Lingering Will hard.... Took me almost an hour and I died like 25 tries.