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Kingdom Hearts II

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Ten hitpoints left, and still getting dominated. If you're not careful you could easily end up this way on the revived edition of Kingdom Hearts aptly labeled Kingdom Hearts II. The reformed battle system keeps new fans of the game interested, while new elements of fighting introduce a somewhat new style of fighting. Familiar characters abound in the Disney and Square Enix collaboration. The player will find diverse characters ranging from heart sucking heartless to Mickey Mouse to non-existent to Cloud from Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII. Many of the worlds in the game feel annoyingly familiar as they have simply been revamped. New worlds have also been added to the collection bringing the total up to fourteen.
The most significant change in Kingdom Hearts II of all is the battle system. More often than not, the player will end up button-mashing through the game. With the prescence of the ability to transform Sora, the main character, into three different dual-wielding sword forms and one two hovering sword forms why would one choose to do this? These "drive-forms" are not the only addition to the battle system though. There is also a new reaction and limit system. "Reactions" are required in most cases to defeat a hard boss or to complete certain areas of a world. By maniaclly tapping the Triangle button in most situations, a unique sequence of attacks are performed on individual enemies. The "Limit System", which requires the player to have a full magic bar, enables the player to unleash powerful, deadly combos on their foes.
As with any good game, there are also some bad elements. The game begins with the character Roxas who most players will not enjoy, with their expectations of playing Sora. This segment is actually a three hour prologue. The game forces players to play boring, inane mini-games. The player must collect eight hundred munny (currency of money in the game)and can only obtain between ten and fifty from each play. Obviously, this means the playing of at least sixteen mini-games. Once the prologue is complete, the real game begins. Players won't be dissapointed with a short game, because Kingdom Hearts II contains up to 100 hours of gaming with hours upon hours of boss fights. Cinematics aren't scarce either, with a long movie clip around every corner bringing the player to a state of dread by the twentieth video interruption in a single world.
Kingdom Hearts II isn't just a replication of the first, it's a completely new game. Players of the original will be satisfied with the storyline and gameplay, while the awesome boss fights will keep new gamers interested. Kingdom Hearts II isn't a rent, it is a buy. For gamers looking for an addition to their collection, this is a must.

In A Word - Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

You'll open up the game, not as main protagonist Sora, but instead as 15-year old Roxas of Twilight Town. The aganozing 3 hour prologue to follow offers few bright spots as the story unfolds, as most of your activity are mindless fetch quests. But it's all worth it, especially if you missed the GBA link Chain of Memories. After the prologue, Sora returns with his faithful sidekicks Donald and Goofy and chaos unfolds.

The first thing you'll notice is the totally revamped battle system. Combat is no longer mindless pressing of X, repeating the same combo over and over, but instead offers a massive amount of reaction based attacks in which to slay your enemies in style. Almost every enemy has a unique attack to be used against it. Whether you're flinging a heartless bat around by it's tail, or riding a giant bag of bones and then piledriving it into the ground, every single attack will drop your jaw at least the first time. Boss battles also gain a huge pick-up from this, as most are much more easily beaten with these amazing commands. A heartless dog creature once threw me at a stone pillar only to be stunned as I grab the pillar, swung around, and beat his head in with my keyblade. Shock and awe ensues.

Among other things, the camera has also gotten a revamp in KH2, and while still not perfect, makes it much easier to destroy flocks of Heartless or the new baddies, Nobodies. Which brings me to the story. Even more entrancing than Kingdom Hearts, the devious Organization XIII has Sora torn between two different sides, slaying the heartless, or keeping them alive. This brainbuster is running through his head the whole time while still seeking best friends Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey. You'll be pulled in at almost every cutscence, save for some rather lackluster ones.

World variety is at it's finest yet again and this time it affects more than your surroundings. In the Pride Lands, you literally take the form of a small lion and must use a whole slew of new combos to take on this world. Teaming up with other characters to perform amazing tag combos is also refreshing, whether it be Auron, Tron, or Captain Jack Sparrow. The new Drive form is also a great new tactic, allowing you to shoot magical beams from your keyblade or double and triple wielding your other keyblades! Almost the best Kingdom Hearts improvement, the once intolerable Gummi Ship levels are now chaotic fun, a mix of Star Fox and F-Zero.

It's hard to rag on Kingdom Hearts 2 for anything. A long prologue sure, an imperfect camera maybe, an annoying little mermaid level of course. But in all honesty, these few flaws take nothing away from the Kingdom Hearts 2 experience, because even the little annoyances aren't noticed for those huge moments when you take out a Hydra with one fell swoop through all of it's heads off a flying horse. Playing Kingdom Hearts 2 is like a drug high that won't kill your brain, and that's why it may be the best RPG we've seen since Final Fantasy 10.

Pros - Amazing Combat, Thrilling Story, Reaction Attacks

Cons - A long prologue, the Little Mermaid level, 30 Hours is a bit small for an RPG

The Bottom Line - Kingdom Hearts 2 may be the most fun you'll ever have with an action RPG, even if it's only for 30 hours (which still isn't bad).

Kingdom Hearts 2 - 10/10

~The Gravity Press

Short But Ooooooh So Sweet!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As others have said, yes, 2 hours is a long time to sit through pre-game and you may find yourself saying, "Let me be Sora, again!". But when that precious moment finally arives, OH, it's sooo good to have a keyblade in your hand, again!
The story parts are sometimes hard to sit through when you just want to play, but What A Story!!
At the end of the last game, I was in tears having fought the final battle for 2 hours straight! I ended this game, all be it quickly, with a smile on my face, joy in my heart and the eager desire to play it, again, now that I understood so much of the story! I had hoped for more "Disney" lands, but I presume they are holding back for more KH games...I Hope!
In some ways you may be unhappy with the lack of length and battle intensity. But my brother and I, as much as we loved the first, have felt down right happy playing the second.
If you like a huge challenge, you probably won't get it here. If you like to be transported to a fantasy world were you are the hero, anything's possible and dreams come true....play it soon!

Off beat game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Kingdom Hearts 2 was a well put together game. The controls are a bit different from the original. As well as the new reaction commands being put into play this is a new style for RPG combat. The story line is also a bit off key from the original. The way that you have to unlock the worlds to get to the next one is a bit off key do to the fact that it was you in the first one who locked all the worlds. Even if your not a kid or are not into Disney I would still give this game a try. So overall I would give this game a 9 on a scale of one to ten

A great place to visit, but . . . . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I loved the first game. I found myself really sucked into the whole world of Kingdom Hearts. So, needless to say, I was thrilled to get the sequel, but I was a little let down. The characters are great, the art is top-notch, the voice acting is SUPERB, to say the least (some of the best voice acting I've ever heard, in fact) but I feel like the worlds sort of fall flat. They are a little boring. The Lion King world, for example, is just a flat plain, and then a path through a gorge, then a path through a canyon, then a path through a forest . . . you get the idea.

Also, the came is outrageously easy. All you have to do to win almost every battle is hit X over and over. But still, it is a good game, and worth your money if your a Squaresoft or Disney fan.

Kingdom Hearts returns, now with 40% more sparklies!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'll admit that I liked the first Kingdom Hearts game. Before Kingdom Hearts came around, I haven't played any games that had a really good action-RPG battle system. All action-RPGs on the PC had rather lame battle systems, such as Diablo (point, click, click, click, point, click, etc...), and, admittedly, I wasn't much of a fan of how the Dark Cloud series handled battles. Oh, and don't mention Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as I don't exactly consider it a "true" RPG. Kingdom Hearts, however, had something a bit more freeform and fun than other supposed "action RPGs."

But it still wasn't quite what I'd wish for from an Action-RPG's battle system...

Then, a couple of years later, Kingdom Hearts 2 comes out, and it... okay, it's still not all I'd wish for, but dang if it doesn't come really close!

To give a little background of the story setting, the Kingdom Hearts series is a mixture of Squaresoft (now Square-Enix, which I will refer to as Square hereafter) and Disney properties... though the Square portions aren't much more than glorified cameos. Square's better stuff in this game comes from their new creations, such as Sora, Riku, Kairi, and many others. Surprisingly, all the characters combine quite well, and the plot is surprisingly good for a game that is rather cameo-ridden.

Now, lets talk presentation. Personally, the first game I thought was a mixed bag in this department. Well, this one is too, though they've done noticably better. Graphics-wise, the game is very pretty game, as was the first. Though it's roughly the same as the first in the technical department, they seemed to improve quite a bit in the artistic department. Fights are beautiful to watch, even more so as the game progresses and you acquire more abilities. My only complaint with the visuals is how the characters aren't handled so well during some dialogue sequences (somewhat robotic movement) as well as how the game seems to switch between low-res and hi-res character models for dialogue (hi-res = CG style lip syncing and eye movement; low-res = textured face, minimal/no lip syncing, and minimal eye movement). However, in my opinion this is relatively minor, considering most games don't even TRY to have good all-out cinematic presentation.

Voice acting is where I have my biggest problem with this game. First, what was done right. All of the original characters, such as Sora, Riku, and all of the others are done very well. Disney characters are hit-and-miss. Characters like Donald, Goofy, Mickey, and even those from Tron are done well, and the voice actoress for Maleficent is back yet again with a voice that is eerily spot-on with the original voice! But some of the others... personally, I wasn't a fan of what they did with some of the voices and presentation for the Pridelands (Lion King), and is it just me or does Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean) not do as well when voice acting? Square's cameos are also a mixed bag. Aeris' voice is appaulingly emotionless, and Setzer's voice just doesn't seem to fit the character (he looks pretty awesome, though).

As for sound in general, the music score is pretty great. I'll have to admit it's a tad less amazing compared to the first one, but a good many of the tracks are great by themselves, or at least meld well with the game. Oh, just a warning, in my opinion they completely HASHED the theme music in the world for Pirates of the Caribbean. Rather than the great orchestrated sound of the movie soundtrack, it looks like it's been strained through a low-quality MIDI synthesizer. Other than that, the score is great.

Sound effects I have no complaints for. Nothing all that amazing, but there's nothing that really got on my nerves here.

Now, lets get to the battle system. This part is quite an improvement over the first game. Admittedly, it's still very much a button-masher (repeated pressing of the attack button), and maybe even moreso than the first game, but somehow I found it more fun. I believe part of that has to do with how much you have to pay attention to certain things. For instance, the game utilizes a new system that I will refer to as "triangle attacks," which I name after the fact that it uses the controller's triangle button to execute. These attacks are easy to use. When you see a green prompt appear above the command menu, a triangle attack is usable. Most of the common ones are specific to which enemy you are attacking and tend to only appear for a short time as the situation dictates. Some examples of these are one called Reversal that lets you dodge an enemy attack, or Berserk which lets you take an enemy's sword and use it against him. Other forms of triangle attacks give you quick access to devastating combination attacks that are available later in the game that can be used in conjunction with party members such as Donald, Goofy, Simba, Beast, and many other characters.

Bear in mind, battles tend to have a semi-automatic nature. No, this has nothing to do with guns. What I mean by semi-auto is that several actions have a predetermined effect. For instance, if you land one attack on an enemy, repeated pressing of the attack button focuses in all of your attacks on that enemy. Given the nature of the game, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for those looking for something where they are more directly in control of all the character's actions, such as the recent Legend of Zelda games or most action games, you may be a bit disappointed.

Depending on the type of gamer you are, you may find Kingdom Hearts 2 to be rather easy. I played the game on normal difficulty and only had problems during a small amount of boss fights. For those who don't want it to be too easy, I might recommend starting out on the highest difficulty, though be warned this may make some boss fights almost impossible.

On the whole, I liked the game. What minor misgivings I had about this game didn't hinder me from enjoying it. I certainly recommend it, though make sure you know whether or not you'll like the gameplay elements. I thought I'd hate the somewhat repedative nature of the combat after reading reviews online, but a rental convinced me I should buy it.

(P.S. The title of this review isn't exactly mocking the game. I just couldn't think of anything wittier).

The best of the 2 kingdom Hearts Games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game takes Kingdom Hearts to a new level. Better than what the commercials showed.This game continues the story with Sora and friends. You get to go to different levels and ones you have been to before. The graphics are absolutely amazing! And there is a lot of exploring to do so you will never get bored. The heartless are new and more advanced than from the previous Kingdom Hearts, but you will still have the easy ones to fight! I love this game and I would recommend it to any PS2 gamer:)

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Great Game. If you liked the first, expect the unexpected in it's sequel. It's fast-paced and a whole new storyline. Great replay value, graphics, and music as you face new and (some actually hard) bosses.

A perfection of the original game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Kingdom Hearts nailed the right market at the right time bringing in millions of dollars for both Square-Enix and Disney. The second instalment offers nothing really new but managed to fix all the flaws in the first game, perfecting the art of this title.

Kingdom Hearts II continued with what's left behind in Chains of Memory on GBA. The plot thickens as you started off the game with an all new main character. It is also because of this that you can see other new Final Fantasy characters popping up in this new environment. This offers you a whole new surprise for the game.

The story is well written and it gives you twists and turns here and there to keep you going. Things that you thought were explained popped up in a way that you noticed that they were never actually resolved. This is the same for the story in Chains of Memory. Haven't played the first two games? No worries, Square-Enix had written the story in a way that provides tons of flash backs to bring you up to speed with the chronology of the Kingdom Hearts world.

In terms of gameplay, the battle system is more or less the same as the last one but with some new and minor updates. Now you have limit breaks and overdrive gauges. Veterans of Final Fantasy games will immediately notice that these are ideas from Final Fantasy VIII and X. Once unleashed with these commands when conditions are met you are rewarded with an extravaganza of battle combo. Also this time round, you have an option of not just going out hack and slash but deploy a more tactical approach in battles. The trigger command using the Triangle button allows you to employ battle related tactics response that could help you speed up the battle with context related attacks. This works for both random battles and boss fights. So you have an option of scarificing your X button all the way or use a more tactical approach to battles, which I think is pretty clever. The summon system is back and worked exactly the same way as last time round, though you will have new summons and some of them are actually hilarious than useful. The menu system is still not that friendly when it comes to battle despite you can have a quick menu to assist in battle. However, commands related to overdrive and limit breaks are still limited to menu driven and since battle is real time, it sometimes become pretty chaotic if you are not familiar with the menu.

The moogle synthesise shop is back too and so is the battle arena. The weapon system is a mixed of traditional Final Fantasy game and the Final Fantasy X ability system. So you have to think about how you want your characters to be. The abitlity system remains the same - which is similar to the ability system in Final Fantasy IX.

Another big improvement is the troublesome camera angle that plagued the first game. Remember how you swore in the battle with Ushula in the first game? The enemy is huge but the camera is stuck most of the time. The camera angle this time round are more flexible and Square-Enix have fixed most of the problems. The battle with Hydra proved that they had spent quite a bit of time dealing with the problem. However, when you have Beast in the party, he sometimes blocks your view and because of its size, the camera is sometime locked, which could still be frustrating.

The Gummi Ship is back and now Gummi Ship battles are more interesting cos you have different areas that actually show differences. Also, you win new prints by winning those battles, which gives you some incentive to do them.

In all, Kingdom Hearts II is a well balanced game that fixed a lot of previous flaws and improved upon the franchise's formula. It is a good game with a very gripping storyline. New areas that are added in this installment provides huge incentives for you to carry on with the game - remember to say hi to Johnny Depp when you see him in the game :)

One of the Best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I find it hard to find a game that keeps me interested through the whole story, infact I start many and finish few. I bought this game for my wife and took control of it. She ended up just doing the scenes involving the little mermaid. This game was awesome, I would recommend it to anyone. The game almost lost us before it started with that 5 hour intro. Its nice to play a game rather than just watching CGA. You will have to stick through that part and try not to judge it too early. Also I beat the game and never came to completely understand the Gummi editor. Thought that was stupid. But over all I would go as far as saying this game brought me as much entertainment as a Zelda game.

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