I remember when I found out about Final Mix for KH2 I was obsessed with it. I even bought the Japanese ps2 copy of it and used a tool called a slide tool which was a disc you put in then you use this special shaped plastic to pull out the ps2 disc drive so you can switch the disc, it had to be done every time I wanted to play the game but I didn't care. It was worth it and to this day KH2FM is one of my favorite games of all time! P.S sad how the PS2 was region locked.
There’s many workarounds for that now, plus you can play imports no problem on OPL, I’ve done that with the final mixes with English patches and the JP vanilla games.
Oh man I remember wanting one of those bad boys so bad just for Final Mix but my Mum never allowing me to swipe the credit card mean't I had to wait several years to save up for a PC to emulate 😭😭😭
I did this very same thing lol. I would watch the data boss fights constantly and when I finally got the Swap Magic ps2 discs and final mix imported for christmas I was so happy! I had to make my own slide tool with an old credit card lol
If you didn't know about Final Mix, the vanilla version is still insanely good. Final Mix just makes an already amazing game even better by adding extra content. The CoR is still the best end game content we ever had in KH. I would love to see more post game dungeons in the future. Loved it in Final Fantasy and I loved it in KH2.
@@MariusBoss11458 Yeah they kind of botched the mixing or whatever it is. Some themes just sound way more intense in the original version like 13th dilemma and the other promise
I remember way back when the trailers first released for KH3 everyone was saying “why are the bottom of Sora’s shoes so white/bright?” And I had to convince myself that they were always like that because everyone else was so used to the FM retexture. It wasn’t until I found a mod that textures Sora like how he is in vanilla I finally sighed in relief knowing I wasn’t crazy.
One of the biggest differences for me was Roxas' ingame battle quotes, specifically the attack/damaged sounds. In 2.5, they were swapped out with Ventus' quotes, which are much less... fitting for him, even though it's the same voice actor.
Even worse having grown up with one of the many localized dubs that they for some reason all threw out... I often wish I could play 2.5 with the german voices.
Yeaaaa I absolutely really disliked that, it felt so weird roxas having his own battle quotes not only made him more of his own character but also pretty badass in the orginal.
The part where you mention being confused towards how people had FM exclusive content was so relatable as a kid, I used to think how and when tf do *I* get limit form, fight roxas, LW and previous org members. good memories.
What the Final Mix version added to KH2 is unmatched by most DLC / definitive versions of most games made today and made an already amazing not only the best in the series, but my favorite video game of all time
To be fair, they kinda HAD to make it better... because, without the ability to add DLC separately, people would have to re-buy a game they already own... so they had to make it worth the sale...
@lord barking Back when they knew everything was going on a worldwide permanent disc, no updates no bs, using every dollar and possible resource at their disposal. Those were the days…
I remember when me and my Brother played the Vanilla Version back when we were Kids we figured out, that the 200 rapid thruster on top of pride rock would respawn infinitely. The even dropped MP Orbs so you could just spam thundaga and farm EXP.
The reason why Xigbar has a different sniping animation in vanilla is because in og Japanese kh2 he made still the sniper rifle and then got an actual gun reticle. In international kh2 he lost the realistic reticle and just did the twirl so that it didn't look like real gun violence, and then in final mix they brought the sniper rifle back but kept the less realistic reticle.
16:07 The pattern on the sleeves in the original KH2 were from Master Form, while the Final Mix fixes this by adding the blue flames that were supposed to be there in the first place. They were also shown on the og KH2 strategy guide.
Welp, just wrote a comment detailing this, lol. Apparently the OG Japanese version had the correct textures, and then they were wrongly sourced from Master for international releases.
This takes me back too I remember the time where I found all these videos on youtube with like the secret ending, the data fights and all. And I was so confused because I didn't know any better! I remember trying to find "the hole" in hollow bastion myself, not knowing how to get into the cavern of remembrance I don't know when exactly I realized that it was basically DLC back then, but I remember being confused and sad for quite some time xD
SAME BROOOO I WAS LIKE “MY GAME SKIPPED ALL OF THIS WHATS WRONG WITH MY PS2” 😂😂😭 I searched vanilla KH2 for HOURS for the bonus content before learning what FM was when I was like 8, then my heart broke, then my life was completed via emulation like 5 years later thank god for those memories, felt like unlocking the maximum dopamine potential in my brain all at once lmao I wouldn’t change a thing
A couple weeks ago I went to an old game store with some friends that had games from all major consoles, and I managed to find two copies of the original KHII. It was wild holding an original PS2 copy with the shiny silver game cover art and all that
I’ve always really disliked most of the color changes for the heartless in both 1 and 2. Most of them were super unnecessary at best and incredibly ugly at worst. Kh1 in particular. Guard armor got fucked over hard.
Fun fact about the Japanese vanilla KH2, there was a bug that made doing Trinity Limit with Donald and Goofy do the damage of your max damage, which could oneshot some bosses!
16:01 Actually, the OG wisdom form sleeves had the Master Form insignia. The FM change was simply fixing that so that it matched the pants like you said. Cuz the other Forms have matching insignias so Wisdom randomly having Master's insignia on the sleeves was making it the odd one out.
the biggest change i remembered not liking in 2FM was the sweet memories keyblade being completely different, and the pride rock spawn only having 1 enemy rather than a swarm.
I didn't play the FM versions for any of the Kingdom Hearts titles until the 1.5 + 2.5 collection came out on PS4. I skipped the PS3 entirely, going straight from the PS2 to PS4. Which means that I didn't play the FM versions of these games until 2017.
Ah I forget when I first subbed but I know it was before kh3 was released and having so many vids and theories of what would maybe happen ah good times
I did this a while ago when I set up my PS2. It's such a huge difference to Final Mix. It's crazy to think this is the game that I sank most of my life into at launch :')
Man, this brings me back to when I was playing kingdom hearts 2 Vanilla. I played that version so many times I knew where I would get most of the stuff but when I played final mix for the first time, I reached agrabrah, Beat it and I was ready for the explosion ability but I didn't get it. I was like "Where's my explosion? I want my explosion!" Wouldn't be till that godforsaken Solar sailor battle where I finally got it. That day really stung me. This really brought nostalgia back to me. From the major chances to the little ones, like the redesign of the heartless, most of which I wasn't expecting. Thanks for this trip down memory lane Jared.
Xigbar's sniper rifle animation was already there in the vanilla Japanese version of the game, but was then changed for the vanilla English versions due to censorship which also changed his crosshair HUD into that purple target pointer thing. Looks like they brought that animation back for all the HD versions, yet the crosshair HUD is still missing - perhaps only for the non-Japanese releases.
24:57 It was probably changed because those fireworks dropped drive orbs after exploding. It was an easy way to level up Master Form in the vanilla game. 26:30 The vanilla animation was exclusive to the western release. Disney censored the use of a sniper rifle. They probably either forgot when II.5 came out or they let it slide because Xigbar’s limit in 358/2 Days was left alone despite the sniper rifle.
Nail on the head. I got my import of KH2FM+ in 2008. It made my whole experience of the original KH2. You completely took the words out of my mouth. You’re an OG for sure
I have to say, even to this day, though I love everything else about the Final Mixes, I HATE HATE HATE that they don't give you the option to toggle to the original enemy palette designs. It makes my autism flare up SO MUCH since all the other non-FM games in the series keep the original color designs. I know it's just a cosmetic change, but the inconsistency has always gotten under my skin, and yeah, I would much prefer seeing the original, nostalgic (and often just better) designs that I grew up with. If there's anybody out there who can make a mod with OG designs, please for god's sakes make one!
@Sophie yellow and brown soldier/large body heartless 🤢🤢🤢 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING IN THE HD 😩 Black and purple not only looks better but makes so much more sense from a story perspective and everything. I understand they were tryna funk it up a little back then for the remix but dang it’s just so dang funky can’t believe this is some peoples first impression 😭
Man. I was 14 when KH2 Final Mix came out and I got the "brilliant" idea of just buying it from Japan. I remember fighting for a long time to convince my mother to import both Final Mix 1 and 2. When she finally gave in and they got here, I first found out about the joys of region locking. So my dad had to find a guy who knew how to mod my PAL PS2 to accept any games. My mom wasn't all too happy about how much trouble and money this had already cost. Once everything had finally been figured out and I got to play those copies of the games I loved so much, it was all worth it. To this day my mom reminds me of how all her misgivings vanished the second she saw how much joy the games brought me. I am 30 now, oh god why, and I am pretty sure KH1 is still my most replayed game of all time. I go back to it once every other year, at least. And now that I am writing this, of course I'll do it again.
This is a lovely story, especially the part about your mom being happy to see your joy playing the games. I had a modchipped PS2 slim in beautiful satin silver. My mom bought it for me from the UK but it came stock and only accepted UK region discs. I had a friend who had stacks and stacks of PS2 pirated games and in my home country stores only sold pirated PS2 discs since we never had any official game shops, so after I bought my PS2 I bought a lot of games myself only to find out I needed to modchip my PS2 to play these pirated discs. So I told my dad and he took me to a shop to get it modchipped. After that I had amassed a massive collection of PS2 games and KH2 was one of my all time favorites on the system. If I had imported the Final Mix games I would have been able to easily run it on my PS2 since I got it modchipped but I never got around to playing KH2 FM until last year when I started emulating the English patched fan mod on my phone. I had my PS3 which wasn't modchipped since the PS3 wasn't region locked and didn't get cracked until quite a few years after release so stores brought original discs from various regions and I bought about 80 original discs on that console, but no 1.5 or 2.5 remix. I still have my PS4 slim where I bought KH3 on and I have a couple of gaming PCs and laptops and I could buy The Story So Far collection either on EGS or PSN anytime but the temptation of playing KH2 FM portably was too much. It runs very nicely on my phone, maxed out at 8x res. The emulator is AetherSX2. I'm about 75% of the way through it.
Another difference I noticed was there was a grind spot in the pridelands where you fight Scar and fight a horde of the tiny heartless. They changed the frequency of them appearing like the Land of Dragons example you provided. Instead of them instantly respawning, it takes multiple times of entering a room for them to appear again.
Damn, its so nostalgic! Back in 2015, when i had no access to consoles and was curios about kh franchise, i went along with the vanilla versions of the kh2 alongside kh1 and bbs in their respective platform emulators. Though kh2fm is far superior than vanilla, seeing the vanilla version again, espicially the original heartless colors made me tear up a bit.
Kinda late here, and maybe already posted, but the Xigbar sniper animation got outright censored in the vanilla game outside Japan. Like the hydra boss battle in Olympus. When you cut any of its heads, a black smoke appears, while in the OG Japanese version, there was the same green blood it had in the Disney movie.
I’m glad I’ll be able to have my son experience all of these games and I’m also glad that they are all on PS4 and Xbox. Even if it is the final mix editions, they are far better imo
Parenting advice: get your son a PS2 console and an OG copy of KH1 and KH2 greatest hits edition. Have him play it on an old school tv and then later on in life once he’s earned his right of passage synthesizing Ultima and beating Sephiroth on the PS2 controller, introduce him to the Final Mixes in crispy HD 60fps with the ReMaster (or the uncensored emulation version with an English patch if you want him to grow up to be a real one) with all the bonus content. That is the journey one must walk if they wish to truly understand.
@@KuronekoShrimpSama Repeatedly loosing to Riku II while underleveled... I think I memorised every line. I'm not gonna say it though, don't wanna evoke any pts or anything XD
I think the change at 24:42 was maybe made because you use drive orbs to upgrade Master Form. Maybe they thought it was broken if people went room to room to gain exp for it. But on the other hand they still have it where you can reset your drive gauge from the Gummi Ship and Hades' Tournament so I have no idea.
Technically yes and no. The original animation was used in FM/2.5, but the censored targeting reticule was retained - KH2J used a different graphic for the targeting reticule which was.... I guess slightly more realistic than the three purple circles?
if I remember correctly Xigbar's lack of a sniper rifle was a change made only to the international version. I do believe it's still there in the original Japanese non-final mix version one other change I didn't see mentioned was the change made to the top of Pride Rock. in the vanilla version there'd be a swarm of heartless up there that dropped only MP prizes which made it the perfect exp grinding spot. in Final Mix they lowered the spawn rate of the swarm and changed it so that they dropped HP prizes so you can't get the benefit of the exp booster abilities
Surprised you never mentioned the biggest change! In Pride Lands in vanilla, if you head to the top of Pride Rock, there's a ton of heartless to take out that expedited getting to the max level. In the Final Mix version, it's one singular heartless. The new method is similar to the vanilla, but there's a run through in The Workd That Never Was
I had the opposite reaction to the Explosion change. I distinctly remember being really confused during the section of Hollow Bastion when you're running up to the castle for the second Space Paranoids visit convinced I should have definitely had Explosion by that point. And I should have! If it was vanilla... Oh well, at least I finally got it not long after that point. I remember it coming in handy for when the SP Heartless are spawning into HB.
I had this "What's this 'final mix' thing on TH-cam?" mystery experience but with 'Birth By Sleep' as a young teenager. I remember being confused seeing Purple Unverse on TH-cam videos, rather then the vanilla Blue Unverse; as well as the secret chapter with aqua in the dark realm and extra cutscenes I hadn't unlocked, and extra arena bosses and post-game bosses. It was pretty demorilizing at the time, to feel like I was missing out on the full Birth By Sleep experience. Especially with all the extra post-game content.
Can't begin to say how much I relate to the story at the beginning. I remember doing the same thing and being so excited when I finally found a prepatched english version of final mix. I also found BBSFM english patch and played it on the psp emu a few years later, boy, those we're the days. Now I'm on to modding KH3 and I gotta say I'm really happy with all the stuff the community has come up with and fixed, it's amazing. They even made an in-game version of all the X-keepers keyblades, yours and skyward wings are personally my favorites.
I recommend re fined mod (for 1st game at least I just started playing this series) auto save feature saved me a lot because of rare but present crashes and fov, rebinding options are pretty cool too
Thank you to everyone who worked on that KH2 FM English patch! I played it too and I felt so lucky to have found that in my teens. I love your videos man.
Not sure if someone brought this up yet, but another difference I found was in The World That Never Was, the city areas had heartless enemies while the castle areas had nobodies. This was changed in the remix where the enemy types were swapped for each area.
Incredible video Jared, this brought back so many memories, makes me think about the fact that KH has been part of my life since basically forever, the analysis was also so in depth, I forgot about all the many changes final mix brought to KH2, I would really like a series of this, analysis about all KH games that had a final mix version and comparisons with the 2 versions. I don't know if KH1 has enough material about that since the original international ps2 version was actually very similar to final mix everything considered, while the original Japanese version was actually really lacking compared to FM, but BBS would be extremely interesting I think, anyway I'm digressing but well done, you nearly made me shed a few tears :')
i still know that one day.... when i started the original kh 2 in 2012, i got it from my brothers who already played it a long time b4 that. it was the first game i ever played in my whole life, i loved it now im obsessed with the franchise again, cant wait for kh 4
I didn’t play Final Mix until a few years ago, but honestly for me there’s something so special about playing the OG KH2 on the PS2. That’s where it all started for me
Great video! I've always wondered what were the differences between vanilla and Final Mix. I DEFINITELY miss the OG color schemes for the heartless. It bothers me so much when I replay the FM versions. They did our boi Soldier dirty with that re-color
One thing you forgot to mention, and something I abused back then, is in the vanilla version, at the top of Pride Rock, there are a ton of Rapid Thrusters up there that you could use to Level up to 99 VERY fast. If you were to use Gravity (or any upgraded versions) you would be able to kill them all real fast. Leave the room and go back up to it and they are back again. I remember pulling this off just so I could beat Sephiroth for the first time lol I was a little disappointed when this got removed, but looking on it now, they probably didn't want us abusing that anymore lol
I think we all became upsessed with KH2FM when we learned of its existence lol i researched endlessly trying to get my hands on it. Ill never forget the struggle. Funny thing is i read in the past that america was never going to get a patched version of FM as it was something special exclusive for japan
Another change is that in vanilla kingdom hearts. In the World that Never Was, shadows will always spawn in the valley no matter how far you make it in the castle. In the final mix version, when you beat xemnas for the first time, the valley will be filled with nobodies instead. Prime farming ground for Wisdom EXP, and if you don’t plan for it in final mix you lose it
It's certainly harder to go back to the vanilla versions of the games now but just recently I played both Kingdom Hearts 1-2 FM via the story so far, then bought a PS2 and played through each on there, definitely a strange experience, but while EXTREMELY hard to adjust to, especially after playing so much of the FM versions for almost a decade now, but they still hold up exceptionally well and are still great experiences
Man, I had the exact same journey. When KH2 came out it was already becoming my favorite game of all time (still pretty high up on the list tbh) but searching KH2 content on TH-cam back in the day just left me heartbroken after seeing how sick Final Mix was. I can't believe it was a like a 9 year wait until I got to play it on PS3. But seeing this video really triggered such nostalgia: the original title screen, memories of the game without all the Final Mix additions, the initial emotions I had playing KH2 for the first time and falling in love with everything about it... Yep. KH2, vanilla and Final Mix, are definitely my favorite KH games ever and solidly in my top 10 games of all time.
I remember being so excited when they first announced 2.5 having the final mix versions of the games. I was one of those kids that were morbidly curious about the extra bosses in the final mix version
One thing I noticed was different was Roxas’s battle voice. In 1.5+2.5 Roxas’s battle voice was changed to be a copy and paste of ventus voice. Tbh I prefer Roxas’s old voice.
I ABSOLUTELY kingdom hearts 2 in both formats. and yes, I was poking through TH-cam and came across the roxas fight and was instantly upset and confused why I couldn't fight him
Great video! One huge difference that you did not talk about is that the HD Final Mix has updated, fully orchestrated soundtrack, whereas the vanilla version has a fully synthetic/electronic soundtrack. I tend to prefer the synths because I grew up on the vanilla version, but the remastered music sounds fantastic! Real instruments bring out a great sound!
@@keyblader1985 exactly, like it was very sweet of them to do an orchestral remake of the entire soundtrack for us, but the og vanilla synth just SMACKS SO HARD 🔥
Um, I don't know how you don't know this, but Xigbar's animation was actually changed in vanilla KH2 when coming over to the West to censor it. From what I've read, he originally put the guns into the sniper mode in the JP version, but this was censored everywhere else, as was the reticle. Final Mix when released overseas kept the animation of him putting the guns into the sniper mode, but changed the reticle. This is 1 of the few instances of censorship that was reverted in the release of Final Mix in the West from the vanilla release.
26:20 It’s actually changed to 15 seconds in final mix for the story fight. It was 13 seconds in the data fight. I bet so many controllers wouldn’t be broken if they just bumped up the timer by a few seconds.
The younger self thinking, "why isn't Kh2 didn't let me fight the PAST Organization 13 members. I haven't get a chance to fight Roxas, didn't see the extra cutscenes, not having a lot of abilities, and finally... I'm just glad I didn't get to use the critical mode
3:53 Well, the original version of KH1 in Japan only had the Phantom as a superboss as well as the additional cups and Synthesis, but the international version added Kurt Zisa, the Ice Titan, and Sephiroth, so it did actually have a pretty decent post-game or at least compared to base KH2. All FM added was Xemnas and the Special Heartless for Synthesis, which the latter some people consider a detriment than anything since it makes getting Ultima Weapon more of a pain in the butt.
There is a reason fireworks in Land of Dragons were given a new respawn rule. One of the forms gets XP by picking up drive orbs. So you'd go in and out of that room to speed level. Another fun Form leveling trick. When the form is about to time out, go back to your Gummi Ship, before it reverts you. It will return the drive gauge you spent for that form.
I think the Firework respawn being nerfed in Final Mix was a direct response to the fact that it was the best place to grind up Master Form. We saw something similar with them nerfing the top of Pride Rock in Pride Lands because it was the best level up spot. Also the awkward Xigbar animation in the original game is because it was censored from the original Japanese release, they got rid of the sniper form on his guns in the English release, but 2.5 brought it back in all regions.
KH2 was my introduction to the series way back in 2006, back in a time when I didn't understand English as well as I did today (and playing games like these were key to keep me interested in learning the language). It's so cool going down memory lane and revisiting this awesome game.
The thing you said at the beginning. Having had played the original KH2 and stumbling upon Final Mix content on the Internet. I completely forgot about it, but you've evoked the exact same feeling I had way back when.
It's still so wild to me that when you talk about KH2 online, everyone asumes you're refering to the final mix version, and the vanilla version is considered rare. To this day, I haven't been able to play KH2 final mix yet and I'm a big fan of the series
I remember playing KH2 when it came out and recently just played final mix. There were so many things in it that I didn't remember it made me question if I even actually did play KH2 or if it was just a fever dream.
A big change from vanilla to FM was the Rapid Thruster change. In vanilla, a quick and popular way to grind up to 99, you would simply apply Gull Wing, go on top of Pride Rock after the 2nd visit where about 200 Rapid Thruster's were floating there, get damaged enough for the alarm to ring, then go crazy. The best part was that to refill the Rapid Thruster's once you killed them all, was just leave the room and enter again. It would take you only about 20-30 minutes to go from the 50's to 99. In Final Mix, there is one single Rapid Thruster on top of Pride Rock. A little nod from the dev's to the fans that this quick grind session was o longer possible.
The best thing final mix did was bring back a reason to come back to worlds after getting movement abilities via the stickers. I loved the fact that pretty much after each world in kh1 you unlocked something in the earlier worlds. Either through New movement, new Trinity colors or spells.
I still have my PS2, AND KH2. But no TV that still has the Red, Yellow, and White cord inputs :/ But it's still wild to think about how Sora had the Halloween costume in Santa's workshop. And even wilder to now think about how it actually kinda fits better with the themes, more than the 'Goth Santa' costume from KH2FM. It made Sora feel like more of a bridge between Halloween and Christmas, and helping Jack Skellington find/remember his own role in the holidays. Rather than feeling like a weird "egging Jack on" feeling to the costumes. Jack was invading a holiday that wasn't his, and didn't realize what his holiday brought to the world. So Sora's original costume feels more like Sora keeping Jack in check. (Edit) I didn't remember about Explosion until watching this. But now, I remember the first time I played FM, thinking it was weird how much I remembered Explosion being my most used finisher, versus Magnet Storm suddenly being my most used finisher.
It's cool to see that a lot of people had the same experience I had with final mix. For the longest time I thought that the different color pallets were a critical mode exclusive thing, where the buffed enemies had different colors to indicate a more elite status.
There's something to be said about vanilla Wisdom Form, Sora's arm textures were mistakenly taken from Master Form in every post-Japanese release and were fixed in FM+, the of Vanilla JP release dating back to 2005 did have the correct textures for the Wisdom Form and it's virtually identical to FM+
KH 2 vanille will be a badass memory for life, I recently playd both vanilla version of the KH 1 and 2.............. man I am still used to the color of those heartless instead the one from final mix
i remember the official guide book for KH2 back in the day showed that Wisdom form with the blue flames sleeves, so i think it was always suppose to be the flames, but something went wrong along the way
the thing I miss the most when I played KH2 Vanilla was when fighting Sephiroth you get more sound effects when guarding his attack that hits you a bunch of times (or his opening attack in other words)
Literally the very franchise that started my love for video games, the first KH game was the absolute first game I ever played in my life and I'm happy that it was a huge part of my childhood. Being able to finally play KH2 on the PS2 so long ago was amazing. Now I have the KH collection for PS4 and I gotta say, playing through any of the KH games makes me feel like a kid again even though I never played any of the "in-between" installments as a kid. Also I have to say this... I'm happy that the PS2 version of KH2 is still very relevant in 2022... Yeah I know I made a corny joke about the number 2. XD
I have to say when it comes to original vs final mix I really really REALLY miss the original color palettes of the heartless in 1 and 2, the heartless were always very colorful and in style with the world they were encountered in but they were almost always made up of dark colors, final mix colors conjure up the "wacky rainbow candy piñatas" style that would later become the staple of the dream eaters of DDD.
My story with Final Mix pretty much matches yours, minus the part of selling games to buy a PC. I did emulate the game, but I did so through my crappy laptop. It was playable, but definitely not the best way to play it. But I didn't care back then, because I was finally playing the mysterious Japan-only version of my favorite PS2 game, and I got to experience all of the unique content it contained first-hand (apart from the secret bosses, because that lag made doing the Nobody gauntlet in CoR impossible lol). I do agree, it is weird to think that there used to be a time where the FM versions were so highly sought after, seeing how they're pretty much the only way to get them on modern releases these days. I'm glad that they're so accessible now, especially considering how essential they are to the overall series lore, but I also can't help but reminisce to when I played the OG PS2 version, spending time grinding to lvl 99, fighting Sephiroth and getting the Fenrir, which back then was my greatest achievement in any game I played.
There is one more difference that I remember discovering when I was young. You could get interesting camera angles when in front of the door that leads to the final boss.
I never had a PS3 or PS4 and I didn't have a computer that could run a mod like that so for years, I was stuck with vanilla KH2. And I still loved it despite knowing that Final Mix existed. It wasn't until I got a PS5 I got to play it. In fact 1.5 and 2.5 collection was literally the first thing I bought for it. Final Mix is definitely better, but I can't deny the nostalgia love I have for vanilla.
I had played final mix originally but after becoming obsessed with kh so I bought kh2 for the ps2 just because it was my favorite game and while not the same as my preferred version it was still nice to have. And after a while I booted it up and played it, getting to the max level, ultima weapon, beating sephiroth, and the game. Though I did start to realize how much final mix did, It wasn't the kh2 I knew but it was still kh2 in a way. I think not getting Fenrir, not having the mushroom 13 to grind out certain drive forms, and the absence of my favorite fight in the series sora v roxas makes me appreciate final mix so much more
I think you also forget that in the vanilla version of Kingdom hearts two just like in Kingdom hearts one for me is that I wasn’t able to save the final progress after beating the endgame boss. Me and my brother was really frustrated of not able to save the final moments of the game so we had to save the final savepoint when facing the end game of the series. Still remember those moments when beating Ansem and Xemnas at the end and it showed like the end credit of all the stats and I couldn’t get out of it an I couldn’t save it. But thankfully in the full mix I was able to not just save the final progress of the game and be relieved that I fully finished the game and I could play the post game
My silly headcanon about the heartless color palettes changing is that it's an aftereffect of Namine messing with Sora's memories. Much like how Vanitas looks like Sora despite Sora having just been born when Vanitas was created (audience perception filter.)
I remember when I found out about Final Mix for KH2 I was obsessed with it. I even bought the Japanese ps2 copy of it and used a tool called a slide tool which was a disc you put in then you use this special shaped plastic to pull out the ps2 disc drive so you can switch the disc, it had to be done every time I wanted to play the game but I didn't care. It was worth it and to this day KH2FM is one of my favorite games of all time! P.S sad how the PS2 was region locked.
There’s many workarounds for that now, plus you can play imports no problem on OPL, I’ve done that with the final mixes with English patches and the JP vanilla games.
Oh man I remember wanting one of those bad boys so bad just for Final Mix but my Mum never allowing me to swipe the credit card mean't I had to wait several years to save up for a PC to emulate 😭😭😭
I did this very same thing lol. I would watch the data boss fights constantly and when I finally got the Swap Magic ps2 discs and final mix imported for christmas I was so happy! I had to make my own slide tool with an old credit card lol
@@windalchemist1611 Yeah my friend tried to do that but it didn't work out to well. 😂
Jeah that swap magic tool was great :D
If you didn't know about Final Mix, the vanilla version is still insanely good. Final Mix just makes an already amazing game even better by adding extra content. The CoR is still the best end game content we ever had in KH. I would love to see more post game dungeons in the future. Loved it in Final Fantasy and I loved it in KH2.
YES PLS, MORE POST GAME DUNGEONS FOR FUTURE GAMES
@@TheGamersJoint Kingdom Hearts Omega Ruins 😂😂🔥
You re in high school again
NO RECEEEES
I guess the one thing that is better in OG is the music. Your preference tho. I just love the Main Menu theme.
@@MariusBoss11458 Yeah they kind of botched the mixing or whatever it is. Some themes just sound way more intense in the original version like 13th dilemma and the other promise
I remember way back when the trailers first released for KH3 everyone was saying “why are the bottom of Sora’s shoes so white/bright?” And I had to convince myself that they were always like that because everyone else was so used to the FM retexture. It wasn’t until I found a mod that textures Sora like how he is in vanilla I finally sighed in relief knowing I wasn’t crazy.
One of the biggest differences for me was Roxas' ingame battle quotes, specifically the attack/damaged sounds. In 2.5, they were swapped out with Ventus' quotes, which are much less... fitting for him, even though it's the same voice actor.
Wait they were. I didn’t notice that
There's a mod on nexus that switches back to his Ps2 orginal voice
Is there a way to do mods on the ps4
Even worse having grown up with one of the many localized dubs that they for some reason all threw out... I often wish I could play 2.5 with the german voices.
Yeaaaa I absolutely really disliked that, it felt so weird roxas having his own battle quotes not only made him more of his own character but also pretty badass in the orginal.
The part where you mention being confused towards how people had FM exclusive content was so relatable as a kid, I used to think how and when tf do *I* get limit form, fight roxas, LW and previous org members. good memories.
What the Final Mix version added to KH2 is unmatched by most DLC / definitive versions of most games made today and made an already amazing not only the best in the series, but my favorite video game of all time
Nah the dickeating is crazy tho…
To be fair, they kinda HAD to make it better... because, without the ability to add DLC separately, people would have to re-buy a game they already own... so they had to make it worth the sale...
@lord barking Back when they knew everything was going on a worldwide permanent disc, no updates no bs, using every dollar and possible resource at their disposal. Those were the days…
@@TheDeathmail And even that wasn't enough as they added Re:CoM. Makes me wonder if KH1FM didn't sell well enough so they had to up the features.
Perfect timing, I’ve just completed my second play through of kh2. Still my favourite kingdom hearts game. Timeless classic
1 billion % correct, good sir 🔥
I remember when me and my Brother played the Vanilla Version back when we were Kids we figured out, that the 200 rapid thruster on top of pride rock would respawn infinitely. The even dropped MP Orbs so you could just spam thundaga and farm EXP.
The reason why Xigbar has a different sniping animation in vanilla is because in og Japanese kh2 he made still the sniper rifle and then got an actual gun reticle. In international kh2 he lost the realistic reticle and just did the twirl so that it didn't look like real gun violence, and then in final mix they brought the sniper rifle back but kept the less realistic reticle.
16:07 The pattern on the sleeves in the original KH2 were from Master Form, while the Final Mix fixes this by adding the blue flames that were supposed to be there in the first place. They were also shown on the og KH2 strategy guide.
Welp, just wrote a comment detailing this, lol. Apparently the OG Japanese version had the correct textures, and then they were wrongly sourced from Master for international releases.
This takes me back too
I remember the time where I found all these videos on youtube with like the secret ending, the data fights and all. And I was so confused because I didn't know any better!
I remember trying to find "the hole" in hollow bastion myself, not knowing how to get into the cavern of remembrance
I don't know when exactly I realized that it was basically DLC back then, but I remember being confused and sad for quite some time xD
SAME BROOOO I WAS LIKE “MY GAME SKIPPED ALL OF THIS WHATS WRONG WITH MY PS2” 😂😂😭 I searched vanilla KH2 for HOURS for the bonus content before learning what FM was when I was like 8, then my heart broke, then my life was completed via emulation like 5 years later thank god for those memories, felt like unlocking the maximum dopamine potential in my brain all at once lmao I wouldn’t change a thing
fucking same I cannot stop to look for that hole by that time over and over like something is gonna happen just for try It 🤣🤣
A couple weeks ago I went to an old game store with some friends that had games from all major consoles, and I managed to find two copies of the original KHII. It was wild holding an original PS2 copy with the shiny silver game cover art and all that
I’ve always really disliked most of the color changes for the heartless in both 1 and 2. Most of them were super unnecessary at best and incredibly ugly at worst. Kh1 in particular. Guard armor got fucked over hard.
They looked like a coloring book that you gave a child with 6 different crayons and left the room for an hour.
Purple guard armor was iconic. FM guard armor looks like garbage
100% agreed.
luckily i think we got mods for that in nexus :)
I always thought it was funny how the Final Mix Guard Armor's color swap is literally the primary colors of my country's flag
Fun fact about the Japanese vanilla KH2, there was a bug that made doing Trinity Limit with Donald and Goofy do the damage of your max damage, which could oneshot some bosses!
Oh yeah there was that, reflect was pretty weak, and Saix has some of his English grunts during battle.
16:01
Actually, the OG wisdom form sleeves had the Master Form insignia. The FM change was simply fixing that so that it matched the pants like you said. Cuz the other Forms have matching insignias so Wisdom randomly having Master's insignia on the sleeves was making it the odd one out.
the biggest change i remembered not liking in 2FM was the sweet memories keyblade being completely different, and the pride rock spawn only having 1 enemy rather than a swarm.
Pride Rock can still span a swarm, it's just a random chance. But they made that heartless drop HP, removing the ability to farm XP with critical HP.
I didn't play the FM versions for any of the Kingdom Hearts titles until the 1.5 + 2.5 collection came out on PS4. I skipped the PS3 entirely, going straight from the PS2 to PS4. Which means that I didn't play the FM versions of these games until 2017.
dude I love when you make discussion videos like this!!!!!!! it's why I subbed all those years back around 2015! ♡
Ah I forget when I first subbed but I know it was before kh3 was released and having so many vids and theories of what would maybe happen ah good times
I did this a while ago when I set up my PS2. It's such a huge difference to Final Mix. It's crazy to think this is the game that I sank most of my life into at launch :')
Man, this brings me back to when I was playing kingdom hearts 2 Vanilla. I played that version so many times I knew where I would get most of the stuff but when I played final mix for the first time, I reached agrabrah, Beat it and I was ready for the explosion ability but I didn't get it.
I was like "Where's my explosion? I want my explosion!" Wouldn't be till that godforsaken Solar sailor battle where I finally got it. That day really stung me.
This really brought nostalgia back to me. From the major chances to the little ones, like the redesign of the heartless, most of which I wasn't expecting. Thanks for this trip down memory lane Jared.
Xigbar's sniper rifle animation was already there in the vanilla Japanese version of the game, but was then changed for the vanilla English versions due to censorship which also changed his crosshair HUD into that purple target pointer thing. Looks like they brought that animation back for all the HD versions, yet the crosshair HUD is still missing - perhaps only for the non-Japanese releases.
24:57 It was probably changed because those fireworks dropped drive orbs after exploding. It was an easy way to level up Master Form in the vanilla game.
26:30 The vanilla animation was exclusive to the western release. Disney censored the use of a sniper rifle. They probably either forgot when II.5 came out or they let it slide because Xigbar’s limit in 358/2 Days was left alone despite the sniper rifle.
Nail on the head. I got my import of KH2FM+ in 2008. It made my whole experience of the original KH2. You completely took the words out of my mouth. You’re an OG for sure
I remember seeing some of the final mix stuff and was just thinking "how do I do that and why can't I do that"
I have to say, even to this day, though I love everything else about the Final Mixes, I HATE HATE HATE that they don't give you the option to toggle to the original enemy palette designs. It makes my autism flare up SO MUCH since all the other non-FM games in the series keep the original color designs. I know it's just a cosmetic change, but the inconsistency has always gotten under my skin, and yeah, I would much prefer seeing the original, nostalgic (and often just better) designs that I grew up with. If there's anybody out there who can make a mod with OG designs, please for god's sakes make one!
I think a mod does exist for PC, but yeah there really should be a toggle. The original palettes are way better
@Sophie yellow and brown soldier/large body heartless 🤢🤢🤢 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING IN THE HD 😩
Black and purple not only looks better but makes so much more sense from a story perspective and everything.
I understand they were tryna funk it up a little back then for the remix but dang it’s just so dang funky can’t believe this is some peoples first impression 😭
Enemy color pallets make your autism flare up? This is a bit concerning, maybe don't play Final Mix if you can't even handle some colors.
@Sophie for real, glad that mean guy is outta here 👏
Man. I was 14 when KH2 Final Mix came out and I got the "brilliant" idea of just buying it from Japan. I remember fighting for a long time to convince my mother to import both Final Mix 1 and 2. When she finally gave in and they got here, I first found out about the joys of region locking. So my dad had to find a guy who knew how to mod my PAL PS2 to accept any games. My mom wasn't all too happy about how much trouble and money this had already cost. Once everything had finally been figured out and I got to play those copies of the games I loved so much, it was all worth it. To this day my mom reminds me of how all her misgivings vanished the second she saw how much joy the games brought me. I am 30 now, oh god why, and I am pretty sure KH1 is still my most replayed game of all time. I go back to it once every other year, at least. And now that I am writing this, of course I'll do it again.
This is a lovely story, especially the part about your mom being happy to see your joy playing the games.
I had a modchipped PS2 slim in beautiful satin silver. My mom bought it for me from the UK but it came stock and only accepted UK region discs. I had a friend who had stacks and stacks of PS2 pirated games and in my home country stores only sold pirated PS2 discs since we never had any official game shops, so after I bought my PS2 I bought a lot of games myself only to find out I needed to modchip my PS2 to play these pirated discs. So I told my dad and he took me to a shop to get it modchipped. After that I had amassed a massive collection of PS2 games and KH2 was one of my all time favorites on the system. If I had imported the Final Mix games I would have been able to easily run it on my PS2 since I got it modchipped but I never got around to playing KH2 FM until last year when I started emulating the English patched fan mod on my phone.
I had my PS3 which wasn't modchipped since the PS3 wasn't region locked and didn't get cracked until quite a few years after release so stores brought original discs from various regions and I bought about 80 original discs on that console, but no 1.5 or 2.5 remix. I still have my PS4 slim where I bought KH3 on and I have a couple of gaming PCs and laptops and I could buy The Story So Far collection either on EGS or PSN anytime but the temptation of playing KH2 FM portably was too much. It runs very nicely on my phone, maxed out at 8x res. The emulator is AetherSX2. I'm about 75% of the way through it.
Another difference I noticed was there was a grind spot in the pridelands where you fight Scar and fight a horde of the tiny heartless. They changed the frequency of them appearing like the Land of Dragons example you provided. Instead of them instantly respawning, it takes multiple times of entering a room for them to appear again.
Damn, its so nostalgic! Back in 2015, when i had no access to consoles and was curios about kh franchise, i went along with the vanilla versions of the kh2 alongside kh1 and bbs in their respective platform emulators. Though kh2fm is far superior than vanilla, seeing the vanilla version again, espicially the original heartless colors made me tear up a bit.
Kinda late here, and maybe already posted, but the Xigbar sniper animation got outright censored in the vanilla game outside Japan. Like the hydra boss battle in Olympus. When you cut any of its heads, a black smoke appears, while in the OG Japanese version, there was the same green blood it had in the Disney movie.
I’m glad I’ll be able to have my son experience all of these games and I’m also glad that they are all on PS4 and Xbox. Even if it is the final mix editions, they are far better imo
Parenting advice: get your son a PS2 console and an OG copy of KH1 and KH2 greatest hits edition. Have him play it on an old school tv and then later on in life once he’s earned his right of passage synthesizing Ultima and beating Sephiroth on the PS2 controller, introduce him to the Final Mixes in crispy HD 60fps with the ReMaster (or the uncensored emulation version with an English patch if you want him to grow up to be a real one) with all the bonus content.
That is the journey one must walk if they wish to truly understand.
@@mistayoutubah unskippable cutscenes in KH1 is something one has to suffer through
@@KuronekoShrimpSama Repeatedly loosing to Riku II while underleveled... I think I memorised every line. I'm not gonna say it though, don't wanna evoke any pts or anything XD
@@mistayoutubah I can't tell if your joking...
@@jilp2002 why would I joke about Kingdom Hearts?
I think the change at 24:42 was maybe made because you use drive orbs to upgrade Master Form. Maybe they thought it was broken if people went room to room to gain exp for it. But on the other hand they still have it where you can reset your drive gauge from the Gummi Ship and Hades' Tournament so I have no idea.
For the Xigbar one, I believe that is actually something that was censored in the NA release. 2.5 decided to stick with the original for all versions.
Technically yes and no. The original animation was used in FM/2.5, but the censored targeting reticule was retained - KH2J used a different graphic for the targeting reticule which was.... I guess slightly more realistic than the three purple circles?
if I remember correctly Xigbar's lack of a sniper rifle was a change made only to the international version. I do believe it's still there in the original Japanese non-final mix version
one other change I didn't see mentioned was the change made to the top of Pride Rock. in the vanilla version there'd be a swarm of heartless up there that dropped only MP prizes which made it the perfect exp grinding spot. in Final Mix they lowered the spawn rate of the swarm and changed it so that they dropped HP prizes so you can't get the benefit of the exp booster abilities
Surprised you never mentioned the biggest change! In Pride Lands in vanilla, if you head to the top of Pride Rock, there's a ton of heartless to take out that expedited getting to the max level. In the Final Mix version, it's one singular heartless. The new method is similar to the vanilla, but there's a run through in The Workd That Never Was
I had the opposite reaction to the Explosion change. I distinctly remember being really confused during the section of Hollow Bastion when you're running up to the castle for the second Space Paranoids visit convinced I should have definitely had Explosion by that point. And I should have! If it was vanilla... Oh well, at least I finally got it not long after that point. I remember it coming in handy for when the SP Heartless are spawning into HB.
I had this "What's this 'final mix' thing on TH-cam?" mystery experience but with 'Birth By Sleep' as a young teenager. I remember being confused seeing Purple Unverse on TH-cam videos, rather then the vanilla Blue Unverse; as well as the secret chapter with aqua in the dark realm and extra cutscenes I hadn't unlocked, and extra arena bosses and post-game bosses.
It was pretty demorilizing at the time, to feel like I was missing out on the full Birth By Sleep experience. Especially with all the extra post-game content.
My best guess about fireworks 24:45 being less frequent to lessen the spam on Levering up master form
Can't begin to say how much I relate to the story at the beginning. I remember doing the same thing and being so excited when I finally found a prepatched english version of final mix. I also found BBSFM english patch and played it on the psp emu a few years later, boy, those we're the days. Now I'm on to modding KH3 and I gotta say I'm really happy with all the stuff the community has come up with and fixed, it's amazing. They even made an in-game version of all the X-keepers keyblades, yours and skyward wings are personally my favorites.
18:46 speaking true facts here. Even without the addition combo modifiers, kh2 vanilla combat still felt fluid and tight. It's a classic.
I recommend re fined mod (for 1st game at least I just started playing this series) auto save feature saved me a lot because of rare but present crashes and fov, rebinding options are pretty cool too
Thank you to everyone who worked on that KH2 FM English patch! I played it too and I felt so lucky to have found that in my teens.
I love your videos man.
Not sure if someone brought this up yet, but another difference I found was in The World That Never Was, the city areas had heartless enemies while the castle areas had nobodies. This was changed in the remix where the enemy types were swapped for each area.
i'm so happy that i still have a PS2 with kh1 and kh2 on it. and i got an xbox-S for the final mixes and kh3
Incredible video Jared, this brought back so many memories, makes me think about the fact that KH has been part of my life since basically forever, the analysis was also so in depth, I forgot about all the many changes final mix brought to KH2, I would really like a series of this, analysis about all KH games that had a final mix version and comparisons with the 2 versions. I don't know if KH1 has enough material about that since the original international ps2 version was actually very similar to final mix everything considered, while the original Japanese version was actually really lacking compared to FM, but BBS would be extremely interesting I think, anyway I'm digressing but well done, you nearly made me shed a few tears :')
I even miss having the whole game freeze for like 12 seconds when you entered a drive form
i still know that one day....
when i started the original kh 2 in 2012, i got it from my brothers who already played it a long time b4 that.
it was the first game i ever played in my whole life, i loved it
now im obsessed with the franchise again, cant wait for kh 4
I didn’t play Final Mix until a few years ago, but honestly for me there’s something so special about playing the OG KH2 on the PS2. That’s where it all started for me
this whole video was you me and maybe a lot of the community. , appreciate this a lot. I have been on a nostalgic railroad
The fireworks change in Land of Dragons was probably because it was super easy to farm drive orbs to level up master form. That’s what I used to do.
Great video! I've always wondered what were the differences between vanilla and Final Mix. I DEFINITELY miss the OG color schemes for the heartless. It bothers me so much when I replay the FM versions. They did our boi Soldier dirty with that re-color
PURPLE AND BLACK > YELLOW AND BROWN 🤢🤢🤢💩
One thing you forgot to mention, and something I abused back then, is in the vanilla version, at the top of Pride Rock, there are a ton of Rapid Thrusters up there that you could use to Level up to 99 VERY fast.
If you were to use Gravity (or any upgraded versions) you would be able to kill them all real fast. Leave the room and go back up to it and they are back again.
I remember pulling this off just so I could beat Sephiroth for the first time lol I was a little disappointed when this got removed, but looking on it now, they probably didn't want us abusing that anymore lol
You can still do that in the final mix version of KH2
@@anthonyrodriguez2038nope. they aren't there anymore
@@yinyangdragon3381 I did this on the ps4 version, honestly
Isn't gravity a kh1 spell?
@@personwhoplaysgames332 it's in KH2 as well
I honestly didn’t notice the colour changes of sora’s outfits in kh2 final mix. Truly incredible details overall!
I think we all became upsessed with KH2FM when we learned of its existence lol i researched endlessly trying to get my hands on it. Ill never forget the struggle. Funny thing is i read in the past that america was never going to get a patched version of FM as it was something special exclusive for japan
Kind of surprising you compared the 1.5/2.5 version to Vanilla, but not the PS2 version of Final Mix.
Another change is that in vanilla kingdom hearts. In the World that Never Was, shadows will always spawn in the valley no matter how far you make it in the castle. In the final mix version, when you beat xemnas for the first time, the valley will be filled with nobodies instead.
Prime farming ground for Wisdom EXP, and if you don’t plan for it in final mix you lose it
You forgot to mention Roxas' outfit got a texture overhaul as well in FM.
It's certainly harder to go back to the vanilla versions of the games now but just recently I played both Kingdom Hearts 1-2 FM via the story so far, then bought a PS2 and played through each on there, definitely a strange experience, but while EXTREMELY hard to adjust to, especially after playing so much of the FM versions for almost a decade now, but they still hold up exceptionally well and are still great experiences
Man, I had the exact same journey. When KH2 came out it was already becoming my favorite game of all time (still pretty high up on the list tbh) but searching KH2 content on TH-cam back in the day just left me heartbroken after seeing how sick Final Mix was. I can't believe it was a like a 9 year wait until I got to play it on PS3. But seeing this video really triggered such nostalgia: the original title screen, memories of the game without all the Final Mix additions, the initial emotions I had playing KH2 for the first time and falling in love with everything about it...
Yep. KH2, vanilla and Final Mix, are definitely my favorite KH games ever and solidly in my top 10 games of all time.
I remember being so excited when they first announced 2.5 having the final mix versions of the games. I was one of those kids that were morbidly curious about the extra bosses in the final mix version
One thing I noticed was different was Roxas’s battle voice. In 1.5+2.5 Roxas’s battle voice was changed to be a copy and paste of ventus voice. Tbh I prefer Roxas’s old voice.
I ABSOLUTELY kingdom hearts 2 in both formats. and yes, I was poking through TH-cam and came across the roxas fight and was instantly upset and confused why I couldn't fight him
Great video! One huge difference that you did not talk about is that the HD Final Mix has updated, fully orchestrated soundtrack, whereas the vanilla version has a fully synthetic/electronic soundtrack. I tend to prefer the synths because I grew up on the vanilla version, but the remastered music sounds fantastic! Real instruments bring out a great sound!
Synth gang for life -
“Booooop boooooooop beeeeeeeeeeep,
Booop booop booop beeep beep,-
boopy boooooooop, boooooop beeeeeeeep,
Boop beeep boop beeeep booop booooopy
booooooooooooooooooop…”
-Twilight Town, Lazy Afternoons
Twilight Town music just doesn't feel the same in the HD game..
@@keyblader1985 exactly, like it was very sweet of them to do an orchestral remake of the entire soundtrack for us, but the og vanilla synth just SMACKS SO HARD 🔥
You forgot Port Royals battle music had the proper Pirates of the Caribbean theme
Um, I don't know how you don't know this, but Xigbar's animation was actually changed in vanilla KH2 when coming over to the West to censor it. From what I've read, he originally put the guns into the sniper mode in the JP version, but this was censored everywhere else, as was the reticle. Final Mix when released overseas kept the animation of him putting the guns into the sniper mode, but changed the reticle. This is 1 of the few instances of censorship that was reverted in the release of Final Mix in the West from the vanilla release.
26:20 It’s actually changed to 15 seconds in final mix for the story fight. It was 13 seconds in the data fight. I bet so many controllers wouldn’t be broken if they just bumped up the timer by a few seconds.
The younger self thinking, "why isn't Kh2 didn't let me fight the PAST Organization 13 members. I haven't get a chance to fight Roxas, didn't see the extra cutscenes, not having a lot of abilities, and finally... I'm just glad I didn't get to use the critical mode
3:53 Well, the original version of KH1 in Japan only had the Phantom as a superboss as well as the additional cups and Synthesis, but the international version added Kurt Zisa, the Ice Titan, and Sephiroth, so it did actually have a pretty decent post-game or at least compared to base KH2. All FM added was Xemnas and the Special Heartless for Synthesis, which the latter some people consider a detriment than anything since it makes getting Ultima Weapon more of a pain in the butt.
I was obsessed with final mix as well, I wanted to get a Japanese ps2 and a copy but it’s better that I didn’t!
Let's not forget that ReCoM was originally bonus content for kh2fm+
There is a reason fireworks in Land of Dragons were given a new respawn rule. One of the forms gets XP by picking up drive orbs. So you'd go in and out of that room to speed level.
Another fun Form leveling trick. When the form is about to time out, go back to your Gummi Ship, before it reverts you. It will return the drive gauge you spent for that form.
I think the Firework respawn being nerfed in Final Mix was a direct response to the fact that it was the best place to grind up Master Form.
We saw something similar with them nerfing the top of Pride Rock in Pride Lands because it was the best level up spot.
Also the awkward Xigbar animation in the original game is because it was censored from the original Japanese release, they got rid of the sniper form on his guns in the English release, but 2.5 brought it back in all regions.
KH1FM was simply an upgraded version of KH1. But KH2FM; it's almost an entirely different game from KH2.
KH2 was my introduction to the series way back in 2006, back in a time when I didn't understand English as well as I did today (and playing games like these were key to keep me interested in learning the language). It's so cool going down memory lane and revisiting this awesome game.
The thing you said at the beginning. Having had played the original KH2 and stumbling upon Final Mix content on the Internet. I completely forgot about it, but you've evoked the exact same feeling I had way back when.
It's still so wild to me that when you talk about KH2 online, everyone asumes you're refering to the final mix version, and the vanilla version is considered rare. To this day, I haven't been able to play KH2 final mix yet and I'm a big fan of the series
I remember playing KH2 when it came out and recently just played final mix. There were so many things in it that I didn't remember it made me question if I even actually did play KH2 or if it was just a fever dream.
A big change from vanilla to FM was the Rapid Thruster change. In vanilla, a quick and popular way to grind up to 99, you would simply apply Gull Wing, go on top of Pride Rock after the 2nd visit where about 200 Rapid Thruster's were floating there, get damaged enough for the alarm to ring, then go crazy. The best part was that to refill the Rapid Thruster's once you killed them all, was just leave the room and enter again. It would take you only about 20-30 minutes to go from the 50's to 99.
In Final Mix, there is one single Rapid Thruster on top of Pride Rock. A little nod from the dev's to the fans that this quick grind session was o longer possible.
The best thing final mix did was bring back a reason to come back to worlds after getting movement abilities via the stickers. I loved the fact that pretty much after each world in kh1 you unlocked something in the earlier worlds. Either through New movement, new Trinity colors or spells.
Let's not forget the soundtrack updates in the final mix versions. The original midi for stuff like the Pirates theme sounds totally different.
I still have my PS2, AND KH2. But no TV that still has the Red, Yellow, and White cord inputs :/
But it's still wild to think about how Sora had the Halloween costume in Santa's workshop. And even wilder to now think about how it actually kinda fits better with the themes, more than the 'Goth Santa' costume from KH2FM.
It made Sora feel like more of a bridge between Halloween and Christmas, and helping Jack Skellington find/remember his own role in the holidays. Rather than feeling like a weird "egging Jack on" feeling to the costumes.
Jack was invading a holiday that wasn't his, and didn't realize what his holiday brought to the world. So Sora's original costume feels more like Sora keeping Jack in check.
(Edit) I didn't remember about Explosion until watching this. But now, I remember the first time I played FM, thinking it was weird how much I remembered Explosion being my most used finisher, versus Magnet Storm suddenly being my most used finisher.
It's cool to see that a lot of people had the same experience I had with final mix. For the longest time I thought that the different color pallets were a critical mode exclusive thing, where the buffed enemies had different colors to indicate a more elite status.
Just seeing the crown made me jealous.
Still crazy how the ps2 could handle all this
There's something to be said about vanilla Wisdom Form, Sora's arm textures were mistakenly taken from Master Form in every post-Japanese release and were fixed in FM+, the of Vanilla JP release dating back to 2005 did have the correct textures for the Wisdom Form and it's virtually identical to FM+
0:54 omg man, story of my life 😂
No mention of the Decisive Pumpkin bug? 😭
The best part of Vanilla KH2 is that it had French, German and Spanish dubs. Which sadly didn't get ported in HD ReMIX
KH 2 vanille will be a badass memory for life, I recently playd both vanilla version of the KH 1 and 2.............. man I am still used to the color of those heartless instead the one from final mix
i remember the official guide book for KH2 back in the day showed that Wisdom form with the blue flames sleeves, so i think it was always suppose to be the flames, but something went wrong along the way
the thing I miss the most when I played KH2 Vanilla was when fighting Sephiroth you get more sound effects when guarding his attack that hits you a bunch of times (or his opening attack in other words)
Literally the very franchise that started my love for video games, the first KH game was the absolute first game I ever played in my life and I'm happy that it was a huge part of my childhood. Being able to finally play KH2 on the PS2 so long ago was amazing. Now I have the KH collection for PS4 and I gotta say, playing through any of the KH games makes me feel like a kid again even though I never played any of the "in-between" installments as a kid. Also I have to say this... I'm happy that the PS2 version of KH2 is still very relevant in 2022... Yeah I know I made a corny joke about the number 2. XD
For 24:45, they made this change because people were farming the drive orbs to level up master form quickly instead of using the form in combat.
I have to say when it comes to original vs final mix I really really REALLY miss the original color palettes of the heartless in 1 and 2, the heartless were always very colorful and in style with the world they were encountered in but they were almost always made up of dark colors, final mix colors conjure up the "wacky rainbow candy piñatas" style that would later become the staple of the dream eaters of DDD.
My story with Final Mix pretty much matches yours, minus the part of selling games to buy a PC. I did emulate the game, but I did so through my crappy laptop. It was playable, but definitely not the best way to play it. But I didn't care back then, because I was finally playing the mysterious Japan-only version of my favorite PS2 game, and I got to experience all of the unique content it contained first-hand (apart from the secret bosses, because that lag made doing the Nobody gauntlet in CoR impossible lol).
I do agree, it is weird to think that there used to be a time where the FM versions were so highly sought after, seeing how they're pretty much the only way to get them on modern releases these days. I'm glad that they're so accessible now, especially considering how essential they are to the overall series lore, but I also can't help but reminisce to when I played the OG PS2 version, spending time grinding to lvl 99, fighting Sephiroth and getting the Fenrir, which back then was my greatest achievement in any game I played.
There is one more difference that I remember discovering when I was young. You could get interesting camera angles when in front of the door that leads to the final boss.
Kairi lol
That GREEN Morning Star at 3:05 really threw me off. I completely forgot what vanilla colors even looked like.
I never had a PS3 or PS4 and I didn't have a computer that could run a mod like that so for years, I was stuck with vanilla KH2. And I still loved it despite knowing that Final Mix existed. It wasn't until I got a PS5 I got to play it. In fact 1.5 and 2.5 collection was literally the first thing I bought for it. Final Mix is definitely better, but I can't deny the nostalgia love I have for vanilla.
I had played final mix originally but after becoming obsessed with kh so I bought kh2 for the ps2 just because it was my favorite game and while not the same as my preferred version it was still nice to have. And after a while I booted it up and played it, getting to the max level, ultima weapon, beating sephiroth, and the game. Though I did start to realize how much final mix did, It wasn't the kh2 I knew but it was still kh2 in a way. I think not getting Fenrir, not having the mushroom 13 to grind out certain drive forms, and the absence of my favorite fight in the series sora v roxas makes me appreciate final mix so much more
I think you also forget that in the vanilla version of Kingdom hearts two just like in Kingdom hearts one for me is that I wasn’t able to save the final progress after beating the endgame boss. Me and my brother was really frustrated of not able to save the final moments of the game so we had to save the final savepoint when facing the end game of the series. Still remember those moments when beating Ansem and Xemnas at the end and it showed like the end credit of all the stats and I couldn’t get out of it an I couldn’t save it. But thankfully in the full mix I was able to not just save the final progress of the game and be relieved that I fully finished the game and I could play the post game
My silly headcanon about the heartless color palettes changing is that it's an aftereffect of Namine messing with Sora's memories. Much like how Vanitas looks like Sora despite Sora having just been born when Vanitas was created (audience perception filter.)