Kingdom Hearts II came out in Australia today and I rushed in for my copy.
So now I will never shut about about this game.

The opening scene made me cry. THE OPENING SCENE! How womanly can ya get? That song "Sanctuary" is as awesome as "Simple and Clean" if not better.

The Characters so far are way better than the characters from the original.
I havent become Sora yet (or whatever happens, I cant figure it out really).

Love seeing Vivi speak (or hearing). >_< Awesomeness.
Just had to vent this huge love for KH2 cause all my mates dont wanna hear it.

Oh and a topic? "How good is KH2!?"

Oh and a topic? "How good is KH2!?"

Not very.

I like KH, unfortunately, by common consensus, the second one seems shit. I won't be getting it for a long time, probably.

I didn`t cry but i find it a great game nonetheless.

I got a free copy a month before the european release (it`s a secret!) and i`m only just at Agrabah but it really is something special. Sure the combat is jusrt X! X! X!, sure the story is complete and utter garbage but the characters have such a wonderful charm that i can`t resist.

Well Im 4 hours in and havent moved from the world I started on yet so Im thinking it will get good late in the game. I mean, it has TRON! Come on!

Also, emo's around the globe must be rejoicing at the return of The Nightmare Before Christmas...

Also, emo's around the globe must be rejoicing at the return of The Nightmare Before Christmas...

>:

I adore TNBC and i`m not an emo. In fact, there`s nothing "emo" about it. :/

Ok fine Ill rephrase if it will make you happy.

Nightmare before Christmas spawed a generation of emo's to like it this century. I didnt say it wasnt good. I liked it as a kid.

Etc.

My little sister is buying that game I think.

Yeah...TNBC, a Disney property, "spawed (sic) a generation of emo's (sic)."

Anyway, KH2. I only played it for about an hour, on a friend's save, and I didn't like it. Yes, it was very pretty, but I thought the gameplay was even worse than KH1, which I was never in love with.

Nightmare before Christmas spawed a generation of emo's to like it this century.


u r wise.

i like pumpkin pie

Ive got kh1 and really didn't enjoy it enough to get very far. I got past the tarzan area and never played it agian.

I liked the first KH except for the camera angles that made me dizzy every time I play it. And I haven't played the second one. I don't plan on buying it right now. I'm saving my money for FFXII. =/

playing hard to get next dream is another dream in dreams...dreams...drea...

You liked "Sanctuary"? I found the song to be just utada going "awaah sanctuary" over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It sucked, almost as much as KH2 sucked.

The only effort they put into the game was the actual storyline; however, a good 3/4ths of the game is spent doing filler Disney crap that has nothing to do with anything and just wastes your time.

Yeah...TNBC, a Disney property, "spawed (sic) a generation of emo's (sic)."

Anyway, KH2. I only played it for about an hour, on a friend's save, and I didn't like it. Yes, it was very pretty, but I thought the gameplay was even worse than KH1, which I was never in love with.

I love the gameplay. I think they made it much better this time.
And yeah. Emo's love the nightmare before christmas. Some wear nothing but its merchandise. At least where I am.

I'm a fan of that passion song even if its got no real beat or ryhtm. I guess it does if you listen to it 400 times.

I liked the first one and can't wait to get the second one. Also I liked TNBC and I am not an emo.

I have yet to play KHII but my local gamestop has one for 17.99 I should buy it but .... meh mooney pwoblems.

I seriously don't get the KH2 hating that goes on.

For starters, all the 'negative' reviews i've read grade the game at least an 8 out of 10. Unfortunately it was hype that killed this game, though i'm loathe to figure out why.

The most common complaint i've heard is that the game is 'too linnear and too easy'. On linnearality: it's a fucking Square-Enix RPG. The closest they've got to an open-ended RPG is Final Fantasy XI, and even that is "fuck around to level 70, and you can play the linnear end-game!". The only reason for this complaint is that I never got lost once in Kingdom Hearts II. I got lost all the time in the original. I never found it 'fun' when I didn't know where to go next, so I like the fact that the game prods you in the right direction. I'm hear to save the bloody world(s), not get lost.

The story is magnificent. If you're the sort of person who can't watch a Disney movie, you shouldn't play this game; but that should be pretty obvious from the start. Kingdom Hearts II is actually less Disney-centric than the first game; the entire prologue to the game, involving Roxas and a whole host of Final Fantasy favourites (Setzer in 3D? Awesome!) is completely Disney free. And when the big D does come in, they've made completely enjoyable new worlds. Timeless River, where there is a boss fight on the freaking Steamboat Willie is awesome. Mickey Mouse was a mystery in the first game as the mysterious 'King', but in this game he's a bad-ass.

Even apart from the Disney mini-worlds, the main story involving Sora and Organization XIII (along with the enigmatic DiZ, voiced by none-other than Christopher "Saruman and Count Dooku" Lee) is Tetsuya Nomura at its finest. It's also the only place to see the events leading up to Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. I'm not kidding; the entire prelude to Cloud and Sephiroth's big showdown is set up in this game (which leads me to a theory regarding Kingdom Hearts' world, but i'll put that in another thread).

Combat has been improved significantly from Kingdom Hearts, and there are some truly amazing battles. The introduction of 'reaction commands' means that you can truly interact with the enemies and the surroundings; in a fight with the gigantic serpent Hydra in the Olympus Colliseum, you can mount Pegasus for an amazing aerial fight. All the new bosses require a different strategy to defeat them, and when you take out Organization members, it starts getting freaking insane (and nearly impossible if you're playing on Hard). And not to mention a truly epic showdown at Hollow Bastion halfway through the game; I won't ruin it here, but it is one of the funnest battles i've had in any action RPG.

I could go on, but Kingdom Hearts II improves on the original in nearly every conceivable way. I finished the game with a total playtime of 30 hours (playing three days straight, basically), which is not much compared to titles like Oblivion, but there is still a lot to do and unlock if I want to view the secret ending (the leadup to the inevitable Kingdom Hearts III). If you liked the original, do yourself a favour and pick up this game; you won't be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you don't like Disney movies (or are too 'cool' for them), don't play this game. A lot of its charm revolves around the Disney magic, and if you can lose yourself in the Disney world, you will come away from this game feeling like you've played the best RPG ever.

I definately wouldnt say "best rpg ever". Its not an rpg in my eyes.
Oh man I loved that scene with Squall and Cloud fighting the heartless.
Im yet to beat Sephiroth. :-( He's damn fast.

I definately wouldnt say "best rpg ever". Its not an rpg in my eyes.
Oh man I loved that scene with Squall and Cloud fighting the heartless.
Im yet to beat Sephiroth. :-( He's damn fast.

Sorry, I should clear that up. I didn't mean it was actually the best ever, it just produces a lot of euphoria after playing. For me, the 'best RPG ever' moniker still belongs to Knights of the Old Republic for mixing story and gameplay perfectly.

Also, it is an RPG. By whatever definition, a game is an RPG if you gain some kind of 'experience' and your character improves. The fact that this game has HP, MP and Exp makes it a pretty textbook RPG.

Lee, I recently made a thread on that very subject (Thread 29666) to point out that the common use of the term "RPG" is a misnomer. It's quite detailed and shows that in the sense it is used these days, it is worthless as a genre definition, considering that nearly every game ever made would have to be considered an RPG .

Personally, I liked KH2 alot better than KH. For starters, Organisation XIII. THey were always there, and they weren't necesaraly evil. But they were alot more involved, compared to Ansem in KH. I loved the plot, I was suprised many a time.

THe combat system hasn't been changed, something which is a good thing to me. The addition of Drive and Limits however, was an awesome thing to do.

It hasn't come here yet :(

Must wait until November!

The only reason for this complaint is that I never got lost once in Kingdom Hearts II. I got lost all the time in the original. I never found it 'fun' when I didn't know where to go next, so I like the fact that the game prods you in the right direction. I'm hear to save the bloody world(s), not get lost.

I happen to have both fond and miserable memories of being lost in Traverse Town and the Alice in Wonderland worlds multiple times. Especially in the latter, it really felt like an accomplishment to figure out what to do.


The story is magnificent. If you're the sort of person who can't watch a Disney movie, you shouldn't play this game; but that should be pretty obvious from the start. Kingdom Hearts II is actually less Disney-centric than the first game; the entire prologue to the game, involving Roxas and a whole host of Final Fantasy favourites (Setzer in 3D? Awesome!) is completely Disney free. And when the big D does come in, they've made completely enjoyable new worlds. Timeless River, where there is a boss fight on the freaking Steamboat Willie is awesome. Mickey Mouse was a mystery in the first game as the mysterious 'King', but in this game he's a bad-ass.

The main story is very good, yes. However, after the fun beginning, you start on the Disney trek. Spoilers follow for those who care:


*Spoilers*



The sorcerer's tower, whiel not really a world, is cool but could have been an actual world and been really fun and new. It's a shame it only serves one small purpose, but it's still part of the main storyline which makes it good.

The Mulan world was neat because it was new, but I don't feel it did justice to Mulan. It was decent, but at the same level as the worst world in KH (Nightmare Before Chrstimas).

The Beauty and the Beast world was good, a little small though. Especially because of the events later on (and the fun dragoon fight) it is one of my favorite Disney worlds in the game.

100 Acre wood managed to keep its charm form the last game.

The return to Olympus Coliseum felt really forced, storyline wise, and while some of the fights there were fun and arena battles made a welcome return, the storyline there just felt... really bad.

Disney Castle/Timeless River were great fun. A lot of that had to do with the fact that they were advancing the main storyline and weren't just crap mini storylines.

Port Royale was atrocious. Bad storyline and bad gameplay mechanics (the whole "invulnerable outside moonlight" thing is just a pain in the ass and doesn't help the fun) make this level just suck.

Agrabah was just dissapointing. Again they leave this huge city abandoned, and this time they just add a bunch of junk storyline that is a lame attempt to set up a fight with Genie Jafar. Agrabah was a lot better in the first game and it seemed like they didn't try this time.

Halloween Town was my least favorite world last game and somehow they managed to make it worse this time. Why did they choose to worlds anyways? Every reused world sucked terribly compared to the last game.

Pride Lands were fun on the level of the worlds from last game, but suffered due to the lack of tie-ins to the main plot.

The tron world was cool because it was new but other than that it sucked. The light cycle game could've been a lot cooler, and it just... sucked. The final boss battle there was kinda fun though.

The little mermaid level was bad on so many levels I don't know where to start. For one, it was a complete waste of time. For two, they couldn't even get people to sing marginally well for it and... ugh. It wasn't even close to being challenging; I could pass this world while sleeping. I regret every single moment I spent completing this world.



*End Spoilers*


The main problem in general was that about HALF of the worlds in the game return from the first game, and they're all much worse. Some of the newer ones were good to great, but all the time you have to spend in the bad new worlds and the tired, worn out old worlds just really overshadows the new ones. All the worlds directly relating to the main storyline (read: Non-Disney, for the most part) were fun, though.



Combat has been improved significantly from Kingdom Hearts, and there are some truly amazing battles. The introduction of 'reaction commands' means that you can truly interact with the enemies and the surroundings; in a fight with the gigantic serpent Hydra in the Olympus Colliseum, you can mount Pegasus for an amazing aerial fight. All the new bosses require a different strategy to defeat them, and when you take out Organization members, it starts getting freaking insane (and nearly impossible if you're playing on Hard). And not to mention a truly epic showdown at Hollow Bastion halfway through the game; I won't ruin it here, but it is one of the funnest battles i've had in any action RPG.


There are a lot of fun battles, this is true, but it is just... way too easy. Sephiroth is a joke compared to the first game's Sephiroth. Drives were a neat addition, but they just made you able to walk over everything by button mashing. Reaction commands are neat about half the time, and then the other half of the time it makes things stupidly easy (like the cool hallow bastion fight which can be won by button mashing triangle). The new magic system is okay; I prefer the old one but this one works. I'm really not sure that drives and reaciton commands are worth giving up the trinity unlockable secrets, 101 dalmation hunt, and secret bosses from the first game. In fact, I'd say that while combat is EQUALLY fun, the lack of exploring/finding secerts, and no secret bosses, as well as a combat system that lends itself to being too easy, makes this game fall short of the original.


I finished the game with a total playtime of 30 hours (playing three days straight, basically), which is not much compared to titles like Oblivion, but there is still a lot to do and unlock if I want to view the secret ending (the leadup to the inevitable Kingdom Hearts III).

I spent maybe 42 hours on this game to unlock everything to see the trailer. I won't lie - like the first hidden trailer, this one makes me really look forward to the next game. I just hope they don't screw it up again.


If you liked the original, do yourself a favour and pick up this game; you won't be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you don't like Disney movies (or are too 'cool' for them), don't play this game. A lot of its charm revolves around the Disney magic, and if you can lose yourself in the Disney world, you will come away from this game feeling like you've played the best RPG ever.

I disagree with you here. I loved the original, but this one just came up short on so many levels. It is probably worth playing through for it's main storyline, and the majority of the boss fights were really entertaining. However, I felt that little to no Disney magic was present here this time. "The Lion King," "Mulan," "Fox and the Hound", "Aladdin", etc etc were all really good movies that throughout my life have made me life and cry. That kind of "Disney magic" is completley lost on this game, and a majority of the places you visit in this game are hollow lifeless shells set in Disney locations.

I loved KH2.

It could've been a thousand times better if all the levels didn't take 5 minutes, though. And they were elaborate...at all.