Kingdom Hearts

>Raeng
Reflect has risks, but if one learns to reduce that factor, Reflect can be a pretty fun ability to use. I think it's my favorite videogame-related move to use.

>can't tell what's going on if you haven't played it
I can relate.

>glass breaking
Precisely.

>Reflect can be a pretty fun ability to use
Is it the optimal damage method? Are there alternatives?

>optimal damage method
It is one of many other methods. I just hold it in higher regard for personal reasons.

>alternatives
To go about fights efficiently? Plenty.

I'm going to have to borrow the PS4 version from my brother. It's been on my list for years. Time to end this.

Is there a definitive list of every difference between the PS2 and PS4 versions?

I have an ISO for PS2 but my old TV is in storage because it's huge.

>list
Not sure if someone listed everything, and I haven't played the PS4 version myself. But based on the things I've seen people like SBK, Hotel, etc. say about it, most, if not all of the changes resulted from the jump to 60 FPS.

-Blizzard's finisher no longer has Restrained Revenge properties. This spell is probably the worst one (relatively speaking) outside weaknesses, so the removal of that property makes it seem even worse.
-Duckflare (and perhaps others) didn't put a cap on how many rockets appeared (supposedly also present in vanilla KH2, FM put the cap on it, but the remaster removed it again).
-Quick Run's animation lasts longer in the PS2 version.
-It's easier to beat the problematic mushrooms within the time limit at Lv 1 (with no stat boosts) in the PS4 version. It is still doable in the PS2 version, but harder to do nonetheless.

And obviously, FM2 is all in Japanese (unless you patch it, but last time I tried this, the PS2 didn't read the disc. Must be only playable on an emulator).

@RedShot might be able to fill in the gaps if I missed anything.

I'd only add:
- more aggressive enemies in 60 fps releases (especially right after a spawn), it's not so noticeable in a normal run but some instant hits could feel "cheap" due to that;
- there are some little graphics effects like screen shaking during certain bosses' attacks that you can find only in the original version (very minor stuff);
- 60 fps alter your decision making on the right evasive maneuver, but only in few sporadic cases (Guard or Dodge Roll instead of proper positioning).

Blizzard and Duckflare are the most important differences, because in the first case the (already) weakest spell has lost almost all of its uses after the early game and in the second one the overpowered Limit trivializes many encounters, while before it was decent and only one of several options.

Sounds gross. I'll try get this undub ISO working.

Won't let me ESR patch the undub ISO. Weird. It's the only one I've ever seen that does this. A message pops up saying 'missing UDF desc'.

Could get the Japanese version easily but don't feel like struggling.

PS4 it is. Should be good enough.

Redshot: So, was Duckflare the only Limit to have been affected?

Birdman: Ninja'd. Was going to say that I hope you could tolerate the translating, but I understand that it would be something that not everyone would be into.

Oh well, still hope you can have a good time with the remaster.

Got to Sora. Really trying to like this game but just don't.

Really don't like the character movement. No way to drop quickly out of the air (yet) and hate how he jumps by himself on flying or jumping enemies.

Don't like these reaction commands either.

Just got Blizzard.

It's mostly really different, I think that has a lot of value in and of itself.

> movement
Takes some getting used to. Movement is more secondary, since most of the movement is given in moves themselves. It's more for a quick reposition imo.

> auto jump
Don't fight it.

> reaction commands
They're basic unique attacks that you have against specific foes. It's a wacky system but it's growing on me tbh.

>movement is secondary
To attacking?
So once you have more moves do you not actually run around much, rather use the movement generated by attacks?

>Don't fight it
How can I not? It's bizarre. Don't think I've played anything that does this.
Is there any way, either now or later, to get out of the air faster?

>reaction commands
Don't like being forced into different positions. Sometimes thrown into the air. I can see that if I were to replay later after knowing what they all do it probably wouldn't be as annoying.

I tend to just ignore them and just run around looking for openings. Like when those grey, bendy things slide behind me I just short jump over their attack and air attack them.

Maybe in the end with all moves and abilities it all seamlessly flows together. I'm determined to see it through no matter how I feel now.

> Movement
Yeah you'll eventually get more mobility moves as well. So far the only time I really 'walk' is for microrepositions or really to walk to the next fight. It's pretty interesting how they handled it honestly.

> aerial
Maybe not super true what I'm saying, but you should generally avoid the ground-strings I feel. They're far too slow and lack recovery while aerials are pretty safe and fast.

> reaction commands
Too true, have the same feeling. Once you've fought certain enemies more than a few times you'll incorporate them more into your gameplan.

Got the hang auto jumping to flying or jumping enemies. I still tend to jump myself though.

>avoid ground strings
Yeah I've been doing low air strings.

Easy to deal with the fat guys by jumping over and hitting from behind.

>reactions
I keep forgetting about them. Like when those fat guys slide at you, I still jump.

Never imagined you both would be playing the game at the same time. This is great.

>aerial combos
Early on, they're faster than doing ground strings. You will get some combo modifiers later which gives ground combos a lot more appeal. Not to mention that some later enemies (like Dancers) will discourage you from using aerial strings if they're trying to grab you. Still though, aerial remains relevant mostly because of HS (speaking for Base Form only).

Final Reflect gives Sora an option to stay safe in the air, while dropping to the ground in the process (this is the only way to use Reflect and not cause Sora to float).

>reaction commands
There's some RCs you would want to use more often than others, or even over Sora's own tools. In the 1000 heartless fight, you will most likely use the laser RC (I don't like the other RC that's available for that fight *forces you into the air and more often than not there's some mobs waiting to hit you when landing*). They generally grant i-frames during the animation.

Got stonewalled pretty hard by the Roxas(?) fight near the end, haven't been able to beat him. The difficulty spike seems out of this world, so far I've beaten most fights on my first try but I haven't even gotten close to nailing him. Going to do some other worlds first now, see if I can get some new abilities.

Yeah Roxas is definitely harder than stuff you've beaten up to this point, I'd say he's comparable to some Absent Silhouettes. The QTE also has a pretty small window of success.

Did you beat every other world by now? Some of them have upgrades to your existing spells (including Reflect).

When you beat Roxas, enjoy the ability you get from him. With it, you'll be able to chain magic with melee. Also, Final Form is not gotten like every other Drive you have unlocked. You get it randomly from using a Drive in-battle (but when you do get it, you'll be able to use it whenever you want. Also, you can only hope to get Final AFTER you beat Roxas). Equip the keyblade that Roxas gives you to increase the odds a little (this also means that you'll get Anti Form instead, but I find that using that keyblade gives me more chances to get Final than not using it at all). When you unlock Final, unequip that Keyblade. Unless you want to use Anti Form every time.

I'm clearing the other worlds first, I kinda wanted to go to this world first but wasn't prepared for sure a huge difficulty jump to be honest. Going to see how it all goes! Should probably finish the game this week.

What's this double sword state I have?

Raeng: Will you be tackling the postgame (the hole near one of the save points in Hollow Bastion, and LW *the latter found in a different location*) after finishing the main game? If you will, in order to unlock everything in the Garden of Assemblage (area at the end of the Cavern of Remembrance), you must beat the Absent Silhouettes and then finish the game.

Sephiroth can be found in the Dark Depths (think that's how it was called) at Hollow Bastion as well (you don't need to beat the game to face him). Unlike every other superboss, you can only fight Sephiroth once, so I suggest to have a separate file if you want to learn his fight better in the future.

You will probably hate this bit. In order to unlock LW, you must clear every world... Including Ariel's, and 100 Acre Wood... Everything. Then you must beat the final boss. Though if you already cleared all of the worlds, great. Save the game after you see the end credits, go back to it, and you should see something different in the world selection map.

There's also the Underworld Cups if you're interested.

And one last thing. Whenever you want to revisit the game on Critical, equip EXP Zero to Roxas the instant you get it, and create two different save files whenever you get Sora. Then you can unequip EXP Zero and do a normal leveled run in one file, and when you're up to tackling Lv 1 Crit, you won't have to put up with the Roxas bit again by reloading your second save file with Sora still at Lv 1.

Birdman: That would be Valor Form. Your first Drive in the game. Basically a moveset swap. You can skip to finishers with this if you press X and then square, or immediately start an aerial combo without manually jumping or targeting aerial enemies by just pressing square (and if you want to skip to the finisher, press square a second time, otherwise keep pressing X).

And, as you probably have found out already, this costs a resource if you want to use it. Namely, three Drive bars. Sora gets fully healed (basically an Elixir that costs Drive bars) and, as noted, his entire moveset changes. Even the way offensive spells work (this doesn't apply to some forms, like Valor which can't use Magic) will change as well.

Beat KH2. Like KH1 I felt the game really went down the shitter near the end in terms of 'overall package'. The bosses were ofcourse cool and unique, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it more on replays in terms of experimentation etc. But the whole game just dragged on, with endless cutscenes where people stand around boringly talking about light, darkness, friends and all other cliche concepts.

I have to admit for the last fights I really just spammed Reflect.

The archer-boss was probably my least favourite with so little openings near the end. I ended up cheesing him with one of Donald's limits just to be rid of him.

Also ended up skipping the last few cutscenes since I really just couldn't stomach it anymore. I almost felt embarresed for the voice-actor of Mickey Mouse, what the hell must he have been thinking reading those lines?

Started a bit with 0.2 and 3, but both played very...laggy, so I shut them off and booted KH1 Proud up to give it a propper completion.

Just beat Tarzan's Jungle in KH1 Proud, really liking the game more now than my initial playthrough. Skipping the cutscenes is an absolute blessing, though some I don't skip since certain interactions are just so joyous (especially concerning Donald).

Mechnically it's pretty neat still, and the exploration is growing on me more and more. I know I originally hated that aspect, but when it was gone KH2 felt very empty as a result. Looking forward to playing more!

>0.2 and 3
Not really looking forward to these myself. But it would be interesting to see your take on these after completing everything in 1 and 2, so you can see how different Tokyo (1 and 2) and Osaka (the handhelds, 0.2 and 3) are in terms of designing a KH game.

>I know I originally hated that aspect, but when it was gone KH2 felt very empty as a result.
Yep, this is basically how most players feel when playing 2. The closest thing you'll get to that (arguably handled better) in 2 is the Cavern of Remembrance.

I think I'll save KH3 and 0.2 until I've played the entire series as well as they've been re-released on higher-end systems. It's just not enjoyable for me currently.

> KH1
Almost through Agrahba. Super enjoyable I have to say so far, some attacks have a bit too much damage-output for my liking, but there's few things as enjoyable as just straight up nuking a group of foes with Blizzard. Really enjoy the magic in this series the most. I also like how more 'basic' Sora's kit is in KH1 and that it's more about positioning and just the joy of exploration. There's a lot of hidden items too which is fun (like the Experiments in the Jungle, and the ton of hidden chests in Wonderland).

Put in quite a bit of sessions, just entered 'the end of the world'. Really enjoyed the game this time, a lot more than before. I've toyed more with the RPG mechanics as well with some fun results:

- stacked magic with Bambi to Stop>Grav>Grav>Stop Malificent's Dragon form to death. Absolutely hilarious how well that worked: https://twitter.com/RoytaMustDie/status/1487729534095040514

- stacked STR to nuke Hercules

It's interesting how flexible you are with just a few ring-slots and a keyblade paired with what spells you decide to bring to the fight. Atlantica for instance was completely trivialized by just spamming Fira (though giant-ursula was a bit of a grind mind you).

I tried my hand at Sephiroth for fun and got blasted in a few second haha.

I forgot but can I go beat the game now and then just do the post-game stuff?

Glad you had more fun with the game, Roy! Yeah, Stop + Gravity is perhaps the best way to handle Dragon Maleficent. Also, not sure if you decided to stay grounded to collect the MP orbs easier, but you can cancel the magic animation via jumping, casting a spell, and landing. This speeds things up notably, especially for spamming anything that isn't Fire.

>beat the game and then do the post game stuff
Not sure. IIRC the only game to let you save a 'Clear Data' file is KH2FM (excluding the spin-offs), but couldn't tell you if this changed for the 1.5 Remaster.

Did some digging, apparently you can just save before the final boss and use that as a savepoint. Any recommended levels for these bosses? I know you can do them Level-1 but you've got a massive damage boost doing that IIRC.

EDIT: also going to start working towards Ultima Weapon soon. Wonder if it's worth it and not too much of a grind.

The 50's or maybe lower 60's should be fine, I think.

>Ultima Weapon
You will hate the grind. Most of its materials require fighting with the gimmick heartless multiple times each.

Yeah I'm already debating whether or not I'll do it tbh. I might just not do it and keep it at the hidden bosses because a) I don't like grinding b) I'd prefer to have it on my physical PS2 copy down the line.

Got the Ultima Weapon and did all the side content. It was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I kinda liked the grinding to be honest. There were a lot of fun and unique enemies I never saw before.

The hidden bosses were all a bit too gimmicky for my tastes, or too easy. Hades I just used Stopra until death. Ice Giant was more of an annoyance with a very singular way of handling it, while Kurt was pretty cool but not too threatening. Phantom took a few tries before I figured out what to do, after which I immediately no-damaged him since he's sooooooo passive and only has two moves.

Sephiroth was a big challenge, I had to use Strike Raid to avoid a few of his moves and honest to god I have no idea how to dodge some of his strikes. I ended up tanking quite a few hits with Aeroga and Elixers. Unknown got his ass handed by Gravigra.

Ironically, because I did all this, the final boss was a total pushover and I just wailed on him with Aeroga active and laughed as his health just drained. Sweet, sweet vegeance.

In hindsight, this game really has grown on me and stands heads and shoulders next to the other greats of the era in my eyes. It really has that great niche of "great adventure game that just happens to have fantastic combat" like Ninja Gaiden Black or Devil May Cry 1 did. An absolute classic that I think I'll revisit many more times in the future.

>In hindsight, this game really has grown on me and stands heads and shoulders next to the other greats of the era in my eyes. It really has that great niche of "great adventure game that just happens to have fantastic combat" like Ninja Gaiden Black or Devil May Cry 1 did. An absolute classic that I think I'll revisit many more times in the future.

Glad to know you enjoyed it, Roy. I'll need to revisit it sometime as well. Need to mess around with spells and DPS more.

I have a question, for those who played the PC port (or know of someone who played it), specifically about 2FM. Does anyone know if the PC version lets you switch to 30 FPS, and if so, does it fix the problems introduced in the HD releases (Blizzaga, Duckflare)? @RedShot , do you know anything about this?

Phoenix Wright wrote:I have a question, for those who played the PC port (or know of someone who played it), specifically about 2FM. Does anyone know if the PC version lets you switch to 30 FPS, and if so, does it fix the problems introduced in the HD releases (Blizzaga, Duckflare)? @RedShot , do you know anything about this?

The PC port is more or less the PS4 remaster with added options (you chan change framerate, you can swap "X" and "O" buttons, etc.) but less stability. Pre-patch you could encounter several crashes, but it can happen even if you install the last update. It seems it depends on your PC, some people don't have any problems running it on their PC.

If you select "30 fps" it fixes some things (some enemies are no longer too aggressive when they spawn, you can use spacing to dodge some attacks instead of Dodge Roll or Guard), but Blizzaga is like in other ports. Duckflare could be fixed in the Japanese PC port but I'm not sure.

The most authentic experience is still on PS2 and I'd play it on that platform if I could (on a CRT TV for the best result). On PS3 you have 30 fps and a working Blizzaga, but it can crash and there are longer load times (especially for Drive Forms), plus some RCs bugs that could force you to repeat boss fights. If you pause for some seconds after using a Drive Form the animation is a bit faster, though. The Japanese PS3 version has swapped Action and Jump buttons (like in the original Final Mix and Japanese games in general) and Duckflare works as intended.

At the moment, I alternate between the PS4 remaster and the original game on PCSX2. I didn't have much luck with the PC port and I don't have much interest in mods, but you should consider them too.

>crashes
Oof.

>30 FPS doesn't fix Blizzaga
Shame. Somebody was asking me which version would be the best to play, and wondered if this setting would replicate the original FM version. Oh well.

>alternating between PS4 version and PCSX2
How's the input lag for the latter? Been a while since I've messed around with that emulator. Think the only improvement the former has over the latter are fewer load times, and that's probably it. Fortunately, I'm able to play it on a real console. The person who wanted to play these games decided to try using an emulator.

>mods
Don't know if there's anything that can fix the noted issues, but yeah, worth keeping in mind. Thanks for the info.

>How's the input lag for the emulated version?
I'm using one of the latest builds (v1.7.2435) and there's less input lag than in previous versions, but I'd still choose original hardware if possible. For general play I'd say the PS4 remaster is the best choice. Instantaneous load times, very good looking graphics (except some models which are subpar quality), remastered soundtrack (I prefer the original ost sometimes but they have made a good job overall), if you buy it on PS4 you have access to other KH titles (if you buy the 1.5+2.5 Collection you also have KH1FM, CoM and BBS).

>The person who wanted to play these games decided to try using an emulator.
It's a good choice if this person wants the closest experience to the original one and will replay the games more times. If not, PS4 is good enough and it is recommended by most speed and challenge runners if you don't look for specific things.

I want to add that it's impossible to skip cutscenes in KH1FM on PS2 or emulator, but thanks to PCSX2 you can unlock the framerate to speed up cutscenes and then create a save state when the fight starts. Riku and Ansem fights can become a nightmare if you still need to learn their patterns or you are under restricted conditions.

Furthermore,"EXP Zero" was added in the PS3 port and it's available on all platforms, except on PS2. I don't like Level 1 in this game (I find Proud Mode without some OP abilities and overlevelling better balanced), but it's worth to note.

>I'm using one of the latest builds (v1.7.2435) and there's less input lag than in previous versions
Worth keeping in mind if there's no way to use a real PS2.

>but I'd still choose original hardware if possible
Indeed.

>It's a good choice if this person wants the closest experience to the original one and will replay the games more times.
The only means of playing the games for him is via a computer (so, emulation or the PC port). Not sure if he's willing to play the game a second time after he finishes it. Well, actually, he's going to play both 1 and 2. Hopefully it is to his liking.

>I want to add that it's impossible to skip cutscenes in KH1FM on PS2 or emulator
Been a while, but doesn't the game let you choose between watch the cutscene again, or skip it altogether if you die? Either way, I agree that the faster way to go about it is by using a save state before a boss fight.

>I don't like Level 1 in this game (I find Proud Mode without some OP abilities and overlevelling better balanced), but it's worth to note.
Never used this ability as I don't have any way to play the remaster of 1, but I heard Sora is stuck with his basic combo modifiers that he gets from leveling up. At best, he could get Zantetsuken (not sure if others *like Gravity Break* were obtained via story progression or beating a boss). And IIRC Exo Zero lets a Lv 1 Sora get rid of, say, Kurt Zisa, faster than if he were at Lv 100 (without Exp Zero). And there was also a hidden Second Chance tied to that ability. KH2's Lv 1 is better in every way.

I've only played some of KH1FM almost 2 years ago on X1X (really enjoyed it BTW, and I want to play the series), But I'm here to comment on PCSX2.

I can also confirm that the latest builds significantly reduced input lag. While I can't confirm nor deny that myself, one of the testers on their Discord said that input lag is the same as a real PS2. FWIW, I tested DMC3SE on PCSX2 and then the 2 native PC ports - all 3 versions felt the same to me in regards to input lag, which is a great thing of course.

As much as I'm a sucker for 60 fps, I think I'll go for PCSX2 and see how I feel about it. AFAIK KH emulates very well and without any emulation bugs.

@Phoenix Wright
>Doesn't KH1FM let you choose between watch the cutscene again, or skip it altogether if you die?
I remember for sure you can't skip cutscenes the first time you encounter them even if you have already finished the game in another file. I'm not sure if it's possible to skip them when you die, but I doubt it.

>I heard Sora is stuck with his basic combo modifiers that he gets from leveling up.
Yeah, you have a decent selection of special abilities even at Level 1, but combo modifiers are too limited. You can obtain Gravity Break as a reward for Hercules Cup time trial, but I don't know if it's possible to beat it at Level 1. I remember one of the time trials was unwinnable under that condition.

>KH2's Lv 1 is better in every way.
Absolutely. I'm a big fan of KH1FM, but you have to level up to get the most out of it. You can always turn off some abilities if you want a harder challenge.

@GN1
>I tested DMC3SE on PCSX2 and then the 2 native PC ports
I only have the HD Collection on Steam, but some time ago I read on Reddit that the standalone port has less input lag and you can do some multi-hit moves without modding the game like in the PS2 release. It was something related to the Style meter.

It seems PCSX2 is becoming more and more refined. I wonder if God Hand feels better to play now, because until not long ago it had noticeable less input lag on PS3 (even if the best version was once again on PS2, despite some drops).

>60 fps
I can't stand modern games like Horizon Zero Dawn if they are only at 30 fps, but I find RE4, God Hand and Kingdom Hearts very fluid to look at even if they don't reach 60 fps. I think their animations were perfectly crafted for that framerate, but I'm no expert on this subject.

>30 or 60 fps

Agreed here. God Hand and RE4 feel really good at 30 fps (I'm emulating RE4 as well, PC version felt off to me), they were clearly well built around that.

>PCSX2

the only TV I could connect my PS2 to has horrible input lag, hence I can't test it before getting the necessary HDMI converters etc to connect it to the same PC monitor I'm using now.

DMC3SE really felt like I was playing the native PC game in terms of input lag, and it emulates very well. Only issue is ghosting above 1x native, but at native res it emulates perfect AFAIK.

I'm actually playing God Hand on PCSX2 now. Feels really smooth and responsive. It also works and upscales really well. 6 months ago I didn't want to play anything on PCSX2 due to input lag, but now every game I tested feels so much better.

In general though, I'd always pick emulation over real hardware assuming no emulation bugs/glitches and no input lag issues so take that as you will. PCSX2 got massive improvements and refinements lately, and I'm glad to say that for most games at least, it reached that mark.

Some tips for reducing input lag: Download the latest build, disable vsync, play on fullscreen mode only and set MTGS queue to 0. Works like a dream on a VRR monitor.

>I'm emulating RE4 as well, PC version felt off to me
I thought I was the only one who wasn't satisfied with the PC version. Thankfully, the HD Project mod fixes some bugs and now you can choose 60 fps that feel smooth and at the same time you get superior textures that no other port has. I wouldn't limit the PC port's framerate to 30, I'd use Gamecube/Dolphin for that kind of experience.

>DMC3SE really felt like I was playing the native PC game in terms of input lag
I'm glad of that, it's one of my favourites. When I get a VRR 120hz monitor I'd like to try DMC3SE (PC) at 120 fps (it's possible with a mod and it shouldn't break physics) and Style Switcher.
Have you tried to emulate DMC1? That game has visual bugs and missing effects even during boss fights in later ports.

>God Hand feels really smooth and responsive
Great to know! Now I just hope Metal Gear Solid 4 will be remastered on PS5 so I can get rid of my PS3, but we know how obtuse Konami is...

>tips for PCSX2
Ok, thanks for the info. Besides, do you know if upscaling adds some input lag or only visual bugs in some games? Would you update PCSX2 once a week if you weren't a tester? I see a lot of nightly releases in their site.

RE4 - I think all versions which aren't Wii or GameCube also have sound bugs (unless the PC mods fixed them and I'm not aware). Playing with a GameCube controller is also nice even if it doesn't really matter to me.

I'd like to add that I didn't actually play any DMC beyond testing the first 2 stages of 1 and 3SE on PCSX2, so I'm excited to finally be able to get into the series.

DMC1 emulates very well, though it does have a bit more input lag than DMC3 (I saw a PCSX2 tester saying this is the case on real hardware, so not an emulation thing). The HD port is really bad from what I've seen, both visuals and audio. It's why I held off playing DMC for so long. The only thing about upscaling DMC1 is that some parts of the screen will not upscale at all unless you are using a mod to disable HUD, otherwise I observed no issues at all.

DMC3SE - still haven't decided which version to play, but it was very useful to test input lag.

MGS4 and GoW3- Intel 12700k/12900k can emulate them close to 2x the framerate of a real PS3 AFAIK (as long as AVX-512 is enabled).

PCSX2 - It almost drove me insane in the past lol, but after testing across multiple games, I'm sure that upscaling doesn't add input lag and can only cause visual and performance issues (some games kill GPU performance when upscaled).

I personally would still update it once a week due to many small improvements. When the QT UI will release it will also have per game config (finally!) and an auto updater as well I think, just like RPCS3.

VRR makes a difference even while being locked to 60fps, and PCSX2, RPCS3 and Dolphin can take advantage of that. Feel free to send a DM if you need help with game specific settings.

GN1:
>can confirm that the latest builds reduced lag
So very glad to hear. But it's odd that it took them so long to address this. Then again, I know very little about emulation, and also heard that the PS2 is pretty tricky to emulate. So I guess that might explain it.

>same as a real PS2
Pretty splendid news.

>KH emulates well
It does. My potato PC could handle it relatively well, and with an old build (1.4.0, IIRC). Think one title that struggled to run well was ZoE2. Not sure if that's true.

>RE4
Only played the PS2 version myself. Got the Wii version since it has come to my attention that there were fewer enemies in the PS2 port compared to other versions. Also, RE4 was a game I played an awful lot of times, to the point that it might match KH2FM in terms of playtime for me, but this was in a period of time when I didn't care about combat mechanics, so I never appreciated them as much as I wanted to. So, looking forward to revisit it again.

Also, for future reference, what is the absolute minimum requirements needed to run RPCS3 or Xenia? Want to see if I could try NG2.

RedShot:
>can't skip cutscenes on your first try
You're correct, it can't be done. But I just looked it up, and you can opt to skip them if you die. Not sure if you can save the game after dying and still be able to skip them, would need to test that myself.

>limited combo modifiers
And it seems your only way to block attacks is via parrying (no Guard). At least there's dodge roll, even though it doesn't work the same way as in KH2, in terms of i-frames (especially noticeable against Kurt's vertical spinning attack).

>not possible to beat Hades' time trial at Lv 1
I heard, but never got confirmation about this (until now). Summons were disabled for the Cups, right? Otherwise, Mushu would be able to help a lot if you abuse the Exp Zero glitch.

Some notes on PCSX2:

I can't confirm myself whether or not input lag is indeed the same as a real PS2 as the tester on the discord said, but judging by DMC3SE and other games it seems very reasonable. It received massive improvements lately, especially with the addition of the Vulkan renderer. Download the latest build from their site and see how it works for you.

This also means I have years worth of PS2 games to play lol, and I might play Clock Tower 3 and Haunting Ground after God Hand. How good are they?

System requirements - Depends on the game. As you noted, KH2 can run on a potato without any emulation bugs, on the other hand good luck running Jak 2+3 well even on high end PCs.

RE4- I'll play the Wii version on Dolphin with a real GameCube controller (there's native support), I think you owe it to yourself to try it. I might even do a Wiimote run for fun.

Xenia is heavily GPU dependent even at native res, but I never tried it.

RPCS3 - You'd want the absolute top end CPU for this one, which is 12700k currently, especially if you want to play games like GoW3, MGS4 and some other PS3 exclusives at better than real PS3 performance. Games like the HD remasters of God of War, Demon's Souls (with full online support) can run well on less powerful but still decent PCs.

>years worth of PS2 games to play
Guess I can relate. According to the Backloggery site, I have 44 unplayed PS2 games, about a third of which are action games (DMC1/3, GoW 1-2, both Maximo games, God Hand, MGS2-3, ZoE2, Chaos Legion, and others). The rest aren't a priority for now, but I do plan to try them someday.

>Jak
How good are those? I kind of want to play some 3D platformers (not right now, but I'm still curious about some of them). Think the most popular ones are Crash, Spyro, Ratchet, Jak, and Sly, but not sure if any of those are worth playing. To note, I've only played Crash Bandicoot 3 on the PSX, and Mario 64.

>play RE4 with a GC controller
I'd like to, but I don't own that controller. Would have to get one. At best, I could play the Wii version with a PS3 controller via Dolphin.

>top end CPU to run RPCS3
I see. That's out of reach for me at the moment, so I'll have to wait. I don't suppose an i5-4690K could handle it, right?

I'm interested in the same games as you lol. Also interested in KH of course, as well as horror games. Chaos Legion sounds interesting, and I'm also interested in the two Castlevania games and Shadow of Rome. ZoET2R I have the Mars version which I think should be the best?

Jak - I remember really enjoying them 9 years ago, but I can give any mechanical info. I remember 2 in particular being pretty challenging and perhaps too bloated while 3 was more focused. Try them if you can. It was also refreshing to me playing a game with actual platforming gameplay rather than the auto climb of Uncharted.

RE4- GC controller is nice but not essential, I wouldn't mind playing with any other controller really. Your CPU should be able to handle it very well I think, go for it.

RPCS3 - Your CPU might cut it for some lighter games perhaps, but it's always worth trying.

Be sure to take good care of your DualShock 3, some games require it for the pressure sensitivity. I wish I had mine still, they are so expensive nowadays.

I think we went a bit too off topic lol, we can continue the discussion in the general discussion threads I think.

>Also, for future reference, what is the absolute minimum requirements needed to run RPCS3 or Xenia?
RPCS3 is CPU dipendent and Xenia GPU dependent. RPCS3 especially requires a very beefy CPU to play, but it depends on the game. Demon's Souls should be pretty light, while something like MGS4 will require at least 8 cores and will stress the CPU a lot. Also it crashed on me a couple of times and the shader installation is annoying, but I don't know if it's a problem with MGS4 specifically or with every game.

Xenia is GPU dependent but you should get good results with something like a GTX1660/1070. I have a 1660 Super and can play NG2 at 60 frames with 70 to 80% GPU usage. It's also very stable aside from game specific crashes.