Story:

Kingdom Hearts follows the story of a young boy named Sora who lives on the Destiny Islands. One night his world is destroyed and he is separated from his friends, Riku (the rival) and Kairi (the love-interest). He soon learns that he is the Keyblade master, and as such, it is his job to travel from world to world, ridding the universe of the Heartless (the creatures responsible for destruction of his world). Meanwhile, King Mickey of Disney Castle disappears, leaving a cryptic message behind. A war is coming, darkness is spreading, and he has gone to deal with this problem. He instructs Donald (the wizard, or magic-user) and Goofy (the guard) to find the Keyblade master (that’s Sora, remember?) And follow him. Thus, the three of them meet up and travel the universe together.

It seems like a simple story at first. Almost stereotypical. But little by little, things begin to make sense, or things become more confusing as bigger mysteries present themselves. There is an over-all positive, up-beat, adventurous feel to the story, undoubtedly to attract younger gamers. But lurking beneath the surface is a degree of darkness and depth that I didn’t expect from a Disney-involved game. Over the course of the plot, there seems to be a dark cloud hovering over the characters. I suspect that younger gamers wouldn’t even notice. Characters betray each other, abandon each other, hurt each other. Sora suffers quite a few emotional blows that a less-stable character might not be able to handle.

I’d be willing to bet that Square was responsible for most of the story. There is the usual addictiveness that you find in Final Fantasy games. You simply have to keep playing to find out what happens next. Themes of friendship, love, facing your own darkness, and believing in yourself abound, and all are handled very well. Also, don’t expect the traditional happy, perfect Disney ending.

Gameplay:

Surprisingly, I’ve heard some complaints about this, when I view it to be one of the game’s strengths. The combat takes place in real-time, which makes battles fast-paced and energetic. There are no random battles. The same enemies appear at the same time in the same place each time you enter the same room. If you wish, you can avoid a large portion of the battles by simply running away. You can use magic (though I rarely did) and items that you place from your inventory into a small list for use during combat. The small list makes it quick and easy to choose the item you need, without wading through your entire item list.

The actual fighting itself is very fun and easy to get used to. You simply run up to enemies and hack away at them with your Keyblade. It would get boring if not for the variety of enemies you face that force you to use different tactics. Some enemies can only be attacked from behind, and some you must jump up to reach. Each blow you land feels very satisfying.

Concerning the difficulty, I was shocked by how many people found the combat frustrating or hard. I myself grew up with classic RPG’s, and I am perhaps a little too accustomed to having plenty of time to decide what I want to do and when I want to do it. I never played action games like this, so of course I struggled a bit at first. But within an hour or so, I got the hang of it and was thoroughly enjoying myself.

Adding layers to the combat are your AI partners, Donald and Goofy (or other Disney characters, depending on the world you’re currently in). Despite what some people have said, I found them to be extremely useful. Donald kept me healed rather well and Goofy did his part to fight off the legions of Heartless. They cannot use up all of your items like Potions or Ethers, because as I stated above, you place the items you choose into an item list for use in combat. If you only place a few Potions in their item lists, they can only use a few Potions. So unless you continuously feed items into their item lists with no regard to how many you actually have, they cannot deplete your inventory.

Aside from combat, you do have to do some other minor things like make some difficult jumps (usually to acquire an unnecessary but rewarding item), swim in Atlantica (the world of “The Little Mermaid”), or fly in Neverland. You also have to navigate your ship from world to world, which is somewhat silly but brief and not at all difficult.

Graphics:

One thing that most people seem to agree on is that the graphics are awesome. The characters look great. The worlds look great. Everything looks great. It is like stepping back into your childhood memories. Exploring Agrabah, wandering around in Halloweentown, it’s all quite amazing, and very nostalgic. Disney characters look stunning, and the Final Fantasy characters look new but clearly recognizable. No problems whatsoever here.

Sound:

Each world has easily recognized Disney music, aside from the original worlds like Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, and Hollow Bastion. The background music is interesting and nicely done. I didn’t find any of it annoying. The opening and ending songs are gorgeous. “Simple and Clean” will stay with you, repeating in your brain until you have the lovely lyrics memorized.

The voices are impressive. The Disney characters sound identical to the originals from the films (a lot of the original voice actors/actresses lend their talents to this game). The new characters have surprisingly nice voices that actually have emotion and feeling in them. That seems to be a rarity in video games.

Overall:

I still view this as one of the greatest video games ever made. It’s incredibly satisfying to play, has a story that will stick with you long after you’ve finished the game, and leaves you off with a gloriously dark, creepy, mystery that points to the sequel (if you go through the extra work to acquire the “secret ending” that is, which is absolutely worth it). It’s beautiful, fun, and it can make your heart ache. What more could you ask for from any medium of entertainment?