Kingdom Hearts II

Sometimes, an idea for a game can seem so random, that everyone will either claim the game is a failure and never play it or think of it as a fun new experience that they have to try out. It's because the game is different from what's normally on video game store's shelves. The original Kingdom Hearts game was one of those different games. Containing a mix of Disney and Square characters, a lot of people believed the game was "kiddy" and was a low point in video games. Then there were the people that enjoyed - even loved - this game.

Kingdom Hearts ended with a cliffhanger ending and a special teaser trailer about a sequel. Kingdom Hearts 2 was confirmed some time after, but the Gameboy Advance game: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was released to link the original game to Kingdom Hearts 2 story-wise. Filled with deceit and betrayal, a lot of fans wondered how mature KH2 would be, considering the teaser trailer in KH1 was dark and moody.

How right and wrong they were.

Sora is The One. Neo, move over.

The gameplay is a major improvement over the original's; however, it shares the same core, but makes it better . . . possibly how it should've been to begin with. With Sora, you start off with your basic three-hit combo. Soon, your abilities will evolve into fancy light shows with Sora doing all kinds of flips and slashes. The X button is still the confirm/attack button, but you'll find yourself using the square and circle buttons in combinations in order to defeat your enemies (which are very numerous).

In addition to your combos, you have the Reaction Command. Similar to the context-sensitive actions in Resident Evil 4, you'll be able to do special attacks and events by hitting the triangle button when a Reaction Command flashes on screen. Some of these Reaction Commands trigger attacks that look just like cutscenes. In Proud Mode (KH2's hardest difficulty), its invaluable. You must use Reaction Commands to get through some events.

Your party members this time around are ready to throw themselves into a crowd of enemies literally. You can alter their AI in the pause menu, but its good already. Along with having your party fight enemies alongside Sora, you can now do Limits - Co-op attacks. You can guarantee they are powerful as they are spectacular to see, providing you have a full MP bar and that your Limit bar in the top-right corner doesn't disappear.

Magic is handled differently now. Everyone's MP bar is at 100 MP, but will recharge after all of it's drained. As mentioned above, Limits use up all your MP, regardless of how much is left. Same with the new Cure, which only heals party members within its range, meaning that you'll have to sometimes run to your KO'd friend and heal him/her. The rest of the magic, such as Fire, will only take a bit of MP from your bar, but repeated use will eventually leave you empty.

A hyped new feature in Kingdom Hearts 2 was the Drive system. Using points from the yellow drive bar, you will be able to make Sora powerful by going into Drive Forms or summoning some help, at the sacrifice of having one or both party members disappear for the moment. The Drive Forms will have Sora in colorful versions of his outfit and giving him special abilities, such as the red Valor - giving him the ability to wield two keyblades at the same time while unleashing powerful combos. In order to go into a Drive Form, you must have the needed amount of Drive points to transform. When in a Drive Form, your Drive points will deplete. Once it's at 0, you'll revert back to your original form, having lost the Drive points used to go into a Drive Form. Summoning works in the same fashion, but the summoned character will replace both your party members always and have powerful attacks that you can use from your Command Menu.

Both Drive Forms (individually) and Summon power can be leveled up in order to keep both out longer. Drive Forms will gain special abilities as they become stronger, and will pass some abilities to your standard Sora.

The first side of the Command Menu is still essentially the same as it was in the original Kingdom Hearts, but instead of the last selection being for abilities, you open up a Drive Form category to choose what Drive Form you want to use. Hitting left on the D-pad or holding L2 and tilting the Right Analog stick to the left (these are default), you'll go into the second side of the Command Menu, which still has the Attack selection, but gives you access to Limits, summons, and the function to switch party members on the fly. Holding the L1 button will open up the Shortcut menu, where you can use magic and items faster. You can change what's in the Shortcut menu in the Customize menu in the Pause menu. This is really convenient if you're about to get defeated and you need to heal fast, which happens a lot.

The camera in this game is a notch above any free-controlled camera in games. It's not perfect, but it comes very close. You'll be able to see the number of enemies around you while being able to zoom in and see dramatic visuals of your characters battling with the Right Analog stick. Clicking it will have the camera return behind Sora. There is also a First-Person mode where you can attack and move as you would in a standard First-Person Shooter, but once you lock-on with the R1 button, you'll go back to Third-Person view.

As stated before, you'll fight a lot of enemies, and the number will grow as you progress in the game. In some final areas, enemies seem almost infinite. On Proud Mode, the enemies deal stronger blows. You'll end up relying on all of the gameplay options the game gives you. There are many bosses in Kingdom Hearts 2, each one having a special Reaction Command or two (or more) that you can activate to make the battle easier. Also, you'll be thrown into special events, which can be one of the many minigames or a special battle with enemies, where you'll have to defeat them all, a certain amount, survive within the time limit, etc. If you want to just skip a cutscene and get into the action, just hit pause during the movie and select "Skip Scene."

If you are defeated in some boss fights, you may be saved by Mickey. You'll control him and your objective is to fill up his Drive gauge so he can revive Sora and friends. He is very powerful, so you can bring down a boss's HP so Sora can finish it off without much difficulty.

You get to other worlds through your Gummi Ship. In order to unlock paths to other worlds, you must go through the Gummi Courses, which are extremely fun and intense. You have the ability to make your own ship from the parts you find, but you're given completed Gummi Ships as the game progresses. It plays a bit like an intense rail-shooter, but the camera angles will switch a lot. You'll have to shoot at almost every angle around you, defeating gummi bosses and giant waves of enemies.

Also note that Kingdom Hearts 2 has some of the most amazing and memorable boss fights on the Playstation 2. This goes double for the final boss fight.

Disney's bandstand.

You may be compelled to buy the soundtrack to this game. There are plenty of good original scores and the several environment themes aren't annoying at all (this was a problem in Kingdom Hearts). Utada Hikaru again sings the theme song, which is Sanctuary, and it's just as good as the original's Simple and Clean.

The End Credits' music, Fantasia alla marcia for piano, chorus and orchestra is just fantastic and will probably be something you'd want to hear over and over again.

Where is Sora?

At the end of Kingdom Hearts, Sora, Donald, and Goofy save the world at the expense of being separated from the ones they were searching for the entire time. They were left in a meadow where they were running to their next adventure. In Chain of Memories, the three get their memories altered by a mysterious girl named Naminè within a castle controlled by the shady, but dysfunctional, Organization XIII. In order to regain their memories as they were before, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are put into pods for a year while Naminè fixes them. Meanwhile, in the basement floors, another character has conflicts with darkness and ends up controlling it.

You play as Roxas in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2, a 15-year old on summer vacation with his friends. He begins to have dreams of Sora's memories and wonders about them. Eventually, he'll come to realize the reason why he's having them. Soon after, you'll control Sora and set out on an adventure: this time trying to defeat the Heartless once more and finding out about the strange new creatures called "Nobodies" that are controlled by the Organization XIII.

The main story is well done and there are plot twists in every direction. Everything story-related is kept in the journal, so you can refer back to it if you're lost on something. Also, Kingdom Hearts 2 ends the story involving Sora, Donald, and Goofy being separated from their friends.

Sora must unlock paths with his magical Keyblade to other worlds in order to find his friends and to stop the heartless, and eventually, chasing The Organization.

You have to play the original Kingdom Hearts to understand this game, and even though it's said that you didn't have to, you should play Chain of Memories or major aspects about Kingdom Hearts 2's story won't be understood at all.