"My summer vacation... Is over..."
Those words have kind of stuck with me over the years. Kingdom Hearts 2 was the first game in the series I played. I saw it on the shelf at a game store and I had some notion that sequels were usually better than their predecessors so I decided to try the second one first.
I didn't come in with any preconceived notions of what Kingdom Hearts 2 was supposed to be. To me, the opening prequel was just something I had to figure out. Piece it together.
And I think, experiencing Roxas's summer the way he did, with no memory of who he was before, is what made it strike such a chord with me. If I played Chain Of Memories or 358/2 days before playing Kingdom Hearts 2 I might have felt a lot different.
The bittersweet emotion, feeling the weight of what Roxas sacrificed, a life he had on borrowed time, with friends who were fabrications in a town that didn't really exist, watching it all come to an end, just so someone else's adventure could start.
It hit me hard.
I think that's really the defining moment for Kingdom Hearts 2. I know a lot of people who remember the poignancy of this moment and I'd probably say that this is the best-written part of the entire King Hearts franchise.
And the rest we kind of blocked out.
I've played Kingdom Hearts 2 a lot over the years but I hadn't completed it again since I was a kid. And a part of me knows exactly why;
This game is filled with so much bullshit.
I probably don't need to tell you about the convoluted storylines or the poor pace or the weird XP requirements for abilities that shouldn't be optional, but here we are. It's tough really describing the cognitive dissonance of this experience.
Powerful moments along with beautiful scores and moments of gameplay that genuinely teeters on being some of the best not only of its generation but of the next two generations of consoles. Juxtaposed with clunky controls and strange upgrade trees and filler content so sub-par that you'll be begging for a reprieve from the asinine story.
How do you make sense of those feelings?
Well, first you remember just how fun and sweet it is hanging out with Winnie The Pooh as he gets his tubby head stuck in honey jars and the genuine sadness of Pooh not remembering Piglet and you remind yourself that despite it all, Kingdom Hearts has some good moments, dammit.
Then you take a deep breath, grit your teeth and play through Atlantica again.
Then when it's all said and done, you sit back and think about it for a few days, really reflecting on the experience.
Then you decide to play something better until you feel enough nostalgia to go back again.
I'm not going to lie and say I like Kingdom Hearts for a lot of respectable reasons. Divorced from my childhood hours in Twilight Town there really are a lot of good parts but I think we've moved on as people, moved on as gamers. So much of the experience is archaic now and despite two re-releases on two separate HD collections there are still a lot of problems KH2 hasn't addressed over the years that future games have. When I picked up Birth By Sleep and you could just dodge roll, from the start, and this PSP game had a better sense of flow in its first five minutes than the big numbered entry of the franchise has in its first 8 hours, yeah, it's hard not to feel the nostalgia goggles crack.
I still think it's at least worth playing through once in your life.
After all is said and done it's still a game I have a lot of fun with and first impressions are everything. A lot of people are going to come away with this with a sense of awe their first time around.
And after that, you too can hate Kingdom Hearts the way only a Kingdom Hearts fan can.
Also KH1 is better than KH2 chaaaaaange my miiiiiiiiind.
Those words have kind of stuck with me over the years. Kingdom Hearts 2 was the first game in the series I played. I saw it on the shelf at a game store and I had some notion that sequels were usually better than their predecessors so I decided to try the second one first.
I didn't come in with any preconceived notions of what Kingdom Hearts 2 was supposed to be. To me, the opening prequel was just something I had to figure out. Piece it together.
And I think, experiencing Roxas's summer the way he did, with no memory of who he was before, is what made it strike such a chord with me. If I played Chain Of Memories or 358/2 days before playing Kingdom Hearts 2 I might have felt a lot different.
The bittersweet emotion, feeling the weight of what Roxas sacrificed, a life he had on borrowed time, with friends who were fabrications in a town that didn't really exist, watching it all come to an end, just so someone else's adventure could start.
It hit me hard.
I think that's really the defining moment for Kingdom Hearts 2. I know a lot of people who remember the poignancy of this moment and I'd probably say that this is the best-written part of the entire King Hearts franchise.
And the rest we kind of blocked out.
I've played Kingdom Hearts 2 a lot over the years but I hadn't completed it again since I was a kid. And a part of me knows exactly why;
This game is filled with so much bullshit.
I probably don't need to tell you about the convoluted storylines or the poor pace or the weird XP requirements for abilities that shouldn't be optional, but here we are. It's tough really describing the cognitive dissonance of this experience.
Powerful moments along with beautiful scores and moments of gameplay that genuinely teeters on being some of the best not only of its generation but of the next two generations of consoles. Juxtaposed with clunky controls and strange upgrade trees and filler content so sub-par that you'll be begging for a reprieve from the asinine story.
How do you make sense of those feelings?
Well, first you remember just how fun and sweet it is hanging out with Winnie The Pooh as he gets his tubby head stuck in honey jars and the genuine sadness of Pooh not remembering Piglet and you remind yourself that despite it all, Kingdom Hearts has some good moments, dammit.
Then you take a deep breath, grit your teeth and play through Atlantica again.
Then when it's all said and done, you sit back and think about it for a few days, really reflecting on the experience.
Then you decide to play something better until you feel enough nostalgia to go back again.
I'm not going to lie and say I like Kingdom Hearts for a lot of respectable reasons. Divorced from my childhood hours in Twilight Town there really are a lot of good parts but I think we've moved on as people, moved on as gamers. So much of the experience is archaic now and despite two re-releases on two separate HD collections there are still a lot of problems KH2 hasn't addressed over the years that future games have. When I picked up Birth By Sleep and you could just dodge roll, from the start, and this PSP game had a better sense of flow in its first five minutes than the big numbered entry of the franchise has in its first 8 hours, yeah, it's hard not to feel the nostalgia goggles crack.
I still think it's at least worth playing through once in your life.
After all is said and done it's still a game I have a lot of fun with and first impressions are everything. A lot of people are going to come away with this with a sense of awe their first time around.
And after that, you too can hate Kingdom Hearts the way only a Kingdom Hearts fan can.
Also KH1 is better than KH2 chaaaaaange my miiiiiiiiind.
