| Kingdom Hearts II | |
|---|---|
| Completionist Info | |
 | |
| Episode Number | 54 |
| Date Released | February 8th, 2013 |
| Completionist Rating | Finish It! |
| Link | Kingdom Hearts II - 2 Keyblades for The Price of Uno - The Completionist Ep. 54 |
Kingdom Hearts II (キングダムハーツIIKingudamu Hātsu Tsū?) is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enixin 2005 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The game is a sequel to the 2002 Disney Interactive and Squarecollaboration, Kingdom Hearts, which combinedDisney and Square elements into an action role-playing game, though it is somewhat darker in tone than its predecessor. The game's popularity has resulted in a novel andmanga series based upon it and an international version called Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, released in March 2007.
Kingdom Hearts II is the third game in the Kingdom Hearts series. It picks up one year after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Sora, the protagonist of the first two games, returns to search for his lost friends. Like the previous games,Kingdom Hearts II features a large cast of characters from Disney films and Final Fantasy games. Organization XIII, a group introduced inChain of Memories, also reappears to impede Sora's progress.
The game was critically praised, earning year-end awards from numerous video gaming websites. In Japan, it shipped more than one million copies within a week of its release. One month after its North American release, it had sold over one million copies and was the second best-selling game of 2006. By March 31, 2007, the game had shipped over 4 million copies worldwide.
The game was actor Pat Morita's final voice role before his death in November 2005. The Final Mix version of the game was re-released in high definition for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix for the PlayStation 3, along with Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.
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The Completionist[]
Jirard reviewed Kingdom Hearts II for the fifty-fourth episode of The Completionist, as well as for the second episode of the Month of Sequels 2013.
The opening skit sees Greg suggesting games for Jirard to review for the Month of Sequels, but he keeps bringing up games Jirard reviewed in Season 2. Eventually, Greg thinks of something: "Dual-wielding Keyblades."
Greg prevents the review from playing the game's opening song to prevent the video from being taken down by copyright.
Jirard admits that the game's story is incredibly convoluted, and the game's introduction is too long. Attempting to explain the plot even exhausts Jirard by the end of the review. He also finds the presentation hit-and-miss, finding the cutscenes impressive but the representation of some franchises, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, is somewhat butchered. He also finds the Little Mermaid level to be much less fun in this revisit, due to changing into a rhythm mini-game.
Despite these negatives, Jirard finds that the sequel improves on the formula of the original, due to the addition of tactics from the previous entry, and having two Keyblades. He also enjoys revisiting the various worlds to progress.
The effort of completing everything for the bonus cutscene and attempting to explain the story takes a toll on Jirard. Though as a whole, he enjoys Kingdom Hearts II.
Trivia[]
- The phrase "Angry Video Game Jihad" is used for the first time in this episode. However, it isn't used to introduce an "Angry Video Game Jihad Rant" yet.
- Greg sings his own renditions of the themes for "Ducktales", "Darkwing Duck," and "That's So Raven."
- Jirard later did a Why We Love Games episode on Kingdom Hearts II, in which he talks about his use of the game to cope with a depressing time in his life. His constant playing of the game caused him to grow his beard out, making this game the origin of his beard.