Epic, Elegant and Excellent
Kingdom Hearts II, the follow-up to what in my opinion, was one of the most innovative and original games that the Playstation 2 has seen, the idea of combining one of the most successful game series (Final Fantasy) of all time with all of the memorable characters from one of the most successful film companies of all time (Disney) was an ingenious one that paid off superbly. The same idea has been used again and improved in many ways for this sequel, which, like it's predecessor, combines elements from many different game genres, including RPG's, platformers, adventure, action and strategy. From first impressions, this game looks to be better than the original, there appears to be more content, more features and more quality, but is that the case? That is what I'm going to look at in this review.
Storyline:
Kingdom Hearts II is similar to Square-Enix's Final Fantasy series in that it has a fantastic epic plot that twists and turns in many different ways as your progress, taking place one year after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories on the Gameboy Advance, which was a midquel between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora and his friends, Donald Duck and Goofy, wake up in a mysterious place called Twilight Town after regaining their memories for a year, in this town, they run into Heartless and Nobodies, old and new enemies respectively, from here, they once again travel across many different Disney-themed worlds in search of their friends, Riku and King Mickey, encountering many different obstacles and enemies on their way...
Graphics:
Despite the slight cartoon feel, Kingdom Hearts II's graphics are spectacular, they are in full 3D, and are superbly detailed and varied. The first thing you'll see upon starting the game, after a sketchbook style introduction, is the main menu, it's clean, not containing anything unnecessary, yet it is welcoming and neat. After that you are treated to some wonderful FMV's, which look absolutely stunning, despite how unrealistic they look. Once you get around to playing the game, the graphics are fantastic in many different ways. The screen layout is just about perfect, with things you can do appearing in the bottom-left, character information on the bottom-right, a small map of the area appearing in the top right and other important information appearing at the bottom centre or at the top of the screen, the placement of these things do not clutter the screen at all. After that we have the game environments, the attention to detail on these is absolutely superb, from markings on buildings to piles of rubble and leaves on trees, none of this really contributes to the gameplay in any way, but they are wonderful touches. Another thing I really liked about the graphics were how theme-fitting they were, for example, the Timeless River level, based on early Disney cartoons, is in black and white, with poor animation, reflecting the quality of those early cartoons, whilst the Space Paranoids world, based on Tron, has a really high-tech futuristic look. The final major graphics positive is the animation, it's just about flawless, characters lips move when they speak, whilst allies and enemies shuffle about in battle and have different movements for each of their techniques. One minor graphics positive to pick up on are the subtitles, though most games have them these days, some do not and it is nice to see that they've been included for those who want to use them. If there's anything bad about the graphics, it's that the camera angle can sometimes be quite poor, most of the time, this is easily adjustable, but sometimes, it just wont shift. All in all, graphics are a spectacular section of the game.
Sound:
Sound is another area of the game that is fantastic, and you can enjoy it within seconds of starting the game, Sanctuary, the song played during the opening bits, is absolutely brilliant, far better than the song they gave us at the start of the first Kingdom Hearts, once you get into the game, the music does not get worse, it stays at a high quality, each area has its own audio and in each area the audio is theme-fitting, from the poor quality of sound in the Timeless River area (which is based on early cartoons with poor sound) to the Oriental music in The Land Of Dragons (based on Mulan) and the Arabian music in Agrabah (based on Aladdin), if there's one thing I didn't like about the in-game audio, it's that they changed the Hollow Bastion music from the wonderful composition that played there in Kingdom Hearts. Onto the voice-acting now, in some places it's excellent, whereas in other places it sucks, positive aspects of it include Haley Joel Osmont as Sora, most of the Disney voice actors as their respective characters and Christopher Lee as one of the storylines important characters, downsides of the voice-acting include James Arnold Taylor failing miserably at trying to do the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow and the constant Donald Duck noises. All in all, sound isn't bad at all, moving on...
Gameplay:
Just where do I begin? The gameplay in this game is out of this world. First things first, the controls, they're very simple considering how complicated some aspects of the game are, and can be fully customized with little effort. Next, the menus, there are three menus in the game, the main menu doesn't require explaining, as there's only two options, whilst the combat menu has two lots of four options that can you can switch between with the touch of a button, easy enough, the start button menu is the most complicated menu, there are a variety of options, such as using items, equipping characters and setting abilities, all of the functions are pretty easy to use and navigate. Now, onto the main element of gameplay, the game itself, you control Sora, Sora is accompanied by two characters at a time, these characters act of their own free will and you have no control of them, everything that Sora does, however is done by you, you must move him around the worlds, completing your objectives, just about everything in the game utilizes the command menu (bottom left on the screen), throughout the game, you get eight things on the command menu that can be used in battle, all of which work wonderfully, attacking is simple enough, you can lock onto targets and hit them with a weapon, enemies can also hit you, and you lose HP (represented by a green gauge in the bottom right of the screen), when your HP hits zero, its game over, out of battle, the attack option can change to things like talk (if you're next to a character) and open (if you're next to a treasure chest), magic is the next option, you gain spells throughout the game, there are offensive and defensive spells that can be cast on you or your enemy, using magic costs MP, which is also represented by a gauge in the bottom left, when your MP hits zero, you cannot use magic again until the gauge replenishes, items are the next option, and by selecting them, you can use items gained on your travels, all with their own purposes, drive is the next option, this feature is new to the series, by selecting drive, Sora can morph into a stronger form, each form has its own advantages and disadvantages, and these are gained as you progress through the game, driving decreases your drive gauge (shown in the bottom right of the screen), when this gauge hits zero, you have to wait for it to replenish to drive again, the next option is summoning, summoning allows you to summon a helping hand, each summon has their own advantages and disadvantages, from attacking enemies to restoring HP, each one requires your drive gauge to be full, the next option, Party, allows you to switch party members whilst the next option, Limit, is another function new to the series, by using it, Sora can use up all his MP to unleash a devastating attack, the final option only appears now and then for split-seconds, reaction commands do certain things to enemies if done correctly, such as doing double damage or temporarily knocking the enemy out, as you progress through the game, you can increase Sora's attributes to make him stronger, you can gain money to spend on items and equipment, and you can gain abilities which can be equipped to give you extra benefits. When you are not controlling Sora, you are travelling between worlds in a Gummi Ship, these ships are customizable, and you must use them to clear the paths between worlds of enemies so you can travel freely between them, there are also a variety of missions and tasks that you can do with your ship. Other positives about the gameplay include the number of side-quests available in addition to the main story (from mini-games and item creation to secret bosses and bonus worlds) and the fact that you are free to explore and progress at your own pace. If there's anything wrong with the gameplay, it's the fact that without a guide, you can often get stuck somewhere without knowing what you're supposed to be doing. All in all, gameplay is magnificent.
Lifespan:
The lifespan of this game is variable, if you play on the easy or normal difficulty, the game is rather simple to complete, whereas on hard, the game is difficult and will therefore take longer, the lifespan also depends on how much time you devote on the non-storyline things, if you, like me, are a perfectionist, then it will take you in the region of a month's play to complete absolutely everything, then you can also replay it on a different difficulty...
Extras:
There's loads to do in the game besides the main story, as I've mentioned numerous times already, everything you do is recorded in a Journal, so if you're going after everything, you can keep track with that. As for other extras, there's a secret ending and a secret playable character that I'm keeping my mouth shut about. There's also a special edition of the game coming out at some time that contains some extras, including a 3D remake of the midquel to the game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories. My version of the game came with fridge magnets. That about sums up extras.
Final Recommendation:
I would highly advise buying the game, as in my opinion, its one of the best games available for the Playstation 2, I prefer it to the original Kingdom Hearts, though that too, is an excellent game. Even if you don't like the look of this game at all, give it a try, I didn't like the idea of a Final Fantasy style game with Disney characters at first, but I tried it and now I'm hooked.