Kingdom Hearts 2 just turned 20! Learn more about what makes it a PS2 classic and how fans celebrated its 20th year.
Kingdom Hearts 2 20th Anniversary was Anticlimactic
The Final Days of Summer, Twenty Years Later
December 22, 2025 came and went. For most people, it’s just another Monday in the lead-up to the holidays. However, for anyone who grew up with a PlayStation 2 controller in their hands, it is exactly twenty years since Kingdom Hearts 2 first launched in Japan. Two decades have passed since we first stepped into the oversized shoes of Roxas in Twilight Town, unaware that we were about to experience what many to this day still consider as the absolute peak of the franchise.
Kingdom Hearts 2 has been re-released, remixed, bundled, argued over, and endlessly revisited, but it remains one of the most talked-about entries in Square Enix’s long-running crossover series. Although we start as Roxas, it still follows Sora, Donald, and Goofy, as they travel through various Disney and original worlds to stop Organization XIII and reunite with their lost friends. It was Kingdom Hearts when it was still, for the most part, easy to follow; it’s a game layered in themes of identity and existence that resonated with an entire generation of players.
In the grand timeline of what many consider to be the "Golden Age" of RPGs, Kingdom Hearts 2 stands among the best of the best on the PlayStation 2, like Final Fantasy X and Xenosaga. It took everything the original game attempted and made it better. Even now, 20 years later, its combat system (most especially in Critical difficulty) is often cited by fans as the gold standard for the genre.
As we look at its 20th anniversary, we have to manage our expectations. Being a fan of this series in 2025 requires a specific kind of patience. The Game Awards, Tokyo Game Show, and various PlayStation State of Plays have all come and gone without a single update on Kingdom Hearts 4. Although we all want a massive celebration or a glimpse into the future of the series, the reality of modern game development is much slower and more complicated than it was in 2005.
Even without a flashy new trailer to celebrate, the game’s history hasn't faded. It’s a chance to reflect on why we fell in love with this franchise in the first place, and why we’re still here two decades later, waiting to see what door the Keyblade opens next.
Roxas Gets a Figure; Fans Get a Tweet
As much as fans were hoping for a massive reveal on the 22nd, Square Enix’s official acknowledgement of the anniversary has been much more reserved. On their official Japanese social media channels, the company posted a commemorative message recognizing the twenty-year milestone. The post shows the PlayStation 2 original cover art and some stills from the game.
Similarly, PlayStation Japan posted a 15-second clip of the game’s ending. "In this world, connected by the sky, I believe we’ll arrive at the same place," the tweet reads, machine-translated from Japanese.
The heartwarming part of it all was the flood of replies to both posts from fans sharing photos of Kingdom Hearts memorabilia, tattoos, stories of hearing Utada Hikaru’s Sanctuary for the first time in a TV commercial. Tributes to the PS2 classic also continue to pour in across YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit.
Though nothing posted prior to their post served as a precursor to a major event, Square Enix did reveal new merchandise a week before the game’s 20th anniversary—specifically, the FORM-ISM Roxas. As a primer, The FORM-ISM line is known for focusing on the specific form and silhouette of a character. Here, the "Heartless" playable character of Kingdom Hearts 2 is posed "gripping his keyblade and ready to face the fray" in his Twilight Town outfit.
This reveal, however, proved to be polarizing for the community. On one hand, the figure looks incredible and is a fitting way to commemorate a character who essentially defined the emotional core of the second game. On the other hand, a plastic figure—no matter how well-made—is a far cry from what fans are craving. A figure is meant to sit on a shelf as a reminder of the past, but Kingdom Hearts 3 launched in 2019, and people are impatiently waiting for something that would act as a bridge to the franchise’s future.
Adding insult to injury, Square Enix’s one and only upload on YouTube on the 22nd of December is… about a holiday sale. Worse yet, none of the featured titles on the video are from the Kingdom Hearts series.
When Compared to KH1’s 20th Anniversary in 2022
⚫︎ KINGDOM HEARTS 20th ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER (2022)
To understand why the 22nd felt so quiet, we have to look back at the series’ 20th anniversary in 2022. That was a massive year for the fandom. Square Enix held a dedicated event in Tokyo that felt like a glimpse into the series’ busy future.
In a single afternoon, we got the conclusion of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, the announcement of the mobile title Missing-Link, and the reveal of the "Lost Master Arc" with Kingdom Hearts 4. It was a roadmap that promised to keep us fed for years.
Even before that big event, the momentum was high. Leading up to the anniversary, Square Enix had already been busy with Kingdom Hearts releases. We saw the series come to the Nintendo Switch via (quite infamous) cloud versions and the launch of Kingdom Hearts Union X offline theater mode, which allowed fans to keep the story of the mobile games even after the servers went dark. Although those weren’t full "new" games, they at least gave fans something to talk about while waiting for the next big thing.
Years later, however, that roadmap veered off course. The reason Square Enix is likely being gun-shy recently with announcements is that most of those promises made in 2022 haven’t played out the way they intended.
First, Dark Road is finished. Although it was a good deep dive into the antagonist Xehanort’s past, that book is closed. The mobile game did its job, provided the lore, and was promptly delisted from all app stores in 2024 without even a notice.
This poses a significant problem, as the game's narrative seems to set the stage for major plot points in Kingdom Hearts 4. For instance, Strelitzia appears in Dark Road and is poised to play a major role in the upcoming title. As there is no official way to access this game anymore, we are now left to rely on gameplay videos archived by fans on YouTube.
Even more devastating, however, was the official cancellation of Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link back in May 2025. For three years, that game was supposed to be the thing that kept us occupied while we waited for the next big console entry. It was an ambitious project that used GPS features and was meant to bridge the narrative between the previous arc and the next.
When Square Enix pulled the plug, citing difficulties in providing a satisfactory long-term service, it left a massive hole in the release schedule that not even screenshots of Kingdom Hearts 4 could fill. They can’t announce a "link" to the next game if the link itself doesn’t exist anymore.
Meanwhile, it has been nearly four years since Kingdom Hearts 4’s first trailer, and the game is still in the middle of what has become a very long development cycle. We’ve seen a few screenshots here and there to prove it’s real, but it’s obvious that this isn't a game they can just rush out for an anniversary. Development on this scale takes time, and the team seems focused on getting it right rather than just getting it done.
It’s sadly a tough pill to swallow for fans who want a reason to celebrate, but it makes sense from a business perspective. If you don’t have a finished product or a release window to show, it’s better to say nothing than to build up more hype that might not be fulfilled for another two or three years. Square Enix probably realizes that announcing another spin-off or a distant release window would just frustrate people more.
Even as someone who spent a lot of time exploring the many worlds of all Kingdom Hearts titles, I can appreciate Square Enix taking their time. Games are bigger and harder to make now that they were back in 2005. If the 20th anniversary is just about a nice social media post and a Roxas figure, that’s fine. It’s better to respect the legacy of Kingdom Hearts 2 with a simple tribute than to distract from it with news that might not be ready to be announced.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is Still Amazing 20 Years Later
The lack of any newsworthy info might feel disappointing, but it doesn’t actually take anything away from what Kingdom Hearts 2 accomplished. Even without an announcement to piggyback on, the game stands perfectly well on its own merits. For many of us, no amount of silence from Square Enix can dim the memories of that first playthrough.
The game’s development was a huge undertaking for the "Tokyo Team" (a fan-made term for the developers who made numerous popular Square Enix titles). Following the success of the first game, the team, led by Tetusya Nomura, wanted to fix every complaint players had. They moved away from the clunky platforming of the original and focused on making the combat as smooth as possible.
Development ramped up in 2003, and by the time it hit shelves in 2005, it was evident that they had created something special. Even by 2025 standards, the "feel" of the combat holds up due to the fluidity and sheer spectacle of Sora's Drive Forms and Reaction Commands. The developers even pushed the limits of the PlayStation 2 hardware, a feat best demonstrated by the 1,000 Heartless fight.
It’s also probably in the running for the best introduction in an RPG. It took a massive risk by sidelining the main protagonist for the first several hours and forcing us to live a sun-drenched life in Twilight Town as a boy we didn’t know.
Spending those final days of summer as Roxas in Twilight Town remains one of the most poignant sequences in gaming history. We didn't know him, yet we felt his confusion and his looming sense of dread as his reality began to crumble. Spoiler alert for a two-decade-old game, but by the time he finally meets Sora and utters, "looks like my summer vacation is over," it anchors the entire game in a sense of loss, one that even we, the players, could not quite describe.
All this before we even see the game’s title card!
“Looks Like My Summer Vacation is Over”
Kingdom Hearts 2’s 20th anniversary was a different kind of celebration than what we were given years before. We didn’t get a new trailer, nor were we hit with yet another bundle sporting a silly and convoluted name. The 22nd was uncharacteristically quiet for an industry usually obsessed with "the next big thing." However, I argue perhaps that that is exactly what a game of this stature deserves. After two decades of influence and dozens of re-releases, that game has reached a point where it no longer needs to fight for our attention.
The reality is that Kingdom Hearts 2 does not need a new announcement to remain one of the best JRPGs of all time. Its legacy is already secured. It survives through fans who still speedrun its hardest bosses, the artists who continue to draw or cosplay as its characters, and the newcomers who buy the HD 2.5 Remix on a steal. Even if Square Enix remains silent for the foreseeable future, the game’s status is essentially "Simple and Clean."
For those of us who have been following this story since the beginning, the game’s anniversary reaffirms why we stay. We are still waiting for that next door to open, but we aren’t waiting in the dark. We have two decades of memories to look back on. Kingdom Hearts 2 did its job a long time ago, and for now, that’s more than enough.
Sources:
Square Enix JP’s Kingdom Hearts 2 20th Anniversary Post on Twitter
PlayStation JP’s Kingdom Hearts 2 20th Anniversary Post on Twitter
KINGDOM HEARTS II FORM-ISM Roxas Reveal
Essential Japan | Square Enix opens orders for new figure of Kingdom Hearts II’s Roxas
KINGDOM HEARTS YouTube | KINGDOM HEARTS 20th ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER
KINGDOM HEARTS YouTube | KINGDOM HEARTS 20th ANNIVERSARY TRAILER
KINGDOM HEARTS Union χ Dark Road and Offline Mode Announcement on Twitter
GamesSpot | A Key Kingdom Hearts Game Was Just Delisted
Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link Cancellation Announcement on Twitter
Game8 | Kingdom Hearts 4 New Screenshots Emerge as Missing-Link Canceled
Kingdom Hearts 4 Screenshots Shared to Twitter
Square Enix YouTube | Square Enix Store Holiday Sale
Game Developer | What's the real reason games are taking longer to make?
