At the digression of being thought of as a “stupid idiot face”, and turning what I thought were valid arguments into a rant I revised my previous review into something a little more... insightful.
Read on.
I liked the original Kingdom Hearts, really, I did. I’m not going to divulge as to why I thought it was well made, but I will tell you exactly why I am so indifferent towards its sequel. I realize after writing all this that this series is watered down by nature, and attacking it is somewhat ironic, but I’m doing it anyways.
- I know that this game is geared towards a younger audience, and I already acknowledged that. But that doesn’t mean it should suck. Like I said before, I enjoyed the original—and I found it to even provide a challenge on Normal mode.
- The complaint that RPG’s aren’t meant to be challenging is moot. RPG’s are meant to serve as a challenge; it’s just that so many gamers have become jaded towards this genre throughout the many years of playing role playing games that they do not feel like a challenge at all. Think of someone who is good at Halo, they probably play first-person shooters ALL the time. Same can be said for gamers who do nothing but play RPGs. We get used to what is being throw at us. The approach of role-playing games is different than games that require ‘skill’ or ‘quick reflexes’. They require methodical thinking, reading comprehension, planning, and micromanagement. Give someone who’s never played an RPG before a niche title like Disgea or even the popular Final Fantasy XII (which is geared towards people who have played the genre before, the Gambit System being why) they’ll not know what to do. But we’ll have no problem tackling these titles then throwing them aside afterwards
- The whole argument towards “all I do is mash the X button”. Like you said Jeff, “...I really don't know how that is any different than keying the arrow buttons over to 'attack' or 'auto-battle' and then pressing 'x' over and over again”. This is an action RPG, so I expect a healthy dose of both genres. I’m only making this argument because they eliminated all of the action, and replaced it with a false sense of which. They even eliminated basic platforming elements. What you’re left with is a cop-out of both genres, which fail to represent the potential of either.
- The battle engine of Kingdom Hearts II is designed so that the game actually does most of the work. The abilities that Sora will gain throughout will make him into a heartless killing machine. He will automatically close into the nearest target, thus eliminating the need to even touch the analog stick. Fighting an airborne enemy? No problem, Sora has abilities to make that just as easy. You could call that auto-targeting, but when the enemies do not pressure the player to do nothing more than rely on that you are left with bad design.
- The game includes a lot of new features and tricks, Drives and Limits being no exception. However, the difficulty of KH never justifies the inclusion of these elements. Not to mention that the newly designed magic system takes a backseat to the aerobatic combat system. Save for healing magic, all of these skills and abilities have gone the route that Summon magic was in the past. Serving more as options than the deserving alternatives they should be, never does the game press or require you to utilize any of your abilities in order to play the game, they for me were only accessed out of pure curiosity or whenever my Drive Gauge was full. I often times found myself with a full gauge waiting to use it than waiting for it to fill up. The abilities and tools given to a player should never feel tacked on, and should be born out of necessity.
- Reactions commands found in KH feel like unessary, and not the innovation that they were when featured in better developed titles (just because you steal a good idea doesn’t mean it will make your game any good, you have to execute it properly first). The only good thing that the feature of the triangle button provides is that it makes exploration more cohesive. You can interact with NPCs and open treasure chests with it, not having to scroll through the games command menu; something you had to do in the original. In battle, it provides opportunities to deliver heavy damage to your enemies along with cinematic flair. However, given the fast-paced nature of the battle system it doesn’t provide much incentive to “watch” these segments rather than button-mash. Either route would net the same result. And that's something that makes an RPG, different approaches yield different results. Especially in battle.
- The levels are very cut and dry, only serving the purpose of being there. And after you beat them, that’s all there is to it—you’re done. There’s no sense in going back because nothing else is there for you. Unlike most RPG’s, there aren't any hidden mysteries. You aren't looking for 99 Dalmatians, there are no secret puzzles to figure out, no mini-games to be played. Nothing.
- Most worlds are even smaller than they were in the original. What gives? That’s my biggest complaint; this game features terrible level design. In terms of scale, you don’t even feel like you’re in a “world” because every the areas are all terribly small. The inclusion of a map feels completely unnecessary and tacked on. You go from point A to point B, fight heartless along the way, and that’s exactly how the game goes. All the while experiencing the nostalgia the original did a much better job of providing.
- Disappointment. All worlds are essentially the same, save for the terrible Atlantica (don’t even get me started...) and The 100 Acre Wood. You kill things. No unique design whatsoever. Even in The Steamboat Willie level which looked charming at hell as first, was another letdown. Basically, the level features 4 areas that included a “Mayhem” meter. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Nothing else had to be done other than kill heartless, but you just had to do it fast (which isn’t even hard to being with). When fighting in an area where a building was on fire, did the developers ever stop to ask “Instead of just killing more heartless, why not let the player put out the fire?” To hell with the game developers.
There’s way too much to rant about, and even more flaws to be found in Kingdom Hearts II. It’s everything a game shouldn’t be and a perfect example of poorly executed design. I cannot say more enough things about this game, all of them being bad. I truly hate it.
Read on.
I liked the original Kingdom Hearts, really, I did. I’m not going to divulge as to why I thought it was well made, but I will tell you exactly why I am so indifferent towards its sequel. I realize after writing all this that this series is watered down by nature, and attacking it is somewhat ironic, but I’m doing it anyways.
- I know that this game is geared towards a younger audience, and I already acknowledged that. But that doesn’t mean it should suck. Like I said before, I enjoyed the original—and I found it to even provide a challenge on Normal mode.
- The complaint that RPG’s aren’t meant to be challenging is moot. RPG’s are meant to serve as a challenge; it’s just that so many gamers have become jaded towards this genre throughout the many years of playing role playing games that they do not feel like a challenge at all. Think of someone who is good at Halo, they probably play first-person shooters ALL the time. Same can be said for gamers who do nothing but play RPGs. We get used to what is being throw at us. The approach of role-playing games is different than games that require ‘skill’ or ‘quick reflexes’. They require methodical thinking, reading comprehension, planning, and micromanagement. Give someone who’s never played an RPG before a niche title like Disgea or even the popular Final Fantasy XII (which is geared towards people who have played the genre before, the Gambit System being why) they’ll not know what to do. But we’ll have no problem tackling these titles then throwing them aside afterwards
- The whole argument towards “all I do is mash the X button”. Like you said Jeff, “...I really don't know how that is any different than keying the arrow buttons over to 'attack' or 'auto-battle' and then pressing 'x' over and over again”. This is an action RPG, so I expect a healthy dose of both genres. I’m only making this argument because they eliminated all of the action, and replaced it with a false sense of which. They even eliminated basic platforming elements. What you’re left with is a cop-out of both genres, which fail to represent the potential of either.
- The battle engine of Kingdom Hearts II is designed so that the game actually does most of the work. The abilities that Sora will gain throughout will make him into a heartless killing machine. He will automatically close into the nearest target, thus eliminating the need to even touch the analog stick. Fighting an airborne enemy? No problem, Sora has abilities to make that just as easy. You could call that auto-targeting, but when the enemies do not pressure the player to do nothing more than rely on that you are left with bad design.
- The game includes a lot of new features and tricks, Drives and Limits being no exception. However, the difficulty of KH never justifies the inclusion of these elements. Not to mention that the newly designed magic system takes a backseat to the aerobatic combat system. Save for healing magic, all of these skills and abilities have gone the route that Summon magic was in the past. Serving more as options than the deserving alternatives they should be, never does the game press or require you to utilize any of your abilities in order to play the game, they for me were only accessed out of pure curiosity or whenever my Drive Gauge was full. I often times found myself with a full gauge waiting to use it than waiting for it to fill up. The abilities and tools given to a player should never feel tacked on, and should be born out of necessity.
- Reactions commands found in KH feel like unessary, and not the innovation that they were when featured in better developed titles (just because you steal a good idea doesn’t mean it will make your game any good, you have to execute it properly first). The only good thing that the feature of the triangle button provides is that it makes exploration more cohesive. You can interact with NPCs and open treasure chests with it, not having to scroll through the games command menu; something you had to do in the original. In battle, it provides opportunities to deliver heavy damage to your enemies along with cinematic flair. However, given the fast-paced nature of the battle system it doesn’t provide much incentive to “watch” these segments rather than button-mash. Either route would net the same result. And that's something that makes an RPG, different approaches yield different results. Especially in battle.
- The levels are very cut and dry, only serving the purpose of being there. And after you beat them, that’s all there is to it—you’re done. There’s no sense in going back because nothing else is there for you. Unlike most RPG’s, there aren't any hidden mysteries. You aren't looking for 99 Dalmatians, there are no secret puzzles to figure out, no mini-games to be played. Nothing.
- Most worlds are even smaller than they were in the original. What gives? That’s my biggest complaint; this game features terrible level design. In terms of scale, you don’t even feel like you’re in a “world” because every the areas are all terribly small. The inclusion of a map feels completely unnecessary and tacked on. You go from point A to point B, fight heartless along the way, and that’s exactly how the game goes. All the while experiencing the nostalgia the original did a much better job of providing.
- Disappointment. All worlds are essentially the same, save for the terrible Atlantica (don’t even get me started...) and The 100 Acre Wood. You kill things. No unique design whatsoever. Even in The Steamboat Willie level which looked charming at hell as first, was another letdown. Basically, the level features 4 areas that included a “Mayhem” meter. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Nothing else had to be done other than kill heartless, but you just had to do it fast (which isn’t even hard to being with). When fighting in an area where a building was on fire, did the developers ever stop to ask “Instead of just killing more heartless, why not let the player put out the fire?” To hell with the game developers.
There’s way too much to rant about, and even more flaws to be found in Kingdom Hearts II. It’s everything a game shouldn’t be and a perfect example of poorly executed design. I cannot say more enough things about this game, all of them being bad. I truly hate it.
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