[PS2] Kingdom Hearts 2

Originally Posted by Enkidu

This is the basic premise of the story, but there are several rather big flaws. First of all, there are parts of the stories that just don’t make any sense. Take the Nobodies for instance. The game explains us that, when a person turns into a Heartless, another part of him turns in a Nobody. Still with me here? Now it gets confusing; the Nobodies want you to slaughter the Heartless, to get their HEARTS. Now, I think that anyone can figure out the flaw in this, how on earth can you get a heart from a heartLESS? This is really an incomprehensible error, that makes the entire story look ridiculous in my opinion.

I had some of the same nit-picks as you did about KH2 (total agreement on the atrocious new magic system; and god, I never through I'd see the day when I MISSED jumping puzzles), but I thought I should speak up about this one. Just 'cause. I might be utterly wrong, but this is how I remember it from the games. Someone yell at me if I screw it up.

One of Ansem the OTHER Ansem no, the OTHER other Ansem Christopher Lee DiZ's reports talks about people being made up of a heart + everything else (well, and a soul, but that's a non-issue here). When a person has their heart stolen, the heart gets dragged off into the darkness and a Heartless is born out of it, while the "everything else" becomes a Nobody. So a Heartless more or less IS your heart. It's overcome with darkness and twisted into the form of a shadowy monster, but still, it's a heart nonthelesss. (Note the little hearts that fly away into the æther when you kill them.) So if you were a Nobody looking to be whole again, it stands to reason that you'd be interested in the keyblade-wielding kid who's slaying thousands of the things, since he might slay the one containing YOUR stolen heart and thus give you the chance to get it back.

So the name "Heartless" is a misnomer, really. They ARE hearts. Or at least, they're monsters that contain stolen hearts. Either way, it's not a plot hole. Just a misleading name.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Ooh, nice remastering of the CoM tracks. A few of these tracks were re-done for KH2 anyway, but it's good to finally have a nice version of some of the CoM-only tunes. GBA audio left a lot to be desired. It still boggles me that the game was so lazy wanted to re-use Simple and Clean so badly that they compressed the whole thing until it sounded like a horribly ripped MP3.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by CuteChocobo

I am not sure if the KHI & II manga is worth it thou? Is it the same as the game?

I've read through most of the KH1 manga at the local comic store and online. Basically, the manga's a shortened version of the game with a few additions that often give it an, um...cutesy anime feel. Very anime-ish jokes, expressions, inclusion of little four-panel gags at the end, stuff like that. Not completely out of place, just a bit...different. Personally, I thought the artwork was good. It was flexible enough to include original (Sora and co.), Disney, and FF characters without making any of them look horribly out of place, and well...it was just really damn cute.

The manga's moooooostly the same as the game though, yes. There's some scenes that are expanded, some are condensed or left out to move the plot along faster, and a lot of minor details that are tweaked, often in a very cute/funny way. (Example: When Sora and co. are in Hollow Bastion getting ready to lock the keyhole, the Behemoth storms out... Only to be blasted away by Cid with a souped up laser when he, Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie rush in. Sora has sort of a o_O reaction, and they just tell him to hurry up and lock the keyhole.) The beginning seems the most expanded, with more interaction between Sora, Riku, and Kairi before Destiny Island is destroyed.

Still, despite the tweaks and additions, an awful lot of the manga is straight out of the game. Especially towards the end. Is that a good thing? It depends. There's some scenes that stay faithful to the game yet still manage to add enough of a twist to avoid feeing repedative. But there's a lot of scenes where the dialogue in the manga is word-for-word what it was in the game, repeating without adding anything new or interesting. The only time I found that useful was for a few scenes from Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix that weren't in the NA game release, so it helps fill in a few holes for people who haven't seen FM's extra plot scenes. Otherwise, it's a bit annoying. We've already listened to Ansem's "ZOMG DARKNESS!!11" speech in the game; do we really need to hear it again, word-for-word, in manga form?

Anyway, that's just my impression of the KH1 manga. Cute, faithful to the games while often adding interesting new twists, more of an anime feel (if that appeals to you). But a lot of scenes walk a fine line between "faithful to the game" and "repeating the same damn conversation from the game word-for-word". It's something I'd really recommend reading before buying. You can read the first volume or so for yourself here or here, and the Chain of Memories manga here.

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

Maybe a KH2 Final Mix will tweak KH2's atrocious magic system. The only time I didn't regret choosing the staff at the beginning was while doing the Hades Cup. A magic boost lets you be slightly more effective at frying your opponents with magic while staying out of harm's way.

Nifty scan, though. Looks like there might be an expanded KH3 teaser, and--

HOLY CRAP THAT'S COM'S BATTLE SYSTEM. For the love of all that is holy, NO. ;_; It was painful enough in CoM!

Although a remake of CoM with PS2 graphics wouldn't go astray... At least it would make the godawful battle system feel less painful.

Most amazing jew boots

For those of you who don't read VGCats, I direct you to today's comic (KH2 spoilers ahoy!). It's worth a cheap laugh. X)

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Lunar Seal

And when he did find Kairi, it wasn't all heartfelt like you thought it was going to be, but when he finds Riku, he gets down on his knees (like a bitch D and cries.

Because he sure didn't get down on his hands and knees for Kairi's sake. Nope, not once.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?