Kingdom Hearts II

aka: KH2
Moby ID: 21912
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Description official descriptions

Sora, Donald, and Goofy are back in the third installment (second for PS2) of the Kingdom Hearts series, continuing where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories left off. The trio awakens from their sleep and goes to Twilight Town. When the game begins, you will first have control over a boy name Roxas who wields a dual-Keyblade. He is trying to enjoy the remainder of his summer vacation with his friends but he keeps having flash-backs of someone else's memories.

When he meets up with Sora, the two learns they have a special connection with one another. Afterwards, the group will continue their search for King Mickey and Riku. This time, they will travel to new worlds and work with various characters from the Disney and Final Fantasy universes. This includes worlds from not only Disney's animated movies but other movies as well like Pirates of the Caribbean and TRON.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora and his friends will battle various enemies including the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts, but also a group of enemies called Nobodies. Nobodies are "nonexistent beings" who are under the control of Organization XIII - a group of 13 members in black coats that Sora and his friends have reduced down to just half.

Gameplay is very similar to Kingdom Hearts: the player controls Sora with Donald and Goofy helping with their magic and attacks. Sora can use various magic powers as well as use Summon which will call upon the aid of special Disney characters that will temporarily fight alongside him. A new feature of combat are "Reaction Commands". Some enemies will leave themselves open during attacks, and if the player presses the Reaction Command button when prompted Sora will take advantage of the situation, either turning an enemy's attack against them, striking from a defenseless side for extra damage, or avoiding an otherwise unavoidable attack. As the trio levels up and progresses in the game they will gain new abilities that they can equip. Also, after Mickey meets the party, if Sora is KO'd the player will have the option of controlling Mickey and defending Sora until he can recover.

Another new feature is the Drive gauge. When filled and activated Sora absorbs the strength of his allies and gains new powers, like long range magical bullets in Magician form or the ability to use two keyblades in Strength form. Using Drive forms will power them up, unlocking new abilities and allowing them to be used for longer periods of time.

The Gummi Ship returns, but the speed of combat during Gummi Ship level has been greatly increased. While the path of the Gummi Ship is still out of the player's control, the ship can now attack enemies to the front, sides, and behind. Gummi Ship levels can be re-challenged at different difficulty levels, with different levels offering greater challenge and new enemy patterns. Achieving high scores in these levels rewards new Gummi Ship parts and plans.

Spellings

  • キングダムハーツII - Japanese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

750 People (678 developers, 72 thanks) · View all

Director + Concept Design
Main Programmers
Planning Director
Planning Director: Map
Planning Director: Event
3D Modeling Direction: Map
Art Director
Art Director: Texture
Art Director: Interface
Art Director: VFX
Scenario
Music
Syntheizer Operator
Sound Programmer
Supervising Dialogue Editor
Sound Designer
Movie Director
Co-Producer
Producer
Base Story
Text Planners
Programmers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 47 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 75 ratings with 8 reviews)

The brilliant partnership between Square and Disney produces yet another solid game.

The Good
Let me start off by saying that the first problem I mentioned in my review of the first game, has been fixed. Back then I addressed that I was not really a fan of young characters and even though Sora, Kairi and Riku weren't that bad, their childish behavior sometimes ticked me off. In this game all the main characters are slightly older and let me just say that they aged well. The best part are their voices, which are now fantastic and really professional. The design is a lot better too: Kairi now wears some more decent clothing and Sora no longer looks like he got his clothes from the bin outside the circus tent. To summarize it: This was a very minor detail, that vastly improved the presentation for me.

Also quite enjoyable is the fact that while the first problem I addressed was solved, the first praise I handed out is also still present. The fighting in Kingdom Hearts 2 is simply fantastic, it's fluent, fast and just a lot of fun. The addition of "Reaction Commands" is also very nice, the idea is that by pressing the triangle button and the correct time (such as in the middle of a specific enemy attack), Sora performs a cinematic ability that does a lot of damage. The best part about this quick-time event, is that you are not severely punished for messing up. You take damage instead and only rarely does it instant-kill you.

The biggest selling point to people however is likely not how fluent the combat is or how the characters have improved slightly, but the fact that there are a ton of new and nostalgic Disney movies to visit. The level progression is also very nice, instead of starting with old familiars, you get to do some completely new worlds first. Eventually you do find your way back to Agrabah and Halloween Town, but there are completely different stories going on there, so it feels a bit fresh again.

Aside from some levels you might have anticipated, such as Ancient China from the Mulan movie and Beast's Castle from Beauty and the Beast, there are also some levels that came as complete surprises to me. I was, for example, completely shocked when I suddenly found myself walking around the freaking Pride Lands as Lion Sora. I'd love to go into more detail, but hey, they wouldn't be surprised if I'd spoil them.

Graphic-wise the game has also improved, which is especially sweet since I already called the first game "one of the best, if not the best, looking game on the ps2". The most notable update are the faces, which on reflection looked kind of uncanny in the first game. The HUD is also a bit different and by default it changes in theme based on the level you are in, which is a nice little touch. There were also some levels that had a different kind of animation than the standard Disney style, one of which was originally live-action, and these were also neatly presented to us.

KH2 also provides us with a good update to the enemy roster. Not only do the ever as lovely Heartless get a lot of new units, but there is also a whole new faction to fight. "The Nobodies" might not have as much charm and variety as the Heartless, but they are still fun to fight in a different way and their more Humanoid leaders proved to be intriguing villains. Unless you plan to grind, you won't find yourself killing a lot of the same enemies over and over again, and that is a real good thing.

One thing that Kingdom Hearts 1 never managed though, was to provide me with scenes that genuinely got my adrenaline pumping. Some parts were frustrating and the final boss had me quite tense, but I was never really 100% immersed into the game. While Immersion is definitely not the strongest part of this series, there were a few moments and the Battle for Hallow Bastion in particular, where so much story-events were happening at once that I lost complete awareness of my surroundings and could only notice the game itself and my heart pounding with excitement.

The Gummi flights which earned some vicious beating from me in the past, have really been improved in this game. In the first title, they were just kind of bland and thoughtless. You just had to go forward in your insanely slow ship and hold down X to kill everything. This time around however, the flights are fast, filled with different enemies and even challenging. Flying around feels more like Starfox 64, but mixed with the races from F-Zero. I also like how you unlock new blueprints by doing well in these flights, so you don't have to make your own ships or buy blueprints if you don't want to.

Unlike the flying sections though, the overall gameplay had its difficulty turned down a notch, which is an improvement you can only grasp if you actually played the first game. KH1 was plagued with some downright insane boss-fights that were preceded by long cut-scenes that you had to watch every time you died. I managed to beat this entire game and every main boss by simply going through all the story missions, I never had to stop and grind for hours on end or waste brain cells trying to comprehend the Synthesis mechanic.

Finally, I'd like the praise the journal in this series. I never really talked about it before, mostly because I forgot it was there in the first game (as with Jiminy as a whole), but this time I did stop and take a look every once in a while. The book nicely records your overall progress in each world, which is especially useful after picking the game up after a long break from it. The book is also slightly out-universe, so it describes events and characters in more detail than you actually discovered and in some cases Sora didn't even discover at all (such as some things that Roxas did).

The Bad
Let's start off where the game does to, the opening cut-scene. Seriously Square Enix (and Disney), these opening songs are starting to get booooooooooooooooooooring. I am not a big fan of JPop, but I could respect the opening montage in the first game to a certain extent. Now that i have played every single game in the timeline (up until KH2 and with the exclusion of Birth By Sleep), these songs are starting to get incredibly grating. I just want to start playing and seeing as how these scenes have little to no relevance to the actual story (though this around they do show some scenes from Chains of Memories).

After that we open the game with Roxas and boy does this mean the start of the four most boring hours of your life. As Roxas you don't really get to do much, you are no longer a badass member of Organization XIII, you are a boy on summer vacation. While there are a few scenes where you fight stuff, the three and a half hour that are left are spend doing chores for some money, making homework and learning just how much Twilight Town sucks (if that wasn't already apparent after 358/2 Days). And after four hours where does all this stuff lead to? NOTHING, you just trade Roxas with Sora and only two or three events you took part in are ever addressed in the rest of the game.

I am sorry, but I just can't get over it how much this game made Roxas suck. He has some scenes after the opening hours, but the damage was long done. I also warned people back in my review of 358/2 Days that I was going to bitch like hell if Xion was not addressed anywhere in the story and 'lo and behold, she is nowhere to be found. The series has this weird habit of making the entire universe forget about characters when they die under certain conditions and this is just shooting yourself in the foot because characters having to deal with the death of a friend is much more interesting than characters not remembering a fellow character and therefore not giving a damn.

Okay, so you might wonder what, besides the first four hours of the game, is wrong in Kingdom Hearts 2. The answer is: Relatively little, but let's go over it anyway.

Story inconsistencies are nice to start with because there are a lot of these. I won't go over all of them, but the one that bothers me the most is how Maleficant is brought back into the story. She is dead at the start of the game, but then she is brought back because. and I am serious here, some people remembered here. This wouldn't even be catastrophic if she wasn't mentioned and thus remembered a hundred times before this happened. Another thing that doesn't really work me is the Destiny Islands because now there is suddenly a whole mainland just off-shore, granted this was mentioned briefly when Sora sees Kairi's and Riku's boat, but give me a break, the world was called "The Destiny Islands" and everybody referred to the world as an island. Finally, there is the "Proof of Existence", which is a room that shows which members of Organization XIII are still alive. A nice idea, if it wasn't for the fact that it was a big deal that some members MIGHT have died during an operation in 358/2 Days and nobody knew who.

Whoever is in charge of designing the weapons and armor also needs to learn how descriptions work. The statistics of all the items are there, but most weapons have a side-effect that is often more important than the actual strength and magic points. However, these descriptions are just too ambiguous to help you decide which one to use. Quick lesson here: "Activates during a critical moment", among a lot of other similar statements, means absolutely nothing. If it is open for interpretation, then you have clearly failed describing such an essential part of the game.

Early in the game and quite a few times afterwards, there was the tendency to throw a lot of tutorials at me, none of which I ever remembered. Not only does a pop-up filled with text take me out of the experience, but it's also a terribly way to get me to memorize it. Throw in some visual hints during gameplay and let me play out the tutorial instead. I was just very annoyed when I wanted to do something like switching the magic spells on my quick-select and not knowing how to do that, or having to shut off the system in the middle of a boss-fight because I needed a character I didn't have in my party and I couldn't remember how the swap characters mid-battle.

Organization XIII is an interesting group of characters and because they are so colorful, it would have been a lot more fun if we got to battle all of them in one solid game. Some of the really cool ones, like Marluxia and Vexen were already taken out in Chains of Memories, which is even worse because Chains of Memories is barely playable. However, I would not have minded if we didn't fight them at all either. What I mean is that I never really figured out how the Organization is in any way evil, they are just a group of people with a common problem, working towards fixing it and improving their lives. Their methods might not always be very ethically correct, but nobody is going to tell me that Demyx and Luxord were genuine bad guys. I also never really saw where Sora made the connection that XIII is bad and judging by some of the lines, it seems more like unintended racism to me (as in the writers accidentally wrote out racist scenarios).

The Bottom Line
There is a lot to say about Kingdom Hearts 2, but in the end I can only say that it's a really solid game. While the game has a really tough time getting started, once it's moving forward, it becomes a very enjoyable whole. The overall story and the stories in each individual world are really interesting to follow, gameplay has remained just as fluent as the first game and has even improved slightly and graphically its all very good. There are some nitpicking issues with the story in the game and series as a whole, but most people will likely ignore or not even notice these.

While a lot of people might be attracted to a story about travelling to different Disney Worlds, the audience for this game is cut down severely due to the fact that the game is fairly entrenched in the Kingdom Hearts lore. Some themes get barely any explanation and Jiminy's journal doesn't have any sort of summary for the previous games in the timeline. However, if you liked the first game, then you will almost certainly like this one. I can practically guarantee that!

PlayStation 2 · by Asinine (957) · 2012

One of the best RPG's I've ever played.

The Good
WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS

What happens when you mix Disney characters like Micky Mouse and Donald Duck with characters from one of the most famous RPG series ever, Final Fantasy, while adding characters of your own (Sora, Riku, Kairi, ect.) and having a story about evil shadows called Heartless who feed on the darkness in people's hearts and can only be stopped by the "Keyblade"? Well, you would think the end product would be a confusing mess. If you still think that, you must be a FPS fan boy (no offence to people who like Half-life or Team Fortress). But SquareSoft (now SquareEnix) and Disney Interactive had made undeniable proof that complete opposites can coincide peacefully with Kingdom Hearts. Well... "The story is not over"... and thank god because this game out-does the original by far. Not that the first installment was bad, it was just missing something. And this game, in my eyes, has just that.

The story continues from the second installment of the series, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (which I've never played at time of review). Namine has made Sora and his friends fall into a deep sleep, along with erasing everyone's memory of him. We start the story off with a boy who lives in a town called Twilight Town named Roxas, who's seemingly normal life shall soon reveal secrets that perhaps should of stayed secret... The story is very well made, and flows quite smoothly with the rest of the series, give or take a few plot holes.

The gameplay is a greatly improved version of Kingdom Hearts'. Almost everything has been improved: Fighting system, camera system, menu operation, synthesis, magic, summons, everything! And things such as Drives and a Shortcut menu just makes it all better. One of my favorite additions is Reaction Commands. These let you execute actions that shows Sora's true skills of combat. There are also mini-games that you can play. And the boss battles actually make me want to fight them (and that doesn't happen often)! All of the bosses give some moderate to extreme challenge, and most are really just a lot of fun! I can say absolutely nothing bad about 95% of the game. And the other 5%? Well... we'll get to that later.

The graphics are absolutely amazing. Some detail is so extreme, I wonder sometimes how Square could push the boundaries of the system so much. These graphics are one of the best examples of what a PS2 can really do! The cutscenes have specials "movements" for the characters in 60% of the shots. Let me explain: Sometimes in cutscenes, the models just talk like they do in game. But most of the time, their movements are exclusive to that cutscene, and their mouth syncs with the words almost perfectly.

The music is one of the best game tracks I have ever heard in my life. Some songs, such as "Vim and Vigor", give a sense of an evil aura surrounding the area, while "The Encounter" (one of my favorites) pumps you up for fight and gives you a feeling of "I'm ready to kick some ass!!!" Other music tracks in the game are also worthy of praise. The music will definitely fit the situation, whether walking in the mystic tower of Yen Sid, or getting one step closer to the final battle in the World That Never Was. The theme, "Sanctuary", is also a great song. As for the voice acting, it is wonderful. Not only do the original characters have good actors/actresses, but they have done something that is almost impossible: having almost every Disney character have their original actor. Obviously, Mickey, Donald, Goofy , and every one voiced by Jim Cummings (god-like actor) have their voices, but most of the others do to! Hades, Maleficent, Oggie Boogie, Ursula, Daisy, Minnie, Merlin, and even the freakin' Emperor from Mulan (I'm pretty sure)- ALL have their original voice talents. That, my friends, is commitment. The FF cast is good, too.

So far it sounds like the perfect game, right? Well, about that other 5%...

The Bad
...there are somethings I can't forgive.

Most of the Disney characters retain their original actors (amazingly). But, obviously, they couldn't do this for all of them. The worst cases are Nala and Scar. Nala's "new" actress is very bland and dull. I can't hear any emotion in her voice. It's almost like GLaDOS is voicing her- no, GLaDOS can actually out-perform Nala's actress. And she's a computer! And Scar's biggest mistake: he's not voiced by Jeremy Irons. Without him, Scar isn't Scar in my opinion. Instead of going the 2nd best option, Jim Cummings (see "Be Prepared"), they go with some one who does a TERRIBLE job being Irons. At least he's better than Nala...

Also, some classic moments (Scar's "little secret" to Simba, Hades's so-called "death", ect.) are completely butchered. For example, in the "final battle" at Pride Rock, there is no fire at all. It doesn't even take place at night. In my opinion, this brings the awesome-ness of the whole thing down immensely. Perhaps that would be too "dark", but if they did it in the 90's, they can do it now!

On one last note, I kind of liked the Trinity mark stuff. But that's not to serious.

The Bottom Line
Overall, this game is a must buy for any PS2 owner. Even if you don't like RPGs, buy it. You will not in anyway be sorry for that purchase.

PlayStation 2 · by Deleted (197) · 2010

A Satisfying Conclusion To An Epic Story Arc.

The Good
For a Disney and Final Fantasy fan, this game caters well to both audiences, and brings those fans into each other's worlds in an epic package that make most big-budget films cringe.

The game addresses the most serious issues from the first game: Namely the clunky Gummi Ship scenes, which were more of a tedious chore, and replaces them with a fast-action shooter that actually makes it worth the time to go through. It also makes the side-quests more appealing to spend the time and complete, as they are fun in their execution.

There's so much to cover in the game: The beautifully rendered CG intro which recaps the elements of the first two games, is definitely important to understanding where this game begins, as the beginning hours of this game are played with an unexpected twist. When Sora does make his appearance, the game begins to really take off.

The worlds in this game are stunning. The new worlds add so much life and depth to the stages that you can't help but feel like you're walking on a virtual set of the movies.

"Pirates of the Caribbean" was a surprise world, but works with the story it lays out. Same for worlds like "Steamboat Willie", which is utterly charming in presenting itself as a 1920's cartoon, complete with mono sound. And "Tron" is simply the game that you always wanted to come out when the movie first appeared. It captures the essence of that world so well, that I spent a great amount of time just staring at how pretty the world was.

The same could be said for other new worlds, like "Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast". And even the revisited worlds are by no means rehashes of the original game. New areas, new missions, new story... familiar characters. And the reunions between Sora and the inhabitants of that worlds generate a feeling of sincere familiarity. Long-time players of the series will be pleased.

The story is larger than ever, and finally, a lot of the questions from the last few games are answered. The plot never keeps dropping surprise twist and turns until after the final battle, but it doesn't come off as forced or contrived. It's a smartly written story, and it's interesting to see characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy handled with a sense of maturity, but never losing any of their personality traits in the process.

The Heartless return, and so do many of the Disney Villains, but the Nobodies add something extra to the mix. A deeper exploration into the abilities of the heart. The Kingdom Heart series main story point is that nothing can match the power or strength of what comes from the heart.

Sound is a no-brainer. The game makes more use of the music from the films, and a staggering amount of the movie voice casts return to reprise their respective roles. Some like the "Pirates" crew are missing, but the sound-alikes are decent.

The game build up to a very long climax and the ending uses the strong story-telling pull of Square's writers combined with the emotional pull of Disney films that provides.... The ending rewards the players who became so emotionally invested in Sora and company. The ending itself is long, but the final moments are satisfyingly simple, and memorable.

The Bad
I've read comments that players do not need to complete the Game Boy Advance Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to understand the story. To save you the trouble, that is the biggest falsehood you can ever be told about this game.

The GBA interquel introduces so many characters and certain plot points throughout this tile, there will be times that you will be utterly lost if you don't know that story. Without the GBA game, you will only get about 80% of what is going on, and even less if you never attempted or completed the first game. The three games in the series are too intertwined. You have to play it as one, as they act more like chapters of a much larger story. The recap at the intro will only give you so much background.

The character of Roxas is a mixed view for me. One one hand, he does have his part to play in the story. On the other hand, I wanted to get through his parts to see the continuation of Sora's story. In a lot of ways, Roxas' part plays like a very long tutorial, and his story only becomes relevant when Sora becomes prominent again.

I was sorry to see that the "Tarzan" "Pinocchio" and "Alice in Wonderland" worlds were gone. Tarzan seems lost due to possible licensing issues, but it would have been interesting to visit all the worlds again. The new worlds introduced, however, were more than satisfying.

The "Little Mermaid" world was a bit of a disappointment. It has changed from a fully playable world, to a series of rhythm/music games similar to Bust-A-Groove. It wasn't horrible, but certainly not as entertaining.

Also, combat has been perhaps a little too simplified. Pressing "X" will get you through just about any battle, and as long as you are powered up, you aren't going to have any issues.

The Bottom Line
I was skeptical about "Kingdom Hearts" as a whole when it was first mentioned. I enjoy Disney Animation, and I enjoy Final Fantasy titles, but how could the two work together and be a serious title. Then again, with Square's work on Super Mario RPG, I knew they were capable of making an effective crossover.

The game still reigns as my Top Game of 2006. It is a virtual Disneyland, where players can visit their favorite characters and ride their favorite rides, and it makes for a stunning package.

The biggest flaws from the first game are cleared up in this title, and so many of the things you wanted to do in the first game but couldn't... you definitely can now. And for the characters that were taken away this time, Square and Disney added more than a fair share of new and familiar faces.

Kingdom Hearts 2 makes for a satisfying conclusion to a four-year old series... with hints that the story may not yet be over. If the story does continue on, fans should expect something no less than magical.

The game is as good as it gets. Recommended.

PlayStation 2 · by Guy Chapman (1748) · 2006

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Bug/Glitch

In the Olympus Coliseum world, there is a Heartless, one of the game's main enemies, that goes into a T-stance (a pose characters are in during development). This glitch could possibly be due to bad placement, meaning that it could have moved a short amount from where it originally spawned.

References

The Rock Titan, from the Disney movie Hercules and an optional boss in the original Kingdom Hearts, is seen only once in the entire game (Olympus Coliseum's intro). It's not possible to see or fight him at any other time in the game by normal means. The Ice Titan, who was also in the first game and Hercules, makes no appearance at all.

Two Behemoth Heartless, the huge, purple, mammoth/bull-like creatures from the original Kingdom Hearts were going to be in the 1000 Heartless War, but were cut for unknown reasons.

Suicide attempt

In the Japanese release of the game, in the level Port Royal, the character Will Turner points his gun to his head and attempts to commit suicide. For obvious reasons, this was removed from all other versions of the game, although another cutscene, which depicts a sword pierced through someone's chest, was left intact. Other changes for the American and English versions of the game include differences in the battle with Xigbar, on the final level, where his "shooting scope" is brighter and more accurate to see.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2006 – Best Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • 2006 – #3 Best Original Soundtrack of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2006 – #7 PS2 Game of the Year

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by monkeyislandgirl.

Additional contributors: Reborn_Demon, DreinIX, Arejarn, Patrick Bregger, Deleted.

Game added April 7, 2006. Last modified December 19, 2023.