Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix employee who is known for working on final fantasy vii. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover between Square Enix and Disney based in a fictional universe. The main character Sora, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy journey around various Disney , Pixar and originally designed worlds.They battle the heartless and various creatures of darkness in order to save the world from the darkness. Throughout their Journey they make new friends along the way, characters from the disney world they visit and various final fantasy heroes. The series consists of thirteen games , and with the release of Kingdom hearts III in 2019 and The Remind DLC 2020, the game finaly concluded it's first saga known as the Xehanort Dark arc. After the events of the Remind DLC (2020), the game released Kingdom hearts Melody of memory which prepared th stage for the next game. In 2022 Kingdom hearts 4 was revealed alongside a new app game . The series are well received from the public although sometimes its beeing critisize for its bizzare story telling. The main issue of the series was the fact that all the games add to one story, however they re split to multiple platoforms such as Ps2,psp,ps4,Android,gba and the Ds. Square Enix though realised the mess they made and the remastered the games and released them as collections for ps4 and xbox. A wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including Cds with the soundtracks of the series,multiple figurines,plushies,clothing ,companion books(guides,artbooks), light novels, a collectible card game, manga series(by Akira Amano) and potentially an upcoming TV series.
Kingdom hearts 2 has a relatively easy to follow story, however there was plenty of confusion made due to the fact that the game is called 2, but is infact the third entry. To elaborate at the end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Sora Donald amd Goofy wake up in a new area and see Pluto once again
with a letter sent by King Mickey. Kairi is back in Destiny Islands waiting for Sora to return and Riku trapped in the darkness with the king. Normaly someone would expect Kh2 to continue from here, however it does not as Sora does not start as the playable hero and when Sora iis back he
and his friends were asleep in a slumper. This is because in Chain of Memory (the Game Boy advance(gba)) game has the heroes chasing Pluto into a magical castle called Castle Oblivion. The gba game introduced new enemies wearing hooded long robes known as the Organization XIII.
The game concluded with Sora and friends having false memories that are constantly interlapping with the real ones.Namine, a main plot character promised Sora that she will return Sora's real memories in order to remember who he is which will come with two consequences. The first one being
that they will all forget the events of Chain of Memories and that the heroes will fall into deep slumber. She also noded as some memories will take longer to come back as they lurk in the shadows.
With that being said Kingdom hearts 2 prologue introduces the player to Roxas, a keyblade user living in Twilighth town. Roxas is Sora's nobody. Nobodies is the new type of enemies introduced in Kh2. In the world of kingdom hearts if someone dies by a heartless or have their hearts fallen
into darkness become heartless themselves. However, special individuals get to keep their bodies(not their hearts) and roam around in search of their identity. In order to become whole again, the heartless of the individual and the nobody have to fall by the lihgt to form a somebody During the final
chapters of Kh1, Sora was forced to stab himself in order to release Kairi's Heart from withiin him. By doing so he allowed himself to drop into the darkness and becomming a heartless, the player then as a heartless Sora moved around to find his friends and with the help of Kairis light powers he became
himself again. The sequel mentions that when Sora stabbed himself, since he was special he had a Nobody born somewhere else. Roxas' story and character development was mainly seen in the game Kingdom hearts 358/2 which confusingly enough came after Kh2, and thus any1 playing Kh2 were heavily confused
from this prologue. Needless to say the prologue briefly introduced Roxas and Axel, alongside the twilight friends and the nobodies. The prologue ends by having Roxas becomming one with Sora, thus returning all his memories and some new(Roxas's) back to Sora who wakes up alongside Donald and Goofy.
The heroes were sleeping for approximately one year and they wake up confused as to how come the heartless still exist seeing how the door to darkness was sealed in Kingdom hearts 1. The heroes were ambushed by new enemies however a quick king Mickey drops and rescues everyone, hands them a wallet and told them to get on the
train before he runned away. Sora recalls King Mickey being trapped in the darkness with Riku however since they ve seen him he gains hope that his friend Riku also escaped the darkness. The train lead them to the tower of a powerfull sorcerer, Yensid. Yensid welcomes the heroes and explains the heroes of
what occured during the year past and also explains why darkness still exist. He explains how the heroes act did help alot by preventing the heartless numbers but as long as people have evil in their heart heartless will always exist. He also introduced the concept of nobodies to them and their two forms. Dusk, which will
be their standard form and ofcourse the ones called the Organization XIII, Nobodies capable of thinking, making plans and work towards a goal. Sora then proceeds to obtain new clothes which came with the power of duel wielding Keyblade.
The quest, and the story that will follow has the heroes visiting new Disney worlds in order to:
The game focusses on Sora and his friends who visit various Disney worlds helping who ever needs their help, while at the same time trying to find Riku,help king Mickey and stop the Nobodies. The players get Control of Sora, a young boy who was chosen to yield the iconic Keybalde. New to Kingdom hearts 2 was also the introduction of Roxas as another playable hero,
who played similar to Sora but with his own animations. The game is an action role playing game which combines real-time combat, quick commands and RPG elements that boost the status of heroes. The Kingdom hearts series have also been referred to as Hack and slash RPG games as certain difficlties are too easy(usually up to Normal) and mashing attack usually works.
Kingdom Hearts 2 though proved the fact that casually pressing the attack command will not win a boss battle or an encounter with plenty of enemies. When the heroes visit a new world, the players are free to manuver around and explore the areas. Each map consist of various items such as power up materials and chests containning various of items. Sora is able to walk around,
jump and double jump to reach higher areas and glide(after a certain point) to reach further locations.
The player's party consist of three heroes, Sora Donald and Goofy. Each time a world is visited the player can swap one between Donald or Goofy in order for a new party member to join. This member is in regards to the world they visited, EG. Simpa, Jack Sparrow, Cloud Strife etc.
The combat of the game is fun and flashy. The player can equip their skill points to increase their combos, their damage and their overall status. Sora can hit the enemies with his keyblade and his ability to cast magic.
Close Combat is mainly achieved through the keyblade. Mashing the attack button will allow Sora to hit his nearby enemies. The close combat of Kingdom hearts 2 is vastly superior than Kingdom hearts 1 and in fact, the kingdom hearts community love to argue whether or not the basic combat of Kh2 is better than the one found in Kh3. Sora's basic combos are flashy and very cool looking
The player can equip new powers to extend the combo by spending their AP point very similar to the first one. By extending combos, Sora can start attacking enemies on the ground and then launch them in the sky in order to proceed with aerial combos. The player can further these combos by adding various finishes that might knockdown heartless or even gather them close to him through the power
of magnet and strike them down. The game itself offers a fair amount of enemies for Sora to fight on ground or in air.
For Long range attacks Sora can use his magic abilities. Magic is slowly obtain while playing the game. They re part of the main game and thus when the time is right it will be given to the player. These spells can be activated by manuvering in the command menu (bottom left), selecting the option Magic and which spell is to be catsed. The second and more efficient way
is to use controller shorcuts to simply press a button to open the quick command magic menu and press any of the buttons responsible for a spell. The spells require MP Bar(magic/mana bar) which is located around Sora's portrait in blue color. Each time a spell is cast the bar will be reduced and the spell of cure (which is health increase) will consume all the bar. A projectile
spell is ice and thunder which are attacks shot towards certain enemies(locked on). This time around the spell of fire is not a projectile and infact it creates a ring around Sora Very similar to how the aero spell used to be in Kh1 with the exception of the fact that the spell wont last as long. New spells were also added to the game such as reflect which is an efficient defensive spell which also
deals a heavy ammount of damage. Some spells evolve into a better versions of themselves when leveling up. Projectile attacks can also happen with the keyblade given that the player enchances Sora's ability with the keyblade thrown attack.
Note: the skills of the party members can also be swapped by the player.
Another way of using skills is through the power of Summons. Summons are Disney heroes that join Sora during the fight. By manuvering into the command menu, there is an option of Summons. Summons this time around do not require MP but instead they require Drive Gauge, which is represented with yellow. When the summon is cast, a cinematic occurs of the hero being summoned and each does its own thing.
Tinker bell drops orbs for aora, Gennie joins Sora to fight by using spells an others do their own things whether to give temporar status boost, simply join the battle or help the player gain more items. When enemies are defeated and when items are broken they drop four types of orbs. The green orbs are absorbed for healling and blue for MP restorations. The third thing is not spheres, but weird shapes
that can be potions, items and other usable options. The fourth and new item is yellow crystals which are used to refill the drive Gauge. The size of the item represents the ammount, the bigger the better.
A new inclusion to the game is the Drive forms. This is a new concept that was beloved by the majority and something that was missed from the third installment by casual fans. Drive forms require the player to use their Drive gauge. Drives are the go to to anyone who wishes to defeat the enemies within a short period of time. The drive forms also change Sora's attack patterns significally while looking
flashy and cool. Each form when mastered unlock new abilities. Mastering a form requires the player to kill enemies while in a certain form. The game has six different forms with their own uniqie patterns and each of them are unlocked through the story mode.
As mentioned above the game focuses on Sora and crew as they move in around the cosmos visiting worlds one after another. Some of the worlds are originally designed by Square Enix themselves while the others were designed by Square Enix however, they re based on their Disney movie counter parts. For example, the Radiant Gardens is an original area designed by SqE but worlds like Atlantica and Lion King are based
on their movies (Little Marmaid and Lion King). The worlds of Kingdom hearts 2 are small sandboxes that combine each part with another. This time around the maps make it clear as to where to go and so the player cannot get lost which was something critisized in the past. The game also has the map of the world accessible almost instantly when landing in a new world. Each time the player visits and area they have
their appearance change in order to look as if they re of this world and not outsiders, in order to protect the world order. For example, in Hollow Bastion the heroes look like themselves however when visiting a world like Atlantica, Sora becomes a marmaid man, Goofy a turtle and Donald Duck an octapus. This is a beatiful way to show new forms for the heroes to match the world. Nightmare forms (Nightmare before Christmas)
look scary and it's very interesting how they swap forms yet again when visiting the Christmas counterpart of the same world. Another great change is in the Lion king where Sora swaps into a literal tiger and has to fight heartless and bosses. It should also be mentioned how the enemies also receive the same treatment which enchances the games beauty.
To elaborate heartless appearring in the lion king look more like real animals found in that world, where as in the Caribbean they look more like pirates. The levels themselves have also their own unique design and gameplay elements, such as Mulan's wind ride, Lion kings literal animal combat or even Tron's motorcycle combat. All the worlds have plenty of checkpoints (Save clouds) that the player can use to save their progress.
Save spot is where the player will respawn or acess when teleporting back in the map. There are also plenty of locations where hidden chests are. Some require a small puzzle to be solved while others require the player's observation skills.
The game has a few collectables for the player to collect. These collectables do not include the keyblades and summons, as most of them are given to the player through the Story. These are:
Overall Kingdom hearts II was game that came up with possitive reviews and began the confusing journey that would become the Kingdom hearts Lore. The game was heavily improved from kindom hearts 1 introducing new mechanicks and new concepts while also improving on its combat system. The game till this day is consider by some the superior game of all the 12 Kingdom hearts entries, while others believe it is Kingdom hearts III. Seeing how a ps2 game still gets Ps4 remasters it shows that the game definetely surpassed the test of time as people still talk about the game and people still play the game till this day(17 years as of the writting of this.) The story of kingdom hearts 2 is very interesting with amazing character moments that became iconic for the series. The combat of the game was very polished, simple and vastly different from the original one. The gummi ship gameplay showed that yes, Square Enix heart the complains in regards to it and thus the sequel made sure that if the two gummi ships game sections are placed next to each other, nobody would be able to say it is the same game. The graphics and music are absolutely on point with alot of iconic disney and orginal songs. He is a pirate, This is halloween, Tension rising and Sanctuary are songs that people remember and love. The maps are very well design with unique locations everywhere and different mechanics left and right such as the previously mentioned Sora tiger form. All the maps also include skateboards for the player to move around in style. The game is mainly voice acted with only a few instances where speech-bubbles appeared. If the player gets lost an interaction with any NPC will pin point the location the player should go. The upgrades that Sora receive are usefull and the players can always choose where to spent their AP points. The boss battles are challenging and requires alot of attention to detail in order to survive. The collectables are hidden everywhere and the players should try to pay attention of their whereabouts as collecting them may reward them with Gems that re needed in order to form Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ultimate weapon the ultima.