Is the Combat Bad Or A I Not Getting Something?

[Ben]

No matter how hard i try to learn attack patterns and stay out of the way sora just swing so damn slow and I can't get him to land a hit, I'm level 11 and only have the 3 abilities of slide attack, scan, and dodge roll. I thought with the dodge roll i could at least get away but there is this huge time gap where an attack ends and sora moving begins. half the time i just feel like I'm running in circles waiting for enemies to tire out for me to hit them. And when I do a 3 hit combo i more often than not end up getting hit cause sora decides to stop responding to my input. I'm only at the deep jungle but with the only abilities i have availible to me this feels like ♥♥♥♥ to play. i cant control the camera well enough cause its too slow and the target system is so unreliable that I don't even bother half the time. along with getting countered every few chances I can land a blow its becoming very frustrating. Just wanted to know if these are common problems

[Vancouver Salad :)]

The game is too easy. I am using the Kingdom Key only the first weapon and I am up to hollow bastion lol and playing on Proud mode the hardest. I did choose the shield first and staff and sacrificed the sword to survive better.

[Consul]

If you are playing kingdom hearts 1, it gets a lot better and fluid once you get more skills. KH2 in general is a faster and more responsive game. I definitely felt the same way you did during my original playthrough of KH1 though.

[Rascal]

You need to level up more, and change your equipment probably. White fang and Brave Warrior are good accessories to use at the start for the strength increases.

What choices did you make at the start? Are you on Proud?

Also the camera sucks in KH1, that's just an unfortunate issue you'll have to live with unless you get the cam mod off nexus mods.

[Ben]

Originally posted by The Goofy:

You need to level up more, and change your equipment probably. White fang and Brave Warrior are good accessories to use at the start for the strength increases.

What choices did you make at the start? Are you on Proud?

Also the camera sucks in KH1, that's just an unfortunate issue you'll have to live with unless you get the cam mod off nexus mods.

I'm on KH1 on standard. I chose the sword and the staff and sacrificed the shield. Sora just keeps swinging and unless the heartless is basically touching Sora I cant get sora to swing and hit them. especially in the air, either i have to jump and one hit at a time or get a full attack off and get hit by something else. I want to believe that im just missing something fundamentally but the more i play the more i get frustrated that i paid as much as i did for this game that hasn't been updated since 2004 at least. Part of me just wants to skip, the other wants to see it through but damn i cant imagine what it was like back in 2002, this would be considered unplayable by todays standards

[Ben]

Originally posted by shart:

The game is too easy. I am using the Kingdom Key only the first weapon and I am up to hollow bastion lol and playing on Proud mode the hardest. I did choose the shield first and staff and sacrificed the sword to survive better.

Originally posted by shart:

The game is too easy. I am using the Kingdom Key only the first weapon and I am up to hollow bastion lol and playing on Proud mode the hardest. I did choose the shield first and staff and sacrificed the sword to survive better.

thank you for the well thought out and informative advice

[mdesaleah]

Also magic

Fire can track enemies, lighting is pretty good, gravity can force flying enemies onto the ground, air for defense……

[Toasty]

KH1FM combat is a little slow. Your level, equipment, and strategy matter a lot in that game.

So no, you're not alone. It does get better as you unlock more magic and better equipment.

[Protoman]

Yes, combat is a little slow. It becomes better when you get combo extenders and more abilities. One thing that helps is to start combos from a jumping attack, so you reach the ground right after the first hit, and can continue the combo from the ground.

[Rascal]

Originally posted by Ben:

Originally posted by The Goofy:

You need to level up more, and change your equipment probably. White fang and Brave Warrior are good accessories to use at the start for the strength increases.

What choices did you make at the start? Are you on Proud?

Also the camera sucks in KH1, that's just an unfortunate issue you'll have to live with unless you get the cam mod off nexus mods.

I'm on KH1 on standard. I chose the sword and the staff and sacrificed the shield. Sora just keeps swinging and unless the heartless is basically touching Sora I cant get sora to swing and hit them. especially in the air, either i have to jump and one hit at a time or get a full attack off and get hit by something else. I want to believe that im just missing something fundamentally but the more i play the more i get frustrated that i paid as much as i did for this game that hasn't been updated since 2004 at least. Part of me just wants to skip, the other wants to see it through but damn i cant imagine what it was like back in 2002, this would be considered unplayable by todays standards

+Sword -Shield is probably the worst set up. You have the lowest defense set up. Also take into account the destiny island quiz determines how you level up. I'd recommend doing all middle choices for balanced leveling. +Shield -Staff is my preferred set up. Highest defense and maxed item slots. +Shield -Sword if you want more AP.

[Slimurgical (Stormy)]

Personally I haven't played KH1 fully yet but I totally understand where you're coming from, I personally found it much more sluggish and difficult to play compared to KH2, when playing KH2 you can tell the developers learned maaaaaaany lessons on what gameplay aspects aren't great and what is fun.
What I remember of my original playthrough up to the first Cup tourney, there legitimately are enemies that will punish a full combo attack, so use only one or two attacks against them. Also certain skills that give you more options in combat will always be better than those that just provide stats. In KH2 this is Aerial Recovery over extra spell damage. While KH1 has less of these, iirc, it still has these skills you can equip.
Your jump is ultimately also a valuable part of your arsenal, in the end you're going to take damage, so take every opportunity to increase your level, this means that when you're going back for hidden chests and you encounter previously-destroyed encounters, it means doing it again.

It's a non-CRPG RPG, you will unquestionably have to do some grinding at points as a new player of the game. When you get access to Rock Titan, that's apparently the #1 best grinding method in KH1. Your power is explicitly tied to your stats, but while you can also dodge certain attacks, mobility skills are king and your level being regularly maintained with repeating encounters in the latest area you have access to will be what you need to do to maintain your ability to progress. The need for grinding isn't frequent, but the higher your level, the easier the game gets, no games really design themselves around the player getting to insanely high levels.
Also Munny for Potions/Ethers and later accessories is a big help.

The game will get easier as you learn more about it and it's especially true of KH1 than 2. Also just a fair warning, if you do beat KH1 and move onto Chain of Memories, that game controls similarly to KH1, but is also a card building game where all of your attacks are cards in your deck and grinding is even more important.
I wouldn't say KH1 is unplayable by today's standards considering some games made by AAA companies just flat-out don't work or are the same as games from 14 years ago and are so boring so as to be mentally unplayable, it's just slower in terms of how Sora recovers from using actions, how fast he moves and how easily he can gain mobility.

IIRC, the game is easy until you fight Guard Armor when it's almost universally the hardest boss you'll quickly encounter in (probably) the entire series. I can semi-reliably no-hit Twilight Thorn (the first KH2 boss) due to reaction commands being overpowered, but Guard Armor is the first boss that effectively teaches you how the combat functions.

1. Sora's attacks, if it hits the hitbox of an enemy's attack, will interrupt it and briefly stagger the enemy, which is in-game known as Parrying. You'll know it happens as a special sound plays, and a white circle will appear where the parry happened, usually the enemy's attack will be interrupted, or they'll be delayed in their next attacks longer than normal.
2. Jumping is an effective way to evade attacks. Some attacks can only be evaded with a well-timed jump.
3. As far as I know, all enemies have tells for their attacks, but the window is very brief for some. KH1, in my experience, is kind of one of the harder RPGs that predate Dark Souls and, for certain fights, can be put in the exact same category (if not potentially a higher one).
4. Aerial combos are faster than ground combos, which is why you'll often see speedrunners using them whenever possible as both combo types do identical damage without any combo extending skills. Animation Jail for ground combos lasts as long as the animations themselves, for Aerial Combos, it ends the moment you land which is still faster. This point is the same in KH2 as well, the attack animations are faster by almost 50% if not more, KH2 balances it by having the most damaging combos be on the ground. No hit runs utilize primarily aerial combos as mobility is the most important part, and the 2nd is memorizing enemy attack patterns as, iirc, every single attack.
5. Save for specific boss fights, there's no trade-off in keeping a long distance from enemies.

Any other tips for specific fights I think will only come down to the fight itself, so you can either try different things, look up walkthroughs/speedruns or ask in the forums.

I started with KH2 and while I prefer that, I also enjoy KH1's gameplay. A slower game never means a worse game, it just means the player is punished more for not paying attention and playing without thinking.

[Mustachious]

The basic attack is indeed very sluggish, but combos aren't so bad. And a lot of heartless fly around all crazy making them hard to hit, so I get you. There's often some kind of lull in their patterns when you can get an attack in, though. Aerial attacks are also a little easier to land. You'll also get a parry later, which can deflect attacks with much better time window than your regular attack (which can often stun enemies). Since you picked sword, you'll get it at level 24.

Magic will come to you over time and it's WAY better than physical attacks in this game, though you'll have to use physical attacks to regain MP. Sadly picking the sword, you won't get MP Haste until level 45. Thunder is my favorite spell as it's a decently powerful AoE, though Fire can be spammed quickly, and Blizzard has interesting range that makes it useful in certain situations. You'll EVENTUALLY get access to time magic which can freeze enemies in place and allow you to whack away at them without worry.

But yeah, it's not super refined in the first game. Later games nail it a lot better.

[Drake Platinum THE WORLD]

I never liked the combat in these games. I purely play for the plot. I think the control scheme is terrible too. I wish you could remap it to something decent. At least it does get bearable in the later games and as you level + get better equipment

[Scrof]

KH1 is pretty terrible in general (and I understand it, it was a wildly experimental product of its time, so I respect it nonetheless), but worth it to properly get into the series. Just bear with it.

[Atom]

Playing it for the first time in a decade and honestly really enjoying it. It's a bit clunky but it's very deliberate and quite strategic. All the bosses have tells, you have to be careful and watch for openings. Early on before you have cure can be pretty tough as well, I've found it generally gets easier. Also many bosses have certain tricks to them that you have to figure out. It's an interesting game with a lot of secrets and cool levels that they'd pare back in KH2 even though the combat in that game is a massive step up.

[BearddOddity]

i am on proud mode using base key and yes its still easy just gotta dodge roll