One thing about Kingdom Hearts II that you need to know is that the game isn't the second game in the series at all. It would've been more accurate to say that this game is actually Kingdom Hearts III. This title follows the events after Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the GBA, which is the sequel to the first Kingdom Hearts. Basically, if you think you could play the first PS2 game and then dive into this, you're in for a surprise, because you won't know what the hell is going on. Even if you don't have a GBA to play Chain of Memories with, it's best to brush up on the storyline just so you have an inkling of where the story in KHII will be headed.
Played to the music of Utada Hikaru's "Passion," the opening video is absolutely gorgeous and reintroduces Sora, Goofy and Donald to the game as well as giving you a glimpse of the new characters that you will be able to use.
The first couple of hours of the game aren't like a traditional RPG, but it does give new players a short introduction of how the game is played. There are two new features in KHII that will please fans of the first title. The first thing is that there is a new context-sensitive button, called the Reaction button that allows you to do everything from dashing in battle to dodge attacks, to picking up items on the street. The second and most important change is the camera system. In the first game, you had to change the camera angles by using the trigger buttons, which was a pain in the ass if you were comfortable with using the right analog stick instead. Square-Enix has changed it so that it now uses the right analog stick, making it much easier to change the camera in the heat of battle. I still believe that the camera is a little too close for comfort, especially during battles, and it makes it really hard to fight larger opponents, but making the camera easier to control makes battles more tolerable.
I'll try not to reveal too much of the game's plot or character appearances, but to get it out of the way, you'll meet up with several Square-Enix characters in the first couple of hours in the game. Once the game begins, you'll be controlling Roxas, who is a new character in the game and someone you're probably not familiar with if you haven't played Chain of Memories. He seems eerily similar to Sora -- right down to the same fighting stance -- but he lives in Twilight Town with his group of friends. The first four or five hours of the game is divided into six days, and revolves around Roxas and his connection to the rest of the cast in the game, and features a huge amount of flashbacks and scenes from Kingdom Hearts that will refresh your memory on has occurred previously.
