A RPG with an epic story and amazing cameos between disney characters and Final Fantasy.
Kingdom Hearts is an RPG created by Square-Enix, though they were not the only main creators of this game as Disney was also part of the creation of this game. Kingdom Hearts combined the characters of the Final Fantasy series such as Sephiroth, Cloud, and Aeris (Aerith) along with a mix of popular Disney characters like Goofy, Mickey, and Donald. However the game itself did not consist of just games or characters from the past but introduced new characters. But because of the game’s presentation of characters and its cast it became ignored by gamers, but needless to say once it was played, it was spread instantly. The game takes place in a magical world called Destiny Islands with the main characters Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Sora is an energetic, outgoing, and somewhat a naïve 14 year old boy. He has a crush on Kairi and he often competes with his Riku for her love. Riku is Sora’s best friend and his guard. He often has his mind on the safety of his two friends Sora and Riku and has a strong sense of protection. Kairi the only girl of the group was a girl that moved into the islands a few islands before. She is easy to befriend, kind, and sort of has a crush on Sora. The personality of these characters become more apparent throughout the progression of this game and ultimately affects the outcome of this game. Eventually these three friends have the dream of exploring worlds outside of their own. So in order to travel out of the water surrounded land, Sora and the others build their personal raft to begin their journey the following day. However, what awaited them was not fortune but mishaps and sadness. The night before the journey a storm struck the islands. Sora worried about the ship hurried to the raft only to find strange black creatures, called Heartless, that roamed the island. As he fought through the creatures he sees a vortex that is currently sucking up the island. Not only does he see a vortex but he sees his best friend Riku, demented. He sees Riku in front of the vortex as Riku offers to Sora to join him, for power. Sora confused by this tries to save Riku. Eventually he loses Riku and has a path handed to him. The path of him being the wielder of the Keyblade, and so the story unfolds. The game progresses in fact pretty slowly due to the amount of time required to finish this game which is at least 25 hours if not 30 hours minimum. Kingdom Hearts, because of its expansive story, has a lot of worlds to explore and new chapters that unfold as you proceed through the main plot. The whole game itself finishing into the 100% mark will take over 45 hours of gameplay. Kingdom Hearts itself is not only about the main story but also has tiny side quests and mini-games allowed for the players to undertake during the game. Some of the side quests are very entertaining such as the coliseum at Olympus Coliseum. Nonetheless these are tiny things to challenge your playing style after you have finished the game.
Kingdom Hearts, unlike the Final Fantasy series does not have turn based real time combat, rather a new system was implemented where it would be purely real time combat. This game consists of freely roaming around areas and worlds and enemies would pop up randomly putting you into battle mode. You as the players control Sora and his partners throughout each world and lock the keyholes in the world in order to seal the heartless from entering it. The partners vary on which Disney world you enter such as The Nightmare Before Christmas would allow you to take control of Jack Skellington. But majority of the time you’ll be relying on Donald and Goofy as your go-to partners. As you freely roam throughout areas you’ll be able to engage the menu button and set up some of Sora’s abilities. Using AP or ability points Sora is able to use moves that aren’t normally used. There are two types of abilities that can be used with Sora. One is automatic such as the effects gained by Sora while fighting a battle or finishing one. The other ability type is in battle usage where a certain move can be ignited during a battle to put some flashiness into your fight. The standard is move around with the D-pad and control the camera using the right joystick. The attack button is X and the other buttons would be your ability buttons. However, on the bottom left hand corner of the screen is the command box. This determines what command Sora is undertaking. The 4 types of command that Sora has in the Command Box would be Attack, Magic, Items, and Abilities. These commands can be changed by using the left joystick and selecting with X. However, shortcuts are implemented into the game using the L and R buttons. The game runs smoothly because of this interface and gives the player more freedom of easy choice and decision makings in battle. However because everything is basically one button oriented, such as only attacking with X, the game itself becomes button mashy. The items can be used during battle for battle effects or recovery, while the Magic can be used for offensive, defensive, or curing strategies. But the magic skills can be put into a shortcut by engaging the L or R button allowing easier access to the skills rather than scrolling for the skill you want. The whole game is in real time and therefore danger is constantly alert but takes away the feeling of danger of “entering” a battle randomly.
The graphics are rendered for its time an anime yet not cel shaded graphic style. It’s somewhat 3-d cartoonish but in reality not. The graphics are, however, done very well with minimal disappointments such as facial expressions. The sound and music was produced with elegance and grace as every bit of musical notations put into each instrument of creating this music seems like a masterpiece, from the time you pop in the game to the ending credits. The music is done very well as well as the character voice acting. The tedious thing would be, why have subtitles on the screen even though you can hear the characters, unless your deaf. Regardless everything was put together perfectly.
This game with minor flaws such as conclusions and story, graphical disappointments, and a lack of a sequel (of its time) held the game back. Putting certain factors and errors aside this game revolutionized and resurrected the RPG series of the world. If you have a PS2 or just want to play a game with good story and game play, this is one of the must play game that every gamer should play.