Notice:
Some information may be incorrect due to most staff not owning
the game yet and living in Europe.
Statistics
Release Dates
Developer: Square-Enix Publisher: Square-Enix System: Playstation 2 Genre: Roleplaying Number of Players: 1 Disks: 1 ESRB Rating: 10+ (Everyone) Our Rating: 10/10
Japan: December 22nd, 2005
Europe: September 29th 2006
North America: March 28th, 2006
Prologue
Nothing has really been confirmed about the
story of Kingdom Hearts II. The best theory in my opinion
is the one I'm about to write. Kingdom Hearts II will begin
exactly where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories left off.
Sora and team have been asleep for about a year regaining
their memories. When Sora awakes, he changes his clothes
and heads off to Hollow Bastion. There he battles hordes
of Heartless, and meets the members of the XIII Organization
again. At some point, Sora ends up in Twilight Town. There
Sora is ambushed by the Nobodies and is saved by King Mickey.
Sora then continues his quest, sealing the keyholes of each
world to protect them from the Heartless, the Organization,
and the Nobodies. According to Nomura, the story will be
far more complicated than Kingdom Hearts’s story. Expect
Kingdom Hearts 2’s story to deal with many of the mature
scenarios presented in Kingdom Hearts: CoM.
During this year Riku and Mickey have had their own adventures.
The two now have Organization Cloaks (it is unknown if they
have joined the Organization). Many theories have Riku and
Mickey spying on the Organization, while many people believe
that the Organization may not be evil, unlike what is seen
in Kingdom Hearts: CoM. Kingdom Hearts 2 will likely focus
much on Riku, Mickey and the Organization.
Lastly, Roxas (Blonde Haired Kid) seems to be having his
own adventure in Kingdom Hearts 2. Sora will likely cross
paths with him many times throughout Kingdom Hearts 2. Roxas
will be a keyblade master in Kingdom Hearts 2, and will
likely battle the Heartless, white creatures, and the Organization.
Roxas has been seen battling Axel. Roxas seems to want to
protect Sora from Axel. It is also possible that Axel may
be protecting Sora from Roxas; it is unknown who speaks
the dialogue in the scene, so a decision cannot be reached
as to whom is protecting whom. Expect Roxas to be a very
important character throughout Kingdom Hearts 2.
Each world that Sora travels to will have its own story,
similar to Kingdom Hearts. Expect the worlds stories to
reflect more upon the main story of the game, unlike many
of the worlds in Kingdom Hearts.
Itani's Review:
2002 Kingdom Hearts was released. After 3 years of waiting
Kingdom Hearts II is finally released. But was it worth
the wait? The million dollar question that not everyone
has the answer to.
Graphics and Visuals: 9/10
The graphics are slightly better than its predecessor since
Kingdom Hearts II takes the PS2 technology to the limit.
Especially if you enter first person mode while in the Pirates
of the Caribbean world and look at a characters face. The
frame rate is pretty solid. So the game shouldn’t slow
down when you’re up against a large amount of enemies.
Also the games visuals and special effects will just leave
you gawping most of the time. The infuriating camera system
that was in Kingdom Hearts is nowhere to be found. You can
now click the R3 button and it will auto centre the camera
again. You can also rotate the camera freely with the right
analogue stick. Yet it can be pretty distracting sometimes.
While I was in battle with Beast in my party. Beast was
behind Sora which makes the camera behind Beast. Beast covered
the whole of Sora. So I couldn’t even see the main
character during battle mode. But this problem just occurs
rarely.
Music: 10/10
Let's face it. Kingdom Hearts II strongest point is in music.
The music is perfectly selected and also the music pieces
that have been added to this game are magnificent. Yoko
Shimomura has done an excellent job in creating & selecting
which music piece goes where. Most of the music from the
previous game has been remixed. They sound more evil and
better at the same time. You now have a lot more music pieces
to hear than the original. Utada Hikaru has also proved
herself yet again that she was the right person to perform
the Kingdom Hearts II main theme. Her performance is even
better this time round. The introduction suited her music
perfectly.
Gameplay: 10/10
Gameplay since the original has been improved vastly. The
battles are more intense than ever before. A significant
addition to the game is the dodge ability. This is triggered
if you press the triangle button at the right time. If performed
correctly, you run around the opponent at a fast pace which
will keep him dazed for about 1-2 seconds. The dodge ability
is converted into a combo ability when you play as Sora.
When instructed to press triangle and performed correctly
you will release a set of powerful combos which will take
a decent amount of HP (Health Points) from your opponent.
Each boss has a different set of combos that can be performed
on when instructed. After performing devastating combos
against bosses, you will sometimes enter button bashing
mode during battles. This happened to me while facing one
opponent. He had a sword and I was blocking it with my keyblade.
If you win the button bashing contest your opponent will
be open to attacks for a limited amount of time only. There
is now a special button added to operate multiple tasks.
It’s called "Reaction Trigger" or simply
it’s the triangle button. An image of a triangle symbol
will most of the time pop up indicating it should be pressed.
The triangle button is used to communicate with other characters,
perform furious combos during battles and dodge last minute
attacks. The environment can sometimes help during battles.
In Mulan the environment was interactive. When inserted
into a battle with loads of enemies you can run to a cannon
lying on the floor and strike it with your keyblade. This
will result in the cannon exploding and damaging your opponent.
Also a new engine is introduced in Kingdom Hearts II. It
allows large groups of enemies to attack you at once. The
amount of enemies that appear during combat is uncountable.
Another new addition is the fusion feature. This feature
allows you to dual wield keyblades, increase attacking power
and faster combat. Drives grow stronger over time. Allowing
you to strike more enemies at once and also increase the
time limit it’s accessible for. To activate fusion
you will need to win a fair amount of battles and pick up
yellows ball until your drive gauge is filled. Once it’s
filled you will have to navigate the cursor down to the
fourth menu bar and select a fusion method you desire. White
light will then cover the screen for a second and it will
then become normal again showing Sora with the method of
fusion you’ve selected. While each fusion method has
it’s advantages and disadvantages. It’s not vital
to use them to win your battles. But you will be able to
defeat enemies at a faster pace. Also while you’re
fused with a character and a cutscene is triggered you appear
with the clothes depending on who you fused with. So if
your in Wisdom form and a cutscene is triggered. You will
appear in Wisdom form.
The Gummi Ship has become even more customizable and it
also takes a longer length of time to reach your destination.
When you want to select the world you would like to travel
to, you will have a mouse cursor. But instead it’s
replaced with a Gummi Ship icon and can be moved freely.
In the previous Kingdom Hearts the cursor had to follow
the trail that was set for it. And also while travelling
to different destinations. Your enemies will attack you
from everywhere, plus sometimes a alert warning appears
on screen warning you the screen is going to twist in the
direction the alert was situated. Overall the Gummi Ship
is more action packed than the previous game.
Other minor additions have been included in Kingdom Hearts
II like the navigation menu. Every world has a different
navigation menu interface. But if you don’t like this
feature you can always stick with Kingdom Hearts’s
navigation menu through out the game. There is also a large
amount of mini games scattered around every world. They
are very addicting in my opinion. You can also select out
of three difficulty levels at the menu screen. They are
as follows: easy, standard and proud.
Lifespan: 10/10
The length of this game is surprisingly much longer. The
title menu didn’t appear until I was 3 hours into the
game and the heart pounding battles didn’t start until
I was 5 to 6 hours through the game. Also after realizing
I was 5 to 6 hours into the game. I haven’t even visited
a Disney world yet. When I arrived at a Disney world, it
took a fair amount of time to complete. Yet other worlds
like the Coliseum took a decent amount of time to complete.
Kingdom Hearts II lifespan is probably longer than yours.
It guarantees 35-40 hours of playing time. And that’s
not including all the sidequests. Even after completing
the game. Kingdom Hearts II will keep making you come back
and start the game over again. As its fun meter is at maximum.
I personally will play Kingdom Hearts II again and yet this
is only the Japanese version. So I can’t even imagine
how many times I’ll play through the English version.
Japan: December 22nd, 2005
Europe: September 29th 2006
North America: March 28th, 2006