Significantly Reduced Time Plat Path (60-80hr)

[RocketPunches]

Okay, so, I know the guide for this game was originally created for PS3, but the time suggestions seem a bit off. I only need to do Sephiroth, Ice Titan, the speed and Proud Playthrough, and I'm under 40hrs while not optimizing my approach to stuff like synthesis items at all. I'm certainly nowhere close to the game ticking over 100hrs as the guide suggests. So I thought I'd offer a restructured approach to running through the game. The PS3 guide has a daunting 130hr time attached that includes waiting for the clock to tick over, which does not seem necessary at all. Keep in mind that this is a revision of that guide's main path, the rest of the guide's info is still relevant.

 

Playthrough 1 ~40hrs

You should be aiming for the Undefeated and Unchanging Armor trophies on this playthrough. That's your main goal, but the approach you take at the start of the game should be the same as it would be on Proud, because it makes you tankier. The only difference is that I'm going to suggest you choose the options in the conversation at the start of the game that begins your game at mid day, to slightly lower the overall XP required to get to Lvl 100. Take the shield, ditch the Staff. In general, when you get stat up items that aren't AP Up give them to Sora, save AP Up for the grindy stuff later. Goofy and Donald suck on your Unchanging Armor playthrough, as most of their survivability comes from their equipment. Only heal them if you need them to tank some hits, swap in stronger and more survivable world party members for Donald, because he dies all the time. Never give them items, they only waste them on themselves, rely only on yourself. Your goal is to obtain Cura, and then stay on pace level wise with the game using Cura to tank your way through all of the damage. Prioritize any combat MP Abilities, run the solo Phil cup for the combo plus as early as possible because that extra hit is huge.

 

Your first goal is to clear Wonderland, the first stop at the Coliseum, and Deep Jungle semi-efficiently. You don't need to rush, but if you've played the game before you may want to skip the cutscenes to save time and make your life easier later. Get a save around the time you can head to Agrabah for the first time and make sure you remember which slot it's in. From here on out, do whatever the hell you want. My suggestion would be to clear all the worlds, except the Coliseum, locking the keyholes. You should never get close to seeing the death screen, and if you read the main trophy guide attached to the game you should be good to go. Push through to the Final Rest save point in the End of the World. (Skipping the chests in the first area will save you some fights, but aside from wiping Donald and Goofy every time they aren't that bad.) The second time through Hollow Bastion and The End of the World are a bit of a slog, but they're easily doable as long as you've been stat stacking Sora's stats with the stat items you're given throughout the game. Bring Elixers to the Riku form Ansem fight in Hollow Bastion. You don't absolutely need them, but he gets annoying and spammy at the end and they're a nice safety net.

 

If you make it to Final Rest and you aren't lvl 50, I suggest going and synthesizing 15 items with the moogles, getting you Encounter Plus, and grinding in the Gizmo building under the bell in Traverse Town until you get near lvl 50. Just walk in and out through the doors, the enemies will reset immediately and give about 4k a trip, netting you those middle levels in no time. When you're at the level you need to be, go back, do the final fight. You should be able to just smack away, tanking most of the damage and healing through it. The fights are really just long, not hard. The bosses don't do enough damage for you to not be able to figure out their pattern and get easier as they progress. Finish the game, enjoy your three trophy credits, follow the main guide for the rest of the stuff. The only thing I would suggest is not continuing with crafting past the 15 items and Encounter Plus. Instead, immediately get Oblivion, equip it and better items on Goofy and Donald, and immediately go grind to around level 90, at least, in the Gizmo building. This will trivialize stuff that could be annoying in the guide, and make it much faster to farm synthesis items because of the extra abilities and strength you'll have.

 

Suggested order of ops in the grindy stuff. Lvl 90 grind, not that bad > Phantom > Kurt > Coliseum (Everything but Sephiroth and Ice Titan) > Everything Else > Ice Titan > Sephiroth

 

Playthrough 1.5 ~10hrs

Reload the save before Agrabah. Critical Path everything with the exception of going back for Oblivion. Stack stat items on Sora again. Skip every cutscene, never go to Atlantis, do only what you need to to get to Neverland, then critical path beyond that. This should be easy as pie with good equipment. I finished my Unchanging Armor playthrough having never seen a death screen in 18hrs, watching every scene and reading all the bubbles along the way. as well as letting the clock tick for a bit here and there and doing a bunch of exploration. Two fewer worlds, less messing around, and better equipment should get you through with time to spare. Load your saves instead of hitting continue. If you need levels, remember that the Gizmo building should be able to boost you up very quickly even without Encounter Plus, but you shouldn't need to do it at all.

 

Playthrough 2 ~25hrs

You should have done everything but Proud by this point, so skip your scenes, beat the game, enjoy the secret scene at the end. I can't imagine you'll need max level for this, but it shouldn't take you longer than 25hrs to get there with Encounter Plus and the Gizmo building mobs. Really, 20hrs is a far more reasonable number considering you don't need to do more than the critical path to the end of the game here either. Do what you want though.

 

Congrats, your total time should tick in somewhere around the 75hr mark. A full 55hrs faster than the guide suggests is necessary.

Edited January 7, 2019 by JMan_240

[Darth_Krid]

Nice guide and this is probably the most efficient path.

 

However, what I will say is that the PS3 version doesn't have stacking difficulty trophies, so it's 3 playthroughs. That's probably another 10-15 hours for that version on Final Mix difficulty and what the guide reflects as there isn't a PS4 version or note.

[sephiroth4424]

I don't really get if you are talking about the ps3 or ps4 version.The 130 hours guide was for ps3.

 

If you are talking about the ps4 version, 60-80 hours are way too much.It's doable in 40-45 hours without rushing.Two full playthroughs, one in easy mode and one speedrun in proud.

For easy mode you go for unchanging armor and undefeated (and possibly doing it in less than 15 hours).After that you do all the other trophies since nothing is missable.This step is 30-35 hours depending your luck.I was farming 2-3 hours the magicians for Donald's weapon.

Then one speedrun in proud mode.This will take around 10 hours, even including some leveling and by playing casually.

The importance in both playtrhoughs is to get Second Chance and Leaf Bracer as soon as possible (i don't remember the route/choice of weapons)

 

If you are talking about the ps3 version, 130 hours are maybe too much.But in ps3 you had to invent a lot of time in the Gummi Missions.The problem wasn't the difficulty trophies that didn't stack.

You had to understand that mini-game, make different models for different missions, farm those blueprints by destroying ships.So 80-100 hours for ps3 are reasonable,even more

[ShianKiri]

The PS3 guide with the 130 Hour attach rate is pretty accurate in my opinion. Keep in mind that a lot of it does involve familiarity of the game and how good you are. Also, because the PS4 version doesn't require you to do the Gummi Ship Missions, that time is significantly reduced. The most painful farm is actually for Mage Staff and Defender which can change how long it takes.

 

Basically, the Gummi Ship Missions can easily add an additional 10-15 hours if you're really bad at it. 
Mage Staff and Defender can either be a non-issue for people or it can take another 10-100+ hours if you're truly unlucky. My first time through the PS3 version, I was Level 50 and hit Level 90 or so on the most inefficient leveling reset path possible. It took nearly 30 hours for me to finally see a Mage Staff drop and that's just for Mage staff. It took me an additional 10-15 hours to finally see Defenders running through the hallway. By the time I finally got those 2 items, if the exp kept going, I'm certain that I've grinded the exp equivalent of level 180+ if you calculate for exp curves past the cap. 

 

But all in all, yes, Kingdom Hearts is a very short game. You can definitely plat it in less than 40 hours. Due to differing factors, it definitely can make that playtime variable.

[Taliesin_2943]

Am I missing something cause y'all saying gummi stuff isn't required in PS4 and the hardest grind is for weapon drops off enemies. 

 

When I played the hardest grinds where from final mix only enemies that had like a 1% spawn rate and a seemingly lower drop rate for "common" stuff only from them

 

And gummi ship stuff is still listed on PS4 stuff do how's it not required?

 

I'm confused

[sephiroth4424]

22 minutes ago, Taliesin_2943 said:

Am I missing something cause y'all saying gummi stuff isn't required in PS4 and the hardest grind is for weapon drops off enemies. 

 

When I played the hardest grinds where from final mix only enemies that had like a 1% spawn rate and a seemingly lower drop rate for "common" stuff only from them

 

And gummi ship stuff is still listed on PS4 stuff do how's it not required?

 

I'm confused

You don't need all blueprints, just 30 of them (i think it was 30).This means you don't have to bother with all level 3 missions.You may be able to pull it off in ps4

[Han_the_Dragon]

10 minutes ago, sephiroth4424 said:

You don't need all blueprints, just 30 of them (i think it was 30).This means you don't have to bother with all level 3 missions.You may be able to pull it off in ps4

Just checked and that's true... 

 

Talk about dumb down the requirements a lot... 

 

Until now, I though that the only difference was the difficulty trophies being stacked.. 

[p45544554]

Here is my time for PS3 version. So, its not 130h even if you taking your time, like i did. I steel need a 3th playthrough for Unchanging Armor on beginner. Everyone who suggest you should do speedrun, no continuous, or no changing equipment on your 1st playthrough on Proud is a madman (at least its true for PS3 version).

 

Spoiler

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by p45544554

[KHDelBoy]

Since the difficulty trophies DO NOT stack on the PS3, I would suggest:

 

Unchanged Armour, Beat Game Under 15 hrs and No Continues Trophy on Easy. (Use MID-DAY LEVEL UP)

 

Then do it again on Normal difficulty. (USE MID-DAY LEVEL UP)

Then DO EVERYTHING on Proud difficulty. (USE DUSK LEVEL UP. YOU START LEVEL UP SLOWLY BUT YOU WILL LEVEL UP FASTER LATER ON.) Ultima Keyblade will make Sephiroth or any secret bosses very easy, with the right magic and items.

 

I did that for the PS4 version except that I did the Proud Mode first. Finished it at 55hours, So I went back and got the final three trophies on Easy difficulty, and pumped in all bonus AP/Def/Str up on Sora once I can access to the pause menus and finished it under 8 hours.

 

I always pick the shield first, discard the sword for all playthroughs. Magic will be very helpful as you will use tinkerbell summon, curaga and aeroaga a lot on proud mode.

 

I'm planning to play this game again on the PS3 and the only grind I see is the collecting all ship blueprints. It was just 30 on the PS4 and that was very easy compared to this, as you need to FINISH all level 3 Gummi Ship Missions and they are very frustrating as hell especially the Hollow Bastion/End of the World ones.

 

However if you are planning to follow the story, go for PROUD mode first, then on other run-throughs, you can skip cut scenes which will obviously shave off a lot of time for the under 15 hours run. Pausing outside battles do not freeze the timer. So if you decide to have a smoke break or something, do it at a save point then quit the game.

Edited March 17, 2019 by KHDelBoy

[Saionji]

I m on my last playthrough on Proud mode having done every other trophy and my time spent with the game is around 90h, I think it will take me around 100h total and I did wasted time exploring too so I think it could take 130h as the guide mentions if someone is incredibly unlucky with item drops other than this I think it can definitely be platted faster.