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Kingdom Hearts II
The original Kingdom
Hearts was a masterpiece which linked two amazing universes by a wide
gamut of magical doors... the world's of Disney and Squaresoft were now
forever linked to feature one of the most unique and interesting
storylines of all time.
The sequel begins several years after the first events of Kingdom Hearts
and Sora, Donald and Goofy return to continue the search for Riku and
King Mickey, however things have become much more complicated than they
expected. The heroes discover that the Heartless are still rampant in
many worlds and Sora must use the keyblade to close the dark portals
that let them in.
As old adversaries
return, new ones emerge with more mysterious intentions as a strange
group named Organization XIII seeks to draw Sora into their fold by
manipulating the strange creatures called Nobodies. Stranger still is
that the members of this group seem to know Sora, however by a different
name.
Squaresoft have done a truly remarkable job at the presentation of this
title with players being greeted to an almost three hour long prologue
that reestablishes the characters and give a great snippet of the
previous storyline. With that said, the introduction features some
beautifully pre-rendered cinematics that nicely mesh with in-game
graphics to truly give one of the most unique introductions in gaming
history.
The gameplay of Kingdom Hearts II is similar to the previous title with
gamers accepting a variety of quests from NPC characters and visiting a
myriad of different worlds with their main goal of once again bringing
order to this multiverse of worlds. Unlike the previous title, the
accessing of worlds has slightly changed with gamers using the Gunmi
Ship to enter these hidden worlds, however to make things more
interesting, the player must battle their way through a Star Wars style
shooter level.
The control system of Kingdom Hearts II is relatively straightforward
with the player using the left analog stick to control the characters,
the right stick for the camera and the d-pad used to access items,
attack or to use magic. The shoulder buttons are used for shortcuts and
combat. Of course for the purpose of combat, the X button is the Holy
Grail and is used to dispatch your enemies back to their own vile worlds.
With combat, the summoning of monsters is an entertaining aspects of the
game but with the ability to summon creatures such as Stitch and Chicken
Little, it really helps immerse the gamer into the worlds of Disney and
Squaresoft. Your main characters also have the ability to perform super
moves, provided that your drive gauge is full and if it is, your enemies
had better watch out.
In its essence, Kingdom Hearts II is a role-playing game and as you
complete quests and more specifically, defeat enemies, you gain more
experience
which in turn allows you to access more abilities. Even though the game
has a set storyline for the main missions, the game also features dozens
and dozens of mini-games to keep you entertained and coming back for
more.
Graphically, Kingdom Hearts II may look similar to the previous title
but the developers have truly upped the ante in terms of the technical
achievements of the game. The levels in the worlds are truly massive and
feature quite a bit of background activity and whether you're in Mickey's Castle or the world of Hercules, it is almost as you have been
transported into these amazing cartoons.
Match that with realistic character design that pays homage to their
original formats (whether television, movies or a video game) which move
with a fluid like grace, it nicely comes together in what will
definitely be the hit game of 2006.
As with the graphics, the musical score of Kingdom Hearts II is
fantastic that changes depending on the world you are visiting. The
developers have also recreated the voices of many of these popular
characters, although some sounding a little strange than the original
voices but needless to say, it's a great effort. All the sounds of the
worlds and combat have also been professionally recreated by Squaresoft
to assist with the already perfect gameplay and graphics of the title.
In conclusion, Kingdom Hearts II is a worthy sequel of the original game
that once again features two amazing universes with easily one of the
most professionally designed games of the year that I would recommend to all lovers of the first
title. Even if you've never played the first game, you better still
check it out! Highly Recommended! |
