Moar Keybladez!

[Celebrating the release of Kingdom Hearts 3DS this week, Enix Hearts is currently running an article series looking back at the previous Kingdom Hearts games. Since I wrote a piece for them revisiting Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, I feel compelled to do posts for the rest of the games as well. Below is the story of the second Kingdom Hearts games.]

We woke up in a house, with no memory as to why we were there. Though I guess that doesn’t really matter—wherever we are, we are. Our goals haven’t changed—we still need to find Riku and Mickey. If they aren’t in this house, well, then we’ll check the next house. And the next one. And the one after that.

We found them once before. In a way, it’s our fault that they are still lost—after all, we let them close themselves in. I can’t focus on the guilt that’s eating away at me, though. If I do, I might just get dragged into the darkness myself. I can’t drag them out of the darkness if I’m trapped in it, right?

Even though “here” doesn’t matter in the long run, I can’t help but shake this feeling that I’ve lost something—that I’ve forgotten something important…maybe even someONE important…but if I remember Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Riku and Kairi, who else do I need to remember?

Kingdom Hearts II continues the events of the first Kingdom Hearts, with Sora, Donald and Goofy trying to find their friends Mickey and Riku. While searching for their friends, Team Sora learns of a mysterious group of hooded figures, called Organization XIII, that has the ability to control a new group of enemies that have begun to plague the worlds—the Nobodies. Similar to the Heartless, the Nobodies are a product of the transformation people go through when their hearts become filled with darkness. As a person’s heart is filled with darkness, it transforms into a Heartless. When that heart has fully transformed into a Heartless, it leaves the body behind. As a result, the discarded husk transforms into a Nobody—a (typically) grayish creature that causes lots of chaos and has a voracious appetite for hearts. The task to control the Nobody population and defeat Organization XIII falls solely on Team Sora’s shoulders, and they set off to save all the worlds from this new threat.

Team Sora learns that the Organization plans to rebuild and open the doors to Kingdom Hearts while defeating several Organization members. They eventually find Mickey again, and with the help of various members of other worlds, including a revived Maleficent, they wage war on Organization XIII. The team finds out that the Organization members are Nobodies themselves and that “Ansem,” the villain that they defeated in the first game, was not the real Ansem, whom Mickey personally knew, but actually was the Heartless of a student of Ansem’s, named Xehanort, who went around and called himself Ansem. Furthermore, Xehanort’s Nobody, Xemnas, is Organization XIII’s leader.

Still with me?

Team Sora heads to the Organization’s hideout, finds Riku there waiting for them, and teams up with Ansem to defeat Xemnas. An epic battle pitting Sora and Riku against Xemnas ensues, and together, they defeat Xemnas and prevent Kingdom Hearts from opening. Sora and Riku return to their home world, and reunite with Kairi once more.