Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts II
Packaging artwork for Kingdom Hearts II, featuring the game's protagonists[a]
Developer(s)	Square Enix Product Development Division 1[1]
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Director(s)	Tetsuya Nomura
Producer(s)	Shinji Hashimoto Yoshinori Kitase
Programmer(s)	Hiroshi Harata Kentaro Yasui
Artist(s)	Takayuki Odachi Tetsuya Nomura
Writer(s)	Kazushige Nojima
Composer(s)	Yoko Shimomura
Series	Kingdom Hearts
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release	JP: December 22, 2005 NA: March 28, 2006 AU: September 28, 2006 EU: September 29, 2006 Final Mix JP: March 29, 2007
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Kingdom Hearts II^[b] is a 2005 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in collaboration with Buena Vista Games for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The game is a sequel to Kingdom Hearts, and like the original game, combines characters and settings from Disney films with those of Square Enix's Final Fantasy series. An expanded re-release of the game featuring new and additional content, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, was released exclusively in Japan in March 2007. The Final Mix version of the game was later remastered in high definition and released globally as a part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix collection for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, and Nintendo Switch.

Kingdom Hearts II is the third game in the Kingdom Hearts series, and takes place one year after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.^[2] Sora, the protagonist of the first two games, returns to search for his lost friends while battling the sinister Organization XIII, a group of antagonists previously introduced in Chain of Memories.^[3] Like previous games, Kingdom Hearts II features a large cast of characters from Disney and Square Enix properties.

Concepts for Kingdom Hearts II began during the end of development of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, with the game entering full development in 2003 and being announced at Tokyo Game Show 2003. Most of the first game's development team returned, including director Tetsuya Nomura, with the game being developed concurrently with Chain of Memories. In developing Kingdom Hearts II, the development team sought to address user feedback from the first game, give the player more freedom and options in combat and present a deeper and more mature plot.^[4][5][6]

The game was critically acclaimed and earned several awards upon release. Reviewers praised the visuals, soundtrack and voice acting, but assessments of the gameplay and narrative were mixed. In both Japan and North America, it shipped more than one million copies within weeks of its release, with over four million worldwide by April 2007.^[7][8]

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