Monday 8 January, 2007

I just entered the 30-hour mark for playing this game (which, incidentally, I started 2 days ago...do the math people) and to be honest, I was not expecting the level of refinement this game had.

I had played Kingdom Hearts 1 for the express purpose of being able to understand this one, at the behest of my good friend. (and she is one of those people who enjoys watching Axel and Roxas do fun stuff in the back room)

I'm going to quote her on this one and say "Imagine all of the problems of KHI fixed and all the good parts of it added onto" but with an adjustment: to be honest, the role of the worlds, at least so far, is underwhelming. It really does give an amusement park feel in spots, as other bloggers on here have mentioned, but it is an easily ignorable flaw, as the sheer size and interactivity of the worlds ballooned in comparison.

A good example of this, is by far Halloween Town. As a fan of the Nightmare Before Christmas, I am a harsh critic of the world when used in other things, and in KHI, I was angered by how pathetically developed it was in it. Someone in Squenix must have felt the same, because the design has improved, with a few annoyances (Why couldn't they have improved the soundtrack for the world? They were playing "This is Halloween" in Christmas Town!)but otherwise, it was so much better and thus more enjoyable for a fan.

The crowning glory for this game is the battle system...I'd like to say this to Squenix--THANK YOU! Going from the claustrophobic camera and the insufferably annoying obstacles that were Goofy and Donald in KHI, they now have a comfortably airy camera enabling more intelligent decisions mid-battle to -gasp- intelligent comrades-in-arms...Goofy will do his decent techniques mroe often and Donald will actually heal you without you begging the screen while fighting Ansem!

My favorite element of the new battle system were the drive forms...that was definitely a creative way to add spice to fighting and leveling, and it is a much better goal to achieve than a certain cricket's journal.......

I'll add to all of this, plus a few other elements later...I haven't unlocked the fabled Final Form yet, and once I do, I think that'll be when I think I'll post as well...the storyline deserves its own entry.

This game was so fun. I liked the drive forms as well, especially the ones that let you use two keyblades. I also liked the reaction commands. It's nice that they added more buttons to press in this one during battle. In the first one, I really only pressed the x button nonstop.