Kingdom Hearts
Produced by: Squaresoft and Disney
Review by Magus
Un-$%*@ing BELIEVABLE!!!
To put it bluntly, this game is exactly as the title states. As most gamers thought when it was announced, I thought this game to be simple and rather childish because of the Disney variable. Got news for ya: this aint no kid-shit! It combines Disneys market abilities and character designs with Squares ability to write the most breath-taking storylines and their concepts for battle. The game as a whole has little to complain about except for some bad controls at times (like swimming) but other than that it is near perfection.
The concept for the game is really timeless: find the girl that is missing. But, the game adds on to that. Youre Sora, youre average kid on an island known as Destiny Island where you and your friends Riku and Kairi live. All of you are interested in seeing what else is out there in other worlds, but especially Riku. But, as for life on the island, both Riku and Sora seemingly compete for Kairis love and the chance to share a paupa fruit with her. If eaten, the two who shared in it will have their destinies linked forever. But one night, your world is eaten away by something dark and evil and everyone is gone. So, Sora sets out to find Riku and Kairi.
The other half of the story goes like this: King Mickey has left the Kingdom to go fight an evil and his dearest friends, Goofy and Donald, are told to seek out the keyblade master and to help him out.
The battle system is real-time and very fast pace. It runs on a lock-on system that can make it so you can kill one baddy and immediately switch to the next. The screen is sometimes literally filled with monsters to kill and, if youre good enough, you could take them all out in mere seconds! I also enjoy that if you press L1 you have a shortcut button for magic, which means that you can cure yourself quickly without having to go through the menu.
The graphics are so beautiful I wished I could cry. The graphics fix to adapt to their environment. So, in Halloween Town, the graphics are dark and look stunningly like the Claymation from Tim Burton and Poohs world looks very much like the concept for the cartoon. Sometimes your party will even change costumes! Everything is done is great detail and the cut-scenes are absolutely amazing.
This game acquired the use of voice-overs. Some famous names came out for Kingdom Hearts including David Gallagher and Lance Bass. They were well done but sometimes the transition from voice to text was a bit shaky and was odd. But other than that, it was well worth the price of hiring the voice actors. As for the rest of the sound on this game, shear genius. The music was inspired and matched its environment so well but, alas, it was not done by Nobou (sob).
Like the D-pad? Well to damn bad, you cant use it!!!! Bah hahahahaha! No, really, you cant. The entire game is played with the analogue stick and its fun! But, while your swimming the control becomes a bit of a bitch. But other than that, the controls are easy to handle and even easier to learn.
Now for the part that makes the rest of this review totally useless: the game play as a whole. Fun, addictive, breath taking, beautiful, inspired, mused, all good adjectives to describe this game. Its Square at its best and Disney at its top. Just a suggestion: no matter how frustrated or mad you get with the game, beat it. The end is so incredible that youll want to see it again.
Maguss Final Testimony: Buy this game. Period. End of sentence. Why? Question mark. Because it is that damn good, thats why. I am very good at Rpgs and beat this game in about 26 hours. Thats long for me. And besides length, it holds all of Squares best qualities and Disneys characters. What more could you want? A Weenie roast? Too damn bad, I cant help you there.
- Magus?
