tommy_lop's Full Review: Kingdom Hearts II for PlayStation 2
The original Kingdom Hearts is my favorite game to come out on this current generation of consoles. It proved that a license used well enough and if a game makers could take enough time to do it could make a really great game. Even if there where two licenses that don’t go together at all. In the case of Kingdom Hearts it was the cute characters of Disney with the mature theme characters of Final Fantasy. And Disney and Square Soft (now called Square Enix)also showed they had guts by not only making a game like this but showing at the end it wasn’t going to be a stand alone, the game ended in a very non Disney way with the protagonist Sora not being able to go back home like he wanted to. Top it all of with a rather creepy video clip that played at the end of the game entitle another side another story had me drooling for the next one. I didn’t know I be drooling for 4 years, luckily Square Enix threw us a bone with a GBA release of Chain of memories. But chain of memories like any good side story just left me hungry for more. Finally last week KH2 arrived and I sat down and played it every spare minute I had in the past week and finally beat it today. And after playing it I still say the original Kingdom Hearts is the best current generation console game that has come out, but KH2 still offers one heck of a wild ride.
Story.
(note: I strongly suggest playing through the original Kingdom Hearts and if you can Chain of Memories. While Square Enix does do a bit of back peddling in the beginning to try to explain the story so far your still going to be missing a lot of aspect if you skip the first two games)
The story starts you off with a character called Roxas for the first 3 hours and during the tutorial. Roxas seems to be enjoying his summer vacation in Twilight Town but he’s having weird dreams about a young boy with a weapon called the keyblade and his two partners Donald and Goofy. But other then that he’s doing the typical kid stuff getting in fights with the local bully Seifer, doing errands for the locals, finding out that he can summon the same weapon has the boy in the dream, and that the life he thinks he’s led is a lie (ya know the typical kid stuff).
After Roxas leaves the stage you get control of Sora who has been sleeping the past year to reclaim the memories he lost in Chain of Memories. Sora awakes along side Donald and Goofy not knowing why they went to sleep for so long but they don’t have time to question or search for answers. After meeting the king in Twilight town the 3 get on a train bound for the King’s old teacher Yen Sid’s castle. Yen Sid tells them of a new threat the nobodies and organization 13. Not only are the monsters called heartless still around but so are new monsters called nobodies. When a dark monster called a heartless steals a person heart, that persons heart becomes another heartless. But what about the mind and the rest of the persons soul, they are reborn into something called nobodies. And if the mind of that person is strong then that nobody takes the appearance of the person who lost there heart. But like the heartless they posses no heart and no emotion and are prone to evil. It’s up to Sora to unravel the mystery of Organization 13 and the nobodies before there evil schemes threaten all the worlds.
The story in the whole is pretty good with plenty of Disney and Final Fantasy cameos. A few Disney worlds from the last game like Aladdin’s Agrbaugh stage make a return. But there are plenty of new worlds like Mulan and the Lion King. There are also a few new worlds that one wouldn’t expect in a game like Kingdom Hearts but are Disney properties none the less. Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron are two movie worlds that Sora and the gang will enter that look and feel like none of the others. There are also a lot of Final Fantasy characters this time around. All the characters from last game make an appearance (except for kid Tidus and Wakka). Plus a few new ones like Yuna, Riku, and Paine appear in cuteified fairy versions.
Graphics.
The graphics have also been much improved over the original. Not only are the characters more detailed and have a lot less edges to them but there animated better. The stages themselves are just has well detailed has the last games. The backgrounds and settings change to match the Disney movie. Square Enix nails the look of every Disney world in the game. The backgrounds of Mulan look like they come out of the movie Mulan and look entirely different from the Lion King.
For most stages Donald and Sora’s look blends right in with the atmosphere. If the stage is really different then they will done disguises, in the world of Tron for example they wear the same glowing suits and hats that where shown in the movie Tron. The only world that makes the trio stick out like sore thumbs is the Pirates of the Carribean. That stage is drawn realistically and the characters resemble the live action actors that played them in the film. So having cartoonish characters like Sora, Donald, and Goofy kind of ruin the effect but this is explained away by having Goofy state that this world is different from any of the other worlds.
Sound.
All right the music again is pretty awesome they fixed a lot of the sound track problems with KH. The music once again comes from the soundtrack of the Disney movies represented. And the remixes are pretty catchy and this time they run a bit longer so there is no endless looping.
For the VA we have a now adult Haley Jole Osment doing the voice of a adult Sora. He does a better job of playing Sora then in the original. Of course the biggest name that appears on the long list of voice actors would have to be Christopher Lee has the mysterious Diz and he does an exceptional job of voicing this character.
Has for the other voices they all do a good job for the most part. Every character from the Disney movies has there original voice actors, if not they have the actors that have played them in sequels. And on the rare occasion where neither could be found they found good imitators, with the exception of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin she sounds awful.
A lot of the voices of the Final Fantasy characters have change, especially FF7 characters. I think the changes are because of the FF7 movie that is coming out. The rest of the Final Fantasy characters that have had voices in past games keep there voices, if they haven’t got a voice yet then they are given voices by Disney VA’s.
Gameplay.
I’ll start with the biggest changes in gameplay I hated. 1st 90% of the platforming that was done in the original KH is now taken out. This makes the stages seem incredibly flat and not has big has the original game. Of course there are quite a few people I know who like the fact that it’s been taken out has the platforming elements could make some areas of Kingdom Hearts down right frustrating. It depends on who you are if you liked the platforming then this part of the game will seem disappointing, if they got tedious and seemed boring then you will love that they have been taken out of the game.
2nd The standard mode in the gameplay is way easier. Now IGN.com claims that you can go through proud mode without using items and dying. Hey IGN most people don’t review how challenging a game is when they have there action replay cheat devices in. However they are right it is a lot easier then the original KH. It does seem to suffer a bit from what I call Wind Wakeritis on standard. Like cel shaded Link before him; Sora can take a pounding and still not loose much health. Unlike IGN however I found myself using a bunch of items and loosing several lives during the last few stages in which big boss battles against Organization members happen. I just started Proud mode and have lost several lives so far and I am on one of the opening Disney stages.
Ok enough with the negatives lets get in whats good with the game.
Like the original game the gameplay is that of an action RPG. In other words your able to move your character and fight like an action game but you upgrade him like an RPG game. This time the upgrading and equipping of Sora is now streamlined and made easier. The menus tell you whenever you picked up a new item or ability that you should be aware. Equipping and dequping abilities can now be done by accessing the ability menus and just pressing triangle. You can also now choose to mark items like potions and ethers to automatically reload after battle. Ending the chore of reequipping everybody after a battle.
The battles are live actions just like the last time but major changes have occur during the actual battles. While the simple act of battling still remains the same and it won’t be foreign to fans of the original there will be a few new things that people will see right off the bat. First the annoying camera problems that the original one had are now gone. The camera is now zoomed away from the action and stays a lot more still then it did the last time. Also you can now control it with the right analog stick for easier adjusting.
Another new thing added is reaction commands that are done by pressing triangle. These appear only when Sora and the enemy are standing in the right pace. By pressing Triangle Sora will execute several Jedi like moves. Which move he produces depends on the enemy he’s fighting. He could just run right behind it for an easier oppurinity to smack it with the keyblade. Or it could grab said enemy and let Sora use it has a weapon against other enemies. Against bosses special scenes will play and combos can be preformed when the reaction command used. While the scene plays you have to time hitting triangle or else you could miss the chance of hitting the boss, or worse having Sora being the one who is attacked.
Then there are limit breaks. Each world specific character (Mulan and Simba for example) has a special limit break they can do with Sora. And there are limit breaks Sora can equip to do limits with Donald and Goofy. In these limit breaks by pressing either X or triangle Sora will do special moves while the limit meter goes down. After you do a certain amount of move the rest of the limit meter is used up in one grand finale of an attack that does damage. Timing these limit breaks is important because they do a lot of damage but they drain all your magic away. Luckily regaining magic isn’t to bad has the magic meter refills it self to full after about a half a minute of recharging. To keep it interesting though the act of curing yourself also depletes the magic meter in such a fashion has well.
Of course that is not all that is new in the battle system. A short time after getting Sora back he runs into the 3 good fairies from Sleeping Beauty (Flora, Fauna, and Merrywheather) who will give him new duds because he’s out grown his old ones. But these new duds aren’t just for looks they will give him new powers. First comes in the way of drive commands, these let Sora fuse with Donald and Goofy for more powers. There are 3 default ones. In valor mode Sora will fuse with Goofy and gain the power to fight with 2 keyblades. In wisdom mode Sora will fuse with Donald and be able to shoot beams out of the keyblade. And in master mode Sora will fuse with both members of his team to become a 3 key wielding maniac of destruction. There are 2 others that happen by random though when you select a drive mode. First is a dark Sora transformation that turns Sora into a heartless. This one sucks you can’t use magic and your attack and defense is severely limited and you can’t revert in till the drive gage (the gage that shows how much time the drive lasts) runs out. Then there is a light Sora form where he will glow white and be able to fly and attack really fast. These happen at random so watch out for them.
Another change that is welcome among Kingdom Hearts fan is the summoning used. There are only 4 summons used in the game but there are a lot more useful. Rather then changing Sora’s attack command they replace the other members of the team. And there a lot more powerful then Donald and Goofy and there limit breaks can be very useful. They use the same drive gage has the fusion though so you have to pick which you want. While the summons are better this time around, often times you will find the drive modes a lot more useful in attacking.
Finally one more improvement upon the game must be mentioned, the gummi ships. You know the completely pointless shooters that go really old in the last game. Well there still completely pointless but this time there fun. The action moves along a lot faster and you can lock on and fire at multiple enemies to. Some of the stages you fly through can also be a lot of eye candy. While this is no Star Fox 64 killer you won’t be groaning any more flying through them.
Final Recommendation.
Kingdom Hearts 2 fixes a lot of the flaws the original one had but it to has a few flaws. But the overall game and presentation is still good and if you liked the original Kingdom Hearts or KH Chain of Memories I recommend picking up this game. If you haven’t played the original Kingdom Hearts or Chain of Memories I suggest getting those 2 first there is a lot of background story that you will miss if you haven’t played either of these games.
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