Customer Reviews

Kingdom Hearts

5 star:		(947)
4 star:		(303)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(46)

 

 

When Kingdom Hearts was first announced, many thought Square had finally lost it. Not only had they partnered with Disney, a company that Square has seemingly little in common with, but Square was also throwing its own creations into the mix. The game was described as Final Fantasy Meets Disney.

However, as it has many times over, Square has proven the critics wrong. Kingdom Hearts has gorgeous graphics that pushes the PS2 to its limits. Many of the Disney characters look and move as if they were ripped right from their respective cartoons. Disney has also spared no expense on voice acting, in many cases brining back a character's original actor when it came time to give the incredibly large ensemble cast voices

The game also features returning characters from Square's reknowned Final Fantasy series. Specifically, the game will feature Cloud, Aeris, Cid and Yuffie from FF7; Squall from FF8; and Tidus and Wakka from FF10. One of the most interesting scenes from Kingdom Hearts is a scene where Donald Duck and Aeris have a conversation.

Fans of the Secret of Mana will be excited to learn that the battle system is more like it than Final Fantasy. Fighting is done in real time and with little menus. Even spells can be fired off with menu-less ease by linking them to buttons on the control pad. This gives a very interesting feel since many of the spells come from the Final Fantasy series. Summoned Monsters are also used in Kingdom Hearts, but this time around they're Disney characters. Simba, Bambi, Dumbo, and Tinkerbell all come to your aid in battle.

In short, buy this game. Younger fans will enjoy the nearly limitless cast of Disney characters. Older fans and Square veterans will enjoy seeing familiar characters and the type of story that has made Square games the standard for RPGs. The story, while light-hearted at times, can also become incredibly dark. The packaged is rounded out with incredible music, not the least of which is "Light", an English version of Utada Hikaru's song "Hikari". For more info, visit Square's game site...

If your just now purchasing a PS2 this is the game to turn you on! I would personally buy a PS2 "just" to play this game.
The incretible graphics in this game are mind-boggling, this game is the first of it's kind and is the most fun I've ever had playing a video game.

You play the lead character "Sora" who is living on Destiny Islands, longing to see far off worlds he and his friends Karai and Riku build a raft to see travle to new worlds on. But you get [pulled] into a new world on your own one stormy night. There you meet up with Goofy and Donald who will be your companions for the rest of the entire game. There are ten different worlds and within most of these worlds you have the advantage to select new characters to your party- such as Aladin, Peter Pan, Ariel- ect. There are 10 worlds and over 100 disney characters to meet, I finished the game in 5 days. That's called "dedication", but it's impossible to put down the controller once you've started playing. You are able to obtain new items, abilities, weapons, as you battle through it- you are able to design and build your own "Gummi Ships" which are what you use to get from one world to another. The more "Munny" you collect in each world/battle the more you can buy! You can even buy news weapons for Donald and Goofy along with posions to heal yourself and much more.

I gave the game 5 stars because there is NOTHING wrong with this game, aside from not being able to open treasure chests during battle, you'll come to think like me the minute you start playing.
Better quality than "ANY" Final Fantasy game I have ever played, and I recommend that you DONT buy the Strategy Guide- I played through the entire game without. All you really need to do is look up a "Walkthrough" to the game on the net whenever you need help.
After the game you'll be begging for more- and if your able able to obtain the "Special Secret" at the end of the game.. well my friend the suspence will eat you alive!

Kingdom Hearts.. the ultimate Disney Game.

"Adaptation" and "reimagining" are words that frighten the heart of any purist, but occasionally, such projects move forward and are handled with care, respect, and a firm understanding and application of the source material. In "Kingdom Hearts", a wildly ambitious collaboration between Disney Interactive and Squaresoft, iconic characters from Disney's vast array of animated features and Square's penultimate series "Final Fantasy" are paired together in an action-rpg. Square has gone a somewhat similar route before, tackling "Super Mario RPG" for Nintendo, but that was a stand-alone game world only incorporating Mario characters, who do not exactly have much depth of personality or back story to begin with. "Kingdom Hearts", on the other hand, takes childhood favorites from just about every generation alive today and dares to incorporate them in a story beyond the individual movies that gave life to them. As ambitious as the game is, "Kingdom Hearts" has equal potential to go very, very wrong in so many ways.

Thankfully, it does not. Every aspect of the game bears the mark of A-grade production value. The storyline is imaginative and clever, and the incorporation of characters and familiar Disney locations is executed with such reverence, that even the most hard-bitten cynic would be won over. From the streets of Agrabah ("Aladdin") to the deck of Captain Hook's ship ("Peter Pan"), each Disney location is recreated in a way that captures the spirit of the original films. Completing the effect is the fact that, for the most part, Disney and Square hired the original voice actors of all Disney characters or at least the people who currently voice certain characters for recent releases. It is hard not to be won over when hearing Jodi Benson reprise her role as Ariel or John Fiedler doing Piglet. Speaking of Piglet, the appearance of Winnie the Pooh and the 100-acre Wood sequences are some of the finest moments in any game ever, and capture just how Square and Disney shot for the moon and hit it.

The gameplay itself is simple, having much in common with the later "Zelda" games and comparable Playstation 2 releases such as "Jak and Daxter". While the fighting can sometimes get repetitive, there are so many bonus features included in this game that revolve around items found in combat and reaching high character advancement levels, that the more you seek to get out of the game, the less obtrustive all the combat seems.

Though the game itself is nothing revolutionary, it is a perfectly executed effort. Considering the outrageousness of its concept and its success in achieving it, "Kingdom Hearts" gets superlative marks in every regard. Though the game can be enjoyed by anyone with only a cursory interest or knowledge of Disney or Square lore, anyone with a child's familiarity with Disney's films or a gamer's passion for Square's series will find themselves in a game experience unlike any other. A true victory for audacious daring.

Hey everyone, I pre-ordered directly from Squaresoft, and was lucky to receive the game a full week before its street release! Kingdom Hearts is definitely worth the wait and anticipation. It brilliantly mixes the dark sensibilities of Square's work with Disney's well-known brand of layered humor. There are over 100 Disney cameos in the game, and only around a dozen from Final Fantasy. While the various Disney characters fill their roles to perfection, this is NOT a kids game! Beloved Disney characters die, both onscreen and off. Through the brilliant writing and impeccable voice acting, there are several scenes that WILL bring a tear to your eye, the most poignant for me being Sora's first meeting with a very lonely and confused Winnie the Pooh. The story centers around Sora (voiced wonderfully by Haley Joel Osment), an ordinary boy thrust into an extraordinary adventure. He is joined by Goofy and Donald Duck, which are pure perfection, like the rest of the cast. In each world (save for three), you have the option of recruiting famous Disney heroes/heroines into your party. Notable party guests include Ariel, Jack Skellington and Beast, who packs a punch with powerful melee-based moves. The villains fulfill their roles with unabashed glee, with notable performances going to Maleficent (whose voice actress sounds remarkably like the original actress from Sleeping Beauty) and Hades (who is once again voiced by James Woods). Only the camera (which can get downright evil in certain areas) and the length of the game itself otherwise marr this breathtaking title. Please, enjoy this game, because I know I am!

You know, I have to admit it. I'm not much of a Disney fan nor a Square fan either. I've played several of the Final Fantasy games,and even Parasite Eve 1&2 but I can't say I've ever been blown away by any of it. That is, til now.
This game has got to be the most fun I've had in years. I mean, I've never had but two games ever draw me in like all get out to where I can't stop playing it(those games were Quake and Golden Sun). Now, I have a third. It's Kingdom Hearts. For those of you thinking it's a kiddie game, think again because this game will definitely hand that assumption back to you with a lil something extra. You play as Sora and along with Donald and Goofy....you go looking for Mickey meeting some mean ol' nasties along the way. Battles aren't of your usual Final Fantasy Variety as they are fought in real-time but they are awesome just the same as you can summon several Disney characters to help you out(mine favorite being Simba).
If you're into RPGs, even if you're not, try out Kingdom Hearts. It's definitely worth your time. Square did this game justice.
Hope there is a part two.

This game is the best. Every Part of it is great. Sora the main character gets zapped away from his home along with with his friends Rikku and Kari. Also on the island are Tidus and Wakka from FFX along with Selphine from FFVIII. Sora then meets Goofy and Donald and gets his key blade. A sword that can defeat the heartless. Donald and Goofy are on their own quest. You use a ship called the Gummi to travel to different Disney worlds. Other disney characters like Tarzan and The Little Mermade can get on your team.

*Downsides- Well I really don't want to say anything bad about this game but the camra angles sometimes go near a wall and you can't see Sora. It can be fixed. Also you can't open chests while you are fighting so if you find a rare chest and then a heartless knocks you down and you die. Well no game is perfect.

Yeah, I know "adequate" isn't exactly an attention grabber for a review but I couldn't think of another way to describe this game. However, I will elaborate.

The game's plot revolves around multiple dimension-like worlds in the Disney and Final Fantasy universe. Kind of like a Mickey Mouse version of the show "Sliders". Anyway, you have to travel to all of these worlds looking for your standard bad guys the Heartless. Your main character, Sora, holds the key to defeating the Heartless and setting things right again. I'm not kidding, he actually uses a weapon called a "keyblade". And you thought the gunblade was original. In your travels you'll go to Agrabah (home of Aladdin), Wonderland, Neverland, Olympus, Tarzan's jungle, and others. All the while encountering critters from Disney cartoons and Final Fantasy games.

Being a Final Fantasy fan, the major draw for me in this game was seeing Final Fantasy characters from Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 10. Unfortunately, this is one aspect of the game that disappoints. Cameos are limited. I haven't played through the entire game but it seems that the only characters playing significant roles are Leon (aka Squall from FF8), Cid (from FF7), and a little bit from Yuffie (FF7) and Aerith (Aeris/FF7). Sure old favorites Cloud and Sephiroth make appearances, but they don't play major roles in the game. And in the end, you could easily replace them with normal, original NPCs. Square's number one reason for including them is to pander to the Final Fantasy crowd. Mission accomplished, I bought it.

You'll mostly be encountering Disney characters. Disney NPCs, Disney party members, even Disney summon monsters. For me, all that Disney stuff would make me vomit, but it isn't as childish as you would think. Donald and Goofy provide you with battle support and they're good for a laugh in cutscenes. On the downside, all of the worlds I've seen so far are Disney worlds, nothing from Final Fantasy, or at least anything original - except for the first island you start on, and that reminds me of Besaid from FFX.

The voice acting in the game is short. Most of what you see are dialogue boxes or speech bubbles instead of actual voices. But the voices that are in the game are excellent. Square and Disney actually hired some professional talent for a few of the non-Disney characters. And even the Disney characters are voiced by either the original voice actor from their respective movies, or the actor from the TV series spinoff (in a few cases). The dialogue is a little choppy in some areas, but it's not as ridiculous as some of the translated dialogue in other games.

Play control. Jeez. Controlling your character is relatively easy. Battles are a little tougher because of the battle menu, but they do provide a few shortcut buttons for magic, etc. The absolute worst thing is the platform jumping. Between the camera angles and your nitwit sidekicks, it's difficult to land some jumps. Donald and Goofy are constantly in the way, they follow you around like the characters in Final Fantasy 8 do, unfortunately you can't walk through them. I had to push Goofy off a ledge a few times just to see where I was going. They do add a remedy for the problems - a first person "look around" view. It helps to see around and to line yourself up with a jump, but it doesn't help if you turn the camera around to look for a platform only to see that annoying duck standing in your way. And in battle they were basically useless for me. After playing Devil May Cry, I'm good enough with melee sword combat that I don't need the backup of a giant dog with a shield and a duck who can't hit a monster the size of a building with a fire spell.

The minor problems aside, the game has its strengths. The story and the cutscenes make you feel like you're actually controlling a Disney movie - not necessarily a bad thing. And the freedom of movement in battles was a nice change from turn-based Final Fantasy combat. It's no Final Fantasy X, but Kingdom Hearts ranks as one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

Pros:
-Great battle system
-Top notch voice acting
-Music is good and it sets the mood in certain areas
-Original and engaging story

Cons:
-Donald and Goofy get in the way
-Other members of your party aren't very helpful in battle
-Final Fantasy angle not as prominant as many would like

Overall I gave it four stars taking into consideration the flaws. If you're looking for an original RPG, I would recommend this game. But if you're looking for a Final Fantasy clone, this isn't it. Otherwise I think everyone should give this game a shot. Rent it first, and if you like it then buy it.

Kingdom Hearts is an exceptional RPG, that ends all too quickly.

The gist of the story: 14 year-old Sora is separated from his friends, Riku and Kairi, when the Heartless (enemies with no hearts) take over their island. Sora joins forces with Donald and Goofy, and becomes the Keyblade Master, the Keyblade being a sacred weapon that can defeat the Heartless, and save the world.

The game contains about 10 different Disney worlds from different Disney movies, and you must travel to them in your Gummi Ship (More on that later).

The sound and voice acting are fantastic, and Kingdom Hearts holds a record as the game where the developer has spent the most money on voice acting, by hiring Haley Joel Osment (Sora), Mandy Moore (Aerith), David Gallagher (Riku), and Billy Zane (Ansem), Lance Bass, and others. All of the Disney characters have their original voices, including Donald Duck's classic helium voice.

The gameplay is also great, but not perfect. You must travel to each of the worlds to seal off the keyhole to that world with the Keyblade, to get rid of the Heartless in that world. The battle system is simple and well-designed. The command menu at the bottom left of the screen is also very easy to use, where you can select to attack, cast magic, use an item, or perform an action. The magic shortcuts are also a nice touch, and comes in very handy during difficult boss fights.

A lot of characters from the Final Fantasy series make cameos, from Final Fantasy VII to Final Fantasy X.

But the one major flaw with Kingdom Hearts is the replay value. Once you finish the game, there is almost nothing left to do, except finish the Coliseum Tournaments, round up any remaining Dalmatians, and find any remaining Trinity Marks, which may seem like a lot, but really isn't.

The best solution to this problem would be to make a Kingdom Hearts 2, and make the game harder, and last a lot longer.

Even still, Kingdom Hearts is a great RPG, and is a blast to play.

The story starts off on a little island called Destiny Island. Here a group of 6 young kids seem to be hanging out. Other than the name of the island, we don't know much about this world or the island itself. The 3 main characters: Sora, Riku, and Kairi, out of the 6 kids in total are preparing for their trip off the island. They have been wondering since their childhood what the rest of the world is like out there, so finally the day has come, they to built a raft and go exploring into the ocean. As the night before the trio decide to set sail, the island was invaded by strange dark creatures called the Heartless. These creatures came out of small black wormholes that are appearing everywhere throughout the island. The Heartless began attacking Sora who was awakened during his sleep. Sora then venture outside in the night looking for his 3 close friends. Sora couldn't find Kairi but he was finally able to find Riku during the night attack. As the 2 friends quickly reunite, they were then dragged into a black wormhole by the Heartless. Sora soon awakens after the night attack to a new surrounding.

In fact a new world and place called Traverse Town. Again the Heartless seem to have taken over this town and are attacking everywhere. But to Sora surprised, a weapon mysteriously appeared in his hand allowing him and giving him the means to destroy the Heartless called the Keyblade. During the fight against the Heartless in Traverse Town, Sora met up with Goofy and Donald. During the meeting, Goofy and Donald explained to Sora that they are on a mission from their king, Mickey. The mission is to seek out and accompany the bearer of the Keyblade. Guess who's the bearer of the Keyblade. Sora. The world that Goofy and Donald are from, their king, Mickey, has discovered a problem amongst all the worlds. Gateways from different dimensions to different worlds are opening up and creatures known as the Heartless are coming through these gateways. As well as people from different worlds are being pulled out of their worlds and trapped in other worlds. Sora is one of them. This is not good for the universe. King Mickey has disappeared on a mission of his own to find a solution to stop the impending doom. In the meantime, Mickey has left an order to Goofy and Donald to find the Keyblade and one who wields it. As you see the Keyblade is the tool needed to lock the Gateways of different worlds, so that the worlds cannot be connected amongst each other, the way it is supposed to be. So with Sora being the Keyblade Master, Goofy and Donald decides to team up with him to help search for the missing King as well as to seal all the worlds. Sora on the other hand is lost in a different world with his 2 friends being lost out there as well. And with the help of Goofy and Donald, he set out to find his 2 missing friends and to seal the open Gateways.

So in essence, the plotlines and quest is to search for Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey as well as to seal the open Gateways. Now the basic plot and quest seem to be pretty good. The rest of the storyline is good, nothing above the ordinary, but its really something to experience for oneself but the story has a very hard time delving deep into the reasons why the Heartless exist, or even why the different worlds all became connected. You tend to get more confused by the story as the more you get into it. A lot of people thought at first that a "mesh" of Disney together with the different Final Fantasy characters was just a gimmick. After experiencing the depth the game has, even if it isn't as deep as traditional RPGs, it certainly isn't a gimmick. But it felt different to normal RPGs and unnatural at the same time, from going to different worlds, at first experiencing the story of Alice and Wonderland and then jumping into the Jungle with Tarzan, truly unique, but like I said before, the storyline does not delve deep into each world. Most of the worlds just feel like a side-track to the main storyline.

This game presents to us a large variety of various Disney characters from their popular line up of animation movies released through the century. Pretty much all key Disney characters are present in this game. If that's not enough, the game will give us some Final Fantasy characters from the new generations of FF games. FF7, FF8, and FF10 all have some characters representing them in this game. Then you have the 3 new original characters name Sora, Riku, and Kairi, created by game director Tetsuya Nomura. Of the three original characters, the game pretty much focuses on Sora and Riku. Kairi is pretty much the girl that was kidnapped and needs to be saved, so the does not interact with Sora as much as you would think. Of the Disney characters, Goofy and Donald are up front and center as your allies in battles with you wherever you go. The FF characters are present but they don't have an important real role in this game, as they are not supposed to, as being cameos. Now in terms of characters development throughout the game, There's really not much at all. We know who Sora is but we don't know anything about his parents or the place he's from other than the name of his island. We know that Sora seem to have a crush on Kairi and is good friends with Riku, who also seems to like Kairi but that's about it. You basically have 3 kids growing up on an island all by themselves? How's that possible? Where are the adults? See what I'm getting at. Destiny Islands is supposed to be made up for many islands, the one where Sora and co. play and have fun, and another island of civilization and where they live. But it is never shown or explained in the game, almost like a forgotten plot. Then we come to the key Disney characters: Donald and Goofy but they lack development in the Characters department even more, they just feel as allies who magically came out of nowhere to help Sora, even though there not, it feels that way. Again there's a lack of development there. The main characters do have personality but they just lack the background development on who they are and where they are from to make them really good characters.

And now with the FF characters, Development for the FF characters is so vague and they play a role in this game to the point of pointless. Yes despite all the hoopla surrounding a cross over with Disney and FF characters. The FF characters themselves really serve no point in the game at all in terms of storyline. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie have really absolutely nothing to do with the game at all. You can erase their names from the game and it will have absolutely no effect on the game or story. The same can pretty much applies to the other FF characters. There really is no reason for them to be in the game, but as a Disney and Square cross-over, it seems as Cameo appearances of them would just help the game sell well. Another point and misconception is that even though they have the same name and looks of their counterpart, these are not the same FF characters in the FF games. Kingdom Hearts pretty much borrows the looks and name of the FF characters from the FF series but not the actually character themselves. Yes Cloud looks like Cloud but not the Cloud of FF7. Either way, as a fan of Final Fantasy myself, I loved the cameo appearances, it adds something to do the game that no other game has, and that is a great cross-over. I may seem to talk about the character development being poor, and yes it is poor, but it does not make the game any worse, just not any better.

The graphics are very good to say the least. It's a blend of 3-D smooth polygons in a Disney animation world. The rendering of the world is done very beautifully with a rich array of excellent colors borrowed from the Disney world. The game does not focus on hard shadows, or dark lighting. It just filled with brightly themed environments. The character designs of the Disney characters are done very smoothly and mesh nicely with every other character in the game, it all fits and looks natural. I may have said that going from world to world seems unnatural, but the way it "looks" doesn't seem to change drastically from character to character. Looking at Tarzan then comparing him to Aladdin makes it seem like it was all meant to be. The FF characters are a little bit different. While the FF characters are done nicely, they are made into looking realistically human, more than Sora. They do not seem to follow the certain, "big eyed, big feet" design that Sora, Riku and Kairi share. Making them stand out from the Disney characters, unlike Sora does. The game runs at a smooth 30 frames-per-second, and that means that lag can be noticeable. Battles can be very hectic with a lot of different animations going on, while it keeps you on the edge of your seat, a little slowdown won't stop your excitement, which is why I give the graphics a high honor.

Music wise I'm not into this game as much as the Final Fantasy music composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Don't get me wrong. There's lot of unique musical scores from the battle theme to the great dramatic score. The theme song is called Simple & Clean by Utada Hikaru. The song fits the game's elegant and playful theme nicely and only plays a few times, so it shouldn't really be called a theme song, compared to how other games use their theme songs. There are of course numerous tunes for different places and characters. Some good and some are okay. Nothing that is spectacular in the line of the FF games though. The music is better than most RPGs out there but it's not one that is on par to the FF series.
The sound in this game is excellent. Every hit with your Keyblade sounds perfect and solid, the magic sounds effects sound even better. And finally the voice acting is excellent. Of course you can't expect any less when you have seasoned actors providing a convincing voice over for some of the characters in this game. Some key names providing voices include, Haley Joel Osment and Mandy Moore and many others. As well as every Disney character's respective voice actor, returning to voice there characters, from Maleficent to Pinocchio. To simply put, probably the best voice overs in any RPGs to the date of this game's release. You can clearly tell that this is an RPG made for the American audience.


Gamplay wise, this is one of the best and most addictive action RPGs that I've played. Like with most action RPGs, it's a hack and slash style of game. It's not random battles but enemies do start to pop up as you enter a specific area. Once the enemies appears, you can just run by them or hack and slash to kill them. Either way can get you killed. Each time an enemy is killed, they burst into either HP, MP, Munny bubbles. HP bubbles are green replenishes your HP bar, MP bubbles are blue and slightly restores your MP bar and Munny is the game's own form of Money or Gold which is used to buy items and accessories at the only 2 shops in the game, which are located in Traverse Town. By defeating enemies, you gain experience. Once you reach certain levels, you will learn different Abilities. You can then equip them to help you in battles. They vary from extending your 3hit combo to a 4 hit, or increasing the chances of a rare item to drop and even to scan enemies to see their HP. Of course you have a limited number of AP (ability points) so you can only have a certain number of Abilities equipped as each of them costs 1 or more points to equip. You can also learn different fighting skills by defeating certain bosses. Such an example is learning Sonic Blade by defeating Cloud. Next to fighting skills, you have elemental magic. The usual suspects are fire, ice, thunder etc. As you progress deeper into the game, your magic level will rise in the same form that Final Fantasy works. Blizzard will upgrade to Blizzara then Blizzaga, therefore becoming stronger in range, speed and strength but costing slightly more MP to cast. Basically the same way it works in every RPG, nothing special, but it all works great. The unique thing is Summon spells. Summon spells are based on Disney characters such as Dumbo and Genie. You can gain summon spells as part of the story and by acquiring them through certain items and then releasing the Disney characters. It's all quite addictive and fun. And depending on what game mode, it can be easy or hard. Donald and Goofy are your party members. Depending on what Disney World you are at, you can also get guest star Disney characters as party members for that certain world. Enter the Deep Jungle and you can have Tarzan fighting by your side with a Spear. You can even swim around Atlantica with the Little Mermaid herself, Ariel. You can't control the action of your party members directly but you can assign them the type of action they will commit more often, whether it's attacking skills for Goofy rather than using items, or Donald using advanced magic, rather than physical attacks. To my surprise, the computer controls your party members quite well and they are quite helpful to you.

Battles take place in a 3-D environment world. In fact the gameplay is a 3-D environment so when you move around the world of Kingdom Hearts, everything is 3-D. Unfortunately when you have a 3-D environment, you have to provide good use of camera angles to make movements more better and manageable. Something that this game fails to do miserably. The only drawback is the crappy camera angles that makes jumping and running from platform to platform very annoying at times. The camera is directly behind Sora, and in my opinion way to close to him. Not making you perfectly aware of everything around you. Even though you can rotate with the R2 and L2 buttons, it is really slow, and in the fast paced actions, you're going to need every second to stay alive. Still it's a small annoyance at best.

Now each stage or clearing of each stage is based on a Disney movie world. You clear the stage by defeating the boss of that stage and then sealing the keyhole of that stage. Once done, you progress to the next world. Traveling to the next world is very easy. You have to fly to that world in your Gummi ship through space. Your basic Gummi ship is really the same ship that Goofy and Donald came in. When you fly to a different world, you travel through space, you are confronted by obstacles such as meteors and alien ships flying by shooting at you. Your objective is to fly to your destination with your ship intact. You can do this by avoiding the obstacles or by blowing them away. This is like a little mini game. Fun at first but becomes boring after awhile because you have to do it to venture to each new world, eventually you can just Warp between worlds which is a good feature. The gameplay also involves upgrading and building your own Gummi ship out of blueprints or from scratch using various blocks. It can be a tiresome process to make a ship using the Menu, but once you have it down, you can make a killer ship like I did. It is a good thing that building Gummi ships have nothing to do with the storyline and you don't get any good reward for it. So I didn't really care for the creating your own Gummi ship feature.

Lastly a key feature is synthesizing weapons and accessories. You can buy your weapons and items from shop but to get really rare and good items and weapons. You need to synthesize for them with rare materials. You can only get these rare materials when you defeat monsters and they sometime will drop them. This is very time consuming but can be really worth it. While synthesizing can result in getting the best weapon for Sora, trying to collect all the rare materials needed to is so hard and will take literally hours to do.
I'm not an instruction book but I have listed and detailed the main concept of Kingdom Hearts gameplay. I find the game very enjoyable to play and I didn't mind fighting all the times cause it's actually fun to fight instead of eventually tedious in most games where all you want to do is skip a fight or breeze through it. Fighting is always fun in Kingdom Hearts.

At times the game does not seem to interact with you, what I was deeply disappointed in was the worlds. They were not massive, but a good size, yet when I find myself swimming in Atlantica, a city under the sea, it did not feel like a City. Normally in RPGs you can go around a random town and talk to anyone at any given time, but in Atlantica, its just fight after fight, no interaction or real involvement into what the world really is, and that's a city.

After writing this review, I look back at the 80+ hours I have spent playing this game. Even though you can breeze through it in 35 hours, your urged to just do everything you can to the best of your ability. Whether it's defeating Sephiroth (the hardest boss in the game), getting all the items to synthesize for the Ultima Weapon, or even getting to level 100. In the end, a very enjoyable game to play and a good time all around. The only major disappointment comes from the lack for a truly solid compelling storyline that uses Final Fantasy characters much better to go with the great gameplay and characters that are featured in this game. Even though I may have pointed out a lot of the game's flaws and stressed on them, this is seriously one of the most original and best Action RPGs I have ever played. And I personally love it to death. I would recommend this game to anyone who has a passion for gaming to not miss it.

First of all I would like to say that this is the greatest game I have ever played. Many people hear the words "Disney Characters" and they say, "No way, I'm not even going to try that game." Kingdom Hearts goes way past Disney into something that RPG and many other types of gamers have never seen before. They have taken Final Fantasy, the greatest RPG of our time, combined that with Walt Disney's greatest ideas and have come up with something spectacular. The story begins with Sora, voiced by Haley Joel Osment, on a small island called Destiny Islands. Sora is "taken" to a place in which the person playing gets to choose his/her style, what I mean by this is that you choose your strength and weakness. After a series of questions by past Final Fantasy characters (Which I recommend that you answer them on how you feel) you start off on your "journey" so to speak. Throughout the game you will be able to have various Disney characters along side you such as Aladdin, Beast, Tarzan, Ariel, etc., but Goofy and Donald are always with you. The storyline is so deep and complex, you are pulled right in. Sora's world is attacked and "consumed" by the Heartless, and his friends Riku and Kairi are no where to be found when Sora finds himself in Traverse Town. The ending, which I will not give away, is great looking and amazing. It is also a very sad way to end the game. Here are some ratings that I have come up with myself.

Graphics: 9.5
The graphics are truly amazing. Everything fits and is not at all out of place.

Audio: 9.0
The music is excellent, which is expected as with all games by Squaresoft. The vocals are great, Haley Joel Osment has done an excellent job with giving Sora his own personality. The background music fits so well...

Lasting Appeal: 9.5
I have played this game myself 3 times already and plan to start it again when I receive enough free time. There is so much to do with this game its unbelievable.

Controls/Gameplay: 8.5
The controls are confusing until you get use to using them. The Gameplay is smooth but can be confusing at times...

Storyline: 10.0
The storyline is very complex and very good. Everything ties together. Even though Mickey is the King of Donald and Goofy's world, just seeing in the end how Donald and Goofy have searched just to find him is great. Storyline is amazing. You have to get it to understand.

And so, this game is a keeper and is the best game that I have played. If you are wondering what it is that I have played, here are a few. LOTR: The Two Towers, GTA: 3 and Vice City, Mark of Kri, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy 7-10, etc...