Great Sequal with very little flaws!
It looks like Square has outdone themselves once again in the latest sequel of the KH series. Kingdom Hearts 2 is perfect in almost everyway as an action RPG. On with the review!
Graphics:
This game is literally the most beautiful game I have seen on the Playstation 2. I can't think of many titles that are up to par with KH2's graphics. The pixels are smooth and the animation/cut scenes are action packed. It is as if you are watching an actual Disney movie. It seems a few other companies have jumped on these enhanced graphics. Specifically Wild Arms 4 had the same cartoon based graphics with the nice smooth rendering like KH2's but KH2 is still much greater in graphic comparison. The graphics in this game are amazing!
Game play:
The game play is the same as KH1 but has an upgraded feel to it. The reaction command feature adds a lot of variety to battle but I wish it was more thought out and implemented more like God of War's reaction command. The problem with KH2's reaction command is that you can spam it continuously. There is not any real timing to be done, just press the triangle button to invoke the reaction command. A cool feature none the less but they could have made it a little more difficult to pull off. The fighting is much faster paced than it was in the first one and there are many more enemies on screen to defeat. Once again sometimes this turns into monotonous pressing of the circle button but overall the game play doesn't ever turn stale. The drive system is a great edition but can also be taken advantage of. KH2's is extremely easy in the beginning stages of the game and some players may get a little bored. The difficulty picks up in the later stages of the game though and a few of the boss battles are spectacular. The only other real complaint is the cut-scenes. I realize the story needs to be fleshed out but sitting through so many cut scenes can really bring you down. Now there are not nearly as many as some other games like Xenosaga, however there are enough that are so closely initiated that it can be a real drag. Most of the worlds are really small but each world is drawn out because of the cut-scenes. Cut-scenes are great and all but I would like them to be implemented with being able to tell the story while actually playing the game. I enjoy the 16-32 bit era of action packed never a dull moment game play. There are no tutorials to sit through and there certainly aren't 5 hours of cut scenes to watch. But overall the game play is very fun and I only had a few picky complaints.
Sound/Music:
The sounds were decent. They gathered a lot of familiar tunes from Disney based themes. Overall it was great but nothing really epic. The opening theme is well done. Be expecting another great Jpop opening like in KH1. They did a decent job with the rest of the music. But then again it still feels a little... well... not really that epic. There are not too many tunes you will be downloading and listening to, besides the opening theme. There are no tracks that will be orchestrated or become a classic like some in the FF series have. Overall the sound was great, just not epic.
There you have it! A great sequel from Square/Enix with very few flaws! This one is definitely worth picking up for your collection!
Final Score: 9