Kingdom Hearts II – Review

Almost four years ago, Kingdom Hearts surprised gamers with its roller coaster pace, challenging levels, and enjoyable characters and story. It took advantage of our nostalgia for Disney characters and passion for Final Fantasy. For many gamers, Kingdom Hearts II is one of the most anticipated games of 2006.

Kingdom Hearts II is actually the third game in the ongoing series; it continues from the story played out in the Game Boy Advance title Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to read any mild spoilers. The GBA interlude introduces Organization XIII, but erases Sora, Goofy, and Donald’s memories of the events that transpired in KH: CM. It also helps explain that a year has passed and that is why Sora, Riku, and Kairi’s voices have changed, as all the voice actors have obviously grown older with the passing years. In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora will have to face Organization XIII, without knowing that he has done so before. He will have to fight both the Heartless and the Nobodies of Organization XIII, and discover that as long as there is darkness and light there will always be Heartless and Nobodies.

For the first 4-5 hours of Kingdom Hearts II you play as Roxas, a boy who dreams Sora’s memories and is a Keyblade master (like Sora). While it is interesting, it drags on with seemingly endless cut scenes and mini-games, which results in the game lacking the roller coaster pace of the first. However, the overview of the events in the first game is helpful in order to understand the intricate plot details of the second. Despite that, the slow pace is somewhat frustrating. Once becoming Sora, the game rapidly picks up as you are whisked away to both new and familiar worlds. A personal favourite of this reviewer, is the Tron world (Twilight Town coming in a close second), as a childhood dream of light cycle racing was fulfilled, as was also the chance to fight alongside Tron. This experience is only one of many that the Kingdom Hearts series provides to enrich the child of wonder alive and well in all of us. However, that aside, the game’s colour scheme is perhaps a little hard on the eyes.

A large portion of the series’ cast reprise their roles in Kingdom Hearts II, and those who do not have talented replacements to fill any vocal gaps.

As for female content, there really isn’t much to mention excluding Tifa and Mulan. Oddly enough, when you first acquire Mulan in her disguise as Ping (a boy) she is incredibly weak. When she finally becomes herself, she is one tough lady and a great ally—which cleverly sets a good example that we are indeed at our strongest when we are ourselves.

Gameplay has been improved upon by adding Limits, Drives, and reaction commands. Limits are attacks performed with your ‘friends’ (Goofy, Donald, etc), and require all Sora’s magic; but, are impressive and a staple of the Square Enix series Final Fantasy. Drives are transformations that cause Sora to attack using two keyblades, but require the absence of at least one friend. Reaction commands, popularised by games like God of War and Resident Evil 4, are used in battle to help out with fighting. Reaction commands could have been used more to spice-up some of the cut scenes. The new additions make the game’s fighting intricate, visually pleasing, dizzying but satisfying. The Gummi Ship has had a complete overhaul, which actually makes visiting it fun and not tedious like the first incarnation. It is easier to construct a new ship and more control is given while flying the ship, making the action fast paced, but while still encompassing pure button-mashing fun.

Every game has its faults, and the complaints relevant to Kingdom Hearts II are as follows: if you only complete the world quests and a few side missions, the game is pretty short for an RPG, coming in at only around 30 hours of gameplay. The standard (Normal) mode of gameplay is far too easy; unlike in the original where you needed to gain experience or Sora would die frequently. Plus, when playing on hard mode it merely seems that you have less hit points at your disposal. Completing Jimny’s journal, on the other hand, is quite difficult, and if you want to unlock the secret ending then you have to complete the journal on standard mode. However, if you want it easier on yourself, then complete the game on hard mode or simply download the secret ending from the Internet (you big cheat—Ed). Also, Kingdom Hearts II has a severe problem with painting a situation pure black and white, when it’s really not that simple. At times it’s hard to relate to or understand Sora’s ease of selecting who is evil and who is not. While it’s perhaps easy to see that Organization XIII methods are not correct, it not difficult to sympathise with some of its reasons for doing what it does. It’s sometimes hard to simply label the Organisation’s actions as purely evil.

Overall, if you enjoyed the previous additions of Kingdom Hearts, then you will love this one too; if you are new to the series then you will certainly enjoy running into old childhood Disney friends.

Review by Diana

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