"Worthy of the title Kingom Hearts"

Kingdom Hearts it's a game that when it first came out for the PS2 you either thought was strange or "kiddie" due to the unlikely partnership between Squaresoft(now SquareEnix) and Disney. But the game proved to be a great success because of it's great gameplay, some the best characters form both Square and Disney, and great levels. The end of the game proved to be a cliffhanger and fans were begging for a sequel and a couple years later we got Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories for the GBA which was supposed to set the story up for the true sequel Kingdom Hearts II. Now after a long wait Kingdom Hearts II is finaly here. Is it good? Does it live up to the first game? Is it worth getting now? Well the answer to those questions and more is in this review so keep reading.

Story: The story is awesome, just what you'd expect from square and the classic tales of Disney. It leaves off one year after where Chain of Memories ended. Sort of. You hafta play as a boy named Roxas instead of Sora in the begining and you'll find out about his mysterious past and why it's important to Sora's story. Eventualy though you will start to play as Sora and begin a new quest battling the heartless and a new type of enemy called nobodies across the worlds search ing for his lost friend Riku. There are PLENTY of cutscenes in this game there's at least one every ten minutes if you're playing through the story worlds. Thank god that the cutscenes are all good so the scenes don't become too tedious after ten hours of playing through the worlds

The characters are all people we know and love from Disney such as Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Simba and more mixed in with the cast of some of the most beloved final fantasy games like Cloud, Squall, and Auron. The original characters are awesome and each have thier own personalities that make you feel for that character even for some of the villans!

The main story is just great even though it isn't there for most of the game (you'll usually be playing through each of the Disney world's story) when it is there it will have many twist and turns and a HUGE plot twist about the first game that is just too good to spoil. One thing about the story though, it will be confusing for people who have never played Kingdom Hearts one and Chain of Memories so you should pick up those games first if you want a clear view of the story.

With it's awesome storyline (even with the fillers), classic characters and that plot twist make for a great story
10/10

Graphics: Beautiful. Just beautiful. I don't care much fo graphics but these simply blow me away . Everything is very detailed from Donald's staff to Beast's castle everything looks just like you'd expect it to be. The Pirates of the Carribean world looks particularly good because it is a live-action world and everything looks just like they do in the movies. The graphics look even better in battle where there can be ten things happening all at the same time and everything still is very smooth and there is never a lag in the action making for some crazy good battles.

There's no flaws in the graphic department. Everything is just the way it's supposed to look and the battles are nothing short of amazing
10/10

Sound: The sound 's good. The music, while not memorable on it's own fit the enviorment and make you feel that you're in the movie. There are a couple of tracks that are realy good though and nothing is really that bad so the music is decent. The opening theme "Santuary "is great and really memorabe though, and (in my opinon) better than the original's "Simple and clean"The voice acting is GREAT and they have many celebreties doing the voice acting. Haley Joel Osment does a great job as Sora and they even got some people who did the original voice from thier movies (ex: James Wood as hades) . More or less the Disney characters sound like they are supposed to be the final fantasy cast sound at least a little like what you thought and the original character's voice actors fit thier personaleties perfectly.The only exeption is Aerith's voice actor it's just so blech. The sound effects are generaly good although hitting enemies with the keyblade sound wierd sometimes the rest of the sound affect are well sound.

The steller voice acting, great sound effects and the ocasional memorabe songs make the sound near-perfect, the only thing that brings it down is the sometimes bland song and Aerith's voice.
9/10

Gameplay: The most important part of any game is gameplay and Kingdom hearts exels in that department. There are many many new things that make battling so fun I'll start with reaction comands. Reaction commands are are things that you can make Sora do when the Triangle button appears on the screen by pressing triangle. These commands can do things as simple as getting behind an opponent or as complex as stoping a giant three-headed dog from attacking you, then using his head to get in the air and throwing the keyblade down to attack him. The reaction commands make battles easier and more cinematic but is sort of broken because you got a LOOOOONG time to hit that little triangle button.

There is another new feature in kingdon hearts II called Drive forms basically you fuse with one of your partners to go into a super mode for a brief period of time. For example when you fuse with Goofy you go into a attack heavy form called valor which you get to use two keyblades and gain increased attack power. The only catch is that you have to have to fill up your form meter
wich you can fill up by collecting drive orbs. The form meter is also used to use the summon command from the last game althought the summons in this game is far less useful than the ones in the last game so you probably won't be using them that often and insteed use the drive forms.

The magic system is better than ever because of the new spells reflect and magnet replacing some of the spells in the original game. Changes were also made to the basic spells such as making fire short ranged and cure costing all your MP to cast. The abilities list is also improved because of the sheer number of abilities you can equip including something called a combo finisher where you preform a powerful move at the end of a combo. Another thing was improved by a mile the gummi ships in the first game they were a boring repetitive way to get from world to world and you'd be thanking god when you get the warp drive, now they improved it tenfold by adding more enemies a rotating camera and more ways to customize your ship making it an fun little mini-game instead of a boring tedious one.

The worlds them selves are now pretty linear and they tell you where to go in the worlds and there's barely any exploration involved. There's only one exeption in this game and it is only for a brief period of time. There are no puzzles in this game which I kind of miss. So now you basiclly you go in the world fight some enemies beat the boss and go on to the next world. Altough it's not as bad as it sounds becaust you will most likely encounter new enemies every time and because boss battles are a blast. The bosses themselves are great charecters and each have very special moves and reaction commands unique to that boss and each is quite a challange to fight.

Even thought the worlds have changed and got lienear it's not enought to mark the gameplay down because of the battle systems greatness.
10/10

Replay value: I was disapointed at the lack of actual sidequests in this game, as the only one you can do is the coliseum that's about it. I was also disapointed at the fact that there is only one optional boss battle since the original had quite a few (Kurt Ziza the phantom, and more). There is one thing you can do after you're done with the final boss The Jimminy Objectives. While not an actual sidequest these are extra things you can do and if you somehow manage do them all you can unlock a secret bonus movie if you're playing on standard mode.While there is a huge lack of sidequests the Jimminy objectives should keep you busy for a loooong time (I am currently past the 100 hour mark and I still haven't completed all the Jimminy Objectives).

Like I said the lack of sidequests and only one optional boss hurts the score but the Jimminy Objectives brining it wayyyyyyy up.
9/10

Kingdom Hearts II once again that SquareEnix and Disney make a great team and not only deos it live up to the original it is a great game in it's own right. It scores high on everything that can make or break a game.If you loved kingdom Hearts one buy it now. If you love RPGs buy it now. If you played one Final Fantasy buy it now. Heck if you ever watched a Disney movie buy it now. If you don't fall into any of those catogories chances are you will still love this game.

Story:10/10
Graphics:10/10
Sound:9/10
Gameplay:10/10
Replay Value:9/10

Overall:10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/06