Kingdom Hearts

[Shadow Fire]

<div align="center"><img src="http://core.the-gcn.com/reviews/KH1.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div><br /><br /><b>Director:</b> Tetsuya Nomura<br /><br /><b>Producers:</b> Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase<br /><br /><b>Music:</b> Yoko Shimomura, Hikaru Utada<br /><br /><b>Starring:</b> Haley Joel Osment, David Gallagher, Hayden Panettiere, Tony Anselmo, Bill Farmer<br /><br /><b>Rating:</b> <img src="http://core.the-gcn.com/reviews/rating/5stars.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /><br /><br /><br /><b><u>Plot</u></b><br /><br />Sora is an average 14-year old boy, living with his best friends Riku and Kairi on peaceful Destiny Islands. Curious as all teenagers are, the three believe that there are other worlds, and plan to set out on a journey to explore these other worlds. However, the night before they're set to leave, their lives are turned upside down when a strange storm occurs, and the Destiny Islands are attacked by strange creatures known only as Heartless. Sora is then pulled away from his friends, and everything goes dark.<br /><br />Meanwhile, far away in Disney Castle, Donald Duck, a dedicated magician, discovers that the king, Mickey Mouse, is missing. Only a note is left behind, left with Pluto, King Mickey's loving dog. Donald instantly seeks out Goofy, a clumsy but loyal knight, and informs him of the king's disappearance. Queen Minnie and Princess Daisy also are briefed on the king's disappearance. After reading the note aloud, Donald and Goofy follow the king's request, and head for a world known as Traverse Town, in search of the boy who wields the keyblade.<br /><br />Arriving in Traverse Town some time later, Donald and Goofy begin their search, but it seems Pluto has found something, or rather, someone. That someone is Sora. Unknowing of Pluto's find, Donald and Goofy continue searching. Sora wakes up, believing himself to be dreaming at first, but quickly, he realises his dilemma, and sets out to find Riku and Kairi. Instead, he finds himself attacked by Heartless. Noticing a strange sword that looks like a key, the same blade he'd dreamt about, Sora fights and defeats the Heartless, but it then confronted by a strange man with a sword shaped like a gun. Swiftly, Sora's defeated, but as he comes to, he is told of his destiny. Eventually, he meets Donald and Goofy, who inform him of their mission, and explain their dilemma. It appears stars have been blinking out one by one, and worlds vanishing. It's up to Sora, Donald and Goofy to travel from world to world, and seal the mystical keyholes, restoring peace to each world.<br /><br /><br /><b><u>Review</u></b><br /><br />As a Final Fantasy fan, I'd heard several stories about Kingdom Hearts, but had first heard about this game by my liking of Sonic X. Many people had expressed a distaste to the character Chris Thorndyke, as he seems to be an identical twin of Sora's... so to speak. Anyway, I had eventually decided to watch the opening movie on Youtube, and I must say, I instantly said to myself, "I am so getting that game when I get the money!" Unfortunately, the only PS2 I had access to belonged to my brother. However, as he also has a Gamecube, and I have no working games with MY Gamecube, I was allowed to borrow his PS2. I had seen a copy of Kingdom Hearts in the local EB Games store, and decided to trade some of my brother's 'rarely-played due to dislike' games.<br /><br />

However, EB Games are ripoffs, and for 5 games, two of which were brand new Platinum games, they were going to give me only $21. So I took my business elsewhere, and after lots of walking around, I found the local Revolution CD store, a place which sells DVDs, CDs and games. So, in there, I traded the five games for $31, which was kinda cheap, but still better than EB Games' offer. I decided to do some looking around, and sure enough, on the shelf, was a copy of Kingdom Hearts for $29.95. I quickly grabbed it, and bought it. As soon as I got home, I put it in and tried it... and man, I was instantly hooked!<br /><br />

The graphics are wonderful, the music is magnificent, and the voices are a force to be reckoned with. Now, while there are several voices that aren't the original Disney voices (many for obvious reasons, considering a lot of Disney movies were made in the 40s and 50s), they're all perfectly suited for the parts. However, let's move onto the battle system.<br /><br />

The battle system uses a Real Time scheme, meaning that while you're making selections on the menus, you can still be hurt. At first, I was apprehensive, as I was never really fond of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles' Real Time Battle system... but I quickly came to like Kingdom Hearts' battle system, but at the same time, I feel there are cons to it as well. Sometimes, I have been unexpectedly killed by an otherwise weak enemy, simply because it managed to get a critical strike on me. I loathe that, but unlike Final Fantasy games, in which you're forced to resume from a recent save, in Kingdom Hearts, if you are killed, you can continue from the area near where you were killed. This makes things a tad more bearable.<br /><br /><br /><b><u>Overall</u></b><br /><br />Kingdom Hearts is a game I would DEFINITELY recommend, especially for those who love RPGs. Now yes, it may be a little childish, but remember, this is a Squaresoft (Square Enix) and Disney collaboration, so some childishness is to be expected. A great game, one that will surely entertain for a very long time.