Alright. I've tried.
I even beat the first game. But Kingdom Hearts 2 is honestly kind of terrible. It's not because of the story, or the prologue, it's because of the unoptimised combat.
The reason I'm posting in this thread is to ask whether I am missing anything, because the combat system seems like complete bullshit. I can body any single boss just fine, because most of them are centralised in a big area, there is only one of them and they really don't do any more damage than anyone else in the game, but any one random fight against the most insipid Heartless is a danger. Because you apparently don't get the dodge roll until about halfway through, your only other defensive option is to use the guard and parry. But both of these actions are impossible to pull off in the middle of a combo, and both attacks and defence have such long wind-ups anyway that there is no flow to it. And God forbid if an enemy rushes at you from behind.
Enemy variety is usually a great asset to a game, but it seems like they have more answers to your attacks than you ever could. This was the impression I got in the first game as well, but at least I had the option to evade, and at least the computer could never put me in some infinite juggle situations. I don't think I've come across a game before where I have said "How was that fair?" upon a game over more than I have this one. I'm up to Port Royal, and now the game's asking me to defend myself for a full minute against semi-invincible pirates who have guns. I'm very tempted to just stop.