Been waiting for 3 years and my head feels like exploding.....
Plot:
Is like earlier said, the plot is darker than before. And much more confusing. While the co. goes around like before fighting Heartless theres a different plot or clues surfaces at the background.The climax really builts itself up.The Disneyly jokes here and there makes it a little anti climax though.And Sora is much more like normal teenagers picking a fight with people and swearing (you know those teenagers swearing words? never mind... ) It does make you feel that Sora has grown up physically and mentally (ahem).
Gameplay:
The sole reason I love Kingdom Hearts in the first place is the fight mode. You get to control it and you get to run around without having to go through battle sequence change (aka Final Fantasy series and Grandia). Donald and Goofy and the supporting characters in certain world is much more useful than before. And Sora moves really looks GREAT! The special trigger command adds up to the topping of it all to make the battle much more challenging.
Minigames:
Theres too many.... I don't know what to do.... Each minigames need certain criteria to get the highest point and they have ALOT of minigames (remember Colliseum? oh boy...) Is Nomura trying to beat down the number of minigames of FF7..... The singing part for japanese version seriously sends goosebumps to me. (Leave the singing to English Disney please!!!).
Graphics and Voice Act:
Is much more fast pace and those blank looks you usually see in the first series is lesser than before. The Ending and Opening scene certainly has improved in graphic wise. World Maps are larger and adds up the obstacles. I prefer Mandy Moore to Mena Suvari. It made Aerith sound so vulnurable. I got shocked hearing Haley Joel Osments voice haha (puberty).Cutscenes are longer than before maybe too long for some. Theres and added feature of skipping the scenes but it might effect the understanding of the story.
OST:
I love Passion to Sanctuary but the more you listen to Sanctuary, you'll start to like it too. Yoko Shimomura did a good job producing another batch of OST for the new worlds and some really sad tunes which adds to the atmosphere nicely. The best one I would say is the ost at around the credits part. A combination of songs we heard before range from Dearly Beloved to Hikari Orchestral version it was all combined and it overlaps each other really well.
Is it a good buy?
If you love the first installement you will love this as well. I had fun and I think you will love it too. Some of you might think playing a game with Disney characters in it might be not compelling, you should really change your mind because the gameplay ,the plot ,the challenging fights really makes you forget that Donald and Goofy was from Disney. (The magic of Square-Enix) heh.