Kingdom Hearts and KH 2 Review
Today was a pretty fun day. I went over to Raymond's house and Randy was there. We all chilled for a while before Randy had to go. Then, Vince and I started to play one-on-one in basketball and guess who won all 3 games? That's right, I DID!!! MVP my ass! lol
Me- "Don't sweat it Vince. You win some, you lose some. Today you lost all of them so you just suck.
It nearly killed me, but I finally beat Kingdom Hearts II yesturday. However, I'm not entirely done w/ it. I still need to finish up a few tournaments, fight bitch-ass Sephiroth again (who i've heard is even harder to beat this time around and in the original he was REALLY hard to beat), and get this Ultima weapon thing. For now, lets review the first game, shall we?
Kingdom Hearts: It was originally released in 2002. For those of you who don't know, it's an Action/RPG game where the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy come together. It's a weird mixture, but it works. The graphics are REALLY nice even for today and it's just a darn fun game. The introduction is pretty slow, but once it gets going, things flow nicely. You go from Disney world to Disney world and just basically play out the plots of the movies while running into a few Final Fantasy characters along the way. Though the premise seems to target kids, it is a really fun game to play even for older players. You also don't have to like Disney movies at all to like the game (I sure ain't no Disney fan). The game does have a few flaws, however. Most noticeably, a god awful camara. Though you eventually get use to it, the camara is quite annoying. You get to learn many spells in your journey, but most of them are quite useless, except for Heal. The fire, ice, and lightning spells don't do nearly enough damage to make you want to use them. Also, when you are playing in a world, you get absolutely no instruction on where to go or what to do next. You pretty much run around until you trigger the next cut-scence. Thankfully, the worlds aren't huge, so you won't be stuck not knowing where to go for too long. The worlds and bosses are just flat out fun to play, though some of the baddie designs are kinda boring. Despite it's flaws, it is a very enjoyable game. I rate this game a 9/10.
Kingdom Hearts II: The long awaited sequel is finally here and it doesn't dissapoint. The basic set-up is the same as the original; you go around from Disney world to Disney world playing through the plots of the movies. For worlds that repeat from the original, such as Nightmare Before Christmas, you'll get to play a some what different sub plot from the movies and the worlds have been recreated, so you won't feel like your doing things all over again. The graphics are far beyond better than the original, so that's always good. The gameplay has evolved greatly from the first game. First of all, it's Combo Krazy! You can pull of all sorts of combos and you're given so many ways to dispose of your enemies that combat hardly ever gets stale. If anything, you're given a little too many options. The camara has been reworked and is now pretty much perfect. The spells are much funner to use this time around and do plenty of damage, so you'll want to use them. You also get a "DRIVE" gauge where your character turns into several different buttwhooping alter egos for a limited of time. The "Forms" are really fun to use and drastically enhances the combat. You can also use a Summon spell to call forth a Disney character to help you out, such as Chicken Little or Genie. You also have "Limit Breaks", where you and a guest star from a world (for example Aladdin or Mulan) team up to do very powerful attack(s), all in real time. Like I said, a little too many options. I for one rarely used the Summons. Unlike the original though, you are actually told what to do next and the worlds are pretty straight forward, so you won't be running around looking what to do next anymore. I like how they limited the exploration aspects, but some people might miss them. Finally, the enemy design is far superior than in the first game. Both the bosses and baddies look great and dare I say, really pretty to look at.
However, just the like the original, this sequel also comes w/ it's fair of problems. My biggest complain is the cut-scences. There are just way too many of them. Do we really need a 2 minute cut-scences for EVERY single objective given? Not only that, some of the cutscences are really boring. They don't do much to enhance the story and most of the time, they aren't well delivered, unlike the first game. Most of the voice acting is great, it's just the lines they are given arn't very exciting to listen to. Not only that, most of the cut-scences have been divided. For example, you'll watch a short cinamatic end w/ a black screen that last up to 5 secs, no doubt to load the next cut scence, watch the next short cut scence, see the black screen again for another 5 seconds and repeat until you are in control again. A few hours playing the game and this can get pretty annoying. It just makes the whole thing feel choppy. Add the fact that for the first half of the game you'll be spending ALOT of time watching the cut scences, and you got some serious boredom in your hands. I've also noticed that visiting Disney world's isn't as fun as it was in the first game. Maybe that idea has lost it's novalty, but the worlds are still fun to play in. However, it's the new content not seen in either Disney movies or Final Fantasy that will make your heart skip a beat. The story, though interesting, is extremely hard to follow. I doubt kids will fully grasp it because I sure didn't. lol
Other than that, not much else is wrong w/ the game. The bosses are a blast to defeat (w/ the last one being incredibly AWSOME!!!) and you'll want to continue to see more of them and to see what happens next. Overall, a pretty good game and an improvement over the original. I give it a 9.5/10
For the next Kingdom Hearts, I would like them to drop all the Disney stuff altogether. I realize this will be hard to do because that's like the whole point of the game, but I really don't think it will be exciting to revisit Agrabah a third time. Although the game is geared for kids, I believe that most kids will be put off w/ the great length, the at first overwhelming menus, the complex story and most of the RPG elements of the Kingdom Hearts series. That said, they should make the next one more geared for us adult players, but that's just me.
Me- "Don't sweat it Vince. You win some, you lose some. Today you lost all of them so you just suck.
It nearly killed me, but I finally beat Kingdom Hearts II yesturday. However, I'm not entirely done w/ it. I still need to finish up a few tournaments, fight bitch-ass Sephiroth again (who i've heard is even harder to beat this time around and in the original he was REALLY hard to beat), and get this Ultima weapon thing. For now, lets review the first game, shall we?
Kingdom Hearts: It was originally released in 2002. For those of you who don't know, it's an Action/RPG game where the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy come together. It's a weird mixture, but it works. The graphics are REALLY nice even for today and it's just a darn fun game. The introduction is pretty slow, but once it gets going, things flow nicely. You go from Disney world to Disney world and just basically play out the plots of the movies while running into a few Final Fantasy characters along the way. Though the premise seems to target kids, it is a really fun game to play even for older players. You also don't have to like Disney movies at all to like the game (I sure ain't no Disney fan). The game does have a few flaws, however. Most noticeably, a god awful camara. Though you eventually get use to it, the camara is quite annoying. You get to learn many spells in your journey, but most of them are quite useless, except for Heal. The fire, ice, and lightning spells don't do nearly enough damage to make you want to use them. Also, when you are playing in a world, you get absolutely no instruction on where to go or what to do next. You pretty much run around until you trigger the next cut-scence. Thankfully, the worlds aren't huge, so you won't be stuck not knowing where to go for too long. The worlds and bosses are just flat out fun to play, though some of the baddie designs are kinda boring. Despite it's flaws, it is a very enjoyable game. I rate this game a 9/10.
Kingdom Hearts II: The long awaited sequel is finally here and it doesn't dissapoint. The basic set-up is the same as the original; you go around from Disney world to Disney world playing through the plots of the movies. For worlds that repeat from the original, such as Nightmare Before Christmas, you'll get to play a some what different sub plot from the movies and the worlds have been recreated, so you won't feel like your doing things all over again. The graphics are far beyond better than the original, so that's always good. The gameplay has evolved greatly from the first game. First of all, it's Combo Krazy! You can pull of all sorts of combos and you're given so many ways to dispose of your enemies that combat hardly ever gets stale. If anything, you're given a little too many options. The camara has been reworked and is now pretty much perfect. The spells are much funner to use this time around and do plenty of damage, so you'll want to use them. You also get a "DRIVE" gauge where your character turns into several different buttwhooping alter egos for a limited of time. The "Forms" are really fun to use and drastically enhances the combat. You can also use a Summon spell to call forth a Disney character to help you out, such as Chicken Little or Genie. You also have "Limit Breaks", where you and a guest star from a world (for example Aladdin or Mulan) team up to do very powerful attack(s), all in real time. Like I said, a little too many options. I for one rarely used the Summons. Unlike the original though, you are actually told what to do next and the worlds are pretty straight forward, so you won't be running around looking what to do next anymore. I like how they limited the exploration aspects, but some people might miss them. Finally, the enemy design is far superior than in the first game. Both the bosses and baddies look great and dare I say, really pretty to look at.
However, just the like the original, this sequel also comes w/ it's fair of problems. My biggest complain is the cut-scences. There are just way too many of them. Do we really need a 2 minute cut-scences for EVERY single objective given? Not only that, some of the cutscences are really boring. They don't do much to enhance the story and most of the time, they aren't well delivered, unlike the first game. Most of the voice acting is great, it's just the lines they are given arn't very exciting to listen to. Not only that, most of the cut-scences have been divided. For example, you'll watch a short cinamatic end w/ a black screen that last up to 5 secs, no doubt to load the next cut scence, watch the next short cut scence, see the black screen again for another 5 seconds and repeat until you are in control again. A few hours playing the game and this can get pretty annoying. It just makes the whole thing feel choppy. Add the fact that for the first half of the game you'll be spending ALOT of time watching the cut scences, and you got some serious boredom in your hands. I've also noticed that visiting Disney world's isn't as fun as it was in the first game. Maybe that idea has lost it's novalty, but the worlds are still fun to play in. However, it's the new content not seen in either Disney movies or Final Fantasy that will make your heart skip a beat. The story, though interesting, is extremely hard to follow. I doubt kids will fully grasp it because I sure didn't. lol
Other than that, not much else is wrong w/ the game. The bosses are a blast to defeat (w/ the last one being incredibly AWSOME!!!) and you'll want to continue to see more of them and to see what happens next. Overall, a pretty good game and an improvement over the original. I give it a 9.5/10
For the next Kingdom Hearts, I would like them to drop all the Disney stuff altogether. I realize this will be hard to do because that's like the whole point of the game, but I really don't think it will be exciting to revisit Agrabah a third time. Although the game is geared for kids, I believe that most kids will be put off w/ the great length, the at first overwhelming menus, the complex story and most of the RPG elements of the Kingdom Hearts series. That said, they should make the next one more geared for us adult players, but that's just me.