Kingdom Hearts

THE BAD:
-The camera can get on your nerves (what's wrong with Analog control?)
-Sora is a little slow, which gets annoying (but it doesn't affect the overall gameplay)

SUMMARY:
When I caught the first glimpse of the opening theme song of the game, I knew it would be awesome. Once I made it past the tutorial, I was officially hooked. And when I got to the real deal, there was no way of knowing if I would ever tire of the game. This is just a taste of what went into this masterpiece.

Graphics: 9.8 -- I was amazed at how clear and detailed these visuals are, especial for the release date of the early 2000s. The character models are not the best part of this section, but that's not to say they look bad. The details are a little awkward and the facial animations look funky, but that never bothered me. The other details look expert, and the animations fit the style perfectly. The scenery is not bad at all. Everything in each and every individual environment is perfect, from the scale of the buildings down to the cracks in the sidewalk. Even the distant, unreachable locations are fit for a professional museum. The lighting actually hits spots where it should be, rather than lighting up the whole level like most developers do. That means the parts with street lights or lanterns have more light than other locations. Likewise, the shading is as close to real life as can be. Where ever the sun doesn't shine, there is shade. Whenever a street light takes place, there are darker areas around it. I could go one about how detailed the environments are, but I'll stop by saying that every last square inch is designed to perfection. As for the effects, no one can top it. You won't believe how incredibly detailed all the enemy attacks look. They actually look like part of the scenery rather than being thrown in there. And the effects from the sand, water, grass, and the like are perfectly timed and placed with each animation instead of just popping out as soon as something hits it. Even the lighting of every kind gives off a glow that most other developers fail at. But let's not forget the FMV sequences at the beginning and ending of the game. You will be stunned at the extreme detail of every last bit of every last graphic. It's just too incredible for words. These visuals are so skillful that I can't describe it all.

Sound: 10 -- Almost always one of the strong points in a game, the entire sound system is five-star Hollywood film quality. The music is so perfect for each and every level design. It even makes a smooth shift to a different track whenever the time calls for it, such as a boss fight or an important scene. And the music is so pleasant it couldn't even irritate the most severe migraine. The sound effects are just as amazing. Everything in the environment makes such a realistic sound accordingly. Walking on a wooden bridge sounds much different than a concrete road. And attacking a brick wall makes a different sound than walking on brick! Most people would give each material the same sound no matter what. And even objects of the same material will sound different from each other. Amazingly, with all these specific and unique sounds, not one of them is bad. And they all blend together to create a true-to-life setting. Even the background noises are superior to most other games. The dialog is too perfect as well. Although the words don't always match the characters' lips, the tone of each of their voices sounds like the scene was really happening. The voices and personality of each are perfect for the characters, too. It's not quite as good as the rest of the game, but it's still fit for a popular movie. The sound system of this whole game is so rich that elderly people may think it is really happening.

Handling: 9.2 –- This is possibly some of the best gameplay I’ve ever experienced. The camera is a serious pain sometimes. Since it doesn't tend to move on its own, it can cause a couple of blind spots once in a while, although the only incidents with me happened due to enemies jumping in the camera. Also, the fact that it's controlled with the lower shoulder buttons complicates gameplay a bit. But once you get used to it, it's a breeze. The controls are very simple yet very useful. You are given a clever ‘command window’ which lets you select a specific action, such as casting a spell, using a special attack, or just releasing regular combos. You can even interact with the people and some objects around you. The rest of the controls are really basic. You can jump, glide, roll, and lock-on to a target. As simple as they are, these controls are extremely useful for the entire game. And they’re so simple to use that you don’t even have to think about them. You also have two allies that follow you around wherever you go. And they are very helpful and easy to manage. Without them, the game just wouldn’t play as well as it does. The overall difficulty of the game is impressive. Sora, the main character you will play as, moves kind of slow; he doesn't respond to a command as quickly as he could, and I had a few problems hitting my target. Luckly, the enemies will have mercy on you, allowing you a second chance to get them easily. The game itself gradually gets more difficult at a very good, balanced rate. But rarely is it too easy. The bosses you face are very challenging, each requiring a unique but straightforward strategy. These strategies can get pretty difficult, but rarely do they become problematic. The rest of the game is more skill-based. The objectives you’ll encounter throughout the game varies greatly between worlds. But they’re all just right; not too hard for beginners, not to easy for anyone else. So you should find this game to be a very enjoyable experience.

Entertainment: 10 –- This is easily one of the most entertaining RPGs yet! The worlds you visit, the people you meet, the challenges and plot twists you face. It all adds up to one of the best games you’ll ever play. The appeal of this title could last you an entire month of nonstop playtime, and you’ll still be addicted. It’s just the feel of the game that makes it impossible to put down and the gameplay that keeps you hopelessly hooked. Compared to this game, even the most intense fighter or most extreme racer will feel weak. Be careful though, or you will neglect your real life (or cause a power outage). Once you first place this game in the disc tray and start it up, you will fall in love.

Features: 10 -– Despite the game's 'childish' appeal factor, this game has the most satisfying content I've ever experienced. For starters, you’ve got about 13 large worlds to complete, each with a good number of objectives to complete. You can even revisit most of these worlds to accomplish a number of optional yet beneficial tasks. Today, 13 worlds is downright short, but in this cause it isn't necessarily 'short'. In reality, the game is only short if you just play the main story line, but if you complete even some of the side quests, or simply take the time to enjoy it, this game gets good and long. The quantity of missions you’ve got is another thing. The smallest number of tasks you’ll be given in one world is six. And these are not all errands you could complete within a minute, either. Some of them, like boss fights, are very complex and require skills, which you will acquire through gaining experience. You will have to build up your stats in order to progress, but it’s much easier than you think. It’s just a matter of finding a cluster of enemies to defeat while gaining experience. These enemies vary among worlds, each with its own fighting style, so don't worry too much about mindless combat. Once you’re at a high enough level (which can go up to 100), you can customize yourself and your party to better combat your adversaries. And this can be a rather satisfying experience. Anyway, with enough experience you can easily complete the many objectives you will face. But there are also tons of extra items to collect and challenges to complete. There are even a few hidden bosses, all of which are very difficult unless you have the potential. You can modify your very own ship anyway you want, which you’ll want to do to get from world to world more easily. You can even synthesize your own powerful items that will aid you in combat. There is just so much you’ll find in this game I can’t list it all. As for the story, it's truely moving, to say the least. Basically, a race born out of darkness known as the Heartless invades numerous worlds and terrorizes people everywhere, with the 'assistance' of a few famous Disney villains wanting power. It's up to you and your friends to defeat them and the Heartless while rescuing a life-long friend. Even with all that goes on, every world manages to stick with the storyline flawlessly. Kingdom Hearts is one of the greatest RPGs you could ever play.

Replay Value: High

Overall: 9.8 -– As you can tell, this is a truly amazing game that all RPG fans must experience. This game is just so astonishing beyond words. But I'm not surprised, considering it's from Square Soft, the creators of Final Fantasy, and the best RPG designers out there, as well as Disney, the greatest company in children's movies and cartoons ever. It may not be perfect, but it’s very, very close.

THE BAD:
Short length; the beginning of the game serves no purpose; about half the scenes served no purpose; no Final Fantasy allies; tries too hard to be funny

SUMMARY:
Detailed Summary:
Kingdom Hearts is a game where a 14-year old boy, Sora, and his two friends, Kairi and Riku, are on their home island, wishing they would go outside their island. The island is Destiny Islands. Anyway, they build a raft, then these black creatures called Heartless (or in the game, the specific creatures attacking are called Shadows). Sora gets some mutant key called the Keyblade and he has to kill this big Heartless thing called Darkside and then Sora ends up in this town called Traverse Town. After a while, he finds a man called Leon (or in FF8, Squall Leonheart) and fights him. Sora falls, and Yuffie comes to help Leon pick Sora up. After a while, Sora learns of the Heartless, and then he fights an armored Heartless with Goofy and Donald. After that, their adventure starts.

Square may not have their best material for this sort of game, but this is a great game. However, there are a few faults with the storyline, so you can't call this a good storylined game. Also, this game (sidequests included) took me around 20 hours. While that sounds long, many games Square had created took far longer, and Namco's RPG games aren't too far off either. =( Also, loss of Final Fantasy allies/villains = bad. However, the rest of the game is so well designed, it's kind of easy to ignore all that.

Graphics: 5/5
The character models are quite well designed, and considering that this is a game made in 2002 by a company who is not Konami, Square did one hell of a good job on not hurting our eyes with the visuals.

Character models are quite well designed, with hardly any instances when the extras (Sora's chains, Donald's robe's strings, Goofy's shield and clothing strings) go straight through the characters. Same with the fact that they hardly ever go through the walls, or the characters just stand still during scenes. The only thing to pick on here is the dubbing. Since this needed to be translated from Japanese to English, they just kept the Japanese lip-syncing, but spoke English. Not much of a big deal imo but can get a bit annoying. There are a few instances where the lip-syncing matches the English lip, but that's kind of rare. Otherwise, the character models are quite well designed.

The backdrops...say goodbye to those boring backdrops I want to blow up with an H-bomb, what, with the bad colors and horrid making. Instead, we have colors which compliment the surroundings and have quite a good contrast setting. However, in some of the worlds, parts of the backdrop (like the extra trees in Deep Jungle) felt like they were supposed to just be there, not doing anything. I may sound very picky here, but if all of the backdrops had a purpose rather than standing there looking like the asses they were pulled out of, maybe they're make the game a bit more lively than it already was. The game's colors are very lively, but the extra stuff, no. I dunno, they're still pretty good.

There's CG in this game, and you know what that means? Awesome graphics! What is it with games and that stuff? CG always makes a game good. However, there are only two scenes involving CG. The rest use no-CG. Anyway, the CG in the game is the same as always: Sweet visuals and sweet, well, everything else.

That's all for Graphics.

Sounds: 4/5
Again, Square did good. The music quite suited the style of each individual level and the dialogue did likewise.

I pretty much love this game's sounds. However, the one reason it's not a 5/5, is simply because it gets annoying hearing Donald, Goofy and even Sora making sounds whenever they're hitting, using magic, or getting hit by Heartless. It is always the same, and they should be quiet. It wouldn't be such a hassle if Donald and Goofy wouldn't get hit so much, but since their artificial intelegence (AI) is so low from being smart, you're going to have to get used to their voices when they get hurt. Since you also have to attack a lot, I hope you end up liking the sounds Sora, Donald and Goofy make when they attack...about 1000 times. Fairly annoying, ya?!

Otherwise, Square did a great job on SFX.

Control: 4/5
In as little words as possible: Easy to pick up controls and very easy to remember too. However, one thing: Button mashing!

Since you have to attack enemies a lot, you are going to have to either use magic or your Keyblade. Since the only way to attack is to press X, what are you going to do? Smash X or press X a lot? Both, of course. Which means what? You are going to have to mash the X button quite a lot. Is there an enemy? Yes. What can you do? Smash X. Why? Because X is the only attack button you can use. Well, that could be improved a lot. But of course, you can use other buttons, depending on what abilities you have equipped. If you have Dodge Roll equipped, you can press Square while moving to roll out of the way of the enemy or enemies, and they'll end up missing. Of course, they'll only miss. You still need to mash X. If you have Guard, just stand in one spot and press Square to defend. Unless you are reflecting a projectile at an enemy, you are only getting Tech Points. You still need to mash X to kill enemies. Although...it's still good.

Replay Value: 4/5
Once you finish Kingdom Hearts, you can then do a few things. You can kill some bosses which can offer you quite a challenge like a Phantom Heartless thing or Kurt Zisa, or the two Titans from Hercules. Maybe you can finish Hades off once and for all. You could also meet up with a Final Fantasy villain called Sephiroth and kick his ass (if you're levelled up quite high). When you can't fight anymore, you can activate some trinity marks and free some puppies. Maybe you can repair that book Merlin got from you half-way in the game. Once you are done with those, I think that's about it. If you do that often, it'll get boring. However, there's a fair bit to do.

Overall: 17/20
Maybe this game had a few problems, but they don't stop this game from being a legendary work of art. This game deserved the hype it got from a lot of people and the presentation made this game quite lengendary. Not as good as Final Fantasy 7 or Grandia 3 (god I love that game), but still quite a good game. Maybe if you get bored of very serious RPG's, come give this game a try. It's worth your time and your $45 (or about 30$ in the USA). Although it does get boring after a while and some of the minor problems end up major, all in all, fun for many audiences.

Jack's rating system: 17/20
Neoseeker's rating system: 4.3/5

THE BAD:
From my compliments above you may expect this game is perfect. Aside from my review of the game's score, its definately not. I'm not saying it has some HUGE problems, but there are more than a few.

For one, the camera sucks. Why use the shoulder buttoms to move the camera when you have the right joystick to move it around? Thats because the right joystick controls the in game menu screen at the bottom left. But the control pad also has the option of doing so.

Another flaw is that the only characters you are able to recruit to your party are that of Disney. DISNEY CHARACTERS ONLY?! That means you can't have badasses like Squall "Leon" Leonhart or Cloud Strike to slash some ass aside. There are also no Squaresoft villains to battle during the game's plot. Other than the evil Sephiroth whose a complete hardass to fight in the Olympus Coliseum, you have to go through the adventure teaching Walt Disney's creations a few manners.

The game may seem incredibly easy at times, but once you get to the last few worlds, Hell, its gonna be one wild ride. The Heartless get stronger and the boss battles get harder. Especially the final boss *won't say who* which you have to battle four times straight with no save point.

Please make sure you know what you're doing before you buy this near to excellence piece for yourself or child. It may seem like a child's play thing but when you don't treat it right it can become one nasty lil' bitch.

SUMMARY:
I loved this game in every way. Except for the few flaws, its one of my favorite games ever. Now the sequel is out, I have bought that and hope it lives up to my expectations which are wanting it to surpass the first title. Its an excellent Action RPG from the creators of Final Fantasy. Go buy it now.

THE BAD:
You're not able to have Square characters in your party.
Not enough Square cameos
Nothing to keep you coming back after you beat the game.
Mindless battle system.
Funky camera and lock-on system

SUMMARY:
Back when Square announced that they were teaming up with Disney to make an RPG, people wondered what kind of drugs they were on. "This game's gonna suck!" "Disney? Like they ever made any good games..." "Ever since Final Fantasy VII, Square has been going downhill..." Bah!! >_< First of all, Final Fantasy VII is overrated. Shut up. And second, from the makers of Final Fantasy and the House of Mouse comes Kingdom Hearts. And guess what? It's pretty fun.

The visuals are the first thing that hit you. Square's visual flair combines with the Disney vision to make some bright, colorful, truly amazing Disney worlds. The Disney characters have not suffered at all in thier transition to 3-D and the old, PS1 Square characters look better than ever with more polygons. Almost anyone who isn't a Disney character has this chibi anime-ish look to them. That means large heads, short bodies and clown shoes. It's very endearing. Also, I cannot recall any moments of the game slowing down, which is good. 9/10

The audio is also something to be experienced. The first thing that hits you is the title screen music. I would sometimes just sit at the title screen just to listen to the music. Square always makes wonderful music and this is no exception. After you hear the title screen music, it will actually switch to the game, with a slow beginning but then it switches to some funky, J-pop by Utada Hikaru. Some people will love this and some will hate it. I , personally, like Utada Hikaru. I have one of her CDs. I think it's fine. But alot of people hate J-pop. BAH! Anyways..... Square does a wonderful job at keeping within the "Disney" feel of the stages while still giving it that secret "Square" sauce just to kick it up a notch. Bam! 9/10

The gameplay is the most important. It's the meat-and-potatoes of any game. I'll let you know now. This is no Devil May Cry. The battles revolve around basically just smashing the X button into oblivion. The game does however give you a nice spell selection in later levels. The bad thing is that you can only customize 3 of them for immediate usage, which means that if you don't have a spell that you need set for immediate usage, you'll be fumbling through a menu. Although the battles are pretty mindless, they still are pretty fun, given the wide variety of Heartless you'll be fighting. Also the story is pretty good. Square manages to find the near-perfect balance of epic and simple in thier story-telling. Simple enough to keep the youth or casual gamer from being confused but epic enough to keep the RPG junkie enticed. Very well done. But the problem is, the camera and lock-on system. The camera is very problematic at times. The lock-on is a bitch though. It sure as hell is no Legend of Zelda. I'll be facing one enemy and press the lock on button and I'll wind up locking on a copmpletely different enemy. Bah!! I just decide to do away with the lock-on. Also, you can't recruit Square characters into your party? That's lame. I want to play with Tidus or Wakka. Also, there just aren't enough Square cameos but the ones that are there are cool. Overall, Kingdom Hearts is a good game. It's a bit short but it's a pretty fun ride while it lasts. There isn't anything to keep me coming back though. Whatever. Just experience the game. 8/10

THE BAD:
One too many Disney Characters...

SUMMARY:
Some people think that KH is underated and bad mainly because of all the freaking disney characters that were put into the game. Overall, this game was incredible The music in the game was phoneominial, but however the graphics wern't that great either. The blend of final Fantasy and Disny characters was a great idea, but some people like myself were dissapointed at the fact that they're were only a handful of Final Fantasy characters in the game overall. If your not of fan of Disney or Final Fantasy, you don't have to be to pick up and play this game. It's battle system was impressive and the moves, keychains, and weapons were great as well. The storyline and main plot behind Kingdom Hearts was great. There arn't as many extra's and bonus features as there were in Final Fantasy VII as I would have liked. The cutscenes and conversations were pretty entertaining as well, however, finding lost dalmation puppies were not as fun. Alltohugh you do happen to get some great items from them when you find all 99. I'd advise you to pick up Kingdom Hearts. It's a fair price and under 20 dollars and a great game to pick up. ^^

THE BAD:
Very little replay value, some objects that cannot be retreived when revisiting past levels

SUMMARY:
One of SquareSoft's less conventional projects, this game is a joy to play. Although combining Disney and Final Fantasy seems absurd to many, SquareSoft and Disney somehow pull it off. It features most of the Disney characters, and a handful from the more memorable Final Fantasy games.<br />
<br />
This game is visually pleasing, with simple yet effective graphics. The gameplay is smooth, and the battle system, although awkward at times, is quite functional. The game took me about 50 hours to complete. In an effort to give the game some replay value, some hidden bosses were thrown in, the most memorable and difficult being Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7.<br />
<br />
However, once you've completed the hidden bosses and have levelled up to 99, there isn't really anything left to do. The battles become bland and repetitive and the few elusive items that you have yet to find remain unfound. Overall, this game is a blast, and well worth the money. I recommend it for any fans of RPGs.

THE BAD:
Unless your way too picky there is nothing bad about this wonderful game. but...I guess the gummi ship garage could be re-done

SUMMARY:
Kingdom Hearts is a mix of Final Fantasy and disney and it is mixed just right. Kingdom hearts is a must buy for any rpg fan. Or better yet. any Disney or Final Fantasy fan. This game has come a long way even when it wasnt released and everybody thought it was going to suck. As soon as the game starts you will get lost in this epic RPG. I recomend this game for anybody. And now it is very cheap So I recomend buying it immedietly. There is plenty of action and puzzles for anyone.

THE BAD:
Could be a bit longer
Why the hell did they put the gummi ship in?

SUMMARY:
You look at this game and think oh Disney must be crap.YOU ARE WRONG.Disney and Final Fantasy is a great mix and has proudced a brilliant game.From the beggining you are absorbed in the gameplay and it just gets better.You start in Travis town which seems to have been taken over by numerous evil things called heartless and from there you continue around.At the first boss the game goes up a notch as you start fighting as a team with Donald and Goofy.From there it gets better and better as you travel around many different worlds and fighting crazy yet fun battles

In short it is a great game and one that you must get