It's been a long time since Squaresoft has released a game, 9 months to be exact, which was Final Fantasy X back in December of 2001. If anyone's as much a Squaresoft fanatic as I am, then I'm sure you've also been anticipating Kingdom Hearts for quite sometime now, because 9 months is just way too much for me to go without playing anything from Squaresoft. However, the 9 month transition period from Final Fantasy to the start of a new franchise maybe has well been worth the wait, and Squaresoft along with Disney, has created a monster of a game. I'm also pretty sure that a lot of people dismissed Kingdom Hearts just because there were Disney characters in it and they're too mature to be playing a game with cartoon characters in it, but hopefully those people will give KH a chance to strut its stuff.
Plot/Story:
Right from the start, you're introduced to a really cool CGI video(with the coolest theme song) of the main character, Sora, having some sort of dream. This dream turns sort of into a reality, however he soon wakes up on the beach where he lives with his friends Riku(dude that looks like Kuja) and Kairi(the chick). Kairi, Riku, and Sora have both lived on this island for a long while now, and over that long while they've dreamed and fantasized about seeing the rest of the world and seeing everything else that's out there. Then one night a storm hits, and when Sora goes out to bring their raft in so it's not destroyed, he's suddenly attacked by creatures called "The Heartless" and he soon wakes up in a totally other world, in a place called Traverse Town. Riku and Kairi are nowhere in site, and now he must go look for them, so this is where the journey begins.
Meanwhile over at Disney Castle, King Mickey has disappeared and left a note to his faithful wizard and guard, Donald Duck and Goofy, telling them they needed to find a "key", and this was the "key" was the means of their survival, so eventually Donald and Goofy meet up with Sora in Traverse Town, and it turns out that Sora has been chosen as the key barrier(sort of like how Frodo was picked to destroy the ring in Lord of the Rings). So Donald, Goofy, and Sora team up and go off to find King Mickey and Sora's friends.
BUT, this little portion of the story is like taking a teaspoon of water out of a giant aquarium, so there is a lot more than meets the eye in KH, so this search for friends soon becomes a journey of epic proportions. One of my dislikes of the story is that you probably won't understand anything until you're nearly finished with the game, when it's all explained in a big hunk, however the locations in the story line are so fun that they'll keep you from quitting and not finishing the game.
Gameplay:
You'll travel between the different parts of the game from an overhead map that's looks sort of like a concept map, or even how the levels were separated in Star Fox 64. Anyway, until you've actually been to that certain level, you won't know what it actually is, so until then the different stages of the game will be represented with white circles, and then when you finally travel there, the name of the place will be revealed. But instead of just highlighting it and playing, you'll highlight it, and then you'll fly this aircraft called the "Gummi Ship" on a little mini-game type side-quest that will lead you up to the level that you picked. You've got a laser and can shoot a whole bunch of ships down, however I don't think this was really necessary, as it took too much time when I just wanted to get to the level and start playing, not fly a rocket in space and blow other ships up. However, I'm sure that if this little "side-quest" wasn't put in the game, people would have complained about not putting something like it in the game, so I guess it was kind of a hit or miss situation.
Now when does Disney's magic come into play in KH? In a very, very favorable format, because except for a couple of original levels, all of the stages that you'll play through in the game are made and based upon from different Disney animation movies. I was and still am I big Disney fan, and being able to actually play in my favorite Disney movie worlds is really fun. Besides yourself, Sora, you'll be accompanied by Goofy and Donald Duck in battle, and depending on which stage you're playing, then one of the main characters of that particular Disney movie will actually join your group and fight with you until you beat the stage, and then you get to go to another stage and fight alongside another one of your favorite Disney characters. Anyway, the fighting system in KH is not turn based, nor does it use ATB(Active Time Battle), but it's actually a Action/Platform/RPG where you'll actually move around the fighting area and use your weapon to attack the enemies, which the enemies in KH are called "Heartless", and there are all different types of the heartless that get stronger and stronger as you progress to later stages in the game. When you get attacked, the heartless will sort of appear out of nowhere, and so that's when you can start fighting, or you can just run to the next area(which will probably have more opponents to fight). You use the left analog stick to move Sora around on-screen, and you'll use the right analog stick to choose from the available options in your battle menu located in the bottom left corner of the screen. Your main action button will be the "X" button, however if you don't have the "Attack" option highlighted down in your battle menu, the action button will instead perform whatever option is highlighted, which is either Magic or Items.
Battles can get pretty hectic, especially when there's tons of activity happening on-screen at once, so a shortcut that can be used is that, well you can use the regular action button when you're actually attacking, but say you want to perform a spell or use an item, you'll just scroll down with the right analog stick onto the option you're going to use(IE magic or item), and push down on the analog stick so it clicks, and the next menu will come up with the items you can use and you'll scroll down to the item you want and push on the analog stick again so it clicks and then you'll have to pick which of your teammates including yourself that you're going to use it on. It sounds like a complicated concept on paper, however when you're actually playing the game in a heated battle or boss fight, then this method of using magic, items, etc. will possible save your life so you can be picking a magic spell or item while at the same time dodging oncoming attacks.
Anyway, you've got the basic attack, which you'll use whatever weapon you've got equipped and attack the enemy. Usually in an RPG there will be different weapons that you can equip on your character or other characters, however in Kingdom Hearts since most of the game is focused on this "key", you'll only be able to equip different types of keys that you find after each stage of the game that vary in looks according to which stage you got it from. Anyway, you'll also have different magic attacks at your disposal, including the basic Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder...and they can also be upgraded to Fira, Firaga, Blizzara, Blizzara, Thundera, Thundaga, etc., although the amount of MP they use will stay the same. Then you can choose items to use which includes potions, ethers, and other assorted and useful items that can either make or break a battle. There are summons in the game, which are handled kind of like in FFX where they'll replace that character, however instead, in KH the summon will replace your other two buddies, and you'll still be able to fight with your summon. The summons are an assorted bunch of Disney characters, like Dumbo for example. I'm sure a lot of you have heard or seen stuff about the Dumbo summon, however there are many more summons found throughout the game that can be used, and some are fun while others aren't to special and don't do much but get in the way. Since a lot of battles can get really hectic, then having to go through the magic menu might mean the difference between a win or a loss, so there is a quick menu where you can assign a different spell to either the "Triangle", "X", or "Square" buttons after pressing and holding the L-1 button.
The amount of HP(Hit Points) you have left is shown by a green bar in the bottom right corner of the screen, and also how much MP(Magic Points) you have left which is represented by a blue bar that winds around your health meter. Then there's also a yellow meter that wraps around the MP meter, and that has something to do with magic charges or something like that, I'm not really sure entirely how it works, but when you use a small magic attack that consumes a small amount of MP, then it'll take away from the yellow bar before taking up your regular MP.
Returning more to the roots of a traditional RPG, you'll receive experience points from each individual enemy that you kill, and the amount of experience points you receive from enemies will get bigger and bigger when you go to worlds with stronger heartless. You won't actually see Sora level up, but once you've collected the amount of experience points you need to level up, it'll level up, and you might not know that you ever leveled up until you looked at your character's stats. When you defeat each enemy, they drop multiple amounts of little green and yellow/blue orbs, which you can collect simply by running over them. The green orbs will replenish health, while the yellow/blue orbs are munny(the currency in KH, original huh?). Little treasure boxes will also appear after you defeat an enemy every once in awhile, and they'll have an item in them like a Potion, Ether, Hi-Potion, or some kind of simple item like those.
The combat system is fun, and I like how Sora will even jump up to attack an enemy that's flying or something without you having to push the jump button. However the reason I classified KH as an Action/PLATFORM/RPG, is because there are a lot of platforming elements in the game, including the ability to jump around during battles which can be used to dodge an attack, to jump up and attack a flying enemy or a really big boss, or just if you're bored and want to spice up the battle a little bit. There's also a targeting system that can be used to target a single enemy, or to target different locations on a boss, and will focus Sora on that one spot, so all you have to do is press the attack button and you'll attack. However I have great dislikes with this targeting system, as it can really mess you up, especially when you're in a boss battle.
As you level up and gain experience, you'll earn different abilities which you can equip if you have enough AP points. There are different types of abilities which have certain effects, however some of them include a Combo Plus, Scan, Sonic Blade, and there are also many, many others that can be gained and used. There are also shared abilities which can be used by your whole party, and the main shared ability includes the High Jump, which allows you to jump higher than you could before to reach higher locations that you couldn't before. There are also different items that you can equip, the most popular being different kinds of rings and bands, which can increase certain status points like defense, HP, MP, AP, and strength...or increase one a lot, but kind of decrease another by one or two points. Some of these accessories have elemental status type actions, which is usually a 20 or so % resistance to a certain element. At the end of each stage you'll have to fight a boss, and there are two bosses which are almost impossible to beat first try. Most of the bosses are extremely challenging like the boss in Atlantica, however with a good use of quick spells and healing items along with knowing when to attack and when to back off, they've also got some kind of weak point, however overcoming their strong points to FIND that weak point might be kind of a challenge(alright it can be a huge challenge).
Aside from fighting, the rest of the game involves you exploring each of the worlds, following suit to different cut-scenes that give you hints as to what you need to do next. Most of the game is pretty straightforward and has you pretty much going down a one way street, however some parts of the game have you going in so many different directions that you could spend maybe an hour finding out where to go. One of the parts where you can get lost, actually takes place in the "world map", as there's no way in knowing which world is which, so you may go through the stupid 5 minute mini-space ship game only to go to the wrong world.
Graphics:
When has a game's graphics that's developed by Squaresoft ever been less than stellar? I'd say never, however I'm sure there's lots that would disagree with me, but that's ok. Bringing the Disney character animations into a 3-D world filled with lots and lots of polygons is really awesome, and if I do say so myself, Square did a great job with the visuals on these Disney characters, including their outfits that change according to each world's theme. Also bringing the Disney worlds from pencil on paper into a full 3-D realm full of polygons and different kinds of textures was done with an almost smooth transition, that someone who has never seen a Disney movie probably wouldn't notice the difference between KH and a Disney movie they watch, because Square included lots and lots of each world's personality traits with them. And yes I did say personality, Disney didn't get where they are today with Characters that had personalities but their different worlds were lacking that personality trait...Disney created each of their animation worlds with lots of personality, and therefore the characters came next with the same kind of personality their surroundings do.
Enough about the Disney characters and Disney traits of KH, the whole game overall fairs nicely compared to the other games on the market right now, however I don't think any of them are going to be as successful as KH will be. Either way, since the game takes place in different Disney worlds, there's not much to say except that they look incredible and the jump from animation to polygons was pretty big when it comes to cartoons and video games.
The story progresses through small little cut-scenes that are activated after a certain event or after you've triggered it somehow, and these cut-scenes really aren't that bad, however there can be a little frame rate drop here and there, but none real noticeable.
"SomeWHERE, over the rainbow...way up high, there's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby(with lots and lots of colors)" ... Please excuse my poor excuse for singing, but my point to get across was that the game is full of colors. If you don't get the relationship between colorful and that Wizard of Oz song then just don't worry about it because it wasn't the greatest example to show a relationship anyway, but oh well. Each world is full of colors, whether it be lush green environments of a jungle, or the sandy feeling you get in the desert, each world is chock full of beautiful and vibrant colors that jump out at you more than Mexican jumping beans(does anyone still remember those?). Most of the worlds are pretty small in size in each little area you're in, however some contain tons of areas, so that's really nice.
Sound:
Hmm...I must say that Square has made the best decision on voice acting in a game during their whole developing career. Instead of using some stupid little pipsqueaks for voices, Square decided to go with a full celebrity cast for their leading characters in the game including the Sixth Sense star(Bruce Willis?), Haley Joel Osment(ha I bet you were thinking it was Bruce Willis) who has starred in(duh) the Sixth Sense, A.I., and the Tom Hanks classic Forrest Gump. One of the guys from the teen pop stars N*Sync, Lance Bass also voices one of the characters, however I couldn't really tell which one he voiced. Now aside from the people who dismissed KH because of the intertwinement with Disney, there's also those that have shoved KH out the back door without looking back because of some of the celebrities that were doing the voice scripts for certain characters. I've got to tell you, these celebrities did a good job on the voice acting, and I think they deserve a lot more than they deserve. I give kudos to Disney/Square for rounding up such a good group of talented young(and old) artists. Other celebrity voiceovers include Hayden Panettiere, Sean Astin, Christy Romano, David Boreanaz, David Gallagher(you know the kid from 7th Heaven?), and Mandy Moore(heh, my jaw dropped also for those Moore fans out there). Anyway, Square/Disney really took the extra effort to promote this game and in the end I think all the voice-actors did a good job since KH was a lot of their first voiceovers.
Now that we've got the celebrity voicing behind us, how bout' them Disney characters, ya? I'm not sure why Square didn't get the official voice actors for the Disney characters since they were in the animations and aren't being changed for the game, but I'm guessing some of them couldn't make time to do it or something like that, so Square did the best they could to recreate the voices to fit each character perfectly and I got to admit that they did a decent job. Some people won't be able to tell a difference between animation and what's in the game, however for those who grew up with Disney animations and movies like me, although it's not real noticeable, a lot of the Disney characters either have a deeper voice or a lighter voice than their animation counter-part, or the voice pitches and tones were higher or deeper than what they were in the animations. I noticed these just because I wanted to see how well Square recreated these voices, but overall they did a good job considering they couldn't get the real actors to come in and do the part.
As for the rest of the game sounds, I guess they're ok considering that the only real effects there are come with the slashes and clinging of weapons/body parts/etc. clashing together, and also the incredible effects when you defeat a boss, it just sounds so...oh I don't know, heroic? The music you hear throughout each world varies depending on what world you're in, so the song will be a sort of remix of whatever that world's theme song is. Some are the regular catchy tunes and remind you of old times, but if you're in a world too long they'll get really annoying so the tunes turn into not-so catchy forms of music. Speaking of catchy, the theme song for KH is a beautiful song, and I will be picking up the CD for KH mainly because of the theme song, however I'd like to hear all the other music scores that are in the game that I didn't notice, and also any of the Disney themes that should most likely be on it.
Rock's Thoughts:
Kingdom Hearts turned out to be even better than I thought it was going to be, and the game is just so fun that you'll want to keep playing just to see what's next or if you like Disney, then you'll want to finish the game just to see what Disney characters and worlds make appearances. There are over 100 Disney characters in KH that make appearance, and also famous Square characters such as Squall(Leon), Yuffie, Aeris(Aerith), and Cloud. The game is moderately easy, however there are some places where you'll be pulling hair and gritting teeth. There's so much more that could have been done to Kingdom Hearts, so I'm waiting for a sequel that will have even more Disney worlds and characters, because I think the Disney characters were what attracted me to play the game, aside from it being another Square game.
