Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories: Completed 100 Acre Woods. A very straightforward area with no actual combat aside from killing bees so Pooh can eat honey. Most of it is minigames. Also a fight with Vexen, who made me realize what the Organization XIII fights are actually supposed to be about: Watching the opponent's moves, and then countering them at the right time with my own sleights and cards instead of simply using brute force like with Larxene and the first two fights with Riku Replica. It took several tries to defeat Vexen, but honestly, finishing him off with Lethal Flame is a pretty memorable experience.

After getting past him and his shield, Vexen gave me a card for Twilight Town, which I presume is the location of the same name from Kingdom Hearts II.

… Marluxia and pain… even on GBA… but Castle Oblivion music… is amazing in a maze…

Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories: I gained two levels and tried a few more times against Axel. My winning attempt was perfect in that I was able to absolutely shred through his HP with several uses of Lethal Frame, leading to a flawless victory. After that, I saved up, went to fight Marluxia who was actually easier than Axel despite a few losses. Lethal Frame wins again!

Thankfully I don't have to take on all 3 forms at once. I saved the game after wiping the floor with Marluxia before taking on his final forms. During my failed attempts at the last two fights, I was Lv.54 at the time. Anyway, the Specter thankfully doesn't use sleights and can easily be card broken repeatedly like Maleficent. Lethal Frame is useless because the Specter is too high up to use Lethal Frame against. I thought my Stop cards would be a hindrance, but in actuality, they're useful for forcing the Specter to call off it's more dangerous attacks due to Card Break.

Marluxia's final form is tough. I can use Lethal Frame to lop off most of his HP, and unlike the previous phases, his attacks actually make him a challenge. I just need to overcome his Omni Laser and it'll be over. A bit of level grinding might allow me to overcome this final obstacle before I beat the game and unlock Riku's Story.

Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories: I did some level grinding and decided to boost my card space so I could have enough room to add Jafar to my deck, getting me to Lv.56. I decided to try my might against Marluxia's last two forms and figured that if I lost, I could simply go do some more level grinding since it seems to be far easier to gain levels during the late game.

Anyway, the Specter falls to my might once again, and even Marluxia himself ended up going down this time. Turns out that Jafar and Maleficent really are the best boss cards I can get for this battle. After that, Sora has to go sleep in that pod from Kingdom Hearts II to have his memories restored. Considering that Goofy and Donald left Sora in that pod, I wonder if their memories were restored to normal by Namine as well.

After the credits roll, I'm just happy that the game allows me to save after the final results screen this time. Also I unlocked Reverse/Rebirth mode, and I've begun that playthrough. I really like how Riku decides not to sleep in the void because it was a boring place to take a nap. After that I decided to go save the game.

… imagine final door… being 444 or higher…

Dear lord, I would have to spend hours doing battles in hopes of feeding the "4 is Death" door just to open it.

Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories: So Reverse/Rebirth was far easier than I expected, not that it's a bad thing (and I'm playing this on Proud Mode). The adventure starts off in Hollow Bastion, and I fear that I may have to fight Maleficent. Then I remember that it's Dragon Maleficent, who can be easily thwarted with repeated Card Breaks. After getting her card, I encounter Ansem and expect him to wipe the floor with me. Thankfully his fight was only a tutorial so I didn't have much to fear.

After that, I make a beeline to Agrabah because Jafar's card is one of the best ones. Jafar is still a joke, with his laser beam being the only threatening attack he has. Next up was Neverland, Captain Hook's attacks hurt but he went down easily, never getting the chance to use his barrels once. After him, Vexen shows up and I expect him to be an absolute nightmare. Nope. It was utterly satisfying to demolish him with Riku's powerset, with Dark Mode allowing me to shave off most of his HP.

My next stop is Monstro, and Parasite Cage is slightly annoying but with the help of Jafar and Maleficent's cards, nothing I couldn't handle. Then it's off to Traverse Town. The Guard Armour took some effort, because I was using Sleights to get it's HP down and it got me down to low HP. Still, I managed to win and moved onto the next set of cards. Riku Replica was an absolute joke and went down very easily; he's not even good enough to be my fake.

I had considered getting Wonderland out of the way but figured that getting Hades's card would be a smarter move. No Cloud Strife to be seen anywhere in Olympus Coliseum, just Hades. Hades went down easily, and I decided to make Wonderland my last stop. Wow, that place  is actually kinda tough and I died a few times. Those Creeper Plants are as loathsome as ever and a real pain too with Wonderland's restrictions. No Card Soldiers, but Trickmaster still remains and true to it's name, it was a tricky battle. After several attempts, I finally defeated them, left Wonderland and saved my game.

Riku's instant reload + having no restrictions on using boss cards = A fun time where I get to wipe the floor with the bosses that made my first playthrough so challenging the first time round.

… then the true final bonus boss… that never was… having 666…

… and Sora's Heartless… -1…

… congrats on beating Sora's Side… Riku's Return next… but possibly harder due to not being able to customize his deck…

… flashing back to some battles…

Huh, I had actually been thinking about a potential Sephiroth fight where he has a perfect all 9s deck and can use the strongest sleights in the game. Also, thanks for the congratulations.

Zeroes are a double-edged sword, as it were.

Games Progress
Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix: It begins! I considered just doing this on Proud Mode before deciding to start my playthrough on Critical Mode. I'm not sure if the pacing for the Roxas prologue was improved for the Final Mix version of this game, or my perspective has simply changed, but it's actually not as bad as I remembered it being. Sure, an option to skip the Roxas segment would've been nice, but considering how everything flows, I'm not too mad. As for weapons, I picked the Struggle Sword, because I picked it during my run of the original game.

For the Twilight Thorn fight, I decided to grind to Lv.5 after getting defeated once. Taking down Axel felt cathartic after all the trouble he gave me in Kingdom Hearts: ReChain of Memories. Sora looks kinda awkward in his KH clothes though he ends up getting a nice new outfit. After leaving Twilight Town, I encounter Pete, then defeat a bunch of Heartless and visit Yen Sid. After leaving Yen Sid's tower, I make it to Hollow Bastion and advance the plot a bit, meeting several of the Final Fantasy characters from the previous game in the process.