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Reviewed by David Rasmussen Forget TOKYOPOP's recent woes, what I want to know is when Square Enix is going to announce the coming of Kingdom Hearts III! Sure, it's E3 week this week as I write this, so the info may be out by now (have to do my homework to see what games got announced this week), and technically speaking I really don't have much to look forward to except a possible PSP spinoff game, as I don't own a PS3 (which is what the game will most likely come out for), but at least I can hope it's coming, even if I won't get to play it for the most part. Anyway, considering Sony is in the doghouse for not following up on critics pestering that they get an agreement to have exclusive game releases from Square Enix (what with the announcement that FF XIII is coming out on the XBox360) right now Sony and the PS3 could use some lovin' from Square Enix in the form of a KHIII release (seeing how KH is still for the most part a Sony exclusive release not counting the inferior "Chain of Memories" release on the GBA). Speaking of lovin', how about some manga lovin' from the KH universe while we wait for someone to get the rights to the prose Kingdom Hearts fictions (seen only in Japan and never released in English as far as I know). Volume I is set entirely in the longest 3 hours you ever spent playing an introduction to a game sequence. It starts off in Twilight Town, and you're playing as Roxas (who I actually began to like better than Sora… until the intro was done...). You have new friends (I missed that girl you pal around with here until I saw how finely your galfriend from the first game grew up… and she grew up so fine, too), Christopher Lee guest stars as a villain in this game (of course that means nothing in the manga but still) and that girl from Chain of Memories is here as well, as well as the return of the Heartless and more Final Fantasy cameo appearances. Basically this is the whole start before Sora returns, so you have to check out Volume 2 to see what worlds this manga brings up like before (I'm betting once again they cut out Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas which sucks because it's the first time in the franchise they put in an original story arc instead of a rethread of movie content… in this case the Nightmare Before Christmas content takes place a year after the movie in which Jack is considering replacing Santa… again… and ends up fighting a resurrected Oogie Boogie over in Christmas Land). (Hmmm… I wonder if this also means they're going to cut out Pirates of the Caribbean as well, though Disney has more control over that, so maybe not.) If you are a fan of the original Kingdom Hearts manga (or read the shoujo-flavored read called Kilala Princess), then you should be reading this. Once again it takes the game and makes a great translation into manga format, and now that TOKYOPOP is going into reorganization hopefully that means TOKYOPOP mangas of old are (knock on wood) going to end up in the bargain bin making for easy buying (I have to go check the bargain bins at my favorite buying spots to see if I can find any bargains). Otherwise, if you can find this (and look, it's at a rather decent price to begin with at $8 a pop), pick it up and enjoy. B+! Joy! Comment on this review of Kingdom Hearts II v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
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