I give it a 6.5/10
I strongly agree with Mr Redux, the story was a huge disappointment.
Everything about the first KH was great, it had an idealistic young protagonist, Sora, it had a best friend who although stronger than the main character, and more mature, lacked Sora's strength where it really mattered: In one's heart. It had a damsel in distress, a formidable foe, it had great cameos, memorable characters from movies we all grew up watching as kids, great battle system ( It was easy to use, but never did it get boring or too easy)
and you can't tell me your heart didn't jump when you thought, even for a split second, that Sora had sacrificed himself for Kairi, or that Riku had indeed turned to 'the Dark side'
THAT was KH...
Unfortunately KH2(Although still a good game) lacks the same charm and magic as its predecessor. It kinda feels like FF X-2, it just lack what the original had so much of...
The main fault in my opinion was the plot. Unlike KH where one was motivated to look for Kairi and Riku, and save the world, in KH2 you often find yourself asking the question "Why am I here?" or "What does this have to do with finding Riku or the Heartless?"
While I'm mentioning pointless stuff, why Roxas!? I mean you play as him for like 20 minutes and then you never see the kid again. After all the hype about the "Blonde Haired Kid" and all the friggin' trailers, and then you only see him for about as long as you see the ending credits?
Then there was the killing of Ansem in the first game, Square Enix dug itself into a hole with that one...
They simply had no more bad guy. They knew this, and they tried fixing their mistake by showing us an organization member in FM, but the damage was done.
They should've ended the first KH "Star Wars: A new hope style" With a small victory for the good guys( closing the Kingdom Hearts door), but with the war still left to fight. I mean imagine how bad Star Wars would've been if Vader had died in the first Death Star...
I compare the plot in KH2 to that of Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, the plot, it seems, is merely an excuse for you to keep on going to the next world in the game. It almost seems that it was though of last minute or at least AFTER KH.
You don't design a game to have a sequel unless you know beforehand what the sequel's gonna be about.
This is true even in movies, because that way when you watch the sequel, you're like "Oh yeah, now I can see why this happens, cause in the first one Sora did this and this..." so on and so on.
But There is nothing that really connects KH and KH2. I mean the nobodies just what? popped out of thin air? In KH you are never given even a hint that there's such thing as a Nobody. Strange, because if there's Heartless then there should also be nobodies...
The fact is KH2 feels like a soap opera when they run out of ideas, they just do anything that comes to their mind to keep the story going.
Finally, the ending really ticked me off, I mean Sora goes on a quest for mostly Kairi, and when eveyone is finally back at home it looks more like Sora is gonna get some from Riku! I mean not even a kiss from Kairi or anything? Talk about anticlimatic...
Don't get me wrong, I still like the game, but you have to admit that SE could've done a much better job.
