Kingdom Hearts II Review 116
- Title: Kingdom Hearts II
- Developer/Publisher: Square/Enix
- System:PS2
Four years later, and the next chapter in the tale has been released to the PS2. The title begins in a somewhat confusing place if you've never played the card-battle Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories title for the GameBoy. Suffice it to say that Sora has lost his memory, and the first several hours of the game are spent with an alternate persona for the first game's protagonist. This hours-long ordeal is something of an extended tutorial. You're introduced to the concepts you'll be using throughout the game, and slowly begin to crack into the simply enormous plot that flows throughout the title. If the idea of an hours-long tutorial mode isn't intimidating, you're already set to play this game.
Your patience will be well rewarded, though, because once you're out of the introductory plot there's lot of great story to enjoy. Just as in the original, you'll find yourself traveling with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to various world representing Disney movies. Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King are among the properties on display. The Nightmare Before Christmas makes a return with the more traditional titles, and two new live-action pieces are introduced to Kingdom Hearts' stable of worlds. The Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as Tron, make appearances at points along the road to your ultimate destination. With so many worlds to explore, it's unsurprising that you'll encounter varying levels of quality. At one end of the spectrum, you have Mulan. The Chinese fable is one of the first worlds you'll explore out of the gate, and happily so: it's fantastic. You'll fight hordes of opponents (ala the Mongols in the movie), and battle alongside Fa Mulan to defeat the Heartless. The gameworld not only retells the story of the movie, it draws you as a player into the events of the film in an enjoyable way. Tron, similarly, does a fantastic job of getting you into the story. While you might at first see the inclusion of the MCP's system as gimmicky, it's explained in a wholly reasonable fashion. It also looks great. Of course, not everything can be perfect. The other end of the spectrum is inhabited by The Little Mermaid's world. It's a very dull, and generally disappointing experience. I'm a fan of rhythm games, but the attempt they muster is lackluster at best. Attempting to mash a button in a timed interval is not rhythm, it's muddling your game experience. Overall, though, the Disney elements in the game are tremendously satisfying.I wish I could say the same about the Final Fantasy characters included in the title. As in the first Kingdom Hearts, the more staid RPG characters are standoffish in general, aiding you only when it suits their needs. Aerith, Squall, Yuffie, and Cid are important plot drivers, and clashes between Cloud and Sephiroth are fairly important battles in the latter half of the story. Despite that, the Final Fantasy characters are in general not as well treated as their Disney brethren. Many of them have odd or simplistic dialogue, and some characters (like Tifa Lockheart) come off as quite confused. It's very neat to see the FF characters step out of their normal roles, but the blend that I felt worked so well in the original title doesn't seem as polished here. The Disney characters definitely get the better end of the stick here, and for those of us who have outgrown some of the 80's Disney films that's more than a little frustrating.
Those (small) frustrations aside, the entire experience of Kingdom Hearts II is an improvement over the original. The plot is tighter, with the older protagonist necessitating a more grown-up story. The ramifications of Sora's actions from the first game are very thoroughly explored, and you get a real sense of connection between the young man and the individuals he encounters on his journeys. The worlds themselves are improved as well. They're a good deal 'tighter', with less meaningless space thrown into the mix. If they built a part of a level in this game, it has a point. This results in the worlds feeling shorter, but more fulfilling. There's no need to wander aimlessly through caverns in the Cave of Wonders; You go there, get what you came for, fight a boss battle, and leave. The level design and story dovetail tightly together. The result is a grand story that is also very approachable; It can be played in smaller bites and more completely understood overall. It's a testament to the team that weaknesses from the first game have been directly addressed here.
One of the big weaknesses of the original title, combat, has also gotten some love since the first time around. In addition to the magic and summons that were possible in the first game, limit breaks, drives, and context-sensitive actions have been added to the battleground. Limit breaks are interesting combo moves you can perform with your partners. Goofy, Donald and Sora can hook up for 'Trinity' maneuvers, and each guest star from the Disney gameworlds offers their own thematically appropriate move to help the spikey-haired protagonist take down the baddies. You use limit breaks by filling up a bar, which is just one of the many meters you fill during combat. Your drive bar also fills as you fight, eventually enabling you to enter a function-specific mode. For example, 'Valour' steals Goofy's strength and turns Sora into a dual-wielding dynamo. 'Wisdom' enhances Sora's magical abilities (by borrowing Donald's) and turns his keyblade into something like as submachine gun. Context actions are new to the game, but have seen use frequently in recent titles, and frequently allow Sora access to the 'Trinity' moves. All of which sounds good ... but at the end of the day these new elements aren't that helpful. They look great to be sure, further fleshing out the fantastic imagery of Kingdom Hearts and giving you the impression of options. The reality, however, is that the air combo moves Sora performs just by bashing the 'X' button are so effective as to make much of this superfluous. Some boss fights can get a little tough, and benefit from use of flashy fireworks, but generally speaking you can achieve victory with your thumb firmly on the attack button. The combat still feels more developed than in the first game, but don't expect God of War complexity to the fighting.Outside of combat, they've continued the push for improved gameplay. A particularly onerous element of the original game was the 'Gummi Ship' rail shooting sequences. They've been revamped from their utilitarian roots into something a lot more enjoyable. It's not an attempt at a full-fledged game within a game; Holding down the fire button will still get you through relatively safely. At the same time, there's a good deal more to do here. Treasures and mini-bosses abound, and the occasional reorientation of the map adds some stylistic changes to the experience. On foot, the camera has been overhauled since the original as well. Fighting with the often asleep-at-the-switch cameraman was another frustration of Kingdom Hearts. The result isn't a watershed, but it's yet another rough edge that's been smoothed out in this incarnation.
For all the complaints that were leveled at the first game, the graphical presentation was a subject avoided by even the stoutest of detractors. Kingdom Hearts looked great, and its sequel goes about improving on the original in a very calculated way. The PS2 just isn't the graphical powerhouse it once was, in comparison to what we're seeing on Microsoft's new console. What were cutting-edge graphics in 2002 look a little dated. The art team has tackled this frustration by honing in on the 'look' of each character, place, and situation with a dead-on push for accuracy. The original's art style tended to blend the game worlds together; The art direction for Tarzan's jungle was generally the same as Alice's Wonderland. With the sequel, the movies are evoked more fully by conjuring the artistic style of the animation into electronic life. The rocky surrounds of Isle de la Muerte have a fundamentally different stylistic base than Beast's castle or 'The Timeless River', the black and white old-timey cartoon world. The game sounds just as good as it looks, the well-earned reputation Square/Enix has with composition once again reaffirmed. The title piece is the most evocative, in typical Jpop fashion, but the moment-to-moment pieces recall the film soundtracks quite successfully. Aurally, my biggest complaint is one I had with the first title as well: Almost all of the musical elements evoke Disney moments and ignore the sound history written by Nobuo Uematsu for the Final Fantasy series. Whether a deliberate decision or not, I would have preferred more than just 'One-Winged Angel' to make an appearance within the Kingdom Hearts series.
The second title to bear the Kingdom Hearts name accomplishes exactly what a sequel should set out to do. It recaptures successful elements of the original, and shores up weak elements of the first game's vision. What we're given, then, is a melding of Disney and Square storytelling in a way that recaptures innocent times through a more adult lens. It's very hard indeed to grow up in America without watching at least one Disney film. That cultural building block makes the image of Sora fighting alongside the Beast, Peter Pan, or Jack Skellington a very hard one to ignore; In fact, it lies at the center of Kingdom Hearts' appeal. For all the fighting and angst, any story that features Mickey Mouse is going to have a happy ending somewhere down the line. In an industry cluttered with amoral vigilantes, objectified women, and escort missions, it's nice to occasionally play a game where you know the good guys are going to win at the end of the day. The game does have a prerequisite though: while the GBA title can be skipped you're definitely not going to get the full effect out of Kingdom Hearts II if you don't play the original. Beyond that, Disney-haters and Final Fantasy foes should look elsewhere; Unless you've got the hate on for Donald Duck you're probably going to find at least one moment in this epic quest that will make you smile like a kid again.
Fun Game, But Take My Advice... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fun game though, if you liked the first one you'll definitely like this one.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Fun Game, But Take My Advice... (Score:2)
Re:Fun Game, But Take My Advice... (Score:1)
Re:Fun Game, But Take My Advice... (Score:2)
Play on hard so that you can get the secret ending without doing spending hours on stupid quests like "push the garbage up the hill."
Re:Fun Game, But Take My Advice... (Score:2)
I've loved both (Score:4, Interesting)
It's like watching a bad, low poly CG movie.
If you're a fan of older Final Fantasy stile grinds, it may start to wear on you a little.
Re:I've loved both (Score:3, Interesting)
However, as a whole, the game is great. I wouldn't say the game is any easier than the first one. Sure, a lot of the battles can be won by mashing the X button... but I'm not necessarily looking for a huge challenge, just a fun game, which it has been so far.
Re:I've loved both (Score:1)
Re:I've loved both (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I've loved both (Score:1)
second? (Score:3, Interesting)
If there's no Jessica Rabbit... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:If there's no Jessica Rabbit... (Score:1)
Re:If there's no Jessica Rabbit... (Score:2)
Re:If there's no Jessica Rabbit... (Score:1)
Re:If there's no Jessica Rabbit... (Score:1)
Re:If there's no Jessica Rabbit... (Score:2, Interesting)
Not true. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a Touchtone Pictures movie. Disney releases most of their PG, PG-13, and R rated movies under their Touchtone Pictures division.
Disney doesn't own the rights... (Score:1)
Roger Rabbit [wikipedia.org]
Bonkers [wikipedia.org]
Two things: (Score:4, Informative)
On one other note, the GBA game Chain of Memories was not a card-battler. Although cards were used as an interface metaphor, you never once set out for any remotely-traditional card game. It feels more like Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles than solitaire.
Re:Two things: (Score:2)
Chain of Memories is an action RPG where your deck determines the sequence of your available actions and their strength. It's at heart a game of jumping and swinging a sword, though, and not a stragetic card game. To call it a card-battler means that Zonk either hasn't played KH:CoM or hasn't played a card-battler.
The challenge level is almost non-existent, though, from after about the second stage until the end if you stack your deck
Re:Two things: (Score:2, Informative)
Build a deck of about 15-20 keyblades, organized in the pattern (9, 9, 0) over and over. This will give you powerful hits and breaks available at the tap of a shoulder button. The last 6 cards should be all basic cure, (9,9,0,9,9,0) again. Use friend cards at the beginning of a sleight to form Cura (Friend, Cure, Cure).
You can always sacrifice a Cure if you need Curaga on the spot.
This setup will make Marluxia about 10 times easier.
Re:Two things: (Score:1)
Re:Two things: (Score:1)
Rise of the "Brawler" (Score:5, Interesting)
This game shows a refinement of the idea of mass brawling which seems to be a cathartic experience found in many movies and TV shows anyway. The Hero is surrounded by The Bad Guys and some how he fights his way out. Who wouldn't want to play this roll? Hopefully Ninty-Nine Nights and a possible KH3 will refine the idea even farther. The fights in KH2 aren't a "gimme" but I feel with some tweaking it would turn from a "fighting off the mindless horde of attackers" to a more pitched battle which feels more exciting and satisfying.
Re:Rise of the "Brawler" (Score:2)
Re:Rise of the "Brawler" (Score:1)
Re:Rise of the "Brawler" (Score:1)
A Serious Game? (Score:1)
Re:A Serious Game? (Score:3, Insightful)
Me, I'm 29, and I'm shocked at the amount of violence in this game. It felt like watching the Matrix series of movies!
Of course if you let your 5 year old neice watch the Matrix series, you're all set!
Re:A Serious Game? (Score:2, Insightful)
Darn! (Score:3, Insightful)
Disney has over-merchandized itself for years. Just don't have the heart to help them do it some more.
But, enjoy...
Re:Darn! (Score:1)
Buy the good stuff like this game and ignore the crap (and there's a LOT of disney crap), and maybe they'll learn to make better merchandise for their films.
But they probably won't. But still you get to stop whining and enjoy something.
"Fan service" -- I looked it up (Score:2)
Fan service (Japanese simply "saabisu", "service"), sometimes written as a single word, fanservice, is a vaguely defined term used in visual media -- particularly in anime fandom --to refer to elements in a story that are unnecessary to a storyline, but designed to amuse or excite the audience.
Re:"Fan service" -- I looked it up (Score:2)
Re:"Fan service" -- I looked it up (Score:1)
Metaverse? (Score:2)
Copyright killed the metaverse (Score:2)
A metaverse based on cross-licensing among a few large companies would cover only a tiny subset of MMOG space. Anything larger would require the support of the U.S. Congress and other national legislatures to roll back the scope of exclusive rights under copyright. Given that The Article is about a game that takes place in Disney's world, and that Disney was the major corporate backer of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and has supported all the MPAA's pet legislation, will this happen?
Re:Metaverse? (Score:1)
nowhere near as good as the original (Score:5, Interesting)
-The level design isn't "tighter", it is a complete phone-it-in effort. You go from one square room to another, with absolutely no element of exploration. Gone are hidden chests or doorways, or anything hidden for that matter You will easily get every single treasure chest in this game without much of an effort. You walk into a room, and you can see them plain as day.
-The difficulty has been reduced to nill in every manner. Any enemy that would present a challenge is instead defeated very simply by a 'reaction command'. Which means you press triangle once, and watch Sora kill the enemy in ridiculous fashion. Side quests for glory have been vastly simplified and reduced. (Not that I am sure I have encountered everything in KH2, i am not using a strategy guide). The best weapons in the game are quite simple to synthesize, it is extremely easy to get to max out your level due to the incredible amount of experience you gain from basic enemies, the colliseum levels are incredibly easy, and optional bosses are taken down with some simple X-mashing (with the occasional triangle press....when the entire screen lights up green, a triangle appears on the enemy, and your command list adds a new triangle command to the top).
Re:nowhere near as good as the original (Score:3, Informative)
Tron Sora was fun; and the light-cycle minigame was OK. But then, Square almost never has good
Re:nowhere near as good as the original (Score:4, Insightful)
Oddly though, I actually liked the KH1 old combat system. It was a twitch video game combat system that that wasn't too complex but required a lot of reaction against frequently large numbers of enemies. Sometimes I just want to go clear out rooms of bad guys. I still prefer it to pretty much every other PS2 RPG combat system I tried. The one in magna carta sucked so hard that even though I was interested in the story line I just couldn't play the game.
Re:nowhere near as good as the original (Score:1)
This new finding leads me to believe that the control is improved. Cycling through menus is time-consuming and inefficient.
Also, it seems to me that the D-pad could have been put to better use than doubling the operation of the right control stick. I'd say make the constrol stick move the camera and leave the pad for menu options, but that would *seriously* affect gamepla
Re:nowhere near as good as the original (Score:1)
I agree that there are portions of it that are simpler (such as the quick reaction moves), but I don't think you are giving credit to the points where it's due.
Cut Scenes (Score:4, Insightful)
Half Life on the other hand never once in either game takes you out of your character. You are a part of every cut scene. While it seems impressive they didn't really have to change much.
Silent Hill and Half Life are two different extremes, but the game industry should try incorporating these together a bit more.
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:2)
Do that for the whole game, however, and you'll quickly discover that the cut scenes are important. They are the impetus for playing the game!
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:2)
How do you integrate into gameplay the scene where Axel goes, "Silly, some of us don't have next lives," or where Sora cries and says, "You know, I'm sad,"?
Movies and text are legitimate story telling mechanisms; games that utilize movies and text are richer than games that do not utilize movies and text, though not necessarily stronger.
Of course all that means is that KHII is a vehicle in which you play the game in order to see the movies;
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:2)
Just because the player retains control doesn't mean NPCs can't engage in scripted actions, so one can have scenes where NPCs express themselves effectively.
Yes, t
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:2)
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:2)
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:3, Insightful)
And until games start having sophisticated linguistic and other communication involved, constant interactivity will always be second rate.
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:1)
Well, wait a moment.
One can have the player's character scripted to talk with someone else on the radio, speaking a precanned conversation, without removing the player's control of his character for the duration of that conversation. Keeping the player in control doesn't mean requiring the player to control everything down to the PC's
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:2)
Uh which Silent Hill did you play? SH1-3 at very least have very few cutscenes, not a lot of dialog (as there's almost no one to talk to!), and really very little killing: you don't get anything for killing a monster, and you're more likely to get hurt.
Instead, you get a very creepy interactive atmosphere... there's a door. What's behind it? If you go thr
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:1)
I think one of the issues here is the definition of "cut scene". It sounds like it's being used here to mean what we called FMVs back in the PSX's day. That is, scenes that were specially rendered to really show something off (like the Highwind, as someone mentioned above).
But that's not what they're being used for or even what they are, here. I don't even know if I've seen a single scene rendered outside of the normal game graphics except for the very beginning (and I think when Sora wakes up) and, I
Utada Hikaru's music (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Utada Hikaru's music (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Utada Hikaru's music (Score:2)
It makes me glad that more people are being introduced to her music. Try Google Video for the japanese version of the song, it's excellent
More of a movie than a game... (Score:1)
It honestly feels like you have absolutely no control whatsoever. As has been stated earlier, it's also a little too easy. All that said, this is still a pretty good game. Just a warning to those who don't like
...does fan service like no other title out there. (Score:1)
Does anyone else remember the _White_Fang_ disaster.
Nice review (Score:2, Informative)
The new worlds are very fun but Atlantica is my worse nightmare of boredom coming true. I really thought they would take advantage of the new right-analogue-stick floating movement and make us use it in a "real" world... but no. Instead we get "finny fun". Thanks for nothing.
Combat for me is hit and miss. I like the drive forms and the limits. The summons are awkward compared to KH1 though. As for fighting, just mashing the X button usually does the
Re:Nice review (Score:2)
Not to be a nitpicker, but you actually do use the right analog stick to control altitude in one very large part of Agrabah, while flying on the carpet. And it's not just in the minigame, you can go there and fight like that anytim
Hate Disney, but love the Disney babes (Score:5, Funny)
I'm so lonely. :(
The review missed 1 MAJOR point... (Score:2)
My friend's girlfriend (he's not a geek, sadly) bought KH2 without playing KH1 at all. She was bored stiff and I offered to buy the game from her. She accepted, but then I had an idea. I'd buy KH1 again and trade for a while, instead of buying KH2. She LOVES KH1. And after the first 3 hours, I loved KH2.
Re:The review missed 1 MAJOR point... (Score:1)
Re:The review missed 1 MAJOR point... (Score:2)
Re:The review missed 1 MAJOR point... (Score:2)
Re:The review missed 1 MAJOR point... (Score:2)
I disagree (Score:1)
A couple of beefs I had with KH2 (Score:3)
(2) People who live in RPGs like to own small treasure chests. In one they'll put a healing potion, in another they'll put a ring of fire protection, etc. I'm glad they still don't mind me wandering through their homes and looting them.
(3) This game's a real button-masher. The battles are fast-paced and well-animated, and the battle engine allows for jumps and attacks and blocks and spells and special moves; but when there are ten characters dukeing it out in a small space, I find it really hard to see who's doing what. There's many a time I've ended up standing a distance away swinging my keyblade at empty air until the camera swings around to show me I'm not part of the action.
(4) The plot is interesting, but I'm getting tired of the pointless side-quests. Not just in KH2, but in *all* RPGs. "Yes, I will give you the combination to the safe so that you can recover the Amulet of Quendor, but first you must journey through that dark mountain cave in which lives a terrible dragon, because I want you to fetch me a sandwich from the little deli on the other side."
(5) The voice acting in KH2 is a mixed bag. Christopher Lee is good, really good. Most of the rest of the actors are obviously just reading lines from a script without any real emotion. The pause between lines is really awkward - even when a character is interrupted in mid-sentence, there'll be a second or two before the character who's interrupting him says anything. But the real nadir of the voice acting in this is Mena Suvari as Aerith - she's just hideously terrible; she sounds as if she's reciting lines while she's doing her hair. I'd much rather imagine Mena Suvari in a bathtub with rose petals.
I beat the game, and I wish I'd played it on the hardest difficulty level instead of on Normal; it was just too darned easy. Gameplay consisted of cutscenes followed by wandering around fighting random attacks until I reached the next cutscenes. None of the treasure chests were any difficulty whatsoever to find. I hardly made any use at all of the synthesis Moogle; I never had enough stuff for him to make much with.
And neither KH nor KH2 ever reach the emotional heartaches or plot complexity that any of the Final Fantasy series reach, but the original KH's ending was wonderfully bittersweet, whereas KH2's ending kind of fell a little flat for me. Tacked-on opening left for KH3, anyone?
Re:A couple of beefs I had with KH2 (Score:1)
(1) Point conceded. Do you have a better way of keeping people away from places they aren't supposed to be, or are you advocating that all games should be Daggerfall / Morrowind?
(2) It's this way in most RPG games. You didn't even mention that enemies are carrying money and valuable jewels!
(3) Did you experiment with the helper character AI? You can make them fight someone other than the enemy you are fighting ("team battle" I think?).
(4) I don't remem
Gamecube... (Score:1)
Re:Gamecube... (Score:2)
What of the fanartists? (Score:2)
Square's one of the most fanart-friendly companies out there, and suddenly they're collaborating with one of the absolute least friendly. It's inviting trouble.
Re:Anime sucks ass (Score:1)
[adult swim]
Hard Mode (Score:2)
Easy - "Are you a young child? Is this the first video game you've ever played?"
Normal - "Are you a very casual gamer? Is
"Weak Gameplay"? (Score:2)
Re:I must be in the wrong place (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't use Linux. I couldn't care less about the latest Linux release. Do I comment on every one pointing out that not all geeks use Linux? No. If Slashdot only posted articles that would interest every single person reading the site, there wouldn't be a single article here.
Re:I must be in the wrong place (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)