Kingdom Hearts 2 - my impressions

[London Geezer]

My god this game is beautiful.

I've played a little bit more and i have to say, every time i pick up a Square game, it reminds me of why they are so successful.

Without spoiling too much, there is a level where everything is in the past, and the look is the one of the first ever Mickey Mouse cartoons (all the models look like the old ones, and Sora is also re-modelled to look like a young kid). Really nice touch.

And also, i got to the Pirates of the Caribbeans stage and the models, especially the faces, are absolutely amazing, down to the likeness to Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp. My partner was sitting there with me at the time and he was amazed at how realistic they looked, and he is never amazed at this kind of geeky thing (he did comment on how "round things are not always round"... had to explain to him about polygons and stuff ). Kinda weird to see Goofy, Donals and Sora in that "realistic" stage, but that's one of the reasons why Kingdom Hearts works so well.

Absolutely beautiful, i can only imagine what they'll do with more powerful machines.

 

[Mordecaii]

I went out and bought KH2, and I have to completely agree with LB so far. The game is beautiful, the music and sound effects are excellent, the opening trailer is superb, I could go on and on...

I also am currently at the stage set in Pirates of the Caribbean, and LB is right... The textures on the models is incredible! And the animation on the Disney characters is spectacular... I still can't believe they were able to get the animation so much like the original cartoons.

I personally enjoy the battle system more than the first game. Things seem more intense, and they seem more fluid as well... I like the fact that the combos seem to be longer and I don't have to spend as much time running around trying to catch up to the enemies.

Overall, I'm having an absolute blast playing KH2, and unfortunately my school work is suffering because of it... oh well

 

[mckmas8808]

Damn it Mordecaii and L-b you guys are going make me buy this freaking game. >_<

London-boy keep posting your impressions I like them.

 

[London Geezer]

Haven't had the chance in the last few days, and i'm actually missing it. Never happened to any game since the first KH or Final Fantasy. That included SOTC and GOW.

In unrelated news, ign reported that KH2 already sold (or shipped?) 2.5M copies, even before being released in Europe. The total sales for the series (KH, KH:COM and KH2) is closing in the 10M mark worldwide. Now that's impressive, totally deserved and i'm very happy that means this series will see another sequel, and probably many after it.

I have to say, KH2 is quite easy so far, and there's a lot more "watching" than the previous game. So much that it's entertaining for people watching me playing, because there is a cut-scene after entering almost every room in the stages. It's almost like watching a very long Disney-Square crossover movie for them, with some battles in between. I'm sure lots of people will complain about that, but at least they're all skippable for when we play the game again (they're skippable the first time around too, in fact).

Personally i know i'll have to go back and fight a lot of battles just to level up, cause so far i just wanted to see what happen next and kinda rushed from one area to the other just to see, but that means i'm not as levelled up as i could be. I tried entering the new Colisseum (bit like the first game, but it's different, you'll see when you play it) and i couldn't even complete the first Tournament. Which is just... wrong. I mean, i'm a max-level-99999-damage-points-in-Final-Fantasy kind of person.

 

[mckmas8808]

WOW! That game sounds like heaven in one's hands. *keeps telling self must beat MGS3:Sub first* I can't wait to play it.

 

[Mordecaii]

Same here l-b, I tried doing the first coliseum fight, and I couldn't get past like the 6th or 7th round...

I really like the new Gummi ship battles... they're so much more intense, and the mini-bosses are a blast. Plus, it seems like the ship editor is much more in-depth... I haven't had a chance to play around with it much since I've been so excited to check out the new worlds, but it looks like you can do a lot more with it.

I'm absolutely loving the battles in this game. I find myself watching for whenever the triangle button pops up on the screen so I can pull off a special move, and the range of moves can be anything from comical to extremely fun to watch. For example, on one enemy I'll press the triangle button and grab onto an enemy's weapon and be pulled all over the area while it flies through the air and it'll smash into the ground instantly killing the enemy. I could also whack away at the enemy a ton of times to kill it, but it's not half as fun. Also, the boss battles are a blast due to the reaction commands.

I also like what they did with the different forms Sora can take on and the "limit breaks". When paired up with Mulan, I can shoot explosives at the enemy and after firing a few a new move pops up to let me cause a rather large explosion that causes a lot of damage to enemies in the area. I'm enjoying Sora's Valor form because you get to dual wield keyblades and the attacks are so fast that it's addictive!

I love how they added different gameplay mechanics to the different worlds so that they don't all feel the same... Things like a morale meter that slowly decreases as you take damage or aren't collecting orbs from killing things, or a mischief meter that increases as the enemies cause more damage to the surrounding area really make things interesting, and using the environment to help also makes things fun.

I really can't say enough good things about this game... It's a quality game, and most of all it's genuinely FUN. It's been a long time that I enjoyed a game not only for the story and the quality but also because I didn't want to stop PLAYING it... Games like FF make me want to keep pushing through the game to find out what happens in the story, but this game makes me want to keep experiencing every part of it. I wouldn't be surprised if I play through it a second time right after I finish the first playthrough!

 

[darkblu]

this may be a wrong kind of question to ask here but how does the battle system compare to the tales of namco?

 

[London Geezer]

this may be a wrong kind of question to ask here but how does the battle system compare to the tales of namco?

Sorry, can't help you here, haven't played that game!

 

[London Geezer]

Oh god...

Does anyone remember when a trailer for the game was released, and it showed at least a few hundreds (if not thousands) monsters at the same time, and lots of people automatically expected it to be a CG cutscene?

Well, not only it was totally realtime, but in-game too, you get to fight all those enemies at once, it's fun as hell and u level up 3 times just finishing them off!!

Amazing, this game is simply amazing.

 

[mckmas8808]

Oh god...

Does anyone remember when a trailer for the game was released, and it showed at least a few hundreds (if not thousands) monsters at the same time, and lots of people automatically expected it to be a CG cutscene?

Well, not only it was totally realtime, but in-game too, you get to fight all those enemies at once, it's fun as hell and u level up 3 times just finishing them off!!

Amazing, this game is simply amazing.

Damn are you serious? I read somebody say something about that scene. Nice to hear.

 

[London Geezer]

Damn are you serious? I read somebody say something about that scene. Nice to hear.

Yep, 100% serious... And it's not even the only time KH2 puts you in the middle of hundreds of enemies at once, i just remembered that scene from the trailer and also remembered the comments about it not being realtime... Gameplay-wise, the game lets you breeze through the horde of enemies, but it's just fun to do it, because it's only done a couple of times in the whole game (so far), it doesn't become repetitive like that boring game with 65k enemies to cut through or most other games that put you against hundreds of enemies at once.

 

[barnak]

Thanks for posting your impressions Lboy, im really thinking about picking this up tomorrow!

 

[London Geezer]

Finally finished the game. Amazing.
Didn't get the secret ending (you need to finish a special tournament, and i couldn't be bothered as it's a bit long) so i downloaded it and i can't say i wasn't surprised. I mean... what the...?

Anyway, Kingdom Hearts 2... What an amazing experience, and what amazing production values.

Square sold PS3 to me, and it's a damn shame cause their games would fit just fine on X360 and i wouldn't have to remortgage my house either... Oh well...



EDIT: Oh, sorry for breaking up the E3 tsunami... Just thought we could all take a breather...