I'll be honest, the idea of combining the talents of Squaresoft and Disney into one game didn't really appeal to me at first.  While Squaresoft has been creating incredible, groundbreaking games for several years, Disney has a nasty history of blatantly stealing material from other sources.  Had Disney taken things into their own hands, Kingdom Hearts would have been a failure to end all failures.  With Squaresoft at the reins, however, Kingdom Hearts has the pleasure of standing along the Final Fantasy series in terms of RPG bliss.

 

You play as Sora, a young man who has lived his entire life on a idyllic island with his family and close friends, Riku and Kairi.  The three friends are determined to set sail and see what lies beyond their homeland, but are interrupted when an mysterious storm sweeps each of them to opposite new worlds.  Sora learns that a force known as The Heartless is rapidly destroying the boundaries between worlds, and just as quickly consuming them with darkness.  He is christened the 'Keyblade Master', the one who can reseal the gateways of the worlds, and defeat the ambitions of The Heartless.  With the help of Donald and Goofy, who are on a search for their lost king, Sora sets out to find his lost friends, and save the universe.

 

Kindgom Hearts is an Action RPG, meaning that it doesn't handle battles in the way as say, Final Fantasy, would.  Battles are still random, in a sense, but the enemies are fought in real time, rather than through the use of menus.  This approach suits the game well, as something over strategical would have affected the flow of the gameplay.  Pressing X to do a normal slash attack will get you through most battles, but you also have magic and special abilities at your disposal.  Magic ranges from fireballs to cure spells, while abilities are used primarily to strengthen your prowess in battles, by being able to automatically pick up items or add extra combo chains to your attacks.

 

The storyline is pure Squaresoft in motion.  While most of the worlds are based on Disney classics such as Aladdin and Hercules, the way they play out is unexpected.  Not only do you meet various Disney characters, but Square decided to pepper several of their own characters into the mix.  I never thought I'd see the Day when FF VII's Aeirith, and FF VIII's Squall would interact, let alone Cloud and Donald Duck.  Most of the game's charm comes from the dozens of bizarre confrontations along the way. 

 

Everthing about the game just screams quality.  The graphics are just about as close to a 3D cartoon as possible.   KH also features the best voice acting ever seen in a game.  Haley Joel Osment voices Sora with style.  'Angel's' David Boreanaz pulls off Squall with great panache.  And even Pop Idol Mandy Moore manages to breathe life, as it were, into Aerith.

 

As well budgeted as it is, Kingdom Hearts is by no means perfect.  The camera just isn't good enough to keep up with the action.  In fact, it's usually the one the thing that will kill you in a tough boss battle.  I'm sorry, but it's hard to attack something that's consistently off screen, even when it's directly targeted.  And hey, the Gummi Ship is just about as retarded as it gets.  While justified, as it gets you from world to world, it couldn't possibly clash more with the rest of the game.  The blocky, simplistic graphics, and weird disco backgrounds only amount to a poor man's Starfox, combined with a complete lack of depth perception.

 

All in all, Kingdom Hearts will appeal to anyone who needs a solid RPG fix, or just enjoys an incredibly engaging story.  At 30 hours, (Or 45+ hours with the sidequests) this one will keep you busy for some time.  While there are definitely flaws to be exploited, they hardly outweigh the accomplishments.  Bring on the sequel.

 

-James Napier