A few observations, criticisms, and questions about kh2 (SPOILERS BEWARE!!!)

I think I would like to start by saying how much I love Kingdom Hearts 2. It is a BIG step up from the first one, and was improved in several ways. Also, I havent beat it yet, mainly because I am afraid to, because after I beat something, it becomes less enjoyable, and I get bored. I am currently revisiting Agrabah to take care of Jafar.

I did however, have a few problems. First off, that irksome long intro. It kind of hurts the replay value, knowing you are going to have to spend several hours going through that, whether you skip the scenes or not. Another was (this has been a problem for all of the KHs) how the storyline pretty much didnt go anywhere for most of the game. One of the biggest problems I had was the miniscule parts of characters that were highly advertised. I mean, they had interviews with the VAs for YRP, Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith, when their parts were tiny, and they barely spoke anyways. I mean, you guys never even MET Tifa. She just kind of showed up, and that was that. It seems they were advertised to have much larger parts than they had, especially the Gullwings. My last complaint is about the Disney worlds. Some of them are extremly short, such as the Land of Dragons, and the Space Paranoids. Yet some were EXTREMLY LONG, like Olympus Coliseum. I would think that they could've balanced them out a little more.

I do also, have a few questions. Like at the begininng, Sora says something like "You guys [Donald and Goofy], me, Riku, and the King. The five of us, I mean, the six of us....." six? Who's the sixth? Am I missing something?
Another is about CoM. Is it absolutely necessary to play CoM to understand what's going on? I mean, I never played it, and I understand most of it. I get who the organization is, I get how Kairi forgot Sora, I know who Namine and Roxas are, and such, but I was asking if I should play CoM before I go to the World that Never Was (where I'm sure it will be pretty story-heavy.)

Thanks in advance to anyone who bothers to take the time to read, and hopefully answer this.

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Originally Posted by Acid Raine

I think I would like to start by saying how much I love Kingdom Hearts 2. It is a BIG step up from the first one, and was improved in several ways. Also, I havent beat it yet, mainly because I am afraid to, because after I beat something, it becomes less enjoyable, and I get bored. I am currently revisiting Agrabah to take care of Jafar.

I did however, have a few problems. First off, that irksome long intro. It kind of hurts the replay value, knowing you are going to have to spend several hours going through that, whether you skip the scenes or not. Another was (this has been a problem for all of the KHs) how the storyline pretty much didnt go anywhere for most of the game. One of the biggest problems I had was the miniscule parts of characters that were highly advertised. I mean, they had interviews with the VAs for YRP, Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith, when their parts were tiny, and they barely spoke anyways. It seems they were advertised to have much larger parts than they had, especially the Gullwings. My last complaint is about the Disney worlds. Some of them are extremly short, such as the Land of Dragons, and the Space Paranoids. Yet some were EXTREMLY LONG, like Olympus Coliseum. I would think that they could've balanced them out a little more.

I do also, have a few questions. Like at the begininng, Sora says something like "You guys [Donald and Goofy], me, Riku, and the King. The five of us, I mean, the six of us....." six? Who's the sixth? Am I missing something?
Another is about CoM. Is it absolutely necessary to play CoM to understand what's going on? I mean, I never played it, and I understand most of it. I get who the organization is, I get how Kairi forgot Sora, I know who Namine and Roxas are, and such, but I was asking if I should play CoM before I go to the World that Never Was (where I'm sure it will be pretty story-heavy.)

Thanks in advance to anyone who bothers to take the time to read, and hopefully answer this.

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The sixth is Sora sucking at math. Because he is comprised of himself, and his Nobody, Roxas, added up himself, Sora, the King, Riku, Donald, and Goofy, not realizing thast he is part of Sora, no longer a distinct being.
The plot is explained in WtNW, and the plot isn't difficult to understand even if you don't play CoM. If you decide to throw in the Nobody Leaders and conspiracies, then you need to play CoM. But the Sora/Roxas and Kairi/Naminé is easier to understand.

I agree that the game could have been more balanced, but overall, it is a great and fun game.

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Originally Posted by Tavrobel

The sixth is Sora sucking at math. Because he is comprised of himself, and his Nobody, Roxas, added up himself, Sora, the King, Riku, Donald, and Goofy, not realizing thast he is part of Sora, no longer a distinct being.

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Wait....so Sora saying "the six of us" was just Roxas adding himself to the mix?

I really liked the long intro. I think I started to dislike KH2 a bit in the middle, when the story started to not be there and it was just Disney world stories, but then it picked right up and I loved it. Besides the middle and the fact that the game is way too easy, even for someone who was underleveled throughout the game, I thought it was a brilliant game. :)

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Originally Posted by Acid Raine

Wait....so Sora saying "the six of us" was just Roxas adding himself to the mix?

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That's what I got out of it, too.

I have the same complaints that Rye does. The lack of plot in the middle of the game didn't really bother me that much. Based on the original and CoM, I had a good feeling it was gonna throw plot in your face at the beginning, back off for a while, and then throw it in your face again towards the end.

I wouldn't say that CoM is necessary to understand Kingdom Hearts II, but it definitely does make some of the things that the Organization says easier to understand. Plus, you'll recognize a couple faces in one or two scenes that you wouldn't otherwise. Ansem's report covers the details from CoM briefly, but it was sufficient explanation.

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Originally Posted by Acid Raine

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Originally Posted by Tavrobel

The sixth is Sora sucking at math. Because he is comprised of himself, and his Nobody, Roxas, added up himself, Sora, the King, Riku, Donald, and Goofy, not realizing thast he is part of Sora, no longer a distinct being.

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Wait....so Sora saying "the six of us" was just Roxas adding himself to the mix?

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I thought he meant kairi XD

It's not ROxas, it's Kairi.

Kairi wasn't there when they took the Head count. Also, when Sora said six, the others (Donald and Goofy) looked at him funny, as though they didn't know what he was talking about. If they had, then it would be Kairi who he was referring to. But in this case, it is Roxas subliminally and accidentally adding himself.

I have another question. About the Shadow heartless. They seem different. Not only are they the only ones without the heartless insignia on them, when you kill them, that little heart-thing doesnt fly out of them. ANyone know why?

ummm maybe the animators were lazy?

You find out from the Ansem notes in the first game that the standard Shadow are the only true Heartless. All of the other heartless were developed by Ansem himself.

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Originally Posted by Behold the Void

You find out from the Ansem notes in the first game that the standard Shadow are the only true Heartless. All of the other heartless were developed by Ansem himself.

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Really? I thought I read all of those......

um could the sixth be jimminy. Sora, the King, Riku, Donald, and Goofy, jiminy that makes 6 or does he not count jiminy even though he does appear everyonce in a while.

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Originally Posted by Neo Blackheart

um could the sixth be jimminy. Sora, the King, Riku, Donald, and Goofy, jiminy that makes 6 or does he not count jiminy even though he does appear everyonce in a while.

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Hm....that is probably it. Even though he never did anything except hang around in Sora's shirt.....

It was totally a reference to Roxas. They wouldn't have mentioned Jiminy as someone in the party with the strength to team up and save the world.

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Originally Posted by Neo Blackheart

um could the sixth be jimminy. Sora, the King, Riku, Donald, and Goofy, jiminy that makes 6 or does he not count jiminy even though he does appear everyonce in a while.

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Probably not, because the reaction of Donald and Goofy when Sora said 6 was like "wtf are you talking about?". I don't think Jiminy was considered much of an option for "sixth", as he does nothing through out the game except keep notes, as though he were just an observer, and not an active member.

Sad, though. Any character who gets a cane should use his fists in battle, because his finger rings would crush all Heartless.

It is strange that the other 5 disciples didn't have Heartless versions similar to Ansem's. Chernabog and Behemoth both bear the insignias (if you consider them the incarnations), and you only fight DarkSide three times, if only DarkSides are the disciples. Not only that, in the ending movie, you see MORE than 6 DarkSides attempt to consume Kingdom Hearts, and only 3 Million Shadows.
Plus Ansem bears the insignia, which leads me to believe that the Heartless Insignia is the crest of Hollow Bastion.

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Originally Posted by Tavrobel

Probably not, because the reaction of Donald and Goofy when Sora said 6 was like "wtf are you talking about?".

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I never noticed that they looked at him any different. I just started a new game and got Sora back, so I'll be able to check right away.

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I don't think Jiminy was considered much of an option for "sixth", as he does nothing through out the game except keep notes, as though he were just an observer, and not an active member.

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Yeah. Minnie had him go along to chronicle it, not to fight.

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Sad, though. Any character who gets a cane should use his fists in battle, because his finger rings would crush all Heartless.

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Wtf are you talking about??

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It is strange that the other 5 disciples didn't have Heartless versions similar to Ansem's. Chernabog and Behemoth both bear the insignias (if you consider them the incarnations), and you only fight DarkSide three times, if only DarkSides are the disciples. Not only that, in the ending movie, you see MORE than 6 DarkSides attempt to consume Kingdom Hearts, and only 3 Million Shadows.
Plus Ansem bears the insignia, which leads me to believe that the Heartless Insignia is the crest of Hollow Bastion.

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So, are you saying that Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Saix, Axel, Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, Larxene, and Roxas should all have Hearless resembling them, like Xehanort had "Ansem" and Xemnas? I agree.....

Which brings me to my next topic. How do you pronounce the members of the Organization? I mean, only some of them are said out loud. Here is how I say them:

Xemnas - Zem-nuhss (given)
Xigbar - Zig-bar (given? idk, I havent fought him yet)
Xaldin - Zal-dinn (given)
Vexen - Vexs-in (duh!)
Lexaeus - Lexs-ay-uhs
Zexion - Zexs-ee-ahn
Saix - Sai with an exs sound on the end (I have no idea how to pronounce an i with the dots above it. Im no good at accents)
Axel - Axs-uhl (given)
Demyx - Demm-icks or Demm-ee-icks (I switch between them)
Luxord - Luxs-ord (given? Havent fought him.)
Marluxia - Mar-luxs-ee-uh
Larxene - Larks-eene
Roxas - Rocks-uss (given)

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Originally Posted by Acid Raine

First off, that irksome long intro. It kind of hurts the replay value, knowing you are going to have to spend several hours going through that, whether you skip the scenes or not.

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It was a top-notch intro when compared to KH. It played faster and the fact that you can skip the cutscenes is a major plus. Also, I loved being able to play as Roxas throughout the opening.

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Another was how the storyline pretty much didnt go anywhere for most of the game.

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They wanted to give you a lot to do, the same goal they had in mind with the multi-worlds of KH. At least a Nobody pretty much appeared in every world in KHII. In KH, some of the worlds didn't include anything pertaining to the overall plot. Just verbal hints dropped by the major bad guys. And don't forgot why . . . originally, the game was going to be about Mickey and follow a more Disney-style story.

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One of the biggest problems I had was the miniscule parts of characters that were highly advertised. I mean, they had interviews with the VAs for YRP, Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith, when their parts were tiny, and they barely spoke anyways. I mean, you guys never even MET Tifa. She just kind of showed up, and that was that. It seems they were advertised to have much larger parts than they had, especially the Gullwings.

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At least you got to fight beside Tifa, although, I wish they would have shown her meeting up with Cloud. I mean they didn't even resolve that at the end of the game.

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My last complaint is about the Disney worlds. Some of them are extremly short, such as the Land of Dragons, and the Space Paranoids. Yet some were EXTREMLY LONG, like Olympus Coliseum. I would think that they could've balanced them out a little more.

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The Land of Dragons isn't particularly short. The story for each world in divided into two parts. You need to revisit them all to finish them. Space Paranoids is available again after you've completed the stories for all the worlds. Taking part in the Hades Tournament is the story bit for Olympus. You need to come back to Atlantis after meeting one requirement after another. You might as well wait until you've completed everything else before even setting foot there. After all, it's only singing.

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Originally Posted by Rye

I really liked the long intro. I think I started to dislike KH2 a bit in the middle, when the story started to not be there and it was just Disney world stories, but then it picked right up and I loved it. Besides the middle and the fact that the game is way too easy, even for someone who was underleveled throughout the game, I thought it was a brilliant game. :)

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For someone random enough or calculated enough to use the Reactions, Magic, and Drives, yes: the game is easy. However, some people don't use those things very often and sometimes may not use them at all. People have their own play style. Some try to get through the game way, way too fast and start saying the game is hard.
How many Heartless and Nobodies did you avoid fighting because you weren't stuck in that particular room, Rye? I never stay in a room if I'm not stuck. I had a real problem with Demyx before I started using my Drive-Revert tactic. I kept jumping into the air when fighting against Xigbar (which got me caught in a flurry of lasers). I didn't know about Riku's Dark Aura ability (SPOILER)when you need to save Sora from Xemnas. For people with dumb luck or exceptional skill, anything can seem particularly easy. I think the game's difficulty is right where it needs to be.

Pimps carry canes, and they wear rings. Rings on a fist will hurt like hell and leave a mark. He may have been forced, but he still didn't do anything. what if you got the Game Over screen? He should be like the scholar from FFIIIj with the negative HP growth and hit people with BOOKS. Hitting people with Bibles is hilarious.

Only Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion's human forms were disciples. I don't care about Saix, Axel, Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene. Roxas of course, as we know, is Sora's Heartless.

Here's how I say them.
Xemnas - given
Xigbar - not given, clearly pronounced as Light Urple, obvious to all readers of English
Xaldin - given
Vexen - not given, but obvious
Lexaeus - not given, Lexs-ay-us
Zexion - Zex-eye-ahn
Saix - given, say-ex, except as one syllable, which is the incorrect pronunciation of the name as the game gives it, but what can you do about it... not that it sounds bad or anything, just wierd to me.
Axel - given
Demyx - not given, Day-meex
Luxord - not given, Lucks-ord
Marluxia - not given, Mar-luxs-ee-uh
Larxene - not given, Lar-seen
Roxas - given

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How many Heartless and Nobodies did you avoid fighting because you weren't stuck in that particular room, Rye? I never stay in a room if I'm not stuck. I had a real problem with Demyx before I started using my Drive-Revert tactic. I kept jumping into the air when fighting against Xigbar (which got me caught in a flurry of lasers). I didn't know about Riku's Dark Aura ability (SPOILER)when you need to save Sora from Xemnas. For people with dumb luck or exceptional skill, anything can seem particularly easy. I think the game's difficulty is right where it needs to be.

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I never stayed in a room I didn't have to, and Demyx had me slamming the controller on the ground. Kiling ten forms in ten seconds, and getting stuck using the reaction command with one form left and 2 seconds is REALLY gay. (SPOILER)I knew about Dark Aura, but I never used it, I always had the Xemnas clone knock me forward with his Guard, instead of actually having to use Dark Aura. Resulted in me dying many, many times, including one time where I thought you saved Sora by standing directly under Sora, and not Xemnas. I was pissed as hell, when Sora actually died because of that... I died against Xigbar because I purposely jumped into his lasers to end the battle.

Hm...interesting. And isnt Roxas Sora's nobody?

Awesome! I have A Organization member named after me, albiet spelled differently (Xaldin/Dilan)

EDIT: Donald and Goofy didnt give Sora any funny look after he said "six of us", mainly because they werent in camera view. They were there when he said "Me, you guys, Riku, and the king", but then the shot changed so that only Sora was in the shot. All you could hear after that was Donald saying "alright!"