Kingdom Hearts — Constantly in Motion
Kingdom Heart’s fight choreography has seen some changes throughout the years. Unlike games where stylish combos are at the heart of the experience(see Bayonetta or Devil May Cry), Kingdom Hearts has a little bit less clear relationship with its own combos, and the style changes throughout the series. This results in some interesting movement dynamics as the core systems remain mostly untouched, but there are usually major additions for each title.
In the first Kingdom Hearts, combat seemed very fluid compared to most titles at the time, but by modern standards it was still a bit clunky (you can see an example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5HADV0hJM4&t=3m35s). While the game offered some interesting combo chains, they didn’t have the same flourishes as the chains in later titles. The abilities that can be chained into combos have evolved over time — for example, Sliding Dash was available as early as Kingdom Hearts Final Mix.
Of note is how prevalent the parrying effect is for more difficult enemies in the game — the shield enemies in particular were difficult to handle, as dodging generally wasn’t required for most enemies in the game. Blocking is also incredibly difficult to pull off, and typically isn’t required. Instead, counterattacking and dodging is usually the way to go. Most of the battles in the game are fairly straightforward, and the only real challenging battles come in the battle arena — specifically the Sephiroth battle, which is has a huge jump in difficulty, albeit mostly being about healing between his attacks, utilizing invincibility frames and otherwise dodging. Here, the fight seems very tightly choreographed and restrictive — the main motions required of the player are proper placement in the tight square arena. Of the other optional bosses, the only real glimpse of what’s to come is interestingly the fight with the Unknown in the HD Remix, who is later revealed to be Kingdom Hearts 2 final boss, Xemnas.
By Kingdom Hearts 2, the fluidity had already been drastically improved, with the addition of drive forms.
In his drive forms, the cheery protagonist Sora is now able to float around the battlefield and happily swat away any enemy that comes his way. The parrying effect is still present, and has been improved with guard and counter. This game also introduces reaction commands, which add another layer of choreographed motion to special fights. It’s generally how most non-mob fights are determined, and even mobs have their own special reaction commands. Typically, these commands are small counters or micro-games that do massive damage or instantly-KO smaller mobs, such as dueling the Samurai mob or deflecting a Sniper’s bullet back at him.
In all of the Kingdom Hearts games, the most interesting aspect of their choreography is always determined by the enemy’s attack patterns, as your motion is determined by understanding and properly reacting to the enemies attacks. In the first game, this generally only meant placing yourself out of harm’s way and countering/dodging at the proper time. In Kingdom Hearts 2, you’re given an addition option with reaction commands, where you are able to actively react to certain stages in the enemy’s choreography with your own choreographed reactions. Compare Kingdom Hearts 1 Sephiroth fight to this one in Kingdom Hearts 2, where Sora uses his reaction command to quickly counter a flurry of strikes.
I’ll ignore Chain of Memories and Re:Coded, firstly because I’ve never played them and second because Chain of Memories seems to use an entirely separate battle system due to the reliance on cards. Here’s a great retrospective similar to mine that covers these titles as well: www.destinyislands.com/2012/kingdom-hearts-combat-a-retrospective/
Moving on to the next side game, Birth By Sleep falls somewhere between Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. It removes reaction commands, but offers three different protagonists each with different combo chains and animations, and instead of drive modes has command styles, which change rapidly depending on the magic element most recently utilized. One of the most effective attacks in the game are the shotlock commands, which are powerful attacks that allow you to shoot a flurry of strikes at your enemies. Though the combo and magic system in this game feel very fluid, the shotlock commands can sometimes feel like a step backwards, so some fights like this one with Iron Imprisoner feel even more stagnant than the first game. They’re also so powerful that many of the bosses can be trivial with a properly leveled character. One of the big quirks/issues also continues to be highlighted in this game: the most difficult fights frequently end up being 90% dodging and 10% attacking, which actually seems to have a little bit in common with games like the Dark Souls series.
Kingdom Hearts 2’s battle system seems to have polarized the audience from the first game, as some people feel that it makes the game “too easy” — just being able to “mash attack” once you reach the proper drive form. Others feel like future games slowed things down too much with the removal of drive forms — and things felt a bit less fluid, even with some of Birth By Sleep’s command styles.
In Dream Drop Distance instead of the floaty aerial combat that came to be normal with drive forms and command styles, it feels much more grounded. Dream Drop offers up parkour-inspired flowmotion, which adds an extra dimension to combat and offers up a lot more freedom of choice and a welcome departure from rigid, choreographed attack combos. Apparently, Kingdom Hearts 3 will also adopt flowmotion into its battle repertoire.
One of the biggest decisions to make in any Kingdom Hearts game is whether you will rely more on physical attacking & physical related skills, or magic spells. In the first game and arguably the second as well, physical attacks were almost always superior in major boss battles, and magic took a backseat aside from healing. The second required a bit more magic but ultimately the drive modes and reaction commands were more valuable — though it introduced some interesting spells.
Birth By Sleep changed this with the introduction of some extremely powerful magic spells (alongside the magic-like shotlocks) that allowed for range combat. Powerful magic like the Magnet family and Megaflare allow you to tackle large amounts of enemies at once, and other spells like Seeker Mines manage to be fast enough to be useful even in boss fights where most magic is ineffective. Casting spells adds an interesting dimension to fight choreography in Kingdom Hearts — since the first game, it’s been important to know when’s the best time in an enemy’s attack pattern to take time to heal. Final Mix added in the Leaf Bracer ability, which became a staple in the series by making it impossible for opponents to interrupt the cure animation. Other magic ability are interruptible, making them difficult to use in fierce combat. Dream Drop Distance added a powerful new spell family called Balloon that continues to work well against most bosses, due to a quick cast time, large damage and wide range of effect.
The attack choreography in Kingdom Hearts takes a few mechanics from classic fighting games, most notably invincibility frames and interruptions. In any fight in the series, the player must learn the enemy’s attack patterns and decide on the best course of action to defeat them. For difficult fights, coming prepared with the right abilities and spells is important, as certain combos may be more effective. In Birth By Sleep, proper use of shotlocks is necessary, whereas in Dream Drop Distance spells like Balloon and Firaga Burst can be used to great effect.
As for the enemies themselves, the choreography in the entire series is exceptionally attractive, and even the movement of bosses in the early games will leave you jealous. However, because their attack patterns are limited to so few moves, they’re memoried and “easy” to counter. What makes the series attractive is how each game gives the player some freedom as to figuring out the best methods for countering each of the new threats, and even offering up some bosses multiple times so the player can take advantage of learned patterns combined with some new ones. With the introduction of flowmotion in Dream Drop Distance, the player was given a lot more freedom to come up with their own favorite patterns. When Kingdom Hearts 3 is released sometime in the coming year, players should be able to look forward to a whole host of new attack patterns to discover and conquer.
For more on Kingdom Hearts (particular its story) here are some good links:
Vincent Kinian @ Game Exhibition
Part of Critical Distance‘s March Roundup:
