It's not easy combining to very different things, but Disney and Square seem to do so rather well with very few misteps.
PROS:
- Your able to interact with your favourite Disney/Final fantasy characters.
- Good graphics.
- Music isn't far-off masterpiece.
- Good lasting value. (25-30 hours)
- Even better lasting value if you want to complete the game 100%. (50-60)
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CONS:
- Annoying camera.
- Plot is somewhat childish.
- The Final fantasy characters don't play a big enough role in the game.
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Gameplay: 7 - Gameplay in Kingdom hearts is pretty solid, but unfortunately when you fighting off heartless, you will normally fall victim some of the games weaknesses/flaws as well. On off the main problems is the annoying camera control scheme, instead of controlling the camera with the right analog stick like in most games, the camera in Kingdom hearts is controlled by the R2 and L2 button, this prevents you from being able to get a full veiw of the area that you are in which means that you will recieve occasional strikes in the back by enemies you didn't even know were there.
If you aren't bothered by the games annoying camera control scheme, the game should prove to be quite a lot of fun. However there is another annoying part of the gameplay that is reasonably annoying, is that when youa re about to walk over the open a chest, a bunch of heartless pop out of nowhere and attack you, then you have to wait until you have defeated all of the heartless and then you can open the chest. This annoying flaw was fortunately fixed when Kingdom hearts II came out.
Sound: 10 - Like nearly all of the games produced and released by Square-enix, (Squaresoft when this game was put onto the shelves of video-game stores) the music is a masterpiece. Each music track that plays, fits the environment you're in almost perfectly and each and every track is well-exacuted and above-all beautiful to listen to.
Plot: 8 - Kingdom hearts plot line is rather complex but not enough for it to be confusing or for it to be hard to follow in anyway. Although will admit that it is somewhat childish once start to think about. Another thing that may prove to be a bit of a disappointment for hard-core Final fantasy fans is that according to a lot of websites, Kingdom hearts is a crossover between Disney and Final fantasy, but it seems that the Final fantasy characters actually have breif cameos instead of having proper roles in the game. Most of the time you will end up having to fight one of them and then will just leave and/or give you a charm, megaelixir or anything related to that.
Graphics: 8 - Graphics are definitely above average for the Playstation 2, especially on about three cutscenes that you will see at the beginning, ending and the secret and ending of the game, the graphics on those cutscenes are so good that you will just wish that there were much more of them. But when you aren't watching those three breathtakingly good cutscenes, the graphics are just slightly above average, but luckily the scenery in most of the worlds are beautiful to look at. (E.g. Destiny islands, Deep jungle, Neverland etc.)
Overall: 8.5/10
Although Kingdom hearts does have a few flaws with the gameplay mechanics, particularly with the annoying camera control scheme, Kingdom hearts is mostly an above average gaming experience, mostly because the sound isn't far off a masterpiece and because of it's unusual combination of two rather different things. I'm am pretty sure I am not the only person who thinks this: It's not easy combining a numerous amount of cartoon characters who's aimed audience is children and a few seasoned warriors who's aimed audience is teenagers and over, but Square-enix and Disney manage to do so quite well, with very few misteps. Although the games weaknesses may be pretty minor, but they can be pretty anmnoying at times as well, I'm still a bit dizzy from the camera miself.