"It's Time to Kick Some Heartlass"

The 2nd masterpiece is here folks, and it's Square-Disney again, bringing us the ultimate blend of Final fantasy and Disney. Who hasn't dreamt with Aladdin, struggled with Simba and flied with Peter pan in the skies of fantasy and imagination? Who hasn't cried with Cloud, fought with Squall and loved with Tidus? We all have. And we all will re-live these moments again, this time with the company of Sora, Donald and Goofy.

Kingdom Hearts 2 continues off where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memory for BGA finished. The world is saved and Ansem is defeated, but Riku and King Mickey are missing in the realms of darkness, while Sora and his friends are sent into a deep sleep somewhere.

Once you pop in the disc and choose “New Game”, you are welcomed by an amazing intro which features all the moments of the past and the present combined beautifully, to make one of the best into movies in my opinion. The game starts, in someplace called Twilight Town and surprisingly, you find yourself controlling a fella named Roxas. Roxas is a dreamy guy, who always sees “things” and, along with his gang; Hayner, Pence and Olette, enjoy good old sea salt ice cream. Sitting on the town's clock tower, the quartet would enjoy their ice cream and talk about casual stuff, away from the bullies of the town; Seifer, Raijin and Fujin, the guys from Final Fantasy VIII.

Days pass casually until Roxas and his gang is accused of stealing photos from the town folks, and that's when the game starts.

For all of you Sora fans worried about this Roxas guy don't worry. Good old Sora is here, you just need to play through a tedious, (and rather boring I must say) 3-4 hours introduction before the actual game starts and you finally get to control Sora. But the game is worth it of course.

I will divide my review into several sections, for easier picking; Storyline/plot, graphics, game play, sound, and replay value.

Storyline:
For those of you who haven't played the first Kingdom Hearts, I suggest you go pick it up first, as this game is a direct continuation of it. Playing GBA's Chain of Memories is also recommended, but not essential. I personally did without it.

The game starts, as I mentioned earlier, with a kid named Roxas, living in Twilight Town. Roxas is what we call a “nobody”. Nobodies are the result of turning one person into a heartless. When one person is turned to a heartless, a nobody is released.
Roxas is Sora's nobody. When Sora and his friends were set to sleep, his memory was totally erased, and Roxas was produced, to hold half of Sora's soul. Now the re-input of Sora's memory is underway, by another female nobody called Namine. Not much is known about Namine, but those who played Shadow Hearts: Chain of Memory would recognize her.

To cut a long story short, Sora is revived, along with Donald and Goofy, and their memories are restored, along with their weapons, namely, the Key blade. Sora is now ready to roam worlds and kick some heartless ass.

Graphics:
Not so much has changed in term of graphics since the old game. The cut scenes are smooth and well-textured, the facial expressions are good, and general environment of the game is very well done. Something I noticed while playing is the superiority of the graphical features of the characters in Port Royal, one of the worlds you will visit on your path. All the characters in this world are very well done graphically; Captain Jack Sparrow, Caption Barbossa, William Turner and Miss Elizabeth, are have extremely well done and more realistic facial features. The graphic superiority, I attribute, is to the fact that all the worlds you visit on your trip are inspired from Disney Cartoons, like The Lion King, Mulan, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, so the graphical features of the characters are set to appear the exact way they appeared in these Disney classics. But as for Port Royal, which is inspired from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean; this graphic limit is not present. This is my explanation.

Game play:

The basic game play has not changed much compared to the old game. You still have the command menu at the bottom left of your screen, and the usual HP/MP gauge at the bottom right. What is noticeable is the change of how the command menu looks in every world; the look of the menu and its frame changes according to the world you are in, something you might not notice, but still worth mentioning.

The bottom line of this game, as we all know, is how rapid you can mash the X button on your controller. But this does not mean that the other commands are useless of course. Along with the typical Attack command, comes the Magic and Items commands, which are pretty known for anyone who is familiar with RPGs. But the new thing is the 4th command, which is “Drive”. Drive is a new command that allows you to use abilities Sora obtains as the game advances, these abilities are integrated into Sora's outfit. The drive command is not limitless; it is limited by a new gauge that you will find on the bottom right of the screen; the drive gauge. The drive gauge fills up as you play, and is consumed as you change to your drive ability, until totally consumed, Sora is back to normal.

A new addition to the command menu is the presence of another menu. Hitting the left directional button on the D-pad of your controller, changes the options in the command menu to give you access to a new set of commands, namely: Limit, Summon and Party.

The limit command enables you to perform special attacks using the help of your party members, something which most of the time requires tapping the triangle button several times rapidly.

The Summon command is not new to the game. It enables you to summon different companions to help you throughout the battle, like the GFs or Aeons etc... Notice that whiles your companion is there; your other two party members are out.

As for the party command, it is a command that enables you to switch party members during the battle ala Final Fantasy X. This could be helpful especially when different characters are needed to perform different actions.

A new feature in the game is the reaction commands. The reaction commands are a group of commands that are not included in the commands menu, but rather appear as an option above the commands menu, when the situation requires it. For example when in a battle with some enemy, and on approaching the enemy in a specific way, the reaction command appears as a flashing triangle button above the commands menu. The reaction commands require you to tap the triangle button quickly in order to perform special commands and attacks. It does not consume MP.

This would be enough for the in-battle game play, but what about the experience and ability system? For those who played the first game, it won't be much of a problem to grasp with the experience and ability system. The bottom line is this: The more you fight enemies, the stronger you become. The more you fight enemies, the more you get EXP points, which in turn level you up. By leveling up, you obtain Ability points, which are junctioned to several abilities or characteristics enabling you to perform them during the battle. These abilities are acquired by beating bosses and different random enemies.

Moving in between worlds is possible by the gummi ship, the only method of transport between different worlds. As always, the gummi ship sequences are tedious and boring, and what's even worse, in Kingdom Hearts 2, the gummi ship sequences are even more boring, harder and longer, fortunately, once you open a pathway, you open it forever, no need to go through those gummi ship mini games again. Personally, I think the gummi ship mini game is the worst aspect of the Kingdom Hearts series.

Sound:
There is not much to talk about concerning the sound effects of this game. The voice acting is perfect, especially for the Disney characters, which have the same voices they had in their Disney classics, as well as the tone and the dialect.
The lip synch is not perfect, but not that bad either, after all, perfect lip synch is not possible. Nothing is perfect.
It is worthy of mentioning that I especially enjoyed the songs in Atlantica. You are required to perform some songs with along with Ariel, Donald, and Goofy and with Sebastian as the maestro, and I can't say nothing less than that I loved those songs so much. They are songs taken from the Disney classic “The Little Mermaid”, old, but still live to the event.

The background music throughout the game is well-sorted and goes hand in hand with the game play, as well as the battle music, but honestly, I found the music in Space Paranoids very annoying and monotonous. Probably the worst videogame music I have seen to date. The menu sounds are also very nicely and sweetly done.
Replay Value:

Quite honestly, I rarely replay games, and Kingdom Hearts 2 is not an exception. There are no much side quests, and the game is pretty straight from beginning to end, with no significant plot twists or backtracking required. You can replay the game, but just for re-enjoying the memorable moments this game offers.

All in all, this game gets a 10/10. Kingdom Hearts 2 manages to surpass its predecessor and to create an atmosphere of fantasy, fun, memorable moments, interesting plot and active non-boring game play hand in hand. Apart from being highly addictive, Kingdom Hearts 2 serves as a real action/adventure fun RPG, something you do not see everyday, as well as being a marvel that binds the two worlds together; Disney and Final Fantasy.

For those who love an action game, Kingdom Hearts 2 is their choice, for those who love a role playing game, Kingdom Hearts 2 is their choice, and for those who love a random dash and slash game, Kingdom Hearts 2 is their choice. In short, Kingdom Hearts 2 is the game for everyone. If you do not own and play Kingdom Hearts 2, you should not consider yourself a hardcore gamer, or even an amateur gamer. Kingdom Hearts 2, the game I loved, the game Japan loved, and the game the whole world loved. Kingdom Hearts 2, THE GAME.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/06