Final Fantasy + Disney = Kingdom Hearts = Instant Classic
Genre: RPG-Action
Developer: Squaresoft/Squareenix
System: Playstation 2
Total Score: 96/100
Value Score: 9.6/10
• Story: 10/10
o The storyline in Kingdom hearts begins in a small island named Destiny Islands where 3 friends lived and played all day, with the ambition to go out and discover new worlds, they plunge themselves in danger when the heartless, a mysterious group of dark beings appeared on their island. On the other side of the kingdom hearts universe, Mickey a Iconic figure in the Disney universe disappeared off with nothing but a letter left behind telling Donald and Goofy to find the "key" to their survival. After some battles with the heartless, Sora the main character after his world was destroyed found himself in a unknown world, called Traverse town, there he meets up with familiar faces that we all know and love (Final Fantasy Fans), recent enemies such as the heartless along with new allies Donald and Goofy, together they are sent throughout the universe to find Mickey, however along the way, they come across several worlds with their own problems and they end up meddling with the storylines of classic disney epics.
• Characters: 10/10
o The original characters are nicely done, each with their own personality and goal in mind. Along with the new characters and generic npcs, they've included familiar characters from several disney movies and series, some of the main characters from few of the Final Fantasy series as well. Overall, this game contains probably the most colorful cast of characters in any video game since in the ranks of Marvel VS Capcom pretty much.
• GamePlay: 9/10
o Gameplay is fast paced filled with action, however it can become repetitive since the game is pretty much a hack and slash, more than likely, 95% of the time you will not be using magic at all in battles unless its to "cure" yourself or your allies or to cast Aero to increase your defense. The summon system compared to the Final Fantasy series is pretty much a no-brainer but as useless as the magic spells which are given to you in the game. You also get abilities to enhance your characters such as skills, non-battle skills such as the roll or glide, and combo additions to increase the hack and slash action. The leveling up system is simplified compared to the FF series, as where when you level up, you randomly get a increase of either HP, MP, Strength, Defense or AP (which is used for to equip skills, abilities, etc). They also added some sort of shooter in the mix as well when you first travel to a world, you can customize your "Airship" which is called a gummi ship in the game, which can take from several minutes to a few hours (if you are confused with the whole system). The shooting portion of the game is abit tedious and repetitive, thankfully they allow you to skip over the option to travel to the worlds unless it's the first time you entered the world. Overall there are ups and downs in gameplay, more ups though.
• Graphics: 10/10
o Possibly what the game is most known for, as all PS2 FF games as well. The game includes three types of graphics. First is the basic in game graphics where you see your character in battle or walking around town, his face being painted on pretty much, secondary graphics are where the characters have full fledged animation and you can see the characters with their actual faces and expressions. Third graphic wise would be the CG, which only occur about twice in the entire game, three times if you play the expert mode and find all that is needed to unlock the special movie. Other than the character designs, each world is created exactly like their movie counterparts, the new worlds are made with a lot of originality. Each bit of the graphics in the environments are nicely done even down to the waters of Destiny Islands and the last world.
• Sound: 10/10
o Sound effects are nicely done as if they are realistic, no sound effect seems off at all, everything is mashed together well. The voice overs are nicely done, and the disney characters sound just like their movie counter parts.
• Music: 10/10
o The game contains a highly orchestrated OST, including some original memorable tracks such as Night of Fate which occurs in the beginning of the game all the way down to the last boss fight. The game contains pretty much every single famous Disney song which occurred in all the major movies. Good for those who want a nostalgic feeling from growing up watching disney shows/movies. However to the disappointment for the FF fans, there arent that many FF tracks, most well known track in the game would be Sephiroth's One winged Angel.
• Length: 10/10
o The length of the game seems pretty long for a RPG , you will be back tracking here and than, each world is composed of several rooms, dungeons/levels with multiple ways of getting to different parts of each world. Game should usually take several hours exploring around looking for hidden treasure chests or trinity marks. If you want to unlock the special ending you'll need to find every one of the 99 lost Dalmatians which could take some time, also making items from the moogle shop, getting the items for the moogle shop may increase a few more hours into your game time as well. Other than that, the storyline is quite nicely done and gives a lengthy adventure.
• Replay Value: 7/10
o The game does not include very much replay value, however there is a coliseum which the game has, where you can go in tournament style and fight several enemies, a few bosses and a couple of well known FF characters to fight you. The game also contains two secret bosses which you can fight only after you get near the end of the game. Other than that, there's nothing much.
• Player Value: 10/10
o Overall Kingdom Hearts is a very fun and original game, bringing the best of two worlds (Final Fantasy + Disney), Squaresoft made themselves a multi million dollar series. The game eventually spanned several sequels such as Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories which is released on both GBA and PS2, Kingdom Hearts for PS2, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days for the NDS, and recently Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep for the Sony PSP.