New fight mechanics make for a frenzied update of the first game's perhaps rigid to a fault slugging. That is until the boss fights where thought reenters the fore — sorry but Roxas is a more relentless, punishing, and decisive fight than Dark Souls' Ornstein and Smough. My issue is with the despatialisation of the game where the first so radically reduced familiar Disney worlds to clumsy sets in order to channel both the appeal and limitations of nostalgia. It was affectionate and utterly heartbreaking. The tangled levels asked the player to return, to see what they might've missed or maybe just spend more time there. Kingdom Hearts 2 is effectively a long cut scene with interactive bits. The levels are stripped of texture, Sora feels like he's gliding along the floor, and the painted corridors let us know that there is nothing here to return to after the cutscenes are over. Often we will get a cutscene that places us on a path, and there is nothing to do but walk along the path to cue another cutscene. It comes together near the end with a narrative charge that finally 'feels' like something, but really the game begins and ends in its (excellent) boss battles.