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NCS Game Notes - POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW
* During boot up, The Buena Vista logo appears before the Square Enix logo.

* The title screen features an image of Sora to the right of the Kingdom Hearts 2 logo and he appears to be eating a blue ice popsicle.

* Leave the title screen alone and a sequence of game cinemas and animations will play which show Sora and friends sitting on the ledge of a clock tower along with other cuts where Sora tosses a massive key blade to the ground, Sora gets accosted, and Sora faces off against slick enemies from Organization XIII. There are sequences with Mickey in a knight's armor, Namine drawing a sketchy staircase, Sora and gang rushing at things in the distance, and other theatrical tidbits that would work well in a trailer.

* Start a game and water shimmers followed by the KH2 logo circling into view before zooming out towards the viewer. The text in the introductory cinema is in English with Japanese subtitles below. Please note however that all of the in-game text is in Japanese only. The intro recaps the adventure in KH1 with Sora going through the paces.

* Sora's hair is better feathered than Cloud's with spikes and tufts moving in every direction. From afar however, Sora and Cloud could be brothers since they share the same coif archetype.

* Intro: Heartless cohorts are cloaked in black outfits with hoods. Staring at their faces will get you an eyeful of darkness. Sora awakens on a beach and yawns - fake interference hits and cuts through the intro sequence where Sora reminisces a little before appearing in a room with a weird fish bowl. He wakes up, pushes open his windows, and peers outside. In the distance, a train rolls in front of the sun and "Twilight Town" text magically appears. In the next scene, he's staring at his hands and seated with a group of friends and "The 1st Day" begins.

* Once control is handed over, L-analog jaunts Sora around in a world which appears to be oddly proportioned. The buildings are stretchy and distort as they leave the field of vision on screen. Motor Sora towards your group of friends across the street and speak to a sequence of people behind booths. Talking is performed by homing in on someone and then pressing the TRIANGLE button when prompted. After hitting R1 in front of the old lady with the cat and speaking for a spell, the gang dashes off into the distance where they come across Vivi and three humans dressed in mod fashion. A battle using blue batons/swords between Sora and the lead in the black cap ensues.

* In the baton battle, Sora jumps with X and slashes with O. Sora may chain up to 4 blows together to defeat the opponent. A friend takes a photo of Sora's victory when a silvery wiry creature appears and steals his camera. Sora follows the creature into a forest and watches as it dashes around. The next action is to chase it to the gates of the Old Mansion - at close range, the silvery humanoid appears to be a shark-like headed beast that struts like a supermodel towards Sora. After trying to smite it a couple of times, Sora's baton magically changes to a key blade which has much more success in vanquishing it. After the battle, the creature disappears and leaves behind five photographs, one of which Sora picks up. Fade out.

* Reunited with his friends, they all stare at the photographs where Sora is standing in front of one of the commissaries on the street and posing with friends. Up until this point, about 30 minutes of game time has passed.

* In the next scene, Sora is alone and he walks a bit before shielding his eyes from the bright rays of the sun. Fade out and the scene changes to the lair of the hooded figures from before. One of them is operating a computer of some sort when another hooded figure appears.

* In the next flashback, Sora wakes up and Pluto is there to greet him. Sora is reunited with Donald and Goofy. We still can't get over how weird Donald sounds with a Japanese "duck" accent (Koichi Yamadera provides the voice). Sora wakes up in his room again... and so on and so forth. It's a long intro that sets up the beginning the game.

* When Sora rejoins his friends in Twilight Town, they'll all noshing on blue popsicles and Sora gets one too. After a bit of bantering, they all vamoose their headquarters again and control is handed once again to the player. At this point, it's possible to save your progress (so you won't have to go through the lengthy intro again) by stepping into a whirling circle of lights.

* Follow your friends into a back alley where they're standing around a poster for an upcoming event called "STRUGGLE." The gang makes a pact to earn enough money to buy tickets to the event. Soon afterwards, Sora is standing in front of a "HELP WANTED" bulletin board and may select three jobs to earn the necessary ducats.

* The first job is a mail delivery task where Sora grinds rails on a skareboard and delivers mail to 3 persons and 2 birds by pressing the TRIANGLE button. To clear the job, grind the sloping wall next to the HELP WANTED board by hitting the TRIANGLE button and you'll leap at the end of it. Hit the TRIANGLE button again when you're airborne and near the bird to complete the task.

* The next job is "Cargo Climb" where Sora has to whack a massive bag on a cart up a downward sloping street. Every hit will send it rolling upwards before gravity takes hold and sends it rolling downwards again. NCS recommends against chaining four attacks in this particular task because you'll end of lofting it up and crashing down... on your impetuous hide. A better strategy is to hit the bag twice in quick succession, wait a second and then hit it a third time to send it rolling upwards with a strong blow. Once you hit it into the garage, you'll be rewarded.

* The third task is called "Performance" and one has to chain-smack a ball into the air until it explodes in front of a bunch of pedestrians who are standing around. Once the ball is whacked open, they all leave.

* Kingdom Hearts 2 has been enjoyable thus far in the hour we've spent with it. There's enough interactivity in the intro to break up the cinematic story telling. We still haven't bumped into Goofy or Donald yet but we figure we'll crash into them in the next hour of play.

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