Heya.

Continuing with my marathon,today I’ll be sharing my opinions regarding this game and it’s content, which I experienced on my 1^st playthrough in Proud. Like always, I encourage anyone who reads this to share their experiences  and thoughts. Sorry if I sound pretentious or immature. Let’s get started.

 

-Story: I find the story to be messy, lacking focus and incoherent. There is just too much filler in the worlds and the story progression and pacing is terrible. Some of the characters, I think, were worse than in the other games and I didn’t like how the story was told and the “villains” weren’t really villains and more like antagonists. It makes for a decent sequel (Roxas prologue aside) and some of the moments that happen are really good. It also serves as a nice pseudo-finale for the series if you ignore BBS, Re:Coded and DDD, and sounds like a good story on concept, I just disliked it’s execution.

 

-Gameplay: The gameplay is great and in some cases, an improvement over KH1 and the other games. I didn’t like the combat at first, but over time it grew on me. It rewards pacience and strategies and is very balanced, more than just mashing X all the time. While Magic can be useful, most of the time it’s better to just attack with the Keyblade, making it situational and almost useless. The different ways to defeat enemies is good and Drive Forms work as nice power-ups, but again, most of the time a better and safer strategy is to just use the Keyblade. It can be challenging, but fair. Exploration was more of a downgrade, since I could go through most worlds with basic walking and there wasn’t much of a drive to go through every bit of a world other than puzzle pieces. Reaction commands look cool, but that’s it. I think they’re needless and just there. I love how there’s just so much content , even after completing the story, and it helps me to come back to this game, once in a while.

 

-Graphics: The graphics still look good and cutscenes are an improvement over those on KH1. Reaction commands look good and detailed facial expressions are more prevalent. The environments look great and have some variety to them, and the characters look just as great as everything else. There are a bunch of cinematic moments that are good, almost feeling like a movie.

 

-Sound: Yoko Shimomura just keeps on giving. The music sounds just as exciting and beautiful as always, and the tracks are more memorable. Each piece just fits and sounds great. I don’t think there’s a single track that I disliked during my playthrough.

 

Overall, while KH2FM is a GOOD game and in some cases better than KH1, I think it’s a tad overrated and not as amazing or “best in the series” as some make it out to be. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it or that it’s bad, but it’s not perfect. The Final Mix edition adds so much that I think it should’ve been the original, proper release. This is the version that makes the original feel lacking. I enjoyed KH2.

 

Unfortunately, due to school starting and having other games left to play, this could be the last review I’ll be doing for a while, but it’s nothing big.

I agree definitely! The story is boring but at some parts it can be good!

If it wasn't for critical mode this game wouldn't be as loved. It's really button mashy in the vanilla game. Final Mix adds more content too since the original has no post game stuff besides 1 Sephiroth fight

 

I haven't played KH2 Vanilla so I can't say how that was in terms of button mashing, but it is rather easy to stick to using Keyblade attacks rather than using the other tools given to you, seeing how combos are basically the bread and butter of anything that you do. I mean, in regards to magic, the spells are pretty useful, but then running out of MP and having to wait for it to recharge would probably deter some people from using it (although there are ethers but who cares I guess). As for Drive Forms, people would probably stick to using Limit Form, or Final if they have living party members. Also, the game doesn't bother explaining the Anti Point system, so going into Anti a lot would probably deter people from Drives too. And then I guess people are like, Why use MP and Drive for Limits and Summons when you have Magic and Drive, I guess.

The thing that I think makes the gameplay fun is using all of the tools you have at your disposal. But again, the game is basically fine with you using only X and Triangle.

 

As for story, I didn't really feel like there were too many problems. It's true that a bunch of the Disney worlds were essentially filler the second time around, which does mess with the pacing. I didn't see any problem with most of the plot points, though. Maybe it's because I already played through DDD. Idk.

I also don't really understand how this is really a problem:

the “villains” weren’t really villains and more like antagonists

I don't really think that it was an issue that not all of the Org members were inherently evil or something. Or I'm just misunderstanding what you're trying to say lol

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us, Awesome Sauce!  Wow, so you've played four KH games now, huh?  Good for you, man!  I'm glad you're getting your head in the games!

 

As for my experience with the game, it was my first ever Kingdom Hearts game, way back in 2006!  This is the game that got me into the series, and it'll always have a special place in my heart!  The story is amazing, and I love that you can visit the worlds twice for more story, ya know?  I also loved battling Organization XIII, and the many worlds and different combat options were a huge plus!  This game is definitely amazing, and it ranks among my favorite Kingdom Hearts titles, along with Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance!

 

And if the vanilla version was good, then the Final Mix version was even better!  The Final Mix version is the definitive way to experience Kingdom Hearts II, and all the content the game offers is a satisfying huge plus!  Kingdom Hearts II was definitely a great game in the series!

Heya.

Continuing with my marathon,today I’ll be sharing my opinions regarding this game and it’s content, which I experienced on my 1^st playthrough in Proud. Like always, I encourage anyone who reads this to share their experiences  and thoughts. Sorry if I sound pretentious or immature. Let’s get started.

 

-Story: I find the story to be messy, lacking focus and incoherent. There is just too much filler in the worlds and the story progression and pacing is terrible. Some of the characters, I think, were worse than in the other games and I didn’t like how the story was told and the “villains” weren’t really villains and more like antagonists. It makes for a decent sequel (Roxas prologue aside) and some of the moments that happen are really good. It also serves as a nice pseudo-finale for the series if you ignore BBS, Re:Coded and DDD, and sounds like a good story on concept, I just disliked it’s execution.

 

-Gameplay: The gameplay is great and in some cases, an improvement over KH1 and the other games. I didn’t like the combat at first, but over time it grew on me. It rewards pacience and strategies and is very balanced, more than just mashing X all the time. While Magic can be useful, most of the time it’s better to just attack with the Keyblade, making it situational and almost useless. The different ways to defeat enemies is good and Drive Forms work as nice power-ups, but again, most of the time a better and safer strategy is to just use the Keyblade. It can be challenging, but fair. Exploration was more of a downgrade, since I could go through most worlds with basic walking and there wasn’t much of a drive to go through every bit of a world other than puzzle pieces. Reaction commands look cool, but that’s it. I think they’re needless and just there. I love how there’s just so much content , even after completing the story, and it helps me to come back to this game, once in a while.

 

-Graphics: The graphics still look good and cutscenes are an improvement over those on KH1. Reaction commands look good and detailed facial expressions are more prevalent. The environments look great and have some variety to them, and the characters look just as great as everything else. There are a bunch of cinematic moments that are good, almost feeling like a movie.

 

-Sound: Yoko Shimomura just keeps on giving. The music sounds just as exciting and beautiful as always, and the tracks are more memorable. Each piece just fits and sounds great. I don’t think there’s a single track that I disliked during my playthrough.

 

Overall, while KH2FM is a GOOD game and in some cases better than KH1, I think it’s a tad overrated and not as amazing or “best in the series” as some make it out to be. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it or that it’s bad, but it’s not perfect. The Final Mix edition adds so much that I think it should’ve been the original, proper release. This is the version that makes the original feel lacking. I enjoyed KH2.

 

Unfortunately, due to school starting and having other games left to play, this could be the last review I’ll be doing for a while, but it’s nothing big.

 

I KNEW you wouldn't enjoy the story aspect of the game ever since that KH1 review a while back. Most fans would agree that while KH2 did expand the KH universe the overall pacing as well as how the story was told in that game was pretty bad. Plus, it was riddled with WAY too much Disney filler.

 

As for the gameplay being balanced I'm not sure I could entirely see that.

 

Completely agree with you on the music/sound and even the graphics. 

 

Overall I do agree with you in that KH2FM is a GOOD game that improved some aspects of the first, but in doing so it completely forgot (or rather removed) what made the original game so great.