I left My Heart and Body in Twilight Town

Kingdom Hearts II is what the first Kingdom Hearts game should have been. Although I fawned over the original game, I did mention in my review of it that there were a few ares in which the game could definitely use some improvement. Well, a few years after the first Kingdom Hearts rocked gamedom, we got a sequel. And the sequel outshined the first game in just about every respect imaginable. I certain Kingdom Hearts II has a flaw somewhere inside its wiring. But I really can't think of it right off the top of my head. Square even managed to fit Final Fantasy IX mainstay Vivi into the game. Vivi is arguable the greatest character ever created in an RPG.

The plot of Kingdom Hearts II picks up right where the first one left off. I think. All I know is that when I first took control over the main character of Kingdom Hearts II, I wasn't taking control over Sora and his loyal accomplices Donald and Goofy. I found myself in control of some new kid by the name of Roxus. Roxus lives in Twilight Town. The last week of summer vacation is here, and Roxus and his three pals are just lazing away, letting the time wane down until they have to go back to school again. This is the training area of Kingdom Hearts II, and while it sucks to have to use FOUR GAME HOURS to train and finally get the plot off the ground, Square keeps it interesting. Roxus begins noticing strange things happening. A weird guy wearing a hood keeps harrassing him. Finally, in an outstanding moment of gaming surrealism, Roxus begins to turn into a ghost-like image. He also develops some kind of obsession with Sora, who along with Donald and Goofy is frozen stiff in some kind of cryogenic tube in and old mansion on the outskirts of town. The connection between Roxus and Sora seems nonexistant, but its so interesting that it keeps you coming back just for closure.

The game picks up once you take control of Sora proper. The plot of Kingdom Hearts II is much more labyrinthine than the plot of the first game. It's very confusing and I really can't say I fully understood what was going on myself. But I can get by just saying this: The Heartless are still around and they're joined by new foes called the Nobodies, plus a mysterious group of people in black hoodies who call themselves Organization XIII. Ultimately, the loose ends from the first game are tied up. The King returns, and Sora at last learns of the fate that met his two best friends at the start of the first game. You even get to play as King Mickey if you happen to get killed in action along the way.

In my review of the first Kingdom Hearts, I lamented that levels weeren't designed to their full potential. In particular, I mentioned what fun levels based on Mulan and The Lion King would be. Well, it took two games, but I got my Mulan and Lion King levels, and they are a blast! Besides those, The Little Mermaid thankfully doesn't make any attempts at forcing you into underwater combat again. There are also levels based on Tron (!), Pirates of the Caribean (!!), and the old black and white Disney cartoons, when Mickey Mouse was still Steamboat Willie. Aladdin and The Nightmare Before Christmas return from the first game, and both are expanded. Hercules is also back as both a side tournament and a playable level. Each level contains a number of different episodes, and you're required to play through all of them more than once to complete them all. You also have to fight two bosses. But don't worry, this is a fulfilling type of expansion, and everything feels like there was honest-to-god thought put into it. Besides, you get to put some new characters in your party this way. Among the available party characters, yes, is Captain Jack Sparrow! And he is a fearsome fighter!

The low point is that having many levels also means you'll be seeing the Gummi Ship segments again. Square does not seem to have realized that the best way to improve the Gummi Ship segments would be to remove them altogether. The segments are a bit more interesting this time because the occasionally let you choose your path. But they're also tougher, and one or two even make you fight bosses. They also move a lot faster, so they feel more like rail shooters than they did in the first game. The improvements really are improvements, but the Gummi Ship segments are still a tedious waste of time which we could do without completely. And while new ships and a customization system are both in there, I still don't like the Gummi Ship segments enough to want to waste my time with them.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy have their same moves from the last game for the most part. But there are some useful new summons - Chicken Little was a favorite of mine - and you are granted the ability to do some fun things with them. The aforementioned Chicken Little launches eggs, for instance. But what's new in combat is a kind of super move. As you attack your foes in a typical melee, you'll suddenly see large green triangles flashing onscreen. This is your cue to hit the triangle button for a move which wipes out multiple enemies or unleashes a nasty, hard-hitting super attack against a boss. There are points where the moves can appear to be intrusive, and other points where you'll wonder why you weren't granted the opportunity to perform one when you really needed it and were in a situation where one should have been set up. But for the most part, these super moves perform their functions when needed and as necessary. As for your comrades, let me put it this way: If it was merely my job to escort them through the game and not just fight alongside them, they would be ideal escorts. They fight to defend themselves and to defend you and they heal up when they need it, they heal YOU when you need it, and they're never far out of reach. You cannot ask for a better set of companions.

While this is supposed to be Disney fused with Square, the one thing that (only slightly) irks me about Kingdom Hearts II is the same as it was in the last game: It's more like Disney with a few Square characters. Or Final Fantasy characters, really - anyone outside the series has yet to show up. Furthermore, Kingdom Hearts II contributes more to the overexposure of Final Fantasy games VII and VIII. I want to see more square elements next time Square and Disney try this again. Maybe make Queen Zeal one of the bad guys, at the very least! And there are STILL no chocobos!

The graphics and sounds are still as good as can be. The character designs are all inspired and the music is mostly Disney remixes. The voice actors all do great imitations of their characters. Haley Joel Osment's voice has reached full-out maturity, and while that may throw you out of whach at first, you'll grow with it. The controls are much improved from the first game - the delay when Sora lands from jumping exist anymore, although he will still get hit rather frequently between the time he casts a spell and the time the spell is actually activated. This causes a few problems, especially in a particularly difficult boss fight. And the targeting system hasn't been refined enough either. It still points to the most insignificant fleck in the middle of a melee. But it still works wonders for tracking down enemies or weak points on bosses.

The Playstation 2 had an incredible run - the best since the 16-bit Silver Era. It will be some time before we see the variety and quality of playable games on a single console again. So even finding one game on the PS2 to name the best for the console is too hard a task. But Kingdom Hearts II is in the running. If it isn't, it's at least in the top five.