Kingdom Hearts II (2005) (VG)

User Rating:

9.2/10   

Director:

Tetsuya Nomura

Writers:

Kazushige Nojima (scenario: Stellavista Ltd.)
Tetsuya Nomura (base story scenario)

Release Date:

28 March 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Mystery

Tagline:

Those who control the Nobody, are the Thirteenth Order.

Plot:

One year after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora, Donald, and goofy awaken in Twilight Town...

Plot Keywords:

King | Jack Sparrow | Mermaid | Cricket | Fictional War

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Haley Joel Osment	...	Sora (voice: English version)
David Gallagher	...	Riku (voice: English version)
Hayden Panettiere	...	Kairi (voice: English version)
Jesse McCartney	...	Roxas (voice: English version)
Brittany Snow	...	Naminé (voice: English version)
Justin Cowden	...	Hayner (voice: English version)
Sean Marquette	...	Pence (voice: English version)
Jessica Di Cicco	...	Olette (voice: English version) (as Jessica DiCicco)
Richard Epcar	...	Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless) / Xehanort (voice: English version)
Robin Atkin Downes	...	Luxord (voice: English version)
Ryan O'Donohue	...	Demyx (voice: English version)
Quinton Flynn	...	Axel (voice: English version)
Kirk Thornton	...	Saïx (voice: English version)
David Dayan Fisher	...	Xaldin (voice: English version)
James Patrick Stuart	...	Xigbar (voice: English version) (as James Patrick Stewart)

Also Known As:

Kingudamu hâtsu II (Japan)

Country:

Japan | USA

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:E10+

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Buena Vista Games

Trivia:

Tetsuya Nomura included the worlds of The Lion King and Tron because there were his favorite Disney films.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the Organisation XIII scene, just before Sora takes out his member card, Goofy's shield just disappears from his hands. Many other times during cut-scenes, weapons and shields just vanish from hands as well.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sora: [Roxas's voice] A scattered memory like a far-off dream. A far-off dream like a scattered memory. I want to line the pieces up, yours and mine.

Movie Connections:

References The Fire Fighters (1930)

Soundtrack:

Hikari

Severely Overrated.

First of all, let me state that I loved the original Kingdom Hearts. I grew up as a Disney child and I still have all of my old VHS tapes. I am also a Final Fantasy lover, so Kingdom Hearts offered the combination of nostalgia and modern entertainment.

An ideal combination of challenging combat, large-scale platforming, and Square's typical top-notch production created one of my favorite games. I eagerly anticipated the sequel for a very long time - and was then severely disappointed.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is nothing but a large budgeted sequel that forgot its roots. The platforming elements are almost entirely wiped away in favor of linear, forgettable worlds that you can usually complete in an hour or less. They offer you nothing. I believe the only level I enjoyed was the first within a massive town that was actually worth exploring.

The combat was severely compromised. I know many will argue with this point but hear me out. Previously we had combat that forced us to make critical choices, learn attack patterns and fight challenging bosses. In this game many of the boss fights can only be won with the "God of War" button timing madness that all mainstream games must now have by some unwritten game developer's code. You can hack and slash the life out of a boss all you like, but the only way you can defeat (some of) them is by pulling off one of these button-timed events. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't feel satisfied killing off a massive hunk of metal 20 times my size just by hitting a triangle like the screen told me to. The Dodge Roll move (my favorite form the original) was removed, and the entire game feels like it takes on the attitude that fighting "guns a blazing" is the only way to do things. It is true that the new forms Sora can undertake are fun and a nice addition, but they are merely flashy show-offs that far too much energy went into instead of developing the worlds.

Story wise I think this game actually took the series further downhill. I will not reveal anything so as not to spoil, but character attitudes towards each other seem to have altered. Also somewhere along the line Goofy and Donald completely switched roles. Goofy now takes on the smart and sensible roll while Donald is just plain greedy and a little out of touch with the world. The FF characters are even taken down a notch... the voice given to Aerith in this game is absolutely dreadful.

This game is yet another sufferer of Square's modern disease I like to call "Mainstream Flash". Basically this means you give the audience eye candy, a couple of "cool" features and cut back on many other elements. The games seem to be leaning more and more mainstream and that is saddening, because Final Fantasys and other Square originals used to be shining gems in a sea of mediocre attempts. I give this game a 5/10 because of the graphics and what it COULD have offered us. These games offer so much potential, and Square completely ignored that fact in this sequel.