Playstation 2 Review: Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts



(It gets a gray or blue tint depending on the angle.)

Genre
RPG. Made by Disney and Squaresoft.

The Story
This story begins when the main character Sora, his best friend Riku, and the apple of Sora’s eye, Kairi, all of whom all live in the Destiny Islands, talk and dream of new places and worlds. One stormy night, wondering about their own existence and respective fates, a terrible darkness invades the Destiny Islands.
Sora wakes up in another world, called Traverse Town, but Riku and Kairi are nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy (yes, Donald Duck and Goofy the dog) have also arrived in Traverse Town. They are from Disney Castle (real creative isn’t it) and they are in search of a key and its chosen owner. The person that the “key”, called “key blade,” has chosen turns out to be Sora (more on the Key Blade in the Gamplay section, you can see it in the cover above). In order to find his friends Kairi and Riku, Sora must join Donald and Goofy on an epic journey.
Sora gets pulled into a larger problem in his search for Kairi and Riku, and he ends up having to save other worlds from darkness using his Key Blade. As he progresses through the story, he meets many other Disney characters in many different environments and situations. As with any RPG, there are many plot twists and some suspenseful moments. The story progresses through cut scenes.

Gameplay
There are many good and bad points to this game, so I’ll do the good, then the bad.
The Good:
There were absolutely no load times in this game, so there is continuous game-play. The puzzles are hard enough to keep your attention but easy enough to solve in a few tries. There is no end to the fun in this game.
Sora’s Key Blade, which is a giant key (the size of him), that is used as a sword. It can be upgraded using key-chains. Each key-chain is specially designed for the world in which you got it from (example: From the jungle, it has a longer reach and stronger). As the characters fight, they gain increments of experience and level-up. Each time they level-up they learn new abilities and get stronger. Sora can summon various Disney characters and cast curative and damaging spells. The neat thing about this game is that Donald and Goofy are completely autonomous. If you’re hurt or if you need a lot of physical assistance (fighting a crap load of enemies) Donald can use Magic to help. You can also change the way characters react in certain situations by changing their options. For example, you can make Donald use more offensive magic over curative magic. Game progression is seamless, sequential, and easy to follow.
The Bad:
This game is almost all button mashing. There is one attack button and that is the key blade. The controls aren’t very intuitive and make the game more difficult than is could’ve been. For instance, to choose a magic spell, summon, or use a special attack, you have to use the right analog stick to highlight it and you cannot attack while doing this which makes it really annoying when you’re surrounded by enemies. Like the Final Fantasy series, you have to keep playing until you find a save point or you will loose your hard work.


Graphics
The overall graphics are pretty good. The characters are smooth. The backgrounds are great, and the enemies look painstakingly designed. My only problem is that the movies scenes aren’t in the “really good graphics,” they are just normal (if you’ve played Final Fantasy you’d know). The game does tend to slow down with a screen full of enemies and spells being cast, but that rarely happens.

Replay Value
Since this is an RPG, there is no replay value unless you have 60 hours to waste and a lot of patience. The truth is, there isn’t any replay value.

Audio
The music is catchy and there is a wide variety. The music choice also fits the situations well. As with many other games, the characters’ sounds (grunts, and yells) are used throughout the game, this isn’t a problem to me though.

Summary
This game is perfect for a person new to “involved” RPGs. The puzzles aren’t frustrating, it’s short enough to keep younger kids’ attention, and is straightforward. This game is definitely a “gateway” to other RPGs. I realize the final rating may be too low, but I stuck to my usual system. This still remains as one of my favorite games.

Rating
Story: 10/10, its great and full of plot twists and suspense.
Audio: 9/10, the music matches the situations well, but it could be better.
Game-play: 5/10, the cons even out the pros.
Replay Value: 4/10, I shouldn’t include this because it is an RPG but oh well.
Graphics: 9/10, a little bit of slow down, and not enough “good graphics.”


74%

OA

Edited and checked by milefile

Well done duo17

Thanks again Dodge. Looks like you're beating me.

OA

Well I might buy it secondhand or something.

Oh and your PM inbox is full.

Buy it second hand?

Yes i am beating you duo

Personaly I think its pretty bad game...looks like its for younger kids. My brother plays its...BTW he jus turned 9.

Yes, well duo17 gave it a 74%, and it is Disney orientated with a younger feel to it, so i think this review made sense