Gamer--freakz

Gamespot score:8.7(great)


my score:9.0


(+)Pros:-Has everything in the first game, only better-great battle system that has been significantly improved upon,-tons of cameos from both square and disney make the journey very exciting,-incredibly lenghty main story mode that can take at least 40 hours,-gummi ship travels are now tons of fun instead of monotonous rides,-organization XIII makes for a bunch of awesome antagonists.


(-)Cons:-Standard difficulty is far too simple.


gameplay time:40 hours+

Alright, time to do my final PS2 game review. Since we can all confirm that the PS2 is officially dead now(no releases). Closing off PS2 we have an awesome game to end it. Kingdom *fking* hearts 2. The kingdom hearts series has expanded like hell recently, but we aint got a fking sequel. Im talking about a true legit sequel, a kingdom hearts THREE,3!!!! Kingdom hearts 1 was great, kingdom hearts 2 is awesome as hell, now we need a 3 to make the perfect kingdom hearts. The spinoffs were alright, but we need a legit sequel! Now, to one of the best games ever made. I played this game more than 3 times, and even now it still entertains me. Kingdom hearts 2, is in my opinion the best kingdom hearts game up to date, and I have yet to see a kingdom hearts game surpass it.






Story wise theres alot going on here. It takes place after the story of chains of memories (which is technically a sequel since it takes place after kingdom hearts 1, but they labelled it under spin offs). Sora goes into an unending sleep to restore his memories after the events at castle oblivion. During this time, his nobody roxas is experiencing summer vacation, but eventually becomes one with sora when he awakens from his sleep. During sora's sleep, the heartless are still running around, and things have yet to be fixed. He meets up with old friends with his trusty companions, donald and goofy, while trying to locate his friend riku. During his journey, he is confronted by the malevolent organization 13, whom send new enemies known as the nobody to track and bring down sora.

Flashy attacks known as limits are all the rage.

With a sequel comes improvements, and boy does kingdom hearts 2 suceed in that compartment. The game is almost overkill, they enhanced everything. Presentation, battle system, environments, character developement, voice acting, music.....everything is just so much better than before. The mechanics remain mostly similar. The start of the game features you in contorl of roxas, sora's nobody. Playing as roxas at the start is refreshing for most players, and as a prolouge scenario, it pits you in roxas's daily life and throws you tutorials on game mechanics and such. Its a great start, and your journey with roxas may last you a good 3 hours or so, and after your run with him, seeing that gigantic KINGDOM HEARTS 2 logo that pops out makes you go,"Woah, so all that was just an intro?".

The main game, of course, features our hero, sora, where he retains his keyblade wielding abilities into another awesome hack and slash adventure. The main story is much like kingdom hearts 1, where you visit worlds, solve their problems and move on to the next. In the various worlds you will visit (which my I add, are many. You visit old and new worlds alike, like land of the dragon/pride rock for new worlds, and agrabah/atlantica for old worlds). Theres quite alot to visit, and seeing your favourite disney heroes in the game as cameos sometimes feel just great.




The infamous thousand heartless charge, can you stop their rampage?

 The battle system in the game is as jumpy as ever. You face two kinds of enemies in this game. You still get heartless (which I may add, come in much more variety than ever now), but you also get nobodies. Though you will still fight heartless for the majority of the game, having 2 enemy factions really spices things up a little. The nobodies usually only appear at story events or at the final in-game world, because they are significantly more powerful. When fighting your foes, you get the basic attack/magic/item/command, as with the first game. Like before you can still customize your spells or items into shortcuts to make battles more smooth and accesable. As you fight and level up, you gain more passive abilites that either make you stronger or extend your combos. Soras combos in this game can be outright long and devastating, and its good to see your opponents get deciminated by your awe-inspiring lenghty and flashy combos.

Theres alot more to the battle system this time round. Sora gains a new garment in KH 2, and it not only makes it look good on him, it lets him change forms. These are awesome looking outfit changes that temporary change sora's playstyle. For example, valor form gives him 2 keyblades and makes his combos more lenghty, wisdom form lets his play a more effective range game, master form lets him wield 3 keyblades and make his combos even more devasting....etc etc. Forms are a good new feature, but theres more. Introducing limit breaks. When sora synchs with one of his teamates, he performs an exclusive limit with the party member, temporary changing his attack style to match that of the synched party member, adding an awesome looking finisher. Theres alot to the battle system, but another great enhancement is the gummi ship travels. The old gummi ship travelling in the 1st game can get monotonous and linear, in KH 2, it looks like an awesome ace combat game! With hectic looking maps and visitable areas, gummi ship travels are much more enjoyable, and rather than just being a form of transport, you can look foward to revisiting the levels and replaying them, because they are so much fun!




THIS is the new standard of gummi ship travelling.

Kingdom hearts 2 is almost without flaws, but there is one. The standard difficulty, it is far too simple. To get the most out of the game, you have to play proud mode. In kingdom hearts, the game was great because its difficulty actually played a part, the boss fights were challenging, and even some normal enemies can kill you. In kingdom hearts 2, they simplified things too much. Enemies may not even prove challenging, but the bosses too, most of them dont take retries to win. You take far too little damage, and the damage you deal is far too much. Even the final boss, I expected to die at least once since I was underleveled, who knew I could win on my very 1st try. My thoughts were this, "Hey, Im supposed to lose! Why did I win?!"

Kingdom hearts 2 is an amazing game on its own, pity that it was too easy on standard difficulty. Hopefully we can even expect a kingdom hearts 3(come on, we all know it will happen, its only a matter of time). Like I said before,  square should fk all the spinoffs, theres even a kingdom hearts coming for the 3Ds now. What we need now, is a true geniue, sequel. Square, please make it happen.


 
Happy gaming!