If you've been looking for the best in the Kingdom Hearts series, here it is.[MILD SPOILER WARNING]
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Review Catagoies:
Story
Gameplay
Music
What i Liked/What i Disliked(+ -)
Overall
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Story: 7/10:Good, But a little off.
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The story of Kingdom Hearts II begins with Roxas, Sora's "nobody". While i won't reveal what a nobody is, i can assure you that Roxas's part of the story will leave you confused if you have not played the first game, all the sequences which are from the first game, such as sora appearing in Traverse Town, might leave new players a little confused. If you are new to the series, be sure to listen to everything said, because this is pretty much your only tutorial in the game. Other than that, Sora's story is pretty much Un-doing what he did in the first game. For anyone confused, in the first Kingdom Hearts game, Sora was locking the keyholes to stop the heartless from destroying the worlds. In this game, he is unlocking the keyholes. Have the heartless suddenly got weaker? This was one of the first problems i have seen, the second one is how Sora Brutually Slaughters Organization XIII, with no apparent reason for doing such. While several members did call heartless on numerous occasions, Sora had no reason to kill other members. Though, this is only a minor fault, so the story passes.
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Gameplay:9/10:So close.
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Why a Nine? Well for starters, only one of the summons acctually does decent damage to a group of enemies. And on the topic of summons, where is Bahamut? Or Ifrit? Or even Shiva for crying out loud? This game has final fantasy characters, so why all Disney summons? Come on square, stop giving us the benefit of the doubt that Bahamut wouldn't have been a great summon. Next are the amount of summons. Only 4? Well...Does Chicken Little sound anything like a formidable foe? What about Experiment 626? Or Peter Pan? Nope. Summons are useless in this game.
But by far the biggest USEFUL addition in this game is the "Reaction Command" Triggered by the triangle button, this makes sora pull of a special technique that can dodge enemy attacks, stun bosses and a whole lot of other things, this makes talking with NPC's much easier as well, instead of pressing what was the "Attack" command, it's now triggered by a "Talk" command on the triangle button, removing the need to press the control stick several times to select talk. Also, Sora gets as a bonus feature of his new clothes, Drive Modes. These drive modes are somewhat like Dragoon Mode, or a Super Mode. Basicially, you have to give up several party members in order to activate the drive, once the drive runs out of power, Sora changes back and the party member returns for some more fisticuffs with the heartless. The abilities in this game vary from good to bad, the first thing is you can't dodge roll on command like in the first game, but you now glide much faster. Scenes are now skippable, and a whole load of new tweaks have made the gameplay something to be proud of.
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Music:10.5/10:Absolutely Beautiful.
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Square has pulled out all the stops with the music. The music is perfectly recorded in great quality, and played at the right moments. Epic boss fight coming up? Epic boss music will be played. Fighting Sephiroth? One winged Angel will be played. Not only is the music great, Sora now doesn't sound like a 7-Year old. Which has made this game MUCH, MUCH more fun to play. He now doesn't say lines that are grinding on the ears like
"MY FRIENDS ARE MY.....POWER!"
He now is alot more mature, and Donald and Goofy will acctually bother to fight in this game. While some music is definately underused, all the music in this game is great.
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+ Great Music
+ Fun Gameplay
+ Not massively difficult, but hard enough.
- Not Much Exploring.
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Overall I give Kingdom Hearts II on the PS2 a....
8.5 Out of 10.
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