Kingdom Hearts II

"Nobody is Heartless enough to ignore this wonderful game, period."

Kingdom Hearts II is a game where, a sequel that makes the game better than it's predecessor. If not, way, far better than the first. Or even better, the game that brings this game into one of the ARPG games that you shouldn't ignore.

Developed by Square-Enix, a collaboration work of Square-Enix and Disney proves that there is NO mistake over their cooperation. Quite a number of people complained about KH1 being too childish, or the team up between both companies were not suitable. The in between sequel of Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts : Chains of Memories even gave lots of players, even some fans a bit of disappointment because of the way the game was executed. But with Kingdom Hearts II, every doubts people has has cleared, and certainly, the "Sequels sucked", "this game will not be as good as the first one" commentary will not be an issue or excuse anymore. In essence, this game is not what you'd call "bad". In fact, it's the total opposite of what you would think. Call it an opinion, but I believed it.

As this game was released on the 22-nd of December, 2005, which the release date for NA has yet to come, This review might, or might not, give you an answer "It's worth the wait".

Unforgettable story, magical of Disney + magical of Square-Enix, the result? Colorful!

Kingdom Hearts has been stated by Tetsuya Nomura, the director and the "creator" of this game, a story of Sora's. So of course, in this game you will once again play as Sora. along with with two sidekicks, Donald and Goofy. But on the other hand, you'll also play a new character, which will be right in the beginning, you'll be controlling a mysterious young boy for at least 3 hours of the gameplay before going in to Sora's. The story of both sides were greatly told. But the attention given to both of the character gives an impact, and storyline importance to the whole plot, which is good. Certainly, any doubts that were left from the first game are cleared. Though NOT everything, but it does ended with a good note.

Despite being a Disney game, it isn't entirely too "childish", yet despite being developed by Square-Enix, it isn't entirely too "complicated" for gamers to keep up with. It's simple, yet in-depth. Character developments are smooth sailing, and fleshed out from the start, till the end. Plot pace doesn't seem rushed. And it doesn't sound too cliche either. Overall, the story is enjoyable right from the start, till the end. In between you'll get to visit the Disney worlds. Each world have their own respective storytelling. And it doesn't require much time for the audience to go through the story. Which is good, while it's good to have a world that could take you up to 5 - 6 hours, but in result it will make the players tired of having to stuck on the same world, wondering when can they finish the world before proceeding to the next. For this game, an average story for each Disney worlds could take only 3 - 4 hours to finish, and it's a balance set up.

Despite having such great story, the only complain I have for this : It ended too simple and sudden. I was left empty after the ending. Like "That's it? man, I wish there were more before it ends". Sure it doesn't seem to be a major problem, but a cut down right when you're still having the tension for the game isn't a good thing for audiences. And that, it can be a flaw for some people.

Story : 8/10

Gameplay, Solid, Unable to put down the controller...must...play...more...

Wonderful gameplay. First. This game introduces a new fighting system named Drive. A feature where Sora can change his appearance, and also changes his style of attack. Each drive has different capabilities, and different purpose in battles, which it was a good additional feature for the player to play with. Sure it doesn't seem like Drives are a must to use, as the flexibility is up to you, but with using Drives, it will make you passing the stage easier. And it also serves you an eye candy for the most of time. Even better, the whole gimmicky stuffs are actually useful. Serving as an additional "skill" to pass through enemies and bosses if you're in a pinch. Drives don't come in permanent, it uses the Drive gauge, so once the Drive gauge is depleted, your appearance will go back to normal. So it cannot be abused.

An additional to make Drives useful, the difficulty of enemies in this game aren't going to be forgivable. The enemies are stronger, as the AI as well compared to the first game. The bosses will give you a hard time, and you can use Drive to get them down as it is much effective.

Additional to the gameplay, there is a new system called "Reaction Command" which you have to sometimes press Triangle to respond to actions that you cannot do in your own normal battle powers. Which adds the in depth of the gameplay. Often the reaction command will cause the enemy to stun, or to take massive damage from that reaction strike itself. It's good to have different commands in battle which not being too dependant on mashing circle buttons to pass the battle. Example of one reaction command would be : "A" does a charge strike at you. the whole scene slows down (like Matrix effect), there will be a triangle command for you to press on, once pressed, "B", the player, would jump behind the enemy and dealt one critical strike, rendering "A" stunned down, adding chances to deal more damage to the enemy. Gimmicky, and practical, at the same time. In result, most of the battles became a unique phenomenon, as sometimes you are required to do this particular reaction command to ensure you pass that particular section itself, before you can bring the enemy down to oblivion. This is something that you never see often in Action RPGs

Magics are back, and items feature became much more, in fact, useful than ever before. The first game suffers from magic being too heavily relied on. Making Items, or Summons on the first game, being turned from rarely used to none. But in this game, each magic will use a little of MP, while restoration magic can only be used once, and the MP bar will turn purple, indicating that it's in recharged status, and to restore MP without having to wait till it's recharged, you would have to rely on items. Which makes the system rather balanced. Instead of relying too much on spamming. Now you would have to use two features to survive in an intense, fast paced gameplay. The only complaint I have over this is that having to wait for fully recharged MPs would be a pain. And it's a hassle to have going back to the save point and restore everything back to normal. It's not a perfect gameplay, but thank god it's a minor thing. To add the improvement, Magics in KH2 are further improved, and it actually makes the player having the incentive to use magics instead of just bash and pointless circle attack mashing.

Summons became ever unique than before as well, instead of attacks, they will be hovering around doing normal damage, until you call out their special attacks by selecting one of the commands available. With this, Summons will have variety of attacks on your assets. Some summon attacks are executed in different ways, therefore adding more features to the summons, instead of having them following you attacking enemies around, then disappear after their turn. Becoming ever unique than before. Similarly to Drive, Summon uses gauge. So after their gauge is depleted, summons will go away.

One bad thing still exists is that, despite being having such wonderful systems added for this game. It still has some balancing issues. Drive gauge are hard to refill, therefore players will actually have to save their drives and not use it at all. Similarly, Summons and offensive magics still played a side role where it's not entirely necessary to use them at the first place. Colorful as it seems, if people doesn't even bother to use those, it's kind of pointless to have it implement it at the first place. But regardless, this is a minor issue, as whether it's applicable or not will be entirely up to the individual.

Gummi ships from KH1 are back, further improved, and it's not going to be as "cheesy" `as what you have been through back in the first game. They overhauled the Gummi system, took some lessons from the partial failure, and fixed it to improve it. The feel is entirely different that what you went through from the first game. It's non linear, and definitely added some difficulties on both stage platform and the enemies, making the whole feel different. This also comes with the downside, It's entirely unnecessary to go through it again once you're done with the compulsory stage, unless you're interested in getting a perfect ranking in this feature.

In short, the whole gameplay has been enhanced way from the first game. Making it an extra bonus to the reason, and also became the main selling point of this game.

Gameplay : 8/10

The pictures ain't dead, it's alive, it's magic.

Knowing Disney and Square-Enix, which both of them are the pioneers in graphics.The combination between western and the eastern brings us the magic in visuals. But, nothing is perfect in this execution. Despite being great for their graphic execution, there are still errors that can be spotted even during the first half of the game. Mainly the lip syncing problem. Some of the conversations doesn't match with the character's lip action. In result, making the flaw became rather annoying for some of the hardcore graphic fans. Hope's not lost however. As this current only applied to the Japanese version, we may see some light for the NA version it it gets port over, which it eventually will.

However, the movement and the animations are sweet. It feels natural. The facial expressions shown on each characters are rich and totally comical, that you can totally feel the mood they have expressed in cutscenes. The effects and cinematic choreography used in this game were sweet as well, and well done. The usage and the stage design for each worlds are specially well done. Colorful and true to their origins as well. As S-E never really disappointed us gamers with their graphics, their rendering makes the graphics looked appealing, and thus gave the players an enjoyable experience in the game.

Voices are superbly well done. I thought Donald and Goofy sounded awful at first, but after getting used to it. It doesn't sound that bad anymore. Though the preference will still going to be the English voices in general. But that doesn't mean they did a bad job. Certainly, most of the voices are well done, thought not perfect in their roles (some parts where Donald and Goofy does sounded bad, no complains about Sora though), they did their best into portraying their characters out, and certainly one can see the effort.

The music in this game is a perfect reason why I should buy the soundtrack. Composed by Yoko Shimomura again, she certainly have her way onto making the music as beautiful as possible, the melody of the game sounds very suitable and well fitting to each of the cutscenes. Boss Battle themes sounds really great and managed to bring out the tension of the gameplay (oh yes it helps). Though some of the songs are borrowed from their origins and further remixed, it doesn't sound anywhere bad. Instead, it's comparable to even the first game version. Even the theme song fits the game's concept, which it gets an honorable mention. It's fluid, beautiful and definitely, a reason why this game shouldn't be ignored.

Graphics and Sound : 9/10

I want to play this game, Will I feel satisfied?

Perhaps this isn't too hard to answer, The controls are perfectly fine to control. The camera flaws that was left from the first game were fixed. Though it isn't perfectly fixed. But it's way better than what you have seen. You don't feel odd when viewing the scenery around. In a sense, it's a great improvement and it became less hindrance to the game flow. Making it smooth and solid.

As stated above as well, Enemy AI in this game will not be forgiving, they will give you challenges like never before. With 3 difficulties given way before you start your game. You can select which type of difficulty suits you before going through the story. Similarly, your party AI is not going to be a nuisance anymore. They do became smarter, and even more flexible in terms of battle assisting. If you choose this character to do such role during the battle, they really do follow your settings, and never screw up on you. Which it is also a fixed feature which some players complained about the AI system back from the first game.

The only downside, which I have in mind after playing this game, would be the game length. Explicitly stated above, the game left a big letdown of mood. And as well, the game feels to be too short. With only 30 ~ 40 hours of gameplay, I felt as if I wanted more from the story as well. The story do still left a bit of questions behind everything, but it leaves you to think on your own. And no, it does not have an open ending...so do not worry about it.

As for extra features, there are lots of mini games for you to clear, and optional bosses for you to play with, adding with multiple unlockables and et cetra, it can take you up to 60 ~ 80 hours to complete everything.

In the end, It's all pros more than cons.

Camera : 10/10
Game Length : 8/10
Other features : 10/10

Epilogue

Seriously, if you loved the first game, there is no reason to hate the second. To put it in a non exaggerated way, this game does provide players with a non forgettable storytelling, exciting and wonderful gameplay, and satisfying results in the end. Although it does have flaws, but no games are perfect.

In the end, it's a game where I do not mind spending money to get it, because it's worth it, and it owns my soul. I grew up with both Square-Enix and Disney, and they still can keep up the good impression I have over them.

Magical of both companies, leaving a great memories to everyone. This will forever be a truth to this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/05