Great, but still lacking...something...
A fantasy RPG mixed with Squaresoft's Final Fantasy characters and various characters from Disney, almost exactly like the first game. However, unlike the first game, there is something that is missing in this game, a drive to go through the story. The biggest flaw in the game is the compulsion to go through the story, unlike the original.
The original, you go and save princesses and look for your missing friends, deal with the vile Heartless and various Disney evils. Not much, but oddly compelling to play through.
This new game? Everyone's older, a year to be precise, and the point? Looking for Kairi. Not anywhere near as much when it comes to the previous game. What about all the Princesses? You meet Belle eventually, and of course Jasmine, but there's no Alice, or Snow White or any of the others. What's up with that?
First, the story after you start up. Roxas, that's who you are. Where the hell is Sora? Oh wait, this is prologue country you say? And what a near waste of three hours after such a beautiful intro it is. The voice acting, outside of the reused Square characters, makes it worthwhile. Seifer's "We totally owned you lamers." made me nearly turn of the game in disgust. Christopher Lee as the masked man however, more then made up for it.
Then on and on you go, wasting 3 hours and 'six days' in game to do a bunch of crap, introduce the new baddies, the Nobodies (wtf?), some sweet music, the new reaction commands with a jerk-off green triangle, and nice lovely first boss fight which is reminiscent of the first one in KH1. Nobody instead of Heartless however. That was cool, I'll admit.
Then, hey...what's this? Story...you're a what? Oh no! But wait, we can play as Sora again. Great. I didn't like Roxas, not sure why, he just didn't feel right. Then the story goes from kinda cool to what the hell, and it has so many up and downs you'll get less stomach sick on a roller-coaster.
Cool would be almost anything that happens at Hollow Bastion, the Lion King Level and the new Drive system.
Crap would be the Pirates of the Caribbean level. Worst. Ever. Same with Fire Magic and Cure. Stupid changes. Also, a few things with the way you can go through the levels, allowing you to skip your first run through them almost entirely and making it somewhat harder (Which it isn't.)
The highlights, in my personal opinion would be watching Squall (Leon) and Cloud back to back and then fighting, and of course the inevitable ass-kicking that you'll receive by Sephiroth. Or...not. He's way to easy in this version due to the Reaction Commands, at level 70 on Proud, you should be able to take him with proper timing with just Hi-Potions, Cure Magic and if you're unlucky, one Ether.
Despite it being a great game, there's just something missing in the story somewhere that doesn't seem right. I still can't quite place it even now.
The gameplay, with these story problems is the absolute low point of the game. The triangle that pops up just sorta ruins the mood in some of the boss-fights as well. Oh yeah, and the entire Pete and company just disappearing until near the end of the game is kinda weird too.
The graphics, nothing really new either, though they do look better then the original, there isn't much of a difference in the end. The new costumes due to Drive however do make quite a bit of a difference, especially when you're in Nightmare Before Christmas. Of course, the two, three if you count the special extra ending for getting everything, FMV's are nothing short of amazing...but I felt there could've been a lot more to add some more dramatic effect to a few things...namely of which are spoilers near the end of the game.
The music is where the entire game shines in the end. Every level has it's own music, signature of it's movie or place. Even Pirates seems better with the music. However, even with that, the sound has it's nasty low points as well. Namely, the re-used Square characters have some pretty bad lines. Seifer's is the biggest and most apparent, but Cid's voice is absolutely horrid. Despite the general campy feeling of the Square character the worst atrocity is again the Pirates level and the voice actors that are playing the characters. They aren't, unlike every single other character in the game, played by the people that had the roles, it was another of the lowest points of the game, the entire level.
All in all, in the end? It's a good game, it almost lives up to the original in most cases, does better in some and outshines in the music front, but again, that something missing does make the feel different.
Pros: Drive System and everything it entails makes for ass-kicking. Music. Lion King. The final boss fight. Reaction Commands. (Makes fighting a bit more cinematic.)
Cons: Pirates. Pirates. Pirates. Reaction Commands. (God-damned triangle...) Lack of FMV's. Some of the voice acting and lines.