My favorite game I have ever played....
Graphics/atmosphere: 10/10: Well for its time, its graphics were perfection on the PS2, just absolutely beautiful. The textures, the artstyle, the characters were all so well designed. During this time period, I would say that the graphics actually made me feel as though I was sucked into the world beyond worlds and wading in the sea of adventure that lied before me in this digital universe. I saw beloved characters and they were not in anyway, screwed up in the least respect. Everyone was voiced well so you felt as though you were in an actual disney movie or even final fantasy game if you could include that. Everything from the art to the worlds and how they are crafted is done masterfully. And to this, I truly applaud the developers.
Gameplay:10/10: Not only is it the perfect example of masterful hack and slash action, but it also delivers solid party fighting, magic spells reappearing from the first game, and of course, the revamped gummi ship section. Not only have they decomplicated that section, but it also is numerously improved over the 1st game. Even the gameplay, you can easily tell is easily leauges ahead of its predecessor. It feels smoother, the boss fights are still just as monumental, and everything is arguably more fast paced. Also, the RPG system is still present in an extent, and the way they have added cinematic button pressing occurences in fighting create an easier element to a game you could already just pick up and play. Overall, I found no major flaws other than the gummi ship sequences becoming repetitive and rather boring which, I don't see as even a scratch compared to all the things the gameplay did right.
Storyline: 8.5/10: see, if you ask me, someone who has put hours of research effort into this, I would tell you that I believe the storyline to KH2 is absolutely marvelous...But, you did notice the 'Hours of research' thing I said, correct? This series has, surprisingly one of the most complicated storylines I have ever even seen in my life, and it can be utterly frustrating to understand what the hell is going on. This game isn't a really bad offender, but the handheld titles are...uggghh. KH2's plotline is increasingly hard to follow, but truly it isn't too hard to follow, it's just quite convoluted. "so theres this guy you play as that becomes the guy from the 1st game and is having flashbacks from Sora's memories. It turns out that this guy, Roxas is a nobody which is a shell a heartless leaves behind. They only take on human forms if the original person had a strong heart. But, get this, the game explains none of this, so you begin to wonder what the correlation is between Roxas and Sora and why the game put you through a seemingly meaningless prolouge sequence. Once you understand it its actually very well thought out, but unless you read something up on this I doubt you will get a lot of what is going on.
Improvements:9.5/10: well I think there are many improvements over its predecessor.
-easier controls
-faster pace
-Less annoying gummi ship experiences
-better dialouge
-better boss fights -Bigger worlds, more worlds
-more characters
-more thingsd to actually do
Overall: 38/40 Grade: A (95th Percentile)
Its a solid title that will always hold up as sheerly my favorite game. Although minor flaws degrade me from giving it a perfect score. If I marked this off a point and a half off imagine what I did with the handheld titles and their storylinbes XD I still love it, and if you haven't already played this title, play it today! It's a classic for the PS2 and a must play in my eyes. Even if your'e not a fan of Disney or Final Fantasy, still pick it up. If you do not at least somewhat enjoy the gameplay you are not human.:P