Michael Sollosi
This is awkward. I’ve been a vocal disdainer of Kingdom Hearts video games for over 20 years, and my feelings on the series didn’t change much when I finally finished the first one in early 2019. But now I’ve played a second Kingdom Hearts game, and it’s good.
I approached Kingdom Hearts II with as open a mind as I could muster, and once the game begins in earnest and Sora was in new clothes and finding new keys, it’s banger straight up. Great boss fights and gameplay variety, beautiful interpretations of Disney settings, and a 10/10 soundtrack from the legend Yoko Shimomura.
So will this lead me to playing more Kingdom Hearts games on The Story So Far collection? Do I need to track down a copy of 358/2 Days or Kingdom Hearts III? Probably not. But did I finally cross this game off my backlog and truly enjoy a Kingdom Hearts game for the first time? A begrudging yes.
Peter Triezenberg
I just had to come back to Retro Encounter to talk about Kingdom Hearts II. It wouldn’t feel right leaving this particular loose thread hanging from my podcasting career given how much we had teased it over the years. I was also just glad to revisit it in general: Kingdom Hearts II is just a special game. The combat is fast-paced and snappy, easily the high point of the entire series in terms of game feel. The story hits a lot of emotional high points for me, especially where Roxas is concerned. This is enhanced by Yoko Shimomura’s excellent score, without which I don’t think people would be nearly as invested in these characters as they are. And while I didn’t get to it this playthrough, the post-game content added in the Final Mix version of Kingdom Hearts II offers a true test of the player’s abilities, offering some of the most challenging optional bosses in the series.
Aleks Franiczek
I was a Kingdom Hearts fan at an ideal time: getting into it at the target age of preteen, as an experienced Final Fantasy player, by borrowing it from a girl I had a crush on. How could I not be convinced by its eye-rolling sincerity, cryptic edginess, and vibrant Disney aesthetics? But as I got just a bit older and thought myself just a bit cooler, it became as easy to dismiss as it once was to love.
I now returned to Kingdom Hearts II (in its Final Mix form) ready to revisit the madness I left behind with a different perspective. This game is both dumber and more interesting than I remember. Its lore may be “Baby’s First Metaphysics,” but it’s presented so endearingly and backed by enough genuine humanity that it hits when it needs to. Everything has potential to be interpreted metaphorically, and it’s only as compelling as what you bother to read into it. Since I bothered, I found its trippy Mickey Mouse meditations on memory and maturity amusing at worst and borderline profound at best.
But all that is just a bonus to what I enjoyed most this time around: the combat on Critical mode. Like the story, the combat in Kingdom Hearts II is as deep as you want it to be. It strikes an exciting balance between honest combat design and post-God of War cinematic spectacle. The overall progression on Critical isn’t always seamless or without frustration, but the highs have been ingrained in my mind through sweaty palms and Yoko Shimomura’s phenomenal musical accompaniments. It’s a game you can recommend to someone just looking for a good action-RPG despite the series’ decades of unchecked baggage.
No wonder it’s almost unanimously considered the series peak.
Zach Wilkerson
The Kingdom Hearts series is nothing if not sincere. With more elevated commentary on hearts, dark/light, and what it means to be a “person” than any other series I can think of, it certainly aims high. Even as a person who has played most of the games in the series, I’ve never taken it seriously; the lore tends to weigh it all down. So, I just let it wash over me as flavor text, especially in later entries.
Coming back to Kingdom Hearts II, though, I’m reminded that the story here has always struck the right balance. Without the extreme complexity of later entries, I’m always moved by the intense feelings the main characters have for each other, and the philosophical musings, while deeply silly, are at least earnest and worth discussion.
Kingdom Hearts II doesn’t have the best story in the series, though (that’s probably Birth by Sleep), and it certainly doesn’t have the best Disney world design (I’d go with the first Kingdom Hearts on that one). But the combat? It’s excellent. The series never manages to find the right balance of complexity and accessibility, offering surprising depth with things like Drive Forms and the ability to customize your combos for the right situation. I played in Critical this time around, and while it revealed that some moves are really broken throughout the game (looking at you, Reflect and Magnet), the highs were really high, and I’m excited to try out those Data fights on a higher difficulty.
Let’s be honest, though: the best part of this playthrough was hearing Sollosi admit he likes a Kingdom Hearts game.