Strengths:Awesome production values and "polish" or quality. Superb graphics for a PS2 game. Fun, easy to play, yet satisfying experience.
Weaknesses:Camera issue still a bit difficult and stilly annoying at times. Sometimes a bit too easy?
Posted Aug 28, 2006 - If you played the first Kingdom Hearts, then you'll know what to basically expect from this anticipated sequel...except nearly everything is improved for the positive in most regards. Like the game, the main character, Sora, is a little bit older, and appropriately everything in the sequel has "grown" a bit more mature or better as we know it. Let's start off with the graphics. Square-Enix games are known for their high production quality, and being one of their marquee games, KH2, is no exception. Quite possibly one of the best looking PS2 games on the market at the moment, hands down in my opinion. And if you're a fan of cutscenes and in game movies (hey if you're a Square-Enix fan, then how could you not?!), then KH2 delivers the many (many)scenes in glorious spades. Honestly, graphically, it's pushing the PS2's graphical abilities to the max.
Sound production, like graphics are top-notch as well. Having a myriad of Disney characters, most of them are voice acted by the actors which voiced them in the movie or tv shows, and although a couple times and some dialog may sound a bit funny (for the wrong reasons), 90% of it is pardon the pun, sound. The special effects are satisfying and the score/music for the game is solid, although probably not spectacular, as I actually preferred the music in the first game, especially the main theme from Japanese pop-star, Utada.
The game controls. Well, they are changed a little bit from the first game, and they've tweaked some things and added some shortcuts and combo sequences to "improve" from the first title. And although it'll take a little bit of time to reacquaint yourself with them, if you were an avid KH1 player, then it shouldn't take too much time. In this sequel though, the Triangle button is very important, and much of the action is dependent on it. Also, while there is a lot of magic and spells available to use and assign to your dualshock, I felt like I could pretty much just hack throughout the whole game and still finish it okay, without much tinkering with all the spells, go figure. To RPG nuts, that may be a bit of a downer, but hey, that's just my opinion. Length wise, the game will run 40-50 hours, I like to take my time so it ran at just a bit over 51 hours of game for me.
Long write-up already, I'll try to conclude my thoughts and sum it up. Basically if you like the first you'll like the sequel in Kingdom Hearts 2. While the camera and controls are still not perfectly balanced and the story, while good, is nothing that will be written into a novel anytime soon, the graphics are so good and the fun factor is very high. If you're into Disney nostalgia, like action rpgs, or just wanna kick some butt roaming across different scenes from your favorite Disney movie memories, then this is the title for you!
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Rated 
Awesome Game
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