Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts 2 was one of the most hyped up games on the PS2. After a fun yet flawed first game and a tedious beyond belief half-sequel, Square managed to churn out another Kingdom Hearts game. Hoping to add some minty fresh sensation to the gamer, the formula is, once again, tweaked a bit, and once again, not for a good reason. It focuses more in cinematics, which is what I thought Square would’ve been beyond. I guess not. I guess they have to keep up with the current trends... this is horsecrap! It still retains some fun, but not at the same level I expected. Once again, it’s the soundtrack that stands out, but don’t take this intro’s word for it – let’s let the detailed review do it for you!

Immediately, you’re put into a storyline involving some kid named Roxas... actually, *bleep* it, I’ll skip ahead 2-3 hours, right where the story actually begins. With Sora behind the wheel again and Donald and Goofy backseat driving, you embark on another adventure; this time,...

THE BAD:
Though many people had trouble with the almighty Sephiroth, they could only fight him ONCE in this game, rather than countless times in the first release. The makers also put a MUSICAL WORLD in the game, this had NOTHING to do with the damn game, also, there are MANY other worlds that had nothing to do with the storyline. Let's just say that these worlds are rather to be FILLERS.

SUMMARY:
This story does have the original characters from all Kingdom Hearts releases, you got your Sora, Donald, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Leon (Squall), and there are many more. This time they put in NEW bad guys (well you would know who they are if you bought Chain of Memories) that is there to take over Kingdom Hearts, like Ansem in KH1. New Keyblades were also put into the game, and they also took some old ones out. They added a new thing in this game, called 'forms', there are FOUR different types you can pick from, well five if you count the form...

Kingdom Hearts 2 is one of those games which got hyped up so badly, that the end result ends up looking rushed and has a feeling of 'been there done that' to it. Rabid fanboys have been tearing their way through Square's headquarters and demanding Kingdom Hearts 2 out of them while they were busy with some RPG that could actually turn out to be good. It seems to be a fan favorite, and to be honest, I only see this to be for the fans. By fans, I mean the ones who will buy anything labeled Kingdom Hearts, or liked this game when they rented it. I liked the first Kingdom Hearts game, so I rented this one. I didn't like it, it was watered down from the first game, so therefore I'm glad I rented it. What do I think of the game?

Let's start with the overly long tutorial. I thought the first game was bad with about 40-50 minutes, but this game is much worse. Why must I waste 2-3 HOURS of my life doing crap which could be condensed into about 20 minutes? How could a tutorial...

THE GOOD:
A Unique mix of Final Fantasy and Disney characters, plus original characters.
The game really brings classic Disney films to life.
The game isn't too hard, and not too easy at the same time.
Reappearing worlds (or levels) have taken a complete make over.
Players can utilize reaction commands to get the upper hand in battles.
The new drive gauge adds the ability to play as 4 new "forms" of sora.

THE BAD:
If you haven't played the other Kingdom Hearts games, you can't understand the story.

The Story line isn't as good as Kingdom Hearts I.

The Worlds have shrunk!

New Enemies confuse the game further.

SUMMARY:
Kingdom Hearts is about a boy named Sora, who is searching for his friends and conquering the darkness. He is the chosen wielder of the keyblade "Kingdom Key", and is one of 3 keyblade masters. Along with Donald Duck and Goofy, he sets...

THE GOOD:
- Gameplay
- Music
- Storyline
- Worlds
- Everything!

THE BAD:
- No replay value

SUMMARY:
In the third Kingdom Hearts game, (counting Chain of Memories on the Gameboy Advance) Kingdom Hearts II is by far one of my favourites. We're introduced to a new character named Roxas, where you play part of his life at the beginning of the game, until you find Sora and take over as the previous hero from the past 2 games.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in this title is fantastic. It's a lot more advanced than the first, as there are plenty more combos/moves, reaction commands, drive forms and different magic. The gameplay itself is a lot more fast paced than the past games, and a lot more frantic too. You're able to fight high into the air, slashing away at heartless with your keyblade, a lot faster than you would in the previous titles.

Reaction...

THE GOOD:
Here are the things that I think are good:

Drives/Fighting

View

Worlds

Graphics

THE BAD:
Here are the things that I think are bad:

Story

Magic system

Way too easy

SUMMARY:
I'll start off by explaining my reasoning behind "The Good."

I'd like to start with the drives and the fighting system. I like how the developers brought the drives into the game. It makes it easier to defeat harder bosses, and also encourages you to keep Donald and Goofy alive. Now for the fighting system. I like how it is, mostly because it isn't much different from KH, so it's not too hard to understand.

Along with the fighting system, I like the worlds that are in the game. I like how your able to go to Beast's home world, Beast's Castle. I also like how there is more to explore in the older worlds, such as Hollow...

As we begin our journey, we meet a new character named Roxas. Roxas, who lives in Twilight Town, has been having special dreams lately. Dreams of Sora, Donald and Goofy, fighting their way through armies of heartless with the sacred Keyblade. It turns out that even though Roxas doesn't know who Sora is, the two have a closer bond than they could ever imagine. After a year long slumber, Sora, Donald and Goofy have been awakened. This time the fearsome threesome are sent out to dispatch the evil Organization XIII (13). Who is their leader? What are their motives and objectives? How do they relate to Ansem? Sora and the gang make it their mission to find the answers to these, as well as other questions as they travel world to world, destroying heartless, and looking for the King (Mickey Mouse) as well as Riku (who was trapped in darkness after Kingdom Hearts I). Can Sora,...

THE GOOD:
-Unbelievably beautiful graphics, heavily packed with detail
-Perfect, problem-free sound, music, and dialog
-Great characters
-Perfect camera
-Great controls (the Command Window is so much more efficient)
-Reaction Commands were a nice addition
-Still gets addicting, for a while
-Pretty long
-Still has plenty of sidequests, for the most part
-Lots of little improvements (playing in first-person, Drive Forms were cool, summon spells were improved...)
-The journal system is cool (it keeps track of everything, tells you what to do next, has stories and photos, etc.)
-Better Gummi Garage overall, usually
-Never gets frustrating
-Better weapons
-Sora has better abilities

THE BAD:
-It's far too easy to be an RPG
-Mostly mindless combat
-Despite being entertaining, it gets boring more easily
-Lots of little pleasures were removed (no more Trinities,...

THE GOOD:

The Fact that you could play this game as many times as you wanted and never get sick of it !

Fast, thrilling battles

Brilliant storyline that carries on beautifully from where Kingdom Hearts I and Chain of Memories left off !

Lots of cut-scenes that continue to develop the storyline right until the end !

THE BAD:

During some battle scene's your Camera angle can get stuck making it hard to see where all the action is.

Lots of Cutscenes : You either love them or hate them (( So I thought I'd add this in both ))

A lack of depth in some worlds (( You just seem to run through them, rather than helping them, like during Kingdom Hearts 1 ))

SUMMARY:
You start off the game playing as a Character called Roxas, in a seemly natural world called Twilight Town. You happily talk to your Friends Ollete, Pence and Hayner without a care in the world, until everything...