Extremely well-rounded game and easily the best in the series. The combat is deceivingly complex and ripe with possibilities that most people won't notice the first time they play, but its true nature slowly becomes apparent the longer you play with a complexity that continues to expand as your playtime increases and never seems to stop revealing new ways to expand the possibilities of combat.

Its mechanics are poorly explained by the game, but there's a genius level of game design lying underneath the surface with a combat system that feels incredibly complex and dynamic with an endless amount of improvement to be achieved, which is made all the more appealing by the variety and quality of enemy and boss designs.

Combat encounters are extremely varied and the hardest content in the game tests your knowledge of the game's mechanics and management of its various systems, which is especially true on Critical Mode - the maximum difficulty setting which not only makes enemies extremely powerful and forces you to play with a high level of awareness, but also tweaks the balance of your own power level by making you deal more damage to turn you into a glass cannon, rewarding confident play with satisfying results and keeping combat faced-paced, and giving you extra abilities from the start that unlock more possibilities and combat potential from the get-go. After playing this mode, it becomes clear this isn't intended to be a "hell mode" difficulty, but rather a mode created with a carefully curated gameplay balance to punish mistakes and force you to take a more thoughtful approach to combat, while giving you all the tools and power necessary to approach combat with a more confident playstyle to make for a perfectly-tuned balancing act of risk and reward - the game will punish you, but it's rarely unfair, and you can always learn to adapt and punish the game right back (and boy does it feel satisfying doing it). Critical Mode ultimately becomes the best way to play the game, period, and is a key aspect of the Final Mix version that transforms a decent action game into a masterwork of combat design across the game's abundance of carefully crafted encounters and gameplay tools that effectively grant inexperienced players a satisfying hack-n-slash game that they can learn to overcome through whatever tools strategies they feel personally drawn to, while having an astounding amount of depth in the amount of tools available at any given moment which grant an incredible amount of power to players with a deep understanding of all the options and how to incorporate them all into an optimized style of gameplay with a huge amount of freedom in the amount of decisions that can be made on-the-fly.

All of your resources are designed in such a way that feed into one another and reward complex desicion-making - for instance, if you conserve your magic without running out, you can use a limit to maximize the potential of your available MP. After you run out of magic from using the limit, you can enter a Drive Form which recovers all your magic and alters Sora's moveset with more complex and powerful ways of attacking. Before running out of magic, you can use another limit with your remaining MP and take advantage of the Drive Gauge gaining energy faster when you attack while MP is recharging. Drive forms not working out for you? Use the Drive Guage to summon Stitch to deflect attacks and periodically recharge your MP for free so you can control crowds with unrestricted uses of Magnet. Summon runs out? Back to a limit to recharge drive and get them back. All the systems feed into each other and allow the player to take agency in every decision, with so many options available for players to handle situations in whatever ways the see fit, with extremely well-constructed mechanics in place to reward those who know how to vary their gameplay and incorporate all these systems together in a way that becomes more optimal when utilizing as many systems as possible with an understanding of the situational decision-making required to maximize their potential.

Beyond all of the more complex reasons why combat is so well-crafted, it just feels incredibly satisfying and after hundreds of hours and years of playing, it still never grows old. There are so many attacks that are simply fun to use, with some of the most satisfying options becoming more apparent with more experience like those in the more powerful Drive Forms. Master Form enhances magic spells with animations that grant a high level of mobility in different ways for each spell and allows for magic to be chained into indefinitely long combos as long as you have MP, which turns the form into a dance of highly mobile and aggressive magic combos and crowd-controlling aerial attacks. Then there's Final Form, which yields unimpressive results when used haphazardly with sluggish movement on the ground and combos that lock you into long animations, and air combos that can trap you in vulnerable positions, but rewards gameplay knowledge and execution to those with a more technical understanding of its mechanics and stick by a few key ideas - 1) only attack and use magic in the air, always jump before attacking 2) cancel long aerial animations with magic 3) touch the ground to reset your combo and cancel magic animations 4) jump and continue attacking, rinse and repeat. The whole idea is to use Reflect magic to play reactively while playing aggressive and staying highly mobile, with Reflect being used to cancelling midair animations and allowing you fall to the ground, resetting your combo to allow for continued aggression. Final Form is the only way to use Reflect while moving and dancing around in the air (Wisdom lets you Reflect while moving but only on the ground can't be used aggressively like with Final) and the animation/float-cancelling properties of magic in Final Form mean the spell can be used reactively to fuel a state of constant aggression, rewarding knowledgeable players with the ability to react without slowing down or backing off while the damage from countering with Reflect devastates enemies. In the hands of an inexperienced player, Final Form is just a "cool" form with attacks lacking the utility found in Master Form's basic combos and endless magic combos, but for players interested in delving into the technical aspects of combat and optimizing their gameplay, Final Form provides a toolkit for skilled players to exploit their game knowledge and maximize their effectiveness.

There are countless ways I can praise the game and delve into specific aspects of gameplay like what I just wrote way too much about, but it'll become too exhaustive and I've already gone overboard. I haven't even mentioned the story and it's the main draw of the game for most people. There's nothing to say that hasn't been shown by the dedication and adoration of the game's fanbase. Can the story and pacing be a mess at times? Yeah, sure. Is the game a tonally inconsistent rollercoaster? Yeah, definitely. Is everyone who plays the game going to love the implementation of Disney IPs and decisions for how they're woven into the story? Certainly not. Is everyone going to see the value of gameplay that I personally see? No, and I'm aware that people who value the gameplay the same way I do are a niche portion of the fandom. Should any of those things prevent you from playing the game? Absolutely not. This game holds a sense of magic that no other game really captures - maybe KH1, but for slightly different reasons from this game. For all the problems and oddities it has, there's even more ways why it's considered such an exceptional game.

For those fortunate enough to find themselves enjoying the game, it's an experience that has an uncanny ability to charm the most unlikely of players. For those lucky enough to get sucked in, it's an experience that will worm its way into your heart and stick with you for a long time to come. For a special few, the game has a way of embedding itself into the core of your soul. And if you're like me, you'll find a masterpiece of a game, with combat that just hits different, and an offering of content that never stops being fun and you'll want to play over and over and over again.

You wanted Final Fantasy with Disney characters and you got Devil May Cry.

Kingdom Hearts, as a series, eludes me. I've tried every game in the series, but KH2 is the only one that's really stuck in a meaningful way, damn meaningful at that. Your mileage may vary on the story, but I find KH2 to be among the most straightforward and (relatively) engaging chunks of this narrative, full of particularly enjoyable character moments with our boy Sora. But where KH2 really shines is in its sublime combat. I'm not going to talk about how deep it is or how it offers so much room for player expression and variety, because its success is far simpler than that. KH2 just feels real, real good. It feels good to hit things with these snappy, fluid combos. It feels good to play around with different magic spells. Drive forms feel good. Abilities feel good. KH2 feels good. Instead of a slow, floaty ARPG with platformer elements, KH2 is a full on stylish action game and, for some reason, the series has never tried it again.

Kingdom Hearts II is a great example that a game can have several annoying aspects or sections but still be amazing based off of vibe and a good finale. Second visits to each world could be pretty annoying and yet it still never lost me, because the game never fails at feeling engaging in both gameplay and especially in its story and characters. A genuine, absolute joy from beginning to end even despite the annoyances I have with certain sections. Maybe one day I'll come back to fight the superbosses, but for now I look forward to seeing how the games progress from here for myself!

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.

I started this game with a hater's killing intent, Final Fantasy simply does not mean anything to me, and I've tended to a garden of dislike for Disney movies from a young age that has blossomed into a forest of disdain as they evolved from saccharine and condescending children's films to emotional therapy for stunted millennials dragging their disinterested kids to watch their dad cry at a cartoon personification of an emotion wiggling it's eyebrows. I had often heard that a 'critical mode level 1' play through was a legendary action game on par with the greats, and had the full bad faith intention of saying this game sucked actually. Unfortunately my faculties are too objective and like the Casu Martz, just because something is conceptually and aesthetically revolting, doesn't mean it's not worth 100 dollars a pound.

nostalgia's a weird thing, man.

especially when it's something like KH2 where everyone except you played this shit when they were like ten and it changed their life forever, and you're just sitting here trying to find out why a game with a Worse Dark Souls 2 Roll has a rating this high. like, at best i think this game is ok. it's one of those games with stuff that i really like that's buried under a mile of shit, and usually i'm even less fond of those than games that are outright bad.

for starters, i think this game is absolutely carried by its mid 2000s edgy emo badass aesthetic. like this is the quintisential hot topic kid game - sora and roxas are dripped out of their minds and you get to fight a ton of emo dudes in black coats, hell yeah man. i have this really deep appreciation for the twilight town segment at the start of the game; that feeling of melancholy and something not being quite right is something that hasn't really been replicated in any game since. it sets the stage for this game so well - the backdrop of the end of summer, roxas knowing that something's terribly wrong, getting a behind the scenes look of him getting helplessly messed with... it's such a great intro, and the few moments where that same melancholy shows up throughout the game are really something special.

but then you get to play the actual game and its like. lol. lmao.

to be fair, it's a LOT better than kh1. the worlds feel more fleshed out (even if revisits are annoying), there are some badass moments, whenever there's not a mickey mouse character on screen this shit rules. but there's just enough dumbo shit to bother me, whether it be cutting to stitch for half a second just to remind you that yes, we have the rights to disney characters, or whatever is going on with the girls from FFX-2.

combat feels a lot better too - you're not just mashing X and cure, spells work differently and non-cure magic is actually useful. drive forms are sick as hell and make you feel like a total badass, donald and goofy are actually useful...

so why did fuckin squenix, in their despicable me evil lab where they make this game, decide to pile on so much objectively terrible shit? did they not want the game to be too good??
why do you spend all of the mulan world gathering Morale Orbs? why are there so many weirdo gimmick fights/objectives that are just "fight every enemy before X happens and you lose"? why is there a chance your drive form literally becomes a suicide button if you get unlucky and get anti sora?? and what's the deal with the wack-ass difficulty spikes in the last few hours of the game? whoever playtested the xigbar fight needs to go to see a doctor or some shit

it's a shame that there's so much stupid dumbo shit piled on to this game that overshadow the genuinely great improvements. i get that i'm just scratching the surface here - there are data battles and a billion superbosses that i could do, but i don't care! i barely survived the main story without smashing my controller hearing LET'S SEE HOW YOU DANCE, i dont wanna do any more.

i'm not as upset with this one as i was with kh1, just really sad. i get that this is regarded as the best game in the series, and i see why. i guess it's just not for me.

The more time passes, the harder it is to wrestle with how weird this game is to recommend. I want to tell all my sweaty action gamers to start on Critical and skip all the cutscenes, and I sincerely believe it’s the way to play, but I also realize that’s not a realistic experience whatsoever lmfao.

That intrusive thought verbalized, it doesn’t change how I feel about the game itself. Not sure I have more to add on top of what I said in this video: https://youtu.be/RYdFpv9Ay7o?si=XKNPVk13CDzhNzn8