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Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
by DooYou
When I first heard about Kingdom Hearts, I thought; what are Square up to, everyone knows Disney's reputation for bad games and so I thought this would be another one. Could I have been more wrong? Kingdom Hearts is one of the best games I have ever played.
Graphics: Kingdom Hearts has high quality graphics; the in-game ... graphics are of a far better quality than in most other games FMV sequences, while the FMV sequences are so good it has to be seen to be believed.
Gameplay: The game has great gameplay features; it takes the traditional turn-based battle system from Final Fantasy and transforms it into a far more enjoyable real-time system. Even though it has had some major changes from Square's usual battle system, it has retain many of Square's usual features, such as some spells (e.g. Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga) and it also has the summon system, although as a nice bonus, the summons are now Disney characters, (e.g. Aladdin's Genie and Mulan's Mushu). Despite the games cutesy appeal, Kingdom Hearts has depth to it. Its system enables you to go through the games worlds in different orders, removing practically any trace of linear gameplay.
Lifespan: Kingdom Hearts has a vast lifespan; there is so much to do. The first time I went through the game it took me around forty hours. Also, if you think you are up to the challenge, you can go through in expert mode, which is much more difficult than normal mode. There are so many side-quests to participate in, e.g. Defeating Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth, finding the lost 99 Dalmatian puppies and rebuilding 100 Acre Wood.
Story: The story revolves around a 14-year-old boy called Sora. He once lived peace fully on Destiny Island, with his friends Riku and Kairi, but his world was attacked and destroyed by creatures called heartless. He ends up transported to a new and unknown world (Traverse Town), with Riku and Kairi nowhere to be found. Elsewhere, in Disney Castle, Court Wizard Donald Duck discovers that King Mickey has disappeared, leaving only a note saying that Donald and Knight Goofy must find the wielder of a mysterious "Key". They head to Traverse Town and meet up with Sora. It is revealed that Sora must travel round worlds sealing the keyholes that allow heartless to come through them, searching for Riku and Kairi in each of the worlds. The heartless are being sent by a group of super-villains such as Jafar, Ursula and Maleficent. Soras's adventures take him to many worlds such as, Neverland, Wonderland and Agrabah. He encounters over 100 Disney characters such as, Winnie the Pooh, Tinkerbell and Hercules and Final Fantasy characters such as Aerith, Tidus, Selphie and the Moogles.
Overall: Kingdom Hearts is an unforgettable masterpiece, that you won't want to put down until it you have reached the very end. With great voice-overs from Brian Blessed, David Boreanaz and Dan "Homer Simpson" Castellaneta it is a top quality RPG from Square which shows the true greatness of Disney.
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Devil May Cry 2 (PS2)
by DooYou
After purchasing this game I immediatly knew I had bought a bargain (some years ago that is). From the moment you play this game you will realise just how cool it is.
You are Dante, half human half devil who at the start is a rogue looking agent, who presumably is hired to 'take out the trash'. The game is based on a unknown ... island which hosts a castle, straight away you will notice this is a CAPCOM game, so as you would expect the graphics are visually amazing and capcom have paid amazing attention to detail. The clever scroll, and the medievil riddles will keep you wondering what's round the corner.
The sound is impressive as this is a rock n' roll game the music fits perfectly. However it is the gameplay which stands out in this game, with its matrix/blade style moves. Dante picks up many cool weapons as the game progresses, you start with EBONY AND IVORY to hand guns, and also pick up a shotgun, grenage launcher and a needle gun (for underwater use). However you also claim ALASTOR a huge electrical influenced sword and IFRIT which surrounds your hands in flames, these 2 can both be upgraded, by collecing red orbs you can buy better moves.
The most awesome feature on the game though is the devil trigger, this allows you to transform into a devil and this is where the serious 'butt kicking' begins. As a devil you can fly, fire electricity amongst other things. There is a lot of hack and slash involved and a great variety of enemies. The bosses are visually impressive and are all unique, all offering a different challenge.
There are 20+ missions which takes about 10hrs to complete first time round, however the game is so thrilling you will probably want to play it again.
One criticism of the game is that the camera angles can become quite annoying especially in large rooms, however the overall gameplay easily makes up for this. The games stylish look, cool characters, great variety of levels, bosses and puzzles will amaze you. Just when you thought you had killed him, the devil prince is back. And his puppets will stop at no cost in stopping you, even when you think you have beaten them. The question isn't can I defeat the devil prince? But can I trust the person who asked me to destroy the devil prince, Trish?
This is one of the best games you will ever play, you owe yourself to buy this game.
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Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
by autumnleaf
Much like its predecessor Ico, this game, for me, is huge and beautiful but ultimately fundamentally flawed in the gameplay department.
The storyline is relatively weak for this game, but that is of little importance. You find yourself in a position where you must fight several colossi, one after the other in what are ... essentially a number of boss battles one after the other. Rather than following the traditional route of having a number of levels, each one closing out with a boss battle, Shadow of the Colossus opts to completely dismiss the ideas of levels at all and just have you go straight onto the bosses. The only difference here is that you have to travel around the map to find the next boss.
There are two things I tend to dislike in computer games, one is boss battles, which tend to require the player to find a strategy to kill the boss which they must not stray from, and the other thing I dislike is wandering through huge empty lands with which there is minimal interaction and through which the path is not always clear. Shadow of the Colossus suffers in both of these areas for me. The exploration phases I found very frustrating and often found myself exploring an area only to have to backtrack greatly to get around a chasm or some other unpassable obstacle which was not obvious from glancing at the map. The boss fights, I also found annoying and repetitive, and also suffer from the fact that you will have to redo a lot of work every-time you die or fall from a colossus.
There is no denying that the graphics and music are truly captivating in this game and the presentation is very cinematic and epic, I just don't feel that the gameplay in any way matches up to this and fundamentally lets the game down.
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