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Kingdom Hearts IIAfter critically acclaimed success of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II definitely had a lot to live up to – and I can honestly say that Kingdom Hearts II does far more than live up to the previous titles; it surpasses them on every level.

Kingdom Hearts II begins by putting you in control of Roxas, a teenage boy from Twilight Town. Before the events of Kingdom Hearts II, Roxas had been enjoying his summer holidays – however in the last few days of his summer he finds himself haunted by strange dreams of Sora and the Nobodies. Determined to find out the truth behind these dreams and the Nobodies, Roxas hunts down a girl called Naminé who resides in the Mansion just outside Twilight Town – it’s here that he discovers that he is in fact just a Nobody himself, and that it is his destiny to reunited with Sora, his other half.

Kingdom Hearts IISora, who has now been reunited with his Nobody awakes from his slumber knowing nothing of the events that took place in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, or the events that took place in Twilight Town. Upon leaving Twilight Town Sora discovers of a new enemy, an evil organization called Organization XIII (an organization that consists of thirteen members, how original). Just like the original, Kingdom Hearts II tells the classic tale of a struggle between good and evil – however what makes Kingdom Hearts II’s story so unique is the fact that it deals with the areas in between with the character Riku.

Kingdom Hearts II’s storyline is definitely an improvement on the storyline of Kingdom Hearts, as it deals with much more mature issues and tells the tale of a deeper, darker and far more sinister past.

Kingdom Hearts IIKingdom Hearts II’s battle system is pretty much the same as Kingdom Hearts’ with some obvious improvements and some not so obvious improvements. One improvement is a new system called the Drive Gauge, once the Drive Gauge is full it allows Sora to transform into one of five forms (two of which randomly occur) – Drive Forms add a new element to the Kingdom Hearts series, as one Drive form increases Sora’s power, allowing him to dual wield Keyblades; whilst another Drive Form increases Sora’s magical power. One of the main problems with the battle system in Kingdom Hearts was the camera. Luckily Square Enix noticed this and have improved the camera – getting rid of the problems that were apparent in Kingdom Hearts.

Just like Kingdom Hearts, one of Kingdom Hearts II’s strongest points is it’s in game graphics – initially I thought that they hadn’t really been improved upon from Kingdom Hearts’, however unless you take a look at the original game you really can’t appreciate how much Kingdom Hearts II’s graphics have improved. Unfortunately Kingdom Hearts II doesn’t have many pre-rendered video sequences, something that the Kingdom Hearts also lacked. It’s a real shame because one of the things that I love most about Final Fantasy titles is the pre-rendered video sequences, it’s just a shame the Kingdom Hearts series seems to avoid them!

Rating: 9.5/10


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