The game, Kingdom Hearts II merits a praise for upgrading the battle system, fixing (a bit) the camera problem that plagued the previous game and also adding a bit more worlds, thus expanding the time a person can spend exploring the vast universe that is KH II.
If you're a player who did not have the luck of owning a GBA and thus deprived from "Chain of Memories", do not despair, the game does a good job by explaining everything as the player goes through the story. The graphics are a notch higher than before, however due to an overabundance of cut-scenes the game tends to drag. Especially during the first five hours of gaming before Sora awakens from his sleep and the game truly begins. I used to remember looking forward to cut-scenes, however it either becomes a rather tiresome chore waiting for at least five seconds for Sora to introduce the trio and for the character being introduced to to repeat it again. AND again. For every freaking WORLD. We get their names, ENOUGH ALREADY! The battle system has improved greatly replacing the tiresome, button mashing while trying to figure out what combo you've just executed by introducing the Reaction Command. This feature truly helps on cutting down the time spent on defeating the enemy, increasing the speed of attacks and prevents a player from slipping into a stupor. Sort off. The battle system allows little for a gamer to actually strategise anything and downplays the magic and summon system giving them the objective of "We Need Something to Fill In the Slots". It almost becomes repetitive after a while. Run into enemy, press triangle to activate Reaction, possibly some Drive, mash X, mash, mash, mash...and the next thing you know it's over.
The Worlds tend to vary, some from "Excellent" to "What's The Point?". Some like "The Land of Dragons" falls extremely flat and uninteresting and one wonders why exactly "Atlantica" is brought back. The one that really drew me in were "The Timeless River" and "The Coliseum". I felt that the Gummi Ship Challenge was better, instead of floating and randomly shooting blocks, now you get an adrenaline rush of shooting enemies, and fulfilling missions to gain more gummi ships.
The storyline has become more complex and a bit darker, like any good sequel, KHII expanded the former storyline, incorporating a shocking twist about the Heartless bringing up the existence of the Nobodies, remnants of a person who has been taken over by the darkness. The only gripe I had was the pace of said story being told.
The Voice Acting is consistently good while I was disappointed to hear that David Boreaneaz was no longer Leon but soon grew to love his new, cheery albeit thinly sarcastic voice. That being said, Aerith was bad. It seemed that Mena Suvari had forgotten the acting part of Voice Acting. The dialogue is sharper and some made me laugh, for example during the "Port Royal" Level, the editing was irritating but one can live with it.
The music is a mixed bag. I wished that they had inserted some music into particular cut-scenes for the dramatic impact. Some themes were passable remixes (Port Royal) and some are hauntingly beautiful. It seemed that the makers focused more on the little details, like footsteps rather than the main theme.
Kingdom Hearts II does address the technical problems from before, however they seemed to sacrifice certain elements that makes it great game. It almost reached the perfect game experience but still requires a bit more work.
I give it an 8 out of 10.
If you're a player who did not have the luck of owning a GBA and thus deprived from "Chain of Memories", do not despair, the game does a good job by explaining everything as the player goes through the story. The graphics are a notch higher than before, however due to an overabundance of cut-scenes the game tends to drag. Especially during the first five hours of gaming before Sora awakens from his sleep and the game truly begins. I used to remember looking forward to cut-scenes, however it either becomes a rather tiresome chore waiting for at least five seconds for Sora to introduce the trio and for the character being introduced to to repeat it again. AND again. For every freaking WORLD. We get their names, ENOUGH ALREADY! The battle system has improved greatly replacing the tiresome, button mashing while trying to figure out what combo you've just executed by introducing the Reaction Command. This feature truly helps on cutting down the time spent on defeating the enemy, increasing the speed of attacks and prevents a player from slipping into a stupor. Sort off. The battle system allows little for a gamer to actually strategise anything and downplays the magic and summon system giving them the objective of "We Need Something to Fill In the Slots". It almost becomes repetitive after a while. Run into enemy, press triangle to activate Reaction, possibly some Drive, mash X, mash, mash, mash...and the next thing you know it's over.
The Worlds tend to vary, some from "Excellent" to "What's The Point?". Some like "The Land of Dragons" falls extremely flat and uninteresting and one wonders why exactly "Atlantica" is brought back. The one that really drew me in were "The Timeless River" and "The Coliseum". I felt that the Gummi Ship Challenge was better, instead of floating and randomly shooting blocks, now you get an adrenaline rush of shooting enemies, and fulfilling missions to gain more gummi ships.
The storyline has become more complex and a bit darker, like any good sequel, KHII expanded the former storyline, incorporating a shocking twist about the Heartless bringing up the existence of the Nobodies, remnants of a person who has been taken over by the darkness. The only gripe I had was the pace of said story being told.
The Voice Acting is consistently good while I was disappointed to hear that David Boreaneaz was no longer Leon but soon grew to love his new, cheery albeit thinly sarcastic voice. That being said, Aerith was bad. It seemed that Mena Suvari had forgotten the acting part of Voice Acting. The dialogue is sharper and some made me laugh, for example during the "Port Royal" Level, the editing was irritating but one can live with it.
The music is a mixed bag. I wished that they had inserted some music into particular cut-scenes for the dramatic impact. Some themes were passable remixes (Port Royal) and some are hauntingly beautiful. It seemed that the makers focused more on the little details, like footsteps rather than the main theme.
Kingdom Hearts II does address the technical problems from before, however they seemed to sacrifice certain elements that makes it great game. It almost reached the perfect game experience but still requires a bit more work.
I give it an 8 out of 10.