Kingdom Hearts II for PlayStation 2 Reviews by 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