Episode 155 - A Lot of Sauce - Kingdom Hearts 2

A scattered dream that’s like a far off podcast. Welcome back to
the podcast this week! Today we’re doing an episode that was a long
time coming and talking about Kingdom Hearts II. The only numbered
entry in the series we hadn’t talked about yet and probably the
simultaneously most loved and most controversial Kingdom Hearts
game. KH2 is an action RPG like its predecessor, but amps up a lot
of the mechanical interaction to be much faster and more stylish.
At times, it plays like a character action game with you executing
20+ hit combos and flying through the air, but its depth in combat
lies in a different area than in those games, focusing more on the
different meters and timings as well as your ability to navigate
the command menu and just generally being aware of your
surroundings. In a way, this is the first game in the series that
has a real mechanical hook to latch onto rather than its
presentation and IP crossover content. However, that is still
present and is a large part of why these games are so loved. The
Disney worlds are back and the narrative writing here starts the
trend of what people understand to be Kingdom Hearts story writing
as a whole. This game introduced Organization XIII, nobodies, and
characters like Roxas and Namine to the larger public and whether
that stuff is going to float your boat is purely a matter of taste.
What is noticed though is a loss of the simplicity and innocence
the first game had. Though this could also be a good thing, as the
characters introduced add a lot more depth to the storytelling, and
lore wonks most likely come back to things said in this game as a
basis for many theories, but it is markedly different than it was
in Kingdom Hearts and the feel of the game is changed because of
it. There are other changes, too. Levels are more open to
facilitate the flashier combat, platforming has been all but
stripped out, and the gummy ship levels are fully reworked, but
these are all things to be played and listened to, so let’s just
jump in. We’re going to be talking about the game’s focus on being
bigger and bolder and badder and some other b’s too, probably, than
its predecessors, the moody character writing and how this actually
set the game apart from its contemporaries, and we discuss what
part of the game if executed slightly differently would be on the
front page of the New York Times. Thank you for listening this
week! It took us a long time to get to this game, but it’s finally
done and we’re all better off for it. The legacy of this series is
taken pretty seriously by its fans, and that’s something that is
difficult to talk around when going back to this game after a long
time. While we, when taken as a whole, are very familiar with the
game and have nostalgic attachment to it, it is pretty old as far
as games go, and while that reflects in some of the design
decisions that were made, it absolutely does not diminish the
impact this game had both on its own franchise, which was paradigm
defining, but also on games as a whole. It has a lot of appeal both
for people who already played similar games as well as for people
who got into it for the Disney stuff and ended up getting exposed
to some of that classic RPG weirdness. So which are you? Did you
play this game at the time of its release and grow up with the
series as many people my age did, or did you play it
retrospectively, or something else? Let us know in the comments or
over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be devolving into a
more primitive state and talking about Donkey Kong 64 as we kick
off (and in all likelihood, also end, given our current schedule)
Simian September, the spiritual successor to Ape-ril, so we hope
you’ll join us for that, and not stop listening for the continuous
unhinged themed month ideas.