Fun Flashy Combat, A fantastic story, and a great blend of Final Fantasy and Disney aren't the only high points! :)
Kingdom hearts. A crossover between Disney and Final fantasy. It might sound a bit strange at first, but Kingdom hearts is an OUTSTANDING game. You play as Sora, a kid whose dream is to build a raft and go explore other worlds with his best friends, Riku and Kari. The game begins a little slow, setting up the story for the rest of the game as you do various task around the island collecting items for the raft. It also acts a tutorial, teaching you the basics of kingdom hearts. Eventually, an army of creatures called the heartless takes over your island and literally reduces it to nothing and Sora ends up in a completely different world, trying to find his friends.
10/10 Graphics: Nothing bad about the graphics at all. Kingdom hearts looks absolutely amazing for such an old game! Not all that much to say here.
9.5/10 Story: Now personally, i think the story of Kingdom Hearts is very good. When i say the "Kingdom Hearts." story, that's what i mean. I'm not talking about the stories in the Disney worlds, im talking about the story following Sora, Riku and Kari. There is a complex and amazing story behind all the Disney, and most people dont seem to see that. The game does a good job of blending these two stories together though. There is quite alot of plot twist and shock moments, and the end of the game may even bring a tear to your eye. Definitely sets the series up for a sequel
8/10 Comabt: The high point of Kingdom Hearts, the combat here is very flashy and very, very fun. Sora fights a race of creatures called the Heartless throughout the entire game, trying to rid the worlds of them. The Heartless and very mysterious, and not much is known about them. You can find reports and learn more about the heartless as the game goes on. Sora starts out quite weak, with only a three hit combo. As the game goes on, Sora levels up and becomes stronger. You also meet Donald and Goofy early in your journey, they join your party and stay by your side the entire game. Now when Sora levels up, you dont have a choice on what stat is increased. You really dont have any control at all on how Sora levels up...except for one thing. At the very beginning of the game, you are presented with three weapons. A sword, a shield, and a staff. Depending on what weapon you pick, that stat will be dominate in Soras attributes. You also have to give up a stat, which will be the weakest of the three. From that point on though, all of Soras levelling is done automatic, so Sora's stats are in a first, second and third kind of way. Its a good idea to run around the world some and get Sora a high level before you tackle the boss of the world. The bosses in Kingdom hearts are either very challenging, or just flat out easy. For example, at one of the worlds you are allowed to fight in tournaments where you fight wave after wave of heartless. Now one of the hardest cups is called the Hades cup, where you fight almost every enemy you have encountered though the entire game AND a boss every 10 rounds. Now the FINAL boss of the cup is VERY, VERY easy. He literally does not even attack you, he just has a bucket load of health. A very lame final boss. Another boss is the infamous Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7! He also happens to be one of the hardest boss fights out of any game i have ever played in my entire life. Thank god he is optional though! The only real concern with the combat is the camera. It is VERY annoying. It is controlled with the R2 and L2 buttons which takes some getting used to. It is positioned directly behind sora which makes it hard to see things directly in front and to the sides of you. During combat, the camera turns a bit dynamic, moving to the side and following Sora at an angle. The game also has a lock on feature which is really only helpful during boss fights.
8/10 Music: Nothing much to say here either, every world has its own tune that matches it perfectly! The voice acting is also very good, especially for the Disney charecters.
4/10 Replay value. Will you want to replay Kingdom Hearts? Maybe. You can replay the game with different dominant stats, and find some of the hidden secrets of the game. There are 4 hidden bosses in Kingdom Hearts which are very hard and only recommended for advanced players. You can fight in tournaments and explore and revisit some other worlds, but other than that there's not much to do in Kingdom Hearts AFTER you have beaten all the worlds and the main part of the game. But not to worry, the game is quite lengthy, as i spent alot of time getting Sora to level 99 and spent around 50-60 hours on it. Now don't get me wrong, the game is not linear whatsoever and is a blast to explore, but you most likely wont want to play through the game again right away.
Pros
+ Fun Flashy Combat
+ Great story that really touches your heart
+ Amazing job of combining Final Fantasy character and character models with Disney Worlds and characters.
+ Music, Graphics and Voice acting are all fantastic
Cons
- Problematic camera
- Boss fights are either to hard are to easy.
- Not very much control on Soras stats when he levels up.
The Verdict
Combat 8/10
Graphics 10/10
Music/Voice acting 8/10
Story 9.5/10
Replay value 4/10
Overall: 9.0! Very good game, brings back memories from my childhood. I recommend it to Final Fantasy fans, and Action RPG fans. Kingdom Hearts is an amazing journey you DONT want to miss!