As I mentioned earlier, I am skipping Final Fantasy III and IV until I get a chance to play their latest versions. This brings me to the middle of the SNES era with Final Fantasy V. Final Fantasy V was originally released for the Super Famicom in Japan in 1992. Unfortunately, it did not see a North American release. Following the release of Final Fantasy III (actually Final Fantasy VI) in the U.S., there were rumors of releasing it under the name Final Fantasy Extreme. Unfortunately, this never materialized, and U.S. fans would have to wait to play the game here.

In 1997, when video game emulation started to become popular, a group known as RPGe developed an unofficial translation of Final Fantasy V and made it available online. This was one of the most famous unofficial localizations of a game, and it was popular due to its high quality for what was essentially a volunteer effort. It finally allowed U.S. gamers to play the game. The first official release of the game in North America came in 1999 when Final Fantasy Anthology was released for the PlayStation. This version was criticized for having a poorer translation than the earlier RPGe version. A completely new translation was made in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance version titled Final Fantasy V Advance. This version was generally well-accepted by fans, and it also included four new jobs and a bonus dungeon.

As with the previous game in the series, there is an elaborate storyline involving a variety of characters, but this game only includes five playable characters who are more or less with you throughout the entire game (when one character dies, he is immediately replaced by the near-identical fifth character). Instead of characters, the focus this time is on jobs, which make their return from Final Fantasy III. This is the highlight of the game since it greatly improved upon the earlier system and was the last game in the main series to use it.

The story begins with Bartz riding his chocobo Boko when a meteor crashes near the kingdom of Tycoon. Bartz goes to investigate and finds a young girl named Lenna, the princess of Tycoon, and an old man named Galuf, who cannot remember anything. They travel to Tycoon and discover that the king of Tycoon has travelled to the Wind Shrine to discover why the wind has stopped. With the aid of a pirate captain named Faris, they make their way to the Wind Shrine, and along the way, they inadvertently discover that Faris is a woman in disguise.

The Wind Crystal shatters in front of the party, and they learn that the power of the four crystals is being drained by a warlock named Exdeath, whose prison is sealed by the crystals. They travel to each one to protect them, only to arrive too late and only see them shatter. Krile, Galuf's granddaughter, arrives in a meteor shortly before the destruction of the final crystal. She informs everyone that she and Galuf are from another world, and Exdeath has returned to that world now that his seal is broken. Galuf and Krile return to their world, and Bartz, Lenna, and Faris follow soon after.

On the second world, Galuf's armies are geared to assault Exdeath's castle, but they are hindered when Bartz, Lenna, and Faris are kidnapped. Galuf manages to rescue them, but the four of them are ejected to a faraway continent. Galuf gets assistance from the other Warriors of Dawn, and they manage to tear down the barrier protecting Exdeath's castle, but Exdeath has moved to his home in the Great Forrest of Moore. Here, the party removes the seals on the Master Tree, but doing so allows Exdeath to gain control over the crystals, giving him immense power. Galuf sacrifices his life to protect the others, but he transfers his power to Krile in the process. The four of them return to Exdeath's castle and manage to defeat him.

With the power of the crystals now gone, the two worlds are united into one. Exdeath managed to survive by becoming a splinter that stuck in Krile. The combination of the two worlds opened the Interdimensional Rift, which contained the power of The Void. Exdeath uses The Void to terrorize the planet, his ultimate goal being the annihilation of all existence, including himself. The party seeks out slabs that unlock the power of twelve ancient weapons. They party enters Interdimensional Rift to confront Exdeath, where he reveals his true form: a tree. Upon his defeat, Exdeath himself is consumed by The Void.

With Exdeath gone, power is restored to the four crystals, and their shattered pieces become whole again. One year later, Krile goes to the Master Tree to mourn Galuf. Bartz, Lenna, and Faris join her and remind her of their duty to protect the crystals. The original game ends here, but the GBA remake allows the party to travel to the Sealed Temple to defeat Enuo, the ancient warlock who had original acquired the power of The Void before being trapped in it.

The battle system is mostly unchanged from its predecessor, but the number of characters that can participate in battle has been reduced from five to four. It retains the Active Time Battle (ATB) system that was developed by Square. A new feature for this game is that it actually shows the ATB bar so that you can see how fast the characters move and determine how much time you have before you make your next command. Also, each character has the same standard command list based on the job. It consists of an attack command, item command, a special command for that job, and an empty slot for another command. The Freelancer job has no special commands but two empty slots, while the Mime job only has the Mimic command and three empty slots. All jobs can also guard or change rows.

The level-up system is very traditional. Experience is gained in battles, and characters gain a level once enough experience is earned. Each of the five characters has slightly different base stats, but their stat gains upon leveling up are identical. As a result, there is little difference between the characters aside from whatever customization the player does through jobs. The jobs themselves have some stat modifications, but this does not affect the characters' stat boosts when leveling up.

The real change in character improvement comes from jobs and abilities. All characters start out as a Freelancer, but they will learn 20 jobs throughout the main story. In addition, there is one hidden job (Mime), and the GBA version adds four bonus jobs. Each job (with a few exceptions) has stat modifications, a special command on the command window, restrictions on which equipment it can use, and in some cases, one or more passive abilities. After battle, characters will earn ability points (ABP) from enemies. After learning enough ABP, the character will level-up the job and learn a new ability. That ability can be put in the empty slot for any job, allowing for greater customization. When a character learns all of the abilities for a job, he or she "masters" the job. This means that the passive abilities of the job will automatically be transferred to that character's Freelancer and Mime jobs without having to use a command slot for them. The Freelancer job has no abilities, but when all other jobs are mastered, the Freelancer job will be mastered as well.

There are many types of magic in this game, categorized by the jobs that use them: Black Magic (Black Mage), White Magic (White Mage), Blue Magic (Blue Mage), Red Magic (Red Mage), Time Magic (Time Mage), Summons (Summoner), Spellblades (Mystic Knight), Songs (Bard), and Dark Arts (Necromancer). With few exceptions, White, Black, and Time magic is bought in stores. After purchasing a spell once, all characters will be able to use the spell as long as he or she has the proper ability. Red Magic is simply lower-leveled Black and White Magic. Spellblades are automatically learned when the corresponding White or Black Magic spell is learned. Blue Magic is learned by having the enemy cast the spell on a Blue Mage or other character with the Learning ability. Some Summons are purchased, but most are acquired throughout the game, usually by battling the creature. Songs are learned from specific NPCs or by playing pianos throughout the game. Dark Arts, which only appear in the GBA version, are learned by defeating certain enemies with a Necromancer. Except for songs, all magic is cast by using MP. Songs can be used as often as desired, but for most of them, they cannot be stopped in battle once started.

I originally played the RPGe translation of Final Fantasy V on an SNES emulator. I subsequently played both the PlayStation and GBA versions of the game, so I have seen the game in all of its incarnations. I am uncertain about whether the SNES or PlayStation version is the better of the two, but I can say with certainty that the GBA version is better than both.

I have very good memories of this game. Although I hesitate to call it the best Final Fantasy game of the SNES era, I do think that is has the most replay value. The storyline is not as intriguing as Final Fantasy VI, and the characters are not as well-developed as Final Fantasy IV. I did not become as attached to the characters as I did in other Final Fantasy games, and Exdeath does not stand out as a villain among the likes of Golbez and Kefka. In spite of this, the development shows a lot of creativity with some original ideas, such as the existence of three worlds to explore and the use of an anthropomorphic tree as a villain.

The shining point of the game is the job system. Arguably, Final Fantasy V does it better than any other game in the series. The variety of jobs is amazing, and unlike Final Fantasy III, there are very clear distinctions between each job that makes all of them useful in some way. Even the less practical jobs often have an ability or innate skill that gives them value. Mastering a job provides a sense of accomplishment, and I felt like I had created a powerful weapon when I had a character master every job. The job system made it seem like I had a lot of characters to work with even though there were only four.

My main frustration with the game was the randomly dropped or stolen missable equipment. Some of the most powerful weapons and armor in the game (most notably the Genji equipment) can only be obtained by stealing from certain enemies or from random drops, many of them one-time bosses. This requires you to spend a lot of time, sometimes hours, fighting the same enemies in hopes of randomly obtaining this equipment. For boss battles, you have to reset the game if you do not get it. Although this also existed in Final Fantasy IV and in some later installments of the series, there is far more relevant equipment in this game than the others.

Final Fantasy V is one of the few games in the series that I get the urge to go back and play again. Even though I don't think it's as good as some other games, it has an air about it that just makes it fun to play. The job system is entertaining to experiment with, and there are plenty of features to keep you coming back to the game. This is another strong entry into the SNES era of the series, and it was an amazing game all around for anyone who likes traditional console RPGs.

Here is some trivia about Final Fantasy V:

• Out of the five playable characters in the game, two are male and three are female, and the ending party is one male with three females. This makes Final Fantasy V the only game in the series where the female playable characters outnumber the males (except for Final Fantasy X-2, which has an all-female cast).
• This is the first game where chocobos are seen as characters rather than just random creatures. Bartz's chocobo is named Boko, and he falls in love with another chocobo named Koko during the game. Boko is arguably the most popular chocobo of the series. A Black Chocobo also serves as air transportation, and there is a Chocobo summon that sometimes results in a Fat Chocobo.
• Moogles make their second appearance in the series with their own Moogle village. Their appearance and culture is more fleshed out, and most future Moogles would use this game as the basis for their appearance.
• The Cid of this game is Cid Previa, and he appears as an engineer. Along with his grandson Mid, he helps build or repair many of the player's forms of transportation in the game, including the airship.
• Bahamut returns as a summoned creature. In this game, he is the most powerful summon available and must be fought to obtain his summon.
• The airship can convert into a regular ship as well as a submarine--the only ship in the series that can take on all three forms.
• Bartz is the Final Fantasy V hero to appear in Dissidia Final Fantasy. Exdeath is the villain, and The Rift is the arena.
• This is the first game in the series to have a recurring mini-boss: Gilgamesh. The recurring mini-bosses usually exist for comic relief, but they still have significant roles in the story.
• The Tonberry appears for the first time in the series and introduces its trademark ability of one-hit kills if the player does not defeat it in time.
• This is the first game to have superbosses, which are extremely difficult optional bosses that exist primarily to add challenge for the most adventurous players. The superbosses in this game are Omega and Shinryu. Superbosses would become standard in the series when it reaches the CD era, and some were added in the remakes to the cartridge era.
• This game is the first appearance of both Gilgamesh and his associated Genji equipment. It is theorized among many Final Fantasy fans that Gilgamesh is the same character in all of his appearances, making him the only one to appear in multiple games of the main series.
• Exdeath reappears as a Totema in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and an Esper in Final Fantasy XII, although he is renamed Exodus in both cases. The former game shows him in a tree form while the latter has him in a humanoid form.
• Several bosses from this game appear in the bonus dungeons of the GBA version of Final Fantasy as well as in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.
• Exdeath explicitly states his desire to annihilate all existence. This is nihilistic philosophy is a common trait of the Final Fantasy villains, although it was only implied in earlier games. Future games often made this more explicit.
• Much of the criticism of the PlayStation translation was Faris's exaggerated pirate accent. This was not present in either the original Japanese language or the RPGe translation. Although the accent was retained in the GBA version, it was toned down to a much more tolerable level.
• Blue Magic and the Blue Mage job appeared for the first time. Blue Magic would become a feature of the series and appear in some form in nearly every subsequent game.
• Although the Red Mage appeared in the first Final Fantasy, this is the first game that gives the job its signature ability: Doublecast.
• Excluding the new weapons introduced in the GBA bonus dungeon, the Chicken Knife has the potential to become the strongest weapon in the game if you run from enough battles. However, it also has the side effect of forcing you to run from battles occasionally. The Brave Sword is the next strongest weapon, but only if you go through the entire game without running from a battle.
• This is the first Final Fantasy game to have multiple endings. Any characters that were knocked out without being revived at the end of the battle with Neo Exdeath will be sucked into The Void. The ending will vary depending on which characters were lost, but regardless of what happens, all lost characters will eventually be revived. For the best ending, be sure that all four characters are alive when Neo Exdeath is killed.
• This is technically the first Final Fantasy game to have a sequel, although it exists as an original video animation (OVA) rather than a game. The sequel's name is Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, and it takes place 200 years after the events of the game. A dubbed version was released on VHS in the United States, but it has not been released on DVD.

This is the game that started it all. In 1989, Hironobu Sakaguchi was getting ready to retire from video game development, but he wanted to produce one more game before finishing. Working for Square, a struggling game company that had previously only made forgettable titles, he developed a fantasy-based RPG and called it Final Fantasy to acknowledge it as the final game he would make. If only he knew what he would be starting.

Final Fantasy was released in Japan for the Famicom in 1987 and quickly gained immense popularity. In 1990, it was released in North America for the NES and became one of the few console RPGs to attain both financial and critical success there. Hironobu Sakaguchi gained so much notoriety that he would forgo his retirement from video games and continue to develop the series for the almost 15 years. Square would likewise become synonymous with high-quality RPGs with Final Fantasy being its best-known series.

Final Fantasy would continue to see released on other systems and mobile phones in Japan, but its next North American release was for the PlayStation in 2002 as Final Fantasy Origins, where it appeared along with its first sequel. This version was a complete remake that greatly improved the graphics, updated the battle system, and added some FMVs. It was released again in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) as Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls, which made additional changes to the game system and added some optional dungeons and equipment. In honor of the game's 20th anniversary, the definitive version of the game was released for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in 2007. This version, titled Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition, contains the FMVs of the PlayStation version and the bonus material of the GBA version as well as a new bonus dungeon. The original NES version of the game was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2009.

Unlike most later entries in the series, there are no predefined characters. The player must build a party of four characters using any combination of six classes or jobs: Warrior (called Fighter in the original version), Thief, Monk (originally called Black Belt), Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage. Each job has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, and each one would be able to undergo a class change if a certain quest was completed. The Warrior could become a Knight, the Thief a Ninja, the Monk a Master, the Red Mage a Red Wizard, the White Mage a White Wizard, and the Black Mage a Black Wizard. The party combination most often recommended is Warrior, Monk, White Mage, and Black Mage. Players can name the characters whatever they want, although some remakes also had a number of suggested names for each class that the player could choose from.

These four characters are known as the Warriors of Light, and they would mysteriously show up in front of the kingdom of Cornelia. Each one holds a crystal representing one of the four elements (Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind). Their first quest is given by the King of Cornelia. His daughter, Princess Sarah, has been inexplicably kidnapped by his top knight, Garland, and taken to the Chaos Shine. The Warriors of Light must travel to the temple to defeat Garland and rescue the Princess. Upon doing so, the king builds a bridge over the nearby channel in their honor. This is when the real adventure begins.

The Warriors of Light must seek out the four Fiends of the Elements and defeat them to restore light to the four crystals. First up is Lich, the Fiend of Earth, who is hiding out in a cave near Melmond. Next is Marilith, The Fiend of Fire, who resides in the volcano on Mount Gulg. Following that, they must find a way to breathe underwater so that they can reach Kraken, the Fiend of Water, in the Sea Shrine. Finally, the warrior must travel to the technologically advanced Flying Fortress to take out Tiamat, the Fiend of Wind.

In the Flying Fortress, the warriors have to deal with the Final Fantasy tradition of the plot twist. Defeating the Four Fiends isn't enough. A more powerful force is behind them, and to bring peace to the world, the Warriors of Light must vanquish it as well. The center of this force is in (another plot twist!) the Chaos Shrine. Using the light of the four crystals, the Warriors of Light can now travel back in time 2,000 years to when the problems first began. After fighting the Four Fiends again, they encounter (big plot twist!) Garland, who was behind everything the whole time. He transforms into Chaos, and the Warriors of Light must defeat him to end the world's problems once and for all.

Final Fantasy uses the traditional turn-based battle system that was common in the early days of console RPGs. Enemies would be encountered randomly in the field, although there are certain "hot spots" (usually near treasure chests or in bottlenecked passages) where a certain monster would always appear. At the beginning of each round of battle, the player would choose an action for each of the four characters. Each character and each monster would then perform a single action in a more or less random order, although it was influenced by each character's agility. If one side survived the battle, there would be another round until either all enemies or all characters were defeated. Running from battle was an option for both characters and enemies, although if one character successfully ran, all four would do so. One interesting feature of the original version of the game was that if a character attacked an enemy that was already defeated, that character's attack would be ineffective, and the character would essentially lose the turn. This was changed in the remakes to become the now-standard feature of automatically redirecting the attack to another enemy.

Leveling up is done through a traditional experience system. Every enemy gave a certain amount of experience when defeated with stronger enemies generally giving more. If the player won the battle, that experience would be distributed evenly among the surviving members of the party. Party members who are unconscious or petrified cannot gain experience. Characters will gain a level once they earn enough experience. Raising a level will result in somewhat random stat increases, although certain classes are more likely to get stat boosts in certain areas. Magic-using characters may also gain the ability to cast more spells, and the Monk and Master will get automatic increases to the attack and defense ratings. Originally, the level was capped at 50, but the Game Boy Advance remake increased this to 99 due to the more difficult optional dungeons.

The magic system changed in some of the remakes. There are two types of magic--white and black--with the character's job determining which spells that character could learn. Magic is divided into nine levels with four white magic spells and four black magic spells at each level. All magic must be purchased at magic shops that appear in cities throughout the game. Each character can only learn three spells for each level. Originally, learning a spell was permanent, so the player had to choose carefully. The remakes allow the character to unlearn a spell so that bad spell purchases would not be permanent. The original game also only allowed characters a certain number of castings for each spell level. The number of castings increased with some level-ups, but it never exceeded nine for each level. More recent remakes modified the magic system to use a more traditional magic point (MP) system whereby each spell uses a certain number of MP and the character can keep casting spells until its MPs run out.

I have very fond memories of Final Fantasy. In fact, I fell in love with the game before I even played it. Nintendo Power released a strategy guide for the game that I purchased before ever playing it. I read through the guide and immediately looked forward to being able to play it. After getting it, I played the game every afternoon after school, and I beat the game in about a month. I immediately started again with a new party. I don't know how many times I won the game, but I am certain that I did so at least four times, more than any other Final Fantasy game. I never played the PlayStation remake, but I did complete the Game Boy Advance version, including all of the optional dungeons. I have yet to play the PlayStation Portable version.

Final Fantasy was an extremely well developed game in its time. Although the storyline is sparse by today's standards, it was well above most other games of the day where the story was rarely deeper than "rescue the princess" or "kill this monster." The job system gave many options to players and provided a reason to replay the game. Although the game was mostly linear, there were some opportunities to jump ahead or skip certain parts of the game (which I did). There were plenty of goals to accomplish in each area of the game, and I always felt like something was going on. It was also quite challenging, more so than many later games. The game was particularly appealing to fans of pen-and-paper RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons since its statistics system was loosely based on it and handled it better than most other console RPGs at the time.

Although it was great in its time, it has not aged well. Even the updated graphics and controls of the remakes could not hide this. The nameless characters never speak or have any direct interaction with NPCs, so there is no character development at all. Battles often feel monotonous, and level grinding is a necessity. The challenge is often spotty with dungeon enemies sometimes being excessively difficult while bosses are often ridiculously easy. When I first played the game, none of the Four Fiends lasted more than two rounds of battle, and I took out Chaos in only one hit (albeit a lucky one). The remakes made the bosses stronger, but not by much. In contrast, the final dungeon was so difficult that even at level 50, I only got through it by running from nearly every enemy encounter. The inability to save inside dungeons made this only more frustrating.

Today, Final Fantasy only appeals to people who are nostalgic about retro gaming or who are obsessed with the entire series and want to see its roots. While retro gamers might want to play the original (which can now be played on the Wii), everyone else may want to check out the GBA or PSP versions. The newer versions make it much more enjoyable to get through the game, but you cannot have the same expectations of modern day gaming. I admit that even though I prefer the advances that have taken place in recent games, I still get an urge now and then to play through this classic again.

Here is some trivia about Final Fantasy:

• Two of the mascots of the Final Fantasy series, Chocobos and Moogles, do not appear in the game.
• There is no character named Cid in this game, making it the only game in the series without a Cid. However, the remakes do include a mention of Cid as being the person who built the airship. This Cid is known as Cid of the Lufaine, and he actually appears in Dissidia Final Fantasy, making him the Cid of that game.
• Bahamut appears in the game as neither an enemy nor a summon. He is the dragon king of Cardia Islands. Bringing him the Rat Tail will cause the class change in the characters.
• The Final Fantasy hero in Dissidia Final Fantasy is called Warrior of Light. He is not given a name, but he most closely resembles the Warrior/Knight class.
• Garland is the Final Fantasy villain in Dissidia Final Fantasy. Chaos also appears as the final boss in the game.
• The Old Chaos Shrine is the Final Fantasy arena in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
• Although Dissidia Final Fantasy includes heroes and villains from the first 10 Final Fantasy games, it appears to be based primarily on Final Fantasy. As a result, it develops the story further and reveals more information about Garland, Chaos, Cid of the Lufaine, the Warriors of Light, and the game world.
• Garland would be the name of a major character in Final Fantasy IX, which paid homage to many earlier games in the series. It would also be the name of an airship in Final Fantasy XII.
• Besides Dissidia, Chaos would continue to be referenced, in various forms, in many other games in the series. For example, Chaos is an Esper in Final Fantasy XII and the villain in Final Fantasy: Unlimited.
  
• There are many, many bugs in the NES version of the game. For example, certain weapons are supposed to have enhanced effects against certain types of enemies (such as the Sun Sword being strong against undead enemies), but none of these actually work.
• Because of space limitations on NES cartridges, the NES version of the game limited character and spell names to four characters. Many enemy names were also shortened. This led to some rather unusual names in the game that had to be fixed in the remakes.
• This NES version of the game is infamous for having one of the most useless abilities in video game history. The AMUT (Anti-Mute) spell prevents enemies from casting MUTE on your characters. This isn't a very useful spell in the first place, but to make it worse, there aren't even any enemies who can cast MUTE. This was remedied in the remakes where some enemies can cast the Silence spell.
• The Monk/Master can potentially be the most powerful character in the game. This character automatically gaines two points to its attack statistic and one point to its defense statistic every time it gains a level. Once it reaches a certain level, the character becomes stronger with no weapons or armor equipped.
• Although each character can perform only one action per round of battle, having higher Agility can allow a character to get more hits with a physical attack. The Monk or Master can potentially do more damage than any other character by being able to do a number of hits in the double digits.
• Color magic (White and Black Magic) and color mages (Red, White, and Black Mages and Wizards) would be expanded in future games with the introduction of Blue, Red, and Green Magic.
• In the Dawn of Souls and Anniversary Edition versions of the game, there are optional dungeons you can explore to get powerful new items. The bosses in these dungeons are taken from Final Fantasy II through VI.
• Elemental crystals are introduced in this game. They would later appear in Final Fantasy III, IV, V, and Mystic Quest.
• The Four Fiends would appear again in Final Fantasy IV, IX, Mystic Quest, and Dissidia.
• This game was parodied in the popular webcomic 8-Bit Theater, which gave personalities to each character class. It also popularized the concept of sword-chucks.
• When you first encounter Garland, he makes the humorous threat, "I, Garland, will knock you all down!!" This line was the product of poor translation, but it has become so popular that it was retained in many of the remakes and has become a classic line in the series.
• Although there is relatively little technology in this game, it does allude to more advanced technology existing in the past, and technological advances like airships, robots, and flying castles make an appearance. Science fiction elements like this would become a common thread throughout the series.
• In the Flying Fortress, there is a possibility of encountering an enemy named Warmech. The chances of encountering it are rare, but it is often considered more difficult than any of the regular bosses in the game. This is a predecessor of the current tradition of having superbosses in Final Fantasy games.

I concluded my venture into the Kingdom Hearts universe with Kingdom Hearts II. The third and most recent Kingdom Hearts game (at the time) explores the universe in more detail. Once again, many Disney worlds, old and new, are mixed into the fray with outstanding results, and various Final Fantasy characters also make an appearance.

If you're wanting to jump right into the game, you're in for a disappointment. The introduction alone takes one to two hours. This is how long it takes before Sora, the main character, appears. Instead, you start out as Roxas, a young boy who lives in a world called Twilight Town. Roxas looks a lot like Sora, and the connection between the two is discovered throughout the course of the game.

Once Sora is found after the introduction, you discover that a year has passed since the end of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Sora, Donald, and Goofy have been in stasis during that time, so from their perspective, things are picking up immediately where they had left off. They go off in search of King Mickey and Riku, only to discover that the Heartless have not been completely defeated. They also discover a new enemy, the Nobodies, which are made from the bodies and souls of people who are left behind after having their hearts taken by the Heartless. Maleficent is back and is once again attempting to control the Heartless, and this time, she is aided by Pete. However, the real villain is Organization XIII, a mysterious group of 13 cloaked individuals who control the Nobodies. Sora and Riku defeated half of them in Chain of Memories, but the real challenge lies in those who are left, including their leader, who is strangely familiar.

Once again, Sora, Donald, and Goofy will travel to various Disney worlds in an attempt to discover the purpose of Organization XIII. In a twist, some live-action movies are added to the mix. Throughout the game, the trio will travel to worlds that represent the movies Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Hercules, Steamboat Willie, The Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Aladdin, The Nightmare before Christmas, The Lion King, and TRON. You will also encounter characters from other Disney movies, including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, Chicken Little, Lilo & Stitch, and Peter Pan.

The world of Hollow Bastion returns from the first game as the home of the Final Fantasy characters. All of the ones we met previously return, and some new ones are added, allowing for representation from Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and X-2. Most worlds have a character from that world who will join you and aid you in battle. The Disney characters that assist you on their respective worlds are Mulan, the Beast, Jack Sparrow, Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Simba, and Tron. For the first time, a Final Fantasy character will also join you: Auron from Final Fantasy X will assist you in the Olympic Coliseum.

The events of each world follow the events of their corresponding movies much more closely than the first game. This was especially true of Port Royal, the Pirates of the Caribbean world, which followed the first movie so closely that I felt like I was watching it again. In the case of Aladdin, whose story was covered in the first game, the events are consistent with those of the direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar. Some worlds have visual changes to the characters that fit the style of the world. My favorite is Timeless River, which is the world of Mickey Mouse's first appearance in Steamboat Willie. Besides being black and white, the animation style of this world fits that of the 1920s. The most significant change occurs in Pride Land, the world of The Lion King. Here, Sora is transformed into a lion cub with a new set of abilities.

The storyline is very tight, and unlike many video games, it retains the continuity of its predecessors. It does get a little convoluted at times. For example, the identities of some characters made sense in the end, but the process it used to get there was far too complicated. (Mild spoiler: There are at least four different characters who go by the name "Ansem" or its derivatives.) However, most of the mysteries left behind from Chain of Memories are resolved with just enough new questions remaining to make room for the sequels. This game lacks some of the incredibly cool moments of the first Kingdom Hearts (nothing compares to the rise of the Chernabog), but it did have a few of its own. One of the best sequences is the attack on Hollow Bastion, where Sora fights side-by-side with various Final Fantasy characters, moves on to the Battle of 1,000 Heartless (which is literally what it sounds like), then witnesses a bout between the Heartless and the Nobodies.

For the most part, the gameplay is the same as that of the first game. However, some significant improvements have been made. The magic system has been completely revamped. Your magic points will replenish automatically over time after they are used up, so you never have to worry about conserving magic. This makes Donald an effective partner since he does not use up all his magic in the first few seconds of battle like he did in the first game. This also makes you less dependent on items, and even though this game is harder, the ability to use Cure magic copiously means that you will probably be defeated less often.

Probably the biggest improvement is the existence of Forms. Forms allow Sora to combine with Donald and Goofy to gain new powers, such as the ability to wield two Keyblades or to fire beams from a Keyblade. Each Form has different abilities, and they can be leveled up. Leveling up a Form can be time-consuming, but doing so not only makes the form stronger, but it also grants new abilities for Sora to use in his normal state. Sora can discover four Forms in all along with one other special Form that occurs randomly.

The Gummi Ship battles from the first game have returned, but the system has changed significantly. It now looks more like a fast-paced 3D shooter such as StarFox and has much better play control and hit detection than before. Gummi Ship sequences come with their own set of objectives, but they are completely distinct from the rest of the game. Equipment is only found in the mission itself, not on the worlds, and nothing you do in the Gummi Ship affects Sora throughout the rest of the game. In fact, after completing each battle once, you do not have to bother with them again. However, completionists who want to accomplish everything in the game are in for a long, difficult task with all the Gummi Ship missions.

Amidst all the improvements, my biggest disappointment with Kingdom Hearts II was the mini-games. While Kingdom Hearts had few mini-games, most of them good, there are far too many in this sequel. The first world alone has seven, and there is at least one more in almost every world. Many of them are far too similar to even matter. For example, almost every world has a skateboarding mini-game with very little difference between each one other than the course. What's worse is that the game proposes "missions," which are essentially goals to complete on each mini-game. Although these are not necessary to complete the game, they are required for getting the secret ending on the Standard difficulty level. Completing all these missions is so time-consuming that it may actually be faster to just replay the game from the beginning on the Proud difficulty level, which gives you the secret ending just for completing each world.

The Coliseum battles from the first game return in this one, but the system has been significantly impaired. You no longer gain experience from Coliseum battles, meaning that you could spend hours fighting in it and still have nothing to show for it. The battles are also much harder than before, and many of them come with ridiculous limitations such as having to complete ten battles without taking much damage. They also have a scoring system that is necessary for completing missions. This made the Coliseum frustrating and annoying, making it a good example of Square Enix's reputation of taking a good idea and ruining it by adding too many "rules."

In spite of this, Kingdom Hearts II is an excellent game that improves upon the original. The storyline keeps things moving, and Organization XIII makes for an outstanding villain. I did feel that some of the "magic" of the first game was lost since travelling to different Disney worlds now feels routine. However, the improvements in gameplay made up for that, and regardless of some faults, this was a bit of an improvement over the original game and a huge improvement of Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. This is certain to be an enjoyable experience for anyone who has gotten into the series.