Kingdom Hearts 2 – Consumer Guide

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Blood, Use of Alcohol, Violence

Parents don't have much to worry about. The same type of child-friendly content that Disney is famous for has been faithfully adhered to by Square-Enix. Most of the game consists of the main character thwacking surreal-looking monsters that puff into spheres and gems when defeated. There is some combat between humans, but most of it employs fantasy weapons (purple laser guns, etc.) and none of it is ever gory or explicit. I believe the alcohol mentioned on the back of the box refers to some of the Pirates (from the Caribbean) drinking grog, but alcohol use or any other type of substance use is not a significant issue. There is no questionable language and no sexual content.

Action RPG fans will be treated to one of the best games on the PlayStation 2. The blend of real-time combat and RPG elements is perfect. The fighting is fast and furious, and includes enough features and customizability to remain engaging throughout. The RPG side is just as robust with plenty of top-quality cutscenes and numerous different story lines to follow on each of the separate Disney worlds. There aren't very many side quests, but the ones that are there are doozies—Sephiroth cuts no slack.

Disney fans finally get the game they should've gotten in the first place. The developers offer three difficulty settings to ensure that players of any skill level can bring the game to completion, and the cutscenes feel just like you're watching a film. In fact, some parts of the game actually expand on each movie to give a "further adventures of…" feeling. The selection of Disney films is now greater than ever, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron being my two new favorite additions.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers will have no problems. All cutscenes (and there are lots) are fully captioned, so no dialogue is ever missed. During battle, there aren't any significant auditory cues, and the reworked camera perspective ensures that everything on screen is very visible and easy to understand. Thumbs up, everything is accessible.