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link. Or...pasted without the pictures We know that you' ve been dying to play Kingdom Hearts II. Don' t worry, so have we. Lucky for us, Square Enix stopped by with a playable build of the game. Lucky for you, we' re here to tell you about it. The demo that we saw was brief -- just two small areas, but it gave us a good idea of what we can expect from this much anticipated sequel.
KH2 continues the adventures of Sora, the plucky kid who teams up with Donald Duck and Goofy as they travel through a variety of Disney worlds fighting against evil creatures known as the Heartless. Along the way, they meet several characters from both the Disney and Final Fantasy universes.
But you know all that, right? Let' s concentrate on what we saw in the new game. There were two areas to play through: Olympus Coliseum and Beast' s Castle. We first went through the Coliseum, which (in case you haven' t guessed) is set in ancient Greece, the home of Hercules.
As we entered this world, we were greeted by a very cheesed-off Rock Titan, one of the Disney villains you faced in the original Kingdom Hearts. Luckily, we didn' t have to challenge this monstrosity right away. The camera panned over to Hercules, who grabbed the beast and tosses him into the horizon. Then, the " Olympus Coliseum" logo appeared on the screen. Ah ... it was just an intro sequence. Square Enix wasn' t going to make us fight a boss right away.
Once the game truly began, Sora, Donald, and Goofy barely get any screen time before the game cuts to a sequence showing Hades scheming with Goofy' s rival and all-purpose Disney bad guy, Pete. They' re certainly up to no good, but what it is exactly, we don' t quite know.
Finally we get to play. We start off in the Valley of the Dead, where we run across a narrow, stone bridge fighting off an army of bats and makeshift knights. The fighting engine itself is much like the previous game. Fairly simplistic button presses allow Sora to pull of different combo attacks while your two friends assist you. An onscreen command menu (the menu' s appearance changes to reflect the theme of whatever world you' re in) lets you to fight, use magic, select an item, or use the Drive feature.
The Drive maneuver allows Sora to temporarily merge with one of his party members, allowing him to not only become stronger, but also to gain some of their powers. As you fight enemies, they' ll often drop yellow spheres. Collecting these spheres fills up the Drive Meter (it can be filled up to three levels). Once it' s full, you can merge and remain so until the meter drains.
After getting through the Valley of the Dead, there' s another cinema showing Hades summoning Final Fantasy X' s Auron in hopes of having him join Hades and Pete. Sora and company burst in just as Auron turns on Hades. Auron then joins you in a fight against the ruler of the Underworld.