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Platform: PlayStation
2
Genre: Action RPG
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
US Release: March 2006
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Review by: Paul Franzen
Where, oh where did you go wrong,
my beloved Kingdom Hearts? You had such potential. You could
have been one of the greats! And now look at you—you’re just yet
another sequel that absolutely did not live up to the original.
An unusual collaboration between video game giant Square Enix and
Hollywood giant Disney, Kingdom Hearts II is an action RPG that came
out for PS2 earlier this year. The game puts
you in the role of Sora, wielder of the Keyblade (it’s a key...with
a blade), in his journey to reuinte with his long-lost friends, whom
he was separated from at the end of the last game. Teaming up with
Donald Duck and Goofy, who are on their own quest to find the missing
King Mickey, Sora’s gotta traverse some of the most well-known worlds
in all of children’s entertainment, all the while battling
“nobodies” and “heartless,” the minions of Sora’s true
enemies.
The sorrows begin right when the game begins: You're thrust into a
nearly four-hour-long tutorial stage staring a character you've never
met before, doing such exciting things as hitting a ball into the air
as many times as you can before it falls to the ground. The sorrows
continues as you gain control of Sora and discover, to your horror,
that nearly half the levels in KH2 are taken directly from the
game’s predecessor. New worlds include those based on The Lion
King, Beauty and the Beast and Pirates of the
Caribbean, and they’re so few that fans of the original—which
you’ll have to have played in order to understand what’s going on
— are left feeling as though they’ve both been there and done
that. Which is completely unforgivable, considering how many Disney
properties are just begging to be made into a video game (Toy
Story? The Jungle Book? Robin Hood?).
And if that’s not irritating enough, about halfway through KH2 the game makes you play through every single level a second
time. It’s Square’s way of adding longevity to the title; but you
can only visit The Nighftmare Before Christmas so many times
before you realize that you’d actually rather be doing homework.
Homework! Games shouldn’t make you want to do homework!
If you can find it in your heart to ignore everything that’s wrong
with this title, you’ll love KHII. You’ll flat-out love it. Many
of the first game’s few problems have been cleaned up—the
camera actually works now, for example, and there aren’t any
horrendous underwater levels. And beyond that, it’s just fun to
whack the crap out of anonymous enemies (and, at times, classic Disney
villains) with a giant key. (With a blade.) To do so you’re just
generally tapping the same button over and over again, but this
simplified combat means the game’s accessible to anyone.
One part of combat, though, that the game could’ve done are the
game’s “Reaction Commands.” In which, if you press a certain
button at a certain time, you get to watch a movie of your character
doing all sorts of super cool things to a hated battle. It looks cool,
I guess, but I’d rather be the one actually doing the super cool
things, not just a spectator cheering on some pixelated hero.
This game could have—easily—been one of the all-time greats.
Many other reviewers seem to think it is, and many other reviewers are
completely wrong. Kingdom Hearts II, while being a good game in
its own right, is a massive disappointment compared to its
predecessor, and compared to what it could (and should) have been. My
advice to you, the reader, is to just pretend this game doesn’t
exist. You’ll be much better off that way. 
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PlayStation
2: Kingdom
Hearts 2
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Fun
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Novelty
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Audio
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Visuals
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Controls
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Replay Value
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Overall: 5.9
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| 4 |
6.5 |
7 |
7.5 |
8 |
2 |
-- Paul Franzen
{07-15-2006}
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