Sequels can be tricky endeavors. With a brand new series, there are no limitations when it comes to what a game can do; it's all an unknown experience. But once a game has been released, establishing itself within a personal canon, limitations are automatically placed on any subsequent releases, as they have to stack up against what the original set forth. Treading that fine line between familiar and fresh has made many a sequel and broken many more.

A decent sequel finds a way to straddle firmly on the median, usually bringing forth the saying "same game, new levels." Bad sequels can be seen leaning over to one side or lying on the ground crying as it fell off altogether. But a truly great sequel ignores any metaphor one can think up and delivers an experience that recaptures the originality and surprise of the original. Kingdom Hearts II is that great sequel.

What makes KHII so great is that Square-Enix had no problem stripping the Kingdom Hearts formula down to its bare minimum and rebuilding it from that point. Traveling with Sora, Donald and Goofy across many Disney themed worlds via the Gummi ship, helping famous characters from Disney movies to save their homeworlds, fighting the Heartless and finding keyholes through action-RPG fighting and high quality storytelling, the core game remains the same. But it's how you accomplish these things that has been reworked, and in some cases, completely changed. The biggest change to the formula by far is how you actually play - what was once a game that combined the slower progression of a RPG with hack-and-slash exploration has been sped up to play and progress much like an action game. There are very few moments where you won't find yourself chin deep in either a screen of baddies or a cut scene that's progressing the story.

Sora and company still travel between worlds on the Gummi ship, searching for the whereabouts of their friends and foes. To the benefit of mankind, the trite Gummi ship sequences of the original have been replaced with fast-paced shooter levels not unlike the Starfox series. It's still a little too difficult to tweak your Gummi ships, but at least blasting away baddies while unlocking new paths proves to be an extremely fun mini-game. And Chip and Dale talk this time! Rescue Rangers unite!

There are fourteen different worlds to visit, including newcomers the Land of Dragons (Mulan), Port Royal (Pirates of the Caribbean) and the Pride Lands (the Lion King) to go along with familiar locales such as Atlantica, Agrabah and the 100 Acre Woods. Each world has some exclusive feature, such as visiting the Pride Lands forces Sora, Donald and Goofy to change into animals, which gives an extra shot of individuality to each one. I only wish someone gave Atlantica a shot of euthanasia solution instead! Everything here is played out with cut scenes and eventually musical numbers, asking for very little player input. Each musical number, some set to songs from the Little Mermaid movie, some to gut-wrenching originals, is moved along by circle meters that show up and have to be hit at the right moment. If the music isn't enough to make you sick, the meters are connected to choreographed characters moving around, making them extremely difficult to focus on that can easily give you motion sickness. This is easily the worse idea any KH game has come up with so far; thank your lucky stars it's an optional world.

To keep world travel as well as the story moving along swiftly, exploration, a huge part of the first game, has been severely cut down. Very few levels consist of many different screens, though to be fair, the screens are much larger this time around. Many of the non-exploration battles have been changed into missions, which begin upon entering a certain screen or triggering an event. These do not end until you have fulfilled a requirement, most of which are simply to kill everything. This also includes all boss battles. Depending upon the mission though, you so receive level-up-like bonuses without even gaining a level, such as new abilities and HP increases. It's an odd departure from the original game, as fights can come in quick spurts between cut scenes, but it allows the developers to effectively keep the focus on moving the story along while never keeping the gamer too far away from the action.

The combat keeps that action game mentality going. The original, and more traditional, combat system is still here - hacking and slashing with the key blade, using spells, items and summons either through the on-screen menu or shortcuts, while Donald and Goofy do their thing alongside you. As you level up, you learn new abilities that you can choose to equip. The similarities end there - standard combat starts out the same, using X to lay down the same combo over and over again with the key blade, but as you level up, learning combo-based abilities, you can add new moves to the middle and end of your combos. This also includes adding in the Square button to the mix to break up all the X button mashing. I became fond of air combos, so I equipped a move that let me hit Square to knock enemies into the air where I would then air combo them back into the darkness. There isn't an endless amount of customisation, but there are enough different moves that it takes time to use them all and discover your perfect combo.

The first KH had special moves you could use in battle when the moment was right, but they were located at the bottom of the in-game menu, which made them a pain to actually use, a good idea foiled by a not so good presentation. The lesson has been learned and has brought about what may truly be the biggest addition to combat - reaction commands. These attacks are activated by simply pressing Triangle at the appropriate time and you're given plenty of warning, as not only does the enemy flash a green triangle, but the top of the in-game menu shows the move with a triangle icon next to it. One press and your move is executed; if the initial move can be turned into a combo, a prompt will tell you when to hit triangle again. You no longer have to learn these moves though, as they are all enemy-specific. Some of these moves are simple, such as a reversal move that has you quickly move behind an enemy, but they can quickly become over the top and/or tiered, with phenomenal results, such as learning a jump attack from a boss then using it against him. One of the most impressive uses of the reaction commands is on the world of Hollow Bastion as it's being overrun with Heartless. Severely outnumbered, Sora alone must defeat hundreds of enemies. In a scene that reminded me of something that would come out of the Lord of the Rings movies, I was able to easily dismantle the attacking force.

The reaction commands are not for everyone. Some will claim they make the game easier, and for the most part they do, but at the same time I found that they added a layer of over-the-top action and glitz to the gameplay. Especially the boss battles, many of which are completely built around them - but not every enemy and boss has a reaction command, or at least a good one, which can be disappointing. As odd as this comparison may sound, there are times when reaction commands are prevalent enough to think of Devil May Cry's Dante, a man known for laying down baddies with style and charisma. If you can't be convinced of the system's benefits, rest assured that for the most part you don't have to use them.

There is one drawback to the reaction commands and this has to do with summons and another addition, limits. Summons and limits have Sora teaming up with an ally for some powerful duo attacks if they have enough MP. Many of these involve a normal attack and a finishing move, proving to be quite helpful in a tight bind, but make sure you have the ability auto summon/limit turned off, otherwise these will appear as reaction commands if you have enough MP to use them, which means if a regular reaction command is available it bounces between all available reaction commands as you move around, making it very easy to waste all your MP by accident.

The final addition to combat is the drive command. Drives have Sora combining with either Donald or Goofy to gain access to a new host of powers for a short time. There are four forms - Valor, Wisdom, Master and Final. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, along with their own sets of abilities, some of which are form exclusive. Unlike summons and limits, drives use their own power bar, which grows larger as your forms gain experience. The drive command is extremely fun to use, as each form essentially creates a superpowered Sora, not to mention all the forms except Wisdom allow for dual key blade wielding action!

Come for the fighting, stay for the story! Before I begin, I need to make some things clear. If you haven't played the first KH game then don't start here if you want to have a strong grip on what's going on. If you are new both KH and the Disney world then playing KHII will do nothing but confuse you. Most of the character and world establishing, except in worlds new to this game, has been thrown out; this includes the main characters. If you skipped out on the excellent original and the GBA spin-off, Chain of Memories, you should be fine picking up what you missed, but I would still highly recommend playing them beforehand; at least for a story synopsis.

KHII picks up right where Chain of Memories left off - Sora, Donald and Goofy have been asleep for a year as Naminé has been working to restore the memories they lost while climbing Castle Oblivion to save her from Organization XIII. What have the Heartless, Organization XIII, Mickey, Riku and Kairi been up to since then? You begin to find out until a few hours into the game, which opens with one ridiculously awesome CGI video. What Square-Enix learned creating the movie Final Fantasy: Advent Children continues to pay off in all of their work. Before the reins are handed over though, KHII pulls a bit of a Metal Gear Solid 2, because you start off as another character - though KHII puts you back into Sora's shoes. You begin as Roxas, a boy on summer vacation, hanging out with his friends in a world called Twilight Town. He is haunted by the memories of people and places he has never seen before. If you can get over the lack of Sora, this beginning does an excellent job of reminding you of events from the previous two games while connecting them to the story that's just beginning. Essentially, it's an interactive prologue.

Once Roxas's time in the spotlight ends and Sora, Donald and Goofy return, things begin to take off. Not only is the Organization causing trouble, but one of KH's main antagonists makes an unrelated return with a new right-hand man, Pete. This dual main antagonist system, much like we saw with Ansemn and Maleficent in the first game, works even better this time, as both antagonists are working against the protagonists as well as each other; it creates for some very tense moments throughout the game. The story outdoes the original - not only is it far more complex, darker and at times heavy-handed (I'll admit I was confused at multiple points), it also rewrites KH's history and lore, surprisingly changing the perspectives on concepts and events you wouldn't have even considered possible to change. Though it can drag a bit in the middle when you search for keyholes and find nothing related to finding your friends or foes, these moments are few and far between. If I could make only one complaint, it's the underutilization of many of the members (and one certain ex-member) of Organization XIII - I wanted to get a better idea of what each member was about and it seemed for a moment this would happen, but then they turned into random boss characters that would be quickly kicked out of the story. Advice for anyone thinking about ignoring the ESRB/ PEGI ratings and buying it for a younger child anyway - make sure they have above average reading abilities because they'll need them.

As for actual telling of the story, nearly every piece of it is told in cut scene form, with only a minority reverting to the voiceless route. Each scene is wonderfully put together, making full use of the alluring graphic engine and professional voice acting. Though I will admit that the cartoonish art style, obviously stemming from KH's roots, gives the graphics more room to work with than titles aiming for a more realistic look, this is still one of the best looking PS2 titles to date. Characters are not only animated perfectly (aside from a few exaggerated moments and voiceover misses) but are highly detailed and everything is crystal clear, including textures, nearly every time. Special effects, such as smoke layering upon itself as it floats upward and the lighting in the Tron level, are top notch. The more time I put into KHII and the more graphical moments of awe that came, the more I begin to realize that with some sort of HDTV capability, KHII would look better than some Xbox 360 games.

My favorite part of the graphics though - once the cut scenes end and the game begins, is that the engine takes only the slightest of hits, as full facial animation is generally not needed outside of cut scenes. Everything looks amazing all the time - there are no draw distance issues or fog to cover it up, very little jaggedness and close to zero slowdown. Maybe SEGA should have talked with Square-Enix about this when developing Yakuza, as the cut scenes and in-game graphics look nothing alike. Not only that, but extra attention has been given to things such as the in-game menu, which adapts to each world, the logo screen sweeps and detailed world logos. No matter what is not taken away or added, the load times, when obvious, are minimal at best. This beauty comes with no strings attached and every time you expect to run into a lengthy load screen, it never comes.

Voice acting can quickly ruin a story, but you know when a big company such as Disney, with more than a few years of experience with voiceovers, is in charge, things are going to turn out well. Again, this is mostly true - all of the main voice actors make a return to their roles, but some of the minor characters are recast for whatever reason. Some of the more notable recasts include everyone from the Pirates of the Caribbean world, Leon (Squall) and Princess Jasmine (easily one of the worst recasts). These end up damaging the authenticity and although it's slight, it is noticeable nonetheless.

The music is held to the same standard as the voice acting, but involves more of a joint relationship between Disney and Square-Enix. Consisting of a mix of both Disney classics and new tracks, all led off by another radiant theme by Utada, everything is high quality and fits each situation and world perfectly. My only complaint musically is nearly every song in the music-based Little Mermaid level - yuck. Your ears will scream as you sleep from the nightmares you are bound to have from hearing them! The sound effects also do not suffer from any problems - silly noises are used in all the situations you would expect in a cartoon, such as during odd movements, goofy facial expressions and exaggerated moments. Anything that couldn't be made up was taken straight from the Disney vault so that nothing would sound out of place.

Clocking in at under thirty hours for a straight play through, KH II comes in well under the thrity-five or so hours that the first game provided. It does make up for this with extra goodies to unlock and seek though - there are many side quests to enjoy, including more cup battles at Olympus, two extra worlds (the endearing 100 Acre Woods and the agonizing Atlantica) and obtaining/creating each characters' ultimate weapon. On top of that there is Jiminy's journal that needs completion; in a nutshell, this means you have to do every little thing in the game. You have to meet every person, fight every boss and unlock every mini-game to reach a Jiminy-specific score. It sounds quite daunting, but let me say this - did KH not reward players who met certain requirements before beating the game? That has not changed and fans who put in the effort are in for a mammoth treat.

It's been a long time since Kingdom Hearts II was released in Japan and North America, but now it's finally seeing a UK release. Always better late than never, if you are a huge Kingdom Hearts fan then you should rush out and snap this up. You may not be playing the same game as the original, but the same feelings of awe and enjoyment will flow over you. New fans still should not start here, especially if the story matters to you, but if you refuse to heed my words and play this one first anyway, you may end up confused often, yet the trip will be well worth it. This is one of those special games that doesn't come often enough. When the PS2 is dead and buried, the Kingdom Hearts games will easily rise above that grave to live as testaments of excellence. Kingdom Hearts II is not only a worthy game, but a worthy sequel. I can only wonder what new direction the next game (yes you smell cliffhanger) will take. At least I know it's in good hands.

Reviewed by Tony Peters for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).