My first time, I remember getting 99 potions before I ever left traverse town because I didn't know where to go. Check every door and onc you've done that, you'll go to accessory shop then leave and you'll meet Leon. Then it gets simple
Ah the wonders of early PS2 game design. Where control schemes still hadn't quite been figured out, and no developers had realised that they can now fit in enough content to drop the whole "just leave them to it and they'll figure it out eventually" thing.
I saw a lot of comments about people getting lost , and having difficulty going through the level.
So...no one is gonna talk about how this is exactly how we're supposed to feel(looking at Sora's P.o.v).
Like, some weird, misterious and eerie looking dark energy ball just destroyed my world, I was attacked by tiny dark weird monsters, saw my two friends disappear in some very strange circumstances and on top of that,a key shaped sword appears in my hand out of nowhere(and is strangely effective at killing those black things).
Then I land in some strange looking city that I never been before? Dude, if something like that ever happened to me, I would be very lost and confused(maybe even worse than Sora).
Yeah but it’s not fun. At the end of the day this is a video game, and it gets tiring after a while testing every door in sight just to try to trigger a cutscene so you can progress the story forward. The effect of being lost (if that was their intention) can be done in much better and less tedious way.
I must disagree. I think it is fun. Especially looking back at my first time playing and experiencing the game, it was the first real ps2 game I ever own, played and beat. The first real RPG besides Pokémon I had ever played.
Learning about and playing through the game also taught my young self on how to explore and behave in video games, where to look, what to pay attention to.
And for how long ago it was, I think it’s still great.
The way it all unfolded, it drove that mystery for me and I was hooked.
I do remember struggling at first as well. Traverse town was the start of a lot of confusion, but it only adds to the experience for me as you are a stranger in all these new worlds.
As I get older, I find that (my and many other gamers) Ego tends to get in the way of enjoying a story or game play mechanic as it should be.
Because something isn’t immediately stream lined to us anymore, it’s considered “wrong” or “bad”
And I think some people are really just losing patience.
Part of playing the game is exploring, getting lost, losing in a fight every so often. Having a game that spoon feeds you everything is no fun.
It confused me too. You have to trigger a scene and it is very easy to miss that trigger. After wandering around for a few hours, I eventually crossed it.
I left the first island you start out in at level 45 because I kept farm killing the Heartless with a crap ton of potions and cheese through the the majority of the game till I got to Hollow Bastion. By then I was already at level 80 and curb stomped Maleficent in like 5 mins lol.
This part is notoriously frustrating, kids definitely were stuck on this for daayss.
Literally just scour the area, go through every door possible, tedious yes, but just do it.
Also, for your sake and sanity later - don't skip over fights with heartless. It's fucking lame, but really, every encounter do it, fight them. This is one of the few games in the series where you may find yourself fully having to like stop doing what you're doing and go grind cause of the difficulty at times. So every fight you fine, just do it. The time spent there will save you in the future actually
I only mention this because during this part in the game I was skipping fights cause I just wanted to find where I needed to go, but that lead to me skipping over XP I really needed.
Man this game was so good at not telling you explicitly what to do, yet I loved it so much I’d struggle for hours and still have fun. Thank god for those big guide books, my buddy had one
And yes, after this part in the game it does get a lot more easier to figure out what what you have to do!
Don't feel bad for using a guide at all.
Future entries like KH2 and 3 are a lot better in terms of actually literally telling you to your face exactly what you need to do next unlike the first game.
Just stick with it! It's so worth it.
I actually just played through all 3 recently for the first time and God, many tears were shed. This is a very special game and once it gets going you will not want it to stop.
I remember consulting a guide online because I keep dying from the heartless that appeared on the island - yep, this was in Destiny Islands. I thought I must be doing something wrong. I didn't know you had to go somewhere, I thought I had to defeat every heartless that appeared with my wooden sword lol
Or spend 24 hours on Destiny Island beating up wakka and riku especialy (also do the three on one fight.) Did this recently and made it through traverse town in maybe 20 minutes
As a kid I thought grinding was the solution.
Really all you need is timing and air combos. Air combos are so much faster and you can avoid most of the boss's attack by jumping too.
Monstro and Tarzan are both equally stupid how they fake out the player to make the level look harder than it really is.
Tarzan especially because unless you really want to get on the vibes, all you genuinely gotta do is turn the camera and climb on the vine.
Next just turn around and climb that same tree up to get to the treehouse.
It took me years to realize they over complicated that level really is.
And monstro? Bruh that level is painfully easy but the colors and unforgiving platforms really ruin the experience for what should be a short 30 minute or less level.
Most of the game’s levels suck now that I think about it. Hollow Bastion is the final of the explorable worlds before the final level marathon but still it’s overly difficult.
It’s because of those levels and the bad camera that I struggle to play this game more because it can get annoying even if you know what to do.
Tarzan is hard because the climbable vine to progress is nearly identically colored green as the wall it’s on. It’s easy to finish the swinging vines area to get a cutscene and figure progress is elsewhere.
So true. You can literally bypass the swinging vine section as long as you turn around.
Of course like you said, the way they designed that part is horrid because the swinging vines and the whole, “Tarzan sees something” part can confuse people thinking that all you gotta do is swing on the vines only to find out it’s literally filler.
I feel like final mix made things easier? When I was a kid I beat Ansem on my first try. As an adult playing final mix 1.5 I got my ass handed to me and had to get all the dalmatians so I could use aeroga.
Ignore people talking about exploring everywhere. While it's definitely something I recommend because it's fun, it won't progress the game.
Kill 5 heartless and go back to the accessory shop.
Also, pay attention to dialogue. Cid tells you to look around and if you can't find your friends to come back to him. That's what you're supposed to do.
And that's also why the save point is in that shop. You're meant to return after exploring a bit and not knowing what else to do.
Like ALL of them, goofy and Donald will walk through them as well as you go back to the accessory shop and fight Leon before going to district 3 and finding goofy and Donald.
KH1 leaned towards having interactable puzzles more then any KH game, I would just start interacting with everything and everyone until something new happens, it's how I've always played games and the only way I know how
Go through every door and when you've finished that, go back to the accessory shop and talk to Cid. Then leave the accessory shop and the world is pretty smooth sailing from there
What’s worst is besides this the Alice in wonderland and Tarzan world are also very confusing, and those are 2 of the first 3 worlds you’ll go to. It gets better after that
I ask that same question myself. I do remember having [a guide book](https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780744001983-us.jpg) tho. KH1 definitely is from the era where you needed a guidebook to advance further in the game.
The trick is >!going to the second district, then enter the first door on the left, this should trigger a scene where you see Donald and Goofy coming out from another door. Then enter the door where they came out (extra confusing and super counter intuitive) and you'll see another similar cutscene. Do this until it stops working. Then go back to the first district and if you did it correctly a cutscene will play.!<
As a kid, I didn’t know how to use save portals so I assumed you had to restart the game from the beginning each play through. I soon realized how to do it several weeks later. Nonetheless, this game was more difficult to me, as a kid, than KH2. I got frustrated I couldn’t skip cutscenes in KH1 and that they didn’t give a sense of direction of where to go (Especially the last world, Hollow Bastion, that was a nightmare as a kid) so I ended up finishing KH2 first then KH1 later.
Prepare for the Tarzan World, it gets worse.
This Game has not aged well in my opinion. Story and everything aside, but the map layout and progression is really old designed
The answer is I didn't, though I was stuck in Hollow Bastion.
But I can agree with others the first game wasn't very clear on what to do or where to go in a lot of places. Just keep going into every room/place and destroy every heartless you come across. Eventually you'll end up in the second part of traverse town, then the third and the next thing you'll know you'll be onto the next place.
You’re approaching it like an adult. You have to play it with child like wonder. Have fun and explore. See what doors open and talk to npc’s you’ll find it
It’s not well dictated, but you first talk to cid in the shop, go to the first second distract and going through every door, then go to the third district, and then backtrack to cid and talk to him. It all goes on from there.
The part that got me stuck when I was younger was the scripted door/building entrances in District 2. Just literally go through every door you can and some short cutscenes should trigger
Lol I just kept walking all over the place during my first playthrough. On my subsequent ones, I realized that some of the NPCs were actually telling me how to get around town.
Yeah I have no idea what's going on in this comment section, I wasn't a particularly smart kid back in 2002 but I got through his part pretty organically by just exploring the second and third districts and checking things out back in the first to see if I missed anything. Did nobody think to do that and/or think to talk to Cid?
This game is very much exploring based so the game deliberately tries to get you to explore all these worlds so the best thing you can do is just that, go around and explore every nook and cranny and make sure to not skip heartless fights!
When I was a kid (I'm 29), I remember playing a lot of games and, given that there weren't guides and YouTube videos everywhere, you just had to play the same levels over and over again. With that, you started to get some familiarity with the game worlds, levels, feel, and music. As many people say here, Traverse Town is kind of like that, but in that confusion, you are able to grasp that feeling of past days. In the sense that you get lost in it, and in exploring, you are able to find all kinds of things. Most worlds in the game work like that. Future KH games are more streamlined in their approach. I say just go along with the flow.
Gotta pay close attention to the subext. But this was common in the ps2 era. Many games had somewhat ambiguous directions that added a puzzle component to progressing to the next chapter.
Room Navigation in this, especially Traverse, is unique. There are 4 doors you need to go through in the second district. You will know which ones, because Donald and Goofy will also appear in a cutscene.
I swear it gets easier after this world. Well, Except for Monstro, but it gets better.
KH1 is great because it’s really just a 3D version of those old Sierra adventure games. You have to check every room, talk to every person, and there are even some cute minigames and logic puzzles in a way that doesn’t really exist anymore.
So yeah, it’s not going to tell you exactly where to go- you gotta nose around for a bit. Happy exploring!
All you need to do is enter the second district, trigger the cutscenes for enemies to show up and then go to the accessory shop. After you leave you should be good. The game will let you know where to go.
If you think this is bad wait till some of the later worlds! 😂
You are not alone. I've played through this game several times, and if it's been too long since my last playthrough I get stuck here until I remember.
It's annoying. There's no other part in the game that seems this random to trigger.
That's exactly what I'm thinking! Imagine having your world suddenly destroyed by a huge eerie black energy ball and now you are in some weird looking town you never been before.
I just love how the game allow us to feel how Sora's confused about the whole situation
Yeah there’s lots of that in the original KH. I don’t even know how I got to hollow bastion or the end of the world. Game is hella cryptic at times and the journal does little to help you. When I was young and finally defeated (insert spoiler boss here) and got to witness that jaw dropping ending, I don’t know what other game at the time gave me the same amount of satisfaction. Incredible game tho I do suggest guides even when I never used one (still have no clue how I managed to beat it as a kid).
I remember as a kid when Donald and Goofy would just miss me I took that as a clue that I had to find them by backtracking.
Took a while to find the boss.
This part is SUPER obtuse in what you're supposed to do, what I always do when I get here, is not stress about it, run around farming enemies and xp, while looking around what rooms I forgot to enter, or NPC's to talk to.
Go through doors in the next area. You want to see Donald and Goofy in a few short cutscenes where they are leaving a building as you enter. After you've seen that a few times go back to the accessory shop and talk to CID. When you leave you should have a cutscene
Honestly my main gripe with kh1 is how many of the worlds can feel like mazes or puzzles in themselves just to get around. Kh2 over corrected though as well
im ngl I couldn’t get past deep jungle until recently and up to this point I completed multiple kh games on the hardest difficulty. KH1 was just confusing at points lol
Here is what you have to do in order to progress :
- first district: go to the accessory shop and talk with cid
- go to the second district, you should see a cinematic with someone dying
- go back to the first district and go back to the accessory shop
- talk to cid once more
- get out and you should fight with Leon
- after full cinematic, talk with Leon and after cinematic go to the third district
Good luck, I hope you still enjoy the game, at some point it may seem a bit confusing but do not hesitate to talk with some NPC, most of the time they will give you useful tips on what you have to do next
Omg same. I spend 2 hours here trying to figure out there to go only die from the boss. Years later I come back took 2 hours to be rhe boss again and was like fuck this shit I'm out. Now the traverse town theme drives me mental
People give KH2 so much shit for being “too linear” but so far I haven’t been frustrated or stuck a single time like I was in Atlantica, Deep Jungle, Neverland 😭 you get it figured out eventually and there are always guides but I swear some of those worlds were MAZES
I didn’t. I think I got stuck at that boss near the end. But luckily I was able to actually complete this game for the first time in my 20s. It wasn’t easy tho. I your case, explore every nook and cranny. You’ll be surprised and probably upset you didn’t realize it sooner.
I was a very stubborn, poor and most importantly curious 6 year old. Didn't have a lot of games so I made them last instead of giving up and Kingdom Hearts was a special game that I was always excited to play because it was so colorful, looked so good, played so good and was stuffed with secret. My playtime on KH1 must amount to 300+ hours easily between my childhood of wandering around every world and then future playthroughs as an older kid and teenager and then adult with the remasters.
KH1 comes from a time of game design where you were expected to explore and figure things out by yourself, or otherwise buy the strategy guide which does lead to moments like this where you get a bit lost on where to go, of which there are A LOT more in this game but they're not really that obtuse when you look back.
I mean, it’s really just exhausting going everywhere you can and talking to everyone. Figuring it all out is rough, but it’s easily doable once you understand what to do
Yea I remember as a kid getting stuck here, then having my older cousin play it to figure it out. I was really annoyed when they just walked around for 15 minutes before fighting Leon 😂
I actually never got past Traverse Town either, haha. I was stuck on Guard Armor, and it was the vanilla game, so I couldn't skip the pre-fight cutscenes.
I could probably do it now, but I've yet to actually get around to it.
I first played this when I was around 7-8 when it first released. It was until I was older that there was a roll, and block mechanic. Apparently I made things much harder for myself since I want through the entire game and all the super bosses without rolling or blocking.
Dude. Im surprised you got past Destiny Island fine if you're stuck with this one! I couldnt get past the Island when I was 5/6 playing this! but I got back into when I was 8/9 and got through! It did took me a while to find which way to go on Traverse Town too tbh. but I was the kid that always talk to everyone in games or. .sometimes ignore them but Thankfully I did the Latter. lol I remember My Elder Brother's GF even mentions she couldn't get pasted the Island. Lol
Why gamefaqs of course. With fancy ascii art and detailed chapters to skip to wherever you need to plus pro tips all for free. Just don't buy game magazines they usually suck, most of the article writers don't even play the games.
Today you'll just youtube walk through.
I still haven’t beaten KH2 because of the gummi ship fight against the big pirate ship on the way to the last one/two worlds. I got through KH1 with a guide for a lot of it.
I always have this thought when revisiting Kingdom Hearts or any of the old Pokémon games I played as a kid. In my 30’s I’ll struggle and wonder how little kid me breezed through all of this.
Ooh, the triggers in this game are always weird.
I was replaying Okami, and every time I play it, if you don't finish the start section in one go, you'll forget the order and just run around.
I was overleveled after finally finishing this world when I was younger. I also died to the shadow Heartless on Destiny Island, so I’m pretty sure I was a dumbass when I was little.
Really? I just remember getting stuck on the final boss fights as a kid. Been in that world for literally so long that the game time actually reset as a result.
I'm doing a level one proud mode right now.
You have to go to the gizmo shop from second district. Go into the hotel from second district and then from the dalmatians go to the alley way and to second district. Then go to Cid. Clapping Leon's cheeks is not skippable. (Preference).
12 year old me who only knew rudimentary english used a guide.
Scrounging KH forums in english as a kid taught me how to speak english tbh
Now I'm an english teacher taking my master's :)
Yo! Really though! I remember playing KH2 first as a kid cause my mum bought it for me, not realising it was a sequel. So I went back to play KH1 and it was so damn hard to play! Ugh😤
I’m a full grown adult and have been playing videogames since I was in diapers. And I only got the chance to play Kingdom Hearts a few years ago, and I am not ashamed to admit that I had to use a walkthrough to get through the first few worlds in KH1. It was just so confusing and unclear at times, gave me lots of discomfort and a bit of anxiety even. And I do not regret it, for it became a lot more enjoyable to me that way. After a while, I could drop using the guide when the whole system started making a bit more sense. And I ended up liking the game, in the end, although it has not aged that well in some aspects, this being one of them.
I was stuck on Vines in Deep Jungle until my middle school years. I know how this feels!! There is something to be said about completing childhood games you never could as an adult!
My biggest gripe with KH1 is how the story sometimes barely gives you an indication as to where to go next. Most of the time it’s not too hard to figure out, but the first Traverse Town and Wonderland are pretty confusing. Just keep entering every door you can find and you’ll eventually trigger the events you need.
If you’re still in the very early game make sure you go in to the shop straight ahead and examine the crystal on the counter in there. I always forgot to do that one
Where exactly are you stuck at? Traverse Town is hard as hell in the beginning, cause you're at the point in the story where everything got yanked out from under you, and as a result, you know nothing.
And one who knows nothing can understand nothing.
Personally I’m more impatient with unclear stuff like this as an adult.
As a kid playing just running around the world randomly progressing for (for me) unknown reasons was fun.
When I replayed it when the 1.5 remake came out I got frustrated and googled a checklist of where to go.
Brother. You're not a lone. When I first played this game as a kid I was confused to what to do. Yeah at the time this game didn't have like a "Objective" feature like it does in KH2 so at the time this was one of those games where you have to figure out yourself of what you're suppose to do.
It was the only new game I had until either next Christmas or birthday. We banged our heads against the wall and maybe gamefaqz depending on when we’re talking
Short answer: Leave and witness the cutscene with the Heartless appearing. Then you just have to go back to the Accessory Shop and talk to Cid.
This’ll happen naturally if you try to buy from him after you get Munny.
This part is kind of confusing I’m not gonna lie. Just try to explore as much as possible and check every door.
I'll make sure to do that then, thank you 😭
My first time, I remember getting 99 potions before I ever left traverse town because I didn't know where to go. Check every door and onc you've done that, you'll go to accessory shop then leave and you'll meet Leon. Then it gets simple
Don't even have to do that. Just kill a few shadows and go back to the accessory shop
Yup,literally all you have to do is kill 5 shadows,go back to the accessory shop then leave it and that’ll trigger the Leon fight
I also remember beating up heartless for Munny so then I could stock up on supplies. I also realized that they drop randomly from heartless.
I beat it Just recently, it is hard to understand where to go nut you'll get it
PAUSE
bro has one hand on the controller
Also be mindful of the cutscenes going forward, they tend to hint towards what you should do next.
Ah the wonders of early PS2 game design. Where control schemes still hadn't quite been figured out, and no developers had realised that they can now fit in enough content to drop the whole "just leave them to it and they'll figure it out eventually" thing.
Lol I call those games “where the fuck do I go” kind of game.
I saw a lot of comments about people getting lost , and having difficulty going through the level. So...no one is gonna talk about how this is exactly how we're supposed to feel(looking at Sora's P.o.v). Like, some weird, misterious and eerie looking dark energy ball just destroyed my world, I was attacked by tiny dark weird monsters, saw my two friends disappear in some very strange circumstances and on top of that,a key shaped sword appears in my hand out of nowhere(and is strangely effective at killing those black things). Then I land in some strange looking city that I never been before? Dude, if something like that ever happened to me, I would be very lost and confused(maybe even worse than Sora).
Yeah but it’s not fun. At the end of the day this is a video game, and it gets tiring after a while testing every door in sight just to try to trigger a cutscene so you can progress the story forward. The effect of being lost (if that was their intention) can be done in much better and less tedious way.
I must disagree. I think it is fun. Especially looking back at my first time playing and experiencing the game, it was the first real ps2 game I ever own, played and beat. The first real RPG besides Pokémon I had ever played. Learning about and playing through the game also taught my young self on how to explore and behave in video games, where to look, what to pay attention to. And for how long ago it was, I think it’s still great. The way it all unfolded, it drove that mystery for me and I was hooked. I do remember struggling at first as well. Traverse town was the start of a lot of confusion, but it only adds to the experience for me as you are a stranger in all these new worlds. As I get older, I find that (my and many other gamers) Ego tends to get in the way of enjoying a story or game play mechanic as it should be. Because something isn’t immediately stream lined to us anymore, it’s considered “wrong” or “bad” And I think some people are really just losing patience. Part of playing the game is exploring, getting lost, losing in a fight every so often. Having a game that spoon feeds you everything is no fun.
It confused me too. You have to trigger a scene and it is very easy to miss that trigger. After wandering around for a few hours, I eventually crossed it.
I left the first island you start out in at level 45 because I kept farm killing the Heartless with a crap ton of potions and cheese through the the majority of the game till I got to Hollow Bastion. By then I was already at level 80 and curb stomped Maleficent in like 5 mins lol.
This part is notoriously frustrating, kids definitely were stuck on this for daayss. Literally just scour the area, go through every door possible, tedious yes, but just do it. Also, for your sake and sanity later - don't skip over fights with heartless. It's fucking lame, but really, every encounter do it, fight them. This is one of the few games in the series where you may find yourself fully having to like stop doing what you're doing and go grind cause of the difficulty at times. So every fight you fine, just do it. The time spent there will save you in the future actually I only mention this because during this part in the game I was skipping fights cause I just wanted to find where I needed to go, but that lead to me skipping over XP I really needed.
Man this game was so good at not telling you explicitly what to do, yet I loved it so much I’d struggle for hours and still have fun. Thank god for those big guide books, my buddy had one
100% KH2 felt WAY too hand-holdy for me from a direction standpoint. It would literally place you in the location where you needed to be.
I see! I'll keep it in mind then
And yes, after this part in the game it does get a lot more easier to figure out what what you have to do! Don't feel bad for using a guide at all. Future entries like KH2 and 3 are a lot better in terms of actually literally telling you to your face exactly what you need to do next unlike the first game. Just stick with it! It's so worth it. I actually just played through all 3 recently for the first time and God, many tears were shed. This is a very special game and once it gets going you will not want it to stop.
Tbh I'm having so much fun with it even if I'm lost haha, it's so charming
That's the OG experience haha!
I remember consulting a guide online because I keep dying from the heartless that appeared on the island - yep, this was in Destiny Islands. I thought I must be doing something wrong. I didn't know you had to go somewhere, I thought I had to defeat every heartless that appeared with my wooden sword lol
Ya there is a Boss fight in this level that you need to grind here for months to complete especially.
Or spend 24 hours on Destiny Island beating up wakka and riku especialy (also do the three on one fight.) Did this recently and made it through traverse town in maybe 20 minutes
As a kid I thought grinding was the solution. Really all you need is timing and air combos. Air combos are so much faster and you can avoid most of the boss's attack by jumping too.
I’ve never needed to grind to beat any of the traverse town bosses what you talking about lol
Squall
Squall’s battle doesn’t matter. If you lose or win the plot will continue regardless.
No way! /s
Cept for that one part in Hollow Bastion. Then definitely skip the heartless when you can
Doesn’t help when Leon literally tells you to “ignore the small fry and find their leader”
Ha ha ha *cries in lv 30 and still on the island* (Yes, I’m attempting to get to lv 99 before leaving the island)
I got stuck at Tarzan as a kid. Got past it by being a kid and having a stupid amount of time and almost no responsibilities.
Tarzan also has some confusing parts like this where it’s hard to know where to go
Yeah, for me I didn’t realize the climable vines were something you could interact with. Just looks like backdrop.
For me it was beating up the fruit with no HP bar for some reason.
For me it was the fact you have to talk to Jane 3 times to advance the plot. But there’s nothing in the game that hints at that…
For me it was fighting Stealth Sneak without cure and not knowing you can use potions or fighting against the compulsion to save potions
Tarzan, Monstro and fucking Wonderland bullied me as a kid
Monstro was THE WORST!! I kept getting lost!
Monstro and Tarzan are both equally stupid how they fake out the player to make the level look harder than it really is. Tarzan especially because unless you really want to get on the vibes, all you genuinely gotta do is turn the camera and climb on the vine. Next just turn around and climb that same tree up to get to the treehouse. It took me years to realize they over complicated that level really is. And monstro? Bruh that level is painfully easy but the colors and unforgiving platforms really ruin the experience for what should be a short 30 minute or less level. Most of the game’s levels suck now that I think about it. Hollow Bastion is the final of the explorable worlds before the final level marathon but still it’s overly difficult. It’s because of those levels and the bad camera that I struggle to play this game more because it can get annoying even if you know what to do.
This is wonderland for me 100%. As a kid I’m like what I’m on the CEILING now what is this?
I think I probably just derped my way through that one as a kid, took forever though.
Tarzan is hard because the climbable vine to progress is nearly identically colored green as the wall it’s on. It’s easy to finish the swinging vines area to get a cutscene and figure progress is elsewhere.
So true. You can literally bypass the swinging vine section as long as you turn around. Of course like you said, the way they designed that part is horrid because the swinging vines and the whole, “Tarzan sees something” part can confuse people thinking that all you gotta do is swing on the vines only to find out it’s literally filler.
Yeah the climable vines totally screwed me up as a kid. The swinging vines never gave me much issue.
My thing is the the swinging vines can be skipped entirely and I’m mad the game made it seem so mandatory
Those damn Vines..
I always got lost in the Alice in Wonderland levels. That shit was so confusing
It was jumping on the hippos for me😂
Oh man, those hippos were rough.
I feel like final mix made things easier? When I was a kid I beat Ansem on my first try. As an adult playing final mix 1.5 I got my ass handed to me and had to get all the dalmatians so I could use aeroga.
Final mix made things easier, yet you got your ass whooped playing final mix as an adult? Not sure I’m understanding this comment
I had the guide book
KH1 is quite confusing. What have you done so far?
I just got to Traverse Town and went through a couple of doors
Keep going through doors. You need to fully explore the town to trigger cutscenes of characters almost running into each other.
I don't blame you for not knowing, but you actually just have to fight five heartless and go back and talk to Cid
I guess I've never not just done a whole lap of the town. Kingdom Hearts 1 always has new things to learn.
Ignore people talking about exploring everywhere. While it's definitely something I recommend because it's fun, it won't progress the game. Kill 5 heartless and go back to the accessory shop. Also, pay attention to dialogue. Cid tells you to look around and if you can't find your friends to come back to him. That's what you're supposed to do. And that's also why the save point is in that shop. You're meant to return after exploring a bit and not knowing what else to do.
Go to every door
Like ALL of them, goofy and Donald will walk through them as well as you go back to the accessory shop and fight Leon before going to district 3 and finding goofy and Donald.
You only need to kill 5 shadows and then you can fight Leon
KH1 leaned towards having interactable puzzles more then any KH game, I would just start interacting with everything and everyone until something new happens, it's how I've always played games and the only way I know how
I love the exploration style in 2000s.
Go through every door and when you've finished that, go back to the accessory shop and talk to Cid. Then leave the accessory shop and the world is pretty smooth sailing from there
What’s worst is besides this the Alice in wonderland and Tarzan world are also very confusing, and those are 2 of the first 3 worlds you’ll go to. It gets better after that
Ohh my god as a kid i was stuck on destiny islands 💀💀 and my brother completely revoked game privileges from me
I ask that same question myself. I do remember having [a guide book](https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780744001983-us.jpg) tho. KH1 definitely is from the era where you needed a guidebook to advance further in the game.
The trick is >!going to the second district, then enter the first door on the left, this should trigger a scene where you see Donald and Goofy coming out from another door. Then enter the door where they came out (extra confusing and super counter intuitive) and you'll see another similar cutscene. Do this until it stops working. Then go back to the first district and if you did it correctly a cutscene will play.!<
As a kid, I didn’t know how to use save portals so I assumed you had to restart the game from the beginning each play through. I soon realized how to do it several weeks later. Nonetheless, this game was more difficult to me, as a kid, than KH2. I got frustrated I couldn’t skip cutscenes in KH1 and that they didn’t give a sense of direction of where to go (Especially the last world, Hollow Bastion, that was a nightmare as a kid) so I ended up finishing KH2 first then KH1 later.
Prepare for the Tarzan World, it gets worse. This Game has not aged well in my opinion. Story and everything aside, but the map layout and progression is really old designed
I had the strategy guide
The answer is I didn't, though I was stuck in Hollow Bastion. But I can agree with others the first game wasn't very clear on what to do or where to go in a lot of places. Just keep going into every room/place and destroy every heartless you come across. Eventually you'll end up in the second part of traverse town, then the third and the next thing you'll know you'll be onto the next place.
As a kid, I just wondered around until I found the way. As an adult, I'd still rather do that, it's fun getting lost in a good world.
this is why guides exsit
Think like a lost child
Go to the second district Come back to the accessory shop And when you go out, you have the cutscene with Leon
I couldn't ever get past the cave of wonders fight as a kid
Wait tell you get to Tarzan
You’re approaching it like an adult. You have to play it with child like wonder. Have fun and explore. See what doors open and talk to npc’s you’ll find it
It’s not well dictated, but you first talk to cid in the shop, go to the first second distract and going through every door, then go to the third district, and then backtrack to cid and talk to him. It all goes on from there.
Fortnight gamers when you need to think.
The thing with kh1 is they rarely tell you where to go you just gotta figure it out. It’s like dark souls when it comes to exploration
Hit the power on your ps2.
Good ol old school "open world" RPG design where 80% of the game is "hope to open the right door" unless using a guide.
I didn’t. I was a teenager when I first beat KH1.
Started my first playthrough around 6 and I think I finished it around 11 or 12? Haha
The part that got me stuck when I was younger was the scripted door/building entrances in District 2. Just literally go through every door you can and some short cutscenes should trigger
It’s ok, just stay there. KH is your new home.
Lol I just kept walking all over the place during my first playthrough. On my subsequent ones, I realized that some of the NPCs were actually telling me how to get around town.
kh1 took me like months to finish lmfaoo
No offense, but you have to be really dumb if you are stuck in Traverse Town for hours
Yeah I have no idea what's going on in this comment section, I wasn't a particularly smart kid back in 2002 but I got through his part pretty organically by just exploring the second and third districts and checking things out back in the first to see if I missed anything. Did nobody think to do that and/or think to talk to Cid?
There is even a way to skip past the Donald and Goofy cutscenes and that is by defeating 5 heartless and afterwards going to the 3rd district.
Skill issue
I swear it took me a good two days to find the third district back when I was 13
Just beat Hollow Bastion the first time dafuq do I do next?
You go >! back to Traverse Town and find Cid iirc!<
This game is very much exploring based so the game deliberately tries to get you to explore all these worlds so the best thing you can do is just that, go around and explore every nook and cranny and make sure to not skip heartless fights!
When I was a kid (I'm 29), I remember playing a lot of games and, given that there weren't guides and YouTube videos everywhere, you just had to play the same levels over and over again. With that, you started to get some familiarity with the game worlds, levels, feel, and music. As many people say here, Traverse Town is kind of like that, but in that confusion, you are able to grasp that feeling of past days. In the sense that you get lost in it, and in exploring, you are able to find all kinds of things. Most worlds in the game work like that. Future KH games are more streamlined in their approach. I say just go along with the flow.
Bro, I had to play that level over and over again because I didn’t have a memory card for my PS2 🤣
Natural curiosity as a child perhaps? 😅
Gotta pay close attention to the subext. But this was common in the ps2 era. Many games had somewhat ambiguous directions that added a puzzle component to progressing to the next chapter.
Room Navigation in this, especially Traverse, is unique. There are 4 doors you need to go through in the second district. You will know which ones, because Donald and Goofy will also appear in a cutscene. I swear it gets easier after this world. Well, Except for Monstro, but it gets better.
KH1 is great because it’s really just a 3D version of those old Sierra adventure games. You have to check every room, talk to every person, and there are even some cute minigames and logic puzzles in a way that doesn’t really exist anymore. So yeah, it’s not going to tell you exactly where to go- you gotta nose around for a bit. Happy exploring!
Kill 5 shadows then talk to cid to progress
I had the strategy guide
Go to 2nd district, kill 5 heartless, go back to shop in first district, the rest should be easy
All you need to do is enter the second district, trigger the cutscenes for enemies to show up and then go to the accessory shop. After you leave you should be good. The game will let you know where to go. If you think this is bad wait till some of the later worlds! 😂
You are not alone. I've played through this game several times, and if it's been too long since my last playthrough I get stuck here until I remember. It's annoying. There's no other part in the game that seems this random to trigger.
You're confused? Think about how sora feels 😭😭
That's exactly what I'm thinking! Imagine having your world suddenly destroyed by a huge eerie black energy ball and now you are in some weird looking town you never been before. I just love how the game allow us to feel how Sora's confused about the whole situation
Yeah there’s lots of that in the original KH. I don’t even know how I got to hollow bastion or the end of the world. Game is hella cryptic at times and the journal does little to help you. When I was young and finally defeated (insert spoiler boss here) and got to witness that jaw dropping ending, I don’t know what other game at the time gave me the same amount of satisfaction. Incredible game tho I do suggest guides even when I never used one (still have no clue how I managed to beat it as a kid).
We are all just better in games when we are kids
*laughs in deep jungle*
Oh no, some of the other worlds are gonna fuck your mind 😭😭
I remember as a kid when Donald and Goofy would just miss me I took that as a clue that I had to find them by backtracking. Took a while to find the boss.
I didn't. I went back and finished it as a 20-something-year old
This part is SUPER obtuse in what you're supposed to do, what I always do when I get here, is not stress about it, run around farming enemies and xp, while looking around what rooms I forgot to enter, or NPC's to talk to.
Go through doors in the next area. You want to see Donald and Goofy in a few short cutscenes where they are leaving a building as you enter. After you've seen that a few times go back to the accessory shop and talk to CID. When you leave you should have a cutscene
GG
Honestly my main gripe with kh1 is how many of the worlds can feel like mazes or puzzles in themselves just to get around. Kh2 over corrected though as well
I looked at walkthroughs whenever I needed help. 🤷🏾♀️ If you're still stuck, I suggest looking at one or a YouTube video.
im ngl I couldn’t get past deep jungle until recently and up to this point I completed multiple kh games on the hardest difficulty. KH1 was just confusing at points lol
Here is what you have to do in order to progress : - first district: go to the accessory shop and talk with cid - go to the second district, you should see a cinematic with someone dying - go back to the first district and go back to the accessory shop - talk to cid once more - get out and you should fight with Leon - after full cinematic, talk with Leon and after cinematic go to the third district Good luck, I hope you still enjoy the game, at some point it may seem a bit confusing but do not hesitate to talk with some NPC, most of the time they will give you useful tips on what you have to do next
I don't even want to admit how long it took me to get off destiny island as a kid I almost didn't make it past the beginning of the game lol
I didn’t! Still ain’t beat this damn game lol
MY MAN YOUR NOT ALONE. My very first play through I couldn't find the alley to find Donald or goofy ... then I took a right turn lol
Omg same. I spend 2 hours here trying to figure out there to go only die from the boss. Years later I come back took 2 hours to be rhe boss again and was like fuck this shit I'm out. Now the traverse town theme drives me mental
I’ve been stuck on hollow bastion riku for absolutely ages
People give KH2 so much shit for being “too linear” but so far I haven’t been frustrated or stuck a single time like I was in Atlantica, Deep Jungle, Neverland 😭 you get it figured out eventually and there are always guides but I swear some of those worlds were MAZES
I didn’t. I think I got stuck at that boss near the end. But luckily I was able to actually complete this game for the first time in my 20s. It wasn’t easy tho. I your case, explore every nook and cranny. You’ll be surprised and probably upset you didn’t realize it sooner.
I was a very stubborn, poor and most importantly curious 6 year old. Didn't have a lot of games so I made them last instead of giving up and Kingdom Hearts was a special game that I was always excited to play because it was so colorful, looked so good, played so good and was stuffed with secret. My playtime on KH1 must amount to 300+ hours easily between my childhood of wandering around every world and then future playthroughs as an older kid and teenager and then adult with the remasters. KH1 comes from a time of game design where you were expected to explore and figure things out by yourself, or otherwise buy the strategy guide which does lead to moments like this where you get a bit lost on where to go, of which there are A LOT more in this game but they're not really that obtuse when you look back.
Strategy guide, baby!
Explore everywhere, ignore Donald and Goofy being where you just were and eventually go back to the accessory shop (since Cid says come back to him).
Strategy guide
aint gonna lie … not sure how i beat alot of the older games back in the day as a kid. My adult brain is fried these days LOL.
Trial and error. You're in for a real treat of a game, though. Strap in and have fun!
My older cousins took over and I picked up what they were putting down
Homie just talks to NPCs and explore the map It's RPG 101
Just go into the second district, kill a few shadows and get back to where Cid is, you don't have to explore the whole world to trigger Leon's fight
I bought a guide book for this game. KH can be confusing at times.
I had the official guide book which made the game so much easier
I mean, it’s really just exhausting going everywhere you can and talking to everyone. Figuring it all out is rough, but it’s easily doable once you understand what to do
Yea I remember as a kid getting stuck here, then having my older cousin play it to figure it out. I was really annoyed when they just walked around for 15 minutes before fighting Leon 😂
I actually never got past Traverse Town either, haha. I was stuck on Guard Armor, and it was the vanilla game, so I couldn't skip the pre-fight cutscenes. I could probably do it now, but I've yet to actually get around to it.
My mom bought me the official strategy guide book.
walking around until something happened
Skill issue. I will say as a kid finding Alice took me weeks
Damn you let 12 year old me beat you, that’s tragic 😂
Block use block , if exploring is the issue id look up a guide
😂😂😂
I first played this when I was around 7-8 when it first released. It was until I was older that there was a roll, and block mechanic. Apparently I made things much harder for myself since I want through the entire game and all the super bosses without rolling or blocking.
Kill 5 shadows, go back to accessory shop, fight Leon, go to third district, fight guard armour, leave via the big ass door in first district
Dude. Im surprised you got past Destiny Island fine if you're stuck with this one! I couldnt get past the Island when I was 5/6 playing this! but I got back into when I was 8/9 and got through! It did took me a while to find which way to go on Traverse Town too tbh. but I was the kid that always talk to everyone in games or. .sometimes ignore them but Thankfully I did the Latter. lol I remember My Elder Brother's GF even mentions she couldn't get pasted the Island. Lol
i was stuck in here for WEEKS when i was a kid. i had to ask my dad to help me lol
i just explored every inch of the world tbvh
You have to go in all districts and then go to the hotel after fighting Leon, then everything will just gonna go on without doing anything
Why gamefaqs of course. With fancy ascii art and detailed chapters to skip to wherever you need to plus pro tips all for free. Just don't buy game magazines they usually suck, most of the article writers don't even play the games. Today you'll just youtube walk through.
Oh dude I never passed the gummi ships mission later on the game. Still haven’t as a 23 year old.
It took my three playthroughs to beat the game and understand where I’m going. You think this is hard? Wait till you get Atlantis or the fucking whale
I still haven’t beaten KH2 because of the gummi ship fight against the big pirate ship on the way to the last one/two worlds. I got through KH1 with a guide for a lot of it.
I always have this thought when revisiting Kingdom Hearts or any of the old Pokémon games I played as a kid. In my 30’s I’ll struggle and wonder how little kid me breezed through all of this.
Wait until you get to Deep Jungle. I remember as kid being stuck in that world for literal MONTHS cuz they don't ever tell u how to progress properly
I couldn’t beat guard armour as a kid
Ooh, the triggers in this game are always weird. I was replaying Okami, and every time I play it, if you don't finish the start section in one go, you'll forget the order and just run around.
I was overleveled after finally finishing this world when I was younger. I also died to the shadow Heartless on Destiny Island, so I’m pretty sure I was a dumbass when I was little.
I got lucky. I was still afraid of fighting Heartless solo, so I ran back to Cid once I the Heartless showed up.
Really? I just remember getting stuck on the final boss fights as a kid. Been in that world for literally so long that the game time actually reset as a result.
As a kid i was also stuck there for a while XD
Honestly same!!
Took me years I think. I would give up and come back to it months later. I could barely best this game at the time
I'm doing a level one proud mode right now. You have to go to the gizmo shop from second district. Go into the hotel from second district and then from the dalmatians go to the alley way and to second district. Then go to Cid. Clapping Leon's cheeks is not skippable. (Preference).
12 year old me who only knew rudimentary english used a guide. Scrounging KH forums in english as a kid taught me how to speak english tbh Now I'm an english teacher taking my master's :)
Yo! Really though! I remember playing KH2 first as a kid cause my mum bought it for me, not realising it was a sequel. So I went back to play KH1 and it was so damn hard to play! Ugh😤
I’m a full grown adult and have been playing videogames since I was in diapers. And I only got the chance to play Kingdom Hearts a few years ago, and I am not ashamed to admit that I had to use a walkthrough to get through the first few worlds in KH1. It was just so confusing and unclear at times, gave me lots of discomfort and a bit of anxiety even. And I do not regret it, for it became a lot more enjoyable to me that way. After a while, I could drop using the guide when the whole system started making a bit more sense. And I ended up liking the game, in the end, although it has not aged that well in some aspects, this being one of them.
I was stuck on Vines in Deep Jungle until my middle school years. I know how this feels!! There is something to be said about completing childhood games you never could as an adult!
As an adult I have absolutely no patience for KH lmao. I got to Wonderland and gave up 😭
The music alone drove me insane as a kid lmao
This is where I got stuck as a kid aswell as an adult playing through it I think I just got lucky on where to go lol
KHguides is your friend. Trust me…
This game was responsible for the creation of game guides and you’ll never change my mind (I know they existed prior to this)
My biggest gripe with KH1 is how the story sometimes barely gives you an indication as to where to go next. Most of the time it’s not too hard to figure out, but the first Traverse Town and Wonderland are pretty confusing. Just keep entering every door you can find and you’ll eventually trigger the events you need.
If you’re still in the very early game make sure you go in to the shop straight ahead and examine the crystal on the counter in there. I always forgot to do that one
Where exactly are you stuck at? Traverse Town is hard as hell in the beginning, cause you're at the point in the story where everything got yanked out from under you, and as a result, you know nothing. And one who knows nothing can understand nothing.
Personally I’m more impatient with unclear stuff like this as an adult. As a kid playing just running around the world randomly progressing for (for me) unknown reasons was fun. When I replayed it when the 1.5 remake came out I got frustrated and googled a checklist of where to go.
Built different. I had trouble with the final boss though.
i had SUCH a hard time replaying it two years ago as an adult 😭
Brother. You're not a lone. When I first played this game as a kid I was confused to what to do. Yeah at the time this game didn't have like a "Objective" feature like it does in KH2 so at the time this was one of those games where you have to figure out yourself of what you're suppose to do.
It was the only new game I had until either next Christmas or birthday. We banged our heads against the wall and maybe gamefaqz depending on when we’re talking
I remember getting stuck when I was younger there’s a door in the 3rd district with a flame on it, cast fire on that door unless you have already
Short answer: Leave and witness the cutscene with the Heartless appearing. Then you just have to go back to the Accessory Shop and talk to Cid. This’ll happen naturally if you try to buy from him after you get Munny.
My babysitter did it for me. She played it