Introduction:

So far, Kingdom Hearts II has been subject to intense hype and many delays. With all of this hype, we expect this game to have better gameplay, better graphics and to definitely improve over the original. Kingdom Hearts II improved over the original KH in a number of ways and you can definitely title KHII as a true sequel instead of labeling it with a 1.5 next to KH. Square-Enix has crafted another excellent title for us to play and it is about time we got to play it. So lets get onto my review of Kingdom Hearts II.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in KHII has improved quite a bit over the first game, however, not to the point where you would call the gameplay totally different. A new rotational camera functioned by the Right Analog stick instead of the L2 and R2 buttons was one of the best features since it was easier to see around you while you were playing and you could see enemies easier than in the previous installment. One of the advantages to having such a great camera was that it allowed further exploration throughout the worlds and you could see how they designed the levels which I will talk about later in this review. Reaction Commands (new moves triggered by the Triangle button) were the best new feature in KHII that wasn't in KH and it allowed you to trigger a certain move during battle and it would help you defeat the Heartless or Nobodies. Reaction Commands also applied to saving and opening treasure chests, with the simple trigger of one button, you could open a chest or save very easily. Even though Reaction Commands make everything easier, it made reaction commands during boss battles feel like a desperate cry for help and you would defeat the boss in a heartbeat. Magic isn't used fairly much in KHII at all and there was usually no need to upgrade your magic bar. Sure, you would need to use magic at some required parts but all you will find yourself using with the magic bar is probably the "Cure" option on the easily accessible menu on the game to substitute a Potion.

One of the most notible changes on KHII is the new and improved Gummi Ship mode. In my opinion, riding the gummi ship is WAY better in KHII then in KH since it had a lot more action to it. The problem with Gummi Ships is that once you play a level to get through to the next level, you most likely won't want to replay any of the gummi ship levels for fun since it doesn't serve much of a replay value. It is a great minigame but not worth playing through twice on the same save file. In KHII, when in a boss battle, you will find everything significantly easier in this game over the first game. Boss battles are easy and don't take very long to beat. Also, throughout the game, you will only die a few times and that will probably only be in the Final Battle if you screw up at this one part. Overall, boss battles will take little effort to beat and while Reaction Commands can add some variety to the fights, it isn't all that much varied and it gets a bit boring after a while. The button mashing gameplay in KHII is the source of boringness in the game. During fights, all you do is press the X button repeatedly to defeat enemies with the occasional Triangle button for R. C.'s and frankly, the gameplay in this situation gets very bland after a few hours of playing. Finally, your supporting characters (Donald and Goofy in most cases) usually don't provide immediate assistance to you and you probably don't even need them to fight with you.

Kingdom Hearts II is a pretty lengthy game on top of it all. My playtime clocked in to about 32 hours (without doing any of the extra side missions) and that is quite a lot, especially for an Action RPG title. At the beginning of KHII, they had a set of tutorials running and after a while, it felt like they were holding your hand throughout the whole beginning. Many of us here have played the first game and are familiar with nearly all of the controls so we didn't need to really know how to jump or run. The tutorials explain EVERYTHING and not just a little so we can get by. Sure, it is nice that they took the time and made sure we knew how to run and stuff like that but it is too time-consuming in this game and I hate the feeling of the game holding my hand throughout each and every step. Missions in KHII are provided at some points such as the bulletin board in Twilight Town for certain jobs. These missions are okay and don't serve a lot of variety to you. Many of the missions that I played had me beating the crap out of some heartless creatures and needless to say, it got very boring after a while. The main two problems I had with KHII was being bored a lot from many of the repetitive elements in the game and how easy it was. After playing about 15 hours into the game, everything gets easier on you and with all of the weapons you collect, it all gets easier to beat. At the final boss battles, you will find it anything but a difficult time on the bosses because the battles get so easy to end. Battles can be easy and also frustrating at some points. You will find that an enemy will keep continuously hitting you and you can't get off your rocker fast enough to throw a hit so I got mad at that sometimes.


Graphics:

Graphics in KHII are excellently done and there is rarely any errors in the graphic design. With just looking at the graphics and how they set up every character model and every level design and how elegantly they set up everything, no wonder they had so many delays. Cutscenes feature the best graphics in the game and they are greatly detailed. The problem with some of the animation is that with some characters, they didn't have the voice really match the character's lip movements and that was a bit distracting with Goofy and Donald to be honest. Every other character was fine on that matter. Level designs and character models are very colorful and feature great designs, it makes it look like the spent a lot of their time designing everything.

The thing I hated about some levels is that they were within a confined space and you had to go from area to area. I know that is feature in nearly all RPG's but I am not fond of that style. I favor it all to be open and have your character explore everything instead of that one area. Overall, The graphics in KHII are excellently crafted, nonetheless pleasing to look at and I had a great time viewing every part of the game because it is all pretty.

Audio:

Music gets a little boring after a while of listening since you listen to the same song for a long time in each level. Sound in each level matches the theme of that level and they thankfully, brought many of the tunes to the levels that were in the Disney movies. It is pleasing to listen to for a little while but it usually was the same always. When you battle enemies, the music always shifts to another tedious tune and that wasn't very pleasant to hear. All in all, the music score is great to listen to but not for hours at a time. I can barely bear to hear the Twilight Town song again because I spent nearly 7 hours of my playtime listening to it with Roxas and Co.

SFX in the game presents a fine quality to it and matches its use (if that makes sense). For example, if Sora were summon his keyblade the SFX for the keyblade summoning would fit the event. The good thing about the SFX is that they didn't make it too loud or too quiet to hear and it sounds great. When watching the cutscenes anyway, you hardly pay attention to SFX sounds so it was hard to evaluate on this particular section.

Final Comments:

Kingdom Hearts II was one of the best games I have played in a while despite many of the problems it had. Many of these problems annoyed me but I could deal with the annoyance. The main reason, I say, for you to buy and play Kingdom Hearts II is to solely evaluate the story since it is the best story in a game so far in a year almost. There are so many cutscenes in KHII that you could fill up a DVD with almost 4-5 hours of footage in the whole game. The story was long, evenly paced and it cleared up everything you didn't know at the end and throughout the story.

In a game, I always expect great gameplay, excellent graphics, and a wonderful story and I am proud to say that Kingdom Hearts II is all of that, it is great to play and worth the 50 bucks. This is a must-buy title for everyone with a PS2 and don't give me excuses, go buy it!!!

I'll give Kingdom Hearts II an 8.5/10.