Cerulean Mornings

So I'm a good way into KH1 Final Mix now, and I've gotta say, gaming has come a long way since 2002 when this first came out. There are so many quality of life improvements that got adapted into the gaming meta since then. Having an accessible map, for instance, better implementation of vertical traverse routes, and of course, less stupid camera angles. The platforming part of this game is kind of clunky and not very responsive. Sometimes the camera and the collision detection is just straight up rage-inducing. And the game seems a lot shorter than I remembered. (And easier? Maybe Final Mix version has a different difficulty curve. I only played the OG before.)

I am currently in Agrabah, the Aladdin world, which is the fifth one if you don't count the bonus Winnie the Pooh book. And I'm really feeling the lack of map in a place that's very confusing. Same thing applies to the Tarzan world. The lack of quest indicators really makes the narrative seem disjointed and arbitrary. Never thought how much I'd miss quest markers until you play a game that desperately needs one. I wish they did some upgrades for the re-release of the KH games as a bundle instead of as is. I do have to say at least the bundles make every single game available in some form on one platform - PS4 - which is great. The only things I miss are some minor movies, so not a big deal by any means. Anyway, I'm progressing through the game fine, and the gummi ship doesn't seem as intimating as I remembered. Also, what's up with all the tiny worlds? Clearly my memory's faulty thinking they're bigger. I mean, the first few had like 5 areas tops, and they're very small areas, with lots of stuff hidden in higher tiers that you have to do creative platforming to get to, which, again, seems to be a hassle now we've mostly progressed past all that.

I am surprised at how much I'm enjoying playing though, regardless of all the technical issues. I mean, I do remember this game fondly when I played it back in my college days, so it's nice to see that the feeling still holds up. I'm a good 10 hours in and still going strong. Totally thought I'd drop it like a lot of my other games by now. So that's a good sign. Gotta brace myself, though. There's like, 10 games I have to play through and they're all like 40 hours each. I'm sure I'll be at this for the rest of the year.