Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts II is the sequel to Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and has been improved since the original due to a myriad of new features like the "Drive" feature in which the main character, Sora, combines with his allies, which, most of the time, are the Disney characters, Goofy and Donald, though one has the option occasionally of putting other Disney characters in your party depending on what world you are visiting. The theme song for the game is "Passion" (English version: Sanctuary) performed by Utada Hikaru. The game is darker than its two predecessors, and has received higher age ratings. It is the third game in the series & the fifth game in the timeline after Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories & 358/2 Days. Kingdom Hearts II begins where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories left off. Sora and his companions have been asleep for about a year, regaining their memories. When Sora awakens, he eventually arrives in Twilight Town, the place where a mysterious boy, Roxas, lived before he suddenly left. Gaining new clothes and powers, Sora began his journey anew, unaware of the events that have taken place in Chain of Memories. Sora continues his quest by unlocking paths to new worlds, learning of Nobodies and fighting the Heartless, as well as facing the remaining members of the mysterious Organization XIII. As the game progresses, Sora learns about Roxas and how much they have in common. Early in the game, the player only has control of Roxas while in Twilight Town. Roxas has recurring dreams of Sora's adventures and increasingly mysterious activity is taking place in Twilight Town during Roxas' summer vacation. After obtaining the Keyblade to defend himself from the Nobodies, Roxas comes in contact with a young man in black named Axel. Axel appears to know Roxas, though Roxas has no recollection of him. Roxas eventually makes his way into an abandoned mansion where a girl named Naminé informs him that he is a Nobody, although he did not quite know what a Nobody was at that time. A mysterious, red-cloaked man by the name of DiZ also briefly appears. Then Roxas discovers Sora, Donald, and Goofy sleeping in the hidden basement of the mansion. Roxas seems to disappear at this point as Sora, Donald, and Goofy awake from their year-long slumber. Jiminy Cricket, who had previously chronicled the trio's adventures, finds that his journal is now completely blank, save for the note: "Thank Naminé" (which was written by Jiminy himself during Chain of Memories). After speaking with Yen Sid, the party is informed that they must once again visit many worlds to protect them from both the Heartless and the Nobodies in an attempt to stop Organization XIII. After journeying to old worlds and some new ones, Sora and the others must return to Hollow Bastion, where a massive army of Heartless are attacking the restored town. On the way to fight, the Final Fantasy characters aid the party in battle, and on one vast battlefield, Sora alone defeats 1000 Heartless. Finally, after revisits to the world, and defeating most of the remaining members of the Organization, their ultimate goal is revealed: they plan to create another Kingdom Hearts, a doorway to the heart of all worlds, with the hearts of all the Heartless Sora has defeated, and thus, being Nobodies, get their hearts back. Sora goes to The World That Never Was to settle the score with the Organization leader Xemnas, who is really the nobody of Xehanort, an apprentice to the great scientist Ansem the Wise. The "Ansem" the party defeated in the original Kingdom Hearts was really Xehanort's Heartless. In the huge Nobody Castle, Sora finally meets Riku and Kairi again, and although Riku looks like Xehanort's Heartless because he had to give in to the Darkness, he regains his original self when a machine to decode hearts, created by DiZ (who is revealed to be the real Ansem the Wise) explodes and kills Ansem. Ansem the Wise wanted to make amends for first researching the Darkness of Hearts. Sora learns the truth about Roxas as well; he and Naminé are Sora and Kairi's Nobodies, created when they lost their hearts in Kingdom Hearts. Riku, Sora and Kairi read the mystery letter from The King.In the end, (after defeating Xigbar, Luxord and Saïx) only Xemnas was left of the original 13 members. Sora fought and defeated him, and the new Kingdom Hearts was closed. Sora and the others were returned to the Destiny Islands, and although Sora has to say goodbye to Donald and Goofy, he knows in his heart that true friends are never gone. But he might meet them again, since Sora, Riku, and Kairi receive a letter from King Mickey after the credits. The key characters are Sora, Roxas, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Naminé, King Mickey, Pete, Maleficent, DiZ, "Ansem", Organization XIII. In addition to the Disney characters that return from Kingdom Hearts, there are also characters from Disney's movies including Megara, Pegasus, Pain, Panic and the Hydra from Hercules, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and Wardrobe from Beauty and the Beast, Prince Eric, Attina and Andrina from The Little Mermaid,The Peddler from Aladdin and Santa Claus as depicted in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Stitch from Lilo & Stitch and the titular characters of Chicken Little and Peter Pan (along with Tinker Bell) act as new summons. Characters from the previously unexplored worlds of Mulan, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tronalso play parts in the game. Yen Sid the sorcerer, Mickey's master in the movie Fantasia, makes an appearance, inhabiting a mysterious tower. Merlin returns in Disney Castle and Hollow Bastion, revealing the existence of Timeless River to the heroes. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty give Sora his new outfit. Scrooge McDuck also makes an appearance in Hollow Bastion trying to recreate a "sea-salt flavored ice cream". Pete is also in the game as an ever-persistent enemy to Sora, Donald and Goofy, appearing in many worlds. He works with the resurrected Maleficent, who refuses to relent in her desire for power. However she does not actually fight Sora in this game, and she and Pete decide to defeat the Nobodies in the World That Never Was, to take over the huge Castle. However when the Heartless come and threaten Sora, Riku, Kairi, King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, they have a change of heart and decide to delay the Heartless so that they could defeat Xemnas. It is unknown what happened to them at the end of the game. Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow and Clara Cluck make appearances in the Timeless River. Their are also Final Fantasy characters. Nobodies are the main enemies here, appearing alongside Heartless. They are creatures without hearts, born from the body and soul of a living being who has lost its heart. Organization XIII are Nobodies who have retained their human forms, albeit a bit changed from their original appearance. Another difference between the Nobodies and Heartless are that the Nobodies attack more tactically, and often together, unlike the instinctive nature of the Heartless. Many of the different kinds of Nobodies are named after job classes from the Final Fantasy series. Like the previous game, Sora can summon a Disney character to aid him in battle when attaining each of their respective items. As summons use the Drive Gauge instead of the MP bar, Sora cannot Drive and summon at the same time. The character will replace the two computer-controlled characters and fight alongside Sora for as long as the Drive Gauge allows. Instead of the summoned character being limited to only one action, the summoned character now has a menu of his own to perform multiple actions, some solo actions and some cooperative actions with Sora. There are four summons. Chicken Little, Stitch, Peter Pan, and Genie. The Villians are Sephiroth, Shan-Yu, Hades, Barbossa, Maleficent, Ursula, Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Scar, Master Control Program, Pete, and all of Organization XIII Members other than Xion. Your temporarly party members when you visit their worlds are Beast, Fa Mulan, Auron, Jack Sparrow, Jack Skellington, Aladdin, Tron, Simba, Riku. The worlds in this game are Simulated Twilight Town, Twilight Town, The Land of Dragons, Beast's Castle, 100 Acre Wood, Olympus Coliseum/Underworld, Disney Castle, Timeless River, Atlantica, Port Royal, Agrabah, Destiny Islands, Halloween Town/Christmas Town, Pride Lands, Space Paranoids, Sunset Horizons, and The World That Never Was.