Uh i'll play around with it later. But if you just want to read it and don't care about the pictures...
Kingdom Hearts Review
When I first got Kingdom Hearts I had no idea what I was in for. I had no idea what it was going to be like. I got it on the pure hope that it would be good. My cousin first told me about it and to be honest I thought the idea of having final fantasy and Disney in the same game was the stupidest thing ever. I was turned off right away. Then I saw the commercial and I was somewhat impressed by what I saw so I changed my mind and decided to get it.
Gameplay
The gameplay is what really got me interested from the start. It’s a real time RPG and it’s so much fun to play. You can use magic and your good ole Keyblade to whack the snot outa enemies. You can equip many different abilities at once. You fight with two other people than yourself. You have little control over them so there moves are scripted. They do give you healing and such when you need it most. The weapons system is pretty detailed. You’ll receive new weapons and bangles as the games continues for you and your party member. The Gameplay isn’t perfect though. The camera can occasionally mess you up. The party members should do more and magic should be used in a better way. Other than those minor quivals the gameplay is perfect.
Gameplay Score 9.3
Story
It’s really an amazing tale. It’s a tale of Courage, wonder, love, belief, friendship and more. Kingdom Hearts is the story of 3 teenagers who live on Destiny Islands. Ever since they were young they’ve always wondered if there was anything else out there. Any other worlds other than theirs? Then one fateful night they discover the truth. Sora(main character) awake in the middle of the night to find a strange and deadly storm tearing apart his home. He finds his friend Riku starring out into the sky as darkness begins to engulf him and sora. Yet Sora pulls away and there in his hand is a strange weapon. His friend Riku is all but gone. Out of the Sky comes a giant black monster. Sora is forced to fight when he is lifted off the ground into a glowing ball of doom. Sora finds himself in another world and it is there he learns more. Sora along with Donald and Goofy set off on a Journey to save his friends (Riku and kairi). But little does he know. His life will never be the same.
That’s only the basic plot. It gets deep. It’s got plenty of twists and turns the will shock you. It’s hard to get a perfect 10 out of me so…
Story Score 9.9
Graphics
Everything looks great. The game has great uses of color. Even the darkest places have color. Facial expressions on the characters are nearly perfect from beginning to end but slack off every once in awhile. Sometimes during cut scenes you’ll see the graphics sort of change. It’s difficult to describe but it looks sorta fuzzy. So I’ll just call it the “fuzz”. Anyways whenever the “fuzz” is used it makes everything look cool. So it looks cool and it’s something I like. And to bring a different taste to the game there is an FMV used at the start and end of the game. I only wish there were more!
FMV
Sound
Kingdom Hearts has a very strong musical score and voice cast. The music perfectly fits the mood. Yoko Shimomura is the composer and she really makes this soundtrack rival music from Final Fantasy. Nearly every song is great except for a few. Also the theme song titled “Simple and Clean” is a love song sang and written by Utada Hikaru.
The voice cast may just be the best from any game around. It’s an all-star cast. Well known Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) does an amazing job with voicing the main character Sora. I can’t picture someone other than him doing the job. Also Billy Zane (Titanic) makes a great villain with that deep evil voice of his. Among others on the cast are. Hayden Panettiere(Remember The Titans) voices Kairi. David Gallagher(7th Heaven) voices Riku. David Boreanaz(Angel) voices Squall. Mandy More voices Aerith. And Many more. Again I don’t give out Perfect 10s so easily. Everthing has to be perfect.
Sound Score 9.9
Replay Value
I really wish there was more to do after you beat the game. But there is still a good amount of things to find and do. There is a special tournament that opens up. 4 optional Bosses. A side quest and a little something I’ll get to later. One of the optional bosses is Sephiroth from final fantasy VII. He is hard and it’ll take you a long time to kill this guy. And as a reward for killing him you get…nothing. If you complete enough of the side quest you will get a bonus clip at the end of the game. A teaser? A preview for Kingdom Hearts 2? This is one of those games you’ll wanna replay all the way through again. I wanted more to do. Something like an extra dungeon of some sort. But the Special clip made everything worth it.
Replay Score 8.7
Final Thoughts
This is one of my favorite games. It’s special to me because me and a few friend were all playing it at the same time and we were always trying to guess what was going to happen. This game is well worth 20 bucks as a PS2 greatest hit. It’s sold over 4 million copies since September 2002. 2 sequels are already in the works Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories to ship in the fall for GBA. Kingdom Hearts 2 is likely to ship in early 2005. Kingdom Hearts is now a franchise that should be watched closely. It has Huge expectations and potential. Remember this is only the beginning of a much larger story.
