Getting back to form after Chain of Memories' unique gameplay system, Kingdom Hearts 2 is a fantastic sequel, building on almost all aspects of the original and being a phenomenal action game in its own right.

Having assumed that the player is familiar with the plot of both the PS2 original Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts 2 begins with a prologue that involves a new character. Though an atmospheric and fairly emotional opening at first, the prologue takes its time and can be a pace-breaker on repeat playthroughs. The remainder of the plot is fairly usual Kingdom Hearts. Its Final Fantasy mixed with Disney that takes its bizarre concept seriously. Though a bit of a double edged sword, the premise being played straight still makes for a sufficiently enjoyable story. It has good comedic appeal, good attempts at emotional moments and despite common criticism, is perfectly coherent and straightforward to follow. Though not a masterpiece of writing by any means, the story does its job well. Tense moments are tense and the Disney branding is used well.

The real meat and bones to Kingdom Hearts 2 is the combat, which is some of the finest in any action game. Sora controls like a dream. Tight, responsive and with a good weight makes for a fantastic feel, only enhanced by the vast array of versatile and viable tools and abilities Sora gets access to. Despite a seemingly overwhelming amount of options, almost all of them have good utility and are fun to use. The free-flowing combo system and general design creates incredible synergy and a massive potential for player freedom and ingenuinety. Unlike the original's deliberateness and low to the ground approach, Kingdom Hearts 2 Sora has a degree of flashiness trademark to character action, but instead of being a case of style over substance, Kingdom Hearts 2 translates this to gameplay very well, with a versatile toolkit that is delightful to use. Enhancing this is the game's excellent enemy design. Enemy variety is high and they encourage utilizing all the tools available, in particular boss fights and the 14 excellent super bosses the Final Mix version introduced. Exemplifying this is the addition of reaction commands, allowing the player to use Triangle to perform context-sensitive, enemy specific manevuers. This adds even more depth to an already excellent combat system, rewarding knowledgeable and skilled players with powerful maneuvers provided they are familiar with enemy patterns. Kingdom Hearts 2 does an excellent job of getting the player to engage and get better at the game, and it only gets more fun when they do.

The level designs of the game have often been criticised. While I agree with the observation that levels are far more simplified and straightforward than the first game, I don't agree that this is a problem. While the interactivity and fully fledged worlds of the original are a positive, Kingdom Hearts 2 is aiming for a different goal with regards to level design. By sacrificing the interconnectedness and depth of Kingdom Hearts 1's levels, Kingdom Hearts 2 is able to streamline levels and create a better pace for the moment to moment action game it clearly wants to be. On the macro level, worlds are simplistic and linear, but on the micro level they have a great amount of variety in combat arenas, and are only as big as is necessary to fit the combat encounters the game is focused on, killing downtime.

I find the PS2 version's soundtrack to be better overall than the HD remaster's, however the HD remaster's looks overhaul is greatly appreciated, running at a constant 60fps and having a crisp look that ages well.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts 2 is a joy to play, and despite taking some liberties, is a brilliant sequel to the initial entry.

In my opinion, currently the best of the series. It felt like an amazing next step after the original and CoM. A flashier, faster paced combat that is a fantastic balance between hack-and-slash and magic, climatic boss battles, the introduction of the Nobodies and Organization XIII and how they fit into the equation and one of the greatest video game OSTs to date. Final Mix makes the vanilla version beyond obsolete. With the addition of extra items, keyblades, areas and phenomenal post-game boss battles that both show the striking depth of the combat system and builds further on expanding on future events makes me forgive its flaws (e.g. slow beginning that hurts multiple playthroughs, cringeworthy moments that haven’t aged well and Sora becoming too much of an optimist) relatively negligible in comparison.

replayed this a while ago but w/e, here's some scattered notes from then:

- don't mind the simple combat system so much (I'm a ys-enjoyer) and I def appreciate the modifiable combos. i like the systems too! think the synergy btwn mp / drive forms / limits and how it restricts your ability to heal is neat

- don't like how much of the combat boils down to abusing limits / summons / reaction commands to deal damage while invulnerable. the former two are particularly egregious thanks to the amount of (nearly) free damage they put out, and when you throw magnet in the mix, most of its encounters become basically nothing. sticks out enough that it's hard for me to understand the appeal when some fans list this as their favorite action game. genuinely curious to know if there's aspects that I'm missing or not considering here

- reactions and limits can be fun tho.. rly love the bit of spectacle at the end w the lasers that I won't describe since this isn't spoiler tagged, but its length is so amazing

- locking movement options behind drive forms was a silly decision and I'd maybe encourage PC playerz to download the mod that unlocks them all from the start, albeit it can supposedly softlock you so be careful... a better mod would unlock each option when you receive its corresponding form. frankly tho, if you're capable of making a simple web search they do not take nearly as much time to grind out as some suggest

- a take on the command menu I saw is that it's basically "realtime atb" and that skillful play is about being able to quickly navigate the menus. for what though, idk. didn't find enough of the magic useful to have to go into them ever, beyond the four slots you can allocate to in the shortcut menu. i'm probably wrong here

- it takes a while for the 1-on-1 fights to get going. have to assume it's for kids first, but I wasn't vibing with the combat until demyx (pt 2), who's about maybe halfway through @ ~20 hours. the few absent silhouettes placed before him seemed to be too early relative to my level at the time of finding each

- boss highlights were: twilight thorn, shadow stalker (& dark thorn), oogie boogie, demyx, xaldin, the experiment, roxas, saix, the blue haired guy

- the intro really is the single narrative highlight. features a better cast than dorky sora and his dorky friends (except for donald and goofy, because they are my friends). funny that the bits immediately after address sora not knowing what an education is as well as him having hit puberty

- fuck port royal

- why is that mickey mouse bullshit in critical mode. kept triggering it on accident. "sora, my turn!" die

- also, since I'm not going to put down anything for kh1, the simple and clean cue when sora breaks off from kairi at the end kicks so much ass. could not stop laughing

- soz to the gummi-heads but PC playerz can also skip the gummi segments (change offset to 0x56454E): https://github.com/S0nzero/KHPCSpeedrunTools/blob/main/2FMMods/scripts/2fmNoGummi.lua

This game is a lightning in a bottle moment. You really will probably never see a game this good in the franchise again. The soundtrack is fucking fantastic, one of the best. The worlds are great even the lion king one and atlantica. The lion king one is one of the games several ways to spice up gameplay and atlantica is optional and a easy but fun rhythm game. The gummi ship segments are fun arcade shooter moments, also with great music. Gameplay is tight, flashy and critical mode provides a fair but challenging experience overall. Great boss fights, with few, if any, bad ones. The ability to do a level 1 playthrough and no damage bosses displays how good the combat is and is something you don't see that often in action rpgs. The story is dumb but always entertaining. Don't take it that serious and you'll learn to enjoy it. You're supposed to laugh at mickey in a black cloak. Its crazy how most action rpgs can't reach the height this game did in 2007 (besides souls-likes and yakuza if we count that series).