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PS2
Kingdom Hearts 2 -
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NCS
Game Synopsis
©NCSX▪
Sora returns in a new Kingdom Hearts adventure along
with fellow travelers Donald and Goofy. Sora is
searching for Riku while the two Disney marquee
heroes are on a quest to locate their lost king.
Sora wakes up in Twilight Town and pushes open the
windows to take a peek outside. Soon afterwards, he
joins his little group of friends where they explore
the eerily quiet burg and make a little coin.
Returning to oversee the Disney/Square collaboration
is Tetsuya Nomura who directed and designed the
characters. Yuichi Kanemori designed the simple
action-packed battle system and Kazushige Nojima
wove together the scenarios in the game.
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NCS Game Notes - POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW
* During boot up, The Buena Vista logo appears
before the Square Enix logo.
* The title screen features an image of Sora to the
right of the Kingdom Hearts 2 logo and he appears to
be eating a blue ice popsicle.
* Leave the title screen alone and a sequence of
game cinemas and animations will play which show
Sora and friends sitting on the ledge of a clock
tower along with other cuts where Sora tosses a
massive key blade to the ground, Sora gets accosted,
and Sora faces off against slick enemies from
Organization XIII. There are sequences with Mickey
in a knight's armor, Namine drawing a sketchy
staircase, Sora and gang rushing at things in the
distance, and other theatrical tidbits that would
work well in a trailer.
* Start a game and water shimmers followed by the
KH2 logo circling into view before zooming out
towards the viewer. The text in the introductory
cinema is in English with Japanese subtitles below.
Please note however that all of the in-game text is
in Japanese only. The intro recaps the adventure in
KH1 with Sora going through the paces.
* Sora's hair is better feathered than Cloud's with
spikes and tufts moving in every direction. From
afar however, Sora and Cloud could be brothers since
they share the same coif archetype.
* Intro: Heartless cohorts are cloaked in black
outfits with hoods. Staring at their faces will get
you an eyeful of darkness. Sora awakens on a beach
and yawns - fake interference hits and cuts through
the intro sequence where Sora reminisces a little
before appearing in a room with a weird fish bowl.
He wakes up, pushes open his windows, and peers
outside. In the distance, a train rolls in front of
the sun and "Twilight Town" text magically appears.
In the next scene, he's staring at his hands and
seated with a group of friends and "The 1st Day"
begins.
* Once control is handed over, L-analog jaunts Sora
around in a world which appears to be oddly
proportioned. The buildings are stretchy and distort
as they leave the field of vision on screen. Motor
Sora towards your group of friends across the street
and speak to a sequence of people behind booths.
Talking is performed by homing in on someone and
then pressing the TRIANGLE button when prompted.
After hitting R1 in front of the old lady with the
cat and speaking for a spell, the gang dashes off
into the distance where they come across Vivi and
three humans dressed in mod fashion. A battle using
blue batons/swords between Sora and the lead in the
black cap ensues.
* In the baton battle, Sora jumps with X and slashes
with O. Sora may chain up to 4 blows together to
defeat the opponent. A friend takes a photo of
Sora's victory when a silvery wiry creature appears
and steals his camera. Sora follows the creature
into a forest and watches as it dashes around. The
next action is to chase it to the gates of the Old
Mansion - at close range, the silvery humanoid
appears to be a shark-like headed beast that struts
like a supermodel towards Sora. After trying to
smite it a couple of times, Sora's baton magically
changes to a key blade which has much more success
in vanquishing it. After the battle, the creature
disappears and leaves behind five photographs, one
of which Sora picks up. Fade out.
* Reunited with his friends, they all stare at the
photographs where Sora is standing in front of one
of the commissaries on the street and posing with
friends. Up until this point, about 30 minutes of
game time has passed.
* In the next scene, Sora is alone and he walks a
bit before shielding his eyes from the bright rays
of the sun. Fade out and the scene changes to the
lair of the hooded figures from before. One of them
is operating a computer of some sort when another
hooded figure appears.
* In the next flashback, Sora wakes up and Pluto is
there to greet him. Sora is reunited with Donald and
Goofy. We still can't get over how weird Donald
sounds with a Japanese "duck" accent (Koichi
Yamadera provides the voice). Sora wakes up in his
room again... and so on and so forth. It's a long
intro that sets up the beginning the game.
* When Sora rejoins his friends in Twilight Town,
they'll all noshing on blue popsicles and Sora gets
one too. After a bit of bantering, they all vamoose
their headquarters again and control is handed once
again to the player. At this point, it's possible to
save your progress (so you won't have to go through
the lengthy intro again) by stepping into a whirling
circle of lights.
* Follow your friends into a back alley where
they're standing around a poster for an upcoming
event called "STRUGGLE." The gang makes a pact to
earn enough money to buy tickets to the event. Soon
afterwards, Sora is standing in front of a "HELP
WANTED" bulletin board and may select three jobs to
earn the necessary ducats.
* The first job is a mail delivery task where Sora
grinds rails on a skareboard and delivers mail to 3
persons and 2 birds by pressing the TRIANGLE button.
To clear the job, grind the sloping wall next to the
HELP WANTED board by hitting the TRIANGLE button and
you'll leap at the end of it. Hit the TRIANGLE
button again when you're airborne and near the bird
to complete the task.
* The next job is "Cargo Climb" where Sora has to
whack a massive bag on a cart up a downward sloping
street. Every hit will send it rolling upwards
before gravity takes hold and sends it rolling
downwards again. NCS recommends against chaining
four attacks in this particular task because you'll
end of lofting it up and crashing down... on your
impetuous hide. A better strategy is to hit the bag
twice in quick succession, wait a second and then
hit it a third time to send it rolling upwards with
a strong blow. Once you hit it into the garage,
you'll be rewarded.
* The third task is called "Performance" and one has
to chain-smack a ball into the air until it explodes
in front of a bunch of pedestrians who are standing
around. Once the ball is whacked open, they all
leave.
* Kingdom Hearts 2 has been enjoyable thus far in
the hour we've spent with it. There's enough
interactivity in the intro to break up the cinematic
story telling. We still haven't bumped into Goofy or
Donald yet but we figure we'll crash into them in
the next hour of play. |
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This document is ©NCSX 2005. All rights reserved. No
reproduction in whole or in part of this document
may be made without express written consent of
National Console Support, Inc.
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