Summary Packed with all your favorite Final Fantasy and Disney characters, Kingdom Hearts II is everything a sequel should be.

Description Back in 2002, Square-Enix left yet another tremendous mark in its wake in the form of Kingdom Hearts. Who would have ever thought that Mickey Mouse and Sephiroth would dance so perfectly together? With hundreds of classic Disney charactors and RPG heroes spanning from Final Fantasy VII through X, Kingdom Hearts had a little bit for everyone. Though the game had its problems, it is now known for outselling every Final Fantasy game since VIII, worldwide. Now, 4 years later, Square has created another sure masterpiece with Kingdom Hearts II. Though the original game was near perfecion, KH2 has greatly enhanced almost every aspect of the franchise. One of the major high points of Kingdom Hearts II is the control scheme. In the original Kingdom Hearts, fighting Heartless (the trademark enemies of the series) was more of a chore than an enjoyable aspect of the game. With a whole new fighting system, battling Heartless is more than just wailing on the X button. Though not quite as in-depth as God of War or Resident Evil 4's reaction system, Sora can unleash wickedly powerful attacks on enemies by simply pressing the triangle button at the appropriate time. Team attacks are another great addition to random encounters with your foes. For example, when you initiate the team attack with Auron (Final Fantasy X), he and Sora will furiously attack Heartless with Auron's familiar Overdrive technique, Bushido Blade. With Goofy and Donald both on your party, that very same combo will vanquish literally dozens of enemies at a time by unleashing the famous Final Fantasy magic, Ultima. The final and possibly best addition to combat is the Drive Guage. With the proper amount of the Drive Guage full, Sora can actually combine with Donald, Goofy, or any other Disney character on the party to vastly increase his magic or strength sometimes enabling him to dual-wield Keyblades. Overall, with a greatly overhauled battle mechanic, fighting is easily the best enhancement Square-Enix had made toward the franchise. Another great change to the KH series is the story introduced in KH2. In the original game Sora and his two friends Riku and Kairi were separated from each other when a plague of Heartless raided their island. As a result, the king of the Disney castle went to investigate the disturbances in all the other worlds and selected Goofy (Captain of the Royal Knights) and Donald Duck (Royal Court Magician) to guard the bearer of the Keyblade (Sora) with their lives. After they met, the team began their quest to lock all the Keyholes, the gate in witch the Heartless were using to invade each world. Riku, partaking on his own journey to save Kairi's captured heart, turned to the darkness to obtain the strength to do so. As the darkness grew in Riku's heart, his body had taken form of Ansem (the darkness' true form), and after an epic battle with Ansem, Riku's body had returned to normal but at the cost of being locked away in the Realm of Darkness along with King Mickey. Now Sora, Riku, and Kairi (who had recently acquired her heart back with Sora's help) were once again separated. As a side note I never played through part two of the series, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, but I do know that it involves Sora revisiting the many Disney worlds and regaining his memory after the worlds were seperated. During his journey, he and his two animated pals encounter new and old enemies, one of which was Organization XIII, a group of black cloaked villains. After reducing the group by almost half, Sora's quest is brought to a screeching halt when he and his teammates were bound to eternal slumber by a young girl. Now for Kingdom Hearts II. This segment of the story begins in the peaceful city of Twilight Town with a boy named Roxas. After a few days in Twilight Town, Roxas tussles with some classic Final Fantasy characters and goes about living his life. Soon enough, events turn ugly when the infamous black coated Organization XIII shows up demanding him to go with them. During the many strange encounters with the organization throughout the peaceful town, Roxas battled his way to the very chamber where Sora and company were being imprisoned in their sleep. Now free, Sora ,Goofy, and Donald must embark on a new journey to finish the organization and to find King Mickey and Soras old friends. I found the story rather gripping but alas, the predictable ending left me wanting more and left a wide opening for the sure to be PS3 title Kingdom Hearts III. And finally, the graphics. Though not nearly as much of a graphical distinction like the one that occurred between Final Fantasy VII and VIII, there are some slight notifications. The lip-syncing is noticeably better than its predecessor as is the difference in camera angle. The camera is set alot further from your character giving the player the ability to notice the flash and pizazz of battles around you and the great backgroung textures. Both being PS2 games, the graphical differences between KH1 and KH2 aren't huge but at the rate it's going at, the Kingdom Hearts series could well reach Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children quality graphics in time. From Mulan to Pirates of the Caribbean, Kingdom Hearts II is a game aimed more towards younger gamers but older players shouldn't dismiss it immediately because in what other gaming franchise will you find Donald Duck and the bad-ass swordsman Auron fighting together? In closing, the fifty dollar admission fee to this amusement park (better than Disney World) is more than worth it to have an action/RPG of this magnitude in your PS2's library. If you don't have it, buy it! If you do own it, play it again and again until you bore of it, if such a thing is even possible. Review Page Hits: 1 today (15 in the last 30 days) Create Your Own Review or