Kingdom Hearts II Review

Combat is why this one is remembered. Drive forms let you fuse with party members for distinct movesets, reaction commands turn defence into cinematic openings, and the whole thing runs fast and reads clearly even with a dozen Nobodies on screen. The Final Mix additions push it further, and the Organisation data battles are among the most demanding and best designed boss fights of their generation, asking for real spacing and cancel knowledge rather than numbers.

The world roster is stronger too, with the Pride Lands and Port Royal doing more than reenacting their films. The writing is where it slips. A prologue of several hours starring a character you did not choose opens the game badly, the Organisation's motives are explained across three other releases on three other platforms, and Nobodies and Heartless and memory clones accumulate into a plot that stopped being followable. Some worlds are also revisited purely to pad the runtime. Play it for the fighting, which nothing in the series has beaten since.