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Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix HD Review PS3

Story





This game takes place a year after Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. Sora, now awakened from his one year old sleep, now embarks on a journey to find Riku and King Mickey. Before he started, he fought new enemies called Nobodies which are tougher than regular Heartless enemies that they used to fight previously. During his journey, he will need to journey to other worlds, save the people from Heartless threats, and make friends with both old and new people in the game.

The story is well-done, and it is to be noted that Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix includes more new cutscenes to connect this game and previous Kingdom Hearts games with Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix. The games story is also more darker, such as Organisation XIIIs characters and motives in the game.

Every character in the game is interesting and well-developed, like the main cast of Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Riku, King Mickey, Ansem and the members of the Organisation XIII. The

Gameplay

1) Introduction



This game is an updated HD version of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, which was only available for PS2 and in Japan only. That version particularly has new cutscenes, new weapons, new accessories, many new boss fights, new Drive Form and other additions. This is the most extensive addition and version of a Kingdom Hearts game.

2) Progression and Exploration Section




The games exploration is similar to the first Kingdom Hearts game. You can walk, run, jump, and even ride a skateboard to reach your destination in a world. Different worlds have different area layouts and stuffs, where you can explore while fighting off enemies for experience or items. Treasures are also available in the game, where you can open for some good items. You may also opt to collect the newly added Puzzle Pieces, which allows you to complete some Puzzles in the game once you have enough pieces.

What makes this games exploration fun is the loads of optional sidequests to be done, such as doing minigames, completing Mission entries such as fulfilling certain criteria in a minigame, competing in tournaments, and other side-activities. Save points are available in many places in the game, and you can use it to save your game, to heal, or to go back to the World Map.

Although the games progression is quite linear, the games progression do not feel as monotonous as the first games or Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories progression, as there are variety of missions to be done while progressing in the game, such as lighting up all the candles in a certain room, beat off enemies while flying on a magic carpet, or shooting presents into boxes while hitting certain trio of kids.




Gummi Ship sections return in this game, and arguably much more enjoyable than the first games Gummi Ship section. This time, the Gummi Ship sections play more similar to rail shooter ship game where lots of enemies will be shooting at you at the same time.

You need to complete a Gummi Ship route in order to travel a new world. Once you have completed it, you dont have to do it anymore for that particular world. Gummi Ship combat remain similar to the first games Gummi Ship combat, but this time the camera will change perspective while travelling as enemies come from different directions. You can use cannons or lasers to fight off enemy ships.

You may also customise your own Gummi Ship with different Blueprints obtained while playing, or build a new one with Gummi Blocks, which include Weapon Gummis, Engine Gummis, and others. Gummi Blocks are obtained by destroying special enemy ships or when completing a route.

Gummi Ship missions return in this game, and you can participate these Missions in all Gummi Ship routes upon completing them once. Each route has three different Missions, but all three Missions have similar objectives in order to complete it. Many of the Mission criterias include using a specific Gummi Ship blueprint or using certain Weapon Gummis. Although they are optional to be done, you have to complete them and get all treasures from all Gummi Shio routes to unlock the second secret video in the game when playing in Standard Mode. Playing the game in harder difficulties such as Proud Mode or Critical Mode do not require you to complete any of the Gummi Ship missions to unlock the second secret video.

3) Leveling, Upgrading and Customisation Section



The games leveling is similar to previous Kingdom Hearts game, where you level up upon gaining enough Experience Points. Experience Points are gained by defeating an enemy. Regular leveling includes Strength, Magic, and AP stats increase. However, unlike the first game, this game features another Level for Sora called Bonus Level, which includes HP upgrades, Magic upgrades like Fire Magic upgrade, and others. Bonus Level is obtained when fighting certain mandatory battles and boss battles. As you level up, you may also learn new abilities that you can use in combat, such as new Keyblade attack moves or passive abilities that are beneficial such as increasing item drop rate.

As you progress in the game, you can customise Sora and his allies with various weapons, accessories, and armours. You may equip a new Keyblade for Sora, equip accessories to increase Soras AP and other stats, as well as equip armours to gain increase of Defense. You may also do the same to Donald and Goofy, as they would neep all the upgrades they can get to help you in combat. Other party members may equip new armour or accessories, but they cannot change their own default weapon. Armours and accessories can be bought from shops by spending munny or can be synthesised with enough materials. You may also buy healing items such as Potions to heal during combat.

Synthesis returns in this game, and you can synthesise items, weapons, and armours by spending some materials. Materials can be found by opening treasure chests or by completing certain tasks, but materials are more commonly dropped by defeating enemies. To synthesis an item, you need to have a certain amount of one or more materials to create it. You can create items via Free Development, or via Recipes which can be found throughout the game. As you gain more Moogle Levels by synthesising items, you can spend less number of materials to create one as well as create more rare stuffs such as the ultimate weapons for the main trio.

4) Combat Section



The combat is similar to the first games combat. You can attack enemies using your Keyblade, use magic such as Fire or Blizzard, use items to heal, jump, and do other actions. Defeating enemies will net you HP orbs, MP orbs, Drve Gauge orbs, munny, and items.

The Magic system is slightly different than the first game. As your MP runs out from using magic, your MP gauge will enter a cooldown state where it cant be used until it finishes recharging. As your MP recovers over time, you can use magic as much as possible if you want to during combat. Certain magic will deplete little MP, and some may consume all of your MP. Your MP gauge can be recharged faster by using certain passive abilities, and you may items like Ethers to restore your MP. Alternatively, just go to any Save Points to restore your MP and HP as well.

One new combat feature is the Reaction Commands. In many occasions, Reaction Commands can dispatch enemies faster while making yourself immune to their attacks. For example, Sora can use the Reversal Reaction Command to get behind certain Dusks and attack them from behind. In many cases, there are a variety of Reaction Commands in the game that can be used against different enemies. You may also use Reaction Commands to progress in the game outside of combat, such as when pushing a certain talking cupboard.



Another new feature is Drive Forms. This time, Sora can transform with special powers by using a party members power. The actual downside is that when you use a Drive Form, a party member or two of them are unavailable while you are using the form, meaning they wont be able to give you backup or heal you if they are unavailable. For example, when Sora transforms into Valour Form, Goofy will be out of combat until the Drive Gauge runs out. To transform into a Drive Form, you need to spend a certain amount of Drive Gauges, which can be filled by attacking enemies or by picking up Drive Orbs dropped by certain enemies or objects. You will learn more Drive Forms upon progressing in the game.

The last new feature in the game is the Limits attacks. Limits attacks allow you to unleash powerful combiantion attacks with your party members. Most of the Limits attacks are effective against groups of enemies, they are not particularly useful against bosses as they can just dodge it easily. Limits attacks will spend all of your MP, so you cant use another Limit attack until your MP is fully restored. Summons are also back in the game, and they have their own particularly attack style as well as their own Limits attacks.

Regular enemies come in two main categories, which are Heartless and Nobody enemies. Heartless comes in a variety, and they have their own attack patterns and some may have weaknesses to some magic element. Nobodies come in less variety, but most of them are particularly dangerous and aggressive, such as the Assassins Nobody.

Bosses is another special category, and there is a lot of variety of bosses in this game that you have to fight. Most of the boss fights require certain strategy to beat, and many of them can be challenging to you if you do not know what to do, especially any Organisation XIII members battle. Optional boss fights are also available in the game, and they can be particularly much more challenging than th stiry bosses, such as the Absent Silhouettes boss battles or the Data Replica matches.

Likewise, enemies and bosses have their own HP bar, and it can be depleted by attacking them with various methods of attacking. Only Sora can deliver the finishing blow to end the boss battlse, so make sure you do it quickly to avoid prolonging any boss battles. Conversely, you will receive a Game Over screen if Soras HP is depleted to zero, and you can always reload a save or continue from the latest checkpoint in the game.

5) Gameplay Conclusion



Overall, this games gameplay is improved a lot since the first game, and I like the way Square Enix makes the games pacing smooth enough when progressing. The camera system is improved since the first game, and it is way less disorienting. The boss battles are very intense, especially when fighting large bosses and humanoid enemies such as the Organisation XIII members. Many of the games new features like Drive Forms make this game much more exciting than the first game. However, it has some issues. Reaction Commands can make the game too easy, but I find it to be acceptable as I play the game on Critical Mode. Some may even say the games combat difficulty is too easy, but I do not agree as you can choose harder difficulty modes such as Proud Mode or Critical Mode. Backtracking can be an issue, as you need to travel back previous Worlds to complete the second story arc for each World to unlock the final World. Regardless, the overall gameplay is pretty much improved since the first game, not to mention loads of new content from the original Final Mix version such as new Absent Silhouettes battles and many sidequests.

Graphics




Overall remastered graphics is excellent. Although the graphical style is similar as to other Kingdom Hearts games, that graphics style what sets apart Kingdom Hearts games graphics with other games. Environments, characters, items, weapons, enemies such as the Heartless and Nobodies are well-designed. What remains in the previous Kingdom Hearts games is that there are many instances in cutscenes where Square Enix used the stiff lip animation and model for many cutscenes. They are not that bad, but it can be compared very easily when you see a fully animated characters expressions in the same cutscene with a stiff/static expression.

Sound




Like Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix HD, the soundtrack is fully remastered with better live instruments. Likewise, the soundtrack is amazing, with many memorable pieces such as Dearly Beloved, Roxass Twilight Towns theme, Gummi Ship route themes, Organisation XIII boss themes, the secret superboss theme and many others. Two pieces I like to highlight are the world theme of Mulans world and world theme of Pirates of the Caribbean, which sound extremely good compared to the PS2 versions of both themes. Even the sound effect is amazing, especially the sound effect when you hit enemies with different Keyblades equipped.

The voice acting quality likewise, great. All of the main voice actors did a commendable job, including the main trio of Sora, Donald, Goofy, as well as Kairi, Riku, Ansem, Mickey and the members of Organisation XIII. Disney voice actors did great job as well, but I am not particularly pleased with some of the voice actors replacement from the first game, but otherwise the overall voice acting quality is excellent as many of the voice actors did a great job in voicing their characters.

Replay Value





With the newly added Final Mix content, it adds more replay value to the even high replay value to the base game has originally. You can opt to complete the Jiminys Journal, which includes minigames completion, completing synthesis notes, fight many optional bosses and many more. Perhaps of all Kingdom Hearts games that I have played, this game has the highest replay value.

You may also opt to complete the games hardest mode, Critical Mode. This difficulty causes enemy to deal double damage to you, reduced HP increase from Bonus Levels, three-quarters of EXP gained, and other effects. On the side note, you have the advantage of gaining new abilities at the start of the game and has a starting 50 AP, meaning you can equip all new abilities much faster. Personally, I think Critical Mode is challenging, but doable as long as you know what you are doing in the game. At times, Critical Mode is harder than Proud Mode due to the reduced HP, but the game gets easier as you learn more important abilities such as Second Chance and Once More when leveling up.

Conclusion





With many improvements made from the first game, I think this game is one of the best sequels I have ever played since the PS2 version of Kingdom Hearts II. The over-reliance of Reaction commands can make the game to be too easy for veteran players, as many of the games battles Reaction commands allow you to defeat certain enemies easily and some of the battles force you to use Reaction Commands to defeat a boss. However, playing the game makes me realise that you dont have to rely on Reaction Commands much in combat if you are good. The HD remastered graphics makes a PS2 game to look even better and rival many PS3 games graphics. Sound quality is amazing, with greatly remastered soundtrack and amazing voice acting quality by many of the games voice actors. With lots of new content added into this game, I hereby conclude that this is one of the best Kingdom Hearts games and with the most gaming value of all.

Score

Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10

Final Score: 9.5/10.0 or 38/40.

Pros and Cons

Pros
- Amazing storyline.
- Darker story which involves Organisation XIII.
- Many new and voiced cutscenes.
- Amazing cast of original, Disney, and Final Fantasy characters.
- Exciting both original and Disney worlds to explore.
- Better pacing than the first game.
- Better camera system.
- Better structure of game objectives such as time limit missions.
- Addicting and improved combat.
- Impressive overall gameplay.
- Improved Gummi Ship sections and missions.
- Creative and fun minigames.
- Lots of additional content such as Absent Silhouettes battles, Mushroom XIII sidequest, and optional Journal Missions.
- Great remastered soundtrack.
- Great overall voice acting quality.
- Very high replay value.

Cons
- Standard Mode wont be challenging to regular action RPG players.
- Minor downgraded voice acting issues with certain replaced voice actors from the first game.
- Backtracking can be an issue.
- Fewer Summons than the first game.