69 out of 69 people found this review helpful.
Look at Goofy kick butt!
Date of Review: Oct 13, 2002
The Bottom Line: A great RPG, a great Disney game, and a great accomplishment for Squaresoft.
First off, I love Squaresoft. There's not many games that they've released that I didn't love, let alone like. But even with that, the thought of a Disney game sort of scared me off. I had memories of hashed out copycat adventure games on previous consoles featuring the Disney characters. The only hope I really had for this game, was that it was supposed to be an action - RPG game, and well, it was being made by Squaresoft, so couldn't be all that bad.
First Impressions
The first thing I noticed when I put this game in, was that the FMV graphics were just as good as those that were in Final Fantasy X, if not better. That seemed like a good start. Then Square threw in something at the start of the game that was unique for their games. They gave you a collection of questions, making you choose out of three different things. Each choice would affect your starting stats, and the rate at which you would level up. I thought this was a nice thing to allow replayability of the game as you could start off each time you went through the game with your character having different strengths and weaknesses.
You can tell that this game was created with new RPG players in mind, especially little kids who would be drawn in by the Disney characters. You go through a mandatory tutorial at the start of the game, showing you how the combat system works, how to get items, and other such things. It wasn't too long however, to annoy those who've played numerous RPG's.
Story
Your main character isn't a Disney character, but rather a younger version of Square's normal RPG main characters. The main story is that there are numerous "worlds" around, which normally are walled off from each other. But the introduction of the "Heartless" has caused the walls to break down, allowing travel between the various worlds. Each world other than your own corresponds to a different Disney movie, with examples being Alladin's Agrabah, the whale from Pinnochio, the coliseum from Hercules, Alice's Wonderland, and many more. My favourite would have to be Halloween Town from the Nightmare Before Christmas. The selection of worlds is greatly varied, and truly adds to the experience of playing this game.
To continue with the main story without giving too many spoilers, your main character get separated from his friends, meets up with Donald Duck and Goofy who are searching for King Mickey, and they work together to find their friends, with the help of your Keyblade, which can vanquish the Heartless.
Combat System
The combat in Kingdom Hearts is more Adventure hack and slash than it is RPG based. A lot of the time your fights, especially at the beginning of the game rely mostly on hammering away on the attack button. You usually have 2 companions to help you, who are either Donald and Goofy, or on some worlds they can be replaced by the main character of that world such as Tarzan, Aladdin, the Beast, and others. You have no control over your two companions, other than predetermining their tendencies.
Graphics
The high point of this game for me, was the unbelievable graphics. It seemed like they had transported your characters straight into a Disney movie, and you were playing through it. They are bright, detailed and seamless, truly drawing you into the gaming experience. You want to keep playing just to find out what you will see next. It's truly amazing how Square managed to mesh the Final Fantasy type world with the Disney worlds.
Sounds
There is a great amount of voice acting in the movie, with many of the original character's voices being used such as James Wood being Hades. Disappointing omissions were the absence of Robin Williams as the Genie, or Eddie Murphy as the dragon from Mulan. These guys would have made the game even better.
As well, each world has background music which is normally the same music that was in the movie that corresponded to the movie. I found myself humming along all the time as I played this game.
Cons
I would have preferred less button smashing during the battles, but it was workable, as towards the end of the game it lessened once you learned some decent magic spells and summons.
The main con, and it was a huge, huge error on Squaresoft's part I believe, was the stupid, stupid, absolutely dumb Gummi Ship. I hated this thing. Basically, it's a lego looking ship that you fly in from world to world. Until you get the "Warp Gummi", everytime you switch worlds, you have to go through this utterly pointless flying trip, where you shoot other stupid looking ships. It has no purpose, other than to make the game longer, although supposedly you can "build" your own gummi ships, but the brief moments I spent in that part of it, is boring, and a lot more difficult than you would expect. This should have been axed from the game, and I don't know what they were thinking when they let it stay.
Overall
Other than the stupid, stupid Gummi ship, this game is absolutely amazing. I had a hard time putting it down, and I would recommend it for anyone. One thing however, even though it's a Disny game, it's one of the hardest games I've ever played. I don't know how much kids will enjoy this game, as some battles, especially the bosses can get extremely frustrating.
