Kingdom Hearts II for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

MY UNIQUE "QUICK READ" FEATURE AFTER REVIEW
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
If you're too lazy to read through the entire review I'm just going to tell you rent the game, you'll love it! If that wasn't enough than let me continue.

GAMEPLAY 9.3
If you've played the first you basically know Kingdom Hearts has a varied battle system. Well I'm here to tell you it's back with the new "drive" feature that lets you morph into more powerful versions of Sora along with new summons and new magic. There's a downfall though of all this great new stuff, you'll barely ever need to use it since the game is too easy even on the hardest difficulty which is "Proud Mode".

Now onto the keyblade system! It's much more a button mashing system this time around. The system gets better as you get through the game since you get more and more fun combos you can unleash. There's another new battle feature on top of "drive" which is called "reaction commands"! These can be quite fun to unleash but, the spots you get to really use them are the introduction level and ending level and further visits to the intro level.

KH IMPROVEMENTS
You probably already know about the great new camera system, right? The system ties the camera to the right analog stick instead of the shoulder buttons. The battle system has also improved (stated in more detail above)! Also, this time around the game is a lot less repetive with fun minigames such as the rhythm minigame in Atlantica. The improved gummi ship system this time around is so good it could be selt as a whole other game!

GRAPHICS AND SOUND (QUICK SUMMARY)10
The graphics look great and pull off that 2D to 3D (for most Disney films) jump quite nicely. The animations are without a flaw with every detail possible on the PS2 (hair wobbles, chains move, etc)! The particle effects (especially the fire in Land of Dragons) look completely fantastic! The The voice acting and sound effects are all top-notch, too as expected! The 5.1 mix was okay at the most.

"9.5"

Absolute awesome. I love the opening and the song. It's amazing. The drive forms are an excellent edition to the fighting system. I highly recommend this game to KH lovers and just gamers in general. Play the first one first and Chain of Memories or you won't have any idea what the story is about.

To say that the combination of Disney and Square is a bit odd is an understatement. When the original Kingdom Hearts game was released over four years ago, nobody thought it was going to be as great as it was. Square Enix hopes to continue that legacy in the form of Kingdom Hearts II. With new areas, characters and an improved battle system, this easily surpasses its predecessor in every way.

The game revolves, once again, around the character Sora. After defeating the armies of Darkness in the last game, he is now on a new quest: to find his friends Kairi and Rikku. Along the way, you will meet up with famous Disney characters from everything from Mulan to Steamboat Willie. The diversity of characters and environments is one of the most compelling and interesting features of the game.

But, you don't start as Sora right away. Instead, you are subject to a three hour tutorial of sorts, featuring you as Roxas, a nobody who is having some issues as of late. I don't really want to give the story away, but let me just say that unless you have had previous experience with the series, it will be difficult to find out what is going on.

Even with the story being potentially oblivious to you, it is still a fantastic game to play. The battle system has been improved with new Drive attacks. In these, you absorb power from your team mates and harness it to become a sort of all powerful Sora, wielding two keyblades at once. This makes for some fast paced, satisfying action, and is one of the best features of the combat. Other than this, certain inventory and defensive maneuvers make the combat more enjoyable.

The graphics in the game also seem to be much improved. Each area has a special style that fits the source material perfectly. It is great fun to check out every area again and again to see little subtle hints at the original material.

This game shines the whole way through and is easily one of the best PS2 RPG releases. Pick it up if you like Disney with your RPG.

just look at my reviewer name, this is the 2nd best game i've ever played. once again, stuffed with disney along with Square Characters, we once again see Sora on his journey to find his friends. this story is much deeper and darker, enthrawling me to play it multiple times. the gameplay, improved and much quicker, along with drive forms, making sora much more powerful. so much has been added that you cannot miss this game. if you like disney or square, or have never even heard of them, this shouldn't stop you from picking this up.

I have to say that I am not the greatest fan of RPG's, but KH2 absolutley blew me away. It is an excellent all around game. I liked it better than Final Fantasy X! I'll break the game down.

Story: 10 - Great as always! Disney and Final Fantasy mixed continues to shine.

Gameplay: 9 - The first Kingdom Hearts seemed a little chunky in the movements. In this game, Sora's blasting combos fluently.

Graphics: 9 - Nice visuals. Not to far off from the first game. Nothing to gape at, just a solid picture. Cut-scenes own.

Music: 8 - The music will make you feel like the world your in.

Overall: 9 - KH2 is an awesome game. Definitely put it at the top of your Game-Q!!! Or buy it, if you don't have Gamefly, but if you don't, get it.

You may know Square Enix for the perfect Final Fantasy series. You may know Disney for there millions of classic movies. What do you get when you put two succesful companies and make a game, you get a game that goes down in history as one of the best RPGs in history. Some people say they think this game is because its a Disney RPG but it's not. If you haven't played the game than shut your god dam mouth. This is a great game with a great story, decent gameplay, and fine music. There are new worlds like the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and my personal favorite Pirates of the Carribean. When you begin the game you start of playing a kid named Roxas for the next 6 hours. So you don't get to play as Sora right away. The kids have also grown. Sora and Riku have deeper voices and are taller and Kairi.........well she deffinetly got...um more mature. KH2 is deffinetly worth the 4 year wait. I feel sorry for the guys who don't have a PS2. This is a must play for all gamers

Where to begin... Kingdom Hearts was an original creation all on it's own, nothing like it had ever been seen before. Disney and Square? Together? That was something I never even saw coming. I must say though, it blew my mind in more ways than one. Now the sequel is here, so let me tell you a little about why I think this an amazing game. When you turn the game on, you are brought to the menu. Before starting a new game, wait a minute or so and you will be treated to a musical opening, featuring the instrumental version of "Sanctuary", the game's theme song, much like "Simple&Clean" was for the original. Then boot this fantastic game up! After the opening cinema is through (Featuring the song "Sanctuary"), you will find yourself in control of the our new hero "Roxas". He finds himself having strange dreams and also stange thoughts. Maybe there is a reason behind this... I leave that for you to think over. Roxas also seems to be having trouble with the local bully "Seifer" of Final Fantasy Eight, but that just serves as a little insight into his everyday life. After some few odd events unfold (I can't spoil anything for you) you find yourself in control of "Sora" once more (Suprise!). There is also the inclusion of the "Drive" system, allowing Sora to fuse with one or both of his team-mates to create a new, upgraded Sora, of which there are four forms to choose from. There is also the new "Action Trigger", pressing "Triangle" at the right moment results in Sora doing something small (Avoiding an attack), or something big (Running up the side of a building!). All resulting in a better game. Sora will also visit all the old worlds of Disney, from the previous game, and he will also visit new worlds. Instead of using Disney villains like last time, they now have Orginazation XII, characters that are 100% Final Fantasy villains! Original Final Fantasy'ish villains.

Hope that helps a little! Do yourself a favor and grab this game, you won't regret it!

Kingdom Hearts 2 is easily the best game I have played this year. The storyline is a great "good vs. evil" sort of thing and there are more sidequests than you can shake a keyblade at. I have invested well over 50 hours into my game and still am nowhere near 100% completion. The combat engine is vastly improved over the already effective one from the original game. The
so-called "reaction commands" add a dash of spice to the fights, allowing you to slide around an enemy and attack him from behind or to grab an enemy and use it's own attack against it. My only gripe with the game came when I visited Atlantica, it was my least favorite world in the original and nothing has changed, it has just gotten worse. most of your time there is spent playing a singing mini-game, obviously the songs are horrible and leave you wanting nothing more than to get out of that god-forsaken ocean. Either way this was a great game that any fan of the original will deeply enjoy. it gets a 5/5 a 10/10 and will likely be added to my list of favorite games of all time.
p.s. good luck with Xaldin and Sephiroth, they are without a doubt the hardest guys to defeat, be prepared to fight them repeatedly

If you do not already have this game it should be number one in your Q.To start off the story continues to be the strong point of the series. It starts off with you playing as Roxas, a boy in Twilight Town on his summer vacation. Although you begin play as this unfimaliar character your in control of Sora again soon enough. I dare not say much more because the story is so great it just must be experianced.
The gameplay in the oringinal was at times a bit spotty, and while improved still has some problems. The camera is vastly improved after being pulled back which makes it so the enemy your fighting is on screen 95% of the time. It also was chaged from R2 and L2 to the right analog stick, and while some people like this I do not. The reason is that it makes using spells, items and anything else in the mini menu more dangerous since you now use the D-Pad to navigate it. That causes you to have to stop and possibly take damage when you should not have to. This is a small flaw compared to how much better the combat is. While this still involves hitting X alot the abilities Sora learns open up a lot more options. On top of that new reaction commands and drive forms make every battle worth savoring.
The graphics are absolutly amazing. And even when there are 10+ enemies on screen the game continues to run smooth with no slowdown. At one point you'll fight about 50 heartless at once and the game never misses a beat.
The sound is also great. The music is spot on, Capturing the feel of the worlds perfectly. The voice acting is equally well done.
In closing if you have not got this game get it. Kindom Hearts 2 is a fantastic experiance. And if you have never played a KH game before this is as good a place to start. Get this game.

best series i have ever played

If your a fan of the first game, Disney characters, or Final Fantasy this game is a must-have. It is far better than Kingdom Hearts 1, and that was a great game. In this game you have a variety of team mates spanning from Mulan to Final Fantasy X's Auron. There is a new, and in my opinion better Gummi ship building system, even if the camera is a little tricky at first, and a new counter attack system. Another new feature is "Limit" which is basic a team move and "Drive" which is a temporary new form. There are many new places to go. This game is great and my advice is to rent it if it isn't taken.

Kingdom Hearts was and always will be my favorite game. Now that number 2 is out, I was practically skipping a week of school to play it. And although this game is one heck of a sequel, there are some things which for me just made it a little bit worse than the original, but not by much. Shall we?

Graphics - 9
Not the greatest, but still pretty darn good. Characters are clear cut, backgrounds look awesome, Castles are stunning, etc. Pretty much what you see is what you get.

Sound - 7
*sigh* Here was my biggest disappointment. Kingdom Hearts was so monumental in my life that the music had to be mine, and so I bought the OST. However, in number 2, it feels as though the quality was cut a bit. Not as good, but I'm still buying the OST because there is SOME memorable music. Also, some voices felt rather sloppy. Aerith felt like she was just reading a script, and Cid was just wayyyy too old sounding. However, all of the Disney characters got great treatment from the voices dep., and so that pulls it back up.

Plot - 10
Plot twists galore here, you're always guessing, and it's pretty much what you'll want out of the game and then some. Worth it in every aspect.

Gameplay - 11
Yes, I scored it over. Here is where the game excels from the original. Fighting in this game is so much fun, that you just wanna keep doing it. Combos are pulled of with flare, forms are beautiful and effortless, and magic looks a lot more beautiful, though still not as effective as smashing with your keyblade.
Also, the gummiship got a major overhaul here, and it feels a lot more like Starfox 64 or one of the monumental rail shooters. It just works well, and it's always fun. They really upped it with this version.

Overall - 9.5 (rounded to 10)
Though not a perfect 10 as I gave Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2 is still worth it. Being a music freak as I am, the score was majorly hindered. But the plot and gameplay were able to pick up it's slack easily. Worth every penny.

I really enjoyed this game. Yes there were 5 hours of cut scenes in the beginning, but the rest of the game made up for that. I highly recommend this game for all finial fantasy/RPG game lovers. I wouldn't recommend this game if you dislike Disney, or aren't into RPG.

I remeber playing this when I was a kid and I remeber taking like 4 hours to beat that last boss guy. This was one the best games I have ever played and espicially for the ps2 it was amazing fun. It is a great story game and I would play this again if I had it.

When i put this game into my PS2 i was so excited. With all the videos i had seen on the computer i knew this was going to be a great game. When u start the game it is just like the first one, you here sora say a few words and then you go into the opening cut scene after that you start seeing soras memories. But the person who is having them is our new hero Roxas.Who is played by none other than Jesse McCartney only get to be Roxas for 6 parts, which in the game is 6 days. On the 6 day you fight some one from Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Axle!you get to fight Axle with Roxas who has can use TWO keyblades in this battle. After the battle you get to be Sora again but his cloths are a little small on him. After you are sora again you have to go to the train station where you meet who else the king.Imsorry to give this bad news but you did not kill the real Ansem.The real Ansem is nice and is friends with the king. They both try to close Kingdom Hearts. After the credits Srora,Riku,and Kairi get a message from the king. I think Kingdom Hearts 2 should get game of the year. That is why I give Kingdom Hearts 2 a 10 out of 10

its the bes game for the ps2 easy. It has really game play. it is defintly worth buying or at least renting.

omg, to start i have been waiting for this game for a very ling time like the rest of you all have as well. i only get stoked bout a couple games coming out x men legends 2 was one of them and like this game it lived up to the hype.
the story is fantastic the soundtarck is incredible and the voice acting is awesome. the only thing that they could have done better was a little bit more of the mini games like the dalmations from the 1st kingdom hearts. Also i remember in the first one i got annoyed alot bcz of the size of the maps espically alantica, but in this one it is all cut and dry like ther is no extra space in there just from one story point to another, in some cases it is good in others not so good it takes away from levwling up time. another thing i didnt like was the gummi ships and how to build them while in the first one you could use a blueprint and expand this one is alot more complicated. and to much reading on how to do it. the last thing i didnt like is the fact that for the first 3 hours if you didnt play chains of memory you were lost. i dont likt the card games and i never got into it, but i am forcing myself to play it nmow to see why only 5 or so of the 13 members of the orginzation made it into the sequel all in all when i beat it i felt sad for the next two days bcz i know that if they do make another one it is gonna be forever till the next one comes out. i think it is a great game a story you can get behind. i loved i0t i took the weekend off and played it and i am almost done on hard to see the secret ending i would say a buyer cuz you know you will wanna play it again in a couple months cuz it is that dang good!!!!!

this game is way better than the first it improved on allot of annoying stuff from the first one. The only things i didnt like was the tutorial is 3hours long and the game is shorter. My favorite level was pride lands you turn into a freakin' lion, its awsome. Also its like a god of war game you have to press buttons at the right time to do major attacks. Short. Simple. Fun. I recomend it if you liked the first.

This game was really fun to play, I enjoyed this game a lot with the new improvement from KH1. Though it seems a lot easier then the first, but a lot more fun. I also like the new powers Sora weilds with his clothing. The only bad part was the Antlatica level, which involves a dancing and singing theme....Though you gain good abilities from it.

First the game is full of action and button mashing. Second all your favorite disney characters are in it.(donald, simba, areil, johnny depp, mickey, hercules, Aladdin, pooh, Genie, goofy, pete, maleficent, etc.
Third, you will be jumping to different adventures
on the way and enjoy the fun of the game.

The Kingdom heart series is back for its second round to shine where it stunk. The Camera is easier to control, the Gummi ship is way fast, and the difficulties are more spread out. the bad and unnecessary thing in this game is the beginning. I've got three words to say THREE HOUR TUTORIAL. They did not have to make it so long they could of shortened it to two maybe one but not three. Three hours into the first game I was in Alice in Wonderland probably for a half an hour. Fortunately that is the only bad thing about the sequel. So go out and buy this game!

This is, well, a really good game. Despite MAYBE some bugs or whatever, it's a great game that you should get. NOW. doesn't matter if you get it through gamefly. just get it. i reccomend getting it from gamefly, they're great. so anyway, the review. This game, despite its greatness, is kind of short. And easy. Even on proud mode, it was rediculously easy! Still very worth getting though.

to be able to understand this game at all you really have to play the first one and chain of memories first. Other than that this game is the best. Lets hope they make a third!!!

One of the greatest games of the year. A mix of your favorite disney and final fantasy characters, perfection. RENT THIS GAME