Kingdom Hearts

aka: KH, Wangguo zhi Xin
Moby ID: 7341
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Description official descriptions

Sora's world is shattered when a violent storm hits his home, and he is separated from his two closest friends. The storm scatters the three to unknown worlds. At the same time, there is turmoil in the Disney Castle. King Mickey is missing, and Court Wizard Donald and Captain Goofy are out to find him. On their travels they meet Sora, on his own search for his lost friends. The three are told of ominous creatures called Heartless, being without hearts derived from an unknown dimension and are the ones responsible for the devastating storm.

The Disney villains, enticed by the power of darkness, manipulate the Darkness to help them gather the princesses of heart, who are needed to open a mysterious final door. Upon discovering the link between the Heartless, the storm, and the disappearance of King Mickey, Sora, Donald, and Goofy join forces and help familiar Disney heroes to save their worlds from the Heartless.

In Kingdom Hearts players step into the very large shoes of Sora, wielder of the keyblade. Sora can attack with the blade, and as he levels up he will gain more attacks that are automatically chained together. Sora can learn magic and put healing items into a quick menu, and both can only be used in real time. Donald and Goofy (as well as an additional character exclusive to each world/disney movie) will follow Sora. Their equipment and AI can be adjusted, but they can not be directly controlled. Defeated enemies will drop many kinds of items including synthesis materials. Sora can take these to the Synthesis shop in Twilight Town to turn them into usable items, accessories, and weapons.

Traveling between each world requires Sora's party to fly through space in a Gummi Ship. The Gummi Ship can be completely customized, from speed and armor to weapons and shape, out of parts picked up from destroyed Gummi Ships, found in worlds, or bought from a store. Larger, more complex ships can be built as the game progresses, and plans can be found from destroyed enemies or from an NPC that will automatically build a Gummi Ship of specific specifications.

Spellings

  • キングダムハーツ - Japanese spelling
  • 王国之心 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • 王國之心 - Chinese spelling (traditional)

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

555 People (485 developers, 70 thanks) · View all

Theme Song (Simple and Clean)
Cast (Japanese)
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 40 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 145 ratings with 14 reviews)

A combination like no other...

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!!!

PlayStation 2 · by Quinton Moss (3) · 2003

Heavenly results from a match made in Hell

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.

PlayStation 2 · by Bog Trotter (6) · 2003

I KNEW this would be a good game...

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.

PlayStation 2 · by Helen Wilson (2) · 2004

[ View all 14 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Kingdom Hearts appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Characters

Aside from Disney characters that are not surprise to encounter, you will also encounter several other characters from SquareSoft other games, such as Squall (main protagonist from Final Fantasy VIII), Selphie (a party character from Final Fantasy VIII), Tidus (main protagonist from Final Fantasy X), Wakka (party character from Final Fantasy X), Aerith (from Final Fantasy VII), Cloud (main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII), Sephiroth (nemesis in Final Fantasy VII), and other.

Contest

The secret boss Kurt Zisa in the US version is named after the winner of a contest held by Squaresoft to promote the game.

Theme song

The theme song, Simple and Clean (English) and Hikari meaning "light" (Japanese version), is written and performed by Japan's pop artist Utada Hikaru. After the release of the game's original Japanese version, Hikari was released separately and, according to IGN, sold about 860.000 copies.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – Best Use of License of the Year (PS2)

Information also contributed by monkeyislandgirl and Sciere

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by vism.

Additional contributors: MAT, Unicorn Lynx, Apogee IV, Guy Chapman, monkeyislandgirl, Solid Flamingo, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added October 2, 2002. Last modified January 16, 2024.