Released by Disney and Square Enix in 2002

"The closer you get to the light, the larger your shadow becomes"

When stars start disappearing and 14-year-old Sora's home, Destiny Islands, is engulfed in a freak storm, he must journey across worlds to find his friends, Riku and Kairi. As master of the mysterious Keyblade, Sora (voiced by the Sixth Sense's Haley Joel Osmet) must battle the soul-eating Heartless and discover where true strength lies.

Kingdom Hearts is the first collaboration between powerhouses of animation and gaming, Disney and Square. A fun, light-entertainment role-playing game featuring cameos by a plethora of familiar characters, from Cloud Strife and Sephiroth to Hades, Tinkerbell, Jack Skellington and Maleficent.

Story & Characters

The story in Kingdom Hearts is actually quite good. I wasn’t expecting a game staring classic Disney characters to be so well written. It’s nothing against Disney; I love Disney animation with all of my soul. But Disney doesn’t make good video game material… usually.

Synopsis:
Kingdom Hearts follows the story of Sora, a young boy who lives in a world called Destiny Islands. This world only contains a few islands in the middle of a large ocean world. You can guess that Sora and his friends Riku and Kairi would get really bored only being able to play on a small bit of land in the middle of nothing but blue. This is why they try to “escape� from their world. They build a raft on the smaller island that the kids play on and plan their trip for the next day.

In another world, the court wizard Donald enters the throne world of King Mickey only to find a letter detailing the danger that all of the worlds are in, and how urgent it is that he fined the one who holds the “key�. Worried, Donald and Goofy enter their “Gummi� ship and begin searching worlds trying to find their king.

A freak storm hits Destiny Islands ripping the world itself to pieces. Shortly after Sora finds a large key called the “Keyblade�, he and his friends are scattered to different world. Sora finds himself in a world called Traverse Town, and there meets up with Donald and Goofy. They believe the key Sora has is the “key� that the king’s letter speaks of and join up with him. As Sora searches for his friends, they search for their king. What follows is a large story involving a shell of what used to be the one world, a collection of small world based on Disney movies, a demon race that consume human hearts and a madman’s dream to understand and control them. (End)

The story of the game is actually quite great. I loved it all eight times I played.

Rating: 9

Art

The character designs for the new characters were absolutely fantastic. The costumes were very similar to those in FF7-10 but with small Disney-esqe features (large feet, big hands, really exaggerated curves in muscles etc). The new designs for the FF cameos were really great. Cloud and Vincent were combined to make a more evil Cloud and Aerith (not the misspelled Aeris) no longer has the jacket that made her look really … odd. The Disney characters are still done in the style of their movies and the worlds are almost exactly like the sets of the movie (with the exception of Monstro… it wasn’t that cartoony inside his stomach in the movie). The graphics aren’t really fantastic but they are better than a lot of the games coming out at the time. Overall, the visuals were very pleasing.

Rating: 7

Sound

The audio of this game is ok. The songs for the Disney world are remixed versions of songs from their respective soundtracks. It sounded nice, but it wasn’t great. The music from the original worlds (Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion, and End of the Worlds) were great on the other hand. The sound effects were pretty good in my opinion. I love the opening and ending song Hikari or Simple and Clean by Hikaru Utada. Although The music isn’t perfect, I think it went well with the game. It was a nice combination of music from my childhood with brand new stuff to listen to.

Rating: 6

Presentation

The game play is the heart of every game (or at least it’s supposed to be) and this games best quality is just that. Everything about this game play is fun to me. The game play is similar to Zelda but a lot more fun. You control your character with the left analog and your position on the task menu with the right analog. The X button makes the character perform the task that is currently selected on the task menu (attack, magic, item) and the O button causes you to jump. You control the camera with the L/R buttons. Some people complain that it is too hard to control the camera and that using magic or items leaves you open to be attacked. My opinion is that the camera is easy and trying to use magic and items without getting hit is part of the fun of the game. The game is actually very fun in my opinion. Running through the world and trying to dodge the flying attacks of your enemy and cast spells and use items makes the game seem more urgent. The game is in no way difficult though. It’s quite simple and you can beat it in a day or two. That is the games one downfall. Other than that, the game play is fantastic and I suggest it to anyone who hasn’t played it yet.

Rating: 9

Final Verdict

8.17 (good)

Reviewed by BenHo, May 05, 2005

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