Recommendations on playthroughs

[MosesRockefeller]

I apologize if this has been addressed already, but I didn't see it in the other threads here. 

 

I did a Normal playthrough of KH1 for the first time on the PS4 version. Partway through that playthrough, I read here that the difficulty trophies stack. I didn't want to lose my progress, so I kept at my Normal run. I didn't want to make things unnecessarily difficult for my first playthrough of the game, so I changed equipment. I did however get the trophy for No Continues, and completing the game under 15 hours. I actually got the 15-hour trophy naturally, because of backtracking to get all Trinities and Dalmations and completing the Hades Cup (combined with frequent pausing of the game during dinner time and such, when the clock continues to count), I hit 100 hours right before warping back to the Final Rest savepoint to finish the story, and I was only level 61, so I didn't excessively grind levels before resetting the timer. I should note that I'm slow at JPRGs (and other games) anyway, so trophy guide time estimates are usually way lower than what I end up with. ?

 

My question is this. Should I try to get the trophy for not changing equipment on Proud mode, or is that too rough for a newbie like me? Since I already got the trophy for Beginner difficulty, I'm wondering if it's reasonably possible to skip a Beginner playthrough. If it matters, I'm planning on completing the Journal and getting the synthesis and gummi ship trophies with my current Normal save. Oh, and I'll grind to level 100 there also, as well as get all the Keyblades, Shields, and Staves. So I think all I'll have left to do is the Proud and Beginning Equipment trophies. 

Edited May 16, 2017 by MosesRockefeller

[Devil_Spooky]

12 minutes ago, MosesRockefeller said:

I apologize if this has been addressed already, but I didn't see it in the other threads here. 

 

I did a Normal playthrough of KH1 for the first time on the PS4 version. Partway through that playthrough, I read here that the difficulty trophies stack. I didn't want to lose my progress, so I kept at my Normal run. I didn't want to make things unnecessarily difficult for my first playthrough of the game, so I changed equipment. I did however get the trophy for No Continues, and completing the game under 15 hours. I actually got the 15-hour trophy naturally, because of backtracking to get all Trinities and Dalmations and completing the Hades Cup (combined with frequent pausing of the game during dinner time and such, when the clock continues to count), I hit 100 hours right before warping back to the Final Rest savepoint to finish the story, and I was only level 61, so I didn't excessively grind levels before resetting the timer. I should note that I'm slow at JPRGs (and other games) anyway, so trophy guide time estimates are usually way lower than what I end up with. 

 

My question is this. Should I try to get the trophy for not changing equipment on Proud mode, or is that too rough for a newbie like me? Since I already got the trophy for Beginner difficulty, I'm wondering if it's reasonably possible to skip a Beginner playthrough. If it matters, I'm planning on completing the Journal and getting the synthesis and gummi ship trophies with my current Normal save. Oh, and I'll grind to level 100 there also, as well as get all the Keyblades, Shields, and Staves. So I think all I'll have left to do is the Proud and Beginning Equipment trophies. 

 

It's doable on Proud, but should be more trouble then it's worth for a newbie, I would go for it on beginner, chose sword and drop staff and leave at dawn for faster level up until level 40, skip Atlantica, Olympus and 100 Acre and skip every random battle you come across and you should be done with the game in 5 hours or so, you might have some trouble with the last boss but if so just grind a couple of levels and try again.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Devil_Spooky

[ravspect]

It's best to dedicate a run on beginner to unchanging armor. By the end of the game, you're usually doing chip damage to bosses with the default equipment, something you won't want to deal with on harder difficulties. Besides, Beginner mode gives you rare armor, already on Sora, making it that much easier. If you just run through the game quickly,like this, it should only take you a few hours.

 

[Aexuz]

Before You keep working on collectibles and Synthesis I highly recommend starting a new playthough on Beginner. Beating the game on Proud mode without changing equipment would be a hell of a challenge even for veteran KH players I think. You will need to beat the secret bosses for the journal entries anyway and farm some hard enemies for the synthesis. 

 

 

[MosesRockefeller]

26 minutes ago, Devil_Spooky said:

It's doable on Proud, but should be more trouble then it's worth for a newbie, I would go for it on beginner, chose sword and drop staff and leave at dawn for faster level up until level 40, skip Atlantica, Olympus and 100 Acre and skip every random battle you come across and you should be done with the game in 5 hours or so, you might have some trouble with the last boss but if so just grind a couple of levels and try again.

So 5 hours for a typical gamer = 10+ hours for me.  

I am glad that Atlantica is skippable and Olympus are skippable, I liked all the areas but Atlantica is probably the one I'd least want to replay. 

 

Anyway, thanks for the tips everyone. I think I read that Donald and Goofy are less useful in Proud mode, and I definitely take advantage of Donald's healing on Normal. They were useless early on, but at some point (level 40 maybe), they suddenly became really helpful on Normal, especially with the ability that revives them quickly. I never bother healing them, I'm a bad leader/friend.

 

23 minutes ago, Aexuz said:

Before You keep working on collectibles and Synthesis I highly recommend starting a new playthough on Beginner. Beating the game on Proud mode without changing equipment would be a hell of a challenge even for veteran KH players I think. You will need to beat the secret bosses for the journal entries anyway and farm some hard enemies for the synthesis. 

I want to make sure I understand you about the Beginner playthrough. I already have all the collectibles EXCEPT the Synthesis materials (and the weapons), and I've done 2 of the secret bosses (all except Unknown) on Normal. I only need to do the Gold and Platinum cups (plus fight the missing Heartless, which is 4 or 5 now) to finish the journal. If you're suggesting that I finish the journal on Beginner, the chances of that are pretty low. I definitely don't want to hunt down all the Trinities and Dalmations again. I think those cups should be doable as I get closer to level 100. 

 

Others are suggesting the Beginner playthrough for the Unchanging Armor trophy, which is ALL I was planning on doing in Beginner. 

Edited May 16, 2017 by MosesRockefeller

[Dragon-Archon]

9 minutes ago, MosesRockefeller said:

Anyway, thanks for the tips everyone. I think I read that Donald and Goofy are less useful in Proud mode, and I definitely take advantage of Donald's healing on Normal. They were useless early on, but at some point (level 40 maybe), they suddenly became really helpful on Normal, especially with the ability that revives them quickly. I never bother healing them, I'm a bad leader/friend.

They're almost completely useless on Proud. If you want to make the Chernabog fight a lot easier on Proud, land at the top of the volcano at the start of the fight and summon Tinkerbell.

[Aexuz]

1 minute ago, MosesRockefeller said:

So 5 hours for me = 20 hours or so.

 

Anyway, thanks for the tips everyone. I think I read that Donald and Goofy are less useful in Proud mode, and I definitely take advantage of Donald's healing on Normal. They were useless early on, but at some point (level 40 maybe), they suddenly became really helpful on Normal, especially with the ability that revives them quickly. I never bother healing them, I'm a bad leader/friend.

 

I want to make sure I understand you about the Beginner playthrough. I already have all the collectibles EXCEPT the Synthesis materials (and the weapons), and I've done 2 of the secret bosses (all except Unknown) on Normal. I only need to do the Gold and Platinum cups (plus fight the missing Heartless, which is 4 or 5 now) to finish the journal. If you're suggesting that I finish the journal on Beginner, the chances of that are pretty low. I definitely don't want to hunt down all the Trinities and Dalmations again. I think those cups should be doable as I get closer to level 100. 

 

Others are suggesting the Beginner playthrough for the Unchanging Armor trophy, which is ALL I was planning on doing in Beginner. 

 

If you feel confortable in normal mode it is fine doing everything in that difficulty. I was suggesiting it because I thought you haven't done much with the collectibles so far. For the Synthesis you will need to farm materials for 20+ hours and some of the  enemies that drops these items are kind of hard to defeat.

[MosesRockefeller]

1 hour ago, Dragon-Archon said:

They're almost completely useless on Proud. If you want to make the Chernabog fight a lot easier on Proud, land at the top of the volcano at the start of the fight and summon Tinkerbell.

Good tip. I tried to do that in the Phantom fight (landing in the walkway area where there was a savepoint and chest I think), but it didn't let me summon. That fight was my most annoying so far, since I couldn't just wail on him with melee attacks. I went through almost my entire equipped set of elixers to keep my MP up. 

 

1 hour ago, Aexuz said:

If you feel confortable in normal mode it is fine doing everything in that difficulty. I was suggesiting it because I thought you haven't done much with the collectibles so far. For the Synthesis you will need to farm materials for 20+ hours and some of the  enemies that drops these items are kind of hard to defeat.

I haven't found all the "new" Final Mix Heartless yet, but so far I haven't had too much trouble. The Sniper Wilds and Neoshadows were probably the toughest since they keep spawning additional enemies. I need to compare my items to the synthesis list and see how much stuff I still need, but at this point I think it's doable on Normal. 

[Dragon-Archon]

3 hours ago, MosesRockefeller said:

Good tip. I tried to do that in the Phantom fight (landing in the walkway area where there was a savepoint and chest I think), but it didn't let me summon. That fight was my most annoying so far, since I couldn't just wail on him with melee attacks. I went through almost my entire equipped set of elixers to keep my MP up. 

You can't summon unless you have both Goofy and Donald in the party and both must be alive.

[Devil_Spooky]

5 hours ago, MosesRockefeller said:

So 5 hours for a typical gamer = 10+ hours for me.

I am glad that Atlantica is skippable and Olympus are skippable, I liked all the areas but Atlantica is probably the one I'd least want to replay.

 

Not really, since if you skip everything you'll only be fighting bosses and little else, not much things to waste time on, you might have to grind a bit at the end but 1 hour should be enough.

 

Oh and just so you know you can skip one out of Atlantica/Monstro/Halloween, Atlantica is the one everyone skips because it's longer, has more backtracking, you're forced to fight mobs and has the hardest boss fight of the 3.

[MosesRockefeller]

3 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

You can't summon unless you have both Goofy and Donald in the party and both must be alive.

Ah, that was the problem, the Phantom fight requires you to have Peter Pan in the party. Both companions were alive (and I knew about that requirement), but I had to swap out one of them for Peter Pan in order to talk to Tinker Bell and start the fight. Oh well, I'll never fight Phantom again, so it's in the past now.

 

2 hours ago, Devil_Spooky said:

Oh and just so you know you can skip one out of Atlantica/Monstro/Halloween, Atlantica is the one everyone skips because it's longer, has more backtracking, you're forced to fight mobs and has the hardest boss fight of the 3.

And to add to that, the best reason of all to skip it... Atlantica has the worst navigation. I enjoyed all of the areas but I definitely got sick of swimming around. 

[x410xDragon]

It really depends on your preference and how you want to go about it. As others have stated, it is a challenge to go about the game on Proud Mode without changing your equipment from start to finish.

 

So, what I would recommend is to go ahead and play through on Proud Mode and get that over with. You can easily get the Speedster trophy on your Proud run, if you skip the scenes, since scenes take up time on the game's overall clock. During the beginning, I suggest you pick the shield and sacrifice the sword as you will have a more AP points and magic overall and +4 across everything else (ATK, DEF, etc.). You will also learn Once More and Second Chance at a faster pace than you would normally to. Lastly, in terms of level progression you will want to pick the first set of option(s) as you are prompted by your friends. If your journey begins at Dawn, then that is where you want to be for Proud Mode. Skip Atlantica..blah, blah, you already know. Once you beat Proud mode, just play through the game again on Beginner and obtain your platinum while on that difficulty. 

 

For Beginner, do the same thing as Proud, but what you choose in the beginning is up to you (ie. Sword, Shield, Staff). and as for level progression, pick dusk which is 3,3,3. Doing so takes 100,000 EXP off of what you would normally need if you chose dawn or sunrise. 

 

[sephiroth4424]

For anyone who will try to get Unchanging Armor,Undefeated and Speedster on the same playthrough (Beginner obviously), i recommend choosing Dawn and picking the Shield. I chose Dusk in order to reach 100 level faster (for the trophy) and i dropped Shield like an idiot (i picked sword).The Final boss was hell with this settings at level 47 and i didn't have Leaf Bracer