It’s no secret that I love Kingdom Hearts and especially Kingdom Hearts II as it was the very first video game franchise I’ve ever became a fan of, however, there is one secret I do have: I never played the Final Mix version until now.
Crazy, I know! Played the vanilla game so many times day in and day out growing up, remembering being so jealous knowing that Japan had an exclusive (at the time) version of the game where you get to challenge all of the Organization XIII and more, and even witness the numerous re-releases of Final Mix in the West, but for some reason, I only just now recently gotten around to experiencing the game, and man I really wish I started sooner.
The same overall package is still here. The grand stories, the memorable characters, the iconic music, the worlds, and the incredible fast-paced combat, but now there’s more and it’s completely fine tuned to perfection. The changes under the hood makes the combat feel even more snappy and satisfying, the new additional boss fights feel like a dance that can overwhelm either yourself or your opponent, the inclusion of Cavern of Remembrance adds even more depth to the gameplay with its movement and enemies, and overall the entire experience is just amped up to a 10. I know the whole “power of friendship” troupe can be so overdone in a lot of media, but I think KH2 does it best while it can be as cheesy as the first game, it fully embraces it without shame and wears it proudly on it sleeves, which works so well because Kingdom Hearts overall is essentially a shonen anime with Disney and Final Fantasy characters. Even with how absurd it can get for some people, there’s so much heart in the writing to where you can’t help but to at least find it extremely endearing.
I feel like I could REALLY go on about this, but I think I wanna save a much deeper depth into KH2 for a review in the future. I think right now it’s hard to fully capture the words and things I wanna say, because this game and series left such a strong impression on me and the impact it has had on me is something that very few games or even pieces of media have ever accomplished, it really altered how I view the medium and understanding of video games and what they could be. Growing up with KH2 has left me wowed and in awe of what an amazing game looks like, and with Final Mix, it gives me another example of what a masterpiece can look like.
Crazy, I know! Played the vanilla game so many times day in and day out growing up, remembering being so jealous knowing that Japan had an exclusive (at the time) version of the game where you get to challenge all of the Organization XIII and more, and even witness the numerous re-releases of Final Mix in the West, but for some reason, I only just now recently gotten around to experiencing the game, and man I really wish I started sooner.
The same overall package is still here. The grand stories, the memorable characters, the iconic music, the worlds, and the incredible fast-paced combat, but now there’s more and it’s completely fine tuned to perfection. The changes under the hood makes the combat feel even more snappy and satisfying, the new additional boss fights feel like a dance that can overwhelm either yourself or your opponent, the inclusion of Cavern of Remembrance adds even more depth to the gameplay with its movement and enemies, and overall the entire experience is just amped up to a 10. I know the whole “power of friendship” troupe can be so overdone in a lot of media, but I think KH2 does it best while it can be as cheesy as the first game, it fully embraces it without shame and wears it proudly on it sleeves, which works so well because Kingdom Hearts overall is essentially a shonen anime with Disney and Final Fantasy characters. Even with how absurd it can get for some people, there’s so much heart in the writing to where you can’t help but to at least find it extremely endearing.
I feel like I could REALLY go on about this, but I think I wanna save a much deeper depth into KH2 for a review in the future. I think right now it’s hard to fully capture the words and things I wanna say, because this game and series left such a strong impression on me and the impact it has had on me is something that very few games or even pieces of media have ever accomplished, it really altered how I view the medium and understanding of video games and what they could be. Growing up with KH2 has left me wowed and in awe of what an amazing game looks like, and with Final Mix, it gives me another example of what a masterpiece can look like.