The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Kingdom Hearts II starts off very promising. From the amazing opening music video style intro to the long as hell character introductions and back story (Took me about 4 hours) the game doesn't falter too much. The voice acting is good new characters aren't annoying or dull. Thats just the beginning though. Then you start to get into the real game. The Disney stuff starts to pick up and things start to dive. Unlike the first game where the Disney aspects helped the game. In KHII Disney pulls the game back. The animations and voice work (for the most part) are amazing. There is no denying that. However, they try far to hard to sell a silly half-hearted message in each world you visit. If each world was a full on 1 hour movie it would work out ok. However they have less than 20 minutes of characters moments, so in the end you just don't care what anyone has to say. All this time you are hoping for the Sora story to come back into focus. What's really sad is that Sora's story is also handled poorly. From terrible jokes to awkward pauses the drama that is trying to get through just doesn't work. It's as if the game trying to be cute in some way. It's possible that something was lost in translation. After all Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children had the same problems.
Now onto the gameplay. Like the first game KH has always been an almost mindless button masher. However with the sequel they have added new battle options like Limits, Drives and context sensitive sequences similar to God of War and Resident Evil 4 into combat. While all it is is pressing triangle over and over I was still able to find it as a worthwhile addition. Another aspect improved has been the camera system. In a no-brainer move you can control the camera with the right analog stick (thank god!). Sadly when compared with the first game the levels are far too linear. Most worlds are just battlegrounds. You go from one loading screen to another encountering cutscenes after cutscene (I love cutscenes normally) battling enemies one after the other until you are done. Then onto the next world. There is basically zero exploration. Which for some I suppose could be a good thing. I will say that the game seems more focused as a result.
In what might be a surprise considering all the negative above I actually had a good amount of fun. Even though I felt like I was going through something familiar I didn't ever want to stop. I wanted to know what happened next. Despite the way I feel about the Disney stuff I enjoyed the Pooh Bear section (now he's actually cute), and it was fun to see black & white Mickey, Tron, and Pirates. It's just too bad that the cutscenes were for the most part boring. Give me some of that disney charm and I will love them. While aesthetically pleasing worked for the first game it just doesn't cut it here. If SquareEnix wants to please me (and it seems many fans too) Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to need to change things up a bit. In what seems fitting to say a cutscene can only go on so long without a heart before it becomes nothing.
PROS
+ Love the intro video and music
+ Amazing graphics and animations
+ A fairly lengthy game
+ Good choices in unique Disney worlds
CONS
- Disney stuff just isn't working this time around
- Story is pretty full of itself
- A little too linear
- Plenty of awkward cutscenes
