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AFTER THE AMAZING SUCCESS of Kingdom Hearts it was certain that a sequel would be created, and if not the fact that thousands of gamers enjoyed it, maybe it were that most of those gamers also purchased the GBA title Chain of Memories to get their fix until KH2 released. Four years later we finally see the release of what can easily be touted as one of the most anticipated RPG titles since Kingdom Hearts. Does it stand by its reputation? Has it improved in everyway gamers had hoped for?
Upon loading the game you will find yourself introduced to a teenaged boy called Roxas. Roxas is on a summer vacation in Twilight Town and has managed to make a decent bunch of friends and a semi-rival that always stays friendly. This is the prologue, and lasts lasts a good three to four hours.
In these first hours you get to undertake in a few extremely repetitive and redundant jobs (you do them to earn cash, but the cash gets stolen almost as soon as you earn enough). There is no sign of any of the characters you came to love and you will be overrun with information to get people up to date who haven't played the original game and the GBA sequel. So while it is nice to be informed about what has gone on before, gamers might feel that the information given to you is far too much in too short a time.
Strange things start happening to Roxas as he goes about his seven-day summer vacation. Time seems to stop and he is introduced to cloaked figures known as Organisation XIII - who seem to already know Roxas - and a small girl trying to help him remember who he really is and get him away from the evilness appearing through Twilight Town.
While four hours may seem like a long time for a prologue, you will learn everything you need to know about controlling Roxas and to become fluent with the control system. The item and equip menus are all up to you to figure out but are fairly obvious, especially for fans of the series. Its easy to overlook, and a battle you're struggling with can easily be passed with the right abilities equipped, so make sure you familiarise yourself.
Thankfully, once the prologue ends you will introduced to the characters you know and love and Roxas becomes someone you will continue thinking about through the duration of the title.
While controls stay fairly true to the original, a few nifty additions have been added. The jump button now works as a jump button should; you'll be controlling the height and direction fully, and with the camera assigned to the right control stick there should be no more jumping-and-missing issues.
The only other major changes are to the battle system. As you are battling the triangle button becomes a context-sensitive button. While normally doing nothing, there are moments when a green triangle will appear above the head of an enemy; it is at these points that you have to tap triangle as quickly as possible. While the first few context-sensitive actions won't be the deciding factor on a battle, they eventually will be, and there are some amazing moments in the boss battles where the game switches to more of an interactive special move than anything else. |
