Kingdom Hearts 2
Verdict: Buoyant but bloated cartoon fun.
Platform: PS2
Rating: 3½/5
Featuring a cast drawn from Final Fantasy games and Disney, Kingdom Hearts 2 brings them together again in a gloriously animated and gorgeous looking adventure.
Continuing from where the original’s story left off, Sora awakens to find that the ‘heartless’ haven’t actually been defeated and that a new army is on the rise, led by Sleeping Beauty’s nemesis, Maleficent. It’s up to the spikey haired lad to defeat them once and for all with the help of Goofy, Donald and a vast array of other familiar, family friendly characters.
With Square Enix’s high production values combined with Disney’s voice acting and iconic design it’s easy to see why the series is so popular with young and old as each scenario bursts forth with colour and character.
Combining Final Fantasy’s familiar and intuitive menu systems with an accessible real-time combat engine, Kingdom Hearts 2 is easy to pick up, easy to play and a joy to behold.
Fighting is made up of the basic attack/defend/cast repertoire and ‘Quick Time Event’ style button presses for context sensitive moves, particularly utilised during the impressively huge boss battles.
For all its charm, Kingdom Hearts 2 is ultimately bogged down by a ham-fisted script and a bloated, nonsensical plot in desperate need of some trimming. Square Enix’s love of cut-scenes remains strong with an excessive amount of FMV to sit through but at least they’re full of Disney’s comedic characters and not just whining spikey haired emo kids.
Thankfully the cut-scenes are actually skippable and it’s design elements like this that are the game’s saving graces along with the obvious draw of Disney’s IP. The scrappy, button bashing nature of the combat and linearity of the game don’t do much to help either but it’s all held together by the over arching joy of fighting alongside Donald and Goofy and progressing to the next branded Disney land.
Kind of like touring Disney World with a dysfunctional family.