This review contains spoilers
For the longest time, I have been a certified Kingdom Hearts hater. Almost two years ago, I played the original Kingdom Hearts and really didn't like it (I wrote a whole review on it last year if you're interested). I tried Re:Chain of Memories shortly after beating KH1 but stopped after the first ten minutes because of how abhorrent the combat was. Rest assured I was extremely disappointed and somewhat butthurt at how bad these games were because I spent money on these expecting them to be good. So I wrote Kingdom Hearts off as a terrible series. Even in the amount of times my friends begged me to play Kingdom Hearts II, I declined playing it because of how much of a bad taste the games I played left in my mouth. Almost two years later I bit the bullet and finally played Kingdom Hearts II and I have a lot to say about it.
It's genuinely remarkable how much this game outdoes it's predecessor in every single way imaginable. Well almost but I'll get into the plot later. The combat is incredibly frenetic and sensationally fun as hell with there being amazing additions to the gameplay. I think the most prominent example being the various different amount of forms Sora gets throughout the game with them each offering the player a unique gameplay style that can heavily help in a pinch depending on the situation which is a godsend. Strategically analyzing a boss and figuring out which spells and form will work against them and seeing it pay off in the game is extremely euphoric especially later on when you fight the Organization members. Seriously they can be total dickheads, for me personally the hardest fights in the game were Demyx, Xaldin and Roxas. Speaking of bosses and things being improved from the first game: the bosses in this game aren't perfect, my thumb was sore as fuck at the end of that Xemnas fight and any boss that isn't an Organization member kinda feels really easy, even on critical, but most of them are still pretty good. I guess what separates the Organization members from the bosses who are either Heartless or Disney characters is that those bosses kinda felt... simple. I know the objectives to do during the bosses aren't simple, but I mean in terms of their attack patterns. The fights with the members from the Organization made me feel like I was actually playing a video game. They all have very dynamic gimmicks that compliment their respective character which makes them all stand out strong on their own from each other.
The Disney worlds is another thing improved from the first game. The worlds in the first game fucking sucked for the most part. Atlantica is legit one of the worst stages I've ever played in a video game holy shit the controls and boss were atrocious. The worlds in Kingdom Hearts II on the other hand were pretty good apart from like Tron. It's like if Nomura knew exactly what I thought about the worlds from the first game, what he could do to rectify it and did just that. The worlds returning from the first game feel a lot more open ended and more suited for exploration. Like holy shit it's nice that Olympus Coliseum is an actual fucking place this time and not a glorified gauntlet. Not only that but they all offer some pretty fun minigames. The best example being the carpet segment in Agrabah. Sure the controls took some getting used to but it was still fun. And holy shit does this game have an amazing endgame. I know I marked this review as having spoilers but that I seriously don't wanna spoil. This game in general has a really grand spectacle that at times, genuinely took my breath away. The Battle of 1,000 Heartless is legit one of the most raw and badass thing a game has ever done and it's a goddamn miracle Nomura was able to make that shit work on the PS2. And the music is fucking like............. holy fucking shit this game's music is phenomenal.
Anyway didn't I say I was gonna talk about the plot? Yeah let's talk about that. I know of all the tired jokes I can make at this game's expense but I'm not going to do that because in all honesty, I find the mythos of Kingdom Hearts to be genuinely very compelling. I just wish this game didn't have god awful pacing (which is insane considering it took me 30 something hours to beat it). None of the subplots feel consistently balanced, it feels like they're all fighting to be the A plot. Like the first third of the game where I'm doing these fucking cartoony wild goose chases with Pete surrounding the return of Maleficent felt so needless and overall tedious considering it amounted to basically nothing in the end (sure they came at the very end but like you could easily write them out the scene and nothing would change).
But who cares about the plot? The plot sucks balls everyone knows that but don't let that deter you from this game. If I, a Kingdom Hearts hater, who hates the first game with a passion, tells you this game is pretty good... then you better play this goddamn game. 7.5/10
It's genuinely remarkable how much this game outdoes it's predecessor in every single way imaginable. Well almost but I'll get into the plot later. The combat is incredibly frenetic and sensationally fun as hell with there being amazing additions to the gameplay. I think the most prominent example being the various different amount of forms Sora gets throughout the game with them each offering the player a unique gameplay style that can heavily help in a pinch depending on the situation which is a godsend. Strategically analyzing a boss and figuring out which spells and form will work against them and seeing it pay off in the game is extremely euphoric especially later on when you fight the Organization members. Seriously they can be total dickheads, for me personally the hardest fights in the game were Demyx, Xaldin and Roxas. Speaking of bosses and things being improved from the first game: the bosses in this game aren't perfect, my thumb was sore as fuck at the end of that Xemnas fight and any boss that isn't an Organization member kinda feels really easy, even on critical, but most of them are still pretty good. I guess what separates the Organization members from the bosses who are either Heartless or Disney characters is that those bosses kinda felt... simple. I know the objectives to do during the bosses aren't simple, but I mean in terms of their attack patterns. The fights with the members from the Organization made me feel like I was actually playing a video game. They all have very dynamic gimmicks that compliment their respective character which makes them all stand out strong on their own from each other.
The Disney worlds is another thing improved from the first game. The worlds in the first game fucking sucked for the most part. Atlantica is legit one of the worst stages I've ever played in a video game holy shit the controls and boss were atrocious. The worlds in Kingdom Hearts II on the other hand were pretty good apart from like Tron. It's like if Nomura knew exactly what I thought about the worlds from the first game, what he could do to rectify it and did just that. The worlds returning from the first game feel a lot more open ended and more suited for exploration. Like holy shit it's nice that Olympus Coliseum is an actual fucking place this time and not a glorified gauntlet. Not only that but they all offer some pretty fun minigames. The best example being the carpet segment in Agrabah. Sure the controls took some getting used to but it was still fun. And holy shit does this game have an amazing endgame. I know I marked this review as having spoilers but that I seriously don't wanna spoil. This game in general has a really grand spectacle that at times, genuinely took my breath away. The Battle of 1,000 Heartless is legit one of the most raw and badass thing a game has ever done and it's a goddamn miracle Nomura was able to make that shit work on the PS2. And the music is fucking like............. holy fucking shit this game's music is phenomenal.
Anyway didn't I say I was gonna talk about the plot? Yeah let's talk about that. I know of all the tired jokes I can make at this game's expense but I'm not going to do that because in all honesty, I find the mythos of Kingdom Hearts to be genuinely very compelling. I just wish this game didn't have god awful pacing (which is insane considering it took me 30 something hours to beat it). None of the subplots feel consistently balanced, it feels like they're all fighting to be the A plot. Like the first third of the game where I'm doing these fucking cartoony wild goose chases with Pete surrounding the return of Maleficent felt so needless and overall tedious considering it amounted to basically nothing in the end (sure they came at the very end but like you could easily write them out the scene and nothing would change).
But who cares about the plot? The plot sucks balls everyone knows that but don't let that deter you from this game. If I, a Kingdom Hearts hater, who hates the first game with a passion, tells you this game is pretty good... then you better play this goddamn game. 7.5/10