Playstation 2 - Kingdom Hearts II

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Square Enix
Developer
Square Enix
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
RPG

Kingdom Hearts II

By David Rasmussen
23rd Apr 06

At last! Finally! Fi-na-lly!! We finally got ahold of Kingdom Hearts II and now we can play it!
Being one of three high profile much anticipated games of 2005 that didn’t get out in 2005, Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy XII (both for the PS2) and Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess (GameCube last I heard) kept us waiting and waiting for what seemed like forever! But now, finally, one of the three has finally seen release and I’m here to tell you just how your waiting has not been in vain!

The first thing you’ll notice as the game starts is that you are NOT Sora!
As the game starts you are a Sora lookalike named Roxas, who seems to be dreaming about Sora and the events of Kingdom Hearts (original) a lot. I don’t know why though, because you seem to live in a quiet place called Twilight Town, have friends (no loner stuff for you), enemies, school work to finish before you go back to school (though your friends seem to think you’re going to be separated forever if you go back to school for some reason) and you seem to be living in a Matrix kind of lie.
Apparently Twilight Town is not what it seems, and it is here you meet your first enemy… booyah, it’s Christopher Lee from Lord of the Rings! Apparently he (as a mysterious figure in red) is the one who’ll menace you in Twilight Town. Him and KH : Chain of Memories guy Axel and a few others. This, by the way, is good since Christopher Lee is one of the few high points to keep you going in this THREE HOUR TOM CRUISE of BOREDOM!!
So you better pop some popcorn when you start playing because odds are you’ll be watching this more than playing as you sit through a 3 hour long tutorial!! Yes, I know we did a similarly lengthy tutorial in the original Kingdom Hearts (when you were on that island with Kairi and Riku) but somehow I would have thought it would have been easier to teach you the mechanics of this game after having gone through a game already, but unfortunately that isn’t the case as you must watch, read, trudge, quest, do small tasks to earn money, imitate Tony Hawk, and basically somehow wait until you finally achieve 100% download and can go and wake up the real Sora of which you… well, you’ll find that out soon enough.

Also there’s no need for me to recap the original game or Chain of Memories because this game will do that for you, and since you need something to occupy your time while you wade through the 3 hours you might as well have that to look forward to… that and the return of Namine from Chain of Memories (you know, the girl who Sora and the others were looking for in the game).

Once you get through Twilight Town, and FINALLY leave… wait, first you meet Mickey who might NOT be Mickey (strange how Roxas and friends raise 5000 to go on a trip to the beach only to have it stolen, then said wallet with 5000 appears in Christopher Lee’s hands during a cutscene only for it to THEN just as mysteriously appear in Mickey’s hands)… then you go and see Mickey’s old mentor Yen Sid… Yeah, yeah, Disney, and don’t worry because we’re finally leaving the long long cut scenes and getting to the point you can play more than watch the game… who just so happens to sound like Christopher Lee is doing the voice acting which means he’s either doing double voice acting duty or…
Anyway once you get past the next town (which is a return to Bastion Hollow which seems to have been merged with the town you started your adventures in back in Kingdom Hearts (original)) you are off to the races and visiting worlds, which means the action picks up and goes into overdrive!

First off you’ll notice that you now have a more freeform control over your Gummy Ship. Instead of having to take specific routes between worlds you can now freely fly in any direction whatsoever, this is great when you’ve opened up a dozen worlds and want to quickly travel to one specific world (without having to use “warp” which doesn’t seem available in this game). Also you’ll notice that the shooting levels between worlds have greatly changed, which is a good thing. Gone are the generic bland shooting levels of the original game, replaced with customized “worlds” of 360 degree shooting bliss where you’ll have beautiful visual shooting eye candy to behold as your ship spins, dodges, and rotates to face a variety of enemies including a wicked batch of sub-bosses like a heavily armed ghost pirate ship or a giant Heartless craft that takes up most of the screen during the fight! Do a good job with the shooting and you’ll unlock new ships (which can be instantly accessed through the selection screen when you enter each area), which by the way is far better than the system you had to use in the original game which just was no good. The Gummy Garage returns, yes, but since you can easily score new ships (and stronger versions of ships like your trusty Highwind) you will find no real reason to pimp out your ride short of just the joy of doing so (the ships they provide you are more than sufficient to see you through each shooter level with no problem).

The enemies? More than before since it looks like you’ve returned to the Keyblade game at the beginning roar of a possible civil war in the darkness. We have Organization XIII, which you saw in Chain of Memories for starters. We have Christopher Lee’s character who has sided with Ansem (who seems to not be as dead as we thought he was for some unfathomable reason) and seems to be bent on the destruction of Organization XIII. Then we have the wildcard in the return of Maleficent who has her own agenda (or maybe she’s teamed up with someone secretly) and a new follower in the form of… Pete? You know Pete from Goof Troop? That Pete? Yeah… well, Riku he ain’t as he provides more comic relief than actual threat as you constantly face him world after world only to watch him run away world after world.
Anyway forget Pete since you’ll have more than enough to plague your travels to return to the side of your heartthrob Kairi (and, you know, find Riku) in the form of both Heartless, the new Dusks (all new harder to dispatch of enemies), and a large batch of new frantic wild new sub bosses to deal with.

And then we have the worlds! Oh the places you’ll go, and the people you’ll beat with your Keyblade.
The World of Aladdin
Taking place apparently between the first movie and the TV series you find yourself having to smooth over bad feelings against Iago (you know, Gilbert Godfried) only to have a whole subplot about Jafar’s lamp falling into the Heartless’ hands come about… and fizzle out. This is a short level and you’ll get through it in under an hour.

World of Beauty & the Beast
Yes you do get to see the castle of Beauty & the Beast.
No you don’t get to go to the village and ogle the women with the well endowed breasts.
Beast is still a Beast and yet it’s not a rehash of the movie… kinda. Well, it’s somewhat new. Maybe.

Disney Castle
Sadly it didn’t get as much face time as I thought it would in my earlier first look at this game. You get to see it, yes, and you get to team up with Queen Minnie, sure, but you don’t get to see much of the castle which is a downer. It’s from here, by the way, that you get to visit the world of Steamboat Willy… and a few other old Mickey worlds (but that’s something you’ll see for yourself when you play).

World of Hercules
Looks like Hades is up to his old schemes (and yet he doesn’t seem to have noticed his old “associate” Maleficent has dug herself up from her grave) as he is once again out to snuff Hercules (and once again voiced by James Woods). This time he‘s brought up a bad dude from the Final Fantasy games… no, no, not Cloud this time. This time I think you‘re going to be pleased with who he calls up for active duty. Oh, and Meg finally shows up in the Hercules worlds which is nice since we didn‘t see her last time.

World of the Lion King
If you’ve heard about this then you heard that this is the world where you play as a lion cub (wielding the Keyblade in your mouth). I know, I know, it sounds lame… until you jostle the analog stick forward and watch your character zip forward with more speed than usual! Fighting as a lion cub is fast, energetic, and wild crazy slashing and bashing as you litterly tear into enemies with a speed not seen in your human form! Trust me, you’ll soon begin to love the fact that the game keeps you from rolling off of cliffsides since you could probably run yourself right off a cliff over and over the way you move in this world! Oh, and it looks like Matthew Brodderick has skipped out of being in this game while Nathan Lane seems to have returned to voice the “lovable” Timon (and boy we haven’t seen anyone that small and … ahem… “lovable” (annoying) since Daxter who just recently got his own PSP game to romp around in).
Oh, and maybe the voice of Scar is in this game. Sounds like it.

World of the Little Mermaid
Did you miss rhythm games? Are you just hungering for a simplistic button pusher that you’ll miss half the time as you watch the music videos roll out before you in the tune of Little Mermaid ballads from the original movie? No? Me neither, but suck it up because that’s what you’re going to be doing in this world.

Apparently since people had complaints about the way the underwater combat system rubbed people the wrong way back in the original Kingdom Hearts the makers of the game actually removed all actual combat in this world in favor of musical mini games… gee, that’s not fun.
It’s simple… sorta. Watch the music, and wait. When you watch the meters appear and quickly run down you have to quickly tap the X or Triangle button when it reaches the very end (and the small window of opportunity for either Good or Excellent). This, by the way, is not easy since you have to shut out the music video on the screen as everyone is dancing and Ariel is singing (and she sings excellently which makes me think her original voice actress returned for this game) and you can easily get distracted by all the on screen stuff going on! Oh, and the game even penalizes you for every Bad you get for pushing too early or too late which makes the music portions even more frustrating!

Luckily for you this is fed out to you in small bites since you constantly have to leave the world in order to meet a certain objective to continue.

If this looks like a gopher list blame Disney, not me.
First you have to get the Magnet spell ability in order to move a statue of the Prince for Ariel’s grotto.
Then you have to get a 5 in your special meter used when you merge with other characters to achieve powerful forms (like Valor or Wisdom) in order to move to the next scene.
And so on and so forth. Bleah.
Thankfully I returned the game before I returned for the next chain of rhythm games, mostly since I cursed the precision that you had to apply to these in order to pass these. What a pain!

The World of Mulan : She’s wanting to get into the army, you need help to get the Heartless on this world (since it’s one of the first two worlds you face once you leave Bastion Hollow), so it’s a match made in heaven. Basically it’s the movie only with some changes.

The World of Pirates of the Caribbean : I didn’t see the movie so I don’t know if this is to the movie or not… but who cares! This is one of the coolest worlds of the new game. One thing you need to know about this world is that you need to ply some strategy when you deal with the pirates of this world.
As long as they’re in darkness they’re human, and apparently your Keyblade has a morality lock on it since you can’t go bashing humans. However once they step into moonlight they become the undead, which means you can wail away at them to your heart’s content. Best strategy is to corner them in moonlight and not knock them out of the moonlight areas (lest they become invulnerable).

Oh, and while I’m not certain if Johnny Depp, Orlando (he has perfect hair as an elf) Bloom and Keira Knightly is in this game at least their voice actors are not totally terrible to listen to.

The World of Nightmare Before Christmas : Speaking of worlds I loved in this game here’s another one! Returning to the world of Jack Skellington you find something completely and totally rare to this game… a NEW STORY!! Apparently NOT set during the movie, your visit takes place one year after the events of The Nightmare Before Christmas when Jack has it in mind to take a second stab at being Sandy Claws, transforming Halloween Town into a strange Christmas wonderland as he prepares to once again upstage the jolly one in his attempt to give “Sandy” a day off (to recover from his experience in the original movie). Well it looks like nobody’s going to get a day off, what with Maleficent showing up (resurrecting Oogie Boogie which means… yeah… another sub boss battle on some mechanical contraption, though this time it doesn’t have the gambling motif as the original roulette wheel battlefield).

The World of Tron : Good news? It looks like Bruce Boxleitner and the voice of Sark have returned to voice their respective characters… and if they didn’t return at least they sound the part.
Another good news is that the world of Tron truly looks just like the world of the original movie, right down to the authentic sound effects and the 80’s special effects!
The bad news. Tron’s world is TOO DAMN SHORT! Now I didn’t complete the game so I don’t know if you get to go back to the world (there’s an area for a solar sail that isn’t available when you first play through the world) but I hope so since you don’t get to do much your first taste of the world.
Oh, and the light cycles is not half bad. It won’t remind you of the classic light cycle action of old but it’s passable, and abit forgiving since you won’t automatically “derezz” should you smack into a light wall.

The World of Winnie the Pooh
It’s been awhile since you checked in with your buddy Pooh, so you are understandably excited when Merlin gives you the Book of Pooh (which now features you on the cover). You quickly go in only to be “interrupted” when Pooh seems to “stop” and you have to bail out to stop Heartless from stealing the book. They manage to steal pages from the book and damage the cover, which seems to have affected Pooh’s memory now that he can’t remember who you are.

The rest is simple. Find the missing pages of the Book of Pooh and return them, allowing you to travel from area to area so you can help Pooh reunite with his friends, as well as remember who his friends are.
This is far better than the Little Mermaid world because while it offers mini games (like the rhythm game in the Little Mermaid) these games are actually fun. Ride a balloon with Pooh in a side scroller that has you bashing down debris flying at you while you attempt to rescue Piglet. Do a speed run with Pooh to gather up honey while avoiding obstacles (this being the 3D pooh game promised in the first look review).
And two more mini games to look forward to too… I didn’t see those, sorry.
The voice acting is solid (and everyone sounds as they should despite the fact that by now they had to replace at least Piglet and Tigger since their voice actors passed away recently) and you’ll love this world for it’s wit, humor and fun mini games (just as you’ll learn to despise the Little Mermaid for it’s (ahem) “mini games”.)

Kingdom Hearts Original Creations
Uh… what’s that?
Other than Twilight Town, a mainland town on the world where Sora, Kairi and Riku originated from (seen only in cutscenes), and a restored Hallow Bastion there is no other original worlds… but I didn’t play the game to completion so there might be a few. Keep playing to the end and look for new worlds.
One complaint is that once again there is no Final Fantasy worlds. What? Couldn’t we at least get a Midgar from Final Fantasy VII or that huge oceanside city from Final Fantasy X?

Speaking of which…
You’ll be happy with the Final Fantasy characters this time out… sorta.
Problems are characters like Leon who sometimes seems incapable of matching his voice acting with his lip movements. Worst is Cid, whose voice actor seems to be some sort of NASCAR lovin’ southern Dukes of Hazzard minor character bad stereotype voice! What the hell did they do to Cid anyway!!
The rest works, even if Aerith (Aeris)’s voice is abit meek sounding. And look, we got Chibi Gullwings!! Little fairy Yuna, Rikku and Paine! Now if only you could have had them as selectable summonings then that would have been so fine… but no, you get stuck with Chicken Little as a summoning! What the!!
Oh, and Sephiroth returns and actually talks for a change, which is nice since he actually sounds cool and you can’t even tell he used to be voice acted by you know who in the original Kingdom Hearts game.

The rest is the same, and that’s a good thing since you don’t need to fix what isn’t broken.
The combat system, which has been described by some as akin to the recent Legend of Zelda combat style of quick paced hacking and slashing, is as fluidic and fast paced as before. And with the ability to upgrade your character with abilities, new equipment, armor, and spells you can make your character a force to be reckoned with.

While most of the stuff in this game is the same old same old there are two noteworthy things to talk about in this new game. Reaction mode and the Drive mode.
One new addition to your combat chassis is the drive mode. This mode allows you to join with another character (Goofy or Donald) and achieve a more powerful form.
You see, when you were playing as Roxas you learned a dual Keyblade wielding technique. As Sora, however, you can only draw out this ability when you use the Drive mode and merge.
The first Drive mode you learn is Valor, which changes your costume bright red and gives you dual blades (which can be set by the two keyblade keychains you attach to your blade). This is best if you’re like me, and like to do all your fighting up close and personal. This is for all out frantic fighting.
The other mode right off the bat is Wisdom mode, which is more for long distance shooting since your main attack is shooting from your Keyblades. This is good for enemies you’d rather keep your distance from.

The second new addition to your combat chassis is the reaction mode. At key times in the game the triangle button will become selectable, which triggers a reaction. While this is normal in the game (open a chest, check a door, do something) it is new in the combat system as you can perform attack, combo attacks (where you and an ally combine abilities for a set group of moves) and reaction moves like dodges and counterattacks. This is easy to pick up though I found myself repeatedly tapping the triangle button instead of trying to time my pushes to the instructions during lengthy triangle pushes (easier that way for me).

So after all that is there any bad points to the game? Maybe.
1-If you were hoping that you’d get to spend more quality time with Kairi in this game you’d be so disappointed! Once again Kairi is relegated to “motivational factor” as you barely see her in this game. Sure she has matured well and is growing up into a fine young woman, but it would have been nice if she spent more time in this game than she did last time… worst, I have a feeling her time in this game is even less than her time in the original game!

2-While this game does have some great things like Chibi Gullwings and other Final Fantasy fan favorites these are too few, too short, and not interactive. You only have a few FF characters you can fight with, or maybe fight against in the Hades’ Arena, but you really don’t get a chance to have a wider amount of characters to join forces with which is a total shame.

3-Some worlds play too quickly. You’ll find yourself easily besting several of the worlds with no real effort to your actions (even in normal mode). This may mean that the game might be over too quickly though I didn’t finish the game, so I’m hoping that isn’t the case since some worlds do offer “new episodes” to play through that brings you back to the worlds for revisits.

4-The first three hours where you have to muddle through the introduction and warm up Twilight Town world to get you back to speed on the gameplay. It plays slow, you seem to watch the game more than play it, and if it wasn’t for Christopher Lee you’d probably be bored by this… oh, and Christopher Lee is so underused in this game! Once you leave Twilight Town you barely see Christopher Lee’s character again which is a total shame! Most of the time you’re facing Pete… Pete?!? Are you kidding me?? After showing me a character like Christopher Lee (who really does work his character to aces the way he does his stuff) you have to get stuck with Pete as a nemesis?!? Gimme a break!!

5-No flaggable data load. Which means you might as well forget replaying the original game to completion if you haven’t done so already since it won’t matter none in comparison to the sequel. You can’t carry over skills, levels, equipment or stuff from that game into this game. Sad.

Otherwise stop reading!
Kingdom Hearts II is your game. You’ve been waiting for this for awhile now and finally you can return to the worlds of Kingdom Hearts (and do it well unlike the badly done card battle handheld version of a year ago) so why don’t you!
Breakdown will prove the rest out.

Kingdom Hearts Breakdown the 2nd
What’s Hot?
We’ve been waiting for what seems like forever to find out whether or not all our anxious waiting and wondering would pay off when we got Kingdom Hearts II in our hands. I mean can I blame you? If you were a, say, Arc the Lad fan you found out how sorely disappointed you could become by a sequel after playing End of Darkness (for instance)! This time, however, I have to say that you will not be disappointed in the slightest by what awaits you here! Kingdom Hearts II continues where you left off, reuniting you with old friends while helping you make new ones as you once again take back to the road of pain as you quest across the worlds in order to return to home and love.
Time to grab your Keyblade and get your ticket for the train ‘cause it’s clobbering time!

What’s Not?
If you are a Final Fantasy fan, however, and you were hoping for more Final Fantasy in your Kingdom Hearts game you might once again find yourself disappointed. Yes, this game does have some great moments with Final Fantasy that will truly make it worth the check for fans of Final Fantasy VII & X (or X-2) but you’ll just get the mini plate of enjoyment when your starved for the full plate.
I know I said this when I reviewed Kingdom Hearts (original) but once again I would love to see more Final Fantasy in a Kingdom Hearts game! And, yes, I would love to see Final Fantasy worlds!
Oh, and I would love to see the Chibi Gullwings become sidekick characters that follow you about in Kingdom Hearts III ala the “Innocent Devils” system from Castlevania : Curse of Darkness for the PS2 (which happens to probably be the only thing I want to see lifted from the not so excellent Curse of Darkness… do yourself a favor, get Dawn of Sorrow for the DS instead of this! It’s forgettable Castlevania without a shadow of a doubt!)
Otherwise please bring back Cid’s original voice actor please… please.

Moments to Remember?
There are a great many memorable moments. Be it cutscenes or memorable sub bosses including one that should remind you of the mega creatures of Shadow of the Colossus there is lots of memorable things.

What to Ignore?
Let’s see… you mean besides the fact that Cid sounds awful in this game and Leon seems to sometimes move his lips more than he has words to accommodate his moving lips? I can’t think of… well, I could but I might spoil more than I should. You’ll find a few things to forget… forget… you must forget… here, if I was Leonard Nimoy I’d give you the vulcan face press of forgetfulness. Forget… forget… forget… oh, I know, forget that you had to play damn musically themed rhythm games because somebody who made this game in Japan was such a total fan of the Little Mermaid! Forget… forget… forget…

Overall?
Yes, as I said before this game is abit like NintenDogs… and no that doesn’t mean you have to care, pamper, shampoo, brush and pick up after chibi Rikku and have her compete in competitions… which sounds more kinky than it should sound if you think about it.
Like NintenDogs you don’t need me to tell you to get this game. Just one look at this game and you were sold at “Kingdom Hearts II”. And yes, unlike Arc the Lad : End of Darkness you won’t be embarrassed by the game when you get it because this game is not a total disappointment (unlike End of Darkness).
So go forth, dual keyblade wielders, and battle on… then sign onto Star Trek 2.0’s website and post away, since there already seems to be a few Kingdom Hearts II players posting during classic Trek episodes.
And yes, I do know my Classic Trek 101. Doesn’t everyone? Spock on.

-- David Rasmussen 23rd Apr 06

Playstation 2 Kingdom Hearts II Images