Kinda forgot to review this game because I've been mostly playing it on the side and also wanted to review it once I beat Lingering Will but then I somehow forgot to save the game after finishing the Mushroom XIII and beating Sephiroth and haven't booted it up again since so i guess I should get to that now.

Reviewing Kingdom Hearts II after playing it feels strange because I watched a playthrough of this game in I think 2017 and my opinion hasn't changed much since. Despite only having watched playthroughs of (now most of) the Kingdom Hearts series, I love it enough that I purchased the all in one bundle (which isn't all in one) so my gf could play it and I could rewatch it with a new perspective essentially.
Among this series I love, Kingdom Hearts II stands out not just because people generally agree that it has the best story, people also generally agree that it has the best gameplay.
And after playing it myself I certainly agree with the last point! My only real complaint is that the difficulty curve is kinda fucked. I was playing on Critical and still I barely struggled for most of the main story (with Roxas, Demyx, and Xaldin as three big exceptions) and then as soon as you start doing postgame stuff the difficulty shoots up exponentially. i wish there was more content that was between Roxas and Sephiroth, and even more content between Sephiroth and the Data Organization battles.
Other than that, the battle system is really great, its fusion of action and menu-based combat works perfectly and I love the build variety. It is wild to me that Square Enix keeps failing to reinvent the wheel when it comes to action rpg combat when they already nailed it in 2005.

I feel like I should also say something about the story but I'm not sure I have much to say. It's a good story despite (or maybe because of) being 90% filler, I wish it didn't hate women so much, and its neither as simple nor as complex as some people claim it is.

Also gonna write a proper review of this one once I actually finish it but I just gotta say, while I appreciate adding more things to the game that make it more friendly to solo players it is incomprehensible to me why you would lock that behind progressing in a story that is supposed to tie up all the other stories.
I want to save this whole thing for the end but I also want to be able to summon 4 trusts so I guess I had to start the first few missions of a story that I won't see the end of for probably years.

Gonna write a full review once I actually finish the Nation missions but my first 30 free days are about to run out and I won't sub for now so here's just some early impressions:

This game is surprisingly fun! I was kind of dreading getting to it but honestly combat is more fun than in like half of the previous final fantasy games. It's a bit slow but it's deep and can even get pretty intense.
The grind is pretty long but it's so relaxing, one of the best things you can do while watching a video on your second screen.
Wandering around the various regions is also very nice but man most of the dungeons suck so much. Even with maps and guides they still remain hell to navigate. I actually still have 2 days left on my sub but I need a break from all the dungeoning.

The main story is shit, but I enjoyed the side quests I've done. "The Shadowlord" is the name of a villain from a fake video game played by the nerdy older brother in a 2000s tv show and I fucking hate beastmen as a narrative device so fucking much, I know this is the first time they're used in the series and I shouldn't hold XIV, XVI, and VII Rebirth against it but it sucked here too!
But getting some insights into how the war 20 years ago affected the world of Vana'diel and its people is cool, and I've heard later expansions have better stories so let's hope that's true.

Not quite sure when I'll resub, I have a bachelor's thesis coming up so probably not anytime soon, but I am looking forward to it already.