Kingdom Hearts 2 puts all other RPGs to shame
Graphics:
The look of the first game was a cel-shaded environment will fully rendered environments and characters that have been toned to look as good as their movies. This game is pretty much the exact same thing.......on the surface. After 4 years, most people would expect a graphical overhaul because Square Enix has better technology and around $16 billion in resourses. Yet it looks the exact same. OBJECTION! This game does have a stronger engine, but it hasn't been put into the graphics themselves. It's been used to give you 3x what you had in the first game in terms of attacks, special moves and enemies. Oh boy, there can be lots of enemies. If you want to see for yourself, play the level Land of Dragons. I won't say where, but somewhere there will be proof of what I'm saying. And it just gets better as you go on. So Square can be forgiven if their game looks so similar to the last one, because the last one still looked pretty darn good, and this one is even better.
10/10
Sound:
Okay, the sound is something that all games tend to struggle on somewhere. I've seen that in pretty much every Action RPG I've ever played. Of course this is Square Enix, so they actually know what they're doing. The catchy music of the first two games have returned, with some tunes ACTUALLY returning, and it delivers immersive tunes without fault. The only fault goes to Port Royal, where the battle music is a butchered version of the original theme from the movie, and some of the games universal themes don't fit well in an environment so dark you can't see three feet in front of you. As for the voice acting, lets just say that after four years, the actors have grown a little bit out of their old roles. Haley Joel Osmund sounds totally different than before, some of the voice actors has changed for the worse, and some others have gained the dreaded "Sonic Heroes Curse" where one voice actor begins to sound like another. I used Jack Sparrow's limit break and it sounded like Will was talking. Of course all the others have perfectly regained the voices from the movies they're in. Also, props go to whoever brought back the guy who played Auron. It just wouldn't be right without him. To sum up, Square Enix good, altered music and voices bad.
8/10
Story:
Yet another thing that I disliked in almost every RPG I've played since the first Pokemon game......so all of them. Square Enix has chosen to abandon the traditional mould for an RPG stroy and chosen to do everything different. There won't be a single plot twist in this game that you see coming, unless you read them on the message boards or are really good at guessing. The actual story takes place where Chain of Memories left off, but I won't tell you how, cause the plot twists start right away. In fact, there's one I still don't get. You'll figure out which one for yourself. Of course if you've played the first two games, chances are you have this one already and have already played that far, but if you haven't, you'll be in for some good stuff.
10/10
Gameplay:
First off, I've seen lots of people saying that this game isn't the best in terms of gameplay for various reasons. They say that this game is a button masher and is easier than the women of Grand Theft Auto. These are lies and fabrications. This game is actually very difficult at times and requires you to use every trick you have to beat it. First off, there are 3 difficulty levels. Beginner, Normal and Expert. Or, as I like to call them, Suck, Tricky, and "Sora Must Die" mode. I recommend you start off on Normal or Proud, because Beginner is more for those who are buying this just for the Disney characters. Now onto the gameplay itself. You'll be spending most of your time running through rooms and beating on Heartless and Nobodies, the new enemies. As you go on, the enemies will get increasingly harder to beat, and you will thus get more and cooler ways of beating them. It's like Devil May Cry, but with a dog and a duck at your side. These new ways of winning include Reaction commands, initiated by hitting the triangle button at the right time, Limit Breaks, which has you team up with a partner to lay waste to everything around you, and Drive modes, where you combine with 1 or 2 characters to gain newer, stronger, more Chuck Norris-worthy moves. There's also summons, but they're basically the same as Limit Breaks. In addition, Square Enix has worked to eliminate many of the problems the first game had. Most notably, the camera. It's now controlled with the right analog stick instead of the L2 and R2 buttons. They also reworked the Gummi Ship to bring it to a level above suck. Just don't try to customize one or you'll wind up with a severe headache. In short, this game makes you wonder why they there aren't more like it.
10/10
Lifespan:
This isn't really a short game. It's 40 hours long and has three difficulty setting, though most people will only use two. There are also many moments in this game that you won't just play once. You'll want to experience them a second time. I still wish there was more stuff that could only be accomplished on a second playthrough, so as to encourage more playing and less renting. It is fun while it lasts, but it could've lasted longer.
9/10
Characters:
I think we all know where I'm going with this. You can sort the characters into three groups: Disney, Square, and Kingdom Hearts. In the Disney group, Donald and Goofy are still..........Donald and Goofy, we have many returning characters from the last game, including Jack Skellington, Beast, Ariel *sigh* and a character we didn't think we'd see again, but I won't spoil it. Newcomers include Pete, who takes the role of the incompetent villain, the cast of Beauty and the Beast, who are as interesting as a clock and torch can be, and the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean, which is weird, considering they aren't cel-shaded like everything else. On the Square side, all the cameo characters from the last game return (even HIM), as well as about 9 new characters, which include Seifer and his squad from FF8 along with Vivi from FF9, Auron, who is even better in Action than he was Turn-based, and a little group of girls we all know: Yuna, Rikku and Paine (and no, I didn't imply that Riku was a woman; it's a different one). As for the Kingdom Hearts original characters, Sora and Kairi have grown up considerably and start to show it, though are still goody-goody. We also have the return of Chain of Memories' Organization XIII, and if you played Chain of Memories, you should know that every fight against one of their members was kickass, and that was on a GBA. Think what the actual KH engine can do with them. Even with the occasional dumb line or line repeated from the movie, these characters live up to what we thought about them before. What that expectation is is up to you.