Kingdom Hearts II
You know it, you love it - Kingdom Hearts II was an inevitability.
Published: May 20, 2005
The sequel to the chocolate-and-peanut-butter Final Fantasy/Disney game is finally, finally underway. The first thought that runs through one‘s mind, upon seeing the demo units on display, is the following: “My Lord, but Mickey is a badass.”
He certainly looks the part, decked out in leather robes and wielding Heartless shadow magic paired with a golden Keyblade in the trailers Square-Enix had blasting through the Convention Hall. Sora, the perpetually teenage hero of the series, has been decked out similarly. Now, Sora and Mickey continue their campaign against the Heartless.
The gameplay is nothing new, if you’ve played Kingdom Hearts (and you should have, because it was excellent). The combat is real time, and the monsters are avoidable in the time-honored tradition of Chrono Trigger. You string together combos from this, casting magic via quickbuttons. Combos are a bit more complex this time around, as is the magic system, though this isn't immediately obvious from the demo. Overall, helper AI seems to have improved slightly from the last game, though this will only be truly telling in the long run.
The biggest addition is to the player character, Sora. Rather than being confined to a single hit-hit-hit combo, Sora can now chain together several different attacks rather than button-mashing. In addition, Sora can activate "Forms" or a sort of time-based power buff. While in Valor Form (the only form available in the demo), Sora turned a bright scarlet color and began wielding two Keyblades - one Kingdom Key, and one Oathkeeper Key. Players of the last game will remember that Sora's Keyblade could transform itself into different states, depending on the world; it seems that this time around, both Keyblades can be modified. While in Valor Form, Sora's combos are enhanced, becoming longer and doing more damage.
From the brief demo, the plot and gameplay remain the same: an enemy known as the Heartless is threatening the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy, and Sora, a boy from a heretofore unknown island, must help Donald and Goofy to conquer the Heartless and defeat whomever's behind this vanishing of worlds. Oh, and find Mickey. It's nothing new, but it looks and plays to be a solid and amazing game, as was the last one. The demo featured two levels from the Mythic China of Mulan, both a large-scale enemy battle and a boss battle. The other two took place in the Hell of Mythic Greece, fighting Hades with FFX's Auron.
The individual inventory and command screens seemed customized for the level played; that is, the Mythic China level had dragon imagery encircling the inventory screen, whereas the Mythic Greece command screen was held up by two titans. A nice, if unnecessary, touch. This begs the question of whether or not customized costumes will return in the game, after being so prominently featured in the last. Interestingly, at a Square press conference, the audience got a laugh out of Johnny Depp, reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the game.
This game was an inevitability, after the teaser trailers shown from the first game. Square-Enix isn't doing anything too risky with the sequel, but this is better than one might think. Why mess with a good thing?
He certainly looks the part, decked out in leather robes and wielding Heartless shadow magic paired with a golden Keyblade in the trailers Square-Enix had blasting through the Convention Hall. Sora, the perpetually teenage hero of the series, has been decked out similarly. Now, Sora and Mickey continue their campaign against the Heartless.
The gameplay is nothing new, if you’ve played Kingdom Hearts (and you should have, because it was excellent). The combat is real time, and the monsters are avoidable in the time-honored tradition of Chrono Trigger. You string together combos from this, casting magic via quickbuttons. Combos are a bit more complex this time around, as is the magic system, though this isn't immediately obvious from the demo. Overall, helper AI seems to have improved slightly from the last game, though this will only be truly telling in the long run.
The biggest addition is to the player character, Sora. Rather than being confined to a single hit-hit-hit combo, Sora can now chain together several different attacks rather than button-mashing. In addition, Sora can activate "Forms" or a sort of time-based power buff. While in Valor Form (the only form available in the demo), Sora turned a bright scarlet color and began wielding two Keyblades - one Kingdom Key, and one Oathkeeper Key. Players of the last game will remember that Sora's Keyblade could transform itself into different states, depending on the world; it seems that this time around, both Keyblades can be modified. While in Valor Form, Sora's combos are enhanced, becoming longer and doing more damage.
From the brief demo, the plot and gameplay remain the same: an enemy known as the Heartless is threatening the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy, and Sora, a boy from a heretofore unknown island, must help Donald and Goofy to conquer the Heartless and defeat whomever's behind this vanishing of worlds. Oh, and find Mickey. It's nothing new, but it looks and plays to be a solid and amazing game, as was the last one. The demo featured two levels from the Mythic China of Mulan, both a large-scale enemy battle and a boss battle. The other two took place in the Hell of Mythic Greece, fighting Hades with FFX's Auron.
The individual inventory and command screens seemed customized for the level played; that is, the Mythic China level had dragon imagery encircling the inventory screen, whereas the Mythic Greece command screen was held up by two titans. A nice, if unnecessary, touch. This begs the question of whether or not customized costumes will return in the game, after being so prominently featured in the last. Interestingly, at a Square press conference, the audience got a laugh out of Johnny Depp, reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the game.
This game was an inevitability, after the teaser trailers shown from the first game. Square-Enix isn't doing anything too risky with the sequel, but this is better than one might think. Why mess with a good thing?