[Album] Kingdom Hearts II OST (TOCT-25871~2)

(all information courtesy of Chudah's Corner)
Composed by: Yoko Shimomura
Arranged by: Yoko Shimomura, Kaoru Wada
Publisher: Toshiba EMI
Catalog Number: TOCT-25871~2
CD Info: 2 CD - 89 Tracks
Released: January 25, 2006
Expanded Album Info and Tracklist

When Yoko Shimomura left Square Enix and went freelance during Kingdom Hearts II's development period, many feared that the composer would choose not to return to the series. That wasn't the case, of course, and fans got their wish when Shimomura was hired to score the sequel. One could be forgiven for thinking this automatically guaranteed a home run--after all, the original Kingdom Hearts is one of the finest game scores of Shimomura's--or anyone's--career. Unfortunately, the end result was decidedly mixed.

The album has a number of strengths. It introduces a theme for the character Sora, something missing from the original, and the resultant track (creatively named "Sora") is a heroic and upbeat anthem that, while brief, is easily the highlight of the entire album. The Gummi Ship music has gotten an overhaul as well; a whole suite of driving, quirky, and often beautiful tracks (such as "Shipmeisters' Rhapsody" and "Cloudchasers").

In addition, many of the best tracks from Shimomura's score to the GBA "Chain of Memories" title have been carried over and upgraded, most notably the jazzy "Lazy Afternoons" and off-kilter "Sinister Sundown" tracks from Twilight town, and the "13th Struggle" battle theme for the mysterious Organization.

On the other hand, much of the material from the original "Kingdom Hearts" is reprised, often without much modification. The worlds of Agrabah ("A Day in Agrabah," "Arabian Dream") and Halloween Town ("This is Halloween," "Spooks of Halloween Town") in particular feature music that is almost identical to the original tracks. Others, like "Rebuilding Hollow Bastion" feature new material added to older tunes, which often is a jarring contrast--half of "Rebuilding" is the ominous music that was a fan favorite, while the other half is upbeat and joyous!

There is a particular weakness in battle themes--with few exceptions, they are very limp and unengaging. This is especially notable during the endgame, when boss fight after boss fight is accompanied by poor music that lacks the epic instrumentation and choral use that characterized the first "Kingdom Hearts."

Some of the tracks are live recordings--the finale march (which features a lovely orchestral rednition of Sora's theme) and reprises of "Hand in Hand" and "Destiny Islands" are spectacularly moving. On the other hand, the less said about the songs that begin Disc 2, the better: Howard Ashman is spinning in his grave. The pop song is also disappointing, even when compared with its underachieving teenybopper predecessor.

One more thing of note is the synth programming; it's very inconsistent, and occasionally downright poor. The result of this is that many of the returning songs from KH I are inferior to their predecessors (compare the KH Final Mix version of "Disappeared" to the KHII version for a good example). In addition, due to being squeezed onto two discs, many of the best songs loop only once. One would think that, after its success, Kingdom Hearts would be allowed the coveted three-disc treatment, but this isn't the case.

In the end, there's enough good material to justify an album purchase, though the music is not anywhere near the home run that its prequel was. It's not clear if this was a case of Shimomura being content to rest on her laurels, or if the development team insisted on the current sound. Either way, remarkable though the game itself is, the music does leave something to be desired.

3/5

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Agreed on inconsistency, but it seems most orchestrated songs are great.
Organization XIII is the best for me, it does "Another Side, Another Story" (From the Final Mix Additional Tracks) better, but the Alantica songs are cringeworthy. One substitution they should made is changing the Battle Music in Space Paranoids for the Light Cycle music, faster paced which made it much better.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

This album is mediocre compared to first OST. True there are some nice tracks, but mostly are average and I couldn't say impressive. What bugging me most is, why they never put a real orchestra version of Destati.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I think that both Kingdom Heart OST are mediocre. However, if it is the full orchestra like Passion and Hikari, it is the greatest. I am not really sure who arranged these two in orchestral version. I really wish that more orchestral version are made for the entire soundtracks.

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I feel that the Kingdom Hearts II OST is superior to the first OST!
Especially now that I'm playing KHII and hearing the music in-game....I feel that Shimomura has done a fantastic job on it!
I especially get pumped up by the fantastic new battle themes that accompany mostly all of the battles (I usually crank up the volume of my stereo when a boss battle starts ).
The boss themes are a bit short though....which is a bit of a pity, but if they're this good then I really don't mind.

Once again I have to say that I don't hear much of the weakness in the synth quality of the songs!
I really think that's just a load of horsecrap!
(which does not count for all tracks though....there are 1 or 2 tracks, that do indeed sound a bit weak, like the Port Royal fight theme and Destati sounds much less epic then on the first album).
The epicness of the sound quality is once again especially evident in the battle themes.
A few examples: the echoing horns (that start at 0:11) in The 13th Struggle sound fantastic....especially when you have your stereo on real loud (or headphones)!
Also how Shimomura uses the piano in her battle themes is absolutely sublime too, a good example of this is in the song Desire For All That Is Lost when the piano solo starts at 0:47!!
(the same goes for songs like Vim and Vigor, Tension Rising (especially the part that begins at 0:45 sounds great), Dance To The Death, Rowdy Rumble etc).
I have to agree with orion though, that the end battle songs are indeed less interesting then the ones you hear in the rest of the game.

All in all a very accomplished soundtrack, which probably brings back too many of the original tunes....but the new compositions make me very forgiving of this fact!

I was speaking idiomatically.

I largely agree with Orion here. Nice review.

Though I found the album moderately enjoyable, the uninspired arrangements, often downright awful synthesizer operating, and usually uncreative new battle themes made the experience quite underwhelming overall. The principle highlights for me were Kaoru Wada's orchestrated tracks, the various incarnations of "Passion," "Riku," and the very well done mini-musical (is "Ursula's Revenge" meant to be a man or woman? >_>).

I'd be happy for Shimomura not to return to KHII, though can only hope she wouldn't be replaced by Ishimoto, the operator that destroyed "He's a Pirate," "Reviving Hollow Bastion," "One Winged Angel," and "Scherzo di Notte," doesn't return.

I'd say 3/5 for me too.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

When I first heard this soundtrack, I was kind of disappointed with it. It didn't wow me as much as it's predecessor. However, upon several listens and having a chance to play through some of the game, this soundtrack is growing on me very quickly. I know a lot of people harp on the poor synth quality here, and I get that, but it's not that big of a deal to me. I really believe that songs like "The 13th Struggle", "Lazy Afternoons", "Rowdy Rumble" , among quite a few others shine despite the lackluster synth. Also, Kaoru Wada does a magnificent job arranging the orchestral tracks. "Dearly Beloved", "Hand in Hand" and "Fantasia alla marcia for piano, chorus and orchestra" are all simply brilliant pieces.

My other gripe on the album is how they totally trashed one of my favorite songs from the first album, "This is Halloween". On the KHII OST, that track is a shell of what it was on the original album. Outside of that, I don't have any other complaints, really. Utada Hikaru's "Passion" is a great song as well.

I still think I like the original soundtrac more just by a hair but the KHII OST is nowhere near horrible or unlistenable. I hope Yoko returns to compose the next chapter in the series.

4.5/5

How ya doing, buddy?

I have the OST, but haven't actually listened to it yet (in fact, I'm still sorta debating whether I should even open it, or instead just keep it as-is, and go the MP3-route, as some people have suggested). Waiting to actually finish the game before I do that.

However, everything I've heard, thus far, easily matches -- and, in some instances, outdoes -- nearly everything the first had to offer. And that holds particularly-true in the unique battle-theme-department...

[I'll be sure to comment on more than just these, once I've had a chance to listen to every, single theme/the entire OST, itself.]

- The Nobody battle-theme (not sure of its title) is simply amazing. It's the one which first plays during the giant-Nobody battle, then at various other battles involving Nobodies throughout the game, following that.

- Both of the new Heartless battle-themes are very, very good. And so much more sinister & foreboding than Shrouding Dark Cloud ever was (although, I also really enjoyed that one).

- The new Disney Villain battle-theme (don't know the actual title) surpasses Squirming Evil by such a large margin, it's almost laughable. Very catchy, and definitely one of my favourites (which is ironic, seeing as I came to really dislike SE).

- I absolutely adore Pete's theme (again, no knowledge of the actual title), in all it's quirky-splendor. It's so fitting for his character-type; y'know, the blundering villain. XD

- The revised CoM 13th Order battle-theme (which I assume is known as 'The 13th Stuggle') is undoubtedly one of the best. I'm so glad it was included, as I was truly hoping that it would be -- plus, it was my favourite theme from CoM (and all KH II does is improve upon that fact).

- The other battle-theme utilized by a select few of The 13th Order's members is also great -- and certainly more dramatic, by-far.

- The arrangement of Disappeared is positively brilliant and absolutely perfect for the situation during which its played. And, despite what others might claim, I found it to be quite superior to its -Final Mix--counterpart.

And while all of the above are indeed better than most other game-music composers could ever hope to produce, nothing quite matches the magnificence of either Night Of Fate, The Deep End or Forze del Male (with particular emphasis on the latter; although, it's likely going to be eternally-untouchable), from the first game -- which is sort of unfortunate. Or maybe there actually is, and I just need to listen to each one of them a bit more thouroughly.

I'm also a bit disappointed to hear that the theme(s) used during the final battle(s) are possibly somewhat lacking in their significance -- and to read the disparaging remarks -- especially considering I've heard much which would suggest the contrary. Although, I suppose Guardando nel Buio, likewise, was also a tad underwhelming for a final battle-theme. But I have much higher-hopes/expectations for KH II. So I'll reserve judgement until I actually them it/them for myself, and, in the mean-time, remain optimistic.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

In my opinion, you have to review this album without comparing it to the soundtrack of the predecessor. I downloaded it because I wanted to know if it's really not that great.

Now that I've listened to a couple of tracks, I must say that it's not a videogame music jewel, but overall, a very nice album. Sure, a lot of tracks were more or less directly adopted from the KH 1 OST, but as I said, that's not of importance.

The soundtrack helps a lot to bring back the old Disney Days memories and Shimomura did a great job with them. The first track already (which is not by Shimomura), the good old Dearly Beloved theme, was extremely nice. Passion is a nice song, whether it's in Japanese or in English (I don't understand all the hatred towards the English version anyway). Most of the other themes are great as well, I especially like the battle and boss battle themes and also the Gummi ship themes =D

I can't wait for the Atlantica songs in English because they sound kinda dumb in Japanese.

As I said, not a perfect album, but most definitely at least a 4/5.

How ya doing, buddy?

i don't know whether or not to agree with any of these comments! the only reason for that is because none of you mentioned Fantasia Alla Marcia, or March Caprice from KHI. Despite some of the soundtrack's major weakness, ~I~ would purchase this just for the 7 minute long track. It's orchestral, etc, etc, so it fits what half of you were complaining about.

The soundtrack is weak in places, and I noticed that playing the game, even before I bought the soundtrack, but the good spots (including Fantasia) make it totally worth it!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by captain_snippet

i don't know whether or not to agree with any of these comments! the only reason for that is because none of you mentioned Fantasia Alla Marcia...

Originally Posted by orion_mk3

Some of the tracks are live recordings--the finale march (which features a lovely orchestral rednition of Sora's theme) and reprises of "Hand in Hand" and "Destiny Islands" are spectacularly moving.

You're right, I totally missed talking about that final march. How silly of me

How ya doing, buddy?

I found the album, as a whole, notably enjoyable. While I concur that synth quality has perceivably degraded, a high amount of tracks still manage to sound very melodic and pertinent to the context.

The new 'Dearly Beloved' is simply heart-touching, 'Passion/Sanctuary is very unusual and provides an appealing undertone of mystery to the game. Other fabulous tracks are 'Thirteenth Struggle' and 'The Lazy Afternoons'. 'Desire for all that's lost' flows quite intensely, too.

I haven't listened to most of the 2nd disc, since I'll sample those tracks once I reach the corresponding spots in the game.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I tortured my way through this soundtrack, finding the second disc a tiny bit better than the first.

It was those vocal BGMs that kept me going, and this isn't repulsive, but it still gets left VERY FAR behind the first game's soundtrack. Mostly in sound quality, from which the blame can be ALL thrown on the guy, whoever, programmed the compositions into synth in KH2. It's total crap in PS2-scale, reaching down quite near to Dragon Quest VIII's horrible synthesized ear torture. KH1 had that down to gold, but the horrible composition ruined it instead. This here soundtrack has better composition, but horrible synth. It's all backwards.

Passion is better than Hikari, but the orchestrated version of Passion is horrible crap. I should spank Kaoru Wada for conjuring up such crappy instrumetation. He might even like spanking, though, so I won't.

I should be a masochist too to actually enjoy listening to this soundtrack.

1/5

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I didn't like the music so much the first time I heard it outside of the game, but with the exception of just a few tracks I started to really like it once I played. THe only tracks I can think of off hand that I didn't like were the Tron tracks and a couple of others here or there. Otherwise I thought i was great and the battle themes were awesome.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

This soundtrack is even better than the original Kingdom Hearts. This time the arcuses have gone impressionistic and it makes the sequel sound even more misterious than the first. 5/5

FELIPE NO

Just now getting around to listening to this. I feel very much the same as Mush. If you decide to compare and contrast against the first offering, you're doing KH2 a disservice. This soundtrack is much more subdued, perhaps leaving less impact then you would anticipate with high expectations.

There is a submersing element to a lot of the work here that I would image helps the audio in game more than it does standing on it's own. Shimormura has successfully melded together the stylistic nature of the first work with a more scaled back melodic and increased atmospheric tone. I find this as a very interesting approach, and with the right mindset for listening, KH2 is a very enjoyable and distinctive listen. It's just the right amount faithful to it's predecessor with the perfect amount of deviation.

4/5

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?