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Kingdom Hearts for PlayStation 2
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Kingdom Hearts for PlayStation 2
107 reviews   4.69 of 5

Product Description

Summary

When I saw Kindom Hearts (hereby referred to as KH) in a flyer, it caught my eye. I saw a very cool-looking anime boy, a cute anime girl, Donald and Goofy, all on the same cover. After recovering from shock, I instantly realized it would be a winner. The amazing gameplay, graphics and storyline of Squaresoft, combined with the rich, exuberant Disney heritage of storytelling combine to make a game beyond all others. Though not a true RPG in some ways, I played over 70 hours getting Sora (the main character) to level 99, acquiring the ultimate weapon (which took several hours by itself) and defeating all three of the hidden bosses (there are four in the Japanese version)--all of this while on 'hard mode.'

I cried.
Dead serious.
The storyline was amazing. I have never seen such an emotional storyline in my life. Unlike some games, where the main focus is gameplay and the story is created to justify the existence of the main character, the storyline is the game itself. Though segmented, at times, due to the nature of the induvidual worlds, it still held together.

The gummi ship was an interesting touch. You have the ability to build a spaceship, using 3D blocks to construct astoundingly strong ships. The challenge in keeping your ship aesthetically pleasing while installing more guns than logically possible is a task on it's own. The blueprints, acquired from enemy ships, can be helpful. Constucting the ships can be diffucult, using the gummi ship interface may cause frustration, but once you get used to it, it's not bad.

Sora's weapons are great. They host a variety of advantages and disadvantages for each, but the best is the hardest to aquire. An interesting element to the game is the ability to 'Synthesize' weapons, potions, etc. using gems, crystals, and such. Using this method, and about 15 of the rarest and most hard to aquire gems, you can construct the Ultima Key--the be all and end all of weapons.

The bosses are excellent. The Disney villains fit the role perfectly, and the FF characters make for interesting opponents. Sephiroth is hard. Damn hard. I beat him when I got to level 90, and had the ultimate weapon. He has about six health bars, and Sin Reaper--an attack which kills you instantly. Not to mention his 3 1/2 metre long sword...

Run-ins with cloud, Aerith, Yuffie, Squall, Wakka, and about four more, really flesh out the game. The villian, Ansem, looks OK, but he looks better when he posesses Riku's body (sorry for the spoiler).

This was 40 dollars well spent (I bought it used). This was the first game I bought for my PS2, and I still love it. If you are renting it, I suggest getting a week or so. It's a long game, with excellect replay value.

Sound

The voiceovers are astounding. I have never seen such quality in all my gaming years. The SFX in the background can be annoying sometimes, but the music is amazing--again, reminiscent of Disney. The Sound Track is two discs long, with the theme song by Utada Hikaru. The songs run through your head, even days after playing. Not in an annoying way, of course.

Gameplay

I prefer the Real-Time battle system of KH over the turn-based system of FF any day. The balance between character strength and weapon strength is perfect. You use the arrow keys to select attacks, items, magical spells, etc, and (X) to use them. You have combination attacks, which are used by pressing (X) repeatedly, and magic spells can be equipped to respond to shortcut keys. Once you have 'CURE,' the game becomes a whole lot easier, but still as challenging. The ability to heal, and be healed, protected, etc. by your allies is excellent. Involved, balanced, challenging, interesting...
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Sound

I loved the soundtrack, especially the beach one, but FFX's soundtrack was a little better. Still, you can't hate on KH!!


Gameplay

The storyline was clear, thank god, and the characters are really fun. I think Sora is cute and Donald and Goofy are really funny. I like the summon characters best. I summon all the time! I like Winnie the Pooh's world even though I hate winnie himself. It's fun because you can shoot him off the swing like a million miles away! On fighting heartless you need to do some manual rotation on the camera because lock on's not the greatest, but at least the monsters burst into health balls. That helps oodles. I don't get hit much in regular fights anyway, though, maybe a little in boss fights. I'm a bit attached to turn-based fighting, so all of a sudden seeing a heartless pop up and not having to go into battle mode took some getting used to, but after a while you just mash the X button and hack everybody out of the picture. putting cure on the shortcut menu was handy, too. the keyblade idea was unique, but a little cheesy. Who'd wanna fight with an oversized key? Not me. I'd rather have a giant samuria sword or one like Cloud's. Speaking of which, they made CLoud look so cool! my favorite place was the beach. I'd keep a seperate save file there for when I was bored and go fight Selphie. By the way, if you just block all of SElphie's attacks, the rope will bounce back on her head and give you and extra point. even if you deplete her HP all the way, she doesn't die so you can keep blocking and you'll get alot of tech points. good leveling up tactic.
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Summary

When I first heard about the game I thought. Final Fantasy and Disney in a game together? Hmm...this'll be pretty sad. So I came and at first borrowed the game from a friend. I started playing and despite the Disney characters in it it was a prett awesome game. Despite the childish look on it the game is still some fun to play and fighting Sephiroth at the Colliseum was a blast. I found myself leveling up like crazy just to beat him. In all it wasn't bad for how childish it looked and had a deeper concept then most kids may pay attention to. Although I hope the sequel (previews if you get a perfect game) will turn out with a more adult theme. Until then all I can do is pray and hope the sequel is darker like the new Jak and Daxter game. In all I hope you try to play it without a strategy guide because it makes the game 5 times funner. Trust me!
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Summary

Three words to SquareSoft and Disney, 'Way to go'. This game is awesome, but there is one...option missing that I *REALLY* would've liked to have. You really should have an option to go as Disney, or Square! That would have been so much better. I mean, you have to run around with Donald and Goofy ALL THE FRICK'N TIME! They should have at least added a Final Fantasy character, like Cloud, or Squall, or even the number one badass, Sephiroth to join your party! Something else that annoys me, is Square could have at least added what game their characters were in. At my school, it's usually, "Sephiroth is the coolest!" "Yeah, he's my favorite Disney character!" DISNEY!?!?! D*mn, I mean, come on! Sephiroth is frome SquareSoft!

But, other than that, this is an extremely well made game, the battle system is very addictive, a very fun game, it recives a five from me, simply because of the fun you have with this game, It's no Final Fantasy VII, but it got pretty close. I would definately reccomend getting this game.

9/10
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Summary

Basically, you play a 14 years old kid who is chosen by a special weapon to save all of the worlds from everyones favorite evil genius, Maleficent, and her limitless hoards of minions dubbed as Heartless. While you are on a search to find your two best friends, you are convinced to help Donald and goofy look for King Mickey, who's left with only a note to inform of his leave.

While on your extensivly long, but completly action packed journey to find your friends and the King, you and many other Disney friends travel from world to world, trying to rid each of them of pesky Heartless before more hearts are stolen.

The plot thickens as friends turn to foes, and some foes turn to valuable allies. Use your brains, brauns, and follow your heart in the adventure of a lifetime.

However, the closer to stand in the light, the bigger your shadow becomes...

Sound

Let's start with voices, depending on what language you speak, or can understand, both the Japanese and English overs are great. (I still can't get over the fact that that David guy who plays Angel on Buffy is the English voice over for Leon. That's just too spiffy.) The music is magnificent and doesn't get annoying whatsoever. The sound effects are cool, especially for the floating elementals. All the sounds lock perfectly with the visuals, making this game a great play.

Gameplay

Gameplay is great, as long as you're not picky over omni views. The battles are awesome, and the mini-games are fun and entertaining. In order to keep up interest throughout the entire game the plot holds many sub-plots, thus creating limitless things to do. Advice for first time users of any console for games, aside from a computer, get to know the controls before you barge off into the plotline. And remember, it's only a game. A highly addicting game, but a game nonetheless. And don't worry... There are always little nasties to beat the stolen hearts out of.

I've played better games, as far as Gameplay goes, but few surpass Kingdom Hearts.
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Summary

The Dynamic Duo

I bet when the world of gamers heard that the next Square Soft/Final Fantasy game would be in association with Disney (known for making good movie-themed children’s games and crap-tasticlly simplistic B-rate platform games for most others.), you simply thought “Oh….I see….maybe I’ll go start up a new FF7 file, now where did mom put the dust bustor?” It’s like that nerdy rich kid that scares off all the normal guys ended up scoring a date with the head of the high school cheerleaders!! Well, I think it is safe to say that Square hasn’t let anyone down and is still the flawless name in Role Playing Games it has always been.

In Kingdom Hearts, we play as Sora (who is voiced by Haley Joel Osment of The Sixth Sense and A.I.), a young boy who enjoys a normal life while playing with his friends on their secret island but always dreams of exploring new worlds. Did I mention his friends include a young Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie? But when disaster strikes his island along with his best friends Kiari and Riku, he is sent to through various Disney created worlds like the Deep Jungle (Tarzan), Wonderland (Alice in W.L.), and Halloween town (a Nightmare before Christmas) to destroy a mysteriously evil group called the Heartless and save his friends with the help of a powerful weapon called the Keyblade. Along with Donald Duck and Goofy, you battle famous Disney villains and heartless monsters around over 8 different worlds, RPG. style, with the help of infamous Disney and FF. made characters including Cloud Strife, Aeris, Jack Skelington, and Aladdin.

This game is one hell of an RPG. that can appeal to the majority of gamers and do what no other game has, which is give Disney games a serious second chance to win over more adult players. It’s surprisingly addictive despite its simple formula and small “world” like level designs and has top notch character voice acting from the original actors as well! I have to say that I’ve seen more creative Square work in the past though, the only original characters seemed to have been thought up during a coffee break or something! Sora completely resembles a younger version of a character in a previous action/RPG. title we’ve seen before called the Bouncer, and if there is one thing gamers have adapted in FF. games that should have been more thought out, its that we never trust the silver haired hot shot that infects almost ever FF. title since the popular Sepiroth of FF7. So minus the unoriginal cast and seemingly childish theme, this title has got a deeply innovative storyline that gives you options of how it unravels and a bunch of fun mini games and side quests that give you at the very least a few whole days of pretty unrepetitive game play. Overall, it’s a must play for FF. fans and gets a 4.5.

Sound

The sound was top of the line quality, complete with all of your favorite and least favorite orchestrated movie theme songs. But sorry, no F.F. fairy land styled orchestrated scores in this one, mainly Under the Sea, Arabian Nights, Halloween Town, and those other Disney songs you could probably care less about. The voice acting was as good as seeing a new sequel to the classic Disney movies, they even bothered to get some of the original voice actors in to do them as well (even though I’d think the original voice actors of Donald and Goofy would be at least 70 years old…). The sound effects were a nice mix of crazy booms and bangs and zaps and klanks, that whole sha-bang of sounds you get with cartoons in general, so a 5 suits the sound well.

Gameplay

It’s a small world after all!

They did a good job in this game of giving you game play that fits your expectations of a Disney game, making a fun and easy to learn action game, but not an unamusingly cheap one. The controls are maybe decent, they have many little problems like uncontrollable camera movements (L2/R2) which also make jumping a drag and it sure isn’t too easy to change from your attack menu to your magic or items menu, but at least they don’t take any real learning and are efficient enough to take on the impossible. Battles consist of you using (and mainly using) your attack button, special fighting abilities manually with their own menu or automatically, and using either items or magic when in doubt, not to mention the classic ability to summon active (Disney) characters that actually does less then getting the job done with your regular team, but overall they should keep you interested.

If that isn’t enough, there is also an assortment of mini games and side quest to mix it up a little. You can collect the 99 Dalmatians through out the game, find all of the Trinity marks (bonus items and secret passages), or even compete in the Hercules/Gladiator styled Battle tournaments. Then there is the Gummi ship part of the game, this is basiclly a useless little extra thing to do that has nothing to do with the real game, and ain’t much more than a hobby to try out when you get bored. Its basically a flight’n’gun simulator with the graphics of an early PS1 title that you use to journey to other worlds in the game and upgrade to make one badass cube-ship, soon though you’ll get the warp-straight-to-a-world option on one of your ships and the whole thing probably wont be worth playing, but at least they tried!...
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Sound

The sound is the greatest I ever heard, I just love the music. I think I even like it better than final fantasy X music.

Gameplay

The gameplay is good, it's just that it has a flaw. When you defeat the game it gets sooooo boring afterward.Your so srong that when you get to the end of the game you can knock them out real easily.And when you get to the big badguy, you can hit him a few times and them your done.But the gameplay I like alot it's soooo fun.Overall I like KH better then FFX cause, for FFX you have to take turns and stuff it's soooo boring! I mean in real life would you take turns hitting? I dont think so! in FFX it's always you hit them, then you wait for them to hit you back. And I dont think I would just stand there waiting to be hit! so yeah I like KH better (hopefully FFX-2 will have realtime battleing)
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Sound

Although some of the voice sounds from Sora (main character), Donald, Goofy, and other party members become tadly repetitive (such as when winning in the Olympus Coliseum), there is NO disappointment in the high quality voices of all Disney characters. They all sound completely as they do in the movies, and the music is decent--even if you don't appreciate Disney music.

Gameplay

Mashing X button... hack and slash... can't control other party members.... These are all factual, yet faulty comments you may have been informed with. First of all, the mashing of x button is more than just mashing. Proper placing and timing is important, and combo/magic using. Although some of the more simple combat, EXTREMELY fun, and the simple combat somewhat makes the game what it is. Although the graphics shown when attacking (flying stars) may be used constantly, it somehow never gets old, and even though you always have a "Keyblade" (sword with a key at end), it never gets old. There are items and equipment to wear, and different forms of this "Keyblade." This action RPG keeps you on your toes with the constant jumping/slashing, and you will never become sick of it! You can also somewhat control your party members by selecting in the options menu what type of spells they cast more often than others, guiding them in the path you wish them to be on.