Review: Kingdom Hearts 2

After Square and Disney's last best selling Kingdom Hearts game on the Playstation 2 a sequel was next to come in the form of Kingdom Hearts 2. Sure there were a lot of delays in the release but it eventually came out and it turned out to be even better then they're first two game of the series. Of course there are even more Disney and Square crossover appearances as well as an even deeper storyline that will only leave you with even more questions by the end of the game.

Now as soon as you get into the game you will realize that you're playing as an all new character instead of Sora. You will soon realize that this new character, Roxas, is connected to Sora as he begins recall memories from Sora' past and the previous Kingdom Hearts game. After close to two hours of play you will eventually finish up this introduction level as Roxas and finally reach the title screen, that's right the title screen after two hours. Now things will get a bit more familiar as you will finally get to play as Sora once again.

Not far into playing as Sora you will soon learn of an all new group of enemies known as Nobodies which are the empty shells left behind when a person loses their heart to the Heartless. These lower ranking Nobodies are controlled by a group of even more powerful Nobodies known as Organization XIII. Of course the Heartless aren't out of the picture just yet as Pete, one of Malificent's old henchmen is still busy trying to build a Heartless army, the only problem is that he still doesn't know that Malificent was destroyed by Sora.

Sora soon gets an all new costume that gives him new powers know as Drive Forms which with the help of Donald and Goofy will allow him to take on multiple different forms that will give him separate abilities. There abilities will vary from being able to wield two Keyblades to being able to attack from long range when you're able to shoot a series of energy shots from the tip of your blade. Of course these forms can be powered up by leveling each specific form up as this will grant you some special abilities form normal combat as well as abilities just for each specific form. There is also a special form within the game that could put you at either an advantage or a disadvantage. This form is known as the Anti-Form and looks very much like the dark Sora from the original Kingdom Hearts title. In this form you will move much faster then usual and be able to deal much more damage but the only disadvantage is that you'll take more then double the amount of damage then you would if you were in any other form. This form comes on randomly when you're trying to transform into one of the other many forms unlocked throughout the game.

Donald and Goofy as back once again as your primary party members and of course other familiar and new Disney characters will at one point join you're party. Limit commands are a new attack very similar to the trinity's in the previous game. The Limit commands will allow you to use special attack moves with the help of one of your partners and almost every character who teams up with you throughout the game eventually and some are a bit more useful then others. Of course these commands will use up all of your mana in order to limit how often you can use them but mana restores much faster then in the previous game as it will slowly refill even if you're standing still. I wouldn't exactly say that this has made much of an improved since now all cure abilities will use up all of your mana meaning that you'll either need to stock up on potions as well or run stand around waiting for it to refill which could get to be a bit boring to say the least. With this there are of course new magic abilities and of course we still have the basic fire, ice and thunder abilities and as mentioned above the cure abilities but with those there are quite a few all new spells but once again just like in the previous game it is more then possible to finish the game without using any of these spells other then a few cures here and there.

One of the major problems in the previous game was the controls and a good amount of improvements were made for Kingdom Hearts 2. The menu still remained the biggest problem in the game which remained more or less the same making you scroll through it to access your magic and items as well as your drives this time around and they just went and made it a little worse by adding a second half to the menu giving you a few more options including summons and limits but in order to access it you would have to hit left on the control pad and then right in order to switch back to your normal menu again. Using combos became much either however with reaction commands that will allow you to simply press the triangle button when a certain combo is available as well as to perform simple tasks such as opening treasure chests without scrolling through the menu. One problem that wasn't touched on was the fact that the game is still a button masher and if anything this time the game is even more of a button masher then the last as you're given even more opportunities for chains of combos which will have you pushing the X button over and over once again.

You will once again be traveling through many different Disney worlds as well as all new worlds some of which will be familiar to you as well as some all new worlds that have yet to appear. This time around there are quite a bit more mini games which will add a little more fun to the game but none of these mini games are really all too challenging and most are just plain easy. That is for most of the game though as the difficult of Kingdom Hearts 2 is much lower then that of the previous game so if you're looking for a real challenge then you'll want to play the game on a harder difficulty for more of a challenge.

One of the low points of the previous games were the Gummi Ship levels and sadly that is yet another bad element that still remains although they have been improved a bit yet they still remain one of the lowest points in the game. You will only have to play through each Gummi Ship level once this time around unless you want to go through all of the separate missions on each of the tracks which isn't necessary for finishing the game.

As you may know the last game had a lot of extras for you to complete at your own pace and this time around there aren't quite as many but there are still a few there including a few optional boss battles as well as a secret ending just like in the last game. Another optional extra is to try and complete the journal 100% which will require you to do every possible thing in each of the worlds as well as complete all of the Gummi Ship missions on each of the tracks.

Overall Kingdom Hearts 2 has made quite a bit of improvements to the system from the previous game but it could still use quite a bit of improvement especially with the controls which are better yet still not perfect. The storyline of the game is even more in depth compared to the last game as many of the questions left unanswered at the end of the previous game will finally be answered only to create all new questions. Not much has changed about the character design and music as they still stick to the same style and use very similar Disney music and to follow the adicting theme of the previous game they've made yet another just as addicting theme from the same artist of the last giving it the same feel. With this in mind this is a game that is worth a play especially if you enjoyed the original.