“Kingdom Hearts 2” is an action-adventure, role-playing game created by Square Enix and Disney. The game utilizes well-known characters from Disney movies and cartoons and Square's extremely popular video game series, “Final Fantasy.”

The plot follows 15-year-old Sora who is looking for his friends, Riku and Kairi. He is aided by Donald Duck and Goofy, who are officials of a kingdom ruled by King Mickey and Queen Minnie.

On his journey, Sora learn about an evil entity, Xemnas. In the first game, Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeat the antagonist, but they are unaware of his byproduct, called Xemnas. Xemnas is trying to harness the immense power of a collection of hearts, known as Kingdom Hearts.

The main structure of gameplay consists of Sora and his friends traveling to different universes in their Gummi Ship. In each universe, the player then plays a re-creation of a Disney movie, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy as the movie's main characters. For instance, in Agrabah, the location of “Aladdin,” Sora takes Aladdin's place to fight Jafar.

During battle, Sora can call on any ally he has met in any of the universes. He can also use techniques called limits, which allow him and one of his battle partners to perform a very powerful attack. These often turn the tide of battle. His weapon, the “keyblade,” is used to lock up the worlds he visits from invading bad guys. He can perform myriad attacks with his keyblade, which can be upgraded.

As far as sound goes, “Kingdom Hearts 2” is hard to beat. The music while traversing each environment is fun and easy to listen to. The battle music is intense and serious.

However, the dialogue in the game is below par. Some of the more serious characters are given generic and sometimes flat-out awful dialogue. This makes the game seem like little effort was put into character development. The sound effects are very good and the syncing of sound is fine.

In terms of graphics, “Kingdom Hearts 2” is extravagant. All character models are extremely detailed. During cut scenes, the characters' mouths move with superb detail. During gameplay, however, their mouths move in an unsynchronized, up-and-down fashion. During the major cut scenes, everything is extremely detailed. When someone is hit, his hair moves with his body. The graphics are very impressive.

“Kingdom Hearts 2” has good sound, awesome graphics, a captivating story, and overall a good presentation. If more detail had been paid to the environments, the game would feel more complete, and not as though the designers had cut corners. This game is good for fans of Disney and Final Fantasy. I highly recommend it.