Kingdom Hearts II: Summary

 

So far for the Kingdom hearts reviews I have been explaining the summary of the game, but in this Kingdom Hearts II review I will through a different approach. I will highlight the main plot points and talk about character development, gameplay, favorite highlights, cons, and gospel relation. 

Since this game came out in 2006 this review will go into spoilers. You have been warned.

Main Plot:

The game starts off with you playing as a boy named Roxas, aka Sora's nobody (see previous reviews). Unbeknownst to Roxas he is dwelling in a virtual simulation that is a copy of Twilight town by his captor Diz (aka Ansem the Wise), who is trying to merge Roxas into Sora, so Sora can gain his memories back and restore his powers. In the end Roxas chooses to merge with Sora and becomes forgotten.

When Sora awakens, he, Donald, and Goofy set out and meet Yen Sid and learn about Organization XIII, nobodies that are created when heartless are made. Sora and the gain are sent out to discover Organization XIII plans while trying to find Riku, Sora’s friend growing up. 

As Sora goes to from world to world, he resolves each planets problems and learns more about the Organization. Eventually in Hallow Baston he learns that Ansem, the main villain in KHI, was Ansem assistant Xehanort and his nobody is the leader of Organization XIII, Xemnas. Sora also learns that Organization XIII is after the power of Kingdom Hearts so Nobodies can gain their lost hearts. They also capture Kairi, Sora’s love interest and holds her hostage.

In the end Sora finds Riku and after rescuing Kairi, they stop Xemnas after he gains some additional power from Kingdom Hearts. After his defeat, Sora and Riku are trapped in the realm of darkness until the find a portal, thanks to Kairi, to the realm of light allowing them to join up with everyone else.

Character Development:

Sora, Donald, and Goofy do not have much character development. In the first game Sora develops to what he needed to be and since then he hasn’t needed to develop further because he is the hero and the protagonist, a christ like character. Even though they don't develop other characters do.

We, as the player, play as Roxas for 1-2 hours and it was sad seeing Roxas choosing to sacrifice himself so Sora can awaken. Even though he is in a virtual simulation, Roxas has friends that we follow, and Axel from Organization XIII. We know near the end as playing him he doesn’t want to die and be forgotten, but he chooses to sacrifice himself. 

Axel is one of my favorite characters from KH. Even though he doesn’t have a heart he will do anything for Roxas. At first, he tries to get Roxas back from Sora, but when he learns that is impossible, he sacrifices himself to protect Sora from an army of Nobodies.

 

Even though Riku is a broken record about being trapped in darkness I still like his development. He is willing to do what he thinks he must do to help Sora. Even though it is not the right path to take because he feels like it is the only choice. However, by the end of this game he learns that there are alternate routes than following darkness.

Gameplay:

This game has a new mechanics that none of the other games has, “drive gauge”. It transforms Sora into a super saiyan like character that give his certain buffs. It was very fun to play with, but my only complaint is I wish it was more important to use during boss fights. Usually, for boss fights I found using drive gauge made it harder to win because I couldn’t use certain actions that is needed to beat them.

Favorite Highlights:

I got into this game because it brought Disney characters and Final Fantasy games together. In the first game the best world was Traverse Town with most of the final fantasy characters. They were my highlight, but most of the game focused on Disney characters. However, in this game we spend much more time with beloved Final Fantasy Characters like Leon (Squall), Cloud, Auron, etc. One of my favorite worlds is Hollow Bastion and interacting with these final fantasy characters.

Another aspect of this game that I liked was if we revisited a world from the first game the story is different from what happened then, and when we revisit a world, the story continues from where we left off. For example, we visit Mulans world and defeat Shan Yu, the antagonist in the movie, but when we return a second time, we help Mulan and her love interest Li develop as a couple.

Cons:

At this point I have replayed Kingdom hearts I and II, finished playing chain of memories for the first time, and watched 258/2 and their is one plot hole I don't understand, what is Kingdom Hearts? In the first game Sora says its light, in KHII Xemnas uses Sora to give it hearts when Sora defeats heartless. By then end of the game Xemnas uses the remnant of Kingdom Hearts to get stronger. Organization XIII believes that getting to or satisfying the demands of Kingdom Hearts will give the nobodies hearts. Everyone has hypotheses on what Kingdom Hearts can do, but nothing has been concrete. All we know is it dwells in the realm of Darkness, but we don't know how Xemnas got to it in this game.

My only other confusion I had while playing this game is when Sora completes the main quest in each world a keyhole is shown and he either locks it or unlocks it and I don't know why. In the first game he locks the world from the heartless and I assume that is what is happening here, but I am not to sure.

Gospel Relation:

One of the main messages from the game is whether we choose to follow the light or the darkness. One message I take away from it is when we choose the dark it is hard to leave it. Riku followed the dark and he struggles staying in the light because he feels that the only way, he can succeed in using darkness. However, by the end of the game he learns that there are other, better ways.

The other gospel message that I got was sacrifice. Roxas and Axel sacrifice their lives so Sora could live and save the world (Sora is a savior type character). As faithful disciples of Jesus Christ we are asked to make sacrifices that are hard for us. Even though we may not understand the commandment we can be assured and have faith that it God will prevail.