Kingdom Hearts 2
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Kingdom Hearts 2 improves on most things that made the original so loveable. The graphics are improved, the animation is improved, and the story is more involved and sinister than in the first game. The combat has also been widely expanded.
The game opens with you playing as Roxas, a new character that has some connection to Sora. You spend the first few hours of the game learning the controls and seeing the beginnings of the plot. Eventually, you are thrust into the thick of things as good ol’ Sora, spending your time trying to find Riku and Kairi as well as make sense of Organization 13, the games group of antagonists. The story is better than ever, and emotions run high later in the game. The locales you’ll visit are also more varied and interesting this time around.
The combat has evolved since the first game. There are more abilities for Sora to learn and the magic and experience systems have been revamped. If there is one complaint to levy against the game it is found in these two changes. You now have an MP bar which can be depleted and recharged. Magic worked so much better in the first game where each of the abilities took up a certain number of MP bars. Now, you never really feel a complete understanding of how much MP your moves use up and you’re left waiting for your bar to recharge after depleting it from a single healing move. Also, you no longer gain extra experience by doing extraordinary things like parrying, climbing up the arms of a giant boss and attacking its head or other such actions. XP is earned after killing the enemy only.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is a definite improvement over the excellent first game and is highly recommend it to anyone who played Kingdom Hearts. If you’ve never played the first one, you may be a little lost, but you’ll still find the story interesting. Kingdom Hearts 2 has turned out to be one of the best RPGs of the PS2 era and one of the more compelling stories ever told in a video game.
The game opens with you playing as Roxas, a new character that has some connection to Sora. You spend the first few hours of the game learning the controls and seeing the beginnings of the plot. Eventually, you are thrust into the thick of things as good ol’ Sora, spending your time trying to find Riku and Kairi as well as make sense of Organization 13, the games group of antagonists. The story is better than ever, and emotions run high later in the game. The locales you’ll visit are also more varied and interesting this time around.
The combat has evolved since the first game. There are more abilities for Sora to learn and the magic and experience systems have been revamped. If there is one complaint to levy against the game it is found in these two changes. You now have an MP bar which can be depleted and recharged. Magic worked so much better in the first game where each of the abilities took up a certain number of MP bars. Now, you never really feel a complete understanding of how much MP your moves use up and you’re left waiting for your bar to recharge after depleting it from a single healing move. Also, you no longer gain extra experience by doing extraordinary things like parrying, climbing up the arms of a giant boss and attacking its head or other such actions. XP is earned after killing the enemy only.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is a definite improvement over the excellent first game and is highly recommend it to anyone who played Kingdom Hearts. If you’ve never played the first one, you may be a little lost, but you’ll still find the story interesting. Kingdom Hearts 2 has turned out to be one of the best RPGs of the PS2 era and one of the more compelling stories ever told in a video game.
