I remember the first time I heard about the game that would be Kingdom Hearts. I had heard that some of the beloved characters from past Final Fantasy games would be making a comeback, working together to solve a major problem that almost eclipsed their previous adventures. Not only that, but they'd be forced to side with a new ally, one that would put their power to shame. This unstoppable for could only be... Mickey Mouse?
I'll admit, I was REALLY skeptic about the game at first. At the time, I failed to see how any Disney character short of the Horned King could kick any amount of ass. However, I saw new screenshots in the magazines (Yeah, people actually read about upcoming games in magazines back then), read about how you'd be able to fight in Olympus Colosseum, and found out you could even visit with Winnie the Pooh. I gradually got more excited about the game the more I found out about it.
Finally, I found out that you could fight Sephiroth. That clinched it. I was buying this game.
Overall, these games are great. It introduced a fighting style that is now semi-standard in Square Enix's action games, and weaved an epic story that, though I was skeptic at first, found a way that actually worked and made you root for the main characters. I'll focus first on Kingdom Hearts, then I'll expound upon it's numerical sequel, Kingdom Hearts II (there's a sequel set between the two, Chain of Memories for the GameBoy Advance. I tried playing it once and couldn't get the hang of it, so forget it).
Here's the premise of the game: You play as Sora, a boy from Destiny Island who one day comes into contact with a mysterious weapon called the Keyblade. He uses this Keyblade to battle the Heartless, dark creatures who feed on the hearts of the innocent. He travels across different world based off of various Disney movies alongside Donald Duck and Goofy, who are looking for Mickey themselves. As Sora, you must stop the onslaught of Heartless, find your friends, and save the worlds from complete destruction from your mysterious foes, which include several memorable Disney villains.
Game Play
Square Enix knows how to control a character. This knowledge was very present in Kingdom Hearts. Controlling Sora, the game's main protagonist, is fairly natural, but at the same time, new. From my perspective anyway, you use what's normally the “jump” button to attack, and you use what's normally the “dash/extra action” button to jump. You move Sora around with the L3 button (yeah, that's what that joystick's called), and you make mini-menu selections with the D-Pad.
Of course, if you make an action game, you've got to have fluid combat controls. The good thing about these two games is that you can force your way through most problems by constantly attacking the enemies, but every now and then you have to actually think about how you're fighting which enemy. That gives both ease of access to the game, but also something that makes you think and alter your strategies.
Sora has a number of attacking options at his disposal for an eleven-year-old armed with an oversized key. Pressing the attacking button in succession performs physical attack combos, and the combos differ if you're on the ground or in the air. Want to attack with fire? No problem! You learn magic spells and upgrade them throughout the course of the game. Need help in a pinch? Summon up a Disney character like Genie or Tinkerbell to come and kick some ass for you!
One interesting aspect of game play is Abilities. As you fight and level up, you learn different abilities that add to your performance in the game. These abilities have various effects, including drawing in nearby items, making attack combos longer, or double-jumping. You equip different abilities on a point-system; each ability requires a certain number of points to equip, and if you don't have enough Ability Points (AP), you can't equip that ability. While this somewhat constricts what the player can and cannot do, it also allows them to alter the controls to suit their playing style best.
Kingdom Hearts II takes things further with the Drive Gauge and Reaction Commands. If you press the Triangle button at an opportune moment, it could trigger a special attack. These are called Reaction Commands, as you have to react quickly to prompting in order to pull it off. Some Reaction Commands play big roles in certain battles. For instance, in the Tron-based world, Space Paranoids, the only way to damage the MCP is through a Reaction Command that shoots a beam using both Sora's and Tron's power.
The Drive Gauge also plays a huge role in Kingdom Hearts II. Sora is now able to combine his power with those in his party, resulting in “forms” that heighten Sora's abilities in combat. Combining with Goofy results in Valor Form, which increases Sora's physical abilities. Combining with Donald results in Wisdom Form, which heightens Sora's magical abilities. Combining with both available party members results in either Master or Final Forms, which both kick tons of ass in general. Sometimes, merging with party members fails, resulting in Anti Form. Sora becomes more feral than anything and attacks like a savage beast, unable to pick up any health power-ups.
The Drive Gauge lets you use these forms for a certain amount of time. Using these forms requires a certain amount of Drive, and the more you use a given form, the longer you can stay in that form. Leveling up forms allows you to use certain abilities from that form out of that form, like increased jumping height, double-jumping, and gliding.
The thing that makes Kingdom Hearts II a great sequel is that it does what all great sequels should do: take everything about the first game and improve upon it. The controls are tighter, the action is more stylish.
Graphics
If you know anything about me, you know that I could really give a damn about graphics. I'd sooner take a good ol' NES game with shitty 8-bit graphics than some first-person-shooter with an unheard-of number of polygons. However, I know when to give credit where credit is due. The game looks really good. I don't know if it comes from Disney's animation labs or Squeenix's knowledge of how the Playstation 2 work. It's probably a combination of both, as both games push the graphical capabilities of the system to its limits. Overall, the animation is extremely fluid, dynamic, and generally just fun to watch.
However, I can be really picky about graphics when I want to be. There aren't many instances, but you can really see where Squeenix cut some corners. Occasionally, you'll notice during cutscenes where they just stuck in general mouth movements that don't sync up with what's being said. The chandelier in Beast's Castle (Y'know, the one that won the movie a few Academy Awards?) is more or less like a paper craft someone would make a your fourth-grade art class. These are really small things but you end up looking at them like “Really, Square Enix? You couldn't fit that one last thing in there?”
While I'm on the subject of cutscenes, there are a lot of those in the game, almost too many, and far too long. While the two games are action-heavy and there's loads to actually do, pretty much everything you do triggers a cutscene at some point, and a lot of the time, it's little, unnecessary stuff, like Mickey looking at a building and saying “C'mon, you can do it, Sora!” This stuff adds up quickly and almost makes the game feel more like an interactive DVD.
Sound
Yoko Shimomura took charge of the music for this game. While a lot of it comes from arranging popular Disney songs, she's also composed some great music for the games that not only fits in with the cartoony Disney feel, but is also incredibly epic when it needs to be. The battle music is riveting, exciting, and new, which is a big thing for me. Shimomura delivers, and in spades. Conversely, I find myself humming the Winnie the Pooh song along with the game when I'm in the storybook.
The one downfall is in Kingdom Hearts II, in the Little Mermaid world, Atlantica. The inclusion of missions like the ones here is the single greatest downfall of the game, and in my opinion, one of Square Enix's biggest mistakes ever. But I have an entire post about that in the works, so I'll just kind of skim over that for now.
Overall Presentation
If you look at how video games are being produced nowadays, it kind of goes back to what I said earlier. As technology advances, video games become more cinematic in quality. If left unchecked, as these games sometimes do, they become much more like interactive movies. This becomes extremely apparent as video games use more orchestral scoring, voice acting, and motion capture.
That being the case, the Kingdom Hearts games combine what both companies are known for: Disney's dramatic, yet cartoony approach and Square's sometimes excessive cutscenes. The cutscenes look very good, but it can really slow down the action at times. What I'm impressed with more is Disney's ability to draw in big-name vocie actors. Haley Joel Osment voices Sora, Christopher Lee voices Ansem the Wise, and Mandy Moore voices Aerith in the first game. Disney also tried to pull as many strings as possible in order to have actors reprise their roles from their movies: Robbie Benson as the Beast, James Wood as Hades, and Jodi Benson as Ariel. In cases where the original actors would not reprise their roles, Disney went with actors who voiced the characters in the straight-to-video sequels, like Dan Castalenetta as Genie.
My one complaint about the game's presentation is the tutorial sections of the game. They're far too long for a seasoned video-gamer like myself. The games kind of treat you like a child, most likely because that's who the games are aimed at. My complaint is that for people who play video games frequently don't need a three-hour-long tutorial that explains how to play a game I already know how to play. Granted, some of the important plot details are set during these scenes, but that's the only reason I've legitimized the length of these parts. It sets the episodic story structure of the game, which almost makes you want to play the game more in itself.
Overall, I'd have to say Disney took care of the game's presentation, while Squeenix took care of the gameplay aspects. The result is the best of both worlds, which comes together quite well.
Final Thoughts
Simply put, these games are the awesome love-children of the Disney-Squeenix Odd Couple. For someone who grew up watching Disney movies and playing Squaresoft's games, these games are a must-play. The game is fun to play, fun to watch, and fun to take in as a whole. There are a few shortcomings here and there, but the pro's heavily outweigh the con's. If you're a fan of either company, get a hold of these games stat!
Rating: 9/10
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