One of the most attractive and redeeming qualities of Kingdom Hearts is its compelling story. Right from the beginning, you are plunged into the story of the heartless, characters created solely by Squaresoft, who wish to take over the universe using their rapidly expanding evil powers. The heartless are a ruthless force, coming in many different shapes and sizes, and as the name suggests they are without a heart, looking for pure hearts to corrupt them and possess the person with the heart. One of these worlds threatened by the heartless is the ironically named Destiny Islands, where our hero of the story Sora, his friends Riku and Kairi, as well as many characters from the familiar Final Fantasy series of games (including Tidus, Squall and Selphie) reside. Another world under threat is that of King Mickey and his royal court, including Donald Duck the wizard, and Goofy, who is the royal guardian.
When Donald and Goofy discover that Mickey is gone and that a note was left to tell them to search for the one with the ‘key blade’, they immediately start the search across the universe. At the same time, when Sora’s world is taken over by the heartless, and he finds himself with the key blade, his path meets with Donald and Goofy, and so they start a journey together, each with their own motive; Donald and Goofy want to find Mickey, and Sora wants to find Kairi, who is a female, after she went missing from the takeover of their world by the heartless. However, little do they know the real evil that plagues them…
The controls are somewhat awkward, but easy to adapt to. Sora is controlled in movement by the left analog stick and the circle button makes Sora jump. However, all other actions are controlled by an interactive menu in the bottom left corner of the screen. This is controlled by the right analog stick, and the action that you have it set to (between attack, magic, items and other actions such as opening chests) influences what pressing the ‘X’ button will do. For example, if you have the menu set to ‘attack’, then Sora will attack with the ‘X’ button. However if you have it set to ‘item’, then Sora will use an item of your choice with the ‘X’ button. This is the nature of the realtime system of Kingdom Hearts, and it is useful because you can cast any sort of magic or use an item while running and jumping away from enemies. This system is quite a change from the turn-based scenarios that occur in most Role-Playing Games. It sounds somewhat complex, but it isn’t if you take a few minutes to familiarise yourself with the concept, and if you learn it well, it is a very effective system that will allow you to perform many actions in battle that is not possible while playing turn-based games.
Journeying between worlds is made simple with the ‘gummi ship’ controlled by the Gummi Bears of Disney fame, who operate on King Mickey’s planet. In flying between two planets, you control the gummi ship yourself and can shoot down other planes or obstacles in your way. The short journey between planets is important if you wish to collect ‘gummies’ by destroying enemies or obstacles (you can then use these ‘gummies’ to make your own ship, if you wish), but it is even more important because, if you get destroyed between planets, then you won’t make it to the next one, and you must start the journey again. This can be quite tedious, as journeys between planets can sometimes be five minutes long.
While at different planets, you may enlist help from other characters who wish to join your party, but the character on the planet is exclusive only to that planet. Often that character will be stronger than the ones currently in your party, and it is wise to enlist that character as often as possible. On the other hand, in certain planets there are ‘trinities’, where Donald, Goofy and Sora are needed together to unlock hidden chests which contain rare items, by standing on a ‘trinity mark’. So in this respect it is good not to enlist the new character.
I found personally while playing through the game that a very good aspect is all the nostalgia felt by simply exploring these planets, if you have seen many Disney movies in the past. It is almost like the cartoon is going on, and that you are the starring character in it. The Squaresoft Team and the Disney Team have collaborated and gone to great lengths to recreate the Disney worlds in exact form, and it shows. Most planets will often make you smile or smirk, as you may have remembered that planet while watching that cartoon in the past.
Right from the outset of the game, you are forced to make a choice between Normal and Expert difficulty (expert is a great incentive to play through again), and then a choice between the sword, sceptre or shield, with the decision you make influencing how your character develops. It’s a tough choice right from the beginning, but it really makes you prioritise what really matters to you in the game, and it forces you to make critical decisions, which is only good in my opinion.
The character development system is quite simple. Firstly, any member of your party can gain levels by getting experience from defeating enemies (as in all RPG’s). Gaining levels will raise certain attributes of your character (such as strength, defence, HP, MP, etc.), which are all measured in numbers. There are also many weapons and items that can raise your attributes in the same way that gaining levels does. Sora uses only the key blade, his special weapon, which can be upgraded by getting different key chains. Donald, as he is a wizard, uses only staffs, and Goofy uses only shields. You can buy upgrades of Donald’s and Goofy’s weapons, but you get Sora’s by playing through the story.
Also worthy of mention is the AP system (ability points). Ability points, just like any other attribute, are upgraded by certain weapons, items, or by gaining levels. You can equip certain abilities, which all require different amounts of points, which can be very helpful in battle. This can vary from a simple roll to a complex combo string of hits. This AP system, along with the general upgrade system, works very well for the type of game that Kingdom Hearts is, and it keeps the core of the game very simple, which is always the best thing to do.
I will divide this section into two parts; what is done well and what is not done so well. Fortunately, a lot more is done well graphically than what is not done so well. In general, most environments are intricately detailed, and every different type of heartless enemy is very textured and colourful. Your key blade leaves a nice light trail when you slash, and explosions look pretty, in general. Summon videos are also done very well, as I was in awe at every new one I saw, as will you be when you witness them. It is truly a sign of what potential the Squaresoft developers have with this game and how well they have harnessed that potential. Another thing done well is FMV’s, and although there are few of them, when they are there they are very good, and on par with some of the best in video games to date (like ones found in Final Fantasy X and Onimusha 2).
The things that are not done so well are few in comparison, and they do not really hold up the game much. Some of the worlds have bland textures here and there, but most of the time the detail in other worlds really counteracts this, so it isn’t really a bad thing when you look at the game in general. Secondly, although for nearly the entire game there is no slowdown, when many things are happening on one screen then slowdown does occur, but again this is very rare and unnoticeable. Lastly there are of course borders, and although this is unavoidable, they are considerably minute and not even worthy of mention, however I do think that the developers should have at least included a 60Hz toggle mode.
The music in this game is excellent - and there is so much variety. Bustling, happy tunes fill the more frivolous and fruitful worlds, while sad and sombre songs echo throughout the more barren and evil environments. This game has received much acclaim for its soundtrack alone, and while playing through this game, I can see more and more why this is so, as will you, if you play through the game.
The theme song for the game is in contrast to most other Role-Playing Games (which are accustomed to having fast-paced songs dominate the soundtrack), and it is a very slow and nice tune. I know myself that the theme song ‘Simple and Clean’ has already grabbed attention from featuring in commercials. The voice acting is also absolutally superb, and Disney went out of their way to get fitting celebrities to voice the more important roles in the game, and you will find people like Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) voicing Sora, Lance Bass (N*Sync) voicing Sephiroth, and Mandy Moore (famous performer) voicing Riku’s lost friend, Kairi.
All in all, there is an excellent set of songs to accompany this game, and it helps so much to establish the mood of so many completely different worlds and orientate the player with the Disney Universe.
There have been times where I have heard people endlessly complain about the general difficulty of the game, even on Normal. And, I will admit from finishing the game, that it does have its frustratingly hard parts and bosses (for example, often bosses will have five or six life bars with you only having one), but its nothing that isn’t accomplishable if you have tried it many times and know the enemy’s patterns. The game difficulty is spelled out for you right from the beginning, and you know it is not going to be an easy ride, but as I said it is accomplishable if you really put your mind to it and try.
There are of course, some bosses which are a joke in terms of difficulty, and will challenge even the Kingdom Hearts veterans. Thankfully, they are optional bosses, and you don’t need to beat them at all to finish the game, but it's only more of an opportunity to spend time on them and see if you can bring them down, which does indeed raise lasting appeal. In terms of lasting appeal itself, my clock counter, when I had finished the game, was approximately fourty hours. This was taking my time, but going nowhere near finishing everything there is to do in the game, so I would estimate an extra ten to twenty hours for the real perfectionist.
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