Ah, Kingdom Hearts II. Months and Months of frantic waiting with friends came down to this.
Kingdom Hearts II starts off where Chain of Memories left off. Although you don't NEED CoM, (I don't have it) it's VERY useful to have a brief knowledge of what happened in the game. (Check Wikipedia.org and type Chain of Memories) Finishing the original KH is a must if you want to have any idea of what is going on. The game starts off with a three hour prologue, which is a strange mix of being the most dark,exciting, and tedious part of the entire game. Afterward you're put back in charge of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. You explore new worlds just like the last game, and I personally feel a huge improvement over the choice in the worlds. The Square-Enix team pushed to make major improvements on the things gamers hated in the last game, while still adding original elements. The gummy ship is one example. Once a boring diversion is now a full-blown game with different levels and secrets. The final level makes my heart race with exitement. An original feature is the reaction command. This allows Sora to accomplish specific moves depending on the situation. While this makes the boss battles an absolute blast, common enemies become too easy. And I would put forward that the entire game is too easy. I died twice the entire game. But it was well written, fun, and worthwhile to play.
Sound: Same as KH, so good. Voice acting was absolutely incredible - and Christopher Lee playing DiZ was just phenominal! (Christopher Lee played Saruman from Lord of the Rings.) *Hums Sanctuary, the new theme song for KH2* The only reason this category isn't a perfect 10 is because of Atlantica's songs. Those things made my ears bleed. (VG Cats Comic:
Kingdom Hearts II:Finny Fun) 9/10
Graphics: Pushes the PS2 to its limits, with absolutly no lag. They really take the essence of each world, but to see cartoony Sora in the detailed PotC world looked kind of awkward. Love everything else, though! 9/10
Story: A kind of take and give from the last game. Organization XIII, the Nobodys, and the great choice of worlds made the story memorable. While I love how detailed it was, it lost many of the hidden meanings that the first game had. All that's left is darkness, light, and nothing, and it's not done that well either. I miss the hidden thoughts upon darkness, light, power, true friends, and how the first game completely surrounded the topic of love without even touching it. Being a some, it's too big of a loss. 7/10
Gameplay: Controls are smooth and easy to handle. It's made a huge improvement over the last game. Each battle feels like a thrill ride, when in fact all you're doing is hitting the x button over and over again. Gummy ship levels have DRAMATICALLY improved, yet I feel confused trying to build one. Levels are also much better designed. Swiching control of the camera to the right joystick does improve control dramatically, but it makes it much harder to move through the menus. That's ok, since you don't use it much anyway. Drive Modes are just...just... so KUPO! 9/10
Difficulty: I'm depressed about this one. I died twice in the entire game because of neglect. Why they lowered the difficulty AND THEN added an easy mode is beyond me. I'm not counting Dymitrix water clones ether. If you don't defeat ten clones in ten seconds, you lose the battle and have to do it again. No explanation why, just a loss. And when you're fighting a thousand heartless, I WANT TO FEEL LIKE I'M FIGHTING 1000 HEARTLESS! Is that too much to ask, kupo? Proud mode offers a challenge, and it is actually possible to die in Twilight Town without trying too. That alone is giving difficulty a pathetic 4.5/10
Replay Factor: Modertly High. After you cruise though the main story, there's always the hidden items and very difficlult Jiminy's Journal to complete. Proud Mode offers much needed difficulty to the story, although a little too much. You'll get your fill by the end. In the last version though, hours upon hours were spent leveling at Olympus Stadium. Now with no experience offered there, much of the time spent is wasted, and therefore less time is spent.
All in all, it's a worthy sequel, and deserves recognition. It forgets some of the things that made the original truly great, but it adds some great moments. The moments like Roxas fighting Axel (2nd time) or the Twilight Thorn made the experience worthwhile. Heck, I would have been happy just with the trash-talk between Cloud and Squall(Leon). It was a truly fun time. Writing this has made me truly want to pick up my controller and go defeat Sephiroth. Excuse me for a second.
Overall (not average score): 7.5/10
EDIT: Everyone should know I created this WITHOUT reading Sieg Reyu's review first. Now it surprises me how closely our reviews are. I didn't think anyone else would complain about the lack of symbolism.
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