Throwback Thursday: Kingdom Hearts

Throwback Thursday: Kingdom Hearts

Robert Knuckles

Simple and Clean

With Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue being released a few days ago I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the game that started it all. The original Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts was released in America on Sep. 17, 2002 for the PlayStation 2. It was developed and published by SquareEnix but at the time it was called SquareSoft.

Kingdom Hearts bought a collaboration of characters from Walt Disney and Final Fantasy. I’m pretty sure everyone including myself wouldn’t imagine a combination like that.

The Story focuses on the main character Sora (who the player controls throughout the whole game) and his friends Riku and Kairi who plan to leave from their home Destiny Island to explore new worlds. One night Destiny Island was attacked by Heartless (creatures that have no heart). Sora then obtains the keyblade, a weapon that is used to fight the heartless. Sora gets separated from Riku and Kairi. At the same time when this event is happening, Donald (who is a wizard) and Goofy (who is a knight) notice that King Mickey is gone from their castle and leaves a note saying he’s going to fight the forces of darkness  and that Donald and Goofy need to find the key-blade wielder (which is Sora.) Sora ends up in Traverse Town where he meets up with Donald and Goofy. Together all three go on an adventure to not only find Riku and Kairi but to put an end to the Heartless and close all the keyholes.

The gameplay is very unique and the reason why I say unique is that SquareSoft goes away from their RPG style and into a hack and slash action role playing game in a third person style. Donald and Goofy are controlled by the A.I. Since Donald is a wizard his magic which is called MP is the highest of the group and since Goofy is a knight his health is the biggest of the cast. Players obtain experience points by defeating enemies and bosses, which can unlock more moves for longer combos, more magic, more health and so much more. What I find pretty cool is that since players can still edit Donald and Goofy’s moves although they are A.I. controlled.

On your adventure you’ll enter Disney worlds such as Halloween Town, Never-Land or Agrabah. Player’s will also team up with other Disney characters such as Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Ariel and so much more. Now you can only have a team of three so you’ll have to switch out Goofy or Donald or just play with the original three. I normally tend to take out Goofy since Donald heals everyone when they are low on health.

You’ll face Disney Villains on your adventure as well. It really felt good beating up Captain Hook, Jafar and Ursula. Many more tough boss battles await Sora and his friends.

There are tons of backtracking in this game. Since you beat a world doesn’t mean you fully beat it. There are tons of secret locations to find secret items that will come in handy in your adventure.

Kingdom Hearts is a fantastic game the only downside is that if you die at a boss fight you’ll have to re watch the whole cut-scene again. The soundtrack for this game is truly amazing. I’m pretty sure we’ve all fell in love with Simple and Clean. I honestly never get tired of hearing that song. It’s also pretty cool to see Disney characters kick some butt. Kingdom Hearts is a very long game worth every minute. If there is something this game had teached me is that the importance of being there for your friends. Kingdom Hearts is definitely a must buy if you own a PS2. Players can also play Kingdom Hearts on the PS3 with Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix. Players can also get the upcoming release of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix on March 28th 2016. It contains: Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, RE: Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep Final Mix and cut-scenes of 358/2 Days and Re:coded.

Be sure to check out my review of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue this weekend!