Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3995 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2003-08-22
• Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ever wondered what would happen if the worlds of Final Fantasy and Disney collided? It's an odd concept, but from the most schizophrenic of acorns the mighty gaming oak of Kingdom Hearts has grown. Legendary role-play game-maker Square has been given unprecedented liberties with the entire Disney universe and has created a game featuring everything from The Nightmare Before Christmas to The Little Mermaid.

To have characters as disparate as Tarzan and Donald Duck teaming up is odd enough, but it becomes very freaky when Square throws in a variety of its own characters, such as Cloud, Squall and Aeris from the various Final Fantasies. We are, in short, talking Incongruity City. But this has one side benefit in that the storyline behind the game is by necessity rather vague, which seems to have stopped Square from filling three CDs full of new-age whining about Mother Earth, as is its usual wont. Instead it has spent even more time on the graphics and the end result is a quite stunning three-dimensional cartoon.

As for the gameplay, it may come as a surprise to learn that it doesn't actually feature--as all the Final Fantasy games do--turn-based combat. Instead it's essentially a scrolling beat-'em-up-cum-platformer with exactly the kind of complicated Square-style knobs you'd expect. The game may be a little shallow but it's an impressive artistic achievement and any title that allows you to magically summon Bambi out of thin air to attack evil demons of the underworld has got to be worth some sort of recommendation. --David Jenkins

Official PlayStation 2 Magazine
"An enticing and hugely entertaining collaboration between Disney fantasy and Final Fantasy. 8/10."

Edge
"Favourite characters of yesteryear have, for once, come together in a crafted and highly enjoyable game."

Customer Reviews

Stunning
I was apprehensive at first - Disney meets Final Fantasy? - but after taking the plunge and buying the game, I have to say this is one of the finest PlayStation 2 titles of 2002.

Coming from the makers of Final Fantasy, you may expect a serious story of passion and war, with moving cut scenes and complex turn-based combat. Kingdom Hearts ditches this po-faced approach, gets itself a sense of humour and fun, plus features real-time combat. Its still an RPG, albeit one which is action-based. The graphics are excellent - Disney has never looked so good. The variety and depth of the environments and their inhabitants is stunning. Sound is also good, featuring most of the best Disney tunes.

Kingdom Hearts is relatively simple. There isn't much variety to the gameplay and some people may find this off-putting. But the different environments and wide range of characters means that you probably won't notice.

Squaresoft have created a gem. Kingdom Hearts isn't an all-time classic, but it is a fantastic game, despite the Disney input. I'm 18, and still love it.

Amazing, but what else for squaresoft!
I have been a fan of the final fantasy games for some time now. And i enjoy disney films being a kid at heart. I saw this and was worried about buying it, as i thought it might be too much of a kids game. All cutsie, and not particually eventful. I thought ah well give it a shot!. To my surprise I couldn't stop playing it!

the fighting is a little simplified from the Final fantasy games, you just control Sora they main character and he hits things, and can cast spells . you can even do a few summons!! the other 2 in your team usually donald and goofy, are left to their own devices. they can even cast spells to heal you! Always handy in a spot of trouble! And it's quite amusing hearing goofy and donald getting beaten up!

The different worlds are wonderful. Broought back memories of my childhood! It's quite fun exploring wonderland, and the jungle and things like that. you also get to have a character from that film join your team. Pretty cool.

Also there are some voice overs, was expecting the whole thing to be spoken like final fantasy x, but it's a mixture of the earlier ff games and number x. the characters have speaking dialogue in the bigger events of the game. the smaller ones like shoping for items is just dialgue boxes. The voices of the characters are well known! Like the guy who playes Angel in buffy the vampire slayer. And sora's voice is haley joel osmet. Or something like that. the kid in the 6th sense. Kinda fun.. And the disney characters voices are the sound the same as they do in the films! cool.

All in all its a pretty amazing game!! It's enjoyable and the different worlds are very true to the films and pretty cool to explore. I can see kids enjoying it for the disney factor and the more simple way of the fight scenes. But i believe it will be best enjoyed by the young at heart!!! Very adictive with a gerat story line to follow. Definatly worth buying.

Disney made the right choice for once!!
When I saw the opening sequence to this game in a shop (quite a long time ago), I thought, 'Oh, another RPG'. Then, 'Hang on, was that Sleeping Beauty?', followed closely by 'What?! Donald Duck. And Goofy?!!' To my immense surprise I saw what seemed to be a Disney adventure-RPG type game... that actually looked good! So I got the game (it took me a year to buy a PS2, that's why the long gap between viewing and buying it...)

When you start the game up, the title screen looks fairly inconspicuous, but given a couple of minutes the opening sequence starts where you are treated to a wonderful piece of music accompanying some beautiful cinematics.

The story itself takes place across some of the 'worlds' that Disney created, such as Wonderland and the Jungle from Tarzan, and Squaresoft have included some of the top characters from the Final Fantasy games (now you can find out just how depressed Squall from FF8 sounds!!). The plot: stop the Heartless from destroying all the worlds with the help of Sora, Donald and Goofy. The wonderful thing about this is that on certain worlds, certain main characters join your team to help you.

The story is rather well thought out and some of the sideline plots are so sweet! Hey, when the 101 Dalmation puppies are scattered throughout each world, you just have to go and do something about it (or not if you don't like dogs...) The graphics are fantastic, with some of the best vioce acting I've seen in videogaming to date. The music is fantastic, with some of the most moving pieces I've ever heard in a game.

If you've played games like Zelda on the GC, then the lock-on battle system will be familiar to you. One unique twist (to me) is the ability to use the D-pad or the right analogue stick to choose your commands such as fight and magic in the middle of the battle, while you move Sora with the left stick. It's a little tricky to get used to but it doesn't take too long.

As an RPG adventure game, this is rather simple compared to the Final Fantasy games. There are only a few stats to get used to, with levelling up increasing only one stat at a time (plus the occasional ability learned). The magic system is simple, select the spell and cast! And then there's the Gummi ships, where you can spend quite a large proportion of the day just designing and building your own ship to fly between worlds. There's plenty of mini-quests, and millions of enemies to fight (which isn't that bad, considering you're building up you're experience that way...)

But there are a few bad points with this game, unfortunately. The camera is atrocious. You rotate it with the L2 and R2 buttons, but there's no centering the camera and it has a bit of a tendency to wander when you're against the walls, making it difficult if not impossible to gauge you're jumps correctly. Edge detection is also a bit iffy for jumping too. Both of these make the game more frustrating than it should be. But it's worth it, if only to be able to summon Bambi (or Simba) to your side during a battle!

Overall, this is an excellent game. For all it's flaws, this collaboration between Disney and Squaresoft has made this a wonderful experience. I highly recommend this game to all RPG lovers, Disney fans and people who don't get too frustrated with bad camera systems... Here's hoping KH2 is as good, or even better!