this game would be good if it was just the fun disney worlds and didnt have any of the nomura bullshit
its got some decent enough combat, but a garbage story with painfully annoying characters. anytime organization xiii comes up, i just want to die. the disney worlds partially make up for it since its largely self-contained stories for them with minimal ties to the overarching plot, but even then, the worlds were better in the first game, and also you need to visit them twice, and the second visits just suck, its unnecessary padding where either you retread the same ground or you get thrown some crappy gimmick level and end on a mediocre-at-best boss. maybe a new area will be thrown in, but the second visit to worlds never felt necessary. lets see, what else... the gummi ship missions suck, they were better in the first game. the combat, while largely better, doesnt really get good until probably 20 hours in when youve leveled up enough to get some good stuff. but even then, the combat is bogged down by mashing triangle whenever the game wants you to, so the game just wants you to mash x and triangle and its so awkward and uncomfortable to do it. probably coulda been less cumbersome if triangle and circle switched functions. speaking of the combat, kh2 also has new forms for sora by the way of drive forms. lots of em too, and they all level up. but thats kind of where the problems arise from the drive forms... when you first get them, they last only like 30 seconds or something and it takes forever to fill the drive meter, but the game expects you to use them often so you can level it up right? wrong. if you use them too often, the game will punish you by making you a heartless that cant use triangle actions and just controls so poorly, and you cant revert the form until the gauge is empty and you dont even have allies to help you. you cant use spells or items and youre just at the mercy of the machine. this becomes a problem when you realize the fun movement this game is known for is tied to upgrading the drive forms. so not only does it take forever to get drive form (at least until the final quarter of the game when you get items and abilities that make the drive meter fill up faster) but also you cant grind without turning into something useless for about a minute. the heartless form doesnt even level up, to make things worse. those arent even the only problems with the drives, each form levels up from different methods, and the only way you'll find that out is if you go check on the forms manually on the status menu. one levels up through combos performed, one levels up through nobodies killed, one leveled up through combos finished, its just so arbitrary and annoying, and despite it being a form that lasts for such a short time that you sometimes cant even get to use thanks to the heartless form, the amount of points it takes to level up those forms is absolutely ludicrous, the late game grinding you'll do to unlock better moves is just insane, and theres even a form thats unlocked at random past an arbitrary point in the game. the worst part is, the drive forms themselves are actually pretty good aside from wisdom. lets see what else. oh yeah, the game also likes to switch up gameplay styles every now and again. this is something i wont complain about, its done well enough and breaks up the gameplay enough. most people hated the little mermaid world because of it, but frankly i just liked the change of pace in it. coulda been done better, but its not as bad as the little mermaid world from kh1. also the opening world of this game is so fucking painfully boring that i just wanted to stop there, and frankly i should have. i could probably go on and on about how much i dont like this game but im rambling into the void enough as it is. its not a bad game, but i cant stand it. its just such a massive step down from kh1, and if this is the "best" in the series, im dreading the rest.
good music tho

tl;dr more like kingdom hearts 2/5 lmao