After the great success of Kingdom Hearts and a completely different Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, comes the next installment of the series, Kingdom Hearts II, for the Playstation 2.
Story
The story follows
the events of Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories. Now, I don’t want to
spoil anything, but I will say that at the beginning of the game, you will
have some questions, but after about an hour or, a few things are found
out.
The game starts with a three-hour tutorial. During that tutorial, videos from Kingdom Hearts I are shown. This is good for the people who have never played Kingdom Hearts and need to follow the story. However, someone who hasn’t finished Kingdom Hearts will have the entire first game spoiled, making playing the first game a bit of a waste.
Never Played Kingdom
Hearts?
Kingdom Hearts
is a game created by Square Enix (makers of the Final Fantasy series) and
Disney. The story follows a boy named Sora, who wields a magical sword
called the Keyblade, and his friends, Donald Duck and Goofy. Sora, Donald,
and Goofy must save the worlds from creatures called the Heartless and
find Sora’s friends, Riku, Kairi, and the king.
As said before, Kingdom Hearts II starts with a three-hour tutorial. You will learn how to use the controls and how most elements of the game work. Also said before, videos from the first Kingdom Hearts will be shown. You will know what happened and be caught up.
What’s New
There are now
a bunch of new worlds to explore. Also, you use the Triangle Button for
Reaction Commands and other stuff. There are a lot of new minigames, and
new ways to battle. You will find yourself battling on a Magic Carpet,
or slicing enemies on a Light Cycle. There are new items, magic powers,
abilities, summons, allies, Limit moves, and enemies.
A new item called the Drive has been added. Whenever you have enough power in your Drive Gauge and the help of a friend, you can use a Drive Command. This allows you to use two Keyblades and very special abilities.
What’s Improved
The Reaction
Commands mentioned below allow for easier controls. Instead of having to
scroll through the Commands menu to open a treasure chest or examine something,
now all you have to do is simply press the Triangle Button.
The camera is now easier and better. Instead of using the L2 and R2 buttons, you only have to use the R3 stick. You can now move the camera up, down, in, and out.
Remember the Gummi Ship: slow, boring, long, and waste of time. This time, the Gummi Ship is much faster. There are a lot of creative enemies. Also, after beating a path once, you never have to go back again, just zoom to the world. You can return back to beat the extra missions. You can still build your own Gummi, but you can also build Teeny Ships to aid it.
Shortcut commands have been slightly improved. Now you can add items to the shortcuts, and use the X Button as a shortcut.
Graphics
The graphics
are definitely the best the PS2 can offer. They are much better than the
first Kingdom Hearts. Each item, weapon, accessory, and person looks independent
and fantastic.
Worlds
Many new worlds
appear in KH2 from many different Disney movies new and old. Solve a mystery
in the Timeless River from Steamboat Willy or help Captain Jack Sparrow
in Port Royal from Pirates of the Caribbean. Never seen these movies? In
most worlds, you must follow the story of the movie, and in others, you
must follow a story relative to the main quest.
You must revisit some worlds from KH1. They look about the same as they did before, but you must also visit new areas of those worlds.
The worlds look great, and the stories stay very accurate to the movies. They even have lines from the movies, but not all of the correct voices.
Cutscenes
You get a lot
more cutscenes than talking. They are still well played out, nicely done,
and funny. You can still pause, but if you’ve seen one too many times,
you can now skip it.
Battles
With the Drive
Command mentioned earlier, new summons, new magic powers, new abilities,
and new enemies, you can guess battling will be quicker and more exciting.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy still have to fight off Heartless, but there are
new enemies called Nobodies.
New Limit Command moves give Sora the chance to clean out Heartless in half the time. A Limit Command allows Sora to rapidly attack alongside one ally or both. Once a Limit is activated, use the X and Triangle Buttons to attack many enemies or one large one, and after a bunch of attacks, finish off with a giant finishing move.
The Reaction Commands make battles much easier. They allow Sora to dodge and counterattack with a great move. In some boss battles, you’ll have to use Reaction Commands to weaken your foe.
New gimmicks appear in certain battles to stop you from getting bored. You may have to beat all the enemies in a time limit, or fight while protecting someone or something.
Side Quests and
Minigames
New sidequests
appear, however, there are not too many of them. Mainly, the largest sidequest
is completing the journal by finding all treasure chests and completing
the missions. The missions mainly consist of beating a score on a minigame.
You must also find the Torn Pages of Winnie the Pooh’s book AGAIN, sheesh.
The reason why there aren't so many sidequests is because the designer cared more about the minigames. You may have to ride a skateboard to complete a task, or use your Keyblade to help others or for training. The Coliseum returns with new gimmicks to survive while fighting.
Journal
Jiminy’s Journal
is much more thorough this time around. As you move further in a world,
the story section gets larger and the summary changes. Also, in each character’s
profile, you can even see what was the first movie or game they were in.
What’s right about
this game?
- Follows the
stories great
- Great graphics,
cut scenes, and sound
- Easier Reaction
Commands
- Drive and Limit
Commands
- New abilities,
enemies, items, worlds, and allies
- Less boring
Gummi Ship
- Better camera
What’s wrong with
this game?
- Repetitive
battling occurs a lot. You will find yourself fighting the same enemies
the same way.
- Although you
have new magic powers, you won’t find yourself using them a lot. You could
beat the whole game without using magic, just your Keyblade, making magic
and summons a bit of a waste.
- Although the
Gummi Ship is less slow and boring, it is still a bit repetitive. You’ll
keep shooting at the same enemies. Also, the Gummi Garage and missions
won’t keep you interested. You’ll probably finish a Gummi path once, and
never go back.
- Sidequests
and minigames will waste some of your time, but not a lot. A couple of
the minigames are almost the same, only a little different. They won’t
keep you coming back for more.
- The Journal
is much more thorough, but you still don’t need to use it. You could skip
it altogether.
- You’ll find
yourself backtracking through worlds a bunch of times. They could use the
time they took to male new quests and worlds.
- There are a
lot of cutscenes, but little talking. This makes the talking a bit of a
waste. Would it kill them to make the cutscenes a little longer?
Overall
Graphics-10
The best graphics
ever. Definitely a major improvement.
Sound-10
The voices and
cutscenes are astounding. Also a major improvement. Although the cutscenes
could be a little longer, this criticism can be ignored.
Gameplay-8
The gameplay
is great with the addition of the Reaction, Drive, and Limit Commands.
However, when the Gummi Ship, sidequests, and minigames are pretty much
a waste of game data, and the fact that magic has been a little more ignored,
the gameplay is less than great.
Fun Factor-8
Kingdom Hearts
II is LOOOOONG, a real time spender. You’ll definitely love it at first,
but there is repetitive battling and a lot of backtracking to think about.
Also, you’ll probably want to replay the game a bit, but because of the
boring sidequests and minigames, after you beat the game, you may not want
to continue anymore.
Overall Score-9
If you’ve been
keeping score, there are 7 pros and 7 cons. So, why a 9? Because the Gummi
Ship is not as boring as before, new command moves, perfect graphics and
sound, new everything, and a better camera. The pros are much better than
the cons.
Final Words
So, who should
get Kingdom Hearts II? If you loved Kingdom Hearts I, you must get this
game. If you weren’t too happy with the first one, there’s not too much
to make you like this game. If you haven’t played Kingdom Hearts yet, give
this a rental.
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