Ouch, my head is aching a bit for playing KH2 for about 7˝ hours within the last two days. I arrived to Vaasa yesterday and started playing KH2 right away. Where do we start? The graphics look great, and the game looks beautiful. The music is also very good, using some themes from the old game and some new ones. I've noticed from the soundtrack that the synth is weaker than in the first game, but you don't really notice it in the game. There's a song that played in the original KH that plays in several flashback scenes in Twilight Town, but it doesn't seem to be in KH2 soundtrack. I think it's called "Treasured Memories" in KH. The voice acting is still pretty good, but I liked some of KH's voices better, although it could be just me being used to their original voices (I think Ansem, Leon, Yuffie and Aerith all sounded better in the original game). The game has loads of cutscenes. So far there's been several moments where I've wanted to save the game after the cutscenes have been going on for a really long time and I haven't saved for over half an hour. You can skip the cutscenes, though, but I prefer to watch them as there's a lot of plot development there. Twilight Town was a really fun town with a lot of heart and emotional turns, and I really enjoyed the ~5.5 hours spent on that world.
I'm playing the game on Proud mode, so the monsters are quite tough, and the game's hard at times. I was careless twice and lost to normal Nobodies, but otherwise, the bosses have been the challenging part. I defeated the Twilight Zone on my second try, although now that I think about it, the battle is more about learning a proper strategy and using the reaction commands. It took me 3 tries to defeat Vivi, but Setzer was amazingly easy for me, and I beat him on my first try. The reaction commands add a nice extra to the battles, and the boss battles are stunning with their special twists and turns, and they feel quite epic. The mini-games are quite fun, and I took a while playing them.
I've beat Sora's story in KH: Chain of Memories, which has helped me understand KH2's story better, though I think you can understand the story even without playing CoM. It's just that you'll feel like "What on earth happened between KH1 and KH2" if you haven't. Well actually, not much.
(KH: CoM Spoilers)Sora encountered and defeated like half of Organization XIII in the Castle of Oblivion, and Naminé's powers caused Sora forget everyone around him and everyone forget Sora, but now, Naminé is trying to restore Sora's memories. (KH2 Spoilers)DiZ and a character who claims to be Ansem are up to something, although they still seem to be on Sora's side in a way, and wanting to defeat Organization XIII. Christopher Lee does an excellent job as DiZ, and his laugh is just hilarious. :D While there's some story about Maleficent getting revived, make no mistake, this is the story of Sora and others, not a story that focuses on Disney characters. You'll still run into Disney characters, though. So far, I've seen (in addition to Donald, Goofy and King Mickey) Yensid, Pete, a glimpse of Maleficent, the three Faeries from the Sleeping Beauty, Donald's three nephews, Scrooge McDuck, Merlin and some others in flashbacks.
The Final Fantasy characters and original characters are enjoyable too. It was great seeing Squall/Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Cid and some others again, and Vivi was very nice to see. He looks a lot like he does in Final Fantasy IX even though he was designed by Yo[img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img]aka Amano, not Tetsuya Nomura. Seifer, Rai and Fui were pretty good too, and I totally "owned that lamer" Seifer a few times. :P I liked Roxas and his friends too. Hayner is bit cold, but he's otherwise a nice person, and both Pence and Olette are nice too. It was quite a sad scene when Sora and others left Twilight Town. Oh yeah, and
(KH2 Spoilers)was the original Twilight Town a simulation of the real thing since I don't think the characters remembered Roxas in the end... although I think there's some hints that they still know Sora and/or Roxas in their hearts.
I cleared the routes to Beast's Castle and China (BTW it was nice hearing Chip and Dale speak), and I'll do those worlds next. I'll see what else I can do this week, and I'll probably keep updating this entry. But until the next update, take care, everyone! ^^
*huggles*
EDIT 01: 10˝ hours now. I went through Mulan's world. It was a lot of fun, and there were several funny moments. The speared riders were quite tough, and buying Potions is getting quite expensive, so I hope I'll get the Cure spell soon. I beat Shan-Yu, although when I played that fight again later, I noticed how much easier it would have been if I had used the Valor Form Drive. At the end of the world, there were some cute hints and blushing about Mulan and Shan-Yu. ^^ Currently Sora is on level 17.