[Arctic_Slicer]

As most of you probabally know Square Enix recently released the long awaited "Kingdom Hearts II". After buying, playing, and loving the first game I was very excited to get my hands on the second one and after reading all of the good reviews the game was getting I picked up a copy the other day.

After about 40 hours of gameplay Including minigames and long dialogue sequences I finished the game feeling somewhat disapointed. Before I talk about that I think it's important to mention the game's good points which this game has many.

The over all base plot of the game was very interested, it started well and ended well. The camera was moved the right analog stick(where it should be) allowing for much better camera control over the original. Combat was still fun and enjoyedseveral improvements and new mechanics since the original. Gummi ship creation and travel has been improved greatly and is alot more fun than the original. Item synthesis system has also improved.

The audio of the game was totally awesome. The music was great and the voice acting was supurb and could quite possibly be the best voice acting any video game title has ever had. The cast list was nothing short of impressive with well over 50 names on it and included Haley Joel Osmet as Sora and Christopher Lee as DiZ. Props to Haley Joel Osmet as he perfored the role of Sora very well and has proven to be very talented as a voice actor and in this title you even get to hear him sing and he's good at it too.

With all of the things the game did well you would think I would have nothing to be disapointed about. While this game exceled in many aspects it failed in some of the more important ones. The world design was probabally the most disapointing. Unlike the original game the worlds in the game were rather small. This problem was furthered by the fact this game actively prevented the player from exploring via locked doors and invisible walls that always had some annoying message of "you can't go that way", "It's Locked", "Something prevents you from going any further", etc. It was like that the entire game and it pissed me off. Not only that but when ever you completed anything in the game it always warped you back to the world map as if the player was too stupid to find the save point and do it themself.

The difficulty of this game is extremely easy even on the "proud" aka "hard" mode. In fact I daresay the highest difficulty in this game is easier than the lowest difficulty in the first game. The only other major annoyance of the game were the extremely long dialogue sequences. While the voice acting was good some of them were much longer than they needed to be. It was like "Grandia III" all over again. Just like "Grandia III" this game gives you little purpose to go back and explore areas you always completed much less play the game a second time through. While the game took me about 40 hours to complete I imagine that a player could probabally clear it in under 20 if they skipped all of the long dialogue scenes.

All in all though it wasn't a bad game and can't say it isn't a bad game to own but given the lack of replay value and the somewhat short length renting it might not be a bad idea. It certainally wouldn't spoil your weeked. I certainally wouldn't put it on my list of RPGs worth owning for the PS2 however.

Since this is a thread about "Kingdom Hearts II" we may as well discuss the game here.

Since I mentioned it I may as well put my list of ps2 RPG recomendations here:

The Best:

"Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter"
"Final Fantasy X"
"Kingdom Hearts"

Worth Owning:

"Star Ocean III: Till the End of Time"
"Dragon Quest VIII: Legen of the Cursed King"
"Disgaea: Hour of Darkness"

Title to Avoid:

"Final Fantasy X-2"