The long awaited sequel to the 2002 PS2 hit is finally here! And it doesn't disappoint. Find out why in this review.
The story takes place after the GBA game Chain of Memories. At the end, Sora, Donald and Goofy were "put to sleep" in pods to restore their memories (which were "broken"). In effect, they've been sleeping for a whole year. When Kingdom Hearts II starts out, you get control of a character named Roxas. Strange things just seem to happen to this kid all the time. Photos (and the word too!) being stolen, flashbacks of someone else, time freezing for a moment while weird white creatures attack him, men in black [cloaks], and a strange key. It eventually comes together and begins to make sense to him and he ends up setting Sora free from his year-long rest (Sora actually doesn't meet him though). After our heroes awake they set out to resume their quest to find the king (who they meet briefly) and Riku (who they have no idea where he might be). Sora realizes he needs new clothes and gets those first and finds out his next mission is to stop the Nobodies and the Organization (beings created from the left over "shell" while the heart is transformed into a Heartless) from attaining their goal of completion. The trio seem like they're ready for anything, so off they go on a new adventure!
Graphically, KH2 is quite impressive. It's on par with the first game and everything's consistent. Sora is shown to have aged a little bit. The world's are simply amazing though. The levels are very close to their movie counterparts. The Pirates of the Caribbean level is a bit too dark for me though. It gets a little difficult to see a few things in there, but it isn't too bad. One of my favorite levels is the Timeless River. It brings to life the elements of classic black and white Disney cartoons like "Steamboat Willie". The world is even in grayscale! I especially liked how the character designs were simplified to match the level. Donald and Goofy took on their first character designs whereas Sora received a much more simplified look, sporting clothing he wore in the first game. The attention to detail is amazing and it really shines in some levels (such as Space Paranoids).
As far as the sound goes, the soundtrack is similar to the first and keeps consistent. I really love some of the orchestrated tracks. Personally, I can't stand the new opening song in Japanese or English. The vocals just really annoy me because they don't sound very clear and seem like they were overly synthesized. For me, the voice acting could stand to be better, but I think it's still a step up from other games. Some of the delivery for certain characters just doesn't scream quality the way the first game did. Also, some voice actors were changed, whether or not Square could get them or if too many fans complained about using Lance Bass for Sephiroth is another story. Mandy Moore is gone and in her place is Mena Suvari. I really don't like how her voice sounded. It seemed like the actress was bored and uninspired and she didn't really want to do her part. Since Lance Bass never had much of a speaking role to begin with, I don't know if I can judge his actual acting ability in the first game compared to George Newbern, who I think managed to get Sephiroth's character across well enough. Billy Zane, the original voice of Ansem, is also struck from the cast and in his place is Richard Epcar, but the most voicing he does is in flashbacks, so he doesn't have a major role either. Some of the returning voice actors could have worked on their delivery for some lines, but all in all, the voice acting is quite good. My biggest complaint is the delivery of the lines in the Lion King world, which were directly taken from the movie and sounded a little too rushed for my taste.
The gameplay does not disappoint. The only thing I can really say is that the first part, where you play as Roxas is just really dull (though some of Roxas' back story is interesting) and the only thing that's fun about it are the battles (especially the awesome boss battle at the end of the Roxas story). The game is slow in the beginning but things will pick up soon enough once you get control of Sora. The camera is more manageable now that it's been tethered to the right analog stick, but the controls are more or less the same from the first. The controls work very well and couldn't be any more polished. The battle system was refined a little bit from the first, and it's even more fun. The battles seem faster and more intense with some of the features added in. The reaction commands are special techniques you can perform by pressing the triangle button when prompted to. These show up more prominently in the boss battles, where they're the main key to winning the fight. Another innovation, is the Drive command. When the drive bar is full, Sora can transform into a new form. Depending on what form it is, it will remove one character from the team (or even both!), but for the temporary loss, you sure get a huge power boost. Most of the forms even allow Sora to use two keyblades! Sora is also much faster transformed and the drives can help you out in the boss battles too, though obviously there's a time limit for how long Sora can be in Drive mode, you can do quite a bit if you're in the right form and you've leveled it up enough. There is another consequence to overusing the Drive forms though. If you use it too much, Sora's party will disappear (both characters) and Sora will take a form resembling a heartless. You can't revert back to your original form unless you kill all the enemies in an area, leave, or until your drive gauge runs out, whichever comes first. You still get a power and speed boost, but it's tends to be more of a nuisance during the boss battles, since you've no one to back you up and can't use magic or items, thus getting you killed quicker if you're not careful.
Despite some of my personal gripes, Kingdom Hearts II has certainly lived up to my expectations. It does a fine job of completing the story (for now anyway, a new secret ending seems to tell us the story isn't over just yet) and tying up the loose ends. I sort of find it strange that the Organization members from Chain of Memories weren't even mentioned (outside of making a brief cameo in one cut scene and showing up in Jiminy's Journal), but oh well. The game is just as visually stunning as the first and the sound is, for the most part, very good. My only real complaint about the sound is the delivery of some of lines and that I think the opening theme isn't very good (though I really like the orchestrated version, with no vocals, much better). Kingdom Hearts II certainly has a lot of replay value and you can play through it again and enjoy it as much as you did the first time around. It definitely isn't a PS2 game to be missed.