Any fan from the original will fall in love with KH2, and maybe alittle more than the first one.
Cons: Some of the abilities that were solid in KH are left out; some of the Final Fantasy voices sound off; some of the mini-games are pointless. More linear than the original
Oh how the ending of Kingdom Hearts left us wanting more. I wont spoil the ending of the first one for anyone, but needless to say it leaves you with a sense that the story still has more to go. Enter Kingdom Hearts 2. Kingdom Hearts 2 basically starts where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories ends. It is highly recommended that you play through Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories before playing Kingdom Hearts 2. Mainly because what makes the game so great is it's story and characters and you'll be lost in both if you haven't played the previous games in the series.
Kingdom Hearts pretty much re-defined gameplay for RPGs, before Kingdom Hearts the RPG world was pretty light on any action oriented gameplay in the RPG market. With complete on the fly actions, swinging your keyblade around at any pace you wanted it really added a fun-factor in the RPG genre that alot of times seemed to be missing. That same fast paced button mashing fun is back in Kingdom Hearts 2. What makes the game so great is that while alot of it is button mashing, it's button mashing with thought (especially with boss fights). The gameplay has changed in someways compared with the first one. The biggest change is the inclusion of the reaction commands and the drive system. The reaction commands are basically moves pulled off with the triangle button that are exclusive to certain enemies (i.e there is a certain enemy that you can use the reaction command to do a reverse move and slide around to their backside for a sneak attack). The drive system is a new feature and although i never really felt a need to use it was a cool addition and cool concept. Basically with different forms for your "drive" you fuse with Donald or Goofy or both and do a Captain Planet and wield two keyblades (beside wisdom form) and just go to town on some heartless and nobodies. Some other cool improvements for the gameplay is the mini-games which pop up everywhere, some good and some not so good. The Atlantica stage is one large mini-game, where it's basically a time rhythm game and you put on concerts. The Winnie the Pooh stage is another mini-game world where you do different mini-games with winnie the pooh. One of the big letdowns of the game was the deleting of roll and glide from the abilities. I thought those two abilities really added depth to the gameplay of the first one and really made the decision and timing more fun. While in the second one dodging and blocking attacks really comes more to a crapshoot of pulling of the reaction commands and guard.
The story takes around 2-3 to pick up. When you first start it is just as slow as the original, although it's not quite as annoying as having to run around building a raft like in the original. After the 3rd hour the storyline just takes off and doesn't come back down to the very end. I rarely get emotional with games, but the ending gives you such a great sense of sad and happy all rolled into one. Sora has definitely grown since his first adventure, and while he was somewhat annoying at times in the original has turned himself around and comes off as smooth in most occasion of the game. The Organization are a great group of bad guys and their motives and reasons really add a depth to the story as well. The mystery behind Riku and Kairi and Diz just all comes together much better than i could have hope before playing. The developers did a great job of knowing what worlds to include and which ones to leave out, my favorites from the original were here and all of the new worlds were fantastic, from playin as Sora in "lion form" to fighting along side Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean stage.
The game is gorgeous, with all sorts of different places to visit and explore. The game comes off cleaner and smoother than the first but not a huge overhaul in the graphics department. Some of the realistic stages they created (Pirates of the Carribean and Tron) really come off looking great and the mixture of cartoon and "real-life" counterparts really blended together well. The massive bosses and worlds are back and look great.
The music and sounds were another department the devs did a great job on. The most impressive feat in this department is definitely the voice acting. Easily one of the best put together game in terms of voices, only 2 characters stood out to me as being akward or done wrong (Aerith and Cid). The theme for the game wasn't quite up to Simple and Clean but hey it sounds great anyway.
With all the extras to unlock and Ultima Keyblade to synthesize you're looking at around 50-60 hours if you do everything. 30-35 hours for the storyline, either way you're looking at a good investment in terms of time. But man will all those hours be worth it