Kingdom Hearts 2

There’s a lot to love about Kingdom Hearts II, the sequel to Disney and Square-Enix’s mashup of their respective properties. It plays smoother than the first one, the plot elements are better balanced between the whimsical and serious, and all around the production blows the first game completely out of the water. With that said however, KHII does share one key commonality with its predecessor, and that’s a final section that handily outshines the rest of the adventure.

Kingdom Hearts is a series whose plot is constantly in a state of conflict with itself. At the center of this conflict is a level of tonal inconsistency that is put into place by even choosing to merge the happy-go-lucky innocence of Disney with the moody and brooding, self-serious Final Fantasy franchise to begin with. The vast …

Final Fantasy and Disney together in one universe. Logically, it sounds like a terrible idea. Yet Kingdom Hearts, an action role-playing game, has managed to harmoniously bring these two extremely different universes together, reaffirming the old saying “opposites attract.” In fact, Kingdom Hearts is six games strong, with a seventh in the works, has won several awards, and is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time.