To date, Square Enix has been more tight-lipped about Kingdom Hearts II than government agents are with nuclear armament codes. Finally though, at E3 we got our first taste of what to expect from the highly anticipated sequel to the game that successfully blended Square and Disney characters.

The first thing that everyone will immediately notice is the maturation of Sora, the main protaganist from the first game. He now is sporting some fancy black duds, and doesn't appear quite as child-like as in Kingdom Hearts. The tone of the game has certainly darkened to some degree, as enigmatic cloaked figures were in abundance during movies shown for the game.

The gameplay is fairly similar to the previous installment, but what would a good sequel be without some added features? Contextual moves, which are activated by pressing the triangle button in sync with a flashing display on-screen, allows Sora to perform some slick tactical moves in battle. For instance, during a fight against a Heartless foe resembling a Chinese dragon, the beast would occasionally sweep across the battlefield, in an attempt to knock the stuffing out of our hero, Sora. By employing an adept press of the triangle button, it was possible to duck underneath this charge, and then have an opportunity to retaliate.

Perhaps even more intriguing, is the new "Drive" ability, whereby you can "fuse" with another character in your party (DBZ anyone?), to give Sora new abilities. During the boss battle against the dragon Heartless, Mulan was a character in the party, and by charging a Drive meter (which seemed to be filled as Sora pounded on the dragon), you could access the Drive command and use the "Valor Form". This changed Sora into a whirling dervish of dual-wielding key blade action, and also changed the color and style of his clothing. It was quite a treat unleashing the hellacious key blade combos which were now available, though it should be noted that while in the Drive mode, the Drive meter was continously drained, and once it reached empty, Sora was forced to revert back to normal form (the Revert command is also available anytime Sora is in Drive mode).

Thus far, the game looks very promising, and is poised to deliver another epic adventure chronicling the exploits of Sora and friends. If the great raconteurs at Square Enix keep up their end of the bargain, it should prove to be worth seeing this game to its end.

View more screenshots in our Kingdom Hearts II Gallery.