Kingdom Hearts II
Vorlage:Infobox CVG Vorlage:Nihongo is a role-playing video game developed by Square Enix, partly published by Buena Vista Games, and directed by Tetsuya Nomura. Kingdom Hearts II was first released in 2005 in Japan for the PlayStation 2. After one month of availability, it sold a million copies in North America and was the second best selling game of 2006. [1].
Kingdom Hearts II is the followup to the 2002 PlayStation 2's Disney Interactive/Squaresoft RPG Kingdom Hearts, and its 2004 Game Boy Advance sequel, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The story centers around a group of heroes searching for lost friends and trying to decipher and defeat the mysterious Organization XIII, along with a large cast of characters from both Disney and Square Enix properties.
Gameplay
Though gameplay is highly influenced by the first game, there are various new features offering the potential of more interesting and diverse play than the original.
Drive Gauge
One of the new features is a meter known as the Drive Gauge. Unlike Hit Points and Magic, it is the only gauge that does not get recharged at a Save Point.
The first feature of the Drive Gauge is "Drive Form." Sora can borrow the energy of party members to become more powerful and acquire different attributes as well. While in Drive Form, he gets a large boost in power and can sometimes even wield a Keyblade in each hand. At first, his Drive Forms only combine power with one party member; as he gains new ones, he can absorb energy from other allies as well.
Like the previous game, Sora can summon a Disney character to aid him in battle. However, in this game, summoning requires power from the Drive Gauge instead of the MP bar. A summoned character will replace the two computer-controlled characters and fight alongside Sora for as long as the Drive Gauge allows. Also, instead of being limited to only one action, now Summoned characters have a menu of their own and are capable of performing solo actions or cooperative actions with Sora.
Each Drive Form is leveled up separately, while Summons can be leveled up through continued use. Each Drive Form (with the exception of AntiForm) and Summon has a maximum of seven levels. Higher levels allow Drive Forms and Summons to last longer, but higher-level Drive Forms can also give Sora new abilities that can be used outside of battle.
Reaction command
The Reaction command is used by pressing the Triangle button to perform certain actions in battle, such as sliding behind normally evasive opponents and triggering counter moves. They are often pivotal in defeating bosses and certain enemies, but must be timed correctly to work.
Limits
A Limit is a special linked attack with any of the guest characters. Later in the game, Sora is also able to perform team attacks with Donald and Goofy individually in a similar fashion, and even later, with both. The combination attacks cannot be used simultaneously with any of Sora's Drive forms, and all of them will use up all of Sora's Magic.
Magic abilities
Sora's magic spells from Kingdom Hearts have been modified. MP (Magic Points) is now measured in a blue bar and starts at 100, with slight increases after certain story events are completed. When MP is depleted, an automatically filling pink bar appears and when it is completely filled, MP is fully restored. Spells are now usable in combo-attacks, and have differing effects in Drive Forms- generally a strength increase.
Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and Cure spells from the first Kingdom Hearts remain, although their effects have been changed: Fire is no longer a projectile, but rather a ring of flame that surrounds Sora and strikes nearby enemies; Blizzard has replaced Fire as the new projectile spell, but unlike its predecessor, it travels in a straight line as opposed to homing in on a specific target; Thunder has remained relatively unchanged, but it is now somewhat more accurate and can strike only one location at a time; and Cure now consumes Sora's entire MP bar in addition to healing any nearby allies.
Gravity, Aero, and Stop have been replaced by Magnet and Reflect. Magnet will pull in enemies toward the location where the spell is cast, allowing a set up for multiple combination moves. Reflect bounces opponents' attacks back at them, though it is not a shield and must be cast at the exact moment of impact.
Mickey's help
In certain boss battles, if Sora is defeated, a new option called "I won't give up!" is presented, allowing the player to control Mickey Mouse. Mickey is fast, maneuverable, and can jump twice as high as Sora. Also, he has the ability to shoot blasts of magic from the tip of his Keyblade, both on ground and in air. However, his defense is low and he can be knocked out easily. To finish the battle, the player must revive Sora, due to Mickey's lack of the finishing combo needed to defeat a boss. By constantly attacking the enemy or tapping the Triangle button, Mickey's Drive Gauge is slowly filled; upon reaching full power, Sora can be brought back to life with full HP and Drive. If Mickey is defeated, Sora will be automatically revived, but will have half HP and no MP.
Gummi Ship control
The "Gummi Ship," although retaining its basic system of traveling, has had major changes made. In the world map, the player must now control the Gummi Ship from a top-down view and fly to the world the player wishes to enter. Worlds are no longer open from the beginning- the player must unlock the routes to them by entering a new level, controlling the ship from a third-person point of view, and battling enemy ships. After the route is unlocked, travel to the World is unimpeded, unless it becomes so due to the story line.
Plot and setting
Setting
As in the first Kingdom Hearts game, the player can access different worlds with themes based mostly on Disney films.
- The Land of Dragons, from Mulan (1998)
- Beast's Castle, from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- Olympus Coliseum, from Hercules (1997)
- Timeless River, from Steamboat Willie (1928), Gulliver Mickey (1934) and various other black and white Mickey Mouse cartoons
- 100 Acre Wood, from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
- Atlantica, from The Little Mermaid (1989)
- Port Royal, from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
- Agrabah, from Aladdin (1992)
- Halloween Town, from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
- Pride Land(s), from The Lion King (1994)
- Space Paranoids, from Tron (1982)
- Twilight Town
- Destiny Islands (unplayable)
- Hollow Bastion, later the Radiant Garden
- Disney Castle
- The World That Never Was
Characters
Many different Disney characters appear in the game. While some make returns from Kingdom Hearts, new, additional characters from Disney's fiction are also introduced, such as Scar from The Lion King, Scrooge McDuck, and Pete, who acts as a persistent enemy, working with the resurrected Maleficent.
Seventeen characters from Final Fantasy games appear, notably, Auron of Final Fantasy X. It was stated that although the first game strictly stuck to characters Nomura designed, this time around they were going to "take some risks," implying characters not designed by Nomura might make an appearance. Vorlage:Fact This led to Vivi Ornitier of Final Fantasy IX and Setzer Gabbiani of Final Fantasy VI appearing in Twilight Town.
Plot
Kingdom Hearts II begins where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories left off. Sora and his companions, Donald and Goofy, have been asleep for the past year in order to regain their lost memories. While Sora is asleep, all of his friends forget about him. When Sora talks to Leon in Hollow Bastion, Leon says everyone forgot about him, then remembered him at the same time. In order to hasten the process of Sora's awakening, Riku and DiZ plot to find Sora's Nobody, Roxas. Riku confronts Roxas at the World That Never Was, but is defeated. In order to defeat Roxas, Riku takes on the form of Xehanort's Heartless, and uses the power of darkness to defeat him. He then takes Roxas to DiZ's hideout and sends him into a digitized version of Twilight Town. Naminé strips Roxas of his memories, and creates new ones, leading Roxas to believe he is an inhabitant of Twilight Town. Naminé then uses her powers to gradually restore Sora's memories, which, in turn, affects Roxas.
During his time in Twilight Town, Roxas has recurring dreams of Sora's adventures. In addition, increasingly mysterious activity is taking place in Twilight Town during his last days of summer vacation. After obtaining the Keyblade to defend himself from mysterious beings that invaded the digital world, Roxas comes in contact with a young man in black named Axel. Axel appears to know Roxas, though Roxas has no recollection of him.
However, Roxas isn't the only affected by Sora's near awakening. On the Destiny Islands, Kairi wrote a letter in a bottle addressed to "the boy I can't remember", Sora.
Roxas eventually makes his way into an abandoned mansion, where Naminé informs him that he is a "Nobody." DiZ also briefly appears, and Naminé promises Roxas that they will meet again. Roxas discovers Sora, Donald and Goofy sleeping in the hidden basement of the mansion. At this point, Roxas seems to disappear, and Sora (with Jiminy Cricket), Donald, and Goofy awake from their year-long slumber. They search the town for King Mickey, only to be ambushed and overpowered by Nobodies. A cloaked Mickey jumps in and saves them at the last second. He gives them instructions and money to board the train and runs off.
After speaking with Yen Sid at the "Tower", the party is informed that they must once again visit many worlds to protect them from both the Heartless and the Nobodies in an attempt to stop Organization XIII. Meanwhile, Maleficent is resurrected, and joins with Pete to bring about her revenge on Sora.
Sora and his friends fly to each World on their "Gummi Ship," defeating the Heartless and Nobodies and unlocking pathways to worlds both familiar and unknown. They find the worlds' troubles are due to either Pete and Maleficent or the Organization. During this time, Sora is constantly reminded of Riku, Kairi and his home on Destiny Islands.
Kairi is walking along the beach and finds a corridor of darkness and Axel, who has a desire to kidnap Kairi to lure Sora. Kairi follows King Mickey's dog, Pluto, into the corridor of darkness to escape Axel and winds up in Twilight Town. However, her visit is short-lived and she is kidnapped by Axel.
Eventually, Sora and his friends finally meet up with King Mickey at Hollow Bastion. He reveals that Ansem, the main antagonist of Kingdom Hearts, was merely an impostor and actually the Heartless of Ansem the Wise's apprentice, Xehanort, and that the real Ansem is still alive somewhere. However, before he can reveal more, Maleficent's army marches on Hollow Bastion. The four go off to fight the huge Heartless force.
After fighting their way through the Heartless, Sora and co. find Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII. Xemnas leaves through a corridor of darkness with King Mickey in pursuit, both of them disappearing. Axel appears and tells Sora how the Organization is using Sora to slay Heartless in order to take the released hearts to form Kingdom Hearts. Saïx, another member of Organization XIII, shows up and Axel runs for it. Saïx explains that Axel had gone AWOL, left the Organization and that Kairi is now their captive. Sora begs Saïx to let him into the realm of darkness to find Kairi, but Saïx refuses to take him to her. Maleficent suddenly appears and defends Sora from Saïx's Nobodies, telling him to devise a way to defeat the Nobodies. When Sora refuses, Maleficent teleports him, Donald, and Goofy into the realm of darkness where a cloaked Riku leaves a gift.
After helping the worlds again, Sora and his friends return to Twilight Town, where they meet up with Hayner, Pence and Olette, who lead them to the Mansion. They are attacked by Nobodies, but Mickey appears and helps fend them off. They all journey to the Mansion's basement, where they use the teleporter to enter the basement in DiZ's alternate Twilight Town. There, Sora, Donald and Goofy find a portal that leads to the Organization's headquarters. They go inside and find themselves in "Betwixt and Between", where they are ambushed by an army of Nobodies. Axel is seen, struggling against the army of Nobodies, and he tells Sora to run, but they end up fighting side by side against the endless amount of Nobodies. As it seems impossible to defeat the entire group, Axel ends up sacrificing his own life in a kamikaze attack, destroying every single Nobody in the twisted realm. As he fades away, he apologizes for kidnapping Kairi, and also opens a rift to the World That Never Was.
Upon arriving at the World That Never Was, Sora is attacked by a hooded member of the Organization and the two fight alone. Sora bests him, and the figure reveals himself to be Roxas. The fight is implied to be an internal conflict between Sora and Roxas; Donald and Goofy state seeing nobody other than Sora. Sora, Donald and Goofy continue towards the Organization's headquarters, the Castle That Never Was, as they make their way through "Dark City".
Kairi, meanwhile, has been in a holding cell in the castle. She is freed by Naminé who escorts her through the castle to search for Sora. When they enter the castle, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are reunited with Kairi and Riku. Riku has taken the form of Xehanort's Heartless so he could use the powers of darkness to fight the Organization. The company fight their way up the castle, facing the members who refer to Sora as "Roxas". Riku reveals Roxas as Sora's Nobody who merged back into Sora prior to his awakening.
At the same time this occurred, Mickey encounters DiZ who reveals himself to be none other than Ansem the Wise. He plans to use a device to encode Kingdom Hearts into data to prevent Xemnas from using it. By the time Sora and co. find the two near the peak, Ansem the Wise is coming to the conclusion that hearts cannot be encoded by data and what a fool he is. He apologizes for all the pain he has caused, and especially expresses his regret to Roxas, even though he is unsure if Roxas can even hear him. The machine explodes, taking Ansem the Wise and a chunk of Kingdom Hearts with it. After the explosion, Sora and his friends are overjoyed to find that Riku has returned to his true form. When Sora asks why he tried to do so much on his own, Riku replies: "Because I'm not a total sap like you."
Reunited, the group heads up towards the peak of the castle, where Xemnas awaits. Xemnas fights Sora one on one and is defeated. Xemnas goes inside Kingdom Hearts with Sora, Donald, Riku, Goofy, Kairi and the King following, and is defeated a second time, or so it seems. Roxas and Naminé briefly appear and discuss the promise they had made before returning to their original selves. Sora and Kairi are finally complete. But Xemnas separates Sora and Riku from the others for a final battle, where he is defeated a third and final time. Thus all traces of Xehanort are finally no more. However, Sora and Riku end up stranded in the realm of darkness. The two discuss their adventures and accept the fact that they are stranded in darkness forever, at peace because the realm of light is finally safe.
Kairi's letter in a bottle washes onshore. Sora and Riku read it and the "door to light" suddenly appears. With newfound hope, the two friends step through and find themselves back home at the Destiny Islands where they are greeted by their overjoyed friends. The credits roll with Sora returning Kairi's good luck charm that she gave him in the first game. The game ends with Sora, Riku and Kairi reading a mysterious letter from Mickey.
A teaser for what appears to be a fourth title in the series can be seen after Kairi, Riku and Sora read the King's letter if the player accomplishes certain tasks.
Development
Voice acting
A special effort was made to preserve the original voice actors from the Disney movies used in Kingdom Hearts II. However, some voice actors from the related television series or direct-to-video sequels were chosen over original voice actors, where applicable (e.g. Robert Costanzo rather than Danny DeVito).
Content editing
Besides typical English translation and localization, the English version of Kingdom Hearts II differs from the original Japanese version, in the content of gameplay and several scenes.
The Hydra boss in Olympus Coliseum has its green blood from the Japanese version (which in turn was taken from Hercules) changed into black and purple smoke in the English version. An earlier cutscene retains the green blood.
The World That Never Was' boss Xigbar's telescopic sight has been changed from view with a crosshair and black shading around the sides to three glowing circles. An attack animation was also altered; in the Japanese version, Xigbar combined his two hand-held guns to create a sniper rifle, which was used to shoot the player's party during the telescoping sight sequence. In the English version, Xigbar does not combine his guns, but twirls them around and shoots at Sora with a single gun.
Port Royal contains the most content edits. Cutscenes have been edited to remove some of the violence, such as William Turner threatening to commit suicide while aiming a gun at his head. Also, undead pirates do not catch fire when affected by Fire magic and their muskets have been modified to resemble crossbows, though they still fire with an audible shooting sound effect.
Final Mix+
In a Weekly Shonen Jump interview with Nomura, the Kingdom Hearts creator expressed interest in a possible international version of Kingdom Hearts II, although there were no definite plans. He said that should a "Final Mix" version arise, he has a "trump card" in mind, with such features as the Mushroom Heartless found in the first Kingdom Hearts.[2] In September 2006, Square Enix finally announced they would develop Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+. Current scans of magazines show that Final Mix+ will feature new scenes including one with Roxas in the World that Never Was, Axel speaking to Naminé and Riku, and an extended version of the secret movie.
More information at the Tokyo Game Show 2006 [3] revealed that Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ will be a 2-disc set. The first disc will contain the main game with English voice acting and added contents including extra cutscenes and optional bosses. The second disc will contain a 3D PS2 version remake of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, titled Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories, with Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts' graphics, extra scenes, and voiceover for particular scenes. The battle system will be largely the same, though it will implement Reaction Commands. The game will be released in Japan in 2007. Unlike Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, this set has been speculated to have a possibility of release outside of Japan.
Reception
During its first week of availability in Japan, Kingdom Hearts II sold 727,591 copies. [1] During its first month of availability in North America Kingdom Hearts II sold over an estimated 1 million copies. [4] The game was also in IGN'S Top 10 Sellers in 2006, standing in number two. It was ranked as number one for Readers Choice for PS2 Games. [5]
The critical response of the game has been generally positive, most notably a score of 39/40 from Japanese game magazine Famitsu [1]. It later went on to tie with Biohazard 4 as Famitsu's Game of The Year 2005 [6]. Famitsu's readers ranked the game 29th on Famitsu's Top 100 games ever [7]. ; ten places below the first game of the series. Other positive reviews include a 8.7/10 from GameSpot [8], a 4.5/5 from Official Playstation Magazine, a 9/10 from GameSpy [9], a 9/10 from Game Informer [10], a 4 out of 5 from X-Play [11], and an overall 9.3 from Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com [12]. IGN gave the game a lower score of 7.6/10 [13]. The game currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes[14].
Awards
- PSM
- Game of the Month (8.5)
- Official Playstation Magazine
- Game of the Month (4.5)
- Electronic Gaming Monthly
- Game of the Month (10, 9, 9.5)
- Gamepro
- Editor's Choice Award (4.5)
- Famitsu:
- Top 100 Games Ever (Ranked 29th)
- 2006 Game of the Year
- G-Phoria:
- Best Voice Acting
- Best Sound Track
- Nominated for Best RPG
- Spike TV:
- Best supporting female role (Rachael Leigh Cook as the voice of Final Fantasy VII's Tifa Lockhart)
- Nominated for best RPG
- IGN:
- Readers' Choice 2006 PS2 Game of the Year
- PS2 Best Original Score of 2006
- Teen Choice Awards:
- Nominated for Game of the Year
Audio
Musical score
Certain aspects of gameplay are based on music and button coordination, such as the Atlantica world and the Stitch summon.
An original soundtrack CD for Kingdom Hearts II, composed by Yoko Shimomura was released on January 25, 2006 and its catalogue number is TOCT-25871~2. The theme songs to Kingdom Hearts II, Passion and Sanctuary (the English version of Passion) are performed by Utada Hikaru, and according to Tetsuya Nomura it ties in even more closely with the game's story than Hikari (Simple and Clean) did with Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The CD single for Passion was released on December 14 2005, with a price of ¥1,050 (roughly 8.78 USD).
The tracklist for the single is as follows:
- Passion ~single version~ (4:36)
- Passion ~after the battle~ (5:57)
Merchandise
A manga series has started its serialization in the June 2006 issue (released on May 12th) of the magazine Monthly Shonen Gangan, published by Square Enix. The artist is Shiro Amano, who also did the Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories manga series.
Currently, there is an on-going novel series written by Tomoko Kanemaki and illustrated by Shiro Amano. The first volume, titled "Roxas - Seven Days" [2] was released on April 22nd, 2006, covers Roxas' story to the part where Sora woke up and left Twilight Town. The novel holds extra scenes that were not seen in the game, such as interactions between all of the Organization members with each other, and between Axel, Naminé, and Riku. It is currently only available in Japanese and there is no announcement for an English translation yet. The second book, "The Destruction of Hollow Bastion", was released on June 2006. The third book, "Tears of Nobody", is slated to be released sometime in the winter, and the fourth is scheduled for February 2007.
References
- ↑ a b News - IGN Best of 06 "gamesarefun.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006 Referenzfehler: Ungültiges
<ref>-Tag. Der Name „KH2famitsugrade“ wurde mehrere Male mit einem unterschiedlichen Inhalt definiert. - ↑ Studio BentStuff (Hrsg.): Kingdom Hearts II Ultimania. DigiCube/Square Enix, ISBN 4-7575-1621-5, Tetsuya Nomura interview (japanisch).
- ↑ TGS06: Dissecting The Square Enix Trailer "gameinformer.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ TGS06: KINGDOM HEARTS II ACHIEVES MILLION-UNIT SALES MARK IN NORTH AMERICA IN FOUR WEEKS "square-enix.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ IGN: PS2 2006 Year in Review "ign.com". URL Accessed December 20, 2006
- ↑ "FAMITSU AWARDS 2005"大賞は『キングダム ハーツII』と『バイオハザード4』!! "famitsu.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Japan Votes on All Time Top 100 "next-gen.biz". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Kingdom Hearts 2 "gamespot.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Kingdom Hearts II (PS2) "ps2.gamespy.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Kingdom Hearts 2 "gameinformer.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Kingdom Hearts II "g4tv.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Kingdom Hearts 2 "1up.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Kingdom Hearts II "ps2.ign.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
- ↑ Kingdom Hearts II "rottentomatoes.com". URL Accessed December 15, 2006
![[2]](http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/86/kh2m0cj.jpg){kind=link}