There are many worlds, but they all share the same sky - One sky, one destiny (Kingdom Hearts (PS2))

Member Name: linzeelou

Product:	Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
Date:	06/08/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Most of it

Disadvantages: Can be quite frustrating

I only originally bought this game as I saw it was made by the Square Enix team and Disney. I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series so figured this hopefully wouldn't be too nad. What was once the game I bought for £10 out of boredom has become one of my all time favourites.

The story
At the very beginning of the game, you must choose what kind of fighter Sora is going to be, by choosing between certain things. These will determin if you are a warrior, mage or somewhere in between.

Sora lives on a little island, Destiny Island, with his best friends Kairi and Riku but he dreams of adventures. One night a storm hits the island and Sora gets swept away, and taken from his friends. When he wakes up, he finds himself in an unfamiliar place and all alone.

At the same time, the Disney world is in trouble as King Micky has gone missing. Donald and Goofy set out to help and find the King and while on adventures of their own, flying from world to world in their Gummy ship, they come across Sora. The three of them learn about the Heartless, monsters from another place who dont have hearts and that they were responsible for the big storm. The Heartless can only be destroyed by the Keyblade, which fortunately, Sora has. Finding out the link between the storm, the Heartless and the King's dissapearance, the three new friends decide to join forces in order to save the world, and their friends.

Main Characters/ Voice Actors

Sora - Haley Joel Osment
Riku - David Gallagher
Kairi - Hayden Panettiere
Ansem - Billy Zane
Squall Leonhart (Leon) - David Boreanaz
Aerith Gainsborough - Mandy Moore
Cloud Strife - Steve Burton
Christy Carlson Romano ... Yuffie
Tidus - Shaun Fleming
Wakka - Dee Bradley Baker
Selphie - Molly Marlette
Sephiroth - Lance Bass

Gamplay
As you fight your way through the many different worlds, Sora and his friends have to defend themselves against the Heartless, who follow Sora around. Each of the Heartless has different strengths, weaknesses and abilities but they also drop useful items for the party like MP and HP orbs, Munny and other items. Some of the items that the Heartless drop can only be obtained this way.

The battles are fast paced, frequent and fought in real time, unlike the Final Fantasy set up. Party members can take damage at any time so be careful when casting spells or using summons. You only actually control Sora but can change other members' fighting styles in the main menu. Hitting X at the right time can allow combos to be used and if you use triange, Donald and Goofy will come to help with Trinity and use special moves that cause a lot of damage.

As well as hitting the Heartless with the Keyblade, you are also able to use magic and summon Disney characters to help. Magic available is Fire, Blizzard, Thunder and Cure. Each spell can be upgraded to make it more powerful and Cure can be made so it cures everyone, not just Sora.

Summons are obtained by either clearing part of the game or finding summon gems and giving them to the Fairy Godmother. Each summon has it's own abilities and are most useful for others in certain situations e.g. Dumbo uses a move called Splash, streaming out water from his trunk to take out the Heartless.

As Sora levels up, he (and the other members of the party) gain exp and different attributes such as more strength and a higher maximum AP. Each character has a set of abilities they can learn and can be swapped around in the main menu. Abilities are gained from using up AP or finishing part of the game.

By using the items e.g Blaze Crystals, that the Heartless drop, and the help of a Moogle, you can synthesise new items, weapons and potions. Each item comes from certain Heartless in specific worlds so be sure to make a note of what item comes from where.

Kingdom Hearts isn't all about fighting though. There are plenty of mini games and missions to keep you entertained. The 101 Dalmations quest goes on until nearly the end of the main game and took me hours to find them all. If you complete the game 100%, including all of the puppies, locking all worlds and beating every Colosseum fights you will unlock a preview for Kingdom Hearts II.

That's enough about the gameplay and what you need to do, I'm sure you will want to discover it all for youselves.

Some fun trivia about the game:
- Atlantica and Halloween Town are the only two levels in the game in which Sora, Donald and Goofy change their appearance.
- The only villain not seen in this game is Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, even though Belle and The Beast both appear.
- Irvine from Final Fantasy VIII was replaced by Wakka.
- Sora's role as the hero was originally meant for Mickey Mouse. You will notice that Sora wears large yellow shoes, red shorts and white gloves.

Opinion
I first though that this game was going to be really cheesy and get boring quick but I was extremely wrong. Ok, so it was really cheesy at times, and it might make you guys want to throw up, but as a girl, I didn't mind it too much. As for the end cutscene, I cried, so be warned.

I was really glad the fighting wasn't the same as in most FF games. The turn based style of fighting can be a bit slow at times for me and I thought this was one of the biggest things that made Kingdom Hearts different to other Square Enix games. It certainly livened up the pace.

I was wondering how the mix of Final Fantasy and Disney was going to work at the start but I actually think both sides worked really well. Neither is too over done, or their own little stories too long. Some of the cutscenes are a little lengthy but very important to the main story and Sora.

The music is fantastic throughout and for the main part, makes the game have such a mystical feel to it. I loved that at times there was creepy, interesting music but then we get to sing along with characters like Ariel from The little mermaid. Each world has its own theme music so we don't get bored with it easily.

When I learned who did the voices for the main characters, I was truely shocked. I wasn't expecting so many big names. I think everyone did a fantastic job because I couldn't tell who any of them where. The voice of Sepheroth was probably the most shocking as it is Lance Bass from N Sync doing the vocals. Who would have thought someone so nice could play the ultimate bad guy?

The graphics are pretty good for a PS2 game. Although it doesn't exactly have the same feel as the Final Fantasy games, I wasn't dissapointed. Each character is extremely detailed and a lot of attention has been paid to the little things in the game. I was especially impressed with the amount of different enemies and how detailed they were as well. With this much detail, loading times should be quite long but I didn't think they were unreasonable at all, if anything, they were pretty quick.

Overall this is an amazing game and was by far, better than I ever could have imagined. The mix between SE and Disney should have been something crazy, silly and just plain wrong, but it was right on so many levels. The game is rated 7+ so it will be fun for a lot of different people. I must have played this game for weeks the first time round and I still go back to it every now and then and remember just how beautiful the story is. Well worth the money so please give it a try!!

Summary: Its availble quite cheaply now and well worth the money