Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Video Game Review #190: Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts II
PlayStation 2


Nostalgia Factor:

I remember being so hyped for Kingdom Hearts II when it first came out. It is one of the few games that I went out and bought on day one. I remember having fun with the game, but at the same time I can’t say I really understood it. It seemed like there were a lot of things that happened between the first game and its sequel that weren’t explained properly. I enjoyed the game, but I didn’t quite connect with Kingdom Hearts II like I did with its predecessor. I’ve played through the first Kingdom Hearts game at least five or six times in my lifetime. Kingdom Hearts II? I’ve played through it twice.

Now that I’m playing through all the Kingdom Hearts games in order, it is time to give KHII another shot. Would I still consider it a fun but somewhat incomprehensible game? Would I enjoy it more, now that I have a slightly better grasp on its story after playing Chain of Memories? Would it surpass my enjoyment of the original Kingdom Hearts, or would it continue to play second fiddle to a game I consider an all time classic? One of these things happened. I’d tell you now, but that would spoil my whole review, and what would be the fun in that?




Story:

This is the section of the review I am dreading the most. As I have stated in my previous two Kingdom Hearts reviews, I am by no means an expert on this series’ storyline. Most of this recap is going to be either educated guesswork or pure speculation on my end. Sue me if I don’t get every little detail right, or even if I screw up major important plot points. The game is (intentionally?) vague regarding its storyline, and someone with such a short attention span like me is bound to zone out and miss key details during the game’s cutscenes. With that disclaimer in mind, we shall proceed.

This game picks up with the player in control of a boy named Roxas. Roxas lives in Twilight Town, where he likes to hang out with his buddies in his free time and eat sea salt ice cream. Funny things are happening in Twilight Town. Roxas and his pals have not only lost all the photographs they’ve taken over the summer, they’ve also forgotten the word photograph completely. Roxas is seeing odd visions of Sora, Donald, and Goofy’s adventures from the first game, except he has no idea who these people are or how they relate to him. He’s also seeing mysterious black cloaked figures around town, in addition to dancing, silver Hearltess-like creatures. As you play, Roxas is led to a seemingly abandoned house on the edge of Twilight Town. He breaks in, where he finds Sora, Donald, and Goofy in suspended animation pods. Roxas vanishes into thin air, and Sora and his pals emerge from their pods with no memories of where they are or how they got there.

I didn’t really understand what was going on the first time I played this game, but now after playing Chain of Memories I have a better idea of what was actually happening. Sora and his friends were in stasis after the events of Chain of Memories, where they were having all of their old, deleted memories restored. Twilight Town was just a simulation that was helping to merge the personalities of Roxas and Sora, and to help integrate the two personalities together. I think.

After emerging from stasis with their memories intact, Sora, Donald, and Goofy seek out powerful sorcerer Yen Sid. At Yen Sid’s tower, they learn that Organization XIII, the men in the black cloaks, are up to no good. Also, Maleficent has returned, this time working with villainous Disney character Pete in order to overrun the worlds with Heartless. Sora and company is dispatched to not only put an end to Maleficent and her plans, but to also find out what Organization XIII has been up to. Thus begins your adventure, traveling from world to world and fighting Heartless, sealing Keyholes, and taking down devious Organization XIII members.

The goal of Organization XIII is a bit too complex to explain fully, but I’ll try my best. The Organization is made up of Nobodies, which are bizarrro world clones that get created when someone becomes a Heartless. In order to regain their missing hearts, they are manipulating events so that Maleficent summons forth hordes of Heartless, and Sora then kills them with his Keyblade, freeing the hearts from Heartless control. But then these hearts are intercepted by Organization XIII, who attempt to use these hearts to gain access to Kingdom Hearts and reunite their Nobody bodies with their original hearts. I think.

Anyway, the game ends with Sora and company storming the Organization’s hideout and destroying their leadership. The ending shows Sora, Riku, and Kairi back home on Destiny Island, finally able to enjoy some god damn peace and quiet. A letter from King Mickey arrives, and everyone gathers around it, their faces in complete shock. Game over. Wait, what??? What did the letter say? No wonder people have been so hyped for Kingdom Hearts III. I didn’t remember from my previous playthroughs of the game that things ended with a cliffhanger.

I’m sure I’ve either missed or misinterpreted some of the game’s events, but I am okay with that. I consider myself more of a casual fan than anything else, to be honest with you. I am not even close to being dedicated enough to fully understand Kingdom Hearts’ plotline. Is anyone, really?




Gameplay:

This game handles and controls in a very similar fashion to the first Kingdom Hearts game, which is a good thing. That’s not to say that enhancements haven’t been made across the board to make combat a more fun and enjoyable experience. Things just feel more smooth and natural. The camera is zoomed out a little bit more, and it doesn’t get in the way like it did in the first game. Battles are faster paced. It’s easier to lock on to your enemies. The game gives you a lot of triangle button prompts as you fight, which give you the option to activate special attacks. There is also a brand new Limit gauge added to the game that fills up in battle. When the gauge fills up, you can activate your Limit, which puts Sora into a super powerful, super fast destruction mode where you can make quick work of your enemies.

Combat is DEFINITELY a lot more fun in Kingdom Hearts II than it was in the first game. In fact, the entire game has a faster, more fun pace than the original. There were times the first Kingdom Hearts felt like a slow paced slogfest, and never at any point did I get that feeling with Kingdom Hearts II. The worlds are fantastic too. I absolutely loved seeing Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron, and the Lion King added to the mix.

The game is also a lot easier than its predecessor. Outside of a few challenging boss battles (the one against Roxas in the World That Never Was took me a countless number of attempts to beat), the game really isn’t that difficult. In fact, the string of battles at the end of the game is laughably easy. I didn’t even die once. I still have nightmares about the Ansem battle at the end of Kingdom Hearts I. By comparison, this game’s ending boss battles are a walk in the park.


 

Graphics:

This game looks better than the first Kingdom Hearts. The characters are more detailed. The worlds are prettier. I like how Sora and his friends’ appearances change when you visit new worlds. Sora looks super cool in Halloween Town this time around, and I’m in love with how the characters look when they visit Pride Rock, Timeless River, and Space Paranoids. The first game I think still holds up appearance wise, but Kingdom Hearts II improves upon its look in many ways.

The ways in which some of these worlds are brought to life are absolutely brilliant. I just like how colorful and vibrant everything is. It is really like you are playing through a living and breathing cartoon. And no two worlds look alike. Jumping from world to world with all these different visual styles is actually quite refreshing. You’ve got the bright and lush Oasis of Pride Rock, the gothic beauty of Beast’s Castle, the uber charming old school black and white cartoon world of Timeless River, the realistic and gloomy look of Port Royal, the neon computer world of Space Paranoids. There are so many different looks packed into one game, and they all look absolutely terrific. Let’s not forget the cool, trippy effects you see when flying through space, or visiting many of the game’s original locations.

Considering this game is 14 years old, its graphics have held up remarkably well.




Sound:

I have one complaint about this game’s soundtrack, and it is that dang “Sanctuary” song. I heard it in the first Kingdom Hearts game, I heard it in Chain of Memories, I think I even heard it in the 358/2 Days movie that was included on my Kingdom Hearts collection disc. This song doesn’t appear just once in each game either, you have to listen to it multiple times. Four Kingdom Hearts games into the series, and I am completely sick of it. Please tell me they drop this song in future titles. Please?

Other than that, everything sounds good. The voice acting is great. The sound effects are great. The music is great. I love the mix of new music and classic Disney tunes that each stage showcases. When I was playing the Port Royal stage and a battle broke out, accompanied by the classic Pirates of the Caribbean theme song, I couldn’t help but get the chills. I love that song and it completely put me in the mood to kick some Heartless behind.




Overall:

All my life I have been in the original Kingdom Hearts’ corner. My reasoning was that it had more sentimental value to me, its plot was a lot more simple and understandable, and that it was a super cool and original idea for its time. I always liked the sequel, but I always looked at it as simply more of the same, albeit with a much more confusing storyline. But I was wrong. I was dead wrong. This game is MUCH better than the original Kingdom Hearts, and I can’t believe it took me this long to realize this.

Sure, the introduction sequence with Roxas can be a bit time consuming and bland. But I liked it this time around. It was cool how they worked classic Final Fantasy characters like Seifer and Vivi into the game. It held my interest. Playing Chain of Memories and understanding things a little bit better surely didn’t hurt matters either.

Kingdom Hearts II takes a little while to really get going, but once it gets going, it gets going. The pacing is better, the combat is a lot more fun, and you don’t overstay your welcome on any of the game’s worlds. I like how you only spend an hour or two on each world, and then move on to the next one. The faster pace helps quite a bit. There were days where I played the game for hours and hours on end, wanting to move on and see what the next world had in store for me. Super addicting. Super fun. The more I look back on the first game, the more I realize that its slower pace was holding it back as far as its fun factor was concerned.

My main complaint about this game is in its cutscenes and its storyline. You knew this was coming. When I re-played through the first Kingdom Hearts game, I was actually surprised at how few cutscenes there were. I for some reason had it in my memory as this game where you watch a bajillion cutscenes and do more watching than playing, like the Metal Gear series. That wasn’t the case in the first game. In this game, it DEFINITELY is. You do so much watching in this game. It would be okay if the storyline was interesting and made more sense, but it doesn’t. So many of the Organization XIII scenes are just characters talking incomprehensibly in riddles back and forth at one another and then disappearing. I stopped caring about Organization XIII after a while as a result of this. People really like to tell Sora what to do, too. I thought the section of the game where you visit Yen Sid and the Fairies was NEVER going to end. Every time you were ready to embark on your journey, they’d say “oh just one more thing!” and then you’d get dragged into another ten minutes of talking. It was really, really infuriating. This kind of thing happens multiple times throughout the game too, and it never gets any less irritating.

Outside of that, I have no problems with the game. It takes a while for things to click, but once they do, you are in for a super exciting ride. Kingdom Hearts II is fun, its colorful, and it is full of awesome and creative Disney worlds that are a blast to explore. Once this game got its hooks stuck in me, there was no looking back. I played this game every spare second I was home from work. It is just so addicting and so fun. Even the long drawn out cutscenes weren’t enough to make me lose interest in the game. I just wanted to keep going and going until I had seen and done everything there was to see and do.

My opinion has definitely changed on Kingdom Hearts II. It’s better than the original, and it really isn’t even that close. I don’t want to give this game an A+ because honestly it does have some pretty annoying flaws. But the gap between A- (which is what the first game got) and this game’s A is a lot bigger than it seems. This is clearly the best Kingdom Hearts game that I have played, and the rest of the games in the series have their work cut out for them if they are going to top this.



Final Score:
A




If you liked my review of Kingdom Hearts II, check out some of my other game reviews:



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