Kingdom hearts 2

Kingdom Hearts II (キングダムハーツII, Kingudamu Hātsu Tsū[color:28bc=#00e]?) is a role-playing video game developed by Square Enix, partly published by Buena Vista Games, and directed by Tetsuya Nomura. Kingdom Hearts II was first released in 2005 in Japan for the PlayStation 2. After one month of availability, it sold a million copies in North America and was the second best selling game of 2006. [1].

Kingdom Hearts II is the follow-up to the 2002 PlayStation 2's Disney Interactive/Squaresoft RPG Kingdom Hearts, and its 2004 Game Boy Advance sequel, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The story centers around a group of heroes searching for lost friends and trying to decipher and defeat the mysterious Organization XIII, along with a large cast of characters from both Disney and Square Enix properties.

Kingdom Hearts II continues Kingdom Hearts' style of gameplay. Sora, the main character, is directly controlled by the player from a third person camera angle. Most gameplay occurs on interconnected field maps where battles take place. The game is driven by a linear progression to the next story event, usually told in the form of a cut scene, though there are numerous side quests available that provide bonus benefits to the characters.

Like many traditional role-playing games, Kingdom Hearts II features an experience point system which determines character development. As enemies are defeated, the player gains experience which culminate in a "level up", where the player characters grows stronger and gains access to new abilities. As in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II allows a certain degree of character development customization through a short tutorial found at the beginning of the game. The differences are less pronounced than the last game; instead of granting different increases to strength, magic and defense, the choice in the tutorial only affects the order of abilities Sora receives as he levels up.

Combat in Kingdom Hearts II is in real time and involves button presses which initiate Attacks by the on-screen character. Also, a RPG menu found at the bottom left of the screen provides other combat options such as using Magic and Items. There is also a context-sensitive option at the bottom of the menu, usually used for interaction with the environment or for performing Special Attacks. This menu is manipulated using the right analog stick or digital pad, while movement is controlled by the left stick, allowing the player to navigate the menu while avoiding or approaching enemies. A new addition to the series is the Reaction Command, events that are triggered then the player presses the triangle button at specific times during battle. Reaction Commands can be used to defeat regular enemies or avoid damage, and are sometimes necessary to complete a boss battle. In addition to the main character, two party members are usually present who also participate in combat. Though these characters are computer-controlled, the player is allowed to customize their behavior to a certain extent through the menu screen.

Drive Gauge
One of the new features is a meter known as the Drive Gauge. Unlike Hit Points and Magic, it is the only gauge that does not get recharged at a Save Point.
The first feature of the Drive Gauge is "Drive Form." Sora can borrow the energy of party members to become more powerful and acquire different attributes as well. While in Drive Form, he gets a large boost in power and can sometimes even wield a Keyblade in each hand. At first, his Drive Forms only combine power with one party member; as he gains new ones, he can absorb energy from other allies as well. When allies are used in a Drive form, they cannot fight in battle.

Like the previous game, Sora can summon a Disney character to aid him in battle. However, in this game, summoning requires power from the Drive Gauge instead of the MP bar. A summoned character will replace the two computer-controlled characters and fight alongside Sora for as long as the Drive Gauge allows. Also, instead of being limited to only one action, now Summoned characters have a menu of their own and are capable of performing solo actions or cooperative actions with Sora.
Each Drive Form is leveled up separately, while Summons can be leveled up through continued use. Each Drive Form (with the exception of AntiForm) and Summon has a maximum of seven levels. Higher levels allow Drive Forms and Summons to last longer, but higher-level Drive Forms can also give Sora new abilities that can be used outside of battle.

A Limit is a special linked attack with any of the guest characters. Later in the game, Sora is also able to perform team attacks with Donald and Goofy individually in a similar fashion, and even later, with both. The combination attacks cannot be used simultaneously with any of Sora's Drive forms, and all of them will use up all of Sora's Magic.

Gummi Ship control
The "Gummi Ship," although retaining its basic system of traveling, has had major changes made. In the world map, the player must now control the Gummi Ship from a top-down view and fly to the world the player wishes to enter. Worlds are no longer open from the beginning- the player must unlock the routes to them by entering a new level, controlling the ship from a third-person point of view, and battling enemy ships. After the route is unlocked, travel to the World is unimpeded, unless it becomes so due to the story line.

The main playable characters in the game are Sora, a 15 year old boy who was chosen to be the master of the Keyblade, a mystical key-shaped weapon that can lock and unlock all manners of locks and destroy Heartless and Nobodies; Donald Duck, the royal mage of Disney Castle; and Goofy, the captain of knights of Disney Castle. Both Donald and Goofy were ordered to find and stay with the "key", that being the Keyblade but they have befriended Sora during their journey in Kingdom Hearts and they all draw strength from this friendship.

The various worlds that Sora explores usually have an optional party character, usually from the fiction that the world is based on. Such party members include Mulan, at first in hiding as "Ping", the woman who passes as a man in order to take his ailing father's place in the army; Beast, the tortured prince turned animal who strives for a relationship with the beautiful Belle, but his stubbornness makes this difficult; Auron, the honorable undead warrior brought to life by Hades to kill Hercules; Captain Jack Sparrow, a pirate who seeks his ship, the Black Pearl back; Aladdin, a "street rat" commoner in the kingdom of Agrabah that has the heart of Princess Jasmine; Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town who desperately wants to get Santa Claus' job of spreading the presents to children; Simba, the self-exiled lion who is the rightful king of Pride Lands; Tron, a security program in Hollow Bastion's computer network who seeks to stop the dictatorship of the Master Control Program in the network; and Riku, Sora's friend from Destiny Islands who has joined with DiZ to help Sora's recovery and to end Organization XIII.

Unlike the previous game where Xehanort's Heartless was revealed in the final stages of the game to be the true antagonist, Organization XIII, a group of beings without hearts, was established as the main threat throughout the game, with their control over Heartless, the corrupted hearts that have left beings, and Nobodies, the bodies left over when Heartless are created, culminating into some unknown, but assuredly dangerous plan. Villains unique to the worlds are still prevalent and are often presented as challenges that Sora and the world's unique party character have to overcome. Maleficent returns in the story, but her position in the plot is less relevant than in the previous game. Nevertheless, she creates some issues for Sora to solve.

Many different Disney characters appear in the game. While some make returns from Kingdom Hearts, new, additional characters from Disney's fiction are also introduced, such as Scar from The Lion King, Scrooge McDuck, and Pete, who acts as a persistent enemy, working with the resurrected Maleficent.

Seventeen characters from Final Fantasy games appear, notably, Auron of Final Fantasy X. It was stated that although the first game strictly stuck to characters Nomura designed, this time around they were going to "take some risks," implying characters not designed by Nomura might make an appearance. [citation needed] This led to Vivi Orunitia of Final Fantasy IX and Setzer Gabbiani of Final Fantasy VI appearing in Twilight Town.