Kingdom Hearts II.5: Kingdom Hearts II

I haven’t written about the HD remake of Chain of Memories yet because...well, it got very dull trying to get the platinum, and when the sequel came out, that’s what I wanted to play. I haven’t stormed through Kingdom Hearts 2 quite like I thought I would, but in the last couple of weeks I got back to it, and yesterday I got the platinum trophy. Happily, unlike Chain of Memories, this can all be done in one play-through, as the difficulty trophies stack. And let’s face it, I wouldn’t feel satisfied only beating the tough hidden bosses on an easier mode.

I draw the line at doing it with zero experience points, though. That’s not a challenge I need to go through!

I have a degree of ambivalence towards KH2. Until the true sequel comes out, it’s the best-looking of the games, and despite the over-reliance on ‘reaction commands’, it’s got the most enjoyable gameplay. Yes, at easier difficulties you can just mash the attack button and have very few problems, but that’s not going to get you far in critical mode, especially with the likes of data Xemnas or the Lingering Will, both of whom were vastly harder than the relatively easy Sephiroth in this game.

This game is also where Sora goes from adorable, pudgy little fella to an attractive adolescent who can be taken much more seriously. Well, when he’s not singing. Sora’s still childlike in that classic shounen-protagonist mode, but I find him emotionally believable and engaging. In this game, he actually suffers in several ways, and it makes me believe in him.

But KH2 suffers from having a story that feels inconsequential, stays too shallow morally and gets downright messy. This was the objection I had when I finished the game on the PS2, which must have been about ten years ago now (reposted here). It’s unfortunate that Chain of Memories introduces Organization XIII but doesn’t finish them, because they come to dominate this game and the fact is that they’re neither very interesting nor very threatening.

I remember that I hadn’t played CoM the first time I played through this game, and not only is that a bad idea in terms of understanding the plot, it also means that the first fight with an Organization member is against Demyx. And when a plot tries to build up a malevolent and powerful organization Sora will have to truly struggle to defeat, when their battle prowess is first represented by goddamn Demyx, you know there are problems – even if he does make it clear he’s not a fighter. Organization XIII never feel like a tangible threat, absurdly decide to take on Sora one by one, and though there’s an attempt to give them some depth, it never really works. It’s quite clever that Xemnas has been using Sora as a heart harvesting machine, giving him a moment to question whether he’s doing the right thing, but his ultimate plot is vague and never even comes close to fruition. He wants to make an imitation Kingdom Hearts, suggesting that if he does, the nobodies will regain what they feel they have lost, but actually he wants to use it to become godlike, probably destroying the universe to remake it as he sees fit. But he never gets very close to this, with Ansem the Wise sabotaging things, and then tries to merge with his false Kingdom Hearts anyway, becoming only powerful enough to be a typical big blobby final boss who can be defeated by being hit a lot. As the antagonists’ plot is so vague and never becomes a tangible threat, the whole overarching story becomes weak.

We also have to deal with the bland and overlong prologue, where the player has to control Roxas and do very boring things in Twilight Town. Roxas unfortunately is not very engaging or likeable, especially compared with Sora, being rather less concerned with other people and having to be made sympathetic with artificial angst – when looked at from a bit of a distance, the things DiZ does to Roxas in the simulation are totally unnecessary and meaningless, other than to be cruel.

I have to say that I felt more charitable to Axel on this playthrough. He puts up an irritating, cocky front, but he is suffering, unlike the others probably actually does regain something of his heart through contact with Roxas, and does act nobly towards the end. I don’t think he was redeemed, but I didn’t find him wholly objectionable this time.

But of course he brings a level of moral complication to the concept of Nobodies. Sora is taught that they are not real people, cannot feel and should not exist. Thus, his killing of the various members who attack him does not affect him like killing a person – though the way he talks (mistakenly) about taking care of Maleficent is just a little psychopathic. But Axel shows that these nobodies have the potential to be drawn back towards becoming whole people, even if in very limited circumstances. That potential surely changes the morality of snuffing out their existences, even when attacked. But Sora – as with his parents back home who we hear nothing about in this game – doesn’t even consider that.

The mess that is the story of the Nobodies isn’t done yet, though it’s really their ‘Somebodies’ that are looking to be foregrounded a little more. It looks like we’re to have an Organization made up of different forms of Xehanort, but Lea has joined the fold (please stay away from Ventus, Lea) and I don’t think we’ve seen quite the end of Braig, who was made much more interesting with his expanded role in Birth By Sleep. But the truth is, the Organization made the plot far sloppier and far less interesting than it should have been, and I suspect all the series’ notorious problems with complexity of plot derive from half-baked ideas being put into awesome-looking secret endings and portable spin-offs.

Sora’s story, however, certainly kept me engaged. There are some well-chosen new Disney worlds, like Mulan’s Land of Dragons and the rather brilliant one based on 1920s black-and-white short cartoons. The Tron world works as a bit of variety, but I have to say that the Pirates of the Caribbean world is a bit jarring. This playthrough reminded me how clunky the Lion King world is, too – I love The Lion King and am very happy it got included, especially with adorable cub Sora, but it’s just not very well-done. The attempts to recreate scenes from the film are awkwardly mechanical in a way the rest of the game isn’t, and the way the animals’ jaws just flap looks much worse than when humanoid characters are talking – or even the Disney mascot characters. Plus even if they managed to get Ernie Sabella and even James Earl Jones reprising their roles, the lack of Jeremy Irons and Matthew Broderick really hurts the English version.

I also will not accept that the writing is not intentionally homoerotic. Only Dream Drop Distance is more obvious. In the first game, Sora genuinely seems to have puppy-love affection for Kairi. But here, as famously pointed out by VG Cats, his reaction to Kairi is almost dismissive while being reunited with Riku is presented with far more significance. Yes, he knows Kairi is safe whereas it’s not clear with Riku, but he also has faith in Riku’s ability to take care of himself – yet still ends up on his knees pouring out his heart – appropriately enough. At every point, he seems to have far more emotional investment in what is happening with Riku, and treats Kairi almost cursorily.

As a game, though, I think this one is the best-designed yet, and the most fun to play. Birth By Sleep would be a very strong contender if not for Shoot Lock being almost comically overpowered for most of the game, and Dream Drop Distance is ruined by the ‘free flow’ mechanics, which made it far too easy. Though some were very frustrating (goddamn data Xaldin), I found the extra boss challenges of this game a lot of fun to get through and puzzle out – as well as the silly Mushroom XIII who added a bit of extra flavour to the final mix. I’m quite proud that I didn’t beat Lingering Will or Data Xemnas in the way that seems to be common on Youtube: for Lingering Will I absolutely relied on Stitch, and abused Limit Form as much as Session for Data Xemnas. The fights were challenging without seeming impossible, as opposed to the Vanitas Remnant who gets beaten by relying on gimmicks.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is a great story with great characters and worlds slightly let down by the main story being pretty lacklustre. And that same story will affect Kingdom Hearts 3. Will that game be able to build on the convoluted and overwrought backstory to tell a satisfying tale? It’s been a very long time coming, so I certainly hope so. And one thing’s for sure, I’m in this series for the long haul, and very much enjoying it. Next: watching the silly Re:Coded cutscenes in HD as I play through Birth By Sleep again – which is by far my favourite in the series in story terms.