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The following is the official preview from Square-Enix:It has been a year since the events of KINGDOM HEARTS. Sora and friends are joined by a vibrant new cast of characters, including the king himself. Together, they will face countless dangers in worlds both familiar and brand-new. It seems the Heartless still exist. A new villain also awaits – but is it an old foe behind the mask, or a new menace? This mystery and others will be solved as the story unfolds in a grand adventure. KINGDOM HEARTS has sold over 4 million units worldwide and continues to gain popularity with fans of both DISNEY and SQUARE ENIX across the planet. KINGDOM HEARTS captured the imagination of gamers young and old by combining classic DISNEY properties and implementing new characters and worlds with SQUARE ENIX’s renowned style. The tale is brought to life by an all-star voice cast. Fans will revisit this beloved story and come to care for a new troupe of characters in KINGDOM HEARTS II. The release date for KINGDOM HEARTS II will be announced at a later date. This title has yet to be rated by the ESRB. The following is the KHInsider.com preview:Who are the people behind the game? It will be the same people who designed, directed, and produced the first Kingdom Hearts. Director and Character Designer: Tetsuya Nomura Kingdom Hearts 2 will take place one (1) year after Kingdom Hearts, with Sora still the main character. According to Tetsuya Noumura, Sora's new outfit is supposed to be of importance. Nomura also confirmed that the continued story for Kingdom Hearts 2 is two times longer than the one in Kingdom Hearts. Also confirmed by reports, there as a new group who wear black cloaks (as you can see from screenshots of Final Mix, where the first unknown was introduced) that go by the name of "The Organization", or "The Order". The Order is a very mysterious group and the only thing we currently know about them is that they study the ways of the heart. As you know, Ansem controls the heartless, but a new character, the red-bandaged unknown, who goes by the name of Diz, controls this new group. In an interview with Dengeki Magazine, when asked if Diz was a member of The Order, Nomura said "he will have an important role." You can find more information about the members of The Order by clicking HERE. Also in Kingdom Hearts 2, there are creatures called the "Nobodies." The Nobodies however, are completely different from Heartless and are controlled by The Order. The worlds in Kingdom Hearts 2 are similar to the first with additions of a few more. One place where you will be able to return for sure is the Coliseum, which is said to be packed with more mini-games and activities, and better leveling-up. Besides the Coliseum, other worlds that you will visit in Kingdom Hearts 2 include Ancient China (Mulan), Halloween Town, Fable Countryside (Beast), Ancient Greece (Hercules), Twilight Town, Disney Castle, Hollow Bastion, Night Before Christmas, Atlantica, Agrabah, and Port Royal (Pirates of the Caribbean). The latest addition of worlds include Pride Lands (Lion King) & Space Paranoids (Tron) as well as Timeless River (Steamboat Willie). You also noticed Sora's new clothes which are now darker (complete black with black duds) compared to his clothes in Kingdom Hearts which were a whitish tone and much lighter. According to Tetsuya Nomura, these new clothes will play a big role in Kingdom Hearts 2. The battle system will stay the same in Kingdom Hearts 2, which separate Kingdom Hearts from other Square-Enix games. However, the battle system will feature some improvements with minor tweaks. Along with the battle system, the magic and summoning will be there, but it is not known if there will be the same summons. Nomura stated that there will the summoning will be very different in Kingdom Hearts 2. However, to many people's delight, the camera problems that were originally in Kingdom Hearts will be fixed. Aside from the camera problems being fixed, the Gummi Ship has said to be revamped as well. Gummi ships will still be featured in the game to travel between the worlds and it is said to be that this time around, gummi ships will be much faster and complex than before. Just like Kingdom Hearts, you will be able to customize your Gummi Ship, as well as much more that Nomura has not revealed. From the new screenshots, you notice a new place called Twilight Town, which seems more advanced than any other places that were previously seen in Kingdom Hearts. The name of the town actually seems to be rather symbolic of what may come in Kingdom Hearts 2, but the town itself looks very old-fashioned and neat. You can view an entire view of Twilight Town in this picture HERE. You can look at Twilight Town as the Traverse Town of Kingdom Hearts 2 somewhat. The abilities in Kingdom Hearts will be returning in Kingdom Hearts 2 but now, you can access several abilities by just pressing the 'triangle' button. The way this works is when you're fighting an enemy, directly above the enemy's head you will see a triangle appear, and the "COMMAND" option on the command menu will change to the name of the triangle attack in which you can press the triangle at that time to activate that attack/ability. Please note that all abilities are not necessarily all triangle attacks. The command menu has gotten a complete makeover, literally. As you visit the different worlds, the command menu will change its look and feel, depending on the world you are in. The addition to the command menu people have been raving about recently is "Drive", which if chosen can let you select a particular "Drive form". This new "drive" function, you can see in screenshots is next to Sora's health in the bottom right part of the screen and the Drive meter fills up as you destroy enemies and once it is full, you receive 1 drive point, and this continuous. Sora has 5 different drive forms, and in 3 of those 5 drive forms, Sora gains the ability to use 2 keyblades instead of one, which is why you are able to equip a second keyblade in the items menu. The first two Drive forms you are able to require are Brave Form & Wisdom Form where Sora merges with either Goofy or Donald. When merging with Goofy (Brave form), Sora's clothes turn red and black, and though Sora cannot use magic in this form, he gains a boost in his physical ability. Sora also gets two keyblades increasing his combo potential, allowing for more additional attacks. You'll also see Sora be able to jump higher and run twice as fast. When merging with Donald in "Wisdom Form", Sora's clothes change blue and black and Sora gains a magic attack boost and will hover across the floor instead of running, giving him superior movement control. Wisdom Form replaces the attack command with Shoot, which lets him shoot a blue magic bullet from the tip of the Keyblade in rapid fire if pressed continuously, making Wisdom Form specialized for long-distance attack. We don't want to give up too much about the other 3 drive forms, but they are called Master Form, Final Form & Anti Form. Master combines the powers of Valor & Wisdom forms thus increasing combo potential & magic power. Two keyblades can also be wielded, one psychokinetically and the other held normally. Yellow and black are the colors of Master Form. In Final Form, Sora can merge with any partner and have similar abilities to Master Form, as well as be able to fly incredibly fast. Anti Form is the weirdest form in a sense that it is a side-effect of driving too much in battle. When using Valor, Wisom & Master in certain battles, the chance of getting this form is increased. If/When activated, Sora will look like a shadow and walk on all fours, looking like a Heartless. Both party members of Sora will disappear and Sora will begin using his "claws" for wide-range attacks. We'll leave it at that and you can see the rest while playing! Also, similar to the likes of Resident Evil 4 & God of War, real time reaction commands have been implemented into Kingdom Hearts 2. If you're timing is correct, you can perform certain actions in fights. For example, when fighting "Dusk" nobodies, Sora can slide behind the normally evasive opponents, and set you up for a combo. Reaction commands can also trigger counter moves as well. For example, an enemy might shoot a red bullet at you, but with a well timed reaction command, Sora will kick the bullet back at it. Reaction commands can play a pivotal role in defeating bosses and certain enemies. One cool thing about Kingdom Hearts 2 Nomura revealed to Dengeki Magazine was that you'll have the ability to fight huge armies that confront you. Though Nomura did not give away too many details, Nomura stated that there will still of course be 1-on-1 fighting but there will also be a way to fight large armies, mainly associated with the triangle button (as you read above). Below is a list of the abilities that we have heard about and seen through magazine scans and screenshots:
Some magic spells from Kingdom Hearts have been modified, while others have been thrown out and replaced with new ones. Two noteable ones is one called "Magnet" which creates a sphere that slowly sucks in enemies. Another one is called "Reflect", which causes a large shield to form around Sora for a very short amount of time, then crack and send out sharp shards a limited distance. If you wanted to fight alongside King Mickey in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2 gives you the chance. In certain boss battles, if Sora becomes knocked out, a second option called "I Won't give up!" may be avilable. This gives you the chance to play as King Mickey, who is very fast and has a high amount of manuverability. Mickey also has the ability to shoot blasts of magic from the tip of his keyblade. However, to finish off the Boss, Sora must be revived. This is done by repeatedly pressing the triangle button to fill up Sora's drive bar. If Mickey's HP bar is reduced to "zero", Sora becomes automatically revived. Nomura also has said that King Mickey have a relationship with The Order, "one way or another". Summoning in Kingdom Hearts 2 will also be different as summoning will use up the drive meter, therefore not allowing Sora to drive & summon at the same time. The summon will replace the two computer-controlled characters & fight along Sora's side, and instead of the summon being limited to only one action, the summoned character will have a menu of actions to chose from, limiting from solo actions to some cooperative actions with Sora. The four Summon's in Kingdom Hearts 2 are Chicken Little, Genie, Stitch & Peter Pan. As to questions on whether or not there will be a Kingdom Hearts 3, it highly depends on the success of Kingdom Hearts 2, and we personally can say that Kingdom Hearts 2 will be a very successful game. [Last Updated: March 24, 2006] Some things we did not include in our preview because there is so much but you can read different information in different articles on our newsboard. We reccomend the following: |