finalark
SNORLAX
Link to original post: [drupal=1657]Review: Kingdom Hearts II[/drupal]
You know, Kingdom Hearts was a pretty cool game. Yeah, the plot was ridiculous, the camera made me want to punch small animals and the only spell you ever used was cure. But it was still a good game, seeing how most of the game's errors were made up with entertaining combat and a fun and amusing Disney atmosphere in the story. Thankfully, the sequel fixed all of these problems. So wash the mud of off a perfectly good apple and you have flawless tasty treat, right? I wish I could say that about Kingdom Hearts II, but it still has a share a problems.
The story continues from the end of the spin-off bridge game, Chain of Memories. Which was basically the result of Kingdom Hearts and Yu-Gi-Oh doing the silly fusion dance from Dragonball Z... story, lost my train of thought. So you start out playing a kid named Roxas who lives in the small town of Twilight, which is a town stuck in perpetual twilight (you'd think that something like that would drive most people insane). The game's opening has you basically playing Roxas' daily life and OH GOD IS IT TERRIBLE. I swear, I was half ready for a dish-washing mini game in which he cleans the dishes after dinner. But thank God it picks up a bit when you run into Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII, who has evoked the anime stereotype of "overpowered student counsel (a group of kids who hold way to much power than they should, usually holding even more than adults). In this case, Seifer and his two buddies are basically the police in Twilight Town. Only they're not very good at it seeing how the first thing they do when they see Roxas is pick a fight with him. But then things slow down because for the new few in-game days you're going to be running around doing various mini games until the plot feels like developing again. But don't worry, near the end of the game's introduction things start to pick up, then you finally get to play as Sora. After even more introduction crap the game FINALLY gets rolling when you get back to Hollow Bastion, where you meet the new big bad guys, Organization XII. A bunch of evil dudes who are creatures called "Nobodies," beings that are born when someone looses their heart. But that really doesn't matter because they pop out of existence for half the game while Sora and friends go on episodic adventures to various Disney worlds, so for the first half of the game it's exactly like the first Kingdom Hearts. But then in the second half they make you replay all of the levels only with new baddies, bosses and an Organization member as the bad guy. The storyline isn't exactly what I'd call novel-worthy but it does it's job and is a vast improvement over Kingdom Hearts' story, plus it keeps things interesting with the occasion plot twist and the overall Disney charm. Although you can't help but feel that episodic portion off the game is little more than a cheep game lengthening trick where they make you play all of the levels twice. Buy whatever, those parts of the game are still as much fun as the later parts.
You know, it's a good thing that the game play was really buffed up in this one because the last one needed some serious work in that department. The camera is now functional and you know, good. In the last game your control over the camera was confined to the R2 and L2 buttons, leading to much frustration. This time they had the right analog stick take care of that and that's a good thing because you get a lot more freedom with it and that's what the right analog stick should be used for in third person games. And there are a ton of new and interesting spells in the game, although you'll still probably only use cure the entire game, regardless of how many spells this game loads you down with. But I think that can be forgiven seeing how this game mastered quick-time events by making them a core part of game-play, manifesting as "action commands." Remember how the triangle button didn't do anything in Kingdom Hearts? Now it activates reaction commands, which will appear as an option on your battle menu when fighting Heartless and Nobodies, allowing you to do a special action such as dodging, a special attack, ect. They also are used as your general "trigger" for everything, when you're near a chest you press triangle to open it. Near an NPC you press it to talk with them, you get the idea. It may not sound particularly thrilling in writing but during the game play it fits into the action perfectly and just works. The game play is really good overall, but I need to point out that the game is just too easy, even the game's hardest difficulty provides almost no challenge. This is mostly do to the fact that Sora becomes a freaking demigod in terms of power way to fast. Such as how near the start of the game you get this thing called Drives, which lets you change into a different from when at max (think limit breaks). And **** are your Drive Forms powerful, Valor Form (the first one you get) is still super-powerful by the end of the game.
Kingdom Hearts II is a cameo-infused joyride that is ten times better than the first game in every way. However, if you haven't played the first game you'll be really confused at a number of things in the game's plot. And even though the game is piss-easy you'll still enjoy it if you can get pass the terrible opening. And the fact that even by the end of the game you're still scratching your head about Organization XII's evil plans.
You know, Kingdom Hearts was a pretty cool game. Yeah, the plot was ridiculous, the camera made me want to punch small animals and the only spell you ever used was cure. But it was still a good game, seeing how most of the game's errors were made up with entertaining combat and a fun and amusing Disney atmosphere in the story. Thankfully, the sequel fixed all of these problems. So wash the mud of off a perfectly good apple and you have flawless tasty treat, right? I wish I could say that about Kingdom Hearts II, but it still has a share a problems.
The story continues from the end of the spin-off bridge game, Chain of Memories. Which was basically the result of Kingdom Hearts and Yu-Gi-Oh doing the silly fusion dance from Dragonball Z... story, lost my train of thought. So you start out playing a kid named Roxas who lives in the small town of Twilight, which is a town stuck in perpetual twilight (you'd think that something like that would drive most people insane). The game's opening has you basically playing Roxas' daily life and OH GOD IS IT TERRIBLE. I swear, I was half ready for a dish-washing mini game in which he cleans the dishes after dinner. But thank God it picks up a bit when you run into Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII, who has evoked the anime stereotype of "overpowered student counsel (a group of kids who hold way to much power than they should, usually holding even more than adults). In this case, Seifer and his two buddies are basically the police in Twilight Town. Only they're not very good at it seeing how the first thing they do when they see Roxas is pick a fight with him. But then things slow down because for the new few in-game days you're going to be running around doing various mini games until the plot feels like developing again. But don't worry, near the end of the game's introduction things start to pick up, then you finally get to play as Sora. After even more introduction crap the game FINALLY gets rolling when you get back to Hollow Bastion, where you meet the new big bad guys, Organization XII. A bunch of evil dudes who are creatures called "Nobodies," beings that are born when someone looses their heart. But that really doesn't matter because they pop out of existence for half the game while Sora and friends go on episodic adventures to various Disney worlds, so for the first half of the game it's exactly like the first Kingdom Hearts. But then in the second half they make you replay all of the levels only with new baddies, bosses and an Organization member as the bad guy. The storyline isn't exactly what I'd call novel-worthy but it does it's job and is a vast improvement over Kingdom Hearts' story, plus it keeps things interesting with the occasion plot twist and the overall Disney charm. Although you can't help but feel that episodic portion off the game is little more than a cheep game lengthening trick where they make you play all of the levels twice. Buy whatever, those parts of the game are still as much fun as the later parts.
You know, it's a good thing that the game play was really buffed up in this one because the last one needed some serious work in that department. The camera is now functional and you know, good. In the last game your control over the camera was confined to the R2 and L2 buttons, leading to much frustration. This time they had the right analog stick take care of that and that's a good thing because you get a lot more freedom with it and that's what the right analog stick should be used for in third person games. And there are a ton of new and interesting spells in the game, although you'll still probably only use cure the entire game, regardless of how many spells this game loads you down with. But I think that can be forgiven seeing how this game mastered quick-time events by making them a core part of game-play, manifesting as "action commands." Remember how the triangle button didn't do anything in Kingdom Hearts? Now it activates reaction commands, which will appear as an option on your battle menu when fighting Heartless and Nobodies, allowing you to do a special action such as dodging, a special attack, ect. They also are used as your general "trigger" for everything, when you're near a chest you press triangle to open it. Near an NPC you press it to talk with them, you get the idea. It may not sound particularly thrilling in writing but during the game play it fits into the action perfectly and just works. The game play is really good overall, but I need to point out that the game is just too easy, even the game's hardest difficulty provides almost no challenge. This is mostly do to the fact that Sora becomes a freaking demigod in terms of power way to fast. Such as how near the start of the game you get this thing called Drives, which lets you change into a different from when at max (think limit breaks). And **** are your Drive Forms powerful, Valor Form (the first one you get) is still super-powerful by the end of the game.
Kingdom Hearts II is a cameo-infused joyride that is ten times better than the first game in every way. However, if you haven't played the first game you'll be really confused at a number of things in the game's plot. And even though the game is piss-easy you'll still enjoy it if you can get pass the terrible opening. And the fact that even by the end of the game you're still scratching your head about Organization XII's evil plans.
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