I've been looking forward to KH2, but then the other night I read that Setzer Gabbiani was in it and I was overjoyed. Finally, someone from pre-FF VII! Hurray!

...Then I saw this picture of what Nomura has done to his character design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Setzer_kh2.jpg

Great, so Nomura's taken the rough, lecherous gambler with long, scraggly silver hair and turned him into Seymour with Cloud's hair wearing a very gay swashbuckler's outfit. As for his role in the game:


So now I'm back to just looking forward to this since I loved the first Kingdom Hearts so much.

Um, actually, it's not. The opening version of Passion/Sanctuary is really not as generic or J-poppy as you think. Apparently, Passion's sound was a bit of a hard sell; it peaked at #4 on the Oricon charts. The ending theme is the after the battle version of Passion/Sanctuary, which is more piano-driven.

I didn't like Passion on my first couple of listens, but it grew on me. Don't stereotype it before you've even heard the song.

The new Setzer looks pretty awful. At least he had style in FF VI, now he looks like an arrogant punk. They could have at least given him a better outfit. I never liked Nomura's designs as much as Amano's. I'm not saying that he doesn't do a good job, it's just that his designs don't have the grandeur that you see in Amano's work.

Sa-kun, it's just because a friend of mine does nothing but listen to anything Utada that he can find, that I really don't like her, so I'm rather sceptic to this song. I'll wait and see until I actually ahve the game.

I'm actually not even looking forward to this game as much as before. With Suikoden 5 releasing on the same day, I'm not sure which is gonna actually get to be played. Is there any word on how long KH2 is supposed to be? And if there will be widescreen in the US version? I don't think the japanese version had it so I'm not getting my hopes up :(

A friend of mine who's got the Japanese release says the game is much better then the first, so I'll probably see if I can get it when it comes out. As far as I think its just a way to 'test the waters', and maybe include more, obscure characters later on in KHIII, if they make one.

I dunno, if they're going to completely screw up the character designs to the point where they look absolutely nothing like the original, I'd rather they didn't bother including old characters at all. Setzer is really there in name only, so it's more of a cash-in than a cameo.

It is by far more good than the first one, the battle system is just pure awesome and yes Passion wasnt a good song at first but it grew on me, Passion orchestra and after battle is recommendable though.

I'm a huge Hikki fan, and I don't like Passion at all. I've listened to it quite a bit too. I've heard much better music from her, and the song is just a huge disappointment. Of course it's possible that when I see it in the context of the game it might grow on me, but I highly doubt it.

I had to listen to the song a few times before really appreciating it. When I played Kingdom Hearts II and heard the song in the opening and its other version during the ending, I found "Passion" better.

For European gamers, according to www.gameplay.com, a pretty reliable source, Kingdom Hearts will get a PAL release date, but we'll have to wait until August 25. Why do they have to make us wait so long ;_;.

Trust me, being a Hikki fan myself, I had to hear the song several times to really like it. The opening FMV of KH2 however really showed its qualities. The dreamlike style fits right for the opening. Its also a long opening too comparing to the first game. About 4 mins long.

It was almost opposite for me. I'm not necessarily a big fan of Utada's, the only other songs I've ever really listened to from her are the other KH themes and some songs that my teacher plays before Japanese class (not familiar with the songs she plays, but she definitely plays Passion everyday since I gave her a copy, heh...she LOVES that song now), but I fell in love with Passion almost right away. Being dreamlike is probably what appeals to me so much, I love those types of songs. I remember a Mitsubishi car commercial that I loved so much because the music that played was dreamy...techno, but dreamy.

Myself, I'd love it if they cameoed Black Mage from 8-Bit Theatre. I don't think Brian Clevinger would mind.

I was just thinking the other day how cool it would be to see Fighter over in a corner practicing with sword-chucks, and Black Mage being his usual evil and destructive self. At least there will be A black mage since

If Nomura ruined a certain black mage's design, I'll hate him for the rest of my life. It's already perfect so why should he dare to change it.

I just want to declare my eternal hatred for MTV.

They don't support Mac and when trying to watch the KHII vids on a Windows computer, it lagged, skipped, and crashed.

I'm doomed to have to wait till the 28th -_- *goes back to waiting*.

And about them screwing up a "certain black mage".....

I haven't seen Vivi's KH2 design, but surely there's no need to change a design that's been a staple since FF1. The crap Nomura calls Setzer does make me worry though... The only picture I can find is an artwork on Wikipedia labeled as the redesign, and other than some stripes on the shoes and some stuff drawn onto the hat (and a random zipper? Vivi must shop at Hot Topic now) there isn't much difference. I didn't see him in any of the RPGamer screens and art.

I seem to remember seeing only a minor change in that character's design. Namely, his hat.

In typical Nomura fashion, he also has lots of zippers now.

Setzer is a welcome addition in my book, even though he does look more anime-ish then I'd like.
As for what I've seen about the game and heard of the soundtrack, it seems like we'll be replaying a lot of worlds while also going to some exciting new ones. I only hope that Agrabah and Under the Sea will have some new innovation and totally new scenes, instead of just being filler injected from the last game.
Personally I thought it was weird to have a lot of Final Fantasy characters running around in the first game, and have no FF based worlds. Wouldn't it be cool to go to a FFVI, VII, etc. world and fight some FF monsters with Goofy and Donal Duck?
I guess it's Disney's ultimate control of the series that led to this decision. I was half-expecting more FF (and maybe even non-FF series) to make a stonger appearance that didn't involve just adding characters.
They just seem misplaced and inconsistent to me.

You may be surprised with the Final Fantasy characters later on in the game. Without giving anything away, they're a little more involved.

There are a handful of new worlds, and they're interesting to explore as well.

That's what I was complaining about though Rydia. I know about the new worlds, but why not an FF world? They just seem like advertisements without a clear reason for being there.
I'm also disappointed by the fact that it's only a handful of worlds.
At least they altered the completely superfluous gummi ship business.

Because it's supposed to be an exploration of Disney media in video game format, not other fucking Final Fantasy game. You wanna play Blitzball in Luca? Play Final Fucking Fantasy X.

Someone has some unresolved issues.

I think the main reason that there aren't any familiar Final Fantasy worlds is because of the approach to Kingdom Heart's story. They said in the first game that their worlds had already been devoured by the Heartless, hence why all the characters were scattered and intermingling. I'm still hopeful that they'll stick more in KH3 (if it's made). Hell, even a generic RPG world to represent FF1 would be great. Just make sure the town in that world is called Corneria and they're all set.

There are 2x the amount of worlds KH1 had, don't you think thats an improvement?