"Kingdom Hearts II" (Possible Spoilers)

[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"

[Aredhel]

My kids have been playing it for days and having a great time with it, calling me when one of my favorite characters would show up!

Thanks for the review, Artic!

[Cobalt Katze]

I personally was engulfed for the past few weeks playing KHII, one of the best games I've played in a while Lots of fun, great characters (the original ones) and pretty accurate representations of the Disney and Final Fantasy folks.

Just beat it last weekend, but I'm (eventually) going to try for 100% completion

[Pirotess]

The last two games I played on my PS2 were God of War and Shadow of the Colossus. Both were pretty cool games. Its been a long time since I've had enough free time outside of WoW to really get into a console RPG like KHII.

[Nil]

Originally Posted by Arctic_Slicer

Unlike the original game the worlds in the game were rather small. The difficulty of this game is extremely easy even on the "proud" aka "hard" mode.

I bought this game for my wife (she loved the original) and I paid no attention to it for weeks as I played Oblivion. Eventually, though, she started needing my help on bosses (especially Dimix), so I got into it some.

And now I play all the time. I find it much improved over the first one in every way. The small game worlds didn't bother me at all. Honestly, I couldn't give a crap what happens to the Disney worlds (heck, I'd have killed them all myself if the game would have let me - other than Tron - that was too cool) - the shorter, the better. I like battling Org XIII. I liked Roxxas. I did not like Dead People Boy as a voice actor. I'm not quite sure if it was because he was supposed to sound really whiney or if he just is (Other than Yuna, though, he's easily the weakest Voice Actor in the game). Jesse McCartney was quite good. As much as I dislike David Gallagher in every other role he's had, he makes a good Riku.

I also apparently suck much more than you. The last time I tried, I could not even get through the first boss (the big thing that Roxxas fights in the weird stairway area) on Proud Mode. I might do okay if I can get past him and level up some, but I do apparently suck.

[Mobius]

Recently rented KH2 been playing it for about 3hrs a day, I have 5 days till it goes back to Blockbuster, so far I'm at the Cornerstone portion, with the 1930-1940 style Disney Cartooning, this game is quite innovative. Loving it so far.