Kingdom Hearts is a great experience that really anyone could enjoy, even if you aren't a fan of either genre.
User Rating: 8.8 | Kingdom Hearts PS2
Square has made a name for themselves in the game industry to making some of the best role-playing games on the planet, and with Kingdom Hearts, they have taken Disney characters and added them to the mix. While many characters could be considered reduced to cameos and such, the main gameplay is centered around the main character Sora, and his companions who join him later, Donald Duck and Goofy, characters most of us are very familiar with. The game begins as you start out on what seems to be a lone island in a very large ocean, where Sora and his close friends, Riku, an overconfident and cocky boy, and Kairi, a very innocent and loving girl, call home. Soon after the game begins, while a few mild tasks like sparring with various other characters take place, including a cameo from Wakka from Final Fantasy X, the game soon erupts into a flurry of events involving the main characters and the disappearance of Kairi. The story in Kingdom Hearts revolves around Sora’s sudden appearance in Traverse Town(an area that will become a sort of “headquarters” later on in the game) and the search that he continues for his friends Kairi and Riku, while Donald and Goofy are also out to find “King” Mickey. While the story isn’t nearly as intricate as some of those provided by Final Fantasy, it still stands on its own enough to keep things interesting. It definitely starts out a bit slow, with your trips between the various worlds represented by popular Disney locations driving you to see what area is next, but after a few hours the game really picks up and reveals the main driving force behind the story along with an interesting yet mildly obvious twist. The various characters presented throughout the game, whether Disney or Square related, were certainly an initial concern, but the fact that many of them are tastefully inserted into the story without feeling forced which is definitely a big plus. Squall(Leon here), Aeris, and Yuffie from the Final Fantasy series support the main character in various areas of his quest. This is a Disney-oriented tale, however, and it stays its course throughout a majority of the game, so any Square characters are generally cameos at best, with only a select few playing even a remote role in the overall scheme of the game, and even then it’s very little screen time for them. The combat system associated with Kingdom Hearts is very close to standard action-rpg fare, but obviously with its own unique abilities. While you will generally have 3 characters in your party at any one time, you only control Sora, while the computer AI controls the actions of your other party members. There is quite a bit of customization in terms of the way your fellow party members react and fight in battle, as well as heal, and you can set how frequently they use magic, special attacks, items, as well as how far or close they will remain to enemies in battle. You also have the ability to map certain weapon spells to particular button presses while holding one of the shoulder buttons. For instance, you can map the spell Blizzard to the triangle key, while mapping your Cure spell to something like the X button. This allows you to cast spells fast and on the fly so that you can continue to aggressively engage your foes. While this might not be necessary early on in the game, you will find later on that having various spells assigned and properly equipping your characters with recovery items will make battles a lot easier to manage, especially if you chose the warrior class where you want your focus on fighting with the occasional recovery, while relying more on your support characters for that task. Graphically, Kingdom Hearts is a fantastic game and really does its job well. The various Disney locales are represented with some fantastic graphical design, and they look beautiful. The characters themselves generally look pretty good as well throughout battle and during cutscenes. Some of the textures when close up tend to look bland and boring at times, but that doesn't take much away as the game still looks fairly good, with just minor problems like this in an otherwise great looking game. The various summons and spell attacks that you also have access to are very cool as well, and while not as intricate as some the typical Square summon sequences in other Final Fantasy games, they are still remain neat to watch and don't become overly tiresome as some of the previous summons from other Square titles sometimes have a tendency to. The animation from the Disney classics many of these characters hail from has transferred over masterfully to the 3D style, with their facial expressions and sadistic natures (in regards to the villains) are reproduced well. To keep things as authentic as possible, Square has also managed to snag some of the original voice talents from the various movies. James Woods makes an especially delightful return as the voice of Hades, Lord of the Underworld from “Hercules”, while Gilbert Gottfried reprises his role as the annoying sidekick Iago. Some voices don’t return, and sometimes the game loses some of its feel as a result, as is the case with the voice of Genie from “Aladdin”, as unfortunately Robin Williams was not secured as the voice actor this time around, and it really shows. Some of the lines feel forced or just not as naturally goofy, more so as lines that are meant to be funny, but sometimes aren’t. This is not present in a good majority of the game, however, and for the most part any voice talent that isn’t the same is still done fairly well and represents the nature of the characters. Musically, the game is fairly impressive, and although the main theme remains a bit depressing sometimes, it’s very good in it’s various incarnations and interpretations throughout the game. A Disney game wouldn’t be complete without Disney songs, either, so many of them are present here, and done in mild departures that still fully represent those songs that have made them famous. The particular song “Simple but Clean”, here performed by the original artist, is a song that closes the game and is a really fantastic display of music and wonderment, meshing with the end of the game well. Kingdom Hearts is truly a great experience and a game that anyone really could enjoy, even if you aren’t a fan of either genre represented. Of course if you are a fan, then this game will certainly please. Even though graphically and soundwise the game has a few dips, the entire package remains a much greater experience than any of its minor flaws. Even if you aren’t a fan of Disney, with its excellent presentation, exciting battles, heartwarming story and endearing characters, Kingdom Hearts is a game built to please just about anyone. --Joey Bianchi-- 
