It's rare that a game comes along that reminds you of the best moments
in your childhood and yet is still fun enough to keep you interested
beyond mere nostalgia. Kingdom Hearts does just that through solid
action-RPG gameplay which balances the timeless history of Disney with
the unequaled gaming pedigree of Square. In this tale, you play the
role of Sora, a young boy who lives on a small island and dreams of
exploring the world beyond with his two best friends, Riku and Kairi.
He has been having visions of creatures known as the Heartless, who
have gotten loose and are spreading through the skies, wiping out every
world in their path. It’s Sora’s destiny to wield the keyblade, a
mysterious weapon that can stop the Heartless. It doesn’t take him long
to confront these monsters, get separated from his friends, and start a
quest to save countless worlds across the galaxy.
Sora quickly meets up with Goofy and Donald and starts their journey,
traveling from world to world in search of their friends. Most of the
worlds they visit are based on an animated Disney film, including
recent movies like Aladdin and Tarzan, as well as classics like Peter
Pan. There’s also a couple other unrelated worlds that are developed
specifically for the game, and the surprising inclusion of Halloween
Town from The Nightmare before Christmas, which is a Disney film but
unlikely to be considered alongside movies like The Little Mermaid or
Alice in Wonderland. In many cases, the plotline of the movie is
matched up with the plotline of the game, making each world’s story a
bit of a mish-mash of both. In almost every case, this works very well.
You’ll find yourself facing off with Captain Hook, battling his legions
of Heartless while fending off his attacks and flying around like Peter
Pan. The battle ends exactly how the cartoon did, with Captain Hook
running across the surface of the sea while being chased by the
crocodile. The scene is just as goofy as it was in the film, but you'll
find that you can’t help from getting a smile on your face as you watch
it and remember the first time you saw that scene in the original
movie. In the few cases where the world doesn’t use its movie’s plot
for inspiration, the story still nails the feel of the cartoon
perfectly.
Square is known for the graphical polish on their games, and Kingdom
Hearts is no exception. Each world looks just like it should, and each
character looks like they were ripped right out of their respective
cartoon and plopped right into the game. Even The Nightmare Before
Christmas, which was animated with stop motion puppets, looks spot on
as a videogame. No matter where the character comes from, he or she is
rendered perfectly.
Unlike many of Square's games, all of the action in Kingdom Hearts is
in realtime, and is pretty entertaining throughout. You start out very
weak, but your skills ramp up quickly as you level up. While you do
collect summons and magic spells, you’ll get the most mileage by
hacking away at the Heartless with your keyblade. Fortunately, battles
aren’t always just won by wailing away on the X button. Several enemies
require some skill to pick out their weaknesses, and many of the great
boss battles in this game are surprisingly difficult. You have to be
careful to not just wander into a battle swinging away, or you’ll find
yourself at the Game Over screen. Donald and Goofy are AI-controlled,
though you can tweak their settings a little, and are very useful in
battle. Donald is a magic-user, and is good about casting defensive and
healing spells on Sora. Goofy is a good defender and attacker, with a
lot of hitpoints, so he makes an effective tank throughout the game.
There's a lot of characters to meet in Kingdom Hearts. Beyond Donald
and Goofy, most worlds will give you the option to add a new Disney
character to your party for that specific world. They're all competent
fighters, but you might find that you can’t do without Donald in your
party because he is able to heal you. You’ll also collect other Disney
characters as summons, including Simba, Tinkerbell, Mushu, and Bambi.
Each Square cameo is a treat, especially when you meet up with your
favorite Final Fantasy characters, who challenge you to a fight. It’s
with a lot of love that characters from each company are presented, and
the regularity with which your favorite characters are introduced keeps
the game fresh throughout.
While the character roster is impressive, it's the voiceover talent
that will make your jaw hit the floor. Many of the cartoons' original
voiceover artists reprise their roles, including James Woods as Hades,
Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington, and Sean Astin as Hercules. In the
cases where the original actor wasn't used, the voice actors used still
sound terrific. As the Genie, Dan Castellaneta does the best Robin
Williams impersonation that you'll ever hear. Even the new characters
have some star power as well, including Haley Joel Osment and Billy
Zane. Haley Joel Osment turns in a great performance as Sora, and
captures Sora's mix of innocence and fighting spirit with all of the
skill that you'd expect from an actor as gifted as he is. Likewise,
Billy Zane's low and calm voice makes his character ooze evil.
Given that so much of this game is a reminder of the kid in all of us,
it's a bit of a shame that the gameplay isn't geared towards a child.
An experienced gamer won't have much of a problem beating Kingdom
Hearts, but the controls and enemies are far too complex for a younger
player to take on. For example, very early in the game you'll encounter
a type of rotund Heartless who's impervious to attack from the front.
You have to hop over it and hit it from behind, or jump up and smack it
in the head. As it wears down in health, it will start charging at you
and can do some major damage. This isn't terribly difficult to counter,
but a youngun would get repeatedly wiped out and have to call for mom
and dad to step in and take care of it. It would have been nice for
Square to add an easy mode that would allow a young boy or girl to
tackle the Heartless.
Navigating the menus in Kingdom Hearts is not exactly easy to do, and
in the heat of battle becomes frustratingly difficult. The way the
menus are set up, you're expected to be able to drill down several
layers to pick the proper spells, items, or summons while you're in the
middle of combat. In a turn-based RPG, this would be an acceptable
setup. However, all of the action in Kingdom Hearts is in realtime, so
diving through a menu while you're also dodging, attacking, and
blocking incoming fire is virtually impossible. A few shortcuts are
available for spells, but some more user testing would've helped Square
realize that using items and casting spells is just too much to ask the
player to do while fending off the Heartless' relentless attacks.
The camera is another feature of Kingdom Hearts that should have spent
more time in development. It is simply awful, and requires more
babysitting than a newborn with colic. You'll find your thumb
constantly moving to the right thumbstick to get the camera focused on
something other than the wall. At best, the camera is a nuisance during
platforming. At worst, it will cost you your life during a boss battle.
You can lock onto a particular enemy, which does give the camera a
better idea where to aim. However, it never quite keeps up with where
the enemy is, and you'll still have to do a quick visual sweep to find
out where you're supposed to be attacking.
Despite those few shortcomings, Kingdom Hearts excels brilliantly at
mixing the best parts of Square with the best parts of Disney. What's
more impressive is that this game keeps the epic feel of Final Fantasy
even though the gameplay is totally different. While Kingdom Hearts
isn't perfect, its heart is always in the right place, and the
blemishes can be easily overlooked.
