Throwback Thursday Kingdom Hearts II

Throwback Thursday Kingdom Hearts II

(Warning do not read this if you are new to the series and haven’t played the first two.Spoilers.)

“Sanctuary”

Back with another Throwback Thursday game classic and thats Kingdom Hearts II. Kingdom Hearts II was developed and produced by Square Enix. It was released in America on Mar. 28, 2006 for the PlayStation 2. So Kingdom Hearts II has been out  just about over a decade ago. It’s crazy to think that. So let’s dive in and talk why this game is so great.

Kingdom Hearts II story takes place after Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. The story still focus on Sora, Donald and Goofy as they wake up from their sleep in Castle Oblivion to regain their memories and still continue to look for King Mickey and Riku. The three encounter new enemies called Nobodies. When a heartless is created they lose hearts leaving an empty body without a heart creating a Nobody. They really don’t exist and pretend to have hearts. Another new enemy is a group called Organization XIII. They are powerful forms of Nobodies. Each member has a specific element power. Unlike the Heartless Nobodies can actually think and they have a plan. They consist of 13 members. Sora, Riku, Donald and Goofy have already faced some of the members in Castle Oblivion in  Chain of Memories but fans of the series already know this. Throughout your adventure you will come across returning Disney and Final Fantasy characters from the first game. Beast, Aladdin, Jack and others reunite with Sora but you also team up with new characters such as Mulan, Jack Sparrow and Final Fantasy’s own Auron.

The gameplay in Kingdom Hearts II is still an action hack and slash RPG game. Players still have the command list on the bottom left. A new feature that I really loved is the Reaction Command. Specific attacks on enemies are made when you see the Triangle button on top of them. Sora performs these cool attacks and sometimes you’ll need to do these reaction commands to defeat bosses. Now sometimes I feel as though these reaction commands can make fights more easier but granted I still love the command.

Sora, Donald and Goofy still level up and learn new moves. Abilities return as well and once again they are really useful.

Another new feature is the Drive Gauge. It’s a new meter next to Sora that once it’s filled up Sora transforms into his Drive Form. He’ll bond with either Donald or Goofy or sometimes both. Sora will have two Keyblades kicking butt with new attacks called Growth Abilities. Like I said Sora will bond with either Donald or Goofy. The person that Sora bonds with disappears for a short period of time but if Sora bonds with Donald and Goofy both characters will disappear. There are multiple Drive Forms that players can unlock. Drive forms can really help out when the player’s health is low because it fill their health but in Drive Form players can’t heal themselves.

The Drive Gauge are also used for Sora to use Summon. Summon return in Kingdom Hearts II. Summons allow Sora to summon a Disney character to help them in battle.

Another cool feature that I don’t think gets talked about is that players can go back to worlds and have a second story segment which is really cool.

In the end Kingdom Hearts II is a very fun game. The story gets really depth and still continues to add suspense. There is a lot of things to do in this game. I love the new abilities especially the Reaction Command and the Drive Forms. Now many gamers question that Kingdom Hearts II is easier than the first one. I believe that Kingdom Hearts II was the first game out of the series to do an Easy mode. This is definitely one of the top PS2 games in my opinion and I love everything about it. It will be tough to find this game on the  PS2 but you can play Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on the PS4 with the 1.5 and 2.5 collection. I recommend players that want to get into the series should buy that. Be sure to look out for my review on Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on the PS4 coming soon! And be sure to look out for Kingdom Hearts III in the future!!