Disney meets Final Fantasy. Strange, yet effective.
In the game you take on the role of Sora, a 14-year-old kid who, along with his friends, yearn for adventure. All of a sudden, mysterious creatures called the Heartless invade your home. A mysterious key-like weapon appears before you, which you'll have no choice to use if you want to defend yourself. Eventually the darkness soon separates you from your friends. Eventually, you'll find yourself in a strange new world and soon come across Donald Duck and Goofy, who are off on a mission to find the chosen wielder of the Keyblade and rescue their king. Sora just so happens to be the wielder of the Keyblade and so the dynamic trio go off on a quest to save the king, Sora's friends, and the universe. The story is similar to what you may find in a Final Fantasy game and the premise sticks surprisingly well.
The game is set as an Action RPG. You'll be traversing through many Disney-themed worlds, fighting various heartless. Along the way you'll be leveling up and customizing your characters. You'll be encountering various new weapons along the way for you help you along your journey. Most of the time you will be accompanied by Donald and Goofy, but certain worlds can allow you to join up with other characters. While the AI is helpful sometimes, they are mostly there to soak up damage. The combat, while heading mostly into hack and slash territory, is quite enjoyable throughout the entire journey. The control scheme takes a little time getting used to but it isn't too bad. The camera, however is this game's Achilles heal. The camera usually winds up in frustrating and awkward positions, making some battles and platforming more frustrating than they should. Another issue is traveling between worlds in the Gummi Ship. These moments have two main problems: They are slow and boring.
Keeping with the premise, you'll be traveling through many Disney-themed worlds. Most of the worlds center around the plot of that film. And for the most part the atmosphere is well executed. The artistic direction stays true to these classic movies. The environments are fairly large and well designed, and of course have an exceptionally vibrant color pallet. All of which makes this one of the best looking games on the PS2. Everything is crisp, colorful, and vibrant. The sound design is also very top notch. The music suits each world perfectly and some are rather memorable. The only problem is that it these short songs loop constantly. The voice acting and dialog is also very well executed. Each of the characters are very distinct in personality and very likable.
PROS:
-Colorful and smooth graphics that successfully capture the Disney atmosphere.
-Character models are nice and animate very well.
-Music is also pretty enjoyable.
-Voice acting is good.
-Combat works pretty nicely.
-Story is interesting.
-The characters are very likeable.
CONS:
-Despite how good the music is, I just wish it didn't loop so much.
-Camera is awkward
-The Gummi Ship levels are dull.
Flaws cast aside, Kingdom Hearts is another one of those games that can't be missed. With its wonderful cast of characters, fantastic open worlds, and a wacky concept that's able to stick, this game is definitely worth your money. Kingdom Hearts is a must buy for just about anybody. The collaboration of Disney and SquareSoft made a game that was able to stick well, well enough to even make a sequel, a prequel to the sequel, and another prequel to the sequel.