Kingdom Hearts II is the sequel to the highly acclaimed prequel Kingdom Hearts I, and a direct sequel to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the gameboy advance. The game is a result of collaboration between Disney and Square Enix (Final Fantasy games) and is for the Sony Playstation 2.

The story starts out with the player controlling a youth named Roxas (voiced by Jessie McCartney) who is related to the previous game’s protagonist Sora (voiced by Haley Joel Osment) in some way unbeknownst to Roxas.

Although the player can control Roxas at the beginning of the game, it is only for a brief time, as the hero from the past game, Sora, becomes the main protagonist after Roxas. Sora must find a way to get back to his home and find King Mickey (Mickey Mouse) and his best friend Riku (voiced by David Gallagher).

During the game, it is revealed that a new threat is known as Organization XIII. Basically, throughout the game you go to different Disney Worlds inspired by Disney Movies to interact with famous Disney characters such as Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Mulan, and many more.

The gameplay is slightly enhanced from Kingdom Hearts I. The player controls Sora from a third-person view and can do commands in real-time, meaning that it is not like an ordinary RPG (Role-playing game). In normal RPG games, the player has to issue commands to the characters; it is like a fighting game where the characters fight as the player presses the command buttons.

Other members of the player’s party are controlled by the computer instead of the player themselves, but the gameplay style makes up for this. There is a new addition to the game that wasn’t in the first Kingdom Hearts called the drive gauge, which when filled up, Sora can activate three different modes that boost his power by combining his powers with that of either Donald Duck or Goofy.

The game is set at two modes the player can choose from: Normal mode and proud mode. Normal Mode is meant for beginners who are new to the game and proud mode is meant for experts who want a real challenge.

The voice-acting of the game is well implemented, as the English producers of the game were able to cast famous stars to do the voices such as Christopher Lee, James Woods, Jessie McCartney, Haley Joel Osment, Hayden Panettiere, and many more.

The soundtrack in the game is simply superb.  The in-game music was composed by Yoko Shimomura (composed Street Fighter II soundtrack). The opening theme “My Sanctuary,” was sung by famous Japanese musical artist Utada Hikaru and the opening features the highlights from the previous Kingdom Hearts games.

 The graphics are very well-done for being on the playstation 2 especially for the opening and ending sequences.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is a well-loved game, with a huge fan-base, which sold one million copies in North America one month after it was released. It has been adapted into a comic and fans of both Final Fantasy and Disney movies are sure to enjoy this epic exciting game.