Unlike my many playthroughs of the first this is only my second time playing this one. Plus I never got to watch the ending to this game till now because I literally left it hanging at the final save point. In hindsight that is very odd choice since this sequel improves on almost all the flaws from the first. Starting off with quite the mysterious storyline that does a solid job of recapping the first game and Chain Of Memories. You could almost believe they were pulling a Kojima if Sora wasn’t on the box.
We start off with our new protagonist Roxas who is having strange dreams about a kid he doesn’t know. While he tries to ignore it and enjoy the rest of his summer break with his friends things just start getting weirder. Between literal words being stolen by strange creatures and his newfound ability to wield a keyblade, Roxas has so many questions yet very few answers. This acts as a nice tutorial and a amazingly emotional introduction back to Sora after the 7 days conclude. From here it goes back into traveling from one Disney world to the next. While the pacing can never be perfect thanks to all the mini stories it does a solid job of keeping the main plot going though each world.
Combat wise things have improved but it still retains the key flaw from the first. No really good way of dodging attacks. Parrying attacks and dodge rolling are still available yet they are very much ineffective most of the time. A new special mode is added for Sora to fuse with his friends to obtain new powers temporary. 4 different drives are available to assist in different situations. A frenzy of keyblade attacks, boosted magic, special moves and a fourth the combines them all. A good get out of jail card for some of the tougher battles. Being able to quick select a healing item is a great addition too.
A general improvement on boss battles was nice to see. While the ever dreadful homing thunder attack shows up occasionally the addition of cool moments during most boss fights were enjoyable. Even the gummi ship gets a fast pace upgrade that might be to fast. By the end of the game it almost feels like playing a bullet hell game. Getting though the normal routes was fine but the extra stages seemed real tough. Additionally the journal gets a big upgrade since it includes info on just about everything in the game.
Overall this is a big improvement over Kingdom Hearts than what my memories told me. A lot of little moments that were forgettable before were actually fun to play like the mini games in the 100 Acre Wood. Sure while it may not have all the tools to make the combat more proactive it still works as a standard action RPG. Still this might just be the best KH game so far with a compelling story and plenty Disney worlds to explore. Definitely still worth playing.