There are games that I have beaten in six hours, so it's always fun to be deep inside one where six hours has gone by and I've barely accomplished anything. It's even more fun when you realize that Kingdom Hearts 2 is not a GTA or an Animal Crossing; this is not a game where you can burn hours just gadding about. No, these six hours are more or less linear, plot-driven action RPG stuff. In other words, the designers intended for you to spend the first six hours learning how to play their game.
The reports that the game has a three hour tutorial are not wholly unaccurate, even though such a thing seems at best completely impossible and at worst egregiously unappealing. It's really more of a three hour introduction, featuring all new characters whose story will intersect with Sora's at some future point. Length aside, it's a good idea... because it allows new players to become familiar with the Kingdom Hearts system, and it keeps old players from wondering why Sora has to learn how to access the combat menu all over again.
And about the length... there's a ton of movie in there. I didn't exactly keep track of how often the Dual Shock was sitting idle, but I would guess roughly a third of the time. Much of the FMV stuff recaps both the first Kingdom Hearts and the GBA side-sequel, Chain of Memories. So by the end of the three hours, everybody is back on the same timeline.
I'll try to keep this spoiler free.
The first three hours belong to Roxas, a sort of Sora analogue... in fact, the whole thing is meant to mimic the first portion of the first KH, where you ran around an island and hung out with kidified Final Fantasy characters. That also happens here, except now the FF representatives are a bunch of jerks (Seifer and company, from FF8.) Begin combat lessons.
Oh, since I played Chain of Memories, it did not take me long to realize who Roxas really is. I wouldn't say that you'll be forever lost if you never played the GBA game, but it certainly does help out in early comprehension, since a bunch of these "new" characters were introduced there.
There's a bunch of mini-games thrust upon you in this opener level, and, in grand Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy tradition, they're pretty lame. The best one - the best one - has you running around the town hanging up posters.
Some things never change: Kingdom Hearts still does not have 100% voice acted audio. I know, I know, there is so much dialogue in your average RPG that expecting voice work throughout is unreasonable. Except that it isn't. After graduating to the Sora section of the game, I ran into Uncle Scrooge. And I had to read his text instead of hearing his comforting Scottish brogue. Alan Young has not yet left us, folks.
And the Gummi Ship is back. I figured they would have dumped that since A) it made no sense at all, even among all the Disneyana and B) everyone hated it. I personally didn't mind it and found it very easy to ignore, but I will concede that this version is much better. If the original Gummi Ship levels were Galaga, the sequel is Starfox. Early Starfox.
I wrapped up my six hours finishing up the Mulan world, which was very impressive beginning. In KH1, your first Disney movie experience was Wonderland, which was pretty crappy. Looking over the worlds chosen for inclusion in KH2, it seems obvious that Square Enix went for the fan dream stuff, the more marketable locales. Kingdom Hearts took you to Tarzan's world - which was dead and buried even by the time KH was released - and glossed over Lion King, which is easily a Top Five Disney property to this day. KH2 rectified that by offering up a full Lion King world (which I imagine I'm quite a ways from experiencing) and strangling Rosie O'Donnell in a back alley while Phil Collins sings Sussudio.
The press releases for Kingdom Hearts 2 all trumpet "over 100 Disney characters!" Which sounds great until you realize all the secondary characters in there filling up the ranks, like those three dork soldiers from Mulan.
Next up is Beast's Castle, featuring characters from another movie that was sorta slighted in the first Kingdom Hearts.
Say what you want, but I'm up for anything that makes Goofy into a badass without making him not Goofy.
