The rich IP backgrounds of Square/Enix and the Disney Corporation were thrown together for the first time in 2002. The Square-developed game, entitled Kingdom Hearts, surprised players with a story that blended two very different flavours into a compelling whole. The extent to which that game drew on the respective company's products made for a breathtakingly large world, and a storyline twisty enough to satisfy even the most jaded RPG player. Unfortunately, weak gameplay detracted from the overall experience of the unique title. The sequel, Kingdom Hearts II, picks up the pieces where the original left off and makes noticeable improvements in both story and gameplay. Read on for my impressions of a solid RPG that does fan service like no other title out there.
- Title: Kingdom Hearts II
- Developer/Publisher: Square/Enix
- System:PS2
The original
Kingdom Hearts saw the protagonist, Sora, doing battle with a magical race of evil beings known simply as 'The Heartless'. With the help of Donald and Goofy the young man sought out his friends Riku and Kairi (taken by the villains at the beginning of the tale), as well as 'King' Mickey. When the curtain drew at the end of the tale, there were numerous plot threads left hanging; It was already obvious then that a sequel was in the works.
Four years later, and the next chapter in the tale has been released to the PS2. The title begins in a somewhat confusing place if you've never played the card-battle Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories title for the GameBoy. Suffice it to say that Sora has lost his memory, and the first several hours of the game are spent with an alternate persona for the first game's protagonist. This hours-long ordeal is something of an extended tutorial. You're introduced to the concepts you'll be using throughout the game, and slowly begin to crack into the simply enormous plot that flows throughout the title. If the idea of an hours-long tutorial mode isn't intimidating, you're already set to play this game.
Your patience will be well rewarded, though, because once you're out of the introductory plot there's lot of great story to enjoy. Just as in the original, you'll find yourself traveling with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to various world representing Disney movies.
Mulan,
Beauty and the Beast,
The Little Mermaid, and
The Lion King are among the properties on display.
The Nightmare Before Christmas makes a return with the more traditional titles, and two new live-action pieces are introduced to
Kingdom Hearts' stable of worlds.
The Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as
Tron, make appearances at points along the road to your ultimate destination. With so many worlds to explore, it's unsurprising that you'll encounter varying levels of quality. At one end of the spectrum, you have
Mulan. The Chinese fable is one of the first worlds you'll explore out of the gate, and happily so: it's fantastic. You'll fight hordes of opponents (ala the Mongols in the movie), and battle alongside Fa Mulan to defeat the Heartless. The gameworld not only retells the story of the movie, it draws you as a player into the events of the film in an enjoyable way.
Tron, similarly, does a fantastic job of getting you into the story. While you might at first see the inclusion of the MCP's system as gimmicky, it's explained in a wholly reasonable fashion. It also looks great. Of course, not everything can be perfect. The other end of the spectrum is inhabited by
The Little Mermaid's world. It's a very dull, and generally disappointing experience. I'm a fan of rhythm games, but the attempt they muster is lackluster at best. Attempting to mash a button in a timed interval is not rhythm, it's muddling your game experience. Overall, though, the Disney elements in the game are tremendously satisfying.
I wish I could say the same about the Final Fantasy characters included in the title. As in the first Kingdom Hearts, the more staid RPG characters are standoffish in general, aiding you only when it suits their needs. Aerith, Squall, Yuffie, and Cid are important plot drivers, and clashes between Cloud and Sephiroth are fairly important battles in the latter half of the story. Despite that, the Final Fantasy characters are in general not as well treated as their Disney brethren. Many of them have odd or simplistic dialogue, and some characters (like Tifa Lockheart) come off as quite confused. It's very neat to see the FF characters step out of their normal roles, but the blend that I felt worked so well in the original title doesn't seem as polished here. The Disney characters definitely get the better end of the stick here, and for those of us who have outgrown some of the 80's Disney films that's more than a little frustrating.
Those (small) frustrations aside, the entire experience of Kingdom Hearts II is an improvement over the original. The plot is tighter, with the older protagonist necessitating a more grown-up story. The ramifications of Sora's actions from the first game are very thoroughly explored, and you get a real sense of connection between the young man and the individuals he encounters on his journeys. The worlds themselves are improved as well. They're a good deal 'tighter', with less meaningless space thrown into the mix. If they built a part of a level in this game, it has a point. This results in the worlds feeling shorter, but more fulfilling. There's no need to wander aimlessly through caverns in the Cave of Wonders; You go there, get what you came for, fight a boss battle, and leave. The level design and story dovetail tightly together. The result is a grand story that is also very approachable; It can be played in smaller bites and more completely understood overall. It's a testament to the team that weaknesses from the first game have been directly addressed here.
One of the big weaknesses of the original title, combat, has also gotten some love since the first time around. In addition to the magic and summons that were possible in the first game, limit breaks, drives, and context-sensitive actions have been added to the battleground. Limit breaks are interesting combo moves you can perform with your partners. Goofy, Donald and Sora can hook up for 'Trinity' maneuvers, and each guest star from the Disney gameworlds offers their own thematically appropriate move to help the spikey-haired protagonist take down the baddies. You use limit breaks by filling up a bar, which is just one of the many meters you fill during combat. Your drive bar also fills as you fight, eventually enabling you to enter a function-specific mode. For example, 'Valour' steals Goofy's strength and turns Sora into a dual-wielding dynamo. 'Wisdom' enhances Sora's magical abilities (by borrowing Donald's) and turns his keyblade into something like as submachine gun. Context actions are new to the game, but have seen use frequently in recent titles, and frequently allow Sora access to the 'Trinity' moves. All of which sounds good ... but at the end of the day these new elements aren't that helpful. They look great to be sure, further fleshing out the fantastic imagery of
Kingdom Hearts and giving you the impression of options. The reality, however, is that the air combo moves Sora performs just by bashing the 'X' button are so effective as to make much of this superfluous. Some boss fights can get a little tough, and benefit from use of flashy fireworks, but generally speaking you can achieve victory with your thumb firmly on the attack button. The combat still feels more developed than in the first game, but don't expect
God of War complexity to the fighting.
Outside of combat, they've continued the push for improved gameplay. A particularly onerous element of the original game was the 'Gummi Ship' rail shooting sequences. They've been revamped from their utilitarian roots into something a lot more enjoyable. It's not an attempt at a full-fledged game within a game; Holding down the fire button will still get you through relatively safely. At the same time, there's a good deal more to do here. Treasures and mini-bosses abound, and the occasional reorientation of the map adds some stylistic changes to the experience. On foot, the camera has been overhauled since the original as well. Fighting with the often asleep-at-the-switch cameraman was another frustration of Kingdom Hearts. The result isn't a watershed, but it's yet another rough edge that's been smoothed out in this incarnation.
For all the complaints that were leveled at the first game, the graphical presentation was a subject avoided by even the stoutest of detractors. Kingdom Hearts looked great, and its sequel goes about improving on the original in a very calculated way. The PS2 just isn't the graphical powerhouse it once was, in comparison to what we're seeing on Microsoft's new console. What were cutting-edge graphics in 2002 look a little dated. The art team has tackled this frustration by honing in on the 'look' of each character, place, and situation with a dead-on push for accuracy. The original's art style tended to blend the game worlds together; The art direction for Tarzan's jungle was generally the same as Alice's Wonderland. With the sequel, the movies are evoked more fully by conjuring the artistic style of the animation into electronic life. The rocky surrounds of Isle de la Muerte have a fundamentally different stylistic base than Beast's castle or 'The Timeless River', the black and white old-timey cartoon world. The game sounds just as good as it looks, the well-earned reputation Square/Enix has with composition once again reaffirmed. The title piece is the most evocative, in typical Jpop fashion, but the moment-to-moment pieces recall the film soundtracks quite successfully. Aurally, my biggest complaint is one I had with the first title as well: Almost all of the musical elements evoke Disney moments and ignore the sound history written by Nobuo Uematsu for the Final Fantasy series. Whether a deliberate decision or not, I would have preferred more than just 'One-Winged Angel' to make an appearance within the Kingdom Hearts series.
The second title to bear the
Kingdom Hearts name accomplishes exactly what a sequel should set out to do. It recaptures successful elements of the original, and shores up weak elements of the first game's vision. What we're given, then, is a melding of Disney and Square storytelling in a way that recaptures innocent times through a more adult lens. It's very hard indeed to grow up in America without watching at least one Disney film. That cultural building block makes the image of Sora fighting alongside the Beast, Peter Pan, or Jack Skellington a very hard one to ignore; In fact, it lies at the center of
Kingdom Hearts' appeal. For all the fighting and angst, any story that features Mickey Mouse is going to have a happy ending somewhere down the line. In an industry cluttered with amoral vigilantes, objectified women, and escort missions, it's nice to occasionally play a game where you know the good guys are going to win at the end of the day. The game does have a prerequisite though: while the GBA title can be skipped you're definitely not going to get the full effect out of
Kingdom Hearts II if you don't play the original. Beyond that, Disney-haters and Final Fantasy foes should look elsewhere; Unless you've got the hate on for Donald Duck you're probably going to find at least one moment in this epic quest that will make you smile like a kid again.
Fun Game, But Take My Advice... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fun game though, if you liked the first one you'll definitely like this one.
I've loved both (Score:4, Interesting)
It's like watching a bad, low poly CG movie.
If you're a fan of older Final Fantasy stile grinds, it may start to wear on you a little.
Re:I've loved both (Score:5, Insightful)
second? (Score:3, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday May 16 2007, @12:43PM)
If there's no Jessica Rabbit... (Score:4, Funny)
Two things: (Score:4, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
On one other note, the GBA game Chain of Memories was not a card-battler. Although cards were used as an interface metaphor, you never once set out for any remotely-traditional card game. It feels more like Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles than solitaire.
Rise of the "Brawler" (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Thursday July 10 2003, @10:13AM)
This game shows a refinement of the idea of mass brawling which seems to be a cathartic experience found in many movies and TV shows anyway. The Hero is surrounded by The Bad Guys and some how he fights his way out. Who wouldn't want to play this roll? Hopefully Ninty-Nine Nights and a possible KH3 will refine the idea even farther. The fights in KH2 aren't a "gimme" but I feel with some tweaking it would turn from a "fighting off the mindless horde of attackers" to a more pitched battle which feels more exciting and satisfying.
A Serious Game? (Score:1)
(http://twoturtlelovers.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday May 25, @03:01PM)
Darn! (Score:3, Insightful)
Disney has over-merchandized itself for years. Just don't have the heart to help them do it some more.
But, enjoy...
"Fan service" -- I looked it up (Score:2)
(http://neilmcallister.com/)
Fan service (Japanese simply "saabisu", "service"), sometimes written as a single word, fanservice, is a vaguely defined term used in visual media -- particularly in anime fandom --to refer to elements in a story that are unnecessary to a storyline, but designed to amuse or excite the audience.
Metaverse? (Score:2)
nowhere near as good as the original (Score:5, Interesting)
-The level design isn't "tighter", it is a complete phone-it-in effort. You go from one square room to another, with absolutely no element of exploration. Gone are hidden chests or doorways, or anything hidden for that matter You will easily get every single treasure chest in this game without much of an effort. You walk into a room, and you can see them plain as day.
-The difficulty has been reduced to nill in every manner. Any enemy that would present a challenge is instead defeated very simply by a 'reaction command'. Which means you press triangle once, and watch Sora kill the enemy in ridiculous fashion. Side quests for glory have been vastly simplified and reduced. (Not that I am sure I have encountered everything in KH2, i am not using a strategy guide). The best weapons in the game are quite simple to synthesize, it is extremely easy to get to max out your level due to the incredible amount of experience you gain from basic enemies, the colliseum levels are incredibly easy, and optional bosses are taken down with some simple X-mashing (with the occasional triangle press....when the entire screen lights up green, a triangle appears on the enemy, and your command list adds a new triangle command to the top).
Re:nowhere near as good as the original (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.flying-rhenquest.net/)
Oddly though, I actually liked the KH1 old combat system. It was a twitch video game combat system that that wasn't too complex but required a lot of reaction against frequently large numbers of enemies. Sometimes I just want to go clear out rooms of bad guys. I still prefer it to pretty much every other PS2 RPG combat system I tried. The one in magna carta sucked so hard that even though I was interested in the story line I just couldn't play the game.
Cut Scenes (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.collegecheapskate.com/)
Half Life on the other hand never once in either game takes you out of your character. You are a part of every cut scene. While it seems impressive they didn't really have to change much.
Silent Hill and Half Life are two different extremes, but the game industry should try incorporating these together a bit more.
Re:Cut Scenes (Score:5, Insightful)
Utada Hikaru's music (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.hydrous.net/)
Re:Utada Hikaru's music (Score:4, Informative)
More of a movie than a game... (Score:1)
(http://www.spadez.net/ws)
It honestly feels like you have absolutely no control whatsoever. As has been stated earlier, it's also a little too easy. All that said, this is still a pretty good game. Just a warning to those who don't like to ride the RPG rails (ie. fallout and morrowind fans), minus some minor character modification, this game allows 0 degrees of freedom.
...does fan service like no other title out there. (Score:1)
(http://www.furnation.com/draltaica | Last Journal: Sunday October 02 2005, @04:32PM)
Does anyone else remember the _White_Fang_ disaster.
Nice review (Score:2, Informative)
The new worlds are very fun but Atlantica is my worse nightmare of boredom coming true. I really thought they would take advantage of the new right-analogue-stick floating movement and make us use it in a "real" world... but no. Instead we get "finny fun". Thanks for nothing.
Combat for me is hit and miss. I like the drive forms and the limits. The summons are awkward compared to KH1 though. As for fighting, just mashing the X button usually does the trick: I feel like you have less control over battles. In KH1 dodge-roll and glide were tactics I often used to get around enemies and avoid hits. In KH2 there's not much you can do to avoid hits. On the other hand you can bring up some amazing combos if you hit SQUARE at the right time instead of keeping to X. It somewhat compensate for the lack of control over the character.
Overall I would say it's a great game.
Hate Disney, but love the Disney babes (Score:5, Funny)
I'm so lonely. :(
The review missed 1 MAJOR point... (Score:2)
My friend's girlfriend (he's not a geek, sadly) bought KH2 without playing KH1 at all. She was bored stiff and I offered to buy the game from her. She accepted, but then I had an idea. I'd buy KH1 again and trade for a while, instead of buying KH2. She LOVES KH1. And after the first 3 hours, I loved KH2.
I disagree (Score:1)
What would I have done differently in Kingdom Hearts 2 if I was on the design team? Bigger levels for starters, the underworld, China, and Beast's Castle are WAY too small. I mean, the first level is freakin China, they could have done some really amazing stuff with this level. (First level, that is, after the game officially gets started, roughly after about 8-9 hours of play and storyboard, or 2 hours if you skip the story board, I know, we tried both). A little strategy needed on the bosses would have been nice, they are way too easy.The coolest level so far has been timeless river. I would have loved them to do more with this level, the animation and boss fights were simply amazing. I was really disappointed that this level took me 20 minutes to play. Puzzles would be nice. The first game had a few puzzles, the second seems to have none. I have litterally found myself falling asleep late at night playing this game, wake up 10 minutes later, and still be alive. I mean, I can litterally play this game in my sleep.
I know my opinions do not reflect everyones, but I do not think anyone would complain if the game had just a bit more depth to it.
A couple of beefs I had with KH2 (Score:3)
(http://www.enchanter.net/)
(2) People who live in RPGs like to own small treasure chests. In one they'll put a healing potion, in another they'll put a ring of fire protection, etc. I'm glad they still don't mind me wandering through their homes and looting them.
(3) This game's a real button-masher. The battles are fast-paced and well-animated, and the battle engine allows for jumps and attacks and blocks and spells and special moves; but when there are ten characters dukeing it out in a small space, I find it really hard to see who's doing what. There's many a time I've ended up standing a distance away swinging my keyblade at empty air until the camera swings around to show me I'm not part of the action.
(4) The plot is interesting, but I'm getting tired of the pointless side-quests. Not just in KH2, but in *all* RPGs. "Yes, I will give you the combination to the safe so that you can recover the Amulet of Quendor, but first you must journey through that dark mountain cave in which lives a terrible dragon, because I want you to fetch me a sandwich from the little deli on the other side."
(5) The voice acting in KH2 is a mixed bag. Christopher Lee is good, really good. Most of the rest of the actors are obviously just reading lines from a script without any real emotion. The pause between lines is really awkward - even when a character is interrupted in mid-sentence, there'll be a second or two before the character who's interrupting him says anything. But the real nadir of the voice acting in this is Mena Suvari as Aerith - she's just hideously terrible; she sounds as if she's reciting lines while she's doing her hair. I'd much rather imagine Mena Suvari in a bathtub with rose petals.
I beat the game, and I wish I'd played it on the hardest difficulty level instead of on Normal; it was just too darned easy. Gameplay consisted of cutscenes followed by wandering around fighting random attacks until I reached the next cutscenes. None of the treasure chests were any difficulty whatsoever to find. I hardly made any use at all of the synthesis Moogle; I never had enough stuff for him to make much with.
And neither KH nor KH2 ever reach the emotional heartaches or plot complexity that any of the Final Fantasy series reach, but the original KH's ending was wonderfully bittersweet, whereas KH2's ending kind of fell a little flat for me. Tacked-on opening left for KH3, anyone?
Gamecube... (Score:1)
What of the fanartists? (Score:2)
(http://moonbase.rydia.net/)
Square's one of the most fanart-friendly companies out there, and suddenly they're collaborating with one of the absolute least friendly. It's inviting trouble.
Hard Mode (Score:2)
Easy - "Are you a young child? Is this the first video game you've ever played?"
Normal - "Are you a very casual gamer? Is this only the second or third PS2 game you've picked up?"
Hard - "Have been played and/or beaten Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Prince of Persia, or any other action game?"
If you're actually at the point where you can REVIEW video games, Hard Mode was definitely your choice, and you would actually be using the games' different systems in that mode, instead of saying "Why bother? Air combo works just fine!"
In Hard Mode, instead of finding myself skipping the reaction commands, I started wishing that Devil May Cry would implement them, because they're a great way to pull off an action sequence. In DMC, getting skyscrapers thrown at you and trying to parry them would probably kill you two or three times before you got it, but in KH2, it's just a matter of pressing the reaction command at the perfect moment, and suddenly you're doing amazing things that were obviously ripped straight out of Advent Children. Also, in Hard Mode, the Drive command is every bit as essential as Devil Trigger in DMC, and summoning Stitch was the only logical way to get out of a couple of the Organization XIII fights without getting rescued. Unfortunately, because they picked Normal Mode, most players probably never bothered with Summons, Drives, or many Reaction Commands, and I doubt that many of them were ever rescued during the Organization XIII fights (I was only rescued once, but it was an awesome idea).
Sephiroth on Hard was also probably the coolest boss battle outside of Vergil 2 and 3 in Devil May Cry 3, because he literally had no pattern. It was like I was fighting another player online. If I tried to get a breather for a second and use the temporary invincibility that you get when using Cure to fully heal yourself, he'd wait patiently and hit me in the back as soon as it finished. If he wanted to use an attack that I could only block with a Reaction Move on the ground, he'd wait until the very second that I jumped. He'd even announce "Sin Harvest" and start floating up in the air, which is a move that you can only stop if you hit him, and then decide midway through that he'd rather do a different attack that makes him temporarily invulnerable and does massive damage. Instead of having a pattern, he baits you, randomly changes his mind, and abuses the Hell out of the game system. It was brilliant.
"Weak Gameplay"? (Score:2)
(http://www.touset.org/)
Good Game Reviews (Score:2)
Re:I must be in the wrong place (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.geoffreyspear.com/)
I don't use Linux. I couldn't care less about the latest Linux release. Do I comment on every one pointing out that not all geeks use Linux? No. If Slashdot only posted articles that would interest every single person reading the site, there wouldn't be a single article here.
Re:Anime sucks ass (Score:1)
(http://slashdot.org/)
[adult swim]