Kingdom Hearts II
Description official descriptions
Sora, Donald, and Goofy are back in the third installment (second for PS2) of the Kingdom Hearts series, continuing where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories left off. The trio awakens from their sleep and goes to Twilight Town. When the game begins, you will first have control over a boy name Roxas who wields a dual-Keyblade. He is trying to enjoy the remainder of his summer vacation with his friends but he keeps having flash-backs of someone else's memories.
When he meets up with Sora, the two learns they have a special connection with one another. Afterwards, the group will continue their search for King Mickey and Riku. This time, they will travel to new worlds and work with various characters from the Disney and Final Fantasy universes. This includes worlds from not only Disney's animated movies but other movies as well like Pirates of the Caribbean and TRON.
In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora and his friends will battle various enemies including the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts, but also a group of enemies called Nobodies. Nobodies are "nonexistent beings" who are under the control of Organization XIII - a group of 13 members in black coats that Sora and his friends have reduced down to just half.
Gameplay is very similar to Kingdom Hearts: the player controls Sora with Donald and Goofy helping with their magic and attacks. Sora can use various magic powers as well as use Summon which will call upon the aid of special Disney characters that will temporarily fight alongside him. A new feature of combat are "Reaction Commands". Some enemies will leave themselves open during attacks, and if the player presses the Reaction Command button when prompted Sora will take advantage of the situation, either turning an enemy's attack against them, striking from a defenseless side for extra damage, or avoiding an otherwise unavoidable attack. As the trio levels up and progresses in the game they will gain new abilities that they can equip. Also, after Mickey meets the party, if Sora is KO'd the player will have the option of controlling Mickey and defending Sora until he can recover.
Another new feature is the Drive gauge. When filled and activated Sora absorbs the strength of his allies and gains new powers, like long range magical bullets in Magician form or the ability to use two keyblades in Strength form. Using Drive forms will power them up, unlocking new abilities and allowing them to be used for longer periods of time.
The Gummi Ship returns, but the speed of combat during Gummi Ship level has been greatly increased. While the path of the Gummi Ship is still out of the player's control, the ship can now attack enemies to the front, sides, and behind. Gummi Ship levels can be re-challenged at different difficulty levels, with different levels offering greater challenge and new enemy patterns. Achieving high scores in these levels rewards new Gummi Ship parts and plans.
Spellings
- キングダムハーツII - Japanese spelling
Groups +
Promos
Credits (PlayStation 2 version)
750 People (678 developers, 72 thanks) · View all
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| Planning Director: Map | |
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| Art Director: Interface | |
| Art Director: VFX | |
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| Syntheizer Operator | |
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| Supervising Dialogue Editor | |
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| Movie Director | |
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| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 85% (based on 47 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 75 ratings with 8 reviews)
Kingdom Hearts II is almost as good as the first one
The Good
Like the first game, there is an ensemble cast that includes singer Jesse McCartney, actor Christopher Lee, and Haley Joel Osment returning as Sora. There are many Final Fantasy characters including Cloud, Sephiroth, and Auron. Many of the Disney characters from the first game also return, and some new ones make their video game debut. Again, there were many hidden secrets which made me want to replay the game.
The Bad
Kingdom Hearts II has the same ending problem as the first, with the completion of the game being unsavable. I also didn't like idea of playing as Roxas for the first part of the game. I also wasn't happy with the completely redesigned Hallow Bastion (a level from the first game).
The Bottom Line
Kingdom Hearts II is a great game, but is inferior to the first one.
PlayStation 2 · by J.D. Majors (14) · 2009
Best RPG companies crank out another gem.
The Good
I love the free-roam RPG gameplay and detailed level design. I love no text boxes and an option for subtitles and Japanese voice acting. Character development is a big plus since there will be a third game in the making. Also, the game wouldn't have been a success if it wasn't for all the original cast voicing all the Disney characters which really boosted the popularity of the game.
The Bad
The agonzing prologue to the actual game. I know you need to know the back story but it least cut it down to an hour. I thought a lot of levels making a second go around was kind of pointless. I thought they should have gone a different way of introducing the villians. The last thing was the amount of unlockables in the game was way too few. A trailer for the new game was great and all but they could have at least have thrown in some concept art or some alternate endings if you completed certain mini-games.
The Bottom Line
A great wholesome game for everyone. Disney fanatics is a must buy and also for RPG fans. Even people how didn't particularly into this stuff should play the first just to play the second because its that good.
PlayStation 2 · by Jacob Gens (1115) · 2007
One of my favourite PlayStation 2 games!
The Good
Kingdom Hearts 2 is amazing - over 30+ of game play (and that's without all the hidden stuff, side-quests, and maximum stats), this game is quite huge. It takes what was good from Kingdom Hearts 1, turns it great and places it into this new game. Almost everything from the previous game has been improved, upgraded and extended. The great massive plot, with lots of twists to keep you guessing, lovable characters, "Drive" feature, dozens of combat combinations and abilities, a huge range of extra characters, great detailed worlds and the graphics are simply awesome, and all this is topped off with a cool theme tune, cool weapons and the movie-stunt-like "Reaction" feature.
The Bad
I can honestly say that there was only one thing that needed to be improved on; the Gummi Ship quest. You build your own ship (which is hard if you don't read the boring tutorial) and fly out, destroying other ships that get in your way - which, with so many things going on at once, is extremely annoying until you get the hang of it. That was the only downfall. Luckily, the Gummi Ship wasn't a big part of the game, and there are hardly any good rewards for it, so this isn't really important.
The Bottom Line
This game is probably one of the best RPG's out for the PlayStation 2 at the moment, with it boasting some of the best graphics for the console - When I first saw the trailer for this game, it looked like the graphics for the PlayStation 3!! If you have some cash left over for Christmas, or an upcoming birthday - treat yourself to this gem. In terms of gameplay and storytelling, this game is quite revolutionary for the action-RPG genre. No doubt, this is a modern-day classic and a jewel for gaming history (at least, in the RPG genre).
PlayStation 2 · by Reborn_Demon (127) · 2006
Trivia
Bug/Glitch
In the Olympus Coliseum world, there is a Heartless, one of the game's main enemies, that goes into a T-stance (a pose characters are in during development). This glitch could possibly be due to bad placement, meaning that it could have moved a short amount from where it originally spawned.
References
The Rock Titan, from the Disney movie Hercules and an optional boss in the original Kingdom Hearts, is seen only once in the entire game (Olympus Coliseum's intro). It's not possible to see or fight him at any other time in the game by normal means. The Ice Titan, who was also in the first game and Hercules, makes no appearance at all.
Two Behemoth Heartless, the huge, purple, mammoth/bull-like creatures from the original Kingdom Hearts were going to be in the 1000 Heartless War, but were cut for unknown reasons.
Suicide attempt
In the Japanese release of the game, in the level Port Royal, the character Will Turner points his gun to his head and attempts to commit suicide. For obvious reasons, this was removed from all other versions of the game, although another cutscene, which depicts a sword pierced through someone's chest, was left intact. Other changes for the American and English versions of the game include differences in the battle with Xigbar, on the final level, where his "shooting scope" is brighter and more accurate to see.
Awards
- 4Players
- 2006 – Best Role-Playing Game of the Year
- 2006 – #3 Best Original Soundtrack of the Year
- GameSpy
- 2006 – #7 PS2 Game of the Year
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Related Sites +
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KINGDOM HEARTS II
Official Japanese site -
Kingdom Hearts 2
Official Site -
Wikipedia: Kingdom Hearts II
Information about Kingdom Hearts II at Wikipedia
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by monkeyislandgirl.
Additional contributors: Reborn_Demon, DreinIX, Arejarn, Patrick Bregger, Deleted.
Game added April 7, 2006. Last modified December 19, 2023.