History YMMV / KingdomHeartsII

** [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Undead pirates]] can only be damaged by your attacks when they're standing in
clear moonlight, and if they're fighting you in an area with a lot of shady spots, expect a tedious battle to ensue. To make up for it, it's really easy and very satisfying to hit them with magic spells to screw around with them.

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: ''[[MercyMode Sora, you]] [[BigDamnHeroes gotta wake up!]]''

** Keyblade-wise, the Decisive Pumpkin is very popular because fans learned over time that it was actually the best Keyblade in the game for its Combo Boost ability, even more than the actual InfinityPlusOneSword of Ultima Weapon. It helps that its quirky design is based on ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', one of the more popular films represented in the game.

** [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Undead pirates]] can only be damaged by your attacks when they're standing in clear moonlight, and if they're fighting you in an area with a lot of shady spots, expect a tedious battle to ensue. To make up for it, it's really easy and very satisfying to hit them with magic spells to screw around with them.

* TheScrappy:
** [=DiZ=], for his horrifically cruel treatment towards Roxas and Naminé and being the instigator of the ProlongedPrologue and most of its MindScrew. The voice of Creator/ChristopherLee in the US version is a mitigating factor, but even that can only go so far. [[spoiler:As ''Ansem the Wise'', on the other hand, he is RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap through his atonement.]]
** Ariel was praised in ''I'' for being an AdaptationalBadass that wielded her father's triton and went toe to toe with Ursula, ''twice''. This time around she suffers from a major BadassDecay, essentially forgetting that Ursula was evil and falling for her trick again, and needing Sora and Eric to save her. Being part of the already despised Atlantica world certainly doesn't help either.
** WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle, for not only being one of, if not ''the'' most lackluster Summons in the game, but for also coming from one of Disney's worst movies and for being shoehorned into the game just to promote said movie. Many people nowadays forget that he was even in the game. [[EnsembleDarkHorse Speedrunners on the other hand...]]

** The Mushroom XIII sidequests. S-ranking their various challenges often requires specific strategies that are otherwise impractical for normal gameplay, combined with split-second perfect timing, and very often, dumb luck.
*** Among them, No. VIII deserves special mention, as it's often considered one of the worst of the group, if not '''the''' worst. You have to air-juggle it and land 85 hits on it without letting it touch the ground. This is ''far'' easier said than done: it will bounce far away at random and gets bouncier the longer the combo goes on, and if you miss a single hit, it'll likely drop and end the challenge. Landing 85 hits requires either very precise timing to the hits on some of Sora's Drive Forms, or using Berserk Charge to attack without finishers, but it still requires a lot of luck and timing. And to make your failures sting that much more, the fact it gets bouncier the longer you combo it means it tends to bounce too far away to reach around the 70+ hit mark, so you spent a lot of time at it and came ''close'' to success only to fall short at the goal.

* {{Asspull}}: When Ansem's Kingdom Hearts encoder machine explodes, it changes Riku back to normal. There's no real reason given as to why outside of some FiveSecondForeshadowing where Ansem says "anything could happen".

** Most gameplay ones are more or less passable. But, the [[GenreShift Gummi Ship]] ones can very well be impossible. Example, Dreadnought Level 3.

** Jafar puts up a pretty poor showing in his boss battle. To start, Sora fights him on the magic carpet, which means you're alone and can't use Drive Forms, Limits, or Summons, so your only options are normal attacks and magic. Jafar can be briefly stunned by attack his midsection, which has very low HP and doesn't even require a finisher to defeat. Once it's beaten you can use a Reaction Command to stun Jafar even longer, giving you plenty of time to attack his head. To make him look even more pathetic, said Reaction Command has Sora grab his genie tail, wrap him up in it, and spin him around to make him dizzy. The fight boils down to taking out his midsection's HP bar (during which time Jafar may not even be able to get an attack off), stunning and embarrassing him with his Reaction Command, then comboing his head without resistance.

* ShipSinking:
** Anyone who shipped Sora and Ariel was likely disappointed when Prince Eric shows up.
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Yuna and Tidus]] is impossible in this continuity, as Tidus is a kid and Yuna is an adult fairy in separate worlds.

** On the revisit to Olympus, Sora goes to Hades' lair to retrieve [[spoiler:the statue he's using to control Auron]], and the group is attacked by a group of Dusks. After fighting them off for a bit, a group of Heartless attack the Dusks and the party takes that opportunity to make a run for it. The presence of Nobodies is universally a sign that the Organization is in town, and in-story they never attack when there isn't an Organization member overseeing them, but the Organization has no operatives in Olympus (Demyx is dead by this point and no other members ever appear). Additionally, it makes no sense for the Heartless to attack the Dusks; the only times previously when Heartless attacked Nobodies was because they were ordered to, otherwise doing so is almost against to their nature, as Heartless are drawn to attack beings with hearts and Nobodies don't have hearts. The encounter makes no sense, is a surprise to Sora and at-odds with the story unfolding, and once they make their escape they never bring it up again.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: A minor one at the very start of the game, when a mysterious string of thefts occur in the digital Twilight Town, resulting in the ''word'' "photo" being stolen, meaning no one can actually say it, even though they all remember the item they want to name. This is is chalked up to being the work of a thief, which everyone accepts. It turns out a Dusk is behind the thefts, and Pence theorizes it was trying to abduct Roxas but kept stealing photos of him by accident. Even by the series lore of how memories work, it doesn't make sense a Dusk stealing photographs could cause people to forget the word itself, nor does it make sense that they clearly know the word has been stolen, they just can't say it when they try to. Once the Dusk is defeated and the photographs returned, the situation is resolved and no one ever mentions it again.

** After the events of the first game, Ariel and Sora remain very good friends, and during the musicals in Atlantica they often dance and sing together. Couple that with most of her relationship with Prince Eric taking place off-screen due to the condensed story, and someone unfamiliar with the film would think this is a LoveTriangle going on. It certainly doesn't help their personalities play off each other well, making them have better chemistry than either has with their canon love interests.

* CompleteMonster: [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Xemnas]], the Nobody form of Xehanort and leader of [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad Organization XIII]], is portrayed as a cruel sociopath who rules his organization without care for any of its members, viewing his followers as weaklings who are only fit to serve his purposes. Looking to exploit the Keyblade's power to claim hearts, he allows Roxas and Xion to grow close, [[ManipulativeBastard intending to then pit them against each other]] so he can judge which Keybearer would be more useful to his plans, even [[BodyHorror tampering with Xion's form]], [[MindRape Mind Raping]] her and sending her to her death. When Axel is sent to look for the runaway Roxas, Xemnas threatens to eliminate him if he doesn't bring Roxas back dead or alive. He later attacks the Radiant Garden with hordes of Heartless, almost getting Goofy critically injured in the process, just so Sora and King Mickey can slay them all and give him enough hearts to complete his own Kingdom Hearts. When Ansem the Wise and Mickey try to stop his plans at his castle, Xemnas orders his Nobodies to kill them, and proceeds to overtake the Great Heart from within in an attempt to [[OmnicidalManiac reduce all of existence to nothingness]] and destroy all those in his way. Cold-blooded, pitiless, and lacking his game counterpart's TragicVillain qualities, Xemnas continuously shows himself to be more monstrous than any other Nobody solely because [[ItsAllAboutMe he thinks it in his best interest to be so]].

** WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle, for not only being one of, if not ''the'' most lackluster Summons in the game, but for also coming from one of Disney's worst movies and for being shoehorned into the game just to promote said movie. Many people nowadays forget that he was even in the game. [[EnsenbleDarkhorse Speedrunners on the other hand...]]

** WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle, for not only being one of, if not ''the'' most lackluster Summons in the game, but for also coming from one of Disney's worst movies and for being shoehorned into the game just to promote said movie. Many people nowadays forget that he was even in the game. [[EnsenbleDarkHorse Speedrunners on the other hand...]]

** WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle, for being one of the most lackluster Summons and for coming from one of Disney's worst movies AND for being shoehorned into the game only to promote the movie. Many people nowadays forget that he was even in the game.

** Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor's performance as Jack Sparrow is widely disliked by fans, as not only does he sound nothing like Creator/JohnnyDepp, but he just sounds... ''off'' in general, which is odd to hear from an experienced voice actor like Taylor, though he confirmed years later that he sounded that way because he was recovering from a throat fungus at the time he recorded for the game. Even so, Jack would eventually be recast in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' with Jared Butler[[note]]Who had previously voicematched Depp as Jack and [[Film/TheLoneRanger Tonto]] in ''VideoGame/DisneyInfinity''[[/note]]to much better reception.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: "Oh, we do too have hearts! Don't be mad..." Was Demyx lying in order to weasel out of fighting Sora and company or was he saying what he thought was the truth? Furthermore, was his temporary change in demeanor after Sora and Donald say that he doesn't have a heart a result of him deciding to drop the charade or him entering a state of TranquilFury? While Demyx doesn't really have enough screen time in the games to make one interpretation more likely than the other, the manga adaptation goes with the latter interpretation in both cases.

** For many fans, that would be the boss battle with [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing Scar]]. Given he murdered Mufasa, lied to Simba and forced him into exile, and tried to force the lionesses into cannibalism by attacking and eating Sora, being able to fight Scar for all his crimes is a huge catharsis for fans of the film after waiting for eleven years.

** The Battle of 1000 Heartless pits Sora against one thousand enemies that he has to defeat on his own. Not only does he do it, it's pretty much a CurbStompBattle.

** In the manga, Leon becomes a PluckyComicRelief character who barely does anything. The only time he is seen in action is when he gets beaten up by the Nobodies while in the rest of his scenes he is pretty much a ButtMonkey who can't handle any situation. Similarly, Xaldin goes from one of the Organization's [[ThatOneBoss most powerful fighters]] to an AdaptationalWimp who is [[SmugSnake all talk]] and easily beaten up by the Beast [[spoiler: and killed by a Vexen replica.]]

* EvenBetterSequel: ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' is generally well-liked and considered a strong game, though the gameplay is seen as a bit rough around the edges. ''II'' is widely considered a major improvement in pretty much every aspect when it comes to the gameplay due to streamlining the combat and trimming other bits of fat, with the ''Final Mix'' version often being cited as the single best game in the entire series.

** The final Gummi mission, Assault of the Dreadnought, is a direct shout out to ''Franchise/StarWars''. As of October 2012, Disney now owns Star Wars!
*** "Dreadnought" was also the name of a ship class owned by the First Order in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', the third of Disney's Star Wars films.
*** When Roxas finds out that his whole life in Twilight Town has been a lie, he gets so infuriated that [[PercussiveTherapy he starts smashing up all the computers in the room with his Keyblade]] in a way that's almost identical to how Kylo Ren would later smash controls with his lightsaber in a fit of rage in ''Film/TheForceAwakens''.
*** The end of the prologue is eerily similar to the climax of ''Film/TheLastJedi''; [[spoiler:Roxas attacks a projection of [=DiZ=]/Ansem the Wise, just like how Kylo Ren attacks one of Luke Skywalker]].
*** The Kylo Ren/Roxas parallels would reach HarsherInHindsight come ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', where [[spoiler:Ren gives up his lifeforce to revive Rey before becoming one with the Force, just like how Roxas gives up his existence to revive Sora]].
*** Demyx's infamous quote, "Dance, water, dance!", is a take of "Dance Magic Dance" from ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', another Lucasfilm franchise that Disney acquired when they obtained ''Star Wars''.
*** Xemnas's "Ethereal Blades" also look exactly like lightsabers sticking out of his hands, and even make a similar noise.
** In the ''Final Mix'' version of Christmas Town, Sora, Donald and Goofy change their appearances from their Halloween Town counterparts. Now tell us [[http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/File:Donald_Snowman.png Donald's appearance]] doesn't remind you of [[Franchise/{{Frozen}} a certain other snowman]]...
*** Becomes even ''more'' hilarious when ''Frozen'' actually appeared as a world in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', where Sora sees Olaf for the first time and tells Donald...

* HoYay: Putting context aside, just TRY to compare when Sora reunites with Kairi to when he reunites with Riku.

** Kairi once she [[TookALevelInBadass broke away]] from her DamselInDistress role in the final world and fought alongside Riku. Except for the people who liked her better in ''KHI'' and say that this game [[DemotedToSatelliteLoveInterest demoted her]]. Yeah, [[BrokenBase the fandom never can agree on anything.]] [[note]]Although many people who derided Kairi in this game have had a reversal of opinion after ''KHIII'', where she undergoes severe BadassDecay compared to her portrayal here and is considered a DamselScrappy.[[/note]]
*** The manga [[{{Xenafication}} had her break away from this earlier]], with her punching a Dusk, biting Axel to wrest free of him, escaping from her cell by tricking some Dusks, and punching Demyx in the face when caught. She also gets more screen-er, panel time to showcase her Keyblade-wielding ability, including against Xigbar.
*** Similarly, Kairi's Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, was originally hated by many for [[RealWomenDontWearDresses looking too girly.]] Then [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep it became an equipable Keyblade for Aqua]] and players found out first-hand how good it was in battle. Come ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIIIReMind'', and Kairi herself is able to wield it as a very strong ''playable character''.

** This is somewhat alleviated in ''Kingdom Hearts III''. Roxas and Naminé never ''actually'' directly interact during the game. At all. While Roxas doesn’t really have any direct ShipTease with Xion or Axel in favor of just reuniting with his friends, Naminé is actually given some steady ShipTease with Riku. It’s left some to wonder if the clip from ''2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'' wasn’t just a clip that was haphazardly added and some took it at face value.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: The Nobodies. They are played as disposable monsters without hearts, incapable of any emotion. Still, despite their blatantly evil acts, some fans empathize with the Nobodies' desire to obtain hearts. It doesn't help that they act out what they remember of their emotions, making it easy to forget that they're technically uncaring. It also doesn't help that [[spoiler:Roxas]] is a Nobody, and definitely seems to still have feelings, though he's said to be a special case because [[spoiler:he was created with Ven's heart.]]
** Interestingly, there are two scenes where the Nobodies straight out acknowledge that they are emotionless. Twice, one of them gets a big speech on how they're in the right, one talking about the pain of not having a heart... then Sora points out that they can't have pain, as they don't have a heart. The response? To completely shift out, and basically tell Sora, "Okay, ya got me." This behavior mimics that of real-life sociopaths.

** The game was already really well-received, but ever since the improved ''Final Mix'' version was finally released outside of Japan in 2014, the game's reputation has risen dramatically among fans, not to mention the fact that the plots of the games released since have been even ''more'' [[KudzuPlot confounding]] than this game's plot was criticized as being. Now there are far more people who say it's [[EvenBetterSequel better than the original game]] than those who say [[ContestedSequel it doesn't match up.]]

** On another Organization XIII note, Xigbar's line for the intro to his boss fight is an accusatory "[[SpannerInTheWorks You]] really shouldn't have betrayed us." [[spoiler:Come ''III'', it turns out that he's even more correct than anyone could have possibly expected]].

** Yen Sid, Ansem the Wise, and Sora, all for the same reasons... prejudice against the Nobodies. Justifiable in some respects due to Ansem taking his hatred to the point of despising ''innocent'' Nobodies (Roxas and Naminé) and Sora's speech at the end seeming more than a little racist with his choice of words (Yen Sid, on the other hand, is just a neutral party who is only disclosing what little he knows about the Nobodies at the time rather than indulging in any active prejudice.) Though a [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance future game]] would [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap change]] Sora's views on them. Still, given the fact that in ''II'', Yen Sid, Ansem the Wise and Sora witness first-hand Nobodies and the Organization XIII attack worlds to try to turn people into Heartless, causing many destructions, they have a justification to not think highly of them.

* Squall/Leon was always a divisive character in ''Final Fantasy'' for his ridiculously distant and silent personality. It did not help he had to replace the iconic Cloud and did not reach his appeal. However, this game sees him as a more cheerful and mature character. While he lost his badassery in the manga, he retains in the game especially when teaming up with none other than Cloud.

** Yen Sid, Ansem the Wise, and Sora, all for the same reasons... prejudice against the Nobodies. Justifiable in some respects due to Ansem taking his hatred to the point of despising ''innocent'' Nobodies (Roxas and Naminé) and Sora's speech at the end seeming [[UnfortunateImplications more than a little racist with his choice of words]] (Yen Sid, on the other hand, is just a neutral party who is only disclosing what little he knows about the Nobodies at the time rather than indulging in any active prejudice.) Though a [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance future game]] would [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap change]] Sora's views on them. Still, given the fact that in ''II'', Yen Sid, Ansem the Wise and Sora witness first-hand Nobodies and the Organization XIII attack worlds to try to turn people into Heartless, causing many destructions, they have a justification to not think highly of them.

** Cloud and Tifa, due to Aerith being SparedByTheAdaptation, and Tifa being meant, according to WordOfGod, to be an AnthropomorphicPersonification of Cloud's inner goodness (and the GoodCounterpart to Sephiroth, being Cloud's issues made manifest).

** The [[BonusBoss Lingering Will]] was (and still is) referred to as "Terra", the name of its original self (including by Sora, Aqua and Ventus in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''). This is only partly accurate; Terra's essence was actually split between three entities, with the Will being his soul, Terra-Xehanort using his body, and [[spoiler: Ansem's / Xehanort's Dark Figure]] containing his heart.

** Aside from the worldwide release of ''Final Mix'', one reason ''KHII'' is considered an EvenBetterSequel is because of the HiddenDepths of its combat system compared to other games in the series, resulting in a sector of the fanbase that focuses on the gameplay over the story and characters (though those are usually not ignored) and develops specific strategies and loadouts to beat each BonusBoss.

** The Magic Carpet minigame in Agrabah falls into this. To get 100% completion, you need to defeat 65 Heartless before reaching the end. Easier said than done. The best way to get the 65 kills is to equip the Negative Combo ability, the Fenrir keychain, and remove all the Combo Plus and Air Combo Plus abilities. However, getting the Fenrir requires that the player has defeated ''[[BonusBoss Sephiroth]]''.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The magic system was revamped significantly for this game, with quite a few AntiFrustrationFeatures that took care of common player complaints about how it worked in [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]].
*** Magic Points now recharge automatically when they hit zero, so you're not just out of luck if you run out of MP and can't find any MP orbs.
*** [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] and [[AnIcePerson Blizzard]] have much more clearly differentiated effects -- Fire is a short-range attack that encircles Sora on all sides, and Blizzard is a concentrated long-range blast that can pierce enemies. There is thus more reason to switch between the two outside of abusing weaknesses.
*** [[HealThyself Cure]] is now an area-of-effect spell that fully restores HP at the cost of draining the entire MP bar. Stronger versions of the spell just have a longer range, so you don't have to waste time trying to target someone who's at critical health. In addition, Cure will always affect Sora if he's the one who cast it; since [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou it's game over if Sora falls]], this is very helpful.
** The gameplay was redone to be faster and more fluid compared to ''Kingdom Hearts I''. The first game's combat felt stiff, which has led some to say that it hasn't aged well; this game's combat is commonly thought to have aged like fine wine, and has become the gold standard for the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series. The introduction of reaction commands also allowed for more cinematic combat options to allow the style to be shown off at full force. The Drive Forms also allowed even more expansion into the base combat by allowing the player a risk-reward mechanic. The only bad thing is that bosses must now be finished off with a combo finisher or magic, but even that isn't very intrusive.
** The Gummi Ship missions were considered a ScrappyMechanic in the first game for their bland and tedious gameplay, which was especially aggravating since you would have to manually travel to worlds and repeat the same mission every time you wanted to visit a world, with the player not even unlocking the warp drive option until midway through the game. ''II'' fixes this by giving the Gummi Ship missions a complete retool, turning the missions into a fast-paced rail shooter. It also helps that the game only requires the route to be completed once to permanently unlock the gate to the world, rather than having to go through the route every time you change worlds like it was in the first game before warp drive.