Review

After all the times I've mentioned it, I figured I might as well review it!

Kingdom Hearts took a big step in many things. It could have been an epic fail or it could have been awesome. Consumers decided towards the latter.

The video game Kingdom Hearts is a Playstation 2 exclusive that combines Final Fantasy and classic Disney characters and adds a flourish of original characters and a multi-verse of Disney worlds and originals to create an amazing, complex yet understandable for the most part, story. The game chronicles the journey of Sora, a fourteen-year old boy who is mysteriously swept away from his home at the islands by antagonists donned Heartless, as he goes on a search for his friends while fulfilling his new duties as Wielder of the Keyblade with the help of Donald Duck, Goofy, and other friendly Disney characters.

Story aside, Kingdom Hearts's gameplay is a force to be reckoned with. Combining RPG elements (such as a command board that displays options the player can use such as Attack, Magic, Items, and miscellaneous, leveling up, and character customization) that mirror Final Fantasy, and combining it with real-time action to meet with modern gameplay creates a complex yet easy to use battle system. The camera is controlled using the L2/R2 shoulder buttons which has faced some criticism for some reason. I enjoyed it.

The graphics are quite superb during cutscenes. The only time the characters are blank-faced with only lips moving in CG cutscenes was only in the minor, less important ones. However, not everything triggers the well-planned CG cutscenes. You can interact with familiar characters from Final Fantasies and Disney flicks, where the speech is shown in a talk bubble like in comic books (this game was also aimed at kids). The voice acting hardly fails to disappoint. With an all-star cast with Haley Joel Osment and Billy Zane and Disney voices from old times past, it was hard to fail though.

The replay value in this game is moderate. There are treasure chests to open and items to customize to be the strongest you can be, along with mini-games and challenging optional bosses, including the notorious Final Fantasy VII villain, Sephiroth, the "One-Winged Angel." However, while the difficult Sephiroth is a reward to defeat, there is no big reason to re-challenge him, and the other bosses are inaccessible unless you choose a save file where you did not complete the other boss fights. There is also a secret ending that is easily unlockable. Other than that, once you beat everything, the game is practically done and you move onto something else unless you get nostalgic.

So I give this game a 9.4/10. It's not perfect, but it was one good experience! This game was rated E for Everyone for Violence. Keep in mind that in the Little Mermaid world that Sora is a merman. If you have seen the movie, you will notice that merman are bare chested. Also the final boss is bare chested. This game is worth a gander if you are a fan of the 2 properties used in this game.

This game was first seen in 2002.