Kingdom Hearts is an Action RPG for the PlayStation 2 and was the first game in the popular Kingdom Hearts series. It was a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy which may sound kind of weird at first, but doesn't sound as weird once the player gets into it.
Story - (May contain spoilers but I tried my best not to spoil important things) Kingdom Hearts opens with a teenager named Sora who lives on an Island along with his friends Riku and Kairi. The three friends dream of seeing worlds beyond their Island and thus start building a raft so that they may sail away. But one night something happens to the Island, it gets taken over by beings know as "The Heartless". Sora goes outside to find Riku who tells him that "The door has opened", Sora knows that he is talking about the door in the secret cave on the Island, but before going to the door Sora is given a special sword known as a Keyblade. Sora then fights a giant heartless which transfers him to another world. In this world he meets Leon (or Squall from Final Fantasy VIII), Yuffie (Final Fantasy VII), Cid (Final Fantasy VII) and Aerith (Final Fantasy VII), Leon and Yuffie tell him that the Keyblade chooses its wielder and that the chosen Keyblade wielder must travel to different worlds and close Keyholes to save the worlds from being consumed by the heartless. Sora then meets Donald and Goofy who were assigned by King Mickey to find the Keyblade wielder and protect him. Together with Donald and Goofy, Sora sets off on a journey to close the Keyholes and find his friends, Riku and Kairi.
Gameplay - The gameplay is really easy to get used to, even though your new to action RPGs. A menu appears in the bottom left corner which display's commands. To select commands you can either use the D-pad or the right analog stick and to execute a command you press the X button. The Circle button jumps and the start button opens the main menu where you can access the item menu and equip your characters. Magic can also be assigned to specific button, then hold in L1 and press either the X, Square or Triangle button to preform the magic spell without having to waste time by selecting it through the menu. To get to new worlds or to any world before getting the Warp ability you must go through a Gummi ship flying stage. These stages can get incredibly tedious and before getting the ability to warp and you need to fly to and from worlds a lot it just gets boring.
Graphics - All I can say is for a PS2 game that was released so early for the console the graphics look amazing, its actually right on par with the games that were released when the PS3 was nearing its release. I was actually really surprised when I heard that the game was released in 2002 since I thought, looking at the graphics, that it was released around 2005.
Music - The music for Kingdom Hearts was composed by Yoko Shimomura and she did a fantastic job with this game. The music was memorable and most of the tracks were just plain beautifully done (I have never had "Under the sea" stuck in my head before... until I played this game).
Conclusion - Kingdom Hearts is an amazing and fun game that is easy to pick up and play anytime. I can safely say that it is one of my favorite games for the PlayStation 2.
9/10
Story - (May contain spoilers but I tried my best not to spoil important things) Kingdom Hearts opens with a teenager named Sora who lives on an Island along with his friends Riku and Kairi. The three friends dream of seeing worlds beyond their Island and thus start building a raft so that they may sail away. But one night something happens to the Island, it gets taken over by beings know as "The Heartless". Sora goes outside to find Riku who tells him that "The door has opened", Sora knows that he is talking about the door in the secret cave on the Island, but before going to the door Sora is given a special sword known as a Keyblade. Sora then fights a giant heartless which transfers him to another world. In this world he meets Leon (or Squall from Final Fantasy VIII), Yuffie (Final Fantasy VII), Cid (Final Fantasy VII) and Aerith (Final Fantasy VII), Leon and Yuffie tell him that the Keyblade chooses its wielder and that the chosen Keyblade wielder must travel to different worlds and close Keyholes to save the worlds from being consumed by the heartless. Sora then meets Donald and Goofy who were assigned by King Mickey to find the Keyblade wielder and protect him. Together with Donald and Goofy, Sora sets off on a journey to close the Keyholes and find his friends, Riku and Kairi.
Gameplay - The gameplay is really easy to get used to, even though your new to action RPGs. A menu appears in the bottom left corner which display's commands. To select commands you can either use the D-pad or the right analog stick and to execute a command you press the X button. The Circle button jumps and the start button opens the main menu where you can access the item menu and equip your characters. Magic can also be assigned to specific button, then hold in L1 and press either the X, Square or Triangle button to preform the magic spell without having to waste time by selecting it through the menu. To get to new worlds or to any world before getting the Warp ability you must go through a Gummi ship flying stage. These stages can get incredibly tedious and before getting the ability to warp and you need to fly to and from worlds a lot it just gets boring.
Graphics - All I can say is for a PS2 game that was released so early for the console the graphics look amazing, its actually right on par with the games that were released when the PS3 was nearing its release. I was actually really surprised when I heard that the game was released in 2002 since I thought, looking at the graphics, that it was released around 2005.
Music - The music for Kingdom Hearts was composed by Yoko Shimomura and she did a fantastic job with this game. The music was memorable and most of the tracks were just plain beautifully done (I have never had "Under the sea" stuck in my head before... until I played this game).
Conclusion - Kingdom Hearts is an amazing and fun game that is easy to pick up and play anytime. I can safely say that it is one of my favorite games for the PlayStation 2.
9/10