The Shrine

<div style='font: 12pt Garamond; text-align: left; '><i>...picked up Kingdom Hearts today and started playing it. Pretty impressed so far. Don't really have to go into detail on the graphics...we all know Square can make it pretty. And it's very pretty...sat on the beach and just watched the clouds move for a minute or two...

...camera does suck like all the reviews have been saying, but the longer I play it the better I get at using it and manipulating the lock-on and lock off to use it to my advantage. Battle so far is very simple but has some depth. Fighting the characters on Destiny Island is a lot of fun. A little tip, if you wanna get experience quick just fight Wakka. As soon as the battle starts lock on and wait for him to throw...time it right and you'll wack the ball back and hit him in the head...it'll dizzy him and you get an extra experience point for hitting the ball...when he's dizzy he'll just lob the ball a couple of times and you can keep hitting it back at him for free hits and extra experience...gain levels quick this way and you can even beat Riku...maybe even on expert if you get his pattern down...

...anyway, while the battling is simple it is fun because it is mainly about timing and learning patterns old school style...fighting the masses of heartless is pretty dull though, mostly button jamming and collecting spheres but the boss battles will probably make it worth it...

...controls are smooth with some nice platforming and explorations elements...love looking for treasure chests...only problem so far is in Traverse Town...what you can and cannot do isn't clearly defined...been trying to get to one treasure chest behind a mountain of boxes but can't...don't know if I'll need something from later in the game to get to it or if I'm just missing something...sucks wasting time like that and finding out later I was a moron for trying...and you pretty much receive no clue that you have to go backwards to the first part of town to move things along...most people will eventually figure it out, but I dislike that level of non-linearity in what is probably an extremely linear game...don't mix things up just for the sake of mixing things up...

...seeing the characters from Disney and FF games has been a blast so far...especially "Leon"...voice actor is perfect and kicking his ass was more fun than I thought it would be...the use of the characters in each situation has been interesting so far...the three Destiny Island characters worked perfectly for that area in their look and attitude...in other words they belong there...same with Leon and the others so far...

...the music is very good so far...and the voice acting is excellent...it pays to pay for talent...

...I think I'm gonna like this game...not that there was much doubt...

...and why is it pronounced Tee-Dus and not Tie-Dus...Tee-Dus sounds so damn lame...</i></div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>I recognized Leon's voice right away, it's David Boreanaz of TheWb's 'Angel'. I love that show.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>His pattern is pretty simple, you can just stay far away and wait until he misses a swing and counter. You can also hit him while he's taunting you. I think he does the counter kick every four hits but the pattern doesn't seem to always work, and unless you've leveled a lot, his kick can instant kill you (at least with weakness on defense like the way I chose).</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>Holy shit...can't believe I missed that...love that show...</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>...I chose high defense so I was able to last awhile against him the first time but that kick always got me. I don't think it's a timing thing where he does it every four times. I think he goes into it if you get three clean hits and knock him down...as soon as I knew I was going to get three clean shots on him I had the contoller moving away from him right after I pressed x for the third shot and I was able to beat him after that without getting hit once...

...it's a good fight but not really worth the time for the experience you get, especially when it's so easy to beat the three-on-one after you get a few levels (I dizzy Wakka first then take out Selphie, dizzy Wakka again and smack Tidus around and then just do the bouce back trick on Wakka til he dies and I usually get about 20 XP each time with only minimal damage to myself...I was level 11 when I left the island)...

...it's also easier to boost your score in the competition against Riku by beating him in the race over and over...it's nearly impossible to lose and you get a pretty stone each time which you can sell for, I think, 30 munny each...not that you'll need the money because I had about 30 potions by the time I got to Traverse Town and I've yet to use one...I think I'm gonna sell all of them to try and get all the accessories at the shop...I thought I'd get bored with the fighting eventually but I'm still loving it...</div>

<div style='font: 12pt "Cooper Black"; text-align: left; '>Just got it today, wee haaa. I love the feel of starting a new RPG. After the skins gameand after i do some work i'll be playing all night.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt "Cooper Black"; text-align: left; '>So did you choose high defense and low offense? I did, but i'm thinknig i may start over and get low magic... i'm only about 40 min into it... in fact i'm going to do that right now, screw magic... i hate choosing!!</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>High defense and low magic...works out very nice for me...magic is a pain to use anyway...</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I could've sworn it takes less than 3 clean hits for him to do the kick move. If you can dodge the kick, his moves are easy to avoid.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>At 1 MP a pop it sure eats up your MP pretty quickly. Of course Donald can cast that forever but you've absolutely no control on his spell selection. He'll heal you when you're low if he hasn't used up all his MP in the first 3 seconds of the battle.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I've beat on Rikku 8 times now, no pattern to his kick. I can put him into it by hitting him once. Best plan is to just use 2 hit combo.</div>