Great Games: Kingdom Hearts II
SPOILER ALERT: The essay contains light spoilers about Kingdom Hearts II!!
“You’ve shown me how to see that nothing is whole and that nothing is broken.”
- Utada Hikaru “Sanctuary.”
Kingdom Hearts II was, in some ways, more significant than Kingdom Hearts. This was when Kingdom Hearts dethroned Final Fantasy as Square’s finest RPG series. Even Final Fantasy is indebted to these games. Look, for instance, at the Final Fantasy spinoffs for the PSP Dissidia and Crisis Core. Both of them were the most fun the stale RPG series had seen in a long while, but why? The answer is that their gameplay mechanics were modeled, in part, after what Kingdom Hearts demonstrated. Kingdom Hearts II was released around the same time of another highly anticipated game, Final Fantasy XII. Of the two, both did well commercially and were praised by critics, but of the two, only one (truly) lived up to fan expectations, and then some. The strange fact is that gamers had more fun playing with Mickey Mouse than they did with Balthier the sky pirate.
Kingdom Hearts was a great experiment that remixed the worlds of Disney with the mechanics of Final Fantasy. The product was something not quite done in the history of video games. I don’t simply mean in terms of crossover, but in ambition. What simply could’ve been a profitable gimmick, became an epic worthy of Zelda. The strength of Kingdom Hearts is that while it is indebted to proven titles, it is able to craft its own mythology. One that revolves around the nature of a heart, its struggles, ambitions, and pitfalls. This mythos is understandably confusing, but like Neon Genesis Evangelion, the enigmas are what keep us coming back.
Where’s Sora?
One can well enjoy Kingdom Hearts II without having played the Game Boy Advance interquel Chain of Memories, but they’ll miss a great deal of context behind “Thank, Namine,” and other moments. Memories succeeded when it introduced new ideas such as Castle Oblivion, the Organization, and the Riku Replica. It’s major failing is that it forces you to redo many of the exact same worlds you already played through in Kingdom Hearts. While the card system is certainly a modest attempt to mix things up, its mechanics can get rather frustrating. I’ll say this much for Memories, though, it tried to experiment with new ideas in an attempt to take the budding series in a better direction. Given the limitations of the Game Boy Advance, it’s not that surprising that they didn’t go far, but what if we used the technical powers of the PlayStation 2?
Kingdom Hearts II opens rather subversively, as we don’t pick up from Memories with Sora, but instead with a new protagonist, Roxas (voiced by pop star Jesse McCartney). Whereas the Destiny Islands seemed remote and sparse, Roxas’s Twilight Town is bustling and populous. So the theme of searching out new worlds would not work out as well here. The struggles of Roxas are instead internal, as he dreams about Sora, whom he does not know. Were Roxas an unlikable character, or his story bland, it easily could’ve turned players off from the whole game. Yet I found myself wrapped up in his six days of summer, as his friends try to squeeze out the most of their vacation. There’s an inescapable element of nihilism to Roxas’s imitation of life. He’s been living in a virtual copy of the real Twilight Town, where all inside are programs to keep him entertained. Through him, we understand what it means to be a Nobody.
Nobodies are the byproducts of a Heartless. Whereas a Heartless is a heart than has given in to darkness, a Nobody is the husk that is left over, ever in search of being reunited with its lost member. Since they lack hearts, Nobodies have no true emotions, but rather, imitations of emotion. The most advanced of these Nobodies are Organization XIII, who seek to become one with their fallen hearts, and by doing so, become whole. Roxas, it turns out, is Sora’s Nobody, born when the Keyblade wielder briefly became a Heartless in Hollow Bastion. Not long afterward, he was adopted by the Organization, and became fast friends with Axel. Riku, working alongside Diz (voiced by Christopher Lee), captured Roxas in an effort to jolt Sora awake. Reason being, that some of Sora’s memories are still with him. To keep Roxas docile, his memory while in the Organization has been wiped.
Roxas’s six days are essentially a tutorial into the new battle system of Kingdom Hearts, particularly the Triangle Reaction Command (TRC). Apparently taking a cue from such games as God Of War, you press the triangle button when it appears on screen to aid you in battle. This adds a more cinematic feel to the first battle against Twilight Thorn. Aside from that, most of the gameplay in Roxas’s story take the form of mini-games, such as performing odd jobs or challenging Setzer at the Struggle tournament. Though by far, the most exciting part of the Roxas storyline is his final confrontation with Axel, the most charismatic of Organization XIII. The excitement also comes from Axel’s emotional frustration, attempting to salvage the remains of a former friend who has changed forever. The ultimate tragedy is of Roxas is that he ends up being a plot device for someone else’s story, with his friends and memories as artificial as the video game wherein he resides.
Sora feels more at home in the Kingdom Hearts universe this time around. He feels like more an immutable part of the Disney worlds than a confused visitor to them. The trio of Sora, Donald, and Goofy are the Three Stooges of their genre, with more comedic chemistry than before. This extends beyond the central party and towards the other Disney characters you encounter. Little moments, such as the banter in a scene where the trio are stuffed with Jack Skellington inside a present to bait a monster, or getting into a fight with Li Shang’s soldiers over cutting in line.
The returning Disney worlds in this game include Agrabah, Olympic Coliseum, Atlantica, Halloween Town, and Hundred Acre Wood. To prevent these worlds from becoming stale or tedious (as they were in Memories) they’ve been heavily revamped. This time around, Agrabah makes better use of the flying carpet, which you use to sail through the ruins of a sand-swept city. Olympus Coliseum now expands into the Underworld, where you can fight alongside Auron from FFX and enter new tournaments of sublime difficulty. Atlantica is now a music game that takes you through the classics like “Part Of Your World” and original compositions like “Ursula’s Revenge.” Halloween Town has a gateway to the brightly colored Christmas Town, where Sora excitedly meets Santa himself. New mini-games abound in Hundred Acre Wood, including a tumbling ride that literally has you swerving through the pages of the book. Hollow Bastion, while not a “Disney” world, also returns. It is now Final Fantasy cameo central, with Tifa Lockhart making a rather comedic entrance in her search for Cloud. Leon returns as a sort of big brother to Sora, and is a far more likable than in FFVIII. Cloud still doesn’t say much, but has a pretty badass scene with Leon during the Heartless invasion. Sephiroth also returns as a boss, and if you aren’t careful, he’ll kill you at the start of the battle.
Some of the new worlds expand on what was already present or alluded to in the previous game. The Beast, who first appeared in Hollow Bastion, is now back at his original castle. Simba and Mushu both aided Sora only as Summons since their homes were destroyed by the Heartless, now these worlds have been restored. Mulan’s world, effectively captures the film’s Chinese aesthetic in many of Heartless, and being in a military setting, is highly mission-based, such as protecting the palace gates from Shan Yu. The director of Kingdom Hearts, Tetsuya Nomura, once remarked that The Lion King was his favorite Disney film, so its of no surprise that the video game incarnation retains much of epic expanse that made the film so iconic. To accommodate this new environment, Sora himself has been transformed into a fast-leaping lion with a Keyblade in his mouth. Disney Castle can now be visited, and inside lies a warp portal to Timeless River, a homage to Disney’s early short films like Steamboat Willie or Plane Crazy. Timeless River captures these cartoons perfectly, from the black and white color palette, to the faded sound design, to the on-spot slapstick.
Arguably, the riskiest of the Disney films used in Kingdom Hearts II are Tron and Pirates of the Caribbean. Reason being that both are live-action films, and may not have translated as well into the cartoonish world of Kingdom Hearts. As far as Pirates is concerned, the character models do seem to clash, but Jack Sparrow and Barbarossa retain so much of their charisma that they don’t seem out of place. A unique aspect to Port Royal are the cursed pirates, who can only be hit in the moonlight, thus increasing the need for offensive spells. Tron plays a more integral part of plot than any of the other Disney worlds, as the Space Paranoids computer program is a construct of “Ansem The Wise.” Playing through the world of Tron is surreal to the point of meta. A video game level about being trapped inside of a computer game. Much like the ground-breaking film, the colorful, electric visuals are what’s most impressive, from the labyrinthine light-speed chases to the blaring red behemoth of the MCP.
The gameplay of Kingdom Hearts II moves at a far faster rate than that of the prior. This is particularly felt in the improved use of air and ground combos. The aforementioned TRC is the battle system’s defining feature, often as a finishing move against monsters like the seven-headed Hydra or bulldozer against the thousand Heartless that attempt to invade Hollow Bastion. It only seemed fitting that the final fight against Xemnas rely on a rapid tapping of triangle to deflect his glowing crystals. Triangle button can also be used as a shortcut for spells, summons, and limit breaks. While limit breaks existed in Kingdom Hearts, they exist with greater variety here, with special limits for Donald, Goofy, and guest characters like Auron or Beast. Summons don’t quite feel essential in this game, but it’s still fun to play the ukulele alongside Stitch or see Genie use the Drive Forms. Speaking of which, Drive Forms are a new addition to Kingdom Hearts, where Sora combines powers with one or two party members. Valor Form (with Goofy) increases physical strength, but lacks magic power. Wisdom Form (with Donald) lacks physical strength, but overwhelms with magical force. Master Form (with both) prides itself on air combos and finishing moves. Sometimes, during these stages, Sora with inadvertently transform into the berserk Anti-Form, where Sora is both at his strongest as well as his most vulnerable. A wild card that makes battle more interesting. Another wild card is the second chance you get to briefly play as Mickey when you lose certain boss fights. Mickey, owing to size, fights much like Yoda in the Star Wars prequels, leaping above and around far larger enemies.
The Organization XIII make for far more interesting antagonists than “Ansem” (Xehanort) and his Heartless hordes of the first game. Ansem made for a fairly generic villain, as his ambition was simply to use Kingdom Hearts to gain power. The Organization, on the other hand, are far more sympathetic. They are like the Heartless, but with feelings (or something like them). The lower Nobodies reflect this change, being more humanoid and elegant than the Heartless, appearing in whites and greys as opposed to shadowy blacks. All the Organization wants is to be whole again, to have their hearts returned. Their methods for achieving this end may be cruel, but it is an understandable end all the same. One also can’t look at the Organization and not be reminded of similar adversaries in various shonen anime, such as the Akatsuki in Naruto, the Phantom Troupe in Hunter x Hunter, and (briefly) the Soul Society in Bleach. I surely can’t be the only one who sees Kenpachi Zaraki’s reckless love for battle in Xigbar, or Hisoka’s devious jocularity in Axel? Though I’d be remiss to forget Maleficent and Pete, who change throughout from adversaries to allies, a growth in character I couldn’t imagine in any other Disney property.
Battles with the Organization are as varied as their personalities. Demyx requires you defeat his water clones before time runs out, Xigbar has you deflecting his sniper shots, Saix needs you to take up the Berserker’s hammer, while Luxord demands you play his confusing card games. Among the most difficult of these fights is in the Final Mix edition of the game, where Sora fights one-on-one with Roxas, and it is no less emotional. The final boss sequence with Xemnas is nothing less than spectacular, a final team up with Riku that has you slicing through skyscrapers and racing with a crystal dragon. There’s even a surprising twist in which you briefly play as Riku to save Sora in the final act.
Utada Hikaru’s music remains the soul of Kingdom Hearts. Her theme for this game is “Passion” (“Sanctuary” in the English version), and is no less moving than “Simple And Clean.” The lyrics express longing, which is fitting, given the distance between Sora and Kairi over the course of the story. One lyric in the English version, I think, best describes the game, particularly in regards the Nobodies: “Nothing is whole and nothing is broken.” Worlds and people can separate, but the lines between them may never completely sever.
