Kingdom Hearts

The Good
First off, I'll start with the first blatant fact; Kingdom Hearts is for children, and makes a weak game for the "advanced" gamer, right? WRONG! This game is totally under-rated by some gamers who claim to be "hard-core", even those who haven't even played the game. Why? Some say it's "Too unreal", others say because of its "dreadful plot" or "it's just too easy". Well, it may be "unreal" slightly, but have we forgotten what fun actually is? It's not how far you've got doing something or bragging your progress - FUN is your own personal entertainment, and believe me when I say that I have had lots of fun playing this.

Many long-time gamers have slammed the game because of its simple plot, but after playing it, the plot is so unique in the way it is told and expressed that many of the gamers who have previously told bad rumors of the game to find it quite fun. But anyway, let's move away from what other people think - this is MY review, and my thoughts of the game which I will express (and the reason you're reading this now):

I'll start with the presentation and audio. Wow. Okay, immediately after pressing New Game, you're thrown into the action - but its not a sharp push into the game, instead, its a cool and funky way of getting you started. Most games just drop a tutorial on your head, and lift off from that point dead quick you're head is spinning. But this game is different, for example, the game is delivered with a funky-beat music video of things to come with really cool music. The graphics of this, and other scenes to come, is just great!

But instead of a do-this-then-that-then-whatever type of tutorial, where everything is boring because of the way it is so linear, Kingdom Hearts lets you roam in a lush colourful environment where you learn how to play the game by playing mini-games in any order you want, and for how many times you want. The first level in the prologue and the only learning curve, but it is the only one needed so don't sweat when you find that you're world has suddenly collapsed around you.

Another interesting thing worth noting is the Journal. This Journal records all major information of your quest, with pictures and back-tracking information which help should you forget where you're up to in the plot. Another quick thing I have to mention is the graphics. During movie scenes, they are simply great and are so too during gameplay. Tropical places are lush and colourful, whilst the latter dark places give a great atmosphere.

The battle mechanics are great fun to repeat in lots of battles and chances are that you'll never get tired of defeating so many enemies using so many combos and other attacks.

The Bad
Somewhat annoying was the camera. Whilst roaming a level or indulging with some puzzles, the camera is fine and out-of-mind. However, come battle time, the camera can become in the way of things and start to annoy you, especially when you've got low life points and are surrounded by deadly enemies.

A feature I've never even experienced like before was the "Gummi Ship". Without revealing what it is, or what it is for, I just want to say how slow-paced it is for something that is supposed to be action-packed. Luckily, this isn't a big part of the game and can be ignored as it only needs to be repeated just a few times.

The Bottom Line
Kingdom Hearts is simply a great game. It's graphics and lovely memorable intro cinematic are simply jems of this game, and it's worth playing. It's nice to know that there are two current sequels to this game, with one currently in production. The next game, thankfully, has everything in this game but greatly improved upon. Enjoy!

The Good
At first, the idea of a disney game with a squaresoft type touch seemed incredibly stupid to me, but after I played this game, I figured out my mistakes.

The graphics are nothing to laugh at. This solid RPG offers enough eye candy to play for hours. I probably could play this game over and over. The characters look amazing, as does the hero. All objects and worlds are created excellently, and the game manages to have a great gfx touch along with a cartoony disney touch.

Playing the game is a breeze. While the camera can get disturbing sometimes, this can be easily overcome using the lock on feature. The game was fast, and barely had any slowing down on my system.

The sound and music is also okay.

The Bad
The only thing I despised about this game was the key thing that you had to use for a weapon. I hated it, but since its a disney game, and they couldn't go off with machine guns, Ill let it pass.

The Bottom Line
I give this game a complete <<<<< 5 out of 5 >>>>>

The Good
The game begins slow and light hearted, like pretty much any Squadsoft tale and most Disney Movies. Two boys and a girl (Sora, Riku, and Kairi respectively) on an island enjoy a life that is nice and quiet and safe but things go immediately downhill and Sora discovered he is the destined bearer of the Keyblade. After teaming up with Goofy and Donald Duck shortly after, you go on to meet a variety of characters from Final Fantasy and Disney. You travel from Disney world to Disney world and experience the tales that have been told through Disney cartoons as they are now that the Heartless have interfered in thier progression.

As could be expected after Final Fantasy X, the graphical presentation in this game is top-notch. Without resorting to cell shading, which can be very poorly implemented and distracting in some games, Kingdom Hearts manages to look and feel at times like an interactive cartoon. Even so, the worlds and characters are all very detailed and even the simplest characters are made up of enough polygons to make it difficult to find any jagged edges on anything unless they were designed to have them. Lets not forget the spectacular and attractive effects you see in pretty much every battle or cutscene that make the battles more engrossing.

The sound and music are also well done, which is no suprise with Square on the job. With the most of the PS2's resources going to the graphics of the game the music has had to remain synthesized instead of composed and recorded but the game doesn't really suffer for it. The voice acting is usually spectacular, featuring some big pop star names like Mandy More and Lance Bass in addition to the voices behind the Disney movie characters. Billy Zane does an excellent job as well, and is a welcome addition to any game he lends his voice to. There was only a single time where emphasis on different words meshed incorrectly, pointing to the fact that videogame voice acting tends to be recorded in isolation from other actors and without knowledge of how the other actors portrayed their characters. Less can be said of even excellent games like Final Fantasy X.

The Bad
There is not a lot to complain about in this game, unless you don't like 3rd-person adventure/RPG type games.

Initially I did not like the fact that Sora carries a weapon that is basically a big key. The overly "kiddie" weapon appearance was easily remedied early in the game when you get a "keychain" that upgrades your weapon. It actually LOOKS like a blade eventually!

The camera could sometimes have major problems in large heated battles. There has yet to be a perfect camera in any game like this though, so this can not really be held against the Square development team. There are so many variables involves in camera movements and enviroments, especially in those of Kingdom Hearts, a perfect camera may just be a pipe dream.

A personal gripe, though largely incosequential, is that the music in the optional Sephiroth battle should have been orchestrated. Once you've heard One Winged Angel in it's live and orchestrated form you never want to go back.

The Bottom Line
This game is a fun adventure for all ages. Depending on what character development choices you make early in the game, it may be too difficult for very young players. For advanced players that desire a challenge you can set the difficulty to "Expert" for a real challenge.

If you don't like adventure games but wish to just collect Final-Fantasy or Disney related games then you will definately want this one!

The Good
This is a awesome gaming experience 4 all ages.The voice overs are fantastic.Like the publishers say, You never Know who you'll run into next. The Journal feature was okay.You can learn about other characters and watch their bios evolve into time.

The Bad
Well,he dies too easily.Sora that is.The fact you can't carry characters from other worlds to the next.These two reason is all.

The Bottom Line
It truly is a great game with FF characters,plus Disney friends. I at least say if you don't buy it,you should at least rent it. Experience the magic of combination Squaresoft and Disney!!!

The Good
The graphics were cool as was the plot. I enjoyed my weapons and i really liked when goofy and donald meet up with Sora. You can in some areas, allow for them to beat the baddies for the most part. I adored the lock on button and found it very useful.

The Bad
hmm. I have a few- I would have to agree that Sora died a bit too easy at times, causing for me to trash my sofa in a fit of anger ( who says that video games don't create violence in people?!?!? ). I also wasn't too keen on the long, long cut out scenes. While I enjoy Disney movies, I really wanted to get back to the game. But in all fairness, they were good clips. It provided for a quick break to get some grub. I also was annoyed with the camera angles but I'm usually annoyed with that with most games. Also annoyed with the save feature.

The Bottom Line
It's like watching a disney movie and interacting with it . It's a bit for kids but anyone can enjoy the game. It's a good game, buy it if you are into disney. It keeps you interested so it does what a good video game should do.

The Good
How "Kingdom Hearts" ever got past its initial boardroom pitch is beyond me. Whoever came up with the idea of combining Final Fantasy with Disney should have been laughed out of the room for such a ridiculous idea. Fortunately for us, the absurd pitch worked, and the result is one heck of an enjoyable game.

The powerhouses of Disney and Squaresoft meant a huge budget for this baby, and it shows. The graphics, music and voice acting (by an A minus cast of Hollywood actors and Disney voiceover artists) are flawless and simply breathtaking.

This game's been out for a good while now so I'll rush through the plot. You play a kid by the name of Sora who, with the aid of (ahem) Donald Duck and Goofy must set out to defeat a shadowy bunch of monsters called the Heartless. The Heartless have teamed up with just about every Disney villain there is and have taken over the, er, wonderful world of Disney. So our trio of heroes must set out through various beautifully rendered Disney worlds (Neverland, Atlantica, 100 acre Wood etc) and banish the Heartless.

It all sounds a bit childish and it is, but it's great fun. My kids adore this game and it's interesting enough to keep me playing it with them.

Plenty of hack and slash, puzzle solving and a whole lot of jumping keep things moving along nicely, and the FMV and aforementioned music and voices make "Kingdom Hearts" a hugely enjoyable gaming experience.

And any game with James Woods in it is alright by me.

Oh, and Goofy gets to kick some serious ass. Yes, you read that right.

The Bad
The camera can be a bit annoying, particularly on some of the tougher jumping levels.

Boss battles are probably too tough for the young uns.

The Bottom Line
What is there to say? It's already a PS2 classic and you already own it, don't you? You don't? You should.

The Good
With the combined prowess of Square and Disney, it is no surprise that Kingdom Hearts is a highly polished game. This 3rd-person adventure/RPG pits the young protagonist Sora against the armies of the Heartless. In order to stop the heartless, Sora must travel to a number of worlds straight out of the Disney movies. Each world Sora visits, along with his AI controlled companions Donald and Goofy, is well designed and instantly recognizable to anyone with a passing familiarity with the appropriate franchise.

These individual worlds Sora travels to look fantastic. The characters are well voiced and the combat system is entertaining and challenging. The story, while certainly not Square's best (or Disney's for that matter), is interesting enough to keep you playing. In normal Square fashion, there are numerous secrets to find and collections to complete most of which are enjoyable. Overall, the core gameplay is well done and highly polished and is bound to entertain action-RPG fans, Square fans, and Disney fans alike.

The Bad
One of the most disappointing aspects of the game lies within the 'Gummi' ship levels found when traveling between worlds. These levels take the form of an on-the-rail shooter. In these levels, the player flies through a psychedelic backdrop shooting ships, asteroids, and other obstacles and then picking up various parts that they drop. A significant portion of the treasure and secrets found within the game result in additional parts for this Gummi ship. The player can then use these parts to design additional ships with increase speed, firepower, etc. While this could have been an interesting concept, the Gummi ship levels are entirely unrelated to the game. You can go through all these shooter levels without dying once or even being challenged. This eliminates the need for any such ship modification beyond using the ship design portion of the game as a time sink. While this may appeal to some, It was disappointing to me to have a large amount of the treasure and secrets in the game result in something that has a net effect of zero on the game.

An additional problem encountered stemmed from poor camera control in a number of locations. There were numerous times when the player is forced to make a jump they can not see due to issues with the camera.

While the worlds are well designed graphically, several of them are poorly designed from a gameplay stand point. These worlds (the Tarzan world in particular), suffer from extreme repetition in which the player must visit the same locations within that world over and over. This has a tendency to artificially extend the time the player spends in each world running from location to already visited location.

Finally, like most Square games, there are numerous cutscenes throughout the game. This has a tendency to halt the flow of the game. While this may be forgivable due to the high quality of the cut scenes, the fact that the player can not skip the cutscenes is not.

The Bottom Line
While there are a number of flaws in this title, it is hard to not enjoy the game. The seemingly incongruent mash-up of Final Fantasy and Disney works surprisingly well. The core gameplay is enjoyable and the story, while not up to the usual Square standards, is entertaining as well.

The Good
Holy f*ck! They had Sephiroth! And Donald! You don't see a combo like that everyday, that's for sure. I only got this game not too long ago, Christmas to be exact, and I couldn't put it down after I started.

The battle system was great. Hack-and-slash is a lot of fun, and the graphics really brought it to life.

Though I hate H. J. Osment with a passion, I think the voices were wonderful, ranging from Lance Bass (Sephiroth) to Billy Zane (Ansem) and everyone else in between.

The Disney worlds were great. Atlantica was fun. Neverland was fun. Basically, any place where you could move on an upward plane was great.

The characters are very original, as is the plot. It isn't your basic 'prince saves princess', it goes incredibly deep to explain everything that happens. And leaves a lot of questions.

The Bad
THAT STUPID CAMERA!!!! Ugh! I hated it! It made things so hard... It took me 6 tries to glide out on a very small island and get a chest with some puppies in it because of the retard camera. Other than that, I cannot complain about this game.

The Bottom Line
FUN. FUN. FUN. If you don't have it, get it or I'll inflict major pain. Everyone needs this game. There's no way someone could play it and say, 'that sucked.' Disney and Squaresoft--a match made in Hell-- have come together with a large success. All I can say is: I can't wait for KH2.

The Good
Two points share the upper hand in the applause section, and that is of music and graphic. Graphical elements are like hardly ever seen in such detail on PlayStation 2 or any other platform for that matter. Dynamic backgrounds will constantly keep you at the edge of reality whereas carefully chosen textures will make you believe the unbelievable. Looking at the character movements, ocean waves, sun rayed sandy beach, or swinging palms circled by a seagulls can easily make you wanna be at that place, feeling exact essence of nature Sora does. And graphic really has the strong effect to make you closer to the game so you won't feel yet that far away.

Worlds are taken to extreme detail level, and all Disney 'toons are so well balanced that you will eagerly anticipate the next one to come. Worlds aren't too small and will provide you with what you'll expect from this game, in a vast wave at that. Don't take the graphic lightly as it can by no means be compared to childish, as a matter of fact it can easily leave superb graphic such as of Final Fantasy X or Silent Hill 2 pretty far behind. So no, this is a not just a whacky idea for a cartoon, this is every player's experience.

Soundtrack if so great that every worlds has its own theme, and so unique at that. Each song is so different from another, each one is so full of feelings and ambience towards the place it's played at, it is by far one of the finest soundtracks to listen during gameplay, and I believe, as an audio compact disc just as well. Utada Hikaru's song "Simple and Clean" is awesome, and techno beat for the intro is really perfect to fit the opening cinematic. However, the original Japanese version, "Hikari" (also by Utada Hikaru, duh) is much nicer for an ending song. They are both alike, but something's lost within translation, and instrumental version wouldn't sound that much same. If you can manage to get ahold on both, that would be achievement.

Controls are well balanced and the real fun will start when player gets ahold of some party abilities such as floating on the air, jumping higher, or flying. The hole manual versus auto-targetting system rocks and is perfect just the way it is. But controls won't be just for walking mode, there is a mode when you get to dive (think Little Mermaid) or fly (think peter Pan) where you get whole new set of controls, and might become easier (flying) or complicated (diving) until you get ahold of controls. Perfect thing is how all three main characters (Sora, Goofy and Donald) change outfit according to any new world they visit, either get a fish tail for water world, scary outfit if in halloween town, or whatever comes with a certain world theme.

Voice-acting is no less but equivalent to the soundtrack. Although there will be equal use of text-only as voice-overs, English version fits perfectly for every single character. Donald and Goofy even sound as in cartoons (be lucky to have subtitles all the way when listening to those two, lol), Sora's voice is joy to listen (although I didn't think it'll be that good when I saw who's the voice-actor), and Kairi is a music to ears. Not to mention that all the villains are pretty much as you may hear them in their original roles.

The game has many surprises, and that is one of its stronger side, it keeps you going from one story to another, never know who to expect next, never know what evils to fight next, and you get to have a journal all along the way. It gives a details on how many which types of enemies you perished, who did you meet on your journey, and when and where did they appear first time on screen. It was really fun to read as how they wrote something about everyone.

Story is a typical one where you must prove the darkness that light in our hearts can be seen in any dark corner, and as such it cannot be dimmed. The characters are so cut and likeable that you cannot imagine to start hating even the bad ones. More to the point you always win over them, and that in case you loose some fight, you don't have to reload way back but usually start from very near place of conflict. The way how your party members help you all the way is brilliant, and they do help you a lot sometimes. 'Tis a game which you simply get to like, it gets you and gets you until you say 'okie'.

The Bad
Knowing SquareSoft and how they must make extra-tough battles against villains, I expected they will make it a bit softer to the fact this game came out after Final Fantasy X which didn't trouble you that much when compared to all of its prequels. Well, this thing is, there are countless boss battles in this one, but none of it that hard. Well, none of it that hard so you won't be able to pass it after 3000-5000 times, bust still. Certain fights were simply hard, and although you could always get into position of status-quo where nemesis wouldn't be able to do much harm, nor could you. Sometimes you could only depend upon your companions, and that was kinda too hard. Also, since this battle system cannot compare to those of other Square's RPGs, this requires constant care and precisement from player's coordination. Sometimes there was simply pay-attention strategy which usually lasted for like half-an-hour, and pressing pause button was a constant consideration.

Being more action game that requires reflexes as much as it requires well planned strategy may come to my advantage, but the end battle which consists of only too many in a row was not light at all and I cannot even begin to think of replaying it again. Took me 2+ hours to pass countless bosses and what all not, yet I didn't even get the opportunity to see the ending cinematic whenever I wish after passing all that. Square always stays Square, and they will never make you see something unless you either replay it and have a hard time again, or know how to extract the prise. The game had only too many beautiful scenes, and form what the ending presented, this seems like a game split in half, and this, of course, if the first half. That sounds already fine if the sequel's coming, but kinda leaves you sort of 'empty' in the ending of it all, with only extremely cute ending cinematic with great background song.

The Bottom Line
To say Disney can come up with something so wonderful (yeah yeah, I'm talking beyond the limits of contents for kids and other fans) and to make me proclaim that I like this game so much is definitely beyond my limits of belief. Square and Disney, Disney and Square... tsk tsk tsk, somehow it always tended towards sounding as hilarious attempt to make something which is only meant to catch a failure. Creating a worlds so distinctive and bringing them to life by a merge of their inhabitants, on one side Square's characters from well known Final Fantasy game series, and on the other Disney's characters from numerous of cartoons from Little Mermaid to Tarzan.

Seems like many people were sort of skeptical towards this idea of joining the best of both worlds, on one side western giant, Disney with their art, and on another eastern giant, SquareSoft with anime art. But just as many people mistrusted that idea in general, they sought to try it and see how much they can laugh at all this. The thing is, they were all sort of converted with completely altered final thought upon the grand finale. This mix doesn't just seem nice, but really and undoubtedly perfect with no range left for errors. This is a very good step towards creating something that might attract sub of all fans, both of Disney and SquareSoft.

When something surprises you so much like this game, it is only fair to take one step back and acknowledge thy own mistake, embracing the world of Kingdom Hearts with both hands opened, 'cos, who knows how soon can we hope to encounter such a well thought combination like this one.

The Good
Kingdom Hearts was one of the first "epic" games I ever got to play. It's high production values, interesting (if confusing) storyline, and gameplay really stood out to me. As one of the first PS2 games I ever got, it was the first game I played on the system that strongly convinced me that upgrading from the PS1 to the 2 was the correct decision.

I was, and will always be, a fan of Disney. I loved most of their movies, and would spend hours as a kid watching the shorts with Mickey and his friends, including my favorite, Donald Duck. When I saw there was a game that allowed you to fight with and against many of the iconic Disney characters, I was skeptical, but I went ahead and bought it anyway. What followed was one of the strongest memories I had for the PS2.

The storyline involved an anime-ish character named Sora travelling through different worlds with Goofy and Donald in an attempt to find his own friends and return back to his own world. Incidentally, Goofy and Donald are looking to find Mickey, who oddly enough is never seen for the entirety of the game. Weird, huh?

Each world played out like a mini story in and of themselves. Some of the worlds, such as Traverse Town, were created exclusively for the purposes of the game, but most were based on Disney films. The stories in each world loosely followed the plots of the films they were based on, and allowed the player to interact with the various characters they had only previously seen on film. One world, Atlantica, based on " The Little Mermaid" has Sora transformed into a human-dolphin hybrid, which offered an interesting twist on the gameplay by forcing the player to swim around instead of jump on platforms.

The gameplay plays out like an action platform game with RPG elements. Yes, most of the time you will be mindlessly mashing the X button, but the addition of magic and items, along with the verticality of the levels, makes for an interesting and fun style of gameplay. In addition, there are also on-rails shooting levels in the style of "Starfox" or "Iridion 3D" where the goal is to shoot your way to the end while avoiding obstacles. The game gives you the option of building something called a "Gummi Ship" by using a needlessly complicated interface to do so. Thankfully, you will only need to play through the shooting sections once for each new world that you come across, as purchasing a key part for the Gummi Ship will allow you to warp across worlds you've already been to.

The graphics are outstanding. The characters resemble their animated counterparts so closely that somethime's you'll swear you are watching a Disney animated movie instead of a game cutscene. The framerate stays pretty consistent throughout, and the battle sequences and backgrounds offer plenty of eyecandy to gawk at. Simply put, one of the best looking games on the system.

The sound is great too. You'll hear classic Disney tunes as well as fully orchestrated original music, which complements the familiar stuff well. There's even a pop song with lyrics sung by Japanese singer Utada Hikaru, that's quite difficult to get out of your head. Sometimes the music can be a little "MIDI"-ish in some spots, but overall, it's quite well done.

As a story driven game, the voice acting here also deserves mention. The voices for the Disney characters sound exactly like their original voices. I bet more than a few of them ARE the original voices. As for the non-Disney ones, they picked a surprisingly recognizable cast there as well. Haley Joel Osmont voices the main character Sora, while Hayden Panetierre voices Kairi, and David Gallagher voices Riku. Other popular voices, such as Mandy Moore, Christy Carlson Romano, and Lance Bass, also put in appearances as characters from the developer's other key series, Final Fantasy, that were thrown into the mix as well. Their harsher, Teen-rated edges have been toned down slightly for this particular release, however.

The Bad
While the graphics are stunning, there was one major problem I had with them, one that's bitterly ironic given the theme of the game: They're too dark! There were at least a couple of instances where I literally couldn't see anything BUT Sora and lost my way as a result of the visuals being too dark. I was stuck for at least a couple days on the storm sequence because I couldn't see where I was supposed to go very clearly. That was especially painful because I would have to play from the very beginning of the game due to the lack of save points until past the storm. Getting to Merlin's house was pure torture because I couldn't see the rocks that you were supposed to jump on to get there. Brightening the tv did help, but I wish the developers brightened the darker areas of this game up a little more so that such adjustments wouldn't be necessary.

The cutscenes were not skippable. Although it makes sense as a more story-driven game to force the player to watch the cutscenes, some of them were very long and led to difficult boss fights thereafter, especially near the end of the game. I nearly gave up fighting Riku in Hollow Bastion because the cutscene before hand was about five minutes long and I would keep dying soon after. This would thankfully be rectified in the second game.

Finally, my biggest complaint for the game: It's too hard. it took me five years to beat this game because I gave up at a certain, overly frustrating boss fight near the end of the game. Only after having a friend finish it for me was I able to continue and defeat the final boss. Just about every boss in this game was hard in some way, so only dedicated gamers need apply. Casual fans of Disney and videogames will absolutely struggle to get through this one.

The Bottom Line
This is, to me, the best game in the Kingdom Hearts series to date. Subsequent games would tone down the difficulty of gameplay while ramping up the difficulty of following their storylines. Some of them, like the disappointing "Chain of Memories", would even change the gameplay entirely. But this is the one to play, if you must play any KH game at all. It is an epic, visually stunning journey, through a surprising universe you thought you would never see, and most ages can come along for the ride, which is always a plus in my book. A real PS2 gem.

The Good
I'm not really much of a Disney fan but I really enjoy this game. The graphics are really nice (as usual), and the soundtrack is very good, in fact, I actually have the Simple and Clean song and the cool battle music stuck in my head as I type this review up. The battle setup is nothing like any of the Final Fantasy games, but it's still fun. I also found it odd but strangely fun that you could go to the worlds of classic Disney movies and have the hero of the world actually join you (if you replace Goofy or Donald with that character anyway) and fight the Heartless creatures and even fight the villain/s of that world. I'd tell you how enjoyable everything else is, but that would literally take forever and you'd probably fall asleep before I finished, I really, really, like this game.

The Bad
This is tough. Actually, I really hated the camera angles in Kingdom Hearts. It's very tough to remember which buttons control them. That about wraps it up.

The Bottom Line
Final Fantasy/Disney fans will really find Kingdom Hearts a very enjoyable experience. Go out and buy it if you really like Final Fantasy and/or Disney or at the very least, rent it. It's a major shame though, that this game hasn't (and probably won't) come out for GameCube or XBox.

The Good
Kingdom Hearts is one of the best games ever to grace the Playstation 2. It is essentially something along the lines of Final Fantasy meets Disney, with characters like Yuffie, Squall (aka Leon), Cloud, and (of course) Sephiroth, as well as Disney characters like Donald Duck, Goofy, Pinocchio, and many more. The game is balanced in difficulty. It's not too easy or too hard. The voice cast is one of the best in video game history, including Haley Joel Osment as Sora the protagonist. There are plenty of secrets hidden all through the worlds, which give the game much replay value.

The Bad
The only real fault that I found while playing this game is the inability to complete the game properly. After defeating the final boss, you get a long cutscene (which can't be skipped) and the credits (which also can't be skipped). After that, It shows the characters with the words "The End" onscreen. The only option is to switch off the console. In other words, you can't save the game after defeating the final boss.

The Bottom Line
Overall, I would recommend Kingdom Hearts to any video game fan.

The Good
I loved the sound and graphics, the battle system, music, story, almost everything.

The Bad
The only thing that annoyed me was the camera .

The Bottom Line
Well, you just need to get this game if you like Final Fantasy, because... well... it's Squaresoft who makes Final Fantasy, and this is just a brilliant game.

Score: 5/5

The Good
Visiting Disney Worlds and interacting with the characters who live there is very entertaining.

The real-time combat is a lot of fun and often very challenging.

Visuals are nice and colorful. Enough variation to keep you interested.

The bits of Final Fantasy spread throughout the game are fun to keep an eye out for.

Lots of exploration to be done and secrets to be found.

The Bad
The exposition and overarching story can be embarrassingly poor at times.

Flying to each level is very repetitive and dull.

I recommend grinding as much as you can, or else you will get really stuck on some parts.

The pacing could really have been better.

The Bottom Line
In Kingdom Hearts the player takes on the role of Sora, a young boy who spends his days playing on an island with his friends Riku and Kairi. They do typical kid stuff, like play-fighting and racing, but their true wish is to build a raft and explore what lies beyond the horizon. This wish is partly granted when the island is attacked by shadows and Sora is teleported to a city he has never seen. As it turns out, an evil force known as "The Heartless" has been invading worlds and making them vanish, just like what happened to Sora's island. Furthermore, a mystical weapon known as the "The keyblade" has chosen Sora as its master and thus he teams up with Donald and Goofy to try and stop the world-vanishing shenanigans of The Heartless and their masters.

As everybody probably knows by know, these worlds are all themed after famous Disney movies, with the exclusion of some later stages and Traverse Town, which serves as a shopping district. These worlds are the game's biggest selling points, as they have the player meddle in the affairs of well-known Disney characters and thus become part of their stories. It's very entertaining to do stuff like training with Hercules or proving Alice's innocence before the unfair rule of the Queen of Hearts. The progression of each stage is also designed to give the game an adventurous and varied feel, often relying on having the player explore areas in order to progress.

There is an overarching plot where famous Disney villains, acting in service of Maleficant, are trying to capture the princesses. This may seem like juvenile villainy, but instead of locking them up in a tower, they wish to use their hearths to open a way into a vaguely explained paradise that is said to grant wishes. This overall plot is alright for the most part, but it gets very cheesy in later stages, when words like "heart(s)" and "destiny" become more common than commas. Most people also played this game at a young age and, like me at the time, didn't really give two fucks about all that shit. Since this game is a cross-over between Disney and Squaresoft, I naturally expected some Final Fantasy influences, but please keep that stuff limited to side-plots, will ya?

Gameplay is also somewhat of a mixed bag. It's really fun and challenging when you're fighting bosses, but when casually exploring levels or grinding, you start to notice how unpolished it is. Sora can attack enemies with his keyblade by hammering the X-button, but the trick is that, in true Final Fantasy fashion, you have to select your spells, items and abilities from a menu. Since the game is real-time, this means that you have to stop attacking in order to navigate the menu via the arrows or right analog stick. If the right analog stick has to serve menu-duty, then that means camera controls are bound to the shoulder-buttons, leaving you at the mercy of an auto-target function with a serious grudge against crates and barrels.

That's not even the worst part; the AI for Goofy and Donald is very poor and usually only serves to get in the way. I've lost count of how many times Donald wasted all his mana casting the useless Gravira spell on every enemy on the field, or how often Goofy would die by pursuing a single flying enemy while ground-based Heartless pummeled him mercilessly. Even when taking matters in my own hand, I often noticed the two would cheekily knock an enemy out of my combo or block my view while playing charades with the White Mushroom enemy.

Furthermore, enemies are usually designed to be as obnoxious as possible. One very common trick a lot of them pull is vanishing whenever they want and reappearing somewhere else. This often comes with a brief moment of invincibility, which often caused me to swing at the air before taking an undodgable hit right into the face. Other filthy tricks include jumping around, flying too high for me to see or constantly creating distance while preparing charge-attacks. It's a shame, because the visual design on enemies is very creative and varied, with lots of cute creatures to face off against.

Visual design as a whole is a very strong point. The graphics look nice, characters are modeled very well, there is plenty of color and the level-design is, once again, very good. The music also brilliantly matches the style and feel of each world and it always changes into something more exciting when combat starts, which is a nice inclusion. Facial animations on side-characters is, perhaps, the only visual flaw I could point out.

Of all the Kingdom Hearts games out there nowadays, I think this one would be the best to start and stick with. It's the only title in the now long-running franchise which actually succeeded in marrying the two cooperating studios in a happy marriage, whereas later entries would reveal the dominating nature of Square (Enix). The story may sometimes be cheesy and the gameplay is not very refined, but fans of Disney will love it and the exploration-heavy stages are going to make a lot of veteran gamers very happy.