Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts II
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	キングダムハーツII; Kingudamu Hātsu Tsū
Developer(s)	Square Enix
Publisher(s)	Square Enix; / Square Enix, Buena Vista Games; Europe/ Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date(s)	December 22, 2005; / March 28, 2006; Europe September 29, 2006; September 28, 2006;
Genre	Action RPG
Game modes	Single player
Ratings	ESRB:Everyone 10+; PEGI:12+; USK: 6+; OFLC:PG; ELSPA: 11+
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2

Kingdom Hearts II is the sequel to Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and like the two previous games, focuses on Sora and his friends continued battle against Darkness. It also offers a number of improvements over the original with many new features, most notably Sora's Drive function, an improved camera, and in-battle options called Reaction Commands.

The theme song for the game is "Passion" (English version: Sanctuary) performed by Utada Hikaru.

The game is darker than its two predecessors, and has received higher age ratings. It is the third game in the series & the fifth game in the timeline after Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories & 358/2 Days

Story

Kingdom Hearts II begins where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories left off. Sora and his companions have been asleep for about a year, regaining their memories. When Sora awakens, he eventually arrives in Twilight Town, the place where a mysterious boy, Roxas, lived before he suddenly left. Gaining new clothes and powers, Sora began his journey anew, unaware of the events that have taken place in Chain of Memories. Sora continues his quest by unlocking paths to new worlds, learning of Nobodies and fighting the Heartless, as well as facing the remaining members of the mysterious Organization XIII. As the game progresses, Sora learns about Roxas and how much they have in common.

The story begins with the player in control of Roxas in Twilight Town. Roxas has recurring dreams of Sora's adventures while increasingly mysterious activities being taking place in Twilight Town during Roxas' summer vacation. After obtaining the Keyblade to defend himself from the Nobodies, Roxas comes in contact with a young man in black named Axel. Axel appears to know Roxas, though Roxas has no recollection of him. Roxas eventually makes his way into an abandoned mansion where a girl named Naminé informs him that he is a Nobody, although he did not quite know what a Nobody was at that time. Finally, confronted by a mysterious, red-cloaked man called DiZ, Roxas discovers Sora, Donald, and Goofy sleeping in the hidden basement of the mansion. Roxas seems to disappear at this point as Sora, Donald, and Goofy awake from their year-long slumber. Jiminy Cricket, who had previously chronicled the trio's adventures, finds that his journal is now completely blank, save for the note: "Thank Naminé" (which was written by Jiminy himself during Chain of Memories).

After speaking with Yen Sid, 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. These include both old but greatly changed places, like Hollow Bastion, and brand new worlds the party has never encountered before. In the course of their travels, the Heartless, headed by a revived Maleficent and the Organization regain power, eventually forcing Sora to battle a massive army of a thousand Heartless that are attacking the restored town.

After the battle, Xemnas, the head of the Organization, reveals their ultimate goal: the Nobodies plan to create another Kingdom Hearts, a doorway to the heart of all worlds that will presumably allow the Nobodies to get their hearts back. After confronting and defeating more members of the Organization, Sora goes to The World That Never Was to settle the score with the Organization for good; he also finally reunites with his friends Riku and Kairi. Sora learns the truth about Roxas as well; he and Naminé are Sora and Kairi's Nobodies, created when they lost their hearts in the original Kingdom Hearts game.

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Riku, Sora and Kairi read the mystery letter from The King.

In the end, only Xemnas iss left of the original thirteen members. Sora and Riku unite to defeat him, and his new Kingdom Hearts is closed. Sora and the others are returned to their homeworld of Destiny Islands. Although Sora has to say goodbye to Donald and Goofy, he knows in his heart that true friends are never gone. But he might meet them again, since Sora, Riku, and Kairi receive a letter from King Mickey after the credits...

Gameplay Changes

Kingdom Hearts II offers a number of key differences from the original Kingdom Hearts. While the core gameplay remains the same, new features have been added to improve the experience. The two most notable are Sora's Drive system, which allows him to fuse with one or both party allies and assume new powers, and Reaction Commands, which allow Sora and/or members of his party to perform special maneuvers in the course of battle. Item Synthesis is again offered; however, Moogles must now be leveled to make more powerful items or use rarer materials, and lists of ingredients can be found in Recipes in the worlds or as Free Development items that open with a Moogle's improving ability. Treasure chests are also abundant; however, the scavenger hunt-type games of Trinity Marks and the 101 Dalmatians are gone.

Also notably changed is the Gummi Ship system; instead of a space shooter, the ships now operate more like a rail shooter, traveling along a fixed path while allowing the player to worry only about destroying various enemies scattered along the course. High-level Gummi Ships may also have two companion ships, called Teeny Ships that can assist them in battle.

Skateboarding throughout the worlds is also an option, both as free skate in certain areas, or as a mini-game in which certain goals must be met. Many worlds now have specific mini-games of their own, such as Space Paranoids' Light Cycle. Fighting tournaments are also offered again, but now in the Underworld's Underdrome, and through Hades himself. 100 Acre Wood again consists entirely of mini-games, and Atlantica has also been changed from a fighting world to a world with five musical mini-games.

Censorship

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:

When Sora battles the Hydra in Olympus Coliseum, green blood gushes out whenever Sora harms it. The green blood was changed to black and purple smoke in the English version, though the cutscene where Hercules was fighting it retains the green blood.
Xigbar's telescopic sight was 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.
The death of Axel is slightly edited; in the original Japanese version, he bursts into flames during his suicide attack, and the flames are consuming his body as he fades away.
Port Royal contains the most content edits. Cut scenes were edited to remove some of the violence, such as Will Turner threatening to commit suicide while aiming a gun at his head. While he still threatens to commit suicide, he does not aim a gun at his head.
Undead Pirates do not catch fire when affected by Fire magic, though the Grim Reaper still does (Trying to light pirates on fire results in them running around smoking instead of burning). The pirate's muskets were modified to resemble crossbows, though the crossbows still fire with an audible musket shot sound effect. Also, whenever Sora's party is hit by fire attacks, they briefly catch on fire.
In the original Japanese version, the blood on the cursed medallions remains throughout the game, but disappears after Barbossa and Will drop them into the chest. However, if one looks closely, blood is visible on the medallion while Sora is holding it.
In the Japanese version, when Jack Sparrow is stabbed by Barbossa, the sword sticks out of his chest as he staggers back into the moonlight. In the English version, the sword has been removed.
Dialogue in Port Royal was also edited: when Barbossa tells Elizabeth of their curse, he mentions lust and women, which is removed in the English version and replaced by "pleasurable company".

Characters

Key Characters

Sora
Roxas
Kairi
Donald
Goofy
Riku
Naminé
King Mickey
Pete
Maleficent
DiZ
"Ansem"
Organization XIII

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Cover

Disney Characters

In addition to the Disney characters that return from Kingdom Hearts, there are also characters from Disney's movies including Megara, Pegasus, Pain, Panic and the Hydra from Hercules, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and Wardrobe from Beauty and the Beast, Prince Eric, Attina and Andrina from The Little Mermaid,The Peddler from Aladdin and Santa Claus as depicted in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Stitch from Lilo & Stitch and the titular characters of Chicken Little and Peter Pan (along with Tinker Bell) act as new summons. Characters from the previously unexplored worlds of Mulan, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tronalso play parts in the game.

Yen Sid the sorcerer, Mickey's master in the movie Fantasia, makes an appearance, inhabiting a mysterious tower. Merlin returns in Disney Castle and Hollow Bastion, revealing the existence of Timeless River to the heroes. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty give Sora his new outfit. Scrooge McDuck also makes an appearance in Hollow Bastion trying to recreate a "sea-salt flavored ice cream".

Pete is also in the game as an ever-persistent enemy to Sora, Donald and Goofy, appearing in many worlds. He works with the resurrected Maleficent, who refuses to relent in her desire for power. However she does not actually fight Sora in this game, and she and Pete decide to defeat the Nobodies in the World That Never Was, to take over the huge Castle. However when the Heartless come and threaten Sora, Riku, Kairi, King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, they have a change of heart and decide to delay the Heartless so that they could defeat Xemnas. It is unknown what happened to them at the end of the game.

Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow and Clara Cluck make appearances in the Timeless River.

Final Fantasy characters

Seventeen characters from the Final Fantasy series appear. Auron of Final Fantasy X can be Sora's partner in battle in the Olympus Coliseum world. The Gullwings: Yuna, Rikku and Paine from Final Fantasy X-2 appear as fairies at Hollow Bastion. Younger versions of Seifer Almasy, Fujin (called "Fuu"), Raijin (called "Rai") from Final Fantasy VIII and Vivi Orunitia from Final Fantasy IX appear in Twilight Town, as a "disciplinary committee". This is similar to Seifer, Raijin and Fujin's roles in Final Fantasy VIII: not as antiheroes, but as a constant challenge for the main protagonist (Squall in FFVIII and Roxas in KH2).

Squall Leonhart (Leon) of Final Fantasy VIII, Cloud Strife, with his own side story, and Yuffie Kisaragi in her Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children outfit return as cameos in Hollow Bastion, while Selphie Tilmitt returns as a cameo in the Destiny Islands. Aerith Gainsborough also appears, albeit wearing a modified version of her Before Crisis clothing. Tifa Lockhart of Final Fantasy VII also makes her first cameo in the series, wearing her Advent Children attire. Cid Highwind also returns, but he is still wearing the same attire as in the previous game; he has a speaking role this time around as opposed to caption bubbles in Kingdom Hearts. Sephiroth, Cloud's ever-present enemy, comes along as well, battling Cloud. He is an optional boss.

The Moogles, featured in many different Final Fantasy titles, serve as shopkeepers at various places in worlds. However, because of the dangers of the world, they only appear as holograms except for Mog in Radiant Garden and Elmina in Twilight Town .

It had been stated by Nomura that, although the first game strictly stuck to characters Nomura designed, this time around they were going to "take some risks", which implied that characters from the Final Fantasy games without involvement from Nomura could make an appearance. One of these was Vivi Orunitia of Final Fantasy IX, who appears in Twilight Town as a member in Seifer's group. Another non-Nomura character included is Setzer Gabbiani of Final Fantasy VI, as a challenger in Twilight Town.

Many of the Nobodies are named after job classes. There are Assasins , Samurai , Gamblers , Dancers ,Berserkers , Snipers , Dragoons and Sorcerers.

Biggs and Wedge make appearances as shopkeepers. One is in Twilight Town and the other is at Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden. Their AVALANCHE partner Jessie is also in the game, as an accessory shop worker in Twilight Town.

Although not a character, there is a trophy in Twilight Town called the Four Crystal Trophy, which contains four crystals colored similarly to the elemental crystals of the first few Final Fantasies.

Also, in this third game in the timeline , Gummi Ship Blueprints ,which may be used by the party are named after various Final Fantasy characters as well. The characters whose names are featured as "Original Blueprints" are PuPu , Tonberry , Mandragora , Chocobo , Cactuar , Cait Sith . The list above does not include non-Final Fantasy name-based characters or models that look like but do not have the same name as Final Fantasy characters.

Nobodies

Nobodies are the main enemies here, appearing alongside Heartless. They are creatures without hearts, born from the body and soul of a living being who has lost its heart. Organization XIII are Nobodies who have retained their human forms, albeit a bit changed from their original appearance. Another difference between the Nobodies and Heartless are that the Nobodies attack more tactically, and often together, unlike the instinctive nature of the Heartless. Many of the different kinds of Nobodies are named after job classes from the Final Fantasy series.

Summons

Like the previous game, Sora can summon a Disney character to aid him in battle when attaining each of their respective items. As summons use the Drive Gauge instead of the MP bar, Sora cannot Drive and summon at the same time. The character will replace the two computer-controlled characters and fight alongside Sora for as long as the Drive Gauge allows. Instead of the summoned character being limited to only one action, the summoned character now has a menu of his own to perform multiple actions, some solo actions and some cooperative actions with Sora. There are four summons.

Chicken Little is the titular character of Chicken Little. Chicken, when summoned, chucks baseballs and/or firecrackers at enemies when on his own. His attack with Sora, called FPS, is, as suggested, a first-person shooter-like mode where Chicken can throw eggs and firecrackers in rapid fire from a first person view. He also has other abilities, such as healing Sora when damage is dealt to enemies.

Genie is the blue genie in a lamp who helps the titular character of Aladdin. Genie attacks with a humorous recreation of the Keyblade, and has a command to mimic any one of Sora's drive forms. The drive form to mimic must be unlocked first.

Stitch is the cute but destructive antihero of Lilo & Stitch. He will climb around the menu screens as well as the screen itself (as if he were on the surface), and do various things while shooting the enemies with his plasma guns somewhat nonchalantly. His team attack with Sora is a ukulele jam session where different buttons can be pressed to prompt different musical attacks to cause damage. He also constantly heals Sora's MP and HP bars throughout the battle.

Peter Pan is the boy who never grows up and the titular character of Peter Pan. Peter comes with Tinker Bell, who was a summon by herself in the first Kingdom Hearts, while Peter was a temporary party member, and flies around attacking with a dagger, as he did in the first game. Tinker Bell constantly heals Sora at the same time, which she also did as a lone summon. Also, Tinker Bell will revive Sora once in battle if all his health is lost. His team attack with Sora is cinematic, as Sora will be reminded of his adventures in Neverland in the first game (with pictures floating across the screen) while Pan and Sora fly around hitting anything in their path.

Villains

Sephiroth - Radiant Garden
Shan-Yu - The Land of Dragons
Hades - Olympus Coliseum
Barbossa - Port Royal
Maleficent - Random worlds
Ursula - Atlantica
Jafar - Agrabah
Oogie Boogie - Halloween Town
Scar - Pride Lands
Master Control Program - Space Paranoids
Pete- Random worlds

Temporary Party Members

Beast - Beast's Castle
Fa Mulan - The Land of Dragons
Auron - Olympus Coliseum
Jack Sparrow - Port Royal
Jack Skellington - Halloween Town
Aladdin - Agrabah
Tron - Space Paranoids
Simba - Pride Land
Riku - The World That Never Was

Assistance

These are partners that help Sora to fight the enemies in some parts of the game.

King Mickey - Twilight Town (only in the battle against Nobodies in the 2nd visit to Twilight Town)
Hercules - Olympus Coliseum (only in the second round of the Pete battle & the second battle against Hades)
Axel - Betwixt and Between & Peak (but it only helps one time, after a battle against the Nobodies, Axel dies)
Retro Pete - Timeless River (only in the second battle against Pete in Timeless River)
Leon - Hollow Bastion (in the fight against the nobodies in the Bailey/On the Ravine Trail)
Cloud - Hollow Bastion (On the Ravine Trail)
Yuffie - Hollow Bastion (On the Ravine Trail)
Tifa - Hollow Bastion (On the Ravine Trail)
Queen Minnie - Disney Castle (Castle Hallway & Audience Chamber)

Worlds

Simulated Twilight Town
Twilight Town
The Land of Dragons, from Mulan
Beast's Castle, from Disney's Beauty and the Beast
100 Acre Wood, from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Olympus Coliseum/Underworld, from Disney's Hercules
Disney Castle
Timeless River, from Steamboat Willie
Atlantica, from Disney's The Little Mermaid
Port Royal, from Pirates of the Caribbean
Agrabah, from Disney's Aladdin
Destiny Islands (Not Playable)
Halloween Town/Christmas Town, from The Nightmare Before Christmas
Pride Lands, from The Lion King
Space Paranoids, from Tron
Sunset Horizons (Final Mix+ Only)
The World That Never Was

Also, Chicken Little , Stitch and Peter Pan , summons who do not have their worlds directly depicted in this game,have their worlds breifly displayed whenever you summon them.